NationStates Jolt Archive

Pacific Ocean - Present Day

The cold ocean air bit at the shadowy forms of two men, standing in the darkness at the bow of a small, anonymous ocean trawler. Wind billowed around them, tugging at thier coats and chilling them to thier bones, but still, in the darkness, they stood. Thier forms were difficult to decipher in the gloom of the darkness, but it seemed to be that one of them was older, heavier, while the other was younger, and more fit in his youth. They continued to stand, thier eyes locked in a contest of wills before finally, one of them broke the silence.

"It's been a long time since the Democratic Colonies needed mercs." the older man said slowly.

"Who says I'm from the Democratic Colonies?" replied the younger man.

His comment was met with a grim chuckle. "No one. But everything about you says Colonial Intelligence Service to me, Agent. Or would that be Special Agent? Yes, I suppose they'd send one of those to deal with the likes of me."

The older man chuckled again. It was a tired, forced kind of chuckle that quickly got on one's nerves.

"Let's get down to business." said the younger man impatiently. He hoisted his briefcase up, opening it slightly to present his counterpart in the darkness with a view of the contents.

"One hundred thousand US dollars. Small bills, well used, random serial numbers." said the younger man. The older man reached for the briefcase, causing its holder to pull it back, closing it with a snap.

"Do we have a deal?" he asked, casting a suspicious gaze at the older man.

"Ofcourse." said the older man, eager to get his money. "I will use my underworld contacts to seek out mercenaries for this mission of yours, these operations against Belem. I will facilitate a meeting between you and them. The name 'Democratic Colonies' will never be uttered."

The younger man nodded, cautiously handing the briefcase over to the older man.

"Make sure you do your part." he said, before raising his wrist and whispering a few words into it. "We'll find you if you don't."

The older man began to reply, but was drowned out by the sound of rotorblades as an SH-60 Seahawk emerged from the gloom, approaching at high speed at a height only a few feet above that of the ship's bow.

"I'll find you your mercs!" shouted the older man as the helicopter came to a hover, allowing the younger man to climb up a retractible step ladder into the aircraft.

The younger man's only response was a hard stare.

As quickly as it arrived, the Seahawk was gone, invisible and silent in the moonless ocean sky. The older man took the time to count his money before begining his task - he was sure he was being overpaid for it, which helped tip him off as to who had hired him. The Democratic Colonies needed mercenaries for action against Belem. It wouldn't be too hard to find them.

Brussels, Belgium

The older man sat in an outdoor café as night fell, and contrived not to look irritated. His contact was late. He began covertly eyeing the crowd, trying to look for undercover gendarmes, when a small hand alighted on his shoulder. A light soprano voice asked, “I’m sorry monsieur, but could I trouble you for this seat?”

Annoyed and relieved, he replied, “No, of course not. It would be my pleasure to share the table with you.” Then, under his breath, “Damn fine recognition signal that is, when there are five empty tables an… Good god, Sarah, what have you done to yourself?”

Sarah grinned. “Now, now Freddy.” His name wasn’t ‘Freddy’ any more than hers was ‘Sarah’. “We’re both professionals, we can do this civilly.” She pulled a chair out of the table and plunked herself down across from him.

“Yeah, but you look like you’re in a slightly different profession.” He eyed her morosely. Her knee high heeled boots only drew attention to short height, her tight outfit didn’t really leave a lot to be imagined, the short pelt of fine white hair was startling, considering the last time he saw her it had been red and down to her waist, and the large amount of (skillfully applied) makeup (including lots of eyeliner and black lipstick) managed to take 10 years off her, as long as you didn’t look too closely. “Why are you doing this to me? You know I’m married. My reputation will never recover.”

“Oh pooh! You need to have a little fun, Freddie. Honestly, what spy worries about his reputation? Besides, I wasn’t about to waltz in here on my normal passport.”

“I’m not a sp…!” He broke off just as a waiter reappeared. She ordered white wine, but forced him to choose which one. To spite her, he picked a sweet rosé, but she got him back by giggling as the waiter left.

Finally, she stopped batting her eyes and asked, quite seriously, “So, why did you want to arrange this meeting? It took some doing to smuggle my body-thugs’ guns through airport security.” Startled, he looked around for any sign of the ‘body-thugs’, but she just giggled again. “Of course you won’t see them, Freddy. I don’t get any but the best.”

He grunted. “My employer wants me to find some people who are ‘good with their hands’. So naturally, I thought of you and your happy sociopaths.”

“How sweet. Not many are actually sociopaths, you know.”

“Yes, well, are you in or out?”

“Please! Who is the employer? What’s the job? Payscale?”

“You know I can’t tell you that out here!”

“Oh, it’s reasonably secure. Bugging outdoor café’s is notoriously difficult. All the conversations, cars, foot-traffic... So you can either tell me now, or we can go back to your hotel together and talk there.” Colonel Sonja Ushakov of the Verdant Archipelagan International Legion, Inteligence Branch, dimpled at him. “Don’t worry, you can take the couch.”

Freddy, as he was currently known, let out a short sigh.

"You never were one to do things my way were you?" he asked. "Alright Sarah, we'll discuss it here, in the middle of a cafe of all places."

Freddy cast another wary look around the cafe before continuing.

"I can't tell you who you'll be working for - they're actually a bit upset as it is that I know who they are. Suffice it to say, they're a large, well financed client. They tend to be a bit... squimish about certain things though, which is why they've decided to hire out for this operation."

Freddy wrinkled his nose as he considered what he knew about the Democratic Colonies.

"They're not the type to get thier hands dirty, but I've worked with them a few times before - they tend to treat thier mercenaries quite well. Good pay, good intel, the works. I've seen them medivac wounded mercs on certain occasions. A few years ago, they evacuated an entire team from HJK Security Corporation when thier mission fell apart."

"I don't think we'll be in need of evacuation by our employers." said Sarah with a dismissive hand gesture. "We tend not to make the kinds of mistakes that HJK made."

