NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is the continuing thread for the civil warm and the impending invasion of Mereshka.

Mick smiled, "Yes, it really has. So, Empress now? I'd say I'm officially outdone! With your permission, me and the boys here want to get up on the roof and set up a perimeter. We kept the firepower low, and we'll make sure no one comes near the palace without our knowledge."

AAT-431, 3 kilometers off the coast of Mereshka

Major General Vladimir Nikolaivich Rybalko gave his cigarette a short puff as he studied the map of the area he was going to be landing in. This particular area had been noted for the high possability of off-shore oil and natural gas, something Red Tide desperately lacked. A Tech-Com Corporation Surveying Ship was already about six kilometer's behind the transport ship, surveying for precisely such oil/gas reserves.

The Red Tidean ships had encountered no seaborne resistance, except for some small fishing boats, which were sunk and their crews machine gunned. Rybalko had no compunctions about what his job entailed, as far as he was concerned, it was a matter of loyalty to the State.

He suddenly straightened up and looked at his staff and divisional officers... speaking one word:

"We shall begin..."

The beachhead...

Due to the lack of any actual ports containing actual harbors, the Red Tidean planners had picked a artificial and natural harbor for the invasion spot: a small bay area jutting into the nation. Such a place, naturally, would make a excellent place for a fishing village.

And indeed, there was a fishing village nearby. How unfortunate for it.

The first Red Tidean hovercrafts roared on to the shoreline precisely at sunrise, stopping several hundred meters from the place the shore met the ocean and disgorging hundreds of troops and armored vehicles.

Model of a MBT-66 Main Battle Tank, the backbone of Red Tidan mechanised formations.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i47/ObssesedNuker/MBT-66.jpg

OOC: Forces deploying will come later.

Saya was about to reply, when a young Mereshkan man ran up to her, and spoke something in Mereshkan, probably much faster than the foreigners could understand. Saya looked horrified. "Gentlemen, we have bigger problems on our hands now. I just got a report that a fishing viliage on the coast, was just assaulted. The forces are obviously foreign, the messenger described what had to be a tank to me. Not as advanced as you boys can field, but sure as hell more destructice than a horse. I think its time for you boys to bring in the big guns."

Edward smiled. "Ah, I still have to get used to the grammar. Wonder who the foreign forces are that we'll be going against." He jerked his thumb back to his squad. "These guys are the best I could scrape together, all specialists in their fields. To give a breif rundwon of the command staff..."

Crispy stepped forward. "Good to see you again, Empress."

A lean man with a rough goatee stepped forward. "Mick Klein, Shotgunner at your service." His accent twisted shotgunner to Shat gooner

Another man of equal stature but lacking in facial hair stepped forward. "William Teufel, madam."

Edward chuckled. "Thats about it for the command staff, I heard word that we might be gettin-" His words were cut off by the sound of a forced transmission. Edward yanked the ear piece out of his ear then tossed it on the ground. "Damn thing went onto speaker..." The transmission washed in and out of static before becoming clear. "General Harrison and whoever is in the vicinity, this is Wilhelm Strauss of the Wolf Dragoons, we were ordered to assist you by General Bradley, where do you need us?" Edward half smiled, half frowned. "Mercs huh? And wolf dragoons none-the-less. This could get interesting.."

In Violation of Mereshkan Airspace:
Shenyangi Registry Learjet-85 (radio callsign: Blackbriar-2)
0427 hours Mereshkan Time (pre-dawn):
---

The pilot glanced at his instruments, they glowed all manner of colors before him. Convinced that everything was in order he once more glanced at the altimeter. It read in at 9700 metres.

"Blackbriar-2 to Team, we are over the target at Angels 9 plus 7. You are clear to jump."

"Six to Blackbriar-2, roger that, exitting in 10, thanks for the ride."

"Any time."

The pilot flipped a switch, kicking red lights in the cabin to blue, the go signal for the jump. A warning light indicated that the cabin door had been opened, and the plane shifted ever so slightly. Then the light dimmed and the aircraft returned to normal flight patterns. The co-pilot flipped a switch and the cabin repressurized. He checked the radar, nothing coming to get them, another perfectly executed drop by Blackbriar-2.

"Blackbriar-2 to Command, packages in flight and on time, returning home."

"Affirmative, good work up there."

The learjet banked over and cut a very tight circle, heading back the way they'd come.

---

Below, a team of Shenyangi special operations dropped toward the darkened earth below. They maintained relatively tight formation, and dropped further and further, finally deploying their parachutes below 200 metres. The twelve squad members touched down in a small clearing roughly 1 mile from their objective.

The soldiers secured their chutes, and pulled their weapons, primarilly new model XM-10A3 rifles. Several pulled on gas masks, and all flipped down their NVGs. The darkened woods around them turned various shades of green. The squad leader gestured in the direction of their target. None had any indication of national origin on their uniforms

The squad formed up and moved toward their target.

---

In Violation of Mereshkan Territory:
Shenyangi Special Operations Unit
0542 Mereshkan Time (dawn)

The DPM camouflaged soldiers emerged from the tree line and walked toward the imperial palace. Their weapons were at the ready, and they moved expertly from cover to cover toward the traditional palace before them.

"Snipers, rooftop."

"Roger, keep your heads down."

"Satellite shows 5 snipers, unknown origin."

"They won't engage unless we make some outwardly threatening move, just keep moving up."

"We're coming up on the kill zone."

"Hold."

The squad froze behind cover, weapons trained on the targets they could just make out against the lightening sky. One dropped down and pulled a radio from her gear. If the snipers on the roof were who they thought, then they had the correct radio frequency to tap into their communications.

Sure enough, the headset crackled, then resolved into voices speaking with Slaughterian accents.

"Black Ops Sniper Team, friendlies coming in from the West, do not engage, repeat do not engage."

They didn't wait for a response. The squad leader gestured for one of the soldiers to take point. They resumed their advance, finally stopping at the doors of the palace. The point man knocked on the door and waited for someone to reach the door.

There was no way to identify these soldiers who now waited outside the palace, and as a result several remained ready to engage, standard operational prudence. These members took positions on either side of the massive doors. Only 3 members of the team waited before the doors. Their gas masks still concealing their identities.

One man carried a XDM-10A3 sniper rifle, the other an XM-10A3 carbine, the woman between them carried an XM-10A3 battle rifle.

The woman knockd again, and yelled through the mask.

"Shenyangi Special Air Service, here to see the Empress."

---

Shenyangi Territory:
0642 Shenyangi Standard Time

All over Shenyang, the military personnel were beginning to converge on their bases. They had recieved orders that they would soon be deployed, and that where ever they were going, there was going to be one hell of a fight.

BeachHead Alpha, 1:00 PM

The sound of rumbling vehicles, men shouting in somewhat-muffled Russian, and the roar of helicopters could be heard as more and more troops came ashore. A regiment of Red Tidean Combat Engineers were busy putting together three 'Mulberry'-style artificial harbors together. Once those were complete, Red Tidean forces and supplies could come ashore en-masse. The first one would be completed sometime by sundown.

Another regiment of Red Tidean engineers were busy constructing a pre-fab airstrip, so airsupport could be dispatched and airborne supplies could land. This would be online by the next Afternoon.

So far, in addition to the Engineering Brigade that had come ashore, a Mechanized-Infantry Division and a brigade of a Armored Division had landed. Red Tidean forces had pushed three kilometers inland and the beachhead was four kilometers long.

OOC: Forces There:

State Guard(IE: Regular Army):
x1 Guard Army Corp(125,000 men)
Consisting of:
x1 Armored Division
x1 Mechanized-Infantry Divisions
x3 Motorized-Infantry Divisions
x1 Engineering Brigade
x2 Artillery Brigades
x1 Anti-Aircraft Brigade
x1 Armored Brigade

Legend:
1 Brigade=5,000 men
1 Division=20,000 men
1 Armored Division typically usually possess 600 AFVs*(200 MBTs, 400 APCs)
1 Mechanized-Infantry Division usually possess 400 AFVs*(150 MBTs, 250 APCs)
1 Motorized-Infantry Division usually possess 130 AFVs*(60 MBTs, 70 APCs)
1 Armored Brigade usually possess 150 AFVs*(50 MBTs, 75 APCs, 25 HTDs**)

State Naval Forces:
x1 Transport Convoy consisting of:
10 Tidal Wave-Class DDGs
20 Mockingbird-Class Frigates
10 TC-2C ASW Helicopters#
10 TC-2A Heavy Rocket Helicopters#
6 TC-2B Transport Helicopters#
6 Khan-Class Amphibious Assualt Ships
Assorted other transports & supply ships

Footnotes:
*AFVs(Armored Fighting Vehicles) do NOT include artillery(self-propelled and towed), trucks, missile launchers(self-propelled and stationary), helicopters, and repair vehicles.
**HTD=Heavy Tank Destroyers
#Helicopters excluded from State Guard list, there Helicopters are organic to their assigned divisions.

Mick responded to the SAS, "Roger that. Be advised SATCOM shows a large hostile force landing on a beach. You boys better be gringing company."

One of the team tracked the operatives through his scope, confriming their identity. There was no real need for stealth considering that they were anticiapting muskets at worst and they'd seen the plane. Shenyangi SAS commonly used aricraft like the Lear to drop forces in. Though the scopes were not enhanced by electronics, the night vision in their helmets was more than able to adapt to processing visuals through it.

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

Throughout the Dominion troops from the Dominion Defense Forces were assembling to link up with Shenyangi and UHC personnel to form a joint United Defense Directorate task force. The force was primarily infantry, allowing Shenyang to compose the heavy armor elements. The squads were very versatile, armed with DM-32A2 assault rifles and Javelin missile launchers along with a slew of other weapons, they were to enter via amphibious landing, covered by the combined navy of multiple Directorate nations, but primarily Shenyangi and Slaughterian.

A diplomatic communique was sent to the government headquarters of Red Tide:

To the head of government, nation of Red Tide,
The nation of Mereshka, where intelligence assets have established you are now landing military personnel, is in alliance with and therefore under the protection of the United Defense Directorate. Failure to withdraw forces from said nation will merit a direct response executed with the utmost expediency and efficiency.

We are not responsible for casulties should you decide to ignore this ultimatum. We will not give you a set timeframe but monitor you via satellite. Any further action against Mereshka or attempts to deorbit our satellites will show us that you are not in compliance. We are watching.

State Dacha, Ariga, Totalitarian State of Red Tide

There were times when Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Gromkyo would rather be somewhere, anywhere other then the place he was at the moment. Given the glare that General Secretary of the Totalitarian State was giving the head of the Intelligence Commissariat, Nikolai Suvov Adrukrei, this was one of those times.

He had forwarded the message recieved from the nation of Ruthless Slaughter to Narmonov a few hours earlier, a half-hour ago, he had recieved a summons from the General Secretary. He had gotten there in time to see a pale Intelligence Commissariat Head and a glaring Narmonov.

"Have a seat, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich..." Narmonov said, jagged steel metaphorically dripping from his lips, "Please, have a seat."

Gromkyo did as he was told as fast as possible. When Narmonov was not in a good mood, you had better do what he said... if you valued your life that is. Once Gromkyo was seated, Narmonov continued.

"Now, Nikolai Suvov has just given me an interesting report on the nations of-" A pause as Narmonov checked his papers, "Shenyang and Ruthless Slaughter. Apparently, the latter is three billion people smaller, while the former only around two hundred million smaller..."

"And?" Gromkyo inquired in the submissive voice he always used when he needed information like this.

"If it was one or the other, we could handle it. But it is both of them we will have to fight."

Narmonov said, matter-of-factly. Narmonov never blustered or shouted, it was not his style. Rather, he spoke with such blunt deliberatness, and so icily, that one could literally feel the shiver run down his/her back.

"Fortunantly, we have some advantages they don't..." Narmonov spoke, "We have a larger arms industry base. Our training methods are also much easier-"

There Narmonov was referring to the Hallucagenic Control Collars, the very thing that kept the State Guard loyal to the State.

