NationStates Jolt Archive

Tanks still bearing the old RCR markings rolled through the streets of Yakutsk. The city along with the rest of the Yakutsk region were conquered with almost no effort, many Pushkans had families in Yakutsk, they both spoke the same language, the Pushkans were welcomed to their land of refuge. A column of black limousines went down the central road of the city heading for the abandoned Parliament building. The snow was falling slightly as security personnel armed with AD-97 rifles were first to exit the vehicles and enter the building. After a quick check all was safe and older men dressed up for winter time came pouring out of the cars. Most men's faces were grim, however there was one man who's face was fully wrapped up in a scarf, he tried to blend in, in the crowd, he was one of the last to enter the building.

The men walked into the Parliament building and took their seats in the assembly room. The person with a scarf took off his coat and got onto to the podium. One of the security personnel put a small box in the middle of the room. Whoever tried to listen via bugs planted in the building would hear nothing but static.

"Hello gentlemen, I am very happy that so many have stayed loyal to our motherland after all that has happened. You might not know me but believe me than I say that I am ready to dedicate my life to our cause and the benefit of Pushkan people. However as far the world is concerned I do not exist, in fact I have passed away a number of years back before our short lived democracy, back than the world was very different. We were even friends with the Cots, our obvious archenemies at this point...heh...where is no point in asking how did it come to this? Our previous government was not able to protect our sovereignty and now we suffer because of it. Lets leave the past in the past and concentrate on what we need to do in the future. I have created a draft by which our new government will run, I am sorry to say but in our situation we can not succeed if we choose the way of democracy or even oligarchy. Dictatorship is our only option, I will have the absolute power over this country and its people, but it will be temporary dictatorship, once our motherland is back in our possession I will resign and disappear into the pages of history books that will be written a hundred years from now then the secret of my existence will be revealed as all secrets do eventually. Our government will have five ministries that will each answer for a portion of our national needs. The five ministries will be Ministry of Productivity, responsible for supplying our citizens with food, water, shelter and an occupation. It will also oversee all the civilian projects such as bridges and electrical powerplants. The ministry of Foreign Affairs that will create relationships with foreign nations. The Ministry of Economics that will print out our currency and deal with economic matters such as mining, food production, etc. The ministry will also control all the Pushkan civilian businesses operating on our soil and abroad. The Ministry of Defense will be charged with drafting and training military personnel and researching, developing and producing military equipment. The Ministry of Homeland Defense will root out traitors and will have control over the media. However I want it to be known that I have grown up during the time of turmoil then a neighbor spied on a neighbor and millions have been sent to forced labor camps because they were deemed as traitors, I will not see that happen again, if I see the Homeland Defense abuse its power I will have its heads arrested and have it dissolved. These are the ministries and now I will tell you what each one has to do within the next two years. The ministry of productivity will have to do these things: create enough nuclear powerplants to supply our nation with electricity, develop agriculture as to feed our population and mine the land for natural resources. You will be given the quotas for each of those requirements after they have been compiled. In addition the ministry of productivity will have to create several underground powerplants and agricultural fields so once war starts and most definitely will and in an event we suffer a set back and the enemy will attempt to cut off our electricity and food production we will still have ways of providing both that our enemy will not be able to touch with their bombs. You have full control of how many civilians will participate in the building of your projects. Look outside there is millions of angry Russians and there is no better worker or soldier then an angry Russian. Ministry of Foreign Affairs will disregard any messages what so ever from any at all member of TOA, they can threaten us or say whatever else they want we will remain silent. At the same time you will attempt to contact other nations that are displeased with TOA and attempt to make pacts with them. The ministry of defense will reorganize and modernize our army, and give civilians training in basic combat so if this turns into a great patriotic war they will be ready. The ministry of Economics will create concern itself with the integrity of our currency. The ministry of Homeland Defense will stop any attempts by foreign spies to infiltrate our territory while making contact with rebel groups that are sure to appear on the lands owned by Cotland that we used to possess. Those groups will be given training, weapons all that they need, however we do require them not to act until we issue an order to do so. They will aid us greatly during the war by sabotaging Cottish supply lines and such. These are all the things I need you to do, I repeat a detailed list will be given to each ministry to work on in the upcoming weeks. Each ministry will send me weekly reports that will include all of their dealings. I will have a personal advisor in each of the ministry that will make sure that the reports are truthful, if they aren't, those responsible will be punished. The advisors will also report to me on ministries' daily dealings. Now as you know I do not exist so officially I will not be leading this country, my good friend Igor Stepanov will take on the burden, he will be the face of our government that from now on will be known as Russian Dictatorial Union. That is all, you will return to your homes and speak nothing of what you have heard hear to anyone, the punishment for breaking this one rule is death. I will not be seeing you again but Mr. Stepanov will channel my will to you. Have a good rest of the evening and farewell.

The new military headquarters for Cottish Forces Siberia had been located in Irkutsk, sufficiently far from every border to foreign nations that the Cots didn't have to worry about relocating any time soon in case of an attack. It was here that the operational responsibility for Operation Utskilling lay, and where directives to the field commanders were issued from.

Operation Utskilling was a plan that had been operational since the time of the securing of the liberated areas, and basically consisted of one simple thing: the mass relocation of people of Pushkan heritage and ethnic background to a territory where they could do whatever the heck they wanted, namely the territory of Ust-Orda Buryat. Here, in the 22,138.1 square kilometers, a total of twenty million Pushkans were being forced to live, giving it a population density of 993.76 persons per square kilometer. More than enough room according to the Cottish administration. The official reason for the mass relocation was that for the personal safety of the Pushkans, they would be moved so that the angry sixteen million population of ethnic Cots wouldn't do anything rash against the Pushkans. They were allowed to bring one suitcase or bag into the area, and everyone not already living there were being checked for any illegal materials or weapons. There were quite a few with weapons, and they were seperated from the crowds for "special questioning." None were ever seen again, but rather secretly shipped to the newly established prison facility on Somerset Island, on the other side of the world.

There was no real Cottish presence inside the borders of Ust-Orda, which was considered to be an autonomous territory within the province. Since it was autonomous, no economical or political backing was given by the Cottish government, and the territory wasn't included in the Provincial Parliament or Council. The closest the Pushkans inside came to a Cottish presence were the soldiers guarding the perimeters, alledgedly for their protection. Secretly, the soldiers had been ordered to shoot anyone attempting to violate the border, which for now had been marked with barbed wire, roaming patrols, landmines and infrared sensors. Soon, a more permanent sollution would be created, but for now, the Pushkans were locked up and in a miserable shape. They were undesirable elements in the Realm, but without a nation state to call their own, the Cottish government decided to label them refugees, thus denying them citizenship, and holed them up in refugee camps, namely Ust-Orda Buryat, where they were allowed to roam freely, but not exit.

The refusal of the Cottish government to issue other papers than papers stating the Pushkans to be refugees and thus with only a very small number of civil rights was done as an attempt to prevent any insurgency within its borders. The citizens of Cottish ethnic decent were granted citizenship almost right away, which meant that they were given a Personal Identity Number (PIN) and a Identity Card that they had to carry with them at all times, which had a picture of the owner of the card, the personal information (name, age, date of birth, address, eye color, etc) and a magnetic stripe which could be used by for instance police officers doing routine checks. Not being able to produce the identity card when requested by the Police was sufficient for the person to be arrested and detained while the police figured out who they were, and why they didn't have a valid identity card.

The magnetic stripe allowed the Police to check the information on the card up against a national database where the information was stored, as well as current address, criminal wrapsheet, family information, et cetera. The servers on which the information was stored was located in a secret location somewhere in the Realm, with backup servers on three other secure and secret locations. They were all heavily encrypted, as was all Cottish government databases, with a 2048-bit encryption algorythm, proving it impossible to break. There were plans to upgrade to 4096-bit encryption next year, but so far, that hadn't been done yet. If the information on the card couldn't be verified by the server, it too was grounds for immediate arrest on charges of counterfeit, a very serious felony in the Realm, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

For now, the Cottish government was blissfully unaware of the reemergance of a new version of the Russian Communist Republic in the neighboring Yakutsk, and thus didn't have any particularly strengthened border defenses. When they would, the situation along the border would be seriously altered.

[OOC: It'd be an interesting turn to have a small rebellion inside Ust-Orda...]

Yakutsk, Parliment Building, Dictator's Office

"Grandfather we need to figure out a way to get backing to our people locked up in the Ust-Orgat region."

"I know Igor, I am working out the details on this, in any event they will have to wait until we are ready to engage Cotland in combat. I am afraid that they must suffer until than."

"But Mr. Mishi....!!!"

