NationStates Jolt Archive

Steward Mahone sighed, sinking further into the black leather chair he had been sitting in. The last few days had left the Steward drained, both psychically and mentally. First, a nation made up of furries of all things, had attacked his nation with nuclear weapons. Then attempted to assassinate him. And then there were the stressful negotiations, and now...this.

He had gotten word from the fleet he had dispatched to secure the Reich's new conquest that they had been attacked, and judging by recent political history, by Allaneans. Which meant he had no choice to return the favor, not that he minded, though. But still...war was war, which meant Tocrowkians would be dying. He could only do his best to prepare his people for the blow.

He sipped quite idly at a cup of tea that had been prepared for him, allowing the heated drink to ease his throat muscles, which helped him in turn prepare for his grand speech. He would be speaking in front of thousands people, so it was only natural he wanted to be in top form for such an event.

Just as he finished his tea, as if on cue, the door opened to reveal his Foreign Minister. Tall, curvy and all of twenty years old, the beautiful Amberly Graves was one of the Steward's favorite female politicians. Though her looks were stunning, it hadn't been for that reason alone he had chosen to give her the position. She was also brilliant, having been personally responsible for the most recent messages to the Allaneans.

It was an unfortunate fact that she was married, so Seth had to restrain his advances on her. That was, at least until he could arrange for Mr. Graves to have an unfortunate accident involving an exploding car. "Your Grace" she began, bowing her head, which would have normally set her red tresses flying, had it not been for the fact her hair was currently in a formal bun. "We are ready for you."

"Thank you, Mrs. Graves." Seth replied with a nod, sitting up and dusting off his black formal jacket. "I would prefer you accompany me, after all, all of the other ministers will be there, so it would be suiting that you join them." He continued in a charming voice. She simply smiled, and nodded. "It would be my honor, your Grace."

"Excellent..." He ended, turning and walking out of the preparation room.

Goldur Square, Pharamas

As the center of Phamars, Tocrowkia, Goldur square as postively alight with activity ever single night, even more so tonight. The massive square had been divided into sectors, all facing a massive podium at the northern end of the square.

Large plasma screen t.v, banners and flags waving brightly in the evening wind and loudspeakers all conveyed patriotic messages, while security personnel, news crews and vendors all crowded around in various positions, while normal everyday citizens packed into the area, all eager to listen to the up coming speech by their lord and Steward.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of waiting, a loud blare of trumpets announced the arrival of the Steward. The music was followed by the deafening cries of joy and excitement, the Steward, accompanied by dozens of personnel walked onto the podium up a series of stairs. As the podium was raised a good twenty feet above the rest of the area, the journey was a bit longer than Seth would have liked.

The Steward took his place, standing in the center of the massive stage, taking a moment to admire the effort put into it's construction. It was designed to look like the giant insignia of a raven, with each end representing the wings. Clearing his throat, he hesitated for a moment, before beginning.

"Good evening, fellow Tocrowkians. It is with the utmost regret this I must inform you all, both present and watching or listing through out the Reich that the business that gathers us all here tonight, is grim" He began, making sure his tone was as depressing as he made the subject sound.

"As you all well know, the sick nation of the Free Furry Islands recently made a criminal attempt on billions of Tocrowkian lives, my own included. Fortunately, their attempt was brought to justice, and we forced them to go to the negotiating tables before we destroyed their pathetic little string of islands." At this, his voice raised, sounding strong and firm as the words he had just said.

"However, just when we thought this nightmare was over with, the Allaneans, a people famous for their lack of morality and common sense decided to intervene on their behalf. They seem to think furryisim is normal! Acceptable, perhaps even beneficial to a modern society!" Chuckles and loud laughter ran through out the crowd, even echoing through the people at the Stewards side.

"And now, they too have made a criminal attempt on Tocrowkian lives. They have launched a cowardly attack on our navy, which had been sent to subjugate the Free Furry Islands and bring them into the Tocrowkian Reich. I am most happy to announce, however, their attempt failed.

But! This is not to say we will not reply in kind. We will take what is ours, what was given to us both legally and morally. The Nation of the Free Furry Islands will be absorbed into the Tocrowkian Reich, one way, or another! And though I sense doubt in some of you, I assure you, that for three reasons, we will not fail.

