NationStates Jolt Archive

New Roanoke Island
A 'light' midday drizzle was starting as people finished scurrying about, finishing their pre-fabbed cities, towns, and infrastructure that they had literally built over a weekend, sufficient to support the temporary population of up to 30 million troops for the next 5 years if need be, plus some life left in their frames for other uses on the Island proving grounds.

Most of these building were on stilts, or piers, though some had wooden foundations and a deep basement, other had crawlspaces or a seprate root cellar. The massive diversity of buildings was intentional. As it was never intended to make a 'cookie-cutter' type city.

This was what the HOI contractors originally had been trained to do, and this kept the neasrly 20 million man workforce occupied as the details and planning had been worked out.

The excercise fleet, likewise, were dispersed in order to better represent the normal deployment of a navy.

The first hours of the day had been set aside to get used to and catolouge 'normal' activities in various regions in 'peacetime'. This they did with a film crew, which would follow the actions of certain individuals throughout the excercise. Usually with the cameraman also being the participant.

Around nightfall, a brief shortwave radio message was transmitted, proclaiming a state of armed civil unrest existed on the Island of New Roanoke Island.

At that time, gaurds of secret military installations intesnified, in response to these announcements.

The HOI contractors on the other hand, rushed to barracks, to don MILES gear, while some picked up a number of CM-26 weapons, also equiped with MILES gear.

The 25 mechanized army divisions took to the 'city streets' to put an end to protests in the street led by HOI contractors in Miles gear.

Real Radar stations had been shut down, sensitive documents burned, minefields and automated air defenses de-activated.

The revolution had begun.

Map: Madagascar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Karte_Madagaskar_MKL1888.png

[ABOVE NEW ROANOKE ISLAND]

Ten F/A-103 'Sea Stanza' strike fighters took off from the deck of the A.N.S. Gurevich, an Adobe-class supercarrier. They were armed with dummy missiles designed to shoot invisible laser beams to "destroy" enemy aircraft and their guns were loaded with blanks and an adaptor to shoot similar beams.

Their mission would be air supremeacy, not an easy task when facing numerous enemy aircraft.

Behind them, another seveny similar aircraft took off from the deck, forming an 80-aircraft unit; the "ThunderHawks." Although the pilots knew that the entire operation would be false, it was if they were in actual combat. Each pilot had a specific mission, and it would be carried out no matter the cost.

The aircraft spilt up into ten 8-aircraft teams; "ThunderHawk" 1-8, with each aircraft recieving a number. The lead pilot's aircraft was "ThunderHawk 1-1." The pilot was Lieutenant Commander James Austin Hodnett, a seasoned veteran of several conflicts, including several domestic operations. Although he was old, he was as tough as the rest of them. He issued orders with prejudice and pride, not to mention fairness. He was known for being a humanitarian soldier, not a ruthless "demon lord." His style was very knight-like, almost chivalrous.

The time came, he ordered "ThunderHawk 4" to sweep to low level (not to avoid RADAR, the F/A-103's were stealth) to begin their mission. The aircraft of "ThunderHawk 4" were not outfitted with similar armaments as the other F/A-103's. They were armed with 12 anti-tank "missiles" designed to take out the native tanks on New Roanoke Island.

Their operation had begun, "Operation ORDERLY"...

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[SEAS OFF NEW ROANOKE ISLAND]

On the choppy seas far beyond the shores of New Roanoke Island, the ships of "Task Force 34-Foxtrot" began their arduous journey to the shores of the island, where they would begin "shelling" and "bombarding" land targets.

Included in the task force was one Yamato II-class superbattleship, one Valkyrie-class escort carrier, 2 Swan-class frigates, three Los Angeles-class SSN's, 2 Luhu-class destroyers, and 6 Tarantul-class corvettes.

The Valkyrie-class escort carrier's aircraft compliment of CBF-101 'Tripper' fighters and NAH-54 'Sea Dragon' attack helicopters were readied for action and "armed." All was ready for the attack, and everything was set up. The action could now begin...

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[THE SHORES OF NEW ROANOKE ISLAND]

275 Attack Landing Vehicles (ALV's) of the 20 Marine Raider brigades from the 37th Marine Division made their way ashore after disembarking from their host ship.

