[An Act of Mercy]
OOC Note: This is going to be a quickly done thread that deals with the peaceful Cottish takeover of the lands belonging to the nation of Bjornoya, which has been deleted. Should he return, the lands will be returned to him.
The news of the status in the Patriarchal Federation of Bjornoya was a cause of great concern for the Cottish government. The Bjornoyan nation was an old and proud one, which had been on friendly terms with the Realm since the beginning of the modern era, but which had now taken a nose-dive into anarchy with the people rising up against the government after the Patriarch's lack of apperance over the past few months and the new decrees set forth by the Visara Corporation. It was so bad that neither the Federal Peacekeepers, which was the Bjornoyan equivalent of a national army, nor the Visara security forces, which belonged to the Visara Corporation, the power behind the power in the Bjornoyan society, were able to stop the angry crowds. They demanded answers from the Patriarch, and when they failed to be given combined with the organized suppression of individualism in the Bjornoyan state over the past few decades, an uprising was a fact.
With this in mind, and the breakdown of the Bjornoyan state ever closer, the surviving Bjornoyan leadership plead for help from someone, anyone. The Realm of Cotland was a natural helper, with the Cottish homeland only a few tens of kilometers away from the Bjornoyan capital city. The request from the Bjornoyans, issued through the Bjornoyan embassy in Oslo was put forth by the Cabinet, and with the approval of the Prime Minister who filled the gap while the King was on his honeymoon somewhere far warmer than the cold, snowy Oslo, the request for permission to deploy peacekeeping troops to Bjornoya was put before the Storting, which was the Cottish national assembly. Article twenty-two, subsection two of the Cottish Constitution clearly stipulated that the Storting had to approve all deployments of troops beyond the borders of the Realm, and while this wasn't taken too seriously, in this case, it was.
Three hours after the request had been put forth, the votes were in. 157 of the 169 representatives were for the motion to deploy troops, and the orders were issued forthwith to the units in question.
In the territory of Murmansk, the Royal Cottish Army had a total of two mechanized infantry divisions, one armored division, two air assault divisions and four motorized infantry divisions. It was two of the latter division type that were ordered to be prepared for immediate deployment to Bjornoya for peacekeeping duties. The motorized infantry divisions were especially trained for this kind of mission, with three motorized infantry brigades, one engineering battalion and a headquarters/air defense battalion, numbering a total of 9,981 soldiers and well over 700 armored vehicles, mostly APCs. The two divisions in question, the 47. and 65. were to be argumented by two Tactical Transport Squadrons from the Royal Cottish Air Force, flying the C-12/J Super Hercules transport aircraft, and 15. Aerial Utility Battalion from the 90. Air Assault Division, which was also stationed in Murmansk. This battalion had heavy-lift helicopters and VTOL transports, perfect for transporting cargo, litters and troops around.
The units were ordered to be ready to deploy within 18 hours, something which meant that a lot of work had to be done to get things ready. Five large civilian RO-RO ferries that normally trafficed between Cotland and Bjornoya were comandeered by the government and prepared to transport the heavy equipment while advance teams from each brigade boarded the Super Hercules' five hours after the orders were recieved, making up the advanced landing and reconnaissance team. They would be on the ground within the hour.
The first of the C-12/J Super Hercules transports touched down on the airport connecting the Bjornoyan capital to the rest of the world, and started gulping out troops immediately. A hundred light infantrymen were dismounted, all of them with L100A1 Assault Rifles slung over their shoulders, helmets along their sides, and the olive green beret that showed that these were infantrymen in the Royal Cottish Army on their heads. On their right arms, they had ermlets with a larger variant of the Cottish flag than the one stitched to the uniform, showing clearly that they were Cottish soldiers. This first element of the peacekeeping units, elements of Company 2, 1. Infantry Battalion, 3. Motorised Infantry Brigade, 65. Motorised Infantry Division immediately got to work, securing the airport as more and more aircraft came in.
Twenty-four hours later, the first two brigades had been organized and started deploying, one brigade heading for the Bjornoyan capital city of Esthar. The other one was to secure the countryside outside.
The Cots wasted no time trying to get a peaceful sollution started, but they found that the last of the Bjornoyan upper echelon of leaders had been killed off by the angry crowds. The Herrgotts and Fraugotts, the de facto cabinet members of the Bjornoyan government were nowhere to be found though. Neither was the Patriarch. No one knew where they were, and with no orders, the Bjornoyan police and soldiers did nothing. The Visara security forces defended the installations of their corporation though, something which had already cost thousands of lives. Anyway, the only leadership worth mentioning was the leaders of the popular uprising and a few lower-ranking government officials that had managed to avoid being killed. The Cots arranged for a meeting with both parties in the Cottish embassy in Esthar, which had been spared destruction, mainly thanks to the ninety Royal Marines guarding it with weapons ready. The Cottish Ambassador served as the mediator, having experience with the Bjornoyan psyche and lifestyle.
