Safehaven2
27-03-2005, 00:23
Back when most of the world was under the rule of Great Britain or some other major colonial power plans had been made for Africa. It had been envisioned by Britain, a United States of Africa, South Africa and north a bit were to become a grand nation when they gained their independence. But things went wrong, war, famine, disease, everything bad that could happen happened and Southern Africa instead of becoming the grand country envisioned for it by its late rulers became a shamble of broken third world countries, dictatorships and halfhearted democracies. Then came the Fabuses who were no better than anything that came before them. Over the years the Fabuses’ lost their grip, first Vote Early and the Mississippian Regime then Kahta fell and a new void filled Southern Africa. Safehaven2’s dream had been to accomplish the dreams of the British officials years before, mold Southern Africa into one grand Empire, an empire that flew the Havenite flag. Over the years Haven had expanded its grip slowly trying to accomplish this goal, Zaire, Tanzania, Angola and more had fallen but now other nations were taking away what Safehaven wanted, what Haven wished for and needed. There never would be a better chance, not in fifty years. No strong nation controlled what remained of Southern Africa, they were once again torn apart into pieces but this opportunity was being swallowed up by foriegn nations trying to grab a piece of the pie before it disappeared. If something wasn’t done now the chance would be gone for a very long time.
There was no need to spend time mobilizing and gathering strength, the armed forces were already mobilized and ready for war. They had just been geared up to fight Kahta when the Kahtans had collapsed and now all that pent up energy and strength was going to be let out. Their first target would Namibia, with Namibia secure any foreign nation would have a tough time getting troops into Africa with South Africa becoming a free for all war zone. The only other way into Southern Africa would be the southern half of Mozambique but their were already foreign armies securing that land so that doorway would have to wait to be closed. Namibia also lay on Angola’s border where the armies called up to fight Kahta now waited. The invasion would have to be swift, a quick blow in an almost blitzkrieg fashion, the coast had to be secured so that the doorway would be closed then the rest of the country would fallow suit.
There were two major roadways that ran from Angola and into Namibia that over the years had been upgraded by the Fabus regimes, as evil as they had been they didn’t slack on modernizing the area and building up the infrastructure. One ran down from Ruacana while the other went from Ondjiva and both met up again at Otjiwaronjo over 200miles into Namibia’s interior. Both of these roads would be the highways for two of the three major pincers. The third highway was a natural one, provided by G-d, the flat coastal plains. With the mountains in between the roadway pincers and the coastal thrust the Namibians fighting either front wouldn’t be able to support each other because of it, but neither would the Havenite troops. With speed and surprise being so crucial there would be no warning, no diplomatic offers, there was a limited timetable before the other territories were stripped away and as such the first warning the Namibian government had would be when tanks started crossing the border.
Everything was in place and ready, a full corp was ready to spring into northern Namibia and claim it for Safehaven2 as a territory and a springboard. In the dark morning hours before the sun rose sirens screeched thru the air at airfields across Angola. Pilots began boarding their aircraft after coming out of last minute briefings and checks. Ground crews checked the aircraft loading them up and making sure everything was just right. The first planes began taxing down the Kahtan built runways, fighters taking off first their engines provided beacons in the dark morning air each individual engine almost like its own sun. Within a half hour formations of aircraft covered the sky, if the sun had been up they would have blotted it out. Small fighter-bombers began heading out hugging the ground like it was their wife. Behind them the heavy bombers and fighters followed them.
On the ground the same commotion that had happened at the airfields was happening in every regiment and division. Over 250,000 thousand troops were prepared to cross into Namibia with more in reserve if things got desperate. The armored brigades were to lead the way and they now clogged the roadways heading south military MP’s directing traffic and keeping all civilian vehicles off the road. It was a mass of machinery and it took forever to get everything in place. Away from the highways batteries of guns and rocket artillery systems gathered training their muzzles and tubes southward. Their crews began digging scarring the earth so they’d have a place to hide, and a place to safely put their extra ammo. By the time the lead echelons were in place on the border the sun was just beginning to rise.