"Nontheless, it's something to keep in mind." said Freddy. "This isn't going to be an easy operation. Our client wants you to conduct sabotage operations in The Holy Imperial Empire of Belem."

Freddy paused to gauge Sarah's reaction before he continued, but she seemed unfazed by the mention of a 4 billion strong nation as her target.

"As you must have heard," said Freddy, "Belem's been killing members of its population with HIV/AIDS. My client, or rather, our client, wants these killings sabotaged. They want rebellions and riots incited, logistical trains disrupted, HIV/AIDS patients freed. It won't be easy, but as I said, this client tends to pay quite well."

"You know," said Sarah, after a moment's consideration. "You've given me quite a few clues as to who this mystery employer is. The squeaky clean profile of this operation? They're 'not the type to get thier hands dirty'? Sounds like a democracy to me. 'Large and well financed'? A big democracy. A big democracy that has issues with Belem and used to contract with HJK Security before that nasty business in January. I wonder who that could be?"

Sarah smiled as the look on Freddy's face became more and more worried with each passing statement.

"Please Sarah, don't make a guess." said Freddy nervously. "They want thier identities concealed."

"Ofcourse." replied Sarah mischievously. "But with all of the information you've given me, well, our employer is likely one of just a few possible candidates. You never did a very good job at hiding who your clients are."

Freddy leaned back. "Well, look - forget about that Sarah." he said. "I've described the operation to you, and have already said more than I should have. Do you want me to set up a meeting between you and the client? They'll negotiate your exact pay with you, although they said they wanted you to present an initial offer. I can transport you on my ship to a meeting with them - the only meeting place I've got with them right now is just a set of GPS coordinates, but I can let them know you're coming and take you out there if you wish."

TAGed

“Belem, eh? No use for those hypocritical religious nuts anyway. But… it’s going to be hard to get in. They’re PARANOID religious nuts. One of my people was previously involved in an operation against them… it failed in the planning stages simply because their coastline is too heavily defended. I’m fairly sure we can get a team in; it’s getting them out that’s the problem. And disrupting operations won’t be terribly difficult, but I doubt we’ll be able to have a sustained campaign, certainly not without guaranteed support from Our Employer. My people have no real wish to feel the inquisition’s knife. And do they want the internees simply freed or do they want them rescued too. To be quite frank, Freddy, this sounds like suicide. Now, wait!” she interjected as he stood up in disappointment. “I never said we wouldn’t take the job. It's just this is going to cost. A lot. I can see us sending in an effective light infantry battalion.”

OOC: Feel free to have her arrive at the meeting with your people.

OOC: I have an assassins/bodyguard/merc page. It has men with weapons and capabilities to use them to the fullest, no connections to Thrashian government or military. Check it out sometime if you wish.

TAG

OOC: I want to join as rogue soldiers from Securia.

Toronto, Canada.

The former Bleland soldiers sat in the apartment being quite restless. In total there were 25 of them, it had been a while since their last job.

Just then Captain Keyton walked in. "We have a job" Said Keyton. "What is it?" Asked Lieutenant Tune. "We've been contacted by our underground friends. Seems someone is looking for mecenaries. It sounds very dangerous and there aren't many takers."

Tune: "Well do you think it's worth it?"

Keyton: "It's been a long time since out last job, I don't think Securia is in the mood to take us back either so it's not like we have a choice."

Tune: "Ok so what do we do now?"

Keyton: "We should be contacted again with further instructions.


Keyton and his men have been exiled from Securia ever since the fall of Bleland. When Bleland had split into Securia and Portshire, Keyton and his men had hijacked Portshire's nukes and exploded them against Securia's orders. While it did play a major part in winning the war against Portshire, he and his men have been in a lot of trouble ever since.

Now they work as mecenaries and have an apartment, an APC and a transport helicopter which they used to escape from Securia.

“Belem, eh? No use for those hypocritical religious nuts anyway. But… it’s going to be hard to get in. They’re PARANOID religious nuts. One of my people was previously involved in an operation against them… it failed in the planning stages simply because their coastline is too heavily defended. I’m fairly sure we can get a team in; it’s getting them out that’s the problem. And disrupting operations won’t be terribly difficult, but I doubt we’ll be able to have a sustained campaign, certainly not without guaranteed support from Our Employer. My people have no real wish to feel the inquisition’s knife. And do they want the internees simply freed or do they want them rescued too. To be quite frank, Freddy, this sounds like suicide. Now, wait!” she interjected as he stood up in disappointment. “I never said we wouldn’t take the job. It's just this is going to cost. A lot. I can see us sending in an effective light infantry battalion.”

OOC: Feel free to have her arrive at the meeting with your people.


OOC: forgot to add this Again, Feel free to have her arrive at the meeting with your people

IC: "As for rebellion and riots... we can't promise that. We actually have some sources inside Belem, but the general population is too brainwashed with religious claptrap to support even a limited insurection. We can, however, attack the compounds and free the prisoners, though I'm afraid tehy'll all be recaptured eventually, and many may not want to flee without a steady supply of AZT. It will almost certainly trigger pogroms. If you want a mass prison break, and for all the prisoners to waltz through Belem to Democra... sorry, Our Employer's fleets, we'd need a regiment at least, possibly an entire marine division, and it's likely to get VERY messy. This also depends on where the camp is geographically. If it's more than, say, 500km inland, we won't be able to get more than a company to the target. I sincerely suggest Our Employers only plan for a quick smash and grab raid."

OOC: a suggestion: One character should suggest sending in someone to infiltrate the prison by faking his medical records. Then you'd get an inside guy who knows the area and can talk to the inmates. If no others want to do then then can someone contact my mercs and then they'll come up with the idea themselves?

