KitFisto1997
Banned
Thanks @rvbomally for the help on this fun little write-up.
[EEUSG] Republic of South Africa
The flight deck of the SAS Pretoria teems with life, as any aircraft carrier should. However, instead of the Ticonderoga-class vessel being host to various military aircraft and their respective personnel, almost the entire surface area of the ship is host to a bustling market containing a small variety of pop-up establishments that sell almost anything, from food, to clothing and even small-scale electronics. It is here that the 12,000-strong citizen-soldiers of the Republic get their fortnightly chance to buy all sorts of items that were recently purchased from the ports that would accept them. Life on the sea is a dream that’s shared by many people across a multitude of universes, but for these proud men and women of the Cape, it is a necessity, for they have nowhere else to go.
Upon my arrival onto this vessel via helicopter and the ensuing tour of the flight deck, I’m taken up to the control tower under a heavily armed guard. It is here, in this heavily retrofitted part of the ship, that I meet both the Admiral of the vessel and the President of the South African Republic – one Reiner Kruger.
“It’s a pleasure to have you here, Mister Chaná. I hear that you’re interested in the history of our fine Republic, yes?”
I reply with a nod as I try to make sense of his gruff South African accent. The aging Admiral then dismisses his men with a simple gesture, leaving the guards, the Admiral and myself in the vacant control tower.
“Then allow me to tell you our story...”
The Republic of South Africa was once a nation located in the southern half of the African continent. Originally settled by Dutch Protestants in 1652, the small colony remained under the rule of the Dutch East India company until the territory was seized by the British Empire, remaining that way until the former nation-state was given its independence in 1961.
The newly-independent South African Republic, led by elements of the Dutch-descended Afrikaner minority, implemented a segregationist system known as ‘Apartheid’ (Afrikaans for ‘apart-hood’ or ‘the state of being apart’) that kept the majority native Black African populace from gaining any form of proper self-determination.
The South African government went out of their way to create separate and inferior systems that were to be used by the majority populations, this ranged from hospitals to schools and even park benches. Marriage between whites and non-whites were also deemed illegal and the English and Afrikaner languages were deemed the only acceptable languages to be taught in both Black and White South African schools. All-in-all, this led to the Pretoria-based government being booted out of the Commonwealth of Nations and forced to endure harsh economic sanctions by most of the United Nations. Their only allies were the governments of Anglo-ruled government Rhodesia, and for a time, Portugal and Francoist Spain.
This form of state-enforced segregation caused plenty of issues for the minority government. Alongside the blacklisting by the international community, the domestic situation wasn’t looking good either. Various terrorist organisations, mostly following of one flavour of Soviet-backed socialism or another, began a campaign of destruction across the nation throughout the 1960’s, 70’s and 1980’s.
Among these groups was the African National Congress, or ANC, led by revolutionary socialist and political leader by the name of Nelson Mandela. The ANC blazed their way through South Africa with numerous terrorist attacks being put to their name by the time the Civil War began. The ANC originally began attacking public and private property, but after the relatively moderate Mandela was captured and executed in 1962 after conspiring to overthrow the South African government, they turned to more hardline forms of Communism and began to attack military and civilian targets indiscriminately.
As the 1970’s and 80’s rolled around, the South African government, already under pressure from the international community, was forced to put what remained of their armed forces onto the streets of their major cities. Martial law had been a de-facto way of life since 1980 as they were heavily involved in fighting off Communist guerrillas that were streaming in from the Communist states of Haut-Congo, Zambia and Angola and Mozambique. The strain that was being put on the South African government with the ongoing ‘Bush War’, the ANC terrorist attacks and even rumours of defection and general unrest amongst the SADF forces was becoming too much to bear. A set of five nuclear tests that took place throughout the late 1970’s and early 80’s showed that Pretoria was going to preserve their little nation for a long as possible, even if it meant brazenly nuking their neighbours to do so. Violence in the black-majority townships began to spill over into the cities at around the same time, giving some white South Africans a taste of what the Apartheid system offered.
