NationStates Jolt Archive

Asbena's massive blimp armada has been seen rising up out of the mountaineous landscape. Literally thousands of blimps launched from Asbena's main air base.

The huge ships are carrying tons of supplies and people. Asbena calls them 'Airships' because of their incredible size and ability to carry large amounts of cargo over long distances.

The ships have been spotted leaving Asbena's Airspace on a route like this.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a128/Tanthan/Mapofroute.jpg

They are heading over Florintine Airspace on the way out of the country to the waters.

HMS Abernathy

It was unquestionable, tensions in Irathria had been on the rise as newcomers and old-timers alike scrambled to claim the last scraps of land for their nations and their empires. Just like every other nation, the United Kingdom too had a vested interest in securing its new colony in the King John Islands. Leading a small amphibious force one day out of Charlotte the picket destroyer Abernathy picked up the returns of the massive blimps first.

Deep in the trimaran’s hull Specialist Charles O’Keefe drummed his fingers on the cold metal, lit under cool blue lights that calmed his nerves. The inland sea they were attempting to transit bordered most of the nations in the continent and there had been no official treaties or agreements to demarcate international waters. Wisely, Rear Admiral Jefferson had ordered a course that would put the taskforce over twenty kilometers distant from any land mass. But O’Keefe still felt uneasy.

His fears were concerned with the first blip. Commander, he called out to the XO, who had the watch. We’re picking something up on the Three-Eyes.

What is it, Charles?

Unknown airborne contact, sir. Moving at a slow— O’Keefe paused as another blip appeared, followed quickly by nearly a dozen more. Sir, we’re now getting multiple contacts. They’re still far off but they keep appearing, sir. I now have nearly one-hundred contacts.

Any recognition codes?

Negative, sir. Commander Carl Anderson swore under his breath. Originally from outside Carthage before the nuclear attack, he had always preferred the wide and spacious seas surrounding the Home Islands. Here in Irathria, however, Anderson had begun to face the problems of tight quarter formations and potentially combat. It was a long way from the war against Novikov, which had barely any airforce to sortie against the frigate he had served upon as an ADO, or air defence officer.

Communications, Anderson breathed out after having taken a deep breath. Bring the captain to the bridge, send our information to the Atlantic, and then prepare a hostile challenge on all radio frequencies. Weapons, I want you to run a level one diagnostic on weapons systems and make ready our surface-to-air missile batteries. Anderson watched the calm unease slowly dissipate as instincts and training took held. If nothing else, they were all sailors of the Royal Navy and they’d do their duty no matter how the situation turned out.

Commander, the Communications Officer called out, the Captain is on her way up.

Very good, Lieutenant. Chief of the Watch, bring the ship to battlestations if you please. Sound yellow-alert.

Very well, sir.

OOC: I am sooo tempted to just send a couple squadrons in there and blow the hell out of them.


But, the idiotic policeman are more importaint right now.

OOC: You know that would cause total war. :P

IC:

The first 'Airships' picked up the radar signal and their far inferior systems delivered a cracky, spotched transmission.

"Hello? Hello? Come in? Please repeat!" said a curious pilot, knowing the signal was far off and that their simple and old equipment couldn't analyze the signals well. The equipment was able to pick up the radio waves, but the tank circuits were off and wouldn't transmit or recieve properly.

The blimps kept moving over Florintine Airspace, carelessly, but they didn't seem to be hostile or picking targets or even changing course. They appeared on a direct route for the sea.

bump for flor.

The Tiberium Military Headquarters was already full of activity, and this did not help.
"Sir, you better see this." a soldier said, sitting at a radar screen.
"What, is that?"
"I'm not sure sir, but it appears to be coming from Asbena."
"In that case, its hostle. Scramble the 1st and 2nd Fighter Divisions, and take them out."

The Airstrip at Tiberium was at a frenzy. F-35 after F-35 took off, heading towards the UFO's. When they finally came into view, the pilots were in shock.

"Are those, Airships?"
"Take them out son. Take them out."
The F-35's began fireing rounds into the blimps.

The huge blips began to leak helium out of them and slowly start to deflate, though as the F-35's got close and were discovered, an immense amount of yelling was heard through the radios, as repeated messages and messages across many frequencies all merged together to form the cries of the people on them.

"What the hell is happening!?" "Oh no! The helium is leaking out of A-100!" "Get out of here you bastards!" "We've been hit! Our ship is ---" "We're unarmed! Let us get to the sea!" "What are you doing!" "Why are they doing this!"

