NationStates Jolt Archive

Jesselton,
Questers

A hundred metres underground, in the nuclear protected bunker of the Strategic Military Political Command, the Prime Minister, the King, and all the Chiefs of the Military had just arrived. The Major on Station that night was a one Winston Leach, who had been working in S.M.P.C almost his entire life, and had been on station those fateful years ago when war was declared on Gholgoth. He turned and saluted sharply, but it was obvious he was not in his prime: he had been in the Strategic Station for thirty hours straight, and had but a few power naps. On his desk sat lay a lazily erected fortress of plastic cups, with tea stains leaking onto the desk, and the picture of his wife and children blocked from sight with a tall stack of authorisation papers.

"Sirs." He stood to attention. "I can only take your visit as proof that the ultimatum was rejected."

The entire room dropped into silence.

"Major Leach." The Prime Minister said, shaking his hand. "Are you ready to save the world?"

The Major gulped and, looking into the Prime Minister's eyes, saluted. "For King and Country, Sir."

"Very Good Major. Then give the word."

The Major turned and took the microphone to speak to the rest of the room. The all knew it, but this was a neccessary formality. "Initiate Operation Advancing Light. Communications Code Six Four Two Two One dash Four Bravo. God Save The King."

And that code sent the word to all APOC nations that Operations would begin. Within the hour, APOC forces would be pushing into Holy Marsh and the offending Aequatian islands. Entire militaries would be mobilised and prepared for war. The time had come. Justice would be done. The Questarian Empire now declares that, as our ultimatum has gone unanswered in a positive manner, we declare all Aequatian and Illiorian territory in Haven the property of the Crown and will take the neccessary measures to appropriate it. APOC forces are NOT authorised to take offensive action against non Aequatian/Illiorian NATO assets. Our allies which aid us will be repaid appropriately in terms of land. God Save the King.

Aurissa, Seylon

Seylon was an interesting country. It was technically a company - The Royal Seylon Company - and also a dictatorship, since it was run by a board of directors, although to be fair it was incredibly meritocratic, as those who sat on its board were now some of the best managers in the Empire, who came to the Royal Seylon Company to reap the benefits of running a country and a corporation at the same time. It was a profitable company, too. Primary exports were rubber, tin, and palm oil, and the entire population was self sufficient in food. Massive jungle covered almost all of Seylon, and within it the majority of the country's populace lived on self-sustaining farms where they grew rice, living in mud huts and worshipping pagan Gods. Some lived and worked on areas owned by large European estates, the old money of Seylon, who worked on cotton plantations and such. Otherwise worked in factories and refineries, harvesting the raw materials of the 'country'. The Royal Seylon Company provided basic education to those who were in range, and basic healthcare to much of the population, but its foreign affairs were handled by Questers, as was its military.

It was little surprise, then, that given its strategic value, Seylon was riddled with Questarian military bases, defended by a hundred thousand soldiers, provided a base for more than four thousand aircraft, including four Strategic Fronts, and docking facilities for eight hundred ships. With Southford to its West and Estonsko to its North, the Europeans of Seylon had always assumed that the defence force assigned to them would never need to be used, and that their idyllic world of privelege would never be hurt by war. However, it stood across the seas to Cravan, who, in precisely three hours, would probably be at war with Questers. With just two hundred eighty million people in Seylon, and with Seylon assigned the task of keeping the Cravanian military in its own territorial surroundings, it seemed an impossible mission. Typically, it was the monsoon season, and as air operations began, the weather was foul, but duty was duty.

On the west side of the island, the 168th Territorial Air Defence Division's Shawshank FAW.2 took to the air, and after accelerating to their maximum altitude, unleashed their ASAT weapons on Aequatian satellites; just over 96 weapons were launched on Aequatian military and commercial satellites currently orbiting Haven. As the planes landed on the wet tarmac, they arrived back on Haven with war in their pockets.

[OOC: POST IS SHORT BECAUSE KAMPF IS A COOL GUY. EH LIKES TO LEAVE WHEN IMPORTANT THINGS ARE HAPPENING AND DOESN'T AFRAID OF ANYONE.]

Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail
Once you provoke her, rattling of her tail
Never begins it, never, but once engaged...
Never surrenders, showing the fangs of rage

Don't tread on me

Kampfers Stadt, Kampfers
In the office of the Fuhrer

Eric Richtoff sighed heavily. So it had come to this. Now, there was no turning back. He couldn't say he hadn't seen it coming. The escalating war of words. The failed conference in Questers. The situation in Yuslevakia. All the signs had led to this. Kampfers had been against shooting first but... the acts committed on Foxbury Island were... too horrible to be described. He would not let the Questarians stand alone. It was time to act. He stuck his head out the door and looked down the halls. No activity. He was the first to see the news. He spun back into his room and turned a knob on the desk to the left, then slammed on a buzzer under his desk. Alarms blared and red lights flashed. Within seconds a guard was at his door.

"Sergeant Eversmann, reporting for duty, SIR!" The soldier saluted sharply, and took it down to cradle his weapon once more. The safety was notably off. Richtoff looked at Eversmann and shook his head. "You can put the safety back on, we're safe for now. Get me to Freiheit I as fast as possible, and get me to KSJMB (Kampfers Stadt Joint Military Base). You know the drill. Make sure the chiefs follow." Eversmann saluted, and sprinted out of the room and down the hall. Following briskly on his heels was Richtoff. They ran into Richtoff’s private elevator, it opening automatically when it sensed his card come into the vicinity. Up the floors they went, shooting skyward, until they reached the top. Boarding Freiheit I, Richtoff looked back. If this didn't go well, it could be the last he ever saw of his office. He turned to the soldier. "Get my wife and son into the bunker as well. I don't want them to be left out here." Emotion strained his voice as he spoke, and his eyes welled up a bit. He collected himself quickly, however, as the soldier nodded. He could not let his emotions fall. If the men saw that even their Fuhrer was lost, what were they to think. No. He would be calm, stoic, and heroic. Kampfers would not go down. Kampfers would not fail. Kampfers would emerge victorious.

So be it
Threaten no more
To secure peace is to prepare for war
So be it
Settle the score
Touch me again for the words that you'll hear evermore...

Don't tread on me

Kampfers Stadt, Kampfers
At the Kampfers Stadt Joint Military Base (KSJMB)

Dust swirled around as Freiheit I came to land. Men shielded their eyes from the atrocious storm of dirt and dust. Kampfers had been going through a bit of a dry spell lately and there was plenty of detached land for the helicopter to kick up. As soon as it touched the ground, the escort aboard poured out, guns up, making sure of the Fuhrer's safety. Such was common. Trust no one with regards to his safety, not even your own men. Richtoff sprinted into the small bunker, and shot down the staircase. He boarded the underground monorail, and sat patiently, biting his lip as he rode deeper and deeper under the city towards Kampferian High Command. His son, just over a year old, weighed heavily on his mind. So did his wife, Rachel, pregnant with their second child. Even if only for them, he could not let Kampfers fall. He had sworn to protect her in his vows, and he was not about to relinquish them now. He had been through too much to simply fold under pressure. He resolved in his mind a course of action. One from which he would not deviate. At least not much. He felt the train slowing down. It was time to present his findings to the men.