The South African Civil War, which broke out in 1984, spelt the end of the Apartheid State. An internal revolt from within the government, led by Army Head Magnus Malan, overthrew the civilian administration of P.W. Botha. The sudden decapitation of the government from within plunged the nation into chaos and when all was said and done, the South African Republic was torn asunder by nuclear weapons, roving bands of ANC and Afrikaner Supremacist militias and race riots. Various successor states have since formed from the aftermath of the bloody, two-week-long Civil War. From a liberal, multiracial Cape Republic to radical Afrikaner and Black African ethnostates and even a Zulu Kingdom, built from the nuclear-scarred ruins of Durban.
The history of the modern, ocean-going incarnation of the South African Republic began in the days following the start of the Civil War. The South African Navy had always been a small part of the overall SADF command, seeing that the country had no real reason for a large blue water-orientated navy in the first place. Up until the late 1950’s, all the SAN had at its disposal was a couple of old British destroyers, corvettes and coastal attack craft that were handed over to Pretoria during its tenure under the British monarchy, but the South African Bush Wars were to change all of that.
The various talking heads of the South African Navy began to see the appeal of an oceangoing navy as to aid their Portuguese and Spanish allies in their respective colonial wars. The first proper ships of the new blue-water fleet came from nations that refused to subscribe to the arms embargo. Nations such as France, Israel, Portugal, Brazil and even the United Kingdom under the Thatcher government gave Pretoria a head-start in building up a navy for warfare on both the coast and the open ocean. Pretoria also tried their hand at a few indigenous designs, mostly based of off British and American ships.
The first indigenous, South African-built aircraft carrier, a nuclear-powered Ticonderoga-class lookalike by the name of the SAS Pretoria, wasn’t even fully staffed by the time the Civil War kicked off in late 1984. The newly built capital ship of the South African Navy was forced to act as a de-jure lifeboat for not only the remaining South African military personnel, but also a good number of civilians that ended up finding their way onto the carrier one way or another. The surviving ships of the new blue water fleet eventually linked up at the city of Port Elizabeth, where they continued picking up whatever men, vehicles and supplies they could scrounge from the developing warzone that their former homeland was becoming. The unofficial ‘South African Naval Government’ became an official entity the day Pretoria was nuked by a group of ANC rebels that managed to get a hold of a standard air-delivered nuclear bomb. A few more nuclear weapons were reportedly dropped on most major South African cities, although Cape Town and Port Elizabeth survived outright destruction due to the planes carrying the bombs being shot down en-route to their targets.
The newly christened ‘South African Republic-in-exile’ left the burning remains of their former home and found a safe haven in the Portuguese exclave of Cabinda (the Carnation Revolution was averted, instead there was a slow transition from authoritarianism that ended in Lisbon holding onto more of their colonial empire – albeit at the expense of their larger African colonies). It was here that various ships that were rumoured to have been lost to the opposing sides of the Civil War limped their way to the ports of Cabinda, further bolstering the numbers of the Republic’s fleet. As the last remnants of the old Republic, the United Nations was swift to recognise the 40 ship-strong flotilla as the last remnants of the Republic, but the diplomatic and monetary lifeline that was extended to them by the international community lasted as long as the anarchy in South Africa did.
The 1990’s saw to an era of stability and rebuilding in the former South African state as numerous investors – both private and public – flooded into the region. Soviet, American and European corporations aided in the rebuilding of their ideological allies, while the cashflow from the UN and various NGOs that went into maintaining the South African fleet began to run dry – not to mention the fact that their lease on their Cabindan ports was set to expire in 1992 as well. This once-tragic turn of events forced the rag-tag fleet to seek other forms of income, which so happened to be the private military business – a business that their head Admiral dove head-first into. It was from this rather unorthodox way of ‘paying the bills’, so to speak, that the infamous moniker of ‘South Africa Incorporated’ was born, turning a glorified fleet of refugees into some of the most feared and honoured men on the planet.
