NationStates Jolt Archive

"The Frontline Is Everywhere..."

[Hollow Point, Skyian Colony, 1800km East of Jaredcohenia]

Light poured in through the open windows as a slight breeze danced around the room. Armada Admiral Jessica Capone, commander of the forces dedicated to the defense of Hollow Point and Arcis Insula stared out the window over the base, it's defenses, and the ocean between them and the Questarian Commonwealth allies, day dreaming.

A moderate gust of cold wind came through the window, tossing pieces of her light brown hair, those not in her bun, around her face as well as sending a chill down her spine.

She wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered in her short sleeve uniform and knee length skirt. Now broken from her day dream she went over to her desk and put on her uniform coat.

As she began to warm up a sharp rap came at her office door.

"Come in!" She answered, they were expected. The door opened and in walked three of the sailors assigned as her personal staff.

"Ma'am, it's time to go, your plane is ready." Said one of the men as he saluted Admiral Capone

"Very well, although I feel bad abandoning this headquarters for safety while the rest of the men stay in the firing line." She said in a somber tone, "Oh, can you get those two boxes over in the corner."

"Yes Ma'am!" Said two of the sailors as they walked over and picked up the boxes. The third sailor escorted her out the door and building to her waiting convoy of LV-09 CMPLs.

Several minutes later she was safely onboard the C-115 Fastrider Supersonic Tactical Transport Cargo Aircraft and lifting off the tarmac towards her armada waiting two hours to the east.

She looked down at the base and surrounding area one last time. She could see the various SAM and AShM batteries surrounding the base and cities, a well as Free-Electron Laser towers standing 300m above the nearly desert land scape. Massive OTH-B radars and AESA radars dotted the land scape. Along the shore a massive sea wall, nearly 50m tall and 20m wide and made of steel and reinforced concrete was the second defense against a possible invasion, the first being hundreds of thousands of land mines, nearly 800 per km squared.

Troops were also stationed inside the wall, ready to move to now concealed firing ports, the ports were big enough for tanks to fire out of. Generally tanks were assigned to the lower firing ports with the IFVs while the light vehicles and infantry were signed to the ones towards the top. Artillery would fire over the wall. The rest of the forces as well as defensive guns were located underground ready to sprint out. Ten Unity guns could be seen in the colony. It was a death trap for any enemy troops.

[Arcis Insula, Skyian Colony, Southeastern Haven]

A defensive plan similar to the one at Hollow Point was under way. However, Arcis Insula was purely a military colony, with oil and mining operations on going. The mainland part of the colony was a towering hill, rising to a 500m plateau located about 50km from the shore near the center of the island. The shore line was protected in a way very similar to Hollow Point. The whole colony had the look of a massive fortress with ten unity gun installations and massive amounts of SAMs and SSMs pointed at the Alacean colony.

A decently sized naval base was located on the northeastern coast of the colony. While not crucial it was heavily defended by SAM installations as well as Close-In Air Defense Vehicles.

The island was really just a plateau rising 200m above the sea at about 30km inland. It was against heavily defended with a sea wall and hidden troop positions and an underground bunker/tunnel system. Various 33.3" assault dreadnought gun turrets were hidden underground in a special tunnel system allowing them to move between firing positions in minutes. Smaller guns were simply hidden in depressed positions where they could fire directly in a low profile at enemies assaulting them, or fire at hire angles like artillery.

Various RADAR installations were located on 50m high elevated platforms along the edges of the plateaus to give them an excellent view of the surrounding area. The defenses of the island were generally aimed towards incapacitating the Alaceans while defending the southeastern approach to Haven from QC extra-havenite allies.

[Paramount Islands, Skyian Colony, Eastern Haven]

The Paramount Islands, besides being a major tourist resort was the Skyians most important asset in eastern haven. This was because it defending one of the main approaches to Haven. So while the threat of Havenites attacking was slim the threat of foreign shipping attempting to barrel into haven by attacking the islands was very high.