Love it or live it, she with the deadly bite
Quick is the blue tongue, forked as lighting strike
Shining with brightness, always on surveillance
The eyes, they never close, emblem of vigilance

Don't tread on me

Richtoff walked into the room and was immediately greeted by all his heads of staff. They all rushed to try and speak their minds, but Richtoff silenced them all. Once the room was suitably quiet, he began to speak. "Gentlemen, you know that the Questarian Empire has issued a demand that Gholgoth will never meet. As such, one would question why we would aid the once again aggressive Questarians. The answer is simple my friends. Liberty. Freedom. If those words mean but an ounce to you, you will understand why we must fight. Fight for a better tomorrow. Fight to defend our families. Fight for our rights as citizens of Kampfers, of Haven, of the World. It is better to be a dead soul in Heaven than a man in a Freekish labor camp. We will not stand for Gothic oppression. We will stand up and resolutely say, 'Don't tread on me.' These nations have brought it upon themselves. The genocide at Foxbury is just the latest proof of this. We must resolve an immediate plan of action. Luckily for us all, I have one." Richtoff moved over to the giant screen that projected a map of Haven and began touching nations. They turned colors on his cue. One tap for red, two for blue, and three for a deep shade of gray. "These nations you see illuminated in red are the nations likely to be allied against Kampfers and her allies. We are already to take the territories of Gholgoth, and return the to their rightful owners in Haven. This means that Illior and Aequatio will be the primary targets of our allies. NATO will not abandon them though, and thus Kampfers must prepare for the big picture. The nations seen here in blue are expected to rise up against Gothic oppression and fight. Troops from Mondoth have already began attacking the Scandavian Duchy of Tyrne. Although Mondoth is not in APOC, he is, for all intents and purposes, allied to us, if only for a while." Richtoff motioned towards the screen. "This is the expected scenario. Although NCON forces are fighting allied in theatre with NATO, we doubt they will continue as such. If not however, things will go downhill. No Endorse has not officially stood with NATO as well. Amner's relations with Maddox from The Silver Sky, however, force us to make an assumption that if The Silver Sky sides with NATO, they will as well. If they stay neutral or side with us, it will be a welcome move. For now, we must plan for the worst. The Nuclear Commonwealth will likely stay neutral, however, but NCON is a different story. What I am about to implement will be from here out known as OPERATION: Kampf-Verteidigung. We will move to DEFCON-1 following the end of this briefing."

He moved over to the left side of the map, and drew a small semi-circle off the coast of Hjetland. "This will be Phase I of Op:K-V," as the plan would come to be known, "and although it is smaller than the rest, it is no less important. Circled here is Wachhund Military Base in Hjetland. It is our only asset in East Haven, and we can not afford to lose it. In addition to the surface action group currently stationed there, we also have a number of air units that will help provide defense of the Chevrokian colony. We will not activate any additional units to reinforce this base at this time. Inform the base commander that they are in good hands with the Chevrokians, and that they should be as much of a help as possible without needlessly losing Kampferian lives. The last part is his discretion. We do not want to let our base fall into NATO hands. Should Hjetland become a lost cause, which is once again at the base commander’s discretion, all of our assets at Watchhund are to be immediately evacuated and the base itself is to be destroyed. Runways, docks, nothing of use should remain when we leave. The SAG currently stationed there is weapons free to engage any hostile targets when the ultimatum passes. This concludes the first phase of Op:K-V."

"Phase II involves the defense of Arguin. Its strategic location coupled with its easy access as an island mean that it is sure to be a target early on. If we get NATO on their heels quickly, perhaps an attack will never occur, but we must assume it will occur. We can not allow Arguin to fall into enemy hands. We will declare an exclusion zone of 600 km around the island to prevent any civilian ships from moving in, and activate the pre-placed CAPTOR mines around the island. The zone will be reduced to meet with Azahan territorial water claims where necessary. Any ship moving in will be lucky to get close. The ships currently docked at Arguin will leave port, but will stay within the exclusion zone. Enemy forces won't know exactly where they are until it is too late. Evacuation of the civilians in Arguin should begin immediately. Begin expanding the deep entrenchments along the beaches to prevent an easy landing. The island is small enough to keep the every beach feasible enough to land on guarded night and day. Dig deep enough to prevent the majority of conventional materials from hitting it too hard. Keep the airbases full in Arguin; they are going to be a prime bombing target. The state of the art facilities we have there should pinpoint any incoming threats for our interceptors to take down. Arguin was founded for strategic purposes. It would be best to make use of them now. If all else fails, we will throw Arguin's entire missile supply at Aldea. Speaking of Aldea, I’d like to amend this portion of my plan." Richtoff drew a line between Hallad and Skinny87 that effectively boxed Aldea in on the map. “This dashed line here is the shortest distance that they will have to cross. Skinny87 and Hallad, while once powers, are hardly heard from these days. If we mine the waters between these two nations, it will effectively remove Aldea from the playing field. They will be unable to reach us, and vice versa, not that we had such plans. By effectively removing their naval assets at this location through the use of strategic mine placement, we will cripple their ability to strike at Arguin, and reduce their chances of a successful strike of us to nil. A short distance away from Arguin is Hryvinia; should Arguin fall into NATO hands, Hryvinia would more than likely enter the fray to help us reclaim it. Her relations with Zukariaa will not be dropped lightly, and Taradox could likely sway Sverre IV to aid us. With Hryvinian aid, reclaiming Arguin would be much simpler. That said, we should not allow it to be taken in the first place. An attack on Arguin will be met with heavy resistance. They should lose at least three times as many men as we should in an engagement.”

Richtoff took a sip of water before continuing. "Phase III. This is perhaps the most important action we will take. Sitting right off our coast is the Greater Prussian Island Chain. We have held friendly relations with them in the past, but this time, that chain is bad news. It sits extremely close to Gantrickburgh and frankly threatens the security of all of Kampfers. Derscon is in NATO and will not stand for our so called 'belligerence'. The islands will go from friendly to hostile in a flash. As such, we will adopt a policy of island hopping until the very last island has fallen. From there, we will begin strikes on the mainland Greater Prussian Outpost. When the time is right, we will take the outpost by force as well. This will remove all NATO striking power on mainland Kampfers. Any amphibious assault on mainland Kampfers is destined to fail anyhow and it will be impossible to break the wall in Questers, but their ability to bomb and launch missiles into Kampfers makes them top priority. The men of Feuerwache Military Base in Gantrickburgh and the men at North Point Military base are to be put on high alert immediately and told to prepare to assault these elements. We will begin with Sariel runs mining the waters around the Greater Prussian Outpost in an effort to ensure that they can not reinforce the islands through naval capacities. I will, however, take the time to write the Tsar. Perhaps he can be moved to stay neutral to us, as we are both Prussian, or perhaps even stay neutral to the whole conflict. Doing so would rob us of a chance to reclaim our ancestral territory those islands occupy, but it would also save us the heartache of having enemy bases well within striking distance of every major Kampferian city."

