NationStates Jolt Archive

Saint Rynald was a petty little state along the border of the Undershi Empire. It was next on the list of conquests to be made, and so the Undershi began their attack:

At 2 o'clock AM, over 2,000 Thunderer class fighter-bombers, over 4,000 Lightning fighters and over 1,000 Golden Eagle heavy bombers crossed the border, dropping napalm, Fuel-Air Explosives and other leathal conventional weapons on the shocked, unprepared, Saint Rynald military bases along the fronteir.
By 3 o'clock, Undershi armoured units were pushing into Saint Rynald, advancing with the intent of delivering a fatal blow to the struggling theocracy by taking the capital, Saint Rynald City.
Everywhere those armoured units went, Occupation Police, grey uniformed and grim, followed behind, placing the norm (normal human) populace in the chains of slavery, killing those who failed to submit.
Once they had done the pacifying, most of their duties were handed over to Janissary units from the already conquered Empire, who were told to break the will of the Saint Rynald civilians... while Occupation Police units took the military prisoners out into the wilderness and shot them. No military prisoners were kept alive - the best they could hope for was a quick death, a quick bullet to the brain from their conquerors.
As the sun finally rose, the Undershis were already advancing, smashing any and all resistance with brutal force...

The Saint Rynald military had never been a world power - they had hardly any air force, and what few fighters they did have died all too quickly against the Undershis overwhelmingly superior numbers.
As soon as the bombs started falling on the Saint Rynald fronteir defense posts, most of the military deserted, knowing what the Undershi did to military prisoners, they threw away their weapons, donned civilian clothes, and hoped for the best.
Others fled for the border with other nations, desperatly seeking escape from the advancing Undershi armour.
Few units fought effectively, fewer still survived their first engagemnts. Around two million Saint Rynald citizens were killed in the first day of fighting, as the bombs fell like rain. By the end of that day, all effective resistance had ceased, although guerrilla activity continued to harrass the advancing Undershi units on their way to the capital.

The second day began with another massive aerial offensive, huge numbers of bombers flying with fewer fighter escorts - it seemed that the Saint Rynald air force now no longer existed, and the unopposed Undershi bombers made good use of that fact, flying dozens of bombing mission, leveling entire cities from the air.
Meanwhile, in response to the deaths of several senior officers from sniper attacks, ten thousand Saint Rynald civilians were crucified by Imperial Internal Security all along the route to the capital, standing as proof to Undershi brutality.

Total Undershi Cassualties: 3,450

OOC: Before I do anything IC'ly, I'm allowed to help Saint Raynald right?

Corporal Mathew Gleason was happy with the progress of the first two days of campaigning. They had advanced significantly, slaughtering thousands with few cassualties in return.
He was less happy with the crucified civilians who even now screamed from their crosses, disturbing the soldiers sleep... it was like something from hell, those screaming, agonized norms, and it disterbed even the sleep of an Undershi superman - they had once been human, after all, and for all the genetic tampering of the Undershi scientists, they had failed to erradicated empathy entierly from their creations.
Many of the nearby victims had already been silenced, mercifully shot, but others still screamed in the distance - ten thousand human beings in torment carries suprisingly well...

OOC: Well, it wanted this to happen, so that it could become a member of the Undershi Empire, but I'm fine with you helping Saint Rynald, so long as you don't screw up the whole plan...

OOC: So just as long as Saint Raynald becomes part of Undershi?

Millions of terrified civilians fled the advancing Undershi, terror their only thoughts, news of recent Undershi atrocities fresh in their minds. Ten thousand civilians had been crucified, and so guerrilla activity fell off sharply. It seemed that the threat of being crucified along with ones entire extended family could make one not so eager to be a patriot and resist occupation... after all, the Undershi allowed their slaves to live, wretchedly, but it allowed them to live...

OOC: Actually, I'd be happy for any allies, since that would make the RP more fun, but I do want to get conquered, sort of at least.

Emperor Lakus heard of Saint Raynalds troubles, and sent a message.
---------------------------ENCRYPTED------------------------------------
Raynald, we have heard you have had troubles, how many troops, ships, bobmers, would you like, we wish to help.

From: The Christian Republic of Saint Rynald
To: Taralkea
Re: Military aid
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most honorable leaders of your honorable nation, we respectfully say that we need all the help that we can get. Our military is in ruins, our people crucified or enslaved, and soon our capital will fall. We need your help, and so we beg you for it - come to our aid, in the name of God and mercy! We await your reply with desperate hope.

Lakus read the message. It was even worse then he thought! He quickly sent a message.
To: Raynald.
I have sent the Taralkean army, I ask but one thing in return. Freedom to simply introduce the Taralkean Religion.

the sephrion empire shall not aid the defenders but shall send 3 billion meterias to the invaders to help them buy better weapons

OOC: The Undershi military is extremely well equipped, but thanks for the money anyways - want to ally?

The Undershi army was advancing mercilessly, crushing all opposition before it... when suddenly it recieved new orders - it was to divert all available air craft, as well as quite a bit of its naval support, to a new task - the conquest of some petty state by the name of No_State_At_All - it seems that that little nest of norms was such an annoyance that the High Command was willing to postpone the conquest of their newest subject state until after the destruction of this other enemy.
As such, all progress has effectively ground to a halt, as even the elite True Undershi armoured units that were sent in to spear-head the assault are pulled out, perhaps to lead the invasion of No_State_At_All?

As for the situation in Saint Rynald, less elite but still "darned" tough True Undershi units are continuing a much slower pace of advance, and are allowing huge numbers of refugees to escape almost unhindered - a "real" war, with a larger enemy, is such a danger to the Empire that these norms can be allowed to escape.

High Minister John Reynold was sitting at the top of the long table. There was no one else there, except from one man, High General Harry Mace. They had been there for almost 2 hours, as Reynold had read over the booklet Mace had giving him on his arrival. Finnaly, Reynold rose, and took a deep sigh. Mace, who had been on the verge of dozing off, quickly rose, and stared at Reynold straight in the eyes.

"Well," Began Reynold. "I do not see enough reason for Herastall to send in our army to defend these people. We have absolutely no diplomatic relations with them, and I have no idea how this would help our economy, let alone my re-ellection!"
"Sir, I understand you may be hesitent about this, but if you just consider how much -"
"No!" Reynold shouted across the table, cutting Mace short. "I will have absolutely no participation in this countries affairs! What happens happens, we can't stop these people from invading each other!"

There was a silence in the room after he had spoken.
"Understood, Sir." Finnaly came the softly spoken words from Mace's mouth.

Herastall Military HQ, Secret Location

"General, the Elite Hawk Ground Force is ready for take off to St Rynald, all they need is your word."
Mace pondered a moment. "How many are we sending?"
"All 12 of them Sir."
"Twelve battalions?"
"No Sir, Twelve people. These are Herastalls finest fighting infintary. In fact, none of these men actually exist. They have all been brough up learning to fight since their birth, all abandoned children, no trace of their actual being, no trace to Herastall."
"As long as everyone understand that the High Minister, or anyone else, can hear of this operation."
"We all understand General. Can I give the order?"
"Yes... yes you can give the order."

At 4:00 am Herastall time one stealth air craft took flight for Saint Rynald. Its passengers arrived 6 hours later, in a cheap run-down motel. The only other person staying their was a stray cat on the 3rd floor.

The True Undershi men in the grey of the Occupation Police grinned at each other as they ran with effortless ease through the dark night, persuing a fleeing Saint Rynald civilian, who seemed to believe that she could escape them... even though they were True Undershis.
She ran into some run-down building, a cheap hotel by the look of it, and the invaders followed her in, knowing that the chase was almost over... there were, after all, three of them.
They came through the door, flails in hand, grins on their faces... grins which faded when they saw what was in the room the door to which they had just kicked open...

OOC: Herastall - here's a chance for your commandos to kick some True Undershi rear - enjoy.

The EHGF men were all standing, with emotionless looks on their faces. They stood staring at the 3 men, as the civilian stood far in the corner, barely breathing. Each EHGF man was wearing complete black, except from one, who had a small yellow band around his left wrist.

