NationStates Jolt Archive

Official Announcement of President Alexander Kirillovich Kazansky, on the subject of Iesus Christi

Friends of Allanea!

Where-ever you are, whenever you listen to me, whether Allanean Freemen in Allanea itself, in her convention halls, classrooms, and factories – or citizens of Questaria in her naval docks, subjects of the Maccabee Empire – all friends of Allanea and Liberty, I would like you to contemplate today on a few people who do not have the freedoms you enjoy.

I would like you to contemplate the subjects of Iesus Christi – those for whom freedom of religion has been supplanted by a cult that mocks Iesian Catholicism, for whom freedom of speech has been supplanted by blatant worship of the disgusting bitch, Bridgette Iesus, and her male bitch, Matthew Iesus. Those for whom instead of the privacy you enjoy there are barcode tattoos and death camps – state slavery by another name.

I do not need to tell you my conclusion to this – the regime of Iesus Christi must be destroyed. Bridgette Iesus must die.

I would like you to contemplate the force of oppression in that nation – the inquisition, the army, and the police – and the ease with which they would crumble under a joint international offensive. Yes, the atrocious accomplices of the Reich would in fact try and defend them – but I am sure that with proper preparation we can best them. Surely, if the people of the Sovereign League, Greater Prussia, or the ACTO would be persuaded to land their righteous blows on the monstrosity that is Iesus Christi's government, the vermin that lead the Reich would find it hard to stand in our way.

You know what this means. This only reinforces my conclusion.The regime of Iesus Christi must be destroyed. Bridgette Iesus must die.

Visualize now the communist cocksuckers of Iesus Christi's military fleeing before an offense of allied armor, the cowardly fucktards of the Inquisitors impaled upon the Allanean bayonets, Bitch Bridgette crushed under the boots of allied troops, their camps' fences collapsed, their people free!

This is no dream. This can become our reality. We can make it happen. I do not care who your nation is – I would like you to send an envoy to Allanea if you agree with me on my main point – that the regime of Iesus Christi must be destroyed and that Bridgette Iesus must die.

I announce now an intent to set up an ad-hoc alliance of nations, dedicated, first and foremost, to the destruction of the Iesian regime, and second, to the reduction in the influence and assets of the Reich, with an eye to it's continous weakening. All are welcome, regardless of your other political tendencies. You're even welcome if you generally don't like Allanea.

This is not about our interest alone. It is about the interest of truth, justice, and liberty.
If you believe in truth, justice, and liberty, then you believe – as I do – that the regime of Iesus Christi must be destroyed and that Bridgette Iesus must die.

This is all.

And may God continue to bless Allanea.

Transmission received by broadcasters in Allanea, as well as government officials. Source impossible to undentify as transmission re-routed times and times over.

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WHITE LEGION
High Command

Allaneans,

Have you not had enough wars sparked by your incapable and rotten leadership? Have you not suffered enough due to the stupidity of those in charge over you? Have all these wars not been enough to wake you up? Or is this the notion of liberty you treasure so much: suffering and pain?

For we warn you, citizens of Allanea, that you shall feel pain and you shall suffer if you follow your President blindly into his latest adventure against Iesus Christi. Remember, Allaneans, that you are wasting your lives, destroying your dreams, you are diving into the bottomless sea of blood.

For thus shall it be and the Holy Theotokos shall guide our sword,
White Legion

The Allaneans in the meanwhile had no intention of tracking the White Legion's message. It was just another organization, which, unfortunately, benefited from the usual Allanean laws on free speech. Some newspapers printed this reply, some mocked it, others ignored it. But generally the population just didn't care.

What the results of Kazansky's call would be, however, remained to be seen.

OOC: I would like to note that Allanean citizens are not ICly referred to as 'citizens'. Allaneans prefer the term 'Freeman'. That's even in our Constitution.

“And the tenements in the Jersus district, should probably be re-built from scratch. Now, the commerce sector, we’re beginning to run out of initial resources, and foreign aid is shall we say, limited. That means we’re going to need to increase overall commercial activity over the next five years by not less than four hundred percent if we’re to sustain this activity level. Take two percent from the policing budget and reallocate that as funds for a work-group aimed at discerning our potential role as a naval thoroughfare as well as production centre,” the Regent’s cabinet nodded, at first they’d generally done that for fear of the towering castellans that stood against the room’s walls seemingly like archaic suits of armour propped up on stands, but which could twitch into life with monstrous ferocity, but as the years had passed, there had been less fear of such retribution, and now, the silence as he spoke was mostly due to the fact that he was talking sense, the commercial needs of the country had long been the primary concern of the Regent.

“The good news is, there’s been a slight increase in the overall value of pearls, that should increase revenue by two and a half million this quarter,” his commerce minister noted, and Herumor nodded in approval.

“Internationally, we should probably consider our reducing our commitment to nuclear weapons production. In the near future, it seems unlikely we’re going to need to increase overall potency there.

“Got to agree. We can deter anything this side of Menelmacar, and the project for the fifth version vectoring SLBM is going well and could be rolled out in eight to ten years. I don’t think we need anything greater than the eight hundred terajoule warheads we’re using. Our best objective is probably to hunt through the stocks and try and work out which of the ten percent that aren’t likely to work as intended, and replace those now.”

“I’ll take it under advisement,” Herumor said at last, “Now, one other matter. I’ve heard that the Allaneans,”

“The who?” asked the commerce minister.

“Mongol raiders of our time. Envision the most paranoid gun-nut you can think of, give him a reactionary religion, and dose him up to the eyeballs on stimulants, and you’ve got an exceptionally tasteful and well-dressed Allanean,” Herumor said, “anyway they’re holding some conference about how they want to attack Iesus Christi, and I think it might be appropriate to send someone.”

Suddenly, there was a lot of nervous shifting under the table.

“But I’m not sure who, yet. I’m tempted to send a Castellan, just for a laugh.”

From: Marchioness Kalina Maerandor, Supreme State Minister, The Regency of Sapphires (formerly Joseph Seal)
To: The whom it may concern of the Government of Allanea,
Subject: Iesus Christi Confrence.

I am directed by the Regent to enquire about the date, time, and other appropriate arrangements that his emissary may be in attendance to discuss calling the Loathsome Iesian Regime to account for its actions.

In the Name of Annatar The Acceptor of Repentance,
Kalina Maerandor

"My God," First Speaker Amanda Rydell commented, looking at the comuniqué, "did he actually use the phrase fucktards?"

"Yes," Foriegn Affairs Minister Sinclair commented. "In our rather few dealings with the Allaneans, we've noticed that they, well, aren't very social cuth. If you check the history, its led to a number of wars, invasions, and other good things."

"Indeed. So, does he not notice the inherit hypocrysy in his statements? Are the Iesus not entitled to their own soverignty and freedom to run their nation in the same way the Allaneans?"

"Yes, but these people, especially this Kazanski character, don't really seem to be the most logical thinkers. However, we should really make the move to send someone, to either talk some sense into them, or make sure they don't do something stupid, like try to come after us. I would recomend,"

"Hoot?"

"Exactly. He needs to get out of the country for a bit, hes been outa it since Fortier bit the bullet. I think getting him back in the political game would get him outa the funk."

"Same. I'll call him up, you make the reservations and such, and I'm sure a former First Speaker and military man doesn't need any special briefing."
-
To whom it may concern,

While relations betwen our two nations have been minimal at best, I feel that we both have a stake in the matter at hand. While Imitora cannot claim to have the blatent and open freedoms that you allow you freemen to enjoy, we still believe that freedom is an essential quality of any nation. The disregard to the ideals and joys of freedom seen in the nation of Iesus Christi are in and of themselves dispicable and must be discused. Therefore, former First Speaker and current representative at large Thomas Gibbson is currently en route in order to meet with the assmebly. With regards,

First Speaker Amanda Rydell

To Whom it May Concern in All Parties,

The Imperial Shogunate is a nation that has strived to respect national soverignty. However, we carry that only as far as a nation in question carries freedoms and respect for human lives. Thus, when allegations come up, we take them very seriously.

We've known of the very bad reputation of the Reich and Iesus Christi for quite a while, and we think that it now warrants further investigation, what with the accusations and calls to arms by our ally, Allanea.

As such, I, as Shogun of Pschycotic Pschycos, wil personally attend any meetings discussing this matter, and pledge the Shogunate's support of Allanea.

Signed,

Shogun Nakamura Taiki

DISPATCH VIA DIPLOMATIC COURIER
To: President Alexander Kirillovich Kazansky
From: Veliky Kynaz Xavier Alexeitovich Andropov II

While I regret that I will not be able to personally attend, Zheleztsolupp Kabanov, the Foreign Minister, and General Karaka Rakhamov will be attending the summit.

Deo Vindice.

--Tsar Xavier Alexeitovich Andropov II

Kazansky shrugged at the pile of papers in front of him. "How is the rearmament process going on, Colonel?"

Morrison smiled. "We have ordered a large amount of combat aircraft, Mix 44, and other devices, Mr. President. Additionally, the modernization process in the ground forces is near complete. We now have one thousand separate modernized infantry divisions, and an equal amount of armored divisions at our disposal."

"Ah very well. Let us see. It says here orders of jacketed hollow point rifle ammunition by the military had gone up to twenty billion rounds per year. I understand you are stocking up – just in case the Iesians strike us pre-emptively, Morrison?"

"Yes, sir. I've also contemplated a massive purchase of Glushko MRBM devices, and some… special Zed Emm Eye products. Additionally, I am looking towards increasing our helicopter fleet, we're rather understaffed and undershipped in that department."

"Well, I suppose it would be a Boneharvester versus Gamow race. At any rate… we need to start answering the letters. We have one from… the Regency of Sapphires, I see? Who the fuck are they?"

The armor-clad woman sitting on the other side of the table sighed at Morrison at Kazansky. "Messenger smite me if I know, Alex. Some obscure nation, I guess."

"Bah. Lessee…."

To: Marchioness Kalina Maerandor, Supreme State Minister, The Regency of Sapphires (formerly Joseph Seal)
Subject: Conference

The conference will take place at $date_time at the Hotel Coral Essex, in Liberty-City. Attached is your room reservation. Please inform us aforehand if you intend to address the conference at large, or hold a separate workshop.

Sincerely yours,
Victoria Sheshet,
United States Secretary of State

To: First Speaker Amanda Rydell
Subject: Conference

You would be most welcome at the conference. Attached is your hotel reservation.
Please inform us aforehand if you intend to address the conference at large, or hold a separate workshop.

Sincerely yours,
Victoria Sheshet,
United States Secretary of State



To: Shogun Nakamura Taiki
Subject:Iesus Conference

Your Majesty!

Please receive attached a variety of information and witness testimony of the crimes and atrocities of the Iesus Regime. As you know, a variety of exiles from that nation had visited Allanea in the past – thus we are well aware of the atrocities of the Reich.

Further more, once you arrive at Hotel Coral Essex, much more information will be available on site, such as the presenting of the Department of State's 'Mercy Denied: Human Rights Abuses in Iesus Christi' report – which so far even I have not seen.

We will make every effort to demonstrate to the international community this is no mere quest for power and land – but that the Iesus Christi government is purely evil and has to be destroyed.

Sincerely Yours,
Alexander Kirillovich Kazansky,
President for Life of the United States of Allanea

To:Veliky Kynaz Xavier Alexeievich Andropov II

Your Imperial Majesty!

I will be most pleased to see your messengers at the summit. Thank you for sending your emissaries to participate in this endeavour.

May God bless the Emperor.

-- Alexander Kirillovich Kazansky,
President for Life of the United States of Allanea

* * * *

In more ways then just one, the perception Herumor had of Allanea was right, and what the emissaries would see at Hotel Coral Essex would prove it. It was not a five-star hotel – the building was chosen for obscurity, so it would not be known previously to Reich spies. As such, it was about twenty stories tall, and featuring a sign which was missing quite a few letters – the first letter of the middle word, for example.

Right now it was surrounded by literally thousands of men, spread out throughout the city – countersnipers lying on the roofs of houses, armor-clad Marines guarding the building itself, Nakil tanks on the intersections, machinegunners on the fire escapes of the hotel and squadrons of combat helicopters doing routine overflights.

In the hotel proper, the doormen and room service were instructed to go about armed – as if they weren't doing so before – and the CREST officials orchestrating the efforts had instructed them to load their guns with +P ammunition and hollowpoints. Even the traditional bartender's shotgun had been replaced with a full-auto AA-12, courtesy of President Kazansky himself.

The bar, speak of it, hosted practically every drink and drug known to civilized mankind – from sake to vodka to chifir and methamphetamines, Hotel Coral Essex had it all, and consistent rumours had it that, waiting for the event, the President himself had donated a few cases of Greater Prussian wine from his own personal stock.

Several waitresses, barely-dressed, tended to arriving diplomats – and with some whispering and a few dollar bills, were able to provide the kind of service that'd likely be illegal in many people's home countries.

But at the beginning of the conference, all that would cease. The enjoyment, the music, the waitresses –all this went on until the start of the conference. Then, an athmosphere of somber, horrendous silence would fall upon Hotel Coral Essex.

When the diplomats would wake up on the official conference start day, each would find, at the entrance of his room, a copy of the Department of State report. It would be filled with descriptions, accounts, statistics – everything that could be gotten out of exiles and witnesses, war prisoners and intelligence data. It was not much… but it spoke of nightmarish atrocities, and hinted at much more terrible crimes.

Somewhere in Der Angst

Der Angst was the closest, dearest and oldest of all Taraskovyan allies and the two states had a long history of cooperation. So close, that on quite a few occasions their respective military forces acted as one. And the two formations often cooperated on a rather informal basis, such as in the present case.

General Major Anatoly Dragovinskiy, Head Quartermaster for Tavaroth, was in Der Angst in person with a logistics transport company under his command. Unlike the other three Provinces of Tavaroth, the southern one remained a hotbed for fanatical zealot activity that just kept on resisting the Taraskovyan occupation. The area was often used to testing out various new weapon systems, from tunnel-busting explosives to autonomous combat aerial drones.

On this occasion, the Quartermaster came to Der Angst to fetch some new explosives for testing. The charges were small, enough to fit into a backpack and be carried around, yet with sufficient yield to cause some tremendous damage around. Anatoly had previously contacted Angstian counterparts and arranged for a small test party of twenty units to be prepared.

And as he watched the drones load the equipment into the transport dropship under the gaze of his troops, Dragovinskiy had a little chatter with the Angstian scientist that came to oversee the proceedings.

“From what you have told me, these will come in usefull.”

“Indeed,” the Angstian nodded. “Just dial the yield up and down depending on whether you need to take out a cavern or the entire mountain.”

The Quartermaster just smirked. “Looking forward to trying them out.”

* * *

In several hours time, at the Falcon Claw airbase in southern Tavaroth, drones would unload a party of fifteen warheads received from the Angstians. The dropship contained only fifteen. The Intendancy List mentioned fifteen explosives. The crew mentioned only fifteen explosives. An officer of the rank of Major General, entirely trusted to be loyal to the Motherland, mentioned only fifteen warheads. The dropship made no stops while in flight.

All in all, the military personnel in Southern Tavaroth didn’t even know they were missing five warheads. And it would take some time for the NashSec to trace the exact amount of warheads loaded and warheads unloaded and interest themselves in the person of General Major Dragovinskiy. And by that time the missing units would be far, far away.

Official Response of the Rosdivan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Supreme Commonwealth of Rosdivan finds itself in agreement with the United States of Allanea and will be dispatching Alex Waters, our new Minister of Defense, to Allanea to participate in this conference and coordinate the employment of our military forces with those of our allies.

War Warning
Classification: Secret
From: Alex Waters, Minister of Defense
To: All commands

This is a war warning to all Commonwealth military commands. Atrocities committed by the nation of Iesus Christi have prompted other Imperial nations to begin readying forces for war. It is likely that we will assist them. Accordingly, all Air Force and Army commands are to begin defensive preparations, and all Navy commands are to prepare themselves for sustained offensive actions. Report back on the progress and nature of the preparations.

The Armed Capialist Republic will send Deputy Ambassador Jose Vera to the conference in Allanea to honor our Sovereign League Alliance.

Attention All Commanders:
Security Classification: Black
From: Tseii-Shogun Nakamura

All units are to proceed to full war-time status. The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Armies are to mobilize immediately and stand by for further instructions. All Air Defense Forces are hereby ordered to 24 hour scramble alert. All bomber wings are to be fueled and fully armed. All combat fleets are to leave port and assume stand-by positions at the enclosed coordinates. Supply fleets are to leave port and assume loading positions on the mainland.

Defense Conditions have been raised to DefCon One. All commanders are to have combat plans to face the nation of Iesus Christi and the Reich.

This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill

Security Code: 00684

First Speaker Rydell arrived with little pomp, traveling quickly to the meeting center. She had replied quickly, saying that her purpose was to simply attend the confrence as a whole, offering up what advice she could when she felt needed. She attended the reception, spending the better part of an hour drinking a Midori Sour and rubbing elbows, so to speak. She took the names of a few of the female servers, fully planning on enjoying the time away from home, even if the overall purpose of the confrence was serious. However, until the confrence started, she took the time to relax.

Tseii-Shogun Nakamura Taiki arrived with equally little pomp, travelling in the royal modified heavy bomber. He arrived at the hotel, completely blanching at its appearance, starting with the damaged sign out front. Inside was not much better either. He was utterly horrified at the establishment. Drugs were rampant, and whores walked freely around the bar. Without even having checked in, Taiki walked straight back out of the establishment, returning to the airport and his transportation, taking off again.

TO: The Allanean Leadership:

I am beyond disgusted with the housing you intended to provide for national leaders at your little conference. I have never been disrespected such as to be placed in a whore-house in all of my life, by any foreign government, much less a nation considered to be an ally! I absolutely refuse to partake or endorese any further of your actions on this subject! I am tempted to even cut off further ties!

My forces are standing down, and my support is withdrawn.

~Shogun Nakamura

To the leaders of Allanea;
Although his Imperial Majesty Logan “Farad’n” Rautha supports the fight for all people to live a life free from dictatorship and oppression; we have a strict policy of non interference in the internal matters of another NationState. Therefore and henceforth his Imperial Majesty has declared all Lands that lay within his realm as neutral territory, and is willing to allow leaders of all belligerent nations to gather in order to negotiate in hopes of avoiding bloodshed. However, should any act of aggression committed toward his people, or any other party within his realm shall be considered an act of war, and neutrality of the offending NationState shall be forfeit.

Official Response of the Allanean Government to the Shogun of the Psychotic Psychos Empire

Dear Sir!

We apologize most profusely for offending your religious customs – such was never our intent. We would like to point out that the hotel personnel have been replaced entirely with modestly-clothed CREST agents as of conference start, for the respect of the victims of the Iesus monsters. [OOC: This was in the original post describing the hotel]

Please accept the apologies of the Allanean government.

* * *

In the meanwhile, the first day of the conference begun. At first, the Allaneans made no pompous speeches and no arguments for their cause – they merely allowed the guests to familiarize themselves with the documents and the limited information that Allanea had of the atrocities of the Iesus government and it's agents, both in Iesus itself and abroad.

The 'whores' reappeared again – now somber and wearing long, floor-reaching skirts, and carrying conspicuous weapons designed not only to stop a charging boar, but also to strike the fear – of violence, if not of God – into any Reichite agent that would somehow make his way into the conference.

Even as these preparations went on, Victoria Sheshet walked between the delegates, wearing the uniform of the Diplomatic Service and her combat awards – for courage under fire, for bravery and for large amounts of enemy infantry kills. She had stood in the gap against the Kravenites and against the foul Antanjilians, she would now stand in the gap again – against the Reichites.

She spoke to the Silver Sky, Dersconi, Rosdivanian and Imitoran envoys, trying to gauge their true opinions of the Allanean initiative, and to find out what forces, if any, would they wish to contribute to the fight against the Reich.

The Hall of National Purity, Christchurch, God's Own

Things are not going well for Amadeus Shelford.
The war in Syskeyia had turned into a stalemate, bleeding his forces at a slow ebb of lives and equipment.
For a good Nazi like Amadeus, this display of weakness had been absolutely abhorrent and his response to his generals' protestations that they could do no better had been a series of carpet-chewing rages, followed by the decimation of the General Staff.

Now however, he saw an opportunity to strike a blow at the hated foe, demonstrating that whatever losses God's Own may have taken in Syskeyia, and within its' own borders, true National Socialists would be resolute and unafraid to strike at those who would oppose the cause of purity, those who's very presence on the earth was an affront to it.

"Long have we struggled with the degenerates in Allanea! Long have their radical, heretical politicians cast slander and lies at us and our allies!"
He pauses and spreads his arms wide, smiling at the glorious announcement he has to make.
"The weak fools have called a conference, hah, to discuss the so-called atrocities of our Iesian kin! A conference where their degenerate leaders have gathered! A conference we strike at even now! We shall do God's work!"

Cheers echo through the hall, Amadeus waving his arms enthusiastically.
"So my Brothers in Arms, Honoured Delegates of the Reich, mark this day! We mark this day as a hallowed one, the day we struck at the pluralist unbelievers who be-smirch this clean earth, who taint the very air around them with their false idols, who perpetrate such hideous crimes against man and especially beast!"
Cheers echoed down the length of the former cathedral, Amadeus beaming at the crowd of gastarbeiters before lifting his arms for quiet.

"National Socialism will triumph! We have the will! We have the purity of spirit and purpose! GOD IS WITH US!"
A roar of assent greeted this last, the delegates cheering and bellowing the motto as Amadeus heiled the delegates and flag before turning on his heel and marching out.

At sea.

God's Own had never been noted for the efficacy of its' indigenous military designs, which tended towards the crude, especially given the lack of education and chronic malnutrition which characterised the nation.
However, due to a cooperative attitude with the Kingdom towards refugees when the Reich had begun its' purges, that nation had found it expedient to sell its' obsolescent equipment off to God's Own periodically.
Iraqstan also occasionally benefited from this, but where Iraqstan recieved aerospace fighters, God's Own was content with near-modern APCs and aircraft.
Recently, however, they had received an influx of new naval vessels, classes which the Kingdom deemed useless for some reason, which included a fleet of ultra-modern SSBNs.

Such as the one currently under the command of Marine-Kapitan Jonah Wyllie, which had slid down to launch depth, invisible to anyone hadn't tracked it from the neutral port where the vessel had changed from H.M.S. Chrei'gahn to G.O.S Laurie Mains.
Here and now the Laurie had recieved the orders it lived in hope of getting.

The SSBNs were commanded by true believers, men unafraid to utilise the dreadful cargo they carried, so Wyllie's expression on recieving his orders was a shouted exultation.
"Justice. We shall bring the unbelievers justice!"

The crew turn to their duties with a will, the boat's complement of twenty four hyper-velocity ICBMs, three warheads apiece, all are readied for launch, the crew chanting National Socialist slogans as they work, chants avowing their purity and superiority until the work is done and the missiles are prepared.
Smiling cheerfully, Wyllie and his executive officer salute the flag tacked over the launch-control, insert the keys which had hung around their necks and unlock their cargo for launch.

This done, Wyllie turns to the crew, who have assembled to watch this momentous event, gives the National Socialist salute to the crews' instinctive mirroring of his gesture, and a murmur of "God with us", turns back to the launch console and fires all twenty four missiles at targets through out Allanea, four bracketing the all-too-obvious military presence swarming around the hotel.

The immense missiles, storeys high surge up out of the ocean's depths like some monster of the deeps, bellowing their fiery rage as they claw into the sky on pillars of flame.
As the missiles rumble into orbit, they are at their most vulnerable, surely the degenerates will strike at them here, while they can be stopped.
No matter, soon enough the missiles break apart, the warheads splitting into an infinity of much more difficult to stop targets, screaming down out of the sky to bring the fires of heavenly judgement to the very homes of the impious.

And as these missiles are launched, and the crew of the Laurie cheer the other twenty missile boats of the Kriegsmarine disappear into the deep places of the world ocean, awaiting the orders from God's Own that will see further launches.

Patrolling Superdreadnaught, Greater Prussian Bay

"We have launches detected at area B-4-0, I repeat, suspected nuclear launches. This is not a drill, I repeat not a drill! Prepare to counter launch as per procedure Beta!" – Captain Donaldson screamed as he pushed several buttons on the control panel in front of him. Next to the Captain, an ensign was staring in horror at the screen, where the nuclear missiles were rising, uncontestable, unstoppable, from a seemingly random point in the ocean.

But already the Allanean response was being made. From the very ship aboard entrusted to Captain Donaldson rose multiple interceptor missiles – hypervelocity missiles, carrying megaton-yield munitions.

Generally-speaking, strategic ballistic missiles are among the most predictable weapons known to sapientkind – once you've seen part of the trajectory, you have seen it all. Computer guidance throws high-velocity, high angle missiles outside the athmosphere – their targeting point somewhere near the expected trajectory of Reichite missiles. They do not need to hit them precisely. At all.

"Fifty missiles away!"

"Very good, let's see…"

"Five seconds to intercept! Four!"

The skies to the south of the naval craft are covered in a polar glare, as fifty strategic-level nuclear explosions flash in the path of oncoming enemy missiles.

"Fucking shit on a crutch, the goddamn godless communist motherfuckers are getting through!"

From the orbiting defensive grid sattelites, a powerful salvo was fired – ten rockets, designed to hit cities, but targeted in the path of the oncoming Reich munitions. These explosions were now already visible from Allanea – one, in fact, occurring already over the continent, just as one of the missiles split up and the warheads began to plummet towards the ground.

With a powerful crack, the electric system of Western Liberty-City went down completely, leaving eighty million people without electricity, fresh water, or Internet. And yet, two more MIRV's remained, plummeting towards Allanea, where millions were still unaware of the attack.

The Nautilus systems crackled to life, and it was over.

But thousands were already dying.

Allanean Airlines Flight 579-B was now a metal coffin, with screaming victims plummeting towards their death, with no rescue possible or even imaginable.

Liberty-City Airport was a mess as a fuel tanker was hit by the EMP wave in takeoff, and crashed into Terminal 3A. Within minutes, five thousand waiting passengers and personnel were incinerated.

By the time the rescue efforts were done, fourty-two aircraft had already crashed, and over 42,000 Allaneans were dead and uncounted thousands more injured. The suburban neigborhoods to the West of the airport took fire, and rescue attempts were still ongoing.

Elsewhere, twenty more aircraft were lost.

The total personnel losses from the God's Own attack amounted to 54,246 people.

In the Hotel Coral Essex, the lights were now out.

Over the sea

From the patrolling ships several fighters flew out, heading towards the approximate location of the launch. As they approached it, they began to drop their cargo – nuclear depth charges, targeted to different locations around where the submarine was expected to be.

They turned around before the dozen or so tactical-yield nuclear devices detonated.

Announcement of President Alexander Kazansky

Attention to all forces.

Attention to all civilians.

Attention to all allied personnel in the Greater Prussian bay.

Allanea has been subject to a nuclear assault. All forces are now Defense Condition One. Repeat, Defense Condition One. All strategic forces are to remain Delta-Zeta-Four ready, repeat, Delta-Zeta-Four ready. All civilians are requested to remain in shelter where available, and begin preparing shelter as soon as possible where not.

Please remain calm at all times.

Remain tuned in from further updates from the local authorities or the Federal Government.

This is so far all.

May God Bless Allanea.

In the air heading away from Allanea, the transport's air crew picked up the missiles and subsequent detonations. "Holy fuck!" yelled the pilots. An officer rushed back to the cabin. "Your Excellency, Allanea has been struck by a member of the Reich!"
"What!? Get us back to the Shogunate now!"

To The Allanean Government,

With the recent attacks to your nation, we will put aside the
appearance of the hotel you intended to use and help you in
the name of Greater Prussia.

Sincerely and God Speed,

Tseii-Shogun Nakamrua Kenshin

ATTENTION ALL MILITARY UNITS:

MOBILIZE IMMEDIATELY FOR THE DEFENSE OF ALLANEA.
ALL COMBAT FLEETS ARE TO LAUNCH IMMEDIATELY AND
PAINT THE NATION OF GOD'S OWN AS YOUR TARGET.
THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. AIRFORCE UNITS, CONTINUE STANDBY. ARMY UNITS, CONTINUE STANDBY.

REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ALLANEA HAS SUSTAINED A
NUCLEAR ATTACK.

To: The Allanean Government

The Socialist Sultanate Duchydom of Franberry wishes to express its support of Allanea, and that we shall not stand by and watch her populace be raped by the unlawfull nuclear attacks of a physcotic nation. Our fleet will sail to your aid.


Huzzah!

Geoli Joolitan,

President of the Socialist Sultanate Duchydom of Franberry


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


ATTENTION ALL NAVY PERSONNEL

All Navy units are to hereby proceed to maximun readiness for the defense of Allanea.

Raise the golden ensign and prepare for battle.


By Official Decree of,

Mernando Vol,

Commander of the People's Navy of the Socialist Sultanate Duchydom of Franberry, Grand Admiral of the Combined Armadas of the Sultanate, Keeper of the Holy Fleet of the Dutchy, Grand Inquisitor of the Fleet, Hero of the Republic (1st class).

Somewhere in Taraskovya

"Sir, maybe we could just buy some subs and nuke the hell out of everybody? Our current plots appear to be far too refined for the destinatory."

"Nuking has no style, my dear Alexei. Operation Boom-Allanea goes ahead, with minor corrections to the plan."

"Yes, Sir."

In the Hotel, Rydell had been chatting with another dignitary about the idea of just war, and if it were applicable in the situation. It wasn't exactly that she was for war with Iseus, she just wanted to hear the opinions of others. However, the talk was cut short when the lights flashed out, the hotel bathed in darkness. The sounds of explosions elsewhere were soon drowned out as Rydell's Secret Service detail, weapons drawn, pulled her to the ground, covering her and watching in the darkness for any more attackers.

