On the southwestern border of Columbia, out of Ecuador, a joint taskforce of American, Brazilian, and UN troops are preparing to march into Columbia. The sky is overcast, the temperature a chill 5C; it looks like rain. Clustered throughout the allied forces, men and women wearing brightly colored spandex uniforms huddle together in final planning sessions, their mere presence bolstering the morale of the troops around them.
On the other side of the border waits the Columbian military. It is a respectable force, with fortified heavy weapons stations and armored vehicles to support the rank and file troops. Air support is on standby within Columbian airspace, waiting for orders to strike. There is no sign of novas among the Columbians.
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The path to war was long and circuitous. What began as an increase in illicit drug trafficking, including designer nova derived compounds, grew into a powerful movement within the Columbian government. The War on Crime declared by Utopia destroyed the old model of the criminal cartel, and its methods of distribution, nearly eliminating organized crime and the sale of “hard” drugs such as cocaine and heroine. The same War on Crime also created opportunities for consolidation of criminal enterprises, provided incentive for the creation of new designer drugs, and created a need for the recruitment of novas to thwart policing efforts. One visionary leader rose from the ashes of defeat to unite the remains of the most powerful criminal organizations throughout the Americas, and with a combination of foresight and serendipity, managed to evade the notice of the world’s most powerful policing attempts, hiding behind a veneer of disorganized and isolated cells.
As the power of the organization grew, it was inevitable that they would tip their hand, but they managed to delay the process until they had near hegemony over their home country of Columbia, via a combination of bribery, legitimate improvements to the country’s infrastructure, and the promise of power beyond the wildest dreams of the Columbian government, the ability to create novas. The involvement of the cartels with the Columbian government remained a well hidden secret, masked by nova power, diplomatic chicanery, and well-planned movements of the cartels themselves; even when connections were revealed, evidence was sparse and difficult to act upon. Sao Paulo, and the discoveries of T2M:A, changed all that.
With the botched attempt at inducing eruption, the Medellin Cartel, and the danger they represent, was exposed to the world. Or a part of it at least, since the real events were never revealed to the public. The world at large was duped into believing that the Sao Paulo incident was an act of terrorism, meant to show the power of the Columbian government, which had been recruiting those novas within its borders in an effort to create a military force; Columbia was making the first moves in an attempt to become a world power. Nova building efforts in the country, that had until recently been viewed with either admiration or at worst indifference by the world community, were re-cast as the beginnings of a nova army, a clear violation of the Nova Non-Proliferation agreement (Quantum Powers Non-Proliferation Treaty). The truth of the matter, that novas were being engineered, and that a criminal organization rose to world power with the support of novas, was shielded from all but the UN security council… and any world governments the cartels had gone to in the process of recruiting allies. If any outside the security council knew anything regarding the true situation in Columbia however, they remained silent and held their own council.
Despite evidence, the UN chose to attempt diplomatic agreement before forcible disarmament, and even after diplomatic means were exhausted, many countries were in opposition to the violation of the sovereignty of a nation based upon supposed nova militarization, for which there was only limited evidence. Only the unified action of the Security Council made it possible to eventually force through an agreement. Columbia would open itself to Utopia inspectors, who would guarantee its claims of innocence. Columbia refused, and promised to defend its borders with full military force. Brazil, as a means of retaliation for Sao Paulo, offered its country as a staging ground, and its troops for use in the confrontation. After a buildup in Brazil, the troops marched moved into Ecuador with the country's blessing (thanks to promises of aid money from the US) to await the push into Columbia. The date for inspection was set for January 1st of the coming year, setting the stage for the military conflict about to unfold.
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Caestus Pax, Skew, and several specially hired DeVries elites stood guard above the thousands of assembled troops. Their job was to ensure that nothing larger than a bullet could reach the men and women below them. Pax, hating his required roll but understanding its necessity (he was the most powerful telekinetic in the world; who else could protect the troops from missile and heavy weapons fire as well as he?) had deferred command of the field operation to Impetus, who would lead the other teams, and coordinate them. The remainder of Pax’s team would remain behind to guard the guardians, protecting Pax, Skew, and the others while they deflected attacks. T2M:A, T2M:E, and T2M:AP were to engage any nova hostiles, and protect the allied troops. Due to the terms of the QPNPT, T2M was not to engage the Columbian military, though it was fully allowed to
protect its own allies.
Comstock is in charge of his team, Thorn T2M:E, and Smoke leads T2M:AP. Frostburn is in charge of the HQ team and communications between R&D, Logistics, and the field teams. In 5 minutes allied troops will cross the Columbian border, and the world holds its breath in anticipation, waiting to see how Columbia will respond.
Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Place yourselves, set up whatever scene you want, and we’ll start the action. You can plan over in the HQ thread, or you can “go over the plan one more time” here, your choice. Comstock has authority over his people in the field, though Impetus is once again serving as major coordinator. Any OOC questions should be asked over in the OOC thread, or in spoiler blocks here. Sorry about the delay, hope this turns out to be a good time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:06, Fri 30 Aug 2013.