NationStates Jolt Archive

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Bunker 42,315, Iron Coast Defensive Line

Corporal Ata Smith of the 666th Second Line Infantry calmly oiled the firing mechanism of the 20mm auto-cannon. He had been an overseer in a factory making diesel engines until they'd called him up, so he knew how machines worked.

He glanced up as he heard a cough - it was Alan Blake, a young boy really, still doing his two years of National Service. He was scratching his throat, scratching at his acne. Few True Undershis got acne, although this one somehow had...

They were waiting. The alerts had been sounded, all the preperations that could be taken were being taken... things were moving quickly. There wasn't much his position could do, though - they were one of the forward forts, packed full of soldiers and guns, three 20mm auto-cannons and six machineguns, plus a pair of automatic grenade launchers, 4mm rail guns, a 51mm mortar and an 88mm Rattlesnake rapid-fire howitzer...

Their job was to protect a missile launch site, one that was dug into the coastal cliff, ready to launch anti-shipping missiles at any enemy ship to approach. Four hardened SAM sites would protect against any enemy bombers to try to come in close, the bunkers and firing positions would fend off enemy Special Operations soldiers and troops... and the missiles and artillery would take their toll.

He glanced around the little firing bunker he was in - himself with the 20mm gun, Alan Blake with his 4mm gun, two more Second Line troopers with an automatic grenade launcher... then the three steel doors, one leading to a bunk room now packed full of supplies, another to the main corridor, the third down into the tunnel underneath the fort, which went back towards the second line of forts... his mind showed him the design, concrete walls, with explosive charges in place, so that when the withdrawl was complete, the tunnels would be brought down, and the last missiles and shells used to blow apart the forward line of forts...

And then, the second line lead to the third, then there was a stretch of open plain, perfect for armoured warfare, such as the counter-attack that would come across it, spearheaded by the IIS Armoured Divisions and Storm Trooper Divisions... and then, then there was Undershi City, the capital, the fortress city. Close to the shore, so they'd set up the Iron Coast defenses along the coast, ready for the enemy to come...

He heard sonic booms overhead, he glanced upwards - a flight of Lightningbolt interceptors flying low, dark silhouets casting shadows, silver shapes flashing through the air, twisting and turning as they flew out to sea... a patrol, nothing more. An hourly occurence. But something seemed wrong this day, something seemed sinister about even the most common occurences...

Ata's mind flashed back towards the fighting he'd seen before, back when they'd been pacifying Southland Province, turning the people there into meek slaves and corpses... he'd been storming a wood-built Southlander bunker, logs piled up into a v shape, a machinegun poking out from the junction... they'd charged the bunker, Second Line troops devoid of tactics, all guts and glory... plenty of guts, all too little glory... three men down with their insides torn up and falling out, then they were up there, throwing grenades...

Two enemies dead, the third one coming up, foaming at the mouth, grasping a Mousin-Nagant rifle with fixed bayonet in white-knuckled hands... he'd been a young man, tough and wiry, mad and angru and filled with the hatred and determination free men felt when they were fighting for their freedom and the freedom of their children...

He'd dived in, and Ata had barely managed to smash aside his deadly thrust, reduced to using his own deadly assault rifle as a club... then the other man had grabbed him, fingers like iron, strangling him... the other Undershis had stood aside, shocked into inaction... and you didn't fire an automatic weapon at someone you wanted to live...

They'd wrestled for a long moment - the Undershi was well-fed, a big man, stronger that his enemy... but he was off-balance and suprised, and had had little experience with killing with his hands...

In the end, his vision had begun to blur, before he'd punched the Southlander in the groin, and kept it up until the Southlander had no choice but to flinch, and then he was the one off balance... Ata had done the strangling then, and kept it up for long minutes until all struggling stopped, and then a little longer.

It was like that, that moment when the enemy had lept out with his bayonet... except this time it was like that for nations, not just men out on patrol. Undershi was about to fight for its life...

BUMPing for NPE attention, since they said they'd start the invasion soon.

OOC: Well, hey, would you look at that? I found it! I should be able to toss up a post at some point. And I'm GPE, not NPE. :p

((OOC:As a regional member of the GPE, I'll be participating in the war as well... I think? First off, I'm a Neko (Catpeople) nation. Still I'm PMT, nothing fantasy or magic or stuff like that. Just regular people, with cat traits. >_> You don't mind, right Undershi?))

OOC: Okay, I'm caught off-balance here - I'd been told that the CA-NPE war was over, and that there was peace etc.. Is it not really? If so, I'm up for an invasion, although I got involved in some other RPs which I can get out of if it's necessary.

OOC: Alright, I just want to make this clear - I'm up for the invasion, I was just suprised because I'd thought the CA-NPE war was over.

((OOC: I'm in it too. But my country wont do anything until Derscon or Cav makes the first move. I don't know anything about CA-NPE War, but he (Derscon) corrected you because we're GPE, Greater Prussia Empire. You had put NPE first, so I think he thought you typoed GPE and corrected as such.))

In SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!!!!!

The ODG and the accompanying satellite fleet were moving into position to remove what was left of the Undershi space defence network, as well as prepare for an all out Reign from Heaven. The generals of the Dersconi Army were not about to send their men up against a wall with guns.
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Near the Iron Coast

IT wasn't much, but it didn't need to be. Four submarines, designed to be as silent as possible, creeping along -- having set out some time ago -- at 850 metres, just under the detectable range of SONAR.

They didn't have much further to go now, and they didn't need to be that close anyway.

They're job? Destroy the Iron Coast, at any cost. How?

Detonate several nuclear warheads on sea mounds in the area, to cause directed tsunami waves to bombard the Iron Coast with three -- or four, or more -- with those waves.

It's never been done before by the Dersconi, but it was worth a shot.
__________________________________________________________

HMS Appolyon

The Superfleet was deployed once more, this time, to Undershi. Three divisions of Imperial Marines, as well as several contingents of Gernish special forces units, and the main fighting force, four Army Corps to start the rape, were coming with the fleet, which was heading towards the mainland of the Western Steppe province. It was the least populated, ergo the easiest to make a foothold. The Psychotians were ordered to take the Kraken and base themselves well outside the area the enemy could attack them from, from Paxton Province, and act as a field command centre.

On board the Kraken was Field Marshal Darii Razladanov, to coordinate the war effort. On board the Appolyon was Lord General Karaka Rakhamov, to coordinate the brutal assault on the Undershi mainland. While Razladanov was typically a cautious and honourable man, neither word could describe Rakhamov, who would happily burn a city of two million civilians...just for fun.

Interestingly enough, Karaka never got word of a formal declaration of war. Odd that Xavier would wait, he thought, shooting back the last of his vodka, sitting with Grand Admiral Zimmerov in the Admiral's Quarters. I guess he wants it a bit of a surprise.

GNS Cleansing Blade of the Goddess

The Carrier and her battle group glided away from Gnufasurian Port. They were going to meet up with the main GPE armanda and render Gnufasurian air superiority fighters to the war against Undershi.

Also accomapnying them was the Tanker craft Loft of the Avenger, specially modified to suite the needs of Professor Hojo's, a head scientist of the Terkomai Arms Corporation. Within the Tanker's holds were the Dogs of War Gnufasur would soon be infamous for.

~~~~~~~

Out in International Waters.

As the battle group neared the HMS Appolyon, an encrypted message was relayed to Lord General Karaka Rakhamov, cordinator of the war effort. "This is Admiral Mufini of the Gnufasurian Naval Carrier Cleansing Blade of the Goddess battle cluster. We're to cordinate with you and provide our Air Superority Fighters to the war front."

Simulitamiously, a message from Loft of the Avenger was sent, courtesy of Professor Hojo. "This is Professor Hojo. A beach front must be secured so the Dogs of War can be deployed! Any bodies killed by the Dogs of War MUST be retreived and taken back to the Loft so research can proceed on their effectiveness."

~~~~~~~~~~

Mainland Gnufasur

As war efforts were made under way, soldiers and tanks being prepped to ship out to war, Gnufasur's massive Supergun artillery cannon and the numerous long range artillery battieries were rotated and pointed in the direction of Undershi, calculations and firing protocols being made by the super computers within the control station for the Supergun. They would begin to bombbard the enemy beachheads once coordinates were relayed to them.


((OOC: Sorry if I'm uber crappy at this. this would be my first real war thread thing.))

Molkte's eye brows furrowed as he read the latest reports. They weren't what he wanted to see. Not at all. While the deployment was moving along, it was moving along too slowly, and there were many, many hiccups. Trains were arriving late, sometimes by a few hours, trucks were being stopped in rush-hour traffic, and the loading of the transports and warships was behind schedule. Then again, Molkte couldn't blame the logistical masterminds, too much. It was a very large deployment, millions of men were mobilizing, nearly all of the active duty troops, along with a healthy portion of the reserves. Getting these men to their zones, along with the supplies, in any timely manner, was a gargantuan task by itself. So, Molkte would give them a little kick in the rear, but not too hard. He then asked his aide, Brigadier General Von Mast, how they could get the supplies to the areas they needed faster. “ I think we are doing all we can on that regard, sir, however, we could use prison labor to load the ships faster.” Molkte thought this an excellent idea, and prisons around the area were soon emptied of convicts, watched over by heavily armed prison guards and military policemen.

Setting sail in the darkness, the 13th Submarine Flotilla was a marvel to see. One could just barely see their sleek bulbous outlines against the full moon. Soon enough, once they reached deeper waters, they wouldn't be seen at all. The Holy Reich had one of the finest submarine fleets in the modern world. Various models supported each other in an exquisite act of discipline and strategy. Captain Buchanan commanded one such vessel, the TPFS Swordfish. She was a Rusyuna class vessel of Questerian design, and she was capable of carrying hypersonic anti-shipping missiles that could sink even the most resilient ships. The captain knew he had a difficult task in front of him. His flotilla, which, once in theater, would be a wolf pack, had the responsibility, along with other wolf packs, to do as much damage as possible to the Undershi navy, so the primary armada would have an easier time with them. It would be a week or so before they arrived, so Buchanan intended to drill his men as hard as possible so they would be ready for the trying times ahead of them.

The primary armada was perhaps the most impressive sight, save for the panzer armies that would soon be rolling across Undershi. The armada consisted of a full thrifty-five fleet carriers, along with twenty escort carriers,one Hood-class Super Dreadnought, six Freedom-Class Command Battleships, twenty Ajax-Class SHBB's, twenty Valiant- Class SHBB's, thirty-six Mogami Air Defense Cruisers, twelve Impression-Class battlecrusiers, twelve Tsunami class heavy cruisers, forty Enyo-Class Destroyers, more than sixty frigates of various classes, and hundreds and hundreds of fleet tenders. High Command was confident that this force, along with allies forces and the submarine flotillas, could destroy any enemy naval force that the Undershians could muster, and more besides. Of course, they real point to this armada was simply to escort the invasion force. The combat infantry alone consisted of ten million, not even starting to count the vehicle crews and logistical masses. Not all of this would be landing at once, and not all of the transports were with the fleet. The vast majority would come later. The armada did however have one million men ready to land and secure a beach head. This would allow future forces to come in. High Command had also pondered even more landing, although there would be only one initial landing spread across a number of beaches. Another important part of the invasion would be the air support, of which the air force was ready to provide ample amounts of, adding on to the already considerable amounts the carrier's provided.

Nervously, he looked over the shoulder of a captain and watched his delicate work. Howard tried to breathe deeply, but instead it was only a shuddered breath. This was the most delicate work yet. Deep in Saint Peter's Mountain Complex, men and women were moving orbitals into position and giving them new trajectories. These consisted of primarily four types. Communications, Weapons, Spy, and FOBS. The spy orbitals would allow them to track Undershi movements, and the communications orbitals would process all this information and other information in the area and give them to the commanders. This was standard in any modern army today. However, the weapons and FOBS orbitals would provide an even better advantage. The weapons orbitals, nicknamed 'Zeus', would fire godrods down at critical enemy positions, destroying armies and manufacturing sites. These would not be used quite yet, as there was a limited amount of them, to the expense, and they needed to use them conservatively. Fractional Orbital Bombardment system was the name of the other orbitals moving into position, and these were only there if needed. Each one carried ten nuclear warheads, each of a twenty-five megaton yield, enough to utterly annihilate cities. They would not be used unless the enemy turned desperate and used nuclear or biological weapons against the invading armies.
The stage was set for one of the bloodiest conflicts ever.

OOC: Quick point, my anti-shipping missiles would be hitting your fleet long before you were in artillery range. Missiles have longer range than iron guns.

Aleksander Miller, Leader of the Undershi Empire, sat calmly at his desk, watching the computer display as it shifted. The entire Undershi Air Force was scrambling, tens of thousands of Lightningbolt fighters going off to engage the enemy aerial assets as they entered the Undershi air-defense envalope.

There would be no immediate attempts to hit enemy naval assets - their numbers were too high for that, their air forces too numerous...

The Undershi Navy would not be challenging them, at least not much - the shift from a carrier based force to a submarine based force had been underway for years, but was not anywhere near complete. And the war with Kampfers had hurt the Undershi navy...

So no Undershi ships went out to meet their doom. There were only three carriers left in the Home Fleet - all three were waiting in the well-defended harbor of Port Baxter, under the watchful guns of Fort Defiance. They would be safe.

A few cruiser squadrons were away - they'd do their part, raid enemy shipping and try to disrupt their communications... the same way that the submarine squadrons would. They were already out there, hunting the invader's shipping. Waiting, watching... it would be an interesting time, to see how many invaders would perish.

He glanced at the far left of the display, at the landings in the Western Steppes. They would have a long walk ahead of them - thousands of miles across empty wasteland until they'd reach the Western Mountains, where they'd find the passes fortified against them. Something he could ignore... although he took a moment to feel sorrow for the Western Steppe garisson - they'd be dieing soon... dieing in great numbers, and for no great purpose. But they'd do their duty - they'd fight without thought of survival, until every supply depot, bridge and rail line was rendered unusable.

That left the more direct assaults to worry about - Southland was vulnerable, but it was a situation like with the Western Steppes - Undershi could lose Southland. As long as it had Northland province and Undershi Province itself, the Empire could keep fighting.

Saint Rynald province wasn't even worth the trouble of reinforcing - it produced little other than insane Christian fanatics.

The fighters began to join battle, as SAMs rose from the surface in their thousands - the enemy was here, battle was joined... Undershi would face the greatest challenge it had ever faced.

Western Steppe Province

Corporal Robert McKilnroy watched the norm workers piling explosives in the tunnel cut through the mountains - his fire team was supposed to unsure that it was ready for demolition, then to report back to base and get ready to fight and quite likely die... there were only 75,000 True Undershi soldiers in all of the Western Steppes province. Add in about three times that many Janissaries and some norm support staff for the Undershi soldiers... it still wasn't enough to make much of a difference against a determined assault. Things would get ugly quickly...

The Kaiser had long since known about the pending invasion of Undershi by the glorious and righteous armies of the Prussian Empire, the Greater Prussian state had already asked for his, the Wehrmacht’s, participation in this noble undertaking which he was glad to accept. Even now he as well as the Oberkommando Wehrmacht (OKW), the Wanderjarian Armed Forces High Command, were planning the operation from the Wanderjarian perspective. At this point, they had decided to focus their forces on the Northland Province, which they would annex for themselves later upon conclusion of the conflict. This was a relatively less dense area of population, while it was significantly among the largest territories in the Undershi nation. The idea at this time would be to focus the Imperial Prussian Army (Nationale Volksarmee) on that area alone, and hopefully bog down enemy forces against the vastly superiorly equipped, trained, and numerically larger Wanderjarian forces.


The Wehrmacht was a vast machine, composed of several different armies intertwined into one vast juggernaught against which there could be no victory. With a standing military of some three hundred million men and women, composed of people from many of the conquered and annexed nations of the Reich, it could seem that there was a limitless supply of men from which to draw upon to send into whichever conflicts that the all pervasive Government deemed it to be necessary. Every Prussian man was willing to give his life for the Kaiser. Every man was willing to give his life for Prussia.


For this undertaking, the III, VI, XVI, XXIII, and the XXVII Armee Korps were selected, a force of predominately motorized, armor, and heavy infantry Divisions. They would be lead by Feldmarschal von Untergang, a relatively inexperienced albeit competent commander who was confident in his ability to lead the glorious Wanderjarian Armies to ultimate victory. He was a man over average size, standing at five foot ten, slim but muscular, with cold steel grey eyes. He was a picturesque Prussian man, the poster child for the perfect Wanderjarian. And in the OKW HQ office, deep under the surface of the Imperial Palace, he sat being briefed by his fellow officers on the situation, intelligence of the Undershi forces, and contemplating how he would conduct this operation.


“And so,” Kaiser Baker said, “Do you believe we can do it?” He asked everyone in the room. The entire room nodded.


“Mein Fuhrer,” von Untergang said, “The Legions of Hell itself could not take victory from my hands, and this victory is in your name, as it is in Gods. Our mighty armies shall drive them into the ground, and when they cannot push any harder, we shall give them the bayonet!” Nods of approval went around the room. This man was young, surprisingly young for a man of his high rank, and this was all the more evident in his youthful fire and confidence.


Baker, a young man himself, smiled. “My friend, I have every confidence in the truth of your words. Send a battlegroup of the Volkskriegsmarine to escort our forces, seize the ground, do not let up! Push on and forward with unrelenting ferocity! Do not let them breathe! The purpose behind the landing in the north, by my thinking, is that it shall be less defended and thus weaker. We can get these men there easier, hopefully without being noticed at all. They should be focusing on the vast amount of troops being focused on their other territories and over look our forces. This shall play into our advantage. We all know that once Wanderjarians have made landfall, one does not pry them out,” He grinned, as did his commanders.


The following day the Armee Korps were loaded onto their respective troop ships, and set out to the Undershi lands. They were escorted by a sizeable fleet, consisting of twelve Argentine Class Galleon anti-super dreadnoughts, six Kraken Superdreadnoughts, one Hood Class vessel, eighty Valiant Class Battleships, eighty Hiei Class Battlecruisers, sixty Mogami Class Air Defense Cruisers, eight-teen Hiryu Class Fleet Carriers, numerous Hayasake Class Heavy Battle Destroyers and seventy County Class Heavy Cruisers. As the Armada left port that day, they waved the Prussian banner high, a symbol of their looming victory. How easily would this be attained? How many men would not return home to their families or live to enjoy the victory? Only time would answer these questions. But as for now, all that was known was that somewhere, over the horizon, a war was waiting. And no one knew war as did the Prussian Empire.