"-and we have deeper reserves of equipment. Thus, we can replace losses faster. In addition, we are already in theater and will have achieved our goals by the time the Shenyangians and Slaughterians get into place. Then we can sit back and let them bleed on our defences... until we force them to the negotiating table."

Gromkyo didn't know whether this would be the right course, so he did the logical, self-preserving thing... he agreed with the dictator.

"Of course, General Secretary." Gromkyo proceeded to say, "So, shall my reply will be?"

"Nothing... not a word."

Gromkyo nodded, then glanced at Adrukrei, who had been quiet the whole meeting. As bad as being there was, he was happy he was not currently Adrukrei.

In the meantime

The Red Tidean Superdreadnought H-47 formed up with the rest of the battlegroup and began steaming East, towards Mereshka. Accompanying them beneath the waves were Tsunamis-Class Nuclear Attack Submarines.

In addition, Space Warfare Regiments(IE: ground troops armed with anti-sattelite missiles) were put on alert for possible use. At their bases, Red Tidean Naval Interdiction Regiments were also put on alert. RADAR Oceanic Reconnassiance Sattelites(RORSATs) were tasked with scanning the oceans around Ruthless Slaughter and Shenyang for large convoys of ships... just in case. Finally, deployment warnings were sent out to even more units of the State Guard...

Red Tide was preparing to go to war over a State far below its technological level.

OOC: Wolf dragoons? Isn't that from Mech Assault?

IC: Saya laughed, and uncerimoniously hugged Crispy. "Good to see you again Crispy." She turned to all the others. "And I'm pleased to meet you, good to know that you're still loyal to the General here." She then motioned over one of the samurai. "This is Akira Somoku, shogun of the Segaya, or wolf, clan. Not a very large clan, but since its the clan from which I come from, he is one of my military advisors." Akira bowed, "It is very good to meet you." He said with a very heavy accent. He turned to Mick Klein. "I'm sorry, but this question has been bothering me. What in the world is a shat gooner?"
Saya laughed. "Later Akira. We have business to attend to. Any idea who could be the attackers?"

A man opened the door to the palace, and looked over the Shenyangi troops. He eyed them carefully, going over the firearms they were carrying with intrest. "Here to see the Empress eh? May I ask whom sent you?" He said, in near perfect english.

OOC: Red Tide2, Shenyang hasn't been mentioned in the communiques, the only involvement you could know about from us is that a Learjet-85 took a brief trip over Mereshkan airspace, however given Shenyang's proximity to Mereshka, that isn't something that would be at all odd, and likely would have been observed during pre-operation planning dozens of times. Unless you've had spy sats parked over Shenyang this whole time then there's pretty slim odds that you would know our intentions, much less where our military is heading.

The ultimatum came through UDD Central Command, which does not necessitate my military involvement, it means that I could be getting involved, nothing more. I'd appreciate if you edit me out of that post to reflect that for all intents and purposes, there's no evidence that my people are involved, yet.

Oh, and I wouldn't assume you have more weapons in reserve than Shenyang, you'd be quite surprised by the stockpiles of a capitalist nation that's under persistent terrorist attack.

IC:

Mereshkan Imperial Palace
Shenyang SAS Team:
---

"That's why we're here, this fight's a little above the firepower you brought."

The squad still waited for access to the palace itself. Finally the door was opened, and a suspicious man asked whose authority they were there under.

"We were deployed by the Shenyangi Special Operations Command, at the behest of the Empress's husband."

The woman who was clearly in command gestured and the weapons came down.

"If you want then only the three of us will come in."


Shenyangi Territory:
Heierlark Air Base, Northern Shenyang:

A trio of enormous EB-15 Arkbird bombers were being loaded inside their secure bomb-proofed hangars. Each was being loaded with AGM-154G JSOW-ER, specifically, 240 each. Across the base two SU-37-ADCAP-L fighters were being loaded for HVACAP, to protect the Arkbirds.

Within two hours the aircraft were rolling onto the tarmac, the Flankers from Disir Squadron were the first to lift off, followed closely by the three massive bombers from Valkyrie Squadron. The aircraft entered holding patterns 50 miles from the base, awaiting the go-code to make their attack run.

The UDD wanted a prompt, efficient response when the ultimatum fell through, and 720 JSOWs was the Shenyangi version of 'prompt and efficient'.

The man laughed. "Alex? I was wondering when he would send someone. Please come in. You can all come inside, but I ask that only the three of you see the empress. Security you understand. Have your men make themselves at home. Breakfast is starting if they're hungry. Now, this way to the Empress please." With that he walked off towards the meeting place.

"Thank you very much."

'Six' nodded to her squad, and they took positions covering the entry route they'd used.

She and the two other SAS entered the palace, following closely behind their escort. It was worth noting that even though they wore heavy tactical boots, their footsteps were almost dead silent on the floors of the palace, were it not for their proximity, they may well have disappeared anywhere they pleased.

Over their secured frequencies the SAS spoke briefly, their gas masks served to muffle their voices beloy audible levels.

"Six, you think that we're enough? I mean, they're sending an army in here."

"It doesn't matter, we're all they've got until the MEFs arrive. With any luck we'll ride this out unscathed."

"When has that ever worked out?"

"I know, I know."

It must have been interesting, these three foreigners walking through the Mereshkan Imperial Palace with automatic weapons, a sign of troubled times.

The serving girls, and most of the samurai stopped to stare in wide eyed wonder at the soldiers walking through the hall. It appeared to them as though demons were walking through the halls. It could only be wondered the stares that were being given to the other men, who would eat breakfast at their table.

The chaimberlan led them through many hallways, until they arrived outside, on the grassy plain where Saya and the others were. He held up a hand for the soldiers to stop, and went to Saya, and whispered in her ear. She turned and walked to the soldiers. "Ah, Shenyangi troops. Excellent, we could really use you. May I ask who the leader here is?"

OOC: Red Tide2, Shenyang hasn't been mentioned in the communiques, the only involvement you could know about from us is that a Learjet-85 took a brief trip over Mereshkan airspace, however given Shenyang's proximity to Mereshka, that isn't something that would be at all odd, and likely would have been observed during pre-operation planning dozens of times. Unless you've had spy sats parked over Shenyang this whole time then there's pretty slim odds that you would know our intentions, much less where our military is heading.

The ultimatum came through UDD Central Command, which does not necessitate my military involvement, it means that I could be getting involved, nothing more. I'd appreciate if you edit me out of that post to reflect that for all intents and purposes, there's no evidence that my people are involved, yet.

Oh, and I wouldn't assume you have more weapons in reserve than Shenyang, you'd be quite surprised by the stockpiles of a capitalist nation that's under persistent terrorist attack.

Paragraph 1&2: Upon re-reading the post, it appears you are correct. :shrugs: It isn't that, we can just ignore those aspects of the post. From here on out, I will treat your forces as neutral(that is, until you engage me).

Paragraph 3: We'll see...

IC: Beachhead Alpha, Corps HQ, sundown...

General Rybalko stared down at the piece of paper in his hands: Expect possible hostile reactions from the following nations. It was followed by a moderately lengthy list...

"Shit..." He muttered. A cough brought his head back up, the Brigadier who was in charge of Air-Defence was standing there.

"Sir, the SAMs are setting up. We have already put-up the MDM-5B launcher..."

"Good," Rybalko said tiredly, looking back down, "We'll need that just-in case."

The MDM-5B was a two-stage Super High Altitude Surface-Air Missile, essentially a derivative of the MDM-5A, which was a ABM missile. The MDM-5 could engage virtually any aircraft that flew above 100,000 feet. Below that, it was completely incapable of attacking.

But that was what the stationary MDM-4's and the mobile MDM-6's were for.

Rybalko yawned, looking at the setting sun. Turning to his Second-In-Command, "Wake me if anything special happens."

'Six' removed her gas mask. This revealed a woman with short dark hair and vibrant violet eyes. Her facial structure displayed asian heritage, while those eyes seemed to indicate some kind of european ancestry.

"That would be me, your Highness. Lieutenant Colonel Aki Wong, commanding officer of Shenyangi Special Air Service..."

The two other soldiers removed their gas masks.

"...Team Dagger."

On her right stood the goggle-clad sniper best known as 'Dagger-4'. To the left stood the Empress's husband, Alex 'Dagger-5' Marshall.

The three Shenyangi smiled, anticipating a rather substantial reaction.

Saya simply stood there, mouth hanging open, not knowing what to do. Finally, for a lack of anything better to do, she laughed and hugged Alex. "Can't you ever warn me when you do something like this?" She turned to Dag4. "And you! Aren't you supposed to be the responsible one?"

"Well, I haven't been able to reach you for the last two weeks, and I got word that these guys were heading straight for you. What was I supposed to do? Send a runner to find you? I figured it was better for me to come with the best I could get and fight for you than to sit back and wait for a letter from SSOCOM saying you'd been killed."

Dagger-4 piped in as well.

"In our defense, we are being responsible, we're here to make sure nothing happens to you, which is better than leaving it to chance. Besides, this was kinda, short notice."

'Six' cut the two of them off.

"Long story short, your husband begged us to go in, and we deployed on 4 hours notice. There's a full scale task force gathering over in Shenyang right now, but we're here to keep you safe from anything we can."

The team was armed to the teeth, anti-tank missiles and man-portable SAMs were numbered amongst their gear. A cut above the usual SAS team's arsenal.

OOC: off for night.

OOC: Alrighty. By the way Shen, I think I might retry the TBCS thing. Whaddya think?

Saya shook her head. "Well, I suppose it was a bit short warning. Alrighty then, time to get down to business. We were just discussing who would be behind the assault. I personally have no idea."

Bridge Of The Destroyer Exterminator, International Waters - 50 miles from Mereshkan Waters

The door to the bridge opened, and a man walked in with a note. He handed it to the Captain. He looked it over, and then turned to the messenger.

"When was this taken?" He asked

"12:34 local time" he replied

"Can we identify the nation who has deployed these troops?"

"Not as yet sir, the SR-71 is returning to base to refuel"

"Alright, carry on. Inform me of any changes"

"Yes sir" the messenger turned and left the bridge.

Captain Williams looked out of the bridge. Behind them, two landing ships, the aircraft carrier Ocean and destoyer Oblivion cut through the water towards Mereshka. He turned back to the bridge and began typing the first of two messages on his PDA.

To: President-General Tom White
From: Task Force Brigand, Captain Williams

Troops identified in Mereshka. Definetly foreign. Unknown which nation. Will continue as instructed

He clicked the send icon, and began writing another.

To: Renegade General Harrison
From: Task Force Brigand, Captain Williams

We are currently 50 miles from Mereshkan waters. We are bringing support troops for the defence of Mereshka: 5,000 troops and 50 Challenger 2 Tanks, Plus the Destroyers Oblivion & Exterminator. We will remain off the coast untill needed. Call on us when you need us.

OOC: I'll join, but lets hold out till this little episode is resolved.

IC:

"Well, satellite images seen to indicate its a nation armed with Tidean weapons, intel says we're dealing with Red Tide2 itself, not one of its 'step-child' states."

Six's voice had the professional detachment that most expected from Shenyangi Special Operations, a quality that had been lacking in Five or Four. As a result, she came across as cold. Then again, she was a consumate professional.

She explained what was known about the current situation on the coast line.

"We're ready to launch a massive strike against their beach head as soon as they fail to submit to the the UDD ultimatum. Unfortunately, the plan requires stand-off deployment of dispenser weapons, and those are going to blanket the coast, blowing their harbor straight to Hel, the main negative is that we can't confirm that they slaughtered all the civilians in the area, and this strike is going to blanket that area in explosive sub-munitions, we're projecting a 80-95% nominal kill rate within the target area, enemy and civilian, but the harbor will either be destroyed or so heavilly damaged as to be irreparable."

She didn't even flinch at the concept of taking out civilians to get the job done. Four and Five shifted uneasilly, this hadn't been part of their plan, it was straight from High Command.

