NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC Thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=529210)
Operation Theatre Map (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i189/seanmyhre/theatremapII.jpg)
Commonwealth Map (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i189/seanmyhre/delesamap-4.jpg)
Confederate Map (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/fbcatholicsfan/maps/confed.gif)

It was official; the Southern Confederacy of Delesa was real. On a large island south of Delesa, believed to be under the control of foreign nations was now the home of a false government and nation. To understand why and how, one must look back in the history of the Commonwealth of Delesa.

Several wars have been waged on the account of the fact that people want an independent country of Delesa, away from the ‘oppressive’ monarch rule. That might have been true once upon a time, but now the Royal Family holds no political power, and is now rather just a figure.

Back in 1800, when the entire world was facing a change, a change brought around by Napoleon Bonaparte of France, the ideal that Monarchs should be toppled and removed. Now the Kingdom of Delesa, as it was known at that time, had little ties with the rest of Europe, as the Kingdom believed strongly in isolation. But there were six men who had traveled to Europe and experienced what Napoleon had offered and returned with a thought in mind. After gaining enough support over 9 years, the war begun, and in the beginning the Separatists seemed to have victory ensured, but fighting between the leaders about how to come about the destruction of the kingdom delayed the attack, until the Kingdom was able to regroup and reorganize. After a huge victory at sea, almost the entire Separatist navy had been sunk or captured. The means to continue protecting the shipping and re-supply in the Charles Strait for the campaign on the mainland had sunk with the Separatist fleet. So the Loyalist navy and armies starved the armies on the mainland into surrendering. With most of the Separatist armies captured in the mainland campaign, little stood between the Loyalists and victory. They crushed the remaining forces on the Southern island, the home of the revolution. The armies on Quebec surrendered with out being shot at or shooting.

Two of the six men were captured in Port Hustlings, one with the armies in Portsmouth. The remaining three disappeared, never to be seen again by the Loyalists. The three captured were tried and hanged outside the Royal Castle in Russograd.

Joseph Stroh, Quincy Kava, and Erik Fuhrer were the three that escaped, but the revolution wasn’t the last time they were ever heard. They assisted in successful revolutions around the world. Quincy Kava returned to France and fought in the Battle of Waterloo, losing his life during the massive French Calvary charge that was cut down by hidden British squares. Joseph Stroh fought on till he died of age. Erik Fuhrer also fought in Waterloo, but escaped with his life, but without his left arm, elbow down from a cannon round. He then returned to one of the Virgin Islands in Delesa to where the families of Joseph Stroh, Quincy Kava, and Erik Fuhrer were. There he remained for the rest of his life, helping raise the children of all three men, all which were born before the downfall of the Separatists. He wrote a book on the Separatist ideal and taught the children out of it, itself became a bible in the families and for generations it was used and taught. Then in 2002 Sarah Stroh was a lawyer in a large firm, Ney Kava a CEO of a transportation company and Robert L. Grant, husband to Carrol Fuhrer. Robert had been a politician with a loud voice and strong believings. He was once elected to the House of Commons as opposition leader, but during a debate punched Lester Geddie when the topic got heated. He was dismissed from politics and fueled by this anger to take the next step and begin the construction of his stepfamily’s ideal.

Huge support was gained with people around the world in different nations. Soon money was flowing in, and they purchased an island from an undisclosed nation. Then contractors were brought in to begin the construction of cities and the infrastructures. But money then began to tighten up. And up to this point all this activity had gone fairly unnoticed by the Commonwealth due to the distraction of the Regional war. With people in high positions in the Commonwealth, Grant transferred funds from taxes from the government to the new nation. The tax offices never noticed because of false papers and information planted by inside sources. Soon the doors to the Confederacy were open, and the Commonwealth found out about the new Southern Confederacy of Delesa. At first the Commonwealth were surprised until the leader was revealed, Grant, and the families behind him.

Prime Minister Lester Geddie at first was going to allow them to leave and try to live on their own, until it was brought to his attention by the CIA of the missing money. And even that some of the national gold stock was missing. At which point the nation was outraged. The nation was on the brink of war. Colonies now had orders to mobilize forces and prepare to transport them to the homeland.

But that’s when Geddie got a brake. As it turned out, Grant’s mother was terribly sick, and had been for many years, and was in the St. Myhre General Hospital, one of the best in Delesa. Her condition was so unstable that there was no way to move her from her bed to the new confederacy. Leverage? Possibly, although it was unusually cruel for Geddie to bring this up. The Prime Minister has his office phone the President’s new office.

“Well isn’t this a pleasant surprise Prime Minister?”

“Aye, it is isn’t it? Now cut the chat, you stole some serious money from my government prick.”

“Name calling? That won’t get you anywhere. But consider it payment for not blowing that land you call a nation out from under you. Oh did your CIA mention your missing nuclear missiles?”

Geddie remained quiet, he was shocked, and he began sweating. It could be true, but the Commonwealth no longer had any of those missiles left. But that was at least a year ago that his government ordered all those blasted missiles destroyed.

“Silent? Nuke got your tongue? Yes well I will let you in on a secret. Your bureaucratic morons in your government work at a snails pace. Not to mention the senators that keep delaying the decommissioning of those missiles because they think it would save you. So while they sat in those warehouses, secretly labeled as piping, we were able to acquire them with little trouble. And as we speak they are steaming into port.”

“Don’t you think you’re a little over the edge Grant?”

“No, not at all, rather I’m right at home.”

“Hmmm well I have a sneaky suspicion that you won’t push the button, not yet anyways.”

“And whys that Mr. Know everything?”

“Just a feeling. By the way, how’s your mother doing? Last time I heard she was getting surgery at…. Oh I seem to have forgotten. Wait St. Myhre General. Now hold on a second, isn’t that in Delesa? Sorry I mean the Commonwealth.”

Now it was Grant that was quiet. Geddie smiled, he now had Grant by the balls. “Not to mention the fact I have many more ships, planes, and men then you.”

“Well first your going to have to convince the public that attacking your brothers is acceptable. You might have a slight problem there. And why the hell would you bring my mother into this huh? Have you really fallen that far? Your much worse then I thought. I should have punched you harder; I might have knocked some sense into you.”

“Well just have to see, but I must go back to work and deal with some missing money.”

“That’s not all your missing.” Grant chuckled.

“We’ll be in touch Grant.” Lester hung up the phone. Then rubbed his temples. He pulled out a Quebec Whisky bottle from his desk. Quebec Whisky was some of the finest in the world and was one of Delesa’s largest exports. Geddie had boxes of the stuff in his office for situations just like this one.

Confederate Map Click Here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/fbcatholicsfan/maps/confed.gif)

Over the weeks, cities sprung up out of the ground, the ground leveled and manipulated to man's will by the thousands of construction crews from hundreds of contractors from all over the world. Families and people moved to the booming industries of the new nation.

The slogan, "A New Start, A Second Chance!" was used and people were attracted like moths to a light. Also around the country military installations were built, airstrips, and underground bunkers. The Confederacy of Southern Delesa also purchased the arms and means to defend itself, with the possible intention to become the aggressor. Crates filled with modern AKs were shipped in, along with all the other necessary weapons for the soldier. Most weapons and vehicles were purchased from Russia and Soviet suppliers, and hence the face of the Confederate monster began to shape.

***

The room was small but you couldn't tell for the lack of sufficient lighting didn't allow one to see anything in the room apart from the green screens, and the face of a young soldier lit by those screens. The soldier was very young, and not very athletic, hence this desk job, and not front line trooper action. His glasses rested on the tip of his nose, a cigarette hung out of the side of his mouth, not lit. He leaned back in his rather large leather chair, a Zippo in one hand as if contemplating lighting the cigarette. But he flicked it on and off over and over. His Eyes might have been starring at the screen, but his mind was off thinking about the new Miss. Delesa calendar he had received in the mail and awaited his arrival back to his small room in the barracks.

His base of operations was in the Virgin Isles, his job to watch the sea traffic, while they didn't see him. He sat on of the smaller islands, off of the coast of the larger Virgin Isles, several meters under the surface.

The screens blinked and beeped, notifying the young corporal of new contacts, mostly oil tankers coming and going from the feasting in and around the rich oil sea beds in the Virgin Isles. And usually they traveled in a line if they traveled in groups at all, but a large group had entered from the south, not in any normal pattern. The Corporal didn't notice at first, his concentration elsewhere, but then a small red light began to go off, bringing the soldier back to reality.

The alarm went off when more then 10 contacts entered the range of the sonar from the south-south east. The Corporal’s eyes snapped to the screen. He rolled his chair over to the computers off to the left and begun to operate the closest satellite over top to get pictures of the contacts. What he found was not good.

