Chapter 01

U MAMA War

Lest we Forget

Note: Human life expectancy extends a lot during the time between the end of the U MAMA War and the writing of this report. This is due to advances in medical science that help to relieve the biological effects of ageing that wears out the human body. Thus people live longer and are more active longer. People do die of accidents and illness as well as old age, but they’re much older when they die of old age if they take care of their health and their bodies during their life.

After many decades of refusing to do so I’ve finally given in to Issy and I’m writing an account of what I call ‘The U MAMA War,’ one hundred and seventy years after its end. In the past I’ve refused because I thought it would look like an account glorifying myself because I was the main leader. I don’t want that. I didn’t conduct the war for me. I did it partly for revenge on those who hurt us, but mostly for love. Yes, love! Love of those still alive, I wanted them to stay that way. To not have their lives cut short by money grubbing scum. My parents’ strategy of defending ourselves didn’t work because loved ones still died, killed by the minions of the scum. I wanted to take the war to the enemy. I didn’t want to kill these people, I wanted to destroy them, make them suffer as we have, cause them great pain, break their very souls when I let them know who did it and why. However, I couldn’t bring myself to be as them. I couldn’t hurt the innocent, because that wasn’t in me. This restriction made the war a difficult one, and the restrictions by my parents made it a very difficult war for some years. At times the tempo changed because of events.

After the ‘Day of Blood’ there was no one to stop or control me, so I was able to wage the war the way I wanted to wage it and I stepped up the tempo. I had to because I’d changed. Few realised it, but I’d changed a lot! The change was caused by so many deaths that day. The very long list of close family was bad enough, but the deaths of the children was too much. Then finding Amarayah like that, that did it! It pushed me into the abyss. It was bad enough she and Sunny were dead. But the manner of their deaths was the final straw. The flame of hatred was so bright and strong it almost consumed me. I fell into the abyss of hatred and destruction where I was when I killed Ricardo Ruiz, but this time my mind was lucid enough to maintain a hold on reality while I watch my descent. I was lucid enough to redirect my fall to the one place where I could call upon other powers and beings to help with my revenge. I travelled back to the hell where I’d previously met and bested Satan himself. The place I went when I drowned while rescuing people in the cyclone. In hell I met and bested Satan on his own turf. I could’ve replaced him as the boss of hell, but that wasn’t what I wanted, it wasn’t what I should be doing. In order to regain control of hell he agreed to send me back to the world of the living. He said I was too mean and tough for him, so he sent me back. While looking at what was left of my Little Ray of Light my mind returned to hell. I was ready to open its gates to let all of the demons of hell loose to attack and destroy those responsible for these deaths. Satan screamed in outrage at my return, then he shivered in fright at my all-consuming burning hatred because its power was much greater than his. He trembled with the knowledge I’d returned while still alive. He tried to send me back to the world. He couldn’t do it - he didn’t have the power to do it. Yet I felt something pulling me back. I felt a great power drawing me away from hell and back to the world. I’d found the greatest of all truths: there is a power much greater than hell and all the demons in it – the power is love! Those who loved me were calling to me and praying for my sanity. I realised if I loosed the hell-hounds upon the world the innocent people and my living loved ones would also suffer. I couldn’t allow that. I returned to the world where I belonged, but I was different, I knew that hell was inside me and now a part of me. A permanent part in a distant corner of my soul. Some say that was all in my mind because hell doesn’t exist. Others say it must have happened because heaven and hell are real places. I can only say that hell seemed like a very real place to me on both my visits there. The hatred and rage still existed within me, but it was no longer in total control of me - now I controlled it.

The loving support of Meara, Issy, Vicky, Angie, Deanna, and the rest of my close aides and family were all that stopped me from being totally consumed by the fiery forge of hatred. I wasn’t consumed by the flame because their love caused it to cool me off and temper me instead. I was tempered and hardened, and made ready to tear my enemies apart with my strengthened talons.

Why do I write this now? Because so much time has passed and too many have forgotten. They don’t know it’s important to remember. I’ve never forgotten and I don’t want anyone to forget what happened. I want them to remember those who fell in this war. I want them to remember why they fought and died, and why we remember them. It’s so we know not to let anyone do to others what had been done to our beloved dead. That’s why we remember and why we must always remember. That’s why I write this!

So I remember all of my family: mother, father, grandmothers, aunts, grandfathers, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, friends, lovers, comrades-in-arms, citizens, and the innocent children murdered so evil people could try to satisfy their greed!

