NationStates Jolt Archive

Spizani Naval Ordnance Works

A cloudless sky saw a clichéd dusk to the west of Spizania's most important Naval Ordnance Works, an orange flame peeking above the horizon, dimmer and dimmer as time went by. It had been some time now since most workers had left for home, unknowingly followed by 8 seperate pairs of eyes, those of a mysterious type of person, secretive and yet well known, these were men of the Special Boat Squadron, experts in secret insertion and clandestine operations, and none better suited to the task as Blue section of 3rd Platoon, 'C' Company, 1st Battalion, Special Boat Service, Hotdian Marines. 'Smithy' was section commander, at just 29 he had risen through the special forces ranks rapidly to the rank of Colour Sergeant, no mean feat in what was one of the hardest regiments to survive in within the Hotdian Armed forces.

"All clear?" he signalled to his corporal, and awaited the reply.

"Wilco" came the signalled reply, followed by "All Clear"

"Move out" was a quick and single action, the exact same command as "go" or "move" being used here by the understanding Colour Sergeant. Darkness had sunk now, but the marines night vision was perfect, well practiced in such situations they had no problem moving out in their well planned and well rehearsed procedure, they had after all planned it even before they had been dropped off by a covert 'SF' submarine using one of their standard sea based insertion techniques, being firstly flown into the submarine by a helicopter, not the best clandestine method, but none the less necessary to ensure the quick start to the mission. Of the 8 man team, only 6 would be involved in actually entering the compound, the other 2 would be ready to create a diversion and give any cover that was needed, as well as securing the escape route. However, although the plan included this emergency plan it shouldn't be needed, the operation was to be carried out completely stealthily so that the operation would not be found out for some time...

Sneaking forwards, Cravan built rifle in front of him, Smithy was edging forwards, crawling as close to the ground as he could, dragging along cutting equipment with him, followed closely by one of his soldiers. The use of Cravanian rifles had been purposeful, they were not only in ready supply within Hotdogs2, but widely used by NATO members, whilst not being the primary rifle in use the Hotdian forces, even uniform was taken from NATO members, absolutely every part and every detail just screamed "NATO" and "GHOLGOTH", the exact aim of the mission. A fair way behind these two men a 4 man crew were dragging a 5.3" shell, or at least something that resembled an exact replicate of the standard Spizani shell, but packed full of plastic explosives.

As Smithy approached the edge of the scrub land around the perimeter, he stopped, noting the possition of the following team members already well placed behind him and his companion. With cutting equipment ready for the dash to the perimeter fence and entry to the ordnance works he pushed himself up, had a last look around and then signaled to his companion, jumping up and running low and and very quickly towards the fence. As he reached it he turned around and linked his hands together, steadying his 185lbs for the contact with the lightest member of his team, who jumped into his linked hands and was then propelled upwards and over the top of the fence, more for fun and show than any tactical purpose, but it would allow one man to be inside the perimeter should the outside man have to disengage and hide from any patrols. Grabbing his wire cutters he set to work on the creation of a whole large enough to push the shell through and to let himself and two other members of the team into the compound. Working from the other side, and checking his section commanders back, James 'jimmy' Shot was working hard on his side of the fence to create the entry point, checking to his sides for any signs of commotion.

First task complete, Smithy pushed the fence inwards and followed it quickly, signaling simultaneously to his remaining team members who had now moved forwards to move, after a quick check for guards. The four mean jumped to, scampering along holding onto straps attached to the shell. As they reached the fence the front end of the shell came through, pushed from the other side, and pulled by Smithy and Jimmy, two more team members following through to help moving the shell now inside the compound. At 94kgs the shell wasn't light, but for four members of one of the best SBS teams it was nothing, and so they quickly moved again towards the toughened building which contained the latest shipment of ammunition destined for the Spizani navy. The two remaining team members pulled the cut fence part up once more, and bodging the job as well as possible without any special equipment, made a semi-decent job which wouldn't be easily spotted, before moving back for cover. A clunk was heard as the doorway into the containment building was forced open, expertly opened by their in house lock smith in record time. Not pausing for breath the shell was straight into the middle of the shipment, placed on a spare place in a pallet of ammunition.