Wherever conflict occurs, one can easily find the SAS Pretoria and the rest of the SA fleet steaming headlong into it. From the ongoing conflicts in Yugoslavia, Rhodesia and Indonesia, to the old wars in Korea, Iran and the Congo, the South African Defence Force can be found in almost any battlefield around the world. The Republic also provides support for bodyguards and low-level security apparatuses for businessmen and world leaders alike. The ships of the South African Navy have also started operations in areas where piracy has become commonplace, such as East Africa, portions of SE Asia and the Red Sea. The government also aids various international NGOs with humanitarian crises that would’ve spun out of control if it wasn’t for the large number of retrofitted hospital ships that make up a vital portions of the Republic’s fleet.
But all of this military activity and mercenary work surely must come with a cost of some kind. I ask Admiral Kruger on how the government of the Republic operates with all of the elected officials being of military stock.
“Ah yes, the idea of the citizen-soldier….” Kruger replies with a pompous, almost arrogant grin lining his face. “The South African Republic had to make plenty of sacrifices in order to maintain its survival, but we still remain committed to the democratic ideals that the British and Dutch gave us prior to independence. Every single human being on this ship that holds South African citizenship is made to serve in whatever branch of the military they chose to, be it the Army, Navy, Air Force or sub-groups such as the Republican Guard, Marines and even the Medical Corps. After approximately 5 years of service, the citizen-soldiers of the Republic are allowed to vote in elections that last every five years. Candidates are chosen from the heads of each branch of the Armed Forces, so we don’t have political parties per say, but we do make sure that the heads of each branch rotate frequently as to avoid them getting too used to their new positions, so we hold elections every two years for each and every Branch Head on top of the national elections. It just so happened that I was both Admiral of the Pretoria and Head of the Navy at the time of my election to the Presidency...”
I ask the Admiral about the Apartheid system, which is rumoured to still continue on-board the fleet, even to this day.
‘We do have some vestiges of the old system with us today, but it’s nothing like the discriminatory measures that our land-based predecessors had, I assure you. Every man and woman, regardless of their colour and heritage are allowed to serve in the army, which as I just told you, guarantees them the right to vote for the rest of their lives. We have separate officers corps for the Whites, Blacks, Coloureds and Asians that are given the same equipment and training by their respective superiors, but we allow them to mix freely during their off-duty hours and during combat, for what use is a segregated army on the battlefield? We merely employ a system of separate development, first among equals, if you will...”
I really doubt that the non-white members of the SADF really get the same treatment as their Afrikaner or Anglo-African counterparts, but I don’t show any signs of dissatisfaction to the Admiral, as I wish to avoid getting on his – or the Republic’s - bad side.
I eventually bid Admiral Kruger farewell and decided to seek out a second opinion on the matter, and after spending a few minutes snooping around the bustling markets on the flight deck, I seem to have found one. A young man of British extraction, only wishing to be known as ‘The Viscount’, takes me to his personal quarters below deck. He reveals that he’s the unofficial 'ambassador' from the unofficial ‘British Embassy’ to the South African Republic-in-exile - a term he uses with a heavy amount of sarcasm. He utters something about the embassy being a ‘prison for interns, drunks and exiles’ before finding a seat for me to sit on, leaving my host to lean against a nearby wall.
I ask him about the legitimacy of the segregationist system that supposedly doesn’t exist on-board the ship. The nobleman doesn’t seem to be all that amused as he quickly finishes off a half-empty glass of whiskey.
