Operation Swift Justice [Earth II] [Archive]

Cotland

17-09-2007, 02:08

[Secret IC]

The situation seemed unreasonable, but the Cottish had a card up their sleeve, something they had been saving for a rainy day. In Voronej, the capital of the Russian Federation, the Cottish embassy had started preparing for the worst when a short message from Oslo arrived. It made absolutely no sense to the communications officer, but he didn't need to understand the messages, even if they were just garbled letters. They were quickly delivered to the designated recipient. Five minutes later, one of the diplomat cars, a silver Mercedes S550 drove out into the streets and headed straight for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The car stopped in front of the main entrance to the Foreign Ministry, which had received a five-minute warning that someone important in the embassy wanted to meet someone on the highest levels of the Russian Foreign Ministry. They had been told that it was very important, so the Cottish hoped the Russians would take it seriously. They believed the Russians would do so, due to the current situation.

The recipient of the message stepped out of the Mercedes and headed into the building, dressed in a non-descript suit. Not that he wasn't distinguishable though. He was compact-built, bald and he looked mean, quite litterarily, but he had a diplomat passport and he carried an important message.

http://images.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz_images/tv2/programmes/the_shield/michael_chiklis_d.jpg

When he met with the Russians he had asked to meet, the man greeted him in perfect Russian, right down to the educated Voronej dialect with a synthax that schoolteachers would die to be able to teach their pupils.

After they had gotten into an office, the man who went under the name of Mr Hansen - little else was known about him - went straight to business.

"We have a bad situation spiraling rapidly out of control sir. Your nation seems intent on defending Pantheaa, which has fallen into chaos and anarchy. A commendable undertaking, but a foolish one. I don't call it a foolish one because you are going up against Cotland, but because you are defending those who try to undermine you from within."

Mr Hansen handed the Russian a 2GB USB 2.0 memory stick.

"On that memory stick, you will find but a few of the evidences we have to back our claims. We know that you know that Pantheaa double-crossed you when they chose the Cottish fighter jet instead of the Russian ones. But you don't know that the Pantheans were working in collaboration with one mister Kuzmich and his neo-nazi organization, right here in Voronej. Defending those who try to bring you down is a fool's errand.

Layarteb

18-09-2007, 04:46

September 17, 2007 - 21:00 [YAKST]
Chekurovka Air Force Base

Chekurovka was a major airfield in the Arctic and it was one of three airbases in the Realm of Cotland that the Imperial Layartebian Air Force operated from on a permanent basis. It had two runways, one as long as 11,500 feet and the other, parallel to it at a length of 8,500 feet. Protected by a Crow and AADRMS battery as well as several smaller, more mobile, and highly deadly LAADAS units, the airbase was home to fighters, medium bombers, and logistical aircraft. It was big enough to support strategic bombers but none were based there. Occasionally, B-9 Sphinx bombers would land there for refueling or for exercises but they weren't permanently based there. The Layartebian strategic bomber contingent in Cotland was based out of Yakutsk Air Force Base, which was 625 miles away. The good part about Chekurovka was that it was a short distance from the Arctic Ocean and it could provide back up for Layartebian ships and aircraft operating above the Arctic Circle. If an aircraft took off and headed north, it would be over the Arctic Ocean in just 200 miles, which was, at cruise speeds, about a half hour flight. At higher speeds it could be there in minutes.

The airbase saw activity throughout the day but when night fell, it saw even more activity. Sitting on the runway was one of the newest fighters in the ILAF, the F-49A Astaroth. It was a highly classified fighter that utilized ram-fan engines and wave-riding to achieve cruise speeds of Mach 3 and maximum speeds up to Mach 3.65. It had nothing but pure power and it could fly as far as two thousand miles and back on a single tank of gas. All of its weaponry was internal and it had four wing pylons to support fuel tanks but often they weren't carried since, the gain in range, per tank, was less than five percent. Often they would be carried just for taking off and then jettisoned soon after. In particular, the one sitting on the runway carried a pair of tanks for take off and waited there. In its two forward bays, the F-49 carried four AIM-204A Escape air to air missiles, two ASM-231A Comet, anti-satellite missiles, and six AIM-221A LRAAAM missiles.

The F-49 replaced the F-36 Thorn, which served as a long-range, high-altitude, high-speed interceptor. It was built on the YF-12 airframe and retired with the advent of the F-49, which was phenomenally more capable. They regularly patrolled within the territorial airspace of the Empire at high altitudes and subsonic speeds, making stealthier than the F-22 Raptor. They flew patrol routes near the Arctic Ocean and they often flew with payloads that included anti-satellite missiles. Since the F-49 entered service, so did the new and advanced ASM-231 Comet, which was extremely more capable than the ASM-135 ASAT, which was still in active service but being slowly phased out as time progressed. The F-49 brought raw power to the airframe. At maximum thrust, its two ram-fan engines put out 84,000 lb. of combined thrust. The fighter weighed, at maximum weight, 125,000 lb. However, it's normal weight rating for these missions was around 90,000 lb. This enabled the fighter to accelerate at phenomenal amounts of speed and, since it used ramjet engines, it was highly efficient at constant afterburner. Unfortunately, at higher Mach speeds, it traded away its stealthiness, although its sheer speed guaranteed that the chances of it being shot down were very, very low.

The F-49 was soon joined by a second and both aircraft took up a formation on the beginning of the runway. One aircraft staggered to the front and to the right and the other was slightly more behind and to the left of the center of the runway. "Ghost flight. You're cleared for take off." ATC radioed to the pilot lead and that was the command they had been waiting for, the command to go.

"Two. Run 'em up!"

"Two. Roger. Let's get in the air!"

"Roger that Two." The lead pilot gave the thumb's up to his RIO and pushed the throttles to the military setting, which would kick the engines up to full, non-afterburning power. The F-49 jolted forward and the second aircraft followed suit just ten seconds later and both aircraft screamed down the runway. Eventually, they lit the afterburners on their ram-fan engines. Since they were still subsonic, the turbofan components of their jets screamed to life and not the ramjets. Forty-three hundred feet later, both aircraft were climbing at 10° and retracting their landing gear. They would take up a patrol route inside of Cottish airspace at an altitude of 85,000 feet and 600 mph, high subsonic speed, using their stealth to hide them. Because of their paint job and the darkened, cloudy skies, they would be far from visual sight and they would fly a patrol sector that kept them, at all times, within Cottish airspace. It wasn't long before they dumped their tanks and these were specialized tanks. Once they disconnected from the aircraft, small parachutes deployed on the rear of them, enabling them to be recovered and reused. In addition, because falling fuel tanks proposed a major hazard, this was a safety measure. An air force team would pick them up shortly after they landed, using GPS to locate them.

Pushka

24-09-2007, 00:41

Voronej, Evenkia Okrug

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitry Gromov raised his eyebrows slightly as the Cottish representative handed him the flash drive. Without saying a word he took it and plugged it into his desktop, several seconds later he clicked on one of the flies and a picture emerged on the screen.

"Interesting...we will have to have our intelligence services take a closer look at this of course...however if this is infact true and your information checks out and the Panthean government cooperated with Peter Kuzmich and his lackeys, that would change our perspective on the situation drastically. I would like to commend your intelligence services it took us several years after the revolution until we figured out who Peter Kuzmich was and his role in the fall of the Union of Communist Republics. If that is all you may leave, I will send this information to the right people for further examination. If you are right, the enemy number one of the Russian Federation and what it stands for will be captured and that means you did the Federation a favor and the Federation will not forget that. Farewell."

Pushka

24-09-2007, 01:12

A Statement from The Russian Federation

It has come to our attention that the nation of Panthea has betrayed our trust by supporting a terrorist organization attempting to undermine us. As such we withdraw our membership from the GSO and will refrain from assisting the Pantheans against the Cottish, however we will retain our own claim to the majority of the Panthean territories since it is a hub for the terrorist organization that we are attempting to root out.

-Russian Federation Foreign Ministry

Cotland

24-09-2007, 12:19

Voronej, Evenkia Okrug, Russian Federation
September 17, 2007 - 11:50 [GMT]

The mysterious Mr. Hansen nodded and turned to leave. The meeting had lasted less than five minutes, but it had been an unprecedented success, as the Russian statement later that day proved. Hansen quickly departed the Russian Foreign Ministry, getting into the waiting Mercedes. However, it didn't go to the embassy. Instead, it went directly to the airport's diplomatic section, where a Gulfstream business jet owned by the Cottish government and under diplomatic protection was waiting. Less than ten minutes after he had arrived, the aircraft was barrelling down the runway, heading for Yarkutsk. Mr. Hansens...services were needed elsewhere in the world.

Near the Cottish-Panthean Border (Ivanovo/vladimir)
September 24, 2007 - 02:50 [GMT]

It was four days later, and the surge of troops had been completed. All troops had been briefed on the situation, the plan of action, their objectives, probably enemy dispositions, the reasons for carrying out the operation, and the consequences it would have for the Realm. All soldiers knew what was to happen and what was expected from them, and they were all determined not to let their fatherland down.

The reconnaissance flights over the Panthean lands had shown that whatever remained of the Panthean military had crumbled along with the government, leaving a state of total anarchy in its wake. The UAVs showed the once fearsome Panthean SAM sites to be deserted and in a state of disrepair. Panthean army bases and air bases were equally deserted. The photos of Cottish-made F-27 Sabel lightweight tactical fighters sitting on the tarmacs, rusting was a sign of what the Cottish had to prepare to go up against: Not a whole lot.

So, the troops prepared for the operation, codenamed Swift Justice, to commence. H-Hour was in about twenty-four hours time, and would start with a massive airborne and ground assault on the Panthean border villages and towns. The Cottish had orders to take no chances and to shoot first, but to try to avoid damaging the civilian infrastructure if it would be done without causing friendly casualties. In other words, the regiment, battalion, company, platoon and squad leaders had a very loose leash when it came to the use of force.

Nizhy Novrogod, Nizhy Novgorod Oblast
September 21, 2007 - 02:50 [GMT]
Top Secret IC

The Special Forces Command and the Intelligence Agency had already deployed personnel into Pantheaa, conducting long-range reconnaissance, mapping out what would need to happen where and the general attitude the populace had. The Pantheaan-Cottish relationship had been frosty at its peak, and there was bound to be a lot of resentment among the Panthean public against the Cottish invaders. It might just be the cause the people needed to reunite, which was definately not in Cotland's best interest. Something had to be done, and something was being done.

The plan was already put into motion, and the first target was the city of Nizhy Novgorod, which was the largest of the cities the Cottish would have to secure. It was the home of well over one point three million people, all of them probably hostile towards the Realm. With this reasoning, the powers that be had authorized this highly classified operation, which was being preformed without the knowledge of the majority of the Cottish government or military high command, giving the Cottish the benefits of plausible deniability.

A small, secret and elite strike team from the Cottish intelligence agency had infiltrated the local water distribution center and attached several small containers to the water reservoirs three days prior, setting them to dispense their contents quickly into the water flow. The entire city and large parts of the suburbs were serviced by this reservoir, so the effect would be almost total.

When people drank the water flowing from the reservoir, they had no idea that they had already been exposed to the contents of the containers, and that they had less than a week to live. Many had already started to feel the effects of the contents, experiencing high fever, severe headaches, pain in their muscles, joints and abdomens, nausea, sore throats and exhaustion - all the initial symptoms of influenza, which was what the doctors diagnosed the patients with first. Then, when the symptoms evolved to cause the patients to start vomitting blood, experience diarrhea with bloody feces, and blood-shot eyes, it was already far too late. Within three days, on September 21, the whole city had been infected. The first ones would start dying of the organ failure that the hemorrhaging virus eventually caused already the next day, from what the few remaining doctors would classify as Ebola, which had probably arrived from someone who had been on a trip to Africa recently - Ebola had an incubation period of between 2 and 21 days. Only, it wasn't Ebola, but the doctors couldn't know that.

It was infact a variation of Ebola, secretly developed by the Military Research Institute, which had bred the virus to be far more agressive, with an incubation period of one to two days, and with a lifespan of just three days before the organs would give in and fail, causing the patient to die. Fatality had been upped from the 50 - 80 % of the original Ebola to 93 - 96 %, making it even deadlier. The virus was ideal for an urban environment because it was so infectous, spreading quickly among the populace. It also had such a short lifespan, the virus dying within ten hours of the host dying, making it a good biological warfare agent. The virus had been codenamed CBX5, and was rated as a Level 4 Biohazard, the highest level available.

