NationStates Jolt Archive

The Crusader forces had set out from the Confederacy long ago, armed almost entirely by the nation of Vetalia, who had set up a large business area in Paradise City. The Vetalians had ensured that the Crusaders were all well armed, and now soon, the weaponry that they provided would be put to the test. The destination had changed. Mhoudia was no longer the target of the fervor, it was now changed back to the original object of the Crusades so long ago, the city of Jerusalem. Unfortunately for the Crusaders, Jerusalem lay in Israel, a nation with one of the most powerful militaries in the world. The Israeli Defense Force would soon be put to the test, as the threat was now not Muslim terrorists, but a massive army of angry Christians.

Vessels of all sorts were now nearing the Israeli maritime boundary. Warships were not very common other than a handful of small patrol craft and two frigates. The most common vessels were fishing boats, following around the five large transport ships donated by the Confederate military. Small craft of all sorts dotted the sea, carrying all sorts of missiles and machine guns.

The target of the Crusades would first be Tel Aviv, the Israeli capital. The Crusaders would open their hostilities by attempting to blockade the city, and cut off trade and supplies. As the blockade was going on, other vessels would begin unloading their forces on the shore, hopefully completing the siege and surrounding the city. The Crusaders leadership, split between Octavius of Sacrament and Tacitus of Redemption, was stuck arguing over who would land where, and this would likely have an ill effect on the operation. They were also stuck quabbling over whether or not to land their armor, garciously supplied by the Vetalians, in the first wave, or to hold it until later.

A more pressing issue was at hand, however. Would the Crusaders even make it to land at Tel Aviv? Only time would tell.

Yaffo (Jaffa) Cheil Heim (Navy) Base
The slips at the IDF Cheil Heim Base were mainly empty. Fleet Admiral Joseph Jacobson had most of the large Israeli fleet out on an exercise in Eastern Atlantic. With no major concerns on the threat board, it was deemed a good time for most of the ships based around Yaffo, Caesarea, Haifa, and Gaza to perform the largest peacetime exercise in IDF history.

The exercises had been well publicized. Perhaps it was poor oversight in making this news so public that led to the Crusaders to decide to make their attack now. Either way, the thousands of men working at the Navy base in the same port where Jonah had left thousands of years ago had no idea they were in grave danger.

The INS Qiryat Arba, a 48,000 ton Menachem Begin class battlecruiser was steaming with a single destroyer escort. She was among the few dozen Israeli Navy ships left to cover the Eastern med. The ships were steaming at Condition IV with normal peacetime watch standing. “Sir, I have a large flotilla of ships moving east at an average speed of 30 knots,” called the FCSC who was in charge of the RADAR watch in CIC during the First Watch.

“Let me see that Senior Chief,” responded the Lieutenant (j.g.) who had just recently qualified to stand watch as duty officer in CIC. “Hmm, interesting,” he noted aloud. “Bridge, Combat,” he called into the bulkhead intercom. “We have a flotilla of vessels moving between 25 and 35 knots towards our coast.”

“Combat, this is Lieutenant Commander Rubin, are you reporting a hostile force?” asked the Officer of the Deck.

The young inexperienced J.G. turned to the Senior Chief to see what he had to say. The Chief nodded his head. The young officer then picked up the microphone for the intercom. “Sir, I am reporting a possible hostile force.”

“Very well, thank you Lieutenant,” crackled the speaker. LT CDR Rubin then switched the intercom off. One of the men on bridge for the watch was the Command Master Chief. Rubin turned to the CMC. “Sound General Quarters. Set Watch Condition I immediately and go to Material Condition Zebra in five minutes.”

The CMC acknowledged and passed the word through the 1MC. In seconds, every man was off his bunk or rushing out of the messes to get to their battle stations. Rubin and the other men did not expect to actually face combat. They just figured this was a good excuse to at least give the crew a GQ drill.

Five minutes later, each compartment reported ‘manned and ready’ to CIC. Captain David Cohen was in CIC overseeing his men. They could not open fire or anything as the ships were still 95 miles away from the Israeli coast and most seemed peaceful. “Report Lieutenant,” he sternly asked the J.G. who had been standing watch as Duty Officer.