The Tocrowkian Army and the Marines all stand ready to fight the war on foot, to fight for every inch of our new territory and to cleanse Allanean and Fury injustice with high-caliber weaponry.

The Tocrowkian Air Force also stands ready to control the skies of our enemy. To destroy any aerial resistance, and purge enemy sin with high-explosive guided munitions!

And last, but certainly not least, the Imperial Navy, the Vanguard of the Tocrowkian Reich is prepared to protect and ferry our forces from one corner of this Earth to the other. And God Forbid we fail, they will still be there to defend our waters!" The Steward took the microphone in his hand, and pulled out one of the waving Tocrowkian flags in the area, climbed and stood on the very edge of the podum.

"And so, I beseech of you Tocrowkians, stand firm! Stand firm in the face of the enemy, in the face of loss and sacrifice! Today we face a threat larger than any before it. A threat that, if we allow it to defeat us here, may very well go on to encompass the entire world in darkness!

And at the end of your lives, Tocrowkians, you can say that, if nothing else, you were here! And you fought not for sin, and depravity, and barbarity as the Allaneans do! But you fought for truth! Justice! And common sense!" The Steward jutted his right arm out, dropping the microphone, as he would not need it.

"Sieg Heil!" He shouted, watching in joy as his cry was echoed seconds later, every single Tocrowkian in the area following his lead.

~~~~

As the Stewards words echoed through out the Reich, and through out the world, the Tocrowkian military geared up for war. Previously inactive units during peace time were re-activated, putting millions of people back into service. Along with them, dozens of warships and hundreds of fighters were prepared. Prepared to fight for what was right, and fight against furryisim!

OOC: What do you have against furries? I'm not taking any side here but personally I think if it's not harming anybody and done with two consenting adults then it's fine.

OOC: What do you have against furries? I'm not taking any side here but personally I think if it's not harming anybody and done with two consenting adults then it's fine.

((OOC: Because my nation hates furries and furryisim.))

OOC: What do you have against furries? I'm not taking any side here but personally I think if it's not harming anybody and done with two consenting adults then it's fine.

OOC:Now, I am going to ask a question.
What is a Furry?

OOC:Now, I am going to ask a question.
What is a Furry?

OOC- read this

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Furry

OOC:Now, I am going to ask a question.
What is a Furry?

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

IC:

Official Statement from the Free Havenic Republic of Kahanistan
Ministry of Defence

http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/kahanistan.jpg

The Government of Kahanistan would normally accept the furry refugees under Tocrowkian persecution, but as we are ourselves under invasion, thus necessitiating that we advise against travel to Kahanistan and commit our military forces exclusively toward our own defence, we offer the sum of $100 billion USD to fund the ability of the furries to form a resistance against this oppression of individual liberty.

Signed,
General Abdullah Hassan al-Ghazi,
Supreme General of the Republic

((OOC: Because my nation hates furries and furryisim.))

OOC: Ah, well as long as it's not based on RL prejudice, then I have no problems.

Hogart handed President Hasley a folder labeled 'satillite recon over the FFI' he opened it "who's ships are those!" he yelled "and get me the assfucker who thinks he has the right to assault the FFI!"


Official Cazelian Message

we are sending several hundred evacuation ships for the civilians. if they are fired upon, you're looking at a big frown on the face of the international community.

-Lone Alliance international Response-
Nay, Nay shall you invade and oppress these peoples, weirdness is not a crime, and though they stupidly attempted, they caused no harm to you. You should more likely thank them for allowing your Planes to have some free target pratice. Invading, oppressing, and what we soon to expect to be Genocide, will NOT be tolerated, we throw full moral support behind Allanea.
-Lone Alliance Department of International Equality.

Official Allanean Reply

Is it now a crime to be strange? To wear different clothes from others? To have sex in different ways from others? Apparently, the answer is YES, if you ask the Tocrowkians. The Tocrowkians now wage a war of genocide against the different, the weird, the bizarre.

It is not an act of barbarism to not genocide the different.