The virus would spread among the people in Nizhy Novgorod and its surroundings, infecting pretty much everyone before eventually dying out as it ran out of hosts to support itself, leaving in its wake a path of death and destruction, a deserted city for the Cottish to take over.

Similar operations were being considered for the other cities and towns that the Cottish would have to clear out, but the Intelligence Agency wanted to wait and see how effective it was on Nizhy Novgorod, which was codenamed Test Site 57. As far as the world - including Cotland - was concerned, Cotland had nothing to with this. Either it was a freak accident, with someone bringing it with them from Africa, or it was a Panthean biological warfare experiment that had been released to the public as a result of a lack of security after Pantheaa as a nation collapsed.

The world media would speculate that it was the latter when the news of the epedemic reached the outside world on September 24.

Pushka

25-09-2007, 05:39

OOC: You're poisoning civilians now? Wow you're an asshole, none of that shit better spread.

Cotland

25-09-2007, 13:30

[OOC: Relax, none of it will. And you don't know ICly that I did that. As far as the world is concerned, it was a Panthean bio-weapon that got released as a result of the anarchy that reigns there at the moment. :)]

The Cottish-Panthean Border
September 25, 2007 - 03:00 [GMT]

It was in the middle of the night when the first phase of Operation Swift Justice was completed, and the second one began. Reconnaissance parties, aircraft and sources within the former Panthean territory of Vladimir reported that there were no resistance elements that could pose any threat to the Cottish invasion force, pleasing the generals that commanded the invasion force. There was no need for a devestating artillery barrage or air strikes near the border, just like predicted. All they had to do was to enter the territories and claim their prize. The orders therefore went out to the battle-ready divisions to start their advance.

At the border crossings, the infantry approached first, weapons ready, moving quickly across the border crossings, ready for anything. The first official violation of the sovereignty of the former Panthean Kingdom occured at 03:02 AM, and was preformed by infantry from the Cottish Army's 105. Division. The infantry quickly secured the various border crossings and their surrounding area, opening the road for the main invasion force. Before long, the border crossings were alive with activity, with armored vehicles, trucks, artillery and personnel moving quickly through the territories and towards their initial objectives. A small force would secure the various villages and towns in the area while the main force moved along to secure the major cities. Very little resistance was met, with the only exceptions being foolhardy locals trying to oppose the Cottish with their weapons. They were quickly neutralized.

Meanwhile, as the rumor of a Cottish invasion spread down along the Panthean territories, the Intelligence operatives and Special Forces operatives were busy at work, undermining the local communities in various ways. Defeatist propaganda was being spread, local leaders and big-men were being clandestinely assassinated, and the infrastructure was sabotaged. Propaganda was also spread, claiming that the Cottish were on their way and that they would kill anyone they encountered, and that the local populace should therefore evacuate the area immediately. Many people did so, hastily packing their things and evacuating from their homes, making things a whole lot easier for the Cottish soldiers.

Six hours after the initial invasion, at 09:00 hours on September 25, all initial objectives had been captured, and a bridgehead 70 kilometers deep had been established. The Army had done well, but they still had a lot more work to do. There was still a lot of territory to capture, so as the Home Guards soldiers hooked up with the Army formations and took over responsibility for the area, the Army moved on, heading for territories that were quickly becoming devoid of people as the locals took heed to the propaganda and left.

Pineholt

25-09-2007, 15:36

Official statement from the Government of Pineholt:

"Following the collapse of Pantheaa, there have been many citizens in that country affected by hardship and poverty, as well as the lawlessness which is sweeping that area. Even though our country is the other side of the world, we understatnd that it is essential that this situation is rectified as soon as possible, and with that in mind, Pineholt proposes a multinational task force, led by Pineholt itself, and with troops from both The October Alliance, and the Russian Federation, as well as any other nations who wish to take part. Further conflict will only bring further misery to these people who have suffered so much. We can only hope that our proposal is at least considered by the other countries involved in this crisis."

Cotland

25-09-2007, 21:39

Official Statement from the Cottish Foreign Ministry

The Realm is aware of the current situation within the territories of the former Kingdom of Pantheaa, and is unwilling to let the current situation continue. Therefore, His Majesty's Council has directed the Royal Cottish Military to take necessary measures to restore peace and order to the Panthean territories within the practical range of the Royal Cottish Military's reach. We are currently involved in operations designed to reach this goal, and a foreign interference in our area of operations would be counter-productive as this may seriously disturbe our peace-restoring operations. This will in turn be unbeneficial for the local population that is in desperate need of help.

Layarteb

26-09-2007, 05:49

OOC: 'Test Site 57' huh? The Empire abhors the defamation of the number '57' and will unleash a thousand Metrons [I bet you're wondering what that is and it's sekrit] on you!

Cottish forces breached the Pantheaan border early on the morning of the 25th of September. The Empire had been carefully watching the development, which, in effect, saw a total end to the GSO alliance when the Russian Federation withdrew. Just as VCO had gone so had GSO and the Empire remained solid as did the October Alliance. Once again, there could be a sort of peace in the world as tensions between two alliances: one dominating and one poking, could not continue. When word of an epidemic in Nizhy Novrogod broke on September 24, bells and alarms went off. All outward signs pointed to Ebola hemorrhagic fever, which was not native to the Russian landscape. It had to have come from Africa, where it was native in places such as Zaire, Sudan, and the Tai Forest. Health organizations in those regions worked hard to suppress the disease and quarantined villages and monkeys suspected of being infected so how was it that it got all the way to the cold climate in Russia?

Speculation ran wild. It could have been a biological experiment gone haywire, the use of a biological weapon by insurgent Pantheaan forces or perhaps the Russians or the Cottish, or it could have just been a case of one infected individual getting out and going there. There were a lot of possibilities. The Empire had a biological weapons program although any knowledge of it was completely secret but the Ministry of Intelligence figured the same to be for both the Cottish and the Russians. Denial was crucial to the survival of such programs. Given territorial claims and what not it was likely that any major nation with an advanced biological weapons program had access to Ebola samples. Pantheaa wasn't exactly a major nation nor was it suspected of having any biological weapons program, let alone an advanced one. Still, without proof, there was no way of knowing and the Empire had no desire to find out either.

The Empire put out a worldwide alert to all travelers, embassies, and consulates, especially those in the area and in areas known to have Ebola outbreaks. While they did, civilian organizations such as the Center for Disease Control and groups within the Ministry of Health did research and worked to ensure that the virus would never encroach upon Layartebian borders. The CDC was the most important and the most capable. They had once been a part of the Layartebian government but when private investors wished to advance it beyond governmental means, it was let go, giving rise to a very powerful, very wealthy, and very global organization.

For now, the Empire would just watch and hope that the virus did not spread. It would take every precaution but it would not interfere with the Cottish or the Russians in their endeavor to dismantle the former Pantheaan nation-state.

Cotland

27-09-2007, 12:19

September 27, 2007 - 06:15 AM [Local]
Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

It was just before daybreak on the fourth day of the virus outbreak, and the entire population were struck down by the virus. The hospitals were clogged, and the society was quickly crumbling as people fell ill and were unable to do their jobs. By now, even the doctors and nurses that had worked so valiantly to try to save the lives of the dying were succumbing to the Illness, as it was called by the locals, which meant that there was little hope of finding any cure for the Illness.

The Illness meant that very few people in or near Nizhy Novgorod, which had now become a de facto quarantine zone among the local population, heard the many aircraft that soared over the city, let alone saw them. It was probably all for the best.

The many planes overhead belonged to the Royal Cottish Air Force, and carried with them the elements of the Royal Cottish Army's 9. Airborne Division, elements of the Royal Cottish Air Force's 23. Airbase Defense Regiment, and elements of the Special Forces' 435. Special Battalion (HJK). All the men were dressed in jump gear, ready to conduct what for most the soldiers would be their first combat jump.

As the large aircraft - T-35A Slegge and T-31A Kondor - came over their drop zones, the aircraft started disgourging soldiers and equipment, dropping hundreds of soldiers every minute. Escorting the aircraft were JA-23A Demon fighters and A-16A Torden ground attack aircraft, which provided overwatch for the paratroopers, airmen and special forces operators as they decended towards the ground.

As the soldiers reached the ground, they quickly gathered up their jump gear and got out their weapons before heading for the rendezvous-point where they would link up with the rest of their unit. The Cottish paratroopers had been deployed in a manner that would have the various battalions control a certain sector, which would give the Cottish an iron ring around the destroyed city.

The soldiers all wore NBC protection gear, making them look rather fearsome and intimidating, and they had standing orders not to drink the local water, and to stop anyone attempting to both enter and leave the city. The paratroopers knew of the disease that was ravaging inside, and they had been ordered to seal off the city to prevent it from spreading. The paratroopers had also been warned of how they could get infected by the decease, and what the results would be. It was with this information in mind that they would quickly and effectively shoot anyone attempting to leave the city.

Meanwhile, the soldiers from the Air Force were busy securing the local airport, also dressed in NBC gear. They had to make sure that the airport was devoid of any life and that the runways and all the other stuff on the airports were intact and operational before they could declare the airport open for business for the Royal Cottish Air Force again.

Two hours and half a magazine later, the airport was declared empty and cleared. There had been a few persons suffering from the Illness in the basement of the main terminal building, and while they hadn't been able to do much, the Cottish airmen still hadn't taken any chances. A series of 6.7x53mm bullets had put them out of their suffering quickly and effectively before the airmen had closed the door again and labeled it dangerous to enter. They would be back in a day or so to collect the bodies so they could be disposed of in a more suitable manner.

At twelve noon, the airport was declared open for business for the Air Force, meaning that the heavy equipment that couldn't be airdropped could be airlifted in. Already, several Kondor heavy transports were ready to airlift the IFVs and tanks to Nizhny Novgorod. The Cottish forces near Nizhny Novgorod now numbered 20 000 boots on the ground, along with most of the equipment and vehicles.

They would remain outside the city proper though, as they had been informed that the virus would ravage on for at least one more day before it would die out. At that time, the Cottish would move into the city, the men from HJK leading the advance, with the Paras following. If they came across people that had been infected by the illness and who were still alive, they were to take no chances. In such an occurence, they would put the people out of their misery, quickly, efficiently and without pain.

"Because," As one officer said to his soldiers near the checkpoint where the soldiers had entrenched themselves, "You won't be murdering them, contrary to what some of you might think. You will be merciful in relieving them of their pains and sufferings. They wouldn't show you the same mercy, but we aren't like them. We are merciful."

September 27, 2007 - 15:12 [Local]
Ryazan-Vladimir border

Three days after the invasion had started, the first troops reached the territorial border between Vladimir and Ryazan oblasts. Behind them, the Cottish had mostly encountered deserted areas, devoid of human life after the locals had fled in fear of the Cottish Army. Most of them had journeyed south, into Ryazan, but here too people were fleeing according to the intelligence sources. The only people the Cottish had encountered had been the few people who had been too stubborn to leave, and the Cottish intelligence officers and special forces soldiers that had operated behind enemy lines. It was estimated that some 75 % of the population in Vladimir had fled south, leaving some 537 000 people in the area. These people had to be controlled, and that meant an occupation force.

Fortunately, the Cottish Army had forseen this problem, and it had already started recruitment of forces that would provide forces to carry out the occupation. It meant increasing the conscription quotas and the budgets a little, but the Cottish had plenty of people to chose from, and the money wasn't a problem either. The soldiers in question were already in training, and they would be ready to take over responsibility in the new territories within the start of the new year. Until then, the Home Guard would have to hold the fort, which they managed very well.

Martial law had been instituted when the Cottish first took over the administrative center of Vladimir two days ago, it being the last of the major cities in Vladimir that the Cottish raised their flag over, and anyone caught out in the streets after darkness fell would be shot. Most of the Home Guardsmen here hailed from Kostroma, and had seen action earlier that year when the Nerotikan pigs, these people's allies, attacked. They had seen action before, quite a few of them in Sharya, and they knew full well what the Nerotikans and the Pantheans would do in their place. Instead of a tooth for a tooth, the Cottish Home Guardsmen would just shoot the trespassers and be done with it. Quickly, simple and effectively.