“Sir, at 2340 ship’s time, the Senior Chief standing watch over the RADAR station reported a large number of ships heading towards our coast. They were about 90 NM away from Tel Aviv and moving at considerable speed.” He paused before continuing. “I made sure to put it all in my log.”

“How many warships are in the group?” asked the Captain.

“I do not have an exact count. I counted five ships which might be military transports, but we have not positively identified any actual warships yet.”

“Thank you Lieutenant, you have done well.” The Captain then shifted his eyes around and grabbed the intercom to the bridge. “XO, this with the Captain. Have the Carmel launch her helo to get a clearer picture here.”

The order was confirmed and the escorting destroyer launched one of her two helos. The bird had been preflighted as soon as the GQ call came. While this was done, the situation was forwarded to the Navy Base in Yaffo and then sent to IDF Cheil Heim HQ in the port city of Haifa. From there, news was sent to Jerusalem and to other parts of the IDF government and military. No firm theat had yet been established, this would likely prove to be a fatal mistake. However, forces were put on alert and the ships in the Eastern Atlantic were being prepared for a possible recall if conditions deteriorated. No one expected that to happen.

Meanwhile, the Carmel’s helo flew to get a view of the ships. At an Air Force base near the ancient city of Tzippori, an E-8 JSTAR lifted off with its powerful surface search RADAR. The IAF decided the Cheil Heim would not be the only force to get a little bit of an exercise out of this scare.
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OOC: Just a few OOC points. Most of them are minor. Jerusalem is actually the capital of IDF (and RL Israel for that matter). Tel Aviv is my largest city however. In a more RP related note, I need some people to land as my Navy obliterating all the ships does not equal a fun RP when this has so much more potential

OOC: Would it be acceptable for other Christians to join the Crusade?

OOC: Would it be acceptable for other Christians to join the Crusade?

I dont mind

Tag

OOC: Made my post. What happens next depends on how your guys respond to the helo and E-8 overflights.

OOC:Not trying to nitpick, but any EW officer worth his stones will employ ECM and send have that sucker knocked out of the sky (especially an unescorted unarmed plane) before they can get any sort of good intel on the their fleet.(Again I'm not trying to nit pick, just trying to be helpful) I might jump in on your side depending on this goes down and how much of his force gets through.

OOC: Would it be acceptable for other Christians to join the Crusade?

OOC: IDF, is this good with you?

OOC:Not trying to nitpick, but any EW officer worth his stones will employ ECM and send have that sucker knocked out of the sky (especially an unescorted unarmed plane) before they can get any sort of good intel on the their fleet.(Again I'm not trying to nit pick, just trying to be helpful) I might jump in on your side depending on this goes down and how much of his force gets through.

OOC: That is true, however, it has been a very long time since my nation has had a war and some of the brains in my military's command have gone soft. They do not believe this constitutes a real threat as of yet.


OOC: IDF, is this good with you?

OOC2: Sure

OOC3: 10,000th post!!! :):):)

OOC:IDF one question. Do you have nuclear weapons? This will determine if i go in or not. If you have Nukes I'm going in, if not I might send a small force just to mess with black helm a bit and disrupt his supply lines or something. If these crusaders get nuclear weapons, its bad for me, mainly because my country is mainly athiest, but with christian minorities that have revolted or become violent in the past.(Ie mainly catholics blowing up a Luthern school) And may join them or possiblely smuggle in nukes and attempt to overthrow the government.

OOC:IDF one question. Do you have nuclear weapons? This will determine if i go in or not. If you have Nukes I'm going in, if not I might send a small force just to mess with black helm a bit and disrupt his supply lines or something. If these crusaders get nuclear weapons, its bad for me, mainly because my country is mainly athiest, but with christian minorities that have revolted or become violent in the past.(Ie mainly catholics blowing up a Luthern school) And may join them or possiblely smuggle in nukes and attempt to overthrow the government.

OOC: I am a nuclear power and I actually did use them once back in 2004.

The Crusader fleet largely ignored the helicopter. The decided, intead, to focus on the Israeli vessels that the radar aboard the frigates picked up. It seemed that there was a destroyer and a battlecruiser laying in the path between them and Tel Aviv. Of course, these ships would need to be removed, and thanks to Vetalia, the Crusaders had the means with which to do that.

