NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is largely a military referance thread, but contains various other items. Please leave your opinion.
IC: (Reserved for general info)

History

Carlusia

The Most Divine Empire of Carlusia was a small rim nation, ruled by an absolute monarch named Carlus, and resting on the backs of vat grown slaves. They occupied what is now Furnace, and knew of the existance of Fortress, and near the end of their existance, they encountered the Boozia system, inhabited by a group of nuclear age colonists from earth. And so the Divine legion set out to exterminate the people who would become the Boozians.

Rebel Yell

Of course, no-one was going to just sit back and watch, so the crude and primitive army of Boozia thought it was ready when they arrived. But when the hammer fell, they were swiftly routed by the superior Carlusite technology. This was the real decision point of the war: the threat posed by the whole regiments of deserters was hugely underestimted, leaving them free to roam. And not all were deserters in the traditional sense. Colonel Schmaldt claimed to be operating as a national army guerilla, and gathered a ragged "army" of other such patriots, of which he was made General-Oberst, a big step up for one day.

Operation Falx

Schmaldt wasn't stupid, and he knew he couldn't face the occupiers in his current state, so he devised a plan to arm his men with the enemies equipment: Operation Falx. A seemingly random bridge-detonation with no real strategic purpose drew away forces from one Carlusite base, and the guerillas struck, quickly making off with advanced laser weaponary. The war could now begin in earnest.

Brundeburg

The newly equipped army, mounted in civilian trucks provided by the Boozian citezenry, rapidly advanced on the city of Brundeburg, the communications hub of the occupeing army, and struck. Savage streetfighting prevailed for a few hours, until Lt.Hilgen carried out the now famous Boozian flag-striking ritual for the first time, and the demoralized Carlusites fled. Knowing to stay still was suicide, Schmadt quickly sent a host of propaganda messages than destroyed the Carlusite comms hub and left for Alchaholiaswicksburg, the capital, with a whole new weapons supply.

Arm the Mob

The carefully orchestrated and timed rising of the 19th began with the burning of a police station, as a kind of signal, indicating to the armies outriders that they should begin to distribute weapons. Then the real rising started. The massacre of one main mob only fueled the fire, and by the time the occupatinal government had grasped what was going on, the army arrived. The battle was short.

The Boozemarshall

Having installed a revolutionary government, Schmaldt was made "Boozemarshall", supreme commander of the armed forces, and quickly divided his rapidly swelling horde into three sections, leaving one behind to defend the capital, he took the remainder of his troops to the dockyard at Gurstwick.

One small step for a man...

The Carlusite army was easily capable of retaking Gurstwick, but momentarily marshalled their forces to better overcome the defences, and by this time, the attacl on the dockyard had all ready begun. Due to most of the Carlusites being at the capital or chasing him, Schmaldt was able to overrun the base rapidly and sieze the vessels in drydock
(more to come)

Boozian Stellar Geography

Boozia consists of three roughly “adjacent” star systems, of which two, Boozia and Furnace, maintain public beacons during peacetime (Fortress does not see below for why). It also includes a more far flung colony in the Tetrea system, with a below-standard beacon.

Boozia System

There are five planets, listed from the sun, Boozia, outward.

Dante is an uninhabited planet similar to Mercury, with no moons.

Oddball is a dry, stony world with no atmosphere, named for its strange rock formations. It hosts a secret bunker complex for the government to flee into in case of a major crisis, and is orbited by a water moon, Tsunami, named for its violent currents, with a small abandoned science facility and fishery, currently being re-colonised.

Boozia Prime (or just Boozia) is the capital. It has an Earth-like geography and is largely covered in urban sprawl, farmland and Germanic mountains. The main population centre, it is soon to be replaced as the food production world by Tetrea. Its moons are Monolith, home of a museum of historical artefacts, and Memory, the site of the main record house. Neither has an atmosphere.

Forest hosts an extensive eco-system of methane-breathing plants (used in the creation of spices), and a pair of science facilities. It has no moons.

Edge is an ice world with no atmosphere and one moon, Void, where reports from the monitor stations ringing the system are collected and processed. Void has a non-lethal poisonous atmosphere, but can easily freeze you to death, especially if the air knocks you out.


