The Situational Room
Imperial Government Palace
New Horizon
November 2016
“No! No, no, no” Said the Emperor cuttingly to Prime Minister Rivas. “I won’t give my approval, clearance, “good to go” or as you like to call it, at least, from that point of view.”
“Your Imperial Majesty, with all due respect, is the only thinkable option we have, is that, or risk the worst of consequences.” Responded Rivas very calm.
“Are all of you telling me that we have as only option to support a gang of fascist criminals and thugs against a gang of communist criminals and thugs? For real?” The Emperor pointed with this finger to the big slim screen showing the images of the civil war in Transoxthraxia.
“W-what we are saying, Your Majesty…” Foreign Minister Holt started to talk, a bit nervous. “…Is that the Revisionists are the only faction which can support our interests in the region, they want the monarchy back! And they are the only thing that stands between being potential allies to the Hyspanic Empire and being potential foes to the Hyspanic Empire. Our Foreign Policy is very clear, Your Imperial Majesty: To foster the influence of the Nation.”
The Situational Room of the Imperial Palace remained in silence for a few minutes, siting around an oval table with the Coat of Arms of the Empire in the center; The PM, the Crown Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Crown Minister of The Defense, The General Secretary of the NSDP… They were called for a meeting to decide how New Spanishland will react to the situation in Transoxthraxia, things were getting really bad over there and it was time to take decisions. The Minister of the Defense, Major General Abigail Steamfox decided to take the word, seeing that the rest of his fellow compatriots remained silent, maybe choosing their words carefully, but she knew the Emperor needed a convincing argument for such issue.
“Your Majesty, from my point of view, now Transoxthraxia is a quagmire, I know that you think that both Revisionists and communists must taste a bit of the Spanishlandic Hospitality for trying to end with the democracy and the legitimate government, but let’s face this small but important fact: Would the HKE or Kolintha blow their war horns just to give Transoxthraxia its democracy and peace back? Or would they, take sides with those which support their interests against the ‘Red menace’? You know perfectly that our allies aren’t very different to the Revisionists.”
The Emperor turned to his Minister, she had a point there, but still he refused to change his mind.
“General, those bastards are like Eutanasio Rodriguez and his New State goons, are we going to let that what happened to our nation repeats again with Transoxthraxia and on top of all, support it? Where will our moral, our values be?”
“This is not a matter of moral or values Your Majesty, it is matter of don’t allow the reds to annihilate another nation under the bloody sign of the hammer and sickle! Our allies surely took their decision a long ago, and us?”
“The Spanishlandic people will not approve it if they learn about this!”
“Your Imperial Majesty, sir, if you allow me…” The General Secretary Hallup intervened “Our fellow Spanishlanders don’t have to know that we ‘support’ the Revisionists, we can promote in very subtle and discreet ways, a positive perspective of them in our media as people who decided to stand for their traditional and monarchist values against a passive and decadent government; also, Transoxthraxia has a protectorate, is not a full colony but if we support the Revisionists, we may foster a whole colonial cooperation process and strengthen the Empire’s influence.”
Manuel took seat again and put his hand on his forehead, all this issue was stupid, illogical, and absurd to him “How the Transoxthraxian Government allowed all this mess? Let the fascists took power and sent the whole country in a direct trip to the damnation” He though; in front of him, his loyal advisors were on his seats, looking, awaiting his response. Again, the uncomfortable silence.
“Gentlemen, this session is suspended until further notice, I promise to give my response to this issue once I finish my personal considerations. You may go; I call each one of you when the time arrives.” And finally he rose from his seat as his advisors did the same and headed for the doors outside the Situation Room.
The Emperor was now on his office of the Palace, looking to the great window back his executive chair; outside was the city of New Horizon: its beautiful landscape with old and new buildings, big trees and lush parks, “What if New Spanishland never met fascism? What if this city was never bombed or invaded” Were the thoughts on his head.
The man, attired with a light blue formal dress shirt, black dress pants with suspenders and black dress shoes took sit again in front of his desk, grabbed the phone and dialed only numbers, then he hanged the call; after that the made another call, this time to the kitchen.
"Arnoldo, can you send someone with two cups of tea and a brownie tray please?”
"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty, is on its way”
"Right, thanks”
About two minutes, a blond woman on her mid-thirties dressed in white from the kitchen arrived with the order of the Emperor on a silver food cart.
"Here is what you asked for, You Imperial Majesty; there is white and black tea and a fresh brownie.”
“Thanks Sara. Send my regards to Arnoldo and everyone at the kitchen.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty” She made a reverence and after that she left back to the kitchen”
The Emperor didn’t have to wait too long, a minute after Sara left, a man knocked to the door of the office.
“Come in!”
The man opened the door and walked to the center of the office, it was a tall, strong man, with dark brown hair and strong gestures on his face, wearing a dark brown jacket and a black shirt with long sleeves, blue jeans and black boots. When the Emperor rose from his seat, the man kneeled as if he was seeing the Creator in person, Manuel stand before the man as he kept its stance.
“Stand up, Commander Carvalho.”
“Imperial Majesty, My Lord.”
“I have matters to discus with you, is serious business, but in the meantime, how do you like your tea? Black or white?”
The two gentlemen spent the last hour talking about the situation in Transoxthraxia and possible ways to solve it, the Commander Carvalho was maybe one of the most brilliant military minds in the Empire, at his 49 years he had around 390 missions all across the Empire and the allied nations in counter-terrorism operations, received training on sniping – he also trained snipers – and specialized on guerilla warfare; indeed, this was what Spanishlanders would define as ‘A warrior of a thousand battles’, a true hero of the Empire.
“This is a compromising situation.” Said the Commander as he took another bite of his brownie “The reds in Transoxthraxia will receive support of their compadres abroad but, luckily, we have the upper hand here, the Revisionist are the ones with the enough power to seize the entire nation, if we add the support of our allies and us, nobody will outmatch them.”
“Carvalho, you must know, this is not easy for me to decide.” Augmented the Emperor “We are talking about people of the same ideology and nature of Eutanasio Rodriguez, the man behind thousands of deaths and responsible for more than ten years of backwardness in the process of progress of this nation, I fought, we fought all these years to rise our nation from that cesspool we fell decades ago and now we are asked to support them! I want to do everything in my power to stop the reds from gaining more turf… But how can I do it if the only options are FASCISTS?!”
“My Lord, I understand your predicament, but we must take in consideration that my officials and anyone from The Department you appoint for such work can advise the Revisionists, they don’t need to do trade with other nations, only us. Who cares what the commies say? They will be important allies, and regarding the public… The events have received little cover from the media and the few people who might know the little information about the whole conflict won’t say much, it’s a chance to show those filthy reds of what The Department is capable of.” Carvalho took a sip of tea and saw the face of the Emperor, pondering his words very carefully, it wasn’t a decision to be taken lightly for him, but knew that the time that he spent thinking and reflecting was wasted time. “May God help me on this task” he prayed.
“I want The Department Commandos in Transoxthraxia coordinated with the National Direction of Intelligence to cover the real nature of your mission for the lower brass of the Army.” said the Emperor with firm voice.
“And what kind of mission would be that, Your Imperial Majesty?”
The Emperor rose from the seat and headed to his desk, he opened a drawer and took a navy blue folder, and then he approached to Carvalho to give him the papers.
“Standard procedure, SKULL Protocol, you know what to do: Given mission…” Said Manuel
“Is mission accomplished!” Responded Carvalho.