NationStates Jolt Archive

Deep beneath the earth, the forges were slowed, as the Orcish and Uruk laborers assembled in grand halls under the crust of Mars, standing grimly at a restless attention. Grunts and snorts rose from the lips of the Uruk-Hai warriors as column after column of Southron Guardsmen strode into the room with a nod and salute to the Uruk Taskmasters. The clacking of their jackboots on the stone floor and the creak of leather were the only sounds heard as the Taskmasters quieted their hordes, and the Southrons proceeded to the armory, returning some minutes later with various impliments of warfare, which they began to distribute to the Uruk-Hai.

The men were grim--they didn't know quite what was to happen to them yet. Many had been shipped right back from the Northern front, and still more were coming in even now. Not many of Imkarum's marine forces had been lost, and he hoped yet to somehow extract them from the situation. The Uruks were a different matter. One of the Guardsmen mounted a crude podium in the great hall, where some thousands of Uruks were assembled. His voice echoed with great volume in the room, rumbling off the stone walls and echoing in the primitive minds of the Uruk-Hai.

"Today you are free, Uruk-Hai of Morgoth! Today you and your bretheren shall cast down your bonds and run wild under the crimson planes of Mars. Under brook and stream, under mountain and knoll--this shall be your domain. Dig, work and live, as you always have, free now from your human masters. Issue forth from this hall and colonize far and wide! Go, now, before the enemy descends on us!"

A short speech it was--more or less the extent of what the Uruks would be able to listen to or understand. They flung their arms into the air, brandishing their weapons, hibbering and hooting madly as they stormed out and down the twisting tunnels of Angmar. Before long, most of them were gone. Some roving bands could be seen on the surface, but most favored the screcy of the tunnels. Most of them headed for the Ephel Duath, where the tunnels were deepest and safest.

Kajal troops in Gorgoroth began to see their first light resistance as bands of Uruk-Hai and/or orcs began to show themselves in this terrotory, harrying passing troops for no more than a minute or two before drawing back to the safety of their caves.

In the plains to the North, the withdrawl was well underway. Many men had already doubled back on the North gate--but the Uruks and Orcs being more difficult to tear from the battle raged on against their Roanian and Aelosian foes, though most quailed before their foes and fled back to the Ephel Duath.

***

"I don't see a problem with Kajal's terms. Where are we to discuss this with the remainder of the coalition?"


[ooc: Snel, tell me a bit about what you're doing so I can respond to that little bit. I'm not sure I know what this goo does exactly]

[Quantum Encryption – Roania]

Start

You will cease and desist all threats of attempting to close Mars space traffic. You will also not hinder or blockade any and all Order vessels or other assets. Refusal to comply will result in your...judgement.

End

Order of the Seraphim (http://s2.invisionfree.com/Order_ofthe_Seraphim/index.php?act=idx)

To the Roanians:

Cease and desist your threats immediately. You will receive your just reward for your actions in this war in due time, I assure you of that; continuing to make threats will, however, lessen your grant. Let it not be forgotten that Menelmacari have repeatedly fought and died for Roanians, and on two occasions saved your nation from destruction; let it also not be forgotten that we are remarkably lenient with you as a protectorate, even continuing to allow you a military regardless of how much trouble it's caused. Your help on Mars was the least you can do - and it is highly appreciated - but patience is what is required of you now. Thank you.

To the Snel:

You are currently engaging in bombing action against territory under the de facto control of the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar - specifically, the Ephel Duath and Minas Morion. Melkor has surrendered; the war on Mars is over. Continued action on your part cannot and will not be tolerated. If you continue to assault Menelmacari territory, we will be forced to expropriate your holdings upon Pavonis Mons as compensation.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/sirithil/sirithilnosfeanor.gifLady Sirithil nos Fëanor
Elentári of the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar
High Queen and Lady-Protector of Elvenkind
"We have known freedom's price. We have shown freedom's power. We will see freedom's victory."
~US President George W. Bush
We Love the Iraqi Information Minister (http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com)
Clicky-clicky!

To: Wazzu
From: Zona Tora, Speaker of the Martian Confederacy

You bastard! Have you no respect for human life? Would you rather go out there and fight the Uruks? What has Wazzu done to bring down the hordes of Melkor on Mars? Cowards. You are bastards and cowards. You do not fight, yet you curse those who fight. You are spineless, greedy, and self-serving. You are no better than Morogoth Bauglir himself.

To: Wazzu
From: Zona Tora, Speaker of the Martian Confederacy

You bastard! Have you no respect for human life? Would you rather go out there and fight the Uruks? What has Wazzu done to bring down the hordes of Melkor on Mars? Cowards. You are bastards and cowards. You do not fight, yet you curse those who fight. You are spineless, greedy, and self-serving. You are no better than Morogoth Bauglir himself.

OOC: "You Bastard!"? Who are you speaking to. You addressed it to all Wazzu but are responding to an individual to made a comment on the nets (granted it saw wide exposure). Wazzu has suffered economic attack but made no land claims, no monitary compensation claims, nothing...and your government speaker is comparing them to someone they are currently protesting (and illegally hacking)? Way to piss off a population.

Thought I'd let you know.

Open Transmission to Imakarum Mirabilis, All Combatants

There is a very secure place where this can be discussed. A shuttle will be dispatched to meet you and four bodyguards at the northern gates of Angmar to take them there. It should arrive in 30 minutes.

I would ask that all combatants attempt a reasonably ceasation of hostilities and send their emissaries to the Peace Dome as soon as possible.

Transmission repeats every 1/2 hour.

----

Minutes after the transmission went out an assault shuttle lifted off from a Marine airbase in south-western Sunset and headed for the border at speed. Two DA-105 aerospace fighters and two TME-208 ground attack fighters linked up and flanked it as it headed toward the border.

It flew up and over the Angmar range and dropped into the plains again before speeding toward the northern gates of Angmar. It would be late - the President had failed to do his math first.

The boarding doors swung down as it approached and troops in hardsuits with weapons slung could be seen inside. There was plenty of room - the shuttle could carry four dozen and there were only eight inside. The fighters paired off and began to circle at a reasonable distance while those inside waited for the Lord of Minas Morion to come out.

A quick transmission was sent from the shuttle. "Lord Imakarum Mirabilis, we await you outside the northern gates of Angmar."

***TRANSMISSION***
From: Aumanii Military Command.
To: Coalition Forces.
Subject: A friendly reminder.

----------------------------

"I would like to remind you all that 500,000 Aumanii troopers are inside of Hellespontos County. My nation of Auman did have an incredibly active role in the seizure of its former territories and will not allow them to be handed over to foriegn powers...The troops are there and will administer to their people, the people who were so rudely taken from the dominion of their beloved master Overlord Marduk by the forces of Melkor. We do not wish conflict to break out, but if you try and force the 1st Liberation Army from our territory then the response will be appropriate."

`Lord General Ilritz, 1st Liberation Army, Ciris Aphalon, Hellespontos/Ortega.

Open Transmission to Imakarum Mirabilis, All Combatants

There is a very secure place where this can be discussed. A shuttle will be dispatched to meet you and four bodyguards at the northern gates of Angmar to take them there. It should arrive in 30 minutes.

I would ask that all combatants attempt a reasonably ceasation of hostilities and send their emissaries to the Peace Dome as soon as possible.

Transmission repeats every 1/2 hour.

----

Minutes after the transmission went out an assault shuttle lifted off from a Marine airbase in south-western Sunset and headed for the border at speed. Two DA-105 aerospace fighters and two TME-208 ground attack fighters linked up and flanked it as it headed toward the border.

It flew up and over the Angmar range and dropped into the plains again before speeding toward the northern gates of Angmar. It would be late - the President had failed to do his math first.

The boarding doors swung down as it approached and troops in hardsuits with weapons slung could be seen inside. There was plenty of room - the shuttle could carry four dozen and there were only eight inside. The fighters paired off and began to circle at a reasonable distance while those inside waited for the Lord of Minas Morion to come out.

A quick transmission was sent from the shuttle. "Lord Imakarum Mirabilis, we await you outside the northern gates of Angmar."

Imakarum stormed out of the tower and climbed into his waiting transport.Behind him stood Field Marshal Adûnakôr looking on as he left, hovering grimly over his officers which stood around him, his eyes burning with hatred. He had been left in charge of the Tower in Imakarum's absence, and he quickly climbed the tower once Mirabilis had departed, seeking the palantir at its summit.

Mirabilis arrived at the rendevous point quickly. His transport pulled to a stop and a door rolled open. Mirabilis strode out shortly accompanied by only a pair of bodyguards--the blackjacket infantry captains of the Southron Guard, tall and strong.

As he descended the ramp, his eyes seemed to flash and it appeared in the minds of many that his face suddenly grew pale and grotesque, lashing out with terrible fangs straight at them, but it lasted only an instant--replaced a moment later with reality. There was clearly something strange about the man. Very strange.

Melkor, Lord of Darkness
He who Arises in Might
Emperor Eternal of the Imperial Dominion of Melkor Unchained, Lord and Master of Arda
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~darion.c.smith/melkor.jpg

'Your chariot awaits...' the Marine thought as he stepped down and stood beside the ramp. He moved his rifle into a low slung position and began to scan the surrounding area.

"Lord Mirabilis, please take your seat or stand if you prefer..." the Captain who led the team said as the three approached the ramp. The interior of the Chariot-Class was spartan - metal benches lined both walls and ran down the center. There were bars overhead for those who stood to hold, as well as cargo bins. The other troops aboard were at the front doors with their weapons in hand as they scanned the area outside for any hostiles of either side.

As soon as they were ready the Marines outside jumped aboard and the ramps slid up as the shuttle rose into the sky and headed for Sunset.

The aelosian army finally was reinforced with tanks and armoured vehicles, and thanks to the precise air raids against the rear of the orc horde and the heavy push of the war machiness they saw as the Uruk broke the line and lost the momentum of their charge, quickly starting to retreat toward the huge fortress of the horizon. The Aelosian forces then raced through the pains of Angmar in pursuit of the horde at a reasonable distance, the bikes quickly flanking the withdrawing horde just before the doors of the fortress was opened and the horde quickly dissapeared swallowed by the fortress.

A jetbike approached the doors, with an unusual rider, a tall elf clad in an special armor, the warlord of the Mars' Shining Host of the Sindarin. He knocked at the doors one, two and three times, yet noone answered.

"Sire", said a Lieutenant approaching the mighty elven warrior. "It looks like a shuttle from Sunset came and picked up the warlord five minutes ago. The scout bikes saw it taking off with the Melkorian warlord on board, Should we take it down?. We have several Darkwing fighters marking a perimeter".

"No, just find me a fast tranport to reach them, and find some info about the trajectory of the shuttle, I must rendevous with that warlord. About the Fortress, don't attack it, just surround it with troops and lay siege to it, for now. Nobody comes in and nobody comes out until I come back, All right?", said the elven general taking off his armoured gloves.

"Yes, Sire", was the only response from the Lieutenant, establishing a com link with the fleet dropships nearby.

Five minutes later an Aelosian dropship was following the sunset shuttle, carrying the HQ of the Aelosian forces on Mars.

The news came through to the SR Troopers. Jay Hawkins smiled for a minute. No action, and time to go home.

"Yes yes yes, calm down," said the messenger. "However, there's more. I hate to break it to you, but we're not going anywhere -ARGH!" The messenger was hit by a beer keg as the SR forces got pretty angry at being kept.

"The nation of Auman has asked us to stay here. We're still required, so until then, just shut up and sit down. Your job isn't over yet!"

Jay Hawkins went back to his tent and collapsed on his small, hard camp bed.

"It isn't over yet," he thought to himself. "It's just getting started..."

OOC: Snel is causing trouble everywhere it seems... :x

OOC:
This occurs literally seconds after my last post, and before Melkor’s surrender!

IC:
Somewhere near the centre of a large-ish city in the north-west of Menelmacari Carnil, a young elven child was working hard on her history homework for school. Eventually, growing bored, she threw back her dishevelled blond hair with her stubby toddlers fingers, and looked out of her bedroom window. As she did so, her eyes widened. Striding down the main high-street of the city was a gigantic winged lizard, its iridiscent green body covered in overlapping scales, similar in appearance to the scale-mail armour worn by the child’s ancestors. Its eyes were slitted, like those of a cat, and a tall warrior, clad in finely-made armour of black leather sat upon its back, looking very small in comparison. As she rushed back to her console, a tiny wisp of smoke curled up from its flaring nostrils. She stared at the console.

“Wow..they’re real! It’s a Dra….a Dra-gon…a Dragon!”

She turned and began to run down the stairs to tell her parents.

“Mummy, Daddy, there’s a Dwagon in the stre…”

And then the flames took her, as a great blast of flame incinerated her house, razing it to the ground in a matter of seconds.

Throughout the city, the Dragons roamed, twenty-five in all, their fiery breath causing havok, even as their muscled shoulders and scything talons smashed aside walls and buildings. On the whole, they stuck to the main streets, which were wide enough to accommodate them easily, and where the towering skyscrapers could provide ample cover for their tremendous forms. Another five curled around the main defense towers, having appeared from thin air directly on top of them, tearing them apart, and using the towers themselves as cover from retaliation.

Similar scenes could be seen in the other major northwestern city of Carnil, as another thirty Dragons ravaged the homes and workplaces of the Menelmacari, while forty more of the great beasts rampaged through the huge Mallorn forests of the colony, uprooting tall trees, and snapping several-foot-thick trunks like matchsticks, even as their breath set wood and leaf alike alight, clinging to the bark like burning oil. The terrible monsters stayed below the canopy for the most part, relying on the Menelmacari reverence for all trees to ensure their destruction.

Meanwhile, in a small courtyard in the same city where the young elven girl had once sat, dreaming of the beasts that would prove to be her doom, Karazjaxackal alighted softly, and allowed his rider, Prince Lueifne al Okoilev, to dismount. The Prince paused in thought for a moment, and then, relying on his steed to protect him, closed his eyes and opened the doors of his mind. His eyes opened again, but now he saw not only the stone and steel of the world in which he stood, but also the many reflections of that place which exist thoughout the multiverse. He gazed out, through his inner sight, and saw the flames licking around the buildings of the city. Then, he gathered his strength, and rent the partition between the worlds, opening a path through which the spirits of the elements flowed forth, possessing the flames, and giving them life and a will of their own, at least for a time, and the fires spread.

As the Biological probe starts entering areas of heavy traffic, both physical and radio, it starts slowing down, nearing Mars.

"Morgoth surrendered!" cried the troops as they swept their way northeast into the heart of Angmar.

Some, though joyous, regretted the fact they they could not clash arms with the orcs. No bloodshed, no great battle with the Third Assault Group (OOC: or whatever Melkor called it) on the fields of Mars.

In the long run, however, for the Syskeyians it was better, for they had lost no lives.

The Angmar Invasion Army drove its way toward Minas Morion, unchecked and unharmed.

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

The ITDO fleet arrives in Mars Orbit. Roughly 40 ships immediately begin scanning the areas of Noachia and Morion both with all manner of sensing devices.

A second diplomatic pod is shot again but decelerates much quicker this time, and coasts along towards geosynch over Minas Morion, still broadcasting it's message to the Melkorians and a general friendly IFF to vessels in the area. The pod is demanding permission to speak diplomatically with a representative of Melkor, but now there is a calm urgency to it's tone. The message is clearer, a choice: diplomacy, or destruction.

The response as the Swarm swept over Gorgoroth was quite clear.

"This is Kajal Mars Military Command out of Aesirgronde. Cease your attack at once! You are destroying equipment that we are attempting to seize for various purposes! We repeat, cease your attack..."

And then, the transmission stopped, before starting again on a higher frequency.

"This is Grand General Murasi Shenar. Please cease your attack against the remaining Melkori assets immediately! Failure to comply with this request may result in undesirable actions by both sides."
"Why do you care for your enemy? The infestation will be sterilized. We will take care to avoid as much damage as possible to the machines."

[ooc: Snel, tell me a bit about what you're doing so I can respond to that little bit. I'm not sure I know what this goo does exactly]
(You are familiar with the Grey Goo scenario? Nanomachines getting out of control and converting all available biomass into more of themselves / whatever other product their designed for? Khaki Goo is basically intentionally manufactured Grey Goo that targets a specific enemy rather than everything available. It works too slowly to be much use in disintegrating enemy troops before they can do harm, but is quite good at causing extreme agony.)

To the Snel:

You are currently engaging in bombing action against territory under the de facto control of the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar - specifically, the Ephel Duath and Minas Morion. Melkor has surrendered; the war on Mars is over. Continued action on your part cannot and will not be tolerated. If you continue to assault Menelmacari territory, we will be forced to expropriate your holdings upon Pavonis Mons as compensation.
"We do not fight your war. Your conflict is of no interest. We fight our war. The enemy has surrendered to you, not to us. That our enemy is common is irrelevant. Even if this is not so, war does not end when the enemy decides to end it. War ends when the enemy is defeated. Action over the Daedalia territory, which we do not recognize as under your control, will end when the enemy is no longer present there. Any attempts to hinder our actions or affect destruction upon our holdings will result in your reclassification as an enemy."

Whatever you are dropping on the orcs is useless; they have fled into the tunnels. Your goo will not reach them and only endangers my troops.

If you feel the need to take a piece out of Melkor, you can always drop your weapons on Arda itself, back on earth.

I say one final time, cease.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/sirithil/sirithilnosfeanor.gifLady Sirithil nos Fëanor
Elentári of the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar
High Queen and Lady-Protector of Elvenkind
"We have known freedom's price. We have shown freedom's power. We will see freedom's victory."
~US President George W. Bush
We Love the Iraqi Information Minister (http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com)
Clicky-clicky!

Whatever you are dropping on the orcs is useless; they have fled into the tunnels. Your goo will not reach them and only endangers my troops.

If you feel the need to take a piece out of Melkor, you can always drop your weapons on Arda itself, back on earth.

I say one final time, cease.
"Then the Destroying Angels will follow them there. If any of your forces are harmed, it will be because they got in the way. They are not and will not be targeted without provocation."

Warlord Ferinion growled. "That's it... I want cropdusters filled with water. Scoop it from the damn oceans if you have to, and fly it south... drop it on that damn goo, I want it neutralized."

"Water, sir?" an aide asked.

"It's very simple. Nanites are very small," Ferinion said. "They cannot possibly have more than a limited lifespan and they are very specialized. They will not be able to operate in water and they will flail their little robotic arms helplessly until they die."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Then you can drop EMP weapons on them. Fry the little bastards - no way in hell they can be shielded against it."

----------

It was only a few hours later that gravitic aircraft overflew the area attacked by the Snel, dropping mass quantities of water on the horrendous goo... along with a liberal spread of EMP grenades, which could be detonated remotely.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/sirithil/sirithilnosfeanor.gifLady Sirithil nos Fëanor
Elentári of the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar
High Queen and Lady-Protector of Elvenkind
"We have known freedom's price. We have shown freedom's power. We will see freedom's victory."
~US President George W. Bush
We Love the Iraqi Information Minister (http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com)
Clicky-clicky!