“Is that what the old bastard told you?” he smirks, placing his glass on a nearby coffee table. His bemused expression quickly turns to that of a barely-hidden scowl that tries to keep his seething rage from boiling over. “The Apartheid system is alive and well on-board this rusting, racist hulk. The votes that are cast by the blacks are either counted as half that of a normal vote or are disregarded entirely and are thrown into the rubbish...” he sighs, liberally using air-quotes throughout. “Asians and Coloureds, the mixed race fellows, are given the status of ‘honorary whites’ and are given the same voting rights de-jure, but are often treated de-facto in a similar way to the blacks, socially speaking that is...”
The Viscount grabs a large bottle of whiskey and pours himself another glass, allowing himself some much-needed time to calm down. I take the opportunity to ask him if there’s a chance for change in the Republic
“No.” he says at first before taking a long, drawn-out sip of alcohol. “The democratic process has been bastardised, the military and the governing bodies have been intertwined for too long. The Apartheid system may not be out in the open like it used to be, but it functions perfectly behind closed doors. The non-white populace is too small to vote themselves into power and an open rebellion would be suicide. The leaders of the so-called ‘Republic’ are motivated by the hope that one day they can reclaim their old homeland, by any means necessary. They’re using the money that they’ve gathered from their ‘humanitarian’ operations to buy new equipment and give it to various ‘special interest groups’ in the US, UK and Europe, these groups then send said equipment Cape-side to destabilise the successor states that exist in the region… Oh, before I forget… Do you want to hear the most fucked up part?” he says, his voice becoming all the more indignant by the second.
I nod in response to the Viscount’s question, wondering what he’s going to say next. He leans in close to me, to the point where I can smell the alcohol in his breath.
“They have a small, but deadly stockpile of undeclared nuclear weapons. When the Chinese fell to their Second Civil War… It turned out that a bunch of Chinese submarines decided to go ‘missing’ and now, all of a sudden, they’ve mysteriously ended up in the Republic’s fleet. All of them are renamed and repainted, of course. I’ve spent the past few months collating all of this information on the side, I’ve found out things that my superiors in Westminster and New York want to keep hidden.” he lets out an audible sigh before taking another sip from his drink.
“The Republic now has weapons to surpass their rivals, and I for one don’t think that this petty tale of revenge will have happy ending...”
[EEUSG] Republic of South Africa
The flight deck of the SAS Pretoria teems with life, as any aircraft carrier should. However, instead of the Ticonderoga-class vessel being host to various military aircraft and their respective personnel, almost the entire surface area of the ship is host to a bustling market containing a small variety of pop-up establishments that sell almost anything, from food, to clothing and even small-scale electronics. It is here that the 12,000-strong citizen-soldiers of the Republic get their fortnightly chance to buy all sorts of items that were recently purchased from the ports that would accept them. Life on the sea is a dream that’s shared by many people across a multitude of universes, but for these proud men and women of the Cape, it is a necessity, for they have nowhere else to go.
Upon my arrival onto this vessel via helicopter and the ensuing tour of the flight deck, I’m taken up to the control tower under a heavily armed guard. It is here, in this heavily retrofitted part of the ship, that I meet both the Admiral of the vessel and the President of the South African Republic – one Reiner Kruger.
“It’s a pleasure to have you here, Mister Chaná. I hear that you’re interested in the history of our fine Republic, yes?”
I reply with a nod as I try to make sense of his gruff South African accent. The aging Admiral then dismisses his men with a simple gesture, leaving the guards, the Admiral and myself in the vacant control tower.
“Then allow me to tell you our story...”
The Republic of South Africa was once a nation located in the southern half of the African continent. Originally settled by Dutch Protestants in 1652, the small colony remained under the rule of the Dutch East India company until the territory was seized by the British Empire, remaining that way until the former nation-state was given its independence in 1961.
The newly-independent South African Republic, led by elements of the Dutch-descended Afrikaner minority, implemented a segregationist system known as ‘Apartheid’ (Afrikaans for ‘apart-hood’ or ‘the state of being apart’) that kept the majority native Black African populace from gaining any form of proper self-determination.
