Jeddaven

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

The faint smell of burning alcohol hung in the air as the RCMP Vessel Mississauga trundled along through the Erie canal, belching ethanol fumes into the air as it went. Its deck buzzed with activity, men and women dressed in plate carriers and forest camouflage manning their posts. Oliver Adams, for his part, stood at his station, a small cannon with a large, cylindrical drum attached to the side, his lightweight body armour dragging down on his shoulders.

Some small part of him almost wished he'd get the chance to use it. For more hours than he could count, though, he'd been listening to the crazed - and entertaining - ramblings of the former Gunner on the radio.

At least he can pick his music well, the Sergeant thought, and he keeps his guns pointed in the right direction.

Bored, he placed his hands on the old cannon's grip, swivelling the gun around on its mount. he wasn't too worried about being caught offguard - after all, the ship he was on carried far more firepower than was necessary to deter raiders - and he was protected by several inches of armor, both the boat's 'railing' and his gun's shield. Raiders were garbage shots, and even if they weren't, he assumed some mortar fire, at least half a dozen Ma Deuce, several twenty-millimeter cannons, and a handful of Bofors would do the job. Most of the hardware was old, and without point defense lasers, the boat was still vulnerable...

But for a wasteland riverboat, it was more than enough.

Every once in a while, though, some idiots hopped up on Psycho tried to jump them, or some Gunners showed up to cause trouble. It was only the latter that worried him, he thought, swivelling his mount across the treeline, firing imaginary shells at imaginary attackers.

Again... And again... And again. Nobody showed up. Nobody caused problems for the Foreign Affairs Minister, and that made his job all that much easier. Letting out a yawn, he finally released his grip on the gun mount, leaning back against the wall behind him.

Can't see shit out there, anyways. Even if the Gunners showed up, they couldn't hit shit in this weather, he thought, briefly sticking out his gloved hand out from beneath cover, catching a handful of raindrops.

Turning to his left, toward the bow of the ship, he peered far into the distance, down the last stretch of the Erie canal toward the Albany docks. He could see the faint, blinking lights of the radio tower in the distance, a mostly useless relic of a time when civil aviation existed.

"Hey, Campbell! It's your turn to watch the gun!" He shouted, turning to head into the bowels of the ship, eager to change out of his body armour.

The people in town always loved their red sarges.

---

[/hr]

Straightening out his beige Stetson, Oliver sucked in a deep breath, carefully making his way down the gangplank and onto the Almont docks. Fishermen and traders buzzed about the place, some hawking goods, others gawking at the comparatively massive gunboat, the pristine flag of Ronto flying below the Canadian flag on a second, smaller pole. It felt good, honestly, being at the center of attention, even if a good chunk of the townsfolk thought Oliver looked like a stuffy asshole in his carefully maintained uniform, a leather holster clasped shut at his hip.

Making his way down the gangplank, he couldn't help but remember stories his grandparents told him of when the first Canadian Army soldiers rolled into their village. He wondered how many of these people felt the same about him as he gently pushed his way through the teeming crowd, pausing only to glance back at his fellow officers, confirming his departure one last time.

Now, though, it was finally time to get a drink.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

@Irredeemable In regards to the Navy, Ronto has a pretty large riverine and lakebound fleet, mostly for defensive purposes and protecting trade. Blue water naval stuff is mostly handled by PageMaster's dudes, which actually exemplifies something that's fairly common in Ronto - one of the ways they've managed to be so effective is through smart delegation, even if that means passively delegating an unofficial 'job' to another nation-state. The Red Devils, for example, operate fairly independently, and much of the army, which it has a command structure, emphasizes ability to operate independently yet cooperatively, because of the way I have the Canadian military going guerilla when the Americans invaded.

As for defeated foes, Ronto's policy could be described as fairly light, barring treatment of US government personnel and especially egregious raiders. Lots of them get firing squads. Negotiating with an organization like the Enclave, in that it tries to represent the pre-war US, aren't so much an unlikelihood as much as they are an impossibility. It's shoot to kill or prison camps for them. For other people, though, there's a lot of 'forgiveness' offered, and unique cultures that have joined Ronto (such as some tribals in the Southern Ontario region) are given votes and all like you might expect, but they're encouraged to keep their own cultural identities intact. Ronto's policy towards conquered people or groups that accede to them, then, can generally be described as this; "they've survived this long. We'll help where they want it, but they must've been doing something right."