/////ORBAT of Prussian Forces Deployed://///

III Armee Korps
• 23rd Infantry Division
• 27th Panzer Division
• 116th Panzer Division Windhund
• 179th Reserve Panzer Division
• 16th Panzergrenadier Division
o 19th Volksgrenadier Division
o 190th Luftwaffe Sturm Division

VI Armee Korps
• Division Nr. 233 (mot.)
• Panzergrenadier Division Nr. 233
• Panzer Division Nr. 233
• Reserve Panzer Division 233
• 1st Light Division
• 10th Panzer Division
• 11th Panzer Division

XVI Armee Korps
• Division Nr. 976th (mot.)
• Panzer Division Jüterbog
• Panzergrenadier Division Nr. 823rd
• Panzer Division Nr. 233
• 6th Grenadier Division
• 233rd Panzergrenadier Division
• 250th Infantry Division
• 256th Infantry Division


XXIII Armee Korps
• 27th Infantry Division
• 18th Panzer Division
• 19th Panzer Division
• 62nd Volksgrenadier Division
• 64th Infantry Division
• 101st Jäger Division
• 22nd Infantry Division
• 22nd Volksgrenadier Division
• 23rd Infantry Division
• 24th Infantry Division

XXVII Armee Korps
• • 14th Panzer Division
• Panzer Division Feldherrnhalle 1
• 60th Infantry Division
• 60th Motorized Infantry Division
• Panzergrenadier Division Feldherrnhalle
• 21st Panzer Division
• 167th Volksgrenadier Division
• 169th Infantry Division
• 170th Infantry Division
• 183rd Volksgrenadier Division


(OOC: Did y'all miss me?)

With the confusion of several different possibilities of conflicts, the ICS Kraken, along with the Central Fleet Main Battle Group, had been roaming the seas in the general direction of Undershi. However, with the impending conflict at hand, the group had made good headway for Undershi, and now say roughly 300 Nm off the coast of Paxton Province.

Field Marshal Darii Razladanov, who had arrived earlier, had been brought up to the Fleet Combat Information Center. The room at the ship's pinnacle offered a 360 degree, panoramic view of the rest of the ship, sprawling out like a small castle beneath it, and of the rest of the fleet, which consisted of a thousand ships, stretching out vastly. The room's most prominent feature was the holographic display in the middle, which showed a top-down view of the entire war-zone, colored dots representing units of the Prussian forces and known enemy positions. A smaller display next to it gave a top-down of the fleet and the closer area for fleet operations. The displays' advantage was that they were continuously updated in real time, +/- a second or two., and battle plans could be drawn onto them.

Though that display would most likely keep Razladanov's attention, Grande Admiral Yamamoto III was preoccupied with the display for his own fleet, currently the only Pschycotian assets in the area, though that was likely to change. Currently, he was in the process of configuring the fleet's layout. He had the Kraken located in the center, along with the Island-Class Tri-Deck Carrier. Encompassing these two were a couple hundred Zimmermann-Class Dreadnaughts and Arkhangel-Class Battlecarriers. Interspersed among them were Yama-Class destroyers and Valor-Class battlecruisers. The parts that Yamamoto was focused on were the Aegis CIWS Cruisers and the Lionfish-Class fast attack subs. The Aegis cruisers were little more than anti-missile screens. They hosted nothing but a skeleton crew, an 8 inch turret, and a score of 75mm CIWS turrets. They were meant to act as shields, taking the blow from any anti-shipping missile that got through the screen. They currently were being ordered to form a defensive shield toward the inland side of the fleet. The submarines were deployed in a staggered, multi-depth shield, designed to catch any encroaching subs.

(OOC: Numbers and more later!)

Aboard the TPFS Tannenburg
Grand Admiral Stark surveyed the enemy shore. He had moved the armada to Paxton province, so the GPE and allies could secure a base of operations for further attacks against Undershi forces. He turned around, doing a sharp about-face.
" Commander, order the attack!"
" Yes, sir!"
Stark then watched as thousands of aircraft began to take off from carriers, their orange blasts from jets blasted the flattops and they soared into the air from the electromagnetic catapults. Sparrow's and Shuka attack aircraft would be leading the assault. But they would not move in quite yet. The Air Force had been kind enough to loan Stark one hundred Sariel's, which would be critical in disabling the enemies anti-air defenses. Once these were disabled, the full power of the ground attack aircraft could be brought to the attack. E-23 Electronic Warfare drones were also being brought in, they would simulate hundreds of aircraft coming in, forcing enemy SAM's to open their radars, allowing the Sariels to sweep in for the kill with anti-radiation missiles. Once this was completed, Stark could move his armada within range of the shore, so the bombardment and landing operations could begin. Stark watched a screen showing the first drones head towards enemy airspace.

The Kraken

Field Marshal Darii Razladanov was looking over the final preparations, and his last minute major theatre changes, and looked to his chief of staff.

"Major Lupin, how far back are the ground forces?"

"Last time they checked in, sir, about one or two days."

"Mm, good. Tell Admiral Yamamoto to change his destination to a few klicks south, and tell Blazhei to get up here."

"He'll ask why South, sir."

"Point. Tell him that Saint Rynald is looking mighty fine as a Command Headquarters."

"Aye, sir." When he left, it was only a few minutes when Blazhei Voikinov appeared in the office.

"Sir?" Marshal Darii looked up at Blazhei to see him fully dressed in his ceremonial battle armour. Blazhei was an interesting character -- he was Chairman of the Grand Imperial Council of the Advancement of the Protestant Faith and Heritage, and Grand Master of the Legio Dei, the heirs to the Templars (with the fleet, treasures, and money to prove it). He, nor the forces he was commanding, was not military. He was militia. But Darii didn't mind having him aboard -- the Legio Dei was famous in the Prussian Empire for being on par with most special forces units in modern nations. He fully expected them to live up to the reputation. Darii didn't know Blazhei personally, but knew his reputation, and that was enough.

"Blazhei, do you see this?" The Grand Master looked down at the map, glancing at the Saint Rynald Province where Marshal Darii was pointing. He only nodded. "Good. I want you to lead the assault on these islands. Intelligence reports that they're a bunch of Christian fanatics." Blazhei couldn't help but smile.

"Then you couldn't have picked a better man to occupy." The Marshal nodded.

"That's the plan. The residents will likely be all too happy to see Christian forces coming to liberate them from the Undershi oppressors. With luck, they'll side with us, and we'll have friends in the invasion. You'll have a few divisions of various make up with the usual attachments to come along as well -- I'm not going to send all that many troops when they can be used elsewhere." Blazhei nodded.

"We've done more with less, it's fine."

"Good. Dismissed." Blazhei nodded in respect and turned to leave, to meditate on the coming battle. Darii looked over at the clock and smirked. Ten minutes. He told Yamamoto not to have any of his ships too close to Undershi, but never told him why. Oh, the joys of being in command.
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ODG Delta-Four-Two

The military space station had placed itself in position, and the satellite fleet along with it was preparing itself. The purpose was to be the "eyes" of the HORUS Network, as well as provide a wonderful first-strike shield, should Undershi try and pull anything that the Dersconi might not like.

And, worse come to worst, to utterly annihilate the capital with the needlers. Ideally, though, they wouldn't be needed for anything more than to be the Eyes of Horus.
_____________________________________________

The Four Horsemen

The lead submarine was nearing strike position, and the captain of the boat ordered them to rise -- as all of the other captains were doing -- and proceed into a dead quiet.

The captain looked over towards the digital clock. Two minutes. They took the time to flood the torpedo tubes awhile back, although it wouldn't matter at this point.

One minute. The submarine commanders knew all of the checkpoints and the time benchmarks by heart -- Derscon was a fan of coordinated massive strikes, in total silence.

Thirty seconds. It was so quiet in the sub that he could actually hear his heart beating up against his chest. The captain looked over at his XO and smiled, the clock hitting ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

The captain looked at the weapons officer and gave the signal.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

The very moment the clock hit zero, the torpedo doors were opened and the torpedoes released from the specified submarines, each torpedo equipped with a small nuclear warhead to cause the sea mounds to collapse, generating a directed tidal wave to wipe out the Iron Coast (with support from the rest of the submarines).

The moment the torpedoes were out, the submarines scrambled and turned to run, though they knew it was likely going to be futile. The Undershi navy was undoubtedly alerted to their presence now. They were briefed before departing that they likely wouldn't make it back alive, and they had no reason to expect to. Their task was completed. They were the Hand of Poseidon, and now they shall return to their lord and master.

The Capitol Spire
Viconia City, Federated Union of Democratic Colonies

The Capitol Spire was the living, beating heart of the federal government. It was where plans were formed and leaders were proven, where debate and discussion determined the fate of a people. The Capitol Spire was an icon of the state, a monolithic tower that climbed the sky as if conquering it. Strong and dependable and respected; it was everything that the Democratic Colonies as a nation wanted to be - and so on one cold morning in October, it was on the steps of the Capitol Spire, on the pristine marble steps that led to its grand entrance, within sight of the nation's statues of the founders and monuments to the fallen, that war was being declared.

The press was out in force that day, a sea of cameras and reporters and soundmen all crowding towards the one man that truly mattered there.

"Good morning," he greeted, the mere sound of his voice prompting hushed silence among the press and media. He was a tall man, middle-aged with the first streaks of gray coming through in his otherwise dark hair. The image of him speaking from behind a plain steel lectern, flanked by dour faced security personnel, was recorded and broadcast across the nation and across the world as he began to speak.

"I am Sir Neil Jaeger, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to hear me today," he said, his trained diplomat's voice neither submissive nor domineering but simply sincere.

"I have spoken to many men and many women from many nations all over the world, but today, my friends, today holds the most important address I have ever delivered."

Jaeger paused, allowing his previous sentence to sink in.

"As many have known for some time now, the Greater Empire of Undershi is no ally of liberty. Undershi has shown through its actions; its invasions of foreign nations, its criminal behaviour in occupied territories, that it is a nation with a blackened soul, a heart of darkness. Undershi is a nation that in any just world would not exist.

"During the past few days, forces of the Greater Prussian Empire have been positioning their forces to allow for a rapid, successful invasion of Undershi and its occupied territories. The Government of the Democratic Colonies, informed of these plans for liberation by our associates in the Divine Prussian Empire of Derscon, has also in the past few days been preparing the DC Military Forces (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Democratic_Colonies_Military) for the initiation of combat against Undershi."

Jaeger nodded confidently, ignoring the sudden explosion of camera flashes that washed over him as the gravity of the announcement truly presented itself.

"In the DC Navy," he continued, "twenty Naval Action Groups (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Democratic_Colonies_Military#Naval_Action_Groups), reinforced by regular naval forces and commanded from a Sarzonian built Vigilant (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=420657) Class Superdreadnought, are accompanying 10 Marine Corps Divisions into the hostile waters of Undershi. In the DC Army, all 75 divisions of the Airbourne Corps have been mobilized for offensive operations, as well as portions of the Mechanized Infantry and Armoured Corps'. The DC Air Force has its Bomber and Transport Corps' ready to fly across the world to support our operations, while fightercraft and interceptors have been placed on high alert to defend all ten islands of the Democratic Colonies during this time of conflict."

Jaeger paused, hoping he had impressed the world with his nation's military might.

"As I speak with you today, the men and women; the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines of the DC Military Forces (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Democratic_Colonies_Military) are readying to put themselves in harm's way for the furthering freedom, for the betterment of all mankind. I and my associates in government did not reach this decision to go to war lightly, but even as we discussed, even as we debated, we knew in our hearts that this great task had to be undertaken.

"In approximately one hour, at noon today, the Federated Union of Democratic Colonies will be in a legal state of war with the Greater Empire of Undershi. While this conflict continues, the President, the Legislative Assembly, and all Federal Secretaries with the exception of myself and Lady Alison Byrne of the Department of Internal Affairs will be relocated from our fair capitol of Viconia City to an undisclosed secure location.

"I know this undertaking to be righteous, and I have every confidence in not only the forces of the DC military, but also in the forces of those aligned nations in the Greater Prussian Empire. There will be no questions at this time. Thank you."

OOC: Drescon, when I've already stated that my navy is primarily sub-based and is out hunting, your skipping all possibility of detection to conduct such an attack verges on godmodding. As such, I'm assuming you launched from a good ways out, minimizing your effectiveness and accuracy. If you want to try for closer, expect a hard fight from Undershi subs.

FROM: Aleksander Miller, Leader of The Undershi Empire
TO: Lt. General Louis Spaller, Commander, Undershi Aerospace Defense Forces
RE: Initiate Operation Counterstrike.

There was no body text to this message - there didn't need to. The mass destruction along the coast was sign enough of what sort of times were here...

The Dersconi were brutal, that was a certainty. They had destroyed Paxton Province, most of which had not even been defended. About sixteen million civilian dead. About sixty thousand Undershi soldiers dead as well...

And then there was the Iron Coast. They had been lucky, in a way... the Dersconi had either been aiming for a terror strike or had missed their targets... about eighty thousand Undershi soldiers were dead there... the Iron Coast was built as a single fortress that could withstand limited attacks with WMDs - it had mostly survived the attacks.

Saint Rynald Province had not been so lucky - a little over three million dead, almost all civilians. And that, the Undershi generals admitted, was a god-send. Nothing to prevent a people from greeting the new occupiers with open arms like having those occupiers kill a few million of the people they were soon going to be occupying first...

And now came Operation Counterstrike, a reminder against WMD use.

All across Undershi, ASMs, anti-satelite missiles, were deploying. Thousands of them, going up into the air... up into space... to make the Dersconi blind. They had a lot of expensive stuff up there, and the Undershi did not - after the last CA-NPE exchange, most Undershi orbital assets were ruined. So they were going for a scorched sky over Undershi, using EMP weapons, tactical atomics and all sorts of specialized satelite killers. Reminding the enemy that there was a reason Undershi was known as the fortress nation...

Over Undershi

Flight Leader Simon Ulriksen, ace three times over, smilled as his Lightningbolt squadron swooped down to attack the incoming TPF aircraft. So many targets... he remembered the fighting in Kampfers, how an Undershi invasion fleet had smashed an NPE fleet nearly three times its size, but with horrid losses... they hadn't managed to actually complete the invasion...

But he'd scored fifteen kills before the fighting had ended. Fifteen enemy fighters sent down into the sea... impressive even amoung True Undershi. Now he'd try to do it again...

As he began his attack run with AMRAAMs, a Thunderer squadron came up from the TPF fighter's left flank - their AMRAAMs were off soon as well... it was going to be a terrible slaughter either way, this day. He only hoped it would be a slaughter made worthwhile by Undershis survival. He could only hope...

Undershi submarine Tigershark, Somewhere Near the Wanderjar Fleet

The Tigershark was a deadly sub, a nuclear submarine, able to go for months without surfacing. Stealthy, shielded by ECM and passive defenses, sound muffled by special hull materials... a rapier looking for vitals to stab.

And it had found a good target. They had just detected the ASW cordon of the Wanderjar fleet, and brushed up near it, but they'd stayed back. Until the battleships were past, and the other big heavy warships. Until the transports came up with their escorts...

It was then that they acted, still from a good distance away. The Undershi had been amoung the first to attempt sub-launched anti-shipping missiles of the sort they now deployed - it remained to be seen if they worked as well against an enemy as experienced as the Wanderjar navy, the Volkskriegmarine, as it did against petty Third World navies... but it was a design that would prove suprising - it was so new that the CIWS defense patterns designed to stop its efforts were not yet so well laid down as were those set against more conventional attacks. Which was all well and good... as were the traits of the new missiles which made them potentially deadly, their long range was one such trait...

Captain Erin McGraw of the Tigershark ordered a launch from nearly maximum range. He'd see if the Technical Section of the Ministry of Production knew what it was doing...

The Tigershark launched, while still underwater, sixteen missiles at the surface. All sixteen were jacketed so that they deployed after they'd broken the surface, and were safe until then.

Once they'd deployed, they kept low against the waves and swept in, low against the water and deadly. They flew low, they were designed for minimal electronic signature, they were painted in stealth systems designed to prevent their detection...

One, and then another, actually hit the sea, they were flying so low. Both were destroyed, broken up, almost instantly. The others continued in towards the enemy fleet, and...

[SIZE="1"]

Undershi submarine Tigershark, Somewhere Near the Wanderjar Fleet

The Tigershark was a deadly sub, a nuclear submarine, able to go for months without surfacing. Stealthy, shielded by ECM and passive defenses, sound muffled by special hull materials... a rapier looking for vitals to stab.

And it had found a good target. They had just detected the ASW cordon of the Wanderjar fleet, and brushed up near it, but they'd stayed back. Until the battleships were past, and the other big heavy warships. Until the transports came up with their escorts...

It was then that they acted, still from a good distance away. The Undershi had been amoung the first to attempt sub-launched anti-shipping missiles of the sort they now deployed - it remained to be seen if they worked as well against an enemy as experienced as the Wanderjar navy, the Volkskriegmarine, as it did against petty Third World navies... but it was a design that would prove suprising - it was so new that the CIWS defense patterns designed to stop its efforts were not yet so well laid down as were those set against more conventional attacks. Which was all well and good... as were the traits of the new missiles which made them potentially deadly, their long range was one such trait...

Captain Erin McGraw of the Tigershark ordered a launch from nearly maximum range. He'd see if the Technical Section of the Ministry of Production knew what it was doing...

The Tigershark launched, while still underwater, sixteen missiles at the surface. All sixteen were jacketed so that they deployed after they'd broken the surface, and were safe until then.

Once they'd deployed, they kept low against the waves and swept in, low against the water and deadly. They flew low, they were designed for minimal electronic signature, they were painted in stealth systems designed to prevent their detection...

One, and then another, actually hit the sea, they were flying so low. Both were destroyed, broken up, almost instantly. The others continued in towards the enemy fleet, and...