The Cottish paused on the Vladmimir-Ryazan border, allowing the forces to catch up with them before moving further. The overall commander wanted to maintain the strength of the iron fist, and there was little need to rush.

Two corps were going to enter Ryazan, while the third regular army Corps was going to enter Nizhny Novgorod to assist the paratroopers. More regular army forces, volunteer Home Guard and even some Royal Marine forces were being mobilized further north in Arkhangelsk and prepared to move south, to reinforce the forces already in the newly occupied territories.

This was quickly becoming one of the most ambitious undertakings of the Cottish Military, rivalling the invasion of Siberia a few years ago.

Pineholt

27-09-2007, 16:30

OOc- So I can give me Government's response, how much exactly would I know about this ICly?

Cotland

27-09-2007, 17:08

OOC: You'll know that Pantheaa has collapsed into anarchy, that a substantial Cottish armed force have invaded the territories bordering our territories and penetrated deep into their territories, and that a lot of people are fleeing towards the south. You also know that there's a decease spreading in Nizhny Novgorod, but the buzz is that its a Panthean WMD that's been exposed (the Cottish are spreading this propaganda SICly). You don't know about the Cottish forces around Nizhny Novgorod (yet). That work for you?

Layarteb

28-09-2007, 03:00

OOC: Let me know if this is eh but I'm basing it on what you posted as what you've found.

As the Cottish military pushed into Pantheaan territory, largely unopposed, the Ministry of Intelligence kept its eyes open and watched. The highly classified KH-14 ICARUS-A satellite orbiting over the area was providing real-time imagery of the area. It had enough cameras and enough capabilities to watch both the Cottish and the Russians advance into Pantheaan territory. MOI officials often remarked that the partnership engineered between the Cottish and the Russians that avoided each other was something very fragile that could, at any moment, dissipate like a clogged tornado.

Overhead, orbiting at over 375 miles over the Earth's surface, the stealthy and extremely classified, unknown ICARUS satellite had watched Pantheaan civilians, now refugees, flee to the south, to Ryazan although, as Cottish forces got even closer to the area, the refugees fled again. Everything obtainable was passed on to the Cottish intelligence agency. Reconnaissance was done on the Russians just as well as satellites replaced each other. When ICARUS satellites weren't available, KH-13 EIS satellites were and even then some IKON and IMPROVED CRYSTAL satellites were. The Ministry of Intelligence maintained a satellite over the area at any given point in time, to provide full detail of the battle as it raged. Due to their stealth abilities, they were difficult to detect, if even at all by any means of detection. They were passive and provided communications to the Layartebians through a different method than most satellites did, a method that kept the signal off any sort of linear and expected path. Sometimes they were bounced low to other satellites, sometimes they were bounced high. Encryption maintained that such signals were nearly impossible to crack although, with time, anything could be done, which was why the Layartebian MOI constantly altered encryption codes with keys so long that if one was cracked it would take so long that thousands of millions of other keys could possibly have been used by then.

As the Cottish pushed inward, the Ministry of Defense activated the 9th Foreign Legion Regiment. They would be moved from Quebec and, if the Cottish approved, provide rear guard protection while the Cottish pushed deeper into Pantheaan territory. At the same time, the 9th Quick Reaction Force, which specialized in peacekeeping operations, were activated and could be tasked with assisting the Cottish with peacekeeping operations. All of this was pending Cottish approval, of course but, for the time being, they were all placed on immediate standby. The Foreign Legion would require a few days to deploy in full with helicopters but could be there as quickly as the Quick Reaction Force could be, although much more limited. They would have basic armor support but that was about it aside from what the men brought with them into combat.

As the war raged in the former Pantheaan Republic, the Layartebians were plotting on their own as the former Amazonian Republic was turning into what the Yucatán had been prior to the invasion of the remainder of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Cotland

29-09-2007, 14:41

The Layartebian offer to send assisting forces was considered by the Cottish, and after a short discussion, approved for deployment to the newly occupied territories. The Layartebians would send two elite units, the 9th Regiment "Comhghall Regiment" of the Foreign Legion and the 9th Quick Reaction Force, a regiment-sized formation consisting of ex-Special Forces soldiers that had been especially recruited for the unit according to the information that the Intelligence Agency possessed. The Cottish had operated alongside both the Foreign Legion and the QRF before, and were well aware of their capabilities and skill. All in all, the Layartebian contingient, already labelled as the Layartebian Brigade by the Cottish generals, would be a good addition to the occupation force.

On the early morning of the 28th, two Cottish divisions had entered Ryazan, employing the Blitzkrieg-tactics that had been so effective so far. The reconnaissance vehicles and helicopters were leading the advance, checking roads and routes that the Cottish could use to get to their objectives, and reporting back to the rest of the forces that followed. It was here that a AH-11B Reaper reconnaissance helicopter discovered the first signs of organized resistance in the form of a group of armed individuals busy at work, hauling newly cut logs into the road inside the heavily forested area. The Reaper switched to its thermal imaging, and discovered an additional twenty individuals inside the forest, clearly preparing for an ambush. The Cottish Army was less than ten kilometers away, and this road was the most viable option for reaching the objective. A regiment of the 108. Division was supposed to move through this road in less than half an hour.

Obviously, the Cottish had little interest in risking the lives of nearly two thousand soldiers, and they most certainly had the means to handle the situation. The regiment in question was ordered to stop and assume defensive positions for the time being while Command started co-ordinating the first major attack of the campaign. A flight of three JA-23A Demon multirole fighters, each loaded with two LLM.41A Arbiter medium-range air to air missiles and two LLM.42A Archer short-range air to air missiles in the two ventral bays, six LBM.26B Savage anti-tank missiles inside the centerline bay, two PB.1B 250 kilogram laser-guided bombs, four FB.1B 250 kilogram unguided iron bombs, and four FB.2B 250 kilogram incendiary bombs filled with Thermite-TH3 plasma mounted underneath the wings, were vectored in to conduct a bombing run while two 155mm self-propelled howitzer batteries of six howitzers each loaded their barrels with high-explosive rounds, raised the barrels to the correct elevation, and waited for the order to open fire.

Two minutes later, the Demons were on station and ready to start their bombing run. The regiment's commander, a Colonel, nodded approvingly to the sergeant manning the radio connecting the regiment's M65A2 Arrow command vehicle with the artillery, who relayed the order to open fire.

The Haubits self-propelled howitzers all fired in sequence, making sure that the twelve shells would detonate virtually instantly, achieving total surprise. While the shells were still in the air, the artillerymen were already busy reloading their guns, preparing for the second volley. It took the twelve shells a little under five seconds to traverse the 9 700 meters from the artillery batteries to the ambush point, travelling at a speed of 1 996.44 meters per second. The shells detonated in the air five meters over the ambush zone, spreading deadly shrapnel that ravaged the would-be rebels. Seventeen seconds later, the next volley detonated, causing more havoc.

The havoc had just gotten started though, as the Demons were approaching, coming in low and fast, moving in a tight triangle formation. The sleek, gray-painted aircraft would have looked menacing to anyone who had survived the artillery barrage, but if they looked now, it would be the last thing they saw. The reason was simple. As the Demons came over the target zone, each released two of their FB.2B incendiary bombs and pulled up steeply, letting the bombs fall to the ground. At the optimum altitude, the bomb released its deadly payload. The small bomblets filled with Thermite plasma spread out and connected with the oxygen, and the ensuing chemical reaction caused the whole area to burst into flames, burning at 5 000° Celcius. The whole ambush area was turned into a sea of intensely hot flames, and anyone who might have survived the artillery barrage met death in the form of the flames. Fortunately for them, death was instant, their bodies being incendirated along with the rest of the area.

The Reaper helicopter returned over the bombed out area a little later when the Thermite had burned out, extinguished partially by the rain that had started, and determined that the attack had been 100 % successful. There was nothing left alive down there, and the roadblock that the would-be rebels had been building was gone. The road was clear for the regiment to move through.

Twenty minutes later, the Cottish soldiers moved through the area, the soldiers watching in shock and awe at the damages caused by their Air Force and artillery as they drove through the burned-out area. Very little remained, save for some charred remains of trees and bones. It was a powerful scene for the soldiers, who were experiencing a new-found respect. None of them had seen combat before, and it was a grim first experience, especially when they passed by a badly burned body lying in the road in the outskirts of the bombed area. For those who hadn't understood that this wasn't a big field trip yet, that sight made them understand that this was a shooting war, despite what the politicians and generals said, and that people were dying.

*******

On September 29th, the danger for being contaminated was considered to be minimal, and the paratroopers were ordered to advance into Nizhny Novgorod for the first time since arriving here a little over 48 hours ago. The Special Forces soldiers had moved into the city already the previous day, dressed in full NBC protection gear, and started gathering information for the Intelligence Agency, and started finishing off those who had been infected and still weren't dead. Still, with a fatality rate of 96 %, in a city of 1.3 million people, there were still 52 000 people who would survive the infection. That was more people than the Special Forces soldiers had bullets, so they couldn't just shoot them. They could ask the Paras to start shooting them, but that would bring unwanted attention to the clandestine operation.

Fortunately the cover-up operation had considered this possibility, and a team from the Intelligence Agency had already looked up a Panthean Army bunker outside the city of Bor, right on the other side of the river Volga, less than a kilometer from Nizhny Novgorod, that they knew about from before and planted the necessary objects that would help sell the cover story. When all the necessary evidences had been planted, all they had to do was to send an "anonymous tip" to the Paratroopers, who sent a platoon to investigate.

The platoon quickly located the bunker entrance and entered, their weapons ready for anything. The bunker was dark and silent, making it a very eerie place to be. The paras were uncomfortable being there, but it had to be checked out. Half an hour later, the paras struck gold as they entered the place the intelligence team had departed only twelve hours prior. The room contained several documents and warning signs written in Panthean, and detailed parts of a biological weapons program that concerned something about a modified Ebola virus as far as one of the sergeants who spoke Pantheaan could figure out. They also found three canisters marked with the letters PBW1 and a biohazard warning in Panthean. There were evidences of at least one more canister having been located there not long ago.

The message was quickly relayed up the chain of command, and the platoon was reinforced with the rest of its company and a NBC team who determined that yes, there were bioweapons inside those canisters. The information was relayed to the necessary authorities.

Five hours later, the Royal Cottish Military made an official announcement to the world's medias.

Earlier today, a Panthean military bunker was discovered by the 9. Airborne Division outside the city of Nizhny Novgorod. During the search of the bunker, a substantial amount of weapons-grade biological materials were discovered. Analysis of the weapon is not yet completed, but it is believed that the decease outbreak in Nizhny Novgorod originated here.

Further information will be made public as it becomes available.

Layarteb

29-09-2007, 23:56

With the Cottish seal of approval both the QRF and the Foreign Legion elements, which stood ready to move, were. They boarded C-26 Condors and C-29 Titans and flew half-way around the world, their equipment in tow. They would fly and land just north of the Pantheaan Exclusion Zone, which it was being called, often shortened simply to "PEZ," drawing similarities to a popular sugar candy. Both elements would reinforce the border and, if necessary, descend into the PEZ, which consisted only of former Pantheaan territories. The Foreign Legion would hang back for now, using their larger size and more static firebase as their resting grounds, which would be several miles from the PEZ border. The QRF, on the other hand, could quickly and easily descend into the PEZ without support. If necessary, the Foreign Legion would have attack helicopters to assist them and to provide reinforcements if it was absolutely necessary.

Soviet Trasa

30-09-2007, 00:54

-Trensk, a Underground Facility somwhere in Estonia-Province-

Peter Hirgov, the 'puppeteer' of Trensk read through the reports from the Council with a disturbed frown, their neighbors according to these reports are fighting over the former Panthean territories, one of them was exceptionally close to their borders, a 'land-grab' according to TIN (Trensk Intelligence Network).

