NationStates Jolt Archive

The demonstrations in Karmanyaka had been going on for weeks now. The largest one was that in the capital city of Katla. Approximately ten thousand people were assembled in Battle Day Square. During the marches there had been hundreds of thousands of protestors and some even said millions. Tents had been erected and a large scene from which music pumped out onto the square 24/7. They were there to show their concern for the modernisation of their country, which brought with it an open attitude to the world, democracy and a dramatic change to many old customs and traditions with their roots in the old feudal society.

The protests were directed towards the Lord Tengil, reform-friendly Johan Kader, but during the weeks more focus had come to be directed towards Karmanyaka's membership in the Federated Klatchian Coast and the close cooperation with the Free Republic of Ilek-Vaad. A vast majority of the people of Karmanyaka were positive to the reforms and democratisations, but a powerful clique of influential men were funding and encouraging the protests.

The increasingly frustrated protestors were now spurring each other to more violent acts. The police kept a watchful eye on the events and military were kept ready to intervene in case there would be an escalation of events into open riot.

--

Battle Day Square, Katla, The Dominion of Karmanyaka
In the gloom of early morning the square glittered like the last embers in a fireplace from above. An old folksong with a pumped-up beat poured out from speakers on the big scene. Most of the camping protestors slept in their tents. There had been persistent rumours during the previous day that a group were planning to rush the Tengil Palace before noon. Carabineer Police were reinforcing the Tengil Guard, intent on protecting the Palace against intruders. Everything seemed quite calm now though and there were very little people moving around in the city.

Suddenly the screeching, rattling sound of tank tracks on concrete could be heard faintly in the distance. The sound came nearer and increased in intensity. Growling engines accompanied the screeching metal-on-stone sound as a long line of tanks rolled in on the square. Armoured troop transport trucks followed and filed in along the edge of the square. The startled protestors, still rubbing sleep out of their eyes were silently watching the military vehicles filling the square.

From their positions on the Palace roof and in front of the Palace gates, the Tengil Guard and the Carabineers were observing the army troops with equal perplexity. The soldiers quickly and efficiently jumped out of the trucks and lined up around three sides of the square. Tanks soon occupied gaps in the lines. In a few minutes the whole square was buzzing with activity as the protestors approached the brink of panic. People were gathering what possessions they could find in the twilight. Many were already trying to make it out of the square and into the streets beyond. Some were arming themselves with home made weapons in contempt of the overpowering force of the soldiers around them. Others yet were just standing amidst the commotion with expressions of chock and apathy.

The captain of the Tengil Guard ran out of the Palace, his uniform jacket unbuttoned.

"Who's in charge of all this?!" he shouted at the nearest soldier. The soldier just pointed towards an armoured vehicle some twenty meters away.

The door to the vehicle opened as the captain approached.

"You're from the Palace, I understand." said a man wearing a colonel's shoulder straps. "I'm Colonel Amid. I've been sent to deal with the rioters and secure the Palace."

"Sent by whom? The Palace is perfectly safe and these people are just camping here!" the captain exclaimed while trying to get his breath back.

"By the Council. And no, the Palace is not safe. Can't you see that people down there have weapons?" the captain pointed to a group of protestors armed with sticks and empty bottles. "And the Tengil Guard and the Police will do best to stay out of the way."

The soldiers around Battle Day Square were attaching bayonets to their rifles. Some had shields to protect themselves with. On given order the soldiers and tanks started moving forward, closing in on the armed protestors. Bottles and paving stones started flying through the air. Through speakers mounted on the tanks a voice ordered the rioters to lay down their weapons and leave the square. Many followed the order and soon a couple of hundred people were left, some intent on fighting, others too tired or chocked to leave, others incapable from other reasons. A soldier got hit by a stone and collapsed to the ground. The soldiers the opened fire. At this one of the rioters produced an old revolver from his pocket and fired back.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" the captain screamed, "You're gunning down innocent civilians!"

"Watch yourself Captain! These criminal elements are posing a serious threat to the government!" Amid hissed through his teeth.

"You're the only criminal here as far as I can see!"

"Lieutenant place this man under arrest, notify his superiors."

The captain was dragged away to a nearby truck.

Amidst the debris of the square there was now a gunfight being fought between heavily armed military and poorly disciplined rioters. It was all over very soon. As the first rays of sunlight touched the streets of Katla, the disaster was obvious. Medical personnel walked around in the littered square, collecting dead and wounded people. The army had formed a barrier preventing people from entering the square. All around the Palace, the Council Hall and other important government buildings soldiers stood guard.

--

The citizens of Karmanyaka woke up to find themselves prisoners of their own homes. Martial law and a curfew had been declared. Only those that needed to get to work in order to keep the country going were permitted to leave their homes. All trespassers were rounded up and brought to the brig at Fort Tengil, the Army Base on the edge of Katla. Most were brought back to their homes again right after some formal paperwork. All television and radio stations in Karmanyaka had been seized by the Army. After hours of confusion all networks broadcasted the same message:

A man in jet-black uniform stood in front of a big screen. On the screen the Karmanyakan flag fluttered in the wind on top of a volcano. Everyone recognized the familiar view over the crater at Mount Katla. The man looked grave as he started to speak.

"Good morning, fellow citizens of Karmanyaka. I am Field Marshal Nicholas Grune, Commander in chief of the Karmanyakan Defence Forces. At five o'clock this morning armed forces moved in to protect the peace and suppress the rebellious protestors that threatened the government in Katla. In order to maintain the security of the city and the nation as a whole a complete curfew has been put into effect. This is all for your own safety and we urge everyone to comply with the army's orders and stay inside your homes. For more information please stay close to your radio or television set. Thank you for your patience and cooperation. All power to Tengil – our liberator!"

Field Marshal Grune saluted rigidly. The view switched to the fluttering flag atop Mount Katla and music by the Katla Philharmonic Orchestra started pouring out of radios and TV sets all across the country. The whole day army trucks with loudspeakers drove around on the streets of all major cities in the Dominion telling people to remain inside.

Meanwhile, the army occupied all police stations. Police officers were sent home and the streets were patrolled by military police instead. It had all happened very fast and mostly without violent confrontations. One serious incident happened at the headquarters of the Carabineer Police, the KCP. As soldiers from the 4th Katla Regiment tried to enter the KCP Headquarters on Nangilima Avenue, the carabineer guards refused to let them in and a firefight broke out. After more than eight hours the army broke through and apprehended the carabineers.

--

The Tengil Palace, Katla
Lord Tengil Johan Kader had been awake since the tanks had rolled in on the square. A couple of confused hours later it was clear to all that the Palace was sealed off and the Lord Tengil was a prisoner in his own house. A delegation consisting of Field Marshal Nicholas Grune, the Supreme Prodirector, Christoffer Niels, and the Minister of Justice, Nelson Fare stepped into the office at Tengil Palace.

"Just what the hell, do you all think you're doing?!" bellowed Lord Kader, red in the face.

"My Lord, this is only to protect you from the dangerous situation that you yourself have created." said Niels, bowing.

"I'm the f***ing ruler of this country! There's a name for all this and that is 'Coup d'État'!" shouted the Lord Tengil his face shifting to purple.

"My Lord, we have only done what was right, what was needed to be done to protect Karmanyaka, what the people wants!" said Minister Fare, wiping spittle of his face with a handkerchief.

"You hypocritical little Maggot, Nelson! You have only done what is in your interest, and you have done it with the blood of your countrymen on your hands!"

At this Field Marshal Grune lost his temper.
"You fat, pretentious… democrat! You have betrayed the Dominion and you will pay for it! Until you can stand trial in a court for your crimes, you will remain in this palace! And I will personally flog all skin off your fat, treacherous back if you try to get away."

Lord Kader was a little taken aback by the ferocity of the commander's proclamation.

"Get out of my office." he almost whispered. "Get out! And if you come back I'll kill you with my own hands!" He threw a heavy inkwell after the retreating trio, spraying the white carpet with dark blue ink.

--

This was it, the coup was complete. The Tengil guard had been disarmed and replaced by elite troops from the Prodirectorate Special Forces. On all radio and television stations in Karmanyaka there was the same program, classical music and pictures of the flag. In all the Dominion, the army had shut down Internet connections and most means communication out of the country. Many could still watch satellite transmissions, but groups of soldiers combed residential areas looking for satellite dishes and dismantled them. It was as close as a modern nation could come to complete isolation.

Battle Day Square, Katla
Jhon Tanville sat in the room overlooking the Presidential Square. The KCN reporter was quietly watching them pick up and move bodies. The small handheld camera capturing the images of bodies being littered out of the square.

He turned to Patrick Palsey, the reporter who was writting down what he wanted to say on a used envelope. "As you can see the Kamayanka military has apparently smashed the protesters and is now occuping the Presidential Palace. There are rumors that people are being rounded up for violating the present crefew." He paused and hit a small switch on the microphone.

"Alright, I think that's it. Now then let's send this to headquarters." Palsey told Tanville as they both kneeled on the floor.

Tanville walked on his hands and knees to a south facing window overlooking a nearby street. He huttled under the window sill and attached the camera to a small satilite phone. He angled the unit until he got a full signal, and then hit the burst send button. A moment later fourty minutes of audio and visual of what had just happened in the Katla were sent condensed and encrypted to KCN Headquarters in Thunderbay.

Jhon saw the small red light of an acknoledge recipt from the satilitle and he turned, "Well then, how about we get out of here before either the owners or those Manka bootstraps return?"

"Agreed..."

On a costal battleship in the waters near Cyro
"Hmm, quite intresting...it appears our youngest state is undergoing some growing pains. Hmm, tell Pellew to send Coastal Defense Taskforce B to protect Kaymankian waters. Hopefully the Vaadians won't over react before I have my meeting with Felix." The female voice commented in the dark cabin. She was watching KCN news as she waited for the ship to manuver up to a jetty.

News of the riot, massacre, and apparent coup soon reached the New Shironin Keys in Port Olympus. Instructions from home followed right after that.

Lord Harrington, the senior key, soon was addressing Parliament. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Our fellow state, Karmanyaka, is in the throes of turmoil and slaughter. Elements of their military have taken control of that country and slaughtered people by the thousands already. Now this would be an internal affair except that they are violating the laws of their own nation, and suppressed those who would call them to account for their action.

Therefore, New Shiron announces that effective immediately. All assets, accounts and property held by citizens or the government of Karmanyaka that are in New Shiron are hereby frozen. New Shiron also announces that it refuses to recognize any government of that nation except the original and legitimate government that has been overthrown. New Shiron also announces a complete trade and commercial embargo of that nation, and also offers sanctuary to citizens of that nation who seek it in New Shiron.

We of New Shiron urge the other members of this body and the nations they represent to take similar measures. We also urge the FKC and the JDF to prepare to intervene in that nation if further massacres occur. Those people are citizens of the FKC, and they deserve our protection.

Thank you."

ooc
technically, under the constitution, I can't really do this if Karmanyaka is a member state of the FKC, but hey, I suspect their keys won't object too much.

Vaadian Embassy, Veder House, Katla

Ambassador Segraves watched what little news there was and sat quietly as morning came. By Morning all of the Embassy staff were in their Velite Guard uniforms and had their FN-FNC assault rifles at the ready. The retired Retaliatory Guardsmen that comprised the security of the Avery Aeronautics offices in Veder House were also arrayed for battle. There were no orders for Ambassador Segraves, everybody already knew what he would do and what he had to do.

Ambassador Segrave dressed smartly walked out of the Veder house to the gates by the street flanked by a pair of Velite Guards. He paused, unlocked the gates and swung them open, just as he had a day before.

The Vaadian Embassy would stay open and allow in all asylum seekers and give safe harbour to everyone it had room for.

*****

Fort Fyalar, Sleyfalls

General Deadmarsh grunted and looked just as irritated as he had earlier when receiving good news as his Staff Seargent informed him of what happened. He answered quietly, but firmly.

"This changes nothing. Proceed with plans. If the junta want to surveil us, let them go ahead. If we can't get Karmanyakan contractors to work, then we'll call in Vaadian contractors."

He turned to his Seargent "Get back to work."

"Yes sir!" the Seargent said with a salute.

General Deadmarsh would be damned if he was going to alter his plans for something as pointless and meaningless to him as a Coup D'etat. He limped off to continue with his job.

*****

Tollan Fire Control, Ilek-Vaad

Supreme Republican Commander Adan Ring was apprised of the situation and watched the action unfolding on satellite. He rubbed his chin.

"Activate the Panther Army, the Tiger Army, the Dark Horse Army , the Levelers Army and the Purifiers. Activate the 2nd and 5th Red Jaguar Command. Put Command General Baibars in command. Tell him to get ready to extract any Vaadians caught in this. Have him draw up invasion plans, plan for any contigency, put the Coastal Guard on alert and alert the Naval Guard to be prepared to seal off the Karmanyakan coast. Call up the QMC to ready status two."

His subordinates saluted and rushed off to make sure everything was in place.

******

Lassic, Ilek-Vaad

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sir Alec Connover made a brief statement to the press as he headed into the House of the Republic.

"What has happened in Karmanyaka is a purely internal matter. I should also point out to whoever is in charge there now, that aggressive actions towards Vaadians, Vaadian property or incursions into sovereign Vaadian territory, including our Embassy, will be viewed by the Republican Council in a very unforgiving light.

Everyone in Karmanyaka should conduct themselves with the proper restraint. If the internal affairs of Karmanyaka spills onto Vaadian territory, we will not hesitate to react and resolve the situation."

As Sir Alec spoke, Minister of National Security, Zero Tadic, quietly tripled the Velite Guard security on the Karmanyakan border, calling up reserves as needed.

Lady Shannon Dougherty, New Shiron Ambassador to Karmanyaka, had her car stop as it reached Battle Plaza. Her mouth set tightly, she got out of the car and walked to the edge of the Plaza and looked upon it. Her two security agents watched nervously. Just because she and her party had diplomatic status didn't mean that the crazy butchers who carried out the massacre were going to respect it.

Lady Shannon's cheeks began to turn red as anger rose. She could still see the blood stains. Way too many blood stains, and the occasional bits of flesh as well.

"Ok, I have seen enough." she said tightly, and climbed back into the car. "Lets go, I have a note to deliver."

The car drove toward the Presidential palace.

Minsitry of Economic and Foreign affairs, Midlonia.
Jason Willoughby choaked on his ceral when he saw an old Cromwell Mk V rattle past on his screen, he immediately recomposed himself and called for his assistant. "The Boy"
'Lad? Where are you? Get in here!' Jason yelled.
The boy, a timid and shy young man peered around the corner. 'Yessir?'
'Did the MoD invade someone and not inform the rest of us?' Jason motioned with the spoon at the television showing more gunshots and tanks rattling around.
'Erm, no sir, those pictures are the tanks we sold to Karmanyaka, all front line units now have either the MkIV Gresley or the Mk VI Cromwell.'
'Ah, so what is going on here?'
'Not sure sir, not seen the data feed yet, though because it seems to be constant rot, I suggest contacting the MoD and getting them to get some eyes on the ground, if they haven't already.'
'Get it done for me will you lad? Busy with my breakfa-' the rest of the word was covered by an audiable crunch of toast.
'Sir.'

Battle Day Square was almost clear of rubble, trucks and teams of men moved around picking up debris and trash. Every now and then someone found a human limb in the rubble and then put it in plastic bags, supposedly to reunite the bodyparts with their deceased owners.

The streets were eerily empty, except for the military vehicles patrolling the city, as was done in every Karmanyakan city and town by now. People could be seen peeking out from behind curtains and window shutters. Every now and then someone darted from building to building trying to avoid any soldiers on their way to a friend or family member. Occasionally some were spotted by helicopters and those who tried to escape were often shot from the air.

--

Prodirectorate, Military Intelligence office
Major Thierry O'Dougall was watching KCN with a rising sense of alarm. The pictures of soldiers firing into the crowd, striking unarmed men with the butts of their rifles, stabbing people with their bayonets... It wasn't a pretty sight, and even Major O'Dougall, a tough intelligence officer with a great number of "unfortunate interrogation accidents" on his record, had to look away for a moment to regain his face color.

It looked as if the pictures came from within the old foreign ministry building. The ministry had moved to larger, more suitable offices not long ago, and the building had been empty since. Not many could afford the rent and the owner was still looking for tenants.

"I doubt that anyone is still in there, but send someone over there to take a look, Smith. Arrest everyone you find at the site and bring them here."

--

Port Olympus
The Karmanyakan seats in the Parliament were empty. The Keys and the Delegation had been called back to Karmanyaka this morning, but after a brief moment of consideration, they had decided to stay in Port Olympus. Which was probably safer anyway.

--

The army lieutenant put on guard outside the Vaadian embassy and business office at Veder House didn't like the sight of all those weapons on the Velite and Retaliatory Guardsmen. He sat back in the tower of the Thunderer II MBT. He was completely aware that it was Vaadian made, which right now felt a bit odd. Two other tanks flanked the Thunderer II, these were a couple of the slightly modernized Midlonian tanks bought some time ago.

As the ambassador approached the gates, Lieutenant Carlson climbed out of the tank and walked towards him.

"Ambassador Segraves? I'm here to protect you. I have been ordered not to let anyone pass through this gate. This also applies to you and your countrymen, and the reason for this is the safety. The gates may be open if you wish, but we will not let anyone in or out. Thank you for your cooperation." he said as if he read it out loud from a note. (Which he didn't, he had just read the note a lot of times to learn it by heart...) He ripped off a smart salute.

--

General Fatih Ozcan was confused. He had obeyed his orders to the letter, and almost all of his forces were out patrolling the streets of the cities in his area. The coup had come as a complete surprise to him and a lot of other army generals. But then again, he was a warrior, and warriors didn't question orders that seemed to make at least some sense. Nevertheless, General Ozcan had a creeping feeling that he wouldn't remain a general for long, because of his openly positive attitude to the reforms. Only some day ago he had welcomed General Deadmarsh and guided him around Fort Fyalar, now he was going to lock him up inside the base and keep track of every move made by the Vaadians. He didn't like it at all. He sent a messenger over to the base outside Sleyfalls. The message was simple enough: "By orders of the Council, the entire Dominion has been placed under martial law. You are ordered to remain inside the confines of Fort Fyalar until further notice." The messenger passed the envelope to the guards at the gates of Fort Fyalar and drove back to local military command in Astridburg. Half a kilometer from the gates he passed a tank column heading for the base. The tanks and a couple of trucks stopped and put up a roadblock in front of the gates.

--

Fighter aircraft were up, patrolling Karmanyakan airspace. Air Marshal Marten Dieter was one of the coup leaders and had a tight grip on his organisation. On the navy side though, things were a little bit worse for the junta. Grand Admiral Sir Nguen Johnson wasn't very fond of this coup. He hadn't openly opposed it, but he didn't reply to any orders he didn't find legitimate. The leader of the Dominion navy was however going to do what he was supposed to anyway, he would guard Karmanyakan water against foreign intrusion, which was pretty much what he'd been told. He pretended like hadn't heard the order that he wouldn't let any ships pass through at all. This meant that he wasn't stopping any allied ships if they didn't act in a hostile manner. Then again, the Karmanyakan navy was tiny and the steep, rocky coast was fiercely guarded by the army.
At Dominion High Command, a bunker-like building a hundred meters from the Prodirectorate Headquarters, Field Marshal Grune stood bent over a screen showing amongst other things the movement of troops in the country. A colonel clicked his heels and saluted in a manner suggesting he had a whole array of strings, springs and levers inside his uniform.

"Sir, we have intelligence from our neighboring states now. It seems that there's a whole lot of activity behind Vaadian borders and the other FKC states are reacting too."

"Good, that's a sign that they're watching what happens here. I want them to see clearly that Karmanyaka won't stand being trodden upon by bullying democracies! Oh, and I don't want any space rocks falling in on my office, so try to keep track on what's going on up there too. That'll be all, colonel."

"Sir!" the colonel barked and turned like a mechanical puppet. He almost collided with the army commander, Field Marshal Wilson Kraft.

"Grune, how are things going?" said the old soldier lazily waving with his gilded staff in something that with a bit of imagination could be regarded as a salute.

The junta leader looked up from his screen with a wry smile.

"Well, it looks like our neighbors don't like what they see. What sorts of states are we dealing with here anyway? Crazed Bolsheviks, some sorts of reptiles, the royal space heroes, gun-nut whales or whatever…" Grune counted on his fingers. "…fanatic democrats, inbred aristocratic bureaucrats and some madmen who wave around with doomsday cannons!"

Kraft's big belly wobbled with laughter. "Actually, they're sea cows I believe, not whales."

"Yes, possibly. Anyway we should monitor them closely. You never know if they'll make a big crater out of all this."

"My boys are on the lookout."

Despite their tough outward attitude, they both clearly knew that they had to step carefully in order not to wake the Klatchian Tiger.

Grune's smile faded. "By the way, have they found Sir Henry yet?"

"Not that I've heard, no."

The Minister of Foreign Affairs had gone missing. Military Police had found his summer house in the mountains empty when they came to arrest him. Or 'escort him to the safety of his home' as the official order had been. Some now suspected he had fled the country.

The Bay of Lunacy
Costal Defense Taskforce B had just turned to head up the coast towards Karmanyaka's coast. The ships were slow going, designed to operate along the coast they didn't have a very deep draft, nor proper air cover.

Before the mainbody of the taskforce were several fast attack gunboats. With two underdeck torpedo tubes, a turret mounted 88 mm rapid fire gun and six VLS tubes attached to the back deck the small vessels were better designed for dealing with river pirates and occasional torpedo attack.

Behind these were three more costal battleships. The forward turret had two 11 inch guns designed more for doing serious damage to a modern frigate or cruiser that dared get too close. For long range attack, the battleships relied on the bathmos cruise missle system.

Following the battleships were two helicopter landing platforms. Nothing too spectacular just a lake carrier rebuilt with a wide deck for launching Dyellian Hind Helicopters and Alconian AWAC Rotodyenes.

The force was followed up by a group of four frigates. These were really nothing more than small vessels that carried a few torpedo's, anti-air missles, and single five inch gun.

In amongst the warships was a both a whaleback and common fast cargo ship. The whaleback was obviously an Alconian vessel. Only they seemed to own the odd shaped bulk oil freighters, the fast cargo ship wasn't really displaying any readable markings but seemed to be using the JDF taskforce as cover.

Katla, Near the Veder House
"Well?"
"Well they have three tanks parked out in front..."
"Oh great..."
"Yup...but by now our former hideout should be crawling with bloodlyminded Manka..."

"While we are stuck waiting for three tanks to wander off so we can get the hell of of this country before they start the gas chambers up."

Lady Shannon reached the front gate of the Presidential palace. She heard over her sat phone that local troops were now guarding her embassy, but apparently she got out before they arrived. Amusingly, no local troops had molested her or her staff since then, apparently deciding to ignore the Audi with its prominantly displayed diplomatic plates and New Shiron flags.

As her car reached the gate, it stopped and she leaned out the window and called out to the guards. A startlingly beautiful woman, with expressive brown eyes, beautiful features and perfect skin, she immediately got his attention. The New Shiron flags probably helped too.

"Excuse me, would you be so kind as to summon your superior. I am the Ambassador from New Shiron and I have an official note to deliver to your leaders. I think you might want to act quickly, I suspect they are going to want to read this."

She smiled brightly and waited.

---------------------
Meanwhile, in New Shiron, the Military intelligence was gathering information on Karmanyakan computer networks, military command centers, the homes and offices of prominant or extremely rich individuals, the homes of senior military officers, telecommunications networks, media outlets, and most importantly of all, strategic weapons systems and space assets.

Signet was also monitoring very heavily all signal traffic, especially voice traffic, in that country, looking for the most important actors. It would take a while, but eventually the culprits would be identified.

Elsewhere, the Cyperwarfare section was working on hacking into Karmanyakan military computer networks, as well as communications and power companies. For later action if necessary.

Outside the Embassy of New Shiron, Katla
The three soldiers walked in a slow pace. One of them was dragged forward by a whining german shepherd.

"I heard how the guys in fifth had to shoot people in BD Square. One of my friends serve in the fifth. He chopped down a couple of rioters himself..."

"Yeah, I saw the trucks with dead bodies in them on the way here. They had large freezer trucks coming out of the square, one after the other. Must have been a tough fight."

"Well, apparently not. My friend said how the rioters tried to flee and got shot in the back, then the survivors were stabbed with bayonets."

"But that can't be true! That'd be murder, killing innocent people!" said the youngest of the three.

"Yeah, but..." said the one with the dog but got interrupted by a sharp barking.

A man was trying to climb over the wall to the embassy grounds, fifty meters away. His fingers slipped on the smooth surface.

"Hey you! Stop right where you are or we'll shoot!" screamed the group leader.

The man jumped up and got a grip on the wall, trying to haul himself up.

"Halt, or I'll shoot!"

The first shot passed the man by and sprayed him with rock splinters from the wall. The soldiers switched to full automatic and shot him with thirteen shots.

All over Karmanyaka guards were posted around consulates, embassies and foreign business offices. Veder House was surrounded on three sides by a wall, four meters high. On the fourth side the River Karma floated by. An army patrol boat lay anchored off the shore to stop anyone who tried to leave or enter the embassy, by swimming ashore or taking a boat or raft. So far the boat's crew hadn't seen a living soul for hours and were currently target practicing by throwing golf balls into the air and blowing them apart with rounds of fire from the deck machinegun. They didn't really expect anyone to try to swim in the strong currents of the river.

--

The puppet-like colonel returned to the office of Field Marshal Grune and once again clicked his heels and saluted. Grune looked up from his desk again and noticed the worried look on the colonel's face.

"What is it?" he said irritably.

"Sir, one of our surveillance satellites got a picture of something that looks like a small fleet division sailing towards our coast. We haven't been able to get much more than that out of the pictures."

"Nationality? Not that it matters much, but anyway."

"Can't tell for sure, but judging from the shapes, I'd say Alconian. They will probably reach our waters by tomorrow afternoon at their current speed. They're mostly smaller and medium sized ships, around what looks like a freighter."

"I don't like that very much. Send a bird up there to get more intelligence. Alert that lazy bastard, Grand Admiral Johnson nad tell him to get some ships to our western shores."

"Yes sir!" said the colonel and strutted off.

--

Diplomatic notice to all FKC states and Ilek-Vaad:

Following violent riots and rebellious activity in the Dominion of Karmanyaka, the Council of Knights has issued martial law. All foreign citizens and property will be placed under the protection of the Dominion Defence Forces. When the situation permits it, all foreigners will be repatriated. Until then we request their full cooperation and that of our fellow Klatchian states. Due to the crisis and war-like state of the nation, all civilian communication to and from our country has been temporarliy halted. Please note that all signs of aggression will be taken as acts of war.

The Prodirectorate Intelligence Office, Karmanyaka

Clearly not a message written by a diplomat, but nevertheless sent to the foreign ministries of all FKC states and Ilek-Vaad.

MIRA building, Midlonia
There was the sound of constant humming as the Overseer module compiled data from the many satellites, Military movement, air force movement, fleet deployment. This data was being filed back to a board room where various shadowed individuals were debating.

‘Overseer, what is the rough estimation of manpower needed to overcome the Karmanyakan armed forces?’ spoke one.
‘Approximately Half a million troops to sustain a campaign for the first month, after that add approximately 100,000 per month after the initial month of fighting.’
‘How long as an estimate to overcome the armed forces?’
‘6 months if sufficient airpower is deployed, add approximately 3 months on top if remnants go into a guerilla campaign.’
The figure at the head of the table whistled.
‘Big numbers.’ The figure leaned forward into the light slightly; Kevin Pracks Director of the Midlonian Intelligence and Research Agency, or MIRA for short had a cigar clamped firmly between his teeth.
‘Do able.’ Muttered George Rothlington, Field marshal of the Midlonian Armed forces of the North and East.
‘I concur’ nodded Jenna Teddington, a neko who was also in charge of the entire Midlonian Air force.
’Within what timeframe?’ came a voice at the other end of the table, the collective heads turned to look at the figure.
‘Somewhere between two to three weeks, we have sufficient numbers on station, the air and ground forces would be ready within two to three weeks, sir.’
‘Good… and what of the fleet?’ the shadowed head turned to look at Carl Jones, commander of the Midlonian navy, his white uniform and scar both shone in the slight light of the room.
‘Getting the necessary landing craft will take time my lord, but I believe we should manage it roughly in the same timeframe as the good Air and Army marshal’s.’ he nodded to his opposites.
‘Good.’ Replied the figure.
A man somewhere along the table now spoke; his soft voice could only mean it was “Saint” Peter Jones, director of the Midlonian Special Air Service, who, regardless of the circumstance, never seemed to get angry.
‘I believe an insertion by some MSAS would be a good idea, we can ascertain the best places to land, we could try capturing a harbour, or we could try scaling the cliffs.’
‘The port would be the best way in, we’d be able to land troops and tanks, as opposed to troops merely scaling the cliffs.’
’Agreed, I shall have a team inserted and we’ll see what the defences are like. If we can somehow pay or offer non-destruction to one of the armed forces if they turn over peacefully, then we should be fine in taking a port. Either way we shall liberate the country.’

Veder House

Ambassador Segraves smiled broadly as he saw the Thunderer II Battle Tank and simply nodded to the Army Lieutenant.

"Do what you have to Lieutenant, I'll do what I have to."

*****

Tollan Fire-Control

Commander Ring relaxed in the Command Chair as the Intelligence Officer brought up the Karmanyakan Thunderer II displays which (unless disabled, disabling the tank) fed GPS, targetting information and live feeds from the targetting and communications computer.

They were particularly interested in the one at Veder House. The Tanks couldn't be controlled or disabled from here, but Commander Ring was considering what it would take to get a Chieftan Command Tank to the Embassy.

"Seargent, get a 'supply' plane ready to go to Veder House. Let the Junta know it's coming. Make it a Marathon-D , there should be room in the Veder House Grounds for it to land , fill this one with just supplies and extra Guards, if this one goes in okay, see about geting a Chieftan and it's crew on one. Get supplies and more men to Deadmarsh as well."

Seargent Emael nodded and relayed the orders, sending a missive to the Prodirectorate in Karmanyaka:

Retaliatory Guard Command has been ordered to re-supply the Vaadian Embassy at Veder House. Our Ambassador and is staff have been instructed by your men not to leave, and that no one may enter. This is a new Embassy and does not have food or supplies for beyond a day or two.

A single Marathon-D VTOL Transport will be delivering supplies this afternoon, it wil be using a diplomatic tansponder and will be unarmed, it will land and take off directly from Veder House.

Another Marathon-D VTOL Transport will be delivering supplies to Fort Fyalar as our Soldiers there have no supplies.



Realiatory Guard Command.

Secret IC
Operations Order
Special Operations Command is begin immediate planning for extraction and evacuation of New Shiron Diplomats and Citizens currently in Karmanyaka. Additional possibility exists that evacuation of other non Karmanyakan FKC citizens may also be needed.

A second planning team is to begin planning the removal of senior leaders of the coup underway in that same nation.

OOC: Sorry New Shiron, I missed the part about her arriving at the Tengil Palace. The post must've slipped me by.

IC: The guard captain in front of the Palace at Battle Day Square looked up from a dispatch on his digipad as a car approached. He noticed the "CD"-signs of a diplomat.

As the car halted in front of the gates he peered inside the car's open window.

"Ma'm, um... yes of course, hold on a minute." the soldier answered, apparently a bit taken aback about the beautiful woman. "Corporal, tell the General that the New Shiron ambassador is here and wants to deliver a note to the leaders."

After a few minutes he stepped back to the car.

"My Lady, you are free to pass through. You will be recieved by General Katory at the inner courtyard." The gates slowly opened to let the car through.

--

Meanwhile the leaders of the Military Committe, self-appointed rulers of Karmanyaka, had assembled in a room at Council Hall.

"There's all kinds of activity around us. It seems our dear neighbors won't let us rule our own country as we please." said Field Marshal Grune, standing at the head of the table. "We've already had negative press, and it won't get any better from now. We have indications of military intelligence from all around the Klatch. Give us the details, please Niels."

The Supreme Prodirector rose.

"Yes, we have reports of troop movements unrelated to the Gonad crisis. The Vaadians seem to mobilize forces and we have unidentified attempts at intrusion in our computer networks, that is more than usual. We don't know yet if they have succeeded in collecting any intelligence, but we must assume that they, whoever they are, pose a serious threat to the Dominion. From Midlonia we haven't heard much. Things are a little bit too quiet over there.

But our biggest concern by far, at the moment, is a small fleet of ships bound for our south-western coast. After much work, we have ascertained that they are JDF vessels - some Alconian, some Dyellian, and possibly Vrakian and New Shironian vessels." At this a murmur broke out.

"Also I just got a note that the Vaadians are planning on sending VTOLs to land in Veder House and at Fort Fyalar. Which we'd better let them do, or else we'll all have our throats ripped out by rabid jaguars..." He stopped and looked at the aide who had just walked in and was whispering something to Grune.

The Field Marshal waved away the aide and looked at his comrades. "It seems the ambassador from New Shiron, a real Lady by the way, is waiting for us at Tengil Palace. I'd better get over there and speak to her..." He paused. " Listen, we're in for a bumpy ride. I want all divisions on full alert. Activate coastal defence, air defence and mobilize the 15th and 21st armies. I want them guarding the Vaadian border like pitbulls. Put up more planes to watch over airspace. I don't want anyone entering or leaving Karmanyaka without us knowing it! And someone please find Sir Henry!"

--

Near a small deserted airstrip in northern Ilek-Vaad
The jetplane had landed with some difficulty on the worn tarmac. The surprised air traffic control had lost contact with the plane as it entered a violent storm and was forced to do an emergency landing. After walking for hours, sir Henry Pommer, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and his pilot reached a house. From there he tried to contact the Palace. When that failed he tried the Vaadian Foreign Ministry.

"I want the office of sir Alec Connover, please. This is sir Henry Pommer of Karmanyaka." he paused and listened. "No I'm in Ilek-Vaad, somewhere in Narvik. I have to speak to someone immediately... No, miss, this is not a joke! I'm Minister of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Karmanyakan Council of Knights! I have been exiled in a coup and I need to speak to someone at sir Alec's office now!" Sir Henry's pilot tactfully moved a few paces away and tried to calm the worried old lady whose phone they were borrowing. The old minister was a wealthy aristocrat and as such, used to having people do things for him. Now he'd jumped several feet out of an airplane and walked with a sore ankle, for miles, in a storm. He wasn't in the mood to be nice to a nosy switchboard operator.

Lady Shannon Dougherty looked at the General with barely concealed distaste.

(ooc, she looks like this http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0113749/Ss/0113749/1-1.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Doherty,%20Shannen)

"General, I have been ordered by my Queen to inform you of my governments position and then to pass you this note" She smiled grimly. "My government views with grave concern the action of your forces in the last few hours. We intend to begin evacuating our people, and any other citizens of other FKC nations who wish to leave by aircraft and shuttle within 24 hours. We expect to be able to use your capitals primary airport, and we will view any attempt to prevent that from occuring as a hostile act against a fellow FKC member state, and in violation of the constitution.

In addition General, to be blunt, we in New Shiron strongly disapprove of massacres and especially when those massacres then result in the overthrow of the legal, popular and constitutional government of a neighbor. To be blunter, we intend to bring you down. We have information that you and your fellow rebels intend to withdraw from the Federation. Personally, I hope you do. It will save us some legal expenses."

Not even giving him a chance to reply, she continued, her voice hard and angry.

"Understand General, my government intends to put foward to the FKC Parliament that your nation be tried, impeached and demoted from State to Territory. When that occurs, you had better hide. Because my government intends to have you and your fellow rebels tried by military court martial and made to pay for the atrocities you have committed against your own people."

She handed him the note, which essentially said the same thing in more polite terms, and then turned her back and walked away.

Derby Air and Armour base, Northern Midlonia.

The massive Apocalypse Ultra Heavy Battle tank (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/Midlonia/Apocalypse.png) clanked past as it was flanked by several Merciless Tank Destroyer's (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/Midlonia/MercilessTD.png). Rothlington and Teddington walked side by side, it was strangely no secret to the "powers that be" and most of the soldiers on base that the two marshals’ were an item, strangely the state had kept the two together, rather than disgrace them both, a P.R. ploy to show that the armed forces could work easily together.
’What have you got set up?’ Rothlington muttered as he walked slowly along the crunching gravel, they stopped briefly as a field artillery piece was man-handled past them.
’I was thinking the 8th and 9th air divisions, the 9th has still got some aging Type 22’s, but they’re still advanced as hell…’ as she said this a wing of them drifted lazily over the convoy they were walking past and turned to land.
’But yeah, those coupled with the Thunderbolt fighters should deal with pretty much anything the KA can throw at us. As well as beat the living crap outta stuff the Army could throw at us.’ She grinned and flicked her tail slightly.
Rothlington removed his cap and wiped his brow. ‘This is taking a lot out of me, I think I might go back home.’
’I’ll join you.’ Jenna replied coyly.
Rothlington smiled and walked towards his staff car. The Air Marshal following him.

As it now stood, a good portion of what was needed was still being activated, tanks had to have minor repairs done to them, people had to go on a three day crash course to check their fitness, and those that failed went home. The Midlonian army had not been used in this way for quite some time, so a lot of the soldiers had to be whipped back into shape and aim within just under two weeks.

OOC: Yeah, the Thunderbolt fighter thingy from the IoM, I couldn't find a better fighter at the minute, ok? :p

The expression on General Katory's face shifted from official smile through polite concern to annoyed and finally landed at supressed rage.

"We will inform you of a suitable form of extraction later on... my Lady." he called at the retreating ambassadors back.

As the car drove thorugh the gates it was passed by the limousine belonging to Field Marshal Grune.

"Wasn't that the New Shiron ambassador?" he asked the aide who sat beside him.

"I believe so, sir." the aide said dryly.

Grune wasn't at all happy about the note the General nervously handed him.

"The nerve!" he exclaimed. "They sit up there inside their inflated fireworks and think they can do whatever pleases them! And massacres, eh? I was legally appointed to stop a bloody rebellion, and they say I massacre civilians! Really!"

"Do we let them extract their citizens as they demand, sir?" General Katory dared ask.

"We don't seem to have much choice or they'll start hurling bloody comets on our heads." Grune grunted as he crumpled the note and tossed it on the floor.

At this Katory had to bite his tounge to stop himself from pointing out that Grune probably meant meteorites.

--

As Lady Shannon had gotten by the suspicious guards at the embassy gates she was handed a note with a reply from the junta:

The leaders of the Dominion of Karmanyaka has decided to agree with your request to extract all New Shiron citizens from this country. Agents from the Prodirectorate will join you at the embassy to plan for the use of Segland International Airport, just outside Katla, for the repatriation. We will be honored to assist you in this operation.

Finally, the Military Committee would like to express its surprise in finding that the Kingdom of New Shiron protests with such vigour against regular policing actions directed towards rebellious elements. We had hoped for support from all our Klatchian neighbors in this quest to rid Karmanyaka and the FKC from subversive terrorists.

--

Lord Tengil Johan Kader watched Lady Shannon's car disappear through the gates from his office windows and sat down behind his empty desk. He called his secretary.

"Donaldine!"

"Yes my Lord?" she answered and walked in the office, closing the door behind her.

Lord Kader lowered his voice. "Have we found a way to get through to our allies yet?"

"It seems one of the army sergeants is willing to realy a few messages." Donaldine almost whispered.

"Wonderful!" said Kader hardly able to control his relief. "Have we got any word from sir Henry yet?"

"No, my Lord, but irumour has it that he made a run for Ilek-Vaad. I guess it won't be long before we hear about it."

"Thank you, Donaldine. I'm glad you work for me!" said Kader and smiled for the first time since in days.

The dethroned ruler leaned back in his chair and took a bite from the sandwich he'd been served for lunch.

Bay of Lunacy

The tiny little fishing boat had been dropped off by the Destroyer Repentant during the dead of night, the Karmanyakan navy could hardly keep track of every last section of coastline, no matter how hard the patrols were enforced. The two men in the boat looked grimly at the sheer clifface that loomed infront of them.
'We're nearly there...' muttered one.
'You got your accent right?' mumbled the other in a thick Karmanyakan accent.
'Yeah, yeah.' the other stumbled so his was much lighter as he switched to it.
'Get the camera and keep shooting, we'll turn back soon enough, it'll be dawn soon. We'll report back what we have.
The camera hummed as it powered up and began to record the cliff face and the port.
'Jesus, the guns... there's enough stuff up there to grill most long range ships, let alone trying to land...'
'What about the port?'
He turned the camera towards the small port where some lights winked, the camera zoomed.
'Can't really see well, it seems to be less defended than the sheer cliffs, perhaps they're covered by the navy? May need a drone to recon this instead of us.'
'Well, send it up then! it'll soon see for ourselves.'
the other man placed the camera back on the floor and walked over to the small drone they had also stored aboard. it was a Midlonian varient of the ZMI drones they had bought a long time ago, it carried a camera instead of the grenade launcher and had a battery life of around 8 hours, plenty of time to go, transmit and then return back to the Destroyer.

The drone flitted up into the air and zoomed away under radar range.
The dull black paint also helped ensure it wouldn't come up on any ground radar they might have deployed, it flew over the port and began transmitting the images back to a hard drive on the Destroyer Repentant.

OOC: some sort of outline of port defences would be great Karman.

Minister Pommer fumed as he was put on hold again. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was extremely busy lately and getting through was a challenge. Seconds later the old man who's house it was shuffled up "You are Minister Pommer?" he said in a thick russian accent as he pointed out the window where a pair of Velite Guard Police Cruisers had pulled up and four Velite Guards stood waiting.

The Velite Guard were trained not to enter the houses of citizens unless strictly invited in or with a warrant. Privacy was very important in Ilek-Vaad so the Velites stood stoicly in the rain, grey longcoats and helmets keeping them relatively dry from the fierce summer squall.

*****

Meanwhile over the Sea of Lacon the pair of Marathon-D Transports broke away from each other, one headed north to Fort Fyalar, the other headed inland over Karmanyaka to Katla and the Veder House.

Both were well lit and had their diplomatic transponders activated.

While in the Sea of Lacon the Naval Task Force that had been monitoring the Gonad crisis had arrived and was arranging itself in between Vaadian and Karmanyakan waters.

Katla, A Salvage Yard
The KCN reporter Palsey looked up at Tanville who was hiding at the top of a pile of cars that needed to be scrapped. Tanville had just received a flash message back from the home office.

Tanville shifted his weight in the small compartment and waited for the helicopter to disappear behind a building before scrambling down and over to the small makeshift machine shop that was serving as their temporary quarters now.

He heard the thump of the helicopter as it turned to come back this way and scrambled for the door. Tripping over the body of the guard dog as he entered the space. Luckly for both of them the metal roof, and broken car bodies would be giving off enough heat to make IR completely useless.

Palsey shifted to face Tanville in the dark space. "Alright, we're screwed...the Manka have said they will repatretate all non-manka when its convienient." Tanville explained.

Palsey nodded, "Fine, then we go down fighting...."

"Agreed. Now for your plan, I did get through to Crocker. And he informed me that..."

Crocker was something of a legend. There was no more immoral, drunken, loutish, womanizing, sociopath of a freelance reporter known in the news buisness. If there were a den of prositution, illegal gambling, or some other activity of questionable morals within a thousand miles, Crocker would know about it. Know is too light a word. Crocker would know the names of all the dealers, moneymen, hookers, and other undesirables, and likely be their freind.

Of course Crocker was IIS, and IIS liked to have links to the underbelly of society. You never knew when their help by offering a packet of money might be useful.

Bay of Lunacy.night time, near Klatchian/Kamayanka Border
OOC: I am basing this off the last map that was presented so...

The JDF costal defense taskforce B crossed into Kamayakian waters without so much as a concern for the local Navy. If the Karmanyaka wanted to protest about the JDF protecting Klatchian waters well, they could do so with the Walrus King. Their orders were to protect Karmanyaka from outside intervention until the situation was clear in the chaotic state what was going on.

However, the fast freighter in their midst was not a fast freighter. It was the ARN Wolfhound one of the several Q ships the Alconians kept for more subtile anti-piracy operations. With three five inch guns, 48 VLS tubes and a few torpedo tubes hidden beneith her decks she could be a nasty surpise to most small nations who decided to raid Alconian Shipping.

However, it was her detachment of Spec Ops Marines, the Hull Division as they were technically known, or Black Tabs in the venacular, that was going to be used today.

Two squads, twenty marines in all went over the side as the Wolfhound became even with the mouth of the river that emptied into the sea near Kar's western border. The Marines would go up the river and pentrate into Kamayanka their rather than attempt to enter by climbing the vast sea clifts patrolled by the Army. (And likely now even being watched closer due to the presence of JDF naval forces off their coast)

Squall Straits
The Alconian Navy's Full Fourth Fleet had been activiated earlier. They were now finally moving through the squall straits and into the Southern Klatchian Ocean. However, Fourth Fleet appeared to be somewhat larger than normal, Taskforce Hydra, with its landing ships and troop ships was apparently comming along for the journey to somewhere.

Message sent to Karmanyan military authorities...

New Shiron air and space craft will begin an airlift 24 hours from this time at the principal airport. All citizens of the FKC who are not native to your country will be encouraged to leave at that time. Citizens of other nations who wish to may also evacuate at that time. You will need to arrange for them to be allowed access to the airport, and if necessary, to provide transportation if your security measures prevent normal use of conventional transportation methods. New Shiron diplomatic personnel will be the last to leave.

Message sent to all FKC governments as well as to foreign governments who have citizens in Karmanyaka

"New Shiron will conduct an airlift at the principal airport of the capital of Karmanyaka beginning 24 hours from now. Citizens of all nations who wish to evacuate may do so at that time. They will be airlifted to the city of Anchorage in New Shiron, and may then catch flights to their homelands."

The Midlonian 'fishing boat' passed the coastal defences unnoticed, so did the drone.

The few ports that existed on the Karmanyakan coast were mostly military facilities and those were often blasted out of the living rock, giant caverns with dry docks, workshops, wharfs, quays and jetties. There were however also commercial ports and small fishing villages. Fish was cheaper to import nowadays and most fishing villages were now either deserted or converted to small, picturesque summer holiday villages for the rich and famous. The largest commercial harbor was the one in Astridburg. This was the second largest city in the Dominion and had large oil refineries and plenty of heavy industries. Nowadays the petrochemical industry lost more and more market shares to renewable energy sources, which meant a wave of unemployment washed over Astridburg.