"Quite!!! You are not to call me by that name, that man is dead. To all who know that I even exist I am Ded, or Grandfather if you choose to speak english. You have no idea how much it pains me but this is necessary. It is not the first time our people are suffering, we have been through fire, water, gas chambers...they won't break. This is about reclaiming our motherland for all of our people, we can not screw this up because of this sentiment no matter how well placed it is. As you know we have already been able to establish contact on a highly encrypted frequency. That is how we must work, with stealth and precision, we can not afford a premature war. Even in the unlikely event the Cots will notice the signal and an even more unlikely event of them decrypting it where is nothing in where incriminating us, if they try to discover the original location from which it was sent they will be sent on a while goose chase all across the globe and the only place far away from our borders. We need to figure out a way to sneak in weapons and instructors to the region. The border between us and Cotland is large they can't watch all of it, the problem would be bypassing the guards that are surrounding the region itself. However if we plan this out it can be achieved, any wall has a hole. Now I want you to order 10000 AK-103s of old RCR make to be ready for transportation as soon as possible. They are to be transported in civilian semi-trucks. The ministry of homeland security should be charged with getting those to there they need to go. We have very large funds at our disposal if all else fails I am sure we can find one guard in the whole bunch who can be bribed.

OOC: Is Rothsky still around by the way?

OOC So you won't mind if I entwine those posts into here, and sort of get an interest out of it between me and you? You and I?

OOC So you won't mind if I entwine those posts into here, and sort of get an interest out of it between me and you? You and I?


OOC: Go right ahead. Oh and get on AIM i need to talk to you.

OOC Me and Nero get out of school in 10 minutes, will be on AIM in a good...eh...20-30...maybe longer.

The Pentagon, Hirgizstan City, Cape Verde

The Joint Chiefs sat around the polished mahogany table as normal. There were six of them, one from each branch of the military, plus the Military Liason from the Government who sat at the head of the desk. Each man had an open manila file with some sheets in it and a glass of spring water from somewhere in Seattle.

The meeting had been going on for a while, the new base had been thoroughly discussed and all the details worked out. The new Joint Forces Base for five Corps of the 29th Army and a single AEF would outside a town called Ust Kuk, near the picturesque Lake Baikal. This particular base would be one of several planned in Russia since the withdrawal. No longer having a physical prescence in Russia didn't mean that the COH was no longer interested.

The base would be huge, simply massive. It would have to house over 200,000 troops and tens of thousands of Air Force personnel. But the good news was that the building of the base would pump money into the Cottish and Hirgizstanian economies and provide a local boom for the area around Ust Kuk.

Dudinka, Taymyria [Cotland]-

The Armed Republic, for the first time in what seemed like years, had decided to mobilize her forces for operations on foreign soil. For it, the relatively modest airport of Dudinka in the Taymyria region of Cottish Siberia had been transformed into a regional hub of activity for the incoming Armed Republic Army Expeditionary Force – North Siberia [AEFNS]. The expeditionary force, composed roughly of five thousand Armed Republic airborne infantry and their accompanying light contingent of equipment, mostly light infantry and utility vehicles with limited artillery, anti-tank, and anti-aircraft capability, had steadily streamed in following a decision of the highest echelon of the government of the Armed Republic, the Kagan himself, which in turn followed a request of aid by the Armed Republic’s ally, Cotland.

The AEFNS, itself, was part of a larger force, the Armed Republic’s Siberian Expeditionary Force [SEF]. The SEF was a much larger contingent of personnel, composed of five total divisions, one of which was deployed to Dudinka. The remaining four divisions were two mechanized, one airborne, and one armored division. All of them found their new bases of operations across the southern region of Cottish Siberia, and their deployments would, for the most part, vary as to what was required of them. However, the North Siberia force would serve a special mission for the Armed Republic, as a testing force to test the capability of the Armed Republic war machine in such an inhospitable, and still largely impassable, terrain and environment as found in the Siberian tundra. More importantly, it’d be the only foreign deployed unit to receive the ST-47K [i]Aray in order to test its engine and armament systems in the terrain and environment that northern Siberia afforded them.

Dudinka was too hospitable to be of a good testing location, but it would serve as the distant base of operations for Armed Republic forces in the region, as well as a staging base for a single wing of F/A-41V STOVL multi-role aircraft, the only ones which could operate from the region. A headquarters, security, and logistics detachment would remain in Dudinka, setting up the regional command to receive distant communications from the Armed Republic and developing an ARSB-funded airport redevelopment project, potentially allowing the expansion of the Armed Republic forces in-region. Subsequently, the bulk of the force, some four thousand infantry and their equipment, along with the two dozen ST-47K1s airlifted in, would move due East some two hundred miles, deep into the Siberian tundra. En route, clearings would be created for STOVL transport aircraft to provide logistical replenishment.

The final location would be developed into a fully functional Armed Republic outpost, complete with a short runway allowing STOVL transport replenishment and the capability to house short-take off close air support aircraft. Furthermore, a number of forward operating positions would be carved out of the terrain for miles around, giving the Armed Republic a massive testing range to see just how well developed the elite airborne segments of the Armed Republic Army are, as well as test the effectiveness of cold weather, and all-terrain operations and equipment. If war developed in the region, then the units would be, of course, thrust into war, but against a likely very similarly equipped opposing force. Regardless, the Armed Republic answered an ally's call, and responded accordingly, and would stand by her allies no matter what developed.

The arrival of the Hirgizstani and ARSB forces that would assist in the creation of the Siberian Training Area, a place for October Alliance forces to conduct extreme arctic warfare training was right on time, as the Cottish intelligence agency got wind of the reemergance of the Russian nation, this time in the form of the Russian Dictatorial Union, directly next to the Siberian Province. It was a nightmare for the military when they found out, and immediately they started deploying forces to assist in the border protection.

A total of thirty-seven Panserbrigader, fourty-seven Mekaniserte Infanteribrigader, fifty-seven Motoriserte Infanteribrigader and eighteen Helikopterinfanteribrigader, with some fifty-three Army Luftvernsbataljoner, twenty-eight Rakettartilleribataljoner and fourty-seven Kampingeniørbataljoner from the Royal Cottish Army [RCA] were present in the Siberian Province, giving the RCA a total strength of 490,000 Army soldiers in the province.

In addition came three Marineinfanteridivisjoner, with each division having one brigade of elite Royal Marine infantry, one tank battalion, one artillery battalion, an air defense battalion, a combat engineer battalion, one assault battalion which was responsible for transporting the Royal Marines that weren't airlifted around, and one logistics battalion. A total of 49,000 Royal Marines were present in Siberia as well.

Off the shores of the Siberian Province, there were relatively few surface ships due to the frozen condition of the arctic Kara Sea, but the Royal Cottish Navy [RCN] had four Amphibious Task Forces in port or in the area, two Tactical Submarine Groups lurking under the ice, each having twelve of the top secret Havoc class guided missile submarine and twelve of the not so secret Scorpion class hunter/killer submarines. In addition, two Coastal Patrol Groups were stationed in the Siberian Province, with bases on Taymyr, New Siberian Islands and Novaya Zemlya, as well as a secret and newly constructed submarine pen at Wrangel Island. Each Coastal Patrol Group contained eight Ecolo class corvettes, twenty-four Leopard class fast patrol boats, and the most deadly weapon, twelve of the Loke class conventionally-propelled submarines that had been proven to be extremely silent and impossible to detect on SONAR in highly realistic wargames off both Norway and Layarteb. Further to the west, a Carrier Battle Group operated as well, being able to move into the area and assist should it become necessary.

To help clear out the ice that was building up, the Royal Cottish Coast Guard [RCCG] has stationed six of its Sibir class icebreakers and sixteen of the Svalbard class patrol vessels and light icebreakers in the Siberian Province, as well as a number of other vessels, including three of the new Hornet class minelayers, a design that had been purchased cheaply from the Layartebian Defense Corporation a few years ago and somewhat modified for Cottish purposes. The 152 meter long vessel had the capacity of laying down up to five hundred naval mines, a job the three vessels had been conducting for a few months before the ice cover closed over the ports. They still ventured out now and then, laying down mines and adding to the already extensive network of naval mines that had been placed off the shores. The mines lay dormant, but they could all be activated from the Cottish command centres in case it became necessary.

In terms of airpower, the Royal Cottish Air Force [RCAF] hadn't been lazy either. A total of fourty-six Air Superiority Squadrons, all of them being equipped with the F-25/A Typhoon advanced air superiority fighter. This massive bird had a radar cross section no larger that that of the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, but carried a massive amount of ordinance and was far superior to both the Raptor and to the F-63K Tengriy that it replaced. The Typhoon was in fact so impressive that the Armed Republic of Soviet Bloc had decided to purchase several hundred of the fighter jet. The Typhoon was more than able to take on whatever the Russians could get up in the air, and there was at any given time a number of Typhoons flying a Combat Air Patrol in the eastern border of the Siberian Province. With 1,104 Typhoons in the Province, the RCAF could handle whatever occured.