His office was located undergound, his 'windows' behind him nothing more than large screens showing a cold and snowed in meadow, it seemed almost real enough to touch if it wasn't for logic, the walls were cold steel reinforced by Concrete behind them, giving the walls a 'smooth look', the floors were smooth with the Emblem of a Black and White Umbrella upon the floor infront of the desk, the door was also metal which slid into the wall when when approched, it acomplishes this by the way of Motion Sensors built into the door.

Peter sighed, brushing a hand through his short blonde hair while he shut his icey-blue eyes, he then folded his hands upon his Ceder wood desk and smirked.

Perhaps this could someday work to his advantage...He decided that they would not enter this 'landgrab', instead they would continue to train and arm their Forces while they weakened theirs with conflict...Perhaps...a unique opportunity would present itself....

Cotland

30-09-2007, 19:04

As the Cottish Army advanced further into Ryazan, they started meeting increasingly fiercer resistance. At first, the Army encountered poorly equipped militia, armed mostly with hunting shotguns and rifles, posing a very small threat to the Cottish. These were disposed of quickly. However, as the Cottish progressed further and further into Ryazan, they started encountering better equipped and organized resistance, culminating in a rather large battle at the city of Spassk-Ryazansky, which was situated on the shores of Lake Spasskoye, some 55 kilometers southeast of the city of Ryazan, which other elements of the Cottish Army were approaching.

The situation was surreal for the Cottish commanders. They were not only facing opposition, but well equipped opposition. The enemy soldiers - they were too well organized and equipped to be called rebels or insurgents - were equipped with what seemed to be old Panthean weapons. The UAVs that were flying over the city showed forces dressed in old camo uniforms, armed with SA80A2 rifles, RPK machine guns, some RPG-7 and RPG-29s, and a number of Leopard 2A4 tanks and BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles. There were also a small number of 105mm howitzers set up to provide artillery support for the fighting forces, and men armed with what seemed like FIM-92 Stingers were arranged throughout the city. There were a few ZPU-2 double-barreled 14.5mm anti-aircraft guns mounted around the city as well. The Cottish estimated that there were some 4 000 combatants inside the city, which had been the home of some 8 500 people before the collapse of Pantheaa. It was unlikely to be many civilians in the city.

Opposing these forces were a Cottish infantry regiment with vehicle, air and artillery support, numbering 1 572 infantry divided into three battalions of 524 soldiers, or twelve companies of 128 soldiers each along with three two-man sniper teams and six five-man mortar teams per regiment. The company could be further broken down into three rifle platoons of 32 soldiers each, armed with rifles, light machine guns and a 84mm recoilless rifle per each of the four squads, and one support platoon with four support squads, each containing two anti-tank teams equipped with the Javelin anti-tank missile, an advanced marksman team, and a GPMG team armed with a 7.62x51mm light machine gun. All in all, a single Cottish company had a substantial amount of firepower and training, and could easily defeat an enemy more than twice its own size. With twelve companies, the Cottish were confident in success.
Supporting the infantry were, in terms of artillery, two howitzer-batteries of six 155mm M52A2 Haubits self-propelled howitzers each, one rocket artillery battery containing six M56A2 Dragon MLRS vehicles, each with 40 227mm rockets ready. The Cottish had a substantial number of APCs, IFVs and armored trucks equipped with heavy machine guns, and for the M70A1 Dragoon IFVs, anti-tank missiles, a mighty 35mm chaingun, and a non-lethal Directed Energy Weapon. A small number of self-propelled 120mm mortars also supported the regiment. No tanks had been assigned to the regiment for this attack, but if needed, they could be diverted to support.

In terms of air power, some helicopters from the Division's Aviation Brigade had been tasked with supporting them. More specifically, eight AH-10B Stalkers, four AH-11B Reapers, three RU-43A Shadow UAVs, and eight HH-17A Lord utility helicopters, for MEDEVAC and insertion purposes. Additionally, the Air Force had tasked a flight of six JA-23A Demons, equipped like the ones from the assault on the initial ambush point, and four A-16A Torden close air support aircraft, which were an evolved version of the venerable A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft which had served the Royal Cottish Air Force in the past.

The Cottish had already issued an ultimatum to the defenders of Spassk-Ryazansky to lay down their weapons and surrender within six hours, and gave all civilians until then to get the hell out of Dodge before it was too late.

Six hours later, the defenders came with their reply, written in Panthean. When it was translated, there could be no question about what the defenders' intention was.

"Fuck off."

The Cottish Army had spent the past six hours detailing where the enemy defenders were located, choke points, artillery positions, et cetera, and all that had been put to good use. The artillery and air assets had all their munitions earmarked for the specific targets, and they were ready to start using the munitions. At exactly six hours and eleven minutes after the ultimatum had been issued, the orders to begin opening fire was given.

The ground shook as the twelve howitzers started opening fire in unison, sending precision-guided 155mm projectiles towards the enemy. At the same time, the six MLRS vehicles, positioned on a hillside twenty kilometers away from the city started unleashing their deadly payload.

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Within a minute, over forty 155mm projectiles and two hundred and forty 227mm rockets had been fired, and were starting to spread havoc inside the city. It was estimated that the first volley, which targetted the troop formations, artillery, command posts and air defense locations the Cottish had discovered, killed well over 400 enemy combatants right off the bat.

As the MLRS crews reloaded fresh rockets into their launch tubes, a process that took between five and fifteen minutes, depending on how much they rushed themselves, the tubed artillery continued firing precision shells into Spassk, making each shell count. While the artillery fired, the Demons and Tordens entered the fray, moving into the city, firing missiles and dropping bombs at the designated targets, dropping chaff and flares like crazy to avoid getting targetted by the Stinger teams, most of whom had taken cover as a result of the devestating artillery barrage.

Meanwhile, the infantry had taken up blocking positions to keep the enemy contained inside city, and were dug in while they awaited the orders to move into the city. The Cottish strategy was simple: Keep the enemy contained until you're ready to move in. That was exactly what the Cottish were doing, digging in and preparing themselves. The enemy would probably try to break out during the night, as this was the only viable option. Any attempt of crossing over Lake Spasskoye would be countered by the Cottish aircraft that sunk anything on the lake.

Tonight, the soldiers relaxed as best they could while still keeping alert, because when the artillery and air strikes ended tommorrow morning, they would be entering the city to finish off the opposition.

Layarteb

01-10-2007, 02:15

As Cottish forces bombarded Spassk-Ryazansky with artillery of all sorts, the Layartebian forces, which included just the 9th QRF and the 9th regiment of the Foreign Legion, set up their base several miles northeast of Obedova, a town on the southern border between Ivanovo and Vladimir, which was part of the PEZ. The base wasn't very large but had enough room for the wide array of aircraft that had been deployed with them: 4 AH-101A Mayan attack helicopters, 6 AH-6M Little Bird assault helicopters, 4 RAH-70A Arapaho reconnaissance helicopters, 8 UH-96A Panther utility helicopters, 2 MQ-5B Hunter UAVs, 3 MQ-8C Fire Scout UAVs, and 2 RQ-16A Soaring Eagle UAVs. Fighting was much, much further to the south. Spassk-Ryazansky was about 180 miles away, far enough that the smoke couldn't be smelled and the screams couldn't be heard. The Layartebian mandate to the area did not include active combat operations. It included reinforcing the border. If the Cottish requested, they could enter the PEZ and provide protection to their rear flank but that wasn't a likely case. They were there for two reasons, reinforcements and to show that the Layartebian Empire was committed to defending the Cottish Realm, especially if the Russian Federation got too overzealous and pushed into Cottish controlled territory.

Cotland

01-10-2007, 10:18

The night was supposed to be dark, but the constant artillery shelling and the occational rockets and bombs going off inside Spassk-Ryazansky lit up the night in an eerie orange glow, making it difficult for the infantrymen to sleep. Instead, many sat in their foxholes and trenches and just watched, awestruck by the dedicated destruction of the city and its defenders.

Suddenly, a soldier manning one of the many light machine guns that had been established along the barrier zone noticed some movement in the edge of his sector. Grabbing the light-amplifying night vision binoculars, he looked in the direction of the movement and searched the area methodically. There! He saw a group of people, maybe twenty of them, moving in a loose formation, all crouching and all clasping a weapon, mostly SA80A2 assault rifles. Tapping the loader and the spotter on their shoulders, waking them from their light slumber, the soldier quickly and quietly informed them of what he had seen before preparing his weapon to fire. The group was about nine hundred meters away, well within range of the machine gun, which was a modified FN MAG machine gun, firing 7.62x51mm rounds towards the enemy at a speed of 850 meters per second to an effective range of 1 200 meters. Nine hundred meters was no problem for the machine gun crew, who were well trained and proficient in the use of their weapon. The spotter pressed the button on his radio that connected his helmet-mounted microphone to the encrypted radio net.

”Dette er 3-7 Golf til 9. Fiendtlig bevegelse i vår sektor, avstand ni hundre. Anmoder om tillatelse til å engasjere fi. Kom.” [This is 3-7 Golf to 9. Enemy movement in our sector, range 900. Requesting permission to engage enemy. Over.]

”9 til 3-7 Golf. Mottatt. Rapporter fis styrke. Kom.” [9 to 3-7 Golf. Roger. Report enemy force. Over.] The battalion commander, codenamed 9 on the battalion frequency (company commander was 6), requested a few seconds later.

”3-7 Golf til 9. Anslår fis styrke til rundt tjue mann. To null mann, lett bevæpnet. Kom.” [3-7 Golf to 9. Estimate enemy force to roughly twenty men. Two zero men, lightly armed. Over.]

”9 til 3-7 Golf. Mottatt. Tillatelse til å engasjere fi er gitt. Rapporter tilbake når fi er nøytralisert. God jakt. Klart slutt.” [9 to 3-7 Golf. Roger. Permission to engage enemy is granted. Report back when enemy has been neutralized. Good hunting. Over and out.]

The lingo was cold and distanced, but the message was very clear, and all three men manning the machine gun post had heard the whole exchange along with anyone else in the battalion that were awake. Along the line, those who had been awake were quietly waking up those who had managed to fall asleep, telling them that something was about to happen before preparing themselves. Along the line of three sectors, each held by one platoon, soldiers prepared themselves. A virtual wall of DR-83M Tactical Rifles, DMG-83 Squad Light Machine Guns and assorted other weapons were facing the enemy and prepared, the soldiers just waiting for 3-7 Golf to open fire. They had called it in, and they were entitled to take the first shots.

In the MG position, the three men were ready now. The spotter had a good location on the targets, which were now eight hundred and forty meters away. The loader stood ready to feed the 200-round belt to the machine gun, and had another nine 200-round belts ready and waiting, just in case. The gunner, the man who was going to do the actual shooting, pressed the buttstock firmly to his shoulder and braced himself for the beating the shoulder was about to receive, despite the padding of his tactical vest and uniform, while making the final adjustments. He had a small scope fitted to the machine gun, making it a little easier to aim, and he had the finger firmly placed on the trigger guard, to prevent any misfire. With his thumb, the soldier flipped the switch and took the weapon from the Safety mode to the Fully Automatic firing mode. It was first now that he placed the finger on the trigger and took a deep breath while keeping the formation of men firmly in his scope. Holding his breath, the soldier pulled the trigger.

A sharp, barking sound rattled over the plains as the soldier fired an initial burst of seven rounds into the group of people, taking down three of the figures in the initial burst. The powerful full-metal jacketed 7.62x51mm round had an incredible penetrating and stopping power, and killed two of the three instantly. The rest of the men trying to make their way out of the doomed city all hit the deck, but not before another one succumbed to the relentless fire from the Cottish machine gun. The people were confused right now, but they did the only thing they could. They stuck to the prone position, making it far more difficult for the machine gun to reach them, and they tried to return fire to the place where the tracer rounds came from. Unfortunately, their 5.56x45mm SS109 rounds didn’t even reach as far as the Cottish positions, having an effective range of less than 500 meters. The only thing the hapless defenders did was to expose themselves to the rest of the Cottish Army.

A spotter for the battalion’s 81mm mortars saw the muzzle flashes from the pinned down defenders, and decided it was time for the mortar crews to join the fight. Radioing in the coordinates, he watched through the binoculars at the small firefight in the field while the five-man crews of each of the two 81mm mortars made all the preperations to open fire. Finally, they were ready. The loader took the heavy explosive mortar projectile and held it over the mortar’s barrel, waiting for the right time before letting go of the projectile and quickly ducking to avoid the warm exhaust gasses and fireflash of the mortar fire.