Such are the reasons why –when one is asked: “Surely you don’t think in terms of black-and-white, do you?” – the proper answer (in essence, if not in form) should be: “You’re damn right I do!”

Ayn Rand, ‘The Cult of Moral Grayness’

Official Address of Alexander Kirillovich Kazansky, President of the United States of Allanea, on the subject of the so-called ‘Reich’

Today, I have grave news to confirm to you, Freemen.

The United States of Allanea has been attacked by weapons of mass destruction. It seems, at this time, that the attack has been part of the usual Reichite effort to destroy Allanea and her freedom, and specially to prevent the conference where diplomats gathered from all over the world to discuss the Reichite threat. I call on all nations which have representatives at the Hotel Coral Essex to condemn the attack - it was your citizens as well as our Freemen that were targeted with nuclear weapons. The Reichites didn’t care that they would harm those nations that oppose an attack on them – they only cared that they would inflict death and destruction.

Such is the full evil of the Reich – they lust after death, destruction, torture, murder and will stop at nothing and stoop to anything to achieve these aims. They are nothing but evil – thoughtless and immoral, the Reich is like a ghoul, extending it’s clawed hand over the world. Today, it reached towards Allanea – and already fifty thousand people are dead.

But here, the Reichites will find their match – and their death knell. Already as we speak, Franberry, Derscon, Rosdivan and Psychotic Psychos are preparing their navies to strike at the foul Reich hordes.

Freemen, the war against the Reichite scum is beginning anew. As of now, I am ordering the following naval units towards the Reich:

The First Force Projection Fleet and the First, Second, Third, Fifth, and Sixth Haven Domination Fleets. Even as I speak, these ships are already on their way towards the Reich shores, to bring down their defenses and their militaries, to break down their governments, to overthrow their leaders.

I am appealing to all the nations of the world to join with me in the defense, not just of Allanea, but of liberty, justice, and good against the evil that is Reich.

There are some people who would claim that there is no moral white and black, that there is only grey. To those people, I suggest merely that they take a look at the monstrosity that is Iesus Christi – or Gods’ Own – or Vegana – or North Star. Maybe Allanea is some light shade of ‘moral grey’ – but only until it is compared to the infinite darkness that is the Reich. Next to the horror of the Reich, every Allanean’s consciousness is white.

This is why the Reich must be destroyed – and this is why, with your help, it will be destroyed.

This is all.

May God bless Allanea.

Mainland Allanea’s southern shores

From the shipyards and submarine pens of Allanea’s many harbors, the fleets began to move out towards the Reich. Here moved the USS Allanea at full steam ahead, her reactor turbines humming powerfully. There went the USS Trail of Corpses sailors running across the deck, preparing deck-based attack craft for launch.

The ships spread out over a ‘front’ spanning many miles across – close enough each ship could protect it’s neighbors with it’s missiles and sometimes it’s long range guns, but deep and wide enough from each other that it would not be possible to cover the entire thing with a single nuclear explosion.

Loud music blared from the combat loudspeakers aboard the ships, the rhythm streaming through the veins of the soldiers like a strong wine, filling them with courage and determination to work on, to fight on, to push on for victory.

Click. Click. Click.

Under the decks of the ships, warheads were being screwed onto the business ends of guided missiles, and missiles were heaved onto immense launch racks, waiting only for a signal from an Allanean’s itchy trigger finger to fly out, to burn, kill, and eliminate the enemy.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

On the ships decks and superstructures, RADAR installations were spinning, sweeping the sky for Reichite aircraft and missiles and the surface for Reichite ships and boats. Under the water, SONAR was looking non-stop for additional enemy submarines like the ony that attacked Allanea in the first place.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

A signle rendezvous point, 100 kilometers from the Reich shore, was chosen. All vessels were informed of that point.

Haven Straights

Here, too, immense fleets were being prepared to strike against everybody’s common enemy. They, too, moved towards the same meet-up point as the other ships (and allied fleets were informed of that point, just as well). The only exception were the 5th and 6th Haven Domination fleets. These, comprised of 1,100 submarines (a full quarter of the Allanean navy) began to spread out in two-ship fleets, with deployment points all around the continent the Reich sat on.

The purpose was unknown, and so was their current location.

OOC: Certain people have expressed to me their desire to engage in MAD policies vs. the Reich. I oppose this, as this is bad for roleplay. I implore all members of this RP to please avoid engaging in MAD policies, or suchlike, to avoid the RP degenerating into a nukefest or something.

In the bright sun lit room, the Emperor’s general staff sat at a long dark wooden table, discussing relatively routine matters of the Imperial Government;
“Production of necessities is up four percent from last quarter” went the young minister of resources “and we have secured another trade contract to import fresh water from another nation” Just then the large wooden doors swung open and a young army commander rushed over toward the table and began whispering into the ear of Gurney Kahlic, who was the Emperor’s war master.
“Are you sure?” he said looking up at the commander in disbelief
“Yes sir” he said, backing away from the table.
“My lord” Gurney began; “It seems that the Allanean situation has become nuclear”
Conversation in the great hall stopped as all eyes fell upon the Emperor
“This is exactly why your uncle was a strict isolationist” began one of the older ministers
“Times change” said Farad’n calmly “Gurney, how reliable is this intelligence?”
“Very much so milord”
“I want to issue a decree today, passed by council condemning the use of nuclear weapons, and again extend our offer to assist in the facilitation of peace talks”


TO ALL NATIONS CURRENTLY ENGAGED IN THE ALLANEAN-IESUS CONFLICT:
His Imperil Majesty Logan Farad’n fiercely condemns the use of Nuclear weapons in any conflict especially those between supposedly civilized nations.
He once again asks all nations to cease hostilities, and welcomes them to the Imperial City of New Tibar to begin peace negotiations, to prevent the further loss of life.
All land that is within his realm remains neutral territory, unless any such act of aggression are carried out against him, or against belligerent parties within his boarders.
So order this day in council.

DEMOCRATIC SOVIET REPUBLIC OF KAHANISTAN
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Government of Kahanistan condemns in the most strident terms the unprovoked nuclear assault on the United States of Allanea by a religious terrorist state. We ourselves have cast off the shackles of religious fundamentalism decades ago, and are infinitely better off as a result; we urge God's Own and the other Reich powers to do the same before it is too late.

However, we have seen what indiscriminate WMD warfare can do first hand, and therefore expressly allow any Allanean refugees entry into Kahanistan, though in the interests of salvaging civilian lives, we are also allowing citizens of God's Own wishing to avoid possible nuclear retaliation to enter the Soviet Republic.

To the government of Allanea, we urge restraint and the targeting of only military facilities of the enemy in defense. To the governments of the Reich states, religious fundamentalism is a destructive influence, not only to domestic human rights, but to foreign relations and eventually to one's own government if the people do not share the beliefs of the ruling regime.

To the people of the warring nations, although we are currently at war with the Kraven Corporation, we believe our nation is much safer than those of any of the nations involved in the Allanea - Reich War. Many of you will have to make a choice; do you die in bombings of civilian targets, either intentional or otherwise, or do you seek refuge in a nation whose ideas of freedom you may find abhorrent?

The choices are in your hands.

Signed,
Mohammed Hassan ibn Malik,
Deputy Foreign Minister

OOC: Certain people have expressed to me their desire to engage in MAD policies vs. the Reich. I oppose this, as this is bad for roleplay. I implore all members of this RP to please avoid engaging in MAD policies, or suchlike, to avoid the RP degenerating into a nukefest or something.

OOC: Indeed. I would assume that the fighting will occur in this thread, correct? If so, then I'll edit my other thread in order to represent this, a simple CCP will do. I'm actually in the process of packing up and driving home, so after this post, I won't be posting till late tommorow evening.

TO DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMMED HASSAN IBN MALIK,
His Imperial Majesty salutes you in your nations efforts to aid the refugees of the ALLANEAN-IESUS CONFLICT. If you are establishing refugee camps, his Imperial Majesty would be willing to send supplies of foodstuffs and medical equipment to them, on the condition that you honor your request to render aid to civilians on both sides of the conflict.
May the blessings of Muad’Dib and his son the God Emperor be with you and your people

South Pschycotian Sea,
A Short Time Later...

Waves slapped against the huge steel/buckministerfullerene hulls of the fighting ships of the Imperial Court's Navy. Far behind them, on the horizon, their home port of Neo-Nagasaki stood just barely visible in the heat of the sub-tropical climate. For miles in all directions, gray hulls of all kinds stood out against the blues, towering over the waves. Escorting battlecruisers slipped between larger, main-line dreadnaughts and battlecarriers. Massiver trimarine superdreadnaught-carriers stood out as islands in the water, centers of activities as smaller vessels carried away extra supplies. In the center of the mass of ships was the ICS Kraken, a massive vessel that could only carry the classification of Fleet Command Ship. Inside her extensive FCIC (Fleet Combat Information Center), large holographic displays showed the positions of all 1000+ combat ships that were to be involved initially. Several other displays were taking in the feed from targetting satellites over Allanea. Naturally, the FCIC erupted into panic as the nuclear explosions were picked up.

Instantly, the FCIC was lit up by vessels raidioing for status reports and orders. However, the Shogun's high-priority message went through immediately and was picked up by several of the officers, who quickly brought it down to Grande Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto III. His shock showed on his face, but he was a battle-scarred veteran, and knew exactly how to deal with this. "Alert all ships. Bring all ships to Fleet Flank Speed and adjust course to XXX degrees immediately. We will rendevouz with Allanean naval elements in defensive positions near Allanea."
"Aye, Sir. Launching the fleet."

The deck began shuddering as the massive propellers began turning in the water, forcing it forward. Around them, one could see through the windscreens, wakes began forming from the sterns of the other ships as the combined task force began moving off torward Allanea. The admiral hiked up to the FCIC. "The moment we enter weapons range of any Reich units, alert me immediately."
===================================================
President Kazansky,

Currently, we have many elements of our navy moving to reinforce your positions to defend against further Reich attacks. Over one-thousand combat ships will be included, consisting of battlecruisers, dreadnaughts, battlecarriers, superdreadnaughts, and our Fleet Command Ship.

I hope this will be enough to support you. Reinforcements are available, and our army and airforce are standing by. Also, I'm transmitting the codes to synchronize with our targetting satellite systems. They use GPS tracking to paint targets more efficiently than radar or infrared systems. This should prove useful.

Sincerely,

Tseii-Shogun Nakamura Taiki

The Eagle's Talon, Auckland, God's Own

Amadeus listens to the report of weapons detonation over Allanea and does not bother to suppress the happy little shiver of pleasure that results.
"Glorious! Glorious! We have demonstrated to the Allanean curs that their insults to our brother Fuhrer do not go unpunished!"
The unterGeneral bringing the news nods quickly, before licking his lips, eyes nervous.
"Ah, and what of the response my Fuhrer? What if the cowards strike back at us?"
Amadeus's smile slides off his face, mood changing in an instant.
"If they dare respond, if the snivelling worms come to face the glorious armies of the Reich they shall be dealt with accordingly! The Reich is eternal! The Reich is mighty! We shall bring the vermin to their knees, destroy them with our purity and faith just as we did with the Syskeyian dogs, just as we did with the impure of our own land before them!"

The untergeneral takes a step back, waving his hands placatingly.
"Of course my fuhrer, of course. We shall stop them. But what of weapons like our own?"
Amadeus shrugs.
"If they attack, so be it. They doubtless already gather, send the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe to deal with them. We shall be strong, and if we are not strong enough, we shall drag them down into such a Götterdämmerung as the world has never known. I promise you that, Herr General."

The general nods, bowing and backing out of the Great Leader's presence.
Amadeus smiles contemptously as the man leaves.
"Coward."
He turns to the desk in front of which he had paced during his interview with the untergeneral and scoops up the red telephone on it.
"Fire the rest." is the first and only sentence he utters before returning it to its' cradle.
His smile moves to a rather more simple, happy expression as he turns to look at the sunset, pink and orange through the haze of pollution rising over Auckland, beautiful from his height hundreds of metres above the ground.

Once again, the ocean ripples with the bellow of emerging leviathans, missiles thundering out of the depths.
This time however, where there were less than a hundred before, thousands emerge, the doomsday boats of God's Own flushing their tubes, revealing their locations to the enemy, caring only for the chance to strike at a nation they believe to be a very hell on earth.

For the Laurie Mains, a crew who would rejoice to see such a thing, it is too late to watch, the Tarmon Gaidon Class had, in Kingdom service, been nigh undetectable, fast and sleek and invisible.
Sold to God's Own however as the Coach Class, most of their advanced systems had been removed, leaving them no more invisible than any launch platform firing vast and noisy projectiles.
Thus, the nuclear depth charges certainly do bracket the unfortunate boat, snapping her spine, sending her to the bottom in two pieces, spilling wreckage and the corpses of men into the ocean, one more sacrifice to Davy Jones.
So be it.

As the con-joint fleets gather, the Kriegsmarine moves to meet them, archiac ships one and all, a fleet that would look more at home in the Atlantic of World War 2, than the Pacific of today.
Design ethics aside, the Mordred Class Dreadnoughts leading the charge are fearsome ships, again imports from a more technologically capable people, they had been terrifying enough that the Syskeyians had refused to engage with God's Own after they had emerged at St. Peter Claver, a worrying trend given some of the technology fielded in that war.
Here, now, they slice through the waves like the very fists of God, leaving the swarm of Bismarcks and Prinz Eugens behind to guard the Fuhrer Class aircraft carriers.
They are more than likely vulnerable to submarines forging ahead of their escorts like this, the anti-submarine Revolution Class frigates straining to keep up, but this is a solitary chink, that bane of the battleship, the massed airstrike, vulnerable itself in the cloud of jets surging from the carriers behind.

God's Own will probably lose this fight. But it will be a glorious final battle for the Kriegsmarine, and numbers alone mean that the enemy will suffer heavy casualties.

o.o.c.
Few quick points: God's Own has absolutely no inhibitions about WMD, but from now on all nuke strikes will have to be launched from aircraft which i expect to lose in droves, and static silos, which can be struck at, provided the strikees are willing to pay the horrendous price necessary.

Point 2 is that the Kriegsmarine is very numerous. Psychotic Psychos estimate of a thousand combatants is, I assume, for con-joint fleets alone, which leads me to assume that you're outnumbered 5-1.

Fortunately for you, point 3 is that God's Own also has never met an original thought it liked and those Bismarcks and Prinz Eugens mentioned are just those very classes, moderately updated. Fuhrers and Revolutions are Nimitzs and ANZACs respectively.

Same goes for the aircraft, the Luftwaffe's strike aircraft don't come any more capable than souped up versions of the F-14(Locusts), F/A-18(Kahawai), F-16(Kararea), and F-15(Weta). Those're just role similarities by the way, not "these aircraft are re-named versions of same".

I think that's about it, anyone with further questions should just head onto irc and look for Yamatto in #nationstates, or if you're banned, #mars.

“The Thelasi government condemns the deployment of nuclear weapons by parties involved, and the resulting destruction of property and loss of life. We advise calm tempers in this time of strife, on both sides. Although we find it quite normal that once again it is the Reich that has created a humanitarian disaster of large proportions.

The Thelasi Empire offers aid to the nation of Allanea to assist them in recovering from this horrible act of aggression against the peaceful nation of Allanea. Even though we do acknowledge that the conference was at least in bad taste, it in no way posed a credible or realistic threat to the people of the Reich. We do believe in the right of a country to defend itself, via a preemptive strike if need be. But this attack occurred in a situation where there was no imminent or credible threat against the Reich.

This was, in essence an unprovoked attack that served no purpose other than to prove that the Reich seems to have little concept of diplomacy or a proportional response.”

From: Thelasi Diplomatic Office, Lady Sylrana

OOC: Just to straighten this out: What does con-joint mean?

And can I get some solid numbers on your fleets, and some brief stats and descriptions too?. I'll be willing to work in my numbers and stats/descriptions too in following posts.
=====================================

The FCIC of the Kraken erupted in noise and confusion as the targetting satellites detected the launches of thousands of missiles. Admiral Yamamoto was already in there, as he was making rounds, and quickly took charge. Grabbing a radio, he issued orders, "all vessels, transfer anti-ballistic rounds into forward missile tubes. Targetting coordinates have been transferred. Fire at will."

The ship shuddered as it sent out two 10 round salvos of anti-ballistic missiles, which consisted of low yield, nuclear warheads, designed to take out the missiles before they separated, or shortly afterward. The 360 degree view of the FCIC showed streaks of missiles leaping from their tubes, smoke trails being left in the air. The forward missile tubes allowed for missile launches without the ships having to turn broadside and thus loose headway. Soon, the fleet had put up nearly 3000-3500 of the anti-ballistic missiles.

OOC:
I hate to be the nitpicker here, but 3000 ABMs? Each with a nuke? My god. How many bloody ships are in that fleet? Scratch that, how many nukes do you have in total? Because, seriously, that's a massive amount of missiles to be fired from one fleet.

Ships can't really load missiles quickly, especially if they're Vertical Launch, so I'll assume that each ship fires off every missile tube it has. I'm also assuming that the Kraken has the average number of missile tubes for your fleet.

So that's 3000 divided by 20 missiles per ship, is about 150 ships. Now, with your numbers of ships in the thousands, it's frankly frightening, and that isn't in a good way. Seriously, all of those ships can't be nuclear (otherwise you must have the largest uranium stockpiles the world has ever seen), so the amount of fuel (be it coal, oil or deisil) that those ships consume must be absolutely frightening. Not to mention the tangle of supply lines that transports those missiles, shells, food stocks, et cetera.

I mean, I'm a Future Tech nation with a pop of almost 8 billion, and even I wouldn't think about deploying that many ships just because of the supply tangle.

Just my OOC realism check of the day.

OOC: Silly numbers and statistics. Quite irrelevant, really. I'll get a real post up tomorrow, God willing.

DEMOCRATIC SOVIET REPUBLIC OF KAHANISTAN
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of the Interior

The Soviet Republic is agreeable to the proposal of the Government of Marquish. We advise that the convoys be heavily escorted, the shipping lanes are contested.

Signed,
Mohammed Hassan ibn Malik,
Deputy Foreign Minister

Vladimir Zygonov,
Minister of the Interior

OOC: Thelas? You're back? This is so cool!. And for everybody's reference, Allanea's deployment fleets are obviously visible at http://s12.invisionfree.com/Allanea/

IC:

"Sir, we see incoming missiles at coordinates… alpha-one-bee! epsilon three cee! God damn those nazi scumsuckers!"

But now, Allanea was prepared, and her fleets on alert. From hundreds of craft, ABM missiles rose, leaving trails of fire and smoke behind them, reaching out like fingers of God himself to pluck out the enemy ballistic missiles from the sky – what remained after the enormous Psychotic Psychos bombardment of them, anyway.

Back in Allanea, the ABM system was now in full alert – and ABL stations were ready to fire, tearing enemy missiles apart as they approached. The Allaneans had been ready for this, and what has not been vaporized by the onslaught of allied thermonuclear munitions or Allanean ABM impactors had been shot dead by the Allanean vessels.

Regardless, the casualties were enormous. Not all parts of Allanea are equally protected, after all – and while the mainland, and to some extent, the Haven colonies, are rather paranoidly protected, other parts of Allanea are less shielded.

Allanean Oregon

Portland is hit with one of the munitions. The bomb impacts somewhere in the city center – it will later become completely impossible to determine where the nuke hit. Within the next few seconds, 230,000 Allaneans die. Those are the lucky ones – they die easily, incinerated and reduced to ashes by the blast, shredded by shrapnel, even buried alive under the rubble, they are lucky.

Dozens of thousands of other people will take days to die, some even months. The doctors despair at the situation, as hospital beds will soon being to overflow with the suffering and injured. Even in Allanean California, witnesses report the injured lying on stretchers in the hospital parking lots.

Allanean Midlands

A small town by the name of Nova Perfection is hit by a nuclear munition as well. Happily, the population is small – they are all covered by the immense fireball, and do not suffer. Three days pass before someone realizes, in the confusion of the war, that the lack of distress signals from the town does not mean it has not been hit.

Western Yazmarea

Multiple impactors land here, destroying several quarters of New Randsburg. Five hundred thousand people die in the initial blast, and the city takes flame. Fire crews are cut off by the spreading conflagration, and yet more thousands are slowly cooked alive as the fire expands and progresses.

* * * *

The response is slightly late to come, but it comes nevertheless. Every government official that can be evacuated to a bunker is now in a bunker. Civilians – those who have been smart enough to build their own bunkers – begin getting into them, too.

More importantly, thousand and thousands of people are now grabbing their bug-out-bags and rushing out of the big cities. If anybody called the survivalists crazy before, he's not doing that now, as Madison Highway is jammed with enormous cars belonging to people trying to make their way out of Liberty-City.

Grab the rifle, Martha. We're going for the hills.

In the Western parts of the city, people are often walking, or catching rides with military trucks. In some places, fighting breaks out at intersections as traffic jams prevent successful evacuation.

Get the kids. No, leave the clothes. Leave Baby Maye's toys. I said, go, Martha!

* * * *

The Allanean response is tripartite.

First, aboard the Allanean fleets, missiles are fired. They are not just any missiles. They are the Khan (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11984706&postcount=1674) heavy anti-ship missiles. Like the diseased dream of a truly perverted Von Braun, they speed upwards, breaking through the athmosphere – and then speed down towards the Reich ships like veritable hammers of God.

There are two hundred missiles, launched from different ships. They are distributed amongst one hundred targets – the largest and scariest-looking ships that Amadeus Shelford has deployed.

Even as this happens, in orbit, the Emperor Napoleon IV sattelites come alive. These are cheap, primitive contraptions, carrying what basically is ancient IRBM's.

Ballistic missiles are capable of orbital re-entry – this is what they after all are designed for. Now, two of those sattelites make their move. They launch their missiles – carrying 'strategic' one-megaton charges – to target the locations from which the nuclear missiles were fired. Remote controls make it so that the twenty do not detonate their rockets upon impact – but only once they are in the water.

Third, from the Allanean mainland, a flight of five S-1000 bombers took off towards the Reich fleets. The immense, nuclear-powered bombers were flying too high to be accompanied by ordinary fighter aircraft – or, conversely, to be intercepted by them. For some strange reason, under the orders of the Allanean high command, they carried no bombs or missiles.

Emperor Farad’n was pacing back and forth within his grand hall, reading the dispatch that had just arrived from DEMOCRATIC SOVIET REPUBLIC OF KAHANISTAN. Putting it down on the table he look at his Minister of Production;
“Contact the shipping guild, I want several high-liners filled with the wheat we just received in our trade negotiations with The Dominion of Mandrivia, as well as medical supplies, and any surplus fruits and meats.”
“Yes sir, though the guild will want compensation for such a risky gambit”
“Damn the guild, tell them their payment is the fact that I let them hold a monopoly on shipping, and that they’d better not force me to reconsider such an arrangement.”
“Yes sir” said the minister, turning to carry out him Emperor’s will.

Official Statement of the Supreme Commonwealth of Rosdivan

The Supreme Commonwealth of Rosdivan harshly condemns these murderous and barbaric nuclear attacks. These attacks are nothing more than terrorism writ large, as their destruction of civilian cities makes clear. The Supreme Commonwealth hereby offers complete availability of its hospitals and resources for the treatment of Allanean freemen who have been injured in these vile attacks, and is dispatching an Air Flotilla of two hundred fifty-six R3Y-6 Tradewind transport seaplanes to the United States of Allanea to assist in the movement of patients, emergency cargo, or whatever role the United States of Allanea judges them best used.

OOC: Yes, I'm back, and back with a spacedy vengeance. As well, I'm trying to provide a sanity check here, slightly odd, all things considered

IC:

"The Thelasi government admonishes other nations that even though this was a truly terrible action by the governments of the Reich restrain should be shown before we begin piling on force to add to what already appears to be a large scale conflict.

The Star Empire of Thelas hopes that this war might yet be contained and not allowed to escalate to truly gargantuan proportions. We call upon the nations of the Reich and the allies of Allanea to come to negations in the hopes that we may avoid even more innocent life being spilled.

It is in the interests of no-one for this conflict to escalate and for there to be more loss of innocent lives."

From: Thelasi Diplomatic Office, Lady Sylrana

An airport, Allanea

A creature of swirling whiteness and brightness stepped out of the chartered business jet – the Regency didn’t have money to spend on such things as government diplomatic transports – and looked from one side to another. A massive and baroque great-sword of burnished steel hung at its hip, in a wrought iron scabbard. At its other hip hung several tapering knives with curved yet slender hilts.

Its face was entirely enclosed in a wicked looking helm crowned in high, bladelike spikes, and a barely detectible aura of apprehension seemed to seep into those before it as its long, armoured feet came down on the ramp with unsurprising force, as the creature was large – and more than that, seemed to loom, to be more than there. More solid than rocks, or stone, or metal, this was indeed, how it gave the impression of looming, and being taller than it was.

Its head swivelled from one side to another, blank eye slits in its visor scanning its environs as it arrived, looking for someone who might be awaiting it. It detested the environment, as many who came to Allanea did, but not for the usual reasons. A strange noise, something between a sniff and a grunt, came from its visor, and it took a fat cylinder of brown paper from somewhere within its robes, putting one end between a thin vertical gap in its visor over where its mouth and nose should have been, then took the cigar out, turned it about, and spat the tip out upon the tarmac, lighting the end, and putting it into the visor, poking out straight ahead, and waiting, its flawless white mantle fluttering in the breeze.

On the ground, the tip of the cigar began to melt.

OOC: For everyone that noticed his involvement, Im here on behalf of Imitora. He is going to be without a computer for a while, his family ended up making a last second decision to go over seas for Christmas, so, despite his desire to be involved, he wont be.

ooc Allanea, if you and Gods Own can get on IRC around 1600 EST (I think it's like 2100 GMT, 2300 Israel time, etc.) we can discuss my possible involvement in this as well. Simply because i'm bored, and want to kill something.

If you people can't get on irc then just tg me./ooc

It may have been only a highly persistent rumour, but all rumours have a basis in reality. And in fact, if the technology had been available to anyone but an O -- the Os themselves were too discreet and conditioned to tell anyone -- one might have traced back certain transmissions, however faintly. Whatever the cause of it, Steelia III appeared to be highly interested in the impending Reich-Greater Prussia conflict. Normally that spelled a rather bad thing for whoever was on the side opposite that which Steelia chose to join.

As Steelia was merely one of the land areas of the Imperium Corporation, which like an infesting parasitic growth had swiftly taken over most of the government and military, the answer lay in money. Whatever was most profitable to the Imperium would end up being the final path. As it is, with the fleets of Omega 49 Dosun and Omicron 42 Leius already deployed and awaiting orders, it seemed likely in certain circles -- although it was never talked about openly -- that the Imperium would end up being involved, someway.

The implications of this were particularly resounding. Steelia had, of course, been at war for the past fifty years, normally against Ignia and its own corporations -- controlled by Steelia/Ignia III like the Imperium, of course -- nonetheless labeled the Enemy in all literature. However, whenever an external threat materialised, Steelia and Ignia appeared to sign a pact and unite their military units to destroy the threat. In reality, much of the "fighting" was either staged, or real but with no purpose but the destruction of equipment, as there was really nothing more to do with it (the Imperium had a constant surplus of tanks, ships, guns, aeroplanes and the like; that surplus was always being expended on wars so that the Ps could continue creating more tanks, ships, etc., in a very Orwellian form of control).

Perhaps the biggest clue to the impending battle was that Steelia and Ignia had signed a treaty; usually that was followed with a sudden announcement of a vile, Communist, Fascist, neo-Nazi, Godless, imperialist enemy from outside, which was menacing the Imperium and which needed to be destroyed, sparking further nationalistic fervour and arms production.

Millions of E's were now marching in unison through the underground "streets", their faces uniform and expressionless, and deathly pale, for like all Steelians they had never seen the sun or sky, except on occasional Overland training maneuvers in NBC gear (as nothing less could be worn on the blackened, battered, nuclear-tested and industrial-waste-contaminated Overland). From vast underground hangars aeroplanes were being carted out for use; in the ports ships and fleets were mobilising. L's were doing all this work, of course; with almost a billion of them, however, they were no concern.

The Imperium is marching to war. The question only remains... against whom?

The Triumvirate Council of the Revolutionary Government of the Glorious Republic of Leafanistan

As a member of the Sovereign League we have responded to the call of our ally Allanea. As many may know, a few years ago we successfully engineered a type of bacterium that absorbs heavy metals and contaminated soil and incorporates it in its cell wall.

After about a decade of waiting, most of the heavy metals and highly radioactive materials will have been removed and while the area will not return to normal background radiation for perhaps centuries, it is now safe for human occupation.

We are currently scrambling our 2nd Saharistani Fleet with transport ships to help bring 5 divisions of Radiological Recovery Troops to your contaminated lands and begin the recovery effort.

We ask you, Allanea whether we can come in and help.

[END]

Official Allanean Response

We will accept any and all help, especially humanitarian aid. However, if you can divert the combat ships of the 2nd Saharistani fleet to help fight the approaching Gods’ Ownii navy, it will be of much help to us.

Death to the Reichite fascist vermin! God bless the Sovereign League! God bless Allanea!

OOC: Edited to add link to OOC thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=12085080)

Yarol Airforce Base, Northen Franberry

The massive airframes rolled out of their hangars, onto the massive runway. The FAB-105 Wafflebus cast a long shadow behind them, on this base alone, there were about three dozen. Engineers scrambled about, making last minute fixes on certain airplanes, the pilots going over their checklists.