Of course, while air superiority was a significant part of a victory on the battlefield, it was not everything. For that purpose, the RCAF had a total of seventy-eight Tactical Fighter Squadrons in the area, of which eight were equipped with the F-23/A Falcon multirole fighter, in reality a F-16G purchased from the Layartebian Defense Corporation, and the rest being equipped with the state of the art F-20/A Enforcer multirole fighter. A total of 1,680 RCAF Enforcers were present in the Siberian Province, able to deliver massive amounts of ordinance against both aerial and ground targets. The RCAF also had nine Tactical Bomber Squadrons, each having twelve B-40/A Barsuk bombers within its organization. That gave the RCAF a total of 108 Barsuks in the Siberian Province, which in addition to the fourty-eight top secret B-43/A Incubus strategic bombers gave the Cottish commanders a good force to deliver ordinance far away from the Cottish territories. A number of Air Defense Suppression Squadrons, each having twelve of the B-41/A Coldun bombers, the brother of the B-40/A Barsuk, were stationed in Siberia as well, giving the RCAF a total of 96 bombers which were specialized in taking out air defenses and RADARs. These aircraft often operated in conjunction with the EF-20/E Enforcer, the electronic warfare version of the F-20/A Enforcer. 96 of these aircraft were also present in the Siberian Province.

For Aerial Early Warning and Command and Control, the RCAF had a total of 56 of the new E-3/A Bataleur AEWC&C aircraft present. These aircraft could detect aircraft from afar, and operating in conjunction with the ground-based RADAR facilities and other Bataleur aircraft via encrypted two-way datalink, the Bataleur could quickly and accurately direct in fighter aircraft and the hundreds of SAM sites present in Siberia to take out intruders. A lot of transport aircraft were also present in Siberia, transporting goods, personnel and what-not.

The less known forces the Realm had in the province but who never the less were present and more than capable were the Cottish special forces. The three primary Special Operations Forces that the Realm had in Siberia were the 2. Special Operations Group from Hærens Jegerkommando, having a total of one thousand operators; one Squadron from the 2. Flotilla, Marinens Jegerkommando with a total of 76 naval operators; and the 6. Special Operations Wing from Luftvåpenets Spesialkommando, having a total of nine aircraft, ninety-six helicopters and two thousand, six hundred personnel. In addition to these Special Forces commands, the High Command had the 5. Avdeling from the top secret unit called Black Tiger present in the Province. This unit consisted of men who were considered dead by the Realm of Cotland, all of them ex-Special Forces and highly loyal to the Realm. They were well funded, well trained, well equipped and highly skilled, having extensive skills in all sorts of military warfare. In Siberia, they served as a force that could conduct assassinations of persons not well liked by the Cottish Government, as well as a potential infiltration force into the RDU. Since they didn't officially exist in the eyes of the Realm, they were the perfect people for the job as there was plausible deniability. None were deployed outside the borders of the Realm though.

All of these forces were coordinated in five command centers, of which the primary one lay in Irkutsk, where the commanding officer for the Cottish Forces Siberia, general Ivar Osphaug had the command. There were a hundred airbases already established in the Siberian Province, most of them in civilian airports that had been taken over by the military. In addition, several large "hubs" were being built around the province. It would make it quicker to transport goods from one place to the next, although the majority of the goods, troops and equipment would still be transported the way it currently was: on the vast railroad network that the Pushkans had started on and that the Cots had further expanded and developed.

While some might claim that the vast military forces in the area was somewhat of an overkill, it had two purposes. Firstly, to ensure the protection of the Siberian Province which the Cottish High Command, a very paranoid entity when it came to anything Russian, considered to be under threat; and secondly to assist in the revitalization of the Province in rebuilding the infrastructure and developing it. The billions that were being poured in to construct the military infrastructure had benefits for the civilians as well, who would also use the railroads, roads, airports and what-not that the Cottish and allied militaries poured into the province.

Not all the development of the Siberian Province was military in nature. Many schools, museums, office buildings, factories and mines were being established, and the civilian infrastructure such as plumbing, heating, reliable electricity, sufficient food and goods, and education was being created as well, with the formerly exiled Cots enjoying the benefits the fatherland had promised them when they first approached it. There was many things you could say about Cotland, but one thing was for certain: The Government did as it promised.

After the meeting that has reestablished the Russian people's presence in the world this time in the form of the Russian Dictatorial Union as promised each ministry has received quotas that they had to fulfill as soon as possible. Marshall Zhukov the head of the Ministry of Defense took the fulfillment of quotas received by his branch as a personal issue. With military precision he established high grade production and already, thousands of tanks and planes have been issued to the armed forces. Next was the protection of individual cities. Every major city in the nation was surrounded by a network of air defenses with dug in anti-aircraft missile silos hidden across the country. Each fitted one P.746.A et P.746.B Surface to Air Missile, a projectile so superior that it could down any aircraft provided it had adequate guidance support in the form of a radar. And it did, the R/C-R branch of the military has reestablished control over its thermal detection satellites as well as build new ground radars and put into service the new GRIB mobile radar vehicles that could spot even the most stealthy aircraft from a considerable range. In addition to P.746.A et P.746.B, a seemingly randomly scattered network of P.746.C et P.746.D Surface to Air Missiles and P.746.E HIBOLAAS missiles were spread across the nation ready to shoot down enemy satellites and ballistic missiles. Finally Marshal moved the main force closer to the border with Cotland, as his leader told him he was not to respond to any at all criticism from Cotland and he was not going to do so. He moved all the 9 Gvardias as well as some 39 army sized units within 200 km of the Cottish border. A total of 8430660 soldiers waited in silence. Some 11700 RIT.76 Regisnár Tactical Surface to Surface Rocket Launchers able to destroy targets from 780 kilometers away already moved into position to acquire their targets. The air force has mobilized some 4480 Mish-11 Arhangels and 2940 Lu-45 Hawks to the air fields within 200 km of the border as well as assigning all of the close air support divisions to the land forces placed near the border. The navy was supplied with newest tools of war to make sure it was ready to defeat its enemies and was ready to move out in a moment's notice. The barrel of gunpowder was already rolled out, all it needed now was a spark.

Ust-Orda Buryat, Cotland

A middle aged man was quietly drinking his cup of tea in a crowded bar that from outside looked more like a wooden shed. He was surrounded by four more men, gruesome looking types they set still looking the crowd, it did not take a wiseman to figure out that they were there for the middle aged man's protection. Suddenly the bar's doors opened and an old man who's clothes hang from him because of his long endured starvation fell into the building. The man with tea made a quick motion, two of his guards approached the old man, picked him up and dragged him to their leader's table. The man with tea took another sip.

"So...you're the one that wants to tell me something important? What would that be?"

Quickly the old man regained consciousness.

"I...eh...I want to tell you about something that will help our cause...I would like to talk in private."

"I trust all these people as much as I trust myself. You can talk."

The old man looked around suspiciously.

"Very well then. Where is an old weapons storage that the Cots do not know about, infact it was designed especially for this kind of situation. It is underground the Cots will never find it, its protected from any sort of detection from above. They are spread all across the nation and where is one right here."

"How do you know of this?"

"I was one of its engineers. It was back in the day of Ivan Mishin...."

"How can I trust you? How do I know that you are not one of the swine's spies?"

The old man's face switched to an expression of deep desperation and sadness.

"They...they killed my son and they took my wife...I am all alone because of them. To me a good swine is a dead swine."

The man with tea thought for a moment.

"Hmm...I will send one of my men with you to check it out. If what you are saying is true, than, there will be a lot more dead swine when there currently is, and that is good."

Irkutsk Airbase, Irkutsk

The smell of jet fuel, exhaust and burned rubber was predominant in the air as the CTLAV drove down the tarmac, transporting the four flight crew of Charlie Flight, 152. Tactical Bomber Squadron. This flight, which consisted of two B-40/A Barsuk tactical bombers was to conduct a training mission at an abandoned village within visual range of the main city of Ust-Orda. The four pilots chattered and joked as the CTLAV turned and parked just inside a large hangar filled with eight Barsuks. Two of them were being prepared for flight, the P-AFT-3030 Varon continuously variable bypass afterburning turbofan engines of the ARSB-manifactured aircraft already started up, heating up for the flight.

