NationStates Jolt Archive

Here is the thread that it is from. :)
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=358713&page=25&pp=15

SecDef Robert MacKenzy studied that map that the director of intelligence services, Samantha Russell, the director of intelligence services had instructed a courier to deliver. He noted the fact that the state of Virginia had some natural obstacles that would make an advance through that route extremely difficult, even for heavily armored units. That obstacle was the Appalachian mountain range.

He finally decided that he had at last hit upon a plan to successfully invade Virginia.

The action on the plains of Virginia would have to be a holding action against the U.S. forces that would be brought to bear. Ideally, the four battalions units and the two mobile infantry units should be able to seize the Newport News shipyard and hold it.

MacKenzy thought briefly, and decided that he would land two mechanized infantry and two armored brigades on the coast and order them to seize the Newport News shipyard and port area. That should give him the base to unload the two mechanized infantry brigades and the other two armored brigades that he planned to send as the holding action against the U.S. military forces in the Appalachian Mountains. He also decided to send a couple divisions of infantry as well.

Now for the second phase of the mission which would involve an invasion from Michigan. Hopefully, this one would catch the United States military off guard. The first phase would be for converted airliners to the light infantry battalions at strategic areas where they could capture the ports. This first wave would also include 50 light tanks of various types, also in converted airliners.

MacKenzy shrugged and decided that for now, until the rest of the orders for military equipment had been filled, that was the best plan that he was going to be able to come up with.

Secretary of Defense Robert MacKenzy rubbed his temples with frustration. He had not slept for nearly forty-eight hours, trying to plan for this invasion of the middle of the United States. However, the DoD had been successful in obtaining a large amount of military hardware from various nations with less than scrupulous business practices and export laws.

He smiled as he remembered a training program that he had initiated at the beginning of the arms buildup. He had ordered, very quietly, the training of ten teams of between ten and fifteen men apiece. They would infiltrate a several hours before the invasion was to begin, and would attempt to simply create mayhem to distract the authorities. They would not harm American civilians. It wasn’t enough, but it would have to do.

<<several weeks later, south of the Mississippi River, in the Gulf of Mexico, about the Locomotive, a P3X1299 operated Q-ship>>

Captain Mark Erickson turned back to the crewman in charge of monitoring the ESM systems. On his air-conditioned bridge, he had to attempt to deal with several problems at once. One of them was sitting off his bow in the form of a United States Coast Guard patrol boat with a 25mm machine gun trained on his ship. His problem was compounded by the metal containers chained to his fore and aft decks, containing inventory for the remaining Specter team that he had to infiltrate. Worse yet, he was almost behind schedule because of an electrical problem of some type in the engineering spaces these problems also prevented him from firing his torpedoes.

Erickson sighed and issued some orders to his first mate, the gist of which were to get several men, and to grab some weapons from the small arms locker, including 4 G-36 rifles, 2 OICW’s, 5 AK-74SU’s, and several RPG launchers and grenades for them. The first mate also sent a three man crew to retrieve a Javelin launcher. (The Boxcar Class Q-ships do not carry a compliment of marines, however a number of their crew have been trained and drilled enough to be reasonably proficient with infantry weapons and with boarding tactics.)

The first mate’s crew quietly began to assemble in the after deckhouse, except for the men with the anti-tank weapons who had headed to the top of the bridge. They began to piece together a strategy to deal with the Coast Guard cutter on the sound powered phones. The Javelin and the first volley of RPG’s would be targeted on the bridge, hopefully to buy enough time for the gun crews in the after deckhouse to unlimber their 25mm machine guns. The mate spoke into his sound-powered phone and ordered the three-inch gun batteries to stand by. He raised his thumb, and his men stood up, briefly silhouetted in the windows of the after deck house before opening fire on the hapless Coast Guard cutter. The first to fire was his AK-74SU, quickly followed by a volley of RPG’s and a Javelin missile. He cursed as one of the RPG’s missed, another hit astern, and finally the third impacted the base of the bridge.

The men with Joseph Montgomery, the first mate, had opened fire when he had and had more success against the crew of the gun, mostly do to the large volume of fire that they put out. Finally, after what seemed to the Montgomery an eternity, in actuality, he had fired half a magazine of ammo, the Javelin hit the bridge of the cutter, leaving a gaping hole and a smoky room. Montgomery’s ambush had bought time for the 25mm guns to get into action, and the strings of tracers started to rip into the Coast Guard cutter. They were quickly joined by the three inch guns that the crews were manually traversing, because of the electrical problem in the engineering spaces.

It was just then, that the harsh buzz of the sound powered phone cut through the yammering of the guns. Someone was shouting into it. The three inch guns had power back for the turrets.