NationStates Jolt Archive

300 Nautical Miles off Belem’s Coast

A large Verdant Archipelago Trading Consortium convoy stopped dead in the water. One of the twenty freighters had begun belching smoke from her hold, and motor launches from the other ships began deploying firefighting teams to help get the blaze under control. In reality, there was no fire, and none of the freighters were normal fighters. Instead, it was a CruRaidRon 3 and ten military transports painted in less threatening colors than battleship grey. Union RaidRons were a bit of an anachronism… in this age of satalites and radar, there was no way for cruiser warfare to succeed… unless the cruisers looked like something else. All 10 ships of the CruRaidRon were disguised warships. Two Arachnya class ASW trawlers, four Telamachus class disguised destroyers, two Odysseus class disguised cruisers, and two of the deadly Prometheus class disguised missile monitors. If all went well, they would never need to reveal their presence. But things rarely go well.

Six kilometers above them, an air-fleet ghosted by. One hundred and twenty EB-15 Arkbirds glided by at a bare 550 kph. Trailing from each bomber were three long radar absorbent cables, fastened to an enormous, bulbous dark object that dwarfed the Arkbirds. The enormous, bulbous, dark objects were SZ-4 Covert Insertion Airships, each holding a platoon of the Verdant Archipelago’s Légion Internationale, a semi-private auxiliary branch of the Union Armed Forces. The ships below technically belonged to the Légion, but that was merely a financial and legal fiction; the crew, while members of the Légion, were also Union Naval Reservists.

Centurion Zoltan Almasi, commander of Able Century glanced approvingly over the legionnaires in his airship. His command pentarchy. Some were streached out in hamocks, sleeping. Others were listening to MP3 players, trying to play cards, or checking and rechecking their equipment compulsively. He smilled a little at the oddity of their equipment… none of them were wearing regulation dress for any single nation. Generic BDUs. Saxburger body armour. MPSD6s, HK33s, sniper modified FN-FALs, L17s, L19s, acquired from god knows where… all had their serial numbers removed, and magnetic tape dagaussed - nothing tracible. Which reminded him: he stood up, and began lurching down the corridor, exchanging words of encouragement and small jokes with the troops as the airship bucked and groaned about them. While it was designed to be towed at high speed, the SZ-4 was not the most aerodynamic of aircraft and the rattling jolts caused by the Arkbird’s exhaust jarred the troops with every meter traveled. He thumbed on his intercom, which would broadcast directly into each soldier’s earpiece; it was far too loud inside the airship to address them all normally. “Alright folks, we have two hours until the Arkbird releaces us and lets us move under our own, quieter power.” A ragged, muffled cheer rang out. “So while we’re still over water, I want you to double check that you don’t have any personal items. Repeat, nothing identifiable. No dogtags other than the ones you were issued for this mission, no pictures of sweethearts, no religious icons apart from crosses. High command has decided to let you keep crosses if you want, but only because the Belemese are religious nuts. The Decurion will come around to make sure that you’re all following orders, so no cheating. Remember this is a COVERT op, despite the large number of people involved.”

“Here’s the plan, just in case you’ve forgotten it already. The 23rd Merarchy (that’s us) will land a good 750km inside Belem. There’s a camp full of really sick people there that the Belemese are working to death, and now they’ve started executing them. We’ve been hired to cut them out. Once we land about 3km from the camp, we’ll move overland towards the camp, and quietly as possible. Quiet kills, people, scouts, remember that. We can’t afford to have anyone raise the alarm too quickly. Once we reach the camp, we go in fast and hard Don’t worry about noise or communications silence at that point, we have an entire battalion to pin down. We have some ‘special munitions’ that should help even the odds, though they need to be used before the airships come in. Once the base is even partially secured, the SZ-4s will move in. This is the tricky part… We need to load the sick people into the airships. Load the least sick first, we may not be able to take them all, and we want people who will stand a chance. The airships will be lifting in groups of ten. We will be leaving with the last nine airships. All our heavy equipment will be blown in place… we aren’t bringing any tanks back with us, unfortunately. Now… how are we going to get out of Belemese airspace after smashing their camp and doing an awful lot of property damage? Well, the 22nd Merarchy will be landing along the coastline, hitting coastal communities, robbing banks, and, especially destroying radar towers. Our Employers will be demonstrating just on the edge of Belemese airspace, blasting them with ECM. We have allies in various cities who are going to cause mayhem. There is a small group of completely insane Securians who are going to be hitting radar installations too. So… we sneak out the back while all this is happening I also have it on good authority that there is a small unit of warships that is willing, to cover us from air threats once we’ve exited Belemese airspace.”

“A couple of things… you’re all being paid very well for this. One of the things we’re being paid for is quiet. We take our dead with us, and we will not be captured alive, is that clear? Further… I hate to say it but we cannot afford to spend time guarding prisoners… so aim to kill. I’m not suggesting that you shoot prisoners… but you understand. Same goes for civilians. Avoid them when you can… but if you need to take a shot and there’s a civie in the way… take it.”

They rode on in silence, except for the dull roar of the engines.

Belem
John Edwards sat nervously in his appartment. Apparently, he was to make contact with some agents... who's agents, he didn't know, but his handlers told him it was important. And that he had to rent several vans and buy a large amount of fertalizer. But he would do anything... anything if it ment his son could be releaced from that prison, and not be burned to death. He was a true Christian... he really was. And the thought of what his son had become made him shiver with discust... but it was his son, and he couldn't help loving him. Did that make him a sinner too? Surely God could not condemn you for loving someone who had sinned.

Avinapolis, Royal Crown Colony of the Verdant Archipelago

Lieutenant James Ellerbee poured himself a cup of tea, letting the steaming water run over, across, and through the small bag of paper which contained a local blend of teas. This was his fourth hour on duty at the small naval command center in the colony. Here, messages would be relayed between the Admiralty back in Breningrad, His Majesty's ships here in the Indian Ocean, and secure communiques between the Verdant Archipelago Union and the United Kingdom of Azazia.