After twelve hours of negotiations, it was found out that the people were tired of the constant restrictions the Patriarch imposed on them, having learned of the pleasures and joys of personal freedom on travels abroad. This news had been spread to other people, who in turn had told others. In a very short period of time, what had started as dissatisfaction among a very few had turned into a massive uprising. What the people demanded was more personal freedoms, including, but not limited to the freedom to speak any language they wanted in the streets, the right to love whoever they wanted without being killed for it, free speech, freedom of the press, and the right to buy from others than Visara. The lowly government official didn't know what to say, so he just said what he believed would save his life: he concurred. When the Ambassador then asked whether the Cottish could be allowed to deploy peacekeepers to calm the situation down enough to be able to have meaningful discussions over the subject, convincing the leaders of the uprising that the Cots took them seriously, they agreed to it.
A week later, the Cottish peacekeeping force had been deployed to the Bjornoyan "northern territories" as they called them and order had been largely restored. The problem now was disarming the rioters, the Federal Peacekeepers who had been largely dismantled, and the Visara security forces. The last group would be difficult to disarm, and it was likely that they would have to be disarmed as gunpoint before the free elections that the Ambassador had managed to negotiate forth would be held. In the meanwhile, all groups had accepted the Cottish offer to declare the Bjornoyan northern territories a Cottish protectorate, to prevent any attempts to snatch the territories.
Eleven months after the initial Cottish peacekeepers entered the lands of Bjornoya, there had been much progress. There had been a referendum among the people, most of whom had taken part in the first free elections to be held in Bjornoya for more than fourty years, and the people had decided on electing a public assembly for managing what the Cottish officials now refered to as the Bjornoyan Province. It wasn't completely Bjornoyan, with the territory of Vologda having been swept up as well. Still, the reactions of the people were peaceful as they accepted the Cots as peacekeepers. The fact that Cotland and Bjornoya had been allied for a long time also helped with keeping the people calm. The people had peace, plenty of food and other necesseties, employment, and no constant threat from Visara if they didn't meet their quotas anymore. Visara was still around, but far less capable of excerting fear and power anymore. The Cottish seizure of the Visara military equipment and locations had helped with that, as well as freezing their assets.
In the city of Necropolis, an infantry battalion was still stationed to serve as a protection force, supported by special forces. It was the latter that discovered what would alter Cottish conceptions of the past. The twelve-man team was investigating reports from the local authorities about unusual activity being undertaken in the catacombs of the Bjornoyan city of the dead which was located on the northwestern coastline, relatively close to the territory of Murmansk which was a part of the Greater Norwegian Province. The team had entered the catacombs a few hours earlier, and were moving through the stone labyrinth relatively slowly, using their night vision goggles and flashlights on the weapons to see where they were going. There were a lot of dead people lying in stone slabs along the sides of the corridor, most of them having decayed down to mere skeletons long ago. It was eerie, and the team was hoping that they'd find out what was going on quickly so they could get out from this dark, damp area which smelled of age-long human decay.
After wandering around in the catacombs for the better part of half an hour, the point man, one of the team's four grenadiers suddenly raised his right hand, which was clenched into a fist. The universal soldier sign to stop immediately. The other eleven operatives stopped immediately and looked around the area, weapons raised with fingers on the triggers and safeties off. They took no chances in this environment.
After a few intense seconds, the point man motioned for the team to proceed, slowly and quietly. The men moved through the dark, dusty catacombs and entered what seemed to be a wide and up until recently occupied corridor. There was very little dust, and through the night vision goggles, the men could see that there were modern items in the corridor such as industrial-style lighting in the roof and fire suppression systems in place. From where the team had emerged, in the middle of the corridor, they could see a ramp on one end, apparently leading out of the catacombs and back to civilization. In the other end, they could see what appeared to be a large blast-proof door of some sort. Whatever it was, it definately didn't belong in the catacombs.
The Commander left two men, one grenadier and one heavy weapons man at the point where they emerged to cover the rear, taking the remaining ten men with him. They proceeded carefully towards the door, not taking any chances. The weapons were raised, safeties off, and night vision goggles giving the operatives a good idea of what was hidden in the darkness.
Reaching the door, the operatives made sure there were no potential hostiles in the area while the two combat engineers started trying to figure out how to get the door open. The logical choice would be to use C4 and plenty of it. Each of the combat engineers carried with him six and a half kilos of Composition C4 plastique explosive, divided into half kilo blocks. The door was a large double-door, apparently blast-proof with no real weak points, but it appeared to be made of steel. That meant that if sufficient amounts of C4 were placed on them, they could open them. Pleased with this, the combat engineers started placing their charges, using a total of five kilos to try to open the door. The explosives were fitted with a remote detonator, and the operatives got out of the way. All but the Commander, who had found an inscription in the wall next to the door.