“Moving on, we come to Phase IV, sub-operation Eternal Shield. Making efficient use of the Western Transportation Funnel of Haven and the other highways that connect the two, we will move quickly and efficiently to defend Questers from Allanean attack. The border is short, but our defense must be deep, and there must be enough to drive forward into Allanea and even Scandavian States if need be. Operational commanders in theatre will report to the Questarians, but will not sacrifice their men needlessly. While the Questarian navy is the class of the world, the Questarian army leaves much to be desired. If either nation desires to remain neutral, so we will let them be. We will not invade a neutral nation.”

Once more he took a sip of water, glancing around the room to make sure everything was still with him. He began to speak once more, cool and collected as always. “This brings us to Phase V. Kampferian submarines, both nuclear and diesel-electric, will begin operations against NATO shipping in the following sea lanes,” he said, denoting the colored waterways. “This should reduce their ability to re-supply their colonies as well as move strategic assets through APOC dominated waters. Allies may or may not mine these areas so instruct our commanders to be careful. Finally, you have Phase VI. This consists of the attack on Aurora, the Scandavian colony located strategically on the confluence of the Haven Strait, the Hallad Strait, and the Strobovian Strait. In being located so, it is almost halfway in between Neu Prussia and Arguin, and will thus be our main focus. Adding it to Großkampfers will be a great strategic addition and it will interconnect the three colonies. General Klischten is in charge of drawing up the full plans for this, and should begin as soon as this meeting is dismissed. Assets in Neu Prussia will comprise the bulk of this attack, but until they receive orders to go they may participate in helping to clear the Strob of NATO ships.” As he finished speaking, a soldier threw the door open, walked over to the Fuhrer, and whispered something in his ear. “Gentlemen, it is official. Questers has gone to war. And we will lead the way for the others. Go now and begin the phases. Op:K-V must be a success. Dismissed!”

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w107/imdmill/RP%20images/638f0b10.png

So be it
Threaten no more
To secure peace is to prepare for war
So be it
Settle the score
Touch me again for the words that you'll hear evermore...

Don't tread on me

Bremerhaven, Neu Prussia
Volstein Naval Base

Horns blew, whistles sounded, and men scurried to and fro. The naval base was set in a flurry of activity, and men ran to their ships as quickly as possible. Everything had to be out of port by the end of the day, so that operations could commence as quickly as possible. Amidst all the hustle and bustle, one man stood tall, taking his time. Six foot three inches in height, he towered above most submarine captains, but he had specifically been placed into the submarine program as a cadet. Ever since childhood, he had been intrigued by the aspects of naval warfare, especially those situations that took place underneath the waves. His father, a member of the merchant marine, had often taken him out on a long journey, where he would do nothing but learn of the sea and its ways. When he turned 18, he quickly applied to enroll in the North Point Military Institute. A long way from his home in Neu Prussia, it promised the best military education he was going to find. After graduating, he quickly took charge of his own submarine. Now, at the age of 43, he was about to finally test his skills. Perhaps it would be all he had hoped, but perhaps not. One thing satisfied him, however. That he would finally get a crack at what he had practiced so long to do. Kill. Not just that, however, but the manner in which to do it. Silently, violently, he was rivaling the power of God himself determining whether a man might live or die. That power was soon to be in his hands, and it was a power he yearned to have. God save the man who came into contact with Oberleutnant Himmlich and the crew of the U-436, for the 436 would not be a friendly fish to fry. On this assignment, Himmlich and his trusted crew would be patrolling the pass between Neu Prussia and Cotland, ensuring no NATO shipping got in or out. No matter what the individual nation’s relations were with Kampfers, Admiral Christian and the Fuhrer were determined not to let any aid whatsoever enter the waters of past the natural points of Neu Prussia and Praetonian South Haven and Cotland. All any aid meant was a prolonging of the war, and that meant more casualties for both sides. Not that the Fuhrer particularly minded if more men on the other side died, but he could do without extra allied casualties, especially sons of Kampfers.

Kampfers Stadt, Kampfers
Inside Kampferian High Command

Richtoff was the only man left in the meeting room that had been the focal point for a flurry of activities only an hour or so previous. He was looking over the last of OPERATION: Kampf-Verteidigung, a part he had failed to share with the military commanders at the time. He now wished he had, but it was of little importance. They had already discussed this part under different names many times. Phase VII. The home front. The plans he held detailed the economic plans to shift Kampfers into a wartime economy. As he sat, he knew recruitment posters were popping up all over Kampfers. Not just recruitment posters at that, but anything vaguely patriotic and propagandistic would soon paper the streets of Kampfers. The economy needed to produce what was needed for the war effort. And the reserves needed to be mobilized. Yes. Kampfers was going in one hundred percent.


http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w107/imdmill/RP%20images/Propagand/dersieg.png http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w107/imdmill/RP%20images/Propagand/dubistfront.png http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w107/imdmill/RP%20images/Propagand/sowirkampfen.png http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w107/imdmill/RP%20images/Propagand/einvolk.png
A sample of the propaganda posters in Kampfers

So be it
Threaten no more
To secure peace is to prepare for war

Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail
Once you provoke her, rattling on her tail

So be it
Threaten no more
To secure peace is to prepare for war
So be it
Settle the score
Touch me again for the words that you'll hear evermore...

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS ENCRYPTION LEVEL ZULU – EYES ONLY FUHRER AND RECIPIENT

[TO] His Most Eminent Majestic Highness Tsar Xavier Alexeitovich Caesar Augustus Andropov II of Derscon
[FROM] The Neo-Prussian Dictatorship of Kampfers

Greetings once again, my friend, although it is not on such good conditions that I speak to you as the last. War approaches these lands, and I fear that if we do not act now, we may be caught up in the midst of it fighting each other. As a member of Greater Prussia, I do not in any way harbor aggression against your nation. I am confident you feel the same about me. However, as the cards stand, we are on opposite sides of the table. I am with APOC, and you are with NATO. However, our paths do not have to part here. In an effort to further solidify Kampferian-Dersconi relations, I propose that we sign a treaty that will last for the duration of this conflict. We will not attack each other, and nor will we provide bases for different people to attack the other with. If anything else comes to your mind that could further keep us from conflict, feel free to suggest that as well. My main priority is that our nations are not drawn to blows because of separate alliance ties.