Like most days, the sweltering humidity of tropical islands managed to find its way inside the temperature-regulated communications room. More than likely, some fool had left the door open. He leaned over to his friend, Angelina Harborough and touched her lightly on the shoulder.

"TAG," he said, startling her from her own thoughts. "Your turn to go shut the door."

OOC: Which ship are Securia's mercs on?

OOC You can make your own way in, or we can drop you with the 22nd Merarchy

Belem tag

Under-Ground Bunker: Kazerisk Provincial Capital, Everonia

The men sat around the dark oak wood table, a few were visibly nervous, others kept their poker faces on, but all were anxious for the phone call.

"They should have called by now." Said one of the suited men, checking his watch
"Patience comrade, not everything can be as precise as you wish it to be." Retorted the uniformed Colonel.

Just then, the phone rang, the Special Services Officer picked it up, said something, nodded his head and put the phone back onto the receiver.

"It is done." He said to the group.
"Very well, remember gentlemen, everything that is about to happen, never happened, understood?" Said the Colonel.

The dozen men looked at Colonel, faces solemn as they were pleased and nodded.

Somewhere in the Belem countryside

A fit man in his early 40's grinned and closed his encrypted cellphone.

"These 512bit encryptions really are something arn't they Ivan?" said the man as he glanced at a fellow merc behind him.
"Petrov, I am not going to even pretend like I know what that means okay?"
Petrov chuckled, "Okay okay, all you need to know is that its good... How are the markarovs coming?"
"Shitty, these pistols are relics, all of them are in working order except this one, I think our employers forgot the hammer for it."
"Eh well, we can deal with that, we are going to be getting some more guns anyways arn't we?"
"You bet your ass we are," said the man who appeared in the doorway.
"Ah Roman, what did you find for us?" said Petrov.
"The spook put them where they were marked on the map; found them all buried behind the grain silo, come outback and check them out." Roman moved away from the doorway so Ivan and Petrov could pass.

The three man proceeded to a beatup Gaz69, and glanced into the cargo bed.

"Oh, these are nice," said Ivan. "Brand new AKS-74U's, unmarked, still got the grease in the bolt."
"And plenty of ammo for them too," said Roman.
"Hey guys headsup, the spook is back."

The three men turned to the north, down the dusty road came blue pickup. It reached them shortly afterwards in the barn.

"Hey boss, you get the semtex?"
"Oh yeah, plenty of it too comrade Petrov." the SSB agent grinned and pulled back the canvas cover in the back of the truck.
"Jesus tapdancing christ, that’s enough semtex to blow a dam!" declared Ivan.
"Really? Probably now is the time to tell you what the mission is comrades." Said the SSB agent.
"You got to be kidding me." Said Roman
"Roman, I kid you not." Replied the Agent.

In a Forest, Eastern Belem

A older man crept slowly the dense forest, it was impossible to stay quiet, leaves had begun to fall and were blanketing the ground, but the man tried his best anyways. He moved up to a ridge, elevated high over the surrounding area, it had a great view of the bridge 500m below. He crept up to where is buddy was supposedly sitting


*Got to remember the challenge code, what was it ah yes* "Duck" the man said.
"Goose"

said a voice, right behind, way too close for comfort, it startled the man. He swerved around and drew his suppressed CZ-85, only to find is coworker in full gille suit with his knife drawn, he blew a sigh of relief and lowered his weapon.

"I would appreciate if you didn't do that Sergey, its not good for my heart you know." He said sarcastically
"Never can be too sure Mr. Skornoski." The gille grinned, his expression hard to see through the camo paint.
'Are you situated up here?"
"Yes, I have a great view of the target area, my only concern is this dragunov, we had to smuggle it in parts and assemble it on site, I can't align the barrel with the crosshairs without test firing it."
"You know you can't do that Sergey, it will draw attention."
"I know, it just bugs me... How are the other doing?"
"Oh they are fine, they are ready for the convoy, everything is in place."
"Good, then I will be getting back to my position."

Sergey began to turn away but the older man put his hand on his shoulder.

"Wait Sergey, I don't want to pressure you, but your are the key to this ambush, I know I can count on you, but you must know that we can't do shit without you, understood?"
"Don't worry sir, I am a professional, everything will go according to plan."

The two men walked opposite ways and soon they blended back into the forest.

OOC Everonia, you might want to make contact with John Edwards... he's e belem resident who we subverted a while ago. We want you to pull him out, and in return, you can do whatever you want with the 15 vans he's rented and the fertalizer he bought =) You see why he needs to be pulled out... once they trace it back to him, he's dead.

8PM, Over the Coast of Belem

The Captain of Centurion Amasi's airship stared intently at his cronometer. "Aaaand.... mark." The copilot made an entry into one of the computers. Deadreckoning flying was a pain, but they couldn't risk a GPS transmission being detected. Anyway, It wasn't as bad as the old days, where you had to use sliderules... now the computer did most of the work. Unfortunately, they had to enter times manually, since the onboard chronometer failed somehere over the Indian Ocean. They could have repaired it, but that would have delayed the mission, and what was the point in having a fancy aviator's watch if you never USED it?

He nodded to the pilot, "How's the weather looking Bob?"

"Lousy, just as promised. I wouldn't want to be in a fighter today. Overcast, with a 2000 foot ceiling. Really nasty. SOme lovely little crosswinds too, but no actual rain or lighting yet. Thank god." There was no reason why getting hit by lightning should seriously damage the airship.... tests had shown now ill effects at all... but why risk it?

"My god. Intelligence was actually right! Shit... that means something else has to go wrong. What about it Arkady? Anything wrong from your perspective?"

The EW officer grinned, "Sorry Captain. We're being radiated by a bunch of ground stations... where do they get all that power from? but none have reached detection threshold, and given the levels, I don't think they will either. Laser detectors picked up a couple of loose LADAR or LiDAR beams, but they were nicely refracted by our skin. I hate to say it, but I think we're in."

