Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #41: The Itchy Finger (9/18/00)
Lt. Lirt walks crisply into Arat's office, five seconds before the time of his appointment.
Lt. Lirt had some trouble making the appointment, as Arat's schedule-keeper Jeniard has been rather hard to corner, lately.
Lt. Lirt's dress uniform is not nearly as crisp as when he last reported to the Controller, laundry facilities at the Dam site being what they are, but at least it doesn't have the rips and stains of his regular uniforms.
Lt. Lirt: Controller Arat, thank you for seeing me so promptly.
Lt. Lirt does have to admit that once he managed to find Hajene Jeniard, the delay in talking to the Controller was very reasonable.
Lt. Lirt thinks, at least, considering that he himself was only periodically available for such a meeting.
Arat is looking none too crisp himself, having just come off a long work shift in the emergency hut... er... ward.
Arat however is not suffering from entran at all, a major plus.
Arat: Lt. Lirt.
Nick is not only looking uncrisp, but also exhausted, from said long work shift in the emergency hut.
Lt. Lirt: I thought it prudent to brief you on our recent missions, and discuss possible responses under various scenarios.
Lt. Lirt speaks fluent military jargon.
Arat speaks High Bureaucratese, which is not as different as one would think.
Arat nods. "Very well. Proceed."
Nick finds both military jargon and High Bureaucratese excellent soporifics, and settles back in his chair to doze, keeping only enough of his attention on Arat to ensure his channel's comfort.
Lt. Lirt: Our primary mission is to provide security for construction supplies moving to the Dam site. In this capacity, I have detailed an escort for critical supply trains, as determined by Mr. Birch.
Lt. Lirt: Our secondary mission, as you know, is to be at your disposal to maintain security as necessary.
Lt. Lirt's manual on "how to give a briefing" emphasizes that one should begin with a mission statement, because somebody invariably will have failed to read their background materials.
Lt. Lirt's manual did not, of course, mention how unlikely that is if the briefee is a Farris channel.
Lt. Lirt: In that capacity, we have been providing escorts to groups of people who have agreed to leave the camps and return to their previous homes.
Lt. Lirt: In the past few weeks, there have been some troubling developments which I believe merit your consideration.
Arat listens carefully.
Lt. Lirt: An increasing number of the people who are leaving appear to be doing so as a result of... unfortunate incidents.
Lt. Lirt: These incidents are frequently of a violent nature, and appear to be increasingly systematic.
Lt. Lirt: While the end result, a decrease in the number of unemployed in the area, is in accordance with the long-term goals outlined by you, the method is cause for concern.
Arat is not unfamiliar with this situation, having heard from his "relocation incentive program" staff on the same matter.
Arat in fact has made attempts to attack this problem nearer to the root, with fairly poor results so far.
Arat is not on speaking terms with Starlin at the moment, for example.
Lt. Lirt: While these incidents have persuaded some of the victims to leave, others may decide to fight back, with unfortunate consequences.
Arat nods.
Lt. Lirt: The situation has not been helped by rumors that various groups are responsible for recent incidents of vandalism, including the burning of several camp sites, tools other supplies stolen from the construction site, and several local households which have apparently been ransacked or burned.
Lt. Lirt: There have been incidents from the first, of course, but their frequency and severity seems to be increasing.
Arat thinks that the frequency and severity have been unacceptable since day one, but acknowledges that they certainly haven't decreased in the last weeks.
Lt. Lirt: I am concerned that if the situation continues on its present course, open warfare may break out between the employed and unemployed workers. And perhaps the locals and the out-Territory Gens as well.
Arat: It is a concern I share. [admits; he's made no secret of that, after all]
Lt. Lirt is cautiously ~~ approving ~~ that Arat isn't hiding his head in the sand, as so many civilians do when faced with a military situation.
Arat had that sort of behavior whipped out of him as a young boy; head-in-sand behavior is not compatible with nose-in-air behavior.
Lt. Lirt: I and my troop do not have any law-enforcement authority, but our peacekeeping mission does allow us to take some action to put down civil disturbances.
Lt. Lirt: However, this does require specific authorization from the civil authorities.
Arat: If and when such action becomes necessary, I will provide any appropriate authorization which you require from me.
Arat hopes he is making it clear that he views such action as acceptable only as a very last resort. There are, after all, Gen military present on the construction site, and things could potentially get much uglier than a simple labor riot.
Lt. Lirt nods.
Lt. Lirt: If it becomes necessary for us to take action, we will do so more effectively if we have been able to plan for the more likely contingencies in advance.
Arat's purpose in being here would not be served by having his name go down in history (and the near future) as the man responsible for starting Unity Wars III.
Lt. Lirt: As a first step, I would appreciate it if you could outline the specific circumstances which you feel would justify our intervention.
Lt. Lirt: And how long we should stand aside and let others deal with the situation.
Lt. Lirt: I realize that as Controller for the site, you don't have time to prepare a full briefing, but it is important that we understand your priorities.
