OOC: Well, this is short, I’m feeling rather uninspired, I don’t know what to do in regards to Azazia and Delesa being busy/unable to post just now, and to top it all off, I’ve come down with some kind of flu, yet I still have to go to work. Wunderbar.
Around Zhideijev the mercenaries continued to put up a ferocious defense, degenerating the vicious fighting in the town even further, leaving many civilians in the crossfire. The narrow streets and alleys overlooked by mostly solid stone, two to four storied buildings made for an extremely dangerous position to attack. This all left the Kilrany Imperial Naval Infantrymen to go house to house, blasting their way in through their own doorways in Mouse-holing fashion.
As they moved up, several of the dedicated heavy armoured personnel carriers, the Nizhom and the dedicated armoured support vehicles, the Nhizhomskaya, followed behind. Their heavy armour and appliqué armouring allowed them to survive the lightweight anti-armour weapons in the mercenary arsenals. A few however, along with several Carl Gustav’s set up in preset conditions managed to damage their weapons mounts or disable the treads of these armoured vehicles.
A similar, if slightly less brutal fight was mirrored in the smaller town of Baljenov after the ambush on the Kilrany armoured formation. Once more like in Zhideijev, small units of specialized urban combat units were brought up to assault the town while the other, less specialized units continued around in an attempt to cut off their area of operation. This was deemed especially important given orders the Kilrany General had to bring in Admiral Ekster.
This move however was not an unexpected one, and once more, the Kilrany units would find themselves on the receiving end of yet another ambush as they rushed forward to secure their objectives without the proper reconnaissance they would have preferred. This time factor was readily being blamed by the average soldier on the foreign task forces forcing their hands, whether this was deserved or not.
Slowly, much closer to the Kilrany landing site on the South, the naval infantrymen cleared out the harbour, and Barmakov, both were empty of defenders, but turned out to be high in booby-traps. Everything from the small but deadly toe poppers and the large and devastating MON-200s were found in devious locations to rain injury and death upon these soldiers. While checking for such traps was routine, no one was perfect, and numerous Kilrany were injured and killed, only leading to greater anger among these soldiers as they continued to move to surround Anjukov.
-----
To the North, and much later in the day, the mercenary soldiers and Novajev sailors in Volkova were unaware of the Diggledom reconnaissance element watching them from above. Despite several sentries dedicated to watching this avenue of approach, at over a kilometer away up a five hundred meter hill, the small masts on the specialized vehicles went unnoticed.
With little else to do they waited, ensuring the rest of their defenses were ready; they already knew to be wary of reconnaissance attempts, especially from satellite surveillance, the Diggledom were lucky to spot the movement they did. One could only imagine what they missed, given the forces around the town and inside it, as Volkova took up several hundred square meters of tightly nit structures.
As the morning drew on and the Diggledom unit finally began to leave and in the process set off a mine, the sound of this echoed down the hill and into the bowl below. While they didn’t send anyone up to investigate, it quickly set them on edge, causing them to break for the relative safety of the indoors, as those with trenches and overhangs were already in their positions and well hidden. The BMP-2 the spotted moving in the town, quickly turned in to an alleyway with an overhand and disappeared from sight from overhead.
----
Much farther to the Southeast, near what was considered by the Kilrany to be the entryway into the Zuiderzee Strait; roughly between the two closest Southern points between Me'i and Kilrany, task force Kessel continued along its course roughly North-Northeast. The Kilrany were not one’s well known for caring about international opinion, nor did they always abide by the commonly accepted limit in regards to national waters, to this end they had no problem in their belief that it was up to tem to remove the Me’ei presence in the strait itself and rid the area near their national waters of the large number of civilian vessels that only served to unease an already paranoid nation.
Much like the Russkyans and the Me’ei themselves, the Kilrany were in no mood to back down, though in this case it had less to do with the foreign naval task forces present as it did with simply keeping with Kilrany interests. Only a direct request by the Russkyans for an alteration in their plans would prevent the task force Kessel from reopening the strait, already they were willing to use force.