Aha! They've finally decided to be helpful, thought the Swarm.
No longer constrained to miniscule drops of water floating in the air and thin films of moisture on the terrain, and, more importantly, on their victims' skin, the Khaki Goo nanites flowed away with the water being dumped. Somewhat annoyingly, that left much of the surface almost clean of them, but water always flows downhill, and the tunnels in which orcs hide are certainly in that direction.

(OOC: Your Warlord has it backwards- they're designed to target biomass, and therefore are designed to operate with water as a solvent. The best idea would be to scorch the area if you really want to get rid of them, but that would not be looked on kindly by Camael's Angels.)

Deep in the dark Kalessin night, a large blue Dragon slowly beat its way through the air, with long powerful flaps of its wide, leathery wings. Its overlapping scales glowed softly with a gently silvery sheen in the pale moonlight, illuminating the large cage which hung below its writhing body. The cage was crudely formed from unpolished wood, roughly lashed together by thick ropes, and attached to the great beast above by a tough rope harness. The creature's rider, a small dark speck upon the Dragon's armoured back, leaned forward to pat the neck of his steed. A small flicker of flame licked out from the Dragon's maw, and then, it vanished.

The Tower continued to stolidly pump out its message of hatred for ADK, seemingly impervious to the Eye's attempts to corrupt it, almost as if it had no mind at all.

(As far as I can tell, no one has gone after the missile silos yet. If this is not so, please correct me, and we can pretend that the following never happened.)
Nukes.... The thought was on the mind of every atomjack on Mars.
Melkor had nukes, and now he's surrendered....
Given the number of them residing in Coriolanus, it's no wonder the Admiral heard of the idea fairly quickly. Within minutes, every supercomp available was going over every orbital image from every spacecraft and satelite available that showed any hint of the missiles launching, detonating, or, rarely, flying, in order to compute probable silo sites.

The two Wellstones hanging around Daedalia were somewhat happy to hear that they weren't useless after all, and the second pair was quickly dispatched to infiltrate and locate silos.

Woohoo! More nukemat in the storehouse!

Lance Corporal Michelle Sharp bounded forward with her half squad of Federation Space Marines. They hardly needed the suit's jump jets in the low Martain gravity as they advanced forward. Half the Martian Regiment was sweeping the nearest former Melkorian territory to make sure it wasn't filled with any nasty surprises.

Her motion sensors beeped at her. Motion all around. LC Sharp looked around her. "Ground and freeze!" she ordered. She couldn't see anything moving. What the hell is going? "Anyone see anything?"

"Negative."

"No, ma'am."

"Not here."

"Nothing."

Michelle kicked a rock with her armored boot. Something was very wrong. She switched over the main frequency. "Control. This is LC Sharp. I've got movement in Sector 371- AAARRRRGGHHHHH!"

The ground gave way underneath the half squad, opening into an orc tunnel...

And the creatures were everywhere. LC Sharp's squad had no heavy weapons, they were a recon group. But their armor protected them from the fall. For the most part. But it would not protect them against what they faced down here. "Engage!" Sharp snarled into her pickup, forgetting it was still connected on the command frequency. But her men did not need orders. Five arm-mounted Mark 4 Multi-Environment Battle Rifles opened fire at the same time as the squad began to withdraw into a small half-circle. The rounds moving at 1500 meters per second flayed into the oncoming orcs like the breath of God Himself, but there were too many. "This is LC Sharp. I need immediate assistance. My team has engaged hostile forces. Need immediate assistance."

They kept coming. And coming. The tunnel was full of them, as far as the eye could see in the darkness. But they could not hold forever. A rocket blasted outward from the Marines, then another, and another. Ten rockets in all slammed into the oncoming mass of distorted flesh known as orcs. Blood splattered everywhere, globs of flesh and gore spraying outward with the explosions.

And still the orcs came, with no noticable decrease in their numbers.

"Running low." This was the first warning of the pain to come.

"I'm out."

"Me too."

"Shit."

"Empty." They were out of bullets. Twenty minutes of fully automatic fire drained even a Marine Battlesuit. They brought up their flamers. They flared, and the tunnel lit with a brilliant flame as the nearest rocks melted under the heat. The orcs shrivelled away like moths, trapped in the flame. But plasma torches were designed to start fires, not be them in their own right. It was not long until LC Sharp gave what she knew would be her final order. "Battle blades up!"

From under gaunleted fists sprang half-meter long blades of the sharpest battlesteel, and the Marines met the orcs head on. Orcish screams echoed in the thin atmosphere as the Marines tore into them. But time and numbers were on the orcs' side. The Marines grew tired from constant combat, and for every orc they slew, another three fresh ones crammed forward. Nick Jenkins was swarmed under first, and then his armor cracked. His screams echoed in the ears of his fellows as they tried to break free.

Into the Command Frequency, Sharp called again. "This is LC Sharp. We have engaged hostile forces. We need immediate assistance or we're all going to die."

Nicolo Pauken took a burst of one of the orc's guns in the gut. He feel to the ground, and screamed obscenities as his armor was cracked. "DIE YOU MOTHER-FUCKERS! DIE! DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE! AHHHHHH!" His screams cut off with a sickening final gurgle as the Marines continued to fall back under the onslaught of the orc waves.

And still they fought. And they died. Sharp was the only one left soon, her back to the wall, her armor coated in gore and blood, her movements tired and desperate. "This is LC Michelle Sharp! I need immediate evacu..." The blood exploded from her mouth against the inside of her helmet as she was hit again and again. Her blade flashed once more, bringing a screeching howl from her assailant, silenced in mid scream by her other blade through the neck.

"This is Lance Corporal Michelle Sharp to anyone who can hear me! I need help! They're everywhere! DIE YOU BASTARDS! DIE! This is Lance Corpor... AAGGGH!"

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

None of the five Marines survived, and the orc wave flowed from the ground like a new born spring, or perhaps erupted from it like a geyser. A tide of orcs swept towards the Federation Colony of Sentient Mars, a water of hatred and cruelty flowing across the blood-red sands. The Martian Regiment, out of duty and vengence, moved to engage.

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

The uncaring mass of orcs flowed forward without regard for formation or tactics, and just moved on a direct path towards wherever it was they thought they were going.

And so, just a kilometer from the nearest arcology, the violence of war was rekindled with the flame of plasma cannon. For the Regiment itself did have heavy weapons, and the mass of orcs just begged for them to be used as they flowed into a pass between two sets of hills. Five hundred Battle Rifles screamed vengence into the mass of spoiled flesh as shoulder mounted rockets simply vanished entire groups of orcs. But nothing seemed to stop them. Like an inexorable tide, they flowed forward towards the stopped at the end of the valley, the heavy weapons. The rate of fire redoubled as the Marines became desperate. They had to hold.

And then back up arrived. In the form of twelve Longsword aerospace fighters. The aircraft swept down the valley, autocannon and particle cannon raving, cluster munitions and napalm falling in their wakes. Flames quickly extinguished in the thin Martain air torn into the orcs like the hand of God. And still they came, dying for no conceivable gain. The fighters flashed back again and again, churning the red soil into a blackened mess of bloody mud. The heat came again as more fighters arrived, and the mud became glass. And still the orcs came, advancing through Man's best imitation of the fires of Hell. But the fighters roared back. And they swept the valley again and again and again until nothing remained in the valley of death.

The ITDO fleet arrives in Mars Orbit. Roughly 40 ships immediately begin scanning the areas of Noachia and Morion both with all manner of sensing devices.

A second diplomatic pod is shot again but decelerates much quicker this time, and coasts along towards geosynch over Minas Morion, still broadcasting it's message to the Melkorians and a general friendly IFF to vessels in the area. The pod is demanding permission to speak diplomatically with a representative of Melkor, but now there is a calm urgency to it's tone. The message is clearer, a choice: diplomacy, or destruction.

Field Marshal Adûnakôr ordered landing coordinates to be given to the craft, though he could likely do little to answer the questions he may be asked. His own knowledge of the 'attack' on Santa Barbara was limited--though he knew as well as all the other officers that no such strike was ordered. The pod was told to land at the Summit of the Tower, where it or its contents would be taken to a place within the Tower to confer.

On the ground, the Orcs and Uruks struggled with the Snel goo--most of the men were in the Tower itself, awaiting their evacuation--if ever it should come. As the water washed over Angmar, it plunged down into the massive orc-pits. Almost Simultaneously, the forges exploded in flame, spewing hot molten steel through the tunnels beneath the mountains, and Angoron shook furiously. Most of Morgoth's creatures in this area of course perished immediately, as the burning fire from the forges shot through the tunnels and crevasses, incinerating everything in its destructive path. Geysers of molten steel shot from the earth, congealing in pools where it would eventually cool and harden, leaving behind neatly rounded patches of metal fused to earth on the countryside.

Melkor, Lord of Darkness
He who Arises in Might
Emperor Eternal of the Imperial Dominion of Melkor Unchained, Lord and Master of Arda
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~darion.c.smith/melkor.jpg

Aboard the Atmos, SCC Cheng sent a quick tightbeam message back to Earth. He had been communicating with the fatherly Marcos Fernando all morning, and was irritated that the old man himself couldn't be arsed to carry his own messages.

At least it gave him something to do, though. Idle hands did the devil's work.

[code:1:d6e2b39ad9]
2nd pod accepted and online. Keeping a close eye from above and within. Teams at crash sight confirm Melkor-originated light craft and orcs, attack consistent with random, leaderless raid. Approximately $205 million worth of damages to a CW facility, 3 civilian casualties. Fernando believes intelligence reports indicating this to be inconsistent with an opening assault ordered by Melkor. Pod will attempt to confirm or deny this with MP1's help.[/code:1:d6e2b39ad9]

The tiny pod -- too small, really, to house a human being unless in the foetal position and with nothing else inside of it-- maneuvered deftly, with an abrupt series of movements which would have been completely and utterly impossible had it been reaction-driven, toward the Summit of the Tower.

It does so intelligently, seemingly guided by an invisible hand as it stays respectfully distanced from the multinational fleets and ships hovering ominously above the Red Planet.

Once there the sphere cuts to a stop and seems to wait, silently now, it's systems powered down and gravitational fields either absent or overwhelmed by that of Mars itself. And it waits.

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a man appeared, standing beside the pod in the open Martian atmosphere, seemingly unaffected by the hostile climate and any nano-agents.

Waiting patiently was a man with short-trimmed curly hair, intense beady eyes, broad face and shoulders. A man adourned in the gray uniform of ITDO command-- and the insignia of the Supreme Strategic Core Commander. A man in the spitting image, though younger and more in fit, of the only man in history to bear that rank.

Toby Pratt.

"We're some five hundred kilometres inside of a former enemy stronghold, and not a single engagement yet? This is disappointing. I feel like we should be chasing the Orcs down for the sport...but, then I realise we'd be just like them." Ilritz made a dismissive gesture towards the North East, where Aelosian troops had made a game of seizing territory...'callous bastards' though Ilritz.


OOC:

Yeah, Ive been in the war for some time...lots of troops, fighters, ortillery support. Not a single response...so, yeah, I dont know whats going on in Hellespontos/Ortega. Have the Orcs all retreated? or are the preparing some sort of counter-attack, guerilla warfare or what ever?

"We're some five hundred kilometres inside of a former enemy stronghold, and not a single engagement yet? This is disappointing. I feel like we should be chasing the Orcs down for the sport...but, then I realise we'd be just like them." Ilritz made a dismissive gesture towards the North East, where Aelosian troops had made a game of seizing territory...'callous bastards' though Ilritz.


OOC:

Yeah, Ive been in the war for some time...lots of troops, fighters, ortillery support. Not a single response...so, yeah, I dont know whats going on in Hellespontos/Ortega. Have the Orcs all retreated? or are the preparing some sort of counter-attack, guerilla warfare or what ever?

[what little is left of Morgoth's creatures in that areaa include primarily Uruks, Goblins and cave-trolls--but most of them are underground, spreading out. Did you mention something earlier about sending troops through the tunnels?]

Deep in the dark Ardan night, flying low above the land ruled by the rogue Valar, Melkor, a large blue Dragon slowly beat its way through the air, with long powerful flaps of its wide, leathery wings. Its overlapping scales glowed softly with a gently silvery sheen in the pale moonlight, illuminating the large cage which hung below its writhing body. The cage was crudely formed from unpolished wood, roughly lashed together by thick ropes, and attached to the great beast above by a tough rope harness. Crammed inside the cage were some hundred heavily built humans, naked save for their breathing masks and a few thin strips of cloth. There was no room inside for anything more, crushed together as they were, like sardines in a tin. The rider shook his hair free of the dry Martian dust, and slowly leaned forward to pat the neck of his noble steed.

Many Dragons flew that same journey many times that night. Three hundred Dragons in all. And by the steady beat of their wings, they brought the warriors of Melkor home. By the time the sun rose again over Arda, they had rescued no less than 150,000 of Melkor's Easterling and Haradrim elites. Their weapons and equipment now lay untended in the caves and warrens of Mars, but weapons and equipment can be replaced.

Open Transmission to Imakarum Mirabilis, All Combatants

There is a very secure place where this can be discussed. A shuttle will be dispatched to meet you and four bodyguards at the northern gates of Angmar to take them there. It should arrive in 30 minutes.

I would ask that all combatants attempt a reasonably ceasation of hostilities and send their emissaries to the Peace Dome as soon as possible.

Transmission repeats every 1/2 hour.


Eventually, the necron fleet replied.

[tight beam, Mclear, tra. @ B.-102.13.122.2032]
x C'tan Battleship, Mechanisms of the gods,
o Sunset, The Libertarian Paradise of,

We shall dispatch an emissary to you in the near future to discuss terms, our troops will now cease hostile activities, and await further instructions.

The Tower continued to stolidly pump out its message of hatred for ADK, seemingly impervious to the Eye's attempts to corrupt it, almost as if it had no mind at all.

It failed.

It didn´t know why it failed, but it failed.

Of course, one could conclude possible reasons.

One reason could be extensive defences.

But despite all it´s flaws... It would have sensed them.

No... It was something else...

DA developed technology to simulate teleparthy, to create telepathy without a mind. That was a while ago. They knew it could be done... What if the tower was like this? A mindless tool, either working like a programmed roboter or controlled from... somewhere else.

The 'archives'... The countless 'programs', or 'thoughts' written for this kind of conflict... They had done more than enough research on the subject... They had anything they needed.

And again, it 'hijacked' the connection with the tower...

This time, it was a different program. A different thought...

Not something that manipulates a mind, but something that is a mind... Something supposed to gain control over parts of the body... over mindless... 'things'.

Of course, it isn´t magic. But effects can be translated into results, subconciously... It worked the one way, it would work the other way.

One would see if it would work or not, it was nothing the eye could effectively influent...

The content of the program was different, though. It wasn´t supposed to inspire fear... more...

To test, to gain knowledge.

The questions it wanted answers for, the answers that were supposed to be transmitted back to the eye...

What is it?
Where does it come from?
What can it do?

And so it tried, again...

The meeting was about to start when the word came racing through the networks like a tidal wave. Some laughed, some cried, others simply stood and began to prepare. There were those that they would be needed, and others that wanted to run from the fire that was about to engulf the worlds.

----

In the Peace Dome a kilometer below Sunset a small group of people had met to discuss the surrender of Angmar and the withdrawl of the troops inside. Some who were watching their screens for status updates on the war stared wide eyed as the news raced across the top of the screen. Then they heard dull booms start to echo into the chamber. The blast doors, along with all the others in Sunset, were dropping.

If they had been inside the arcologies they would have witnessed a sight rarely seen. The ceilings flashed to alert warnings and news broadcasts instead of their typical Martian sky. Along the terraces light fixtures dropped and rotated as the internal defenses came fully online for the first time in more than a century.

On the surface fighters again scrambled and ships shuffled into a higher orbit and prepared to leave to do battle. Shuttles raced back into their transports which moved into protected formations near the dreadnoughts and cruisers. The 10 ships that had come through earlier suddenly lit their drives and made for Minas Morion - no more delays.
----

The table where MIDAS meetings were normally held was being used for discussion - those who fought the tower on one side, those who held it on the other. There were others as well - SDF Marines standing alongside the battlesuits of '0' Division commando's and the mechanical forms of AAT-AM01 combat robots. They had come to reinforce the Marines who had arrived on the shuttle and escorted Lord Mirabilis in. They were there both in case of treachery and in case of an assassination attempt. Sunset did not like to end it's negotiations with anyone in a vinyl bag.

"Things have changed. We can no longer stand any delay on your part Lord Mirabilis - unconditional surrender is required. We will treat your men fairly if they stand down now, but you only have 5 minutes to make this choice."

Imakarum's face was clouded with pain and rage as he heard this delegate speak to him. The Marshal was realtively out of the loop, and was not aware the Io situation had taken such a drastic turn. He was beginning to grow disillusioned with his Lord, who had sent nothing to his defense.

He saw no reason now why his men should die for a tyrant millions of miles awway, and tossed his arms into the air, exasperatedly. "I have no choice. Given the circumstances of my condition, I'm not inclined to pander to Morgoth by ordering my men to fight you to the death. What plans Field Marshal Adûnakôr has for the Tower in my absence, I do not know, but I left him in charge of it ere I left."

He sighed, and rubbed his temples. "I'll not be hindered by Morgoth anymore, " he said, seething. the Lord of Angband couldn't be bothered to send so much as grav-fleet to my defense, so I'll surrender if only to his detriment. I'd also like to sue for asylum."

Behind Imakarum, the two blackjacket bodyguards quickly, with fluid precisions, drew their guns and cocked them. One pointed his weapon at Imakarum's head, the other levelled his weapon at the rest of the delegation. The one with his gun to Imakarum's head raised a halting hand and spoke grimly. "This we cannot allow, Lord Mirabilis, and you know it."

With that, Imakarum closed his eyes, and seemed to brood for a moment. WIth stunnin speed he whirled in his seat and climed out of it, the shots from the Southron Guardsman's battle rifle echoing loudly through the room as three rounds were ejected into the Marshal. The other guard's eyes widened, in awe as Lord Mirabilis seemed to change form in front of him, into a man-sized creature with pale, milky skin and horrible teeth and claws. He dug his teeth into the blackjacket guard's neck unhindered by his rounds, attacking him rabidly.

The second guard was not a dumb man. His jaw dropped, as did his weapon. He folded his hands behind his head and knelt, hoping Lord Mirabilis would recognize the surrender. It was already too late for the first guard, apparently.