The port the Midlonians were watching though was Steamfiord, the naval headquarters of Karmanyaka. The city lay in a shielded fiord with high cliff walls on either side. The entrance to the harbor was overlooked on either side by fortresses carved into the side of the cliffs. Gun turrets and missile batteries of the new 'Smaug' coastal defence system looked for intruders to destroy. A couple of kilometres south of Steamfiord lay a small fishing village, where fishing boats still brought back their catches every day. This village called Stremming was largely without coastal defences. A couple of gun turrets on the cliffs above it was keeping track of approaching ships, but the step rocks still made a landing difficult, the winding road that went from the quays and up to the top of the cliff plateau was really the only way up, and that road was easily defended and passed by a Coast Guard office.

All ports were defended either like Steamfiord or like Stremming. Karmanyakan rulers had been extremely paranoid (think Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha and his coastal bunkers, only more advanced and actually working) and they had built a defensive line of fortresses, bunkers and gun batteries to protect the country from all foreign aggression. Apart from these a fleet of small Coast Guard patrol ships watched the shores. These however were very lightly armed and were mostly meant to fend off smugglers and rescue people. Then there was the Navy, probably the smallest one in the Klatch. Because of the inhospitable coastal cliffs, no one had seen much use for a large navy. A few small battleships, some destroyers, cruisers, frigates and corvettes and that was pretty much it. In addition to being a small navy though, most ships were very advanced and all boats made use of stealth technology. Karmanyaka had no aircraft carriers and only five submersibles. And of course there was the air force, and the navy helicopter divisions.

--

Pommer looked with surprise at the Velite Guards and then at the old man.

"Yes, I'm Minister Pommer. Thank you for lending us your hospitality, sir. I'll be sure to send you a gift from Karmanyaka later!" he said and strolled out to the guards, his pilot trailing behind him.

"Good to see some friendly faces! I'm Sir Henry Pommer, Minister of Foreign Affairs from Karmanyaka and this is my pilot, Chris Papandreos. We were forced to emergency land at an airport a couple of miles west of here… Um… I'm sorry, I'm quite exhausted. You must have heard of the awful coup d'état in my country, I just managed to escape. Now I need to speak to someone from your government and the FKC."

--

A group of fighter jets flew up beside each of the two Vaadian Marathon transports for a couple of minutes. They didn't hail them, they just flew there, threatening. After checking the transponders and secured their identities, they retreated and followed them from a cautious distance.

--

The junta reviewed the message from New Shiron and all agreed that this was an excellent opportunity to get rid of these annoying foreigners.

Since a total curfew still was in place, there was no need for all the buses of the extensive Karmanyakan public transport systems. So these were used to ship foreigners to the airport. All foreigners were told to quickly pack their belongings and be picked up by buses in 16 hours time. There were currently an approximate of 10 000 foreign citizens all around Karmanyaka and they were all contacted. Buses and airplanes from more distant parts of the Dominion arrived at Segland International Airport, the largest airport in the Dominion. It was like a deportation, people with hastily packed bags, business men, tourists, workers and volunteer activists who were there to help plan the upcoming elections, everyone cramped up in the terminal. But these were only those who had wanted to leave. Those who refused were allowed to stay where they were, just for a while though, and only indoors.

--

In the meantime the Military Police and Prodirectorate agents hunted for whoever it was that had filmed the massacre that the KCN had shown. Politicians and important people known to support the reforms and the Kader government were rounded up. People who had helped organize the protests toward the regime were also arrested. Many were never seen again, some came back with deeply scarred psyches and refused to tell their friends and relatives what had happened. The prisons began to fill up and schools were converted into temporary prisons… things were bad.

The military mobilized. Almost every man between 18 and 40 in the Dominion was called in to do his duty to 'the Lord Tengil', as it was put. The barracks and bases swelled with men who were hastily refreshed on their military training, equipped and briefed. Grune and his junta expected a tough fight and they wouldn't go down without having done their best to wreck this nation and anyone who tried to lay hands on it.

OOC: What do your 'western defenses' look like K?"
The Black Sheep, Katla

If the streets of the city were quiet with the curfew, the Black Sheep appeared to be doing rousing buisness. Tanville sat under the cover of darkness looking across the small yard that existed behind the Black Sheep and some rickity wooden housing behind it. The small swath of weeds and dirt was filled with broken bottles, cans, refrigerators, the debris of people who really didn't care at all and were at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.

Tanville was quietly sitting watching a door on a creaky wooden building. Only a bare lightbulb stuck into a metal wire box lit the doorway and the peeling paint of the rundown tenement. The sounds of some young woman screaming in fake pleasure could be made out above the roar of singing from the pub.

The door opened and a young redhead walked out into the night air. Everything about her declared that she could be yours for the night at the right price.

"Hey Green Eyes..." He wispered into the darkness, just loud enough for her to hear it.

"Crocker? is that you hiding in that broken down shed..."

"Nope, but he told me if I was looking for a favor from a bright girl in Kalta I should look up you..." Tanville stepped into the light, making sure the light reflected off the wad of currency he was holding in his hand.

She brightend up..."What were you thinking?" She flashed her big green eyes as though she thought him attractive. Obviously just a tool of her trade.

"I need to rent two non-com's uniforms." He thumbed through several large bills, almost three months local wages. "And I am willing to pay quite hansomly for them." He raised his eyes to hers, watching greed get the better of her.

The Salvage Yard
Palsey's eyes were watering again. "Fu** what is this?" He had been set the task of stiring whatever this concoction was up in an abandoned tub. The fumes were naxious at best. "Alright I am supposed to stir this until the concistancy of tapioca. What the hell is the consistancy of tapioca?"

Palsey was musing something in the back of his head. As an Olympian he really had no idea what it ment that his partner was in the Alconian Milita. However, this seemed oddly less reporterish and more spyish. Which made Palsey wonder if he hadn't wound up joining the Intennational Investigation Service inadvertantly by being partnered with Tanville.

The first step in the covert war against the Karmanyakan Rebels began quietly. The initial probes into the firewalls that the military men had installed to isolate their people from the world wide web had been conducted very quickly, and like all things hurried, they had their flaws.

A sophisticated series of attacks was launched on those gates. The idea was to take them over, swing the gates wide open, and then let a literal flood of information pour into the networds of Karmanyaka, a flood so vast that it would hide the stream of viruses and worms that would be attempting to implant themselves in the computer networks that controlled telecommunications, the power grid, the banking system, the routing systems for delivery services and the postal system, and most importantly of all, the networks that controlled and guarded the personal information that banks keep on their depositers.

Most of these would sit quietly, waiting for the day when signals would be sent to them from New Shiron space assets high overhead. But some went to would go to work right away.

The Post Office would reroute every single draft notice in the entire country from intended receipants to residence of General Katory

ooc
asssuming of course I manage to break in successfully :)

--

Pommer looked with surprise at the Velite Guards and then at the old man.

"Yes, I'm Minister Pommer. Thank you for lending us your hospitality, sir. I'll be sure to send you a gift from Karmanyaka later!" he said and strolled out to the guards, his pilot trailing behind him.

"Good to see some friendly faces! I'm Sir Henry Pommer, Minister of Foreign Affairs from Karmanyaka and this is my pilot, Chris Papandreos. We were forced to emergency land at an airport a couple of miles west of here… Um… I'm sorry, I'm quite exhausted. You must have heard of the awful coup d'état in my country, I just managed to escape. Now I need to speak to someone from your government and the FKC."

--

A group of fighter jets flew up beside each of the two Vaadian Marathon transports for a couple of minutes. They didn't hail them, they just flew there, threatening. After checking the transponders and secured their identities, they retreated and followed them from a cautious distance.

--



The Velite Seargent nodded "Yes sir, we know. We tracked your plane until we lost it in the squall. We have been instructed to escort you to Narvik National Airport. A plane is waiting to take you to Great Lassic."

He nods and one of the other Velite Guards opens the back door to the first Vindicator Cruiser.

Once Minister Pommer is safely inside the Velite Guards transport the Minister and his pilot to Kolyma Heights and Narvik National Airport where they drive in past security onto the tarmac for small private planes and up to a small Marathon-A Transport with several people waiting.

As Pommer exits the car he is met by a slim woman with pale skin and blonde hair in tight cornrow braids, she offered her hand.

"Minister Pommer, I'm Madrid Arden, Minister of Foreign Trade. I was on my way back to Lassic, you can hitch a ride."

*****

The Marathon-D transports ignored the Karmanyakan fighters and continued on their route, the Veder House and Fort Fyalar.

Even as the cyper attack began, the first Boeing 777 was landing in Karmanyaka. A line of aircraft, one arriving every 30 minutes, was on its away. In addition, a pair of shuttles was tasked with the mission, and they too were landing. As big as an An125, the Flying Saucer looking craft were relatively huge, but could land just about anywhere.

Groups of evacuees, 300- 400 at a time, were loaded aboard, along with their limited luggage.

Lady Shannon watched from the tarmac standing next to her car. Every vehicle the embassy had was loading aboard the first shuttle, carrying everything that wasn't nailed down at the embassy. For now her car and her sat phone was the embassy.

She hoped the locals wouldn't notice the cyperattacks until after the evacuation was over. But if they didn't, well.....that might not be a bad thing either.


Except for maybe the some of the evacuees and her own self.

OOC: That river that runs from DB Arctic Territories marks my western border, right? I’ll assume it does.

The western border was realtively undefended. Occasional bridges across the river [what’s it called?] were guarded by customs offices. Since the river runs through a relatively deep canyon in most places the border rangers usually have an easy job patrolling the river banks. Following the ‘machtübernahme’ of the Grune Junta military command had of course posted army divisions on the northern border to the Dyellian arctic holdings. Here you couldn’t even throw a rock across the national border without someone in uniform noticing it.

The same went for the west-bound roads that crossed the river, which were heavily guarded, not only by armoured divisions and infantry but also by the occasional fortress, guns constantly loaded and ready to fire. In many places though there was just the occasional border ranger passing on his round. It was hardly possible to land a huge army on the sandy banks with their slippery pebbles, but a small taskforce could easily enter undetected and move unhindered for miles inland without risk of encountering any regular forces. Where the river flowed into the sea in the south, you couldn’t even land a rubber boat. The swampy river delta was thick with mosquitos, the ground didn’t support a man standing uppright and no-one could crawl among all those bugs, after all this was the Klatch...

--

OOC: Thought I’d post this quick sketch of Steamfiord (http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b44/karmanyaka/steamfiord.jpg).

--

General Katory had been sent by Field Marshal Grune to supervise the evacuation and his report back to the Committee was enthusiastic. The junta were actually both satisfied and worried by the quick evacuation. They didn’t have to worry about snooping foreigners and they were a good bit ahead on the plan to isolate the country to the way it was a decade ago. But at the same time, they lost valuable hostages. Well, maybe the other FKC states wouldn’t mind about the Karmanyakans after all their own citizens had been evacuated and maybe Karmanyaka could withdraw its own membership in the FKC.

--

Pommer was hardly surprised to find that the Vaadian Minister of Foreign Trade was an attractive woman. Most senior politicians and important people from Karmanyaka’s neighboring states seemed to be rather young and good-looking. This made Pommer rather intent on getting a membership card at the Council Hall gym when all this was over.

“I’m most pleased to meet you Ms. Arden. Perhaps I can have a quick briefing on what’s been going on the last few hours? As soon as I heard about the events in Katla I understood I’d better get out of Karmanyaka as quickly as I could.” he said as they slid down in the comfortable chairs of the Marathon-A. “Apparently there was some sort of violent uprising and the army was called in to protect the Palace. Then the armed forces decided to stage a coup, or something? I don’t know very much except that.” He coughed slightly and removed his wet coat.

--

The Department for Electronic Warfare and Defence, the ProdirectorateLieutenant Colonel Gregory De Santos Y Torres was really good with computers. At least that was his own view. He currently sat in the stuffy, hot office he occupied in the upper basement of the Prodirectorate. There was no doubt someone out there was doing their best to hack into the Ministry of Defence computer network, the ‘MODNET’. He called his superior, the Prodirector First Class, Patrice Snell.

“Sir, there seems we have attempts of intrusion in MODNET.” I can’t track the intruders, but whoever they are, they’re good and have access to advanced technology. In other words, these aren’t 14 year-old who’re trying to impress their friends.”

“Do what you can to stop them. Call in all experts you can find, no matter the cost. And you should also know that someone’s chopping holes in the Ion curtain.” The ‘Ion curtain’ was the national information barrier on the internet, the only thing that stopped people from accessing sites outside the Dominion.

“I’d guess it’s the same people. How far have they come?”

“Well, I’m currently reading the headlines at KCN online, but we have people working on closing access again.” Snell sounded tired.

“Yeah well, as soon as you’ve closed a site, they open another. I’d just try to isolate the national web from the WWW if I were you.” Gregory suggested.

“We’ll put someone on it and see if it can be done.”

--

In the Black Sheep, corporals Ivy and Pike were in on their third round of beer, but their attention started shifting from the glasses on the table to the girls at the bar.

“Hey ladies! Why dontcha come ‘n join us?” Pike called out.

“Yeah, cause we’re soon going to fight f***ing for’ners and we need some good memorieses to take with us!” said Ivy, blinking in what he considered a flirty manner...

--

General Fatih Ozcan had been sitting on the phone with Grand Admiral Sir Nguen Johnson for fmore than an hour now. They had both agreed that something had to be done. Johnson commmanded the entire navy and Ozcan was in command of the large Astridburg garisson with its port and a large portion of the surrounding coastline. General Ozcan got on a corvette and headed straight out to the nearby JDF taskforce which now floated pretty close to Astridburg.

As the fleet came into sight he halted and ordered a message to be signalled.

This is General Ozcan of the Karmanyakan Army. I wish to speak to your commander. Please note that this contact is not sanctioned by my superiors.

OOC: You get to name it but I was going to have it partially navigable.

IC:
A spot on the western border
Navy Intel had selected a fairly suitable spot for a small Marine incursion. It was a bit heavier folliage than most places due to the small stream that had created a cleft in the canyon walls.

The Marines hadn't approached by rubber boat but underwater. Pulled by Personel Underwater Craft, or PUCs. PUC's looked like a gutted torpedo and allowed the Marines to head up river underwater with their gear.

Arriving at point Naber as it had been code named, two Marines trained in free form climbing used the cleft in the rock to scale up to just below the crest of the cliff. Here they installed a telescoping beam that adheared itself to the sides of the cleft. A small winch was attached to the bar and each of the remaining eighteen Marines and their gear were pulled up.

As dawn rose there was no signs of the Marines where they had entered. The bar was gone, buried under a nearby bush, the PUC's were laying on the river bottom, and the Marines were taking a quick nap in a grove of trees.

-----------
The Black Sheep
The red head eyed the two men and smiled, she stepped infront of another girl who was also walking that way. Then the red head and a willowy blond approached Ivy and Pike. "So you two want some memories, I'm Randy and this is my freind Regan. And our specialty is giving a man some real memories."

Both young women sat down, one next to Pike and the other next to Ivy. "So what did you boys have in mind?"

Coastal Defense Taskforce B
The flagship of the fleet was the KFN Bath. Formally the taskforce should have been commanded by a rear Admiral, but due to their sudden deployment Captain Thruck, an Olympian of Vrakian decent, was the acting Commadore in this situation.

"Sir, we have a message from a General Ozcan of the Manka wants to have a word. He just departed this port here and is headed this way on a Corrvette."

"What in Bok? Fine, inform this chickaroach that he may meet with me. After all should we not drink with our fellow Klatchians before we slaughter them in the name of the Federation!"

"Yes sir..."


General Ozcan, Commadore Thruck will see you. Please approach in a motor craft to prevent any unfortunate incidents from occuring. Thank You

Meanwhile, the cyber attack continued. While probes continued against the military networks, primarily to keep the defenders busy, the real attack continued to focus on civilian networks and most importantly, the nodes that controlled access to the outside world.

The goal was to keep them open as long as possible so more propaganda, which in this case happened to be the true accounts of what the Rebels were up to and had down, was spread. Other attacks were directed at funeral homes, which would suddenly begin sending the bills for all funerals conducted over the last 30 days and all for the next 30 days to the various senior officers of the Karmanyakan military. Directly.

Other attacks were made at banks, in the effort to begin shifting money out of all accounts of those same officers, as well as any account larger than $200,000. Successful transfers would suddenly go to pay the power and water bills of entire sections of the city, usually the poorest sections.

The attacks were designed to annoy and harass, and to create maximum confusion.

And as a warning of would could easily happen next.

Syndia River, western Karmanyaka
A Border Ranger came blasting through the forest on his off-road bike. The weather had been quite good the last days so he could finally patrol his usual route. For weeks he hadn't been able to, because of the heavy raining which had swamped the river banks and transformed the forest into a sort of mangrove swamp.

As he rounded a corner he just spotted a foot print in the mud on the path. Someone had crossed the path but the shallow print wouldn't have been visible if it weren't for the early morning light, falling in a sharp angle.

He stopped the bike and got off. A closer inspection showed the footprint came from a high quality boot. Whoever made it had been walking with soft steps, careful not to leave any signs of his passage. The print was rather fresh, no more than a couple of hours old. He looked around him and slowly walked towards his bike. This would have to be reported.

--
The Black Sheep
"We're, er... looking for some good action for tonight." said Pike blushing from both alcohol and anticipation.

"Yeah! I wanna girl who knows her thing!" Ivy slurred.

The two corporals were both young and inexperienced, which it didn't take a degree in psychology to figure out. Pike put a sweaty hand on Randy's waist and tried to look charming.

"Perhaps you ladies can show us some of the local specialities?"

--

General Ozcan climbed down in a large rubber boat together with a few of his men. The boat splashed through the water towards the KFN Bath. As they got closer they slowed down and pulled up alongside the ship waiting for instructions on how to get aboard. A thin rain had started falling from the greay sky, and the rocky shore was almost totally obscured by the wet veils.

--

In Katla the mail started arriving at the Palace. Not in a small postal van as usual, but in three large trucks. Thousands upon thousands of bills from all sorts of companies, ranging from lunch coupons and tombstones to credit card applications. General Katory and his secretary sat in a room which rapidly became filled with free samples of dipers, as the phone rang.

"Yes?!" said Katory a bit sharper than he first intended. "What? What do you mean I can't have my money transferred? I don't want to transfer my money to Grand Klatchian International! ... No I haven't requested anything! .. No money left?! But I'm one of the wealthiest persons in this country! Get me the manager on the phone... NOW!"

The poor banker at the Cherry Valley First Bank had had a lot of these calls this morning.

At the Prodirectorate a lot of computer technicians were now driven both by rage and caffeine in their seemingly futile task to stop the national computer networks from crashing.

a new phase in the covert war now began

Drones began taking off from the new base at Gordon Bay. They rapidly climbed to 80,000 feet, at the edge of space, and then turned on their active camoflouge. With the radar cross section of a small insect, and their subsonic speed and endurance of nearly 36 hours, the drones were winging their way to Karmanyaka.

Within hours they were over that country. Some were surveillance drones, but a few began broadcasting powerful FM radion and VHF television signals. Satellites beamed down to them the feeds from media outlets from all over the Klatch. These were then relayed out to anybody who happened to be watching tv or listening the radio on the proper station. The favorites were those condemning the massacre and remarking negatively on the Rebel military. To improve interest though, popular movies were also broadcast, interspersed with messages urging soldiers not to report for the draft, and for citizens to passively resist the military takeover.

Of course these broadcast drones were rapidly detected, but their extreme altitude placed them out of the range of most weapons. Anti satellite weapons could reach them, and some air launched and ground launched missiles, but with difficulty. As soon as a launch was detected, they rapidly turned off their equipment and made high g, high speed maneuvers to avoid them. It would be a merry chase.

More harassment for the generals.

The Syndia River Valley, western Karmanyaka

The Spec Ops marines split into two teams. One turned eastward to make a general line for the greater Katla area, the others turned north. Both groups used the country side and avoided the roads. Their burst transmissions to headquarters were almost impossible to trace (to breif) and even undeciphrable.

The Black Sheep

"Well you two boys are ready for fun time aren't you." The redhead leaned over and whispered into Ivy's ear. "I can show you the time of your life hon...but I need twenty, you know to help pay the rent..."

Randy smiled at Regan across the table and winked. Regan looked at Ivy, "So you want an experienced girl? Hmmm?"

Costal Defense Taskforce B
The decks of the KDF Bath had a ship ladder dropped to the side of the ship. When the Karmanyaka general and his men showed up in a rubber raft rather than a launch or some other, more suitable craft. Well there was a great deal of snickering amoung the crew.

"Spend all that money on low radar sigs but don't have enough for a reliable boat..."

"Bloody hell, tin pot navy off the starboard quarter."

A bowson's mate on duty showed a light to the raft and waved them over to the small landing platform at the end of the ladder. At the top of the ladder, which was more of a steep gangway than a real ladder, General Ozcan was met by a small honor guard of marines and Commander Thadus, the First Officer. "Welcome aboard the Bath General, I'll send your men to the mess to get some warm soup into them, the Commadore is waiting in his cabin."

Thadus led the General into the ship and up a ladder to officer row and the captain's cabin, there was a marine standing next to the door.
"General Ozcan to see the Commadore..."
The marine opened the hatch to let both the General and First Officer into the cabin.

The Bath had been built as low cost as possible. The grey metal walls of the cabin and the black tile floor looked like any naval ship built since 1940. Of course Captain Thruck had fitted out the cabin with dark wood furniture. There were several large oversuffed leather chairs on a rug in the center of the room.

Commadore Thruck looked like an eskimo that had spent too much time in a gym. The dark hair, short stature, and wide torso made him an impossing figure.

"Ah General...what was your name?"

"Ozcan, Sir..."

"Ah, sorry General Ozcan please be seated. Would you care for some Vodka to warm you on this dreary day?"

Alconian Third Fleet
Was now far south in the Klatchian Ocean swiging around the mess of ships that were currently making a decided mess around the Gonad/D.B border.

Lady Shannon watched as the last airliner lifted off with the last of the evacuees. She took a last look around the airport, now much quieter, and nodded to herself. Bleary eyed, as she hadnt slept in a couple of days, she nodded to her driver. "Ok, lets go."

Her car speed of to the last space shuttle on the ramp, which was already filling up with vehicles from the Embassy. A moment later her car was aboard too and within 5 minutes the shuttle lifted off quietly, its grav drive making little sound, and then it zoomed away like some kind of flying saucer from a science fiction movie.

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

Meanwhile, the Embassy was now deserted. A few computers remained, hooked up to local ISPs, and now they started the next phase of the New Shiron covert attack. A series of especially nasty worms and viruses were sent to the local ISPs, and from there would be routed out military networks specifically. If successful, they would bring them down.

After the last emails were sent out, a signal went out from a drone high overhead, and a series of explosions rocked the embassy, as small charges in each computer went off, as well as fax machines, copiers, and the primary servers. Fires started soon after that, but the automatic sprinkler system had been disabled and they burned without interference.

‘We have decided that attack a port such as the one that our SAS agents scouted out is nigh on impossible. However a similar operation took place further down the coast at the small fishing village of Muerte. The port facilities at this small fishing village are quite remarkable, and should be able to be sufficient for our needs.’

A large glass plate in the middle of the table lit up and a 3D map of a section of the coastline appeared. The sheer cliffs caused some of the armed forces leaders to mutter slightly and raise their eyebrows.

’As you can see here...’ the positions lit up in red. ‘Are various defences and bunkers used by the Karmanyakan armed forces. Most of these positions could be taken out with various missile strikes.’
The positions then disappeared and were replaced with a slight red haze over the general area.

‘Now, using our troops and Marines tactical has proposed we use ladders and helicopters to scale the cliffs, the massed transports such as the Type 10’s of ZMI-manufacture should allow us to land tanks and troops as parts of the initial wave. These forces will be bolstered by this way until they are strong enough to attack and take the town of Muerte which is bound to have some sort of enemy presence, even if it is rent-a-cop Steve. After this we can land troops en masse and then will be able to press on in land.’

The tactician with large, round glasses looked up from the holographic schematic, now displaying green units everywhere over the coastal section. Jenna raised her hand.
’And what will the air force be doing in all this? Aside from playing Taxi driver of course…’

’Certainly, we identified that there are only two key roads that can be used to counter attack, as well as us attack them, therefore we shall have paratroopers deployed here, along with some tanks deployed from Type 10’s, the Air force is to try to help the paratroopers in any way possible. This will mostly involved wasting large numbers of bombers, fighters and armour, if you can reach any of the airfields on your tanks, try to knock out the airfields, or their fighters if they are being fuelled.’

Jenna nodded, her problem had been addressed.

‘All settled? Excellent, the invasion is around 12 days away, we need those men ready and waiting by at least 48 hours before they are due to embark.’ The room’s lights clicked on again and the commanders resumed their idle chatter.

In Port Olympus, at the FKC Parliament, Matt Ridgeway, who had been nominated as FKC Defense Minister, and the Duke of Lowell, one of the Keys from New Shiron went to each delegation, including the one that still legally represented Karmayaka, and tried to build a consensus.

The standard message was that Karmayaka was endangering the Federation and should be reduced from a State to Territory in status. Ridgeway also suggested to those who also deplored the massacre and isolationist stance taken by the rebels that another strategy should be employed.

As there was a crisis in the Gonad, and Karmayaka was required to supply troops to the JDF just like other states, than naturally it would be reasonable for the JDF to call for that state to send its JDF designated units to the Gonad to help restore order and to defend it from outsiders. A refusable would be further grounds to take action against the Rebels.

Meanwhile, Lord Harrington reminded the Karmayakan delegation that in the eyes of the Constitution and Parliament, they still legally represented their government and people, and that if they called for help, perhaps that could forestall or at least reduce further bloodshed. Lady Victoria Martinez-Smythe, the other Key, made empassioned speeches condemning the massacre and condemning the Rebels.

The situation in Karmanyaka worried the Inter-Klatchian affairs Minister. He was informed of the latest going ons in Parliament regarding “recognizing the legitimate government” but that was not part of his current mission now. He had to find out who was in charge and how exactly to stamp out this brushfire in concert with other political forces. He rubbed his head and pushed a button. The brief meeting with the First Republican was, well, typical of what he expected from the Vaadians.

-Get me Lady Shannon Dougherty.

====

Quietly, although perhaps not entirely unnoticed, an entire battlefleet of submarines slipped their moorings and headed out into the Walrus sea. They would not all leave at once, but rather in individual fleets and would then regroup at a fixed point and then head out

====

**********
Encryption – HIGH; JDF protocols 47881 Delta Echo; route: Pellew; route…complete
**********

Vrakian submarine battlefleet incoming from Vrakian western coast. Left 2 hours ago. Should reach Squall platform in 3-4 days. Battle Fleet Admiral Kellava is your contact. 54 subs in total. May the Tusk of Bok find its mark.

====

Meanwhile, the Vrakian keys remained silent yet gave the Karmayakan delegation a curious look after Lord Harrington concluded his speech. Let us see if they do ask for help though one. After all, this is not like Remmonlands.

--

Pommer was hardly surprised to find that the Vaadian Minister of Foreign Trade was an attractive woman. Most senior politicians and important people from Karmanyaka’s neighboring states seemed to be rather young and good-looking. This made Pommer rather intent on getting a membership card at the Council Hall gym when all this was over.

“I’m most pleased to meet you Ms. Arden. Perhaps I can have a quick briefing on what’s been going on the last few hours? As soon as I heard about the events in Katla I understood I’d better get out of Karmanyaka as quickly as I could.” he said as they slid down in the comfortable chairs of the Marathon-A. “Apparently there was some sort of violent uprising and the army was called in to protect the Palace. Then the armed forces decided to stage a coup, or something? I don’t know very much except that.” He coughed slightly and removed his wet coat.

--



The Marathon took off quickly as soon as they were boarded. Minister Arden poured some coffee for Minister Pommer and handed it to him. "Well, the details as far as we know is that a Field Marshal Grune used the alleged riot in Battle Day Square as a pretext for seizing power." She pauses and brings up the KCN footage of the massacre on the plasma screen "As you can see Grune most likely engineered the 'riot' as well.

So far Grune apparently wants Karmanyaka out of the FKC and FKC states have begun evacuating civilians.Our intelligence shows that New Shiron is pushing for some extreme action, possibly attainment of Karmanyaka's military force. Military activity has been heavy, JDF taskforces are everywhere and the Free Republic has activated armies necessary to repulse a Karmanyakan attack, given Grune's anti-Vaadian stance."

She pauses and shrugs "I would suggest that we get you to Port Olympus, as usual the Federation seems to be ignoring that all of this is going on right on the Free Republic's borders and is coming close to violating our territorial waters."

*****

Katla, Karmanyaka

A message sent to Field Marshal Grune via a runner:

To: Field Marshal Grune
From: Ambassador Segraves, Ilek-Vaad

Field Marshal Grune, I thought that it may be best to suggest a meeting the clarify and discuss the recent turn of events in your nation. The Free Republic views this as an entirely internal matter of your nation, but it would be in your best interests to hear what your largest and closest neighbor has to say before the situation is inflamed any further.

In Gordon Bay, the newly arrived headquarters of the Expeditionary Force was suddenly given a new job to go with its current one.

"Begin planning for possible operations in Karmanyaka"

General Jeffrey Wayne sighed when he read the message. He didn't even have all of his forces in theater yet for the Gordan Bay intervention and already somebody was wanting him to consider expanding the mission. It would be a month at least before sufficient munitions arrived to conduct any kind of serious air campaign against Karmanyaka. Hopefully he had that long.

On the plus side, the New Shiron Parliament had approved he and Matt's recommendation to expand the army, and instead of tank divisions, he would now have the 23rd and 24th Mechanized Infantry Divisions for local defense here at Port Gordon.

When they arrived, that would free up his 2 Marine and 2 Airborne divisions, should they be needed.

Fortunatly the Gordon Bay operation so far had been extremely easy. A matter of simply eliminating local bandits and driving away the Elves who were encroaching on the outskirts of the settled area.

It may turn out to be a good practice run for something more ambitious in Karmanyaka.

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

Lady Shannon was grumpy and in a sour mood as she hung up the comm. Her shuttle had barely cleared Karmanyaka airspace when the call came for her from the New Shiron Ministry of State calling for her to travel to Port Olympus to brief the FKC Minister of InterKlatchian Affairs. "The bad thing about these damn shuttles", she thought, "is that they are too damn fast." She would barely get any sleep before they reached Port Olympus. Luckily her boss had approved her getting 4 hours sleep at the Residence before briefing the FKC official.

Tactical Groups Sir William Issem, Emperor Ehecatl and Namroth Vedic arrived at the souther entrance to the Sea of Lacon (body of water between Ilek-Vaad and Karmanyaka) and began to move into position. Tactical Group Sir William Issem would be stationed at the extreme north along with Tactical Group Ismaili Al Assad. The Battleship Sir William Issem would be briefly leaving it's group to dock in South Haven to let off it's passengers.

The Coast of the Free Republic would now be guarded by Tactical Groups Emperor Ehecatl,Emperor Itzcoatl and Tyrak Zane, along with four additional Coastal Guard Groups.

The Southern mouth of the Sea of Lacon was now guarded by Tactical Groups Namroth Vedic, Aran Adhemar and Coloti.

Theatre Operations Commander would be Supreme Naval Commander Itxaad, who also sent along a message on all channels.

Due to the increase activity in military naval vessels in and around Karmanyakan waters , the Naval Guard is officially closing all Vaadoan waters to non-Vaadian military naval vessels. The Free Republic's territorial waters, one hundred nautical miles from the coastline of the Free Republic, are now absolutely restricted to all non-Vaadian military air and sea craft.

THIS will be the only warning. Non-Vaadian military sea and aircraft entering Vaadian territory will be destroyed, with no questions asked and no warnings given. No foreign military craft is authorized to be in Vaadian waters for any reason what so ever.

*****

Maenwhile Command General Ibn Baibars had completed the mustering of his two hundred and fifty thousand Retaliatory Guardsmen, now poised to head North and West into and around Karmanyaka, if necessary.

The Air Guard had likewise mobilized support and fighter forces that would be necessary for a sustained military push.

In the Border Ranger office in Syndia River Valley the Chief Ranger contacted military command and informed them of the possibility that foreign troops were on Karmanyakan soil. Immediately helicopters fitted with heat detectors and all kinds of tracking devices took off and started combing the woodlands close to the western border. One chopper picked up some sort of communications signal but was unable to locate its source.

A few miles north of the path where the footprint had been discovered suddenly a heat signal flashed briefly through the foliage. The chopper slowed down and tuned in on the area. After positively confirming a heat source as human, the chopper fired a drone arrow down into the ground close to the unidentified person.

As soon as the arrow had hit the ground a small camera shot up from a container in the arrow. The drone was only designed to operate for twenty minutes and immediately started scanning the surroundings. The pictures were transmitted to the helicopter hovering above at a safe distance.

"Flight control, this is KMH 416, we're investigating possible enemy troop three miles south-west of Danerby. Standby for target identification."

--

At the Black Sheep the two young soldiers produced a few crumpled kronor bills with their shaking hands.

"Er, 20 bucks? OK, I mean it's not like every day we meet two beautiful girls like you, eh?" Pike said to Randy's chest.

"Yeah, experienced girls too!" drooled Ivy.

--

The Military Committee sat down in Council Hall. Grune hit the table with his fist.

"I can't believe this, yesterday I got a truck filled with inflatable sheep parked outside my office. Today it seems someone bought my country manor for the modest sum of 261 Kronors on E-Bay!" the Field Marshal barked. "We've got to stop this! I don't care how, but these computer attacks must end now, even if we have to dig up cables and cut them off!"

"I have already given the order to shut down all lines that connect us to the Internet. It seems though, that we cannot isolate our national computer networks completely from the outer world." said the Supreme Prodirector.

"Do we know who is doing this?" asked a general.

"No, but it seems likely that it's one of our more technically advanced neighbors. It's not likely the Lords of War, so currently we presume that it's New Shiron because of the drones we've detected. Fire fighters also discovered several burnt-out computer terminals at the New Shiron embassy earlier today."

"Well, so what are we doing now?" Grune wondered.

"We've tried to reduce the number of international connections in our networks and put guards, computer technicians, on every connection. It seems the attacks have been temporarily repelled, but we can't know for sure."

"So there is nothing we can do for sure about these messages, these lies that are being forced upon our citizens?" said the general.

"No, unfortunately not. We could jam the signals, but that would mean jamming our own frequencies too."

--

Around the whole Dominion of Karmanyaka the radio and TV shows from New Shiron gathered big audiences. It wasn't hard considering they competed with the Katla Philharmonic Orchestra (which, even though very good, could get a little tedious after a couple of days) and news censored beyond recognition and public interest. People were ordered to listen only to the state radio channel and not watch television at all. People of course didn't give a damn.

--

General Ozcan found the commodore's cabin rather cozy, especially after the uncomfortable ride in the rubber boat.

"Yes, thank you a small glass of vodka wouldn't hurt. Or something hot if you have anything?" he said and shivered slightly. "I had to get over here in an open life boat, because the ship's automatic log keeps track of the launch and I couldn't risk letting my superiors know where I was." He coughed slightly before he continued. "You see, I and a couple of my fellow commanders don't totally agree with what's going on. I saw the news feed of the massacre on Battle Day Square… It was awful. Now a lot of Karmanyakans don't like what the Lord Tengil has done, but the majority welcomes the reforms." He paused to clear his throat. "Some of us will not stand idly by and watch these criminals take over our country. My loyalties lie with the people and the Lord Tengil, not with Field Marshal Grune or the Prodirectorate. So, can the JDF help liberate the Karmanyakan people if I and my comrades help the JDF?"

--

The Senior Karmanyakan Key, sir Jon Pike, was not a happy diplomat. He hadn't heard anything from the legal government of Karmanyaka for several days now, things looked really bad back home and it looked like the other FKC states had picked up their battle axes. After the visit from the New Shiron delegation and a long debate with his junior Keys he went into parliament ant asked to speak.

"My fellow Klatchians! The recent events in the Dominion of Karmanyaka have not gone by this assembly unnoticed. I have now decided to plead for the help of the FKC in restoring to power the rightful government of Karmanyaka. I would also like to point out that an armed response to the crimes of the Military Committee, which have unlawfully taken power in our country, would hardly benefit neither the Karmanyakan population, its rightful rulers or the young men and women who would take part in such a military operation.

The Dominion of Karmanyaka would like to urge its fellow Klatchian states to proceed with caution and diplomacy. However, and I would like to emphasize this, the legal government of Karmanyaka and its people are deeply thankful for the massive support which the FKC has shown for the Karmanyakan people and we welcome all aid to remove these rebels. Thank you."

There had been rumours in Port Olympus that the Minister of Foreign Affairs had escaped the coup across the border into Ilek-Vaad. Sir Jon hoped it was true.

--

OOC: My posts seem to be very long recently, I'll return with more posting later! ; ) It takes me forever to device all this while trying to work at the same time! I'll post more later today.

Ashby, Grand port to the North of Midlonia, Naval control HQ.

'We haven't done something on this size...well, since ever, and the sheer logistics and scale of the thing has us hard pressed.' Grand Admiral Carl Jones frowned as he sat down in the ready room of the newly constructed ZMI designed dreadnought Fiery Elias, the Sixth ship to bear the honourable name of the Midlonian Flagship.
'Well, the Marine corps are all ready to go, we have to wait for the sluggish as hell Army to catch up with us.' the tall and incredibly well built man replied, he was Jason Sawyer, leader of the Midlonian Marine Corps, some 20,000 men strong, they were the brutal light infantry used to bludgeon positions and invade and take ground in the initial conflict, they were however, uder navy control and the Army rarely needed them, however this time was special and it would be the hardened, if not brutal Marines that would be going in first, not the regular grunts.

'The troops transports are still not quite ready, and we do have enough supply ships for the first month, after that we'll have to pool from the merchant navy, and I doubt they will be happy about it.'

'Still within the time frame, which is what? 8 or 9 days still?' Jason replied.

'Yeah, I suppose, I just feel a little uneasy about it. Their defences might be hard to overcome.'
Jason merely snorted and turned and left the ready room.

In space, the next step of the covert war began now. As Karmayakan LEO satellites disappeared over the horizon from their ground control, a New Shiron spacecraft was waiting. One by one space walks planted hardware on the satellites that would allow New Shiron to take them over at will. In addition, small transmitters were placed that beamed to New Shiron satellites whatever the Karmayakans were looking at in addition to their own ground controllers.

Once the LEO satellites were taken care of, then New Shiron spacecraft moved to do the same for GEO satellites owned by Karmayaka. Using all available stealth techniques, the New Shiron shuttles snuck up on the hardware and more spacewalks were carried out.

Within 48 hours the entire Karmayakan satellite network had a new coowner.

ooc
assuming it is successfully carried out that is. New Shiron is trying to keep the Karmayakans from learning what it is doing here.

Phyrric I, High Orbit

Colonel Seleucus looked over the shoulder of the intelligence officer.

"Well, what is that?"

The Officer shrugged "Karmanyakan Satellite."

Colonel Seleucus rubbed his chin "What sort of shuttle is that?"

The Officer shrugged again "Can't tell from here, but I don't think it's Karmanyakan, it looks like they doing some work to satellites, adding something. See he's going back to the shuttle minus what he hopped out with."

Colonel Seleucus nodded "Log it. Send the images back to Tollan for further analysis. Continue with regular security sweeps."

The Officer nodded "Aye sir." and got back to his work as Colonel Seleucus headed back to weapons systems tests and shakedowns.

The Senior Karmanyakan Key, sir Jon Pike, was not a happy diplomat. He hadn't heard anything from the legal government of Karmanyaka for several days now, things looked really bad back home and it looked like the other FKC states had picked up their battle axes. After the visit from the New Shiron delegation and a long debate with his junior Keys he went into parliament ant asked to speak.

"My fellow Klatchians! The recent events in the Dominion of Karmanyaka have not gone by this assembly unnoticed. I have now decided to plead for the help of the FKC in restoring to power the rightful government of Karmanyaka. I would also like to point out that an armed response to the crimes of the Military Committee, which have unlawfully taken power in our country, would hardly benefit neither the Karmanyakan population, its rightful rulers or the young men and women who would take part in such a military operation.

The Dominion of Karmanyaka would like to urge its fellow Klatchian states to proceed with caution and diplomacy. However, and I would like to emphasize this, the legal government of Karmanyaka and its people are deeply thankful for the massive support which the FKC has shown for the Karmanyakan people and we welcome all aid to remove these rebels. Thank you."

Immediately, the Vrakian keys sounded in unison:

"We will offer any and all assistance from the Kingdom to restore the rightful government of Karmanyaka. But first, we need to ascertain exactly where the rightful government presently is."

This marked an unusual departure from the normal couse that Vrak charted since they never did this when Dyelli Beybi experienced their various coups. What some keen observers may note is that the Vrakians didn't exactly say if the keys that were present were regarded as the rightful government. Most Vrakians felt that the strong should overcome the weak and if these rebels were able to oust the government, well, the Vrakians were wont to let it go. Then again, they prized stability so it sometimes put them in an ideological paradox.

OOC: Karma, don't apologize for your post length. As well, which map is being used? The one with Karma beside IV or the other one?

The cyber attacks were beginning to have the effect desired. A flurry of phone calls had resulted, which gave the New Shiron signal intelligence branch a chance to get voice prints on many of the major players of the coup, and then begin to identify their locations.

Which would make calling with smart bombs much easier later on.

Pictures from surveillance platforms also resulted in many chuckles, especially the large mail trucks making deliveries. Those locations too was noted for future use.

-----------
Lady Shannon, a little rested after a quick four hours of sleep, arrived in Port Olympus to meet with the Minister of InterKlatchian Affairs. A quick trip from the airport to the Ministry in a car, and she was ready to answer questions. With her was a briefcase full of documents and several DVDs worth of information, including film of the massacre.

The Klatchian Parliament
Actually the Vrakians were not the only one hesident to jump in on the side of whoever claimed to be the legal government.

The Speaker rose up behind his desk, which wasn't very threating considering his short stature. He smoothed his fur for a moment and then began in his deep, projected voice,
"My fellow Keys we are at a quandry. It has long been the practice of this body to allow each State to manage their internal affairs as their culture and people design. As long as their actions to not threaten another State nor, the soverignty of the Klatch as a whole, we have been content to allow them to decide their own government and its policies without interference."

He paused and pushed himself forward. "I myself once told souls from the nation of Dyelli Beybi that we would not recognize them has having standing in this body. For at the time their was a civil war on between Tzarist, Socialist, and Papist. How could we, outsiders dare interfere in choosing the path of a State. Do we desire that others should suddenly claim our governments are illegal? No, so we must tread carefully."

He paused and stared at the Senior Key from Karmanyaka. "You represent the Tengil government, which may or may not be the legal government of your State. But we have heard the demands of the New Shiron Government and yours. But we need evidence, a logical sound reason that the government you represent is the legal government of Karmanyaka."

"Gentlemen, only the Tengil government is present here. And I say that we must have a neutral observer to listen to both sides of this story. So I propose that we send an observer. An individual who has helped to restore government to the Fasta River Valley, Klatchian Marshal Narlord Ke'tra of House Bet'nac. After all, who but the Var are truly impartial here? Shall we put this to a vote, to send a Parliamentary inquiry to determine the legal government of the State of Karmanyaka?"

The Tenement House behind the Black Sheep
Ivy was drooling on the floor as Regan pulled his uniform pants off. She turned to look through the doorway to where Randy was pulling Pike in his underwear uncerimoniously from her bed. Unlike Ivy, Pike had stayed awake after the spiked booze to actually get to fondle Randy a bit.

There was a knock on the door. "Yeah?" Randy said, pushing the red hair out of her eyes.

"Its your freind..."

Randy pulled the latch on the battered door back and one of the KNS reporters stepped in. "Have you got them?"

"You got the money?"

"Yup..." he tossed the wad of Krondors down on the battered table in the center of the room. Randy nodded and looked up at Regan. Regan brought Ivy's gear over and placed it on top of Pike's.

"So any problems?"

"Hell this isn't the first time we've rolled a john. I assume we get to keep their cash?"
"And I get everything else ladies...thank you."

He picked up the piles of gear and neatly placed them into a black bag he was carrying before vanishing back out into the night.

Randy looked up at Regan. "You know these kids are going to be out like a light until morning, you want to fool around."

"I'll get the strap on girl...then we can tie these tossers up and leave them down in the old outhouse..." Randy pulled Regan close and gave her a deep kiss. Too bad for the Pike and Ivy, they didn't even get too see the live lez porn show.

Taskforce B
The Commadore shook his head. "General the Joint Defense Force is a defensive force, designed to protect the Klatch as a whole from invasion. What you ask is both illegal, it is dangerous. If the JDF were to involve itself in deciding the internal government of a state of the Klatch, then it would be that much easier for someone to attempt to seize control of the JDF and use it to turn the Federation into their own personal empire."

The short figure stood and walked to the hatch, "I feel for you General, but Karmanyankan's must save Karmanyanka, no one else can. I will be sending you and your crew back to your ship via our launch. The weather has turned far to rough to allow you to attempt to cross back to your ship in a rubber raft. You may use my quarters until the launch is ready, good day General."

The Commadore left, leaving the First Officer to tend to General Ozcan. "Sir, I am not sure you know this, but intelligence indicates there will be a large Alconian naval presence in the area soon. They may be able to help rather than the JDF."

The Alconian Third Fleet had not stopped off in the Greenbeard Islands but was heading north towards Karmanyanka now. Actually it appeared they were heading for the western border.

The Western Karmanyanka Border
The camera saw nothing really. Or nothing that a camera wouldn't normally see in an old growth forest. Tall trees, some occasional bushy undergrowth, fallen logs and a carpet of leaves. Of course there did seem to be twenty or so mammal heat signitures in the area. They were about the size of a raccoon or large possium, but no human signs anywhere.

Lieutenant Kala lay behind a log looking up at the sky, listening to the thump of the chopper above and cursing this damnable 'cross country suit'. The basted things were the bane of the Spec Ops. It was a wet suit but with small lines of fluid running through it to take all of a person's body heat and expell it out in a non-human shape. They were uncomfortable as hell and usually gave Kala the chills. But since those helio's had shown up he had been forced to get undressed and put one on. Quite annoying actually, with his upper torso cold and his legs and crotch overheating he was waiting for the Manka to decide that they were running around after ghosts.

ooc
need information here Karmanyaka.... do your military officers swear an oath to defend their constitution, or a direct oath to the President

IC
Harrington frowned, he hated to admit it but Alcona had a point. Although the Rebels were dangerously incompetent and were going to bring their nations economy down, and slaughter a lot of people along the way, it was only really clear that they were dangerous to their own people.