Fortress system

None of the three planets has a breathable atmosphere, and they are all fairly small, perfect for a military headquarters and bastion. Although a fairly popular destination for respect-paying, the coordinates are kept secret from both the public and the enlisted men, and no beacon is maintained, to prevent a crippling first strike against ships in dry-dock and un-mobilized soldiers.

Fortress is the prime world, its atmosphere can kill a human in two hours, but even a simple soldiers’ filter gasmask is adequate protection. There are several sealed facilities. Scarnhorst and Scholen keeps, (the main army bases), Schmaldtsburg (a city of veterans, military record houses, and monuments), four storage silos, and one science lab are all connected to the underground train network, while one more silo has recently been declassified and is having a track built to it, and one science facility remains secret.

Shipyard is a gas giant. The lighter than air gasses are fairly useless, not to mention causing lung damage, but the planet is the only world in Boozia with low enough gravity to accommodate the fleet flagship, Schmaldt, so it’s used as a naval dockyard.

Niflheim is very similar to Pluto, and houses the best kept secret of the government: Neverwhere station. It in turn is the home of “The Ziggurat” (experimental shipyard and docking facility for the Commissariat’s ship, Prowler), “The Cauldron” (secret lab complex), and “The Devil’s Bookshelf”. This last and most guarded vault is where “Black library”, the computer who records censored data, the “Tomb of Kings”, a collection of artefacts too important or horrifying for Monolith, and “The Locked Room”, the final resting place of Boozia’s greatest hero, Boozemarshall Schmaldt, are kept.


Furnace system

Containing four planets, among which are the first and third greatest manufacturers in Boozia, and the home of all major guilds, this is the undisputed heart of the economy.

Sulphur is a Venus-like planet with a small science/mining facility, containing a few rare minerals used for trade.

Treasure Trove is the third largest manufacturing planet in Boozia, named for a now depleted pocket of Diamond Iron, the ultra-hard metal which provides In Iron Written with its name and armour. It has a breathable but thin atmosphere, and is made up of jungle and desert, with Earth-like icecaps. It has three moons, of which two, Pebbles Alpha and Beta, are barren rock-balls, and the third, Vault, is the main store of government wealth.

Furnace, the prime world, is a hellishly hot mineral-rich factory volcano planet, where most of the metal goods in Boozia can trace their origins to. Its atmosphere is Earth-like, but filled with natural and manmade smoke, to the point where the tiny fraction of the populace who live outside the sealed cities wear gasmasks. It has a moon, Ashes, which is used as a toxic dump, lacking an atmosphere to pollute, or an eco-system to destroy, but with many caves and high gravity to keep the material secure.

Arctic, specifically the Arctic melting station, is an ice giant that provides Boozia with most of its drinking water.


Tetrea (soon to be Harvest) system

The most recent addition to the nation, it is shared 75/25 with the larger power of Seaquest, who played a small role in its annexation by Boozia. Two of its three planets are under Boozian control.

Tetrea Prime (soon to be Harvest) is an Earth-like planet with vast, flat landmasses, and is therefore being transformed into an agricultural world to give Boozia’s strained economy some room to expand, and create surplus food for trading. It has one moon, uninhabited and referred to as simply “the moon”.

Wisp, named after its cloud formations, is a gas giant, currently hosting a decommissioned beacon station brought out of mothballs, but soon to receive a modern beacon, a naval dockyard for a corvette squadron, and Boozia’s first gas mine.

Force disposition of the Grand Army

“Give me a million Shock troopers in a disorderly mob or a hundred conscripts who know what to do, where, when.”
General-Oberst Schelner

Note on Iconography

The hammer is the symbol of the Army, the Boozian sword (resembling a huge bread knife) is the symbol of all the services, the Rifle is the symbol of infantry, the horn cavalry (tanks), and the pickaxe is the traditional symbol of the working class. The red acorn is a symbol of the horrific sacrifices that the men of the First Army made to protect their fledgling nation, specifically the Stand on Bloody Oak Mount.

Role

The army is the branch responsible for typical modern army duties, aircraft launched from ground bases and vehicles (including “wet navy” aircraft carriers), and all aquatic operations. They must defend Boozian worlds under threat, and are also the men who take the brunt of the fighting when assaulting a foreign world.