The pilots got out of the CTLAV and made a few closing remarks before they started on the pre-flight checks, talking with the maintenance crew about the condition of the aircraft, doing the walk-around, checking the ordinance and everything else. The Barsuks were going to be very lightly loaded for this mission. Only three Mk.87 incendiary bombs in the main internal bay, and two AIM.14/A BVRAAM air-to-air missiles for self-defense. For balancing reasons, there was one BVRAAM in each of the two secondary bays which could each hold four BVRAAMs. Confident with the weapons being loaded and installed correctly, the pilots climbed into the Barsuks and got comfortable in the cockpits, conducting the pre-flight checklists.

Half an hour later, both Barsuks was barreling down the runway, taking to the skies gracefully. The $227 million aircraft were flying slowly, only at 500 knots, climbing to their flight altitude of 12,000 meters within a few minutes. They continued on the course, taking them directly towards Ust-Orda.

The village in question had been cleared by the Cottish soldiers a few hours earlier and the people around had been warned against entering it, having been told that if they did, the Cottish military took no responsibility for what happened. It appeared to have made the trick for the forces on the ground, who had gotten out of there. They didn't want to be at the village for what was to come.

In the air, Charlie flight was flying at 12,000 meters, approaching the target. After final checks and the go-ahead to release the weapons, the Barsuks lined up in formation and opened their bomb bay doors, compromising their stealth. A few seconds later, the bombs were released and dropped down towards the target. A total of six Mk.87s were used.

The Mk.87 was a 500 kilogram incendiary bomb consisting of a total of three hundred kilos of thermite plasma in a bomb casing. The thermite plasma would be deployed some fifty meters over the ground, spreading it out over a large area which as a result would be covered in a plasma that burned at 5,000 degrees centigrade. The thermite had replaced the napalm in the Cottish inventory as it was far more stable, reliable and devestating. Very few things would be able to withstand a 5,000 degree fire, and it was therefore extremely effective against battlefields, SAM and RADAR sites, military installations and populated areas. The Mk.87 was a freefall device, retarded only by a small parachute that gave the aircraft sufficient time to get away if the weapon was deployed at low altitudes.

Either way, as the internal altimeter reached fifty meters, the casing burst open, spreading the thermite across an area two hundred square meters wide. As soon as the thermite plasma made contact with the oxygen in the air, a chemical reaction caused the plasma to spontaniously self-combust, spreading a carpet of fire across the village. Six of these bombs were dropped on the village, destroying it and everything inside it. The village burned to the ground, and was a clear demonstration to the Pushkans holed up inside Ust-Orda that if they went out of line, this would happen to them. The Cottish disgust over the Pushkans was so great that they were liable to carpet-bomb Ust-Orda with thermite plasma.

In the air, the aircrews of the two Barsuks returned to the base, confident that their weapons had detonated as they should and that the target had been destroyed. When they landed at Irkutsk Airbase, that confidence would be confirmed.

[OOC: I can't wait until you try an insurgency in my territory, Pushka. You know what you're up against now. Oh, and yes to your question. Rothsky is still the Prime Minister of the Realm of Cotland.]

"Vitaly, I confirm it, what he said was the truth."

"Good, what kind of stuff is in there?"

"Around 200000 AK-103s, 20000 RPG-29s, and even ten BMP-4s. The complex is immense, I haven't been able to look at all of it."

"Good, send our men in there and hand the guns to our soldiers, tell them to hide them for the time being. The orders from Yakutsk still stand, we will wait."

OOC: I can't wait either, don't worry you'll be sad than it actually happens.

Cottish Defense Minister Alvheim had been clear and certain when he spoke with the Layartebian Minister of Defense. He informed him of the creation of something new, something that would more than benefit the Layartebian forces deployed to Cotland. As was customary with all October Alliance members, they all had forces deployed to each others' territories and the Layartebian detachment in Cotland was sizeable, though not larger then the one deployed to the Fourth Reich. The Layartebian detachment was based in Norway but now they would be relocating, to Siberia, far away. Equally so, the Cottish had a small and sizeable amount of forces in the Empire, based in Guyana and Alabama. When he hung up the phone, the Minister of Defense immediately dialed the Emperor. "Hi Angela. May I have a word with the Emperor?" He stated to his secretary.

"One moment," she replied with a sweet voice. "Yes. He's available." She patched the line through and the Emperor picked it up immediately.

"Yes Minister?"

"Sir. I just got off the phone with the Cottish Defense Minister."

"I take it this isn't good news?"

"No sir it is good news."

"Go on. Sir he informed me of a plan to create an Extreme Arctic Warfare Training Center. We can learn how to fight in temperatures as cold as -50°. That's cold sir."

"You are quite correct. How does he want us to redeploy?"

"We'll move the 44th Bomber Wing, 82nd Fighter Wing, and 66th Logistics Wing all to Siberia, with some exceptions sir. We have two squadrons of FB-22 Mantas, which will be deployed evenly to Kansk and Irkutsk, sixteen per squadron and one squadron per base. We're going to keep the two B-9 Sphinx squadrons in Murmansk. All ten fighter squadrons will be deployed to Kansk and Irkutsk, evenly, five per air base, sixteen fighters per squadron. As the Logistics Wing goes sir, we're going to keep the E-9s, E-10s, KC-10s, and C-17s in Murmansk and deployed our C-130Js to Irkutsk and our KC-130Js to Kansk. We've got twelve and four, respectively. We're going to move the 4th Airborne Division deployment, which is the 1st Brigade and 1st Cavalry Regiment to Evensk and follow up with a deployment of the 22nd Aviation Brigade to Evensk as well. Our naval forces will remain in Hammerford."

"Very well. How well are these bases defended against air attack?"

"I've got the full confidence of the Defense Minister. Mostly comparable missiles."

"To what?"

"Our Patriot PAC-4 system."

"Which has been out of service for how many years now?"

"Only because of our advancements with guidance and range technology."

"Understood. What was the combat record of the PAC-4?"

"Ninety-nine point five percent."

"How do you feel about this? Do you have confidence in their ability to protect us?"

"Yes sir. We're deep enough into Cottish airspace that we'll know what is coming before it gets to us. The Cottish have a significant deployment of over-the-horizon radars and phased array systems, systems that we helped them build sir. They know what's out there just as well as we do."

"Very well. Issue the order."

"Yes sir." Within a half hour, orders were sitting on the desks of every commanding officer in the forces deployed. "Pack up" orders flew through the ranks like race cars on an open track. Fighter pilots gathered their belongings and loaded up C-26 Condor transport planes flown in from the Empire to help the movement of forces. C-26 Condor airliner planes would transport airmen and soldiers as well, moving them all to their respective new homes. Aircraft would fly across the Arctic Ocean and down into Siberia from the north, staying inside of Cottish or international airspace the entire time. Icebreakers cleared the way for transport ships that were going to be moving vehicles to northern Siberia. Most of the vehicles would be transported on ships but a good amount would be transported by aircraft. The operation would take a week, it being peace time after all. In wartime circumstances, an airbase could move in a day.

Igor Stepanov made an encrypted phone call to Marshal Zhukov right before his jet took off.

"How is everything going Sergei?"

"All is going fine comrade Stepanov. The troops have been moved, the defenses have been set up, last thing remains and its already in progress, we are building anti-ship missile batteries as well as bunkers all along our coast. This will take a few weeks, I have mobilized six million workers to do the job. The TOA swine will not be able to breach our shore."

"Good, keep up the good work."

"Of course comrade Stepanov."

Stepanov hung up.

Along the border with the RDU, combat engineers were busy making preperations. A double five meter chained-link fence had been placed into the three meters deep concrete foundation, topped with razor-sharp barbed wire, before the winter had set in for full, but now the combat engineers were busy with something else at the location no more than five hundred meters from the actual Russo-Cottish border. The actual fenced area was approximately sixty meters wide, but there was vast minefields on either side, reaching all the way to the border.

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/1487/borderfencezd9.jpg
Typical Cottish border crossing

There was a smooth unpaved road in between the border for patrolling border guards to use, and the border was constantly patrolled by armed helicopters. In the skies a few kilometer inside the Cottish territory, constant BARCAPs were being carried out, and SAM sites connected to static RADAR sites equipped with the top secret Anti-Stealth System in the vicinity of the border maintained a vigilant eye on the border and indeed a distance inside the RDU. From the RADAR scans of the Russian CAP, the Cots had determined that the Russians used the Lu-45 Hawk air superiority fighter. A good aircraft, but unfortunately for the Russians, the RCAF had secretly purchased a substantial number of the Hawks a few years ago and studied them carefully, having learned their weaknesses and strengths. The four hundred aircraft were still in the ownership of the RCAF, and if this status of cold war turned hot, the Cottish could use the Lu-45s to spread uncertainty and weaken morale among the Russians.