“Damn.”

Several hundred miles south of the Commonwealth shores lay a chain of small islands, the main about the size of Puerto Rico, with a single major city Lithisis close to mid-island. The islands have no real name, although known to most as Haven or Oil Haven, as they are not part of either the Commonwealth or Confederacy, although as the area is fairly rich in oil, the seas not the land, the Commonwealth had been harvesting its black gold since the dawn of the complications of the occupation of the Virgin Isles by Kreatvye. Now the Confederacy had taken a similar idea. Units of the Confederate Armies built barracks and bases on the islands, or occupied old Commonwealth ones.

These islands were off the record, and an unofficial war was waged, not by the Countries, as that would spark a much larger war, but rather between companies. The Confederate Units were listed as ‘Mercenary’ Regiments under the employment of Confederate Oil Sands Inc. or COS. Commonwealth Petro hired units to protect there interests, many of those men and equipment formerly Delesian Armed Forces.

It was the fuel for the much larger events to come, but no one knew that at the time, all they could think about was how much this would affect the price of oil?

***

Bruce Howe sat atop his tank, his buttocks resting on top of the tank, his legs hanging down into the commander’s hole. The M60A3 main battle tank sat in the middle of the street, a small car crushed partially by the front treads, its engines silent. The tank had scene plenty of action before, and there were scars to show it, but those were past battles with previous owners.

Bruce held a pair of binoculars to his eyes, trying to scan down the road, but columns of heavy black smoke, combined with the fog made it difficult.

On the right side of the turret, a large scrape indicated an armour piercing round had just missed its target, and over that was a fresh coat of paint of the Commonwealth Petro logo, with the number 564 in white blocky letters beneath that.

Behind that tank sat another two M60s, each with the engines off. They sat in a loose triangle, all watching down street, each commander peering closely for that big surprise.

The sun cut through some parts of the clouds above, but only slivers made it through. The streets of Lithisis were a mess, with metal and cement thrown up and discarded everywhere. Then the slivers of light disappeared as a light rain begun to fall.

“Christ, they really think we can do our job in this weather? I can’t see dink.” grumbled Bruce softly.

“What was that chief?”

“Oh nothing, just bitching. Turn on the thermo and see if you can pick out anything thing through the smoke and fire.”

“Yes sir.” Tyler flicked a switch and the screen in front of the driver lit up, but revealed nothing. Fires that created the black smoke was too much for the cheap equipment. “Man I think my gramps fought in one of these.” he commented as he smacked the screen.

“Tyler! Ease up! We won’t get no replacement if you brake it! It’s better then nothing.”

“Sorry sir.” A jet roared above in the skies, but Bruce couldn’t see it through the fog and smoke, so he weren’t sure it was a boogie or buddy, but it didn’t matter either way; they probably couldn’t see them anyways.

Them a crack of gun fire was heard in the distance, the distinctive pop of the AK, then a short burst from a FN FAL in retaliation. The AK belonged to the COS and the FAL to the CP. It would be too dangerous to send a round down range, just for the hell of it, a CP merc might get in the way. But the AK cut back in and the FAL seized to return fire, either dead or running. Bloody typical thought Bruce. The CP forces were not putting up much of a fight. They would rather return back to base and be alive to receive their pay then to fight and win in a heavy firefight.

“Screw it! Load round!”

“Load round!” came the reply from inside. “Round Ready!” a few seconds later.

“Send it down straight!” the turret adjusted under Bruce’s buttocks and recoiled as the 120mm round shot from it’s casing out the smoothbore barrel. An explosion ripped in the distance, the damage unknown. But to Bruce’s surprise a shot was fired in retaliation, no where close, but a shot none the less. Then he saw it, the fog seemed to lift, and out of the smoke rumbled two T-80 Russian made COS tanks. The tank on the left fired and the round smacked into the front armour of the M60 on Bruce’s left. It burst into flames, the crew jumped out, burning, trying to put the flame out in the puddles. But they just burnt. Bruce didn’t watch all of it, he was already barking orders.

“CHRIST! Back her up!” the M60 roared to life and begun the slow reverse in panic, managing to slam into the disabled M60.The new D4 Industries diesel engines managed to produce more power and send the M60 tank down the road at 55 mph on a good day, but none the less it was better then the original 30. Tyler cranked it into forward gears, beginning a tank on tank game of chicken, closing the distance quickly, but pulling into the street to the right. The treads ripping the ground, a T80 shell just missing the tank, rather hitting the building. Bruce was already down the hatch, trying to find the map of the city and a way out of the current problem. One M60 gone, crew unknown, and the other running still in reverse the last time he looked back.

Tyler took the M60 through several alley’s and streets till they ended up parked in a parkade downtown, on the wrong side of the line. The M60 could hold 63 rounds, but Bruce was only allowed 40 per patrol, now he had 39. The shit had hit the fan.

HMS Endymion
170 km East of the Virgin Isles

Commodore Vincent Grey threw a furtive glance at the charts laid out carefully upon the desk in his stateroom. It was quite clear, even to the layman, that the growing unease between the upstart Confederacy and the Commonwealth imperiled the United Kingdom. Between the two island groups lay the far smaller archipelago dominated by the islands of Axcliffe and Invercardon. They belonged to neither the Confederacy nor the Commonwealth. They were sovereign Oceanian territory.

Historically, the United Kingdom had defended and protected the Commonwealth, especially during its formative years. However, with a large percentage of the expeditionary forces supporting NATO operations in Haven the Royal Navy could deploy precious few capital ships and their escorts to Axcliffe--and that would only officially be when Prime Minister Geddie requested Oceanian assistance per the nations' mutual defence treaties. Until that time, however, Grey knew that his frigate squadron was not to expect reinforcements.

Grey was commander of the 9th Frigate Squadron, based at HMNB Invercardon, several hundred kilometres to the south, and largely responsible for securing trade between the Commonwealth's eastern ports and the Oceanian colonies. As it was much of the goods bought and used in Axcliffe and Invercardon came from factories and warehouses in Delesa. But now, perhaps more importantly, strategic supplies such as fuel often came from refineries in Delesa, which was far closer than the refineries of the Home Islands and Sarnia.

Currently, among his frigate were two others and three corvettes. Six total warships patrolling outside the eastern maritime boundaries of Delesa. While not without reinforcements, three more frigates, corvettes and even cruisers were tasked to the station, there was a noticeable lack of air support. While radar-equipped helicopters and drones were providing long-range surveillance, he could not call upon an interceptor squadron of the Fleet Air Arm, only his own surface-to-air missiles.

And so he kept abreast of his squadron and its disposition, even while off duty. However, amidst studying the local theatre assets of the Commonwealth, a shrill chirp emanated from the phone in his cabin. "This is Grey," he answered.

"Commodore, you might wish to come to Operations. Aerial drones have detected an unidentified formation to our west southwest."

"I shall be there shortly."

85 kilometres from the Endymion and her sister frigates, a Sea Sprite reconnaissance drone patrolled in a racetrack circuit, her small active electrically-scanned array detecting the same ten contacts as picked up by the Virgin Isles station. As Grey reached Operations, he ordered the drone further southwest, and the datalink dispatched the new orders. Soon after, the Sea Sprite altered its course, bringing the small low-observable drone ever closer to the unknown formation.

Aboard the UK frigate, Grey looked at the plot table. "Maintain EMCON Condition C, passive detection only, rely on the drones and AEW helicopters for now, Captain," he ordered, addressing the captain of the Endymion. While not a stealth ship per se, the Endymion was of a low-RCS design. However, with his ship were the stealth frigates Diamond and Defence. The attached corvettes, all of Type 5 design, were not as stealthy, optimised instead as cheap patrol ships, but their smaller size would make them more difficult to detect.

Like the Delesian controllers, the captain of the Endymion was familiar with the shipping traffic patterns. "Commodore," he added privately to Grey, "I should like to take the opportunity while the drone is en route to say that having been out here many times in the past, the vector and disposition of this formation is indeed a departure from the usual."

"Are you saying this a Confed formation, Captain?" Grey looked up from the table to look the officer square in the eyes, asking the question on the minds of all the officers and ratings in Operations.

"I would say, sir, that at best this is an offbeat civilian formation, probably grouped in a convoy formation for their own security, but, at worst it could be just that, a formation of ships from the Confederacy."

Grey nodded. He tended to agree with the captain, tensions had been rising over the past several months and he had no doubt that the irreconcilable differences, as evidenced by recent rhetoric, would only likely be resolved through armed conflict. His only hope was that it would come after the NATO war in Haven so the Royal Navy could deploy more assets to the theatre.