It is not an act of barbarism to not oppress the strange.

It is not an act of barbarism to not kill people because they wear funky suits.

No, no, no, no, no.

It is an act of barbarism to kill those who are strange.

It is an act of barbarism to destroy minorities.

It is an act of barbarism to be a Nazi.

Tocrowkians are the barbarians in this story. Truly, they hate us because we tolerate all kinds of minorities, social and sexual. Truly, they hate Allanea for her freedom. Truly, they will bear the punishment for it. We call upon the world not to merely offer moral support in this war, but to aid us militarily, to crush and destroy this fascist threat.

* * *

In the meanwhile, the two fleets approached each other. Unbeknownst to the Tocrowkians, 400 stealth aircraft have taken off the Allanean ships, flying hastily towards the Tocrowkian vessels. They did not bother attacking them from within bombing range. Rather, they launched a salvo of 5 long-range torpedoes each – approximately 2,000 torpedoes in total. They targeted only one kind of ships – the Tocrowkian transports.


Simultaneously with that, two ZMI Ocelot translunar combatant units targeted a single Tocrowkian carrier with five heavy kinetic kill missiles. The principle was simple: “Let’s see what this will do to them.”

Secret IC Response
So be it, if you are ready to take the plunge to declare war, then we will follow. We all know what the Tocrowkians will do, they WILL genocide them. This cannot and WILL not be allowed. Though our nations has had our differences in the past, if you like we would glady sent troops and equipment to your nation to boost your defenses, as well as mobilize some task forces to intercept any Tocrowkian reinforcements. Let those who believe in freedom, to choose what you want, stop those would would seek to conform everything to their narrow minded point of view.
-Department of Defense

OOC: I'ts not really that TLA really supports FFI, it's just believe's in a person's right to choose how they want to live, as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. That and TLA has been cheated out of the Last 4 wars and they are fed up with it, (Yes the soldiers would rather fight and die than sit on their asses forever)

Claudius Griffincrest looked at the reports thta Tocrowkia had gone to war with Allanea, and a smile slowly began to creep across his face. Not long ago, the Tocrowkians had declared war on him and his corporation for very little reason other than jumping on the band wagon, and before that the Tocrowkians even attempted an assault on the Confederate homeland. Now would be his chance for revenge, and the chance to knock Tocrowkia back into their place. After a brief meeting with his Board of Investors, the decision was made to support Allanea, and to send the fleets of the Corporation to the FFI.

Marcus Fireblade was chosen to lead the Griffincrest Fifth Fleet to the battle zone. Aboard his flagship, the Ira, Marcus began reviewing his plans. The Tocrowkians were not to be taken lightly, and he needed to be sure that Allanea would accept his fleet as their ally. So, before he would set sail from Egyptianstan, he sent the following message.

Allanean Naval Command:

This is Admiral Marcus Fireblade, of the Griffincrest Fifth Security Fleet. We wish to aid you in your fight against Tocrowkia. Should you accept our assistance, out fleet can be with your own in a few days. Please reply soon. Thank you.

Official Allanean Response

We are never too proud to accept help. Anybody that helps us destroy the Tocrowkians is welcome.

As the scale of the war had increased dramatically, Fleet Command had ordered an additional sixty ships reinforce the already present 200. When the reinforcements arrived, it would obviously bring the number of ships up to two hundred and sixty. Among the reinforcements were an additional two Venator-class Super Dreadnoughts, and five Aquilifer-class Command Carriers. Thus, when they arrived, it would amount in a total of four super dreadnoughts and ten Command Carriers, which meant a good amount of firepower would be massed against the enemy.

The Allanean attackers had also disregarded a critical element, which was the Tocrowkian Barrier Combat Air Patrol (or BARCAP), which immediately detected the massive salvo of attacking enemy aircraft. Larger than the Allanean attacking force by the tune of about 400, and the fact they were air superiority fighters, the Tocrowkian Aircraft moved into engage the enemy. Each of them fired medium range AAMs, and awaited the result, which was sure to be sheer decimation.