As another precaution, the Cottish spy satellites had detected the Russian troop formations within two hundred kilometers of the border. The massed forces that were estimated to be in the millions were tempting targets for the Cots, and a number of missiles were designated to take out those formations the second the Russians fired the first shots. Along the border, many missile battalions had been stationed, most of them within a hundred and fifty kilometers of the border. That meant that they could use their MGM.24 Skarabé short-range tactical ballistic missiles against the enemy.

The MGM.24 was a seven meter long, two point two ton tactical ballistic missile which could be fitted with either a 300 kiloton nuclear warhead, a 120-litre VX nervegas warhead, a 160 kilogram blast-fragmentation warhead, a 150 kilogram thermobaric warhead or some 1,000 thermite plasma submunitions. The B and C versions were equipped with weapons of mass destruction, namely the nuclear warhead and the VX, and were therefore not deployed at the border. However, the A, D and E versions were, and they were all targetted against the Russian infantry and tank formations. At the first sign of the Russians moving towards the Cottish border, which meant coming into either artillery range or starting to fire their missiles against the Realm, the missile commanders were under orders to fire at once and then get the hell out of there. With a speed of Mach 4.3 in cruise mode and 5.9 in terminal mode, the Skarabé could wreak a lot of havoc against the Russians at a very short notice.

Also poised against the Russian positions but at a considerably greater distance away were the venerable MGM.6 Imsdal SCRAMjet cruise missile that had proven itself in combat in countless engagements, most recently in the United Arab Emirates where Hawdawgian forces had used it against the terrorist Aazadi positions in Dubai. The Cots had a vast number of the six and a half meter long, 1,680 kilogram missile in the Siberian province, using the missile's massive range of 1,600 kilometers to be able to strike deep into Russian territory against RADAR sites, SAM sites, local command centres and what-not. With a cruise speed of Mach 5.5 and a terminal velocity of Mach 7, the Imsdal was nearly impossible to shoot down, and with a proven efficiency of some 96 %, the missile was very accurate. The Cots had secretly assigned a number of the E version to the province as well, hoping that the EMP warhead would knock out the Russian forces and give the Allies an advantage. None of the recently introduced F version, having a 350 kiloton nuclear warhead were deployed to Siberia, although the submarines lurking in the Kara Sea and further north were equipped with this missile.

For now, the twenty infantry brigades positioned along the border as border guards were ordered to not shoot anyone unless they were either over the border and thus free game for being illegal aliens, or unless they were directly threatened or fired upon. Further behind the border, the Cottish tank and mechanized infantry brigades waited, moving around, not being in the same place for more than a day at most.

In airbases in Murmansk, the territory formerly known as Bjornoya, and in Severnaya Zemlya, a number of specially modified F-25/A Typhoon fighters had been secretly modified to be able to hold the highly secret and highly advanced ASM.16/C Advanced Anti-Satellite Missile [AASM]. In the event of war, these fighters would take to the skies and start taking out Russian satellites. The Cots had a healthy supply of the expensive ASM.16, which costed 3.5 million per unit for the C version and 5.5 million for the D version, which held a one megaton nuclear warhead. There were one hundred and fifty of these in storage in a secure, classified location, but the Cots would use the C version first. In case of war, the weapons factories would be commissioned to construct new ASM.16s, whose production had been ended five years ago. So far, none had been used in actual combat, but Space Command had great expectations for the missile...

"Commencing with the test of Object 10314"

"Yes sir, P.746.E HIBOLAAS missiles ready to fire, the target is locked on, I repeat the target is locked on."

"Fire at will."

"Commencing firing."

At the same time six P.746 HIBOLAAS anti-satellite missiles took into the air heading for a test satellite in the skies above RDU territory.

"Object is online, the incoming missiles detected. Calculating incoming missile trajectory."

Two large cube looking satellites were flying 300 meters away from the test target.

"Commencing active protection procedure. Preparing to fire."

Small missile silos opened all over the surface of the cube like satellites.

"Commencing firing."

A whole bundle of small missiles streamed out of the silos and went right for the incoming P.746s. Each small missile was guided by a vector engine, compressed air pumping through their engine derived from a capsule in the mid section of the projectile.

"First AS missile shot down. Second shot down. Third shot down. Fourth shot down. Fifth shot down. Sixth shot down!"

"The test is a 100% successful. Congratulations comrades."

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

All along the border cruise missiles sites were build. They were using KH-55 GRANAT cruise missiles modified for surface launch as well as featuring a VRPB guidance. With the range of 2870 km they would strike deep within the Cottish controlled territory destroying they logistical and command base. The Cots wouldn't know what hit them. In to 10000 missiles planned to be put on the bases 2000 were mounted on military trucks that would follow the main force inside the Cottish territory and attack Cottish reserves.

Meanwhile the RDU spy satellites were tracking Cottish formation, already RIT.76 Regisnár Tactical Surface to Surface Rocket Launcher and GRANAT cruise missiles silently picked their targets through the VRPB system which meant that they were targeting not the enemy positions themselves, which could be detected, but they were targeting models of enemy positions represented on VRPB system, those models created in accordance to information received from thermo detection and other spy satelites. RDU forces outnumbered the Cots greatly, they would strike hard destroying each and every enemy post simultaneously. If all went right the Cots would be barely able to retaliate.

A relatively long time ago back when Union of Communist Republics has per cured several hundred ST-37K1 MBTs, now that the threat of war with TOA is imminent and ST-37 being one of the most commonly used TOA tanks as well as a basis for several other models of TOA tanks it was deemed necessary to test the newly manufactured Arca IV MBTs used by RDU forces against this piece of technology. On a polygon 30 km outside of Yakutsk the ST-37s were spread around the field. Some were placed in the open, others were placed behind a thick barrier of trees. Tanks were placed at different distances, in different conditions, etc.

"Testing Pilum main cannon launched ATGM. Test 1, enemy tank behind a barrier of vegitation, range 20 kilometers. Fire!"

The Arca IV tank let out the Pilum missile from its main gun, the missile's Ramjet lit up in a blink of an eye and the missile went up and then down in an arc like fashion. It has bypassed the trees and hit the ST-37 at an almost perfect 90 degree angle the missile traveling Mach 6 penetrated the turret armor and set the tank on fire.

"Test 1 successful."

Forward Operations Base - Butte One
- Seventeen [17] kilometers from Butte Home

Thick black smoke curled from the exhaust of the freshly started ST-47K Aray into the snow covered treetops of the vast coniferous forest that covered this northern tundra. Next to the idling Aray sat an identical unit, as grayish matte white as its surroundings but producing the escalating rhythmic whir of a starter generator laboring to force its diesel engine to compression and ignition. The block heater was supplemented by a manual bin heater, where a chemical heat pack had been placed to preheat the cylinder, cylinder jackets, and fuel delivery systems. A few more cranks and the diesel started with raspy breaths before producing its identifying low, rhythmic rumble, similarly producing the thick, rich smoke of her sister. The fact the two Arays had started was a further testament to the reliability built in to each tank, especially their powerplants. The electronic thermometers showed no temperature, unless EE was a temperature, of which it wasn’t. Instead, they found a common problem amongst most non-scientific electronic thermometers… Their inability to read the temperature beyond about negative forty degrees, a problem only noticed in select areas of the world from Antarctica to Siberia to the northern United States and Canada, where temperatures weren’t moderated by the oceanic and moisture-carrying air currents, only exacerbated by Siberia’s position near the Arctic.

That morning, like every other Arctic winter morning, the sky was faint shades of purple, only a band of lighter colors highlighted the east-southeast horizon. The sun itself wouldn’t even meander much higher into the sky and would only stay visible for a handful of hours before descending again and leaving northern Siberia in its near-perpetual state of darkness. The only other source of light were the dozens of flood lights highlighting a sizeable cleared-out portion of forest, hidden from the sky and, more importantly, what was far above it and in orbit, by a thick screen of camouflage netting and infrared suppressant netted from treetop to treetop. The signature would still be noticeable, but it’d prevent prying eyes from distinguishing what was under it, and more importantly, the amount and capabilities of the units underneath. Hopefully, the netting would also do as designed and prevent snow from accumulating, instead the sloped nature of the netting and its coating permitting the snow to simply slide off the edges.