***

Back at Minas Morion, Field Marshal Adûnakôr finally made his overtures to the Santa Barbaran delegation, having busied himself in preparation for the evacuation of key personnel in the tower. He himself was fully ready, and would be boarding the makeshift Kalessini transports when the brief conference was finished. He folded his hands behind his back and began. "You'll pardon if I'm overly curt or quick with you in this matter, but I myself know relatively little of this attack, but know for certain that none of our officers ordered it. Such as it stands the only men in the Imperium with the jurisdiction to launch such a strike would be the Imperial Marshals, of which I am one. I think you'll find Lord Alkanphel to be much more knowledgeable about the situation, as he instructed me to have you contact him should you attempt contact. I'll send a message to him telling him to expect a delegate of yours to Utumno, if you wish."

An aide rushed up to Adûnakôr, and handed him a slip of paper. The Field Marshal nodded to the man and sent him on his way. The charges had been set. Adûnakôr Nodded to Toby Pratt. "It will most certainly be in your best interests to get out of here post-haste, such as it were."

Melkor, Lord of Darkness
He who Arises in Might
Emperor Eternal of the Imperial Dominion of Melkor Unchained, Lord and Master of Arda
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~darion.c.smith/melkor.jpgMelkor, Lord of Darkness
He who Arises in Might
Emperor Eternal of the Imperial Dominion of Melkor Unchained, Lord and Master of Arda
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~darion.c.smith/melkor.jpg

Imakarum's face was clouded with pain and rage as he heard this delegate speak to him. The Marshal was realtively out of the loop, and was not aware the Io situation had taken such a drastic turn. He was beginning to grow disillusioned with his Lord, who had sent nothing to his defense.

He saw no reason now why his men should die for a tyrant millions of miles awway, and tossed his arms into the air, exasperatedly. "I have no choice. Given the circumstances of my condition, I'm not inclined to pander to Morgoth by ordering my men to fight you to the death. What plans Field Marshal Adûnakôr has for the Tower in my absence, I do not know, but I left him in charge of it ere I left."

He sighed, and rubbed his temples. "I'll not be hindered by Morgoth anymore, " he said, seething. the Lord of Angband couldn't be bothered to send so much as grav-fleet to my defense, so I'll surrender if only to his detriment. I'd also like to sue for asylum."

Behind Imakarum, the two blackjacket bodyguards quickly, with fluid precisions, drew their guns and cocked them. One pointed his weapon at Imakarum's head, the other levelled his weapon at the rest of the delegation. The one with his gun to Imakarum's head raised a halting hand and spoke grimly. "This we cannot allow, Lord Mirabilis, and you know it."

With that, Imakarum closed his eyes, and seemed to brood for a moment. WIth stunnin speed he whirled in his seat and climed out of it, the shots from the Southron Guardsman's battle rifle echoing loudly through the room as three rounds were ejected into the Marshal. The other guard's eyes widened, in awe as Lord Mirabilis seemed to change form in front of him, into a man-sized creature with pale, milky skin and horrible teeth and claws. He dug his teeth into the blackjacket guard's neck unhindered by his rounds, attacking him rabidly.

The second guard was not a dumb man. His jaw dropped, as did his weapon. He folded his hands behind his head and knelt, hoping Lord Mirabilis would recognize the surrender. It was already too late for the first guard, apparently.

***

Back at Minas Morion, Field Marshal Adûnakôr finally made his overtures to the Santa Barbaran delegation, having busied himself in preparation for the evacuation of key personnel in the tower. He himself was fully ready, and would be boarding the makeshift Kalessini transports when the brief conference was finished. He folded his hands behind his back and began. "You'll pardon if I'm overly curt or quick with you in this matter, but I myself know relatively little of this attack, but know for certain that none of our officers ordered it. Such as it stands the only men in the Imperium with the jurisdiction to launch such a strike would be the Imperial Marshals, of which I am one. I think you'll find Lord Alkanphel to be much more knowledgeable about the situation, as he instructed me to have you contact him should you attempt contact. I'll send a message to him telling him to expect a delegate of yours to Utumno, if you wish."

An aide rushed up to Adûnakôr, and handed him a slip of paper. The Field Marshal nodded to the man and sent him on his way. The charges had been set. Adûnakôr Nodded to Toby Pratt. "It will most certainly be in your best interests to get out of here post-haste, such as it were."

Melkor, Lord of Darkness
He who Arises in Might
Emperor Eternal of the Imperial Dominion of Melkor Unchained, Lord and Master of Arda
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~darion.c.smith/melkor.jpg

Toby Pratt -- or rather, the holographic projection in his shape -- squinted his eyes in appraisal of the Field Marshall. He appears to be thinking. Invisibly, however, the pod is in communication with Atmos in orbit,

"I appreciate your candor in this manner," he said at last in his typical drawl, "A diplomatic pod will be sent to the-"

He stops, appears to be listening to something for a moment. Then he continues. "We will be in contact with your Lord Alkanphel himself, by laser tightbeam communication. I'm gonna require coordinates to an appropriate receiver be transmitted to the Atmos, if you can. I think we're done here then, Field Marshall."

And he nodded, once, up-and-down. Then he vanished, and the diplomatic pod began to thrum with energy again, beginning to lift off.

[OOC: I kinda assume you already have one, in my post in the Bone Cave in which I sent a tightbeam laser comm. However, if you don't I can just edit that to make sense, since that post comes after this one ICly.]

The delegates were shocked and scurried back from the table. The Admiral charged with the negotiations had backed off considerably. His words of a moment before - spoken from nervousness - had been forgotten. He had heard rumors - space was full of rumors - but had not truely believed such a thing possible.

The situation for the commandos was different. This was just more wierd shit - they has seen a lot of it in their duties out-system and in. Weapons were brought up in a flash, but they did not fire. Servos whirred softly as they balanced, but they did not pull the trigger.

Admiral Brown dusted himself off and stood. "Lord... Lord Imakarum..." He paused to await the creature's reaction.

President Al-Zief finished composing his notice, read it through again, and passed it across the desk to Villanova.

"A little deceitful - but at this point I don't think we can avoid it." Villanova finished reading it, and passed the pad back over. "I'll contact Mangala and get them going as well."

---

Official Notice - Sent over the Sunset datanet.
Due to the state of war that now exists between the nations of Arda and the Triumvirate of Yut all citizens are advised to prepare for evacuation of their homes at a moments notice. Please gather what you can carry and secure your homes and businesses. Do not leave your homes or businesses unless it is needed. The closest route from your current location to a transit tube can be obtained by going to...

The message repeated, and people prepared. They were safe deep underground, but who knew what their enemy might devise to reach them?

----

In one of the 12 largest domes in Sunset people were preparing to leave. They had been told they would be taken off-world to a safe haven and most had jumped at the chance. They had been only too eager to thump their approval on a non-disclosure and return agreement - it did say that if it was deemed safe they could return after all...

As they walked into the chamber they had been directed to they looked around in wonder. A high spiralling structure that looked like it had been scultped by a master stood in the center. Some looked away though, and saw the weapon emplacements studding the walls. Those who knew something about the miltary recognized capital grade systems. Then the reason for the double dogleg and quad blast doors became apparent - anyone coming through that gate the wrong way would die shortly afterward.

The throne room was surprisingly quiet this day. Ilritz's host hadn't encountered the enemy, Sorgstrom was still doing the tedious work of checking the underground tunnel systems of the Orcs. Aelosia had proved increasingly more cooperative than in past days and Hellespontos was safely back in the hands of Vascilia and the cost of a mere fourteen lives of men. "I feel great!" said Marduk, "Thanks to a speedy and diplomatic end to things, I finally have some time to myself." Marduk realised that the room was deadly quiet, he was then suddenly struck with an over whelming sense of boredom. "Hmmm...I think, Im going to go do something. Only after I stop talking to myself." Marduk threw on his storm jacket and made his way to Aumanii Military High Command some three floors down, when he arrived he was met by a wall of activity. "Oh sir, you're here. We were about to come to you." said an aide "What happened?" replied Marduk, the young aide handed him a dataslate "Colonel Sorgstrom has been engaged by enemy troops under Hellespontos...its pretty bloody, its all in the report." Marduk glanced down and read the file, his eyes widened "How long have they been going at it? Oh wait, fourty five minutes according to this." Marduk was making an effort to read the slate, squinting, holding it away from his face and sometimes bringing it closer. "Is Ilritz on stand by?" he asked "Yes, they've cut off all known above ground escape routes, but Hellespontos is huge so..." Marduk nodded, "I understand, I think I'm going to head over there...to Hellespontos." the aide looked concerned "You think that would be wise sir? I mean, well, you're not as young as you used to be." Marduk gave the young man a cock-eyed look and spoke "Im going to ignore that."

--------

Sorgstrom had stayed in the rear since the official cease-fire order came, this was the most frustrating deployment of his career. Never has he and his men had such little action in a warzone, they lost three men so far and that was due to a cave in. The Colonel was sitting in his dug out sipping at a cup of coffee and reading the 'Aumanii Infantryman's uplifting primer' when a hulking dust covered figure stalked in, upon removing his helmet Sorgstrom realised it was Lt. Kuligan, he was breathing heavily and obviously just coming off of a combat high. "Sir, I have news from the front." Kuligan saluted, Sorgstrom put his coffee down and said "Well, out with it man." with that Kuligan began to recount what he had seen "Well sir, me and my company were scouting out D sector some ways out and we came across some strange structure, it was huge, located in a dug out some fifty metres high by six hundred metres around." Kuligan stopped to take a deep breath "anyway sir, I sent a platoon down to check it out and when they broke cover we came under heavy machine gun fire...I mean, like wow, it was incredible. At least four hosts of orcs had taken refuge in that grotto sir. Anyway, at that I recalled the platoon but none of them could make it back under their own power...so, uhm, I sent another platoon to bring them back." Sorgstrom stared blankly at Kuligan "Anyway, uhm, they got cut apart pretty bad...and when that happened the Orcs started yelling some sort of an insult. So I ordered Sapper Tolin to sneak up there and blow up their hooch, and he did, but when that happened the tunnel caved in. We had to dig our way out, and if it weren't for the sapper we'd probably have died. Anyway, uhm, I'd like to put Tolin up for a medal or something." Sorgstrom sigh dejectedly "Sure, hey, Kuligan can I see your rank pins?" with that Kuligan handed him his badge "Im gonna give these pins to Lt. Tolin, meanwhile Trooper Kuligan, I think you should prepare an apology to your former company and start writing letters to the parents of the troopers you killed...and don't say it was the Orcs that killed them, because you're a god damned idiot Kuligan. Get the hell out of my dug out." Kuligan stood grim faced, tears were running freely down his cheeks as he saluted and walked away.

OOC:

I tried experimenting with the way I write...tell me if you had any problems with it. Im thinking the Aumanii military should get a commendation for "most sand bags produced"

Losses:

Infantry: 14(Accidental)
Special Forces: 92(Combat), 5(Accidental)
Total: 111 Troopers

[ooc: the first part here explains in greater detail what happens in the span of time between the surrender and now. I got carried away with the talks and didnt get to explain Morgoth's Retribution, which will happen here. The end of this post, timewise, coincides roughly with Imakarum's little outburst.]

Lord Adûnakôr, the Field Marshal of the Angmar Infantry Corps, had been left to watch the Tower in Imakarum's absence. But he would do much more than watch. He was disgusted at the idea that Imakarum was about to let all of these meddling nothings take the Tower of Morgoth without a scratch. His eyes burned as if with red flame as he gazed out from the shadows. Slowly, he lifted himself from his chair and strode across the empty chamber to a dias, atop which sat the palantir gifted to Imakarum by Morgoth himself. He set his hands upon it eagerly and watched the dull black orb roar to life in a flash of energy and a whirl of black cloud. He saw, in the course of his trance, many things. The first thing he saw was a milty white creature biting into a Southron Guardsmen's neck. He furrowed his brow. It was Imakarum.

Adûnakôr's face contorted with rage, and his eyes became slits as he peered into the seeing stone. Before him suddenly the visage of Morgoth appeared, and he beckoned to the man, his voice echoing in the Field Marshal's name, his voice coming out as a hiss

'Phárros...' Morgoth called out, using the man's first name. Adûnakôr grimaced, but the Dark Lord faded away, replaced a moment later by images of large Dragons--Kalessini Dragons by his estimation, large cages hanging beneath them. Transport harnesses. Filled with... something. Canisters and such. He could not make out what they were exactly, but he could tell that their arrival was imminent. The Marshal perceived much of Morgoth's plans, and he was familiar with the manner in which the Kalessini dragons operated.

Suddenly, his mind was cleared. Perhaps by the Seeing Stone, and perhaps by his matter--it mattered not. Calmly, he pulled his hands off the stone and set his jaw. He tugged at his cloak and stalked out of the room, making haste to the Main Chamber, where he would issue his orders.

He found, to his surprise, that the Kalessini dragons he'd seen in his vision were already around the Tower itself, awaiting, apparently, the instruction of the Lord of the Tower. He stepped out of the Main Gate, his men arrayed on the plain before him.

Adûnakôr clutched one of his men by the collar and ordered him back to the tower to fetch reconaissance photos to guide the Dragons to the necessary positions. Previously useless satellite images would now be put to use at last: key points in the Martian ocean had been marked and so on by officials back in Angband. A good number of the weapons--roughly a third--were to be transported through the safety of between to the Hellas Basin, and the other 2/3 were to be set off in the waters of the northern ocean.

[ooc note: pardon the vague-ness of this part, but Kal told me to go ahead and post his dragons unleashing the weapons and so forth: I cant really describe any interaction beween Adûnakôr and the Dragon Riders, since I dont know any of their names or how to write them and Kal just left. bugger.]

The photos were distributed and Adûnakôr gave them a quick breifing. The weapons--chemical weapons of varying power and content had been arrayed in the transport harnesses of the massive dragons, and had all been affixed with a remote detonation device, which would be controlled untimately by Adûnakôr himself. The stockpiles were to be discreetly slid under the waves, and se off upon the Dragons' return to Minas Morion. Adûnakôr still had to get off Mars, so it made no sense to detonate them at once.

He watched with a grim sense of self satisfaction as the dragons departed, knowing that soon his work on the Red Planet would be done. Even as he mounted the steps to the Tower to prepare the Final Salvo, he knew in the back of his mind that at that very moment, a full third of every chemical weapon devised by Morgoth was sliding into the young martian ocean. He had only wait for the dragon's return, and then it would be done.

Many of the men were dismayed, as it finally dawned on even the most optimistic of them that this plan would in all probability claim their lives.

Melkor, Lord of Darkness
He who Arises in Might
Emperor Eternal of the Imperial Dominion of Melkor Unchained, Lord and Master of Arda
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~darion.c.smith/melkor.jpg

[code:1:5e6a3646ec] ATTENTION SILO OVERLORDS AND GROUNDSIDE DEFENSE CORPS TASKMASTERS.

This is acting Field Marshal Phárros Adûnakôr with emergency orders: all silos are to be loaded and primed. Relay missile information and launch vector coordinates to Minas Morion for final authorization. We'll only be able to launch this one salvo, so make it worthwhile. Initiate final preparations and await furhter orders. We will make Mars pay.[/code:1:5e6a3646ec]

Adûnakôr relayed the message to his Silo crews instantly upon his return to the Tower. By his estimation. Minas Morion would be nuked to rubble shortly after the strike of this magnitude, and knew he had to time the Kalessini evacuation just right, or else they'd all be toast.

Already, many of his men had begun to perceive that the Dragons could not take them all back to Earth, and many were convinced of their imminent death. All they could do now was make sure the Enemy paid for slaying them.

Soon it would begin. Soon, Morgoth would have his vengeance on the Red Planet.

Melkor, Lord of Darkness
He who Arises in Might
Emperor Eternal of the Imperial Dominion of Melkor Unchained, Lord and Master of Arda
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~darion.c.smith/melkor.jpg

(OOC: What of my attempts to locate the silos? I really don't want to just say "YAA! 1 5ABOTAGE J00R N00K5!!11", but I have no idea what sort of obstacles I'm up against without you telling me.)

[ooc: safe to say that any silo that isnt within the protective cloud offered by Angmar can be found easily. A good number could also probably be seen by Syskeyian/Roania/Aelosian/ADK/Menelmacar spotters on the ground under the cloud. So given that you'd likely have to contact them first before getting any sort of meaningful info, that might just mean I get the launch off before coordinates can be relayed and such [given that I'm only waiting for Kal's posting of the Dragons' return to Minas Morion to launch]. But given that you mentioed something about these silos a while ago, I'll grant you a little time dilation window to do what you will with my outlying silos.

I just had too much to deal with and forgot about it, in a sense. Sorry.

Oh, and before I submit, I just want to mention one last thing to anyone who is so much as thinking about ignoring this or wanking to such a ridiculous degree that nothing goes off: THe lot of you have already effectively ended my Mars storyline, and all things considered, I think I've been a pretty good sport about it. I will not tolerate anyone expecting to get out of this without a scratch: I'm making some serious OOC concessions here to end my Minas Morion plotline, and I will be loath to do so unless the opposition takes some meaningful losses as well. If I wanted to play the "Ignore the thread because I dont like where its going" game, I'd have ignored this whole attack in the first place.

Long story short: I've paid my dues and its time for all of you to pay yours :evil: ]

Sorgstrom had stayed in the rear since the official cease-fire order came, this was the most frustrating deployment of his career. Never has he and his men had such little action in a warzone, they lost three men so far and that was due to a cave in. The Colonel was sitting in his dug out sipping at a cup of coffee and reading the 'Aumanii Infantryman's uplifting primer' when a hulking dust covered figure stalked in, upon removing his helmet Sorgstrom realised it was Lt. Kuligan, he was breathing heavily and obviously just coming off of a combat high. "Sir, I have news from the front." Kuligan saluted, Sorgstrom put his coffee down and said "Well, out with it man." with that Kuligan began to recount what he had seen "Well sir, me and my company were scouting out D sector some ways out and we came across some strange structure, it was huge, located in a dug out some fifty metres high by six hundred metres around." Kuligan stopped to take a deep breath "anyway sir, I sent a platoon down to check it out and when they broke cover we came under heavy machine gun fire...I mean, like wow, it was incredible. At least four hosts of orcs had taken refuge in that grotto sir. Anyway, at that I recalled the platoon but none of them could make it back under their own power...so, uhm, I sent another platoon to bring them back." Sorgstrom stared blankly at Kuligan "Anyway, uhm, they got cut apart pretty bad...and when that happened the Orcs started yelling some sort of an insult. So I ordered Sapper Tolin to sneak up there and blow up their hooch, and he did, but when that happened the tunnel caved in. We had to dig our way out, and if it weren't for the sapper we'd probably have died. Anyway, uhm, I'd like to put Tolin up for a medal or something." Sorgstrom sigh dejectedly "Sure, hey, Kuligan can I see your rank pins?" with that Kuligan handed him his badge "Im gonna give these pins to Lt. Tolin, meanwhile Trooper Kuligan, I think you should prepare an apology to your former company and start writing letters to the parents of the troopers you killed...and don't say it was the Orcs that killed them, because you're a god damned idiot Kuligan. Get the hell out of my dug out." Kuligan stood grim faced, tears were running freely down his cheeks as he saluted and walked away.