The huge blimps began to slowly deflate; the air leaking from their massive frame, but this is the modern era and such ships would not be downed like their predessors. The crew of the ships had an auxilery plan for dealing with the air leaks When the ship was constucted several layers of plastics were built into the sides of the ship, they could switch and move these air-tight layers around the entirety of the blimp to seal off air-leaks and stop the gas from escaping.

The blimps were clearly unarmed and civilian, the massive cargo bays carrying what appeared to be steel rods and machinery for construction. Some even carried small trucks and bulldozers. The blimps would not be downed easily, but due to the close range of the F-35's they would be able to transmit radio conversations directly to the pilots.

OOC: Think of inner plastic structure as plates, layered on top of each other and spherical. Like two pieces of paper (in reality more like 8), if you puncture a hole in one, you can SHIFT the paper so there is no longer any hole. That is how our ships are able to 'self-heal' in the air. Though even a large hole would be sealed, its only a matter of time before holes don't match up and the blimps would sink.

The F-35's continued to fire, even though the airships did not deflate.
"Fire at the cockpit!" a pilot said. The rest of the fighters began to do this.
OOC: Sorry this isn't longer, I'm in a heated debate in general about bunny ears and LSD.

OOC: The true cock pit is inside Airships, the one exposed is the landing and formal areas, places with beds and everything. They are kinda like the Kirov Airship in RA2. Slow moving, carries massive loads, but can't attack air or defend itself. You're people have no honor ICly...do they.

IC: The F-35's continued to fire on them, destroying most of the landing gear and weakening the lines that held the cargo up inside the Airships. The slow moving airships were enduring the attack, but they were unarmed.

"Stop attacking us! We are not even fighting you!" yelled one of the pilots over the frequency, this message was loud and clear from the central ship in the forward fleet. "This is designated as a CIVIL airspace by our government, we are on a direct route to the sea! Let us have safe passage!"

Other spurts of weak radio transmissions were sent out, the ships were lacking in communication, but the leader clearly was not, and thanks to his yelling the F-35's would be able to target one of the largest ships in the fleet, though it was several miles back and armed with what appeared to be several civil airplanes...armed with air-to-air missiles, along with gatling gun stations on the top.

The forward ships were not protected, but farther back along the line a clear protector was seen, and yet was not noticed due to no resistance. The pilot spoke again, "Patch me through to your superiors! Attacking civilian ships is grounds for war!"

OOC: The pilot doesn't know their is already a war going on, and thinks our corrupt little government has approved the 'air lanes' for safe travel, but that's not the case in reality.

Yashbot Wellingsforth heard the pleads of the aircraft over his frequency, and immediatly regreted going on this mission. "Shit! All pilots, cease fire, cease fire! These are CIVILIAN aircraft, I repeat cease fire!"
The F-35's stopped firing, and began to circle in and out of the fleet. Yashbot radioed Tiberium, and began to tell them about the situation. "General Fromont, these are civilian airships, they are not hostile. I recommend an escort to there destination, just to make sure."
"Do as you wish Wellingsforth. Just make sure they are not a threat."
"Roger General. Yahsbot out."
The leader of the squadrons began to radio the airships, hoping to ease there reactions.
"Yashbot to all Asbenian Aircraft, there seems to be a mistake. We are currently at war with your country, and you are flying in Florintine territorry. Our orders are to escort this fleet to your destination, where is this location?"

OOC: Ha ha, they do have honor, it was just a case of mistaken identity. ;)

OOC: Shoot first ask questions later >.> Sure...

IC

"At war!? Only the Father's west of the river would hide such a thing from the military, we are from the east on route to the colonies. We are land locked on all sides and had to fly through your air-space, didn't our government obtain permission? We have over 50,000 Airships coming from our nation over this territory in the next three days."

The airships were damaged, but they didn't go down, and the armed one did not fire, but as the pilots realized how many ships they were, it appeared as if they were not just taking supplies over, that they were basically looking to build heavily on the new ground and establish a strong centeral point in the ocean.

Ships appeared as if they carried many tons of steel beams, some carried huge containers marked as "Concrete Mixture", while others carried airplanes on the top of the massive airships, if such airplanes were to take off from the blimp it would be a one-way flight...that is if they weren't strapped down to the deck as riders. The planes obviously were unable to make it to the new colony on their own and are hitching a ride on the civil blimps. As the mixture of gear and some military weapons, and what appeared to be pieces of ships were attached to the airships, making them very heavy and obviously having the helium under intense pressure to lift them into the sky.

"Our airships are so slow, we can manage around 20 mph maximum, there is no need to escort us, we will not be crossing over any other nation's airspace until we hit the middle of the sea. Our ships are not a threat unless attacked and they go down, but as you can see our ships are much better designed and resistant then models we based them on from the 20th century."