National Aldurian Broadcasting Corporation

[Alduria]

GOVERNMENT MEMOS LEAKED: BASSARID PRIVATEERING COULD THREATEN ALDURIAN EXPORTS

Aldurian Government scrambling to enact defense measures

 

PUNTA SANTIAGO, ALDURIA, NABC News – The growing Bassarid privateering operation across many Micran seas could potentially target Aldurian commercial ships, including oil tankers, a leaked Department of Defense memo revealed today.

The internal memo mentions a “potential threat” that could “threaten the survival of the country”, noting the nation’s heavy dependency on the export of oil and of crucial imports of food, construction materials, and other goods.

Despite the growth of piracy in Micras’ high seas, the Department of Defense noted in the leaked memo that it is consulting with other government agencies, including the Department of State, on a response that is wholly defensive and stressed that Alduria “should not provoke or attract violence”.

This leak is the first of its magnitude in the nascent Aldurian government. It comes from a tranche of internal defense memos that were left in the back of a black cab in Punta Santiago.

The dossier was written by the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Manuel Arevalo-Ducruet. It recommended that the policy of the Republic of Alduria on the matter should include “investments in non-lethal defense upgrades on commercial and passenger ships and creating special licenses and contracts for private defense contractors and mercenaries to help escort and defend the merchant fleets.”

Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil pass daily through the Aldurian territorial seas out for export to Krasnocoria, Natopia, Craitland, and other global markets. Vice Admiral Roberto Gomez, commander of the Home Fleet, confirmed to NABC News that its forces were on a heightened state of readiness, although it was not seeking or preparing for war with anyone. The Home Fleet's job is to protect commercial shipping in Aldurian territorial waters but often participates in freedom of navigation operations and in protective convoys beyond Aldurian territorial waters.

Aldurian treaty commitments to many of its largest trading partners include extending protection to the ships involved in trade between Alduria and them, increasing the strain on the nascent Aldurian Navy.