From aboard a number of the larger ships, C-802 batteries began to spring to life. The Crusaders, having only very basic knowledge of the system, did what they could to track the ships, and let loose with a barrage that was sure to sink anything on the high seas. Over one hundred missiles ripped loose from the "fleet" and made their way for the Carmel and the Qiryat Arba. Meanwhile, the smaller vessels, and the transport ships, began to steam full speed for the shore.

Surely, the Israelis would begin to call more vessels to the area, but unfortunately the Crusaders had no way of knowing how, when, or where. All that they knew was that they had several vessels full of C-802 missiles, and they were prepared to use them.

This was not all that they were prepared to do. Four Shockhound Avenger II missiles had somehow made their way into Crusader hands. These four missiles were targeted on Tel Aviv, and hopefully would shake things up a bit.

The SH-60 LAMPS III helo was just getting over the formation when it spotted missile launches. The pilot was quick to key his radio headset. “Charlie, this is Sierra Hotel 1! We are reporting multiple missile launches. Repeat you have inbound vampires! Probably Charlie 8-oh-2’s!”

“Roger Sierra Hotel!” responded the crew on the Carmel. The vessel was already at General Quarters and her own RADARs and the E-8 were tracking the inbound vampires. Their screens showed 100 of the missiles at a distance of 110 nm. They were moving at 550 knots and would be impacting the Carmel and Qiryat Arba in about 10 minutes.

The crew of the SH-60 did not have a lot of weapons to use. They did have one penguin AShM to fire at one of the ships they just saw release a C-802. The pilot quickly fired his missile and then attempted to get his helo out of Dodge.

The two vessels were equipped with an automated AAW Defense System. The system began firing Surface to Air Missiles to intercept the inbound vampires. EW Technicians on each ship began to activate jammers and used other techniques to try to fool the inbound missiles once they closed to a closer range. The Carmel was equipped with 188 VLS cells. Of those, 144 were carrying the SAMs which would be needed to protect the vessel. In tests against the C-802, it was determined that two would be needed to intercept each missile and insure a kill. The Qiryat Arba only had 72 cells, fifty-four of which contained SAMs. Theoretically, the two IDF ships had enough missiles to deal with the onslaught once their CIWS systems and countermeasures were taken into effect. Of course, theory meant nothing.

Inside of two minutes, a total of 198 SAMs erupted from the VLS cells of each ship. Just six minutes after the launch was reported by the helos, SAMs began to score kills on inbound vampires. Vampires were quickly dropping off of the RADAR screens as SAMs scored kills on them, but would it be enough.

While the automated computer systems fought the AAW portion of the battle, Captain David Cohen had begun another operation immediately following the reported launch. His vessel carried 18 Anti-ship missiles which he quickly targeted on vessels which appeared to be either warships or cargo ships. He also had his 9 10” ETC guns train and fire at targets. The ETC assisted guns could heave the shells the 110 nm to the nearest targets.

The first few rounds would not be accurate, but it was hoped the large cluster of ships would allow his shells to find some targets. The guns on the Menachem Begin class ships were unique. The 10” shells could be reloaded in just 4 seconds allowing rapid fire. The E-8 and RADARs provided a clear picture of the area and allowed the computers to adjust and retarget the guns. The ship was firing an astounding 135 shells per minute. In just five minutes, the ten inch guns had to cease firing as the vessel ran out of shells. It was hoped that the hundreds of shells would have scored some hits and taken a chunk out of the invading force.

The Carmel began her own AShW operations. She had fourty-four AShMs to fire at ships and did so. Unfortunately, her 5” ETC gun could not fire as the ships were 15 nm out of her maximum launch range. Her crew performed another mission as they informed the Cheil Heim base of their situation. Within minutes, the Israeli Defense Forces were being called to high alert to protect Eretz Yisrael from an unknown invading force. A decade of peace had come to a quite sudden attack.