I think that would be a (if not the biggest) point of contention between Ronto and the Confederacy, barring debates over who has rights to Southern Ontario. Ronto might generally respect multiculturalism, but the country is still generally pretty certain that it's got morality figured out. Sometimes that's for the better (I'd argue it is in the case of opposition to slavery), but sometimes it's for the worse.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

@Jeddaven

I wonder if Ronto might have some Confederacy Pathfinders, and vice-versa. Also, what’s Ronto’s opinion on slavery? The Confederacy does practice slavery, but in quite a ‘gentrified’ sense, where slaves are taken into a family whilst being unpaid labour- probably one of the nicer places to be a slave, but still a slave.

@Irredeemable

I could see that, honestly. The reason tribals are so valued in the Pathfinder corps is because of their experience in living off the land and understanding the local natural surroundings better than the city folk; Ronto would find Confederacy Pathfinders valuable for Pathfinder operations outside of their territory because of that assumed experience.

As for slavery, Ronto generally opposes it - I think their opinion on this gentrified slavery would be advocacy against it, but not to an outright militant degree unless the Confederacy threatens Ronto. Their policy of non-interference and occasional support of First Nations peoples would conflict here - on the one hand, they're trying to right the wrongs of the old world Canadian government, but, on the other hand, slavery is something they view as fundamentally wrong, so... it's a bit of an open question. Honestly, I see that question as someone to be debated in Ronto's parliament - if it were more openly egregious chattel slavery, however, there'd be calls for war.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

A fun question for everyone: What is your faction's elite? Their Brotherhood Paladins, their Institute Coursers, their NCR Veteran Rangers?

The Grand Confederacy doesn't hold to traditional Haudenosaunee beliefs regarding those killed in wartime (although they do believe that those killed in the Great War remain to haunt the world,) mostly because it's impractical to have such a societal taboo when it comes to dying in battle when 80% of the threats out there will kill you violently. Their elites are Turtle Warriors: named partially after the capital, and partly after the fact that they're the only ones permitted to wear Power Armour. Turtle Warriors are trained at Bonfire Base, the former Camp Greyling, and are expected to not only be entirely self-sufficient on the field, but also superlative soldiers, and are outfitted with the best weaponry the Confederacy has access to, most of which was also taken/made from the blueprints they got from Camp Greyling.

@Irredeemable

There are a couple elements to that for Ronto. First and foremost are the boys in red - the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They serve roles similar to the RCMP in real life; although the military handles actual assaults against fortified Raider positions, the RCMP handles a lot of the actual hunting down fugitives, some elements of border control, and, of course, the good ole' handling of 'federal crime'. Now, Ronto's government isn't as centralized as any IRL government, but they're doing what they can to bring civilization back, and that includes a federal legal code. They also handle protection duty for Federal officials such as the Prime Minister and Governor General, which, although they somewhat resemble a real-world secret service, the nature of the enemies they face more often than not means they're kitted out in full, obvious combat gear, even if it's dressed up quite a bit. Trained to the nines, these dudes are, unlike the modern RCMP, expected to regularly get themselves into combat situations.

Next, the Pathfinders. Likewise based on the Canadian military formation of old, the Pathfinder serve a similar role as to before - that is to say, as an elite, highly trained reconnaissance force, with the secondary missions of evacuating civilians from combat zones and acting as a deep penetration infiltration/light infantry force. They don't do much resembling modern special forces, and instead operate more akin to the what the names says they do - finding the best ways to reach places safely for the rest of the troops.. They're lightly armed and armored, but are well-trained nonetheless, and frequently equipped with small, fast boats, off-road jeeps and buggies, and the like. Tribals willing to sign up for the Pathfinders are highly valued - while there are plenty of experienced people from the towns and cities of Ronto, they're generally less familiar with the wildlandscape, being that, well, they didn't live in it.

Royal Canadian Horse Artillery - I wouldn't call these guys 'elite' in the traditional sense of the word, but they're highly regarded enough that they might as well be. These are the guys in charge of most the field artillery used by the army of Ronto - the howitzers, rocket artillery, and other heavy weapons they've managed to scrounge together. Now, the wasteland being the wasteland, this is hardly a real world national military's artillery regiment, but it's enough for the wasteland, for the most part. They mostly grew out of a frequent need to bust up bunkers and fortified military positions; essentially, kicking former American troops and raiders out of military bases or other heavily fortified camps. They've seen a bit less field use lately, but they're kept kicking because of the looming threat of the Gunners and, to a lesser extent, the Enclave.

The Royal Canadian Dragoons - like the Horse Artillery, the Dragoons were revived out of a need to have a force dedicated to the effective use and maintenance of salvaged and produced military vehicles in Ronto, a veritable soup of various designs. The dragoons don't see a ton of use, however, as the armour they have is both extremely valuable and difficult to maintain, and are mostly deployed against similarly mobile forces of raiders or unusually well equipped foes. Theoretically, they're expected to fight anything from the (now destroyed) Talon Company, to the Gunners, to the Brotherhood (should they decide to try and take Ronto's technology) or the Enclave, so you can imagine they'd be trained to an extremely high standard as a result. Big guns.

