The Ginto Dispute

[Varkour]

Captain Groeux and his men dived on the ground.

"STAY DOWN!"

The air was filled with dust and dirt, and small parts of stone were raining down on them. They could not hear or see anything.

"MEDIC! MEDIC!"

The cloud of dust slowly passed and people were starting to get up.

"MEDIC!"

Some Soldiers had gathered around a man lying on the ground. They all dropped their equipment and started helping him. The man had been hit by a large brick in the chest and had problems breathing and could hardly move.

"I'm calling base, a helicopter will be here in no time." A man said.

Groeux sat up and wiped his face. He looked down and noticed his hand was red. He had a nasty cut on his right cheek. He wiped his hand on the grass and stood up.

"Tell Dupont to send out its helicopters. We will follow them and encircle them. They can't go anywhere.

[Varkour]

A-Group were still marching towards the Mercantilist town of Ginto and had not met any Mercantilist Terrorists on the way.

"Cpt. Royale, I can see Ginto." A soldier said.

"Okay. Stop here. I'm not sure if we should continue or not." Royale said. He waved his hands above his head to the two tanks coming down the road behind them. They hauled to a grinding stop.

He waited for all his men to listen. "Okay men, this is what we.... Whats that noise?"

BANG!

"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" Royale screamed. The Soldiers all split up and ran back up the road.

"The Mercs are shooting at us!" A soldier yelled.

"Men, FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" Royale shouted. He picked up his weapon and followed his men.

"Contact Dupont. We need help!"

[Varkour]

General Barque sat in his office at Fort Dupont. He was looking at his awards on the wall as a woman entered the room.

"General, there has been multiple attacks on Varkourian soldiers inside and outside the yellow area." She said.

"Okay. Thank you. You may leave now." He said coldly. He did not like his new secretary, he missed his old one, Amelie.

He walked over to the planning table and looked down at the massive map. He had stood there for nearly 15 minutes and was interrupted by the woman.

"Your tea, Sir" She put the cup on the table.

"NOT THERE!" He yelled. She turned and quickly left the room. Barque took a sip, made a face and chucked the cup out of the window.

"Can't even make a decent tea for christ sake..." he muttered.

There was a knock at the door and a man in uniform entered the room.

"I have been told about the situation. What do we do?" He asked.

"We move the yellow line. We send out more helicopters to patrol. We'll get the bastards."


The new Map:

[Varkour]

Tourant was out shopping with his wife in Nouvelle when he was told he was needed in Vusun. He was relieved because it meant he would not have to walk around for another 2 hours looking at hats. He said goodbye to his wife and was escorted to the Mercantilist Embassy in the capital.

[Mercantilist States]

Avery Johnston's ship had just docked in North Jazzville from some fishing and trading on the islands off the coast of Jutensa. He ran a small operation, generally just him and his brother Marcus. He wasn't sure if fishing there was legal, but the waters off the coast of the Ginto peninsula had borne few fish and no one had stopped him yet.

He had heard rumors the Jutensan government had their hands full with other things. He could have sworn he saw a ship flying what looked like a Saletsian flag on its way to the mainland, but he couldn't be sure.

"How's business?" the porter on the dock asked as he helped him unload some supplies onto a transport truck.

"It's great actually," Johnston said as he tossed a bag of rice onto the truck. "We got tons of rice for dirt cheap, should be able to feed this entire peninsula. Those Jutensans either don't know how to price things, or they have it coming out the wazoo. If prices continue that low Jutensa may just have found itself a killer export. What's the latest here?"

"Those dumb fuck Newsoutherners in West O are starting a war with the Varkourian Army," the porter said. "If they bring it here, I swear..."

"Thanks," Johnston said as they finished unloading the last shipment of supplies and rice and handed him a $20 tallent note. "Now to get this shit to market."

[Mercantilist States]

"Jacques, good to see you again," Ambassador Peter Tay said as he rose to greet Jacques Tourant as he entered his office. "Ca va?"

"Ca va. And yourself Peter?" he asked as the two men took a seat at the couches in the office.

"Good, good. This situation unfolding in Ginto concerns me, Jacques. I have heard that the Varkourian Army is razing Mercantilian farms and killing woman and children. Such acts against our citizens will not be tolerated. We understand there are conflicting claims by our citizens in these territories, but that does not call for attacks against innocent civilians," Tay said, stressing the last part.

"I understand your concerns Peter, and I share them. The last thing we want is a war with the Mercantilist States. However, I would not call these civilians innocent. They have been committing terrorist against Varkourian settlers and troops. In addition, I have not heard anything of women and children being killed; our troops are under strict order to ignore civilians."