"From there, it will likely be several days before we can get a full scale military presence here to match the forces they've already landed. If the plan holds up then we should be able to attain naval supremacy quickly, then mop up their forces here once they're cut off. Of course, there is always to chance this could drag on quite a while."

OOC: I'll join, but lets hold out till this little episode is resolved.

OOC: I thought you were already in?

OOC: That was to Mereshka's comment about a group called the TBCS, not this thread, sorry for the confusion.

OOC: I'm actually supposed to be as big as you are, roughly of course. A year of deletion kept my pop down, but we're technologically on par. We're a former Corporate Police State, with quite a few nasty weapons and military units that any normal democracy would deem 'unseemly'.

IC:

For the time being, the Dominion Military was on standby. The ultimatum had gone unanswered, and military leaders were chomping at the bit. However, in their ever-mysterious fashion, High Command ordered their first marching orders to be delivered in person, so as not to 'alert prying eyes or ears'. In fact, at ground level, nothing was amiss. Using the old, pre-democracy tunnel systems, the aide made his way to an elevator already five stories underground. He went down for what seemed an unfathomable distance beyond that and passed through five checkpoints to his destination.

He saluted a Commodore of the Dominion Grand Navy and handed him the evelope. Reading it and then confirming the clearance code, he stepped from the ward room onto a balcony overlooking massive, artificially lit cavern. Taking up most of the 'floor' was row upon row of Hurricane Class attack sunmarines. The entire base was ingenious, set neatly inside the edge of the Continental Shelf. Deemed one of the most wasteful uses of military funding, it was a throwback to the days of a populace controlled through paranoia, where they gladly paid all the money they could spare to keep them safe.

The Hurricanes were equally as dated-on the outside. They had recently undergone retrofit, now equipped with magnetohydrodynamic drive and IR reflective paint. An outer door was opened somewhere beneath the surface of the water, and two of the subs cast off their moorings and slid beneath the waves. Deploying at a suitable cruising depth, they activated their MHD drives and went silent almost out of the doors. Armed with two cruise missile tubes each and a large torpedo compliment, they would be there for surveillance and disruption purposes. As far as the Dominion was concerned, they were already at war.

Fifteen minutes later word came down that Red Tide was readying a larger force, and an additional twelve submarines were being readied.

OOC: Yes, the wolf dragoons are from Mech Assault. Good name, thats why I wanted to use it. And count me in on the new TBCS, will it be a continuation of the last TBCS?

IC:

Edward nearly tore his own ear off when another transmission hijacked his line. He flung it onto the ground and nearly crushed it with his boot before stopping and alerting everyone. "Got another call from the dragoons, think everyone should listen."

The radio disolved into static a few times before fully clearing. "I apologize for that." Came the crackling voice of Wilhelm Strauss. "But I think we might be over a natural EM field." He cleared his throat, over the radio is sounded like an explosion. "As I was about to report, the Union was kind enough to donate a few of its new toys, prototype battle armor, code named Wandern Panzer, I think everyone will be highly impressed when they see these in action. General Strauss, out."
Edward chuckled. "Wandering tank, huh? Sounds like a mech to me." He chuckled again on noticing Alex. "You know, getting killed is annoying, i've had to much trouble coming back twice now. You think they would learn." he laughed this time. "But then where would I learn fro my mistakes? I've got a list right now, avoid anything from Section zero, and try not to over do it on rotgut. Thats stuff is nasty, even if it isn't lethal."

Somewhere near the coast

Frank Green had been gunning his Osprey for the past hour, hoping to squeeze past whatever blockade the Red Tide soldiers had set up alon the coast. And for the past hour, he emptied every single missle counter measure he had, the AA grid was to extensive for him to even hope to squeeze by. "Either I crash and die, or I take my chances on foot." He mumbled. "Foot is better, always wanted to retire to some tropical island." He chuckled grimly "Or I'll be seen as a demon and burned." His eyes wandered from his flight path to the great expanse of green and the plae blue stretch of ocean several miles away when a missle alert snapped his attention back to flying. "Scheiße!" He shouted. He franticaly flicked the switch for chaff, nothing happened as he expected. "Verbrennen Sie in Höllenbastarden! " He screamed at the ground. The missle hit and the osprey began a wild spin, seconds before impact blackness consumed Frank's awareness of reality.

He awoke to water being splashed into his face. He took a groggy look at whoever it was, then snapped back into reality. "Sie null Bastard, werden Sie bezahlen! " He rasped hoarsly. "Edward wird Sie finden!" The section zero soldier laughed. "I hope he does, thats why we went looking for you. Tell me, where is he?" Frank laughed. "I just dropped him off for dinner, you missed him by this much." To emphasize his taunting, he held up his tumb and index finger. The zero soldier smiled. "Then we have no need for you, Blutverräter, Gut tschüs" He raised the rifle to his shoulder and fired one round. Frank felt the round rip through him, but felt no pain at all. "Sie sind der Blutverräter..." He managed to whisper before the breath left his body, never to return. "Bilden Sie auf, split into squads of three, kill anyone who gets in your way, union, shenyang, mereshkan, red tide, Ustian, RS, it does not matter. If we didn't need Harrison I would recomend this embarssment of a nation be wiped off the map. Entlassen" The soldiers saluted and seemed to dissapear into the shadows. The zero soldier smiled and picked up a piece of shattered glass. Leering back at him was the twisted visage of Edward Harrison.

OOC: Embarresmant of a nation?? Now thats just insulting.... As for the TBCS, I really haven't decided on just how to do it. Anyone think the plot needs tweaking?

IC: Saya shook her head. "Figures, a nation quite a bit bigger than us, with technology far above our own." "Wandering tank huh? Sounds interesting. At least it'll help." She turned to Six. "No offense, but if you even think of trying to bomb anywhere within my nation, I will personally chop every limb on your body off." She sighed. "Well, now that we know who it is, do you think a ninja has a chance of getting to their commander?"

Mereshka - Near The Empress' Palace

A man stood in the trees, watching the palace. He wore a black leather trenchcoat over his protective suit and a peaked officers cap over his face mask. Very well guarded he thought, observing the snipers on the rooftop.

He gestured into the trees, and produced a small device from his pocket. He quickly picked up the radio signals coming from the palace. Slowly, he stepped out into the open so the guards could see him, speaking into his radio:

"This is Captain Gareth MacMillan of the SRPA. Sorry i'm late"

OOC: I knew i'd get him back into this somehow.

He was being silently observed from the rooftop for a while now, having been picked up on thermal.

"Alpha 6, the man in the trees has finally identified himself. Non-hostile."

Mick clicked over to his channel and broadcast, "Captain MacMillan, please step towards the palace slowly and keep your hands where we can see them. Nothing personal, just protocol."

He looked over at Alpha 2, the sniper covering the Captain, "If he so much as twitches toward a gun..."

"I know"

---------------------------------------------------------
The two Hurricanes were now about halfway between the Dominion and the Mereshkan coast. They were moving as fast as possible without compromising silent running. Upon arrival, they would remain at a standoff range from the Red Tide controlled section of caost and give another viewpoint of what satellite surveillance was seeing. From there, they had orders to triangulate possible coordinates for cruise missile strike. The primary target, which was in the envelope handed to both Captains by the Commodore back at the pen, was to be the airstrip and surrounding facilities. High Command wanted a delaying action to give UDD forces time to catch up.

"Of course, i know all about protocols" Replied MacMillan.

He stepped towards up to the palace doors, hands in the air.

Six didn't look impressed, and she definitely wasn't cowed in the slightest. She just stared back at Saya, the frigid professionalism reflected in her violet eyes.

"Its not my call, and you even try it and we'll see who's the more capable martial artist."

The EB-15 Bombers recieved their go-code, and the flight ascended to 25700 meters and vectored for Mereshka. ETA: 1 hour.

"You even try anything and you'll se what a UH can do. Now, I can mediate this little problem we have here." Edward said. He flipped open his PDA and dialed the channel for the Wolf Dragoons. "General Struass, mobilize your fighters, You'll be looking for two EB-15 bombers. Your orders are to escort them out of Mereshkan air space, if they refuse to comply and continue on their mission, knock them out of the sky. Harrison out. he changed the radio channel back to general then closed his PDA. "Need I remind you, I am no longer under Union jurisdiction, and cosidering I have been offereda shogunate when this war is over, I am doing my utmost to protect this country. You heard what I ordered the fighters to do, and you know what you have to do in order to avoid an international incident. Let ground supportand close air support handle this. Carpet bombing a junle is not the answer."

"Harrison, I suggest you check your intel. The bombing run is locked on the enemy's harbor facilities, and you're looking for 3 bombers with fighter escort. Satellite intel is showing rapidly filling mass graves along the coast and that the village has been razed and bulldozed, so I'm willing to say that any civilians in the area are already dead. Not that it matters, I don't have the authority to call off the bombers."

She still maintained the same icy cold demeanor. The fly-boys were more than capable of handling two UHC fighters, the bombers didn't even need the escort, their point defense lasers could easilly deal with any incoming threat, and the Flankers were world-class fighters with world-beating pilots.

"If you're willing to try and engage Shenyangi aircraft for bombing enemy facilities in a bay, then they've already won this war. By the time any ground force arrives they'll have an air-tight perimeter and more than enough support to keep us from mounting any serious counter-attack. If you want to bleed on the Tidean defenses, that's your problem, but its not Shenyangi policy to send soldiers to their deaths when an airstrike can acomplish the goal with less loss of allied and civilian life. Welcome to war General, and welcome to the 21st century Empress."

Mick chimed in over the radio, "The Ice Queen's right Ed and Saya. Dominion SATCOM's showing me that most of the targets are port authority buildings and vessels on shore. The only land being hit is the beach, which was devoid of all civilians, live one's at least, since the landing. Satellite surveillance is showing the possible making of genocide within the Tidean perimeter, with forced labor being the least of their worries. Civilian casulties are likely none.

Those bombs are advanced precision-guided munitions. They won't miss. Though Dagger 6, a little compassion never hurt anyone. As long as we're clear it's not us that have killed civilians in the area, because they're already dead."
--------------------------------------------
The submarines were now within standoff range of the Tidean-held stretch of coastline. Keeping out of range of the naval vessels in the area, they ascended to 150 feet. Coordinates had been relayed to them via satellite of where to strike. Three missiles were to be launched against the support buildings of the airstrip, while the last would land smack in the middle of the runway.

With corrdinates locked and the vessels brought to full readiness, the tubes were opened and the Katana Mark II SLBM's breached the surface of the water, shooting into the sky. The subs quickly closed the hatches and began diving back down to cruising depth.

The four missiles climbed to about 35,000 fet and split off, each acquiring its target. Positioned directly over each target, the missiles nosed down and allowed gravity to assist in the descent as the secondary boosters kicked in, propelling them toward the earth.

OOC: Damn it, no missiles in Mereshka!!!

IC: Saya stubbornly shook her head. "No, for one, I'm not willing to take the chance, and two, this is my country. Realize that I've already played havoc with the shoguns loyalty by even allowing you here, if I start letting you bomb everything, I'll have a full class revolution on my hands. So no missiles." She glared at Mick, her eyes starting to turn red, which hadn't happened in a while. "The chopping threat goes for you too pal."

OOC: You realize you're crippling any counter-response that any modern nation could attempt, right? Without precision-guided air to ground ordinance we can pretty much write off any effective counter-strike, as we're going to be stuck with land forces and dismally under-equipped aircraft, no air to ground ordinance means the best they can do is strafe, you might as well write off anything airborne: choppers, jets, all of military air power. It'll be a turkey shoot for Red Tide2.

As an OOC note, Six isn't being an uncooperative bitch, she actually doesn't have the authority to call off the air strike.

OOC: Wait.... We were disscussing aircraft bombers? Why didn't you say so! I thought we were talking missile silos and whatnot. I only have a limited problem with bomber aircraft. As long as nothing big is used, thats fine by me.