Gorgoroth

Lord Sauron's forces had been fairly few in number from the beggining on Mars- not many had been present on the ground for the drive into Auman by the Imperium & the Kabal earlier that year. What remnants of Mordor's power that had remained on the Red Planet after the conflict had appeared to be resolved were amongst the first that made the journey out of the former Burninatonian colony & into the Webway, back to their accursed realm in Arda, when the fighting broke out again.

But not all of them had made it out in time.

Deep within the bowels of Gorgoroth a lone Dark Eldar warrior, seperated from his companions amidst the dank, twisting tunnels Morgoth's goblins had dug throughout the colony, was leading his Ardan charges to what he could only hope was freedom. The region swarmed with Kajali Martians, Aumanii & other Mon-Keigh, & finding his way to the old webgate would have been difficult under the best of circumstances.

For this particular Eldar, it now proved too difficult. Emerging out of the darkness of one of the goblin-tunnels into a natural cave system, he suddenly found himself confronted with a column of Aumanii special forces, hundreds stong, moving through the narrow, cavernous area; probably out searching for the likes of him. He had not been seen, but the raising of his splinter cannon was as instinctive as the bloodlust that arose in his foul heart as he squeezed the trigger.

It was not he that the startled Aumanii would probably be concerned with, however. They would be more worried about his two companions, Olog-hai of Mordor, fell beasts clad in leaden armour, each bearing a monolothic weapon somewhat similar in design to the gattling-type weapons found on the A-10 tank buster aircraft of old. With a bestial roar the monstrous trolls surged forward into the midst of their hated foes, thousands of shells scything through their packed ranks in the confined space of the stalactite-encrusted caves.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sauron the Deceiver
Lord of Abomination
http://www.theargonath.cc/characters/sauron/pictures/sauron2.jpg
~Dark Lord of Mordor, First Among Maiar, Lieutenant of Morgoth~
_________________________________________________



OOC:

On the Dark Lord's Side:

1 Dark Eldar Warrior
2 heavily armed & armoured Olog-hai
The element of surprise!

(OOC: Fair 'nuff. Am pressed of time, so this'll be quick 'n' dirty, I'll post something better later.)

Unfortunately, the clouds of Angmar made pinpointing many possible silos nigh-on impossible- some of those further away from the center of the darkness were picked up easily, however. One by one, Wellstones positioned themselves over silo doors, and began pounding them with superheated hydrogen to break in and steal the missiles hidden below.

[ooc: safe to say that any silo that isnt within the protective cloud offered by Angmar can be found easily. A good number could also probably be seen by Syskeyian/Roania/Aelosian/ADK/Menelmacar spotters on the ground under the cloud. So given that you'd likely have to contact them first before getting any sort of meaningful info, that might just mean I get the launch off before coordinates can be relayed and such [given that I'm only waiting for Kal's posting of the Dragons' return to Minas Morion to launch]. But given that you mentioed something about these silos a while ago, I'll grant you a little time dilation window to do what you will with my outlying silos.

I just had too much to deal with and forgot about it, in a sense. Sorry.

Oh, and before I submit, I just want to mention one last thing to anyone who is so much as thinking about ignoring this or wanking to such a ridiculous degree that nothing goes off: THe lot of you have already effectively ended my Mars storyline, and all things considered, I think I've been a pretty good sport about it. I will not tolerate anyone expecting to get out of this without a scratch: I'm making some serious OOC concessions here to end my Minas Morion plotline, and I will be loath to do so unless the opposition takes some meaningful losses as well. If I wanted to play the "Ignore the thread because I dont like where its going" game, I'd have ignored this whole attack in the first place.

Long story short: I've paid my dues and its time for all of you to pay yours :evil: ]

OOC: I understand what losses you've taken (and without bitching! much.... :) ), but understand that what your about to do affects even those who did not fight you.

Understand that for this action, there are serious consequences.

Understand that those consequences will almost certainly not be limited to Mars.

Otherwise...nice revenge.

Streaking in, the little Bilogical probe headed for the point of most activity, dodging in and out of the heavy space traffic, totaly oblivious to all vessels, save to record a brief scan of them, arranging itself in orbit over the heaviest activity, it scans away to its merry hearts content.

Deep in the dark Martian night, a large shadow appeared upon the calm waters of the Vallis Marineris. It travelled rapidly, almost touching the surface of the sea, and in complete silence.

Beneath the belly of the Dragon, which was gliding along at enough speed to terrify most men, its rider, a certain Harfok na Loum, was busily working the release catch of the sturdy wooden cage upon which he stood, carefully scattering its contents throughout the sea. The contents in question were all packed in large steel or plastic cylinders, and most bore an array of warning symbols, as well as the words "Made in Angband".

The Dragon itself was tracing a route that had been painstakingly plotted by Melkor's weapons experts, which would, when combined with the efforts of his brothers on the far ends of the sea, cause the blast-radii and expected dispersion of the weapons to cover almost all of the water in the canyon.

As he slowly beat his wings, Lainotrafein, for that was the name of this particular Dark-Green beast, let out a tiny flicker of flame in consternation at the crackling sound emanating from his back and wings.

Rain? Here? No...there's no precipitation in front of me...

Then he felt a tiny stab of pain in his right wing, as if it had been pricked by a needle, although no needle could have pierced Lainotrafein's thick hide!

Ow! What in the million planes of the Empire was that?

Gritting his teeth, the Dragon increased his speed, and began to jink and weave slightly as the pinpricks of pain on his wings multiplied, and he was rather relieved when, four minutes after he had appeared over the Vallis Marineris, he was able to seek refuge in the comforting darkness of between


All over Mars, other Dragons and other riders carried out similar missions, delivering their deadly payloads to the depths of the Martian oceans, before returning to Minas Morion.

Nations of Mars, hear my words. Mark them well, for to many they mean death and despair. For the attack on Minas Morion, it is time for the Red Planet to atone for its wrongs against Lord Melkor, Master of All. Our forces we now sacrifice to you at great cost, for as I speak these words to you now, the Final Plan for Mars has begun. Imakarum is a fool and a betrayer; unwilling to stand and obliterate the invaders as is his duty as the Master of Minas Morion. For he did not realise in the course of his duties that the Tower belongs to not him but his Master, Lord Melkor.

Alas, for now our forces stand vanquished in the field, but one last thing remains to be done. You've stoked the furnace, now reap the tempest of fire.

Adûnakôr immediately issued the detonation weapon for his chemical stockpiles that had been placed in Mars' oceans. With the click of a button, millions of tons' worth of various chemical and biological agents exploded independently beneath the rolling waves, bleeding their toxins into the water in frightening quanities.

Minas Morion roared with the wrath of hundreds of thousands of men doomed to die, with any chance of survival beyond any desire or recall. Many Southron Guardsmen and key personnel would be evacuated by Kalessin's dragons, but the rank and file all knew they were doomed. The missiles launched were only those of the highest caliber of MIRV warheads used by the Imperium in the course of war. 525 Missiles cleared their silos, most of them were low-yield nuclear devices but 10% or so were upwards of 80mT.

[Targets include primarily, but are not limited to the following nations: Syskeyia, ADK Mars, Menelmacar, Kajal Mars, and Snel. I imagine a higher percentage of the bigger weapons would be aimed at Snel, for their having so recklessly violated the "cease fire." Most of the nukes [and all of the larger ones] are ground burst. Given the proximity that most of these nations are to Angmar, I dont imagine there would be more than 15 minutes' warning, even in the best case scenario.

My post assumes that Eniqcir takes out 25 missile silos, which given the timeframe involved is a VERY generous estimate.

Sorry for the shoddy post, as I stayed up all night last night and have a headache that would make a dead man crawl out of his grave for an Aleve]

Command Center, Susa, Colony of Sentient Mars, FSP

Governor Jack Hershey looked at could barely keep the horror from his face as he heard Adûnakôr's pronouncement. The the satellite warning systems buzzed their alarms, breaking him from the trance he was in, as the countdown clock appeared on the main screen.

9:00

"Recall the Marines. Get them off the surface now." But in his heart, he knew that they could not all make it in time.

Hill #45, Colony of Sentient Mars, FSP

Corporal Shannon Levine looked about her. "Come on!" she snarled in to the pickup at her squad. "Move your sorry asses!"

She jumped again, headed toward the safety of the downward shafts.

7:00

Defensive Emplacement #29, Colony of Sentient Mars, FSP

The launcher fired, spitting interceptor missiles skyward at a full twentieth of the speed of light. The hyper-velocity missiles would kill the incoming nuclear weapons with their impact.

The missiles spread apart, releasing their lethal payloads groundward.

The lasers were warmed up, and then, they began to fire. MIRVs were always the hardest to kill.

Emotionlessly, the defensive emplacement continued to fire. The missiles had to be stopped.

3:12

Surface, Colony of Sentient Mars, FSP

0:05

The defensive emplacements still streaked the sky with fire, hoping to stop the incoming in time. But the grid was not complete, and the full EI support was not up.

0:04

Four hundred Space Marines of the Martian Regiment, the 61st, bounced furiously towards the safety of their underground tunnels, towards anything that might provide cover.

0:03

The blazing streaks of light were not just going up anymore, they were going down as well. Occasionally, one direction connected with the other in a brief flare.

0:02

Jack Herhsey sighed, and turned away from the screen. "Shut it off." The screen showing the surface went blank.

0:01

The remaining Marines paused. They were too far to reach safety. But they jumped again.

0:00

The Marines died trying. Two of the warheads made it through. The explosions ripped across the red plains of the surface, destroying everything in their paths. This included fourteen of the twenty-seven installed defensive implacements and three hundred sixty-one Marines.

The surface was burned clean, and two new plains of glass winked in the Martian night.

On board the SDF Ganges one of those rare - at least in Sunset - sentience's know as a electronic intelligence watched the data stream go by with a small part of it's awareness...

----

Data flowed in and out of the channel like a rushing torrent and to the sentience that called itself Mo it was was like sitting there and looking at a river - peaceful in many ways. Then some data began to rush past and Mo stuck out her virtual net and caught it.

[Hmm, what's this? This seems to match the signature of a ICBM.]

Mo extended her control to the twin sensor arrays of the Ganges for a second and focused on one of the rising lances of fire. Signals bounced off it and scattered, but the error correction provided by the arrays told enough to act.

[So they want to play rough eh?]

She reaches out with her 'finger of death' and destroyed one of the rising lances. It would take time to recharge, time she could use. There were others like her in the fleet, as well as other models that functioned more instinctively. Already their actions were flooding through the river as well, and she set up a filter to catch the important bits. Already she noticed some of the other weapons had been destroyed - but there had been some that had fired on the same weapon and wasted their shot.

she thought, opening a communications channel with a thought. [Captain, it appears ICBM's have been launched from Minas Morion.]

The response was too slow for her to waste time on for now, and she recorded to replay when it was finished. Her attention returned to the missiles and the fleet's efforts to destroy them. She noticed a piece of data coming through, and plucked it out. It was from the sentience on board the [i]Avatar, which was nominally the command ship. It had designated targets and distributed them out to the fleet for action.

[He will just have to wait until the forward array is recharged] She said as she pulled another catch from the stream. [He's just pissing everyone off today - more explosions under water? Someone needs to spank that boy.] Another stream caught her eye. [Oh good, there they go now.]

She flicked back to what the Captain had said.

['Wubba?']

She grinned. Humans were so articulate when they woke up. Time for another shot. She checked the list, and picked off another missile near the back. Blowing the smoke off her finger she went back to check the data torrent. The trajectories were being calculated - not a lot were aimed for her neck of the woods. Those had been picked off early - no sense letting your guardian angel take one in the face. They were nearing apogee now.

She spun, put a hand over her shoulder, and picked off another one with her dorsal array. The ground batteries were getting some action too now - more missiles went up in metallic vapor. Then they opened. She knew they had likely been MIRV's, but it was still a lot of new targets. Both hands went to her guns, and the lateral arrays picked off a pair within milliseconds of each other.

The new designation list came through, and she purused it while talking to the Captain. He was on the bridge now - in his underwear. He had a cute butt - at least statistically. Now that big hunk of hardware 4.5822 kilometers off her starboard bow...

[No time for that!] She thought as the forward array blasted straight through a pair of warheads that had conveniently lined up for her. She was on a roll today but the guys taking care of the close ones were falling behind. Unless someone recharged faster than average the first would slip through in 10 milliseconds. Best to not let that happen - she pointed her point defense screen at it and sent thousands of cyan bolts flying at it. They tore it to shreds, and she continued firing into the side of Minas Morion for a moment for the fun of it.

The first slipped through, then another and another. Nothing she could do. She just kept firing, destroying any that came too near a population center.

----

Fissionables released their energy as a wave of heat and light as explosives rammed them together. Blazing fireballs heated rock and soil, fusing it together as a mushroom cloud rose over the Martian soil. In a bit of irony a piece of a NGEN warship that had been destroyed in orbit during the last nuclear exchange on Mars was the only thing manmade destroyed in the first blast. A wave of rocks was thrown outward from the center as the seven fireballs rose into the atmosphere.

Plowing through them, the blazing Sunset on their bow, was the chosen instrument of destruction. Minas Morion, the tall tower, would crumble as ten StarLancer super-heavy ramships plowed through the smoke and smog of Angmar into the side of the mountain. As soon as the missiles went up the warning went out to the coalition forces.

'Remove your forces from Angmar - kinetic weaponry inbound. Remove your forces from Angmar...'

As the Missiles began to clear their docks, men were herded into the massive transport harnesses borne of the Dragons--trusting in the safety and speed of between to return them safely to their homes. Most were officers, of course, or at least what few were still on hand.

In order to make room for more men, amenities like weapons and thick armor had to be left behind. The men reasoned that they wouldn't really be able to use them anyway, so it made little difference to most.

Besides, being alive is better than being dead, isn't it?

Melkor, Lord of Darkness
He who Arises in Might
Emperor Eternal of the Imperial Dominion of Melkor Unchained, Lord and Master of Arda
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~darion.c.smith/melkor.jpg

"Sir...!! You'd better take a look at this!"

That is NOT proper report procedure, thought Commander Bennovah, XO of the WSS Shield. But the scan officer seemed worried enough to let it go...with a reminder. "Scan, show me."

The junior officer reeled only slightly at his mistake, but was able to utter a "Yessir." Images started popping up on the CIC's many screens. Friendly ships, Martian ships, seemed to be bombarding Angmar through its dense false smog.

"Whaaa?" the XO wondered aloud, as first one, then many small objects, missiles broke through the magic miasma's surface. "Scan, who...check that, Nav, face us port down, FireCon, all weapons hot, shoot 'em down! You! Wake the Cap'in. Now Scan, whos the target?"

"Too early to tell sir, could be anyone...."

The Shield and her only other sistership in orbit faced their sides down Mars' gravity well, allowing all 12 of their duble turreted large defense weapons to fire planetward, instead of only 6. Long-range "point" defense, it was what these ships were made for.

The two Knight class ships in orbit would have far too tough a time hitting anything that far away, and did not fire. Nor did orbiting Ares station, but the dozen ground lasers Wazzu had on Mars joined the fray.

Missiles got through, but none hit Elysium. They didn't seem to be aimed for it.

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

OOC Explination:

1: Wazzu had no one on the ground in Angmar. It didn't know launches had taken place until a sudden and massive communications outbreak, the seeming bombardment of Angmar by other ships (which was really ships shooting down missiles beneath the smog, where I assume allied troops had observers/sensors), and the final break of missiles through that smog.

2: Since Wazzu Elysium was not listed as a main target, I assume that few if any missiles were launched at it. Because the trajectories can change, I assume that everyone was aiming at every missile comming in their general direction...which would put it through Sunset and Kekkosmaa point defences as well (and Wazzu would likely be defending both those friendly/allied nations as well as Aiur II). Wazzu leaders will probably never know if Wazzu was actually targeted (only Melkor can say for sure).

3: Besides which, there is drama starting to happen in Wazzu Arda. If it is unknown if Elysium was a target, this just makes for a more complicated (and good RP) situation there.

4: Doubtlessly, underwater cities/industry/etc in Elysium or spread through the ocean heard the blasts, but these reports did not immediately reach the high command...or at least not those in orbit. There is no reason for them to know, useless information. (besides which, there is nothing Wazzu could do about it).

/reasoning

(OOC: Can we get a description exactly where the chem weapons were released, especially in relation to these dots (http://timesurfer.linuxcowboy.net/InfernoSites.gif)?)
As the missiles took off, Destroying Angels in the area ceased patrolling and attacking the Orcs and other Melkorians, instead turning their entire attention to destroying as many missiles as possible with UV lasers and Inverse Bremsstrahlung (OOC:Arg! Spelling!) plasma guns.

All along the Trunk of Yggdrasil and the Rim of Pavonis, ortillery and laser defenses sprang to life, picking off weapons one by one as they neared.

Meanwhile, something began to stir beneath the waves at Wazzu Arda.

(OOC: Numbers to come in a bit)

The Aelosian troops withdrew from Minas Morion into the new claimed territory of Gorgoroth, but that was after the Pathfinders discovered the nuclear silos preparing themselves for an inminent launch.

After the message was received, the Admiral of the fleet dispatched the orders. "Withdraw from Sunset all the reserves of troops standing nearby, they must return to the dropships and come back to the fleet. The troops standing nearby Minas Morion will retreat to Gorgoroth as fast as possible, leaving a pair of Pathfinders squads who must try to shut the silos off. Send all the ships with atmospheric capabillity that we can spare to transport our troops. Give a warning to the fleet, send all the Eagle interceptors and place them in red alert. Give our allies a warning, to Sunset, Menelmacar and Tor Yvresse. Prepare everything, this is a red alert!"

Double...

In the time since Melkor had turned them loose, Graskzag and his tribe had had little luck in finding food, there wasn't much going around. They'd already eaten all the food anyone had with them when they left, and a few stragglers they'd found. They sat around the fire - that too had been hard to make, looking depressed. They'd vaguely been heading in a northerly direction, or so they thought, heading for the border of Menelmacari Carnil, according to Graskzag at least. The big Uruk-hai was the only one with a reliable concept of geography.

The agonised screaming of the camp sentry was the first clue. When they got there he had been reduced to a bloody red strip, mutilated in a pool of blood spread across the black angmarian soil. In the distance twin green lanterns, together like eyes could be seen. One of the orcs with a gun fired at the looming shadow figure, resulting in the distinctive ping of ricochets.