As Laurence Binyon wrote:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Lest we forget all of the sacrifices made by so many for what is right,

We will remember them!

U MAMA War Report

The Beginnings

The war with U MAMA started in 1946 just after the Japanese pulled out and we informed the French we were no longer a French colony. They insisted we still were one, until we asked them how many tens of thousands of troops they wanted to have die trying to conquer us. Now we had modern weapons and were as well armed as their Army they wouldn’t find us as easy to control as before. They never sent any troops, but they kept up a lot of political trouble for the next sixty-five years. In the short period of calm after the war King Marshad was betrayed and killed by some Army Generals in the pay of U MAMA.

During the Japanese occupation a US officer hiding in the Amir Mountains found out about the Amir Diamond Mine. After the war he told his father who told his brother-in-law, the owner of a major arms company in the US. They decided to get control of the diamond mine to use it to become billionaires. They needed help to do this, so they brought some friends in on the deal. Since most were part of U MAMA they decided to use the U MAMA resources to get what they wanted. Thus they started a semi-secret war that lasted seventy years. Much of the war was fought with spies and assassins, but some were military campaigns. For all except the last few years of the war both sides kept the existence of the mine secret as neither side wanted others involved. I’m sure their initial desire to control Berant was purely greed, but I’m also sure it later became much more ego than greed because we defied them so much and so successfully they were determined to beat us.

The major military campaigns of the war are recounted in various journal entries and are available in other histories so I won’t recount the events of the Dareed War, the Darmore Incursion, the Day of Blood, or the Shukra War. I’ll talk about some of the clandestine activities against us by U MAMA and the CIA as told to me by my grandfather and father because you need to understand what we were up against and fought. I’ll concentrate on my clandestine war against U MAMA and the CIA. How I used spies, assassins, economic warfare, and theft to hurt my enemies in a manner that caused them the most suffering while removing their ability to hurt us further. When I was able to counter attack I attacked the very core of their being, the core of their existence, their reason for being, the seat of their power - their bank accounts! Thus I squashed them like the evil bugs they were. All of the spying and killing I did was to stop their assaults on us and to bankrupt them.

I was able to properly start on my counter offensive after my fourteenth birthday, and it took until I was twenty-four years old to finish them. The majority of my actions were after the Day of Blood. It took eight long years for me to end the U MAMA war and sheathe The Sound of Battle, the sword mother had drawn on that terrible day.

The Early Attempts

In 1949, a few months after King Edward killed the Rebel Generals and their hard core supporters, the U MAMA bosses started trying to assassinate him. The first attempts were by hired gunmen, but when the fourth and fifth attempts were made by CIA agents he registered a strong protest with the US Government. When the sixth assassin turned out to be a CIA agent King Edward had the head and hands removed, packed in ice, and sent to the Berant Embassy in the US. They sent it through the US postal system to the US Secretary of State with a note saying the next CIA assassin would have different bits posted to the various news organisations. After that the CIA rarely used their own people as the actual gunman. It’s believed the Secretary of State wasn’t happy with several staff in his mail room having to take a lot of sick leave after opening the package, plus some of them having some other problems arising from the incident.

U MAMA’s activities from 1949 to 1954 were mostly in the political sphere where they tried to discredit King Edward, the Berant Government, and our society. The introduction of a constitution and establishing an elected Parliament in 1950 countered a lot of the U MAMA political propaganda. By late 1954 U MAMA had given up on trying to get the US Government to oust King Edward and replace him with a puppet government. This was due to Berant being the only strong government in the region, other than Australia, that was supportive of democracy in any form. Although Berant wasn’t well placed to provide the US with military bases or economic support King Edward was respected by the people of all of the other countries in the region and he was respectfully listened to by all of their governments. The US administration really wanted to keep the strong support as a counter to the growing local communist organisations.

From 1949 to 2014 U MAMA kept sending spies and assassins to Berant while they continued to foster and support rebels and brigands. When they couldn’t get control directly they tried to foster disharmony and disruption in attempts to split the Royal Family from the people. They failed in all of these attempts.

From 1954 to 2011 they also tried to conquer Berant via military action, direct and through proxies, these all failed due to the courage and fighting skills of the Berant Royal Guards. After the Shukra War in 2011 U MAMA no longer had access to the combat resources needed to mount a military campaign directly, nor by proxy. On the military front the period 1954 to 1969 was spent insinuating their controls into various governments in the region while building up our neighbouring governments’ military capabilities and then encourage them to attack Berant.

