NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Hello and welcome to my first public RP, although I’ve been playing in Nation States for quite some time now, it’s mostly been in an SFR private forum. However I recently decided I would like to try and open up an RP to the public here in hopes of running a decent one. To start off let me give you some back-story.

Back-story:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l93/Kilrany/Khurzav.jpg

Roughly two months ago tensions increased between the Democratically elected government of Valnari, and the Kingdom of Khurzav, no one is quite sure exactly what happened, but it appeared to start when Khurzav border guards got into a firefight with Valnari border guards at one of the crossing points with both sides accusing the other of instigating it.

The situation between the two nations only seemed to get worse as neither was willing to back down lest they show weakness in front of their neighbors, the Kilrany Empire. Both nations had long standing relations with the Empire, however Valnari’s was far friendlier, the Empire being an important trading partner for them. For the Khurzav there was a large degree of animosity between them, over the centuries many wars had been fought between the two nations, which had led to a closed border between the two for a great many years.

The situation finally peaked when Khurzav Special Forces were caught successfully destroying a Valnari natural gas power plant. With both sides fed up they declared war on each other and almost directly on top of the border engaged in a large Prokhorovka like tank battle that was an unmitigated disaster for both sides. Although the exact losses are still being counted up, it is estimated that nearly ten thousand main battle tanks and infantry combat vehicles were destroyed with a death toll in personel over senventy thousand on both sides which constituted the major bulk of both nations armoured miltiary forces.

At the end of the day however the Khurzav had come out with slightly fewer losses and in a rush to push any advantage they could to force a peace more favorable to them, they shifted large numbers of reinforcements from other sectors of the country to carry forth the attack with the Valnari following suit.

Heavy air losses had also occurred early on leaving the Valnari with little to no air support but still equipped with substantial anti air weapons, thus negating the threat of the somewhat larger number of remaining Khurzav aircraft.

The Khurzav Valnari war had made it to its fourth day with Khurzav forces having managed to force the Valnari back about thirty kilometers into their own territory, it was clear that the Valnari were close to capitulating and agreeing to just about any ceasefire the Khurzav would demand.

However the situation changed dramatically when without warning on the fifth day, at precisely 0200 hours the Kilrany Empire launched a full-scale invasion of Khurzav. Defensive positions along the Kilrany-Khurzav border that had once been manned by regular force, were now manned by reservists who were ill prepared for the large and unexpected Kilrany assault.

Bypassing the larger enemy defensive positions and encircling them, Kilrany forces continued a rapid advance into Khurzav territory, in a similar move the largest section of invading Kilrany forces struck into Khurzav territory just a few kilometers short of the Valnari border in an attempt to trap the main Khurzav military force that had been attacking Valnari.

With a clear desire to keep what they were taking, Kilrany military forces deliberately went out of their way to prevent the destruction of critical infrastructure, such as power plants and sanitation facilities. Even going so far as to merely encircle and lay siege to major Khurzav towns and cities rather then deploy specialized Urban Combat units into them.

After two weeks of mostly losing battles the Khurzav Kingdom officially surrendered to the Kilrany Empire with only a few military units refusing to surrender to Kilrany forces. After an additional week of combat these last remaining holdouts finally surrendered or were eradicated by Kilrany military forces.

Since then the majority of Kilrany heavy ground forces have either been withdrawn back to their bases in Kilrany or assigned to former Khurzav bases with mostly motorized infantry still patrolling the rest of the nation in an attempt to keep the peace. Kilrany aircraft still patrol the skies over Khurzav as does the Kilrany navy patrol the Khurzav coast.

Additional information on the immediate region:

I figured anyone interested would also need to know some general information on the area, so here it is. If you have any additional questions just ask, I do also have a fairly large history to my nation if you wish to see it Also, for the purposes of easier role-playing and management of numbers, I typically play as a nation set at a population around 342 million. And in case you’re wondering, Khurzav’s population is set at around 68 million.

Valnari – A democratic nation, its form of government and economic system follows closely to what you would see in North America, you are not likely to encounter them in Khurzav.

Khurzav – An old Monarchy, not terribly different in structure to your average European Monarchy. A long-standing rivalry between Khurzav and Kilrany has lead to war on and off for centuries along with a great deal of propaganda depicting Kilrany as an evil Empire craving war and bloodshed. Culturally not all that different to Kilrany, it is similarly socialist in nature with some capitalist tendencies. Due to a fair amount of corruption in the upper echelon most of the general population became disillusioned with their leaders, however any time questions were raised they were quickly and often brutally silenced.

Khurzav’s language is primarily Russian, however due to the cultural diversity in the SFR, it is quite common for the majority of the population to know one or more additional languages.

The climate of Khurzav is temperate, warm in the summers with light snowfall in the winters.

Kilrany – The Empire of Kilrany has stood for many centuries, it has clearly shown some Imperialist tendencies, but is generally considered not to be that bad of a people. Only slightly different culturally from Khurzav, they in fact share their ancestry prior to the occupation by roman forces over fifteen hundred years ago. Since that occupation cultural differences became somewhat more pronounced. Kilrany has had a long-standing equality between men and women with women serving an active role in the military since before the inception of the Kilrany Empire. Do not underestimate them however, since if you see a Kilrany women in a front line combat unit, she has earned that position by being able to do anything her male counter part could. There is an underlying animosity towards the Khurzav as they have always flaunted themselves as being superior to Kilrany.

Kilrany’s primary language is rather unique, and most Kilrany will admit that it does sound odd those not natively born to it, it is referred to as the Kilrany language, but is a mix of Russian and Latin, the Latin being heavily influenced from the Roman occupation. Similarly due to the diversity of the SFR, most Kilrany also know multiple languages.

Potential factions:

Pretty straight forward, a list of the groups you may or may not encounter should you accept the role of peacekeeper.

Khurzav civilians – Typical first world nation, the majority of the population has come to be heavily dependant on the amenities there in; easy access to food, water and electricity. Centuries of propaganda have left them fearful of the Kilrany; this has already created several tense moments between civilians and Kilrany military personnel. Due to a more stringent control of firearms in Khurzav prior to the invasion, most civilians do not have access to firearms, but they were legal to own should you have been able to acquire a license by the government. However such weapons are limited to small arms such as handguns, shotguns, and sporting rifles. Will most likely regard you with weariness and distrust.

Khurzav police – Because Khurzav police were not a part of the Khurzav military, nor particularly heavily armed, the Kilrany military did not disband this force and allowed it to remain operational with its uniforms and limited weapons. Typical of your Western police forces, they carry sidearms and typically have access to light weapons such as rifles and shotguns. Not much different for the majority of the population, they are however more concerned with keeping law and order in the face of the Kilrany occupation. Despite this there have still been numerous dangerous encounters between them and the Kilrany military personnel.

Khurzav partisans – A minority of the population, they are mainly confined to rural areas where the general population is less accustomed to easy access to food and water. Most of these groups are small, numbering less then fifty active members armed primarily with whatever they could scrounge. At the request of my good friend and fellow SFR member, Russkya will be playing the role of a small partisan group and controlling some civilian responses.

Kilrany military – There are numerous sections of the Kilrany military within Khurzav at this time, including army, navy and air force, among other sections. Culturally the military is the focal point of Kilrany, it is considered something to take pride in, they are well armed and trained personnel who know their limits. Treat them with respect and you will have it returned in kind.

ISM (Internal Security Ministry) – Within Kilrany the ISM is tasked with the role that typical police play in most nations, however they are more heavily armed and where obvious body armour, sharing much more in common with Western SWAT teams the typical police officers. Several thousand volunteered to come to Khurzav in hopes of keeping the peace; they are typically confined to operations within cities and towns.

Kilrany regulars – The regular force troops are generally easy going, but may be weary of your presence at first, some may be friendly, others may see you as meddlesome who shouldn’t be there. They take pride in their service and do not typically react well to insults of any kind. These units make up the bulk of those present in Khurzav and can be found just about anywhere, whether it is motorized infantry, mechanized infantry, armour, artillery, air defense or army aviation.

Kilrany Air force – A regular force, they can be seen either flying high in the sky or at the few operational airfields within Khurzav that an airborne peacekeeping force may come in at.

Kilrany Naval Infantry – An elite force within the Kilrany military, they are tasked with the same jobs as the marines are in other nations. Similar to the regular forces, they however can only be found near the coast, mostly around critical ports that any force may be able to sail into.

Kilrany Imperial Guard – A sub section of the Kilrany military, the Imperial Guard is considered the elite all Kilrany military personnel, they are revered and respected by all Kilrany, and in the case of 5th Division, feared above all else. The various sections of the Imperial Guard are what just about every soldier dreams of being able to join. There are five sections of the Imperial Guard, called Divisions in name only. Generally at the forefront of all Kilrany military operations, they typically form the ‘tip of the spear’ in military actions.

They are elite and they know it, while they are respectful of their comrades in the regular force do not expect a warm reception from them should you encounter them. Chances of this are remote however since the majority have since been withdrawn back to their bases in Kilrany.

2nd Division – Generally considered armoured shock troops, the operate heavy tanks and mechanized infantry, mostly the ‘Zulu’ main battle tank purchased from Russkyan manufactures, but for their urban combat forces which are the only forces still in Khurzav, they use domestically produced vehicles designed for use in urban warfare. You are likely only to encounter these forces in the major cities of Khurzav.

4th Division – Primarily a rapid air assault unit and light infantry unit, it includes several dedicated mountain infantry units. You are unlikely to encounter these troops unless at a major airfield or should you encounter them in the field attempting to engage local partisans.

5th Division – A highly secretive organization, little to nothing is know about it by anyone, including other sections of the Imperial Guard. Answerable only to the Emperor or Empress they have absolute authority. There presence in Khurzav is highly limited, should you encounter them it is highly recommended you do not interfere with their mission.

IC:

In a desire to limit any further unnecessary bloodshed, Emperor Sviatov has decided that he is willing to allow a few foreign nations to bring in limited numbers of peacekeepers to facilitate a peaceful transition to Kilrany control over Khurzav. Should this interest you please contact us and we will arrange for your authorization to land at a suitable port or airfield and assign to you a sector of the nation, in relation to the size of your force to patrol. Upon your arrival liaison officers will be assigned to work with your HQ elements to help better co-operation with Kilrany forces, if necessary, translators can be provided.

Please be aware that if you wish to conduct peacekeeping operations in Khurzav, the following restrictions would apply.

1. We will not permit a force larger than four thousand combat personnel. This limit does not include logistics and support staff for the purposes of repair and re-supply.

2. We will not permit heavy armour within your force, main battle tanks and heavy artillery guns are not necessary for peacekeeping operations.

3. We will permit light helicopters and troop transport helicopters, but attack helicopters will not be permitted ashore, such as AH-64 D Apaches and Mi-28 Havocs.

4. There are several exclusion zones where your personnel will not be permitted access to, this includes, but it not limited to, a twenty-five kilometer wide exclusion zone stretching from coast to coast along the Kilrany-Khurzav and Khurzav-Valnari border. The reasons for this are simple, along the Khurzav-Valnari border, Valnari forces are working directly with Kilrany to retrieve and identify military personnel killed in action and to clear the remains of the armoured hulks still present from the opening exchange between Khurzav and Valnari. As for the Kilrany-Khurzav border, it is the site of large-scale defensive positions and minefields, which are currently being dismantled by Kilrany engineers. Other exclusion zones include power plants, oil fields and mineral mines which are under the close supervision of Kilrany military personnel.

5. Understand that should you accept these restrictions and opt to bring in peacekeepers, your role is to help facilitate peaceful co-existence between Kilrany forces and Khurzav civilians. If you are caught attempting to support local guerilla actions against Kilrany forces you will be asked to leave, failing that, forced to leave.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin


OOC: My intent with this RP is one more aimed at interaction between peacekeeping forces, Kilrany military personnel and the Khurzav civilians rather then combat, however there may be limited combat expected to occur between Khurzav partisan forces and Kilrany military personnel. Even potentially your peacekeeping forces and partisans depending on how well you do your job. One more additional note, there are only two ports currently suitable for landing of large forces, Pleven and Ostovgrad, currently guarded by Naval Infantry and two major airfields guarded by air force personnel capable of supporting a large airborne peacekeeping force.

Appologies, I forgot to add the tech frame, this is meant to be a MT RP

OOC: I must say, this looks to be fairly interesting, but I'm about to fall asleep, so I hope that you'll permit a tag and a promise to come back and read properly on the morrow. It seems to be on the sort of scale that my nation (fixed at 31 million citizens, being Yugoslavia united with Bulgaria)may actually be able to get involved with. Oh, and regardless of whether or not I end-up involved with this RP, welcome to the forums!

OOC:
- I'm going to go so far as to make an Out of Character thread for this, in the event that it actually takes off, we'll have a cleaner IC thread to work in. Also, may this post serve as a glorified bump.
Edit: The OOC thread can be found here (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=493171).

Petrovaradin Fortress, Novi Sad, Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, SFR Yugoslavia

Maršal Jugoslavije and President for Life of the Socialist Federal Republic since the passing of Tito, Larionko Lav Aidarov had maintained power in the Balkans for more than quarter of a century, rebuffing attempts by the international monetary fund and the world bank to under-mine the unity and socialism of his pan-Slavic mission. But, beyond that achievement, which was hard to publicise in a fashion easily consumed and admired by the masses, Aidarov could point to little that would justify his early nickname, that of The Belarusian Lion, earned after his arrival from the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, where, an outspoken admirer of the Yugoslav way, he'd been forced to flee a 'Titoist witch-hunt'.

Marshal Lav (lion) was on a drive for new relations -nations to infuse the slowing Yugoslav economy with new technology and to bring their tourist business to the Federal Republic's number two industry- and in search of an arena in which to display his strong arm and his willingness to take a leading role in world affairs: convincing one's people that one still deserves a title like President for Life requires such things as a matter of course.

It would be absurd to miss a chance to position Yugoslavia in the good graces of an empire in the ascendancy, and one apparently peopled by Slavic brethren, and Larionko soon compelled his government, lead by the nation's first female Prime Minister, Miroslava Goranov, to contact its opposites under Emperor Sviatov.

Full and enthused congratulations from Социјалистичка Федеративна Република Југославија, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, extend unto the Empire of Kilrany for her leading role in bringing peace and lasting unity to the peoples of the Socialist Federative Republics.

With brotherhood and unity at heart, familiar with the costs of war and the difficulties of overcoming disunity, and lately experienced in combatting and managing insurrection, President Aidarov and the Belgrade federal government wish to offer the experience and friendship of the Yugoslav People's Army in lessening the pain and expense of the Khurzav transition.

So went the thrust of a communiqué dispatched by Aleksandar Milutinov, Yugoslav Foreign and Information Secretary, in reply to Pavel Kasatikin.

Belgrade was assembling a small task force for deployment to Khurzav, with hopes of striking-up a profitable friendship with Kilrany, a nation ten times Yugoslavia's size. The JNA's Airborne Brigade and the JRM's equivalent Naval Infantry Brigade would contribute semi-elite troops, but, since foreign deployments were totally new to the Yugoslavs, the People's Militia Troops would provide a large part of any mission to Khurzav. This would include personnel from the elite Special Antiterrorist Force -which is experienced in what Milutinov mentions as 'managing insurrection', specifically in smashing the Kosovo Liberation Army- and the Special Police Unit that deals often with public disturbances.

If accepted by the Kilrany authorities, the SFRY will dispatch a force of roughly one thousand personnel with experience in rural and urban security operations ranging from fighting Albanian partisans to containing domestic protests. They would deploy by air via An-26 Curl and An-12 Cub transport aircraft, bringing small arms, light crew-served weapons, UAZ 'jeeps', and BOV-VP 4x4 APCs, some mounting machineguns and others water-cannon. Soko SA342L Partizan (Gazelle) light helicopters and Mil Mi-8 Hip multi-role transport helicopters would hopefully be allowed to support the operation.

Milutinov's communiqué also contained attachments on dull specifics- security planners wondered whether a Yugoslav deployment ought to carry Russian-calibre weapons in the interests of multi-national co-operation. Yugoslav forces currently use primarily western calibres, including 9x19mm Para, 5.56x45mm, and 7.92x57mm, but maintain large stockpiles of ammunition and some weapons in the previously-fielded 7.62x25mm, 7.62x39mm, and 7.62x54mm Soviet-origin calibres, and the capacity to produce 5.45x39mm derivatives of their current-generation weapons.

(OOC: Hope that's not too wordy, I may have become carried-away establishing details and context!)

Grantham, Atopiana:

"Comrades all, the situation continues to deteriorate in Khurzav, and we have an excellent opportunity to further the international revolution. I propose that this council advises the sending of four columns of the Workers' and Peasant's Militia to Khurzav in order to protect our fellow workers from the rapacious attentions of international capitalism. We can furthermore spare some eight thousand personnel from our International Assistance Volunteer Group..."

So began the four-hour long session of the Supreme Workers' and Peasant's Advisory Council of Atopiana. In the end, the proposal of the original speaker was ratified, and a telegram wired to the necessary authorities in Khurzav:

ATOPIANA WISHES SEND 4000 TROOPS 8000 RELIEF PERSONNEL STOP ARRIVE BY SEA AND AIR WITHIN A FORTNIGHT STOP WHERE BEST LOCATION STOP RSVP STOP

In anticipation of the Khurzav authorities' acceptance of their request, the columns in question were mobilised, and a TO&E submitted...

Mahkno Column:
1st to 4th Centuries: 100 infantry with infantry light arms. BTR-60 transports.
5th and 6th Centuries: 30 T-54/55, 5 PT-76; 5 BRDM-2s.
7th and 8th Centuries: 100 militia with support weaponry.
9th and 10th Centuries: 100 militia with anti-aircraft defence systems.

Ravachol Column:
1st to 4th Centuries: 100 infantry with infantry light arms. BTR-60 transports.
5th and 6th Centuries: 30 T-54/55, 5 PT-76; 5 BRDM-2s.
7th and 8th Centuries: 100 militia with support weaponry.
9th and 10th Centuries: 100 militia with anti-aircraft defence systems.

Free Earth Army:
1st-8th Centuries: 100 infantry with infantry light arms. BMP-IIs and other light AIFVs.
9th and 10th Centuries: 100 militia with anti-aircraft defence systems.

The Special Column:
1st-10th Centuries: 100 infantry with specialist weapons systems. Trucks and APCs.

Atopian International Aid Volunteer Group:
8,000 personnel with heavy lifting and medical equipment, tents, food and other such aid.

just making sure this is MT, if it is im in and i'll make my IC proposal in a minute.

wait nvm there it is at the bottom.

Yugo Slavia
OOC: Certainly not, I found that rather useful to know actually.

Pavel Kasatikin carefully read over the main section of the letter from his counterpart in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he found himself nodding his head a few times as he did so.

He more or less skimmed over the list of military equipment in the attachment; mostly just ensuring it met the limitations, which it did. Pavel was in his late middle ages, well past his prime, but he had served his time in the Kilrany Imperial Armed Forces and he maintained a basic understanding of military equipment.

Rather then call in a secretary to take a dictation, he chose to write out his reply himself, for the most part it was quiet just now, so he had the time to do this himself.

I thank you for your kind words on behalf of my Emperor, we appreciate your interest in our request and we accept. We look forward to close cooperation between our nations. I will make arrangements with our military commander in Khurzav to clear your landing and assign to you an area of operation and a position with which to operate from.

In regards to your query about type of weaponry, although it is your choice as you what you bring, it does of course increase your logistics load, if you do wish to use similar weapons to our own, the bulk of our forces do use mostly Soviet and Russian designed weapons. And I see no problem in adding a little extra load to our own logistics if you should like to share in our supply line.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

Pavel leaned back in his chair and re-read what he had just written, double-checking to make sure he had worded it properly. Once he as content with his message, he picked up activated his intercom to talk to his secretary.

“Mikhail, I want you to contact General Dovlatov in Khurzav and arrange for the landing and arrangements for a peacekeeping force from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. I need you then to attach that to a letter I have in here.”

“Of course minister. I’ll contact him immediately.”

“Thank you.”

----

It only took a little under an hour for his secretary to contact the general and make the immediate arrangements, the force from the SFRY would be authorized to approach and fly over Khurzav airspace and land at the major airfield to the East of the port city of Pleven. It would take longer to make some other arrangements, but they would be prepared by the time the force from the SFRY arrived.


Atopiana
I might note that the Kilrany Empire is somewhat more socialist then Khurzav, also there are no Khurzav 'officials' to receive your telegram. However, if you wish I will respond to this telegram as Kilrany, if that's who you meant to send it too.

OOC: Kilrany officials, yes, sorry, got confused... the Telegram was supposed to go to Pavel Kasatikin, Kilrany foreign affairs minister.

To: Kilrany Government

The Commonwealth of Delesa would like to send a peace making force. But if you fear bringing in a peace making force will only further the conflict, we will still send, with your permission, a peace keeper force that follow your rules.
But the Government would like to request that we have 4 M-1 Abrams tanks as a defence precaution around our Peace Keeping HQ. These tanks would not go on patrols, or fight any battles or engagements. Their soel purpose wouldbe to protect our Compound, if we came under fire, and if civilians got out of hand, used as a scare tactic. Meaning they wouldnt fire, buit merely show up in hopes of scattering a riot.
Also with your permission, i would like to send a carrier and her escorts. Which is
1xCharles De Gaulle*Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier (http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/gaulle/images/gaulle1110.jpg)
2xDuke Class (Type 23)*Frigates (http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/t23/images/t23_4.jpg)
2xDurand de la Penne Class*Destroyers (http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/durand/images/durand12.jpg)
1xFort Victoria Class*Fleet Replenishment Ships (http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/victoria/images/victoria1.jpg)
2xSN Los Angeles Class*Attack Submarine (http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/la/images/la6.jpg)

And We would like to know is the CH-146 Griffon (http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/equip/grfx/equip_gallery/griffon_ch146/wallpaper/Griffon2.jpg) and/or UH60 Blackhawk (http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/imgs/uh60.jpg) helicopters are allowed within your standards.

Also there would be 1000 infantry from the 1st Delesa Airborne Regiment adn LAVs and Hummer Patrol Trucks. Along with basic supply trucks.

OOC: My paratroopers are some what special forces and like the canadian airborne, they did alot of peace keeping patrols. And i would mind getting a city to handle that has Khurzav partisans.

Skgorria's Rapid Pacification Force is ready to dispatched, all we require is clearance from the relevant authorities

Composition of Rapid Pacification Force:

For this quarter, the RPF is drawn from Special Action Division.

1st Company (Infantry) - 100 soldiers with company-level support weapons
2nd Company (Mech Inf) - 100 soldiers mounted in BMP-IIIs
3rd Company (Armour) - 9 T-95s, though in light of the guidelines this will be changed to T-62s if required
4th Company (Special Action Unit 209) - 100 soldiers who specialise in pacification of disruptive elements
5th Company (Air Support) - 48 Mi-8 Helicopters for transport and light support

Atopiana

Pavel was taking a short break in advantage of a quiet afternoon, having just sent the reply to the SFRY, when his secretary knocked on his door.

“Come in Mikhail.”

A younger man, Mikhail was in his late twenties and like the minister had already served his time in the military, mostly as a ‘paper pusher’, a good one at that however which helped get him this particular job.

“Sir, I have a telegram here from the nation of Atopiana.”

“Let me see it.”

Mikhail handed over a sheet of paper and Pavel proceeded to read it, raising an eyebrow as he did so. It was somewhat short, but to the point. He moved on to the attached TO&E which his secretary had placed on the sheet below the main message.

“Well, this sounds decent for the most part. Wait for a moment Mikhail and I’ll quickly write a response for you to send back.”

“Of course.”

We appreciate your response, and for the most part this is agreeable, however, as stated prior we are not permitting heavy armour to land, we do not believe this is necessary for carrying out a peacekeeping operation. There are no enemy main battle tanks or even armoured personnel carriers. Also, I would like to note that, if you wish to bring air defense systems you may, but they are not required as the Kilrany Royal Air Force has complete air superiority over the country.

I would like to request clarification on your TO&E however, you state, ‘Specialist weapons systems’, could you please elaborate on this?

As to your volunteer group, that is quite acceptable. If you remove the heavy armour and clarify the above statement, I see no problem with authorization for your force to land.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin
Content with what he wrote Pavel handed it to Mikhail.

“Please send that to Atopiana.”

Mikhail simple nodded his head and left the minister’s office.

Skgorria & [NS:]Delesa
Allow me some more time and I should have a responce for the two of you as well.

ooc alright

At the Task Force Command Council headquarters, Comrade Commander-Elect Yevgeny Olov sighed as he read the telegram. No T-54s, he thought, damnation, but that'll make things difficult. He swung off the table and strode back to the communications tent, formulating a response in his mind...

"Take this down, Pasha," he smiled at his radio operator, "we need to clarify our equipment for our hosts."
"Well, if you will be vague," grinned Pasha, "what do you expect?"
"Oh hush. Now... to: P. Kasatikin, From: Task Force Black Flag..."

BRDM AND PT-76 NOW REPLACE T-54/55 STOP SPECIAL COLUMN IS NBC DETECTION DECONTAM UNITS STOP HOPE MEETS YOUR APPROVAL STOP AIR DEFENCE TO ENSURE SECURITY NO OFFENCE STOP

"There, that should do it. Now to sort out those extra BRDMs and PT-76s. I wonder if the Grand Column will swap us their vehicles," mused Yevgeny as he left to telephone the Supreme Council, "we'll not need many, and it's a fair swap, after all."

The Yugoslav deployment to Khurzav was, in spite of its small size, already considered a potential watershed moment for the Socialist Federal Republic: the dawning of Marshal Lav's twenty-first century and the now sixty-one year old nation's maturity, and the personnel were waved off with good cheer from the public, which, for now, understood this to be a high-profile job with low risk.

The assembled mission would be lead by Army-General Bojan Javoric, a Bosnian-Serb with a somewhat harder reputation than one might expect for a peacekeeper. His most noted action to date features a large Interior Ministry assault designed to quash a KLA concentration in a southern village. The event saw fairly intense fighting and the deaths of several individuals indicated by government sources as, 'terrorists', and Javoric is believed by many to have conducted operations on the 'other' side of the Albanian border. However, he is a man with the trust of Marshal Lav, and one believed to be up to this important flag-flying task.

Javoric's force, being referenced -by media sources interested in the multinational operation- as The Belgrade Brigade, began transport to Khurzav, but it would be a fairly slow process. One weakpoint in the generally well funded Yugoslavian military is its force-projection capability, and even the single airborne brigade within the JNA is lacking complete air-mobility. Still, several An-26 light transports began to transport personnel -Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Bulgarians, even a dozen or so Macedonians and a handful of Slovenes- while two larger An-12, creaking with age, ferried the first of their heavy equipment into the designated airport.

Yugoslav troops were fairly proud to be arriving with their own equipment: Soko Partizan helicopters (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/74075019cpdwtoph7nm.jpg) would arrive in good time, and, for now, the soldiers all had firearms produced by Crvena Zastava, and the -admittedly Russian-built- Antonov aircraft disgorged domestic BOV-VP armoured personnel carriers (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/bov-1.jpg), including ambulance and other adapted versions. The men (and a very few women) were in good spirits, and, for their part, viewed both the Kilrany occupation forces and the Khurzav locals as brothers, or at least as long-lost cousins.

The General, though, was a little disturbed by the weight of hardware and manpower he was hearing about in the potential contributions by other states. He would have been relieved to hear of the Kilrany refusal to allow in tanks and the like. This was the sort of thing that could make his own men feel under-prepared! Still, it wouldn't do to go asking his hosts if perhaps trouble were expected- the Yugoslavs were here to prevent the need to fight, not to roll tanks over people and start a scrap.

Javoric did none the less decide to issue weapons with Russian-standard chambering. He didn't intend to rely on Kilrany chains of supply, but, just in case his men should end up bogged-down in a more serious than anticipated conflict, it made sense that such an isolated force be able to feed off local supplies in an emergency.

Skgorria & [NS:]Delesa

A knock at his officer door once again snapped Pavel out of his relaxed state.

“Come in Mikhail.”

Pavel noted that Mikhail seemed a little unsure as he came in and he had what looked to be a letter in each hand.

“What do you have for me?”

“I have two requests, one by the nation of Delesa, and the other from the nation of Skgorria.”

Mikhail had to say the second a few times before he managed to pronounce it properly.

“Let me see them.”

Mikhail handed both to Pavel who began to read them, starting with the one from Delesa. He was confused for a moment at the wording of the opening paragraph, but it only took him a moment before he understood the meaning. Finishing the first letter he read the second from Skgorria. When he finished he looked up at Mikhail.

“I wonder if the Emperor knew what he was in for when he decided to order that declaration asking for peacekeepers.”

Mikhail responded only with a wry smile.

“Well, let me see how best to respond to this.”

Pavel chose to start with a response to Delesa first.

Although I appreciate your offer, the Khurzav military is non-existent at this time and for the most part the nation is secure. Our current problem stems from the inordinate amount of distrust and resentment between Kilrany and the Khurzav general population. A Peace ‘making’ force would, I believe, only make the situation more tense than it already is.

As to heavy armour, we are making no exceptions in that department; we see absolutely no need to have main battle tanks to carry out peaceful operations unless you intend to inflame the current situation.

As for the carrier task force. Although we recognize the potential use and the desire to have close air support available to your personnel on the ground, we once again do not see this as being necessary for peacekeeping operations. Kilrany aircraft actively fly over the country, which include strike fighters, close air support and helicopters. For those nations we allow to bring in a peacekeeping force, we intend to fully support in both the role of close air support, should the situation even be needed, and rapid medical evacuation by air if necessary.

As for the helicopters mentioned, transport helicopters such as the CH-146 Griffon and the UH-60 Blackhawk are permitted, as are armed variant there in. We are simply not permitting purpose build attack helicopters such as the Apache or Havoc.

I cannot allow for authorization with your forces in its current form, if you wish to revise it and resubmit it, I am willing give it a second look. Also, we would like to know what presicely your motivations for peacekeeping in Khurzav are.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

He handed it off to Mikhail then set to work on a reply for Skgorria.

Although I understand that it is possibly merely a name, it seems somewhat inappropriate for a peacekeeping force, however that is not a significant problem. As I have stated to other nations who have shown an interest in performing peacekeeping operations, we are under no circumstances permitting any kind of heavy armour. We do not believe it is necessary to have main battle tanks for peacekeeping. Removal of such will place you back in consideration for authorization.

I would ask also, what are your motivations for sending peacekeepers to Khurzav? Why are you interested in doing so?

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

Having finished with that letter he looked back up and handed it to Mikhail and then gestured with his hand for Mikhail to leave and send the letters.

Pavel barely had two minutes before Mikhail was knocking on his door once more.

“What is it now Mikhail?”

Entering the office once again Pavel could see that Mikhail had yet another letter in his hand and he raised an eyebrow.

“Who’s it from this time?”

“It’s from Atopiana this time sir.”

Pavel took the telegram and quickly read the short message. Then set about writing a response.

We appreciate your cooperation and apparent willingness to comply with our limitation. I would like to know why however; you feel the need to need to bring NBC personnel to an area without such weapons present and as to why you wish to conduct peacekeeping operations in Khurzav.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

It was short he knew, but it was all that needed to be said just now. He knew that although it’s difficult to judge the true intentions of a nation just from their political messages, it could sometimes give away small tell tale signs, and when a nation wants to bring NBC equipment to an area not previously exposed to it, it arouses his suspicions.

He handed the letter off to Mikhail and waved him out of the room once more.

OOC: On an unrelated note, I would appreciate it if any purely OOC comments were to be made, please make them in the OOC thread here.
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=11422921&posted=1#post11422921

And appologies for taking so long to respond.

OOC: i'm getting bored so im just gonna rp mobalizing, but not coming until you say i can.

Prime Minister Lester Geddie was getting tense. As the new prime minister, this was his first time mobalizing the Delesa army. Ofcourse he understood that this was just peace keeping mission, but he was about to send a carrier group and 1000 of some of the best paratroopers. But he couldnt just stand by and watch as people were dieing where we might be able to help. But he knew some nations didnt want other nations to help. But is personality couldnt be stoped, he had to do something. There was a knock on the door.

"Enter." Lester called from behind his huge oak desk.

"Sir, General Gordan Brigman here so see you."

"Send him in."

"Lester! Hows it going? Hows the country?"
Lester stood up and shook Gordan's hand.

"All fine on the home front, its Kilrany."

"Wheres that?"

"Not close. But they are having some problems. I offered a peace keeping force. Well a peace making, but the government is goign to choose what they like. I comittied a carrier group, and a airborne battalion and standard LAVs and what not."

"Tanks?"

"Not sure i asked for 4. But for scare tactics."

"Better then nothing."

"Still no confirmation. And i asked if we can send the giffins and back hawks."

"What no helios?"

"No, im not sure what type i can send, so i just asked."

"Alright so what do you like me to do?"

"Find a good battalion, carrier group, and a general to send with them."

"I already knoe who. 1st batalion, airborne regiment, comanding officer is Lieutenant Colonel Jack O’Neil. Former Russovana Captain, Royal Guards. And the 2nd Carrier Group, Vice Admiral François Tailleur. And we'll send Brigadier-General Barnabé Grantaire."

"That drunk asshole?"

"Hes only a asshole if hes drunk sir. And we'll make sure he doesnt drink other then that hes a great officer."

"I guess you know better since you the General."

"Well yeah! Haha. Alright iiI have to go and set this up for you. Should be ready by tonight Lester."

"Good. Go get it done."
Gordan gave a crisp salute and walked out.
Boy oh boy, Lester thought. Gonna be in for a long day.

"Comrade Yevgeny," yelled Pasha, "they've responded - being a bit picky, I think, no?"
"Oh for the love of ... alright, Pasha," shouted Olov, "I'm coming, don't get your knickers in a twist."

Speed-reading the Foreign Minister's response, Yevgeny sighed once more. Detailed reasons? In a telegram? Well then, he said to himself, let's see what I can say.

NBC UNITS AS PRECAUTION AND TO ASSIST IN CASE OF DISEASE OUTBREAKS STOP WE WISH TO ASSIST IN KEEPING THE PEACE BECAUSE WE ARE A PEACEFUL NATION AND WAR SADDENS US STOP NEEDLESS DEATHS ARE TO BE AVOIDED STOP FINALLY WE ARE CONCERNED WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR POST-CONFLICT MASSACRES OF WORKERS STOP

"Most eloquent, O glorious leader," mocked Pasha, "but you do realise that telegrams are not the best medium for poetry and diplomacy?"
"Pasha?"
"Yes?"
"Shut up, will you?"
"At once, O exalted one!" laughed Pasha, as he placed the earphones back on his head.

There was a knocn on the door.
"Come."

"Sir this came in while you were talking to the general. I didnt want to disturb you. Its from Kilrany.'

"Bring it here." Lester read it over."Hmm. Alright i'll here is the responce,"he gave the woman a letter,"Send it as soon as possible.

It is fully understood what you are saying. There will be no tanks. As for the LAVs? And is it possible to keep one frigate in your harbours and a transport vessel there too, in case my troops need a quick exit. Although i am quite sure there will be no need its just a precaution. And there will be no carrier group in your waters, Delesa Honour. Thats all for now.

To: Kilrany foreign affairs minister, Pavel Kasatikin
From: Skgorria Forgein Deployments Minister, Karl Zhukar

Greetings from Skgorria,

Many thanks for the telegram voicing your concerns about the Rapid Pacification Force. The RPF is simply our primary low-level response force to a forgein crisis with the main objective of restoring peace, hence the "Pacification" in the name.

As instructed, 3rd Company will no longer be equipped with MBTs and will instead be allocated AMX 10RC armoured cars. If these are still not acceptable then they will be replaced by another mechanised infantry company.

Our motives in participating in a peacekeeping operation are clear: Skgorria has suffered at the hands of many wars against the USSR and even our local neighbours. We simply wish to restore rightful order so that society can continue in its natural fashion.

We eagerly await your reply

The prince looked down at the print outs in front of him – and then to the man across the coffee table. With a powerful squint he brought Korieza’s face into focus. The prince had been drinking again and the dismayed look on Korieza’s face spoke volumes. Putting his glass down and rubbing his eyes the prince looked at Korieza.
“One more time dear Knight.”
“Yessir.” And Korieza began again as patiently as he could. Bringing the prince up to speed again he smiled as the prince’s eyes hardened. Good. Korieza thought, the boy’s clicked in again.

The prince stood, shakily, and began to walk towards a workstation on his desk. Almost falling into the high backed leather upholstered chair he looked up at the man who was arguably the most loyal Knight in the kingdom.
“And these people are of Slavic decent?”
“Yes majesty. While there does not seem to be and direct linkages between us and them we do have a common ancestry.”
“Indeed.” The prince paused for a moment – struggling with this conversation through the haze that had settled over his frontal lobe – with no small part due to his consumption today. “How does it look?”
“Majesty?” The prince waved the question away – almost as if it was something tangible he could haphazardly swat at.
“Kilrany – why are they making a call to the world?”
“Well sir they want peace keepers to…” The condescending tone had crept back into Korieza’s voice – but he was quickly interrupted by the Prince snapping at him.
“I know that!” It was almost as if a wave of sobriety rode in on anger. “Why are they calling this peacekeeping farce? They obviously want the country for themselves. Is it merely to put an international stamp onto what is so very painfully an imperial action? Or do they seek to emancipate the country in the future?” Korieza nodded, now understanding the Prince’s line of thought.
“Well sir their tactics in the invasion don’t suggest a hasty turnover.”
“No this is true.” The prince strummed his fingers over his jaw for a moment in thought – his gestures still exaggerated by drink. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter though does it?”
“What do you mean Majesty?”
“Well what happens to the country of… Khurzav?”
“Yessir.”
“Khurzav.” The prince repeated it again committing it to memory. “Well the fate of Khurzav is no concern of Otares. But the manner in which they arrive at that fate is.”
“What are you thinking sir?”
“Well we have no interest in assisting a rival’s expansion – nor are we angels of mercy for international underdogs.”
“Harsh but true words Majesty.”
“Well the occupation of a hostile Slavic population is of interest to us.” Korieza smirked at that.
“True enough.”
“Well with this situation we are presented with an opportunity of an, educational nature. We can – through the channels opened to the peacekeepers…” The prince extended his arm in a pointing gesture, rolling his wrist and snapping his fingers. As if he was trying to draw a thought from Korieza. For his part Korieza looked at the gesture bemusedly for a moment before pulling a dossier.
“Foreign Affairs Minister Pavel Kasatikin.”
“Right Kasatikin. We can express an interest in observing the functioning of his troops. We will imbed some of our troops with his – so that we might make more complete reports to the rest of the peacekeeping coalition. At the same time we can observe the general effectiveness of the occupation. What works – what does not. Perhaps in time we might even be able to suggest some of our own scenarios so that they could attempt them for us.”
“Well your majesty if you think you can write that out in a proposal…”
“Oh I can… I can.”

Official Communicay from Crowned Prince Alark III to Kilrany foreign affairs minister Pavel Kasatikin

Greetings good Minister;

I am Alark the third, crowned prince and sovereign of The Kingdom of Otares. While normally isolationist in nature Otares has heard the cries of her cousins and have reached out.

However, due to the nature of our isolationist past we find ourselves ill equipped to deploy a peace keeping force. It is my belief that a peacekeeping operation is something more than being able to throw a suitable amount of military assets into a potentially lethal situation and be optimistic. So with this assumption in mind I propose to you good minister the following.

A team of militarily trained observers – numbering no more than 400 – would be imbedded into your active patrols and garrisons in Khurzav. These observers would gather data, assess existing methods, and co-ordinate with other peacekeeping actions around the country. Their reports would be exacting and through. That said as a nation with some experience in relation to military operations we understand the need for discretion.

A small Otariet outpost – nothing more than a logistical HQ – would be placed in Khurzav to be the central hub of all of these reports. They would be collated, compiled, and made wholly available – after they had been reviewed by your office.

It is my hope that this effort will serve a twofold purpose. First – the general efficiency of the peace keeping effort in Khurzav will be greatly increased. Second – after sufficiently studying the situation Otares is prepared to offer up a large peace keeping force of its own. In fact you may consider this a tentative agreement at just that.

The operation of an Otariet peace keeping force will hopefully give our soldiers invaluable experience in this field. It is our hope that this experience be a teaching tool for the next generation of soldier – about the evolving nature of the combat zone.

And while your government may be hesitant to allow a ‘virgin force’ into the theatre I can assure you that as the pilot project of the Otariet designs on peacekeeping this operation will receive any and all support and funding required to make it successful.


Sincerely,
Holy Crown Prince of Otares, The Supreme Commander of the Crown’s Forces, High bishop in our lord’s house, Duke of Cali, Duke of Penson, and twice blessed man Alark the third.

Atopiana

We have decided to accept your offer of peacekeepers; you have been authorized to approach the port of Pleven.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

Delesa

Light armoured vehicles are perfectly acceptable, our intent was not to leave any peacekeeping force defenseless, but we do believe heavy armour to be excessive, should the situation arise, there are still several Kilrany armoured and mechanized infantry regiments inside Khurzav.

We have no objection to you maintaining a destroyer and a transport this in harbor.

Your forces have been authorized to land at the Ostovgrad port and your airborne forces are clear to land at the airport just West of Tsyelograd.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

Skgorria

We have deemed your forces acceptable, you are authorized to land at the port of Ostovgrad.
Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

Otares

Pavel Kasatikin was sat in his chair lightly massaging the bridge of his nose when a tentative knock came at his officer door. Pavel sighed before he spoke.

“Who has a message now Mikhail?”

The door opened and Mikhail came in towards his desk.

“A new nation, the Otares.”

“Very well, let me see what they have to say.”

With that Pavel took the letter and began to read it. He found himself slightly skeptical as he did so, when he finally finished he looked up at Mikhail.

“This is unusual.”

“I thought you might think so.”

“I’ll have to clear this one with the Emperor.”

“You think he’ll allow it?”

“Hard to say. Considering he went so far as you allow peacekeepers to come into Khurzav he might be willing to allow this as well.”

Pavel leaned over and picked up the ‘special’ phone that had a direct line to the Imperial Palace. Within a minute he was talking to Emperor Sviatov, a conversation that lasted a half hour. When Pavel finally put the phone back down he let out a deep breath. Then considered the best possible way to word his letter.

Greetings to your highness, your proposal intrigues us. It’s an unusual proposal and one our Emperor is willing to explore further. However we feel that four hundred observes seem a little high, we would like to suggest a slightly smaller number of around two hundred if this is still acceptable to you we can arrange the details further, we are also quite willing to allow this HQ element as well.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin


OOC: Apologies for the long time for this to come, I developed something of a headache from looking at the computer screen for so long today and needed to take a break. Also same goes for the small size, it’s hard to say essentially the same thing without sounding repetitive.

There was once again a knock on the Prime Minister's door, but this time the secretary didn't wait for Lester to say she could. Lester looked up and quickly shoved somthing into his desk. To her it looked like a whiskey bottle.

"CHRIST WOMEN!! DIDNT I TELL YOU TO KNOCK AND WAIT????"

"Yes..."

"Jesus you bloody scared me to death. You didnt see anything right?"

"Yes..."

"Well then." Lester pulled tthe bottle out."Since we dont see anything here..." Then he gave the jester asking if she would like any. She shook her head."What is so important that you needed to barge in?"

"Its a letter from Kilrany."


"Who? Wait never mind." Lester held out his hand and the secretary gave it to him. He read it over. He scratched his greyish brown hair."Alright, get the general on the line. Tell him to send to boys over. And the ship must dack in....Ostovgrad. LAVs are a go. Says here... wait just fax this to them will you?" he handed her a letter.

"Yes sir' And she left the room closing the giant oak doors behind her.

Dear Pavel Kasatikin
We have recieved you message and understand. Just one thing to mention, the Paratroopers are on a peace keeping mission, so there is no need for aircraft since they will not be jumping. They will come with their hummers, G-Wagons, and LAVs on board the ship. Also Lieutenant Colonel Jack O’Neil is the commanding officer of the 1st battalion, 1st Airborne Regiment(1000 men), but Brigadier-General Barnabé Grantaire will be comeing along. Any concerns please contact him at the HQ there, where ever you send them, and all of our communications will come through him. We have a secure line with him.

Sincerely
PM Lester Geddie

As Lester sat at his desk we kept thinking he had forgotten something. But he could think of it.
"CRAP!"he jumped up and fell over tripping on his chair. His head poped up ocer the desk top and his a button.

"Miss Lucy? Can you come in here?"She opened the doors.

"Yes?"

"Yeah, um could could send a message to that Pavel Kasatikin chap? Could you ask him where are my boys going to end up and what he has planned for them?"

"Yes sir"

"Alright thats all. Well no, could you give me a hand up?"

That information is being collected by officers under the command of General Dovlatov, who is in charge of Kilrany regulars in Khurzav, I am told that it will be provided to you by your assigned liaison officers upon your arrival at the port of Ostovgrad.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

That information is being collected by officers under the command of General Dovlatov, who is in charge of Kilrany regulars in Khurzav, I am told that it will be provided to you by your assigned liaison officers upon your arrival at the port of Ostovgrad.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

Understood, the CDS. Columbia and the transport Mother Delesa are enroute.

Task Force Black Flag is en route, and will arrive by sea within the month. Forward elements are en route by air and will arrive tomorrow.

Sitting on his throne in the Kings Palace, Robert overlooked several items that had been brought to his attention during the course of the day. Firstly he noted that the commission of his countries first two aircraft carriers was planned for the next week and that he would be at the shipyards in Cuiday for the ceremony. The two Isomer Class Carriers, the designs for which were provided from foreign sources, would finally allow his navy to have real power projection capabilities.

Secondly he noted that the peacekeeping force he had dispatched to Kilrany at the request of their government was within two days sailing of the expected disembarkation port. The men of the 3rd Irian Guards Regiment would be sick of their transport ships by now and would welcome the chance to finally set foot on land again after some three weeks at sea. The King had been informed that they would take all of their equipment and if necessary leave some on the transports if it was deemed too “heavy” for operations. After landfall had been made the 3,300 combat personnel would first attempt to establish their base and from there begin to patrol the surrounding countryside to establish themselves and also try and diffuse some of the tension that had existed since the war. The presence of a strictly neutral third party was hoped to make a difference in this situation as well as raising the Kingdoms profile on the international stage. Robert hoped that his dispatch would clear the air and allow his force to land, the escorts were badly stretched and his military chiefs had hinted that if the troops were not allowed to land at once they would have to be recalled anyway because of the need of the vessels for other purposes.

One such purpose seemed to be brewing in the City State of Annulus that bordered the Kingdom on her south coast. Increasing riots and other civil disturbances threatened to spread into the Kingdom and action would have to be taken to quell such discontent despite Annulus not officially being part of the Kingdom. At least not at the moment.

However for now King Robert’s attention would be on getting the 3rd Irian established in the former nation of Khurzav.



Onboard the KS Lifeline, one of six transport ships carrying the 3rd Irian Guards.

Colonel Peter Lothian commanded the 3rd Irian Guards Regiment, a unit with a rich history that started with the inclusion of the island province of Risikia into the Kingdom some 400years previously. In addition to his 3,300 combat personnel spread across three battalions the Colonel had a reinforced mortar team, machine gun section, headquarters section and light artillery battery. The latter was prepared to stay on the transports as artillery were unlikely to be needed for the mission which would cut the actual troop deployment to 3,200 personnel.

Supplementing the 3rd Irian would also be a troop of helicopters, 15 Merlin transports and 5 Kiowa Surveillance helicopters. This would give them increased mobility over their mainstay transport of various jeeps and humvee type vehicles in addition to large troop carrying trucks. As requested no additional armour had been attached to the unit, not that it would have been if the limits were not in place as armour was quite scarce in the Kingdom and all that was available was to be used in Operation Summer Glory.

From the grey painted transports the men of the 3rd Irian looked out across the sea’s as they neared Khurzav, a country they knew precious little about. All they did know was that the King thought it in the best interests for them to be here and it was certainly not their duty to question the King nor disagree with him in any such way that could damage their own morale. If King Robert thought they should be here, then they would also think that they should be there it was only the lack of local knowledge that worried the troops. Surely they wouldn’t be walking into a hellstorm…would they?






A Message from King Robert to the Kilrany Government

As my Ambassador in your nation has already eluded to the Kingdom is keen to send a small force to aid you in maintaining the peace in Khurzav after the destructive war that has taken place on your continent. A manifest of our proposed deployment has been sent to you separately and we have ensured that it meets with your strict guidelines on peacekeepers.

Our motives are not entirely geared towards your continents best interests. Whilst we have no wish to harm any single member of any nation on the continent we must admit that we are using this as a way of increasing our status on the international stage as well as helping you with your internal problems. Once committed our troops are as dedicated as any in the world to fulfilling their mission and we ensure you that our troops will leave as soon as lasting peace appears to have been established in the region.

My Kind Regards to you and your people.

King Robert,

Herald of the Kingdom
Commander of the Kingdoms Forces
Viceroy of Dommuninuis



Attached Order of Battle

3rd Irian Guards Regiment: 3,300 combat personnel.

Equipment: G3A9 Assualt Rifles, M249 SAW’s, 81mm Mortar’s, .50cal Machine Guns, 105mm Pack Howitzers (8).
Vehicles: LV-12 Softop Patrol Vehicles (Land Rovers), 5tonne trucks, LAV-4 Light Armoured Cars
Helicopters: 15 Merlin Transports, 5 Kiowa Surveillance Helicopters


Team A and B, 1st Squadron, 9th Special Regiment

-24 Special Operations Troopers
-5 Special Armoured Vehicles LRP (Long Range Patrol)


3rd Battalion, 144th Support Group

800 Logistical Support staff, including 42 Combat Engineers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

(Kingdom Broadcasting Company) KBC News: Increasing tension in Annulus, Kingdom intervention?........... Discovery of “significant” mineral deposits in Priskia…………Six school children die in school fire

The Prime Minister of Delesa misread the regulations by the government of Kilrany. Two more transports are on the way to the harbour, protected by 1 los angles SSN, and 2 halifax destoyers. The war ships will pull away before you sea zone. Although i also request a 2nd warship to harbour at your navy port, the DNS.Unseen, a SNN Los Angeles Class*Attack Submarine.

With the new transports come 1 Brigade (1000 men) of Royal Engineers, and 1 brigade (1000 men) of Military Police. Also more LAVs, hummers and g-wagons.

Total Peace Keeping Force:
3000 men (1000 Paratroopers, 1000 Engineers, 1000 Military Police)
150 LAVs
200 Hummers
250 G-Wagons

Shablans Peacekeeping/Re-enforcement Unit is ready to be dispatched to Kilrany
at the permission of the Kilrany Officials

Composition of Peackeeping/Re-enforecement Units:

Infantry - 250 lightly armed/armored men
Peacekeepers - 100 Soldiers to ensure safety at any border cities (all lightly armored/armed)
Air Support - 20 F-16 Fighter Jets (With 2 5000 pound bombs if needed)
Ground Support - 20 Hummer ATV(Light Armored 60 Cal Machine Gun Mounted)

All Infantry/Peacekeeping Units and Hummers will arrive 3 weeks after Kilrany Officials grant permisson and will arrive through C-5/C-130 Aircrafts

The House of James

We are quite appreciative of your offer and it is accepted. Arrangements are being made with our military personnel in Khurzav for your forces. They have been authorized to land at the port of Pleven.

Although we would prefer you did not bring the light howitzers ashore, they are within our guidelines, we consider them to be light artillery rather then heavy artillery.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin


Delesa

Your increased force size has been accepted and your authorization to land still stands. We are willing to allow for the second destroyer, but not for the attack submarine.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin


OOC: I do believe this is enough nations for peacekeeping operations, any more and I believe it would get ‘over crowed’ so to speak. However I do believe there is still a reserved slot open to The Aeson who wished to play the role of an arms dealer when things finally got rolling. As an added note, I am currently working on amending the original map of Khurzav to show area of operations for peacekeeping forces.

Shablan

Apologies to you, however we have decided that we have received and accepted enough nations as peacekeepers. Although your offer is greatly appreciated.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

OOC:Otares, if you are still interested in sending those observers, I am still open to that if you are.

Kilrany Government,
Your message has been recieved and new orders have been delivered to our fleet. The first 2 ships should be close if not already there. The second fleet has left harbour and should arrive by the end of today. The SSN will turn around and return to Delesa. Meanwhile 1 Halifax Frigate will remain with the 2 transports and remain in the harbour until my land forces leave.

So to review Delesa forces in Kilrany;
1xDurand de la Penne Class*Destroyers (http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/durand/images/durand12.jpg)
1xHalifax Class Frigate (http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/halifax/images/halifax2.jpg)
3xLPD San Giorgio Class*Landing Platform Dock (http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/san_giorgio/)
Total Peace Keeping Force:
3000 men (1000 Paratroopers, 1000 Engineers, 1000 Military Police)
150 LAVs
200 Hummers
250 G-Wagons

Foreign Affairs Minister Chase Surreal

Official Response

This is more than acceptable. Two hundred should get the information necessary. The logistical HUB will be no more than 25 people. The embedded personnel should work in teams of two. They will follow all orders given to them by that unit’s commander. Otares will not interfere in your force commander’s decisions regarding our personnel. We do however reserve the right to remove personnel in the event that we find the situation to be too dangerous – or that the FC is exploiting the fact that our military justice does not apply here.

The HQ will maintain a small defensive force. Below is the proposed ROE for the HQ garrison – for your approval – as well as its TO&E.

The force to be deployed into Khurzav by Otares at the behest of the Kilrany emperor is to be hereafter referred to as logistical centralization force (LCF).

LCF is to be comprised of 25 members. While all possess military training eight are deployed in a purely military function. The remaining 17 are technicians, logisticians, and specialists of other natures. The full roster of these 25 individuals will not be released due to liability issues within Otares. A relevant dossier on the LCF’s commanding officer is attached below.

The LCF will maintain a working airfield where three transport planes will have free passage. All flights will be cleared with Kilrany air traffic control.

The LCF will operate the following vehicles in theatre:
- Two APCs
- Ten lightly armored small capacity transports
- Three VTOL capable vehicles. *NOTE* Amended to comply with Kilrany specifications regarding purpose builds, should now read two armored transport helos.

The LCF will bring enough small arms and personal munitions to accommodate the needs of its personnel. Without committing to numbers the right is reserved to deploy the LCF with:

- Assault rifles
- Side Arms
- Anti-material rifles
- Frag grenades
- Flash bangs
- Teargas
- Personal armor

The LCF will also be deployed with enough office supplies to perform its duties. *NOTE* Amended to include communications uplink equipment and radio listening devices to observe local chatter.

Finally the LCF will be deployed with the following static defensive equipment.
- Two Machine Gun emplacements
- One missile rack *NOTE* Amended to appease Kilrany requests that no anti-aircraft weapondry be brought in theatre. No missile racks.

The LCF is entering the theatre with the following Rules of Engagement:
- The LCF will not posture in such a manner that will antagonize the belligerents.
- The LCF is not to deploy assets in a defensive manner any further than 800ft from airfield that they will inhabit.
- The LCF is not to engage in any offensive operation
- The LCF will not interfere with any Kilrany action within Khurzav. If found doing so they are to cease and desist within six hours of being served notice of such.
- The LCF is not to engage anyone beyond 2km of their airfield unless fired upon.
- When engaged the LCF is required to report the incident to the Kilrany officials.
- The LCF is authorized to use deadly force within 2km of their airfield; so long as such use of force is necessary to maintain the integrity of the LCF position at the airfield.
- The LCF will not abandon the airfield without approval from their Otariert superiors.
- The LCF is to scuttle any equipment that is in danger of falling into the possession of a belligerent.

*NOTE* Attached dossier:

Name: Tatiana Mikhailov
Rank: General
Service Branch: National Arm of the People (NAP)
Family of Birth: Gahron
Age: 32
Service Awards: *NOTE* Classified

Service History: *NOTE* Classified

Command History:
The Thundervalley offensive *NOTE* Details classified
Savior Plains rout *NOTE* Details classified
Exponent Peace keeping Operation

Brief:

General Mikhailov has served valiantly for both the Gahron military and the NAP. Her experiences in the mother country have made her something of an unorthodox commander. As evidenced by the Exponent theatre. All too often Otariet commanders rely heavily on their regimented training. And while the officers schools in the mother country are superb – they do sometimes produce formulaic tacticians. To her credit General Mikhailov is the exception.

Vetted for many domestic projects the crowned prince has recently taken a direct interest in the General’s career. This can be evidenced by the fact that he has moved to block bids on her position by other nobles.

*NOTE* Further information upon request.

Once we are cleared we will dispatch our forces to the specified location.

OOC: I’m going to get a few things out of the way now before I make my IC post.
First off here is the map featuring the areas where I intend to situate you. Forgive the relatively poor quality, I’m limited to MS Paint for my editing program.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l93/Kilrany/KhurzavOA.jpg

Please bear in mind that I fully plan to explain what that all means IC’ly as your forces come in. To be short just now, those merely indicate the areas we are assigning as your primary responsibilities, they do not mean that you are restricted to those areas only, you could, fuel permitting drive all the way from Pleven to Ostovgrad on a patrol or ‘outing’ if you really wanted.

Also, I should state this now just so there’s no confusion. Kilrany’s military force is primarily made up of Soviet/Russian ‘designed’ equipment. However it tends to be modified equipment. I mention this because most of the time I’m going to be referring to equipment in use by my military by their Russian/NATO names, which makes it easier for you to run an image search so you can picture just what I’m trying to say despite the fact this equipment tends to be heavily modified.

I will now bring this little rant to a close and get to my IC post, heh.

Delesa

The Sovremenny class destroyer of the Kilrany Imperial Navy cut through the waves some twelve kilometers off the South coast of Khurzav, its passive systems had picked up the scanning radars of an approaching surface fleet from over the horizon and was moving in it’s general direction to identify.

Soon enough the leading elements of the Delesa task force would come over the horizon and destroyer would attempt to raise them. They were expecting peacekeeping forces to be arriving sporadically and were under orders to escort any them came across that were destined to the port of Ostovgrad where they would then have to deal with the Naval Infantrymen and their waiting liaison officers.

Otares

That is more then acceptable, we will see to it you are cleared to land at the major airfield East of Pleven along with ensuring there is space available to your personnel to use on said airfield. We will arrange where your observers are assigned to upon their arrival.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

"Pashchatova, sounds like home." "For who-knows-how-long, anyway."

The Yugoslav vanguard approached Khurzav in the form of two heavily laden An-12 and four similarly burdened An-26. They had no fighter escort, for the Air Force lacked long-range fighters and tankers, being designed almost entirely to defend the Socialist Federal Republic. 150 troops and ten liason and management staff along with two jeeps and a BOV-VP APC represented the personnel and equipment that constitute the first wave of Yugoslavian deployment, Army-General Bojan Javoric at its head.

The Yugoslavs would probably wait at or near the northern airfield until a second wave of flights brought sufficient transport equipment to behin rolling southeast towards Pashchatova.

A JRV An-12 approaches Khurzav, requesting clearance to land (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/an-12-70p04.jpg)

The Otariet response was rapid. Once the plan was given the go ahead General Mikhailov had the bulk of her forces on the two transport planes and heading out. All of the observers and 18 of the 25 LCF personnel were now en route to the airfield east of Pleven. The remaining supplies and personnel would be on the next plane in the following day. Normally the General would wait until she possessed a full compliment but she wanted to put observers into all of the areas before the other peace keepers were deployed. She could not foresee any problems embedding her troops into the other peacekeeping forces – but sometimes xenophobia and distrust ran deep. As it was she was pleased to have confirmation from Kilrany. Having a chance to study an occupation from this perspective would hopefully be quite the teaching tool. Perhaps I will be asked to do a teaching stint at the academy after this. At least until there are some experts on the mission.

(OOC The two planes en route are comparable to a C130 and a C5. The one still back in Otares is similar to a C5 as well.)

Coming over the horizon the air transports picked up the coast with direct sight sensors – and detected the wash of active pings coming from the coast. Kilrany naval assets were detected as well as shore installations.

Slipping her head piece on the General spoke to the pilot.
“Contact ATC and get our route. Also ask for a squak code. If they want to send us some escorts comply.”
“Yes ma’am.” With a few trained flick of an extended arm the pilot was on open comms to local air traffic control.

“This is Otares air transport en route to LCF deployment destination contacting Kilrany air traffic control.

“Control I am requesting designation, transponder codes, and flight path please.

“Oh and I offer greetings comrades.”

The DNS.Slient Strike, a SSN Los Angeles class atack submarine, SSN 101, sat still in the water off the Kilrany sea zone ahead of the convoy, Task Force Little Helper. She sat still, just listening.

"Captain, we has a contact bearing, 035 degrees, speed 27 knots, heading course 135 degrees. Sounds heavy, 2 4-blade fixed pitch props."

"Do you think they have picked up the convoy?"

"Posiblbly. Hard to tell.”

“What about us?”

“No change in course.”

“Right, well we got orders not to break silence. Prepare tubes 1 and 2, dont open the ports.”

“Tubes 1 and 2 ready sir.”

“If they change course towards the convoy, and if they get within firing distance of the convoy, get the convoy to warn her to pull off, if they fail to do so, open fire on my command.”

“Aye aye sir.”

“Sir the ship has left the area.”

“Roger that, diandgage the torpedoes. Send a secure line back to the convoy, all clear. SSN 101 will remain in present postion.”

“Aye aye sir.”

***

“Captain, we got word from SSN 101, paths clear, and cradle is open.”

“Acknolged, full speed ahead, lets get the land lovers off my boat. And be on our way.”

The Queen Delesa was a LPD San Giorgio Class Landing Platform Dock, basicly a transport ship. She was loaded with 1000 paratrooper and equipment. Also onboard was Brigadier-General Barnabé Grantaire. The commanding officer of Task Force Little Helper. The captain of the Queen Delesa was very unhappy that the government has ordered them to remain in the Kilreny ports. he knew he could be there for months. But he guessed after at least a month and a half they would replace his ship with another. But all wasnt too, 2 more transport ships were on their way, so at least he wasnt going to be stuck with a tin can(destroyer) captain for months on end. He smiled at the thought.

“Sir, ready to land.”

“Alright. Give me the radio. This is the Queen Delesa of task force Little Helper. We are here and ready to unload. Over”

The Queen Delesa pulled up to the pier, Kilreny ccrew begans to tie her off on the pier.

“This is your captain speaking, I hope you enjoyed your cruise today. Your equipment is now being off loaded, if you could disenbark for the ship, you cam collect your gear and be on your way. Thanks for traveling Army Cruise Lines hope you enjoyed the trip and hope to see you soon. Have a nice day.”

Yugo Slavia & Otares

The two soldiers in the fairly large air traffic control tower were bored to say the least, only a handful a Kilrany aircraft were even present on the ground and most of them weren’t being used much. Despite this when their radio cracked to life they responded quickly.

“Hawkeye One to International Tower Two, aknowledge.”

“This is IT Two, acknowledging. What can we do for you?”

Several thousand meters up in the sky and several hundred kilometers to the West a Kilrany AWACS type aircraft lazily circled over Khurzav.

“We’ve got two flights of aircraft inbound for the peacekeeping force, we’ve vectored them in to your airspace, you should be seeing them on your screens any minute. Make sure they get on the ground safely.”

The soldier chuckled before he responded.

“Will do Hawkeye One, IT Two out.”

Turning to his fellow soldier he smiled and asked wryly, “How long do you figure this will last.”

His compatriot swiveled around in his chair to face him.

“Probably not long, I really can’t see this going well.”

“Bah, you’re a pessimist Arkady.”

“That I am.

As the foreign aircraft came in, the two soldiers turned air traffic controllers guided them in, giving them clearance to land on the large, if not desolate airfield. Soldiers assigned as liaison officers had been waiting for this, waiting until the aircraft touched down and taxied to a stop on their assigned tarmacs, they approached to greet the foreigners.

Delesa

As the large transport ships of the Delesa task force approached the harbor, a Khurzav harbor pilot was dispatched with a Kilrany Naval infantryman as his escort. As with standard procedure with major ports, the harbor pilot would take the ship carefully into the designed pier so it could unload its cargo.

Coming up to the pier Khurzav personnel under the close supervision of Naval Infantryman began tying off the ship, securing it to the pier and making the necessary arrangements for it to safely offload.

Roughly a company’s worth of Naval Infantry were spread over the immediate area watching over the Khurzav harbor personnel and the ship it self. They were all fully kitted out in their standard gear carrying AK-74M assault rifles, some with GP 40mm underbarrel grenade launchers attached, RPK-74 light machine guns and the few designated marksman, which were standard to Kilrany infantry squads were armed with their SVD-K rifles.

Sitting farther back in were three BRMD-2 armoured personnel carriers with what looked to be regular infantry soldiers gathered around them, them being the liaison officers assigned to work with the Delesa soldiers.

A small group of Naval Infantryman close to the ship, around six, were standing and waiting for someone who looked important enough to be an officer to come off the ship. They felt that something was intrinsically wrong with these foreign forces just landing at port like this, they had fought hard to secure the city and it’s port before Khurzav forces could sabotage it and the didn’t appreciate these foreigners.

The Sergeant at the head of the small group, finally seeing someone she thought might have been someone in charge broke from the group towards the ship and the Delesa in question. Like the rest of the Naval Infantry there she was in full gear, her AK-74M rested in front of her. She spoke first in her native language with a somewhat indifferent tone.

“You, what language do you speak?

"Well good lady, i speak English, French and Gaelic! As its mandatory in our schools." Lieutenant Colonel Jack O’Neil (http://www.pica.army.mil/pw/sites/commander/img/Skelton_LTC.jpg), said with a smerk on his face. " Yes Ma'am, and also for you i can speak russian and greek. Even a little German!"

Delesa

Save for raising an eyebrow the Sergeant’s facial expression remained the same, she decided she didn’t like this man, had the situation been a little different, she would have expressed her displeasure with his presence. However, she was, like all the Naval Infantry under orders to be ‘respectful’ of foreigners. For his sake she switched to English. Her tone remained the same as before.

“Very well then, English will do for now. You will find most people in this area have, at least basic understanding of English, language of commerce and all.”

She barely held the sarcasm out of her voice, forcing it to remain neutral in tone. She then half turned and pointed with her right hand towards the BRDM-2 armoured cars.

“Our command has sent them to be your liaison officers, they will give you all pertinent information for your stay here.”

She then began to turn to return to the group she had come from.

OOC: simple IC response, Don’t take it personally, Naval Infantry tend to be quite picky, and unless your Lt. Colonel was quite physically fit, she could likely snap him in half. Heh.

Yugoslav soldiers disembarked ahead of their vehicles, and, even as he walked towards the greeters, Army-General Javoric could be observed waving a hand towards the An-12s that were preparing to unload their cargo and shouting back to the infantrymen, 'You! Those!', and he approached his hosts still wearing a self-satisfied grin over his use of a running in-joke.

Bojan wasn't an especially large person, but he had about him a hard edge and often unsettling presence that was not infrequently at odds with his apparently easy manner. He was the sort of man who could invite a comrade to sit and share a drink, on him, before shooting the unsuspecting fellow and delivering a post-mortem charge of association with an illegal organisation (as he had indeed done during the troubled early nineties before becoming a JNA officer). Even when he was found smiling -and laughing, as he often would- this intangible quality commonly made Javoric bigger in the memories of those who'd met him.

Javoric wore a beret set, apparently nonchalant, back on his head. In fact he'd not noticed that it caught on the doorframe as he exited his An-26, pulling it slightly out of position. A cannon and crossed swords identified his lofty rank and drew attention to the irregularity of his having such a small command as the mere thousand men expected to be supplied by subsequent flights to the country. On his hip the Army-General wore a Crvena Zastava Model 83 revolver, which his status afforded him the freedom to choose in contrast with standard issue, though, in this mission, he was compelled to fit the normally .357" weapon with a cylinder enabling it to fire 9mm Parabellum ammunition, which it would have in common with the automatics issued to the rest of the so-called Belgrade Brigade.

Personnel set to the business of unloading vehicles and equipment and arranging the refuel of their aircraft so that they could return to the Balkans for more men and material. The troops wore basic fatigues, and, amongst them, a fair mix of berets, forage caps, and tin helmets with a red star unmissable on the front. Across the airfield, transports from Otares were eyed with some curiosity and the troops discussed their origin and purpose, asking one another whether they knew what these guys were up to but, in truth, nobody knew much about the deployment, beyond that it was a mission to further international peace and pursue the greater aims of pan-Slavism as Marshal Lav had put it in sending them off.

Meeting his hosts, Javoric snapped a formal salute and uttered, in Serbian, an official declaration of his arrival, before relaxing to drop the salute in less than textbook form and venture a formality in Russian. Needless to say, few Yugoslavians were fluent in the language of the empire, but Russian was no problem for a number of the officers especially, and one or two amongst the vanguard element could struggle through a conversation in English or French, in addition to ample representation of the many languages of the Socialist Federal Republic.

ooc: alright haha hes pretty tough, he's airborne!

"Wow i hope all the women in this country are lile that..." mumbled Jack to his 2ic. "Get the general. He's probaly barking at the guys in the LAVs to get there butts moving. Tell him to get up here so he can talk to these people."

"Sir!" He salutes and turns and runs back to the transport, almost geting run over by a LAV III. He spots the general hitching a ride on top a LAV III. "Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Jack O’Neil needs you up top. Kilreny liaison officers are here."

"Alright in a second." The general puts his head down into the drivers area, "HEY LETS GET MOVING!! WE DONT HAVE ALL DAY!!" The LAV III roared to life as is made its way off the ship onto the pier. Jack jumped on.

"Sir, over there, the scout cars."

"HEY DRIVER OVER THERE!" pointing to here Jack had said. Brigadier-General Barnabé Grantaire, and Jumped off and walked over. Jack knocked on the scout car.

"Anyone home? Peacekeeper delivery, we're going to need to get a signature"

"Shut up Jack and let me handle this."

ooc: also what is the area like that im patroling? desert, woodland?

The "grapevine" was a network of rumours passed along, with varying degrees of substantiation, that existed in both military and civilian life. In this case, it passed by an adolescent, fifteen years of age, who commonly wore a pair of Khurzav Army-issue fatigue trousers and a civilian green windbreaker jacket, who bicycled past the big airfield, looking across his shoulder at the tarmac, noting aircraft not bearing Kilrany insignias on the runways, and numbers of men and personnel. His eyes narrowed against the wind and he turned his bicycle around, going back the way he'd come. It was a ten kilometer ride, but at least it was an easy one on a road that was in a reasonable state of repair.

Leaving his bicycle in the shed, he locked the sheet-steel door and bounded through the backdoor of his house, taking the stairs up to his room two at a time, sitting down heavily infront of his computer and opening an internet e-mail program.

Subject: Local rumours
Message:
I recently saw a few airplanes that don't belong to those we already know, and some personnel. I don't think they're lying on the radio, and those airplanes aren't from any of the other countries in the SFR. They're from out of the region, and a few of them are looking competant. Just a heads up.
Regards,
- Aleksi

--

Less than a hundred kilometers away, another man got the message, deleted it promptly, and went outside, looking down the street and seeing a Kilrany patrol, their BTR-80 sporting that all-too-common 30mm automatic cannon turret and antitank guided missile launcher set.

He stretched his legs and jogged through suburbia to a place where his friend's backyard reached into the forest, opening the gate and closing it behind him, crossing the overly long grass on the lawn, and went through the forest, following animal trails until a voice challenged him from a patch of trapped shadow a dozen meters to his front. He held his hands away from his body and answered the challenge with the password, where a second man escorted him deeper into the forest.

A few minutes later, he left the forest and jogged back to his home.

Yugo Slavia

The ‘greeting’ party was made up of about eight soldiers; two near the back carried the standard Kilrany assault rifle, the AK-74M, the remaining six only carried a service sidearm, the Heckler and Koch USP chambered in 9mm.

The lead officer frowned slightly, glancing to his left then to his right before he addressed the General in Russian.

“Forgive me if I do not return your salute General, it is SOP that when we are not in a secure environment, we do not salute, although we haven’t had problems with partisan snipers yet, experience learned during the Virinov Insurrection a decade ago taught us to be extremely caution out in the open like this. I would be glad to return that honour inside sir.”

The officer’s expression changed to a look far friendlier and his tone of voice matched it.

