LibriumArcana.Games

This AAR was directly inspired by Soonerborn0524's AAR The Lesser Evil and uses the Draka Mod by Randallw. This also happens to be my first AAR and I must admit I am no where as near skilled as gents like King of Men, Blue Emu, Kurt, or Soonerborn. There are likely to be mistakes that have you hissing and booing. Still what I lack in skills I make for with stubbornness. Wish me luck.

First a quick overview.

North America:


Unified by the United States, a representative federal Republic that rules from Panama to Canada, from Greenland to Hawaii and beyond.

South America:


Divided between Gran Colombia in the North, Argentina and Chile in the South and the rest going to the Grand Empire of Brazil.

Europe


Pretty much as OTL. Expect the poor Ottomens got overrun by those snake bastards. As a result Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Greece are in an alliance to keep them at bay.

Central Asia:


During the Russian Civil War, the Snakes swallowed up chunks of Central Asia and then marched into China until the Japs not so politely told them to stop. Samurai have some uses after all hey? The British and Indians can't be very happy with the neighborhood right now either.

East Asia:


So you got the Dutch, Australians, French, Thais and Japanese all eying each other and above all eying the snakes. The US is here to, with the Philippines as the great Asian outpost. The Japanese would be the 800 pound gorillas of this area, expect for being sandwiched between the Snake and the Eagle. You can bet that sticks in their craw. The only other non-Euro dominated power is Siam, the home of the Thais. Compared to everyone else around it's the 98 pound weakling, but events may change that.

Next Post will be 1936: Stillness.

1936: The Stillness.

January 2, 1936
New York, United States

John Gransberry sat quietly in the outer office. He was what people would call an older man. In his late 50's his short cut hair had gone to an iron colored gray, time had carved tracks in his face and his joints ached when he moved to fast. His dark blue eyes still burned like fire, undimmed by the pains and wearing of old age and his bearing was still straight and unyielding like granite. He was as lean as a greyhound. His suit seemed a joke on him, a mocking veneer of civilization. He seemed an old relic of a past brutal age impossibly alive and well in a well appointed, tastefully decorated office.

A throughly intimated security cleared her throat coming out from the office. She was new, young, and pretty in a modest dress and sensible shoes. He smiled at seeing her, fresh from the mold so to speak.

"Ah... Sir, they will see you now." She said softly. His smile grew broader as he rose up and thanked her. He entered the office, his black dress shoes making no sound.

There were three men awaiting him there. One sat behind his desk, a brown, a balding, bull of a man in a dress shirt and black slacks. His suit jacket thrown carelessly behind him. His brown, almost black eyes stabbed at Gransberry and the other two men there. The name plate on the desk said his name Erubiel Perez. He had been born in Mexico City, it wasn't easy even these gentle days for a brown Mexican to claw his way into a position of power over whites. Perez, a bastard born in a small church a 100 miles south of Mexico City had done it on pure ability, loyalty to the nation and ambition. Gransberry respected him and nodded to him.

The second man was pure sterotype. G-Man, one. Black suit, grey hat, bulge under the left shoulder that was a tattletale of a hostler pistol, likely government issued instead of any personal sentimental frippery. Grey eyed and chiseled jaw, the man looked like a recruiting poster for the FBI. John noted him and dismissed him. He was security and massager boy there to guard and carry word back to the powers that be nothing more.

The third man made John stop on his second step past the door. His right hand jerked toward a pistol that was no longer there. His teeth gritted. The third man sat loosely in a chair in front of and off to the left of the desk where Perez sat. He sat with the arrogance and ease of a great jungle cat, a supreme predator in the presence of his lessers. He was old himself, blond hair going white, his sleekly muscled frame was weathered and beaten looking, his skin tanned and scarred. His eyes were an ice blue that glowed like a frozen pond hit with sunlight. He locked gazes with Gransberry for a moment and the office seemed still with awful possibilities in the air. Finally he grinned at Gransberry and stood his hands spread out.

"Good Evening Grandsburrry, Ah'M peased to met ya undah more civalised settings. Ah do 'ope we can sit one day and 'ompare notes. Ah naver did figure on how you got out of Istanbul." He said in a mocking tone of voice.
Gransberry almost spat in reply. Perez cut in.