Such a massive barrage of torpedoes obviously wouldn't go unnoticed by SONAR, which of course noticed the massive amount of noise generated by the said torpedoes. Counter-measure systems soon went into work, including jamming systems and CIWs. However, it was obvious they couldn't stop all of the torpedoes. But the blow was certainly softened, with the end result being four transports sunk, while at least a dozen more were heavily damaged. The kinetic kill missiles, however, proved quite useless, as the Tocrowkian carrier simply hauled ass out of it's current position.

And as the Tocrowkian fleet was parked right in front of the coast of FFI, they began making offensive actions, launching a massive amount of ordnance at civilian and military infrastructure, supported by the actions of strike aircraft and light bombers as invasion plans were being prepared. The Tocrowkian strategy was basically to seize the islands before enemy forces could make any large effort to repel them, and simply hold onto them for the long haul.

OOC: Post created after discussion with Tocrowkia. Response regarding FFI is pending FFI actually posting.

IC:

The result was literally decimation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_%28Roman_Army%29). Forty Allanean aircraft were destroyed immediately, torn apart by explosive shrapnel and even direct missile impacts. Many more Allanean planes survived then was expected – through the use of SEPS and of the Allanean “Airtrophy” defense systems.


But then there were more losses as the Allanean aircraft tore into the direct firing zone of Tocrowkian AA. CIWS and ship weapons tore the Allanean squadrons apart.

One man in the squadron had decided to make a truly desperate decision. His name was Fyodor Nikolski. His wingman was down. His squadron was obliterated. Around him, fifty Allanean pilots died for the things they – and he – had believed in. And yet he, Fyodor Petrovich Nikolski, was still alive.

That was a grave dishonor, and he would fix that.

His Falcon GLI-76 turned and began to dive, afterburners aiding the aircraft gather speed. 0.5 Mach…. 1 Mach… 2…

He was a living cruise missile, a giant bullet from God himself, aimed straight at the bridge of the cruiser TRS Judicar. Half a second later, he saw the captain of the ship, his eyes and mouth open wide in an inaudible scream as the fighter plane sliced through the bridge.

Seconds later, Fyodor Nikolski would be in the ammunition magazine of the TRS Judicar.

And the ocean burned.

But a few moments earlier

Captain Dwight Wulfric stood with his arms behind his back, watching the advance of the rest of the fleet as his own ship, TRS Judicar sped along with them. At twenty eight years old, he regarded being the captain of the Judicar, a Star of Bethlehem-class missile cruiser, often regarded as the third most powerful class of ships in the Tocrowkian navy a sacred honor.

This was his first combat mission, and he was hoping to make something of a name for him self. He had graduated the Naval Academy with honors, and was placed among the most promising students of his entire class. So it was quite understandable that he had something of a chip on his shoulder.

When the Allanean aircraft flew into sight, he barely managed to keep him self from jumping up and down like a school girl. Live targets, what a thrill! Or so he thought.

"Fire! Fire on those fucking Allaneans! Wipe them out!" He shouted, pointing frantically at the in coming aircraft. The weapons officer, a young attractive blond female, probably still in her teens replied with a simple "Yes sir!", activitating the ships numerous AA systems.

It was with great joy Wulfric watched as missiles and CIWS bullets tore into the Allanean squadrons. Several dozen clouds of orange and red signifying explosions appeared over head, each one also heralding the death of an Allanean.

Wulfric began to laugh manically, as his officers shouted off confirmations that it was one of his ships weapons that had destroyed an Allanean fighter. But it was then that he saw a single one, speeding toward the bridge.

"Increase forward firepower!" Wulfric cried at the top of his lungs, turning to the weapons officer. She looked panic stricken, and had begun to sweat profusely. "I'm trying sir!" She screamed back, slamming commands into her console.

He turned just in time to see the Allanean fighter cut through the windows. "Fuck me!" He screamed, seconds before he was splattered over the nose of the fighter. The rest of the crew on the bridge were either burnt alive by the engines or crushed as the fighter descended into the ammunition magazine.

Mere seconds later, the entire form of the Judicar was utterly engulfed in a brilliant orange light as thousands upon thousands of tons of munitions detonated near simultaneously, destroying the superstructure of the once mighty cruiser and vaporizing all two thousand six hundred souls aboard.

