NationStates Jolt Archive

An Introduction

Four seperate landings had been made, all aquiring what had become known as Tordesillas, the newest provence of the Golden Throne, while the homeland still brooded in the largest war the country had seen since the foundation of the Second Empire under Emperor Jonach I. In effect the territory had been hand picked and the administration and its army had made sure that there position was strategical; unfortunately, not all went as planned and as land quickly became occupied the Golden Throne found itself with limited channels of expansion, although in hindsight perhaps that was a better conclusion than having four long belligerent borderlands. Indeed, the eastern territory, effectively named Austernauht was cornered by Doomingsland and Dweladelfia Prime, both allies of the state, although the latter had hit the sour side of the administration after their entrance into the war against Kraven. Only strong relations with the IADF had stopped the empire from entering the war and crushing the armies of Dweladelfia Prime before they could do more damage to the strategic ally of the Empire. Nevertheless, Austernauht was well protected by two buffer zones made by two allies. Of course, Doomingsland was less prone to defeat, being one of the stronger neighbors of Tordesillas, while a stronger border guard was left on Dweladelfia Prime's border, in case either the country retired from the IADF, effectively fracturing cordial relationships between it and the Golden Throne, or it was occupied by a belligerent power, in this case more likely to be Manhattan Prime. The center piece of Tordesillas was the dual horn subprovence dubbed Calathur, bordered in both respects by New Hellas, a colony property of Nikolaus the Great, and it did not offer the same peaceful serenity that Austernauht had, and it was possible that it would be the battlegrounds of a long conflict in the future, although the Empire itself had no plans for operations in the area. The fourth section, the most western of all, was Orthonius, bordering esteemed ally Novikov, and having the single likely channel of imperial expansion east of Novikov and west of Hellas; that single piece of territory would provide the Empire with what it needed to further colonize the continent under the flag of the Golden Throne.

However, all this was stipulations for the future and the Empire had a larger problem on its hands. Apart from organization and the money that had to be attributed to the colonization of distant lands there was also the war of succession raging throughout Weigar, Fedala, Sarcanza and Ruska, eating up more and more martial assets of the Empire, and leaving little to be propogated abroad, including Tordesillas. Nonetheless, the provence could not totally avoid military occupation, especially with the exponential growth of the population as refugees seeking to escape the horrors of the war on the mainland moved to find new futures within Tordesillas. For one part this offered the Empire a selective advantage in military occupation, on the other hand it did create problems of its own.

Austernauht was occupied by the 9th and 10th Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier Divisions, the 2nd Waffen-SS Special Operations Regiment, and the 1st Waffen-SS Panzer Division, offering an excellent defensive force, most of it centered against Dweledelfia Prime. There were also two minor security regiments along the border of Doomingsland occupying a string of border firebases, just in case. Calathur was occupied by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Waffen-SS Panzer Divisions, the 11th , 12th and 13th Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier Divisions and three artillery divisions. Finally, Orthonius received by far the largest occupation comprised of the 14th through 16th Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier Divisions, the 7th through 18th Waffen-SS Panzer Divisions, 2nd and 3rd Waffen-SS Special Operations Regiment, the 1st Waffen-SS Air Assault Regiment, the 1st Waffen-SS Pathfinder Division and a single corps of regular panzergrenadiers, amounting to a lot of firepower. In terms of aerial strength the Empire failed to lack, with six hundred Lu-45 Hawks in Orthonius alone, along with two hundred GLI-76s, sixxty GLI-34s. amongst other aircraft. Indeed, one had no right to deem it an insufficient force.

There was a single weakpoint, which would be reinforced within years, and that was the naval protection of the provence. There was simply no naval fleet that could be sacrificed, and so it was decided that a brand new series of battle groups would protect Tordesillas. Specifically, there was a single carrier battle group, two heavy assault battle groups and four fast attack battle groups, forging a very flexible defensive structure for Tordesillas, and even putting enough for a threatening offensive power. However, these battle groups were scheduled to be finished in two years, and so failed to play an immediate part of the defense of the provence. As a consequence, the naval defense remained largely littoral in nature until those battle groups were provided. However, it wasn't to say that the coastal defenses were weak, because they were not - an invasion of Tordesillas would prove extremely difficult to craft. Any investment would be heavy with blood, and that was the fact of the matter.

The immediate occupation of the area had been slow to develope, but with the increasing numbers of war refugees the population of Tordesillas quickly grew to about ten to twelve million, with six of those in Orthonius, making it the population strongpoint of the provence. One major city was founded and government funded in each 'horn' of Tordesillas, all four of them coastal, and from west to east they were Gorgoniat, Covenortie, Jelithium and Frostornas, with minor towns dotting the lands thereafter. As a result of the relative demographics the provence became largely agrarian, basing its income off being the prime trade controller between the Empire and the provences of other international states, and the militar stationed there. It would never become a 'poor' provence.

However, merchant mechanics was the least of the provence's roles, and every day the threat of war rollled closer, especially as that southern neighbor became more and more belligerent, and relations rotted to a point where invasion was imminant. Piece in Tordesillas was definately not apparent...

[OoC: Please use this (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=444944) thread for OOC.]

Orthonius, Border with Jagada
The train lathargically chugged foward, which in this case was southwards, spitting out a tower of steam into the bright blue sky. As the locomotive's engine pierced the silence of the sorrounding farmland with the cacophony of the noise of pistons, gears, and other components, agriculturists took the time to look up and stare at the train. Indeed, most engines that had passed through the area had gotten more than a look, the farmers always in awe of the powerful guns which the trains portruded, installed for self protection. The fact of the matter, at least to them, was that trains did not normally pass through more than once a day, but so far six locomotives of the same size had made their way through the borderlands, stopping at a fire base right on the frontier with Jagada. The entire process of deployment had begun in the last week and the local farmers and their wifes and children were still perplexed.

Indeed, as the train slowly rolled it ways through the antique railing, which was built in haste to get a provence wide train network to improve logistical capabilities in both the military and civilian sector, farmer Keitel Gerhard, an old occupant of Arras, a huge farming sector of the Empire, looked up at the train, his son by him, lifting his head up as well. The younger man turned to look at the chin of his father, incapable of looking up some more because of the height difference, and asked,"What's happening?"

Gerhard didn't waver his stare, his lips curling into disgust, and he simply replied,"It looks as if Fedor cannot avoid war anywhere he goes. Son, run to the tractor and stay there. We're going home."

In general application it could be said that the sentiment was felt unversally throughout Orthonius, haven of war refugees that had run, as the name implies, to escape war, and the fact that major troop concentrations were being placed on the frontier lands was not a very positive insight to the foreseeable future. Official claims stated that the build up was simply for protective clauses, and that the imperialists in Jagada had begun the entire political debacle, and that their amount of personnel always outnumbered that of the Empire, but most had taken that as a lie. Nonetheless, there always a certain degree of loyalty towards Fedor I, simply because he was the appointed ruler of the Empire through the will of Jonach I, and he had done a great job so far securing his throne, although the war of succession on the mainland was taking its toll, with dozens of thousands of dead littering the battlefields of Mons Dei, the River Nestor and the Siege of Targul Frumos. There were very few provences that were out of the range of war, and one of those was Arras, although the fact that he moved to Ruska in the days prior to the war did not help his position at all; he was chased out of his home by Havenite infantry in the third day of the War of Golden Succession, leading to a life of misery on the streets of Fedala, and finally a voyage by merchant ship to Tordesillas, to start his life anew. Regardless, in general, the deployments were supported as there was nothing the local populace could do, only hope that the iniative always stayed with the Empire and the war was fought south of them, as opposed to in Orthonius.

So, the farmers went back to their work as the train sped past them, leaving behind the memories of screeching pain in the ears, dancing to the sound of a steam engine, something that was considered ancient within the Empire, where all trains ran through electromagnetic acceleration. The tracks in Tordesillas had been laid with haste, as specified before, and the project to change them all to the newer designs would have to be postponed because not only the money being spent on the deployment, but the fact that most of the budget of the Empire was going into destroying the armies of Heinrich, contender to the throne, the rebels of Sarcanza, and the legions of Haven. Futures nonwithstanding, the steam engines would do for now.

Inside the train dozens of soldiers were packed into individual cars, most sitting on the floor, legs cuddled up to their chest to avoid hitting the people in front of them, and some even standing, prefering the discomfort of standing for two hours to the hell of sitting scrunched up on the steel ground below them. They all had grisly faces, used to riding to the front in their confortable trains of home, and none were too happy about going to another belligerent post, hoping to be put in Tordesillas simply for security reasons. None of them had expected war when they first arrived at Gorgoniat, but now it seemed to all as inevitable, and they were most likely correct, although the administration had released nothing of belligerence to Jagada, and had not even made belligerent political manueverings; it was just a simple matter of securing one's borders. Doomingsland had done it, The Silver Sky had done it, amongst others, what was so abnormal about the Golden Throne doing it?

Soldiate Derik Kerillian looked over to one of the men sitting around him and stared for a while. The other man slowly turned his own neck, stared back, and slowly said, "What the hell are you looking at?" Kerillian shook his head, gave his apologies, and turned to look at the wall in front of him, making sure he missed the gaze of the soldier to his forefront.