Similar to an Expiditionary Fighting Vehicle, these vehicles were armed, armored, and carried many soldiers, 17 to be exact.

As the vehciles reached the shore, the 4,641 soldiers (two ALV's were outfitted for command purposes) left their protected vehciles to begin the invasion. They were armed with AR-44A1/A2 assault rifles, FN Five-seveN pistols, hand grenades, and AT-4CS rocket launchers. Several soldiers carried Javelin anti-tank launchers as well. Slowed down by their heavy MILES gear, they didn't exactly feel right, however, it was their responsibility to do their best. They would reach the makeshift city within an hour, ALV's leading the way to attack tanks and enemy assets.

The inevitable battle would begin shortly...

Assuming attack is on Easten coast.
Using map names from madagascar simply because:
A] NRI has no real cities
B] It keeps locatrions neat and orderly

NRI:
'Moramanga'
Mechanized divisions across the city were being 'ripped to pieces' by the dumby missiles, activating the electrical shock devices attached to the crew of the vehicles, and those nearby, to mimic severe burns and shrapnel based injuries.

Many soldiers could be seen crawling out of their 'tanls' shortly before falling to the ground in a convulsing wildly until the Miles gear considered the person 'dead' at which time it shut off, a small green indicator tag turned red, and the body went limp due to exhaustion. Steam could be seen rising from the bodies, but were overshadowed by the smoke charges to simulate tank 'kills'. For an unlucky few, the Miles gear refused to consider people 'dead', some resorted to 'shooting themselves' just to make the pain stop; others were incappable either mentally or physically of doing so, and continued to convulse until 'treated' or became physically spent.

The tanks themselves automatically shut themselves off and coasted to a halt, with amber lights flashing to simulate a tank on fire, climbing onto such a tank would cause the already mentioned 'injuries'

HOI mercenaries quickly took advantage of this, as the city soon fell to their power, after 'hosing off' some of the tanks, they managed to 'salvage' 20 of the heavier ones for later use.

'Toasmasia'
As most of the 100 HOI divisions were spread throuout the 'country', the Asgarnian troops only faced token resistance at the beachhead from what remained of a single dicvision after the artillery bombardment (500 people) the others could be seen, incapacitated at their posts from the Miles gear issued by the Hurtian government, much like the ones at 'Moramanga', though a few managed to get by wuith only 'lightly wonded' as such, they grit through the pain and took up defensive positions amongst their limp comrades.

'Observers' and island security personel could be see walking around the shelling site, taking in the destruction they had just seen simulated, and tried to think of way to 'improve' upon it.

They intended to do as much damage to the invaders with their individually issued light Machine guns as the earlier shelling and airstrikes.

'Antananarivo'
Upon hearing initial reports of an 'interdiction' strike in 'Moramanga' amid incoherent screaming, along with news of shells fallin near 'Toasmasia', the members decided that it was required that they disperse their aircraft and send a single flight of low, fast flying F-4 Phantoms to BDA the situation, as it was not clear yet wether this was still an excercise because of the continued insistance for realism in this operation.

[OUTSIDE OF ANTANANARIVO, 12,000 FEET]

"ThunderHawk 1" recieved the F-4 'Phantom" fighters on long-range radar. Lt. Commander Hodnett had heard of the ferocity of Hurtian F-4's. He issued commands to "ThunderHawks" 2-8 to engage with caution.

While the mission was air supremacy, the aircraft of "ThunderHawk 1" would attempt to intercept and redirect the aircraft to land at a nearby civilian "airport".

The pilots engaged afterburners and proceeded to advance to their targets.