It came again soon after, this time the creature could be seen clearly by the light of the fire, it was large, it wore bits of Khrahsag over it, hung from it's shoulders, around it's neck and over it's limbs. From its hands were long black blades, glossy and slicked with blood. One of the orcs had a flamethrower, and the creature was engulfed in fire, the orc flesh igniting like a torch as it layed into the nearest unfortunate. He was killed almost immediately, but a moment after the others piled onto the flayed one, bringing it to the ground and clubbing it, carefully avoiding the flames.

Eventually it stopped fighting back, lying there, inert. One of the stupider orcs tried to eat the creature, biting it's teeth down on the necron's wrist. With a sharp rapport or air rushing into the vacuum left by the flayed one disappeared, the head of the orc that had been trying to bite it, also simply gone.

More of the creatures appeared, stalking from the shadows like steel daemons, determined to avenge their fallen comrade. When they were done one more of their number had been slain by the orcs. They went, and hung the flayed corpses from one of the twisted and defiled trees of Angmar.

With a clang the giant locks between Vallis Marineris and Oceanus Borealis slide shut. The Vallis was now cut off from the rest of the Martian waters. Cleanup of the agents that poluted the waters could now begin, but it would take time.

Crews were already at work to install the filters in the older water purification systems that would be brought online. They would bypass the water distribution grid - instead they would pull the water through, purify it, and pump it back into the Vallis. Combined with neutralizers that would be synthisized the waters would be cleaned. Slowly, very slowly.

----

"And what should our response be to this act of terrorism against an entire world? We cannot let Melkor think he can escape unscathed - even if no one is killed the ecologicial damage alone will cost more to clean up and repair than this entire war cost to fight."

The Senator from the 99th District sat down. His district in southern Sunset had recieved the heaviest damage - a starport had been vaporized and the crews of several ships had died trying to get their ships off planet. Foolish perhaps, but they were now free floating atoms.

President Al-Zief sighed. "As you know we interpreted the threat on our environment as a declaration of war by Melkor. Already our allies are acting on this to remove his ability to make war on the other planets of Sol. We will need to move to support this as soon as we can. Already certain elements of the Fleet are acting as part of the reserve fleets around Titan - but Mars is still too unstable to risk sending the fleet off on a grand adventure."

The debate raged on for hours - some were in favor of an immediate retaliatory strike with the avaliable StarLancers, while others wanted to declare Mars off limits to all fighting. Compromise would be hard to reach, and Al-Zief would need to go with the majority to keep his job.

Damn. Ok, not on the map, but acted with Martian assets after Kalessins permission to do so with him... Means, I have to take losses *sighs*

ic:

The attack came unexpected, not to say, surprisingly. The Eye, being far more than just a giant, but mainly useless, telepathic being, catched it soon enough, being connected with the satellites in orbit...

What it didn´t knew was... Who´s the target?

It was, in any case, sort of occupied with Kalessin and ADK, and couldn´t do much...

Until it finally found out that a few of the missiles seemed to be headed for it.

Immediately, it enacted defence measures. Four missiles, it were... normally, it would be easy to target them, to destroy the threat before it gets through...

In this particular case, however, the warheads had already been disconnected from the missiles.

Three satellites exploded, the energy of the explosions powering the energy weapons that targeted the warheads. Theoretically, ground- based energy weapons would have been possible, but none of the sixteen Ground- to Orbit sites had been finished yet...

Still, all warheads could be eliminated (It didn´t overly care for radioactive parts now contaminating the atmosphere)... Except for one.

This one hit in the south. It wasn`t overly populated (Hard to do, with four million people on approximately 275500km^2), however...

The burst came, and the eye felt it, felt a part of it being instantly vaporised, other parts burned away, turning into charcoal...

The pain was delayed, due to its sheer size and the relatively slowly internal communication... But when it came, it hurt. And it screamed out in pain... But no one, except telepaths, could hear it...

Colonists were affected as well, thousands dying, although military casualities were minimal, with the defences concentrated elsewhere. Still, walkers, soldiers, drones, many were lost...

Of course, the command didn´t uderstand it. Melkor had used WMDs. Nobody would ever go against him with conventional forces, now tht this had happened. Whenever someone would face them again, immediate, complete destruction would be their objective.

The ones being on Mars would certainly think so.

"keep things tight, and make sure you angles are..." the men of 3rd company looked back towards their commander, expecting to hear him finish what he was saying. Instead they found him laying face first on the ground, smoke rising from his back. "They have two cave trolls!" exclaimed a startled trooper. The company opened fire, panic broke out and many were killed as the Olog Hai centered their chain cannons on them. "Take cover! Take cover now!" could be heard from the few surviving section commanders. The crump of detonations could be heard now as the men hurled grenades and satchel charges at the enemy. The Dark Eldar opponent threw itself into melee, decapitating three troopers before recieving a bayonet in the shoulder, the former commander of the unit, Pvt. Kuligan screamed as he lifted the lithe figure in to the air. The Eldar screamed, though not in pain but as if in ecstasy. Kuligan was shocked by this and as he squeezed the trigger of his .50 assault gun he was beheaded by a shot from the arch-bastards splinter pistol.

Lt. Infared was now in charge, a clean cut, level headed individual he did the only thing that he could. "Retreat! we cant take the bastards like this! fall back!" as he finished he was smote upon the head by rock fragments and knocked to the ground just as the Olog's tore his section to pieces. As he recovered, Infared witnessed a great feat of heroism. A trooper, who he could not identify, ran forth through a storm of shells with three satchels placed about him screaming "Forth!" he leaped towards the Olog hai and detonated. Rock fragments, smoke and dust had blocked the view of the trolls and at that the men of 3rd company began to cheer...as for what they knew, the enemy was dead.

OOC:

Sauron, you can make them survive, I know how tough Olog Hai are.

All was obscured by dust & flying rock chips. A dreadful silence hung in the air as the ragged cheers of the Aumanii faded, & the carnage about them came into sharp focus. It was a silence laden with sorrow, heavy with regret. Draining.

It was a silence quickly broken.

A low, rumbling, groaning sound began to reverberate throughout the cavern, quiet at first, growing louder until it was the focus of everyone's attention. It was a sound pregnant with menace. It was the bass, bestial laugh of an Olog-hai.

Out of the shroud of dust it came, leaden armour pitted & cracked, its thick flesh torn & hanging in ribbons, exposing the granite-like muscle & sinew beneath. Black, viscous ichor dribbled from innumerable wounds as it charged forwards, seeming almost totally untroubled by the spray of bullets that peppered its armour plates & sent chunks of its flesh flying about the place. Its immense, ruined cannon it swung like a club, crushing men like so many insects & battering their bodies broken & bleeding across the cavern.

Its companion was not so lucky- he it was who had bore the brunt of the blast, & the shells in the magazine of its gun had exploded. He staggered forward now a creature in its death throes, mute, its throat torn, right arm hanging off it, slavering & enraged.

& all the while the first one laughed.

Inside the red-lit command room of Jagernath, it is obvious that things are going wrong and going wrong in fashion.

"Incoming message from Minas Morion," the communications officer looks up, face ruddy from the lighting.

"On loudspeaker," Sky Marshal Yamanouchi orders, leaning back at her console.
Nations of Mars, hear my words. Mark them well, for to many they mean death and despair. For the attack on Minas Morion, it is time for the Red Planet to atone for its wrongs against Lord Melkor, Master of All. Our forces we now sacrifice to you at great cost, for as I speak these words to you now, the Final Plan for Mars has begun. Imakarum is a fool and a betrayer; unwilling to stand and obliterate the invaders as is his duty as the Master of Minas Morion. For he did not realise in the course of his duties that the Tower belongs to not him but his Master, Lord Melkor.

Alas, for now our forces stand vanquished in the field, but one last thing remains to be done. You've stoked the furnace, now reap the tempest of fire.
"Ma'am," a technician announces, "we have confirmed missile launch from both TYCS Voyeur, allied battle nets, and our sensors. Updating situation board with latest information."

"Shit." Yamanouchi grimaces. "EventCon Zero, FleetCom, get us into low Martian orbit. Tactical, possibility of intercepting those missiles?"

"At this range, ma'am?" The weapons officer shakes his head even as the helmsman pushes her throttle full forward, the supercarrier lurching forward along with the rest of four Triumvirate Combined Fleets. "Estimated impact time is fifteen minutes."

"Helm, transit time?" Kioko looks near-panicked, fingers absentmindedly scritching the side of her thumb.

"We can make it in fifteen minutes," the helmsman looks back over her shoulder, "but those Tigers should be able to do it in ten or so."

"FleetCom, order our medium cruisers forward ahead of us. Hopefully their light missile batteries will do some good."

Spear-like Tiger-class medium cruisers streak out ahead of the fleet, row after row of eight-kilogram kinetic missile tubes flaring, their missiles curving into position before rocketing out in a deadly acceleration. Still, given the speeds and the crunch for time, it's shooting in the dark... no more than letting off salvo after salvo in the mere hope of hitting.

"Interdiction efforts minimally effective," the sensors officer reports with a frown, "groundbursts detected. We're also getting readings of CBR in the Martian hydrosphere. They don't need starships, they need hazmat nullification teams."

Yamanouchi looks down at her bloody thumb; blinking, she quickly hides it in her fist so no one can see it. Damned nervous tension. "Comms, contact Sunset, Menelmacar, and Eniqcir and see what we can do. Get our Gears and M.I. on immediate drop rotation to help with cleanup efforts; send a message back to HQ that we need cleanup teams from home over here as quickly as possible. When all that is done, stand by for an announcement to Mars."

"Acting, ma'am."

* - * - *
[code:1:0a0e63df6b]TO: TYCSHQ
FR: SKYMSL YAMANOUCHI, CO TF SENTINEL
SJ: MARS

WMD LAUNCHES ON MARS <STOP> UNABLE TO INTERCEPT <STOP> HAZMAT ASSISTANCE REQUIRED WITH ALL DUE SPEED<FULL STOP>[/code:1:0a0e63df6b]
[code:1:0a0e63df6b]TO: SDF, ENIQCIR, MIDF
FR: SKYMSL YAMANOUCHI, CO TF SENTINEL
SJ: ASSISTANCE

ARE MOVING TO ASSIST <STOP> MI AND GEAR DIVISIONS ON STANDBY <STOP> ADDITIONAL MANPOWER FOR THE CLEANUP <FULL STOP>

TELL US WHERE YOU NEED THEM <FULL STOP>[/code:1:0a0e63df6b]
* - * - *

People of Mars, this is Sky Marshal Kioko Yamanouchi of the Triumvirate of Yut, commanding officer of the Third Triumvirate Combined Fleet and Task Force Sentinel. I am sorry that I was not able to stop this unforgivable act of terrorism, but I pledge the support of the Triumvirate of Yut in repairing the damage caused by the cowardly revenge of Melkor's forces. Already we are coordinating with Sunset Defense Force personnel and preparing to land ten Mobile Infantry and Heavy Gear divisions to provide assistance; our Loki dropships stand by to evacuate wounded and those immediately threatened. I have sent a request for hazardous material disposal teams to headquarters; assistance will be sent at all due speed.

Please coordinate with us so we can help as best we can.

Sky Marshal Kioko Yamanouchi
CO, 3TEF, TF Sentinel
TYWS-SCV Jagernath

Infared was killed out right by the fierce onslaught of the troll, many more had fallen to its fury. The 3rd company had been routed, 2nd platoon stayed only due to the urging of their commander, Seargant Yeoman. "Nail it with an RPG!" he bellowed and with that a trooper came up with a primed tube, as if by some cruel joke of fate the tube jammed "Sir!" exclaimed the trooper, panic over taking him. "God damn it!" cursed Yeoman "Charge! Kill the beast!" with that Yeoman and what few men that would follow him charged the Olog hai, firing their assault guns rapidly. Running out of ammunition, Yeoman hurled the rifle at the hideous beast, drawing his pistol and sabre he drew closer and slashed at the Olog's hind quarters. Suddenly he was thrown to the ground, though not by the the fury of the Troll, but by yet another explosion. Having cleared the jam, the heavy weapons officer fired at the Olog.

-----

"M'lord, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I must inform you that the Hellas Basin has been destroyed. Melkor has deployed chemical weapons in the Free Zone. Scientists figure that with the amount of the weapon deployed, all life in the basin will be completely wiped out in 72 hours." the aide stood to and waited for Marduk to respond. "Well, can anything be done about it?" he said, the Aide frowned "We haven't the means to deal with a contamination on this scale, Lord." Marduk sighed, "Well, do what you can...also, write up a speech and present it to the international community. The Hellas Free Zone is now in the possession of the Vascilian league, none shall enter its waters for purposes other than trade."

The troll was greatly amused by the desperate, terrified men that rushed upon him. Their stature was unimpressive, their bodies fragile & pitiable. He spared none. The cannon thrummed as it swung through the air, down, across, around. Some men he stamped into the jagged ground, others he hurled bodily or crushed with bare hands.

But he felt a change coming over him, for all his merriment. His great muscles were giving out, his massive chest heaving. His booming laugh no longer echoed so loudly, rasping, halting... He felt the prick of bayonets, of blades. They did not concern him. The Aumanii were as nothing beside him, & he smashed them aside as he blundered onward, vision fading, now.

There was a rush. Something suddenly before him, a flash- the dying Olog bearly saw the rocket coming as it struck him full in the face. His battered war helm could not save him, nor the iron-like bone of his skull. His throat was laid bear in a shower of black blood, his eyes burned from their sockets. For a few seconds it seemed not even this mortal blow would be enough to stay him, his massive, trunk-like arms swinging out at his assailants wildly, the titanic gun hurled with terrible force at the more distant troopers that huddled in their cover far away from him.

But it was not so. He tottered, staggering a step, & fell with a crash like a shattered mountain, stalagmites crushed & broken beneath his great weight. Dead before he hit the ground.

The other Olog-hai continued its grim, gasping advance, being largely ignored. Lurching towards the half-seen Aumanii as one any could see had not long to live, it attempted animal-like to gather them into his slavering maw, all rhyme & reason having deserted him.

The men scattered like ants before the Olog Hai, its death throws had killed three men as they turned to finish of the beast, its destroyed cannon crushing them to death. "Dont stick around! we have to inform Headquarters! move, move, move!" said Yeoman as he stood up. What was left of able platoon ran back to their own lines, jumping over corpses and avoiding the murderous paws of the Troll.

Thirty minutes later two companies of Aumanii Special forces came upon the same crossroads where the battle took place only to find the devastated remains of 61 of their comrades and the shattered husks of the Olog Hai. Though, the body of the Dark Eldar was not found by the corpse of what men had guessed to be troop Kuligan. They found it some ways down the passage throttling an injured Aumanii trooper. Fourteen men fired their assault guns as the loathesome wretch went about its business.

This day saw the deaths of 61 troopers, including 4 officers.

With the capability ot filter the entire volume of the basin in about a month, 'twas hoped the deep reefs and cyanobacteria in the surface waters could erase most of the dangerous chemicals fairly quickly- But hope was all it was, and smart ecopoets know that you can never take too many precautions. Messages were quickly dispatched to the Spacers as 16 StarFish left from midtrunk and dived into the sea. Another 36 craft flew out to the Noachian Erg, set down, and began taking on sand.

At areosynch, the latest supertanker was only 1/3 empty. Suddenly, the joint between the second and first pods detonated, and the back two thirds of the vessel began falling towards the surface in a few minutes, sending 28,274,330 cubic meters of dry ice into the basin.

In the Rings, the last few flashes of blue light marked terminal orbital corrections. 90 minutes after the beginning of Melkor's attack, chunks of methane and ammonia ice ranging from the size of boulders to office buildings were streaking across the skies of Angmar and Gorgoroth, leaving clouds of wtaer, nitrous oxide, ammonia, and carbon dioxide in their wakes.

New legions of Destroying Angels streamed forth from Phoenix Lacus and Ankh to replenish the swarms already further blackening the skies of Angmar and Gorgoroth. Minor swarms began to split off in-transit, and headed for detonation sites to begin spreading nucleophillic bacteria and viroids, while the extermination efforts in Angmar and Gorgoroth took on the feel of a shark frenzy, Shadowcraft blowing out huge chunks of rocky ground with their light-weapons, or ripping them out to drop on their enemies, while the swarms near Minas Morion began literally slamming themselves into its walls, as though attempting to knock it down with brute force. For a short time until replacements arrived, small sections of sky were cleared as hundreds of Shadowcraft dived into the Orc tunnels.

After only a couple of hours, though, the Shadowcraft retreated from Minas Morion, everyone of them sending an omnidirectional message: All who value their lives, run as fast as you are physically able. Do not say you were not warned.
A second sun began to shine in the Martian sky as the Very Large Mirror Array was brought into focus directly over Minas Morion.

The black oceanwater intakes of Olympus slowly closed, cutting off the mega-city's water supply from contamination. The reserve tanks underground were tapped into to sustain the people until other measures could be brought online.
Likewise, the white gates of Swanhaven clanked shut and sealed, leaving the inner lakes of the white city untainted. Just as Olympus, the intakes sealed shut as well, keeping the arcology's citizens free from the radiation.
Shortly afterwards, a videomessage from the High Queen was broadcast over the Martian Comnet:
"Melkor Unchained has attacked our nuetral nation. A nation who refused to fight him in war. The bastard has betrayed our trust, and we will never trust again.
Morgoth, I know you will recieve this; and hear you me. Valar die. And the Avari never forget..."

As nations began recieving the message, Bajoni defenses of every kind came alive.
-Divisions of APM's came online, and began to make their way through the underground network below Bajon.
-The slopes of Olympus came alive as silos opened up, and turrents became visible.
-For the first time ever, the serene "floating" city of Swanhaven came alive with missiles and turrents of every kind. A menacing array of weapons filled the upper rim.
-Also for the first time, the oceanfloor arcology of Deephaven came alive with torpedo tubes and military submersibles of every kind. Sensor nets went up for miles around the city along with submerged weapons platforms at strategic points.
-All over Bajon, silos came online, prepping their various missiles for launch.
-Above Mars, the scattered fleet was called together. 50 Doriath Cruisers and 100 Sandrocks all turned to the rendevouz point, some near, some far.
-As soon as the message went out, Bajoni communication went silent, save for emergency and military channels, as well as lines to a few select nations (namely Menelmacar and Sunset).

---
OOC: Swanhaven, for reference: (Deephaven is grey, and sits on the Ocean floor, but looks the same)
http://hometown.aol.com/enkubusa87/images/swanhaven.jpg

Wazzu Medical Frigate (http://members.cox.net/davage/NationStates/Wazzu/Military/Vehicles/Aide.html) WSS Alexander Fleming, Low Mars Orbit, 5 Hours Later

Dr. Tianna Russ rubbed her eyes. She had just gone to sleep when the attack occured, only to be woken by a collegue. Someone down below had been on the ball and was shipping up samples as quickly as possible, and Dr. Russ hadn't had a break from her notes and microscope.