Suddenly, he felt something hitting his rib cage and turned to meet the perpitrator, only to see a fellow soldier who said, Hey man, you scared or something?"

Kerillian shook his head at the man and replied,"Not especially, it's just pissing me off that were sent here to do this shit, you know? We're not even Macabee, why are we here?"

Indeed, the unit was the 1st Waffen-SS Air Assault Regiment, formed entirely of men from Spizania, avoiding all other wars under the guise that they were being prepared for entrance into the War of Golden Succession against the Weigar rebels, under the leadership of Prince Heinrich of Dienstad. The soldiers of the Waffen-SS were criminals, so they had no room for disputes, and they normally did their job without complaining, but being sent to the middle of nowhere was something else. The regulars, actual citizens of the Empire, did not feel much better about their new job. But what could they do? And so, without further complaining the train made its way to the firebase.

The other soldier nodded and followed up, "So, what do you do get here?" Kerillian chuckeled and told the man how he had gotten into prison and the other continued, "They gave you eight years for killing the man who slept with your girl? That's fucked up. And then they put you here...wow. I guess they thought you were a natural born killer; must have done that job pretty damn well if you ask me." Both of them laughed a bit and the other man shook his head, "If we go to war, I hope they pull us out quick and send us back home for the Rs, you know what I mean?"

Kerillian nodded to this and answered, "Word to that."

For the rest of the trip both fell silent, but there really wasn't much left. The train continued on a straight path to the firebase, which amounted to an absolutely gigantic complex that spread over the surface and in the subterranean. It was a huge infantry base, designed to hold the border if Jagada attacked, constructed out of pure titanium and concrete, and it still was not completed in its fullest - nonetheless, what was done was absolutely massive, offerng only a glimps of future dimensions. The entire thing was alloted to the 30th Infanterie Division and to the 1st Waffen-SS Air Assault Regiment, and included a subterranean hangar for the regiment's helicopters, numbering five hundred, which was within itself a lot, and probably more than what the regiment needed, but they were kept there just in case. The Empire had no room to fail against Jagada; it would mean the loss of one fourth of their territory, and that simply could not be tolerated.

The train entered a dark tunnel, leading to the subterranean rail stops of the firebase, where the train would be unloaded and then turned around to head back north. Suddenly, much to the chagrin of sleeping men, it grinded to a halt, the steel wheels screeching more than the engine ever could have attempted to do, and some even covered their ears, unaccostumed to such ugly sounds. It all took some seconds and the train jolted foward, and then back, and the men gave a quick sigh of relief to finally mark the end of their journey. The huge side swept doors of the cars reeled open and an ungly looking staff sergeant stood outside with his hands on his hips, and he didn't take his time to unload, grabbing the megaphone laced on his belt and putting it to his mouth, yelling,"Men of the Empire, get off the train immediately and make your way to the regimental headquarters. Men of the Empire..." He would continue repeating that until the car was unloaded.

The company's officers moved out before anybody else, the captain first, staying put to see the rest of his company make its way out of the train, and then his lieutenants and then the non-comissions officers, and finally the non-officers. Derik Kerillian turned to see the train be swarmed with men coming out of carts lining behind him and before him, all looking rather surreal. It seemed a scene out of something he had watched in a movie of the antique days, and although he was hard pressed to admit it, he feeled rather excited. He had made it to the Kingdom of God, Keineich Deisorns - what was advertised as the future of the Empire.

{OOC: So, we going to have a war, eh? Sounds interesting. I'll post to a link to how my defense is set up soon. Also could you give me an estimate on your numbers, I don't want this to be a one-sided battle since you got a rebellion you may not be capable of bringing to arms what I can. This is not an insult, its just to make the RP more interesting.}
Coalgate, Essah

Snuggled in just behind the first line of fortifications was the small town of Coalgate. Its residents knew the drums of war were beating and quite loudly. They knew this the moment the Macabee government blamed their recent increase of troops on the border on the "imperalists in Jagada". That one phrase could mean many things ranging from a legimate reason for ethnic clensing or overthrowing a government though, more often then not it meant that war was going to be declared. The people of Coalgate and rest of the province now known as Essah were unsure as to how the Macabee population across the border was taking this; but they knew the Macabees had their eyes on Essah since the day the Jagadian flag was hoisted above it. Now the civilian population was scared and already a mandatory evacution was issued. Normally a mandatory evacuation would not be issued, but if a mass evacuation happened while the fight was going on, it would clogg the roads and make reenforcements almost impossible to get threw the conjestion.

It was raining, and at the city of Coalgate in the town hall which had already been forcfully evacuated by the military. Kane Swiftstorm planned with his subordinate generals for the defense against the Macabees. While the overall plan was already known, tricks and special tatics were now in order.

"The Incinerators can be made parrel with the ground, correct?" stated Stormswift.

"Yes sir, its one reason we bought them in mass," stated Major General Raynor, the commander of the Artillery Corps.

"Good, I want at least ten thousand of them placed all around the second line, understood?"stated Kane.

"Yes sir!" exclaimed Raynor.

Raynor was a bit over zealous, he was a Moslem in religious practice but surprisingly was different in the sense he held many beliefs that a Christian would. Kane turned his attention to General Lodrin, commander of the Phantom Forces {Special Forces}.

"You're men are in place, correct?" asked Kane.

"Yes sir, we have small bands hiding in all designated areas," stated Lodrin, "Most of these being concentrated threw areas we feel the Macabees will be attacking from. Once they cross, we will be able to harrass their supply lines."

"How much?" asked Kane.

"Light-to-moderate, but should we get a stroke of luck and they be going in mass convoys and we're giving enough time, it could be heavy at times,"stated Lodrin.

"Excellent. I want a report every hour, understood?" asked Kane.

"Yes sir," stated Lodrin.

Kane smirked, he knew the Macabees would come, though when they came they would find Jagada not an easy target to tackle. The lands of Essah were Jagadian, and he intended to ensure they remained that way.

{OOC: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=454132 my colony page}

[OOC: Well, the troop numbers I have up to now are:

ca. 23,000 infantry [with an amount of light tanks, artillery and APCs not specified for now...but don't worry I'm always realistic]
ca. 2,200 to 2,500 taks
ca. 1000 air assault men and around the same number of special operations
ca. 11,000 pathfinder infantry
2 Morrigan UHBTs [again, realism is a must on my part]
and a certain number of Praetorian IIs and fixed Prae. sites firing the P.746.A missile.
Artillery of course in the numbers of around 4,000 to 6,000 guns.

I probably forgot some other stuff, but those are general numbers. IC post coming either tonight if I'm bored, or tomorrow.]

[OOC: Macabees. If you want, I'll make a new thread for our war. As for my numbers, I wasn't expected you to have only 23k troops. I was going to whip out 700,000, cause I expected you to do similar, so here I'll drastically reduce those numbers:

-25,000 Crusaders (Light Tanks and Infantry support vechiles not specificed}
-5,000 Jihadist {675 APCs, Kreigzimmer Designed}
-2,000-2,500 Medium-to-MBT tanks
-10,000 Artillery {Includes Incinerators (sp?) and Corbulo's (sp?)
-500 Airmen
-4,000 Special Operations Forces AKA: Phantoms

I'll folllow you on the AA numbers, whatever you may choose. I want to keep this even and relatively more indepth if thats ok. Prehaps gets down to soldier feelings, population feelings, ect, ect.]

(OOC: Sorry to point htis out, but those troops i gave you arnt Spizanian Citizens yet, they had toi serve 25 years in the Foregin Legion, those men are Arabanistani political prisoners and criminals who i recieve as part of the Arabanistan War peace Treaty)

[OOC: We can get a new thread if you want, but this was originally to be the war thread. But, perhaps, we should start using the OOC thread specified to keep OOC out. But, if you want a new thread that's ok too.]

Borderlands
The moon was clearly visible over the barren landscape of this certain section of the border between the Empire's colony and Jagada's, illuminating the area below, including border fortifications on both sides of the thin invisible line. It was inconsequential regardless; the entire Macabee side of the border was vibrant with activity, policy of the men at the front since they first arrived. Every night the trucks would turn on their loud hybrid diesel engines, as would the armour, and sometimes even, one of two Morrigans would turn on their own engines, the huge nuclear turbines turning in a flurry expending a cacophony of noise which would wake up a soldier for three kilometers around. In essense, everynight they gave the sense that that night was the night for the invasion, and so as general application showed, Jagadan troops would begin to take it as routine, and thus when the invasion actually came they would be suprised - the essense of the strategy. In this circumstance the end failed to vary, and in fact, that what was expected; suprise. At moments one could even suddenly hear the cracking of rifle fire going off in some isolated part of the border, catching someone's ears off guard and turning their attention.