OOC: The problems with that is that they'd need to be a Belem citizen to begin with. Getting sent to the camp would trigger enough attention that any fake identity would get seen through. It's very hard to get into the country, and would be impossible for them to get messages out of the camp. Belem has similar immigration and emmigration policies to the Soviet union, and has the economy to actually have guardposts guarding almost every meter of coastline. Very very tricky, that. We have people in Belem, but none in the camps. We daren't let them get captured... you wouldn't be able to fake anything, because they'll test you before you get in.

OOC: Ah ok, but can you guys at least have some thing that would bring my characters into contact with the main characters of this RP so I can play too? Or at least a message with instructions or whatever. Basically they have an underground contact who finds jobs for them to do.

OOC: Securia, can I just have your people be in my next post as if we'd already made contact? It'd be easier to organize if we all met together instead of having two seperate meetings.

ooc- DC is it too late for me to get involved. This is Cherry Ridge's (mafia) puppet.

OOC: Sure let's say they were contacted earlier and went to the meeting. (I'm assuming all the mercs meet there after being contacted right?)

OCC: If you still need personel, weapons of "unknown origin" I am here to help.

OOC: For the record, the organization I'm representing is the Verdant Archipelago International Legion, a semi independant force supplied and equipped by the Verdant Archipelago, but that accepts anyone, much like the French Premiere et Deuxieme Regementes Etrangier. Gives us a nice force for plausible deniablity, and since none of the people are actually Verdant Archipelagan, our hands stay clean.

They wouldn'y be involved except the Archipelago is discusted with the situation in Belem and wants to smash them.

Pacific Ocean - International Waters


A distant thunderclap echoed accross the water as Freddy's trawler bobbed in the increasingly large ocean waves.

"Damn it." complained Freddy. Although he was dry and warm, in the middle of his rather cramped bridge, he didn't like the weather very much. It was growing steadily worse.

"Our client insisted on meeting as soon as possible." said Freddy. "The weather isn't too good, but they didn't want to wait."

"There's nothing wrong with that." said Sarah. "They have thier priorities in order."

"They won't be able to land thier chopper in with these cross-winds." said Freddy. "I'm in no mood to see a Seahawk plow through my bridge."

"Maybe they won't be taking a Seahawk." said Sarah, after a moment's pause. She pointed at a large shape that was approaching thier position. Although it was somewhat hard to make out behind a veil of rain, it was clearly a ship of some sort.

"Binoculars." ordered Freddy. He was quickly handed a pair, and proceeded to put them up to his eyes.

"It's a a crusier." he said, squinting behind the binocular lenses. "Maybe Tico II Class. They're not flying a flag, but I think I can make out the name on the bow... it's the CNS... CNS Esse... something. I can't make out the rest, but that's enough."

Freddy handed the binoculars to Sarah so she could have a look.

"It's our clients." said Freddy. The cruiser was flashing something out to them in morse through a powerful spotlight.


**********

CNS Essence of Aethra, Ticonderoga II Class Cruiser


"Personally, I think the people Freddy came up with are our best chance." said a darksuited man. "The Verdant Archipelago International Legion are quite are a capable outfit."

"We'll see." said the man's companion, a short but slim woman who stood beside him, watching Freddy's trawler approach the crusier. She ran a hand with skin the colour of light coffee through her jet black hair.

"Let's go." said the man. "The sailors can escort Sarah to the meeting room. The rest of the mercs are already there, but we need to take care of something else first."

"The decision on whether or not this is going to stay a black-op." nodded the woman. "Yes, we should check with HQ before we talk to the mercs - they should have settled this sooner. Now that the mercs have seen the crusier, they know who we are. This is going to be a grey-op at best, no matter what they say back at HQ."

The woman and man turned away, leaving the trawler to approach and allowing sailors to escort Sarah to the meeting room with the other hired mercenaries. They would meet with the assembled 'freelancers', as was the prefered term in the Colonial Intelligence Service, after they talked with thier superiors.


OOC: Okay, if you want to join this RP, be in the meeting room. Talk amoungst yourselves, I'm sure you all have very interesting characters.

Sarah grinned cheekily at everyone else in the roomas she plopped down in a vacat chair, placing her laptop on the table. "Well guys, you've landed us with a really shitty assignment. I'm actually not sure if it can be done at all. What they want us to do is go into one of the nastiest repressive regiemes in the world, smash a prisoner camp full of desperately sick internees, and generally raise hell. I'm thinking we go in hard, smash the place, and bug out as fast as we can, after leaving a few presents. Maybe arrange for some distractions in other parts of the nation to confuse them. We have some resources in place already that we'll need to expend in order to pull this off, so we had better be paid rather well. Not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars of munitions we'll be shooting off."

"I suggest an airborn insertion, using a little toy we have, a landing some miles from the target, and a quick strike and fade. The nasty part will be getting out again, which is why I suggest we try to confuse the issue and smash some coastal positions as well, and maybe set off a few carbombs in some cities too. The problem with that is time... we don't have much time to reherse this exercise. They have perhaps 50000 internees left, and are killing them off at a rate of more than 2000 a day. That gives us... less than a month to prepare before the operation is moot. Factor in 10 days of travel, that makes it even worse."

A man in his mid 40's leaned forward from the back of his chair and laid his hands on the dimly lit table, his shaved head glimmered in the light.

"Mrs. Sarah, as you may know I unofficially represent the Everonian SSB (secret Service Bureau), I agree with your plan for an airborne insertion, but my... "employers" as it were feel that direct action on the prison by any personnel of my group is too risky, therefore I offer to assign my men to the infiltration, espionage part of the plan. My men are quite capable of providing the "distractions" that you will need to slow down and confuse the opfor's response to the prison raid. Indeed, rehearsing time is below what we usually train for but I have faith in my men, all you have to do is say the word and we can negotiate a deal."

The man leaned back once again into the chair, as his shadowed face left the light a large scar became visible on his left cheek for only a second, and the man said nothing more.