From across the clearing, a lone loudspeaker emitted a continuous stream of occasionally mangled music. The song was, if it were to be written in Russian, “Северная Дакота.” It kept the personnel rooted deep in the similarities of home and the tundra in which they were currently at. Irregardless, the two Arays that had been started were soon joined by ten more, each one adding a slightly different pitch to a crescendo of audible rumbles. Their exhaust had gone from black to white until finally to clear. The same technology which prevented contrails in aircraft would also subdue the white exhaust of running tanks. Accumulated snow that had drifted or been blown in by the light breeze began dripping off the rear quarters of the tanks as the crew for each tank began maneuvering towards their respective tanks. Not only did they wear a fairly heavy parka, but beneath that was the under-suit for the VEPR-series of combat systems, offering unparalleled warmth and comfort. Their faces were hidden with masks and their voices were carried through the air not by their voices but through radio. Intermittent jets of vapor erupting from their masks noticeably announced when they were and weren’t breathing.

The first soldier, a tank commander, reached his tank and promptly pulled himself up unto the hull via the stirrup dangling from the track guards. Standing atop the hull, his left foot began sliding away before he braced himself with the barrel of the main gun. “Fucking hell,” he cursed under his breath as he looked at what caused the slippage. “Dem, did that piece of suppressant just… Slide off?” He pointed with his mitten as the nearest soldier brought his face close to the tank to examine, “Yes, yes it did.”

The Lieutenant rolled his head and found his other mitten, the one bracing on the main gun, also covered in infrared suppressant. “What the hell, is this stuff just supposed to come off like this?”

“No, it shouldn’t. Wait. I bet the cold temperature is breaking the bonds between-“

“Yes, yes, the suppressant and the metal. Well, glad we chose to test this shit now!” He growled, figuring the egg heads back home would have figured this out without putting them on the front line. Sure, they were here to test it, but even to him, an Army tank commander veteran, it seemed they should have figured this out before hand. Oh well, one thing to change for the production model so far. He rolled his eyes and pulled him up to the turret, each step kicking away another chunk of suppressant. When he dropped himself into the turret he quickly waved his hand at a nearby technician, “Sergeant!” The sergeant obliged and trotted up next to the tank. “Sergeant, talk to the logistics guy, what’s his name, uhh… You know, the captain, and tell him to get more of that.” He pointed up at the infrared suppressant camouflage netting above him. If what he was given wasn’t going to work, then he’d have to improvise. “And get a lot, maybe another whole sheet like that. Got it?” A nod and thumbs up confirmed it. He watched the technician jog back to working on a generator before he looked across the eleven other idling tanks.

He grinned as they all looked at him and tapped his helmet, speaking into the radio, “Time to button up. It’s a lot nicer inside!” He descended down, and as he did so, pulled the hatch with him before securing it in its closed position. He comfortably settled into his seat and plugged himself into the viewing panorama. The gunner sat ahead of him, but lower and slightly offset to the left. “Alright, guys, shall we take an inaugural cruise. I think our itinerary for the day calls for… Hmm.” He looked at the official mission book strapped to his arm and flipped a page, “Oh, yes, Siberia 101 – An Introduction to the Frozen Hell.” The comment received a number of chuckles, along with a serious question.

“Sir, what do we do about the infrared suppressant?” The lieutenant answered with a question, “What about it?” The other crewman stammered a bit before clarifying, “Well, chunks of it fall off at the slightest touch; I thought we didn’t want them to exactly see us in the best clarity.” The lieutenant grunted, “Well, they’d see us irregardless of our suppressant, now they’ll see a fairly indiscreet blob with little chocolate chips of heat. For all we know they’ll think we’re chocolate chip brownies taking a nature trip.” He waited for a response, of which none came, before telling his driver to kick it.

The tank sluggishly began moving, the first few minutes of drive would be this way, as the still cooled transmission fluid and hydraulic fluid took several minutes to circulate and warm up before everything would operate smoothly. The lieutenant slaved the remote weapon station to his hand controls and swiveled the station in a full circle, an initial sluggishness was noted as the hydraulics and electronic pumps and actuators were utilized for the first time that day. As the Aray rolled forward and pivoted to prepare to leave the confines of the forward post, the remainder of the tanks began jolting forward and falling in line. The group itself would only scout out several dozen kilometers before rendezvousing with a five vehicle group of light vehicles and combat engineers who had gone scouting earlier and cleared several areas of foliage. The combined group would then continue to scout the forward terrain before plotting and marking points of interest for such things as artillery, mines, staging points, and even ambushes, not only for potential operations against the RDU, but also for use in the tanks’ trials.

Irkutsk
"Systemet er klart herr general." [The system is ready General.] The Air Force officer said, standing in attention inside the cavernous command bunker deep underneath the city of Irkurtsk. It had been completed just a week prior.

"Takk. Vennligst ta systemet til operativ status." [Thank you. Please take the system to operational status.] The man dressed in the green field uniform of the Royal Cottish Army with three large stars on his shoulders said, looking at the monitor on his desk.

"Javel herr general." [Yes General.] The officer said, turning to a non-commissioned officer sitting at one of the many consoles in the command center. "Sersjant, overfør Satelittmaskeringssystemet til operativ status." [Sergeant, transfer the Satellite Masking System to operational status.]

The sergeant nodded and started pressing a few buttons and typing in a few authorization codes. A number of lights were ignited in the status board on the far wall, and one of the screens on the large wallmounted monitor started displaying status data.

Space
Up in space, the satellites belonging to the Royal Cottish Air Force's Space Command started recieving highly encrypted commands in burst modes, enabling them to reconfigure their reconnaissance equipment.

Throughout Siberia
The Cottish engineers had been busy preparing this system for the majority of the time that the Cots had been in charge of this land. Now, their hard work was paying off, as the highly classified system started its mission.

The Cottish Satellite Masking System, or the anti-satellite system as it was called by the people working with it was designed to deny foreign powers the use of their reconnaissance satellites over Cottish territory. To accomplish this mission, a number of generators and high-technological pieces of equipment had been positioned throughout the Cottish territories as well as a number of satellites in orbit, all emitting a wide variety of signals designed to distort the use of satellites over Cotland. This included, but wasn't limited to jamming and laser beams to confuze, dazzle and blind satellites. On thermal imaging satellites, the jamming system would make it appear to be a massive smoke screen over the Cottish territories, completely denying the Russians use of their satellites. The best part of the system was that due to the many backups and redundancy systems employed, it would be nearly impossible to shut down!

One minute after the appropriate commands had been entered into the supercomputers that controlled the Siberian Satellite Masking System, the commands had been transmitted to all units, and the system became operational, denying anyone but Cottish reconnaissance satellites the opportunity to see through the system. However, the appropriate codes for the allied nations to use their satellites had been transmitted. Each regional masking system used a different set of frequencies to see through, and therefore if the allies got the codes to one system, they wouldn't be able to see the other places where the system was. It had been installed throughout the Realm, but it was only in operational mode in certain places due to it still being peacetime.

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

Irkutsk Airbase
The base from which the Barsuks had taken off a few days ago was about to become the host base for a new unit, namely elements of the Imperial Layartebian Air Force's 44th Bomber Wing, 82nd Fighter Wing and 66th Logistics Wing. Two Cottish airwings already called the vast complex its home, but there was plenty of room for the Layartebians as well.

Despite the potential Layartebian concerns that the embassy in Layarteb City had indicated could be met, the air defenses of the base hadn't been upgraded in any way as a result of the Layartebian deployment, as they were deemed to be sufficient. The base itself was defended by two MIM.31 Salt long-range SAM sites, three MIM.38 Sverd and one MIM.34 Grendel medium-range SAM sites, two Close Air Defense Gun System (CADGS) units, and a number of short-range M38A3 CTLAV/AD point-defense systems, as well as the constant Combat Air Patrols in the air between Irkutsk and the Russo-Cottish border which was far away.

The CADGS system was a lightweight, highly automatic and compact air defense system consisting of four batteries per unit, each consisting of three fire units which was essensially a M253A1 35mm rapid fire revolved cannon mount which fired linkless 35mm AHEAD rounds at a rate of 1,000 rounds per minute to an altitude of 3,850 meters at ranges of upwards of four kilometers. Having a basic supply of 224 ready-to-fire rounds ready, the linkless ammunition was stored in a chain-operated magazine and fed to the cannon via a conveyor feed system. An ammunition loading station, together with clipped ammunition, guaranteed rapid replenishment of the magazine with a minimum of manpower. The M253A1 was mounted on an extremely robust standard platform which measured 2.44 by 3 meters. In the firing position, the platform rested on the ground on four supports. The CADGS also provided reliable defence against the threat from small, fast, low-flying targets. Under the AHEAD concept, the target is destroyed by multiple impacts of heavy metal, spin-stabilized subprojectiles. Each 35mm AHEAD shell contains a payload of 152 subprojectiles, which are ejected just ahead of the incoming target, triggered by a precision programmable time fuse. A short burst of 35mm AHEAD ammunition fired from a CADGS fire unit produced a cloud of lethal subprojectiles, resulting in sustained saturation of the anticipated target position. The subprojectiles were fully capable of penetrating the skin of current and anticipated future targets, while still inflicting enough damage on the target to keep it from achieving its mission.