In this ambience the men of the 2nd Waffen-SS Special Operations Regiment sat in their respective company level headquarters, with captain at head, being explained operations for the day to come. They were all attentive, as if it wasn't two 'o clock in the morning and none of them missed a beat, listening to what their captain had to say. In ten seperate tents the captains relayed the orders of the major, which had come from the commanding Lt. Colonel, a Guadalombian by birth, a nation that had fallen into disrepair since the rebellion. The previous night's meeting between the Lt. Colonel and the subordinate captains had been a bit more involved.

The elderly man scanned over the captains and then strutted to the pull down map on the wall, snapping it down and taking a pointer at the same time. Looking back he guided his view over the faces of those looking at the sheet with no real suprise. Indeed, they had all expected an invasion to the south; otherwise, why would they be there? The Lt. Colonel gave a hint of ecstacy in his words,"The first part of the invasion will begin tomorrow!" He let that small point sink in, and it didn't take very long. Even one soldier exclaimed,"Finally?" The colonel laughed and continued,"Indeed, the First has been chosen to spearhead the invasion for two days, then the Second Waffen-SS SOR will move in along with the pathfinders, which will set off the major border battles of this small war; then the big invasion will begin. At least, that's the big outlook. For us, we're going to tear apart the lead parts of the Jagadan defense with surgical removal operations. Each company is going to have different tasks, which you will be given in classifed portfolios, but they're all going to be difficult - but difficult is what you guys do."

The men listened on, no longer saying a word, and nodding their head. The entire regiment, and indeed, the entire army in the region, had been waiting to begin operations into the Jagadan colony, and finally the day would come. Their anxiety was perpetuated by all the racket brought up by the moving trucks and tanks, and some even sleeped with their guns, or under their tanks, hoping that they would be woken for sudden operations in the midsts of a cool summer night. Nevertheless, after the nightly meeting, the first special operations regiment moved back to their sleeping quarters - they would awake seven hours later to begin suiting up for their invasion, after a good day's rest.

All the while, in the skies, all along the front, fifteen unmanned aerial vehicles, all rather small, scanned the skies at around three thousand meters altitude, using small radar arrays around their sensor units to pick up the location of several strategical ground targets; the entire sensor suit of radar, down looking lidar and ladar would give them the optimal output to give the frontline units, and especially the special operations forces, the perfect reading on Jagandan placements for the next day's covert operations. In effect, the regiment would attempt to clandestinely wreak havoc within Jagadan lines to allow the main force an easier time in breaking through the lines, and thus subdoing the colony that much faster. In truth, it was unknown how long Jagada could last, although it was known they were using similar, if not the same, weapons the Macabee invasion force was using - indeed, they both came from Kriegzimmer, and Kriegzimmer had refused to stop selling armaments to Jagada. Nevertheless, the Empire retained the advantage since it was their weapons. So, in any case, those UAVs continued to circle around, sometimes probing into Jagadan airspace, using their strange make-up to avoid radar detection and such, and using their electrical engines to make as little noise as possible, although their life was a bit shorthanded, which forced them to return to be recharged or refueled every two hours or so; but it was hardly substantial within the context of setting back military operations.

Other important activities included the movement of three batteries of artillery to the area of the special operations regiment, totally thirty 155mm guns, all lined up in three circles of Corbulos, protected by trenches and sandbars to avoid large casualties from counter-battery fire - these guns would not change position - they were in strategical locations to pick off Jagadan formations once the special operations regiments pin pointed them with their laser seekers. It would be twenty-four hours of surgical removal of strategical defenses to lessen the force needed to make the breakthrough three days later. It would all begin the next day...

That night the Macabee flag, eagle waving in the air with the white backdrop, flew higher than ever, foreshadowing the events of tomorrow...

Borderlands

The drums of war were beating louder than ever, for the past few nights the Macabees had attempted to make the Jagadians believe they were going to be invaded. Despite this attempt, Phantom Units {whom were at the border} had been spying on the Macabees troops, and each time they began to start up engines and rifle fire the Phantom Units gave the Macabees twenty-to-fourty minutes to actually launch the attack before making their report. Each time they reported it was a scam before the Macabees stopped their engines and silenced their rifles. This had become reptetive to the troops in the trenches, though many of them were veterns of the War Against Norris and had, had similar tactics used against them, though even after this many days of no invasion they began to feel it as reptetive. The troops, nonetheless, attempted to stay as alert and disiciplined as possible.

Thanks to the clear skies and full moon that illuminated the landscape it was extremely hard to see if anything small in the skies, much less anything meant to be covert. Radar did picks of small disruptions and these were taken into major consideration due to the many nights when the engines of tanks and crackle of rifle fire could be heard in another fake invasion. It was unsure if these were stealth fighters or spy planes, it was expected it could be both and anti-aircraft systems were put on alert.

Many had expected the First Line to be probed by either Macabee scouts, spy planes, satelliates. Though most were secure that due to the range of the Second Line it would be relatively safe, and surely the Third and Fourth Lines were be more than secure. Not to mention the fact that Jagada, after failing to gain any serious information ferom their satelliates, had used their own spyplanes using ladar to scan the Macabee Lines. Should an invasion come either the Phantom Units or the Spyplanes (which stayed as far from Macabee radar and ears as possible} would inform the central command of any invasion movements.

Though the troops had heard something, the roaring sounds like a giant growling in the night. Little did they know that it was the Morrison Ultra-Heavy Main Battle Tanks--a weapon they had never seen before.

Operation Highborn
The two man team crossed the border at exactly midnight the following day, one man keeping the lead, his green battlesuit almost invisible in the night sky and his eyes hidden behind a panel of computerization, while the Hali-21 assault rifle was skillfully prepared just in case he needed to fire a short burst of rounds to neutralize a foe. The second man, trudging along behind, was dressed in the same battlesuit, and but instead of having his assault rifle at ready he had in its stead a high powered sniper rifle, prepared for murderous use. The two men's battlesuits were giving off an almost constant light coolant to suppress heat exhause from their bodies and the computerization of the suit itself, and with their own high powered infra-red eyepieces the most likely case was that they would see their enemy before their enemy saw them. Regardless, in wars everything could go the other way; however, the two men were within themselves almost sure that they would complete their mission without much problem. As the two men continued, arching down low to avoid probability of interception, behind them the trucks of the Empire were already starting up their diesel engines, while the tanks were rumbling about and mock fire fights were adressed, which would continue for the next two to three hours.

The lead man suddenly stopped in his tracks and whipped his head around to his partner, lifting a fist in the air and putting up a count of four. The second man heard through his isolated ear piece,"Four ghosts at eight hundred meters. Drop 'em." The ghosts referred to any and all scouts, and in this case the scouts were the elite Phantom units of Jagada, so the denomination went quite well. Both men went prone, while the lead man put down his rifle and took out a small gadget, which looked like a tube, from a sidepocket of the armour on his Samson BDU and extended it into two parts, the second part forming perpindicular to the verticle tube that he first brought out. Poking it slightly from the top of the grassline the man put the end of the bottom of the tube on top of his right eyepiece and began to scan the horizon, using the small charged coupled device on the photonic surveryor to take in as much light as he could in an enviroment that had relatively little light - the technology worked like a charm. Behind him the sniper began to listen for targets.

The team leader whispered through the communications radio within their suits,"Wind bearing... Range seven hundred thirty-four meters, bearing seventy-two degrees." The sound of their voice was isolated and contained within the battlesuit, thus the communications radio, so the outside ambience remained rather silent, especially with the cacophony of noise coming from the Imperial positions still across the border.

All of a sudden, the noise covered by the sounds of reving engines, the sniper rifle let loose a round which whipped through the air at ungodly velocities, cutting through the resistance like butter. To the men targetted there would be no noise; it was far too loud to hear anything like the noise of that sniper rifle, and depending on the situation they may have not even noticed the man behind them drop. But, alas, the man behind did drop, having a 12.7mm bullet enter through the bottom portion of the neck, ripping through the spinal chord, and exiting from the other side. The rifle cocked again within six seconds, expelling a cracked shell and putting a full bullet into the barrel, and new coordinates were given, while the rifle traversed to meet it's new target. A full nine seconds later another bullet left, and a little under a second after that the second to last man fell. By that time the other two Phatoms had taken notice of their dead comrade and began to respond [size=1][OOC: I'll leave that up to you]. All the while, the sniper continued to pick off targets.

The same situation was happening throughout the front line as the lead teams of the 1st Waffen-SS Special Operations Regiment made their move in the midst of the night, clearing the direct front of Phantom units, allowing them to make their way further inside and maybe even behind the regular Jagadan defenses. So, as silent as spirits in air, special operations units made their move...war had begun, although for the time being it would be a covert war as opposed to a full on war.

Operation Highborn
The air was cool but not cold as a sqaud of four Phantoms were walking the grounds. Normal procedure and their mission was strictly to remain at starting locations, espically since their operation was attacking convoys. The grass was rather low considering to prevent Macabees from easily sneaking in. One of the men was a complainer, the type that complained about every thing.