[Varkour]

"I hope so. Well we need to do something quickly before the situation gets out of control. Anything." Tay said.

Tourant nodded. The two friends always agreed.

"General Barque wants more soldiers, but our new President refuses to send anymore. She thinks sending more will put more of our troops at risk. But our ally, Dysanii, has kindly offered to send some troops if we need help." Tourant smiled.

"Really?"

Tay paused for a long second.

"I think the best thing to do right now is to hammer out some borders. Maybe our Governments can come to an agreement and part as friends."

Tourant nodded.

[Mercantilist States]

Undersecretary of Commerce for Agriculture Patrick Nebraska was reading the latest briefing report about the situation developing in Jutensa. He had no idea so many governments in Taijitu were that compassionate…

Secretary Wallis and Deputy Secretary Scooter Evans were concerned about the virus and had limited all imports from Jutensa. An overreaction he thought, they didn't have any rice paddies in the Mercantilist States.

"Sir, there seems to be trouble in Ginto," Marilyn Manning, his assistant said as she entered his office and took a seat across the desk from him.

"What else is new?" Nebraska said half jokingly.

"No, I mean agriculture trouble."

"What do you have?" Nebraska asked, a bit more concerned.

"We have seperate reports from the Mercantilist Brewing Company, the Mercantilist Fruit Company and the Mercantilist West O Company of losing entire crop yields in North Jazzville. They withered, in what sounded like a fashion very similar to the rice paddies in Jutensa."

Nebraska sat silent thinking. He knew a Merchant diplomatic delegation led by Ambassador William Jackson was on its way to Vusun, Varkour to negotiate borders for the Ginto territories. If this was made public, it could seriously undermine those talks and add an unneeded concern to the negotiation.

"Ok, Send word to the Brewing Company and West O not to talk to the press about this. Contact whoever the hell is in charge in North Jazzville and make sure their local paper keeps it a Jazzan matter," Nebraska said. "I will notify Scooter and see where we go from there."

[Mercantilist States]

Ronnie Demo, Keith Middleton, Jason Campbell, and Charles Gore, almost fully recovered from his bullet wound, sat at the Merchant Saloon at the West O Trading Post, taking shots of Old Mercantilism, discussing their next move.

"...For now, it looks like the Army is contained to the other side of the river." Middleton said. "I've seen some Varkourian helicopters in the skies during my patrols, but I think for now the MDF fly overs are keeping them at bay."

"Have you heard from your contact at the West O Company about the weapons?" Demo asked Campbell.

"He can't get us anymore. He says they could be pulling out of this area and says their exports are down across the board."

"Just like those cowards," Gore said as he took a shot. "Cut and run at the first sign of trouble."

"He also said something about Alan Clive attending a conference in Vusun," Campbell continued.

"What kind of conference?" Demo asked.

"Didn't know. He thinks its government, not economic."

"What about Lind's Town?"

"They're a few days out. They're having a hell of a time avoiding Varkourian patrols. The route between here and there is crawling with 'em."

Middleton finished packing some fresh Ginto Green into a pipe and passed it to Campbell.

"For Russ," Middleton said as he held up his shot glass.

"For Russ," they all said. And they took a shot.

[Mercantilist States]

Undersecretary of Commerce Patrick Nebraska, Deputy Secretary Scooter Evans, and two agriculture scientists were in Evan's office, discussing the agriculture situation in Ginto.

"We have studied the tobacco crops that the Mercantilist Brewing Company shipped in overnight from Ginto," the first scientist said. "Based on what we're hearing out of Jutensa, we think it's the same virus, but mutated. The initial effects are nearly identical, but we won't know until we can study a sample of the rice virus."

"We will have the orange and sugar samples by tomorrow to study," the second scientist added.

"Ok, thank you gentlemen," Evans said, and the scientists excused themselves from the office.

"What do you think?" Evans asked to Nebraska.

"We're going to have restrict imports from North Jazzville, and maybe the Ginto territories altogether."

"Yeah, the Secretary isn't going to like that, he was already irritated about having to do it for Jutensan imports."

"Well we can keep it quiet, we don't need to issue a statement, just check the ships at the Mercantilian docks. Turn them around or quarantine them if their point of origin is North Jazzville. And then just notify the Mercantilist West O, Brewing, and Fruit Company's to hold off on their exports until we can contain it. But we'll need to step up the inspections from this lax crap that is going on now."

"Do it. I will notify Ambassador Jackson."

"What about getting rice samples or going to Jutensa?"

"I think it's best we stay out of that whole situation, but I'll bring it to Wallis."

[Mercantilist States]

"Mr. Ambassador, good to see you again," Peter Tay said as he greeted, William Jackson, Ambassador from the Mercantilist States, at the entrance to the Mercantliist States Embassy in Vusun. "How was your trip?"