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The mortars had a range of over five thousand meters, meaning that reaching the enemy positions was no problem for the 4.5 kilogram high-explosive projectile. The subsequent explosion was rather gratifying for the Cottish soldiers, who cheered as the two mortar projectiles exploded just about where the muzzle flashes came from.

The machine gun ceased fire when the mortars started shooting, a little annoyed that they wouldn’t get to defeat the enemy themselves, but still pleased with the knowledge that they had disabled at least five of the twenty enemies.

Another six mortar rounds were fired before the order to cease fire was given and one of the infantry squads was ordered to conduct a patrol to see if they got them all. If there were still anyone alive, they were to try their best to take them prisoner. So, an infantry squad of eight men wandered off into the field, carefully covered by the rest of the soldiers.

The squad had spread out and were quietly approaching the area when suddenly one soldier noticed movement. His DR-83M was on the shoulder instantly, and looking through the night vision goggles, he saw a person crawling away from the mortared area. With another soldier covering him, the man quickly crossed the distance to the crawler. As he came closer, the soldier saw that the man was unarmed and lacking one foot, which seemed to have been blown off the leg, judging from the uneven edges of bone and burned flesh.

Placing a leg on the wounded enemy’s back and the muzzle of the DR-83M at the base of his head, the soldier ordered the man to stop. If he knew Cottish or not was uncertain, but he stopped what he was doing and kept completely still. Radioing the rest of the squad, he informed them that he had captured one enemy, but that the enemy needed a medic right away.

It didn’t take long. A medic from the trenches came running up to the wounded enemy within minutes, and immediately got to work, assessing the man’s wounds and patching him up enough so he would make it to an aid station. The man, who was in his late teens or early twenties, had lost a lot of blood and the leg wound had been filled with dirt due to the crawl, so the medic did what he could. First, he took out one of the Triple Cross emergency aid sprays (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12767622&postcount=31) and sprayed the entire wound with the cocktail of antiseptics, coagulants, and anesthetics, stopping the bleeding, relieving some of the pain, and stopping any risk of infection to the wound. Then, he took out a bandage and made a tourniquet over the stump, effectively stopping the wound from being an issue for now. Then, he took out a small bag of blood plasma and fixed a quick IV into the man’s arm and started replacing some of the lost blood. It was first now that he could address the less serious issues, starting with taking an AirPen (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12767633&postcount=33) and giving the wounded man some relief from the pain. Not much, but just enough so the pains would subside to a more manageable level. The man was an enemy, yes, but he was also a wounded person in need of help, and that was all the medic cared about right now.

With the man patched up, the medic gave the go-ahead for him to be moved back to the Cottish lines. With him zip-tied and carried between two Cottish soldiers, with the medic carrying the IV and a third soldier keeping his rifle firmly placed at the man’s spinal cord to keep him in check, the group made its way back to the lines, past the defensive perimeter, and directly to the battalion aid station. Here, the military police took over custody of the enemy, who was now considered to be a prisoner, and took him away. He’d spend the next couple of days in a Cottish field hospital where he’d receive surgery for his wounds and rest a little before the interrogations would start.

The second prisoner the infantry hauled out of the plains was less fortunate. He was unwounded, and was wise enough to surrender when he first saw the infantry, unlike his friend next to him who was shot dead when he tried to aim his SA80 on the advancing infantry. He was zip-tied and frog-marched back to the lines, where he too was handed over to the military police. Unlike his friend, this man was taken directly to an abandoned building further north where the division’s intelligence officers were waiting for him. He had a long couple of days ahead of him, with minimal food and drink, no sleep, and interrogation techniques that in some cases were but a hair away from being torture, something which was illegal in the Realm.

With the night skirmish over, the Cottish lines returned to an uneasy rest. Tomorrow was just a few short hours away. Then, the Cottish regiment would advance into the city and clear it.

Layarteb

02-10-2007, 03:47

Sasovo was a city unlike any other in Ryazan except for two things. The Cottish had not arrived there yet and their population remained entrenched within the city limits. Rather than flee elsewhere, the 31,000 residents, many of whom were fiercely loyal to the Pantheaan culture that they embraced following the end of Cottish rule. In many regards they were traitors to the Cottish Realm, unlike some of the other citizens who were waving Cottish flags and welcoming the Realm back into their lives. Sasovo was located on the Tsna River, which would undoubtedly see Cottish river boats soon enough as they pushed their way throughout Ryazan. The residents there were braced against the upcoming Cottish attack but they weren't braced against something else.

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At the Layartebian command center north of Obedova, roughly 150 miles from Sasovo, four new vehicles had joined the Layartebian contingent there and they had been separated from the rest. The four trucks were massive and they had been brought to the base just hours earlier, after they landed at Ivanovo. The two, gigantic, C-29A Titans, Cottish built aircraft, touched down shortly before midnight and by 03:00 hours, both of them had revealed a pair of M2027A3 TELs, which were identical to the A1 and A2 variants, used to carry old Layartebian IRBMs. People could only speculate what they carried as their missile launchers were covered by an aluminum container, which allowed for total secrecy of what was inside. Few people knew except for the Cottish High Command including the King and Prime Minister. Three days earlier, the Layartebian Minister of Defense had spoken with them over a secure, encrypted channel about the possibility of using the Pantheaan Exclusion Zone as a combat test site for an experimental new short-ranged ballistic missile being developed by the Layartebian Defense Corporation. Highly classified and highly secret, the missile was called Vesta, after its project name, which had been decided because Vesta was the Roman goddess of fire and that was what the Vesta created. The LDC refurbished many old and still useable M2027A1 and M2027A2 TELs to serve as a launch platform and sixteen missiles had been built thus far with eight firings, two of which were failures. They shipped a batch of four of these new missiles to the Realm to launch against Pantheaan targets.

Shortly before the missiles arrived, Sasovo was chosen. Because of the resistance expected by Cottish forces once they arrived, the city would need some softening up and the Vesta could do just that and more. The four missiles sent included two with gigantic fragmentation warheads, one with a powerful, thermobaric warhead, and one with a submunition payload. Now the four missiles were sitting at a small launch site north of the Layartebian base. Concealed with camouflage, the four TELs and their missiles had been concealed from satellites the whole time. They had been moved during the night and they had been in position by the time the sun began to rise. Now, with the sun rising, it was the perfect opportunity to launch them.

The missile was guided by GPS and was a development that had been a long time in the making. With the sun rising in the east, the four vehicles initiated the launch. They were solid-fueled missiles, meaning that they were ready to go, no fueling required. Self-contained, the operators quickly removed the camouflage netting around the four vehicles and the missiles were immediately and quickly raised into a vertical launch position, a process that took all of ninety seconds. A quick spot check had made sure that nobody was in the launch area and the countdown was begun. It would be a short, thirty-second countdown, which was what it took to acquire the target. As the operators in the cabs of the TELs programmed their missiles, an RU-41A Mariner UAV arrived over Sasovo. It was a Cottish UAV and it would provide a live feed for the observers, stationed at the Layartebian base and those in the Ministry of Defense, 4,750 miles away. The Emperor would be watching live in his office as well. The Ministry of Defense wasn't just using the Cottish live feed. An orbiting satellite overhead would give the Layartebian MOD the necessary information it needed for the test.

With everyone in place by 07:50, eight minutes after sunrise began, the operators received the launch codes on their computer systems. The link between the TELs and the MOD was encrypted with the maximum amount of encryption available and contained several dummy keys to confuse anyone who might intercept it, even though that would be impossible. With the launch codes accepted, the missiles were powered ul and ready by 07:51. Thirty more seconds were required just in case there was a change in the settings. As far as everyone was concerned though, the missiles were ready. Thirty seconds took forever but when it was over an eerie silence fell over the launch area before every bird within a half mile picked up and scattered to the winds!

http://www.theforsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/Operation%20Swift%20Justice/missile-launch.jpg

The ground roared as the four missiles came to life one after the other. Each missile had four nozzles and fire breathed from every one of them. Locking bolts released on the missiles in subsequent intervals. The first missile launched and the second followed eight seconds later and so on and so fourth. Belching white smoke, the missiles shot upwards, towards the wild blue yonder. They each tore upwards, gaining in speed as their massively powerful engines pushed the missiles up to an altitude of roughly 50 miles. The missiles arched over and followed a quasiballistic trajectory as they accelerated to a speed of Mach 6. The missiles were single-stage and pushed forward towards the target area.

The missiles each had four separate targets, which would test out their various warheads in a combat situation. There wouldn't be any warning either so they would get actual results. The missiles ripped through the blue sky as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky. The missiles had a short flight time though, short enough that the sun didn't get too high as they tore across the sky, covering a mile a second. With just one hundred and fifty miles to go to the target, the missile would cover it in just under three minutes, not enough time for much. Thrust-vectoring on the Vesta allowed it to assume a powerful trajectory towards the city of Sasovo. They began their descent twenty-five miles out and cruised downwards, using up their last bit of propellant as the missiles armed their warheads. They would eventually assume a near 90° trajectory as they came down towards their targets.

The RU-41A Mariner was looking down when the missiles buzzed by it and detonated below. They were aimed at four different parts of the city where their warheads would be most effective. The two fragmentation missiles were aimed at two of the more exposed targets. The first was the airport, where aircraft were sitting on the tarmac and various other important structures stood, including a powerful radar system. The missile contained a small warhead, in terms of explosive content, which was just one hundred pounds of Arckell, a new plastic explosive developed by the LDC under complete secrecy. It had an RE factor of 1.95 and a detonation velocity of 9,420 meters per second. All of this energy was put into 85,000 tungsten spheres, 10mm in diameter. Upon detonation, the 85,000 spheres, all moving faster than 9 km/sec, scattered around the airport. For a quarter of mile in every direction, 400 meters, the spheres caused total destruction to soft targets. Aircraft frames were peppered with the 9.62 gram spheres as they ripped across the open space. They were destroyed on the spot and civilians boarding them and hiding in them to escape the wrath. Operations continued at the airport but no longer as over a dozen airliners, thin-skinned, were torn to shreds. Those that didn't explode were turned into blood soaked shreds of an airliner. The Mariner couldn't tally the number of dead but, based on the vast amount explosions and the population at the airport. The terminals were affected as well as the tungsten spheres tore through their glass. The death toll would be in the thousands.

The second missile, also a fragmentation missile, was targeted on the market area. It was sparsely populated from what it normally was but there were still hundreds of people gathered there. Many of them were stocking up on supplies and most of those people were women with children. They never stood a chance as the missile exploded above them. Like the airport, the 85,000 tungsten spheres tore through the air at impressive speeds. The 9.62 gram tungsten sphere, moving at 9,420 meters per second carried with it 426,822.084 joules of energy, which was more than twenty-one times the amount of energy in a 12.7 x 99mm shell moving at 883 meters per second out of an M2 Browning Heavy Machine Gun.

The third missile to hit was the thermobaric missile and it was targeted at a shelter known to be housing Pantheaan refugees. The missile contained a BLU-118 warhead, which had penetration capabilities. With a delayed and programmable fuse, the missile punched through the roof of shelter and into the basement before it exploded. It was a small five-story building but it had a decently large basement, where hundreds huddled from the inevitable bombardment that was going to come from the Cottish. The explosive warhead created two things that made it far deadlier than any conventional type of explosive. The first was a massive amount of overpressure, which worked to collapse even the strongest and most well-built caves. The second was a massive amount of heat, which fell between 4500°F to 5400°F. The explosion was caught on video by the satellites and the Mariner overhead. The structure was fortified but not well enough and soon the whole building collapsed into its own footprint, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of smoke and dust.

The fourth and final missile to hit came over a minute after the other three hit. The city was already in a panic and people who were outside ran for cover. They figured the Cottish were bombing them but they were only half right. By design, the fourth missile arrived later and, as it travelled near the center of the city, it burst open. Out of its warhead compartment came 1,500 M74 APAM grenades, designed for anti-personnel and anti-material usage. The grenades fell towards the crowds below, detonating as they did, showering fragments of shrapnel and explosives all over the place.