As such the islands were equipped with twelve Unity Guns along with sixty triple 33.3" gun turrets again with the extensive underground rail system. The defense were very similar to the other colonies, but with a much smaller sea wall about half the size and only protecting the sides of the islands facing away from Bruxella.

Naval forces consisted of the entire 1st Expeditionary Armada. They were tasked with first the defense of the islands from aggression and them possible the invasion of Alacea.

[Hyperbola, Skyian Colony, Northeastern Haven]

Hyperbola, while defending much the same as the other colonies in turns of missiles, guns, men, and aircraft was lacking with only 636 ships assigned to defend it. It was assumed that if Praetonia entered the way it would either A: Distract the Praetonian Fleets from their nearby colonies so that they would be worn down by the land defenses while using a minimal amount of ships, or B: Be bypassed allowing the fleet and air units to strike at the Praetonians, eroding moral.

As such a large amount of Type 1000s and Type 900s, two-hundred planes of each type, 1/4 the total owned by The Silver Sky, would be stationed to give Praetonian Commanders a terrible pain that they must deal with. Only eight Unity Guns graced the colony, as did forty SD grade guns.

[Skyian Artic Territories, Northern Haven]

The Artic Territories were nothing special, just a pretty much vast mountain range covered in ice. It did however make a great place to stick Unity Guns and long range missile batteries, as well as long range bombers.

And that's what the military did, a total of 60 Unity Guns were placed throughout the barren landscape, complete with ABM, SAMS and Laser batteries to keep away enemies. Another 200 Type 1000s and Type 900s were placed on the airbases along with various other aircraft of the air force assigned there. Shore defenses just consisted of various missile batteries on the high ground as well as military bases in the mountains along the various highways that crisscrossed the territories.

Naval Forces consisted of the 1st through 3rd Naval Guard Fleets, 1138 vessels each, however, 336 of the vessels in each fleet were corvettes under 90m.

[Fyre Sea, 600km Southwest of TSS, Northern Haven]

A massive fleet lay in wait should the Praetonians join the Questarians and launch an invasion attempt against The Silver Sky or draw the fleets into a decisive action.

The entirety of the home fleets lay some 600-800km off shore, they consisted of three-thousand eight-hundred and sixteen combat vessels, they ships alone would be no match for the Praetonian Navy, so the decision was reached to hire four Hostile Takeover Inc. Fleets for the defense of the homeland. That added some two-thousand, four-hundred and eight ships extra to the fleets.

Also called up for duty was the 7th and 8th Naval Guard Fleets, adding another 2276 ships to the naval forces. This gave a grand total of 8,500 ships for the defense of the homeland.

Arrayed on the eastern approach to The Silver Sky was the 4th through 6th Naval Guard Fleets. Little more then a buffer fleet they simply patrolled the sea lanes and would intercept enemy fleets attempting to make a break for the homeland.

Naval defenses consisted of 200 Unity Guns as well as 400 33.3" Naval Gun Turrets and countless Khan/Trinity batteries as well as SAM/ABM and Laser batteries. An invasion attempt would be suicidal for any force.

Despite potentially fighting on seven fronts against the massive numerical superiority of the Questarian Commonwealth and possibly Praetonia the Skyians would be sure to go down fighting. They would yield nothing and a scorched earth policy would be initiated. Massive conventional bombs were hidden underneath and inside of bases and cities, as well as resource deposits. The enemy would have a surprise should they succeed in taking any of the colonies.

"There'll Be No Shelter Here..."

[Northfordian Border with Havenic Kahanistan]

It was public knowledge that five Hostile Takeover Inc. ground warfare divisions had been contracted out by the government of Northford to guard the southern border, they had literally built the border defenses from the ground up.

However, the winds of change and war were blowing across the land. It was time for them to leave. The contract had been canceled by HT Inc. and the cancelation fee paid.

The troops began to take everything sensitive, the bases would be nothing more but former shadows of themselves. All sensitive equippment was loaded up and shipped to midlonia, then SS, and eventually The Silver Sky.