U MAMA were able to influence a lot of people and get a lot of control in many places due to the economic damage done to the region by the Japanese occupation. Luckily for Berant this same economic damage hindered U MAMA’s activities. Before they could get Dareed to attack Berant in 1970 they first had to build up its economy enough for it to maintain a large enough Army, and then to have the Army equipped and trained with the latest military hardware at discounted rates and on credit. This took fifteen years, even then U MAMA didn’t help update or equip the Dareed air or sea military capability. They concentrated on the land forces because Berant had no air or sea military capability of their own then. Anyway, you need to control the land to capture Berant. Following the defeat of the Dareed Army and Dareed’s assimilation into Berant, which made the country stronger, they needed another decade to prepare Shukra for a military attack on Berant. Which was later followed with an attempt to take control of Shukra, and failed. Each failure left Berant stronger and better prepared for their next attack because the Kings re-evaluated the Royal Guards’ future military needs and capabilities. Each successful defence meant an increase and an improvement of the Guards equipment and training as well as their size.

In 1949 King Edward established the Royal Intelligence Service (RIS). They immediately established agents to collect intelligence on what was happening in the country and to track people of interest within the country. In 1950 they started expanding this to collecting information in other countries as well as tracking people of interest in other countries. By 1955 they realised they needed agents within U MAMA and the CIA itself. However, this was proving difficult, and it remained so for many years. In the 1970s they did manage to get a lot of agents with family links to Berant within the CIA. However, these would only provide RIS with information that wasn’t harmful to the US Government or people. However, they made a point of letting RIS know of rogue CIA actions against Berant. This did help a lot. It also helped in identifying the rogue CIA people involved in attacking Berant and the Royal Family.

Economic Danger

The biggest danger to the country in the period 1949 to 1975 was economic. Berant had no internal economy worthy of the name or in need of management until 1965. The country had no real industry and Berant was having to import all the needed technology and metals. U MAMA tried to bankrupt the country by manipulating Berant’s access to the International economy and markets. Luckily Berant was self-sufficient in regards to all of the domestic needs, provided the people didn’t want to go for the domestic use of modern technology in a big way. Modern technology was where Berant was most vulnerable. Knowing how other countries had big problems from importing technology in the 1920s and 1930s, and seeing what was happening in Europe and Japan under the US Marshall Plan, King Edward decided Berant needed to import technical knowledge and skills before importing technical capability and manufacturing. Most of the available technology in the 1950s was from the US. Most of the US companies were interested only in selling equipment and other finished products, but not knowledge or skills. King Edward worked out a way around the problem.

King Edward increased the mining of diamonds by the traditional methods. These were cut and prepared by clan experts in the traditional manner. The finished diamonds were different to those generally available, and many had some slight colour tints. All of this resulted in them being seen as of a higher grade and worth more. Since the supply of AGM (Amir Gem Mines) diamonds wasn’t very large they were sought after by those wanting rare or very high quality gems. Slowly the supply of diamonds to the market increased. Between 1900 and 1950 a total of ten kilograms of AGM diamonds were mined, most were sold and the rest were used within the clan. Between 1950 and 1970 a total of thirty kilograms of AGM diamonds were mined and sold. A major increase in the diamond production rate.

With the many millions of dollars raised through diamond sales King Edward improved the standard of living in Berant by improving medical and educational systems and facilities. This used up twenty-five percent of the money. He used fifty-five percent of the money to buy control of US companies. He created a holding company in the US and he had them buy shares in companies he had an interest in. When he had control he organised his own people to be on the company boards and they changed the corporate policy to allow the export of knowledge. The remaining twenty percent of the money was used to establish Berant businesses to learn and use the technological know-how. As the companies made profits the monies were reinvested in this economic improvement program. More shares bought, more companies started, and more technology know-how imported into Berant.

The process worked like this. Buy the shares and become the owner of a company that has the wanted technology. Establish a Berant business to provide the technology locally. Arrange and sign legal agreements between the two businesses so the Berant business obtains a licence to make and sell the US technology. The Berant business then pays for Berant citizens to be properly trained in the technology in the US. The knowledge and know-how of the technology is imported into Berant, and it ensures Berant has control of its local availability. This meant a slow importation and introduction of a technological base into the country, but it also meant the country couldn’t be held to ransom or bankrupted by it later.