[SIGNED]
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w107/imdmill/2b753354.png
Fuhrer of the Neo-Prussian Dictatorship of Kampfers
Sovereign of the Neo-Prussian Reich of Großkampfers

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w107/imdmill/Richtoff/caad3c2b.png

Don't tread on me

Fuerher Richtoff,

It is remarkably unfortunate that two friends like us must find ourselves on the opposite ends of a disastrous war such as this. It pains me that NATO and APOC have so many hard-headed egoists, unable to compromise and possessing such insatiable bloodlusts that they would waste billions of lives in a conflict that, in the end, will mean and gain little.

I believe that such an agreement would be best for both of us. We will not allow allied troops to use our own installations to assault the other, nor will we assault the other.

However, I must request one more thing of you. As you may know, Derscon and the Union of Socialist Republics have very friendly relations. The USR as stated that it wishes to remain a neutral party in this war. I would request, as a sign of good faith, and to ensure that our agreement remains unstrained, that no actions that may provoke the USR are undertaken by the Neupreussische Reich nor any other member of APOC.

Hopefully, this war will end quickly, although I do not foresee us being so lucky.

God help us all.

His Most Eminent Majestic Highness Tsar Xavier Alexeitovich Andropov II, Fedei Defensor, By the Divine Grace of God;
Ambrosial Seraph of the Divine Prussian Empire of Derscon
Lord Protector of Saint Rynald
Leath-Ri of the Redemption Isles
Emperor of Greater Prussia and all Imperial Territories
Veliky Kralj of the Eternal Empire
Khšaçapavan of the Covanent of God
Gloeihdamae

"Son of a bitch."

Conrad's eyes flickered up from the document on his desk and focused on the man in front of him. His brother-in-law, Pime Taradox, sat across his desk and in one of the many overly-decorated palace chairs. The man always had a nice way of putting things. Conrad read through the message once more. It had come up from the Foreign Ministry, which was in fact headed by Pime Taradox anyways, and informed him of rather unpleasant news, though it was not unexpected. The Questarians had attacked on Aequatio and Illior. And it was well known that NATO would come to their defense soon. The whole situation was horrible.

"Well I guess we can thank the Rosbani's for forcing us to mobolise early. We need to get moving right now." Conrad said, standing up,"We have to get to Taradoxica and speak with the military commanders. Especially you, seeing as you'll be commanding the navy again."

"Yep," came the reply, and the two left the Emperor's office. They made their way through the palace and to the Emperor's personal airfield where they boarded a private jet and lifted off towards Taradoxica, surrounded the entire way by an obnoxious number of military aircraft. When they landed once more in Taradoxica, at the Emperor's Coastal Palace, they were greeted by the sounds of war. There was a military parade taking place, as evident by the anthem, fireworks, and cheers that emanated from the centre of the city. The Emperor would have to go through town to get to the army headquarters, where top military commanders were now meeting up.

On their journey through the city, they were greeted by thousands of people cheering at marching men from their windows facing the streets, who waved and smiled back as they goose-stepped. Confetti made a rainbow of colour in the air, and music filled the ears of all in the area. It was amazing. The uniforms of the Zukariaan troops were perfect for military parades. The golden crests on the top of the spiked helmets and the overly decorated officers were admittedly old fashioned looking, but they made people who saw them excited for victory.

The limousine stopped a block away from the army headquarters, as the streets were too crowded to drive closer and the emperor had chosen not to interrupt the parades. The journey through the sidewalk was one of the weirdest things Conrad had ever seen. Almost immediately his uniform gave away his identity and thousands of voices chanted in unison,"Hail the Gods, our Emperor is here! Loyal to his people to the end, we say! With his guidance we shall fight, and by his command we shall win!" He gave a wave to them and to the troops marching by before taking the steps up into the headquarters. He made his way to an elevator which took him and Taradox down deep into the ground, deafening the sounds of parade and chanting.

At the end of the journey downwards they entered a long hall, and then a conference room. At the podium, watched by dozens of eyes, was Conrad's oldest son Ferdinand. He was a general himself, and was speaking to the other commanders of the military about the Rosbaningrad situation, which he was in charge of handling. It was not totally relevant to the current situation, but it was keeping them interested while they waited for the two most important figures in the nation's administration to arrive. When they did, all the men in the room stood and clapped. Ferdinand stepped down and was replaced by Conrad, who was flanked by Pime Taradox.

"Greetings, fellows. As you all know, the Questarians have attacked on Aequatio and Illior. Now obviously NATO, being the leashed dog that it is, is going to come to the rescue of these Gholgoth nations. It is APOC at large's job to make sure that Gholgoth is removed from Haven entirely and NATO is made to learn its place," Conrad addressed them all,"Zukariaa is in a very fortunate position in Haven. We are surrounded by allies and there are no enemy nations anywhere near us that can attack us directly. As such, we will obviously be in a support position. But that is not to say that we will not be an important force in this war.

"The navy, and you all know who that is commanded by, will be moving to the mouth of the Strob. From what we know at this time, it will be linking up with the navy of Northford and possibly Questers and then moving east and clearing all naval threats, and then of course holding the strait. Gholgoth forces will be here by the ass end of a month, and we'll have to be ready to put their navies on the sea floor.

"As for the army, we'll be deploying whatever we can to wherever we can. At this point we will be pre-emptively deploying to Ferrum Lupus, aided by our Spacian friends. The NATO-aligned nation 'Holy Marsh' has a rather oversized number of troops deployed and we will be aiding in the destruction of its more than likely horrendously undersupplied forces. We may be needed in other places, such as the invasion of Aurora or other Scandavian colonies. Should Allanea join in the war we will definetly have something to do, mainly at San Nereina and the Questarian border.

"That is all at this point." Conrad said, stepping away.

The talks went on for several more hours. Soon after, the navy went into action. Roughly four thousand ships, a massive portion of the navy, began its preparations to shove off and head for the Strob Strait. They had already been on standby for the last twenty-four hours, and it only took a few hours for them to leave port and head for open seas. They gathered off the coast of Tyrannosaurus Island and then moved off, down the coast of the contested territory south of Zukariaa. They would not reach their destination for some time, however, and Pime Taradox knew it. The massive seas of Haven made movements incredibly tedious.

Meanwhile, the Spacian airforce, which was known far and wide for being obnoxiously huge, was providing logistical support in transporting nearly a million Zukariaan men to Ferrum Lupus in the far east. 500 SuC-1's were coming from the Spacian mainland. They were to transport the entire force. Zukariaan transports were already preparing to transport row upon row of Nakils, Praetor IFVs, APCs, armored cars, and convoy vehicles. It would be mere hours before the massive force was off, escorted by Spacian and Zukariaan air assets. Already, hundreds of Audax and Havenfighters made their way for Ferrum Lupus.


