[Lauchenoiria]

Jointly written with Xiomera.

Josephine Alvarez was displeased with the most recent turn of events in Huenya. Anyone familiar with the Lauchenoirian Prime Minister would have been able to tell from the way she sat at her desk with her back perfectly straight, her feet both completely flat on the ground and her hands clasped together in front of her as she picked up the phone herself, dialling the office of her Huenyan counterpart.

"Good day," she said, her tone clipped, "this is Prime Minister Alvarez of Lauchenoiria. I demand to speak to Tiachihitli immediately. I shall not take no for an answer."

When the call from Lauchenoiria came in, Vice-Speaker Tiacihitli was in the midst of an emergency meeting with his security and defense team. He had headache medication and a glass of water nearby, listening to the Defense Secretary. “While we did admittedly fail to rescue the hostages, we did succeed in eliminating a significant portion of the terrorists’ capabilities. That should help us in future rescue attempts,” Acxopotl said smugly.

Future attempts? The Secretary is assuming that the Golden Blade won’t just kill both hostages now in retaliation for the raids,” FIS director Cuetlancaona said sharply in response.

“If we had been given better intelligence from FIS as to the location of the hostages, that would not have been an issue,” Acxopotl replied with an expression of disdain on his face. Cuetlancaona was about to reply when the intercom buzzed. “Vice-Speaker, Prime Minister Alvarez of Lauchenoiria is on the line. She is demanding to speak with you immediately.”

“Demanding? Who does she think she is? She has no authority here and no power to demand anything of the leaders of a sovereign state!” Acxopotl’s face had turned red.

“Perhaps if we had consulted her before the raids, as I had suggested, this would not be an issue.” Cuetlancaona gave Acxopotl a deliberately sarcastic smile.

“Enough. Everyone out. I need to take this call.” As Acxopotl huffed and prepared to object again, Tiacihitli glared at him. “Not a word. I let you convince me that we didn’t need anyone’s help on this. That was a mistake, one I will not make again.” As his advisors shuffled out, the Vice-Speaker soberly took the water and headache pills. After a moment of thought, he opened his desk drawer and took a hefty swig from a bottle of mezcal in a not-so-sober fashion. Steeling himself, he picked up the line. “Good morning, Prime Minister. This is Vice-Speaker Tiacihitli.”

"Vice-Speaker. I apologise for the lack of pleasantries, but time is of the essence," Alvarez began, her tone making it clear that her apology was insincere. "My people are demanding answers. Your government has jeopardised the life of one of our citizens with their actions, without consulting us beforehand. I am going to take it that you have not heard from the terrorists since your actions?"

”We have not. We expect, however, that some message from them will be coming shortly. I must apologize for not consulting you prior to our recent mission. Let’s just say….I received some bad advice. A situation I do not intend to repeat again.”

"I am glad to hear that," Alvarez replied, "because I do not intend to allow that to happen. Consider the situation from our perspective: we send election observers to ensure that your elections are free and fair, without bias to either side in this conflict. For this, one of our citizens is kidnapped. You act unilaterally, endangering the lives of the hostages, and we are expected to sit still as the terrorist problem grows. No, we shall not do that. Lauchenoiria will be sending our own people to Huenya to assist in the anti-terrorist operations, at least until our citizen is returned to us, safely."

”We would welcome the assistance, at this point. This problem is proving to be more intractable than we had anticipated.” The admission of that fact was painful for Tiacihitli, but the Huenyans had to face the truth: the terrorists would not be defeated without help. “What sort of assistance are you contemplating?”

Alvarez paused, not anticipating the easy agreement. Most nations she had dealt with would not have been so quick to accede to the demands of a foreign leader in this manner. "We intend to send a specialised anti-terrorist unit alongside some intelligence advisers who can liaise with your people on our work against the Golden Blade."

”This would be acceptable to us. We may seek additional outside assistance as well. I must be frank, Prime Minister….Huenya is not ready to deal with a threat as serious as the Golden Blade is turning out to be.” Tiacihitli sighed. “It would be foolish of us to continue to try to address this threat alone, especially since the terrorists themselves are not without their own support. We know that Xiomera is providing them assistance, but have not been able to prove that yet. But as long as Xiomera continues to back the terrorists with their ample resources, the Golden Blade will remain a challenge.”

"If you would like us to send extra personnel, we can consider it, but as I'm sure you've seen, the pacifists are already irate about Auria and we intend to make our move there sooner rather than later. Our military can only be in so many places at once."

”I understand, and I do not think additional military personnel other than your proposed team would be necessary at this time. What will be more effective, we think, is to place more pressure on Calhualyana to stop supporting the Golden Blade. Sanctions, diplomatic pressure, assistance with patrolling the Gulf of Epeloc and the Canal Zone to cut the supply lines between Xiomera and the terrorists. Without Xiomeran support, the Golden Blade would crumble. But a price has to be imposed on Xiomera to force Calhualyana to stop backing them.”

"Our parliament is scheduled to debate such measures on Monday. As for the Canal, we shall be contacting Laeral about whether additional personnel is needed in the Zone as a priority. However until the Aurian situation is resolved, there will be little else we can do with the numbers we have. Our people will arrive in Huenya tomorrow. Let us hope that the terrorists do not retaliate against the hostages for your actions," Alvarez finished, adopting a warning tone. "For everyone's sake."

”That is our hope as well,” the Vice-Speaker replied. “When your team arrives in Ixtenco, they will be delivered to the FIS headquarters to meet with our new Federal Counter-Terrorism Task Force. FIS director Cuetlancaona is coordinating our response to the terrorists.” Coordinating it solo from now on, and Acxopotl can go polish his missiles, Tiacihitli thought.

"Good. I am glad that you see the necessity of our own intervention. I shall be in touch further regarding Auria at a later date. For now, let's just focus on getting the hostages home safe," Alvarez said firmly.

”Agreed. If there are any other questions or concerns, feel free to contact me. I admit that I made a mistake on this last operation, Prime Minister, but I tend to learn quickly from my mistakes. From now on, I’ll ensure that we keep open lines of communication about matters that are of concern to both of us.”

"Good," Alvarez said finally. "Perhaps we will get through this without any further conflicts after all." On that note, she immediately hung up the phone. Let him think on what I mean by that, she thought to herself. In truth, further conflict somewhere was inevitable: Auria. And Lauchenoiria was preparing to make that clear to those behind the coup very soon indeed.

As the line clicked dead, Tiacihitli put the receiver back down with a thoughtful expression. Part of his emotions - a small but nevertheless present part of them - was annoyance at being treated in such a high-handed fashion. But he knew better than to indulge that emotion. Huenya couldn’t afford the luxury of a pouting head of state. He instead sighed, and picked up the receiver again to inform Cuetlancaona of the impending Lauchenoirian arrival. Given what was happening both in Huenya and around it, his country was going to need all the help it could get.