Tensions Hit An All-Time High
After disruptions that caused mass panic throughout Ardoki from cyber attacks against the nations infristructure, the leadership of Ardoki has came out swinging. Sources inside the Imperial Parliament have indicated that the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction have been become a major concern with the current problems that have arisen. This threat though could not be confirmed at press time as requests for comment to the Ardokian Government were not returned.
The Parliament Strikes Back
The Imperial Parliament, who just took to it's new session today after the recent elections, which saw a minor political shift within the Governing Body of the Empire, began with a joint session of both houses to discuss the situation within Ardoki. The main discussion points that were passed around was Ardoki's past aggression towards the Empire, their political grandstanding and bashing of anyone who does not follow their specific ideology, and a few other key points.
Senator Maxamillion Henderson went on record as stating that "They (the Ardoki Leadership) have verbally bashed our great Empire several times, (They) even threatened to Assassinate members of our leadership!" This caused an uproar within the chambers and forced the Prime Minister of the Empire to force a call to order to get the membership of the combined Houses under control. Even scolding the Four-term Senator for using 'language' that she did not want used in her presence.
The joint session ended when the President Pro-Temp of the senate took the podium and initiated the vote of both houses to officially make relations between the Empire and Ardoki more strained. This would officially start a "Cold War" between Shazbotdom and Ardoki, in which it will authorize the Intelligence Community to conduct fact finding operations and to move assets of the Empire to where they could keep a close eye on Paramilitary forces of Ardoki and watch for any military buildup that might threaten Shazbotdom, it's Colonial Holdings or any Assets that belong to the Empire.
The vote took only Ten minutes to complete, making it once of the quickest votes within the past ten years of the Parliaments history. At the end of the voting, the votes were tallied and came out as 748 to 1 with 1 Abstain within the Membership of the House of Commons and 74 to 0 with 1 Abstain within the Membership of the House of the Senate. With the Legislation Passed, the Prime Minister of the Empire signed on her line and the Bill was sent to the Palace where, in a small ceremony with reporters, the Bill was signed by the Supreme Emperor.
Military Buildup
With the passing and signing of the legislation creating the Cold War between the Empire and Ardoki, Military forces of the Empire were put on hightened aleart and Reserve Forces were put on notice that they might be called up in the defense of the Impieral Mainland against foreign invasion. Colonial Defence Forces were also put on high aleart and nearly half of the Colonial Forces were called up and reported to their bases overnight for combat readiness training. This marks only the 2nd time in the history of the Colonies that their resident Defence Forces were called up in this manner. The only other time being in the defence of Shazbotdom Miroxia against an attempted invasion by Cymbric Nations nearly Twenty-Five years ago.