The Constitution hadn't left many loopholes here.

He decided to speak. "Our Speaker is right, an outside observer would be a good idea at this time. New Shiron is willing to vote in favor of your idea. However, Mr. Speaker, I would like to see an investigation as to whether the military officers who have overthrown the original government have violated our constitution, which as I remember, requires that, and I quote "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require" The information I have is that they have arrested and executed or tortured their own citizens without trial, and that there was no rebellion that they had been charged with suppressing when they opened fire on the mob and then arrested the police who attempted to stop them."

I also ask that the investigation determine whether the cabal of military officers who are currently running Karmanyaka are endangering the General Welfare of the FKC. Insuring the general welfare is an important duty this body has, and we need to ensure that it is protected."

He wondered if the Rebels would be dumb enough to piss the Var off. It would simplify things. It was entirely possible that they would.

Port Olympus.

The Midlonian keys merely kept quiet and reserved towards the Karmanyakan representatives, they knew what they were doing, but were at the time keping this small fact to themselves.

ooc: Just a short post, not really in a writing mood.

OOC: The map is the one where Karmanyaka is up there right below the DB arctic territories and on I-Vs western border.

All military forces swear an oath to protect the Dominion and the honour of the Lord Tengil. However 'Lord Tengil' is not only the title of the country's ruler but also the Founding Father of Karmanyaka, who actually was named Tengil. Hence the junta can always claim that the oath demanded that they defend the values and the memory of the original Lord Tengil…

IC:

The Council Hall, Katla
The New Shiron attacks were getting increasingly annoying to the junta. Only the main defence network seemed to be safe for the moment.

"OK, we will have to face it; we can't protect civilian computer networks any longer, so we will have to physically unplug everything." Prodirector Snell sounded tired. "We also seem to have some problems with many of our satellites and investigation probes have been launched to survey a couple of satellites to ascertain the cause of the malfunctions. We must remember that many of these structures are getting very old and while we suspect sabotage we cannot rule out the possibility that the increased pressure on our communications networks the last week has led to 'natural' exhaustion."

"Thank you Prodirector Snell." Grune mumbled and continued: "Well, it seems we are getting beaten in the technology battlefield, so we will have to retreat to safer ground. I won't stand being laughed at by such morally and culturally inferior states! We will teach them a lesson."

Hundreds of small groups of military technicians went from office to office, all the major banks and corporations in Karmanyaka and shut down everything they could get their hands on. At the same time a military decree went out prohibiting all receiving and transmitting of unauthorized communications. The fist of oppression was clenched harder than before. Known political opponents to the junta were swiftly arrested and put in large internment camps.

This naturally caused a lot of objections among the people and small daring groups started protesting against the regimes. These protests were of course beaten down upon by the military. In turn, this led to increasing discontent in the army and deserting soldiers were hunted every day by special taskforces. In just a couple of days the pressure on the Karmanyakan people had increased to levels not seen before.

--

Karmanyakan Space Bureau, Space Command, Katla
In the office of the Karmanyakan Space Bureau a team of military engineers stood around a computer terminal.

"OK, now set course… Good. Full power to adjustment thrusters. Yeah, don't mind the fuel level, just burn it all up."

"Roger that, Comsat 43 is now on course, speed increasing. Estimated time of impact, 32 minutes."

"Thank you lieutenant, now disable electronics and communication."

And so the old relic known as Comsat 43 had been sent to its own destruction. Its target? - The New Shiron Exeter space station. It could potentially cause some quite bad damage, but the Karmanyakans hadn't left any evidence of a planned attack and could always blame the collision on critical steering malfunctions… Provided the Comsat reached its target, that is.

--
On-route to Lassic
Sir Henry Pommer clenched his fist when he saw the pictures from Battle Day Square.

"That bastard Grune… I can't believe he pulled this through. Well, you are quite right though, Minister Arden, I must get to Port Olympus as soon as possible to put an end to this madness!" He sipped some hot coffee. "May the Gods stop this from turning into a bloody war. I know Grune and his henchmen well enough and what I've seen so far of the other Klatchians doesn't really comfort me…" his voice trailed off and he stared in front of him.

"What measures have the Retaliatory Guard taken, then? Surely not even Grune and that terrible Prodirector Niels are stupid enough to attack the Free Republic. It would be a slaughter. Nevertheless, you have to be aware of the possibility that he provokes you to attack him. That would mean turning the FKC on you."

As the Marathon closed in on Lassic, the Minister had tried to get at least an hour of sleep.
--

The Tengil Palace, Katla
Meanwhile Grune had just paid a visit to the Lord Tengil in the residential wing of the Palace. Guards had been forced to keep Kader from beating the Field Marshal senseless. Grune had in turn threatened to have the Lord Tengil hanged in public for selling out his country to dirty foreigners.

"Field Marshal, sir!" A sergeant came speeding down the corridor. "A message from the Vaadian ambassador, sir." He saluted and headed off.

"Is he still here? I thought all foreigners left yesterday with those Shironians." Grune rumbled.

"The Vaadian embassy is still operative, we don't know how many of them left yesterday, but most of them seem to be there." said General Katory as they strolled down the pillared hall.

"What's this now…? So he wants a chat eh. Well, I guess we could squeeze him in on this afternoon's schedule. Inform that Segraves character that I'll agree to see him in Council Hall at 3."

--

Outside Astridburg
General Ozcan couldn't hide his disappointment.

"I see… I thank you for your time Commodore." he emptied the glass of vodka and turned to the First Officer. He listened to the tip and stood silent for a moment.

"Thank you Commander. Of course we would have found out soon, but this gives me a bit of time to plan my… 'moves' better." He saluted and left for the launch.

As soon as he had reached the shore again he stepped in his car and told the driver to go to Fort Fyalar.

At the car approached the gates a Karmanyakan soldier walked over to the passenger window.

"General Ozcan, sir." he said and saluted. "Do you want an escort into the base sir?"

"No thank you, soldier. I have an urgent message for those foreigners." Ozcan said with a smile.

"I see sir, give 'em hell!" said the soldier and signalled the tanks to move and let the car pass.

A Marathon transport was unloading supplies as the car slowed down in front of the main building.

--

West of the Syndia River Valley
The chopper pilot studied the heat prints from the drone arrow.

"Flight control, this is KMH 416, we have a negative on the heat signal, it looks like a flock of animals. We will continue our search. Over."

"Hell, I really hoped I'd get to shoot myself some for'ners!" said the gunner. "F***ing fur balls!" he shouted and blew a short round of automatic fire right down in the mass of heat signals.

"Gods, Jones! Don't you do that again! Never waste ammo on innocent animals, dammit!" the pilot shouted back.

--

Parliament, Port Olympus
The senior Karmanyakan Key rose.

"I understand that the Parliament must proceed in this matter with caution. I just hope that the people of Karmanyaka will not have to suffer unnecessary pains while the FKC investigates all this. I have also just received word from Ilek-Vaad that the Karmanyakan Minister of Foreign Affairs, sir Henry Pommer is on his way here to port Olympus. Apparently he managed to escape across the border.

And I would like to add that the rightful government of Karmanyaka, which I represent, welcomes the sending of a Klatchian marshal to our country, for observation and investigation."

He sat down and nodded thankfully to the New Shiron Delegation.

Minister Arden smiled reassuringly to Minister Pommer "The Retaliatory Guard has taken all necesary steps to retaliate to any attack on Vaadian soil by Field Marshal Grune. I have spoken with the Minister of Defence and the Supreme Republican Commander has activated five armies of the Retaliatory Guard with a further ten on standby.

The Military of the Free Republic is more than capable of dealing with Grune and any other Klatchian state, or the Federation should they stand in the way. IF Field Marshal Grune attacks us, the Republican Council has drafted a Military Mandate to forcibly remove the military junta and it's leaders and restore the Lord Tengil and the Council of Knights.

Keep in mind, that is if he is foolish enough to attack."

An hour of sleep was all that Minister Pommer would receive as the supersonic transport finally made it to Lasic NW International Airport, he would get another hour on the limosine ride to the House of the Republic where he would be met by Sir Alec.

*****

Fort Fyalar

The Martahon-D had landed and was being unloaded with much needed supplies for General Deadmarsh and his staff. He limped toward the transport to supervise the unloading as he spoke on his satellite phone.

"The roofs are leaking, the heat doesn't work, the air conditioning doesn't work, the electricity works, sort of. I don't care who has taken control of what, this is MY base,get those contractors here, now!"

He snapped his phone shut and yelled at whomever was nearest, for whatever reason leapt to mind.

The frightened Corporal saluted "Sir, General Ozcan!" he said with as he pointed to the General's car.

General Deadmarsh limped towards it, looking none the pleased by recent turn of events, and by his expression General Ozcan might just be the scapegoat.

*****

Tollan Fire Control, Ilek-Vaad

Back in Tollan the Supreme Republican Commander looked over General Deadmarsh's requests. He shook his head.

"Why not? Will Tendarus Construction take the job?"

Seargent Emaele nodded "Valen trusts in his security, besides if something happened it would take less than two hours to get Marine reinforcements in."

Commander Ring shrugged, thinking that Grune needed a push "Okay, approve it, send in what Deadmarsh wants."

*****

South Haven, Ilek-Vaad

Several civilian Hercules transports bearing the insignia of a mountain started under way towards Karmanyaka waters and Fort Fyalar. Two Jaguar Arsenal Cruisers, also bearing the mountain insignia moved along side as an escort.

On deck of the central transport stood a huge 'man' despite the cool rain and cold notherly winds, Bendith Lord Valen was bare chested and stood with his arms folded. Owner of Tendarus Mountain Industries LTD. he made a point to travel with his men anytime there was a hint of danger, it was good for motivation.

The transports had been ready since the beginning of the coup and were now under way after finally receiving clearance. Lord Valen looked over his ships and then out towards the Karmanyakan shore and turned to the Captain

"Full ahead then, avoid any ships if possible, we should be able to zip in along the coastline and to the Fort before anyone notices."

The Captain nodded and the group of six ships sped on.

*****

Vaadian Embassy, Katla

Ambasador Segraves prepared to meet Field Marshal Grune, he provided his 'guards' at the gate with a copy of the Field Marshal's acceptance of a meting and then was promptly underway. His black and silver Jaguar XJ12 Sovereign limosine heading quickly to it's destination.

Minister Pommer shook his head in an attempt to wake up and picked up a new tie from his briefcase. He had bought a clean shirt at the airport and felt a bit fresher than he had on the flight.

He stepped out of the car and was directed to Sir Alec.

--

General Ozcan said a silent prayer to the gods that Deadmarsh wasn't in such a bad mood as it seemed. He put on his best polite smile and stepped out to meet the scarred warrior.

"General Deadmarsh," he saluted. "I'm sorry about the mess here. Now I want to have it completely clear that I am here without the knowledge of my superiors. As you know there has been a coup and I'm in charge of this region. I don't support the coup and I've come here to reassure you that I and several of my comrades-in-arms will do all that is in our power to assist you and your countrymen in this project." He was slightly nervous by the look on Deadmarsh's face. "I've also come to ask for Vaadian help in resolving this situation and ousting the criminal men who have taken power..." He held his breath and hoped for a good answer.

--

OOC: I don't have time to write more at the moment, I'll be back.

Lassic, House of the Republic

Minister Pommer's limosine pulled up into the grounds of the House of the Republic to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was directed to Sir Alec who was standing on the lawn in a green and yellow striped rugby shirt, shorts and sunglasses, practicing chip shots, with his bag of golf clubs behind him. His aid motioned to Minister Pommer as he approached and Sir Alec extended his hand.

"Minister Pommer, good to see you've made it here safely." He said as he shifted his club to his shoulder "I understand theres been a doings transpiring in Karmanyaka? Bad news that. I wonder what you have in mind to deal with it? I am heading to Port Olympus in the next couple of days to address the Parliament, you'd probably better come along with me."

He paused and smiled "Have you had lunch Minister Pommer?"

*****

Fort Fyalar

General Deadmarsh looked about to be very violent, but seemed to become less vexed as Ozcan explained himself and then answered gruffly.

"Well, if you want to help, open those gates and get contractors and recruits in here. I have supplies and contractors on the way from South Haven, but I'd prefer local labor.

As for helping you with your unfortunate change of government, I only have thirty men and I can't act without orders from Retaliatory Guard Command, who won't act without a Military Mandate from the Republican Council."

He turned and limped back towrds the transport "That's democracy for you. If you want immediate action, cross the border!"

Karmanyakan Space Bureau, Space Command, Katla
In the office of the Karmanyakan Space Bureau a team of military engineers stood around a computer terminal.

"OK, now set course… Good. Full power to adjustment thrusters. Yeah, don't mind the fuel level, just burn it all up."

"Roger that, Comsat 43 is now on course, speed increasing. Estimated time of impact, 32 minutes."

"Thank you lieutenant, now disable electronics and communication."

And so the old relic known as Comsat 43 had been sent to its own destruction. Its target? - The New Shiron Exeter space station. It could potentially cause some quite bad damage, but the Karmanyakans hadn't left any evidence of a planned attack and could always blame the collision on critical steering malfunctions… Provided the Comsat reached its target, that is. .

Aboard the Exeter, a large 1 million metric ton space dock located 61,500 km from Luna, Admiral Rafferty, commander of the station, watched with interest as the report from the Corvette STB3 warned him about the approaching Karmayakan satellite. The long burn had been easily detected, and it was a simple matter to determine its course after that.

"Have Commander Morris pick it up. After all, they certainly aren't going to be able to complain about it."

The Corvette accelerated from its position 70,000 kms over Earth, and quickly overtook the wandering Comsat. Slowing to match velocities, the warships then extended its umbilical arm, which was intended for rescue and salvage work, and then drew the comsat into its cargo bay.

Admiral Rafferty smiled. Another successful space rescue.

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

Meanwhile, with the hardware installed by New Shiron on Karmayakan satellites received new instructions. From now on, orders from Karmayakan ground stations would be ignored and they were now under the control of Admiral Rafferty.

Klatchian Parliament
The Speaker nodded, "I should point out that legally that only applies to the Federal Government...or has been assumed to."

The electronic vote screen at the end of the room glowed showing nine votes for Parliamentary Emergency Bill A-22.

The Syndia River Valley
(Because West would be in Klatchian Federal Territory)

Five Marines died, killed by the cannon fire from above. The Marines burried their dead. And most swore that they would teach the Manka what death tasted like soon enough.

Five Blocks from Tengil Palace
(OOC: This is based on what New Shrion was up to and what Kamanyanka rped)

The two KCN reporters walked down a narrow alley. They now appeared to be two corporals of the Karmanyanka army with the names Pike and Ivy. Pike looked like he was a bit large for his uniform, likely too many beers. The two psudo non-coms stepped out into the street, each carried a large black bag under their arm.

Someone immediatly protested their presence, a ewe bleeted at them.
"You two...what are you doing here?" shouted and officer. Both Pike and Ivy threw off salutes immediatly to the lieutenant standing snarling at them surrounded by several wayward sheep. False Pike pulled out a twenty four hour pass for corporals Pike and Ivy.

The lieutenant waved them off. "You two help get these blasted animals back on the truck. And make sure they don't get lose again." The patrol turned and left the two undercover reporters deal with the sheep. The Olympian just stared at the wooly creatures. The Alconian started sooing them back towards the end of the truck.

Twenty minutes later the truck turned past the old Foreign Ministry Building, where a ewe suddenly lept off the truck again. 'Pike' went after her and after a momentary struggle put the creature back onto the truck. However the black bag he had was now missing.

The truck finished rumbbling up to the gates of Tengil Palace. The driver stuck out his head, "Hey I have three hundred heads of mutton for Feild Marshal Grune, went to his house out in the country but isn't his anymore so I got sent here. But they don't like the smells of the city. Damn it all...if that lieutenant handn't assigned those two back there to keep them from jumping I'd be chasing the buggers all over Katla by now."

He handed the invoice to the guard at the gate. "Don't ask me why a man would spend three million krondor to buy some mutton, but I don't think he wants it roving about the city."

----
Back at the old Foreign Ministry, a black satchal lay pushed into an old coal chute. It gave off a light ticking sound.

OOC: Alcona - I laughed my head off! :) Mutton... LOL!

And yes, you're right. I meant to write east, but somehow it came out wrong. Let's say 'Eastern Syndia River Valley'.

IC:

The Space Bureau people were disappointed about the failed attack, but they weren't at a complete loss. In fact they decided to turn this into an advantage. Since New Shiron couldn't show any evidence that the would-be-impact was deliberate, the Bureau now had caught Admiral Rafferty in the act of stealing Karmanyakan property, be it a decommissioned, malfunctioning old heap of junk or not.

The Military Committee had fired the insubordinate director of the Space Bureau, who refused to take orders from anyone but the Lord Tengil and put Prodirector Snell in charge of it.

'Space Bureau Director' Snell quickly wrote a letter to the Parliament, where in a wounded tone, he complained that New Shiron had stolen a Karmanyakan satellite due to be repaired. He realized that it was a pretty thin accusation, especially since the dead satellite had been heading straight for the Exeter. It was nevertheless worth a try.

--
House of the Republic
Pommer sighed deeply and smiled a malnutrisioned smile.

"Actually, sir Alec, I haven't even had dinner or breakfast. And I'd like to get to Port Olympus as soon as possible. If that means I have to wait here for a couple of days, I'm delighted to. I need the rest and of course I can do something in the meantime. I thought I'd adress my nation in some way, maybe tap in on STV frequensies... I don't know." he rubbed his dark-rimmed eyes.

--

Fort Fyalar, south-western Karmanyaka
General Ozcan pinched the bridge of his nose. He was really getting frustrated with these foreigners.

"Well, I'll see what I can do about the contractors, I guess we can get them in here and blame it on 'war preparations' or something similar. If anyone higher up asks, I'll just tell the truth - that is: No-one ordered a halt to the Foreign Guard program."

He took a deep breath.

"As for the help... well, you know who to ask in case things develop. I won't stand in the way if the Free Republic comes to the aid of the Karmanyakan people. Just give me a sign. Good by General."

He stepped into the car again and went straight for his office in Astridburg Castle.

Five hours later a caravan of trucks, cranes, dumpers, diggers and all other kinds of contraptions used for redecorating military bases, came rolling through the roadblock outside Fort Fyalar. Most of them came from Werner Sau Engineering, Karmanyaka's leading building contractors, frequently hired by the government.

House of the Republic

Sir Alec smiles "Well then, let's go have lunch and I'll have my staff arrange for your stay here and call the CID to see what they can do about you addressing your nation. I'm afraid the Republican Council can't directly help you with that, it would be meddling in your nations internal affairs, but I'm sure the lads in the CID can help you."

Sir Alec led the way into the Ministry and the Ministries dining hall. Lunch was officially over but Sir Alec was able to get enough of the staff to stay to serve him and Minister Pommer.

"Now then Minister Pommer, what got all of this started? What does Grune think he's up to anyhow?"

*****

Fort Fyalar

General Deadmarsh seemed just as, if not more irritated than General Ozcan, as the General leaves General Deadmarsh gestures for his attention

"The Retaliatory Guard only retaliates to external threats, the Republican Council won't do anything unless Grune, or someone under his command steps over the line!"

Being clearer than that would most likely be treason so General Deadmarsh simply limped back to waht he was doing in the first place.

When the contractors began arriving General Deadmarsh and staff , got them working immediately and gave them a cash retainer and favourable contracts. He wasn't kidding about getting things done quickly and right away.

General Ozcan smiled faintly.

"Thank you General, I'll keep that in mind." he said before he closed the door of his car.

As he sat in his office in Astridburg Castle he contemplated how he could provoke Grune into attacking Ilek-Vaad. It was still too early, the Military Committee wouldn't let themselves be fooled into an armed conflict with the vastly superior neighbor or any of the FKC states for that matter. He'd have to bide his time and plan the counter-coup together with sympathetic military colleagues. As he distractedly leafed through his personal agenda, a worn filofax he seldom used, a business card fell out. He'd been givin it by a Midlonian general at a ZMI weapons expo half a year ago. Ozcan hit the speaker phone button on his safe-line console and dialled the number on the card. Signals went through.

In New Shiron, intelligence specialists and special operations commanders carefully reviewed the newest items of interest. The internment camps offered interesting possibilities. Eliminate the guard towers and guard barracks, and the prisoners will spread out through the country spreading chaos, information and anger.

Now how to do that?

Special operations troops would be ideal, but the risk of detection was high. By the time they got in, the Karmayakans would be alerted and their missions would require too much support for subtlety. Hitting them from orbit would be too clearly aggressive and politically risky.

Hmmm

But armed UAVs.... now that was something to consider.

The General walked into his ornately pannelled room, inside were a marble fireplace, a Midlonian Oak desk and an old fashioned looking telephone. It began to ring.
General Harold Buxley picked up the receiver before the first tone had even finished.
'General Buxley, how may I help?' he said in a clear and, quite unique Midlonian accent.

The Tengil Palace

The truck, and it's very lively cargo of mutton, (with two orders of lamb chops apparently) and wool had been parked inside of the gate. As much to keep the blighters from getting away if they got spooked again. Someone had been sent to find out what the Feild Marshall wanted done with his three million krondor investment.

Someone muttered, "Ten thousand for a bloody sheep, and where the hell is my paycheck?"

"I don't know, maybe their wool is extra fine..."

"I heard he had inflatable sheep delivered yesterday, maybe he's got a fetish..."

"Your saying these are sex sheep? Bred for what, anal tightness?"

"That is Feild Marshall Grune your talking about..."

"Who just spent three million on a measly three hundread sheep damn it..."

"You know it was those damn foreigners who did it."

"Yeah, but sheep?"

There was laughter, but you had to wonder about a man who had bought 300 in mutton futures for ten thousand each.

The two corporals leaned against the side of the truck, their eyes closed as though they had a long night of it. They chuckled as jokes were made by some of the guards about 'super sheep' and 'million dollar mutton'.

Then the small electric clock in the abandoned coal chute's alarm went off. Or should we say the electric current caused a thimble of gunpowder to explode, which in turn set the fourty pounds of home made plastic explosive.

And the sound of fourty pounds of explosive remodling the Old Foreign Ministry building caused 300 skittish 'super sheep' to demonstrate that they should be in for the olympic high jump.

Which allowed the two corporals 'Pike' and 'Ivy' to make a mad dash towards the palace. Either after the escaping sheep or perhaps to get weapons.

The Bay of Lunacy
The Fourth Fleet of the United Duchies was still sailing onwards, unpreturbed by any other events.

An internment camp in South Western Karmanyanka

From the tree lines a scout viewed the facility with his scope. "Damn, this looks like a new facility." The problem was it was between the Spec Ops and their target.

Pommer tried to speak and eat at the same time while not being rude. Being a Karmanyakan aristocrat he had never been much for good table manners.

"Well, Field Marshal Grune and the Supreme Prodirector, Christoffer Niels have been fiercely critical towards the democratic reforms of the last years. There were plans on removing the former Lord Tengil, Richard Loke and when he got brutally murdered last year by terrorists, it was widely implied that the 'junta' were behind it somehow."

"Delicious food this! Have to get myself a Lassean cook later..."

Pommer wiped his mouth and stretched for his glass.

"Anyway, it seems the 'Grune Gang' had this coup carefully planned. I'm not sure Grune himself wants to rule the Dominon, since he is not a Knight and that would be against his... conviction. He will probably try to get rid of Lord Kader in a 'legal' way and then have his own candidate appointed, probably someone like sir Nelson Fare, Minister of *hrmph* 'Justice' and one of Grune's trusted co-conspirators.

It all comes down to traditions and 'the way things sould be done'. Grune and the others like things to be like they've always been, which is make the country an aristocratic oligarchy. They have support from a few percent of the population in that quest." Pommer stopped and realized he couldn't force down another bread crum, so he put down is fork and knife.

--

Ozcan immediately recognized Buxley's voice, almost like a care dealer's.

"General Buxley, this is General Ozcan of the Karmanyakan Army. You may remember that we met at the ZMI arms expo? Anyway, you might think it odd that I contact you at a time like this. I'll explain to you. This call mustn't be known to anyone in Karmanyaka." Ozcan paused.

"I'm loyal to the rightful, legal government of this country, not to these criminals, these fascists. I called you to say that IF the Midlonian government wants to interfere, I'll be interested in helping you. This of course is a great risk to me, and I'll probably get killed on the spot for even implying this."

--

As soon as the explosion shook downtown Katla and broke rows of windows on the Palace, guards erupted from all buildings nearby. The Prodirectorate Elite Soldiers who watched the Tengil Palace and the Council Hall were under strict orders not to leave their posts. Soldiers, fire fighters and Military Police ran everywhere on the square. Flames started licking the old Foreign Ministry just as a large portion of the front facade collapsed in a cloud of dust and gravel. The false corporals wouldn't be noticed until they got up the stairs to the Palace. They would never be let in without explicit, signed orders. The Palace was currently the most well-guarded building in the Dominion.

OOC: I need a good idea of what the Tengil Palace looks like for my next post

Naval Manor, CAC
"Sir, we have explosion located in Katla, near location Alpha-Prime."

"Cause? Unknown, we had no inbounds to that area..."

"Continue to monitor the area."

Parliament, Port Olympus
The senior Karmanyakan Key rose.

"I understand that the Parliament must proceed in this matter with caution. I just hope that the people of Karmanyaka will not have to suffer unnecessary pains while the FKC investigates all this. I have also just received word from Ilek-Vaad that the Karmanyakan Minister of Foreign Affairs, sir Henry Pommer is on his way here to port Olympus. Apparently he managed to escape across the border.

And I would like to add that the rightful government of Karmanyaka, which I represent, welcomes the sending of a Klatchian marshal to our country, for observation and investigation."

He sat down and nodded thankfully to the New Shiron Delegation.

The lead Vrakian key rose and replied,

"We also support that a Klatchian Marshal be sent to investigate this matter. As well, rest assured that your borders will be secured from any outside forces."

====

Meanwhile, the fairly large fleet of submarines neared the Squall platform. Since they were nuclear powered, they didn't bother to stop for refueling. They also weren't taking extra precautions to be stealthy until they arrived closer at their final destination.

As the internet became more and more fragmented and isolated inside Karmayaka, codes now imbedded in servers all over the country had the conditions they required to activate set in motion. At local utility companies and the national ones, a new chain of events was set in motion. Bookkeeping programs suddenly showed that every single government office and military base was 90 days past due or more in their utility payments. Automatic software already built in then did what utility companies do in that situation. They sent out shut off orders to their employees who handled such things, and in most cases, it was a simple matter of turning switches or rerouting service to cut off the water, gas and electricity to those deadbeats.

In some cases though, people actually had to drive out to bases or offices, and found themselves dealing with highly annoyed government or military people.

ooc
Karmayaka conducts over $4 Trillion in trade annually, however, RP events don't effect the NSEconomy site, so we don't know what actually is going on, but figure it has to be bad.

http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com/nseconomy.php?region=The_Federated_Klatchian_Coast&nation=karmanyaka

The FKC has jurisdiction over trade between FKC members by the way according to the constitution

IC
In Port Olympus, lawyers representing a number of New Shiron corporations now filed petitions with the Federal Courts accusing the Rebel government of illegally restraining trade. Money couldn't move in or out now, and although relatively minor as part of New Shiron's trade, it still represented tens of billions of Klonors. The New Shiron government filed its own suit as well, claiming that the Rebel government had failed to ensure the safety of FKC citizens, prompting them to evacuate and disrupting trade.

'Well, if you could somehow get down to the coast we could extract you, if you are willing to defect, your information would be helpfull and I am sure you'd be able to find some willing bodyguards to come with you.' Buxely replied as he scratched his neck.

'Though a large scale extraction of loyal troops would be great we haven't the resources to do so, if you want to defect, then loyal troops will have to stay behind.' he sighed and sat down heavily in his chair.

'Get to the coastline two days from now, go to the fishing village of Muerte, we'll have a boat pick you up from there.' Harold then hang up the phone and massaged his temples, he was just 27 and was the youngest General in the entire Midlonian Army, and he was already going slightly gray from the stresses of the job, he then picked up the phone again and dialed a number.

'Hello, Peter? I need a favor. Look the invasion is still four days away so I was wondering if...'

Pommer tried to speak and eat at the same time while not being rude. Being a Karmanyakan aristocrat he had never been much for good table manners.

"Well, Field Marshal Grune and the Supreme Prodirector, Christoffer Niels have been fiercely critical towards the democratic reforms of the last years. There were plans on removing the former Lord Tengil, Richard Loke and when he got brutally murdered last year by terrorists, it was widely implied that the 'junta' were behind it somehow."

"Delicious food this! Have to get myself a Lassean cook later..."

Pommer wiped his mouth and stretched for his glass.

"Anyway, it seems the 'Grune Gang' had this coup carefully planned. I'm not sure Grune himself wants to rule the Dominon, since he is not a Knight and that would be against his... conviction. He will probably try to get rid of Lord Kader in a 'legal' way and then have his own candidate appointed, probably someone like sir Nelson Fare, Minister of *hrmph* 'Justice' and one of Grune's trusted co-conspirators.

It all comes down to traditions and 'the way things sould be done'. Grune and the others like things to be like they've always been, which is make the country an aristocratic oligarchy. They have support from a few percent of the population in that quest." Pommer stopped and realized he couldn't force down another bread crum, so he put down is fork and knife.



Sir Alec nodded as he listened "Well, I think the main question is what Grune has done legal or in any way supported by your countries laws? Can he legally take control and get his own lackey appointed legitimately after all this?"

He paused as his aid came in and announced that Minister Pommer's quarters were ready and that representatives from the CID would be by first thing in the morning to facilitate Minister Pommer Addressing Karmanyaka.

Sir Alec then took him on the short walk through the park like grounds of the House of the Republic to one of the several garden style mansions on the grounds used for visiting dignataries. There Minister Pommer was met by the butler and staff of the house and Sir Alec took him aside before he left.

"I would advise that when the gentleman from the CID come by tomorrow that you discuss with them what might happen if Grune and Niels were to suddenly become unavailable, permanently."

He pats Minister Pommer on the back "Get some rest, you look like hell."

OOC: Midlonia, Ozcan doesn't want to defect…

General Ozcan hung up and immediately regretted his decision to defect. He picked up the phone again and called Buxely back. The Midlonian general saw the flashing light on his telephone and recognized Ozcan's number.

"Sorry Peter, I have a call on the other line and I have to take it. Hold on for a moment, ok?" Buxely said and hit the button for line two. "Yes, Buxely here?"

"General Buxely." said Ozcan. "I decided I don't want to defect. No, I'd rather stay here and fight for the Karmanyakan people alongside my comrades. But I'd be happy to help you, as we said. I can rendezvous with a Midlonian team down in Muerte and give you copies of our defence layouts, and I can order one of my closest men to accompany you back to Midlonia. Besides, if you happen to be planning a landing in Karmanyaka you'll be in for a rough task unless you have someone on this side to let you through. I command the forces at many key points in our coastal defence line and I'd rather die than defend Grune." he swallowed.

--

House of the Republic, Ilek-Vaad
Pommer sneered. "Hah! Laws have never been of great interest to those men. Sir Nelson is supposed to be minister of Justice, and as Supreme Prodirector, Christoffer Niels is in charge of the high Military Court, but laws have always been things that apply to others and not to them." he looked grave and continued. "No, what they have done is not legal in any way. From what I've heard they've disabled the jurisdiction of regular police forces and adjourned all ordinary courts of law indefinitely."

"If he'd try to make Sir Nelson the Lord Tengil, it'd have to be with the help of a majority vote in the Council of Knights. That wouldn't be a hard nut for him to crack though. He'd just have to stop his opponents from getting inside the Hall at the time of the vote, which he can with the help of the Military Police, they have the right to detain people without presenting charges for 12 hours. After that Grune and his puppet ruler can remove the troublesome knights from the Council and 'voila' the cake's his."

"And all this can be done almost legally, at least if you twist the laws to the extreme and the judges are your own. Of course it would be a mockery of justice to remove Lord Kader from his office, but that hardly bothers Grune."

Pommer quickly got settled in the house. It was almost a bit more lavish than his own mansion in Katla, which probably housed some traitor general by now. He asked one of the house staff to go by him a couple of suits. After all, the suit he was wearing constituted everything he owned right now. But since he'd placed some money in a Lassic Bank, he wasn't at a complete loss.

--

Council Hall, Katla
Ambassador Segraves was greeted at Council Hall by two grumpy guards. One of them looked at a note and then at the ambassador.

"You're the Vaadian ambassador." he stated. "Field Marshal Grune is in his office. Step this way." Even the military considered it bad manners frisking a diplomat, so they led him through a detector arch. Luckily the ambassador didn't carry a big belt buckle so the machine was silent. The detector also checked for dangerous chemicals, toxins and alien biological substances.

Grune sat in his office in Council Hall. He had just moved there from the Prodirectorate Headquarters. His face was red and the stack of papers on his desk almost obscured him as Segraves entered the room.

"Ambassador." Grune said in a voice filled with acid and a grin that threatened to fall of his sweaty face. "Welcome to my humble office. I have a lot of work to do so if we could please be quick about this." He continued to show an obviously false smile.

The Field Marshal was under siege by confused military officials, furious military contractors who didn't get paid, and government officials who had to use public phones, since nothing worked in their offices. The country looked like it would fall apart any minute.

--

However, it didn't take long before groups of soldiers barged in on the offices of most utility companies. Engineers and clerks were forced at gunpoint to turn on electricity, phones, water, gas and heat. Those who protested were arrested for obscuring government rule and undermining public order. The Dominion of Karmanyaka was turning more and more into a genuine military dictatorship. Whenever anyone opposed Grune and the Military Committee, they were arrested.

A substantial problem for the junta was the fact that the armed forces were conscripts. That meant that ordinary young men and women had to take part in the oppression. The amount of deserters skyrocketed and morale was lousy. The Committee started arresting high-ranking officers for objecting to orders if they refused to take part in the repressive rule. Most ended up in the internment camps, which popped out of the earth like mushrooms. Others just disappeared.

The situation was desperate and people started fleeing the country. Army divisions had to reinforce the Border Rangers who reluctantly patrolled the borders. People still managed to escape and flowed into Ilek-Vaad and west into Federal territory, former Rillanon. The refugees only counted in hundreds yet, but the numbers might soon grow if the military state repression continued.

OOC:
I post two rough sketches of the Tengil Palace as seen below. I know the angles and the proportions aren't exactly right, but wth… I've only taken in the general shapes of stuff and not the details. The small lines on the first picture are human-sized.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b44/karmanyaka/tengilpalace2.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b44/karmanyaka/tengilpalace1.jpg

'In that case Oscan, you'll have more problems on your hands than you can deal with, we don't need those schematics we already have a good majority of them, good day.' he slammed the receiver down and yelled at his secretary to cancel what he asked for from Peter. Instead he turned his chair around and wheeled down the map of the section of Karmanyakan coastline, he stared intently at the plans for a long time before sighing and wheeling the map back up and away.

Just four days were remaining, the trains were running non-stop ferrying yet more troops, supplies, weapons. Even the airforce had to push every last transport aircraft they had, even ones that were meant for training and ones that should really be in a museum, but netherless, they were keeping to an incredible shedule.

House of the Republic, Ilek-Vaad

The staff at the mansion made sure that Minister Pommer had everything he needed, sending a staff member out for suits wouldn't be necessary as the mansion had several closets of new suits that need only be tailored for Minister Pommer's measurements and they quickly sent for a tailor to resolve that and make sure that by morning he would have several new suits at cost.

Even though it was only mid afternoon Minister Pommer's fatigue and the comfort's of the house conspired to send him into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile Sir Alec chased down a few members of the press to make the following statement.

"After carefully considering the laws on the books in The Dominion of Karmanyaka, it is readily apparent that the acts of the Military Junta in Karmanyaka are in all probablility illegal.

The Council will carefully consider what actions to take next and to asssess the threats that may be posed by the events in our closest neighbor. I have been informed that Ambassador Segraves is meeting with Field Marshal Grune this afternoon to express our concerns."

*****

Council Hall, Katla

Ambassador Segraves has a seat and got straight to the point.

"Field Marshal Grune, there are several points that I wish to apprise you of. First, no matter what happens in Karmanyaka, who is in charge or anything that changes the governmental dynamics in Karmanyaka, the Free Republic is still your neighbor. It is entirely up to you if we are an armed hostile neighbor, or a friendly helpful neighbor.

Second, Veder House is a Vaadian Embassy and is sovereign territory of the Free Republic. Me and my staff are not going anywhere, any time soon.

Third, Fort Fyalar is and will remain under Retaliatory Guard Command, at least until you and your people can sort out " he pauses and looks over the mayhem for effect "Some semblance of government capable of wielding autonomy and reviewing the Foreign Guard Contract agreed upon by the current government.It is a contract, we expect you to abide by it and your word.

Fourth, I think that you have inadequate intelligence as to the forces mobilizing against you. Your actions to 'isolate' Karmayaka may have the reverse effect and bring in unprecedented foreign interferance.

I would simply ask that you very carefully consider what you are doing, and see if you can find some other, less destructive way of fulfilling your goals. I would be more than happy to offer you a neutral location where you and your opposition can meet and work out a suitable plan for some sort of compromise.

We have no intention of resolving Karmayaka's issues, but if those issues somehow boil over into the Free Republic, we will act and decisively. You will find that if you do not accept our help and we are eventually forced to act, things will not be pleasant.

Before storming Veder House and Fort Fyalar, please consider that the Retaliatory Guard destroy enemies of the Republic, but they do not occupy or rebuild them."

Ozcan looked at the silent phone speaker in atonishment.

"Those arrogant bastards!" he said to himself as he pressed the hang-up button. It seemed foreigners really were as odd as the Junta and their conservative allies said. He'd have to put his faith into the Vaadians, but they wouldn't move in unless Grune decided to attack them in one way or another. Perhaps the Kingdom of New Shiron could help, or those Alconians who were on their way... Gods! Here he sat plotting high treason and mutiny and the gods-know-what. He needed sleep.

Apethorpe Palace
The Privy Council listened to the report.

"Your Grace, the number of internment camps are increasing exponentially. It would seem that the jaunta is cracking down on dissidents. In fact our boys in country have sent back images of senior officers being placed into the camp population."

"And the more they do so the more they shall undermine their own support and likely wreck their own ecconomy."

"Quite sir..."

"I think it is time to edit plan Echo a bit. But what we need is to get Lord Tangil or whatever to approve creating the Free Karmanyanka Army. I thought you had gotten a few of KCN's boys to try and get an interview."

"Haven't heard back from them actually..." The Service Lord answered quietly, Mr. Black has noted a large number of sheep now within the Tengil palace compound."

******
Tengil Palace
OOC: I am assuming there is a fence between Tengil Palace and the Square. Similar to Buckingham Palace.

The false Pike and false Ivy ran up the stairs after a mini flock of about twenty sheep. False Pike realized that the guards were not going anywhere and decided that his plan had failed as he huffed it up the steps.

He reached the lead Ewe and stopped her, stopping the rest of the mini flock as they reached the Outer Court Yard.
The corporal turned the head of the sheep and got her moving towards one of the ramps.

The seven or so mini-flocks of sheep were now roming up and down the area around the Palace looking for food and water. Having been the cull of various flocks disagreeable to each other, they were not congregating like a complete flock behind the alpha, no there apeared to be eight or so Alphas each with their own flock. If you were a farmer wouldn't you sell some city dolt the sheep that were more trouble than they were worth? Yup.

Ivy looked back and tapped Pike on the sholder, pointing out that the frame placed into the side of the flatbed truck had been broken by so many sheep belly flopping against it. The driver was now inspecting the damage, but it was obvious from the ramp that a new side, with new stakes, would have to be made up for the truck to haul any sheep anywhere.

Pike nodded, that was unexpected good news. It ment that Pike and Ivy's orders left there stuck here near the palace for the moment. If some noisy sargent should ask. Pike then turned his head to the Foreign Ministry. Twenty pounds of explosive shouldn't have done that much damage. It must have lit off a gas main, or that building was a fire trap that should have been condemed years ago.

Corporal Pike and Corporal Ivy sat down on the edge of the slope and watched both the sheep, the fire, and the guards like any good non-com who had been given instructions which were now quite useless. They waited for somone with higher rank, and fustration, to come along and issue new orders.

Really all he could hope for was that some overburned officer would decide that the two corporals would be quite handy in dealing with the mess in the Palace. With that much broken glass about there was a hell of a mess for the building's normal staff to deal with. Placing plastic tarps over the window openings to keep out the oncomming rain was another task that needed to be completed ASAP. After all most palace interiors did not deal with getting wet very well.

Add the sheep, who might very easily decide to invade a broken window of the Palace on their quest for editables, and the recent bombing attack, some senior poor middle level officer was going to be having a fit. Considering the mess that appeared to be occuring under the Jaunta, well the junior officers would be trying to cover their asses to prevent themselves from being used as a punching bag of their superior's fustration. Which ment getting the mess at the Palace cleaned up and stabalized ASAP.

Nope, don't make a nuicence of yourself, false pike thought. Just let the officers make the decisions like a good corporal.

*****
In the outhouse the real Pike and Ivy woke up with bleary eyes and hurting heads. And of course they were completely naked with only fits of memory about the previous evening.

repair post...

In New Shiron, UAV techs were working around the clock to handle the heavy maintaniance loads the the heavy operations schedule had placed on them. Production was now around the clock as well. Only a few had been lost, entirely to operational reasons so far, but many were now down from wear and tear.

Enough remained to continue their missions in the Gonad area, and Karmayaka, but all other missions had been curtailed.

Aboard the ships of the 7th Fleet, and in Gordan Bay, some of the UAVs were being modified. Most of their surveillance gear was removed and sufficient space was available in their payload bay to carry several Venom all purpose light attack missiles.

At Gordan Bay sufficient fuel had been found or brought forward to refuel several fighter squadrons as well. Between the fuel on hand, tanker support and forward basing, a large strike could be mounted. It would take some time, as the aircraft would have to stage from New Shiron to Gordan Bay, and then the crews would have to rest, but within 48 hours, a large scale strike could be mounted.

Meanwhile, the New Shiron JCS watched with interest intel reports on Midlonia. Apparently they were going to make a move soon, and that would be the best time for New Shiron to strike.

With or without FKC approval.

Meanwhile, Psywar had a new idea. The television feeds from the UAV showed the internment camps, sometimes with graphic details. One even managed to pick up a military vehicle making a raid on a house, the arrest of the people in it, and then the UAV followed the vehicle to an isolated area and caught on film the execution of the internees and their subsequent burial in a shallow grave.

Soon this footage, and footage of the camps, was also being broadcast by the UAVs on the UHF and now VHF television bands. On the FM bands, intercepted phone calls, some humerous as a General complained about getting stupid deliveries, and some horrific as arrest orders went out, were also being broadcast.

To supplement the UAVs, several C130s were now staging out of Gordan Bay and flying circuits just off the coast, sometimes straying within the claimed territorial limits, sometimes not. Full of broadcast equipment, they too sent FM, UHF and VHF broadcasts to the people of Karmayaka.

Always nearby, a flight of fighters was waiting well outside the limit to intervene if needed. Should the Rebels decide to act militarily.

Approaching the Synida River Valley

The two modern F22C's turned as they neared Karmanyakian Airspace. They turned and followed just beyond the the invisible line that ran up the center of the valley. They rushed past the Karmanyankian bridges and their defenses. A moment later the valley filled with the roar of three more jets, these operating in fighter-bomber configurations.

The advance scouts of Fourth Fleet had arrived. And somewhere beyond the horizon was the fleet, with five brigades of Alconian Marines in tow.

The Jaunta had a new problem. They needed more troops to defend their western border.

With things calming down near the Gonad, the Shironi 7th Fleet was now available for other activities.

TF 34, under Rear Admiral Joy Merrill, with 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers, 2 assault carriers (each with a couple of F22D squadrons and a couple of Sea Dragon fly squadrons aboard), 2 replenishment ships, and 2 large submarines was detached and sent north to cruise 100 miles offshore from the Karmayakan coast. Also with her task force was another ship, a converted Spruance class destroyer with its weapons replaced with a large amount of electronic warfare and survellience equipment, and also equiped with a television and FM/AM radio transmitter.

Minister of Foreign Affairs sir Henry Pommer woke up refreshed and had a good breakfast on the veranda of the house he'd been assigned in the park surrounding the House of the Republic. The rain poured down, but from under the veranda roof it was quite a beautiful sight. After breakfast he met with two gentlemen from the CID.

"Gentlemen, I'm Henry Pommer. I understand that you gentlemen can help me get a message through to the people of Karmanyaka. I seem to be the only representative of the legal government who is in position to make a public statement. It seems that the 'Military Committee' has closed all channels except the State Television, STV. If we could in some way tap in on their line we could broadcast a message to the people of Karmanyaka."

--

Council Hall, Katla
Grune listened to Ambassador Segraves and then answered him.

"Ambassador, I thank you for presenting your views to me. We will carefully consider what you have said and we will also let you stay at your embassy and at the scrapyard formerly used as a military base. However, you can't continue with your foreign guard recruitment program, since that would interfere with the martial law, which I am forced to maintain if there is to be some order in this country. As soon as we have something that resembles law and order you may continue your recruitment program."

He smiled at the suggestion to work things out peacefully.

"Mr. Ambassador, I have no opponents to mediate with. The Lord Tengil has abused the confidence of the people and has to be put to trial for his crimes against the Dominon of Karmanyaka. I'm not in a position to negotiate with him, I'm just doing what has to be done. As for the 'Free' "he over-emphasized the word" Republic not having issues with internal Karmanyakan doings, I have a hard time believing that. Our intelligence, which by the way works fine, have indicated massive movements of military forces from a great number of Klatchian states, including Ilek-Vaad. These quite aggressive measures make it quite clear that your country and others find it hard to cope with a Karmanyaka that makes it own decisions."

Grune sat silent for a brief moment before adding: "I choose to disregard your threat to destroy my country. Now I have some work to do, thank you and good bye, Ambassador Segraves."

And he turned to a pile of papers on his desk, without giving Segraves much of a chance to reply.

--

As soon as the ambassador had left an officer entered Grune's office.