OOC: None of us are suggesting anything like a Strategic strike involving ICBMs even SRBMs. RS is launching tomahawk-esque precision cruise missiles and I'm going to deploy a massive wave of small (1000 pound) dispenser weapons. It wouldn't make tactical sense for any of us to go ICBMs when we're protecting someone, that would only beget wholesale annihilation, less than ideal, as you can imagine.

If it degrades to the use of anything in a missile silo, then trust me, Mereshka will have a lot worse things to be worrying about than the effects of an ICBM, like facing total genocide. RS and I won't let it degrade that far.

IC:

"Frankly Empress, your internal politics aren't my problem. It's my job to make sure you stay alive, regardless of who tries to kill you, right now, the Tidean military is the bigger threat. Thusly, I have to keep them away from you, whether I like it or not. You're lucky you're my objective or we wouldn't be standing here right now. Those bombers aren't under my perview. If they were, I wouldn't stop them, but even then its still not my call."

Four and Five couldn't help but stand there, completely shocked. Six was a professional, but she'd never been this way with a politician before. They were too stunned for words.

"General, I suggest you call off your fighters, unless you really want to explain why Shenyangi pilots had to blast them from the skies like impudent moths."


Outskirts of Mereshkan Airspace:

"Valkyrie-1 to Valkyrie-2 and -3. Arm final for attack run. Form up."

The bombers drifted into a perfect echelon formation.

"Disir-1 to Valkyrie-1, we've got UHC fast movers on an intercept course. They're ordering us to stand down on order of the Mereshkan Empress."

"That's not my problem, tell them that if they continue on their intercept course we'll be forced to engage them for interfering in a Shenyangi military operation."

"Roger that."

A terse transmission was sent to the UHC pilots, which conveyed the message outlined above, if not in those exact words.

"All bombers, at launch point, release."

The bomb bays of the massive white birds shuddered open. From their cavernous interior hundreds of JSOW-ER weapons fell, then their small engines ignited, and they streaked off toward their pre-designated target areas.

The bombers broke away, still outside the engagement range of most SAMs, a range of over 135 kilometers. (accounting for altitude and horizontal distance) This didn't mean they were invincible, but they should have been relatively safe. The 720 JSOW-ERs, with their thin RAM coatings to drastically reduce radar signature, should someone try to shoot them down, spread out, making it difficult to destroy more than one with any given attempt.

Their targets were the enemy's mulberry harbors, with the full intent and capability of disabling those facilities, even with half their numbers. The gray weapons floated on toward their targets in utter silence.

As the Arkbirds departed, a second, larger fighter force of 20 Flankers was mere minutes away from joining with the bomber flight for the trip home.

OOC:

Red Tide2: 720 JSOW-ERs targetting your mulberries and accompanying nearby facilities from a range of 135+ km. The ball's in your court now. You can officially consider Shenyang hostile once you track the airstrike to us.

OOC: WOAH! WOAH! NOW PEOPLE!

I go away all day and stuff... let me catch up here! Watch this space for an edit.

EDIT: I would appreciate it if people did not RP what my men are doing(I am looking at you mister 'Red-Tides-soldiers-are-slaughtering-the-civilians').

IC:
Beachhead Alpha, Corps HQ, near sunrise...

General Rybalko was woken by a roar... not the roar of an explosion(s), but the roar of a number of MDM-4 Surface-Air Missiles erupting from their launchers.

"What the hell is going on!" He yelled as he burst into the map room. He did so just in time to encounter the Air Defense Officer.

"Sir, the RADAR detected a number of semi-ballistic missile launches. The computer immediatly responded. The missiles were travelling at a medium-altitude, 35,000 feet, and thus were easily targettable, all four have been shot down."

"Oh..." General Rybalko said, blinking, "Anything else?"

"Well, yes." The Air Defence Officer said, "We are tracking a number of none-Red Tidean aircraft approaching our position...."

"Really? How far out are they?" Rybalko inquired.

"About 300 kilometers, we should be having an altitude fix soon." The Air Defence Officer answered.

"Mmm... better warn them off now, if their approaching us. Have the Destroyers radio them..."

The Red Tidean Convoy

"He wants me to do what?" The Commodore said, drowsily.

"Warn them..." The communications officer said.

"Well, then do so..." The Commodore snapped irritably.

And thus, the Arkbirds recieved the following radio message, in English:

"Attention, Unidentified Aircraft, you are approaching a Red Tidean military area-of-operation. Should you fail to turn back within the next 100 kilometers, you will be fired upon."

OOC: And I quote:

The Red Tidean ships had encountered no seaborne resistance, except for some small fishing boats, which were sunk and their crews machine gunned. Rybalko had no compunctions about what his job entailed, as far as he was concerned, it was a matter of loyalty to the State.

That would be slaughtering civilians.

Besides, its was inter-character speech, if 'Six' claimed that your capital was in flames, it doesn't mean that it is, it just means she said it was.

As a related question:

Your message to my bombers, pre- or post-weapons release?

Saya ground her teeth in frustration. By now her eyes were a deep crimson. Slowly she turned to Dags 5 and 4. "You two. As soon as this is over, get me an audience with your president, or whatever you have." She forced a smile, which was probably far from reassuring with her eyes. "Please."

OOC: I'm assuming that eveyone's forgotten about my man, who i'd expect has been stood outside the palace for quite some time now :mad:

IC: MacMillan stepped inside the palace. He could see Saya and General Harrison, surrounded by several other people he didn't recognise. There seemed to be a heated debate going on.

He clicked his radio onto a different channel

"Alpha Flight, this is Crusader, maintain aerial recon at this time" he said

"Roger that" came the reply

Mereshkan Airspace - 45,000 feet

The two F-1117 Nighthawks flew high above Mereshkan territory.

"Alpha Two, Crusader's orders are aerial recon at this time" radioed the first Pilot "Let's not get too close to the Red Tidean forces Air Defence network at this time"

"Ok Alpha Leader" replied the second pilot "lead the way"

OOC: I'll adjust for the message, assuming it arrived prior to launch.

IC:

The Arkbirds broke their attack run, and turned for home. This wasn't a total abort, it was merely a return to base to re-arm. If the enemy could hit them from 200km it was time to rethink the mode of attack.

Within the hour they were back at base, refueling and rearming with AGM-84L SLAM-ER missiles, which had an effective range of 280km, so now when they invaded enemy airspace, they'd be able to launch outside the enemy's exclusion zone, and the programming of the SLAM-ERs meant they'd drop for the deck and use the ocean as cover. In place of a high angle attack, these missiles would be coming in at less than 20 metres ASL, below the aquisition azimuth for most air defense RADAR, and the constant RADAR noise of the ocean would help mask the RAM coated missiles in flight.

Mereshkan Imperial Palace:

"Well, it seems you get a brief reprieve Empress, the bombers are heading for home to re-arm. Apparently the enemy was going to engage them prior to launch, and a more stand-off weapon was needed. I'd give it another 2 hours before they're back in position."


Two hours later:

The Arkbirds were once more approaching 'Tidean' air space. This time their Shenyangi modified Pallas Athena systems were active, reducing their B-1B sized return to essentially nothing. The fighters also ran their stealth systems, which while not as effective as those of the bombers, did reduce their returns to negligible levels. The back-up fighters trailed 20 miles behind, two carried Active Cancelling Pods, to eliminate the squad's RCS as well.

Due to the sensitive nature of the mission, the aircraft were not broadcasting IFF tags, dangerous in itself, but better than broadcasting who was making the counter-strike. Once more they made their altitude 25700 metres, intermediate between high altitude and medium altitude SAMs. They began their approach once more.

Edward face crumpled into a grimace, then activated his radio. "General Struass, ordnen sie alle hornissen zu engae auf sehvermögen an." He turned to six. "I'm pulling the best i've got, keep your bombers out of Mereshka, unless you want to find out what a fighter with stealth harmonics is capable of. Welcome to the war of what would be your twenty second century." Mick (OOC: Not your mick, RS) almost raised his shotgun to bear on Edward. "Sir, yahr acting a bi' irrational, dontcha think?" Edward slowly shook his head. "The enemy controls a fishing village, and fishing villages are chock full of civies, therefore, I'm doing my duty of protecting the civies. Six, let close air support and ground troops deal with this." Crispy noded. "The wolf dragoons are backed by the Union, and from what I've seen, the Unions given them some rather advanced weapons, the Mech and Hornissen fighters for example."

OOC: I'm assuming that eveyone's forgotten about my man, who i'd expect has been stood outside the palace for quite some time now :mad:

OOC: You were allowed forward, just in a non-threatening manner. The Black Ops never said 'that's far enough' or stopped you.

IC:

As the Hurricanes returned to base, High Command had already begun utilizing the information gathered on the failed missile strike. The twelve Hurricanes waiting at the pen were kept at dock, and one of five larger subs was cleared to leave. This was the Maelstrom class, the heavy missile attack variant of the Hurricane.

It left the pen on MHD power, to meet the two Hurricanes halfway to Mereshka. Unlike its small counterpart, the Maelstrom sacrificed a formidable torpedo compliment for 50 SLBM launch tubes capable of delivering cruise missiles with a heavier payload from longer range. Inside it were fifty of a newer Katana Mark III SLBM. ETA was a day or so to Mereshka.
-----------------------------------------------
Mick shrugged, "I knew as much as you did. We're here to watch your back, not lead the charge. We're technically not even military."

MacMillan was admitted without hassle and the team continued posting watch, not liking the fact that smoke wasn't curling up from the horizon.

Saya sighed, "Whew. Now that that problem is at least temperaroly over, lets get back to business." She was about to continue, when she saw the captain off in the distance. "Who in the world is that?" She turned to Mick. "Any of your snipers report him?"

MacMillan continued into the Palace. As he reached the crowd, he stopped and saluted Saya.

"Empress Saya. Although we've never met personally, i have had conversations with you in the past" He said "We spoke during the elections. It was an honour to be dispatched here with my men"

His voice was slightly muffled by the mask, but he knew he must not remove it.

OOC: My troops look like this -> Black Ops (http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/7798/blackopsbm5.jpg). I'll reveal them soon.

Mick radioed in, "We had from the moment he hit the treeline. He found our channel and ID'ed himself. We had him approach slowly with his hands up and still have a rifle on him. You were never in any danger"

"No, of course not" said MacMillan. He clicked his radio on "This is Crusader to Knights: Deactivate thermal cloaking and emerge from the tree line" he turned the radio over to a different channel.

"Keep an eye on the treeline" he said to Mick

Almost 100 men in matching protective suits, masks and helmets quickly emerged from the trees, stopping just beyond them. They were typically armed with variations of the Vrykolakas Modular Assault Weapon (http://saintb.proboards78.com/index.cgi?board=guns&action=display&thread=1196644687), though some carried LAARKs.

OOC: Thermal Cloaking is an idea taken from Predator. The bit where Arnie covers himself in mud to stop the predator seeing him. The idea works more like liquid cooling though. The protective suits include a cooling system which allows water to be pumped around the suit, lowering body temperature.

"Empress, we've raised Chairman Murdock in Shenyang, if you want to try and make a valid case for why we shouldn't conduct a surgical air strike, then this is your chance."

Six held out a cell phone for Saya to take.

"Oh, and General. Were you dropped on your head as a child? Or are you just too busy protecting your position as a future shogun to protect the people of Mereshka? By the time any force capable of dealing with what Red Tide can put here is in play, they'll have total control of the area. Have you ever tried to pound your way through a blast door? That's what attacking once they're situated is going to be like. For that matter, you're threatening Shenyang, and endangering Mereshka by puting fighters in place to stop them from bombing mulberry harbors, which are in the water by definition.

You engage us and Shenyang will pull all support for Mereshka. You engage us and you're losing the only nation that can take the Tideans in a straight fight. Now unless you want to be sitting here listening to your precious Wolf Dragoons being slaughtered by sheer numbers, as the palace is destroyed by Tidean air and artillery support, I suggest you stand down the fighters. Oh, and you'll officially be listed on Shenyang's list of known terrorists, as a target of oppertunity. There won't be a place on this planet you can hide."

She gave a uncaring smirk.