"Cover your ears boys, they're about to take off"

The officers observing the espectacle put their hands over the ears, and waited.

A muffled hum became a slow roar, as the twelve turbines of the first aircraft started up, as it got on the runway, the sound increased, as more aircraft joined it. The first airplane raced down the 5 kilometers of runway it needed to take off, others following quickly, the massive airframes become small specks on the horizon.

---------------
Central Aeronautical Command, undisclosed location
"The 34th Stratigical squadron has joined the formation, thats all of them."
"Very well, the fleet has moved into position? Is the second strike force readiying?"
"Yes sir, the plan is going smoothly"

---------------
Lead Bomber, 72th Squadron, Fliying Pigs, Serial Number: 20820539
"Right-o captian, changing course"
"Get us right over the fleet Larsool, and pointing at the enemy"
"I know, I know"

The bomber was the first of the Fliying Pigs, yet was a fair distance down the large formation. 228 FAB-105s were heading straight for the God's Own fleet. At extremly high altitude, the planes had to get within 500 Kilometers of the enemy fleet, and the 2,000 missiles would let fly.

Official Allanean Response

We will accept any and all help, especially humanitarian aid. However, if you can divert the combat ships of the 2nd Saharistani fleet to help fight the approaching Gods’ Ownii navy, it will be of much help to us.

Death to the Reichite fascist vermin! God bless the Sovereign League! God bless Allanea!

OOC: Edited to add link to OOC thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=12085080)

Response

Fleet numbers are being transmitted, when they arrive in Allanea, we shall drop off our Radiological Recovery Units and sail with you my brothers and sisters in Allanea.

Death to the Reichite Fascist Vermin! Victory to the children of High Father, Victory to the Sovereign League, Father bless our cause!

[END]

Official Clandonian Response

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/madnukedude/clandoniansmallflag.png

We uttlery condemn the action of the assault against the United States of Allena, an ACTO ally of Clandonia Prime. We will send resources and we will use our defence systems if need by to destroy the Reich's satellite units to prevent it launching further destructive strikes.

At Sea

The Allanean anti-submarine strike is anticipated, the scale is perhaps somewhat surprising to the General Staff, but certainly not the strike itself.
Strategic submarines exist to be expended after all, for their payloads to be of any use they must be deployed before the enemy has time to strike at them.
Ideally, they should survive to fight an other day, but if not, so be it.
As it is the Allanean nuclear bracketing tactic is 100% successful, all twenty of the Coach Class destroyed even as their crews exult over a completely successful launch against the unbelievers.

As the death buoys pop up from the wreckage and start their automated radio wails of woe the General Staff begins to contemplate the next tier of strike options, methods and weapons which had not been utilised since the brief anti-CACE terror campaign are activated from their sleeper status out on the world ocean, moving under flags of convenience to suitable locations.
For now, there are no further launches.

What there is, is the announcement of commerce raiding on a large scale, the U-Boats of the Kriegsmarine turned loose on anything flying an Allanean flag, this criteria widened as more and more of the degenerates' allies swarm towards the Reich.
Principles are all fine and good, but as their civilian shipping begins to die in droves to the wolves of the sea, some civilian administrations may begin to find their presence in the fight difficult to justify to populaces suffering an abrupt lurch in their prosperity.
It will take time to have any appreciable effect of course, but freighters start dying immediately.

The Fleet

The Kriegsmarine's Reichsflotte is comfortable where it is, having steamed to the edge of the God's Own 200NM EEZ, waiting for the interlopers to arrive, smug in its' overwhelming numerical, if not qualitative, superiority.

This mood is abruptly broken when the Allanean missile fire starts to slam down out of the sky, pillars of fire howling down to strike at the fleet.
Whatever the targetting of the missiles, the Khans show the difficulty of hitting a moving target across a wide area from orbit, missile after missile smashes into the ocean, blasting fish into fragments but doing nothing more than soaking the ships they bracket.

However, given the sheer size of the Reichsflotte hits are inevitable and usually deadly, the impact of these missiles enough to shatter even the monstrous Mordred Class, much less the much smaller vessels around them.
Where a missile lands a ship ends, sometimes near-misses are enough to blow the small Revolution Class frigates apart as well, ship after ship dies.
Still, for two hundred missiles Allanea claims fifty eight ships destroyed and sixteen damaged, including a disproportionate number of the Mordred dreadnoughts.

Which leaves a mere 2,426 left, all of which are operating well within range of their own bases and support craft, not with the inevitably-strung out supply lines of the degenerates, which will surely pay a heinous price to the U-Boats as they grow longer.

Even as the Reichsflotte moves to a wider dispersal, archiac fire-nets having proved no defense at all against missiles hitting from such high angles, the cloud of aircraft conducting CAPs above move, ship radars discovering both the Allanean strike and that of Franberry well outside of any missile launch distance.
Thusly Locust-type Long Range Interceptors, one of the only God's Own aircraft designs in service, move their wings to the position for optimal speed and thunder towards both efforts, a single squadron sent to investigate the Allaneans and see just how far out of the Locust's nominal ceiling of 65,000ft the bombers are.
The Franberrian aircraft less are known about, but not being a known, nuclear-powered quantity like those of the degenerates, it is assumed they will be easier to intercept.

Message to Clandonia Prime

We thank you for your involvement, and appreciate any help.

In the Air

The operational ceiling of the immense nuclear bombers is a full 68,000 feet. It’s not bigger by much, but it’s enough to at least feel safe from the Reichite onslaught. Nevertheless, at Mach 2.5, the enormous nuclear-powered monsters are soon at the very Reichite fleet – and unleash their cargo – each, a hundred tons of Mix-44, targeted by computer calculations to hit five Reichite carrier vessels. Then they turned home.

Mix 44 ( http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12013008&postcount=1691) is a most horrendous mix, as the targets will soon discover if they are hit. It sticks to everything – like superglue from hell. It messes up RADAR, runways, ships, and so forth. It makes you an easy target for enemy RADAR. It glues crew hatches and missile launch bays shut. And yet, most wonderfully doesn’t kill the enemy aircraft outright.

More importantly, Allanea now knows how far can the enemy aircraft reach to get to it’s bombers. From different locations in Allanea, 50 S-1000 bombers are launched, steaming at full speed towards God’s Own in small, five-aircraft strike teams. They were flying as high as they could, to avoid Reichite interceptors.

But they were the only thing Allanea fielded. Flying low to avoid radar came fifty FB-117 Barsuk Penetration Bombers. Where the S-1000’s avoided being hit by flying high and fast to avoid interceptors, the Barsuk penetration bombers were the pinnacle of stealth. Both served the same purpose. It would remain to be seen which.

On the ground

“Sir, the Reich ships are now within 7,000 kilometers of us. We are now perfectly set up for Crowbar.”

“Very well. Launch the Crowbar then.”

And so, in the deep bowels of Strategic Forts ‘Fort Henry and ‘Fort Kazansky’ ( http://z12.invisionfree.com/Allanea/index.php?showtopic=22) a swarm of Khan missiles take flight. This time, there’s much more Khans – in full, ten thousand of them. The forts can store immense amounts of missiles – and if Allanea succeeds in Code Crowbar, there may not be a need for more anti-shipping long-range missiles in this conflict.

Marshal Guttierez nods sadly as he watches, on screen, as the immense missiles speed out through the atmosphere, and then dip – and begin to dive towards their targets. In the last stage of descent, they become guided – this is why it is called the ‘guided stage’, after all – and swerve slightly towards their targets, to achieve better accuracy.

“God bless Zeppelin Manufacturers.” – sighs the Marshal as he watches the battle unfold.

In the Sea

The Reichite submarines begin doing damage to the Allanean merchant ships. So far, not yet near Allanea itself, but on it’s shipping routes, ships begin to die.

They are many. In the waiting room of the Mulligan Insurance Company, in Liberty City, the list of ships lost hangs – ‘Mariah, lost with all hands, Draco, luxury cruise, lost with all hands and passengers, Devil’s Daughter, supertanker, lost with all hands…’

But it’s Allanea, after all. And if you pay for an insurance premium, you can also pay for depth charges – and within a few days, Alexander Kazansky orders literally hundreds of thousands of the things to be issued to the merchant ships throughout Allanea. But this would take days, and people would continue to die.

‘Enterpise-D, heavy luxury craft, lost with all hands, Fursuiter, Havensize freighter, lost with all hands…’

From the Mainland Defense Fleets, hundreds of aircraft took off, patrolling an immense radius around Allanea. Helicopters, strike aircraft, every homeland defense vessel is commandeered to be on the lookout for Reich submarines. When something is detected, the response is varied – ASROC-type missiles, nuclear depth charges, whatever the detecting aircraft has aboard.

In a secret meeting in one of the Strategic Forts, Kazansky issued an order to procure vast amounts of zeppelins. When asked what the use of zeppelins in modern warfare was, he just smiled quizzically.

The navy resolved the issue in the typical Allanean way. They announced a monetary reward for every Reichite submarine downed. The solution came instantly. Allanea’s population – as all capitalist nations – maintained some amount of privately owned zeppelins, for sport and advertisement. It would be a simple matter to equip them with depth charge launchers and get out to sea.

The airships, practically undetectable from a submerged submarine, would escort shipping convoys. Slow like the very submarines they tried to fight, they would merely hover over the vessel they spotted, and drop depth charges on its location.

But for all this effort, the population was not happy – especially not the Freemen inhabiting the coastal cities. They felt betrayed - by their own government. The question was very simple:

Why was the government not retaliating for the U-Boat warfare in kind?

Why were not Reich merchant ships being sunk?

And where the hell did the Fifth and Sixth Haven Domination Fleets go?

The government refused to disclose where the submarines were (as a matter of fact, the were still dispersing around the Reich continent), and was even less ready to talk about retaliatory U-boat warfare.

The result was unsurprising. Protests spread rapidly over several port towns in Allanea, enveloping literally dozens of thousands of people. There was anger – lots of anger.

And yet the response from the Kazansky Administration was simple:

“No comment.”

A secret message had been sent to the Allaneans in quite a round about way, the secure and extremely heavily encrypted message was routed through sattelites, imbedded into already existing traffic, eventually the message reached it's intended destination.

Once the Allaneans managed to decrypt the message the brief message

"Bazalopes are coming under the water"

This intended to pass the message that the Bazalonians where sending a large contingent of submarines to aid them. However this was being done secretly, partly because the involvement of the Bazalonian Navy in a War other than the current one in their home region would surely cause the end of the current adiminstration.

Inter-regional Waters

BNS Iota, A Navarre-class (http://z14.invisionfree.com/PIW/index.php?showtopic=7&view=findpost&p=3898164) submarine and the leader of Tactical Submarine Group Diego, a 100 strong submarine contingent from the Bazalonian Navy to aid in the Allaneans against their struggle against God's Own. was powering through the Inter-Regional waters towards Haven and onto Allanea.

They where avoiding the common international trade routes and where taking very obscure and round about course. This was instructions from right from the Minister of Defense, secrecy of Bazalonian involvement in this was to be kept as the highest priority.

"What's our current location?" asked the captain of the submarine, Captain Bruce Tanner, "We are still 4 days from Haven waters, Estimated Time of Intercept 91 hours 47 minutes and 23 seconds." came the reply from the appropriate officer.

"Good, Have you included going to Catepillar at an ETI of 20 hours?"

"Yes, sir."

The MHD drive, more commonly known as Caterpillar Drive in the Bazalonian navy not onlt reduced the level of noise that the submarine produced making it that much harder to detect but also changed the characteristic of the noise to making sit extremely possible that they could sail right past a vessle with a less than attentive conns officer without them even thinking they where not alone.

All 100 submarines where coming to help Allanea and for now the the God's Ownii Navy had no idea what was heading it's way

Over the ocean
The cabin in the lead wafflebus, the AWACS command variant, was filled with activety. The massive plane, over 150m in length, was an AWACS commander dream, giving ample room for a large crew and more than adequate equipment. The gargantuan radar mounted ontop of the aircraft had detected the Locust's about as soon as they separed from their fleet.
"They're rising sir, they seem to be climing to 65,000 feet"
"Dammit, barely 7,000 feet above us, restructure the formation."
"Yes sir, what should I pass on to the squadron leaders?"
"Abandon the all around protective shepere, instruct most of the CIWS craft to form a half-sphere around the front and top of the formation, and the MissileBuses to move up and behind the CIWS."
"Roger that sir, we've got an incoming message from the fleet. They're sending help up here."
"Ugh. We can do it ourselves, damn navy guys wanting a piece of the action, but I suppose some fighters arent gonna hurt."

-------------------------
1st Franberrian Expeditional Fleet
Deck of the Gapatzo
Hood-Class SuperDreadnought

"Did they get the message?"
"Yes sir"
"Commence take-off then"

From the 34 aircraft carriers that accompanied the fleet, dozens of Fe-100 Dolps spilled out. First few in number, then more and more. The dedicated, high-altitude, high-speed, interceptors climbed and climbed. They passed around the large formation of Wafflebuses, a small number of the Fe-100s staying to cover their rear, the rest climbed to the same altitude as the Locusts, and awaited them to come within weapon range.
"The bomber leader is asking to make a hole in the formation" The leader of the 43th naval squadron barked over the radio.
"What?"
"Yes sir, his MissileBuses aparently have larger missile range than we do."
"Oh, right, hes right, they got those new extreme-long-range thingamagigs in their bellies."
"The GMS-37 ERL, 400km of range on the sweet little things"
"Those guys are in for a treat"

Sometimes, news can travel suspiciously fast. This doesn't have to be espionage - it can be a press release, a private notice, educated guesses by intelligence officers, or smalltalk after getting laid by the ambassador's fifteen-year old daughter.

Regardless of how the information is transferred and/ or received - it eventually arrives where it is supposed to arrive.

And this causes reactions.

To: Geoli Joolitan, President of the Socialist Sultanate Duchydom of Franberry
From: Faizah Ugande, Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Christian-Socialist Republic
Subject: Allanea/ Gods Own Conflict

Mister President,

It is with mild surprise that I'm hearing of your nation participating alongside Allanea in operations against The Reich - maybe I'm missinterpreting the 'Socialist' part your nation rides itself on, but wouldn't it be rather more enjoyable to see Allanea - a nation of, for lack of a better word, 'Crusaders against Socialism' turn into a photogenic mushroom cloud?

Lets be perfectly honest here: 'Communist' is an insult in Allanea. They've, indeed, called The Reich 'Communist' as a part of their propaganda against it.

They've repeatedly declared war on nations for no other reason than these nations being 'Communists' or 'Socialists', occasionally killing hundreds of millions of innocents in nuclear decapitation strikes for no other purpose than to spread their vile definition of 'Freedom' - Hallad, I think the nation was called.

I have, of course, no love lost for the Reich. The faster its ugly self is eradicated from the face of this world, the better.

But wouldn't it be smarter to watch Gods Own and Allanea eradicate each other, thereby eliminating two enemies of the doubtlessly arising age of socialism, than supporting one of them, thereby sacrificing your own resources, resources that'll doubtlessly soon be needed to defend yourself against the nation you supported mere months ago, just to be betrayed by their vile and selfish ideology?

Food for thought, I think.

Yours sincerely,

Faizah Ugande.

Short and simple message was send to Allanean Government, after a key meeting of KLM General Staff and the Sultan Cabinet.

SIC:
Highly Coded Message to Allanean Government

We will honor our treaty obligations and come to your defense. A Taskforce is already on their way to your nation. You will not be alone in this fight.

From
Imperial General Staff of KLM

The Eagle's Talon, Auckland, God's Own.

Amadeus looks thoughtful, introspected even, at the news from the fleet, for a moment, at least.
Then, his typical bluster returned, he activates his override of the usual blare of propaganda that passes for entertainment and news broadcasts in God's Own and transmits directly from his bunker to comment on the war to the nation.

"Massed missile strikes. Typical of the cowards. Do they not understand the Kriegsmarine is protected by God Himself?"
The General Staff, now assembled in the Fuhrer's bunker under the Talon, nod almost as one man, the Fuhrer barely noticing as he strides around the bunker, gesticulating at maps.
"The Fleet will bring them to battle! We will smash them at sea and if any of the curs slink around to land, we shall steam-roller them on the beaches! We shall show them Total War!"
Again the nods.
There is little future in disagreeing with the Fuhrer, even less in time of war.

Wigram Strategic Airbase, Christchurch, God's Own

Of course, the foe are not the only ones with strategic bombers, and the Fuhrer's announcement of total war, certain pre-conditions are met.
Vorpal bombers roll out onto the tarmac, the crew shaking their helmeted heads at the stupidity of the foe.
Everyone knows that a total war is not won by half-measures, he who uses half his armies loses half his armies, where as he who strikes with all his strength knows victory immediately.
Lost however, is he who strikes at strategic forces after they have launched.

And so the bombers thunder skyward, higher and higher up until the blue turns to black, a full-burn at Mach 3 bringing the stealthy craft to their cruising height within a minute of launching.
Once they're there, they're virtually invulnerable to fighters, and the stealthyness of the Vorpal means that they should also skate through most radars with little trouble.
However, even at their maximum service ceiling they're still in heavy SAM range, missiles caring rather less about the height of a target than fighters.

Should they pass through the Allanean outer air defences unintercepted, and these defences should now be sadly, badly degraded by a full nuclear strike, they themselves will add to the carnage with two Black Hail Nuclear Missiles apiece.
Not as devastating as the Black Hammers launched by the now-dead Coaches, but city-killers nonetheless.
Not all the Vorpals are heading for cities however.
Several squadrons are moving to target crossroads, railyards, airports, all now teeming with refugees fleeing the cities.
It will be a black day for Martha and the kids.

At Sea

The Mix-44 strike passes virtually unremarked. Five empty carriers being coated in some sort of goo is pretty much irrelevant at this stage, and the crew are swiftly set to cracking the strange substance's surface, inundating it with cleaning products.
This however, is rendered swiftly meaningless as the Khans begin to scythe down out of the air, all five of the carriers taking a number of hits and sinking swiftly, followed by hundreds of their cohorts.

Fortunately, the dispersal of the Fleet following the first strike, the slowly descending Mix-44 still being in the air even as the first launches arrive, the greater ability of Kriegsmarine point-defence to engage in the wider formation all act to degrade the effectiveness of the Khans to the point where the strike is diluted enough that Reichsflotte West survives with a comfortable numerical margin over the Con-Joint fleets.

Still, the losses are enormous, well over five hundred ships and thousands of lives are lost in moments, of the survivors an other five hundred are so damaged as to need to retire, leaving perhaps fifteen hundred or so intact enough to enage when the enemy eventually slink into range, rather than cower in their forts in Allanea.

Meanwhile the Locusts have reached stand-off range for their heavy anti-aircraft missiles, huge radar and archetypical interceptor airframe helping them to lock on from a comfortable distance, about equivalent to the normal range of a long-range Air-to-Air missile.
Unfortunately for the Franberrians, these are not normal AAMs.
Instead they're Anti-Aircraft Burst Munitions, Nuclear, and each hit or even near-miss is accompanied by a hundred metre fireball and an EMP of that area again.
The fighters, depending on how many there are, may survive to protect the bombers properly...
Or they may not.
Either way, the Locusts are now blowing into the survivors with shorter-ranged, more handy AAMs, these ones without nuclear warheads of course.

The Gospel, Eden

Feathers are fluttering, and voices - oddly chirpy, and not even remotely as masculine as one would expect from the towering height the defenders of Eden tend to keep their heads at - form a melodic, yet chaotic sing-sang, most of which is hardly understandable - it may be latin, but it isn't exactly proper latin.

Within the circles of the highest triads, discussions are held, and options are considered, as their faith is once more required to act for the betterment of all of creation.

The enemy is near. The antichrist is moving. Evil is threatening the lands of the pure, the paradise of the righteous, Eden and the Gospel.

This cannot be allowed, and creatures of a beauty beyond mortality, and well within the realms of the divine, the chosen of THE LORD begin to move.

There is lust in the air. Lust and desire. Not the sinful lust for flesh, of course, not the desire to spite THE LORD by engaging in carnal acts that, to the self-aware human being, can only be described as atrocious sins, but the desire to spread HIS glory, and to defeat those who have rejected THE LORD in favour of following their desires as if they were animals, thus turning into abominations - the soul of a human, lost to animalistic instincts, and turning black like a moonless night, black like a fallen angel, a monstrosity beyond the comprehension, but well embedded in the fears of mortal minds.

Their flesh - no, meat - and blood shall flow in the streets, until the whole world has been cleansed of their sin!

Voices are filling the air around the temples, and orders are spread among those chosen to protect the Gospel, and Eden.

Millions are moving.

Task Force Mehr

The Shahdom of Parthia had little intent to see Allanea, an ally of the Shahdom, be attacked in an unprovoked and vicious strike without making those responsible suffer for their transgressions.

And now, the Shahdom prepared, the massive Parthian fleet converged with the fleets of the Allanean allies, sending up swarms of F-78s and ACI-73s, blotting out the skies with darkness as they swarmed upwards. From the deck of the Shahanshah Ardeshir, the superdreadnought flagship of the Parthian force, Admiral Fardmanesh Golzari let out a small laugh as he drew on his cigarette, speaking into the radio, "All units, prepare for an attack."

Towards the front of the massive wedge of a force, the first wave of strikes launched off towards the Gods Ownii fleet, fired in massive bursts from the vertical launch tubes of the Parthian cruisers and destroyers, the 230 AGM-250 missiles flew off, skimming only a few feet above the waves towards the Gods Ownii fleet, at subsonic speeds, making them difficult to detect both with IR sensors and radar. Once they were within 10 miles of the enemy fleet, they dropped into the water, releasing the second stage: supercavitating torpedoes, which would move in on the God's Ownii fleet, smashing apart enemy ships while eliminating the effectiveness of CIWS defenses.

The Parthian planes continued to hold back, preparing for the second phase.

The 2nd Combine High Seas Fleet, arrived about the same time as the Parthian Taskforce, they took up positions with their Parthian counterparts and waited for the order from the flagship to begin their attack runs on the God Owns Fleet.

On Aboard the A.M.S.S Baibars (Europa-class Super Dreadnought)

Flag Rank Admiral Ivan Fedoseevich Botsis, order all the naval air wings(200-SU-37, 400 MIG-35 FULCRUMS, and 600 F-20B Enforcer) were deployed and took up air patrols around the fleet, to defend the fleet from attack from the air. Plus 20 E-2 Hawkeye took to the skies to be the eye in the sky for the fleet.

After all the naval air wings were deployed, the Admiral given the go ahead for the fleet to make its strike, battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers, and missle cruisers of the fleet opened up their vertical launch tubes and begin firing away, they fired 400 AGM-240 anti-ships missiles, their targets were the capital ships in the God Own Fleet, The missiles first climbs to approximately 100,000 feet, speeding up to roughly mach 7. Once over the target, the missile's engine temporarily shuts off, and a forward thrust nozzle kicks in, pointing the missile straight downward. The engine then turns back on, propeling the missile to an incredible speed of over mach 20. A large DU spike is used to pierce the deck armor of the ship, allowing the ONC warhead to detonate inside the vessel.

Eden

Black magic!

They've made a pact with the devil!

THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL TRIUMPH!

There is a certain shock value involved in the forces of the antichrist crossing seven thousand kilometres in a matter of minutes - but then, all this proves is that the enemy is indeed aligned with darkness, no longer a subject of the laws ruling this world, and working to suffocate the spirit of mankind in an ocean of sin, a universe of darkness.

Prayers arose towards heaven, proving the faith of the guardians, the triads tasked with protecting the chosen of Man from the darkness that was lurking outside Eden.

THE LORD would protect them, THE LORD would guide them, THE LORD would lead them to victory!

And the seas would turn red this day!

This glorious day!

Indeed, many a praise was sung to please THE LORD, for he'd struck his enemies with blindness! Eden and the Gospel, which tended to define 'Territorial Waters' as 'When you get shot, you've gone too far', were, after all, hardly undefended - littered with assorted defensive measures, they rather resembled a labyrinth where one wrong step got you killed via three different means.

And they'd entered it!

Indeed, the glory of THE LORD was infinite, and he was watching over his children, granting them certain victory!

The purifying light THE LORD had given to them would surely consume them, for THE LORD was with them!

And in the skies, the seeds of purity flew gen heaven, leaving white trails behind them to announe the arrival of judgement to the darkness that dared to touch Eden.

Below the seas, the seeds of the leviathans were moving, leaving quickly-dissipating heattrails behind them, slowly - oh so slowly - followed by the guardians of Eden in their armour made from fire and steel, giant hulks native to the ocean, protecting the guardians from harm while coming down upon the faithless enemies of THE LORD like the apocalypse.

The end... The final battle... Maybe... Maybe this was it. Truly, this day would mark the triumph of THE LORD over the heathen filth that dared to desecrate creation!

The there no doubt that the guardians would get what they wanted, and there was no doubt that they'd earned it.

A Burst encrypted Extremely Low Frequency message was broadcast from the BNS Iota to the Allaneans directly. It identified the group, gave the exact numbers and asked for targetting information on about the God's Ownii fleet. Once the message was sent the fleet moved to another location about the same distance they where away from the action.

Calculated to be far eenough away that they would not be noticed but close enough to make a decisive strike, they waited for information and current plans, should a co-ordimated strike by the Bazalonians the Allaneans and all the other people who had come to their aide. The details of their location still where not revealed. The Bazalonian submarines where being covert. No radio response that was not Allanea and did not come as a reply to one of their messages the Bazalonians waited. The MHD drives where activated and for now only the radio messages could be used even reveal their existance.


All that the Bazalonians where waiting for is the word for the action to start

Attack effects

Mainland Allanea is one of the heaviest-protected areas in all of the nation – and no, so far the military’s resources were not significantly weakened by the nuclear strikes. Possibly it is because the God’s Ownii have so far failed to target the installations that defend Allanea.

From the fleets patrolling Allanea, then from the Strategic Forts, then from installations deep inside the nation, a hail of nuclear, tactical yield munitions erupts, dogging every aircraft that get detected – and given the extended coverage, the satellite feeds, the GPE satellite network feeds – let’s just say most of them do likely get detected.

Still some missiles are launched, and CIWS and ABM laser systems spring to life, tearing them apart in midair.

On mainland Allanea, only a single missile comes through, hitting a highway intersection two hundred miles from Liberty City.

The intersection is cut, and five thousand people stuck there are killed.

In other parts of Allanea – outside the mainland – people are not so lucky.

In Yazmarea, a large port city is hit by the missiles.

In Haven Allanea, one of the missiles detonates in the suburbs of Port-Allanea itself.

In Allanean North America, Sacramento and San Francisco are enveloped in nuclear fire.

In the Midlands, Nueva Gloria is now a plain of irradiated glass.

On Kazansky ‘s infoscreen, the total estimated casualty list lights up in red:

6,000,000 TOTAL DEAD

The boy takes only a split second to take a decision.

‘Fuel ten Mephet’ran missiles. Have them on standby.’

‘Yes, Sir, but…’

‘Do it.’


The bombers

The bombers are now over God’s Own, and they all share a goal with the God’s Ownii strategic bombers, but the means are different. They do not utilize inefficient long-range missiles – but old-fashioned, free-drop, laser-corrected munitions.

They carry literally hundreds of them – such a bomb, not needing a propulsion system, can weigh as much as a simple MIRV. Their propulsion system is the Earth itself and the gravity it provides. And an S-1000 can carry one hundred tons of them.

The strategic bombers fan out through God’s Own, dropping literally hundreds of small, one-kiloton yield munitions upon priority targets –SAM bases, airfields, munitions storages, and railway intersections – in this order or priority. The munitions may be small, but they’ll mess up an airfield good and proper, and minimize damge to the city next to it.

Finally, five bombers comprise Strike Force Furry – after the people Amadeus Shelford hates he most. Their duty is to drop five 68-megaton Emperor Ian Paisley nuclear weapons on Auckland – so spaced as to ensure maximum coverage and maximum casualties.

This is not done out of some lust of revenge – but rather simply out of the belief that the capital of the nation is the heart of it’s administration. Even though the Allaneans do not for a second believe they will get Shelford, they know that millions of the clerks, lower-officers, managers and directors necessary for a long-term war will likely die. Good riddance.

From mainland Allanea, fifty more bombers take off.

In the sea

Now, the two submarine fleets take action. Spread out all around God’s Own’s waters, the 1,100 submarines engage in unrestricted U-boat warfare against any Reichite ships, civilian or military, headed to and from God’s Own. They also launch missiles into targets near the shore – guided missiles armed with incendiary warheads, aimed at factories up to a hundred klicks within the God’s Own shore.

The Allanean fleet, in the meanwhile, stops - at extreme Khan range from the Reich. It radios it's new position to everybody else as a meet up point (with encoded transmissions, of course). But it still needs to deal with Reichsflotte West. They, of course, refuse to do such a thing as to close in and do battle with the Reichite vermin. Instead – since Reichsflotte has already used nuclear weapons against the Franberrians – the order is given to launch a hundred Khans, armed each with five separating warheads not unlike the original ZMI Blue Dawn munition, at the Reichsflotte. Either we kill them, or screw up their communications. Either is good.


Classified, from the Allanean High Command to All Allied Forces

While we are loathe yet to call to a full-on nuclear strike against civilian populations, we suggest that the use of tactical nuclear weapons against the God’s Ownii naval assets is now a very good idea. Our intelligence estimates that God’s Own lacks it’s own ABM system and would not be able to shoot down the majority of incoming nuclear munitions. We suggest that those of our allies capable of ICBM and SLBM strikes on the Eastern Target Enemy Formation (hereby ETEF) should be advised to perform these strikes.

Furthermore, we suggest all allied ABM forces are to be hereby put on alert.