The four missile hits had done catastrophic damage to the populace of Sasovo. Pleased with its success, the Layartebian Defense Ministry proceeded to produce the missile. It would be kept top secret except for the minor details that came out with a press release shortly afterwards.

Global Communique

The Empire of Layarteb has combat tested a new short-ranged ballistic missile today against the former Pantheaan country. It will enter operational service by the end of 2007. Named Vesta after the Roman goddess of fire, this new SRBM is a mobile weapon system that can provide the Imperial Layartebian Military with an expanded artillery system.

The press release was short and gave away little information except the most basic information and that was the way the Ministry of Defense disclosed any weapon system. The more secretive they were, the less was disclosed and the Vesta was no exception.

Pushka

02-10-2007, 05:53

Response from the Russian Federation

We denounce this unprovoked attack against civilians by the Empire of Layarteb. Once again you show the world your lack of humanity.

-Russian Federation Ministry of Defense

OOC: Damn I really need to get more into this.

Layarteb

02-10-2007, 19:00

Official Communique

The missile test conducted against the former Pantheaan state was aimed at strictly military targets, which included an airfield, an ammunition storage depot, and a gathering of rebel insurgents. The Empire denounces the states made by the Russian Federation and calls upon the world to disregard their audacious claims.

.

Cotland

02-10-2007, 23:00

The Cottish military leadership along with the Defense Minister watched the Layartebian missile test from the Defense Minister's office in Akershus Fortress in Oslo, receiving the live feed from the RU-41A Mariner UAV. The Cottish were receiving a first-hand preview on the new missile the Layartebians had developed, and were very impressed.

[Translated from Cottish]

"We need to get ourselves some of these," One general commented as he watched the first Vesta missile blast the airport. Another one just shook his head.

"No, I don't think the Layartebians are going to export this one. They've got it classified, like most of their top-notch systems. Hadn't it been for the fact that we are going to own the test site soon, we wouldn't even have known about it for at least another year. Besides, the Eeobroht missile just entered service."

The Eeobroht missile was a medium-range tactical ballistic missile which came in four variants, and the Research & Development department at Kongsberg Defence were already working on an additional three variants, of which at least one of them would be seriously considered by the Army. Two of the variants already in service had APAM submunitions, like those used by the fourth Layartebian Vesta, the difference being only in how many they carried. The "A" variant carried 950 APAMs to a distance of 50 kilometers, making it the missile with the shortest range, while the "B" variant carried a more moderate 275 APAM submunitions to a range of 140 kilometers, which was the range that the "C" and "D" variants, which were equipped with a 226.8 kg high-explosive warhead and thirteen BAT submunitions, respectively, were equipped with. It was in the process of being deployed to the Army, but so far, only a few units had been issued with this new missile.

"True. Still, it would have been nice to have it available as one of our options."

Later on, when the Russians became aware of this and sent their communiqué to the Layartebians and the Layartebians replied, the Cottish wisely kept their mouths shut, not wanting to draw attention to their own tactics.

Meanwhile, the Cottish regiment outside Spassk-Ryazansky started their advance, with Dragoon IFVs and Arrow APCs leading the advance. The 15 hour artillery barrage had killed some 2 300 of the insurgents, but there were still roughly 1 700 left in the ruined city. The Cottish had to root them out, one by one, and they weren't going to spare anyone.

Pushka

03-10-2007, 03:22

OOC: Yo Cot, can you tell me which territories you are claiming again? You told me before but I forgot and I really need to know that before I start doing my own invasion of everything else. I work 2-10 now which means I come back home far less tired which means I will be able to dedicate 1 hour a day to NS and RPing during weekdays which means that I will unfreeze all of my RPs this week.

Layarteb

03-10-2007, 03:56

OOC: Want me to use some thermobarics to flush them out?

Cotland

03-10-2007, 10:41

[OOC: Vladimir, Tambov, Nizhny Novgorod, Mordovia, and Ryazan I think it was. I'll check when I get home.]

The advance into Spassk-Ryazansky started just before daybreak on October 1, and entailed two of the Regiment’s three battalions moving into the city from two different ends, conducting a pincer movement that would see the two formations meeting up in the centre of the city. The third battalion remained as a blocking force for anyone attempting to exploit the attack to try to sneak out of the city as well as forming the tactical reserve for the Regiment commander, being able to quickly deploy elements to hotspots where it was needed.

The Dragoon IFVs were leading the advance, using their thermal imaging to spot targets trying to hide and taking them out with either the 35mm chaingun or the 7.62mm coaxial machine gun. The Mk.400 Directed Energy Weapon was also on hot standby, ready to be used if they detected any RPG crews that were about to fire their weapon on the armoured vehicle. The DEW was a non-lethal energy weapon that penetrated not even a millimetre into the victim’s skin, creating an intense uncomfortable burning sensation, even through clothes, in the skin that made it impossible to function while in the crosshairs of the DEW operator. The DEW had a maximum operational range of 500 meters, which was more than sufficient in an urban environment. The only way to escape it was to move out of the beam, which meant that they wouldn’t get to do their dirty deed. In the first twenty minutes of the advance through the destroyed city, the DEW was employed six times against RPG-29 crews. In all instances, the RPG-29 crews were unable to fire their potentially devastating weapons and had to move out of the way. In four of the six cases, the RPG crews were killed by the escorting infantry. In the other two, the RPG crews escaped despite the frantic efforts of the infantry.

The infantry escorted the vehicles, which provided heavy gunfire support to them as they systematically cleared each and every building, using hand grenades and their automatic weapons liberally, sparing very few people. There were those who surrendered, and those that the officers managed to prevent their enlisted from executing were brought back to the Regiment HQ outside the city and handed over to the Military Police for further processing.

The artillery were also standing by, their crews a little tired after the long night where the twelve howitzers had fired a staggering thirty thousand 155mm artillery shells into the city. Now, they had switched from HE shells to the more expensive and precise M982A1 Excalibur and M702A3 Copperhead guided artillery shells, guided by GPS and laser designation respectively. From now on, the main objective of the artillery batteries was to provide precise pin-point artillery strikes whenever the infantry requested it.

Despite the use of pin-point artillery and air strikes against enemy strongholds, advanced infantry tactics, the use of heavy weapons and light armour, the Cottish were taking casualties. The surviving Pantheans had fortified their positions, and they were resisting. It took three days to secure the city, and it cost the Cottish 75 soldiers KIA and 207 WIA, but in return, the 1 572 infantry had killed more than 1 700 enemy combatants in close quarters combat and could declare Spassk-Ryazansky secured and under Cottish control on the morning of October 4.

********

Elsewhere, on October 3, the Cottish 94. Division had reached to just a few kilometres outside Sasovo, the city that the Layartebians had bombed so fiercely the previous day. Sasovo was the ideological home of the local enemy resistance according to several of the prisoners the Cottish had taken on September 30, and had to be made an example of. If the people of Sasovo thought that they had experienced pain when the Layartebians attacked yesterday, they had to rethink that stance, for a very simple reason. Two actually, both in the form of the B-27A Candrian heavy strategic bomber. Arguably the world’s largest bomber, the Royal Cottish Air Force had a total of ninety-six of these brand new bombers in their inventory, sixteen of which were stationed in Vologda.

The Candrian was an amazing 96.63 meters long and 15.93 meter tall, had a wingspan of 95.59 meters, weighed 207 160 kilograms empty, and could carry an amazing 211 000 kilograms worth of munitions. It was powered by four massive GEM BQ6-3 turbofans which each gave 78 140 kilograms worth of thrust, for a maximum thrust of 312 560 kilograms. Each Candrian had three main bomb bays, each of which could carry a maximum of 60 300 kilograms. There were also six external pylons which could support 5 000 kilograms each, either in the form of munitions or external fuel tanks, which would increase its range from 6 300 kilometers with a full payload to much more. However, since the Candrian could be refuelled in the air, its range was virtually unlimited. For this mission, the Candrians would be laden with conventional freefall bombs, more precisely the FB.1D 1 000 kilogram unguided iron bomb and FB.2D 1 000 kilogram unguided incendiary bomb. Each of the bomb bays could carry sixty such bombs – there were room for more than 440 bombs, but the weight limitations limited it to sixty per – for a total of 180 bombs per aircraft. With two aircraft, that made for a total of 360 bombs to be carried. The division between iron bombs and incendiary bombs was 2:1, or 120 iron bombs and 60 incendiary bombs per aircraft.

It would be the first time the Candrian would be used in actual combat, so it was an excited flight crew that were flying the Candrians in a close formation, heading for Sasovo. The two aircraft were in an altitude of 14 600 meters, and they were almost at the drop zone. The Candrians were escorted by two JA-23A Demon fighters, just in case, both of which stayed well clear of the lumbering giants as they flew perfectly level, far above Sasovo. Suddenly, the massive bomb bay doors opened, and the racks of bombs were exposed to the cold air at 14.6 kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The bombardier waited until the target, the market the Layartebians had bombed the previous day, was in his bombsight before he pressed the button that released the bombs.

It was a surreal sight. In quick succession, the bombs started dropping from the aircraft, falling quickly towards the ground below. For a full minute, the Candrian spewed out 1 000 kilogram bombs before the final bomb had been released, and were falling to the ground. Less than two minutes later, the bombs reached the ground and caused havoc that dwarfed the previous day’s missile strike. Both Candrians had bombed the city centre, spreading death and destruction like never seen before. The iron bombs devastated the city structures, while the Thermite bombs caused a firestorm that engulfed Sasovo, killing any living thing in its blast zone and starting fires that would eventually burn the whole city to the ground. When the 94. Division would be able to enter Sasovo, they would find nothing left alive. It would be damn expensive to rebuild when the Cottish had consolidated their control of Ryazan, but the drop in enemy morale would more than weigh up for that.

For the Candrian crews, the mission had been successful and been an unprecedented success for the Candrians baptism of fire, proving that the purchase of the expensive aircraft had been well worth the money. For the two Candrians in question, the maintenance sergeant back at the base was already pulling out the paint so he could paint an outline of a small falling bomb underneath the cockpit window on the two aircraft in recognition of the successful combat mission the two aircraft had conducted.

********

In Nizhny Novgorod, the paratroopers of the 9. Airborne, still dressed in NBC protection gear, had secured Nizhny Novgorod and started removing the dead bodies that were all over the place. The bodies were taken to an open field outside the city where the preparations had been made to cremate all the bodies, to ensure that the virus wouldn’t spread. Of course, it had been dead for many days by now, but the paratroopers didn’t want to take any chances. Hundreds of barrels of gasoline and diesel were being shipped in on barges down on the river Volga, and mass graves were being prepared for the bones and other remains that would be left after the bodies had been burned. This was all being done after consultations with the Health Ministry, which had similar plans in the event of a major biological disaster within the Realm. The cremation method was also approved by the Health Ministry.

On October 3, the body burning started. The bodies were doused in gasoline and placed in stacks on top of a platform made of unused railroad tracks placed over a ditch where the ash and bones would fall as the bodies were being cremated. It was a very nasty and demoralizing job, but it was being done by people from the Intelligence Agency with the help from prisoners from further north that had been sentenced to years of hard labor. The Army’s task was simply to transport the bodies to the cremation sites and to provide security for the cremation site and make sure that none of the prisoners tried to escape. It would take several weeks for the ten cremation sites to cremate the 1.25 million bodies that needed to be cremated, and the smoke from the cremation sites would be visible from outer space. No attempt was made to conceal the burning. Instead, the press was actually invited to witness it, and the Army was rather forthcoming with information here, with the Major General commanding the 9. Airborne saying to the reporters that this was the result of the Panthean bioweapons program – the bioweapon had been identified as a weaponized variant of Ebola that was spread through the public water source by the way – and that the Cottish had to do this horrible thing to ensure that the Panthean virus that had caused this wouldn’t spread further. Health authorities around the world would agree with this assessment.

The survivors that had managed to dodge the bullet and survived CBX5 had all been evacuated to isolation wards in military hospitals further north, inside Cottish territory, where they would be held until the doctors were certain that the virus had been purged from their bodies. They were being fed the same story that all others had been fed: that it was the Pantheans that had unleashed the virus that had killed most of Nizhny Novgorod and that the Cottish had saved their lives. They were told by the propaganda people that posed as among others doctors and interrogators that the Cottish weren’t their enemies, but their friends. Most of the survivors bought the story and decided to try to adapt to the Cottish culture and become good law-abiding citizens of Cotland.