Such was the intensity of the blast, several dozen sailors that had been standing on the decks of near by ships were also vaporized. Paint began to peel on warships half a kilometer away, and the wake of the explosion pushed even the might Venator-class dreadnoughts several hundred meters sideways. A huge mushroom cloud appeared where the TRS Judicar had been, announcing that Allanean victory, and that single Tocrowkian tragedy for all within miles to see.

-TLA Rapid Response Base, Blue Mountains SW TLA-
"Full load outs have already been set up, you are to depart ASAP." The Base commander shouted over the loudspeaker, "Twice we have acomplished our missions with haste, but this time it's not just our lives on the line!" With that line finished the Commander went back to the control tower to look over the base. "Sir, Group 1 is ready for departure," "Give them whatever space they need, they have the objectives, tell them to kick some Nazi ass." "Roger that Sir, clearing all runways for Group one launch."

-Airfield-
After all the personel and other craft cleared the 6 Runways, The lined up planes took flight, reaching high altitude, they loaded from a Waiting Tanker before making full speed... At Mach 3, The B-70s would be over the battle within hours.
30x B-70 Bombers

-Open Ocean-
"We're not going to be cheated out of this one are we?" Admiral Rainer said to the first mate. "No this looks like a real one." "Good, I'd rather die in this freaking chair than spend one more month being cheated out of battle."

“Ready, loaded CC-56 and CC-57… prepare for loading…”

The Allanean combat satellites were not ready for war, their god rods expended in battle with Questarian fascists. It would take time for the weapons to be prepared for combat again, and the Gorgon crews and White Knight shuttle crews worked at a frenzied pace. Still, the Allaneans needed time – and it was time the denizens of Free Furry Islands did not have.

It was time for desperate measures.

“oh-emm, calling Fleet Command, over. We are unable to provide rain, you will have to rain it yourself, repeat, rain it yourself…”

For the next attack, it would be the Separate Arsenal Ship Group escorting the fleet that would strike against the Tocrowkian foe – actually, only one of its ships. The others instead submerged themselves, biding their time.

And so the Torrent ( http://z6.invisionfree.com/International_Mall/index.php?showtopic=2161&view=findpost&p=1581950) class arsenal ship began to execute firing programs. It took thirty minutes to program the fire control computers, and then fifteen minutes for the programs to execute.

First, a salvo of 650 missiles was fired, of the famous Shockhammer II class. They targeted merely 10 Tocrowkian transports, aiming to overwhelm even the Tocrowkian CIWS by mere ‘spam’- and by the fact 50 of the rockets were actually EW warheads, designed to confuse and jam enemy guidance. Only those transports that were not hit in the previous aerial combat were targeted.

Second, ten minutes later, when the smoke cleared, 650 more missiles were launched. They targeted the same transports as before, except re-divided equally between the survivors. For example if nine transports would be sunk by the first attack, the tenth would now receive the full brunt of the delightfully overkillish assault. If one was killed, then the survivors would now be targeted by 66 missiles each and not 60.


Finally, fifteen minutes later, the ship submerged again.

The decision was made for the fifth fleet to intercept the Tocrowkian relief fleet before they would ever make it to the rest of the Imperial Navy. The sixty ships of the new column would soon find themselves overwhelmed by the new fleet by two hundred and fifty ships, so it was decided that the battle would not last very long, and it would keep valuable enemy hsips from linking up, where they could do real damage.

And so, the fleet sailed off to interecept the enemy vessels long before they would see the rest of their ships.

OOC:
1x Kraken Class Dreadnought
4x Forrestal Class Carriers
10x Homeland Class Battleships
25x Chieftain Class Pocket Battleships
40x Neptune Class Cruisers
50x Rajput Class Destroyers
70x Charon Class Cruisers
120x Um al Maradim Assault Ships

“Ready, loaded CC-56 and CC-57… prepare for loading…”

The Allanean combat satellites were not ready for war, their god rods expended in battle with Questarian fascists. It would take time for the weapons to be prepared for combat again, and the Gorgon crews and White Knight shuttle crews worked at a frenzied pace. Still, the Allaneans needed time – and it was time the denizens of Free Furry Islands did not have.

It was time for desperate measures.

“oh-emm, calling Fleet Command, over. We are unable to provide rain, you will have to rain it yourself, repeat, rain it yourself…”