There was nothing happening in the room, except from cold stares. Then quickly, the EHGF with the yellow band took a silenced pistol from his belt, and shot one of the men in the right shoulder. The other EHGF pulled out their silenced pistols aswell, and pointed them at the soldiers.

"You're move boys. What you gonna do?" Whispered the EHGF leader with the yellow band, just loud enough so they could hear him.

*sighs* sorry guys. BUMP

OOC: sod, came on this one late... ah well.
IC:
Belatedly responding to the Undershi occupation of Saint Rynald, a No_State_At_All battle fleet sailed up to the nearest coast of the territory. It did nothing, however, apart from spread out its main assets along said coast. The ships were there to rain fire down upon the occupiers if they failed to withdraw. No regard was paid to the fact that this action may lead to a war of mutual annhiliation between No_State_At_All and Undershi.

OOC: sorry if I have to glass you too, mr new guy. but if he glasses me, i'm taking out every single inch of land he owns, and that means you too. :(

OOC: That's alright... I can always "reunify" or something...

The survivors of the Saint Rynald military are fighting a futile guerilla war, delaying the inevitable, while the massive refugee collumns flee across the borders, seeking safety.

--Overhead--
A familiar Engine was obove Saint Rynald.Some of the Undershi that were diverted from the other front remember it.The MiG-31R.The Recon aircraft overflew and e-mailed it's new information to Usean Intelegance.

OOC: erm, dude... glass on NS means nuke you until your nation is made up f glass... I'll try and avoid it.
IC:
Seeing that fighting here would be worthwhile, the 10 NSAA legions that had been with the fleet deployed onto the shore and began moving inland to assist the fleeing refugees to safety. After that was achieved, they would go about freeing the nation from its opressors.

OOC again: 1 legion =10000 men (no typo) with armour, AA, and support. And as long as you let the innocents have the option to leave, I'll let you take over here. sorry SR, but ICly I cant let you get taken over without doing anything. normally I wouldnt allow the takeover at all, but if you want it, I'll let it happen if I have an IC out for why i let it happen.

OOC: Is that armour, AA, and support included in the 10,000? Or is it 10,000, and armour, AA and support outside of that?

OOC: 10000 fighting men, including mobile AA, Armour, etc, not including support.sorry i was unclear

OOC: How about the fact that Saint Rynald is a nation made up of catholic religious fanatics with a friggen Inquisition? (They TG-ed me with some info - I'll TG them about posting varification...)

OOC: that would do. still gotta make a token stand, mind. once I get the refugees out, my troops will back off. happy with that?

OOC: Yeah, The Republic of Saint Rynald has The Republican Inquisition, (guess where I got that name from?), which tortures etc "witches" and "heretics"... before burning them at the stake. Ie, they're reeeealy bad on the whole "human rights" bit...

The three True Undershi Occupation Police soldiers looked at each other in shock, then looked at the soldiers in the ruin... then, all as one, they went for their guns, each attempting to simultaneously draw their two machine pistols... they were inhumanly quick, but not quick enough...

The Undershi Army has begun advancing again, moving forward like some unstoppable beast, crushing all that tries to oppose it.
When some fanatics tried a suicide bombing and killed three Undershi soldiers, they showed their cruelty once again - they crucified thirty thousand Saint Rynald civilians.

Thirty thousand civilians screamed in agony from their crosses. It was a scene out of hell... and it shook terribly the civilians who were being marched down the road, in between the victims.
This road had been chosen as one along which all the Saint Rynald civilians taken would walk - seeing so many dead, it was thought, would cause them to be more obediant.
Children cried as their mothers tried to cover their eyes, to shield them from the sight, and even True Undershi soldiers felt uneasy, and clutched at their weapons, denied by their state a holy symbol to touch for comfort.
Such things as this were rare - but, they were part of Undershi doctrine when suicide bombings came into the equation - with such atrocities as a suicide bombing, it seemed as though "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" was too little for them - they had made it known that for every one of their soldiers killed by a suicide bomber, they would crucify ten thousand civilians.

OOC: whos soldiers are they? If they're mine they're forward recon units in power armour... oh, and:
IC:
The NSAA Legions, having secured a beachead un-opposed, started to move inland looking for any enemy presence or any refugees. Ahead of the main body roved the fast-moving power armoured scouts, followed by armoured columns, infantry in trucks, artillery, and mobile AA units. As they moved inland they set up pickets to guard their supply routes, and moved on. In space, several sattelites re-aligned to keep an eye out for heavy enemy troop movements near the advancing force.

OOC: Those soldiers are supposed to be the elite soldiers from Herastall, who are active in Saint Rynald.

The civilian populace of Saint Rynald (that part of it which is still free) is running as fast as it can in order to get as far away from the Undershis as they can.
They are running, and they aren't stopping, but Undershi tanks are rapidly overtaking the further back refugees, since their tanks can move much faster than the refugees, who are mostly on foot, can move.

OOC: Ah, i see.
And when those tanks run onto my scouts, it'll be a hell of a shock for 'em. :p

OOC: A shock? I hope that doesn't mean that you'll be engaging them?

OOC:oh yes. they're pursuing unarmed civilians...

OOC: Not really - they're just advancing, persuing the retreating Saint Rynald military, and they happen to be cutting off civilian refugees from escaping...

OOC:oh... then they may actually be given a warning to halt then.

OOC: That's good to hear...

The Undershi armoured units came to a halt all along the lines, facing power armoured No_State_At_All infantry. No one along the Undershi lines did anything for a while... and then one True Undershi, on a dare, casually put down his weapon, walked over across the lines to the No_State_At_All infantry, held out a cigar and asked for a light.

Meanwhile

Meanwhile, back behind the lines in Saint Rynald City, millions of civilian prisoners are being used for forced labor, and are being treated as slaves in a Stage One occupation would be treated - that is to say, badly.

An NSAA power armour trooper casually fired his flamethrower in a perfectly-aimed shot from his position in cover. The cigar was lighted, and the Undershi trooper was untouched. "Y'know, laddie, I may well be killing you with that thing in a minute. Lets hope your bosses grow sense and go home. My orders are to move forward in 10 minutes. go back and tell your lads to bugger off home pronto, I'd rather not have to polish bullet-shaped dents out of this thing again." said the trooper, Identified as a scout division lieutenant by the red shoulder plates of his armour.

The Undershi soldier actually laughed at that, and responded:
"You actually think we use traditional guns?!? We use Guass weapons - ultra high velocity armour penetrating shells packed full of high explosives - they smash through up to two inches of battle steel, then explode with the force of a fricken fragmentation grenade! We aren't under equipped, you know? Anyway," he added, "I don't think we're going to be pulling back... my government is at war right now... and it won't be pulling back unless it gets something in return." he smilled, made a motion as if he were tipping his hat

(He was wearing a suit of heavy battle armour like all Undershis - it's like the heaviest modern armour, but heavier, and with extra stuff built on so that it could, if you were generous, qualift as "power armour" - it does augment the users strength, after all...)

OOC: More stuff on the "average" Undershi soldier when I next post on my "fact book".

Message From The Undershi High Command to The Government of No_State_At_All

Gentlemen - we are willing to negotiate - we would offer you the entire living populace of Saint Rynald if you agree to simply aid us in our fight against Communist Agression.
We will allow them all to go, to go and enter your territory, if you simply agree to do nothing, to not aid the Usea-Jasonites. More might be negotiable, but we request that you not advance until we have had a chance to talk.
We await your reply with some anxiety.

Chairman Alexander of the World Soviet Party council smashed the newspaper against the table.
-"This is terrible, what is this world turning into?!?"
He signaled his assistant to approach.
-"I want you two send 2 of our Medical Divisions, have them set up Aid Stations on the borders, and be sure to present them as UN Workers, we dont want to get into a war, specially when we have no military..."
-"Yes Chairman"
The assisntant nodded and left the room.

OOC: I'd keep those UN units out of the firing line if I were you, I've got a bad record on arty-ing medics. not on purpose mind, but still, rumours would get around. Oh, and my nation has heavy communist leanings...
"dont ask me what the bosses are going to do laddie, but I know my orders. In ten minutes if you're still there, we're coming through you, if not, then thats good."