The Undershi vessel would find no success against the might of the Volkskriegsmarine. The moment these missiles were launched, they would find themselves being tracked by the pride of Questerian design, the Mogami Air Defense Cruiser which were deliberately interspersed across the battlefleet, forming a blanket of air defense which could not be penetrated. The moment these were detected, anti-ordinance missiles were fired against them, tracked and targeted by real-time targeting computers. Their paths intersected, and the enemy missiles would not survive their flights.

Generaladmiral Johann von Studstill smiled calmly aboard his KMS Grossreich, a Shokaku Class Super Heavy Carrier. The enemy sent one lone submersible to attack among the mightiest forces on earth. He knew he should feel insulted that they would not feel his Volkskriegsmarine a greater threat, but regardless he knew that this fly on the hide of a dragon must be swatted.

“Trace the precise origin of those missiles,” He ordered, which the crew immediately began to do. Approximately thirty seconds later numerous MSu-38 Anti-Submarine Warfare helicopters were deployed to deal with the lone submersible. The enemy interloper would be dealt with most harshly.

As the enemy SSN was being dealt with, the armada proceeded. They were close now, so very close to their objective. Soon the invasion would commence and the Undershi would finally taste the wrath of the Wehrmacht in full. Millions of Prussian warriors would decend upon them from all corners of the Reich, and their victory would be complete.

Undershi submarine Tigershark

Captain Erin McGraw grinned as the Wanderjar ASW helicopters approached - perfect targets... time to test another unorthodox idea.

The Tigershark was full of them, an expirimental vessel, every bit of its design new and improved... or at least new. This latest toy was one such example...

The Submerged Firing Anti-Aircraft missiles operated on a similar principle to the missiles they'd deployed against the Wanderjar fleet - a missile was fired from the submarine while it was still underwater, it deployed as soon as it broke the surface, and launched...

This system would deploy four small AA missiles from each pod a few moments after the pod broke the surface, and the missiles had their own target-finding capabilities... nothing to indicate their origin.

16 such pods launched, followed two seconds later by another 16. 64 missiles deployed against the vulnerable helicopters, followed a moment later by another 64. Wanderjar would suffer a little today, even if its fleet remained safe...

OOC: Quick point, my anti-shipping missiles would be hitting your fleet long before you were in artillery range. Missiles have longer range than iron guns.

((OOC: Eh heh. Never said the artillery guns were on the ships. They're stationed on the mainland of Gnufasur. Then you're gonna counter with 'Then we're out of range of the artillery battery.' Aw well, that's why we have the Supergun. >_>))

Mainland Gnufasur.

Range estimates came in, and the Artillery commander overseeing the Supergun operations and the gun's Artillery support batteries simply shook his head.

Their target was simply too far away. Only the Supergun would be able to reach. Shells for the Supergun were difficult and expensive to manafactuor, and nationwide there were only 26 shells, three of them nuclear, ten of them loaded with chemical agents. The rest were high-explosives.

Artillery Commander Hudson Jukino crossed his arms over his chest, looking to the many men and women under his command. The Supergun was a massive artillery piece, custom manafactured to shell nearly any location on the planet. The command center was almost like a scene from a sci-fi movie. Rows of computer terminals, a large viewscreen, showing a ap of the planet, with a Picture-in-Picture close-up of the Undershi country, targets within the Supergun's range of fire highlighted in red, while the blue field showed the artillery batteries range.

He spoke, his voice clear and determined, his command platform overlooking the technicians below him. "Hmphm. Nayto dra Yndemmando pyddeaneac vun tavahceja luycdym vena. Muyt dra HE crammc, yht lussahla vena uh dynkad mypamat 'Enuh Luycd.'" The batteries were rotated, settings put into place to defend the Gnufasur coast from enemy fleets attempting to attack their Supergun.

"Red dras frana drao lyh'd red pylg." He said, as coordinates were inputted for the Iron Coast. "Keja sa luihd-tufh du vena."