The South African government went out of their way to create separate and inferior systems that were to be used by the majority populations, this ranged from hospitals to schools and even park benches. Marriage between whites and non-whites were also deemed illegal and the English and Afrikaner languages were deemed the only acceptable languages to be taught in both Black and White South African schools. All-in-all, this led to the Pretoria-based government being booted out of the Commonwealth of Nations and forced to endure harsh economic sanctions by most of the United Nations. Their only allies were the governments of Anglo-ruled government Rhodesia, and for a time, Portugal and Francoist Spain.
This form of state-enforced segregation caused plenty of issues for the minority government. Alongside the blacklisting by the international community, the domestic situation wasn’t looking good either. Various terrorist organisations, mostly following of one flavour of Soviet-backed socialism or another, began a campaign of destruction across the nation throughout the 1960’s, 70’s and 1980’s.
Among these groups was the African National Congress, or ANC, led by revolutionary socialist and political leader by the name of Nelson Mandela. The ANC blazed their way through South Africa with numerous terrorist attacks being put to their name by the time the Civil War began. The ANC originally began attacking public and private property, but after the relatively moderate Mandela was captured and executed in 1962 after conspiring to overthrow the South African government, they turned to more hardline forms of Communism and began to attack military and civilian targets indiscriminately.
As the 1970’s and 80’s rolled around, the South African government, already under pressure from the international community, was forced to put what remained of their armed forces onto the streets of their major cities. Martial law had been a de-facto way of life since 1980 as they were heavily involved in fighting off Communist guerrillas that were streaming in from the Communist states of Haut-Congo, Zambia and Angola and Mozambique. The strain that was being put on the South African government with the ongoing ‘Bush War’, the ANC terrorist attacks and even rumours of defection and general unrest amongst the SADF forces was becoming too much to bear. A set of five nuclear tests that took place throughout the late 1970’s and early 80’s showed that Pretoria was going to preserve their little nation for a long as possible, even if it meant brazenly nuking their neighbours to do so. Violence in the black-majority townships began to spill over into the cities at around the same time, giving some white South Africans a taste of what the Apartheid system offered.
The South African Civil War, which broke out in 1984, spelt the end of the Apartheid State. An internal revolt from within the government, led by Army Head Magnus Malan, overthrew the civilian administration of P.W. Botha. The sudden decapitation of the government from within plunged the nation into chaos and when all was said and done, the South African Republic was torn asunder by nuclear weapons, roving bands of ANC and Afrikaner Supremacist militias and race riots. Various successor states have since formed from the aftermath of the bloody, two-week-long Civil War. From a liberal, multiracial Cape Republic to radical Afrikaner and Black African ethnostates and even a Zulu Kingdom, built from the nuclear-scarred ruins of Durban.
The history of the modern, ocean-going incarnation of the South African Republic began in the days following the start of the Civil War. The South African Navy had always been a small part of the overall SADF command, seeing that the country had no real reason for a large blue water-orientated navy in the first place. Up until the late 1950’s, all the SAN had at its disposal was a couple of old British destroyers, corvettes and coastal attack craft that were handed over to Pretoria during its tenure under the British monarchy, but the South African Bush Wars were to change all of that.
The various talking heads of the South African Navy began to see the appeal of an oceangoing navy as to aid their Portuguese and Spanish allies in their respective colonial wars. The first proper ships of the new blue-water fleet came from nations that refused to subscribe to the arms embargo. Nations such as France, Israel, Portugal, Brazil and even the United Kingdom under the Thatcher government gave Pretoria a head-start in building up a navy for warfare on both the coast and the open ocean. Pretoria also tried their hand at a few indigenous designs, mostly based of off British and American ships.