The homefront was also moving. Large parts of the industry began the slow process of converting production to mass-produce machines of war, ammunition, and guns for both Zukariaa and its allies. Massive enlistment campaigns were launched by the army and navy, calling on all men of age to enlist at their local station and fight for freedom in Haven. The media was stormed by propaganda praising the Emperor and informing everyone that the war would be an easy win, and that Zukariaa would lose very little from it and yet gain new territories from those defeated.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk47/Zukariaa99/enlistplz.png?t=1208041105

[OOC: Post coming in the near future, ICly timed at about a minute after the message Questers sent out, although it may wait pending OOC discussion]

[OOC: Likewise Illior.]

Stettinburg Palace
Stettinburg
1200 Hours

"Fucking-A." King Sverre IV swore loudly, his voice echoing off of the walls of the NBC bunker where he, his wife and the High Command had assembled. Sverre had been in an unusually good mood lately, having learned that his wife was carrying a son. However, the recent turn of events had changed his mood on a dime. With a wife six months pregnant, it was very likely that the next Hryvinian king would be born in war. This, needless to say, was not the environment he had envisioned his son coming into. Turning to his High Command, Sverre began speaking in a businesslike tone.

"Alright, you probably already know why I summoned you all here. I just got an urgent wire from the consulate in Zukariaa stating that Questers has decided to "reclaim" Gothic holdings within Haven. APOC, naturally, is going to back the Questarians up, which will naturally bring NATO into this. Your standard recipe for world war. What I wanted to discuss is where we come in," Sverre said, turning to a large Haven map behind him.

"Now, as you can see the closest APOC holding is Arguin, held by our friends the Kampferians. The SIS has good reason to believe that this little rock will be a prime target for NATO's people. I want the Army to assist in the reinforcement of Arguin. General Bergstrom, I want you to get in touch with the station commander on Arguin and see what he needs. As you all know having a Goth on Arguin gives them a base to attack Hryvinia. Needless to say, that would be unacceptable."

Bergstrom nodded without saying a word, knowing the task that lay before him. With that, Sverre continued on.

"As for the Navy, you'll be assisting in the defense of Arguin," Sverre said turning to Grossadmiral Linz. "We may link up with allied navies and head east, but only time will tell. For now, helping the Kampferians defend Arguin is top priority. Granted, that might change tomorrow but for now these are the orders."

"One last thing gentlemen: DEFCON is now at 3. Mobilize your troops accordingly and prepare for whatever may come. Gott segnen unser Vaterland!", Sverre finished.

"Gott segnen unser Vaterland!", came the simultaneous reply from the military personnel in the building.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x267/Central_Prestonia/Propaganda1.png

To: Fuhrer Eric Richtoff
From: HM King Sverre IV
Encryption Level: 5- Sender and Recipient eyes-only

In the course of time news has reached me about the Questarian decree. Naturally, my intelligence service does not believe that NATO will react kindly to this turn of events, and may try an invasion of APOC holdings closer to the traditional heartland of Haven. I speak, of course, of Arguin and Neu Prussia.

For generations, these colonies have coexisted with Hryvinia, and we do not wish to see them fall into the hands of the Goths. This especially applies to Arguin, which under Gothic control could be used as a base from which to attack Hryvinia itself. For the sake of my Fatherland, your colonies and indeed all of Southern Haven, the status quo must be preserved.

Currently, my forces stand at 50% mobilization, ready to fight alongside their Kampferian comrades. If your forces require any bolstering, send word through the appropriate mediums, and we will respond at a moment's notice.

Stand Undaunted,
Sverre IV
By the Grace of God King of Hryvinia
Duke of Vinland
Duke of Stettinburg
Duke of The Hryvinian Congo
Head of the House of Stettinburg
Beloved Ruler of the Hryvinian People
Guardian of The Fatherland

Greater Prussian Imperial Territories
Haven Strait

The final mines were set as Admiral Kadari Valshav examined the final battle plans. Schools upon Schools of submarines were out patrolling the non-mine infested waters as the ATLANTIS and HORUS networks went to 100% capacity.

None of the mines were activated, of course. There was no real need to block off the strait. That, and Kampfers and Derscon reinforced their Prussian alliance, so keeping them active would be, well, bad.

Of course, if any Prussian territory is attacked, the Haven Strait would be cut off by the sheer mass of mines, missile bays, and submarines in the area. All of the Isles are fortresses. Derscon has typically been one to just mind its own business and let things be, but membership in NATO has dragged them into a world war that most General Staff officers see as being a complete waste of troops -- millions of lives sacrificed for a kilometre or two of land.

The only real exception to this rule was Allanea. Since Derscon and Allanea go way back, and Tsar Xavier and Kazansky are personal friends, Derscon was indeed deployed en masse in Allanea. Other than that, though, Derscon was going to play it backstage, providing logistical, financial, and reservist support, but, if at all possible, avoiding the front lines in such an enormous and wasteful war.

Salutations Various Leaders of the International Community

It has recently come to my attention that hostilities have erupted between the nations of Questers and Aequatio and Illior. Such was forseen and expected, but continues to be unfortunate. However, No Endorse shall not be drawn into such a quarrel.

No Endorse maintains excellent relations with such nations as Cravan, Tyrandis, Jaredcohenia, Kampfers, and myriad others. We see no reason to fight when we are among friends all around. As such, I have ordered the Glorious Military Junta and the Nuclear Commonwealth to take a course of Neutrality. We shall not directly intervene, but are willing to provide what is necessary to those in need.

Additionally, as of the transmission of this message, I am declaring a combat exclusion zone with No Endorse's territorial waters. Violation of such will not be taken lightly. I expect my allies to act with dignity and restraint while within No Endorse waters.

Atal Amner
Atal Amner

As the message was sent, Atal glanced at a small photo on his desk. It was Violet in her health and youth, a stunning figure against a vast mountainous background. Taken before her time, snatched from him by the suicidal Nova Britannicans, she was everything to him. Her embrace was comfort and the strength to face the endless sea of inane politics in NationStates Earth. Her eyes were the conviction he needed to follow any course. And now.... nothing.

He stood up abruptly, moving to the window and viciously parting the curtains. Night enveloped the city, yet unlike the multitude before him he could find no release in sleep. We must plan.... He whirled and pressed the intercom on the edge of his desk.

"Miss Vickers, call the Commanders and Advisers together and gather them in the War Room. I want the leaders of each Nukewealth nation on the conference line ASAP. Tell them we have some money to make."