A message was issued to the pilots of the F-4's:

DEFENDING AIRCRAFT, THE THUNDERHAWK 1 SQUADRON IS APPROACHING YOUR UNIT FROM THE WEST MOVING EAST TO INTERCEPT YOUR AIRCRAFT. OUR INTENTION IS TO FORCE YOUR AIRCRAFT TO LAND AT A NEARBY CIVILIAN AIRPORT. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN THE DESTRUCTION OF YOUR AIRCRAFT. WE REPEAT: ALLOW OUR AIRCRAFT TO INTERCEPT AND REDIRECT YOUR AIRCRAFT. THANK YOU. [202.67 MHz]

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[MARINE RAIDER BRIGADES, TOASMASIA]

The Marines suffered minimal casualties. Unlike their Hurtian counterparts, the MILES gear they were wearing only fired Squibs and sent minor electrical jolts to areas effected by "gunshots" or "explosions".

With support from the Air Force, the Hurtian tanks were no longer a threat. As they swept the city streets, they were joined by a single brigade of Special Warfare soldiers from the Asgarnian Special Forces. They, too, would assist in the operations. Strategic "gun" emplacements were set up and fixed rocket launchers were positioned. A light anti-air perimeter was set up with Avenger II HMMWV's from the Army.

Homes were swept, offices, shops, everything. Few soldiers remained and the ones that were left were "dispatched" with extreme prejudice.

They waited for the Army's tank brigades to form up, creating Task Force Hotel 2-4...

Minor recall:
A report was shortly filed, stating, that perhaps, the electronics in the Hurtian Miles gear was a tad too extreme for these excercises, as such, they were asked, kindly, to tone down the voltage from 'tazer' to 'tickle'. And also asked participants to act as if actually shot, rather than acting like 'rambo'.

Skies of ANANARIVO:
The radio message made little sense:
Firstly, New Roanoke Island has absolutely no real civillian airfields, which would make landing difficult...

Secondly,if this is part of the excercise, they pretty much gave themselves away, as the Radar warning recievers had already found direction and distance from which the signal came, the active radar and IFF transponder didn't make things any harder either.

The radio instructed them to land, but moving on the ground wasn't forbidden.

Rather than give anything away, the lead pilot blinked his aft landing lights, dipped a wing, and then slid to treetop altitude, followed by shutting off all lights and Radar.

Such was a well rehearsed 'trick', as without an active radar ping to track, or IFF, plus flying low and between hills, without radar altimiters or radio, and continuing their track f the enemy via passive radar tracking and the F-4's relatively massive (by any standard) IR sensor, and keeping visual communication with their other aircraft, plus constant updates from ground based radar (which excluded reporting their planes) would allow almost them as much surprise as the Asgarnies had.

They knew they didn't lose the enemy, but they were counting on them to fly close escort witrh them close to the ground as they did a lazy turn and overflew a hidden SAM battery at the edge of a clearing, which could easily be considered a remote airfield (albeit a FOB) with a little more preparation, which was given prior warning from the preceeding F-4s as they flew over, landing gear extended, on what could be mistaken for a final approach.

Flight leader Lt. Willie Deckard* of those 4 F-4s smiled to himself as he watched the 'puffs' of simulated SAMs (Simulated IR MANPAD and barrage of unguided rockets) streak towards the fancy planes, followed by a well orchestrated split and peel of the 4 planes helped by the retrofitted vectored thrust, as they turned around again/let them overshoot to engage with simulated 35 mm cannon fire (gunpod) and 'Short range IR missiles' with theoretical shoot over the shoulder capability.

Thus demonstrating one of Baron Richoven's top rules of fighting for air supremacy: don't get into a dogfight behind enemy lines.

*Introducing a new generation of re-occuring characters
======
OOC: What about 'civillian casaulties'? (Unarmed HOI contractors)

Most likely overdid it on assuming you wouldn't shoot them out of the sky as soon as they turned away.

Though the ground clutter would make it hard for you to do so with missiles, in wich case rather than escort, it would become a running dogfight. (can't 'home on jam', IR is pretty much evened out amongst the sun to the west (afternoon) throttling back the engines, and LIDAR would be prone to lock onto a piece of stationary ground clutter)

Plus, most planes have a blindspot that is directly below them, and aren't suitable for flying upside down for long periods of time.

As the Hurtian F-4's fired their "missiles", the F/A-103's dropped thermite flares, which burned hotter than the engines of the aircraft. Coupling this with the fact that the F/A-103's had IR supressors on their engines, the missiles should have diverted.