"Its your call General. Shoot those bombers and become a marked man with a shogunate; or stand down and save countless lives. Time to see what kind of man you really are."

Edward leaned forward with a nasty grin on his face. "You don't want to know how ruthless I can be, I value the lives of allies, and I'd love to see the look upon your face when the Dragoon's make mince meat of the Tidean forces, but since you insist, I'll call them off." He activated his radio. "General Struass, pull the fighters back, and prepare to attack the Tidean forces when the bombers complete their mission." He turned back to six. "And I'm not interested in protecting my soon to be position, I'm protecting the people I will soon be serving. Maybe you black ops tend to forgot the human element in war. Civies being one of them."

"Hmm... Perhaps you forget that collateral damage is part of the world we live in. It always has been and always will be. There's a concept called acceptable losses, and the possible death few civilians in order to save thousands of civilians and soliders is an acceptable loss. War isn't black and white any more. There's no good or bad, there's only grey. While the death of any civilian is a tragedy, the cost of not acting is far higher."

Six just kept staring at the General. The phone remained available to the Empress.

The Black Ops had been wondering what exactly was shimmering on the edge of the treeline, and there were tow of the five observing the disturbance from cover. When 100 men appeared seemingly out of nowhere, the team flipped. Well, as much a crack team of infiltrators could, anyway.

In a calm voice, Bravo 2 said over the channel, "Fuck. Sir, we've got about 100 men in the trees. They'd better be with MacMillan or this place is gonna be a free fire zone."

"Well for fuck's sake," Mick was now aggitated, "Yeah they are and I'm tired of being outgunned."

He got High Command on the line and requested a supply drop over the palace. The crate would be the size of a typical shipping crate, containing only better weapons for the team. Another CH-53K was dispatched for the job.

"And quit your bickering down there, children. Don't make me turn this war around. As insensitve as she's being, Dagger 6 is right. Ed, you need to calm down and I'm glad you're seeing reason. Saya, Mereshkan casulties are going to be one at most. If you want I can get you photos of the village being levelled. Anyone not dead is probably in forced labor or detainment away from the beach. The only people in the blast zone will be the Tidean army and navy."

"Yes, they're my men. And could i remind you why we are here?" Asked MacMillan

"I believe we all came to protect Mereshka from the Red Tidean invasion, not to stand around arguing over who is more ruthless"

He turned to Saya

"Empress, which is the nearest town to the Red Tidean invasion force?" asked MacMillan "If we are to protect the people of Mereshka then it needs to be evacuated as soon as possible"

He beckoned to one solider "Kynreeve Wilson, get onto command and get me some aerial photographs of Red Tidean forces" he said to the masked trooper,

"Yes, Valkynaz" he answered, and handed him a Vrykolakas carbine before falling back to the men assembled at the treeline.

Saya, after grabbing the phone and covering the mouth peice, answered Gareth. "The nearest town would probably be Vokoyu, of the wolf clan. Its fair sized, large enough to have a garrison, if not of samurai. Yes, evacuating would probably be best, they would stand no chance." With that she walked a few yards away, and held the phone up to her mouth. "Hello, Chairman Murdock? Yes, this is Empress Saya of Mereshka. I was wondering if you could explain to me why a bomber strike, which can't be called off I might add, was arranged for an area with possible civilians present, without consulting me?"

Crispy grunted. " 'Bout time someone said that, thought I was going to have to step in. Now," He pointed at Edward and six. "Both of you shake hands, share a flask and get this thing over with."

Edward chuckled. "Sure thing, let me take care of some business first." he turned towards Saya and waved his hand slightly to get her attention. "Empress, if you would allow me, I can order any Dragoons near the village to help in the evacuation and begin shoring up its defenses." His radio chirped. "Hold on a sec..." He answered the call, an edge crept into his voice. "Who is this?" His face changed slightly, taking the distant look of a man trying to hide what he was feeling. "Gehen Sie zu Hölle" Then hit the end button. "Dammit... why the hell are they still following me...." He muttered. he changed the radio channel to the Dragoons.

"General Struass, I need any of your men near Vokoyu ready to move in on my order, assist in the evacuation and shore up the defenses. What?!" His face went blank again. "I... I think you all might want to hear this." he changed the radio to broadcast on all allied frequencies. "All right, attention all Allied forces, we've engaged a thrid enemy faction, unknown allegance, confirmed hostile, from reports of the the survivors from skirmishes, they are an advanced tech level, repeat, we have a third hostile faction using advanced weaponry, all allied units engage with maximum force."

"Right then, my men will head to Vokoyu and evacuate as many people as possible" Said MacMillan "We'll keep our eyes open for the third faction"

He turned and left the palace, making hand signals to the assmbled troops who promptly headed out for Vokoyu on foot. As they started moving, MacMillan clicked his radio on

"Alpha Flight, Crusader is moving to Vokoyu. Head over there to provide close air support"

"Understood, Alpha is inbound" replied the pilot.

The chairman sounded a little annoyed at having demands made of him, but he maintained a calm demeanor over the phone.

"Well, Empress, I assume you tried to get Lt. Colonel Wong to call off the strike, and I'm sure she told you she doesn't have authorization to call it off. Her mission only includes making sure you keep breathing, that doesn't include our operations elsewhere in Mereshka.

As to why I am allowing a bomber strike, that's more complex. We're looking at this from the strategic perspective here. If we don't do anything about that harbor now, then you'll be drowning in Tidean troops before the first Shenyangi marine can put boots on the ground in Mereshka. The only practical method for destroying that facility is to hit it with long-range air-to-surface missiles.

Let's be honest here, if an ISAF general contacted you and asked permission to destroy a valid military target with precision-guided munitions, and there was even a slight chance of civilian casualties, you'd never approve it. Unfortunately, we've been over the scenario a thousand times and the we're convinced that if we don't hit that harbor, then the civilian casualties will be much higher in the long run. We're talking about the difference between maybe a dozen civilian casualties now, or hundreds later, that's the lowest level of collateral damage we can offer. War isn't clean any more."

Saya ground her teeth, and simply hung up the phone. "And people wonder why I don't want to modernize Mereshka." She turned to the others. "Third faction huh? Ah well, we'll burn that bridge when we come to it." She turned to Gareth and Ed. "Yes, please evacuate the town." She cast a glare at six. "Good to know some people care about the simple concept of human life."

Edward noded. "Yes ma'am, I'll send the order." He flicked his radio to the Dragoon channel. 'General Strauss, begin aiding the evacuation and shoring the defenses, Bad company will be along momentarily to assist in the effort." he turned to Saya. "Empress, I assume we will be dismissed soon to begin field actions?"

Six took back the phone and put it back into her vest.

"If this were a peace-keeping mission I'd give a damn, but right now you're staring open war in the face Empress, and sacrifices always have to be made."

She looked over her shoulder.

"Five, you married her, you stay here. Four, get up on the roof. I want to know the instant anything changes. I've got to go examine this place's perimeter."

"Got it Six."

Four ran off toward a side door, he'd been here before, and knew the easiest route to get roof access.

Five just kind of stood there, at a loss for anything to say.

Six turned and prowled out of the chamber. Once back with the rest of her squad she called over Dagger-1, her XO. He quickly came over to her.

"I can't work with this girl. Whose's god-damned idea was it to elect a teenager to the only seat of government in this country? She spent the last few hours telling me to abort the Arkbird strike, refusing to accept that I can't tell the military what to do, she even threatened to kill me."

"Well, no offense, but you do come across as kind of..."

"...Kind of what?"

"Well... you're... driven."

Six shrugged.

"Whatever, all I know is, she's lucky we're here protect her, because the enemy would not put up with that."

She gestured in the vague direction of the room they'd met Saya in. After a moment she looked at which team members were close at hand.

"Two, Three, Seven. You're with me, we're doing a perimeter sweep, see if this place is even half as defensible as it's gonna need to be."

"On you Six."

Six and her fire-team headed for the edge of the palace grounds. They began a slow sweep around the area.

On the roof, Four was in place, he sighted down through his new XDM-10A3 DMR. He wasn't quite sold on it just yet, but he couldn't find any faults in the design, and he couldn't argue with the result. He set up his MSG-90A1, 'Strange Vision', within easy reach. The enhanced capability of the XDM was great, but when push came to shove, he still preferred the MSG-90A1. Years of practice he guessed, using the XDM almost felt like he was cheating on 'Strange Vision'.

"Alright 'Vanishing Star', lets see what's out there."

He settled behind the scope and began observing the environment.

The troops arrived at Vokoyu in good time. MacMillan looked around the town.

"Find the leader here" he said "He'll be the one who evac's this town"

"Yes sir" replied the soldiers, who dispersed into the town.

MacMillan stepped towards a large ornate building. He assumed that this was the garrison. He reached the door and slid it open. Inside, he saw who he was looking for. He stepped in and spoke to a man who was dressed in the attire of a Samurai

"We need to talk" he said to the man "it concerns the safety of this town. Empress Saya sent me to evacuate, but i think you will have to tell the people, as they're unlikely to listen to me"

OOC: I'm assuming you're going to RP the people in the town Mereshka?
__________________________________________

Mereshkan Waters, Near Red Tidean Invasion Area

The periscope of the Akula class submarine Stormswordwas the only part that was visible. They sat about 50 miles from the Red Tidean invasion forces, but they still had a very good view.

The wolf Dragoons in the area, under the Command of Jack Brenner, enetered the area just as the Ustio north soldiers did. "All right, half of you, assist in building defenses, the rest, help with the evacuation." The soldiers noded, half fell in step while the rest headed toward whatever direction the construction was. He gave the break formation order then tramped towards the orante village center.

"MacMillian, we've been ordered to assist in the evacuation and defenses." he turned towards the village leader." Do not fear, sir, we are here top help move the people." He stubled on several words, the Merehskan language had only recently entered the international mix. "We will try to build defenses, yes?" He stumbled some more then switched back to Germanic-English. "MacMillian, we have some air forces and limited naval forces, I've heard chatter on the radio about such things, is this true?" Brener bit his lip. "I apologise for my skill in this language, I am used to speaking Deutsch, languageis, how do you say... not my cup of tea."


Mereshkan Airspace, twenty miles from Red Tide beach head.

"Kämpfer 1 to Kämpfer squadron, preapre for joint attack." Kämpfer 1 input the security code for the Ustio North channel. "Attention Ustian forces, this is Kämpfer gunship squadron, let us know when you've taken out the anti-air defenses, then we'll begin close-air support for any naval forces you have in the area." Kämpfer 1 switched back to the squadron channel. "Sure hope this works boys, hate to go home in a body bag." Confirmations streamed in from most of the gunships, Kämpfer 12, however, put it simply. "Sir, if the attack fails most of us will go home ina body bag, just saying what's on everyone's mind." The channel hit dead silence, something that happened only rarley. "Man's right." Muttered Kämpfer 6 "But you've got to lighten up twelve, think of the brewskis after the battle!"

The samurai sighed in releif when Jack Brenner spoke to him. He had feared he was being visited by a demon, and was being spoken to in the language of hell. "Move the people? Why in the world would we want to do that?"

OOC: Realize that news travels very slow in Mereshka.

IC: Saya nodded at Edward. "Yes, you have my permission to leave." She sighed and turned to Alex. "Well, that didn't go very well, no did it?"

Jack bit hislower lip as he translated what the Samurai said, he had the unfortunate habit of biting so hard he bled. "Ah.. there is an, uh, enemy nearby, and they uh, they're backing the rouge shogun and this, uh, village is in their path." he bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed as he thought of what to say next. "So, to avoid having the village slaughtrered, we need to, um, move the people to a safe place." He sighed then switched to Germanic-English. "I can't grasp the Language MacMillian, can you?"

The man tried to work out what Jack said. He had mispronounced several words, and completely screwed up others. Finally he managed to work it out... Sort of... "A rouge shogun rampaging, with us in our path?" He looked sincerley confused. "Look, I don't know if this is a joke, but the nearest clan is the Misakeda, and I happen to be a very good friend with their shogun."