A technician turned her head, speaking loudly so the commander could hear. "Dfahdo sehidac yht luihdehk, cen!" On the screen, a twenty minute count-down started.

~~~~~~~~~

Cleansing Blade of the Goddess Carrier Battle Group, nearing the Dersconi Main Armada

A message was forwarded to Admiral Mufini, standing in the control bridge of the Carrier. The Admiral glanced over it, skimming the message, then forwarded the message to all pertainent parties.


To all leaders of the Undershi Invasion Force.

The Gnufasurian Supergun will begin long-range bombardment of the target labeled 'Iron Coast' in eighteen exact minutes, and will continue to bombard over the next eight hours.

In The Air
The first drones were ready. Controlled from the armada over encrypted radio, the pilots gave the drones orders. Each drone activated there electronic warfare pods, which made them broadcast the signal that they were bombers ready to strike. Only an extremely powerful radar, or one that was look specifically for them could know their true signature. Each drone also fire a number of 'Rabbit' missiles, these missiles, which could also glide for some time, and has slow-burning fuel, also broadcasted the image of a bomber. To the enemy radar screens, it looked like over four hundred bombers were swarming in. They would react soon, and their radars would be marked for the Sariels. The radars would not even know what hit them.

Saint Peters Mountain Complex
" Shit, this is not good." All eyes in the room were focused on Howard. It wasn't such much that Undershi had launched ASAT's as it was that some of them were nuclear. Thus, Howard had to decide whether or not to respond in kind. It was an difficult choice. "Respond in force, empty the tubes. Hold the FOBS' back. Move them to a safe position. Move in new FOBS to replace the lost ones. Then move in new orbitals to replace the lost one's." Howard knew they could do that, but they really could only afford to do it once, as orbitals were not cheap and they had a finite supply. If Undershi did this again, they'd have to rent orbitals or rely on allies, or possibly hijack commercial orbitals. The orders were given, and over four thousand god-rods left their tubes are pre-designation targets. One thousand or so slammed into Paxton, destroying fortifications and military targets, along with cities. The other three thousand slammed into cities all along Undershi. TPF had no more god-rods to use on Undershi after this, so it had to count. The casualty count would be in the hundreds of thousands, possibly the millions. Howard spoke again. " Go to Defcom-1." This order would put the full striking power of TPF on full alert. Subs would be leaving their pens, bombers would soar into the air, ICCM and ICBM's would be readied, and the naval ships would load nuclear-tipped shells and missiles. ABM defenses all over were also readied, ready to intercept any attacks. It was Undershi's move.

OOC: lol, awesome. Undershi, check your TGs. Also, previous posts edited.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l91/empyreanimperator/Nationstates/FGPE.jpg
DECLARATION OF WAR

I, Xavier Alexeitovich II Andropov, Tsar of Derscon and Arch-Chancellor, acting Emperor, of the Greater Prussian Empire, do hereby declare the Empire of Greater Prussia to be in a state of war with the rouge state of Undershi.

For too long, the oppressive and intolerant regime of Corporate Alliance allegiance has allowed to scourge the face of the planet with its presence. We Prussians, by the Grace of God, will purge this vile blemish.

We urge the people of Undershi to rise up against their government and join us in this purge of uncleanliness, and that they understand this is not a war with the people, but of the corrupt and vile government.

God Save the Empire.

His Most Eminent Majestic Highness Tsar Xavier Alexeitovich II Andropov, Fedei Defensor, By the Divine Grace of God;
Ambrosial Seraph of the Divine Prussian Empire of Derscon,
Arch-Chancellor of the Greater Prussian Empire,
Leath-Ri of the Redemption Isles,
Veliky Kralj of the Eternal Empire,
Khšaçapavan of the Covanent of God,
Knight Commander and Dragon Master of the IOI,
Gloeihdamae

OOC to TPF: My fighters are actually working together, and as I said before, they're staying within the air defense envalope of the Undershi land-based missiles. What I posted was a bit of IC fluf for when your aircraft began to come into range, not anything more or less. I appologise for any misunderstandings.

OOC to Derscon: it seems we've made a few mutual errors. Hopefully the issues can be resolved.

Saint Lorenz port, Saint Rynald Province, The Undershi Empire

The Committee for the Salvation of Saint Rynald was meeting in an empty warehouse, with crates full of Jenshalite coffee packaged for export for seats and tables.

They were a tired bunch, most had day jobs that took up many of their hours. Others were hunted men, and so were tired for those reasons. They had the nervous, drawn, faces of men who had had no hope for a long time, but who had kept on fighting because to surrender would be intolerable.

Now they had hope, for the first time since the miserable failure of the failed Hatarian invasion six years ago, when Saint Rynald had risen to help the Hatarians, and had been squashed. Saint Rynald City, formerly the capital when Saint Rynald had been a Republic and not a province, had been leveled. The IIS had crucified three million Rynaldis, and deported six million more to the other provinces of the Empire, where they'd vanish and lose their culture.

It had been a sad day for Saint Rynald.

But now they had another chance...

It was the priest, Father Joseph Mendez, who was the first to speak. He wore the Roman collar at meetings like this, like he did when he was blessing the Zealots, the Rynaldi religiously motivated rebels, before a terrorist attack. He didn't wear it during his everyday life - there he worked as a slaughterman in the Saint Lorenz meat packing district, cutting up pigs. The Undershi had learned to be cruel to priests - they were to the Rynaldi what the University professors had been in Paxton, symbols of national identity. Saint Rynald had been a nation of religious fundamentalists, Paxton a nation of intelectuals. Both had been treated similarly in the end...

The penalty for a non-licensed priest was castration, flaying, breaking on the wheel and impaling. Licensed priests were not allowed to preach freely... so Father Mendez risked the Undershi punishments to remain a Rynaldi priest. He'd seen comrades caught, and tortured and killed... if they'd given the name of another religious, then they would have only been shot, not killed in the proscribed manner. None of them had talked... he remembered Father Gerald de Ornburg, who'd said a Hail Mary in a breaking voice as they'd begun peeling away his skin... the executions were public...

Father Mendez was the first to speak. He asked:

"How do we know that these... Dersconi are any more reliable than the Hatarians proved to be?" No one answered him for a long moment.

Fernando Nasser was the one to eventually reply. He was a big man, a running man, pursued by the Undershi for the crimes of his past... here he wore his sleeves rolled up, revealing his Inquisitorial Guard tatoos. To be caught with those would mean a slow death by torture... but he was familiar with slow deaths. He had helped the Inquisition when it ran the country, and he knew how a man could be hurt. Which was why, even though he believed in sin, he carried with himself always, a cyanide capsule for use if he thought it likely he would be captured.

He'd been fighting since the Undershi first invaded, and he had a survivor's hatred for them. He would, if he were to drink too much, give detailed stories of how he had tortured Undershi prisoners... he loved to tell one story in particular, about how when he'd been fighting in the mountains his guerilla band had ambushed a patrol and taken a prisoner. They'd cut his tongue out, bound his hands and impaled him in a clearing where he was sure to be found by Undershi air patrols... and then they'd hooked a pair of grenades to his back, so that... when the Undershis came to rescue him, they'd realized he was alive and tried to take him down, and had set off the grenades, and had had two or three of their number hurt. A horror...

And yet he wore a crucifix and prayed regularly and truly believed. He simply believed in a form of Christianity that Pope Urban II would have found familiar, one where it was acceptable to kill anyone who was not a Christian...

He answered:

"We don't. But we need to try something. Anything is better than fighting this hopeless battle."

Simon Holn nodded, and spoke his agreement. He was a slight man, but a deadly man, and more important than that, a brilliant man. The others had fanaticism and brutality, he had both of those things in ample measure... but he also had intelectual achievement, a rare thing in a Rynaldi. He was the mastermind behind the Rynaldi rebels, a man who many of their number called the Living Saint.

He was balding and slightly overweight, and worked as a clerk at the docks. Before the invasion, he had been a school teacher.

He spoke:

"I agree. If the Rynaldi are to ever be free again, then we will need to act now and hope for the best. At worst, we see the Undershi victorious... and they kill another few million of our people. Which can be endured. So long as our people have their faith in God, it does not matter how many million the Undershi kill." and his word was final, neither of the other two men countered his decision.

There were others present, of course, but none of them mattered - they would always follow Simon Holn's words.

These were the men who had just decided that Saint Rynald Province was goign to rise up. These were the men who had just decided that thousands, perhaps millions would die.

Undershi submarine Tigershark

Captain Erin McGraw grinned as the Wanderjar ASW helicopters approached - perfect targets... time to test another unorthodox idea.

The Tigershark was full of them, an expirimental vessel, every bit of its design new and improved... or at least new. This latest toy was one such example...

The Submerged Firing Anti-Aircraft missiles operated on a similar principle to the missiles they'd deployed against the Wanderjar fleet - a missile was fired from the submarine while it was still underwater, it deployed as soon as it broke the surface, and launched...

This system would deploy four small AA missiles from each pod a few moments after the pod broke the surface, and the missiles had their own target-finding capabilities... nothing to indicate their origin.

16 such pods launched, followed two seconds later by another 16. 64 missiles deployed against the vulnerable helicopters, followed a moment later by another 64. Wanderjar would suffer a little today, even if its fleet remained safe...

OOC: Are you serious? While yes, I will accept it, its going to be little more than an inconvienance, that is VERY close to being a godmod.

IC:


The missiles which fired against the Wanderjarian Anti-Submarine Warfare helicopters would find many targets, however in the time it would take for them to reach their destinations, each of the twenty some odd MSu-38s would deploy their four acoustic Homing Torpedoes, or eighty torpedoes against this single target. While this was excessive force, the enemy vessel could not be allowed to survive. Sonar had detected no other enemy vessel presence in the region, thus an example would have to be made from this lone wolf. While losing men was never pleasant, the materials lost would simply be replaced upon the next resupply shipment.

As the pesky Tigershark, was being dealt with, Feldmarschal von Untergang was in the CV’s briefing room. An overhead map of the area selected to be the invasion site was blown up on the screen, where von Untergang stood before a crowded auditorium of his Junior Officers. He pointed at an area highlighted in red which was labled “Red Beach”.

“Men,” he said, “In twelve hours, the invasion begins. Here, at Red Beach, the XXVII Korps will land first, securing it for the rest of the forces. Once the enemy forces, if any, engage us here, we will push inland and secure the entire region, focusing on the major population centers. Even now,” he said, as the faint noises of jet engines began to hum, “Our fighter and bomber craft are preparing to eliminate as much resistance as possible. Recon flights have been flying all day, noting enemy positions which would be focused upon for bombing, such as known troop and armor concentrations, political centers, and other critical positions. The bombers would pummel these positions into the ground over the next twelve hours, supported by innumerable cruise missiles fired from the massive armada. Fighter craft would protect the bombers and attempt to eliminate enemy air power in the region and create air superiority as quickly as possible.

He started again, “We’ll be well protected on this mission. Men, I want you to get your commands ready for battle now. Have your junior officers inspect their men and try to inspire them. Let’s get these bastards! Fur das vaterland!” He shouted.

“Fur das vaterland!” They chorused. It had begun.

OOC: Edited my post and OCC Thread. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13124966#post13124966)

The Holy Confederacy had often experimented with genetically modified soldiers, with mixed result. Twenty-eight years ago, it had begun a rather different project. Genetically promising orphans and wards of the state, less than a year old, had been taken to special facilities and... trained.

They spoke a specially tailored and somewhat streamlined language known as Battle Tongue. It was still developing as the Fedaykin expanded it to suit their needs. They were also almost unfailingly loyal, fanatic about fitness and preperation to fight, and generally bad news given human form.

The downside, of course, was that they couldn't be trained in any great numbers. Although given the current situation, as the Holy Confederacy had good relations with both Wanderjar and Undershi, perhaps that was best for all concerned.

The ship now docking at a dock in Undershi was strictly civilian. The men aboard had no idea who the apparentally military men who'd commandered their ship and forced them- through the use of the handful of men who spoke English- to set sail for Undershi, where those same English speakers had transmitted a short, concise, heavily encoded message to the Undershi reading 'The Fedaykin have come- Aeson.' It anchored a ways of the coast and waited for a response.

Undershi submarine Tigershark

Captain Erin McGraw gave a faint smile as the first of the missiles made hits - good hits, kills... he'd known he'd been sent out to die when he'd recieved his orders, but he'd gone out to fight anyways... there was nothing else a man could do if he was to call himself a man.

The first Wanderjar torpedo hit. The entire submarine shook. He smilled, and looked up towards the metal plating over his head, imagining the sky that he'd never see again.

One of the officers on the command deck started to scream, and then there was another hit... he felt drops of water spattering across his face... the lights died, their white light replaced by green emergency lights. He closed his eyes. He could hear one of his officers retching and vomiting, whimpering in terror. He felt like telling him to die with honor, to face death like an Undershi... but what was the point? No one would ever know, and the man had already done his duty. Let him whimper in terror as he died.

He could hear metal cracking, there was another hit. He hear water flowing, like in a shower. It felt like he was in a shower. He smilled at that - he was still in his full dress uniform, uncomfortable collar and synthetic leather boots and all, even the peaked cap that he'd always found ridiculous.

His clothing was soaked through...

There was another hit, and he could feel the water rising rapidly, like water from a tap filling a glass.

He imagined the sun. The water was up to his waist now, and rising. He imagined the sun shining on the white marble of the Undershi Naval Academy, how the stone had felt hot to the touch at noon.

The water was well over his waist and rising.

He imagined a clear sky, so blue and bright that it hurt to look at it...

And he heard a gun shot as one of his surviving officers used his sidearm to commit suicide. He frowned... and then there was another hit, and a bit of sharp wreakage scythed across his head, caving in his skull, and Captain Erin McGraw of the Undershi Navy ceased to exist. He would have been proud - he died well.

Over Undershi

The enemy aircraft were coming in continually, a horde as thick as swarming locust. Simon Ulriksen smilled as his Lightningbolt swerved and wove, it was a deadly little fighter, a fine piece of engineering, and he was its master. He was running on drugs and caffeine, he admitted - too little sleep. This was his third time up since the day began, and all that was left of his squad was his fighter and two others.

They were all aces now. A favorable kill ratio in his squadron... not that it mattered. There were so many enemy fighters... if every Undershi fighter had killed five of them, there would still have been a sixth to come and kill the Undershi. Or so it seemed to him. Probably it was less unbalanced than that... but he had no time to think, enemy bombers were coming in, with fighter escorts above and underneath. So many of them...

He didn't need to speak this time, his wingmen followed his lead automatically - swerve, paint targets, SAMs launched from the surface, then the Undershi pilots added their AMRAAMs to the onslaught, and then they were circling for another attack run.

The Undershi ground-based air defense network was proving itself extremely useful - a bunker with an SAM site could kill dozens of enemy planes for a fraction of the cost... the same idea behind the shore defense bunkers with their anti-shipping missiles.

As if on que, a flight of anti-shipping missiles launched from the entrenched battery bellow. They were off to kill some enemy shipping, off to hit the enemy fleet...

The enemy was learning about pain now. Of that he was certain. Already, thousands of anti-shipping missiles had been volleyed off against their fleets... any navy with ships off Undershi's coast was getting it right now, was being hit and hurt.

As he circled for another attack run, he noticed a flight of cruise missiles coming in... CIWS fire from the bunkers of the Iron Coast took its toll, but a few got through. One bunker killed for a dozen cruise missiles... he wondered how much damage they'd done to the enmy fleet. Enough, he hoped. Please, god, enough...

And then he was attacking again, and there was no time for thought.

Reply

The Aesonic transmission was almost immediatly responded to:

Undershi welcomes you, Aeson.

Saint Rynald Rising

Pfc. Daryl Smith of the 512th Second Line infantry division watched the roofs nervously as his patrol marched down the street. It would just be like these damned fanatic norms to wait for a patrol on a roof with an RPG or a sniper rifle...

But he didn't see anything. Which might or might not be good. It could well mean that the norms were planning something more deadly than a mere shoot-and-scoot... but they hadn't had the balls to try something like that for a long time. Three million of their comrades crucified along the roads had taught them caution, it seemed.

Of course, the last time they'd risen had been during the Hatarian invasion, which had failed... and Undershi was being invaded again. Which could be bad. He'd heard things were getting ugly up along the iron coast. Also, something about a tidal wave, killing hundreds of thousands... it sounded ugly. It sounded bad.

A rattle, as something knocked over a garbage can, drew his attention back down to ground level, as his rifle snapped up to firing position... but it was only a norm child, digging through the garbage looking for food. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The patrol continued. One of the new boys from Undershi province started to talk:

"Almost home now, just a few more blocks and we'll be sitting tight until tomorrow." he was almost immediatly shushed, and he complied as quickly as their glares came his way.

Had he jinxed them, Daryl thought for a moment... but then he discarded that thought, as being unworthy of a True Undershi. Although when you got down to it, few thoughts were worthy of a True Undershi... which might be why they were having so much trouble, True Undershis weren't supposed to think... although he figured that was an illigitimate thought there was well.

One of the corporals turned to say something as they turned the corner. The little fortified compound, the mini-fort that their platoon was based out of, was only about three blocks away, one more turn and they'd be able to see it.

It was just then, when the sun struck the corporal's helmet as he turned, that it happened...



Josef del Cruz watched the Undershi patrol pass as he fingered his rosary. He was glad to be able to strike at the occupiers - a squad of their godless Janissaries had gang-raped his wife, and he wanted revenge...

And he was going to get it. He stroked the G36 he held in his other hand. A gift from his coreligionists overseas. A chance to kill Undershis and wipe from his memory all the things that they'd done... how their administrators had done to his country what their soldiers had done to his wife.

The ambush was well laid, four command-detonated mines of an unknown make, set up quietly in the middle of the night, concealed in garbage... an MG-3 machinegun, two men manning it... then two men with AKMs and one with another G36.

They had a few grenades, too...

He remembered the priest, smilling as he blessed the Warriors of God, giving each dispensation to kill the invaders. Saying that this was a Just War. The G36s had come in wooden crates, fresh from the factory, smuggled in somehow... they'd come with a note signed by a Bishop, something or other in Latin about how the Church was praying for the faithful in Saint Rynald.

Then they'd all gotten a little drunk and gone off to fight.

The rum was wearing off, he admitted, as the Undershi patrol kept walking. A little too much of it, maybe... maybe he'd overdone it.

Then the patrol was turning the corner, strung out and ripe for the kill. And it happened...

All four command detonated mines went off at once, ripping six Undershis to nothingness, reducing their dark grey armour and pale flesh to ruin, all colored crimson by their blood.

The machinegun opened up next, and the riflemen. A hail of fire, cutting into the hated invaders...

The Undershi were good soldiers, they were shooting back almost immediatly. Their rifles were deadly, and they all had underslung grenade launchers, which they used liberally, spraying the buildings around the ambush site with all sorts of death.

One of the men with AKMs rose from cover, gave them most of a magazine... and then a grenade fragment clipped his head, and his blood sprayed, and he was down...

Another two Undershis had died by then, things were looking good...

And then the Undershis took out the machinegun and both of its crew members with their rail rifles. Lucky shots, yes, but the sort of lucky shot that good training and experience made possible, and in fact almost easy.

And then there was a Viper IFV coming up the street towards the ambush site, spraying fire wildly... it took out two of the terrorists. Which left only Josef, screaming and firing his G36, catching another Undershi with his fire, sending him into spasms and shifting aim, wishing only that he could hurt more of them...

And then he was hit in the leg, and went down.



Nine Undershi dead. Pfc. Daryl snarled as he kicked the wounded norm they'd captured. Nine dead Undershi was a disaster...

The norm whimpered. They'd stripped him, and bound his hands, and thrown him down in the middle of the street.

Daryl watched the norm glance nervously at the knife that he held in his hand, and he smilled. A cruel smile. This norm had killed Wan Aacher, a man who'd gone through basic with Daryl, a friend... had shot him like a dog or a norm, from ambush.

It wasn't right. Order needed to be maintained. The guilty needed to be punished. Daryl didn't say anything. He just advanced, and forced the norm onto his back, and reached down, and began to cut...

The norm had started to scream a prayer to his god in a terrified voice as Daryl came at him - as soon as he started cutting, the norm started screaming.

The other Undershi soldiers watched, impassive. They'd all seen things much worse than this, many times.

When he was done, he held up the bloody testicles, and screamed into the norm's face:

"Where is your god now?!?"

And then he stood, and kicked him. The norm kept shrieking, his voice higher pitched now than before.

Daryl glanced at the sergeant, who was smilling at him. These norms needed to be reminded of the penalties for rebelion.

The sergeant spoke to the crew of the Viper, who'd been watching from their vehicle's hatched:

"Let's give him a ride back to base. the IIS will want to talk with him, if he doesn't bleed to death first." Undershis went over to the writhing norm, and a medic began applying bandages... at which point the mortar shells started coming in, and everyone was scattering.

Daryl was just moving for cover when he was hit. A lucky fragment, an unlucky chance. A bit of metal, piercing his groin. He fell to the pavement, and started to scream...

OOC:Im in Great Prussia also and I think I want to get involved in this.

Imperial Palace,Shakal City

The Empress sat down at the head of the board table. The only light came in from the large windows on her right side. The thirty foot high roof contained the light using its well built mirror sytem. She opened the folder befor eher quietly reading the information contained inside. The room remained perfectly quiet. The people seated at the board table did not even breathe as she read and looked at them each in turn before continuing. After an entire minute she spoke. "You all agree on this?" She asked looking at her cabinet. As she looked them in the eye each one nodded. She stopped at the first that glared directly back at her, she knew this would happen.

"No, I do not Empress." Everyone looked, from the minister of Finance to High Field Marshall Mannstein. The one person that spoke against it was one of the two that she reall didnt want to, her closest friend, and the Head if the Kriegsmarine, Grand Admiral Samantha Conners.

"I know very well of your objections, but-" Kristina was cut off shocked.

"Obviously you dont! Each time we head to war the Kriegsmarine is the first to reach the place and land the men, we take all the casilaties and for what?" She said still relativly calm. "All of the wars we have ever been in have given us nothing, no reputation, no land, only the fact that thousands of people died only for our enemy to beg for peace as soon as the Wehrmacht makes landfall!" Samantha explained to the Empress.

The room was shocked that she spoke out, it was on rare occasions that anyone ever even challanged the Empress. A fact she detested, she wanted criticism. The Grand Admiral may be a friend as close as a wife, but she was in public and had to show her will. "I know Admiral, but I will have none of that this time. Our enemy is not another North Calvernas or Hamilay, they are the people of Undershi. We will commit our forces to our Prussian allies and assist in destroying there unrighteous nation." As the Grand Admiral began to interrupt again the Empress silenced her with a glare and a shout, "I WILL HAVE NO MORE OF THIS!" Her vampire wings very briefly sprouted in her anger. The room immediatly silenced itself again. "We shall send a small fleet to join with the forces of The Peoples Freedom and half a million troops. It will be more than enough to secure ourselves a healthy piece of the carved up lands afterwards." With this the room began to empty. Nothing more needed to be said. "Stay behind Admiral." She said as her friend began to leave the room.

Samantha remained behind, in the meantime Admiral Thoma would organize the fleet and men for the campaign. The Grand Admiral remained behind and looked at the Empress. She looked slightly calmer already. The door closed and rang in the large room leaving the two alone. The Empress walked over and pulled Samantha over to the window by the hand. "I do enjoy the defiance at times Sammy." She said with a smile. "But you are the only one i can trust to carry out this mission properly."

"Thoma is perfec-" Samantha was interuppted.

"I know he is perfectly capable of carrying out the mission, but he lacks something that you have." The Empress said to her.

"Really?" She said rolling her eyes. "And what is that?"

"The fact that you want to come home." The Empress said looking into her friends eyes. "The fact that Derrick and I, along with the entire nation, care if you come home. All of our people would gladly die if I ordered it, but you wouldnt, you would call me an idiot and retreat saving the entire Navy from destruction, Thoma would let tens of thousands die following my orders before he even thought of retreat."

"But Derrick does the sam-"

"Well, youve known him longer than even me, so is it fair to say that if he wants something he gets it?" She asked. "I mean, he got all the way to High Field Marshall, and husband of the Empress, and lover of the Grand Admiral in what? Like 3 years?" She said smiling. "Anyways, what I mean is, you will bring the men home if need be, defeat may hurt pride, but utter annihilation hurts the people more than there damaged pride." The conversation went on for an hour before the Grand Admiral went off to rady the fleet. It would not be long before it set out with the men to help crush Undershi.

Saint Lorenz Port City, Saint Rynald Province, The Undershi Empire

Daryl Smith woke in a hospital bed, with clean white sheets. The building was shaking, there was dust falling from the ceiling...

He sat up in bed, and felt dizzy - pain medication? He glanced around the room, it was a hospital, the little medical area in the mini-fort his platoon was holding. Six beds, he was... there was another man in one of the beds, who wasn't moving. There was blood everywhere on his body. He looked dead...

The medic entered a second later, nodding acknowledgement to Daryl as he checked something or other with the closets full of drugs. He seemed to be looking for something...

The building kept shaking, and Daryl asked, haltingly, nervously:

"What's going on?" the medic replied:

"The norms are hitting us with 5cm mortars they got from somewhere. Light little things, but they're moving them a lot. Our air support can't find them quickly enough, and they can get off a couple of shots each before they have to move. We've moved up a battery of 135mm Anaconda SPGs, but they're having trouble hitting the firing sites quickly enough. There seem to be at least five or six mortars out there, and they haven't run out of ammunition yet." Daryl nodded, before asking, nervously:

"What about... my injury?" there, it was said, he'd been hit there, and he wanted to know how bad it was. The medic seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he explained:

"It was... a serious injury. You lost a lot of blood. You're lucky to be alive, the norm didn't live." and the norm had had the same sort of injury, hadn't he...

The medic continued:

"In the end, we had to... amputate... a sizable portion of... the affected area. Unfortunately." Daryl nodded, a bit shocked. To have lost... that part... was not something he had wanted. Almost better to have lost a leg... heck, better to have lost a leg...

The building shook some more, and then there was the sound of heavier guns firing close by, 135mm Undershi guns, doing counter-battery against 5cm mortars...

He hoped that the norms would suffer. He had a momentary thought, savage and hate filled, of the effect 135mm shells would have on unprotected bodies. Brutal... he hoped that the norms who'd injured him would be amoung those getting hit right now...

Then there was a different kind of shaking, more sudden - he glanced at the medic, who'd found some drug and was now filling a syringe:

"What was that?" and the medic replied:

"RPGs. They're infiltrating suicide teams into our perimiter, and are hitting us with them. We're getting most of them before they have a chance to fire a second time, but it's getting ugly." as if to underscore that, they heard the whooshing of VTOL engines as something passed overhead... Daryl glanced upwards, and the medic answered his unspoked question:

"A Crusader VTOL gunship, giving us air support. Everything is going just perfectly. We're hurting the norms worse than they're hurting us."

What happened next seemed to give the lie to that statement. There was a massive explosion, the entire building seemed to shake...

The medic went to a window, looked out of it and cursed, before turning to Daryl and explaining:

"The norms have shoulder-launched AA missiles. They just downed a Crusader." Daryl cursed, that was bad...

The medic came over to his bed with the full syringe, and as the building began to shake from another round of mortar bombardment, he injected Daryl with something. Something which made all the trouble and fighting seem far away, and made sleep possible even with the norms doing their best to kill him...

On The Other Side

Fernando Nasser shouted in triumph as the Stinger struck the Undershi VTOL. He'd always hated those things, they ruled the skies and made life a misery for rebels...

His mind suddenly drew him back, to the times in the mountains. An Undershi Crusader VTOL overhead, firing grenades and lashing the ground with its gauss guns... the pine forest around him was burning, he could smell the scent of his comrades corpses cooking. It had made him mouth water, he'd been so damn hungry...

But then he pushed that thought from his mind. He was not going to panic, he was going to kill Undershis...

The gunners were screaming in joy at their kill, high-fiving each other... they were good men, former Inquisitorial Guard...

No sooner had he thought that then they were ex-men, as an Anaconda SPG rounded the corner and gave them a 135mm canister shell at point blank, firing at zero elevation.

The little fletchets tore away anything soft in their path, Fernando only survived because he was under cover. The Anaconda started moving forward, its coaxial gauss-auto firing into the smoke.

Fernando cursed. He hated armour, with the passion of an infantryman who has faced it on foot without support entierly too mant times. The only missile launcher his men had had had been the Stinger launcher that had just gotten taken out...

The Anaconda advanced past his position, it fired its main gun again as a brave team of untrained zealots tried to attack it with an RPG. They vanished into a fine red mist, nothing left of their bodies. The Anaconda was past him now, and he smilled at that, remembering the weakness of an SPG as opposed to a tank. He checked his belt - two grenades, a MAC-10 machine-pistol, and his rifle, an IDF Defender.

He broke cover, and ran at the Undershi SPG.

The crew had poor visibility behind their AFV, they didn't notice until he was already on top of them. He threw himself on, clambered up to the hatch. There was a pintle mounted gauss-auto, and he seized it and rotated it, firing at a fire team of startled Undershi soldiers who'd been following behind the SPG. He got at least two of them, maybe three, before the others got to cover. The Anaconda crew knew he was there then...

One of them opened the hatch, and came at him with a heavy Undershi Arms 10mm pistol. He was ready, his MAC-10 fired a single long burst right into the Undershi tanker's upper body. The Undershi fell back into the SPG... and his corpse was followed shortly by a grenade. And then the other.

Both were set for short detonation delays. Both went off inside of the SPG. The other Undershis in the crew never stood a chance.

When they died, the SPG went into drive, forward as fast as it could go. The driver must have fallen somewhere inconvenient when he died...

Fernando jumped off the SPG as it accelerated, then watched as it slammed into an old, brick, row house at the end of the street.

Only then did he let himself feel the joy. He'd just killed a tank - well, an SPG, but an AFV none the less... he'd just killed an Anaconda SPG while on foot. Amazing.

He stood still for a fraction of a second, stunned by that realization... but then he was back to reality, going back under cover as the Undershi soldiers began to attack again.

As he fired off a burst from his rifle at an Undershi soldier, he gave thanks to God. Thanks to God for letting him fight back against the satanic Undershi. He only hoped that he would live long enough to see Saint Rynald free again. He could only hope...

Some of the Rynaldi 5cm mortars opened up at that point, hitting the Undershis and making them keep their heads down. Things were going well, as far as he could tell. Sure, the Zealots were losing three or four men for each Undershi they killed... but they were killing Undershis. And... he'd killed an AFV of foot. How many men could say that? Cursed few in Saint Rynald, he thought as he fired off a long burst at an Undershi who looked likely to break cover. Cursed few.

The Fleet
Everything was going well. The Sariels had completed there assignment, disabling and destroying the Undershian SAM umbrella. Around sixty had escaped, while forty had perished. A loss, but worth the cost. Now it was time to cleat the skies of Undershian aircraft. The Armada would get within a mere sixty miles from the coastline, close enough so the Mogami Class Cruisers and other AA vessels in the fleet would rape enemy fighters. The Sparrows were also ready to assault. Over one thousands Sparrows thundered toward the enemy, while the cruisers let loose with a initial volley of one thousand missiles, which had extreme range and traveled at mach four.

Mainland Gnufasur, The Supergun

As the count-down hit ten seconds, a computer-chip voice began to announc the number of seconds remaining.

"Dah

Heha

Aekrd

Cajah

Ceq

Veja

Vuin

Drnaa

Dfu

Uha..."

Commander Jukino stood, holding out one hand. "VENA!" The Supergun discharged its first round.

In the immediate line of fire in front of the Supergun, the shockwave of the shell breaking the sound barrier shattered all glass windows on cars, houses and buildings of all sorts. Several trees were knocked completely over.

The propellant case, itself the size of a full 18-wheeler rig, was backed out of the firing chamber, an external arm removing the empty case and readying to recieve another shell with propellent case.

Within the Supergun control center, the large viewscreen relayed the approximate location of the shell, tracking its progress as it traveled across the world. Another count-down started, this one to time of impact.

A technician reported the estimated time of impact, "Esbyld eh dfu sehidac!"

A two-minute count-down started...

"Esbyld huf!" The technician called out as the counter hit zero.

The Artillery Commander resumed his seat. The time for theaterics was passed. No more posings for him. He was getting too old for the dramatic action shots. "Desa du caluht nuiht?" He asked.

"Dah sehidac!" A Technician announced, "Dfahdo sehidac yvdan dryd du venehk!"

"Luihdehk cramm dnyjam desa... Drendo-drnaa sehidac padfaah aylr cramm red." The Commander said, after briefly doing the math in his own head. 33 minutes between each shell hit is a lot of waiting. At thirteen HE shells, that means that... In less then seven hours, we'll have expended all the HE shells. The President doesn't want the Nuclear or Chemicals shells used. So until more shells are produced, this gun will fall silent in seven hours... He mused to himself...