They were wrong. Once again, they had underestimated the F-4's of the Hurtian Air Force.

The "crippled" F/A-103's made their way back to base to be reinstated after being "destroyed".

-----

Task Force Hotel 2-4 was officially created. The Asgarnian Army TDK-28 'Groznyj' tank killers, LT-30 recon tanks, MLV-1 missile launchers, MA-2 mobile artillery, CCV-8 IFV's, UCV-1 HMMWV's, MDV-1 minelayers, and LY3A2 main battle tanks joined with the Attack Landing Vehicles and began making their way to Antananarivo...

Deckard wasn't overly surprised that he managed to catch the eight F/A-103s (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/F/A-103_Stanza) and make an almost complete domination of them, the location of the fight was stacked entirely in their favor for the time being, what did surprise him was that the eight F/A-103s hadn't even managed to fire a single shot before they were 'destroyed'

Still, they had a job to do, and the resumed their intended flight path, albeit with more caution, and with radars off and flying nap of the earth to afford decent protection.

The four planes then broke into two groups, one would play as a decoy, informing the other fighters of the situation, and alerting the correct air-defense forces (and not the live ones).

Deckard and his wingman continued up a stream leading to 'Moramanga', where they would plant 'mines' all around the city ad nearby roads in order to slow down the enemy advance.

Moramanga
The 'rebels' had secured the city successfully, when they came across the sight of a pair of F-4's, and they didn't look happy, and with the HT-101s destroyed, they lacked any real AAA to respond with, aside from some .50 caliber HMG and single shots from CC-35C sniper rifles.

After the mining, the planes ran a few strafes of the town in retaliation (they could see the muzzle flashes). And it soon became apparent that these contractors had not yet been informed of the incorrectly calibrated MILES gear, as the meger power supplies attempted to simulate full body explosions from 35 mm cannon fire. At least it was quick...

That done, the two planes returned.

Later, the rebels who remained 'alive' launched MMP-1 drones into the air, to get a scope of the situation, choosing mostly to see what was happening at the coast (plus there are other non-rebel units doing the same), these planes could carry an anti-tank weapon, usualy a grenade or two, or sometimes a fully automatic carbine. But the important thing was that it found out what was happening in 'Toasmasia'.

Near Antananarivo
The other 186 F-4 Phantoms had already dispersed, and were now being outfitted for anti-armor interdiction raiding of TFH2-4, with up to half of them functioning as jammers/Air superiority aircraft, though the centralized long range SAMs would be used whenever possable.

Aother 'lumbering beast' seldom used in most Hurtian conflicts, the HTR-148 MRBM transporter/launcher/erector, a now aging piece of hardware being replaced by the sleek modular, and easier to pronounce "MUHT", but the HTR-148 was substituted simply because:
A] The Hurtians needed to launch replacement spy satalites to make up for 'attrition' from previous use.
B] The HTR-148 is capable of launching said satalites
C] The "MUHT" is in limited quantities and must be completey available at all times
D]So to 'kill three birds with one bullet', the HTR-148 would remain in use as a 'stand-in', even for the 12" mobile gun configured versions.

To make this work, inflatable dummy articulated hull setions were attached to the front and rear, and the erector arm was covered in a tube to simulate the heavy cannon. And aside from the problem with 'loading the gun', it looked very much like the real thing, thanks to the fact that both vehicles essentailly use the same chassis.

At least it was better than a single soldier with a sign around his neck proclaiming "I am a SHBT". So the Hurtians were at least trying to keep the realism even when they didn't actually have the forces available.

The improvised 'MUHT's would await reports of enemy troop concentrations and the location of the enemy fleet before firing, during which, the F-4 air-wing was to commence their assualt shortly afterwards, hoping that the Air defenses would be focused on the 'artillery' rather than the aircraft.

FOB of F-4's
Lt Deckards plane landed, without incedent, although, as expected, the other two planes had yet to return, as it was assumed they were still playing 'chase me' with the F/A-103s that they undoubtedly attracted.