Radar systems fully powered up and sonar actively filling the water around this force with sound waves, the Kilrany would give one, and only one warning to any Me’ei sea going, or airborne military craft that they were approaching to close before they would simply open fire. This range was already decided as forty kilometers, and to leave a little leeway, this discounted the Me’ei national waters and Kessel took a course closer to their own national waters then straight through the center of the strait.
As an added effort, civilian transports were being contacted and strongly advised to take full opportunity of whatever opening the Kilrany fleet made as quickly as possible.
Years, if not decades, of close Kilrany-Russkyan cooperation were now causing serious problems in the Zuiderzee Strait. Despite this history of cooperation, the RVMF and KIN charts detailing the Strait itself showed different pieces of sea-estate, the Russkyan charts being far larger as they encompassed much more of the waters to the north and south of the narrowest point between Me'i and Kilrany.
Taskforce Milan was now behind the KIN's Taskforce Kessel. As such, the MPNOL fleet facing Milan was also behind Kessel. By now, Groups Vienna and Gothenburg had linked up, and the KIN's taskforce was still three hundred kilometers to their south.
Because of the cooperation between the KIN and the RVMF, MPNOL was completely unwilling to cede control of the Strait even temporarily to the Russkyans. While KIN had the ability to launch ships that would threaten the northern and southern entrances, and based along the Strait itself, the Me'ei had no such option. The 1962 Border War between themselves and the Russkyans had deprived them of their shipyards and most of their naval bases on their Northern Coastline, causing their strategic dispositions to be numerous small bases along the Strait capable of holding up to thirty combat vessels at a time and much larger facilities on the Southern Coastline.
Enjoying the influx of foreign currency brought by allowing freighters and tankers to dock temporarily in Me'i until the situation in the Strait resolved itself, and eager for more, the Me'ei had sent out word that the merchantmen waiting outside Kilrany national waters were more than welcome to dock in Me'i. They'd even gone so far as to dispatch two obsolescent MPNOL oilers to refuel vessels who were too low on fuel to make the transit. Reporters from various international news agencies were invited to cover this action, reported on favourably from humanitarian-peacenik and economic viewpoints. Having gained not insubstantial credit with the Western world, the Me'ei came out looking like the unfairly maligned party now faced with Kilrany aggression. Alas, if only the Kilrany gave two shits about international opinion.
The impression that the Me'i People's Republic now benefited from was far too convienent. "Slightly irritated" by the biased treatment given Russkya in the international press, the RISS aided Professor Suvorkin in publishing his detailed study, titled Me'i and SFR Relations from 1900-Present. Translated into English, German, French, and Mandarin Chinese, Suvorkin's work was hailed as a "Groundbreaking, unbiased study of SFR-Me'i relations" and as being "unprecedented in its brutal honesty concerning all regional nations since the Nineteen Hundreds."
International opinion was now split based on politics. The Maoists and Communists of the world tended to support the Me'i People's Republic for the sake of socialist solidarity and those who had actually read Suvorkin's work often sided with the Russkyans and the Kilrany.
A result of this was that using the fuel onloaded from the MPNOL oilers, many merchantmen were ordered by head offices to dock at Russkyan ports, bypassing the MPR entirely. Me'ei efforts at securing a favourable standing in the world press were further frustrated once enough reporters had read Chapter 17 of Suvorkin's latest release, detailing the internal policies of the MPR as they affected PSR Russkya. Numerous references to billing the deceased's family for ammunition expended in their execution were made, resulting in the MPR's most favourable reference by various pundits as being "only marginally worse than the People's Republic of China."
--
RVMF-AV Major Nikolaev was enjoying every moment he spent in the air despite the stress. He'd since come to terms with the stress and was enjoying the feel of his aircraft powering its way through the air and Mother Nature buffeting his machine as it rose and fell slightly with the air currents. Below him, the sea state was picking up, rolling waves as high as a meter and a half slapping against warship hulls. The skies darkened.