Jack bit his lip further. "These people are allied with a rogue shogun.. uh, they attacked a fishing village near here, and uh, are probably heading this way. You really need to get your civilians out of here."


Imperial Palace

Edward cracked his neck and gave the form up command. "Crispy, you stay with Dag 5 and protect Saya, the rest of you, form up and follow the gunfire, and stay forsty for any signs of that third faction we heard about." He turned to Saya and bowed. "I take my leave, Empress, Kann die Schicksale behalten Sie Safe, may the fates keep you safe." Mick chuckled. "never figured you for the soft hearted kin' boss. Mayb' yer gettin' ol'." Edward sent him a glance full of daggers. "No, just protecting my superior Officer, er, Emrpess. Move out."

The samurai snapped his fingers. "Aha! I see!" He imeadietly went around the twon, telling everyone to find their family and gather up their belongings. Then he went and found the captain of the garrisson, and told him to get the troops. In short time the garrison was in formation, around two hundred Yari Ashigaru (Basically peasants with spears, good cannon fodder if nothing else) And about fifty samurai. He turned to Jack. "Ready when you are, good sir."

Jack noded. "My men have prepared barricades, its not much." He sucked in air as he thought over his next statement. "Uh, might I ask if any bowsor crossbows are available? The enemy we will be facing have, uh.. how to describe... weapons that fire a storm of metal. You would need to stay as far away as possible."

The man considered this for a moment. "Archers, you mean? Hmm... The samurai are trained to handle longbows, and most of the peasants at least have some rudimentary hunting skill. It won't be very effective, but we can stay at range. I can request some proffesional archers from the clan capital, that would certainly be a lot better."

Jack noded. "That would be good. We're going to get some more men, one of them is a living legend where I come from Should take them no longer then an hour to get here."

The wolf Dragoons in the area, under the Command of Jack Brenner, enetered the area just as the Ustio north soldiers did. "All right, half of you, assist in building defenses, the rest, help with the evacuation." The soldiers noded, half fell in step while the rest headed toward whatever direction the construction was. He gave the break formation order then tramped towards the orante village center.

"MacMillian, we've been ordered to assist in the evacuation and defenses." he turned towards the village leader." Do not fear, sir, we are here top help move the people." He stubled on several words, the Merehskan language had only recently entered the international mix. "We will try to build defenses, yes?" He stumbled some more then switched back to Germanic-English. "MacMillian, we have some air forces and limited naval forces, I've heard chatter on the radio about such things, is this true?" Brener bit his lip. "I apologise for my skill in this language, I am used to speaking Deutsch, languageis, how do you say... not my cup of tea."

MacMillan turned to Jack

"Not to worry old chap, i speak Mereshkan pretty well" he said (in english) "But we need to consider the possibility that the enemy will bring armour into the fray" he tapped his PDA, and turned back to Jack

"The barricades look pretty sound so far, but large vehicles may make light work of them. I think that if the enemy does bring armour, my men should try an end-around and attack their rear flank while you hold the line. If we need air support, the mobile airstrip Fist Of Malice has two squadrons of F/A-41 Rivals on standby"

He turned to a trooper "Alright Lieutenant, get those remote mines planted in the middle of that road. If the enemy does come this way we need him to come right up this road, so we can ambush him"

"Yessir" replied the Lieutenant, who moved off, informing a few other troopers as he went.

OOC: UHC, MacMillan's men are technically not Ustian Forces, since they're not under Ustian Govt. juristriction and are operating under their own orders, much like your "Section Zero" soldiers mentioned earlier. The Ustian Forces are stationed on the coast, and will join you when you call on them.

OOC: Sorry for being away for so frikkin long. Spring Break is starting up next week and school's been playing a bit of merry hell on me. Watch this space for a edit.

EDIT: Grand, I put up a huge frikking post, and Jolt eats it. So here is a summary:

-Shyangi's bombers are undetected.
-2 out of 3 of the Mulberries are done
-The Airfield is complete, the State Aeroforce is en-route
-The mayor of the Fishing Village has been told(rather bluntly), that he can either cooperate with Red Tide or have him and his family die, I am leaving it up to Mereshka to decide how he responds.
-The majority of the Air-Defence Network is up, the only thing left to be set up is a hugely powerful Over-The-Horizon RADAR.

OOC: That happens to me all the time, so I copy everything, just in case it gets Jolt-Chomped. And Stop! Its Bomber Time!

IC:

Valkyrie-1 recieved launch clearance from the ISAF.

STRATEGIC COMMUNIQUE:
FROM: ISAF STRATAIRCOM
TO: VALKYRIE / DISIR FLIGHT

"EXECUTE OPERATION: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE. CLEARANCE CODE: LOKI"
END COMMUNIQUE

The bomber flight moved into attack formation and adjusted altitude to approximately 26700 metres. Beneath their electromagnetic veil, and under the visual cover of high altitude clouds, the bombers opened their massive bays and released all 435 AGM-84L SLAM-ER missiles. The beauty of the Arkbird, was that it was coated inside and out with RAM to reduce any effects of enemy RADAR. A similar RAM coat also adorned the missiles, though this would be questionably useful with so many in flight.

The bombers immediately broke for home, maintaining their altitude within the SAM 'dead zone'.

-2 out of 3 of the Mulberries are done


OOC: What the hell?

OOC: 2 of his 3 mulberry harbors are complete, those would be my stated target, so we'll see how they fair.

At the fishing village
The Wise One, which was the leader of smaller towns, bowed before the Red Tide soldiers he believed Demons. "You are most generous, great one, we will not cause you harm. Please, leave my people be. We are simple folk, and wish to live in peace. Please, tell the Lord of Hell this."

At the larger town
The man was rather confused by this devil language, and cleared his throat to show it.

Mereshkan Coast, Task Force Brigand - Destroyer Exterminator

Above the assembled ships, a kingfisher helicopter flew over head. As it approached the destroyer Exterminator, it switched into hover mode, extending it's landing gear and touching down on the landing pad. The side door opened and a man in full navy uniform stepped out. The kingfisher took off as soon as he left and immediatly turned around. heading back for Ustio.

The man headed for the door, and the dissapeared inside. He walked along the ship and went up to the bridge, opening the door without warning. As he entered, the captain turned to him, and immediately saluted him

"Admiral Cutter, i wasn't informed of your arrival" he said

"President's orders" he growled, opening a telegram "At ease, Captain" he mentioned as an afterthought.

Cutter scanned the telegram, then folded it and put it in his pocket.

"Operation:Shield has a green light from the President" he said to the Captain "We're to deploy our forces. They are to head to a village called Vokoyu, where forces from the United Human Countries are preparing to hold out against the Red Tidean forces"

"Yes sir" replied the captain, picking up a CB radio "Task Force Brigand..." he began

Cutter looked over at him

"Oh, sorry Admiral" the captain said, nerously handing the radio to him

He took it, still watching him for a moment. Then he turned away

"Task Force Brigand, this is Admiral Cutter - Green Light for Operation Shield. Prepare to deploy" he growled, a slight smile on his face
________________________________________________________________
Aircraft Carrier Ocean, Task Force Brigand

"Sir, new orders" said the Radio Operator "Admiral says to deploy"

The captain of the Ocean looked over at him, the stepped over to the window and raised his binoculars to his eyes. Over nearer the coast, the LST's had hit land and Challenger 2 tanks were already pouring out onto the beach.

"Well, we'd better deploy then" he said "sound general alert"

The siren blared down the tight corridors of the ship. Flight crews and troops rushed out to the waiting Kingfishers

________________________________________________________________
Vokoyu, Mereshka

The SRPA radio operator was listening in on the exchange between the Navy crews. He heard their orders.

"Shit!" he said to himself "Sir!" he shouted "Ustian Forces inbound on this location"

"Shit" replied MacMillan "Carry on" He turned to Jack

"I have a favour to ask. When the Ustian forces arrive, if they ask who we are, could you say we're your men?" He asked

"Our fellow countrymen must not know who we are" he added

OOC1: Ustio, how close to my ships are your ships(in kilometers)? Also, what exactly does Task Force Brigand consist of?

IC1:
The Fishing Village

The Guardsman, with the rank of Captain, who had delivered the ultimatum to the Wise One, gave a short curt nod. Then, without another word, he spun around and left the building.

There was a moments pause as the Captain stopped outside the door, clearly to converse with someone, and then continued on. That 'someone' immediatly revealed himself by stepping through the door. The man was a Major of the Intelligence Commissariat.

"Greetings," He said in perfect Mereshkan, "I am Major Shaptokin. I will be your assigned Political Commissar."

OOC2: For an idea of a Commissar's outfit, it looks like this:
http://www.themarshalsbaton.com/Soviet%20Generals_files/image021.jpg
Simply replace all the Hammer & Sickels with the Red Wave that is Red Tides insignia.

IC2: BeachHead Alpha

It was a hour after sunrise when the Red Tidean RADAR's detected the 435 inbound SLAM's, 105 kilometers out. The various automated components immediatly identified the inbound missiles for what they were(that is, subsonic, hostile missiles). Thus, the MDM-4 and -6 SAM launchers on-shore began to launch(Red Tidean Air Defenses were allowed more initiative then most aspects of the Red Tide Military).

The off-shore Destroyers and Frigates had to wait a moment to clear their VLS decks before also opening up with the naval variants of the MDM-4's and -6's. Upwards of 800 SAM's sped through the air on a intercept path towards the inbound missiles. The MDM-4 and -6 were similar in capabilities. Both had a ceiling of 100,000 feet and a floor of approximately 10 feet(assuming perfectly flat terrain). Both were jack-of-all-trade missiles, intended to intercept other missiles, strategic aircraft, and tactical aircraft.

The primary differences between them were range, guidance, and launch platform. The MDM-4 was a stationary, RADAR-guided SAM with a 160 kilometer range. The MDM-6 was a mobile, IR-guided SAM with a range of 110 kilometers. Each MDM-4 launcher could carry up too 12 missiles, the MDM-6's could only carry 4.

Either way, the raid count began to drop quickly as explosions moved rapidly across the horizon. From 435 to 216 to 143 to 89. It quickly became clear to the various computers that point defenses would be needed when the raid count dropped under 80. First came the offshore vessels. The Frigates and Destroyers opened up with their WHIRLWIND Systems once the SLAM's came into range.

The WHIRLWIND was a stationary anti-aircraft/missile defense system, armed with one 30mm gattling gun(for missiles) and a 30mm autocannon(for low-flying aircraft/missiles). It had a range of 12 kilometers, the ships were 20 kilometers from the coast. Thus, as the missiles entered range, a wall of lead met them. The raid count dropped to 54 at the 26 kilometer mark*, then 32 at the 24 kilometer mark*.

As the missiles passed the East-facing side of the vessels, the WHIRLWINDs on the West-facing side opened up one them. The raid count was down to 13 SLAMs at the 8 kilometer mark from the artificial harbors. Red Tide had one last card to play.

Stationed near the artificial harbors were 80 APC-45s. The APC-45, the backbone of Red Tide's personnel carriers, also doubled as a SPAAG(Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun) because of their twin 30mm autocannons and minature, automated RADAR set(although the guns could be operated manually). They were mostly intended against low-flying tactical aircraft, but were found to be devestating against infantry and light-vehicles. They were only somewhat effective against low-flying missiles, but the number of them would help make up for it.

The coastline tracers shot out from the coastline as the missiles entered the 8 kilometer mark. The APC-45's, under orders, had been set-on 'automated' mode. 11 missiles were shot out of the sky... but there had been 13 SLAMs!

Both of the SLAMs found the same artificial harbor, one of the two completed ones. One SLAM landed right on top of a offloading 5-ton truck while the other hit further down the dock, falling inbetween MBT-66 tank and self-propelled artillery piece. The artificial harbor, while built sturdier then the original Mulberries, was not able to handle the explosive force. It erupted at the seams and sank to the bottom in minutes.