The missiles were still incoming at the Carmel and Qiryat Arba. With 90 seconds until impact, all but fifteen missiles had been destroyed by the SAMs. Once the missiles closed to eight nm, The Rolling Air-Frame Missiles were fired from each vessel and took the number of Vampires down to three. The Qiryat Arba was equipped with an anti-missile laser. Unfortunately for her crew, the laser was down for maintenance and had failed.
Chaff had failed to divert any of the missiles. Two missiles went for the Carmel and one went for the Qiryat Arba.
The Carmel was first struck ten feet above the waterline in an area below her stack. The blast shook the ship and gaskets blew on the machinery. A fire erupted from an internal explosion and flames shot up and out of her stack. The second missile struck the vessel just below the starboard bridge wing. The missile exploded and took the entire forward superstructure with it.

The Carmel was in serious danger. She was not flooding, but fire was actually a more dangerous foe than flooding ever could be in wartime. More ships in the twentieth century were lost in battle to fires than to flooding when facing battle. Like all Israeli ships, the Carmel was equipped with the automated fire control system.

The Captain and TAO were still alive as they were in CIC during the battle. The XO and much of the senior officers were undoubtedly dead from the second missile hit. The Captain could not think of that now though. He had a mission to fulfill. He needed to save his ship and men. The automated fire system in the forward section of the ship was functioning as auxiliary power generators were operating in that section of the vessel. It took twenty minutes, but the fire throughout the forward superstructure was defeated with the combined force of great fire bulkheads, a good crew, and of course the automated system which flooded the section with AFFF and water.

The 2nd missile was a graver issue. Main power throughout the ship was lost and the couplings for the auxiliary generators to get power to the area just aft of midships were severed by shock damage from the impacts. With no power, the automated fire control system could not work aft of frame 73. The fires were raging around frame 84 and aft. The fire could not spread too far forward, but the entire aft of the vessel could be lost to fire. The area was free of ammunition as the ship had fired all of its missiles. The problem was that the area still housed a large amount of fuel.

Fire crews bravely fought the fire with pressure hoses. Fire bulkheads kept the fires from frames 84-95. The fires were burning in this region across all decks and the heat that radiated through the bulkheads was reaching levels where it risked spreading. The order was tough to give, but the ship had to be evacuated. Of the 350 men and women who served about the Carmel, 265 of them were taken aboard life rafts. Charges were left in the forward and stern most compartments. Much of the forward bulkheads were opened. The ship’s charges went off five minutes after the Captain departed. The Carmel sank fifteen minutes after the scuttling charges went off. She was the first IDF built Farragat class vessel to be lost in combat.

The Qiryat Arba was luckier. The larger ship had some armor and was larger. The C-802 struck her at midships. The missile hit the 6 inch armor on her starboard outrigger. The armor helped dissipate some of the explosion as the C-802 was designed to kill thin hulled escorts, not battlecruisers with some armor.

Burning fuel was spread throughout a few compartments. The ship retained main power and the automated fire suppression system was activated. DC teams were already at their various DC lockers. With no threat of damage to other portions of the ship, DC teams from the bow and stern converged on the region to assist the automated system. The burning compartments were sealed off and CO2 was pumped in to suffocate the fire. Once that had been completed, jets built into the overhead spread water into the sealed compartments to cool down the still hot steel. The fires were out in twelve minutes.

Captain David Cohen considered himself lucky. His ship was damaged, but the damage was largely superficial and did not harm his ship’s ability to steam. He reversed his course so that his port side RAMs were unmasked in case his ship came under another attack.

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The Tel Aviv Air Defense Brigade detected the four incoming missiles. Luckily, Saddam’s attack on the city in 1991 had forced Israel to invest heavily in air defense of its population centers. Patriots and Arrow IIs were launched and quickly took the four inbound missiles out. Tel Aviv was safe for a few more hours.

There was another problem. It was late Friday night and much of the IDF had been dismissed to have Shabbat off. They had left earlier in the afternoon and most soldiers were home. They were quickly being recalled so that they could defend their homeland. The IAF would get few planes up to defend Israel and the Cheil Heim would only get a few more ships out before the opposition began landing. Israel’s defense rested on its ground forces. They should be ready and in good positions by the time the enemy began to land.

At Ben Gurion Airport and Ramon Airbase, Israeli F-16Is loaded with AGM-65D Mavericks and AGM-88s lifted off to hopefully cut down on the number of ships.

In the Eastern Atlantic, the ships of the Mediterranean Fleet were given recall orders to assist with the situation. Ships from the southern fleet departed Eilat to move around the Sinai to try to assiste with the situation. Other ships remained around Eilat to defend there.