The Captain raised his eyebrows. "No kidding? Well, since things are so well in hand, Bob? Let the Centurion know the lead elements will be reaching the LZ in one hour; I'm going to get some sleep."

At the foothills of a mountain range, Belem

The man and the Woman sat in the front cab of the URAL53 beside the old road, the man tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

"So, what are we suppose to be looking for ma'am?"
"Three men, coming down that slope over there, remember the pass code?"
"Yeah I got it covered," The man replied.

40 minutes pass and sure enough the men walked out of the brushy slope in a column. The man in the lead approached the STAR truck, the driver tightened his grip on the CZ-85 concealed in his lap.

"Good sir, would you happen to have the time?" Asked the man.

The driver glanced at his watch

"Funny, my watch seems to have stopped at 11:48," the driver said.
"Odd, must be because of the wildfire," replied the figure.

The driver smiled put the hammer on his pistol back to normal and opened his door.

"Major Gorki... retired" said the driver as he extended his hand.
"Dr Winters," said the figure as they shook hands.
"Where are the others?" The doctor asked? The major nodded to the female passenger.
"Okay boys, sector clear, get the other truck." the woman said into a walky talky.
"Roger that," replied two voices.
"So where is this device Doctor?"
"I will show you, follow me."

The Doctor, Major, and two men walked back into the bushes and the doctor pushed away some brush.

"I don't get it," said the Major, "look like normal ATVs to me."
"Ah Major they are indeed, until one peels away the skin..." He nodded to the two others who walked over and unbolted the plastic body pieces.
"Impressive camouflage doctor and might I say, the device is much smaller than I imagined." Said the Major.
"Well, it is the finest device of its kind, pull up the truck here please."

The other truck made its way over, and the two mercs helped the other four men load up the three ATVs. The major and his two men gave the doctor a secured cellphone and told them to follow them.

"So far so good, right Layla?" Said the Major as he started the truck.
"Yes, sofar so good," She replied.

OOC: Understood VA, as you know we have many cells working independently from each other (not knowing about each other, or other goals, just assumptions about the others), one of them happens to be a security, recover team, they will take care of Mr. Edwards.

Mr. John Edwards couldn't take it anymore, all the worries on his mind, he had to get out of him cramped apartment, take a walk and clear his mind. He put on an overcoat and walked down the steps, and made his way down the block. Just as he started to relax while crossing a street a black van pulled infront of him and the side door slid open.

"Hey, who are you?" He demanded.
"That doesn't matter now, what matters is that I have a gun, and I have quite a good shot with it," said the man crouched in the middle of the door. He motion with the pistol for Edwards to get in.
"Fine, fine, I am coming."

Mr Edwards Jumped into the van and the man lowered his pistol.

"So... so who are you?" said Edwards visibly nervous.
"I? I am your employer, now hold on a second." The man pulled a cellphone out of his pocket.
"Its all there? Good, load it up and get to the extraction points." He closed the cellphone and looked at Edwards.
"Its all there, and now it is time for you to leave, Belem's intelligence forces are no asshats, they would have you dead by tomarrow, its time for you to leave the country." The man glanced over to the driver, "Take the exit Robert."

The van took the exit and entered the tunnel, only to have 3 identical vans exit the tunnel and go seperate ways.

"But, what about my clothing, my possessions?" Yelped Edwards.
"No worries sir, we took the liberty to drop by your house and pack for you."

A man who edwards didnt notice at first tapped some luggage cases and grinned his big ugly grin at him.

"Here are your tickets, to Koulgujev, its quite nice there this time of year, and we already have a bayside condo set up for you. And also, heres your new Identity." The man handed Edwards the folder, "please try to get to know your self well now."

15 minutes later they arrived at the regional airport, dropped Edwards off and gave him his luggage.

"Don't worry," said the man, "You did the right thing."
"I sure hope so," replied Edwards.

OOC: I'll be with the 22nd, I don't have that much time to be on Nationstates so you guys can RP them if I'm not back fast enough.

The Captain went up to the 22nd leader. "You'll have joint command over my men so this operation will move smoother ok?"

ooc: I'll make a post once you guys enter airspace and start heading for the camp.

South River Dam Complex, Belem

The two pickup trucks approached the security gate, two men occupied each vehicle, they were dressed in gray jumpsuits and hats, the patch on their arms read "Belem Hydro-Cooperative." The security guard straightened himself up in his chair as the trucks approached.

"Evening gentlemen," He said as the lead truck rolled down the window.
"Hello sir, I believe we have an appointment at 15:30?" Said the driver.

Ghost Town, Belem

The three black vans pulled up to a dusty container storage facility, parked and unloaded. Five men walked in through the front door, the remaining three guarded the vans. The leader walked in, the little bell on the door rang.

*Dingle*

The young man sitting at the counter reached for his AK, but relaxed seeing who it was.

"Gave me a scare there capt'n" said the young man.
"Shouldn't someone be watching the front?"
"Yeah, Joseph is, but he likes messing with me."
"Heh okay, well get Joseph down here and get him to show me the packages."
"Right boss" said the man as he clicked on his radio.
"Joseph, you asshole, get down here, the captain wants to see you."

Another young man came down a ramp and saluted the captain.

"This way sir."

The caption followed the man through a door, where another man was guarding, he nodded, and opened the metal door. The door opened up to a huge area, within it 15 vans, gased up and ready to go. The dozen or so mercs meandering around stopped talking and look towards the captain.

"Gentlemen, the play is in action, move out."
"Yes sir!" They replied as they saluted.

The men got into their vehicles, and 3 of the captain's men accompanied them. They started their engines, the garage doors opened and they head out to their objectives.

"Okay clean this placeup, and get to the next objective ASAP." Ordered the Captain.

The men walked out of the facility and loaded up into the black vans.

ooc: uh everonia your guys wouldn't be able to just get into the dam like that I would have to RP the security so could we start over the gate. They would have better security then rent a cops since you could take out a huge amount of area if a dam blew. thanks.