AVOID EXTERMINATION STRIKES AT ALL COSTS. CONSIDER THAT MOSt OF THE PEOPLE IN THESE PITYFUL NATIONS ARE NOT AT FAULT. STRATEGIC NUCLEAR STRIKES ARE ONLY TO BE USED WHERE ACTUAL IMMEDIATE VALUE IS DERIVED, AS WITH OUR STRIKE ON AUCKLAND. AVOID, REPEAT AVOID, PUNISMHENT OPERATIONS AT THIS STAGE.

One of the major problems for the Commonwealth Navy was that there were so many nuclear weapons flying about. It wasn't that the Commonwealth was opposed to nuclear weapons per se, it was just that nuclear weapons had a tendency to be used for the purpose of killing civilians in large numbers, as had been happening to Allanea, which horrified the Commonwealth. As a result, the only nuclear weapons carried by the Commonwealth were some mines and a few air defense missiles. Needless to say, there weren't very many of them, and there were always periodic calls to get rid of them.

That's why there were currently several R3Y Tradewinds receiving a special cargo at Allanean ports. A special arrangement had been arranged between the governments of the United States and of the Commonwealth, and these Tradewinds were loading up with Allanean nuclear bombs. Though it was a long flight back home, they were loading up with as many weapons as they could carry; submarine tankers were already prepositioned to refuel them on their flight home. A total of 96 weapons was loaded into each Tradewind, each of which would be fitted with a quick mine adaptor kit, similar to the old Destructor and Quickstrike kits. Then, later on, when the time was felt to be ready, they would be laid. Though small in number, they would be able to close off a very large area of sea to enemy traffic. 10-kiloton nuclear weapons such as these had a kill radius of some five miles when detonated underwater. That would actually exceed their sensors ability, but the Commonwealth would have them wait until traffic was much closer anyhow. For now though, they merely waited, sent along their way to the Commonwealth of Rosdivan.

In the Air
"MISSILE LAUNCH"

The radar showed a large number of small signatures break-off from the enemy fighter mass.

"CIWS aircraft advance, all others reduce speed. Fighters, climb and advance rapidly towards the enemy. Wafflebuses and MissileBuses, fire when in range."

The aircraft responded as one, already the lead MissileBuses were opening fire with their massive stocks of missiles. Although every plane held a few hundred, for now, only one dozen per airplane would suffice for the time being. The God Ownii were not the only ones who could missile spam. The Wafflebuses only had a few more kilometers to go until they could fire their anti-ship missiles.

OOC: I need to know how many missiles there are, so I can get a plasuible number shot down by the CIWS, and the rest can tear in through the bomber formation.

[OOC: Just so we all understand, I'm waiting on a reply in the other thread from God's Own so that I can edit my posts so that they are better, and reflect the situation a little better. I believe there were a few misunderstandings, and I assumed something I shouldn't have. Just an FYI for everyone.]

Being under surveillance the Allanean offensive came as no surprise. The defence umbrella swiftly rearranged to be prepared for the air attack that threatened Reich territories. In the command base satellites were ordered to shift position to be able to meet the strategic bombers and within minutes after bombers taking off they were already in place. Reich troops are normally in alert mode 5, but at some extreme situations when the enemy blatantly obvious tries to get rhough the defence net there is another instance of alert mode. that was hit now. Some people might think that only mainland Reich is covered by the defence network but as has been proved in the case of St. Dominick that is not the case.

In the mountain areas big underground caverns opened up and spewed out millions of Katyush wagons that started to follow the rails to prepare for launchs. Above the Allanean bombers Mesosphere hive ships swooped down and unloaded their deadly cargo of small unintelligent magnesium pods that rained down over the bombers in millions like a rain of deadly fire as they opened up and started to spiral down, covering square kilometers, as close as snowflakes from hell. With the ability to cut through wings and explode like a swarm of metal geese hitting an airplane at 2000 km / h. They are very cheap and they are legio, spread over the area like this they are as easy to avoid as a swarm of flies a warm summers day for the windscreen of a truck., but in this case the flies doesn't end up as wet spots on the windscreen.

From a distance it might look like the air itself is on fire and if there is no clouds when they strike the opposing force the sky is indeed on fire. The Mesosphere Hive bombers return back to fill up their stocks for another strafing of death over whatever was left.

At the same time the Reich airforce gets the order of increased alert and thousands of fighters gets up in the air to counter anything that comes out of that curtain of fire that is falling over the Allanean bombers. Satellites try to get a lock but it is almost impossible due to the strong disturbance the Hive bombers load do as they fall over the bombers like a rain of flares.

"Glory, glory, glory to THE LORD!"

The vast vessels of THE LORD moved across the sea, their dull, grey silhouettes reflecting the light of the sun, this ultimate expression of HIS purity, back onto the water, the warriors of light staring ahead, and waiting for what was waiting for them beneath the horizon, hidden at least to their eyes, though probably not to THE LORD as he watched from the heavens, and from the temples, guiding their every move and action.

They were the ones chosen for this holiest of tasks, this most glorious of fates, to smash into the lines of the daemonic hordes, to destroy the darkness that was threatening to consume the world!

Quickly enough, the heroes leading the forces of purity contacted their brethren from Gods Own (And what a name this was! A symphony of beauty, of a thousand castrated choirbois singing of Amadeus' glory, so appropriate in its truthfulness! Eden, of course it was Gods' own!), exchanging the Deuteronomy of war to start the Genesis of destruction.

And starting it they did, as THE LORD guided his children to defeat the evil that'd dared to touch Eden. And the beacons of light that'd punish evil for its unspeakable deeds...

They launched!

The Bazalonian submarines seperated into small groups of 5 submarines each group. These 20 groups waged a war of opportunism doing periodical hit and run assaults on large groups and picking off the not as well defended.

The submarines looked at the enemy and were looking to see how they react should they find a good counter for the Bazalonian methods an emergency ELF burst communication, heavily encrypted utilising a unique Bazalonian algorithm, to re-group at specified co-ordinates.

The submarines so where not waging un restricted warfare as the Captain on the BNS Iota disliked that idea, but infact they where given secret permision on a secret engagement to perform it.

Northwestern Mountains, The Silver Sky, Northeastern Haven

A plea for help taking out the Veganan(?) satellite network came from Allanea to CINDER in Northwestern The Silver Sky by the way of land based wires, impervious to interception by ELINT satellites.

It gave the locations of key Veganan satellites and their mesosphere hive bombers. Banks of computers, already up and running from fragging Clandonia Prime's radar network with godrods, were turned to the task of calculating locations of enemy satellites and uploading them to Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) installations in northwestern The Silver Sky and in the Skyian Artic Territories in northcentral Haven.

The laser installations began an active track on Veganan satellites and Hive bombers, the chemical lasers powered up, their distinctive whirr of the nuclear powered turbines could be heard throughout the installation.

Finally the redish beam of light poured out of their installations and into orbit, any satellite that could be targeted directly by the laser would be, other lasers were bounced off of 1 to 4 targeting mirrors in orbit, allowing them to nearly reach all the way around the earth.

At 10 megawatts each the lasers were easily capable of disabling a military satellite (MIRACL lasers could disable satellites with 1MW beams in the 80s in the US), and because the satellites had no way of radiating the heat of the laser (can't radiate heat into a vaccum) thus hopefully resulting the the satellite cracking from the heat making it expand. Any satellite that could be targeted was, with many lasers firing up to 5 times.

Other stronger 20MW lasers bounced of satellites targeting Hive bombers, again using satellites for targeting, their red beams would also slice through the clouds of magnesium that were hitting Allanean bombers. While the the Hive bombers could put up more resistance by just being in the atomsphere they could not escape one thing.

Brilliant Pebbles would spell the doom of the Hive Bombers, they were stationed around the world in High Earth Orbit, either in constellations or directly attached to targeting satellites.

Each was the about the size of the Skyian's largest AAM, equipped with a Hit-to-kill warhead, and a secondary frag warhead, a Thrust-vectoring engine an a heat shield they were designed for attaking satellites in any earth orbit, they could however, attack hypersoar bombers or huge bombers like the Hives.

Thousands of them rained down from the heavens, almost certainly sealing the fate of the Hive bombers.

There was no warning, and both weapons would attack at nearly the same time.

If Allanea needed help, The Silver Sky would answer the call.

Parliament House - King Alexander I's Private Office

Sunlight flooded through the two bay windows that had been installed in the south-facing wall of the Private Office of the Monarch of the Grand Monarchy of Skinny87. Although the blinds had been dropped down acros the large windows, they had not been pulled down completely; as such, the light from the slowly setting sun was angled directly into the eyes of the man sitting on the other side of the massive oak desk that dominated much of the small room. Although it had not been done deliberately, it suited the situation perfectly, mused Alexander. He had barely been back from an intensive Secret Session of Parliament - one that had lasted for more than six hours, as he justified the increased spending for the Royal Space Force he had initiated to the Members of Parliament - and had ben hoping to have a quiet night in his quarters, going through the ever-present Red Boxes before having an early night.

Unfortunately, and to his rapidly-increasing annoyance, he had been interrupted by the odious man that now sat and stared at him, squinting in the light and continuously trying to change the knot he had tied his tie with. Going by the name of Maximillian Hunter, the man was the Under-Secretary for Colonial Affairs (Nerotika), an extremely vague and insignificant post that had existed ever since the Nerotikan Conflict, and had ceased to have any significant power a day after the peace treaty had been signed. Since that day, the posting had been a place for the Foreign Secretary to hoist annoying or incompetant officials until they either retired or resigned from the sheer amount of banal paperwork that the job seemed to produce. Leaning back in his leather-backed chair, massaging a hand against his temple to try and quell the migraine that threatened to explode at any second, Alexander mused that the Foreign Secretary had found a perfect combination of the two attributes. Hunter was both annoying and exceedingly incompetant, and the combination was beginning to fray what was left of his nerves.

He gave a barely-suppressed sigh as Hunter continued on in a wheedling and high-pitched voice about agrarian supplies, praying that Hunter would take the unsubtle hint and depart. However, Hunter seemed unable to take a hint, and had just begun to move onto another fruitless topic when the heavy wodden doors to the Private Office slammed open, and a dozen heavily-armed Secret Service Agents rushed into the room, weapons raised and searching the room. The sudden surprise caused Hunter to stop talking in mid-sentence, but before Alexander could do anything to appreciate the end to the verbal torment, he was being pulled from the chair and towards the doors by two of the Agents.

For a moment surprise and shock reigned and Alexander allowed himself to be pulled towards the corridor outside, but then years of military and diplomatic training kicked in and he pushed the two men away, stopping by the doors. Trying to maintain a calm facade, he turned to the nearest Agent, who he recognised as Nelson Chung, Head of the Royal Protection Detail (RPD). Alexander motioned to the other Agents and the stunned Hunter. "Mr Chung. What the hell is going on here?"

Chung, a young man in his twenties with vaguely Asian features nodded to the other agents, who began moving out into the corridor, weapons still raised. He faced Alexander. "Your Majesty, we must get you moving to Air Force One immediately. There have been reports of nuclear detonations in Allanea, and possible retaliation by Allanean and unknown forces. The Joint Chiefs have been alerted, but we must get you to Air Force One and Indigo Mountain. The Joint Chiefs and the Prime Minister have been alerted, and their protective teams are already escorting them to Indigo. But we must go now, sir!"

For a moment Alexander stood still, processing the information Chung had just given him. Allanea, long-time bitter enemy and only recently distant ally, had just been hit by a nuclear strike. The shock of such a daring and terrifying scenario stunned the King, and he was only vaguely aware of the next few minutes; of being manhandled by Chung and escorted through Parliament House, and being flung into a heavily-armoured black limousine, which pulled away before escorted through the traffic-laden streets of Dowland by police cars and motorbikes, sirens screaching. The convoy had arrived at Dowland International Airport before Alexander finally realised where he was and what he had to do.

He climbed out of the limousine, nodding absentmindedly to the uniformed Marines that clustered around it, M8's at the ready, and followed Chung and the other agents to the private airstrip where Airforce One, a converted civilian airliner, was already prepared for take-off. He climbed the stairs into the plane and moved into his private quarters there, nodding again at Chung as the agent took up guard outside. Inside the quarters, Alexander sat down on a cream sofa and stared at the wall opposite. He felt the vibrations of the engines on the soles of his feet, muffled by the carpet and metal, but ignored them; instead, he stared at his hands. They were shaking; the hands of the King of the Grand Minarchy of Skinny87 were shaking. His skin felt cold ad clammy, and suddenly he couldn't breathe. He tugged at his tie, wrenching it off and unbuttoning his shit, before leaning forward and gasping for breath. He stayed there for what seemed like hours, but could only have been a minute or so, before sitting back up.

His hands were no longer shaking, and his breathing seemed to be more regular; even his skin seemed better. Slowly standing up, Alexander rubbed a hand over his face and looked out of the thick glass window set into the hull of the airplane. Already the ground was moving away, to be replaced by clear blue skies and a thin layer of clouds. There was a faint reflection in the glass, and Alexander looked at himself with a mixture of disgust and hurt surprise. He had fought in the Civil War, killed men with guns, bayonets and even his bare, bloody hands; he had been in a trench as it had collapsed over him as tanks rolled over them, and still dug himself out without effects like these. So why had he panicked and been affected so when told of the Allanean news? He started at the window, but no answers came; just the same, pale reflection.

With a start, as if waking up for the first time, he realised what he had to do; he had to go out there and find out what was happening, not sit in his quarters and shake like a cripple. Setting his tie back where it was and patting down his shirt, he took a deep breath and opened the door. He stepped outside, nodding to Chung, and moved into the large Command and Control Centre that formed the bulk of the aircraft. There, in front of the Airforce Personnel who watched the computers and manipulated te symbols on the giant computer screens embedded in the wall, stood his military, political and social advisors - what he termed his 'Brain Drain Group'. Nodding at them, he moved to one of the computer screens and examined it for a moment before turning and facing them. "What exactly is the situation, ladies and gentlemen?"

Major-General Bradley Whittock, his senior military advisor, stepped forward and pointed to a compter display to their right. "Sir, approximately three hours ago, a large-scale nuclear attack was launched at Allanea. Casualties and damage reports are so far unknown, but the Allaneans have responded, firing their own weapons at the aggressor state, Gods Owns Reich. Nations allied to Allanea have already begun full mobilisation, and it would appear that Allanean and Reichian fleets have begun to fire on each other."

Once again Alexander paused, but for the moment his head was clear; no bouts of uncertainness washed over him. He knew what he had to do. "Despite our past feelings to Allanea, they are now a fully-fledged ally in the Sovereign Leage, and there is no justification for a nuclear strike on any nation, let alone an ally. General Whittock, contact the Joint Chiefs; I want a full mobilisation of every branch of the military within twelve hours of the orders going out. Have the First, Third and Ninth Rapid Reaction Forces deply towards the Allanean Fleets, and have the Second, Eighth and Fourth begin assembling off of Lewis Island. And contact RAF Tactical Command; I want an Air Armada assembled in the air and ready for a strike on this damnable Reich in eighteen hours."

As his advisors moved to carry out their orders, and Airforce One moved towards Indigo Mountain, Alexander stared at a computer screen and wondered what the consequences of this conflict would be for his nation...

The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain./
Certainly, the nuclear assault on civilians was lasting, grave, and certain, a damage that would leave its mark for ages to come.

All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective.
Peace had come, and peace had gone. The fools on the pagan side of the sea had ignored the will of the lord, and inflicted a lasting and grave damage on civilians.

There must be serious prospects of success.
When was the last time the Prussian Empire had lost a war?

The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.
What was graver than the use of nuclear weaponry against civilians, possible excluding chemical and biological weapons?

Deus Vult. God wills it.

National Military Command Centre, Unknown Location

Below, in the core, men were scrambling at the launches, watching the automated defences around the Empire go online. Once the trajectory was established -- and it wasn't going to hit Derscon -- they were placed on standby, automatically. They sent a message to Allanea, but not that it mattered. Derscon probably could have shot some down, but Xavier had ordered that the Dersconi system not be used for other nations, so Allanea was left on its own, for the time being.

However, Field Marshal Óðinn Níðhöggr, Commander-in-Chief of the Dersconi Imperial Strategic Command, was carefully inspecting the commotion. At that point, he recieved word of the naval battles from the other side of the Eye, glancing over the balcony to the holographic display.

A minor officer ran up to him, saluting. "Sir! A Message from Tsar Xavier." The Field Marshal nodded and read it, and, after grunting, ran back to his office, inputting the new orders.

OOC: And what were those orders? Well, you'll just have to find out next time! When I have time to post... >.>

OFFICIAL IMPERIAL STATEMENT

The transgressions of infidels are truly endless. Sin upon sin rises up to strangle the light of our Sacred Emperor, but his will outshines the darkness of any heathen. By the same token, the Imperium will shatter God's Own, shatter their impotent Fuhrer and their slavish mob, and the reek of the sacrificial pyres will perfume the halls of the gods.

Allanea is a member of ACTO, and Korronis will burn before we let filthy Fascists defile the honor of that alliance. Therefore Sacred Emperor Lucifer has declared a state of war to exist between God's Own and all its allies and the Imperium. Look to the horizon, infidels: look for our fleets, for the gods are at their prows and wrath surges before them. Death to the infidel, and their false Fuhrer!

Darian Aurelius, Minister of Foreign Affairs

***

OFFICIAL MILITARY COMMUNIQUE

To the High Command:

We have an emergency. Allanea, an Imperial ally through ACTO, has been attacked with nuclear weapons...by Fascists. A list of the forces selected for retaliation duty is attached to this message; those forces are to assemble IMMEDIATELY in Korronis for departure along with the naval elements required to transport and protect them. Anti-strategic forces are to elevate awareness; the Fascists may use WMD again. We will support our allies in this war, and punish the Nazi filth for blighting the earth with their presence. Blood and Honor.

Imperator Jakran Vuell, Head of the Kregaian Imperial Armed Forces

*New Geneva, Greater Prussia*

For the last few hours, the halls of power in New Geneva had been buzzing. The Empire was under attack. Whether the Reich had intended it or not, they had initiated a full scale war with the Greater Prussian Empire. The full might of Greater Prussia was to be brought to bear againt the Reich in conjunction with a vast array of allied forces.

"This is a war with Iesus Christi just as much as it is with God's Own, maybe more so!" Gerhardt Volckner shouted loudly at Count Orsini, the former ambassador to the Reich and an admitted Iesiaphile. This war was to tear his loyalties apart.

"Iesus Christi cannot support this kind of foolishness!" Orsini shouted back in his face. "God's Own will pay for their crimes, but Iesus should not suffer for the crimes of its ally!"

The Emperor held up his hand, silencing both of them. "Gentlemen, it doesnt matter whether Iesus supported this attack or not. He hasn't done anything to stop it, and as the Fuhrer of the Reich, he is just as liable as if he had fired the missiles himself." Joseph-Napoleon stood up from his deep leather chair. "Count Orsini...I am about to write the death sentence for the Reich, once and for all. I suggest you decide which side of this death warrant you want to be on."

Rev. Peter Graves, the High Lord Protector of Reichskamphen and New Geneva stood up from his own chair in the corner of the room. "Highness." he said softly. Immediatly, the Emperor sat down his pen and looked over inquiringly at the venerable reverend, perhaps the only man in the world to whom this Monarch would ever defer. "You do realize that this could drive a wedge between Bavaria and the rest of the Empire...especially as this is essentially a war between good and evil and the Roman Church will figure prominently...and in a battle between good and evil, Catholicism is always the latter."

"Reverend, they are about as Catholic as I am." he assured Graves. "The only differance is, I don't pretend to be Catholic and they go to great pains to put on the front. It is my understanding that the Pope excommunicated the Reich long ago...but if this comes to a battle between good and evil. Bavaria will stand on the side of good. I know it."

"Will there be an invasion?" Volckner inquired of the Emperor.

"Will the sun rise tommorrow?" the Monarch replied.

"Who will command?" Graves inquired.

Napoleon picked up the envelope he had just sealed with his personal seal and handed it to Rev. Graves. There, written in the emperor's calligraphic writing was the name of the man who Graves knew would be chosen. Marehcal Alexandre Brune.

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

Imperial Declaration of War

In light of the unreasonable attack upon a member nation of the Greater Prussian Empire by a member nation of the Reich, let it here be known, that we declare there to be in existance a state of war between the Reich and the Greater Prussian Empire. There shall no quarter be given nor asked, and this shall be the final end for the sin-burdened rotten edifice that is the Iesian Reich.

May God guide his people and preserve his true religion in the face of war and death.

His Imperial Highness,
Joseph-Napoleon the First
Emperor of Greater Prussia
King of Reichskamphen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Within moments of the first strikes against Allanea, the Greater Prussian SDI system flew into action. During the years of Prussian presence there, a huge defense infrastructure had been erected there to supplement the Allanean national defenses. In addition, a huge number of SDI sattelite systems were moved into a position to defend Allanea.

WHEREAS both the Reich and the Greater Prussian Empire have a long and well-documented history of crimes against the peace, crimes against humanity and crimes war crimes

WHEREAS the current conflict was initiated largely through the expansionist and imperialist policies of both parties

WHEREAS the Greater Prussian state of Allanea is known to have attempted to undermine Commonwealth member states through terrorist means

WHEREAS the Greater Prussian state of Allanea continues to recognize terrorist organizations within the Commonwealth as sovereign states and also to refuse recognition to Commonwealth states

WHEREAS the preemptive use of nuclear weaponry by the Reich state of God’s Own is in violation of the most basic principles of responsible membership in the international community

The Commonwealth General Assembly hereby

DECLARES that the Commonwealth of Peoples is a neutral party and shall remain so as long as that neutrality and the rights of other neutrals are respected by both parties

DENOUNCES the attempt of Allanea and other states to portray the Greater Prussian war effort as a genuine effort to free the people of the Reich

DENOUNCES the irresponsible rush to war on the half of both parties

PROMISES to act as a guarantor of the neutrality of all other neutral, democratic states so long as they choose to remain neutral

ORDERS appropriate support to be given to humanitarian efforts to ease the suffering of civilian populations on both sides, through respectable and impartial organizations such as the International Red Cross Organization

ORDERS the Commonwealth Defense Force and the Commonwealth Military Council to take adequate measures to assure the adequate security of Commonwealth neutrality in the changes international situation

ORDERS that all rights of belligerent military ships in Commonwealth waters and ports be suspended for the duration of hostilities

ORDERS that trade between the Commonwealth and belligerent powers, where it exists, be suspended for the duration of hostilities

ORDERS that the Commonwealth Refugee Organization, the Commonwealth Food Organization and the Commonwealth Health Organization take appropriate measures to support any civilian refugees who might come within the Commonwealth sphere of influence as a result of the present conflict

DEDICATES the Commonwealth embassies in St. Augustine and Rekjyavich-Andropov Military City to negotiating for better access for impartial humanitarian organizations

EXPRESSES sincere hope that all the people affected by this war might soon be able to live free of fear, whether it be fear of war or of their own authorities

Al-Bahr, Kahanistan

About 500 C-130 Hercules and 300 Airbus A-400M transports mounted extra fuel tanks onto their frames. These planes would take refugees from the warring nations to safer locations.

Each aircraft had a trained military pilot, skilled in evasive maneuvers, and the places were fitted with flares and chaff to protect from hostile fire. They were not marked, as they would likely be shot down by the Reichite scum if they were.

With the extra fuel, they would be able to reach Allanea and God's Own, the nations under the most immediate nuclear threat. This was a strictly humanitarian maneuver by the Kahanistanian government, which, although under invasion by Kraven, was willing to spare large numbers of transport aircraft to save the civilians in a war far away. They did not trust the CAD powers to spare civilians in God's Own, as the Soviet Republic itself had lost tens of millions of civilians to the MassPwnage terror bombings earlier in the year.

The planes took off from the airbase, heading north to avoid the Kraven fleet before changing direction - three-fourths headed for Allanea and the other fourth for God's Own. Many lives would be saved this day.

Classified, from the Allanean High Command to All Allied Forces

While we are loathe yet to call to a full-on nuclear strike against civilian populations, we suggest that the use of tactical nuclear weapons against the God’s Ownii naval assets is now a very good idea. Our intelligence estimates that God’s Own lacks it’s own ABM system and would not be able to shoot down the majority of incoming nuclear munitions. We suggest that those of our allies capable of ICBM and SLBM strikes on the Eastern Target Enemy Formation (hereby ETEF) should be advised to perform these strikes.

Furthermore, we suggest all allied ABM forces are to be hereby put on alert.

AVOID EXTERMINATION STRIKES AT ALL COSTS. CONSIDER THAT MOSt OF THE PEOPLE IN THESE PITYFUL NATIONS ARE NOT AT FAULT. STRATEGIC NUCLEAR STRIKES ARE ONLY TO BE USED WHERE ACTUAL IMMEDIATE VALUE IS DERIVED, AS WITH OUR STRIKE ON AUCKLAND. AVOID, REPEAT AVOID, PUNISMHENT OPERATIONS AT THIS STAGE.

FLEETCOM Encrypted Reply

Use of Tactical Munitions confirmed, 2 kiloton FENRIS Warheads have now been given their arming code.

[END]

The Leafanistani Battlefield had a tactical maneuver in mind and transmitted the plans. If things started going wrong the tactical warheads were going to be used to even the odds.

They would be fired from large antishipping missiles and targetted toward ships emitting a lot of electromagnetic radiation, most likely some sort of command vessels.

Refueling ships from Colonial Wasser Autonomous Republic had joined the fleet and were topping off the diesel powered ships and resupplying the fleet with extra food and water.

They would soon join the Allanean Battlefleet.

Two satellites exploded with a large explosion when the weak lasers somehow managed to cut through the thick rain of magnesium that fell over the Allanean bombers. Had the Silver Sky MIRCL installations been placed in space they probably wouldn't have lost so much energy to the atmosphere and further more to all the flare-like missiles that now deformed fell upon the strategic bombers, beams have no mass and thus the missiles were not stopped but rather transformed to a rain of cleasning fire as the thin air helped the magnesium rods that was not already burning by the lasers to burst into flames. The satellites that exploded were quickly replaced by new ones that let loose a cloud of anti beam defence as they quickly calculated the position of the aggressors. Over Reich space assets were legio.

Young Jonah "215" was just about to be released into open space. He screamed with a voice shrill with eagerness as he was released to meet his destiny. He knew his destiny, it was to get close the bad dark spots that hurt big mama. Big mama was crying in pain as the bad people hurt her and Jonah "215" ached to get back at the evilness. He dodged through space together with hundreds of his brothers, releasing clouds around him to protect himself from the burning, the burning was bad, his circuits told him to be stealthy to avoid discovery as he flew through space at a blinding speed. Big mama had taught him well, he would make her proud. He shouted in joy as he closed in to his target and released the final cloud of his beam defense. He was almost out of energy, the red diod blinked as he armed himself and went to that happy place. The place that is full of nuclear joy and cleansing fire, the EMP was useless with no air to carry it, but the sky was lit up with small stars as the nuclear explosions started in the satellite network.

The RaumReichStreiteKräfte got into position to deliver Ortillery strikes. Admiral Johansson watched as the screens lit up with targets from cities to approaching fleets. His orders were clear, prio one was to hit the advancing fleets with the Wrath of God. After the defence network of GPE had been weakened the next targets was to be capital cities and military installations. Stopping hundreds of tons being sent at 45 degrees angle was a tough feat that Haven would need all their defensive structures to manage or face the kinetic damage of a crashing stars. The Puny people of GPE would know that they should not disturb the sleeping dragon.


Formal Message to Kahanistan

This is an automated message to approaching fleet from Kahanistan. You are about to enter Reich Territorial Space. We have been placed in a state of high alert and will therefore destroy every single vessel you have the second you enter our space. We advice you to take a different route. This is not a negotiation.



...



Open Message

God Is Great!

Most beloved brethren: Urged by necessity, I, The Benevolent Jaar, by the permission of our Lord, Jesus Christ have come into these parts as an ambassador with a divine admonition to us, the servants of God. I hoped to find you as faithful and as zealous in the service of God as I had supposed you to be. But if there is in us any deformity or crookedness contrary to God's law, with divine help we will do our best to remove it. For God has put us as stewards over his family to minister to it. Happy indeed will we be if he finds us faithful in our stewardship. We are called shepherds; see that we do not act as hirelings. But be true shepherds, with our crooks always in our hands. Do not go to sleep, but guard on all sides the flock committed to us. For if through our carelessness or negligence a wolf carries away one of your sheep, you will surely lose the reward laid up for you with God No longer will we let this filth poison the world, no longer will we allow his heathens to disturb the peace of our lord by trampling the same earth as Righteous people. Festung Reich has never been conquered and the thought of letting these infidel hordes soil the lands of christs sickens me. We will rather cleanse our lands with burning fire and raining brimstoen than let the pagan take a step on Reich Soil.

The nations that has been led by Lucifer to attack us must be cleansed by fire to remove the spot, the disease, the foul smell of the devil. Our proud StreiteKräfte will make sure that they pay the price of attacking the people of God in full. No city in their countries will stand and their families will be destroyed in a sea of fire and hail. We have now a calling, a way to follow, to make our world a place in His liking. A place without the satanic orgies of Allanea, without the insult to god that is Reichkampfen, without the devil spawn that is Silver Sky, without the alliance of darkness and evil that roams in the darkness. All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins and dine with our lord in heaven. O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ!

To: Allanean Leadership: President Alexander Kirillovich Kazansky
CC: Vegana, Iesus Christi
From: The Vrak Ministry of Rites
Subject: Iesus Christi

While we have had little dealings with nations of the Reich, we must state in the strongest possible terms that Vrak supports each nation in regards to its own sovereignty. As well, meddlers such as yours by declaring an all-out international offensive is counterproductive and doomed to fail.