"Field Marshal sir, we have very disturbing intelligence. It seems there are several fleets of ships moving towards our coasts and we have reports from civilians who have observed what can only be foreign military units close to Syndia. We're attempting to track them down, but it's a nightmare in those thick woodlands." He took a deep breath but quickly continued when he saw the dark look in Grune's face. "The situation is disastrous, sir. We have a terrible time trying to keep in touch with other regions in the Dominion, and commanders report of mass desertions near the Vaadian border. In the Orva mountains units have been attacked by guerrilla forces, which caused soldiers to desert there too. In Astridburg there is a large protest, apparently hundreds of thousands of people are marching in support of the Lord Tengil. The garrison commander, General Ozcan, won't stop them from violating the curfew since it's all been peaceful so far."

Grune appeared to have stopped listening and was staring in front of him with a faraway expression, but the lieutenant colonel didn't dare stop.

"And in the meantime we have managed to trace the transmissions which have been plaguing us for a week. They almost certainly derive from New Shiron, judging from the signals and the technology. We've done what we can to stop them, but we can't even stop it fully by cutting power to residential areas. Battery-powered radios still get the transmissions and..."

Grune put up his hand.

"How soon can we drag that fat toad Kader in front of a court?"

"Sir? Er… the Lord Tengil cannot be tried for at least a month. We have to collect and organize more evidence, what've got so far won't get us far at all. If we're to dethrone him we need stronger evidence unless we want it to look ridiculous." The lieutenant colonel mumbled nervously.

"Things are getting out of hand, Johnson." said the Field Marshal almost quietly, staring into the far distance. "We have to do something. We can't just sit here and wait to be slaughtered by those foreigners. We should show them that we're serious! Now we should have hade nukes, but Loke didn't want them." He paused.

"Prepare our forces to move into Ilek-Vaad. Plan for a bombing of Fort Fyalar and Veder House. But make sure no one moves a muscle until I've ordered the attack. And strengthen defences all around, if the soldiers have problems with it, apprehend them. Tell that Ozcan clown to stop the protests in Astridburg. This is not a democracy! Now we need an excuse to attack the Vaadians… and it'd better be a good excuse. Meanwhile, secure our western border against those Alconians. If they so much as looks across the border... Well, carry on Johnson!"

The officer (who didn't have the guts to tell Grune that his name was Valentino, not Johnson) walked out of the office with quick paces. The faraway look on Grune's face had been eerie. He feared that the Field Marshal had gone mad, an assumption many had already done.

--

Battle Day Square, Katla
At Tengil Palace things had cooled down a little as the fire in the old Foreign Ministry had been put out. Since the building had been empty for so long, construction work went on in there and gas tubes for welding and other things were stored in the basement. Unfortunately the bag bomb had ignited the tubes greatly enhancing the power of the explosion.

Disarmed Tengil Guards were working in the Palace, sweeping up truckloads of glass and putting up large sheets of plywood in the gaping windows.

Colonel Amid was in charge of the work. As he stepped out onto the stairs of the Palace the sight of the destruction in combination with the sheep that tried to eat a large oil painting in the grand hall became too much for him.

"You two!" he shouted at the fake corporals Ivy and Pike. "Get inside the palace and remove those sheep immediately! Put them in the flatbed or whatever! Just get rid of them!" Just then a gunshot could be heard from inside the palace. Colonel Amid and a troop of heavily armed soldiers barged into the palace only to find that a terrified guard had been forced to shoot a charging ewe. "This isn't a bloody circus!" cried Amid, who had already forgot about the two soldiers outside.

OOC: I'll be away for the weekend, so I'm sorry if I have to postpone your invasions for a couple of days! ; ) This is btw an interesting thread, as far as I'm concerned. I'll try to post on Sunday evening, Swedish time.

(Gas Tanks of Aceteleyne are very very nasty, as it is stored under pressure in liquid acetone)
Tengil Palace

Corporal Pike saluted Colonel Amid and then both of the false noncoms, and their black bag, went in through the front doors. They immediatly set out to deal with the invading sheep problem. Of course the flatbed truck, which was still unrepaired, was quite uselss for this.

But Corporal Pike quickly turned the west inner court yard into an impromtu sheep coral. They ordered a few Tangil guards to guard the doorways and keep the sheep from escaping back into the Palace. Pike got away with this by acting as if it were natural for a mere corporal to order prisoners about. They picked a few of them off the work crews and told them to install plywood sheets over the ground level windows to prevent any of the buggers escaping again.

Colonel Amid should have been happy, the number of sheep in the palace were decreasing quickly. Even if they were not exactly out of his hair completely.

Of course the sheep had scattered throughout the bulding by now, having an Alpha ewe shot tended to do that kind of thing. Although one attempting to eat an oil painting made one wonder if someone hadn't been interbreeding goats and sheep.

Pike used the wandering sheep as an excuse to go looking about the Palace. Supposedly for sheep on the 'lamb' (really bad pun). They walked by guards saluting, and occasionally walked back by with a sheep between them trying to escape. (A few times it was the same bloody sheep but hey they were new to the Palace, and one ewe looked like another)

Pike smiled a little smile, and plotted a little plan, when he located what had to be area they were keeping Lord Tengil. The closed doors and heavy guard detail indicated that. Luckly it was to the front of the building (as noted earlier in the thread)

Pike and Ivy, or false Pike and false Ivy, appeared carrying a large ewe between them over their heads for the last time. They pushed past the two tengil guards who were now shepards, and dropped the bleeting creature near the rest of the unruley flock.

Rather than turn and find another wandering sheep, the false non-coms instead picked up some tools and wood laying in a room in somewhat abandoned condition. The workers having gone off to another room.

The false noncom's appeared before the guards to the residential quarters of Lord Tengil. Rather than appear as sheep hunters, they had several long peices of wood, nails, hammers, several rolls of black plastic with a black bag amongst them, and a saw.

False Pike used his best Karmanyanka accent, "We were ordered by the Colonel to double check and secure the bulkheads over the windows in the residential area to prevent any possiblity of them being removed from the outside."

False Pike and Ivy stood there Ivy looked around quietly while Pike had the look of a corporal that was tired getting ordered about by any old officer in the bloody Karmanyanka chain of command.

Minister of Foreign Affairs sir Henry Pommer woke up refreshed and had a good breakfast on the veranda of the house he'd been assigned in the park surrounding the House of the Republic. The rain poured down, but from under the veranda roof it was quite a beautiful sight. After breakfast he met with two gentlemen from the CID.

"Gentlemen, I'm Henry Pommer. I understand that you gentlemen can help me get a message through to the people of Karmanyaka. I seem to be the only representative of the legal government who is in position to make a public statement. It seems that the 'Military Committee' has closed all channels except the State Television, STV. If we could in some way tap in on their line we could broadcast a message to the people of Karmanyaka."

--

Council Hall, Katla
Grune listened to Ambassador Segraves and then answered him.

"Ambassador, I thank you for presenting your views to me. We will carefully consider what you have said and we will also let you stay at your embassy and at the scrapyard formerly used as a military base. However, you can't continue with your foreign guard recruitment program, since that would interfere with the martial law, which I am forced to maintain if there is to be some order in this country. As soon as we have something that resembles law and order you may continue your recruitment program."

He smiled at the suggestion to work things out peacefully.

"Mr. Ambassador, I have no opponents to mediate with. The Lord Tengil has abused the confidence of the people and has to be put to trial for his crimes against the Dominon of Karmanyaka. I'm not in a position to negotiate with him, I'm just doing what has to be done. As for the 'Free' "he over-emphasized the word" Republic not having issues with internal Karmanyakan doings, I have a hard time believing that. Our intelligence, which by the way works fine, have indicated massive movements of military forces from a great number of Klatchian states, including Ilek-Vaad. These quite aggressive measures make it quite clear that your country and others find it hard to cope with a Karmanyaka that makes it own decisions."

Grune sat silent for a brief moment before adding: "I choose to disregard your threat to destroy my country. Now I have some work to do, thank you and good bye, Ambassador Segraves."

And he turned to a pile of papers on his desk, without giving Segraves much of a chance to reply.

--



House of the Republic

Sir Richard Evans and the Right and Honurable Sir Horace Templeton met with Minister Pommer as soon as he was rested and ready. Sir Templeton did most of the talking.

"Yes Minister POmmer, we can facilitate a public address by you made to your nation." explained Templeton "Mind we aren't sure how many people will receive it, with the martial law in Karmanyaka have come rolling blackouts, crackdowns on information and technology. We can ceratianly use our satellites to jam local signals in Karmanyaka and re-insert our own and we can make poerful enough radio broadcasts to make sure even pocket radios will recive them."

He paused "We can have a van here with the equipment within the hour, and have you going live two or three hours after that."

Council Hall, Katla

Ambassador Segraves didn't say much of anything he simply stated after Grune was finished "Thank you for your time Field Marshal. Don't say that I didn't warn and good luck, you will need it."

With that he left.

*****

Fort Fyalar

The three Tendarus Mountain Industries LTD Hercules transports had docked and began unloading , the two Jaguar Arsenal Cruisers sat about ten miles off shoer, the heavy waves washing over their hulls like they were surfaced submarines, in this weather the low profile Jaguar's were practically invisible to radar and the nacked eye. They stealthily kept an eye on the Fort.

Inside the Fort General Deadmarsh kept a personal eye on everything, soaking wet, limping around yelling commands at everyone, it was suprising, but he seemed to know as much about the general labor as the contractors did.

Lord Valen walked over to him and shook his hand "Adam, it is good to see you." states the nearly seven foot tall 'elven' man "You should be inside, this weather is no good for you hurari to be out in."

Deadmarsh laughed "The way the roofs are leaking it's worse in there. Get you and your men to work old man."

Valen smiled and saluted sharply. "Yes sir, General sir." Lord Valen then picked a relatively high vantage point to subervise his men.

*****

Vaadian Karmanyaka Border

The trickle of deserters and asylum seekers crossing the border put the Velite Guard on edge and gave Command General Baibars a bad feeling. He called his commanders in.

"Gentlemen, they enemy is confused and weaking, and the like the sick cornered dog that he is will soon bite at whomever is the closest.

Move your men fifty miles from the border. If they cross we will have at an hours warning and while they vainly try to make contact with us we will encircle them and cut the poor sich dog limb from limb."

Baibars Commanders nodded and relayed the orders. Baibars himself took his Red Jaguar and massed them with the Tiger Army, a full seventy five miles from the border, momentum would be at his back for any counter attack.He sat , leaning from the cupola of his Chok-Mool Super Heavy Battletank and muttered

"Allah willing, I shall break these dogs and crush their very souls and scatter them, like so many stones among stones."

House of the Republic

Sir Richard Evans and the Right and Honurable Sir Horace Templeton met with Minister Pommer as soon as he was rested and ready. Sir Templeton did most of the talking.

"Yes Minister POmmer, we can facilitate a public address by you made to your nation." explained Templeton "Mind we aren't sure how many people will receive it, with the martial law in Karmanyaka have come rolling blackouts, crackdowns on information and technology. We can ceratianly use our satellites to jam local signals in Karmanyaka and re-insert our own and we can make poerful enough radio broadcasts to make sure even pocket radios will recive them."

He paused "We can have a van here with the equipment within the hour, and have you going live two or three hours after that." ."

ooc
jamming and taking over the satellites might be harder than you think since I have already physically taken control of them, however, all of those border crossers should be telling you about the pirate FM/AM/UHF/VHF broadcasts my UAV platforms and aircraft are making though... a simple request will get you all the broadcast time you need :)

IC
New Shiron Intel analysts watched in amazement as huge chunks of the power grid were taken down. Apparently on purpose. The whole national economy was going to come apart soon at this rate.

It would make targeting easier though. The areas with power clearly were considered Rebel supporters, and those areas still generated signal traffic that could be analyzed for targeting purposes.

in New Shiron, the Royal Guard and Royal Constabulatory moved in and seized the embassy of Karmayaka and its consulates, citing security concerns. Meanwhile, the New Shiron government released the freeze it had placed on Karmayakan assets, and privately informed the Keys of that nation in Port Olympus that those funds would be available to them, as representatives of the legal government of Karmayaka.

Bay of Lunacy
The ships began to file out in the dead of night, hundreds of ships of all different sizes, Tankers, warships, large whaling ships, anything and everything that could be used to store troops and ammunition and float was being used. On the carriers the Type-10 Carry alls were having their engine tested and checked, and the initial strike teams and strike-tanks were also checked over.

The 6 man tank-crew of the Apocalypse tank “Spirit of Midlonia” were running around and checking the track parts to their precious heavy tank. After a few more checks the tank was driven into the waiting container, to be dropped on the cliff tops of Karmanyaka. The Crew then went to stand back on the deck and watched around them as the hundreds of warships and possibly a thousand or more merchant vessels of different sizes and purposes chugged along side their troop transporters.
’Bit of a site innit?’ one remarked to another as they watched with awe, the sun slowly began to rise and they knew it would not be long before the invasion was to begin.
Marshal George Rothlington stood with his crew and sighed, he stared almost with a sad longing at an aircraft carrier that shadowed their troop transporter with its own giant hull.
With a sigh he turned away and headed below deck.


Ministry of Defence, Midlonia

Safe and comfortable in their ministry building the various civil servants and soldiers that served the paper cogs of the war machine bustled, the corridors had not been this active for an age. The SAM sites had been wheeled out and placed around the complex. And Sandbags were placed around the windows; all simple measures should somehow the Karmanyakans send stuff their way. The messages were sent, the attack was [and simply couldn’t] now be called off. The key words “Red Dovetail” were given and the operation would be in full swing within a couple of very short hours.

The Western Border of Karmanyanka

The landings had begun as the sun set. From The three Amphibious Assult Carriers of Taskforce Wayvern and the almost thirty Heavy Transport Ships, the hovercraft landing craft, HLC's were all over the steep sandy shores west of the Syndia River. And in the Air above Rotodyenes were out to both watch the air for missles and drop of small groups of marines to secure bases.

39 Miles Inland
On the abandoned tarmac of an airport, several rotodyenes waited quietly and patiently. Marines formed a loose perimiter around the site. As dawn appraoched the roar of jet engines could be heard approaching the runway. The Saab 2000 jet landed on the concrete and rolled to a stop. Two women exited the plane and transfered to a Rotodyene.

Parliament
The gavel was struck three times by the the Speaker. "The vote to send a Marshal to investigate the Karmanyanka matter has passed by twenty-one votes to three calling for fnord. We welcome back the Benjian Keys."

Port Olympus Aerodrone
The old terminal building was quite nice, if still stuck back in the 1920's. The ground crews had spruced it back up, chrome shone and one could imagine people waiting for a Ford Tri-motor to come to life and take them into the bright blue beyond.

Now Three men in black uniforms sat at a table. They were sitting behind a large creature eight-foot tall in black, red lined robes. Unlike his fellow Var, he did not hide his head beneath the cowl, but allowed his dragon like head to be exposed. Of course he was wearing some kind of goggles over his red eyes, to protect from the bright light. They were all watching the closed circuit T.V.

"So, I must go now to Karmanyanka and read them the riot act. They are human?"

"Yes Sir..."

"Ah, I was hoping they were Orcs so perhaps I could eat a few...including this Grund Character."

The Var and his entorage exited the building and turned towards their craft. It was a oversized interceptor Var Bomber modified into a transport craft. It would be over Karmanyanka in less than two hours.

Mysteriously, as soon as New Shiron intelligence picked up that the Marshal was on his way to Karmayaka, the television and radio broadcasts mysteriously stopped.

Of course they could start again, but for now the UAVs that were transmitting and the MC130s offshore went back to base.

Cyber attacks stopped as well, at least from the outside, although many viruses and worms were still skipping around the national internet that remained in Karmayaka.

Soon though, the radion and television transmissions began again, this time based on a New Shiron converted destroyer steaming 110 miles off the Karmayakan coast. It was a powerful transmitter, and a lot of power would be required to jam its signals, plus it had a tendancy to skip around every couple of hours on a random basis both in time and frequency.

Nothing illegal about broadcasting entertainment signals to the ships of the New Shiron Navy after all. Of course, the signal was powerful enough that it either broke or skirted a number of international agreements on frequency usuage, but in the scheme of things that was relatively minor.

Tengil Palace, Katla
In Tengil Palace, officers had long since started ignoring non-coms who only looked like they were doing something useful. It was the ones who looked like they loitered who got the attention. 'Pike and Ivy' were quite safe and the guards would probably even let them inside the Lord Tengil's office, after all with all those broken windows, one might suspect that the imprisoned ruler might try to escape.

Everyone in the Armed Forces had heard about the worsening situation and the threat of foreign intervention in this coup. It hardly helped that many soldiers and officers objected to the entire coup. Since there was hardly any commercial activity going on anymore, the economic implications of the martial law and the systematic repression were still mostly unknown. The morale of the troops was low, and the intelligence and coordination wasn't much better. In short, the Dominion wouldn't stand a chance against a determined enemy.

--

Lassic, Ilek-Vaad
Sir Henry Pommer, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kader government sat in the improvised but highly advanced studio to broadcast a message to the people of the Dominion of Karmanyaka.

"Good afternoon, fellow Karmanyakans. I am sir Henry Pommer, Knight of the Council and a loyal member of the rightful government of Karmanyaka. I address you here today from my refuge in Ilek-Vaad…"

The Speech continued for a long while. Sir Henry spoke about the illegal coup and the incarceration of the Lord Tengil, Johan Kader, about the repression of the Military Committee and the Armed Forces. He encouraged the people to resist the Junta whenever possible and without danger of theirs and other people's lives. A large portion of the speech was directed to the armed forces, ordinary soldiers and their commanders. He pleaded to them to stand up for the liberty of the nation and assist in the overthrowing of the Grune Junta and help reinstating the Lord Tengil.

"Remember that when he founded our nation many hundreds of years ago, Tengil fought for the Karmanyakan people against the rebel oppressors who wanted to split the people and divide their lands. A piece of our founding father Tengil lies inside us all, waiting to wage war against injustice and repression. With the help of this inherited strength we must sometimes fight for the right to our own lives, for the right to express our thoughts, for democracy. Today is such a time, today is the time to fight, today is the Battle Day. All Power To Tengil – Our Liberator!"

All over Karmanyaka people had listened to the speech on battery-powered radios, seen him on TV sets or watched the live webcast. Grune and his Military Committee felt the power of the words and braced for what was about to come. Now it was a matter of sheer will and force if they were to keep the power over the country to themselves.

--

Katla, Karmanyaka
The news that the Embassy in New Shiron had been seized reached Katla quite late. All personnel abroad were still loyal to the government of Lord Tengil Kader, which meant that the embassy staff including the ambassador Kolya Murayev had little contact with the governing organs in Katla. Ambassador Moulin welcomed the New Shiron military but asked them respectfully to at least stay outside his office.

In Port Olympus, the Karmanyakan delegates thanked New Shiron for the help in the liberation of their country.

Grune went absolutely mad at the news that New Shiron had taken the embassy. But it wasn't all bad news for Grune. At least this meant that New Shiron had violated Karmanyakan territory with armed forces, equivalent to an act of war. The problem was that New Shiron was well out of reach for Karmanyakan forces. A few futile attempts at sending rockets towards the Exeter were made, but lacking satellites and with the air buzzing with electronic interference and jamming signals, the chances of hitting were slim to none.

About at the same time as intelligence informed Field Marshal Grune and the Prodirectorate of the estimated arrival of the Klatchian Marshal, the first fragments of information on the Midlonian fleetarrived.

Supreme Prodirector Christoffer Niels barged in on the Field Marshal.

"They're sending a bloody dragon to 'investigate' us and it looks like the Midlonians are moving in on us with force. What little intelligence we have gathered from the navy tells us that an entire armada of Midlonian ships are headed here. We should prepare for an invasion."

"F***!!" screamed Grune and swooped away every piece of paper on his desk. "Send everything we've got on them! Alert all coastal defences and shell those ships to pieces as soon as they get within range! Tell Marten to get as many birds up and bomb them to the bottom of the sea!"

"Nicholas, I don't think that's very wise…" began Niels.

"Shut up and let me run things! I'm the supreme commander, I've been fighting wars since I learned to walk!"

"Nicholas! This isn't a bunch of separatists! These are the combined Klatchian armed forces. This is Midlonia who almost blew up a ship for speeding on Klatchian waters, this is Ilek-Vaad, the Alconians and the interstellar forces of New Shiron. We've got the eyes of the entire Federation on us and the JDF is just waiting to move in! You've got to see when it's time…"

Grune picked up his pistol from the desk drawer and put four bullets in the head of his colleague.

"Shut up! You insolent f***!" he screamed at the corpse of the Supreme Prodirector as confused guards rushed into the office and tried t understand what ha happened.

"He… He attacked me! He tried to strangle me!" gasped the Field Marshal while soldiers carried away the dead Niels.

--

Every fortress and gun battery on the Karmanyakan border went into full alert. Airplanes took off and went out to sea to counter the Midlonians. The Alconian presence was noticed too and the 7th and 9th Armies turned west to stop the incursion. However the entire 9th Army stopped where they were and lay down their weapons. The commander General Gustave refused to run the errands of a traitor, he explained in a communiqué. The 7th Army continued hesitantly. Other problems also ensued as troops flowed out of the cities to meet the threat of invasion on the borders and coasts. The control that had so far been maintained by the army now grew thinner and more fragile and it didn't take long before large masses of people roamed the streets, defying the martial law. Suddenly it wasn't entirely safe to be seen in an army uniform alone in Katla.

All over the Dominion of Karmanyaka similar scenes were displayed, large groups of soldiers deserted or just sat still where they were. Grand Admiral Johnson, supreme commander of the navy, sent a message to Grune where he declared that he was no longer obeying orders from the so-called Military Committee. He was however intent on defending Karmanyakan territory against foreign incursion.

In the midst of all this the Klatchian Marshal were directed to land his Var vessel on Katla's Segland International Airport. Field Marshal Grune was incredibly unstable and had gone quite paranoid since he shot the Supreme Prodirector. He'd gone to meet 'that oversized newt' as he'd called the Var when he last conferred with the terrified members of the Military Committee. Now he stood on the Tarmac, eager to present the marshal with his point of view.

OOC: I'm new to war RP so feel free to correct me when I write stupid things and advice me on counter manoeuvers. : ) I'm happy for all constructive criticism.

Tollan, Tollan Massif, Ilek-Vaad

The main screen flickered as it automatically switched to the massive Midlonian deployment now headed for Karmanyakan shores. It was partially suprising to the Retaliatory Guard Command, as they hadn't been watching Midlonia very closely. Supreme Republican Commander Ring rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"That's not going to be good for anybody. A hostile government in Karmanyaka is one thing, but an armed Midlonian presence on our border is unacceptable."

He paused and looked over the activation schedules.

"Activate the entirety of the Naval Guard and the Coastal Guard. If the Midlonians land in Karmanyaka order Command General Baibars to move into Karmanyaka. Order the Naval Guard to sink every Midlonian ship that they can after the Midlonian transports have been emptied. Also activate the entirety of the Retaliatory Guard, get my command tank ready. If Midlonia lands I wil take command of the front with the Purifiers.

Get me the Minister of Defence."

*****

House of the Republic,Lassic, Ilek-Vaad

The Minister of Defence stood in the Council Chambers. "I have just received word from Tollan that Midlonia has dispathed an invasion force to Karmanyaka."

The Minister of National Security sputtered "That is unacceptable! Midlonia has knowingly aided our enemies in the past! Midlonian forces on the Free REpublic's borders are unacceptable!"

The First Republican nodded "This is indeed unaccaptable. Commander Ring has a counter plan?"

The Minister of Defence nodded "The Retaliatory Guard forces on the Karmanyakan border are prepared to drive into Karmanyaka and move to counter the Midlonian threat, the Naval Guard will be fully activated and begin deploying by tomorrow night, and will cripple the Midlonian fleet , stranding the invaders at our mercy. Undoubtedly this will force Midlonia to stop their action with their invasion force stranded and unsupplied. All he needs is mandate to act."

The First Republican nods and stands "I propose that we release the Supreme Republican Commander to act and relax this situation in the hands of the Retaliatory Guard.

The Supreme Republican Commander should be mandated to secure Karmanyaka against foreign aggression and occupation and charged with removing the military junta that threatens the stability of our borders.

All in favour?"

The vote was unanimous. A brief public statement was read to the press by the Minister of Defence:

"The situation in Karmanyaka has deteriorated rapidly. States of the FKC, acting independantly of Federation and JDF controls, apparently, have dispatched forces to invade Karmanyakan soil, occupy Karmanyaka and spread the instability caused by the Military Junta.

The Republican Council has therefore relaxed this matter to the Retaliatory Guard and given Mandate to the Supreme Republican Commander to secure Karmanyaka from foreign aggression and to remove the unstable and erratic Military Junta that now controls the nation.

Interference with the Mandate of the Supreme Republican Commander by ANY power is unacceptable.

All Power to the People."

*****

Minister had just finished his speech when an assistant to Sir Alec rushed in

"Minister Pommer! Midlonia has sent an invasion force, it is heading for the southern coast of Karmanyaka. The Republican Council has ordered the Supreme Republican Commander to intervene.

*****

Karmanyaka Border, Ilek-Vaad

Command General Baibars had received his orders and the five Retaliatory Guard armies under his command mounted up and prepared to move. the Tiger Army was put in the vanguard to spear head the push.

All he waited for was confirmation that Midlonian boots had touched Karmanyakan soil.

OOC:

Nothing makes the Vaadians more agitated than invading a nation on their border....


NS- the CID wasn't going to take control of Karmanyakan satellites, just jam them, and use their own satellites to broadcast Minister Pommer's message.

Lord Tengil's Office
False Pike and Ivy walked into the room and dropped the various implements on the floor looking at the windows. False Pike pushed against the plywood sheet and shook his head. "Quite loose..." As the guard on the door closed it, Ivy turned and elbowed Pike in the ribs. Pike nodded and went down to the black bag while Ivy turned to address the Karmanyanka leader.

"Sir, Patrick Palsey KCN News, we would like your view on the sudden change of Government and the supposed vote of the Knights to remove you from power. And please don't shout...we don't want to disturb the guards."

Tanville had pulled their camera gear out of the black bag and was approaching the Lord with the right light blinking. "I say we have time for a ten minuite interview so keep the answers tight sir...this might be the only chance to tell your people and the outside world what you think...."

The video was being recorded and compressed into a nice quick message packet to be sent to KCN. If the New Shrions hadn't taken it over by now.

‘Air Marshal,’ The Admiral nodded as Jennah entered the bridge. ‘here is the latest report.’ He handed her a clipboard, which she duly took. ‘In short we now have various Karmanyakan interceptors incoming, we also had this transmission from Ilek-Vaad, they’re going to rally a whole lot of shit to try to wipe us out. I took the liberty of alerting Aerospace command, and they will be moving elements in to protect us, we hope that this will… ahem, discourage our annihilation and allow the invasion to continue unhindered, I suggest your fly boys and girls get up and going to beat those interceptors off of us, we’ll be within range to fire the missiles on the Karmanyakan fortifications within an hour, with the actual invasion around half an hour after that, good hunting.’
Jennah smiled and flicked her tail, the game was on.
’Admiral, you did well, smart man, keep at it and you’ll be on the Navy Marshall’s general staff, and don’t worry, we got the new ZMI fighters, we’ll beat them off.’ She nodded as she left the bridge and ran down to the deck where her fighter sat fuelled and ready, she leapt into the cockpit and gave the thumbs up to her mechanic as the top was slammed shut. Checking her dials and her auspex, she nodded and thumbed the boost button. She took off into the air and felt exhilarated; she began to loop around with her wing, waiting for others to join.
It was incredibly unusual for the Air Marshal of all people to put herself in danger, but still, she wasn’t in charge of air ops over the sea, the Navy was, so her command role was relieved until they had established forward air bases. So until then she was merely an extra pilot in the air.

Soon some 50 aircraft from two of the “mini” carriers had rallied and turned to face the threat of the Karmanyakan interceptors.

ooc: Vaad, I should really have contacted you, a successful invasion must go ahead, this is going to spark off a long RP that will result in a regime change in Midlonia. That and the JDF needs a work-out according to Vrak and me >_> But yeah, I’m hoping that the Aerospace elements will result in restraining the actions of the Vaadian fleet.

Western Sydnia River Valley, Operations Base Echo

There were now five Alconian Marine Battallions forming up along the Karmanyanka Border. Two were light armored battallions with their new Kobi tanks, two were mechanized infantry battallions, and the fifth was an engineering battallion.

At the command camp, Baroness Winton was informed of the recent actions of the Vaadians.

"Damn it...Don't the Vaadians know that....great...this is become a real fu** up. Alright someone get me on the horn to Sir Alec. I need to stop the Vaadians before they suddenly find themselves at war with the entire Klatch."


Emergency Communication:
To: Foreign Minister of Ilek-Vaad
From: Royal Envoy of the United Duchies
Subject: Invasion of The Klatchian Federation

I strenously point out that any intervention in the Karmanyanka by the Retalitory Guard would likely provoke a Klatchian-Vaadian War. The Federation does not care for unilatteral actions against its territorial integrity. If you are determined to act against the apparent Mildonian invasion I suggest immediatly that you get approval from the Klatchian Parliament to stop any Rouge Klatchian Forces from invading the state of Karmanyanka.

-Baroness Winton


The JDF Costal Taskforce
The taskforce itself had turned and was now apparently situated between the approaching Mildonian Forces and the Karmanyanka coast. It began to broadcast this message.

Mildonian Fleet, you have not been authorized to intervene in Karmanyanka by the Privy Council or Parliament. You are hearby ordered to stop 23 miles from Karmanyankian shores or you will be considered Rouge and Fired upon....

Really the ships of the Coastal Taskforce couldn't stop the approaching Mildonian Fleet. But it could hurt it.... The three costal battleships turned their 11 inch guns towards the south and armed their missle batteries. All of the helicopters had launched and were hovering over the fleet, waiting.

The two Alconian 'merchantmen' who had been tagging along with the fleet had turned south on a course somewhat parrallel to that of the Mildonian fleet approaching.

Tollan Massif, Tollan, Ilek-Vaad

Retaliatory Guard Command watched intently as the Midlonians and Karmanyakans began their first skirmishes and the Midlonian aerospace assets aligning against the Free Republic. Supreme Republican Commander Ring stood and shook his head.

"Command General Lucane, you are in charge of Tollan. I am heading to South Haven to take personal Command.

Put Phyrrhus Station on alert, Activate the Air Guard, get the Swords and the Death's Heads into the air."

With that he strode out to his personal command jet, he would be in South Haven in a few hours.

Meanwhile alarms sounded throughout the Massif as the thirty eight foot thick blast shield closed the mounatin fortress, except for the sir strips where shift after shift of the Death's Head sub-orbital bombers launched. The SPEAR batteroes across the country deployed and came to life to counter missle and air threats.

In space Phyrric I activated it's King Rus particle accelerator batteries and it's single Navigator built Razer cannon. The stealthy Sword of Damocles OAV's quietly exited the station and began highlighting possible Midlonian targets.

The threat posed by Midlonian aerospace assets had only heightened Retaliatory Guard alerts and mobilized even more Retaliatory Guard assets.

OOC:

Retaliatory Guard Command intends to let the invasion take place,but they will counter it. Under no circumstances will the Free Republic allow Midlonia to have a military presence on their border, or a Midlonian puppet government.

If I were to ignore it and not have Ilek-Vaad react, that would most certainly not be in character. Vaadians are VERY touchy about military operations on their borders, especially when they are carried out by a state that is so obviously belligerent towrds them, like Midlonia ;)

IF the Midlonians want to do anything in Karmanyaka they better do the diplomacy and get the Vaadians on board!

OOC: But Vaadians intervening in the Klatch would likely cause a war with the Klatch...

I think that is an established principle by now.

IC:
Katla
The fast transport decended towards the tarmac with little intrest in what the air traffic controllers had to say. As long as a 777 the vessel had no wings, just four massive jet engines at the center of the ship. There were four obvious ball turrets built into the fusalage, one in the bow, one in the stern, one in the belly and one on the top just above the engines.

As the fast transport neared the earth again, six sets of wheels extended and then touched down on the ground. The fast transport had been built to taxi at Terran airports, and it did so here, stopping before Grune's party.

The engines dropped their roar and a gangway extended from the bottom of the craft. A moment later, four figures appeared on the gangway. Three were obviously humans in black military uniforms. The Fourth was Zeelord Ke'tra. At almost eight foot tall the creature stood high above his (or her?) aides. The group stopped at the bottom of the gangway and looked at Grune. The red glowing eyes of the Marshal were hard to make out behind his tinted goggles.

At the command camp, Baroness Winton was informed of the recent actions of the Vaadians.

"Damn it...Don't the Vaadians know that....great...this is become a real fu** up. Alright someone get me on the horn to Sir Alec. I need to stop the Vaadians before they suddenly find themselves at war with the entire Klatch."


Emergency Communication:
To: Foreign Minister of Ilek-Vaad
From: Royal Envoy of the United Duchies
Subject: Invasion of The Klatchian Federation

I strenously point out that any intervention in the Karmanyanka by the Retalitory Guard would likely provoke a Klatchian-Vaadian War. The Federation does not care for unilatteral actions against its territorial integrity. If you are determined to act against the apparent Mildonian invasion I suggest immediatly that you get approval from the Klatchian Parliament to stop any Rouge Klatchian Forces from invading the state of Karmanyanka.

-Baroness Winton




Sir Alec's office received the missive but was not at liberty to respond to it, he forwarded it to Retaliatory Guard Command.

The Baroness did get Sir Alec on the phone, directly, he amused himself by answering the Ministries phones before the receptionist could, something that vexed her to no end.

"Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Connover speaking. Ah, yes Baroness Winton, how are you this morning? I knew you couldn't stay angry with me."

*****

Tollan Massif, Tollan, Ilek-Vaad

Command General Lucane received the missive from Baroness Winton and as he was in Command he decided that he would reply personally. A very unusual step, it was normally a Staff Seargent that replied to with a polite 'Feck off you foreigner' , Baroness Winton should be flattered that a Command General thought enough of the Alconians to actually reply.

Emergency Communication:
To: Royal Envoy of the United Duchies
From: Retaliatory Guard Command, Command General Lucane
Subject: RE:Invasion of The Klatchian Federation

The Republican Council has relaxed the situation in Karmanyaka to the Retalitory Guard, as such, Minister Connover or any other member of the Republican Council does not have the power to take any action in this matter until the current Mandate is lifted.

The Free Republic considers military invasions of our neighbor by rogue FKC nations as an act of open aggression. Such things may be tolerated elsewhere in the region, but not on the borders of the Free Republic. States acting outside of the Federation will be dealt with by the Retaliatory Guard Command. If the Federation unwisely then wishes to move to protect such rogue states for their actions, which are illegal according to the Federation Constitution, the Retaliatory Guard will deal with that as necessary.

The FKC may, of course, choose to take action to reign in their states that believe in indiscrimanently acting illegally in the context of the Federation. If the FKC does that, then the Retaliatory Guard will have no reason to act in the first place.

If Midlonian forces, which are unfriendly to the Free Republic, set up shop directly on our border, the Retaliatory Guard will deal with them as it believes is necessary.

I would also advise that any communications on this matter be sent to Retaliatory Guard Command as the Republican Council no longer has jurisdiction in this matter.

Command General Lucane, 16th Red Jaguar Command

OOC: According to the FKC constitution, it is illegal for one FKC state to attack another..............which is precisely what Midlonia is doing..............Karmanyaka is still an FKC state.

The Queen and the senior leaders in Parliament met in a hurried conference call to figure out what to do now that the situation in Karmayaka had finally passed crisis point into potential catastrophe.

"Well here is the problem." Gabrielle said in her cool soprano, "we want to restore the legal government of Karmayaka, and it looked like we were going to reach our goal without military combat. But now Midlonia is going to invade Karmayaka, even though its flagrantly illegal under the constitution to do so. Now Ilek Vaad is mobilizing and it looks like they are going to invade and they aren't even in the FKC. So technically both are subject to military action by the FKC, and that means, since we have forces assigned to the JDF, we might end up fighting them too. Now the good news is that we simply don't have the naval or ground forces available. Our entire rapid deployment force is currently in Gordon Bay, most of our fleet is guarding the logistics and sealift forces handling that operation, and we have only the small task force that was guarding our propaganda ship near Karmayaka in the way."

She sipped her coffee and continued, "Our space assets are available, and I don't see how we can avoid committing those if requested to do so though. Perhaps the JDF will forget they are there and we can avoid this mess. I still want those bastards in Karmayaka who started this taken out though. So here is what I suggest. We go ahead and send in the UAVs to take out the guard forces at the internment camps. Its deniable, and the assumption might be that the Midlonians or Vaaders did it. How do you feel about that ladies and gentlemen?"

The vote wasn't even close. Orders to begin Operation Son Tay was sent out shortly after that.

UAVs now launched from Gordon Bay and climbed high to 80,000 feet. Dozens of them. Dozens more preceeded them to act as spotters and to continue ongoing surviellance. Within a few hours they were in position all over Karmayaka.

The attack when it was launched was coordinated and occured all at once. At each of 100 identified internment camp, UAVs would activate laser designators, moving from guard tower to guard tower to guard barracks in sequence. An instant later, a missile would fire and speed toward the target at Mach 10. They didn't even have warheads, the overwhelming kinetic energy when released on anything solid was more than enough to practically vaporize everything within the radius of a 105 mm shell burst.

Once finished, most of the UAVs left as quickly as they came in, with only a few remaining to monitor events.

Meanwhile, in the camps, the internees would now find themselves facing few if any surviving guards if things went well.

Command Camp Echo

Baroness Winton was reading one response while talking to Sir Alec. " I was never angry with you Sir Alec, but I do wonder...Does Ilek Vaad desire a war with the Federation?"

Command Camp Echo

Baroness Winton was reading one response while talking to Sir Alec. " I was never angry with you Sir Alec, but I do wonder...Does Ilek Vaad desire a war with the Federation?"

"Well that is a very tricky question indeed. First I should explain that the Free Republic never, ever declares war. The Republican Council issues a Military Mandate, which basically puts the sphere of a specific problem that can't be dealt with by ordinary means into the hands of the Supreme Republican Commander." He pauses and takes a breath "Then the Supreme Republican Commander completes the stated goal of the mandate as he sees fit, so long as he does not break any laws or treaties the Republican Council remains uninvolved until the mandate is sufficently completed and then repealed."

He pauses again as he looks over his defence stock quotes "Now, normally we would not implement a mandate against an FKC state. As you know in the past our military actions have supported the FKC whole heartedly, but we now have a unique situation.

Midlonia, a Federation state, is poised to invade Karmanyaka, yet another Federation state, which by the Federation Constitution is in no uncertain terms illegal, this should, if we follow your constitution, lead to attainment of Midlonia's military. Normally we would simply let you Federales sort all of that out, but, we have a big BUT.

Midlonia is openly aggressive and hostile towards the Free Republic and has in the past even taken the step of mobilizing it's military to support other nations planned attacks upon the Free Republic. Take that in context and the end result is: We will fight anyone, anytime anywhere to keep Midlonian military assets off of our door step.

The Federation can take that as it wants. Midlonia is acting illegally in the first place, IF the Federation wants to start a war with us to defend Midlonia's blatantly illegal and aggressive actions, then you need to do what you need to do.

I would suggest that you reign in your rogue states that have decided to engage in illegal war with Karmanyaka and the Retaliatory Guard will have no need to act one way or the other.

Having said that I need to add a caveat: Whatever I tell you now, is meaningless. Once a Military Mandate has been issued the Ministers of the Republican Council and even the First Republican are powerless to act. In fact if I sit and try to come up with plans to resolve this, I would be guilty of treason and executed, so you really need to call someone in Retalitory Guard Command, I can transfer you if you like?

Mind you, just because there IS a Military Mandate does not mean there will be military action. IF the Supreme Republican Commander can negotiate a solution, he will in all likelyhood do so, but he has his own people for that. I assure you he doesen't want me involved."

He waited to see what the Baroness thought of all that.

Lassic
Sir Henry Pommer lowered his eyes at the news of the coming invasion. "May the gods have mercy on us." he said quietly to himself. "I had hoped we could resolve this without foreign interference, but now it looks like I have to talk to the Midlonians too. Not that their help isn't welcome, but… it all seems quite rash. How soon can we get to Port Olympus?"

--

Katla
Most of the Military Committee had move to Defence Command Headquarters, a large bunker-like structure beneath the Prodirectorate.

They watched the large screen with its impressive amount of red dots closing in on an ever decreasing number of green dots becoming yellow.

"Sir, we have lost contact with the commander of the 3rd, 12th and 13th Armies. The Navy lives its own life under Sir Nguen too." A general pointed to the yellow dots representing the rogue units.

"If this continues, soon all we command will be this building." muttered General Katory.

"A bunch of traitors!" hissed Prodirector Patrice Snell, who was filling in for the recently passed-away Niels. "Is this the thanks for trying to save the country from moral decay?! We should blow those Midlonians out of the water and push the Alconians into the river! The Vaadians could be dealt with soon enough. If they don't kill each other first, that is.

--

Tengil Palace
Lord Tengil Kader sat at his desk in his thick coat. He had tried to get someone to wipe up the broken glass from the floor so he was relieved when the two corporals stepped in. The relief was soon turned into surprise and the joy.

"KCN? Good lads! I'd be happy to give you my version!" He straightened up and tried to smooth down his hair and suddenly he looked more like a statesman than a prisoner.

"Well, it's quite obvious that what Grune and his henchmen have done violates Karmanyakan law. It's true that the Council voted on removing me from office, but hardly a third of the Knights were there to vote, making it illegal. This is an outright coup and there is nothing legal about it. This so-called 'Military Committee' consists of criminals who ravage the country for their own personal profit. Now the People of Karmanyaka pleads to the FKC to assist in the liberation that is already underway."

--

OOC: I’ll have to come back with more later. RL-stuff you know (RL by the way are also my initials...).

Camp Echo
The Baroness waited for Sir Alec to actually pause. "I am going to assume the answer is No, but we are damn not going to have Mildonia take over Karmanyanka.' Which is exactly what I thought it was going to be. I really don't want to stop you from interveneing. I just want to stop this from completely spirling out of control, which is going to happen when your republican guard steps over the border."

She paused for a second, "What I need for someone to do, is simply get a copy of whatever legal agreement you have about the Foreign Guard with Karmanyanka, make sure that it includes a phrase about mutual defense against foreign invaders and Rouge Klatchian States, and get it to Pommer.

Pommer, then if he wants your help which I am sure he does, is to fax it to the Karmanyanka Keys to be presented before the Klatchian Parliament ASAP.

I don't care who does it...it just needs to get done. Consider it a Klatchian Mandate if you will, or needless silly foreign paperwork. But sometimes a peice of paper can damn well stop a horde of tanks. Now is this your affair, the Republican Guards Affair, or Jimmy Stewart's?"

Lord Tengil's Office
(OOC: I will be making a list of questions for Tengil to answer.)

Both Tanville and Palsey were taking off their uniforms as they interviewed the Lord. "So what your saying is that for your legal removal he had to have a vote of all the Knights not just the third who supported him?"

"Sir, do you support the intervention of the Federation in this internal matter?"

"Have you been informed of why this jaunta feel that you are a criminal, in their eyes?"

"How exactly is Feild Marshall Grune and his fellow consipiritors profitting over the people? There is wide spread financial panic as well as their own personal fortunes being destroyed recently..."

"My Lord, have your guards mistreated you in anyway?"

Tanville hit the pause button.
"Sir, are you the legal Supreme Commander of your State's Military? Becuase I have been asked to inform you that the United Duchies is planning on forming a Free Karmanyanka Army on the otherside of the Syndia river. It would quite helpful if Baroness Winton, the Royal Envoy, happened to have a commission in the Karmanyanka Military to enble her to call on disenting troops to follow her commands. At present she only has five divisions* of Alconian Marines to back her up and protect the Free Army as it is formed."

*A slip of the tounge, a battallion became a division.

Admiral Merrill, aboard the cruiser Renown, watched on the situation screen as the vast Midlonian fleet steamed steadily toward her little task force. When word reached her directing her to get out of the way, she sighed in relief. Task Force 34 was a powerful collection of ships, but to remain in place ran the risk of a collesion at the very least. More likely the trigger happy Midlonians would open fire by mistake.

The little task force quickly went to extreme emisions control and steamed out of the way at its best speed of 30 knots, so at to not leave the Psyops ship behind. Already motion sensors, cameras and infra red scanners were picking up a huge collection of aircraft heading straight for Karmayaka.

-------------
In Regina, a large collection of Royal Police guarded the Karmayakan Embassy, but except for a few dozen who had briefly entered the complex and then left, everything was as it had been before the crisis. Now however, the diplomatic personnel inside had been informed that they could seek asylum should it be required.

"This is solely the Retaliatory Guard's affair. I believe the Foreign Guard contract reads to 'promote regional stability' so I imagine it would fall under that bit." He paused and started looking up some things "I will get a hold of Minister Pommer, and Retaliatory Guard Command and let them know what you are advising. I will see what I can get going, I will talk to you later."

He then hung up and placed a call to the Minister of Defence, who then contacted Retaliatory Guard Command who then..............

*****

Sir Alec's aide nodded to Minister Pommer "Seeing as this is an emergency we have a plane waiting for you, you can be in Port Olympus is four hours sir........."

Just as he said that the doors opened and in came nearly twenty Red Jaguar Commandos, in full battle gear. The leader who wore Command General's insignia looked about to ask which person is Minister Pommer, but the alarmed manner that everyone backed away from Pommer answered the question.

"Minister Pommer. I am Command General Yaotl of the 24th Red Jaguar Command. The Federation is threatening war for the Retaliatory Guard's stated intention of intervening in your nation on behalf of the Lord Tengil and the legal government of Karmanyaka."

He paused and shoves a piece of paper at Minister Pommer "This is a request that your government is making that the Retaliatory Guard abide by the Foreign Guard treaty and return stability to your nation, you will sign this, and then we will forward it to your representatives in Parliament, who will immediately give it to Parliament."

He then handed a pen to Minister Pommer and pointed to one of his men who handed him a satellite phone pre-dialed to the office of Karmanyaka's Federation keys.

"Signing this will ensure that Field Marshal Grune is removed from power."

He didn't seem to be asking Minister Pommer to sign, as much as telling him to sign, and the way the other Red Jaguars were holding their FN-HAR rifles, didn't seem to indicate he had a choice.......................

*****

After his phone calls Sir Alec relaxed in his office, only to receive a call from the Velite General, that he warned him against taking any further action in this matter, or accepting calls from anyone on the current affairs in Karmanyaka. The Velite General also stated in no uncertain terms that Sir Alec's actions would be reviewed by the Velite Prosecutors Office. Sir Alec only had one thing to say.

"Well, f*ck."