"Damn it… again." – said Marshal George F. Nicholson, commander of the Serendis Military District forces. And he flipped a switch.

There were several powerful explosions on the length of the border, blowing up every bridge, rail, and road that linked Questers to Allanea.

In bunker installations across the SMD, crews rushed to battlestations. Remote-controlled machineguns, 50mm quad autocannon, and other weaponry flickered alive. Drone aircraft took to the skies. Heavy bombers flew over what formerly were roads and railways, sowing mines into what used to be tiny passages in immense arrays of dragon's teeth, minefields, and so forth.

Across the district, arrays of 16-inch cannon turrets, artillery bunkers, AA installations were prepared – and they were yet the first line of defense.

In front and behind the bunker line there were anti-tank ditches Alpha and Beta. Behind Beta there were arrays of trench lines – and , twenty klicks from the border, even more artillery, MRLS, and other systems. 10 Artillery divisions, 30 mechanized infantry divisions, 10 armored divisions blocked the narrow pass, and dozens upon dozens more remained on standby, to be thrown into the gap if the need arose.

And far behind the lines, near the very Northern shores, flights of stealth aircraft were being fueled and armed.

Allanea was ready.

Official Message from the United States of Allanea

We condemn this aggressive action by the Questarians. Naturally, we realize nobody cares, but we wish to remind you that peace is good, mmkay?

Emergency Command Bunker, Undisclosed Location
1500 Hours

(SIC of course)

President Arnold Fukada sighed as he paced around the nuclear-protected bunker, reading status reports, declarations, and other crap. He had known this would happen in the back of his head, known it all along, but his mind just couldn't take it in. It's...begun he thought solemnly. Shansekia was now in a very treacherous position - a small nation of 652 million would usually be ignored in such a large war, and most likely they would be. However, Shansekia's position in the strait made it a strategic chokepoint - it is far easier to mine the small straits weaving around Shansekia's island chain than to mine the entire strait from one side to the other. Because of this, his cabinet had already formulated a plan, called Operation Serendipity.

Even as he paced the abandoned room, the military men having left for a light snack several minutes before, mine systems activated across Shansekia's northern coasts. After a few minutes, the entire strait was primed with CAPTORs, MK65 Quickstrikes, and other mines were active, waiting for the attack. A warning was quickly sent to civilian ships, who had already been warned to stay out of the area during the initial release of the Questerian ultimatum, as well as a code to fellow APOC members and neutrals to redirect their naval movements and civilian trade going through the Haven Strait into the only two openings in the minefield, heavily guarded by the navy. These would serve to help funnel enemies down these openings, which were themselves far too small to allow more than a few warships to sail abreast, instead of spreading out the navy, which would render them quite useless against far superior enemy ships and numbers.

The president sighed as the military men entered the room. He found himself thinking Damn Questers.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc35/xyhuang/Strait_Mining.png
Red lines are mined
Blue pixels (look hard!) show open lanes
Green Lines show neutral waters that could not be mined

[OOC: please slow down and wait for next weekend when Scand and Doom can come back.]

"Mr. Prime Minister, it appears that the Dersconi representative has arrived." The Prime Minister's aide said calmly, entering the room with a casual walk. "Shall I send him in?"

"Yes do so immediately. The Czar has expressed that what his man will need to express to us is of critical importance. It is strange though, he has never been hesitant to come to Salisbury before. I wonder what is keeping him." The aide shrugged and shook his head in unknowing resignation. "Move along then Mr. Edwards. Send him in." The Aide nodded and turned, taking a left down the long corridor of the Prime Minister's exquisite estate.

"Whatever could this be about?" Prime Minister Blair wondered to himself. He could find no answer in his memory to support what issue which would need discussion at this point. The Rhodesian Government was relatively secluded from most foreign problems, being at the southern tip of a continent which noone wanted or cared about in any extensive amount. Stood up from his leather chair and casually strolled down past the book cases which surrounded his study. A picture of Sir Ian Douglas Smith, an immense portrait tribute to the man who built their nation, hung in an elaborate golden frame within the center of the wall, and beneath it was the also framed original Unilateral Declaration of Independence. He smiled as he glanced over these things, and stood by the door to meet his esteemed guest.

The man entered shortly thereafter, he was uniformed in the typical Prussian grey which was always the colour of their military uniforms. There was a jagged scar along his cheek, moving down the length to his mouth, and a black patch over his eye. His chest was emblazoned with innumerable medals for valour and campaign badges. The man stood at an average height but still commanded immense presence. When he spoke, his voice was surprisingly calm, and spoke with an exceptionally good English accent.

“Greetings Prime Minister Blair,” he nodded slightly, extending his hand to shake and slightly arching his back in a half bow, “It is an honour to meet you.”

Impressed, Blair returned the respect he was granted. “As it is an honour to know and meet any man from the nation of Derscon, our long time friends. I trust your flight went well?”

“Yes quite,” replied the Dersconi Officer. Blair found it curious that he could not place his rank, as his insignia was not known to him. “Somewhat long, but it is not a short distance from Prussia to Africa, no?” Blair laughed at this, as did the Dersconi.

“Good, while you stay in Salisbury I have seen to it that you shall be well accommodated, and you certainly shall not want for anything while you are in my country. Any Dersconi is a friend of Rhodesia.” He smiled and motioned the representative to a leather couch in the study. Blair took a seat in a black leather chair and offered the Dersconi a drink from his rather selective collection of various wines, champagnes, and more to the Prime Minister’s liking, rums and scotches. His guest found a drink which took his fancy, and a glass was poured for him of it.

“Now then, I have matters of exceptional importance to the Empire as well as to Rhodesia. That is what I am here to discuss, and once I am done you may understand why my Czar was not here himself, to which he cannot express enough apologies and does hope that you find no disrespect in this.”

“Of course I find none! Your Czar is a great man and I do not find any disrespect whatsoever in him not being able to find the time to discuss matters himself.”

“Excellent. He did say they he felt you would not be offended but insisted that I express his feelings at any rate. Now then, to business! These are grave times, and as I have been briefed, you did state that you would side with the Questerian Commonwealth in this new coming war against Gholgoth and NATO. I trust that I have not been briefed incorrectly on this issue?”
“You are correct,” Blair said curiously. ”Where is he going with this?”