OOC: my mistake only 80 Arkbirds and dirigibles, my math is off.

8:45 PM, Over Mainland Belem, 30km from LZ

The main body of the forty airships of the 23rd Merarchy were tugged along by the Arkbirds. The captain of the Arkbird towing Almasi’s airship spoke to the airship captain via the cable connecting the two. “Tow, tug here. Here we are lads, time to decouple. Acknowledge.”

“Acknowledged Tug. Have a nice flight home Tow over and out.” The captain unlatched a panel, and flipped it open. He put his hand on the three toggles concealed within, and spoke into the intercom system. “All hands, decoupling in twenty seconds. Secure all loose items and brace for deceleration…. Mark.” He nodded to the pilot who had his hands on the throttle controls, and flipped the switch. The three cables detached from the tail of the Arkbird, and immediately were winched up into the nose section of the airship. For a brief second, any radar that was looking directly at the airship might have got a tiny blip, but it was likely it would be dismissed as random noise. Besides, there was next to no chance that a search radar would be operating this deep in Belemese territory. In any case, risk or not, it had to be done. As the cables dropped, the airship lurched from the massive deceleration. It took a lot of power to pull an airship at that speed, and the large cross section of the airship gave it immense air resistance. The eight engines engaged, smoothing the deceleration until the airship was traveling at a sedate 80 knots. Still.. the captain was sure he was going to have bruises later. He spoke into the intercom again, “Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking. We are currently cruising at an altitude of 20000 feet at a speed of 80 knots, but we are about to begin our decent. Please secure all weaponry, and say your prayers… we’re going in.

3km From Target Area

While that was occurring, the lead two airships were already making their landing. They hovered 50 feet above the ground, and deployed ten ropes from side hatches. The fifty men inside each quickly fastroped down the cables, and spread out to form a defensive perimeter., while a couple lingered behind to guide the airships in for a landing. The airships couldn’t really land, they were too buoyant, however, they could touch down by descending as far as they could and using their engines to firmly plant themselves on the ground, though this tended to throw up a lot of dust. The defencive perimeter was really a formality, though an important one. They had elected to land in one of the semi-valleys that dotted the rocky plateau the camp was sited on. Satellite photos had shown no signs of inhabitation, and the fact that they hadn’t been greeted by a hail of AAA indicated that they had gotten in undetected… but there was no point in taking chances. As the infantrymen fanned out, a light antiaircraft vehicle rolled out of each airship, followed by a small truck. The two airships, now extremely buoyant, lifted off again to float amidst the dark storm clouds.

It started to rain.

ooc: thats the LZ near the camp correct?

IC: Perimeter of Internee Camp

The private scanned the horizon with hiz nightvision scopes as he passed over an unoccupied valley something descending slowly caught his eye, it appeared to be a large balloon descending slowly in the valley. He slapped the sentry next to him and pointed into the darkness "What do you make of that?"

The other private turned around and brought his scopes to bear on the position as another balloon dropped down and said "hell should I know? But its something strange all right. Maybe the Air Force lost a weather balloon. Call the captain"

The first man nodded in response and picked up the watchphone and connected to the main office, after the second ring a gruff voice answered "This is Captain Morello."

"Captain, We are at the northeast tower and to the east we just saw a balloon enter the valley. I think the Air Force might of lost something over there."

"Alright soldier. Keep an eye on it, i'll contact Vechio base."

Morello hung up the internal line and picked up the Secure Military line and scanned through the list of phone numbers for nearby facilities before dialing the number to Vechio base approx 150 miles away.

"Air Control Vechio Base Lt. Boggs speaking"

"Vechio this is Morello at Camp 012, we have a report of a downed balloon in our sector are you guys running tests?"

"No sir, we haven't launched any balloons recently or informed about a test in our sector. It must of blown in from another sector. I'll try to contact Trinsic Command to see if anyone is missing a balloon. We'll have to send a team in to secure the site though if a crash did occur we probably could have an overfly in thirty minutes."

"Its my sector, I'll send some men to investigate."

"Understood sir. Just tell your men to be careful with the craft they carry sensitive equipment. I'll have some flyers in your sector to help with the search in half an hour and I'll check in with Trinsic."

Vechio Air Command begins preparations to launch three F-40 Vampire Fighters on 5 minute alert to give an overfly of the area. ETA is 30 minutes.

---------------
Back at the Camp

Morello was sure it was nothing, but if it was something he didn't want to be blamed for losing a million dollars of survillance equipment the Air Force lost he pulled the microphone to him and announced on the camp loudspeaker "Yellow alert, Yellow alert. All soldiers report to positions. This is not a drill."

He quickly scribbled a note onto a piece of paper and handed it off to a runner to bring to Delta Platoon to send some Cavaliers to investigate the area.

Within 5 minutes the Inquisitors cleared out of the barracks and headed towards there sectors around the camp. Most of the Inquisitors assumed that a semi successful escape attempt had occured since three squads were boarding APCs and heading out of the camp. Most of the vechiles were taxied out of the garages and waited for orders in the assembly field.

Ten minutes later...

The three APCs ascended the final hill before the estimated site of crash. The infantrymen inside secured there combat helmets(which encompass the entire head and face) and doublechecked that the air filteration system was intact, non of them knew whether a downed balloon would leak an gas and they didn't want to take that chance.

ooc: uh everonia your guys wouldn't be able to just get into the dam like that I would have to RP the security so could we start over the gate. They would have better security then rent a cops since you could take out a huge amount of area if a dam blew. thanks.
Sure sure, nice if you had notified me before hand, I have no clue how we can rp this since we are never on at the same time. Where I left off you can began, maybe make up for the lack of earlier security, I don't know.

OOC: Your NVGs can see 3km through thin fog and rain at night?... when the background is mountainous, and the object is black? .... wow... I wish my guys had stuff that good =)

And everonia, it's normal RP politeness... you don't kill of the other guy's troops, and you don't say what they do. Giving them incompitant security comes under that heading. I didn't say anything because I thought you might have worked it out ahead of time with Belem.