OOC: Command General Yaotl is the Retaliatory Guard's 'Legal Counsel' ;)

OOC: uhm, NS are you sure you want to do that? Didn't Karmanyaka say that the bunker was under the pro-directorate in Katla? A few kilotons is going to kill a whole bunch of civilians in downtown Katla, not to mention the KCN reporters, Lord Tengil................................and the explosions from gas lines from an underground explosion................It may not be a good thing?

OOC: Short post. Sorry. Lots of company and started a half-assed job to help for bills. As well, isn’t Pellew running this show for the JDF Coastal Taskforce?

IC:

The InterKlatchian Affairs minister was, in some respects, out of the loop when it came to the major bushfires within the Klatch. That is, he didn’t always have access to timely intelligence regarding the latest events but would serve as a convenient public scapegoat.

An aide opened the heavy Klatchian Oak doors for Lady Shannon.

“Please sit down, Lady Shannon and fill me in on what is going on in Karmanyaka. I need to know exactly who to deal with there. Do you know who the rebel leader is?”

====

The intel sats were picking up increased troop movements along the Karmanyaka/Ilek-Vaad border which caused a great deal of consternation for the military planners. As well, the Midlonian naval presence was also worrying.

Basically, the Eastern HORDE bomber flippers were put on standby. Some were now being loaded with anti-ship missiles while others would be readied with air to surface missiles. That is, building and large scale troop concentrations would be possibly targeted. The good news was that if the call came down, they wouldn’t have to fly over LOW territory to reach Karmanyaka.

====

To: Ilek-Vaad, Sir Alec Connover
From: Vrak Diplomatic Corps
Subject: Henry Pommer

We would like to ascertain the exact location of Minister Henry Pommer. Last reports indicated that he is taking refuge in your nation. We want to communicate with him immediately and also we want his departure to Port Olympus without delay. Our diplomatic shuttle is presently enroute to your capital.

====

True to their word, a hypersonic transport bearing the markings of the Vrak Diplomatic Corps left Vrak Kaya at astonishing speed. IFF codes were broadcast indicating that this was indeed a diplomatic jet from Vrak.

====

All guardian naval fleets in the southern Klatchian Ocean continued their usual patrols. The submarine fleet began to carefully negotiate between the islands of Greenbeard.


====

**********
Encryption – HIGH; JDF protocols 47881 Delta Echo; route: Pellew (JDF Coastal Taskforce); route…complete
**********

Vrakian submarine fleet assets now in Greenbeard. Please advise on best deployment options.

Battle Fleet Admiral Kellava

OOC: Pellew is in overall command of the district in the Southern Klatchian Sea. Lunacy Bay is a diffrent district and the Costal Taskforce B is indirectly under his command.

**********
Encryption – HIGH; JDF protocols 47881 Delta Echo; route: Battle Fleet Admiral Kellava
**********

Emergency Notice: It appears Mildonian assets are about to go Rouge and invade Karmanyanka. They have been ordered off by JDF assets, specifically Coastal Taskforce B.

Orders: Immediatly proceed under safe high speed to Karmanyanka coast and deploy to protect Costal Taskforce B assets. If Mildonia assets fire upon JDF assets you may consider those assets to be Rouge and free fire rules to apply to them. Advise that Alconian Fifth Fleet assets in area with similar orders.

Admiral Pellew, Acting JDF Naval Commander

Segland international Airport, on the outskirts of Katla
"Zeelord… Kettra I presume." said Grune in a flat tone. "I'm Field Marshal Nicholas Grune, Chairman of the Military Committee and Emergency Ruler of Karmanyaka as appointed by the Council of Knights." he tried not to look small in front of the big Var.

OOC: An interesting fact is that according to Karmanyakan mythology the first Lord Tengil fought a war against rebel forces led by rich peasants and noblemen. In this war the Lord Tengil had support from other noble houses but they had little success. Just when it looked like he was going lose the decisive battle at the foot of a large volcano a miracle occurred. He called to the mighty spirits of the mountain of fire to help him rid the land of his enemies. He saw then a battle horn lying in the grass in front of him. Tengil blew his battle horn as they charged the rebel forces. At this horn blow the giant dragon Katla rose from the crater of the volcano. The dragon flew down and smote the rebel armies with its deadly flame.

After the victory the Lord Tengil named the volcano Katla after the dragon and founded the city Karmanyaka on its slopes. Karmanyaka grew to a kingdom and the city was soon called Katla too. Ever since this Battle Day dragons have a special symbolism in the Karmanyakan society. The fact that the FKC chose to send a dragon-like Var to investigate this coup is understandably worrying to Grune. The Military Committee fears that the dragon will once more rise to protect the Lord Tengil, bearer of the Horn of Katla, from the rebels. (This fear can be illustrated by the fact that Grune had the Horn moved from Tengil Palace to a safe location in Council Hall, to prevent Kader from invoking the Dragon.)

IC:

"You have supposedly come here to investigate the legality of the Military Committee's rule. I can tell you that if anyone needs investigating it's Johan Kader, sitting in his office in the Tengil Palace betraying his people for money. He has mocked the traditions and sold his country to foreigners. Therefore the Council must do its duty and remove him to restore the ways of our forefathers, and I will aid the Council." The party moved off the tarmac and into the airport terminal where a conference hall had been hastily prepared.

--

Tengil Palace
The pale and somewhat thinner Lord Tengil Johan Kader sat behind his desk with the wind from the broken windows whipping his crumpled tie.

"So what your saying is that for your legal removal he had to have a vote of all the Knights not just the third who supported him?"

"Well, a Lord Tengil is in fact Ruler-for-life. The constitution permits the Council to remove him though, but only with six sevenths of the votes. The problem here was that this was always interpreted as six sevenths of the whole council, but the Junta chose to interpret it as six sevenths of the Knights present. Thus, only five knights were there to vote and all voted in favour of my removal. The other sixteen Knights were either unable to come or physically prevented by the army to vote at the time. Mind you, I am also a Knight of the Council, so I should have been allowed to vote too. So they have in fact violated legal practice." He sipped the glass of water that together with a couple of crackers constituted his lunch today.

"Sir, do you support the intervention of the Federation in this internal matter?"

"I completely support the intervention of the Federation in this matter, yes. I'd prefer it if we managed without military actions, though. The Karmanyakan Armed Forces aren't among the biggest in the Klatch, but war always means casualties. I'm afraid a war wouldn't solve things but rather make it worse than it already is. Therefore I welcome the help of the FKC to remove Grune and his helpers." he said and coughed slightly.

"Have you been informed of why this jaunta feel that you are a criminal, in their eyes?"

"How exactly is Feild Marshall Grune and his fellow consipiritors profitting over the people? There is wide spread financial panic as well as their own personal fortunes being destroyed recently..."

He laughed dryly at the question of the Junta's accusations.

"Many men and women from the old nobility dislike the reforms. They watch their centuries-old privileges being removed one-by-one. Xenophobia, nepotism, corruption and oppression have always been key ingredients in the political life of Karmanyaka. Naturally the people like the reforms, since it brings them greater power, but most of the old families are more sceptical. I have succeeded in rallying the support of a vast majority of the Knights though. People like Henry Pommer and my Minister of Defence, Olav Besk. They have acknowledged the huge benefits of democracy, but Minister of Justice, Nelson Fare and Sandor Staal, they resent the idea of empowering the people. So Grune saw his opportunity to increase his personal power. And with power comes wealth."

"So, the Junta planned to gain power and thereby wealth. I guess they hadn't expected this strong a reaction from the FKC, though. For them it was also a bonus if they could get rid of me and the other reform-friendly knights and restore the old order, that is a full dictatorship."

"My Lord, have your guards mistreated you in anyway?"

He shook his head.
"I have not been directly mistreated, they have not beaten me or anything. I am confident that I am far better off than many ordinary people. I know what Grune's like and I witnessed the awful massacre down here, so I can just imagine what has happened elsewhere…"

Tanville hit the pause button.
"Sir, are you the legal Supreme Commander of your State's Military? Becuase I have been asked to inform you that the United Duchies is planning on forming a Free Karmanyanka Army on the otherside of the Syndia river. It would quite helpful if Baroness Winton, the Royal Envoy, happened to have a commission in the Karmanyanka Military to enble her to call on disenting troops to follow her commands. At present she only has five divisions* of Alconian Marines to back her up and protect the Free Army as it is formed."

"In peace time the Lord Tengil is not the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, but during times of war and crisis, I can assume command. Otherwise it's the Supreme Commander, that is Field Marshal Grune, who obeys the command of the Council and the Prodirectorate." He paused. "Since I've been isolated from the world, I have been unable to assume command, and that needs to be done formally in an address to the people and the Council. It hasn't been done for a hundred years though. If a message can be broadcasted where I declare myself in command of the armed forces of the Dominion that will do well. That way I can commission Baroness Winter to Form a 'Free Karmanyakan Army'."

He smiled and looked at the two men.

"You're not really journalists are you? I guess you caused this too." he said and gestured to the broken windows.

"So when are we ready to oust these culprits? And, by the way gentlemen, can you tell me what is happening out there? I have received little news."

OOC: I'd rather not RP the whole message, so let's just assume the reporters/agents forward this mandate to winter and that Kader has assumed command, ok?

--

Off the Karmanyakan coast
A group of fighter aircraft roared through the air towards the Midlonian fleet. They were heavily armed and the well-trained pilots had full control over their planes. The Karmanyakan air force had planes that were somewhat old, but nevertheless able to match most modern aircraft. Air Marshal Marten Dieter was loyal to the Junta and his men were disciplined.

Below them the Karmanyakan Navy lay still waiting for orders. Onboard the flagship Incandescent, the only battleship in the Navy, Grand Admiral Sir Nguen Johnson stood on the bridge.

"Bloody hell! First this landlubber Grune goes and takes over the country and then these Midlonian scurvy dogs come along." The Grand Admiral's father had been a skilled Jiggadian shipwright who came to Karmanyaka and was knighted for his contribution to the Navy. Sir Nguen had through the years adopted a rather strong Jiggadian accent as if to emphasize his descent.

"I sure as hell won't let anyone order me around who hasn't got the Horn of Katla in his hands! We will do what sir Henry said and fight for the liberty of Karmanyaka, but first we have to see what those Midlonians are up to. Avast! Relay this to the Midlonians."



From: The Flagship Incandescent
To: Midlonian Fleet

Ships from the Greater Kingdom of Midlonia, this is the battleship Incandescent under the command of Grand Admiral sir Nguen Johnson of the Karmanyakan Navy. We request that you state the purpose of your presence in Karmanyakan territory, which you will reach soon. The entire navy is loyal to the Lord Tengil and will readily aid anyone who wishes to remove the rebels from their seat of power. If Midlonia has other intentions than to aid in the overthrowing of the Grune Junta, your fleet will be met with force. Be advised that an attack upon the Dominion of Karmanyaka without the consent of the legal government will be taken as a rogue act of war. Please acknowledge.

- Grand Admiral sir Nguen Johnson




The fighter aircraft transmitted a message ordering the Midlonians to turn around or face the consequences. Shortly after that the lead pilot got a lock on one of the Midlonian interceptors. The Pyrolite missiles cut through the air towards their targets.

The Smaug coastal defence missile system was activated from the Command Bunker at the Prodirectorate. Four of the large missiles took off towards the fleet.

--

All over the Dominion military commanders of different ranks were doing what they considered best at the moment. This meant that some were trying to join forces with the Alconians, some sent messages to the Vaadians and asked to join their forces, others were trying to fight their own countrymen. In short, the situation was chaotic. Street fighting broke out between Tengil loyalists and Junta forces. General Gustave of the 9th army tried to convince General Giovanni of the 7th to join forces with the Alconians and march on to liberate the country from the Junta. Giovanni reluctantly agreed after consulting his junior officers. Large portions of the Army though, especially around the capital, and the whole air force still remained loyal to Grune. The 1st and 2nd armies, led by fiercely devoted commanders, broke away to the south to gain control of the coast and fend off a Midlonian invasion. Within an hour the first divisions of tanks and mechanized infantry would be there, ready to repel an attack. In the port at Steamfiord ships threatened to start shelling Junta tank battalions unless they surrendered.

--

Lassic
Sir Henry Pommer suddenly felt like a lonely and vulnerable minister with twenty soldiers standing around him. But he didn't let it show and met the stare of the Red Jaguar.

"Command General Yaotl. I intend to carefully read through this document before anything is signed." he said and eyed through the paper.

"I wish to make one thing absolutely clear," he said to the command general. "My government will not let anyone, neither the Greater Kingdom of Midlonia nor the Free Republic, tear our country apart. If there is the least sign of hostility towards JDF troops or troops loyal to the Lord Tengil, we will see to it that these aggressors be ousted. I will sign this paper, seeing as this is our best chance of ridding Karmanyaka of Grune." he said, put his elaborate signature on the paper and gave it to Yoatl.

To: Ilek-Vaad, Sir Alec Connover
From: Vrak Diplomatic Corps
Subject: Henry Pommer

We would like to ascertain the exact location of Minister Henry Pommer. Last reports indicated that he is taking refuge in your nation. We want to communicate with him immediately and also we want his departure to Port Olympus without delay. Our diplomatic shuttle is presently enroute to your capital.

====

True to their word, a hypersonic transport bearing the markings of the Vrak Diplomatic Corps left Vrak Kaya at astonishing speed. IFF codes were broadcast indicating that this was indeed a diplomatic jet from Vrak.



Sir Alec received the missive and replied, surely just stating where Minister Pommer is wouldn't hurt anything.

To:Vrak Diplomatic Corps
From: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ilek-Vaad
Subject: RE:Henry Pommer

Minister Pommer is in Lassic and has just completed an address to his nation. He is currently in the hands of Red Jaguar Command who should at this moment be escorting him to Lassic International Airport North-West. We have a jet ready to take him directly to Port Olympus.

If however you are more comfortable transporting him yourself, I am certain that we can await your jets arrival. Minister Pommer would have been sent directly to Port Olympus excepting that he was in dire need of food and rest and insisted on making a televised address to his nation.

If I do not hear back from you, I will have him placed aboard our jet and sent on with all due haste to Port Olympus.

Sir Alec Connover, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ilek-Vaad


In the air, the Vrakian jet was, as always, given clearance to proceed directly into Vaadian airspace and immediately cleared for landing (unless they want Minister Pommer shipped out on the Vaadian jet) at Lassic International Airport North-West.

*****

Meanwhile Minister Pommer signed the paper which was quickly faxed to Karmanyaka's Keys in Parliament with instructions to immediately make the signed request available to the FKC power structure. The Red Jaguar relaxed and lowered their weapons and Command General Yaotl smiled broadly showing red stained sharpened teeth.

"You have sealed that traitor Grune's fate with that pen stroke. We also have it on high authority that Midlonian forces will be declared rogue and taken in hand by the JDF.

You will be in Port Olympus in a few short hours, and then back in Katla within the next week I would wager."

He slapped Minister Pommer on the shoulder "Come along! Your limosine to the airport is waiting!"

Segland international Airport
The Zeelord crocked his head a moment and said nothing to Grune initially. But entering the confrence room he noticed that it was obviously a temporary quarters.

"We are here to determine who is the legal government of this land Terran named Grune. As you have said that it is the Council who gives you the power over this land, I must speak to this Council, this Council of Knights. And I must hear their words, in person, in their Hall. For only then shall I believe their calls, assemble the Knights and take me to their Hall Grune, or I shall judge all your words to be false."

A vehicle was now being lowered from the rear belly of the transport craft. It was a hover car, obviously the Var believed in formality. Or perhaps he thought there was a reason he was being kept out of the city center. Var facial experssions were immpossible to read by humans. Of course the Zeelord knew about it being called the Council of Knights. Which said that he had done some homework.

ooc
another look at the math made dropping a rock from orbit impractically messy

New Shiron has 2 task forces in the area, one near Gordan Bay, and Admiral Pellew was last seen aboard the flagship of that task force, and another near Karmayaka, currently dodging out of Midlonia's way. Plus a number of spaceccraft in orbit, and a sizeable number of aircraft at Gordon Bay.

The 3rd Fleet (both task forces) is still technically under JDF orders.

IC
New orders came to the New Shiron RAF, RSF and RN from its national command authority. "Prepare for possible operations against potentially rogue fleets and armies threatening Karmayaka. Specifically Midlonian forces"

“Break! Break!” screamed Jennah as she viffed her aircraft and hammered the button that spewed chaff out of her fighter, one of the missiles took to the chaff, the other hammered into the fighter beside her, which promptly disintegrated and fell towards the sea.
Immediately the neat formations of flyers began to break up into smaller and smaller formations, each trying to fight each other off.
Jennah tagged behind a Karmanyakan fighter, then lost it as it turned right and she viffed left, then she locked behind another one and promptly gunned it down using the infinite repeaters.
The brawl thundered away up in the sky, some of the fighters dropped and burned, others smoked lazily as they drifted towards the water, little parcels of white showed that some of them had bailed and their chutes worked.
An orgy of flashes, death and destruction took place over the Bay of Lunacy.

The large anti-ship missiles roared towards their targets. Several anti-missile measures were typically on the Midlonian destroyers, two of the four missiles were downed, but the other pair hit their targets, the destroyer Yesteryear began to list badly to one side, the captain had ordered all hands to abandon ship.
The other destroyer Redemption fared slightly better and her pumps held her afloat, but listing very badly to the right.

Tollan Massif, Tollan, Ilek-Vaad

Command General Lucane watched the satellite feeds and the reports coming in from surveillance and intelligence counter-measures. The severe and tactical Lassean could see what would be necessary, and began ordering the Guard for combat.

"Have the Naval Guard shift their lines to International waters East of the Midlonian ships. Have the Naval Guard units in the Sea of Lacon slip southward in preparation for a encirclement along the Karmanyakan southern coast. Have the Sothern Naval Guard elements move further south , either to defend the coast against Midlonian reprisals or to act as a sliding door against retreating Midlonian elements."

He nodded over to the Duty Lefttenant "Activate all Air Guard units and have all Northern Air Guard groups deploy to South Haven to support the push into Karmayaka.

Muster the Warlord Army, the Twisted Serpent Army, the Huscarl army and the Shield-Bearer armies behind Command General Baibar's armies, put them under the command of Command General Itzcoatl of the Ninth Red Jaguar Command.

Set all deployment codes to the Supreme Republican Commander's watch-words. Through the blood of the Retaliatory Guard does the Republic persist and the People claim their rights.

My Life For the Republic!"

The Fire Control officers scrambled to relay the orders and all repeated with Command General Lucane "My Life for the Republic!"

*****

Karmanyakan/Vaadian Border

Supreme Republican Commander Adan Ring touched down and alighted his Chieftan Command Tank, in the famed Second Purifiers Division. He quickly reviewed Lucane's orders from Tollan and approved them, but putting himself at the head of the second Muster, not Command General Itzcoatl.

The Karmayakan liberation would be a Purifier victory.

There were now nearly nine hundred thousand Retaliatory Guard with nearly forty thousand transports and twenty thousand armour preparing to cross into Karmanyaka.

OOC: sure although it would be more dramatic to have it but hey.

Tengil Palace
Palsey turned and pointed at Tanville. "I am just an ordinary reporter tagging along with a bloody madman. Ever since we got cut off from escaping into the Vaadian Embassy he's been playing James Bond."

Tanville seemed to be hesidant but nodded his head. "I am a reporter sir, just that I am also a former Alconian Marine, or was until his Grace gave me an officer's commission in the Hull Divison. As for the bomb, well our distraction appears to have cause far more exstensive damage than it should have. I'd say someone was storing somthing quite explosive in the old Ministry Building. Anyway sir, we will record your annoucement at the end of this."

Tanville began preparing to record the offical decleration. "It is a mess out there sir, I've heard of martial law, ecconomic runiation, blackouts, and well there is rumor that people have been sent into internment camps. But we've been out of contact with the outside world for awhile."

Tanville looked up, he had stedied the camera on a small table. Ah sir, will you write out that commission to Dame Anne Winton Winton, not Winter...Winton, it is one of our most respected families sir...and she is the first person to ever earn a Knighthood while still in the Naval Acadamy. Yes...thank you"

Tanville made sure that commission was readable on screen and then captured the annoucement. Palsey asked, "Sir, is there anything you would like to tell the world and the Military of Karmanyanka?"

(OOC: Fast forward as requested)

Tanville turned away from the camera and finished changing as did so. He moved towards one of the windows and placed the satalite link up next to the window. He pinged the sat. He stood there for a moment, praying silently. A response from the sat, indicating it was clear to transmit. Tanville smiled and hit the send button. It would take less than a minute to send the broadcast back to KCN, to short to be stopped, but too long not to be detected and tracked. So the system would continue to transmit as long as it could, live. It would bury the pre-recorded signal in with the live signal hopefully giving KCN enough time to catch up.

Palsey and Tanville both sat down in their civilian clothes. The last thing they added were their press passes. Hanging there off their breast pockets, affronts to Prodirectorate security. Tanville smiled, "So Lord Tengil, what do you think the Jaunta are going to do when they find out your talking to the Press, Live on international T.V?"

*********
KCN Headquarters
"We got a signal from Tanville and Palsey...both live and pre-recorded...stripping the two..."


Klatchian Coast News Breaking Coverage:
Ladies, Gentlemen and Gentlecreatures we have a live feed, I repeat a live feed it appears of two KCN reporters interviewing Lord Tengil of Karmanyanka we take you there now live...

OOC: Assuming that the helicopters trace it quickly

A producer sat watching the uncompressed inteview. Her eyes danced in pleasure at the idea of such a huge, massive scoop. And then her eyes went wide...she hit the pause button stood up and screamed. "I've got video that needs to be on air ASAP...I am talking code double blue here people...double blue..." She turned back to the monitor and smiled a wicked little grin. "Well now you f***s you've got a Var and a friken Gryphon to deal with."

The Live signal didn't last long. A few comments by Lord Tengil were interupted by the guards of the Prodirectorate crashing into the room. Pausing as they saw the two reporters...and then smashing something. The signal went dead.


It appears we just lost the live signal folks...wait...it seems some of the interview was pre-recorded...my god...

The video changed to that of Lord Tengil taking offical command of the armed forces and giving Dame Anne Winton of the United Duchies a Commssion as Feild Marshal Winton of the Karmanyanka armed forces.

Camp Echo
Anne Winton shook her head. "Well by god IIS pulled a fricken rabbit out of their hat on this one. Where the hell are those Karmanyanka Uniforms, I have a military to take over now."

ooc
New Shiron is pretty stretched, but here is what is available, and why most of the remainder of my military isn't

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=9406971&postcount=22

IC
Lady Shannon briefed the the InterKlatchian affairs secretary, and then pulling out her lap top, showed him footage taken by her of the aftermath of the massacre, and the latest analysis by New Shiron intelligence services on the extremely high likelihood of a complete economic collapse in Karmayaka in the very near future.

She emphazied that not only were the rebels, and she named those she could, butchers, but they were inept butchers, and that was intolerable (in her view the worst crime of all).

---------------
Warning Order
From New Shiron Naval Operations Center to Vice Admiral De Ruyter, Commander 2nd Fleet

Convoys are to continue for sealift to Gordon Bay. 1st Fleet is preparing to take over escort duties under Admiral Tromp. Upon further receipt of orders, 2nd Fleet is to steam toward Midlonia to prepare for operations against that state if it is declared to be Rogue by the FKC.

OOC: I get Baroness Winton named to lead the Karmanyanka army and the world yawns.

Southern Bridge over the River Synida

There had been clouds of dust and sounds of heavy equipment moving all day behind the tree line. And then, thrity minutes after the inital release of the annoucement a rover appeared and drove down the road and across the bridge. It was flying both the Alconian and Karmanyanka flags before it came to a stop at the checkpoint.

The window came down and the guard was faced with a woman wearing a dress uniform of a captain in the Karmanyanka army. "I have Feild Marshal Winton to meet with your commander, where are they?"

“Break! Break!” screamed Jennah as she viffed her aircraft and hammered the button that spewed chaff out of her fighter, one of the missiles took to the chaff, the other hammered into the fighter beside her, which promptly disintegrated and fell towards the sea.
Immediately the neat formations of flyers began to break up into smaller and smaller formations, each trying to fight each other off.
Jennah tagged behind a Karmanyakan fighter, then lost it as it turned right and she viffed left, then she locked behind another one and promptly gunned it down using the infinite repeaters.
The brawl thundered away up in the sky, some of the fighters dropped and burned, others smoked lazily as they drifted towards the water, little parcels of white showed that some of them had bailed and their chutes worked.
An orgy of flashes, death and destruction took place over the Bay of Lunacy.

The large anti-ship missiles roared towards their targets. Several anti-missile measures were typically on the Midlonian destroyers, two of the four missiles were downed, but the other pair hit their targets, the destroyer Yesteryear began to list badly to one side, the captain had ordered all hands to abandon ship.
The other destroyer Redemption fared slightly better and her pumps held her afloat, but listing very badly to the right.

In CIC, aboard the cruiser Renown, Admiral Merril watched the air combat between the Karmayakans and Midlonians. "Light up all radars ladies and gentlemen, I want everyone to know we are here, than we are steaming out of the way, and if anyone locks on with targetting radar, blow them out of the sky with lasers and missiles."

OOC:Whoa!

IC:

The reply to Connover was short and to the point. Essentially, it said that Vrak would escort Minister Pommer themselves but thanked them for providing him refuge.

As if on cue, the transport descended to Lassic International Airport North-West. It taxied to its berth and the belly yawned open. An entire platoon (48) of King's Own descended in Battle Dress. The Lieutenant gave a smart salute to the highest ranking Vaadian officer and then turned to Pommer.

"Minister Pommer? We are here to escort you to Port Olympus."

====

Admiral Kellava frowned when he read the latest from Pellew. As far as he knew, there was no Attainment order placed on Midlonia. Vrak was understandably queezy about such an event taking place and all military commanders were required to double check if that came down the pipe.

Immediately, he put through a high encrypted message directly to high command to find out if Midlonia was indeed under attainment. Another encrypted message was sent to Pellew indicating that yes, they would proceed with due haste to the Karmanyaka coast and provide support to the JDF taskforce.

-Load torpedoes. Proceed at maximum speed.

====

The further build-up of Vaadian forces only increased the haste of the Vrakian bomber wings that were being readied. Satellites were focused on Karmanyaka/Ilek-Vaad border and would act if that border was crossed.

Other satellites noticed the dogfight between the Midlonian and Karmanyaka fighters. From a nondescript airbase, three long-range patrol craft were sent up to monitor the events.

====

The walrus took in Lady Shannon's presentation and sighed. This was not going to be easy at all.

"In case you didn't know, Parliament has sent an investigator to Karmanyaka to ascertain the legality of the current government. I hope you didn't show this information to anyone else.

What we need to do is this. We will keep this information under wraps for now until the Klatchian Marshal is finished his investigation. Then, we can offer our input into his report. If we do this now, I think there may be other elements within Parliament that will use this as an excuse to justify action against Karmanyaka."

He reached for a scotch and poured himself a drink.

"What we have to do now is to try and keep everyone calm - especially Midlonia and Ilek-Vaad. I have a few ideas but I would like to hear what you have to say in that."

Lassic, Ilek-Vaad
Sir Henry Pommer had to bite his tongue not to say something about lawyers with sharp red-stained teeth. He let himself be escorted to the car. When he got the news about the Vrakians he responded that he would gladly let the Vrakians take him to Port Olympus. He turned to his escort.

“I will wait for the Vrakian shuttle to take me to Port Olympus. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Free Republic for the hospitality with which I have been recieved here. The people of Karmanyaka are indebted to Ilek-Vaad.”

As the Vrakians arrived he followed the platoon into the belly of the transport.

--

Port Olympus
The Karmanyakan Keys got together as soon as the received the document that Pommer had signed only minutes ago.

"So, finally we can get help to cleanse the Dominion of these maggots!" said sir Jon Pike, the senior Key, and sighed with relief.

He asked for permission to address the Parliament.

"Mr. Speaker, Keys of the Parliament, fellow Klatchians. We have here a formal request from the Karmanyakan Minister of Foreign Affairs, that the Retaliatory Guard of the Free Republic of Ilek-Vaad step in to help restore order in the Dominion of Karmanyaka as agreed in the Foreign Guard treaty." He said as an aid walked around handing out copies of the document to the Keys. "We hereby request that the Parliament grant the Retaliatory Guard permission to enter and actively defend Karmanyakan territory from rogue elements hostile to the FKC in general and Karmanyaka in particular. I call for a vote."

--

Segland International Airport
Grune could feel his grip slipping for every sentence someone uttered to him.

“Zeelord Ke’tra, I... I’m afraid I am unable to assemble the Council of Knights right now... with such a short notice.” he stuttered, trying not to look straight into the dragon-like face. “I can assemble five Knights at the most... the rest are unaccounted for, some have possibly fled abroad, some are incarcerated for crimes against the government and others may have been killed by rioters and criminals. But I assure you, my lord, that it won’t be necessary to assemble the Council. I have a document here that is signed by the Secretary of the Council, which confirms what I say.” he presented the paper which had a suspiciously hesitant signature hastily scribbled below a dribbly black seal. Anyone vaguely familiar with graphology could easily discern that whoever signed this had done so under pressure and possibly coercion. The paper declared that the Lord Tengil Johan Kader had been relieved from office and that Field Marshal Nicholas Grune had been placed in charge of a Military Committee to rule Karmanyaka until a new Lord Tengil could be declared.

As the Var showed no signs of compassion towards his situation, the Field Marshal thrust out his hands.

“Really Zeelord, this is quite absurd!” he exclaimed a bit too loud and laughed a somewhat manical laughter. “I have no other ways of proving to you that what I’m doing here is for the good of Karmanyaka and ultimately the Federation. If you don’t believe me then I must ask you to leave and deliver that verdict to the Parliament!” he said with a strained smile, his bloodshot eyes wide open.

--

Off the southern Karmanyakan coast
The Karmanyakan fighter jets tried to break the overwhealming wave of Midlonian interceptors. After a while the last burning wreck hit the water. They had dragged a few Midlonian planes with them into the deep, but couldn’t stem the tide. More Karmanyakan fighters had taken off from bases around the coast, bound for the Midlonians, so some more skirmishes were to be expected.

The gun batteries swivelled into position and aimed at the incoming fleet. Several shots were fired at the ships, all missing but still serving as chilly reminders to the invasion fleet that their presence was unwanted.

Along the coast the 1st and 2nd armies moved into position. The fortresses along the coasts were manned and the stores with supplies that had been prepared and maintained were unlocked.

--

Astridburg Castle
Meanwhile General Ozcan of the Astridburg garrison who commanded the eastern half of the southern coast, known as MilZo-SE, ordered his forces not to fire unless fired upon. What bothered him was the fact that he, despite his attempts at establishing contact with the Midlonians, had not been contacted. He wondered why the invaders didn't want to coordinate with friendly Karmanyakan forces upon the intervention. Indeed, he reasoned, if the Midlonians were here to liberate the Dominion from the Junta, it would be in their interest to coordinate with Tengil-loyal troops on the inside. After conferring with the Grand Admiral and his own intelligence officers he decided to send another message to the fleet.

To: Midlonian fleet
From: General Ozcan of the Karmanyakan Army loyal to the Tengil government

This is a message from Karmanyakan military that opposes the Junta. We request that you respond to previous messages sent by us. What is the purpose of your presence here? Are you here upon request from the legal Karmanyakan government under the Lord Tengil or the FKC? Failure to respond will result in military action.

"Bloody Midlonians!" Ozcan swore to himself. Right at that time news reached him about the commission of Baroness Winton. Hence, he sent a message to Camp Echo.

To: Field Marshal Winton.
From: General Ozcan of the Karmanyakan Army

The 3rd, 4th, 5th Armies and the 14th Service Corps are hereby placed under the command of the Free Karmanyakan Army. I, General Ozcan, Commander of MilZo-SE await your instructions. Be advised that a large Midlonian invasion fleet is bound for Karmanyakan shores. Are they under JDF command or are they Rogue? Please send instructions on how to treat these forces.

--

Syndia Valley
The guard at the small garrison that guarded the bridge was quite confused as he saw the vehicle approaching. Then he realized who this must be and as soon as the window revealed the Baroness, everything became clear.

These 200 soldiers were part of the 8th Border Guard. Their commander, Lieutenant General Sorensen, had been sitting in his office trying to find out what to do, since he hadn't heard anything from High Command in a couple of days. Communications with Katla had been down and what news he had came from the Border Rangers who passed by and of course from the New Shiron propaganda transmissions. The KCN transmission with the Lord Tengil had been the lead story for the last half hour now and the more he watched it he realized that there was no saving Grune and the Junta now.

His phone suddenly beeped. The guard sounded nervous.

"Sir, you'd better come down here, sir. There is a Field Marshal Winton here, and she wants to talk to you, sir."

"I'll be down there in a minute, and go easy on the 'sirs', sergeant." said Sorensen.

As he came down 45 seconds later, he was still buttoning his jacket. He walked over to the rover.

"Field Marshal? I am Lieutenant General Sorensen of the 8th Border Guard. I take it you're here to assume command? In that case, my soldiers and I are at your service." he said and saluted smartly.

--

Tengil Palace, Katla

The Prodirectorate Elite Guard barged into the room as soon as the helicopter circling downtown Katla had pinpointed the source of the signal. One of them immediately ran up to the window and smashed the small satellite transmitter with the butt of his rifle. Another guard pointed his rifle at Kader while the reporters were being violently pushed to the floor. Even Lord Kader thought that he'd soon witness the execution of the two reporters. He rose from his chair and hit the desk with his fist so that what was left of his water poured out over the dry cracker on the tray.

"What is the meaning of this?!" he yelled from the top of his lunges. This made the guard lower his rifle hesitantly.

"I am the Lord Tengil, Keeper of the Horn of Katla!" Kader bellowed.

Right then Colonel Amid stepped over the splintered doors into the office.

"I'm afraid that you're not… 'My Lord'. The Horn has been taken to a safe location and is quite out of your reach." Amid smiled. "Guards take these two spies down to the dungeons. Surely this place has some dungeons, 'My Lord'?" he said and laughed.

Four guards took hold of Tanville and Palsey and hauled them up. They were dragged away to be the basement, which was temporarily converted into a prison.

"You will accompany me down to the Command Bunker at the Prodirectorate. This little TV-show you just did will have its consequences."

--

OOC: I hope I haven't forgotten anything, as I said, I'm having difficulties keeping up. But now I've posted, so enjoy! ;)

Segland International Airport
Grune could feel his grip slipping for every sentence someone uttered to him.

The Var started to nod his head, likely a momentary bright sign to the Feild Marshall. Unfortunatly it ment the opposite of what most humans would read it as. The Zeelord was unimpressed.
"I demand to hear the voices of the Knights, yet you tell me that the Knights in this time of crisis can not be brought to their Hall?" The Var thundered his tail appeared for the first time wagging back and forth for a moment. But it paused and curled back down towards the floor.

"Perhaps this is true Terran, but it does not satisfy me. And I shall be satisfied before I return to the Hall of Parliament and speak on your behalf."

The Zeelord and his staff turned towards their vehicle. One of the humans snatching the affidavit of the Secretary from Grune's hands. There was a large amount of yelling in low Var as the group emerged from the terminal. The human reading the affidavit looked up at Grune with a blank stare. "Assemble the Knights you can and the staff of the Knights, all the Knights Feild Marshal, including this Secretary...we will be contacting neighboring States to see if any of your missing Knights are there."

The human in his black uniform turned and joined the Marshall. A moment later the grav car began to move towards the main road into Katla.

OOC: Nope, saying No to a Var doesn't tend to work well...and his aides are now starting to think the Feild Marshal is up to no good.

Lassic International Airport North-West, Lassic, Ilek-Vaad

Command General Yaotl and his men diligently delivered Minister Pommer to the King's Own at the airport. Command General Yaotl raised his fist in the defiant salute of the Retaliatory Guard to the King's Own commander, the Red Jaguar looked over the men with barely hidden contempt.

"Such an escort is unnecessary, Minister Pommer is perfectly safe amonst his friends in the Free Republic, moreso perhaps than among his Klatchian friends." He pauses and gives a short quick bow to Minister Pommer "May you have a safe journey today, and may you soon reach home."

With that, they departed.

*****

Fort Fyalar, Karmanyaka

General Deadmarsh had been contacted by Retaliatory Guard Command and apprised of the situation. He felt an obligation to contact General Ozcan, once his aid had Ozcan on the line Deadmarsh took the satellite phone.

"General Ozcan, this is General Deadmarsh. I want you to know that Minister Pommer has officially requested the aid of the Free Republic. The Retaliatory Guard will be crossing the border in short order.

If you are sincere about wanting to get Lord Kader back on top I suggest you get someone over the border to liason with them, otherwise they'll kill anyone that's armed when they come across.

Naval Guard Marines will also begin landing in Fort Fyalar within the next eight hours."

Port Olympus
As the Karmanyanka Keys crossed from their offices towards Parliament House a young aide of the junior Alconian Key noticed them from the roof garden balastade. He dialed a number, said "oops wrong number" and hung up. In Parliament a note arrived stating that there was an urgent video confrence for the Mildonian Keys from their Ministry of Defense in one of the confrence rooms.

As the Karmanyanka Key presented the request the Speaker seemed to ignore the Karmanyankians for a moment. Then stood up, and looked down from his podium. He then spoke in his quiet manner. "As you have no standing you may not ask for a vote on this matter. But we shall consider the matter of Ilek-Vaad assisting the Pro-Tengil Government in this matter. You have stated that you have a treaty between Ilek-Vaad and yourselves. Yet you have never presented this treaty before Parliament until now. As such we will consider your treaty with Ilek-Vaad.

"Does anyone object to the Treaty between Ilek-Vaad and the State of Karmanyanka for the creation of a Foriegn Guard Unit and mutual defense, and for Ilek-Vaad to help insure no rouge government attempts to stop Karmanyanka from stabalizing?"

There would only be a vote if there was an objection. Otherwise it would pass automatically.

Syndia Valley
"Feild Marshal Winton" at first appeared to be a bit furry, actually she looked like a Tiger. Then the real Feild Marshall pushed Sir Meow out of the window. And beemed a smile back at both the guard and Lieutenant General Sorensen as she returned the salute.

Anne Winton was drop dead gorgeous. Her eyes seemed to sparkle and in any other nation would have been either a supermodel or an actress. "Ah General Sorensen, yes I am here to take command of Karmanyanka's military forces it would appear Grune has had a serious lapse in judgement so we've temporarily put him on administrative leave."

The door opened and the Baroness got out of the car. Walking up to Sorensen, her athletic body seemed to make even a military uniform seem sexy. She began to walk back along the bridge, the rover following her as she led the general back towards his postions. "Now then I need to temporarily use your command center Sorensen. I seem to have a good deal of confused command structure right now, and word is that the Mildonians may be behind all this. Or at least their not telling us why their sending a bloody Armada"


To: General Ozcan of the Karmanyakan Army
From: Field Marshal Winton's Command, Staff Sargent Phillips

I have forwarded your response to the Feild Marshal who is currently relocating her headquarters at the moment and she intends to radio you as soon as possible.

She has asked that I send the following directives immediatly your way:

One, at this time NO JDF action has been authorized to intervene in Karmanyanka's internal problems.

Two, Current JDF deployments are strickly to prevent outside interference.

Three, Presently only Alconian Forces under MY command are allowed to enter Karmanyanka.

Four, Any Other State forces that attempt to enter or land in Karmanyanka should be considered Rouge.

Five, Current negotations between the Federation and the Free Republic allowing the former's entry into Karmanyanka are on going.

Six, please inform my staff of any and all communications from the Mildonian's as they have not stated anything regarding their intentions to anyone.


The Bay of Lunacy

The Coastal Taskforce waited as the Mildonian Ships approached. They continued to broadcast their message demanding that the approaching fleet turn or be fired upon. The three battleships guns moved, targeting the flat tops that would soon be in range. In the VLS cells, both anti-air and anti-ship missles waited to be shot into the sky and head for their targets.

The torpedo gun boats also waited in the pitching seas. The moment the big guns fired, or were fired upon they would make runs at the largest transport ships to destroy the enemy ground forces before they reached shore.

The minutes tocked by as the first Mildonian ship neared the invisible line in the sea...

The lead Vrakian key rose and addressed the assembly.

"We object to Ilek-Vaad interfering in the affairs of Karmanyaka. The Free Republic is not an FKC state and their status in relation to the rest of the Klatch is currently under review. We will actively oppose any attempt by Ilek-Vaad to interfere in what is an internal matter.

In a similiar vein, we fully support the continuing investigation of the Klatchian Marshals to find out who exactly is in charge of that state. Which means we fully support any and all sanctioned JDF action and other FKC states that actions are in perfect agreement with the JDF mission."

====

The lieutenant and his men noticed the contempt shown by the Jaguars but did not oblige them. It seemed odd that the Vaadians would feel this way since, after all, weren't Vrak and Ilek-Vaad allies? He took note of it though and thought that it reflected badly on such so-called well-trained troops.

He also reflected upon the brief commentary by the General and the jab aimed at the Klatch as a whole. Vrakian officers were required to write up reports and sure as walruses have tusks, the VIS would be analyzing those remarks.

====

By now, the Vrakian subs were nearing the JDF coastal taskforce. They sent one last encrypted message stating their position and asked for current positions of the Vaadians, Karmanyakans, Midlonians, and Shironese fleets. Then they dived to maximum depth and slowed down. Using passive sonar and the thermals to their benefit, they hoped to hide their position as best they could.

Both Rothlington and Teddington had both got onto the carrier some time after the first wave had been chased off, they expected more, but none were always quite as serious as the first wave.
'We have received a call from Oscan.' muttered the Admiral as he nodded at the two Marshal's
'Ah, him, yes well reply,' he pointed at an aide. 'You, dictate this.'
The aide merely nodded and grabbed a slate he was holding.

To: General Ozcan of the Karmanyakan Army loyal to the Tengil government, Parliament of the FKC.
From: Midlonian liberation Taskforce "Red Dove"

We apologise for our late reply, but now is the time to state our actions.
We are here to liberate the peoples of Karmanyaka from the clutches of the "Junta" as it has proclaimed itself. The suffering that is being brought to The Lord Tengil's people must be stopped.
We also wish to attach a small note of apology to both the dear Lady Baroness Winton and the FKC parliament as a whole, but we could not stand by and allow this to go on unchecked.

We also strongly oppose actual Vaadian National troops on FKC soil and wish for it to be known now that operations of Vaadian troops near our own, or offensive action agansit our liberation forces will not go unpunished.
This is a strictly internal matter and they are not members of the Federation, as such we will react to "Foreign Agression" as we see it.
[ooc: yes, yes I am spoiling to fight I-V and see his men starve to death >.>]


Taskforce "Red Dove" Bay of Lunacy

5 ships slowed to and then stopped completely they were surrounded by destroyers gently watching the five ships that were the centre of all the attention. The five Starhurler launch platforms were prepared, their huge stabilisers whining as their payloads were raised to position, anchor chains clinked in the morning sun as the Starbolt’s were fuelled, the odd wisp of fog from the cryogenic primary stages fuel spiralled down their white flanks. Their 211 metre tall bulk swayed ever so gently as the stabilisers fought the ocean swell. After half an hour or so the crews evacuated for launch to the nearby waiting cruisers and destroyers.

'Check ready for tactical bombardment. Opertation Dove Tail is a go people.'
'Check aye!' responded various aides and radio operators as they clicked switches and hammered buttons, seemingly at random.

A small roar was heard, that then screamed in a full cresendo, then the starbolts began to take off from the platforms the sleek missiles fought with the atmosphere and began to alter course.
'Co-ordinates confirmed and targeted, begin tactical bombardment of the cliff defences.'
On 30 or more destroyers, battleships and Cruisers missiles streamed into the air steadily, one after the other, there were left for the defences built into the cliff, the starbolts being the ones destined for the giant fortresses that surrounded the town of Muerte and the neighbouring cliffside.

After the bombardment various Type-10 and the small Type 92 "skytrucks" as they had been nicknamed rose into the air with their various cargoes.

Some carried tanks, the skytrucks carried squads of troops the bulk of the force flew in lower and headed straight for the cliff-tops.

A smaller group of sky trucks climbed and headed further inland with heavy fighter escort along with a few of the Type 10's carrying with some tanks, these would try to hold off any counter attacks that may happen from further inland.

Edit: Picture links added

Type 92 "Skytruck" (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/21630186/)
Starhurler (http://www.deviantart.com/view/14975085/)
Starbolt Tactical Missile (http://www.deviantart.com/view/14995045/)
Type 10 (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13898914/)
Type22 gunship (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13359953/)
Type 99 Interceptor (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/21635725/)

As soon as the Klatchian Marshal and his staff had entered the car, Grune reached over and punched his fist through a cardboard screen that welcomed visitors to the land of the Klatchain flame.

"Get me as many Knights as you can find." he said in a cool voice to his aide. "Take them from prisons and camps, tear the country apart to unearth them from their burrows. Be sure to make it clear to them that we have their families under close surveillance and that any failure to deliver the truth to the Zeelord will result in unnecessary pain... for everyone involved."

The aide disappeared and within three hours twelve knights sat in their offices at Council Hall, closely watched by Prodirectorate Guards. Another four were on their way. That, however, meant that six were missing. These included the Lord Tengil himself and Minister Pommer. Two Knights had been shot by soldiers and two more were gone from the face of the earth.

Grune burried his face in his hands. "He'll breath fire on me and eat me with mustard!" he gasped. Find the other two and bring them here! Now!"

His aide ran out while Grune contacted the Var.

"Zeelod Ke'tra, Field Marshal Grune here, I have assembled sixteen Knight in the Council Hall. I'm afraid two are unaccounted for, two are dead and two are temporary missing. This is the best I could do in such a short time."

--

General Ozcan listened to Deadmarsh and answered him.

"Yes General, I heard the rumor that the Retaliatory Guard were coming. I thank you for warning me, though. And I shall take your advise and try to send a message to a good friend of mine on the border to Ielk-Vaad. Many of the men that stand in the path of your armies are good men that care for Grune as little as you do. They will not be killed if I have a say.

When your forces arrive at Fort Fyalar I will be there to welcome them myself. The Marines will have our aid and support." Ozcan paused.

"And General Deadmarsh... once again, thank you."

--

OOC: Alcona Vrak and Midlonia, I'll return with responses to your posts tomorrow morning, Swedish time. It's a bit late for me now.

ooc
Karmayaka, you missed something

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=9399015&postcount=95

IC
Port Olympus, office of Inter Klatchian Affairs
Lady Shannon had thought long and hard about what to do. She had read the reports of what her own country had been up too, and also was aware of Midlonian and Vaadian activities to date. However, she wasn't aware of Alconian activities.

