NationStates Jolt Archive

The Corporate Dictatorship of Red Tide is known as one of the worlds 'Black Holes' when it comes to intellegince. This term is applied because of the exceedingly difficulty that came into infiltrating it. The primary reason was the Hallucagenic Control Collar, The very thing that kept all Intellegince-Consortium Agents below the rank of Major and Soldiers below the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel from defecting, revolting, or even disobeying orders. However, it was still possible to get an agent into the proper place... such as a high-ranking officer in the Military... or an analysts position in the Intellegince-Consortium.

A military railroad terminal South of the Umeltian-Red Tidean Border, near the coast...

Field Marshal Lavrenti Redavich Neristovok stood as another train rolled into the station, it was pulling flatbed cars with MBT-66 Main Battle Tanks, the main stay of Red Tides Armored Forces. Field Marshal Neristovok was in command of Army Group-7, with its 1,250,000 men, it was this Army Group that was assigned to the Invasion of the Umeltian Coast. To the West of this Army Group was a line of 4 Infantry-Mountain Divisions positioned South of the central mountainious region of Umeltia.

So far, one of Army Group-7s Field Armies were in position, ready to move to their jump-off point. The other Field Army only had one of its Army Corps arrived, the rest was still coming in via train... hence this station.

The plans had been drawn up for Operation: Blood Crusade... the invasion of Umeltia. It was a good plan, even if the enemy found out about it, they probably would not be able to stop it. The info they had on Umeltia's Military was it was using obsolescent equipment. The plan called for an advance of 250 kilometers into Umeltia, then there would be a pause as the reserve MDM-4 SAM Sites were moved up, then the advance would resume.

Yet the plan was kept secret anyways, the official reason for Army Group-7 to be in the area was military exercises... the common universal excuse that the Red Tide issued. Yet there was a reason for that, Red Tide was ALWAYS conducting military exercises... hopefully the Umeltians would believe it until it was to late.

Intelligence consortium facility, Red Tidean capital, 21:20 hrs.

Yvan Milok chimbed the stairs to the floor where he spent his working days, trying to control the trembling in his hands. He'd managed to get past the guard booth outside the parking lot, even though he shouldn't have been inside the building this late at night. He'd claimed he had to work late. This was 100% true, but the work he planned to do was not something that his superiors would approve of.

Milok had been employed by the intelligence consortium for several years, managing to keep secret from his superiors his early years as a student eco - protestor. However, he was still an ardent supporter of militant action to protect the environment, and so had been recruited by the Umeltian Ecomentalist party as a spy within intelligence consortium before the ecomentalists had consolidated power within their own country.

The open plan office was dark and empty, except for another analyst, a woman with her hair pulled back severely into a ponytail. She didn't even look up as he sat down at his desk and booted his computer. he began to hack the mainframe, entering the messy tip of deleted files which still existed on the system, and was poorly protected compared to the main data.

He browsed through the files, which were slow going. Many were partially scrambled, and their names had been deleted. Most of it was dull, memos and dossiers about building contracts and administration. But then, there was one, partially scrambled, and very short, which was quite different.

memo: Operation _--_- --__-_-_

Having made a study of the geography of south central U--_-_-, may I suggest a different approach for the _ infantry mountain divisions, using secondary mountain roads to reach the city of Mar_-b_d as soon as possible. The course of the --__ group - is satisfactory, moving towards Melokraad.

He stared. If this memo meant what he thought it did, it was referring to an invasion of Umeltia, and had been dated just a few hours ago. He copied the file, and next day left it at his dead drop in a patch of scrubby shrubs near a road intersection on the city outskirts.

Two days later, Milok had been arrested, interrogated regarding his involvement in espionage, and executed. But the memo he had recovered was already in the hands on the Umeltian government.

"Son-of-a-bitch..." Supreme Commander Gregori McKenna, the dictator of Red Tide, said, "How the hell did this happen?"

Everyones eyes in the room turned to the Head of the Intellegince-Consortium, a relatively frail man in a wheel chair with a hint of insanity in his eyes. Nicolai Meriatialvich chewed thoughtfully on his lip.

"We had no idea he was a eco-terrorist..." That was the label Red Tide gave to militants they did NOT like, "It is incredible that he managed to get this info past the background check... although his lack of participating in any enviormentalist protests within the nation certainly helps. Had he not performed the drop, though, we may have never have been able to arrest him."

The Supreme Commander nodded a little... it made some sense, enviormentalist protests were frowned upon in Red Tide, frowned upon as in crushed very bloodily. That, and the random following of certain employee's helped arrest the spy.

"What happened to the documents?" Gregori asked.