Out to sea two fleets of the colonial navy were poised just inside of international waters. This invasion would use all three branches of the military and the navy was going to do its damndest to get the glory. With the fleets came the naval infantry, the marines, four MEU’s worth of them. The fleets were supposed to go down the coast providing support to the coastal advance, dropping marines behind wherever the Namibians made a stand, shelling Namibian positions, whatever they could do. But a different idea had been proposed. Part of the fleets would stay and support the advance but the majority, the grand majority, would dash south smashing anything near the coast and landing marines at the major coastal cities. It would be dangerous and as such the CAP and ASW perimeter was to be at double strength the whole time but the payoffs were worth the risk. A few MEU’s worth of marines behind the lines with heavy carrier and arsenal ship support would really strain an already weak military.
30 miles from Walvis Bay lay another fleet, an underwater fleet. They had a very different objective then what their surface brothers had, they were to cripple the Namibian navy in the opening hours of the war and after that they were to make sure that any sortie the remnants of the Namibian navy tried to pull against the fleets that would be coming down the coast hard. It would be happening very soon, in less than an hour they were to strike as long as there wasn’t a last minute decision to stop the invasion. Even though they had a whole hour they start preparing, the Leviathen SSGNs rose up nearing the surface. The crews inside the massive hulls ran and reran simulations, checking the coordinates for their missiles. Inside the Orca’s it was a different matter, crewmen sat calmly waiting for H hour.
The airfields were busy again but this time it wasn’t for bombers or fighters. Lines of men snaked thru the airbases leading up to massive transport aircraft. Huge piles of equipment sometimes shoulder high gathered outside the aircraft. Some had light tanks and vehicles stored inside their bellies. As the transports began taxing down the runway the first shots of the war began ringing out.
Still hugging the ground the Rain fighter-bombers began heading out in groups of four. They were the Wild Weasels of the Havenite army and they began hunting down Namibia’s air defense network. They popped in and out firing off their missiles and dropping their bomb clusters. They went about their job viscously first targeting known SAM and radar sites then destroying anything that showed itself by going active. Overhead 500 older variant Wolverine missiles crossed almost simultaneously as the Rain. It had been decided to use older missiles that were slated to be retired because it was doubted Namibia was enough of a threat to break out the newer more advanced, and more expensive, weaponry. 200 of them targeted the airfields in use by the Namibian air force. Each was armed with a half a ton of ONC explosives surrounded by thousands of flechettes. They were sent to airburst anywhere from 10 to 15 feet off the ground that way the runways wouldn’t be cratered but the airfield would still be out of commission. Hangers, vehicles and people would be chewed to pieces spewing debris onto the runways making them as useless as if they were cratered, not many aircraft could take off or land on a runway covered with sharp broken debris. The other 300 hunted down the Namibian government and targeted command and control centers, they would chop the head of Namibia down to size.
All the preparations were now coming to effect. They had just received a SSIXS transmission, the invasion was a go. The VLS tubes on the Leviathan SSGN’s opened up filling with water then exploding as the first missiles left the tubes. Dozens of missiles shot out into the warm ocean waters before bursting out into the air and dropping their canisters behind them. 49 missiles turned over and headed to the Namibian navy still docked in port. Missile number 50 rose up into the sky but failed to eject from its canister so when it turned over and tried to shoot off it exploded in midair. The missiles crashed into the harbor slamming into military and civilian ships alike. A gunship struck right in the magazine exploded in a massive ball of flame casting light over the city of Walvis Bay. One by one ships went down or went up and in the end most of the Namibian navy along with a good number of civilian merchant ships were at the bottom of the bay. While a good thing their dead carcasses’ blocked entry to the harbor and that would pose a problem later on.
Now the rest of the air force began crossing over into Namibian airspace. Dozens of bombers and fighters spread throughout the northern half of the country hunting down whatever posed a threat. Finally the Namibians started resisting, the first Havenite casualties came when a flight of fighter-bombers was jumped by Namibian Good ol boy migs left over from the Fabus regime. It was pretty one sided with the Rain having been caught off guard as they were bombing a Sam installation, though they managed to shoot down three of the Namibians. The Namibians weren’t able to get much into the air but what they did fought like the devil, Namibia had seen one to many invaders and oppressors and they weren’t gonna have another one if they could help it. Viscous but short air battles broke out in the morning sky, missiles began plucking planes from both sides out of the sky. It wasn’t like old were the planes closed to visual range and engaged each other with guns, it was a cold heartless standoff kind of war, the killing was done from miles away before you could even see what you were killing. Slowly the Namibians were grinded down, they fought hard but the odds were against them, outnumbered, with mostly outdated weapons and unorganized they were pushed out of the way. To many Havenite planes went down with them, nearly twice the projected casualties had been taken but air superiority or at least air dominance was now Havens.