"I don't understand why we got to do this sh-" he stated before falling to the ground. The three others quickly turned around thinking that complainer had only fallen. In fact one of them kept walking a few feet to scout. The other two looked down and noticed the blood pouring out of the complainer's neck. One of them, the commander, spun around to signal the other guy back when suddenly he heard a gun discharge, it was slight almost like a whisper in the wind and suddenly the guy he was going to shout to doubled over and fell to the ground. The Commander which turned back around, grabbed the last remaining guy and quickly fell to the ground. With a few rapid hand signs that were done low to the ground and with as little movement as possible he signed the other guy. As the Commander let loose a full magazine of rounds in three-burst mode, the last remaining trooper immiedately contacted headquarters via his radio. He informed them that there was some kind of attack being done against the Phantom units.

This radio call sparked controversey at the front line as at first it was believed to be an isolated event, meant to anger Jagada into being the first to attack. However, as two more similar reports came in, along with a report of a pair of suspicous looking shadows the High Command made the decision. Immiedately troops were brought to high alert, while the guard forces all along the Front Line were doubled to ensure that if this decended into a full-blown invasion that there would be forces ready to oppose the Macabee while being fully alert.

While out in front of the First Line, dozens of fire fighters were breaking out, as the Phantoms were slowly but surely being pushed back. Due the lack of Samson Battlesuits the Phantoms were drastically outclassed in terms of technology by their Macabee counter-parts. Though the Phantom's were determined to hold on as long as they possibly could.

Operation Highborne
Stray bullets zipped through the low cut grass, clearing the two soldiers of the Waffen-SS for the most part. The Jagadan phantom unit, now cut in half figuratively speaking, had responded to the ambush by a hail of bullets which, understandably, failed at the job of killing the Macabee team and had only made problems worse, as opposed to solving them. The team leader abruptly snatched down the photonic mast type gadget and closed it back up, placing it in the same pocket it was taken out from. He whipped his head around again to see if his partner was fine and he saw the other man feeling his shoulder. A sudden,"Are you alright," caught the second soldier off guard and the reply was, "Yea, a round from that bastard's gun hit the shoulder guards; it didn't penetrate though, too stray and too far." The lead man nodded and turned back around, thinking things through, trying to find a way to eliminate the two survivors without putting the team in full danger.

The sniper cut through the communication systems,"I'll nade them out of there. This should be quick and easy, or else we'll be here all damn night." He took out a barrel attachment from his own side compartment in his battle suit and threw it to the other man in a low pass, just under the grass level, and the lead soldier caught it and at the same time grabbed his assault gun. Screwing it on he looked back and saw his partner nod and then turned back around raising the nose of his gun right above the grassline. Suddenly, a thump emerged from the gun and a grenade popped out of the attachment which basically used the gas of the gun to engage the propellant of the grenade, sending the grenade for about six hundred meters; it wouldn't hit the enemy, but it would begin to dispel smoke through the area, covering the two soldiers as they crawled their way foward, one meter at a time. Under these conditions they crawled just about two hundred meters, which was within effective rifle range for the Phantom unit, and so they took additional precautions.

The lead man took another grenaded and plopped it within the attachment and raised the rifle again, this time lining the trajectory up right with the position of the survivong Phantom scouts. Another thump broke the air and the grenade lobbed itself another six hundred meters within the vicinity of the proned out Phantom soldiers. A blast shook the ground near it and sent a tunnel of dirt into the air and a huge red explosion in all directions, and using this as additional cover the lead soldier began to charge the position, rifle in position to put a bullet through the head of the man who rose up first. Behind him, the sniper prepared his own sniper rifle and pointed it in the general location, waiting for the second Phantom to raise his head and kill the man too.

The general tactics throughout the front remained the same; before the special operations soldiers could start the real fun they would have to take care of the Phantom screen and this would have to be done one step at a time, although in some cases the operation would not go as smoothly as it had gone here. Indeed, there were no doubts that some teams had taken casualties.

Operation Highborne

The Commander noticed the smoke gernade go out, he immiedately knew what they were doing. He knew this from a war games practice with another Phantom team who used the smoke to advance and attack; at those games he'd been defeated. At that moment a thought popped into his mind, that team he may have faced then may be out here somewhere in this firefight. Though his mind immiedately snapped back into reality, he knew defense against these enemies would only lead to eventual death. He looked back at his partner and made a few signals. The Commander and his last remaining trooper then jumped to their feet and used the smoke to rush forward. They knew the Macabees were in the smoke and hoped it would come to close range combat, making the Macabees battle suits basically ineffective since a bullet at that range would rip threw their suits.

As the two advanced suddenly the Commander noticed a gernade go out of the smoke and it was coming directly towards them, albiet it would land a few meters ahead of them. He broke off from the main charge and attempted to make a turn around the gernade. His last remaining trooper, however, continued to rush forward though he had already switched his own Hali-21 assault rifle to its gernade setting and fired his own frag gernade into the smoke. Right as he did this he switched back over and was about to press the trigger when suddenly the gernade that came out of the smoke denoated over his head, cutting threw his skull and ending his life. He simply was thrown several feet to his left and lay lifeless on the ground. The Commander figured the smoke would cover the gernades entry and make it extremely hard for the Macabees to even know it was there.

He attempted to swing in around the Macabee position hoping that if they saw the gernade they would retreat back and he would be there to pick at least the first one who came threw the smoke. And he knew if the gernade went off they would come out either wounded or only one would come out and he could pick off a weakened and disoriented enemy. The best sceniaro was that both of them were killed or knocked out in the explosion in which case he would simply wait for the smoke to clear, advance and put a few rounds into each of them.

Across the line the battle was hard, some Phantom units were caught completely off guard and fell a horrid death not managing to even kill one of the Waffen troopers. While at other points the Phantom units got the upper hand and the battle was quickly becoming theirs.

[OOC: The Phantom who fired the gernades, did have to stop momentarily to do so. As I know firing it while on the run would be rather difficult.]

Operation Highborne
And so the team leader crouched again as he witnessed the two Phantoms move up through the smoke. The sniper still crouched underneath the grassline, the high powered rifle attempting to peer through the smoke. Suddenly a frag grenade went off, and then another explosion rocked the area, and the sniper realized one of the Phantoms was dead with its blood all over the floor. The sniper himself had been clipped on his leg by fragments of the grenade, tearing through the armour and penetrating his skin, almost severing the tendents of his bones, which would have left him immobilized until he was carted out of the area - fortunately, it penetrated only about a quarter of the way which made a medic could tie him up and he could be off to fight again. Nonetheless, attempting to push the pain into the back of his brain, and working on pure adrenelin, he scanned the area for the last phantom who had launched another grenade against the team leader, the explosion sending a shard into his neck paralyzing him for life and probably killing him. Suddenly, as the last phantom attempted to round the position the sniper put a round right in the center of his forehead, ending the firefight once and for all.

Staying where he was he changed the communications to general radio and tried to get in contact with headquarters. A fuzzy connection was established and he started to pant,"This is Omega Team Six to Hotel Seven, two men down, requesting medical attention." The radio fuzzed back out and the two men, both wounded waited in the grass. The team leader slowly bled to death, but one death for four kills wasn't all too bad.

Elsewhere, the Special Operations Regiment had fared rather well, and in other areas had fared horribly. All in all some thirty to forty operatives had died in the first hour of combat, eliminating the Phantom screen, but it was suspected that the Phantom units had suffered much more in the way of casualties which consolidated the positions of the soldiers a bit. By the first hour, or one in the morning, the Waffen-SS Special Operations Regiment began to mop up the Phantoms, now simply applying full strength against them in covert ambushes and the such, much like the opening attacks. Mop-up operations were expected to end within the half hour and from there the real operations could begin. All around Operation Highborne was beginning to look like a success, but there was still much to come before Operation Ginger could begin, which would officially set off the colonial war between the Empire and Jagada.

In the rear the Ejermacht's tank and truck engines were still revving, making as much noise as possible to allow the special operations personnel to finish up Highborn before the dawn of day. In the skies small unmanned aerial vehicles continued to spy on enemy positions, and they would ultimately help end Highborne which would specifically soften up the defenses of the Jagadan colony allowing the pathfinder division open gaps in Operation Ginger. On the third day Operation Viscosity would finally see the full onslaught of the colonial army making its way into the Jagadan colony, not stoping until they reached the borders of Xirnium.

[OOC: Macabee, if you get a TG from Goilem...thats my puppet. I forgot to switch names. Also could you give a link to the Morrington UHMBT? Also sorry for the poor post, a bit busy.]

Operation Highborne

The the fact that the Phantoms put up a fight despite overwhelming odds what proving of their abilities, though it not only served to glory the Phantoms. It also served to allow the Jagadian High Command to know what was happening. The provincial commander, Kane Stormswift had already been awoken and informed the invasion was going to occur soon. This was achieved and the surprise lost because of the spy plane that was in the air, which was originally sent to spy on the Macabee line was not turned against the Macabee units. Due to their movements and the firefights they were in, the spy plane was now able to use infared and just barley pick up their movements, head was visible on any man--it was the degree which seeped out that determined if they could be seen. With the spy planes overhead watching almost all the Macabee units along with small Phantom remnants which had gone into hiding watching and reporting the Macabee movements they saw. The Jagadians actually had a well-mapped out image of the Macabee units. This allowed the troops at the front line to prepare better and actually focus strength on sensative and important parts of the line.