"Captain," Grey said, stiffening his tone. "Bring the formation to battle stations and task anti-ship missiles to the unknowns. Bring the reserve drones and choppers to Deck Alert status and dispatch the ASW choppers from the corvettes and have them redouble their efforts to secure zones from our south to our west."

"Yes, sir."

Throughout the small UK formation, crews prepared themselves for defensive actions while tactical officers uploaded tentative target data about the unknown ships into the onboard computers of the formation's anti-ship cruise missiles. Sea Sprite drones, and Cormorant and Sea Falcon helicopters were moved to flight decks and made ready for launch at a moment's notice. On the corvettes, however, Sea Falcons took into the skies, equipped with torpedoes and asdic-buoys to identify and then prosecute any submerged contacts.

A large house, much like a mansion sat atop a cliff overlooking the north islands in the Virgin Isles, near the city of Acton. Admiral Jesse Hasborn was sitting at his desk with a cup of tea on top several papers from various people including the High Admiralty, but he had more important things to do then read these messages, like read the morning paper, while relaxing and drinking his hot tea. But as he lifted his cup, one of the phones on his desk rang, and the fax machine behind him begun to spit out paper. He picked up the phone and spun the chair around to begin looking at the paper.

“Admiral Hasborn speaking, who is this? I’m very busy at the moment.”

“Sir, Commander Arnold Prate of the Virgin Seas Command. We have a problem; it just came through from an outpost on the edge. We are not sure what it is right now.”

“Well then why would you be bringing it to my attention.” as the Admiral spoke he noticed that the fax machine was spitting out pictures, satellite pictures.

“Sir, we think it’s a bit odd and we need a high ranking opinion.”

“Fine, I think it’s a group of tankers traveling together for protection against any confederate pigs who might attack.”

“Sir, with all respect, I’ll sure that any captain in their right mind knows not to travel together especially if these are just tankers, none of them should have sophisticated military sonar equipment anyways to protect them, according to the laws set down by the Commonwealth.”

“Well if it will make you happy and if you promise not to call me again until something real happens, send out some escorts, break the pack up.” The photos revealed several large tankers, oil and cargo, traveling in a tight pack.

”Yes sir, of course, sorry to bother your busy schedule.” the Commander hung up the phone, and smiled. The men around him begun to smile and nod in anticipation. Finally the Commander nodded and said, “Let’s do it.”


Tanker Fleet, Virgin Sea

The tankers crept at a slow speed, one might think because of the sheer size of the beats, but rather to properly mask the sound of engine and prop noises from the silent killers below the waves.

Three Akula class submarines sailed under the hulls of the tanker above. They had been purchased from contacts other then the Russians, and the supplies had maintained and rebuilt many components of the submarine, making it safer for the crew to operate, and deadly to those unlucky souls caught in the sights. The Confederate had also managed to equip a few extra surprises.

The crew had also been trained to work efficiently and deadly, and had been put through the most intense training that could be offered. The crews had already begun to sail and train even before the Confederate separation was official and had several months of training under their belt, and even a kill for one captain, the leader of the group.

They had been tasked to disrupt supply lines and routes in the Commonwealth. Plain and simple, and yet the orders also said that the submarines could not be caught, under no circumstances. Even going to the lengths to state that should the need arise, the captain of any of the vessel’s to self-destruct and destroy the crew and vessel at the threat of being captured by and force under the Commonwealth, including her allies.

Forces like this one had been dispatched to all the Commonwealth’s colonies, and the plan to send them to allied ports was in the planning stages. The Confederate state was not capable to maintain an open war with the Commonwealth, at least not yet, and it was made clear to the officers of the vessels. Either they would return home safe, or die fighting.


ooc: forgive the quality, i just wanted to get something up before my flight tomorrow

The RDAF was an ageing fleet mostly comprised of F-22 Raptors and F-18 Super Hornets. The government had mostly left the fleet to fend for itself, giving all the attention and extra funding to the more respected forces like the Navy and Army, each of which had it’s own branch of Air Force. Although one ball the RDAF had was its control over the space program.

And only this tear did the government open its doors to its first Royal Air Force University, with the help of various nations from the home region. The pilots went under intense training from several Air Forces around the globe, and had molded one of their own out of the fire.

To say the least, the many pilots how did the training in several nations are some of the most capable pilots available in the entire Royal Armed Forces. So the skill partially made up for the lack of proper equipment, but like all military forces around the world, not everyone is gold.

D4 Industries, the largest supplier of arms and vehicles to the Royal Armed Forces and its branches has yet to make a single design for the Air Force. The CEO, being a member of the Cabinet of Ministers, sets the pace for the company with the government like any good CEO, which is in the other direction of aviation.

Meanwhile several thousand kilometers south in the Confederacy, the Air Force was held in a much higher position of power with in the military, and has in its arsenal the meanest and best equipment money could buy. Where the problem is coming from is the lack of pilots and experience from the officers. The Confederate Air Force outnumbers its counterpart almost 5-1, not to mention the much adequate arms available to the Confederacy.

A man once said “(A) War can not and will not be won in the air alone.” That man was Commander of the Commonwealth Armed Forces, General Martin Locke back when the British introduced the Gloster Meteor Jet Fighter to the world. That was during the Kreatvye war, and that was the point that the RDAF took its long and painful fall, after a short-lived fame during the first 5 years of the war.

***

The tarmac was hot, very hot. The sun beat down on the airstrip like there was no tomorrow, and the pilots who had to bare the heat were wishing there was no tomorrow. The air force was located just a couple of clicks out of Bayton on the north end of the island. The strip was loaded at one end with hundreds of MiG-29s and their various variations, only half got a sanctuary in cement bunkers. Construction was behind for the bunkers and the MiGs just kept coming from the new aerospace factory in Bayton. Pilots attempted to seek cover from the sun under the wings of their aircraft. Maintenance crews hogged the space in the bunkers, claiming they needed the room to work on the aircraft, which was no lie; there was no space to be spared. The only refuge from the heat was to be on patrol or training, something not everyone had the luxury to have, the price for the government to have all the aircraft flaying at the same time was just too much for the President to image, just cause the pilots wanted out of the heat.

The MiGs were equipped with Pigeon air to air missile, developed by the brilliant minds in State Research and Development for the Confederate Military, Air Force Division, with just minds as Greg Hayward, a genius that would have been employed by D4 Industries if it hadn’t been for the cut backs in the aerospace sector.

The Pigeon was no simple light bird of a missile, actually quite opposite, hence the irony of the name. It was much like the Sidewinder, apart from the Mach 3.3 speed and 24 km range. They do of course carry the same deadly payload of 20.8 lbs of annular blast-frag, making them superior to the AIM-9 Sidewinder preferred by the Commonwealth.

The Confederacy even had the pleasure to acquire the rights to produce several hundred MiG-35s for tests in combat situations, the newest aircraft of the series.

“Bloody hell it’s hot out, when the hell is my patrol?” barked Lt. Adam Becker of the 153rd Fighting Irish.

“I donno, don’t you ever do anything for yourself?” came the reply from under a ball cap.

“I shoot my own royals.” Royals being the nickname for the soldier’s sailors and airmen of the Commonwealth.

“Yeah right, I be you’ll piss yourself when you see your first royal. Then someone like the Major is gunna have to bail you out.” The surrounding pilots begun to laugh, and Adam got up in a furry, rushing towards the pilot with the ball cap, who in return anticipated the move and was already at his feet, ready to throw the first punch. The other pilots and crew members got up and held the two men back as harsh words were exchanged.

“Hey brats! Smarten up you baboons, save the fight for the royals instead of each other.” A group of airmen parted and the Major stepped through.

“Yeah and when’s that ever going to be?” someone shouted out. The Major whipped around eyeing the crowd. And said softly

“Sooner then you think.”

[ooc:joint post by myself and Delesa]

"Mr. Prime Minister," Rodney Ingrahm's secretary called into his office, through the speaker on his desk, "a phone call from Prime Minister Geddie."

Ingrahm looked up from the latest reports coming into his office from Haven and waved his hand to dismiss from his office all but his Foreign Secretary, Gavin Astley. The two exchanged a quick glance, despite the NATO-Questarian Commonwealth war, the two had not expected a call from the Delesian Prime Minister. As far as the two knew, and as far as the Royal Intelligence Service knew, all was relatively well in Delesa.

The two nations were extraordinarily close, given their shared history in the middle of the 20th century. Since then, the Oceanian colony had thrived as a source of capital and investment in Delesa, who prospered from the jobs and industries. A highly symbiotic relationship that was also highly profitable.

Ingrahm then picked up the telephone, putting it on speakerphone. "Good afternoon, Lester, I must confess, I did not expect to hear from you until closer to my visit to St. Myrhe later this year. How are you?"