“Forgive me, I am Captain Konstantin Vasnetsov.”

Vasnetsov did however extend his right hand out, offering a handshake.

Delesa

Two men from the armoured cars broke from the group and began walking towards them, meeting them halfway. The first had a service sidearm, the H&K USP in 9mm; the other had an AK-74M slung over his shoulder.

“Welcome to Khurzav sir, I am Major Viktor Byko, I have been assigned as your chief liaison officer. We have set aside an area a few hundred meters away where you can stockpile your vehicles until you are ready to move out.”

OOC: As I mentioned earlier in the introductory post, Khurzav is a temperate environment, however I suppose I should have elaborate on that. There are no deserts in Khurzav, you will have mostly green terrain until you head higher up into the mountains where you can end up running into some snowfall.

Onboard the KS Kingdom, Kingdom Class Destroyer (Arleigh Burke), Command Escort Ship

Captain Krieger looked at the dispatch in his hand. It simply stated to deliver his cargo to the port of Pleven and return to the Kingdom post haste, not a particularly challenging order, but an order nonetheless. To comply he raised himself from his seat in the CIC and slowly made his way across the compartment and then up the ladder to the bridge.

A pair of ensigns saluted him as the usual bridge crew continued their jobs. Unusually the Captain had come up rather than simply using the telephone from down below, the XO looked over at him quizzically.

“XO, come to course zero-six-two maintain current speed. We drop these transports off in Pleven then make a speed run home. They are to look after themselves on the way back, we are needed back in the Kingdom. Inform the rest of our flotilla if you will.”

The message was passed throughout the nine ship group by blinker light, the two frigates that formed the rest of the escort having also received the same message and passing it on to merchantmen nearer to them.




It was six hours later that the KS Lifeline came into the port of Pleven. Harbour tugs gently pushed her into the docking bay before backing off and moving to assist one of her sister ships in the procedure that they could theoretically do by themselves. Guide and mooring lines were thrown to the port crew on the dock who tied them securely in place, ties that would be inspected by a naval officer because you could never be too careful.

With her starboard side close to the deck it was this large hatch that opened and slowly lowered to form a ramp capable of taking the vehicles and men off of the ship and onto terra firma. Ships officers who had used the gangplank off of the ship supervised the exercise with walkie talkies whilst an advanced squad of infantry carrying their G3A9’s and clothed in woodland fatigues complete with protective vests left the ship to accompany Colonel Lothian in his search for a Kilrany officer. They had instructions as to where they would be going, but local guides would be useful to supplement the GPS as well as start giving them a feel for the country. Spotting a likely candidate for liason officer, the Colonel moved in that direction adjusting his own beret slightly as he did so. The radio in the left breast pocket of his protective vest squawked as the command circuit announced their readiness for instructions. An affirmative response was all that was needed for now as he approached the officer, Lothians own woodland BDU’s and black protective vest complete with drop holster for his 9mm seeming slightly out of place with all the soviet style weaponary around.

On the deck of Lifeline the first Merlin was being pre-flighted by its crew. A squad of infantry sat on the deck nearby checking their weapons and equipment for the millionth time purely because they had nothing else to do. When the rotors started turning a few minutes later they took their cue and following the crew chiefs instructions they boarded through the rear cargo ramp in a single file. They flipped down the flatpack seats from the sides of the fuselage and strapped themselves in loosely, their mission required them to all look out the windows whilst the flight crew searched for a suitable base camp site.

In the cockpit of the Merlin, Flt Captain Jenna Jelfs saluted the deck crewman before pulling up on the collective yoke to launch the helicopter into the air, kicking the foot pedals to spin the bird ninety degrees so it was now facing directly in towards land at a height of barely one hundred feet. A quick glance out of her window showed the first of the big trucks carrying base material and troops rolling out of the ships cavernous cargo hold and forming up on the quayside. So far Operation Peacekeeper was going according to plan.

House of James

Unlike the Naval Infantry, the regular army personnel who made up the bulk of the forces in Khurzav and also those assigned as liaison officers, didn’t quite see what the big deal was in regards to the foreign soldiers. They were after all only a small force, it wasn’t as if they were coming to try and force them out, which would have been a bad idea, regardless, the liaison officer assigned to the force from the House of James put on a friendly smile and moved towards the officer from said nation as he approached.

“Greetings to you, I am Major Anna Roerich, I have been assigned as your liaison officer. What would you like to cover first?”

Vasnetsov's hand was gripped firmly by the smaller paw of the Bosnian-Serb commander of the Yugoslav mission, Javoric still looking a little put-off stride by the suggestion of snipers. He'd come under fire before, in Kosovo, and his next concern, delivered while still holding -perhaps uncomfortably long- on to the Captain's hand, was to deploy some of his men to forward patrols around the airfield.

Releasing Vasnetsov, the General said that he'd feel best if his troops were out, learning the perimeter and pre-empting any sniper or other attack, until the rest of the Yugoslav force was in-country and ready to roll on to the SFRY's designated zone of responsibility.

"Our intelligence on the situation here is limited." he confessed, "My staff and I shall appreciate any briefing on the threat level, here and around Pashchatova, and anything else that may be of use."

A member of the Brigade's Special Antiterrorist Force detachment (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/m21s.jpg) armed with a rechambered Zastava M21S rifle takes a cautious approach first time out.

Yugo Slavia

Captain Vasnetsov nodded his head as the General spoke, what he said was all quite reasonable and to be expected.

“Of course sir, although our personnel do already patrol the perimeter, I’m sure there will be no problem adding your men to the patrol and familiarize them with the immediate area until all your men arrive. If you’ll follow me to the main building over there, I can give you a general run down on the situation as it is right now and answer any other questions you or your staff may have as best I can.

Vasnetsov turned and gestured at an officer behind him.

“Meanwhile the Lieutenant here can show your men where you can safely store your equipment until you’re ready to move out.”

"Well Major I have several things. Firstly I would like to request a guide for my engineering units to take them to a suitable site for a base. That helicopter is searching for one as well, we are unsure if you will allow us the three Battalion sized bases or if you would prefer us in a single Regimental sized one. Of course I do not know if you are in a position to determine that and if you are not could you please forward it to somebody who is, at the moment our first priority will be estalishing a base of operations and from there we will extend patrols out into the countryside."

Lothian realised that he had just condensed quite a few requests into one sentence and promptly closed his mouth to await the major's response. Behind him the squad of infantry slung their weapons over their shoulders and took a slightly more relaxed approach as they heard the sounds of another Merlin spinning up.

House of James

Major Roerich’s head tilted slightly as a somewhat confused look came across her face, a few moments later it changed to one of understanding and she nodded her head.

“I forgot you had only been given basic information on your area of operation.”

Reaching into a pouch on her uniform she pulled out a small map of Khurzav with the areas of operations of each of the five nations roughly marked out, in the center of each was a small circle. Showing the map to the Colonel she pointed at his assigned area.

“If you’ll take note, at the center of your area of operation, marked on this map, and several others we have to give to you, is a former Khurzav military base we’ve set aside for your use, same goes for the other nations and their areas of operations, they aren’t huge military bases, only designed to hold about a Regiment worth of Khurzav personnel, now they operated fairly large Regiments, roughly ten thousand personnel. So this should be more then sufficient for your use. They currently only have a small garrison of our personnel to ensure they don’t get used by any partisan forces, we had believed these would be more useful to you, we were going to escort you there once your men were ready to move out, but if you’d rather set up elsewhere, there should be little problem in finding an area suitable for your habitation. The base is quite livable however and does already have perimeter fencing in place. As an added note, I should mention that the main roads, and even secondary roads took little damage in our advance in most sectors.”

The second convoy closed in on the Kilrany port. The 3 ship convoy was met by a fleet of tugs. The tugs gently nudged the ships into the respective piers and the crews on board the ship threw thw ships line to the men on the pier. Very quickly the ramps were in positon, and the men and equipment was ofloaded. Now the general had his army assembled, he was ready to move out. But first he reported to the chief liaison officer. He was in his battle uniform, with his woodland combats and field cap. ON to of his field cap he had a old pair of goggles you can see been worn by WWII general Rommel, when he was in command of the Africa Korps.

Delesa

Major Byko was checking over a small map with one of his comrades next to their armoured cars. Catching the Generals approach out of the corner of his eye he looked up towards him, taking note of his appearance.

“From the looks of things you’re ready to move out, now before we do, I should point this out to you. I know you received an update informing you of your area of operation, but you weren’t informed that in the center or it, we marked off where a fairly large former Khurzav base is, currently we have a company of Mechanized Infantry garrisoning it so it doesn’t get used by partisans, but it is designed to support a Khurzav Regiment, about ten thousand men. This base has been set aside for your use, it’s fairly developed, plenty of structures and a perimeter fence. If this is fine by you we can escort you to it, then give you a more detailed briefing on the situation in your area once you’re fully established. Is this acceptable?”

"Well good afternoon Major Byko. Well by the sounds of it, the boase sounds more then we needed. I would make men sleep in tents if i wanted but the base will do." The general maved his hand in the air, signaling a G-Wagon (http://www.thecouriernewspaper.ca/webs/000317/images/gwagon.jpg) to come up. "Lead the way. You can detail me when we get there." Once again the general threw his arm up in the air and did a circlular motion. "Lets ride."

Of the thirty men that had gathered under the "KRG" banner, only eight were former soldiers. They still fought for the flag that hung in the small, camouflaged olive-drab tent that was in the forest, the center of their small encampment, but as partisans now. One wore the "Green Woodland" M/88 uniform of the Khurzav elite units, the Airborne and Marines. Six wore standard VSR, one of them was a signals specialist. The last man wore a faded uniform, the horizontal 'tiger stripes' of the Kamysh pattern blending him with the hanging, leaf-heavy branches in this dense part of the forest.

Their ordnance consisted of a single RPK-74, six AK-74s, and a single AK-74 fitted with a GP-30, for which they had no ammunition. Decently equipped with ammunition for all of the 5.45x39mm weapons, a fair number of spare magazines per man, and adaquete field equipment, every soldier here having retrieved his rucksack, loaded with spare uniforms, including raingear, messtin, spare canteens, and even some rations and the cleaning kits for their weapons.
The others in the forest were woodsmen, all dressed in hard-wearing clothes, a few of them even carrying long-handled axes. A handful had rifles, and one, a jovial-looking man in his mid-forties carried an expensive SAKO TRG-42 rifle chambered in .338 Lapua. Expensive it was, but worth every single dollar. There was a baker's dozen of shotguns, two of which were double-barrel break-action types, of very limited use. Three carried handguns.

Every man here had sworn an oath to the flag. The Khurzav soldiers, especially the one who sat on his haunches infront of a map, were realists. The Partisans of the "Khurzav Resistance Group" knew they had no chance of throwing the invader from their homeland, but they were decided to make life unpleasant for him here. The woodsmen were recieving training in concealed and quiet movement in the forest, those who needed it, concealment in a static position, ambush, fire-discipline for weapons they did not yet possess, and a measure of physical fitness training, simple exercises that strengthened existing muscle and developed muscles not otherwise used frequently. Every man learnt some methods of silent killing and melee combat, training administered by a grinning M/88 clad soldier who duck and weaved around countless blows, always delivering a painful counter and flinging his assailent to the ground.

Lessons were hard, but effective. They possessed limited firearms, but an adaquete amount of material for improvised explosives. A handful of men were trained in the construction and deployment of these devices by the Kamysh-clad specialist, a quiet man with a 'common,' nondescript face and slow and deliberate speech.

Intelligence came in all the time, gathered by those who would not make good partisans for any number of reasons, and relayed to the men who trained in the forest camp that relocated weekly. So far, no offensive actions, and nothing to draw attention to themselves. Although, with the confirmation of foreign "peacekeepers" on Khurzav soil to assist the Kilrany occupiers, that would have to change.

Delesa

Byko folded the small map and returned it to a pocket on his uniform before he addressed the General once more.

“Very good then sir, we’ll lead off, by the way, a squad of motorized infantry will take up the rear as the last of your vehicles leave,” Byko gestured to a pair of Kilrany BTR-80s, they featured a high angle turret mounting a 30mm auto cannon, a 7.62mm machine gun, and a quad pack for the Kornet AT missile, it was similar in design to the Russian ‘Kliver’ turret for their BTRs, “I estimate it will take about four hours drive to get to the base from here.”

The Major and his compatriots proceeded to get into three BRDM-2 armoured cars, unlike most Kilrany light armour they didn’t feature an auto cannon, instead they mounted a 12.7mm heavy machine gun and a 7.62mm machine gun. They started to drive slowly, making sure the Delesa convoy was doing the same, content that they were, they picked up speed a little. When the last of the Delesa vehicles was leaving the two BTR-80s started up and proceeded to take up the rear.

The general sat back in the passengers seat with a FN P90 on his lap. He liked to have a different weapon other then that of the regular soldiers. The convoy was doing what they were trained to do so. They were alert sonce the moment the general has signed for a mount up. 'Good Lads' the general thought.

"Corperal give me our map." the general turned around and held open his had in front of the man siting behind him. He fumbled with his tactial vest, finally freeing the map from the grip of the pocket. The general took it and opened it on the surface in front of him. He followe the road no the map with his finger. Seems like a safe area. Any intel from Army HQ?"

"No sir, were expecting the Kilreny boys to tell us."

"Alright, i think they said they took the harbour hard or easy? I can't remember." Well eyes open and kep moving."

Feet clad in nondescript, locally-produced running shoes flew over grass, impacting firm soil and propelling their owner on their way. A body conditioned to this kind of exercise whipped through the waist-high grasses, headed towards the woodline. She stopped, bent double, caught her breath in less than two minutes, and looked around.

A woodsman in a dark flannel shirt with a pump-action shotgun and his companion, wearing a green hunter's jacket, holding an old Mosin Nagant rifle his grandfather had passed down through the years, met him. Their arms sported the recently fashioned "KRG" patches, the KRG in black Cryllic script over a subdued-colour version of the Khurzav flag, borrowed from the soldier's patches. A local housewife had made these armbands with exquisite skill, and she was currently producing a few different types of insignia, all in subdued-colour variations. These partisans would never be on a parade square with any need to look resplendant. Unit pride, the Kamysh-clad man knew, was an important thing. And perhaps this woman would be able to make more useful accoutrements later.

"Convoy, huge one, headed out. Really far away, nowheres near us. Just thought to let you know. The guys from uh... I think it was Delesa. In the South."
"Okay, good work, girl. And thanks. Get back home now, and carefully!"

She nodded and took off running through the grass again. The KRG was nowheres near those forces. Their camp, in thick forest twenty five kilometers from where it was two days ago, was about seventy-five (75km) kilometers North-North-West of Pashchatova. The Partisans didn't know it, but this put them inside the Yugoslav's area of operations, for now, at least.

The Yugoslavs were happy to be getting along well enough with their Kilrany hosts. A few personnel joined the patrols, and soon were back in the spirit of things.

Time passed, and more Antonov aircraft arrived, unloading people and light vehicles.

Before too long, the Belgrade Brigade was around one thousand strong, mechanised by jeeps, trucks, and BOV APCs, and supported by a small number of Partizan and Hip helicopters.

The Partizan, by its name, gave a sharp reminder of the heritage of this force. At the moment, the Yugoslavians knew more about partisan operation than did the Khurzav, and it was almost a shame that they weren't exactly on the same side. Javoric's men would perhaps try to engage locals in conversation and fill them in on common history and Yugoslav struggles, but this was hardly likely to spread the word far, even if the people would believe them.

For now, Javoric listened to the Kilrany officers and sought information on the level of popular opposition to the take-over. Rifle-carrying guerrilla armies? IED-placing terrorists? Stone-throwing students?

The Brigade, after some time building-up at the airfield, prepared to move to its area of responsibility. But the troops did not want to move as occupation forces. They brought rations to hand-out on the road, and, they thought, far more importantly, they would sing as they moved.

Hej, Slavs! they crowed.

Hey, Slavs,
The spirit of our grandfathers still lives,
As long as the hearts of their sons
Beat for the people.

Lives, lives the Slavic spirit,
It will live for ages!
The Hell's abyss threatens in vain,
The fire of thunder is in vain.

Let all above us now
be shattered by a storm.
Cliffs crack, oaks break,
Let the earth quake.

We stand firmly like mountains,
Damned be the traitor of his homeland!

Highest flew the flags of the Socialist Federal Republic and the Kilrany Empire, but, below them, smaller banners for Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, the Slovak and even the Italian minorities of Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Croatia, and for Khurzav all displayed by the convoys that dawdled, shuffling out from their start point.

Belgrade took the view that Khurzav hadn't been conquered, rather its people reunited with brothers and sisters. The fault was with the old rulers, all washed away.

We'll see...

Within the limits of the Khurzav capitol city of Pernik, one of the Royal Palaces belonging to the Khurzav Royal Family was located. Spread over its outer grounds in fixed defensive emplacements was a platoon of Army T80UMs and a company of Mechanized Infantry with their BMP-3s. Not a single Khurzav citizen walked within its walls or on its grounds anymore, right now it was being used as the Headquarters for Kilrany operations within Khurzav.

Within the walls of this large building was a bevy of Kilrany command staff, high end secure communications equipment, 2nd, 4th and 5th Division’s regional command and General Yuri Dovlatov, commander of all regular force military personnel in Khurzav.

Currently General Dovlatov stood casually with his hands behind his back as he looked out a large tinted window overlooking the North side grounds of the building from what used to be the main office of Khurzav’s former King. He turned to face the office’s partially open main doors when he heard a knock come from their direction.

He made a slight gesture and two soldiers walked in, there was nothing exceptional about the first man who wore a Major’s uniform and was part of his immediate staff. It was the second soldier that was unique, wearing a Gorka-S style uniform with tactical assault vest, with the hood down but the face covered up to just above the nose, only the eyes visible and G-36C slung on the back.

Dovlatov chose to address the Major first, knowing the second soldier would not speak until he had left anyway.

“What can I do for you Major?”

“Nothing sir, I merely wished to inform you that some partisans attempted to ambush a convoy just North of the city of Tsyelograd. One truck was disabled and three men killed, however the attack was haphazard and amateurish, the escorts killed nine of them, were not sure how many got away.”

“Thank you Major, in accordance I want an extra escort added to all convoys in that sector for the next month. Anything else?”

“No sir, that’s it.”

“You’re dismissed.”

The Major nodded and left the room, giving the second soldier an uneasy passing glance as he did so. The second soldier, who bore no rank closed the office doors and turned to face the General. Dovlatov took a deep breath before he spoke; their presence always meant something was going to get bad.

“And what is it that I can do for 5th Division today?”

The 5th Division operator took a few steps closer to the General and spoke in an even quiet tone, which was distinctly female.

“Several of these foreigners have arrived General.”

“I’m aware of this.”

“As we know you are General.”

“Then why are you here.”

“I am here to give you fair warning General, keep a close eye on these foreigners, make sure they don’t cause any problems, we have more pressing matters to attend to in this country than them.”

“They are here to keep the peace-”

The 5th Division operative cut him off without a change in tone or volume.

“They are foreigners General, make sure they stay in line, or we will have to take a more active role then we already are.”

She didn’t wait for a response; she didn’t need to, turning on her heel she left the office, leaving the General to consider what she had said, and the implications therein.

Yugo Slavia

While the Yugoslavian forces were offloading their equipment and making their preparations, Captain Vasnetsov took this time to give Javoric and his staff a quick run down on the situation.

“For the most part our heavy forces have withdrawn or taken over positions in former Khurzav military bases, staying on call as it were should something truly serious occur. In that regard since the official surrender the majority of the local population has been rather quiet, or at the very least, non-violent. We have had a few isolated incidents of partisan activity since the official surrender, so far confined to rural areas and generally with nothing more then light sport weapons. We have also had numerous large-scale protests, a few have focuses on our presence here, but the majority have been calls for the return of Khurzav POWs. For the record, we have a large number of POWs we’re still holding because we believe it would be unwise to simply release several tens of thousands of people without jobs anymore into the local population, especially when they’ve had fairly extensive military training. Despite the fact we have been treating them very well and releasing those as we can find jobs for them, it’s not considered enough in the eyes of the Khurzav. Unfortunately we have had a few unfortunate incidents where Khurzav civilians were killed when the situation got out of hand, we aren’t looking to cause any unnecessary deaths, but we have no intention of putting our soldiers lives in danger.

Captain Vasnetsov turned slightly to face one of the airbases assigned personnel as he came into the room he was holding the briefing in.

“Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt but the Yugoslavian forces have all touched down and are ready to move out.”

“Thank you Sergeant.”

As the Soldier left the room Captain Vasnetsov turned back to Javoric.

“I believe we should move out to the former Khurzav base we have assigned to you, if there is anything else you would like to know, I can answer there.”

Leaving the main building with the Yugoslavians they joined up with their own forces to form up into a convoy to lead their new friends to the former Khurzav base outside Pashchatova. So far the Yugoslavians had impressed Captain Vasnetsov and he even found their singing inspiring, the final line however worried him as they passed a half dozen Khurzav civilians walking along the side of the road outside a small village.

ooc: did you just kill three of my men or yours?

Lothian took the map and considered it briefly. He nodded his head slightly and turned to one of the squad who had accompanied him.

“Inform Major Britten that we have a base set up already. I want his engineers ready to move in ten minutes to it to make an assessment and strengthen accordingly if necessary.”

The man snapped a sharp salute and ran off towards the ship. One minor defect in the plan was that the combat engineers didn’t have the tactical radios that the normal infantry possessed so until they could be flown in they would rely on runners and the heavier radio sets.

Turning to the Kilrany Major, Lothian continued.

“Thank you Major. I will need a guide to go with the initial convoy and then another to journey with the main column. I estimate it will be nearly two hours before we are formed up in enough strength to begin a full scale move. Thank you for your co-operation at this early stage.”

Colonel Lothian extended his hand to the officer as the second Merlin roared off of the deck of KS Lifeline and raced off to catch up with the first.

That first helicopter was by now circling the outskirts of the port, Flt Captain Jelfs was allowing her co-pilot to do most of the flying while she observed and kept a nervous eye on the electronic systems that tracked SAM radars and emissions. Currently the noise in her headset told her that she was being swept over by air search radar but that there was no target acquisition mode. The large database of knowledge on soviet systems had been mainly purchased or “borrowed” from the United States before its internal decline that allowed the world as it was today to flourish. Plus of course the Kingdom had several soviet era systems of its own for “testing” or more correctly testing its capabilities against Kingdom built systems.

Now her helicopter was being swept by what the computer classified as an SA-11 type search radar as well as a more modern SA-15 type. Both were bad news if for some reason they decided to fire on the Merlin, despite the countermeasures pods that the helicopter was equipped with. But Captain Jelfs had to put such thoughts out of her head, this was a Peacekeeping mission and therefore unlikely to see any action of note.

Delesa

Apologies, I should have been a bit more specific. As I had stated it was North of the city of Tsyelograd, currently your convoy and my units escorting them were to the South, it was in fact simply one of my own supply convoys. If I had some partisans attack another players convoy, I would have detailed the attack and not simply stated the aftermath, I also would not have decided the death results of your people, that’s your call, not mine.

House of James

Major Roerich took the offered hand and returned the handshake, so far she found these people to be rather competent, but time would tell if they would be the kind of people they could trust.

“You’re quite welcome sir, now I can assign the Captain here,” she half turned and gestured at another officer who in turn nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement, “To escort your initial convoy out of the city and to the base, it’s about five hours drive, could be longer if there happens to be a backlog at the bridge,” Roerich indicated a point on the river almost due North of the base set aside for The House of James forces, “here. There used to be three major bridges over that river before we came, we only managed to prevent the destruction of one of them, and it’s the only way to cross that river without traveling a few hundred kilometers to the East. It’s heavily guarded by our men who are under orders to do a complete inspection of every vehicle that crosses it, our command doesn’t want to give any partisans any chances to damage it. So at times the line of vehicles to cross it can be long, they do try to prioritize military forces, but sometimes you just can’t slip them through the backlog. Now I’ll remain here if you have any additional questions and I’ll travel with your main force to the base when they’re all ready.”

Content with what she said, she turned to the Captain she had mentioned a minute earlier.

“Captain, take the lead BRDM there and the two BTRs, I’ll have another pair assigned for the second convoy when the time comes.”

“Yes ma’am.”

--

About halfway between the port of Pleven and the major airfield to its East was a significantly large former Khurzav base currently occupied by the Kilrany forces, it currently held two armoured regiments, three mechanized infantry regiments and one specialized vehicle, a special control vehicle (http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l93/Kilrany/C3Ivehicle.jpg) designed to control air defense forces in the immediate region.

The vehicle was data linked with the rather limited number of air defense systems that still remained active in Khurzav, including a link received from one of the orbiting, from inside the operators could see a digital display of their section of Khurzav and what all currently active air defense systems and mobile radars could see, those in turn were digitally overlaid on the map with a red ring indicating fire range in the case of an air defense system, so they knew what system could engage a target. They had detected the unidentified air contacts over the port city of Pleven, IFF had come back negative, had it not been for the fact that they had previously been informed that peacekeeping forces were to be bringing in aircraft.

alright so you RP when our convoy arrives.

Delesa

For the most part the trip out of the port city of Ostovgrad was uneventful, periodically passing Kilrany military patrols and even some Khurzav police forces, for the most part the local population stayed out of the way of the convoy. The only eventful occurrence was a minor half hour delay at a small bridge roughly halfway to the base.

As they finally approached the former Khurzav base, they could clearly see the intact perimeter fence, a single chain link fence with barbwire on the top dug partially into the ground and almost five hundred meters from the outer wire to the nearest tree line. Roughly a half dozen Kilrany soldiers stood guard at the entrance, one waved them through as they approached.

It was clear as they entered that the base had seen some degree of shelling, a few shell holes not yet filled in off to the sides and even a few badly damaged structures, but for the most part, it was still intact. The three leading BRDM-2s pulled off to the side parking next to what could have been the bases main administration building.

Getting out of his vehicle Major Byko awaited the Delesa commander who had believed to be following just behind his three-car escort.

The RPF finally touched down at Ostovgrad Airfield after much delay - Skgorrian Central Command had debated about sending the RPF to the north where a new enemy to the Race had arisen, but the decision had been made to uphold previous commitments.

The RPF disembarked from their transports and the airfield became a flurry of activity. Civillians and staff watched in interest as the 5 companies unloaded their kit, their vehicles and themselves from the transports and into their Ural trucks and other vehicles, the Air Support and Transport company remaining on their helipads.

Within the hour all 5 companies were formed up and ready to move out. The commander, Major Hertzog, waited for a local military representative to contact him with instructions...

OOC: sorry I haven't posted in a while, RL is a bitch

Skgorria

Captain Pyotr Kutuzov approached who he believed to be the commander of the Skgorria forces, extending his hand rather then salute.

“I am Captain Pyotr Kutuzov, welcome to Khurzav, it would seem that you’re quite ready to move out, if you’d rather I can give you a briefing on the situation at a small former Khurzav base we have set aside for you, and we can move out now.”

OOC: That's quite understandable, we all have real life in our way. ;)

3 g-wagons pulled over to the Kilrany patrol cars. The general got out. With his googles pulled down over his face, and the dirt on his face, it was obvious he was ridding in the gunners spot. He placed his goggles ontop of his hat.

"Well that wentok, eh boys." nlooking at the kilrany soldiers. "and now that we are here, my i bring in my helios? Do they have a pad here, ot just land in a field?"

Delesa

Major Byko nodded his head in responce to both questions from the Delesa General and gestured off to the North end of the base.

"Just in that direction sir, you should find that the Khurzav had designed the base to hold ten attack helicopters, if you have more then that, that shouldn't be a problem either since that number would have been with a full regiment here, with the number of your men, you should be able to use any extra open areas to put down extra aircraft. Now, as I believe I mentioned we have a company of our own men here, if you'd like we can withdraw them so you can take complete control of the base, or they can remain and work in conjuction with your own to provide security on the base. We leave that your choice, either way however I and my staff here," Byko gestured to the other soldiers that had come with him in the three BRDM-2s, "will be remaining as your liaison with our command."

The general removed his goggles and began to wip them on his tunic,
"Completly understandable. 10 should be fine. Also i done see a problem with your forces here. ONly thing is we have 3000 man not including me, and the pilots to arrive. If there is room, they may stay. Also could i get reports of the area populatio, approx. size of the enemy forces, and posible people in the near city that might be working with the enemy?"

“Thank you Major”

Lothian waved to the driver of an armoured land rover that was part of the Engineers section. The vehicle drove up to the group of officers and another soldier stepped out of the front making room for the Captain to get in. Behind the land rover came another similar vehicle before seven 5tonne trucks carrying both engineers and building materials and then two more land rovers at the rear.

Once the Captain was onboard the small convoy moved off behind the BRDM, known as a Burrdurrm to the Kingdom Soldiers. The four land rovers had men armed with M249 SAW’s standing in a relaxed pose in the turret position, the sun meant that a few of them put on sun glasses but aside from that the expressions on their face was neutral. Passing some civilians on the streets of Pleven the men smiled amiably and waved, over the lead vehicle the flag of the Kings Cross of the Kingdom fluttered in the light breeze telling the civilians that these troops were not Kilrany.

Inside the lead vehicle the driver, a Sergeant and veteran of two campaigns in the wilds north of Priskia, struck up conversation with his Kilrany superior. It was both a friendly exercise and yet another attempt to gain intelligence on the situation and the attitudes of people.



Meanwhile back at the port the rest of the Regiment was unloading quickly from the six ships. Crates of ammunition were already stacked into the back of specially armoured ammunition lorries and all fuel tanks had been filled on the voyage over leaving very little to assemble once they were on the dock side. The Regimental 0-4, Chief Logistics Officer, estimated that they would be ready to move in under three hours if they were going as a Regiment, or five minutes if they were moving out in Company strength columns over a time period. This was passed onto the Kilrany officers who seemed keen for them to move as one large column, as it was technically their country Colonel Lothian agreed.


Flt Captain Jelfs banked her Merlin around when she got the radio call and started heading for the new location that had popped up on her HUD. With the second Merlin she was going to drop off an advanced guard at the base that would soon be occupied by Kingdom Forces. The third Merlin, this one taking off from the second transport KS Lifeforce would provide top cover for the engineer convoy, not that it probably needed it but better safe than sorry.

A former Khurzav soldier, a former artilleryman, now having been found a job in a butcher's shop, who still wore his combat boots, stood on the sidewalk outside his workplace in Pleven with his left arm wrapped around the firm waist of his dark-blonde girlfriend. His right arm was extended in a wave to the passing troops, his eyes scanning over them to take into account what he saw they had for equipment, their posture, and memorizing the flag so he could look it up later, just to be sure.

"Wave, Anna. Wave instead of flipping them off, because they're not Kilrany."

She nudged him, ramming her elbow into his side and speaking through a smile.

"I know, jackass."

She laughed, a merry and gentle sound, and waved to the passing soldiers.

Army-General Javoric, having heard Captain Vasnetsov's briefing, ordered most of his men to proceed with soft hats, with bayonets sheathed, and eyes and faces uncovered. Until their was serious trouble from another party, the Yugoslavs were going to proceed as if there was none in prospect.

The General had actually worried himself a little over parts of the pan-Slavic anthem that he quite expected his men to sing at some point, but, he supposed, it was perfectly likely that the locals were already familiar with a local version of the song, and perhaps it would be best to see the potential enemy dancing to the same tune, so to speak. In coming days, Yugoslav agencies would even approach opposites in Kilrany and Khurzav to offer Yugoslav cinema, including dramatisations of the long struggle for unity in the Balkans, such as saw Russian troops and Serbs within the service of the Austro-Hungarians refusing to fight when they met in the Great War, exchanging instead verses of Hey, Slavs! Some government studios would even co-operative movie projects using actors from Khurzav and Kilrany to tell uplifting Yugoslav stories, Yugoslavs and Khurzavs to retell suitable stories from SFR.

For now, the Belgrade Brigade rolled on towards Pashchatova. A flight of Partizan and Hip helicopters assembled at the airbase and would follow shortly to arrive at approximately the same time as the convoy.

As the Belgrade Brigade rolled by, yet another former PoW Khurzav man rested and watched. He noted the vehicles with interest, as well as the soldiers inside them. He smiled happily and waved; he'd vacationed in Serbia and Bosnia and found it quite the pleasant place. Perhaps they'd brought some Slivovitz with them, but trades could always be arranged later. He jammed the shovel blade-down in the pile of manure he was helping shovel up into a tarp-covered truck loadbed, waved and shouted out greetings and well-wishes in Serbo-Croatian.

One of his companions, also a farm-hand, excused himself from the labour, rinsed his hands clean under the outside tap, and went into the farmhouse to make a phonecall.

Ten minutes later, a runner left her house and made her way to a different section of woods, bordering on a meadow. The Partisan informant network wasn't as well developed as it could be, but it was most definately getting the job done. A Kamysh-clad soldier sat on a cut log shaped for the purpose infront of a roughly-hewn table, bent over maps, trying to divine which bases they'd be headed for, how they might patrol.

He had little idea. If these were Kilrany soldiers, he would have a better idea. But it now fell to patient and careful observation to fill the gaps in their knowledge.

Behind him, twenty five meters distant, a Khurzav soldier clad in the standard VSR taught a woodsman how to handle the RPK. They hoped to acquire more of these weapons soon. Very soon.

Grasping the hand of Captain Pyotr Kutuzov, Hertzog shook it firmly. "Good to meet you Captain, my troops are all loaded up and ready to move out. Does the base we're flying to have the capability to land all my helicopters? I am wondering whether to send a platoon or two ahead in Mi-8s to secure the area."

All the Skgorrians were eager to move out and get on with their mission, plus they were tired of being cramped up in transport aircraft, then either trucks or APCs. Still, this did not dampen their spirits and some were waving at the few civillians still watching the troops sitting on the tarmac.

Delesa

Major Byko listened closely to what the Delesa General said and considered his response for a second before he spoke.

“Well General, this base was designed to hold about one Khurzav regiment and it’s support equipment and personnel, so unless you have six thousand extra personnel coming, we should have more then enough room.”

The Major glanced over at the long line of the convoy still coming into the base, he did a quick calculation in his head and estimated it would likely take the Delesa a day to get everything sorted out here at the base.

“From Khurzav consensus reports that we picked up from government buildings, it’s estimated that there are around seven million people in your assigned operational area, three million in the city of Tsyelograd, roughly of course. As to size of partisan forces, were aren’t to sure, so far we’ve only encountered sporadic groups of them, usually small, less then one hundred people, and so far there seems to be no coordination between the various small groups around the country. As for known sympathizers, we can’t be sure, at this early of a stage every one of them is considered a potential sympathizer.”

House of James

The Lieutenant welcomed the small conversation with the House of James Sergeant, it would help make the time go faster and he was genuinely interested in their nation.

“Fortunately for all sides the war was relatively quick and casualties light, although you’re not likely to encounter that same view from the Khurzav. They did after all suffer heavy losses in an opening battle with the Valnari,” he knew heavy losses was quite an understatement, but like many Kilrany, it was difficult not to be frustrated with the Khurzav, so many skirmishes, battles, and all out wars had occurred between Khurzav and Kilrany over the years, there was a long list of grievances on both sides, “I think you’ll find the majority of the Khurzav just want things to get back to normal however.”

Major Roerich decided it best to elaborate to the Colonel as to why she preferred them to move out as one group rather then many smaller groups, just so he would understand her reasoning.

“I should clarify as to why I believe this sir, although you could send out smaller convoys much quicker and spread out more, I don’t have the manpower at my disposal right now to issue an escort for that many convoys to the base we set aside. If we remain as one, albeit large, convoy we can ensure that no one will get lost on the way.”

Yugo Slavia

It was a relatively short drive from the airfield to the base the Kilrany had set aside for the Yugoslavian force and do to their smaller size, the base they had chosen for them was more appropriate in size for them, it had been designed to hold a Khurzav Division, which was approximately three thousand combat troops and their supporting equipment and personnel. Like almost all Khurzav bases, it had space set aside for their army’s aviation to land and operate from.

Within the privacy of the second BRDM-2 that lead off the convoy Captain Vasnetsov turned to face a fellow officer.

“So what do you think of these Yugoslavians the Emperor has allowed to play a role here?”

“So far? Well, my initial impressions are that they seem like decent soldiers, and I can see the damned Khurzav dealing well with them.”

“Lets hope so, we don’t need anyone inflaming the situation.”

“That might not necessarily be a bad thing though.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve been to nice on the Khurzav, their arrogant, holier then thou attitude they’ve had towards us all these years … I have to admit I was surprised at the orders we received. I had expected much harsher orders in how to deal with them.”

“We all were surprised, but our orders remain the same, we are to treat the Khurzav with respect and do what we can to limit any unnecessary casualties.”

“I’m aware of that, and I am not suggesting we go against orders, but imagine if you will, if one of these foreigners were to cause increased problems, say we had more riots, more partisan activity, what do you think would happen?”

“I think we’d have a huge mess on our hands with a lot of foreign soldiers in the way, I don’t see the orders changing with them here.”

“I suppose you’re right. Probably for the best if we just get everything on par here with home anyway.”

Skgorria

Captain Kutuzov nodded his head at the Skgorria officer as he asked his question.

“Indeed it does, the Khurzav military took a similar road we did in assigning most helicopters to a branch of the army, almost all Khurzav military bases have space set aside for aircraft to land, and support facilities to have them operate out of. In accordance to the size of your force, it’s a smaller base then some of the other nations were given so as to make it easier for your men to keep it secure. We do already have a small garrison of about a company there, so if you’d like to send an advance guard you can, I will simply inform the garrison to expect them if you wish”

The Captain glanced over at the Skgorria soldiers.

“Your men seem eager to move out, if you’d like we can escort you to the base now, it’s about a seven hour drive from here, and I can give you a brief on the situation upon our arrival.”

OOC: Sorry that took so long to come out gentlemen, spent most of this morning and afternoon at work.

"Thankyou Captain", smiled Hertzog, "I will just be one moment." Turning to his aide-de-camp, Hertzog said in a commanding voice,

"Get 5th Company on the move, and have them take a squad from 1st Company. I'm sure 9 squads of infantry, a company of Panzergrenadiers, 3rd Company's armoured cars and Special Action Unit 209 will be more than enough security."

"Jawohl Herr Major!" confirmed the aide, raising his right arm in the traditional Skgorrian salute before rushing off to give the orders.

"Let us move out then," said Hertzog, opening the door to the lead truck. "Care to ride with us Captain? We have space up front," the Major indicated a spare seat on the front bench of the Ural.

All units crackled the radio we're moving out. The vehicles surged to life and prepared to move...

OOC: next post you make, assume the convoy is on route regardless of the Captain's response. Let's get this show on the road

While Brigadier-General Barnabé Grantaire talked with the Kilrany officers, Lieutenant Colonel Jack O’Neil, commadning officer for the 1st brigade, 1st Delesa Airbborne Regiment, started to assemble his paratroopers. He sent out men to hoist up the Delesa National Flag,and put signs up on the walls and fences sround the base, telling the locals these were not a occupation force, but a peace keeping force for their protection. Also he asssembled some of the men from the Military Poilice to man the gate posts and set up patrols with the airborne. For one patrol it would be 1 LAV III, and a G-wagon or hummer. The patrols that travel through the city have 2 armoured cars(g-wagons or hummers) and a LAV III. The engineers went around the base inspecting the barracks and structures, deeming them fit. Also they marked off some field which would be emergancy helio pads. The rest were off duty and went to their barracks that Jack assigned them. They went and droped off there stuff and came back outside to look around and play some soccer.

In the distance you could hear the the roar of the blackhawks and giffion helios. Everyone looked to the sky where 5 blackhawks and 5 giffions were soaring towards the base. Onboard was the extra ammo and food. Medical supplies were also on the medical blackhawks. There was also 4 extra chinook helios from the Delesa carrier that sat outside the Kilrany sea zone. They contained food and building tools for the engineers, and demolishion equipment too. They off loaded their supplies and headed back the way they came. It was like christmas, the soldiers crowded like childern to get there toys. The MPs had to push them back until the officers found somewhere to put it. They also searched for some sort of building that was like a hospital. Eventully the soldiers gave up on trying to get more ammo and stuff and went back to playing soccer or resting in the sun.

The General listened to the Major and agreed, he too turned to see the convoy to countiue to enter the base, but he also saw Jack set up.

"Alright major, if you guys or us could go into the local towns andcity in our area and post up signs that any failure to listen and do what my officers say will result in jail time for a while. Must meake they know we arnt here to hurt them, we just want them safe, and they terrorists, to say the least, dont help the situation. So i'll expect your men to do patrols and do anything my boys will do. Like patrols and keeping the base clean. And if any of them get the idea of leaving the base with out perrioson of a leave slip, punishment will be serious. We dont need our boys walking off to 'visit' and die at the hands of the enemy or worse yet get captured. Same go'g for my men, but they have already been briefed."

In the convoy the Sergeant was continuing to talk with his guide, conversation had now moved onto the Kingdom and in particular his previous experience in the North.

“Well we officially called it the Etinmoore back when I was there on my tours, unofficially we knew it as Bandit Country. We did patrols into it from our base in Northern Priskia, totally unofficial patrols of course, using our Lord Roberts IFV’s which are basically British Warriors without the extra armour that they have mostly all got. This one day we got hit with a mortar barrage from these bandits up on a hill, totally blew the crap outta the vehicle infront of us with a single hit. Those guys trained on those mortars for literally hours everyday, so my vehicle crew shout on us to start firing out of the ports whilst the gunner turns his cannon onto them. Just them a pair of bloody Jaguars turn up and smoke that ridge with napalm and cluster bombs, I mean really went to town on it, so we figure hey why not lets drive on up there. See we didn’t know the Airforce had set some of them on delayed timers to catch any of the bastards coming back to salvage some equipment. Cost us nine dead and fifteen wounded and since then we get these AC tracks coming everywhere with us, ‘’cept for this mission where we didn’t bring any. But anyway, the King called that peacekeeping to stop the tribes up there infighting and it was for the first month til they realised that they wanted us out. Classic story I suppose. Took us two years to get our act together, the 3rd Genkillian and 8th Lancers moved in as we deployed couple of weeks ago. Rumour has it that they actually levelled a pair of mountain ranges looking for weapons cashes. Hope it don’t turn that sour here, I’ve had my fair share of combat and whilst these punks havn’t” he gestured over his shoulder indicating the infantry in the back “,they don’t want it either.”


Pleven Docks

After deciding that the unit would move out as one to better facilitate the relationship with the Kilrany’s, Colonel Lothian had moved off to inspect troops unloading the equipment necessary to keep his Regiment operating but he had been replaced by the Regimental S-2 who was in charge of supply and transportation. This man, a Major, was a lot easier to get along with than Lothian who tended to not mince his words and tended to have an apathy towards people he didn’t know well.

Enquiring as to the supply situation he wanted to know if he could use his extensive military cheque book to purchase local produce to supplement the rations supplied for the troops, well fed troops were always happy troops or so he had found, or whether there wasn’t very much spare food floating around the country what with there being a recent war and all. The Operations Officer had also asked him to find out if the Capital, which was marked on the map as being in the HoJ area of operations, would fall under their sphere of influence or if it was to be a special case for Kilrany troops only. Being slightly more diplomatic than the other two he hoped that he would phrase it slightly better on the ride to the base, scheduled to begin quite soon.


OOC: Sorry for the crappy post, quite tired. Shall we just skip to the base in your next post. Basically all I need to know is if the capital needs to be patrolled by my forces or not, then I can get some patrols going out in my next post? Merci :)

Roughly two hundred kilometers South East of the Khurzav capitol city of Pernik sat a lone communications tower, it was the central hub for all phone and internet service for the Khurzav for a hundred fifty kilometers in all directions. A huge tower, it rose a hundred meters into the air so it had a clear signal over trees and hills to other such stations which in turn would connect them eventually to the central Khurzav communications building, being a government owned operation, it provided all communications services for Khurzav.

The immediate area was unpopulated, the nearest home being twenty kilometers from the tower itself; it was usually a quiet place. This stillness however was broken by the sound of military grade engines as they came up the road to the tower. A three vehicle column approached, all three the same type of vehicle, they appeared to look like BTR-90s, but to a trained soldier they clearly were not, they also bore the markings of Kilrany’s 4th Division of the Imperial Guard.

A single chain link fence surrounded the communications tower and the small service building at its base, and while the first and third vehicle in the column took up positions on either side, the second vehicle drove right up to fence’s only gate.

Eight soldiers dressed in Gorka-S style uniforms and Grad-2 tactical assault vests exited each of the two vehicles parked on either side of the tower, they were armed with Russian style weapons, AK-74Ms, RPK-74s and SVD-K rifles for their squad marksman. The sixteen soldiers of 4th Division made a check of the area then proceeded into the surrounding forest to ensure no one was watching.

An all clear was given and only then did the soldiers in the troop bay of the second vehicle exit. These were however distinguished from the 4th Division personnel in the fact that they carried G-36Cs and MG-4s. Two of the eight soldiers who got out however did not have long arm weapon, the first carried a metallic briefcase and the second soldier carried a small silver box which held a satellite transmitter, approximately the size of a laptop.

Quickly one soldiers armed with a G-36C pulled out a set of keys liberated from the Khurzav central communications building, unlocked the gate and entered with the two unarmed soldiers, the other five armed soldiers took up a perimeter around the vehicles out in the open.

Using the keys again the armed soldier inside the fence unlocked the door to the small service building then turned and tossed the keys to the soldier with the transmitter who quickly put them into one of the pouches on his tactical assault vest. The armed soldier then took up a position next to the door while the soldier with the briefcase went inside and the soldier with the transmitter attached it by a clip to his vest and started to climb up the tower ladder.

It took him a few minutes to reach the top of the tower where a medium sized box about the size of the average home computer casing, within this locked box was the receiver and transmitter electronics. Taking the keys out of his vest pocket he unlocked it, opened it and then set the keys on top of the box. Carefully he took hold of the transmitter and unclipped it from his belt then lifted it up and placed it tower box. He then pulled several wires out of another pocket on his vest and started to carefully tie it into the tower’s system. He had to be careful because he knew the small transmitter contained a small explosive so that should someone tamper with it that didn’t know what they were doing it would destroy the transmitter and likely cripple the one doing the tampering. Finished with the wiring he closed the box, locked it, returned the keys to a pocket and started to climb back down the tower.

While his partner was climbing the tower the soldier that entered the service building with the briefcase walked over to a small table set up next to the an access terminal and a locked server cabinet. He set the briefcase down on the table, typed in a precise code into the terminal and the server cabinet unlocked with a click. He first opened the briefcase revealing four large computer motherboard panels; following this he opened the server cabinet. It was an older system with several motherboards clearly visible inside; he quickly pulled out four specific boards from the cabinet, which suddenly cut off communications to all people covered by this tower. He carefully picked up each board from the briefcase and installed them into their appropriate slots, systematically restoring phone and Internet service. Each of the boards he had installed were almost exact copies of the ones he removed with only some minor differences.

Finished he closed the cabinet, which automatically locked upon being closed, put the removed boards into the suitcase, closed it and left the building with it. Just as he was leaving his partner reached the bottom of the tower, who tossed the keys back to the armed soldier, who in turned locked the door and then the gate as they left. A minute later and a quick message over their tactical radios the column was moving back out with no one the wiser that 5th Division had just tied this communications tower into their network, recording all phone and Internet messages including their origin and destination, and then transmitting them to a large central hub of mainframes that would check them for key words.

Skgorria

Captain Kutuzov shook his head as he responded, “I thank you for the offer, but I must ride with my men.”

With that Kutuzov moved over and got into his BRDM-2 in the center of the three car frontal escort. Like with the other nations convoys a pair of BTR-80s took of the rear.

The drive ended up taking nearly eight hours which was a taxing drive even for the Kilrany who were somewhat used to it. The garrison, told to expect then, waved them in knowing they would likely want to get in quickly and unload as fast as they could.

Delesa

Major Byko nodded, “We can arrange that, I will see to it our men in Tsyelograd are informed to do that,” as the General continued, Major Byko had to force himself to keep his friendly demeanor, how incompetent do you think we are? You arrogant ass, you think you would get away with disciplining our men? You’re damned lucky we are as disciplined as we are, of course, Byko knew enough not to say any of that out loud, and keeping his friendly tone he responded, “You will encounter no problems from our men General. However I should make note of one thing, there are elements of 2nd Division in Tsyelograd, as with most of the major cities, you may encounter them in your patrols, they likely wont get in your way, but they are less friendly then you will find the rest of us, just a heads up. Did you need to know anything else General? If not I’ll get my liaison team here situated over in some of the barracks with our other garrison forces here.”

House of James

Major Roerich considered the questions for a moment before responding.

“In regards to supplies, although yes, there has been some supply issues with Khurzav’s own production and distribution, we have been picking up the slack, we have been supplying them with extra food and clean water. So although you may not be able to find an over abundance of such things, you should be able to get your hands on enough to be of use. Now, as for the Capitol, it does in fact fall under your area of operation, to a degree, the capitol is in fact the one of the most difficult places to be right now, there are our soldiers in there with the ISM, the Khurzav police force and larger elements of 2nd Division’s urban combat units. It has seen the most action so to speak, we’ve had numerous riots and protests there, we were hoping a neutral nation might be able to calm the nerves a little.”

Roerich took note of the HoJ forces and their apparent readiness to move out, “It would seem like you are all ready to get moving to the base, if you have any further question I can answer them upon our arrival.

Like with the other nations the Kilrany lead the convoy off in their BRDM-2s with a pair of BTR-80s bringing up the rear, and catching a break on their way to the HoJ’s assigned base, the bridge over the major rive was no backlogged and they were able to cross quickly. After five hours they arrived safely at the House of James’ new home, for the time being.

OOC: Yeah, sorry this took a while myself, had work again this evening, and HoJ, you’re too hard on yourself, heh, that was quite a decent post in my mind.

"Yes you can go, im going to find a suitible quarters. Good day Major." The general saluted and walked away back toards his men. His hand slipped into his flak vest and pulled out a flask. Unscrewing the cap and took a quick swig before replacing the cap.

"Sir!" Jack came up behind him, "Do you really thinks that wise?"

"What? Its hard to keep a straight face around here. Have patrols been sent out?" the general slipped his flask back into his vest.

"Yes and i have a extra heading out to the airfirld to the west, to see how log it would take, and what condition the roads are in. Make i ask you something sir."

"Yes." they contiuned to walk briskly to the main build up of the buildings in the area.

"May i request we get some herc aircraft at the airfield? Its a little closer then at port. And the port is 3 hours away. I think we should have the two options open for us. The helios can only take a few soldiers, and even then, what happens when the carrier gets called away on some dort of mission."

"First, the carrier isnt going anywhere, its her first priority that she stays in her spot to remain a open asset in case of a emergancy. Two i'll ask the major, but even if its a yes, the most im goign to put there is 3 planes and they might get called away. Also i forgot to mention, i was checkpoints around the city and on all the roads around our base. Actully, i dont want an civilians coming near this base. Safety first, but we cant cut these people off, so they have to have a escort to travel with them. Make it a 5-10km radius. Alright?"

"Right away sir. The patrol goign to the airfield should be callingnin any minute, shall we head to the communications room?"

"Fine, but i want to find my room."

"Oh sir, i have found you one and you'll be quite happy. Its the former commanders room."

"Excellent"

The convoy rolled into the base, with no casualties apart from a cow that one of the trucks had hit en route. An enraged farmer had been calmed down by a member of Unit 209, and was given a scrip that could be cashed in for a substantial ammount of rations and supplies. It must be awful to lose your livelihood mused Hertzog, as he watched the unloading process with half-interest.

It was nothing that the RPF men weren't used to, and hadn't done a hundred times before in drill and for real. Under the direction of Kilrany troops, the companies stored their gear and their vehciles, before going to their billets to rest. Except one squad of infantry, who assisted the Kilrany in patrol duties.

"So what's our mandate here? What are our duties, areas of operations etc?" asked Hertzog, eager to get started

OOC: sorry my posts are a bit short, they'll hopefully improve in length and quality when the bullets...I mean diplomacy starts flying ;)

While the KRG could be described almost as a paramilitary organization in its birthing stages, with a distinct need for equipment but with the potential to become a semi-professional fighting force, the KLF could not be described in such a manner. Whereas the KRG operated to the North of the major river that seperated Khurzav into Northern and Southern sections, the KLF operated to the South of this line.

They called themselves the Khurzav Liberation Front, and operated almost exclusively in urban and suburban centers. They would attack using hand grenades, grenade launchers, placed explosives, to include improvised devices. Their "uniform" consisted of a black armband with blood-red letters spelling KLF, worn on the left upper arm, and a balaclava to conceal their features.

KLF 'troops' were comprised almost entirely of University students and other ideologues. Where the KRG realized that Khurzav could never be effectively liberated from the now-present Kilrany yoke, the KLF saw no reason why their goal could not be achieved. And unfortunately for them, because they fought almost exclusively in urban centers, they had to combat the specialized troops the Kilrany had deployed there.

And to offset that, the KLF was far more popular than the KRG. Few knew of the KRG. By comparison, most civilians knew of the KLF. Although attrition rates could be high for the KLF, they never seemed to lack recruits.

Skgorria

When the Skgorria vehicle accidentally hit a farmer’s cow and the Skgorria stopped to appease the farmer, the Kilrany soldiers looked on with apathy. Had they been responsible for it, they would have also given the farmer reparations, but they likely would not have felt any sympathy, too many years of conflict had gone by for them to become friends over night, even if they did share their origins.

Captain Kutuzov fell into what could be described as a briefing stance, indicating that he had likely been briefed on the subject himself.

“You intended mandate is to play the role of a neutral party, someone that ideally both our forces and the Khurzav population can come to trust and mediate any possible disputes. The Khurzav have lived under a corrupt government for a long time and we don’t intend to leave any time soon, so they need to come to realize that this is a fact, they have to get used to us. However as the situation has been going they’ve only been partially receptive to us. To help you, and the other nations who have come to conduct peacekeeping, we are going to give you the radio frequencies used by the Khurzav police forces, should something flare up between Kilrany and Khurzav you will no doubt hear it on a police broadcast on your patrols and in turn, ideally, diffuse the situation. Also, despite our efforts, there was collateral damage during our invasion and some public buildings were destroyed, now were working on these, but the larger areas have priority, I would suggest you might want to see what you can do for various smaller towns and villages to help them, should increase their trust in you. As to your assigned area of operation, it’s marked on the maps we have given you, this is not to say you are confined to those areas, you may travel around as you please, those are merely the areas we believed you could most effectively cover with the size of your forces. I am going to give you slight warning, you will find us, and by us I mean the regular force personnel, far more friendly and easier to get along with then any members of the Imperial Guard, just fair warning should you encounter them.”


OOC: Don’t worry about it, so very close to getting the whole, getting everyone situated, done and get to the meat of the RP, heh. Also, sorry this took so long, for some reason your post only ‘appeared’ tonight.

Delesa

A single modified Kilrany Akula II attack submarine crept slowly through the deep water outside the boundary that marked the national waters of Khurzav. It had been tasked with the job of shadowing a small fleet from the nation of Delesa, which had been detected holding station outside Khurzav national waters by a modified Kilrany A-50 Mainstay during a patrol over Khurzav’s Southern coastline.

In an instinctive more than practical reaction to being so close to vessels not belonging to Kilrany, the crew of the attack submarine spoke in low quiet voices. The Delesa were not an enemy, but a fleet of ships, especially one containing a fleet carrier so close to Kilrany controlled territory warranted suspicion on the part of the Kilrany. The submarine’s torpedo tubes sat empty however, since the crew had orders only to observe, with that in mind, they had their submarine running as silent as they could, listening only with their passive systems and keeping a safe distance from the fleet of foreign ships.

----

A rather annoyed Major Byko quickly made his way over to the section of the former Khurzav base where Kilrany forces bunked down at and kept their equipment, when he was out of sight of Delesa personnel and back with his own, he only then let out a loud sigh; which inevitably caught the attention of one of his fellow officers nearby.

“You look like you just got assigned to the Triari border Viktor, the Delesa proving more challenging an assignment then you thought?”

Byko frowned slightly at the clearly visible grin on his friend’s face.

“Just a little bit Yelena, jut a little bit.”

Much to his continued annoyance his response only seemed to make his friend’s grin grow.

“Could be worse, Viktor.”

Byko barely contained his frustration, “How the hell could it be worse?”

“We could be dealing with the UN peacekeepers and their bureaucracy.”

“Oh Hell Yelena, don’t even joke about that.”

Despite what he said, his friend finally managed to get him to grin.

“You look like you could use some stress relief, bokken or staff?”

“Bokken please.”

Yelena grinned, “You bastard, you know I’m better then you with the staff.”

Byko couldn’t help his own grin, “Yeah, that’s why I picked the bokken.”

His friend disappeared into one of the base’s barracks, coming back out only moments later with a bokken in either of her hands and proceeded to toss one to Byko. Both of them took off their uniform’s outer jacket, setting those down on the grass before taking up combat stances two meters from each other.

It would be fair to say that Kilrany culture still hung on to the tradition of the older forms of combat, this had stayed with the military since soldiers tended to find it more entertaining and effective to spar then to do inordinate amounts of pushups. A few other Kilrany soldiers who currently weren’t on guard duty gathered nearby to watch and bet.

Yelena struck first, aiming with a diagonal strike down onto Byko’s neck, Byko stepped back avoiding the strike and counter attacked with a horizontal strike aimed at Yelena’s right arm.

“I’m thinking it’s only first impressions, but so far I’m not fond of these Delesa.”

Blocking Byko’s strike with her bokken Yelena counter attacked with a series of quick strikes aimed at his body.

“Could be the case, so long as they do their job well, it matters little if we like them.”

Byko dodged the first two strikes and blocked the second, fell back a step then countered with a strike aimed at Yelena’s head.

“Generally speaking Yelena, the two go hand in hand.”

Kingdom Forces Base of Operations, Codenamed Homestead

Captain Jelfs made a quick cuircuit of the perimeter of the base, her sky blue eyes scanning the ground and surroundings more to pick up the wind than to search for any local with an RPG. The other Merlin with her stayed on a racetrack pattern as she selected a spot away from the obvious helipads and flared the big chopper ready for deployment of her troops.

In the back the men stayed on their chairs, thumbing the quick release buttons on their safety straps as through the open rear ramp they watched the ground appear and then disappear as the quick flare killed forward momentum. The crew chief at the rear of the aircraft saw this as his cue and indicated for them to standup by placing both his hands infront of him palm up and just raising them. The squad stood and immeadiately hands went to their weapons, it was a good training exercise if little else as there was scant danger. With the helicopter now level and hovering about three feet of the concrete pavement of the base the men jumped out, forming a battle formation as the helicopter lept into the sky again. The whole disembarkation had taken about seven seconds, good but not quite good enough.

With them established on the ground the men held their G3A9’s loosely in their hands, some made minor adjustments to their kevlar helmets but for the most part they just waited in battle formation for the second helicopter to drop off its squad before they moved to check in with the perimeter guards. You never could be too certain.


A few hours later…..

A quick radio message was all that was needed from the advanced force as it approached the base. One squad of troops were operating with the perimeter guards, getting to know the area, whilst the second was in close proximity to the pair of Merlin’s that sat on the concrete pad. The pilots of the two aircraft were having a quick “conference” whilst the crew chiefs performed some standard maintenance on the two transports.

With the arrival of the engineer column it was only a matter of time before the bulk of the 3rd Irian had would arrive so preparations stepped up a gear. Firstly the engineer commander and his principle subunit commanders went on a quick tour of the base in an unarmoured jeep that they had driven there to identify any possible weakspots. Two were found and it was decided to use two of the prefabricated guard towers in those positions until something a little more secure could be built, the engineers were under strict orders to make the base secure but not make it look like some kind of fortress as were frequently found back home in the Kingdom.

Combat engineers had already started erecting the towers when the main convoy arrived some time later. By now darkness had fallen and the HoJ troops on perimeter patrol were walking in pairs, one using their low light goggles (NV) and the other using just their natural eyesight because sometimes the goggles didn’t pick out every detail that the human eye could. In time the engineers would rig it up so that lights covered the perimeter at night; currently they only showered the gateway in light. That gateway was now guarded by a dozen HoJ Military Police with their distinctive white arm bands and G36K Assault Rifles, over time the visible number would decrease with the construction of a bigger and armoured guard shack to house them whilst on duty.

Colonel Lothian was keen on getting his men rested ready for the start of some light patrolling the following day, however he also wanted to make sure the base was secure. He trusted his Kilrany liaison, to a point, but this was one thing that he would want his own troops to do so that he was completely sure his base was secure. But making a command decision he decided to allow 2nd Battalion, who would be conducting the majority of the patrols the next day, to bunk themselves down whilst 1st and 3rd conducted the perimeter sweep and other essential operations. It was a compromise, as many things in the military often were. But on the happier side the majority of his helicopters would be here by morning, some technical difficulties had arisen with one of the Merlins but it was being sorted out by the mechanics left behind on the transport. When it was sorted the helicopter would fly itself and the remaining groundstaff to the base to join up with the rest of the airwing.


0600hrs the next morning, improvised briefing room

Colonel Lothian stood at the front of the improvised briefing room. For now all it consisted of was a large map spread across a wall and several dozen chairs facing the map, the other half of the room was full of communications gear as the transmitters had been placed atop of this structure as it was the largest on the base.

In the chairs sat the principle subunit commanders of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Irian Guards. The battalion numbered 1,000troops but not all of them would be on patrol today, infact barely 350 would be leaving the confines of their new base. Lothian had already explained that todays patrolling would take Alpha Company into the capital to establish a presence there whilst Charlie Company took a route into a holding pattern just outside of the suburbs incase any assistance was needed. Echo Company meanwhile would be heading north to look at the terrain up there, whilst half of Fox Company boarded five Merlins and would go east to monitor that terrain. They learnt that the remaining companies, Bravo, Delta, Golf, Holiday and Index would be standing by at base on half an hour readiness incase they were required. 2nd Battalion’s commander, a short stocky man from the north of Malakey was the first to ask a question.

“Sir, what are our Rules of Engagement?”

“We remain as we have been since landing. You will only fire if fired upon and then there is to be no overt application of firepower, I don’t want to be clearing up 20mm cannon fire from those LAV’s for the next month clear. Controlled bursts where possible, however I’m giving lattitude to commanders on the scene to exercise their judgement. Intel section is getting set up and should provide us with some clear estimates of threat levels by this time tomorrow but for today just keep your eyes and ears open and remember to smile. Tony I’ll leave the final decision up to you but I think we can dispense with wearing hard hats on the patrol, vests stay on and helmets in the vehicles but berets where possible. Any other questions?...........No? Good. Dismissed Gentlemen.”

With the briefing finished the officers filed out to their various tasks whilst Lothian went to talk with his communications officer.

“Did they go for it?”

“Roger that Sir. The rocket booster was pulled off the pad at Creweforth early this morning for technical difficulties, infact they are replacing the commercial satellites with two communication birds that will be almost exclusively ours. The King is certainly putting a lot into this mission, there was even talk on the secure channels of a possible Royal visit to our deployment, once things are more settled and established of course.”

“Interesting. Let me know on those satellites, for now we are relying on the array we brought with us and knowing this shoddy build quality it wont be long before it is broken down and we are stuck with mobile phones or something.”

“Yes Sir. As you command”



At 0630hrs the first of the columns rolled out of the base and into the countryside. They would be using their GPS systems for navigation but did have some Kilrany personnel with them in a passive role unless they were really needed. Alpha Company was mounted in its assortment of armoured Land Rovers and other jeep type vehicles along with half a dozen trucks in the centre of the column whilst the supporting Charlie took half a dozen LAV-4’s to accompany their armoured land rovers on their route. A single Kiowa Surveillance helicopter travelled in the air above each convoy whilst Flt Captain Jelfs lifted her Merlin off to orbit in a Medevac role should it become necessary with another on standby on the pad at the base.

All concerned hoped that it would be an uneventful day militarily but would perhaps give the Kurhaz citizens a better idea as to why they were there and also get a better feel for the mood. Elements of Alpha Company would hopefully be stopping off to have meetings with locals, hopefully without Kilrany officials close by to ensure that they got the truth from the local community.

"Thankyou Captain," Hertzog saluted the Kilrany officer, "now if you will excuse me I must inspect the encampment." He then turned away and began his inspection of the base, his aide-de-camp following close behind.

In the centre of the base was the RPF's vehicle ppol, including 5th Company's Mi-8 helicopters that were currently being inspected and refuelled by mechanics and technicians. Around them stood a guard of Skgorrian infantry, a squad's worth. Soon night would fall and then they would start to use their NV goggles. After the debacle we had with those damned Atopian Dedication Division troops, I'm not letting my vehicles go unguarded again thought Hetzog as he remembered one parituclarly successful infiltration mission by the Atopians that had left a motorised company under his command paralzyed when suicide bombers had snuck past the perimeter and detonated their explosives in the middle of the vehicle hangar, damaging all the trucks beyond repair.

One of the Kilrany troops showed Major Hertzog the ammunition store, and it looked fairly secure, with thick steel and concrete all around it. The Kilrany company had nothing heavier than a mortar and a few machine guns, so the space needed for their ammunition was not great. Skgorrian troops were unloading cases of ammunition for the AMX armoured cars, the BMPs, the Mi-8s and even the AK-107s carried by the infantry. Of course each soldier would carry some ammunition all the time, but it made no sense for an infantryman to carry 8 magazines to breakfast in the morning. Hertzog noted several cases of 5.45mm ammo, meaning that Special Action Unit 209 had brought their PRI automatic pistols with them. Hertzog approached the unit's Ammunition Officer who was sitting behind a rickety desk and filling out a horde of paperwork and asked "How long until our ammo is unloaded?"
The Ammunition Officer looked up and saluted, "Another 15 minutes, Major. We're done with the heavier stuff, all that's left is some assorted spare small arms and the equipment for 209's toys."
"Carry on" nodded Hertzog, stepping outside to continue his inspection.

Activity was dying down now, with most of the kit unloaded from the trucks and helicopters and the Skgorrians were settling into the familiar routine of night watch. Hertzog turned to his aide-de-camp and asked "Who have we got on guard duty tonight?" Checking his clipboard, the aide-de-camp struggled to read it in the fast-fading light.
"Urm...a platoon from 1st Company I think" he said, embarassed. The Major seemed unaffected by his aide's incompetence.
"We'll need to contact Skgorria and the Kilrany authorities - this base needs several things done to it. I want a stronger perimeter fence and also a mortar net over this place. Perhaps our hosts will do this for us, but regardless from what Captain Kutuzov was saying, we'll be involved in reconstruction works and we'll need engineers for that. A company should be enough" Hertzog mused.
"Understood sir, I'll go tell Kutuzov this now" the aide volunteered.
"Go then Yuklig, and afterwards turn in for the night. See you in the mess for breakfast at 0530" After an exchange of salutes, the two officers went their seperate ways. "Maybe I should have told him where he's sleeping tonight" chuckled Hertzog aloud, before entering the command shack and bedding down for the night.

Tomorrow our mission begins in earnest.... he thought as he drifted off to sleep

While the KRG was "only" a platoon sized formation, roughly, there were easily a hundred men, women, and children covertly engaged supporting the organization. One of these men was a cobbler, formerly a Reserve soldier, who was actively engaged in finding pairs of the durable Khurzav combat boot, getting them into tip-top shape, and then handing them off to a woodsman who came into town in his battered blue Lada car to pick the boots up. In the cobbler's mind, not all boots were equal by any stretch of the imagination, and if he could get his hands on enough pairs of Russkyan combat boots, even surplus ones, he would be happy. But that wasn't likely to happen for many years yet.

A quiet, observant adolescent with brown hair cropped close to his head along the sides and longer on top waited patiently, sipping his coke, waiting for his older sister to finish flirting with one of the local boys working behind the shop's till, when foreign vehicles drove by on the road outside. He left the shop, hearing the door close behind him, and waved a greeting to one of the soldiers in a passing vehicle, noting the insignias. The fifteen year old's mind catalogued the equipment he could see and the uniforms, and he came to the logical conclusion: These are 'peacekeepers' from the so-called House of James.
Though relaxed and friendly looking, they didn't appear to be letting their guard down too much, as they still wore their ballistic vests and watched the area around their vehicles. He lifted the bottle to his lips again and watched the vehicles stop, some troops disembark, and begin chatting up the locals. He grinned and went forward, heading towards a man who was half a head taller than himself.

Captain Vasnetsov was filed away in the brain of Javoric amongst others to be regarded with cautious positivity. He seemed like a decent man, and able officer, and the General's staff were pleased to find a defeated Khurzav occupied in an apparently civilised manner rather than overtly pillaged by its conquerors and turned to chaos.

The Yugoslavs arrived at their base outside Pashchatova and began to settle in. One of the first things that Javoric ordered was the search for a good bit of open land out side of the main facility, of which could be made a football (soccer) pitch. FK Crvena Zvezda -better known as Red Star Belgrade- had just secured yet another championship title back home, fending off stiff challenges from Croatian sides Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb, and many of the brigade's personnel were in uplifted sporting mood.

Unsure of for how long the deployment would last, the Army-General was keen to sustain high moral, and organised regular inter-platoon football matches, only marginally less likely to wound his men than was the boxing league he also established. It was better than letting them drink, anyway.

On a more serious note, the Yugoslavians were put to the task of clearing any obstructions around the perimeter, including potential hard and soft cover, from unusued vehicles to tall vegetation. If the threat was guerrilla action, then surprise was the enemy's best weapon, and Javoric did not want snipers, rocketeers, or mortar crews sneaking up on the brigade's temporary home, or machinegunners and missile teams hiding in the flight-path of helicopters flying to or from the base.

Few obvious defensive positions were established, however. Some might say that the relatively poor JNA is no US Army... and they'd be right. The Yugoslavs would not sit in their base behind heavy machinegun nests and mortar pits, waiting for enemies to come and dictate the pace of any conflict. Their defence would be in aggressive patrolling around the facility, with well-armed light infantry proceeding at irregular times and on always slightly changing courses around the perimeter.

Apart from the tactical doctrine itself, the Belgrade Brigade felt that it was better not to have foreign flags flying from behind barbed wire and sandbag walls when they invited local kids to join them for a game of football!

-----

Two Soko Partizan light helicopters lifted-off from Pashchatova (the Yugoslavs would tend to refer to their base as part of the city, even if it was in fact situated outside the limits) and headed south on the first mission of the brigade's stay in Khurzav. They were bound for the river, and would fly frequent -but not regularly scheduled- recconnaissance sorties to observe local bridges and watch for signs of sabotage or other guerrilla activity. The Yugoslavs would not refer to any hostiles as partisans, for the word -as demonstrated by the naming of the licence-built Gazelle helicopters flying these missions- had held positive connotations in Yugoslavia ever since Josip Broz took up arms against the Germans.

Before long, a Yugoslav-built BOV-VP armoured personnel carrier and two unlicenced Jeep copies left in the wake of the helicopters, and headed for the river. The Yugoslavs were all ordered to wear berets, forage caps, or no headgear at all, and to avoid wearing dark glasses or other facial coverings. They sometimes tooted their Jeeps' horns and waved, smiled, or just nodded to anyone along the way who did not look ready to shoot them. Most of them really were quite happy to be here, at least at this early stage, and believed Marshal Lav when he told them that they were part of a significant achievement in pan-Slavism.

A soldier with two red stripes on his sleeve and answering to the name Pedrag was probably the most friendly and memorable of the detachment, which contained a dozen men in all. Desetar Jovanović -that'd be Corporal Johnson, were he of the Anglophone world!- frequently called for the driver of his Jeep to wait, wait! and let him get out. He'd go over to locals who were perhaps too confused to run or turn away, and shake them firmly by the hand, introducing himself before hopping back aboard and speeding on. More than once, usually when passing young people, he'd, 'accidentally' drop a football from the vehicle and get out to recover it after a brief kick-around with the youngsters, and would insist that they should find time to come up to the base for a proper game, "My CO had trials for CSKA Sofia, you know! He can show you a few moves, eh?"