We have also noticed that your nation had been interfering in the internal affairs of the Klatchian State Dyelli Beybi. While we ignored your escapades, we shall do so no longer. From this moment on, all Allanean military assets that have not removed from Dyelli Beybi and the surrounding waters of the Klatch within 24 hours shall be deemed hostile and meddlesome pakrahs and shall be set upon by Vrakian forces at our earliest convenience.

Do not trifle with the Klatch, Allaneans. Few regions, let alone single nations have the strength to match ours.


[Great Seal of the Ministry of Rites]

By the order of the King of Cherry Ridge, of Divine Right, the shields throughout the nation are to be raised, and merchant travel outside of the safe zone within Prussia is suspended until further notice. Fifth and Sixth fleets, link up with oter Prussia forces. Commence attacks against enemy ships.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the fleets arived, the pilots and their crews on the carriers prepared their loads. At the second the order came through from the High Command, attacks would commence.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: His Imperial Highness Joseph-Napoleon; The Reverend Peter Graves
From: His Majestic Highness John Antonette; His Eminence Josepg Cardinal Marco

Your Highness and Reverence,
We write to inform you, and reaffirm, where Bavaria's alleigance stands. Although Protestantism is inherently flawed, Satanism, especially when mocking Christ's Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, is worse. However, thoiugh the leaders of these cults may not be Catholic the simple faithful must not be discriminated against, in any invasion, for their Catholic faith.

We wish to reaffirm the mutual respect between subjects of Greater Prussia Majour and Bavaria. This respect goes tot he very essence of our souls, who we are: Prussians. Only our faith in Christ, our Lord, is stronger than this.

In Christ, as fellow Christians, we ask God's Blessing on you,
His Majestic Highness John Antonette, by the Grace of God, King of Cherry Ridge and Archduke of Bavaria

His Most Eminent Lordship, Joseph Cardinal Marco, by the Grace of God and the Favor of the Apostolic See, Archbishop of Carmel

OOC: List of forces being sent to God's Own.

GROUND FORCES
Commander: Lord High General Yataghan

3,200,000 Legionaries
22,000 Immortals
9,400 War-Priests
1,400 light guns (105mm)
1,050 medium guns (155mm)
950 heavy guns (188mm)
80 Colossus howitzers (460mm)
950 AA guns (155mm flak)
1,100 SAM batteries
8,200 T-120 Ravagers
8,200 M146 Despoilers
26,000 Sidewinder LAVs
8,400 F/A-104 Balefires
3,200 A-10 Thunderbolts
840 Behemoth heavy bombers
24 B-6 Paladin stealth bombers
1,400 MI-24 Hinds
1,400 AH-166 Twilight gunships
3,600 Lawgiver VTOL transports
2,400 C-7 Generia transport planes
72 Thunderbird AWACS planes
2,200,000 associated personnel (medics, cooks, drivers, pilots, servants, techs, engineers, etc.)
Associated transport trucks
Construction materials/equipment, and prefabricated buildings
NBC protection/cleanup equipment

NAVAL FORCES
6 Apophis-class superdreadnaughts
45 Imperator-class battleships
8 Invictus-class supercarriers (245 aircraft; 180 Balefires, 36 MiG-45s, 24 AH-166 gunships, 5 Behemoth heavy bombers)
44 Prophet-class aircraft carriers (160 aircraft; 120 Balefires, 24 MiG-45s, 16 AH-166 gunships)
496 Silencer-class missile submarines
482 Stalker-class attack submarines
554 Attila-class cruisers
604 Assassin-class missile cruisers
655 Darius-class destroyers
724 Piranha-class frigates
780 Atlantis-class troop transports
80 Caduceus-class hospital ships
560 Arsenal-class supply ships
320 Vulcan-class repair ships

Total: 5,358 ships: 2,640 surface warships, 978 submarines, 1,740 support ships

IC: Many war fleets had left the vast Korronis docks lately; the past few years had been marked by a rapid increase in Imperial involvements overseas, coinciding with the increasing insanity of Sacred Emperor Lucifer. From the Ravagement of Socal8 onwards, the Armed Forces had displayed great amounts of activity. Where once there had been an introspective, neutral regime in the Empire, Sacred Emperor Lucifer had built the world's most glorious military machine, a host of the gods' chosen unstoppable by any mortal force. Or so the Imperial propaganda boasted.

However, they had no reason to think any different on this trip. God's Own was being swarmed by Allanea's allies, and the troops were taking bets on how long it would take for the Nazis to begin begging for mercy after the invasions got under way.

High General Yataghan, clad in full dress uniform, stood on the bridge of the Apophis-class superdreadnaught Betrayer of Hope and glared out the window at the stormy, steel-gray oceans. Waves rolled against the massive ship's impenetrable hull, and vast stormclouds hid the sun from view. Ahead and behind, and on all sides, sailed thousands of ships, all united in absolute devotion to the Sacred Emperor and to their cause: victory.

However, only Yataghan knew what victory in this case consisted of. With so many of Allanea's allies pecking like vultures at God's Own, there was no way the Imperium would be able to annex the whole enemy territory. Thus, the Divine One had personally ordered Yataghan to establish an Imperial bastion in this area, no more and no less, from which they could expand further in this region. After all, why just help out an ally when you can help yourself as well?

Formal Message to Kahanistan

This is an automated message to approaching fleet from Kahanistan. You are about to enter Reich Territorial Space. We have been placed in a state of high alert and will therefore destroy every single vessel you have the second you enter our space. We advice you to take a different route. This is not a negotiation.

[OOC: The only things I'm sending anywhere near Reich space are 200 transport aircraft for the evacuation of civilians. Kahanistan is neutral in this conflict, and they're evacuating the civilians of both sides who want to leave. Just so we're on the same page.]

IC: The commander of the flight radioed to the Veganan commander.

"We are on a mission of mercy, our aircraft are unarmed and moving to rescue civilians from a likely CAD bombardment raid. We're doing the same thing in Allanea."

This is GPNN, the Greater Prussian News Network.

"Good Evening, this is Mark DeSena with the Greater Prussian News Network. As many well know, Emperor Joseph-Napoleon today declared an official state of war with the Reich. This declaration has solicited various responses from the world community, some of whom will join the Empire in its war effort against the Reich. We were informed at 9 am this morning that the Emperor had purchased time on every Imperial Network and done his best to purchase time on many of the larger international networks to address the world at large. The Emperor will be addressing the world from the pulpit of the New Geneva Cathedral in the Greater Prussian Capitol City. We are currently waiting for the Emperor to appear...and it seems he just has. We are now going live to the New Geneva Cathedral.

The Emperor walked onto the stage-like altar of the Cathedral and approached the Pulpit. On the front of the towering podium were carved the crests of Martin Luther and John Calvin as well as various other symbols of the Orthodox Protestant Christian faith.

"People of the Empire, and people of the world." the Emperor began after a short pause, looking accross the sea of Congregants who had gathered for the occasion. "This may seem to you all a strange place for a head of state to deliver one of the most important addresses of his reign. In my mind, though, it is not an oddity at all. Since the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, it has been the pulpits of the Universal Church which have set political, moral, and religious doctrine...which have moulded our societies into what they are today. It is the knowledge that whomsoever speaks from the spot where I stand, speaks not of himself and for his own service, but speaks in support of and in service of our Crucified and risen Lord.

I am speaking from this pulpit, perhaps the most prominent Church of the most prominent denomination in the Empire to assure you that the decisions I have made have not been made in an ad hoc manner. I have studied the scriptures and prayed daily to the Lord for guidance in these grave matters. We all know that in times past, the Empire may have taken actions that run contrary to our Christian obligations and morals. We have waged wars of expansion, instead of helping the meek and the needy. We have sinned greatly, and have been made to pay for our sins through the gradual decline of our great Imperial Monarchy. I stand before you today as perhaps the least powerful Emperor in the history of the empire in terms of conventional ruling power...but I stand here as perhaps the most powerful in the ways that truely count. I am an honest, Christian man. I will seek to rededicate this Empire to the service of Christ and to lifting up the lowly and downtrodden.

Many nations have unjustly categorized this Empire as a criminal organization, an international pariah. To those nations which look on us thusly, I ask you to consider the following.

I am Greater Prussia. The State vests its power in me, and I am the centre of the State. I decide the direction for this government and for the nations therein with the help of Almighty God, and I ask you to look to my actions and my statements, not the statements and actions of others. Though many great men have gone before me, today, I am the Empire...and I ask you to give me the benefit of judging me outside the lens of my various predecessors.

As many of you know, I have penned in my own hand a declaration of war against the Iesian Reich. Some may see this as yet another expansionist conflict, and some may claim it as an attempt to free the people of the Reich. In truth, though this war may result in the expansion of the Empire, and we hope that it will result in the liberation of the people in the Reich...this is not the ultimate purpose.

We were attacked without cause or reason by a roque facist Empire that has done the same to countless other nations throughout its history. And many times, it has been defeated and pressed back into its own borders by strong alliances of the willing...yet it always returns to strike again because noone has been powerful enough to finally vanquish the beast. Today, they are weak enough, and our alliance is strong enough to put an end to the genocide, the warmongering, and the pure evil that masquerades as a legitimate government. We have an obligation to sacrifice as much as is necessary to ensure that our children never have to face the menace of an assault by the Reich, the fear that oneday, they could finally prevail and enslave us all. This is a war simply of good against evil.

We do not claim to be angelic, but we certainly claim our cause to be a just and good one. And I say to those of you who search desperately for a reason to stay out of this conflict...should we lose...the deaths of those innocents that shall surely follow will be upon your heads and the heads of generations to come because you could have put a stop to the evil once and for all...but did nothing. You let your qualms and pathetic little political entanglements prevent you from doing the right thing...which is ultimately the purpose of any government. What good is the welfare you give to the poor of your nations when anyone Bridgette Iesus believes to be subhuman are being slaughtered en masse? What good is free medical care which you provide to your people if hundreds of thousands, even millions of innocents are being made to suffer from radiation poisoning by the aggresive expansionist war the Reich now seeks to wage? What good is anything your government gives...if it cannot give justice?

The souls of millions, perhaps even billions of the victims of Reich aggressions and attrocities from this generation, and generations past are screaming for justice. Shall we deny them because we are afraid? I have signed the death warrant for this evil Empire...justice must be served...and it can only be done with the force of the world behind the sword of justice!

May God guide and preserve us all...and keep the innocent from harm."

The Emperor abruptly stopped his speech, prayed silently for a moment, and walked off of the altar and out of sight. Immediately the massive 1500 rank Schantz pipe organ of the Cathedral began to bellow out the clarion call to battle and the 30,000 people seated in the Cathedral joined their voices as one, as did countless citizens all over the Empire, and the Emperor prayed...the world.

God of our fathers, Whose almighty hand
Leads forth in beauty all the starry band
Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies
Our grateful songs before Thy throne arise.

Thy love divine hath led us in the past,
In this free land by Thee our lot is cast,
Be Thou our Ruler, Guardian, Guide and Stay,
Thy Word our law, Thy paths our chosen way.

From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Be Thy strong arm our ever sure defense;
Thy true religion in our hearts increase,
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.

Refresh Thy people on their toilsome way,
Lead us from night to never ending day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine.

Imperial Declaration of War

In accordance with the earlier declaration of war by the Emperor of Greater Prussia, the Imperial Shogunate of Pschycotic Pschycos hereby declares war on God's Own, and any other nation that may attempt to defend and/or assist them.

Though the word's of Allanea's president were overly harsh and suggestive, their only present goal was to discuss what it viewed as violations of human rights peacably with other nations. God's Own deliberatly and suddenly attacked Allanea with nuclear weapons.

For the above stated reason, we must make a call to arms to defend an ally from people who have absolutely no regard for human life.

Signed,

Shogun Nakamura Taiki
Fourth of the Nakamura Shogunate

======================================================

After steaming for the better part of a day, the Imperial Task Force came within sight of the Allanean coast. Many sailors looked upon it with longing and bad feelings, the air on the ship was that it would be the last time some of them ever saw land. Admiral Yamamoto, on the other hand, was far too worried about the planning to even take note that they were in sight of land. "I want as many possible fighter patrols in the air as possible. I want three patrols every ten miles out to 50, and three at altitudes of 5000, 10,000, and 20,000 feet. Can everyone do math? Yes? That's 45 patrols. One squadron to each patrol."
"Aye, Sir!" came the reply from his council of officers, seated around the holographic situation display. It was customary for each carrier in the group to donate one squadron to combat patrols. With a fleet this large, that was no problem, though a few had to double up [damn numbers aren't worked out]. As Yamamoto sat back watching the display change to reflect the execution of his orders, vapor trails climbed off from carrier decks around the flagship.
"This is the last allied point we'll have. I want someone to contact Headquarters immediately. Have them contact Allanean officials and get clearance for our supply ships. I want to have a supply chain from the Shogunate to Allanea, then out to us," Yamamoto ordered next.
"Aye, Sir!" came the replies again. A few officers left to carry out the orders. Meanwhile, Admiral Yamamoto left his seat and went forward to gaze out the forward windscreen at Flight Deck 1 below the FCIC. Four F-14s were attached to the catapults. Underneath each fighter, he could make out 6 AIM-120 AMRAAM ATA missiles. As he stood there, little figures in yellow and green suits scrambled out from underneath the fighters, and blast shields began raising behind the exhaust ports. Seconds later, the windows rattled as the first was launched off the deck and out over the bow. The three others followed in quick succession. Slowly, he turned back and found the lift back down to the main superstructure. He passed many sailors running through the passages as he made his way to the main bridge, beneath the end of Flight Deck 1. As he walked in, all stood and bowed, which he returned. He quietly assumed his seat overlooking the helmsmen and the forward windscreen. He grabbed a microphone from the side of one of the armrests and opened the channel to all vessels in the Task Force.

Attention all hands, attention all hands. We are currently passing through the last friendly waters. We will be entering an active combat zone in about 2 days. Until such time, all hands are to be at General Quarters, and prepared to man Battle Stations. I repeat, all hands, General Quarters.

As he set down the microphone, the bridge's lights switched off and were replaced with red ones. Several klaxons began blaring throughout the hull. "Well, I reckon I've got one last war in me."
=============================================

A hundred miles east of the capitol, Honimishu, stood several long and empty fields in the middle of forests. It was the type one would expect to find children playing a game of football, or tag, or other such sports. However, the size would've allowed many such games at once. Further, it was bordered by high barbed wire fences, electrified, of course. Suddenly, the peaceful scene was destroyed as the ground shook massively, and the air was filled with the sound of groaning gears. Huge slabs of turf began peeling back, replaced by large concrete runways, four of them, nearly a mile long each. At one end, huge square sections fell back replaced by huge empty pits. Slowly, one lone group of obsevers (indeed a group of children looking to play football somewhere) saw a huge tailfin rise from the ground, followed by the hull of a massive EB-52H stealthfortress bomber. 3 others also emerged. With little pomp, they took off into the sky, being deployed to Allanea. Their holds each had 20 AGM-84E SLAM-ER anti-shipping missiles. The first four were followed by 24 more quadruplets, leading to 100 deployed heavy stealth bombers.

It was with little fanfare that the nascent Allanean Embassy in Kajal Mars found itself remodeled just as the first staffers were dumped on a suitably grimy street corner in Neo-Dallas, with little other reason beyond "You are now persona non grata."

With hostilities escalating so quickly, and the Imperial Parliament suspended for Christmas, Pantocratoria had to resort to an Imperial Decree for its reaction to the outbreak of full scale war between the Greater Prussian Empire and the Reich to have force of law.


IMPERIAL DECREE ISSUED ON THE FEAST OF BLESSED POPE URBAN V IN THE THIRTY THIRD YEAR OF THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR ANDREUS I
http://members.optusnet.com.au/a_marrington/ns/pantocratoria.jpg

A Decree Prohibiting Trade, Shipping, and other such Transit between Several States at War;

or,

The Reich-Prussian War Shipping Decree

DECREE,
By His Most Catholic and Imperial Majesty,
the Emperor of Pantocratoria

Whereas the several nations of the Reich, that confederation of states which includes Iesus Christi, God's Own, Vegana, North Star, the Eurusean Union, and others, are now at a state of war with the several nations of the Greater Prussian Empire, that confederation of states which includes Allanea, Reichskamphen, Derscon, and others, combined with several allies on each side, henceforth referred to collectively as the combatants;

And whereas that war is total and employs all manner of the awful instruments of modern war, including nuclear weapons;

And whereas commercial shipping and aircraft bearing the flags of the combatants is at present subject to raiding by other combatants;

And whereas it is inevitable that such raiding will be expanded inevitably to include other shipping;

We do hearby command all shipping and aircraft bearing flags or markers of the Pantocratorian Empire to cease at once any trading or transit with the combatants, under pain of suspension of appropriate licenses and so on, with potential criminal charges should any Imperial Citizens be endangered directly by disregard of such command.

Further We command Our Parliament to consider as a matter of urgency upon its reconvening the full legislative implications of the present conflict upon commerce and other matters.

Issued under Our seal at Chantouillet on the Feast of Blessed Pope Urban V in the Thirty Third year of Our reign,

ANDREUS
By the Grace of God, Emperor of Pantocratoria, Autocrator of the Romans, Caesar Augustus, King of France and Navarre, Equal of the Apostles, God's Vicegerent on Earth, et al

By His Majesty's Command,
Thibault Drapeur
Imperial Chancellor

GOD SAVE THE EMPEROR

On the ground

In Haven and on mainland Allanea, Prussian SDI network power up, adding their firepower to the power of the Allanean ABM system.

By now, the Praetonian-Allanean border in the Non-Earth region is jammed with refugees, hundreds of thousands of people seeking to get away from the carnage, and into a country that is not being yet attacked. The same occurs in the other regions where Allanea has colonies. Even in Greater Prussia, the Trans-Continental Ferry leaves time and time again towards the main continent, filled with people. Aircraft leave every hour, taking off with hundreds and thousands of people towards every nation that will take refugees.

The Allanean government is working around the clock to get people out of the danger zones – into bunkers, into survival retreats far out of the cities, into neighboring countries. The Resurgent Dream's offer is jumped on – there is no shame in sending refugees out when you are under nuclear bombardment.

In Haven, every civilian ship, every freighter, every aircraft is diverted to the task – funding that the local government originally would have used to fund roads and schools will now go to fund the expenditures. Many are volunteering their craft. Military Ouroboros craft ferry people into allied nations.

Transport aircraft arrive from a variety of nations, picking up civilians and taking them out of the United States of Allanea.

In the chambers underneath one of the Strategic Defense Forts, an interesting conversation was heard.

The Secretary of Defense was crouching over several pads of paper, giving explanations to President Kazansky. They were dry, mathematic, and boring.

"Before the war, Allanea mustered something like 25 airline departures per 1,000 of the population per annum. With airport capacity and aircraft park we can get no more then ten."

"But that's per year. We don't have a goddamn years, Morrison, the nukes are going to fall here any second. Something is going to get through the SDI. And there are areas which do not have good SDI. Non-Earth. The Midlands. The Hash. Something is going to give somewhere, man."

"That's correct. Bear with me. Let's divide this up and get a daily capacity of about one hundred ninety one thousand flights per day."

"You're joking. You're not going to get this."

"I will get more. I will rush the flights. I will…"

"Shut up. Make the calculations assuming a normail airport schedule. Then assume you will only get half those flights going. You know how these things are."

"Okay. Let's make this based on one hundred thousand flights per day."

"Assuming that, and assuming the very basic 747 aircraft… which is no longer used…"

"Five hundred passengers per flight."

"Fifty million people a day."

"Not good enough, Mr. President."

"Anybody we save is good. And cram as many people as you can into those planes. Use anything the Army is not using against the Reich to evacuate. Send people to The Resurgent Dream, to Kahanistan, California and Alaska, to Rejistania, to as many neutral nations as you can. Spread the grief around. Now, assume we can stuff people into these aircraft – and consider most of our models are bigger then a 747."

"Two hundred million, assuming nobody intercepts the aircraft, which they will if they're smart."

"Yes. Are you going to argue this is better then leaving them in Allanea? And besides… there's also other ways to leave the nation. Encourage them all."

"Yes, Sir."

"Finally, the Kahanistani are sending their aid… that'll help to evacuate maybe four, five million more people per day if they run multiple flights. Accommodate their every whim, fill their aircraft with people. Divert any civilian aircraft you can find, pay the people, do whatever you must. Divert anything."

"Yes, Sir, I believe we still license aircraft."

"Yes. That's the only thing we license, right?"

"Yes, Mr. President."

"Good. Now use the Administration's arresting and prosecution authority against anybody that resists your requests for help. We'll face the trials later."

"Yes, Sir."

In the sea

The Allanean ships do not move, nor do they fire their weapons. Instead, they await, patiently, for aid to arrive from their allies. Somewhere far away, more Allanean ships begin to move towards the Reich – yet another Haven Domination fleet, the Fourth, begins to move. The reason is unknown, and no reports are given of why this is happening. The submarines, in the meanwhile, continue their warfare – more terror-strikes on shore targets with long-range incendiaries, more sinking of ships, more carnage. When they run out of ammunition, they turn and move towards mainland Allanea, where they are rearmed and sent out again.

The war is extended to Endless Crimes now – several of the submarines fire amount of cruise missiles at the fleet. A single SSBN does a full launch, aiming at Sarepta and Tyre.

In the meanwhile, the cruise missiles strike. Most are cut down in a hail of the horrendous, overpowered CIWS Allaneans tend to use, but there are many which get through. Regardless, there are heavy casualties. Five Arsenal Ships become flaming balls of fire – as we all know, Arsenal Ships are tinderboxes. Five Point Catilan class escort frigates go down as well. More importantly, three oilers are now burning, creating a rapidly-spreading, fiery stain on the surface.

From the ships, an entire Air Armada takes off – 1,000 planes. They spread out across the sky in small groups of about 25, trying to avoid presenting a good target to anti-air nuclear weapons. They follow the different locations of Endless Crimes ships drop bombs, fire long-range missiles, and nuclear depth charges at the locations of the different ships.

OOC: I am not including anything related to my bombers, or anything happening on or near God's Own, since I'm still waiting for a reply for my earlier post.

Heaven

Oh joyous day! A day of glory, a day of beauty, a day of divine intervention!

The day had come to finally crush the evil encroaching on creation, to squish the threat that lured outside Eden!

But the enemy was cunning, and utilising the glorious light of THE LORD himself, corrupting it for his nefarious purposes, to blind the prying eyes of THE LORD, as they'd been granted to his children!

This couldn't be allowed to remain unpunished.

And slowly, oh so very slowly, weapons moved across the sky, some lost to the corrupted light the enemies of THE LORD sent skywards, but not all of them... far from it.

And then they did something very simple, and fired back. Some of them sacrificed themselves while doing this, heat-builtups eventually turning them into testaments of honour and duty, others survived, firing again, the purifying light of THE LORD they were emitting striking at what striked them - while at the same time looking out at the dark enemy's prying eyes in orbit, at its ears and voices, and striking them, too.

Oh this glorious day, finally seeing war taken to heaven, to be witnessed by THE LORD!

Eden. The Sea

"FOR THEY MAY WITNESS THE FIST OF THE LORD, OUR GOD!"

There was a great cheering as the men and - surprisingly - women serving on board of the Revelations 13:1 heard their Dominion announcing impending victory.

Indeed, the enemy had been struck with the fury of THE LORD's anger!

Yet, they all knew that the battle wasn't over yet - many, all too many abominations remained in existence, millions needed to be purged, their souls liberated, to finally rejoin the holy union with THE LORD.

And then, an explosion. Fire, flames reaching out, consuming the divinity of the the Principalities, leaving them naked and weak amidst prayers and promises to punish this horrific deed - evil is resisting its purification! The abomination dares to resist its just punishment by THE LORD! Unforgivable!

And as the souls of the victims this barbaric action of the forces of darkness had caused were guided to heaven, the Revelations 13:1 - damaged, but not sunk, weakened, but not incapitated - fired again, and again, in concert with the ever-growing fleet - not every one of the targetted ships was as lucky as it was, some hd sunk, but Eden was near, and so was the majority of the fleet. Maybe not yet close enough to crush the enemy, but...

Soon. Soon!

The Gospel

It is our duty, isn't it?

Yes. Yes it is.

A holy deed. A necessary deed. The flame of purity will help us collect the lost souls of the damned, to defeat the darkness, and to bring light to the depths of hell.

So it shall be.

The darkness...

A crusade had to be called, he knew this much. Souls had to be saved, rescued from the devil. The abominations of hell had to be defeated, crushed, annihilated in a fire of light and glory.

It was time.

Slowly, he rose from his bed, slowly, he stepped towards the assembly of the Seraphim, slowly, he explained to them the vision he'd just had...

The only thing lacking in his vision was the specific target of the crusade.

Eden. Sea. The Skies

"For the wings of THE LORD carry us, and he will not fail us, and we shall be victorious!"

o they were saying, shouting, as they guided the fiery chariots of THE LORD across the skies, rushing on.

There weren't all that many of them - certainly less than what the darkness had spewed out of its pus-covered orifices -, but they were fierce and zealous far beyond imagination.

Missiles - plane, and well as ship-launched -, machineguns and -cannons, the detonations of the occasional nuke (Fired with the knowledge that the glory of THE LORD demanded the ultimate sacrifice from them all, the truth of the willing sacrifice soothing them as they watched the comrades being engulfed in the holy light) - the chaos of battle was everywhere, and order seemed lost.

Ships sunk, certainly. Explosions ripped through hulls, planes crashed on runways and into bridges, vast fireballs erupted from all those who fought for good.

And they fought on, even swimming and all alone in the vast oceans, they continued to fight, to shake their fists at the darkness in the skies, shouting about revenge, screaming out their righteous rage and zeal, how THE LORD would finally destroy the vile evil that spread across the planet, the abomination that dared to touch the land of the righteous!

The Gospel

And then they came.

Expected, it was, and they were ready.

A myriad of defensive measures was enacted, existing because they knew that no enemy would resist the attack if they had a chance to get through.

Missile after missile, warhead after warhead was killed, and left as dysfunctional junk - the defences in place were perfect.

And then there was a blinding flash, as if THE LORD had graced the soil of EC with his incomprehensible beauty, glory, and perfection, with the ultimate blessing...

But it wasn't.

The defences in place were almost perfect.

The fire from the Allanean ships dies down somewhat – a token amount of ten Khans are fired, targeting the Endless Crimes ship Revelations 13:1, but the Allaneans' hearts are clearly not in it, they have something else to worry about. They are preparing a transmission to the government of Endless Crimes.

The transmission is approximately as follows – adjusted from Latin as it were:

As you know, our nation does not surrender when subjected to armed violence. The likely course of this war is that, if we see we are going to lose, we activate what is known in some cultures as Code Samson, and activate all our nuclear stockpiles, and kill millions and millions of people, adversely impacting your nation in many ways. You are likely to bear a heavy cost, even in victory.

We would like to negotiate separately with your leadership to consider conditions under which Endless Crimes will remove itself from the current conflict.

The Commonwealth had always had a very poor opinion of the use of nuclear weapons on cities. Certainly there were valid military targets within them, that had always been recognized. Certainly the death of civilians was unavoidable with such targets. These were not problems for the Commonwealth, neither for its government nor for its citizens. What was a problem was when tens of thousands, or more, died. Nazis they may be, but the Commonwealth concept of just war held civilians to be almost sacrosanct and strived to avoid their harm whenever possible.

Which explained the grimacing of Lord Protector Peter Delvaney as he listened to the media reactions to the news of the nuclear strikes now hitting the Reich nations. They were as was to be expected of any Commonwealth news of large nuclear strikes: Horror and condemnation. This, as one might expect, would put rather a large crimp on his plans for entering into the conflict.

"Something tells me that we aren't going to have the public support necessary to enter this war John," he commented blandly as another news anchor spoke about the horrors of the strike. Idly he noted that the information they were giving about radiation exposure and sickness was wrong, not that it really mattered. Even the truth was horrible enough to turn most of the populace against it, the inflated claims of the media just sealed the deal.

"We won't Your Majesty. Not with both sides using nukes like that," replied the new Foreign Minister, John Ellery. He was new to his post, having been appointed only a few months earlier as the Lord Protector became more accustomed to his position and started replacing the previous Lord Protector's advisors and ministers. This was the first major diplomatic crisis of his tenure and he was somewhat nervous in handling it. "Do you wish me to draft a message for the parties involved sir?"

"Yes, go ahead. Neutrality in accordance with the regulations of the Hague Convention. (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/hague05.htm) Privately, to the Allaneans and the rest of Greater Prussia, offer them whatever assistance we can legally give under those regulations. Oh, and go talk with the Defense Ministry about announcing a patrol of our sea lanes, to protect and ensure their neutrality."

"At once Your Majesty"

Auckland

The problem with assuming you know an enemy's capabilities from dealing with one facet of his forces...is that one isn't many.

Thus, as the Allanean bombers pass over the frustrated Swallows of Reichsflotten West, the Locusts of Luftflotten 2 rise to greet them, the design ethos of a dedicated interceptor allowing for a much more capable airframe, the Locusts had been designed with the enormous strategic bombers of the world in mind as their main foes.

Hence, it's possible for them to climb up to within the reach of the Luftwaffe's long-range air-to-air missile, fire, and then drop their straining aircraft back to a height more suited to them, landing, refueling, re-arming, waiting for the next wave of superheavies, certain to be less capable than the nuclear-powered S1000s.

The Locusts, operating over their own country, can't of course utilised the nuclear AAMs deployed by the Swallows out at sea, and how effective their interception is remains unclear, especially in light of the bombers they don't intercept including the ones tasked on nuking Auckland.