Within the week the last of the forces were moved out.

Edwardsburg,
The Imperial Republic

Admiral James Eustice took a deep breath of the sweet sea air that he loved so much before he proceeded to walk aboard his ship, HKS Arch Angel. The admiral was going to see naval combat once more, and once again he was going to be commanding a fleet. Once aboard the only vessel he could ever call home, he immediately ascended the ships stairs to the bridge deck. Once on the bridge deck, he immediately demanded a coffee from one of the lowest ranked officers on the bridge, and preceded to the bridges windows. Once at the windows of the large ship, he peered out at the activity going on above deck. From his view he saw a lot of men scurrying like ants to get the ship ready to see action once more. Men were hoisting supplies and ammunition onto the deck, while others were either operating the machinery, or carrying the supplies by hand to the location they were needed. However, what he could not see from his view was the action below deck, where engineers were working furiously to make sure that the ship would not have any breakdowns or mechanical failures. Everything was going to be pristine before Eustice set sail, and he was personally going to make sure of it.

Eustice’s Arch Angel was not the only ship preparing for war. Most of the naval base at Edwardsburg was preparing for war, and every ship was being prepared, supplied, and most importantly, armed. Edwardsburg’s two fleets that called the base home, Roman, and Egyptian, were about to rise anchors and set sail to the region of Haven, where the expected NATO and QC face-off was about to take place. The base was a center of activity as a result of the orders to set sail, and had been for the last three days. Many men had not gotten much sleep as a result of this, but they would easily recharge their batteries on the voyage over to the expected war zone. Luckily for the sailors, their hard work was about to end, with both of the two combined fleets ships nearly at one hundred percent operating capacity. But, until all of the ships in both fleets were ready, sailors were still doing the drudgery of preparation, and men continued to load supplies onto their ships.

As the lower ranks of sailors were slaving away at making their ships finer instruments of war than they already were, officers of every rank were beginning to meet in their respective ships command decks to discuss every specific of the orders that had sent the naval base into such a frenzy of movement and preparation. At the moment, only commanding officers of ships had seen the direct orders that had come down, but pretty soon everyone was going to know them. With the notification that both fleets were nearly ready to cast off mooring lines, it was time for the debriefing.

On HKS Arch Angel, Admiral Eustice had all of his officers of the ship gathered on his ships command deck. Every commanding officer of both fleets’ ships was doing the same right now, and he was no different. Eustice was personally doing a re-read of the orders as to make sure when he explained them to his men that they would be no different than what he had read. After Eustice re-examined the orders papers, he rolled down a map and began to explain the situation to his officers, who would after this meeting, explain it to their subordinates.

“Well gentlemen, it is good to see you all once more. Since we all have an idea why we are here, let’s get right down to business. As you all know, the entire nations armed forces have been mobilized in case of war against the Questerian Commonwealth. Well, from what orders I hold in my hand, our government has been coordinating with the government of The Silver Sky and due to this coordination our government has learned that war between our NATO allies and the QC is pretty much inevitable. From this intelligence and from our dealings with the Skyian government we are to set sail to the regional waters of Haven for a joint operation with The Silver Sky. So pretty much, our orders as of now are to hook up with the Skyian allied fleets. Once we have met up with their fleets, we will view the situation and receive further orders pending the situation. Pretty simple as of now, so lets get to it.”

Eustice had concluded his debriefing at about the same time as the rest of the commanding officers of ships did. There was not too much to explain, and as a result most of the briefings ended in roughly a half an hour. Now most of the men knew where they were going, but like most of the nation, and the world, they did not know what was going to happen next. On dawn of the next day, mooring lines were cast off the docks of the Edwardsburg Imperial Naval Instillation. The Killian armadas had awoken and were about to set sail into one of the hottest potential war zones ever seen.

San Sebastian,
The Imperial Republic

Brigadier General Jimmy Wilson had just watched the last of his Nakil 1A2MC main battle tanks get loaded onto the final transport ship. He was now officially ready to set sail to meet up with the two Killian fleets’ en-route to the region of Haven. Wilson was anticipating the possible conflict that was about to occur, however he did not fear it. “Enough bloodshed will do that to man” he thought to himself.