"Sir, I think it is probably too late to keep Midlonia calm. They don't appear to be paying attention at all to what the rest of the FKC thinks or does. If they had been patient, from what I understand, its very likely the Karmayakan Rebel government would have collapsed on its own once their economy collapsed, which appears to be something thats happening now. Now if they invade, which appears certain unless they are literally stopped, they will do more damage to Karmayaka than the Rebels have even managed to do. I just don't know how to stop them unless maybe they will listen to the FKC President. The only other thing I can think of us to help to crush the rebellion quickly, perhaps by removing the leaders of that rebellion with a direct military strike, so that Karmayaka surrenders quickly to avoid unneccessary slaughter."

The Citadel, New Shiron
New Shiron warplanners and commanders looked at the situation in Karmayaka. It looked grim. It didn't look like anything short of a major fleet engagement would stop the Midlonians from invading, and that was going to be messy. If orders came to stop the Vaadians too, they didn't see how the forces in theater were going to be able to pull it off. The Alconian, Vrakian and Shironi fleets just weren't big enough without a huge amount of air and space support. Both the Vaadians and Midlonians had space forces too.

Perhaps another approach, something indirect. Like an attack of Midlonia to draw off their forces since their entire fleet seemed to be elsewhere? Maybe even a feint would be enough?

A suggestion was sent to Pellew and the FKC High Command.

Perhaps another approach, something indirect. Like an attack of Midlonia to draw off their forces since their entire fleet seemed to be elsewhere? Maybe even a feint would be enough?

OOC: Actually only a part of the fleet has kind of been deployed, the rest is still sitting in the home ports, patrolling, or is busy over in "The Western Colonies"
We also have the wee matter of the Bolos and stuff which are in their depots etc. So um, that would result in a massive responce, especially as it is the Midlonian homeland and all.

OOC: Actually only a part of the fleet has kind of been deployed, the rest is still sitting in the home ports, patrolling, or is busy over in "The Western Colonies"
We also have the wee matter of the Bolos and stuff which are in their depots etc. So um, that would result in a massive responce, especially as it is the Midlonian homeland and all.

ooc
Its kind of hard to know that as you have been a little vague in your description of your forces. Your description so far leads me to believe that its most of your navy. It would be helpful if you told us exactly (in numbers) what is steaming toward Karmayaka. Incidently, don't forget, there is a Alconan fleet between you and Karmayaka, and a New Shiron fleet off to your flank.

ooc
Its kind of hard to know that as you have been a little vague in your description of your forces. Your description so far leads me to believe that its most of your navy. It would be helpful if you told us exactly (in numbers) what is steaming toward Karmayaka. Incidently, don't forget, there is a Alconan fleet between you and Karmayaka, and a New Shiron fleet off to your flank.

ooc: As far as I understood, I am attacking much further along the coast than where the JDF fleet is.
There's probably around 400 or so in warships in that fleet, with around another 5/600 in transports/support craft and supply ships.
[high numbers are because I rely more on Destroyers, cruisers and Frigates with only a few battleships and Fortress Ships to speak of, aswell as plenty of Aircraft carriers.]
I also have a few of the stealth cruiser thingies of ZMI's which I may use for covert strikes should the Vaadians invade. If you look through ZMI's gallery here (http://doc-evilonavich.deviantart.com/gallery/) it's more than likely that I have something within that fleet.

I have some Open Market Niche Destroyers (http://www.deviantart.com/view/14961686/)
There's a few of the old Battleship/cruisers of the Aurora (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/Midlonia/Ships/wetbattleship.png) class
and a couple of Market Crash (http://www.deviantart.com/view/14872116/) BB's.

Dominating the line up is [one of our 4] Venture Capital DD's (http://www.deviantart.com/view/14664326/)
Which acts as the mother/control ship to the Vauntic drones (http://www.deviantart.com/view/21625291/)

Aswell as those there are a few of the [now ageing and due to retire
"Vrak Class" Minature carriers (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/Midlonia/Ships/Vrakminicarrier.png)

Oh and a single Market forces carrier (http://www.deviantart.com/view/14932952/)

OOC: I'm really sorry, I won't have time to respond until sunday evening at the earliest. RL stuff in the way. Hang in there!

OOC: New Shiron, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot that post.

In internment camps all around Karmanyaka
The camp guards that had survived the initial attack from the Shironi UAVs either fled or were taken care of by the camp prisoners. Word soon reached the Prodirectorate and Military Police Headquarters where they by now had better things to think about than catching runaway camp interns. Prodirector Patrice Snell read the hasty report.

"Well, we have bigger problems on our hands, most of those prisoners are more of political threats than military ones, so we'll deal with them once this war is over. If they come to us, we will capture them, but I won't waste manpower to look for them." he said half to himself. "Sergeant, relay these orders to all military police units. But be sure to emphasize that any of the interns that we come across may be either shot or captured according to the circumstances."

"Yes, sir!" the sergeant rushed out of the office.

My gods… we're going down faster than a blind and limping Orc in LOW. Snell thought to himself.

--

Syndia Valley
Lieutenant General Sorensen swallowed and tried not to stare at the beautiful Baroness / Field Marshal.

"I, I… er. Yes, sir… madam." His eyes flickered around, trying to find a safe spot to look at. "My command center is yours to use, as you seem fit… Er, I mean as you see fit!" he stuttered nervously. "But I'm afraid I must still see some verification madam. I watched the broadcast on TV, but how am I to know that you're not a Prodirectorate spy or something?"

Behind him a crowd of soldiers had gathered to look at the beautiful woman in the dress uniform. Most of them hadn't seen a woman in months and we're talking 18-25 year old men here…

--

Astridburg Castle
General Ozcan read the message from Alconian Camp Echo, just as his aide knocked on his door and gave him a transcription of the Midlonian message.

"Oh." he said as he started reading the message from the 'Red Dove' Taskforce. "Well, they're not just going to accept this apology." he muttered to himself. He stared out of his office window to the morning sun that glittered on the horizon with a faraway expression on his eyes. One could almost see the Midlonian fleet out there. But in between was the JDF fleet. The battleships lay there like patches of oil on the waves. "Well, damn it. I've got neither the will, nor the capacity to stop the Midlonians from coming here, so I'll abandon the coastal defences. That's my best chance for now."

Just as he reached for the phone he saw several smoke pillars on the horizon. The pillars rose and he could see the thick smoke traces from the rocket burners as the Starbolts took to the skies.

"What the hell…? Jones! What the hell is that out there on the ocean!" he shouted to his sergeant who immediately rushed to the window. Right then one could make out the first cruise missiles slashing through the air like burning javelins.

"Sir, looks like incoming missiles!" said Jones.

The phone beeped as coastal radar command called to warn about the incoming missiles just as they hit the mountain fortresses and gun batteries embedded in the coastal cliffs.

Minutes later the enormous blasts of the Starbolt missiles shook the ground and large sections of rock caved into the sea as they hit their targets. By then, just about all coastal defence systems on a large stretch of coastline had been obliterated. What forces remained retreated to the military base on the outskirt of Astridburg.

Ozcan looked at the map screen where the hits had been registered. In the middle of all the destruction was the fishing village Muerte. He turned to the senior officers who had quickly assembled.

"There is only one large road out of Muerte, once you are up on the plateau. That road runs for seven miles and then joins Interklatchian 3, which leads to Katla, here. We will have to assume that this will be their preferred route." Ozcan pointed to the map. "Prepare to stop them at this junction. If it comes to it, we must try and stop them with force. Remember, gentlemen, they have no permission from either the Parliament or us to be here and it's very likely that we're facing a major conflict over this Midlonian transgression."

He switched to another view on the screen.

"Here we can see the forces that have gathered off the coast. The Midlonians will soon reach the shore and here we have a small Karmanyakan Navy taskforce of four corvettes, two frigates, one destroyer, one cruiser and the battleship Incandescent. They will likely be toast if shooting starts. Here we have a small Shironi taskforce, a small Alconian taskforce over here, and a small JDF group here, . Here there is larger Vaadian fleet. Alone, none but the Vaadian fleet stand much chance." said the General and lowered his pointer.

"Sir, can we estimate the probability of a conflict with four parties; us together with the JDF and then the Junta, Midlonia and Ilek-Vaad?" asked a lieutenant colonel.

"No, but it seems likely. The Junta will not last long, and Midlonia can hold out for quite some time, but not forever. As for Ilek-Vaad, well let's hope we don't have to fight them, since they're good friends of us. However, if the Parliament decides to oust them from Federation territory, we don't have much of a choice.

I'd like to get liaisons with the other countries around here and fast. This situation is a complete mess and we need to tread carefully and know our terrain if we're to avoid a devastating war. Colonel Perkins, I want you to take a flight east and make contact with the Vaadians before they trample in and kill everyone they see."

--

Karmanyaka / Ilek-Vaad border
Five hours later Colonel Perkins arrived at the border and sent a message to Retaliatory Guard Command, asking to come over as a representative of the Free Karmanyakan Army and coordinate the Vaadian forces with those Karmanyakan forces that fight the Junta.

--

In the meantime most of the Karmanyakan Navy was at sea, but then again the navy was small and spread thin. The largest portion lay almost directly between the Midlonians and Muerte. Other ships were scrambling to meet up with the flagship Incandescent. Though small, the fleet was quite advanced. The corvettes were small, highly manoeuvrable and fast, their armament wasn't heavy, but enough to do serious damage even to larger ships.

Corvette:
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b44/karmanyaka/visby1.jpg

The other, larger ships are essentially just bigger versions of this corvette, differently armed.

Near Muerte
The first sections of the invasion groups began to land, the first elements consisting of Sky trucks and Type-10’s with the improved “Boxes” which carried two Tanks each soon began to roll off onto the rocky terrain of Karmanyaka. Out at see a soldier peered down over the side of the Sky Truck as it’s thrusters whined, keeping the block of metal afloat.
’Wonder why they are just sitting there like that…’ he muttered as the sky truck rocked slightly and soon the blue-froth filled sea vanished and was replaced with the harsh grey of the volcanic rock. The sky truck touched down bumpily and the soldiers leapt over the side, grabbing their rifles and began searching the nearby area.

Off the Coast

The Midlonian armada began to target the Karmanyakan naval elements laid before it, the various Destroyers and Battleship/cruisers began to place down withering Anti-ship missiles and fire from its secondary batteries, ok so they didn’t specifically need to use the secondary batteries, but still it was loud and created more jobs at the shell factories back at home.

The return fire from the Karmanyakan naval elements resulted in two Aurora’s crippling, this leaving them as floating hulks, as well as a couple of older cruisers sinking below the waves.


The Marshals
Jennah now stayed behind on the ZMI-built aircraft carrier, she noted various things on a small digital map on her PDA and sighed, she was sending in various elements to keep cover over the mile and a half area they had designated for the invasion area, with Muerte circled as “objective briefcase” That had to be taken on the first day or the campaign would be in jeopardy.

George Rothlington felt his chair shudder as the crate touched down, he ordered his men to start the engine and after a minute or so, the from part of the container opened and they rolled slowly out onto Karmanyakan soil.
The giant Apocalypse “Spirit of Midlonia” growled and traversed her turret slowly, then it began to move out to what was left of part of a road or car-park next to the ruined and still burning hulk of one of the forts. He sighed and popped the hatch and took a deep breath of the air and looked about him, the sun shone and it looked like a beautiful day.

Port Olympus
"There has been some question about the relationship between Karmanyanka and the Free Republic...therefore the item shall go to a vote..."

Sydnia River

The Feild Marshal raised an eyebrow. "And what do you desire as identification General? I doubt very much that your Prodirectorate could or would dare attempt to fake a member of the Alconian nobility." She turned to watch the men and then looked at her aide.

Captian Jenssen, who was also a attractive female, stepped out of the Rover and walked over towards the men. "Attenhut!" She called out in a voice that was obviously designed for command. "Is there some problem? Have you never seen a Feild Marshal before or a Klatchian Tiger..."

The large cat was walking up towards his mistress. Anne continued, "I doubt the Prodirectorate could arange to get a spy with her own Klatchian Tiger, knighted by the Grand Duke of the United Duchies himself. Really we need to be about this, I need to call back General Ozan Asap."

Alconian Fourth Fleet
OOC: My fleet admrial would be insulted...

Sir we have mutliple missle launches against Karmanyanka by Mildonian naval forces

Inform the Klatchian Parliament immediatly

JDF Coastal Defense Taskforce
"What the f***! Pepare to open fire...air defense spread against those...whatever they are!"

The skytrucks and their companions were suddenly targeted and fired upon by the JDF costal battleships. VLS launched anti-air missles flew up into the paths of the vehicles as they flew overhead.

The Mildonians had crossed the line and so the JDF was responding.

As the Mildonian wave of anti-ship missles crashed into the Karmanyanka fleet, the JDF responded with their own barage of anti-ship missles. Then the torpedo gunboats began their attack runs at the transport ships.

The three coastal battleships aimed and fired their dual 11 inch guns at the nearest flat top in range. The JDF had been ordered to stop any and all interference...and they would do so even if it ment their own destruction.

Several JDF helicopters also began their attacks...dropping supercavitating torpedoes aimed not at warships but at transports.

Three Karmanyakan ships were quickly sunk, one of which exploded violently, casting fragments for several hundred metres. Three of the four corvettes got away by conducting skilfully thought-out evasive manoeuvres. The flagship Incandescent got a bad hit, but managed to stay mostly upright by seriously straining the ship's pumps. Only the guns to the rear were still functioning when she retreated like a wounded lioness. The destroyer Odius was sinking slowly, flames licking the superstructure.

The life rafts and boats were picked up by the corvettes and the frigate, under heavy bombardment. ASM-countermeasures whined through the air. Another one of the corvettes received a fatal blow and went down like a rock. When the smoke lifted all that remained was the crippled Incandescent slowly shooting her way out, two corvettes and the frigate Preponderant, miraculously unharmed. They were however in no condition to fight and had better seek refuge in a harbour, because the Battleship couldn’t keep afloat for long.

--

The 1st and 2nd Armies [Grune-loyalist] were now only about a mile from the coast, as they stopped to review the situation. They could see the far-off movements of the Midlonian sky trucks. Totalling 40 000 men, including the tank divisions, they were not going to be just swept away. Scout teams were sent forward and a spearhead of tanks made ready to slash down on Muerte. Artillery was being set up and not long after began the bombardment of the coast. Shells dropped like hail from the sky on the Midlonian troopers. Air support was called in and soon six jets rocketed across the sky towards the small fishing village.


--

OOC: Will be more later.

‘Target the JDF vessels now! I want them sank before they hurt us more.’ The admiral was yelling orders just as one of the old carriers decks went up.
‘Oh for fu-‘
‘Sir! We have incoming torpedoes on the transport ships!’
‘For… use the vauntics, they’re drones! They’re cheap! Throw them into the paths of those torps and get them doing so now! If we lose those transports then the whole bloody thing can be pissed out of the window.’
’Sir!’

The small vauntic speed-boat drones were rapidly diverted and thrown into the paths of the incoming torpedoes, this method chewed up the drones, but stopped many of the transport ships from sinking, however 10 were still lost, five with roughly 3,000 military personnel each and another five carrying supplies of various description, with around 50 or so sailors aboard each. The MoD merely labeled this down to “acceptable losses” and continued feeding out orders and objectives to the marshals and men in the field.

The missiles slammed into the bottom of Sky trucks and type-10’s as they flew over, losses here were terrible with approximately 100 or so units being downed as a result of the missile fire.

Two of the Mini carriers wound up being gutted, this reduced the Midlonian air support by 60 machines, and some which were still in the air wound up landing on the larger carrier.

The Midlonian fleet response was horrific, anti-ship missiles from approximately 60 or more ships returned fire, throwing out several anti-ship missiles and shells of various description at the JDF fleet.

Katla

The Zeelord had not been idle for three hours. The grav-car had driven into the city, ignoring roadblocks and any attempt to stop them from going anywhere. The Zeelord's first stop was Battlesquare. The vehicle stopped and watched the smoldering remains of the old ministry building.

Then he turned his attention to the Palace and its boarded up conditions. "It appears they keep sheep here..." he commented dryly pointing out the loose ewe wandering around the corner of the building.

The Zeelord then appeared at the Hall of Knights to cool his heels for two hours as he waited for Grune to pull the various Knights out his hat.

(I am going to assume there is some 'meeting room for the Knights')
When Grune finally contacted the Zeelord, the Var stepped down from his grav car, his three aides in tow and entered the building. His long strides took him directly to the Hall itself, the meeting room of the Knights. He turned and called out..."I have been sent to speak to the Knights assembled so let them assemble here, and bring their...er...secretary." He said the last word as though the term were somewhat foreign to him.

The Var waited, the Var were very good at waiting...and then striking.

OOC Note: Ah Karmanyanka you have noticed what is on the A+H flag there...

JDF Coastal Taskforce
The incomming barage of missles were hit with 30mm chain gun fire...but really the vessels had no change. The torpedo-destroyers vanished, their small hulls holed by the incomming missles. The helicopter carrier vanished in a ball of flame as the warheads lit off the fuel tanks for her helicopters and spare ammunition.

As the inferno of destruction ended only one coastal battleship was still operational, two others were burning wrecks upon the sea. The Grost was too wounded to escape, so she continued to fight. Her forward turett turned towards the next flat top on the list and opened fire.

Likewise there were only two surviving torpedo gunboats in the water. They had found that the fast moving drones were dispached by their rapid fire chain guns so the two surviving vessels turned in for another run, this time at the surviving flat top. With their chainguns firing at the drones to clear a path, both torpedo boats launched a spread of six supercavitating torpedos.

The survivng helicopters turned and made a low altitude dash for the coast. They had nothing to stop the oncomming invasion at the moment, but they might be able to help destroy troops that had already landed on the beach.

At Sea
The mini carrier never stood a chance against six torpedoes and the shells from the Grost; it ruptured explosively and seemed to leap into the air before smacking down heavily into the water and sinking beneath the briny deep, another 30 aircraft lost.

The return fire from the destroyers wiped the gunboats from existence.

Not wanting to show themselves as completely merciless, four sky trucks hit the deck of the Grost, it was originally meant to be 6 but two were forced to turn away due to the incoming chain gun fire, it nearly wrecking the undercarriage. Spilling off of the trucks which had ground themselves onto the rear of the ship the Marines aboard immediately hit the deck, firing at personnel that presented itself as a serious threat, a couple with rocket launchers attempted to hit the CIWS chain guns at the rear to knock out the AA threat to land more marines aboard. One marine clambered aboard the back turret of the battleship and simply dropped a grenade in through the top hatch of the massive turret.

Coastline

The two helicopters were immediately sighted by an aging type-22 gunship, it turned in a steady and lazy arc and shot at one of the helicopters with it’s six 20mm guns. A small AA rocket flew from somewhere down below on the coast. Its plume sticking out against the grey and blue of the land.

aboard the flagship of Task Force 34, Admiral Joy Merril watched the battle with sick horror. "The bastards really went and done it" she whispered, although no one was sure who exactly she meant. "Ok then. Scramble everything. I don't know if they are going to shoot at us next, but we will need to be ready. Communications, find out what the hell kind of orders we have. Weapons, get me a target tasking, prioritize troop transports and carriers. If we are going to go to war I want to make damn sure the Midlonians remember it.

Oh, and Father Ryan?" she ordered, "Write up a good prayer and send it out on the fleet datanet. I am sure everyone would like one."

----
aboard the ships of the fleet, subfighters went deep, while F22Ds climbed at their maximum to reach 50,000 feet. The UAVs climbed even higher still, although at a slower rate, while the Sea Dragonfly embedded rotor gunships went low, practically hugging the wave tops.

The New Shiron task force, still a bare 20 miles from the outer edge of the Midlonian armada, had a target rich environment. Of course they were sitting ducks as well.

Karmanyaka / Ilek-Vaad border

Colonel Perkins had some difficulty locating the Retaliatory Guard at first, the whole border area was deserted for about a fifty mile stretch, he was found picked up by one on the last Velite Guard patrols who were making sure the area was evacuated.

Colonel Perkins was taken to Southern Battlegroup Command a.ka. Command General Baibars' tank. The inside of the nearly two story tall Chok-Mool was spacious with room enough for the five crew and the fiave passengers. Command General Baibars saluted Perkins and bid him to have a seat.

"We want to make sure that we co-ordinate with your people as smoothly as possible. Those loyal to the legal government must take the lead and show us where they need help, or else we will simply be a bull in the china shop, and we don't want that."

North Battlegroup Command

Supreme Republican Commander Ring watched the satellite feeds as the Midlonians began their invasion, he paused and clicked on the 'all channels' icon on his tactical viewer.

"This is Supreme Republican Commander Ring. For THE Vaad, For the Republic, do your duty!"

With that the Retaliatory Guard began it's lightning advance across the Karmanyakan border, Southern Battlegroup skirting the coast and Northern Battlegroup skirting the Nothern border, with five Retaliatory Guard armies moving slowly between then, to crush any forces forced noth or south away from the main advances.

The advances were covered by ten squadrons of Death's Head sub-orbital bombers and all three thousand Orion Fighters and one thousand Artemis ground assault vehicles of North-West Air Guard Command.

Colonel Perkins was given a post with Command General Baibars to help co-ordinate attacks and sort out who was friend or foe. The Retaliatory Guard, unlike usual, were ordered to be very careful about targetting.

Fort Fyalar

Fort Fyalar was alive with activity as Martahon transport after transport hopped in from the Revenge Battleships and unloaded their Marines. The plan was to unload all of Tactical Group Sir Wiliam Issem and Tactical Group Ismaili Al Assad Navla Guard Marines (fourteen thousand) and fortify Fort Fyalar, making it a serious distraction to the Karmayakans, this was all done under the watchful eyes and guns of the two Tactical Groups and their air umbrella of over four hundred jets.

Bay of Lunacy

The hundreds of Navla Guard ships that could have moved to block, or attack the Midlonins did nothing, keeping a respectful distance and watching as the FKC 'allies' attacked each other, in more than an amused fashion.

message sent to all New Shiron military and civil defense forces
"Operational Immediate. All forces to go on Defcon 2 effective immediately. Hostilities are considered likely and may occur at any time."

Across New Shiron, a wide vary of responses occured. The hubs connecting the internet to the outside world immediately restricted access to only priority traffic coming from Port Olympus and the territory controlled by the Lords of War. Category A, B, and C government personnel began dispersing according to emergency plan. Monetary transactions to and from New Shiron were restricted to the priority channels. Announcements were made that emergency civilian shelters were being readied, and indeed, air and space defenses went to Defcon 1.

Meanwhile, 6 corvettes lifted off from the ground and accelerated toward L4 to link up with the flotilla of 2 frigates and 3 corvettes, as well as the massive fortified space dock already there. Standing patrols in orbit were instituted with 2 squadrons up at all times, and 6 on pad alert. 2 more corvettes in orbit also moved off to L4 at high speed.

Meanwhile, the RAF and Royal Guard began scattering to dispersal sites throughout the country, while air defense units moved into position to reinforce city defenses and critical ground installations. The fleet sortied, every ship that was mobile, leaving only a large submarine and a cruiser in drydock, and a pair of destroyers hurriedly ending maintanence and preparing for sea. The fleet steam toward an assembly point that would link them up with the 2nd and 4th Fleets, roughly 1000 miles south of the Gonad, and a similar distance from Midlonia.

A message was flashed to JDF headquarters.
"New Shiron space and naval forces are prepared to act under JDF orders when requested."

Meanwhile Task Force 34 continued to steam away from the Midlonian armada at full speed, over 30 knots, the fastest speed of its slowest vessel, the coverted psyops ship. Admiral Merril watched the chart tensely, and the screens showing the status of her fleet and her homeland. The fuse was laid out, all that remained was the spark to light it.

The news that the Klatchians were shooting at each other reached Benjia House, where it was presented to an unhappy band of Commisaars. Dzerzhinsky wasn't in the office, and without his prescence the place degenerated into an interdepartmental squabble between Five and Six over who should be in charge of deciding what to do. Two then decided it was their priority, before finally Commisaar Fradkov from One managed to find a compromise, "Why don't I contact the President and ask what he wants us to do." she suggested, "For now you can all go back to your own little schemes and forget all about the fact that we've probably got a Civil War going on."

This suited the rest of the Commisaars just fine.

To: The Officers of the President of Klatch
From:Benjia House
Subject: Friendly fire incident near Karmanyaka
The ongoing incident in Karmanyakan waters has caused some alarm. Is the Klatch in the state of Civil War? If so, the President's orders should be relayed onto the Provincial Parliament in Cyro as soon as possible.
Regards,
Commisaar T. Fradkov

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

The Cheka were not the only one's catching wind of what was going on, deep in a bunker in East Benjia other people were meeting,

"We need to accelerate production. If war breaks out we will need these."

"Indeed, however they are still too vulnerable to achieve what they have been designed to."

"Did I not tell you what the board of directors had scavenged?"

"No."

"I'll show you after. Have you begun programing the existing models? We can integrate the new system as it arrives."

"Yes. I have. Watch this... MAP1, what it your primary objective?"

Exterminate non-Dyellians.

"Excellent, and it will do it?"

"Yes. Of course we can put new orders over the primary, say if we don't want it to go off and attack Vrakians, if you leave it on it's own though it will just follow the primary."

"Impressive, as soon as the new systems are in place we can begin to issue the devices."

Earth Orbit

Hulls, much like any other, thick layers of ceramic and advanced alloys, some parts of these hulls however were passive optic pick ups. Networked together this vast simple optic passive system saw the objects. Input was sorted, flagged and turned into data first by hardware and software then by human minds it was sorted into useful information , more human minds would turn it into policy, and a few more would turn it into effect. Three hours later the response would be on its way.


The Ziggurat, Zone One, Sub surface level 189, Unified military high command and control

The command holographic’s spread out above a sea of paper thin smart dust monitors. The huge cavernous room was filled with the sounds of a thousand whirring devices topped of with the voice filled cacophony of planning for war. Not necessarily the war in question. Every war. ZMI demographic analysis of wars and their ability to statistically allow the company to manipulate the markets to “bet” on the outcome made the state billions each year. This time however they were analysing some one else’s war. The command deck as it was called was above the main hubbub of analysts and strategic planners, above the endless display tables and the floating spheres of a thousand different worlds. In it heart a group had gathered along a black minimalist rectangular table, behind them hanging over the centre of the command deck a huge perfect simulacrum of the galaxy made spun out of photons hung, in it every ZMI ship and facility was plotted. Now we look at the men sitting around the table.

Admiral Stephen Carlson, 48 ZMN. Balding slightly under his peaked cap, his service was seen as at best second rate in the hierarchy of High Command. He had commanded the ZMN’s home fleet before this his penultimate post.

General Joseph James Hughes, ZM Defence Force, 53, Once a Landcrawler commander, then the commander of the Landcrawler Corp. Now he acted as the leader of the sprawling Z.M.D.F. with all its bureaucracy.

Air Marshall Charles Hayworthy, ZMAF, at 43 and the youngest man in the group. Had survived a catastrophic hull failure of his air defence needle 21 years ago. A man with a long history of being overly fond of women Hayworthy had over his career made up for it by being a superb strategist.

Sky Marshall Ronald Wesley, 45, Z.M.S.F. Previous to entering the rigmarole of the administration of the star admiralty he had been the Captain of a Management Buyout class command carrier. When a kamikaze rebelling mining colonist had slammed a 3,000 ton tug into the management buyouts CNC he had been left with command of a crippled ship and a task force. His performance afterwards had been in no small part due to the death of his close friend and mentor Admiral James Canter . Sometimes over aggressive to a fault he was however more than most around this table willing to take into acount the wider human cost of combat operations.

Corp Commander Sarah Tyler, Battle Angels, 54, even now her body filled with the full regalia of battle angel implants, her skin bulging in places that humans usually don’t. The ice queen of the command staff, the leader of Z.M.I.’s elite forces. Her history as most battle angel actions was shrouded under the curtains of covert ops. Mother to 2 her staff had never seen her warm side though according to the flimsies and images tacked to every surface of her office she did indeed have one.

These men and women had made their decisions and plans. Now they would act. Orders would stream out. Forces in the dark would move. Their allies would be assisted.

Fleet High Orbital Anchorage “Sarsaparilla”

Huge numbers of servo motors activated, silent in the dark, as one by one the docking clamps on the vessel withdrew. One side of the view was dominated by the brooding mass of a Advauntic class fleet support station, its metals tarnished in places with a thin layer of seemingly random antennae emerging from every flat surface. On the other side of the view was the brute form of a hellbore turret, a whisp coolant escaping one of its armoured top side lourvers.

Deep within the command and control centre of the vessel “Z.M.S.F. Possession is 9/10ths of the Law” two men stood beside the main command holo tank. Over the formation they were to command formed from the rapid response units on hand the new designation “Bat Div 38” blinked in harsh green.

The taller of the two was fleet tactician Sebastian Taylor, a lithe thin almost raptor like man who had been re psyched to have virtually no sense of right or wrong meanly loyalty to the company and humanity as a whole. He had the terrible ability to terminate life and feel absolutely nothing but the satisfaction of a job well done and a fat paycheque well earned. Beside him sat Fleet Admiral Eric Haze the ZMI fleet units military commander his space black uniform a stark contrast to the decadence and supple deceptive nature of Taylor’s suit. This unlikely duo had worked well in the past and high commands orders sitting clasped in Taylor’s hands in a blue flash delivery envelope had ordered them once more into the deep dark.

Over the vague murmur of duty stations Sebastian spoke once, almost a whisper.

“So it begins.”

Low Earth Orbit

Amongst other things light streamed endlessly into the meticulously machined lenses of the sensor platform. Nothing really more than a rough bath tub sized wire mesh the platform had little or no survivability and absolutely no stealth capacity. It was however relatively small and relatively cheap and networked with its 62 identical units presently in range it created a big array that had a quite staggering level of passive detection ability . Its four 18” telescopes were now trained upon the area from were the relayed networked data from the entire array of its brethren had detected a wash of infra red jet trails. Now in the heavily thermally shielded mounts of the telescope delicate servos moved the focus as the units single robust electromechanical logic stack and old fashioned optic processor fizzed with data. In there lenses really not all that far away the forms of Deaths head bombers were fixed.

A cast of thousands.
I lie with my brothers and sisters upon flight bay four of our carrier the “Z.M.S.F. Investment in Aggression” which we call home.

Near my port wing attachment I watch tensely as my deck crew is making final checks of my systems. As one of the newer techs a young man who central records name as “David Blix” checks the coolant fluid seals of my left Type 49 MACE 20mm hypervelocity autocannon my crew chief of some 3 years Jane Winston speaks

“Well Portia old girl time again for you to fight it seems”.

My limited auditory sensors detect a song playing loudly in the background over the mechanical noises of the bay my logic stacks identify it as “Hobo Humpin Slobo Babe by the Whales” When I was new I would have reported this as a violation of safety regulations however central processing has stated based upon numerous studies that music assists humans in menial tasks such as our maintenance. I am not without learning capacity however and her term “old girl” I find somewhat dissatisfactory.

“Jane I am only 8.2 years old if I am an “old girl” what does that make you?”
Jane snorts and affectionately pats my port secondary power core access hatch which she herself had just recently sealed.
“I shouldn’t have taught you so well girl now get your mechanical behind in gear and give me a readout on that big laser you call a front ends tertiary power coils”

I am a Z.M.S.F. DXC 239 “Portia” a Mark XIV Overrun fighter drone of the 301st Strike Squadron. At Cardennes IV against the T’ziek skyripper bioforms my outclassed Mk.II squadron predecessors fought for 32 days against the biological air combat units covering the evacuation of the colonists until the last unit was ripped from the air by those living jets. I know fear, I know duty and I know sacrifice. I am a synthetic intelligence, and a citizen of the Incorporated State, an independent member of the central processing collective. I will not fail my Squadron.

The deck below my 28 metre long body tips forward and I am now propped precariously upon my drop rack, behind my main drive outputs a large system of pneumatic rams waits to hurl me into the dark. I watch as slowly the huge bay is emptied of human personnel and depressurised. My recharging umbilicus retracts and my power cores switch to discharge mode. I am now on internal power. Finally the broad data connection retracts from my input node and I close the armoured plate its delicate optic inputs. I am cut of from the central processing collective now though this central processing collective is just a fleet wide shadow of the true central.

Flight Officer Maurice Greenberg reclined in his command chair in the core of flight operations control and gently flicked the launch release. This in actual fact was simply a manual safety release with the actual launch being controlled by a dumb but competent expert system.

I lurch forward and down as the rams slam into my rear assembly. I plunge past layers of armour and blast doors, and the huge hoops of force wall projectors. I exit the ship to see briefly as I plunge the huge white hellbore dotted plain with hills formed by the disintegrator domes of the Investment in Aggressions hull with dozens of my brethren in the process of falling out of it. I realise this is fuzzy thinking and in .23 pico second discover that my ground terrain tracking and identification system has come online. I halt its process and find my drives under my own control. I engage my directed impeller for a 29 second burst and begin to coast towards my assigned targets. I busy myself while waiting for the go signal with tactical analysis and squadron wide virtual war games and writing a critique and analysis of the works of Chaucer.


If one were looking at the right spot in the sky at the right time above the spreading form of Klatch one would have seen a seen for a few seconds brief distortions of starlight as the Overrunners impellers made a final “burn”, the term not really appropriate for the almost arcane feat of distorting gravity without mass or energy. If one looked closely enough, one could actually see the Overunners, if one looked behind them, you could see something much worse slowly and steadily trundling over the horizon.


Overrun Class Fighter Drone
http://www.deviantart.com/view/15355536/

Battle Division 38

Profit Point Class Heavy Carriers:
http://www.deviantart.com/view/17005155/
“Z.M.S.F. Possession is 9/10ths of the Law”
“Z.M.S.F. Investment in Aggression”

Capital Punishment Class Battlecruisers:
http://www.deviantart.com/view/17590019/
“Z.M.S.F. Intractable”
“Z.M.S.F. Extirpate”
“Z.M.S.F. Vengeance”
“Z.M.S.F. Fortitude”
“Z.M.S.F. Vivacity”
“Z.M.S.F. Audacious”
“Z.M.S.F. Capacious”
“Z.M.S.F. Celerity”

Swift Retribution Class Battlecruisers:
http://www.deviantart.com/view/17611008/
“Z.M.S.F. Exceptional”
“Z.M.S.F. Nimble”
“Z.M.S.F. Trenchant”
“Z.M.S.F. Potentiality”

Saunders Mod B Armour Carrier
http://www.deviantart.com/view/18572836/
“Z.M.S.F. Winds of Fate”

North Battlegroup Command

Supreme Republican Commander Ring personally led the 2nd Purifiers Division across the border, the North Battlegroups moved into Karmanyaka warily, the armoured divisions of the battlegroups armies, The Purifiers, The Wralords The Twisted Serpent and the 2nd Red Jaguar Command, advanced in an oblique formation, their lines trailing off to the center, any resistance they encountered would be met and flushed back south towards.....

Central Battlegroup

Command General Itzcoatl led the 9th ed Jaguar Command, The Huscarls and the Shield Bearers armies. They purposely lagged behind the North and South Battlegroups, forming a funnel as Karmanyaka's border was breached.

North Battlegroup

Led by Command General Baibars was moving the fastest, making straight for Sleyfalls and Fort Fyalar to meet up with the Naval Guard Marine landing. Baibars led the 5th Red Jaguar Command the Panther, Tiger, Dark Horse and Leveler armies, he was loaded with enough artillery and heavy tanks to pummel the coasts defences, if need be.

Colonel Perkins of the Karmanyakan armed forces was with Baibars and was kept in constant touch via satellite with the other Command Groups, his job would be to seperate loyalists from rebels for the Retaliatory Guard.

The entire advance was covered by Northwest Air Guard Command, their three thousand Orions and fifteen hundred Artemis attack vehicles were all on alert and moved in constant rotation to keep a permanent umbrella over the advancing forces.

OOC:

Northwest Air Guard Command has a total of forty five hundred Orion and Artemis jet fighters. Obviously these ae not all launched at once in a huge air wave, such a thing would defy common sense, and are launching several squadrons at a time in rotation to keep a constant umbrella over the Retaliatory Guard.

ZMI: I'm not reading your posts, I assume they can't be for me since you ignored me the last time we met. You can't have it both ways, either you ignore me or you don't, you can't pick and choose times to ignore me. I also will not respond to OOC arguments in this thead, TG me if you have something to say.

Port Olympus Klatchian Parliament
The speaker smacked down his gavel several times. "My fellow Keys, Parliament has agreed to allow the treaty between the Free Republic and Karmanyanka by a vote of eight votes to seven. As such, any state may ask to invalidate the treaty after one year with six months notice to both the Free Republic and Karmanyanka of the treaty being invalidated."

An aide appeared in a JDF uniform and whispered in the Speaker's ear.
"My fellow Keys I call an emergency security session of Parliament immediatly. The Joint Defenses Command has something that they would like to notify us of."

Visitors, Press, and aides without security clearence were cleared from the chamber and the gallery as a large screen rolled down from behind the Speaker's podium.

General Parks strode into the space, turned, bowed and began.

"At approximatly 852 Hundread Hours, JDF Coastal Defense Taskforce B, stationed off the coast of Karmanyanka to prevent outside interference in Karmanyanka detected a large naval force moving from Mildonia."

A map of the eastern Klatch with several ship icons were shown.

"The Taskforce Commander, Commadore Thursk, ordered the Mildonians to avoid entering near Karmanyanka waters or be fired upon."

A picture of the Vrakian was shown scowling at the Keys.

"At 13:32 Hundread Hours, the Mildonian Fleet sent aircraft into Karmanyanka Airspace and were intercepted. A breif air battle ensued with severe losses to Karmanyanka airforces..."

A high altitude replay of the air battle was shown in three times speed.

"At 13:40 the Mildonian Fleet launched several long range, airborne units to deliver troops and equipment while also attacking the Karmanyanka fleet in their own waters."

Still photographs of the Mildonians launching their airbuses and them landing in Karmanyanka and degorging troops were shown.

"Commadore Thursk, feeling this violated State neutrality fired upon the air units with anti-air missles and engaged the Mildonian Fleet with his forces. The Mildonians responded with overwhelming force and appear to have all but destroyed the taskforce."

More still photographs these of the wrecks of the taskforce sinking into the sea.

"Honored Keys, the Mildonians have violated both the precepts of the constitution by violating the soverignty of another state without permission as well as violated the very reason that you sent the Marshal to investigate the Karmanyanka matter. They have forced us to fire on them, and destroyed JDF forces."

OOC: Z.M. I don't know what is up with Ilek-Vaad in this but you have no recognized treaty or alliance with any Klatchian State, so your going to be seen as an FT invader and delt with accordingly.

OOC: ummm, me and him are signed up to "The Concordat" an alliance of several states of which Midlonia is one of the leading members, he is allied to me and [untill a few minutes ago] I was an "offical" Klatchian State.

[in regards to post #144, The one below]
You know I've had this nagging feeling for MONTHS that I hadn't done something... That musta been it because the feeling had gone :D

Port Olympus

The Midlonian keys merely watched the videos and nodded, with a slight mumur between each of them they nodded and merely remained seated, keeping fairly quiet and watching the video with a quiet Glee. They had got it into their heads that this war would prove Midlonian dominace over the Eastern Klatchian area, as far as they were concerned they were going to win, and it'd be all over by Christmas.

OOC: Yup but you never told Parliament you joined :eek:

OOC: I'm retconning all this and left the FKC, I can't be bothered to work out or even RP with Vaad anymore, the region just lost all it's fun for me when he arrived.

Cycle back to before I even commited forces and stuff.

~James

OOC thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=9455559) To solve those questionmarks.

in New Shiron, military and civil defense forces, having completed their unscheduled readiness exercise, reverted back to Defcon 4, while Task Force 34 watched in relief as the Midlonians steamed away.

Once it became clear that the Midlonians weren't going to open fire and were indeed retiring, Task Force 34 altered course and steamed toward the wreckage that was the JDF Fleet.

"Notice to Mariners and Aviatiors, New Shiron forces are conducting search and rescue missions at the coordinates given (GPS coordinates). Avoid interference if possible."

OOC: See OOC thread (link above) for a detailed explanation of the somewhat odd turn of events. In short, Midlonian forces called off the invasion and left the smoking scene. This means that Vaadian Retaliatory Guard is still rolling in over Karmanyaka, presumably to liberate it from both the Military Dictatorship and from the Midlonians, who just left. This means the Retaliatory Guard only has one objective left: to remove Grune (and perhaps put a puppet in his place… what do I know…).

The reopening of the voting in the FKC Parliament also means that effectively there is as of now no clearance for Vaadian intervention in an internal Klatchian affair as this is still regarded. This, in extension, means that the Vaadians are at the mercy of the JDF forces, who may, or may not decide to open fire upon the non-FKC intruders of the Retaliatory Guard.

Let the games begin.

IC:

Parliament
The senior Karmanyakan Key rose and spoke to the Parliament:

"Dear fellow Klatchians, I beg you to accept the help from the Vaadians in liberating Karmanyaka from the grip of terror. As it is now, both the people and their rightful rulers suffer from enormous injustice due to the inability of the JDF to intervene. The Free Republic, however, have realized the acute situation and are acting swiftly to remove the dictatorship from its seat of power. The right thing to do should be to support this action, and not to prevent them from bringing peace, stability and democracy to Karmanyaka. The fact is that the Military Committee, which now tries to reign in the chaos that sweeps through Karmanyaka, is decidedly anti-Klatchian and will almost certainly leave the Federation if they regain control. Do not let this happen! Act for a stronger FKC with the Dominion of Karmanyaka."

--

The 1st and 2nd Armies heard about the Midlonian retreat and moved forward to Fort Fyalar to try and contain the Vaadians that poured in.

(OOC: I-V, I'm sorry if you thought Fort Fyalar was located further east. I've been somewhat unclear about the location and, if you insist, I'm prepared to move it to the south-eastern 'corner' of Karmanyaka.)

Tanks rattled across the fields, and the clouds of dust were visible for miles as the army made its path across fields and wasteland.

The Air Force sent several high-altitude spy planes to survey the area around Fort Fyalar. Enough planes were sent to ensure that at least some would return with enough photos.

--

Colonel Perkins sat in Baibars' tank and witnessed the onslaught of the Retaliatory Guard. On their way they met several units of deserting Karmanyakan military who gladly joined the forces. As the North Battlegroup reached the first larger city, Markberg, they Vaadians were greeted as heroes and liberators. Junta forces had left the northern parts of the country in order to regroup and meet the invaders further inland. This meant that there were hardly any opposing units encountered during the first day of Vaadian advancement. Only occasional clashes with isolated units of Karmanyakan armour and some air attacks interrupted the rapid advance.

--

Council Hall, Katla
The Knights sat down across the long table, which looked much like an antique conference table.

The Secretary laid down the ceremonial sword in front of him and banged the hilt on the table three times.

"Knights of the Council. The Zeelord Ke'tra is here to investigate the legal position of the Military Committee." He cleared his throat and continued. "I leave the floor to our guest from Port Olympus, the Klatchian Marshall."

The presence of several, a bit too-heavily armed, Prodirectorate Guards made the whole scene look awkward. Some Knights had clearly been dragged here with force and were bruised and scratched. Others had a hastily-dressed look about them, ties crumpled and robes hanging loosely. This didn't look good at all. In the midst of it all, behind the secretary, sat a red-faced Grune, masticating some kind of heart medicine. He probably knew this wouldn't convince a blind donkey, but he had to try, didn't he?

OOC: Fort Fyalar in the South is fine, better even! Game on!

IC:

Fort Fyalar

Tactical Groups Ismaili Al Assaad and Sir William Issem launched their Orion fighters in shifts to counter any Karmayakan fighters or spy planes, they also launched their complimemt of new Artemis Ground Attack Fighters, to counter the incoming tanks. The Marines had no armour and their only defence would be the effectiveness of the Artemis fighters.

General Deadmarsh quickly organized men as they landed, getting the Naval Guard Marine snipers up on top of buildings where they had a good field of vision for their 12.6mm AMR's. He organized the rest of the marines to eventually counter attack when they were all landed and accounted for.

The Ships of the two Tactical Groups moved ahead and finally pierced Karmanyakan National Waters. The ships lent their aid to the anti-armour Artemis' in the form of anti-armour cruise missles and their main guns. Sleyfalls would be ringed by Vaadian fire.

The Tactical Group's submarines prowled the edges of the groups and looked for any enemy vessel attempting to get into range.

North Battlegroup

Supreme Republican Commander Ring was concerned about the lack of resistance, he ordered all units to slow advance. He then set a priority on securing lines of communication and supply lines. He also wanted to make sure that Karmanyakan forces that had joined him, were well supplied and on the same page.

South Battlegroup

Colonel Perkins was given command of the loyal Karmayakans and given a satellite communications set to make sure that he co-ordinated with the Retaliatory Guard.

He was also given a Quartermasters Corps liason to make sure that his men stayed supplied. The Retaliatory Guard advance was slowed now, as the Retaliatory Guard let it's air power find and bomb every defensive formation it could find ahead of the advance.

High over Karmanyaka, waves of Death's Head sub-orbital bombers targetted Grune's strong points with cruise missles. The Air Guard also unleashed a new asset, it's B-7E 'Vampire' Strategic Bombers , the Vampire's were each armed with 28 Apollo Cruise missles and began showering them on the Grune's forces that were withdrawing to form defensive positions.

The Retaliatory Guard didn't mess around, nor were they at all put off by civilian casualties.

Great Lassic

Minister Issem nodded to General Yaotl as he entered "Did you get my e-mail Field Marshal? asked Yaotl, using Issem's Retaliatory Guard rank.

Minister Issem "Yes, I haven't opened it yet, that's a big attachement." He clicked and watched the Vrakian King's Own , a full platoon in full battle gear picking up Minister Pommer.

Yaotl didn't wait for Minister Issem to comment "Those dogs. They show up on our soil armed as if for war! Is Minister Pommer not safe with us? Are the Vrakians ever in danger here? How dare they send such an armed force!? If this were any other nation we would have shot that plane down!"

Minister Issem leaned back and frowned "I told the First Republican we were getting to close to the Vrakians. Their King is taking our friendship for granted now."

Yaotl sneered "Their king, that buck-toothed seal! His bodyguard show up like we were his vassals receiving their due!"