At the meeting:

Capton Keyton: "We've dealt with risk before, we've dealt with a lot of it. We have been exiled from our country because they felt we were too risky to handle. If no one else is up to it then you can have us as the direct strike force. We have a total of 25 men, 1 ship, 1 APC, and 1 transport chopper, and 1 attack helicopter. Our only condition is that you come up with an extraction plan and reinforcements. The frigate will be under your control as we don't have enough men to man the ship."

Flashback to before going to the meeting:

The Chicago FFG class Frigate was cruising along the Atlantic Ocean on a routine exercise. The Transport helicopter approached the ship. "This is Captain Keyton, we need an emergency landing, repeat we need an emergency landing this is a Securia Helicopter Serial number..."

Captain Keyton relayed the serial number and the chopper landed.

Technician: "Sir the serial number, it's a stolen helicopter... Plus Captain Keyton's dossier he's the same guy Lieutenant Keyton who exploded the Nuke in Portshire sir. We've got to apprehend him."

Just then the soldiers got out of the helicopters and opened fire on the unexpecting soldiers that were approaching the helicopter. They fire tranquilizer rounds and the guards soon passed out. The troops spread out and took control over key points in the ship so they force the technicians and engineers to take the ship where they wanted to go. All the armed guards had been knocked out and bound. Only those essential to operating the ship were kept conscious. The ship pulled into the harbor where they would get out and go to the meeting.

Sarah shook her head, "25 men isn't enough. We estimate a weak mechanized regiment or a mech battalion and an armoured battalion are guarding the camp. Call it... 500 men, and 50-150 armoured vehicles. And the frigate? Useless for attacking the base. It's some 750 miles inland, nothing but the largest LAMs could hit it, and those would get knocked down by point defence well before they hit. No, leave the actual camp to us. I think the 156th Airborne Regiment would be perfect for the job, under Colonel John Evans. This is the plan, as we see it, anyway. Two battalions will penetrate through to the internment camp, while the other one, and the Securians hit SAM sites and radar stations in along the coastline. The 1561st Battalion will seize the airfield and rail line near the camp, while the 1562nd will take the camp proper. The 1563 will seperate into platoon and company sized groups and raid along the coastline, clearing a path for the DC transports, which will come in hard on our heels to pick up the detainees. Simultaniously, we suggest that the Everonian SSB units raise a little hell inside variouis Belemese cities. We can provide you with suitcase EMP weapons which should spread considerable havoc, and have agents who can provide you with transportation."

"I guess Keyton didn't do his homework" Thought Lieutenant Tune. "Hey did you hear about the new railgun system?" Asked Tune. "We don't work for Securia anymore remember?" said Keyton, "Well, it would have been cool, and a lot easier..."

"Anyway we're ok with your plan. Whatever you guys need. We have our own infantry weapons unless you would rather we use something else."



OOC: Do they attack sam sites and radar stations by shooting it repeatedly until it breaks or do they go inside some kind of building and kill everyone? I'm not sure and just need this cleared up. I don't know much about SAM sites.

A man knocked on the cabin door to the room, the guard opened it for him and the man walked in. He was in his early 30's; cleancut, athletic and in full military fatigues, but he wore no rank, no insignia, no name patch. He walked over the Everonian representative and whispered something into his ear. The man nodded and he walked back, and met a similar character at the door, holding a Aviation-style helmet.

"Excuse me once again ladies and gentlemen, I have been informed that my employers are most willing to assist you. We are recruiting 150 volunteers, all Ex-Spetsnaz (Army), SSB (Secret Service), GRU (Naval), MVD (Interior Federal) and MOI (Ministry of Intelligence). We will select 96 of the most qualified men to participate in this operation. All men have sabotage and espionage training. Many of the SSB participate as OPFOR in our training exercises, and are well trained in terrorist warfare."

The man paused and then leaned closer in.

"We will provide your force with the needed diversions; Industrial disasters, carbombs, bank robberies, raids on ammunition storage facilities... you name it. If all goes according to plan, these men can help secure an exit for the main assault forces. SSB and MOI are currently working on false Passports, driver's licenses, insurance and other credentials. Weapons for our men will be provided by us, well circulated, captured or untraceable weapons ofcouse."

"As for the EMP weapon, we are happy that you have made such and offer, but we have many of our own, just waiting for field tests."

The man looked at the Democratic Colonies rep and said:

"Ofcourse, these all come at an expense, which we would now like to discuss."

ooc: tag. As a reference for you guys I'm going to post some information on my security for entering in and out of the country as well as attempting to smuggle weapons and other illegal items in. Just for the record I would like to state it would be extremely difficult to smuggle in a EMP device being as they do give off a rather large radiation signature.

Ful lenght OOC post on immigration, emmigration and checking of freight coming.

ooc: tag. As a reference for you guys I'm going to post some information on my security for entering in and out of the country as well as attempting to smuggle weapons and other illegal items in. Just for the record I would like to state it would be extremely difficult to smuggle in a EMP device being as they do give off a rather large radiation signature.

Ful lenght OOC post on immigration, emmigration and checking of freight coming.

OOC: Okay thanks, makes it alot easier on us, don't have to guess what your security is like, and no "Omg j00 cnat do tat!" posts. :)

"Funding." said the woman with the coffee dark skin. "It always comes down to funding."

She and her companion had just stepped into the room, although they had been monitering the conversations through thier earpieces. A number of microphones were imbedded in the meeting room to record everything that was said, and had enabled the pair to listen in even though they were not present.

"I am Pearl Johannesburg." the woman said, introducing herself. She gestured at her partner. "This is Roger Cromwell. We'll be managing your employment on behalf of the Democratic Colonies and the Colonial Intelligence Service. You can take to us any concerns that you might have, and request anything that you need."

The man, Cromwell, began to speak. "Our superiors decided that revealing our identities to you would be a good step in assuring you that we, as your employers, can and will do whatever we can to ensure that this operation goes off smoothly, with minimal losses, and that you will be rewarded for your efforts."