With that the bombers could start what they came to do. They began smashing down Namibian military positions and bases many dating back to the Fabus era. Tens of thousands of tons of bombs rained down across northern Namibia smashing installations and cities to the ground. SAM’s were the biggest threat at this phase to the air force and what remained of the Namibian air defense network began lighting up fighting back the threat from above. It was to little to late, they would extract a price but they wouldn’t be able to stop the bombers from wrecking havoc to their country. Every time a Sam site went online they signed their death warrant making them a target for every Rain fighter-bomber in the area.
At H+1 the ground war started in earnest. With the armored brigades leading the way thousands of men and vehicles poured across the border at three points. The Ondjiva pincer, the easternmost front, was to follow the route of the main road their first objective being the city of Ondangwa. From there they were to continue south to Tsumeb. They were projected to be their in a week and once there they were to wheel around to the southwest to Otjiwaronjo the second pincer and a surprise for the Namibians. The second pincer came from Ruacana and would head along the other major road along the mountains on to Kamanjab were they to would wheel this time to the south east and on to Otjiwaronjo. Between the two pincers would be a fairly big pocket, it was an unimportant area that was sparsly populated but nonetheless the chance that their would be a strong military force in there existed. In that case the army would have to depend on the air force and some second echelon infantry units to keep them at bay and break them down.
The third push down the coastal plains moved along with the fleets. They didn’t have the full benefit of an entire armored brigade, they only got half of one but they would have to make do. They did have something the other two fronts didn’t, that was the support provided by the naval fleets. Carrier planes joined the land based planes in striking Namibian positions in the mountains and plains. The fleets heavy guns rained down death on hardcore Namibians who refused to budge or surrender. That was the part of the fleet that stayed with the army. Nearly the entire fleet raced ahead on to Hentiesbai, the first major city on the Namibian coast. Along the way they pounded everything in reach of their guns and planes smashing up coastal installations.
Now the final surprise came out. At H+3 after the air defense network had been sufficiently shot up and air control achieved the transports crossed the border with a heavy escort. They headed south, they head to Otjiwaronjo just over 200miles in Namibia’s interior. It was a crazy operation, a dumb one and against a 1st world nation with a 1st rate army it would have been a dead operation. But this wasn’t a 1st world nation with a 1st rate army and the Havenite generals were feeling lucky so they gambled. They gambled that two airborne divisions could hold their own for a week, that was all that was required just a week and they would have all the air cover that Haven could provide at their feet. The city was key, it was the place were all the major roads that led north in western Namibia met, it was the place that if Namibia wanted to counter attack her armies would have to pass thru. It was the place that held the key to all of Namibia above it and once it fell it also would unlock the door to all of Namibia below it.
The transports had a rough ride every so often having to take evasive action when a SAM was detected in the area. Even with all the aircraft hunting them down their still remained a strong Sam threat out there and they made themselves known when a PAC-3 GEM plucked one of the transports out of the sky the shrapnel from its two missiles exploding an engine and chewing up the cockpit. A Rain fighter-bomber accompanying the transports shot off a missile at the PAC-3 launcher taking it out and its crew but as always just a second to late. Everyone became just that more cautious and jumpy after that and the fear up front in the cockpits rubbed off on the soldiers they flew behind them. They were crack troops everyone of them which is why they were picked for the mission but they couldn’t help but be nervous about what lay ahead. They started approaching the city soon enough with only one other transport going down to a SAM. Looking out the windows it was easy to see the city burning brightly in the still late morning sky. The city had received special attention not only because of the airborne troopers coming in but because of its strategic and tactical importance, it was just bad luck that the roads had been built heading to the city. All the wealth and trade and business the roads had brought were stripped away in an instance, the city was being brutally and mercilessly smashed. The center of the was wiping up into a firestorm, the heat was so great. Even as the airborne divisions began coming in bombs rained down on the city.