Pedrag Jovanović would also be the first to take out a carton of cigarettes and light-up when the little convoy stopped to check its position, make notes on the landscape, and that sort of thing. The Yugoslavs had cigarettes and other odds and ends to hand-out in a hammy hearts-and-minds sort of affair, but the corporal thought it too predictable, and usually just flashed the unusual packet about, casually, as he made a show of how much he was enjoying the rich Balkan smokes. When he managed to get a local to engage in conversation of any sort, or to take interest in just who the hell he and these other foreigners might be, he would casually offer a cigarette, and, if accepted, would say, "Ah, keep the pack, the Yugoslav Federation makes more than we can smoke, especially since we united with Bulgaria."

The cartons would turn-out to be covered in pan-Slavic propaganda, if anyone cared to look past the contents and the giant red star on the front. One cigarette in each pack had the words, "Bratstvo i Jedinstvo" -Brotherhood and Unity, the unofficial Yugoslav motto- evident on its side.

For the first day, the only missions planned were this single deployment to the river, supposed to return before nightfall, and the task of establishing the brigade HQ. The city would only be tackled after Jovanović and his comrades had completed their day-one sortie through the rurals.

Onboard The Carrier
"Sir we habe a bogey in the air. Shes big, not hard to miss. Not a bomber, must be a recon plane of some sort."

"So not a threat?"

"No its probaly Kilrany, wondering where those chinooks came from."

"Fine, we dont need to send up any 'escorts', just let them 'look'.

"Aye sir."

"But you know what, send out the SSNs. Radio silence. Just tel them to sit around and listen. Im expecting either a surface or submarine."

"Aye aye, sending orders."

---
SSN 102
"Bloody orders from Vice Admiral François Tailleur. This is so bloody boring." The XO mumbled.

"Whats that XO?" chirped the captain.

"Nothing sir."

"Good, i dont need...."

"Sir, we might have a contact. Really quiet. Like unbeliveible." All submarines had been equipted with the latest passive sonar technology. "Single screw. Dead silent. Almost dead in the water."

"Hmm must be a nuclear vessel, and kilrany for sure, i mean there is no enemy navy and we were expecting a watcher. How are we suposed to tell command?"

"No clue sir."

"Shit, whats the status on master 2's tubes?"

"Empty sir."

"Keep ours that way. And we don't alter course, or even start those freaking engines. We'll have to wait till someone gets close to send a secure line."

"Should be someone coming to check up on us in 4 hours."

"Sir we might loss the contact if they go dead inthe water."

"But they arn't going to move if there dead salior."

"...yeah.."

---

Jack walked over to the Kilrany barracks and look for the staff that was with there peace keeping force, finding the right room, he knocked and entered. "Hey boys, thought i would bring you a under the table tradtion from delesa." Jack produced a battle of whisky from his tunic. "Got glasses?"

A small convoy consiting of 1 LAV III and 2 hummers roar through the country side, waving to the civilians along side the road, going about normal civilian work.

"Hey Sarge!" yelled the gunner in the rear hummer to his sarge in the passengers seat.

"Yeah."

"How long do you think we'll be here? I mean were paratroopers, shouldn't be be fighting or jumping out of planes?"

"Son if i'm going to teach you one thing on this tour of duty it gonna be, as a paratrooper it doesn’t mean your going to fight all the time, and as for that matter, jump all the time. Delesa is a nation that believes thy can help people, so we don’t usually fight in wars kid. You'd now that after the government change."

"Well that’s dumb, I wouldn’t mind killing off some enemy turds." The private raised the .50 caliber and started to make shooting sounds, pointing the gun at the civilians on the road sides. The convoy slowed down as it started to enter Tyelosgrad. Everybody had their guns out their windows. As they turned around and started to head back out, all looked good. Then in front of the convoy, what looked like some sort of student with a back pack halted the convoy, two soldiers in the front convoy got out and started to walk towards him. Then from the side building, two RPGs fired out of the windows and blew up the first hummer.

“HOLY SHIT BACK THIS F***ER UP!!!” screamed sarge. As the Hummer began to swing around explosions was set off down the road, placing a burning truck and debris in the way. “Oh oh oh this is not good.” The sarge looked at the VAV and watched as the turret began to fire madly at the surrounding building, but with no accuracy as the LAV driver tried to turn around. “Crap, kid get down from there.” The private got down, with a hole through his shoulder. “Well is this what you wanted?” Explosions were going off all over the place. “Sweet Jesus, everyone out.” The Sarge opened his door and began to blast rounds into the enemy. Soon enough there was enemy fighters all over the streets armed with just an assault rifles and some sort of armbands. Most of them looked barely 25. They came running down the streets screaming and firing wildly into the abyss. “MOVE MOVE MOVE!! THERE COVER!!” They ran over to a car on the side of the street and continued to shoot at the people in the windows. The sarge looked to his right, seeing a dead body of one of the fighters, on his arm was a black armband made in some ones basement, they were cheep productions. The letters KLF on the bands in red. The fire began to slow down then cease. Bodies littered the ground. Who ever planned the attack didn’t take into account the lack of skill the fighters had. Maybe a little more time on the range thought sarge. Bit then again, it was a good thing they were such bad shots, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have made it. The crew from the LAV got out and began to collret the firearms from the dead attackers. Sarges squad began to walk over to the hummer that was hit in the beginning, looking for anybody that might have survived. By the looks of it, one man had begun to crawl out before recieveing several shots into his back.

“Bastards” remarked one of the squad members. “Those pricks.” He walked over a kicked one of the dead bodies. “You piece of shit, why? Why you piece of…”

“Stop it man. Leave the bodies, its called respect.”

“Sarge they just killed some good men. Peace Keepers, nothing more, we didn’t come here to fight. We are trying to make these peoples lives better, we’ll only be here for a little while.”

“Doesn’t give us the right to dismantle the bodies. Alright collect the rest of the arms and lets get back into what’s left of our hummer and go home. Our radio is probably totaled so go tell the LAV crew to radio this in and bring in a meat wagon.” The squad dispeased and picked up the RPG-7s and AK-47s, putting them into a pile in the LAV and the hummer. The squad medic patched up the private who was hit and they got back into the hummer. The LAV pushed the wreckage out of the way and they rode back to base.

Delesa

The five Kilrany officers who had been playing poker, or ‘Applied Mathematics’ as the Russkyan’s liked to call it, looked back at the Colonel from their seated position at a table in the room, they glanced at each other then back at the Delesa Colonel, unable to help the grins on their faces. Besides the cards in their hands and on the table, in front of each of the officers was a small glass and near the center of the table a bottle of triple distilled Kilrany Vodka.

Like the Russkyan military, the Kilrany military rationed out alcohol to its troops in reasonable amounts to increase moral. However there were logical limitations, soldiers didn’t drink on duty and there was a limit to how much they could have in a day, excessive drinking was not permitted and was generally not a problem.

The group of officers didn’t however include Major Byko, who was sparring with a fellow officer outside at the time, but they gestured for the Colonel to join them.

A captain in the group spoke up, “Of course we have glasses, come, take a seat, we’ll deal you in and share our own, over the table tradition,” the officers couldn’t help but continue to grin.

----

It had taken four minutes for the closest Kilrany patrol to respond to the attack on the Delesa patrol and by that time the attack was over and the Delesa had left the area, presumably returning to their assigned base of operations.

As the patrol came up to the position, an infantry squad split into a pair of BTR-80s, several Khurzav civilians and even a couple Khurzav police officers were attempting to arrange the bodies in a respectful manner until some additional police vehicles could arrive to take care of them.

The Kilrany soldiers disembarked their transports, much to the unease of the Khurzav, and while the bulk of them set up a perimeter around the immediate area, the squads Sergeant and a Corporal approached a Khurzav police officer that was watching the others.

“So just what happened here?”

The officer was clearly uneasy in the presence of the Kilrany soldiers, but they had cared little for his discomfort just then.

“From what we gathered, the KLF unsuccessfully ambushed a Delesa patrol as it was leaving the outskirts of the city, stupid kids,” the officer dropped his head slightly, he didn’t approve of their actions, but he could understand their motivations, whether they were realistic or not. Like most of the Khurzav police force he had enough common sense not to try fighting the Kilrany, they had heard the rumors and they didn’t want to push their luck.

The Sergeant glanced over at the wrecked vehicle that had been pushed off the side of the road, “I presume they took their casualties with them.”

The officer nodded his head, “Yes.”

“Do you need our help here?”

The officer took a deep breath, “I don’t think so Sergeant, were just waiting for a couple pickup vehicles at this point.”

The Kilrany Sergeant seemed to look the man over before he responded, “Very well then,” and with the Corporal turned back and started walking back to the vehicles. Once they were about halfway back to the vehicles and out of earshot of the Khurzav, the Corporal spoke to his Sergeant.

“Quite a mess sir, looks like the KLF are getting a bit bolder.”

“That it does, what concerns me more is that the KLF have gotten their hands on RPGs, I don’t like that one bit.”

Arriving back at the vehicles the Sergeant ordered the men to mount back up and they left the area, going back to their patrol route.


OOC: Got no good excuse for this being so delayed, got sidetracked with things around home today.

Delesa meat wagons pulled up to the scene where the patrol was ambushed. The Hummers and heavy transport trucks rolled up, taking notice of the police officers.

"Hey, hows it going. We were sent to clean up. Need a hand? We have some big trucks. Well no we insist we help, our boys did this. Poor kids. They dont look too old."

ooc: i'll talk to you all thurday, FISHING

Alpha Company, In the Capital

The comparatively lightly armed convoy drove through the streets slowly and carefully wary not to cause too much of a disturbance to “normal” life. Above the Kiowa Surveillance helicopter buzzed low over roofs and traced roughly the same route as the ground forces, its high power radar switched off for the time being but several of its TV cameras monitoring the ground.

As they rounded a convoy the lead vehicle spotted a likely looking square and pulled onto it, the rest of the vehicles following. Tail gates thumped down as the trucks came to a halt and armed Kingdom troops jumped off, their armoured vests fixed tightly into place but light green berets perched on their heads. Most of the men carried G3A9 Assault Rifles and those which had been ordered to mingle promptly slung these over their shoulders and after only a quick check to make sure that thier side arms were secured in the holsters they moved off in groups of four to begin talking to locals.

The actual talking part would probably prove a problem. People from the Kingdom only spoke English in addition to their native languages which were nothing like the native Russian of the Khurzav civilians. Nevertheless handouts of the usual chocolate, cigarettes and offers of assistance could be made without aural conversation.

Captain Jolt, commanding Alpha Company, made a quick radio report from the front seat of his vehicle to HQ to announce his arrival and inform Charlie of his position.

“Charlie Six, this is Alpha Six copy over.”

“Roger Alpha Six. Signal strength is good over.”

“Acknowledged, current position is threefourone, ninetwotwo. Deploying our PR team over” That met with a chuckle from the other end of the radio.

“Roger that. PR team is deploying. We are in holding pattern, shout if you need us Out.”

Whilst a platoon of men moved out to talk with the locals the other two platoons secured the vehicles and the men of the heavy weapons squad, two armed with SL-9 Whisper Sniper Rifles and four armed with M249 SAW’s, spotted a likely perch for their overhead cover position. They moved slowly and without drawing too much attention to a public library and moved through it to the roof, there two of the machine gunners placed their weapons on the floor and pulled out high power binoculars to act as spotters to the two snipers who were setting their bipods up on the roughly crenulated border of the building. In the Kingdom military this was known as providing “covert cover” to the forces below, the two Snipers swept the crowd through their scopes whilst one of the SAW gunners stood by the roof door and the other set his heavy weapon up on the bipod overlooking the square below.

Down in that square a group of soldiers were in stunted conversation with a local shop owner when they were approached by the teenager. His neat haircut and demeanour drew the attention of one of the older members of the group, himself a father of a child about that age. Captain Williams had been barely 18 when his son had been born and the kid was growing well and at 16 he was only two years from entering the military, or so his father hoped. This boy in front of him, whilst not baring a striking resemblance, was a reminder of home and better times and that thought the Captain could only be a good thing. He reached into his shoulder pocket next to the large patch that showed the Royal Cross that was the nations flag and removed a bar of milk chocolate which he reached out to the kid not really expecting to get an answer.

“Hey son. This is good stuff, much better than the crap they usually give out around here I’m sure.”

Delesa

The nearby civilians that were trying to clean up looked at the Delesa troops with suspicion, it mattered little to them that they were only defending them selves, they had still killed their people. Fortunately the police officers were someone more understanding if not still wary of them as they were the Kilrany.

The officer in charge and the one who had spoken to the Kilrany patrol when they had checked in now spoke to the Delesa.

“They weren’t old no, most of them look like they were university kids and if you insist on helping you can help us transport the bodies to the local morgue, we’ll show you the way.”

House of James

The teenager gave the foreigner a quick look over before cautiously taking the offered gift, then showing more interest in the chocolate, looking over it carefully. After a moment of examining the chocolate he looked up at the officer and spoke in a heavily accented and not quite proper English, showing that he had received some language training at his age.

“It’s not poisoned is it?”

Even at his age he had been subjected to the government propaganda on Kilrany, whether it was justified or not and although he knew that these soldiers were not from Kilrany, there was little distinction to him just yet to their motives. He glanced around at the other soldiers before looking back at the officer.

“Trying to win us over like the Kilrany are trying to do?”

Over the sound of the Kiowa’s rotors a deeper thudding could be heard approaching the small square, the Khurzav looked up at the sky warily, they had quickly learned to recognize the distinctive sound that the approaching helicopters made.

Flashing overhead was a pair of KIAM-24 Hinds* the Kilrany had a fondness for the Russian Hind, and had gone to far as to design their own variant to it with numerous improvements. The two assault helicopters ignored the House of James Kiowa as they flew by, not concerned with the foreign troops in the capitol, the distinctive swooping Eagle in place of the standard Kilrany flag on their sides marked them as being 4th Division. It was only as the sound of these helicopters started to die that the Khurzav civilians relaxed and began speaking to the soldiers from the House of James again.


*KIAM – Kilrany Imperial Arms Manufactures

Despite the apparent cessation of hostilities, Captain Yuklig was nervous. He'd heard rumours of developing partisan units, and wasn't sure how effective his force would be at combating these guerilla fighters when deprived of the means to carry out standard Skgorrian tactics to fight guerillas. I guess we are getting too reliant on nerve agents and air power he mused, feeling every bump in the badly maintained road as the Ural truck drove to the nearest village.

Major Hertzog had ordered him to take a platoon of infantry on patrol, and to stop and talk to the locals in an effort to win their trust. Yuklig wanted to take a platoon from the standard infantry company, but Hertzog had intervened at the last minute and insisted that one of the squads be replaced by Unit 209 men. Now he rode in the Ural carrying these men, who were dressed in standard Skgorrian fatigues and carried their sidearms.

Yuklig had elected to take another truck in addition which was to be loaded with spare rations and tents in case they ran into anyone who needed them. Skgorria had never run a humanitarian operation before, and had never been the beneficiary of one, so the troops were making it up as they went along.

The convoy braked and came to a halt as it arrived in the first village on the circular patrol route. Inquisitive yet suspicious locals came out of their homes and workplaces and approached the trucks. Skgorrian soldiers disembarked slowly, taking great care to keep their rifles on their slings and not seem threatening. A few children waved at the soldiers, who waved back with smiles.

Captain Yuklig cleared his throat and spoke loudly, "greetings citizens, my name is Captain Yuklig and I am here to represent the Skgorrian peacekeepers in the area. We are here not to occupy or attack, but to ensure that your lives can be lived in peace." He wondered how his words would be recived....

OOC: at last, a decent post from me :P

Skgorria

A curt laugh came from one of the older men in the small crowd, “Hah! And just why should be believe that coming from strangers here at the whim of the Kilrany?” His outburst made several of the gathered Khurzav glance about nervously, not knowing how these Skgorrian soldiers, whether peacekeepers or not, would react. This did not deter the older man and he continued on.

“Just what is it you think you’re here for, huh? Even if you’re telling the truth and you’re here to help, you have no power here; you can only do what the Kilrany let you do. You’re nothing more the lapdogs for those damned Kilrany here to take fire for them.”

The man, who was the local butcher, didn’t wait for a response and simply turned around and walked back into his business. His statement had affected several other people as well, some of them returned to their homes, leaving only half the original crowd who was more willing to hear these peacekeepers out.

One in particular, another man in his middle ages, stepped forward to address the Skgorria Captain, “Please forgive Konstantin, he lost his son when the Kilrany attacked. If you do truly wish to help we could use some extra food, it doesn’t seem like getting it supplied to every village is a high concern of the Kilrany.”

Captain Yuklig was taken aback by the man's outburst. The NERVE of the man! We're here, risking life and limb for a people we have no common link with, and this is the thanks we get... Nontheless, the information that the man had lost a son in the war put the outburst in context, Yuklig's neighbour back home had lost her son in a skirmish with Grosstapian irregular forces and she was clearly devastated.

Nonetheless, Yuklig was grateful that some of the crowd had stayed to listen to the Skgorrians. Turning his full attention to the man who had informed him of the need for food, Yuklig spoke to him
"Well keeping you all fed and sheltered is a concern for us, if not the Kilrany. Who needs food, and how much do you need?" as he motioned for Skgorrian troops to unload some crates of food. The food was nothing fancy, just field rations, but it would keep many people fed for a while. A soldier from Unit 209 tapped the Captain on the shoulder,
"a moment of your time, sir," asked the soldier. Nodding, the Captain once again spoke to the civillian
"Inform the corporal of your needs, I must speak to my men. If you will excuse me please" indicating a Skgorrian NCO as the Unit 209 soldier and the Captain moved away from the main group.

The soldier spoke in hushed tones,
"Sir, that butcher is a potential partisan. Can we bring him in?"
"What? He's just an old man who's lost his son"
"And that makes him a potential partisan, or indeed supporter" suspected the Unit 209 soldier.
Yuklig sighed, Unit 209 were extremely good at spotting and destroying partisan networks, but they were too radical at times.
"No, not now. We haven't been attacked, I want these people to see as as peacekeepers, not killers of pillars of their community."
"As ordered" the Unit 209 soldier obeyed of course, but stared daggers at the butcher's shop.

RPF Base

Major Hertzog had finally finished the telegram he'd been meaning to send for a while. All sorts of niggling details had been getting in the way, such as latrines not being dug properly or the mortar net having holes in it, but now it was finished:
To: Kilrany Command
From: Major Hertzog, RPF
Subject: Additional Troops

Given our mandate, I feel it would be best if I brought in additional troops. I am asking permission to bring in a company of engineers to assist locals in rebuilding efforts and also to help repair the road system.

Captain Jolt watched the two gunships pass overhead and noted the change in the atmosphere as they did so, his men were not so shocked as the troops in their elevated position had spotted the two Hinds and informed the others over their tactical radios. But there was certainly a climate of fear here that would not be easy to put at ease, the Captain was new at this peacekeeping lark and didn’t see any easy way to achieve that objective. However being a member of the Kingdoms Armed Forces he knew that he would find a way because quite simply that was what they did, be it a bridge needed over a river or a mother in need of extra food for her child the troops were used to getting it done. Admittedly during his time in the forces there had been a lot more of the former, bridges had gone up all over the inhospitable north of the country thanks to the Army and many had also gone up in recent times in the hostile territory recently annexed by the Kingdom.

As usual Jolt had let his mind wander and he shook his head which brought the people around him back into focus. His communication section that was standing immediately around him were either talking on radios or looking around at the buildings that showed remarkably little sign of warefare. Looking past them he noticed Captain Williams, his second in command, talking with the teenager still.


“What would be the point of poisoning it? If we were a serious threat to you there are a lot quicker and more efficient methods of killing you. Tell me what’s the reason behind the fear of the big choppers?”


With the passing of the attack helicopters and the establishment of the covert cover for the soldiers down below, the Kiowa pilot brought his aircraft higher into the sky above the capital. In the small rear compartment the systems operator switched his eyes quickly from one screen to the next trying to keep his eyes on as many as possible of the nine cameras that he now had working. If only they had thought of packing some drones into the deployment he thought the feed from those things is much easier to look at, and there is none of this awful flying business. He saw something of interest on camera number four and keyed up his intercom to the pilot.

“Got something interesting over to the east, about half a klick. Looks like a protest march of some sort. Recommend we check it out quickly.”

“Roger that. Turning now. Twenty says it’s a get out Kilrany.”

The Kiowa banked sharply left to head towards the site of the protest, before they had even got overhead the crew could see what it was about. Though they couldn’t read the language on the placards held by the fifty or so demonstrators they could guess what they said as the chopper made a low pass over the crowd, spotting some Kilrany military arriving at a nearby sidestreet.

“Might be interesting to observe this for a while” noted the pilot

“Copy that, I’ll inform control.” the copilot switched frequencies. “Control this is Bird-Two, we have a protest underway down here, recommend that we orbit and evaluate here for a while.”

“Roger that Bird-Two. -Four is inbound to take over your position with Hatchlings.”

“Confirm. Thank you control.”

The co-pilot informed the pilot and then did a quick detection systems scan with his eyes. There was the search radar from the familiar SA-11 batteries acquisition radar and also some very weak readings from what the computer estimated was an A-50 Mainstay a long way away. Coupled with what appeared to be an air search radar coming from a separate location it was just as when they had first entered the airspace over the capital, already to the crew it appeared as if it would be a rather deployment.


A Field about fifty miles from the HoJ base

Flight Captain Jelfs pulled her Merlin up and away from the field where she had just deployed the squad of infantry that she had been carrying. Her copilot watched the squad spread out and then begin moving swiftly towards the nearby main road along with a second squad from the other Merlin of the patrol.

Today they were operating on a random roadblock detail, deploying the two squads of troops to a piece of road that they would determine during their flight. It wasn’t really meant to impose difficulties on the local population, just remind them that Kingdom Peacekeepers were in the area and were paying attention to the local traffic situation. Because of that, only brief searches would be conducted by the troops at the roadblock which would only be in place for about two hours as the two Merlins flew back to the base to refuel and then return for them.

Pernik, Khurzav capitol

The siren of a Khurzav police car pierced the white noise for the urban metropolis, Pernik being the largest and most heavily populated city in Khurzav. Two Khurzav police officers prepared to exit their car as it pulled onto the side of the city street, about ten meters in front of them a blue panel van they had gone after sat waiting. Neither one of them noticed a similar panel van stop about one hundred meters farther up the road.

“Three Five Charlie to dispatch, pulled over a blue van just outside the Davydov Hotel for a broken tail light.”

“Copy that Three Five Charlie.”

The Davydov Hotel had been built by the Khurzav government some thirty years earlier as a place for high-ranking members of the government to wine and dine foreigners and their own families. It was the tallest building in the immediate area at twelve stories with a large open garden/plaza with ornate walkways all around the building, stretching out some two hundred and fifty meters from building to road in each direction and featured a large hedge row that concealed a iron fence all around the outer grounds where it met the city street to keep people out.

A U shaped road lead in and out of the hotel’s grounds up to its main entrance with one continuing on into a relatively small underground parking lot that served both to store visitor’s cars and to provide a service entrance for food and supplies. Just opposite the main road where the Khurzav police officers had pulled over the van was a large open public park taking up nearly the same amount of space as the hotel and it’s grounds did.

As they both exited the car the officer on the driver side half turned to his partner on the other side, “I’ll get his one.”

His partner simply nodded and taking advantage of this opportunity pulled out a cigarette and started to light it as he continued forward towards the van. He had only made it halfway there when the driver side door opened and a young man in civilian clothes exited.

“Get back in the vehicle si-oh shi-,” he was cut off twice, first by the young man raising a black CZ-85 at him and the second time when the young man fired five rounds into his chest at five meters in less then three seconds before he could pull his own weapon.

His partner looked up in time to see him topple backwards on to the road and seeing this, dropped his cigarette and lighter on the ground and started to withdraw his service sidearm, he dropped to a crouch next to the squad car when the shooter fired several rounds at him from near the back side of the van.

He was about to return fire when the van’s back doors opened up revealing eight young men all between the ages of eighteen and twenty four dressed in a mix of civilian and surplus military clothing with black armbands on their right shoulders with white lettering he couldn’t make out and armed with a various assortment of weapons ranging from high powered hunting rifles, shotguns, and even one AK-74. This gave the civilians walking along the sidewalks increased reason to scatter.

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour the officer ducked around behind his squad car and activated his radio as several more rounds impacted his concealment, “Three Five Charlie, shots fired, officer down, need back up and an ambulance now! I repeat, officer down, I-aaaah!” the officer screamed as one of the rounds punched through the car and caught him in the left shoulder.

Content that they had dealt with two men they considered to be collaborators, they moved to get back into their van, however before they did the driver saw a Kilrany ISM vehicle coming towards them from their front several hundred meters farther past the second van. They quickly realized they weren’t about to out run the navy blue BTR-80 (http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l93/Kilrany/btr80-4.jpg) mounting a high angle 30mm auto cannon with a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, they quickly looked from someplace to take cover, and chose to make a break for the hotel.

The second van saw the approaching APC as well and came to a similar conclusion, they quickly exited their vehicle and broke though the panicking civilians towards the hotel, one of them however, armed with an RPG stopped, went down on one knew and took aim at the approaching Kilrany ISM BTR.

The Kilrany ISM BTR had been on a routine patrol of the city with a six man ISM assault squad in its troop bay, it had already been heading in the general direction of the hotel when they heard the Khurzav police officer’s call for help, in turn the driver kicked the vehicle’s speed up, fortunately there were few cars on the street with most Khurzav choosing to walk unless they really needed to.

The vehicles gunner could clearly see the van with the partisans who had fired on the police officers but he held off firing either the 30mm auto cannon or the 7.62mm machine gun for fear of hitting nearby civilians. However when he saw the young man drop to one knee and point an RPG at his vehicle, he cursed and took aim, firing a two second burst from the coaxial machine gun.

The 7.62mm rounds ripped through the young man’s body and unfortunately tore apart a young boy of twelve who had been running away on the opposite side of the RPG gunner, killing them both. His fire had proved to be a second to late however and the RPG flashed out towards their vehicles just as the rounds from the machine gun hit the RPG gunner, the driver of the BTR saw the flash of the RPG and swerved the vehicle to the right, almost smashing into a parked car. The Maneuver had proved to be unneeded however as the young man who had fired the RPG had no training in it and the round was off target, striking another parked car opposite the city street from where the BTR had swerved.

With the immediate threat out of the way, the driver kicked the eight-wheel drive vehicle back up to speed, racing towards the front area of the hotel. From inside the troop bay the assault squad’s designated marksman, armed with an AK-74M equipped with a PSO-1 optic, opened a rooftop hatch behind the turret and stood up, putting his upper torso out of the vehicle in an attempt to pick off any partisans without hitting any civilians, however hitting a moving target from a moving vehicle proved easier said then done and he fired off several rounds that missed.

By the this time most of the partisans had reached the hotel and entered through its front door, knocking aside the door man and then taking him hostage. The driver of the BTR stopped his vehicle at the Southwest corner of the hotel’s hedgerow, giving the gunner and the marksman clear shots at those partisans still exposed out front of the building. The gunner fired off a short burst that ripped up the ground and tore through the body of a partisan some ten meters from the main door, the marksman fired off two crisp shots from his weapon, catching a second partisan in the back just as he was about to disappear into the building.

The hand of his sergeant knocked against the side of his leg, signaling for him to come back down into the vehicle, he quickly did so, closing the roof hatch and leaving the vehicles gunner to watch the main entrance. A moment later the left side door of the BTR opened and the six-man assault squad exited the vehicle, as typical with Kilrany ISM assault squads they wore navy blue ballistic helmets and tactical gear and vests, three were armed with PP-19 Bizon submachine guns, two with KRCS Blackthorns* and of course one with a AK-74M with a PSO-1 optic as their marksman.

The ISM sergeant gestured for his men to take up position along the outside of the hedgerow and use it for concealment. His radio crackled to life as a second assault quad and their BTR arrived on scene on the other side of the building, after a quick discussion the second vehicle took up position on the Northeast corner of the hedgerow, effectively trapping the partisans inside the hotel. Both squads chose to hold position until reinforcements could arrive.

Within ten minutes a half dozen ISM BTR-80s in their navy blue colours and army BTR-80s in their more typical woodland style camouflage with the addition of a quad pack for the Kornet missile attached opposite the coaxial machine gun were in the immediate area. After a quick discussion between an ISM Captain and an Army Captain the Army chose to leave jurisdiction in the hands of the ISM since they had more training for the urban environment.

Working together the two captains set up their own BTRs near the Northeast corner of the park that was opposite the street from the hotel. Both Their BTRs were more in the way of mobile command vehicles; as such the troop bays carried more in the way of radio equipment then room for troops.

With his vehicle set up the ISM captain went about setting up the perimeter and giving orders to his men. To supplement the two ISM BTRs on the Southwest and Northeast corners, he placed two more ISM BTRs on the hedgerow at the other two corners, then with the approval of the army captain, pulled the army marksmen who were armed with SVD-Ks and put them on the rooftops on the smaller buildings around the hotel grounds as makeshift snipers and put the army infantry squads and their BTRs on the outer perimeter farther out on the streets to keep the civilians back.

Twenty five minutes after the first gunshot and the entire perimeter was closed tight, with that done he ordered three of his men to connect his vehicle to the local communications grid, to this effect using a specialized communications cord coiled up in a small box attached to the outer hull of the captain’s BTR, the three men then ran it into a nearby building attaching it to their phone lines and secured the building.

A Khurzav police officer came over at the captain’s request.

“What do you need?”

“I need you to contact your dispatch, tell them we need them to reroute all out going and incoming phone calls from the hotel to that building over there,” the captain gestured at the same building his men took the line into and the officer took mental note of it, “Also they need to cut all cellular phone service in the area and I need you to bring in one of your negotiators. I’m pretty sure we have a hostage situation.”

“You got it, negotiator could be a problem, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Both men nodded to each other, in that brief moment they weren’t Kilrany, or Khurzav, occupier or occupied, they were just two police officers trying to do their jobs.


*KRCS Blackthorn: A combat shotgun, similar in appearance to the Russian Saiga-12, produced in a joint project between KIAM (Kilrany Imperial Arms Manufactures) and the RMSMC (Russkyan Military Supplemental Manufacturing Corporation)

OOC: Forgive the poor quality of this diagram, but it should give you a decent idea about what the Hotel and area looks like, I'm no artist and MS Paint doesn't help, heh
Davydov Hotel (http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l93/Kilrany/DavydovHotel.jpg)

Skgorria

As the Skgorrian captain told him to, the Khurzav turned to face the indicated Corporal.

“No one in particular needs food more then the rest of us, we’ve been carefully rationing out what we have and what the Kilrany drop off every now and then between us all. Anything you can give us will go a long way.

----

To: Major Hertzog, RPF
From: General Yuri Dovlatov
Subject: Re:Additional Troops

Major, if my understanding of your current numbers are correct, bringing in an additional company of engineers should not be a problem, feel free to do so, I will ensure the airfield personnel are expecting an additional transport.

House of James

The teenager stared back at the larger man, and when he spoke it was with hatred garnered from a lifetime of Khurzav media’s portrayal of the Kilrany, “Why would you poison it? You’re here with the Kilrany and the Kilrany are murderers. We were warned all about them, how they relish in combat and death, how they torture and mutilate their enemies, how they adore seeing others suffer. During the war of 1905, they executed two hundred of our POWs.”

He glanced up at the sky for a moment and then looked back at the captain, “Why are we fearful of those helicopters? We are fearful of them because they carry Kilrany and the Kilrany love to use those helicopters with every sort of armament imaginable, gun pods, bombs, napalm, Thermobarics, not six months ago they launched a unprovoked attack with Thermobaric rockets on a border position, killing eighty five soldiers.

----

A dozen Kilrany ISM foot patrolmen, one squad, had already gathered near the protesters, since they weren’t apparently armed so it fell to the ISM to keep an eye on it, which the foot patrolmen were fully capable of doing, like the ISM assault squads that patrolled in their navy blue BTR-80s, the foot patrolmen were heavily armed police officers.

Typically they operated in squads of twelve officers that would be assigned to a sector of a city, then break into three man squads, two would be armed with Bizon submachine guns and the third with the KRCS Blackthorn, the only difference between the ISM and the Kilrany regulars was training and tactics, generally speaking the ISM training included urban environments and dealing with law enforcement more prominently.

As per their orders the ISM held back, warning regular force personnel to keep their distance and calling in an assault squad to stand by incase the protest turned violent, beyond that, the ISM officers simply kept a safe distance and watched.

OOC: Just to note, what you hear from Khurzav may or may not be true, I'm doing my best to simulate just what several centuries of hate, and lies told about each nation by their own governments would do to a population. If you want to know the truth of something you will have to compare answers with other Khurzav and Kilrany responces. heh

The Capital

Alpha Company
Captain Williams heard what the boy said and a pained expression slipped onto his face. Generations of hate have done this to what might otherwise be a fairly normal child, however unfortunately for him the Kilrany were here to stay for at least the immediate future. Instead of speaking his thoughts he tried a slightly different approach.

“You seem intelligent enough. How do you know that they are facts rather than just pure propaganda from your former government who wanted you to fight harder? Huh? You don’t. Have you ever met any Kilrany or Khurzav citizen who has seen this firsthand or been victim of brutality? No I didn’t think so. If you want my opinion on it, you are stuck with them here so you might as well make the most out of it. But its your call.”

As he finished his tactical radio hissed with static which was followed by a brief message from Jolt back with the vehicles.

“Alpha Six to all units, we move in ten.”



Kiowa Surveliance Helicopter Bird-Two

The helicopter was now higher up above the crowd gathered, most of its cameras watching the protestors below whilst two swept around the nearby streets. One of them happened to catch the Kilrany BTR-80’s surrounding an isolated building, this being one of the vehicles the computer was searching for, due to its military applications on the battlefield, it flagged the screen up with an audible noise for the systems operator who looked over at it.

“Collection of BTR’s at 9o’clock. This seems pretty standard, shall we have a look?”

The pilot briefly considered the options, a glance at his fuel gauge revealed that he had just under a hours supply remaining in his tanks. He needed twenty minutes to get back to the base and another ten just incase he had to orbit there leaving half an hours loitering over the city.

“Roger. Half an hours fuel left then we bingo back to the farm.”

Within a minute the small helicopter was over the area, the operator in the back spending his time equally between looking at the tv displays and the electronic instruments that monitored all kinds of waves in the air.

“Got some local jamming. Not on any of our frequencies, possibility that its just the massed transmissions of all those BTR’s. Cameras are showing that we have fourty odd troops running around, thermal gives us readings of them inside this hedgeline. Wonder what’s going on?

“Report it in anway, see if they know anything about it.”

The systems operator repeated his brief report to the HQ comms officer who also had no idea what it was, but set off to find his Kilrany liaison who was somewhere on the base.


Alpha Company

As all transmissions between units in the capital were on the same frequency Captain Jolt and his command section also heard the report from the helicopter. The operations officer nodded once and turned to his CO.

“Reckon that’s something we should know about or should have known about?”

“Odd to do a training exercise over lunch…if that’s what it is. I’m sure if we are supposed to know our friend over there will tell us” he just motioned to the Kilrany liaison who had accompanied them and was now leaning against a truck smoking a cigarette with long graceful drags.

On Patrol

Captain Yuklig left the Unit 209 soldier and assisted in the distribution of rations, giving everyone who asked for one a ration pack designed to feed a person for 2 days. To his dissappointment not all the villagers came and asked for food, but at least it would save some for the other villages they would visit. Some of the villagers were talking to Skgorrian troops, but the majority of those who took food simply went to their homes. This is going to be a hard mission Yuklig sighed. After no more villagers came for food, Yuklig's company moved out, taking a long winding road around a mountain to an extremely isolated settlement.

RPF Base

Major Hertzog had been listening to the radio intently as reports between police and military operatives outlined the situation. It seemed as though the authorities had the situation under control, but one can never have too much manpower thought Hertzog. He picked up a microphone linked to the base's hastily-rigged speakers, used to deliver messages or alarms in a hurry.

Special Action Unit 209 3rd and 4th Squads, to the briefing room immediately blared the speakers, and two squads of Unit 209 men and women barged into the briefing room, which had nothing in it save a large blackboard and Major Hertzog.
"Get your gear, there's a hostage situation and we're going to help out. You will be briefed further in flight. GO!" With that, the Unit 209 troopers ran out to their billets to fetch their gear. An Mi-8MT was starting its engines as the Unit 209 troops strapped on sidearms, put on helmets, fitted their body armour and continued their preperations.

3 minutes after leaving the briefing room, the doors to the Unit 209 Barracks were kicked open and 20 troopers ran out, weapons in hand and ready for action. They ran to the waiting helicopter admist the cheers and shouts of off-duty personnel and the base speakers playing the Skgorrian national anthem. As the last trooper was hauled into the helicopter by her squadmates, the Mi-8MT lifted off and headed for Pernik. The co-pilot attempted to notify the relevant authorities that Skgorrian troops were on their way, ready and eager to assist.

House of James

The young man looked back at the Kingdom soldier, his expression turned dark, “You know nothing of my country, or of the Kilrany! My grandfather was in the POW camp, he saw their curse ad Imperial Guard come into the camp, drag them out of their barracks, then execute them in front of everyone,” the young man then pointed at the Kilrany liaison officer who looked up in time to see the gesture, “You’re a fool to trust those bastards!”

Curious as to what was going on the Kilrany officer crushed the cigarette under his boot and started over, the young Khurzav didn’t wait for him to arriver and simply took off running down the street. The Kilrany officer looked at the running Khurzav then back at the Kingdom officer, “What was that all about?”

-----

Shut up already and go the hell home, corporal Perov was starting to get annoyed with the protester’s chants, there original number of fifty had been joined by twenty more since it started. It was mostly annoying to him because he and his squad were the only people around to hear them.

Without stopping he turned to look as a fellow ISM officer, “Why the hell are they protesting anyway, there’s no one but us here, there’s no cameras or media to hear them, such a pain.”

His fellow officer gave him a grim smile, “Probably just to annoy the hell out of us,” they were both snapped out of their conversation when a bottle smashed on the wall next to them. They both looked over in time to see a young women run back into the crowd.

“At least these are city streets, no loose stones.”

-----

Sergeant Rokotov looked up from his squad's position on the outside of the hotel’s Southeast hedgerow corner in the direction he heard the approaching helicopter. He knew that his unit’s captain had called for air support, but whatever helicopter this was, it didn’t sound right for a Kilrany bird.

None of the ISM squads dared go inside the hedgerow, there was no cover protecting them from partisans in the building besides a few small bushes and flower beds, it didn’t help them that no other building in the area was taller then seven stories and that the hotel had numerous large balconies and every window was tinted. They also didn’t dare drive a BTR up to the entrance as cover incase the partisans had another RPG. He was glad for the army marksman on the rooftops keeping an eye on things with their Dragunovs.

The hedgerow was about a meter and a half tall, which had fortunately allowed Khurzav paramedics to recover the injured officer and the three dead Khurzav and it permitted the squads some concealment next to their BTRs whose turrets could still see over the hedgerow.

-----

ISM captain Rublev stood outside his navy blue BTR next to the small box that held communications wire that ran into the nearby building and was deeply involved in a shouting match with a phone that also sat inside the box, a moment later he slammed it down into it’s receiver and cursed.

“Negotiations not going well I take it?”

Rublev turned to face his army counterpart, “You could say that.”

“What are they demanding?”

“Oh we never got that far, before we could they make derogatory remarks about my mother, then yours.”

Slightly confused the army captain raised in eyebrow, “They mentioned me in particular?”

“Not quite, first one was aimed directly at me, second one was a general insult for everyone here.”

“Great.”

Rublev sighed and leaned against the hull of his navy blue BTR, sat next to his own was his army counter parts BTR set in something of a V formation to let them both stand up with the cover of their vehicles between them and the hotel, just in case the partisans tried to play sniper games.

He glanced over to the West end of the park, four other navy blue BTRs sat nose to nose in a line from West to East in the park, giving their six man assault squads cover and still survey the hotel. None of them were negotiators, it just wasn’t necessary in Kilrany, had this happened there, there wouldn’t have been RPGs and they would have gone in the second it happened and it would all be over, it also didn’t help that there was no Khurzav negotiators available.

The sound of a light helicopter brought his attention skywards, That’s not my Havoc, it should still be two minutes out, after a moment he caught sight of the small black helicopter, Ah hell, its one of those peacekeepers, I hope their smart enough not to get to close to the damned building, he was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a pop followed a fraction of a second later by a round ricocheting off his BTR.

“Sergeant, get on the radio, get that bird up their warned that we have a hostage situation with unknown number and armed partisan forces and Sergeant, have we found out how many people were in that building yet?”

The sergeant was inside the ISM BTR and replied from inside, “Unfortunately yes, they’ve been using it as homes for about a dozen displaced families, also there was supposed to be about a half dozen support troops inside helping out with the hotels staff, and I’ll get on that message now.”

Both captain Rublev and his army counterpart cursed, they had hoped to end this peacefully, but it wasn’t looking good.

Skgorria

The Sergeant called back out from inside the BTR to captain Rublev, “Sir, I’ve sent the message to the Kingdom forces and now I’m getting a redirected message from the Skgorrian forces, they are in route with a special assault team in an MI-8, they want to know if they can help.”

Rublev pulled off his helmet and ran his hand through his hair, carefully considering it, tell them to stand by, we’re attempting to resolve this peacefully to start with, if they’d like the can land in that open area in the South end of the park.”

“Yes sir.”

The sound of deeper thumping then the Kiowa brought his eyes back up to the sky, a moment later the MI-28 Havoc that he had been told would provide close air support to keep the partisans off the hotel roof had finally arrived.

"Understood" answered the co-pilot after recieving the situation report from the Kilrany. Turning back to face a stern-faced Lieutenant, the co-pilot told him
"We're going to land in the open area to the south of the hotel, and then I guess wait for instructions." The Lieutenant nodded, and the co-pilot turned back to his duties.

As they approached the hotel, the Skgorrians took note of how all traffic had stopped for at least a block around the hotel as they undertook their final checks. Even though they were landing in a theoretically safe zone, the Skgorrians had learned through bitter experience to always be prepared for the worst. Ammunition was checked, straps were tightened and weapons were cocked.

The pilot brought the Mi-8 in a relatively fast descent so as to stand the best chance of avoiding AA fire. No such fire erupted from the hotel, but as soon as the 'copter touched the ground its doors were slid open and the Special Action Unit 209 troopers lept out under the scrutiny of numerous Kilrany and Khuraz onlookers. As the Mi-8 took to the sky again they ran for 50 metres to the north to some relative cover, in this case a clump of bushes, and the Lieutenant decided to radio in to the Kilrany commander.

"Captain Rublev, this is Lieutenant Gorobets of Special Action Unit 209. I have 2 squads of 10 troopers on the ground and one Mi-8 in the air on a wide circular patrol route. If needed we can launch an assault on the roof, we stand ready for orders." Weapons were raised and pointed in the direction of the hotel, and the Mi-8 circled overhead keeping a wide berth from the hotel as the crew informed Major Hertzog of the current developments.

Skgorria

With over seven hundred meters between the hotel and where the helicopter could safely land no partisan chose to fire at it, choosing to save their ammunition, they had even stopped firing at the Kilrany ISM and soldiers as they weren’t fool enough to make themselves a target out in the open.

Even across the park the ISM officers could feel the rush of air from the large helicopters rotor and a few watched as they quickly disembarked took cover. Inside Captain Rublev’s BTR, Rublev’s Sergeant replied “One moment Lieutenant,” the Sergeant then leaned closer to the side door of the vehicle, “Captain, I’ve got Lieutenant Gorobets of the Skgorrian Special Action unit over there, he says he’s got twenty men with him and that the MI-8 is ready to have them air assault unto the hotel’s roof.”

Captain Rublev climbed into the reconfigured troop bay, his Sergeant handed him his head set and he removed his ballistic helmet and put on it on, “Lieutenant Gorobets, this is Captain Rublev, I appreciate the quick response, we currently trying to resolve this problem peacefully as per my orders, but I’ll be honest with you, it’s not looking good, I’d like to discuss some options, but I’d rather do so in person then over the radio. If you can, please come up to my BTR, it’s the one on the East side of the park sitting next to the army BRT, I would also suggest you move your men up behind the line of BTRs to my West, they will provide actual cover should the partisans open fire on you.”

"Understood Captain Rublev, I am ready to move. Give me a moment to brief my Sergeant," spoke Gorobets as he turned to the Sergeant.
"Take the men to the BTRs to the west, this'll give us actual cover rather than concealment. Don't open fire unless the Kilrany do, remember this isn't Skgorria." Nodding in understanding, the Sergeant motioned for both squads to follow him as he moved towards the BTRs. When they arrived behind the vehciles, the Unit 209 men filed in where there was room and checked fire arcs with their neighbours.

Gorobets made his way to the command BTR and approached Captain Rublev. Letting his Ak-107 drape on the sling, he elevated his right arm at the elbow in the informal salute of the SS.
"Captain, Lieutenant Gorobets reporting. My men are in position to the west, and the Mi-8 that brought us here can circle overhead for a couple of hours before returning to refuel. However," he said with a wry smile, "I suspect this situation won't last long. Any progress on the negotiations?"

The Capital

Bird-Two got the transmission and promptly increased its height to nearly 2,000 feet from where it was safe to monitor from a circular pattern similar to the Mi-8 that had also arrived but further out than the big Kilrany gunship.

In the back the systems operator was monitoring the camera display and also uplinking it to a commercial satellite that was in range which would then put the feed down into the HQ at the Kingdom base. As they had deployed without drones or larger surveillance birds this would have to make do. For now it looked as though the Kilrany had it under control and so the fast response platoon in their four Merlin's were stood back down to a ten minute alert.


Alpha Company

With the Kilrany's approach and the teenagers bit of sprinting practice Captain Williams shook his head remembering that you could not cure decades of propoganda with one conversation.

"Just another product of media manipulation. Probably frightened you were going to cut his balls off and feed them to him or something. Judging by this lot its going to be a hard job to quell the dissent to a reasonable and manageable level." his earpiece started squarking "Excuse me for a second."

He pressed the piece into his left ear slightly for the duration of the short message before pressing the transmit on his radio situated in his left breast pocket of the tactical vest.

"Roger. On our way." he turned to the Kilrany liaison. "Looks like we are needed back at the vehicles, a pair of situations developing in the city that may need our attention. Leftenant, you are in charge"

The two men took the short walk back to the vehicles still in conversation about the Khurzav child and his attitude to the Kilrany. Arriving back at the command vehicle Williams greeted Jolt with a nod, whilst of equal rank Jolt had served longer than Williams hence their positions as Company Commander and Company XO. The Company Commander spoke first.

"Gentlemen we have couple of situations in the city. Firstly there is a protest here" he stabbed a point on a tourist map layed out on the vehicle's hood with his finger "and also some partisans or somebody has taken over this hotel complex here" another stab. "Now we havn't been asked to assist, however I was planning on offering our assistance as this is our AO. If we do get the call I want 2nd Platoon to take their vehicles to the protest under Williams whilst I will take the rest to this other disturbance."

He turned to the Kilrany Officer who had been listening intently.

"If I can get you on the correct radio frequencies can you ask if assistance is needed? My russian speaker is back at base with a busted ankle from last night."

Skgorria

Of the four ISM squads situated with their BTRs for cover, only the marksmen armed with AK-74Ms actually kept their weapons ready and pointed at the building, whereas the other assault squad members simply used the BTRs for cover while they waited for orders since their Bizons and Blackthorns lacked the range to be effective in this situation.

One of the squad Sergeants looked over at the Skgorrian soldiers and grinned a humourless grin, “Welcome to the party.”

------

Rublev handed the headset back to his Sergeant and climbed out of the vehicle in time to meet Lieutenant Gorobet. He acknowledged the salute with a nod from his head, although the ISM was technically a military organization inside Kilrany, they didn’t follow some of the same procedures the regular military does.

“Welcome Lieutenant, good to hear. Now then, I’m not sure how long this will last, my instincts are to go in there and end this here and now. But I have my orders to do things peacefully as much as possible and I’m going to do my best to follow them. Although they’ve threatened action against the hostages if we go in, they haven’t actually killed any yet, so I’m willing to give negotiations another try. With that in mind, we haven’t managed much in the way of negotiations, none of us here are negotiators, its not normally needed in Kilrany. We figure they’ve got sixty hostages with many open areas to put them in to watch with only small numbers, we also don’t know how many of these terrorists there are, from what an injured Khurzav police officer told us, we estimate there to be seventeen of them, we also don’t know what kind of weapons they have, or if any of them are capable of taking down an armoured vehicle or even a helicopter for that matter,” Rublev gestured to the Havoc slowly circling the building, “That’s why that Havoc up there if keeping a close eye on the roof, thirty millimeter high explosive shells wont do serious damage to the building, the Khurzav may have had a corrupt government, but they made solid buildings. Most of this structure is built out of steel and reinforced concrete covered over in a layer of more pleasant looking material. I’ve currently got some officers bringing the blueprints of the building, should be here in five minutes.”

House of James

The liaison officer looked confused for a moment, then simply shrugged and followed the Captain, “Well I can’t argue that, the Khurzav have hated us for a very long time, and their attitude towards us hasn’t exactly endeared us to them either. But our orders are clear and we will follow them.”

Arriving at the Kingdom vehicles the liaison officer listened carefully, “I can give you a frequency we’re monitoring, should be able to get routed through. Now I know the ISM, and if you can help at that protest they will most likely welcome it. They’re used to Kilrany protests, which aren’t like most protests, they don’t have to yell and cause damage for their voice to be heard. If the Khurzav turn violent, the ISM will have only the one recourse, and that’s lethal force, they don’t have less lethal rounds for their weapons. As for this hotel situation, the ISM will not be lacking manpower, but if partisan forces have taken hostages, they will have orders to negotiate first, and no offence meant to them, but the ISM negotiations tend to involve weapons fire rather then conversation. I’m sure they’d appreciate your presence if any of you are good negotiators.”

Yugoslav Zone

With no trouble on the first days and most of his personnel having joined at least one scouting mission, patrol, or public relations trip, Army-General Bojan Javoric had sent home reports that encouraged his political masters. Men like Desetar Pedrag Jovanović were leading the way in trying to form friendly bonds with a few locals, especially around bridges over the formidable river, hoping to get forewarning -either by direct tip-off or just being sufficiently familiar to detect a subtle change in mood and routine- and everyone was reasonably happy.

Javoric had begun to organise a mission to Pashchatova, the main city in the Belgade Brigade's primary area of interest. A sort of 'consulate' would be established -Belgrade was prepared to pay authorities or private owners, whoever, to rent a suitable hall or office block- through which Javoric hoped to communicate with residents, let them know who his men were and why they were in Khurzav, and from where he could organise PR exercises and give aid to public services.

Unfortunately, events in the capital put a different tint on the affair.

The Yugoslav General sent a communiqué to the Kilrany authorities, offering to deploy elements of the Specijalna Antiteroristicka Jedinica (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/saj.jpg) (SAJ, Special Antiterrorist Force) to assist in the capital, which he regarded as unsettlingly close to his own area of operations. Javoric had joined the SAJ on its inception in 1978 as part of a then-200-man elite force, and it was with them that he had his first command and earned his hardman reputation in Kosovo. They could deploy overtly, or in their alternat all-black uniforms and masks.

Javoric would delay only temporarily before moving to Pashchatova, but couldn't very well ignore the crisis to his southwest and expect to be taken seriously.

Yugo Slavia

General Dovlatov was already in the rather large communications room, a former Khurzav royal family greeting room, a rather lavish one at that inside their former palace, having come to receive a few situation reports on the hostage situation first hand and was just about to leave when the message from the Yugoslavians came in.

One of the communications officers repeated to him the message, he considered it, then replied to the officer, “Send this message back to them, we appreciate your offer of assistance, however manpower is not what we need at this time.”

The officer nodded and sent the message to the Yugoslavians. With that done the General turned and left the communications room for his office.

Alpha Company

Captain Jolt laughed at that.

“Well none of us really have any experience at that kind of thing. Negotiating I mean, however maybe we can turn junior pro if we have a go.”

The commander turned to Captain Williams.

“Ok. I’ll get onto the ISM and also command to inform them of this, you get the men back to the vehicles sharpish and then take 2nd platoon to this protest. Have the support squad go with you too” he motioned to the roof above them “now lets get this radio transmitting. ISM first”

Playing around with the various dials and buttons on the radio the liaison officer was able to get it onto the correct frequency of an unencrypted Kilrany band. With that done the operator handed Captain Jolt the handset on the end of a coiled wire much like a telephone set at home. Placing the obviously cheap plastic casing to his head Jolt began speaking.

“Kilrany control this is Kingdom Force Patrol 1 in the city. We hear you have some situations and wish to offer our assistance to you if it is required. I have a company of experienced troops in grid square 098 534 and we can be moving in five minutes if required. Over.”

Meanwhile Captain Williams had returned to his men to supervise them as they took the opportunity to disengage from the locals and move back to their vehicles. He noted that several had obviously been into local shops and exchanged hard currency for a few small bits of local produce, surely a good way of showing their intentions to the locals.

The twelve men of the KRG Detatchment had left the encampment early in the morning. An overnight raid had procured two dozen grey and green external-frame rucksacks, these were scrounged from "Outdoor Adventure"-type stores in the cities. The two man teams that had taken the equipment had been led to their targets by local guides, one of whom actually worked at one of the stores where the vast majority of the rucks had been taken from. Now with the ability to carry most of their gear with them, the partisans decamped, with a team of ten being taught by the soldier who wore Kamysh how to create grenade-sized improvised explosives and other booby-traps, including a primitive M-18A1 "Claymore" imitation, consisting of an old coffee can filled with explosive compound and several dozen nails and other pieces of shrapnel on one side.

These traps were set about the old campsite, the camouflage netting was broken down and taken with them, and soon the entire group left for another suitable site deep in a primeval forest. Except for twelve, split into two teams of six, each led by a former Khurzav soldier who wore their VSR uniforms, carried their battle-gear, and held their AK-74s low and ready to fire as they led their teams through the brush.

A stiff breeze alleviated the 26° C heat beating down from a clear blue sky with only a scattering of white clouds. It also made concealment a fair bit easier, as the moving branches and bushes, and swirling random patterns in the patches of high grass would distract an observer and force him to concentrate to try and pick out what was potentially an ambusher. The tip-off had said there would be six medium trucks led by a BTR-80 in typical Kilrany configuration, with the thirty millimetre automatic cannon and four-cell antitank guided missile launcher. The site for the ambush had been suggested ahead of time by the former Khurzav soldier who wore Kamysh, a man from the Khurzav Special Forces group. It was where the road bisected a patch of forest and took a turn in it, to avoid a particularly dense patch of trees that weren't to be cut through when the road was constructed.

The RPK was sited to provide enfilade fire on the roadway just short of the turn in the road. At that turn in the road, many heavy containers of ANFO explosive were manhandled into place in a culvert, a drainage tube that ran underneath the roadway. They were fuzed and the gunpowder-impregnated line was run to a concealed spot that would provide protection from the blast, as due to the length of the fuze-cord, the man who detonated the charge and thus initiated the ambush would have to be unfortunately close to the explosives.

A former soldier known as Vanya crouched next to the partisan who would initiate the ambush, speaking in a low, unnessecarily quiet voice while his counterpart guided the rest of the soldiers into position. He absentmindedly fidgetted with the whistle hanging from its lanyard around his neck.

"And when are you going to set this off, Serzh?"

"When the lead vehicle, should be a BTR, is over the charge, Vanya."

"Good man. Keep your head down right after you light the fuze, or you might lose it. Okay?"

Sergei nodded, and Vanya headed into the forest to join the rifle-armed skirmish line that trailed from the RPK's position along the road. Concealed in the forest on the other side of the road, slightly behind where the convoy was expected to end, a group of six waited.

As the partisans settled down to wait, they listened to the birds who sang in the forest and the leaves rustling, keeping their ears perked for the sounds of movement, in the event that this was a trap and the Kilrany had Infantry advancing on them now. Their eyes scanned their sectors of responsibility, and at random times, a soldier would slowly look behind him, so as not to create a burst of quick movement and give away his position so readily. It was all-clear, and then the KIAM BTR-80 could be heard, followed by the noise of six truck engines from the URAL-4320s.

Every man tensed up, shouldering his weapon and waiting. They all watched the lead BTR roll around the corner, didn't see the flicker of flame as the fuze trailed to the ANFO canisters, then saw the roadway lift, twist, break apart, and the shattered BTR was shoved to one side of the road. Their eyes snapped back onto the trucks, and a blast from the whistle, cutting through the combined noise of the truck engines, the ringing of the ears produced by the concussive force of that blast, and the agitated noises of startled woodland creatures, signalled the ambush. The six men with the RPK team opened fire, targetting the truck cabs, watching their rounds kill the Kilrany inside, shatter glass, punch holes in the thin steel of hoods and frames.

From the rear-most truck, two Kilrany dove out, returning fire as they headed for cover. Two blasts of the whistle, and one of them was scythed down with an extended burst from the RPK, which caught that soldier low in the side and flung that trooper onto the roadway, their Kalashnikov sliding away from them. The six men assigned to sweep the roadway advanced, and the second man twisted around and fired, before being engaged by no less than ten partisans. He toppled to the ground, dead instantly. Three blasts of the whistle and the entire team picked up their weapons and went forward. They dragged dead Kilrany from cabs, stripping them of their weapons and equipment, and other partisans searched the load-beds. One partisan, a former woodsman, put his booted foot on the wounded Kilrany's chest, after rolling her over with a kick to the shoulder. The muzzle of his semiautomatic hunting rifle hung a handful of inches from her forehead, and he called out to his fellows, drawing the attention of Vanya.

"Got a live one here, firing one."

"Ilya! Back to the trucks, I'll handle that one. Go!"

The woodsman looked up, slightly confused, shrugged, kicked the Kilrany in the hip, and left to clamber up into the back of a truck and start prying lids off containers. The containers were marked, but the Khurzav were told to make sure of their contents before manhandling them out. Vanya knelt by the wounded Kilrany, pulling her aid-kit from its place on the LBE, doctoring the two holes in her side and bandaging them with the large field dressing. Perhaps the two 5.45x39mm 5N7 rounds hadn't fragmented and torn her insides to mush as they were designed to do in that brutal way. If the Kilrany arrived soon enough, her life might be saved. If the Kilrany arrived too soon, these twelve KRG men were undoubtedly going to die, so speed was of the essence. Vanya shouted to his compatriots to hurry, before turning back to the wounded Kilrany at his feet. He tied her legs with her own belt, then used a length of rope from one of the trucks to secure her wrists, and dragged her to the side of the road, out of the way. He left the wounded Kilrany, and halfway to the rearmost truck a man ran up to him, happy with what they'd found.

"We've got everything, Vanya. Everything but RPGs."

Vanya raised an eyebrow, confused.

"We've got AKs, SVDs, PKMs, RPKs. Everything, more than enough ammunition, even grenades and some GP-thirties! Rations and cleaning kits too, some rain gear, there's a crate of assault vests in there, those'll be useful. Too much to carry out though."

"Heh, shit. Two trucks can carry everything we need and more?"

The man nodded, still disbelieving the cornucopia they'd stumbled across.

"Okay. Load up the trucks, we gotta hurry. All the Kilrany checked?"

"Yep. Got their rifles and their vests, not like we need them though."

"Yeah, good point. Toss it all in the back of the trucks and lets go. I know a guy nearby, he might be able to help us out. Unfortunately, nearby is a few kilometers. Go, hurry the men along."

Every man pitched in, lifting crates into two trucks, securing them for transport, and climbing aboard themselves. The two trucks turned on the narrow road, and they headed three kilometers away from the convoy's direction of travel, taking a rough-surfaced gravel road to a lumber yard. Vanya jumped from the cab of the truck, ran through the near-empty yard, and kicked open the door of the yard office, seeing his old friend sitting there behind his desk, the phone forgotten in his hand, an expression of shock and surprise on his face.

"Hey man, how's life been?"

Vanya grinned broadly and his friend stared in disbelief.

Not twenty minutes later, the partisans had transferred the contents of the two crates to a pair of panel vans and a civilian light truck. Ten minutes of driving at a steady pace of 65 km/h, and they were well away from the lumber yard. Two partisans stayed behind to get rid of the URAL-4320 trucks, move them safely away from the lumber yard. The civilian vehicles were driven by partisans in their civilian shirts, and at the rendezvous point, the small group detailed to guide them back to the new encampment were shocked by the size of the equipment haul. Three partisans returned the vehicles after the equipment was offloaded and carried by hand deep into the forest, and stowed underneath camouflage nets strung up on poles and concealed wires prior to an inventory being taken.

Those five partisans detatched from the unit to return or otherwise deal with vehicles would rejoin the KRG two days later. It would seem that in one stroke of luck, they had become very well equipped indeed. No doubt the Yugoslavs would hear about this ambush, as it was their sector of responsibility. The partisans had moved West, and now waited in primeval forest between the House of James zone and the Yugoslavian zone.

--

An adolescent who'd been playing football (soccer) for ten of his sixteen years accidentally booted the ball into the side of a Yugoslavian wheeled vehicle on patrol. He stood back, aghast, and his friends tensed to sprint for cover, but relaxed at the friendly laughs of the soldiers inside the vehicle. They waved a greeting and gestured for the ball to be kicked back onto their makeshift soccer field.

House of James

The Liaison officer shrugged, “Well, in comparison to the ISM, I think it will be of great benefit to be a neutral third party here, the partisans may be willing to listen to you,” A wry smile then came across the officers face, “And as long as you have some basic common sense I think you might just do fine.”

------

Inside the communications center located in the former Khurzav Palace the message from the Kingdom forces was received, a communications officer informed them to wait a moment, then passed the message on to the ISM command, which in turn informed the communications officer as what to say.

“Kingdom Force Patrol One, I’ve passed your message along, I’ve been informed to tell you this; your presence at the protest is quite welcome, you are recommended to keep your vehicles at a distance and approach one of the ISM Foot Patrolmen on foot to confer on the best method to deal with it, as for the hostage situation at the Davydov Hotel, they informed me that if you believe you can provide assistance approach the outer perimeter, it’s currently being guarded by regular army personnel with their BTRs to keep civilians back, they will be informed to expect you and escort you to the officer in charge, an ISM Captain by the name of Rublev.”

Russkya

Roughly eighty kilometers from where the supply convoy was ambushed the local communications hub, located in a four Regiment sized military base currently being exclusively used by the Kilrany, noted that the convoy hadn’t made it’s last check in.

“Pashchatova command to checkpoint three four, respond please.”

After a slight delay of a few seconds a response came to the communications officer, “Checkpoint three four here, what can we do for you?”

“Convoy three-three one has failed to report in, has it passed your position?”

“Negative on that, convoy three-three zero passed through eight minutes ago, but not three-three one.”

“Copy that three four, command out.”

The communications officer changed to a slightly different frequency, “Pashchatova command to Pashchatova air control, respond please.”

“Pashchatova air control here.”

“Air control, convoy three-three one failed to report in and is not responding, its last known location was traveling between checkpoints three four and three-three, requesting that you send a flight over the route to look for them.”

“Copy that, we have a pair of birds in the area, will divert to check the route, are we to assume combat conditions?”

“You are, Pashchatova command out.”

------

The thumping six bladed rotors from a pair of KIAM Hinds drowned out the whistle of the wind as they roared over the Khurzav road at one hundred meters, both helicopters had a regular force air assault squad riding in the troop bay.

“Red flight three to Pashchatova air control, no sign of convoy three-three one yet, continuing to search.”

“Copy that Red flight three.”

While keeping a close eye on what he was doing the pilot addressed his WSO, “I suppose it’s too much to hope for that the convoy’s radios dimply broke down.”

His normally jovial WSO sounded quite serious when she responded, “I would say so, the odds of each radio in each truck along with the BTR’s radio and the squad’s radio braking down all at the same time are damned slim, damn local partisans must have ambushed them.”

“Yeah well if they-ah hell,” the pilot cursed as a small plume of smoke farther ahead caught his eye, his WSO let out a curse as well at the sight. A moment later both aircraft were flying over the remnants of convoy three-three one and took note of the rather large hole in the round next to the mauled BTR, “Red flight three to Pashchatova air control, have found convoy three-three one, convoy is down, requesting immediate medical squads and recovery vehicles, sending coordinates now, will drop our squads off to secure area and check for wounded.”

The pilot thought he could hear a low curse come over his radio as air control responded, “Copy that Red flight three, dispatching help now.”

“Air control, requesting confirmation on convoy composition.”

“One BTR-80 and six Ural trucks.”

Both the pilot and his WSO cursed under their breath, “Air control there are two trucks missing, I repeat, there are two trucks missing.”

“Copy that Red flight three, secure area for now.”

“Roger that air control.”

In a well-practiced maneuver the first Hind lowered its landing gear and set down on the road while the second Hind covered it, within seconds the eight-man air assault squad was out and the Hind was lifting off, in less then a minute the maneuver was mirrored with the second Hind dropping its squad off while the first covered, with both squads on the ground they started to orbit the area in case the partisans were still nearby.

The two squads quickly set up a defensive perimeter around the ruined convoy while several of their men and their squad medics started to check the bodies.

------

How many did we lose Lieutenant?” General Dovlatov’s question was directed to a Lieutenant on his command staff that had just informed him of a partisan attack on a convoy.

“Fifteen are dead and six severely wounded, most of the survivors were from the BTR, there was a seventh, but she died of her wounds before they could get her to a medical facility. We’re also missing two trucks and a large number of weapons; we’ve not yet been able to find the two trucks. Weapons missing include assault rifles, some with GP-30s, some LMGs, GPMGs and some SVDs, fortunately the convoy was not carrying any AT weapons, however, we are missing a crate of special Vog rounds.”

Dovlatov cursed under his breath, “Lieutenant, issue a general warning to the peacekeeping forces, some partisan forces have acquired some military grade light weapons and ammunition. Issue a similar warning to our men, except warn them about the special rounds, if they’re smart they wont use them, but that’s not too likely. Also, double the guard on all convoys and emphasize the need to find these partisans and remove them.”

“Yes sir.”

OOC: I Apologise for the delay in posting, we have builders at the house doing all the odds and ends left over from when they built it, 6 months ago!!, so my internet access has been messed around a bit.

Alpha Company

Five minutes after getting the go ahead the column was moving again. Ever third vehicle, those carrying 2nd platoon, was peeling off down a sidestreet to head to the protest under Captain Williams control whilst the main force drove closer to the problem at the hotel.

With the streets as clear as they were it wasn’t very long before Captain Williams and his troops arrived near the protest. So as not to try and provoke any reaction, and also because they had been instructed to, they stopped the vehicles a block away in a side street whilst Captain Williams took a squad forward to find out what was going on. They walked quite normally down the street, G3A9’s held in their hands but in a relaxed manner. The communication man carried a pack radio on his back and it started squarking as they approached some ISM men to announce that the rest of the unit was arriving near the hotel incident.

Spotting a man in ISM uniform wearing the insignia of corporal and then another man who wore similar rank badges Williams adjusted his course to head directly for them. The noise from the protest seemed to be growing as he got neared, a natural phenomenon he knew but it seemed strangely unsettling here. The Kingdom forces as a whole didn’t have very much experience with protests, they rarely happened in the Kingdom and the residents of other provinces that had been absorbed tended to vent their frustration in more destructive ways than shouting.

When he got close to the Corporal he leaned in close to speak to him, such was the volume of the protestors.

“Afternoon. We’ve been sent here in case you boys need a hand?”



The Hotel Situation

Captain Jolt had also left the majority of his men with the vehicles and proceeded forward with only the men from his communications section. Their green camoflague fatigues looked more similar to the Kilrany Army personnel but he still identified himself at the outer cordon and after a brief wait for radio confirmation was allowed through with a helpful ISM trooper leading the way towards the command BTR.

One determined sprint later and they were safely behind the armoured vehicles where the comms men waited as Jolt sought out his opposite number from the Kilrany ISM. Two more helpful troopers later and he was crouching next to the ISM man who had just finished another insightful exchange with the people holding the hostages.

“Captain Peter Jolt. Good to meet you.” he extended his hand “I have some more men here incase you need our assistance?”

House of James

The ISM officers didn’t see the Kingdom soldiers approaching at first being somewhat more concerned with the crowd and avoiding any thrown objects. They finally noticed the approaching Peacekeeping forces when they were within thirty meters.

The Corporal replied with a humourless smile, “Welcome to the party, and you are welcome to help. So far we’ve been keeping a respectable distance, they haven’t been truly violent yet so we’ve let them conduct their little protest. What do you think you can do to disperse this non violently?”

-----

Captain Rublev let out a low growl to vent his frustration as he slammed the phone down into its receiver and started to rub his forehead with his right hand. He was taken slightly off guard when the Kingdom officer spoke.

“Excuse me, was a little distracted, I’m Captain Rublev,” Rublev accepted the offered handshake, “Good to hear, although we don’t lack manpower right now, I’ve got enough men to storm the building and maintain the perimeters, the problem is the fact that they had a large number of hostages and that large open stretch to go to reach any of the entrances. What I need is someone who they might actually talk to for more then five minutes without insults,” Rublev motioned to the phone in the box, “But even worse, we were able to check out their transports thanks to the hedgerow, and among numerous extra ammunition rounds of various calibers we found a single large satchel, I had my counter part here,” Rublev motioned to the Army Captain nearby, “have one of his demolition experts look at it and it’s no simple IED, it’s military grade explosives, likely taken from some small stockpile of Khurzav military equipment we missed somewhere. Tell me you have someone skilled in negotiations, or in the very least some common sense, they may be willing to listen to a non-Kilrany.”

The Protest

Williams thought about that one for a minute.

“Well not really. I suppose we could ask politely for them to disperse and offer their leaders an audience with someone who seems important? Then if they don’t, maybe bringing in some local police to threaten them with arrest, surely they have a disturbing the peace style offence here. Just in case I think I’ll put my two snipers up on a roof, see if we can pick out the leading troublemakers and maybe arrest them or advise them to tone this down.”

Without waiting for a reply he motioned for his two snipers who were standing at the corner near to their vehicles to move up to him. They came complete with their SL-9 Whisper Rifles and two spotters at a light run.


The Hotel

“Well unfortunately Captain we have no skilled negotiators with us. The Special Forces scheduled to be part of the deployment are unavailable at the moment, they should arrive here in about a week, which will obviously be too late for this situation. As you say perhaps a non-kilrany person would get a better reception at the other end so I am willing to try, I hope that I cannot do anything to damage the situation further. With regards my men I will leave them where they are outside the picket established by your forces, it gives them more time to mix with the locals.”

Captain Rubelev seemed to agree with this and he handed over the phone to the Kingdom officer. Jolt dialled and put the phone to his ear. It only took two rings, which was encouraging as it meant somebody was by the phone ready to talk, however as soon as the ringing noise stopped it was replaced by a barrage of insults that caused Jolt to take the earpiece away from his ear. About a minute later he looked at his watch and deciding that enough was enough he finally began to speak, at the same time as the man on the other end seemed to run out of breath.

“This is Captain Jolt of His Royal Highness’s Armed Forces of the Kingdom of the House of James. I am not a Kilrany and do not want any of your apparent knowledge about what my esteemed colleague here does with his mother. I wish to negotiate for the release of the hostages that you hold.”

He prepared himself for another barrage of insults.

At the BTR line, a private looked over to the Kilrany who had greeted the arrival of the Skgorrian soldiers and flashed a grin in response. "Heck no problem, beats sheperding convoys all day," beamed the soldier before fixing his view down the scope of his AK-107 rifle to conform with what the rest of the Skgorrians were doing, or at least were trying to do given the lack of space behind the vehicles. With the sudden arrival of the Unit 209 troopers the line was now a little crowded.

Back at the command post, Lieutenant Gorobets was highly amused at the Kingdom officer's attempts to negotiate but was also worried to learn of the prescence of military grade explosives in the hands of the hostage takers. Turning away briefly from the assembled officers, he put his free hand to his radio.
"Gorobets to Midget 1" he called, expecting a swift response from the Mi-8 helicopter.
"Midget 1 here, what's the situation?"
"Negotiations are being attempted, but I doubt there will be any success. Be prepared to pick up a squad of our men for an assault on the roof. I also need you to confirm that your rocket pods are fully loaded."
There was a brief pause as presumably the helicopter crew conferred
"Confirm rocket pods loaded, but we're running at half load to conserve fuel."
"Understood, Gorobets out." The utility of the rockets were obviously little in a situation like this, but it never hurt to have extra firepower.
Rule number one, there is no such things as overkill. Only 'open fire' and 'I need to reload'Gorobets chuckled as he remembered the saying from the classic Skgorrian children's cartoon "Justice to the Pure".