Official reply:
You will fall back your forces from Saint Rynald immediatly. Until they are withdrawn, no negotiations will be possible. Oh, and you dont have long to withdraw, because our troops are about to roll right over your forces. Have a nice day.

In response to the latest No_State_At_All threats, the Undershi government has reissued its offer:

From: The Undershi High Command
To: The Government of No_State_At_All
Re: Peace?
Gentlemen - we are trying to be reasonable. We have not targeted enemy civilian centers, in spite of them targeting our political centers, we have not used WMDs... and now, you respond to that, and to our offers of liberalization, with this, with this attack?
What you have done would be an Act of War by anyones standards, and yet we do not use atomics against you... we do not kill you when we could. We beg you, in the name of rationality - let us be. We do not want a war. We do not want to fight you... but, if you insist, we will fight you.
We are resisting your commandos at the silos, those commandos who would disarm us before you come in and conquer us, but we do not want to fight them, do not want to fight the government that sent them.
We will keep our nukes - that is unnegotiable. However, we are prepared to make an offer that is unprecedented in Undershi history - all the slaves will be made free over the course of two years, and once those two years are over, the High Command will step down, and we will hold Free Elections. You have that - you will get what you want... but we will keep our honor - we will not surrender our weapons, we will not surrender our provinces... although, we go so far as to say that if in two years, when the elections are held, a majority of the populace of any province votes for independance, they will be allowed to leave.
We await your reply.

At The Border

When the time came for the No_State_At_All troops to advance, they were not greeted by shells, but neither were they greeted by retreating Undershis - the Undershis stayed where they were, but did not go for their weapons - their commanders explained - Undershi did not want a war, and so they had been ordered not to fire, but they also did not want to be "dishonored", and so they had been ordered to hold their position.
Grinning awkwardly, they offered the No_State_At_All soldiers some of their rations, plus cigerettes, cigars and so on - it looked like they were actually having a party, especially the Janissaries - it seems that the possibility of a democracy being placed in power is popular with the rankers...

Note: The Undershi army hasn't "surrendered", but they have given the No_State_At_All troops their weapons - for "safe keeping", of course...

OOC: umm... my guys are ordered to annhiliate your troops if they're still there. they'll be moving in behind an artillery barrage if your people havent moved... sods up any chance of peace, but thats how my military works, which you would ICly know, probably. yet another request for you to edit a post i'm afraid.

OOC: OK... then how about this then?

Before my Last Post:

A group of rather bemused looking men, the entire Command group of that unit, walked over to the No_State_At_All side of the lines and explained the situation, saying that their orders left them little room to manuver - however, they did offer to hand over all of their weapons...

OOC: How's that?

OOC: that works. depending on events in t'other thread however, your troops will all be taken as prisoners of war... again, you'd know i'm likely to do that in the event of conflict...
If there isnt one, we can take it as the agreement is reached just before the ten minutes run out, thus no problems.

OOC: OK... that's fine with me.

OCC: to late for me to come in to seem to aid Undershi then attack his forces and take over myself? if thats ok with you? and 1 divsion is 20,000 men. these are the best in my millitary aswell.

IC:
Of the ten divisions of The Imperial Guard seven were under way to Saint Rynald to aid the attackers as the seem to be over whelmed by the allies of Saint Rynald.The third fleet was sent to the coasts of Saint Rynald.

Onboard the Transport ship Neptune's Trident
General Olson was briefing the men throughout the fleet.
"Ok boys we are going in hot. I want you on you toes the entire time. You have done this kinda thing before and you did a helleva job. Now go kick some ass!"

After he gave his speech the men boarded the landing craft and raced toward the coast.

OCC:
3rd fleet stats
1 iceberg carrier
4 Nimitz class CVNs
24 heavy cruisers
60 frigates

OOC: erm... which side are you on? and this is sort of an offshoot of a war thats almost happening between Undershi and a conglomerate of me, Usea-Jason, and Frenzia, which is worryingly close to us lot "glassing" Undershi aftter he nukes us (well, me mostly). If not, peace may even happen... but you're welcome to join the chaos if you want.

General Thomas Allen, Commander Saint Rynald Territory, was worried. War would almost certainly come soon, and he had just been forced by those... those pacifists in the High Command to surrender three entire armoured divisions, all of which had lain down their weapons... if war came, The Empire would be the weaker for that loss.
Still, he had plenty of men and much material to use if war became inevitable - those armoured divisions had been just the very tip of the spear that was the Undershi military in Saint Rynald, and while the spear was a less potent weapon for that loss. Still, it remained a fine weapon, and would do quite well to gut the arogant No_State_At_All invaders. War had not come, largely through the desperate efforts of a minority of the High Command, but the arogant No_State_At_All responses were rapidly discrediting that minority, and if nothing happened soon, war might come from their defeat.
He was unafraid of death, which was the constant companion of such a man as he was... no, he was not afraid of the hundreds of millions if not billions who would soon die. He was afraid of simpler things - for example, he would gladly have died if his homeland had not been so shamed by its pacifistic leadership... after such shame, Ragnorak would be welcome...

Meanwhile, at the UN Aid Station
-"Doctor! Come quick!"
-"Whats the problem Jane?"- Said Dr. Locke
He was interrupted by the sound of gunfire on a near tent.

-"Whats happening here!?"- Undershi soldiers were carrying some patients outside and shooting them -"You cant do that!"

The UGFH had been low since their arrival, apart from the small shooting that took place in their tiny motel room. They had spent the past few days studying their surroundings, planning an attack.


The 12 UGFH soldiers crawled silently along the rooftop of the tall building. They stopped as they reached the edge, and looked across. In the short distance, they could see a small station, which the Undershi army was using as a pitstop for their vehicles. At the current time, there was 6 armed Undershi soildiers visible, and a tank, with an unknown amount of men inside. There was also several barrels of petrol and diesel.

One of the UFGH men had been carrying a long case. He opened it, to reveal several parts of an AWP. He carefully attached it together, as the other UFGH stayed low, watching. When the sniper rifle was together, the UFGH solider took careful aim. One shot, that was all he needed.

There was an echo as the bullet left the rifle. It shot straight down towards a barrel of petrol. The metal barrel ripped open as the bullet hit, and flames burst out as there was another explosion. Then the other barrels along side it joined the explosion. The whole station was soon up in flames, and the smoke rising could be seen for miles. The UFGH men took out their M15's and prepared for a shoot off from the roof. It wouldn't be long until some Undershi soldiers arrived to see what had happened.

The UGFH had been low since their arrival, apart from the small shooting that took place in their tiny motel room. They had spent the past few days studying their surroundings, planning an attack.


The 12 UGFH soldiers crawled silently along the rooftop of the tall building. They stopped as they reached the edge, and looked across. In the short distance, they could see a small station, which the Undershi army was using as a pitstop for their vehicles. At the current time, there was 6 armed Undershi soildiers visible, and a tank, with an unknown amount of men inside. There was also several barrels of petrol and diesel.

One of the UFGH men had been carrying a long case. He opened it, to reveal several parts of an AWP. He carefully attached it together, as the other UFGH stayed low, watching. When the sniper rifle was together, the UFGH solider took careful aim. One shot, that was all he needed.

There was an echo as the bullet left the rifle. It shot straight down towards a barrel of petrol. The metal barrel ripped open as the bullet hit, and flames burst out as there was another explosion. Then the other barrels along side it joined the explosion. The whole station was soon up in flames, and the smoke rising could be seen for miles. The UFGH men took out their M15's and prepared for a shoot off from the roof. It wouldn't be long until some Undershi soldiers arrived to see what had happened.

OOC: Nicely written, but autohitting is still a godmode.

OOC: Hmm.. yeh suppose ur rite... ill leave it for now and see if Undershi wants me to change it

OOC: erm... which side are you on? and this is sort of an offshoot of a war thats almost happening between Undershi and a conglomerate of me, Usea-Jason, and Frenzia, which is worryingly close to us lot "glassing" Undershi aftter he nukes us (well, me mostly). If not, peace may even happen... but you're welcome to join the chaos if you want.