"Mr. Smith, I am fully aware you can speak a civilized dialect. Do so. Both of you sit down. Now." Perez ordered. Gransberry and Mr. Smith did so.

"Perez, are you aware you have a Draka agent sitting your office?" Gransberry said upon sitting.

"A defector actually my good man. For various reasons, it has become healthier for me to take my leave of the Domination. Our leaders are many things, but forgiving or having a sense of humor they are not." Mr. Smith said shaking his head saddly. Gransberry snarled in response.

"More important is the information Mr. Smith has brought back. Which is why you have been called back from Greenland. John, the service and the FBI have been compromised. Infested. We have foreign agents, Huns, Japs, Snakes, Russians. We're completely naked. We can't afford to be naked right now." Perez said urgently.

"How do you know he isn't just jerking our chains? Damn Snakes would love to see us all turn on each other while they do God knows what." Gransberry snapped in reply.

"The Domination would enjoy that but I would not risk it. Gransberry... I brought my family. My baby son and my daughter." Smith said.

"You're not married." Gransberry shot back.

"Like that means anything to a Draka! No I am not married and my children are not... pure. I thought I didn't care. I thought I wouldn't care. But I did, so I pulled strings to get them into Europe. That brought them down on my head. I need this place safe." Smith replied. Gransberry locked gazes with him again the office was silent again.

"What do you want me to do Perez?" Gransberry finally said.

"I need you to assemble a team. You can have anyone and anybody. Just find the spies and clear them out. Do what you have to, keep it quiet as you can. Mr. Smith will tell you everything he knows then he's going down to a quiet place." Perez ordered.

"Anyone I want?"

"Grab the damn Archbishop if you want I don't care." came the response.

Yankee Doodle Presents! a look at America! News of the day!

Oklahoma City, the President speaks to a gathering crowd declaring a program of employment to increase productivity across the nation. In cooperation with the government leaders of industry will be building factories in Oklahoma City, Lawton, Clarksburg, Dodge City, and Tampico in order to help off set the unemployment in areas hardest hit by the depression. And we think that's just Dandy!



In technological news the President also promised research and development to increase productivity to keep American Industry a world leader. The Army and the sciences get a helping boost from Uncle Sam to.

Speaking of our boys in uniform, the government has announced an expansion of the Army to better safe guard the Philippines states and Pacific Islands. Here's a unit of Doughboys on their way out there now. Don't they look sharp?



It's a dangerous world out there and our boys are gonna keep it out there where it belongs. If you think you can help and you got the guts then



This has been Yankee Doodle Presents!

Recruitment Drive:

Gransberry sat in the back of a well appointed black car easily. The car in question rolled up the street of the nice neighborhood not to far from New York State University. His lean frame cushioned by brown seat coverings has his fiery blue eyes stared up at the plain cloth roof of his car. His driver was a bigger and younger man, a pure blood Indian of Apache and Kiowa breeding. He was a tall, heavy man of mass muscle and heavy bone, the plains bull to Gransberry dark forest panther. His brown eyes had no bovine dullness however, lurking within them was a intelligence and wild cunning that his howling ancestors locked in running, slashing combat with the US calvary would have recognized and honored. No mere menial driver steered Gransberry car that night.

"Sir, I don't quiet understand your choice. I mean I get why you're not going with any established agents. There's no way to tell who's dirty and who is clean. But this guy? Has he ever even fired a gun?" Asked the driver in the tones of a student wondering if his master had lost his grip at long last.

"We'll get gunmen Tim. Gunmen are easy to find. Hell, you and I make pretty damn good one ourselves now don't we? But like you should have learned in Taipai, spying is not all gun or knife work. It's mostly anything but. We need a professor, a... egghead so to speak. A thinker and studier." Gransberry said easily. Tim nodded his acceptence of the point as the car turned a corner.

"Okay, so why a kid?" Tim asked.

"Cause he's the kind of genius that comes along once in a century and we need that. I mean he started college level at 14, he's 19 and graduating. We're gonna be a small team. Have to be. Means I need one hell of a brain." Gransberry said as the car pulled to a stop. Gransberry got out of the car in a single smooth motion that bespoke of physical condinationing and control. He leaned over the door window to whisper to Tim.