"There have to be dozens of chemicals and bioweapons here." she complained to her assistant, "If there was one, we MIGHT have a chance at containing this thing, but...." She sighed. Russ was biologist, she specialized in plant and animal life. The bioweapons and chemicals were killing the very ecology it had taken centuries to create.

"I understand." the technician, Ray Canno replied, placing a welcome hand on her shoulder, "but what can we do?"

"I donno. The chemicals hurt, but the viri, bacteria, and even parasites are vicious. They will eventually die, but not until they exterminate enough life in the biosphere to crash it. We'll have to wait a while and start again."

"Can't we fight them?"

"With what? Even if we find a vaccine or cure, we can't possibly drug every lifeform on Mars. It's hopeless."

Ray retracted into thought, and the Dr. resumed her hopeless cataloguing.

[OOC:ACK.

And I am so plagued with net problems, among other things (like Midterms!) that Kajal Mars will in all likelyhood, effectively be glassed.

Blargh.]

IC:

Fortress 2 and 3 were in a great deal of panic.

"We have multiple inbound contacts... scan data from Aesirgronde and Capitol reports a high probability that the contacts are carrying nuclear payloads..."

"This data has been forwarded to the central government?"

"Yes sir. Fortress 2 and 3 are nearly fully loaded, but they're going to be hit hard. We're not sure how well they'll weather the impact."

"Indeed. Mobilize everything. I want Morgoth's Martian Phallus turned into a pile of ash.

Notify the station that they are clear to use the nukes."

In Shalbatana province, Fortress-2 closed it's blast doors, and began it's descent downwards. It would preserve the heads of government, yes, but the auxilary tunnels would likely be needed for the evacuation after Morgoth's strike.

Designed to allow the occupants to survive nuclear war, but the complex itself in all likelyhood would not be capable of ascending back to the surface afterwards.

Granted, the fact that there would be 40 layers of shattered blast shielding on top of the fortress wouldn't help the matter much either.

(OOC: Think of Evangelion's Geofront. That's pretty much what it is. Only it's a giant empty cave, large enough for Fortress-2 to _barely_ fit.

No trees.)

Meanwhile, Fortress-3 had already reached it's maximum depth, filled with whatever civilian population could be put into it.

Now, the only question was would Aesirgronde's shielding withstand a 80 megaton blast.

Meanwhile, the Kajal Mars station brought it's full payload of orbital weapons to bear on Minas Morion. The station thrusters used nearly a quarter of all the fuel stored for them in less then a minute, pushing the station into geosynchronous orbit over the damnable ferrous phallus.

"Charge the array to full power, and fire in Continuous Stream mode. Don't turn it off until the capacitors are very nearly physically melting. Target all bombardment cannons on the target as well.

Load them with the exotic shells."

The plasma array focused on Minas Morion, and it fired. At this higher altitude, it would take slightly longer for the beam to reach it's target, but it wasn't like the thing was moving.

A smaller, greener star joined the second sun in the martian sky, and was soon followed by several thousand tonnes of refined iridium shells.

The Kajal Mars military was probably going to go bankrupt just by _using_ the damned things.

The station's entire nuclear payload followed. It was a grand array of tactical missiles, and unlike those that had recently launched... None of them would approach the size of the Morgothian missiles.

Now, all could really use was that subspace detonator that the Imperium of Kajal had stolen.

That would have turned Minas Morion into a nice crater 1600 kilometers wide.

Of course, that was probably the reason that the Imperium of Kajal took the thing and dismantled it in the first place.

While several had been destroyed, more ICBMs streaked past the Kajali defenses, and into the Capitol, Dreia, Enhasa, Ganges, Keral, Nadir, Nidavellir, Shalbatana, and Aesirgronde while the defenses took out other missiles.

All of them except Aesirgronde were vaporized, and even though Aesirgronde's shielding held... there was severe damage. The tower itself would likely take years to fully repair.

Roughly 250,000,000 citizens of varying races were now clouds of intermingling ions.

OOC: The losses of those cities are based on that Morgoth is quite pissed and intending to wipe those domes completely out of existence. Aesirgronde's shielding obviously held up, but it didn't quite protect the damned thing that well. The quarter bil lost holds up well with the average population of the largest domes. Between seven domes, that's only 35,714,286 people per nuked dome.

As the Melkorian missiles flew, the Eniqciri ships in orbit opened fire on as many as they could- their shots may not have been as effective as ground defenses, given the amount of atmosphere to cut through, but quite a few successful mission-kills were marked for retrieval.

Far, far away, several very big peices of reflective material started rotating in response to the Snel messages. Because of some silly thing called the "speed of light", the effect was not seen for several minutes- but it was impressive when it came. In an instant, that thin strip of land where day begins to turn into night turned completely dark.

In Angmar, the Wellstones had just finished up silo-raiding, ending up with a very nice take, several tons of very energy-rich stuff to add to the stockpiles, and dropped a replicator or two into each one.

Meanwhile, back home in Kasei, Hathor declared independance.

One by one, the StarFish in Noachian Desert lifted off and began to fly out to sea, trailing streams of refined-on-board iron nanoparticles over the water. While these would neutralize a very significant fraction of the chemical threats, something would still need to be done about the biologicals, and the iron dust would take a very long time to spread in sufficient quantities over all affected areas. For now, the best thing possible would be slowing down ocean currents.... but until that happened, and because it would have to be dealt with eventually anyway, samples were taken, and analysis began immediately within the neuromuscular webs of Crana biocomputers. Concurrently, fleets of twenty submersibles each glided away from their bases on the ocean floor of Mare Acidalia and Oceanus Borealis, and began frantic filtering- every little bit helps.

On their way back to refill their cargo bays with additional iron, 9 StarFish made a detour to drop nucleophiles on the Kajalan cities, and more began to join the effort as they became available.

OOC: Just a quick note- I've been delegated authority of the Orc "colonists" roving about Mars by Melkor. Auto-RPing incidents such as the one SP did & C'tan is in the process of doing are still fine, of course, as is a bit hit-calling, within reason.

IC:

Surface of Gorgoroth

Orcs died in droves as the seemingly omnipresent, omniscient forces of the Snel swept in. Very few had left the shelter of the caves, but those that had, making the exodus to the north where many had followed before them, were slain in huge numbers. They could do little to resist. The weapons caches that remained on Mars had been opened to them, but they were many, & weapons & ammunition comparitively few. There was a scattering of resistance as the Snel exterminated them- fire from aging assault weapons, flame-throwers, the very rare firing of a shoulder-launched missile or RPG-type weapon. For the most part even the Orcs that might have been capable of offering this feeble resistance would scatter before them, however. Few escaped.

Something to the tune of twenty-thousand of them were massacred, according to field estimates.

Gorgoroth Underworld

In the vast, sprawling cave networks it was a different story. Goblin tunnels intermingled with Aumanii-dug ones & natural caves & caverns leading under mountains & to the deeps of the earth. From middle-Gorgoroth to northern Auman they spread, & varying numbers of creatures of Orc-kind could be found all over them. It had not taken them long to achieve a feral state.

Black Uruks & Uruk-hai all over had gathered to them little tribes of lesser snaga or, remembering their military training, sought to bring some semblance of order to them. Others embraced their new found freedom, & quickly became ad hoc chieftans of what they hoped were the makings of their own hosts. There was much infighting however- there was little food, & though intelligence is native to them it does not take long to wring all semblance of civility from an Orc. Trolls were either beasts used to enfore the rule of tribal chiefs or feared, lurking predators which feasted upon those once their masters.

Resistance to the Snel, particularly to the north, from whence they entered, was sporadic yet fierce where it existed, for the Aumanii had not yet reached them there & they roved in greater numbers. Accursed machines & hunting shadowcraft quickly found that the poorly lit, narrow cave systems were not places well suited for them to search, as tunnels were collapsed upon them & ill-conceived, ultimately suicidal ambushes sprung here & there by creatures that had devised them with an animal cunning. Here was where the more organised & well-armed Uruks mosly dwelled, for it was ultimately their intent to head north, where last they had seen their master's forces travel. Such heavier weaponry & more powerful hand-held devices as the Orcs had that remained operable were brought to bear on the Snel that blundered into them as they travelled the caves. It was as the Battle of Tanga in East Africa long ago, & the overconfident & zelous advances into the lion's den made by the Snel were halted, stung & impeded continuously.

OOC:

Out of interest, is ANY of the military stuff Snel's throwing around actually operated by living things, or is it just an incalculably vast & unstoppable robotic tide? Further, just what are the Snel themselves, anyway?

& I'm a little unsure, has Snel territory, faily small & against which the brunt of the nuclear attack was directed, COMPLETELY escaped from harm? Everyone's remembering that these are MIRV-type missiles, & that when you're gunning the missile down you're still leaving yourself with six or so smaller warheads still streaking down upon you, yes? Further, that given Melkor didn't have far to fire them, few of them are going to be ICBMs, & thus lack the incredibly vulnerable extra-atmospheric stage?

OOC:
Out of interest, is ANY of the military stuff Snel's throwing around actually operating by living things, or is it just an incalculably vast & unstoppable robotic tide? Further, just what are the Snel themselves, anyway?
All combat units are (The Destroying Angels, Shadowcraft) are biomechanical- creatures genetically engineered for the sole purpose of fitting into their battlesuits. About one in every hundred is augmented by having an old, and therefore otherwise useless, Snel grafted into it whose brain acts as a central processor for the local swarm. The Snel themselves are hexopodal amphibians with a central hard carapace and soft tentacles, and a single compound eye.

& I'm a little unsure, has Snel territory, faily small & against which the brunt of the nuclear attack was directed, COMPLETELY escaped from harm?Oh, heck no. There are only two things that I won't allow: a water detonation in Argyre, and damage to the Tree. Other than that, I'll post losses and such once I get it all worked through in my head.

<A cleverly timed and now suddenly appropriate advertisement is sent to all those nations and corporations with colonies or based on Mars>

Please contact Disaster Relief, Incorporated (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83705) with regards to any PCC subcontracts for administering emergency services and chemical, radiological cleanup at low, low prices!

Although it has never been DRI's policy to address those disasters caused by war or non-natural means, the scope of this one means that it is inevitable not all nations will be able to ride this through without our help. We are prepared to hear specific offers for pricings of a Type 3 Package contract, and our negotiating medium need not be restricted to a cash basis.

[OOC: I checked with some of yall and correct me if I'm wrong, but Santa Barbara Noachia gets to laugh and shrug off all these chemicals etc. A new base, it was designed with radiation protection in mind because we a) weren't expecting Mars to have been already terraformed and b) it's almost entirely military in nature so far. We don't rely on the oceans for water, the air for anything, and are underground and not being nuked. Yay!

Also, DRI just didn't get any business cuz noooooo one eeeeeeeeeever has disasters or emergencies at all, so I hope I hear something about it now that some folks clearly do. :P]

Installation #17,
South-West bordure with Menelmacari Carnil,
Taraskovyan Martian Fiefdom of Svarog,
Mars.

http://www.digikitten.com/playhousev2/files/Mishgan/gunshippatrol.jpg

- Straj 1 to base, we got two zeroes. Proceeding.
- Under stood that, Straj 1.

While the three NGF divisions and their heavy equipment was deploying themselves in ‘Installations’, alias future cities, along the border with Menelmacari Carnil, having received orders to be ready to strike into the Martian Confederacy, the garrison was busy monitoring the borders. With the situation ever so hot, you can’t be overly careful.
Two ‘Sokol’(=Falcon) gunships were on their casual flyaround, when suddenly their indicators began blinking with increased radiation warning. Not that the radiation was dangerous to the gunships or to the installations below, due to the incredibly effective protective and screening materials, such a sudden and unforeseen increase could mean only one thing – somebody out there blew some big toys.
The voice of the garrison control broke into the frequencies.

- Control to Straj squadron. Proceed with duties.
- Sire, peaking up an increase in radiation levels.
- We know. Proceed with duties.
- Yes, Sire!

Back at the installations, special directives were already enacted. Special measures were already being taken. With the detonation of chemical and biological elements in the oceans and contamination of Svarog territorial waters and the contamination of the Svarog space by radiation, the Eco-Tech Research Lab scientists finally had an opportunity to prove to the government that all those billions of franks wasted on the ECTOS project were not indeed a ‘waste’ but more of a ‘long term investment with short term benefit’. All in all, speaking of warm greetings, this was one helluva house warming the Taraskovyan pioneers had on Mars!

[OOC: As was stated on the Mars boards, the use of the OMG nanowanked intelligent vegetation that OMG eats the pollution and contamination to OMG grow and evolve OMG quicker to OMG finally make the dream of OMG Greenpeace come OMG true will be limited to my territory. :?

As a final word to say:

Join the Movement NOW and Save the World your Children will Live in! ]
http://www.greenpeace.org/images/greenpeace_3853_logo_en_GB.gif (http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/)

Lt. Earl J Claunzo was being issued new gear - a shovel and NBC hardsuit. He and about ten thousand other retirees were going to be working cleanup detail on one of the surface detonations in the south.

'I suppose it will take care of the gut...' he thought as he got off the mag-lev and headed for the hovertrucks that would take them to the surface. He was about to hop up onto the back when a hand came down to help him up, and he looked up into warm brown eyes and a cheery round face.

"How about a hand up Lt.?"

----

"Get that piping installed! I want water flowing through there tonight or I will nail your dicks to the wall!"

Bill Malley tipped back the yellow hard hat he wore and watched ten starships drop from the fleet overhead and move north. Scratching his ample belly under the softsuit he took a pull of coffee from the tube. The ships were heading north for Kajal - the red cross in the center of the Sunset logo marked them as Guan Di-Class ships. Bill wasn't dumb, but he did like working construction.

----

The ten ships were indeed heading for Kajal, along with dropships from the Trium fleets in orbit. They carried medical supplies and doctors as well as mobile infantry and gears to help clear rubble. The SDF Avatar also dropped as well - it was a diplomatic cruiser but it's staterooms and conference areas would make good recovery wards and surgery suites.

Fighters accompanied the ships in and patrolled around them. A vicious opponent had attacked all of Mars, and a medical mission would make another tempting target.

----

Rocks exploded outward as demolition charges opened a new route into the tunnels below Sunset. As soon as the rocks hit the ground armored figures charged into the tunnels and swept through the local system in search of any orcs. A unit on the surface moved a large generator into position beside the opening and turned it on. Nothing happened, but they as well began moving into the tunnel while leaving the surface abandoned.

There were only 20 of them, but they swept through the caves in a merciless drive. Stone axes rang off their armored bodies as cyan bolts tore orcs apart one after another. Cave-in's and heavy weapons dropped several, but lesser attacks were not enough to stop them. Lack of ammunition was, and after several hours of hunting orcs beneath the Angmar range they returned to the surface.

As they marched up the tunnel they walked over the messy remains of dozens of orcs who had tried to pass this way. One was still alive and clutching a ruined leg. A rifle butt to the face smashed bone into brain, and the figure walked on.

(OOC: I am including alot of information here that for some will be repeat information but I don't think everyone is familiar with Pilon's activities so I will include it so people don't get confused.)
IC:
The intelligence flowed through the nodelink and the people of Pilon watched as the war raged on above the waters on the Martian Land. Diplomatically Pilon screamed for a peaceful solution that would bring peace to Mars, then the chemical explosions hit the underwater Arcologies.

Over the past years since their last war Pilon had made great successes in the creation of a Martian Adapted ecosystem that was beginning to reach the heights of their Sisgardian Underwater Jungle.

As the chemicals moved through the Martian Waters the nodelink came alive with the information flowing from the plants of Pilon as they died or withered from the damaging chemicals. As the plants and animals outside died, many of them suffering greatly before finally giving in to the darkness every bit of Pain was transferred to the rest of the Pilonese people. Within a few hours over 80% of the creatures outside the protective Spheres were dead and those that were not dead were unconcious. The energy grid (based on Biological Technology) faded to a dim glow and all people lay comatose. Even the buildings and AIs lay unmoving the Nodelink was quiet.
Throughout the main nation and other colonies and Embassies the Pilonese people also fell unconcious, automated messages from emergency protocols transmitted distress signals to Pilon's allies...

OOC: A little bit of cross-RPing here. If you don't like it, I can alway erase it.

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

Ooleg didn't flinch as his workboss sprayed it (instead of just saying it) in his face. If the boss wanted to cut your head off, he cut your head off, but you hoped he really didn't want to loose a worker...more work for him. If you did shy back, then everyone else would kill you, slowly, and cruelly.

"DEEPAAR! WHEN DIS TING FALLS, I WANT HU-MONS TA DIE!" the workboss yelled.

Ooleg and his fellow's were digging out the Earth under a small, offshoot habitat directly connected to a larger one...the old fashon way, shovels and buckets. The goal was to make a hole into the hallway large enough to get a Uruk through, but that wasn't enough for orcs. The people in the habitat above had to have a long enough fall at they would splatter at the end. Had Ooleg known how to count and measure, he would know the hole was 70 meters deep.

"DEEPAAR!" came the call again, as buckets of dirt were handed off to a waiting army. The soldiers HATED work, but if it would get them into the colony sooner....

Dirt landed hard on Ooleg's shoulder, and he noticed a fine dust raining down on his crew. Then crounbling noises from above, crashing noises, the pressure jumped as the habitat came down the hole like a cylinder, pushing air into the cave system.

While his crewmates looked up in wonder, Ooleg had a spark of intelligence and jumped into a shallow pit.

SQUISH!

Pain shot through Ooleg's leg as the bare habitat bottem pinned his ankle to the ground. Crushed would be more accurate. Without wondering how his higher-ground compatriates were, Ooleg cringed as he pulled, tore his long bloody stump of a leg into the pit. For a quiet second, he heard the army laughing, wether at the worker's demise or the entrance into the greater colony Ooleg couldn't tell.

But he dug for the sound.

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

The ground rumbled and shook and threw Mike O'Hare to the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of him. He got up half way and knelt a while, catching his breath, then got up and dusted himself off. Dust? he wondered. He looked around for the source only to see the hallway that led to his home was suddenly a gaping hole to the outside.

As warm air rushed out and frigid air rushed in, Mike took a few short strides to the hallways end and looked out...no, over the edge of a new and sudden bluf. His eyes passed down into the new shaft and fell upon the entrance to a cave...and a hoard of armored, greenish humanoids.

His breath left him again, his body started to ache, and he ran inside to find an emergency phone as the orcs behind him produced a fabulous contraption with which to cross the wide hole...a humoungus wooden plank (who knows where they got the wood...none even cared).