The Red Devils: based on the US-Canadian regiment of old and pieced together from fragmentary information from the bunkers beneath the ruined CFB Petawawa, the Red Devils are probably the closest thing to a real special forces unit Ronto has, but they're far closer to a mishmash of the Black Watch or, to use a Fallout example, the Desert/NCR rangers. In other words, they're a somewhat independent force, mostly 'light' infantry, though still relatively effective at sabotage and assassination-type missions. Almost all of the power armor has been thrown in here, though most of it's relatively light Canadian pre-war suits, slightly modified and stripped down American armour, or a handful of stealthsuits from their Chinese friends. Command is split between the old Chinese ghoul and their exiled ranger buddy. These guys are the cream of the crop, the best armed and armoured motherfuckers in Ronto, and they're the source of a lot of stories about Ronto's military might - daring raids, devastatingly lethal ambushes on cruel raiders, strikes against slavers, and the like. Infantry laser and plasma weapons also almost all go here, with very few exceptions - the Pathfinders, for example, are expected to work behind enemy lines for a very long time and need to be able to scavenge, so energy weapons aren't really practical for them. With few exceptions, people that get here are volunteers already experienced in other branches of the military, or exiles from other groups that can prove that can be trusted and have a fuckload of experience, like Brotherhood exiles. Standards for entry, though, are extremely high, and training's harsh enough that even that cream of the crop doesn't always make it through. They're probably the closest unit yo your Turtle Warriors

All-in-all, while I see Ronto's military as organized (for the wasteland), commanders are still expected to be able to make decisions on the fly. imho, the biggest advantage Ronto has is relatively solid access to radio communications equipment. They aren't really interested in expansionism, especially into the territory of nations that aren't actively trying to take territory from them, but they've grown to rely on their military (rather than economic importance as Reno or New Vegas might have) to keep them safe. I like to think of it as a policy of aggressive defense; of maintaining Ronto's safety by trying to keep civilization intact in its surroundings through occasional intervention. That's why Ronto supports the People of Three Fires in their control of Manitoulin - Manitoulin is strategically importance for keeping the Great lakes safe, but as long as the lakes are kept safe, Parliament couldn't care less about who controls it.

N.E.O. - New Earth Oracle

Kurdistan is pretty cool.

The Crownless King

I've got a couple ideas already. I'm feeling the idea of messing with some really odd, alien magic. I love playing fish-out-of-water characters, but perhaps some kind of mage-knight could also be cool.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

@Irredeemable

Hey, I noticed a possible misinterpretation with your app - my intent with Ronto's policy towards Manitoulin was actually for them to actively support the sovereignty of the People of the Three Fires over Manitoulin. They don't have any interest in controlling the island, and the way they see it, a strong First Nations stated on the island accomplishes the goal of keeping it out of the hands of raiders without Ronto having to spend resources securing it themselves.

I intend to explore Ronto's relationship with First Nations people in the future in mopre detail, but my intent is for their policy towards First Nations people to be either welcoming or very hands-off and to respect sovereignty. Now, of course, they do still claim to represent Old Canada, and that brings a whole slew of issues, but the general gist, if you're familiar with Canadian politics, is that they have an NDP-esque (particularly the more modern branches of the party friendly to First Nations causes) policy regarding minorities; that is to say one that is generally 'progressive'.

All-in-all, I just wanted to make sure that my intent for Ronto wasn't for them to be hostile to the people of Manitoulin Island or anything. If that IS the impression you're getting, please let me know so I can fix it!

Edit: made some clarifications

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

That's some really helpful advice, thank you!

@Noblebandit

I'm also happy to suggest other industries and the like the company could be involved in - Quebec manufactures a lot of aircraft and generally aluminum products, plus lotsa alloys (esp. copper and aluminum alloys).

I would also emphasize the noise that being completely cutthroat would create. the Quebec region has some neighbors that might be interested in intervening against bad behaviors/actions that make a lot of political noise.

The Crownless King

@Melkor@Jeddaven@viktorseier@vietmyke@Andreyich@Kuro@Skwint@Lucky@KitsuneWarrior

Hey all- just checking in! If people want to move forward I'll put up an OOC this week. Sorry for my absence, was sick for a bit.

@Flagg

All good! I am definitely still interested. Sorry to hear you were feeling sick!

N.E.O. - New Earth Oracle

Happy 6 month anniversary NEO!

@Yam I Am

Com 2 brazil