When the Dust Settles

The Confederacy of the Coast, colloquially known as Coastalis, is a collection of maritime city-states centered around the ancient pirate haven of Lighthouse.
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Orion
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When the Dust Settles

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FOREST ROW -- The city of Forest Row, once a bustling urban landscape, has now been reduced to a bleak military outpost. Several months into the aftermath of the Caldera explosion, the ash and dust has finally settled. In their wake a charred grey landscape dominates the entire view, from horizon to horizon. Ash, in some places several feet deep, buries most everything. Here and there the remains of a tree or building poke through the surface, raggedly severed from the base, the top nowhere to be seen. In open areas of the city, such as park and parking lots, the ash has been trampled into a packed surface, or bulldozed into large piles so that military vehicles and soldiers can maneuver. It is here, on the very outskirts of the Brettish Isles, that the last injured remains of life lay gasping for breath. Whether they will survive is an outcome even the most educated are struggling to predict.

Jingdaoese forces have joined with Brettish and Nova English rescue crews. So far the primary routine has been recovery of survivors and airlifting them out of the disaster zone. Transports have been delivering loads of people daily, either to temporary medical facilities established on Port Goose or at Nova England, or to transports waiting to take them to the Skerry Isles. Many Brettish personnel have been evacuated to the Skerries already, needing medical attention or merely rest from the exhausting task of the ongoing operations. The largest contingent of forces has come from Jingdao, who have sent thousands of personnel and materials to assist. In fact the Jingdaoese have begun calling the base Senxi, meaning 'northern forest' and a reference to both Forest Row and the geographical position of the isles. Nearly twenty-thousand Jingdaoese personnel have made Senxi their home while rescue operations continue. Abandoned buildings have become temporary barracks, while others have been turned into makeshift housing for soldiers. The local hospital has been turned into a military medical field hospital, even though much of the equipment was damaged by the explosion. Slowly but surely the military has been able to wend its way through the city in a network of restored services.

Yet for all this work it is still viewed by many as temporary. The isles can no longer support life; at least not in the former population density that used to exist. Farm fields are buried in ash, equipment clogged with it, waters choked by it. For the land to recuperate it will take decades; time that the surviving Brettish do not have. Thus the primary impetus has been to continue evacuating people to the Skerries, where the promise of a verdantly lush landscape is vividly alluring after the dismal grey of Brettania. With the ash settled and the Caldera volcano clearly having expended itself and returning to a normalized seismic pattern, rescue forces are able to fan out across the isles much more easily. As a result far more people are being rescued, and operations are moving more swiftly. Experts anticipate that most survivors will be rescued by the end of the year, save possibly for those who are trapped in remote and/or inaccessible locations. The only people left living on the Brettish Isles will be military personnel.

That leaves the question of what will become of the home isles and Brettania herself. As the population of the Skerries skyrockets, villages are bursting with unprecedented growth into small cities. Notwithstanding the logistical nightmare this is posing to the infrastructure, these numerous small cities have begun to form individual governments to manage themselves. This is a not at all unexpected step given how stretched the Brettish government has been to try and manage relief and resettlement. The Queen has been in constant discussion with these entities to try and formulate a long-term plan for the state, while at the same time bolstering the Brettish presence in the Skerries. The newly-opened coastal railway from Pharos to Melton, for example, has greatly improved the flow of goods and helped to spur industrial development along the coast. That goods have begun to be manufactured has been a huge relief to the constant import of supplies. Besides the humanitarian aspect, the Queen has begun to weld the scattered Brettish military back into a cohesive whole, starting with a new base of operations at Fort Irons.

What remains to be seen is how the Queen plans to manage the remains of the Brettish Isles, which has effectively become a graveyard. Britain has become a state in name only given its relocation to the Skerries, and the political dynamics of that state have changed dramatically. This state now faces many new challenges, such as colonization, governance, foreign and military affairs, and an indigenous population of distant relatives. The Halls of Westminster no longer stand, and neither do the doctrines of Brettish government any longer fit the ruling of this new nation the Queen is forging. But like a new sword, the tang and temper must be molded to fit whoever wields it.

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Zibertian Kind
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Re: When the Dust Settles

Post by Zibertian Kind »

Passio-Corum has designated that a portion of the goods and services which it receives through its investments on the USSO Common Market should go to support humanitarian and resettlement efforts in Brettania. To this end, Passio-Corum has established a Provisional Account in the Bank of the USSO, through which it is prepared to funnel 13% of its USSO imports to the Brettish government. For information about the goods and services to which you have access through this provisional account, I refer you to the Bank.

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Orion
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Re: When the Dust Settles

Post by Orion »

We humbly thank our friends in Passio-Corum for their continued assistance.

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