OCC: i'm on his side for now then i will defeat him and take over the country.

The Soldiers pushed the doctor aside and continued shooting the patients, only one offcier turned to say -"These men are High ranking Rynald officers, they must be killed for the goodof our nation!"-
The doctor made a quick prayer to however could listen to an atheist communist and drew his M1911A1 Colt .45
-"Im going to ask you to leave those patients were they are and leave right now!"

The No_State_At_All forces, after quickly taking the surrendered forces into custody, resumed their advance. When they come upon Undeshi troops, they will be immolated with artillery fire and then crushed by overwhelming numbers of power armour troopers and tanks. Serious concentrations would take longer to reduce, and would stop the advance as the line waited for the combined artillery units of 10 legions to flatten these proud but misguided warriors.

The captured Undershi were rapidly moved out to transports from the fleet, which are rapidly converted to prison ships, and sent back to No_State_At_All with escorts, While more Troops begin shipping out to Saint Rynald and additional naval units moved up to provide escorts.

OOC: what kind of resistance am I going to meet?

The Soldiers pushed the doctor aside and continued shooting the patients, only one offcier turned to say -"These men are High ranking Rynald officers, they must be killed for the goodof our nation!"-
The doctor made a quick prayer to however could listen to an atheist communist and drew his M1911A1 Colt .45
-"Im going to ask you to leave those patients were they are and leave right now!"

OOC: Actually, we wouldn't be doing that. Any enemy officers we felt we needed to kill would already be dead. Aside from a few stock atrocities, we can be quite reasonable - in fact, we might even incorporate some of the Saint Rynald army into the Janissary core...

Any serious resistance will come in the form of Lord General Mark O'Brien's 50,000 True Undershi mechanized troops. They know that they're outnumbered two-to-one, and so they are falling back, fighting only with long-range missile attacks (that outrange your artillery, I'm pretty sure), along with some heavy use of air-strikes. (Think about having several hundred Golden Eagle heavy bombers, with fighter escort, flying continueous bombing runs, hitting wherever your defenses are least organized...)
Aside from that, they're making almost excessive use of land mines to slow your advance - I'll post data on the Shrike SDM (Self-Deploying Mine) on the Undershi Military thread, but they'll be deploying thousands of these babies, plus some other surprises, and are falling back, since they know that reinforcements are soon to arrive...
Note: They're falling back in good order, and are prepared for this - there will be no last-minute scrambles.

OOC: Yeah, auto-hitting is considered godmodding, but I'll just say you've been smashing a few things, OK? Enough to reeeeally annoy Lord General Mark O'Brien, but not enough to seriously affect the withdrawl - they know what they are doing...

At the first town that the No_State_At_All forces will be occupying, they will find a grisly little thing waiting for them - every single inhabitant, man, woman and child, has been crucified, facing towards the No_State_At_All lines in an apparent attempt at psychological intimidation.
That's some five hundred men and women, and some 200 children.

OOC: umm... are those mines more than about 20-25% mettalic?
If you dont want to lose aircraft, very fast, dont put in airstrikes against NSAA ground troops... Oh, and my troops now have a very real cause to fight for, and the people just got 100% behind the government. Stuff like that is what lets me get away with fighting lots of wars lots of the time. thanks :D
I'll post the advance when i've read up on those mines.
As the Undershi Missiles fell upon the advancing NSAA troops, those few who hadnt had enough warning (RADAR on my arty sees it coming right from the start) to get clear hunkered down and hoped. As the bombers/fighters swept in towards the NSAA line, they saw some of what they would have assumed to be tanks stop moving, and then were immolated by both missiles and huge volumes of bullets as the combined Ocelot mobile AAA platforms of 10 legions filled the sky with mettalic death (OOC: Those shells are API, those that miss will be dropping out about 5 miles in front of my advancing line. The Missiles have assorted homing devices, including proprietary magnetic detection systems that arent beaten by flares. non-metallic planes confuse them though. And by "fill the sky" I mean theres pretty much nowhere to go, I've got enough AAA units here to put up a solid curtain all along my line of advance. Not that it'll stop all of your aircraft by any chances, but losses will be pretty heavy if they try to press their attack on the advancing front.)

OOC: Actually, the bombing campaign is being waged in a manner similar to the US campaign in Afghanistan or Iraq - the bombers are flying reeeally high, then dropping laser guided bombs from way high up - from there, the Iraqi and Afghani AA fire was almost totally ineffective, and while I'm not saying that your forces are that low tech, I am saying that such tactics give my bombers a better chance than the proverbial "snow ball in hell" that you seem to have implied they would effectively be. I'll wait for your reply before I post more on the air war.

Major William Schnider looked... surprised. He seemed unable to grasp just why it was that the Imperial Internal Security men had come for him, and he didn't resist... he seemed certain that it was all a mistake, right up until he found himself seated before a court, hearing the prosecuter announcing what the government would charge him with - mass murder of civilians, all 700 of them killed by him and his men.
At that point, he seemed to almost cry out, so shocked was he, but he did not - True Undershi super-men are stoic. Still, he stumbled over his words as he protested formally - he had just been doing what was normally done - shock the enemy, delay them... he spoke of all those deaths as though he had just burned a field or knocked down a house with a shell.
The court found him guilty, and the judge spoke as he handed down the sentance:
"High Command has outlawed crucificion, or else I would recomend that it be carried out upon this man. As is, I can only sentance him to death by a more humane means - he will die by Leathal Injection, one hour from now."
With that, the IIS men took him away, seeming to find no irony in assisting in the punishment of a man for commiting a crime that the IIS had committed every day for years. Still, with the ban on crucificion, the situation had improved - no longer did the doomed cry out for hours - now they merely died quick deaths, from Leathal Injection or a firing squad.

The Undershi have seized the initiative following the arrival of reinforcements in the form of three divisions of Air Infantry.
The five mechanized divisions that had previously been retreating have reversed course, and are launching an all-out attack, supported by everything from mortars and field artillery to cruise missiles and orbital kinetic strikes.
The Air Infantry will be conducting a hit-and-run campaign along the front, seeking to destabalize the No_State_At_All advance while the five mechanized divisions force a hole in a weak point in the line, then "roll up" the No_State_At_All expeditionary force.

This attack is being conducted as such:

Two Hours Before Main Attack: Eighty four orbital satelites launch their kinetic strikes at four different sites (21 to a site), supported by 50 cruise missiles to a site.

One Hour Before Main Attack: Short and Intermediate range missiles launched by local forces begin a bombardment, one aimed primarily at No_State_At_All artillery in those four sectors.

One Half Hour Before Main Attack: The Undershi move into artillery range, adding their field artillery to the bombardment - still aiming for all four sites. At the same time, high flying Golden Eagle heavy bombers begin a series of air strikes, protected by Lightning fighters. They are flying over the envalope of the enemy AA on the ground, and so have little to fear from it. They will begin with the use of Fuel-Air Explosives - which are not considered to be WMDs - and will follow up with a bombardment of laser-guided bombs.

Fifteen Minutes Before Main Attack: Spy satelites over the No_State_At_All forces, augmented by high-flying recon planes, check for the single weakest point in the No_State_At_All lines, which will then be targeted with a massive concentrated barrage - as will the second most weakened site.

Main Attack: The Viper IFVs of the Undershi units will head straight for the No_State_At_All lines, moving as fast as they can to close, while their artillery and missile support tries its best to smash any and all No_State_At_All artillery in the area.
This attack will be supported by the Air Infantry, as well as some Crusader and Paladin gun ships, plus further bombardment - and perhaps some lower flying close support from Thunderer fighter-bombers.

Please note that none of this will be done with the use of WMDs.

Cassualties will be posted as soon as I get your reaction.

OOC: erm... okay then, the air strikes will work. but the missile will still be closing on your aircraft...

IC:
The bombing runs only added to the incoming fire that the NSAA troops had to hide from, and still, casualties were low due to the RADAR and the AAA cover.