The airborne divisions wouldn’t land in the city, that would be just asking for friendly fire to tear them apart. The first division would land just north of the city while the second would land to the south sandwiching the city between them. Most of the parachuted in but some of the transports began landing on the highways coming into the city. These transports carried heavy weapons, light and medium tanks, APC, IFV the works. The airborne troops wouldn’t be allowed to lose. In order for the transports to land the troops that parachuted in had to clear the highways of civilian traffic a job which went fast. The Namibian civilians for the most part were shocked, astonished first at what was happening to their city then at the sudden aperance of armed soldiers from another country. While the Namibians couldn’t hold on to the city they were going to do their best to take it back and the city would be the site of viscous battles that would suck the heart out of one of the airborne divisions, chew the other one up and get its name in the history books.
There was no need to spend time mobilizing and gathering strength, the armed forces were already mobilized and ready for war. They had just been geared up to fight Kahta when the Kahtans had collapsed and now all that pent up energy and strength was going to be let out. Their first target would Namibia, with Namibia secure any foreign nation would have a tough time getting troops into Africa with South Africa becoming a free for all war zone. The only other way into Southern Africa would be the southern half of Mozambique but their were already foreign armies securing that land so that doorway would have to wait to be closed. Namibia also lay on Angola’s border where the armies called up to fight Kahta now waited. The invasion would have to be swift, a quick blow in an almost blitzkrieg fashion, the coast had to be secured so that the doorway would be closed then the rest of the country would fallow suit.
There were two major roadways that ran from Angola and into Namibia that over the years had been upgraded by the Fabus regimes, as evil as they had been they didn’t slack on modernizing the area and building up the infrastructure. One ran down from Ruacana while the other went from Ondjiva and both met up again at Otjiwaronjo over 200miles into Namibia’s interior. Both of these roads would be the highways for two of the three major pincers. The third highway was a natural one, provided by G-d, the flat coastal plains. With the mountains in between the roadway pincers and the coastal thrust the Namibians fighting either front wouldn’t be able to support each other because of it, but neither would the Havenite troops. With speed and surprise being so crucial there would be no warning, no diplomatic offers, there was a limited timetable before the other territories were stripped away and as such the first warning the Namibian government had would be when tanks started crossing the border.
Everything was in place and ready, a full corp was ready to spring into northern Namibia and claim it for Safehaven2 as a territory and a springboard. In the dark morning hours before the sun rose sirens screeched thru the air at airfields across Angola. Pilots began boarding their aircraft after coming out of last minute briefings and checks. Ground crews checked the aircraft loading them up and making sure everything was just right. The first planes began taxing down the Kahtan built runways, fighters taking off first their engines provided beacons in the dark morning air each individual engine almost like its own sun. Within a half hour formations of aircraft covered the sky, if the sun had been up they would have blotted it out. Small fighter-bombers began heading out hugging the ground like it was their wife. Behind them the heavy bombers and fighters followed them.
On the ground the same commotion that had happened at the airfields was happening in every regiment and division. Over 250,000 thousand troops were prepared to cross into Namibia with more in reserve if things got desperate. The armored brigades were to lead the way and they now clogged the roadways heading south military MP’s directing traffic and keeping all civilian vehicles off the road. It was a mass of machinery and it took forever to get everything in place. Away from the highways batteries of guns and rocket artillery systems gathered training their muzzles and tubes southward. Their crews began digging scarring the earth so they’d have a place to hide, and a place to safely put their extra ammo. By the time the lead echelons were in place on the border the sun was just beginning to rise.
Out to sea two fleets of the colonial navy were poised just inside of international waters. This invasion would use all three branches of the military and the navy was going to do its damndest to get the glory. With the fleets came the naval infantry, the marines, four MEU’s worth of them. The fleets were supposed to go down the coast providing support to the coastal advance, dropping marines behind wherever the Namibians made a stand, shelling Namibian positions, whatever they could do. But a different idea had been proposed. Part of the fleets would stay and support the advance but the majority, the grand majority, would dash south smashing anything near the coast and landing marines at the major coastal cities. It would be dangerous and as such the CAP and ASW perimeter was to be at double strength the whole time but the payoffs were worth the risk. A few MEU’s worth of marines behind the lines with heavy carrier and arsenal ship support would really strain an already weak military.