The First Grand Army

A well balanced, good sized force which is permanently attached to its space transport, giving immense strategic flexibility. Their emblem of a red acorn on a crossed hammer and rifle motif is the most prominent symbol of the army’s might, as this is the most readily available army, capable of mobilizing in just under an Earth day, as they spend all their time not on leave at full readiness in Scarnhorst Keep on the surface of Fortress, with their transports positioned in geostationary orbit above. Commanded by General-Feldmarshall Morlok. Their emblem is mentioned above, and their code-name is currently Punitive.

The Second Grand Army

A smaller and more specialised force than the first army, they may take as much as a week to mobilise. Whereas the first army is used to defend threatened systems (and officially conquer new ones, but it wasn’t involved at all in the Battle of Tetrea, the first system Boozia has claimed since its baptism of fire), the second army is used to intervene in other people’s affairs, and as a back-up to the first. They spend their duty time in relaxed drill in Scholen Keep, with their semi-attached transports in dry-dock on Shipyard.
Commanded by General-Oberst Schelner. Their emblem is a Boozian sword, running through the middle of a crossed horn and rifle on an advancing-tank motif, with a large dozer-blade and all its guns pointed right at you, the main one firing. Their current codename is Kraken.

The Third Grand Army

About the same size as the second, they have much of the special equipment at the army’s disposal, including subterranean weapons (such as the Grinder tank and Cruncher APC), the Gorgon siege engines, the Goliath and Massive Bertha bombards, and the famous symbols of the Grand Army, Smaug, Last Word, and In Iron Written(see “Megaweapons” under “Army Equipment”). Uniquely, this army is largely kept aboard It Which Never Flinches, the supreme command base of the services and Boozia’s only star-fort. It is deployed in support of a prolonged war, where both the army and navy need their full forces available. Its commander is General-Oberst Janfuhter, its emblem is a rifle, a hammer, a Boozian sword and a horn, all crossed over the outline of It Which Never Flinches, and it’s codename is Unchained.

The Reserve Army

Invalids, reserved-occupation workers, and those who are too young or old for service but feel a spark of patriotism join the Reserve or People’s army, where they are issued a hand-me-down uniform and encouraged to come along to weekly drill sessions at their local recruiting centre. The army has no official transport or base, and is never deployed as a separate entity, instead being used as a pool of replacements. As such, at has no traditional commander, but the man making decisions is General-of-Reserves Schuften. Their emblem is a hammer crossed with a pickaxe, and their current codename is Dancing Devil.

The People’s Militia (formerly The Second Reserve Army)

Absolutely every citizen. The idea is that if Boozia was ever occupied, a picked few would form a guerrilla movement, while all other citizens would be obliged to aid them. Their commander would be the senior surviving army officer, their emblem the pickaxe crossed with a Boozian sword, and their codename selected when they were activated, although the plan’s current codename is It Is The End, probably the least cryptic of the designations.

The First through Fourth Garrisons

These are effectively paramilitary/vigilante militias who were made official by the government to keep them from turning into criminals themselves. They are both riot police and first line of defence, and usually have a civilian “day job”. The first, based on Boozia, provides recruits for the VIP guard, and is the most active as law enforcers. The second, on Fortress, is the most professional because it is effectively a military police unit under Commissariat control. The third, on Furnace, is largely controlled by the guilds, although the anti-capitalist nature of the economy helps prevent corruption, and the fourth, on Tetrea, is almost non-existent.

Force disposition of the Grand Fleet

Note on iconography

Same as with army, but the oar is the navy symbol, the lightning bolt is an indication of speed

Role

The navy is responsible for all ships and stations, and the boats and aircraft launched from them.

The First Mobile fleet

A roaming unit used mainly to explore and to respond to major threats, this is one of the most well rounded and self-sufficiant fleets. It has a variety of attched army elements. Its insignia is the two oars and a Boozian sword, all crossed, its commander Admiral Gerspel, and its current codename Devourer. It was only made the first recently, after the plans for the second were laid down.

The Rapid Response fleet

Comprised of seven squadrons, it deployes one to respond to incidents in a certain radius around Boozian space. This gives the Commodores alot of autonomy. Their insignia is a crossed oar and lightning bolt, their commander (whos role is mainly that of making doctorine decisions) is Vice Admiral Tekeln, and their current codename is Saladin.