Information sent to him from his Tu-143M3 (R) / Tu-95RT reconnaissance pairs showed that TGT QDN was racing towards "Ricebowl" at a spritely twenty-five knots. It also showed that Taskforce Samoilev had finally clashed with "Chopstick" to the South-South-East of Novrezina, the two forces within a hundred kilometers of one another. Samoilev cut his taskforce's speed back, leaving it to the commander of "Chopstick" to rush up to the horizon if he so wished.
--
The Courtyard, part of the Admiralty Buildings, hosted Vorobiev and Zhiznetsky. Both men stalked the path wrapped in their greatcoats, backs straight.
"I'm surprised we didn't see it sooner."
A noncommittal noise from Zhiznetsky, then: "No, you're not surprised."
"If they'd sortied the coastal units, that would have pushed them away and not to the North."
"Yes."
Vorobiev looked across at Zhiznetsky, who was scowling fit to scare children. It was a repeat of 1963, when the MPNOL had finally attempted to replace combat losses by moving a group through the Strait. The RVMF, in a move informally known as "The Dick Move" in many Naval Academies, had blocked their transit inside the MPR's own territorial waters. Having just bloodily lost a war to the Russkyans, the MPNOL group had about-faced and sailed back.
Sublieutenant Medvedev marched smartly alongside the two Admirals and slammed to a halt, saluting crisply. Vorobiev returned the salute without stopping. Medvedev turned and joined his superiors, having to quick march to keep up with them. Dodging Zhiznetsky's malevolent gaze aimed at the path infront of him, the SLT was able to hand the thin folder to Vorobiev.
Vorobiev stopped suddenly, causing Medvedev to lurch to a halt and look back at his Admiral, who was intently scanning the printed sheet and the accompanying reconnaissance imagery. After a moment, he rejoined his old friend Zhiznetsky, long legged strides easily making up the distance. He handed the folder back to Medvedev.
"Take it to the Operations Room, Medvedev."
"Aye aye, sir."
Medvedev thought it politic not to say that he'd gotten the folder from the Operations Room and that they were already well appraised of the situation.
--
Shapov was on his bridge, standing beside the helmsman. He spoke to the glass pane, one of several, that enclosed his bridge. His crew responded regardless of whom the Captain seemed to be addressing.
"Ahead full. Advise Gothenburg to take station astern of 'Ricebowl.' Come North, maintain station East of Me'ei group. Range?"
"One hundred kilometers, sir."
"Maintain this range and shadow their group. Inform Major Nikolaev that he is to orbit the target beyond their maximum radar range. When his orbit brings him over Samoilev, he is to report to the Vice Admiral."
"Aye, sir."
Belowdecks and well aft, PMK Dragan L. Kozyar was watching his reactors. The telegraph signalled for Ahead Full, and his reactor crew smoothly increased power. The diesels remained quiet, the CONOD Project 1269 vessel relying on its pressurized water reactors. He absentmindedly fingered the clip that held his radiation badge onto his coveralls, staring at the bulk of Reactor One from his station.
Further aft, the turbines were turning faster, generating more power for the electric motors that, as part of the IFEP system, turned the four shafts which in turn caused the High Seas Machineworks props to propel their immensely powerful vessel forward. 2MK Kuchin made his way between Shafts Two and Three, stepping up the steeply angled stairs - more of a ladder, really - that led to the gangway that traversed the remainder of the painted steel cavern. He turned, watching his crew efficiently complete what little work there was to be done, before heading forwards.
"She behaves nicely, Kuchin."
"Aye sir. Where is 1MK?"
"Forward with the Medical Officer. He thinks he got too close to the reactor, then Fedoseev sprayed him with a spraybottle when he wasn't looking, standing infront of a steam valve. Scared him half to death, now Fedoseev is on detail for two weeks."
Kuchin, the Second Engineering Officer, smiled. "It would be easier on poor Gorobets if he had my job. Further away from these demon boxes."