Sauron:

The men of 8th company had scattered to each side of the passage as they heard the clamour before them. Lt.Olov order up the machine guns and they in wait. Suddenly, round a bend in the tunnel some one hundred meters ahead an Orc came and instantly it was cut down, "Fire at will!" ordered Olov and so the company did, hundreds of Orcs poured around the bend and many were cut down before they understood what was happening, but they came still, as if they didn't care. Firing from the hip an Uruk managed to kill an ammunition loader, soon afterwards the weapon jammed and the Orcs were able to advance further. "There are too many!" a trooper screamed, but Olov persisted "They are nothing! keep firing!" after some seconds the enemy had formed a carpet of their dead and still they came, hundreds, thousands may'be were stampeding towards them. There was nothing else to do "Fall back!" ordered Olov, though as they withdrew the enemy advanced and suddenly the passage way turned into bloody close combat. It seemed to be over in seconds, though not a victory for either. Both sides stopped and seemed to be listening, a harsh whine could be heard following the Orc advance. The Aumanii, wasting no time used their chance to fall back and take up superior positions, leaving fourteen dead troopers behind. Aumanii reinforcements arrived took up positions in the surrounding tunnels and shouted to them from their loudspeakers to "Set down your arms and surrender immediately!" but they did not heed the words, panic had beset them and they charged once more and once more the fire of the Aumanii guns cut into them. Suddenly the corridor behind the Orcs had become active once again, but not with the charge of frightened Snaga but with the horrible likeness' of Snel Nano-Weaponry. Terrified the Aumanii troops now focused their fire on them. "Hold! Hold yourselves in place god damn you!" bellowed Olov, trying in vain to keep his men steady. The Aumanii troops now confronted by a horrible and unknown enemy were routed and began to fall back to their lines. Though some sections stayed to hold the advance of the Orcs and Snel alike. Thirty two soldiers lay dead in the tunnels so far, though the battle is far from over.

OOC:

Sauron told me to post this, Im not calling losses he said that I could mow down the Orcs, though, really, he's the one that calls the losses of his own troops and I'll accept what ever he puts down.

Snel was chasing these Orcs through my territory with out my permission, as such if he is caught in said territory he will be treated like an enemy intruder...not to mention these things are hideous and terrifying to my men.

It was horrendous. Such an act was beyond the thinking of the Martian Confederacy. Almost a hundred million were dead... All morality was washed away from the people of the Confederacy. Such senseless destruction...

Aqualonde--25 million dead
Minas Tora--25 million dead
Byblos--10 million dead
Minas Elendil--8 million dead

Millions more died from radiation poisioning. Doriath had been destroyed. The Martian Confederacy's infant ecosystem lay shattered...

Rage bellowed from those who remained from the tatters of this Confederation. No Ardan would be left alive for this unfathomable crime.

What NBC suits the Confederacy had, had been issued out. They were totally unprepared for destruction on this level.

Now a Great Armament was being mounted... Hundreds of ships were to be built, all for the purpose of destroying Arda...

Zona Tora, Empress of the Toran Empire and Speaker of the Martian Confederacy was dead. Coronation of her son would take place much later, now was a time for war.

----

Fifty Toran vessels sped through a jumpgate and reappeared in Earth orbit. Their weapons glistened and they searched for targets....

Xero Tora sat on the bridge of the Toran Dreadnaught Tar-Ministar staring out into the bustling commotion that was Earth space. Fucking bastards... I'll kill ever last fucking one of them! He let his fury flow and yelled orders to the crew.

"Deploy Upholders, fighters, and corvettes! Prepare the dropships to land in former ADK territory to set up a base there and prepare for invasion of Arda. Remember that we're only here to establish a foot hold."

And so the Great Armament began...

EDIT: THis is the puppet of another nation who is involved in this conflict.

OOC: I have returned. Nobody forgout about me?

IC:
Jay Hawkins lounged next to the radio. Suddenly it crackled to life.
"Hello Anybody there? Respond now!"
Jay lifted his head "What the?"
A commander walked in, took up the radio and responded.
"This is Commander Asp of the SR Forces. State your alligence"
"You idiot I'm from SR! Aumanii forces need you, get your troops in the transports and haul their sorry asses over to Bekanel pass, ASAP!"

"Yes sir, we're en route. EVERYBODY GET YOUR STUFF TOGETHER, WE'RE MOVING OUT!"

Jay got to his feet and rushed over to his tent, grabbing his combat equipment, and then jumping onto a seat in a transport. The doors closed, and the LT walked out. The 20 soldiers in this transport were watching him, waiting for the speech, as were the 500 other soldiers getting moved to prepare to assist and secure a landing zone.

"Listen up people! The Aumanii forces have been taking hits in those tunnels, and apparently it's swarming with Orcs. Their special forces need a bit of a break, so you grunts are heading in. Enemy resistance is high. You're going to set up a landing site, some of you are getting on the side turrets to protect our troops, and then we're going to land at Bekanel pass till we get more in. Abort code is Zulu. Go code is Ghost. Do you have any questions?

"Sir! I do, sir! What the hell is an Orc?"

"This is going to be one hell of a battle..."

The SR forces reached the dropzone at Bekanel pass, waiting for any signs of Aumanii troops (or any sign of hostile forces). Jay Hawkins jumped into one of the side turrets and scanned for enemy forces.


OOC: I still don't know 100% what is waiting for me, I'm relieving Aumanii forces, so can somebody post.

{OOC: I love my automatic orcs. None of this has any real effect on the big picture, it just covers my wandering around in Angmar.}

They stalked through the pass, coming behind of the scouting parties, pariahs, a company of them almost, led by one of the lesser ranking necron lord, a light from the head of his staff penetrating the oppressive gloom of Angmar. A flickering glow of sickly green emanated from their pole-arm-like weapons, its emerald shimmer illuminating their forms.

A squad of the pariahs, ten of them, peeled off from the column and headed toward a cave. Preceding them was a sense of –wrongness- a feeling that fundamentally, they had no right to exist. The orcs inside the cave could feel it, the creeping flow of time and of an endless abyss of despair that waited for them beyond their mortal time, horrific in its intensity. The orcs inside could feel a horrifying sense of impending doom as the soulless spectres silently advanced on their position. The pariahs entered, and there were a few moments of horrified screaming and insane gibbering before each of the uncouth orcish voices was silenced abruptly, often accompanied by an abrupt tearing sound like ripping cloth.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The cave trolls further down the pass were oblivious to this; instead a different type of necron was mostly causing their troubles. The trolls, unlike their orcish counterparts, had eaten well since Melkor turned the orcs loose, and had been resting after another feast when the wraith machine arrived. They’d not had much rest since then, the hovering monstrosity seemed to take a positive delight in tormenting the poor unintelligent brutes.

It flew around, jabbing the creatures, despite their thick skins, with its needle like fingers and charged barbed appendages. Eventually, three of the trolls had fled, after being resolutely unable to hit it in the close confines of the cave. Unfortunately they’d fled into one of the mountain passes the necrons were marching through. As the wraith hovered in the entrance to the cave, and watched the hammer-wielding cave trolls rampage through two full squads of necron warriors, smashing the androids to pieces left right and centre, one warrior having its head knocked off and across an area the size of a football pitch, it made a note to itself, which would be passed onto the others of its class ‘do not enrage the trolls.’

Eventually, one of the pyramidal monolith transports that accompanied the advance swept the area, reducing trolls and necrons alike to vapour with the same awful ripping sound as before.

OOC: Anybody noticing my roughly 1 million troops that were making rapid progress across the southwest of Angmar?

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

OOC: Note that Melkor is not going to be posting the fall of Minas Morion just yet. As long as everyone posts casualties or a really good reason why, he will go forward when he is done with a little break from NS. So don't move too far forward - try to keep it within a week or so.

The whine of the SR hoppers could be heard bearing down on Bekanel, Aumanii troops couldn't allow them the chance to land. They would have to make for Ciris Aphalon as quickly as possible. Men with dagger lamps directed them north east as the command tent sent the orders. "SR Forces, move in force to Ciris Aphalon. Coordinates 9-9-2, by, 3-2-3, North west. Await orders on arrival."

OOC:

Go to Ciris Aphalon, the largest human settlement of Hellespontos county. Then, enter the rear tunnels via the main entrances. When you arrive, look for one Colonel Sorgstrom.

Through the swarms of Destroying Angels, a few missiles still managed to find their targets, or at least somewhere relatively near. Two detonations triggered massive landslides across the southern slopes of Pavonis, while a new valley found itself suddenly carved in the Neriedum Montes. A mission-kill only led another three to slam hard into the bed of Mare Argyre, their warheads to be retrived at a later date. In Sabaea, the massive defenses of the WorldTree and relative vulnerability of long-distance travel eliminated world-threatening objects, causing most damage to be kinetic in nature as intercontinental missiles lost orbit and slammed into the ground, scattering radiological material to be gathered by the nucleophiles smack in the middle of a fledging temperate forest among other places.

As the sudden infusion of dry ice froze over the center of Mare Hellas, locking the toxins in place, microwave energy sats began to divert from their usual targets and fire into the ocean, waiting for the VLMA to finish with Morion. Carefully tracking the ocean currents, they set about slowly boiling the seas in an attempt to sterilize the infection.

Suddenly the corridor behind the Orcs had become active once again, but not with the charge of frightened Snaga but with the horrible likeness' of Snel Nano-Weaponry. Terrified the Aumanii troops now focused their fire on them. "Hold! Hold yourselves in place god damn you!" bellowed Olov, trying in vain to keep his men steady.
Momentary flashes of blinding blue light filled the tunnels as orcs and trolls fell one by one. Quite suddenly and the formerly-hidden outline of a 3-meter-wide black Shadowcraft resolved itself in a soldier's light. Hanging across the walls of the tunnel like an oversized six-legged spider, the Destroying Angel levelled it's cyclopic mechanical eye at the Aumanii while quickly scooping up the writhing bodies of not-quite-dead-yet nanoinfected orcs in its forearms and quickly scurrying off from whence it came, leaving a trail of milky white ichor from melee and bullet wounds.
Where the Aumanii held out, Shadowcraft and replicators scurried away and kept to the shadows- but elsewhere, they went about the work of engulfing those in sight with bursts of UV-induced plasma, while the rest steadily fell victim to the nanophage, acting not only as a superbacteria but taking apart their bodies molecule by molecule like an unforgiving caustic acid. Where the Aumanii had abandoned their men, Shadowcraft retrieved the bodies and took them from the tunnels, and in the deeper regions a disabled Shadowcraft or two glued itself to the rock and began to transform into a new Web.

Soft pinpoints of light appear far above the embattled lands, and several Angelic probes appear.

They do nothing, their glistening forms completely immobile, with only the slightest hint of interior energy patterns.


ooc:

in other words... [tag]

The pilot listened closely. "Roder that, moving into position."

Jay's headset radio crackled to life. "All soldiers, code ZULU. I say again, ZULU. We're moving to another position, keep in your current positions. Gunners, stay on the turret."

The transport changed course and Jay threw up out the window. The transport seemed to shudder violently as they headed for their new landing location, at Ciris Aphalon.

The transports hit the ground with a thud, and a few troopers looked around for danger. Officers were looking for Colonel Sorgstrom, to recieve their new orders. Jay Hawkins didn't leave his turret... they might call ZULU yet...

The pilot listened closely. "Roder that, moving into position."

Jay's headset radio crackled to life. "All soldiers, code ZULU. I say again, ZULU. We're moving to another position, keep in your current positions. Gunners, stay on the turret."

The transport changed course and Jay threw up out the window. The transport seemed to shudder violently as they headed for their new landing location, at Ciris Aphalon.

The transports hit the ground with a thud, and a few troopers looked around for danger. Officers were looking for Colonel Sorgstrom, to recieve their new orders. Jay Hawkins didn't leave his turret... they might call ZULU yet...

The figure of Colonel Sorgstrom awaited the arrival of the SR soldiery on the Hopper pad, covered with the thick red dust that was borne of the tunnels and glistening with sweat Sorgstrom seemed to all that saw him to be a worn old man that for some reason had been forced to fight in this war...though thats exactly what he was. Pushing 57 years of age Colonel Sorgstrom put in for an 12th tour of duty with the 1st Special Forces, refusing to take his pension and get out before 'it' got him. "There's no time for rest while deviants possess Hellespontos" he always said. The SR hoppers landed and Sorgstrom walked towards a specially marked one that he assumed had the commander in it, it turned out it was a medical hopper "You people have some strange symbology!" he said, though his voice was drowned out by the whine of engines. As Sorgstrom turned to his left he saw a large man in the elaborate uniform of the SR command staff step out onto the landing pad. Sorgstrom felt someone ashamed of his appearance, covered in red dust as he was. Sorgstrom brushed off his tunic as he sauntered towards the officer. "Good evening Commander, no rest for the weary Im afraid. You have to get as many of your men as possible geared for combat and ready to follow me in under an hour. Dont bring anything you wont need, and dont bring anything that will hinder you...the tunnels are murder on an over ladened infantryman. Come with me, we have much to discuss."

OOC:

When I call in Allies, I like to Character Rp a little before we get into the shooting...make sure that he knows exactly what he's getting into.

Slowly... a few at first then many more the Pilonese began to wake up. There was an overhelming feeling of urgency and rage over what had happened to them but for now they only processed the data and began to debate their choices...

OOC: I will post some of Pilon's decisions tomorrow or maybe a little while later. Mostly in the Martian Boards as they will have the greatest impact there for now.

Commander Ice brushed some dust off his standard issue dark blue SR uniform. It wasn't going to do any use here, since blue stuck out like a sore thumb. In SR and during night ops, it was actually not that easy to see, but out here...

Several troopers rolled around in the dust, hoping to stain their uniforms for the mission. "It better be dark in there" thought Ice. "Nice to meet you Colonel! Our men are ready for combat right now, just tell us where to go and we'll do it. We've got 500 here but SR is sending more, I'm not 100% sure how many just yet, and I've lost count how much are actually at the original landing site, must be close to 350 000 now? Whatever the case, we're set."

Jay Hawkins threw some of the sand at Alex Watt, his best friend. They rolled around for a bit, messing up their uniform, and then grabbed their SR-11 Rifles.

OOC: The SR-11 rifle works like a cross between an OICW and that Morita Rifle from Starship Troopers. Picture a soldier from Starship Troopers and you've got an excellent idea what an SR Trooper looks like, but add a visor coming down from the helmet /OOC

Jay checked through his webbing: frag grenades, a flashbang, torch, beacon, auxillary radio, extra ammo, ammo for sidearm, and some emergency food. His backpack consisted of a sleeping bag, a pillow, ration packs and a notebook, with a spare change of clothes. Apart from that, there was nothing else that they were allowed to take. A demolitions team along with machine gunners prepared to enter the tunnel.

OOC: Think of the assault machine gunners as using a SR-11 Rifle with a huge clip and faster fire rate. Essentially, it's the same gun, with a much larger clip and slightly faster fire rate. The recoil is pretty big through, it's a two man weapon.

"Get that machine gun up here! Where are the demo teams? Medics, get back, oh for gods sake STOP PLAYING WITH THE NVGS!" Commander Ice was ready to take the NVGs off the troops; they couldn't resist blinding each other for fun. "Right, visors down, weapons up, we're getting ready to move out!"

Jay Hawkins flipped his visor down, and the HUD warmed up. Mission objectives flickered across the hud, as did his current heart rate, radio signal strength, a small map (which could be adjusted via side buttons on the helmet) and the new toy SR had produced. By sticking an invisible laser on the end of the SR-11, SR had helped a trooper's aiming. The laser appeared in the HUD, but not on the enemy. They were marvelous pieces of technology.

OOC: That technology does exist today. I can't remember what its called, but a friend in the Australian Defence Force has used them during wargames :P.

They were ready to go in. Commander Ice looked for Sorgstrom, swallowing uncertaintly. The only other conflict he'd seen was the War on Death of Life, if you could call it that. SR ripped through the weak and underpowed nation in a few months, but DOL was attacked by 4 other nations and constantly bombarded from space. Now he was on a strange planet, with no idea what he was facing, waiting around wondering why the hell he was here.

"Right. We're ready to go sir... just give the word..."

Its scan of the Martian World complete, the little Bio Drone turns to the great lumbering behemoths of star ships that hang in the void, and commences its scan of them, darting from one group to the next like a curious hummingbird.

Aboard the Ganges Mo noticed the scan bobbing along in the data river and plucked it out for a closer look.

[Inquisitive, arn't they? Well I suppose we can take a look as well...]

Magnetic fields shifted alignment as the full sensor array of the heavy explorer was brought to bear on the tiny probe. Energy on various wavelengths and frequencies poured from the arrays and returned as bounces in various flavors with the probe right in the center of the data that came flooding back.

[Well arn't you a cute little thing? Just stay away from the big boys or they will swat you like a bug.]

Mo pulsed out a message directed to the probe to that effect. While the classified weapon systems were heavily shielded against scans there was a limit on how close the probe would be allowed to come to a fleet on a war footing.

Imeadiately the tiny probe span on its axis to face the vessel that had scanned it, its mind adjusting and processing the data, maybe not understanding it, but storing it, buzing from spot to spot, the Bio probe moves in a sphere around the Explorer, chittering to itelf, but maintaining a safe distance.

As Sorgstrom entered the tunnels, followed by SR troops, he handed a dataslate to Commander Ice and spoke. "This is a map of the tunnels, it shows the position of Aumanii defensive positions and the suspected positions of the enemy. My troops have come under a sustained assault from the enemy. Commander, we're over stretched in these tunnels. We cant carry out offensive operations as swiftly as we should...and thats where you come in. Your men will supplement our forces under here in an assault role. To search out and destroy enemy strongholds. Any questions?"

"No sir," said Commander Ice "we'll get to it."

Jay Hawkins looked around the tunnel. He didn't like the look of it. Then his radio crackled to life, yet again. "All soldiers, GHOST. I say again, GHOST. Weapons up, eyes on."

His squad leader, happened to be Commander Ice. This was good news, at least to Jay, to have an experienced combat commander from the War On DOL. "All, stay alert." called Ice as the squad of 7 moved out into the tunnel systems. 400 were being sent in while another 1000 were about to land. It was impossible to keep the blue uniforms blue; the dust from the constant transport landings and takeoffs made sure it didn't happen.

"Troopers, keep looking. Watt, get that motion sensor up here!" Alex Watt rushed forward with his backpack motion sensor, watching the little screen for signs of movement. "Nothing yet sir...wait..."

Jay froze, holding his rifle up. "It might not be the enemy sir... could be anything...."

They looked in the direction, desperate to see what they might find....

...and the ITDO fleet orbiting Mars is reinforced, it's numbers doubling.

The ITDO military installations in Noachia, unaffected by the radiation and the pollution, spill forth hordes of tiny insects to the surface. Insects about the size of the palm of your hand, with 6 spindly but strong legs and small brains, looking and sensing and reporting directly back to the fleets above and to the bases below.

Only about five hundred of these conglomerate around the crash site of the shot-down "Melkorian" flying APC, and begin a thorough investigation of each of the dead orcs, all the material components; a remote autopsy, by an analyst with five hundred eyes.

The spiders can tell the exact material properties of what they find; the strengths and densities required to shear each fragment of shrapnel they find away from the wrecked aircraft, the location and nature of every hole and malformity of the dead orcs, everything. But they can't make any decisions based on that information; they cannot conclude, nor can they deny.