-----------------------------------------------------------

Major Hertzog was pleased with how the situation was proceeding for the RPF. The first aid convoy was returning now with only a small ammount of verbal abuse encountered. So far the locals had been reluctant to approach the Skgorrians, but the profileration of food and other supplies would soon warm the Khurzav. The company of engineers was en route from a staging ground near the Atopian border and would be able to assist in road construction and rebuilding, whilst the detachment of Special Action Unit 209 was making itself useful. The latest report from Midget 1 (an amusing name for such a huge helicopter in the Major's eyes) indicated that negotiations were none too sucessful and that the probability of armed action was growing.

He looks like a tourist in the woods. A mushroom-collector, even. A man who walks in the forest finding truffles. If it weren't for his Sako, that is.

And indeed he did. He was on the heavy side of an average build, with a bit of a paunch, but no second chin. It stood out in comparison to the flat stomachs of everyone else here, who were in better physical condition. But everyone knew what kind of strength he had in his legs and arms, and the dexterity and delicacy of the long and pale 'pianist's fingers.' He was a former champion shooter, rifle category.

He wore dark, earth-toned pants with dirt staining both knees. The pants were hard-wearing, very durable. His checkered shirt, a dark green with tan and dark blue checks, was visible under the open collar of his battle-jacket. The pants and his jacket had been ghillied over the period of two days, with cut up jute, sometimes dyed OD green, sometimes left in its brown colour, and with strips of green elastic attached so natural foliage could be fitted. One of the KRG's supporters in the villages, towns, and cities, was a eighty year old seamstress, a geriatric nationalist filled with a brimming rage towards the Kilrany. "If I were fifty years younger, I'd kill them myself," she'd told the pair as they stood in her living room with the blinds drawn, their ghillie suits being checked for gaps in coverage and to feel out the fitting.
One of the former Khurzav soldiers had been halfway through the reconnaissance training course when war broke out. He was 'rounded off' by the former Special Operations soldier, with particular focus being taken on fieldcraft. This man, Nikolai Losinkov, was now to serve as the spotter for Boris Dmitriev, the man in the checked shirt.

"Forty-three is too old for this."

Losinkov barely turned his head when he looked at Dmitriev. They were prone, as well concealed as they knew how to be, a hundred meters back from the treeline, taking advantage of a convienent series of gaps in trees to get a narrow line of fire onto a Kilrany checkpoint. Boris' rifle was also ghillied, and the forestock rested on a downed log as he sat cross legged behind the Sako TRG-42 rifle, head looking up over the fitted optic, slowly rotating his head from left and then to the right, checking their surroundings. Nikolai, meanwhile, looked through binoculars at the checkpoint, nearly seven hundred meters away.

"You seem to be doing fine so far."

Dmitriev grunted, and looked back down his optic. As was not too commonly seen for some unknown reason, some loose-weave netting had been draped over both the shooter's optic and his spotter's binoculars, to break up the distinctive round circle of the lens, and to diminish any reflection, should it occur. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't incredibly difficult for someone with discipline and attention to detail to conceal themselves in the forest.

"I think we found our client for the day. On the left, facing this way. You can see him beside the BTR now."

Losinkov swung his binoculars back to the angle that let him see down Boris's fire-lane.

"Yeah. That might just be him."

It had taken three hours of sitting mostly motionless with limited banter, but now, at 0.7 kilometers from a Kilrany checkpoint, the pair thought they'd finally found someone of importance. Hopefully a commissioned officer. Damn the Kilrany and their sniper-paranoia. The former Special Operations man had also taught them about that, how to identify a leader by the way the subordinates reacted to his presence. Or hers, as the Kilrany had a disproportionately high number of women in the armed services, especially the combat arms, in comparison to other nations.

"Six hundred seventy three meters. Wind moderate, left to right, blowing slightly towards the target."

Losinkov couldn't hear the quiet clicks as Dmitriev adjusted his optic to take into account the windage. The range had already been adjusted for. And now, the man who was presumably an officer of a lower rank, given the size of the checkpoint, was branded with the still, black crosshairs.

Boris inhaled, watching the sight picture from his braced rifle shift slightly. He exhaled halfway, watched the sight-picture settle over center mass, but slightly higher - as was his preference, and felt the trigger lose its accumulated pressure under his right index finger. The rifle punched back into his shoulder, and his right hand was off the grip, up to the bolt, cycling through the familiar motion. Dmitriev pocketed the empty .338 Lapua casing.

"Damn it."

Boris looked at Losinkov, a wordless query.

"I blinked. You might have hit him, I don't know. At least you got close, they're all ducking now. I think we should go."

"I think you're right."

Two hours later, they were ten and a half kilometers away, and had risked lighting a small fire to stew a snared rabbit for supper. They would take another shot in the morning, perhaps, if a target presented itself, and then make their way back to the partisan encampment.

House of James

The ISM Corporal raised an eyebrow, then had to force a straight face and suppress his amusement at this man’s initial suggestion of being polite to the protesters, however his other suggestions were quite logical and had a ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ feel to them.

“Seems like a good idea, I’ll contact the Khurzav’s local dispatcher and see if they can send some men while you give your marksman their orders.”

The Corporal reached up to the radio on his shoulder and started into a short conversation with a Khurzav dispatcher, after a minute he looked back at the Kingdom soldier and assuming he had finished giving his marksman their orders addressed the man.

“Their dispatcher tells me they’ll have twenty men here equipped in riot gear in about twenty minutes. If you’d like we could try addressing the crowd when your men are in position.”

-------

Captain Rublev took a couple steps back so that he was still within earshot of the Kingdom soldier on the phone, but out of earshot for his army counter part to lean in and whisper to him.

“You think he’ll have any luck?”

“Hard to say, depends on those bastards inside and whether they’re willing to listen to this fellow. We shall see.”

------

His name was Isaac, and he was the impromptu leader of the small partisan group now hold up inside the Davydov Hotel, their original leader, Nikolai, was killed just before he made it to the door of the hotel.

He was currently using the hotel manager’s office as his command post, so to speak, so when the phone rang yet again, he figured it was the same Sviasuka ISM officer and launched into a tirade of insults. The response that came on the other end of the phone when he paused to take a breath took him off guard and he found himself at a loss for words.

He didn’t know these men, these ‘Kingdom of the House of James’, soldiers, he hesitated a moment more before responding, “You are not a Sviasuka? And you wish to negotiate?”

He paused once more and collected himself responding once again, “Very well then, if you wish to negotiate, our demands are simple, the Kilrany,” his tone filled with malice as he spoke the word Kilrany, “Must leave our country, when they do this, we will give them their soldiers back, and if you or anyone else attempts to enter this building, we will kill them all and bring the building down on top of us.” and with that he hung up the phone.

-------

Captain Rublev noticed that the conversation seemed to have ended, so he took a step closer and asked, “Any luck?”

Skgorria

This time there was humour behind the Sergeants grin, “I’d take convoy escort any day over this situation. God how I miss being in Kilrany, you know why? Because shit like this doesn’t happen in Kilrany, they know we’d have gone in shooting by now, but not here, no, we have orders to keep things peaceful like,” his smiled faded completely by this point. “I’ll be honest though, we’re not prepared for this kind of situation. Such a large open area to have to cross with no cover, and we don’t know if they have any more RPGs, we don’t even know how many there are. I have a really bad feeling that this is going to end badly for everyone involved.”

Russkya

It had been a rather slow day for the men and women of the two Kilrany infantry squads watching this particular section of Khurzav road, there was little in the way of Khurzav traffic at this time, and there had been few convoys pass through. Their four BTR-80s sat back to back, two on either side of the road, four soldiers walked slowly over the road, ten rested on the grass next to their manned transports, and the last ten soldiers had split into two five man fire-teams to make a patrol of the woods on either side of their vehicles.

Sergeant Ilya Repin stood up from his seated position on the grass next to the road and crossed over to the other side to talk to Sergeant Fedor Slavyansky, although they were both of the same rank, Repin had seniority and thust command of the small checkpoint.

Repin came to a stop near his seated counter-part and glanced about in the sky, “So I figure Alexei, Liubov, Vasily and Helena can have the next road shift.”

Slavyansky didn’t look up at the Repin but had a small smile on his face, “Seems reasonable to me Ilya, I suppose you’ll want me to lead the next patrol though eh?”

Repin grinned slightly and looked down the road, “No Fedor, I’ll let you sit your ass on the grass here for a while longer, heh, I’ll lead the next patrol out there.”

Repin didn’t get a chance to hear if Fedor had a witty come back for a moment later a .338 round ripped into his upper body right about where his collar bone was, just to the left of this throat, his body armour couldn’t stop such a high powered round, it merely slowed it down, causing it to tumble about. He toppled over and landed on his back, the last thing he heard was someone yelling sniper, and a slight poping noise.

-------

Korney Dal was a simple man, he’d lived in Khurzav his entire life, he ran a simple pawnshop in the city of Pashchatova, and it was a simple matter of hate for the Kilrany that drove him to be a sympathizer to the partisans. He was however an older man in his sixties, well past his prime and in no physical condition to directly support them, instead however he did the simple job of passing on information for the KRG, whether by internet of phone, whichever was working at the time he needed to send the message.

However, unfortunately for him and other partisan sympathizers, actions such as sending messages about Kilrany convoys and other troop movements over the phone or by email weren’t going to go unnoticed anymore.

It was about midday and Dal was stocking some old TVs on a shelf in his shop’s back room when he heard the dingle of his door’s bell, announcing the entrance of a customer.

He called out loudly so whoever had come in could hear him, “I’ll be with you in one second.”

He didn’t think anything of the lack of response and set the last TV on the shelf then walked out from the back room, he stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing four Kilrany ISM officers standing in his shop, through his shop’s large window he could see two more standing outside next to a Navy Blue BTR parked on the side of the street right outside his shop.

After the initial surprise he put on an unconvincing smile and addressed the Kilrany police officers, “What can I do for you officers?”

One of the officers, a woman, stepped forward, “You are Korney Dal?”

Fear shot through Dal just then, “ye-yes, I’m Korney Dal.”

She made a slight gesture with her left hand and two of the other officers quickly moved towards Dal, their weapons hung off their tactical slings as they grabbed his arms and zip tied his hands behind his back, “Korney Dal, we have orders to place you under arrest.”

He resisted as they dragged him to his shop’s entrance, “On what charges?”

None of the officers responded to his question as they dragged him out of his shop, “You can’t just arrest me without charges!”

“We have our orders to take you in, that’s all we need.”

Truth be told, the ISM officers didn’t know what the charges were either, they had been given orders by their dispatch to arrest this man and take him in, they didn’t need to know why. Dal continued to protest as they dragged him to the BTR, none of them knew that another man was being dragged out of his home by the ISM under similar orders, the same man Dal had contacted the day before about a convoy, a convoy that had been ambushed by partisan forces.

OOC: Yugoslavia, please don't think I've been ignoring you, I had been under the impression that Russkya had started up a conversion IC'ly with you so I didn't do anything that would have been in your jurisdition. Also, apoligies, this is later then I had hoped, the 'noise' was here longer then I anticipated, heh.

The Capital

Captain Jolt put down the phone when the other end clicked off and looked at his fellow officers.

“Well the good news is that we had a dialogue going. The bad news is that he demanded all Kilrany leave the country or he would kill your soldiers that he has in there with him and bring the building down on himself. That was the only demand I’m afraid and he hung up straight after it. These fellows sound rather determined to be honest, I doubt we will have much success but I’m willing to continue trying.”



The Protest

For the second time that day the two snipers found themselves inside a building and running up the stairs with one of their two spotters. The second spotter was handing over a cheque to the residents of the property for some $25,000 USD as some form of compensation for having four armed men in army boots sprint through their store and then up through the private residence to set up at the third floor windows.

Once again the high power binoculars came out and the men began scouring the crowd below them. Immediately they picked out a man and woman standing with megaphones at the centre of the group chanting something in an unrecognisable language that they suspected they would be hearing a lot more of.

Whilst one of the snipers folded his bipod out onto a window sill the other gently cleared a table of some ornaments and flipped his bipod out onto that. The spotter meanwhile keyed his radio and reported his observations to Williams who was still with the Kilrany troops.

“Corporal I can’t speak the language, but you are more than welcome to attempt it. My men have identified the ringleaders of this and if it gets worse we can go in and get them out and get them to disperse this little get together. Final decision is up to you, I’m really an observer here.”

House of James

Captain Rublev just stared at Captain Jolt for a few moments before he finally responded. “Son of a b-,” he finished his sentence under his breath, then addressed Jolt once more, “If there’s no hope of negotiations, then all we’ve done here is give them time to prepare, and we don’t even know if they have enough explosives to even carry that threat out. I have no doubt however they will shoot the hostages. I don’t suppose we’d be lucky enough that he was just trying to be annoying.”

Rublev leaned towards the open side hatch of his Navy Blue BTR and called to the Sergeant inside, “Sergeant, where the hell are the blueprints I asked for an hour ago?”

“They say it’s on the way Captain.”

--------

The ISM Corporal was confused for a moment, but quickly realized that he had simply misunderstood the Kingdom soldier’s initial meaning, “I was under the impression you were here with a bit more of an active role then simply an observer. But no matter, if your snipers have clear shots on the instigators you could save us a lot of time and just take them down, save us the time rather then try and wade through seventy some protestors.”

OOC: Apoligies once again for delay, I was unable to find the thread for some readon after the forums came back online untill now.

The Capital

Williams looked slightly worried at what the Corporal suggested.

"My ROE dictate that I can only fire if fired upon. I'm not about to order my men to shoot an unarmed demonstrator Corporal"


The Hotel

"I Honestly don't think that we are going to negotiate anything from them aside from more time for them to boobytrap the place with explosives and set up fire traps for anybody that goes in. I believe that armed assault will probably be the only way to finish this situation."


OOC: Sorry about this, not much time at the moment so its a poor post :(

House of James

The ISM Corporal frowned slightly at the Kingdom officer’s reaction, “Hmph, it would be more efficient, cut off the head and the body dies. But you have your orders as I do, so I can’t complain about you following them.”

The Corporal glanced towards the crowd for a moment then turned back to look at Williams, he looked like he was about to say something when he stopped and then appeared to be listening. Although the ISM foot patrolmen’s radio transmitter was attached on the left shoulder, the receiver was a single earpiece that went up under his helmet into his left ear.

The Corporal cursed lightly, “Well apparently the Khurzav police are going to be delayed, and it sounds like someone at dispatch is getting annoyed with this situation.”

------

Rublev sighed and then nodded his head in agreement, “I’m sure you’re right.”

He turned to look at another ISM officer who was running towards the group from the South, coming to a stop a meter in front of Rublev, she reached into a pouch and pulled out a pair of disks and handed them to him, her Bizon resting in front of her on its sling, “Here are the building’s blueprints Captain.”

“What the hell took so long Corporal?”

“Apologies Captain, but the Khurzav computers were old and slow to copy the data to disk … that and 2nd Division was there ahead of us and copying the information themselves.”

“Great, just great, they didn’t say anything about the situation did they?”

The Corporal just shook her head, “Nothing, they just made us wait until their copy was ready before I could get you this one.”

“Very well then, return to your unit,” the Corporal simply nodded her head and took off back across the park, Rublev then looked first at the Skgorrian officer and then the Kingdom officer, “If you two would care to follow me into my office,” Rublev gestured with a small smile to the open hatch leading into the Navy Blue BTR, “it may be a little cramped but we can see what information we have here.”

Without waiting for a response he climbed in through the side hatch into the troop compartment of the BTR, inside it was essentially the same as a normal BTR, except it was slightly different for the use of an ISM Captain to coordinate ISM assault groups. Rather then comfortably having room for six armed men and equipment, this BTR only comfortably held four men since at the back of the bay there was a bank of communications equipment and a computer system, currently sat in front of it was Rublev’s Sergeant. He then handed the two disk to the officer, “Bring up the data on these,” the officer nodded and then went about the task of copying the data so he could bring it up on screen.

Half turning so he could see the two men, Rublev asked a general question to both of them, “I’m willing to take suggestions on how you think we should assault this building when we get a look at these blueprints.”

------

Isaac came partly out of the hotel manager’s office to check on the progress of the men he had leadership over, he could clearly see five of them grabbing whatever they could in the massive lobby to pile up in front of the main entrance for a makeshift barricade. Although he couldn’t see them, he knew some other men were setting up similar makeshift barricades at the other entrances they knew of, ‘men’ was a slight misnomer; most of them were between eighteen and twenty, mostly ex-university students who thought they could force the Kilrany to leave their country.

“Nikolai! How is everything going?”

Nikolai was another ex-university student, and currently Isaac’s second in command, “We’ve got one of those satchels rigged up on the roof entrance, anyone tries to open the door it will take half the roof with them, we’ve also managed to mostly block off the basement garage entrances with tables, chairs and kitchen equipment, right now I figure the best way for them to come in is this main door, I’ve got Andrei holding on to our last satchel up there on the second floor, if they attempt to come in here he’s got a clear shot to throw it down at them.”

“Good, good.”

“How goes negotiations?”

“Made progress, got to talk with one of those foreigners, we may be able to make some sort of deal when he calls back.”

With that Isaac went back into the office and sat down behind the manager’s desk next to the phone. He fully expected another call in a few minutes telling him to make a more reasonable demand, his statement warning about bringing the entire building down on them was a massive bluff on his part, he knew they lacked the explosives to do it, however he also knew none of his enemies outside knew this, his hope was that it would serve the dual purpose of keeping them out, and giving him an extra bargaining chip. Now whether his expectations would come true or not was totally dependent on the men outside, which was something he wasn’t counting on, having perhaps seen to many Hollywood police movies.

Lieutenant Gorobets followed Captain Rublev into the command BTR, and began to look over the blueprints. He smirked as he overheard the internal disputes within the Kilrany forces about the plans. Just goes to show, militaries are the same all over the world Gorobets thought

Objective, Assets the two maxims of planning ran through his head as Gorobets studied the building plans. Roof will be booby-trapped or at least well guarded, they'll have seen the helicopters. The building appears to be fairly structurally sound though...

"If you don't mind a bit of building damage, I have a plan," Gorobets spoke out loud so the Kingdom and Kilrany officers could hear him, "we'll use our Mi-8 to blow a large hole in a top-corner of the hotel and quickly fast-rope a squad or two in. At ground level, we use munitions to blow open the sides of the building and send in squads. Hit them fast, hit them hard. How does that sound for a basic plan?" Sensing that perhaps the others would not be too receptive to his plan, Gorobets added,

"My men will still be at your disposal, Captain Rublev, regardless of what plan is adopted."

Skgorria

The Sergeant brought the first four levels of the building up first, one showed the basement and the entrance from it to the other stories through a utility elevator, a passenger elevator and a flight of stairs that apparently ran all the way up to the roof. The first and second floor clearly showed that the main lobby was enormous, taking up two stories in the center of the building. On the first floor several various rooms including a vault. The Second floor showed that a restaurant ran all around the edge of the main lobby opening, taking up the entire second floor that wasn’t just open space for the lobby. It clearly showed that the Khurzav inside could set up with makeshift defensive positions on the second floor and fire down into the main lobby. The third story was apparently where the hotel started, it had six large hotel suites. Scrolling through the remaining blueprints, it was apparent that all floors from three up save for the last two were the same, the last two floors each had one massive penthouse, taking up the entire floor, also according to the blueprints, each floor had several large balconies.

This is not going to end well, Rublev was not pleased with what he saw, at least they don’t have radios, at least we don’t think they do, Rublev half turned to face the Skgorrian Lieutenant as he spoke, listening carefully to his rough plan. He took a moment to think about it before replying, “It might just come to that Lieutenant, I can’t see how we might get in there quietly to secure the hostages before they’re executed. With the help of the Army out there, we’ve determined that they don’t have any radios, or at least, they’re not using them yet, as there are no broadcasts being picked up from inside the building. We’ll have to try and figure out the location of the hostages before we go in anyway, other wise it will get real messy I’m sure,” Rublev turned back to face the back of his Sergeant for a moment, “Sergeant, contact the squads we have at the corners of the grounds, have their vehicle gunners sweep over the building with their IR sights, see if they can pick up any large concentrations,” the Sergeant nodded his head and Rublev half turned once more as his Sergeant activated a radio, “Although IR is not quite as reliably during the day, as I’m sure you know, it should at least let us see larger groups together, assuming they’re keeping them all together.”

Rublev glanced back at the screen for a moment and sighed, “I’ll be honest with you two, I don’t see how we can end this without a significant loss of life in there. A rapid entry is currently our best bet, but I don’t see it working well, there’s no telling what they’ve got closed off and we can’t get anyone close to the building without them at the very least, seeing us coming. We might have a chance if we wait until it gets dark in about four hours, but they may not be willing to give us that time, even if we did that just gives them more time to prepare.”

OOC: Sorry again for the delay.
IC:


Hotel Situation

Captain Jolt followed the other two men to the command BTR but instead of viewing the plans he again picked up the phone and hit the auto redial button. He thought it might just be worth while to have one further attempt and then when, or possibly if, that failed then he would just have to sit back and watch the ISM and Kilrany Army do their thing.

After only two rings the phone was again picked up.

"This is Captain Jolt. Obviously we cannot immeadiately meet your initial demands but I was wondering if you had any more....realistic options that you would like me to present on your behalf."

He quickly moved the reciever away from his head in anticipation of the blast of political rhetoric that he expected to spew from the earpiece.


The Protest

"Well perhaps as they have been delayed I should bring up my platoon to make a show of force that will discourage them from continuing? My orders do not forbid such a thing."

Without waiting for the Kilrany's reply he got on his radio and ordered the platoon to come closer in their vehicles but stay mounted until he gave further orders.

In the backs of their various vehicles the men clasped their G3 Assault Rifles and M3 Support Machine Guns and a few tightened their body armour slightly to give it a more snug fitting on their chests. The convoy moved forward with a lurch as gunners steadied themselves on their mounted weapons and began scanning the roof tops and door ways. Most civilians were off the streets and those few left there scurried into shops or homes as the troops moved through the few streets seperating them from the protest.

With another lurch the trucks stopped in the middle of the road, gunners scanning outwards but not in an overtly threatening way. They were just around the corner from the protest and the sound could be heard very clearly.

House of James

Despite the tense situation Isaac couldn’t help the small smile that spread across his face as he listened to the foreign officer, Hook, line and sinker, he now believed he had gained a small victory, These foreigners will soon find out just what the Kilrany are really like.

As the officer on the other end finished speaking, Isaac paused for a moment; he had no major qualms with the foreigners, not yet anyway, so he put aside his hatred for the Kilrany for the moment. Isaac spoke is a clear calm voice, “Captain Jolt, I must admit that although it would please myself and the Khurzav people to no end to see the Kilrany leave our nation, that having a few hostages will not change that situation considering the low value the Kilrany have of others lives. I apologies for my thoughtless demand earlier, but I had not expected to talk to a non-Kilrany.”

Isaac paused for a moment and continued, “Within the next hour I want a transport helicopter capable to carrying twenty four people to land on the roof, we will then board that helicopter with a few of the Kilrany soldiers, the pilot will follow our orders to take us to where we want to go, at which point we will leave them to their own devices and go our own way. As an act of good faith I will release one of the families, they will leave through the main door in ten minutes, so warn the Sviasuka of it,” it was really an empty gesture though, Isaac had no intent to harm the fellow Khurzav families in the building, but no one else knew that.

With his more reasonable demands made, Isaac decided to try and lay a seed of mistrust between the foreign officer and the Kilrany, “I am not a bad person Captain, I do what I do for the freedom of my people. You should not have so readily come to the aid of the Kilrany; you have no idea the kind of crimes they have committed. Ask them about Defensive Position B-3, see if you even get a straight answer out of them.”

Isaac paused once again before finishing the conversion with one last sentence before handing up, “I hope to hear from you again in about a half hour as to the status of the transport.”

--------

The ISM Corporal nodded his head in agreement, “That may work, I’ll let my Sergeant and the rest of our men in the area know what you’re about to do,” with that he activated his radio and sent the quick message informing the rest of the ISM units as to the intention of the Kingdom forces.

--------

The protesters on the outer edge of the group quieted down slightly, growing nervous at the sight of military forces coming towards them. However this didn’t last long as they soon realized they weren’t Kilrany forces, the foreigners did not possess the same reputation as the Kilrany in the minds of the Khurzav, as such most didn’t consider them a threat.

However a few grew worried enough to break from the group, having had enough at the same time, they attempted to make their way back to their homes, taking a route opposite that of where the Kingdom forces had come and from where several Kilrany ISM officers were standing about.

Not deterred by the loss of a handful of people, the crowd continued their protest.

Yugoslavia

Captain Vasnetsov looked on approvingly at the progress the Yugoslavian peacekeepers had made at their assigned base, things seemed to be going well so far. His curiosity however soon got the best of him and picking a Yugoslavian out of the mix that didn’t seem to be busy with anything at the time, approached him.

“You fellows have been lucky today hmmm, nothing eventful for you compared to the other peacekeeping forces I hear. I must admit I’m not to familiar with your nation, if you don’t mind I would like to learn something about it, is there anything note worthy to mention?”

Gorobets listened to Captain Rublev intently, fully sympathising with the man´s dilema.

"Captain, a rapid entry is our best bet, but our entry teams need to be prepped on the layout of the hotel before going in, even if only roughly. With your permission, I´d like to send my troopers a rough copy of these blueprints if possible so they can be studied. Special Action Unit 209 stands ready, we´ll go in whenever you order."

Pausing briefly, he continued

"If you want to carry out some sort of deception, and are willing to lose a few of your men, then you can use our Mi-8 as the helicopter they are asking. We´ll use our own flightcrew naturally"

Privatley the Lieutenant wondered what Defensive Position 3 or whatever it was meant, but he disregarded it. It is not my place to question these people, the LEader had decreed that the Kilrany be aided and so be it

Sergei Afansov was only eighteen, but he'd been halfway through the Khurzav Army's basic training program when the Kilrany invaded, and besides that, he'd had a penchant for history. Now, the history he had access to in his school's libraries wasn't quite how everything played out... and the Kilrany were cast in quite the negative light.

Afansov didn't know much about the Kingdom soldiers, but he liked them, in an odd way. They seemed professional, courteous, and easily likeable, so it was with some regret that he pushed his way to the front of the crowd. His home was almost two kilometers away, and his bike was leant against the side of a store a block down the street. He didn't expect to see either again. His hand covered the cool metal, feeling its serrations and other shapes. He shoved past the first rank of protestors, now standing infront of them all. His voice rose with the chant they'd started, and he eyed distances, extrapolated times. He walked a few steps further forward.

It was difficult, to pull the pin of a grenade with only one hand. Sergei had loosened the pin beforehand, but he found that even with his left hand thrust up in the air, fist clenched, the fingers of his right hand were having some difficulty with the pin. He didn't care about the lever, he wouldn't be holding onto it for long. Finally he felt it start to come loose, and pulled the entire package from his pocket, shifting his stance quickly as his left hand came down and pulled the formed, hardened steel-cord pin from the grenade.

He stepped forward into the throw, hearing the lever ping off the grenade with its distinctive sound, watched the metal shape arc, land beside a Kilrany ISM man, and roll just behind him. He thrust his right hand into the air and opened his mouth to shout his defiance, an open jacket parting to reveal an old white shirt marked with many nationalist Khurzav slogans and insignias.

And Sergei Afansov knew he was already dead, and made no attempt to run into the crowd to further endanger his countrymen.

Davydov Hotel

Rublev’s eyes seem to lose their focus for a moment clearly now deep in thought, subconsciously he slowly ran his gloved hand over his mouth and chin. Within his mind he ran through several tactical scenarios he learned in training, then considered a few more risky plans.

Finally after a minute of silence he spoke, “I have a potential plan, it’s risky, but I believe it may be the best we can do right now given our options, I propose we catch them on the roof as they try and move to the transport helicopter. To start with the rooftop of this hotel is enormous, as is the building itself, obviously, the Khurzav government spared no expense to pamper themselves. Also, they can clearly see both my troops, and more importantly, your troops,” Rublev gestured towards Gorobets, “they know your helicopter offloaded your men and that it’s just been orbiting the building, empty. Now I can get one of our own transports here in less then twenty minutes with two ISM assault squads, I have them come in high so they can’t be seen from inside the building. Then when the half hour passes and he expects the call, Captain Jolt here does so, telling the partisans in there that the helicopter is landing on the roof now, at which point your transport lands on the far East side of the roof, a good distance for that one stairwell exit on the West side, at the same time, our helicopter will land and offload its men onto the roof closer to the West side, since two helicopters that close together are nigh on indistinguishable, they shouldn’t catch on. The squad then takes cover on the roof, lots of spaces up there, air-conditioning systems and all that other rooftop clutter gives them plenty of cover, and since it will take several minutes for the partisans to gather together and move up to the roof, it gives my assault squads time to get into position. The assault teams wait until the partisans move out onto the roof, since it’s a good three hundred meters across from the stairwell exit to where we have your helicopter land, they should all be forced to come out and expose themselves to get to the helicopter. When the assault squads engage, your helicopter pilot then guns his engines and gets the hell out of there, hopefully taking advantage of the initial shock of such an attack and the disorganized nature of these partisans on the roof, we race out from our positions down here, use breaching charges to make our own doors in the side of the building, and work our way up to free the hostages who should no longer be guarded. As I said, this plan is risky, but given the situation, I think it might be our best bet right now.

Protest

Aside from the newly arrived Kingdom soldiers in their vehicles, there was one ISM foot patrol squad; twelve heavily armed police officers, watching the protest from a clearly visible position to the protestors. They had, for the most part, split into two man groups to stand a relatively safe distance from the protestors to keep an eye on the situation, and since there initial arrival at the protest some time ago, they had grown a little lax having gotten relatively comfortable with the incessant jeers of the protestors.

So when they saw a young man part from the crowd and move a little closer to scream out his message, they hadn’t initially been concerned, a few other bolder protestors had done the same. However when they saw him pull an object out of his pocket, and saw a small piece of metal fly out away from him as he tossed said object, the closest officers fell back quickly into their training.

One of the pairs of ISM officers off to the young man’s left, took hold of their weapons from their positions hanging in front of them on their slings. One was armed with a Blackthorn, raising the weapon to his shoulder he fired off one slug, at the same time, the other officer dropped to one knee, and fired off a controlled four round burst from his Bizon submachine gun, both had aimed for center mass, not willing to take the chance their target had another hand grenade.

One of the officers in the pair on the receiving end of the grenade had also seen the young man come out, and sympathized with him despite his dislike of the Khurzav arrogance, the young man had reminded him of his own son, that was until he saw the flash of metal and the grenade flying through the air at him. Both he and his fellow officer screamed out a warning about a grenade, one even managed to hold down the transmit button on his radio set as they both attempted to but some distance between them an the hand grenade by sprinting away.

One of them only ran a few meters away before diving to the pavement, closing his legs and ensuring his weapon was out from under him, the second had misjudged the fuse time and was still upright when the fragmentation grenade went off, showering the area with lethal shrapnel.

Standing nearby was the Kingdom officer and the ISM Corporal who had been talking to him, having seen the grenade land nearby, the Corporal instinctively grabbed hold of the Kingdom officer while shifting his position, pulling the Kingdom officer down to the ground while at the same time putting himself between the officer and the grenade as it detonated.

The protestors on the outer ring recoiled in fear and shock as the grenade detonated and an unearthly silence descended upon the area as the sound of the grenade’s explosion dissipated. It was quickly broken by the voices of the ISM, and the rumble of the military diesel engines from the ISM BTRs as they roared out of their hiding positions towards the protest.

Two ISM officers were no longer moving, including the Corporal who had taken hold of the Kingdom officer, while the ISM officer who had dived to the ground rolled over and activated his radio and in a calmer voice then it deserved, called for a medic.

Lieutenant Gorobets nodded an assent to Captain Rublev´s plan.

"A sound plan Captain, one which Special Action Unit 209 will be proud to take part of. I don´t like how vulnerable my helicopter will be, but that is a necessary risk. I think a mobile reserve would be good in case your squads up on the roof need extra manpower, I´m happy for our Mi-8 to land and serve as a ferry for troops up to the roof."

Clearing his throat, Gorobets continued

"We don´t have any breaching charges with us, only underslung grenade launchers for our AK-107s and grenades. Otherwise, SA Unit 209 stands ready"

Skgorria

Rublev nodded his head as well, “The plan is inherently risky in and of itself, however we should be able to limit that risk thanks to your use of a quality Russian transport, unless you made some modifications to it, no small arms they have are going to be a terribly big threat and if they do have an RPG, they will be far to occupied with my assault squads to pull it off and fire at your helicopter as it flies away.”

He paused for a moment, considering the idea before responding, “If I understand what you said properly, you mean after the inevitable firefight starts and your MI-8 takes off from the roof again, it quickly lands here, picks up your troops and takes them up to the roof to reinforce my men as they attack? As for breaching charges, those we do have, of varying power, we have a few capable of breaching the hotels ground floor wall in a couple places. I’d rather not try to force a way in the main door as I’m sure it’s a safe bet they have it barricaded.”

Afansov collapsed to the ground in the way characteristic of those humans who've died instantly and by violent means. His chest became home to four rounds from a BIZON submachinegun, and the round from the KRCS Blackthorn combat shotgun decided to go high, and quite literally, obliterated his head. He fell to the pavement with a crimson mist that seemed to linger strangely in the air above and behind where he used to be standing.

Spattered with ivory flecks of bone and blood, some of the leading ranks of protestors turned on their heels and began pushing back through the crowd, screaming. The rest froze, like horses led to the knacker would when they saw their herd disappear ahead of them in blood and horror. A handful, three to be precise, ran forward and checked Afansov for any signs of life, but the boy was only so many kilograms of meat now. They fled back into the crowd, except for one, who went through his pockets with the practiced ease of a pickpocket.

And the protestors in the rear ranks had little clue of what happened, despite the sound of weapon fire and the grenade's explosion. Indoctrinated with Khurzav's belief of how the Kilrany would act, they prepared to sprint away, well away from the ISM.

Protest

Four ISM Navy Blue BTR-80s rumbled to a halt near the Kingdom vehicles and a scant fifty meters from the edge, the ISM assault squads contained inside stormed out of the vehicle’s side hatches like mechanized infantry storming out into a defensive position.

Twenty four heavily armed ISM officers set themselves up in firing positions, ready to open fire should anyone else in the crowd take action, orders were quickly given and six of them broke off to check the wounded.

The pair of ISM officers who had initial shot the young man quickly came up to the body while the Khurzav civilian was still trying to loot the body, while his partner with the KRCS Blackthorn covered him, the officer with the Bizon came up behind the looter and used the reinforced stock to deliver a strong blow to the base of his neck.

While two officers went to assist the officer who had called for a medic, another pair went to the other officer who had attempted to keep running, one of the two rolled the officer over, she cursed as she noticed he was showed no reaction, pulling off one of her gloves she placed her index and middle finger on his neck, “He’s still got a pulse! I need a medic!”

The third pair of officers came over to the same Corporal who had put himself between the grenade and the kingdom officer and checked his still form as it lay on the ground, they checked his pulse and found none, they both cursed aloud and took aim at the crowd, however despite their anger they did not open fire, but merely took up a position to watch the outer edge of the crowd who were now in full fledged panic.

The Protest

Captain Williams heard somebody shout something and then felt the impact of the ISM Corporal pushing him to the ground and then not a second later the thud of an explosion and then the brief chatter of small arms.

He lay dazed on the ground for a moment, not knowing why until he felt the piece of shrapnel sticking out of the Kevlar helmet, burning his fingers as they touched it then quickly withdrew. He shook his head as he got to his feet seeing the man next to him lying motionless, his arms splayed on the ground in a position that didn’t encourage the hope of life. The nearby explosion had temporarily deafened him and his head swam around as he looked blankly at the men around who were shouting and running to set up positions.

In the sniper’s position one of them had added a custom 7.28mm round to the chest of the assailant shortly after his head was vaporized by the shotgun blast and his crosshairs had moved to the looter when one of the ISM approached him. The spotter quickly got on his radio and began sharp calls of “medic!” when they saw the Captain go down.

Those calls were answered at the small convoy of vehicles, the men had heard the explosion that many of the veterans recognised as a grenade and had already jumped out of their vehicles and spread out when the BTR’s approached. At first they were unsure, but when the ISM virtually ignored them it was clear they weren’t hostile.

A squad with two medics promptly took of running towards the scene of the incident whilst the other troops secured their vehicles, making a quick check for IED’s or any other tampering with the area around them. They were prepared to move up at a seconds notice and in the command vehicle the communications officer was already on the radio to basecamp. That lead to the scrambling of a pair of Merlins, one carrying an additional squad in addition to miniguns on each side door and acting in the gunship role to escort the MedEvac one. At the base the Regimental Surgeon was also told to be prepared for incoming case(s) and the medical staff quickened the pace at which they were trying to make an operating theatre ready at the base.

Back at the protest the Snipers were searching the running crowd for weapons, one thought he saw a man carrying something suspicious moving against the general flow of the crowd towards the troops. Taking a decision the sniper placed his cross hairs on the mans chest and fired a single round at him. From the distance of just under 300yards the sniper knew he had hit the man as soon as the trigger was squeezed and just uttered the words “Hostile Down” to his spotter.



Hotel

Captain Jolt shrugged again at the second “conversation” that he had had with the man. Obviously the Kilrany were prepared to go in guns blazing, a philosophy he completely understood and it would ultimately deter more idiots from trying the same thing. Or so the Kingdom forces had found in the Eninmoore and similar areas that had been “absorbed” into the Kingdom.

He listened to the plan once again and was satisfied with his part, obviously his men couldn’t take part with their current Rules of Engagement and the ISM seemed to have things under control. A nod showed his readiness to make the phone call when the time came.

Anton Trubekov hadn't seen Sergei die, but it was hard to miss the impact of the 7.28mm round just to his front left. That man stopped and fell backwards, a trickle of blood streaming from corners of his mouth and Trubekov thought that he'd seen the jacket that man had worn bulge outwards at the back as the round expanded and removed the majority of his chest structures. Slowly, blood leaked onto the pavement.

The sound of the gunshot echoed down the street, but could have been easily missed in the noise the crowd was producing. Trubekov never noticed the large black and rectangular cell-phone skitter ahead of the man across the road, before stopping two meters from the body. But glancing at the corpse, he did notice the jacket flapping open over a laminated card attached to the man's shirt... some kind of identification badge? Undercover Khurzav police officer, maybe even a reporter?
More balls than brains, was Trubekov's first thought, I need to go, before they start shooting in earnest, was his second. And so he turned, got close to a wall, and finding his way surprisingly clear, stretched his long legs and didn't stop running until he was a good eight blocks away.

He stopped, bent with his hands on his knees, catching his breath. Through the sound of his laboured breathing, he heard the collective gasp of outrage from a nearby number of people at a street-side cafe, and underneath it, Khurzav National Radio Network 102.3 FM-2.

The announcer stopped, and repeated his message.

"Today at noon, Khurzav and other Occupation troops engaged a group of protestors. Details are sketchy, but they may have been provoked. We will have more information for our listeners soon. Until then, be careful."

It was obviously a recorded message as it immediately began to repeat itself again. Anton snorted with derision - And Occupational troops. The stain of Khurzav propaganda shows itself again.

He paused for a moment, considering the idea before responding, “If I understand what you said properly, you mean after the inevitable firefight starts and your MI-8 takes off from the roof again, it quickly lands here, picks up your troops and takes them up to the roof to reinforce my men as they attack? As for breaching charges, those we do have, of varying power, we have a few capable of breaching the hotels ground floor wall in a couple places. I’d rather not try to force a way in the main door as I’m sure it’s a safe bet they have it barricaded.”[/QUOTE]

"The Mi-8 is the MT variant, meaning it had more powerful engines and more weapons than the standard Mi-8, there will be no risk" Gorobets informed Rublev "We´re quite proud of these ´choppers, they do reasonably well for us. A nice present from our former Soviet masters" he stated with a grin

"Yes, we have our helicopter land here and pick up all or some of my men, it depends how many you want to reinforce our rooftop assualt. If you want to have some of my men support the assualt on the ground floor then we´re happy with that."

"If I might make a suggestion?" inquired the Lieutenant "the gap from our lines to the hotel is obviously without cover, so maybe a few smoke grenades would be of benefit. They would be thrown when contact is initiated on the rooftop so our assualt squads at least have some concealment if not actual cover."

Protest

As the ISM officers secured the immediate area where the grenade had gone off at with the help of the Kingdom soldiers, the crowd of protesters were in fast retreat, having scattered quickly, only a few brave onlookers remained on the same street the protest had been raging on, curiosity over coming fear for the time being.

Several ISM officers switched positions allowing the Assault Squad’s medics to rush to two injured ISM officers, while a third came up to Captain Williams, “Are you alright sir?”

Clearly visible lying on the street was the Khurzav shot by the snipers, after a quick order three ISM officers formed up and quickly moved to check the man. While one of the officers checked the man, the other two kept a close eye on the surroundings, weapons at the ready.

The Officer rolled the man over and saw the wound, sure he was dead he checked the man for a pulse nonetheless, taking note of the small press badge as he did so. He shook his head as he stood up and activated his radio, “Civvy’s dead.”

Hotel

Rublev turned back to his Sergeant for a moment, “Sergeant, call em in,” the Sergeant merely nodded his head and activated the radio, contacting the appropriate people to get a transport helicopter and two ISM squads sent immediately.

With that done Rublev turned all the way around, “Right then, just to confirm for all present what I intend to have happen now. When the time comes my men will land on the roof at the same time your helicopter lands on the roof, my men will double time it out and set up positions to ambush the partisans, as soon as they are out our helicopter will get the hell out of there. At the same time all that is happening, the Captain there will call them and tell them that their ride is waiting for them on the roof, by the time they get themselves together and pick a few hostages my helicopter will be long gone and my men in position. They eventually come out onto the roof, my men will give the signal and initiate the ambush, your helicopter will then take off and we begin and assault from down here. Our BTRs have smoke canister launchers and we also have some 6G30s to launch smoke canisters over the area in case they left a rear guard of any kind. I don’t believe your helicopter should land here before that, if you do pick up your men now, they would no doubt see this and realize something is up when they see your helicopter on the roof. This way we might be able to lull them into a false sense of security, they’re mostly students according to intelligence, they don’t know your nation, or its practices, I believe it will help us get the upper hand. It may be better over all if your men just helped by coming in from the ground floor with the secondary assault.”

The Sergeant turned slightly from his station, “Sir, confirmation of team, will be here in about fifteen minutes and will do as instructed, approach from high altitude to avoid being spotted. Also, corner units reporting that a group of what look like civilians are coming out the main door.”

“Very good, have the units tell them to approach the outer line slowly, then take them into custody until we can verify their identity.”

“Yes sir.”


OOC: Appologies gentlemen for the delay, combination work and headache made it difficult to get out a responce.

"My helicopter will land on the roof as per the plan, whilst my platoon of men will assault the hotel from the ground. After my helicopter has taken off it will remain in the air in case it is needed for something such as CASEVAC." His face betrayed some of the excitement and nerves he was feeling, whilst this was not his first combat situation, it was his first assualt situation.

"It should be safe enough to brief my men via radio, don't you think?" the Lieutenant enquired, "I doubt the hostage takers will have run into Skgorrian military encryptions before, and certainly none as complicated as Unit 209's." He reached to his radio and spoke into it.

"Gorobets to Servchenko, come in"
"Servechnko here"
"Wait for orders to assualt the building, do not assualt until I give the order, over"
"Waiting for orders, over"
"Not cleared to use BC munitions, over and out"


Gorobets once again focused on Rublev, "I just told my men they're not cleared to use their sarin grenades, Unit 209 NCOs carry one most of the time. Anyway, it's good news that the assault team is on the way, what's the word on the hostages that have reached our lines?"

Skgorria

Rublev merely nodded his head, there wasn’t too much he could say at first and he was about as pleased as one could be in the current situation, he had a viable plan of action and the foreign officers weren’t giving him any grief about how to run things.

Once again Rublev nodded his head, “Highly unlikely, they don’t even seem to have their own means of communications, let alone something capable of listening in on ours.”

He listened to the brief conversation the Skgorrian had on the radio, curious about something he said, a moment later when the Skgorrian informed him, it disturbed him slightly, the Kilrany were decidedly less enthusiastic about chemical weapons then their friends the Russkyans, this could technically be thought of as hypocritical, as the Kilrany loved their Thermobaric weapons, however they didn’t consider it a chemical weapon as some did. He hid his unease however as best he could.

“I see, well, ideally the situation wont get so bad here as to need that kind of firepower,” he paused for a moment then continued, “Valid question, Sergeant, any status report in regards to those hostages released from the hotel?”

“Just getting one now sir, they checked them for weapons, found none, one adult male and female, three children, they’re taking to a holding position until they can be properly identified.”

“Right, let me know when the assault team arrives over head.”

“Of course sir.”

Protest

With the people mainly scattered the snipers relaxed in their positions but kept the rifles in the shoulder aimed loosely in the direction of the few that had remained. The two empty cartridges were collected and placed into the spotters pocket from where they would be disposed off when they returned to their base.

Meanwhile Kingdom forces had secured the area, politely moving people away from it whilst they waited for the bodies to be removed. Cause of death was pretty obvious but still they brought trucks and other vehicles up in conjunction with the ISM to try and cover the area from the public. Captain Williams was back standing up, still looking rather dazed and he shrugged off the ISM trooper with an “I’m fine”, it was after all only a knock on the head and nothing like the wound that the man next to him had taken.

The platoon second in command was speaking to his subordinate non-commissioned officers and bringing squads to move out and secure the area for the arrival of the helicopter with the reinforced squad. It was likely that a small force of vehicles would also be dispatched from the main column that was currently doing nothing more than twiddling their thumbs. The vehicles had to travel in a large enough force not to tempt ambush but a small enough one to not crowd the area with troops, so a five vehicle armoured Land Rover column set off racing for the protest carrying two more squads.

Until they arrived the Kingdom forces satisfied themselves by setting up a roadblock with a single truck and four soldiers, including one with an MG3 machine gun across the road that ran right next to the incident scene. It was unlikely that investigators would be coming, certainly no Kingdom ones would be and they doubted that the Kilrany would be bothered with two deaths and Khurzav investigations would be unofficial they were sure. The sniper was in the clear as far as the officers were concerned, despite it turning out not to be a threat he still had no choice but to utilise his suppressed weapon to eliminate a possible threat. The Kingdom forces had learnt the hard way in the Eninmoore that to err on the side of caution often lead to body bags being brought home and funerals were expensive.


OOC: Captain Jolt will just be waiting for his signal to make the call.

Protest

The ISM medic stood there for a second and then shrugged her shoulders, If he doesn’t want to be checked out, fine with me. After being shrugged off the medic decided to check over the deceased ISM officer on the ground, he didn’t seem to have any obvious injuries at first, but on closer inspection one could see the darkened fabric on the back of the neck where the blood was being absorbed by the officer’s uniform, apparently one or more pieces of shrapnel from the grenade had ripped into the back of his neck just below the cover of his ballistic helmet.

The two wounded ISM officers were quickly being loaded onto one of the ISM BTRs to be immediately taken to a nearby hospital, most of which had some Kilrany personnel there anyway due in part to some of the chaos after the Khurzav surrender. Taking care of their own, several of the dead ISM officer’s squad members came over and picking him up, carried him over to another BTR that would take him to a Kilrany controlled morgue.

The ISM virtually ignored the dead Khurzav, leaving it to the Khurzav police to pick them up. However to ensure the scene remained secure, despite the large presence of the Kingdom soldiers, the foot patrol squad that was now down three men, would stay behind for the time being, to keep hold of the looter they had arrested as much as to keep the scene secure for the Khurzav police.

With no need of a report to be made to anyone in the time being and with the protest broken up, the other two BTRs loaded back up and went back to their original patrol routes.

Hotel

The time seemed to pass slowly to Rublev as he now stood outside his BTR, the fifteen minutes waiting for the helicopter to arrive over head with the assault quads seemed to take hours. Rublev knew it was best not to rush such things, but he was pressed to do so with the knowledge of 2nd Division’s interest in the building’s plans. Although he wouldn’t say so to the foreign troops here, he knew he had to resolve the hotel situation before 2nd Division became involved, he was sure he knew what would happen if they did get involved, and it would be worse for those inside the hotel then his risky planned firefight on the rooftop.

Fortunately for him his concern was unwarranted as 2nd Division didn’t show up and the agonizing wait for the helicopter ended as his Sergeant called out from the BTR, “Captain, the helicopter reports to be over the building now.”

“Good to know Sergeant,” finally getting his somewhat good news, he looked up at the sky. He could clearly see the Havoc orbiting, along with the Skgorrian and Kingdom helicopters, however it took him a moment to spot the new helicopter much higher in the air, almost directly over the building, “Sergeant, tell them to land on the roof.”

Rublev then turned to the Skgorrian officer, not quite able to recall his name off hand for some reason, “Captain, I hope your pilot is a good one, we’ll need to time this fairly well, I would recommend ordering them to land in a minute, it will take our pilot a moment to drop his altitude without coming into view of the hotel.”

Rublev then turned to face the Kingdom officer; “I recommend that when you talk to the fellow inside again, you inform them that a Skgorrian helicopter will be waiting for them on the landing pad to the roof, they shouldn’t be familiar with them and it might make relax a bit to know it’s not one of mine.”

-------

Slowly but surely the Kilrany ISM pilot brought his MI-17 down towards the roof, thankfully it was an enormous roof, if not surprisingly cluttered, but he believed he could see a spot large enough, and close enough to the stairwell to let him off load the assault squads in the back of his helicopter.

He couldn’t see the Skgorrian helicopter, he was to busy watching his approach, which was difficult enough as it was from his path, he had to assume it would be making its landing farther off to the other side of the building from the stairwell, on one of the building’s proper helipads. One might wonder why the Khurzav placed the stairwell so far away from where VIPs would land at, however there was an elevator much close to the helipad, fortunately the hostage takers couldn’t use it since the power had been cut to the building earlier.

The pilot stopped his decent roughly a half meter above the roof of the building, not wanting to try and get any closer to the roof, as he was dangerously close to what looked like an air conditioning unit as it was. In the back the flight officer gave the signal and the two ISM assault squads poured out of the helicopter, breaking left and right respectively according to their squad.

Quickly the squad Sergeants ordered their men to specific locations as they came out of the helicopter, yelling to them over the loud thumping of the large helicopter, which was not starting to lift off just after the last man exited, gaining altitude slowly at first so as not to make more noise then the Skgorrian helicopter would be.

Within a minute twenty-four ISM assault officers were spread out, concealed behind whatever cover they had been assigned to, effectively placing a large area out from the stairwell into a crossfire, ready to open fire when ordered to by their squad Sergeants.

East of Pernik

The constant sound of rotors thumping was all Korney Dal could hear from where he was, he knew he was inside a helicopter, but he wasn’t sure about anything else as a black hood had been placed over his head.

He had spent a day inside a Kilrany controlled police building, much to his surprise the Kilrany ISM seemed to treat him half way decently. However for some of the ISM officers, it seemed like it was out of some sort of pity. It wasn’t until shortly after hearing what he assumed to be a helicopter landing on the building’s roof that it started to dawn on him why.

Only minutes after having heard the helicopter landing, an ISM officer led four heavily armed soldiers into the room his holding cell was in, Dal didn’t recognize the significance of their uniforms, but he did recognize the significance of the insignia on their uniforms. Few people in the region weren’t familiar with the insignias of the Kilrany Imperial Guard; to some they were famous, mostly to Kilrany’s allies, while to others such as the Khurzav, they were infamous.

In any case he recognized the insignia as belonging to 4th Division, known mostly as the Imperial Guard’s air assault section. The ISM officer unlocked the cell door and two of the soldiers quickly entered and rather forcefully secured him, zip tying his hands behind his back and placing a black hood over his head, which was how he had found himself in his currently position.

After was seemed like an eternity the helicopter landed, he was roughly pulled out; he tried to maintain a steady footing as the 4th Division soldiers almost threw him out the door. None of the soldiers said a word to him, remaining as silent as they had the whole trip and he had to admit it was starting to irritate him, and he said as much, but they ignored him anyway as they guided him away from the helicopter.

A moment later and the hood over his head was unexpectedly pulled off his head, his eyes had adjusted to the darkness and the sudden light blinded him for a moment and he shut his eyes, regardless the soldiers keep pulling him along.

As his eyes slowly adjusted he was able to take in his surroundings for a moment, he appeared to be in a large military base, he assumed, quite rightly so, that it was one of the former Khurzav bases being used by 4th Division.

He looked to his front to see where they were taking him too, it appeared to be a medium sized barracks building with two soldiers standing out in front of it, watching with their arms crossed as he was led towards them, neither of the two soldiers had a rifle, and their faces were covered over only showing their eyes.

Finally coming up to the building the 4th Division soldiers shoved him in the general direction of the two soldiers standing outside the building and quickly moved off, leaving Dal somewhat confused. When one of the two soldiers spoke in a male voice it sent a shiver down his spine despite the seemingly friendly tone.

“Welcome mister Dal, I hope you enjoy your stay with us.”

Taking hold of him the two soldiers led Dal inside the building where he would soon get a first hand encounter with the darker side of the Kilrany Empire well away from any prying eyes, compliments of 5th Division.

OOC: sorry for the late reply, I've been on a 2-day plane journey. I'm back from holiday now though

IC:

Lieutenant Gorobets bristled at Rublev's forgetting both of his rank and name. "It's Lieutenant Gorobets, not Captain, sir. Though I can't say I wouldn't mind the promotion" he added with a smirk. "I'll order the helicopter to land now" he said as he reached for his radio.

Inside the Mi-8, the pilot heard his helmet radio crackle.
"Gorobets to Midget 1, proceed to land on the far helipad on the roof, over"
"Rodger that sir, Midget 1 coming into land, over"
"Proceed, over and out"
The pilot turned to his crewmates and yelled "okay boys, we're going in." The engineer in the back nodded and fastened his harness as he sat down, whilst the co-pilot looked crestfallen.
"What's the matter now?" spat the pilot, not looking at the unhappy airman and choosing instead to concentrate on landing the helicopter.
"I wanted to shoot at something" the co-pilot whined "the last time I got to shoot something was 5 months ago!"
"Good grief" muttered the pilot, quickly glancing over at the co-pilot. "You keep those safeties on, or I'll shoot you myself." Rather than reply, the co-pilot busied himself checking guages. Satisfied that his trigger-happy colleague had been silenced, the pilot brought the helicopter down on the landing pad, setting it down with a slight thud.
"Smooth landing!" called out the engineer from the back.
"Shut it you!" cursed the pilot, turning back and making a rude gesture.
"Hey guys, check that out" the co-pilot had seen the Kilrany forces on the roof, "it's the Kilrany ISM. They look mean." Turning back, the pilot saw the Kilrany forces taking up position. Soon they were utterly concealed from sight, ready to spring upon the hostage takers.
"Well that's that, I'll let Gorobets know we're here"

"Midget 1 to Gorobets, in position, over"
"Excellent Midget 1, over"
"Just make sure those ISM guys are good, over and out"

Gorobets looked back at Captain Rublev, "my helicopter is in position" he informed the Kilrany man, "I'll check on my men at the line."

"Gorobets to Servchenko, report status"
"Servchenko here, ready to move
"Excellent, Gorobets out"
Sergeant Servchenko had been personally looking over the other 20 SAU 209 soldiers. Each of them stood ready to assualt the building, though Servchenko was not happy about not knowing the exact layout of the building, even though they were expected not to face any opposition. None of the NCOs had undone the combination locks on the pouch on their webbing that contained their sarin grenades, which was just as well as whilst the SAU 209 trooper's battle dress was supposed to be NBC proof, such things weren't exactly great for hostage situations. He patted the stock of his AK-107, taking comfort from the fact he'd just finished cleaning the weapon before the call went out. There was no doubt the Skgorrians at the line were ready and willing to race into the building

ISM Command Vehicle

Captain Jolt took the nod from the ISM Captain and picked up the telephone. It was answered promptly and he spoke first.

"In case you havn't realised your helicopter is waiting on the roof. I assume you intend to honour your side of our agreement?"

As he spoke he gave the thumbs up to the ISM and Skgorrian commanders standing nearby watching him.

Hotel

Rublev just shook his head for a moment, Ah crap, I could have at least bluffed my way by forgetting his name, but noooo, I had to forget his rank too, after a few moments of mentally berating himself he spoke to Gorobets again after the Skgorrian Lieutenant had sent his orders to his helicopter and checked on his men waiting with the ISM squads nearby, “Apologies Lieutenant, the hostage situation has me distracted somewhat.”

Nervous excitement took hold of Rublev when he took note of Captain Jolt’s thumbs up signal, he had the as much confidence in his men’s capabilities as a commanding officer could have, but he also new reality, and the nearby incident regarding injuries and death allowed pessimism to creep into the back of his mind.

------

If it weren’t for the thumping of the Skgorrian helicopters blades, all would be peacefully quiet on the hotel’s roof, the men and women of the two ISM assault squads quietly waited behind what cover they had for their squad Sergeant to order them to initiate the ambush on the partisans that they had dubbed as terrorists for taking hostages.

Both their squad Sergeants had arrayed their squads on either side of the roof roughly thirty meters from the path they believed the Khurzav would most likely take to reach the Skgorrian helicopter since it was the most direct and clear of obstacles and each watched the area with small fiber optic cameras to pear around the cover without clearly giving away their positions.

Like a typical ISM assault squads, both squads were armed with seven Bizons, four Blackthorns, and a single officer equipped with a AK-74M with a PSO-1 optic, although in this situation each of the squad’s marksmen had removed the optic from their rifles, opting instead to use their iron sights for what would be a very short range fire fight.

-------

Isaac’s face lit up in a grin as he heard the words from the Kingdom officer, he hadn’t expected the helicopter to be here so soon, The foreign peacekeepers must be applying more pressure to the Kilrany then I could have hoped for, his over confidence was clear when he replied to Captain Jolt, “Of course I will Captain, I’m not a Kilrany, I will honour my word, the hostages will be released alive and well. We currently have them in one of the hotel’s suites, when we are gone you will find them waiting.”

Isaac placed his palm over the phone and shifted it away from his mouth so that the receiver was still in his eye and called out through the open door to the office he was in, “Nikolai, gather everyone up, we’re going to the roof, our ride is here,” a conformational yell came in and Isaac put the phone back to a more normal way, “Captain Jolt, it has been a pleasure talking to you, before I go I have a quick word of warning to you, don’t turn your back on the Kilrany or you’ll get a knife in it for your troubles.”

OOC: This post really should have been up last night, but you all know how these things go, too easy to be distracted.

OOC: dont sweat man, we know, believe me :)

Gorobets shook his head "No apologies necessary Captain, I fully understand. To balance things out I'll buy you so many beers when this is over you'll have trouble remembering your own name and rank." The grin on the young officer's face attempted to conceal the deep anxiety he was feeling. Skgorria's good name here rests on how we handle this....

Meanwhile on the roof, the pilot and crew of the Skgorrian helicopter sat there, awaiting the hostage-takers to come to the roof. Can't wait to get out of here the pilot thought, gripping the controls of his Mi-8 as if it would hurry up the passage of time.

The troopers at the BTR line were going through mixed feelings. Whilst all of the troopers were veterans, they all felt the same fear and elation at the prospect of going into combat again. The only difference between the ranks was that the more experience NCOs projected calm and did a good job to conceal their worries, whilst some of the privates openly fretted. Won't last long with an attitude like that Sargeant Servchenko considered

Hotel

Over at the BTR line at the North end of the park the four ISM assault squads waited with the same anticipation that the Skgorrian soldiers had next to them. Unlike the Skgorrians who were apparently veterans, the ISM officers were not; the most any of them had seen was managing Kilrany protests, which unlike the recent one nearby never got violent. But this was what they trained for, and they were as prepared as any force could be given the circumstances.

The Senior Sergeant out of the four ISM squads at the BTR line came over towards the Skgorrian officer in charge in the group and addressed him while addressing her own men, “Alright gentlemen, here’s the plan as I’ve been told. Our boys on the roof will engage the targets at their discretion, just before they do they will give us a radio signal and two of our men, one at each of the perimeter points on the South East and West will use an RG-6 to spread smoke canisters over our avenue of approach, which will be straight in behind the BTRs here with the cover of said smoke. Corporal Falk here will place a breaching charge on a thin section of the wall so we can bypass the main entrance, they’ve had enough time to turn it into a killing zone and I don’t intend to use it. Now they claimed they were willing to bring the whole building down on top of them, however Intel contacted us and informed us that it would take an entire van of military grade explosives to bring down this building and that they didn’t believe they would actually go through with it. Non-the less, keep an eye out for traps, I don’t want any screw-ups.”

She paused for a minute letting the information sink in before continuing, “Once we are in the building we will clear it out floor by floor, Corporal Grek, come over here,” she paused again as the named Corporal made his way quickly over to her, “Grek you stay on this Skgorrian’s ass, you are going to be his relay since we both don’t use the same communications, make sure he stays apprised of everything,” she turned to face the Skgorrian then, “Same goes for you, I expect you talk to the Corporal, he needs to keep us apprised of your position as well, I don’t want any unnecessary deaths.”

Glancing over the group she addressed them all, “Everyone got that? Good. The BTRs will move slow enough for use to stick behind them, gear up,” as the gathered ISM officers pulled the light Kevlar hoods over their faces and pulled their ballistic goggles down off their helmets and over their eyes she then activated her radio, “Beta team stands by to begin the assault,” she then apparently addressed the BTR vehicle crews, as a moment later the four BTRs rumbled to life, “Start ‘em up!”

------

The ISM officers up on the roof waited as patiently as they could, it had almost been ten minutes since they had received word that the partisans had gotten word that the helicopter was in position and that they were supposed to be coming up to the roof.

Corporal Kuprin breathed in and out slowly, attempting to control his excitement, he gripped his Russian designed Bizon submachine gun loosely, his right hand on the pistol grip, finger resting on the trigger guard, his left hand holding on to the sixty-four round cylindrical magazine located underneath the barrel. Like the other ISM officers he had pulled the light Kevlar hood over his face, concealing all but his eyes, which were in turn covered over by ballistic goggles.

Kuprin glances to his right to see Corporal Polenov holding a flash bang grenade in his hands, his Blackthorn combat shotgun handing in front of him on its tactical sling. Polenov was waiting for orders from the Sergeant to toss them at where the partisans would come out of, they all knew that flash bangs would have a more limited effect out in the open but several of them tossed at once could buy them the few seconds they needed to get clear shots.

“Two coming out, get ready,” the voice of Kuprin’s Sergeant was so quiet over the radio that he almost missed it, he flipped the safety off on his weapon and waited, imagining in his mind what must be happening now, most likely two of the partisans were coming out to check the roof, “One has a bolt action, the other a pistol,” once again the voice of his Sergeant was almost to quiet to hear, Kuprin’s anticipation grew.

“Here they come, they’re coming out single file, being cautious, wait for the order,” Kuprin looked over to where his Sergeant was, he was still watching through that small fiber optic camera, how Kuprin wished he could see what his Sergeant was seeing just then.

“Five targets in the front, followed by three hostages, five more targets behind them,” there was a brief pause where Kuprin though he heard who he assumed was one of the partisans say something, “They’ve stopped … damn, flash bangs now, beta team assault now,” Kuprin watched as Polenov pulled the pin out on the flash bang he held, seemed to do a mental count, then tossed the grenade over the air-conditioning unit he was using as concealment towards the direction the partisans should have been. A moment later and there were three quick and loud bangs, like someone had squeezed off a burst from a rifle next to your head.

That was the signal, almost as one all twenty-four ISM officers on the roof popped up from behind their cover. Like the rest, Kuprin took a moment to take in the scene in front of him, he could see the ten armed partisans currently out in full view on the roof, along with three more back several meters from the main group at the stairwell door, they were all armed with a myriad of weapons, mostly rifles and pistols, the ones you could easily get in civilian model, however one did have an AK-74, they also looked slightly disoriented from the flash bangs, the three Kilrany prisoners however had recognized the objects thrown in their direction, and although just as disoriented as the partisans, they had had enough knowledge of what was about to happen to go prone on the roof just as the flash bangs detonated.

Kuprin took aim at the lead partisan and squeezed off a burst, sending six rounds of nine millimeter into the man who also took a twelve-gauge slug from a combat shotgun from the other side. A hail of aimed gunfire ripped through the bodies of the partisans exposed on the roof, the first engagement lasted only three seconds.

Kuprin’s radio blared to life a moment later with quick orders, “First squad secure the roof, Second squad stairwell door, Kuprin, flash bang, now!”

As half of First squad moved out from their cover to check on the hostages and secure the weapons the other half stayed where they were and watched the seemingly dead partisans, in case one was still alive. Second squad on the other hand, which Kuprin was part of, quickly broke for the stair well door, as Kuprin pulled out a flash bang he could hear shouting coming from inside although he couldn’t make it out.

Kuprin pulled the pin on the flash bang as he got close enough to the open door, Polenov and his squad Sergeant took positions on either side of the door, the rest of Second squad split up behind them. With the pin pulled he gave a quick count and half threw, half rolled the grenade in through the open stairwell door while he was still five meters away.

More shouts and a scream followed just before the flash bang detonated, quickly starting with Polenov they disappeared one by one in through the door, quickly followed by weapons fire.”

-------

“Beta team, move in now!” the order came threw loud and clear over the radios of the ISM officers gathered in their squads around the line of BTRs, the order having been relayed through Captain Rublev’s Sergeant. Corporal Grek quickly turned to the Skgorrian he was told to stick with, “Orders been given, we move now.”

One by one the BTRs rumbled forward, the ISM assault squads following closely behind them, even from there they could see the streaks of the smoke canisters being fired from both Southern corers of the hotel’s outer fence line. As the four BTRs came out of the park to cross the wide street between the park and the hotel’s outer fence line, they split into two groups, moving to enter the two Southern road entrances.

As the two pairs of vehicles passed from the street into the hotel’s entranceways one could barely make out the sound of short but intense firefight on the roof. It seemed to take forever for the vehicles to reach the front of the building having passed through multiple smoke clouds and so far no one had shot at them.

Quickly the order was given and Corporal Falk ran up to the side of the building about thirty meters to the left of the main entrance and placed several large shaped charges against it, a moment later he quickly moved again and then detonated it, the shaped charges collapsing the wall in ward and leaving a hole roughly three by three meters wide.

First through the breach was Beta team’s First Squad rapidly followed by Second Squad, they quickly secured the office they had blasted a hole into and quickly moved out of it into the hotel’s main lobby. They exited into the West side of the large two-story lobby, the lobby took up a large section of the center of the building, however from the lobby both squads could clearly see the railing running around the second story where the restaurant was, giving someone the ability to fire down into the lobby from three directions, they could also clearly see several areas where tables had been propped up against the railing to provide concealment for gunners, although no one seemed to be there at the moment.

First Squad quickly broke to the left following the wall to the closest stairwell while Second Squad took up positions around the lobby to cover First Squad by watching the railing around the second story and the following squads who would be coming in through the breach.

After Second squad had disappeared into the breach Corporal Grek tapped the Skgorrian twice on the shoulder, “Our turn to enter.”

OOC: I've got no good excuse for the horrendous delay on this post, just couldn't seem to get it written out.

Hotel

What looked to be civilians walked out one by one through the hole in the hotel’s wall that had been breached only ten minutes earlier, every last one of them had their hands zip tied behind them, the ISM taking no chances in case even one of them was a partisan trying to pass themselves off as a hostage. ISM officers from Beta team’s Third and Fourth squad escorted the civilians in groups of five over to a holding area until their identity could be confirmed.

Following just behind the procession or civilians were three young men confirmed to be Partisans being escorted by Kuprin’s squad, who were showing less care for them then those escorting the civilians, perhaps because Kuprin’s squad, who normally numbered at twelve, came out of the building escorting the three men at eleven strong. Which would also explain why the chopper that had dropped them off was quickly descending on the roof again.

The remaining ISM officers in the building were either securing weapons or thoroughly searching the building’s many large suites, which would take several hours to completely check. With the immediate crisis over the outer perimeter being guarded by the army was pulled in closer to form a smaller perimeter so as to also allow two of their squads to enter the building and aid the ISM officers already inside.

Unlike the civilians the three partisans, one of which had a blood soaked bandaged wrapped around left arm, were being led straight over to where the ISM BTR line had been prior to the rush at the building. Half way over one of the escorting ISM officers half showed half struck one partisans in the back to hurry him along, the partisan stumbled forward and almost fell down but just barely kept his footing.

Upon arriving near two command BTRs the three partisans were lined up next to each other and one by one an ISM officer came up behind them and kicked out the back of their knees, forcing them kneel on the ground. The eleven ISM officers took up position around them, giving the three prisoners the impression they were about to be executed, however, as much as some of the officers may have wished to do so to avenge their injured comrade, the ISM did not execute prisoners, they’re however had no problem with striking fear into them.

OOC: Well, it’s my own damned fault I let this thread go this long without a post, I had anticipated a response, and procrastinated to long after one didn’t come. I don’t want to let this thread die, so I guess this is a glorified bump. If you have a question, the OOC thread is still there, I think.

With the Kilrany soldier having given the word, the Unit 209 Sargeant stood up and dashed to the hotel. Even though there was plenty of smoke for concealment, the Sargeant didn't like having his men exposed for any ammount of time. He heard the tundering footsteps of his troopers following behind him, and just hoped Gek was keeping pace. Barelling in through the hole made in the side of the hotel wall, he emerged in the lobby and saw it was being secured by Kilrany troops. Sargeant Servchenko moved to the side and directed the rest of the platoon into the hotel and out of the way to let the rest of the troops in. Soldier after soldier streamed in without problem, until one of the last troopers caught his foot on some debris and tripped, causing the others following close behind him to fall over as well.
"GET UP!" screamed Servchnko, livid with rage at the incompetence of Skgorria's "finest". It was just as well the facemasks were down on their helmets, or the troopers in question would have seen an expression that would have stayed with them until the rest of their days.

When the troopers had finished picking themselves up, Servchenko decided on a course of action. Turning to Gek, he raised his voice so he could be clearly heard.
"I am going to leave 2 squads here at the disposal of your CO, you will come with me and 1st Squad as we sweep for hostiles." Without waiting for confirmation, Servchenko and 1st Squad stormed up the stairs.
"Gek, where are we going?" came the question

OOC: agreed on not letting the thread die, RL is a sod at times...

Hotel

None of the Kilrany ISM Officers who saw the few Skgorrian troops trip said anything, nor did they laugh, they were far to concerned with getting into the building and doing their job as quickly and as efficiently as they could, even if they did have the time to stop and truly take note, they knew accidents happen, but their own Sergeant likely would have screamed just as loudly at them if they had fallen none the less.

True to his orders Corporal Grek was never more then a few feet from the Skgorrian and due to the situation didn’t bother to say anything about the mispronunciation of his name, “Third floor, sweep and clear, will take some time to ensure of that, fucking ridiculously huge building.”

Just ahead of the Skgorrian unit and Grek was Beta Team’s First squad quickly moving out of the stairwell out onto the second floor of the building while starting to come in the stairwell below them at the first floor was Third and Fourth squad trailing behind.

A cacophony of gunfire erupted from farther up the stairwell, submachine guns, shotguns, rifles and pistols all added to the noise, tremendous and terrifying it lasted only three seconds before silence seemed to come from above, only to be broken several seconds later by a less intense encore.

As they reached the third floor entrance Grek activated his radio to pass on the fact that the Skgorrians were now entering the third floor and then addressed his charge, “If I recall we’ve got a hallway here and four insanely large suites to check, if you’ve got flashbangs, use em, if not, I’ve got a few, just tell me and they’re thrown.”

OOC: I guess we’ll simply assume this bit happened after the BTR line moved up in my second last post and before the hostages and prisoners were taken out in my last post there. Just to note, you’ll only find empty rooms on this floor, but I assume you’d treat them as hostile none the less. As discussed in the OOC thread I do believe we’ll try and get this situation resolved and move along, ideally. And yes, real life is something of a pain. heh

Pashchatova

Army General Bojan Javoric and the Belgade Brigade saw the relative calm in their area of responsibility as further vindication -if it were ever needed!- of the pan-Slavic ideal carried in their hearts and expressed in their increasingly laid-back presentation as something ever closer to familiar local constables than soldiers helping a military occupation.