Using the uprated Hurtian water injected, low bypass turbofans/ramjets to give the enemy a rather good run.*

*It was theoreticall possable for the F-4 to achieve mach 3 airspeed with water injected engines in 1978. (F-4X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II_variants))

[SEAS OFF OF NEW ROANOKE ISLAND]

A carrier battlegroup, Task Force Echo 6-6, began their launching of aircraft, mostly F/A-103N's and CBF-113's.

The carriers were defended by several destroyers, crusiers, battlecruisers, frigates, corvettes. Echo 6-6 was also escorting a group of 20 LST-type auxillaries hauling LY3A2 tanks and CCV-8 IFV's. They would land on a beach and drop off their compliment of vehicles.

The F/A-103N's were optimized for air-to-air engagements, carrying more powerful, accurate "missiles"; while the CBF-113's were optimized for Fleet Defense.

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[SKIES NEAR ANTANANARIVO]

The two remaining F-4's were entangled with the F/A-103's. Learning a quick lesson in the tactics and power of the Hurtians, the F/A-103's of "ThunderHawk 7" used their "guns".

A standard Air Force F/A-103 carried ten internal missiles/bombs, plus up to six on the wings. There were 2 27mm cannons with around 500 rounds each, and a single 37mm cannon with 200 rounds. The 37mm was very light, and had a low rate of fire, but it was incredibly accurate.

They allowed the F-4's to gain on them and come up behind. When a tone for a missile lock came on, internal jammers scrambled the radar waves behind the aircraft.

As the F-4's neared closer, the F/A-103's hit the airbrakes, and used the impressive thrust vectoring to move up rapidly. The F-4's flew right by.

The F/A-103's lined up their sights and "fired" their cannons...

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[ANTANANARIVO]

The ground units of Hotel 2-4 heard the F-4's in the skies, and began to set up their massive 4-barrel 40mm guns. They would be used in conjunction with the Avenger II air-defense systems and the Starstreak-carrying MLV-1's.

As the next wave of F-4 passed, they opened fire...

*OOC
>Wonders ow 2 planes running away managed to get behind the enemy.
(Plus, in all likelyhood, the F/A-103 would be as fast, if not slightly faster.)**

>Antananarivo is pretty much the center of the island, so I doubt you have made it that far, yet. Considering Moramanga is between Toasmasia (the LZ) and Antananarivo, and is heavily 'mined'.

**And being that the dogfight is now 'near Antananarivo', you would have to worry about Hurtian SAMs again. The Hurtian pilots would also be employing similar tricks as well, making it a turning match with the better vectored thrust and thrust/wieght ratio as the eventual winner (unless a SAM intervenes). Plus you have superiority of numbers.

So, I'm not contesting that they were 'destroyed' in the fight, just how they went down.

>Wonders if I'd get the current 'silent treatment' if I was actually invaded by a hostile nation... Or if it is just tht they don't like combat excercises?

Post coming up later - sorry.

Post coming up later - sorry.
Oh, and remember, you were bumped to the blue team...
Asgarnieu's 'Brigades' are division sized...

so he has the equiv of 50 divisions on my shores and a massive fleet.

[OOC: Sorry about that...I am assuming that my F/A-103's shot down your F-4's with their 37mm cannons. I am also assuming that TFH2-4 took a discreet rural path to Antananarivo to begin invading, they were on their way anyways. If I get a chance, I'll mop up that post.]

(My browser ate my window)
OOC: Moving the OOC discussion there
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=530182

I have 133 divisions now, including all types and reserves.

Bumping to see if this still has pulse.

(OOC: yeah it does, I've been busy keeping, or trying to keep, my other RP's going.

As I said, three million men, plenty of vehicles and there'll probably be a navy task force large enough to support them. I will post in the next day or two, just have not got a lot of time right now.)

(OOC: when I said in a day or two would you believe...)

Stritin Al'Soro Sat and smiled as the soldier finished setting up their disarmed weapons, made specifically for the wargame.

Truth of the matters was that for all the hard training the men had been given, the actual amount of combat experience most soldiers had was very low. There were private war games between Uldarion forces of different displacements, but when it game down to it the Uldarion system was too successful at suppression, the populace had lost its will to revolt and thus there were few civil wars to keep the soldiers wits sharp.

In a few short days the exercise would begin.