Once in the briefing room, Wilson had laid out what he was going to present to all the officers and non-commissioned officers under his command.

“Welcome guys. I am going to be brief. Under my command are four light infantry corps, four rapid assault infantry corps, and two mechanized infantry corps. All combined that’s a total of slightly over a million troops. From that number we can all divulge that this is not a peace-keeping, or even a defensive force. This is quite obviously an attack force. I will be blunt, war is imminent. Our NATO allies prepare to face the QC threat, and we are going to be involved in facing that threat. So, what I can say now is that our men here are going to be operating in conjunction with forces from The Silver Sky. We will be traveling with two Killian fleets, which are en-route to Haven. From there we will be arriving at a Skyian colony in Haven where our men only will debark for further orders. That’s really it. I hope none of you are sea sick, and I will see you on the other side.”

Wilson then stepped of the podium and exited the room. He could not explain the upcoming war no matter how he tried. All he could say was that many would perish, either Killian or otherwise.

Six Days After Departure From The Killian Homeland,
Waters Outside of Skyian Territory


Eustace was standing outside of the bridge deck of his ship. Though the wind was blowing fierce, he did not notice it as he stared out at the azure skies, and cerulean sea. To him, the unparalleled beauty of the sea was such a paradox to the horrors of naval warfare. Despite this feeling, he was a Killian admiral, and the homeland came before him. Because of this patriotism, it did not matter how many beautiful seas were scarred, so long as the ones outside of his homeland remained safe. After being outside for nearly an hour, he stepped back inside to survey the current situation.

Eustace stepped over to the sonar chief’s section of the bridge and surveyed the various instruments. He still saw the same amount of Killian ships from two fleets and innumerable amount of transport ships. Some of the ships would soon disappear though, as the Egyptian fleet was about to break away to link up with a different Skyian armada.

Something new appeared on the sonar systems, and it happened before his, and the sonar chiefs eyes. Massive amounts of ships began to appear on sonar, and they were definitely not Killian. Eustace assumed that they were Skyian, or else they would have fired on him already. Thankfully, they had not, and Eustace was glad that his ship, and every other ship, was flying the Killian flag, along with the NATO flag.

Eustace, not one to take chances immediately went to the radio section of the bridge and immediately transmitted a message to the large, looming fleet in front of his eyes.

Transmission from Admiral Eustace, Killian Imperial Kriegsmarine

Greetings! No doubt you now know who we are, and we now know who you are. We have safely arrived, and are ready to link up with your forces. This message is to just confirm our identities, and diffuse any situation that might occur. Before any conflict breaks out between us and our enemies, I would like to meet with the commander of this fleet. Thank you.

OOC: Last post until like tomorrow prolly.

Two Days East of Hollow Point,
Skyian Second Naval Armada

Armada Admiral Jessica Capone stood, arms crossed infront of her, on the observation deck of the SRNS 'Cthulhu', a refitted and recomissioned 'Kraken'-Class Seige Dreadnought, as the wind howled around her, tossing her loose strands of light brown hair forward, a sharp contrast to the very calm water. The sky was clear with traces of light whispy clouds high up in the atmosphere, but she couldn't help but feel chilled by the proverbial storm clouds gathering just beyond the horizion. The air of war was upon them, and it was suffocating. Soon the smoke from damaged and destroyed ships would fill the air while debris from aircraft, missiles and even human bodies would float in the waves staining the beauty of the mother ocean.

However, as a veteran of many conflicts, she did not let her feelings take control of her decisions, she had a mission. 'To defend my nation and allies from the aggressive actions of the Questarian Commonwealth and their allies...' she repeated over and over in her head. 'That is the most important thing, you are to be prepared to die for my country, but you should also make the other bastard die for his.' The words of her mentor and commander, Admiral of the Navies, Admiral Michael Sutherland rang in her head.