The response from the IDF sent a number of the makeshift warships up in flames, including several of the freighters-turned-missile cruisers. Explosions began to erupt all throughout the fleet as the Crusader forces continued pressing on towards the coast. Nearly every missile the Israelis fired hit a ship, and the losses were heavy. The fleet was not about to give up, however, and prepared another, albeit smaller, salvo of C-802's. A blast of thirty five missiles soon flew towards the battle cruiser as it began to move. The fleet was now much closer to the Israeli's, less than forty miles, and the enemy would have less time to react now, and even fewer weapons with which to defend themselves.

The leaders of the Crusaders had finally decided on how to operate. Tacitus would go with the transports (one of which was badly damaged and limping towards shore) and lead the assault on the ground. In the meantime, Octavius would take command of the fleet. Octavius was not a very bright man, but he was charismatic. His utter lack of knowledge of warfare was for the most part made up for by his ability to have his men follow his every word. Tacitus, however, had been in combat. He had earned his stripes in the civil wars fighting Communists and Muslims, and had seen war first hand several times. He would now once again prove his effectiveness in combat, or so he hoped. In reality, however, Tacitus had never commanded more than a hundred and twenty men, and perhaps this might be a bit too much for him to handle.

Meanwhile, the fleet was preparing to assault the city once again, hopefully softening up Tel Aviv for the landing soon to come. Several dozen Babur missiles were being primed from their TEL's, positioned on the top deck of a number of frieghters. In one massive blast, forty eight Babur missiles would soon scream for the Israeli city.

Several of the smaller ships, escorting the transports and some carrying troops as well also began to take shots at the two Israeli vessels, sporadically firing off Exocet missiles as if they were taking pot shots. Others began to fire towards the coast with their rocket tubes, hopefully disrupting any Israeli positions set up their.

The Israeli Air Force would meet little opposition. There were virtually no aircraft with the Crusaders, and the only form of defense the men could offer would be in the form of SAM's. Six ships, three on each flank, were designated as anti-air vessels, and were covered with dozens of SA-N-2 Guideline and SA-N-7 Gadfly missiles. Hopefully these ancient pieces of Soviet technology would take their toll upon the Israeli forces. If the enemy flew low enough, or got close enough, they would encounter even more problems, as a large number of the smaller vessels had at least one man carrying a Strela 2 or Stinger.

The Crusaders were hopelessly outclassed by the IDF, but they refused to realize it, and all hoped that they would push through and take back the Holy Land.

Captain David Cohen and his crew in CIC had a team of EWs led by an EWMC jamming the missile launchers. The jamming bought them 150 seconds they would not normally have. Cohen knew the barrage was more than his point defenses could handle. With only RAMs, he knew his ship was gone.

The order to abandon ship was given before the second salvo was fired. He had 10 minutes for his crew to get off and the EWs added 2 and a half minutes to that time. The crew was quick to put on life jackets and jumped into water. Some got into rafts and others just swam away knowing they could get on a half empty raft once they were a safe distance from the ship. Four minutes before the first missile was to hit the Qiryat Arba, Captain Cohen grabbed the log and climbed over the side. He was a 600 meters away when the first missile hit.

The first half dozen missiles hit the port outrigger. Few did much damage against the armor and fires were the only visible sign of damage. A seventh missile hit a weakened steel plate and penetrated deep before exploding under the superstructure. The ship was now very visibly damaged and completely ablaze amidships.

The second group of six missiles hit the port quarter of the vessel and were able to breech the magazine of the still unfired 5” ETC mounts. The ship never got into range to use those shells. The fires ignited the high explosive shells and the aft of the ship disappeared in a large fireball. The other missiles hit the ship and did more damage, but none of them really mattered. The vessel was long ago mortally wounded. Captain Cohen had his back turned as his ship went down. He did not want to see her. He was just glad only fifteen shipmates lay dead aboard the vessel.

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The skies over the Eastern Med

The Israeli Air Force had few aircraft on standby armed with anti-ship missiles. Most of their anti-ship forces were not able to be put in the air prior to the invasion forces inevitable landing at Tel Aviv.