Laws were passed making it unlawful for overseas companies to introduce technology or technological products unless they provide the in-country expertise and knowledge first. Most foreign investors chose not to follow this path because it meant they were handing over control of their technology to locals. This destroyed U MAMA’s ability to damage or control the country through the International economy. When they made the importation of metals difficult or too expensive Berant citizens just used methods that used none or less metals, or did without those items for a while. No new technology was introduced until after Berant put in place the full capability to support it locally.

In many cases it wasn’t necessary to import the technology because the finished product was available from many sources and it wasn’t critical to any operations. This made the importation of technology seem to be haphazard to many people. Berant imported the capability to manufacture light trucks and buses, but it didn’t worry about cars or heavy trucks for some decades. Light trucks and buses were needed to keep the internal economy functioning well. The country could manage without the heavy trucks or cars, so people bought them from overseas as needed. The same with aircraft, for many decades the country had no internal aircraft industry. People bought what they needed from overseas and imported the minimal basic maintenance technology needed.

This approach did have some downside legacies in Berant often had outdated technologies and were behind the world in areas that weren’t seen as being that important by most people. A case in point being land-based communications systems. In the early 1970s a cable based telephone network was put into place using late 1960s technology. Over the next two decades the system was expanded because more people wanted telephones. In the mid 1980s the exchanges had to be upgraded because the older equipment was no longer available for more expansion of the network. This new equipment couldn’t handle digital data transmissions or signals, except as analogue modem signals. That was the situation with the official network right up to the day it closed down in late 2009. This old system limited the use of computers and access to the Internet across the country because there was no effective digital telecommunications backbone to work on. The few Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that were set up had to establish satellite access to the rest of the world. This made them expensive as they needed satellite links in every town they operated in. Which resulted in them only setting up in major cities where they could be sure of a large enough client base to make it profitable for them.

In mid 2000 I saw the need for an effective digital communications backbone. I knew I wouldn’t get a decent modern digital network through the Parliament, and they controlled all of the current internal communications infrastructure. So I did what I needed to do and I established my own company to provide a digital backbone without it being obvious. I established my ISP in my home town because it didn’t have one yet. I provided an extremely wide bandwidth satellite service with fibre optic cable throughout the town and into each of the clients’ establishments, a process repeated in all of the branch offices when we expanded. The system was set up to handle Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and data from the start, all as part of a combined service deal. This provided a much clearer and cheaper phone service and it allowed for good International phone service through foreign VoIP systems. When I expanded to other centres, most of which were far apart, I set up high bandwidth satellite links there too. But I also had crews out laying very high bandwidth fibre optic trunk cables between all of my offices. In short order my network had an effective fibre optic link to every office and client so domestic calls went VoIP over fibre optic from client to client anywhere in the country, all within my network. Heavy on infrastructure costs, but cheaper operating costs. By 2007 I had a privately owned fibre optic network covering the whole country, and few outside of the company knew it existed. When the International telecommunications network ran two regional submarine cables into the country in 2007, one near Dareena and one at Carmel, I was able to cut back on the satellite links and put most of my Internet usage from the whole country over those two cables due to having a national fibre optic network. This costly infrastructure was a critical factor in the defences on the Day of Blood. Because U MAMA didn’t know it existed they took no action to disable it. Nor was it accessible to them to attack or interfere with in any way.

The enemy was able to take down the government owned telephone network and most of the known major military radio transmission relay towers. The interference systems at each area of attack disabled the normal local satellite communications channels. The only satellite channels in use in those areas were the Cyclops ones because they didn’t know anything about them and their operational frequencies were well away from the regular channels for communications and military use. However, by routing the Guard’s communications through my ISP fibre network we had land communications bypassing the interference and connecting to normal radio and satellite communications systems outside of the zones of interference the enemy had set up.

That was the only time the shortfalls in King Edward’s technology importation plan was in a position to harm the country, and it had been countered. In general, his plan to update Berant’s tech base worked extremely well. Anything critical to the national economy had the technological knowledge imported before the equipment so our people could maintain them and not have to worry about foreign boycotts. Also, the government communications were more than adequate for the normal economic needs of the country. It’s just that his plan didn’t take into account enemy action by traitors within the country during an attack on the country. This is understandable since his focus was on the economy, not the military use of the technology.