Several minutes later she returned from the observation deck, refreshed and feeling better then ever. "Give me a SITREP." She said to the captain of the vessel as she returned to her admiral's chair on the bridge.

"Surface War and OTH and been tracking the Killian Fleet since it came within 3000km, half of them are starting split up north as per the plan. The fleet is being tracked via passive sonar by the frigates, take a look if you like ma'am." Responded the Captain who then motioned to the nearby sonar display.

The SONAR Operator got up and let the admiral take her seat. Arrayed before her were green dots of various intensities, hundreds of them, slowly moving towards the frigate that acted as the passive sonar relay. "AWACs says their IFF is definately Killian, should we hail them ma'am?" Asked the Captain.

"No, let them hail us, now back to your posts." She ordered and walked back to the chair to wait.

She didn't have to wait long at all, she read over the message and began to formulate a reply.

Transmission from Admiral Capone, Skyian Second Republican Naval Armada

Welcome to Haven Admiral Eustace. I hope your trip was most comfortable and that you are rested. I have ordered my ships to make full cruise and plot a course back to Hollow Point, please pull behind the rear fleet and follow us. Your forces will be deployed to all of the 15 bases at the colony. As commander of the Skyian Forces in the Southwestern Haven Theater I am the commanding officer of this Theater. I would be very glad to meet with you, just say when and where.

Two Days East of Hollow Point,
Aboard HKS Arch Angel, Waters Outside Skyian Territory

Admiral Eustace had received the Skyian message, and he finished reading the response he had gotten from Admiral Capone of the Second Skyian Armada almost as quickly as he received it; Eustace was quite pleased by the haste of the response he had gotten from his Skyian counterpart. After he finished reading the message, he immediately transmitted orders to his fleet to close the distance between the fleets, and follow the Skyians’ to their own ports. After transmitting his orders, he took one more look at the SONAR operation section of the bridge. Eustace noted that the Egyptian Fleet had finally fully broken away from his fleet and was making their course north.

After Eustace finished looking at the SONAR displays in front of him, he again sent a transmission. This transmission was to the transport convoy, and it stated that they had permission to land on Hollow Point and should alter their course accordingly.

Once finished with that, he again sent another transmission, except this one was to the Skyian admiral.

Transmission from Admiral Eustace, Killian Imperial Kriegsmarine

Your generosity and hospitality for our soldiers is greatly appreciated and will not go un-repaid. As you receive this, you will notice our course has been altered to your request and we will follow you to port. As for meeting up and discussing elements of our duties to come, or anything for that matter, I will gladly take you up on that offer. Since you are going to show us generous hospitality, I would like to show you Killian hospitality. Thus, I am inviting yourself and whatever officers you would like to accompany you to my ship for a meeting over dinner. Since it is still early in this day, you are welcome to come tonight, or any night you choose.


Eustace had sent out his message, and was satisfied with it. After he walked away from the transmitter, he proceeded to demand that his executive officer get Jimmy Wilson on the Arch Angel immediately. Since Eustace was meeting with a theater commander, he felt it only appropriate to have highest ranking ground forces officer on board the ship.

Eustace forgot one thing, and he turned around to tell his XO what he forgot.

“Listen, DEMAND Wilson get on this ship do not ask. And make sure he is wearing his class A uniform, you know the one with the shiny medals and what not? I want the Killian armed forces to be perceived as they are: excellent soldiers. I don’t want to look like a bunch of fuckin’ slouches.”