Minister Issem nodded to General Yaotl "I'll talk to the First Republican about this."

One of the Marshal's aides had a glass of water held in his hands with a napkin over the top. The aide began to walk down the side of the room as the Speaker hammered the gavel. The Zeelord first looked at the Knights assembled, then at the guards in the room. As the aide passed before one of them, the Var turned and roared.

"Guard, take that glass of water to your master, Now! Do not hesitate or I shall drop the very fires of the Gods themselves upon thee. Take the Glass and Place it before your Master!"

The bellow was large and inhuman. The Marshal's eyes seemed to glow bright red as they drilled into the guard standing there. The tail was swinging back and fourth, which seemed to embolden the aides.

Parliament
The senior Karmanyakan Key rose and spoke to the Parliament:

"Dear fellow Klatchians, I beg you to accept the help from the Vaadians in liberating Karmanyaka from the grip of terror. As it is now, both the people and their rightful rulers suffer from enormous injustice due to the inability of the JDF to intervene. The Free Republic, however, have realized the acute situation and are acting swiftly to remove the dictatorship from its seat of power. The right thing to do should be to support this action, and not to prevent them from bringing peace, stability and democracy to Karmanyaka. The fact is that the Military Committee, which now tries to reign in the chaos that sweeps through Karmanyaka, is decidedly anti-Klatchian and will almost certainly leave the Federation if they regain control. Do not let this happen! Act for a stronger FKC with the Dominion of Karmanyaka."


The senior Vrakian key banged his flipper on the table in front of him, threatening to split it in half.

"The JDF is not so swift to act in this matter precisely because its role is to defend the Klatch from outside aggression. When it comes to internal matters we all tread more carefully because the President himself is a great respector of state sovereignty."

A pause and then the walrus continued, clearly becoming more agitated.

"Ilek-Vaad is not a full Klatchian state and will be treated as an outsider. That is all we will say on this matter."

He then turned his head and whispered quickly to an aide who promply left. The aide was not a typical one in that he was a VIS agent. The agent then speed dialed a certain sub-director who then fowarded the information to his supervisor. A decision was made and if anyone was monitoring the the south-eastern part of Vrak one would notice a fairly massive formation of long-range bomber heading towards Karmanyaka.

====

The Vrakian subs let loose two volleys of cruise missiles and torpedoes at the closest Midlonian naval assets. Such an act suddenly activated the Vrakian war machine into overdrive.

The guard quickly snatched the glass of water from the aide. With a look of panic he stared around him. Technically the Supreme Prodirector was his 'master', but he was now dead and temporarily replaced by Prodirector Patrice Snell. The guard was really not used to thinking in terms of masters, he only followed they usual chain of command and reported to his superior officer. In extension, the chain of command ended with the Lord Tengil on the top. He made a quick decision and started walking towards Field Marshal Grune. The guard carried the glass carefully, trying not to spill any water, which was hard condsidering the evil stare of the dragon man.

He placed the glass on the table in front of a perplexed Grune who suddenly found himself thinking all sorts of thoughts ranging from "I'm thirsty as hell!" to "What kind of test is this? What does he want me to do?!"

Grune looked up from the glass and towards the Var Marshal. The rest of the silent assembly followed his example.

The guard thought he could hear his own heart beats, and his comrades were merely trying to melt into the walls, holding their assault rifles close to their bodies, as if to shield themselves.

He then turned his head and whispered quickly to an aide who promply left. The aide was not a typical one in that he was a VIS agent. The agent then speed dialed a certain sub-director who then fowarded the information to his supervisor. A decision was made and if anyone was monitoring the the south-eastern part of Vrak one would notice a fairly massive formation of long-range bomber heading towards Karmanyaka.

====

The Vrakian subs let loose two volleys of cruise missiles and torpedoes at the closest Midlonian naval assets. Such an act suddenly activated the Vrakian war machine into overdrive.


Tollan Fire Control, Tollan, Ilek-Vaad

With a beep one of the Retaliatory Guard RASTER Satellites alerted a Duty Leftenant to the fact that Vrakian heavy bombers were now streaming towards Karmanyaka. The Duty Leftenant quickly put the visual up on the main screen, where Command General Lucane leaned forward and watched. He clicked open his comm.

"Supreme Republican Commander, are receiving this feed?" He asked

Commander Ring replied "Yes, scramble the South-West Air Guard Command, put them on an intercept course for those Vrakian bombers, but with orders not to shoot. Hopefully they are going to target Grune's forces."

"Hopefully, sir?" Lucane sounded wary "What if those bombs are meant for our men?"

"Tell the Orion Fighter Pilots that if the Vrakian bombers enter Vaadian air-space, or head for our troop formations to shoot them down. All of them. Ring , out."

Lucane nodded and turned to the Duty Leftenant and nodded "Make it so."

Karmanyaka, Retaliatory Guard formations

Tollan had passed the word of a possible air attack to the front line commanders as well. The forward movement remained slow, but the Guard units now scattered into small groups, getting under cover and as out of sight as possible, dialing in their active camoflage to give any bombers a tough time of seeing them. The Karmanyakan troops were likewise alerted and told to get under cover if possible.

The Chok-Mool Command Tanks and the Thunderer II MBT's immediately deloyed their SAM batteries, slowing them considerably but giving air attackers a nasty suprise

South of Karmanyaka , International Waters

The sudden retreat of Midlonian forces and the suprise Vrakian sub attack both suprised and amused the Naval Guard, Three Tactical Groups, the Emperor Ehecatl, Emperor Itihetacl and Tomislav Vaad , filled the gap left by the withdrawing forces and kept a wary eye on Vrakian subs.

Their air umbrella was also alerted of the possibility of Vrakian bombers and were on alert.

Katla
The Zeelord watched as the glass of water was placed before the Feild Marshal.
"As I thought, these men at arms are your servants Grune. I told you to bring fourth the servants of the Knights, but you have brought forth your servants." The Var turned from looking at Grune to the Knights at the table.

"Look at these so called Knights, they look more scruffy than the peasents who line the city streets. Dirtier than the men who work in the rubble upon your Battle Square. I do not see any Knights here, no terrans of nobility, only peasents, squalid and fearful of you Grune" his eyes again bored into Grune.

"First you said only five Knights could be found, and now we have twelve. And to look upon some of these Knights makes me wonder if they are Knights anymore, or ever were. What is to stop you, Feild Marshall from dressing up a peasent as a Knight? But we shall treat them as Knights, for the present." The Aides had gathered again and were watching the guards.

"Dismiss your servants Grune, for if they should kill me, or murder any of these so called Knights before me, the Federation shall strike with the unending horror of the rising sea. Send them out, and send in the man you accuse. The man who carries the title Lord Tengil. I wish to see you accuse this Lord to his face before those who condem him." The Zeelord stared at Grune, the tail moving slowly back and forth like some inverted, serpintine pendulum.

Near the Karmayakan coast, Task Force 34 completed its hunt for JDF survivors. There weren't many, just a few dozen and most of them were severely injured. Transport VTOLs were soon winging their way to Gordon Bay, where ambulance aircraft would take them to hospitals in Port Olympus.

Someone wanted the politicians to have easy access to those people.

Once finished, the Task Force steamed south, toward a rendevous with the rest of the 3rd Fleet which was steaming to meet them. With so many ships in the area, the New Shiron navy wanted to concentrate its forces.

High overhead, a continual CAP of F22Ds and UAVs kept overwatch.

Grune swallowed and felt how dry his throat was. He looked down at the glass but dared not drink it, for fear of poison and whatever other evils the dragon man could conjure up.

"I assure you that these men are here only to protect you and this assembly from intruders." he said, the clicking of his dry tounge clearly audible. "But as a sign of good faith and to prove that I want to bring clarity to this situation, I shall ask them to leave us."

He nodded to the guard captain, who left the room with all the guards following him.

Several Knights relaxed visibly and Grune continued.

"As for the Lord Tengil... I'm uncertain if he can be brought here, he is rather reluctant to cooperate with the Military Committee."

The Var's tail flicked rather more violently for a moment, which spurred the Field Marshal into further action.

"But I shall take all necessary action in order to bring him here. I want to prove that I'm..." he said but was interrupted.

"Really, I don't care what you say, you puffed up piece of s**t!" roared one of the Knights, the Minister of Finance Peter O'Beese.

"Sit down Peter!" begged a Knight with dried blood round his nose. "Gods, please sit down and be quiet!"

"No, Eugene! I won't let myself be silenced by this usurper! He's a damned liar, Zeelord, Most of us were forced to come here and be silent, but I'm not standing for it! My wife told me that she'd rather die than live below the shadow of Grune. Only five of us voted on the occasion and they can be easily recognized by their clean clothes!" He pointed to five Knights seated at the far end of the table.

The look on Grune's face could be a good description for the word 'panic' in any dictionary.

"Liar!" he called out. "Any one of these men can tell you, Zeelord, that my commission was completely legal and according to the rules."

Katla

The Var titled his head slightly as O'Beese began to shout down Grune. The Zeelord said nothing as the two Terran's argued before him.

"It would seem I was wrong Feild Marshal, one of these scruffy looking souls is not a peasent masqurading as a Knight, but a Knight. The question is, does this Knight speak the truth? Only the Knights of Karmanyanka can tell me." The Marshal paused and looked at the twelve Knights assembled.

"Before I ask I shall remind you that we shall all die, eternity is only the prison of the Eternals themselves. The question becomes for each soul, shall you live and perhaps die as men, or crawl and fade away as slaves? Shall you be Knights...." The Var pointed at O'Beese. "...or shall you be slaves?"
He pointed at Eugene with the other hand-claw.

An aide handed the Var the hastily written decleration declaring himself in power. "These are the words that O'Beese say are false, that Grune declares to the world as true. Those of you who say this paper does not contain your voice, stand now and let it be heard, for I, and the Klatch, now listen."

The Var had stopped looking at anyone in particular. His eyes were on the doors that the guards had left from. Actually, the creature's tail had seemed to vanish. Although to everyone except those next to the Zeelord would have just thought it was hoving over the floor.

OOC: K, you've left the Baroness Hanging there...

The New Shiron space fleet was about to get a workout.

Cruising slowly around the Space Dock at L4 was most of the fighting strength of the Royal Space Force, 2 frigates and 11 corvettes. Aboard the flagship, Rear Admiral Kelly O'Donnell, a trim attractive woman with short dark hair and deep blue eyes smiled anticipation when she read the message.

"Ok people, you saw the message. Its time to add some excitement in our dull drab lives. All ships, follow me in."

The flotilla accelerated at 5 gravities toward home, and then inserted itself in an approach to bring it over New Shiron and then the Southern Klatchian Sea. As the 13 ships dropped into the atmosphere, 32 orbital fighters dropped down with them, having just been relieved by a pair of squadrons that had come up to take their place.

Soon they were roaring over the ocean at Mach 6, loud sonic booms trailing behind them. As they approached the Karmayakan coast, electronic warfare jamming systems went on line, as did a series of broadcasts on the UHF/VHF/FM/AM bands announcing that the Rebel government was already falling apart and that a Liberation Army loyal to the old government was already moving to end the madness that had resulted from the Rebel illegal seizure of power.

The flotilla, all saucers of various sizes ranging from 300 meters across to a mere 30 meters across, passed over the coast at 30,000 feet moving at mach 5 and made a beeline for the Karmayakan capital. Electronic warfare systems and Point defense lasers dealt with any SAMs launched, while the high speed prevented conventional Karmayakan intercepters from interfering, should any consider it.

Only when they were within 30 miles of the city did the flotilla slow, dropping down to subsonic abruptly, their internal anti grav systems preventing too much discomfort for the crews. The flotilla dove down to 10,000 feet and then flew straight across the city, ignoring any fire from below, secure in the knowledge that their lasers and EW systems would prevent any significant damage. As soon as they reached the edge of the city, they all abruptly climbed, accelerating fully at 5 gravities once again, shooting straight up into space.

ooc
All of these space craft also have stealth features as well, similar to a F117 or B2, although the glowing heat as they race across the sky does make them easily spotted by thermal imaging systems, not to mention the naked eye.

OOC: About Winton - I didn't know she waited for something. She was let into the command center,, nut under whose command is she? There's not like there's someonefrom Karmanyaka who can tell her what to do. She's free to take command of the situation from the command center/fortress at the southern bridge where she is.

--

Katla
Military Command went wild as the large space fleet showed up. AAA fired futile rounds against the Shironi space ships. SAMs were fired, but quickly shot down by the space ships.

Supersonic fighters scrambled to meet the armada, but faced the impossible task of trying to keep up with them. Some almost made it only to be shot to pieces. However one or two missiles afflicted some damage to the space fleet, but it was a slim consolation for the panicking Military Committee.

--

Council Hall
Deep in the old stone building the assembled Knights and the Var emissary only noticed the passing space ships as a faint shudder in the floor.

Field Marshal Nicholas Grune looked around the room with a mixed expression of fury and panic.

The Minister of Finance, Peter O'Beese stood up, eyeing his colleagues, then three other knights rose, then a further two. Finally sir Eugene de Boef rose, slowly and with great care not to show that his knees were trembling slightly.

O'Beese smiled grimly towards Grune who now shook uncontrollably in his chair, facial color shifting to purple.

"We cannot stand for this charade!" boomed O'Beese's voice in the echoing hall. "Field Marshal Grune is a criminal and a traitor. He and his henchmen should be dragged before a court of justice and face their verdict like men!"

"You cowardly arses!" cried Grune now bordering to blue. "You're the traitors, you let down the motherland and dragged the fine traditions in the mud! We did what we could to save what was left of Karmanyakan dignity!" I will not let myself be thrown out by any Klatchian pig-dogs!"

"Nicholas, it's over! Face it!" hissed a voice from the further end of the table. The voice belonged to sir Nelson Fare, Minister of Justice and a co-conspirator of Grune's.

The remark made Grune turn on his heels to face Fare with his glowing eyes.

"You're abandoning us too?!" he blurted. "Then you must face the consquences as well! You..."

"Nicholas! This is a game you can't win! Karmanyaka is being run over by Klatchians and Vaadians and the gods know what people! Step out of it while you still have a chance..." sir Nelson didn't get further before Grune snatched up a pistol from his holster and held it trembling before him.

Katla
There was an ominous humm in the room as Grune stood there pointing his gun at Nelson. It was comming from the left hand-claw of the Zeelord himself. One could see the var's tail slowly retracting away. The grey metal object it had just brought from behind his back seemed to look like a pistol. Of course is was Var sized with a 20 cm bore pointed directly at Grune's head.

"I am not a pig-dog you pissant Terran. I have not tried to steal a nation like a theif of the confidence crime...To dazzle the world with half truths and second rate logic. No, you have tried that Grune, and failed."

The var was not actually speaking in his grand voice anymore. The stage act was over. The var somehow seemed more human right now then a moment before. Of course the massive weapon he was holding made obvious what side you wanted to be on.

"As a Marshal I am duty bound to uphold the laws of Karmanyanka. Therefore I ask you to put down your weapon Feild Marshal and stop threating that individual, which I am sure is a crime here. I should also note that you have exactly thirty minutes from now to resign your commission and escape the Federation Grune. Or you shall be sent to work the titanium mine of the ice prison Zetra."

The Zeelord's human aides were now unholstering their weapons and walking along the sides of the room cautiously. They were preparing for Grune to try and make one last desperate stand, it wouldn't last long.

One of the Karmayakan missiles got lucky, and as Peter Mayhews fighter tilted up to begin its climb into space, a large SAM slammed into the back. Alarms immediately began buzzing loudly and the fighters computer, sensing that the fighter was about to break up, immediately started the ejection sequence.

It was a moment too late though. The hydrogen fuel tanks exploded just as the ejection capsule was about to deploy, and fragments lanced their way through the capsule, the seat and Lieutenant Mayhew's body.

But the capsule continued to work anyway. Its just that a few moments later the pilot parachuting down to earth was limp.

Civilians in the city below quickly ducked under cover as fragments rained down, nearly all the size of a penny or less. A parachute landed a few minutes later, and few curious and cautious civilians found the dead pilots body drapped in silk laying in a suburban street.

Council Hall
Grune tried to assess the situation in his deranged mind. He realized that if he resigned and left Karmanyaka he would live a life as an outcast. But if he tried to shoot himself out of the Hall he'd only succeed in getting killed by whatever nasty force hid in those Var weapons. He stood right behind the seat of the Secretary, who had backed away a bit. Conveniently enough the old sword lay there on the table, it's blade still as sharp as when it was forged nearly a thousand years ago. Because, as every Knight in the Hall knew, to die by a bullet was dishonorable for an aristocrat. But a sword, now that was a noble weapon.

Desperation radiating from his eyes and beads of sweat slowly rooling down his neck, he suddenly leapt towards the table. With a speed that must've surprised even the Zeelord he thrust the sword in his heart, halfway to the hilt. Not even the Var had time to react before he folded into a small heap on the floor. Gurgling, wet noises came from his mouth as air was pressed from the perforated left lung.

Hardly an honorable way to die, but the best he could manage given the preferences. At least now he died by a sword handled by a Karmanyakan, by a Knight, trying to save the glorious traditions of his motherland.

These last thoughts passed through the mind of Field Marshal Nicholas Grune as the spark of life slowly seeped out of his body, on the floor of the Council Hall.

--

The Arbours, suburb to Katla
A patrol vehicle from the Military Police was quickly on the scene and dispearsed the crowd that had gathered around the dead pilote.

"Move away! This is a military matter!" shouted a corporal and pushed away a curious woman.

At that moment a large dark-blue truck from the Prodirectorate Departement of Special Research rolled up. In a matter of seconds, technicians and soldiers poured out of the truck, tucked away the dead pilot in the truck and moved away, tires smoking. Another dark-blue van drove up and a team started picking up the tiny fragments of the space ship that were spread around a large portion of the city. After having filled a black plastic bag full with blackened pieces of material they left at high speed.

The trucks disappeared through a gate into the Prodirectorate Headquarters, and the pilot wasn't seen again.

Council Hall
The Var watched, his emotion hidden by his alien behavior. "It would seem that Feild Marshall Grune had decided to confir with whatever God he belived in. However, I think that the blood of a theif dishonors that sword. Nathan...please subsitute your own blade..." One of the three aides stepped forward and pulled the sword out of the Feild Marshall and then stuck in a small, single metal dagger from his boot. He handed the sword to another aide who pulled out a white hankercheif and began to wipe off the blood on the ceremonial sword.

"Now then do any of you Knights," The Zeelord was obviously addressing the sitting Knights, "wish to admit to attempting to defraud the Federal Government? If not stand now."

Northeast Karmanyaka

Completely oblivious to the activities in the Council of Knights the Retaliatory Guard continued it's push through Karmanyakan territory, determined to liberate Katla within the week. With the consolidation of supply lines complete and the rear secured the Retaliatory Guard began phase 2 of it's operation.

North Battlegroup led by the Supreme Republican Commander would head south, directly on to Katla, while South Battlegroup continued to skirt the coast and cut off the coastal fortifications from re-supply while the Vampire Bombers pummeled any hard points.

Central Battlegroup would move behind North Battlegroup and then to the west , to eventually secure the western border.The Reatlaitory Guard were still wary of Vrakian bombers and slowed their movements considerably to maximize SAM coverage and to make sure advances were taken under maximum air coverage.

Elements of the liberated Karmayakan Army were linked to the North Battlegroup's advance to Katla, to have as many Karmanyakan soldiers as possible to help liberate the capital.

Commander Ring looked over the plans as the orders were issued "We are going to experience heavier fighting as we reach further south and certainly as we reach the capital. I'm sure that Field Marshal Grune has packed every military base in reach of Katla with men and commanders loyal to him."

He paused and turned to Staff Seargent Emael "Seargent, have Fire Control target every military base around the capital, and every possible military emplacement. Have the Air Guard hit them with the Arkbird Strategic Bombers."

The Seargent nodded and relayed the command.

Tollan Fire Control

Command General Lucane and the Fire Control staff went over every target in and around Katla, picking all of the areas that were receiving the influx of defensive forces and every target that had been fortified or that had militay stockpiles. Once selected and designated the targets were released to Air Guard Command.

Tollan Fire Control had also noted the display of power by the space forces of New Shiron. Command General Lucane ordered that that 'Cloud Cover' be given to the Free Republic. Silently Mt. Tlaloc opened near it's base and a trio of the Thunderhead Air Ships, stealthily slipped out and floated skywards and take cover in the banks of clouds over the Sea of Lacon, watching quietly.

Air Guard Command, Hammerstead

The Fortified reinforced mountain runways of Hammerstead were alive with activity as ten squadrons of the Arkbird Strategic Bombers were cleared for take off and given target assignments. The massive bombers could make the round trip from Hammerstead to Katla in twelve hours and each one was arme with 265,000 pounds of smart bombs , they would pick up fighter escorts at the Vaadian/Karmanyakan border.

Fort Fyalar

With the first thousand Naval Guard Marines landed, General Deadmarsh was eager to recon the enemy positions. He personally gathered up five units (100 men each) and prepared to set out into Sleyfalls.

Council Hall, Katla
All Knights rose as the Zeelord had asked his question. No-one wanted to be on the losing side in this. One of the more bruised knights started to tip over and had to recieve support in order to stand upright. He had - like some of his colleagues - obviously been severely beaten, and possibly had not eaten for a long time.

Peter O'Beese looked at the five 'Judas Knights' who had now quickly gotten to their feet and scowled.

"So, you rats, you've realized that you couldn't keep this going for ever, eh? Well, you'll be put to trial sure enough. We will show you how a proper trial goes, and you will be given a good chance to defend yourself, cause the gods know you'll need it badly." he said and coughed.

Suddenly the doors to the hall opened and the Acting Supreme Prodirector Patrice Snell entered the hall. It took him a good couple of seconds before he noticed the heap of flesh that, up until a minute ago, had been Field Marshal Grune.

"Guards, guards!" he shouted. "What the hell's been going on in here?!" he shouted as a large group of soldiers poured into the hall and aimed their weapons at the Knights, the Klatchian Marshal and his aides.

"Oh, you're a bit late, Snell." said O'Beese quietly. "Our little Generalissimo here decided to take his own life rather than face defeat. Maybe you should consider walking the same path?" A vry smile escaped the lips of the Minister.

A whole seet of emotions made a quick trip across the face of military bureaucrat.

"Uh, guards, lower your weapons. Everything seems in order. Take out the deceased Field Marshal and drive his body to the morgue." he ordered and then turned to the Var who had stood there unnervingly calm. "My Lord, I hope you haven't been wounded or anything? I do apologize for this..." Snell seemed flustered but still showed amazing abilities to turn the situation to his favour.

"Please, skip the act, Snell." said O'Beese sharply. "Zeelord Ke'tra, I thank you on behalf of the people of Karmanyaka and..."

He didn't get further before another group of soldiers entered the hall, meeting the guards with the stretcher that carried Grune's dead body. The soldiers carried a man between them and sat him down quite violently. The man turned out to be the Lord Tengil himself, as requested by the Zeelord. He struggled to his feet, which wasn't easy since his hands were chained together and he was a rather heavy man.

Now everything happened quite fast.

"You scumbags!" he shouted at his escort.

"Release him at once!" shouted O'Beese.

The guards looked uncertainly at Snell who nodded meekly. They unlocked his handcuffs and stepped back to escape his flailing fists.

"My Lord Tengil, it seems you are in charge of things here again." said Peter O'Beese. "Grune is dead by his own hand. This here is Zeelord Ke'tra, Klatchian Marshal, sent here by the Parliament to investigate the legality of the group of criminals that have assumed control of the Dominion."

Lord Tengil Johan Kader turned to the Zeelord and bowed his head slightly.

"Zeelord." he said.

--

Outside Sleyfalls
The 1st and 2nd Armies were still heading for Fort Fyalar. They planned on giving the Vaadians some resistance.

The rumour of Grunes death slowly leaked out to the Junta forces. The commanders refused to take the rumours seriously though, believing them to be part of a strategy of misinformation. Besides communication between the different parts of the Armed forces were steadily falling apart into atoms. One unit didn't know what the other was doing and the Forces loyal to the Junta had now been broken into what looked more like bands of guerilla fighters. The exceptions were the 1st and 2nd Armies outside Sleyfalls and Fort Fyalar, the 110th, 111th, 115th and 116th Prodirectorate Guard Armies who guarded Katla and the Airforce, which still held many bases in the regions around Katla.

Ten miles south of Sleyfalls the two armies halted to regroup and recon for an attack on Fort Fyalar.

--

Astridburg
General Ozcan had just heard the news of the death of Grune and thought it best to inform General Deadmarsh. The story hadn't been picked up by the news agencies yet, but it was only a matter of minutes.

"General Deadmarsh please." he said to the staff sergeant that answered. "I'm General Fatih Ozcan of the Free Karmanyakan Army. I have important news to him."

"Ah, General Deadmarsh, Ozcan here. I expect that you have already learned that a large force of up to 45'000 Junta troops are standing outside Sleyfalls.

The city itself is held by my troops as well as the entire south-western coast. And I also have other news for you, good news." he fell silent for the fraction of a second, just because it sounded incredible even to him. "Field Marshal Grune is dead, and it looks like the Military Committee is dispearsed. The Lord Tengil Johan Kader is in charge of Katla now. However, large quantities of Junta Forces are surrounding Katla and the battle is far from won yet."

--

Morrisberg
In the path of the advancing Vaadian North Battlegroup lay the huge Geothermal Powerplant and Research facility of Morrisberg. Due to its strategic importance, the 107th Prodirectorate Guard Army had taken up positions around it. The Army had been hard hit by desertions and attacks from New Shiron UAVs and was in quite bad conditions as a scout party returned to staff command at Morrisberg.

"OK," said the general "we will continue with the plan. We must not let this facility fall in the hands of the Vaadians. Too much research here could be abused by the foreign savages."

His staff watched him with dread as he signed the order on the table in front of him and gave it to a lieutenant.

"Destroy all of Morrisberg. Move back the troops to a safe distance of 20 miles, to be sure. Alert the civilians too if you have the time."

Charges were placed around the large pressure tanks, valves were being shut and the control terminals locked down. When the charges detonated enough pressure would have built up to set of a minor earthquake with its epicenter right at the main turbine plant. Morrisberg would be swallowed whole by the earth and a pressure wave would raze everything within a few miles of the plant. At least that's what the scientists predicted, no-one had ever witnessed an enormous facility like Morrisberg go off at maximum force. It could resemble a volcano eruption, an earthquake and a small atomic bomb at the same time, but without the radioactive fallout.

Units started moving away and would reach the safety perimeter at much the same time that the Vaadians crossed it in the other direction.

OOC: Alcona, whats happening with the Baroness?

Sleyfalls

General Deadmarsh grimaced as General Ozcan relayed the news to him "Only forty-five thousand? " he laughed "With Grune dead they will be fighting on dying ground." He looked around at his men, perhaps two to thre thousand were now in Fort Fyalar, Deadmarsh grinned "Thank you for the news General Ozcan, I will relay it to the Supreme Republican Commander, I will call you later."

With that he and his thoudand picked men began moving into Sleyfalls as they moved through the city Deadmarsh looked over his tactical computer at the satellite feed and the Karmanyakan positions. It would be impossible for him to attack them, but in the city itself he could hinder them to no end, he clicked on his comm as he clicked on the tactical computers screen.

"Admiral Ilek, this is General Deadmarsh, could we have a flush please?"

At Sea, Aboard the Sir William Issem

Admiral Ilek nodded to the Fire Control Captain as Deadmarsh requested the flush and highlighted the target areas. He stood as he turned back to the main view screen "Let the Sir William Issem speak Captain."

The four Revenge Battleships in the two Tactical Groups began sinking as the ballast tanks filled amid sirens and alarms. The huge 24" 'Ship Destroyer Turrets' turned towards the coast and elevated their cannopns nearly ninety degrees.

Inland, the Karmanyakans 1st and 2nd armies outside Sleyfalls noticed that the air suport that had been harrasing them, completly disappeared and their way suddenly became clear. Now was the perfect time to move on Sleyfalls if ever there was one, It would seem.

Morrisberg

The Karmayakan Military had blundered. Retaliatory Guard tactics taught the Guard to bypass strong points. The Retaliatory Guard were already planning their movements around Morrisberg , giving a wide berth to any artillery that may be there.

This also meant that it was an Air Guard target, to be eliminated as the Guard safely passed around it. A suqadron of the previously launched Arkbird Strategic Bombers with Orion escorts and Vampire Heavy Bombers as backup were already nearing Morrisberg as the Karmaynakans retreated. Over a million pounds of ordinance were slated to be dropped on Morrisberg and the Retaliatory Guard on the ground were giving the area an exceptionally wide berth.

With the actions of the retreating Karmanyakans and the tonnage of ordinance the air guard was preparing to drop, it would be one awesomely huge explosion!

The Hall of Knights
The Var had raised his weapon again as Snell and his troopers entered. But when Snell demonstrated that he was as weak as his former boss, the Var dropped it again.

When Grune's body was ordered taken away the Var spoke up. "No, his remains shall be tried post-mortum for attempting to defraud Parliament. You shall take his corpse to my craft at the airport."

And as Lord Tengil was brought in and dropped before him, the Var just seemed to show no sign of anything. Until Tengil spoke himself.

"Ah Lord Tengil, so nice of you to join us. It would seem that your claims to the world were true." The Zeelord looked back at Snell. "Now then you will assemble every reporter you can find, including those two who interviewed the Lord here and assemble them in your battlesquare. Where the knights will attend my annoucement to Parliament and the world upon my decision." The eyes of the Var looked at the man behind Snell. You will go do this for Snell has a meeting he must attend."

The Var turned towards one of his aides. "My decision has been reached Feild Marshal Winton. So now I shall honor my Brother and allow you to speak to the Knights." The aide pulled a small unit from his belt and placed it on the table.

The small radio unit, which was relayed more times than anyone cared to thing about crackled as the woman's voice suddenly burst forth.

"Thank You Zeelord Ke'tra you honor your House with your ability to find the truth so easily. Good afternoon Gentlemen, I happen to be your current Feild Marshal. Now then I would give you and update as to our situation..."

She paused to look at the several alconian tech's transfering all the encryption data they could from the ruined communication center. "But things are a bit fuzzy for me at the moment, it seems that I had a bit of sabatoge while I was talking to one of my Generals in the Feild. However, the picture looks bleak. If we don't get the Vaadians out asap Karmanyanka may be the feild of battle for the largest war in history."

She looked up as someone attempted to move a ruined peice of equipment over her head. "Now then with your permission I am going to lead a nice loyal group of Alconian Armored Marines to releive Katla and yourselves."

"Also I am going to ask one of you, with assistance from the Zeelord's aides, to inform the prodirectorate that all forces loyal to the legal government of the Dominion switch their IFF to JDF Code Epsilon Alpha Alpha Four. I would do it myself...but at the moment I don't have anything to do it with. Oh, and Snell, I'm not sure if I have the power to do this, but I am sure the Knights will agree that you should be relieved of command temporarily."

Of course the bridge was seeing some intresting movement, an entire battallion had moved across already to begin staging for their push to Katla. A second battallion was now crossing the bridge to support them.

As a tank went by, a young Karmanyanka who had supported Grune was marched to the middle of the bridge by two guards, and followed by the tiger. The guard picked the young officer up and tossed him into the river below, an easy way of dealing with the problem.

excerpts from a news conference in Regina, New Shiron
Libby Kelly, a beautiful red head, well known for her news reporting asked one of the first questions. "Colonel, you have reported that one of our orbital fighters was shot down and one of our pilots was killed. Can you tell us why it was there to begin with?"

Colonel Kelly Marcom, herself a red head, and nearly as attractive as Libby had the duty that day in the Press Center. She was already missing her last leave. "Yes Libby," she replied glibly, hiding the annoyance she felt."Our Space Force was conducting a show of force mission in hopes that it would dessuade Ilik Vaad from launching its invasion, and show the Karmayakan Rebels that they could not prevail if the JDF chose to intervene. Damage to Karmayakan forces was extremely minimal. It was hoped that we would carry out the mission without serious damage, but as we all remember from the New Cynthian invasion some time back, some times people die no matter how well you plan things."

"A followup question Colonel?" Libby asked and after Kelly nodded she continued. "Will any retaliation be carried out against the Karmayakans?"

"No Libby, this mission was designed to hopefully defuse tensions. More force at this point isn't going to make up for its lack of success in that regard."

ooc
Galveston Bay is a New Shiron puppet, and I forgot to change screen names.. sigh

Outside Sleyfalls
The Karmanyakan army was littered with generals, of course it was a big army (compared to the size of the country) and many aristocrats quickly promoted their fellow nobles. Anyway the quality varied as nepotism and corruption had roamed rather freely in the military organization. One of those who wouldn't have become a general in a better army was General Massimo Batistini who led the 1st and 2nd armies. These were once considered the best armies in the country, but had through the years diminished to the point where only the officers in charge of the two armies believed it. Batistini was a believer.

"Where did those planes go?" asked General Batistini one of his staff.

"Sir, we have not ascertained that yet."

"Well, I sure as hell don't like it at all. Either they're afraid they'll hit their own airplanes with rockets or artillery or their afraid that their planes are going to hit their ground forces. Or - and considering these are Vaadians, I find that highly unlikely - they don't have anything more to throw at us." The general scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Ah to hell with it. I want dense barrage ahead to clear the way for tanks and heavy mechanized infantry. Send in the 1st armoured and mechanized. I want to take that city and pulverize Fort Fyalar.

Tank enignes (incidentally old Midlonian ones) roared their diesels and set off at quite a good pace towards Sleyfalls. The city was currently being shelled by heavy artillery fire, a deafening thunder of a hundred cannons hushing the advance of APCs and rovers heading towards the smoking skyline ahead.

--

Morrisberg
The blast was tremendous. The trembling ground shook people from their feet even as far as 22 miles from central Morrisberg and the shaking could even be felt over in Katla. A pillar of smoke rose to the sky and spread to a cloud of dirt, dust and steam that engulfed a huge area. At the immediate area of the geothermal plant the heat burned the flesh from the bones of those unfortunate enough not to have been evacuated in time. However, the blast didn't go quite as the 107th Army commanders had predicted.

The plant main building was reduced to a boiling pool of greyish-brown mud and heaps of steel, but several buildings around it had survived and the earth had completely failed to engulf anything but one pressure tank and the auxillary turbine hall. But most importantly, the Vaadians were unharmed, save that some of them suffered bruises from falling over and spilling hot coffee over themselves.

In any case, if the 107th Prodirectorate Guard Army had wanted a spectacular fireworks show, they had succeeded. If they had wanted to destroy a strategic power production plant, they had succeeded. But if they had wanted to destory important research material, they had failed catastrophically. However that got taken care of by the falling Vaadian bombs. What remained of the plant was engulfed in a second cloud of smoke. This time the blast itself wasn't as bad but the fire melted metal and turned the bubbling mud into prime ceramics.

Now more bombers were heading towards the regrouping 107th army. This didn't seem to bother the commanders though, instead they ordered a full attack on the Vaadian forces.

Tanks broke forward and infantry got into defence positions as the Vaadian forces neared. Air defences were tuned in and missiles were prepared to be launched at passing Vaadian aircraft. The Karmanyakans knew about the differance in strength, but played on their knowledge of the area. This wouldn't be some kind of guerilla battle, but something in between. Artillery were being set up and started shelling the incoming Vaadians. Because the Vaadians would have to come this way.

This was the only way out of the Morrisberg Valley and the sides of the valley had been hastily fortified. Sure 12'000 men could hardly stop the advancing North Battlegroup, but they could slow them down and cause them lots of damage if they played their cards right. From the top of a hill, scouts could watch the mass of Retaliatory Guard vehicles forcing their way through the pasture land that formed the floor of the Morrisberg Valley.

--

Council Hall, Katla
The body of Grune was carried by puzzled guards to the Klatchian Marshal's shuttle. They had no clue what necromancing powers would let the Var judge a dead man, but found it best to obey.

Snell tried weakly to protest but he too realized when was the time to do as he was told. He lay down his pistol and the dagger on the table and waited to be taken away to whatever 'meeting' was in store for him.

The Knight and the Lord Tengil listened patiently to Field Marshal Winton as she explained. The reinstated ruler spoke up when she was finished.

"Baroness Winton, I will personally take command of the military forces around Katla. I sincerely hop we won't need to see any 'liberation' of Katla, but you and your troops are more than welcome. I'll see to it that we coordinate fully with the JDF. I am a bit unsure about what can be done about the incursion of troops from Ilek-Vaad. I honestly can't say that they're not welcome, since there is the Foreign Guard Treaty and they are in fact liberating Karmanyakan soil from hostile occupants. But of course I recognize the Klatchian authority in this matter so I'll see what can be done to minimize any damage so far. After all, relations between my government and the Free Republic has been good."

All Knights agreed that ridding the country of the Junta forces was now the main priority and that all other matters must come second. The Prodirectorate Guards proceeded to apprehend the five 'Grune knights' and placed them in custody. Slowly the Lord Tengil and his Knights regained control of Katla.

Sleyfalls

Admiral Ilek smiled as he watched the bombardment and the forward movement of the 1st and 2nd armies on the main screen,he turned and nodded to the Fire Control Captain "Open it up."

With that the giant Revenge guns, twelve of them total began firing their satellite guided self propelled shells, each one weighing in at one and a half tons with a range of over seven hundred miles. There was only multiple piercing whines in the air as the massive shells dropped on top of the 1st and 2nd armies advancing armour. The explosions and the craters were tremendous. This was repeated about every sixty seconds.

Back in Sleyfalls Deadmarsh and his small number of men hid in alleyways, sewage tunnels and any other place that gave good cover and a quick avenue of retreat. The bombardment would reduce their already thin numbers, but not by much considering how spread out they were. The Naval Guard Marines were well trained for urban guerilla warfare and were going to make the 1st and 2nd armies advance blindingly painful, that is if they made it past the curtain of fire being laid down by the Revenge Battleships.

The Artemis Ground Attack jets and the Orion Fighters took this time to reload and refuel, by the time the Karmayakans were fully engaged in the city, they would be coming right back into action.

Morrisberg

Colonel Enam Irbil hit the light indicating that the Arkbird was over the target, when a huge explosion thundered from the center of Morrisberg. He clicked on his comm "Damnit, wait for it!"

The Ordinance Leftenant replied "No bombs away sir, that wasn't us."

Colonel Erbil looked over his shoulder and saw that all bomb release lights were still red "You're right, what the heck? Well, let's make that explosion a bit bigger."

With that, the Arkbirds released their bombs and then headed for home.

The Vampire bombers however remained and saw the regrouping 107th army. They now targetted them with their Apollo Cruise Missiles. They wouldn't be as effective against ground troops, they weren't anti infantry , but they would shake up their defensive arc, and hopefully shake their resolve.

On the ground, North Battlegroup paused as the explosions from Morrisberg, the Arkbirds and the Vampires finally died away, and then the 107th armies artillery opened up.

In his Command tank Commander Ring looked over the satellite images "Apaches, target the artillery. Armour adavnce inline on the slopes of the valley, flush the Karmanyakans down and back. Infantry, move in and be mindful of range."

With that the four thousand Apache Ground Attack Choppers headed straight for the artillery and armour of the 107th army, to neutralize their ranged attack abilities and the six thousand tanks of the Battlegroup split off east and west, moving along the slope of the valley to deny the 107th army the high ground and to squeeze them out to the infantry now rapidly advancing in their Scorpion LAV's.

The initail going was brutal with the 107th artillery blazing, but hopefully the Apache's would rectify that soon.

The Retaliatory Guard were still oblivious to the events unfolding in Katla.

Dyelli Beybi had been keeping a low profile during the Karmanyakan coup, and still remained silent in the way of Communication with any of the factions involved. But it was becoming clear they had not failed to notice what was going on, with large numbers of forces being mobilised to the small border zone with Karmanyaka. Two Armies and a few hundred aircraft to be precise.

Of course, nobody could really predict what the Dyellians were up to. They might just be mobilising on the off chance someone decided to invade them (which they did quite frequently), they might have cooked up some plan of their own to spread International Socialism, or they might be planning another land grab opperation.

The lead bomber commander was well aware that he was without fighter escort. However, what he was depending upon was the speed of the hypersonic bomber to get it out of trouble. He would need it since the critical juncture would be for him to slow down, relatively speaking, in order to release the air to ground missiles. Then the 36 bombers would turn and accelerate back to home. He hoped that they all would make it and not cross into Vaadian airspace. The navigator interrupted his thoughts and, after the briefiest of discussions, the commander then issued his orders. He hoped the navigator was keeping a close eye on any enemy aircraft in case the mission got to hot and they had to change their objectives.

The formation split into two groups and if they were being watched, and they certainly were, one group was heading to what appeared to be Fort Fyalar and the other towards the nearest Vaadian naval group.

Intel on exactly where Grune was and where his loyalist forces were deployed was spotty at best. Initially, the planners wanted to bomb Katla and then land a truckload of paratroopers but that had to be scratched after the Var gravship was sent.

Meanwhile, massive air lift transports filled with troops and equipment were being readied while the southern and eastern HORDE air defense grid jumped up one notch in alert levels.

Another bomber group was readied but this time, it would go after the Vaadian troops advancing from the north east. It was held back at the moment, depending on the political shouting that would certainly ensure.

====

The 56 submarines drew inexorably closer to the Vaadian tactical group. The battle admiral breathed deeply and barked an order to the comm officer. The coordinates were entered into the cruise missiles and now, all he had to do was wait.

Waters off Sleyfalls

Admiral Ilek turned from watching the bombardment of the 1st and 2nd armies to the alert screen that began to blink, showing both the Vrakina submarines and bombers. He turned to the duty Leftenant.

"Hail the Vrakians on JDF frequencies, find out what they are doing. Have our Trident subs shadow their subs and sink them if they get with five hundred miles of us, any ship that enters our exclusion zone, sink.

Scramble the Orion Fighters to go after those bombers, if bomb one heads towards our men, down them. Keep the Artemis fighters ondeck and ready them to support General Deadmarsh."
Some one hundred and fifty Orions scrambled to intercept the bombers. The Jaguar Arsenal-Cruisers readied their SPEAR RAM batteries to deflect missile strikes and the Trident subs formed a screen in front of the Vrakian subs, while the Wolfhound subs lurked underneath them. Fortunately since the Vrakian subs had fired on the Midlonians previously, their positions were fairly well known, giving the Tridents and Jaguar Arsenal-Cruisers a reference point for tracking them.

Meanwhile the Comm Leftenant hailed the Vrakians "This is the Tactical Group Sir William Issem, you are in danger of entering a Naval Exclusion zone. Please adjust your heading, I repeat , you are in danger of entering a naval exclusion zone, please adjust your heading."

Despite these actions, the Vaadians did not fire a shot yet, they were waiting for the Vrakians to fire first.

Dyelli Beybi had been keeping a low profile during the Karmanyakan coup, and still remained silent in the way of Communication with any of the factions involved. But it was becoming clear they had not failed to notice what was going on, with large numbers of forces being mobilised to the small border zone with Karmanyaka. Two Armies and a few hundred aircraft to be precise.

Of course, nobody could really predict what the Dyellians were up to. They might just be mobilising on the off chance someone decided to invade them (which they did quite frequently), they might have cooked up some plan of their own to spread International Socialism, or they might be planning another land grab opperation.

Retaliatory Guard Command certainly took notice of the Dyellian buildup and it was decided that Command General Itzcoatl's Central Battlegroup which was in the process of of heading across Karmanyaka to secure the Western Border would instead head North, and keep an eye on the Dyellians.

Battle Day Square, Katla
Communications had been established with all bases around Katla and word was spreading that Field Marshal Grune was dead, the Junta / Military Committee was defeated and the Lord Tengil had taken over.

What few journalists could be found had been brought to Battle Day Square and a makeshift press room had been built in a tent. Among them were the two reporters/agents from KCN who had previously been captured in Lord Kader's office. As the last microphones and cameras were good to go the Lord Tengil entered the small podium. He wore some make-up to take a way the black rings below his eyes and hide some of the hollowness to his cheeks. An assistant counted down and they went live.

Johan Kader, the first Lord Tengil ever to have survived a coup like this started speaking to his people aand to the Klatch about the current situation. (In old times, coups of different kinds were quite common as factions struggled for power. Usually though they were straightforward affairs were the Lord Tengil and his men were either killed during a session in Council Hall, in an ambush on the countryside or while asleep in their beds. Grune hadn't counted on such a violent reaction from the rest of the Klatch though, which only went to show how completely oblivious he was to the nature of the soul of the FKC and its member states.)

Lord Kader talked about the need for unity and everyone's cooperation in getting the country up and running. He also promised complete amnesty to all soldiers who fought on the Junta's side. The exception was of course the most senior of the officer corps who would be tried for their support to the coup. What was left of the rebel forces would be dealt with by the free Karmanyakan forces and the JDF.

The Police and Carabineers were called in to assist in re-establishing order in the Dominion alongside the military. The curfew was still in place.

The central parts of Katla now lay firmly under control of the Tengil government and their forces. Prodirectorate Headquarters had been captured and hundreds of officers were kept in captivity awaiting trial. Segland International Airport outside Katla was still controlled by rebel forces as was two bases north of Katla. Scenes of mutiny took place in bases around the capital as officers were arrested by their subordinates. Tens of thousands of soldiers sighed with relief as their leader declared the end of the coup. Through the couple of weeks as the coup had lasted, confusion and misery had reigned as savagely as Grune, and support for the coup was weak among ordinary soldiers.

"... now we must be strong, for even though the Military Committee is gone, there is still much work to be done. The time when Karmanyakans are forced to shed the blood of their countrymen is not over yet. Still rebels terrorize the population and make the world unsafe to millions. We must act swiftly and with great care to capture these rebels now. For Karmanyaka!" the Lord Tengil said and took a step back from the microphone. as he did so the assembled knights around him called out in unison:

"All Power To Tengil - Our Liberator!"

And a cheer went up from the thousands of soldiers who had gathered in Battle Day Square.

Sleyfalls
The two Junta armies at Sleyfalls felt all the rage of the gods come down on them as the huge shells exploded in fountains of dirt and twisted metal. but slowly small units reached the outskirts of Sleyfalls.

The town had been evacuated the previous day, with regard to the incoming troops. Busload upon busload of people had driven out of the town, slowly emptying it. The occasional looter scurried from building to building carrying home electronics or jewellery. But the vigilant Karmanyakan soldiers under the command of General Ozcan had already finished off around fifty criminals.