The Jagadians believed that the Macabees thought them to be inferior. Jagadians, in modern terms, weren't experts at war as the Macabees were. Though there was one thing that helped the Jagadians, many of them were highly religious and this motivated them since many had been fed (espically since Remington took power) that Jagada was one of the last remaining religious countries in the world.

[OOC: I didn't get a telegram, at all, and take this as fast as you want.]

Operation Highborne
Elsewhere the special operation soldiers kept moving foward, keeping low, making their way to the principle defense lines of the Jagadan defense. In one section an entire platoon moved foward as a single unit, a total of thirteen men mostly armed with assault rifles, some with light automatic weapons, one with a mortar and another with a high powered sniperrifle. The platoon leader, Lt. Jackard Corins, suddenly put a clenched fist in the air and all stopped and he dropped. The others quickly followed, the entire platoon soon prone in the grass of the area, their faces seemingly emotionless behind the helmets of the battlesuits. Corins took out his photonic surveyor, just like the team leader elsewhere in the small scale fire fight with the phantom units, and expanded it and began to sky on top of the grass, taking in all infra-red light. He saw nothing. A buzz of an electric battery grew louder, although not very loud, and Corins turned the surveyor to the sky and then held his breath, whispering through the communications radio,"UAV; Ferliech, take it down."

The sniper muttered a confirmation and turned his rifle to the sky, slowly taking in the coordinates from the platoon leader and turned the rifle to the right position, changing it a bit to get the UAV within his sights. Turning the scope to infra-red he saw the UAV flying low, it's battery engine giving off only a little heat, but nothing the infra-red sensors using small charged couple devices couldn't handle. The butt of the rifle was placed on his shoulder perfectly and he pulled the trigger, releasing the 12.7mm armour piercing round through the air. The adibiatic tungsten penetrator hit the UAV in the middle, rocking it to the side and forcing it spiral to the ground where it hit, sending a small wave of dirt into the air. Corins muttered,"Dang spies; I hope the rest of the units got any others." Indeed, he was correct in hoping, with the Waffen-SS moving in meter by meter the UAVs flying above them were directly engaged by very aware personnel. It was something to fly a UAV one hundred meters away, and it was something else to fly it over them.

And so, the Waffen-SS Special Operatives continued to push in, using infra-red detection systems to denote distances between them and enemies, making sure there were no accidently collisions; the regiment, which began to move into the Jagadan colony in full force wanted to avoid a fire fight with conventional Jagadan military personnel as much as possible, as they certainly did not have the numbers to engage entire divisions. So, as they finished off surviving phantom personnel they would stay a good one thousand meters from any Jagadan frontlines within the context of their military force, and once they were at that distance they would resume with the operation.

All the while, in the rear, the Corbulos batteries were stockpiling their artillery rounds and the guns were beind depressed upwards, preparing for the eventual onslaught, while even more to the rear the tactical airfields and strategical airfields were already opening up, allowing for their aircraft to begin taking off from the runways in light of aerial suppression missions on Jagadan surface to air and surface to surface assets. It was a hard fight ahead, for both sides.

Operation Highborne
The situtation was a mess to say the least. Most of the Phantoms, if not all of them, had stopped reporting back in. It was assumed they were all dead, and this alone sent a shiver up the high brass' spines. The Phantoms were the best of the best, they were believed to be capable of holding back superior units. These recents events shook that belief. Though the Phantom's deaths had not been in vain, as now it was very clear to every that an attack was going to happen and already preperations were being made. The Artillery Corps was awake, and the Jagadian armored divisons were already preparing to activate.

The Waffen-SS Special Operatives were at an alarming 109 yards, roughly, from the main concrete fortifications and other defenses. At such a range, even at night and with heat surpressing equipment it would be rather hard to not be seen by someone. The one who noticed them where snipers who were simply observing the area threw their scope. The first time the Waffen-SS were seen, most of the snipers (already well hidden) shrugged it off believing it was shadows, however, after a more indepth look they noticed there were dozens of shadows. And soon their radios begin to light up sending reports back. Though, orders had already been given to fire at them when they were found. The snipers purpose was to force the Waffen-SS to make themselves known by firing back at what they believed to be the snipers hiding location, which in turn would attract the attention of Crusaders who would then force the Waffen-SS Special Operatives into an open fire-fight.

The line was quiet until a gunshot rang out, and suddenly a Waffen-SS trooper fell over with a inch wide hole in the side of his head. One sniper had fired, and this forced other snipers to let open as well. Soon the Waffen-SS Special Operatives were caught in a deadly hailstorm of sniper-fire. The snipers kept firing since one of two things were going to occur. One, the Waffen-SS were going to find them and fire back and thus draw a lot of attention to themselves or two they were going to fall back and leave their backs exposed to fire. Either way, the snipers felt confident that the Waffen-SS were going to be forced to make a dangerious choice. Then again, these were Waffen-SS and they could improvise.

Throughout the rest of the defenses, preperations were being made. Since the Incierators were rapid firing, they would drain ammo quickly and thus ammo was being stockpiled nearby, the same was the case with the Cabulo's. The reenforcements were awoken, but were permitted (unlike their comrades in the first and second lines of defense) to sleep in shifts to ensure they stayed active, but also fresh.

Operation Highborne
Somebody had stumbled. Somebody had stumbled and it had brought a lot of attention from Jagadan snipers from their fortifications lining the border. Perhaps six or seven soldiers had gone down within seconds across the front, forcing the rest to drop prone, hidden from the snipers, but the snipers weren't hidden from them. The special operation soldiers, beginning to be called the Immortals by the other soldiers still waiting to be put in, or for the men to fail, but they were proving their invicibility. They had begun to clump themselves into larger groups, although still rather strung out to make sure that Jagadan artillery couldn't catch them off guard and kill a clump. Regardless, concentrating themselves they would be able to make the push across the front a bit easier; it was not easy to break through a twenty-three thousand man front with a mere thousand, but the Immortals would try it, and if they couldn't, they would at least draw blood. One group, of around twenty men, had been around two hundred meters from the Jagadan position, sticking to the ground and not raising their head above the grassline, their battlesuits protecting them from stray sniper rounds and such, although two had already gone down through sniper rounds putting themselves in their heads.

The group leader, Major Jared Terraine, called over the radioman, who slowly crawled his way to the major's side, and he turned his head saying,"Relay these coordinates through sattelite data bursts to artillery command." The soldier by him nodded as he took out his photonic surveyor, scanning the front, and taking into mind the larger groups of defenses and such. He turned again, putting the surveyor down, and whispered to the other man,"Tango-Alpha 067, Tango-Alpha 075, Tango-Alpha 076." The other man repeated this and a muffled 'roger' came back. Terraine turned his head to his mean and yelled,"Stay down!"

Suddenly, out of the breaking sky, turning from night to morning very slowly, 155mm DPICM rounds [Extended Range Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition] began to fall on top of the Jagadan defense line, putting extremely well guided rounds into the thick and thin of Jagadan ranks, hoping to carve a hole into their defenses or at least severely weaken them. From a range of one hundred and twenty kilometers, traveling at Mach 7, they were an extremely well designed and potent anti-armour and anti-personnel round, and this war was their debut. Indeed, this Jagadan war was fast proving to become the proverbial Spanish Civil War, if you will; a smaller debut for a much, much larger war to come. The ground shook as the Carbulos were putting in five rounds a piece, every minute, and then changing locations to avoid counter-battery fire. All the while the Immortars saw the destruction forged, a show of fire and smoke, as round after round dropped on Jagadan fortifications.

The entire bombardment of the Jagadan lines, from east to west, directed by the Immortals and their direct line of site on the Jagadan fortifications, would last thirty minutes and then the Immortals would survey the damage done, asses if another bombardment was needed, or move up.

Operation Highborne

The Jagadian High Command had hoped and prayed that they wouldn't need to use their artillery for the sake of provoking a massive media outburst which would put all the blame on them. Though now with the shells reigning down upon Jagadian soil, this covert operation by the Macabees wasn't covert. In fact, all was known that an invasion would come. The overall objective of the Phantoms had been achieved: to force the Macabees to start the war. While this was achieved long after they were slain, they still completed their primary mission.

The Jagadian artillery wasn't as forgiving, the Incinerator 155mm Rapid Fire Artillery guns and the Carbulos suddenly flared into action. The 'Immortals' were too close to effectively use the bombardment on them. Though, since an invasion was well under way, the Macabee troops would be more exposed. In fact, the UAV had shown the Macabee troops actually sleeping outside or under their tanks. The idea was if they couldn't stop the Immortals, than they would stop the bulk of the invaison. In an instant the earth for a moment turned into hell from the Jagadian artillery, including the thirty five Jagadian Sunfire Missile Batteries. All of these unleashed a hailstorm of fire against the Macabee invasion troops. These shells rained down a hailstorm of leading and missiles from the sky. The objective was clear and simple: the utter destruction of the Macabee forces. The Jagadian artillery followed a similar doctrine of barrage-then-redeployment. After the Carbulo's fired their five rounds in a minute they quickly redeployed, while the Incinerators fully exploited their sixty rounds a minutes (1 round per second).