In these uncertain times in even the highest echelons of Imperial General Headquarters, there was still some confusion about placement of friendly and enemy formations. Yes, they could track their fleets, but intelligence had suggested the enemy may be listening in – Questarian signals were never much good in the first place and it would be silly to assume nobody in Gholgoth, NATO, or one of their friends had broken the codes used and the encryptions for their transmissions. As such, information was sent in more covert, albeit ridiculously slow, ways. Until the signals team could come up with new encryptions, which may be a matter of months and perhaps even until after the war started, information was not sent electronically. Nevertheless, IGHQ’s Intelligence Department, (Imperial Reconnaissance and Intelligence Service), had a truly excellent network of spies, spotter submarines and aircraft and all types of satellites. The problem was, apart from the satellites, none of the information gathered could be processed just as data, and in any case spies that sent anything back could be in danger. As such, the moment a Skyian fleet left port, a young Southeast Asian man with a passport from the Union of said nation – a fake one, of course, but an excellently crafted fake one – boarded the fastest method of air transport, be it jumbo jet or space plane to the closest safe nation, which at this point happened to be Space Union, and sent his signals back in the form of a type of encrypted file with various securities in various formats that only computers at IRIS could read correctly. In theory, at least.

At that point, the recon stealth submarine SRNS-4418 began to track the Skyian fleet from port for its trip southwards. At the right range, recon GR4M6s from the Navy’s Hikojo Chutais No.339 and No.448 took off and began regular monitoring of the Skyians. The recon submarines were still safe, as their encryption and decryption data was outstanding and was lightyears ahead of anything else the military could field, yet it would be several months before this technology could be incorporated into only some of the reconnaissance aircraft and C4I ships. As soon as the data was transformed into information by the IRIS attachment to the GR4M6 Air Companies, agents were sent via spaceplane back to Questers itself to deliver the information, a tiresome and moral sapping job, though the flights only took forty minutes. This is how IGHQ and IRIS got a fairly regular update, and an instant one by submarine, of the travel paths of the Skyian fleet and later, the Killian fleet that they picked up via RORSAT and began to monitor too. At the height of recon operations in the bracket of time the fleets met up, three recon submarines and three air companies and four RORSATs were giving the Admiralty and Headquarters a decent idea of the formation and makeup of these two fleets. This is how reconnaissance was mostly carried out by the Questarian military; at least until the new encryption/decryption technology was incorporated, which would make things far easier. At this point, the Admiralty decided the correct choice would be to intercept the two fleets with what they could muster from the East Haven Station at Ceylon.

It was a fairly decent formation which IGHQ had labeled Force S, with a single Nagato battleship, the Yamashiro at its head, with five Hiryu class fleet carriers and five Conquerer class light carriers, two Barham class battleships, and a smattering of heavy strike cruisers and Ajax class battleships. With over two hundred escorts and forty supply ships it constituted what resistance that could be put up in this area by the IQN, not counting the allied forces of course. They put to sea with Admiral Umezu at the flag and moved to intercept the two fleets. Flying the full colours and advancing at 28 knots the plan was to move straight past the two battlefleets in visual sight, which although outnumbering Force S the idea was to show that there would be resistance to any attempt to control this part of the Haven Seas, though it was likely that no Questarian offensive would be mounted past it except an assault on the Duchy of Padma and the Scandavian Fleet there. After the show of colours and force, the fleet would swing around (as fast as they could with the Yamashiro, anyway) and shadow the Killians and Skyians and hen Admiral Umezu would be given free reign to decide what to do during shadowing. His orders were sent by a floatplane, which landed next to the Yamashiro, water skidding and splashing around its floats before it came to a halt. The pilot passed up the message and five minutes later Admiral Umezu folded it up and chucked it into the sea as his battlefleet formed up and began to move towards their mission.

Two Days East of Hollow Point,
Skyian Second Naval Armada

Armada Admiral Jessica Capone read over the message, dinner was a good few hours or so away, plenty of time for the various commanders to assemble from the colony.

Admiral Capone placed various calls to her counterparts in the army and airforce to arrange their leaving their command posts and coming to dinner with the Killians.

Transmission from Admiral Capone, Skyian Second Republican Naval Armada

Thank you for the invitation to dine with you on your flagship. We, consisting of myself, Five-Star General Ryan Anderson of the 4th Theater Force, and Five-Star General of the Air Force Michael Stockson, we shall be arriving promptly at 1800 hours via helicopter. We shall be in our best dress uniforms.

I look forward to spending the evening on board your vessel discussing various subjects.