"We were unable to uncover them, whoever was waiting for the spook was gone when we picked him up and checked the bushes." Nicolai answered.

"So, your telling me that, from what we gathered, Umeltia KNOWS about our invasion plans?" The SC demanded.

"Yes, sir." The Head of the IC said.

"Then we will have to move up our time-table..." Gregori turned to his defense minister, "Are the troops at their staging areas?"

The defense minister nodded, "Yes sir. They can be at their jump-off points within six hours of recieving their orders."

"Good... issue the orders." Gregori said.

23:30 hrs, Milostaat, Umeltia

Chairman Kramer, leader of the Umeltian ecomentalist party, was in the austere emergency briefing room in the lowest levels of the Wolfograad, the official seat of government in Umeltia. His senior advirors within the government had been hurried from their beds by SOTE troops as Kramer had called an emmergency meeting to discuss the imminent invasion by Red Tide.

"So the situation is as follows" he pronounced, his impassive features showing none of his anxiety "The Red Tidean forces are expected to attack with two forces, one armoured force in the east on the coastal plain, and another consisting of mountain infanty in the western mountains. My defence minister informs me that our forces in the area, consisting of some 650, 000 troops, cannot expect to hold them on the plains. Therefore, we will initiate an fighting retreat against the armoured force in the east, alongside a scorched earth Policy. All factories, military emplacements and transport infrastructure are to be destroyed ahead of their force. Meanwhile, our other forces in the east will establish a defensive line to the south of the river Mel, and we'll try and hold off their forces on ground of our choosing."

"Their second force will be heading into mountainous territory. our military forces there, cosisting of some 400,000 troops, are to offer all possible resistance - they're used to fighting in mountainous terrain after the civil war, and excellent at springing ambushes."

"Next" he said, turning to his propaganda minister "I want to make an emergency address to the nation in 45 minutes - get my speechwriters working on something, tell the people not to surrender or assist the attackers, but to use force and none compliance to hinder them. Tell them our way of life is under threat from a force that seeks to enslave and annihilate them"

All the time he had been talking, Kramer had been scribbling on a pad of paper in front of him. tearing it off, he gave it to his minister of diplomacy, Alex Weilmann.

"Send this message on an international news wire to all nations within Elysia"

Weilmann read it. It said:

To all the nations of Elysia,

We in the Umeltian Government have recently discovered a most disturbing plot against our nation by the Red Tidean government, who plan to engage in a war of conquest, annihilation anbd naked aggession against our peaceful nation. We therefore implore all the nations of Elysia who value freedom, peace and equality to offer us military or other assistance in protecting our nation from such powerful enemies. We hope you shall help us, for if we are defeated by Red Tide then their aggression shall surely spread to other nations.

Yours faithfully,

John Kramer,

Chairman of the people's Ecomentalist party

All through Umeltia, Military units went on red alert as military forces moved out the follow Kramer's orders, bridges and factories were mined for destruction , while ambushes were prepared and aircraft began to fly sorties over Umeltian airspace, scanning for intruders.

35 kilometers from the Umeltian-Red Tidean Border...

Field Marshal Neristovok lowered his optical view finders from his eyes and turned to the Colonel standing next to him.

"Are the tubes in position?" He asked.

"Da, comrade." The Colonel replied.

Red Tidean doctrine on artillery was similar to Soviet Doctrine... artillery was the god of war and thus should be used en-masse to shoot up the enemy lines into unrecognizable rubble. The exception was when it came to Rocket Artillery, which Red Tide usually reserved for counter-battery and counter-HQ use. Another difference stemed from Red Tides overall doctrine: 'There is no such thing as excessive'. In other words, Red Tide spent insane amounts of munitions, usually to the point of overkill, on its targets. There had been a cases where strategic bombers were used on a SQUAD of rebels.

Fortuanantly, with Red Tides doctrine of excessive force came the doctrine of excessive munitions, the whole reason why a full 80% of the Red Tide industry was devoted to weapons or weapons related technology. The Field Marshal turned again to his aide.

"Begin..." He said simply.

"Da." The Colonel said, lifting a radio to his ear. Up and down a 50 kilometer section of the Umeltian border, close to TWO THOUSAND MBT-66 tanks turned on their engines. Simultaneously, upwards of SEVEN THOUSAND 203, 105, and 122mm artillery guns(self-proppelled and not) began to plaster a 50km by 50km area just over the Umeltian Border. The bombardment would go on for 2 hours before lifting.

Simultaneous with that, Any Umeltian Military Aircraft within 100 kilometers of the Red Tidean border would find their missile warning system going crazy as MDM-4 and MDM-6 Surface-Air Missiles rippled out of their tubes and went after the aircraft. There were assigned 5 missiles per aircraft.