At the First Line, the hailstorm of artillery ripped threw the Jagadian defenses. Concrete bunkers were litterly vaporized by the 155mm Macabee shells, as Crusaders cried in agony from the bombardment. Though, thanks to the thickness of most bunkers the troopers were given enough time to take cover. Though now the fight was one, while the whole line was being hit, behind it were motar teams who, upon receiveing the general location of the Macabee Immortals began to fire shells. Though they could not visibly see their rounds hitting due to the firestorm that had been created by the Macabee bombardment, they continued to fire into these general locations and surronding areas in an attempt to at least shake the resolve of the Macabee Immortals.

In the First Line sat Lance Corporal Patterson sat, in his hand he held tightly to a small wooden Cross, as he prayed quietly. "Lord Heavenly Father God, if you can hear me Lord I ask that you please deliever me from this hell. Stop this and spare me from the pain of death so that I may continue to serve you. Amen." It was not the most common prayer and he knew it, but then again he was Protestant and didn't believe in ritualistic prayer. He opened his eyes, but continued to hold his wooden Cross he looked up to the slit opening from his own concrete pillbox as the ground shook like a earthquake and the roar of artillery sounded like rolling thunder. Though the thing that caught his eye most was the flames from the artillery explosions. He knew it was wrong to think like this, but for a moment it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, a light show of flame. Though his senses soon returned to him and he wondered if this was what hell would be like and in that moment he was truly thankful he was saved. The reports and fears of war were over, it was here and in force.

The Macabee-Jagadian Colonial War had begun.

The Border Battles
The war at home had turned from bad to worse as Havenite troops had begun to attempt to pierce the River Styx, which was the only natural obstacle standing between Haven and the two strategical cities of Aurillac and Mosnoi Bor, which paved the way Fedala. West of Fedala Weigari rebels had begun to cross the River Nestor while Weigari rebels at Mons Dei had repelled the Hailandkillian push as the Second Battle of Mons Dei, although the fight still raged in that area. It seemed that the Golden Throne would soon be empty although Fedor was intent on keeping his position and he was sure that he would rise victorious in the end. Certainly, it was true that the full potential of the Empire still sat at home ports and in provencial military bases, but the Empire was on the brink of snapping in half and only intent coordination on all parts would be able to stave off defeat. Even if military matters bettered, as they were expected to, the morale of the country was crumbling and that's where Jagada and what began to known as Macabee-Jagadian Colonial War fell into place; within all generalities, an expected victory in the colonies would boost morale, like the War of the Burning Sky did months ago. It was a tough call but the Immortals had already preformed their task and the artillery had already begun to shred the first defensive lines of the colony - it had all been set in motion. Blood in the colonies was inevitable, especially with the ongoing talks between the Empire and Doomingsland on the future of both their colonies and subsequent expansion south and beyond.

With this political background the once green grounds of the colonies shook with vengeance as the Macabee artillery continued to pound Jagadan defensive structures and Jagada returned fire, pelting Macabee lines with their own shells in an attempt to soften the invasion force. The latter had come as a suprised, but it came nonetheless, and fortunately the Empire had conceived devices that would keep casualties to a mininum. With the experience of now four major wars behind them, the Jagadan war now five, the Empire had had enough time to develop its own military into the epitome of effectiveness, if a bit overpriced; indeed, Macabee soldiers were known to be 'overfed, overarmed and oversexed'. As, perhaps if you will, a subsequence of this luxury that the Ejermacht could afford each seperate entity was given its own command armed wheeled reconnaissance vehicle outfitted with a sattelite atenna and a shortstop module which would preemptively fuse most of the artillery shells striking that particular area by forming an umbrella of electronic disturbance in the air. Nonetheless, some shells found their mark, pouring steel and blood into the lines riled up for the offensive.

There was a huge response, however, as the Corbulos switched targets. Instead of pummeling the defensive fortifications they began to act in counter-battery retaliation striking Jagadan Corbulos and Incinerators with the same rounds they had begun to hit the defensive lines with. The Corbulos could move, but technically the round would take less than twenty seconds to find its mark, giving the round enough time on at least some of the vehicles. The fast-firing artillery was immobile; it had to be rooted out of the ground and then moved by truck, making its deployment and re-deployment difficult, expensive and slow - three reasons why they were no longer in service within the Imperial military except in extreme defensive situations were it was just right for its use. The Corbulos continued the same routine - fire, move, fire.

The Jagadan missiles would do much more damage, forcing the skies to go up in smoke as small to large calibre anti-air artillery enshrouded them with CAPMES rounds. The rounds basically went into the air and tore apart sending thousands of miniature tungsten BBs all around with a centrifuge. The skies grew dark rather quickly but commanding officer Field Marshall Gregor Fiern was not peturbed, exlaiming, "Good, now we can fight in the shade." The skies soon were streaked with blue, red and occasionally orange explosions from the missiles, forming light clouds of smoke. Suddenly, throughout the lines missiles began to hit clums of soldiers killing many of them and wounding even more. The situation was turning ugly and there would have to be some sort of ground suppression operation.

To that end, the Immortals were ordered to crawl to one thousand meters distance from the front lines and then march their way to a newly designed front two kilometers north of the Jagadan lines where the Immortals would stick on the defensive until the main army moved up to take their positions, and then the principle offensive could continue. Further to the rear the air force was readied from their surface airfields and the birds of the Empire began to take to the skies, including two squadrons of GLI-76 Kondors and one squadron of Lu-45 Hawks, amounting to a total of thirty-six aircraft. The Lu-45s flew high, forming an umbrella in the air making sure the Jagadan airforce never got close to the Kondors, while the latter kept low, ready to begin the surgical removal of certain areas. They each carried two of the new GBU.213.A Starstreaker* and these were aimed at ranges exceeding thirty kilometers the missile silos; it was to say, forty-eight GBU.213.As were hitting the missile silos on the Jagadan front, making sure they ended the terror on Macabee men poised for the invasion. With this, the Kondors turned around and left - if any surface to air missile battery dared respond at least ten Corbulos would suppress the battery within minutes of the launch.

The opening battles were reaching a climax and soon the border battle would be a full fledge quagmire and finally it would break into the ending battles of the war, where one side or the other would finally gain the upper hand.

[
* - I haven't released it on Kriegzimmer yet, so here it is for informative purposes:

Description: The GBU.213.A is a next generation bunker buster bomb unit designed to dual up as a 'bunker buster' and a missile, thus the extended range [ER] designation. Originally the GBU project undertaken by Kriegzimmer had called for a standard guided bomb unit but the release of the Arca. III Morrigan changed the perspective of Kriegzimmer a bit, persuading them to change priority to a next generation GBU, the GBU.213.A. The idea was to provide the Ejermacht with something big enough to punch through a heavy fortification, like a supertank, without putting the deliverer in too much danger, or in other words, right over the battlefield. Ultimately, the design came out to 9.7 meters, about a meter and a bit more longer than the standard sized guided bomb units, which would house the rocket engine, giving the GBU.213.A a range of twenty to forty kilometers, depending on the velocity it was dropped off [obviously, if the missile has a greater initial velocity at a greater height the GBU.213.A will travel faster]. The missile has a one thousand nine hundread and five [1,905] kilogram warhead behind a depleted uranium hardened warhead to increase penetration values. The warhead uses a HeptaNitroCubane explosive, rated at higher than OctaNitroCubane, although it's not particularly more effective than Octagen for a HE warhead. However, it's perfect for the uses of the GBU since the explosive's style is to give a more powerful blast in the immediate radius, which thus enhances the Starstreaker's penetration power after the hardened plating forces it way deeper and deeper into the enemy fortification. The entire series of missiles are GAM, global positioning system aided missiles, and have millimeter band radar on their sensor system on the nose, which also includes a laser targetting system in the case that a ground team has pinpointed the target for the missile.
Mission: Offensive counter air, close air support, interdiction
Targets: Hard
Class: Penetrator, Blast/Fragmentation
Weight: 2721.5kg
Length: 9.7 Meters
Diameter: .4m
Stabilizer: Air Foil Group (Fins)
Guidance Method: Laser (man-in-the-loop), GPS, RADAR
Range: 40 Kilometers
Cost: 150,000
Production Cost: 18 Million]

The Border Battles
The Macabee-Jagadian Colonial War was quickly becoming something of a mess for both sides. Albiet, one could suggest that the Macabees currently had a slight advantage. Though something was driving the Jagadian troops, something that have driven them threw the War Against Norris, it was the fact that Jagada had never since the days of Lord Jagada and his Imperial Wars, won a war. Jagada had attempted to become involved in the War against Automagfreek, but Norris went yellow quick and pulled out. Then a war against Scellia ended in a huge mess with two Jagadian Grand Fleets finding their final resting place at the bottom of the sea, and all Jagada had to show for it was that a Sledgehammer Anti-Dreadnaught Missile managed to kill five-hundred civilians on a lifeboat attempting to flee from the carnage. This wasn't some simple colonial war as it was to the Macabees, this was something much more. Jagada had to win this war, and all the population was agreed upon it. This single desire kept the troops going, knowing that they would gladly give their lives to finally win a war for their country. To most nations this would seem foolish, such nationalism was never common in Jagada. Though after being a 'looser' country for so long, they had something to prove. The Jagadians would not be defeated, or so they believed. If the Macabees took this colony they would be crippled in the process. That at the moment was Jagada's goal. To send as many Macabee men and women, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, back to their homeland in body bags. This day, the ground would run red with Macabee blood.