“Well as you know, we are members of the New Alliance Treaty Organisation.” It hit Blair. He knew what was coming next. “We saw your statements committing the Rhodesian Armed Forces to this conflict, and we understand them, we really do. The Questerians have been good to you all, and it is quite understandable that you would be willing to fight with them against any foe. However, we implore you to remain out of this conflict. This war is going to be exceptionally bloody, and Czar Andropov has expressed that he does not know for certain its end, or how long it may be. We fear that only God knows, and the golden streets of Heaven shall find themselves much more crowded by the end of this conflict. This obviously explains why my Czar could not appear here to discuss this with you personally. With the war coming very soon, he must be with his officers, planning, making arrangements, and ensuring that everything which is needed to propogate this war is in order so that we may perform as well as we must, to ensure victory. As Prussian's, attaining victory is everything to us. Now, how does this apply to you. We are certain that the Rhodesian military would perform with amiably during this fight, we have every confidence that you would be able to give good contest to any foe which you find yourself pitted against. We however, do not want that foe to be us. No matter which way you spin it, which theater of this campaign you find yourself on, your banner shall be flying on ships, upon aircraft, and on the arm bands of soldiers fighting against ours. Your friends in Cravan shall also be in the same predicament, and there is nothing which they desire less than a fight with you. Now, I realize that your nation has been allied to The People’s Freedom for an extraordinarily long time, and thus the recent developments with him and Gholgoth are upsetting and thus you are still yet certainly desiring to stand beside your allies in this conflict, but for the sake of all parties involved, I will not lie predominately upon our side, it is in everyone’s interest that Rhodesian maintain neutrality. I will allow you a moment to meditate on the issue.” With that he sat back, and swallowed another sip of his drink.

Christopher Blair now had to make the most important decision of his term in office. To go to war would mean standing alongside his allies, and ensuring the safety of the world against tyrants in the favour of Democratic government and liberty, however it would also mean standing against his allies. This conflict would tear apart all that Blair’s predecessors had achieved diplomatically with these nations and thrust Rhodesia into a World War of titanic proportions. Many son’s of Rhodesia would fall in this conflict, and what, truly, would Rhodesia gain? Some level of prestige because they felled foes which had at one point been friends? Reinstating Rhodesia’s military supremacy? That was not an adequate excuse because the Rhodesians had never needed to prove that they had an excellent military in the past, and whenever a conflict had arisen they always performed beyond adequately. It would tie them closer to the Havenites, the Questerian Commonwealth, and TPF, but was it absolutely necessary? Blair felt not.

Several more minutes passed as Prime Minister Blair’s conscience hammered in his soul. He had never known a time where he had such great weight upon his shoulder’s, and by the second he could feel himself age. He took another drink. He sighed. He listened to the birds upon his window sill sing happily in the bright Rhodesian sunshine, and he wished he could be as careless as they. It was, however, not God’s will for that to be. More time passed and the Prussian Officer still yet remained patient, and for this Christopher was exceptionally glad, for there nothing which he could do save think and ponder the issue more within the silence and now less than tranquility of his thoughts. His mind was the only place he could have the solace to seek the answer which he needed. Finally, with a sigh, Blair found what he needed, the strength to do what was truly the best thing for Rhodesia. “I have my answer for you Mr…?”

“Ivanovich.”

“Mr. Ivanovich. I have my answer for your Czar. Tell him that Rhodesia shall remain neutral and will not intervene unless it seems that Questers, TPF, or any ally of ours shall fall. That my final decision.” Blair noted a sigh of relief from the Prussian Officer.

“You have made the right decision, Mr. Blair. Now I must return to Derscon. I appreciate that you have offered me accommodation, however I fear that I am now going off to war and I do not expect to return. Thank you for your time, and perhaps in another life we shall meet again.”

“Yes, in heaven.” The Officer nodded and Blair’s aide returned to show him to his car. The Prussian Officer exited the estate and walked outside. The sun shone brilliantly over the clear blue horizon, and green grass extended for as far as the eye could see. Warm heat caressed him as he walked the paven trail to where his limeosine was awaiting his return, past the guarded gates of the Prime Minister’s home and office. Wind kissed him as he neared and a tear dripped from his eye as he watched birds soaring majestically over head. A group of giraffes crossed the road as the door was opened for him to enter the black limeo. He put one foot into the car and stepped up, but turned back, looking at the the scenary. He closed his eyes and breathed heavily. How he wished he could have stayed, and a part of him desired nothing more than to remain here rather than return to Derscon to the harsh, cold environment which he was destined to meet his end. The fires of war would soon engulf his every thought, his every emotion tainted by death and killing. He entered the car.

“Take me home,” he said to the driver, and under his breath, “Farewell Mr. Blair. I do hope that we may meet again.”


****


Several weeks later, Blair watched upon the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation news showing the Dersconi Navy's deployment. He did not see the officer which had visited him to explain the coming events on the television, but he somehow knew that aboard those ships, in some capacity he was there. Either as an Army officer being transported to the fight or as one of the Naval Officers commanding those ships. With a solemn sigh he wished the man the best of luck and cursed the fate the required this war become necessary.

Presidential Palace, Silver City, The Silver Sky

"No better way to start the day with a warm cup of Joe and delicious biscuits." Thought President Kara Amner, still clothed in her night robe and pajamas as the sunlight cascaded through the bay window behind her to play off the various crystal fixtures and fill the room with a radiant heat.

However, the tranquility of the moment was disrupted as a sharp rap came from the door.

"You may enter."

The door opened on command and three gentlemen from the Department of Foreign Affairs stepped into the room. "What do you gentlemen need?"

Minister Kyle W. Foraker, head of the Department of Foreign Affairs stepped forward as the other two men tried to keep their eyes from Kara's exposed legs. "Just three hours ago this morning the Questarians issued a declaration of war against Aequatio and Illior."

"Hmm," murmured Kara as she stood up and moved to her desk chair. "Just Aequatio and Illior, perhaps the Crown still has some intelligence, however a limited declaration won't keep them from the counterattack of the other NATO members. I'm going to draft up a message, I'll send it to you so you can deliver it to the world."

"Yes ma'am!" Said Foraker and the two gentlemen.

"Now excuse me, I need to change."

----------

It wasn't long before the message was sent out, Kara was starting to worry that Amner was rubbing off on her a little too much.

Greetings Various Leaders of the International Community

It has recently come to my attention that hostilities have erupted between the nations of Questers and Aequatio and Illior. Such action comes as no surprise to those who monitor the international scene and attend conferences. However, The Armed Capitalist Republic of The Silver Sky will not be drawn into this costly conflict.

The Silver Sky maintains excellent relations with such nations as Cravan, Tyrandis, Jaredcohenia, Chevrokia, Space Union, Soviet Bloc, and many other nations that array both sides. We have no reason to fight when we have this many friends all around. Effective immediately we are resigning from the Northern Concordiant of Haven and returning our troops from NCON operations. Also, we have recently joined the Nuclear Commonwealth and will be following their course of neutrality. But like No Endorse, we are willing to provide necessary items to countries of both sides.

Lastly, I am declaring Skyian waters "Combat Exclusion Zones." Also, if heavily damaged warships are stranded in our waters, we will tow them to port and repair them, at their governments expense, until they are seaworthy. Also, the Skyian military will be conduction SAR operations within our waters, the sailors and pilots rescued have the option of bring repatriated to their country at their country's expense.

