NationStates Jolt Archive

Colonel Tai stood waste deep in the clear blue coastal water, his radio man and the rest of his command staff waded towards the sandy, almost tropical beach, mumbling and grunting about the lack of any kind of harbor, the rest of the 6th Battalion, Light Infantry followed in line behind them.

The Colonel had just been appointed to command the defense and running of Camp X-219, otherwise known as Sweat City. It had only just come under Military control, being run by civilian science teams and corporate sponsors for a good 3 years, Wintrees was now reacting to the large scale landings on the other parts of the island… Everyone wanted a bit of the pie.

He would be in command of the 6th Light Infantry as well 3rd Royal Gurkha Rifles, the 36th (Air Assault) Infantry Regiment and of course a whole mess of REMFs which had been dripping in from other places for weeks now.

Only having 3 Battalions worried the Colonel, although he had little to worry about, the area which he had been ordered to maintain was only approachable from land under normal circumstances due to the coral reefs, and even then through overgrown jungle trails left by the long gone natives and the odd far reaching science team.

He was the last man to exit the water and made straight for the command post where Captain Wills stood waiting to great him. “Good Morning sir, I hope the water wasn’t too cold,” asked Wills with a smile on his face.
“Have you got the reports ready?”
“Oh, yes sir, I walked the boarder myself.” Replied the captain as he handed over the data cards.
“I’m more worried about the reefs captain,”
“Yes sir, I’ve looked into it with a few fellows from the Naval detachment here, they say the coast is pretty much closed off by the reefs, a ship can get within about a mile of the coast but after that anything that wants to get closer has to walk. We’ve already taken a lot of serious foot casualties from men walking over the coral. We’ve got some flat-bottomed boats on backorder, which should be able to get over the reefs, but it’ll be dangerous what with all the coral sticking out of the water in places.”
“Does it open up anywhere?” asked the colonel, looking worried.
“Aye, X-219 sits on a natural dip, we can get the boats in pretty close before we hit some major sandbars and have to walk in. We’ve got a bunch of engineers coming in next week to start on a harbor and I was told it’ll be finished within the month. We haven’t charted the whole coast yet however, so I would guess that there are lots of these dips around the coast.”
“Ok, make that your priority now captain find the clear areas, I want to start work on a separate harbor just incase we have to pull out of this position.”
“I’ll get right on that sir.” Said the captain as he turned around and made for parked jeep.
“Hang on a second captain, where is this air force fellow I was told would be around here?”
“Wing Commander Hawthorn? He’ll be out at Riker field at this time sir, its about 2km up that track, I’ll get a driver to take you up.”

On Riker Field, Hawthorn sat in a beach chair outside of his prefab office, he’d been the base commander for 2 years and it had been a nice cushy assignment… that was over now he thought, and he welcomed it, it was time to get back into the fight. As of today he had 3 squadrons, 1 transport and 2 fighters which had arrived this morning, JSFs a beauty to watch land.

On the newly created boarder, Sergeant Jenkins sat on a rock overlooking the A-Sul valley. He was now the 4th Platoon, 2nd Company, 11th Special Operations Regiment’s OC, after the Lieutenant took a wrong turn and fell down a hole with him ending up being shipped back to Sweat City a week ago.

When Jenkins signed up to Royal Customs, he didn’t think he would be back in a jungle sweating it out with the monkeys. The 11th SOR was the Royal Customs Special Forces unit, god knows why they wanted one, but now they had it they wanted to use it. He was drafted into it from the anti-drug group, where he spent much of his time sleeping on a patrol boat in Hampcourt docks. After going through a re-hash of his special forces training from latter years he was sent out into the field. Now he led one of the many platoon sized patrols that weaved their way through the ever increasing jungle paths on the boarder that was fast becoming Wintrees Karanaus.

http://www.red7.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/WintreesCon.GIF

OOC: I already landed the equivalent of 2+ diviskons of troops into the area.
http://www.forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=391006
IC:

The two pockets of territory the UCSNE held were the homes of two Legions of Reinforced Airborne. Lightweight artillery and vehicles were being dropped off by the dozen in both areas. The Wintrees forces apparently had ignored them, but they had virtually set out on occupying their claim zone. The orders were to give one warning to any armed personnel, and then shoot. The 12th and 13th Fleets had now gone into full alert, the surface ships guarding the pocket coast area and assiting the ALCAC ships in their equipment landing. But it might not last that way much longer.