The bottom, of course, was not very far, it only sunk a couple of feet under the coastline at the most. What made the harbor now unusable were the two huge gaping holes that had been blown in it. The State Guard also lost 7 trucks, 3 tanks, 4 artillery pieces, and about 250 men killed or mortally wounded that were unlucky enough to be on top of the harbor when it was hit. A offloading transport ship also suffered some fragmentation damage and was forced to seal a leak... not to mention getting a little stuck when the harbor sank.

Overall, a pretty good success.

The Wise One hesitated. "We are to be your slaves, great lord? My understanding was that we were to be left in peace." He cringed, "No offense meant, great lord."

OOC: Realize that there is no Mereshka word for 'Commisar', so the word used would probably be the word for slaver.

OOC1: Ustio, how close to my ships are your ships(in kilometers)? Also, what exactly does Task Force Brigand consist of?

OOC: Since i don't know how far Vokoyu is from where you landed i can't actually say in Km. What i can say is that they're no closer than Vokoyu to your troops

Brigand consists of two Type 45 Destroyers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_45_destroyer), One Ocean Class (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ocean_%28L12%29) Aircraft Carrier & Three LST's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Frederick_%28LST-1184%29). They're going to be reinforced with a Nimitz class carrier soon and i also have an Akula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_class_submarine) class submarine operating inside Mereshkan waters.

ooc: using a mobile sorry for short post Jack noded. "If Ustian forces arrive, we'll say you`re new recruits." Edward tried to size up the village that was to be the first line of defense. "Not much." He muttered to himself.He headed towards the village center, noticing how the remaining villagers avoided him. "Captain Brenner, didn't know you were in command." He turned to the village leader and said, in slightly fractured Mereshkan, "My name's Edward Harrison, Im here to help."

OOC: S'okay.

IC: The people muttered together, until a young man spoke up. "How do we know that you're not in league with the demons? You look like a demon to me!!" The townspeople were completely silent. If the strange man was a demon, none wanted to join the young man on his suicide mission.

OOC: S'okay.

IC: The people muttered together, until a young man spoke up. "How do we know that you're not in league with the demons? You look like a demon to me!!" The townspeople were completely silent. If the strange man was a demon, none wanted to join the young man on his suicide mission.

OOC: I'm guessing that this is at Vokoyu?

MacMillan looked over at the man who had spoken.

"Because" he said, his voice icy cold "if i was on the side of the demons, i'd have killed you already"

He looked at the silent crowd

"So for the record, we're here to help. So run away, or help. It's your choice" he continued "But don't question our loyalty"

He stepped away and returned to the other SRPA soldiers.

OOC: Yep.

IC: The young man was silent for several moments, then said: "How can I help"?

OOC: Since i don't know how far Vokoyu is from where you landed i can't actually say in Km. What i can say is that they're no closer than Vokoyu to your troops

Brigand consists of two Type 45 Destroyers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_45_destroyer), One Ocean Class (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ocean_%28L12%29) Aircraft Carrier & Three LST's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Frederick_%28LST-1184%29). They're going to be reinforced with a Nimitz class carrier soon and i also have an Akula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_class_submarine) class submarine operating inside Mereshkan waters.

OOC: Err... I was under the impression that Vokoyu is inland. Mereshka?

OOC: Actually, yes it is inland. Thanks for catching that.

OOC: Its is close to the coast though, right?

IC:

Edward noded towards him. "If you have any experience with bows or anything of the sort, congradulations, you've just joined the Mereshkan home defense force. If not, help with the evacuation or help build the defenses." he said in Mereshkan that he was slowly becoming fluent in. "As for the rest of you, if you can't fight, then flee, if you don't want to fight, help the others flee or build walls. We need all the help we can get, and the demons." He gestured towards the direction of the beach head. "Will leave not a single one untouched if you resist and fail, or even if you submit. They are an enemy that knows no surrender, only the crunch of the enemies bones beneath there heel, and we will not stand defesenless against them!"

The young man nodded, and rushed into his house, coming out later with a rudimentery longbow, and an old rusty katana, which probably hadn't seen use in decades. "I'm a fair hunter, and I'm learning how to use swords, I will fight for my people." For the rest of the peoples parts, the young, the elderly, and all the women, began to march outside the town, with an escort of about fifty strong men, whom promised to return to fight as soon as possible. The rest of the able bodied men stayed behind, if not as fighters, then to help with the walls, or provide services. For instance, several blacksmiths and fletchers, along with a tailor, stayed behind, as well as the Apothecary, though medical science in Mereshka was at a minimum. All together, it doubled the already present Mereshkan force, as well as provided useful services. The may not be an armored column, but they were determined if nothing else. The swiftest runner in the town was being sent to Shavera, the capital of the Wolf clan, to request soldiers.

OOC: And yes, the villiage is about fifty miles from the coast. A good three or four days travel in Mereshka, but it shouldn't take more than a couple hours for the Tideans. Sorry to the Europeans here, if there are any, I have no idea what 50 miles is in kilometers, math never was my strongsuit.

OOC: 50 miles=80.4672 kilometers.
IC:
BeachHead Alpha, Midday

The destruction of Mulberry #2 had thrown the Red Tidean timetable off an hour. The plan was to set-off in the middle of the day. But plans were supposed to be optimistic anyways.

The jump-off point for the Armored Division that was to spearhead the attack was filled with noise as the engines of vehicles(armored and not) turned over and roared to life. Another sound also filled the air, the thumping blades of Mi-24RT Attack Helicopters could be heard even over the sound of tank engines.

The plan was for the tanks to advance towards the regional capitol*, as such, several villages and towns would have to be taken. The helicopters would provide recon, eliminating the need for a recon screen.

There were 24 Mi-24s in the Armored Division divided up into two squadrons of twelve.

OOC: *Regional Capitol=Shavera.

OOC: Actually, yes it is inland. Thanks for catching that.

OOC: Knackers. I didn't know. So do you want to ignore the bit about the tanks deploying? I'll have to fly them in if so.

OOC: Knackers. I didn't know. So do you want to ignore the bit about the tanks deploying? I'll have to fly them in if so.

OOC: Where are you going to land them? The only airstrip capable of taking the aircraft required to transport Challenger 2's(heck, the only airstrip in the country, period) is one under my control.

OOC: Hes got a good point..... Theres a large plateu a couple hundred miles from the village that might be able to have small aircraft landed, but thats all I got.

IC: The runner was making good time, and he figured that he would be able to get reinforcements within a couple days. In a normal war, that would be plenty fast, but he didn't know about the better transport the Tideans had.

"This is Cobra-5-9, we have a individual on a dirt road about 6 klicks to north-northwest, say again north-northwest." A HIND(the NATO name for the Mi-24) pilot radioed, spotting the messenger. "No settlements within a good 15 klicks, looks like a messenger."

There was a moments pause as the squadron leader considered the options. When he made his decision, he replied in that not-caring-voice that was ubiqioutus among Red Tidean Military Personnel.

"This is Cobra Lead to Cobra-5-9, you are cleared to liquidate the messenger. Try not to waste ammunition, over."

"Roger that Cobra Lead, Cobra-5-9 copies engage. Over-and-out."

And with that, the HIND broke formation, roaring towards the hapless runner at a height of about 20 feet above the ground.

Mereshkan airspace

"Kampfer one to Kampfer two, you see that?" Kampfer two craned his neck to see exactly what his flight leader was talking about. "Two HINDs, so what?" Kampfer One chuckled over the radio. "Take a look at the IFF." Kampfer Two glanced at the IFF, sure enough, the HINDs had an enemy IFF. "Hey, K-one, why don't we scare the hell out of them, buzz 'em both and watch what happens." Kampfer grunted approval. "Attention Kampfer squadron, you are ordered to buzz the two HINDs, I don't give a damn if you blow them to hell or give 'em some new AC units, just buzz and pull back." Confirmations washed over the channel. "Good, K-One engaging." Kampfer One pulled into a high speed turn and dove towards the HINDs, thumb on the firing stud.

OOC: Since I can't exactly blow them out of the sky without god-moding, I leave their fate to you Red tide, just remeber, they aren't really shooting for a kill, just shooting to scare them back to their lines

Mereshkan airspace

"Kampfer one to Kampfer two, you see that?" Kampfer two craned his neck to see exactly what his flight leader was talking about. "Two HINDs, so what?" Kampfer One chuckled over the radio. "Take a look at the IFF." Kampfer Two glanced at the IFF, sure enough, the HINDs had an enemy IFF. "Hey, K-one, why don't we scare the hell out of them, buzz 'em both and watch what happens." Kampfer grunted approval. "Attention Kampfer squadron, you are ordered to buzz the two HINDs, I don't give a damn if you blow them to hell or give 'em some new AC units, just buzz and pull back." Confirmations washed over the channel. "Good, K-One engaging." Kampfer One pulled into a high speed turn and dove towards the HINDs, thumb on the firing stud.

OOC: Since I can't exactly blow them out of the sky without god-moding, I leave their fate to you Red tide, just remeber, they aren't really shooting for a kill, just shooting to scare them back to their lines

OOC: Huh? Where did these fighters come from?

OOC: They've been in the skies for a while waiting for an attack order, look back a couple pages, they were waiting to assist the Ustian forces.

OOC: Where are you going to land them? The only airstrip capable of taking the aircraft required to transport Challenger 2's(heck, the only airstrip in the country, period) is one under my control.

OOC: Well, i can switch the Challanger 2's for the M-12 Sabertooth, which is light enough to be carried by the Kingfisher helicopter (Both of which aren't real, like the Manta Class Aircraft Carriers mentioned further down in this post)

________________________________________________________________

The door to the President's office opened. A messenger (OOC: Not Mereshka's!) walked in and handed a message to the President. He read it, and then turned to the people assembled in the office; Air Marshall Scott Welsh & Brigadier General Jackson, as well as a laptop with a satelite uplink to Admiral Cutter

"Intelligence just reported in" He said "They intercepted radio transmissions concerning a Red Tidean Mi-24 Hind attacking a Civillian"

Scott Welsh stood up

"What do you want us to do, sir?" he said hoarsly

Tom sat silent for a moment, then spoke

"Get the Swordfish, Manta & Stingray into the air and assemble every available squadron aboard them" he said "We begin by using EF-111's on Wild Weasel strikes against Red Tidean air defence, then we can launch B-52's on carpet bombing missions to cripple their invasion staging area. If they're prepared to attack unarmed civies like they did, we need to toughen up our forces"

He stood

"Scott, get it done"

"Yes, Mr President" Scott replied, before stepping out of the room.

"Brigadier, have the troops called in from leave and prepare for a full-scale defence of Mereshka if we need to"

"Yes sir" said Jackson, as he too exited the room

Tom sat back down and picked up the phone, clicking speed dial

Someone answered the phone

"Nikolai Shvedov?" He asked

"Da" was the reply

"This line is secure. Begin activation of Excaliber Defence System"

The line went dead. Tom put the phone down.

OOC: Don't worry about the Excaliber bit. It's just adding to the mystery that is the SRPA

OOC: Ustio North: The vast majority of things I use is also custom-kit in case you did not notice.

United Human Countries: Reading back, I see that your correct. Should have protested about that post, bit late for it now, though.
PS: There are not just two HINDs, there are 12, eleven are in a loose formation with one breaking off. There are another twelve about five kilometers further South of this formation too.

IC:
As the UHC fighters approached the Red Tidean Beach Head, they were detected by the various stationary and mobile RADAR sites. As they reached a distance of 70 kilometers(well-within the range of Red Tidean SAM's) and moved in on the Red Tidean helicopters, their radio's crackled.

"Attention UHC Aircraft, you are in violation of a declared warzone. You are ordered to leave this airspace immediatly, or you will be fired upon. This is your only warning..."

K-one chuckled. "Well, I've gotta say we're not officialy UHC military, and second, we're on the other side." He switched to squadron radio. "Get ready to deploy countermeasures boys, we're gonna have a hell of a lot of SAMs aimed our way." He switched back to general channels. "I'll give you guys an ultimatum, pull back your choppers or we blow 'em to kingomd come and get drunk over it, 'ay?"