The LZ

"OP-3 here. Contact," whispered a voice in Centurion Almasi's ear. "I make it three APCs coming up fast, heading over hill 1259. ETA 2 minutes."

Almasi, in charge of LZ defense while the other troops unloaded the zeppelins, swore under his breath, then toggled his radio to the Century-wide frequency. "Alpha Actual here. Three APCs coming over hill 1259. Alpha one-six, that's your sector. Have your heavy weapons lochos take them, provide covering fire. OP-3, you will not engage unless necessary. Use your initiative. Alpha Actual out." He thumbed his frequency over to Merarch Wells's frequency. The radio he carried was designed for, and then discarded by the Jacksonton army. The small camelpack radio was digitally encrypted and had a range of about 2km, but the powers that be had decided there was too much of a risk that the enemy could hack the system, or that the troops would become reliant on it. However, since the hacking would require days of eavesdropping to even make an indentation in the encryption, it was perfect for a short mission like this. "Rapier Actual, this is Alpha Actual, we have been compromised and contact has been made, platoon strength. Are we rabbitting?" Rabbitting was the slang for the abort code, which was White Rabbit.

A pause, then a voice came through, crackling through the distortion of the encryption, terrible weather, and low power transmitter. "That's a negative Alpha Actual. Early contact was always a possibility, and we planned for it." Another pause. "Unloading is almost finished, and the HUMRAAMs are set up. We're just finishing the special weapon." It was true, only one airship remained on the ground, and the truck was just rolling off as the shooting started.

Hill 1259
Decurion Smith, commander of the ten man heavy weapons lochos of Alpha-1 tetrarchy squinted into night through his NVGs as he hunkered in a shallow hole under his weather-cape. The damn NVGs didn't like being wet any more than he did, and the view was lousy. He lowered them for a moment, to shake water off the lens, and when he raised them again, he saw the APCs lumber over the crest of the hill. "Rob, you take the east one. Arkady, the west. Juan, the center. On my mark... Launch." Three fire and forget Emu top attack ATGMs blasted out into the night, streaking straight for the APCs. Simultaneously, automatic fire from three 12.7mm machineguns began lashing the sides of the APCs, catching them in enfilading crossfire. "Go go go!" snarled Smith, as he and his lochos half ran, half crouched from boulder to boulder to their secondary firing position. The snipers in OP-3 stayed silent.

Belem Coastline
While that was happening, the 22nd Merarchy descended on the coastal communities. Delta Century's four airships decended together into a field next to a pretty little fishing village. The airships didn't touch down, the men simply fastroped onto the ground and collected the gear that was tossed out before them. Then the airships acended again, and the Century set out to cause havoc. It was no coincidence that there was a radar station, not five km away.

SS Spirit of Commerce - International Waters

In the inky darkness of the silent night, the SS Spirt of Commerce rode yet another wave on the increasingly unfriendly seas. A converted cargo vessel, the SS Spirit of Commerce was registered to Janisburton, an international corporation that operated as a front for the Colonial Intelligence Service. While just weeks ago the SS Spirit of Commerce was conducting legitimate business, ferrying plastic from Azazia to the Democratic Colonies, the ship had a much different purpose on this paticular night.

The Spirit of Commerce was accompanied by twenty-nine other vessels of similar origins. The cargo holds of all of the ships had been hastily converted into medical bays and seating compartments. If all went according to plan, the medical bays and seating compartments would be crammed full of refugees and mercenaries by daybreak, but in the darkness of the sea night, they were silent as any tomb and as dark as any shadow. They awaited the passengers and patients that might never arrive at all, but they were ready to provide comfort to any that might emerge from the night's raid on Belem.

An air of anxiety and dread permeated the bridge of the Spirit of Commerce as its skeleton crew worked to maintain the ship's position. They spoke in hushed tones, not wanting to distub the man and woman who stood at the front of the bridge, peering through the glass at the angry ocean outside. Thier dark, conservative attire and thier grim, stoney faces told the bridge crew all they needed to know about the pair. They were undoubtedly government agents of the intelligence service.

One of the sailors on the bridge approached the stoic pair, wanting to inform them of the latest developments.

"The Arkbirds report that the airships were drops without any incident, sirs." the sailor said with a PDA grasped in his hand.

"Good." said the male agent upon hearing the news. "Then they can't detect the Arkbirds."

"It would appear that way sir." agreed the sailor. Although he was technically on the Intelligence Service payroll, it wasn't often that he or his shipmates actually met with field operatives of any kind in person.

"What's the status of the diversionary troops from the 22nd Merarchy?" asked the female agent.

The sailor looked down at his PDA. "Just on the ground now." he replied. The sailor watched as the man and woman exhanged a glance.

"The Arkbirds. Stormhouse." said the man.

"Agreed. Now is the time." said the woman.

The man pulled his own PDA out from under his jacket before pressing his thumb onto its digital face. There was a pause as his fingerprint was scanned and analysed. He handed the device to the woman, who repeated the process.

She raised the PDA to infront of her lips. "Stormhouse is go." she said softly.

Her words were encrypted and sent in a burst transmission to an orbiting communications satellite, registered to a popular telecommunications corporation, Silicon Pigeon. Although Silicon Pigeon was a yet another front for the Colonial Intelligence Service, it had a large amount of legitimate business - thus, the transmission from the PDA was only one in a flood of transmissions that the satellite was recieving at any given moment. The satellite, while continuing to connect thousands of international customers to eachother, obediently relayed the transmission in its encrypted form to an EB-15 Arkbird that was steathily leading a formation near the coast of Belem. This Arkbird, having recieved the signal, passed it on to its companions, who continued to pass along the transmission via tightbeam burst laser. Eventually, all three hundred and eighty of the massive bombers had recieved and decoded the transmission - an order for them to begin utilizing the massive jamming and electronic warfare packages that had been loaded into thier bomb bays. They would jam, confuse and disrupt the radar installations along the coast of Belem, hoping to get as much attention as possible. They were to cause jamming bursts together in irregular formations, in an effort to hide where the actual aircraft doing the jamming were. They would line up along the coast and have the aircraft at the northern-most tip of thier formation light up its ECM package for only a moment before going silent and allowing the next plane in the line to light up, perhaps making it seem like a single plane was moving down the coast of Belem at an incredible speed. They would bring to bear an incredible amount of radar interference in an effort to distract the military of Belem from what was really going on - the rescue of thousands of prisoners via stealth airship from the nation of Belem.