The Reserve Fleet

The largest fleet, it is a pool of ships to be called upon when needed, and contains several semi-official sub-divisions, namely a trio of reinforcement squadrons designed to increase the capabilities of a rapid response squadron and the First Expeditionary Fleet, a power-projection force based around the starfort It Which Never Flinches There is no single emblem or commander, instead doctorine decisions are made by fleet command, and three Fleet Admirals are available to command detachments.

The Patrol Fleet

This fleet is responsible for monitering traffic in and out of Boozian space, and they are also available for the reserve pool during a crisis. Their commander is Rear-Admiral Schor, their emblem a crossed oar and sword on a circle-of-arrows motif, and their codename Something Awful.

The Prizehunters

The nearest thing Boozia has to black ops, they are responsible for spying, looting hulks, and capturing "suspicious" merchants. They are available for the reserve pool, and have no commander (answering strait to high command) or emblem (for secrecy). Their codename is Them.

The First throgh Fourth garrisons

Very similar too the army organisations of the same name, they are usually equipped with a host of small patrol boats and innumerable orbital stations. The monitor outposts around the systems edge are their responsibility.

Force disposition of the Boozian Marine Corps

Note

The marines are directly attached to their ships and fleets, so many of the units mentioned here are naval, and covered in “Force
disposition of the Grand Fleet”.

Role

The marines have three roles. The first and foremost is as ship-soldiers, who make hit-and-run raids from boats and spearhead full-scale death-or-glory boarding actions, and also as the primary defence against such methods. The second role is performing the bulk of disciplinary duties, as the Commissars and their military police are mainly aboard is to maintain morale and “watch the watchmen”, making sure the marines and officers are not muttering of mutiny. Their third and least important role is as planetary assault troopers, and while there are no better men to descend quickly and stealthily to disable defences, they lack the equipment to fight a war of manoeuvre, the manpower to fight one of attrition, and the training to fight either. Thus, the attached army elements of the First Mobile Fleet (the most likely to attack a planet) perform many of the dirtside duties.

Rapid Response attachments

Those marines attached to rapid response squadrons are not the most likely to see action, because they will almost never be involved in planetary assault and boarding actions are not especially routine, either. However, they are needed to keep control of the crew, who may be rowdy due to the long tours and short leaves of their assignment, and they are also called on to attack pirate bases and moons.

Patrol attachments

These are the least likely to see dirtside fighting, but boarding suspicious merchants is part of their everyday lives. They are one of the most archetypal units.

Reinforcement attachments

Since the deployment of these fleets indicates a major battle, they are the picked men of the corps.

Prizehunter attachments

Prizes and boarding are nearly synonymous, so these archetypal marines have a reputation as grizzly veterans.

Mobile/Expeditionary Fleet attachments

These are easily the most likely to see planetary assault, and have a slightly different standard load-out, as well as special equipment like Falling Sky drop APCs and Deliverance-class fighter-haulers.
They are also fairly accustomed to boarding, and are famous for their uncommonly close mutual respect and support relationship with the army born from close support actions and even direct, shoulder-to-shoulder fighting.

Reserve/Garrison attachments

As the least likely branch to see action, this is where recruits are sent to first, to be monitored to see where they would fit best, and is also where badly injured men spend the remainder of their serving time.

Weapons and equipment of the Boozian armed forces

Naval weapons

Macro cannon: it’s a gun. It fires a shell. Boozian directness at its finest. These make up about 70% of most broadsides.

Laser: more versatile than a cannon, and not requiring ammo, the troopers’ rifle weapon is creeping in as the new naval primary armament. These are the other 30% of the broadside.

Torpedoes: a whole host of special types supplement the archetypal 200-foot plasma death warhead: incendiary, short-burn, homing, and the infamous leave-nothing bomb are just a few examples. They are always fired from large frontal tubes.

Missiles: a comparatively recent introduction, they are launched in swarms, all fired on one ship or small-craft squadron, and are much faster, more agile, shorter ranged and less powerful than a torpedo.

The Big Gun: an occasional alternative to torpedoes, it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Mines: quite rare among lineships, the core of the fleet, but a favourite with commerce raiders are computer-guided, fast-deploying cluster mines. Often dropped disguised as asteroids in preparation for an ambush, they are also found in vast fields around important worlds.