"Stay in the car, keep your eyes open and play rear guard. Just in case." He said quietly. Tim nodded sliding a M1911 Colt pistol into his lap.

Gransberry walked to the door and knocked. A young man answered the door, he was tall and lean, long armed and legged. Deep, serious, brown eyes, like wells of the soul stared from a thin, aristocratic face. A wizard's face made young, a scholar awaiting the gravity and power that age would lend him. The young man made an almost shocking contrast with the aged pagan barbarian aura of Gransberry prensence. For a dizzying moment it seemed that it was a meeting of young learned civilized noble and grizzled veteran barbarian chief... but the moment passed and they were in the modern world again. The young man blinked.

"Yes... Can I help you Mr?" the young man asked in a lending tone. He held the door mostly closed with his lean body covering the opening, in his sheltered way ready to defend the other occupants of the house. Gransberry almost broke out into a savage grin at the sight. The seed was buried deep but it was there!

"Gransberry. Agent Gransberry, I'm going to have to ask for a moment of your time son. Your nation may just have need of you." He said quietly. The young man in front of him blinked again and seemed confused. It was then that a young feminine voice that dripped love broke the moment.

"Reed, is everything alright? Can I get you anything?" asked the voice, the owner outside of Gransberry view, but definitely young and female. Richard tinged in embaressment for a second before answering.

"Ah, everything is fine Susan, just some visitors will you tell your aunt I'm heading out for a few minutes and I'll be back soon?" he asked, without really waiting for an answer Richards slid through the door and closed it behind him. He walked off the porch with Gransberry.

"What's this about the country needing me?" Asked the young man half in disbelief. Gransberry weighted several options and decided that with this young man, being as open and honest as he could was his best bet to get his fish.

"Mr. Richards, I'm from a government agency, we're charged with protecting the country from foreign agents in cooperation with the FBI. Recently we received creditable information that the FBI, the OSS and our service have been throughly penetrated by a number of foreign powers. Among them the Draka and Japan. I've been ordered to gather a team to try and figure out who has been turned and ferret out the moles. Due to your intellectual abilities I'm asking you to join." He said.

"Is this a joke?" Reed Richards asked.

"No son. I'll admit that we usually don't recruit in the middle of a yard in New York, but these are unusual times. I can understand if you have trouble believing all this now, but if you will met me at this address, you'll have all the proof you need. Will I see you there?" Gransberry said handing over a card with an address printed on it.

"I... " Reed looked back at the house and swallowed at the moment less the wizard to be and every inch the young man who wasn't even old enough to drink yet.

"Yes. I'll be there, but if this is a joke or some sort of prank let me warn you..." Reed began before being cut off by an uprised hand.

"No joke Mr. Richards. I'll see you tomorrow 10am sharp if you please." Gransberry said turning and walking back to his car concealing a smile.

Tim put the pistol away and backed out from in front of the house.

"You sure we got him?" He asked his mentor.

"A 20 year old boy being told that his genius is needed to save America? He'll be there with bells on and he'll sign up. Reed Richards is on the team." Gransberry said with a smile.




Writer's note When the Fantastic Four first appeared in the 1960s, Reed Richards bio had him working with military intelligence and the OSS during the later half of WWII. Clearly this bit of background could not be kept as time advanced without turning Dr. Richards into a grandfather, so it was changed to just military intelligence work out of college. I've decided to go back to the original here in my own little alternate universe. I should note to comic fans, this Reed Richards has no powers, his space flight is still some many years in the future (if it even happens at all in this alternate universe). I will likely be including the other 3 members of the Fantastic Four, but not as members of our developing spy team. For example at this point and time Susan Storm is 13 to Reed's 20 and he's not quiet comfortable with her feeling for him. Jonny Storm is 11 (He'll turn 18 in 1943... Hmmmmm).

Gransberry was waiting at the door for Reed when he appeared the next morning, exiting from a taxi. Gransberry smiled the triumphant smile of a panther when he saw Reed. He approached Reed swiftly modulating his smile to a friendly one.

“Good to see you son, glad you decided to join us.â€