Superstitious like all RVMF sailors, Kuchin kissed his palm and laid it flat on on the plate that was affixed to Kozyar's control panel. The plate read: REACTOR ONE: Russkyan Naval Atomics PWR
"It would be easier on my 1MK if his grandmother didn't raise him to be afraid of Alloshka and Nastyenka here," Kozyar retorted. "And if I didn't have Reaktnikii," he continued, raising his voice so his compartment crew could hear, "who insisted on playing practical jokes on him!"
He got hidden grins from his petty officers and sailors, even Fedoseev, who was putting the finishing touches on the daily cleaning of the reactor space, as he would be doing every day for the next two weeks.
--
As the Kilrany Imperial Navy's Taskforce Kessel had sailed into the Strait from the South, the MPNOL groups identified as Ricebowl and Quin dun-niu displaced Northwards. As they were in contact with Group Vienna, K1 Shapov followed them North, unhappy to see the status quo as it had existed since 1962 upset. Now MPNOL vessels would be able to interfere with Central Seas merchant traffic if they'd the desire - but to do that, they'd first have to pass around Novrezina or through Taskforce Samoilev.
The Admiralty was beginning to wonder if this hadn't all been planned well ahead of time, the Me'ei simply waiting for an opportune time to reverse the situation. The Strait was being cleared, but by avoiding contact with the KIN, MPNOL felt they were telling Emperor Sviatov's forces to fuck off and leave them to their more pressing business with their age-old enemy.
Unfortunately, the hotheaded attitude of the KIN was bound to cause problems. Differentiating between submarines was very difficult, and some of the MPNOL submarines and some of the RVMF submarines would not be moving out of the way of the Kilrany Taskforce. It was also very difficult to communicate with a submerged submarine as a third party, especially with active sonar complicating the hydroacoustics of the immediate area.
--
Orkidzhon continued to stalk the MPNOL submarine now positively identified as a Type M09-I submarine, a modified version of what NATO would call the "Han" class. Since the Oceanian Nimby had made its pass, no further activity from that particular ASW asset had been detected and Bazlidze idly wondered where it had gone off to. The noisy M09-I was attempting to run silent again, Orkidzhon tagging along a kilometer behind. When TF Kessel reached them, they would unfortunately be approximately twenty kilometers from the surface group and totally unaware of the forty kilometer zone of exclusion around Kessel.
Bazlidze, ordered to maintain contact with the Me'ei submarine, was also hesitant to move away from the contact despite the SONAR lashing that Kessel was subjecting the water to. He suspected that his MPNOL counterpart may think the surface group approaching was infact a People's Navy of Liberation unit, based on their actions and the situation report received from the last time he'd been at comms depth.
OOC: Given that no one has voiced any further concerns or put forward any further thoughts to the OOC thread, I see no further reason to procrastinate on ending this thread. Delesa, Diggledom, it goes without saying that victory would have been achieved and the island secure, but I will not under any circumstances tell you your casualties, I leave that up to you.
Please bear in mind that action around your op zones would have been heavy, ambushes using heavy machine guns, ATGMs and their light/heavy armour would have been common and enemy short range air defenses remained in full operation, Tunguskas could easily track anything low flying on passive and engage visually and supply information to their MANPAD systems
Had this continued on, Delesa, you would have had an encounter with a platoon of T80UMs supported by BMP-2s with their own ATGMs and infantry, much as I had planned for my own force, sadly this didn’t get put together before the thread began to overwhelm me. Additionally, heavy resistance would have been encountered on the way to Khabarovsk and inside the city itself, I had many nasty surprises in store for everyone; including myself, who dared enter the larger cities.
Diggledom, I believe I likely supplied ample information on Volkova OOC to perhaps give you enough to work with, if not, merely ask and it shall be supplied. Suffice it to say, resistance in the ‘bowl’ would have been heavy and they had a lot of advantages in the defense here short of anyone using a tactical nuclear warhead, as shelling would only create more rubble and defense as I’m sure you’re aware.