Lt. Lirt does not want to go down as the slob Lieutenant who let the situation get out of hand, either by committing his forces too soon, or not soon enough.
Lt. Lirt's forces are too small to make much of an impact on 12,000 rioting construction workers, of course, but it's the principle of the thing.
Lt. Lirt is a firm believer in the military as Saviors of Civilization, an image that has become somewhat tarnished over the past 30 years, due to the lack of large scale armed conflicts.
Arat thinks that the Lieutenant is acting far beyond the scope of his original assignment, and wonders if he has been properly appraising his superiors of the situation.
Arat would much rather deal with someone he knows has the authority to do what Lirt is suggesting, particularly if it was someone who has had actual military experience in the past.
Arat: Has there been... any talk of changing the troop assignments here? [choosing his words carefully]
Lt. Lirt: Last month, I asked my superiors to send additional personnel, in light of our increasing escort responsibilities.
Lt. Lirt: I received a response four days ago: my request for reinforcements was refused, on the grounds that a greater concentration of troops along this section of the Border would arouse apprehension among the out-Territory government.
Lt. Lirt is ~~ apologetic and apprehensive ~~
Arat: I have a similar concern about the presence of troops at the construction site, which is why I have asked you to perform duties that kept you back from the border.
Lt. Lirt: I suspected something of the sort. My men have orders to keep a low profile, where possible, but we must maintain a visible presence in order to carry out our mission.
Lt. Lirt frowns thoughtfully.
Lt. Lirt: I have not spent much time on the site, but have heard that there are actually Gen Army officers working here?
Arat would have hoped Lirt would have received a careful briefing on that fact by his superiors.
Arat frowns.
Arat: Yes. The construction company has brought in one unit of the New Washington Army's Demolition Corps.
Arat: They are being used for work of a nonmilitary nature, and are unarmed. However, they are in uniform and they are [Arat supposes this should be unnecessary to say, but he would have thought that about a lot of things lately] Gens.
Lt. Lirt: Do you think that they could be persuaded to act with us, or at least concurrently, should it become necessary to intervene? A united front might calm apprehensions on both sides of the Border.
Arat ponders this weighty question.
Arat: Questions of this nature should be decided on an Interterritorial level.
Arat means, by heads of state and military leaders.
Arat knows perfectly well that neither military wants its mid-level officers to 1) think for themselves when it is not a life-or-death situation, and 2) experiment with cross-border relations when their orders specifically say to maintain a low profile.
Arat is well aware that his scope of responsibility as Controller extends only to making sure everybody gets selyn and healing and faithfully reporting any and all information his own superiors might find interesting.
Arat is compulsive about taking on responsibility, but only within reason! There is much to stray into that is unreasonable on the Snake River Dam construction site.
Lt. Lirt: On an official level, I don't have the seniority to form such an alliance, of course. But my orders are to cooperate fully with your requests, as far as military regulations allow.
Lt. Lirt: In this case, I believe regulations could be interpreted to cooperate with a request from you to act in concert with other personnel, on an emergency basis.
Arat thinks that Lirt is a fool, and a young inexperienced one at that.
Arat thinks that if one is going to try to talk someone else into being one's ass-cover, one shouldn't announce it in so many words.
Arat: I see. [disgruntled]
Arat: I will keep that in mind.
Lt. Lirt sees that Arat doesn't think much of the idea.
Arat might be more likely to make such a call during a time of actual emergency, of course. It simply sounds like a bad idea now. And he certainly wouldn't give any guarantee he'd be prepared to do it.
Lt. Lirt's (distressingly boyish) features fall as his idea appears to be rejected.
Arat has enough problems looming without also having it come up during an investigation that he "plotted" a "collaboration" with the local military. Particularly as he's been forced to make intentional contact with the Audnes supporters.
Lt. Lirt decides to make one more try.
Arat had thought of the military as a card up his sleeve in case of emergency, but the way this is going it is starting to look more like another thorn in his side. (to mix metaphors in simile)
Lt. Lirt: I'm hoping that we will never have to do more here than escort supply trains and travelers. But if it should turn out differently, reinforcements of any kind will be critical. And advance planning is essential to cooperation.
Lt. Lirt nods, showing ~~ respect ~~
Lt. Lirt: Thank you for your time, Controller Arat.
Arat nods.
Arat: Lieutenant.
Arat is relieved that the man was not more insistent.
Lt. Lirt returns to his troop, hoping the seeds he planted will bear fruit before the situation ripens into disaster (to use an agricultural metaphor)
Arat has treaded a political minefield all his life, but it's never been quite as thick on the ground as it is now. (to use a military and agricultural metaphor)
Arat watches Lirt leave, and then sets about writing a detailed letter to his own superiors reporting everything that was said.
Lt. Lirt's prospects for future promotion are unlikely to be helped by such a report.
Go on to Episode #42: Birthday Party
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