"Well Rodney, we got ourselves in a little bit of a bind on our end, something that probably should be brought to the attention of our closest ally. If you haven't heard the news yet, the Commonwealth has a break-away nation of sorts. A Revolution so to say. The Confederacy of Southern Delesa."

Both men in Georgetown exchanged a grimace; instability in Delesa could negatively impact Oceanian security in Axcliffe. And with UK forces deployed abroad in Haven in support of NATO operations, there were precious few resources that could be massed against this Confederacy of Southern Delesa. In the past, the United Kingdom had leveraged its sheer size to help safeguard Delesa, but with Haven drawing considerable resources, such was the case no longer.

"Indeed, I appreciate your forthwith call. It goes without saying that this revolution puts Axcliffe in a dangerous situation, while this Confederacy would be daft to directly engage us, Delesa is, in many respects, the lifeline between our colony and the Home Islands. They could conceivably imperil Axcliffe, Lester, and even though we are heavily engaged in Haven, I cannot allow that to happen."

"Whilst I would prefer a diplomatic solution to this problem, it is your problem and your call in how best to resolve it. We will support you, however, should this revolution require a military solution, our operations in Haven preclude me from deploying the massive numbers of soldiers, ships, and airpersons that the UK has traditionally deployed to secure Delesa."

“Rodney, you of all people should know that spilling my countrymen’s blood is one of the last things I want to do. Many of those people of Southern Delesa are from the commonwealth, some emigrates from other nations, but none the less, blood on my hands is the last thing I need. I came to power in office with the promise to rebuild the nation from the Kreatvye war, and I don’t want to be the one to destroy what I built.”

“But if Grant is going to use force, then he must be out down like a stray dog. He was weapons that threaten the innocent people of the Commonwealth, weapons that were in the process of being decommissioned, including several tactical nukes. The bloody pig made one hell of a mess in the records and papers in a way to acquire them with out us even knowing. He made the United Commonwealth look like fools, and he will have to pay.”

“Not to mention stealing from our treasury. There are some serious fines he needs to pay, and I won’t let him get away with it. It blood must be spilt, rest assure it will be his. “

“Now on a much lighter note, although not much,” Lester chuckled, “I just would like to know if you will require the Royal Commonwealth Forces to just patrol the Axcliffe waters and sky’s. Also I’m willing to supply a regiment or two until sufficient UK forces arrive. Also, I’m not aware of your supply depots in Axcliffe, but many of the weapons needed to arm and supply to war time status for the Royal Commonwealth Navy are in-land, in large stores. I was wondering if possible if some of the Commonwealth vessels would be able to re-supply there. And possibly some ships to dock and use those bases as a temporary operation HQ, as you are much aware you are much closer to the Confederacy then we are.”

Both Ingrahm and Astley exchanged a nervous glance at the admission that the Commonwealth had lost several nuclear weapons. Twice in Oceanian history had nuclear weapons been used against cities, both men knowing full well even the damage a tactical nuclear weapon could wreak upon the smaller colonial settlements in Axcliffe.

Listening to Geddie, the Oceanian Prime Minister could not help but empathise; for while he had come to office to restore Oceanian foreign policy, the United Kingdom was now involved in a major war likely to cost tens of thousands of lives. If Grant had taken the nuclear weapons as Geddie claimed, and Ingrahm had no reason to doubt his counterpart, then they were likely to be used as a deterrent. Grant and the Confederacy appeared to have no desire for negotiation or reconciliation. They were willing to defend their independence with nuclear arms.

"Indeed," Ingrahm replied, his voice now noticeably heavier with the revelation of nuclear weapons falling into Grant's arms. There was a momentary pause, dead air upon the line while Ingrahm continued to think, ideas and realisations crackling in synapses all throughout his brain. "Unfortunately, I do not recall the entirety of the defence infrastructure for Axcliffe. I admit, Lester, your call and these developments have taken me and my government by surprise. Regardless, I think it safe to say that the Royal Commonwealth Navy will be welcome at Oceanian naval bases, and that included forming a joint operations command centre in Axcliffe."

"As for your offer about augmenting UK forces stationed in Axcliffe, there are several reasons why I need to officially decline your offer; given the current war and the political reality here in Georgetown, I do hope you understand. However, I and my government would present no objection to Delesian patrols just outside of our waters and airspace." Ingrahm received a supportive nod from his Foreign Secretary, who was equally keen on quashing any perception that the United Kingdom was so over-stretched as to be unable to defend her overseas empire.

"But, as I said, Lester, I am not fully briefed upon the disposition of our forces in Axcliffe; but, as soon as we finish here I will contact the Defence Secretary and the First Lord, who will make necessary arrangements with your defence ministers. I imagine there will be concerns about the armaments and munitions that are swappable between our forces, but the work of yourself and my predecessor to better harmonise our defence relations will likely alleviate my current concerns."

"Is there anything else that you would need before we part ways?"

The response from the UK Prime Minister was as much as Lester had thought he would have got. Times were difficult for everyone, and the Delesian was no larger then any other disturbance in the world. Delesian Prime Minister Geddie was confident that Grant and the Confederacy wouldn't use the nukes, but when was a war ever won with confidence?

The Prime Minister took a sip from the glass of whiskey from his desk. "I think thats all for the time being, thanks for the time. Looking forward to talking later Rodney."

"Godspeed, Lester," Ingrahm responded, quietly replacing the phone upon the receiver and ending the call. Looking up at Astley, he shook his head, his lips clenched and eyes coldly fixed on a distant point beyond the walls of his office. For his part, Astley knew the look, and knew to remain silent.

"How the bloody hell did they get their hands on nuclear warheads?" Ingrahm fumed. Officially, the Commonwealth neither owned nor operated nuclear weapons. Unofficially, it was well known in Georgetown that the Commonwealth had several, but also that they were set to be decommissioned. And yet somehow, the Confederates managed to breach what should have been the highest level of Delesian security.

"Sir, I imagine that with enough money one can buy access to just about anything," Astley offered. If Grant had indeed stolen from the Delesian Treasury, and Geddie had failed to specify exactly how much was missing, it was conceivable that security officials were now living quite comfortably, albeit under the pall of nuclear war.

"What sort of diplomatic options do we have, Gavin?"

"Not much, sir. The best we can attempt is to isolate the Confederacy, prevent them from receiving additional shipments of weapons or other means of defending themselves."

Ingrahm nodded, the unspoken assumption made quite clear. Picking up his phone he spoke quickly to his secretary, wishing to have a video conference with both the First Lord and the Defence Secretary immediately. As soon as he hung up, phones began to ring in the Admiralty and the Ministry of Defence.

Several minutes later, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary walked out of the office and down the hall to a secure conference room, better equipped for video conferences. Three giant screens blinked into life, and upon the first a map of Delesa with insets for Axcliffe and the Confederacy at the bottom right and left, respectively.

The Prime Minister studied the map closely, to the right the First Lord appearing and then on the left the Defence Secretary. "Good day, gentlemen," he began quickly, "while we are still to meet this evening for a briefing on the day's events in Haven, we have a new situation with which to deal. Both of you can probably see Axcliffe and Delesa on your secondary screens, no?"

"Indeed," First Lord Radovan Noskovic replied, his counterpart, Sir Quentin Sterling quickly adding an affirmative.

"Gavin and I just ended a conversation with the Delesian Prime Minister who informed us that at this moment, the Commonwealth of Delesa is facing down a separatist island group that had acquired nuclear weapons." He watched to notice the reaction from his senior civilian defence officials; there was none. "Additionally, the rhetoric of this Confederacy of Southern Delesa and their leader Grant indicates a willingness to defend their unilaterally declared independence at all costs."

Astley pushed a button on the keyboard before him, and the maps faded into a different one, each island group smaller, but now all in correct geographic location with respect to the other.

"As you can see," Ingrahm continued, "Axcliffe lay between the two archipelagos. In my conversation with Prime Minister Geddie, I received no indication either directly or indirectly that the crisis is likely to be resolved peacefully. By treaty we are obliged to defend Delesa gentlemen, and both Prime Minister Geddie and this Grant fellow know this. From this moment on, consider Axcliffe to be under immediate military threat. Now, what I need to know is the disposition of our forces, Radovan?"

The Novikovian First Lord pursed his lips. "Sir, the Axcliffe defence forces are highly-trained and well-equipped. However," he added, letting the larger shoe drop, "we have few forces in theatre. Three cruisers, six frigates and six corvettes, I believe 18 destroyers and nearly two dozen sloops and offshore patrol vehicles. We also have three diesel-electric patrol submarines. Aside from a naval air squadron for maritime search and rescue there are no Fleet Air Arm assets and outside of garrison personnel, no Royal Marines in theatre."