Now, I’m not sure how we should go about prisoners, as some would have surrendered and some wouldn’t have, if you have any questions about this, please merely ask and we can come to an arrangement, or we can simply keep any number vague, and perhaps indicate they were given over to Kilrany to deal with, or something, let me know in any case on how you wished to proceed in this manner and we will work that out as necessary.
I apologies for not being able to finish up this thread as it deserved.
Despite the fact that the room was located within the Kilrany Imperial Palace, it wasn’t a particularly glamorous one, and it was perhaps for this reason these military officers preferred for their less formal meetings. Reasonable in size, it could house a respectable number of people, while not lavishly decorated; common in this building, several comfortable couches and chairs were arrayed within, and in this case also held the current highest ranking officers Kilrany military, Army, Navy, Air Force, and the three combat arms of the Imperial Guard, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Division along with a pair of 5th Division intelligence operatives.
While none were present inside, a pair of 1st Division soldiers stood guard outside the room’s door despite the fact that the Emperor was not present. Within the Kilrany Imperial Palace, not even 5th Division soldiers moved around without the full knowledge of 1st Division.
The Admiral was the first to speak up as she thumbed through the folder full of intelligence and military status reports, “Well, can I assume the Emperor is pleased this is all over with given the fact it was a war none of us wanted or expected?”
Assuming the question was directed at him, the lead of the two 5th Division intelligence operatives standing near the main group of seated officers responded, “It’s a fairly safe assumption, he’s still not pleased that it happened, but he’s content with the results, as much as could be expected.”
“Hmmm, yes well, I suppose would should be thankful for small favours then, I can’t say I’m at all pleased with the casualty and damage reports, we took almost as many losses in that surprise attack as the naval infantry took on the ground against those stubborn mercenaries.”
The 2nd Division General spoke up, “It is unfortunate that we were unable to assist in the assault, though from what I’ve read on the situation, it likely would have made little difference. It didn’t help to rush in because of all those foreigners, the lack of thorough reconnaissance before the amphibious assault led to more casualties then we would have taken otherwise.”
“I’d have to agree General, but there’s nothing for it now, we had little choice but to go in when we did or the other fleet forces could have caused more harm then good, nor could we have let them secure this island off our coast, not after they attacked us, and certainly not on the chance they would attempt to build facilities upon it and refuse to relinquish control back to the native population.”
Once more the 5th Division operative spoke, “It does however remain to be seen just what would have occurred if we had not taken charge of the situation as we did, perhaps the foreign forces would have done no more then we intended ourselves, we cannot be sure.”
The Admiral picked up on the point the operative was trying to make and seemed relatively content with it, though she still remained displeased at their overall loses. This was the next subject to come up however, “I took the opportunity to fly down to Trinaga to have a look at the damage taken to some of our warships, that Kirov took a major pounding, they’re still not sure if it can be repaired or if it would be better to scrap it and build a new one.”
This elicited a number of irritated looks upon the faces of the gathered military officers, not a one happy about the thought of the damage sustained in the opening engagement with the Novajev during which they were taken off guard. It was destined to leave a bad taste in their mouths for quite some time, as they still did not know that the Iriani were responsible for the initiation of hostilities.
After a brief moment of silence passed in memory of those lost in the engagement, the General for the Kilrany Imperial Air Force spoke, “It’s still difficult to believe the Novajev would be so stupidly suicidal as to attack us, are you sure there were no warning signs?”
Taking his cue again, the 5th Division operative responded, “None. While the Novajev had the ability to launch an attack, they had no means to carry through on it, nor did they have the forces to achieve victory given the situation as occurred. We can only surmise that Ekster became either desperate, or arrogantly thought he held a better position then he did.”
“The bastard’s lucky he took his own life before the infantrymen managed to storm that damned bunker of theirs.”
“Him and most of his senior staff, obviously too terrified of what we might do to them, and we have no access to anyone who was close enough to know what happened, given how many of them chose to go down fighting rather then surrender in Anjukov; or simply got caught in the crossfire. Not even most of the political figures we managed to identify as being in league with him survived, those that did are of little value and we’re turning them over to the Novajev to put on trial.”