The orbital strikes have few obvious targets to hit, but where they do fire, the shells are seen coming, and again cause very low casualties. Ditto on the cruise missiles.

At this point, the NSAA orbital systems again immolate the launchers with missiles, and now begin hunting down any sattelites operated by the Undershi and annhilitaing them too. (that includes innocent com-sats)

As the artillery itself comes under fire, several crews who were not paying enough attention have their units annhilated, but the others, combat veterans and well used to artillery duels, change their location, and begin a heavy counter-battery fire with their own missiles (OOC: yeap, missile arty, MRLS stylee but more advanced :D)

Before the bombers can close again, A wave of fighters from the naval forces sweeps up to engage them, filling the air with yet more AA missiles, as the 200 Tornado-3 Carrier based fighters pick out the golden eagles as targets for their missiles.
OOC: And i'll stop reacting at that point, as i want to see how effective that was before posting the obscene losses fuel-air bombs cause...

OOC: Complements on the MRLS idea...

There will be many empty bunks in the Air Force barracks this evening. The ground based fire had been less effective than it could have been so high up, and the Undershi stealth and ECM systems were excelent, and the good fighter escorts of Lightnings had blunted the enemy fighter attacks... but still, many brave True Undershi pilots were lost.
117 Golden Eagle heavy bombers were downed in the fighting, losses that will be remembered. 13 Lightning fighters were also lost as they engaged the enemy, and they accounted for an unknown number of the enemy with their missiles and Gauss-autos.

OOC: thanks. I've had those floating around for ages now and you're the first person i actually used them for more than one barrage on... Oh, and the important part wasnt the casualties, it was how many are left...

OOC: Actually, we wouldn't be doing that. Any enemy officers we felt we needed to kill would already be dead. Aside from a few stock atrocities, we can be quite reasonable - in fact, we might even incorporate some of the Saint Rynald army into the Janissary core...

OOC: Ok, got it. So, what to do then?

Maybe see that the Undershis are genuinely trying to reform and that No_State_At_All is acting like the Americans are in our world, charging in without waiting to see what's actually going on?

In the end, 983 Golden Eagle heavy bombers made it back from the Fuel-Air Explosive bombadment, their weapons deployed. With them came 183 Lightning fighters, proud to have so ably protected the Golden Eagles from No_State_At_All fighters. Indeed, that so many survived is testimant to the superior skill and abilities of their pilots - those lost will be remembered.

Maybe see that the Undershis are genuinely trying to reform and that No_State_At_All is acting like the Americans are in our world, charging in without waiting to see what's actually going on?
OOC:hoi! I'm not that bad, i'll have you know. I am being excessive, but thats mostly because i remember what happened the last time we let an "evil" dictatorship make successful invasions. Kraven lasted about 6 months (I think, not totally sure how long) before about 10 nations stepped on him.

The NSAA infantry caught by the fuel-air weapons take obscene casualties, although the armoured units and the IFVs take only minimal damage, being designed to survive such attacks.
After this pounding, the legion that had been on "point" fell back and the next, also hit by the attacks but much more lightly, waited until 2 others had passed it, and then the advance continued. With a fresh force leading the advance, there is no weak point for the undershi forces to attack, and it is the hope of the State commander that this will demoralise the Undershi forces facing them, and disrupt any possible attacks.

OOC:hoi! I'm not that bad, i'll have you know. I am being excessive, but thats mostly because i remember what happened the last time we let an "evil" dictatorship make successful invasions. Kraven lasted about 6 months (I think, not totally sure how long) before about 10 nations stepped on him.

The NSAA infantry caught by the fuel-air weapons take obscene casualties, although the armoured units and the IFVs take only minimal damage, being designed to survive such attacks.
After this pounding, the legion that had been on "point" fell back and the next, also hit by the attacks but much more lightly, waited until 2 others had passed it, and then the advance continued. With a fresh force leading the advance, there is no weak point for the undershi forces to attack, and it is the hope of the State commander that this will demoralise the Undershi forces facing them, and disrupt any possible attacks.

OOC: And we all know how well that stepping worked. ;)

OOC: And we all know how well that stepping worked. ;)
OOC: Yeap. Got rid of him for a bit tho... (oh, and he's taking a break for a bit now, but thats not for IC reasons, he will be back...)

The Undershi seemed to reguard any losses at all on the part of the invaders as wonderful victories, and so reacted to the new advance on the part of No_State_At_All by simply turning to one another and grinning - the enemy was advancing again, and so they would simply repeat the manuver...

What This Means:

- Cruise missile, high-altitude bombing, mid-range and short-range missiles and field artillery are all opening up in a repeat of the last strategy, with variations. The variations run to this: they're throwing everything in at once, and their orbital artillery seems suprisingly abscent...

- The Undershi are "falling back" in good order, trying to draw the No_State_At_All forces on towards them. They're giving up the little terrain that they regained with their last attack fairly easily, although they are heavily re-mining it.

- Phase Two: The aerial bombardment will initially consist of laser-guided bombs, targeting No_State_At_All concentrations. Another use of Fuel-Air Explosives will be considered, but is not "on the table" right now.

OOC: Oh yeah - what's your attitude about phospherous?

This time the NSAA forces were more ready, and the forces advanced with armoured minesweepers on point, clearing out any mines that may have been laid. Meanwhile, any Undershi artillery that fired had its position logged and a barrage of return fire swept the area, as the 15th legion, one of the better forces in NSAA led the fighting advance, keeping to cover where possible and advancing in bursts to confuse enemy forces as to their location. Meanwhile, overhead flew an escort of 400 fighters from the 3rd airborne legion, Elite pilots tasked with the destruction of any bombing force, While the Ocelots on the ground turned their attention to the incoming missiles, and did their best to protect the advancing forces. The NSAA satelites, now fairly sure of their superiority, turned their attention to the ground, and retaliated for the earlier strikes on the NSAA troops by dropping remote controlled HE missiles down onto any obvious concentrations of defending troops.

OOC:umm... its just used in flares isnt it... whats gonna break a no NBC pact about a bunch of flares? (correct me if i'm wrong here...)

In All

The Undershi forces on the ground were still retreating, and had stopped using their field artillery, relying instead on heavy missile bombardments.

In Space

In space, Undershi satelites were using their missiles and Gauss weapons to destroy any No_State_At_All military satelites, while accurate anti-missile fire meant that few of the orbital strikes with missiles got through.
At the same time, other satelites fired kinetic Gauss strikes against the surface down towards the NSAA artillery sites. These new Gauss kinetic strikes are quite interesting really - large "shells", made of depleated uranium (like Gauss ammunition, actually), are fired at a target on the surface at hyper-velocities, like a Gauss gun, but on a larger scale - and, assissted by the gravitational pull of the earth...

On The Ground

The Undershi were able to function as coherent units even as they withdrew, and this time, they were leaving things other than Shrike mines behind - all sorts of booby traps were being deployed, as were AT mines, concealed in clusters of Shrike mines, just waiting for a NSAA mine-sweeper tank to roll over it...
Behind the current Undershi lines, there is a network of underground caverns, quite large, spanning about one square mile. Accoarding to orbital feeds, supplies such as fuel are being brought into the caverns.

In The Air

The oncoming NSAA fighters were met by 500 Lightning fighters. These Lightnings were escorting a force of 1,000 Golden Eagle heavy bombers, all of which were carrying Fuel-Air Bombs.
In the fighting that followed, the Lightnings proved their worth, preventing most cassualties to the Golden Eagles, but lossing 195 of their number in exchange for an unknown, but presumed equal or higher, number of NSAA fighters.

Aerial Losses:

- 195 Lightning fighters.

- 13 Golden Eagle heavy bombers.

FAE Bombardment

The remaining Golden Eagle heavy bombers dropped their FAEs on the largest concentrations of NSAA ground forces that they could find, and then retreated towards their own lines. (That's 987 Golden Eagles dropping FAEs on your army).

OOC: Actually, phospherous is used in more than just flares. If used correctly, it can be a good sort of flame weapon. Check Google if you don't believe me.