Corporal Pedrag Jovanovic had received a minor commendation for taking the initiative in the football-friendship programme of his own design, writing home for his family and friends to organise minor charity events that paid for footballs and related equipment, which were shipped out with the letters to the thousand or so Yugoslavian servicemen and women in Khurzav. Club shirts arrived from FK Crvena Zvezda -the current Yugoslav league champions, better known as Red Star Belgrade, the army team and 1991 European Champions- along with some boots and gloves and the like. Most of the balls were marked with a large red star or a piece of relatively non-specific Slavic heraldry.

Often, the soldiers organised competitions amongst youngsters, children and teens, and allowed themselves to be picked amongst the teams so that each side typically had one or two soldiers in any given game.

In doing this and engaging in other friendly acts, sharing rations and joining in games or drinking or what not, the Yugoslavians did give thought to gathering intelligence, aware that, even if it were calm here, unrest could be spread by agitators from outside the area, and new arrivals may remain a cause for concern. Over-hearing gossip and getting information from children who'd over-heard gossip seemed a good back-up to the irregular patrols and infrequent checkpoints maintained by Javoric's men.

The only worry was that the General didn't feel sure about where the occupation was going, and would feel much better when Khurzav politics and economics were moving smoothly along as part of Kilrany's, and the locals were trusted to take care of their own security in a significant way. The Yugoslavs hoped that the youngsters befriending their troops might be both willing and allowed to pursue careers in Kilrany's police, military, and government as they grew-up, and that parents might regard good treatment of their vulnerable children as a good sign in general.

For now, some members of the mission were happier to be here than at home where they might be assigned to fight the KLA.

OOC: Hadn't meant to let this go so long without a post, was expecting more activity. The RP isn't dead, not as far as I know. Time for some filler and a glorified bump.

One of the Paschatovan youths held a football over his head in one hand and waved at a group of Yugoslavian soldiers on patrol, shouting in Russian and then Serbian he'd learnt from a pair of textbooks he kept on the top shelf of his low bookcase, over which hung a Yugoslav and Khurzav flag side by side, and a few Pan-slavic banners.

A nearby girl waved at the more handsome of the Yugoslav soldiers and was reprimanded lightly by her mother, whose second husband had been killed in the brief Kilrany-Khurzav war.

And to the North, the KRG paramilitaries crept through the primeval forests, making their way into the territory controlled by Kingdom troops.

Hotel

Captain Rublev climbed out of the side door to his BTR closest to the Skgorrian and House of James soldiers and stepped up to the two men extending his right hand to shake theirs, “I thank both of you for the assistance you’ve given us. Unfortunately one of my men was injured and two of the army’s officers who were taken hostage in there were killed during the firefight. Given the situation it could have been worse.”

Having shaken their hands he took a step back towards the BTR and checked it watch, fifteen minutes since the firefight ended with word of prisoners, and five minutes since they’ve been out here looking uncomfortable over there. They’re late. He let the grim humour of that thought distract him from the casualties from the hotel for a few minutes.

It was about a minute later that three Hades model APCs came driving down a street from the South, each bore the markings of the Imperial Guard’s 4th Division, each of these three vehicles in particular looked like BTR-90Ms, however one familiar with that vehicle would likely be able to notice the slight outward differences, such as the slightly increased size.

They drove off the street and into the park coming to a stop roughly twenty meters from the two command BTRs. Rublev watched as 4th Division soldiers exited the first and third vehicle, two additional soldiers dressed as 4th Division exited the second vehicle, however they carried no rifle. Rublev was clearly not surprised at the arrival of the Imperial Guard despite the fact they had not been contacted about the prisoners, word had however spread through the ISM ranks that the Imperial Guard was showing up after they took suspected partisans into custody and taking them off their hands.

While the first squad of 4th Division soldiers split into two, one heading towards the captured partisans and the other half coming towards Rublev, the rest remained standing around their vehicles.

The three that came towards Rublev simply ignored the two foreign soldiers, not even acknowledging their presence, “Captain Rublev, we’ll be taking those three off your hands.”

Rublev merely nodded his head and replied in an accepting tone, “I gathered as much,” Rublev then lowered the volume of his voice so neither the Skgorrian or the Kingdom solider could hear him, “I presume they will get what’s coming to them?”

The lead soldier who had addressed Rublev nodded his head and replied in an equally low tone, “Eventually, yes.” With that the three soldiers turned and walked back to their vehicles, by this time the other three were rather forcefully bringing back the three zip tied partisans who were protesting rather loudly towards the center vehicle.

OOC: I'd like to have put up a better post then this, but given the time It's taken me just to find the time to write this, I best put it up or it will never get up at the rate I'm going.

OOC: Praise be to telegrams and over-MSN conversations about force structure and deployment. And by the Gods, I've been waiting to post this for a long time.

Dmitriev looked up from his high powered telescopic sights and let his head slowly rotate, scanning the surrounding foliage. His spotter, Losinkov, glanced from left to right constantly, with a barely perceptible shifting of the head. He turned to look over his shoulder, scanning the area behind them for the second time in ten minutes.

The KRG had run themselves ragged in the past few days and were now recovering from a series of route marches totalling nearly two hundred kilometers back and forth. The information system used by the partisans didn't allow them constantly updated intelligence on where a convoy was headed, so their last few efforts at ambushing another Kilrany supply column had been easily frustrated.

Boris and Nikolai had been sitting in their hide for two and a half days so far. The watch on Nikolai's wrist read 17.35, and so far only civilian vehicles had passed, or a handful of armoured Kilrany machines. The hide was situated in a copse of trees surrounded with bushes, constructed out of carefully cut branches and a few convienent bushes tied together with green twine. The Sako was held against a rotting log, the camouflaged rifle facing down a few hundred meters of straight highway that was exactly four hundred and eight meters from the hide. The night before had been moonless, and in that light they paced off alongside the highway, exactly halfway down, where a small hatchet broke into the bark of a tree and through the fibres of the trunk, bending it out towards the highway that lay twenty meters away. Like most highways, the ones in Khurzav had the tree cover cut back from their shoulders a good ten or twenty meters, depending on when that highway had been built.

After their long wait they'd gotten lucky. A convoy with a doubled guard came down the highway, and in a few seconds the lead vehicle had passed the broken tree that marked the outside edge of the range inside which Dmitriev could pick the button-hole he wanted to send his bullet through. Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, at six hundred meters, but Dmitriev was deadly with his TRG-42 to eight hundred meters.

Losinkov raised his binoculars to his eyes and Dmitriev called out his target.

"Second truck from the back."

"I see him."

Dmitriev's finger gently caressed the smooth and chill steel of the trigger, feeling the tension. He knew his optics were properly set to the range. The crosshairs found themselves centered over the upper center mass of the driver through the windshield, the sun threatening to reflect off the glass and blind Dmitriev. Had the convoy come as little as a half hour later, it probably would have, too.

But it hadn't, and because Losinkov didn't know how to determine wind direction to target precisely in the crazed drafts and gusts of a highway in use, he simply stayed quiet and watched. He felt Boris relax beside him, blinked, and thought to turn to say something, ask him why he hadn't fired.

Then Boris fired, the rifle kicking back into his shoulder and the round spinning out of the barrel and downrange through the windshield. Nikolai heard the crack of the rifle not a meter from him, then saw the windshield shatter in glittering fragments.

A spray of blood, the truck slewed rapidly, and the convoy immediately halted. Kilrany soldiers dismounted BTRs and faced outwards, the turrets of the vehicles rotating around to cover the woodline.

"Got him."

"Yeah. Got him. I think you hit him in the lower chest, windshield must have deflected your shot. Fortunately not off to the side."

"Yep."

Dmitriev pocketed the empty casing and kept watch on the Kilrany, now sweeping the treeline, fully expecting another ambush. A medic and another soldier pulled the wounded Kilrany from the cab of the truck, while Losinkov used a sharp, folding blade knife to cut the twine and gather it together carefully, shoving the bits of string into his pocket and tapping Dmitriev on the shoulder when they were ready to leave. The two men crept away to the West for three hundred meters, crawling on their bellies, sheltering behind anything that provided concealment. Then a kilometer Northwards, looking behind them constantly, moving low to the ground for the first two hundred meters of that kilometer.

Within two days and with a half-dozen more direction changes, the two would make it back to the KRG encampment in one of Khurzav's primeval forests.

OOC: Glorry be, I managed to find some time and my muse in order to write some more, heh, glorified bump time.

East of Pernik

“How forthcoming was he?” it was a male voice, of that much he was certain, but it seemed fuzzy and distorted like it was coming from a great distance. Dal moved his head, but his sight seemed to be as fuzzy and distorted as the sound he was hearing.

“He’s a civilian, he had no training in resisting interrogation, it took little to have him tell us all he knew, we didn’t even get past the basic techniques,” a second voice, somewhat clearer then the first and decidedly male as well, to Dal his tone almost seemed to indicate disappointment, but it was difficult for his to be sure.

“How much of it was actually useful?” It was the first voice again, but clearer, much easier to understand, along with sound his sight was seemingly beginning to clear up as well, he still couldn’t see much, but the details of a moderately sized room with closed windows began to appear to him.

“He knew nothing that could directly lead us to any active partisans, but we did get a good list of names within the city of partisan sympathizers and a name to what would seem to be the most organized group, they call themselves the KRG, Khurzav Resistance Group. They seem to have a rather effective communications system set up given their limited resources,” it was the second voice again and now that it had become clearer he could make out the tone much better and it gave him a chill.

His sight finally cleared up enough for him to take a good look at his surroundings with recognition quickly setting in as to where he was and why he was there. He was seated at one end of what looked to be a rectangular conference table with his hands restrained behind him. At the end of the table near a door stood the two men speaking, both wore identical looking uniforms and there appeared to be no visible difference between the two from his position, although he recognized the voice of the second man, who was standing with his back to him as one of the two who had been interrogating him for the past three days. Sitting along the table to his left was the second of the two soldiers that had been interrogating him, during that time he had determined by voice that the soldier was in fact a woman, while the two continued their conversation she simply sat casually inspecting the black blade of her Kilrany Long Knife, the twelve inch long weapon had an eight inch long single edged blade with a serrated back edge and a blood groove running down the center, it was a weapon only issued to members of the Imperial Guard and typically sat in a sheath running horizontally across their lower back.

“What do you plan to do with this information, and him, if I may ask?” It was the first one again and since Dal couldn’t see any insignia from his position he couldn’t tell that the soldier was in fact a 4th Division Colonel.

“We will be placing those named under close surveillance, but will not arrest them yet, we will see if they lead us to anyone important, that and we will increase out hunt for partisan groups in the rural areas. As for Dal, by now his disappearance will no doubt have been noticed, someone who knows him will no doubt approach the Khurzav police and tell them he’s missing, and that they last saw him being taken into ISM custody. They will contact the ISM and find out that he was officially released from their custody three days ago, the ISM will then appear surprised that he’s still missing and apply some pressure to the Khurzav to find him. The Khurzav police will find nothing and eventually an ISM officer will leak that Dal was in fact one of their informants, his arrest was really cover to bring him in to talk, which will eventually spread to the general population and in turn the partisan sympathizers. They will tell the KRG and either they will believe we are lying or they will believe that someone else found him out and killed him for being a traitor. Either way it should lead them to be distrustful of their sources. In the end Dal will not be seen in Khurzav again.”

Panic started to creep into Dal as he sat bound to his chair, the way they talked about him like he wasn’t there sent a chill through him again, he felt like saying something, but when he opened his mouth he found that he didn’t know what to say and he simply sat there for a moment, his mouth opening and closing a few times in an odd looking manner.

“And how exactly do you plan to increase surveillance and efforts to find partisan groups, given the Emperors decision to limit your presence here in Khurzav?”

“The fact that the Emperor has chosen to limit our presence here has been a slight hindrance, why he’s chosen to try and prove that the Empire isn’t the brutal monster the Khurzav have been led to believe we are by trying to be excessively kind to them is beyond my knowledge, but that matters not. In place of our men he has authorized several sections of the ASR to carry out tasks under our command along with one of the Ares, he wants to have one tested out in the field since FLRJ airspace is too dangerous to use any there right now.”

“Yes, I can see that working, Army Special Recon is adequate for the role I’m sure,” ASR was an odd name given to a special section of the regular forces that someone, somewhere had come up with as an impromptu name for that just happened to stick for no known reason.

Having been focused on the two soldiers talking he hadn’t noticed the third stand up and walk around behind him out of his sight, when he finally noticed she wasn’t there anymore his panic suddenly hit a critical level, he swung his head left and right frantically looking for where she had gone to, had his hands not been bound to the chair he would have jumped out of his seat in fright when a pair of gloved hands came to rest on his shoulders.”

He froze, to terrified to move, he could feel her leaning in closer as she used his shoulders to support her weight, her covered face came into his view as he looked to his right, she wasn’t looking at him, instead she looked straight ahead, through the fabric that hid all but her eyes she spoke in a low voice clearly meant to terrify him further, “It wont end that quickly Khurzav.”

--------

Despite the initial chaos that inevitably comes with a nation rather suddenly becoming occupied and despite efforts by a handful of small partisan groups, the Kilrany were slowly managing to return order.

Government offices were open and running again, sanitation facilities were fully functional, grocery stores were properly stocked and power plants filled the grid with electricity, life, at least in the major population centers was slowly beginning to return to a comfortable level, now all under the watchful eye of the Kilrany, and paid for in Kilnis.

With a perceived level of order attained, the Kilrany started to slowly bring Khurzav law in line with its own, which was not as hard as it might seem, the government prior had been a rather simply monarchy and slipping Kilrany officials into critical positions, including those in charge of the Khurzav police proved a simply process, especially since no one had seen a member of the Khurzav royal family since their surrender. Some Khurzav believed they were now in hiding, while others chose to believe the Kilrany had executed them.

First on the agenda for the Kilrany was to officially place all media completely under state control, once more not a difficult objective, they had long ago seized control of Khurzav media, controlling everything heard on the radio and television. A task only made easier by the fact that the previous government had already had complete control over the media, however it was quite unofficially and still allowed foreign reporters to operate within Khurzav.

The news of this new change did not sit well at all with the few foreign reporters who had been trapped in the country at the outset of war, who were for the most part almost completely cut off from the outside world with Kilrany blockade of the coast and closure of airports, two situations which were to be remedied in due course.

OOC: Bump

Kilrany

Although the Kilrany Empire was a large nation with many provinces, it held no over seas holdings typically associated with most true Empires, this wasn’t that during its time it didn’t have the power or opportunity to acquire any, rather their priorities had simply been different then simple acquisition of more land.

Roughly eighty kilometers South of the major city of Sigriogrosk and one hundred Kilometers North of the Kilrany-Khurzav border, the slight activity of three large aircraft broke the relative silence of this particular major military airfield.

Since the official surrender of the Khurzav government the Kilrany military status had reverted to peacetime conditions, as such the men and women in the control tower had fallen back into the usual peacetime monotony, watching over the two KIAM produced IL-76MFs and AN-124-210G Ares as they taxied along the runways in order to lift off was a nice break. Truth be told the soldiers in the tower were glad to be back in the peaceful monotony, not having to watch a pair of fighters lift off and wonder if they’ll get to see the pilots again, however like most soldiers it wouldn’t stop them from complaining to each other about their boredom.

Both IL-76s carried several companies of ASR, their destination a former Khurzav airbase under the control of the Kilrany air force and army rather then the Imperial Guard, within a few hours they would land and quickly get sorted out, then under the orders of 5th Division they would begin to scour the Khurzav countryside for partisans with the aid of the air force and army aviation.

As an addition to their support one of the KIAM Ares had been assigned to supplement their firepower, at first glance the aircraft seemed to appear no differently then a standard AN-124, at least along the right side of the aircraft, the left side showed the minor alterations that would make the aircraft stand out. It was yet another joint production between Kilrany and Russkya, but clearly showed how someone’s designers simply had way the hell to much time on their hands.

-------

For the men and women of the KIN Pleven, the name of the modified Akula II that had received the mission to monitor the Delesa battlegroup hanging outside what was now considered Kilrany nation waters, the last few days had been rather dull. The small fleet from Delesa had done little but seemingly take up a holding position, which didn’t bother the crew of the Pleven given that they didn’t want to be playing cat and mouse with an ASW helicopter and live ordnance.

“Sir, I’m certain it’s out there somewhere, but they’re being cagey bastards, about as quiet as we are and I just can’t get a fix,” the Pleven’s sonar operator turned back to look at this screens after addressing the ship’s Captain who stood a few feet behind him.

“I believe you Vitaly, I doubt they would have sent a fleet so far from home without some sub protection, but it matters little, we head back for home today, Fleet Command is satisfied they’re not going to try and attack, as foolish as that thought may be,” a smile broke upon the Captain’s face, “If I knew more about these Delesa I’d have ping ‘em, but I don’t feel like screwing around with them today. Just keep your ears open.”

The Captain turned and moved back into the middle of the sub’s command center and addressed his XO, “Well Lev, I believe it’s time to head home, set course zero six zero and maintain silent running.”

The XO nodded his head and carried the order over to navigation following the typical naval method; the sub began to turn slowly through the water starting the trip back to its home harbor of Trinaga, the single largest military port in Kilrany.

-------

When the decision had been made to start bringing Khurzav law into line with that in Kilrany, some resistance had been anticipated, so after the public announcement that officially all media was now under control of the government, it had come as no surprise that only two days later protests had been arranged and started in many Khurzav cities by some citizens still hoping to force the Kilrany to leave; the larger of the protests occurring in the largest of the Khurzav cities including Pernik, Pashchatova and Tazhan, however Ochoskoye and Tsyelograd were strangely quiet.

Although most of the protests ended up being larger then the one that broke out during the hostage situation a few days before, they were all far more timid, at least at first, mostly due to the fact that the ISM seemed to be waiting for them and were no longer handling them with ‘kid gloves’, both foot patrolmen and ISM assault squads were right there, in clear view, the thirty millimeter cannons and seven point six two millimeter coaxial mounts on the BTR-80s swiveled about slowly, the gunners scanning the crowds. This alone had been enough to cause a small number of protesters to leave early.

Kingdom Base, Kilrany

In direct response to the radio message from the Kilrany ISM troops present at the various small scale protests in the former capital city a small force of two platoons was dispatched from the base in a lightly armoured column of trucks and land rovers with a single Merlin providing some sembelence of top cover for them/

The men in that column were relaxed, they had been on several such excursions in the days since all of the activity in the city and encountered nothing of any note. Roadblocks were placed randomly but not frequently across the wide swathe of country that the Kingdom forces had been assigned in co-operation with the Kilrany occupation troops and the most dangerous weapons that they had so far encountered were a family carrying a box of kitchen knives in their car, a car that only weeks before would never have been on the road because of the apparent shortage of fuel that had gripped the nation prior to the arrival of peacekeeping forces.

However the very notion of peacekeeping was starting to puzzle Colonel Lothian as everyday he received absolutely no reports of any violence or any other kind of action indicitive of areas that needed peacekeepers. Why are we here? was a question that was beginning to surface in many minds, officers and soldiers alike, and soon it threatened to undermine discipline. He needed to think of a damned good reason for their presence but so far it had eluded him, the best he had come up with was that they were propping up the Kilrany here and that was worrying. The amount of action other units were seeing did little to increase his sense of worth here.

The troops were irritable that they had been here “babysitting” trees and roads whilst most of the other Kingdom units had fought successful wars of conquest to both the North and South of the Kingdom, enlarging the holdings of King Robert even further to include the long fought over citystate of Annulus.

However on the positive side Teams A and B of the 9th Special Regiment had now arrived in theatre, instantly taking two of the Merlins as their own personal transport for when they were needed. Mostly they had spent the time firing off inordinate amounts of ammunition on the base ranges and exercising until they were keeping the edge that the flight in had blunted slightly with occasional “safari trips” in a very much delta force style to supplement their normal rations. The commander, a Special Major, was considering deploying one of his teams to the protests so they got a taste of the local populace….infact he decided he would do that. All that was needed was a wave to the helicopter crew and a few words to the Team commander and another Merlin put into the skies and headed towards the capital, announcing its presence to Kilrany Air Traffic Control only when they were questioned.

Below on the ground the column under the command of another Captain was proceeding normally as they got onto a paved road and picked up some speed. Gunners were standing smartly in the turret position, but the weapons were not cocked or even with rounds in the chamber. The Kingdom forces had become slightly complacent when they probably shouldn’t have.

OOC: It's a shame that four-page document got hosed mate, now that you're getting attention from the KRG, but a good post all the same.

A four-man team of KRG Partisans lay in the underbrush, doing their best to avoid any unnessecary movement. Two were equipped with binoculars, the patrol leader had a surprisingly detailed map of this sector. For Operational Security reasons, only their patrol route and a rendezvous was marked out, the locations of the primary and secondary encampments unmarked.

With a piece of netting covering the lenses to prevent reflection, and set back in the shadow of three tree trunks, the reconnaissance patrol watched and listened. They observed a Kingdom roadblock for a few short minutes, before carefully creeping away deeper into Khurzav's backwoods.

Thanks to a few carefully conducted raids, the KRG were now well and fully equipped with Khurzav Army equipment, appropriated from depots that had been entrusted to the local police to watch over before being consolidated under Kilrany control. Already well equipped with scrounged KIAM-produced weapons such as AK-74M rifles, RPK-74Ms, four PKMs, and a cornucopia of ammunition, plus some GP-30 underbarrel grenade launchers and plenty of VOG rounds, including a few "special" crates that had yet to be opened, the KRG was now presenting a rather organized, paramilitary appearance.

And due to those raids on Kilrany convoys earlier and the stocks of ammunition and ordnance that had been procured, the inability to raid Khurzav armouries and procure more and heavier weaponry due to Kilrany occupation was not a major handicap. Current strength of the well organized partisan group was forty-three combat personnel, with the ability to expand to a planned total of fifty-five in due time. The intelligence organization that was supporting the KRG stretched throughout the Yugoslavian zone of responsibility and partially into the Kingdom zone, consisting of civilians who kept their eyes open and had a good memory and working knowledge of military equipment and basic organization.

A four-man hunter-killer team, part of a 'section,' practiced maintaining their weapons in the secondary camp. The PKM Gunner and his loader field-stripped, cleaned, and reassembled the general-purpose machinegun, inspected ammunition belts and boxes of 7.62x54R rounds, and in lieu of the RPG-7V that would normally be assigned to such a group, two men armed with Kalashnikov rifles and GP-30 UBGLs were issued ten rounds apiece of the strangely-marked VOG grenades. One man had an old Mosin-Nagant rifle equipped with a civilian optic dating from 1983 to provide the 'designated marksman' portion of the Chechen-inspired hunter-killer element.

The plan for the KRG was to conduct small patrol operations, possibly engage small detatchments of Kingdom troops, and otherwise familiarize themselves with the area. The newly recognized and promoted 'officers,' intelligent men with good leadership capabilities, saluted the former Khurzav Special Forces officer. In their left hands they carried the newly made, subdued-colour KRG insignia, to be worn on the Khurzav battledress uniforms with no other insignia, on the left shoulder.

The former Khurzav SF officer returned the salute, a sharp tap with his clenched right fist to the center of his chest, then the open palm tapping the insignia displayed on the left shoulder twice. It did a man good to believe he was a part of something unique and capable, and the nature of the KRG had changed with their capabilities as they trained. Now they were more of a quasi-professional paramilitary force than a barely organized partisan group.

With the exception of one poorly planned and executed ambush on a Delesa convoy with a few RPG’s they had managed to scrounge from an armory prior to the Kilrany securing it, the KLA were significantly under armed and less organized in comparison to their smaller numbered counterparts in the KRG.

However this wasn’t to say they were completely ineffective, they had managed to strike a few blows at Kilrany forces, but they always seemed to take heavier losses then they gave. In turn they decided to try an alternative approach, having received word from sympathizes that there would be numerous protests in several of their cities, they decided they would try and ambush some of the peacekeeping forces they assumed would be going to help the Kilrany.

To that end, four man teams of KLA members had moved into positions just inside the cities along a few of the main roads, dressed without any markings indicating who they were they were hoping they might be able to catch one of the convoys as they passed by. Although they were not armed heavily, they had rigged up several Molotov cocktails and were prepared to light them quickly and chuck them at peacekeeping forces, after which their plan was to sprint off into nearby alleyways and attempt to lose any would be pursuers in the tangle of the urban centers.

Pashchatova

“Listen to that damned chanting, what the hell makes them think that that’s going to make the military go, oh my god, the Khurzav don’t want us here, I guess we should leave,” ISM officer Mikhail Trotsky’s voice oozed with sarcasm as he finished his sentence, like other ISM officers around the protests this day he held his weapon at the ready, in this case, a Bizon.

“Vain hope, ignorance, stupidity? I couldn’t tell you Mikhail and I don’t care either, so long as they don’t do anything stupid everything should be fine,” Despite his words, ISM officer Kozma Remizov’s voice betrayed his annoyance as he walked next to Mikhail also armed with a Bizon.

“Give the bitching a rest gentlemen and keep an eye on these damned Khurzav, I don’t feel like having a grenade chucked at me today,” there was no hiding the annoyance in ISM officer Helena Tsvetaeva’s voice as she walked along just behind the other two, Blackthorn in hand.

The three were part of a standard ISM foot patrol assigned to watch the East side of this particular protest, the Khurzav merely continued chanting their slogans as they had gathered in a plaza outside of the largest Khurzav courthouse in Pashchatova to protest Kilrany changes to Khurzav law.

The protest here had already been going for a good couple of hours and much to the ISM officer’s fortune, was fairly non violent as of yet. This was as much to do with the events of the previous protest in the capitol being fresh in the Khurzav minds as the presence of the ISM BTR-80s and their intimidating weapon mounts.

It was at this point, walking along their assigned patrol route that they noticed what looked like a foreigner with a heavy-duty camera recording the protest, likely having recently arrived to do so. Assuming the man was a foreign cameraman caught inside Khurzav at the out break of war the three began making their way over to him, also assuming he hadn’t heard of the new laws.

As they got closer Mikhail called out to the man in an even and calm voice, “Sir, unless you’re with the KNN you’re going to have to shut off the camera and leave the area,” when the man didn’t aknowledge their presence, Mikhail figured he just hadn’t heard him and repeated himself as they got closer, however it soon became apparent that he was simply ignoring them.

At first concerned it might be a distraction while something else happened, the three looked about them, but aside from the protestors and other ISM officers, it was only the cameraman and the three of them for fifty meters. Slightly content that is wasn’t some kind of ambush they closed the gap and took up a triangle shaped formation around the man, putting about a meter between him and themselves with Mikhail and Kozma in front, and Helena behind him.

Despite the close proximity of the three heavily armed officers the cameraman apparently continued to ignore them, getting annoyed Mikhail stepped directly in front of the camera’s lens, which finally got a reaction from the man, “Get lost, you’re blocking my shot.”

This caused the three ISM officers some slight confusion; normally people showed heavily armed police officers some respect. Mikhail addressed the man again in a much stronger tone, “Sir. You have to turn the camera off, give it to us and leave the area.”

Much to the three officers added confusion this had no affect on the man, he simply kept recording and responded as if he had command over them, “The right of free press is universal, I have the right to record this so the world can see it in an unbiased manner. Go away.”

Mikhail rolled his eyes and released a sigh, then looked about the area for another camera, or a position where a hidden camera may be, assuming the only reason this cameraman was acting this stupid as to record ‘the evil Kilrany persecuting the masses’.

Not seeing anything, Mikhail’s quickly failing patience could be heard in his voice, “Sir! You are under Kilrany law. Put the camera down now or we will take it from you and place you under arrest.”

The man’s response was short and concise, “Fuck you.”

Having had enough and before Mikhail or Kozma could do anything, Helena shifted the Blackthorn combat shotgun around onto her back, letting it hang there by its sling, closed her gloved right hand into a fist and stepping forward, slammed it into the center of the man’s lover back, no small thing being the average Kilrany woman. Beginning to stumble forward from the blow and almost losing his grip on his camera the man cried out in pain and surprise, but finished yet, Helena’s left hand latched onto his throat from behind, and with her right foot now firmly behind his feet, wrenched him backwards with considerable force.

He slammed down onto the ground and at the cost of losing his grip on the camera, which smashed onto the ground as well and slid off several feet, was just barely able to use his hands to prevent the back of his head from cracking down on the concrete, the whole event having taken less then three seconds.

Without giving the man any time to recover Helena forced him onto his stomach and rather forcefully, handcuffed his hands behind his back, “Sir, you are now under arrest for violating Kilrany law.”

Mikhail stepped over next to Kozma and whispered to his friend, “If he hadn’t been such and ass I’d almost feel sorry for the bugger.”

Despite his rather violent subduing, the cameraman would only end up spending a few days in a Khurzav holding cell, after which he would be deported back to his home country.

Pernik

Inside the Khurzav capitol the largest of all the protests was well under way outside what once could have been referred to as the Khurzav’s main federal court building, it’s large open plaza allowed two hundred some Khurzav citizens to gather in front of it in protest.

Just off to the North of the plaza in front of the court building was a half dozen ISM BTR-80s, including Captain Rublev, the same ISM officer who’d been in charge of the hostage situation two days before was now in charge of trying to contain the protest here in the capitol and he was getting worried. He wasn’t worried about large number of protesters a scant fifty meters from his BTR, nor was he worried he couldn’t get them under control in due time, he was in fact worried about rumours he was hearing over the ISM encrypted channels for the last day or so in regards to the Imperial Guard forces across Khurzav.

To that end he was about to get his Sergeant to get into contact with nearby Kingdom forces when word reached him that they were sending some men already. Along with the Skgorrian troops they had proven to him to be quite competent soldiers and he hoped they would be able to help him out.

Kingdom Convoy

The lead Land Rover had just entered the city limits, its crew relaxed and chatting about their experiences in the wilds of the Eninmoore to the north of the Kingdom. Troops had been fighting the hardened guerilla fighters there for nearly a generation until the full scale invasion just under a year ago had almost wiped out the fighters there. A pity many in the Army thought as it was a perfect training ground for prevention of guerilla activities and also the prosecution of them should they attack, many of the soldiers had fond memories of storming mountain camps and the subsequent booty that had been shared out between them.

It was this thought that filled their minds as they turned into a narrow street that only seemed to have a few civilians on it. The wind blew softly, blowing some loose rubbish across the front of the column as it slowed slightly to get around a delivery van that was parked half in the road. The man standing in the turret position of the first land rover had a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach, Private Williams turned his M249 slightly in the loose mount and subconsiously worked the action to place a 5.56mm hollow point round into the chamber. Something about it just didn’t seem right.

The first KLA member was standing behind the van, lighting his two molotovs from that of his fellow fighter. One went each side of the van and threw them in quick succession at the first and third vehicles in the column. The liquid filled bottles arched in the air, the flame licking slowly at the top of the petrol soaked rag stuffed in the top of them.

The first struck Private Williams helmet, shattering the glass and covering him in the liquid that ignited almost simaltaniously. In his panic the young soldier dropped down into the vehicle, spreading the liquid around as the other troops scrambled to get out. The two that exited to the left of the vehicle were hit by the flames from the second cocktail that landed short, the liquid splashing onto their boots. These two were veterans of several campaigns and dropped to the floor away from the flames licking up at them and rolled, putting out the flames on their boots and lower trousers whilst patting the rest out with their gloved hands. Those on the right hand side were not faced with any such hazards and both brought their G3’s up to the shoulder and fired over the burning land rover at one of the KLA, dropping him with five rounds each that left the man’s chest a bloody wreck.

The other land rover that was targetted wasn’t actually hit, the liquid splashing all around it and some on the top of it. As the man who threw it ran off two soldiers poured the contents of their canteens onto the fire on the vehicle whilst the other three fired off several shots from the now halted vehicles.

Whilst this was happening the other two KLA members came running and threw their petrol bombs at the rear of the convoy. The alerted Kingdom soldiers shot one in the shoulder, wounding him, and then a full squad ran after the other one. At the rear of the convoy two of the Land Rovers were a roaring mass of flames and men ducked into cover and moved other vehicles away from them as ammunition began to cook off. A lieutenant came storming up from one of the vehicles in the middle of the column, a full squad with him, weapons pointing out.

“God dammit. Get these fires out, call the fucking fire brigade or something. Corporal get a perimeter set up around here NOW, nobody within fifty feet. Give me a casualty report ASAP and get a fucking MEDEVAC chopper in here now, Williams is hit bad.”

The radio operator started furiously working his radio to get the Merlin down on the ground as near as possible to them to get Williams out of there. As he was speaking he looked up the column to see the Land Rover explode, a hand grenade cooking off as two men with a fold out strecher ran forward and came back a minute later with a body on it and two medics running along side. As they passed his position he could see the charred body of the soldier who had by now passed out with the pain, the woodland BDU’s seeming to be melted to his skin.

Such a terrible sight was carried along the length of the convoy as they put the strecher down into the back of a truck that had emptied of its human cargo, a squad who were now moving on the wounded KLA fighter, struggling to get to his feet. Without pausing one of the Kingdom troops simply drew his Colt 1911 from his shoulder holster and fired a single round into the young mans face, splattering red matter from what was left of the rear of his head all over the pavement. The lifeless eyes stared back at the soldier as he reholstered the weapon and turned to the burning vehicles behind him. The same lieutenant came running up to him.

“What the fuck happened here!”

“Guy went for a weapon Sir.”

“What…” the officers words were stopped as two other members of the squad nodded their heads to attest to the story, they had all seen Williams being taken back. However the officers attention was drawn back as he realised that the full squad that had chased the man off had not returned.

“Jenkins, get your arse back here NOW. That could be another fucking ambush. Get back NOW”

Three shots came at that moment before the squad leader answered on the personal radio net.

“On the way Sir. Bringing our friend back, ‘fraid he ain’t gonna be saying much though.”

A minute later the squad came trotting back in full battle formation, no bodies or anything with them but a definite sense of caution as they moved back towards the column.

OOC:More to come.

Sirens and the sound of large diesel engines echoed through the urban tangle as a pair of fire trucks from the closest Khurzav fire department building roared through the streets towards the ambush point, having received word of one or more vehicle fires.

Fortunately for the firemen there were few cars driving this day, allowing them to make good time, it was true that initially certain supplies, such as fuel had been in short supply after the Khurzav’s official surrender, at least to the generally public, but Kilrany forces had ensured that critical organizations, like the fire brigades and police be well supplied, understanding that the best way to limit partisan activity was to get everything back to normal as quickly as possible.

Along with the two fire trucks the Khurzav emergency dispatch had also sent a pair of cruisers from the Khurzav police department to the scene, not that they would be all that useful upon their arrival. In any case the fire brigade would arrive before the police did.

Unknown to the Khurzav, another pair of vehicles had been dispatched from a nearby police precinct, one under the control of the Kilrany, having misunderstood the communications, two 4th Division Hades APCs roared through the streets at high speed to retrieve what they had understood to be a surviving partisan without informing the Kingdom forces they were coming.

As the two fire trucks came around a corner onto the street of the ambush site, both vehicles ground to a halt roughly thirty meters from the lead vehicle, the sight of armed men who didn’t look all to happy did little to encourage them to quickly come forward, but seeing the fire clearly, they knew they had to do something.

The most senior fireman exited one of the trucks and quickly came up towards the closest Kingdom soldier, he kept his hand up somewhat but clearly visible, trying his best not to seem threatening and mentally cursing and hoping not to get shot.

“Can we help?”

OOC: Assuming here that one of your men followed through on the order to call the fire brigade, if not, we can assume a civilian saw it and called emergency.

I also wanted to post more, had quite a bit more I wanted to post actually, but I've got a bloody cold, whole nine yards here, headache, sore throat, etc ... it's not making for the best of mind to write so I'm posting this now or I figure it wont get up at all.

While dozens of protests were under way by Khurzav unhappy about Kilrany changes to their laws, one hundred and fifty kilometers North of Pernik an unusually heavily armed convoy left one of this particular region’s largest former Khurzav bases currently under the control of several Kilrany regular force Regiments.

The sounds of the diesel engines from the platoon of Kilrany Motor Infantry’s BTR-80s were almost drowned out by the KIAM-24 Hind belonging to 4th Division that flew overhead, providing over watch. The convoy’s arrangement had three BTRs at the front, following behind were two heavy-duty 8x8 fuel trucks, behind the fuel trucks were another pair of BTRs making up the center, another pair of heavy fuel trucks followed behind the center pair of BTRs and at the back of the line trailed three more BTRs.

The high angle turrets of the BTR-80s swiveled around as the vehicles drove on, thirty millimeter autocannons with their seven point six two millimeter coaxials and quad pack of ATGMs scanned the road sides carefully, the Motor Infantry escorting this convoy had no idea why the Imperial Guard was putting so much emphasis on protecting this particular fuel convoy, or why they were escorting it to the House of James operating base, what they did know is that the Imperial Guard had stressed very strongly that nothing happen to this convoy, they didn’t even know that three other identical convoys were moving out for three other military bases, each one destined arrive at the three other peacekeeping nations currently operating in Khurzav.

But what they did know is that the Imperial Guard seemed nervous. And when the Imperial Guard became nervous, they had every reason to become nervous themselves. To that end the convoy escorts were almost paranoid as they drove on, it would only be a few more hours before each of the convoys arrived at their destinations, driving up to the peacekeepers outer perimeter to request entry for their unexpected delivery.

OOC: Glorified bump as well as a post to confirm who is in fact still interested/has time to take part here, as response to this particular post will be required for a section of the RP coming soon, if no response is forthcoming I will have to assume that you either have lost interest in this thread, which is understandable, or simply don’t have the time, either way I will then work on the assumption that your forces have chosen to withdraw from peacekeeping operations in Khurzav. I’m already pretty sure who is still here, but as stated, I wish to simply confirm this.

The soldier looked at the man, then back at the burning vehicles and then back at the man raising his eyebrow as he did and pulling out a small Kilrany phrase book that they had all been issued, not quite realising that these were Khurzav personnel. He scanned down until he found something that sounded similar when he said it in his head and read the phrase. Do you have any cookies. He raised both eyebrows at that and replaced the book into his pocket before turning to the man and speaking very slowly began.

“No mate, perhaps if you were to be putting the fires out that would be a good idea I think. We’ve called in a combat engineer bulldozer to move them, it’ll be here in half an hour.” The fireman seemed to vaguely understand when the soldier made motions towards the moved back to his truck and the Kingdom soldier added “Might want to be extra careful, we don’t know if all the ammunition has cooked off yet”

As the fireman moved off back to the vehicles the soldier radio’d the section commander who in turn put it on the command net that the local firemen were here and that he didn’t know if they had understood a word that he had just said. Back at his command vehicle the column commander was trying to piece together the sequence of the attack with the men who had actually seen it…with the exception of Private Williams who was in a three vehicle convoy moving to a section of open ground for his air evac back to the Kingdom base.

“So we are assuming there were four or five actual attackers then and they seem to only have had Molotov’s or some form of petrol bomb?”

“Seems right Sir. We have three of them awaiting black bags but where is the other one or two? Doubt we will ever find them ourselves, definitely gonna need Kilrany assistance on it.”

“That’s an affirmative. Lets bolster the perimeter here and get some Kilrany personnel on the command net, I want this area sealed to the nosy civvies that are gonna be crawling all over us soon. Somebody find someone who can translate this damned language for us so we can get those bloody fires out, or if necessary take over the bloody fire engines and put them out! And somebody get that bloody helicopter with those layabouts looking for these blokes!”


Above in the second Merlin that contained some of the Special Forces troops they received the message. The pilot promptly lowered the collective controls on his machine and took it down so it was barely skimming the rooftops, the rear ramp was down with three troopers legs dangling over the side as they scanned with their weapons held ready. The crew chiefs took similar positions by the sides of their miniguns on the two ports either side of the cockpit in much the same position as blackhawk crew chiefs stood.

The exercise was rather pointless, moving at nearly sixty miles an hour the people in the helicopter had very little chance of actually spotting anything at all and the height they were travelling at negated any vantage point they might have otherwise have gotten from being up higher.

Onboard the Special Forces had their sunglasses on underneath the lightweight kevlar helmets with their personal radios linked up and chirping as they chatted between themselves and those on lookout at the helicopter doors. Rounds were chambered and safety catches checked as the chopper made a jerk up over some power lines, falling back down like a stone that brought smiles to the face of several of the thrillseeking troopers in the back.

“I don’t think we’re gonna find him in this place, like looking for a needle in a very large haystack whilst doing a hundred past the damned thing!”

“Roger that. Keep looking just incase out.”

The KLA, emboldened by word of successful attacks on Kilrany convoys by the KRG spread through their own network of sympathizer, since the KLA and the KRG were not on amicable terms, had decided to, beyond their planned ambushes on peacekeeper patrols that same day, stage a large ambush on a Kilrany convoy several kilometers outside Tazhan.

To that end twenty young KLA members, not a one above twenty two lay prone in roughly a line along the reverse side of a slight incline just inside the edge of a forest about one hundred meters from a four lane highway frequented by Kilrany patrols and convoys. They quietly conversed among themselves as they waited for an appropriate target, silence would fall upon them now end then as they heard an engine approaching, which for the past three hours had only been an occasional civilian car or truck. Their patience was starting to wear thin.

Being a fairly ideological group, the KLA expected a ‘tremendous’ victory against the ‘oppressive’ Kilrany Empire as they lay in wait, none of them truly understood what was about to come, they weren’t even nearly as well armed as the KRG had become, most of them had little more then civilian sporting rifles, two at least happened to be armed with an RPK-74, along with a woeful lack of firepower they had little in the way of ‘uniforms’, instead they wore a mixture of civilian an surplus attire. They however at least knew enough to fire on the truck cabs first, along with this they also had a ‘leader’ to their group who had a whistle to start the attack and to signal the withdrawal, something they had also picked up through their small network from the KRG actions.

That ‘leader’s’ name was Mikhail, and he was twenty, before the war he had been on his second year of university, when war had broke out with Valnari he was about ready to volunteer for service, he was still considering it when the Kilrany suddenly decided in a rather massive fashion to back up the Valnari, although most Khurzav figured it was just an excuse for the ‘war like’ Kilrany to invade. Now he lay near the center of their line, the only one among them with a pair of binoculars and an assault rifle, an AK-74.

Off to his right he heard one of the two young women in the group speak up just loud enough to be heard by most of the group, “How long do we have to wait for them?”

He responded quickly, he may not have known anything about the military, but he knew that he had to keep them focused, “Patience, we’ll get to kill some Kilrany bastards soon enough.”

It ended up taking another half hour before they heard the distinctive sound of multiple military grade diesel engines rumbling towards their position, Mikhail set his rifle down and lifted up his binoculars, he shimmied forward slightly to look down the road to see a Kilrany convoy coming towards them, in the lead was a their usual BTR-80, the threatening looking vehicles always seemed to be overly armed, four 6x6 Ural type trucks with a camouflaged canvas cover over the back followed behind with one more BTR-80 taking up the rear.

One might have wondered why the Kilrany didn’t use heavily armoured trucks as transport vehicles instead of the essentially unarmoured trucks they did use, the answer was fairly simple, the Kilrany simply recognized the impractical nature of doing so, any amount of armour in enough quantity to actually protect a general purpose truck from up to heavy machine gun fire would weigh the vehicle down so much as to destroy its off road capabilities, drop it’s top speed and require a much more powerful engine that would simply guzzle more fuel and put a further strain on logistics.

As Mikhail moved back into his previous position he picked up his rifle, pulled the whistle out of a pocket and quickly addresses his ‘troops’ as the Kilrany convoy got closer, “Remember, go on the whistle, target the cabs first, when I blow the whistle again we fall back.”

A few tentative seconds passed as the convoy rolled closer, every last one of them felt the rush of anticipation, had they known what was about to happen, none of them would have been so eager to pull the trigger on their weapons.

The lead BTR was almost straight out from where Mikhail was when he blew the whistle, half a second later twenty weapons opened fire on the cabs of the four trucks, it was only because of the sheer hail of bullets that the untrained students hit the fast moving trucks at all.

Just two meters to Mikhail’s right was Aleksei, one of the two KLA members armed with an RPK-74, when he heard the whistle blow he pulled back on the trigger, the weapon kicked backwards into his shoulder as he unloaded his rounds into the second truck’s cab, the weapons bipod the only reason he was keeping the weapon relatively stable as its magazine quickly began to empty.

From the point of view of the KLA, chaos had apparently erupted within the Kilrany convoy, the first three trucks were swerving back and forth wildly as their drivers were either dead or severely injured and the soldier next to them tried to control the vehicle, in the fourth truck the driver was temporarily blinded as a round clipped the bridge of his nose and caught the soldier next to him in the face, unable to see he hit the brakes. Behind the fourth truck the trailing BTR’s tires squealed as its driver hit the brakes and swerved hard to his right to avoid hitting the braking truck in front of him, which in turn sent him and his vehicle off the side of the road into a ditch, the sudden stop sending the vehicle’s crew and passengers slamming forward into the front of the vehicle, dazing them. All the while the lead BTR continued on forward, initially oblivious to the fact that the convoy had been engaged.

For a moment a relative silence fell upon the KLA as they stopped firing, the four trucks had come to an abrupt halt, the lead BTR hadn’t turned around yet and the second BTR appeared to them to be stuck in a ditch. Somewhere to his right Aleksei heard a yell that broke the silence, “Yeah! Take that you bastards!”

A cheer started to build in the group, Aleksei found himself about to do the same when it abruptly caught in his throat as he saw Kilrany soldiers start to pour out the backs of the four trucks, they hadn’t just ambushed a convoy, they had in fact ambushed troop transports taking some Kilrany light infantry specially trained in woodland combat to a staging area where they would hunt for partisans.

Just as the cheer had died in Aleksei’s throat, so too did it die in the rest of the KLA who suddenly fell silent, a moment passed before Aleksei heard the frantic scream from Mikhail next to him that snapped him out of it, “Fire! Fire!”

Aleksei responded immediately, firing off what was left of his magazine at the dismounting Kilrany soldiers who were quickly moving to take cover in the ditch opposite the road from them, a few of which who were already out would stop momentarily to fire in the direction of the KLA line in an attempt to suppress some of them and cover their comrades still exiting the vehicles as the rest of the KLA opened fire once again.

Aleksei pulled free his spent magazine, quickly clipping in another and took aim at the back of one of the trucks where Kilrany troops were still jumping out of and opened fire once more. An unfortunate Kilrany soldier was just jumping out the back as Aleksei opened fire, his rounds were higher then he had intended, but they achieved the result he wanted, if on the wrong target, one round glanced off the top of the soldiers helmet while another stuck her in the neck while she was still in mid air, the 5.45x39mm tore through the exposed flesh just under the rim of her helmet, instead of landing soundly on her feet she crumpled to the ground. She was barely there a second before two other soldiers dropping out behind her each grabbed hold of her assault vest near the shoulders and hauled her off the road and into the ditch where a medic would attempt to treat her before realizing she was already dead.

Mikhail was not happy with what he saw, the Kilrany were quickly snapping out of the initial surprise and were starting to return fire with unnerving accuracy, rounds were snapping by over their heads and into the ground directly in front of them, the incline the only thing having prevented them from being annihilated by the return fire, he quickly decided it was time to go and lifted up the whistle to signal the retreat when a round snapping by just above his own head made him duck out of instinct and drop the whistle into the grass.

He was just picking up the whistle when a frighteningly distinct sound of a 30mm autocannon began firing at a rate of six rounds a second at their position, having focused on the Kilrany soldiers exiting the trucks they had forgotten about the BTR that, having finally gotten word the convoy had been hit, had turned around and come back towards them.

Aleksei let go of his weapon and covered the back of his head with both his hands, willing himself deeper into the ground as the barrage of autocannon fire seemed to go on forever, in truth lasting only five seconds as it shattered trees and kicked up dirt as the vehicle’s gunner raked his fire along the KLA line. It was at about the same time that the second BTR’s crew came out of their daze along with their passengers who quickly exited out the side doors as the crew backed the vehicle back up out of the ditch and unto the road.

Just as the first BTR stopped firing a half dozen PKMs from the Kilrany squads in the ditch opened up on their position, staggering their fire so that one was always firing on the KLA line to suppress them while two squads advanced across the road under the cover of a smoke screen and bounding over watch on the KLA line’s left flank. There was a thump followed by an explosion as a Kilrany soldier fired a VOG round towards the KLA line.

Mikhail took his shaking hands off his head and grabbed his weapon again, poking his head back up he saw another group of Kilrany vehicles approaching on the road from the same direction the vehicles in front of them had come from, they stopped a good two hundred meters down the road and he could see dozens of soldiers exiting the trucks, including what looked to be a pair of German Shepards each being led by a soldier.

Along with the ASR, the Kilrany had decided to bring in sections of their K-9 units in order to help hunt down partisans with the light infantry units; a few specially trained ones had been placed under the command of the ASR forces as well.

“God damnit Mikhail why haven’t you-,” Aleksei’s voice caught in his throat as he turned to look at Mikhail to his left, his head had been the unfortunate recipient of one of the 30mm HE rounds fired by the BTR.

“Fall back!” Aleksei screamed as loud as he could as he backed away from the incline, he apparently hadn’t been the only one to think something was wrong, as he turned around and stood up to run he could see one of the others already running through the woods behind the line.

Already in a panic as he tried to sprint away from the failed ambush site Aleksei tripped and fell face first to the ground, he let go of his RPK-74 as he scrambled back to his feet to take off running again. Another autocannon burst behind him made him glance back towards the incline in time to see the Kilrany soldiers come storming up into their former positions just as the cannon fire died off.

Looking back to his front Aleksei just ran, his mind still in a panic it tuned out the sounds of the gunfire from behind him, nor did he notice when it died off a few seconds later.

He had no idea how long he ran; like his previous experience under fire from the autocannon, it seemed to him to be an eternity, finally he could run no longer and he paused next to a tree, looking behind him to see nothing but forest. Frantically he then started to look around himself only to see more empty forest, his mind raced as he tried to figure out what to do now, finally after a minute of standing there he started to try and calm himself down, only managing to accomplish it after two minutes.

Finally calm enough he started to take stock of his situation, when he realized he’d dropped his main weapon he cursed and chided himself for being an idiot, then withdrew and checked an old Tokarev pistol for which he only had two magazines.

Cracking foliage now to his left drew his gaze, looking up he saw a large German Shepard leading a Kilrany soldier come through a bush not sixty meters from him, he quickly took aim with his weapon and began firing off rounds at both the dog and handler.

Instinctually the handler moved forwards and took hold of his dog, pulling it behind a tree as Aleksei stood focused on him firing round after round at him, he’d gotten off five rounds before an entire Kilrany infantry squad to his right opened fire on him, a barrage of rounds tore through him as the infantry squad tried to protect the dog and its handler.

Aleksei slumped down to ground just as a VOG shattered the tree he had been standing next too.

-----

Although the fireman didn’t speak English well, he got the gist of what the Kingdom soldier had said to him, enough so that he knew they weren’t going to shoot at them and that they did in fact want their help.

Getting back to the lead truck he climbed back inside the passenger seat, “Alright move in.”

The driver hesitated for a moment then pushed down on the gas to bring the truck in close enough to do the job, “So they’re not going to shoot us right?”

“I don’t think so, no.”

“Oh joy.”

Both trucks pulled up short of the burning vehicles and the firemen climbed out and switched into ‘firemen’ mode, essentially ignoring the fact that the Kingdom soldiers were armed and did their jobs, they hooked the hoses into the nearest hydrant and began coating the fires in a strong mist from the high pressure hoses.

Just as the first hose began to cover one of the fires a pair of Khurzav police cruises came driving up with their sirens wailing behind the fire trucks, and following their usual procedure with a fire began setting up a perimeter well back from the fires to keep the bystanders, who were starting to gather, back. None of the four officers who had arrived in the two cruisers went to check in with the Kingdom soldiers, they had come to an understanding with the Kilrany that as long as they did their jobs they didn’t have to worry about being hassled, they merely assumed that same understanding carried over to the peacekeepers.

It was only a minute after the arrival of the Khurzav police that the two Hades armoured vehicles belonging to 4th Division came rumbling around a corner from behind where the Kingdom convoy had been ambushed.

Both Hades were armed much like the BMP-3, with a 100mm smoothbore main gun with a coaxially mounted 30mm autocannon and 7.62mm machine gun, they had however omitted the AGS-30 in favor of carrying more ammunition for the other weapons on board. Specifically designed especially for 4th Division KIAM had used more expensive materials, such as Titanium alloys to up-armour the design over the standard BTR-90 along with the slight increase in size to accommodate a full eight man squad that was standard for 4th Division.

Both vehicles drove almost right up to the tail end of the Kingdom convoy before coming to a stop a scant fifteen meters away, a moment later the sixteen 4th Division soldiers appeared to almost casually exit out both side doors on their vehicles, their weapons loosely held in front of them they none the less scanned the area despite their casual demeanor.

Since their platoon Lieutenant wasn’t with them, the Senior Sergeant of the two squads came forward towards the closest Kingdom soldier with a pair of her men following behind her, she didn’t particularly care of the soldier’s rank as she figured whoever was in charge would be notified of their arrival.

She addressed the soldier in an accented English, “We’re here to see this prisoner of yours.”

It wasn't so much a 'conference room' as it was a bit of free space on the forest floor that was occupied with a roughly hewn table whose primary saving grace was that it provided a flat and mostly smooth surface, and there wasn't seating beyond a few stools that had been created by hacking a tree down, and seperating the trunk into a number of appropriately sized sections. The former Khurzav Special Forces operator often found it useful to host these meetings between his 'officers' and 'senior NCOs' over the evening meal. Currently, two rabbit carcasses were being picked over, and one of his Group Leaders wiped his fingers clean and unscrewed the lid of his canteen, taking a long drink.

As the canteen's bottom clacked against the wooden boards that provided a multipurposed tabletop, the 'Intelligence Officer,' a former University History student who had been going for his doctorate, with a background of recreational hiking and hunting, began to speak.

"I hear that Dal is still missing. They say that he was taken by the Kilrany ISM, but no-one is certain, it might have been the local police. Some of the guys in the network back in the last zone we worked said he was a collaberator."

At that, a Section Leader looked up from his book, a Russian-language translation of Lester Grau's "The Bear Went Over the Mountain."

"No way. I've known Korney for years. He's a progressive, sure, but loves Khurzav."
"Maybe he thought he could affect more change by siding with the Kilrany."
"Yeah, maybe, but I doubt it. It has to be some kind of Kilrany ploy."

The man at the leading left edge of the table leaned in over his plate and reached for another chunk of the heavy-crusted, dense bread baked in supporter's homes.

"Either way, he's gone and the rest of the network went to ground when they found out he wasn't around anymore. It'll be a while before we go back there, so they can dig in and wait, aye? Personally I'm more worried about these damned KLA fools."
"They're resisting the occupation."
"Ineffectively, and chances are they'll end up causing reprisals against our countrymen, but at least they're distracting the Kilrany from us."

Then there was silence, as if all three of the ongoing conversations had reached a natural pause at the same moment. The former Special Forces operator took that time to stand from the table and stretch before sitting back down, securing everyone's attention in his usual, non-verbal way.

"We've been here for a week and a half now. Here's what we'll do. We'll continue to train and familiarize ourselves with the terrain, but I want to put out recce patrols to pick out targets amongst these Kingdom peacekeepers, if we need to start cracking their heads together.
Keep an eye on Kilrany activity as well, we'll try to harrass them some more. I think we're done, feel free to leave if you'd like, but we'll be getting a few card games on in the next hour or so if you or any of your men are interested."

What a beautiful day out … to bad those damned protests have to be ruining it, General Yuri Dovlatov was almost relaxed as he sat in what he called an ‘obscenely comfortable’ chair that had previously belonged to Khurzav’s former king, it was the only former belonging besides the desk he had let remain in the commandeered office, the Khurzav royal family had an ‘odd’ decorative flair in Dovlatov’s eyes. Dovlatov had spent some time while he was settling in to have some of his soldiers removed and place into storage a great deal of the Khurzav Royal Family’s former ‘decorations’, they had clearly spent millions to cover every square centimeter of their palace walls with portraits, random paintings and hideously ugly tapestries; at least he and the majority of his soldiers thought so.

If they were protesting about the closure of the seaports and airports to civilian traffic, that would at least make sense, but nooooooo, they have to protest about us doing to their media what their own government has been doing since it’s inception, we’re just not lying about doing it, and oh yes, the most ironic part, if this was still their government, they wouldn’t be able to protest it in the first place, damned ungrateful arrogant -, Dovlatov stopped himself in mid thought, getting himself worked up about protests he could do nothing about at this time while he was trying to take a lull in the afternoon to relax was not helping himself.

Dovlatov placed both his hands behind his head and leaned back into ‘his’ chair, ahhhhh, so obscenely comfortable … I wonder what the hell it’s made out of, must remember to take this back with me, a knock on one of the doors didn’t phase him, he half turned to see who it was and saw one of his subordinates at the door, “Ah Major, what can I do for your?”

The Major, a something or other Kaufmann, Dovlatov couldn’t recall his first name off hand began to speak as he came forward up to the desk, “We’ve just received word that partisan forces attacked one of the hunter teams while on transit to their forming up point.”

Dovlatov sighed as he took his hands from behind his head, came forward in the chair once more and swiveled it around to properly face his subordinate, “How bad?”

The Major’s face contorted slightly, clearly none to pleased about what he was about to say, “They’ve confirmed thirteen dead, three severely injured and five light injuries. On the plus side they killed fifteen of the attackers and captured two, we don’t know yet how many got away, but the Imperial Guard has taken custody of the two prisoners.”

“You mean 5th Division has taken them into custody,” annoyance came into his voice as he spoke, but both men knew it was not because of the Imperial Guard, but rather the general’s frustration with the partisan forces, “I’m sure they will get plenty of information out of them,” it was an assumption of course, not even he knew just what the hell 5th Division was capable of learning, which was difficult to know since stories about 5th Division ran from plausible to outlandishly insane and no one was sure what was true about them.

“There is one other thing sir, 2nd Division has informed us that they are sending a ‘unit’ to the protest here in the capitol. They weren’t specific as to what they were sending, but it likely won’t be pleasant given their usual temperament around protests.

Although the Major had Dovlatov’s full attention when he had been speaking about the ambush on their men, the general was only half listening at first in regards to 2nd Division, he had no control in what they did, but the implications of what the Major just said snapped the General back, there was almost hope in his voice, “Have their overall orders changed in any way?”

The Major was slightly confused, not quite understanding the possible importance in what he had just said, despite that he responded, “Not that we have been made aware of sir.”

“Very well then, was their anything else Major?”

“Permission to speak freely sir?”

“Go ahead.”

The Major seemed to consider his words for a moment before deciding to just speak his mind, “How much longer are we going to have t coddle the Khurzav? I do not wish to be rude sir, but these near constant partisan attacks should not be passing unpunished, if the Emperor wishes to bring the Khurzav in line with us, why not treat them as we would such violence back home?”

Dovlatov nodded his head slightly, Major Kaufmann here was not the first to voice his concerns to him, “I do not know how much longer Emperor Sviatov will leave our current orders in place, I do know that he wishes to ‘prove’ to the Khurzav we are not monsters,” Dovlatov almost scoffed at his last word, “whether he was merely feeling charitable at the time or not, but I do know it cannot last much longer. Despite his speech a short time ago in regards to our ground forces withdrawal from the FLRJ, the general public have been left with a sour taste in their mouths, most still aren’t happy that we are perceived to have run from a fight. They will not like seeing our people trickle back home in body bags as we do little more then interrogate suspected partisans and their sympathizers, you should understand this, but suffice it to say, I do not believe the Emperor’s patience and good will last much longer,” General Dovlatov paused for a minute to let the Major reply if he wanted to, after a moment of silence Dovlatov spoke again, “If there’s nothing else Major, you’re dismissed,” the Major nodded his head and left the room.

As the Major left Dovlatov swiveled his chair around to face the window, he began to contemplate the possible implications of all the information he was getting in regards to the Imperial Guard, What the hell has them all riled up lately? As his mind followed his current train of thoughts he leaned back into his ‘obscenely comfortable’ chair once more.

-----

Peter Yangel could feel his heart pounding as he raced through the alleys and side streets of the capitol, far from his mind at that point was the failed attack on the House of James convoy, he had witnessed the death of at least two of his friends, but lost sight of other friend when they had broke off and attempted to run.

Fear and panic was trying to gain a foothold in his mind, but he was keeping relatively calm given what had just happened, at least enough so to recognize the sound of a helicopter getting closer, it didn’t sound like a Kilrany one to him, but none the less as he ran he looked around for some cover then ducked under an over hang just as the helicopter sounded like it passed over him, not willing to look out from his cover he couldn’t tell if the helicopter had passed over him or not, or if it had seen him.

He waited a second more until he perceived that the helicopter seemed to be getting farther away again then sprinted out from his cover and out into a busy street that had been the groups fall back point, it was an open marketplace with enough people in that they hoped they could lose and potential pursuers, few people noticed him as he came out of the alley way since most were looking in the direction of the sound from a helicopter.

“ We ain’t got no prisoner Ma’am. Just three like that” he gestured over to where two soldiers were standing next a prone figure that lay in a pool of red. Whoever these people were they seemed professional enough, however their mini-tanks looked as if they wouldn’t be anything like a match for a nice Hyn Anti-Tank missile. Then again he had thought that of the wonderful little Warrior’s that was the main IFV for the Kingdom troops when they were “playing” mechanized infantry rather than glorified policemen.

The soldier was also curious how these people allow women into what he assumed were combat troops of their armed forces. It was still very much frowned on in the Kingdom for women to enter into anything dangerous, the few that did were usually very good at it but that didn’t seem to get many others involved. That feeling probably originated from the deep held fuedal system that still basically existed in the Kingdom today, albeit not quite recognisable in the lower echelons compared to the higher ones at least. The Dukes of the provinces provided the King with taxes and troops in return for the protection and the overall cohesiveness of the nation.

As the 4th Division troops milled around the Lieutenant commanding the patrol came over to them. He looked at his soldier before speaking.

“I’m Leftenant Peters, commander of this little expedition. We have the situation mostly under control, we think that at least one of the buggers got away and we have three of his friends waiting for black bags. Not sure there is much for you people to do here.”

His voice raised slightly as the helicopter came roaring overhead, blowing pieces of rubbish and dirt everywhere in the few seconds that it took for the rotorwash to flow over them.

In the helicopter the Special Forces troopers were getting frustrated. They didn’t know who they were looking for and it seemed to be frankly a waste of their time and effort. Noone below had shown more than a passing interest in the helicopter despite its obviously low height and even the pilot was getting frustrated at the lack of progress.


Kingdom Forces Base

News of the attack had filtered back to most of the troops at the base and six more Merlin’s were spinning up and preflighting as a full strength platoon awaited embarkation orders. They carried normal roadblock material including a pair of MG3’s per helicopter and rolls of barbed wire to act as a temporary block.

The platoon was going to be spread across the three biggest main roads out of the city in an effort to catch the escapee(s) from the earlier ambush. It would cause chaos to traffic, but that would be too bad. Men ran up the loading ramps, ten to a helicopter, and settled into their places for the short flights.

As the helicopters gained altitude they seperated into pairs, each heading for a different road with their troops nervously fingering weapons. There had been stories in the past days of attacks against Kilrany roadblocks and convoys and whilst they were heading to seemingly random parts of the roads in question at a pretty random time, many believed it was only a matter of time before they were attacked. The peaceful Khurzav appeared to be far from it, nothing compared to the locals in the Eninmoore but still dangerous nonetheless.

The 4th Division Sergeant frowned slightly underneath the fabric face cover that was part of her Gorka-S style uniform, she was by no means a small woman, like most Kilrany women she had a decent muscular build, something that had come about way back during the Roman occupation of this particular peninsula of the SFR, when all people were called to resist, including women, it had created something of a unique cultural quirk compared to the rest of the SFR that has remained to this day, with women playing an active role in every branch of the military, the term ‘weaker sex’, was not something one should say in front of a Kilrany woman, as they were likely to snap a couple of your bones for your effort, which most were easily capable of, much to the dismay of some Russkyans.

Taking a moment, the Sergeant spoke the words the Kingdom soldier had used in her mind, wondering if he had simply misunderstood her, or if she had misunderstood him, as English was not her primary language by far.

She quickly glanced behind her towards where the rest of her unit were standing near their Hades, the eight wheeled vehicle had come about to fill the need of 4th Division in a lightweight air transportable vehicle that had good speed, mileage, and was amphibious, all these qualities the BTR-90 had, however KIAM decided they could improve upon the design by using better materials and increasing it’s capacity to fit the needs of 4th, as an added defensive measure, it was capable of mounting both Shtora and Arena type systems like most Kilrany vehicles and unlike the BTR-90 its structural integrity was great enough to mount ERA plating if desired. None of these were currently mounted on the vehicles though due to the lack of any known anti armour weapons in partisan hands.

She looked back forward in time to see this ‘leftenant Peters’ come up and introduce himself, her eyes narrowed slightly, just about the only visible part of her face and replied in an almost annoyed tone, which was likely hard to perceive through her accent or over the sound of the chopper overhead which she ignored, “I am Senior Sergeant Shushunova, we had been informed that you had taken a prisoner, am I to understand that is incorrect?"

The Re-Introduction of Commonwealth Forces in Kilrany

In a course of several days the entire status of peacekeeping Commonwealth forces in Kilrany. Sections one at time of the old force that was currently there were either flown out to the 2nd Carrier Group via helicopters or flown back to Delesa in large military Globemaster aircraft at the nearby airfield, where the paratroopers were more needed in the ever growing problems of war in the home region. But at the same time the 4th Ranger Brigade replaced them, Rangers being apart of the Commonwealth Armed Forces Branch, created with the idea of peacekeeping in mind. The entire brigade being a total of 4500 men including logistics with the addition of more vehicles to make their position better well off. So now the total force in Kilrany added up to;
4500 Men
400 Light Armored Vehicles (LAV III, Cougar, Coyote)
450 G Wagons
200 Heavy and Medium Logistic Vehicles (HLVW & MLVW)
1 Squadron of Griffon Helicopter (24 Aircraft)
1 Squadron of UH-60 Blackhawks (24 Aircraft)

As well as Brigadier-General Barnabe Grantaire was replaced Brigadier-General Yves Feuilly, with Colonels Maxim Everard and Quincy Kirill commanding the two regiments (2250 men) that made up the brigade. Defensive positions and checkpoint were rebuilt to peacekeeping standards and bulked up with cement barriers. Before the new general met the Kilrany ‘babysitters’ he took a helicopter tour of the facility and nearby city of Tsyelograd. When his chopper landed he greeted his two Colonels.

“Hello boys, how’s the rebuilding going?”

“Fine sir. Most of the positions have been rebuilt, but several of the outer check points haven’t, but they are planned to be fixed with in two days sir.” Replied the well built, blonde, green eyed, collage football (soccer) captain, Maxim Everard.

“Excellent. How are your men finding their quarters?”

“I believe they find them quite comfortable sir. They aren’t too shabby.” Chuckled Quincy Kirill.

“What about my quarters?”

“You are to sleep in the former commanding officers quarters of the enemy sir, very nice if I might say so.” Maxim commented as they reached the awaiting G Wagons.

“Taxi, to the Kilrany quarters.” Yves had a deep laugh as he patted the driver’s shoulder, “Would you happen to have any Quebec whiskey up there?”

The passenger in the front passed back a canteen from the door pocket, “Fresh from the bottle and right off the plane and out of the crate.”

“Sweet lord, tis a good batch this one is. Any word on the Carrier Group?”

“She’s bound for home, so that’s that last of the Commonwealth air support.”

“Fine by me. We don’t need them flyboys, this is a ground operation.”
The G Wagons pulled up to the head quarters of the Liaison Officer assigned to the Commonwealth forces. Yves found the nearest guard and asked to see the officers. He was led to them right away to a nearby office of sorts.

"Hello, my name is Brigadier-General Yves Feuilly of the 4th Delesa Ranger Brigade, commanding officer. I have replaced Brigadier-General Barnabe Grantaire and his squad. I am sure it will be a pleasure to serve with you." Yves offered a hand, then took a seat, "Now down to the stuff at hand. As you may have heard and scene, there has been some upgrades around the buildings and base. Also more trucks have been brought in for more patrols. Also i have here," Yves fought with this coat pocket to produce a letter sealed with the Comonwealth seal, "A letter for you or your commanding officer. I know the contents and may tell you know it asks that this Ranger Brigade of peacekeepers to be allowed to fly in a single battery of artillery pieces. That would be 5 M777A1 155m Ultralightweight Field Howitzer or 5 Caesar 155mm Self-Propelled Artillery System." He handed the letter over. "I think I can trust that it will get to the right hands of this matter? Anyway, may I also introduce Colonels Maxim Everard and Quincy Kirill." The two stepped forward and gave a nice crisp salute.

Major Viktor Byko stretched his arms upward as he came strolling out of one of the buildings that the Kilrany liaison forces had been using in the former Khurzav base assigned to the Delesa peacekeepers, it had been a little quiet for them as there had been little activity from any partisans for them, save for that one ambush early on.

However the major activity recently by the Delesa forces in switching out their men had left all the Kilrany forces curious as to why, to his fortune it seemed the Delesa commander had come to see him, saving him the effort to go looking for him.

Byko quickly came strolling over before the soldier on guard could say anything, instead he merely shrugged his head in the at the Major just as Byko introduced himself, “Hello, I’m Major Viktor Byko, I would salute but that’s against our operating procedures in a potentially hostile area,” instead Byko held out his hand in offer of a hand shake.

“Welcome back from the break,” the visage of a well known middle aged Khurzav seated behind a news desk dressed in a tailored grey suit filled the screens as the Khurzav News Network logo faded off the screen.

“Continuing with updates as to Kilrany announcements, it was declared today on Kilrany News channels by Kilrany Foreign Affairs Minister Pavel Kasatikin, that Khurzav borders would once again be reopened to civilian traffic, although the Valnari and Kilrany borders are still closed due to the widespread military activity still ongoing to recover fallen soldiers and to dismantle military defensive works, civilian international airports and seaports have been reopened, albeit with much higher security levels to fall in line with Kilrany requirements. Currently Kilrany ISM officers are supplementing airport and seaport security forces until they can be expanded to meet those requirements, it should be noted that Kilrany ISM officers routinely provide security at their own nation’s airports and seaports as part of their own standard procedures, as such it is believed that they will be a permanent addition to ours,” as the announcer spoke, various images appeared just over his left shoulder matching the message he spoke.

“We go now to an excerpt from a press conference also made today by Kilrany Minister of Finance, Yuliya Katinya,” the image snapped over to a Kilrany women in her late forties standing behind a podium, an average looking Kilrany she had a decent physical build and black well kept shoulder length hair, she wore a tailored black pant suit, “-it is a reality that many contracts held by foreign companies and governments with the former Khurzav government have had to be cancelled due to their poor standings with the Empire, however there will be no compensation made, these corporations and governments will merely have to find new sources, Khurzav resources will no longer go to foreign agents who merely made the largest bribe. Such blatant corruption will no longer be tolerated within Khurzav; we will make new contracts with reputable individuals and see to it both money and resources are no longer bled away to the friends of Khurzav’s former king and ministers while its citizens live in poverty, under Kilrany administration Khurzav will be brought back to an economically stable state with substantially fewer people forced to live in squalor, we will see to it that all Khurzav get to live their lives in a more acceptable standard of living, we will-,” the image snapped back to the announcer, however now it was a wider shot including a second middle aged man in a grey tailored suit.

The announcer, having apparently gotten his cue that the video excerpt had ended, looked to the camera again, “Strong words from the minister, to follow up with this I have here Yury Chekhov, a political analyst who frequents our broadcasts, welcome Yury.”

“Thank you Artem, as usual it’s good to be here, I must admit I didn’t expect to be back after the rather sudden … change in government.”

“Yes, some of us were a little surprised as well. But please, we’d like to hear your take on the minister’s address there.”