Finally, R-100 Medium Range Ballistic Missiles tipped with conventional warheads were fired at the Umeltian Capitol, the missiles were aimed at the industrialised areas of the capitol and had an circular error probability(CEP) of 10 meters. In addition, they would manuever as they came down on the hapless industrial complexes, so as to increase their survivability, in total, 400 Ballistic Missiles were fired.

Before we go further, here is a map of Umeltia:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/Lankuria/Umeltiapoliticalmapjpeg.jpg

Feel free to mark your military actions on the map!

"Sir.."

Kramer looked up from his desk overlooking the operations room to an ashen faced aide.

"Report."

"Red Tidean artillary began to shell a large area of the coastal plain 10 minutes ago sir. Looks like they're clearing the way for their armoured force. Also, upwards of 60 of our aircraft have been destroyed by Red Tidean AA firing over the border."

Kramer lost no time in reacting and issuing a slew of new orders, even as the senior cabinet and ministry of defence left the capital on board armoured trains to command the defence from bunkers located in the mountains to the west.

**********************************************************

Within the area being shelled by the Red Tideans, and a 50km zone surrounding it, Umeltian forces were retreating. The farmland was soon covered by a blanket of smoke as, in addition to the artillery bombardment, bridges, roads, railway depots, factories, government buildings and farms were all burnt or demolished by the Umeltians. Nothing but desolation and delay would meet the invaders. Yet although the majority of the military would leave, paramilitary units remained. The Umeltian army had become used to guerilla warfare in its long civil war, and the troops left behind were experienced in such combat, disguised as civilians and fanatical to their ecomentalist cause.

In an area surrounding the attackers were dozens of gathering points all away from major strategic positions and most in camouflaged locations such as woods. Here armoured units and infantry would gather, supported by units from the north which had been mobilised to assist in delaying and repelling the invaders.Already approximately 600,000 troops and 1600 tanks waited for the attackers, and another 300,000 troops and 750 tanks were on their way. By dawn more than 3000 artillery pieces would be in position to support the armoured counterattack.

Umeltian ballistic missiles were also preparing to launch. Although their commanders doubted whether they would get through the Red Tidean defence systems, they had them targeted on major artillery positions the Red Tideans were using south of the border. in total 60 missiles were lsaunched within 10 minutes of each other.

Secret IC: Behind the lines a more sinister development was taking place, in the greatest secrecy. Individuals with particular fanaticism for the cause of the ecomentalists were being picked out of the special forces groups which were embedding themselves so that they would be behind enemy lines should the counterattack fail, and grouped into 'Lazarus brigades', which Kramer had ordered to be created as he left the capital. The one day training was in manufacturing (from any materials) and using backpack bombs. They were to lie in wait if the armoured counterattack failed, lie low and allow the Red Tidean attack to pass them, and then attack groups of resting Red Tidean troops, hopefully sowing fear and paranoia among the enemy. Kramer had known that volunteers for such groups would be willing to come forward, but prayed that they would not have to sacrifice themselves. However, if the Red Tideans continued to be succesful, they might yet be their last hope...

Two hours after it begun, the Artillery barrage lifted and the MBT-66s rolled forward. In addition to the MBT-66s, there were 400 LBT-45s and 100 XSPTD-01 Medusa's. The Medusa was Red Tides premier armored fighting vehicle, a heavy tank destroyer, the Medusa was apporpriatly named, there wasnt a main battle tank on the planet that could withstand its 203mm Electro-Thermal Chemical gun. In addition, the Medusa could take almost as much damage as it inflicted.

First into the country was the reconniasance screen, consisting of APC-44Rs. They rolled forward, using all of their advanced detection equipment to look for the enemy. In addition to the APCs, four Dark Star Reconnisance Drones had been tasked to the Field Marshal, two of them were in the air, liesurly cruising along at 60,000 feet, invisible to most RADAR, they were assigned to watch the flanks.

Then came the armored fists, the first true armored units into Umeltia was a Platoon of four Medusa's, followed by another platoon of Medusa's, then a Platoon of MBTS, then more MBTs, and more, and more... and endless flood of tanks and armored personnel carriers began to cross the border while the artillery.

The 60 ballistic missiles fired into the air were a wasted as they were shot out of the air with casual ease by Red Tides advanced SAM network. Red Tide had one of the heaviest SAM belts in the world, with a state-of-the-art Over-The-Horizon RADAR capable of spotting sattelites in mid-earth orbit stationed in the center of the country.