Now the Junta soldiers entered residential buildings, offices and schools. Some tanks made it through the Vaadian shelling and took up positions in alleys and streetsin eastern Sleyfalls.

Only the ricochet could be heard as Prodirector sergeant was shot at. First the twang of the bullet on a stone wall and then the wet crackling sound as the sergeant's temple was penetrated. Then suddenly the whole block erupted in a ferocious firefight which ended five minutes later when a Junta tank crashed through a storefront window and opened fire on the Free forces that had barricade themselves in a warehouse opposite the store. The warehouse's facade collapsed in a pile of grey concrete blocks and a violent fire flamed up from the couches stored in the warehouse.

Within another fifteen minutes the last shot was fired as Junta infantry entered the smouldering warehouse and finished off the last remaining soldier. But that was only one building, and there was a whole city left. A city guarded by more soldiers from the Free Karmanyakan Army and which now saw the arrival of the Retaliatory Guard. The two Junta armies were in for a tough fight.

Right then, the broadcast reached the command center outside Sleyfalls. Batistini screamed with rage and turned over the table with the maps.

"Lying bastards! This is all propaganda, a trick to fool us into surrendering! Those bloody New Shiron ships and their little flying toys are spreading this false information to deceive us! No I won't give in! Never! Get into contact with Grune now!" he screamed and wiped his mouth with a jacket sleeve.

The staff lieutenant in front of him looked uncertain, but decided to obey. After all the Committee was in full control of Katla and the Lord Tengil was kept firmly behind bars.

"Yes sir!" he said and saluted mechanicly.

"See to it that this doesn't spread to the men and warn them that false news of Grune's death may circulate! That fat toad Kader won't see the light of day ever again and I'll see to it myself!" He spat out the words as if they were poisonous.

Morrisberg
The speech had spread to Morrisberg as well and here too the commanders chose to interpret it all as misinformation. However, since morale was already drained, several units deserted and fled the scene. Left in the field was around 6000 men awaiting the Vaadian approach.

Then came the apaches. First as a humming in the air, then a faint trembling in the ground as thousands of helicopters almost darkened the sky. They vaguely resembled a cloud as they flew in on the artillery. SAM units fired swarms oif missiles against the cloud of helicopters.

"Gods, there must be as many choppers as we have men!" shouted a terrified major as the first haubitz was blown to pieces by a Vaadian missile.

The noise was unbearableas the thundering of the artillery was mixed with the roar of four thousand apaches. AAA's fired round after round up into the sky, with so many helicopters filling the sky at least some would be hit. Missiles and debris from the occasional helicopter rained down on the ground. It must've looked like a depiction of Judgement day with fire pouring from the sky.

OOC: Incidentally I-V, four thousand helicopters is a bit over the top. I mean 40 apaches is much and 400 is a big heap. 4'000 however, is close to absurd. But I'll go for it anyway.

--

Right after the televised speech a message went out on all JDF frequencies. The message declared that most of Karmanyaka was again under control of the legal government and that all non-JDF units were urged to leave Karmanyakan territory. However thos units already engaged in combat were encouraged to finish that battle before pulling back.

--

OOC: At the moment there are about 120'000 troops still under rebel command. The 1st and 2nd Armies count to around 35'000 men. The rest is mainly positioned around Katla where many junta-loyal troops were placed. About 20'000 men are spread fairly evenly around the country in smaller units cut off from eachother and with very little information to work with. Note also that the Airforce is still largely under rebel command. The Navy however is firmly under government command.

Sleyfalls

The Naval Guard Marines with Deadmaesh gave ground to the advancing 1st and 2nd armies. With the 1st and 2nd armies fully in the city the Revenge Battleships turned their attention to the Vrakians, and launched their Artemis Ground Assault Jets to aid in the defence of Sleyfalls. The streets would be death traps for armour and transports.

The most dangerous defenders were the Naval Guard Marine Snipers with their 12.6mm AMR's, the APDS rounds could blow a man clean away while easily penetrating even the thickest body armour. As the Maeines gave ground, the snipers stayed hidden, on rooftops and in taller buildings. After the 1st and 2nd armies had flushed Marines and Free Karmanyakans they soon found snipers at their back.

Lance Corporal Dennis lay on the roof of a four story store. He blended in nicely with the tar roof thanks to his camoflage netting and active camoflage coat. He watched through his tactical computer as a platoon from the 2nd army came out of a building down the street, and took cover behind a wall, with their backs to them. He paused and zoomed in, looking at the markings on the soldiers uniforms, he spotted the lietenant , fourth in line from the buildings corner, as the point man disappeared around the corner, Dennis squeezed the trigger. From nearly three hundred yards away there was a pop and a second later the Karmanyakan Lieutenant was slammed against the wall as the tungsten dart from the large APDS round slipped through his flak jacket and blew open his chest inside the jacket, death was quick.

Dennis smiled and flattened himself, waiting a minute or two before easing himself over to another location, to look for another target.

Morrisberg

The Apache's cycled over the Karmanyakan positions targetting the artillery and armour as the Tanks for North Battlegroup prepared to sweep down on the position and flush the remaining insurgents towards the preparing infantry.

Commander Ring looked up as Tollan Fire Control pathched in live coverage of the Lord Tengil's address. He leaned forward and watched the Karmanyakans positions dwindle as men deserted, he clicked open a channel.

"Link me up to the crowd control speakers on the Apaches." he paused and opened his comm, the Apaches blared his message to the enemy Karmanyakans:

"This is Supreme Republican Commander Ring of the Retaliatory Guard. Field Marshal Grune is dead. the LordTengil Joseph Kader is free and in control.

This fight is over, if you drop your weapons and go home now, we will not pursue. Their is no honour in fighting for a dead tyrant. I will not repeat this message, if you do not withdraw immediately our attack will begin, we will show no quarter if you choose to stay and fight."

Moments later as if to show his sincerity, the Apaches withdrew and all was quiet, ominously quiet.

OOC: As before the 4,000 Apache's stated are the number in the whole Purifier Army, and are not all attacking at once, just the number they have shifting on and off the front.

With precision that belied years of training, the 54 submarines split into 9 groups consisting of six submarines each. The hunter/killer packs slowly began to fan out and look for Vaadian subs while picking surface targets.

More ominously, the coordinates of the foreign guard base were entered into the cruise missile sub computers and all the tactical officer waited for was the green light.

====

The bombers did not answer the message directly. They simply thundered onward to their targets although the launching of the Artemis fighters were duly noted by the overhead long-range recon craft which promptly fed that info to the bomber commanders. Final calculations were made and a slight increase in speed would be read, It was deemed that the missiles still could be launched but the maximum release speed was edging closer.

====

The Intelligence Director nearly had a fit with the Vaadian message. But even he had to pass this upstairs since although they anticipated the possibility of a “naval exclusion zone” the political dynamite could well blow up in his office. The only other nation arrogant enought to declare a exclusion zone so close to the Klatch were those pakrah bastards, Scandavian States. He buzzed his intercom and after a brief exchange, drafted a reply. Thank Bok’s whiskers the King was near.

The medium encrypted message read as follows:


To: First Republican Theleb Kanaan
From: The King of Vrak – King of the Glorious Kingdom of Vrak
Subject: Karmanyaka

We do not recognize your naval exclusion zone. Withdraw all your military assets from the FKC state of Karmanyaka. Immediately.

[Great Seal of the King of Vrak]
[Great Seal of the Federated Klatchian Coast]

On the border things were heating up. Satelite or UAV recon would reveal the Dyellians were building up some fairly large fuel and ammunition stockpiles, while nearly the whole 'North D'Reg Army' was on the border with considerable numbers of aircraft backing it up.

Voltigeur units were regularly crossing the border on their patrols, although they were avoiding confrontation they were still quite flagrantly crossing the border.

OOC: I had a post prepared but Jolt devoured it... I'll return with a new (probably much poorer) post later.

Incidentally, Vrak, whatever happened to Minister of Foreign Affairs? You took him for a ride in your aircraft. I want you to know, though, that if you killed him I'll release a horrible rotting-tusk plague on your nation!! ;)

OOC: The same guy I picked up from Ilek-Vaad? I forgot to post that part. Assume he landed in Port Olympus safely. I'll add an IC part to this post shortly regarding that.

Sleyfalls
The two Junta armies advanced further into Sleyfalls and had several exchanges of fire with both Vaadian sniper units and with Tengil loyalist forces. A serious problem for all parts here was keeping track of who was friend and who was foe. With identical uniforms, separated only by insignia and other details, the risk of friendly fire was imminent. Due to better communications, the government forces under Ozcan's command were better off and had only (!) around ten people killed by fire from Vaadians and friendly Karmanyakans.

The junta soldiers however had a worse situation. As they penetrated deeper into the city they did so by spreading out. This was done to prevent entire regiments from being destroyed and avoiding ambush. However, scattered like this the soldiers were vulnerable to swift attacks by smaller number of enemies and, above all, it was difficult to keep track of where your freinds were. An entire company got killed when an exchange of fire broke out between junta soldiers from the 1st and 2nd armies.

--

Morrisberg
Just as the loudspeakers on the apaches had gone quiet the commander of the 107th army got new intelligence from his sources, intelligence that confirmed the death of Field Marshal Grune.

Facing the Vaadian onslaught he had no choice but yield to the ultimatum and surrender. Along with him also went the rest of the Junta forces spread out in the country, that is except the two armies in Sleyfalls and the ones around Katla. A message was sent to the Vaadians declaring the capitulation of the 107th Prodirectorate Guard Army.

The entire Airforce too had surrendered in face of the obvious defeat of the Military Junta.This wave of surrenders meant that the rebels now controlled around 30'000 troops in Sleyfalls and about 60'000 troops, plus an Army Air Division, in the Greater Katla area.

--

The Tengil Palace, Katla
Lord Tengil Kader frowned as he was presented a report on the events at the northern border.

"What are those Dyellians up to?" he asked the room in general.

"Looks like they are preparing to enter, but we can't be sure, my lord. Probably this is all some territorial behaviour to frighten the Vaadians. We know for a fact that the Vrakians are prepared to launch a full strike on the Retaliatory Guard if they don't leave Karmanyakan and Klatchian soil at once. The Dyellians are likely inclined to agree." said a senior officer.

"They're not going to use this moment of confusion to go Midlonian on us are they?"

The officers and politicians in the room chuckled.

"Not likely, but we can't rule that out for the moment. We'll keep watching them though."

"Good, now what have we heard from Pommer?" asked Kader.

"Not much, my lord. He arrived in Port Olympus, but we haven't been able to contact him due to the complete chaos that is supposed to be a national phone network. Whatever New Shiron did, we can't fix it without thier help it seems."

"Well, then contact them and ask for their help in reparing the damage they did, but put it nicer... And I want Pommer to stay there and relay information to the delegation and the Parliament."

With precision that belied years of training, the 54 submarines split into 9 groups consisting of six submarines each. The hunter/killer packs slowly began to fan out and look for Vaadian subs while picking surface targets.

More ominously, the coordinates of the foreign guard base were entered into the cruise missile sub computers and all the tactical officer waited for was the green light.

====

The bombers did not answer the message directly. They simply thundered onward to their targets although the launching of the Artemis fighters were duly noted by the overhead long-range recon craft which promptly fed that info to the bomber commanders. Final calculations were made and a slight increase in speed would be read, It was deemed that the missiles still could be launched but the maximum release speed was edging closer.

====

The Intelligence Director nearly had a fit with the Vaadian message. But even he had to pass this upstairs since although they anticipated the possibility of a “naval exclusion zone” the political dynamite could well blow up in his office. The only other nation arrogant enought to declare a exclusion zone so close to the Klatch were those pakrah bastards, Scandavian States. He buzzed his intercom and after a brief exchange, drafted a reply. Thank Bok’s whiskers the King was near.

The medium encrypted message read as follows:


To: First Republican Theleb Kanaan
From: The King of Vrak – King of the Glorious Kingdom of Vrak
Subject: Karmanyaka

We do not recognize your naval exclusion zone. Withdraw all your military assets from the FKC state of Karmanyaka. Immediately.

[Great Seal of the King of Vrak]
[Great Seal of the Federated Klatchian Coast]


The First Republican forwarded the message on to the appropriate officer at Retaliatory Guard Command, The Vrakian Diplomatic Corps. and even the King would find that Vrak's 'special' status had been quietly removed and they would no longer be able to communicate directly with the First Republican or higher placed Ministers.

Command General Lucane received the message and replied:

To:The King of Vrak – King of the Glorious Kingdom of Vrak
From: Retaliatory Guard Command
Subject: RE: Karmanyaka

As your majesty is well aware the Retaliatory Guard is currently undertaking actions in Karmanyaka to restore the lawful government of the Lord Tengil. Normally such interference would not take place, but as explained previously to various Klatchain diplomats the Free Republic not only has treaty obligations with the Karmayakan Government but also share a common border with Karmanyaka that was threatened by the Military Junta led by the now apparently deceased Field Marshal Grune.

The Military Exclusion zone is in effect for the safety of your Majesty's armed forces and ships. This action was undertaken by the Retaliatory Guard and non-Retalitaory Guard casualties from friendly nations are unacceptable, our Guardsmen are not in the habit of endangering bystanders during such operations. If your forces wish to aid the legal government of Karmanyaka we can co-ordinate with your forces to allow for safe and reasonable access to combat areas as needed.

I have noticed that your currently deployed force would have little impact on the current situation, it appears the Lord Tengil is in control again and Retaliatory Guard forces will begin phased withdrawals as soon as the situation allows. Supreme Republican Commander Ring has estimated that Retaliatory Guard forces will only remain in Karmanyaka for a weeks time at the most.

I appreciate your patience.

Commander General Lucane, 4th Red Jaguar Command

Lucane glibly side stepped thge implied threat to Retaliatory Guard forces. Retaliatory Guard Command had decided that the Vrakians would have to be responsible to start any war, and were willing to lose lives to force the King to fire on friendly forces first.

Sleyfalls

General Deadmarsh and his men tried to stay in touch with Ozcan as much as possible but it had proven difficult. His men moved out carrying the dead and wounded as a tank shell pierced the building they were currently defending, as soon as the armour had rolled up, they quit the building for the back door and quickly move to secure another position while the Junta forces were pre-occupied by clearing the building.

Deadmarsh sat against a wall and reloaded his Minimi and contacted Sir William Issem Fire Control.

"This is Deadmarsh, how is the off loading going?" he asked as he slapped a clip home.

"All seventy five hundred marines are unloaded. They are organizing in Fort Fyalar and will begin a phased push into Sleyfalls within the next fifteen minutes."

Deadmarsh nodded "Very good. Advise then that the Junta forces are dividing up into smaller and smaller grouping, let's get the fresh men into one hundred man units and start punching holes in the Junta's advance. Tell them to be careful of friendly forces!"

With that Deadmarsh and his men moved out again.

Morrisberg

Supreme Republican Commander Ring sighed with relief as the Junta forces dissolved. He and his men inched forward to confirm the withdrawal.

The Northern Border

Command General Iztcoatl and the North Battle Group settled in about five hundred miles from the DBAT border and relaxed. They kept an eye on Dyelian forces but generally relaxed and prepared to withdraw.

Katla

With orde slowly being restored, Ambassador Segraves headed downtown to congratulate the Lord Tengil and see if he could help co-ordinate anything with the Retaliatory Guard.

Karmanyaka Coast

The Naval Guard continued to monitor Vrakian movements closely. The Vrakian Bombers were also now being shadowed at range by the Tactical Groups Orion Fighters and a couple of Death's Bomber squadrons. Their long flight had given Retaliatory Guard Command time to prepare.

Naval Guard subs continued to shadow their Vrakian counter parts, Jaguar Arsenal Cruisers readied their torpedos as well and began actively following the Vrakian subs.

They were ready, but still they held fire.

(er the Var is still about...it's just that Katrina has added to my workload quite a bit recently)

In fact the Dyellians were waiting for the Privy Council to tell them what to do. The Government in Cyro didn't want a fight, but the semi-autonomous Moskauan Parliament, for reasons vest known to itself, was actually prepared to listen to the National Government in Port Olympus. It was all quite un-Dyellian (although the unspeakable complex political situation going on behind the scenes was exactly what you'd expect from Dyelli Beybi).

It also meant that in the eventuality of a fight, only about one third of Dyellian land and air assets would be available and none of it's Navy, (unless Cyro decided to back up it's troublesome Northern cousin).

New Shiron here... Royal forces and those assigned to the JDF are also waiting for instructions from the Privy Council, and is Ridgeway Minister of Defense yet for the FKC?

OOC: With a couple of Igors, a thunderstorm and a copper mast we could probably get this thread back up and running again, eh?

OOC: OK, here we go!

IC:

The fighting in Sleyfalls continued throughout the night, the 1st and 2nd armies suffered heavy losses at the hands of Karmanyakan and Vaadian forces. When morning dawned on Sleyfalls, the pale rays of sunlight were struggling to get through thick clouds of smoke and dust that curled above and around the bombed-out buildings.

--

In Morrisberg Commander Ring could easily round up the scattered and exhausted Junta troops that remained, without much effort. Several Junta officers had already taken things in their own hands and had redecorated the inside of the command center using no tools other than a pistol and the contents of their heads.

--

In Katla, the Lord Tengil and his liberated government were trying to restore the vital lines of communication with local authorities around the Dominion. The priority was to restore order, as looting and violence was spreading around the major cities.

The Var/Klatchian Marshal was being expected to pay a visit to the Lord Tengil, as suddenly the Vaadian ambassador, Segraves appeared.

"Ah, Ambassador Segraves!" Lord Kader exclaimed as the Vaadian stepped into the office.

Closely guarded glaziers were replacing the shattered windows in the Lord Tengils office.

"Do take a seat. I can't thank you and your country enough for the sacrifice that your intervention has proven to be." he said as he stood up behind the desk, rubbing his hands.

"True, the battle is not won yet and there's still heavy fighting in Sleyfalls, but the Dominion is free again of the yoke of Grune's Dictatorship. More worrying still is the situation with Vrak and Dyelli Beybi waving their guns at you. Needless to say, a conflict between the Free Republic and the FKC would prove devastating to Karmanyaka. It's clearly in the interest of the whole Klatch to find a peaceful solution to this mess."

There was a mixed expression of both adamant resolution and nervous pleading in his eyes as he sat down heavily in his leather chair.

--

A transmission went out to the government of New Shiron that the Dominion of Karmanyaka was in need of help to restore the nationwide computer and communications networks which had suffered great damage during the technological warfare that preceeded the fall of the Junta. Karmanyaka would of course be willing to pay for the effort, but essentially the Dominion lacked the knowledge needed to clean out what was left behind by worms and viruses.

Sleyfalls

General Deadmarsh was finally ready to move offensively (something no Vaadian General, except him , would ever do.) With the full compliment of Naval Guard Marines unloaded during the night, he finally had a force capable of striking back at the 1st and 2nd Armies.

There were now several hundred Marine Snipers infesting the city, they were support by units of ten men, these provide a diversion for General Deadmarsh's main thrust. He began gathering the bulk of his men and Karmanyakan Loyalists in preparation to strike simultaneously across a broad front, calling in air strikes as the brioad general advance flushed out tanks and artillery.

As dawn broke and the sniper groups had spread out General Deadmarsh contacted his men who were prepared to move in a staggered wave through the city.

"This is General Deadmarsh, all units begin strike. I want constant contact keep the line intact, flush out all resistance and let air support clean up the heavy resistance. My Life for the Republic."

With that the Naval Guard Marines advanced, with the Naval Guard Orion and Artemis fighters as support and the guns and cruise missles of the Tactical Groups at sea ready to support.

*****
Morrisberg

Commander Ring and his men simply rounded up insurgents, took their weapons and sent them home, with a warning not to come back. If any man that had been released was seen in the field again, they would be shot.

*****

Katla

Ambassador Segraves smiled to the Lord Tengil "I am glad to see that you came out relatively unscathed. Don't worry about Dyelli Beybi and Vrak , let us worry about that. You focus on what your people need.I understand that Command General Lucane is dealing with the Vrakian politicos, he is an able man.

Our forces are ready to provide additional security where it is needed, all you need do is ask, and direct us to where it would be of most use, you and your people know best how our force should be used, if it is.

We are also prepared to open our foreign aid coffers to help you rebuild your nation. As Ambassador it is my job to assess what your monetary needs are and report that to the Republican Council for disbursment of funds.

Hopefully we are at the end of this dark tunnel."

North Nangigila, somewhere between Skard and Katla

The Kobi IIB tanks began to flank out as they hit the rolling open countryside. The Alconian tanks, operating under the flag of the Free Karmanyanka army, were moving at 45 miles per hour at the moment. Behind the spearhead of tanks was a long line of more tanks, APC and IFV's.

One of those IFV's was actually a command vehicle. Inside of it was Anne Winton. "We need to keep moving and get to Katla before the Vaadians. I personally don't trust them not just deciding to hold on to Karmanyanka."

******

Katla

There was a sound outside the door of the office of Lord Tengil as the Zeelord walked in. His eyes narrowed at seeing the Vaadian Ambassador.

The eight foot tall creature stopped, and looked at them both for a moment before speaking. "Lord Tengil, I see you have a visitor. And the representative from the land of the Vaads. How nice, I bring poor tidings for you both. It would seem that the attempt of the Alconians to allow the Karmanyakian portion of the Klatchian Guard has failed until this government is reinstated in Parliament."

He paused letting that sink in. "And that will not occur until the Free Karmanyanka army is in Katla"

Katla

Ambassador Segraves smiled and bowed to the Zeelord "I hope I'm not interrupting a scheduled meeting? I had no idea you were even in Karmanyaka, Zeelord. Until about thirty minutes ago I was under house arrest."

Segraves smiled at the Zeelords distrust and calmly continued "I certainly think that the status of the Klatch Guard is the very least of our worries. I would not even discuss the Klatch Guard until the Lord Tengil has had plenty of time to organize his nation."

Segraves turns and nods to the Lord Tengil "It is much more important that stability and normalcy returns to Karmanyaka, other issues can surely wait."

Morrisberg

Anne Winton would probably be pleasantly suprised. As previously ordered all Vaadian Taskforces had stopped. Central Battle Group had stopped completely about two hundred miles from the DBAT border. North Battle Group was only moving at a crawl through Morrisberg , taking their time to make sure everyone was disarmed and that civilains were left with supplies as needed. There would be no race to Katla.

South Battle Group had also halted, racing to relieve Sleyfalls would be pointless, it would take weeks for Vaadian ground forces to arrive, the Naval Guard was more than equipped to help Sleyfalls, a Vaadian advance would only result in pointless casualties and a waste of resources.

OOC: OK, here we go!
A transmission went out to the government of New Shiron that the Dominion of Karmanyaka was in need of help to restore the nationwide computer and communications networks which had suffered great damage during the technological warfare that preceeded the fall of the Junta. Karmanyaka would of course be willing to pay for the effort, but essentially the Dominion lacked the knowledge needed to clean out what was left behind by worms and viruses.

At Gordon Bay, the New Shiron RDF responded to the request and replied that technicians and support staff would be sent as soon as it was safe to send them.

Sleyfalls
The ground shook as Vaadian Orion and Artemis craft poured in over Sleyfalls. The cannonades of the 1st army artillery contributed to the rumbling. The 2nd army had retreated to the outskirts of the city in order to regroup. Suddenly General Batistini found his two armies retreating instead of advancing.

"Why aren't we forcing these foreigners and their traitor friends out of this city?!" he yelled at an over-worked staff sergeant.

"I, I...", the sergeant began before being waved away by the furious General.

"Crush them! Utterly destroy them!" he yelled and threw his ceremonial baton at a computer screen.

"Sir, we don't have the manpower to stage another attack! We've had reports of desertions." a colonel said nervously.

"My boys aren't deserters! I want every deserter you encounter hanged in the lightpoles outside the camp!" Batistini spat out. "Protect the artillery from airstrikes and bomb that city to pieces! Not even those Vaadian rats can survive in the blazing hell we're going to create!"

--

Tengil Palace, Katla

The Lord Tengil tried a tired smile at the ambassador.

"Thank you, Ambassador. It will take lots of rebuilding indeed, but that's hardly our primary concern at the moment..." he said as the Zeelord entered the office.

"Ah, Zeelord Ke'tra," the lord Tengil bowed his head slightly. "I have to thank you too for your actions down in Council Hall recently." He proffered the Var a seat.

"Yes the result of the vote seemed a bit unclear at first, but now I hardly think it surprising. I gather that some of my fellow Klatchians are ill at ease with such a massive Vaadian presence in Karmanyaka. I can understand this uneasyness, but at the same time I plead to my fellow Klatchians to be reasonable about it. As soon as the situation has stabilized enough and Klatchian efforts can take over, we will see the Free Republic returning to Vaadian soil, with the exception of the Foreign Guard.

This is not an invasion, but a humanitarian intervention, called upon by the legal and rightful government of the Dominion of Karmanyaka. I hope that this will become clear soon, even to my colleagues in the FKC. Until then I eagerly await the arrival of Field Marshal Winton here in Katla. I have sent a small force to rendez-vous with the Free Karmanyaka Army and to ensure that no substantial threats remain that could hinder a swift journey here.

I am rather surprised by the bickering that seems to occupy much of Klatchian diplomacy."

The Lord Tengil Johan Kader leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Forgive me gentlemen, I'm talking too much. I had bettter try and get some sleep." he laughed softly. "I am however very grateful, to the FKC in general and New Shiron and Alcona and Hubris in particular, for the support we have recieved. Furthermore, I want it to be crystal clear that it is a firm conviction of mine that the bonds between Karmanyaka and the Federated Klatchian Coast have been strengthened by this disaster."

--

Diplomatic transmission to New Shiron:

"As soon as the situation in Katla has been normalized we will expect our friends from New Shiron. Our sincere thanks go out to you for your aid in the recent crisis.

- Lord Tengil Johan Kader of Karmanyaka"

Sleyfalls

With the rebels finally on the run in Sleyfalls General Deadmarsh keep his men advancing steadily, making sure that there were no gaps in the line and that all pockets of heavy resistance were completely flushed before his men advanced, as the lines stretched resupply became harder and Orion and Artemis attacks slowed as they were once again joined by Marathon transports shuttling ammunition ashore and the wounded back out to the Naval Guard Tactical Groups.

Deadmarsh did his best to stay in touch with General Ozcan and keep the Karmanyakans in the loop, to try and minimize friendly fire incidents.


Tengil Palace, Katla

Ambassador Segraves smiled as the Lord Tengil eloquoted so nicely his own misgivings of Federation intransegence. , he decided it was best not to say anything. It was probably confusing for the Zeelord to see a tactful Vaadian, but that was what Ambassador Segraves was all about.

He bowed politely to Lord Tengil and the Zeelord "Gentlemen, I will be on my way then. It was a pleasure to meet you Zeelord , and Lord Tengil, please contact me at the embassy with anything you need.

I will make sure that my staff contacts yours so that we can corordinate our aid with your re-building plans."

With that he left, no snide comments about the Federation, no implied threats , just a bit of a smug smile.

Sleyfalls

The 1st and 2nd armies regrouped with astonishing speed and launched a full heads-on attack on Deadmarsh's and Ozcan's troops. The noise was deafening as shells rained from the sky, down on the western suburbs of Sleyfalls.

The battle could not be won, but Batastini was damned if he was going to die without a fight. He himself geared up with an assault rifle and five clips, a few hand grenades and a Glock. The General bent down and picked up a small box from a bag, inside of which lay two small syringes.

With the help of a couple of mirrors he injected the contents of one syringe just under the skin in the back of his head. He now had a tiny container with an extremely potent poison just below his skin. By pressing the right spot he would inject the poison into his body. The other syringe contained an antidote which he had to take within 20 seconds of exposure to the poison.

General Batistini wouldn't let himself be captured, but he wasn't prepared to risk dying by an unfortunate blow to his head either. He placed the antidote in a thigh pocket, put on the black helmet and stepped out into the chilly air.

--

The onslaught was impressive. The fatigued soldiers of the 1st and 2nd armies managed to push back the Loyalists and the Vaadians and hold them there for a while. AAA fire was heavy and the glowing barells of the artillery guns continued to pour out a hailstorm of metal on the slow advance of Deadmarsh's and Ozcan's troops. But Batistini's boys were running out of ammunition and there were no supplies coming in.

As evening neared, only a few thousand exhausted soldiers remained. The artillery had gone silent and all that remained of the armoured divisions were a few burnt-out wrecks. General Batistini sat in a crater filled with corpses and twisted metal, trying to shout orders to a colonel, when an Artemis passed right above their heads.

"Take the men over to that side of the warehouse and...! Are you listening, colonel?!"

The colonel just stared at Batistini with a puzzled expression and pointed to his ears were something red was seeping down onto his uniform jacket.

"Can't hear you sir!!" he yelled, much louder than necessary.

"By Katla!" the General screamed with rage. "We're all screwed! Beaten by a band of traitors and foreigners! We should...!" He suddenly became aware of the silence around them. The silence was only broken by the sound of feet cautiously approaching the crater. He took his last clip, loaded the Glock and crawled over to the edge. With what had been a catlike movement, were it not for the extensive waistline of his, Batistini hurled himself up and fired a round into the chest of the approaching loyalist soldier. Behind the soldier thirteen rifles fired almost simultaneously at the General. He threw himself down on his back in the muddy pit and felt the faint crack in the back of his head.

A fiery pain spread out around his neck and down his spine as he lay there scrabbling for the syringe in his pocket, but in the fall he had broken his wrist and the hand wouldn't obey his commands. He could feel the glowing heat being replaced by biting cold as the poison seeped out into his body. Just as a black curtain had started to descend on his eyes he heard a shot. He never have a chance to hear the second shot.

--

Ozcan and his staff stood in dusty hallway in a shopping mall where they had established a sort of command post. He immediately contacted Deadmarsh when he got the news that Batistini had been killed. The crumbling Rebel army had been crushed, almost entirley thanks to General Deadmarsh and his marines.

"General Deadmarsh, it would appear the battle is over. We just need to round up the remaining Junta troops and secure the town. The people of Karmanyaka is in debt to the valiant men and women of the Free Republic. I thank you."

--

150 kilometers west of Katla

The convoy of tanks, APCs and rovers was flying both the Karmanyakan and the Klatchian flag as they roared west down the K19 freeway. Within a few minutes they caught sight of what looked like the vanguard of Field Marshal Winton's Free Karmanyakan Army. They slowed to a halt and tried contacting them on JDF and Karmanyakan frequencies.

150 kilometers west of Katla

The response they got was quick. This is the Free Karmanyanka Army, identify yourselves immediatly or prepare to be fired upon.

General Deadmarsh limped up over a pile of rubble and bodies, too many were bodies of Naval Guard Marines, he had no doubt that he would be put under examination yet again for crossing the 'acceptable losses' threshhold.

The enemy appeared to be in retreat , but Deadmarsh was in no mood to give any quarter, quickly opening up all com lines and urged his men on "That's it lads keep the pressure up! If they give you their backs, mow them down!"

Just then General Ozcan was patched in to his com:

"General Deadmarsh, it would appear the battle is over. We just need to round up the remaining Junta troops and secure the town. The people of Karmanyaka is in debt to the valiant men and women of the Free Republic. I thank you."

General Deadmarsh grinned and responded "Let's not count our eggs before they'ved hatched! I'll meet up with you just north of the city, we'll drive out the last of the traitors between us."

150 kilometers west of Katla

"Free Karmanyaka Army, this is the 53rd Light Dragoons of the Karmanyakan Tengil Guard. We've been sent to accompany you to Katla where the Lord Tengil and Zeelord Ke'tra awaits the Baroness Field Marshal Winton. The road to Katla is clear, so we should be able to reach the Palace by midnight.

And another thing... we're happy to see you guys. Welcome to Karmanyaka."

--

Sleyfalls

"General Deadmarsh, I'd like to join you and your men right now. I'll get a chopper in and meet up with you in ten minutes." said the tired voice of General Ozcan over the com link.

"Then let us flush these rats down the sewer, where they belong. I want to capture General Batistini and any high ranking rebels, if we can."

"General Deadmarsh, I'd like to join you and your men right now. I'll get a chopper in and meet up with you in ten minutes." said the tired voice of General Ozcan over the com link.

General Deadmarsh replied quickly "If you think you can make it here okay, I'd hate to have you shot down when we're doinjg so well."

He then gave General Ozcan his GPS coordinates , there was several open areas nearby, he made a point to get some snipers nearby to take out anyone with a rocket launcher that might try and target General Ozcan's helicopter.

150 miles West of Katla

[i]53rd Light Dragoons, we read you, Major O'Brian of the advance guard will meet up with your commanding officer to coordinate movement[/b]

A Kobi IIB light tank approached the dragoons down the road. It was obviously a commaning vehicle because of the number of extra antenna on it. A single officer was out of the hatch watching the Karmanyaka vehicles as they approached.

65 miles west of Karmanyanka border

Sargent Clay Shay stood on the platform with a wet, unlit cigar in his mouth. The narrow eyes stared out into the darkness of the old Rillion tunnel system waiting. The smell of fuel and mold filled his nose.

Before their collapse, the state of Rillion had gone on a tunnel building binge. They had constructed several deep, long tunnels that connected from the AWM canal all the way to their former eastern border. Now, with Ilek-Vaad looking like it was going to try and occupy Karmanyanka, the JDF had been working frantically to get the mag-lev system of the abandoned tunnel project to once again be usable.

The Sargent smiled a moment, he hadn't seen anything, but the sound of some deep rumble from the depths of the tunnel were encouraging. A moment later three lights appeared at the distant curve. The sound of something moving fast towards the platform seemed to give the sargent a glow.

He turned and began to issue orders. "Alright, people remember we've got two tracks to unload on this single platform so keep people moving...I don't want anyone trying to get on their trucks until their topside is that understood..." his last words were drowned out as the massive Rillion mag-lev train pulled pass. The sound of air escaping as it braked comming into the former passenger platform increased the noise. It quieted for a moment as the train came to a complete stop. Then the sound of engines turning over began to fill the space.

A moment later, ramps were run to the wide flat cars as tanks, IFV's, APCs, and trucks began to move forward and off of the train. A moment later a second mag-lev pulled in, this one obviously carrying passengers.

Somewhere near Morrisberg

Supreme Republican Commander Ring leaned out of the cupola of his Command tank , coffee in hand talking over the latest battle reports with various firld officers.

"So, that's pretty much it? Deadmarsh says that Sleyfalls will be wrapped up soon, Katla is free of any major conflict. So all we have to worry about is the Vrakian bombers, subs and the Alconian led 'Free Karmanyakan' army?"

Staff Seargent Emael nodded "Yes sir, and I talked to Velite General Ihsan, he is activating reserve Velite Guard units in case there are any requests for police forces from Karmanyaka. Ambassador Segraves has communicated no such requests yet,he has met with Lord Tengil."

Ring sighed and nodded "Well, let's give the Vrakians and Alconians a few less targets. Give the signal for a general withdrawal. Have Admiral Ilek pick up his marines as soon as Sletfalls is buttoned up and get back into international waters. Drop all food and water supplies with the locals as we pull out, are supply lines are short enough that we won't be wanting for anything. Notify the Republican Council that I will ask for a withdrawal of the Military Mandate in forty eight hours."

Seargent Emaele and the other Officers raised their fists in salute and with that the deployed Retaliatory Guard began heading back the way they had come, leap frogging rear units in reverse fashion from their deployment, making sure that each force that was withdrawn was covered by a stationary force as a rear guard.

Sleyfalls

The helicopter carrying General Ozcan swept in over the broad street where a temporary landing site had been cleared. Just as the pilot manoeuvered the craft down passed a burnt out office tower an RPG soared past it and exploded in mid air, shaking the helicopter violently. Vaadian marines quickly rushed to take care of the shooter as the chopper landed safely on the ground.

Limping heavily with a cane in his left hand, General Ozcan ran crouching towards Deadmarsh and his men.

"General Deadmarsh, we meet again!" he shouted over the din from the rotors, while rubbing a knee. "Good to see you, comrade! Yes, I have a cane this time, took a bullet in my left knee. Doc said I should stay in bed for at least a week, but an officer's place is with his men, I've always said!" he called out as the helicopter roared away, stirring up clouds of dust.

"Now, my good General, let's exorcise this town! I want the land cleansed of all Batistini's evil spirits!" he grinned madly and winked at Deadmarsh.

--

150 miles West of Katla

Lieutenant Colonel Peteri Heikkinen climbed down from his APC and stood in the middle of the road watching the approaching Kobi tank. All around them, almost as far as the eye could see, was a windswept landscape filled with black volcanic rocks covered in moss and lichen. The chilly wind howled amidst the rubble and almost drowned out the noise of the diesel engines as the Kobi IIB slowed down in front of Heikkinen.

On the vehicles around the Lieutenant Colonel his men sat relaxed. They were ready to fend off a possible ambush by Junta rebels, but didn't let it show. The gale tore at the Klatchian flag atop Heikkinen's APC, and he had to hold on to his hat.

The sound of the wind creeping among the cavities in the rocky ground added to the tension and helped create an ominous atmosphere. As the hatch of the Alconian/Karmanyakan command vehicle opened, Heikkinen raised his hand in a salute.

--

Katla

A top priority for the Karmanyakan government at this moment was to re-stablish contact with the rest of the FKC. A new Delegation had already been sent to Port Olympus and were scheduled to arrive within a few hours. In the meanwhile the Lord Tengil had only gotten a couple of hours sleep and he was getting nervous.

"Where the hell is Pommer?! Last thing I heard, he had arrived in Port Olympus."

"My Lord, he is trying to make contact with the Speaker, but apparently his excellence is busy with an urgent visit from the Free Republic. I'ts about the situation in Dyelli Beybi."

"OK, I want Pommer to try and get out of this tight space we've ended up in. We can't let ourselves get trapped between loyalty to Klatchia and friendship with Ilek-Vaad. The Dyellian civil war has me even more worried. Are we stregthening our presence on the northern border, close to DBAT?"

"Yes, but we're in no position to fend of an attack by rogue Moskauans or anything like that. But it's unlikely the will try anything with all the movements around us, there are Alconians, Vrakians and Vaadians hanging about. I guess even New Shiron is watching us closely despite their being busy moving."

The Lord Tengil shook his head "What a mess! Anything else?"

"The Retaliatory Guard is withdrawing from the Eastmark and back into Vaadian territory, my Lord. We have gained control over most of the area and the Police is working together with Vaadian military to bring order. The crime wave have ebbed and only isolated bands of rebels remain in rural areas."

"Sounds like we're getting back onto our feet." Kader said with a bit of satisfaction. "Now keep going, we can't rest until all strings are in our hands again."

General Deadmarsh raised his fist in salute as General Ozcan arrived "Trust me, you never get used to using a cane." he shouted over the sound of the helicopters rotors.

Deadmarsh's eyes didn't have a look of blodlust in them, they were like the cold dead eyes of a shark and he nodded as Ozcan expressed his desire to be rid of the enemy.

"My men are ready for a final push General, You may give the order and I'm sure your men want to be in the lead. If Bastini hasn't run home by now then we'll have him by nightfall."

OOC: Sorry for the delayed reply. I'll try to improve. : )

--

Sleyfalls

Ozcan saluted back and shrugged at Deadmarsh's comment on the cane and replied "I hope to have proper surgery soon, and if I'm lucky I can get rid of the cane."

He scanned the surroundings and looked Deadmarsh in the eyes.

"Thank you for the honor, General. And by that I mean both the honor to fight alongside such distinguished warriors and the honor of issuing the attack order. Then, let's attack! For freedom!" He raised his pistol over his head and motioned the troops forward.

--

A little while later came the message that General Batistini lay dead in a muddy pit just on the outskirts of the town. Cause of death was most likley poisoning. This of course started rumors that wouldn't be cleared until a long time later when an autopsy revealed the capsule in the General's neck.

For the moment though, it was clear that the last big threat against Karmanyakan liberation was removed as the combined forces of Generals Ozcan and Deadmarsh combed the area for Junta troops.

There was not much resistance from the 1st and 2nd armies as Vaadian aircraft hovered above Sleyfalls, ready to send any enemies straight into the afterlife without even leaving anything behind for the morgue.

--

It started to look like the battle for Karmanyaka was over. The Retaliatory Guard had begun withdrawing and the threat of a Klatchian 'counter invasion' to oust the Vaadians seemed have passed. Forces loyal to the Grune Junta had diminished and turned into street gangs and small guerilla bands in the mountains.

But there was no way to tell if there was still something smouldering beneath the ashes, ready to blaze into fire...

--

OOC: Because of the holidays, I realize this thread might stand still for a while, but I'll try to be around to reply to posts and stuff.

OOC: Posting here my fleet from Vrak. Sorry with minimal details and rushed post but I’m using Mom’s comp which means I don’t have the details with me. Supposed to be the holidays too. IV, I’m posting parts of this post in the relevant DB thread just to keep current. Please t-gram me (this is for anyone else as well) for any questions but don’t expect an immediate response. Sorry. I’m reducing my profile here (since this seems to be winding down) and also position myself rp wise for later. I can also edit if this post is whacked.

IC:

The hypersonic bombers veered off at the last possible moment away from Karmanyaka and back to Vrak. The 56 (ooc: think that is the right number) submarines continued to shadow their Vaadian counterparts though. But does this translate into a reduction in Vrakian say or do in the matter?

The armada of ships that passed through the Squall straits were roughly at least 250-300 ships of various kinds, including the Frunze battleship class that could give the Vaadian Revenge a run for their money. This did not include the nearly same number of troop transports. And it was hard to determine exactly how many submarines were present – although a safe bet would be substantial, based on the general militarization of Vrak and the current political climate within the FKC.

A smaller group broke off and situated themselves roughly 200 nautical miles away from the largest Vaadian naval group. In this particular formation there were about two intelligence ships that focused their intentions upon the Vaadians, trying to gather communications traffic and precisely identify the foe. The overhead long range patrol craft high above were also kept busy along with the necessary satellite assets. Identifying. Directing. And ready for targeting if necessary.

In fact, the majority of the Vrakian fleet was heading for New Shiron to keep that territory from falling into the hands of others. And certainly the sheer scale of the transports might make some wonder if a Vrakian presence in Karmanyaka was also being considered.

OOC: Ive been away for a while. I know that the thread has already progressed a great deal, and as such, I have not read nearly all of it, but since the Klatch have been nice to us in the past, just let me know if there is anything we can do for you, or there is anything rpwise we can assist with. If you need anything, just let me know about it OOCly, and I will then start Rping. Otherwise, I'll stand back and watch.

OOC: Ive been away for a while. I know that the thread has already progressed a great deal, and as such, I have not read nearly all of it, but since the Klatch have been nice to us in the past, just let me know if there is anything we can do for you, or there is anything rpwise we can assist with. If you need anything, just let me know about it OOCly, and I will then start Rping. Otherwise, I'll stand back and watch.

OOC: In some ways this seems to be winding down (at least my take) but it does open the doors for other interesing rps between the Klatchian states and their friends I think. Never a dull moment in the Klatch. :)

Sleyfalls

General Deadmarsh started to relax a bit as it appeared the fighting was winding down. He contacted Admiral Ilek aboard the Sir William Issem.

"Admiral, this is Deadmarsh. It looks like we're wrapping things up on the ground. I should be able to begin a phased re-deployment of the Marines by tomorrow. We'll head back to Fort Fyalar as soon as we can." He clicked off his com and waited.

"Very good General. Well done. The Retaliatory Guard will most likely be deactivated within the next two days according to Retaliatory Guard Command, so we will be ready to pull the Marines out. There is still some doubt as to the Foreign Guard mission in Karmanyaka." Admiral Ilek replied

Deadmarsh shrugged "There is no doubt in my mind as to what the Karmanyakans want, and it's not the noodle-spined, dasy late dollar short JDF!"

Admiral Ilek chuckled "Very well General. Get back to it."

General Deadmarsh then went back to General Ozcan's side "Let me know when you are secure enough, I'll start pulling my lads back to Fort Fyalar. Retaliatory Guard Command is guessing that the Council's Military Mandae will last only another 48 hours, and the we will have to begin pulling out entirely."

Northern Karmanyaka

Commander Ring was overseeing the withdrawal of the main bodies of Retaliatory Guard command at the head of the Purifiers Army, who paused during the withdrawal to repair damaged infrastructure along the way.

The whole body of the Retaliatory Guard were dumping wholesale all the food, water and medical supplies that had been slated for a pro-longed deployment, every Karmanyakan settlement in their withdrawal path would have more supplies than they knew what to do with.

High Level Diplomatic Transmission

From: The Lord Tengil of Kamanyaka, Johan Kader
To: All Klatchian states
Subject: Order restored in Karmanyaka

Dear fellow Klatchians!

It is with great joy I bring you this message. Control of the Dominion of Karmanyaka is again back in the hands of its rightful rulers, the Council of Knights and the Lord Tengil, myself.

With the swift and heroic aid of our Klatchian brethren we have successfully wrested the sceptre of power from the hands of the Junta Rebels under the command of Nicholas Grune.

Once again Karmanyaka is free from the yoke of oppression. The bold Vaadian men and women are at this moment preparing to leave Karmanyakan soil and the work of establishing the joint defence force of the Foreign Guard can resume.

A special thanks is directed at The Free Republic of Ilek-Vaad, The Star Kingdom of New Shiron and The United Duchies of Alcona and Hubris who valiantly fought alongside Karmanyakan Loyalists to liberate the Dominion.

Now we shall focus upon the task of rebuilding the nation and on continuing with the important work of democratization. Within half a year we will hold the first democratic elections in Karmanyakan history. Until then, we have much work to do, both within our nation and on a regional level.

- The people of the Dominion of Karmanyaka through Lord Tengil Johan Kader

--

General Ozcan nodded to Deadmarsh.

"General, I believe you can start pulling back at once. We control the city and central command in Katla tells me this was the last major rebel force in the area. The Junta is now truly destroyed." he took of his glove and shifted the cane to his left hand as he extended his right hand to Deadmarsh.

"General Deadmarsh, it has been a great experience and a great honor to fight together with such a distinguished warrior as yourself. I hope we can continue our good cooperation in our work with the Foreign Guard. For now though, I have to leave you and head back to Katla for a while."

General Deadmarsh took Ozcan's hand and shook it and then saluted him as he left. "Hopefully we will meet again under more pleasant circumstances General. Good Luck."

With that Deadmarsh began overseeing the withdrawal of Naval Guard Marines back out to their Tactical Groups.

*****

At sea the Tactical Groups off of Karmanyaka continued to keep a wary eye on the Vrakian naval presence. But for the most part simply prepared to get underway as soon as everyone was accounted for.