“Well, first I have to touch base on the accusations of corruption … as most of you have become aware the Kilrany have been releasing copies of internal memos and documents of our ‘former’ government and as what I would have called a patriotic citizen, I’m appalled by what I’ve seen, I know many of you believe they are fakes made to sow discourse, but the originals have been made available to us and others for verification, and it would appear they have all been genuine, indicating large scale corruption all the way up to King Golobayev himself. Hundreds of Millions have in fact been embezzled out of the ‘public’ coffers towards building expensive resorts of rich friends and to subsidize the same, almost forty million dollars alone was ‘diverted’ away from upgrading defensive positions along the Kilrany border in order to loan a failing company, owned by a friend of the King, in order to bring it out of the red. It is appalling the extent-,” the image abruptly ended as General Yuri Dovlatov pressed a key on his laptop atop ‘his’ desk closing the video program running off a live feed from the Khurzav media network.

There was a slight smile as he savored the irony, Khurzav citizens were finally finding out just how corrupt their government was, corruption going so far as being a major reason it had been so relatively easy to ‘blitzkrieg’ their way in and take the country so quickly. Dovlatov looked up from his laptop at the soldier standing opposite his desk, “How very ironic don’t you think?”

If the soldier showed any reaction Dovlatov couldn’t see it through the fabric of the Gorka-S style uniform that covered the man’s features save his eyes, slung on his back was an AK-74M, the soldier may have been wearing the insignia of a 4th Division and the rank of a Sergeant, but Dovlatov knew better from experience with 5th Division in private to know that this fellow was not 4th Division. ‘The Sergeant’s’ response was curt and his tone indifferent, “Quite.”

Dovlatov’s smiled faded and he let out a small sigh, “You fellows really need to develop a sense of humour, or at least a less macabre one.”

Although not quite as abrupt, the soldier’s tone remained the same, “So we’ve been told on occasion.”

Another sigh escaped Dovlatov before he spoke once again, “So what is it 5th Division has to tell me today?”

If the ‘Sergeant’ cared that the General knew who he was he didn’t show it, in the closed room it mattered not that the General knew he wasn’t actually from 4th Division, “I’m here to inform you that we believe that one of the partisan groups, the KRG, has moved from the area around Pashchatova, there’s been a significant decrease in partisan activity and communications, although it is possible they believe we may be on to them and are merely laying low, consensus is that they have moved to a new operating area, where that is, we don’t know yet.”

Dovlatov replied with dry tone, immediately regretting his words, “Well that’s new, 5th doesn’t know something.”

Much to Dovlatov’s relief the soldier didn’t show any reaction and merely continued, “The Special Recon units are finally ready and in position, they will be operating out of two 4th Division airbases, one outside Tazhan and the other outside this city. Two squads were already air deployed by 4th to assist in tracking any surviving partisans from the ambush a little over an hour ago, the other units stand by to move out should there be another attack somewhere, they themselves have been supplemented by specially trained elements from the K-9 units.”

“I see,” Dovlatov didn’t bother asking if there would be any 5th Division teams sent in to hunt for partisans, that was information not even he would be privy too, hunting partisans was one of the few things Dovlatov was absolutely certain 5th Division did in fact do, “I suppose there’s no point in asking why the Imperial Guard units have been on edge for the past few days is there.”

“You would be correct in that supposition,” with that the soldier turned and left the General alone in his office.

Leftenant Peters swung his G36C over his shoulder so it sat across his back before speaking again.

“Very much so. Sorry for the wild goose chase, we hadn’t reported any prisoners or at least I don’t believe we had. Possibly a communications breakdown but I can assume you the three we have are very much dead, I sent a squad to get the third body back here and its being moved with the other two. I assume that you….people are here to take care of that too?”


As the Leftenant was talking four Kingdom soldiers came around a corner from a nearby alley carrying the body of a young man, dripping blood onto the street. The person was obviously dead, the chest was a mass of red and splintered bones poked out where the armour piercing 7.62mm ammunition that had been spat at him from the G3A4’s had ripped his internal organs apart. The soldiers dumped the body with two others in a loose pile on the side of the road and went off talking amongst themselves, two of them pouring water form their canteens onto their black combat gloves that were slick with blood. They rejoined the rest of their squad who had accompanied them and took their weapons back, slinging them over shoulders but standy ready in loose protective formation as they received orders.

The Khurzav firefighters had put out the blazes that had been two Kingdom Land Rovers and the carcasses of the vehicles were ready to be pushed to the side of the road to await collection at a later date. Another squad was sifting through the wreckage removing anything vaguely classified from it any loading them into another land rover ready for the trip back to base, high command having decided that a bigger element was needed at the protests.



Kingdom Base

At the base two Companies of troops from 3rd Battalion were forming up near their vehicles. They would be travelling in both trucks and Land Rovers with a slightly beefed up alert level and armament, machine guns loaded and rounds chambered. When they were all formed up they would move out.


Helicopters

The first pair of helicopters came low over a main road and spotting a likely looking field near to it they went down one by one and the troops came scurrying out from the back carrying all their equipment and dragging rolls of barbed wire with thickly gloved hands. A squad moved into the road at a gap in traffic and stopped their with their hands raised whilst the other set up the roadblock behind them, an MG3 was placed on the central reservation, one facing each way down the dual carriage way and slow down signs were run out infront of the roadblock in each direction. They were written in both russian and english so there was no excuse for the drivers who should be able to see the soldiers anyway. In case it became necessary the machine gunners lay down next to their weapons along with a secondary gunner whilst two man patrols checked the vicinity around the road in conjunction with a helicopter sweep.

Sheer coincidence alone accounted for many things in wartime. In this particular case, it dictated that a four man hunter-killer team from the KRG was nearby when Kingdom helicopters clattered past nearby. A concealed man in the woods watched the helicopters flare in to land in a field not far off, and they decided, at five hundred metres from the apparent roadblock that was being established, to move a further five hundred metres down the road and set up for a quick ambush, if the opportunity presented itself. The four man element broke into two teams of two, one taking up position overlooking the road, camouflaging their position as they'd been taught, and bedding the bipod of the PKM machinegun into the dirt. A single fifty-round belt was loaded, the weapon was cocked, and the gunner lay just behind it with his comrade, who carried a civilian hunting rifle equipped with an optic and chambered for 6.5x55mm Swedish, in addition to his AK-74 assault rifle.

The other two checked their planned escape route and returned to the other pair, spreading out to either side. Due to the lack of light anti-armour weapons, both of these men carried GP-30 underbarrel grenade launchers fitted to the forestocks of their Kalashnikov-type, KIAM-manufactured assault rifles.

General Yves shook the offer hand of Major Viktor Byko.

“Good day Major. My name is Brigadier General Yves Feuilly, the new commanding officer of the Delesa Peacekeeping operation here. These two men here are Colonels Maxim Eveard and Quincy Kirill, commanding officers of the 7th and 8th Ranger Regiments respectively.” The two men held out their hands to the Kilrany officers.

“Glad we could meet. In the region that our Commonwealth belongs, war has been sparked and the Airborne was needed as they are fighters and an entire branch of the Delesa Commonwealth Armed Forces was created, named the Rangers, and its sole purpose is peacekeeping. So we are most likely to be here for the duration of the time, unless either the Commonwealth requires we return, or we all get killed.” Yves smiled, as he believed that since they wore the white helmets, flack vests and the white Delesa peacekeeping flag on the cars, no one would shoot them. As his last command, not one man was killed, not even a shot fired in anger at his men. “Now I have this letter here requesting that a single battery of M777 artillery be airlifted in to this position. It would as a source of indirect fire, incase a convoy or patrol came under heavy fire from entrenched enemies, if not possible, I can see why. Also, under my command, as I am not quite sure what the previous commander did, but I must request that on regular patrols, that a single, if not more, Kilrany vehicle accompany the patrol, for public relations and such. And tonight, I am going to have Charlie and Echo Company from 7th Regiment, do a patrol into the surrounding area to search for enemy camps that are watching this facility. Also, we has instructed that our men will try not to kill the enemy, but rather attempt to arrest them, and be brought back here for interrogations. My officers will interrogate the prisoners first, and then you men may, unless you would like to join my officers. And that’s only if we get some of them. And tomorrow Bravo and Delta will go out, but even farther. So if you would like to send some men along, just tell me. It will be a foot operation, apart for the helicopter extraction of prisoners.”

Sergeant Shushunova listened to what the Kingdom soldier had to say, taking note of the activity while he spoke, when the soldier Leftenant had finished speaking, she let out a short annoyed growl, fortunately for the Kingdom soldiers it was not because of them, but due to the obvious miscommunication, “I see, well, such things happen, unfortunate, one could have been more informative. As for the bodies the Khurzav police coroner will take care of them, identify them, inform the ISM and in turn the ISM will inform us. Perhaps some use will come from their corpses in that regard.”

Shushunova glanced past the Kingdom Leftenant towards the Kingdom soldiers routing about in the charred remains of their two former vehicles, “If you’re going to the protest here in the city, you may wish to hurry along, wouldn’t want you to miss the show,” although one couldn’t see grin through the fabric that covered her face, one might have picked up on it in her eyes as she spoke those last few words before turning and heading back to her own vehicle, her two ‘escorts’ in tow, “Good luck at the protest.”

-----

Major Byko gave a slight nod to each Delesa Colonel and shook their hand in turn, subtly sizing them up as he did with the Brigadier General, not quite sure what to make of them yet, but choosing to maintain an air friendliness until they proved to be competent or not in his eyes.

Byko chuckled at the joke Yves made, but his first thought that went through his mind when the General described what his men would be wearing, in particular the white helmets, Oh god … white helmets … at least they’re still wearing body armour, he paused for a moment, appearing to think about the request to have Kilrany forces on patrol with Delesa forces, “Although our garrison here is relatively small and I don’t recall just how many men we have here, I do believe we have enough manpower to do as you ask, a fire team and their BTR-80 from the motor infantry should be able to accompany just about any patrol you send out. As for you patrol of the surrounding area, a very wise idea, we had been leaving such to your previous men, I’m not sure if they carried on out. As for your M-seventy-sevens, although we’ve been somewhat reluctant to allow such things, I believe a single battery of those lightweight field guns would be acceptable.”

Hiding his concern once again, Byko considered his words and spoke once more, “I see no problem in interrogation, I’m sure one of our people would want to sit in, of that I’m sure I can guarantee, but I would not work to hard to take prisoners over the lives of your men, don’t count on the Khurzav to give you any quarter, they may not exactly be the most effective fighters most of the time, or be all that numerous, but of the partisans we’ve encountered so far, they do seem to be somewhat fanatical … and stupid, but that also seems to depend on the group you encounter.”

Byko was almost content, but the General’s last words confused him for a moment, “Uhhhh, excuse me, I must have misunderstood, helicopter extraction of what prisoners?”

General Yves noticed the expression on the Mojor's face when he mentioned white helmets. A small grin appeared on his face.

"Major, believe me, his majesty King Edward III and Prime Minister Lester Geddie would not be so dumb to send his majesties forces on a peacekeeping mission, where several men have already died, with only white helmets and vests. Those would mostly be used here on base, and in road blocks. But small flags have been placed on all vehicles, as you might have noticed they are small, the size of a sheet of paper on the radio antenna, and would be removed for special operations. As for operations we have the proper camo, for car and man." The General was so far enjoying his time with the Kilrany officer. "As for my remark about the helicopters. Durring the operation tonight, if we were to catch any of the buggers, with out of course lossing a unnessary Commonwealth life, or Kilrany if you would join, over the life of one of these...citizen fighters, the two companies are to keep radio silence until a set time, and at that time, platoons that have captured men, if any, will radio in for extraction. Either the helicopter will find a suitable LZ, or the prisoners will be brought up by cable. This is to maximize our efforts. And I am glad that you have agreed to allow us to bring in some support. As I told my officers time and time again, the orders to fire, will only be allowed to use if and only if there are no civilian lives at risk. As I said before, indirect fire, so the rounds could land anywhere in a given sector, but I don't have to lecture you, as I am sure you already know. Now that all that has been handled, I heard I could find a good game of cards around here some nights."

Byko nodded his head in understanding, “Yes, I figured I must have merely misunderstood what you meant about the helicopter extractions. And yes, forgive me, when you said white helmets and such forth the immediate image that came to my mind was that of UN peacekeeping colours, admittedly those work alright I suppose, it is merely an unsettling prospect as a soldier accustomed to not standing out to every sniper in the world,” Byko shrugged slightly with a grim smile on his face, peacekeeping operations were not Kilrany soldiers’ specialty and not something they particularly enjoyed doing, but they would do it as ordered regardless.

Byko chuckled once more in earnest at the Generals last words, “Yes, quite. Although the Russkyans like to call it ‘applied mathematics’, we just call it poker, or whatever other card game takes the fancy for the evening. Any off duty soldiers of ours you will likely find playing cards if not sparring or resting, we don’t take furlough into Khurzav cities and towns at this time, too much animosity for us to see that as anything but a bad idea just now. Whether you chose to follow suit, well that’s up to you, I would recommend against it just now, but if the Khurzav like you, that wont really be a problem. I can guarantee you they don’t like us for obvious reasons, and some less so. They’re so damned stuck on all that BS propaganda they’ve got over the years they can’t look at us without thinking we’re going to rape all their women and gut their children apparently.”

General Yves smirked at the Major's last remarks.

"As have I and some of the senior staff here experienced during our occupation of Kreatvye during and after the war, now the Dominion of Cesibia, been the victims of those hatred eyes of the people. The receivers of mail bombs and the such.” Yves then starred off into the distance for a moment. Yes the war… the reason I have my rank, and had become a peacekeeper… he thought to himself. He snapped back to reality. “As for those white helmets and vest, the Commonwealth is not apart of the UN, as our Prime Minister thinks they are all talk. Not enough action in bad situations. The white equipment is soon to be replaced soon enough to a bluish green. But that takes time. And for those lonely nights on base, I have already instructed the officers that no men shall go to the city for ‘free time’, until we establish the civilians thoughts and views of us. As you may have noticed the former paratroopers had set up some sort of crude soccer pitch, so my men will have something to do for the time being. Your men are most welcome to join in and play some games, just remember, that the boys do tend to get rough… So bring your medic.” Yves laughed at the thought. “Any ways if that is all Major, I think I shall take the next patrol to the city, scope it out myself.”

Major Byko was unfamiliar with the previous experience of the Delesa peacekeepers so he listened intently, when the General’s expression seemed to glaze over for a moment, Byko remained silent, he recognized that far off look of remembrance, his grandfather would get a similar far off look anytime he asked him about his experience in the three year border war with Khurzav that started in 1905.

Byko nodded his head, “Yes, I believe Emperor Sviatov’s father felt the same when the UN attempted to entice us to join,” Byko allowed a moment of silence, Emperor Sviatov’s father, mother and older sister were one of the last casualties of the Virinov insurrection, a dark moment in the Empire’s history that had left its mark on the Imperial Guard, 1st Division in particular, since the inception of the Empire 1st Division’s ancestral unit had been responsible for keeping the royal family safe. “Apologies General, the Royal Family is greatly respected, the untimely death of Emperor Sviatov’s family save for his younger sister was … it struck home.”

Byko took a moment to gather himself before he spoke again, “Wise precaution General, we ourselves though will obviously not be able to safely take a furlough in Khurzav for quite some time.”

Almost a complete contradiction to his earlier grim appearance at the mention of Emperor Sviatov’s family, Byko suddenly appeared to almost spasm as he attempted to stop himself from laughing, after a moment he could no longer hold it in and broke out into a deep hearty laugh that lasted several seconds, even the nearby Kilrany sentry chuckled to himself.

After a moment Byko’s laughter died off and he collected himself once again, with a grin on his face he decided it best to attempt to explain, “I’m sorry General, I didn’t mean to be so rude, you must understand that in Kilrany, when the average woman has a physical build equal to men, everything gets rougher, and with half our serving military women, who tend to be stronger then the norm, expect any soccer game that they participate in to end up looking more brutal then Rugby. I kid you not General,” Byko’s grin couldn’t get larger, “It is good to know though that your men will be prepared to deal with our women in that case.”

Byko took one more moment to let the merriment die off before he spoke once again, a small smile still evident on his face, “That is of course your choice General, I assume you will take adequate precautions,” Byko didn’t feel the need to tell the Delesa General how to keep himself safe, he seemed rather competent and likely didn’t get to his current position by being careless.

OOC: Glorified bump

Major Byko stood motionless with a small smile still present on his face as he waited for General Yves to respond, anticipating some sort of humorous reply, a joke perhaps, however when the General appeared to remain silent, Byko wondered why, after a moment something occurred to him, “Ah yes, I forgot, in most nations that’s considered an insult, not quite so when you’re dealing with us, I meant no disrespect by it. I’ve merely seen too many people underestimate Kilrany women and pay the price when they find out they’re just as strong as they are, and more aggressive then they’re used to, not to be disrespectful, but I found the thought of your men playing a competitive sport against our women for the first time highly amusing. But I digress, is there anything you would like to know about your area of operation? If not I shall go ensure that we can have one of our vehicles and fire teams join any of your patrols.”

-----

At about the same time Major Byko was explaining himself to General Yves, the four Kilrany convoys composed of eight BTR-80s and four heavy duty fuel trucks with a 4th Division Hind flying over head were finally arriving at their destinations, where a similar scene would play out.

The convoys would drive up towards each base’s entrance, or checkpoint if the peacekeepers had set up one before the base gate and come to a halt just short of it, at which point the Sergeant in the lead vehicle would be dispatched to quickly talk to the sentries, requesting entry into the base so they could deliver the trucks they were escorting to the Kilrany garrison forces in each base.

"The fuck is this?"
"I don't know. Roadblock? But those aren't Kilrany soldiers. Look, there's nowheres near enough armoured vehicles to be Sviasuki. They hardly look like they're compensating for anything at all."
"You're a bastard, but you're right. Who's around here?"
"Uh... House of James? The "Kingdom" troops?"
"Sounds right."

Dzhakonda looked over his shoulder at the cloth bag of hard-crusted bread sitting in the back seat of the old GAZ-24, oft referred to as the "Volga." His friend, the driver, whose name was Ryaba, shrugged and shifted in his seat slightly to pull his identification papers from their place inside his wallet.

"So... hate your grandmother yet?"
"Fuck no. I'm afraid that if I think anything other than positive thoughts, she'll magically appear and beat me to death with a frying pan."

Laughing sufficiently hard that he had to force himself to pay attention to the road long enough to ensure they didn't go flying off over the cleared side into the brush just beyond, Ryaba breathed deeply, sighed loudly, and looked quickly at Dzhakonda before his head pivoted back to the road and the Kingdom roadblock or checkpoint, whichever it was, to his front.

"Yeah, I know that feeling. Babushkii are a force all their own. We don't need Special Forces, we just need to piss off two of them."
"Why two? Why not all of them?"
"We'll only need two. More is just cruel, and might very well cause the end of all life as we know it."
"This is true."
"Okay, we're going to slow down before they shoot us now, yeah? Stop the fucking car. That's a machinegun, you assclown, this is a Volga. We probably couldn't beat that thing out in the piece of shit half rusted through MT-LB clones I drove in the Reserve, fuck you if you think we're getting through a roadblock in this."
"Yeah, once the brakes start working, I'll get right on that! Goddamnit, you piece of shit, you're not getting me killed today!"

Ryaba swore violently and slammed his foot down on the brake pedal once more, hand instinctively reaching for the hand brake. Beside him, Dzhakonda swore foully, using much of the vocabulary he'd learnt in the Khurzav Army Reserve and punched the glove compartment hard enough that the latch gave way and the empty compartment's door popped open. The GAZ 24 began to slow, responding to Ryaba's foot on the brake.

"So you just have to hit it."
"Like a recalcitrant whore."

The vehicle carried its laughing occupants to within ten metres of the Kingdom position, finally slowing to a walking pace, and then jerking to a stop.

"Where's your phrasebook? I don't speak what they speak."
"C'mon, you're a fucktard and they're foreigners. You have to have something in common you can work with."

Dzhakonda snorted in amusement and reached into his jacket pocket for the small paperback booklet.

General Yves snapped back to reality, once again drifting off once again, thinking of his experiences in the Commonwealth-Kreatvye War.

“Oh well in that case, I say be sure to inform my boys to bring extra bandages. The thoughts still lurked in the back of his mind. “ I am not sure, because I didn’t read anything in the report, what is the native tongue her? All my men can speak English and French as they are the two official languages of Delesa, as well most officers can speak bits of Italian, Russian, and German, some of the few courses at the Royal Military Officers University. And I think that’s it, I must go catch the next patrol.”

Ooc: sorry real busy with school

Major Byko maintained his friendly smile, so far he liked this General, “Well, the predominant language is Russian, unless they were recently arrived immigrants you should find that every Khurzav speaks it. They did also have a surprisingly decent education system despite the corruption in their government and the propaganda against us, so you should find a good number of them also speak at least on other language, it’s almost a requirement for the region given the wide array of languages, although they appear of have frowned upon people learning our language.”

Byko paused, the unique sound of a KIAM Hind caught his attention and he looked over in the direction of the main entrance to the base, taking note of the Hind orbiting over the area, not aware it was circling above a convoy waiting for clearance to enter, taking note of the 4th Division emblem on it’s side, he spoke aloud to himself in a quiet tone, “Why’s 4th Division here?”

Quickly looking back to the General Byko spoke to him again, “Sorry about that, of course, be safe on that patrol, take no chances with the Khurzav,” with that said, and believing the General had no further questions for him, Byko gave a nod to him and turned to leave so he could arrange for some of the garrison forces to go on patrols with the Delesa peacekeepers.

The Roadblock

The MG3 tracked the car as it approached, the brakes making a horrible sound to the soldiers who were used to better vehicles back home. When the vehicle finally stopped three soldiers approached it, two moving closer in whilst the third hung back on the passenger side covering them.

The soldier who moved to the window of the drivers side allowed it to roll down before he pulled out his own phrase book and asked for their identity papers. The men in the car seemed to understand and reached into their pockets, producing various pieces of documentation which the soldier took and then walked slowly back to his compatriot out of earshot of the people in the car.

"There's been a foul up at Regiment again."

"Why whats up?"

"Well you know we are checking ID"

"Yeah"

"Do you have any idea what their official ID things are?"

"Ummmm....not entirely"

"So how the fuck are we meant to check their ID if we dont know what a real ID looks like?"

"Well.....they seem nervous?"

"Nope, just a bit happy. Beaming smiles on all of them."

"Well that means they are probably fine....suppose we just let them through?"

"Sounds about right, you check the boot and then we'll let them go."

The soldiers turned and walked back to the car, the original man handing the ID papers back through the window and motioning for them to open the boot of the car. He didn't trust his phrase book on that one but said it anyway and awaited their response.



Kingdom Base

Soldiers of K Company, 1st Battalion, were on duty at the gate along with their Kilrany comrades and dutifully waved the convoy of trucks through when they were both satisfied. As far as they were concerned it was only another regular supply delivery.

"How the fuck do I pronounce this?"
"How the fuck would I know? The only other language I speak is Brabander."
"And that, only because of their thirty thousand DVD boxed porn set."

Struggling with the English pronounciation, Dzhakonda regarded the folded-open booklet with a strange look and slowly intoned what was printed there.

"Yes, no trouble gh'ere."

He smiled at the nearest Kingdom troop and whipped back around to Ryaba.

"The trunk is empty, right? There's nothing in there, yeah? Please say yes."
"I don't know... maybe? There might be something in there. I'm pretty sure it's not incriminating."

Dzhakonda's face dropped into an expression of disbelief. He rolled his eyes, and with near-perfect English, informed Ryaba of what his mother could do with a goat on her grandmother's grave. Then he reached down and released the trunk latch, dismounting the vehicle as he felt the heavy metal trunk pop open. Hands held well away from his sides, he walked back to the open trunk and looked inside.

Only to see a wooden crate marked with the black Russian stencil on its olive drab painted top lid. "ORUZHIYE" - "Weapons." He looked at another Kingdom soldier and began pantomiming in English:

"Is nothing! Just uh, how you say? Uh... fuck. Is pornography? Something I not die for, yes?"

No you won't die for it mate. I would prefer if you open it quickly...ummm...how do you say that?

The other soldier handed him the phrase book and he read out what he thought was similar to what he needed to say. In fact he actually said open the trunk again, but hopefully the man would understand. The crate looked suspiciously military and the person seemed a little too friendly. The soldier was sure if he knew how to speak the damned language he would ask them where they were going, but any response they gave him now would go completely over his head.

"We need to bring godamned interpreters along with us on these surprise inspections, especially now that traffic is picking up again after the war. Get on the net and see if there are any about or we'll never accomplish anything aside from looking stupid. Right he's finally got it open, lets have a look in here."

Dzhankonda's calm voice belied his Russian-language words, called out loudly enough for Ryaba to hear clearly.

"You assclown. I am going to die here and you are going to prison because you have a fucking green crate marked Weapons in the back of your car. What the fuck do you have this for? And just how the Hell did you forget it was there?"

Fumbling with the latch he popped the crate open and exhaled quietly.

"Random guess is right, Ryaba! We live today, your idiocy can kill us tomorrow!"

In the green crate lay a neatly ordered pile of pin-ups and a small toolkit for maintaining the decades-old GAZ 24. Dzhakonda lifted the pile of pinups out and swore in English. Coincidentally, the only thing he could do well in English was swear. Even if he couldn't swear well in English, the meaning of "Aww, fuck" is hardly difficult to decipher.

Underneath the pinups lay a AKM rifle. Dzhakonda left it where it was and picked up a magazine, sighed with relief, and turned slowly with the metal magazine held well up over his right shoulder.

"Is not latest sex toy from Japan. Know 'Airsoft,' yes? Like paintball, except use these things, but look real, work better. Most clubs shut down since invasion, but maybe start again soon."

The Corporal quickly jogged back to his particular vehicle, as he climbed back inside the side door the lead BTR-80 rumbled forward followed one by one by the rest through the entrance into the base. A few minutes of additional travel would take them over to where the Kilrany garrison forces were billeted. As for the 4th Division Hind, upon seeing the convoy move on into the base the pilot dipped the nose of his aircraft forward and to its left, the original Hind was a very maneuverable aircraft as it was, and the KIAM variant and update was slightly more so, quickly its altitude dropped to jus above tree top level and changed direction heading off East, within a few seconds the aircraft powerful engines would push the helicopter up to its maximum speed of just over three hundred and thirty kilometers an hour.

After quickly checking in with Major Roerich, the commanding officer of the Kilrany garrison forces and chief liaison officer for the Kingdom peacekeepers, the fuel trucks were placed in a secure warehouse along with the vehicles of the escorts, who would now temporarily be added to the garrison forces to guard the vehicles for as long as they were meant to be there for, however since they did not know what that reason was or how long they had to be there for, they simply started up their new duties and decided to familiarize themselves with the people they would be working with for the time being, Kilrany and House of James alike.

Roadblock


With the magazine being raised above his head the soldiers reacted quickly, the two with the man at the boot raised their weapons and began yelling at him to get on the ground as the man at the front raised his rifle to the passenger compartment and flicked the safety off with his thumb before shouting to his comrades at the rear.

The man at the rear complied and went to ground, his hands on head with the magazine still clasped in them. Another three soldiers came running over and two covered the vehicle compartment whilst the third moved round to examine the rear of the vehicle.

The original soldier from the roadblock covered the prone man whilst the other two looked in the truck, principally examining the AKM. One was the groups Corporal and he hefted the weapon into his shoulder and flicked the safety before he worked the action only to be confronted with a small pale yellow pellet dropping out of the magazine housing.

“Relax guys, safety’s on. It’s a bb gun.”

The sound of clicks could be heard as the G3A5’s safeties were applied by the assembled groups and the weapons were lowered again to a more relaxed position.

“What the fuck is he doing driving around with one of these. They must know there are checkpoints everywhere and that this kind of thing can get them shot.”

“Reciept them for it?”

“I think its best….besides Captain Jacobs from 1st Company would probably take it off our hands.”

“Heh. Your call Corp.”

“Ok we’ll give this guy a couple a hundred bucks for it. It’s in pretty good condition so that should cover it. Here.”

He took some money out of his pocket and stuffed it into the still prone figures before hefting the man up to his feet.

“You shouldn’t carry this thing around. You take money, we keep this. Understand?”

The man looked slightly confused but the Corporal had already given him the money and so just nodded before turning to the other Kingdom soldiers.

“Ok guys, put him back in the car and let ‘em go. Resume positions, theres gotta be more excitement coming.”

With an apologetic smile the original Kingdom trooper moved the civilian back towards the passenger compartment as the other soldier closed the boot, making careful to remove the magazine and battery for the pellet gun.



The Protests

The long column of Land Rovers and trucks had finally made it to the protest sites after several detours and a minor navigational error by the lead vehicle. The men were on edge, weapons were loaded and trained outwards after the incident earlier in the day with the other convoy.

Civilians also appeared on edge as the vehicles flew through the streets, missing the left turn that they were supposed to take to the protests. Instead they took the next and the lead “landie” nearly collided with a pale blue ISM BTR that was sitting astride the road. Only the quick reactions of the driver and the brand new brake pads prevented a probable incident and yet more unwanted destruction of Kingdom equipment.

Captain Jenkins dismounted from the third vehicle and moved forward, his personal radio sqwarking commands from others on the command net that lead to men dismounting all over the length of the column, now blocking the road behind it.

The Captain adjusted the sling on his G36 and shrugged to get his body armour back into place around his torso. Behind him a couple of officers fell in also carrying their personal weapons with pistols hanging at their thighs, one of them actually carried three reserve weapons along with his heavyweight M4 carbine. The man was huge and so could carry the associated ammunition but it never amazed his commander that he thought the time might come when he would need a pair of 9mm's and a .45cal in addition to the 300rounds he carried for the M4 and thirty for the underslung shotgun. But some people always wanted to be prepared for everything and as the man wanted to be Special Forces some day it seemed like he had something to prove.

Jenkins dismissed the thoughts as he arrived at the outer line of ISM personnel, periolously close to the front bumper of the lead land rover. He shared a quizical look with the vehicles driver who broke the stare and began adjusting something. This caused the Captain to raise his eyebrow, but once again he put the thought out of his head and continued towards the Kilrany, adjusting his beret as he did so. This would be his first meeting with them outside the Kingdom base and therefore his first meeting witht the ISM personell who were reported to be very competant but also on a slightly short fuse. Just like us in that respect then he mused. Most of his Company were newly inducted troopers with only a few seasoned veteran officers and NCO's to pad them out. The 3rd Irian had taken some serious losses in the Eninmoore and this company had barely been attached three weeks before the move here had come to fruition.

But despite that Jenkins thought he had a good company. The mens training had been pretty good and as they had had it recently some bright spark at Regimental planning assumed they would remember more of the crowd control than the last company to have attempted it. Hopefully we wont end up shooting half a dozen people was another thought that flashed through the Captains head as he was waved through the first ISM troops and began searching for an appropriate command vehicle.

Seeing a likely candidate he approached the vehicle and stuck his head inside the rear ramp, before he had seen what was going on he began speaking only to stop again when he realised it was empty. Rubbing his chin the Captain stepped back out and surveyed the scene, only to see several ISM officers approaching him. He walked out to meet them, starting his prepared speech again when he thought he was in audio range.

"Good afternoon. Captain Jenkins, B Company 2nd Battalion 3rd Irian Guards Regiment reporting as ordered."

OOC: HoJ, well done with that bit with Dzhakonda and Ryaba. I hope I do as well with the small ambush section you've authorized me to write out.

The two Khurzav men had managed to get their aged automobile to the rendezvous point, and thanks to the distraction of the AK AEG, had managed to get a large quantity of needed bread to a supporter's home. This would be distributed to the KRG in the next few days, as a two-man group from the KRG arrived to recieve the twice-baked bread. Though it had the consistency of a brick, it still had needed nutrients, and would only become unedible after a rather significant length of time.

The four man hunter-killer team however, in their position overlooking the road, heard a Kingdom convoy coming. The machinegunner racked the bolt back on his weapon and heard it slam forwards with a satisfying thud. Shouldering his weapon, the man next to him unslung and prepared the optic-equipped hunting rifle, his Kalashnikov resting just to his front.

The two other men were standing ready. They let the first few Landrovers pass, then the machinegun opened fire, scything the first twenty round burst through a Landrover's flanks, the remainder of the fifty round belt in two medium-length bursts through another Landrover and the rear of a truck. Whether it carried soldiers or supplies, the gunner didn't know, and didn't care. He picked up his now empty weapon and began running for the escape route that had been scouted out earlier. Behind him, he heard two bangs from the hunting rifle, then a burst from the Kalashnikov, and the sound of his partner following him, swearing.

Three VOG-25 rounds detonated on the road, then rapid footfalls through the underbrush. The man with the PKM quickly reloaded, and one of the grenadiers stopped to rapidly sling his rifle and apply a ad-hoc field-dressing to the marksman's head, where a burst from a Kingdom G3A5 had creased his skull, causing him to bleed profusely. Slapping his shoulder, the four disappeared into the forest, and set up a hasty ambush in the depths of the Khurzav woods should anyone follow their trail.

"How many did you get?"
"Burst through three vehicles."
"Got one with a VOG."
"Any idea how many?"
"At least a Platoon, maybe more."
"Shit. Hope we knocked enough of them down."
"Yeah. Quiet, now. Ten more minutes, then we move. How's the head, Klementi?"
"Hurts. I'll live."

General Yves shook the Majors hand, then turned around and walked back to his G-Wagon. He opened the front passenger door and grabbed his Remington 870 Shotgun from the seat, checking it was loaded he turned and faced his officers.
"Seems like a good man, fine officer. Alright lets head out, where's the convoy?"
"Over there sir, the vehicles are assembling now."
"Excellent, lets get moving." The Commonwealth convoy started to move towards the gates, driving past the waiting 4th division convoy. Delesian soldiers had approached the trucks, collecting the papers and military IDs. Once they were clear the front gate the convoy picked up speed, the LAV in front, followed by Yves G-Wagon, his shotgun laid across his lap.

The convoy reached the city and was driving slowly down the streets, trying to talk to some of the people and store owners. The general took to the streets with his squad in a foot patrol while the convoy finished its patrol of the city. The trucks would pick them up in 45 minutes on the way out. Meanwhile the General was determined to interact with the people and meet a few friendly citizens. His russian was good, not great but got past the blocks as some people were happy to help, but much more ignored him, or said something none of his men understood. He received many hand shakes, the citizens, after years of propaganda beloved that the Commonwealth forces were taking over from the Kilrany soldiers they hated so much. Yves tried to explain, but the language barrier was just to great. He stopped by a local baker and purchased several loafs of bread and continued on, back to the extraction point, still attempting to befriend the locals. Soon enough the convoy picked up the general and was heading back to base. By the time he returned the 4th division convoy was in and parked around the Kilrany HQ.

Officer Krasheninnikov almost shot the driver of the lead Land Rover with his scoped AK-74M when the column unexpectedly came around the corner from his position sitting on the top of the very Navy Blue BTR-80 that nearly found a Land Rover smashed into its side armour. He tried to futilely brace himself, expecting to be thrown off the roof of the vehicle a moment later, when several seconds passed and nothing happened he sat back up and looked down over the side of the BTR, to see just how close the Kingdom Land Rover had come, he then glanced at the driver and just shook his head slightly in disbelief.

Not to far away another group of ISM officers standing near their own vehicle watched as Kingdom soldier walk up to their vehicle an look inside, confused as to why he was doing so they quickly came over to ask him.

Unfortunately for them none of them actually spoke English, so when Captain Jenkins introduced himself they didn’t know what he said. They glanced at each other for a moment before one merely pointed in the direction of three Navy Blue BTRs parked side by side on the opposite side of the street on the West side of the Plaza where the protestors were busily making themselves heard.

To add to this the officer who pointed out the three BTRs added Captain Rublev’s name, hoping the Kingdom soldier would understand he was telling him the name of their commanding officer on the scene, “Капитан Рублев.”

------

Although the convoys sent out to the peacekeeper bases were ordered sent by the Imperial Guard and escorted by a 4th Division Hind, the escorting vehicles and drivers of the trucks themselves belonged to the Kilrany Motor Infantry, and following a similar pattern as carried out by the soldiers at House of James base they would attempt to find a unused warehouse of munitions bunker to secure their four trucks until they were ordered to bring them back to their base of origin.

Jenkins looked slightly confused at the men, his phrase book being on the dashboard of his command vehicle but he eventually gathered what they meant when he recongised the Rublev name that he had read and heard in an after mission report from someone, somewhere.

The Captain continued in the direction they had pointed and put on his serious face. Something that was spoilt by nearly tripping on several loose paving stones as he did so much to the hidden amusement of the two troopers who accompanied him.

"Yeah alright, laugh if you want."

Was his spoken reply to their unspoken thoughts, although both managed to keep straighter faces than an onlooking ISM trooper. The Captains efforts to impress appeared to be quite literally tripping at the first hurdle. He shook his head to try and get the thought out, to no avail, as he bent down to look in the side door of the nearest BTR he had been pointed at. Once again fate intervened and his kevlar helmet caught the top of the hatchway, making an unhealthy thud that caused the occupants of the vehicle to suddenly stare at him.

"Ummm...Is there a Captain Rublev around?"



Kingdom Convoy

Barely thirty seconds had past since the first burst had been fired and there was still a measure of chaos. Troops had piled out of the trucks, aside from the one that had been hit, and begun blasting the woods in the rough direction from which the fire had come. A man even launched a LAW90, obselete equipment that was for some reason being carried, and it struck a particularly vicious looking tree but had no noticable effect on anything else.

While the chaos still rained instructions barked through the personal radios for the hold fire as there was no incoming and for a squad to secure the firing site the attackeers had used. A particularly sarcastic NCO used his radio to inform the squad machine gunner that

"In case you havn't noticed they havn't been firing at you. So STOP THE FUCKING SPRAYING".

As the weapons fell silent the only sound that could be heard was the collapsing of the tree hit by the LAW and the splintering of a few other unlucky woodland objects that had gotten in the way of the various calibre bullets that had been liberally sprayed over nearly half a kilometre of woodland.

When everyone had finally finished firing, two squads dashed out towards where they thought the fire had most likely come from. After a minute of searching they found some empty cases and a few foot prints, spread out to show the ambushers had run off.

"Got the ambush site, its barely been touched by our fire. Got prints leading off into the forest. Do we follow Over?"

"Negative. Hold that position and await reinforcements, it could be another ambush and I've got enough dead and wounded here."

The column commander switched to all squad frequencies.

"Secure this bloody site. NOW"

He placed the radio reciever down on his dashboard before turning to the soldier next to him, revealing a spreading pool of blood from his right thigh.

"Now dress this wound will you"

The hand full of ISM officers who actually noticed the Kingdom Captain trip on an otherwise decently paved street chuckled or smiled in amusement, most however were too concerned with keeping an eye on the protestors and the perimeter line to notice.

So far the protestors had continued to remain non-violent, which had led to most of the ISM officers being filled with a mix of contentment and annoyance, as it also meant they had no reason other then not being fond of the Khurzav to actually break up the protest. Some upon seeing the arrival of the Kingdom peacekeepers hoped they would be able to placate the crowd, or simply disperse it and let them get back to what they considered to be more important matters.

The ISM Sergeant inside the BTR snapped his head over at the sudden and unexpected noise of something striking the BTR he was in, his right hand, being out of sight of the open side hatch, having instinctively reached down for his service side arm. Upon realizing that Captain Jenkins wasn’t a threat he relaxed slightly, and fortunately for Jenkins was Rublev’s communications officer, he responded to the Jenkins’ request in an only slightly accented English, “He should be just outside there, just one moment,” the Sergeant paused for a moment and activated the computer system in front of him, and spoke into a small microphone in Kilrany, “Captain Rublev, one of those peacekeepers is here at the vehicle looking for you,” after another pause where the Sergeant was most likely listening to a response he turned back slightly to Jenkins and spoke to him in English, “Captain Rublev was just checking a section of the perimeter and is on his way back here now, it’ll only be a minute if you wish to wait just outside.”

With that said the Sergeant turned back to fully face the equipment in front of him, essentially ignoring the Kingdom officer from that point on so he could continue his job relaying commands over the ISM channels, which were a slightly less costly version of the more advanced Kilrany military communications equipment, the ISM preferring that their communications couldn’t be picked up by just anyone with a scanner, unlike their Khurzav counter parts, a benefit they achieved by technically being a military unit.

To the Sergeant’s word Captain Rublev came walking up to the grouping of BTRs just a minute later followed by a half dozen ISM officers, he quickly singled out who he figured was the Kingdom officer and addressed Captain Jenkins in English and a friendly tone, “Hello there and welcome to the party, I’m Captain Rublev, I’m in charge of the ISM forces here, who might you be and how can you help me?”

Protests

“Good Day Captain Rublev, I’m Captain Jenkins 2nd Battalion, 3rd Irian Guards. We received a request for additional forces at the protests and we are it. Rather more than was first sent in afraid, our original column ran into some difficulties and so we were sent instead. My men are fully trained in crowd control and I await your instructions on where to deploy them.”


As the Captain was speaking to Rublev those still in the command vehicle were receiving some worrying news. The loud speaker hooked up to the radio began;

“Attention all units, Column Zero-Two-One has come under intense ambush, source unknown. Be aware there are several casualties and that the enemy used automatic weapons fire in significant quantities. At this time we do not, repeat do not, consider the Kilrany responsible, however further investigation will be undertaken. All units report positions at ten minute intervals, Out.”

The two communications men who heard it looked at each other, both suddenly quite worried. Surely it couldn’t be the Kilrany, but if it was they could be the next target. Instinctively one of them pulled his G3 slightly closer to him and toggled his personal radio set to the Company XO who appeared at the jeep a few seconds later.

“What is it Corporal. If its so important not to say it over the damned radio what is it.”

“Sir we just got a message, Zero-Two-One has taken fire and well….they aren’t sure who did it.”

“What did the message state?”

“That significant automatic weapons fire had been sustained and that there were casualties.”

“That’s all they said?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Well why the hell did you call me over to say that. That’s what the damned radio is for!”

“Yes Sir, but what if it is the Kilrany”

“The…what…why on earth would they do that Corporal?”

“Well Sir I…..ummm…..they could want..”

“Want what? Our wonderful transport, I highly doubt it. Pull yourself together man.”

He reached into the vehicle and gently smacked the mans helmet before walking off shaking his head and thinking Absolute fool, suspecting the closest things we have to allies in the world.

Rublev had to raise his voice to be heard clearly over the din as the protestors seemed to get louder, much to the further annoyance of the ISM officers, “I thank you for coming Captain, I have a limited number of men available to me given the number of protests going on today, and other important matters for us to be looking after right now and I don’t trust the Khurzav police forces not to make things worse.”

He paused for a moment to look over towards the protestors, “Now I’m not sure if you’re aware of how our laws work and since I don’t think I need to waste your time with details, suffice it to say that under our law what they are doing right now is quite legal, they’ve not done anything violent, nor have they broken anything, so all I’m allowed to do here is contain them. The Imperial Guard on the other hand could disperse them as they see fit, but much as I’d love to clear out these protestors I would prefer them not to come here, but that’s beyond my control at this point.”

While countless protests were going on across Khurzav, a small force of partisans numbering a total of four moved at a casual pace through a moderately dense woodland up a slight incline, they wore a mix of hunting and military clothing, along with an odd assortment of civilian hiking gear.

Their armament was equally diverse, ranging from older civilian pistols to hunting rifles; one of them was armed with a Khurzav issue AK-74 that the group had managed to acquire from the small cache of weapons the KLA had built up.

The four men were members of the Loyalists, a splinter cell of the KLA the Loyalists were a smaller group, numbering less then a hundred active members, they came about when a schism had occurred in the KLA leadership over the release of internal Khurzav government documents, detailing the mass corruption within. While most of the KLA believed the information, those who broke off into the Loyalists did not, believing to be mere propaganda from the Kilrany.

As the four men crested the ridge they were finally able to see the former Khurzav military base now being used by peacekeepers from Delesa. When the Khurzav military had gone about the process of building their bases, they had the foresight to build them on high ground, however they could not cover all the ground and so four kilometers to the base’s South was a small hill, high enough for the Khurzav partisans to see into the base using an old astronomical telescope which they were now setting up on a small tripod atop the hill.

Their mission to simply watch the foreign troops, as the hilltop was much to far away for them to possibly take shots into. They did their best to conceal their position, setting up small tents on the opposite side of the hill and using green fabric to cover over the relatively small telescope to help distort it’s shape and prevent the sun from flaring off the front.

Finally set up they began the long and monotonous job of carefully monitoring the base, and taking note of what they saw.

The process of removing the Airborne Regiment, and replacing them with the Rangers had gone quite smooth, but some small details had been looked over and the former C.O. failing to mention in his report about how he did patrols and estimated enemy strength. But that detail was already in the process of being fixed.

A small Cessna Citation XLS approached the airport that the small wing of Commonwealth Peacekeeping hunkered down. It was given permission to land, the security code given by the plane was high government and the General was warned right away. As the plane landed the ground crew placed the stairs by the door and a man in a suit stepped out. No one questioned him as he whipped out his government card. He walked over the two G-Wagons parked by for the visitor. Then three other men walked out from the plane, and follow the first man. They spook to no one as they got in to the SUVs, but to the driver, “Delesa Headquarters, now.” The G-Wagons speed off.

Meanwhile back at the base, Yves was planning that night’s search of the area. Five helicopters would be providing close support and searching ahead of the main group for any signs of enemy forces. They planned with the helicopters and the additional support, like the LAV IIIs and G-Wagons, along side the regular foot patrols; he would be able to search as far as 4-6 kilometers, looking at every inch of land. It was set to go off at 2:00am. The main idea of the patrol was to just find out if anyone was watching the base, to estimate size and strength, if there were any rebel forces in the area. And possibly and prisoners, but that was unlikely.

The two G-Wagons reached the front gates and were allowed to pass as the guards checked the papers of the four men. The SUVs pulled up to the Delesa Operational Headquarters and they stepped out. They went right to the front desk, showed their papers with out talking, and moved on as if they worked in the building. They barged into the general’s office.

“What the hell is the meaning of this? Who the hell are you?” General Yves flicked a switch under his desk, notifying the secretary to alert the Military Police.

“You don’t need to do that General.” The first man said. “My name is Mr. Grey. Delesa Covert Intelligence Agency (C.I.A). I am have been sent here to provide intelligence to the government back home, as well as assist in assessing the enemy forces here. We are also here to provide counter intelligence to the rebel forces in the Delesa Peacekeeping sector.”

“Oh really?” The general picked up his phone, direct to the secretary’s desk, “No need for the guards.” He hung up and diverted his attention back to Mr. Grey, “Go on Mr. Grey.”

He gestured to the men behind him, “This is my team, I’m sure you’ll learn there names soon enough.” He signaled one of them, and the man stepped forward and placed a suitcase of the desk. It was handcuffed to his wrist. Mr. Grey unlocked it with his key and opened it up, keeping the contents of the case out of the General’s view. He pulled out a folder and passed it to the General and closed the case and locked it back up. On the folder it was addressed to the General, it was from the Department of Armed Forces of Delesa. Inside held orders to allow the four men to set up a operation base in his base, so the could provide information to the government, and provide the General with information about his enemy. And that Mr. Gray and his team were civilians, but the general had no authority over his team. So in other words they had an equal rank to Yves. And that a platoon of military police had to provided to Mr. Grey, as well has several G-Wagons and Hummers.

“Well then, I guess you’ll be here for a while, I’ll send for some one to find you people a vacant building, and get that platoon of men for you.” With that Mr. Grey and his team left the room, closing the door behind them. “Uptight C.I.A pricks, god damn! What next?”

Corporal Kvasov sat comfortably in his chair within one of the few Kilrany air defense control vehicles that remained active within Khurzav, each one currently controlling all air defenses within a six hundred square kilometer area.

He wasn’t alone inside the rather large vehicle, a half dozen other soldiers manned similar stations to himself, before each one was a display console, a touch screen and keyboard which allowed them to issue direct orders to any vehicle connected to the system and receive tracking information from any mobile or fixed radar system connected, allowing them a large ‘field of view’ of the airspace around them, everything from the smaller 2S6 ‘Tunguska’ and SA-15 ‘Tor’ to the much larger and more powerful S-400 ‘Triumph’ and A-50M ‘Mainstay’ capable of picking up stealth aircraft hundreds of kilometers away by themselves, let alone in the synchronized Kilrany systems.

For the most part their displays only showed them the routine Kilrany military flights and the occasional civilian flight approaching Khurzav to land at a civilian airport, similar to in Kilrany itself, a foreign civilian aircraft was not an extremely common sight, as Kilrany was not a terribly popular destination for the populations of more ‘civilized’ nations, Kilrany was however popular among Russkyan tourists and the famous, who enjoyed the rather strict control on the media which prevented the intrusive gossip mongering common among the media of those same ‘civilized’ nations.

When a civilian contact was picked up several hundred kilometers off the coast Kvasov followed standard procedure and monitored it’s progress, the software within the control vehicle’s computers would compare the information it was receiving on the aircraft and attempt to identify to an existing list and plot the most likely course of the aircraft.

Kvasov watched the aircraft continue to get closer; a small designation appeared next to it, placed there by the computer system showing what it thought the aircraft was. When the Delesa aircraft got within one hundred kilometers of the coast and it became quite clear that it was approaching what was not considered by the Kilrany to be their airspace, he continued to follow procedure and raise the aircraft.

Content in its reply as being a government aircraft belonging to Delesa, he passed it off to control tower of the military airfield that had been made available to the Delesa peacekeepers. Although he was curious as to why a government aircraft was coming in, he didn’t ask the pilot as much however, considering it none of his business, as such he logged it in and informed his command structure.

Done of that he half turned to the soldier closest to him, “How much you wanna bet you know who is going to be interested in why that aircraft is coming?”

The soldier he addressed merely shook her head; “I gave up long ago trying to figure out 5th Division, I suggest you do the same Andrey.”

Turning back to his console he scoffed, “Bah, you’re no fun Sasha. No one’s more overly dramatic then 5th, if they didn’t scare the hell out of me they’d be entertaining.”

Protests

Captain Jenkins moved slightly closer to his ISM counterpart so that he didn’t have to shout quite so loudly as the crowd seemed to be ebbing and flowing with their noise level changing somewhat in a split second.

“Very well Captain. If there are other sites that need bolstered security I can send squads or platoons to them from my main column here. I’ll get my communications team set up with yours to co-ordinate movement and such so we can get everyone moving easily. I will remain here with an infantry platoon to assist you, should you require it.”

The communications troops who had received the message not a minute before were waved forward by one of the troopers that had accompanied the Captain. The man gave them a brief overview of what they were supposed to be doing and they headed off in the direction of the ISM BTR that had the most aerials sprouting from it, both men carrying big radio backpacks as they did so.

Captain Rublev shook his head slightly, “There are no other protests occurring in the city, merely places we’ve been assigned to protect and areas we are required to patrol, most of the Khurzav police are back on active duty, however my superiors, with good reason, don’t quite fully trust them.”

Rublev paused for a moment to glance over in the direction of the protest, then looked back at Jenkins, “If you are willing to put more men on the line with my own I would be grateful, bolstering the perimeter might encourage some of the protestors to leave, perhaps cut their ‘morale’ somewhat. I’ll have my Sergeant in there coordinate with your men."

A mere five minutes after the Kingdom communications soldiers came over something came in over the ISM channels, as Rublev’s Sergeant listened in to it, he sighed slightly, confirmed receiving the message then leaned backwards and shouted out the open side hatch of the BTR to Rublev, choosing to speak in the native Kilrany language, “Captain Rublev! I’ve just received a message from Tango-Seven, they report seeing a large Second Division armoured column apparently coming our way.”

Rublev glanced at Captain Jenkins, a few moments of silence overshadowed by the sounds of shouting protestors followed before Rublev cursed aloud, if any of the Kingdom soldiers now standing about near him understood the rather unique language of Kilrany, they would have heard him say, “…Shit.”

Captain Jenkins just looked at his fellow officer as he conversed in his native language, Jenkins none the wiser to what was being said after replaying it in his head a couple of times. He suspected he would be told if it was something likely to have any impact on himself or his troops and it didn’t appear too important.

Meanwhile individual squads of Kingdom troops had moved out to join with ISM colleagues around the square, allowing the ISM troops to thin their own line out and thereby extend it whilst maintaining the same concentration of actual troops.

Most of the Kingdom troops were relaxed but aware. They had all been briefed on the consequences of the last protest but tried to stay as calm as possible and remember their crowd control training.

Rublev was silent for a few moments as he considered his options, he had no doubt in his mind as to where the Imperial Guard column was headed, he also knew that when they arrived the situation was likely to get worse before it got better. They had a tremendous amount of leeway in their actions and would act regardless of what ‘outsiders’ thought, this is what concerned Rublev the most, not what they would do when they got here, but how the peacekeeping forces would react.

Deciding that Jenkins and his men at least deserved a slight warning at the least, Rublev turned to face his counterpart, “Captain Jenkins, I should inform you that my communications officer just notified me that a Second Division armoured column has been spotted on it’s way here, I would recommend you advise your men not get in their way.”

-----

For the other ISM officers spread around the plaza that held the largest of all the protests in Khurzav; just outside the old Khurzav Federal Court building in Pernik, an annoyingly mundane and repetitive rhythm had fallen upon them for the past several hours, only mildly altered by the arrival of the Kingdom peacekeepers, endless chanting and taunting by protesters as they followed a standard patrol around them, there had been no throwing of objects at them, merely taunts and jeers, the obvious presence of the BTR-80s and their assault squads apparently doing enough to discourage the protesters from doing anything stupid, this was only amplified by the arrival of the House of James peacekeepers, but also meant they still had no grounds to disperse them.

Under Kilrany law, which Khurzav was slowly being brought in line with, the population had every right to protest peacefully, as long as they did so, the ISM had no grounds to force them to disperse and there were very few exceptions to this law, none of them currently available to the ISM.

Unknown to almost all outside the courthouse, the mundane rhythm was about to change drastically.

Officers Rosing, Rynin and Alferov paused outside a three story apartment building on the opposite side of the street on the East side of the plaza, like the other foot patrol officers they held their weapons in front of them, they had no intention of seeing a repeat of the last protest involving the hand grenade.

They hadn’t been saying much, mostly the dull routine had already run them dry of idle chat, at least until Rynin began moving his head about in an odd fashion, as if he was trying to hear something, “You fellows hear something?”

Not having noticed Rynin’s odd look, Alferov grunted in annoyance, “What, you mean the endless repetitive chanting or the mundane and unoriginal taunting?”

Rosing let out a small chuckle, but Rynin didn’t laugh, he looked down at his feet for a moment and then slowly crouched towards the pavement, “No, something else,”

Both Rosing and Alferov turned to look at Rynin in his crouched position; he let go of his weapon and let it hang by its sling, then pulled off his right glove and placed his palm down on to the pavement.

Rosing glanced at Alferov then looked back at Rynin, “The hell are you going to do next, put your ear to the ground?”

Rynin just ignored Rosing’s remark, before he had joined the ISM he had spent his mandatory service in an armour regiment, “Something heavy is coming this way, and a lot of them.”

It was only a moment later that the sound that Rynin had thought he could hear earlier finally started to get loud enough to be recognizable to the three officers over the protestors, who had not yet noticed the slowly growing noise, it was a distant rumble at first, low and quiet. But it was getting louder, slowly even the protestors started to hear it, it remained a low deep rumble, but it continued to get louder, it almost sounded like one of their BTRs, but it was far deeper, after another minute a new noise grew and added to the already menacing sound, that of a rapid clattering of metal on concrete.

Rynin stood back up, putting his glove back on he looked at his two comrades, “That’s heavy armour, and it’s coming this way.”

Rosing and Alferov glanced at each other then back at Rynin, they both knew what it meant, there was only one possible Kilrany military unit actively using heavy armour in Khurzav, almost as one they both uttered aloud, “Oh shit.”

The noise finally reached its apex, almost dead silence had fallen upon most of the protestors, only the most determined kept up their chanting, the rest were nervously looking about, the menacing noise seemed to reverberate within the dense urban tangle, only making it all that more intimidating.

Finally the source of the noise came into sight from the plaza from a street to the Northeast, one that passed in front of the courthouse building, the two leading vehicles were a Russkyan designed Nizhomskaya, a menacing looking heavy armoured vehicle that used the same armour scheme as the Zulu main battle tank. The Nizhomskaya measured nine meters long, three point five-five meters wide and two point seven-five meters tall, two meters if only counting its hull, its most prominent features were two remotely controlled turrets, a small single mount in the center near the front of the vehicle, capable of mounting either a single GPMG, HMG or an automatic grenade launcher, in this case they mounted a single 7.62mm machine gun, the second turret was much larger, located closer to the center rear of the vehicle, almost identical to the one mounted on the Russian BMP-T2 urban combat tank, it mounted a pair of thirty millimeter autocannons and a 7.62mm machine gun located immediately above the autocannons, however unlike the BMPT-2, it mounted a quad pack of ATGMs on either side of the turret, instead of a pair of twin packs. Following standard Kilrany urban combat tactics, the missiles were a fifty-fifty mix of AT and Thermobaric warheads.

Following just behind the two lead Nizhomskaya was four of the heavy IFV variant of the vehicle family, the Nizhom, instead of a small weapons mount at the front for a single weapon, it mounted a slightly larger turret much like the one featured on the Russian BTR-T, armed with a thirty millimeter autocannon, a coaxially mounted 7.62mm machine gun and just opposite the machine gun a twin pack of ATGMs, unlike the Nizhomskaya, the Nizhom’s rear section was not occupied by a turret, instead it featured a large troop compartment capable of holding twelve fully armed soldiers and their equipment.

Another Nizhomskaya followed behind the four Nizhom, which was followed itself by another four Nizhom and at the tail end two more Nizhomskaya, making up for one 2nd Division urban combat tank platoon, and two urban combat infantry platoons. Each vehicle was fitted with a Kilrany variant of the Shtora and Arena systems along with MEXAS bricks along the rails inset in the vehicles.

Their menacing presence seemed to bring the protestors to silence, not since the end of the war had 2nd Division urban combat units been seen driving through the city in large numbers, even the ISM stood in awe of the fearsome sight, the thirteen armoured vehicles continued to drive along the street, stopping only when they had placed themselves directly between the courthouse and the plaza full of protestors at which point the vehicle drivers rotated the heavy armour to face the large crowd.

Moments later the rear ramps of the eight Nizhom opened and ninety-six soldiers of 2nd Division’s urban combat infantry seemed to pour out of the vehicles quickly and efficiently forming a spaced double line in front of the thirteen vehicles with their weapons at the ready.

Unlike the other regular forces, their weapons featured many custom additions, including small laser target mounts and COBRA optical sights, some of their AK-74Ms were even a special variant created by KIAM for the urban combat units. Recognizing the lethal effectiveness of the 5.45 caliber used by the standard AK-74M, the urban combat units had requested a weapon like the AK-74M chambered to fire the more lethal 7.62x39 that was common in the AKM, which were not in great supply in Kilrany warehouses, to that end KIAM merely built a line of AK-74Ms re-chambered to fire the larger round, in the urban combat unit’s eyes, there was something to be said for a round that could visibly rip their target apart in the close quarters battles they specialized in.

Dead silence finally fell upon the entire plaza as the vehicle’s drivers shut down their engines, letting the vehicle’s APUs take over supplying power to their systems. Several seconds of silence passed before the tank commander’s hatch on the lone center Nizhomskaya opened up and the tank commander came partially up out of the turret. In his right hand he held what looked like a small radio with a wire that ran down into the tank, this particular Nizhomskaya had been outfitted by the Kilrany with external speakers, one of those few exceptions to protests under Kilrany law were if the Imperial Guard decided to become involved, “Attention Khurzav, by order of the Imperial Guard, you are to disperse immediately, if you do not you will be removed from this square by whatever force necessary, you have five minutes.”

With that said the tanker simply dropped back down inside his tank and closed the hatch, just as he did so all ninety-six 2nd Division Imperial Guardsmen standing in front of the vehicles bellowed in unison, “OORAH!” the soldiers allowed the second syllable of the war cry drag on several seconds longer then the first before it slowly died off, the war cry reverberated throughout the plaza sending chills even through some of the ISM officers.

-----

Mirroring the scene just a few minutes before hand as Rublev watched the rather dramatic entrance from 2nd Division, Rublev once again glanced over at Captain Jenkins, and cursed in his own language, “…Shit.”

02:03
Delesian Peacekeeping Base
Main Gates

"Alright I want a smooth operation tonight, we have helicopter support, as well as G-Wagons and LAVs on the roads. Colonel Maxim Eveard your going to take your 7th Regiment and head into the north and west sectors and Colonel Quincy Kirill your going to take your 8th Regiment to the south and east sectors. I'll be in Charlie helicopter, as moving south with Delta helicopter as well. Meanwhile Alpha and Bravo will head north. Each baby is armed with the heavy machine door gunners as well as flares and such, so dont forget, and use all equipment nessary, no need for anyone to die. Got it? Good lets move." General Yves was fairly active in running his operations, which most high ranking officers wouldn't stick their head out if they didnt have too, byt Yves was the kind of soldier who didnt ask for the promotion to a desk, he lived for the smell of empty rounds, and the speed of attacking the enemy, but from the Colonel's requests, he would not join the ground forces, but wouldnt stay in the base either, but rather fly over the action.

Colonel Quincy Kirill headed for where the soldiers not on guard duty for the base where assembling for the night ops. He walked up to the command LAV and steped inside.
"So boys, heres the plan, Lieutenant Colonel Glan Shaw, your battalion is headed south on these roads with your trucks, and your infantry in these locations. And Lieutenant Colonel Frank Simmons, your east of here, right here, here and here." Quincy pointed on the map.

"Yes sir." The reply was form both of the men.

"Be sure to check out any location that might overlook our base like hills, tree forts of sorts and the list goes on."

"Ofcourse sir."

"Alright, I think thats it. Wait, we have two helios for us to use. Flares and such. Also, but unlikely, it we hit a huge camp, remember the big 777s are waiting to be used."

"Yes sir!" The two lieutenant colonels left, head to their repective battalions. Quincy looked north, seeing that his fellow Colonel was already moving out, the last of the trucks leaving the gates. Quincy picled out the head set mike "Make ready all forces and head out." With that the trucks lurched forward into the night, soldier clinging on to the sides and ridding on top until they reached there sector. The convoy approached a fork in the road, half turning of to the right, the rest continued south. Lieutenant Colonel Shaw stoped the trucks and the men got off and prepared to head into the dark forests.

"Remember we want them alive, but dont lose no lives, ya hear?" Everyone nodded their heads. "Exellent, move out! First Company to the right, Second to the left." Streams of soldiers moved into the trees, silent and ready. Sometimes you could hear the helicopters over head as they roared back and forth, looking ahead for any signs. General Yves knew, with the air support and the amount of troops committed to the operation, it was unlikely he would get anyone, but he knew if hey did capture some people, what could they tell him, they worked in cells or alone. There was no command structure in the rebal's forces. Or least he thought. But if he did get someone, he could make sure he was right. But there was a nice little thing he had planned, ahead of each company, there we several pathfinders or scouts. They would be the surprise to capture someone, the rest of the company was for support and to make sure the pathfinders didnt miss anything.

04:37
South Sector, First Battalion(Shaw)
First Company

PFC. Carl Whyte crept through the forest, always checking right and left for the pathfinders on his sides, just barely in view. He was wearing a pair of night vision goggles, but they barely helped s the forest leaves here damp and thick, messing with his vision.But over to his right he belived he thought he saw a sheet to cover from aircraft. But it could have just as well been thick leaves bunched together, but his orders where to check everything out. But he had been quite and acting stealthy as possible for two hours. He was soaked, tired and above all bored. But orders were orders. He causiously walked over and looked down as the sheet.

"Whoa." He said to himself. "I actully found something." Carl scanned the area, and just over to the back was a little area, where a make shift firepit was and trampled grounds. Someone had been here. He placed his finger to his earpiece, turning on the mike on that was around his neck. "This is PFC Whyte, Pathfinders, 1st Company, HQ do you read?" There was a few erie seconds like no one was listening.

"Whyte this is Company HQ, what you got son?" Over Carls left sholder, a tree branch snapped. Carl whipped around and dove to the ground, flicking the gun to full auto and rested the red dot sights on the chest of a man. He got up and let the gun fall down to his side with the safety of his sling. "Jesus Brad! You scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry man, heard you on the radio and came over to check for myself."

"Well take a look, nothing much." The radio crackled again

"PFC Whyte this is Company HQ, do you read? Whyte, do you read?"

"Yes HQ I read. I am ontop of hill 013, and I have what looks to be a small camp. The ground is worked in, and there is aircraft cover sheet here."

"Roger that Whyte, reendforcements are enroute, hand tight, flares are also on their way."

06:26
Delesian Peacekeeping Base

The last of the patrols were coming in. Trucks massed by the 'Parkade' and soldiers head to their baraks for a little rest. The night had basicly gone uneventful apart for the discovery of a little camp on a hill to the south. Other then that, all that was found was a couple of paths that anyone could have made over the years. But now guards were patroling the paths and sniper team were stationed near hill 013, waiting to call in the calvary or take down the targets. But that wouldn't be the last of those late night huge battalion sized patrols. All that was needed was a single prisoner to confirm the Generals idea.

After the initial shock over the dramatic arrival of sections from the Imperial Guard and their ultimatum, the Khurzav protestors gathered in the plaza had mixed reactions. Although none were panicking, worry and fear seized most of them, some because they recognized the new arrivals as members of Kilrany’s Imperial Guard and knew their reputation within Khurzav, while others because it was merely a Kilrany military unit.

Of the fifty people near the front of the protest group, closest to the Imperial Guard units, just over fifteen turned and started to push their way back through the crowd, not having the constitution to remain and stand up to the new arrivals, thirty more were looking around at each other nervously, not sure whether they should leave or not, while the remaining Khurzav near the front stood their ground, staring down the Imperial Guard soldiers and their disconcerting anonymity, choosing to ‘call their bluff’.

Many near the center and back of the group weren’t entirely sure what was going on, they had heard the arrival of armour and heard the forbidding battle cry that had echoed throughout the open plaza, but simply could see what all the commotion was about. Word slowly began to spread to them however as those not willing to stay pushed their way through to the back to leave through the gap left in the ISM perimeter to allow just that.

Hearing this, some with curiosity that overrode their common sense began to make their way forward through the crowd, wanting to see the ‘dreaded and evil Imperial Guard’ that they had heard so much about through their nations media prior to the Kilrany invasion. One young man in particular however was neither curious nor afraid, instead he moved forward with the others with deadly intent.

At twenty-two years old, Artemy Beria was an ambitious and determined member of the recently formed Loyalists partisan group, a splinter cell of the KLA that, as it’s name would imply retained a loyalty to their nations former leaders and royal family. Word had reached him a few days prior that protests were to be staged and he decided that he would use this opportunity to stir up trouble and give himself more prominence within the Loyalists.

As he moved forward with a handful of others in the crows he surreptitiously removed a small satchel from a pocket inside his coat, something he had been holding on to, waiting for what he felt was the right time to create as much havoc as he could. The satchel was not much larger then a woman’s purse and had a large strap that made it look much like one, it was however an IED, not quite as powerful as a military grade explosive, but easily earning the term, ‘like a grenade on steroids’.

Beria’s movement within the crowd went without much notice from the handful of ISM marksman located on rooftops since he wasn’t the only Khurzav pushing their way to the front of the group of about two hundred, near the back some chanting had regained momentum, but near the front, those who remained maintained a nervous silence.

Unlike those of the regular forces, soldiers in the Imperial Guard, from all five divisions, each carried their own personal radio system, a particularly effective system that instead of using a small microphone that came down in front of the mouth, it used a small system that wrapped around the throat, picking up the vibrations from the user’s vocal cords, allowing soldiers to not even need to speak aloud to talk to each other, its use had only heightened the Imperial Guard’s menacing presence since its inception, allowing them to seemingly to act together without audible orders.

As such orders passed through their ranks as they stood in their staggered double line giving them their fire arcs, the first line nothing but soldiers equipped with assault rifles while the second line was filled by those soldiers carrying support weapons such as the PKM, RPK-74 and RPG-7V. Behind them and their vehicles were the large courthouse steps that rose up almost a full story to the building’s main entrance, a dozen ISM officers including a pair of their marksman held position at the top of those steps, allowing the Imperial Guard units not to worry about their rear.

As Beria was reaching the front of the crowd, he pulled a small wire from the satchel, then quickening his pace shoved an older man who was directly in front of him and at the edge of the front to the side and sprinted forward several meters to add momentum to his toss.

ISM officers who were near the front of the protestors saw Beria break at a sprint from the crowd, but not immediately sure of his motives only raised their weapons and took aim. As Beria reached a point a few meters in front of the crowd he pulled back with his right arm, his hand holding on to the strap of the satchel, his plan to catapult the satchel as close as he could to the line of Imperial Guard infantry a little over fifteen meters from him.

He was barely halfway to the apex of this throw when over a dozen rounds perforated his upper torso, unlike the ISM officers the Imperial Guard soldiers had not waited to identify Beria’s motives, and those soldiers who had him within their assigned fire arcs had raised their weapons from their ready point and opened fire, ripping the young Khurzav apart with 5.45x39 and 7.62x39 rounds from their assault rifles, dropping Beria to the ground, his satchel landing near his head.

Cries of pain flew out from several Khurzav located on the opposite side of Beria as many of the rounds fired from the Imperial Guard soldiers over penetrated the young man and struck several more in an unfortunate act of collateral damage, fear fell upon the crowd including those not near the front who could clearly hear the sounds of gunfire.

ISM section leaders were quickly calling over their radios to find out what was going on, Captain Rublev was leaning in through the open hatch of his BTR, trying to do the same with his communications officer while back at the Imperial Guard lines, twenty four soldiers with an even mix of PKMs and RPK-74s took a step forward from the second line, coming up between their comrades in the front line who were armed with assault rifles and went prone, extending the bipods on their weapons while the other seventy-two men, still in their staggered double line dropped down on one knee, all taking aim at the crowd, anticipating another attack, but holding their fire.

Five seconds passed, both the ISM officers and the crowd of Khurzav were still trying to figure what was going on when the timer on Beria’s satchel charge ran out. If only the cheap two-dollar timer had failed, then a simple shooting with collateral damage wouldn’t have turned into a bloody massacre.

The explosion rocked the Khurzav at the front of the crowd but was to far away to do anything but startle the ISM Officers and convince the Imperial guard soldiers that the protesters were turning violent. Even in his death Beria would get what he wanted as all hell broke loose.

Before the explosion had even died down an order carried over the personal communication systems of the Imperial Guard, a simple crisp order that was carried out instantly and without question, “Open fire.”

Those soldiers now prone with their MGs squeezed the triggers on their weapons, firing out three second long bursts that raked along the protestors in their fire arcs in a staggered pattern so that some were always firing while those soldiers in the second and third line, now down on one knee began to fire off controlled bursts at point targets, at the same time, the gunners within their heavily armoured vehicles raked their own weapons fire through the crowd, choosing however to only use their 7.62x54 coaxially mounted MGs rather then the fearsome 30mm autocannons.

Absolute panic fell upon the Khurzav, they screamed and scattered in all directions except for where the Imperial Guard was, this however only compounded an already horrid situation as ISM officers, still startled by the explosion and confused as to what was going on, found themselves seemingly being charged by Khurzav.

Fateful split second decisions were made from the ISM officers all around the square as Khurzav civilians seemed to rush them, their weapons were already up and at the ready as a result of the gunfire from the Imperial Guard. Being in an unfriendly country they took the only option that didn’t put their lives in jeopardy, they opened fire.

9mm rounds fired out in controlled bursts from their sixty-four round cylindrical drum magazine Bizon submachine guns along with twelve gauge slugs from their semi automatic Blackthorn combat shotguns, even the gunners in their BTRs, thinking they were under attack swiveled their gun mounts and fired their own coaxial machine guns into rushing Khurzav.

One could not even make out individual weapons fire as its sound echoed throughout the plaza and the dense urban tangle around it, Rublev was screaming at his communication officer to order a cease fire just so he could hear him over the noise.

Finding themselves under fire from essentially every direction, Khurzav civilians reached an all new level of panic, some froze up, not able to quickly decide what to do, those who managed to maintain their senses dropped to the ground, covering their head out of desperation as a hail storm of death ripped about them.