30 miles from Walvis Bay lay another fleet, an underwater fleet. They had a very different objective then what their surface brothers had, they were to cripple the Namibian navy in the opening hours of the war and after that they were to make sure that any sortie the remnants of the Namibian navy tried to pull against the fleets that would be coming down the coast hard. It would be happening very soon, in less than an hour they were to strike as long as there wasn’t a last minute decision to stop the invasion. Even though they had a whole hour they start preparing, the Leviathen SSGNs rose up nearing the surface. The crews inside the massive hulls ran and reran simulations, checking the coordinates for their missiles. Inside the Orca’s it was a different matter, crewmen sat calmly waiting for H hour.
The airfields were busy again but this time it wasn’t for bombers or fighters. Lines of men snaked thru the airbases leading up to massive transport aircraft. Huge piles of equipment sometimes shoulder high gathered outside the aircraft. Some had light tanks and vehicles stored inside their bellies. As the transports began taxing down the runway the first shots of the war began ringing out.
Still hugging the ground the Rain fighter-bombers began heading out in groups of four. They were the Wild Weasels of the Havenite army and they began hunting down Namibia’s air defense network. They popped in and out firing off their missiles and dropping their bomb clusters. They went about their job viscously first targeting known SAM and radar sites then destroying anything that showed itself by going active. Overhead 500 older variant Wolverine missiles crossed almost simultaneously as the Rain. It had been decided to use older missiles that were slated to be retired because it was doubted Namibia was enough of a threat to break out the newer more advanced, and more expensive, weaponry. 200 of them targeted the airfields in use by the Namibian air force. Each was armed with a half a ton of ONC explosives surrounded by thousands of flechettes. They were sent to airburst anywhere from 10 to 15 feet off the ground that way the runways wouldn’t be cratered but the airfield would still be out of commission. Hangers, vehicles and people would be chewed to pieces spewing debris onto the runways making them as useless as if they were cratered, not many aircraft could take off or land on a runway covered with sharp broken debris. The other 300 hunted down the Namibian government and targeted command and control centers, they would chop the head of Namibia down to size.
All the preparations were now coming to effect. They had just received a SSIXS transmission, the invasion was a go. The VLS tubes on the Leviathan SSGN’s opened up filling with water then exploding as the first missiles left the tubes. Dozens of missiles shot out into the warm ocean waters before bursting out into the air and dropping their canisters behind them. 49 missiles turned over and headed to the Namibian navy still docked in port. Missile number 50 rose up into the sky but failed to eject from its canister so when it turned over and tried to shoot off it exploded in midair. The missiles crashed into the harbor slamming into military and civilian ships alike. A gunship struck right in the magazine exploded in a massive ball of flame casting light over the city of Walvis Bay. One by one ships went down or went up and in the end most of the Namibian navy along with a good number of civilian merchant ships were at the bottom of the bay. While a good thing their dead carcasses’ blocked entry to the harbor and that would pose a problem later on.
Now the rest of the air force began crossing over into Namibian airspace. Dozens of bombers and fighters spread throughout the northern half of the country hunting down whatever posed a threat. Finally the Namibians started resisting, the first Havenite casualties came when a flight of fighter-bombers was jumped by Namibian Good ol boy migs left over from the Fabus regime. It was pretty one sided with the Rain having been caught off guard as they were bombing a Sam installation, though they managed to shoot down three of the Namibians. The Namibians weren’t able to get much into the air but what they did fought like the devil, Namibia had seen one to many invaders and oppressors and they weren’t gonna have another one if they could help it. Viscous but short air battles broke out in the morning sky, missiles began plucking planes from both sides out of the sky. It wasn’t like old were the planes closed to visual range and engaged each other with guns, it was a cold heartless standoff kind of war, the killing was done from miles away before you could even see what you were killing. Slowly the Namibians were grinded down, they fought hard but the odds were against them, outnumbered, with mostly outdated weapons and unorganized they were pushed out of the way. To many Havenite planes went down with them, nearly twice the projected casualties had been taken but air superiority or at least air dominance was now Havens.
With that the bombers could start what they came to do. They began smashing down Namibian military positions and bases many dating back to the Fabus era. Tens of thousands of tons of bombs rained down across northern Namibia smashing installations and cities to the ground. SAM’s were the biggest threat at this phase to the air force and what remained of the Namibian air defense network began lighting up fighting back the threat from above. It was to little to late, they would extract a price but they wouldn’t be able to stop the bombers from wrecking havoc to their country. Every time a Sam site went online they signed their death warrant making them a target for every Rain fighter-bomber in the area.