ooc:NVGs can actually be used at a pretty long distance depending on lighting conditions. They could see the shapes coming down that looked balloon like and they saw more then one which is the only reason they report was sent it. Also for your EMP whats the max range on your device, because that will help me figure out how much hardened systems will help block the attack.

ooc2: for the landing by the coast I'm assuming you guys are going for a straight line out of my territory over the coast so that would be my North Eastern Coast near the city of Trinsic.

ooc3: Everonia. lets rollback the clock to checkpoint by the dam.

An IC post coming later in the afternoon.

OOC I know they can.. but these lighting conditions are about as crappy as possible HEavy overcast, fog, and rain. No ambiant light whatsoever. Of course, I have the same problem. Additionally, your aircraft are going to have a hell of a time. THere's a stiff wind from the north, low cloud cover, and it's very very dark. Which is why we chose to attack on this day, of course.

And no, actually, the radar stations we're hitting do not cover the parts of land the airships will need to travel past whien exfiltrating. They are simply distractions.... you only have so many pilots and troops on active duty, and by conducting a lot of raids, we force you to spread out.... since the attacks could be a prelude to invasion.

The EMP device is a six barreled rocket-mortar with a range of about 2km, so we need to wheel it a little closer. Hence the trucks.

And everonia, it's normal RP politeness... you don't kill of the other guy's troops, and you don't say what they do. Giving them incompitant security comes under that heading. I didn't say anything because I thought you might have worked it out ahead of time with Belem.

OOC: Never been a problem before, never had unincompetent security, its a damn Dam, not going to have freaking l337 Delta guarding it.


ooc3: Everonia. lets rollback the clock to checkpoint by the dam.
OOC: No matter how much I disagree your the "host" nation persey so fine, we are at the gate, you can start off with the greeting.

*Original RP edited*

OOC I know they can.. but these lighting conditions are about as crappy as possible HEavy overcast, fog, and rain. No ambiant light whatsoever. Of course, I have the same problem. Additionally, your aircraft are going to have a hell of a time. THere's a stiff wind from the north, low cloud cover, and it's very very dark. Which is why we chose to attack on this day, of course.

And no, actually, the radar stations we're hitting do not cover the parts of land the airships will need to travel past whien exfiltrating. They are simply distractions.... you only have so many pilots and troops on active duty, and by conducting a lot of raids, we force you to spread out.... since the attacks could be a prelude to invasion.

The EMP device is a six barreled rocket-mortar with a range of about 2km, so we need to wheel it a little closer. Hence the trucks.

OOC: actually I meant how much was the blast radius for the EMP but the mortar part is good to know also. Im guessing its small since the device fits inside a mortar shell.

And just a headsup that I'm not really going to enforce considering these are balloons and not planes rain actually screws up the stealth against radar because it slightly alters the shape of the object.

And for the distractions North central or southern coastline? Because my Defensive system is divided into grids so it will help me figure out who will be where.

And sorry about taking so long to make an IC post.

--------------
IC for Verdant(IC for Democrat and Eve next post)

The warning systems in the APCs signaled the incoming missiles but due to the close range the crews did not have time to react. The Cavalier to the left explodes in flames as its armory is pierced by a missile. The one to the right takes a hit to the crew station killing the 3 man crew. The Center one though heavily damage maintains limited mobility and fighting capacity(its TOW array is out of action but the cannon is still semi operational movement is restricted to about 30 degrees cone of fire.)

The driver thrusts the carrier into reverse and starts heading back down the hill. The gunner randomly fire in the direction of the primary missile attack with an automatic 30mm cannon, as the commander radios in "Scout Group under attack! Require Immediate Reinforcements...withdrawing back..."

Infantry from the disabled cavalier disengage the backhatch manually and begin streaming out of the vechile heading back down towards the base, firing random shots and grenade rounds behind them.

-------
"Red Alert! Red Alert! this is not a Drill. Secure Defensive Perimeter" Troops and vechiles begin moving to defensive positions around the perimeter of the camp(mainly just trenches with sandbags and a spotlight). Of the 20 tanks 10 are stationed 50 yards apart facing the direction of the general attack with the remaining 10 staying back between the rows of internee barracks only exposing their front sides to possible enemy fire.

Vechio Air Base begins the launching of their 7 remaining F-40s on 5 minute alert and hastily starts prepations to get F-42s in the air for a ground attack role, which should be airborne in 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

Radar positions on the Belem-Iron Blood border turn there receivers southwards towards the mountain ranges and activate ADT(Air Disturbance Technology) detectors to help find the stealth aircraft. ADT systems are ussually deactivated during storms and bad weather because they can give improper readings due to the weather(ooc:they wont work as well on balloons since they are primarily designed to monitor the disturbances aircraft and missiles make.) The tracking stations also up the transmitting and receiving power to help better detect stealth air craft.
Thiry seven APCs

SS Spirit of Commerce - International Waters

In the inky darkness of the silent night, the SS Spirt of Commerce rode yet another wave on the increasingly unfriendly seas. A converted cargo vessel, the SS Spirit of Commerce was registered to Janisburton, an international corporation that operated as a front for the Colonial Intelligence Service. While just weeks ago the SS Spirit of Commerce was conducting legitimate business, ferrying plastic from Azazia to the Democratic Colonies, the ship had a much different purpose on this paticular night.

