PARIS, FRENCH REPUBLIC, March 6 (HNS) -- In an unusual display of force, De Gaulle France performed a nuclear test on an undisclosed island in the Atlantic yesterday. A small coral island was vaporized in a nuclear explosion.
Observers from Team B of the JET were Gated in to monitor the test and to confirm that the footage that the French government released today was authentic.
"The important thing to note here is that no Maelstrom was caused," said Bach-2389A24A, a Scientist-caste Hiver associated with Team B of the Joint Expeditionary Team. "As if the attack on the Technosphere was not enough, this is definitive proof that the post-ReUnification world is more stable, and that a nuclear explosion does not have to destroy an entire Thread.
"Now that physics have stabilized somewhat, one wonders what this implies for politics," commented Dr. Glenn Christmann of the Penn State Department of Political Science. "For those Threads with a Tech Level of 6 and up, we may be entering an era not unlike the 1980s in pre-Event history. What's worse, with the Thread barriers, depending on the targeted Thread, it may actually be safer for those engaging in nuclear aggression than it was before the Event."
"Counting Silicon Valley, this would be the second Thread to remain in existence after being 'nuked,' and the first to do so without having been stabilized by the Technosphere," said Dr. Haslan Abu Hassan, a Professor of Physics at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (in TL7 Malaysia).
"The French sprung this on us so quickly, we didn't have much time to consider the ethics, tho the observer team was all-volunteer," said Bach-2389A24A. "They Gated us in, and we were able to use our JET instrumentation to confirm that the Thread the test was conducted in was, indeed, TL6 with a low Kellner rating and an average compatibility with hypertech devices."
"There was no mistaking the electromagnetic pulse and the readings of our Geiger counters," said Sergeant Major Robert Perkins of the Empire of New York, another member of the observers from Team B. "Plus the mushroom cloud, of course. That was a genuine nuke, and a messy one, to boot. I'm glad the Frenchies provided proper shielding on that ship."
The French Republic, aka "De Gaulle France," is a Thread that split off from main continuity in 1968, with a current year of 2010. The Thread stops almost exactly at the political borders of 1960s France, and is mostly self-sufficient, with some trade via sea Gates, which only exist in the Atlantic ports of the country. It has a technology level consistent with 1970s France (Penn State Tech Level 6), and has a Kellner rating of zero.