The CADGS fire units were connected to a sensor unit which was essensially a platform with the sensor system, which consisted of an X-Band search and tracking RADAR, Forward-Looking InfraRed, Thermal Imaging and a LIDAR tracking system. Being unmanned, the unit was integrated with everything else through the encrypted datalink. The last of the essensial units employed was the command unit, which was the only manned unit of the CADGS system. It was linked with everything through the encrypted datalink, and was manned by six personnel who operated the system. Each battery had a command unit, a sensor unit and three fire units, as well as the necessary support units. They were also linked with each other to provide overlapping air defense sectors, linking in with the CTLAV/AD missile point-defenses. They were to be used only if the SAM sites didn't stop the incoming aircraft or ordinance, and they expected to be able to stop whatever was to come.

Confident in their ability to defend the base, the Cottish base personnel had already assigned one of the vast underground hangars and four of the surface hangars to the 108 Layartebian aircraft that would call the base its new home. Accomodations had also been assigned to the Layartebian personnel, and the Cottish pilots and maintenance crews had arranged for a small welcome party to be held in one of the hangars when they came.

OOC: Eh...sorry man but you can't jamm my thermal detection satelites, thats simply not possible. Why? Well because not all of them are over your territory, several of them are picking at your territory while still remaining over mine, all it takes is switching the angle. Plus jamming a military satelite is a very, very hard thing to do, especially if they change their trajectory as much as mine do. So yeah, I still see you bright and clear, just to let you know. Also I wouldn't be so confident in your anti-missile defenses. We'll see how they fair against a missile that flies in an arch trajectory. In addition to that all my satelites are fitted with an anti-jamming device. An antijam device based on substitution of a more efficient automatic gain control (AGC) function into the front end of a transponder. Smart AGC discriminates between jammed and unjammed signals based solely on amplitude of the incoming signals. The key to operation of smart AGC is a broadband power measurement of the composite input signal which is then used to control a nonlinear amplifier/limiter characteristic, preventing the satellite high-power amplifier from saturating.

"Sir, the Cots are attempting to jamm our satelites."

"Are they succesful?"

"To a degree...our anti-jamming equipment works however we do have a few blind spots should I proceed with evasive measures?"

"Permission granted."

The satelites started changing their trajectory while angeling themselves to still remain on their respective sectors.

"Sir, evasive measures complete, and are succesful, our satelites are fully functional."

"Good job comrade, I bet the high command will have a hardy laugh about this when they get my report. Carry on."

Irkurtsk

"De forsøker å unnvike systemet." [They're trying to avoid the system.] The Air Force officer said with a hint of concern in his voice. They had predicted this manouver, and developed a counter to it.

"Iverksett motsvaret." [Initiate the reply.] The General said casually.

"Javel." [Yes sir.]

The officer saluted and went down to the console commanding the anti-satellite system and ordered all units to match the Russian trajectories. While it was likely to just be met with a counter again, the Cots had a plan with it.

Due to satellites being weightless objects when in the vaccume of space, they needed some sort of rockets to manouver. These rockets required fuel, and due to the relatively small size of satellites, fuel was limited. Therefore, every time the satellites were manouvered, they expended more of their precious fuel, something which would eventually leave them "out of gas." This would in turn make the satellites seceptible to further jamming and even more so to anti-satellite weapons, and thus leave the Russians at a disadvantage. The Cots on the other hand had their units on the ground, where they could be maintained and replenished whenever necessary, something which meant that in the lengthy game of attrition that would ensue, the Cots had the upper hand.

Therefore, the jamming devices and powerful lasers turned in their mounts to match the new Russian trajectories. Being electrically driven, the mounts needed no fuel to manouver like the satellites did. Instead, they relied on the newly built military nuclear powerplants to provide them with the power needed. For every time the Russians manouvered their satellites, the Cots would manouver their equipment to match it.

[OOC: Pushka, satellites can be jammed and blinded. The United States Air Force seems to think so, and I seem to recall that the Soviet Air Force tried a laser thingy that could blind satellites. The USAF has several past and on-going projects into anti-satellite operations. The Chinese are also deeply involved in developing ways of blinding and incapacitating satellites. See the links for more information.

You should also be aware that trajectories work both ways. If your satellites can see my territory, RADARs and other equipment on that territory that your satellites can see can see your satellites.

Can't imagine how well a thermal detection satellite works anyway. Better to go with an IIR satellite instead.]
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001160.html
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/asat/nyt_970901.htm
http://www.fas.org/news/china/1998/t000108750.html

OOC: My satelites use ionic thrusters powered by either the nuclear module inside the satelite or the sun (depends on the satelite) so no luck there. I also mentioned the anti-jamming device installed on my satellites, that nulls the chance of jamming simply by enabling the satellite to recognize between the jamming signal and all other signals. So yeah, my previous post is as much as I am going to deal with your whole jamming operation. I'll give you the lasers blinding out my cameras but thats about it.

[OOC: Ionic thrusters? I've heard of ionic engines, like the one on the Deep Space 1 probe, but they only work by constantly gaining momentum instead of switching it on and off. Sounds like something PMT / FT-ish to me. Got anything that can prove that this system is MT (IE before 2012-ish)?]

[OOC: Ionic thrusters? I've heard of ionic engines, like the one on the Deep Space 1 probe, but they only work by constantly gaining momentum instead of switching it on and off. Sounds like something PMT / FT-ish to me. Got anything that can prove that this system is MT (IE before 2012-ish)?]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_engines

case closed, a satellite can be kept in one spot by simply running two thrusters into opposite directions on different sides of the satellite at the same power.

OOC: I will say that satellite jamming is possible and it can be done by lesser sophisticated nations in the world too. Iran and Libya did so in 2005 so you can damn well bet that the US, Russia, China, Britain, etc. can do it better. It isn't 100% effective as to jam a satellite you need a direct line-of-sight to it. In the same way, a satellite can only be effective if it has a direct line-of-sight to its target. Communications satellites can bounce off each other but they still need a direct line-of-sight to the ground where they receive and transmit back to Earth. Ionic thrusters are used on satellites and are MT in that way. A plane with ionic thrusters for propulsion would be serious PMT. On satellite's they're limited and less complex. Keeping a satellite in one spot is beyond easy, that is called a geosynchronous satellite in a geostationary orbit. However, with all the space junk up there, its position has to be carefully monitored to avoid debris. Geostationary satellites are the easiest to jam because they just don't move, you get a line-of-sight to it and you can jam it around the clock, without much effort. Most commercial communications satellites and television satellites operate in geostationary orbits. "While a geostationary orbit should hold a satellite in fixed position above the equator, orbital perturbations cause slow but steady drift away from the geostationary location. Satellites correct for these effects with station keeping manoeuvres. In the absence of servicing missions, consumption of thruster propellant for station keeping places a limitation on the lifetime of a satellite" (Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary)).

Now a good amount of satellites are not geosynchronous, meaning that they are not in a static orbit. These are mostly the military satellites and such. These are harder to jam and can only be jammed for limited periods of time, unless the jamming device is mobile, like on an aircraft but because of this it can't be as powerful or complex as those built on the ground because it has to fit into an aircraft. It is, nevertheless capable, and EC-130s do this quite well for limited periods of time over the battlefield.

Now, returning to space junk, "there are more than 600,000 objects larger than 1 cm in orbit (according to the ESA Meteoroid and Space Debris Terrestrial Environment Reference, the MASTER-2005 model)" (Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_junk)). That is for RL Earth and let's face it, we're FAR more technologically advanced so we probably have double that amount. Now, 1 centimeter isn't that big but 1 centimeter moving at 17,000 mph! Stationary satellites have to make sure that they aren't in the path of space junk and non-static satellites have to make sure to avoid space junk, which is uncontrollable. Over time, the orbit of the space junk deteoriates and burns up but its path is unpredictable and because they are light, it takes a long time.

Now, you can certainly maneuver satellites but you can't maneuver them unlimitedly. You have to take into account space junk and other satellites and also affecting your own ability to use the satellite. You can't just maneuver them in a split second either. Satellites are covered with cameras and sensitive equipment and high acceleration will damage that equipment. They can maneuver out of the way of incoming missiles, sure, but not like an F-16 or a MiG-29 can maneuver to evade a missile. And the more you move them, the more fuel you eat up, thereby limiting their already limited lifetime.