For the next attack, it would be the Separate Arsenal Ship Group escorting the fleet that would strike against the Tocrowkian foe – actually, only one of its ships. The others instead submerged themselves, biding their time.

And so the Torrent ( http://z6.invisionfree.com/International_Mall/index.php?showtopic=2161&view=findpost&p=1581950) class arsenal ship began to execute firing programs. It took thirty minutes to program the fire control computers, and then fifteen minutes for the programs to execute.

First, a salvo of 650 missiles was fired, of the famous Shockhammer II class. They targeted merely 10 Tocrowkian transports, aiming to overwhelm even the Tocrowkian CIWS by mere ‘spam’- and by the fact 50 of the rockets were actually EW warheads, designed to confuse and jam enemy guidance. Only those transports that were not hit in the previous aerial combat were targeted.

Second, ten minutes later, when the smoke cleared, 650 more missiles were launched. They targeted the same transports as before, except re-divided equally between the survivors. For example if nine transports would be sunk by the first attack, the tenth would now receive the full brunt of the delightfully overkillish assault. If one was killed, then the survivors would now be targeted by 66 missiles each and not 60.


Finally, fifteen minutes later, the ship submerged again.

It was an unfortunate fact for the enemy that this assault on the Tocrowkian transports was pointless, as by now, with absolutely no resistance on the shores of FFI, every single transport had been quickly emptied, troops, vehicles and supplies rushed on shore to secure the newest of the Reich's provinces. So all the missile spam succeeded in doing was sinking a bunch of empty transports.

Big deal.

Meanwhile, two hosts of Tocrowkian aircraft took off the aircraft carriers. Consisting of two hundred sixty Raven XG/3T (http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/index.php?showtopic=645) Navalized variants and sixty TAF-622B (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=465764) fighters, they were armed with anti-ship and AAM missiles, with their mission being to hunt down the Allanean fleet.

The decision was made for the fifth fleet to intercept the Tocrowkian relief fleet before they would ever make it to the rest of the Imperial Navy. The sixty ships of the new column would soon find themselves overwhelmed by the new fleet by two hundred and fifty ships, so it was decided that the battle would not last very long, and it would keep valuable enemy hsips from linking up, where they could do real damage.

And so, the fleet sailed off to interecept the enemy vessels long before they would see the rest of their ships.

OOC:
1x Kraken Class Dreadnought
4x Forrestal Class Carriers
10x Homeland Class Battleships
25x Chieftain Class Pocket Battleships
40x Neptune Class Cruisers
50x Rajput Class Destroyers
70x Charon Class Cruisers
120x Um al Maradim Assault Ships

...And that would have been a great plan too, if it had not been for a fatal flaw in Griffincrest strategy: The Tocrowkian fleet hadn't even left home port yet! Obviously, the appearance of an enemy fleet so close to home caused yet more ships to be sent out to deal with this particular threat:

2 x Imperator-class Supercapitals
4 x Venator-class Superdreadnoughts
8 x Aquilifer-class Command Carriers
20 x Veers-class Battleships
25 x Star of Bethlehem-class Missile Cruisers
40 x Triarii-class Escort Cruisers
60 x Hastati-class Frigates
50 x Arcani-class Attack Submarines



-Airfield-
After all the personel and other craft cleared the 6 Runways, The lined up planes took flight, reaching high altitude, they loaded from a Waiting Tanker before making full speed... At Mach 3, The B-70s would be over the battle within hours.
30x B-70 Bombers


As said bombers going at said speed made for a positively huge RADAR signature, a group of twenty Tocrowkian fighters took off to waylay the B-70s. They waited until they were within range, and then each targeted multiple bombers and fired their armaments, ATAIM-8 AAM's. (http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/index.php?showtopic=654) The result would, most likely be, the utter owning of the B-70's.

As said bombers going at said speed made for a positively huge RADAR signature, a group of twenty Tocrowkian fighters took off to waylay the B-70s. They waited until they were within range, and then each targeted multiple bombers and fired their armaments, ATAIM-8 AAM's. The result would, most likely be, the utter owning of the B-70's.
-Air over the battlefield-