OOC: I suppose it can. hmm.. go for it, i can deal with flames.... mostly

In space:
The NSAA sattelites use their throwaway external camoflauge (sp?) to deflect the incoming gauss fire, and shoot down the incoming missiles with their small fixed machine guns, while shooting their missiles after the undershi bombardment. The missiles had the accaleration to overhaul the shells, and all of them were deflected away from the NSAA forces towards the Undershi lines.

OOC: umm... my fighters are ignoring yours and throwing everything they have at the bombers from extreme range.... unless they have great countermeasures you're gonna lose quite a lot, although my fighters will be annhilated... shall wait on that front, although whatever happens, my fighters are suicidally determined to stop those bombers...

On the ground:
Noting the incoming bombers, the NSAA ground forces took cover, holing up in their vehicles so the armour would allow them to survive a bombardment.
Meanwhile the minesweepers advanced, continuing to use HE rounds from their mounted 20mm RFGRs to clear out large clusters of mines, which clear the AT mines without noticing their presence.

OOC yet more: yes, FAEs usually own everything, but this is PMT, so my tanks can be built to survive them. Although, yes, they will need repairs before continuing.

There will be many more empty bunks in the Undershi Air Force barracks this night - another 47 Golden Eagle heavy bombers were shot down.
However, the others made their way to the target zone, still at over half strength, where they deployed hundreds of FAEs and laser-guided bombs from high altitudes, hitting armoured vehicles with the laser-guided bombs (heavy laser-guided bombs - multiple hundred pounds).
NSAA casualties are unknown at this time.

Well, something about the kinetic Gauss strikes - they left the launchers at super-sonic speeds, and only gained speed as they were pulled towards the earth by gravity. In order for your missiles to reach them, they would have to be balistic missiles, and they would have to launch on intercept courses for slugs that are moving massively faster than any bullet ever did, and are built to partially burn away in the atmosphere, to allow for a "direct approach", rather than the less steep approach needed when missiles are being used. Basically, these things are really big, reeeeally fast, artillery shells.

One thousand phospherous artillery shells were sent flying into the air as the Undershi field guns joined the harrassing bombardments. There were one thousand field guns, and every single one of them was firing a phospherous shell - they were all targeting the enemy advnaced units, moving in between shots all the while, so as not to make a good target for counter-battery fire.

The phospherous had two purposes - one, the obvious one, was that it would terrify the average soldier even more than normal shells would. Two, it would create forest fires and the like, which would at least slow the NSAA advance, and likely also account for at least some of the invaders, which would always be a plus...

A few dozen men knelt together in prayer in a dirty little basement, heads bowed as their lips moved to the words of the Our Father.
These men were hard men, gaunt and severe, fanatic zealots of the sort that had, just a short time ago, ruled in Saint Rynald. Now they huddled in the basement, and watched as their leader came to the front of the basement room, and began to speak:
"Hello, friends. In the name of God, I welcome you to this meeting of The Army of The Lord. In His name, I bring this meeting into order." the entire assembled crowd repeated that blessing, of how this meeting began in God's name, then fell silent as that same leader spoke once more:
"The Servants of Satan are many, and they number amoungst them Undershi, No_State_At_All, Usea-Jason, Gejigrad and all the other states that would make war upon us, seeking to force God out of our country. For His sake, we must fight them all! Sure, some of these Satan-spawn might be of use now, and so we will use them, but we will not serve them - we are men of Saint Rynald, and so we serve none but Church and God. These Undershi will need to be beaten first of all - they have prevented God's will from being carried out, and have forced our schools to begin teaching girls - this violates God's plan, and puts all sorts of ideas into the minds of young girls, thoughts that perhaps they might even be the equalls of men - something which the Bible says is untrue! After all, was not Adam created first? They have commited other crimes, but the one that we strike back against them for at this moment is that one - the crime of attempting to educate our women, and in so doing, destroy the God-given social order that prevailed before our conquest. We have weapons - are you prepared for Martyrdom?" the crowd answered him with a yes, knowing that he had to be divinely inspired... he spoke again then, when all had said that they were ready to die for God. He asked:
"And, are you prepared to kill for God?" a few of them hesitated at that, but within seconds, all had answered yes, and so, with a smile of total joy upon his face, their leader began to outline his plan...

The target was a newly rebuilt grade school. Three hundred children went to that school, and it was defended by a squad of True Undershis, ten strong, who had set up road blocks and checkpoints along the way in.
The children made their way into the building, and as they did, a man walked up with them, right to the checkpoint, where an Undershi soldier, power armoured but with his helmet off, waved his Gauss rifle and told the man to hold back.
He didn't. He ran forward, and wrapped his arms around the startled Undershi in a foul parody of a hug... just as the suicide bomb went off.
While that was going on and distracting the defensive forces, another team made their way into the school from behind, where they surprised the students in the gym, where they were being fed a free breakfast.
The team consisted of eight men with assault rifles, and they knew what they were doing - all of them were former Templars, Saint Rynald's version of Special Forces.
All of these men, with their grim faces and lethal weapons, also wore crosses, and carried rosaries wrapped around their hands, those hands that held cold metal guns.
When they took the gym, they seperated the students into two groups - boys and girls. The teachers were all foreigners, brought in by the Undershi, who were even then busy dealing with the suicide bombing, and they were forced into a third group.
As soon as the groups were seperated, the terrorists opened fire on the girls with their assault rifles, killing all of them - all one hundred and twenty little girls, none older than fifteen.
When the shooting was done, most of the male students, who had been spared, were crying.
The leader of the terrorists walked over, chose a sobbing boy at random, and shot him through the head before screaming as loudly as he could:
"Stop that weeping or I'll kill you too!!!" that managed to shut most of them up, although most still sobbed quietly. He could smell urine, and turned up his nose - these boys were cowards... but, cowards too were children of God, so he had to forgive them... after all, The Leader had said that it was only a sin to kill if you hated while you did it.
Moving back to the center of the room he nodded to his seven followers, who moved quickly, assuming defensive positions, where they would wait for the Undershi to come for them...

OOC: ayy.... will these people never learn? Where is that school in relation to my forces? 'cos if i get my hands on those guys, they just commited the one offence for which the punishment in NSAA is torture until death...
anywho...
IC:
Another NSAA legion is decimated from the air, most of its men killed, and significant numbers of its armoured units wiped out. The survivors pull back behind the line of the next, which ceases to advance, while a cordon of one thousand NSAA fighters take up a position above them, hoping to stop that happening to another force.
Meanwhile, the NSAA artillery increase their counter battery fire (OOC: can you please lose some arty now.... I've been shooting at them for a while...)

The Undershi had been responding to the suicide bombing when the other terrorists had come storming in.
The True Undershi that the suicide bomber had hugged before detonating himself was dead, as he hadn't had his helmet on, but his armour was mostly intact. After that, the soldiers guarding the schools would be under the same rules as all the other Undershi soldiers - they would wear their helmets at all times, even if doing so would scare the kids they were supposed to be protecting.
The first sign they had had that something was wrong was when they had heard the gun fire. By the time they had moved back and surrounded the gym, all 120 girls were dead.
Once they had assumed their own firing positions, a stand-off was in place, and back-up was called for.
Normally, the nine power-armoured True Undershis would have just come in all-guns-blazing, but this time they didn't - there were still 180 odd children in there.
Within minutes, a full platoon (50 men) had arrived, with some support weapons, and a real perimiter was established.
That done, the Undershi sat back and waited for the terrorists to make the first move... or for new orders to come in.

Most Undershi field artillery is actually longer range missile artillery, but some is made up of conventional "iron guns", and these, ranging from 85mm Infantry Guns to 150mm Heavy Guns, were taking the worst of it from the NSAA counter-bombardment.
So far, most of the artillery units along the border had taken significant cassualties, but they were being reinforced almost as fast as they were getting hit, so they were able to keep up a good rate of fire.