[Open Transmission]

"Attention Wintrees forces. This is your first warning to begin immediate egress from our territories. We got our boys and girls here first, and we are not going to let some latecomers come and take it from us. Leave, and we won't have to gut you like a fish."
-Archstrategos Van Deerman, Commander of UCSNE territory of New Pandrea.

http://www.red7.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/WintreesCon2.GIF

OOC: Read your PM mate.

"Tell me, why am I trekking through a jungle with a briefcase again?" asked Commander Gooding.
"We've got to take you to the New Empire landing areas sir..." replied Sergeant Jenkins.
"I know that, but why didn't we take a helicopter?"
"Well, first, we haven't got one yet, and second they'd shoot it down before we got within 10km of them."
"Oh." At that moment Commander Gooding got his foot trapped under and tree root and fell flat on his face...
"You ok sir?" asked Sergeant Jenkins turning around. The commander just grunted.

"What have we got Wills?" asked Colonel Tai, sat at his desk in what was becoming a office.
"Well the envoy has been dispatched, it'll take a day or too for him to get there, we've started to set up defenses around the settlements and put out company sized patrols in the jungle. The closest one to New Empire is about 200km away I'll say, not much chance of getting into a barney with them yet."
"Good, have you dispatched my request for reinforcements yet?"
"Yes, theres a brigade on its way from Riga."
"Right, lets hope these talks go well with New Empire, I've got no want to fight them."

[Forward Operations Base Alvin]
[Perimeter]

The dirt slope was ringed with razorwire and a minefield had been set up, in the middle, a path wide enough for two lanes for truck or tank sized vehicles. A roadblock had been set up, and innumerable gun barrels protruded from foxholes. As the Wintrees delegates approached, a man rose from the foxhole.

His helmet had a host of small cameras on a flip down mount, and a nearly opaque visor. The body armor he wore was bulky around the chest and thighs, the armored inserts removed elsewhere. But the most attention drawing feature was the heavily modified M32 carbine, sporting everything from a red dot sight to a grenade launcher.

"You, stop there. Identify yourselves."

"Right then sergeant, I'll take it from here." said the commander, clearing his throat, "Get your men into cover and wait here, don't point your weapons at anyone."
"Ok, sir." said Jenkins as he gave the hand signal for the rest of the squad to move back.

"Soldiers of the New Empire! I am Commander Gooding of the Wintrees Navy! I'm here to talk to your commanding officer... the government of Wintrees regional commander, Colonel Tai wishes to open relations with you... Friendly relations!" shouted the commander, he checked his briefcase and brushed a piece of dirt from his tunic and started to walk slowly up the slope.

The soldier radioed something to the command, and gestured for them to come in.

"Take the vehicle path, though. Whole slope's rigged with Claymores."

The vehicle lanes were cleared, and another soldier told the rest of the squad to keep their eyes open. The first soldier, identifying himself as Tetrarch Holmes (The equivalent of a lieutenant in most militaries), walked them in, revealing a sprawling mass of tents and engineer crafted defensive positions. Off in the distance the tall towers of C4I could be seen along with more fixed buildings, and beyond the eye's sight sat the dock area of the base. The soldier stopped them at a tent, where a LAUV buzzed over on it's hybrid four wheel drive. Inside was a man who wore a BDU, though with less armor and supplies than the infantry on the perimeter. His rank insignia indicated he was an Archstrategos, and the nametag put him as Van Deerman, the very one who had delivered the first scathing threat to the Wintrees' colonists.

"So, Commander Gooding, I see you've had a safe trip in. I assume you're here to broker the peace?"

"You assume correctly, Archstrategos, we want to make sure that this doesn't turn into a full scale war. Now, we've been unlucky that we've both chosen to land on the same part of the island, but my commander sees this as an opportunity, hes prepared a document for you to look over." replied Gooding as he handed over the document he had taken from his briefcase. "In brief, what we are proposing is a economical and military pact for this area, as well as freedom of movement. We'll of course take into serious consideration any changes to wish to make, but we feel this will suit both of our needs."