So, the capital of God's Own, a hive of industry with more than thirty million inhabitants, is bracketed with nuclear weapons in an orgy of murder and fire.
For murder it purely is, the bombers are sighted, and the citizens rush to their shelters, abandoning their hab-blocks and factories, enormous numbers retreating into the crowded bunkers to wait for the Luftwaffe to drive the invaders off.

Some don't bother to head to their bunkers, confident in the toughness of their buildings, the sheer size of Auckland's dispersed nature or merely the inaccuracy of the bombing to save them.

Those furtherest from the bomb sites have time enough to see the flash, perhaps realising what is coming before shockwaves shatter concrete, smashing towers to the ground, buildings exploding from over-pressure, a long rumble of destruction, ash and dust blasted across the city, flaying citizens caught in the open alive before they're pulped and blasted into ash, shadows cast becoming shadows baked into the concrete of surviving structures on the edge of the blast radii.

Those who did retreat to the shelters fare no better, oxygen sucked from the air above them, then flooding back in super-heated form.
Those not flash-baked in their huddled ranks suffocate, those for which neither happens are either crushed as the bunkers collapse, suffering from forces they were never meant to encounter, or are condemned to a slow death by radiation poisoning in the dark of a sealed bunker.

Within minutes the Allanean strike has killed the better part of 15,000,000 people and will kill an other 8,000,000 within days, perhaps an other 3,000,000 in the weeks following.
What sort of people were they?
Overwhelmingly, civilians, with no connection to God's Own's military or bureaucracy.
The military clusters around its' bases at New Dresden, Linton, New Berlin, the civil administration fill Christchurch to bursting.
Auckland, much as it has ever been, is home to light engineering firms, builders of pumps and piping, windows and boats, makers of ice cream and bread, fishing fleets, trading vessels.
If the Allaneans had bothered to reconnoiter, they'd have known this.
If.
Instead they seal the doom of any hope of a negotiated peace, any hope of a coup against Amadeus.
After all, if a foe is willing to murder thirty million civilians in moments, who knows what they would do if the General Staff and the nation didn't stand against them.

And it is the General Staff and the nation now.

Amadeus Shelford staggers out of the bunker to which he had been hustled when the air raid had been picked up to look upon the ruins of his city, the spire of the Eagle's Talon toppled across the city like a child's discarded toy.
Dust rises, the Fuhrer of God's Own stares on.
The General Staff, dirty, dishevelled, unbelieving stare with him, faces pale, but expressions steely.
At last Amadeus's shoulders raise from the slump they had fallen into on confronting the destruction, his head rises, and he looks to the head of the Luftwaffe.
"Get me a plane."

So are the General Staff left to conduct the war they did not want, but now refuse to lose.

Submarine Warfare for Dummies

The problem for those submarines attacking the fleet, is that submarine actions versus fleet sized units have never been anything but suicidal.
Fleets can organise their defences, there are enough ships to watch each other's backs, there are even vessels dedicated to hunting submarines.
It's a foolish thing to use submarines versus concentrations of enemy warships, so Reichsflotte West proves again for the Bazalonians, sinking those stupid enough to attack the grouped vessels.

What effect they'll have as commerce raiders remains to be seen of course, but the majority of God's Own's trade is with the Reich proper, to the east, in the untouched Reichsflotte East's area of responsibility.
Casualties will be high, then fade away with the traditional response of convoys and extensive patrolling, along with satellite reconnaissance and tracking.
The day of the untraceable U-Boat is dead.

This applies exactly as much to the God's Own U-Boats operating against Allanean vessels, but the fractious and independent nature of those Allaneans, thinking their amateurish self-defence is capable of fighting off professional sailors, inevitably means the rate of exchange is favourable to the Kriegsmarine.

At Sea

With the activation of the Reich ABM net at last, the missile waves abruptly begin to falter, scythed down, the sheer density of the strikes making for easier and more effective targetting, the Fleet's horrendous loss rate dropping to a trickle as more and more missiles are shot down.
This is what they had been waiting for after all, the removal of inherently unstealthy missiles as a significant factor.

Yes, the sea-skimmers do skip from wavetop to wavetop, virtually invisible to the ABM net, but sea-skimmers turning themselves into torpedos is a tricky process, especially in a sea filled with already dying vessels and suicidal Bazalonian submarines.
The Parthian strike is, by the sheer lethality of the ABM net, much more concetrated in effect than the missile strikes, but it still only claims a moderate total of ships, the torpedos bursting against vessels designed to survive hits from the guns of capital ships, something no torpedo, super-cavitating or not, can match.
Less than a dozen more vessels are sunk, none larger than a Prinz Eugen Heavy Cruiser.

The Allanean submarine missiles strikes are similarly neutered, the military builds its' factories around its' principal bases, all of which are well inland, barring RFW's home port of New Plymouth, so in many cases the missiles simply run out of flight time.
Those that have both a reachable target and the luck to avoid the ABM net face enthusiastic, if inevitably ineffective ReichsPatriot fire.

New Plymouth and coastal industries take a beating, but mostly the defences, ammo dumps and the Wehrmacht forces pass unmolested.
Factories burn, but the Reich has many factories.

o.o.c.

Righty.
Firstly, no response to Franberry till you read the ooc thread.
Secondly, pictures!
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Yamatto/Gods%20Own%20Gear/locust.png : Is the God's Own land-based interceptor. It's capable of engaging anything operating up 72,000 feet up, beyond which I'm relying on missile coverage.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Yamatto/Gods%20Own%20Gear/swallow.png : Is the Kriegsmarine's long-range interceptor. It's not as capable as the Locust, but has more endurance. If you're attacking Reichsflotte West you're fighting these and these:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Yamatto/Gods%20Own%20Gear/Kahawai.png which are the Kriegsmarine strike fighter-bomber, as yet to engage because no one has been willing to actually fight the Kriegsmarine yet, rather than throw missiles at it.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Yamatto/Gods%20Own%20Gear/vorpal.png : Is the bomber currently operating at extreme heights and speeds over Allanea.
The camouflage scheme is incidentally the export camo scheme they were provided in, not the current Kriegsmarine one.
Other types will be posted as they're encountered.
Thirdly, Psychos : excellent post. I'll have a response for you once you get a bit closer.
Fourthly : Anyone I forget to respond to, it's not because I'm not going to, it's because there's a lot of you and only one of me. Remind me.

In the air

There are ten strike forces that moved out towards the Reich. Of them, five are destroyed by Reichite ortillery and God's Own fighters. The relatives will be notified – when they can be located in the jumble of refugees, in the chaos of panic and war, in the wreckage of ruined homes or hiding out in retreats far from their official ‘addresses’.

Five remain.

Air Wing Sicarius carries high-yield, laser-guided nuclear munitions – weapons that are commonly known as ‘strategical’ anywhere but in Allanea. In Allanea they are designated ‘One Megaton Tactical, Laser-Guided’. The five aircraft approach the positions of Reichsflotte East, and the pilots press the keys in unison. There is no need to target thte bombs individually – computers simply drop off the munitions at the large, steely shapes below the sensors identify as battleships. This is necessary, for at the speed of the aircraft, no human can target things on the ground without slowing down – which is not necessary.

Only part of the Air Wing’s carrying power is dedicated to these weapons. In total, only two hundred of the bombs are dropped out on Reichsflotte East – Eastern Target Enemy Formation for the Allaneans.

The rest of the cargo are simply seamines, dropped out into the channel separating the Reich from God’s Own itself. They’re not much, but they’ll do for now.

Air Wings Terminandus, Furious, and Isaiah flies over the western shore of God’s Own, carrying 68-megaton devices not unlike those used previously on Auckland. Their targets - New Dresden, Linton, New Berlin.

Air Wing Titanicus sweeps over Reichsflotte West, carrying a charge similar to that of Sicarius – two hundred of the so-called ‘tactical’ nuclear devices. But after they drop them, they are not carrying seamines – indeed, they carry no other weapons at all. They do, however, carry strange, five-ton devices externally resembling bombs. These are dropped out in the sea, where they float happily.

The devices are custom-rigged radio transmitters, with most of the payload constituting of a set of powerful accumulators that give the devices energy to broadcast simple messages, on the frequencies used by civilian radios in God’s Own, and by it’s military ships.

People of God’s Own. As you listen to it, you may know that Auckland has been struck by thermonuclear weaponry. You may know that rumours exist regarding the possible death of Amadeus Shelford himself. You probably know that Allanea did these things, because we were attacked by your nation’s military leadership, out of nothing but hatred towards our lifestyle – and yes, hatred towards our freedom.

You may have heard about the hedonism of Allaneans, about the wealth we relish in selfishly, about the orgies we enjoy. Let us be the first to admit – this is true (except for those of us that choose to follow the tenets of Christianity, Islam, Judaism or any other religion that forbids it).

Indeed, we will not appeal to your pride, to your love of liberty, or to any such feelings – perhaps your pride tells you to fight and never to surrender, perhaps your love of liberty senses that true freedom is the service of the State. This is your private choice. We ask merely for your hearing and your rational capacity.

Even as we speak, at least a thousand Reichsflotte ships had been disabled by our munitions, millions killed, and cities torched by us – and yet our military capacity is yet almost unaffected by your government strikes – and even now, dozens of allies are steaming to the field in our defense. Franberry, Rosdivan, and The Silver Sky are already engaging the Reich’s forces in space, in the air, in the sea – and the Reichite warmachine is already beginning to falter – and dozens of nations have not yet taken the field.

Do you truly think that your government can win the day – and win it in a way that will be worth it to you, your loved ones, your friends? Do you profit from this war? Will you profit from a victory?

We suggest two things: One, we suggest that any God’s Ownii that defects to Allanea will be granted the same access to luxuries, to hedonist pleasures, to orgies and wine and ladies that an Allanean would have – and yet, if his religion forbids such, the same wealth as the nation provides for him will equally pay for a quiet life of devotion. As you listen to this, do not think of the ‘prestige’ of your nation. Think of yourself.

Two, we suggest this to the generals of God’s Own, the tyrant Shelford’s henchmen and assistants – the monster depends on you. If he still is at power, remove him. If he has died by the hand of Allanean bombers, proceed to stage B.

Allanea has no reason to kill everybody in God’s Own. We are ready to accept peace with your nation, if you will but offer it. If you believe – as we may have given you reason to – that we are bloodthirsty monsters – fight on.

We may even be monsters – but our word is ours. Our word of death is true – in our missiles, and bombs, and munitions. But our world of life is also true.

In the meanwhile, the 4th Haven Domination fleet is moving. And the Mephet'ran rockets are ready.

OOC: I think the role of FT warfare needs to be clarified. I was made to understand recently, that there was to be none at all. If this is to be the case, we must adhere to it.

IC:

Greater Prussian Imperial Guard Base: Edolia, Haven

Orders had been issued to Imperial garrisons in all colonies to immediately commence an immediate withdrawal. The Emperor knew that any attempted defense of these colonies would be wasteful and meaningless, and the Reich would most certainly not attack there if they had any strategic know-how at all. Marechal Junot had arrived in the Allanean territories in Haven just over a day ago, and already was hard at work in organizing the withdrawal from Haven and the construction of an Imperial taskforce which would be completed when all withdrawing units linked up with Allanean forces waiting for the opportunity to strike.

This was not to be a total withdrawal. There would be sufficient troop strength to prevent any small scale disturbances in the absence of the whole armed forces...but this seemed unlikely as many of the areas had been treated quite well and were mostly self-ruling. Of the 1.5 million troops based in haven, 1 million were being withdrawn and organized into the Imperial Army of Haven which would be the arrowhead of the soon-to-be ground offensive against the Reich. In addition, several local militaries in Prussian occupied zones had offered troops, totaling near 100,000 men to the cause. It would be nearly impossible to organize off-Earth Prussian ground assets to be thrown into the fray this early, but efforts were being made to incorporate them in the near future as the conflict intensified.

In Greater Prussia Majour, all defenses were quite active. Some around the world had developed the impression that the Empire was technologically behind the times and ill-prepared for a high-tech assault. This assumption, had simple intelligence work been done, would have been proven entirely false. One of the most state of the art nuclear defense systems in existence protected the nations of the Empire, especially those nations upon whom much depended.

It was certain that this war came at a bad time for Reichskamphen. After having endured nuclear strikes against its capitol by domestic terrorists and descending into a long period of anarchy, reconstruction was nearly complete, and some semblance of the former economy of the country nearly restored but only after literally trillions of Reichsmarks had been sunk into the project both by the Imperial treasury, member nations, and foreign donations. But though this war could have come at a better time, it would certain go a great deal towards helping the struggling economy get back on its feet. Factories all accross Reichskamphen reopened and began cranking out war munitions and vehicles at breakneck speed...giving much needed employment to millions.

*In Pantocratonia*

The Reichskamphian Embassy had been buzzing furiously, attempting in vain to gain some type of contact with His Majesty, the Emperor of Pantocratonia before a decision had been made on the matter regarding Pantocratonias stance on the war. Success, however...was unatainable.

Faced with the Emperor's neutrality decree, Emperor Joseph-Napoleon decided he atleast needed to open a dialogue with his fellow Monarch in regards to the provision of humanitarian assistance for those who would need it.

Napoleon knew, however, that the Emperor of Pantocratonia and indeed the entire Imperial family took a dim view as to his legitimacy simply because of his relation to Napoleon Bonaparte. It was decided then, that a man of the cloth should instead be sent under the authority of the Emperor so as not to greatly offend Pantocratonian sensibilities.

A aircraft with no Greater Prussian markings and flying under a flag of neutrality approached Pantocratonian airspace. It's occupant was the High Lord Protector of Reichskamphen, the man who ruled Reichskamphen from day to day while the Emperor managed the affairs of Greater Prussia: Rev. Dr. Peter Graves. A minister for nearly 30 years, Graves was also the Head Pastor at the New Geneva Imperial Cathedral and the Moderator of the PCGPE (Presbyterian Church in the Greater Prussian Empire). It was through his efforts in creating the New Genevan Protectorate that lifted Reichskamphen out of anarchy and saved the lives of millions, and through his recent years as a world leader, he had gained a reputation as one of the most honest and Christian leaders in the world. If a humble, good man like Rev. Graves could not catch the ear of the great Monarch...then it was certain that no one could.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Rosdivan*

It was widely known at the Reichskamphian Embassy in Rosdivan, that High Lord Protector Delvaney was set to issue a decree of Neutrality. It was all but common knowledge, and many were certain that the document could be issued any minute. Yet, still...no formal announcement had been made.

Sensing correctly the urgency of the matter, the Emperor himself had decided to pay a visit to High Lord Protector Delvaney along with his Chief of Staff, ArchDuke Gerhardt Volckner. The plane departed in the utmost secrecy from the Emperor's private air-strip. It was marked as a regular passenger jet from Crown Air, the international airline that was headquartered in New Geneva, and if necessary would fly under a flag of neutrality, but the Emperor did not wish to make anything about the craft seem suspicious.

It was extremely rare for an Emperor of Greater Prussia to travel to another nation himself on a diplomatic mission, let alone in a time of war. This alone displayed the depth of concern the Emperor had for the government and people of Rosdivan.

As the plane entered Rosdivani airspace, it requested clearance from the control tower and a message was forwarded through urgent diplomatic channels to High Lord Protector Delvaney.

"Your Emminence,

Please suspend all action in regards to the Prussian-Reich war momentarily. The Emperor Joseph-Napoleon will be arriving within the hour and he requests an audience with Your Emminence in regards to the matter.

Sincerely,
Amassador Gerard DuHaime

Lord High General Yataghan strode back into the bridge, contentedly sipping from a bottle of bourbon. Conventional wisdom stated it was ridiculous for such a high-ranking officer to be drinking on board the bridge of a military vessel; conventional wisdom, however, paled in the face of Yataghan's tolerance for alcohol. Besides, what did it matter? For now, he was here to sit on this massive metal canoe and watch the pretty fireworks as the Navy did its job. Only when the time came to land would Yataghan and his armies get to do what they did best.

Casting a glare at Admiral Dharus Jamaane, issuing orders to the bridge crew, Yataghan stared out the window of Betrayer of Hope's bridge, revealing a night studded with the myriad lights of the other ships of the fleet. There might have been darkness in the heavens, but below, the Imperial fleet was wrapped in light. An apt metaphor, he thought, for the cleansing light of the gods.

Behind the Lord High General came the sound of a man clearing his throat, and Yataghan turned to regard the messenger. A lieutenant, no doubt with something from Admiral Dharus to say. "Speak."

"My Lord, Admiral Dharus wishes to inform you that we are thirty minutes away from entering the infidel's territorial waters. All ships have been put on full alert, and the aircraft are being scrambled for defensive positions, though we are not aware of any heathen forces in the area. Once the region is confirmed to be secure, your forces will be landed as per Imperial doctrine."

Yataghan nodded and dismissed the man. It was almost time.

Serenity, Capital of Rosdivan

The guardsman was one of the fifty that traditionally served as the Lord Protector's bodyguard. One of their primary duties, though not commonly known, was to pass sensitive messages to the Lord Protector. Like now, as he opened up the door to the Lord Protector's study.

"Your Majesty, important message from the Reichskamphen ambassador. Emperor Napoleon will be arriving shortly and is requesting an audience with you sir," he stated, pulling himself to attention.

Peter Delvaney looked up from his paper Papers, papers, papers, I'm the Lord Papersigner and thought for a moment. "Probably wants to speak with me about that Neutrality Decree. It hasn't been sent out yet, right?" It was a rhetorical question, but there were enough government screwups that it might have gone out.

"No sir, it hasn't," he replied. One might be surprised that a guardsman would know about a top secret thing like that, but there was a reason that all the guardsmen had top secret level clearences. Things like this were part of their normal everyday duties, it was something that they expected.

"Alright, send a message down to the Foreign Ministry and place an immediate hold on the Decree. If we know how the Emperor is arriving, send up a fighter escort as he comes in. Send out some Rotodynes as well to bring him directly here as soon as he arrives."

"Yes sir, right away."

As the war began, the civilian populace of the Shogunate, being rather far away from the fighting, remained relatively unaffected by the happenings. Sure, the news and the papers showed the images, but they were far off and distant. Needless to say, this apathy disturbed the Shogun and his generals. So, they set about to fix this. Throughout the major cities, klaxons and air-raid sirens began sounding off and radio and television broadcasts were cut off.

Attentionall citizens. The Imperial Shogunate is entering a state of war with the Reich. In accordance, the government is introducing total martial law upon the country. Any and all orders from soldiers are to be immediately obeyed. This nation is assuming a state of high alert and all defense stations are activating immediately. The economy is also being placed under temporary state control. Workers and factories are to stand by for new orders.

We are at war. Compete compliance with authorities is expected.

Of course, the shock value was more than enough. The most major changes could bee seen in the capitol city, Honimishu, and the Naval Headquarters at Neo-Nagasaki. Honimishu, an immense city at 50 miles wide by over 300 long, was completely walled and surrounded by moats, with only six routes in or out. The six breaches in the walls contained rocket propelled gates. Lights indicating their status flashed from green to yellow, notifying cars and other vehicles of the possiblity of their sudden closure. Along the walled perimeter, AAA, SAM, and ABM batteries began deploying themselves, preparing for air defense.

Neo-Nagasaki, on the other hand, experienced different preparations. Being on the tip of an island, it had plenty of open beaches; not so suitable for defense. However, with the orders given, huge 45", dual-turret cannons erupted out of the sand, which poured off their faces in torrents. Smaller machine gun nests and AAA, SAM, and ABM batteries uncovered themselves too. Soon, this city was prepared too. Likewise, large cities across the nation unveiled defensive measures. Random emplacements across the nation also activated.

As promised, the government soon began handing out new orders to industry, all geared toward producing ammunition, ships, tanks, bombers, fighters, and all other necessary war materials. The food industry began to be rationed as the military prepared to deploy ground forces, though none had been mobilized yet.
===============================================

The Pschycotian Task Force had passed through Allanean waters uneventfully, and continued on to rendevouz with the main fleet. However, Admiral Yamamoto saw an opportunity. Currently, according to the read-outs, God's Own's fleet was simply sitting in one spot. He happened to have in his fleet a great number of Pices Submergable Battleships. Quickly, he called an officer over. "Order the 8th's 15 Pices to submerge immediately and head for God's Own's fleet at Flank speed. Have them stick below the thermocline until they reach the approximate location of Allanea's fleet. At this point, they'll come above the thermocline to double check the position of the fleet. Meanwhile, order the rest of the fleet to reduce speed to Full."
"Aye, sir."

Yamamoto's strategy called for this: 15 Pices Battlesubs would submerge below the thermocline, rendering them invisible to all sound detecting instruments on the surface, or submerged above the thermocline. They would proceed faster than the main fleet, and thus arrive underneath God's Own's fleet about a day and a half after the Pschycotian/Allanean rendevouz. Here, they would use verticle torpedo tubes to assault the fleet from below, while the fleet was drawing attention to themselves a thousand kilometers away. In a fleet of over a thousand, the disappearance of 15 dreadnaughts would not be noticed.

Several minutes later, Yamamoto looked outside at the fleet to see exactly what his orders called for. The ships were reducing speed from 35 to about 29 knots. 15 ships, however, did not. These ships slowly sank lower and lower, water flowing first over their decks, then their superstructures, and then finally their sensor arrays. About 5 minutes later, SONAR operators confirmed that they lost contact with the ships, according to plan.

*In Pantocratonia*

The Reichskamphian Embassy had been buzzing furiously, attempting in vain to gain some type of contact with His Majesty, the Emperor of Pantocratonia before a decision had been made on the matter regarding Pantocratonias stance on the war. Success, however...was unatainable.

Faced with the Emperor's neutrality decree, Emperor Joseph-Napoleon decided he atleast needed to open a dialogue with his fellow Monarch in regards to the provision of humanitarian assistance for those who would need it.

Napoleon knew, however, that the Emperor of Pantocratonia and indeed the entire Imperial family took a dim view as to his legitimacy simply because of his relation to Napoleon Bonaparte. It was decided then, that a man of the cloth should instead be sent under the authority of the Emperor so as not to greatly offend Pantocratonian sensibilities.

A aircraft with no Greater Prussian markings and flying under a flag of neutrality approached Pantocratonian airspace. It's occupant was the High Lord Protector of Reichskamphen, the man who ruled Reichskamphen from day to day while the Emperor managed the affairs of Greater Prussia: Rev. Dr. Peter Graves. A minister for nearly 30 years, Graves was also the Head Pastor at the New Geneva Imperial Cathedral and the Moderator of the PCGPE (Presbyterian Church in the Greater Prussian Empire). It was through his efforts in creating the New Genevan Protectorate that lifted Reichskamphen out of anarchy and saved the lives of millions, and through his recent years as a world leader, he had gained a reputation as one of the most honest and Christian leaders in the world. If a humble, good man like Rev. Graves could not catch the ear of the great Monarch...then it was certain that no one could.

The Imperial Government was always unimpressed when foreign states sought to send their envoys directly to the Emperor himself rather than to his ministers. It was even stranger when the envoy in question was the effective head of government of Reichskamphen - one might have expected the High Lord Protector to seek a meeting with his counterpart, the Imperial Chancellor. Nevertheless, over the past year and a half in particular, an increasing respect and trust had developed between the Emperor and the Chancellor, and Drapeur knew he could trust the Emperor to respect his position and involve him in such diplomatic discussions even if his involvement wasn't specifically sought after by Reichskamphen.

The Emperor was spending Christmas with his family not in the capital at the Imperial Court of Christ Pantocrator, but at Chantouillet, a palace built for comfort and pleasure in the countryside rather than splendour and magnificence, which wasn't to say that Chantouillet lacked splendour or magnificence, nor that the Imperial Court of Christ Pantocrator lacked comfort or pleasure. Chantouillet wasn't, however, the usual venue at which the Emperor received diplomats, and nor was it as conveniently located for the Chancellor, who had to fly to Chantouillet himself for the second time in as many days to participate in the meeting.

Graves' flight was instructed to land at Chantouillet's airport, an airport not usually used for international flights but which was capable of serving most international aircraft nevertheless, if only because the court often used jumbo aircraft to fly from New Rome to Chantouillet. There the Reverend was met by some officials from the Department of the Imperial Cabinet, who accompanied him in a black Peacock Motors luxury sedan to the palace itself. During the car trip, the officials explained to Graves that he would be meeting with both the Emperor and the Imperial Chancellor simultaneously, and answered any questions he might have had about procedure, etiquette, and so on. Outside the car the weather was cold, grey and wet, although not snowing or blowing a gale.

At the palace itself, the Varangians wore heavy overcoats as part of their Winter guard uniforms. They stood on attention in the rain as Graves was shown inside, emerging into an antechamber followed by a long hallway. This ended in a white marble spiral staircase whose walls were decorated with portraits of the Imperial Family, mostly from before the Empress' death. The tightly spiralled staircase went up several levels, with nowhere to stop and rest on the way up. By the time he reached the top, unless he was in very good shape for a man of his age, Graves would be huffing and puffing, as were the public servants accompanying him. Another long hall ended in a door guarded by two Varangian Guardsmen on each side, at which point the public servants bid Dr Graves adieu and slipped away. As soon as they had disappeared into an adjacent room, the doors between the guardsmen swung open.

Beyond, in the room at the end of the west wing of the palace, filled with grey light from the windows all about which overlooked the palace grounds, seated upon a purple cushion on a rococo, gold-leaf covered chair, was the Emperor, wearing a jacket covered in diamonds, which sparkled in the light. He wore no other regalia - being away from the far more formal palaces of New Rome, and not anticipating that he would receive a foreign head of state's envoy. Standing off to the side of the room, wearing a fairly ordinary looking business suit, stood Thibault Drapeur, who had turned away from studying the painting behind him to look to the doorway. The only other people in the room was the Emperor's Champion and Chief Domestic, Sir Constantine, who had opened the door, a large, broad shouldered man wearing a Varangian officer's uniform.

"Your Majesty, the Reverend Doctor Peter Graves, the Greater Prussian Emperor's envoy." Sir Constantine said by way of introduction.

OOC: Consider my earlier post voided do some confusion

IC

The 2nd Combine High Seas Fleet passed thought Allanean waters and arrived when the sea battle was reaching its peck, the fleet waited for the order from the flagship to begin their attack runs on the West Reichsflotte.

On Aboard the A.M.S.S Baibars (Europa-class Super Dreadnought)

Flag Rank Admiral Ivan Fedoseevich Botsis, order all the naval air wings (200-SU-37, 400 MIG-35 FULCRUMS, and 600 F-20B Enforcer) were deployed and took up air patrols around the fleet, to defend the fleet from attack from the air. Plus 20 E-2 Hawkeye took to the skies to be the eye in the sky for the fleet.

After all the naval air wings were deployed, the Admiral given the go ahead for the fleet to make its strike, battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers, and missile cruisers of the fleet opened up their vertical launch tubes and begin firing away, they fired 400 AGM-240 anti-ships missiles, their targets were the capital ships in the West Reichsflotte, The missiles first climbs to approximately 100,000 feet, speeding up to roughly mach 7. Once over the target, the missile's engine temporarily shuts off, and a forward thrust nozzle kicks in, pointing the missile straight downward. The engine then turns back on, propeling the missile to an incredible speed of over mach 20. A large DU spike is used to pierce the deck armor of the ship, allowing the ONC warhead to detonate inside the vessel.

Then the missiles cruisers, destroyers, and frigates fired their SS-N-22 anti ships (200) missiles at West Reichsflotte, to take out the support ships of the West Reichsflotte, and weaken the fleet defenses.


One SSBN sub of the fleet, rose to fighting depth and fired 30 SLBMs load with high yield warheads of 100 kts, their target is New Plymouth.

Also the KLM SDI defense extends their operation range to cover Allanea, in order to give more protection to their allies.

In the sky
The lead CIWS aircraft fired its weapons, but it was to no avail, there were too many missiles and they were too fast. The first missile exploded, and the leading plane was engulfed in a ball of fire.

"ALL BOMBERS FIRE MISSILES" The mission commander yelled, a split second after the words were out of his mouth and the CIWS line in its entirety was gone. The first wave of bombers had just gotten its bomb-bay doors open when the first were falling, some were losing their wings, some where completly engulfed by the fireball. The second wave had a bit more luck, and got off some of its anti-ship ordenace fired, but, they too fell before the nuclear-tipped weapons. The missiles continued to tear through the formation, only a few bombers being spared.

Second-in-Command Yalo, now first in command due to the first AWACS being torn in two, made his way to the radar room.
"How many are left"
"About 10 to 15% of the formation"
"Have them turn around and head for Franberry, tell the fighters to cover us"
"Yes sir"

Commander Yalo picked up the secure line to high command as the F-100 Dolps started to cover and attack the enemy fighters.

"We have been attacked with nuclear weapons"
--------------------------------------------------
At Sea
"Sir, we have been ordered to retaliate with nuclear weaponry"
"What? Let me see that"
The ensign handed him the order papers, Admiral Cral read it quickly, stood there thinking for a split second, and then burst into giving a mulititude of orders.
"Engage nuclear stockpiles now, ready the nuclear capable SAMs, all fleet aircraft to be fitted with nuclear missiles, turn towards the wind, and away from the enemy fleet. And fire ballistic missiles, nuclear or not, towards the enemy fleet, to be timed right after the bomber's ones."
"Yes sir!"

Hatches on the ballistic tubes slid into the deck, large missiles flew into the sky from every major warship, more fighters took to the sky, and the deck of every ship was covered in smoke from the exaust, it was a bad day to be a seaman.