Johannesburg began speaking as soon as Cromwell ended his sentence. Some found the pair's unusal ability to speak in effortless sequence slightly disturbing, but most found it to be nothing more than a result of experience, albeit experience in a strange skill.

"Although we have decided to reveal our identities to you, we would still like to maintain as tight a veil of secrecy as possible. As such, we fully expect that our identities are hidden, and only be made known on a need to know basis to those under your command."

The intelligence agents glanced at each other before Cromwell spoke.

"We'll get to the issue of payment soon enough, but we'd like to get the planning down first. We've been listening in on your planning thus far, and we believe that Sarah, from the Verdant Archipelago International Legion, has outlined an excellent plan."

Both Cromwell and Johannesburg nodded in unision at Sarah.

"We agree that an aerial insertion, accompanied by diversionary attacks, are the best way to ensure a rapid insertion, evacuation and extraction." continued Cromwell. He glanced around the room for a second before he found what he was looking for.

The meeting room's lighting further dimmed slightly as Cromwell reached to his left to tap a few keys on a keyboard that had been integrated into the wall. A massive LCD screen, one of many that were mounted on the walls of the room, came to life. An image of an EB-15 Arkbird (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=372642&page=1) came onto the screen.

"This is an EB-15 Arkbird Super-Heavy Strategic Bomber." said Cromwell as technical data began to come up. "It is equipped with a Pallas Athena stealth system, as well as a host of other protective measures, and is capable of speeds up to mach 1.3."

"We would like to hear your thoughts on the possibilities of using the Arkbirds," said Johannesburg, "as high-speed stealth transports into and out of Belem."

OOC:

General Defenses of Belem-

Land based Defenses- Belem Defense Wall. The BDW was a 40 year project to basically completely surround Belem with forts and walls. It covers the borders and coastlines with a system of minefields(on the beaches at coastlines), guns, missiles, CIWS and EWS including radar(including anti stealth), motion detectors, sonar Infrared. There are designated raillines and roadways heading into the Empire that are manned by crews that inspect all traffic heading into the country(see below for checking policies and harbor policies.) There are some designated beaches that arent mined near cities for the citizentry to use. Most of the entranceways are guarded by private security but soldiers are stationed nearby.

Aerial and orbital defense- In addition to CAP patrols and the Belem/regional SDI grid(including the military spacestation which is a little smaller then RLs ISS.) there are numerous satelites positioned over Belem to keep track of incoming traffic including satelites devoted to scanning for submarines using MAD(magnetic anomaly detection.)

Harbor Checks - Ships are stopped by PT boats at 10-20 miles out (depending on how busy the city is). Crews on the boats do a basic scan of the ship with Geiger counters and will go through some of the shipping crates. At the customs office crew members will be given Belem I.D. cards. If the ship is transporting explosives legally the captain is supposed to inform the inspection crew. If they find some explosives and weren't informed they will check the shipping invoice and have HQ call the company that crate is supposed to go to and ask them if they ordered explosive material. If they did they will fine the captain for not informing them. If its illegal they will arrest the crew and have an explosives recovery team sent to the ship.

Roadways into Belem- They perform the same checks at rail and road lines entering Belem of course those are conducted right at the Border checkpoint.

Airport - Overseas Belem flights perform basic security for bombs, nuclear ordinance and weapons. Once the flight arrives in Belem customs performs a lighter sweep on luggage and passengers. Passengers are given Belem I.D. Cards. They are also advised if they are staying in Belem for over a month that is reccomended to take up residence in the cities foreign quarter.

The I.D. cards are collected once the person leaves Belem.
--------------

If theres anything else you want to know about purchasing weapons, or just basic Belem law on certain matters just ask. I realize most of my counter terrorism defenses aren't fleshed out so well since the 2 RPs I wrote the laws up for fell through before I could really applly them and get ideas for new situations. So don't hesitate to ask about anything.

The SSB officer shuffled in his seat for a second and addressing the group said

"While this bomber is stealth, the Belem radar systems will no doubtfully pick up radar signatures on the parachutes of the saboteurs. Knowing this, we should try a HALO insertion, not only will radar have trouble picking up the bomber, but the agents will pull their chutes at ultra low level, so radar detection will be minimal, written off as echoes. Also, it might be wise to make use of multiple craft, as the old saying goes "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Should the unfortunate event of the Arkbird be intercepted, the entire operation could go snafu. Perhaps it will be best to use multiple craft, spaced out far apart to land a majority of the agents. Others should infiltrate through other means, such as entering the country on foot or by boat. These people on the ground can secure LZs and make sure the aerial agents are prepped on arrival."

OOC: Just to point two things out Belem:

Harbor Checks - Ships are stopped by PT boats at 10-20 miles out

10-20 miles is still international waters, you have no legal authority to search ships in those waters.

As defended as you are, searching of every container through roads, rails, seas is impossible, I don't care how effecient it is, it would still slow down commerce to a grinding halt, unless you don't get that much commerce in the first place.

ooc: The law is simple if the ships refuse to be boarded they aren't let into Belem ports.

They don't go through every crate. They will go up down the ship and scan over the crates with geiger counters and other sniffer devices. That is easilly done and can be done relatively quickly. And they will pick a few random crates to actually open up inspect.

Basically its how the U.S. does it except out at sea instead of in port.

OOC: To be perfectly honest, I have major reservations with the EB-15 Arkbird, ranging from the futuretech powerplant to the highly quesitonalble destructive interference based stealth tech... but meh.

Belem, how can you afford the cost of constant CAP patrols? Each mission you fly costs tens of millions of dollars.

Also, how dense is your radar grid? Wouild it be possible for a group of intruders to blow, for example, 5 stations, opening a hole in your grid?