The Army General spoke up then, “On that note, what is to be done to keep law and order on Novajev until a police force can be retrained for them? Unless of course the infantry are meant to fill that role until then.”
The 5th Division operative shook his head slightly, “No, we don’t believe it wise to have the naval infantrymen attempt to play the role of police, and we have indicated as much to the Emperor, they will be gradually withdrawn for the moment. To keep the peace, we’ve sent out for volunteers from the ISM to supplement the Novajev legal system until it can get back on its feet, much as we’ve done in Khurzav. We also intend to send in a small contingent of our own internal teams to do some checking on the remaining political figures, ensure they weren’t involved.”
“So the Emperor intends to return sovereignty to the Novajev?”
“He does. He feels that it’s best to take the same approach with Novajev as we do with Valnari, maintain close ties and win them over slowly. Besides, he feels there are too many involved from outside the region, we could not do here what was done in Divina even if it was so wished, at least not without a major international incident that would no doubt only cause more problems.”
“What of their oil reserves and the platform?”
“It would seem the mercenaries guarding the platform lost their nerve after losing their contact with the Novajev chain of command and in the end surrendered to the first person to sail up towards them. Thus their reserves remain intact and we can use them to help rebuild the island’s infrastructure.”
The Admiral spoke up again, “Speaking of surrendered mercenaries, what is to become of those that surrendered to us?”
“The Emperor has chosen to keep his word and those mercenaries who wish to may return to their countries of origin if they’re take them along with honouring any of their paychecks they had been issued prior to the landing. Those who are unwilling to return to their country are being permitted to go to any willing to take them in.”
This statement was generally received slight nods from most of the military officers; they all felt just as much a need to honour their agreements, verbal or otherwise as the Emperor did and it reassured them. Mercenaries had been a part of war for longer then the Kilrany Empire had been around, and as long as they conducted themselves with a modicum of honour, it would be returned in kind. This feeling was especially pronounced as some of them felt the entire situation was their own fault for not immediately coming to the aid of the Novajev as their agreement of protection had called for.
The 4th Division General chose to address the operative, “What of the other involved nations, do we know how they intend to treat those mercenaries who surrendered to them?”
“We are unsure as of yet; the Delesian General is reported to have held a rather poor opinion of mercenary forces, thus the Emperor has ordered Kasatikin to subtly impress upon his political leaders to follow our lead.”
“Oh, how so?”
“By playing on their sense to maintain good public relations. By following our lead the Delesians can appear to get merciful and generous to the typical bleeding heart liberal media that attempted to berate us in lie of the incident in the Strait and the Me’ei.”
“I see, and the Diggledom?”
“We do not know where they stand either, however they did not strike us as the vengeance seeking type, so despite the bitter resistance put up by the mercenaries in Volkova, we hope they will follow our lead as well. As added enticement for both, the Emperor has offered to see to their safe transport and to honour their paychecks ourselves, thus limiting their own cost.”
Shuffling through some of the reports, the Army General spoke again, “I see here that there doesn’t appear to be a final number on casualties sustained by mercenary forces or the local population.”
“Yes, from the files we were able to obtain, we know that not all the mercenaries are accounted for, nor have we received a detailed report from the others involved on just how many were killed and wounded. We suspect at least half a company of mercenaries is still hiding out on the island, likely out of fear. We have some infantry platoons searching for them in our area of operations, though we have no idea how spread out they may be.”
“I take it that is also why our own casualty report is not finalized?”
“Indeed. It is possible some of these remaining force may still be hostile, and further casualties may be taken if they put up a fight.”
None of them were happy as they thumbed through the lists of the dead an wounded, and while it was slightly less important compared to the former, they were none the happier to see the list of damaged and destroyed equipment. The mercenaries around Anjukov had put up just as bitter a fire as they had in Volkova, despite the less advantageous defensive ground, aside from a major ambush South of Baljenov, the mercenaries also ambushed the Kilrany with their Western platoon of T80s, the Kontrast equipped heavy armour crashed out of a woods and engaged the flank of an armoured formation with the support of several BMP-2s and infantry sections.