Thousands of missiles streaked through the air, the destruction of Reichflotte west was at hand.
----------------------------------------------------
Strategic Missile Command
"We have been authorized to fire"
"Heh"

The soldiers punched co-ordinates, pasworrds and verification codes into the computers.
"Ready to fire"
"Ready"
"Missiles are ready"

The loudspeaker crackled, then hummed, and then a voice came on.
"Brave soldiers of Franberry, it is time to retaliate against Gods Own, an agressive nation wich saw itself fit to attack without warning at our peaceful allies. Haste is the theme of the day, so I shall not bother you any longer, you have your targets. FIRE"

The men turned their keys, and pushed down upon the red buttons.

It was not a large strike, and only a puny fraction of the Franberrian arsenal, but nevertheless, 280 ICBMs flew out of their silos, rocketing towards the sky, and then 50 each to the Gods Ownii ports of Invercagill, Dunedin, Christchurch, Blenheim and Greymouth. The 30 missiles left over would rain down upon Reichflotte east, Gods Ownii was going to cease to exsist as a nation with offensive capabilities.

The Gospel

"CRUSADE!"

A word, a scream, a mission. No longer could this be about defending Eden - no, it had to be about destroying the metahuman filth that dared to touch Eden!

At the churches and cathedrals, in the villages and cities, in the mountains and in the fields, everywhere, the word was heard, and everywhere, they knew that they had to follow the call!

And those not conforming to the ideals of the Seraphim, those not blinded by the splendor of THE LORD, those with a definition of 'Truth' different from the one adopted by the Seraphim...

They were few, and they were weak.

Still, they talked, and thought. But interfering? This was impossible.

For now, anyway.

The Open Sea

Tickticktickticktick.

The trickle of revelations - orders - that arrived on board of the Ezekiel 1:8 was received quite excitedly.

Finally, the sinners would be punished!

Indeed, they'd dared to touch the chosen of THE LORD - and this couldn't remain without response, couldn't go without revenge.

Calculations followed, based on the observed defensive capabilities of the Allanean defence networks, as well as the ones presumed to be available to its allies.

The parameters of the launch were based on the results this calculations and simulations showed. To EC, a nuclear exchange had to involve proportional response - destroying everything outright in a MAD scenario was, of course, possible, but it wouldn't be as glorious as a more conventional approach. It would lack the purifying qualities of fire, the beauty of body and soul... It'd be mindless destruction, pointless, worthless.

Nonetheless. They couldn't accept being destroyed en masse without proving that they, too, were capable of destroying their enemies outright, capable of crushing the demons that dared to menace the chosen of THE LORD.

And this the Ezekiel 1:8 did, in concert with a handful of sistercraft.

A salvo, meant to just so get through, causing destruction and death on a scale quite equivalent to the Allanean attack on EC - no more, no less.

Well, in theory. In practice, the opponent's missile defence capabilites weren't perfectly well (Though, after all the attacks until this point, well enough) known, so a bit of guesstimation had to go into it.

And as 'Less' was not an option, 'More' was a necessity. Quiet-like, not stealthy, but fast.

They launched, missiles going to heaven only to return, causing hell on earth.

Naval Engagement

Ten missiles.

Boom.

Countermeasures engage. Nine missiles.

Boom.

Excessive fire from assorted anti-missile batteries. Eight missiles.

Boom.

Zero missiles - and the Revelations 13:1 is gone, too, a hail of fire far, far too much for its mere forty-eight kton frame hitting it, slicing it apart, almost literally pulverising it - survivors? Well, there's a few feathers floating on top of the sea, there's a nuclear reactor cooking over and sinking to the bottom of the same... And that's about it.

Of course. That's one ship.

The problem is, there's more.

And they, quite unlike their Allanean counterparts, don't show any restraint when it comes to firing at the fleets that dare to touch the holy soil of Eden. They don't resist, and although the first may by now run out of missiles - there's always more one can load up in the harbours.

There's something to be said about fighting near one's own bases.

The Gospel. Sphere of the Seraphim

Blink.

Uriel sort of stared at the transmission the Allaneans had sent, and couldn't believe it. Sure, he was used to a lot - being one of the few people in the Gospel who thought for themselves, this was sort of a given.

And the Allaneans clearly thought less than he did.

A 'Transmission'.

The implications were manyfold. First, EC and Allanea didn't shares encryption codes - this meant that the message had been sent en clair, for everyone to read. Uriel didn't know what Allanea's allies would think of this, nor what the Allaneans themselves, hearing that their government was preparing to make peace with quite possibly the most horrific nation in the Reich, would think about...

But he knew that there was only one possible response for this he could sent back, as much as he did want to end this conflict (Being nuked generally being detrimental to one's health, and Uriel having a survival instinct saw to that).

This said... Who knew? No names had been given, no names of governmental figures with the power to actually negotiate.

Nothing.

Besides, whoever choses to target multimillion-strong cities with nuclear weapons in the same moment they sent a message of peace needs some serious lectures on 'How to conduct Diplomacy'.

Communique of the Gospel of Eden

Never shall the righteous cease their fight against the impure heathen who dare touching Eden! Never will we forget about our brethren in Gods Own, never shall we leave them alone in the hour of need!

Our hearts are pure, our faith is strong! Only in death can the crimes of the impure be forgiven, and only in bringing the light to the darkness can we fulfill our duty!

The Gospel will stand behind its brothers and sisters of Gods Own, forever!

~ Metatron

Somewhat less publically, and using the rather complex, labyrinth-esque paths through Iesus Christi and Vegana to leave the Reich to eventually show up in some other entity, be it Pantocratoria, The Danaan Kingdom, Eurusea, or some such place, from where it might just reach something Allanean (Specifically, something Allanean that also happens to be an embassy), is a noticeably tamer notice, this one being signed (Allegedly) by Uriel.

Its content suggests a more private meeting to discuss issues of peace, mutual conduct, the likes.

Preferably in a place that lacks observation. Confidentiality is key.

At Sea

Raptors, they were. Raptors, intend on taking what was theirs, on destroying the evil that dared to inflict itself on the purity of Eden! They were manyfold, and rapidly increasing in numbers, as reinforcements from anywhere near the reich were joining the battle, a constant trickle of forces, only occasionally weakened - insignificantly weakened - by subs sneaking through, and demanding their tribute.

But this alone... Wasn't enough. It'd never be enough to stop the flood that was now rising, slowly, but determined.

The raptors in the sky? Just the beginning. The beginning of a nigh-endless wave of destruction.

They swept across the skies, shooting at pretty much everything they came across, be they planes or missiles (Or, in case of the planes that were carrying heavier ordnance, ships), while exulting in the glorious pleasure this feast of blood for THE LORD this was.

Of course, while they were absurdly well-armed and fairly fast, they were notably un-stealthy, not exactly of above-average maneuverability, and flying around in the age of third-or-higher generation of SAMs.

And regardless of where they attacked, the casualties were heavy. Horrific, even, if they hadn't come from a nation that was willing to accept just about every loss.

But even in their last moments, half dead and about to impact, all the pilots could think of was THE LORD and his glory. Their glory. Indeed, scarcely was there a guarding of mankind who feared, who expressed his pain, screaming, crashing to death in a ball of light - they were there, certainly, souls too weak for the trials of THE LORD, but they were few and far between.

The battle was now raging, and even though only a small fraction of EC's high-seas fleet (And its ground-based forces) were participating, THE LORD saw fit to guide their comrades to the battlefield, to watch over them as they fulfilled their holy duty.

Fwump, fwump, fwump, fwump, fwump, fwump, fwump.

The pair of Wasp Attack Helicopters and the single Transport Goshawk thundered over the hilltops, keeping fairly low to the ground. The Goshawk pulled up hard as it flew around to the landing pad, the two distinctive Wasp’s lowered the back section which contained the chain gun and scanned the area as the Goshawk began to switch to idle.

A single figure crouched in a distinctive blue suit and skirt moved slowly from the helicopter and saluted the two officers meeting her.

“Grand Marshal. Good to see you.” replied one of the officers, his massive bulk and dark pallid skin with wide head and beady eyes immediately denoted him as one of the Goron Race. If that wasn’t enough of a clue he was nearly 7 feet tall and easily towered over the other two people.
“Thanks.” replied the woman, she was only 5 foot two and was tiny, even next to the tall male human who stood next to the Goron, her name was Grand Marshall Emma Thompson. “Well, what is the situation? I only got some idea from the brief situation report.

“Allanea is now threatening to use its Nuclear Arsenal.”
“I see.”
“We also have the request for Operation Thunder to go ahead.”
The Grand Marshal sighed.
“What about the timetable of Operation Bowstring?”
“We’re still unsure as to wether to commit ourselves to that.” rumbled the Goron, his small beady eyes blinking nervously.
Emma Thompson nodded and stopped for a moment deep in thought while the cold mist rolled in.
“The Government wont be issuing a statement about Operation Thunder should we go ahead.” replied the male as he took her in with his powerful green eyes.
“The Greatest thing about Thunder is that our defensive Ortillery positions run around the globe in the same line as Allanea, infact over some of their own nukes and such, along with their costal artillery. I mean, it is do-able, is it not?”
“Of course it is Grand Marshal.” replied the Goron with another disinterested blink.
“Then we proceed, allow the Reich troopers to arrive.”

The encrypted chatter would actually bounce around in space off of several sats before arriving in Vegana, at present the Midlonian Greater Kingdom had closer ties with Christi itself due to the massive-in-roads made into the luxury goods market in that nation itself, it had also set up an embassy in Vegana in order to begin the economic break-in of that nation, among other things. The problem was as it now stood the Midlonians were being forced out of their market by the usual aggressive rhetoric of the Allaneans, at least the Reich admitted it was bat-shit insane as opposed to a “defender of democracy” that had targeted an entirely civillian city. Unlike the historic first properly recorded explosions of the A-Bomb (the tests in the 1930’s in the Reich not included as officially recognised history) Auckland was indeed a civilian city, unlike Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which had housed incredibly large numbers of troops at the time.

Unlike most conventional nations the Reich ministries tended to spread themselves out. What Allanea had done was really unforgivable and was upsetting the delicate balance Midlonia liked to keep, as such they had cast the die, and it had turned onto the Reich.

Against The United States of Allanea.

Against its more Neutral Line it was going to mediate at that point.

The burst of transmission to Vegana was brief, very brief in fact that the amount of chatter that was currently going on, it could easily be missed.

“Thunder is preceded by lightening.”
It was the signal that Veganan ‘refugees’ could begin ‘fleeing’ to the Greater Kingdom in Haven.

Station Stûrmglocke

Winston looked in awe as the Allanean bombers somehow managed to fly through the thousands of magnesium objects falling in flames and melting by attacking lasers. He shook his head, that was a miracle. They must have underestimated Allanean craft, most people would have said it was impossible, maybe a mirage, but here they were taking almost no damage as they the burning magnesium apparently bounced of the superhardened wings of the bombers. He immediately lifted the phone and pressed the button; "This is Captain W. Anchor. Send up fighters to engage the enemy. They somehow got through our defense and nuked a city in Gods Own. May god have mercy on their souls."

Now, he thought, for those approaching fleets.

The Ortillery angled itself down towards the approaching ships. Ortilery is no surgical strike weapon, it doesn't even have decent enough precision to hit a house. But it doesn't need to, the kinetic energy is often in parity with nuclear weapons but without the bad nuclear waste. Since the fleets were approaching their territorial borders the angle was not perfect, it only reached about 70 degrees which would reduce the effect a little. The operators aimed as good as possible before they sending three rods towards each of the approaching fleets. The huge lumps of metal started to glow before hitting the area. With the power of 10 megatons TNT each they hit water hard as concrete due to the high velocity it was struck with. The effect was amazing, A fire ball with almost a kilometre in radius emerged around each of the rods with a mindnumbing boom that even at the verge of the fireball reached 130 decibels. The heatwave struck everything within a 5 kilometre radius, setting clothes on fire and burning flesh and skin with a wind speed of 200 meters per second, as far away as 10 km any unprotected body would still receive first degrees burns. Following the heatwave and the airblast came a 30 meter high wave, travelling with almost 600 km/h. The sea had come alive, seismographs would register each ortillery hit as 5,3 on the Richter scale, as a small crater was created on the sea bottom.

From space they could not see the impact with their bare eyes but their instruments showed waves spreading on the sea like rings in water, hitting the coast of the Reich much weakened but still several meters high. The fishermen must have wondered what kind of storm far out in the sea that had created this. The operator thought about his family who lived in a coastal town on the east coast. He prayed no children had been out playing on the beaches and got caught by the high waves.




Western Reich, Airbase 15d

In Sector West15 four wings of fighters took off. Wing commander Frank Lee looked to his left and his right to see if his comrades were keeping formation. Apparently the enemy was busy dropping mines in the strait and needed to be engaged ASAP. He glanced at his instruments, they had an ETA of 7 minutes, they better make their best of those minutes and get more information about these invincible bombers.

-"This is Frank Lee speaking. Three minutes ago Gods own was bombed by nuclear bombs. This is the first time it ever has happened in the Reich, we are engaging the murderous bastards in seven minutes. Lets spend those minutes for a silent prayer for the innocent people dying by that terrorist act brothers. lets pray."



Open Communique

The Peaceloving nation of Vegana has today accepted the brave country of Midlonias humanitarian offer to take some of our youths under their protection. We pray for these refugees that are forced to leave The Reich due to the inhuman threat by the pact of Evil. Our prayers go to them and to the Midlonians who so generously accepted them into their arms

~Information MInister, Harald Hardrad




The Harbour

The 150 ships were filled with people as they steered out towards the witing Midlonian escort. They waved to their loved ones as they left the harbour. They knew they wouldn't see their families for a long time, for some maybe never again. The huge ships were escorted by a few destroyers but other than that they were in the hands of the Midlonians. They would reach the end of their journey within a week, but the week would move slowly crammed in a ship.

Hope this is okay, Allanea. Just my sideline commentary.

IC:

Somewhere in Vrak…

-Do we involve ourselves?
-We cannot. Mainly because we still have the war in Clairmont and also other affairs closer to home.
-You mean the Vaadians.

Sigh. Then an eruption in anger.

-Of course I mean the Vaadians you pakrah! Who else causes such an annoyance to the Klatch with their constant smug attitude and bullying in with as much grace as a… as a…
-Walrus in fishbowl?
-Something like that. And don’t forget Timaru and Moskau.
-Let’s hope that the new president will be able to restore some unity.
-As much as can be expected of course. Unless every state is willing to give up more freedom. I can’t see that happening. No. A common cause, purpose, or crusade is needed to unite us.
-So why do you want to get involved in the Reich/GPE war?
-I necessarily don’t. But then again, I would like to see the world rid of Allanea.
-They have a nasty habit of coming back.
-Flipper fungi can come back as well and no one grants it admiration.
-Well, it is amazing how they came back after being obliterated by Zero One and then occupied by Sentient Peoples.
-Yes, it is. But then, that was mostly due to the help of the Greater Prussian Empire. I tell you, if I were Napoleon IV, I would wonder why am supporting such a blokk pakrah.
-If we decide to give even nominal aid to the Reich, then Greater Prussia would be after us. And why would we risk it? We’ve sent out diplomatic feelers to them and they were most receptive.
-I know, but Allanea is, in a word, a liability. It would be better if the GPE cut them adrift. After all, why should smart people be dragged down by the stupid?
-Some may say that about the Klatch.
-True, but I would like to think that the FKC is more misunderstood rather than have any actual cretins in our ranks.
-And during the Drakonian crisis when AWM “bombed” some ships with turkeys, that doesn’t qualify?
-Well, we all can’t be perfect. Still, I suppose you are right. We can’t do anything now. As well, let us see how this war plays out. It does give us an opportunity to collect data on all the combatants.
-Why not initiate a peace move?
-We aren’t as well known to the players. And I don’t know if either side is willing to talk.

Defiance or Truth? The Catholic Church in Cherry Ridge criticises the war, calling both sides unjust.

ooc: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=12114427

OOC: Just in case there is any confusion, I am off the eastern coast of the northern island, now some distance inside God's Own's territorial waters; (by the way, God's Own, what's the adjective form of your name?) specifically, around latitude 40, longitude 178. And I'm assuming your territorial waters extend 50 nautical miles from the mainland.

IC: Admiral Dharus Jamaane gazed at the huge tactical display on the Betrayer of Hope's bridge. Although there were now many thousands of tiny blips on the display, representing aircraft as well as vessels, with subtle touches of color designating them as transports, fighter-bombers, or whatever they might be, not a single enemy ship was on the display. Looked like they had caught the infidels napping.

He walked over to a bridge tech and leaned over the officer's shoulder. "Inform all ships, the area is secure; prepare to launch standard assault on my command." Turning to a second communications tech, the Admiral ordered, "Get me Lord High General Yataghan. He should be aboard the Relentless." The tech nodded and typed something into his keyboard; pressing a few buttons, he then offered Admiral Dharus a small microphone as an image of Yataghan appeared in a corner of the screen.

"Ah. My Lord. I trust your trip over to the Relentless was comfortable?"

"As comfortable as it could have been in a tiny boat on choppy seas at night."

"Excellent. Well, my Lord, we'll be opening fire shortly. I just wanted to inform you."

"Thank you. We'll be ready. If that's all, Blood and Honor."

"Blood and Honor," Dharus murmured as the connection was cut off.

***

Minutes later, the Imperial fleet opened fire. From the vast 29.5-in quad turrets on the Apophis-class superdreadnaughts to the Pandemonium II incendiaries of the Silencer-class missile submarines, a terrifying storm of firepower was hurled from the myriad launchers and turrets of the fleet.

This massive bombardment was directed at the three landing sites from which the Imperial ground attack would begin. Everything standing in the area was targeted by a whirlwind of destruction, capable of annihilating bunkers and smashing armored installations. The thousands of aircraft in the air above the fleet spread out, preparing for a counter-attack from Fascist ground-based aircraft. There was a brief silence while the fleet reloaded before opening fire again.

Once the bombardment was complete and the area was secure...then the invasion would begin.

OOC: Summary of bombardment: (total out of two waves, distributed over three landing areas)

35,712 Pandemonium II firebombing missiles (these basically make a big explosion and set fire to the stuff around them), 96 29.5-inch shells, 360 14-inch shells, 72 8-inch shells, 5,458 6-inch shells, 3,500 Vanquisher missiles.

OOC: Panto, since you spoke about Graves being informed of proper etiquette, we will assume if his etiquette is wrong to some extent, it will be disregarded as he was supposedly told the correct procedure.

Imperial Decree on the Usage of Nuclear Arms and Other WMDs in the Reich War

Penned on this day of _____________, 2---, in the nation of Rosdivan.


Whereas the Greater Prussian nation of Allanea was unjustly attacked with nuclear weapons by the Reich nation of God's own.

Whereas the Greater Prussian nation of Allanea justly, yet unadvisably returned fire in like manner

Whereas the level of Nuclear exchange threatens to increase and threaten civilian lives on all sides.

Whereas we are the Emperor of Greater Prussia and have ultimate and final legislative authority on all matters Imperial

Wheras we are not the Sovreign of all nations involved in the alliance against the Reich and cannot actively change national policy in those nations

We hereby Decree that no nation owing its allegiance to the Greater Prussian Crown, and Allanea in particular, shall cease henceforth to employ Nuclear weapons against any population until such time as it becomes a dire necessity for the survival of the civilian populations of the Empire. We feel that the escalation we are now threatened with must be stopped. As a Christian Empire, Greater Prussia has an obligation to protect the civilians of the Reich.

We hereby heartily encourage all other member nations of the alliance against the Reich to cease and desist all use of tactical nuclear weapons until such time as it become a dire necessity for the survival of your civilian populations.

Let it be so.

By the Grace of God, Joseph-Napoleon the First, Emperor of Greater Prussia, King of Reichskamphen, Sovreign of all Imperial Colonies, Defender of the Faith, Minister to the World.


*Pantocratonia*

Graves breathed a deep sigh of relief as he walked into the Palace. It seemed just like home. In all of his travels, he had never come accross such similar architecture and decorative styles as in New Geneva. He almost felt at home, but did his best to maintain the proper level of tension within his mind so that he not be caught off guard.

When the door opened, Graves bowed deeply being sure not to make eye contact with the Emperor. "Your Majesty, I greet you in the name of His Imperial Highness, the Emperor of Greater Prussia, and in my own name as I am also exceedingly pleased to make your acquaintance."

Graves did his best not to mention the Emperor's name, even though he knew it was a matter of common knowledge, he was well aware that the mentioning of that name could send fits of rage through the spines of traditional Royalists such as these in Pantocratonia.

Graves then turned to the Imperial Chancellor. "I also greet you, Your Emminence, in the name of the Emperor of Greater Prussia and myself."

"Permission to approach?"

*Rosdivan*

Napoleon was quickly conveyed by motorcar to the location of High Lord Protector Delvaney. He was exceedingly impressed by the efficiency of the Rosdivanians and grateful as well. Ever since the Reich war had begun, his security had been put on Alert Level Red, and every minute he was exposed outside of multiple rings of security was a dire risk to his life.

The Emperor's escorts guided him through the office building of the High Lord Protector and eventually to the door of Delvaney himself. As the doors opened to reveal Delvaney standing there, Napoleon immediately saw that this man was certainly the equal of any monarch, and accordingly treated him as such. He could not tell whether Delvaney would be receptive to a handshake or a hug, or how he prefered to be greeted, so Napoleon simply stepped forward and offered his hand with a smile. "Your Emminence, I am Joseph-Napoleon. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance."

*Vrak* (After the completion of affairs in Rosdivan)

As soon as affairs in Rosdivan were concluded Napoleon bid a cordial adieu to the government officials there and immediately headed for the nation of Vrak.

His father, Napoleon IV, had once visited Vrak to participate in the funeral of the late King. Sadly he was called away by troubles at home. This would be Joseph-Napoleon's first visit to the country which is father had spoken so well of...assuming they would allow him to land.

The Plane which was originally intended to return immediately to the Empire was headed en route to Vrak. This time, it was under a flag of neutrality and being escorted by two Imperial Fighter wings that rendez-voused with the Emperor's jet after his departure from Rosdivani airspace. A message had been forwarded to the appropriate authorities in Vrak in the most urgent diplomatic channels requesting an audience with either the King of the most appropriate figure for the Emperor to discuss these pertainant issues with. Joseph knew that despite Vrak's neutrality, he may be able to secure their assistance in the provision for refugees on either side of the war and that human lives were simply to precious to leave to chance.

Naval Warfare

The attack by the Endless Crimes aircraft and Veganan ortillery causes it’s damage, as expected. Dozens and dozens of ships are destroyed – fifteen arsenal ships, three oilers, three carriers, ten escort ships, fifteen missile cruisers. The names go on and on and on – the Eliminator, the Keelbreaker, the Venus, Zeus, Adonis, Charles de Coster… names, and names and names, and thousands of dead.

As for the ballistic nuclear attacks Endless Crimes fired at Allanea, by now, it is too late. Allanea is now protected by not only it’s own ABM network, but by Greater Prussia’s, Sovereign Leagues, Ottoman Khaif’s, Praetonia’s, and, apparently, Psychotic Psychos’ ABM shields. So all the Endless crimes attack does is offer the Allaneans some nice fireworks.

From the Allanean ships, too, aircraft rise, missiles are fired, CIWS flares to life to defend against the Reichites. Ten of the Second Amednemnt class arsenal ships clean their tubes, targeting the Endless Crimes fleet with all they have – five thousand missiles full.

The fleet takes up motion – away from Endless Crimes forces, and towards Reichsflotte West. Finally now – the time to do battle is come.

But aboard the carrier Admiral Kolchak, there may be more important things for Grand Admiral Leonard Akston to contemplate.

Even as the wreckage of war is cleaned off the deck, even as damaged and now-useless aircraft are pushed overboard, even as the sailors begin to bury their dead in the famous fashion of the sea – by tying their bodies to a heavy weight and tossing it in the sea – even that, Leonard Akston is already pacing towards a more important item – a small group of prisoners – aircraft crew that bailed out, or otherwise were taken alive and fished out of the water.

“I want these people to be sent back to Allanea. I am ordering – “ - he listed off the arsenal ships that have wasted their ammunition capacity, and several dozen ships that were damaged – “these ships to return to port. The Haven Domination fleet arriving shall hopefully bolster our resources. “

In Allanea

In the uncertainty of war, rumour is king. Even now, rumours begin to rule over the civilian population, and no newspaper or official report – especially no official reports – can dispel them. An army recruiter in Randsburg is beaten horribly, and a revenue office in Allanean Nevada is burned down to the ground.

The reason? Simple – Allanea has offered negotiation to Endless Crimes. Many now believe that the government is now engineering some form of surrender – and are horrified by this. The amount of refugees using the streams of aircraft leaving Allanea is now tripled, and sixty million people leave on the second day of warfare.

In the meanwhile, the Allanean government does make an announcement.

Official Message From President Alexander Kazansky

From now on out, the Allanean military is ordered to stand down from Delta Zeta Four status. Considering that the target selection and intelligence of the military have already proven itself faulty numerous times, I now use my authority as President and Commander in Chief to order it to stand down from the option of strategic weapons use. From now on, only the use of nuclear munitions against enemy fleets and satellites is authorized.

As for the Endless Crimes government – we offered peace, and they rejected us. Now, none can berate what we will inflict upon them.

In the meanwhile, in a bar in Pantocratoria, or some other neutral country, a scruffy-looking stranger sits, keeping his appointment.

Elsewhere

It is dark in President Kazansky’s office – perhaps as dark he feels now. He reads evacuation reports – sixty million people more evacuated to now-neutral Rosdivan, to Kahanistan, to Rejistania, to more nations that are not part of the conflict. He reads casualty lists - . He reaches a decision.

Kazansky gives more orders, and then, when all are given, turns his attention to his computer.

Dear Miriel!

I have never written to you before – more correctly, I have never sent you letters before. I do not quite know what you make of me – I presume a patethic madman, perhaps a butcher. You are, so I am told…. what is the polite word? Romantically involved. You do not care the least what I may think of you, or what I may feel.

Do not misunderstand me. I wish you to be happy in your relationship, for as long as possible. I hold no false hopes or illusions. I do not hope for your love, or even your friendship – nor in fact do I hope to meet you agin. All I ask is for you to read my letters. They will be infrequent, I promise.

As of now, I have given you more reason to think I am a butcher. I have ordered the killing of over fifty million sapients in the last several days, and my associates have carried my orders out with enthusiasm that both fascinates and appalls me. Somewhere on the safe surface of Delta Zeta Four you may feel revulsion at me for doing so, and not understand how one can be fascinated by such bloodlust. May the gods keep Governor Sharan blessed for keeping you safe.

I will not seek to exculpate myself of the guilt in this incident – it is probable that my wording of the address, with which I started the original anti-Reich conference is part of the excuse, if not the reason for this. (I believe, myself, that given the natures of Allanea and the Reich, a war would be inevitable at some point of time, regardless).

So be it. It is my fault.

Do not believe for a second it does not hurt me to do it. I have killed people on the field of battle – in ways that would make you shudder in horror to hear of – but this is much different, and this is much worse. But I have done it not out of hatred or vengeance – I don’t believe in vengeance – but out of necessity alone. It’s a feeble excuse, and it leaves me guilty, but there it is. I did it because I had to.

Lady Miriel, think of me what you will, despise me as you will – but I want you to know that what I am doing, I am not doing out of hatred, or out of vengefulness – it’s neither.

I may be ruthless, I may be pathetic, I might be even insane, but certainly I am no butcher. The things that I have to order done speak against me, and I know you will not believe me for a second. But it’s you I love so dearly, it’s you that must hear this…

He pauses, and then looks at the computer screen. In the cold light of the device, it all somehow seems ridiculous, meaningless… perhaps counter productive.

CTRL, and an ‘A’.

The screen is now coated in black.

‘Delete’.

The screen is now white again.

The letter will remain unsent.

Well, maybe I’m still not over her after all…

It wasnt but a few hours after the Emperor's decree on nuclear weapons usage that the nuclear arsenal of Reichskamphen and the nuclear Arsenal of the Greater Prussian Empire were being sent into action.

In Greater Prussia, the Emperor is at the hub of a vast SDI network that includes vast nuclear stockpiles in almost every member nation that are not accessible to the national leaders, but respond only to the Emperor's beck and call. The exact number of ICBM's that the Emperor had control of was classified, but it could be sure that due to the size of Greater Prussia as compared to the Soviet Union...the Soviet's paled in comparison. This is not to say in addition to the nuclear arsenals of the individual nations which would doubtlessly accompany any Imperial assault.

This attack though, would not violate the decree so recently set down. 25,000 MIRV's were launched on 2500 missiles upon the command of Joseph-Napoleon and Marechal Alexandre Brune in conjuction with the Dersconi state under Tsar Xavier. These ICBM's were pre-programmed to detonate in orbit targetting the Reich/Veganian sattelites.

resolved

RV Thuringwethil

Captain Maslan Reva sat in the tiny cabin of the nuclear submarine, playing with a small pendulum, a plumb line, in fact, from which a lead weight in the shape of an inverted teardrop hung. The steady thrum of the propeller shaft far at the aft of his ship was timed with the gentle sway of the plumb line. He’d been feeling rather extraneous since the ‘passengers’ had come aboard his boat. He’d persuaded most of them to go down and lurk in the auxiliary machinery room where they couldn’t creep the crew out, but one of the bloody things insisted on being in the CIC, which was… irritating, and everyone who didn’t have to be there was avoiding the place.

The tannoy squawked with a young voice, “Captain Reva to the CIC, captain Reva to the CIC,” and he put his little toy down. They were probably near to their destination, as well as the end of their logistical capacity now. He lifted the bolt of the hatch to his cubicle, and squeezed into the narrow companionway.