At H+1 the ground war started in earnest. With the armored brigades leading the way thousands of men and vehicles poured across the border at three points. The Ondjiva pincer, the easternmost front, was to follow the route of the main road their first objective being the city of Ondangwa. From there they were to continue south to Tsumeb. They were projected to be their in a week and once there they were to wheel around to the southwest to Otjiwaronjo the second pincer and a surprise for the Namibians. The second pincer came from Ruacana and would head along the other major road along the mountains on to Kamanjab were they to would wheel this time to the south east and on to Otjiwaronjo. Between the two pincers would be a fairly big pocket, it was an unimportant area that was sparsly populated but nonetheless the chance that their would be a strong military force in there existed. In that case the army would have to depend on the air force and some second echelon infantry units to keep them at bay and break them down.
The third push down the coastal plains moved along with the fleets. They didn’t have the full benefit of an entire armored brigade, they only got half of one but they would have to make do. They did have something the other two fronts didn’t, that was the support provided by the naval fleets. Carrier planes joined the land based planes in striking Namibian positions in the mountains and plains. The fleets heavy guns rained down death on hardcore Namibians who refused to budge or surrender. That was the part of the fleet that stayed with the army. Nearly the entire fleet raced ahead on to Hentiesbai, the first major city on the Namibian coast. Along the way they pounded everything in reach of their guns and planes smashing up coastal installations.
Now the final surprise came out. At H+3 after the air defense network had been sufficiently shot up and air control achieved the transports crossed the border with a heavy escort. They headed south, they head to Otjiwaronjo just over 200miles in Namibia’s interior. It was a crazy operation, a dumb one and against a 1st world nation with a 1st rate army it would have been a dead operation. But this wasn’t a 1st world nation with a 1st rate army and the Havenite generals were feeling lucky so they gambled. They gambled that two airborne divisions could hold their own for a week, that was all that was required just a week and they would have all the air cover that Haven could provide at their feet. The city was key, it was the place were all the major roads that led north in western Namibia met, it was the place that if Namibia wanted to counter attack her armies would have to pass thru. It was the place that held the key to all of Namibia above it and once it fell it also would unlock the door to all of Namibia below it.
The transports had a rough ride every so often having to take evasive action when a SAM was detected in the area. Even with all the aircraft hunting them down their still remained a strong Sam threat out there and they made themselves known when a PAC-3 GEM plucked one of the transports out of the sky the shrapnel from its two missiles exploding an engine and chewing up the cockpit. A Rain fighter-bomber accompanying the transports shot off a missile at the PAC-3 launcher taking it out and its crew but as always just a second to late. Everyone became just that more cautious and jumpy after that and the fear up front in the cockpits rubbed off on the soldiers they flew behind them. They were crack troops everyone of them which is why they were picked for the mission but they couldn’t help but be nervous about what lay ahead. They started approaching the city soon enough with only one other transport going down to a SAM. Looking out the windows it was easy to see the city burning brightly in the still late morning sky. The city had received special attention not only because of the airborne troopers coming in but because of its strategic and tactical importance, it was just bad luck that the roads had been built heading to the city. All the wealth and trade and business the roads had brought were stripped away in an instance, the city was being brutally and mercilessly smashed. The center of the was wiping up into a firestorm, the heat was so great. Even as the airborne divisions began coming in bombs rained down on the city.
The airborne divisions wouldn’t land in the city, that would be just asking for friendly fire to tear them apart. The first division would land just north of the city while the second would land to the south sandwiching the city between them. Most of the parachuted in but some of the transports began landing on the highways coming into the city. These transports carried heavy weapons, light and medium tanks, APC, IFV the works. The airborne troops wouldn’t be allowed to lose. In order for the transports to land the troops that parachuted in had to clear the highways of civilian traffic a job which went fast. The Namibian civilians for the most part were shocked, astonished first at what was happening to their city then at the sudden aperance of armed soldiers from another country. While the Namibians couldn’t hold on to the city they were going to do their best to take it back and the city would be the site of viscous battles that would suck the heart out of one of the airborne divisions, chew the other one up and get its name in the history books.