Cotland

03-10-2007, 10:43

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13058505&postcount=20380

Claiming the following territories: Mordvinia Republic, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Ryazan Oblast, Tambov Oblast, Vladimir Oblast.

Pushka

04-10-2007, 03:27

OOC: Aight thx, btw lets not take Kuzmich out for now I might use him later lets say he escaped, he is a sneaky one thats why he survived so long.

--edit--

Okay Cot just noticed that this isn't going to work, your claims are cutting me off from my claims, we have a problem. Can you like sell me one or a part of one so I can get to my land through Nerotika?

Layarteb

04-10-2007, 03:42

The Layartebian Ministry of Defense was pleased with the Vesta test and the results. They knew the Cottish were interested in the missile and as the Layartebian Defense Corporation began to test whether or not the missile system would be employable on a submarine, a channel was opened up between the Ministry of Defense and the Cottish counterpart as to the possibility of deploying missiles in the Cottish Realm. The details would have to be kept as strictly classified as they could and the information would be, at the very minimal level of intelligence, compartmentalized information.

Cotland

04-10-2007, 11:09

[I told you that before we even got this started man. Not my fault that you didn't listen. I can't give you any of the territories I've claimed. It's just impossible. What you could do though is ask Rome if he wants to sell you Penza. If you get that, you've got a clear avenue to the territories after you whack off Nero. That's all I can think of right now.]

Pushka

04-10-2007, 17:15

OOC: Oh so you told me that ha? Well firstly you never did, secondly so you were planning on screwing me over from the very start? And what good is Penza going to do me? You claimed Tambov too. You do realize that I got no fucking choice but to invade now? Seriously if you didn't want war with me what the fuck were you thinking cutting me off from my claims? And if you did want war with me why make deals to begin with?

Or how about this, you let my troops travel through those lands right now so I can get to my claims and when you'll give me like one road and one air route to move them through kinda like its done with Kaliningrad in RL, well, I don't even know how the fuck Im going to get my civilian traffic across. Meh, I have a feeling this isn't going to work out peacefully. Seriously why? Why fuck me over especially after going through the trouble of making a deal to resolve this peacefully? I TGed Rome asking for Saratov and Voronezh (which is what Im going to need to get around), if he doesn't agree I don't see what else to do but attack.

Layarteb

04-10-2007, 21:50

Layarteb

05-10-2007, 02:46

With the successful results of the Vesta in the bag and with four missiles remaining in active inventory, one of them being a chemical round and the remaining three being interchangeable between the other variants, the Empire of Layarteb decided to push ahead and procure several more examples. The LDC was already ahead of the game and it was estimated that by week's end on October 12, they would have another thirty missiles ready to go. These four that were ready could be flash deployed wherever necessary. If the Cottish needed them, they could be there immediately as well as a large quantity of the remaining MGM-207 LCBAR artillery missiles, which still remained in active inventory. The four TELs already deployed to Cotland would remain there and if it was necessary to ship the other four missiles, they would serve as the basing units. They were, however, withdrawn back to the security of the air force base, where they were kept inside of a hangar, a move made entirely at night, hiding them from the satellites overhead.

Pushka

05-10-2007, 03:21

OOC: How did he not tell you? He posted the claim in the E2 thread. It's not his fault you didn't read it. You knew what he was claiming before the thread began so yeah your fault.

OOC: The point is it doesn't matter who's fault it is, we still have a problem (well its my problem now but I will be sure to make it his problem as well since well I have no choice), and if he cut me off on purpose when he is an asshole, simple as that. Which is all good and expected but still strange why go through the lengths of reaching a peaceful solution if he was planning to leave me no choice but to attack him later on? Might as well have skipped that part to save time. And Cot if you still want to solve this peacefully when I suggest we talk more, I work 2 pm to 10 pm now so eh, add what 5 hours to that to get your time? If you can be on AIM at one of those times (or any time on the weekend) we can resolve this faster or come to a conclusion that it can't be resolved through peaceful means faster whatever you fancy.

Pushka

05-10-2007, 03:55

The 2nd Gvardia was moving quickly through USR's lands and entered the Mari El republic. They met no major resistance as of yet, after the capture of Yoshkar-Ola and several nearby airports they have began gathering up their supply base to advance further as the reinforcements began to arrive. The problem was present, the way to the lands annexed by the Russian Federation was blocked by the territories that recently came into Cottish possession. The soldiers waited for the government to reach a solution with the Cottish side but were ready to advance forward upon order even if Cottish permission was not given.

---------------------------------------

Danila Rostov the Russian Federation ambassador in Cotland received the first notable objective from Voronej that he had in his several year stay in Oslo. He has called the Cottish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to schedule a meeting. The Cots Rostov hoped would wish to resolve this matter through peaceful means since they have already gone through all the trouble of showing the Panthean government to be the enemy of the Federation in order to have the Federation relinquish its own responsibilities to protect the Panthean territories.

OOC: Cot Im sure a peaceful solution can be found, I have a few propositions some of which can be mutually beneficial and tie up with the whole friendliness thing would really rather discuss em on aim though. One thing though, how about building an oil pipeline that will run from Chukotka and Sakhalin, through Yakutia through my lands, through your newly captured lands and to Murmansk? After that you can also extend it further if you want it running to Norway, this will create great oil profit. All I really need from you is passage for my troops this one time and some kind of air channel or road that I can use to transport shipments for my citizens in the lands Im about to conquer as well as supplies to my troops stationed where although I'll make the effort to make those territories as self sufficient as they can be, but also would like to use this opportunity to expand trade with you, yeah also some kind of a civilian traffic channel would also be needed, like for my civilian airplanes, and maybe an air channel or two for military cargo planes. You open to this?

Cotland

05-10-2007, 10:59

[OOC: I'm willing to open a route for your forces to travel through (under Cottish supervision of course), so you can get those places. Civilian traffic shouldn't be a problem. I'll talk to you on AIM sometime today I hope so we can sort this shit out.]

Oslo, Norway

While the military continued its victorious conquests in Russia, the Foreign Ministry prepared to receive the Russian ambassador. More specifically, the Foreign Minister herself. The Russian probably had something important to discuss with the Minister, so the diplomat that would receive and escort the Ambassador had been told to hurry up and get him there the quickest route, which was up the marble stairs to the sixth floor, through the tall, wide and long corridor that was designed to impress visitors, shining with the white marble and the many artifacts aquired by the Realm over the thousand-year history of the country that were on display, and into the waiting room outside the Foreign Minister's office.

Cotland

05-10-2007, 23:45

It was the end of the day on October 5, and the territory of Nizhny Novgorod was declared to be secured by the Cottish Army. Along the border with the Nerotikan territories, a place that until recently had been plauged with a civil war that had lasted since the end of the Cottish-Nerotikan War - commonly described as the Four-Day War in Cottish history books, owing to the fact that actual hostilities hadn't lasted for more than four days, with most of that being used to plummel the Nerotikans to death in the area that was being refered to as the Slaughter Grounds, owing to the fact that almost twenty-five thousand Nerotikan soldiers had lost their lives to Cottish lead, depleted uranium and explosives there - the Cottish Army had deployed more than four hundred and thirty-five thousand men, many drawn from the Home Guard and the rest drawn from a total of six divisions, or 179 000 soldiers from Nenetsia, Murmansk, Vologda and Arkhangelsk. The rest, 256 680 reservists, were from twelve Home Guard Divisions hailing of Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Nenetsia and Murmansk.

They had been mobilized on September 26, briefed and placed on trains that took them to the new province when the regular Army moved on. The Constitution decreed that the Home Guard couldn't be deployed beyond the borders of the Realm without the consent of the Storting, but this was bypassed by the Cabinet by claiming that the territories in question were Cottish, and thus this wasn't a conquest but a defensive conflict designed to return occupied lands to the Realm. Cotland had done so before with great success, namely when the territories of Kostroma, Yaroslavl and Ivanovo were reclaimed almost five years ago. They had prospered under Cottish rule, and the move was a popular one, with 89 % of the population welcoming the return of the territories to the Realm through the use of force. Now, preliminary polls showed that an impressive 83 % were in favor of this military action against the ex-Pantheans.

The 435 680 soldiers that had been deployed to Nizhny Novgorod were deployed mainly in defensive positions along the border, with the artillery guns and MLRS units pointed towards Nerotika. Engineers were busy preparing defensive positions for the Sabertooth tanks, Dragoon IFVs, and anti-tank vehicles, and deploying defensive minefields. Infantry conducted patrols asserting the Cottish sovereignty over the territory, and established observation posts near the border, to complement the UAVs and aircraft in the sky. From forward operating airbases, fighter jets and attack helicopters were based, allowing for quick air support, and further behind the lines, in regular airbases, tactical and strategic bombers were lined up in their protective shelters, ready for action. If the Nerotikans tried something, they'd be handed a reprise of the actions in the Slaughter Grounds and Sharya.

Pushka

06-10-2007, 03:47

Oslo, Norway

After he made his way up the stairs Rostov found himself in the Cottish Minister's office.

"Hello, my name is Danila Rostov, perhaps you remember me although we only met once upon my arrival."

He said in pure Cottish.

"Where is a matter that the Federation wishes to discuss and that is why they have called upon me to deliver a message to you. As you we have a geographical problem with annexation of the previously Panthean lands that we recently claimed. It seems that the territories annexed by the Realm are blocking our path to the lands that we wish to pacify and integrate into the Federation. Since the Realm did us a favor by pointing out the Panthean support for Peter Kuzmich, the enemy of our state, Voronej thinks that you would be interested in solving this situation through peaceful means. Infact they would like to expand our relations to include a broader range of interactions but more on that later. We would like to work out some sort of an agreement with the Realm that would allow our troops to pass into the territories claimed by us as well as allow civilian and a small amount of military traffic to those territories after they have been pacified. Would you be opposed to such an arrangement?"

Pushka

06-10-2007, 03:51

The 4th Army was moving through Nerotikan lands to link up with the 2nd Gvardia that has concluded the capture of Mari El Republic. It was then that the word reached them of the possible confrontation with the Union of Soviet Republics. The troops did not stop moving however, if the Nerotikans were mad enough to engage them they had enough firepower to slaughter their enemies. At the same time in the Siberian mainland of the Federation a surge of troops has begun, 5th, 7th and 8th armies were fully mobilized, the Federation lacked the naval assets for a nautical assault since most of its Fleets were heading for the Western Hemisphere to capture Brazil and Argentina as well as combat the nation of Pineholt but Russia had enough ground troops to launch a succesful assault on Nerotikan territory.

Cotland

06-10-2007, 11:42

Oslo, Norway

Foreign Minister Siv Jensen welcomed the Russian ambassador and invited him to have a seat before she listened to what the Russians had to say. After he finished, she replied in a welcoming tone.

"I will naturally have to present this for His Majesty and to the Storting for approval, but in the interest of peace, I don't believe they will object too fiercely. I know for certain that His Majesty time and again has stressed the importance for the security of the Realm to maintain peaceful relations with your nation. We may, and I emphasise may, therefore be willing to allow Russian troops to transit through Tsjuderike using the railroad system. However, there are certain issues that must be discussed first. For instance, the level of military traffic that will be moved through Tsjuderike?"

She consequently used the Cottish name for the territories in question, showing the Cottish mentality concerning the territories in question.

Pushka

07-10-2007, 19:50

Oslo, Norway

"We of course understand your concern. At the beginning we can not avoid a substantial amount of military traffic that we will need to send to our new territories to pacify and fortify them. However as months go by and our newly acquired region becomes more and more self sufficient the traffic will shrink substantially. We will draw out a more specific timetable but we will need your cooperation for that."

Cotland

11-10-2007, 16:17

"Then unless you hear otherwise from me mister Ambassador," Jensen said, "You can rely on our co-operation. We believe that the railroad tracks in the south of Ryazan and northern parts of Tambov are the fastest and most efficient way for you to get your troops to the territories you are annexing. Additionally, we will allow for a fifteen kilometer wide air corridor over said railroad tracks for your aircraft to move through. You should be aware that Cottish fighters may very well be assigned to escort your aircraft while in the corridor. You should also be aware that we haven't actually secured those areas you're moving through yet, so your troops should exercise vigilance while travelling on the railroad lines."