Sterling then added his review, without prompt. "Sir, the Royal Axcliffe Lancers are the primary ground force in the islands, and they are an armoured reconnaissance unit equipped with light vehicles and designed for mobility. They are backed by two Royal Artillery air defence regiments and several batteries equipped with anti-ship missiles and large calibre guns. The RAF has three squadrons in the colony, one interceptor squadron, one attack squadron and one for support. In all, sir, our defences are appropriate as a tripwire force. But, with respect, we now can expect the wire to be tripped and I recommend moving forces into Axcliffe sooner rather than later."

"Very well, gentlemen, consult with your service chiefs and get in touch with the officers in command in Axcliffe. Find out what they need, what they want, and what, with all our other requirements, they can expect to receive. Additionally, inform the commanders and your service chiefs that Delesian officers are to be arriving at our bases to establish joint operation command centres and to receive stores and supplies. For now, I have declined an offer of defence assistance brought to me by Mr. Geddie--there are political concerns about admitting a poor defence position and I would rather us begin a rapid buildup of UK forces in Axcliffe before accepting Delesians. Are we understood, gentlemen?" Ingrahm watched the two men nod and then offer their final goodbyes before the feeds went dead. Ingrahm then turned to Astley, "let us hope that this Grant fellow opts not to be a madman and use his new-found warheads."

Seattle(Capital City) - Southern Confederacy

President Robert L. Grant was sitting in his large leather chair facing the windows of the President’s office with his desk behind him. In the chairs in front of the desk sat Ney Kara, Carrol Fuhrer (wife of Robert), Sarah Stroh and her husband, now General Morton Stroh. These people in this room were the leaders of the Confederacy, three of which were related to those first Separatist leaders. Each had a large company or firm behind them, large sums of money that went from personal advancement into the Confederacy.

“Robert, I think we have achieved our primary goal of leaving the Commonwealth, and our sources say they don’t have any intentions of starting a war. We are wasting the much needed money on defense when it should be spent on our infrastructure.” Ney said has he pulled several sheets of his brief case and put them on the desk.

“Oh is that what you think? You think the Commonwealth is just going to sit beck, when we stole from their treasury and taken several weapons of mass destruction? Not to mention the means to create biological weapons.”

“Well… I still think we should cut back on military spending, and try to solve this diplomatically.”

“Really?” Grant half yelled as he turned the chair around. “That’s what you think?” In his hand was a Berretta M92F pistol. “Then you try and talk me out of shooting your loud mouth!”

Everyone jumped up and backwards. “Robert! What are you doing? Put the gun down!” cried Carrol.

“You can’t shoot me, or any of us you arrogant ass! We were the ones who put you where you are now, in the chair of power! In control of the Confederacy! You shoot me or any of us, the Confederacy falls.”

Robert squeezed off a round into Ney’s chest, not killing him. Ney looked down at the wound, and touched the hole and blood wit his right hand. The white dress shirt stained red. “Jesus he actually shot me.” Ney mumbled.

“That isn’t going to work with the Commonwealth Ney.” And fired a second shot into the heart. Ney stood for another second then fell to his knees then fell flat, his blood already starting to form a pool.

“Grant! What on god’s green earth are you doing?” yelled General Morton. Grant fired a shot at Morton, hitting his hand. He yelped in pain.

“I’m protecting the Confederacy from chicken shits like him.” Waving the pistol to Ney’s limp body.

“Your sick Grant just sick!” Morton, using his other hand, started to pull the pistol out of its holster, but Grant fired a shot into his shooting arm, making him drop the gun.
“This is your last chance. Either you guys are with me or against. Make the choice now, before my finger slips.”

“We are… with you Robert.” Sarah said softly.

“Good choice.” And with that put the pistol into a drawer in the desk.


Confederate National News

Seattle – Earlier this morning Minister Ney Kara was killed in the office of the President, and General Morton Stroh was wounded with two bullet wounds. These tragic events were caused by an assassination attempt on the President. The President claimed there were two assassins, both who were killed by General Morton and himself. Minister Kara was killed when he sacrificed his life for the protection of the Presidents when he threw himself in front of the bullets aimed for our leader. The National Intelligence Agency claimed that the killers came from the Commonwealth, in an attempt to create disorder and chaos in your nation, making it easier to attack. General Stroh was rushed to the Seattle Hospital, where he is currently in stable condition. The President spoke after the attack, and claimed a State of Emergency, giving him total control of or nation. He said there was nothing to we worried about, and the threat of a Commonwealth attack is minimal as he is going to ensure that Minister Ney’s life will be revenged.

Read more, see pg A3.

Unaware of the true extent of the developing situation Captain Mikhail Niketski sat back comfortably within the Captain’s chair onboard the bridge of his vessel, the KIN Tiger Shark, content to watch the horizon through the ship’s darkened bridge screen. Had he known just how dangerous the situation was becoming, he’d likely have been a bit more concerned, but as they say, ignorance is bliss, sometimes that’s true. However since the seas were calm and the sun was shining, it seemed an ideal day for a casual sail through the ocean.

The two hundred meter long ship barely rose and fell with the almost non-existent waves as it made it’s way at a casual twenty-five knots, they were in no particular hurry to get where they were going just yet. For a short time the KIN Tiger Shark had been unique in the Kilrany Imperial Navy, this was no longer the case however as several ships of her class had been built since it’s initial commission, case in point her sister ship, the KIN Creala, which traveled with her a mere kilometer away, truth be told their concept was not unique within the world either.

The Tiger Shark class was the Kilrany Empire’s attempt at a working blue water stealth warship, given the classification within the Navy as a Stealth Guided Missile Destroyer, it was a specialized vessel that had its limitations, but they Kilrany naval staff believed that if used correctly it could potentially be devastating. However that was true of most everything in war, and it sadly never always came true.

Those familiar with the design requirements inherent in stealth technology would likely look upon the ship with approval, the blocky, angular superstructure that had been the norm on naval ships was gone, instead, just aft of the midships line, there was a single, low, slope-sided deckhouse, like the flattened sail of a nuclear submarine. Inset in the curve of its upper forward facing was the darkened transparent strip of the bridge windscreen.

Gone, too, were the tripod masts, supplanting them was a freestanding mast array, a towering finlike structure similar to the vertically mounted swept wing of a jet airliner. Fared into the aft end of the deckhouse, its conformal radiating and receptor panels and "smart skin' segments replaced the old open-girder Christmas tree with its tangle of radar dishes and bedspring aerials.

Even the usual deck fittings either retracted into or were fared into the hull. A closer examination would have revealed that there were almost no absolutely flat surfaces or abrupt right angles joining anywhere above the waterline. All structural edges and corners had been carefully coved or rounded. Even the weather decks had a very slight turtleback to them.

This had little to do with streamlining in the conventional sense and everything to do with electromagnetic propagation. Her radical hull design eliminated all of the clean reflective surfaces and "wave traps" that could return a clear radar echo. That hull was also sheathed in the latest generation of RAM and contained almost a quarter of a billion dollars' worth of the most sophisticated electronics countermeasures technology available to the Kilrany Imperial Arms Manufacturing, the state owned corporation responsible for all military production, research and design in the Kilrany Empire.

Her stealth capabilities extended into the visual spectrum as well, obviously incapable of actually rendering the ship invisible, a duller, lower-visibility grey paint scheme was used that also included the use of outline "phantom" lettering for her name and identity numbers. In addition, wavering sooty bands of a darker shade striped her sides from railing to waterline, vertically down the length of her hull and horizontally up the height of the mast array. Recognizable as a modern form of "Dazzle" camouflage, the overall effect was strikingly similar to the markings of a tiger shark, the namesake of the ship’s class. They served much the same purpose, breaking up the ship’s silhouette and rendering her harder to see and identify under adverse weather and lighting conditions.

In keeping with the requirements of reducing the ship’s radar cross section she had only two obvious weapon mounts, the single-mount gun turrets were located just forward of the deckhouse and the other aft on the well deck. To supplement the ships of the class, two KIAM-52 SeaWolf class multipurpose naval helicopters were contained within its enclosed hangars, specially designed to work in tandem with the Tiger Shark, these helicopters were similarly outfitted with the latest stealth technology. Though due to the nature of helicopters, they were not as stealthy as the Kilrany naval staff would have liked in comparison to the ship itself, in the end though, they were deemed better then the alternatives available.

Neither of the two Kilrany vessels ran with any of their stealth technology enabled, seeing no point to try and hide just yet, or give away the full extent of their ship’s secrets, choosing instead to let themselves be easily seen for the time being due to the official word that they were merely on exercises, though they doubted that cover would hold up long. To aid in that effort, both ships ran with their blip enhancers active, set to give off a false return of a ship comparable in size to that of the Tiger Sharks.