~~~~~~~~~~~

Near the Dersconi Armada, Cleansing Blade of the Goddess Carrier Battle Cluster

It was a matter of waiting. The Gnufasurians were more then willing to sit back and let the others clear most of the skies, as for every Undershian aircraft downed before the Blade launched its own fighters, the less likely the Gnufasurian would suffer losses in this exchange.

The Loft couldn't launch its Amphibious vehicles carrying the Dogs of War until a beachhead was secured. It was a matter of waiting on all accounts.

~~~~~~~~~

Mainland Gnufasur, EHAV Complex

On the runway for the EHAV complex, Strata-Bombers were being loaded with SeeD Pods, each Pod holding four SeeD SpecOps soldiers. Eigthteen Bombers, each holding ten SeeD pods. The Bombers were designed to fly in the stratosphere, high above most AA defenses range, and drop the SeeD pods far behind enemy lines. Seeding the SpecOps soldiers like their namesake.

As the last Pod was loaded, each of the eighteen bombers took off in succession, taking off to high in the outer atmosphere, safe from the dangerous AA defenses of most modern nations...

They would seed their deadly cargo deep within enemy lines, hitting hem where it hurt most.

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/1953/undershimapzu9.png


And then it began.

The fighters and bombers had been pounding the Undershi for hours. Smart bombs deployed against enemy Government buildings, hoping to cripple their political command over the military, and all other ordinance was deployed against enemy air strips, army bases, armor columns, train tracks, anything of value. If it could assist in the Undershi defense of the region, it had to be, it was, destroyed.

The fighter craft slaughtered all opposition aircraft in the air from afar, using beyond visual range strikes to minimize their chances of close engagement. They didn’t mind getting close in with the enemy, but when from afar they could pick them off with minimal risk, this was preferable in the long run. And it accomplished the same end, the Undershi died. And as long as the enemy craft were thinned into minimum effectiveness, that was all that Feldmarschall von Untergang cared about.

“Make sure they all die damnit!” He shouted to the commander of the Luftwaffe-Marine which was conducting the fighter and bombing runs. “Leave none alive.” He watched as the Air Marshall hovered over his command map in the Command Bridge of the Wanderjarian CV serving as their Tactical Operations Center (TOC).

The commander replied curtly, “That is the general idea, Untergang.”

Untergang gave a menacing glare at the Air Marshal, “The last thing we need, Engel, is for you to be sarcastic. Just bloody well execute!”

“Righto,” Replied Air Marshal Engel, and he continued plotting bombing routes and fighter paths. Von Untergang then proceeded to complete the operation. He gave the order for the invasion.

Klaxons and red alert lights blared throughout the crew compartments of the transport ships. Hundreds of thousands of Wanderjarian soldiers boarded transport craft to take them to the beaches of Undershi. Protected by the innumerable guns which had also been pounding the Undershi coastal defenses for hours, there was doubtfully anything left to fight. And so, when Wanderjarian infantry and armor rumbled onto the beaches and inland, they expected to do so, at least initially, relatively unopposed.

Untergang knew this would be a huge success. As he watched the incredibly vast array of soldiers being transported ashore, even he was awestruck. The sheer power of the Prussian Army was impressive, the raw force which it contained, and would deliver. Millions upon hundreds of millions of men in this great machine, and these were his piece of it. They would bring victory and glory to the Fatherland. Some, perhaps many, would fall in the course of this campaign. But for the glory of the Fatherland, in the great name of the Kaiser, all would be worked out in the end. Prussia’s glory could not be denied.


OOC: The Red Marks the invasion point

OOC: The guy with the first POV believes a lot of Undershi propaganda, and is an idiot. So, no offense intended from his hostile and derogatory descriptions of other nations.

Undershi SAM Site, Iron Coast Defenses

The bunker shook - another direct hit from an enemy missile. Second Line Technical Sergeant Mert Ithlen cursed quietly. The Sariels were annoying, and even if their missiles were too light to kill one of the proper hardened sites, they were hell to the less well defended sites. A real shame, that he hadn't been able to hit them...

But he'd heard from the radio that the fighters sent against them, a few squadrons of ancient Thunderers that had been only a year or two from the scrap heap, had made them bleed, for all of their technological sophistication. And it wasn't as if there was a shortage of targets to choose from - the Wanderjar fliers were cowards, as far as he was concerned, using inefficient methods of attack, darting in above the horizon and then fleeing back to their bases... few of their missiles had any real effect, it was a relief to face them - counter-missiles and CIWS fire, not to mention ECM, took care of most of their efforts without much trouble.

So far, Undershi had not been seriously hurt. So far the enemy had only managed to scratch the surface of the fortress nation. Which was good. There were so many of them...

An alarm sounded, Mert glanced up - another wave of incoming fire, more missiles from Wanderjar. He watched on the radar screen as a few squadrons of Lightningbolts exchanged ultra-longrange fire with them - the Lightningbolt was a very modern fighter, every bit as good as anything Wanderjar had, and he smilled to see them in action. Missile for missile...

A few of the Lightings went down, and he frowned. But they were trading fairly evenly with Wanderjar, and that was good - he'd heard all of the lectures on how norms fought wars. Cowards, like the Hatarians - all bluster, but afraid of cassualties, afriad to lose lives that they held precious. These Wanderjar pilots seemed proof for that concept - they were afraid to get in close and fight, afriad to die, even if it meant that their attacks were less effective... and, that was a good thing - there were so many fighters from Wanderjar - if they were to come in for blood and keep it up, they might well overwhelm the Undershi Airforce.

The bunker shook again - another hit, this one glancing. Mert checked his display, and whispered a curse - one of the CIWS stations had been hit, and was inopperational. A minor problem, but...

Another hit. That was actually getting annoying...

The alarm went off again - another flight of Wanderjar attack craft. This time he sent off a trio of long-ranged missiles after them, probably wasted shots, but still, he was begining to feel nervous, even if he was inside of a very well designed bunker. As safe here as in the government bunkers under Undershi City, they'd told him... somehow he doubted that...

Another hit. Then three more in rapid succession, and dust fell from the ceiling. Mert glanced up, even more nervous now. Another his made even more dust fall, he thought he could see cracks begining to form in the concrete overhead...

A flight of Waderjar attack craft crested the horizon to the north, he let them have a full flight of thirty missiles, launched in rapid succession, emptying the magazines. He'd have to wait a few minutes for the automatic loaders to do their job before he'd be able to fire again...

The entire bunker seemed to shake, and the lights flickered as another missile scored a hit. Mert frowned, afraid suddenly, not just nervous. This bunker was a very well build bunker, a massive thing of reinforced concrete that could hold off any attack, that was what he'd been told. What was happening...

He wished he wasn't so alone. There had been twelve men crewing this site, but they were all gone now, seeing to little details, leaving him alone in the control room... which was the best protected part of the entire bunker, as well guarded as the magazines.

He was just checking on the automatic loader's progress when another two hits occured. The first knocked out power, the second... well, the second penetrated to the magazine, and the bunker went up in a collumn of flame. Mert never knew what had happened.


Over Northland Province

Simon Ulriksen chewed the white pills he'd been given, wondering grimly if they would prove to have some horrid effect on him years from now... or if he would even be alive then to worry.

He hadn't slept in... he had to think for a moment to remember the last time he had slept. At least fourty hours ago, and he'd spent most of the time since in his Lightningbolt. He was not in a good mood. But then, no Undershi was in a good mood now, of that he was certain.

He'd been reassigned when his last wingman went down, a few hours ago... he was commanding a squadron of Reservist fighters now, inexperienced men taking the places of better men who'd died. Undershi had already lost many good men... he'd heard the figure of a tenth of the Undershi Airforce, and that had been hours ago... he didn't know how many were left.

But now he was having a chance to hit back - the Prussians, Wanderjar, were landing troops along the northern coast of Northland. A good choice from a strategic standpoint, although he hoped that a few geographical problems with their choice would hinder their deployment - things like the ice that clung to the coast all year round, or the Arctic conditions... but he doubted that. He'd faced the Wanderjar airforce, and he had to admit that he respected them. As would anyone who went up against them. Their machines were as good as his own Lightningbolt, and their pilots... well, their pilots were better than these Reservists he was taking into combat, that was for sure. Some of them had seemed to be almost as good as he was... and he said that as a man who had shot down more than twenty enemy fighters, counting the fifteen Kampferian fighters. He dreaded what would happen if their commanders lost their fear of cassualties, and let their pilots use their fighters effectively. He feared that, even though the Undershis would doubtless knock a fair few from the sky, it would mean the end of the Undershi Airforce if they did.

All of which had showed him - Wanderjar was a modern nation, with a modern military. Not a bunch of backwards spear-chuckers like the High Command seemed intent on viewing all norms as. They'd cope with the icy conditions, and do so without it seriously slowing them.

But now to concentrate on the present - he glanced at his display - Wanderjar was landing, and he was going up with his squadron as escorts... acting as escorts, along with several other squadrons, for a massive force of Golden Eagle heavy bombers, which would make the norms pay for their landing. All of which would be good. He expected that this would lead to a face-to-face show down with at least some elements of the Wanderjar airforce - in a way he hoped it would. He was so tired that he would welcome death, because it would mean an end to conciousness.


Saint Lorenz port, Saint Rynald Province, The Undershi Empire

Father Joseph Mendez ended the prayer with a flourish, a bit of showmanship for the Zealots who had gathered for his blessing. They were brave, these warriors of God, he thought, as they rose and prepared to recieve communion before going out again to fight the Undershis. They were brave warriors of God, these Zealots, who would fight tanks and VTOLs with petrol bombs and rifles and their faith. They were an inspiration.

One of them asked him to bless his rifle, and Father Mendez did, noticing the well-used nature of the AKM he held while he spoke the words in Latin. Saint Rynald had been occupied since before Vatican II, and the vulgar-tongue mass had never caught on there.

He wondered, as he gave the Zealot back his rifle, how the other leaders of this rebellion were faring. He himself had found a quiet place in the middle of the area of the city that the rebels had seized, and had set up a chapel, where he could give blessings to the Zealots and help them to find God's courage.

Outside, he heard a VTOL passing overhead, firing its weapons continually, and he cringed for a moment... the Undershi VTOLs were deadly, and he had heard that supplies of shoulder-launched AA missiles were short. The revolt had encountered some initial success, but without support it was doomed...

As the Zealots began to leave to fight, he knelt in front of the improvised altar, and began to pray. To pray for some of the nations attacking Undershi to notice little Saint Rynald, and to send help, fighters to clear the Undershi VTOLs from the skies, missiles and mortars and guns... and soldiers. Soldiers would be good. He had, for a moment, a vision of foreign tanks killing Undershis with the same impunity that Undershi tanks killed anything they faced. It was a good image... he only hoped that he would live to see it come true.

SIC:

Diplomatic Communique

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x204/Sgt-Alex/OfficialSealTWSP.gif
To: Whoever it may concern; Derscon
From: Alexander Nevskij, Minister of Foreign Affairs, The World Soviet Party

Greetings,

We have been happy to note that your nation has declared open hostility to that of Undershi, having ourselves recieved refugees from said nation several times.

However, we are currently unable to commit troops or equipment to your campaigns, as we are undergoing several alliance-bussinesses which require our full atention.

Nevertheless, we are willing to donate one hundred (100) billion universal standard dollars to help you support your war-machine.

Please get back at us ASAP.

Signed,
Alexander Nevskij, Minister of Foreign Affairs, The World Soviet Party.

Southland Jungle, Southland Province, The Undershi Empire

The Undershi convoy moved along the rough road way at a snail's pace, a pace set by the lead vehicle, a heavy Viper IFV. The vehicles following behind were lighter, and could have managed better speed if they'd been out on open ground, but they weren't worried about speed, at least, not as much as they worried about ambushes from Southlander rebels. And for good reason, the Southlanders could be very dangerous. But, usually a heavy vehicle, like a Viper, was enough to discourage them. Usually.

Kwan Wei, a fighter in the People's Liberation Army of Southland, watched the convoy pass from concealment. He counter as the vehicles passed... six trucks, a Viper and a six-wheeled Salamander scout-car. A big convoy, a tough target. Good. It would be good to hurt the Undershi in a big way after so long spent desperatly trying to hurt them in little ways...

He clicked a radio he had, two little beeps transmitted. The go code. The Southlanders sprang into action, a mine went off... it was under the Viper, the Viper blew a tread, and slid off to the side of the road, into the ditch. Even before the Viper had stopped moving, three Southlanders were rushing it, carrying heavy leather sacks full with plastic explosives...

The Viper crew was good, they were reacting even as their AFV slid. The gunner opened up with the coaxial light gun, and got one of the satchelmen, cut him down with a long stream of fire, which tracers made look like some sort of magic sword...

Another satchelman died a second later, as the Viper's gunner killed him, too. The third man... well, he was succesful. He got in close, and threw the heavy bag, so that it landed atop the Viper, behind its turret. The explosives went off a second later, as the surviving satchelman sprinted for safety.

The Viper was knocked out, it started to burn as its fuel caught, and ammunition started to cook off...

The Undershi troops riding in the trucks were leaping out and deploying, now... there looked to be about two squads of them, not hated IIS men but the only slightly less despised Army...

The Southlanders attacked at that point, sixty men coming swarming out of the jungle, screaming in rage and joy at the prospect of revenge...

Many of the Southlanders were using bolt-action rifles, old Mousin-Nagants that they'd saved from the Undershis back during the initial invasion. A few had old PPSh SMGs, and a very few had newer AK-47s, AKMs or RPGs... newer weapons, or heavy weapons, were scarce.

The Undershis were caught by suprise, though...

A few Undershis, two or three, went down before they had a chance to react. The rest threw themselves flat, and opened fire with their very modern assault rifles, making liberal use of their underslung grenade launchers...

The Salamander was responding too, turning and putting to use its turreted guns, a 20mm auto-cannon and a coaxial gauss automatic opening fire...

And then the Salamander took several simultaneous hits from Southland RPGs, at least one of which was a lucky hit to some vulnerable spot. The Salamander turret stopped traversing, the scout car was dead...

Which left the soldiers on foot, and...

Right on signal, as the Southlanders managed to blow up one of the trucks, a trio of Undershi VTOLs, a heavy Crusader and a pair of lighter Paladins, appeared overhead. Immediatly they were laying down fire on the guerillas, killing dozens in seconds...

The Southlander counter-fire was ineffective, if determined - bolt-action rifles fired into the sky, small arms used for a purpose that they were simply not up to...

And then the Southlanders did something unexpected. The Undershis had known that the Southlanders had s few 5cm and 8cm mortars lying around... they'd just never expected for those mortars to be used like this...

The VTOLs had been hovering low over the road, at about the level of the tree line, not bothering much with evasive manuvering. Good targets. A 5cm mortar fired into one of the Paladins, point-blank. Probably the first time a mortar was used as an AA weapon...

The Paladin was killed, was hurt and sent crashing down to earth. A wonderful moment for the Southlanders...

The Crusader and the remaining Paladin immediatly directed some of their fire towards the mortar crew, and took them out in a moment of fiery destruction. After that, the Southlanders were off balance. A few of their number shot off RPGs at the Undershi VTOLs, and they actually seemed to damage the Crusader, but both remained airborn, and both kept up their devestating fire.

As the VTOLs supported them, the Undershi infantry began to advance, seeking out the Southlanders and destroying them... while at the same time another Paladin VTOL gunship and a pair of Air Infantry Arctic Finch transport VTOLs appeared overhead.

The Southlanders had lost nearly fifty men at that point, and were trying to disengage... Kwan Wei was cursing as he worked the bolt on his Mousin-Nagant, the ambushers had become the ambushees...

And then he watched as the second part of the trap was sprung. Two shoulder-launched SAMs, modern ones, ones that the Undershis had had no idea that the Southlanders could have, were deployed. Both of the Arctic Finch transport VTOLs, each carrying a squad of True Undershi Air Infantry, were killed. Twenty plus True Undershi cassualties, just like that...

The surviving Southlanders cheered, and the Undershis hesitated... and another missile took out the huge Crusader VTOL gunship, and it crashed amoung the trucks, destroying three or four of them... and then the pair of Paladin VTOLs laid down withering fire on the locations the missiels had come from, and the jungle was burning, and the Undershi soldiers on the ground were shouting as they began to charge...

Kwan Wei slid back, and began to crawl away. Today had been a good day for Southland, even if his estimation was true, and nearly every one of the sixty men who'd begun that ambush were dead. They'd used missiles, they'd killed VTOLs... he only wished every day could be like that one.

As he made his way back to camp, he could only wonder about one thing - why was it that the Central Commitee was prepared to commit so much to major attacks at this time? Was something going on outside of Southland that he didn't know about? He wished he knew... he wished that he knew what the future would hold.

DCNS Abnegation of Polydeuces
Tempora Heroica (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=473299) Class Vessel, Command Ship for DC Forces in Undershi Theatre

The conference table was massive, stretching nearly from one end of the room to the other. It was an elegant, if oversized piece of furniture, its surface polished steel that held in front of every seat a computer display.

It was the people seated around the table, ofcourse, that were of much greater interest to Fleet Admiral Eindhoven as he entered the military meeting room. With officers present from the the twenty Naval Action Groups (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Democratic_Colonies_Military#Naval_Action_Groups) and ten Marine divisions assigned to the operation against Undershi, the room was understandably abuzz with conversation and discussion among the ranks, although this quickly died down as Eindhoven made his way to a seat at the front of the table.

"Thank you all for coming," said Eindhoven as the last of those under his command fell silent. He motioned to a woman wearing a foreign uniform seated next to him.

"For those of you who haven't met her, this is Colonel Annastasia Valekya, our Dersconi liaison officer," Eindhoven continued, prompting a few subdued greetings.

"Now, getting down to business," Eindhoven proceeded briskly, "I have gathered the senior officers - or their representatives - here today because Central Command back in Viconia has issued us our new orders. Now, as you all know, our initial plan of attack on Undershi called for a liberation of Paxton; this, ofcourse, was changed once we were informed that forces of the Greater Prussian Empire would be responsible for Paxton. I will admit, this through us off a bit, but with this new plan, we should be back in the thick of it shortly."