Getting back out was easy, the same entry method for jimmy was used again for him, although this time he carried a rope to aid in climbing. Once over the fence, all that remained was to make the rendezvous with the sub and get themselves back home. Having not been spotted by any guards they'd made sure they left a few clues which would point towards a NATO nation for the crime that had taken place once the shell had been discovered...some time after the exit of our mysterious Special Forces.

CSS Indefatigable
The Inflexible-class Battlecruiser that was seconded to the ninth battlecruiser wing was the one that recieved the ammunition shipment which had been tampered with by the commandoes, the pallets of ammunition being shipped to the dockside on a guarded train and loaded aboard the ship using the collosal gantry cranes that ran clear across the fjord at the Firendshaven Naval Base. The bomb had been secured in number three dual purpose magazine for about three hours, the loading almost finished, when it detonated, but it did not detonated properly, only about a quarter of the plastic explosives went off due to failures in the detonator and in the manufacture of the charges, which turned the enormous magazine detonating fireball into a relative wimper, lighting fires in the magazine compartment but not causing the immediate detonation of the brass cased projectiles.
The thermal and smoke detectors in the magazine triggered within seconds, starting the foam pumps that flooded the compartment within seconds, however the fire still burned for several minutes before the fire retarding foam had its effect and brought it to a stop, if the bomb had gone off properly, the deflagration would have caused a chain reaction in the DP ammunition that would have spread to the next compartment, which held the ammuniton for C-Turret, which would have led to the loss of the ship in all probability.
The dock alarms were blaring as emergeancy services and fast response troops arrived on the dockside, down the winding railway and road tracks that weaved down the steep sides of the Fjord, it would take two hours before the interior of the magazine would be cool enough to safely pump out the foam and send in the inspectors, by which time the Admiral of the Fleet would have ben notified of this near disaster.

"Bollocks, you dick harry!" Screamed Colour Sergent Smithy. "You heard the damn news! That was supposed to be one hell of a boom, not a little pop like that bloody lot made! I would have done twice as well as that, what the hell where you thinking? I think you need a new job." He turned away in disgust, the mission had gone so well, intel had reported the shipment being loaded up and taken away, nothing seemed to have stirred as first reports seemed to state that the shipment was loaded on board and detonation would occur at the exact time predicted that the shell would be in its most dangerous possition- in the ship magazine, when all hatches were open due to loading of ship supplies.

Well, that had been a complete failure from all news that they had seen, it was just lucky that the explosives were universal, nothing traceable back to hotdogs2 directly. That might have been the case, but now both Smithy and Marine Harry would be in the shit house with their commanding officer, but not only him alone, rumors had spread that Lieutenant General Golding had been seen arriving and entering the majors office. Bad news for the men of Blue section, that was a given. Sure enough, moments later Warrant Officer Jenson appeared, shouting at the two unfortunate Blue section members.

Frog marched into the office, wearing their "slacks", relaxation and recreational uniform which they hurriedly tidied as the Warrant Officer went in to announce the arrival of the two men. "DOUBLE IN!".

Outside the office there was calm, no shouting, no real evidence of the high tensions which had risen in the officers mess and nervousness of any superiors. Two glum Marines left the office after their bollocking, RTU'ed apparently, but fortunately for them the conversation on the mission didn't end with their exit...

"Bloody hell, i thought the whole ship was going to blow up! Good job you know your explosives major."

"No problem sir, i didn't want to waste unnecessary allied lives if i can help it, not when SIS are the ones telling me to fucking do it!"

"Too right, but you know those two men had to go, its a shame, but no matter, i have a completely black ops outfit being formed, they did well, very well. In fact, i thought that shell wasn't supposed to blow at all, just not fire in the barrel, so that the spizani caught onto it!"

"Well, so did i, but that guy is smart, and he knew more than i did about this shit. No doubt the research they did was spot on, if i hadn't messed up the plastic explosives...ouch, the **** added those detonators."

And so we leave this hapless bunch, and await the official investigation from Spizania...