The 4th Division General shook his head slightly; “We haven’t taken these kind of casualties in ten years of operations in Triari,” he didn’t bring up Khurzav as it had been justifiable in terms of scale and the Kilrany operations in Triari were closer to that of in Novajev.
“The Novajev happened to be better armed and trained then you average Triari militiaman.”
The General sighed, but ultimately nodded his head in agreement with the 5th Division operative. They knew they could justify it to the people, it wasn’t hard to get the general Kilrany population riled up for war when they could claim an injustice, or in this case an open attack on their forces, but it still didn’t sit well with them all the same.
Releasing a slight sigh herself in frustration, the Admiral chose this time to bring up the Me’ei, “At least we can relax in regards to the damned Strait, that whole situation was far to close to call.”
A chorus of simple acknowledgements followed from most of the gathered officers, however the Air Force General chose to address the Admiral, “While I’m quite glad the situation with the Me’ei has been resolved without the need to go to war, but I have to admit I’m a little irked by the fact that we had to sign over part of the Strait to them.”
The Admiral merely shrugged, “Not much choice to the matter and I suppose it’s an equitable settlement. At least now we have a clearly defined agreement as to how the Strait it arrayed, including that channel for international shipping through the center and the non-aggression pact.”
“True enough, but do you figure they’re actually honour it if something like this were to happen again?”
“Do they have much choice? The Russkyans helped mediate the entire agreement, I’m sure they don’t want a war with us anymore then we want one with them just now.”
“I suppose you’re right. At least the Strait is reopened so those foreign fleets can bugger off now.”
This elicited a chuckle from a few of the other officers, including the Admiral, “Quite true, but the question is, will they? They all committed an insanely large number of forces to assault an island less then twenty square kilometers in size against an enemy barely a battalion and a half in strength, do you really think they’re leave that easily now that they’ve taken casualties, or even trust us to hand sovereignty back to the Novajev? Assuming they even want that in the first place.”
The lead 5th Division operative chose to answer that question, which drew their gaze to him, “They wont have much choice. They’d be fools to think we’d let them establish any facilities on the island so close to our mainland, or to attempt to force the issue with use given where they find themselves. No, they will have little choice but to withdraw.”
“That’s a little harsh don’t you think?” the General then quickly added, “Never mind, stupid question,” as he realized he was after all speaking with a member of 5th Division, which brought out another round of chuckles.
“All we need to do is have it appear as though everyone gets their victory. We get to tell our people we dealt with those who attacked us, and the rest get to claim to their own that they removed a dangerous dictator from the world, or whatever other contrived morality tale they wish to. As it stands, everyone has their symbolic victory, so if they’re wise, they will not press the issue of Novajev.”
A moment of silence followed as even these high ranking Kilrany military officers weren’t above the uncomfortable feeling that 5th Division often instilled in others. Seeking to change the subject, the 2nd Division General spoke up, “What do we have planned for the reconstruction effort?”
As if there had been no silence, the 5th Division operative replied, “The intent is to use as much local labour as possible, to keep their money in the area and keep them happy for the time being, however we will have to seek out some contract work for outside companies given the limited nature of the Novajev economy, they were simply not prepared for such a large project. Financing shouldn’t be a problem, despite all of Ekster’s spending on the mercenaries and their equipment, the Novajev cash reserves are still in existence, and if we can get their oil platform up and running again along with a buyer, they should be on their feet again in no time.”
“Seems reasonable enough. Did we ever receive word of claim for those remains handed over to us from the mercenaries before the outbreak of hostilities?”
“The suspected special forces group? No, no one has contacted us yet in regards to them, though we have our suspicions as to whom they belong to. The Novajev made it public knowledge we had them anyway, if they are to be claimed, ideally it will be soon, especially now that hostilities have ceased, otherwise we will simply have to see to them ourselves.”
“I see then, very well, is there anything else we need to discuss?”
“I don’t believe so, unless someone else has something to add?”