The eyes of men and women around the table followed Fleet Admiral Eindhoven as he rose and activated a wall mounted flatscreen which displayed the Undershi Southland Province and the surrounding areas.

"Southland Province is not an area in which I nor Central Command wish to commit ground troops to," explained Eindhoven. "There are however, two tasks we wish to accomplish in Southland Province that we hope will aid the greater campaign against Undershi.

"First, we intend to attack what is known as Phoenix Island, off the south-east coast of the southern tip of Southland Province. We have confirmed that there is an Undershi airbase there, and we intend to take it. Our attack on the Phoenix Island airbase will be spearheaded by a force of 4,320 Rogues (http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/index.php?showtopic=1103), commanded by Sky Captain Welland," said Eindhoven. He nodded at a man far down the table, Sky Captain Welland, who raised his hand.

"Sir, the F-72 Rogue is first and foremost a stealthy air superiority fighter, sir," said the Sky Captain nervously. "My Rogues can accurately deliver air-to-ground munitions, but the aircraft will simply be very limited in payload if we are to maintain our stealth."

"This has been accounted for, and it has been decided that the element of surprise brought offered by the stealthy F-72 Rogues makes them the best choice for this first strike, even if their payloads are not the greatest," replied Eindhoven. "Continuing on, of the 4,320 Rogues dispatched, 3,240 will be armed for air-to-air engagement. A further 270 will be equipped with HARM missiles and 810 equipped with precision air-to-ground munitions; both in addition to IRIS-T (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIS-T) self-defense armament."

"While this sortie against the Phoenix Island airbase is taking place, protective cover of our fleet will be maintained by the remaining 4,320 F-72 Rogues and 2,880 Beholder R. II (http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/index.php?showtopic=471&hl=) interceptors which will remain onstation or ondeck," explained Eindhoven. "Continuing on, once the sortie against the Phoenix Island airbase has eliminated any major defensive abilities of the airbase, the entire fleet shall move inwards towards the island and will land our ten Marine divisions to seize the airbase. After it has been secured, the airbase will be repaired and eventually put into operation, thus providing our associates in the DC Air Force a forward facility from which they can operate their strategic bombers and other land based aircraft."

"While the airbase is being repaired and put back into operation, however, our carrier airwings will move onto our second task," continued Eindhoven, "bombing and close air support for Maoist rebels in the Southland Province mainland."

"But there will be no deployment of Marine or Special Operations forces into the jungle terrain of Southland Province?" asked a Marine officer, raising his hand.

"Outside of regular search and rescue missions in the event of any of our aircraft being shot down, no," replied Eindhoven.

"How much resistance are we expecting on Phoenix Island?" asked another officer.

"We're not sure, but we believe the surprise Rogue sortie should be successful," replied Eindhoven.

"And over the Southland Province mainland? How much resistance?" the officer continued.

"We are not expecting overly heavy resistance," replied Eindhoven. "Our best intelligence at this time indicates that there isn't anything of particular value in the province, so we're expecting limited SAM positioning. Most of the Undershi fighter aircraft are apparently wrapped up around Paxton, and will be for the next while."

The room fell silent as there were no more questions.

"Colonel Valekya," asked Fleet Admiral Eindhoven, addressing the Dersconi liaison officer. "Do you have any suggestions or concerns you would like to voice?"

Bridge Of SIN Armageddon

The travel had went well. The vessels were nearing Undershi and were making to meet with the TPF Armada. The Grand Admiral looked out the window and was getting ready to call the TPF commanding officer. The Shakal navy was smaller than she was used to commanding, but still a force to be reckoned with. The transports followed behind carrying the Shakal Kaiserliche Marine Armee consisting of some half a million Marines and Air Cavalry forces.

DCNS Abnegation of Polydeuces
Tempora Heroica (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=473299) Class Vessel, Command Ship for DC Forces in Undershi Theatre

Ideas and plans were still being discussed in the conference room, so it went unnoticed as a single low ranking figure slipped in through a side entrance. Holding a dossier and a freshly decrypted list of orders, it was this modest aide who captured the attention of Fleet Admiral Eindhoven, drew his attention away from the Sky Captains and Colonels and Commodores who shared his meeting table. The Fleet Admiral listened intently as the aide spoke, his face betraying nothing but his mind already working.

"Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen," he interrupted as his aide once again disappeared from sight. "I'm afraid the Foreign Intelligence Directorate has detected a large seagoing force from the Blackhelm Confederacy currently en route to reinforce (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=540971) the government of Undershi. Details are still unavailable at this point, but we do know that it is already under way, and it is significant in size. New orders have just arrived from Viconia - we are to move to intercept the Blackhelm forces before they reach the shores of Undershi or Undershi occupied territory. The Dersconi of the GPE have been consulted, and it has been agreed that it will be the DC fleet who have the first crack at the incoming Blackhelm forces."

"Will we be receiving any GPE reinforcements?" asked one of the many Naval officers seated around the table.

"Allow me one moment," came the response from Colonel Valekya, the Dersconi liaison officer assigned to the DC fleet in Undershi. She produced an odd looking phone which she held to her ear as the others around to table continued with their questions.

"What about our Marine transports and logistical ships?" asked another officer.

"You can leave them with the Dersconi fleet," said Valekya, slipping her phone away. "The Dersconi fleet will attach a carrier battlegroup to your formation and take on whatever transports and support craft you wish while it stays here to press the assault on Undershi."

"Very good," nodded Eindhoven. "All of the assembled DC task force here then, all twenty Naval Action Groups (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Democratic_Colonies_Military#Naval_Action_Groups) and the thousand Kidd Class Destroyers serving as our screening force, shall move to intercept the Blackhelm forces immediately. Any further questions?"

The conference room was silent even as it seemed that the scope of the conflict had changed. The mission had gone from one of attack and invasion to sea interception in the course of an hour - but such was the nature of war; to be unexpected, to be unpredictable.

"No questions then? Alright, dismissed. I expect the entire task force to be moving on away from Undershi an intercept course with the Blackhelm fleet in ten minutes."

Pheonix Island Air Base

Janissary ground crews swarmed over the massive bulk of an Undershi Golden Eagle heavy bomber. They worked desperatly, struggling to get the bomber ready for another mission against the rebels in Southland. A True Undershi overseer shouted orders as they worked, gesturing wildly. He was the only worker there with anything beyond basic technical training in a single area of the maintainence work. He had a degree in engineering, a common thing amoung Undershis who did not choose a military career.

The missiles and bombs caught them by suprise. They'd been hearing the sirens for a while now, and had even seen the fighters killing each other overhead a little ways away - there had been only sixty fighters based there, and all sixty had flown off and died...

Now they were being hit... the enemy attack craft came in, and let loose with their payloads...

The Golden Eagle was hit, the janissaries were thrown through the air, or at least parts of them were...

The Undershi overseer, who'd been a good way from the heavy bomber, watched the wreakage burn for a few seconds. Then he checked his sub-machinegun, and walked down the air strip.

An entire row of eight Crusader VTOLs, caught on the ground, exploded in rapid succession. A pair of lighter Paladin VTOLs were rising off the ground... but one was hit with a missile, and it came apart, and a large flaming chunk of its structure struck the other Paladin... they both went down in flames onto the landing pads.

The air base had a few SAM sites, and they were doing their best... he walked past a bunker with a SAM launcher, watched sweating, scared, janissaries load another magazine of five SAMs into the launcher. One of them had been hit by a stray fragment, there was a stream of blood running down his shoulder... it was staining his sleevless artilleryman's jacket, ruining the dark grey fabric...

As the Undershi walked past, a bomb found the bunker, and took it out in a ball of flame and debris. The True Undershi kept walking, as the airbase died around him.

There were fewer than 4,000 soldiers on Pheonix Island... there was no way, even with help from pilots and ground crews and clerks and all the other Undershis, all given guns, that they would stop a determined effort to take the island. But they would try. They would try, and they would kill as many enemies as they could before they died trying. There was nothing else an Undershi could do.

Undershi Fleet Command, Port Baxter

Fleet Admiral Alan Turek watched the display as Undershi submarine squadrons left their harbor, moving towards the enemy fleet. Things were about to get interesting...

As he watched, the Air Force did its part of the job - too few fighters left to spare many of them... but there were plenty of anti-shipping missiles...

20,000 anti-shipping missiles launched at the assembled fleets of the Democractic Colonies, TPF and Wanderjar. The pain was only begining...

Pudite First Battle Group, Fleets Alpha through Mu, The Far Horizon
The sea frothed with respect, bowing out of the way to allow the passage of the mightiest Pudite surface fleet ever to grace the oceans. The combined force embodied by the First Fleet - commanded by the First Sea Lord Grand Admiral Kadova - numbered thousands of ships, fully twelve complete Battle Groups of the Imperial Pudite Navy. Over fourteen-thousand ships crashed over the waves, subduing the water itself with their might, bound in force - and in haste - for the southern waters of the Empire of Undershi.

It had been a long time since the last Pudite general had led a campaign alongside the forces of the Corporate Alliance, a long time since any sons of the Emperor have died for his 'mutual interest'. But the time had come again, and none would hesitate. They knew their duty, and their lord. He would not betray them so lightly, and so they vowed to not surrender themselves lightly either...

A storm was brewing on the horizon.

Assembled thousands of miles to the north, combined fleets of The PeoplesFreedom, the Democratic Colonies, and, worst of all, Wanderjar, were even then battering the shores of Undershi, launching millions of their own soldiers at the sands. And so far, there had been very little show on the part of the Undershi's...

This would change. Now, moving north at thirty-knots, the Pudite First Fleet was bound for the shores of Undershi, and war.

Commanding the monolithic force - reassigned from the fighting off the coast of Yeltsmin only weeks before - the Grand Admiral himself was standing then at the bridge of the Emperor Pudu XLII, his flagship, and most powerful vessel. The Hood-class supercapital…

Flanking this majestic creature, shadows in its wake, were dozens upon dozens of other capital and supercapital warships. The Calypso-class dreadnaughts, by name and by ability, the gods of the sea, followed by Roydia-class battleships, and hundreds of others besides…

The heaviest surface combatants alone may outnumber the minuscule forces arrayed against them...

Inside the vast protective crescent that was the hallmark of the Imperial Navy's shining white fleets, the carriers of the force sailed. On their decks, and in the air above, over fifty-thousand fighters and interceptors were making this same pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage; A journey to the glorious destruction of the foreign invader and the resolution of the conflict with swift manifestation of flesh and steel...

Resting in the bowels of the fleet, the entirety of three-hundred superheavy transport ships, was the real hammer of the expedition. Three-million soldiers, a full Army Group of the Peditatus mechanized infantry, were bound for the shores of Undershi. They would be dispatched farther south, deployed before the main fleet engaged in battle - to avert any undesirable troop losses.

Following these two-hundred gargantuan ships, were one-hundred like. These craft, however, unlike their gleaming white counterparts, were painted with a matte black. No sunlight reflected off their great hulls, there was no great shining aura about these beasts...

Inside, were contained the anvil of the Peditatuss' hammer - two great Legions of the Praetorian Guard were contained within, at the black heart of the great white fleet... It was their unbreakable fervor and sheer tenacity of their warriors that would wipe the field clean of the enemy’s soldiers...

The horizon would darken for the fires the Emperor would set upon the heathen vessels; the sky would rain metal for the destruction He would visit upon their fliers; the rivers would swell with blood for the death He would inflict on their armies...

Faced with the first real crisis of her presidency, President Senna Senna sat at her lavish desk, her arms folded. The shift of the nation's neutral policy in bringing the Federation into the Corporate Alliance was controversial.

More than controversial, it had rocked the very foundations of the Federal Constitution, and the High Court was still debating on the legality of permitting the Federation into joining an alliance which she did not lead.

Nevertheless, Undershi was an official ally now, and under VDF protocol, the defense of the allies of the Federation was a very high priority. The problem was, how to assist? The Pacific and Arctic fleets were busy now defending the Federation because of the War. And the Atlantic Fleets were still being assembled.

A thought struck her then. Oh yes, and she knew exactly how to respond.

Tiger Naval Station
Vuhifellian territory of Iluxor
Headquarters for the Ceres Ocean Fleet Command

Fleet Admiral Stephen Harper looked up and down the port of Tiger Naval. There were too many piers, and they stretched as far as the eye could see. Even out in the clear blue waters of the Ceres Ocean, there were floating docks for the capital ships to dock.

He walked briskly to a small, beige building in front of a rather large, conspicuous ship with no apparent armaments. Only satellite dishes and antennae convered the ship. It was the the electronic warfare vessel, VFS Nyson Rei, also flagship of the Ceres Defense Fleet.

Inside the beige building were several men and women in their dress uniforms. The base's officers' lounge. Several admirals and commanders were here, as well as the captains of all the capital ships.

"Alright people, we've just recieved orders from central FLEETCOM in North Point. I shall read the notification to you all. Verification Alpha Alpha Zulu Zero Zero Nine Tango Two Three Hotel.

CENT-FLEETCOM MESSAGE to
CRS-FLEETCOM

Presidential Directive authorized by Council of War. Vuhifellian Ceres Defense Fleet to mobilize for deployment of no less than 80 percent of forces. Allied nation of Undershi under naval and aerial assault. Primary objective: maintain a safe zone around Undershi waters of at least 5 kilometers in areas to be determined by FRN-N-FLEETCOM. Secondary objective: To secure safe aerial passage of 192 Special Combat Division and 17th Marine Division. Tertiary objective: To secure safe aerial passage of permanent political and economic envoy to the nation of Undershi.

Codename for this Operation will be: Thunder Dawn.

3rd Air Force will be supporting you in this operation.

END MESSAGE FROM CENT-FLEETCOM to CRS-FLEETCOM.

AAZ009T23H

"These orders come directly from the President herself. Have all enlisted personel in formation in two hours. That is all."

As the officers rushed outside of the building, struggling to reach their vessels' barracks, Fleet Admiral Harper stood in that room, looking out the window to the Rei. Hundreds upon hundreds of vessels would soon be off towards foreign waters. Off to war. It pained him to know that many of the fine sailors that would leave today would never see the Motherland again...

Saint Rynald

All day, Dersconi planes have been going back and forth, dropping propaganda leaflets on the population, with watermarks of the cross taking up the entire page, the bold text, denouncing the Undershi tyrants and saying that the Prussians came in the name of God. Which they were.

Fleet Admiral Kovasi Bozshovich knew that resistance would be light, and that the coastal arrays were minimal. But, just to be sure, a carrier battle group was sent ahead. Attached to the CBG was a Feuerregen augmentation, as well as a School of Defence.

The planes were immediately launched to go clear off the coastal defences, and a cloud of missiles launched from the arsenal ships of the Feuerregen augment fleet, to rain down upon the AA and anti-ship batteries and ensure the aircraft were met with as little mechanical resistance as possible. It was expected that they'd be able to land on the main island by sundown. Once the beach-head was cleared as much as possible by air and sea, a Marine Expeditionary Force would immediately land and spread out and secure a base of operations, so the Legio Dei militia can land and disperse to help out the local population in their rebellion. And all of this was only to buy a day for the Second Army to start landing, under command of Anzusgeneral Jormund von Donnersberg.

Intelligence speculated that Saint Rynald would not be difficult to occupy, and this was perfectly fine. Second Army was not expected to spend much time in Saint Rynald -- occupation would quickly be turned over to the Schutzstaffel divisions on their way over, but predominantly lead and directed by the Legio Dei.

Star Office, Tsarheim, Grand Kremlin Palace

"What the hell?" Xavier paced back and forth at the news of Undershi allies joining the fight. He expected allies, yes, but not this early.

"Sir, we have more than enough forces out there to sustain a war with all of them." Xavier shook his head.

"Yes, this means we're not equally matched. This is unacceptable. Marko," he said, turning to his CinC-NAV. "I want you to deploy however many Grand Fleets to Undershi you would think necessary." He then stared down Imperial Aeromarshal Herrfuchs Ljossalfheimer, CinC-AIR.

"Swarm the skies with whatever you deem necessary. Intercept the enemy fleets before they get the chance to do damage. You are cleared to use space assets to accomplish your goal." He went back to his desk and looked over his General Staff.

"Keep the enemy from landing on Undershi. I want his new allies to be the focus of the assault, not Undershi. Undershi can do nothing to Derscon. More people in the game means more methods of attack. Get them out of the picture. I don't care how, just do it."

First Grand Fleet has been doing nothing except sitting around the Kraken, waiting for the Prussian forces to secure Paxton, and Derscon to take Saint Rynald.

Now they had a mission -- stop Pudu, using any means necessary.

Bad news? The First Grand Fleet did not number to fourteen thousand ships.

Good news? The missile arsenal was well above that number,and the First Grand Fleet was very, very submarine-oriented. And Fleet Admiral Berzhinsky just got word from Ljossalfheimer that the Heavens smiled upon them.

Whatever that meant.

In SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

The ODG received its orders, and sent those orders to several of the weapons satellites to position themselves over the current track of the Pudu fleet. The satellites numbered enough, and carried well over enough, to lob down tens of thousands of kinetic rods.

Unfortunately, hitting a ship from space is generally an inaccurate an ineffective task. On Derscon's side, though, was the Law of Massive Numbers -- The more of something there is, the easier it is to hit. Also, the more of something one has, the easier it is to hit something. So dropping twenty thousand kinetic rods from space, aimed at fourteen thousand Pudu ships, someone is going to die.

And, luckily, even the rods that do miss will do damage -- the sheer force of the rods hitting the water, combined with the sheer force of the other rods hitting the water, will generate such waves and forces as to potentially flip some of the smaller boats, and, failing that, making all of the crews of all of the Pudu ships so ridiculously dizzy and sick as to render them totally useless. And all of this from launching twenty thousand kinetic rods.

So they did.

Ceres 1st Naval Taskforce

Out of all the fleets the Federation had in her possession, the Ceres Fleet was the smallest, and for obvious reasons. It was no more a defense fleet than an imperial fleet, subduing all neutral islands that stood in her way and annexing them for the Federation. Nevertheless, it was an impressive sight to see.

Ships of all sizes rocked the dark waters, sailing for an new ally which they had no knowledge of, but they were willing to fight for. From the relatively small submarine-hunting corvettes to the super-massive saircraft carriers which could be seen miles away, the fleet of 6000 sailed for Undershi. Underneath the waves, several submarines gracefully slid through the waters.

Onboard the Nyson Rei, Fleet Admiral Harper stood in the bridge, looking at a vast array of sensors from the ship and the fleet.

A naval ensign called his name, quickly saluted, then handed him a report.

"Sir! We have established that at least three hostile navies move towards Undershi, and, along with ours, we have confirmed a friendly fleet beloning to the Pudite Armed Forces."

"And what of Undershi herself?"

"Of this we do not know, sir."

"Then why are you pestering me? The world's navies can only do so much to harm our ally. If enemy troops have soiled her lands, that would be a serious problem."

"Um.."

"Inform allied forces that we are on our way, find a port somewhere in the Northland or Paxton provinces of Undershi to resupply and unload. A port that can be used as a temporary home port please, ensign. I don't want my capital ships docked away from the support vessels."

"Yes sir!"

The Kraken

Darii looked over the intelligence once more, and did a double take. "The Vuhifellian States...?" He called his chief of staff in and pointed.

"Who the hell are these guys?" The Chief shrugged.

"Really, sir? We have no idea. They're evidentally helping Undershi?"

"A republican state helping an oppressive tyrannical regime? Ah, well, such is politics. Kill them all, I'm sick of this."

"Yes, sir."

OOC: I'll wait until Wanderjar responds before dealing with anything in Northland Province - until then it's in limbo. Ditto with Pheonix Island and TPF. However, with Saint Rynald Province, here's a response.

Saint Rynald Province, The Undershi Empire

There wasn't much left in Saint Rynald Province for the Dersconi to hit. Most of the Undershi assets there were pulling back, or were already destroyed. Intel reports said that the insurgents had already killed at least 6,000 Undershi troops...

Landing Site

When the Dersconi troops landed, no Undershis opposed them. It took them a while to find an Undershi, and when they did, they almost felt sorry for him. He'd been tortured horrifically, then impaled on a wooden stake, in the forest near the beach.

It wasn't until a little after that that they met their first Rynaldi. They found a little village, a place that looked as though it would have been quaint if it wasn't for the fact that the Undershis had gone through a little while ago. They'd herded every man and boy they could find into the church, then burned it and shot anyone who tried to get out. They'd crucified the priest in the town square, although he was still alive since someone had taken him down once they'd left, in a hurry to avoid the bands of guerillas roaming the country side and link up with retreating Undershi forces.

The women there greeted the Dersconi soldiers with literal open arms and flowers. The Undershis had done so much to them... they showed as much joy to see the Dersconi as anyone had ever shown a liberator before. It was all rather pathetic, that they would be so miserably happy...

Undershi Retreat, Close to the Landing Zone

The overlanden Ox Utility Truck sped along the bad road, bouncing this way and that at every pot hole. It followed the Salamander Scout Car closely, and another Ox Utility Truck followed it.

All three vehicles were overloaded - they were carrying a full platoon of fifty very nervous IIS men who'd just completed their orders to kill every male norm they could find before withdrawing. They were left to wonder if they would find the main Undershi force before the guerillas found them...

"Sir! Missiles inbound!" Fleet Admiral Kovasi Bozshovich shot over to the display screen.

"Four thousand missi--"

"GRAB DA SHOTGUNZ THAR BE ZOMBEEZ LOOSE!" Admirla Kovasi glanced over at his Captain of Defence with a a bottle of Allistaire Vodka in his hand, smashing the big red button to activate the Emergency Defence Protocols, and shrugged.

"Well, that's one way to do it."

*******************

A few of the Feuerregen groups immediately lit up -- they were the arsenal ships specifically designed for missile defence. Thousands of antimissile missiles -- which equated to massive frag grenades with an engine -- shout out into the sky, as drone fighter-bombers from the advance carrier group took off, the source of the missiles having been pinpointed and targeted for destruction.

Back in the CIC of the flagship, Admiral Kovasi was partaking in his captain's Vodka as the tension rose. And then the final report came in -- most of the missiles were taken out, some outright missed. Unfortunately, the advance carrier group took massive damage: both destroyer groups were gone, as were most of the feuerregen groups. The carrier miraculously survived, which Admiral Kovasi thanked God for, since He was the only one who could have saved that carrier.

A few more bomber drones were launched from the flagship, to finish off any missile batteries, and that was about it for the sea. AT this point, their only purpose was to start landing SS and Legio Dei forces on Saint Rynald itself, to weed out any guerillas, and start rebuilding the area.

Admiral Yamamoto was in his private stateroom, at his desk....spinning in circles on his chair. Even very elderly senior military officials needed to blow some steam sometimes. A knocking at his door, however, brought him back to reality. Standing up and straightening out his uniform, he strode to the door and opened it. A young ensign bowed low and held up a paper memo for him. Curtly taking the paper and dismissing the young man, Yamamoto retreated into his room and read it. Upon completion, he crumpled it, threw it into a trash can, and made his way to the FCIC. There, the officer on duty brought him up to speed,

"Sir, we've noticed approximately three new fleets inbound to Undershi, all hostile. Currently, the closest fleet is from The Vuhifellian States. Their number is an estimated 6000 surface and submerged vessels."

Yamamoto pondered for a moment and looked over the battlefield screen, taking note of the Dersconi's engagements. They're already having fun. "What do you believe their current objective is?"

"Sir, they appear to be making course for Paxton or Northland."

Though he knew the answer already, he decided to take his officer's opinions into consideration. "Do you think we are in a position to intercept, Captain?"

"Yes Sir. The fleet can be moved to intercept their forces if they try to reach either Paxton or Northland," the Captain replied enthusiastically.

"Very well, change course to intercept the Vuhifellian ships. Let me know when they come into maximum cannon range. Better yet, give me some heads up. Let me know when they're about 50 nautical miles out, at 325 nautical miles," he said grimly.

"Aye Sir. I'll alert you at RTT 325."

With that, the old man walked out of the FCIC and to the main stairwell, stretching all the way down the ship's height. Nobody noticed the super-bouncy-ball he was slipping out of his pocket.

Saint Rynald

The Marine Expeditionary force already pushed through the first town they liberated, and was quickly working on smashing whatever guerilla factions were left.

Back in the town, The Legio Dei militiamen were already working on reconstructing the church that was burnt down, having cleaned out the rubble and held an elaborate funeral for the dead. The crucified priest was carried out by helicopter several days ago, back to the carrier, where a suitable hospital was available to stabilize him.

The militia was not wasting any time -- they were rebuilding the town faster than most construction companies with a Gold Contract from the Kremlin could build bases, and ensuring that whatever populace that was left was well cared for, with other organizations of GICAPFAH that were along with them helping build hospitals and schools, as well as bringing in clergymen to help with counselling the townspeople.

The SS, on the other hand, were busy fortifying the town, as this town would be the new Field Headquarters -- Marshal Darii was flying in that evening since the Kraken was being used in combat operations, and the AA batteries were set up, and the SS divisions were heavily patrolling the immediate area. Word in the town was that the Second Army was already beginning to land, but they were too far away to notice the army landing.

[OOC: Is this the same Saint Rynald that I blew the shit out of with the Khornate Tribes? If so, I must rectify this situation immediately!]

[OOC: Is this the same Saint Rynald that I blew the shit out of with the Khornate Tribes? If so, I must rectify this situation immediately!]

OOC: No, this is the MT version - you blew the crap out of the FT version. The MT version is occupied by (and enslaved by) Undershi.

Oh, guys - more stuff later - responses too, I promise!

While the DC fleet at Undershi struggled to defeat the submarine attack (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13171998#post13171998) against them, a threat possibly even greater than that was en route via air. 9,500 UA-AASMs, Undershi Arms Advanced Anti-Shipping Missiles, were steadily making their way towards their targets at just over mach 0.7.


Long Range Air Patrol

While the missiles were certainly deadly if they managed to meet their targets, they were far from perfect in nature. Their modest speed and ready appearance on RADAR led to the early death for some of the missiles as F/I-58 Beholders (http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/index.php?showtopic=471&hl=) detected them and moved to defend their fleet.

The long range detection of missiles and other airbourne threats was the primary duty of the Beholders as they formed the Long Range Air Patrol over the DC fleet. This, they had accomplished, but even as they fired their Lightning (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11170462&postcount=38) and IRIS-T (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIS-T) missiles at the incoming UA-AASMs, the pilots of the massive Beholder interceptors knew that they could not hope to stop the wave of anti-ship missiles alone. Patrolling in a massive ring around the DC fleet, the Beholders were the first line of defense for the fleet - a task which spread them thin. Of the 2,880 Beholders carried aboard the 80 aircraft carriers of the DC fleet at Undershi, only a scant 90 were ever in a position to fire their weapons at the incoming UA-AASMs. Those 60 Beholders did make a difference, for at the cost of 960 air-to-air missiles of various types, tens of thousands of rounds of cannon ammunition, and hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel pumped into afterburners, over 700 UA-AASMs were shot down. The UA-AASMs were smaller targets than optimal for the air to air missiles fired at them, but for those that were successfully hit, that fact made little difference.

Their munitions expended and their fuel low, the Beholders were left without any further recourse as the remaining UA-AASMs continued on their murderous course.


Destroyer Screen

While the screening force's primary role was to safeguard the fleet against enemy submarines, the Kidd Class Destroyers that made up the force were also equipped with RIM-66 Standard Missile 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_missile#RIM-66_SM-2_Medium_Range_Block_III.2FIIIA.2FIIIB) Surface to Air Missiles. The time was short and the range was sometimes long, but 16 of the screening force managed to maneuver into firing range before the UA-AASMs passed them by.

While the SM-2s very rarely managed to actually hit their targets, their large fragmentation warheads meant that they didn't need to. While the SM-2 was doubtlessly effective, inflicting a kill for every launch, the 16 Kidd Class Destroyers were only able to fire so many from their outdated quad-launchers. 128 of the SM-2s; the missiles already on the launchers, were fired, while the rest waited in their magazines, awaiting the steady arm of a robotic crane to load them into the quad-launchers for their chance at flight. By the time this occurred, the UA-AASMs were out of range and further still towards the core of the DC fleet at Undershi, the aircraft carriers and battleships.


Close Range Air Patrol

The Close Range Air Patrol was made up of F-72 Rogues (http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/index.php?showtopic=1103&hl=), the aircraft that was the most common among the hangers aboard the carriers. Maneuverable and stealthy, the Rogues were the primary dogfighters of the fleet - and in this instance, the last obstacle before the UA-AASMs had to overcome before reaching the twenty Naval Action Groups (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Democratic_Colonies_Military#Naval_Action_Groups) which included the carriers and battleships of the DC fleet at Undershi, the core of the fleet and their organic escorts.

With the time provided to them by the UA-AASMs modest speed and the early warning of the Long Range Air Patrol, the Reserve Air Patrol had had time to bolster its ranks. 2,160 of the fleet's 8,640 embarked Rogues had already been airbourne, but aircraft scrambling off the flightdecks of the 80 carriers had grown that number to over 4,000.

As the Rogues moved into optimal firing position, the carriers and battleships grew nearer and nearer still. As Lightnings and IRIS-Ts flew out of weapons bays, the CIWS guns aboard the fleet's capital ships began to spin up. The UA-AASMs were smaller targets than the Rogue pilots were accustomed to, but with multiple missiles fired at every sub-sonic UA-AASM, hits were bound to eventually occur, albeit perhaps not on the first, second, or even occasionally third attempt.

While the earlier two lines of defense had thinned the ranks of the missile strike somewhat, it was the final line, the Close Range Air Patrol, that sent the vast bulk of the missile strike to the ocean depths. With fewer than three UA-AASMs per fighter to engage, the Undershi missile strike was doomed as missile after missile was destroyed before it ever reached its target.


DCNS Abnegation of Polydeuces
Tempora Heroica (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=473299) Class Vessel, Command Ship for DC Forces in Undershi Theatre

The cheer that went up around the bridge was rejoyceful, but shortlived.

"Fleet Admiral, I must congratulate you and your personnel," said Colonel Valekya, the Dersconi liaison officer aboard the DC command ship.

Fleet Admiral Eindhoven nodded, a cautious smile on his lips.

"We were lucky this time," said Eindhoven quietly to the Dersconi woman. "If those missiles had been stealthy, or if they had been super-sonic sea-skimmers, it'd be a different story."

"You wouldn't have detected them as quickly," said Valekya in understanding.

"Some of them we wouldn't ever have seen," said Eindhoven. "Against conventional airbourne threats; Tomahawk style cruise missiles, non-stealthy fighters, against that sort of thing the sheer numbers under my command here will win out as it did just now, but you saw the result of the earlier Undershi submarine attack. We saw the UA-AASMs from far away, were able to marshal our forces and bring all our strength to bear - we're not always able to do so."

Eindhoven glanced around, ensuring that his conversation with the Colonel was still private.

"Had those been super-sonic sea skimmers or stealth-missiles, I highly doubt the Long Range Air Patrol would have picked them up, and I would bet on them making it past the destroyer screening force. Had those missiles been Praetonian IAD-12 Lances (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10447045&postcount=2) or Rosdivan Rufouses (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=530199), we would be having a very different conversation. I am proud of my personnel's performance, but as commanding officer, I must be ruthlessly honest with myself - our survival of that missile strike had just as much to do with the weakness of the UA-AASM as the strength of my people."

There was a pause before Colonel Valekya asked, "Fleet Admiral, do you intend to sortie airstrikes against the missile positions that attacked you?"

Eindhoven shook his head.

"Our intelligence on the position of the launch facilities is sketchy at best, and our more important goal is to sail out and engage the Blackhelm fleet, preventing them from reinforcing Undershi. Hopefully, the Dersconi fleet will be able to neutralize the missile launch platforms without us."

Saint Rynald Province

Most, in fact as far as the Dersconi troops could tell, all, of the locals seemed ecstatic at their presence. As they dig in, they hear stories of the Undershi occupation, of near constant atrocities and abuses. It was enough to fill any man with outrage...

Undershi Iron Coast Defensive Line

Lt. Colonel Alexander Wyznivyanski cursed quietly as he watched the missiles vanish from the display. That had not gone well...

The strikes against the enemy ASW helicopters was more effective, but then that wasn't hard, any kills would make it more effective...

This was not a good day for Undershi. Not a good day... even if the submarines had done a fine job. He checked the display - they'd fired off all of their torpedoes, and the newer models had deployed suprise launch AA missiles, a clever little idea from the Ministry of Production's Technology Section... launch little pods from the submarine, they'd reach the surface, then deploy missiles to hit enemy ASW assets... clever, and it made the enemy ASW units cautious, which was also good. Of course, the missiles themselves still had some "teething problems," as the bland TechSect reports had said, but that was understandable, even if... unfortunate. The enemy would suffer. Undershi had not yet begun to fight.

Undershi submarine Hammerhead

Captain Uzay Ciller wiped sweat from his brow as his submarine headed back to port. It had been a brutal day, emptying the magazines of all munitions, killing destroyers... it had been a good day, though. Undershi losses were light compared to those suffered by the enemy. A good exchange, then... but he shivered, unable to concentrate on the present now that the focusing agent of mortal peril was gone.

His mind wandered, and he imagined the submariners horror - a hull breach, a leak... the sturdy hull that they counted on to protect them suddenly a trap, a tomb and a nightmare... he thought of the crews of the Undershi submarines that would not be returning to port. That had perished with their ships, and would never... would never do anything, ever again. It was a sad thought to think, really... a sad thought indeed, since it was the fate that he half-feared would be his before too long. To drown, to struggle for breath, hammering on the inside of the hull of a sinking submarine, screaming out your last curses amoung the damned, your fellow crew members, nothing but screams, thrashing in the water, cursing and vomiting...

The image was so vivid, that he began to shake. It was a horror, a terror... he rubbed his eyes, and forced himself to look at the computer screen in front of him, and to pretend that all was well in the world. Which it wasn't. Not even close...

It wasn't too long before the entire province of Saint Rynald was secure in Dersconi hands, and Marshal Darii already completed the move of the headquarters to the archipelago.

Second Army already made its way to the coast of the mainland Undershi, but still occupying the Saint Rynald territories. IT looked like it was poised to actually invade Undershi main, but it was only tactical exercises for the moment.

They were still waiting on the word from the Navy. Another school of submarines were sent out to chip away at the Iron Coast, since Derscon, even though it could, would rather not use the orbital weapons platforms floating above Undershi unless it had to.

Derscon Occupied Saint Rynald Province

Fernando Nasser watched the Dersconi tanks pass, feeling a sort of awe at the sight, a sort of amazment. There were tears in his eyes, he knew, and the thought made him wonder. He'd thought himself a hard man, past such human concerns as emotion... and yet, he felt something. He felt... he felt an emotion he had not felt for so long that to feel it seemed somehow unnatural. He felt happiness. No, it was more than happiness... it was joy.

To see men who were not Undershis going through the streets of Saint Lorenz openly armed... happiness. That they wore the cross was joy as well... he'd seen a few of his fighters drunk in the streets, waving improvised Rynaldi flags, red cloth with black cross... beautiful to see, just beautiful.

He walked onwards, AKM slung on his shoulder, and smilled at some Dersconi soldiers as they advanced, down the old Avenue of Saint Lorenz, through the ruined fortress-like structures that the Undershi had used as their administrative quarter.