The Commander shifted on his feet, “What do you think?”

Van Deerman gestured to the LAUV, with a soldier similarly dressed sitting inside it.

"Let's get to our HQ. I have to say it's about 25 klicks away, near the port, but I'll have your posse notified. Sorry about the conditions, but the terrain isn't really hospitable to anything more comfortable than military vehicles.

"Right now I can clearly see the benefits of such a deal, provided we have the oppurtunity to expand elsewhere. Our new government isn't keen on playing isolationist anymore. No, they want land or the blood of those keeping it from us. Population and military spending have never been higher, and I guess that's why we're here, though I must say I'd rather be in New Pandrea than the Rhodesian Front, nobody is shooting here and I'd rather keep it that way.

"Once we get to C4I we can send your proposals to the suits at Berliston, hopefully they aren't too busy feeding the fire to listen."

"Sir?" said Captain Wills knocking on the office door,
"Come." replied Colonel Tai, sat at his desk looking over a number of papers on his desk.
"Commander Goodings escort team as checked in sir, they say that they've been informed that Commander Gooding has been taken to the main New Empire base of operations, under good faith." said Wills as he entered.
"Very good, how are the landings going?"
"They're going well, the advance teams for the brigade arrived this morning, we'll have the rest of the brigade here by the end of the week."
"Very good, you can go now Captain, have a nice night."
"Yes Sir."

Commander Gooding sat in his transport travelling towards the HQ, it was starting to get dark again, he spent the time pretending to read a report he had with him, but he was really worried about how this deal would pan out, and it showed to the driver of the transport.

"Relax, Commander. The Draka don't like those who show their anxiety. HQ is right over there."

A large building was apparent in the dark, floodlights illuminating it. Rain was beginning to fall, but thanks to the massive communications towers it wouldn't be much of an interference.

"Come with me, commander."

They walked along wooden planks in the now muddy soil, where a pair of soldiers, appearing huge with rain ponchos over their armor, gestured for identification. The Archstrategos flashed a card to them and explained who Gooding was, before another opened the door.

Inside was a mass of wires and glows from various displays and lights. The rain was now just a drumming on the roof, but for most of the men there the only comfort was a collapsable Army-issue chair and a cup of beverage. A room had been set off from the rest, near the Archstrategos own quarters, that was amply soundproof. A techspec arranged the desk so that the camera would be looking down at them, next to a portable LCD screen, chosen not for it's resolution but the ease of transportation its size allowed. On the screen sat an empy white background with the flag and seal of the Draka administration centered on it.

"Alright. Commander Gooding, I suggest you get ready."

A countdown appeared in the screen, with the words 'CONNECTING' in stark green. Finally, the screen flickered a bit and a man appeared, sitting in a much more well furnished office.

"Greetings, Archstrategos. I am Minister of Foreign Affairs Adam Pozinilskim and who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?"

"Afternoon Minister, I'm Commander Gooding, Wintrees Navy. I've been asked by the military commander on the Island to speak you about a possible alliance between our 2 nations." Gooding took some papers from his briefcase and looked around the room. "Is there any way to send this to the good minister?" waving the papers, "What we propose is mutual cooperation on the colonization of this island. We don't want to start a colonial war which will be devastating to both our peoples on this island, and without this treaty we are in great danger of this. The details of the economic, civil and military benefits are in this report," said Gooding, waving a papers, "But basically we are looking at free movement of military forces as well as goods through both of our countries as well as the understanding that any expansion doesn't envelop our own gains, military cooperation on a grand scale is wished by members of our government but its not a requirement to the treaty. The way we see it is that this treaty is greatly need by both of our peoples, we block your way to expansion and you are a direct threat to our landing grounds, WITHOUT the treaty war is a certainly, and we really don't want that. "

The archstrategos took the papers and began secure-faxing them to the mainland. After a bit of a delay, the Minister looked them over, and the room was silent for awhile.

"I now have authorization to approve these documents. Congratulations, Commander Gooding, you've won us over. May our territories grow in peace and prosper."