The a key objective in the Red Tides battleplan was Melokraad. They determined if they took it, they would have control over the nations access to international the ocean, not to mention cut-off any forces trapped West of the planned breakthrough part.

A second action was started at this point, the Mountain-Infantry Divisions crossed the border. Specialised units with few tanks, but plenty of mortars and some light artillery, they would hike and ski most of the way to their objective: Markobad.

OOC: I am really bad at editing, so forgive the mistakes.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i47/ObssesedNuker/Umeltiapoliticalmapjpegedited.jpg

The Umeltian forces remained in position, waiting until a significant proportion of the Red Tidean forces were inside Umeltia, 2,300 tanks now in positio0n. The Umeltian commanders knew the battle would be hard fought - their T72s were inferior to the madusas. But they would be attacking the Red Tideans from three directions at once, and they knew the territory.

The signal went out from high command "commemce attack pattern Auroch. All umeltian units, engage and destroy all enemy targets"

Along a front more than 200 miles loong, the Umeltians moved out and advanced towards the enemy hordes, as their artillery began to fire on the known concentrations of Red Tidean tanks and vehicle columns.

OOC:Sorry for not replying sooner, internet went crazy on me yesterday.

IC: As soon as the Umeltian Artillery opened fire, their shells were tracked and course traced by Counter-Battery RADAR. The Artillery would find themselves at the mercy of the four thousand MDM-3 Self-Proppelled Rocket Artillery. These were specifically designed for counter-HQ and Counter Battery tactics. The Umeltians hadnt even fired their second round when a massive amount of 203mm dumb rockets filled the skies. Each rocket carried a anti-personnel dispersal warhead, which, at a certain point above the ground, would release two hundred anti-personnel munitions per rocket over a medium-sized area. The resulting explosions would be lethal against open topped vehicles, lightly armored vehicles, and exposed troops... like those manning the howitzers or M-1978s that Umeltia had.

The MBT-66(simply called the ’Hydra’) far outclassed the T-72s Umeltia was throwing at Red Tide. The ETC-122T 122mm ElectroThermal-Chemical(or ETC) guns on the Hydra’s were 150% more powerful then the conventional 125mm smoothbore guns on the T-72s. The armor was also thicker, with a surprising 500 mm compared to 200mm… and that’s when NOT taking armor sloping and armor type into account, in which the Hydra, the electronics were also superior, with a laser range finder capable of finding and hitting its target at 4 kilometers with superb accuracy. The auto-loader was also better, this meant that loading speed was faster, while still keeping the three-man crew. The disadvantage the MBT-66 had was it was bigger then the T-72... But this mattered little when the T-72s were advancing. The MBT-66s began to select and attack the enemy tanks, the day was turned even brighter by the blasts coming out of the tank guns.

Also, once Red Tidean Artillery was set-up, Umeltian infantry would find themselves advancing into a kill zone being obliterated by artillery. A few minutes after the Umeltians began their attack, 700 SBO-4 Strategic Bombers were detected heading straight for the Capitol City of Milostaat, escorting them were 200 H/K-1 Surface Attack Aircraft, armed with High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles(HARM), each H/K carried 6 HARMs, any RADAR that was turned on would quickly find itself the victim of two of these weapons. A further 100 MiG-35s made up more of the escorts. Finally, mixed in were SE-4 Electronic Warfare Planes, these would create massive clouds of jamming, hiding the bombers from any enemy missiles. The bombers were loaded down with Napalm, intending to burn the industrial area of Milostaat to the ground.

(OOC: I don't know if this is still ongoing, but I'm going to provide my government's stance on this)

Official Government Communique
To:The Corporate Dictatorship of Red Tide

From:The Allied States of Dai Yuddha Ossyria

Great Leaders of Red Tide, we want to make clear our stance on this issue. We would not interfere in what is nothing of our business, but do not see the reason behind this assault. We will stay completely neutral in this conflict and will not support one side or the other.

Official Government Communique
To:The Free Land of Umeltia

From:The Allied States of Dai Yuddha Ossyria

Dear Leaders of the River Mel, we send our heartfelt condolences in this latest assault on your soveriegnty. In another time, perhaps we would be fighting at your side helping defend you. But in light of events in our recent past involving environmental terrorism, assisting your ecomentalist nation may not be very popular in our industrious nation.

Signed,
Dr. Wilhuff Woodhelm, Federal President
Vinzenz Tal-Utrei, Prime Minister
Achilles Tullio, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation
Yosea Taruba, Minister of War and Home Defense

On Behalf Of

The Sanctified and August Sage-Emperor of
All Under Heaven and Defender of All Beings
Markos IV Orlan