They weren’t completely alone however, beneath the waves three Kilrany submarines moved through the water, proceeding them to their target area, two Akula II attack submarines some twelve hours ahead of them along with a single KIAM Type 18 ‘Serpent’ class roughly eight hours ahead. Though they were all still a considerable distance from either the Delesa Commonwealth or Confederacy, a good forty-eight hours away. All five vessels ran with only passive sonar, supplementing the destroyers however were their helicopters, one of which was kept in the air at all times to increase the area around the ships being monitored, though no state of war existed for the Kilrany Empire at this time.

Niketski was filled with a sort of nervous excitement at the prospect of taking his ship into action, it had still been undergoing its final shakedown cruise when the five day war broke out between Valnari and Khurzav, which led to the invasion of the Khurzav Kingdom by the Kilrany Empire and in turn had led to the current relations with the Delesian Commonwealth, whose forces were aiding those of the Kilrany in bringing peace and stability to the now annexed Khurzav nation.

-----

These ships however were not to be the only ones involved, back home a larger force was being prepared, though because the Kilrany Empire did not operate its fleet far from home often, it would take time to recall all their crews, Naval Infantry and assemble a logistics fleet for a potentially long duration mission. This however all depended on whether or not the Delesian Commonwealth even wanted the aid of the Kilrany Empire, to that end a courier had been dispatched to hand deliver a message to the Delesian Prime Minister.

Security concerns by the often paranoid Kilrany dictated that the courier bring the sealed envelope directly to the Delesian Prime Minister, await his reply, and return with his response. A pair of Internal Security Ministry officers from their Close Protection Unit would escort him to and from Delesa to help ensure the safety of the message, though they all realized that the escorts would likely have to wait outside somewhere while the courier delivered the message.

Enclosed in the sealed envelope was the following:

To: Prime Minister Lester Geddie

Greetings to you, it has come to our attention that you are experiencing difficulties with what appears to be a break away province. Though I have to admit we are not entirely informed on the full extent of the situation, as a nation we see as a valued friend, Emperor Sviatov wishes to extend to you an offer of our assistance

To that end, a small task force has been dispatched to take up station not far from your waters, though they are only to be the tip of the spear should you accept our offer of aid, if so we are prepared to send a larger taskforce.

We await your reply.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin

Lithisis, Haven

The M60 tank was parked in a parkade car park, or parking structure as it is known in different place. It sat in between a Dodge Caravan and Ford 350, and the occasional people didn't look twice knowing full well a second glance might be rewarded with a bullet. Not that the tank was out in the open but rather a few storeys up, hidden from the average person, if you could find one in the city.

The crew sat or stood around the tank, some looking over the edgr to the ground below, ducking at the sight of enemy troops or helicopters. Bruce had a smoke in his hand, it was lit but he didn't bother to put it in his mouth. Instead he thought of the world outside this hell hole, his home back in Delesa, his wife and 3 year old daughter. Bruce dropped the smoke and looked up at the bored crew.

"Alright girls, lets go home." he stomped the smoke out.

"You mean go out there?" asked Rory Eichler, the radio operator.

"Shut your sarcastic ass of a mouth up and get in the tank!"

"Whats the use, I mean my bloody radio is shoot to bits, you might as well strap me to the front of the tank and paint me red." he remarked as he clamored through the port hole.

"I said shut it. If you ain't careful, I just might do that. Alright Tyler, turn the beast over." Tyler turned on the engine with out a hitch, and it roared to life as he gave it a little gas. "Once more unto the breach." with that the tank lurched forward down towards the ground level.

***
Kilrany Foreign Affairs Minister Pavel Kasatikin & Honorable Emperor Sviatov;

We are very happy here in the Commonwealth to hear your offer of assistance at our time of crisis. This new nation which poses a threat to the integrity and sovereignty of our United Commonwealth is a force to be reckoned with.

At this time though, the Confederate South has not made an attempt to attack our soil, and with that we are not inclined to begin a full scale war.

Your forces are much appreciated, but not required to be sent at this time. Although after some talks with our General in your threater of operations, and our Chief General, it might be recommended that your forces, or some continue its movement to available bases within the United Commonwealth to get aquainted with our commanders and begin plans for a counter-offensive, but more important a defensive strategy.

It is great to hear that anothernation is ready to come to the aid of the Commonwealth, and we hear wish you good heath.

Signed;

Lester Geddie, Commwealth PM

King George III, Ruling Monarch of the Commonwealth

Minister Kasatikin took the envelope from the courier and dismissed the man with a wave of his hand, it wasn’t anything new for the courier and he simple gave a nod of his head and left the Minister’s office, leaving to open and read the reply from the Delesian leader. Given the distance required to travel it had taken almost twenty hours for the courier to return from Delesa.

After the courier left his office and he was left alone, Pavel took a few minutes to carefully read the message, 5th Division was still putting together a detailed intelligence report on both ‘nations’ from what information they could acquire, so he was doubly interested in the wording used in the message. However he saw little that wasn’t quite clearly stated, they obviously considered this Confederacy a significant threat, but what was potentially the most troubling was their emphasis on defensive strategies. They already figured that the Confederacy had a strong enough military force to defend themselves, otherwise the Commonwealth could have just rolled over them and took the island, at least as the Kilrany saw it, but if the larger Commonwealth was more concerned about being able to defend themselves from this Confederacy, it implied to him that the new nation’s military was far more threatening then they had initially thought.

Oblivious to the knowledge of nuclear weapons in the possession of the Confederacy, Pavel leaned back in his chair, considering the results of a large-scale conventional war, should it come down to it, and the effects it would have on the Kilrany Empire, more importantly. Citizens were still concerned over their own government’s involvement in the FLRJ civil war that had taken place a mere five hundred kilometers from their coast, though more so due to the unexpected withdrawal of Kilrany forces rather then the fact they had been involved in the fighting. Given the current state of mind of the general population, if they got involved in this war, they wouldn’t be able to simply pull out again, even if they had good reasons, the population just wouldn’t stand to see their soldiers ‘cut and run’ from a fight, even if that’s not exactly what happened, they would have to go for broke if they declared war on the Confederacy in support of the Commonwealth.

-----

Despite the message from the Delesian leader, little changed in the preparations being made by the Navy besides the pace, Third Fleet was still being prepared for a long duration mission, it would merely depart in two days, rather then one. Officially their mission would be the same as the much smaller task force already much closer to Delesa.

However the orders of the forward task force were changed slightly, they would keep a much larger distance from the Delesian coast then originally planned, now they were to keep station a good one hundred kilometers away from the nearest Delesian coast. This was deemed by the naval staff to be far enough away for the small force not to raise suspicion or cause any problems, yet close enough to get involved quickly should the situation deteriorate, at least that was the belief.

Lithisis, Haven

03:21 am
"The city, she is lost! Retreat! Save yourselves!” screamed many of the soldiers of the Commonwealth Petro army. Their camp was a mess, the tents ablaze, dead bodies thrown across the camp, blood pooling in the tracks on the ground from the tanks and other vehicles made just days before. Many of those vehicles now sat on fire, burning from the result of a surprise assault from the Confederate Oil Sands army. Low in the sky A-10 Thunderbolts roared, letting loose their 30 mm Armour-Piercing Incendiary rounds on the poor soles of the Petro army. Flesh was torn from the bone, the bodies thrown from the force a good several meters. The men who survived the rage from above run from on barrack to the other, avoiding the concentrated fire from the tanks and soldiers of the Oil Sands army, just outside the base gates.

Corporal Stan McAvoy, formerly of 501st Legion of the Commonwealth Armed Forces now a mercenary for the Black Knight Mercenaries Corp, picked his G36 up, using it to get himself off the ground. A high explosive a round from a T80 tank had blown up what was once his barrack tent. He managed to get out just in the nick of time, but still caught the tail end of the blast. He smiled, and checked that the gun still worked while he remained on his knee in the open. He was completely oblivious to the mayhem going on around him. Then once he was satisfied with the condition of his weapon, he fired a few rounds towards the enemy before getting off his knee and walked over to a parked hummer. Along the way, a young private, from Stan’s squad was scrambling along the ground. Stan grabbed him by the scruff of his coat and dragged his through the blood soaked mud till he reached the hummer. He lifted his up and pushed him into the back seat. His sweat was mixing with the blood of another man and he began to cry for his mother. He was no soldier, and there was no way he had been a soldier from the Delesian Armed Forces, he was no soldier. He was probably from some small colony.