Losses:

- 780 guns

- 3,120 True Undershis

- 500 Janissaries

Reinforcements:

- 775 guns

- 3,100 True Undershis

- 1,250 Janissaries

Imediatly after the FAEs had detonated, just as the thousand NSAA fighters took to the air, a major offensive, all along the weakened sections of the line, was launched.
It began with a massive aerial attack - 950 Lightnings, 500 Golden Eagle heavy bombers, carrying laser-guided bombs, and 1,000 of the previously unused Thunderer fighter-bombers, which were for this mission converted into almost pure fighters, or as close as they could come to that. They were just as fast as the Lightnings, but were also slightly inferior in armament, even when fully converted into an Air-to-Air role.
Supporting this aerial armada came a veritable hail of missile-artillery fire, plus dozens of longer range cruise missiles and plenty of conventional artillery.
Following up on this bombardment came five divisions (50,000 men) of True Undershi mechanized infantry, supported by plenty of Crusader and Paladin attack helicopters, 25,000 men of the Air Infantry and a single division of Imperial Internal Security troops (10,000 mechanized infantry with heavy armoured support). This is, in effect, an all-out attack - Lord General Mark O'Brien is throwing all of his elite units into this offensive, obviously hoping to fight his way through the NSAA lines and secure a position form which to "roll up" the rest of the enemy units.

The sun rose over a scene of devestation as the 119th IIS Mechanized Division rolled forward in its Viper IFVs and Drake MBTs. The sun had risen, and so it was time to go to war...
IIS Sergeant Thomas White stared hard to the east, towards where he knew the NSAA lines waited. IIS units were well trained, well equipped and most had at least some combat experience, but this battle that was fast approaching seemed certain to reach proportions undreampt since the Last War, and he was going to be right there at Ground Zero of that war... he grinned. The True Undershis would triumph. They always had before.

OOC:

- More info on the Drake MBT soon to come.

- When you think of the roles played on the battle field by the IIS units, think of the roles played in WWII by the German SS - the IIS isn't busy with concentration camps back home, but they do provide elite combat units.

OOC: Let's say that the school is a good few miles from the front, shall we? Civilians near the front have been evacuated to areas further back from the fighting, so there wouldn't have been anyone there if it was near to your lines.

The Undershi soldiers assembled around the school waited, habitually checking their Gauss rifles for the billionth time as they prepared for something, anything, to happen.

The NSAA front line force, already decimated and falling back, now turned into a rout, dropping back behind the other forces. However, the AAA and artillery were still firing, while the NSAA fighters were operating high in the air, presenting a strong cordon that should stop most of the undershi forces. Meanwhile, the ground troops of the 115th Legion, the next one of the force, spread out and dug in, ready to engage any forces attacking their line. They chose their ground well, along the top of a shallow forested hill, and waited for the Undershi counter-attack to run into them as they pursued the fleeing remmanants of the previous legion.
OOC:by the way, I'm fairly well inland, and my troops are much better at fighting retreats then attacks. and were there any airfields or areas of flat land behind my lines?

The counter-attack had already exceded expectations, so it halted before engaging the 115th Legion.
In the air, the Lightnings and Thunderers were engaging the best of their NSAA counter-parts on about equal terms, while the Golden Eagles tried their best to inflict damage on the enemy artillery from high altitudes, using their laser-guided bombs.
Lord General Mark O'Brien has a medal coming for this brilliant tactical success...

OOC: Any air fields that the Undershi knew about would have been destroyed utterly as part of the first phase of the invasion, and you've had that area too long for my guys to have built any... however, I'd be pretty sure that there would be stretches of open land behind them - there practicly would have to be, after all... as for flat, well, is a wheat field flat? Because, we're fighting in a portion of Saint Rynald's rural outer area.

The Undershi heretics were obviously too afraid of cassualties amoungst the hostages to dare attack, so the terrorists relaxed - they would have a lot of waiting to do, so they might as well not spend the entirty of that waiting time on full alert - the Undershi were weak, and would not attack if they had hostages.
The first thing they did was to flip the heavy wooden tables and move them up to the windows and doors of the school, so as to ensure that a storming action would be easier to resist.
Next, set up the claymore mines they had had in their satchels, deploying them to cover the 179 children who huddled in one corner of the gym.
That done, they settled in and waited, wondering what would happen...

The second attack to be launched by the Saint Rynald resistance was targeted at a clinic that the Undershi had set up - the Undershi were hardly raging liberals, but they provided abortions in cases of rape or hideous birth defects, and that was enough to make the clinics they had set up targets. They had chosen a lightly defended medical facility, one that had only twelve guards on duty, and they attacked with their usual cunning - they sent in thirty genuine innocents armed with no more than large plastic signs to protest against the abortions being provided, then, when the guards had moved to form a line between the protestors and the clinic, struggling to not just shoot them out of hand, the large plastic signs that the terrorists had given the protestors came into use - each one looked merely thicker than usual, as though it were meant for use as a shield in addition to as a sign to wave... the problem was, that the signs were hollow, and packed full of explosives and nails...
The bombs went off, and did no more than kill or seriously wound all thirty of the "innocents", at which point the Undershi guards moved forward to help, and at which point the Saint Rynaldi terrorists tried the same tactic they had tried before, and came rushing in through the back door.
This tactic worked again, though likely for the last time, and they quickly made their way through the clinic, waving their assault rifles in the faces of the patients and staff.
They shot any women they saw, even dragging them screaming from closets to shoot... all on the assumption that they must have been there for an abortion, and so their deaths were God's Will. They also shot every single doctor, all in the name of their God.

The Undershi guards who had been trying to help the slaughtered protestors turned around at the first sound of gun fire, and, realizing that they had been tricked, came rushing back into the clinic, intent on slaughtering whoever had done all of that killing.
They weren't able to intervene in time to stop the terrorists from murdering most of their victims, including seven of the eight doctors, but they could take comfort from every life they saved from those loonies. Things like this reminded them why they had intervened in Saint Rynald in the first place.

All twelve of the terrorists were cut down as they murdered the innocent along with the "guilty" - even as the Undershi Gauss blasts tore them apart they continued to fire their assault rifles wildly into the packed room, killing their countrymen as they knew that their weapons could not hurt the Undershis in their power armour.

The NSAA fighters once again concentrated on keeping the golden eagles back, and as such, many were shot down, but any golden eagles penetrating thir line to reach the artillery had a nasty suprise waiting. From small woodland clearings, covered sections of road, and other similar places, 500 of the inauspiciously named, but well designed, Flamingo VTOL fighters lifted off to meet them. By concentrating on the artillery, the Undershi bombers made a tactical mistake, as they would have had time to drop their bombs on the armoured front line unopposed.
Meanwhile the 6th and 7th air legions moved their aircraft to makeshift airfields behind the NSAA lines. Soon, air superiority would be contested agressivley.

Over one hudred Golden Eagle heavy bombers went down in the first few seconds of fighting. Then, the Lightnings and Thunderers were in amoungst the Flamingos, and the fighting evened out, as the surviving Golden Eagles dropped their bombs and fled back to Undershi lines.
Meanwhile, massive numbers of Lightning fighters and Thunderer fighter-bombers are being moved in from the Undershi reserves. It appears that both sides are preparing for a push for air dominance at the same time...

The Undershi have learned from their mistakes, and so are deploying more guards to protect schools and medical clinics in Saint Rynald. These guys are going to either be Janissaries or Second Line True Undershis, because, what with there being a war on and everything, high quality troops are in high demand.

The grafiti was everywhere, daubed onto the grim concrete walls with the low-quality white pain that was so readily available for use on civilian housing.
Mostly, it was just the same words, over and over: Revolution, The Zealots, Purity, Jesus, God and so on... here and there there was a rough cross painted onto the walls, more a sign of illiteracy than of any special group or movement.
There were also little phrases - Death to Fascist Infidels! Such seemed to be the extent of wit amoungst the grafiti artists. Here and there along the walls, hanging from street lamps, bodies bloated in death, eyes picked out by ravens, was one of the rebel artists who had been caught. They were shot on the spot, then the body was hung, with a sign bellow it:
"Nothing To Be Gained Here". Still, the grafiti still appeared again and again, as if to remind the True Undershis as they patrolled in their power armour, that the Zealots were always there.