High above Mereshka, five B-2 Spirits flew silently towards the Red Tidean lines.

"Bravo Flight, this is Bravo Leader. Target is identified. Prepare for preliminary bombardment"

The pilot of the lead B-2 flicked a switch, and the bomb bay opened, revealing its payload: 80x Mk.82 bombs. As he did, the other four aircraft followed suit.

"Stay alert. 14 miles to target area. Let's do this right. Remember, we're the vanguard of the operation"

_____________________________________________________________
Near Vokoyu, Mereshka

The Kingfishers made good time from the carrier to Mereshka. They flew by some towns on the way but they knew where they were going. They had Vokoyu in their sights.

"One minute" said the pilot of the lead aircraft

The troops inside readied themselves for the drop.

The pilot spotted a open area not far from the friendly lines. He quickly brought the Kingfisher over the spot, switching it into hover mode.

"Ropes" he said to the crew chief.

Four ropes dropped down and men began sliding down them. As they were doing this, more Kingfishers approached and began dropping their troops. By the time the drop was finished, about 5,000 men were now in Mereshka.

They began to walk to Vokoyu.

The Red Tidean response to the UHC's challenge was quite simple: to try and blow them out of the sky. The UHC's warning systems would go absolutely insane as a hoard of missiles reached out towards them. Coming down on the fighter/bombers were MDM-4's and MDM-6's, about eight surface-air missiles per-plane, screaming up at them at around mach-4 speeds.

A fighter pilot could outmanuever two missiles if sufficiently skilled, a good enough pilot could evade three missiles if manuevering in combination with countermeasures. But there was not a pilot in the world who could get away from eight missiles targetting his plane at once.

In the meantime...

The Ustians had made a critical mistake in using the B2... it was one of the stealth aircraft that the MDM-4 system was designed with the specific intention of intercepting.

Thus, as they reached a distance of 70 kilometers from the Red Tidean BeachHead, a message came over their radio.

"Attention, the five unidentified aircraft on our scopes. You are in direct violation of a warzone involving Red Tidean forces. You are hereby ordered to turn around. Failureto comply will result in you being shot down. This is you first, last, and only warning."

OOC: Have you guys seen Mereshka on at all?

OOC: Sorry for being gone, I decided to party this weekend.

IC: The runner had managed to get away in all the confusion, and was now running as fast as he possibly could to his destination.

In Vokuyu

The mock soldiers were being trained, at least somewhat by the samurai and Ashigaru. They were making good progress, but there was no way they'd be able to stand up to the Tideans if it came to a fight. They were going to have to rely on the ability of bows to shoot over walls, guile, and, being typical Mereshkans, honor.

OOC: Back once more from the brink!

IC:

Shenyangi Territory:

At long last the Shenyangi Marine Corps Expeditionary Forces were ready to sail. The transport vessels formed up with the naval combatants south of Selerefon Island, at the northern edge of Shenyangi territorial waters, and only 500km from the Mereshkan mainland. It was this proximity, and the technological state of Mereshka which had lead Shenyang to unofficially adopt the nation as a 'protected state'. In fact, this status was really only known to those within Shenyang.

The destination of the Combined Task Force was a god-forsaken bay, roughly 800km south of the Tidean beachhead. Shenyangi plans called for an in-force landing on at this point, followed by a sweep up the coast, into the southern flank of the Tidean forces.

Another force of Arkbird bombers, this time a dozen in all, lifted off from their bases, and converged on Selerefon. From there they broke into 4 smaller groups and initialized their Pallas Athena systems. The attack plan was simple, circle around the enemy, and attack with ultra low altitude missiles from four different directions.

Behind this group, a second wave lifted off, activated their stealth, and vectored after the first group.

Satellite monitoring of the previous strike had shown that the enemy had a well established anti-air net, and that the best bet for circumventing it was to come in very low and very fast, with enough firepower to crush a small city.

The destruction of one Mulberry still left two for the bombers to engage, as before the central plan was to cut enemy supply lines, then engage the combat forces themselves.

Each wave was to be comprised of 924 ACM-552V 'Tachi' supersonic cruise missiles. Each carried a 544 kilogram high explosive warhead, capable of leveling a rather large building. The beauty of the 'Tachi' was that it served as the third tier of Shenyangi long-range ALCMs, an ultra-low altitude missile to complement the medium altitude Katana and the ultra-high altitude Tanto. As evidence showed that these would be nigh useless at present, the Tachi were selected for the attack. They had a range of more than 3000km, and a cruising speed of up to Mach 1.6 at an altitude of less than 4 metres (usually below 3 metres) above ground level. This was perfect for one reason, the attacks were vectored over the ocean, which was almost perfectly flat today.

Within two hours all the Arkbirds from the first wave were on station, and the second wave was only minutes behind. All launches would be conducted at a range of 1600km, to minimize the chances of detection, while leaving the weapons with a half their fuel, for the added damage capability it offered (however minimal).

The ships set out for their objective in a defensive posture, to protect the transports and aircraft carriers from enemy attacks.

OOC: Combined Task Force:

Naval Force:
Ships:
4 Stormbreaker-class Super-Carriers
6 Ford-class Carriers
10 Penitence-class Arsenal Ships
14 Vengence-class Arsenal Ships
2 Nike-class Deep Strike Subs
22 Atago-class AEGIS Destroyers
30 Arleigh Burke-class AEGIS Destroyers
14 Kirov-class Missile Cruisers
10 Ticonderoga-class AEGIS Cruisers
2 Andrew Jackson-class EW Vessels
22 Oliver Hazzard Perry II-class Frigates
100 support vessels
250 transport vessels (landing ships)

Aircraft:
500 SU-37-ADCAP-S Flankers
380 TAF-622 Sparrows
80 MiG-41 Firefoxes
10 MiG-41R Recce-Foxes
60 S-3C Vikings
24 ES-3B Shadows
8 E-2D Hawkeyes
80 MC-117D Scimitars
92 RAH-66B Sea Comanches
66 MQ-8B Fire Scouts
80 FRX-00 Rafe

SMC Expeditionary Forces (EF1, EF3, EF10):

240,000 men
900 MCA-7E MBT
900 M-3A4 Bradley APC
1200 M-1126A2 Stryker IFV
1200 MRAP vehicles (Cougar H and Cougar HE(various configurations))
300 SA-21 Growler SAMs
600 SIM-120G SLAMRAAM MRAPs
450 MRAP-AAG (MRAP w/ BK-27 autocannon)
150 M-1203 NLOS-C
150 M-1204 NLOS-M
Assorted Support Vehicles and Equipment

OOC: Hey Shen, long time no see eh?

OOC: Yeah, had meant to come on earlier, but I was in DC from Thursday through to Sunday morning, so took me a bit to get back on track here.

OOC: Combined Task Force:

Naval Force:
Ships:
4 Stormbreaker-class Super-Carriers
6 Ford-class Carriers
10 Penitence-class Arsenal Ships
14 Vengence-class Arsenal Ships
2 Nike-class Deep Strike Subs
22 Atago-class AEGIS Destroyers
30 Arleigh Burke-class AEGIS Destroyers
14 Kirov-class Missile Cruisers
10 Ticonderoga-class AEGIS Cruisers
2 Andrew Jackson-class EW Vessels
22 Oliver Hazzard Perry II-class Frigates
100 support vessels
250 transport vessels (landing ships)


OOC: And there's me with 2 Type 45 Destroyers, 2 LST's, 1 Ocean class carrier, 1 Nimitz class and 1 Typhoon Class Submarine!

OOC: And that's why Shenyang is running point for the U.D.D.'s intervention in Mereshka. Shenyang... When you absolutely need excessive firepower deployed overnight.

Oh, and there's the fact that I'm larger than either other U.D.D. member as well.

Mereshkan Imperial Palace Security Perimeter:

Six and her small team prowled the perimeter, checking behind every rock, over every rise, and under every ornamental bonsai tree and bridge they came across, they even went so far as to search the perimeter of a small koi pond they came across.

(Shenyangi Special Forces have 2 designations: a unit ID (I.E. Dagger-Four) and a callsign (I.E. Talisman). The former is used in official settings, while the latter is used during operations to help differentiate operators from one unit to another.)

“Six to Four, sitrep.”

“One harbor got smoke-checked. Looks like it could be a total loss from the smoke. The others came through fine.”

“Affirmative, keep me updated.”

“I always do Six.”

Six finished her patrol, and was mildly impressed. She attributed most of the defenses she’d found to the Slaughterian troops, whom she had a deep respect for, though some of it was natural or of Mereshkan origin.

Armed with a map of the defenses she planned out a defense that would allow her team to defend the palace most effectively. Essentially, she stationed the other snipers, Daggers -2 and -9 on other parts of the roof. Her heavy weapons specialists took positions to cover the most easily assaulted routes, and the rest of her shooters stood ready to react wherever they were needed. It was rudimentary, but there wasn’t too much she could do without access to enemy plans, which was out of the question. At the moment.

OOC: Just got the chane to check this today, won't be able to get on for a while, Shen, RS, mereshak, feel free to RP as anyone, just try not to get a crashing defeat.

OOC: Sorry for not getting on the last couple days, had some work to do. Won't be on tomorrow either.

IC: The runner finally made it to the clan capital, and was in the middle of requesting aid from the Shoguns son, as the Shogun himself was with the Empress. That day, several kaneyas (If anyones wondering, its not Japanese, I just made it up on the spot) left for Vokuyu, to defend their country. The son had also sent a runner to the nearby Akera, or Bear, clan, to request additional support. They were within sight of Vokuyus walls within a week, and the soldiers patrolling the walls let out a cheer.

OOC:
Kaneya= 100 No-Doichi (large katanas, though I'm not sure if I spelled that right Samurai, along with about six hundred Ashigaru Samurai, and three hundred Samurai archers. Normally there are more No-Doichi, but for this mission they replaced them with extra archers. There are about eight Kaneyas, as the wolf clan is pretty small.

The first wing of Arkbirds vectored toward the target, and emptied their payloads of missiles, which dropped for the deck, then pulled out rapidly at between 2 and 4 metres, only 25% peaked above the 10 foot mark. The missiles carried the same almost arbitrary coat of RAM as all other Shenyangi weapons. The weapons bobbed and weaved to maintain their altitudes.

5 minutes passed and the second wave of missiles was released, these followed in much the same route, with the same result.

The weapons streaked toward the two remaining harbors from 4 different attack angles, none of which vectored even close to the enemy's ships, save those directly in the harbors.

The bombers, having released their payloads from over 1800km turned south for home.

OOC: thats 924 Tachi missiles (same warhead as a tomahawk) in wave 1 and another 924 in wave 2, which is 5 minutes behind. They are mostly at around 9 feet or lower, but 25 percent do stray above that envelope for notable periods of time.

IC: The runner finally made it to the clan capital, and was in the middle of requesting aid from the Shoguns son.

OOC: Wasn't the messenger machine-gunned by Red Tidean Hinds?

OOC: Very nearly, but if I remember right UHC saved 'em...

OOC: With a loss of only two fighters. Gotta love stealth harmonics. (PMT tech stuff)

Mereshkan Waters, 73 Miles From Red Tidean Invasion Area

The battleships sliced through the water, steaming towards the invasion area. Leading the two Iowa class battleships was the brand new Exterminator class.

OOC: The Exterminator Class is a prototype, based on the Iowa hull. It has some of the main guns removed to make space for 4 Free Flight Multiple Rocket Launchers. It still retains two sets of 3 Guns, and the entire crew wears NBC suits due to the shells it fires.

This Is An Official Radio Transmission From The President Of The Federal Republic Of Ustio North:

To all Ustian Military Forces. Begin extraction precedings. Effective Immediatley. Severe Snowstorms have overwhelmed Emergency Services. You are to return to Ustio and provide assistance.


OOC: MacMillan and his men will stay, just so you know. The truth is that the snowstorms aren't a problem. We're currently transistioning from MT to PMT, so i needed a good excuse to remove my troops, refit them with the PMT armour and weapons, and then send 'em back in.