The Spirit of Commerce was accompanied by twenty-nine other vessels of similar origins. The cargo holds of all of the ships had been hastily converted into medical bays and seating compartments. If all went according to plan, the medical bays and seating compartments would be crammed full of refugees and mercenaries by daybreak, but in the darkness of the sea night, they were silent as any tomb and as dark as any shadow. They awaited the passengers and patients that might never arrive at all, but they were ready to provide comfort to any that might emerge from the night's raid on Belem.

An air of anxiety and dread permeated the bridge of the Spirit of Commerce as its skeleton crew worked to maintain the ship's position. They spoke in hushed tones, not wanting to distub the man and woman who stood at the front of the bridge, peering through the glass at the angry ocean outside. Thier dark, conservative attire and thier grim, stoney faces told the bridge crew all they needed to know about the pair. They were undoubtedly government agents of the intelligence service.

One of the sailors on the bridge approached the stoic pair, wanting to inform them of the latest developments.

"The Arkbirds report that the airships were drops without any incident, sirs." the sailor said with a PDA grasped in his hand.

"Good." said the male agent upon hearing the news. "Then they can't detect the Arkbirds."

"It would appear that way sir." agreed the sailor. Although he was technically on the Intelligence Service payroll, it wasn't often that he or his shipmates actually met with field operatives of any kind in person.

"What's the status of the diversionary troops from the 22nd Merarchy?" asked the female agent.

The sailor looked down at his PDA. "Just on the ground now." he replied. The sailor watched as the man and woman exhanged a glance.

"The Arkbirds. Stormhouse." said the man.

"Agreed. Now is the time." said the woman.

The man pulled his own PDA out from under his jacket before pressing his thumb onto its digital face. There was a pause as his fingerprint was scanned and analysed. He handed the device to the woman, who repeated the process.

She raised the PDA to infront of her lips. "Stormhouse is go." she said softly.

Her words were encrypted and sent in a burst transmission to an orbiting communications satellite, registered to a popular telecommunications corporation, Silicon Pigeon. Although Silicon Pigeon was a yet another front for the Colonial Intelligence Service, it had a large amount of legitimate business - thus, the transmission from the PDA was only one in a flood of transmissions that the satellite was recieving at any given moment. The satellite, while continuing to connect thousands of international customers to eachother, obediently relayed the transmission in its encrypted form to an EB-15 Arkbird that was steathily leading a formation near the coast of Belem. This Arkbird, having recieved the signal, passed it on to its companions, who continued to pass along the transmission via tightbeam burst laser. Eventually, all three hundred and eighty of the massive bombers had recieved and decoded the transmission - an order for them to begin utilizing the massive jamming and electronic warfare packages that had been loaded into thier bomb bays. They would jam, confuse and disrupt the radar installations along the coast of Belem, hoping to get as much attention as possible. They were to cause jamming bursts together in irregular formations, in an effort to hide where the actual aircraft doing the jamming were. They would line up along the coast and have the aircraft at the northern-most tip of thier formation light up its ECM package for only a moment before going silent and allowing the next plane in the line to light up, perhaps making it seem like a single plane was moving down the coast of Belem at an incredible speed. They would bring to bear an incredible amount of radar interference in an effort to distract the military of Belem from what was really going on - the rescue of thousands of prisoners via stealth airship from the nation of Belem.

ooc: how far off the coast are the ships?

IC: The first response to the jammings of the Defense grid is to assign each radar dish its own frequency and randomly switching frequencies forcing the jammers to divide there efforts. ADT systems are activated and begin to scan for air disturbances(ooc: they will be limited a bit because of the weather.) And of course power output for the stations is increased in their own counter jamming effort and to increase the chance of detecting stealth aircraft.

On open frequencies: "Attention Unidentified Aircraft, This is Belem Air Command cease and desist your actions immediately and change course away from Imperial Airspace, you have five minutes to accomodate or you will be fired upon."

100 Viper Interceptors flying CAP at 150 miles out are rerouting to head in towards the coast at the basic sources of jamming. An additional 80 F-40 Vampires on five minute alert begin take off proceedings to assist the Vipers. Imperial High Command fearing a bombing campaign begin planning to sound the air raid sirens in major coastal cities.

AAA Missile silos positioned across the coast open up their silo doors as technicans begin punching in GPS coordinates if the Radar sites can not pick up the proper signals. The missiles are set to head to the set coordinates then to begin targetting based on IR signatures or their own ADT or ASR or LIDAR systems if possible.

The countdown begins...

OOC: Never been a problem before, never had unincompetent security, its a damn Dam, not going to have freaking l337 Delta guarding it.


OOC: No matter how much I disagree your the "host" nation persey so fine, we are at the gate, you can start off with the greeting.

*Original RP edited*

OOC: It would be considered para military training for the guys working at a Dam since its considered vital, so if someone with no experience came and took the job it would be basically like SWAT training. Most of the guards are ex soldiers, since the pay is better then an average soldiers pay.
And Im basing most of my security for the dam off what I saw at the Hoover dam.

IC: The two guards at the gatehouse approx. 200 yards away from the Dam stepout and head towards the truck, one guard holds the leash to a Dog(bomb sniffer) and heads around back while the other walks up to the drivers window and shines a flashlight into the passenger compartment. "Evening sir. Can I see your works papers and IDs"

The other guard meanwhile walks the dog around the perimeter van sniffing for explosives(ooc:under normal conditions it probably would be able to smell anything over 1 pound but since the weather is muggy it would probably require 3-5 pounds for the dog to detect anything)

OOC: Im not sure if its my internet or Jolt but the forum seems to disconnect everytime I make a post so just becareful and copy your post before submitting it.

OOC:
The shells actually are quite large, it’s a BIG rocket mortar. 200mm. They’ll have a big footprint.

And kind of you not to enforce the radar and ADT effects. It wouldn’t be anywhere as large as you might expect… radar systems, and the ADT I suspect, are usually programmed to filter out anything traveling under a certain speed, because otherwise they begin generating way too many false positives. Anyway, it’s a fair trade for your fantastical NVGs =P It wasn’t necessary for you to detect the landing immediately, you know. You could have annihilated it after we took the base.