Naval Defences

Void shields: these are the standard shields on all vessels, and are basicly impenatrable to anything traveling through realspace or the warp in the boozian sense. However, a good salvo will overstrain them and blow a generator. The damage is usually repiared quite quickly, being mostly cracked pipes and melted wire, but can then be knocked down again. All ships of cruiser strength and above have multiple generators, because these take longer to knock down than larger ones. A typical lineship has two, a typical battleship four, and Schmaldt has seven, due to all the attention it recieves.

Turrets: every boozian ship carries innumerable small, fast tracking guns, which are used to destroy small craft and are not considered a standard weapon system.

Armour: this is usually quite thick, and, unlike shields, is designed to dampen shots throughout a battle, not block theem at critical moments. The favoured alloy is water-steel, which is both hard enough to cope with most standard weapons and cheap to make. Their is a massive concentration of armour around the prow, to aid in ramming, and because, to quote Lord Admiral Nelson, "Don't bother with the manouvres, go straight at em."

(other systems and army stuff coming soon)



Army Megaweapons

Note: A megaweapon is a very large and powerful weapon which is not deployed in just any war. It doesn't necaserily have to be one-of-a-kind, but all those listed are.

Smaug: named after Tolkien’s draconic villain, this is the biggest atmospheric aircraft in service, and is used to rapidly transport large loads of ground troops and serve as a mobile command base. It can operate in space, but its weapons are much less effective and it’s slow and clumsy, because its hover system assumes the presence of solid ground.

Thing from the Deep: this submarine/carrier/dreadnought’s name has some obvious Lovecraftian influences, and the crew have suitably adorned it with painted scales, eyes, and tentacles. Its turreted primary armament and missile launchers can fire under water, while its torpedo tubes can fire while it’s surfaced, and it has a kind of sealed flight deck, holding VTOL aircraft and mini-subs, and with a shaft running through it with hatches at the top and bottom, allowing the swift and simultaneous deployment of both types of vehicle whilst surfaced. It’s marine (actually army personnel) complement is quite considerable.

Last Word: this super-heavy tank among super-heavies carries the fewest troops of the all the megaweapons, as it is not a mobile base, but a juggernaut designed to crush all resistance and open gaps for other elements to exploit.

In Iron Written: a mobile fortress of epic magnitude, it’s used as the command centre for the fighting over an entire system. With more of buildings in its ancestry than vehicles, its immense bulk and slow speed limit its offensive utility, but it’s the perfect way to protect a vital objective.
(stats coming soon)




Navy Megaweapons

Oprichnik: Not exactly “mega”, its unique nature and high power merit inclusion here. Any casual observer can see it’s not a typical cruiser: it’s covered in turrets and sponsons, not gun decks, and its main armament (eight twin mount turrets) is entirely lasers. It lacks the traditional multi-tube torpedo system with vast magazines, in favour of an advanced Big Gun, instead making use of numerous advanced missile pods and a pair of immense, one shot, “leave-nothing-bombs”, complimented by a small but functional mine laying system. It’s secondary weapons (twenty small mass-drivers) can take out fighters at range, but in close it is quite vulnerable to small craft. It’s armour and shield are fairly average, and it can move with immense speed and agility.

Schmaldt: The largest vessel in the fleet, its has such psychological significance that it has been endlessly refitted to cope with changing times, leaving it the oldest commisioned ship in the fleet, despite the fact it hasn't seen combat since the Carlus war, where it actually was Boozemarshall Schmaldt's tomb, as his last words ("Bastards! I hadn't bloody well finished yet!") indicated he wouldn't rest untill the war was won. It is very rarely deployed, much less than the army weapons or Oprichnik.

It Which Never Flinches: The largest station, (not to mention largest thing0 in the fleet, it can dock up to eight destroyers internally, is the width of two battleships length, and, at it's highest point, which is much higher than most of it, as high as a light cruisers length. In short, it's big. And it has a small army in it. The secrets in the engines, or lack thereof. It has just enough thrusters to slowly turn, and a warp drive requiring tugs. Thats all. Engine systems run a third of the way along most Boozians, and acount for most of the power expenditure. The station is square, with a on it, each arm poking out away from the main structure in a docking pier. The cross divides it into four quarters, each arrange like a staircase, with guns on the "shelves" and tubes and hangars in between them. There is a large tower in the centre, housing the reactor and bridge.
(More, stats, and marines coming soon)