Even U MAMA saw no point in trying to boycott the Berant exports because the country didn’t have much in the way of exports until 2004 and later. Also, most of what Berant did export was done in areas they couldn’t affect like the exportation of AGM diamonds or things that were in demand, such as our grains and alcohols to our neighbours or our exotic hardwoods to Europe and the US. Starting in 2003 Berant was exporting knowledge, something that’s even harder for them to interfere with. From the mid 1950s until 2006 the bulk of Berant’s International currency came from the tourism industry based at Carmel and the View Port Marina. King Edward had built both of these facilities with the sole intent of making them top line International tourist venues to bring in foreign money. As he said at the time, “We have the perfect holiday location: tropical sun, light tropical sandy beaches, surf, and not too humid, with good fishing to boot. Let’s rent it to rich foreigners at a premium rate.” So he did. One of the most interesting aspects of this was the construction of Highcliff, the new Royal Palace and residence right beside Carmel. Many thought this odd, but it turned out to be a good draw-card. Over eighty percent of the visitors to Highcliff each year are International tourists who come to watch a monarchy in operation as most daily activities are open to public view. The King has four major charity balls each year, and three of them are open to anyone with the money to buy tickets. While tickets for the fourth, the Débutantes’ Ball, are restricted to Berant citizens only. Around seventy-five percent of the tickets sold at the other three balls are sold to International tourists. At all of these events the King spends the first few hours welcoming all the arrivals at the door before mingling with the guests. Highcliff is only a short drive or walk from Carmel, and it’s on all of the local tours. Obviously, he saw the monarchy as a tourist draw-card and he played to it very well.

In the late 1970s U MAMA did try to interfere with the tourist income by organising some terrorist attacks at Carmel and the View Port Marina. However, RIS was able to close down those operations before they were able to do anything to affect the tourists.

Nuclear Nation

Over the years many hundreds of U MAMA’s hired assassins were intercepted in attempts to kill the King and the Royal Family. The US developed Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNWs, the so called backpack bombs), and got them down to a reasonable size for easy use. Then the assassination attempts moved from being gunmen and poisoners to people sneaking in these small nuclear weapons with the aim of setting them off near the King. Since he spent most of his time at Highcliff the majority are sent for detonation in Carmel, or View Port, or the lands around them. RIS were able to intercept them all, a total of fifty-six TNWs. We assume they got them all because none were detonated by U MAMA or the CIA.

King Edward sent the first ones back with a strong diplomatic note. When RIS intercepted them a second time, about six months after they were given back to the US Government, it was decided to keep them. Later, when I became involved with Guards’ military policy, I developed doctrine for them to be deployed by us in various military situations. Most were later installed as the warheads of our cruise missiles, thus adding to our military capability and response flexibility.

CIA

During all of this the CIA was very active by inserting agents and collecting information about us. RIS was very active by countering the CIA while also inserting agents into the CIA and U MAMA organisations. In 2003 I convinced King Herbert to be more active in inserting RIS agents into the CIA.

My Active Involvement

My first active involvement with U MAMA and their activities was in the attack on the cabin where they held my sister, Kelly, prisoner. After her funeral I stood at her grave and I swore those responsible would pay for her painful death, to pay in a big way. By the time I was eleven my expanding businesses provided me with the funds to start doing things. Due to my studies in economics and business, coupled with my actions in improving the economy of areas where my new branches were, King Herbert, my father, was using me as a private adviser on economics. Where I could I slanted my advice toward activities that would have an adverse impact on the U MAMA companies without a similar impact on our economic growth. Over the next few years my actions in this, and other areas, expanded a great deal.

I invented Nolar when I was about twelve then I used and sold it as a substitute for most metals, especially steel, in most applications. When I invented the stronger version, Nolar Two I started companies to manufacture military equipment for our own use based on Nolar Two in place of steel and Kevlar. However, the final equipment we used were made of Nolar Three then Nolar Four which I invented as I was redesigning weapons for manufacture with Nolar Two. The equipment made with Nolar Three and Four was exclusively for sale to, and use by, the Guards while Nolar Two variants were later sold overseas and to the Berant Army. These include troop carriers, tanks, small arms, and mortars. The only metal used was for the interior rifling of guns and the projectiles, but later we moved to Nolar Four for the rifling and the rounds. Engines were Nolar Two with ceramic coatings in all heated areas. All projectiles were made as case-less rounds with plastic explosive for the propellant, so there was no need for an ejector sequence on fired rounds, just a manual ejector sequence for faulty rounds. In my fourteenth year we equipped all of the Guards units with equipment from my companies because it was much lighter, tougher, and more flexible than the available items from overseas. It also improved our trade figures by reducing expensive imports while creating many local jobs. Later we started selling slightly less capable versions of what we used to friendly foreign governments, especially the US because it cut into the U MAMA profits.