Twenty-four F-16I Sufas had been loaded with AGM-65s. The Maverick missile was an anti-tank weapon and each Sufa carried four of them. The missile was not designed to sink ships. It could however slow the ships down and possibly sink a few of them from the resulting fires. The Sufa pilots were approaching from the east and southeast. Each bird flew down to 1,000 feet and had their RIO pickled off the missiles.

Only eighteen of the new A-10Is were airborne. They carried a few Mavericks and then had their pilots fire the 30 mm rounds at the ships. They could not even hope to stop the fleet. They could thin down the numbers.

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Tel Aviv-Yaffo
The IDF soldiers were not as organized as they ought to have been, but the equivalent manpower of soldiers who had been mustered as that of one infantry division. It probably would not be enough to win overall, but they would buy time for organized units to make it. Such units were being gathered and preparing to move towards Tel Aviv.

Portions of an armored division were also in place. This included Merkava X Tanks and IFVs. Two artillery battalions had also gotten in place. They had guns and MLRSs at their disposal. They would try to hit the invaders on the beaches hard and also hit boats as they slowed near the beach.

Radio networks for the infantrymen had been established and the men laid claymore mines from Old Yaffo Beach all the way north to the Sde Dov Airport, which was already well defended as an IAF and IDF installation. Other units were stationed up the coast of Ashdod, Netanya and Caesarea in case invaders went further north or south along the coast.

Civilians were quickly evacuated from hotels along the beaches. Numerous internationally owned hotels had locations along beaches south of the Hayarkon River. The civilians were ordered to leave everything and run east. Buses and trains were used to assist with the evacuation. Many IDF civilians refused to leave and picked up their old M-16s from their own military days. While service in the IDF was no longer mandatory with its large population, many had served when they were 18 and still kept their status as reservists until they were 40. They had not been officially called up, but they were anxious for a fight and joined the soldiers at defensive positions on the beaches and hidden inside of buildings where they would spray the beaches with bullets and ATGMs.

At Sde Tov and many other IAF bases, close air support aircraft were prepped. They would not enter the combat until the time of the landings, but they would be important. The primary mission the IAF fulfilled throughout its life was not air superiority. Israel had a good reputation of attaining that, but the primary mission was always close air support. That would be the same here.

OOC: You are making it to the beach. This RP has been a very fun one thus far. Now I want to see if we could have a fun protracted urban battle following the landings. I don't care how unfeasible it might be for you to have tens of thousands make it to the beach. It will sure make this RP a great one.

"The Emperor of Parkus offerers his full support to the Israeli Defense Forces. If there is any way our humble nation can assist you, even militaristically, please notify us."

-The Emperor.

The Binarian Empire fully supports the plight of Isreal, and with the approval of its government, will commit forces to crush the extremists that seek to take over the "holy" land.

OOC: If you want the help, I'll gladly give it.

The Crusader ships began to hit the shore, and poured out hundreds, if not thousands, of men and children onto the sand. Children as young as eight were wildly firing AK-47's at the Israeli defenders as others starting blasting away with RPG's. These people had little to no training, and many were killing more of their own men then they were of the enemy. Still, they had been lucky. The Israelis were completely unprepared for an invasion, and they still had some form of surprise.

From the sea, boats began to provide cover fire from a number of mortars, showering Israeli positions and hopefully softening the beach up for the Crusaders to push through, and maybe even make their way into the city. So far, all had been going well for the Crusaders. They had sunk two warships, and were now even unloading on the beach! This was far more than most would have expected, and for Octavius, it was enough to begin a celebration. He wanted fireworks.

Another fifty Babur missiles soon screamed out from their cells, targeted for Tel Aviv. Hopefully, the damage done to the city might shake Israeli morale, and give the Crusaders that much more of an advantage. That missile salvo was fired by another, from the SA-N-7's. These, however, were targeted on the F-16I's.

As the Israeli aircraft began to make their attack, pounding away at the Crusader fleet, the air defense vessels, if you could call them that, unloaded, sending hundreds of Soviet missiles into the sky.

On the shore, Tacitus watched the carnage all around him. He was hoping to show the IDF that they were a real threat, and maybe manage to force Israel to the bargaining table. The only thing they wanted was Jerusalem, not the rest of the nation. Unfortunately, however, Jerusalem was their capital city, and that would require some serious victories on the Crusaders part.