How is internal travel handled? And for the record, EMP weapons don't need radioactive componants. It's perfectly possible to produce an EMP effect without the associated radiation and pressure wave and death and destruction. An explosively compressed electromagnet will do the trick.

IC

"Well," Sarah looked thoughtful. "A HALO jump is out. We're going to need massive amounts of equipment, and vehicles, and can't really afford to spend much time regrouping after the jump. And it doesn't explain how we get out again afterwords.But... if the Arkbirds could take a tow, gliders might be more effective. We actually have a Special Operations airship that might be perfect for the op, assimng your Arkbird pilots don't mind flying low and slow. The airships are very large, but have impressive carrying capacity, and are very very quiet." She smirked. "There's another lovely thing about them... since they don't actually need any lifting surfaces, the entire envelope can be built in the shape of the famous Hopeless Diamond, with a RCS of effectively nil. At low speeds, while still detectable, there is no way any radar system will see it as anything other than random noise. If your Arkbirds can tow the airships inside Belemese airspace at 20000 feet at, say, 300 knots, the airships can deliver our troops directly to the target AND perform a limited CAS role.

But as I said before getting in isn't the hard part. It's getting out. We won't be able to hold the camp and airfield for more than a day, if that, and our transport will get destroyed pretty damn fast, so you Democratic Colonists had better find some way of getting people out of there quickly. May I suggest you make an arrangement with Iron Blood? Then we can focus our efforts on a much smaller peice of real-estate, flight times will be shorter, and the chance of hostile interception will be reduced."

OOC: The U.S. and the Soviet Union during the cold war ran constant CAPs. You use a minimum number of aircraft for the actual CAP unless you have reason to believe that you should use more and you keep about 10-20% of your fighters on 5 minute alert.

It depends on the location some locations are more dense then others as a rule though radar grids overlap slightly with the next radar station down. So strategically it would be possibily to bring a portion of the radar net, of course your time window is small before fighters are put on alert for that grid and they will probably start monitoring that location with satelites. That sector will also attempt to bring up a smaller backup radarnet using man portable systems(of course it will be alot less effective until they can get larger units into place.)

As for internal travel its pretty simple. Once your in the country you can move around freely. The Belem I.D. Card everyone is given is the only form of I.D. it tells where you live or are staying in Belem, if you have a drivers license, what country your from, religion, racial status.
Also theres no such thing as probable cause, police can stop you for anything and they probably would give foreigners a hard time if they are far away from either where the card says or the computer system says they should be but they wouldn't arrest them unless they had a reason or the guy pissed them off.

As for EMP I thought even the purely electronic devices gave off higher then average radiation just because of the nature of the device.

OOC: It's publicly known that ships are searched 10-20 miles out at sea right? I mean if people go through it people are bound to talk about it.

IC: "Would it be possible to have an insertion directly through one of the ports?" Asked Tune. "You know, like at a searching point we let a ship be boarded and searched while we have a bunch of soldiers dressed in civillian attire. But while the other ship is preparing to board our ship we have people dive off the other side and swim around both ships and use grappling hooks to board the other ship and commandeer it undetected and sail in with their own ship. If this can actually be done then we could load up as many troops as we wanted. Once we have control of the communications systems and they cannot send any messages to alert anyone else."

ooc: yeah its customs policy ships that are inbound have to report they are coming into dock and are told by harbor control to hold position at a certain area and to wait for a patrol boat to perform a search.

OOC I shouldn't think so... there's no radioactive material, why should it set of a geiger counter?

IC
Sarah shrugged, "Then what? Now you have two ships. If the patrol vessel does anything but patrol, it'll be suspicious, and then it'll likely be ordered to dock. And there are people on the dock who know the crew... I don't see the advantage."

ooc: Not sure. But I think it has something to do with how most electronics give off radiation or that it generates microwave rays when it detonates. It might not give off radiation I was searching for information on it online and its hard to find info on the non nuclear kind.

OOC Sure, they radiate when tehy're on, but a EMP weapon won't radiate more than most electronics. And yes, some do produce microwaves when detonated... not enough to seriously hurt people, but enough to fry electronics.

Chemical sniffers would be better at finding EMP weapons than geiger counters.

Johannesburg nodded at Sarah.

"We had considered contacting Iron Blood, but eventually decided against it." she said. She gestured at a line of text that had been brought up on one of the LCD screens.

"This is a statement from the Government of Iron Blood." she continued. "As you can see, they don't seem very friendly to our cause. They would rather work the patients to death than actually free them. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8496937&postcount=40)"

"It would probably lead to a security leak." said Cromwell. "With a government like that, it's probable that Iron Blood would simply inform Belem of what we were planning."

"We believe a better method," continued Johannesburg, "would be an insertion with EB-15 Arkbirds towing stealth airships, as Sarah described. Extration, we believe, could be facilitated if you were to seize an airstrip. EB-15 Arkbirds could enter to airlift all involved out."

"We would be able to use a large number of them." said Cromwell. "There are 500 Arkbirds in the Colonial Airforce. Although we haven't settled on exactly how many personel will be deployed in the interior of Belem, we believe that the Colonial Airforce's Arkbirds should provide sufficent airlift capability to extract everyone. We believe an operation involving rapid airlift and mobility stands a better chance of success than anything involving infiltration through the ports."

I posted this 2 days ago in the other thread describing the airport size it cant accomodate large aircraft:


ooc: at the end of all the executions? none. Just anyone who is detected at having the diseases after the main executions end they will then be placed in a local prison pending execution. Its about 750 miles inland from my coastline and about 50-60 miles south of my Northern border with Iron Blood. The Camp itself is in a somewhat mountanious region its located on a rocky plain in the mountain ranges near some metal mines(source of income for the camp.) The camp is pretty dense its set up like a P.O.W. camp there are lines of barracks, common areas everything is partioned off with barbed wire fences with key areas being electrified. Theres a railline connected to the camp and a small airport.