CLASSIFIED STORAGE AREA
TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT
PROPERTY OF VISARA CORPORATION
A classified Visara storage area. That would explain the location. I wonder what we'll find inside. The Commander thought, clearing out of the area to join the rest of his team which had taken up safe positions inside the entrance to the catacombs from where they had emerged, not taking any chances with shrapnel from the door hitting them by accident. When everyone were safely in position, the combat engineer nodded and pressed the red button on the remote detonator.
A very loud boom and a wall of dust, smoke and compressed air swooshing past the entrance later, the team were ready to get going again. However, anticipating anything from Visara, the team had donned gas masks in case of a gas booby trap being triggered. The intelligence briefs on Visara had stated their vast employment of a incapacitating non-lethal gas in various conflicts.
As the team came to the door again, they saw that the five kilos of C4 had done its job. A hole large enough for a man to pass through gaped at them as they approached, rifles raised, infrared lasers that showed up only inside the night vision goggles giving the soldiers a good fix on where their bullet would go if they pulled the trigger.
One of the grenadiers passed through the hole first, clearing the first area. It was what appeared to be a loading bay, with a small office near and three long corridors leading in three different directions. The grenadier checked the loading bay and, confident that it was empty, shouted out "Clear!", allowing for the rest of the team to enter. Two men were left outside to make sure no one dropped by, with the rest entering.
The grenadier and one of the combat engineers cleared the office and found a lot of documents in the filing cabinets, including a manifest of the storage area's contents. What stood on the third spot from the top shocked the Commander as he read it.
Item: 2573-A38/B
Description: (1) Warhead, Cobalt-14, North Germanian origin.
Entered into Storage Area Epsilon-25: 17.01.00
Calling over the radioman, he got him to call up the Cottish Special Opertions Command (SOC) directly, bypassing the normal chain of command. It seemed they weren't far enough underground to block radio transmissions, because the call came through, albeit with a little static.
"This is Jackal Blue 3 to Cave Ultra with flash traffic. Repeat, this is Jackal Blue 3 to Cave Ultra with flash traffic."
A few seconds later, a clearly surprised voice came over the radio.
"Jackal Blue 3, this is Cave Ultra. Standing by for flash traffic."
Flash traffic meant that the operatives had extremely important information that might very well need to be on the desks of the political leadership and the King as soon as humanly possible. Therefore, every second was being recorded back at SOC.
"Jackal Blue 3 to Cave Ultra. SITREP as follows: In former Visara storage complex underneath the city of Necropolis. Has discovered manifest with following entry, dated one seven dot zero one dot zero zero. 'Item two five seven three dash alpha three eight forward-slash bravo. Description One Warhead, Cobalt-14, North Germanian origin. Entered into Storage Area Epsilon twenty-five one seven dot zero one dot zero zero.' Copy last transmission."
There was silence for a long while before another, older voice came over the radio.
"This is Cave Ultra actual. Repeat last transmission."
"Cave Ultra actual, this is Jackal Blue 3 actual. We've discovered that missing Germanian nuke that everyone thinks the Russians stole. Request instructions."
"Do you have the item in your posession?"
"Negative."
"Then go find it. After you've found it, call back for further instructions. This operation is hereby classified Top Secret."
"Locate Germanian nuke and call back when we've got it. The operation is Top Secret as of this moment. Understood. Jackal Blue 3 actual out."
The team leader hung up and then divided his unit into five groups. Three teams of two, one team of four, and the last two outside. Each two-man team would search the corridors, with the four-man team remaining in the loading bay to check what was there, guard the area, and be able to reinforce the pairs if needed. The last two-man team remained outside, guarding the entrance. With their orders to search for the nuke, they got going.
Twenty minutes later, the team searching the center corridor had hit the jackpot, and called in the commander and radioman. Inside a storage bay, a large partially crated up item stood alone in the room, labeled as item 2573-A38/B. The crate was partially opened and the men could see that inside was what seemed to be a large warhead complete with Germanian markings. Smiling, the Commander called back to SOC.
Five hours later, a convoy of trucks driven by members of the Operational Detachment-Bravo that supported the Cottish special operations forces, protected by more Cottish SpecOps personnel started moving out from the complex, heading for Necropolis airport where several new C-15/A Kondor ultra-heavy strategic transport aircraft waited to take aboard the precious loads the trucks were transporting back to safe holdings in Norway somewhere. The entire issue had been classified Top Secret, and would not be revealed to anyone outside the inner circle, let alone the Germanians. They and the rest of the world believed that the Russians had stolen it, and they would get to live on in that belief.