And sorry for the crappiness of the post… I’m really really tired. And sorry for the bit of godmod in hitting the disabled tank... but it wasn't manouvering and the crew was dead and the infantry bailed out... so I figured it wasn't a problem to hit it again.

Hill 1259

“It’s scarpering, nail it!” yelled Decurion Smith from the new firing position. Two of the Emu gunners began training their weapons on the Cavalier limping away while the third sighted on the disabled one. Their loaders scurried around behind them, keeping a low profile as they manhandled the missiles into the launchers. Over the radio net, they heard the Triarch order calmly, “Don’t let them get to cover, platoon, fire.” Suddenly, twenty seven battle rifles and three automatic grenade launchers joined the 12.7mms in flaying the infantry bailing out of their disabled vehicles. The Belemese were returning fire, but it was reflexive and inaccurate. Not dangerous yet, though it could be if they got settled down into defensive positions

“Emus up, Top,” shouted one of the loaders.

“Then fire dammit, this isn’t the practice range.”

The three Emus once again scorched out, two tracking the operational Cavelier, and one the Cavelier that might or might not be disabled. The disabled one took a direct hit to the left flank and brewed up spectacularly, but the operational one dodged behind a boulder and the missiles lost tracking. “Triarch, one APC got away,” reported Smith into his radio as he and his lochos sprinted to another firing location.

“I know,” broke in Centurion Almasi. “Don’t worry, Top.” He switched frequencies. “OP-3, Alpha actual. Kill the escaping Cavalier, then relocate.”

OP-3

“Ich verstand, mein Kapitän” replied Decurion Schmit. He turned to his partner, who was sighting an enormous sniper rifle. “Pierce, we have a target.”

“It wouldn’t happen to be an APC cheesing it down Hill 1259, would it old boy?”

“Ja.”

Johnny ‘Dead-eye’ Peirce, who started shooting Verdant Archipelago wasps (two feet long) out of the air at his family plantation near Jacksonton at the age of ten with his father’s 10mm Swanson SLR-39, pulled the trigger of his 25mm smoothbore DCA AMR mk III, sending a 10mm depleted uranium rod at the APC 700m away at a velocity of 2000m/s.


LZ

The unloading was done, and the last zeppelin in the air. Troopers struggled assembling equipment. A large group were clustered around a large six-barreled 200mm artillery-peice that they were loading with large, bulky rockets. Three hummers with SAM racks on their backs were deployed in a triangular formation, ready to launch a salvo of missiles at any aircraft that dared interfere, along with a battery of Pantsyr S1 missile/gun systems modified to take SLAMRAAMs. A grabbag of light tanks was also mustering. Ten VAU BV-19A Hussars Jagdpanzers, eight Kit Fox light tanks, and two VAU BV-19B Hussar Assault Guns. A gaggle of light unarmored trucks had also been gathered up, with ceramic appliqué armour being bolted on by technicians. Merarch Wells viewed the force with grim satisfaction. Despite being discovered far earlier than he had hoped, they had managed to get the entire merarchy on the ground without any major mishaps, and the Belemese probe was nicely contained. Given the conditions, enemy air support wasn’t going to be terribly effective, and he had plans drawn up for setting up MANPAAD traps… once the base was taken. He thumbed on the radio in his Hussar C command track, and began issuing orders. “Beta and Gamma centuries, load up in the trucks and prepare to move out. Delta, finish setting up, Alpha will cover for you until you’re ready. Epsilon, move up and provide Alpha with any support they need. And Delta, when you’re done, I want the HUMRAAMs to accompany Beta, Gamma, and Delta as they advance. Acknowledged?”

“Roger that,” chorused the four century commanders. The two unengaged infantry centuries, Beta and Gamma began putting the finishing touches on their trucks and started loading up, while the eighteen light tanks and two light assault guns of Epsilon rolled over towards Hill 1259 to support Alpha century. Delta century, which consisted of the rocket artillery battery, a mortar battery, an anti aircraft battery, and a rifle tetrarchy for security, finished setting up.

Belemese Coastal town with radar station
One tetrarchy split off to enter the town and try to hit a bank, while the other two marched off for the radar station, infiltrating quietly through the woods, letting the sound of the rain cover their footsteps and taking as much advantage of their thermally opaque waterproof capes as possible.

Four of the Inquisitors from the ten man squad go down from the rifle fire as the remaining six skid down the side of the hill to get out of oppositions field of fire.

The operational Cavalier drops its Infantry hatch as the Inquisitors onboard roll out two smoke grenades to the sides of the limping vehicle. As the smoke deploy the ten men rush out the back and head down the hill to get cover.

The two squads link up midway down the hill and form a defensive sphere as they begin withdrawing back to the base

The sniper round penetrates the engine block of the remaining APC stalling it. The crew deployed smoke as they abandoned the useless transport and followed their comrades back down the hills towards the base.

The Securia mercs follow the other soldiers on the way to the radar dome, they scan the surrounding area with thermal scopes and binoculars. So far no enemies were spotted.

ooc: the guys going into the town are they entering the town in regular vehicles? military grade stuff or just walking in?

ooc: the guys going into the town are they entering the town in regular vehicles? military grade stuff or just walking in?

OOC: I would think since it is at night with inclement weather that they are infiltrating the town through the nearby forest/unlceared area.

OOC They are on foot, but they may 'requisition' some available civilian vehicles. Post coming... eventually.

ooc: I'll have a description of the radar site up soon.

OOC: The radar station is an outcropping of the wall thats about 30 feet away from the main defensive line on the coast. Theres a chain link barbed wired fence around it. There are cameras on the wall however most of them are pointing out towards the coast. Motion detectors are placed betweent the radar station and the forest but your men probably won't know about them. As far as you can tell theres no door into the station or this section of wall meaning A. its an unmanned station or B. the entryway is further down probably at a gurdaded station.
It would probably be easier for your men to just shoot the thing then to try to take control of the station.

bumpers

Sorry, exams...

np.I understand. I got finals coming up next week, bleh