As for defences you could probably estimate it to be between 400-600 men guarding the camp with about 40-60 APCs and about the same number of tanks. Theres a few transport choppers and small transport planes mainly cessna or learjet size since the airport cant accomodate the big ones.

If you want to visually inspect the camp just turn on the television executions are publicized and broadcasted. Of course most of those filmings will only show the camp from the execution field which is technically outside the camp.

Yeah you could probably find a few sympathizers.

OOC: All an EMP device is is a big Compacitor, it won't give off radiation until it starts charging and then bursts. About the water searches, only ships inbound to Belem are searched at that radius right? That makes much more sense.

IC: The man leaned forward once again.

"I wouldn't rule out the Halo jump, my operatives can handle the smuggling in or acquisition of needed supplies. These Airships, gliders you speak of, will give off too much of a radar signature, and the arkbirds nomatter what their stealth will be detected at lower altitude towing these vessels because of the radar density."

ooc: yeah a ship that has to enter a Belem harbor radios ahead and they are met by a patrol boat to do a search. The ships are usually detected beforehand by radar systems and such but they won't have a PT boat dispatched until they radio ahead or if they illegal violated Belem waters.

"Well the ship has to return to a harbor anyway so that's a time for a suprise attack. How far is it from the dock to our first target?"

Sarah nodded to the Securians. "About 750km. And when you comeinto the port, you'll need recognition codes, the proper accent... it's all very messy."

She turned back to the Everonia SecOps people. "HALO certainly has attractive features, however, we'd still need an aircraft to deliver us to the target, we won't be able to get heavy equipment; I don't doubt your ability, but can you really smuggle us tanks and ATGMs? And the airships... they have a radar cross section approximately equivelent to that of a 1/8th of an inch ball bearing, from virtually every aspect. Volume scanning radar will filter it out, especially if it's traveling at a low speed. Yes, it can be detected, but only if you're willing to call out requivelent searches for every moth or air eddy." She paused to think for a moment. "In fact, they're probably the best way of getting the internees out as well. Actually... I want you guys and one of our airborn battalions to hit this chain of radar stations, and hold for a little, while we sneak out this way, with the internees abord the airships. It means we'll need to hold the camp for a day so we can exfiltrate under cover of night... but... hell, it's our best chance, I think."

ooc: how big are the airships and do they use hot air to rise?

OOC: 600 feet long, 300 feet wide. And no, of course not. They use helium. Think zeppelin, not hot air balloon. Payload of about 75 tons

ooc: ok so there a pretty big visual target. Do you know how hot helium is in a balloon?

ooc: ok so there a pretty big visual target. Do you know how hot helium is in a balloon?
OOC: Not too hot, you can walk inside the actual helium bladder on some. Helium is ligher than air so thats how it lifts the airship, hot air balloons, much more hotter, since they use jets to heat up the air.

It's atmospheric temperature... and we are going in at NIGHT... when it's overcast =)

ooc: Ok just checking to see which of my detection systems would be effective here.

And if you guys are actually going to go through with the attack I'll have the camp population freeze at like 10 thousand.

OOC Thanks. I certainly will... my people have been paid! Unless we decide to retcon the whole thing, which would be a pity.

As for detection, visual is the best, but they are designed specifically to penetrate heavily monitored areas. It is worthwhile noting that they are extremely slow compared to aircraft, are horrifically viulnerable to enemy fire, and have a limited payload compared to other airships. This isn't a godmod, it simply hasn't been done before. And, in case you're wondering, thoiugh it has about 75 tons of payload, another 75 tons were 'spent' stealthing it. That includes the weight of radar absorbant materials, the loss of envelope volume, and the decreased aerodynamic capability of the airship. If this ship were to have it's re-enforcement that allows it to be towed at 300 knots, it's stealthing, and it's ECM removed, it would be able to lift over 400 metric tons of equipment.

And if you guys are actually going to go through with the attack I'll have the camp population freeze at like 10 thousand.

OOC:

We are going to go through with this. It's just we're getting a bit bogged down in the planning stage, which is why I'm appointing Verdant Archipelago to be Chief Planner for this, in the interests of hurrying it up a bit. Verdant Archipelago - come up with a plan, and we'll execute it. Arkbirds towing in stealth airship transports sounds good to me. DC has 500 Arkbirds - if we subtract perhaps 300 as a maximum for towing airships, since I'm not sure how much each airship can carry, then we still have 200 Arkbirds left to do anything else that might be required: a 2000 missile Tomahawk attack on radar installations, or a massive drop of chaff to create a giant diversionary radar image, or the launching of a few hundred air-to-air nuclear devices to discourage pursuit when we bug out.

ooc: uh...now as I was reading this I was under the assumption that this was supposed to be a black ops mission against me. If your just going to use hundreds of Arkbirds that are going to have to head back to DC you dont think I'll notice and declare war? Or if you used nukes you don't think I would just turn your homeland into glass?

ooc: uh...now as I was reading this I was under the assumption that this was supposed to be a black ops mission against me. If your just going to use hundreds of Arkbirds that are going to have to head back to DC you dont think I'll notice and declare war? Or if you used nukes you don't think I would just turn your homeland into glass?

I'm assuming you're going to chase the transports with fighters. However, I'm hoping that the transports will have a bit of a lead - I think an effective way of discouraging your fighters from pursing the transports would be to detonate a few tactical air-to-air nukes in the air between the transports and the fighters. I would assume that this would cause the fighters to break off thier pursuit. If not, another salvo can be launched, but since the fighters are faster than the transports, the gap between the two groups will have shrunk - the detonations will be closer to the fighters. And so on and so forth - eventually, the fighters should realize the point that's being made and break off thier pursuit, lest they be caught the effects of a small tactical nuclear detonation.