The Incinerators quickly learned that moving wasn't the key wasn't to move, but to conceal how they were firing, and their projections. Thus the artillery would fire a few rounds, and quickly uproot and turn the gun another direction, that or they were being used in mass at a certain point. Luckily most of the Incinerators were now at the First Line, albiet most of them had already been pulled back to the Second Line and thus out of range of the Macabee Cabulo. The majority of the artillery in the back line (numbering seven thousand) were Cabulo's and they were following a similar doctrine as the Macabee guns. The Jagadians began to realize something was going wrong when their scouts reported the shell detonating prior to hitting the ground. Though at the same time, they were reporting large number of them actually hitting their mark. The Sunfire Missile Batteries were being stopped, but the sheer number of missile being fired was begin to overwhelm the Macabee anti-missiles defenses as more and more missiles broke threw and slammed into troop locations. Though it wasn't to say that the Jagadians weren't getting slammed either. Out of the forty-four Incinerators at the artillery line, all but three had been destroyed in counter-artillery fire. A few of the Carbulo's had suffered a tragically similar fait, but for the most part the Jagadian artillery was upkept. They continued to attempt to reign down as much death and destruction upon the Macabee troops has possible.

Due that the Macabee artillery had changed targets from the First Line to the artillery, the Jagadian troops began to exaimine the smoke-filled area. While it was difficult to see and hear due to the screams of the wounded, it wasn't hard to see a few Immortals attempting to sneak across the line. At first, some did manage to cross unknown, though when troops began to notice and opened fire, the Immortals were quickly getting incircled. They had been caught during mid-crawl across the line and now that the radio message was "Immortals crossing the lines!", the Jagadian troops quickly attempted to engage them. They came more out into the open than one would have expected. For the simple reason that the Immortals were amoungst them and they thought the Macabee artillery wouldn't kill their own troops. Espically Immortals were wore the Samson Battlesuit which was expensive, along with the training and time it took to create them. The Macabee High Command, in many Jagadian troops opinion, wouldn't waste such good men. This belief allowed the Jagadian troops to open fire and more directly engage the Immortals. The attempt was clear, to completely wipe them out. Though at the same time, the First Line was laying in near ruins and it was clear it wouldn't hold. The Second Line was much strong, with thicker concrete and even a tunnel system to the Third Line. While some of the more heavily armored squads of Crusaders launched surprise ambushes or outright assaults on the Immortals, other platoons and companies of troops began a rapid withdraw to the Second Line, though before they left they set pre-made traps, traps such as gernades under dead troops, trip wires, mines and other types of equipment. Not to mention the mines that were already in front of the First Line that the Immortals had managed to get past, albiet only by the luck and grace of the Almighty God.

As the Lu-45 Hawks began to leave their airbase, they were already on radar. For such a small colony as Essah was, and the extended range radars now had it wasn't hard to spot just about anything in the air. The anti-air defenses sprung to life, and due to the fact that they were missile based and thus farther behind the First Line than the artillery and thus more than likely out of the range of Macabee Carbulos. The moment the Lu-45 Hawks came into range, all thirty of the anti-air missile batteries opened up as flame spit out of their launcher and their missiles fired into the night sky. The hailstorm of missiles went into the air directed at the Lu-45 Hawks. Lu-45 Hawks began to fall from the sky, though at the same time so did some of the GLI-76 Kondors. Though some of them did come into range and did fire their deadly cargo. This lead to massive explosions along the First Line, luckily most of the heavy concrete pillboxes which would be targets were already destroyed by the artillery and the occupiants either dead or the pillbox in ruins. Though some did have troops in them and this lead to several deaths, few wounded since not many survive a bunker buster missile.

This war was quickly degrading into a stalemate. While the Jagadians had been pushed out of their First Line even before the main operation and lost their Phantoms they had launched a serious counter-attack which was beginning to wither the numbers of the Macabees.

[OOC: Just a few things so it doesn't seem like godmode, or you getting slightly confused. I assume your Immortals would make contact, after the bunker buster assault, so that event occured after the bunker busters. But some of my men had already retreated, and those they remained wouldn't be in the most heavily defended bunkers since most of them were already collapsed or vaporized. As for my artillery, I forgot to say that there are guards around them, just do you know for future rp reference. Nothing like Fanatics, but the crew do carry Hali-21 Rifles.

Also, stop with all the new tech things. Lol, you're pwning me as it is...lol. J/k.]

The Border Battles
[OOC: Hey, maybe we should begin to make a map of cities and military installments and such. If you give me a basic description I can come up with a pretty map of the area for us to use, including cities (I have one), forts and military bases in general. It should help with making this a more fluid role play, as you and I actually have targets to hit and objectives to reach.]

The air attack had been shreded, quite unsuspectedly, by the sturdy and well developed Jagadan air defenses, although fortunately some of the GLI-76 Falcons were able to fire some of the new extended range bunkerbusters. Nonetheless, of the twelve Hawks all but four were shot out of the sky, with only three pilots landing safely on the ground, and eleven of the twenty-four Falcons were blasted out of the sky, leading to a total of thirty-two aircraft destroyed and sixteen pilots dead. The first aerial attack had been disastrous and it had been because of the lack of appreciation for the Jagadan defense, which ironically, for all the strengths it showed now, had been somewhat mauled by Operation Highborne - the ultimate test would come in the following day's operations, Operation Lance, but that would be the next day.

Air commanders would have to change aerial policy within hours if they were successfully to complete their missions by the next day and allow the invasion of Jagada's colony to continue on schedule. In the end they were able to do so. Suppression of enemy air defenses, or SEAD, would be the order of the day and the following airstrikes would see if it would be effective or not. For the rest of the night squadrons of aircraft would continue to pummel Jagadan defenses in preperation for the following day, in conjunction with ground based projectiles providing heavy fire support and suppresional aid. It would be the epitome of ground and air cooperation to date and it would prove to be a bright example of the future and it underlined the Macabee ability for combined arm tactics. But then again, success was never guaranteed.

The loss of aircraft caused the mauled squadrons of Falcons to be reorganized into a single squadron with superflous aircraft set aside for replacement until more aircraft arrived from the mainland. All the while a further two squadrons of Falcons took off armed with six smaller air to surface missiles within their internal bays and, forgetting about stealth, six air to air missiles on the their external hardpoints providing with an excellent air to air defense. They took off but kept low with little acceleration, flying at around two hundred knots and at around one hundred meters altitude to avoid detection. Soon after taking off they were within striking distance targetting enemy radar stations and surface to air missile batteries with a total of ninety-six MLAM-2s outfitted with anti-radiation warheads. The missiles unlocked from the internal hardpoints free falling for a mere ten seconds, allowing their rocket engines to ignite. With that done, the two squadrons banked and headed back dropping a string of intense heat flares in succession to avoid allowing the Jagadans to get a lock on with their sensors. Behind them the air to surface ordnance continued on their terminal path towards Jagadan radar stations ; actual surface to air batteries were of little worry - without their radar they would be worthless.

A second strike by two more squadrons would occur two hours later to hit both surviving radars and then begin to knock out the actual batteries to avoid any mishaps - in other words, just in case. A third strike would actually incorporate all featured squadrons of Falcons in the colony; a full six, escorted by two squadrons of Hawks. With the SEAD operations hopefully successful one squadron would break off and hunt for any remaining enemy anti-aircraft weaponry, while the rest would offer a large punch against the first and second lines of defense - the first to mop up the damage done, and the second to begin to puncture it for the next day's operation. In general terms, Jagada would not be able to sleep for the night, which would also work in allowing the next day's operation to unfold more smoothly against an enemy who was dead tired - pretty soon dead, period.

[Finished!]

[OOC: Well all along my borders are three-lines of defense. Behind that along the coat [about the middle of the coast line] is the city of Essah. Artillery is now behind the Third Line. Also, behind the Third Line is a final line of fortifications, not very strong but defended by the dreaded Rearguard [they could probably bogg down your forces for some time, since they are the best of the best], their primarily to defend against your massacuring my men in the event of a route. As for Radar installations, there are more than one would expect. Jagada doesn't have a uber-powerful air force and makes up for it by having an uber-powerful AA system. Also sorry if the below posts is godmode. If it is, just let me know via TG. Thanks.]

