[center][hr][hr][h3][b]Keystone Union of Philadelphia[/b]
[sub][i]Independence Hall[/i][/sub][/h3][/center]
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The three cracked bronze bells of the Constitutional Temples of the Founders, each modeled after the holy Liberty Bell with its own famous crack, called Philadelphians to morning prayer. As the sun began to rise above the horizon, the faithful already waiting outside the holiest temple in the Union made their way up the stairs and into its great chamber. President Franklin Abrams could hear the bells from his office in Independence Hall, rebuilt to imitate the great Oval Office of the White House in the holy city of Washington DC. He had been up early that morning, when the sun barely cracked the dawn, busy laboring over his desk about the request for additional funding the Continental Navy wished for.

In the Union's politics, only the Judges and the Holy Courts held more sway than the Army and Navy. As the son of a Deitsch Amish princess and a Philadelphia Shipmaster, it was no secret he was pro-Navy. The Army's "Western Frontier" plan was more than likely to bring war and devastation to the Deitsch lands, some of which the Union only barely held on because of the half-Deitschman Preisdent. Yet Abrams still couldn't move to brazenly against the Army's interests as he had been elected on a promise of compromise between the Army and Navy and was still barely half way through with his decade-long term.

The admiralty where hoping to ply his favor with sweet talk and seafood dinners, but Abrams hadn't become President by being easily swayed with honeyed words and fish. He had approved the yearly budget for both the Army and Navy, giving both an equal amounts. But it had become clear that the money the government was spending on the Army was giving more dividends than the Navy. The Army's base at the Kinoprus (King of Prussia) Mall continued to grow as traders and settlers were attracted to the military base, growing it into a civilian community all of its own. The worry in the Synod Senate by the pro-Navy Senators was that soon the Army would have its own city-state within the Union that the civil administration had no authority to govern as it would still technically be a military base. 

The Navy for their part continued to lag behind with the development of their own attempt to match the Kinoprus Mall by developing the Battleship New Jersey into a strategic center from which defense against Jerseyite raiders could be coordinated from. But the act of moving it from one side of the river to the other had already gone over budget originally during the previous presidency, and that was before mirelurks were discovered in parts of the hull. The projects to repair the artillery guns back into a usable state (the reason the entire project was approved in the first place) had already been scaled back all three turrets down to just one. [i]And it was still overbudget.[/i] Funds originally set aside for the restoration of the Walt Whitman Bridge across the Delaware River (another one of Abram's campaign promises) had to be funneled into the Navy's Battleship New Jersey plan. The only saving grace was that at least people where still willing to settle nearby, ignoring the fact that most of buildings that were popping up where just bars and brothels for the workers and sailors stationed there that seemed to be stuck in a sluggish hell.

President Abram held the Navy's letter in his hand, sighing and rubbing his forehead, "Founder Franklin, Founder Roosevelt, give me the wisdom and strength for this bullshit." The Navy was wanting more caps for... everything. More sailors, more boats, expanding the officer corps, building the battleship, paying for wages, paying for bounties for the mercenaries they contract to keep the battleship free of mirelurks, expand the young marine corps so they don't need to use mercenaries anymore. By Washington, this would all be so much easier if the Army would just step in and take care of port security but no, they had to "protect the breadbasket of the Union". Which while fair, there hadn't been any major raider incursion in well over a year. The small gangs and tribes that occasionally wandered in front of their laser muskets hardly warranted the equal budget they shared with the Navy, in Abram's mind at least.

He stood up and looked out the window. He could see the whole of Broad Street from his office, all of the carts and carriages going through. He let his mind wander, going from sight to sight. Men and women dressed in as close to 18th century fashion as they could with what the wasteland provided, typically amounting to nothing more than ruffled sleeves or collars for men and an additional piece of short cloth around the waist meant to imply a dress for women. If nothing else, it was proof that Philadelphia itself was safe, now that there was no longer a raider around every corner that the guards and Army had to look for in every alley and abandoned building.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in the President's head. A spark of inspiration, no doubt from Founder Franklin himself!

"There were a great number of raiders and bandits, the patrols had to be increased to find them all." President Abrams paced in his office, thinking out loud, "The rivers and the bay still have as many dangers and pirates, just that only the seafolk see them on a daily basis. If the Navy finds more sea-brigands on their patrols, then that would be a result they could show to the Senate. And then I could allocate additional caps to 'expand' their patrol efforts. They would be able to use it for new ships or at least funding for the battleship."

Abrams rushed to his desk and began drafting a letter with his ink pen. The Navy was already hesitant about diverting any more of its precious manpower away from the Battleship, but by invoking the name of Founder Roosevelt, a Master of Ships in Old America, and by throwing around some of his own political sway, Franklin Abrams was confident that he could get the admiralty to sign off on additional patrols even if it meant pausing repair efforts on the New Jersey and weathering the ridicule from the Army. The President wrote furiously as the great bells rang to signal the end of morning prayer. He would be staking a good deal of political power on this order, but it was a safe bet. If the Navy caught or killed more pirates then it was proof that they could also get actual results while also looking better than the random bandit the Army sometimes caught. If the ships were destroyed then that was proof of the danger that the pirates and sea raiders poised to the Union's waterways, which Abrams would also be able to sell to the Senate as a need to give additional funding to the Navy.

"And so as the tide turns, I implore you to deliver upon the sea additional sentinel craft in which to persecute the malevolence-upon-waters that claw their savage talons upon our fair peoples. Yours truly, President F. Abrams." And with that, the letter was signed and with the ring of a bell, an aide came with a presidential raven, a black bird with a golden tassel around its neck. It would be the one to deliver the message to the admiralty at the Naval Yards, and be the one that might be the one to turn the balance towards the Navy for once.