The first indigenous, South African-built aircraft carrier, a nuclear-powered Ticonderoga-class lookalike by the name of the SAS Pretoria, wasn’t even fully staffed by the time the Civil War kicked off in late 1984. The newly built capital ship of the South African Navy was forced to act as a de-jure lifeboat for not only the remaining South African military personnel, but also a good number of civilians that ended up finding their way onto the carrier one way or another. The surviving ships of the new blue water fleet eventually linked up at the city of Port Elizabeth, where they continued picking up whatever men, vehicles and supplies they could scrounge from the developing warzone that their former homeland was becoming. The unofficial ‘South African Naval Government’ became an official entity the day Pretoria was nuked by a group of ANC rebels that managed to get a hold of a standard air-delivered nuclear bomb. A few more nuclear weapons were reportedly dropped on most major South African cities, although Cape Town and Port Elizabeth survived outright destruction due to the planes carrying the bombs being shot down en-route to their targets.
The newly christened ‘South African Republic-in-exile’ left the burning remains of their former home and found a safe haven in the Portuguese exclave of Cabinda (the Carnation Revolution was averted, instead there was a slow transition from authoritarianism that ended in Lisbon holding onto more of their colonial empire – albeit at the expense of their larger African colonies). It was here that various ships that were rumoured to have been lost to the opposing sides of the Civil War limped their way to the ports of Cabinda, further bolstering the numbers of the Republic’s fleet. As the last remnants of the old Republic, the United Nations was swift to recognise the 40 ship-strong flotilla as the last remnants of the Republic, but the diplomatic and monetary lifeline that was extended to them by the international community lasted as long as the anarchy in South Africa did.
The 1990’s saw to an era of stability and rebuilding in the former South African state as numerous investors – both private and public – flooded into the region. Soviet, American and European corporations aided in the rebuilding of their ideological allies, while the cashflow from the UN and various NGOs that went into maintaining the South African fleet began to run dry – not to mention the fact that their lease on their Cabindan ports was set to expire in 1992 as well. This once-tragic turn of events forced the rag-tag fleet to seek other forms of income, which so happened to be the private military business – a business that their head Admiral dove head-first into. It was from this rather unorthodox way of ‘paying the bills’, so to speak, that the infamous moniker of ‘South Africa Incorporated’ was born, turning a glorified fleet of refugees into some of the most feared and honoured men on the planet.
Wherever conflict occurs, one can easily find the SAS Pretoria and the rest of the SA fleet steaming headlong into it. From the ongoing conflicts in Yugoslavia, Rhodesia and Indonesia, to the old wars in Korea, Iran and the Congo, the South African Defence Force can be found in almost any battlefield around the world. The Republic also provides support for bodyguards and low-level security apparatuses for businessmen and world leaders alike. The ships of the South African Navy have also started operations in areas where piracy has become commonplace, such as East Africa, portions of SE Asia and the Red Sea. The government also aids various international NGOs with humanitarian crises that would’ve spun out of control if it wasn’t for the large number of retrofitted hospital ships that make up a vital portions of the Republic’s fleet.
But all of this military activity and mercenary work surely must come with a cost of some kind. I ask Admiral Kruger on how the government of the Republic operates with all of the elected officials being of military stock.
“Ah yes, the idea of the citizen-soldier….” Kruger replies with a pompous, almost arrogant grin lining his face. “The South African Republic had to make plenty of sacrifices in order to maintain its survival, but we still remain committed to the democratic ideals that the British and Dutch gave us prior to independence. Every single human being on this ship that holds South African citizenship is made to serve in whatever branch of the military they chose to, be it the Army, Navy, Air Force or sub-groups such as the Republican Guard, Marines and even the Medical Corps. After approximately 5 years of service, the citizen-soldiers of the Republic are allowed to vote in elections that last every five years. Candidates are chosen from the heads of each branch of the Armed Forces, so we don’t have political parties per say, but we do make sure that the heads of each branch rotate frequently as to avoid them getting too used to their new positions, so we hold elections every two years for each and every Branch Head on top of the national elections. It just so happened that I was both Admiral of the Pretoria and Head of the Navy at the time of my election to the Presidency...”
I ask the Admiral about the Apartheid system, which is rumoured to still continue on-board the fleet, even to this day.