The Border Battles

Macabee fighters could have chosen a better time to attack, or more to say they were unlucky. The First Line had already been smashed, its purpose was served. The First Line was also dubbed by the soldiers the "Ego Line", it was meant to boost the Macabee confidence that they had done something. The First Line could also be described as a 'blow fish' in reality it was rather weak and timid, not worth throwing effort into destroying. Though at a glance, and even in more detailed look, it appeared to be a deadly and horrid defensive fortification that would make a solider think twice before charging into it. In reality, the line (since the beginning) was built this way. The retreat from this line has gone quickly, but still remnants of troops (a few squads here and there) along with scouts who were purposely staying their, finishing the laying of hundreds of traps (traps were laid by the convential forces, and more were set by the scouts). When the sound of fighter-aircraft began to pierce threw the rumbling of the continued missile barrage from the Jagadian Sunfire Missile Launchers. The scout immiedately knew it wasn't the JGAF (Jagadian Grand Air Force). Looking threw binoculars they noticed what appeared to be planes. With that the reports were sent to senior commanders and troops in the Second Line.

There was too little time to fully prepare the defenses. Though with the Second Line being some five miles behind the First Line, it would leave plenty of time to prepare something. The radars had picked up something, but it kept going in and out of their range, they assumed (after the report) it was the Macabee Fighter-Bombers. The Jagadians expected the Fighter-Bomber because of what had occured to the First Line, they expected something similar done to the Second Line and some kind of retallitation to their Anti-Aircraft System which had sent several Macabee planes to the ground surprisingly.

At the Jagadians Air Fields, the Jagadians planes came to life. They had been on standby for some time now, and were now getting put into the fight. Forty of the Jagadian designed "Teutonic" Air-Superiority Fighters set off into the night. Their goal was to sweep in behind the Macabee, or catch them before they got to the their objective. While on the ground, improvisions were being made. The Second Line was warned about a possible attack, and all the Anti-Aircraft Systems went on full-alert, this included the Radar Stations. All vital equipment that could be put into some protection was, this ment spare-parts and other such equipment.

Racing across the sky, and being low to the ground to avoid Macabee radar the Teutonics were told to go towards the Second Line, since the Radars weren't supposedly in a great deal of danger, due that they were close to Essah (albiet not as close as the airfields). Suddenly they got a paniced message to them from their headquarters. The Macabee planes flew right over the Second Line without a moments hesitation, and due to them being under radar and the retreat, few of the Macabee planes had been attacked. While this was a unusual turn of events, it was a blessing. The Teutonics only had air-to-air missiles, they were designed for that purpose. With the Macabee planes coming towards them, the Teutonics opened fire with their AIM-155 Air-to-Air Missiles as soon as the Macabee planes came within the Teutonic's range. As the missiles zipped towards the Macabee planes, one could say it would be like hitting fish in a barrel, others would say it was dumb-luck. Regardless of what you call it, the missiles began to hit their targets, and with due accuracy. Albiet, technology was not always right and some missiles actually missed their targets, while others exploded pre-maturely. Despite these mishaps, the Teutonics seemed to have the advantage in this aerial battle.

The Border Battles
The air superiority fighters were difficult to detect, but it had been a suprise. Jagada had not launched any aerial assets during the first strike, but suddenly they had decided to now. In the end, it was rather fortunate that the Falcons were outfitted with six air to air missiles on their external hardpoints. The AESA conical radar array on the nose of each of the Falcon caught the enemy air superiority fighters out quickly, the AESA radar being able to detect up to the horizon; in short, with the distances in the colonies, the Falcons could detect anything in the air for most of the span within the colonies, which made it rather powerful. As soon as those Teutonics were at their full altitude, that is when they leveld out, the Hawks detached four missiles a piece, keeping two in case any of the Teutonics survived or decided to continue the beyond visual range dogfight. Regardless, there were two and four tenths of a missile per every Teutonic in the sky. With that the AAM.176s screamed across the broad sky towards their targets.

Suddenly, however, the screen directly to the forefront of each pilot lighted up with incoming air to air missiles. A frigthened pilot began to bark over the radio, "Incoming vampires!" With that the aircraft broke off, already fired their missiles, confusing the missiles [forcing them to choose a direction], and then banked further to complete a one hundred and eighty degree manuever within seven to eight seconds.

Some of the planes were swept aside by outbound surface to air missiles that had reacted to the attack. At least twenty P.746.B surface to air missiles had been marked against the Jagadan aircraft. Regardless, the enemy missiles got closer and Falcons began to dispense flares while violently manuevering to avoid the lock on from an enemy missile. Nonetheless, some of them were dropped out of the sky. At least eight [1/3 of them] birds were destroyed. It was inconsequential, as the rest of the Falcons again regrouped and continued the strike on their original targets - they would not let a simple raid ruin something as necessary as this. That defense had to be destroyed for the following day.

Elsewhere, in the bay that bordered both the Empire's colonies and Jagada's, a single Illium class Destroyer made its way towards the enemy, finding home one hundred and fifty kilometers from the Jagadan coast. Supposedly for ELINT operations [intelligence operations] it was fully stocked with enough missiles to make any Jagadan naval force in the area burn, or to seriously damage ground based armed forces under Jagadan control...nonetheless, it was a sign that the Empire was beginning to rely on sources that it originally did not need to rely on..if that meant anything.

The Border Battles

The Jagadian Teutonics had similar tactics the Macabee's did. Which included breaking off as soon as the missiles came in. It was still surprising the mission against the Macabee fighters was already having problems, but it wasn't totally unexpected. The purpose behind the mission wasn't to destroy the Macabee fighters, but to stall them. The Teutonics did suffer losses sadly enough, out of the forty fighters that were launched, only about twenty-five came out of the carnage, along with six that were forced to return to base due to heavy damage, and three which had to bail out. Though all in all, the mission served its purpose.

The Macabee fighters were stalled long enough for the Jagadian Anti-Air System to begin to track them more manually. Though the Macabee planes had given their position away when they broke and attempted to get out of the range of the Teutonic's missiles. This did put them in the crosshairs of the Radar Stations. As soon as they came within range, coordinates and other information was quickly sent to the Anti-Air Missile Systems. Within less then five minutes the systems had their coordinates and suddenly the night lit up with the fire of several missiles blazing into the air towards the Macabee Raiders. These missiles would have plenty of time to reach their targets prior to them leaving the range of radar. The idea was simple: to destroy as many of the fighters as possible.

The Macabee destroyer that sat around ninty-three (93) miles off the coast was at first--unnoticed. Though satelliate informaton had already picked up the vessel and the information was sent to High Command. At the moment, they had no resources they believed should be wasted taking out the vessel. Though, the Grand Fleet did have a few vessels farther, about 241 meter (150 miles) off shore. It was nothing more than a Pocket Battleship known as the JGFS Cruel, its primary interests were to defend trade. It hadn't been assign to attack any ship, or to engage upon site. Though it had now been informed of the Macabee vessel's presence, and was informed to keep on guard incase its purpose was one of combat, rather than scouting. Other than that Pocket Battleship and a few Cruisers elsewhere, most of the Colonization Fleet was on the eastern coast where the Jagadians had originally landed. It wouldn't move for some time, but was on alert. As was the entire Jagadian Colonial Military by now.

Border Battles
In all actuality, the aircraft were still over Macabee owned skies since they were making a beyond visual range strike. The Falcons had already turned around so outrunning the surface to air missiles, at least for a while, was all they had to do while ground anti-air artillery batteries firing their multitude of CAPMES rounds took down the mass launch of air to air missiles in droves. Regardless, most of the missiles made it through causing havoc between some groups of retreating Falcons. It was easy to say the attack, and further airstrikes had been called off for the night. It was just too many losses to handle. Nonetheless, the Jagadan reaction would be taken care of, although it seemed that from this point on the war would really focus on the ground invasion since that was really the only way to deal a hammer into the Jagadan defense. So, the surviving aircraft lumbered back to their airfields and touched down, as the other aircraft prepared for the night raids were put back into their armoured hangars. The air offensive had been an utter failure - they could not possibly operate in such tight restrictions.

But, closer to the front, a resurgence in the artillery strikes had begun. Using the prototypes of the GF11 Archer UAVs [the same ones used before], which were soon to enter mass production, they had been able to track down waiting Corbulos and fixed gun sights, and it was time to give a death dealing blow to the defensive power of the Jagadan colony. Suddenly, a grand battery of four hundred Corbulos opened up, striking upon fixed gun positions and Corbulos positions with their SADARM anti-tank cluster munitions. The idea was to destroy the majority of Jagada's artillery before they could respond; with Jagada's artillery gone then the Macabe artillery would have free reign over the battlefield, and consequently, soon enough those surface to air batteries would be gone. All the while, for closer range operations, the Panzerwerfer multiple rocket launcher systems began to pound Jagadan second and third line defenses with their anti-armour munitions, going through bunkers and such - the pathfinders were coming.

That they were. More to the front, moving slowly foward to reinforce the defensive the Immortals had put up, the entire division of Pathfinders prepared for their eventual invasion of Jagada - all sixteen thousand of them. Counting their bullets and rifles, sporting their standard uniforms [not the BDU-64] they were ready for what was to come tomorrow. Death.

[OOC: Anything about the ship will be in my next post. EDIT: Which coastline is Essah on? North or East?]