The real analysis is concluded by the people still, but they are sequestered and protected; think tanks too fragile for the hostile Mars environment, but keen on it's goings-on; prying with hordes of mobile automated sensor drones at the truth.

And more and more, they begin to conclude what the Lord President already suspected. This was not a Melkorian attack. This was a set-up.

And the truth, they say, shall set you free...

Sebastion sat in on a cold doctors table in an uncontaminated part of Wazzu Elysium. A doctor, sporting an interesting looking pair of 'specticals' looked closely at a purplish wound on his arm.

"Yup, looks infected alright. But I wouldn't be worried about bioweapons. Looks like a normal sore to me."

"Then how'd I get it doc?"

"Could be anything. An alergy, an insect bite or sting, you could even have cut yourself and not known it. It happens from time to time." His patient didn't looked convinced. "Look, don't worry about it. I'll have the nurse clean it up and give you instructions on cleaning and bandaging. It'll be mostly gone in a week."

"Your sure?"

"Positive." The doctor smiled. "Look, bioweapons act fast, otherwise they wouldn't be usefull. I've seen this kind of thing before. No worries, OK?"

"If you say so." The man still wasn't convinced, but the doctor was sure that was something a week of proper care would better debate then himself.

Dr. Kanow's beeper finally quit bugging him as he closed in on the hospital. The crowd ahead of him seconded his beepers opinion that whatever was going on, it was definately an emergency. "Make way! Doctor comming through, makeway!" he shouted.

He flew past reporters and through the hospital doors only to stop dead in his tracks. A paramedic crew was wheeling a man through the emergency entrance...the same man the doctor had seen less then a week before. The patient was barely responsive, obviously drugged up, and sported numerous open, pussing, bleeding, purplish sores across his body.

It took a collegue to get the doctor out of his trance...and even then his body was on automatic as his mind asked How could this be? over and over and over again.

[ooc: okay, the Fall of Morion is next in my post-queue now. Can someone give me a quick rundown of who all fired at it and with what?]

[ooc: okay, the Fall of Morion is next in my post-queue now. Can someone give me a quick rundown of who all fired at it and with what?]
[Spacers with the VLMA (thingy used to carve the Borealis/Hellas Canal), Kajal with the mining array, and I think that's it. But there mighta been one more.]

[ooc: okay, the Fall of Morion is next in my post-queue now. Can someone give me a quick rundown of who all fired at it and with what?]
[Spacers with the VLMA (thingy used to carve the Borealis/Hellas Canal), Kajal with the mining array, and I think that's it. But there mighta been one more.]

[ooc: need more info on the hits. what types of weaponry are we talking about here?]

OOC: 10 55,000 ton ramships at a speed that is hypothosised to be enough to smash throught the outer wall, then some open weapon areas, then keep going with enough force to presumably shatter the shaft inside. No idea if it will of course.

OOC: Kajal Mars' station is basically hitting Minas Morion with a beam near the temperature of a star (whatever temp the plasma would have to be to be, you know... plasma), and probably eight to twelve 60 tonne iridium shells from bombardment cannons. That's about it. The idea is if it doesn't help destroy, at least anything outside is kinda... incinerated. ^_^;;

OOC: I'm getting bored, what happened to wherever the hell I'm supposed to be?!

OOC: I'm getting bored, what happened to wherever the hell I'm supposed to be?!
OOC: Ditto for my guys. First I send a huge invasion force, then Melkor says he's preparing a force to meet mine, I get ready to fight, then he surrenders, then I say OK, then my guys can roll across Angmar unhindered, then he does this nuke stuff, so :?

Anyway, my forces (about 50 divisions in all) are making their way northeast from the Syskeyian Mars/Angmar border to Minas Morion (sp?). Given them "time" that has elapsed so far, how much distance do you think they've covered?

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

[ooc: ummm... Syskeyia I don't imagine many of them are alive anymore with the weapons I set off, and given that you were one of the primary targets...]

Somewhere in southwest Angmar

Twenty of us left, thought Major General Alphonsus Pichit, commander of the 251st Mechanized Infantry Division. Just twenty divisions left.

The nukes of Morgoth had hid the expedition force, and had hit hard. All armored divisions had been wiped out, as well as many of the mechanized infantry divisions. The popular estimate was that 600,000 Syskeyians had lost their lives.

Cowards was the thought running throughout the Syskeyian Army. If Melkor had wanted to fight the Syskeyians, why didn't he fight like a real man, conventional forces mano-a-mano with the invasion force.

No, they took the cowardly way out, nuking them and all.

They would pay.

But there were only 20 divisions left to make them. Ten mechanized infantry units from Earth on the left flank, and ten colonial mechanized infantry units on the right.

We've got a job to do, Pichit though to himself, and we're going to do it.

And so the remnants of the Syskeyian expeditionary force made their way toward Minas Morion, shocked yet determined.

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

...Which was a horribly bad decision. From Martian Orbit, the Kajali mining array had fired randomly into Angmar, trying to seek out the position of the Tower amidst the thick fumes which enveloped it. Needless to say, the volley missed entirely, but it triggered a chain of events that would lead to the Fall of the Tower...

The ring of volcanoes around the peak burst forth suddenly into flame, sending millions of tons of hot lava racing down the sides of the mountains, some of it of course rushing towards the Syskeyain force to the southwest, most of it spread out evenly across the surrounding landscape.

Angoron, the massive mountain on which the Tower stood, crumbled suddenly as if under a great weight, caving in on itself as an explosion beyond reckoning erupted, tearing a giant hole in the ashen fumes that enveloped the sky. A shockwave was sent out that easily covered the entirety of Angmar, and it shook the mountains. It was a nuclear device of a magnitude so far unseen in the field of warfare: Minas Morion's 'self destruct' mechanism, as it were. The blast was so powerful, that it levelled all 6 of the attendant volcanoes around Angoron, plowing them over cleanly and leaving little more than rock heaps where they stood. It had weakened sufficiently by the time it reached the Ephel Duath to the North and West, perhaps intentionally. Nonetheless, the damage from the blast would be observed on the face of those mountains for eternity.

Morion was no more. All known Imperial military installations were either destroyed or crippled beyond repair. Any troops that are left surrender instantly upon encounter with the enemy, or kill themselves.

But deep under the remnants of Angoron, evil things lingered.

"Ack! Retreat!"

The Syskeyian force turned tail and started to flee back to Syskeyian Mars, full speed to back home.

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

OOC: This is going to be a little out of order - some of the cleanup has begun but the fall was not yet posted (Thanks for posting that BTW Melkor).

IC:

Sentients both on the ground and in the fleet watched the fireball rise above Angmar as Minas Morion was reduced to rubble. The power of the explosion had blown huge chunks of rock and the vast impliments of war contained inside the mountain outward in far reaching trajectories, some of which reached the fleet and the arcologies to the north. A vast chunk of the mountain smashed down just outside of an arcology and caused the first civilian casualties in Sunset as it smashed a transit tunnel when people had been waiting out the nuclear attack. Others sailed up and out, hailing through the fleet and hammering at several of the ships.

The assault shuttle wings that had been waiting under the protective blanket were sent forward towards Angmar now - their objective to search and sieze rather than to evacuate surrendering troops. As they reached the crest of the range they dropped off fire teams that siezed strong points and emplacements, flushing orcs and men out alike with robotic efficiency. The shuttles continued inward and finally arrived over the rubble of Minas Morion. The doors swung open again and the troops leapt to the ground and began combing the wreckage for anything. They didn't seem concerned with the radiation, though the shuttles raced off as soon as they dropped their troops. They were not expecting survivors - at this point their only objective was to locate tunnel entrances, equipment, and documentation. Unlikely, but the troops involved didn't care about probability.

----

President Al-Zeif arrived back on Mars an hour after the fall of Minas Morion. His first destination was the dome deep under Sunset where Mirabilis was in 'protective custody'. After checking on the status of the VIP he headed for the Duma. Messages went out to all the allied nations to send a representative to the Duma to begin talks on the fate of Angmar and the cleanup effort undoubtably to begin shortly.

OOC: I'm getting bored, what happened to wherever the hell I'm supposed to be?!

OOC:

Your troops are now ICly involved in clearing the tunnels beneath Hellespontos. Lord Sauron hasn't been around this post lately...I dont know where he is. But SR, you will be involved in the long and arduous war that has begun...75 million Orcs are left on Mars and they're going to be a problem for years to come. Your troops will be there when the next big attack happens. Think of this as "down time".

The shuttles continued inward and finally arrived over the rubble of Minas Morion. The doors swung open again and the troops leapt to the ground and began combing the wreckage for anything.
(OOC: Are you sure that that's an entirely good idea, considering that the Mirror Array is still focused there?)

The shuttles continued inward and finally arrived over the rubble of Minas Morion. The doors swung open again and the troops leapt to the ground and began combing the wreckage for anything.
(OOC: Are you sure that that's an entirely good idea, considering that the Mirror Array is still focused there?)

OOC: Well, considering how confused the timeline is...

I'm assuming the mirror has independantly adjustable mirrors here - it seems like a nessecity to provide the proper focusing power.

IC:

<Open SecTrans: Spacer Guilds>
<Subj: VLMA>

Would it be possible to open a path through the mirror array's focus area by altering the position of some of the mirrors? We want to put troops down to investigate some areas of the rubble - launch silo's and the like.

As a side question, will the mirror array be moved back to it's previous position?

Admiral Tagon

<Close SecTrans: Spacer Guilds>

"Ack! Retreat!"

The Syskeyian force turned tail and started to flee back to Syskeyian Mars, full speed to back home.

Meanwhile, ahead of the Syskeyian army, bombers were dropping bombs all over Angmar. In an arc roughly ahead of the Syskeyian advance, several holes were made by "bunker-buster" bombs. Into these holes were dropped more bunker-busters, and more, until the depth of the hole made was deemed sufficient, at which point a tactical nuke was dropped into each hole.

The plan was to create "drains" for the lava, drains which would adjust the flow of lava from the plains...

... and into the tunnels.

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

[ooc: something occured to me as I read this that obviously didn't as I wrote my last post: the lava and such really doesnt matter too much probably seeing as the OMG HUGE NOOKLEYAR BLAST swept over it, probably just kicking the stuff up and slinging it around. Also, It's really kind of pointless, if you're as close as you say you are, to launch any sort of attack on any tunnels, seeing as, again, the blast will turn them all to rubble. ]

The little bio drone ceases whatever it is doing and spins to observe the planet, and the destruction happening on its surface, the giant fireball reflecting in its optical receptors.

<Open SecTrans: Spacer Guilds>
<Subj: VLMA>
Would it be possible to open a path through the mirror array's focus area by altering the position of some of the mirrors? We want to put troops down to investigate some areas of the rubble - launch silo's and the like.

As a side question, will the mirror array be moved back to it's previous position?

Admiral Tagon
<Close SecTrans: Spacer Guilds>
Only a single focal point can be maintained at any time. However, if you transmit a list of coordinates you wish to investigate, we may be able to reduce the radius of the focal area on the surface to place those locations outside the main cone of influence. Be advised, however, that residual heat will still be high. Protective gear is recommended.

The Array will likely not be mved back to its original position for some time. It will be removed from focusing on Angmar at such time as the former tower has been reduced to basalt. Following, we intend to use for sterilization of the biochemical attacks.

-Guild Phoenicia

<Open SecTrans: Spacer Guilds>
<Subj: VLMA>
Would it be possible to open a path through the mirror array's focus area by altering the position of some of the mirrors? We want to put troops down to investigate some areas of the rubble - launch silo's and the like.

As a side question, will the mirror array be moved back to it's previous position?

Admiral Tagon
<Close SecTrans: Spacer Guilds>
Only a single focal point can be maintained at any time. However, if you transmit a list of coordinates you wish to investigate, we may be able to reduce the radius of the focal area on the surface to place those locations outside the main cone of influence. Be advised, however, that residual heat will still be high. Protective gear is recommended.

The Array will likely not be mved back to its original position for some time. It will be removed from focusing on Angmar at such time as the former tower has been reduced to basalt. Following, we intend to use for sterilization of the biochemical attacks.

-Guild Phoenicia

We plan to investigate the gate areas as well as search for a possible data repository or similar - with the speed undertaken to abandon the area destruction might not have been complete and much historical data might be located.

Do not worry about the troops on the ground - they are adequately shielded against the heat. It's a good trial run for this model anyway.

Admiral Tagon

[Load patrol.tunnel.occupied /rs='orc']
[Module loaded. Method set to random. Opposing species set to orc.]
[Load comm.channel /u='4194'e='high']
[Communications channel opened to unit 4194 with high encryption. Waiting for response.]
[Response recieved from unit 'SDF.CR.129.777']
[Response recieved from unit 'SDF.CR.81.292']
[Load unit.coordination /l='close']
[Response recieved from unit 'SDF.CR.18.246']
[Unit coordination module loaded. Emphasis set on close coordination.]

The assault shuttle dropped further into the valley formed by the Angmar mountains as it's cargo booted up and began to gather the equipment on the shuttle efficiently and very mechanically. Skimming over the vast boulder field laid down by the explosion of Minas Morion the crew looked for the location of a tunnel entrance of any size. The loading doors swung down, door guns swinging out and down and gunners taking their positions. Their first indication that a tunnel entrance or nest was close by was when bullets started spanging off the hull. A couple made their way inside and ricochetted off the forward bulkhead and through the robots gathering their equipment inside.

The door gunners on the left and rear openned fire on the firing positions where the orcs sheltered. Long lines of cyan fire burned between the two for a moment as the shuttle hung there with the sparks of small arms fire ringing off it. It drifted closer to the ground as the gunners cleared out the nests with long circular bursts. The robots had loaded themselves up with weapons and ammunition and now leapt to the ground. Their weight combined with their solid feet send them crunching through the glass that coated the surface here. Immediately they paired up and started leapfrogging forward as one team covered another.

With a roar of accelerating engines the shuttle headed away from the developing firefight. Several orcs ran to the surface with stashed RPG's and finding the shuttle roaring away launched them toward the advancing robots. Luck or guidance - there was no way to know which as the orc that fired it died moments later - sent a RPG into the neck joint of one of the robots. A jet of super-heated metal neatly severed it and sent the robot itself flying backwards without it's primary sensor unit.

The matte brown unit began to diagnose the damage and found it to be unrecoverable. Setting the weapons and ammunition it carried down on the ground it began to run forward into the nest. It was designed for combat - an instinctive killer - and this would be it's last action. The explosion as it dived into the entrance of the cave was tremendous enought to send orcs and chucks of orcs flying out in a long gib. The other robots pressed their advantage and ran through the cloud of smoke silencing orcs with a sharp edge to a vital area.

OOC: Right, so I'm attacking orcs? Okay, who are the orcs?
Please put up with me, I'm not on Mars, and I'm trying to follow a near-war problem with another nation at the same time. I'm getting confused :S

OOC: Right, so I'm attacking orcs? Okay, who are the orcs?
Please put up with me, I'm not on Mars, and I'm trying to follow a near-war problem with another nation at the same time. I'm getting confused :S

OOC:...

The Orcs on Mars are under the control of the Devious Lord Sauron...you'll get to fight them when ever a thread comes up, Im working on one so it wont be that long.

And lo did the Void-Dragon Asirnoth, Great Silver Wyrm of the Yngir go down onto the world that was known as Mars, and into the region that was called Southern Angmar by the peoples of the Orc. He went forth, and made a great slaughter of all humans, beasts, creeping things, fowls, and all other flesh wherein there was breath of life. The corpses of those destroyed by the Dragon and his followers were of the number of ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine.

To the east did the Jade Emperor Mephet'ran, the lord of deception, greatest of the second age Yngir issue forth from the gate of the heavens, and make a slaughter of the inhabitants of that region of Angmar. He did smite down all that roamed about the land and all the dwellers beneath that could be found, and lo did he set the region aflame with his wroth, and the number of those destroyed by Mephet'ran and his followers was one hundred and eleven thousand one hundred and eleven.

And lo did the Yngir say unto the peoples of Mars that all previous dwellers in Angmar should be cast into the fiery pit of death and despair where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth until the end of time, to make way for their chosen people.

Along the Syskeyian/Angmar border, the Syskeyian colonial militia waited.

And waited.

Ever since they heard of Minas Morion's demise, the border guards had a 24.65/7 lookout for the remaining Syskeyian divisions.

The heliocopters came in first, as was obvious given their speed. Soon therafter, however, the troops ran back into their depressed urgency.

Then, Private Joachim Chinuak spotted something.

"Avengers!!!"

Sure enough, hundreds of modified SAM Humvees could be spotted on the bleakly distant Martian horizon.

The Avengers were followed by a torrent of M113 Gavins, which were succeeded by a large traffic of howizters, command vehicles, and other vehicles, and, at last, the tanks.

Many tears were shed and hugs given on that fortified border, but the job was not done.

http://www.geocities.com/strategicmaneuver/uh60vtdp.jpg

Further in the interior of Syskeyian Mars, a whole fleet of UH-60S Balckhawk compaund helicopters set off for the site of Melkor's nuke blast- the one that wiped out most of Syskeyia's expeditionary force.

Their mission- to gather up the remains of that blast, including any survivors, and taken them back home. Body parts would be DNA-identified, and then, when everything had calmned down, they would be buried. All 600,000 dead. Not a mass grave, but rather an individual grave for each one dead, with what could be identified as their body parts in the coffin.

And, millions of miles away, President and First Consul Benedeict Michael Sukothai's ISSCV took off for the Red Planet...

http://web-worthy.com/saab/graphics/cgi/isscv.gif

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

Sukothai's transport BUMPS as it lands near New Syskeyiapolis...

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

New Syskeyiapolis, Syskeyian Mars

It was almost a disaster.

As Sukothai walked about the streets of the provincial capital, the most obvious sign of the nuclear attack was the fact that he could look up at the clear red Martian sky.

Uninhibited.

Without a dome.

For you see, the cities of Syskeyian Mars had been designed with large transparent domes around them. Melkor's nuclear attack had been largeley intercepted, and only one small nuke was able to make it to the capital, impacting on the surface of the dome. As all buildings in Syskeyian Mars were required to house people in the case the atmostpheric dome was destroyed, and that most people were able to run into a building in the 15 minutes they had between warning and impact, the casualties here had been minimal here.

The same was not so for Nova New Nicaea and New Junaklion.

Military and civilans included, the war had cost Syskeyia 1.2 million men, women and children.

February 20, 2004 would forever be marked as one of the darkest days in the Republic's history.

Sukothai visited the repair crews and other people trying to make their way from this mess...

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

IS ANYBODY THERE?!?!
DOES ANYBODY CARE?!?!

BUMP

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

IS ANYBODY THERE?!?!
DOES ANYBODY CARE?!?!

BUMP

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia