NationStates Jolt Archive

General von Heirgren, commander of the Seventeenth Expedition and overall leader of Operation: Crisis, studied the map of the tactical theatre with interest. The area he had been ordered to make landfall at was simply denoted by a '17' on the map - apparently far enough away from most countries in the Reich to keep them reassured of their safety, and with rough and inhospitable varied terrain to ensure a thorough test.

The designated landing zones for the troops of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth were close to the southern borders of the country of Axis Amerika, with the Nineteenth landing in a bay at the south-west of the area and the Twentieth making landfall in the bay on the north side of the area marked '41'.

The fleet - which had travelled with the Sixteenth, en route to the Corporate Islands for company only - was massive. Although the Dark Eldar had been quiescent, the continuous state of vigilance maintained over the gaping webway hole in the Rejected Realms had kept both nations on edge, and feeling the urge to avoid - most strenuously - the sitting upon of laurels.

Once landfall had been made on those areas, the Vegana forces - as substantial as his own, the exercise being real in every way except live fire - would arrive via the Straits of Taranaki - and engage in an assortment of exercises. The rushing of beaches, storming of mountain passes, and target acquisition and enemy commander neutralisation procedures were all planned.

In the distance, the coastal waters of the Reich came closer.

OOCly:Iesus Christi forces will monitor at close quarters....Inquisitors dont know if our new friends should be held so close, so soon.


IC:
Iesus Navy Command
to:Noble Friend WF

Iesus submarine task force 'Queen of heaven' will openly attend these combat games with out friends....of course said submarine group will have live munitions, including its nuclear and WMD payloads...

<Transmission to Iesus Christi>
<From: General von Heirgren>

Please find co-ordinates attached for suitable location of said submarine group. Be advised the firing of live munitions during actual exercises is outside the parameters of the exercise.

OOC:
The co-ordinates are for an area due west of 'Area 17'

The Veganian Carrier Group slowly sailed up the Starit of Taranaki. Since most of the Veganian Navy forces were joining "Operation Crucial Victory" the Veganians only had one carrier group joining this excercise. Commander Carlzon looked at the prepared plans, he knew that Vegana had made joint excercises together with whispering Voices forces before. Especially against those hated elves. But this was his first time, and it looked as it would be a lot of running up and down beaches. Carlzon Sighed, if only he could have been in the real battle now, but even if Whispering Voices were an allied he had ordered live munitions to be available. Being in The Reich meant that on could never be too careful about anyone. He looked at the scanners and saw a Iesus Christi vessel appear as well. He reached for the communicator:

"Heil "Queen of Heaven", This is Commander Carlzon on HMS Traitorkiller, I reckon you are in for the excercise? With some luck we will be off to Resi or some Communistcountry soon so we don't have to shoot on friends while waiting. God is Great!"

Iesus, if you want any of the foreign top brass... rendered less inconvenient, we're the ones you want.

[Meanwhile, in the very happy, extremely and socially much improved Theocracy of the Cash Cow.]
"I say, Shula, those new VoyeurCon Dishes are frightfully accurate. You can almost make out what they're saying!"
"But wait, there's more! If you buy a VoyeurCon subscription, you also get three tonnes of military-grade uranium free! A bargain, huh?"
"Put me down for four. Does that mean I get twelve tonnes?"
"Absolutely! Just don't ask where I got it from. It's a family thing."
"I'll keep that in mind. Do you think we should inform the ACAB about the highjinks in the Reich?"
"Hell, my opinion doesn't matter. You're going to tell them anyway, aren't you, sir?"
"Astute as ever."

General von Heirgren, satisfied that the volatile Reich had been notified, gave the orders for the first exercise to be undertaken. This was a simple deployment exercise; under the watchful eyes of joint Veganan and Voices military instructors, the forces from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth expeditions would make landfall and then 'fan out' to secure a "border". Actually, the "border" was just the border between the unoccupied land of '17' and the land of Axis-Amerika, broken ground with hills and forests and rivers, but nothing special. The main danger were the Veganan traps planted along the length - mine-fields, tank traps, and similar.

The Nineteenth and Twentieth expeditions also made landfall, securing crucial coastal "objectives" as the Veganan fleet approached.

On land, hasty mirror counter tactical operations have been ordered. 3 legions of Iesus 'trainees' have been moved into 'axis' to take part in exercises on the border next to these 'combined games' with WF.
The exercises include the deployment of mobile tactical missle arrays and live chemical/biological deployments.

Iesus naval submarine units also carry out live missle drills while watching the combined allied wargames.

General von Heirgren read the reports of the activities of the Iesus forces, within the borders of Axis-Amerika, with consternation.

Iesus forces deployed
3 Legions - 3,000 men
Assorted missile drills

The report went on, and he skipped over it. "Interesting," he said to an aide. "They use the Roman structure, similar to ours. Decimal. Alright. They obviously seem intent on disrupting our preparations for an invasion by Raem. Make no hostile moves, don't give them any excuses. However I want strategic placements of Sherwood arrows around the coasts, and keep the fleets tight and secure. Send out sonar drones around the coastline - we were going to anyway, to prepare for the 'landing' exercises, but let's play it safe. As it is they don't seem to realise our full deployment of four whole expeditions; I'm thinking those 3,000 men are nothing but a distraction. Still - dealing with an antsy Bridgette was not our purpose. Report on actual exercises?"

"Well, sir. Deployment has been smooth. Axis-Amerika and indeed the rest of the Reich appear to be treating this normally - just as military exercises between allies. It's only those paranoid freaks at Iesus that are desperate to kick off. Still, if I was Axis-Amerika I'd be more nervous at the fact that Iesus is obviously carting around chemical and biological weapons on my borders and looking for trouble, than I would exercises between Vegana and another nation. Our 'border defences' are 'live' - the paintball guns issued; although I've taken the liberty of having every troop armed with live weapons what with this Iesus thing, too. We're waiting for Vegana materiel and personnel to storm across the border; see how they deal with searching for tank traps, and minefields. All our mines are currently deactiviated. An electrical signal could be sent to activate them, if Iesus Christi does make some mad attack."

Heirgren nodded. "Just don't let any go off by mistake, alright? What do we know about the Iesus chemical or biological weapons?"

The aide paused, drank the rest of the coffee from his polystyrene cup. "Well, sir. We have no reason to believe Iesus comes anywhere near our standard of biological weapons or protection. However, when it comes to chemicals ... well, it's not their specialty, as far as we're aware, but neither is it ours. The armour has NBC protection, but the troops on the ground could be compromised, depending on strength. Still - nothing we can do unless they use it, and by then it's too late. An infiltration mission to acquire some could be made, but it'd be obvious who had undertaken it. We'll just have to hope Bridgette doesn't wake up with a bad case of PMT one day."

The Veganian Carrier Group slowly sailed up the Starit of Taranaki. Since most of the Veganian Navy forces were joining "Operation Crucial Victory" the Veganians only had one carrier group joining this excercise. Commander Carlzon looked at the prepared plans, he knew that Vegana had made joint excercises together with whispering Voices forces before. Especially against those hated elves. But this was his first time, and it looked as it would be a lot of running up and down beaches. Carlzon Sighed, if only he could have been in the real battle now, but even if Whispering Voices were an allied he had ordered live munitions to be available. Being in The Reich meant that on could never be too careful about anyone. He looked at the scanners and saw a Iesus Christi vessel appear as well. He reached for the communicator:

"Heil "Queen of Heaven", This is Commander Carlzon on HMS Traitorkiller, I reckon you are in for the excercise? With some luck we will be off to Resi or some Communistcountry soon so we don't have to shoot on friends while waiting. God is Great!"

Commander Carlzon watched the deployment and fortification WhisperingVoices had made.
"Hmm... Those Tanktraps looks kid of nasty, in a normal situation they would have been blown away from our ships but we have to play with what we got. Have you heard anything from Iesus?"

"They've deployed 3000 men, sir"

"Good, Good, let's use them as a diversion. WhisperVoices knows that Iesus troops are unreliable so they will make him nervous. I'll take that as a part of the plan. Well, Gentlemen, start the operation! God is Great!"

The ships started to maul the beach with simualted artillery strikes, making a path towards the deployment site and moving the aritllery barrages to and through following a deliberate pattern. This part of the operation demanded extremely good timing, and here Copmmander Carlzon and the Veganian officials that were aboard would see if the operations worked without risking peoples death in friendly fire.

From the armada 40 large hovercraft emerged, moving with high speed in the "safe" zone in the artillery pattern. The highly agile and quick hovers moved in and continued up onto the beach at more than 50 knots. The aircushions almost applying no pressure on the beach as they moved on and up on the ground where a rapid deployment of 15,000 men started using the hulls as protection.

"Artillery bombardments zone 15, sir. Extensive. Rounds filled with paint instead of explosives, luckily. However, the sheer weight of them has caved in and exposed the tank traps. Luckily, that'll cause the tanks to funnel through the points without traps ... where we have placed the fake mines. Their deployment speed is rapid - those hovercraft are damn fast. I think they can land initial forces faster than we can - although our system does allow for constant fast lands and rapid whole-force deployment, rather than small forces at a time."

von Heirgren nodded. "Alright. Acknowledged. Begin showering those hovercraft and the landed troops in paint, let's try to score some kills. And make sure that the artillery shells are fired at points a safe distance away, alright? Better we don't get many fake kills, and get no real ones, than we get plenty of both. Now the fortifications are complete, keep the twentieth here and send the rest home."

His aide nodded, smiled, scribbled the order down on his clipboard. "Now, about the fortifications we've built ... Iesus troops are ... "