As they reached their target location, the planes were forced to rapidly decrease speed, this however lead the first 12 to be easy pickings for the waiting enemy. To be honest They didn't have a chance. Each one of them were blown out of the sky by enemy missiles. Only a quarter managed to have the escape Pod deploy.
Still as the targeting field was filled with destruction the next 4 managed to slow enough to know that there was enemy fighters, Each slowed and released 3 AIM-47 Falcon Missiles at the incoming enemy, seconds before they themselves came within missile range.


-Ocean-
~RepulserII, Rapier Class Battleship~
"So this is our new mission?" A man said looking out over the water from the bridge.
"Yes Admiral Rainer." Said the First officer.
"For real?"
"Yes."
"Finally, I'd rather die than spend one more war arriving too late to help."
"Get underway."

1x CVN-1 Phoenix Class Aircraft Carrier
2x Essex Escort Carriers
1x Rapier Class Super Battleship
2x Bravo class guided missile destroyers
8x Type 42 Destroyers
14x DDG-51 Destroyers
2x MCS-12 Inchon Mine Countermeasure ships
2x T-AFS 8 Supply Ships
2x T-AKR 287 Algol Sealift ships
3x Seawolf class Subs

Joint Task Force Seven
Black Island (200 nm south of Alyrion)

"So they're going to war over what?"

"Uh... furries are, er, people who—"

"I know that, you fool! But since when is that a cause for warfare?"

"Around here, anything goes." The man, a Rear Admiral Tim Schopenhauer, shrugged his shoulders. He was older and more experienced than the woman, although she outranked him; he had seen wars waged for reasons as simple as "A citizen of your nation violated our laws" or "Our army needs some practical experience". Human life was played with as casually as a toy; when billions of them could be extinguished at a word or phrase, no-one seemed to care too much anymore.

The woman relaxed. "I see your point," she said. General Milena "Otter" La Grenouille was the only female member of the Council of Twelve, and one of the more resourceful JTF commanders; at her disposal were a frightening array of forces easily capable of causing great destruction. Or something like that.

"Anyway, several old friends are involved here. The Lone Alliance, for instance; I'm sure you remember them from ViZion," Schopenhauer said. "And Allanea, which by this point should be infamous; it's a wonder they have any forces to spare with the hammering they're getting from Questers."

La Grenouille sighed. "Coming to the aid of .... people who dress up like animals? I still wonder why this was an issue in the first place. I mean, what they do in their bedrooms is their own business!"

"True, but according to reports, this nation fired nuclear weapons or, er, something of the kind," Schopenhauer said doubtfully.

"Making them the aggressor. Yet a few nations, along with the Griffincrest Corporation, have chosen to support the aggressor?"

"Looks an awful lot like it. By the bye, what is the Griffincrest Corporation?"

"It appears to be an oil company whose CEO went crazy. It exerted a monopoly over the Confederacy of Blackhelm and either gained control of the Confederacy's military, or bought its own.... I forget which. It shouldn't be too much of a threat, but you never know," La Grenouille said vaguely.

"This is perfect; three things Steelians hate: state capitalists, communists, and Allaneans, all banding together," Schopenhauer smiled.

"Media might try to paint it as a war over sexual deviancy," reminded La Grenouille.

"We can get them to hate those, too," Schopenhauer said. "I'll get in touch with the DepProp."

"And I'll find the.... uh, Tocrowkians, I think they are."

Schopenhauer's motion towards the phone was arrested. "Tocrowkians? Aren't they fascists?"

"They are? Well, we can change that if we feel we must," La Grenouille said smoothly. "Does it really matter?"

She smiled, although the smile was more predatory than contented. Then she pulled out her laptop computer, connected to the Super Secure Encrypted VPN Cable Tunnel Thingey, and began to draft a message. It ended up being a very short one.

Communiqué to Tocrowkia (Secure)

You guys want any help?

General Milena La Grenouille, JTF 7, Republic of Steel and Fire

A proper Declaration of War was no big deal. La Grenouille was a member of the Council of Twelve, after all, which advised the President on virtually all important matters. No matter how it was packaged, in practice the Republic was a military-run state; even the Triumvirate, the highest ministers and advisors to the President, were all ex-military. Given that the nation had once been a military corporation, it could hardly help it.

-Air over the battlefield-
As they reached their target location, the planes were forced to rapidly decrease speed, this however lead the first 12 to be easy pickings for the waiting enemy. To be honest They didn't have a chance. Each one of them were blown out of the sky by enemy missiles. Only a quarter managed to have the escape Pod deploy.