A trio of burned-out AFVs had been pushed to one side of the street, and children were playing on them, singing some silly song. They were all Undershi, a Drake MBT and two Vipers, killed during the final ferocious fighting to take the administrative quarter, when the Dersconis had been coming up, and his rebels had thrown themselves into a ferocious final effort to seize the city center before the foreigners arrived... they'd failed, unfortunately, and many of his best men had died in the fighting, but it didn't matter. Not now. Saint Rynald was... was perhaps free. He still couldn't get his mind around that fact. Free. To be free... free to worship God and keep His laws... and then he thought of the Inquisition, and its tortures and atrocities, the mass graves full of heretics... and he shrugged - such things of the world were meaningless, and there would be much need for an Inquisition, when the Undershi were gone for good. Perhaps even before that... the Undershi had, after all, imported a good number of Paxtonites and Southlanders into Saint Rynald, and they were hardly good Christians... yes, he decided as he walked down the street, savoring the joyous knowledge that victory had been won, soon would be the time for Inquisition to begin again. God's will would always need to be done.

Undershi Provincial Border with Saint Rynald Province

The Engineers had outdone themselves assembling a fortified line. Already the Dersconi had been turned back from probing it - it looked like the front had stabalized. Good. Undershi province itself was sacrosanct, and while the enemy might march through the streets of the cities of Saint Rynald, might trample the mighty places from which the occupation forces had ruled a nation, they could not be allowed to enter Undershi province itself. Sacred honor demanded total annihilation for the Undershi people before that could be allowed.

Undershi Airbase, Northland Province

Simon Ulriksen bit into the sandwich, and smilled in a state of near-total exhaustion as the ground crew swarmed over his Lightningbolt fighter. He had killed again today... many, many times. Not too many, though... never too many. He'd seen the numbers he was facing. They were numbers such as he had not imagined could exist to oppose Undershi expansion. But they were there... and they were not merely opposing Undershi expansion, they were here, in Undershi, coming to strangle the Empire in its cradle, before it could expand to the extent where it would be their equal... someone out there amoung the norms must have been a clever little norm, to grasp the threat posed by Undershi doctrine.

But all of that was for a latter day, a latter time. For now, he had one thought. Sleep. To sleep, to lay down and fade into blackness... he'd been up in the air fighting for almost four days, with only little naps and so many, many, strange drugs to sustain him. It would be good to sleep.

Sighing, he walked away from his Lightningbolt, trusting in the ground crews, and went off towards the barracks. Let other squadrons guard the skies - he would now sleep.

((OOC: As stated, I know nothing about military or stuff. I just pretend that I do. If 60 KM is too low to be safe from AA, please let me know so I can adjust accordingly. >_>))

60 Kilometers above Undershi mainland

The veritable airfleet of Strata-bombers reached their intended target. As they passed over the enenmy nation, high in the sky, they began to deploy their deadly cargo, seeding the special forces into Undershi city.

Like comets raining from the sky, the SeeD drop pods descend onto Undershi City in a blaze of glory. As viewed from the ground, these seemingly balls of fire trailed smoke, a result of the retro rockets underneath the pods which served to slow their rate of descent, saving the occupants from instant death upon impact.

The pods punched through building until they hit earth, leaving small creators in their impact zone. The SeeD Special Forces didn't wait long, as four panels of the pod popped off, an odd gel oozing out of the pod, seeming to serve to protect the occupants from inertia. Once the gel hit oxygen, it began to dissolve.

From each side of the pod, a single black suited neko emerged, four in total, quickly darting from their point of emergence to another panel on the pod where their weapons were stored. Armed with small SMGs and a single 'Throwaway Stinger Launcher*,' the SeeD Forces spread themselves into the city, killing anyone they saw, taking any weapons they could find to augment their own arsenal. Civilian, law official, military, it didn't matter. The SeeD forces had just one purpose. To spread terror and let the enemy know they could be hit anywhere, even in their own capital city.


((OOC: I hope this isn'y considering God-modding... Undershi, if you want, we can talk about this OOCly, like in MSN or something, yeah? Also, a Throwaway Stinger Launcher is exactly what it sounds like, an anti-air Stinger missile with the bare minimum launcher, something that could be taken apart easily and stored inside the drop pod for transportation. Each pod has one.))

Undershi Air-Defense Perimiter, Iron Coast

Lt. Colonel Alexander Wyznivyanski watched the oncoming bombers, and frowned, a raid on Undershi City so early in the fighting... but it was no problem. Launch SAMs. Four for each bomber, there were more than enough.

On his display, a few squadrons of Lightningbolt fighters engaged the enemy, firing off their AMRAAMs, then closing to use their ASRAAMs, some even making use of their disdained auto-cannons. The enemy was foolish, to send in bombers so lightly supported...

As the bombers passed over the Iron Coast, the first SAMs, guided in by AWACs, ground-based radar and even a few of the mass-produced and mass-launched expendable recon satelites that had gone up after the scorching of the skies, flew in towards the vulnerable bombers.

Even as the first missiles were closing, more were launching, from the lighter mobile launchers behind the Iron Coast, that provided Defense in Depth... more fighter squadrons were converging on the bombers, it was like watching a huge, bloody, tempting, side of beef dipped into a pirannah infested stream... he actually smilled... but there were enough bombers that, even with the huge ammount of fire-power dedicated to their destruction, a few were going to get through, to attack Undershi City itself. But only a few. No bomber, not even the Sariel stealth bomber, had the ability to come in close over the Iron Coast and the Air Defense zone around Undershi City and come away unscathed. Not yet, at any rate... although, considering how many of the enemy there were, it seemed like only a matter of time...

The missiles closed in. Fighter squadrons circled, and sent in AMRAAMs, like at a bull fight, how the bull was maddened and bled so that the Matador could deliver the kill.

The enemy would regret this day.

Undershi City, Undershi Province, The Undershi Empire

SAMs flew up into the sky in huge numbers, while air raid sirens wailed like tortured souls burning in a Rynaldi's hell. As the bombers closed, and deployed their deadly cargos, the final lines of defense deployed - computerized gattling guns spat their collumn of tracers, while flak discolored the sky, fire works in inverse, all targeting the fragile incoming projectiles. The principle was based on the CIWS concept that most surface war ships were using, to shoot the missile apart so that it could do little or no damage... they were effective here.

2nd Line Pfc. Hans-Dieter van Bolt watched the bombers pass overhead, watched the fighters following, chasing them down, deploying ASRAAMs and firing their auto-cannons, shooting the enemy to pieces... so much fire-power, deployed overhead... to his left, a computer-controlled CIWS blister, four 20mm auto-cannons linked together, fired thousands of 20mm shells per minute into the sky. The sound was almost... no, was deafening. Was appauling, painful even to a True Undershi in full combat gear... he turned down the external volume sensors, turned up the radio volume. That would help...

He frowned, as he heard shouts of alert - something was up, what was it? Fires? Had the cowardly, inept, enemy deployed incindiaries, to try to burn the city down? If so they would be disappointed, Undershi Civil Defense was second to none...

He turned, and glanced down the street, in between two towering norm appartment blocks. His jaw dropped. Enemy commandos? Three of them, moving up the street, bringing some sort of huge weapon to bear...

One of them fired, and Hans-Dieter cursed as he took cover - rockets?!? The rocket struck the quad-linked 20mm gun, blasting it apart, reducing it to scrap metal. An expensive little pin-prick...

A Drake MBT with IIS markings rolled down a side-street, firing off its main gun with a load of canister shot, making the entire street vanish as its cloud of metal fragments spread... Hans-Dieter brought up his rail-rifle, and began looking for targets. The enemy commandos had unnerved him, but he was certain they would soon be hunted down. Undershi City was too well defended for an attack like this one to succeede, an entire division of IIS Storm Troopers, the best Undershi soldiers, and dozens of other divisions were deployed here, the city was built like a fortress... it would take more than para-dropped commandos to take it.

As that thought went through his mind, he had a second one - the norms, the normal human workers in the factories... what would they do if they saw human troops in the streets? Riot? He shrugged - shooting norm rioters was always fun, shooting commandos would be satisfying. He would do his duty to the Undershi state, and he would enjoy it.

The Drake MBT moved on, as his squad formed up to follow it - they'd see off the commandos soon enough, to be sure...

As he thought that, a trio of Paladin light VTOLs flew overhead, further reasurance... or so he thought, until one of them took a rocket hit, and went into a death spiral. Things could get ugly...

On the Dersconi side of things, the engineers also were not at rest. They were working on constructing a somewhat cruder version of the border defences of Derscon -- but the gist of it was that it was designed to use as little manpower as possible. The defences used the latest in Dersconi automated, robotic, and AI technology, as border patrol is a demeaning task, and simply wastes manpower.

However, Marshal Darii had different plans. Behind the engineers, troop exercises were daily occurrence, with frequent skirmishes with the fortifications on the other side -- often resulting in no casualties, as they weren't significant. But they were enough to keep them focused.

On the way, however, was his friend Marshal Letvenko, as well as Marshal von Kreutzhof and Marshal Grozshev, commanding three Grand Armies, with Gernish SpecOps support. The Wanderjarans were slowing down in Northern PRovince and Paxton -- these were being sent to pick up the pace. The three Grand Armies doubled, if not tripled, the Prussian troop presence in the Undershi area. Along with them, four Dersconi fleets sailed to war.

The war effort was lagging. It was time to reinvigorate.

Undershi City, Undershi Province, The Undershi Empire

Aleksander Miller listened to the generals and the specialists from the Ministry of Production as they spoke. It was an... an important matter that he was dealing with. First use of WMDs was always an important decision... he frowned, as the Ministry of Production listed off how much the deaths of one hundred million norm workers, the presumed minimum in a best-case exchange, would hurt the Undershi war effort.

It was not a... a fit thing, that he should sit in a bunker, and decide the fate of millions. But that was his job. He had to make a choice. And so, he finally spoke:

"Alright. You've made your point. We'll do it. Deploy nerve agents against the Dersconi, and the Rynaldi populace that welcomed them. Show them that Undershi can make them bleed. They are, after all, only norms. They do not have the stomache for cassualties."

And so the lives of the millions were decided upon...

Undershi Mobile Missile Launch Site, near the Rynaldi Border

The Lieutenant read the new order that he'd just recieved on his PDA with a trembling sense of impending doom. He had known it was likely that sooner or later he would recieve some sort of message like this - the invasion of Undershi made that almost a certainty. But this... it was always a burden, the moment when he had to give the order. But he did. He shouted to the enlisted men to fire at the pre-set coordinates... sixteen short-range high-velocity missiles took off, rising over the tree tops and speeding south towards Dersconi lines.

Each missile had a warhead loaded with nerve gas, deadly stuff, the latest products of the Undershi technological war machine. They'd been told that the enemy would suffer almost thirty thousand cassualties, most of those dead, from their strike alone. Somehow he doubted that. But it was good to think about the enemy dead... except that it wasn't. He had, suddenly, a vision, of the effects that the gas would have on the enemy. A moment of itching, then paniced convulsions and twisting, lungs bleeding, blood everywhere, drowning in blood as your twitching convulsions snapped bones like dry twigs... not a good way to die. And... he knew other launchers had fired. Thousands of enemies were going to die. All along the front. And what was that going to lead to? The enemy was going to respond. Was going to respond very, very soon...

He sighed, and shouted to his men:

"Move out! We need to set up for a conventional bombardment at the Beta site ASAP." and the men were moving, and he was quietly staring towards the south as they readied the launchers for transport. Staring, and wondering just what the things he had done would lead to...

Paxton City, Paxton Province, The Undershi Empire

The woman screamed as a Janissary Pfc., on punishment detail for failing to polish the buttons on his dress uniform enough during inspection, hammered a nail into her left wrist.

Two other Janissaries, both also on punishment details, held her down onto the wooden cross. Her right wrist was already pierced with a metal spike, that secured it to the wood.

Occupation Police corporal Derya Smith, the most junior True Undershi NCO in the 44th Occupation Police District Division, watched the crucifixion in mute horror. He'd seen it done before, but never from this close... he felt sick. He thought of the big breakfast he'd had, bacon and eggs and shredded potato with fried mushrooms and onions, all with plenty of ketchup... he wished he hadn't followed the English breakfast tradition. He was almost sure that it was all going to come up... but he couldn't vomit, officers were watching.

The Janissaries finished the hammering, and looked at him. Realizing that they expected him to give the order, he did:

"Raise the cross." and they did, brought it up with the woman on it, and stuck it into the hole they'd dug before hand with a post-holer. The woman kept screaming.

One of the Janissaries, noticably nauseous, used the same hammer they'd used to crucify the woman, to nail a little placard to the cross, underneath her tormented frame. It was a little thing, machine lettered ply-wood. It said:

TRAITOR

Then, underneath that:

Sammantha Hosch did strike and injure a Janissary Sergeant of the Empire on November the 22nd.

And then the single statement attatched to every such placard:

NOTHING TO BE GAINED HERE.

And there wasn't...

As the crucixion detail moved on to the next of the four norms they were set to execute, Derya reflected on the circumstances behind the woman's sentance. He'd heard about them, they'd been quite unusual.

The woman and her younger sister had been walking home from their assigned work in the factories, when a squad of Janissaries on patrol had stopped them. It had been late, the Janissaries had been on-edge, a nervous boredom. So they'd decided to have a little fun... typical norm soldiers, Derya thought, as the Janissaries on punishment detail pinned down the next victim, and readied the nails...

So, they'd gotten the two girls into some alley way, and the older sister, she'd begged them not to rape her sister, who was only fourteen anyway... but the sergeant had just laughed, and moved in... and she'd attacked him with her bare hands, and shoved a finger-nail into one of his eyes, blinding him. With the result that she and her sister were both gang-raped almost to the point of death, and then dragged in as suspected rebels... her sister had ended up in a coma, and she'd been lucky to survive.

There'd actually been a controversy over how to respond to the incident, when the circumstances of the event came to light. Janissaries were allowed to do as they pleased with the captive population, but even that had limits... but then, there was the law to consider, how any norm worker who attacked a Janissary would be sentenced to crucifixion... along with their entire immediate family if they killed him... and, the sergeant had lost an eye...

So, in the end, the entire squad was sentenced to floggings and transfered to a penal division, where they'd have a "fun" time clearing mine fields and making any suicidal diversionary attacks that needed to be made... while the woman, who'd tried to defend her little sister from rape was sentenced to die. The law, Derya reflected as the Janissaries finished hammering in the nails on the second prisoner, could be awfully harsh.

Warning sirens went off all over Saint Rynald, and the automated antimissile batteries fired their arsenals.

But it was too late for the patrols of the border. There was nearly an 80% casualty rate. The further back you went, though, the numbers dropped significantly. The main islands weren't actually touched at all.

But thousands did indeed die from the vicious nerve gas, and on the central control hub, entire bases lit up, and died once more, the displays of each soldier dropping from the map. The Shock Troopers at the front were unaffected, due to their armour suits, and it was they who reported the affects back to HQ, who then reported it to the Kremlin.

And it was from the Kremlin that the scream of rage was first heard, but to be felt in Undershi.

************************

Star Office, Kremlin Palace

"They did what?!" Xavier was frantically pacing back and forth in his office, taken by surprise at the use of chemical weapons. But after awhile, he calmed down, and his frustration and shock turned to a blood-lusting anger. He cackled manically, slightly frightening the staff and ministers in the office, as Xavier's eyes glowed a demonic red when that happened.

"Well, fine, then. If they want to play with the stops out, then we shall play." He walked to the window, his back to his staff and ministers.

"Wipe that pathetic nation off the face of the planet. I want the very Earth under their feet to tremble in fear at my wrath. Make the fields and cities burn, and the people rot. And send the Shock Troopers in to finish the job."

And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord GOD.


The satellites around the ODG were already activated. For as God sits in Heaven, so shall His Wrath shake the stars from the sky and cause them to fall to earth, burning all in their path.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred;
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.


More submarines near the coast. They knew they would be dead, but they would be martyrs. For the Wrath of God knows no bounds, and many shall perish for His Fury.

They were not to hold back. There shall be no tidal waves. There shall be fire and brimstone. For as the first beast rises out of the sea, so shall the Wrath of God begin from the sea.

Saint Rynald

Marshal Darii Razladanov was enjoying what he was about to do. He was not one for such destruction, but the use of nerve weapons was not to be tolerated. The Undershi thought they could make Derscon bleed, and they did.

And they shall be damned for it.

And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.


The Marshal inserted his key into the mobile command console, and the Officer of Gjallarhorn inserted his into the console, and they activated it simultaneously. The protective case was flipped open, and Darii put his hand over the button, smiled, and depressed it.
_________________________

The Submarines

They knew the drill. The minute the signal was given, they opened the missile bays and launched, and knew they were all going to die -- they were impossible to miss. But they launched all the same.

They were all nuclear-tipped missiles, and they were to blast the Iron Coast to bits. Hundreds of SLBMs rocketed from the suicidal submarines, who then dove once more down into the depths of the ocean. Each captain of a submarine that was to be sacrificed was given an order -- their reactors were to be overdriven. In Derscon, each nuclear reactor is designed to also act as a bomb -- a big one. Obviously, an overly paranoid amount of safeguards are in place to prevent anything accidental. But when they are overridden, the reactor is overdriven.

And it was only a matter of time before the submarines themselves were nothing but nuclear mines.
___________________________

In Space

Once the submarines launched their suicidal attack, the satellites began theirs. Thousands of kinetic rods were dropped on the Undershi capitol, and hundreds more were dropped on all nuclear facilities in Undershi, as to cripple a response.

All major military installations in the Undershi province were targeted with the kinetic rods, as were the Undershi fortifications along the UNdershi/Rynaldi border. The Dersconi satellite presence over Undershi was massive, and it was shown with this simultaneous assault on all major military targets, and the targeting of all Undershi WMD installations.

The Greater Prussian and Dersconi SDI systems were already up and running since the discovery of the use of nerve gas, and the SOSUS network of the GPSDI extended far beyond their own territorial waters, so that matched with the satellites would make any naval attempt at a strikeback impossible, and the missile defence network was near impenetrable (it helped that the Undershi space presence was near annihilated during the attack on the CA networks earlier).

The Wrath of Derscon was not to be taken lightly. And Undershi was only given a taste of it.