OOC: umm... stalemate, for now. nothing much for me to do ICly...
IC: Many of the flamingoes and the other fighters were shot down, but others survived, and continued to fight, dropping down into lower altitudes where their manouverability was better. Meanwhile, assorted intelligence sources would be reporting large troop movements from bases on the NSAA homeland.

The stalemate at the fronteir seemed to have been recreated at the school, where the IIS had just turned up. These black-uniformed guys were always bad news - even True Undershis agreed on that.
As soon as they'd arrived, they set to work, figuring out plans of attack, preparing for... for something, anything, to happen.

The terrorists in the school made a "statement" - they shot a hostage, then called out that they would begin shooting another hostage every hour until they were allowed to speak with a foreign media representative.
Other than that, they're searching through the building, figuring out its lay-out, and preparing to efficiently kill as many hostages as possible in the event of the Undershis storming the place.

The terrorists have launched another attack - this one was a suicide bombing, targeting a clothing store that was - horror of horrors - selling "inapropriate" clothing. Three Saint Rynald civilians were killed, along with the suicide bomber.

OOC: sure you want to keep fighting? I'll be offering peace again in t'other thread...

OOC: Peace on my terms (which you already know)? Because that's all I'm accepting.

OOC: nope. surrender the colonies or we'll take them away, no matter the cost.

The terrorists had recieved a signal, so they acted - they detonated the claymore mines, killing all 118 children and all of the teachers, leaving no victim alive. Those few that the mines failed to kill were dragged out from underneath the tables they had taken cover under and were shot.
They were all dead. At that point, the terrorists threw down their weapons, then walked out, grinning with the certainty that the horrified Undershi soldiers at the perimiter would shoot them down, martyring them and allowing the resistance to shout out to the world "The Undershi are no better than they once were! They still shoot unarmed prisoners!"

The Undershi soldiers winced as they listened to the sounds of directional mines detonating, followed by screams and gun fire. When the terrorists came marching out,it took every bit of the super-human control that True Undershis possesed to prevent them from firing. But, they didn't fire.
The terrorists were taken into custody, and although they were beaten, they were not shot.
The images that the world saw were those chosen by the Undershi, but they were powerful:
Undershi soldiers, those feared conquerors, whose boots had trampled down nation after nation, made to seem like human beings - there were tears in those "pitiless" eyes, as they carried out the bloody bodies of the butchered children.
Meanwhile, a campaign is underwy to discredit the Sain Rynald resistance through the use of these images.

OOC: why bother? NSAA troops shoot terrorists on sight... but if they're unarmed, they dont shoot to kill straight away... I am not nice to them... And in theory i'm the "good guy" here... what teh hell?

The Undershi have made an offer. They are willing to hand over Saint Rynald to the joint occupation of the GASN in exchange for a peace treaty. They will not, however, surrender any of the other colonies, although they are holding to the other terms they offered for peace. One of the conditions of the turn-over would be, however, that the GASN remain in occupation long enough to ensure that the extreme christian fundamentalists who previously ran the country don't retake it. The Undershi seem to be getting desperate...

No_State_At_All will not accept this treaty. Although if it comes into force between GASN and Undershi, Our forces in Saint Rynald will fall back and allow the GASN troops to control the area.

Meanwhile:
NSAA reinforcements arrived by sea, another 20 legions and another task force as an escort. Now the Undershi naval force would truly be surrounded, unless they came to grips at once

OOC: hint hint, naval action please...

The massive Undershi fleet sent off to intercept the fleet which has now been intercepted by our allies is being diverted to engage the NSAA relief fleet. The fleet already there is engaging decisivly, although they are using their equal-to-NSAA speed to force the engagement to remain primarily a missile-and-aircraft based one. The Undershi fleet is relatively heavy on missiles at the cost of some artillery effectiveness, so they're playing to their strengths.
This is a "real" engagement - it's just a "real" battle at long ranges...

The Zealots have launched a new series of terrorist attacks, this time in NSAA-controlled territory. Three suicide bombings have been targeted against NSAA soldiers, who have been labeled "servants of sin" by the ultra-conservative Saint Rynald government.
Meanwhile, another two suicide bombings were directed against civilians who were members of non-mainstream sects... thirteen are dead, nine of those children, and over eighty are wounded, almost all of those children, since the target of those attacks was a school that had "too many" children from non-mainstream sects.

NSAA troops, having a shoot-before-endangered policy towards locals lose no men, although 5 are now in field hospitals with burns. No effort is made to repair the damage caused by the others, however. (OOC: standard practice. Doesnt make the locals happy, but meh.)

Out to sea, the Undershi forces had made an error, as the second NSAA fleet arrived behind them, spread out in battle formation. Losses were sustained by the original force, but it's aircraft were providing a good service keeping enemy aircraft away from the fleet, while the assorted fleet elements finally fired their missiles in a mass barrage, aiming at the flanking forces of the Undershi naval units.

The Undershi lost two more destroyers, on top of the earlier cassualties, but their CIWS fire keeps them mostly safe. Several other units suffer damage, though...
The Undershi fleet is now in one pocket in between Saint Rynald and Jenshalem, with the relief fleet coming in from the north - that is to say, the direction of Jenshalem.

Apparently, some Lord General decided that it's been too long since the last major bombardment of NSAA ground positions:
Field artillery units are begining the offensive, supported by long-range missile fire, while an aerial offensive of 1,500 Golden Eagle heavy bombers, supported by 1,000 Thunderers and protected by 1,250 Lightning fighters is hitting the NSAA lines with high-altitude bombing.
Meanwhile, to intercept NSAA fighters, some 750 Lightnings are conducting a lower-altitude interception mission, which will leave them slightly vulnerable to ground-based fire...
The artillery is firing 75% standard shells, 25% W.P. inciniary shells, the aerial units are using a combination of 30% FAEs, 30% Daisy Cutter anti-infantry and 40% laser-guided high-explosive (accurate standard bombs).

Tag, will be on this Thread.

The coup in Saint Rynald proggressed as well as it had in Undershi proper. Before they even knew what was going on, most of the officers that the IIS had marked as overly 'liberal' were called to conferences and assemblies... where they were either killed resisting arrest by the grim black armoured storm troopers of the IIS, or arrested... and then crucified.
The old Undershi counter-terror doctrine was then applied to Saint Rynald - an effort was made against the Zealots, and five thousand men, women and children died shrieking upon crosses, one thousand for each terrorist attack directed against the Undershi occupation forces.

The IIS armoured divisions had taken their time in arriving, but now they were ready to make a massive counter-attack all along the front...

- Three divisions of IIS armour, supported by three divisions of regular Undershi Army mechanized divisions and one division of Air Infantry are making a full attack, under the command of Lord General Mark O'Brian.
- Prior to the attack, all available artillery and missile units are directing their fire into a full-out bombardment of the NSAA lines, supported by all available aerial assets (1,250 Golden Eagles, 1,750 Lightning fighters, 750 Thunderer fighter-bombers, plus some 3,000 field guns and 1,500 mortars, plus scores of short range and mid-range missiles.)
- This attack is concentrating on two "weak" points in the NSAA lines, one at each flank, and is attempting to roll up the center.

OOC: Currently waiting for NSAA's reply.

Saint Rynald is being rebuilt by the Undershi occupiers, which might be a good thing... except that they seem intent on making Saint Rynald a part of the Undershi Empire - the removal and dispersal of 10% of the Rynaldi poplace has begun again, with citizens from the other parts of the empire being moved in to make up the difference.

Okay, Saint Rynald is officially declared Conquered. If NSAA comes back and wants to contest this, then NSAA can re-invade - the war is over.

OOC: This marks the end of this thread.

With the war over, the shell-shocked survivors set about rebuilding their lives, but no longer as slaves to their corrupt fundamentalist government - now they were slaves to the Undershi super-men.
As new buildings rose to replace those smashed during the invasion, two things began:
The first Saint Rynald origin True Undershis were created, from the altered fetuses of Saint Rynaldi soldiers who had vollenteered to fight in the Janissary units.
Secondly, groups of men who called themselves Zealots began to meet in the basements and alleyways of the new cities that were being raised over the wreakage of the old...