Cotland

13-10-2007, 00:01

October 13, 2007 – 07:53 AM [Local]
Somewhere in northern Tambov

The Cottish had advanced slower for the past week, meeting heavier resistance along the way as the Cottish divisions pushed into Tambov, again driving millions of civilians on the run deeper south, into the Panthean heartlands. In the past three days, the Pantheans had organized heavier and more organized resistance, culminating in a tank battle between two Cottish armored squadrons of 24 M51A2 Sabertooth main battle tanks each and an ex-Panthean tank force of 100 tanks.

It had been a fierce battle, but the only ex-Panthean advantages was that of numerical superiority, as they had only T-72s, PT-91M Twardys and a very low amount of Leopard 2A6E main battle tanks. The Cottish had attacked first, using the long-range BBM.22B Swift long-range anti-tank missiles that were mounted on the launchers mounted on the sides of the turret, and the somewhat less-ranged BBM.26A Savage anti-tank guided missiles mounted on the M66A3 Skjold anti-tank vehicles. This initial attack had been very successful, and targeted the most dangerous opponent first, the Leopards and Twardys. After that, the Sabertooths revved their engines and quickly closed to within range of their powerful 125mm ETC main guns, sending the “Silver Arrows” – APFSDS-T rounds – into the armor of the tanks, the projectiles massive amounts of kinetic energy being able to penetrate through up to 2,095 millimeters worth of Rolled Homogenous Armor equivalent, more than sufficient to pierce the armor of the enemy tanks. In some cases, they had to use two rounds to counter the ERA used, but they still managed to inflict massive casualties. The cost was two Sabertooths being temporarily put out of commission when enemy shells managed in both cases to de-track the tanks, rendering them immobile. Fortunately, the Cottish had trained for an eventuality like this, and the other tanks and the Skjold ATs shielded the immobilized tanks while they waited for a repair and recovery vehicle to arrive.

The Cottish finally ruled the day three hours after the battle began, having destroyed 98 of the 100 tanks. The other two had been abandoned by their crews as they surrendered to the Cottish armored fist, leaving them available for the Cottish to study. Unfortunately, two outdated T-72 main battle tanks were of no interest to the Cottish Army, which subsequently destroyed them with two APFSDS rounds, destroying them permanently. The crewmembers were all taken prisoners, and brought behind the lines for interrogation and a lengthy stay in a Cottish prison camp. Those places weren’t fun places to be, and especially not when the Russian winter was arriving shortly. Snow was already falling in the northern areas, and it wouldn’t be many weeks before a thick carpet of snow covered the areas, making combat operations much more difficult.

Since the tank battle, there had been no other major clashes between the Cottish and the ex-Pantheans. The only actions had been small skirmishes and exchange of fire, leaving a few Cottish infantrymen wounded. Enemy casualties were unknown. Still, the Cots pressed on, moving on towards the southern border with Saratov. Very few civilians were encountered as the Cots pressed on, most of them having fled everything they had in fear of the Cottish Army. That suited the Cots fine, as all abandoned territory was confiscated by the Government for redistribution. To free up the Army and Home Guard units originally assigned to occupation duty and making them available for deployment further south, 20 000 men of the Internal Security Forces were deployed to the occupied territories to control the few remaining civilians, and to find out more information about the resistance movement.

The Internal Security Forces (ISF) were a paramilitary law enforcement organization within the Realm, established after the violent riots against Layarteb in Oslo a few years ago, and designed to handle serious riots and civil unrest, provide an armed force outside of the Military under the control of the Justice Minister, and to be in charge of the prisons and labor camps throughout Cotland. The ISF were dressed in black BDUs with military-style equipment and protective gear, and armed with an L122A5 Storm pistol chambered in 10x23mm DDI, and if needed a Doomingsland-made L135A1 DR-89 Assault Rifle chambered in 6.7x53mm, the standard round for the Cottish Military. They were trained for both lethal and non-lethal combat, and enjoyed full police authority. It was a secret police of sorts, with very loose hands, and 20 000 of them had been deployed to the area that was becoming known as the Panthean Occupation Zone.

Meanwhile, up north in Arkhangelsk and Nenetsia, the first eleven of the projected twenty-four divisions that were to occupy the five new territories were starting to become military units, being through their basic military training. Another month of advanced training in the tasks they had to know, and then two months of training together as units awaited them before they were ready for deployment to the Panthean Occupation Zone. By January 1, 2008, all thirty divisions, numbered 400 through 425 to mark their status, were to have been fully deployed to the territories to ensure the safety of the millions of Cottish civilians that were ready to repopulate the territories and to make sure that there existed credible defenses in case of attack. Over 550 000 especially trained soldiers, mostly conscripts that volunteered for the task, would deploy to the territories from the Army, along with a number of forward-deployed air groups from the Air Force, mostly fighters, transports and other logistics aircraft.

Layarteb

13-10-2007, 03:04

With thirty more Vesta missiles produced and ready, the Empire sought out a further advantage with them. Secret testing in the North Atlantic proved that the missile was entirely capable as a submarine launched weapon and each Venom class could carry three in each of its thirty launch tubes, giving a missile capacity of ninety, enough to rain destruction upon an enemy and still have some left over for further tasking. The missile proved itself perfectly adequate for striking static, fix, land-based targets but the designers went further and began to target actual shipping. Against escorts it would be a difficult weapon to utilize but, against an aircraft carrier, the single Vesta missile could put it in a world of hurt. A specialized, anti-ship version would be under development with an active radar and IIR guidance ability.

With thirty ready, enough to equip almost three squadrons worth, the LDC pushed up production. The goal was to put three fully ready regiments into service and do it quickly. Each regiment had 384 TELs with 384 missiles and an additional 384 HEMTTs carrying one more missile each. Each regiment had 768 missiles and with three regiments that meant 2,304 missiles. Production would begin at three plants throughout the Empire, one in Ynoga, one in Layarteb, and one in South Eastern Virginia. They pushed out twelve per week per plant under "low-rate initial production" but with the increase, they were looking at over fifty missiles per week per plant. They would produce them for, perhaps, a full year, yielding over 7,500 missiles.

Export orders, should they be taken, would be produced in addition to the missiles.

Cotland

13-10-2007, 16:03

In Mordvinia, people had also tried to flee, but the Nerotikans had stopped the refugee stream from entering their lands, and with the Cottish Army moving in from the north and west, the only place where the ex-Pantheans could go was south and south-east, into Penza and Ul’yanovsk. And so, that was where they went as the Cottish pressed on into Mordvinia.

The six divisions in the Corps that was invading Mordvinia were moving relatively quickly, having gone away from the enemy defense lines, into a territory they had apparently abandoned any hope of defending. Perhaps they hadn’t believed that Cotland would move into it, or maybe they had decided that there weren’t anything worth defending there? Command didn’t know, and quite honestly, they didn’t really care. The only thing that mattered was that they were going to get the territories without as much of a fight as they had feared for the past two weeks.

Everywhere the Cottish went as they progressed deeper and deeper into Mordvinia, they found nothing but deserted villages and towns, houses and farms. They all looked like they had been deserted in a hurry, in some cases with the lights still turned on. It was an eerie feeling for the Cottish soldiers who had to check every single building in the places where they stopped to rest, but it was also a good thing. For starters, the Cottish soldiers didn’t have to dig latrines and foxholes when they were to rest for the night. They just commandeered a few of the empty apartments and made themselves as home. For many of the soldiers, many of the items that the previous owners hadn’t taken along were too much of a temptation, and looting occurred. Not only among the enlisted and junior officers, who just took small trinkets and stuff, since those could be taken along the easiest, but also the higher-ranking officers. There was even the Major General commanding the 126. Division who placed a grand piano and a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé luxury convertible from the residence of a local big-man on a truck heading for home. Looting was banned by law for the Cottish soldiers, but Command didn’t really care much about that ban since, they reasoned, the people who had owned it had left and left it up for grabs. Since the Cottish soldiers were the first ones to get there, they were the ones who were allowed to claim the spoils. It was simply taking advantage of the ancient right of conquest that the Cottish had employed. Still, the vast majority of the stuff stayed put for the beurocrats that followed the Army to catalogue and add to the list of property that the Government would sell cheaply to the citizens that would repopulate the territory later.

The conquests were soon completed, as the Cottish Army had already secured Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir and Ryazan, and would soon have secured Tambov and Mordvinia. All in all, there were maybe three hundred thousand Pantheans that had remained with their homes in all the conquered areas, a very low percentage compared to the population that had been in the area before the Cottish arrived. With approximately three million Cottish civilians ready to move into the various territories, and a lot of money pulled out from the National Savings Fund in the Bank of St Lazare readily available, the territories would be refurbished and be fully integrated as a vital part of the Realm of Cotland, just like they had been fifty years ago.

Layarteb

14-10-2007, 04:51

The Empire wishes to be the first to congradulate the Realm of Cotland for a succession campaign against the former Pantheaan Republic. It is our hope that these territories are integrated into your Realm as peacefully as possible and should the Realm need assistance, the Empire is always willing to help.

Cotland

22-10-2007, 15:18

The soldiers in the 63. Division finally reached the coveted destination on the twenty-second of October after a month of heavy fighting against an extremely determined enemy. The Cottish had sustained great casualties in the past two weeks, with nineteen dead and one hundred wounded in various attacks, offensives and battles with enemies. The Cottish armored units had fought in nine seperate tank-on-tank engagements, using their superior armor, weaponry and tactics to the full, destroying all enemy tanks without a single Cottish tank destroyed. Three were disabled, but thanks to the quick response from the engineers, the last of the tanks was operational and fighting again, nineteen hours after it was disabled.

Most of the dead and wounded were infantrymen though, as it was the infantry that had to clear out the buildings the enemy were hiding in. The only good thing with the many fights was that the Cottish soldiers were getting valuable combat experience, and as the days went by, became very proficient in clearing a building quickly and effectively. A flashbang or hand grenade through the window or door, followed immediately after detonation by a rush with blazing rifles were something the enemy had yet to find a good counter to. This tactic had been used to great extent over the past two weeks, and it was estimated that the Cottish had killed over 50 000 enemies over the campaign. What was certain was that they had eventually broken the organized uprising, although there were still isolated pockets of resistance that resisted.

At 1624 Hours on October 22, the Cottish regiment that had advanced the furthest, Infanteriregiment 7/63 were overlooking the fence that marked the border between Tambov and Penza when they received the following message over StridsNett:

Hans Majestet Kongen sender sin hilsen til de tapre menn i IR 7/63 og gratulerer dem med en suksessfylt kampanje. Dere er beordret til å stanse og holde nåværende posisjon og avvente. Ytterligere ordrer vil følge.
[signert]
Landkommando HJEMLAND
His Majesty the King sends his complements to the brave men in IR 7/63 and congratulates them on a successful campaign. You are ordered to halt, maintain current position and stand by. Further orders will follow.
[signed]
Land Command HOMELAND

The message was received with mixed emotions among the soldiers. The majority of the soldiers cheered at the attention the King had bestowed upon them, a mere two and a half thousand among an army of nearly six million, but some of the officers wanted to press on, returning more of the ancestrial land to the Realm. They weren't about to disobey orders though, so instead of ignoring the orders, they ordered their soldiers to begin preparing defensive positions - you never knew when the enemy might attack.

Meanwhile, throughout the newly conquered territories, the Cottish forces fortified their positions as orders to cease the advances arrived. A few hours later, a statement from the generaloberst (Colonel General) commanding the military district the soldiers were organized under was received where the campaign was declared to be successfully concluded with complete victory to the Realm of Cotland. The soldiers all cheered when they heard the news, and started their victory celebrations. The celebrations were somewhat sombered though by the fact that eighty-three Cottish soldiers had lost their lives in the reconquest, with over six hundred wounded soldiers. The cost had been well within acceptable limits though, but it was still eighty-three families that had received two officers and a priest on their front door in the early morning or afternoon with the somber message that their son had "died a hero's death in the field of battle, fighting in the defense of the King, people and country."

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