It was there, a castellan, standing incongruously between two of the antiquated looking computers of the CIC, burnished metal and white robes, perfectly still, like some strange decoration.

“Captain on deck,” someone snapped, morale was obviously improving just at the prospect of being rid of the thing, “We’re there, sir,” he added. “We’re coming up on the territorial waters of the former state of Objectivist Insurgents.”

“Very good. Anything on sonar?”

The sonar officer reached up and pushed a button at the top of his desk, and the screen lit up a moment later, blue and white.

“No sir,” he said after a moment, “At least, nothing yet.”

“Very good. Mister Kyle, bring us to within torpedo range of the shore and then to periscope depth.”

“Aye sir.”

The Sky full of Stars

ABM is, certainly, a very, very shiny thing. It gives people a feeling of security, the certainty of survival and - and this is of no small importance - the knowledge that they can act in complete safety, free from the threat of reprisal.

So far the theory. Reality however, doesn't quite agree - reality doesn't stop the development of missiles in awe as ABM is introduced.

Reality involves principles like electronic warfare, armour, the introduction of non-ballistic flightpaths (To achive, well, maneuverability), multiple-stage detonations (First wave EMPs, second wave fries, third wave actually hits), the likes. Reality also involves attacks against ABM systems themselves - as had already begun, although they'd most targetted The Silver Sly mirror sats and laser apertures -, and other kinds of nastyness.

Reality has very little to do with security and the certainty of survival.

There was no doubt that the nuclear attacks launched by Allanea had utilised similar means - simply because dumb ballistics would've 'Slight' issues getting through the Reich's/ Eden's or EC's/ the Gospel's own missile defences. But nobody with a bit of sanity remaining would launch attacks that couldn't succeed, anyway - doubtlessly, the Allanean attacks had utilised more advanced means to get thorugh.

Just like the Gospel did.

The Sea full of Fish

Dominions, Thrones, even the occasional Cherubim present shake their heads, all the while thanking THE LORD for his glorious deed of blinding the enemy, blinding him far beyond even their wildest dreams and expectations.

And as the lights of nuclear detonations, consuming missile swarms in their shockwaves, in superheated air, in sensor-frying radiations and general mayhem lighted up on the horizon, they cheered, celebrating the victory that was sure to be granted to them and their effords.

Nothing is perfect, of course - a few ships are still hit, sinking, feathers soaked with sea water, gurgling announcing the death of the guardians - still, even in death they take pride.

Fish in the Net

THE LORD is my guide, THE LORD is my light... My faith in THE LORD shall never end...

Nervous. Shaken. Not scared but... Confused. He stood there, Allaneans around him, so small, so... primitive and weak... No, no, he simply couldn't take it.

They may have defeated him once, but they wouldn't do it again.

My Lord, please, guide my steps, and protect my soul from the darkness around me...

And then, boom.

Brain splatters across the ship, shrapnel hits the men standing around the prisoner, blood sprays everywhere.

Generally speaking, it's difficult to take the chosen of THE LORD prisoner - they've a tendency to detonate hand grenades, or trying to choke whoever touches them.

Nonetheless - and a few casualties to the former nonwithstanding -, a few are captured, be it that they lack the means to detonate themselves, or actually happen to like life more than a glorious death to please THE LORD.

Negotiations

Well. As far as negotiations and neutral locations go, someone will have to volunteer for that one. It is difficult to do such things in secret - for EC, anyway - and a bit of local cooperation is required. I might bug people about it on IRC. Edit: And Panto volunteers.

More Stars in the Sky

Missiles.

Missiles. Missiles. Missiles.

Missiles are nice. Missiles are shiny, missiles have the ability to engage targets long before these target can see one. They're fast, they can carry extraordinary amounts of explosives over extraordinary distances...

Missiles are nice.

And Greater Prussia does appear to have rather a lot of missiles.

Missiles that are launched. En masse.

The first reaction is simple - MAD. A mass launch, this can only mean that the complete annihilation of the Reich, of Eden and the Gospel is planned, intended, indeed, already in the process of happening.

The appropriate measures - responding in kind - are enacted, while in orbit, the first tiers of missile defence start to act as soon as the Prussian ICBMs leave the protective inner layers of the atmosphere (Something the SSBN-launched ordnance of the Gospel had, incidentally, avoided), the blazing light of THE LORD targetting the rising flood of death, frying sensors and circuits, disabling warheads, and on occasion - whenever lucky (Or unlucky, considering the effects of debris in space) outright exploding the incoming ordnance.

Of course, they can't possibly get them all. Not the Gospel alone, anyway, and only a small minority of its sats are covered by the Veganan defences.

And then, details on the missile's trajectories are figured out.

Maybe a 'proportional response' (As in, annihilating all of Greater Prussia) wont be necessary.

In orbit, Glory of the Heavens is still firing, firing quite rapidly, as is only proper to an orbital weapons platform meant for protecting creation.

Blink. One missile's gone. Blink. And there goes a warhead. Blink. And then it's too late, a warhead detonates a few hundred metres off the Glory of the Heavens, and what remains is insignificant junk, worthless for any purpose other than sitting there, and endangering orbital traffic.

Other weapons platforms act similarly, occasionally firing until heat-builtups cause malfunctions anywhere between burnouts and detonations.

And then, scintillating spheres of radiation bloom up in orbit, as megatons upon megatons of Prussian nuclear munitions detonate, bathing everything in space in their deadly embrace, while stray radiations hitting the upper atmosphere cause EMPs that - given that satellites tend to orbit wherever gravity requires them to, ignoring 'Borders' and other such silly things - are probably spread dot-like across Earth, regardless of whether the nation 'Accidentally' suffering from such an unfortunate hit is Greater Prussia's enemy, friend, or neutral. Probably not too bad for military installations (If one disregards finding replacements for the radar), but civilian infrastructure like, lets say, hospitals...

All in all, it's very pretty.

And in the Gospel, Chamael, one of the Gospel's military 'Prophets', considers this most recent events.

Oh Lord... Give me the strength... The wisdom... The courage...

The prayer is superficial. He already knows what all this means, and his heart is filled with joy.

For truly, you've blinded them, and they're fighting only to end their blighted, cursed existence!

Thousands of ICBMs fired. Tens of thousands of warheads about - well, a good deal of them never made it to their targets, but still.

Orbital reconnaissance and surveillance may be of reduced efficiency. Communications may now be a good deal more difficult, and less secure. The missile defence networks may be considerably weakened, to the point that the Gospel would seriously suffer from another strike - not its orbital installations, but its cities. Probably a reason to go MAD - but there's still enough recon up to see a launch coming, and radar coverage should be back up soonish, and the desire to purify the darkness via more personal means is still there.

The strategic exchange doesn't happen. Yet.

But none of this matters. What matters is that the sin encroaching on the world, and on Eden, has willingly given away what could've protected it.

A gigantic nuclear arsenal, sacrificed. Not all of it, not yet, but... One can hope.

The means to turn the Gospel into ashes, used to destroy handful (Okay, a large hand...) of satellites.

Mutually assured destruction, this last, but - even against the Gospel - effective means to assure sovereignity, to repel any invader at gunpoint, weakened - and opportunities present themselves.

LORD! They've finally given themselves in your hands! LORD! Your glorious wisdom is above all else, and you shall guide us in the coming storm!

Chantouillet, Pantocratoria

"You wished to speak with us, Reverend?" the Emperor asked after Graves had made his greetings. Drapeur took a few steps over to stand by the two men, and nodded to Sir Constantine at the door. Sir Constantine bowed to the Emperor, and left the room, pulling the door closed behind him as he did so. The Emperor and the two effective chiefs of government were left alone to speak in confidence.

Verditania, Pantocratoria

The island of Verditania was a small, largely agricultural island off the west coast of the Pantocratorian mainland in the Pantocratorian Archipelago. Its people spoke Greek and were generally fairly parochial and distrusting of outsiders - if only they knew about the two outsiders who were about to have a secret meeting in the family vault of the Prince of Verditania. Fortunately for them, only the Imperial Chancellor and a select few agents knew of the sensitive meeting, and even they didn't know officially, of course. One such agent tapped the scruffy looking Allanean in the bar in the town of Genesia on the shoulder at the arranged time.

"I was told you wanted a guided tour of the Angeli family vault." the agent told the man, speaking English as a tour guide operator might have been expected to speak by the Greek speaking patrons of the bar, whose eyes narrowed with contempt in his direction. "Let's get going, the tour guide is waiting for us..."

It was code of course. No tour guide was waiting in the Prince's vault - but as they were speaking, other Pantocratorian agents were secreting the Seraph from Endless Crimes into the family mausoleum underneath the Prince's palatial home on the mountain slope, overlooking Genesia below, only a short car drive away.

Lord Protector's Palace, Serenity

"Your Emminence, I am Joseph-Napoleon. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance."

Peter Delvaney took the offered hand and shook it. "Welcome to Rosdivan Your Majesty. I presume you're here about our neutrality stance?" he began, continuing on as he saw a nod. "I really don't have much of a choice here, the Rosdivani opposition to the use of nuclear weapons against civilians is well known," he said, and waving a hand at a row of television screens, "and the populace is very much not happy about the Allanean destruction of the Gods Ownii capitol. What is it, some fifteen million dead? That's outright barbarism in the minds of my people, and if I try and openly move in this war, I've got a coup or popular uprising on my hands. And while I don't doubt you could reduce our armed forces and occupy the nation, I do doubt that you'll be able to do so without adversely affecting the campaign against the Reich," he finished.

"Basically, I need options. We can't move openly, not without the Reich doing something exceptionally obscene or attacking us directly to galvanize the populace. Without that, I have no other option but neutrality."

The Regent's Palace, Vinyaangmar

Herumor sat watching the occasional flashes of light over the Reich on a large plasma screen worth thousands of coins, with several others around it. Between chatting with his State Minster and fiddling with his nails, and having his feet rubbed, he was having a grand time.

The regency’s satellites weren’t the best available. Hell, they weren’t even good or average in their quality, but they did their job in very general terms, well enough. And provided a big screen view of ‘the action’ as Allanea and the Prussians went at it at the Reich, hammer and tongs.

Every now and then, one of the satellites caught a glimpse of a city being flattened by the awful power of the atom unleashed. If Herumor had been very empathetic, he might have spared a thought for the thousands horribly maimed, and as many more soon to suffer the hideous effects of radiation poisoning and fallout inhalation.

But he wasn’t. Instead, he just sniggered as he watched the dark clouds over flattened Allanean and Gods Own cities. Suddenly the screen showing Gods Own in broad panorama flickered and flashed a message in the script of his own design used in the Regency.

‘Signal Lost’

“Paranoid bastards must have shot it down,” he said, and reached for the remote to switch to another of the three satellites currently surviving with views of the Reich.

‘Signal lost’

“Huh…” Herumor muttered, and reached around for a laptop computer set up as a glorified tele-type display.

‘GPE missiles detonate over Reich. Analysis suggests massive own goal.’

“Morons,” Herumor breathed.

“Humm?” Kalina asked, leaning against his shoulder.

“The GPE have just wasted a load of their strategic arsenal blowing up every satellite in orbit, without figuring out that new ones will be there in twenty minutes.”

“Morons. Well, our view on the Reich, with our coverage, won’t be back up for the best part of an hour, and someone’s just wasted countless millions of my money…” He growled in annoyance and stuffed a few crisps into his mouth, “I’m going to go and torture something. Want to come with?”

In Pantocratoria.

“Very well” – the Allanean agent says. “I will follow.”

And so he does.

Elsewhere

The defenses of Mainland Allanea are a little hard to penetrate – given that right now, both Greater Prussia and the Sovereign League are shielding them with their full SDI firepower, and several nations have positioned their satellites to strike.

In Allanean North America, the situation is worse. Seattle and Boston are ringed in nuclear explosions. The survivors – what few there are – are simply encircled in a raging fire and forced to watch in horror as it draws nearer and nearer. By evening, the cities are dead, and there is not even a fire to be watched from the midnight sky.

This would encourage the evacuees – more people would leave. On the third day of evacuations, 100 million people have left. And far away, in mainland Allanea, the Stellar Navy is taking up the only military action it’s capable of, due to it’s lack of capable officer corps – taking Allaneans out of the nation and towards Saturn.

Military Response

From Allanea, the ten Mephet’ran missiles are finally launched. Once enormous loadbearing missiles ( http://z6.invisionfree.com/International_Mall/index.php?showtopic=2377), they are now enormous, ‘continent-killer’ rockets, each carrying about 1,200 thermonuclear weapons.

Their target? The different Reich satellites, battlestations, and other weapons in orbit over the Reich.

Their purpose? To keep weakening the Reich defenses. To keep pounding at Reich communications. To keep reducing the Reich standard of life quality – consider small things. Lifts in houses. Private radios. Televisions. New cars. Gameboys. Whatever small consumer goods the Reichites enjoy are now taken away from them – if it works.

Moreover – computer-guided lathes in factories, medical equipment in hospitals, civilian-grade computers in government offices. These things run a civilization. Life gets very hard indeed without them.

And then, half an hour later, another wave of attacks comes, aimed at Vegana City – about a thousand orbital-launched missiles, armed not with nuclear weapons, but with high-explosive incendiary munitions. They impact, hitting seemingly random buildings inside Vegana-City. There’s not much strategic value, but it is a terror attack after all.

In the meanwhile, 75 Allanean S1000 bombers, 500-AN227RX bombers, 1,000 B-2 bomber aircraft move towards Vegana at full speed, widely spread out so they cannot all be intercepted along the way. When they approach the Allanean fleets, large amounts of fighters rise off the aircraft and follow them through.

And completely elsewhere, Allanean hackers have edited the front page of the Infinite Loving official government site, entering a single quote:

And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Communication to President Kazansky,

Mr. President,

You're current use of nulcear armarments en masse against satellites is very much weakening not just your own, but Greater Prussia's entire strategic store of weapons. I ask that you halt such attacks and find a better way to dispose of these satellites. I suggest calling on Derscon's ODG, or any other satellite killer systems already in orbit. The Shogunate's stores of weapons are still full, in the event that they are needed, but I must stressthat they will be called upon only when they are needed.

We are fighting upon fatal terrain. In this era of hell from above and nuclear fires, we will be massacred if we attempt to retreat. We have no choice but to fight. My own fleet will be rendevouzing in the next day. Advance forces should already be near your own, but undetected. Do not worry about them. Further, a flight of 100 heavy bombers should be arriving in the next couple of hours. They are currently fully equipped, but will need refueling. I ask that you accomodate them and fuel them. Further, transports bearing extra equipment and weapons will be arriving soon after to support their operations. I ask that you accomodate them as well.

Finally, I intend to deploy reserve fleets as the main fleet meets with yours. I ask that you accomodate them in your ports as well, until they are called upon.

Sincerely,

Shogun Nakmura Taiki

HEIL is awake. Awake and praying; for victory, for salvation, for the innocent. The men of HEIL are driven by love for all things, but first and foremost the soul.

The women of HEIL are lobotomized menials and man factories. If anything made even the Reich look away from the Holy Empire, it's probably this part.

Now, the men labor as the skies burn. Labor and train and go off to war in the defense of the Reich. Bidding fond farewell of loved ones - lovers, mostly, travel together. Infinite Loving's units hold for a reason; love, of God and man.

Josef-14841 looks at the screen of the import computer. He hasn't changed it that he remembers, and still...

It's an elegant page. Josef is an artist though he usually works in print. Classic art made simple. Powerful, beautiful men in noble attitudes. The Cross, bearing the stoic, mighty Christ. A powerful declaration of HEIL's moral code.

Now... And every one that heareth these sayings of mine....

It is a sign. The Reich will stand. Josef nods, acknowledging it... the Allanean propaganda whooshes over his head like a quiet satellite.

Then the computer goes out, and he can't start it again. Shoddy thing... the text terminal in the next room works perfectly. The vices of capitalism are many. Ah well, he didn't need graphics anyway.

The sky flickers on.

Saint Mary's Bay

Debt was the only thought on Admiral Reinshardt's mind. He was the leader of the nuclear 'boomer' fleet in the Leafanistani Colonial Autonomous Republic of Wasser in the former Rovonian Empire. He recalled the day he surrendered to another Admiral, a female one, a powerful one.

He remembered her, perhaps enhanced, like a cyborg. Tall and firm, an ass to die for, nice and tight. He had heard stories of her nearly killing the Frozopian Emperor, and slaughtering his guards with her bare hands. Those hands, thin and beautiful. Perhaps the nameless narrator was wrong about 'debt' being the only thing on his mind.

After the liberation, stabilization and economic relief that Leafanistan did for them, they owed them something. It was time to repay that debt. He picked up his secure line and sighed. He removed his service pistol and took out a round. He removed a key from it and inserted it into his desk. A printer burped out a list of hexadecimal values. He picked up the secure line and started talking. He had not much time, Sovereign League intelligence reported that there was an opening, a weakness in Reich SDI systems thanks to the recent nukings. Vegana City was vulnerable, and orders from above said to strike.

A few minutes later, the ocean boiled furiously as 50 Bulava Quasiballistic ICBMs shot out of the tubes. 300 MIRVs in total, 375 kiloton salted thermonuclear weapons. Strategically placed with a ton of redundancy to envelop the city in nuclear fire.

The Bulava was an advanced missile, described as stealth with radar absorbing material, ECM pod on the tip, decoy launchers, and thanks to its Quasiballistic trajectory it could manuvuer and indeed, several of the missiles had backup targets in case they were disabled in flight and had to drop their MIRVs.

The Admiral hoped this was the right decision, he looked up at the observatory like structure that was a massive Microwave LASER. He looked back at the 12 Gigawatt supernuclear power plant protected by a dozen of these and countless more S-400 missiles.

All around the country and colonies, people were told to be ready to leave on a moment's notice and hit the shelters. Systems were activated, and reserve soldiers left home, to man missile, and flak batteries.

Naval Conflict

Mostly arsenal ships had been sunk, the unarmed tinderboxes were purposely sent in first and took the brunt of the blow. Just 7 remained and they remained low on missiles.

A destroyer had been disabled and one of the cruisers had sunk. The battle wasn't too bad for the Leafanistani Fleet, sure they were just joining the battle and flanking at a weak point. Of course as soon as the enemy noticed, they would immediately try to sink the flanking ships.

Strategic Rocket Forces give the launches codes to the Silo commanders to begin firing 200 ICBM with MIRVs. Their targets for Vegana-City for Vegana and Infinite Lovings the targets were Gelsenkirchen, Bottrop, Munster the capital After the codes were given, 20 minutes…200 ICBMs roses out of their silos and flew towards their targets in Vegana and Infinte Loving. It was only a matter of time, before the ICBMs reached their targets and cause massive damage to their targets.


OOC: Last post for now...will be out of town from Friday to Sunday.

*Vrak* (After the completion of affairs in Rosdivan)

As soon as affairs in Rosdivan were concluded Napoleon bid a cordial adieu to the government officials there and immediately headed for the nation of Vrak.

His father, Napoleon IV, had once visited Vrak to participate in the funeral of the late King. Sadly he was called away by troubles at home. This would be Joseph-Napoleon's first visit to the country which is father had spoken so well of...assuming they would allow him to land.

The Plane which was originally intended to return immediately to the Empire was headed en route to Vrak. This time, it was under a flag of neutrality and being escorted by two Imperial Fighter wings that rendez-voused with the Emperor's jet after his departure from Rosdivani airspace. A message had been forwarded to the appropriate authorities in Vrak in the most urgent diplomatic channels requesting an audience with either the King of the most appropriate figure for the Emperor to discuss these pertainant issues with. Joseph knew that despite Vrak's neutrality, he may be able to secure their assistance in the provision for refugees on either side of the war and that human lives were simply to precious to leave to chance.



-My liege. A most urgent message from Reichskamphen.
-Indeed? Well, what does it say?
-They request an audience.

An eyebrow slightly raises.

-Do they? Let me see the message.

It was promptly given to the new King. After his public address (ooc: still haven’t gotten around to that post. My bad) he retreated into the walls of the Royal Palace itself. But he did keep himself busy. After all, familiarizing oneself with the workings of the bureaucracy, the current state of affairs, understanding past dealing that the Kingdom had with other nations, and a massive overhaul in general would tax anyone. Luckily, he had a most able and committed staff to do much of the heavy lifting. Unlike the past king though, this one was very willing to “roll up his sleeves” as it were and get down to business.

A quick scan of the message left him with not only vagueness but also a certain sense of dread. Like his predecessor, he was willing to open relations even though the kingdom did appear more hermit-like to outsiders at the moment. As well, the Clairmont war, the police action in Timaru and Moskau and now the latest crisis in the Squall Straits did keep him up all night. Potential involvement in the Reich/GPE war did not sit with him well. So, he decided to call his closest advisors, which basically meant all senior representatives from each branch of the government as well as top bureaucratic officials, such as high ranking VIS officials. The Minister of Rites, presently at the FKC Christmas party was summoned to the capital and the Deputy Minister of Rites was sent to greet the arrivals.

The King briefly reflected upon the religion of the arrivals. How odd, he mused, that a strong Protestant nation should be arriving in Vrak which is, by many accounts, a pagan one. He gazed at the murals above depicting the bizarre pantheon of gods that many Vrakians worshipped, with Bok the walrus god figuring prominently in most of them. No lesss weird were murals depicting people bowing to a clam, an octopus, and a cantaloupe.

====

The incoming aircraft would pick up three flights, or 15, Vrakian air-superiority fighters closing in at Mach 1. They would dispatch the usual, “follow us, do not deviate” type of message. An airfield not too far from the capital was alerted and the appropriate conveyance was arranged.


ooc:
I'll be away from the computer from Dec 22-27 for the holidays. No computer access to where I'm going so fair warning. I will be returning though so as to continue the story. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Official Announcement from the Allanean Government[

Attention to all allied personnel.

Attention to all allied personnel.

Attention to all allied personnel.

Our sensor data reports civilian population in God’s Own and Infinite Loving has been repeatedly struck by thermonuclear weapons. We deny any responsibility to any of these strikes.

To all people on all sides, this is getting out of hand. We are now ordering all our forces in the Reich area to stand down from fighting. All bombers headed towards the Reich will now turn back to Allanea.

We ask all sides to stand down, and to discuss peace.

The following are conditions that Allanea is willing to offer:

1. Both sides will hereby cease all hostilities and stand down all forces.
2. Both sides will hereby agree to an indefinite ceasefire.

Basically… let’s leave each other alone and have peace.

Yes, Allanea is opposed to the rulers of the Reich.

Yes, Allanea would rather to see the people of the Reich under a different political system – generally known elsewhere as ‘freedom’. However, mutual extermination is not the route to anybody’s political goals.

Let’s sign this ceasefire and we can all go home.

Quite.
No further warfare posts will be forthcoming from God's Own, I can't speak for Vegana, IL or EC, but I suspect that their participation will also end here.

OFFICIAL IMPERIAL STATEMENT

The Imperium respects the wishes of the Allanean government, but what you suggest goes against every fiber of an Imperial commander. The Fascist slaves of God's Own launched a nuclear attack against you, and you are willing to simply forgive them and let them be? They are on their backs, friends! They cannot hope to withstand the forces arrayed against them. Keep applying the pressure and they will fail.

But if your mind is set against continuing the war, there must be some reward for your allies and a punishment for the filth of God's Own. The Imperium demands the following terms of God's Own's surrender:

1. The leadership of God's Own will be handed over to Allanean courts for trial and punishment. The Nazi Party will be disbanded and similarly tried.

2. The territory of God's Own itself must be divided into occupation zones, administrated by a capable representative of one of Allanea's allies; for example, the Imperium requests to administrate the southern half of God's Own's northern island, which area will extend no farther north than the southern tip of Lake Taupa. In its administrative territory, the nation controlling it will have final say over whether God's Own's police forces will be allowed to stand, military factories destroyed, et cetera. This occupation is the only way to keep the enemy from rising up again, and the most suitable reward for Allanea's brothers-in-arms in this conflict. God's Own must be scattered and divided, else it will bring war to the world again.

3. All nuclear, biological, and chemical stockpiles will be destroyed by the nation that is administrating the occupation zone in which they are found.

4. The God's Own military must be disbanded, or placed under the control of the administrator of the occupation zone in which the given division, fleet, or air fleet is based. If disbandment is the option chosen, the administrator of the aforementioned occupation zone will have the choice of rebuilding it to the degree necessary to help secure their zone.

These terms should be open to negotiation, and so the Imperium requests that a nation, preferably neutral, offer to host such negotiations.

Darian Aurelius, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Official Statement of the Supreme Commonwealth of Rosdivan

The Supreme Commonwealth of Rosdivan celebrates this cease-fire between the United States of Allanea and the Arbeitslager of Gods Own. While other Reich nations have not yet agreed to it, we hope that they will follow the Gods Ownii example, and put an end to this stupid and criminal exchange of nuclear weapons, which has been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of innocents.

Official Allanean Response to Warmaster

We do not endorse such terms, and believe at the present time a ceasefire is more viable a course of action then the removal of the Shelfordian regime.

Archdiocese of Carmel
Office of the Archbishop

The Archbishop, Joseph Cardinal Marco, who has previously called for peace, and opposed the war from the start, has issued the following statement:

"Prayers do work. Let this be counted as proof, and as a miracle, that prayers can indeed, and will, stop war, as long as man cooperates with God's will. I thank all those who have declared a ceasefire, and urge them to stay the course agaisnt those who would rather a surrender. To those who have not declared a ceasefire, I beg them, let it be. Let God guide his people to peace and true freedom. A mass will be offered for all victims."
---

The Royal Court has ordered all forces to stand down, and not engage in any planned assaults.

The Triumvirate Council of the Revolutionary Government of the Glorious Republic of Leafanistan

We accept the terms of the ceasefire, and will be sending hospital and resupply ships to our fleets to help the injured on both sides.

[END]

Highly Encrypted to Allanea

***DECRYPTION COMPLETE***
****STANDARD WORM.Q FOUND, DELETION WILL COMMENCE WITHIN 15 MINUTES****

We have begun recovery efforts and most of the outlying towns are now covered in the bacteria, we expect this layer will complete in 8 years, 2 years shorter thanks to the soil composition.

However, we have found a piece of interesting debris, it appears to be missile fragments, perhaps a workable guidance system and perhaps a warhead. We cannot remove it from its sealed container due to the extreme radioactivity surrounding it. We surmise it is a warhead, or perhaps an entire missile, disabled by the massive EMP or perhaps a shockwave, or a combination of both.

We need you to arrive at (coordinates follow: XXXXX) with a vehicle capable of moving such a radioactive piece of material. It will be turned over to your government for study.

We also have recovered missiles during our hospital action that were disabled by CIWS systems, and ship components. We are shipping them to you in a hospital ship. Hopefully we can gain some insight into the other's missile systems and ship systems.

****ERROR, MESSAGE NOT FOUND, WORM.Q HAS DESTROYED MESSAGE, TOMBSTONE FILES BEING OVERWRITTEN WITH RANDOM DATA****

OFFICIAL IMPERIAL STATEMENT

The Imperium understands the concerns of the United States of Allanea. However, the policy that you and the majority of your allies are implementing is very dangerous, at the least. Because of the nuclear attacks on the Fascists, they will not be able to threaten anyone for decades. However, as we withdraw our forces from the area, we must stress that to merely cripple such an enemy is a mistake. They will bide their time, feign repentance, and when they have recovered they shall unleash all their pent-up rage, sweeping those who underestimated them away. We strongly encourage Allanea to give more thought to the problem of controlling a nation of such animals, and the Imperium will watch God's Own very, very carefully indeed.

Darian Aurelius, Minister of Foreign Affairs

This is one of the most beautiful sights ever seen my men!

And amidst the fires of war, amidst wrecks that'd once been ships, menacing and powerful, yet too weak to survive the onslaught with weapens too strong for them, amidst the terror of death and the pointlessness of destruction (Though some of the involved might consider it to be like a beautiful symphony), in the middle of detonating ordnance, of thundering missiles and silently, quietly searching torpedoes, in a world plagued by radiation sickness, by skin falling off or melting, eventually some people see reason.

Well. Not so much 'Reason' as 'Survival Instinct'. There isn't much sense in fighting a war that can only end in mutual annihilation. Such is the paradigm in the age of widespread nuclear weaponry - one cannot score a total victory, and even among the insane, high-on-themselves minds of the Seraphim, a certain desire to survive prevails.

Among the majority, anyway, and Metatron's little more than a figurehead high on a power he doesn't actually wield.

There's certainly a lot of things playing into this development. Be it the quiet conversation of a Seraph with an Allanean in what amounts to one of more controversial actions of the Pantocratorian government, the realisation that the word 'Megaton' doesn't so much suggest 'Win' but 'Radiation Sckness', hair falling out, immune systems collapsing, choking, slow, and painful deaths for everyone, soldier and clerk, student and toddler alike (Something even the Gospel would eventually have to pay attention to, be it through violently suppressing the knowledge of the same or simply ignoring the ever-growing resistance - of course, the attack may as well be used to keep the population in line, as definite, unrefutable proof that they will all die if they don't pull together, and do the work of THE LORD), or something completely different - it doesn't really matter.

What matters is that even as the crusade's called, even as forces beyond imagination are rallied, the same's called off, more level-headed minds interested in their own survival winning the internal fight breaking out, the duel that decides over the future path of the Gospel.

Individually, its forces may surpass the forces of any and all probable opponents.

Sadly, alliances kind of remove this advantage, leaving them in the same deadlock that has plagued its policies since the very beginning.

The darkness is retreating. 'Peace' (As in, the temporary cessation of hostilities) prevails.

The incredible-but-suicidal crusade ends before it even begins.

And once more, watchful eyes observe the world, eager to change it, but incapable of doing exactly that.

A bit frustrating, really.