The corporal got into the drivers seat and slammed his foot down on the accelerator. The hummer roared its engine. Stan took the gear shifter in his right hand and pushed it into reverse. The truck jolted and flew backwards, Stan then putting it into first and drove down the road, trying to avoid hitting the fleeing soldiers.

A T80 tank then pulled out in front of him, blocking his retreat. He turned off to the right towards the fence and the city limits. The hummer smashed into the fence, throwing the passenger into the air. He maneuvered the hummer back onto the road as the T80 tied to fix a target on him, but his random driving proved to be too much and the tank focused back on the massacre in the camp.

There had been a fall back camp several clicks north that had been established in such a case that if something like tonight happened. Stan expected to find all the high officers just fine as if nothing happened. Probably because they had been there the whole night, drinking tea and eating bloody sandwiches, meanwhile the troops they command are getting slaughtered. Stan wasn’t retreating, but doing what he was ordered to do, live to fight another day.

***

St. Myhre, Delesa

06:11 am
General Gordan Brigman, commander of the Combined Commonwealth Armed Forces, is a close friend of the Prime Ministers. He walked into the PM’s office without knocking and removed his coat and peak cap. He then proceeded to the table by a window where the PM kept the visitor whisky and scotch away from his own stash in his desk.

Prime Minister Lester Geddie looked up from the papers on his desk, saw the General then looked back down.

“What brings you here Gordan at this hour?” The General brought over his glass, scotch on the rocks, and a glass of whisky for the PM full well knowing the PM’s stash in his desk.

“We’ve lost Haven. Or I should say Commonwealth Petro has. Their forces pulled out of Lithisis just hours ago.” Gordan now had the PM’s attention. Lester looked up from the papers and removed his thin wire reading glasses with his left had, placing them on the desk.

“What happened?”

“It’s sketchy at this time. Most of the mercenary army was caught off guard at their main camp. The officers were away for a late night meeting of sorts. The Confederacy attacked holding nothing back. They slaughter hundreds of men in their sleep with an air raid followed by a ground assault, supported with close air support. The airfield was bombarded by naval forces, destroying the runway. The attack helicopters able to get up were shot down by waiting MiGs. Much of that armies supplies and equipment was captured, including those tanks that didn’t make it out before the A10s arrived. Even along the road to the fall back base, the A10s harassed the column. There is no possibility of a counter attack. Not with out our help. They just don’t have the man power or supplies.” Gordan drank down his scotch. “Not to mention intelligence, which is really just several of the soldiers that made it out said that many of the tanks had Confederate army markings crudely painted over with Oil Sand logos. Not to mention the amount of man power it would have taken to take that base in one swoop. Last time I checked the Oil Sands didn’t have naval vessel’s capable of inland bombardment. I think I smell foul play Prime Minister. I think I smell Grant.”

“Smell? Gordan I see this man’s fingerprints all over this.”

***

Port Hustlings, Delesa

The port was relatively slow, which is extremely busy for other major ports around the world. Just over the horizon silhouettes of hundreds of ships could be made out. It could be seen these ships were painted with the dull grey of war ships. It could also been seen that they also had additional paint, blue jagged diagonal stripes. These were defiantly not Delesian ships. People all along the docks pull out binoculars or other seeing devices in an attempt to find out who the visitors were. There were no distinctive markings to tell where they came from, until someone yelled, “There Commonwealth! It’s Cesibian!” It was true, the wind changed direction, revealing the large flag on the lead vessel, the blue flag of Cesibia. People cheered from the docks as the ships neared, but the crews of both the Delesian and Cesibian war ships took no notice of each other or the cheering. A whole can of jealousy and rivalry opened up with the arrival of the Cesibian forces. The captain of the HMDS. Russograd, a Leo Capital Class Battleship looked on from the bridge. “So… they have come to our aid.”

***

Tanker Fleet, Virgin Sea

12:24
The tanker fleet creep ever so slowly towards the Commonwealth port. The captain even put out a call for assistance. What no one noticed on the sonar units back in Delesa was that the fleet passed right over the Alberta Sea Trench, allowing the submarines to slip away undetected and remain in the Commonwealth Sea without being caught.

The Alberta Sea Trench was abnormal. The red bed was rock, with metals lining it, making I extremely difficult for any of HM ship’s detect anything down there. Not to mention that the trench ran all the way from the northern islands of the Virgin Isles to the southern coast of King Leo Island. The Admiralty had been meaning to do something about it, but with budget cuts and pressing issues abroad, nothing had been made to secure this area other then the regular patrols.

But it wasn’t safe down in the trench for those who were trying to hide. The walls were very prone to earthquakes, sending debris and rocks tumbling down on top of anything that might be down there. Not to mention that the trench was not straight, but jagged, the depth not constant and a tight squeeze for a single submarine at some points. One might avoid the King’s navy by going in, but as the saying goes, they are jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

From the drop point, the submarines headed towards their predetermined scouting locations.

***

It was a routine training mission just off the east cost of Alberta near the port city of Detroit. In the training group was the HMDS. Delesa, a Leo Capital Class Battleship, HMDS. Prince George, a Prince William Class Destroyer and HMDS. Tiger, a Ticonderoga class missile cruiser. It was a practice sortie for the fresh rookies on board all the ships, each coincided a training ship of its respective class.

Although the Captains were no rookies, but rather hardened men of the Royal Navy, each how had seen a far share of combat.

HMDS. Prince George

19:42pm
Captain Lenny Arnold walked briskly along the deck. He had been standing near the bow of the ship, right in the face of the wind, and his ageing body couldn’t talk it anymore and craved a warm cup of tea back on the bridge. His coat nothing more special then the average Seaman, nothing on it to signify that he was the Captain of this vessel, and that’s the way he liked it.

He didn’t start off in the high prep Naval University in Port Hustlings no he was a sailor through and through, starting off his career as a Ordinary Seaman onboard the HMDS. Mother Queen, one of the fleet’s finest aircraft carriers back in the day, engaging in the nations most famous battles in and since the Kreatvye War. She was wounded when high seas and foggy weather allowed an enemy destroyer to get close enough to launch a tomahawk missile. It struck her on the port side, on the water line. Water begun to fill in, listing the entire ship to port. But she made it back to port, even if the captain, on the verge of losing her, rammed her onto the dock, keeping her from sinking.

He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, and brought his shoulders up to his ears. The wind was real nippy this morning for some strange reason. How he wished to be stationed in warm Port Hustlings, the tropical paradise of Delesa.

As he begun to walk into the ship, his XO came running down the corridor, seeing the Captain he begun to yell “Sir, come quick we have…” The sentence couldn’t be finished as an explosion roared back out at sea. Arnold whipped around to she the HMDS. Tiger already taking on water, the bow slowly lowering itself towards the water line, it’s crewmembers scrambling on deck.

“Christ! This is supposed to be a training mission; this crew can't handle actual combat, not now! Of all the time in the world.” The skipper then ran to the bridge, he felt as the boat leaned from one side to the other hard. The officer on watch already had begun ASW maneuvers to avoid being hit. Arnold finally reach the bridge, he needed no time to process the situation as he had done so on his way up. He looked starboard and saw the HMDS. Delesa already prepping her torpedoes, and launching her S-70B Seahawk ASW helicopter. “Get a bird in the air now. Sonar, do you have any idea where that torpedo came from?”

“Yes sir, caught as it was fired, it’s aft of us sir. They were real close when they fired, the Tiger was practically on top of her, explaining why she didn’t react, and she didn’t have enough time. I think we surprised each other sir.”

“Alright I want a firing solution now, fire the torpedoes when ready. Also get that bird to get an accurate position as soon as possible, but don’t wait for it. Full speed and turn this bucket around.”

The sonar officer spoke up, “Sir, Master 001 flank speed towards the Alberta Sea trench. If she gets in there, we’ll lose her.”

“Tell the Delesa to continue pursuit, we’re going to cut her off, we got more power then her.” The skipper watched as his own helicopter flew past the bridge towards the contact. The HMDS. Delesa’s bird was already circling the prey like a hawk and it prepared to drop its sonar buoy to allow the Delesa and Prince George to paint an accurate picture. “Sonar, have you got a firing solution?”

“Yes sir. Just prepping the tubes.” It was too late; the Delesa’s bird dropped its Mk 50 torpedo. The possibility of a miss was low as even a bind torpedo could just listen to the submarine running full. And as a bonus, it sounded as if the submarine, now classified as a Akula class submarine with a top speed of 33 knots, had a bent shaft, making it loud and clear for the Commonwealth surface ships to follow, not to mention slowing her down to 30 knots.