A full and agonizing ten seconds passed before the Kilrany guns fell silent; there was however no eerie silence, only the screams of wounded and terrified Khurzav after within that span of time, over twelve hundred rounds of ammunition had been expended into a crowd of two hundred people.

Neither the Imperial Guard or the ISM officers made any movement to help the Khurzav right away, the ISM because they still didn’t know just what the hell happened and the Imperial Guard because they continued to suspect another attack.

Rublev pushed away from his BTR and came back to stand where he had been moments before next to Captain Jenkins, whether he was still there Rublev didn’t notice as he looked at the sight, a moment later he activated his radio, “Sergeant, get the medics in there now! Make sure they’re covered and get some ambulances here immediately,” he lowered his hand and muttered to himself, “Son of a,” his voice trailing before his last word.

Anton's head exploded. That wasn't quite accurate, Levin would reflect later, but in essence, that had been what happened. A round from one of the PKMs punched into his face, smashed through the cheekbone, fragmented and took the back of his skull with it. Levin and the young woman he'd been standing next to were spattered with Anton's blood, bone fragments, and blood. A fragment struck her in the forehead, gouging a bloody path backwards and into her hairline, knocking her unconcious and down. Levin shoved his machine-pistol back in his jacket pocket and dropped low to the ground, slithering backwards away from the fusilade.

"God damn that fucking idiot who threw the fucking charge. Who the fuck was that?"
"Not one of ours! I didn't recognize him!"
"God damn it! We need to get out of here. We might have lost a half-dozen men easily."

Three more men rallied around Levin and he recognized only two of them.
"Who the Hell is this?!"
Viktor wiped blood away from his face, pouring down from a long gash struck diagonally across his forehead.

"Hey Viktor. You're lucky not to be dead! Let's go!"

Heading away from the Imperial Guard only put them infront of the ISM's muzzles. The partisans, nowheres near as incompetent as KLA men often could be, belonging to a branch of a pragmatic organization, swore and hit the ground again. Levin pulled his weapon from his pocket and shoved it under a corpse. The other three did the same, and the four men sought cover as best they could. Boris bellowed in rage and pain, and Viktor threw himself over the wounded man to keep him from rising up, provoking another angry shout, but Boris lay still. Clapping his hand over the wound, Viktor shouted back for Levin's handkerchief and pulled Boris's belt from its loops, securing the ad-hoc dressing over the wound punched into his upper left pectoral. Nothing potentially dangerous, though the man was spasming from rage rather than pain, red-faced and bellowing comprehensible insults in Kilrany as he bled heavily.

"At least his lungs weren't hit. If he dies in the next five minutes we know it hit an artery. Keep pressure on it Viktor!"
"I'm fucking trying! Sviasuki!"

Then Viktor was bleeding from a new wound, creased across his back, a shallow wound that bled little but was an livid red visible through the tear in his drab jacket.

OOC: A rather poor post I'm afriad. Absolute creative block I'm afraid. I've had to pad it out by assuming I'd be allowed an embassywithin Kilrany I'm afraid.

The Protests

With most of the Kingdom forces spread out at the Imperial Guard’s arrival relative chaos had occurred during the mass of shooting. Some soldiers had shot when the ISM troops close to them had done so and others hadn’t, individual squad leaders had made the call and for two squads that had meant a phrased withdrawal back down a street to give the crowd somewhere to go. However the crowd hadn’t followed as they were mowed down where they stood or simply dropped prone to avoid the worst of the ordinance that was flying around.

Two squad members from one Kingdom squad were hurled backwards when random rounds impacted on their body armour, the rounds not carrying enough speed to penetrate the thick Kevlar composite let alone the ceramic plates but still enough to push the men back.

With the firing over the squad leaders began screaming for orders on the command radio net, Captain Jenkins responding for all to hold positions as he tried to make sense of what was going on by heading back to the command BTR’s.

Arriving there he saw another scene of organised chaos as medics sprinted past him, completely oblivious to his calls. Rublev was shouting orders so Jenkins moved back to him, his G36 held in a completely unnecessary manner that suggested this was a combat zone rather than a massacre. He approached the ISM Captain and waited for a chance to speak.



An Airport in Kilrany

The small private jet touched down at the airport and rolled towards its allotted space on the tarmac near to a small terminal. The flag painted on the tail was that of the Kingdom and denoted the aircraft as being a Kingdom Air Force VIP transport jet of the Royal Squadron.

With the engines whining as they powered down the small stairs within the cabin door came down and two security officials alighted, followed by another man in a suit and then several staffers and more security people.

The flight crew, in Air Force overalls, waited until they were off before two of the three men alighted and checked over the plane whilst the third watched the radio sets inside.

Meanwhile their former passengers were in three vehicles heading for what would become the Kingdom Embassy in Kilrany. The man to lead it, Sir Humphrey Stimson, was here to begin formal ties with the Emperor. He bore a hand written letter from the King for delivery to the Emperor at an unspecified time to be communicated from the Kingdom.

All that was left to do was find the building allocated to them, so Sir Humphrey sat down lower in his car seat. Definitely not as comfortable as the Range Rovers that they used normally, but until they were delivered it would have to make do. He thought that he would OK the building as soon as he saw it, just so that the two Air Force heavy transports could begin transporting furnishings and vehicles to make the place feel more like home as quickly as possible.

Just over a dozen ISM officers, trained in emergency first aid and carrying the necessary equipment moved forward from all around the plaza’s sides, shifting their weapons around onto their backs so they wouldn’t get in the way of treating the wounded, but remained ready to draw their sidearm should they need to, their sidearms being quicker to draw than their slung primaries. Following behind each medic was pair of ISM officers whose sole job was to watch their comrade’s backs, just in case any of the Khurzav decided to try anything further.

Rublev noticed Jenkins come up and turned to him, he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out as he suddenly found he didn’t know what to say to the Kingdom officer, he may have been concerned that the Imperial Guard would do something questionable in the eyes of the Kingdom soldiers, but he never imagined this.

Not far from where Rublev and Jenkins were, the soldiers of 2nd Division remained exactly where they were since the shooting had died off, their weapons still trained on the plaza and ready to fire should the Khurzav do anything foolish again, covering their ISM comrades.

They stayed like this for a few minutes longer until the sound of sirens from Khurzav emergency vehicles could be heard in the distance, orders then began to pass through their personal communications sets and section by section they began to stand up and fall back towards the rear of their respective HAPCs, each section covering the next as they fell back.

Regrouping at the rear of their vehicles they began checking over their weapons and magazines while the gunners in their vehicles continued to track their turrets over the remnants of the Khurzav civilians

-----

The Kingdom Ambassador would find himself in Kilrany’s capitol, located near the center of the nation. An old city by Kilrany standards, it had once been a village home to the old Kilrany, what modern Kilrany call their pre-Roman occupation ancestors, it had then become the seat of the Roman governor. After the Romans left it was renamed to what it was now, Kilranograd.

One of the largest cities in Kilrany, second only to the port cities of Lom or Plovdiv on the Eastern coast, it was quite literally divided into two sections, the Old Quarter and the New Quarter. The Old Quarter was the section of the city standing within an old and well-maintained defensive wall that ran all the way around the rather large Old Quarter measuring on average ten meters tall and seven meters wide.

The Old Quarter of Kilranograd was the only section of the city, which falls under rather strict zoning laws, which prevent the construction of any building taller then three stories with very few exceptions, and contained some of the most prominent buildings in Kilrany, including the Kilranograd Coliseum, the rather unoriginally nicknamed, Embassy Row and most prominent of all, the Kilrany Imperial Palace and its grounds.

Leaving Kilranograd International Airport located in the New Quarter, the House of James ambassador would find his convoy being escorted by a pair of ISM cruisers, the more conventional and more common vehicles of the ISM that had more in common with the traditional police car then the armoured personnel carriers used by the ISM Assault Squads, though the two ISM officers in each vehicle were still similarly armed and equipped.

The ISM escort however was not due to any belief that the Kingdom vehicles were in danger, but because it was a rare occasion indeed in Kilrany that a new embassy would be opened, there were less then a dozen of them in Kilrany to begin with, the most prominent of these being from the People’s Republic of Russkya and the Kingdom of Spazjenia.

The drive through the New Quarter would be uneventful, due to a well maintained public transportation system the streets of Kilranograd were not as busy as some major cities, the few civilian vehicles on the street were for the most part electrically powered, models built by Kilrany manufacturers based off the GM EV-1, but in a more advanced form. The relative silence created by these vehicles would however be occasionally broken by the rumble of an ISM BTR-80s, as the Kilrany had yet to find a more reliable fuel for their military grade vehicles.

The trip through the New Quarter from the airport to the Old quarter, an ever growing section of the city which stretched around the Old Quarter on its East, South and West sides would give the Kingdom Ambassador a good look at the contrasts of the New Quarter of the city amid the occasional curious glance from a pedestrian on the side of the street. Unlike the Old quarter, the New Quarter had none of the same zoning restrictions and was a mix of old stone structures, modern looking high rises and even the occasional skyscraper.

It took thirty minutes to reach the Old Quarter’s wall, the large defensive structures loomed above the vehicles as they passed through a street that cut through an enlarged gatehouse made to accommodate traffic, another fifteen minutes would see the column of vehicles reach Embassy Row.

Like the rest of the city, Embassy Row was a neat and orderly looking section of the Old Quarter, each embassy sat on a plot of land five hundred square meters in size surrounded by a solid looking two meter tall cast iron fence, a gatehouse sat near a large cast iron gate large enough to allow two vehicles to pass through, between the fence and the rather large three story buildings were well maintained gardens. Each building contained multiple officers and large rooms with sleeping quarters for up to fifty staff and the ambassador and a barracks to comfortably house up to a full platoon of forty-eight men for guard duty. To further accommodate any nations ambassadorial staff, a large underground garage was located beneath each embassy easily capable of holding up to a dozen large vehicles.

Anticipating a growth in the need for embassies, Kilrany had built almost two dozen such structures decades ago to prepare for that growth, however when it didn’t come, they simply chose to maintain them for the inevitable, as such a dozen of these structures were empty, but regularly inspected and upgraded as bylaws required.

An additional feature of each embassy was a large open patio on the North side of each building, which gave a rather impressive view of the massive Sirkorsky Mountains, located off to the North and North West of the city. A pristine mountain range that had a very high end resort located on its extreme Eastern tip, the rest of the range being a rather strictly enforced no fly zone.

One empty structure in particular sat with the gates open, waiting inside near the building’s entrance was Anna Pavlova, an average looking Kilrany woman in her mid thirties and an aide to Foreign Affairs Minister Kasatikin, having been sent due to a rather drastic lack in the Kilrany Diplomatic Corp, a result of rather limited contact outside of the SFR due too a rather distant standing with most of Europe and North America.

She stood at about five foot nine and wore tailored grey pant suit, which hid her defined muscle mass which was average for Kilrany women, she would unfortunately personify the general Kilrany mistrust of foreigners for the Kingdom ambassador as she stood with her arms crossed over her chest, in her right hand, almost resting on her shoulder was a brown folder containing multiple documents.

Standing a few meters away from her and next to a black government car was her driver, an ISM close protection officer, a rather unhappy looking male standing at six feet even with a pair of dark sunglasses, he wore a tailored black suit which helped hide his SR-2M submachine gun located in its special concealed shoulder harness.

They watched as the lead ISM cruiser came to a stop just past the open gate, indicating that this was the location for the Kingdom drivers, then with their job done, both vehicles pulled off and left the area, passing a three man ISM foot patrol walking along the sidewalk opposite the structure the Kilrany believed would be appropriate for the House of James.

-----

Across Khurzav, people sitting in their homes watching television suddenly found their programs pre-empted as lines started to scroll across their screens indicating a breaking news incident. Moments later the image of a middle-aged man seated behind a desk came into focus on the screen.

“Breaking news just now from the city of Pernik, we’ve received reports that Kilrany military forces have opened fire on a crowd of protesters outside the Federal Court Building. Details are still sketchy, but from first hand accounts from witnesses over ninety people have been killed and another eighty wounded, most critically. Other reports indicate that prior to the Kilrany opening fire on the crowd, gunfire was heard along with a large explosion. No statements have been made yet by Kilrany forces, or from the peacekeepers from the House of James who are also reported to have been present at the time of the shooting. We will bring you more as it becomes available.”

-----

Unlike in Khurzav where the news of the shooting broke quickly over almost every Khurzav media system, in Kilrany, it wasn’t considered quite as shocking. For those across Kilrany watching their evening news they would see a pleasant looking Kilrany woman in her late twenties casually standing with her hands held behind her back.

“And in military news tonight, a report from the Navy has stated that according to the orders of the Emperor, Battlegroup Relentless will remain off the coast of the FLRJ in continued support of Russkyan and Spazjenian operations against the Fascist faction in the FLRJ civil war.”

The image switched then to the image of a Kuznetsov class escort carrier being towed into a large military harbour, “On that related note the KIN Mara is finally returning home today. Some of you are perhaps unaware of it, but the Mara, along with the Freedom suffered significant damage after a kamikaze strike on the fleet by Fascist forces,” as she spoke the camera panned over the escort carrier starting from the front until it came to stop upon the carrier’s main tower, of which little remained after a Eurofighter laden down with high explosives crashed into it, leaving a gaping U shaped hole.

The image switched back to the woman, “A vigil has been planned tonight in order to honour the men and women lost aboard both vessels during the suicidal Fascist attack. In an interesting note, a planned march to protest the withdrawal of ground forces from the WSR, a small puppet nation of the Republic faction in the FLRJ civil war, was cancelled at the last minute today when representatives from First Division arrived at the rally point and informed them that they would not be permitted to march past the Imperial Palace’s outer fence line.”

“In Khurzav related new now, we’ve received a report from the ISM that elements of the ISM, the Second Division of the Imperial Guard, and member of the House of James peacekeeping forces were forced to defend themselves from partisan forces disguised within a crowd of protestors. The initial report indicates that there were no casualties except for the Khurzav, of which ninety-five are reported dead, and another ninety wounded. No word on whether or not any partisans were taking captive during the incident.”

“Also today we’ve received word that another supply convoy, this one carrying food and water for displaced Khurzav civilians was ambushed not far from the port city of Ostovgrad. Three soldiers are reported dead from the attack, fortunately the attackers were fought off and three are reported taken prisoner. Out of respect for the families we will not divulge names of those killed in action.”

-----

Later that night, a signal could be heard being broadcast over open radio channels, an FM band close to one usually used by a Khurzav radio station. A young man could be heard, “Good evening to all you freedom loving Khurzav, this is a free signal from the Khurzav Liberation Army. You must be all made aware of the massacre committed today by the Kilrany oppressors, today Kilrany military forces gunned down a crowd of unarmed civilians as they peacefully protested their changes to our laws. Such acts of brutality cannot go unpunished, I implore all freedom loving Khurzav to rise up and fight the Kilrany invaders with all their might, rise up an-,” the signal was abruptly cut off by silence as a subtle form of Kilrany radio jamming sprang to life.

Almost three weeks to the day had passed since the shooting incident outside the Khurzav Federal Courthouse, something the Kilrany were calling a justified shooting and what the Khurzav were calling a massacre, although they would never say that aloud within earshot of a Kilrany soldier. A relative quiet had fallen across the occupied nation, although it was far from peaceful, tensions were at an all new high, Kilrany ISM and regular forces concerned about retaliatory strikes while the Khurzav were terrified that the Kilrany would began some sort of genocidal campaign.

After the news of the shooting had broken world wide, a few international groups, such as the Red Cross had cried foul and made demands towards the Kilrany government to hold an inquiry and hold their soldiers accountable for what they were calling a mass murder. However such organizations held little to no sway within Kilrany, let alone the SFR, those ‘demands’ were summarily ignored. Even if such demands would have been considered however, due to the involvement of the Imperial Guard unit, their official report was all that was required since they answered only to the Royal Family and had an extreme amount of leeway in their actions.

However unlike the regular forces and the ISM who were treading lightly with the Khurzav since the shooting, the Imperial Guard was going about business as usual, caring little about the plight of the Khurzav civilians and cracking down on suspected partisans wherever they may be found. The unit history of each Division of the Imperial Guard could be traced back to before the founding of the Kilrany Empire and each one had countless encounters with the Khurzav over the years that had developed a great deal of animosity. As such the Imperial Guard units had no sympathy for the Khurzav and continued to follow the planned path of bringing Khurzav in line with Kilrany.

So in contrast to the events of a few weeks prior where the Imperial Guard’s 2nd Division arrived at Khurzav’s former federal court building in Pernik to disperse a crowd, they were now gathered at the same courthouse and encouraged a crowd to arrive. Those Khurzav whose curiosity overpowered their common sense enough to come investigate were herded into the plaza across the street from the courthouse by a mix of ISM foot patrolmen and Khurzav police who were patrolling along it’s outer edge on the sidewalks and streets while a few ISM BTRs were strategically placed to cut any flow off traffic near the courthouse with the exception of a single Khurzav News Network van which sat off to the West side of the plaza, its camera crew filming the gathering crowd and the scene in front of the courthouse, which was in turn now being transmitted live on Khurzav television.

The plaza had long since been cleaned up, and no trace of incident remained, which along with the presence of the Khurzav police force working along side the Kilrany ISM on patrolling the perimeter aided in making the Khurzav civilians feel more comfortable gathering again in the presence of the Kilrany Imperial guard.

The slowly growing crowd had an odd sight before them, besides the surprisingly few ISM vehicles located blocking traffic on the streets, there were eight 2nd Division Nizhom, the heavy APC variants carried the preferred weapons mounts of Kilrany troops, a single 30mm autocannon, a coaxially mounted 7.62mm machine gun and a twin pack of ATGMs, all eight vehicles were neatly lined up along the street between the courthouse and plaza all facing the plaza with roughly a meter between each, occasionally the vehicles’ weapon mounts would swivel about, scanning the crowd or the buildings around the plaza for threats. Roughly fifteen meters off to the East side of the line of Nizhom sat a Khurzav prison transport van and a pair of Khurzav patrol cruisers with a half dozen of their officers standing around them, unsure as to the motives of the Imperial Guard infantry sections who now casually stood guard near their vehicles, scanning the crowd and buildings much like their vehicle gunners. However the sight that was truly strange was up the steps of the large courthouse, standing a meter back from the top of the steps was a line of six men of varying ages in orange jumpsuits spread in a line roughly one meter apart from each other, each man had their feet and hands shackled together with their hands behind their backs, one 2nd Division soldier stood behind each man at about the distance of their own arm span, each one keep their left hand firmly on the prisoner’s left shoulder in front of them with their weapons shouldered. The last thing that stood out to the crowd gathered was one more 2nd Division soldier, who stood on just off to the right side of the prisoner located on the far left, the soldier’s weapon was also shouldered but held in the right hand was what looked to be a small megaphone.

When roughly seventy people had gathered in the plaza the 2nd Division soldier with the megaphone, apparently content on the number, lifted the megaphone up in front of her covered face, it was only when she spoke in a dispassionate voice that her gender was made known to the crowd, she spoke in Russian to ensure all watching would know what she said, “Welcome ladies and gentlemen,” with the help of both her megaphone and a voice accustomed to bellowing orders across a parade square, the crowd could easily hear her. As she started her next sentence she slowly began to walk to her left, to the opposite side of the line of prisoners across their front, her upper body half turned towards the crowd “You are all no doubt wondering why we are here, and why these six men are here as well,” there was a pause as she continued to walk in front of the line of prisoners, as she did she lowered the megaphone for a moment only to raise it when she spoke again, “Allow me to explain and to introduce you to our illustrious guests up here, some of them you may know already, but I will do so anyway for those who may not.”

She paused again as she reached the end of the line of prisoners lowering the megaphone once again, she then turned around to her right and stepped up next to the closest prisoner, a man who looked to be in his middle ages, she then turned to fully face the crowd, “Here we have Postnik Zemtsov, age forty three. Nineteen years ago he was found guilty of the murders of sixteen people and sentenced to death by a jury, for nineteen years he’s been awaiting execution of that sentence.”

There was another pause as she lowered the megaphone and stepped around the front of Zemtsov to stand next to the following prisoner in the line, a younger man, he looked to be in his thirties, following the same process as before she faced the crowd and raised the megaphone, there was a slight hint of anger in her voice as she spoke “Here we have Fyodor Tatlin, age thirty six, seven years ago he was found guilty of committing twenty four separate acts of pedophilia against minors under the age of ten, for his crimes he was sentences to a mere fifteen years.”

As the she followed the same routine as she had before, one of the Khurzav officers standing next to the prisoner transport van looked down at the ground and placed his hand on his forehead, Alright, we get it, we don’t have the most effective criminal system in the world, must you rub it in our faces? As the Khurzav officer looked back up to the scene a top the courthouse steps the Kilrany’s reasons for bringing them out seemed clear to him now, You didn’t need to drag these prisoners out here to show off how bad our system is, to reinforce your point that we had corrupt leaders.

The 2nd Division soldier raised the megaphone to her face once again as she stood next to the third prisoner in the line, a man in his mid twenties, clearly intent on identifying every last one, but where there was a hint of anger in her voice before, it was now clear in her voice, “Here we have Osip Erofeev, age twenty nine, ten years ago he was found guilty of the rape of nineteen women, he is scheduled to be released in two years,” before she moved off to the next prisoner she glanced at Erofeev, one got the impression that if it hadn’t been for the fabric that covered her face she would have spit in the man’s face.

However she continued on with the now apparent routine, coming around to stand next to the fourth prisoner, a man who looked to be in his fifties, she raised the megaphone again, her voice seemed more even and dispassionate once again, “Here we have Boris Klimov, age fifty four, twenty six years ago he was found guilty of twenty eight counts of murder and sentenced to death, yet still awaits the execution of that sentence.”

The crowd chattered amongst themselves, anger at the Kilrany for apparently ridiculing their system of justice, flawed or not, anger at their own government for not having fixed it before, annoyance at the Kilrany for having dragged out the worst criminals in their penal system to highlight it to the world. They however continued to watch and listen as the woman soldier stepped up to the fifth man in the line, a fellow who looked to be in his sixties.

She continued to keep any hint of emotion out of her voice as he spoke through the raised megaphone, apparently having chosen to suppress it, “Here we have Yuri Yashin, age sixty two, twice convicted of pedophilia he was once again convicted of sexually assaulting six minors under the age of five two years ago and sentenced to six years.”

Stepping around in front of Yashin she seemed to change her routine slightly, this time coming around the sixth prisoners right side, placing her left hand on his right shoulder, the youngest of all the prisoners there, he looked to be in his early twenties, her mannerisms indicated this one was about to stand out above the rest, “Here we have Lev Petrov, age twenty two, the son of your illustrious former Minister of Justice, not many of you have heard of him however, the media was not permitted to report on this particular case. He was found guilty of four counts of rape, the murder of one of them, and three counts of sexually assaulting three minors under the age of ten. He was sentenced to fifty years for his crimes three years ago, two years ago he was quietly moved from his cell in a maximum-security prison to a minimum-security prison and just as quietly his sentence was reduced to three years, his release is scheduled in two weeks,” one could almost sense a smile under the fabric covering her face as silence fell upon the crowd.

She only waited a moment before she slowly began walking towards the center of the line of prisoners, close to the edge of the steps leading up to where they were, “Is it not comforting to know such serial criminals continue to live on, most given the chance to re-offend? Does this not enrage you to know these things?” She paused for a moment as she stopped at the edge of the steps, looking out at the crowd before her, the KNN camera crew continued to broadcast the feed over Khurzav channels, even some in Kilrany who chose to watch a specific channel could be witnessing this event.

Standing at the edge of the top of the steps and while the crowd was still silent she raised the megaphone again, “It should enrage you how ineffective your former government chose to keep your system of justice, however fortunately for you all, you are now under our system of justice,” there was a slight pause before she spoke again in a darker tone, “And we don’t let such deviants live,” she lowered the megaphone and spun around and almost at a march walked right between the middle of the line, as she passed through the middle each 2nd Division soldier standing behind the prisoner in near perfect unison kicked out the back of each prisoner’s knee, forcing each one to their knees on the ground.

She stopped roughly a meter behind the line and turned to face the direction of the crowd just in time to witness each soldier reach around past their standard issue USP Tactical to their back, taking hold of the handle they removed their issue Kilrany Long Knives from their sheaths, being properly made they made no sound as they did so.

Before their minds could realize what was going to happen each soldier in almost perfect unison shifted their left hand off the prisoner’s shoulder in front of them and took hold of the top of each prisoners head, using the hair to force the head backwards and cleanly exposing the neck to which they quickly and efficiently slashed the slightly curved razor sharp single edged blade of their knives from left to right across, severing the jugular, larynx and carotid, the soldiers avoided striking the spinal column so as not to dull their blade on the bone.

Gasps erupted from the majority of the Khurzav civilians, even the Khurzav police officers were shocked by what just happened, some looked away instantly at the sight of red, others were stared in horror, a few looked on in approval, glad to see these men meet such an end.

Each of the soldiers held their knives out to their sides for a moment, having released their grasp on each of the prisoners they had been holding on to, letting them fall forward, the prisoner’s pain would be short lived, within ten to fifteen seconds each would be rendered unconscious by the loss of blood. The 2nd Division soldier with the megaphone started back forward, as she passed back through the center of the line the last prisoner stopped moving and each of the soldiers went down on one kneed to wipe the blood of their blades on the orange jumpsuits.

As she reached the edge of the steps again the soldiers behind her were standing back up, re-sheathing their knives before taking up an at-ease position, she raised the megaphone back up to her face and addressed the shocked crowd for the last time, “By Khurzav law these men were found guilty of capitol crimes and by Kilrany law they have been punished for them, never again shall they commit their heinous crimes. Whether or not you like it you are all now under Kilrany law, remember that. On that note, I should mention that this duty would normally fall upon 1st Division and their somewhat more ‘humane’ execution practices, however because of continued activities by other criminals they cannot be here and it must fall to us.”

She lowered the megaphone for the last time and started down the steps of courthouse, following suit each of the six soldiers behind her came forward, stepping clear of the pooling blood and began down the steps behind her, pulling their weapons around to the front into a ready position.

-----

Not to far outside Pernik, just to the Northwest within the former Khurzav military base being used by the Kingdom peacekeepers a dozen or so off duty Kilrany soldiers sat about a handful of tables within what used to be the Officer’s Club, now turned into a rest building.

Major Anna Roerich sat comfortably in a chair at one such table, in her right hand she held a small glass containing her day’s ration of Vodka, the television screen was the main center of attention for the room, which contained Kilrany soldiers of all ranks and any Kingdom soldiers who were also off duty and had joined them inside, had they chosen too.

“My isn’t Second Division being rather melodramatic today?” Roerich scoffed in amusement at the somewhat sarcastic statement from a Corporal at another nearby table, to which another Corporal at the same table replied with a amused grunt, “It’s the Imperial Guard, when aren’t they overly dramatic?”

Chuckles reverberated throughout the room from the gathered soldiers, they held the Imperial Guard in great esteem, but even they could jest from time to time about them, they watched on the screen as the seven soldiers walked down the steps, the image suddenly changed to that of a shocked looking new announcer in a grey suit, mouth open slightly, he appeared to try and say something but failed miserably.

Roerich glanced at her watch then over to her right, “Isn’t the Kilranograd Coliseum showing a reenactment of the battle of the plains in a couple minutes?”

A Sergeant replied as she stood up and started moving over to the television, “Indeed they are, I’ll change it over.”

Many things are a balance of various elements. The degredation of the morale of the KRG men was due predominantly to being stuck in the primeval forests of Khurzav for some time now with limited means of recreation, but much pride in what they had become under the tutelage of the man in dirty Kamysh-pattern fatigues, fierce-eyed and with a harsh, angular face.

An increase in operational efficiency and as a side bonus, the morale of the men was achieved when the order to deploy in small hunter-killer teams of four men, with an automatic weapon, rifles, grenade launchers, and a marksman weapon remained in effect. Limited attacks had been made, experience had been gained, and knowledge of their opponent's new tactics learnt. What the harsh-faced man really wanted were RPGs, and ideally a large bore rifle or two, things he could only get if he were audacious enough to risk a sizeable amount of his half-hundred strong force in a dedicated and - as he had admitted to himself many times previously - lucky ambush.

But this, compared to attacking Kilrany or Kingdom or Yugoslav or any other occupational/peacekeeping forces, was easy. Two hunter-killer teams, a total of eight men, plus the harsh-faced man and a talented marksman for a complete tally of ten, now made their foray into the town. The rule had been to stay away from cities - that was often where the Second Division of the Imperial Guard lurked, and no man had a desire to face these new and intimidating looking machines that had been seen in newscasts since the massacre weeks ago. But this town was surrounded on three sides by dense forest, albeit that forest was cleared away for as much as a half-dozen kilometres in any direction... again, the balance of risks. Dressed in civilian clothes, but all wearing the same civilian clothes, the KRG men moved inwards.

In retaliation for the massacre, to maintain the morale of his men, and to boost the morale of the population and let them know that while they endured, other men fought for them, a Quisling would die. The KRG men, practical men all and many of them family men, couldn't care about the executions of paedophiles and "softs" and other "non-humans," as the harsh-faced special operations soldier had termed them. That they would have done themselves - if anything, letting a Khurzav officer kill them would have been more proper, but no time for caring, not now. Viktor Sergetov and Yuri Ivanov took the stairs from the lobby two at a time.

The building was well constructed, brightly lit, and obscenely decorated with precious gilts and dark reds. The stairwells were more sparse, wooden hand-rails topping the wrought-iron bannisters. Light-coloured carpet dirtied under the muddy soles of two pairs of boots. The doorbell rang twice in quick succession under Yuri's thumb as Viktor quietly closed the hallway door. Only three men lived on this branch of the third floor in a quasi-suburban world of two-storey apartment complexes in this particular town, and two of them were still at the office. But not the Quisling. The door closed, Ivanov quickly walked down the hallway, painted in rich tones and continuing to point out the obvious: That this building had housed the government favourites in this town, before what was now being termed "The Occupation." Viktor opened the door, took the stairs quickly, and opened the door at the bottom. Four more men quickly walked inside and took the stairs up, two or three at a time. Ivanov's harsh-faced commander smiled a frightening half-smile and nodded acknowledgement to Ivanov. Above them, on the third floor, Sergetov rang the doorbell again, then knocked. KRG Partisans filed into the hallway, withdrawing handguns from holsters concealed under their knee-length dark coats.

Sergetov and Ivanov took up places on either side of the door while others picked a lock on another apartment down the hallway. Four men disappeared inside there, two carrying hunting rifles. An un-oiled window latch squealed as it was forced open, and one of the marksmen smelt the musty air. Unoccupied for some time, the apartment hadn't changed any since it had been abandoned, and the Quisling bastard who lived here had probably run off to some safe haven. Well back from the window, the other two men in the hunter-killer team worked to camouflage the two marksmen. They applied thoroughly learnt lessons: Backdrop to match the colour of the back wall. Well away from the window. Designated firing lane. Firing rest, even though it's just a temporary position - precision with one round, always. Patience, limited movement despite the camouflaged positions they worked from. In the urban environment, it is straight lines near-always, remember this as you build your shooting cell, for it will allow you to blend in more effectively. No harsh colours. Quickly and efficiently they worked, then withdrew to the entranceway, but still inside their commandeered apartment.

Outside, there was a bang as the door was kicked close to the knob. A cracking, splintering noise as something gave way, and a cry of fright from inside the apartment. The telephone wires were already cut - but did he have a cellphone? Most likely. Time to be quick. One of the men standing just behind Sergetov raised his hand in the child's imitation of a handgun: his ear, pressed against the thin and yet lavishly painted drywall, had heard the metallic scrape of a handgun being cocked. The man nodded, backed up, and kicked the door again, hard. It smashed inwards, banging off the wall and loosening itself from its hinges. He immediately dropped flat through the doorway, felt the foot of his partner on his shoulder as that man leapt into the apartment, handgun up and ready to fire, hammer thumbed back.

The Quisling screamed with fright, and two men simultaneously barreled into him. The traitor's handgun was on the floor, seemingly forgotten in the shock of the door flying open, and then a thud as loud as the door slamming open as the Quisling's back hit the far wall. They slammed him down onto the floor, pinned an arm behind him, twisting it cruelly, and smacked him across the face, hard enough to loosen teeth. The harsh-faced man walked in, surveyed the apartment, and accepted a small painted metal tool-box from one of the men who guarded the hallway.

Faces a mask of blank emotion, the two men who held the Quisling on the ground rolled him over onto his back, dropping their knees into the inside edge of his elbow, dislocating the joints. They broke his knees with a ball-peen hammer, handed to them by the former special operations man who wore the same frightening smile he'd had earlier. This man then plugged in a small hand drill and inserted a bit into the chock. A whimpering, traitorous bastard squirmed on the floor, mewed in terror as the drill sounded to a deft press on its trigger, and then proceeded to scream himself into unconciousness as the jagged drillbit took his left and then right eye, ripping delicate flesh to miniscule shards, ocular fluid mixing with blood and destroyed tissue of cornea, pupil, iris. They left him there after a jaw-shattering kick to the face, bleeding, blind and crippled, on the floor of his lavish apartment.

They brought the tool-kit with them. Two sharp bangs echoed down the hallway. A police siren; two Khurzav policemen assigned to guard the "Quisling Building," working a checkpoint down the road, crumpled to the ground with shattered skulls. All men left through the side stairwell. They left their equipment in the forest.

Some of them went for coffee at a cafe on a street corner. Two chatted amicably and played cards, sipping their brews. Four others studiously ignored the chaotic shrieking of police and other emergency response sirens, reading their newspapers. The harsh-faced man suggested to one of the younger men that he should perhaps seek a roll in the hay with one of the less cynical university students working in this town. "Of course," the man added, normally intimidating face softened by a friendly, almost paternal smile, "you won't tell them what you really do for a living. Take Viktor, Sergei, and... Ivan, with you. Have a good time, take care, always. And we will meet in say, a day's time. Then back to work, yes?"

The startled marksman nodded his appreciation as a waitress took empty porcelain mugs, cups, and small plates, one of them sporting a spiral of brown coffee rings. Some left the cafe, others headed into town. There was functionally no risk here - the Khurzav police incompetent, the Kilrany rarely passing through... and only twenty four hours in which anyone could make an unlikely catch. Again, the balance of risks.

It didn’t take more then a day for the news of the KRG attack to spread across the Khurzav News Network, seemingly spurned on by a few representative Kilrany personnel who subtly tried to encourage the KNN to air it as soon as possible, much to the suspicion of KNN announcers who figured the Kilrany were up to something. Although since the KRG had not attempted to spread the word that it was they who did it, no one in particular could be blamed just yet.

“-And we continue to be denied our requests by the Kilrany government to see members of the monarchy who are allegedly still alive and being held in prisons,” the announcer paused for a moment, shuffling a few papers before continuing again.

“In more disturbing news, three men are dead in the small town of Vinova, one a member of the town’s municipal government and the other two were members of the national police force. Although the attackers haven’t been identified, the Kilrany ISM are placing blame on partisans, a spokesman for the KNPF was less forgiving, calling this a, ‘heinous act of brutality and murder by a pack of thugs,’ and they are vowing to bring those responsible to justice. Details are still sketchy as this point as the KNPF are not releasing a great deal of information, but from what we’ve been able to discern, both officers were killed when they responded to the attack on the government member, who was brutally tortured and unfortunately died of his wounds before emergency services could get to him. Out of respect for the families we will not be releasing their names at this time.”

Once again the announcer paused for a moment to shuffle a few papers before continuing again, “In related news, it was announced today by a representative of the Kilrany government that a deal was struck with the national police force to drastically increase their numbers by taking on volunteers from Khurzav soldiers still being held in POW camps. It is said that over the next two months volunteers will be taken to bases to be trained in the field of law enforcement by both KNPF and Kilrany ISM instructors. At this time the KNPF have announced that over one hundred and ten thousand volunteers have come forward and agreed to go through training.”

While officially the Kilrany were denouncing the attack made by the KRG, most really didn’t care that the Khurzav had started to kill each other, most just content that for a brief time they weren’t the targets. A few in the command and intelligence echelons of the Kilrany forces were actually pleased about it, figuring that this would help turn Khurzav civilians against such partisan groups, it had certainly helped turn the KNPF against them, partisan groups would quickly find themselves loosing what supporters they had in the Khurzav National Police Force.

In turn the KNPF were now pressing informants and suspected supporters hard for leads on who was responsible for the attack. A task made all the easier for them ironically enough due to the changes in Khurzav law by the Kilrany, which gave the Khurzav police officers more discretionary powers then before.

-----

God bless night vision goggles, as that thought passed through Corporal Suvorov’s mind a small grin came across his covered face as he moved through the heavy woods somewhere around the outer Eastern edge of the operational area assigned to Delesa. As tail end Charlie for this his twelve-man Army Special Recon section, he regularly looked behind himself to check the rear of the group as they moved at a casual pace in a Northerly direction hunting for partisan activity.

He held his AK-74M at the ready, he had no optic attached to its rail, but it did have a GP-30 attached underneath the barrel. Farther up his column, which was moving through the woods with a spacing of about three meters between each man, Suvorov could see the trained German Shepard near the front of the column leading along its handler.

It was a dark night out, almost no trace of the moon could be seen through the thick cover of the trees, the sounds of the forest surrounded the men and women. “Hold,” the low voice of their Sergeant came in Suvorov’s right ear. The column came to a stop instantly and Suvorov turned around to watch the rear.

For a moment he wasn’t sure why they had stopped, but then he heard it, something was moving through the woods to the front of the column and rather quietly. Another moment passed and he glanced over his shoulder in time to see what looked like a deer moving quickly through the brush, it spotted them a second later then bolted back off through the woods to the right.

Ten seconds passed before he heard the order to move again, continuing the long and so far fruitless search in this particular area.

General Yves paced back and forth in his office, lights off. He scratched his head, then picked up his mug. He walked over to the window and split the blinds with his fingers and looked out across the parade ground to the building where the CIA operators had set up base. He took a sip, not looking away. The CIA spooks were one of the few things that Yves was uneasy about. Over the past few weeks a nice collection of civilian vehicles had amassed in a make shift parkade around back, and the bill that went through his office the other day for a large amount of clothing. They were up to something but he wasn’t sure what. The Commonwealth Ranger forces had scene little action in any since their arrival. It was all quiet on the western front so to say. But back when Yves was just a Major in the 78th Infantry Division in the Kreatvye war, in the final months, CIA and MSS agents set up these kind of bases within each army group headquarters, and neither then nor now did he know what went on behind those closed doors. He went back to his chair and begun to unlace his boot, and remove his combat tunic, when Staff Sergeant Michael Rock knocked on the door and entered. He marched up to the desk and gave one hell of a crisp salute. Only rookies thought Yves. He remained at attention.

“At ease boy, what is it?”

“Sir, CIA agents and civilian vehicles on the move, headed towards town.”

“Did they take any MPs?”

“Negative, and no military equipment, but the new guys they came in, the ones that look like the locals went as well. Sir, how do we know they aren’t locals?”

“No way we can, the brass say they are and are allowed on the base, but they also have Commonwealth forces. Any ways, they look like the people from the Ontario province on the north island, have you been there? If you have you would know what I am talking about.”

“No sir, I haven’t. But what do you want use to do?”

“Send a early patrol to the city, but they are really to watch and see what the spooks do, but tell them to look like they are on a regular patrol. That is all, go send out the orders.”

“Yes sir.” He saluted and exited the room. Yves pulled out a bottle and a glass from the bottom drawer of his desk, it was turning into a bad habit, a habit turned bad on this tour, as their wasn’t much to do but drink and shoot targets at the range.

“Lets see what you bastards are up too.”

To be continued...

There would be little difficulty for the Delesa CIA agents traveling the roads, so long as they carried some verifiable ID that proved they were from Delesa, although they would no doubt get curious looks from Kilrany soldiers at checkpoints wondering why they were dressed as civilians, assuming them to most likely be a special ops group, or perhaps an attempt by the Delesa soldiers to 'mingle' with the locals in a less threatening manner. However so far those peacekeepers in the country were slowly earning a moderate level of trust from the Kilrany, they seemed to be doing their jobs well in there eyes and not causing them any trouble, it was quite possible that with positive reports from the troops increased relations would come out of all this.

The CIA agents would also find themselves free from most any difficulties on the part of the Khurzav National Police or from the ISM unless they were spotted doing anything deemed suspicious. Although so long as they weren’t brandishing firearms like madmen this was unlikely, as the ISM was trying their best at this time not to push the locals too much due to the shooting incident a short time ago.

Despite how the regular forces were warming up to the peacekeepers, the Imperial Guard still saw them as foreigners and didn’t trust them, however they at least chose to act civil around them. The only exception to this was 5th Division, but fortunately for all concerned their presence in Khurzav was severely hampered by Emperor Sviatov’s desire to show the Khurzav that the Kilrany weren’t the evil people they had been made out to be in Khurzav propaganda, something that seemed to be slowly working every where except in the countryside where Khurzav civilians were less dependent on the comforts of a first world nation.

It was also due to this restriction on 5th Division’s presence in Khurzav that prevented them from acting on everything they might have otherwise, such as the curious build up of civilian vehicles in the base operated by Delesa. However there was nothing overtly wrong with this as such the intelligence branch of 5th Division classified this particular piece of information as a low level interest.

All things considered it was a rather beautiful day, from what one could see through the canopy of trees the sun was shinning brightly and there was nary a cloud in the sky, if it weren’t for the fact they were tracking an unknown number of partisans through the woods, Corporal Suvorov would have found this a rather relaxing hike.

Marring this however was the unfortunate fact that the entire section was on edge as they moved through the dense primeval forest as they maintained their three-meter spacing and casual pace. Not four hours behind them lay an old cabin, obviously abandoned for many years, but the group of partisans they were tracking had apparently spent the night there. However what they left behind had irritated the men and women of this ASR section.

Scattered around the cabin were over a dozen make shift land mines. The partisans had made small holes in the ground, placed a pin in them, then placed a high caliber round in the hole on top of the pin so that it sat just up out of the hole enough that if someone stepped on it, the weight of their foot would cause the bullet to suddenly impact the pin and ‘fire’ the round up into their foot.

Corporal Blavatsky had been the one to first find one by coming within millimeters of stepping on one such trap, instead her foot had disturbed the cover hiding it, which in turn warned the rest of the section that the area was booby trapped. A quick search had found what traps they could, followed by a even more cautious search of the cabin which confirmed what they suspected from the trail they were following, that they were starting to catch up with the group of partisans they’d been following for three days.

Suvorov currently found himself near the center of the small column of soldiers as they found themselves moving West, still a considerable distance from the base given over to the Delesa peacekeepers, but edging their way ever closer. This didn’t sit well in Suvorov’s mind, he had not had any first hand experience with the Delesa, nor did any of the other men and women of the ASR, he wasn’t sure what to make of them just yet. More importantly he didn’t know how they handled themselves in the field and none of them particularly felt like bumping into a Delesa patrol, as unlikely as Suvorov figured the odds of that were.

However the entire section would soon find themselves in a rather difficult situation within the next few hours.

For Corporal Kashina, a member of a Kilrany Imperial Air Force who specialized in air traffic control, the view of the sun setting from her position inside the Pernik International Airport’s air traffic control tower was highly impressive. The red, orange, yellow and blue hues mixed as the sun slowly sank down below the horizon and the sky above turned darker.

It was however odd to her that she should be here along with a half dozen other military air traffic controllers, this particular airport was after all civilian and had up until five hour ago been staffed by civilians with only a pair of Kilrany soldiers as observers. Six hours earlier they had been ordered to move to this airport and take command of it over, the origins of the order only becoming clear to Kashina and the others with her a half hour ago when a 4th Division Mi-17 had dropped off a half platoon of infantry, a four man fire team from which was now stationed in the tower with them. However when prompted, the 4th Division soldiers did not answer as to why they had been sent here, much to the annoyance of Kashina.

From communications with other towers she’d found out that the airport in Pashchatova had also been commandeered, which only increased her curiosity. This also lead her to believe something was up, but so far the screens she monitored showed nothing unusual. A handful of Khurzav passenger planes were on the go again, and there were just the usual Kilrany military transports making standard runs, the only thing that possibly stood out was a contact she had come on her board about a half hour ago coming in from Kilrany and header in her general direction. The transponder signal and radar return indicated that it was an AN-124 belonging to 4th Division, surely they wouldn’t commandeer several air traffic control towers for one heavy lift transport though, stranger things have happened I suppose when it comes to the Imperial Guard.

A few minutes later, a new contact appeared on her screen following the same flight path, a second later several smaller contacts appeared around it. Kashina was confused for a moment by what her screen was telling her. While the smaller contacts transponders clearly identified themselves as 4th Division Su-37s, the larger contact merely identified itself as a 4th Division aircraft, no other information was displayed.

She keyed up an open frequency usually monitored by Kilrany aircraft and attempted to contact the 4th Division aircraft, “Pernik Tower to 4th Division aircraft number five-seven, on bearing two-two-three, please identify yourself, over,” Kashina waited a few moments for a response, when none came she tried again, “Pernik Tower to 4th Division aircraft number five-seven, please identify yourself, over.”

Before she could try a third time she felt a hand come down on her right shoulder, looking up she could see it belonged to one of the 4th Division soldiers, he spoke up through the fabric that covered his face, “Don’t bother attempting to raise that aircraft, they will not respond to you, or anyone else besides the control tower at their destination. I would suggest you forget about this aircraft,” despite the pleasant tone in his voice, by the way said the word suggest, it sounded less like a suggestion and more like an order.

Kashina nodded her head and the soldier went back to his former position. Looking back at the monitor she keyed the transmitter off and decided to do the smart thing, pretend that aircraft didn’t exist.

-----

Almost four days looking for these bastards and we find them hiding in a barn just off of a highway, should I be surprised? Despite Corporal Suvorov’s rather caustic thoughts, what lay before them was a bit more then just a barn, or for that matter, a barn at all.

Arranged before the twelve-man section was what looked to be a farm storage facility made up by a half dozen rather large warehouses, outside of which over two dozen heavy trucks and farm equipment sat in rows, waiting for the proper season to come back around to employ their use. In an apparent desire not to mar the natural beauty of the area, the owners had left a fifty-meter thick tree line between the buildings and the highway it sat next too, with another fifty meters of open ground between the highway tree line and the buildings themselves. An additional fifty meters surrounded the buildings on the other three sides before the rather thick forest closed in.

With the highway located to the South of the warehouses, it was just two meters inside the tree line on the East side that the twelve-man ASR section lay prone in a line, with roughly a meter between each man, a few meters behind the German Shepard and its handler kept low. Corporal Suvorov found himself on the far right of that line, his section’s Sergeant having picked this particular position because of a slight rise in the ground that offered the thirteen soldiers some actual cover, as opposed to just the concealment of the forest.

From his position Suvorov could see the half dozen additional medium sized civilian transport trucks parked in front of two of the warehouses, with six more small cars nearby, all of varying makes and models. This task was made all the easier by the number of rather bright lamps attached to each building that broke through the ever encroaching darkness as dusk settled in on the land.

In the five minutes since they had arrived, they had been able to discern about three patrols moving around the warehouses, each made up of two men. Slightly disturbing however was the fact that each man appeared to be armed with an AKM and equipped with both vests and webbing, if it were not for the civilian clothes worn underneath and their demeanor, they would have looked like proper soldiers.

Just as disturbing was the fact that they appeared to be loading a large number of crates into the trucks and seemingly preparing to leave with them. From his position Suvorov could just clearly hear Sergeant Nemov speaking into his radio, his encrypted transmission going to one of the modified ‘Mainstray’ aircraft. Having already identified himself and informed them of their position, he had been given them some more detailed information.

“Yes, I need immediate support, I’ve got at least two dozen hostiles, and it looks like some of them will be leaving shortly with weapons, if they get on that highway we could lose them,” there was a pause as he was obviously being responded to, Suvorov scanned the area around the buildings in front of him, Nemov had given the place a look over using some infra-red goggles and obviously had seen more then he could. Admittedly if he pulled his own out he could get a good look as well, but he figured that really wasn’t necessary for him just now.

“Copy that, will advise on any change,” Suvorov glanced over in the direction of Sergeant Nemov, who had apparently finished his conversation, a moment later he switched back over to the section frequency and began to fill them all in on what was going on.

“I’ve been informed that 4th Division is scrambling a platoon, but it will be about fifteen minutes for them to get here in their Hinds, they’ve also re-routed an vehicle patrol, but they’re even farther out, were not exactly in a heavily patrolled area obviously. They have however got an Ares close by, they said it should be on station in about five minutes if we need it,” the news of an Ares brought a few murmurs of approval, none of the twelve soldiers had seen one in action yet. “So they want us to hold position and watch for the time being, we don’t need to engage them unless any of those trucks try to leave. If they do, we’re to engage at will, under no circumstance do they want even one of those vehicles leaving.”

This was just fine in Suvorov’s mind, as much as he might want to finally take these partisans down after hunting them for four days, he could easily wait another fifteen minutes for 4th Division, in his mind it would be an honour to fight alongside a unit from the Imperial Guard. Besides, the fact that these partisans seemed to be so well armed didn’t sit well with him and he was sure it didn’t with the rest of the section either.

Nemov continued, “Furman, take Bure, Zubov, Vodianova, Menshikov and Vlasov around to the South and find a suitable location to set up there, I don’t want any of these bastards to slip away to the West.”

Corporal Furman acknowledged the order and the six soldiers backed away slowly from their previous positions, not standing up until they had put a bit more distance between them and the edge of the forest, then they formed into a column and slowly began to make their way around to the South. Nekov had sent his section’s medic along with Corporal Furman, but had kept the marksman with his SVD-K. Both fire teams had an RPG-7V gunner and a PKM gunner, each with their assistant gunners, roughly splitting the section’s firepower evenly.

For Suvorov time seemed to move slowly as he waited and watched the partisans moving about the warehouses, the six men on patrol, another three continuing to load three of the trucks, which after about a minute had passed since Furman had left had gone down to just one truck, a few moments later several more men appeared from one of the warehouses moving towards the front of the trucks. He keyed in his personal role radio to ensure what he was about to say came through to Nekov, “Petor, is it just me or does it look like some are getting ready to leave?”

“It’s not just you. Furman, what’s your status?”

“We’ll be in position in another minute.”

“We might not have a minute. If we open fire forget moving quietly, get to a good location on that side and open fire as well.”

“Yes sir.”

Nekov then addressed the RPG gunner and PKM gunner still with him in turn, “Smyslov, load an OG round and get ready to fire at those targets grouped by the first warehouse, Filatova, on my order send some seven-sixty-two love’n towards those truck drivers,” unlike Russia, Kilrany was not bound by any military agreements limiting weapons designs, so instead of the standard OG-7V, they used a larger round made by KIAM, at twice the size, it carried a larger charge and more material for fragmentation, although it was still smaller then the PG-7VL.

“Suvorov, Karpov, load a VOG-P and send them at those targets outside the second warehouse, then open fire on the trucks, when they’re down, take down anyone you can see, same goes for you Filatova. Svidler, kill everything that moves.”

As he loaded a VOG into his GP-30, Suvorov could hear Svidler chuckle and aknowledge over the radio, easily imagining the grin that would now be on the marksman’s face as he held his SVD-K with it’s fifteen round magazine containing its rather powerful 9.3x64mm rounds. Although he was sure Svidler was likely less pleased then he let out, being so close with his scoped rifle.

“Get ready,” Suvorov tilted his weapon over so he could use the iron sights on the GP to aim at his targets, three partisans standing outside a warehouse watching the trucks start to slowly move forwards, to his left, out of the corner of his eye he could see Filatova’s PKM resting on its bipod, ready to unleash hell.

As the first of the three trucks reached the point roughly ten meters from the warehouse it had been being loaded from, Nekov gave the order to fire. The distinctive ‘whump’ of Suvorov’s VOG firing was eclipsed by the much louder sound of an RPG firing and a three second long burst of a PKM.

As Filatova’s fire raked across the engine and cab of the first truck, Smyslov’s OG round detonated at the feet of four partisans, shredding them with high velocity shrapnel and even before Suvorov’s VOG detonated next to his own target, he heard the distinctly crack of Svidler’s Dragunov.

Just as his VOG detonated, Suvorov unleashed a controlled burst from his AK-74M towards the cab of the third truck, whose driver was now panicking like the rest of the partisans still alive who were taken off guard by the sudden and violent assault.

Ten long seconds of gunfire passed before all thirteen visible partisans were down and a relative silence returned, even from their position they could hear the screams of partisans still inside the warehouses calling out in alarm. Suvorov grinned at the success of their ambush.

Over to his left Nekov lifted up his infrared goggles to see what the remaining partisans inside the warehouses were doing. Suvorov could clearly hear Nekov, “What the hell … oh shit,” a second later Nekov keyed his microphone in to fill his men in, “There must be a damned basement in these warehouses blocking IR, they’re fucking pouring out of the ground. Furman! You better damn well be in position!”

“Getting there now! Be ready to fire in a moment.”

“Filatova, I want suppressing fire on those warehouses now, I want these bastards to scared to show their faces, everyone else, engage at will.”

Suvorov cursed aloud and took aim at the warehouse, despite a four second long burst from Filatova’s PKM over three dozen partisans came pouring out of three separate warehouses, all of them quickly moving to whatever cover they could find, whether it was a group of barrels or one of the many vehicles out front of the warehouses.

He cursed again as he saw them all equipped as those men who had been on patrol, most were armed with AKMs, but several had what looked to be RPDs. If the ten seconds of gunfire had been chaotic earlier, with this new firefight, all hell had broken loose.

Suvorov found the return fire from the partisans far to accurate for his liking, the short range and sheer volume of enemy fire, coupled with muzzle flashes against the darkness from his fire team aiding them greatly, worse, more kept appearing at the warehouse entrances and openings. Thankfully when Furman’s fire team opened up on the partisans, it distracted many of them, drawing some of the fire away.

Several explosions rocked the area in front of the warehouses as Furman’s fire team launched several VOGs into the fray. A moment later a partisan appeared at one of the entrances of a warehouse with a RPG-2 on his shoulder, before anyone could drop him he fired the weapon and launched RPG towards Suvorov’s group. Falling short the round exploded in the ground ten meters outside the tree line.

Suvorov cursed loudly, Where the hell did they get all this damned equipment, quickly followed by firing another controlled burst at partisan who attempted to use a barrel for cover, as he went down Suvorov heard the click as his magazine ran dry, “Reloading!”

As he finished putting a new magazine into his rifle he saw something downright terrifying. He may not have ever seen one before, but the sight of two partisans pushing out a KPV in its infantry support configuration, he knew it was a target that had to go down fast.

“Sergeant!”

“I see it! Take the bloody thing down, now!”

Just as the two partisans on the weapon shifted it to face their direction, they managed to hit one of them and he went down hard, but the second one managed to get down behind the weapon system and unleash a stream of 14.5mm rounds towards them. It was only due to the inexperience of the gunner that the rounds hit no one.

Three explosions nearly shattered the KPV as two VOGs and an OG round from Furman’s fire team detonated in close proximity.

“I’ve got wounded here! We need to end this or get the hell out of here Sergeant!”

Furman’s voice was loud but calm over the radio, a moment later Nekov’s voice came over the radio, “Get ready to pop smoke on my order, we’ll regroup at-,” Nekov’s voice abruptly ended for a moment, Suvorov had no time to look over and see why, only hoping he wasn’t dead. A moment later he heard his voice again on the radio loudly, enough that Suvorov could hear it over the din of gunfire without the radio, “Get your heads down now!”

Although it was a minute behind its estimated time of arrival, the Ares, codenamed Falcon, had finally arrived on scene, having just descended into an orbit a kilometer and a half above and to the North of the hellish firefight. This heavily modified KIAM built AN-124-210G continued to bank in a wide orbit as ten hatches along the left side of the aircraft opened inward, five forward of the wing, five aft of the wing.

Ten AO-18 six-barreled 30mm aircraft autocannons were pushed out on trays by a hydraulic system designed to move the weapons and absorb recoil to lessen the stress on the aircraft. Up in the aircraft’s usual passenger section, gunnery computers controlled by the crew prepared to have the weapons fire a five second burst while back in the bay gun crews monitored the weapons as the ammunition was selected and the hoppers fed belts of ammunition into each gun.

With the aircraft banking the gunner lined up the weapons sights and toggled the fire button, down in the bay the aft row of five guns erupted, spitting out over fifteen hundred rounds of high explosive fragmentation rounds, deafening if not for the protection worn by the crew watching the weapons. There was a second pause before the forward row of weapons unleashed it’s own hellish barrage, this time using somewhat more controversial ammunition.

Back down on the ground Suvorov was confused by his Sergeant’s order, but carried them out, a moment later he understood. Words failed him as he witnessed the rain of hellfire shatter the warehouses like a sledgehammer taken to a plate glass window, the thunderous roar didn’t have time to die down on the ground before the second barrage hit.

Those who died in the first barrage were the lucky ones, as the second barrage hit the individual shells released a white toxic chemical, individually each shell lacked enough White Phosphorous to be terribly lethal, but with over fifteen thousand rounds hitting in the same area within five seconds, the cumulative affect was extremely lethal.

-----

While a substantial battle was being waged to the South-East of Tsyelograd, a large AN-124-210 had come to a stop on the tarmac of a 4th Division controlled airbase to the East of Pernik. The aircraft itself bore the insignia of 4th Division, although the majority of its passengers were not.

Inside were two KIAM built and modified Ka-60, one merely had a slight increase in armour, while the second was a bit more drastically modified, having a smaller cabin at the cost of more armour and better comfort, both were marked with the insignia of 4th Division, and both had modified collapsing rotors to fit inside the heavy lift transport.

Although the aircrew and a few passengers, pilots for the Ka-60s, were of 4th Division, the majority of the men and women inside were not; instead they belonged to 1st Division. Unlike the other Divisions of the Imperial Guard, these soldiers were not actively sent into combat situations, their role was that of close protection of the Kilrany Royal Family and members of the government, hand picked from other sections of the Imperial Guard and those promising ones from the regular forces.

Also unlike 2nd, 3rd and 4th Division, they wore a semi-ceremonial uniform. As they began to exit the aircraft, the conventional mind would be struck by their unusual appearance next to the legions of Gorka-S clad 4th Division soldiers who had turned this air base into a fortress of men and equipment, on the highest alert they ever came too, having even secured ridges and hilltops several kilometers out from the airbase.

Each member of 1st Division wore an identical uniform to that of 5th Division’s in-country uniform, the predominant theme being black, the intent to inspire fear and to intimidate those who would consider attempting to harm those they are assigned to protect while primarily providing protection for the soldier. A mottled white and grey variant with thicker fabric for warmth also exists for use during winter months.

Each uniform, for both men and women, began with a loosely form fitting under suit, made of a lightweight fabric, followed by a pair of black high quality combat boots. A piece of armour, not unlike a pair of greaves protected the front of their legs from their shins up to their knees, and like the other pieces they wore, it was designed to protect the wearer from firearms but looked like a ceremonial piece of armour. On their lower right leg each one wore a sheath containing a Kilrany Long Knife, a traditional weapon of the Imperial Guard.

On the upper body they wore what looked like form of fabric cuirass, covering both the front and back connected over the shoulder by a pair of small pauldrons of identical design, like the greaves, appearances were deceiving. The front of the Cuirass also acted like a combat vest, carrying magazines for their primary and secondary weapons, along with a more traditional combat knife. Located closer to the left side of the waist, right if the soldier was left handed, was the holster for their standard issue USP Tactical, chambered to fire the forty caliber round.

On their forearms was an additional piece of armour, vambraces in the same style as the other pieces running from the beginning of the wrist and stopping short of the elbow. On their hands they wore black leather SAP gloves, however what set these gloves apart was the eight ounces of steel shot sown into the top of the hand and the knuckles, providing increased protection to their hands.

For head protection each one wore a Kevlar balaclava along with ballistic helmet capable of mounting optics, usually kept in a pouch on their belt, when not using an optic, a pair of dark shaded protective goggles were used, when down over the eyes, this concealed every part of the soldiers body. As an addition each soldier wore a lash style personal radio like their counterparts in other Divisions of the Imperial Guard.

As a final addition to their uniforms, each soldier wore a single edged sword sheathed on their back, the hilt of which was visible at angle over their right shoulder, left if left handed. Although each soldier was trained in its use as custom in 1st Division, and despite their routine sparing, it was a weapon rarely ever used, usually only in the fulfillment of their duties in execution of condemned prisoners.

None of them wore a discernable rank on their uniforms, the only identification they appeared to have was the 1st Division insignia on their right shoulder, the same spread winged Hawk as seen on the Kilrany National Flag.

Thirty of these soldiers exited the heavy lift transport, their primary weapons varied slightly as they usually did with close protection units, but predominantly it had become the KIAM produced AK-74M chambered for the 7.62mm round, considered highly useful for close quarters combat, although the G36C chambered for 5.45 still remained popular among several of them.

A handful of them carried the Reaper AWS, another joint project between the Kilrany Imperial Arms Manufacturers and the Russkyan Military Supplemental Manufacturing Corporation, designed off the concept of the South African PAW-20 and firing a 20x45mm shell. Considered by the Kilrany to be a rather elegant bullpup weapon, it featured numerous rails and the option for a Computerized Optic Sighting System, which among other things was capable of air bursting specific shell types. This optic system however was not popular among the soldiers of 1st Division and opted to retain the weapon’s excellent iron sights in conjunction with an attachable foregrip.

As the aircraft’s flight crew prepared the aircraft for unloading the pair of black Ka-60s in their aircraft’s hold, the thirty men and women of 1st Division formed up into three lines and watched as another aircraft touched down on the runway, a KIAM MLPT, a passenger aircraft strikingly similar to the Boeing 777. Although its transponder signal had identified it as a 4th Division aircraft, it bore the markings of the Imperial Family Crest, a grey Phoenix with its wings spread wide, a coiled serpent wrapped in its talons.

-----

It would be the following morning that General Dovlatov found out about the run in the ASR section had with the well-armed partisans and he wasn’t too pleased. He was once again in the King’s old office, in that same comfortable chair, but he was focused solely on the Lieutenant something or other across the desk from him that he actually forgot about the 5th Division operative masquerading as a 4th Division soldier standing off to the side of the room.

“What kind of casualties did they suffer?”

The Lieutenant looked none to comfortable as he replied, “Fortunately none were killed, but five of them were injured in the firefight.”

“And what of the weapons? Do we know where they came from?”

“Apparently sir, the owner of the property had been instructed by former government to build on that site over twenty years ago, to hide a series of underground caches, one of the many they set up in case we ever invaded successfully. Unfortunately this was one we hadn’t found any documentation on in their files. So we were unaware of it. We believe it may have gotten forgotten.”

“Forgotten … if we miss one, how many more might we have missed, hmmm? How many more such caches might be hidden about this damned country that might be used against us at any time?”

Dovlatov continued before the Lieutenant could respond, giving a wave of his hand in dismissal, “Don’t bother answering that,” he paused for a moment to let the sense of frustration pass, “Do we know what all was in this cache?”

“Yes sir, after it was safe to go in, they were able to gain access down into the storage areas. The weapons seemed to be older in design, mostly AKMs, RPDs, some RPG-2s and some heavy machine guns. Unfortunately, according to what we’ve been told by Fifth, who took custody of the owner this morning, the partisans took control of the place over a week ago, we have no idea how many weapons had originally be stored, or how many had already been taken out.”

“Fantastic … just fantastic. Alright, we’ll have to inform the peacekeepers, don’t bother with the details of the action, just inform them that we may have partisan forces in the South Eastern section of the nation who might have heavy weapons, give them a detailed list of the weapons though, that much they can be told.”

“Yes sir.”

With the immediate concern over, Dovlatov looked over that the other ‘soldier’, “We can’t operate under these restrictions much longer, you need to convince the Emperor to grant us the same leeway we had in Virinov.”

The operative’s reply was surprisingly impassive, “You can ask him yourself. His helicopter will be landing here in about ten minutes.”

OOC: It suddenly occured to me that despite my rather large post just now, I didn't actually leave you fellows much you could easily respond too.

IC:
Later in the day, shortly after thirteen hundred hours, a Kilrany Corporal, one Anton Levitan received the order from the officer on duty inside the Kilrany communications building within the House of James controlled base several kilometers North-West of Pernik to deliver a message to the House of James command.

As he walked along towards his destination, he went over what he would say to whatever officer he was directed to give his information to, excuse the interruption, but I have a message to deliver. It would seem that last night, after locating and destroying a partisan stronghold outside Tsyelograd, it was discovered that these partisans had got their hands on an old weapons cache the former Khurzav government set up to be distributed to irregular forces in the event of our invasion.

Levitan shook his head in disapproval, no, not invasion … in the event our two nations went to war … yes, much better. Anyway, after a thorough search, they believe that it may be possible that some of these weapons were distributed before we found and secured the site. I’ve been informed that these weapons were older Soviet designs, but it was decided best that you were told so you could inform you men to be on alert. From what they told us they found AKMs, RPDs, some older model RPG-2s, and a handful of heavy machine guns in both twelve point seven millimeter and fourteen point five millimeter.

He nodded his head slightly, content with the wording he had chosen to use. About five hundred kilometers to the East-South-East, in the base given over to the Delesa, another Corporal found himself contemplating the same thing Anton was, having also been ordered to deliver the same message.

Something that Corporal didn’t however have to content with was something Anton considered an unusual message he had also been told to deliver to the House of James officers. I’ve also been told to notify you that in about a half hour, a flight of Fourth Division helicopters will be arriving. Apparently an officer of there’s wishes to speak with your commanding officer, I wasn’t told who it would be or why.

Since the knowledge that Emperor Sviatov was in the country was being kept secret, they continued to use the cover of 4th Division to transport him around, his first destination after speaking with General Yuri Dovlatov in Pernik would be the House of James base of operations due to it’s proximity. After wards a similar message would be sent to the small Kilrany garrison in the Delesa controlled base and the Emperor would be transported there to speak with the Delesa Commanding officer as well.

Arriving at his destination, Anton walked up to the first Kingdom soldier he saw and addressed him, “Excuse me, I have a message to deliver to your commanding officer.”

Delesian Kilrany-Operation Headquarters, Tsyelograd Base

The General was looking over reports on troubles back in Delesa on the home front, something about oil and boarding another countries vessel. Then he flipped to the sports section. He smiled as he read over the recent victory for his city's soccer team. There was a knock at his door. Yves placed down his newspaper, and picked up his coffee mug.

"Enter." he said calmly. Then his aid entered, followed by a Kilrany Corporal. A look of confusion ran across the aids face, and as the aid was about to step out the door, he faced Yves and shrugged. "And who may you be?"

The Kilrany personal began to tell the general the situation, then finished up. The General wasn't pleased. His vehicles that his unit didn't have the kind of armor to repeal such heavy weapons, yeah the LAVs might be able, but most likely not. Just when he thought this sector couldn't get any less exciting. He sighed, and said, "Alright, you can go back to your officers, and tell them I got the message. Thank you very much." with that the General pushed a button on his desk, and his aid reappeared at the door, and ushered out quickly. Once the once the two men where out, Yves picked up his phone, dialed a few numbers, "I want both the Colonels in here, five minutes ago!" Colonels Maxim Everard and Quincy Kirill got the message and were in the office in two, running across the base from the soccer pitch where the two regiment teams were facing off. But they were always in proper attire while in the General's presence.

"Alright, the reason I called you here is we now have a situation." he paused for affect. Something the General did to heighten tensions. "We have reason to believe that heavy weapons have now been acquired by the rebel forces here. Heavy weapons such as KPVs, RPDs, AKMs, and RPG-2s." the faces on the Colonels' faces were still calm, but the General noticed that both of them had tensed as Yves said RPG-2s. Everyone knew that they were outdated and an old design, but constant upgrades made them a force to be reckoned with. Something that the Hummers and G-Wagons weren't really meant to stand up to, if hit in most positions. With all this new equipment, that meant the possibility of more dangerous IEDs.

"What would you have us do General?"

"I want patrols doubled, more vehicles in the patrols as well. I want all the checkpoints doubled with men and supplies. I want the base security tightened. I want to know when ever a beetle steps inside this perimeter. So for the time being, I am revoking and weekend passes, and the soccer games. The boys are going to have to bunker down for the time being. And it's not like they will have energy to deal with these all the increased patrols and guard duty." none of those commands were a surprise to either Maxim or Quincy. They knew the routine, and the both of them would see that the General's orders were completed to the fullest. "Also, I'm going to suspend all the operations having to follow and find out about those CIA boys." now that came as a shocker, both the Colonels knew how much the General hated the CIA spooks, and wanted to know what they were doing, so to stop following them, this situation was serious, not that it was any less in Colonels' minds, tightened security meant tightened security. "Alright that is all. Get on it men." with that the Colonels left and began preparations for the orders.

Meanwhile in the relative safety of the CIA building, the agents were listening and watching everything. Once they heard that the heat had been taken off them by the General, that meant they could continue their operations without the old man waiting for them to slip up.

Major Viktor Byko, the Kilrany officer assigned as liaison to the Delesa peacekeepers stood leaned against a wall not far from the building housing General Yves. It had been about fifteen minutes since the Corporal had informed the General about the small firefight the night before, and about five minutes since Byko himself had learned of it.

With the news that it was believed some partisans had gotten their hands on heavier weapons, Byko felt the need to have a chat with this General Yves. Since the Delesa had swapped out their soldiers he hadn’t actually bothered to have a real talk with their replacements, his own fault really, for not bothering with it until now.

His intent to strike up a friendly conversation, but try to subtly ask a few questions that curiosity was nagging at him to ask.

Byko lightly pushed himself off the wall and set off towards the building across from him, he identified himself to the guards and requested to speak with General Yves.

Delesian Kilrany-Operation Headquarters, Tsyelograd Base

The Major was ushered into the General's office without a word from the secretary, just a smile and a nod. It had just been 20 minutes and just news that there might be bigger arms in the area, but the General was everywhere at once, ensuring his soldiers proper protection, meanwhile attempting to raise command about the new situation. The M777 artillery that was brought into the country a short time ago had been on stand by and not deployed, but no with the order the guns were dragged out into the field, and set up quickly by the trained crews of the Artillery regiment. The General continued to listen to the phone, but gestered to the major to sit down and handed a glass of water over the desk. We wrapped it up quickly.

"I'm sorry Major, politics back home. It's murder in a business like ours." he said without an emotion shifting a few papers on his desk then finished up for the momnent. He offered his hand across the deck. "And hows the Kilrany men doing? What is it that your here for? Unless you just here to talk to lil' old me." he smiled.

It was obvious to Byko that Yves was quite busy, so he made a mental note to try not to take up too much of his time and took the seat slowly, put on a pleasant smile and accepted the General’s handshake.

“I feel your pain General, but I must admit we’re not so overrun by politicians thanks to our own form of government. But politics is not what bring me here today. To be honest I did indeed wish to speak to you, it occurred to me that since your arrival I hadn’t properly introduced myself, I wish to rectify that … and of course I do have a few questions I wouldn’t mind asking,” his smile turned into a small grin at his last sentence.

He let a moment pass before letting the grin return to a pleasant smile, “For the most part I’d have to say morale is high, although this news that partisans may have gotten their hands on heavier weapons is in no way good news. Have you decided on a plan to deal with them should they come up, if I may ask?”

-----

Around the same time, some seventy kilometers from the base given to the Delesa, in a warehouse in an industrial section near the outskirts of Tsyelograd, some forty men were conducting drills with Soviet designed equipment. They wore a mixture of civilian and military surplus clothing under older model assault vests along with armbands on their right arm, however unlike the KRG, or the KLA, it did not have any writing on it, instead it bore the Khurzav national flag, identifying themselves as belonging to the Loyalists.

Nikolai Lazarev, de facto leader of this small group, stood nearby watching the various activities around him. Off to his right, twenty four men, broken into two sections of twelve carried out drills under the tutelage of a couple of ex-soldiers, men without families who were willing join them since in their minds it wouldn’t risk reprisal to loved ones.

They were grouped up similarly to how the Kilrany themselves operated in. Two fire teams of six, with each section containing two RPDs, two RPG-2s and the rest equipped with AKMs. The ex-soldiers were walking them through proper care of their weapons, what to expect when firing them; since they couldn’t very well do any actual target shooting, and how to operate together as a group.