"Good to see you Peter. It was fine, thanks for asking." Jackson said. He had just arrived from the trade conference in Llanydern.

"This is Alan Clive," Tay said as he introduced Alan Clive, CEO of the Mercantilist West O Company, to Jackson.

"Ahh, of course. Alan good to meet you."

"Mr. Ambassador, an honor to meet you sir," Madison said.

"Where do we stand?" Jackson said as they headed towards Tay's office.

He felt his blackberry buzz and looked at it:

To: William Jackson
CC: Alexander Wallis
From: Scooter Evans

Mr. Ambassador,

We need to inform you that we have determined that the Jutensan agriculture virus has mutated and is affecting crops in North Jazzville. We have restricted imports from North Jazzville to the Mercantilist States, and for now it remains an internal matter.

Scooter Evans

Jackson read the message as he listened to the update on the situation with Varkour and Ginto from Tay.

"..we are just waiting for Colonel James Madison, commander of the base at Ginto, to arrive and we can meet Tourant and the Varkourian delegation."

"Sounds good," Jackson said. He was thinking about the message from Evans.

Well that puts North Jazzville in play, he thought to himself.

[Varkour]

Jacques Tourant had just got off the phone and was standing at his desk stuffing papers into his briefcase.
There was a loud knock at the door and a man stuck his head around the door.
"Your car is here."

"Thank you Pierre. Look after the place while I'm gone. No parties!" Tourant said as he rushed out of the door.

Tourant was on the way to Château de Vincennes, a 17th century palace 25 km west of Vusun to meet with the rest of the Varkourian delegation (Emmanuel Beaupre, Linus Jacquemin and Jamari Antoine).

[Mercantilist States]

Peter Tay stood in awe of Château de Vincennes as the Merchant delegation entered the main entrance hall.

"So this is what a palace looks like," Ambassador William Jackson said.

The Merchant delegation consisted of Jackson, Colonel James Madison VI, commander of Ft. Ginto; Tay, the Mercantilian Ambassador to Varkour; and Alan Clive, the CEO of the Mercantilist West O Company.

Jacques Tourant approached from the other end of the hall, in what seemed like a full minute to get to them, and greeted them, shaking hands with each and exchanging pleasantries.

"Gentlemen, if you'd follow me. We can get this started and be home by dinner."

They smiled, they knew this was most likely going to be more than a one day affair, and quarters had been arranged for all the delegates and their staffs at the Château. But if Tay knew Tourant, he figured he'd be sneaking home to see his family when he could. If only they were so lucky.

[Mercantilist States]

Col. James Madison studied Ambassador William Jackson as he led the negotiations for the Mercatilist States. He knew he was watching a master at work. Jackson, the main negotiator for the Merchant delegation, had a commanding presence that dominated the room; yet a soft spoken calmness that seemed to put everyone, his opponents and allies alike, at ease. Madison knew there was a lot he could learn from him.

He wasn't quite sure why he was here; he had been told to basically keep his mouth shut. He suspected Jackson and Tay just wanted his presence to emphasize the power of the MDF and the fact of the base at Ginto.

"Here is a border that, after careful consideration we thought is fair to everyone involved," Ambassador Jackson said as he took a map of the Ginto territories out of his briefcase and slid it across the table to the Varkourian delegation.



"It takes into account where both Mercantilian and Varkourian citizens have settled, and it follows the natural boundary created by the Frenchie River."

Madison smiled, holding back laughter, when he heard that. Frenchie was the nickname he and his commanders had given the river when they first arrived at Ginto because it was the river the Varkourians had settled along, and seemed to be the source of the unending influx of "Frenchies". Mercantilians were fond of giving pejoratives to their nemesis', and this one just happened to have been made official.

He looked at Peter Tay, the Mercantilian Ambassador to Varkour, who cringed. He thought the man had grown soft towards the Varkourains in his time in Vusun.

"Under this border, we would cede you the Mercantilian city, North Jazzville," Jackson continued. "And it gives you the rest of the former Islas Filipinas territories east of Ft. Dupont."

[Varkour]

The Varkourian delegation stared at eachother in disbelief.

"Are you serious?!" Emmanuel Beaupre said as he tossed the map back at the Merchant delegation. "This is an insult!"

"It's alright Emmanuel. Jackson, you can do better than that. Varkour was here a while before The Mercantilist States came." Tourant said. "We expect better than that." He avoided eye contact with Tay.

Jamari Antoine opened the folder in front of her and slid a map over the table to Jackson.

"This is where we want the border. You still get to keep Cape Town, Sibuyan and Canton Station."