Still as the targeting field was filled with destruction the next 4 managed to slow enough to know that there was enemy fighters, Each slowed and released 3 AIM-47 Falcon Missiles at the incoming enemy, seconds before they themselves came within missile range.


The Tocrowkian fighters released counter-measures en masses, dodging the main flurry of missiles, though four did not do so in time and were thusly destroyed. The rest veered around and fired a second salvo, hoping to finish this off.

Communiqué to Tocrowkia (Secure)

You guys want any help?

General Milena La Grenouille, JTF 7, Republic of Steel and Fire

Yes, that would be positively cracker jack.

-Reich Foreign Ministry-

The Allaneans were not in any way phased by an attack of merely 250 fighters. First, they targeted them by 1,000 long-range anti-ship missiles taking off from the various air defense cruisers at 1300 kilometers range. The salvo was repeated against at a range of 1000 kilometers. At 800 kilometers range, the Tocrowkian threat was met by over 1,000 fighters which carried – each – 4 intermediate-range air-to-air missiles.

And finally, the Allanean CIWS easily ate up the remaining missiles.

Then – and only then – the other four ships of the Arsenal Ship group floated up to the surface, firing their complete payload – 5,200 missiles in total – at the Tocrowkian carriers.

It was a surprisingly short time between receipt of the Reich Foreign Ministry's message and the departure of the Steelian Fleet; a testament to La Grenouille's ability to make things happen. On the surface, the fleet didn't look like anything special: sufficient heavy cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers, and ADVs; a few carriers; the odd battleship; along with La Grenouille's own flagship, the Improbably Large Warship* SFRS T. S. Eliot. Interspersed among these, for protection, were troop transports and logistical ships. (No-one with an inkling of knowledge of military strategy should have been surprised at where the fleet's main punch came from.)

Joint Task Force 7 was primarily aerial, as it turned out. A large fleet of bombers, accompanied by fighter escorts, were to take off from Black Island shortly before the naval fleet entered striking range, enabling them to mount their attacks with naval support. It also carried a little under a million Marines, a variety of artillery and tanks, and several HARE units, the Republic's most elite special forces.

On board the T. S. Eliot, La Grenouille was studying a map of the area. Around her sat her aides and executive officers; blue represented Steelian forces, green represented allies, and red represented enemies. She tapped the map. "Let's call it a buffet.... we have a choice of Griffincrest Fleet, apparently bound for Tocrowkia itself; Allanean Fleet, apparently locked in combat with Tocrowkian Fleet near Furry Island; and Lone Alliance Fleet, apparently heading to reinforce Allanean Fleet. So, my officers, which one should we have first?"

A young Major named Josiah Cuttlefish was the first to speak. "Uh... the Tocrowkian Imperial Navy still has many ships defending its homeland, so the Griffincrest Fleet should not be a problem, yet. And by the time we reach range of the Allanean Fleet, it may have already been reinforced by the Lone Alliance Fleet. At any rate, the Lone Alliance Fleet is closer to us."

"Excellent, Major," La Grenouille said. "Exactly what I was thinking. We have the Lone Alliance fleet for breakfast, then head over and scoff us some Allaneans for lunch."

Rear Admiral Schopenhauer intervened. "Er.... I'm not sure of that. While the Lone Alliance fleet is smaller than ours, we cannot afford to underestimate it. It may take quite some time to fully destroy. I'd recommend re-evaluating the combat situation in the other two theatres when we have finished with the Lone Alliance."

"Very well, Rear Admiral," La Grenouille said. "You're right, of course: any number of things could happen in the meantime. Modern warfare can happen pretty fast. Inform your commanders to set a course to intercept the Lone Alliance Fleet."

It took ten minutes for the fleet to slow and turn itself towards the Lone Alliance fleet. Then it began to steam ahead at full speed. Back on the Black Island, the planes began to take off; well over three thousand of them. Steel and Fire did not take war lightly, no matter how casually its officers seemed to treat it; for war is the final, and most effective, tool in the vast arsenal of politics.

* Classification is equivalent to "Superdreadnought" in most other navies; refers to vessel displacing over about 2,000,000 tons.