Antijamming is capable to but its more or less limited to repositioning the satellite and switching frequencies. Like jamming, no antijamming is 100% effective. Passive systems are harder to jam than active systems and equally harder to intercept. Thermal imaging satellites are jammable, like any other satellite, communications satellites being the most vulnerable. Thermal imaging and reconnaissance satellites are probably some of the hardest to jam because they are very passive, they just take pictures and zoom in on the Earth and stuff. You can jam their communications to repeater satellites and ground stations but, once again, line-of-sight.

Blinding lasers are probably the most effective things you can use but again, line-of-sight, especially with lasers.

So I hope this helps shed some light on the matters at hand.

http://www.spacesecurity.org/SSI2006.pdf
I would recommend reading this.

OOC: Hmm, very interesting Lay, thanks for clearing this stuff up for us. I will still maintain that I have surveillance of his territories however, satellites are only part of the system (and I am not going to let him jam all my satellites) I also have long range ground and air radar as well as spy planes that fly near our border and can keep passive surveillance for hundreds of kilometers into his territory.

OOC: Hmm, very interesting Lay, thanks for clearing this stuff up for us. I will still maintain that I have surveillance of his territories however, satellites are only part of the system (and I am not going to let him jam all my satellites) I also have long range ground and air radar as well as spy planes that fly near our border and can keep passive surveillance for hundreds of kilometers into his territory.

OOC: Aye all of that stuff is basic. The best way to avoid jamming is repositioning of a satellite and remember the higher up you are, the further you can see. So you can spy on someone without being over their territory, per say but the closer you are, the more effective the spying is. As far as spy planes and long-range air and ground radars, yeah that's simple standard stuff that is well within the capacity of everyone so that works too.

[OOC: Okay, so then we've got that cleared up. Pushka, I accept the ionic thruster thing on your satellites. As for the satellite jamming thngy, from my understanding we (Cotland) have jamming capabilities and you (RDU) have anti-jamming capabilities, but neither is going to work at 100 % efficiency against each other. Shall we agree to me being able to jam a set percentage of your spy satellites with you being able to use counterjamming to keep the remaining percentage active? As for the long-range radar and spy planes, I completely accept that since I do the same to you. Thank you Layarteb for providing the information.]

[OOC: Okay, so then we've got that cleared up. Pushka, I accept the ionic thruster thing on your satellites. As for the satellite jamming thngy, from my understanding we (Cotland) have jamming capabilities and you (RDU) have anti-jamming capabilities, but neither is going to work at 100 % efficiency against each other. Shall we agree to me being able to jam a set percentage of your spy satellites with you being able to use counterjamming to keep the remaining percentage active? As for the long-range radar and spy planes, I completely accept that since I do the same to you. Thank you Layarteb for providing the information.]

OOC: Yeah that works I guess, what do you think the percentage should be?

[OOC: In the spirit of Christmas, friendship and fairness, let's say 50-50. Just keep in mind that important military installations and areas are better protected than other places, so that should have some affect on your satellite coverage.]

OOC: Yeah okay, the thing is though that military installations don't move, so I already know where they are. 50-50 works though.

OOC: I would actually say that because the ground facilities have a lot of power it would be more like 60 - 40 but once again, just reposition the satellite. For aerial jamming it would probably be like 40 - 60 or lower even, maybe down to 30 - 70.

OOC: Moves all of his aircraft further east.

Zhigansk, Yakutia
Cottish Russia
7:32 AM...

The last soldiers of the 9te Alpininfanterie Abteilung (9th Alpine Infantry Division) jumped out of the back of the massive T-19C Transport Plane that had carried them from Zürich, Switzerland all the way to the city of Zhigansk in Siberia. A grand total of 25.000 soldiers, 8.000 of them logistics, had been sent to Zhigansk in order to participate in the Extreme Arctic Conditions Training Exercises that the Realm of Cotland was hosting in the aforementioned city.

Still on the way there was the 5te Panzer Abteilung (5th Armored Division) which consisted of 2.000 combat infantry, 450 armored vehicles, trucks and tanks, and 10.000 support infantry. Given the fact that the division was so large and consisted of so many pieces of heavy machinery, der Führer had ordered the 5te Panzer Abteilung to be transported via ship directly to Northern Yakutia, where they would unload and then travel South to the city of Zhigansk. Once there they would link up with the 9te Alpininfanterie Abteilung and then participate in the training exercises.

A total of 27.000 combat infantry accompanied by 450 pieces of armor would become better trained to deal with such harsh conditions. In addition to those troops already deployed, the Reichskanzler had listed units of the German 1st Army, the German 2nd Army, and the German 3rd Army to also participate in the training exercises after the 9th Alpine Infantry Division and the 5th Armored Division had finished. The reason so many troops were participating in these exercises specifically was kept secret by Reich High Command, but there were only so many nations that experienced arctic conditions...

OOC: This is just the air force for now. The army and navy will follow. If there is an asterisk (*) that means it is a top-secret IC aircraft.

2nd Air Force Order of Battle
Cottish Deployments

7th Air Control Wing

701st Air Control Squadron


Aircraft: E-9A AWACS
Base: Yakutsk Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 4
Pilots: 160
Role: Airborne Early Warning and Command


702nd Air Control Squadron


Aircraft: E-10A MC2A
Base: Yakutsk Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 4
Pilots: 192
Role: Airborne SIGINT/ELINT/Ground Targetting and Tracking


7th Bomber Wing

701st Bomber Squadron


Aircraft: FB-22B Manta
Base: Mirny Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 32
Role: Attack Bomber


702nd Bomber Squadron


Aircraft: FB-22B Manta
Base: Chekurovka Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 32
Role: Attack Bomber


703rd Bomber Squadron


Aircraft: B-9C Sphinx
Base: Yakutsk Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 96
Role: Strategic Bomber


704th Bomber Squadron


Aircraft: B-9C Sphinx
Base: Yakutsk Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 96
Role: Strategic Bomber


79th Fighter Wing

7901st Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: F-39C Super Eagle*
Base: Mirny Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 64
Role: Multirole Air Superiority Fighter


7902nd Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: F-41B Defender*
Base: Chekurovka Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 32
Role: Defense Fighter


7903rd Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: F-31A Tornado ADV
Base: Mirny Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 64
Role: Air Defense Interceptor


7904th Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: F-31B Tornado GAV
Base: Mirny Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 64
Role: Ground Attack Fighter


7905th Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: A-15A Cobra
Base: Mirny Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 32
Role: Ground Attack Fighter


7906th Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: F-32A Foxhound
Base: Chekurovka Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 64
Role: Air Defense Interceptor


7907th Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: F-36A Thorn*
Base: Chekurovka Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 64
Role: High Altitude Interceptor


7908th Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: F-35A Raven
Base: Mirny Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 32
Role: Multirole Fighter


7909th Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: F-26A Typhoon
Base: Chekurovka Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 32
Role: Multirole Fighter


7910th Fighter Squadron


Aircraft: F-22B Raptor
Base: Chekurovka Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 16
Pilots: 32
Role: Air Superiority Fighter


13th Logistics Wing

1301st Logistics Squadron


Aircraft: KC-10A Extender
Base: Mirny Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 4
Pilots: 32
Role: Aerial Refueling Tanker


1302nd Logistics Squadron


Aircraft: KC-130J Super Hercules
Base: Chekurovka Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 4
Pilots: 48
Role: Aerial Refueling Tanker


1303rd Logistics Squadron


Aircraft: C-130J Super Hercules
Base: Chekurovka Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 12
Pilots: 120
Role: Medium Transport


1304th Logistics Squadron


Aircraft: CV-24A Bulldog
Base: Chekurovka Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 12
Pilots: 96
Role: Vertical Replenishment and Transport


1305th Logistics Squadron


Aircraft: C-17A Globemaster III
Base: Mirny Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 6
Pilots: 36
Role: Heavy Transport


1306th Logistics Squadron


Aircraft: C-17A Globemaster III
Base: Mirny Air Force Base, Sakha Republic
Aircraft Quantity: 6
Pilots: 36
Role: Heavy Transport

OOC: Yeah just to let it be known Cot has traded the central Siberian territories to me for Yakutia and Magadan, so move your guys out of my lands (if they're still in my lands). Also can you make another thread if you gonna have an exercise?

[OOC: Sakha Republic is the current name for Yakutia, so he's not in your territory. I'm still gonna call it Yakutia though... Sorry for interruption.]

OOC: I knew that much, I was more concerned about NG.

The Empire would like to inform the Cottish leadership that is it ready to begin the Extreme Arctic Conditions Training Exercises as its forces have relocated accordingly.

OOC: I'm going to copy the exchange about satellites to the off-site forums because I think they are pretty informative.