In front of Nikolai, twelve men, split into three man groups were going over drills involving setting up and disassembling four NSV heavy machine guns, another pair of ex-soldiers walking them through it, teaching them how to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible, later they would go over proper firing procedures.

To his left Nikolai could see six other men turning cranks on old printing presses, churning out leaflet after leaflet that would eventually be bundled up and sent off with some sympathizers who would hold on to them, waiting for a signal to start spreading them around. Nikolai had made sure however that none of those who were to get the leaflets actually knew anything about this warehouse, or any specifics about their small group in case they were caught before of after the started releasing the leaflets.

In the leaflets the Loyalists identified their organization and their goals of liberating Khurzav and returning their monarchy to power, denouncing Kilrany ‘lies’ and propaganda while also chiding the KLA and the KRG. The leaflets denounced the KLA as being idealists and indicating that joining them was paramount to suicide due to careless actions and poor leadership. As for the KRG, the Loyalists accused them of having no clear goals and being cowards in the face of Kilrany aggression.

As a final note in the leaflets, the Loyalists indicated that soon they would prove just what a Khurzav could do to liberate their country, ‘soon’ being when Nikolai decided his men had enough training to begin taking action.

-----

About the same time, some eighty kilometers West of Tsyelograd, Arcadi Chekhov casually leaned against the railing on the deck of a well-maintained, moderately sized cabin. There wasn’t a great deal for him to see, the forest closed in around the cabin, leaving only a scant ten meters between it and the edge of the forest at the farthest point. Leaning up against the railing next to him was a bolt action, magazine fed hunting rifle.

Lost in his own thoughts, he stared up at the blue sky, thinking about his home in Tazhan, where he’d rather be right now with his wife and two children, but he had answered the call to take up arms against the Kilrany, something he didn’t expect would leave him standing on a deck of a cabin in the middle of no where.

So lost in his thoughts he almost didn’t hear Micheal and Vaslav come out the cabin’s front door behind him, the screen door banging against the frame, a sturdier wooden door left open due to the nice weather.

“Daydreaming again are we Arcadi?”

“Bah, not like I have much else to do here in the woods Vaslav. You just go to your little meeting and leave the rest of us here to be bored out of our minds.”

Both men had a light smile on their faces despite themselves, “Yeah, yeah, you act like these little clandestine meetings are all that entertaining to begin with.”

“Hmph, got to be better then standing around staring at trees all day.”

Vaslav merely chuckled while both he and Micheal walked down the steps of the deck and turned towards an old blue car off to the right of the cabin, parked on a worn dirt road that led out into the forest for several kilometers before it connected with a paved back road which would in turn eventually lead them to a highway.

His reverie now broken, Arcadi looked at the path where it entered the forest, a light, cooling breeze circulated around the cabin, causing leaves to sway. He looked over at Micheal and Vaslav as they approached the car, which was facing towards the road.

He watched as Vaslav went around the back of the car towards the passenger side, closest to the woods while Micheal turned towards the driver side. Before either of them reached the doors, Arcadi saw two forms seem to break from the forest, each rushing up behind Micheal and Vaslav, closing the gap quickly.

Before he could form the words to yell out a warning, the two forms came in low behind them, and grabbing the legs just above the knees they pulled backwards while simultaneously pushing up and forward with their shoulders into the back’s of both Micheal and Vaslav, slamming the two men face first into the ground. Before either of the dazed men could react, the two forms, which Arcadi’s eyes could now register as being Gorka-S clad soldiers used an open palm to strike the back of both Micheal’s and Vaslav’s head, instantly knocking the two men unconscious.

The whole scene before Arcadi had only taken two seconds by which time he finally realized what was going on and grabbed for his rifle only to have his head snap backwards as a specialized, subsonic 9x39mm round penetrated through his unprotected head. He never heard the weapon that the round had been fired from, nor did he hear his own body thump down onto the cabin’s deck.

Inside the cabin Georgi heard the thump as Arcadi’s body landed, curious to the noise, he leaned out a door way with a view out the screen door, “The hell was that Arca-” he stopped short upon seeing Arcadi’s body lying on the deck, blood coming from a large wound in his head.

Ducking back into the room he had been in, he almost yelled at Viktor and Pavel, who were sitting at a table and had been playing a game of cards, but were now looking at him oddly, “We’re under attack!”

Both shot up out of their seats as Georgi grabbed a breech loading double barreled shotgun he had left leaning against a wall and took off towards the door, trailing just behind him was Viktor with a Tokarev, while Pavel remained in the room for a moment as he opened a cabinet, pulling out a AKM assault rifle he had hidden there.

Bursting out the cabin’s front door Georgi and Pavel only had a moment to look over towards the car and see Micheal unconscious on the ground and his hands zip tied behind his back, Vaslav could not be seen for the car, the two Kilrany soldiers responsible no longer visible. Before they could take another step however something exploded against the cabin just above and to the left of the front door, neither of them had ever heard of the BS-1 Tishina, let alone that the Kilrany had modified the forestock of their AS Val suppressed assault rifles to fit the 30mm suppressed under barrel grenade launcher.

Pavel was just coming out of the room in time to see Georgi and Viktor perforated by the shrapnel from the 30mm fragmentation grenade the Kilrany had used, he almost fell over backwards in surprise as he tried to stop.

He raised his weapon towards the now damaged front door as he backed slowly down the hallway towards the cabin’s back door, his vision tunneled in on the front door, which ultimately lead to his death

He heard a loud crack behind him and only managed to turn his head enough in time to see that the wooden back door had been kicked open, and two large muzzles now pointed at him, held by a pair of Gorka-S clad soldiers. He thumped to the floor, able to hear the weapons that killed him only due to their proximity, his death signaling the end of the shooting on this snatch and grab operation conducted by 5th Division.

-----

Near the heart of Tsyelograd the rapid footsteps of a young girl, no older then thirteen echoed through a shadowed alleyway, her heart pounding as she desperately tried to stay ahead of her pursuers, their much heavier footsteps threatening to over take her own. She was not accustomed to running and she was starting to breathe heavily, but she managed so far to stay ahead thanks to the lighter clothes she wore, a simple looking pair of blue sneakers, a pair of jeans and light brown t-shirt, something she was also not accustomed to wearing, as opposed to her pursuers who wore much heavier clothing.

Not risking going out into the open just yet she turned left down another alley rather then head to the light farther in front, terror threatened to fully consume her as she did however, seeing a chain link fence not fifteen meters in front of her. However she quickly noticed a loose section on the lower left side and pushed on towards it.

A loud curse behind her drew a glance over her shoulder; just quick enough to see the three forms of her pursuers come racing around the corner behind her one after the other, her shoulder length brown hair partially obscuring her view. She focused her eyes back forward on the fence a moment later and pushed herself harder, her terror over the thought of being caught by those behind her overriding her fear of getting hurt.

Sprinting as hard as she could she slammed her body into the loose section of the fence, forcing her way through the gap as quickly as she could, the fence shook and rattled as she passed through. She pushed herself up and got back into a run, a sight moment of elation having gotten through with only a cut on her arm and a torn pant leg. The sense of elation quickly died as she heard the fence rattling, another glance behind her showed her that the lead pursuer now had their back to her and was crouching down slightly.

A moment later she understood why as the second pursuer almost seemed to launch up off the ground and up on top of the fence, then quickly dropping down and continuing to chase after her. Looking forward again she wanted to scream, instead she pushed on, but she knew she couldn’t keep it up much longer, with every meter she ran she felt it getting harder to breathe properly as her lungs began to ache.

Her eyes darted from side to side looking for another alley to turn into, or a door she could use, but she saw none, and the seemingly bright white light at the end of the alley out onto the street was getting closer and closer. Desperate she kept running, hoping that when she reached the street she could find a crowd to get lost in.

As she was about to burst from the alley unto the street another loud curse behind her drew her gaze, she looked back in time to see the silhouette of someone walking into her path. She screamed in terror, her mind thinking it was one of her pursuers she just barely managed to alter her path enough not to run full on into a Delesa soldier.

It wasn’t completely enough however and she partially slammed into the soldier and fell forward onto the paved road hard, rolling out onto the street scraping her hands and arms but luckily no traffic was coming. She came up onto her hands and knees quickly, feverishly looking around for a way out, fear evident on her face.

She quickly realized however that she hadn’t just run into a troop of Kilrany soldiers, although she didn’t recognize the uniforms, she knew they weren’t Kilrany. Desperate she looked about at them, “Please help me! They’re going to kill me!”

Several Khurzav civilians walking along the street stopped not far away to see what was going on, recognition of the young girl appearing on their faces. She quickly made another plea to the Delesa soldiers, “Please help me.”

She barely finished the words when the a Kilrany ISM officer came rushing out of the alley she had, skidding to a halt at the sight of the Delesa, his dark uniform and body armour clear in the afternoon sun, his face concealed by a black balaclava and a navy blue ballistic helmet, only his eyes visible as his dark goggles rested atop his helmet. He raise his Bizon partially before he recognized the soldiers as being friendly, then quickly lower it, crouching slightly his breathing was obviously heavy as he glanced from the young girl then to the nearest soldier.

He cursed lightly in his own language before attempting to address the closest soldier in a broken and heavily accented English, “God damn, I appreciate you stopping her.”

As he finished another two ISM officers came skidding to a halt on either side of him in a repeat performance, both raising their own Bizon and Blackthorn before recognizing the men around them and lowering their weapons, both breathing about as heavy as their comrade, they weren’t accustomed to long chases in their heavy body armour.

ooc: sorry about the small post, its really just to keep going, i just got back from soccer and I'm tired... I'll get craking on the other part soon

Delesian Kilrany-Operation Headquarters, Tsyelograd Base

The general took a sip of his coffee, slightly burning his tongue, but other wise a damn good cup of coffee. He listened to what the Major had to see, and was caught off guard by the question. The Major might have seen him jolt lightly in his seat.

"By what do you mean by what I plan to do, Major Byko? I'm not trying to avoid the question, but please clarify, I'm getting older and I'm just not what I used to be, body parts failing me every once and a while." he snickered, for a General in the Delesa Armed Forces, he had a good temper and attitude, and yet when the shit hit the fan, he was ready and focused, not that he sees much action behind the bunker of paper and bureaucratic crap from parliament hill.

Downtown Tsyelograd

Corporal Yakov Fedya recovered from the jolt. He looked over to the girl that now was in the middle of the street, not bothering to raise his weapon, but the rest of the fire team had their C7A1 5.56x45 mm caliber assult rifles, trained on the girls head. At first Yakov wasn't worried, the girl was having fun and just ran into him, but then he saw the fear on her face, and the screams for help and something about killing her.

Then someone else ran out from the ally, instantly Yakov and his team had the rifles now trained on him, him who turned out to be, from the known navy blue helmet, that of an officer in the Kilrany ISM. The guns were lowered, as the ISM officer lowered his weapon. Yakov turned his head slighty towards his radio man, not taking his eyes off the officer and said calmly, "Hey get on he radio and call in for the nearest heavies." Heavies refering to the nearest vehicle patrol, consisting of one LAV III, a G-Wagon, and a Hummer. Now two more ISM officers rushed around the corner, lowering their weapons at the sight of the Commonwealth soldiers.

Then the officer began to talked to the private closest to him, and the corporal stepped in.

"Hello, I'm Corporal Yakov Fedya, Delesian Armed Forces. Would you prefer russian? I Would like to know why this woman is being chased and claiming that you boys are gonna kill her. No disrespect, just interested." he heard the familar engine roars behind him, acknowledged by one of the privates saying the calvary has arrived. Once again he slighty turned his head to his squad, not taking his eyes off the officers, "Cuff the girl and wait with her by the LAV." Yakov said, adjusting his rifle to the side so that it hung off his shoulder.

The pleasant smile on Byko’s face slipped for a few moments as he himself became slightly confused, he thought his question had been clear, but English was not his primary language so he figured he must have merely misspoken.

“I merely meant to ask if you had decided to take any actions to try and deal with this turn of events, perhaps increase roadblocks, question Khurzav citizens, search homes, things like that. On another note, I noticed the civilian vehicles, may I ask why you picked those up?”

-----

Officer Vitali, the first ISM officer to have come running out of the alley, responded to the Corporal in a more understandable Russian, his breathing still somewhat heavy, “Russian would be better for me,” he paused after that for a moment, surprised at the man’s question, “Kill her? Why the hell would I kill her? Look, we’ve been chasing her for the last ten to fifteen minutes through these damned alleys. We raided a home suspected of housing some weapons, we recognized her as being wanted, and she fled,” he paused again for a moment and glanced at the young girl and called at her in his more complex native language, one she didn’t happen to understand, “And a merry little damned chase it was.”

As he spoke a small crowd of almost two-dozen Khurzav were gathering farther down either side of the street, some coming out of buildings to see what all the fuss was about. Near a group of four out of ear shot of either the Delesa or Kilrany, one man came up and asked what was going, one of them pointed at the girl and told him who she was, he snapped his head over to look at her in surprise with recognition dawning on his face a moment later.

Just as the Delesa vehicles began to arrive, Vitali spoke again, “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to take her in now.”

Next to him, one of the other officers didn’t like the sight of the new arrivals, he glanced around for the street name they were on and casually turned around and took a couple steps back towards the alley, attempting to make it appear as he was scanning the in while he subtly activated his radio and spoke into it quietly.

“Dispatch, this is FP-three-two, I think we may have a slight situation here involving the Delesa, we could use some backup immediately,” he paused a moment for confirmation and gave their position. It would however be several minutes before they would come. With the message sent he turned back around and came back next to Vitali who was still awaiting the response.

The young girl wasn’t sure what was going on and was too tired to try and make another run for it, however when the Delesa came over to attempt to handcuff her, she resisted, suddenly regretting her desperate decision to ask the Delesa for help.

Delesian Kilrany-Operation Headquarters, Tsyelograd Base

“Oh well I just wanted to make sure that’s what you meant. I have already given the orders to increase patrols, the number and size, more security at the checkpoints I already have. Highways and major streets that don’t already have a checkpoint will be getting one in the next day or so. More patrol routes have been established to cover more area and closer. The orders have also been given to unpack and roll out the M777 artillery pieces I have packed somewhere. My patrols have been told to be more cautious and inspect more closely. Yes, you know these people and country much better then me or any of my men I would believe, so is there anything else you can suggest?” Yves paused for a sec to think about which cars he meant, and then remembered the CIA spooks and their spending spree. “Ah yes Major… Well although I hold the official rank of Major General in the Delesian Armed Forces, I still don’t have control over everything, specially the government and their Covert Intel boys that we have here. If I had to guess, they might be used by them to blend into the population, for their contacts and spy crap. I am sorry I can’t tell you more, but if I fond anything else out I’ll be sure to run it by you.” Yves attempted a sincere smile, although he was never good at that kind of stuff.


Downtown Tsyelograd

A cautious private beside the corporal watched as one of the ISM officers walked around the corner. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he shifted on the spot, quietly and carefully switched off the safety on his C9A2, a SAW like weapon.

It took three soldiers to wrestle the girl to the ground, as they didn’t want to hurt her. Finally when they had the zap straps on, they walked her to the side of the LAV, where they just had here sit in the door of the rear.

The corporal was stunned by the response, “Well I don’t know why you would want to kill her, that’s why I asked you. How is it that this 10-13 year old is on a wanted list? What kind of crime did she do that the ISM had to get involved, rather then just the local police? But then again, this is your country and I don’t have a choice now do I?”

The commander of the LAV noticed the gathering civilians, and knew he should do something. He turned on the speakers, a bonus on all peacekeeping vehicles and began to speak into the mike. “Please would you all return to your daily business, return to your homes.” He repeated the message several times, and the soldiers caught on and began to get out of the trucks and usher the people away from the scene.

As the general spoke Byko subconsciously nodded his head slightly, the steps the general spoke of seemed appropriate given the situation, there wasn’t more he could really think of, “I can’t say I have much to add to that, given the situation that’s likely all that can be done, however have you considered conducting searches of homes for weapons?”

Byko paused for a moment then chuckled, “Ah, so you have to deal with the … ah … special people, shall we say. If they’re anything like our own they have just about carte blanche to do whatever is deemed necessary. I appreciate your situation, I have on rare occasion had to deal with our own, Fifth Division, they can be … difficult, but they do the job well,” Byko put up a pleasant smile, but underneath the thought of 5th Division always scared him.

He let a moment pass before he decided to ask another question, “General, what I’ve seen of your men so far appear quite professional. But I feel the need to ask, if the partisans did something to … anger them, what might happen?”

-----

Vitali sighed and then spoke in a clearly frustrated tone while raising his Bizon submachine gun slightly and pointing at it with his left hand, “Look, you see this? If I wanted to kill her, I could have done so a dozen times in that merry little chase, she wasn’t exactly-” he stopped himself abruptly, lowering the weapon back to a rest position and putting his left had to his face for a moment, before speaking again, “Apologies, I’m just a little frustrated from having chased her so far.”

He paused again for a moment before continuing, “To answer your question, as far as I know she’s actually done nothing wrong. We chased her because she is wanted on the order and authority of the Imperial Guard. That is why we were chasing her rather then the Khurzav police.”

With her hands retrained behind her back there was little the young girl could do, she sat where directed to and hung her head down. She wouldn’t cry, she couldn’t let herself do that no matter how much she felt the current situation was unfair. The Kilrany had invaded her home, as far as she new her family was dead and now the Kilrany wanted her, and all she had done as far as she was concerned was be born.

Despite the efforts of the Delesa, the Khurzav didn’t quite leave, although they backed away, having no interest in getting into a fight with the soldiers, there numbers continued to grow ever so slowly, while more people watched from windows. A few of them pulled out cell phones and began making calls, telling their friends and family of what they saw.

A few moments later a distinct rumble could be heard, shortly followed by an ISM BTR-80 coming around the corner, it’s turret armed with a 30mm autocannon and 7.62mm coaxial locked forward. It came to a stop farther down the street and the two side doors on the vehicle opened allowing for the six ISM assault team officers to exit.

While two of them stayed near the vehicle, the other four came up casually towards the three-foot patrol ISM officers and the Corporal, their weapons resting in front of them on their tactical slings.

The lead officer, her face mostly concealed by a black balaclava spoke up in Russian, as she did she looked between Vitali and the Delesa Corporal who seemed to be the spokesman to her, “Just what exactly is going on here gentlemen?

Delesian Kilrany-Operation Headquarters, Tsyelograd Base

Little did the Major know, with the CIA now at the base, if the General failed to do his job properly, and denied the CIA agents any rights, then he could be arrested and sent back to Delesa to stand trial. Luckily Yves had friends in high places that might be able to help, but getting on the CIA’s wrong side was just something you should avoid.

“Major, I believe, along with the core values with the Ranger Branch of the armed forces, the peacekeeping specialty branch, that we are here to maintain the peace. And without direct orders from my or your government I’m not about to invade civilians’ homes, unless the information is almost bunt true. Searching the civilian homes is not apart of my job or mission here at this time.” Yves was firm, but polite. The next question didn’t come as a surprise, as the last one kind of lead up to it.

“Well major I’m glad that’s what you think of my boys. But it would depend on how far these partisans went. If it was just they attacked out posts more often, then well I think my boys could stick to the job and maintain their cool, although I might lose it, and the search of homes. And if well men of mine were slaughtered in an attack, I think that some of the boys would lose their minds, but remain clam on duty, but they might take it out in battle and give no quarter when engaged. Its hard to say, as I could ask you the same question and you wouldn’t be able to tell what ever soldier would do in any situation, cause I doubt they would know themselves what they would do. But my men are professionals and they will act like them, especially with the combat hardened NCOs I have.” Yves’ stern face was then replaced with the familiar light smile. His secretary entered the room.

“Sir, several of the CIA vehicles are leaving the compound heading for the city.”

“Alright keep me informed while I talk to the major.” The secretary looked over at the major in his chair.

“Sorry sirs.” And left the room as fast as he came.


Downtown Tsyelograd

The situation was getting more difficult then the corporal would have liked. Civilians were slowly arrive en mass, even with the sad attempts of his men trying to send the people away, and now the new arrival of even more ISM officers and a armoured vehicle.

“Well ma’am there is nothing here that me and this officer can’t handle, we are just talking about a certain someone. Of which, at least can I know the name so I can look he up on the police computer system? I am very reluctant to hand this girl over when I don’t even know the charges that have been placed. What could she have done at such an age to be looked for by this Imperial Guard? And if you ma’am don’t know who it is or what the charges are, I suggest you call some one down here who can before I release her to any one. No disrespect meant by my harsh words.”

Now with the arrival of the armoured vehicle the private with the C9A2 was getting more jumpy and shifting ever more. Luckily the corporal saw it out of the corner of his eye. “Private go watch the girl, give her something to eat or drink or something. And send Jenkins up here for me.” The prvate looked at the corporal and then the ISM officers then back again. He reluctantly turned and ran back to the LAV.


Cafe, Downtown Tsyelograd

Meanwhile in a café nearby a scene was about to unfold. Two CIA agents, acting as regular civilians for quite some time were sitting in the back with newspapers and coffee. One kept looking up from his conversation and paper to a particular customer so sat at a few tables closer to the door. This man was a suspected partisan snitch, who watched convoys and wrote down routes and times for the local group. It was high time he was taken in for some questioning, and now that the CIA had gotten the break they needed, it was time to act.

The one sitting back to the way picked his cell phone out of his pocket as it rang. It was the confirmation that the CIA vehicles were waiting to take the man away. It was time. The two men got up from their table and placed some cash on the table, at the same time the suspect stood up and began to leave. Had they been caught? They picked up pace, as did the suspect. It was clear they had been made. The man burst into a full sprint at the door, turning left then another left down the ally. The two agents took off after him. A black BMW and black SUV broke away from the curb and raced after the man. The SUV led the way as it flung boxes and garbage into the air. Then the suspect took a sharp turn into another smaller ally, the cars continued down to the next road and turned left. The two agents followed the man, no expression on their face, no loud curses, just sweat as if began to appear on their heads. At which point the suspect broke out of the ally, throwing himself into a standing ISM officer, he continued running. He looked back to see the ISM officer had been standing with several more and the peacekeepers he had been watching. What a bad turn he thought to himself. Then he noticed the ISM vehicle, then the Delesian convoy. At which point he panicked and looked back at the soldiers he had burst through as the CIA agents burst through them as well, jumping over the fallen officer.

The two CIA agents had enough and one pulled out his pistol and threw an ammo clip at the man’s head. Just as the suspect reached the curb, the clip hit him in the back of the head, his front foot caught the curb lip and his head smacked the ground with an awful thud. The man who threw the clip picked it up and replaced it into the gun. The second throwing his knee into the suspects spine, wrestling to hand-cuff the arms behind the back.

At which point the two black CIA vehicles screeched around the corner, racing towards their agents, slamming on the breaks coming to a halt, blocking any traffic in the street both ways.

Men in business suits jumped out, Heckler & Koch G36 hanging on slings, black glasses that covered the eyes of the agent. A small earpiece could be made out. They surrounded the cars and suspect. Clearly as the wind blew the suit jackets open, the badge of the CIA could be seen on the belt as well as bullet proof vests and a belt holster containing a standard issue for the CIA, SIG P226 with hollow point 9mm Parabellum rounds. Curses could be heard from several of the Rangers as they swore softly, shifting on the spot, trying to get a better look at the men.

Byko nodded his head, a reasonable answer he figured, the general trusted his men to do their jobs, just as he did his own, unfortunately, Byko was rather certain however that Delesa and Kilrany had two different points of view on what was considered proper in terms of warfare.

“I understand, you don’t want to push the civilians unnecessarily, I wish we had the same luxury.”

The Major paused for a moment, clearly uncomfortable as he debated the wording he would use next, “General, I’m not sure how much you know of Kilrany, we’ve never exactly forayed far into the international scene, but I know many nations look down at us, call us barbarians for our culture and our forms of capitol punishment. Now whether deserved or not, we have gained a reputation among some as being,” Byko paused for a moment as he searched for the right word in English before he continued again, “vengeful, and perhaps by some people’s standards we are. But don’t misunderstand me; we are professional when it comes to our duty.”

Byko stayed silent, worried for a moment he shouldn’t have said what he did, he didn’t know what kind of people the Delesa were outside of their military, he had no idea what kind of ethics and morals their people had back in their home nation.

He remained silent as the general’s secretary came in, intrigued by this mention of the CIA and left wondering what they might be up to. They sounded almost as melodramatic as 5th Division, at that thought he chuckled slightly.

-----

Clearly the section leader of the ISM assault squad, something of a glorified name for them as they differed little from the three ISM foot patrol officers only in certain tactics and the fact they got to ride around in a BTR-80, the officer looked at the Corporal then at Vitali, then back at the Corporal.

“What? What girl?”

Vitali spoke up quickly, “I can answer that one ma’am. We were conducting a search of a private residence when we came upon her there, we recognized her from one of the Imperial Guard passed out and she fled, we chased her and through the alleys and she ran in to these fellows,” he paused a moment and pointed over towards the LAV where the young girl was, “She’s right over there.”

Without moving she shifter her stance to look over, but apparently didn’t recognize her as the growing crowd of civilians did, “And just who exactly is she?”

Vitali glanced at the Corporal then back to his fellow officer, surprised she didn’t recognize the girl, “She’s Tamara Golobayeva.”

The female officer looked back at the child for a moment, “Hmph, so she’s what all this fuss is about? Seems somewhat unnecessary,” she looked back at the Corporal, “she’s the daughter of Khurzav’s former ‘king’, we have standing orders from the Imperial Guard to arrest any members of their so called ‘royal family’ that we find, although if I recall she was the only one who managed to avoid being found in the initial invasion. Personally I don’t care if she’s committed no crime, I have an order from the Imperial Guard, that’s good enough for me. Do you have some objection to this … Corporal?”

Tamara refused any offer of food or drink as politely as one could expect given her position, she tried to maintain some air of self-control now that she wasn’t quite running for her life, but she found it terribly difficult to do so given that her fate was being decided by strangers.

She looked at the closest Delesa soldier and spoke in her native Russian, hoping he understood, “Please don’t let the Kilrany take me, they already took my family and they’ve likely already been executed like they execute people in those coliseums of theirs. I don’t want to be killed just because I was born into a family the Kilrany consider an enemy.”

The ISM officers had no idea of the incident that had taken place not far involving the Delesa CIA, so they were taken by surprise when a Khurzav slammed into Vitali, startled the ISM officers didn’t react immediately, however by the time the CIA men, who they initially thought were more Khurzav came running through they started to react, safeties were switched off and their weapons came up, but they held their fire, hesitant to open fire given the large number of Delesa and Khurzav around, although they almost made an exception when they saw one of them pull a weapon.

They paused though, confused for a moment when they saw the handcuffs and then lowered their weapons slightly as they started to think that they must have simply been undercover Khurzav police officers, that was until the vehicles arrived.

The sight of the assault rifles almost sent them into a panic, the four ISM officers from the assault squad aimed their weapons at the new arrivals and the lead officer yelled out at them, not recognizing them, “Stay where you are and lower your weapons or we will open fire! I will not warn you again!”

By this time Vitali was back on his feet, he quickly signaled to the other two and they took up positions in support of the assault team, using what little cover was on the street as they could. Back that the BTR the two other ISM officers called into it in a somewhat redundant manner to call for back up, the gunner of the vehicle toggling in control and swiveling the turret to face the Delesa CIA agents.

By now the scene was enough to start freaking out the Khurzav civilians, given the number of weapons being waved around many of them took off while others stood frozen, unable to do anything.

Not far away at this point the second call for backup was noticed by more then just the ISM, and while it would be another few minutes before another pair of three-man ISM foot patrolmen came running from two different directions, four Hades APCs baring the markings of 4th Division altered their course through the city towards the call for back up, responding on the ISM frequency and telling them that they would be there in approximately a minute.

The situation was getting out of control from the corporal. Now with the arrival of the CIA agents, now he had more problems then he could handle. While the ISM officers were freaking out over the agents, the corporal walked over to the lead G-Wagon in the Delesian convoy and popped his head in the door and picked up the radio.

“Get me the general, we got a problem in town.”

Meanwhile the agents took no warning from the ISM officers and remained where they stood, the Rangers watching them carefully. Then the remaining door that wasn’t open on the SUV opened and a man got out. He didn’t carry the G36, but he did have a belt holster with a SIG. He held a radio in one hand. With the other he removed his shades and proceeded over to where the officers stood, where the corporal had returned from the vehicle.

“The name is Special Agent White, of the Delesian CIA, with the Ranger peacekeeping force here. This man is a suspected partisan, giving information to the partisan’s leaders about peacekeeping and ISM patrols and routes. We are taking him in to extract any information that could lead us to more of these rebels. And that is all really I’m willing to say at this time.” He looked over to the LAV, seeing the young girl. “What a catch, looks like we both have had a good day.” The agent had recognized the girl from files on the local former government and the royal family.

The corporal took over, “Yes it is and we are not ready to hand this girl over. I’m not really in the position to hand her over. My job is to keep the peace, and we plan to keep this girl alive and well. And until I get orders from my superiors or this Imperial Guard, my convoy are not going anywhere, and we aren’t giving her over.” Little did the ISM officers know, that ‘his convoy’ had just been upsized, another call he made on the radio. Another patrol consisting of a LAV III, Hummer and G-Wagon were on route.

-----------

“Yes well, that’s the whole point of this Ranger Branch was to be pure peacekeeping. I’m sure if those airborne troops were here they would be busting down doors and such much like you but we as the Rangers can’t do that.” Yves listened as he heard the Major go on about be vengeful. Something the regular forces knew well during their fight in the Kreatvye War. The Armed Forces were quite a diverse force when it came to ethics and such. Before the creation of the Ranger Branch, the Paratroopers handled most peacekeeping missions and they were a brutal bunch and ruled with force, meanwhile the Rangers were true peacekeepers. The regular force really depended which regiment you joined as each had a reputation they maintained since the birth of that Regiment and it’s baptism of fire. The general noticed the smile on Byko’s face when the secretary mentioned the CIA. “Why do you laugh so major?”

But before the major could answer the phone rang and the general answered it. It listened for a moment then put the receiver down and turned on the speakerphone.

“Now could you repeat what you just told me sergeant?”

“Of course general, see we just got a call here from a Corporal Yakov Fedya doing a patrol in the city….” And he went on to describe the situation with full detail.

“Well Major, quite a situation in town we have. How do you think my Corporal should handle these ISM officers? And what of this girl?”

Byko was indeed about to answer when the general’s phone rang, so he held off, figuring this was just the routine operations, however when the general switched it over to speaker setting he knew he wasn’t going to like where this was going.

Sadly he found his suspicion confirmed as he listened to the voice on the phone give a situation report, as the Sergeant finished, Byko cursed audibly in his native tongue, “That is not a good situation general, hopefully it will not get any worse. The ISM are essentially heavily armed police officers, they’re technically military personnel, but their training is likely no different then your own police forces. They do however have a bit more leeway in their actions then some, I don’t believe you’ll have any problems with them so long as no one goes brandishing a firearm at them.”

The Major paused a moment as he considered this girl, recalling what he could from whatever information sheet out of hundreds he has seen passed through in front of him, “I am a bit biased on this subject general, I would recommend handing her over especially since this order came from our Imperial Guard, and in the regard, most likely from Fifth Division themselves. I can guarantee you that if they want her, they’re no doubt come asking for her.”

In truth Byko figured they’d do more then just ask if they had too, but he knew only of 5th Division’s reputation, which was so clouded by misinformation that he really didn’t know what they would do, or be allowed to do.

-----

It was no understatement to say that the situation was starting to spiral out of control, the ISM were on the verge of opening fire on the new arrivals, hesitating only out of confusion since the Delesa seemed to be reacting little to the arrival of these heavily armed men.

Vitali glanced over at the officer who seemed to be in charge of the assault team; since she hadn’t given her name and it wasn’t displayed on her uniform anywhere he could only refer as the section leader. He didn’t like what he saw though; her trigger finger had come off the trigger guard and was now dangerously close to pulling the trigger on her Bison submachine gun.

Who the hell do these guys think they are? Do they honestly think we wont fucking shoot them if they don’t lower their weapons? Thankfully for everyone on the street one of these men came over and identified himself before the sound of any weapons fire could fill the air.

Vitali noted that the section leader was in no means happy as she addressed the man, weapon still partially at the ready, but finger back on the trigger guard, “What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you normally run about your country like this, ignoring police officers and trying to get yourselves killed?”

He almost could have smiled in slight amusement at just how pissed off the section leader was, but the situation was still just a bit to tense for his liking, it didn’t get any better when the Corporal came back and told them their stance in regards to the young girl.

Before he could speak the section leader did, if anything sounding more pissed off then before, although the volume of her voice was much lower, “Not authorized to hand her over? Is that some kind of pansy ass excuse of a bleeding heart because she’s just a young girl? The two of you listen to me very carefully. This is our jurisdiction, I don’t particular like that you’re here in the first place, but you are, and you better damned well show a bit more respect or things could become rather uncomfortable for you here.”

Even Vitali was surprised at the hostility in her voice during her last sentence, but she was clearly angry, and he had little doubt in his mind she was trying to merely intimidate them, although given their smaller number on this street to the Delesa, he doubted it would work.

Still clearly pissed off, but with little else for her to do in this situation, she looked at Vitali suddenly and addressed him in Kilrany before going back with her men to stand near the BTR-80, “You try and talk some sense into them, we’ll stay nearby for now.”

He looked at the Delesa Corporal and CIA agent in turn, not quite sure what to say that would likely mean anything. Before he could figure anything out he saw what initially looked like a BTR-90 turn onto the street farther down past the CIA vehicles, followed by three more. A moment later he recognized them as being the Hades APC used by the Imperial Guard’s 4th Division, and he cursed aloud, “Oh shit.”

The Hades was designed similarly to the Russian BTR-90, the only real difference being the armour it was built with and it’s size, being slightly longer to better accommodate the eight man sections used by 4th Division. These vehicles where armed almost identically to one version of the BTR-90 using a turret similar to the BMP-3, using a 100mm smoothbore ATGM capable main gun and coaxially mounted 30mm autocannon and 7.62mm machine gun. All four vehicles currently had MEXAS style bricks on them to combat the recent potential threat of the RPG-2s.

The lead Hades screeched to a halt as the driver hit the brakes in an attempt not to smash the smaller black SUV into pieces, stopping a scant meter away from it, the other three not needing to slam on the breaks thanks to spacing.

The two top hatches on each vehicle were pushed open an each section’s designated marksman and machine gunner armed with an SVD-K and PKM respectively stood up out of them while the rest of the eight man sections exited out the vehicle’s side doors. They all took up firing positions as they exited, but the sight of the ISM officers not in any kind of firefight led them to hold their fire.

Orders were quickly given over their personal radios and they took up defensive positions around their vehicles, the platoon lieutenant made his way towards Vitali, the Delesa corporal and the CIA agent, figuring since they were the only group with a reprehensive from all the forces gathered that they were the ones to talk to in order to find out just what the hell was going on.

Their faces concealed by the fabric of their Gorka-S style uniforms, they walked up to the three men and the Lieutenant spoke, “Can someone tell me just what the hell is going on here? We’ve got radio broadcasts flying every where, civvies going crazy, and here I see more weapons and armoured vehicles being bandied about more then in the damned unification day parade!”

Vitali was at a loss for words, he himself just couldn’t seem to put into words what was going on as everything seemed to degenerate so rapidly, after a moment he finally simply gave the Imperial Guard Lieutenant a run down of the situation from the moment they encountered Tamara to right now.

With a status report from the ISM officer the 4th Division Lieutenant turned to face the two Delesa and waited, obviously expecting something from them in turn.”

When the section leader addressed the agent, he simply said, “Ma’am, we are the police. Now I don’t enjoy your tone of voice. Maybe you should take a breather and reevaluate the situation, somewhere else.”

The Rangers, or peacekeepers were rather clam for this situation. Several just sat on top of the LAV, others leaned against the trucks, and meanwhile all the other forces were rather prepared for anyone here to start shooting up the place. The title of peacekeeper, you could say, gave them a mindset of they can’t be hurt. Well the Corporal knew better, but most of his patrol had never seen combat, just the NCOs. The entire time, his index finder sat on the finger guard, the thumb on the safety switch. Then the woman started to annoy the Corporal. But he met people every week at least once, on the streets with this kind of temper aimed at the soldiers.

“I have no plans to even bother doing anything you just said. I will not hand this girl over until I know that her basic human rights are going to be met, and that she will not be killed. And if you can’t guarantee this, well the girl will be spending some time in our prisons, instead of yours, but with no risk of being shot or poisoned.”

It was clear this woman was pissed, but she or any other ISM officer wasn’t going to get this battle hardened Corporal to do anything by yelling at him. All you were going to do is just piss him off.

Agent White smiled, but it could barely just be made out. With the tensions rising, he placed his glasses into his pocket and placed the now empty hand on the handle of his handgun, removing the strap from the holster.

At which point the situation just jumped another level, the street end where the Delesian patrol had entered, another foot patrol of five turned the corner. With that came the second vehicle patrol requested by the Corporal, parking beside the first patrol, and in front of the CIA car. Immediately Rangers jumped out of the cars and LAV, and began to mingle with the other Rangers to get the scoop on the situation, then returning to resume a staggered firing position behind cover, but not raising their weapons.

Meanwhile at the other end of the street, several BTR-90 look alike vehicles turned on the street. At which point the Rangers jumped into action, springing from their state of relaxation to readiness for combat, each one hiding effectually behind cover. The young girl that was sitting in the doorway of the LAV, was now ushered into the safety of the LAV armour. Each 25mm turrets on both LAVs came alive, the gunners chatting into their mikes, picking out targets.

When the man from the new convoy of Kilrany vehicles arrived to the multi-national party with the Corporal and the Agent, the ISM officer first explained the situation. Then the new man, looked at the Corporal as if looking for a report from him. All he did was shrug his shoulders and simply said, “I am quite sure that me and this fine ISM officer could have handled this situation just fine. Like I said before this girl, who ever she is, will not be handed over until I know that her safety will be guaranteed and she won’t be killed. If you can’t do this, well then she will just have to spend time at our prison.”

Then the agent began, “First I refuse to explain my situation as I has really nothing to do with this girl. But me and my CIA boys will stay here with the Rangers until both sides of this conflict leave and go their separate ways.” With that he turned pointed to the prisoner they had caught pointed to the car, then pointed to the Rangers. The CIA agents knew what that meant and got to work. The suspect was loaded into the back of the car with a guard on either side, meanwhile the rest of the agents took up defensive positions around their vehicles with their backs towards the Rangers. With the meter of length given to the CIA SUV, the men still managed to open the bulletproof window open and produced several C9A2 machine guns. They were swapped with some of the agents’ G36 rifles. Agent white then rejoined the group. It could be said that the CIA agents where protecting the Rangers, but every Delesian knew they where just protecting their national interests. Which included that peacekeepers shouldn’t have to come home in body bags, when killed by the very people that ‘hired’ them. Plus it would look bad on Agent White’s record that this event unfolded and he did nothing.

-------------

General Yves listened to what Major Byko had to say, but one could say that he didn’t take the second part to heart, as the Major said it was a biased answer. But nonetheless he thought about both options presented. He didn’t know who this girl was, little did he care, but if she really was a member of the Royal family, it was the Ranger’s duty to ensure her safety even if she was the enemy at one time.

He leaned back in his chair, taking little sips of his coffee, and scratching his chin, starring at the roof. Then he sat upright and looked at the Major.

“Would you like some coffee? It’s from the Quebec Mountains back home. Real good stuff if you ask me, or would you prefer a few drops of whisky. But getting to know you guys and how strict you guys are, you don’t drink on the job do you?” the general chuckled. He was trying to remove any stress made by the phone call go away so that the two could continue the conversation.

The General was quite confident that the soldiers at the situation would be fully capable of handling the situation, even with the CIA looking over their shoulders.

The 4th Division Lieutenant listened intently to both Delesa men and surprisingly to Vitali did not react the way he expected, he addressed both men calmly, “I understand Corporal, you’re in a difficult situation here, the order for her arrest comes from the authority of Fifth Division, if necessary to set you mind at ease, I will contact someone from their command and see if they will send someone down to you who can adequately explain why they want her, and how they intend to treat her. As for you Agent White, if you wish to be so secretive, so be it, I would only recommend you pass on any information you garner in the spirit of cooperation.”

He paused for a moment, but despite this it looked as though he was still speaking, but nothing audible could be heard, however moment later the 4th Division soldiers back by their vehicles stood down, letting their weapons rest on their slings and moving to the sidewalk of the street so their vehicles could pull off to the side and reopen the street.

A moment after that he looked at Vitali, “You may go now, orders have been sent to your dispatch to have you all return to your patrol routes. There’s no further reason for you to be here.”

True to his words, a moment later Vitali hear the orders come out from his dispatch, ordering them all to return to their patrol positions and that the situation would be rectified by 4th Division, he looked at the officer and responded quickly before moving off, “Yes sir.”

Down the street the ISM assault squad also got the order and they reboarded their vehicle, the gunner locked the turret back into its forward position and the vehicle backed up, turned onto another street and left.

The Lieutenant looked back at the Corporal, “Is this acceptable to you Corporal? I’d rather not see an unnecessary firefight occur here over a thirteen-year-old girl and a minor misunderstanding. I would appreciate it if your men would stand down as well, so we can deal with this without the heavy tension. Oh, and agent White, I would recommend that you not act so recklessly in the future, had the ISM not shown as much restraint as they did, they may have opened fire on your men when you showed up and didn’t immediately identify yourselves to them. I don’t think any of us want any accidents like that now do we.”

-----

Byko thought for a moment before he replied to the General, “Coffee would be fine, I am technically on duty right now so I can’t accept the whisky sadly,” he spoke the last words with a grin.

He spoke again a moment later, “If I may ask, what is your opinion on this situation? I mean, we Kilrany being here in Khurzav still rather then withdrawing after the end of the Khurzav-Valnari conflict that we stepped in to end.”

The situation began to calm down, and yet the Corporal had no clue what just happened, but Agent White seemed to follow right along.

“Thank you Lieutenant, this is a joint operation and any information that can be sucked out of the prisoner will for sure be passed on to the Kilrany officers back at base. As for you Corporal, my man and I will leave you now that the situation has been calmed down.” And with that he turned waved a finger in the air in a circle and the agents claimed aboard their vehicles and reversed out the Kilrany side of the road as it was cleared.

The Corporal stood for a minute, this one officer just came and cleared the whole problem. He turned and hand signaled the Rangers. His men began to come out of their positions, resting their firearms on the top of the vehicles and letting them hand in the slings. The Corporal of the second patrol walked up.

“Yes?”

“You guys can leave now and return to your patrol, but on your way out, radio HQ and tell them the situation is no longer a problem.” With that the other Corporal turned and walked off with a light salute. Yakov Fedya turned back to the Lieutenant. “Alright, do you know when these boys come down from your command? Cause if it’s going to be a while I would like to get my boys back to the safety of the base. Your guys from command can meet us there, if that’s all right. If you deem it necessary you can escort this girl to our base and wait for you superiors there.”

The familiar rumble of engines filled the street. The LAV positioned its turret to the front, locking it into place, then preceded to reverse out of the street, with the G-Wagon and Hummer following close behind. Meanwhile the turret of Yakov’s LAV locked into place, preparing to move out. The men began to crowd into the relative safety of the LAV around the girl, some jumped on top to ride up top. Mean while the remained of the squad hopped into the remaining vehicles, the Corporal was the only Ranger left outside.

Crisis avoided, mission accomplished.

-----

The general got up and shuffled over to the small table against the right wall and grabbed and coffee mug and the warm pot, made just before the Major came in. He walked back to the deck, putting the mug in front of the Major as he listened to the next question. He sat back down and scribbled something on a piece of paper, most likely an approval for a day’s worth of leave for several platoons. He looked up.

“Well during the Commonwealth-Kreatvye War, after we took back what was our land, we pushed into the homeland of Kreatvye. Ever since we defeated the pigs, it has been now as the Protectorate of Cesibia, now a colony of the vast Commonwealth. So my believe is it is all right, as long as you treat the people with respect. You do that and they in turn mostly treat you with respect. And after time they begin to accept you as the new leaders, with some resistance, but small, nothing the local police can’t handle. Cesibia has total control over every part of their government and decisions apart from when we ask they have to send us troops.” The general put on a smile and sat back. The phone rang and he picked it up. He listened for a moment and hung up.

“Seems like some of your country men from your 4th division settled things pretty well. My patrols are resuming as normal.”

Byko thanked the general for the coffee and drank some of it as he listened to his words, interested in the knowledge that the Delesa themselves had found themselves attempting to deal with a similar situation. The Major was about to speak when the phone cut him off, he waited a moment for the general to finish, intending to continue, but when the general informed him of the reason for the phone all, he looked surprised.

“Fourth Division showed up and calmed the situation down? I … well that is to say that’s good news obviously, but the Imperial Guard?”

The Major paused again momentarily until he could organize his thoughts, “I have to admit that surprises me General, don’t get me wrong, I have a great deal of respect for the Imperial Guard, but they’re not exactly known for bringing peace, love and sunshine if you get my meaning. They obviously must consider this young girl of importance for reasons that are beyond me. Regardless good news is good news.”

Despite the rather positive direction the little meeting with the General was taking, Byko however still felt he was taking up a bit too much of his time, so he decided to ask the last question he had intended to before the phone had rung again, “How much resistance did your forces have to face in Cesibia if I may ask? I ask out of curiosity, if it was what you might call more or less then we have so far encountered here in Khurzav?”

-----

The Lieutenant nodded his head in acknowledgement of Agent White’s words, although he was not truly concerned about the suspected partisan they took into custody, his was not the intelligence business. He was more concerned with his primary objective, his child that for whatever reason Fifth wanted, and if Fifth wanted her alive, he was damned well going to do what it took to get her alive.

Personally he would have had no problem engaging these peacekeepers if he had too, but that would not have been productive, he would have no doubt lost men and more then likely the objective would have been killed in the ensuing firefight. But the easy road was better, talk nice and be respectful, in the end that would get him farther right now then force.

“If it makes you more comfortable to head back to your base of operations Corporal, that’s not problem, given the situation I understand, I doubt this child’s a high priority anyway, it will likely take some time for someone to be sent out to talk about this. I don’t believe it will be necessary to escort you back, I’m certain your men can keep and eye on one child. You have a good afternoon Corporal.”

With that the Lieutenant gave a nod of his head towards the now lone Delesa soldier and set off back towards his vehicle. On his way back he activated his radio and whispered in to it, informing his own command structure to inform 5th Division that Tamara Golobayev was being transported back to the Delesa base of operations.

Yves thought for a moment and wasn’t quite sure what to think. If the Major was telling the true then the Imperial Guard might be attempting to pull something over his head. But for the time being, the girl was in his possession, so he had time to find out, even if he had to ask the CIA.

“Well for the time being I have her and the Imperial Guard does not, we’ll see what they are up to.” The General listened to the Major’s next question with eagerness to answer.

“Well I was a Major my self in the beginning of the occupation with the 4th Royal Parachute Regiment. At first we had some serious resistance, I don’t think the country really fought any conflicts on their own soil, so we were a surprise to them. At first our government wasn’t sure what they were going to do. Some of the politicians wanted to return the country to the people and force them to pay for the war, like the Allies in WWI, although then some didn’t need Kreatvye biting them in the arse when we turned out back. WWII by this time was long over and the Commonwealth had seen the destruction that the war had brought after Germany was given back after the First World War, so we split half and half. They were under our control, and yet had control to make their own decisions. So at first we had lots of resistance, men fighting everyday in the streets. But when we told the people of our plan, several resistance groups threw down their arms, meanwhile the groups that wanted total control and Communists looking for power, striking at the countries weak point, fought on. Nothing our forces couldn’t handle, but tiresome. By the time the 5th year of occupation, soldiers stationed on several corners, resistance was minimal, and the troops pulled out allowing the local police and soldiers to handle and problems. So the amount of resistance you got here was experienced at one point or another but it’s all over with now.” He sat back and took a long sip of coffee. “How is it?” Yves nodding to the cup.

---------

“Fine then it’s settled. We will move out.” And with that the Corporal turned and walked back to the patrol command G-wagon, making a face and mocking the Lieutenant to the driver who attempted to suppress his smile. From the Lieutenant’s position it would have just looked as though he was walking. Yakov got into the passenger’s seat and looked at the Lieutenant who was returning to his vehicles. “He’s a bloody moron, I wouldn’t putting a bullet through the ISM officer who called him. Oh and did you get a load of the female? God, what the hell is the matter with them? Alright move this puppy out.” The Corporal patted the dashboard. The patrol pulled off the curb and into the street stopping the line of cars. As the patrol drove by the 4th division, the G-Wagon honked it’s horn and the Corporal waved, smiling.

Meanwhile in the LAV the soldiers tired to make plenty of room for the girl, offering her water again. The lone soldier who could speak Russian looked at her and the pride that remained, even after being caught.

“Don’t worry, I think the Corporal likes you, and he won’t allow the Imperial Guard to take you.” He offered a faint smile and looked forward to the driver and began to chat with him. True, the Corporal didn’t want to see this girl in the wrong hands, but she was still going to a prison, as she was a criminal for the moment.

Major Byko paused, concerned at the Genera’s choice of words in regards to the Imperial Guard, “I will admit I’m biased, I have a great deal of respect for the Imperial Guard and I believe you may have misunderstood my meaning. The Imperial Guard, in this case Fourth Division, are combat troops, as a part of the Imperial Guard they usually get the best and worse missions, so to hear them diplomatically settle this minor dispute merely surprised me slightly.”

Byko relaxed slightly as the General went on about their experience, interested greatly, “I didn’t personally serve in the Virinov province, but I know we didn’t have as much luck there as you did until after the assassination of Emperor Sviatov’s parents and older sister. Something I can tell you has left First Division on edge. The loss of three members of the royal family in one incident under there watch has damaged their unit’s honour, about the best way I can put it.”

“At its height the Virinov insurrection was killing a dozen Kilrany a day. Snipers, ambushes, IEDs, so far in fact, it’s more peaceful here compared to what it was like in Virinov as I’ve heard from some of the veterans we have here for the fighting. From what little direct knowledge I have on the situation it was just after the assassination that the Imperial Guard got sent in to the province in force. It was only after that, that rebels there finally put down their weapons. It cost us greatly.”

He paused a moment again before he replied to the last question, perhaps now a bit to solemn to give an adequate response having thought about the number of Kilrany soldiers, civilians and ISM officers killed during the long fight in Virinov, “It is good coffee.”

-----

The 4th Division Lieutenant obviously couldn’t see the Delesian soldier mocking him with his back turned, it was for the best anyway, the Imperial Guard was not one to be mocked. It was not that they couldn’t take a joke, they shared them all the time with Russkyans, but when it was meant in malicious spirits, it could get people killed.

None of the Imperial Guard soldiers waved back to the Delesians, instead they merely watched them leave, only then did they actually click the safeties back on their weapons with their thumbs. A moment later, after they were well out of sight the order was given and they all quickly re-mounted their transports, returning to their original patrol.

-----

In the LAV Tamara did the best she could to remain ‘strong’ as it were; she still had little hope given her situation. Even if these Delesa were willing to give her sanctuary and protect her, she had no belief whatsoever that the Kilrany would let it stand, and given that the Delesa required the good will of the Kilrany to remain here, along with controlling their means of leaving, she had no doubt she would be turned over to them in the end.

She looked up at the soldier who had spoken to her, responding to him in as controlled a voice as she could muster “With all due respect, as much as I would like to believe that, I really would, I don’t believe the Kilrany will let it happen. I understand that some things they have done have suddenly been dismissed as propaganda, and I can tell you, some of it was. I may be young but I occasionally listened in on those important meetings, and not all the Kilrany have done to people is a lie. It’s not the Imperial Guard in general you need to worry about, they’re all combat units, like yours. It’s their cursed Fifth Division that you need to worry about.”

Yves listened to the Major's story, he was interested as he enjoyed history of any Armed Forces the world over, as it was a way to learn from other countries mistakes.

"Very interesting Major, I would like to learn more about your attack some time." Byko responded to the General's question over the coffee.

"That's good, anything else Major?"

----

Meanwhile at the gates, the patrol from the city was coming in. The guards' faces at the gate were filled with anger that the Kilrany soldiers would point guns at their brothers in arms, but for some reason the Rangers on patrol had no feelings, good or bad towards the ISM and Imperial Guard. But that didn't really matter as the Imperial Guard didn't have to bother with these men any more, it was the men at the gates and check points. Getting the girl wasn't going to be easy, and the guards at the gates weren't going to make it any easier.

----

The soldier turned back to the girl who began to talk to him. He listened intently, this girl was clearly very bright.

"The Corporal is a smart man and he has friends in high ranks in this theatre of operation. He'll try every thing he has, he's a good man. He won't let you go with out a fight. Anything you did is history, there really couldn't have been much that you did that could destroy the Kilrany. But you shouldn't worry anymore. And we know to watch our backs against these Kilrany troops, we learned from the previous Commonwealth forces here, the paratroopers, that not a whole hell of a lot of them are friendly to foreigners." he offered a faint smile then chuckled.

A few hundred kilometers away from the Delesian base of operations, roughly located between the cities of Tazhan and Tsyelograd was another airfield controlled by the Imperial Guard’s Fourth Division. Numerous aircraft we lined along the tarmac, including several Su-37s and a few Su-25s, not far away from them were several MI-28s, KIAM-24s and a handful of Mi-17s.

One Mi-17 in particular was beginning to spool up; the pilots within going through the routine start up procedure as a single 4th Division section of eight men climbed inside. Before the helicopter lifted off however, four more Gorka-S clad soldiers, wearing 4th Division insignias, but not carrying any rifles came jogging out from a nearby building.

Instinctively they each lowered their heads as they approached the aircraft, quickly climbed inside and took their seats within the medium sized helicopter. A moment later the MI-17s flight engineer gave the signal and the pilots, now complete of their tasks, lifted the transport off the ground and angled it towards the East.

-----

The door to the communications building housing the Kilrany staff and their equipment burst open as a young Kilrany Corporal, carrying only his sidearm in its holster came out at a rather quick jog.

After a few quick questions to several nearby Kilrany soldiers he took off towards the Delesian command building, which housed General Yves office, where one of the soldiers told him he’d seen Major Byko walk into. Quickly making his way over he jogged up towards the entrance, pulling free his military ID as he did so to show to the Delesian MP outside.

“I have an urgent message to give to Major Byko, is he in here?”

-----

Byko looked back at the General, “Any time you’d like to talk about anything, just ask, I’d be more then happy to ‘regale you with epic stories of bravery’,” Byko grinned widely as his attempt to be humorous.

After a short pause he continued again, “No General, that’s about all, I don’t want to take up any more of your time, I’m sure you’ve got many important things to be doing right now so I will take my leave.”

With that Byko took the last sip of his coffee and set it down the General’s desk, “Once again thank you for coffee,” and prepared to leave the office.

-----

The news of the tense situation in Tsyelograd had yet to spread to the men and women of the Kilrany military personnel besides Major Byko yet. So many near the entrance were taken aback in surprise at the sudden hostility apparent on the faces of the Delesian soldiers on guard duty as a patrol returned.

None found it a pleasant sight and found themselves wondering what was going on, if perhaps one of their patrols had been ambushed again by Khurzav partisans.

In the back of the Lav Tamara’s fear was not quite so easily alleviated by the Delesian soldier, but she allowed herself a moment of hope that perhaps she had been right to appeal to these foreign soldiers for help.

“If that’s true then I thank you. But forgive me if I’m not fully confident in that happening. I have to my knowledge committed no crime beyond having the last name, Golobayev. Yet I’m apparently being confined for that. You’d be wise not to trust the Kilrany.”

-----

Several kilometers from the Delesian base of operations, a white panel van with the letters KNN printed boldly on the side and carrying a small dish on the roof came to a slow stop in font of a checkpoint set up by the Delesa.

The driver and passenger both men carrying identification indicating they belonged to the Khurzav New Network and requested of the soldiers on guard to pass so they may go to their base of operations an interview Tamara Golobayev and General Yves for the evening new.

In an attempt to encourage them to let them pass, the reporter in the passenger side spoke how this would be a PR coup for the Delesa and how the Khurzav population would see them in an all new light for helping a member of the Khurzav royal family by not turning her over to the Kilrany.

Thankfully the stream covered the noise they produced. Some noise was inevitable - it was practically impossible to move quietly laden with nearly fifty kilograms of equipment each. Most of the KRG consisted of outdoorsmen, men who hiked, hunted, worked as nature guides or in the logging industry, and these men had passed on tips to make life easier for the scant handful of men who had not been so active outdoors prior to what was nationally termed "The Occupation."

What they could do, if not eliminate the noise entirely, was manage it. Anything metallic that might make noise was securely lashed down. Anything that would bump or rattle against something else, also secured. The occassional crack of a twig or rustle of a bush as a partisan walked by it and an outhanging branch brushed against his rucksack was okay, and the sound of crisp and cold water flowing over and around rocks in the streambed masked much of that noise. On the insistance of their overall commander, the partisans moved in a widely spaced column, as much as eight meters between each man. There was no talking, whistling, humming, or soft singing to oneself - some of the outdoorsmen would occassionally have done so on their own, prior to The Occupation, but now had no need to quell their personal insecurities with such: they carried assault rifles, general purpose machineguns, in one or two instances high powered precision rifles.

Well ahead of the marching column as they shifted their temporary encampment for the second time this month, were Nikolai Losinkov and Boris Dmitriev, the KRG's de-facto sniper/spotter pair. Complete with camouflaged rifles and their ghillie suits, they carefully scouted the route ahead, mindful of the men behind them that would have to follow. Losinkov's left hand left the forestock of his captured AK-74M, draped in a camouflaged scarf and palm open was raised slightly over his left shoulder as he sank into a crouch. Dmitriev shouldered the finely made Sako rifle, both men blending into the forest floor in their motionless state. Losinkov's left hand - his right never leaving the pistol grip of the Kalashnikov rifle - slowly tapped his left ear, and with exquisite care pointed out an arc forty five degrees ahead of him and slightly to his left. They waited, always watching and listening to their environment. Three birds chirped nearby, a squirrel ran along a tree branch, and a slight breeze carried what Nikolai had heard to Boris Dmitriev's ears. Soft speech, in locally-accented Russian. It could mean many things.

A few minutes later, the lead portion of the main column came across the advance scouts. The four men detailed to act as the point formation halted the column and crept up nearer the two marksmen, wordlessly accepting the soundless situation report given with awkward sign language and imitative gestures. Behind this small gathering, the remainder of the KRG banded into an all-around defensive formation facing outwards into the dark green of the primeval forest around them. Orders came up, and the group of scouts moved out to investigate.

The MP with Sergeant stripes on his shoulder spoke, "Yeah I say him go in, should still be in there unless he left out the back. If I could just take your firearm, I would be more then willing to take you to the front desk to find your Major."

-----

"Wasting my time? More important things to do?" Yves laughed, "The daily business and crap from Parliament Hill is a waste of my time. I enjoy talking with you, it delays me from getting back to the bureaucratic crap I have to deal with. So I guess a thanks is in order." The General placed his coffee on the table and stood up, offering a hand across the table. "Feel free to drop in anytime."

-----

The LAV slamed to a halt, the troops and the girl jolting in their seats. The back door was opened and the soldiers began to file out, stretching as the sun hit them, as if they had spent a lifetime away from the sun.

"Well I'm not sure if it is smart to say that, I think I could trust them with my life, I just hope to god I don't get stuck in a situation where I have to prove that. I fore sure would protect them in a time of need, it's possibly something you dont understand, something you learn in a firefight, when all you have are the men beside you, and the gun in your hand. Maybe you should act more... friendly in their presence as an act. You might be some bonus points." The man helped her out taking her by the arm. As they exited, two large MPs stood by a MP Hummer.

-----

"I'm quite sure you don't have to tell me that mister." The Staff Sergeant hated reporters, there wasn't anything in the world that pissed him off more, as the reporters he knew disowned the government for the spending on the Armed Forces budget and such. He wished that they could spend a day in his life with the cheap equipment they suggested. "We are just going to check over your vehicle for bombs and weapons. If you could please exit the vehicle and remove the keys from the ignition." After a few mandatory checks and intense searching, the van was on it's way. The Sergeant watched as the van raced down the road. He stepped into the makeshift booth and made a radio call to the next check point to let the van pass through, then made one to the guard station at the base about the coming news van.

Byko laughed in turn, happy to see that the Delesian General had a good sense of humour and seemed to be quite a good fellow, it began to dissuade the doubts in the back of his mind that had been there since the Delesa had first arrived. Like most Kilrany he was wary around strangers, but these men seemed respective and respectable.

“It’s no problem General.”

Accepting the hand Byko shook the generals hand over the table.

-----

Obviously in a rush, the Corporal nodded his head, although he was a little unused to having to give up his weapon, he had a message to deliver ASAP, he released the catch on his holster and pull the weapon free, ensured that the safety was still on and offered it to the Delesian MP, “Excellent, please lead the way quickly.”

-----

Tamara was startled by the sudden stop and almost slammed into the side of the Delesian soldier next to her. With nothing else she could do for the time being she offered no resistance and exited the back of the vehicle with the help of the soldier.

Still not entirely convinced she addressed him again, “I don’t think you’d say that if you knew their history as well as I do. Sure they can be your friend when it suits them, but when you’ve outlived your usefulness, be careful.”

At the suggestion of being friendly in the presence of the Kilrany, she couldn’t help herself from scoffing, she spoke again with passion in her voice, “You really have no idea who these people are you’ve come to work with. They execute people publicly for crimes; criminals are forced to fight each other to the deaths in their ‘coliseums’ for the amusement of their population. I’m sorry, but my people have been at war with the Kilrany for far to long to trust or respect them now. Not after all that has happened.”

The private took the pistol and stood back at his post while the Sergeant walked towards the doors. Recent upgrades to the base had brought it up to Commonwealth standards, the Sergeant swiped a ID card and opened the heavy reenforced doors.

"If you would follow me, sir." They walked up to the front desk, a private sat behind it shuffling through papers and files. "Looking for the Kilrany officer that came in here a while ago." The private didn't even look up, but just said,

"General's office." They walked down the hallways with speed, as if something was attacking at the heels. Then they came to a simple door, like any other in the hallway, apart from the brass tag on door that said 'General's Office.' The Sergeant steped through the door, at which point the General and Major were making there way out of the office door into the reception room that the Sergeant and Corporal just entered.

"Perfect timing." The Sergeant said as he stood by the door waiting to escort the Corporal out. The General saw that and waved his hand.

"No no Sergeant I can walk them out." With that order the MP stepped out and back down the hallway.

----

The soldier didn't have time to respond to the girl, as the large MPs ushered here inside the back of the hummer and drove off to the blockade. The MPs made no attempt to talk to the girl, but rather just focused on the road making gestures to friends on the side of the road. These guys didn't tend to have to arrest soldiers very often, so rarley took the job seriously, especially with a little girl in the back.

A little bit surprised, Byko looked over towards the Corporal whose name he couldn’t remember off hand so he winged it, “Well Corporal, what brings you here?”

The Corporal looked nervous and glanced between the Delesian General and Major Byko for several moments much to the curiosity of Major Byko, “Well, spit it out.”

Being relatively young, his nervousness and even a little bit of excitement got the better of him and he stepped forward and pulled the Major off to the side only to whisper into the officer’s ear. At first Byko raised and eyebrow and merely listened, it only took a few moments of this though before his expression changed, suddenly looking as nervous as the Corporal. Before the Corporal finished he gestured with his hand as if to emphasis his words and pointed down at the ground, Byko glanced over at the General for a moment before looking away again.

His message delivered the Corporal stepped away to give the Major his personal space back, “Thank you Corporal, but that was just a little overly dramatic.”

Despite himself the Major was not maintaining that same air of relaxed friendliness he had earlier and he looked over at the General, “Well General Yves. It would seem I was quite wrong about this young girl you’ve brought back. She’s apparently a bit more important then I thought. Despite what my over zealous comrade here thought, you need to hear this as well. We’ve been informed by the Imperial Guard regional command that Fourth Division is transporting a representative from Fifth Division here as we speak; he wants to talk to you directly in regards to this situation. They’re expected within the hour.”

-----

There wasn’t a whole lot for Tamara to do but sit quietly as she was taken wherever these new men intended to take her. Unlike the Kilrany Royal Family, she was not taught weapons and unarmed combat, nor was she expected to serve any time in an active military unit like the Kilrany. Not that she knew this information anyway; the Kilrany didn’t exactly make it common knowledge.

She did however consider her future, and the options as she saw them that could possible help her stay alive. Sadly for her, those were few and she had little hope in the more positive outcomes.

-----

The same white panel van baring the markings of the Khurzav New Network came to a slow and careful stop short of the Delesian base’s main entrance, not willing to do anything stupid, both men inside had their ID ready to show to the guards.

Following a near identical pattern as he did at the checkpoint, the reporter indicated he was looking to get an interview with both General Yves and Tamara Golobayev. If that didn’t seem to work, he prepared to try and woo them over with similar claims of how good this would look for them as he did back at the checkpoint.

"Well then, I best be off to go shave and take a bath or something. Look by best and what not." The General rubbed his chin then laughed. He then escorted the men back to the front door. "Well Major, be sure to direct them my way when they arrive. I presume you will be there at the meeting?" Yves then leaned over the front desk and picked up a pistol. He handed it to the Corporal, "I belive this is yours. Don't ask how I know, this is my base for the moment after all. Now if that is all, I must go dig out my dress uniform but the bowls of the thing I call a foot locker."

---

The hummer came to a halt, and the two men got out. The passenger opened one of the back doors and helped the girl out. They then proceeded to the door of the ugly looking blockade, then put the girl into one of the spacious cells. It was nothing special, it had a proper bed, and a small radio on a little table. The zap-straps were taken off the girl, and the cell locked. Instantly she was brought a hot meal, and water to wash it all down. The single MP guard even managed to move the TV closer to the cell to allow the girl to watch if she so wished. But the MP being a true Delesian born man had the channel switched to a soccer match of his home town and another rival city.

---

The van under went another more intense search, the men inside patted down again. Then the reporter was ordered to follow the 'pilot' car, a G-Wagon with a red painted strip down the center. It pulled into the parking lot of the main office, where currently the Major and Corporal of the Kilrany forces were leaving. The reporter was ordered to stay where they were until the General was ready. Meanwhile the guards took there sweet time in delivering the message to Yves, and he took a little more time getting his uniform on. "Bloody media." he would mumble to himself.

Despite the pleasant air of General Yves and his attempt to be humorous, neither the Corporal or Major Byko seemed to relax despite Byko’s attempt to do so my chuckling himself, which only managed to come out as a nervous laugh.

It wasn’t that they didn’t find the man amusing, but paramount on their minds was the though of Fifth Division coming to this base. Had the situation been different, and these highly secretive members of the Imperial Guard not been coming to acquire some young girl in the face of what would most likely be resistance from the Delesa in turning her over, they would most likely be honoured at the thought of their visit, if somewhat still nervous.

It was a cultural effect that few outside Kilrany understood. For the Kilrany Fifth Division had this ability to make themselves seem omnipresent within their nation, they or their vehicles from the Internal Security section could often be seen moving through a city, and children grew up with the stories and wild rumors about them. All aspects of the military had to deal with them at some point, as they were crucial to the entire nation’s intelligence gathering network. Something that had a long time to build up in the back of the Kilrany subconscious, as Fifth Division’s history dated back long before the creation of the Kilrany Empire, and establishment of the Kilrany Royal Family.

Byko did finally manage to speak however, although there was still a trace of nervousness in his voice, “I doubt they have any interest in speaking with me, but yes, I will be there to great them when they land. I don’t know if … well that is to say … they’re unlike to care what you look like General, no offence intended, they’re likely here to ask for the young girl, and that’s about it. But I could be wrong; Fifth Division is not exactly something I’m all that knowledgeable about.”

The Major looked like he was about to say something else, but thought better of it and remained silent, feeling he’d put his foot in his mouth enough as it was already.

The Corporal took his service sidearm back with a quick thank you; holstering his weapon he gave a quick nod of his head before quickly moving off back towards the Kilrany communications building to resume his post.

-----

Tamara almost released a sigh of relief as the bands were removed, although they hadn’t been on tight enough to cut circulation, they were still quite uncomfortable for her. Now seated in her cell she found herself surprisingly calm, perhaps simply having spent all her fear having been chased through the alleyways, she wasn’t sure, all she knew for sure, was that for now she was in no immediate danger.

She knew it couldn’t last, at least she was sure it wouldn't, but she pushed it off to the back of her mind, trying to let herself remain content in the here and now as she gratefully accepted the food and drink. She wasn’t exactly starving, nor especially hungry, but it would be as good a distraction as any, even letting herself be drawn in to the sports program the guard watched.

-----

Neither Khurzav in the van were discouraged by the thorough searches by the Delesian guards, the Kilrany tended to act just as paranoid around them as these men now were. A simply matter of trust, something they had not yet managed to gain from either foreign troops.

Having grown accustomed to it with experience around the Kilrany, they simply went about the task of preparing for an interview. Their experience with the Kilrany in this regard was shaky at best, most of them refusing any and all interviews, only the ISM ever seemed willing to talk to them, likely a habit of doing so with their own media service at home.

With the short work of setting up a camera done, they waited patiently, hoping it would not be that long before the Delesian General came to speak with them, but prepared for the eventuality of a long wait.

"I believe you that they will be here for straight business, but it is professionalism for me. Not to mention a media van has arrived. So I'll suit up just cause thats how we operate. Public image and such. Now I must be going. The General offered a casual salute, not expecting one in return as the Major explained how he shouldn't when he first arrived, but this was his base, and was confident that his patrols were capable of removing any chances a sniper might have. He turned away and entered the building to change.

----

Yves was dressed smartly in a tan dress uniform with the Ranger black beret. His chest loaded with medals and decorations. His boots were shinned and no crease could be and would be found on the uniform. He walked up to the camera crew with great pride in his steps, and an abundance of confidence, something that was required to constantly face the reporters and the spot light of an entire nation. Cause there was no doubt about it, this would be on the DNN as well.

"Well, let start this and get it over with." For extra security, a Ranger stood beside the General, and two behind the reporters.

Byko nodded his head in understanding, the General made a good point in his eyes, but with nothing else he felt comfortable saying, he turned around and walked off towards the Kilrany’s rather small motor pool for this base. He didn’t need to get dressed up for the arrival of 5th Division, and he had no intention of going anywhere near the media unit the General indicated had been let on base, so he moved to make preparations for their unusually official visit.

Within five minutes he was in the passenger seat of a Wazik, a domestically built version of the Russian designed light vehicle, technically called a UAZ-469. Next to him he had pulled an infantrymen to play driver, behind his vehicle was a second Wazik with another pair of soldiers in the front.

He had no idea at what point on the base that 4th Division would land their helicopter, so they sat and waited for the sign of it’s approach with the intent of moving towards it as quickly as possible. None of them intended to keep 5th Division waiting.

-----

While the KNN crew had been waiting for General Yves arrival, they quickly went about setting a camera up on a tripod, a task that only took a few minutes. With that done they did a quick sound test to ensure everything was working right.

The two men watched the General’s approach with anticipation, this would be a media coup for them, no one had yet interviewed the foreign troops, nor had anyone had confirmation on the presence of a member of the Khurzav royal family in months since the Kilrany invasion.

There was no debate from the reporter, lately just getting someone from a military unit to talk to him was hard enough to do, if it the Delesian required armed guards nearby, he wasn’t going to complain at this point. The man who had been the driver now took up the task of managing the camera.

“Of course General, I don’t mean to keep you too long,” was the reply from the reporter.

He took few steps slowly forward to position himself to the General’s left as they looked towards the camera; he held a microphone in his right hand that he would move closer to the General when he spoke.

The man behind the camera gave a quick count down with a hand signal from three to one, “Good evening everyone, I’m Alexander Lomonosov and here with me is General Yves, commander of the Delesian peacekeeping forces here in Khurzav who intervened in a incident this afternoon involving Princess Tamara Golobayev and the Kilrany military. General, word has it that there was some tension between your men and the Kilrany over the young lady, is there anything you’d like to say about that?”