‘We do have some vestiges of the old system with us today, but it’s nothing like the discriminatory measures that our land-based predecessors had, I assure you. Every man and woman, regardless of their colour and heritage are allowed to serve in the army, which as I just told you, guarantees them the right to vote for the rest of their lives. We have separate officers corps for the Whites, Blacks, Coloureds and Asians that are given the same equipment and training by their respective superiors, but we allow them to mix freely during their off-duty hours and during combat, for what use is a segregated army on the battlefield? We merely employ a system of separate development, first among equals, if you will...”
I really doubt that the non-white members of the SADF really get the same treatment as their Afrikaner or Anglo-African counterparts, but I don’t show any signs of dissatisfaction to the Admiral, as I wish to avoid getting on his – or the Republic’s - bad side.
I eventually bid Admiral Kruger farewell and decided to seek out a second opinion on the matter, and after spending a few minutes snooping around the bustling markets on the flight deck, I seem to have found one. A young man of British extraction, only wishing to be known as ‘The Viscount’, takes me to his personal quarters below deck. He reveals that he’s the unofficial 'ambassador' from the unofficial ‘British Embassy’ to the South African Republic-in-exile - a term he uses with a heavy amount of sarcasm. He utters something about the embassy being a ‘prison for interns, drunks and exiles’ before finding a seat for me to sit on, leaving my host to lean against a nearby wall.
I ask him about the legitimacy of the segregationist system that supposedly doesn’t exist on-board the ship. The nobleman doesn’t seem to be all that amused as he quickly finishes off a half-empty glass of whiskey.
“Is that what the old bastard told you?” he smirks, placing his glass on a nearby coffee table. His bemused expression quickly turns to that of a barely-hidden scowl that tries to keep his seething rage from boiling over. “The Apartheid system is alive and well on-board this rusting, racist hulk. The votes that are cast by the blacks are either counted as half that of a normal vote or are disregarded entirely and are thrown into the rubbish...” he sighs, liberally using air-quotes throughout. “Asians and Coloureds, the mixed race fellows, are given the status of ‘honorary whites’ and are given the same voting rights de-jure, but are often treated de-facto in a similar way to the blacks, socially speaking that is...”
The Viscount grabs a large bottle of whiskey and pours himself another glass, allowing himself some much-needed time to calm down. I take the opportunity to ask him if there’s a chance for change in the Republic
“No.” he says at first before taking a long, drawn-out sip of alcohol. “The democratic process has been bastardised, the military and the governing bodies have been intertwined for too long. The Apartheid system may not be out in the open like it used to be, but it functions perfectly behind closed doors. The non-white populace is too small to vote themselves into power and an open rebellion would be suicide. The leaders of the so-called ‘Republic’ are motivated by the hope that one day they can reclaim their old homeland, by any means necessary. They’re using the money that they’ve gathered from their ‘humanitarian’ operations to buy new equipment and give it to various ‘special interest groups’ in the US, UK and Europe, these groups then send said equipment Cape-side to destabilise the successor states that exist in the region… Oh, before I forget… Do you want to hear the most fucked up part?” he says, his voice becoming all the more indignant by the second.
I nod in response to the Viscount’s question, wondering what he’s going to say next. He leans in close to me, to the point where I can smell the alcohol in his breath.
“They have a small, but deadly stockpile of undeclared nuclear weapons. When the Chinese fell to their Second Civil War… It turned out that a bunch of Chinese submarines decided to go ‘missing’ and now, all of a sudden, they’ve mysteriously ended up in the Republic’s fleet. All of them are renamed and repainted, of course. I’ve spent the past few months collating all of this information on the side, I’ve found out things that my superiors in Westminster and New York want to keep hidden.” he lets out an audible sigh before taking another sip from his drink.
“The Republic now has weapons to surpass their rivals, and I for one don’t think that this petty tale of revenge will have happy ending...”
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