The Prince George sonar operator listened to the same thing the Akula operator was, expect the Prince George wasn’t swearing and sweating buckets. The torpedo closed in on its target. The helicopter gave it the same situation as the sub had given the Tiger; it was dropped almost right on top of it, giving it a slim chance of survival. The sonar operator heard as the submarine captain tried decoys and tight maneuvers but to no avail as the helicopter guided the torpedo through the mess.

“Captain explosion. Now secondary explosions, she’s now breaking up. Sounds like the hull is still drifting forward… sir it’s gone into the sea trench, I’ve lost it.”

“But you heard break up sounds right? There is no way they are coming back up. People stay alert there may be more. Helm, full speed back to the Tiger. Communications try and get a hold of the Tiger, see if anyone is left on the bridge.” In the distance, one could make out the Tiger, just barely, the bow was now completely under the sea surface, but some one managed to stop the engines from turning so the vessel remained still, it wasn’t even sinking any more, or so it looked from the naked eye, inside the water slowly entered each and every room ever so slowly, the explosion had damaged any control the bridge had, and the automatic water sealed doors failed to close so the ship was going to sink, there was no two ways around it.

Back near the sea trench, the HMDS. Delesa searched for any other submarines. The size of the ship made Lenny sigh. A ship that size was just a sitting duck. The call was made and the coast guard came and picked the sailors off the Prince George. Two Visby Class Corvettes also came. The ships had been stationed in HMNB (His Majesty’s Naval Base) Acton.

The Visby Corvettes are built by Sweden for the sole purpose of Mine Countermeasures (MCM) and ASW. They took over from the HMDS. Delesa and the Prince George, the two tired rookie crewed ships headed back towards HMNB Port Hustlings, the largest naval base in the Commonwealth, also the largest civilian port to boot, making it extremely crowded. To make matters worse the two ships had to sit at the mouth of the port for an hour while the port authorities made a path through all the other ships to allow the King’s ships make port.

HMS Ophidia
250 Km South of Invercardon, Pasifco Sea

She was a long-range patrol submarine, designed for frequent operations in littoral seas that necessitated absolute stealth and secrecy. The Ophidia was a diesel-electric submarine, her air-independent propulsion system requiring her to surface every two weeks. Until then, she remained silent at just over five knots south of Axcliffe.

Reconnaissance aircraft from the RAF's No. 141 Squadron based at RAF Axcliffe had been flying twenty-four hours a day since word of the first outbreak of violence on Haven. Staying quietly out of the way, long-range reconnaissance drones operating in place of the squadron's valuable airborne command platforms had dipped far enough south to record the naval and air battles between the Commonwealth's and Confederacy's respective proxy forces. All of the information had subsequently been relayed to Captain Harold Dix aboard the Ophidia, who was maintaining silent running despite having not yet ordered the submarine to the condition of battlestations.

It was known that submarines had been leaving the Confederacy; surreptitiously-laid asdic buoys had made sure that, at the very least, the Royal Navy was aware of departing Confederacy naval assets. Unfortunately, the fact that Axcliffe hosted only three O-class patrol submarines meant that officers like Dix were over burdened and simply outgunned. Instead of interdicting Confederacy submarines, he was a picket. If and when the naval forces began to steam northwards from Haven, he would send a signal to Axcliffe and the Royal Navy would muster all available ships and aircraft to hold back the Confederacy until reinforcements arrived.

But Dix knew that was laughable at best. The United Kingdom was at war, a large portion of the Royal Navy deployed overseas, some three thousand ships in total, and the majority of the Royal Navy's remaining ships were tasked with safeguarding the Home Islands and the UK's sea lines of communication. It would be several days before an emergency force could reach Axcliffe, and by then Confederate forces would be on the bottom of the Pasifco or landed on either the Commonwealth, or more worryingly Axcliffe itself.

HMS Endymion
150 Km East of the Virgin Islands

Grey solemnly shook his head. It had been over long before it began. His drones and AEW helicopters recorded the brief encounter between the HMDS Delesa surface group and what the Oceanian presumed to be a Confederate submarine. There was no other way they would have been able to sink a cruiser save a long-range maritime stealth bomber, which the Oceanian RAF operated, but not the Confederacy. No stealth ship would have made it so far from home and so close to enemy shores.

But if the Confederates had started shooting, that meant the conflict he had feared had begun and as it stood, the Confederates held the initiative. While they had not fired at any UK assets, the close alliance between the two countries surely meant to Grant that the UK had to be dealt with at some point.

Finally, as the situation was slowly resolving itself, Grey decided to take his own actions. "Captain," he called out to the frigate's commanding officer. "I would like you to get an ASW flight up in the air as soon as possible. Redouble your efforts to identify any submerged threats to our force."

"Aye, sir."

Within fifteen minutes, two Sea Falcons were aloft, dropping buoys and coordinating their search patterns to try and find any potential Confederate submarines. The Royal Navy force had few real options, largely from a lack of significant resources, and so concentrated its efforts in a direction along the unit's new bearing on a southwesterly course.

Some five hundred kilometers due East of The United Commonwealth’s Eastern shoreline, Captain Mikhail Niketski was unaware of the recent actions that were likely to escalate the situation between the Delesian Commonwealth and Confederacy into open warfare. Without and AEW or SIGINT aircraft operating near Commonwealth mainland and several Kilrany satellites still being re-tasked for optimized orbit over the Pacifico Sea, the two Tiger Shark class destroyers were limited in the available data they could access and interpret.

These deficiency were soon to change however as he had just received an encoded transmission from Fleet Command which he sat reading off his computer in his quarters.

**SECURITY***SECURITY***SECURITY***SECURITY***
*
**ALPHA SL 5-AUTHENTICATOR ***SEVEN-SEVEN-BLUE

Captain Niketski, at 17:00 hours first satellite pass will begin over Pacifico Sea, SEA 13 will be available for query at that time, SEA 17 will begin its pass three hours after.

Task force has been assembled and deployed from Trinaga facilities and is on route to mission area now, estimated time of arrival on station is thirty-two hours. Task Force has been codenamed Sunder and shall be referred to as such from here on out.

Sunder has been comprised of elements of Third and Fifth Fleets and following them is a replenishment fleet with escorts comprised of elements of the independent operations groups. At this time Minister Kasatikin has been advised to request permission for use of Delesian ports for leave and re-supply to extend the stores on our own ships. Additionally a request will be made to field a wing of EW aircraft from a Delesian airfield along with an escort wing.

At this time you are advised to move within two hundred kilometers of the Delesian Commonwealth, however as a state of war still does not exist, you are not to engage unless hostile action is taken against you.

**SECURITY***SECURITY***SECURITY***SECURITY***

Mikhail finished reading the update then reached over and tapped a key on his computer activating the ships intercom to the bridge, “Bridge this is the Captain, inform the Creala we are altering course and heading West.”

“Yes sir.”

-----

Some Nine hundred kilometers away from the KIN Tiger Shark, task force Sunder was making its way through the ocean at a comfortable twenty-five knots, which kept it farther ahead of the slower replenishment fleet. Six hours ahead of the task force four additional Akula II attack submarines ran.

As Sunder was comprised of elements of Third Fleet, it contained one of only three fleet carriers in the Kilrany Imperial Navy, though to aid in providing air superiority over the task force, it had four escort carriers with it. Trailing with the fleet was an additional element from the amphibious warfare groups full of Kilrany Naval Infantry.

Above the fleet a dozen navalised Su-37s flew CAP, given the lack of a declared war, their numbers were smaller then they could be. Additional a Kilrany equivalent to the American E-2C flew high above the fleet close to eight thousand meters in a zigzag pattern that kept it flying over the task force, lower in altitude, four Kilrany modified KA-31s few in a diamond pattern with one kilometer between each aircraft at three thousand meters. Around the fleet a small armada of twenty modified KA-28 ASW helicopters scoured the sea around the task force with dunking sonar and MAD gear, they were fully armed with torpedoes.

-----

Sealed Diplomatic Communication

To: Prime Minister Lester Geddie

At this time on behalf of the Navy and Air force I would like to make a request.

Our air force commanders would like permission to operate a wing of strategic aircraft along with a wing of escort aircraft out of one of your Southern Airbases. The Strategic arm would be comprised of Four of our A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning aircraft, four of our electronic warfare aircraft in the form of modified TU-95s and four refueling aircraft. The escorts would be comprised of twelve Su-37s with a few heavy lift transports to airlift in equipment, flight crew and weapons for these aircraft.

Our naval commanders would like permission to use Delesian naval facilities, whether they be civilian or military as your deem, for use to replenish supplies. Additionally, they would like to know if you have any facilities capable of hiding craft comparable in size to a Typhoon from satellite imagery.

Kilrany foreign affairs minister
Pavel Kasatikin