As well, because of the stealthy nature of the Arkbirds, if you cannot detect them, they can simply vanish after thier duties have been completed. These duties might include firing weapons to discourage pursuit of the transports, or might instead be the dropping of huge amounts of chaff to confuse the situation. I have no intention of using anything larger than a tactical air-to-air nuke, if even that, and even then the primary function of the weapon wouldn't even be to actually kill anything.

ooc: Actually satellite recon would be able to spot them and IR scopes, probably LIDAR also.

OOC:
Good point. IR scopes and LIDAR don't allow for positive identification of the aircraft or its nationality though. The Arkbird isn't a domestic design, but something that's available on the international market. Satelittes might present more of a problem, but the Arkbird does use flourescent panels to make the aircraft harder to spot through visual means. As well, since they have a can cruise for two weeks without refueling (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=372642&page=1), I think that they even if they are spotted and tracked by satelittes, they should have enough time to lose themselves in bad weather and disperse multiple times over.

And the air-to-air nukes I have in mind would be something like the AIR-2 Genie Missiles (http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/r-2.html). The AIR-2 Genies have a yield of 1.5 kilotons a blast radius of about 300m. I think that if fighters are chasing transports and the fighter pilots have a bunch of these detonate just ahead of them, in the gap between the fighters and the transports, the fighters would likely decide to just let the transports go.

ooc: well when they open there bays they would be lit up on regular radar.

I do have a complaint though about the super cruise thing for 2 weeks. I'm basically 2020 tech tops and that seems alot more advanced then and a bit impossible.

I know, it sounds a bit odd. I'm researching the hafnium fuel assistance now. New Empire is a highly respected designer though, I don't think he or she would just make something like that up.

EDIT: And although the Arkbirds might be detected by regular radar, again, there's the matter of determining thier nationality. They could just as easily be the Arkbirds that were purchased by Roach-Busters, or any other number of nations. Yes, you might be able to guess that it's the Democratic Colonies based on a variety of factors, not only the Arkbirds, but would Belem really be willing to go to war against DC to get back a bunch of HIV/AIDS infected people who are dying anyways?

ooc: for them no but for attacking belem yes

Wow... that's impressive support you're handing us. Given your increased commitment, I'm upping our drop to an entire division.

The plan. One of my regements get towed in to actually take the camp. Two more strike at radar installations along the coast, along with the others. Everonian specops infiltrate a city and cause a comotion... your choice as to how, but it would be good if civilians didn't die. Our airdrop into the camp will take about, oh 40 airships, while the strikes on radar stations will take another 80. Our airships will touch down in Belem at about 9:00 PM. The attack should be concluded by 11:00PM. Boarding of the airships should be finished by 12:00PM, and we should exit Belem airspace by 5:00 AM Or so is the plan. It will undoubtably go to hell. Our 'GTH' plan is to hit them, load as many people as we can, blow our equipment in place, and race for the sea.

I think we should avoid nukes =) Simply because they show an overt involvment and are SO messy. If you could have your Awkbirds instead be fitted with jamming equipment and simply jam the hell out of thie Belem radar stations and communications, that would be best. That is usually the prelude to a major attack, and if we slip through a sector that hasn't been attacked or jammed, it's likely we won't get caught.

Also.. while I agree that hafnium fuel engines don't exist and likely never will, since he isn't really making use oif that ability, we can simply treat them as a conventionally powered heavy bomber and ignore the futuretech stuff. New Empire is a LOT more optimistic about technology than I am... quantum nuclear reactors have show one possitive test in a lab that has been unrepeatable... I don't think that's enough evidence to build an NS engine on.

Aditionally, LIDAR is useless... in order to use it, you need to know where you are looking, which means you need to get it on longwave radar first. If you can't manage that, then you don't have a bearing and altitude to perform a detailed scan.

As for IR, IR sensors are very, very short range.

OOC:

Verdant Archipelago, that plan sounds good for the most part.

I suppose I have to agree with the logic of your arguement regarding the air-to-air nukes. They would have been small though... 'only' 1.5 kilotons in yield, but I see your point. Jamming packages it will be for the Arkbirds, which will jam random areas and engage in electronic warfare. This should mean that they never have to open thier bay doors, which should help them avoid being identified and tracked.

I think I'll leave it up to Everonia to decide how to go about causing a distraction in a different location on the ground. How are they going to be extracted though? On your airships?

No, totally different area. same way they went in... I can provide them with vans and they can get fertalizer and gasoline and make timed detonators of their own =) Ideally, they'll have left before the first attack has occured.

ooc: how big is one of your divisions? Because the more forces you try to sneak in the more likely they are too be detected.

Also an update on the state of the prisoners. As of now none of them are getting medication because the camps aren't producing ore nor are they getting full rations the rations being given would be equivalent to what they gave people in concentration camps towards the end of the war 300-500 calories a day.
Edit: of course that is not publically released knowledge but in the latest execution videos prisoners would definately look frailer.

Fair enough...

And this division... organiziation is screwed up because of the speed this was thrown together and the fact that we're iusing all foreign weapons and equipment, and the fact that these airships aren't usually assigned at a divisional level, but it's 120 airships in total, carrying 150 men and a light vehicle or two each. So call it 1800 men and 90 vehicles, mostly light LOSAT equipped vehicles, AD trucks, and APCs. Now, only a third of those people are going to be hititng the camp itself, most of the force is going to be hitting positions around your coast or a little inland in an attempt to distract you. And get as many valuables as we can. Banks are a major target =)

ooc: ok just making sure its not a full division. When I glanced over that a second time I was like "wait...they are landing 10 thousand troops?"

Whoops, slipped up there. It's only a regiment *blush* and is closer to 6000 men. oops.

OOC: Someone just telegram me when they're gonna start ok?

OOC: Forums have gone FUBAR for me lately, please tell me if I am still required to assist.

I'd appriciate it if you would...

OOC: Okay then, we're all aboard. Verdant Archipelago, if you don't mind, could you start the thread that begins the execution of the plan that we discussed here? That is, assuming that you believe it to still be our best chance for success ofcourse.