We hope our friends and allies will not violate our exclusion zones.

Kara Amner
Kara Amner

Foreign fax machines would be weeping at receiving not only one "Amner Fax" but two within hours of each other. Kara payed the matter no attention as she was driven away to board an Aralonian built G650-600. Destination was No Endorse, she wanted to be with her husband while the world was ablaze, after all, who else could keep him sane?

OOC: Post coming from me, soon... I swear.

Situation Room, Palace of the Lord Protector
Kent, Akimonad

Dr. Hodz looked at reports and declarations in front of him. War had come to Haven.

"Well, this was bound to happen, despite whatever stupidity clouds the judgment of those involved." Dr. Hodz said, rubbing his brow.

The assorted generals and top brass around the table grunted or nodded in assent.

"Put us at DEFCON 3 now, DEFCON 2 for deployed forces." Hodz ordered. "And someone get me a letterhead."

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y87/fahooglewitz1077/newAkiFlag.png
Official Declaration

The Autocratic Federated Empire declares full neutrality in this conflict. We maintain amicable relations with nations on both sides of the conflict and do not wish to endanger them.

Furthermore, a combat exclusion zone is declared in Akimonadi waters and skies. No warship or warplane bearing the flag or emblem of any APOC or NATO nation will be permitted to pass through unless they are in distress.

We also expect that Akimonadi commerce shipping will be able to travel throughout Haven without impediment.

Respectfully,
Dr. Jules Hodz,
Lord Protector

Eeobroht, Cotland
When the news of the anticipated Questerian decleration of annexing Aequatian holdings in Haven was received, it was a mild anti-climax for the Cottish. They had been informed of this potential outcome since before the failure of the Jesselton conference and the Aequatian operations in the former Yuslevakia, and the Cottish had prepared themselves mentally for the challenge that lay ahead. Thus, when the news finally reached Eeobroht about thirty seconds after the Questerian communiqué had been received, the King reacted very calmly.

He had already taken a number of precautions along with the High Command to prepare the Realm for war, including discreetly "asking" the state-owned news stations to pump up the propaganda and mentally prepare the Cottish public for conflict, mostly through the use of pro-APOC news segments and increased coverage of the Yuslevakian conflict where the "unbiased" reporters warned of the potential for this local conflict to have widespread effects, including a inter-regional armed conflict given the location of the "warmonger" Aequatio's homeland in Gholgoth, while at the same time reminding the people that Cotland was a peaceful nation that didn't wish for war, but which would defend itself and its interests if threatened. Additionally, news segments reporting on the Cottish military's ability and willingness to defend the Realm against all foreign aggressors and threats were run, including a live coverage of a rather large military parade in Eeobroht where fifty thousand soldiers paraded through the streets, and a live fire exercise in Cottish territorial waters by the Naval Aviation where a number of old decommissioned destroyers and cruisers were sunk with missiles, overlapped with a eager commentator telling the viewers that the "valiant forces of the Naval Avitation and the other courageous branches of the Military remained vigilant and willing to defend the Realm and its people against any vile aggressor". These news segments had runned routinely for over a week, and the independent medias had picked up on the trail, filling the airwaves with warnings of war and conflict. Additionally, High Command had already sent out discreet letters to the reserve forces warning them that they could be mobilized at very short notice, and that they ought not to stray far from their telephones. Additionally, the Cottish forces were still on a relatively high alert status given the recent Allanean wargames near the Cottish border.

After having received word of the Questerian decleration, the King immediately summoned the War Council, which consisted of the King, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Defense Minister, the chiefs of the four Branches, the Director of the Intelligence Services and their deputies before he issued orders for Readiness Plan Midgardsorm to be put into effect.

Readiness Plan Midgardsorm was a Cottish readiness plan that predicted that hostilities between the Realm and foreign nation-states were imminent but not yet erupted, and called for all available standing military forces to be mobilized prepared for action as soon as the shooting started, and for all reserve forces to be prepared for immediate mobilization. It was a well rehearsed plan which had been rehearsed on time and time again in the past few days, so implementation of the plan went off with very few hitches.

In the various Cottish aerodromes, naval stations and army garrisons, the telephones suddenly started to make a lot of noise while more detailed orders were transmitted via buried fiberoptic cables or encrypted radio transmissions. Standing Army units were quickly brought to full readiness with all leaves cancelled, and began deploying away from their garrisons within hours of receiving the mobilization orders. In the air, fighter patrols of the Cottish borders were immediately doubled, and most of the border RADAR sites were constantly searching the skies for any intruders. The SAM sites, which received data from the RADAR sites, kept their own RADARs off as they received the data via encrypted datalinks, but were ready to engage targets in only a few seconds.

At sea, the coastal patrols remained vigilant, patrolling the Cottish waters and ensuring that no unwanted contacts entered Cottish territorial waters. The coastal defense sites were on high alert, especially in Korangar Island. The bulk of the Cottish fleet had been in port, being resupplied after a intense training period, but started to make preperations to head for sea at moments notice. For now, the Cottish weren't in a shooting war and there was no need to make any more noise than was necessary, but that could all change soon enough. Fortunately, it wouldn't take the fleet long to get into the sea, and the Strobovia Strait in particular, to reinforce the four hundred ships already on patrol there. The two defense fleets Cotland maintained, the 4. Kystflåte in Korangar Island and the 5. Kystflåte defending Cotland itself, were the exceptions. Those two fleets put to sea with most of their assets, beginning aggressive sovereignty patrols in and near Cottish territorial waters. Outside Cotland, twenty Type A diesel-electric submarines deployed into the strait between Cotland and Praetonian South Haven to act as a picket line in order to report on potential enemy shipping and, if the situation changed, to sink any enemy shipping they encountered.

The Naval Aviation also picked up its patrols. The two defensive aerial fleets started patrolling the sea near Cotland and Korangar Island, using Questerian-made Blackadder MRE.2 maritime strike bombers loaded with LBM.63B Akkar anti-shipping missiles and Baldrick MSE.1 electronic intelligence-gathering aircraft out at sea, and P-37A Poseidon patrol aircraft loaded with lighter anti-shipping missiles and ASW torpedoes and Praetonian Shrike medium strike aircraft loaded with anti-shipping missiles closer to shore.

Naturally, Cotland noticed that Allanea was preparing herself for war against Questers, and fearing that this conflict might reach all the way down to San Nereiana, the Army deployed three million men to within 100 kilometers of the Cottish-Allanean border to act as a deterrent while putting the border defenses* on highest alert.

In space, reconnaissance satellites were starting to discreetly concentrate their cameras, ELINT instrumentation and othe reconnaissance-gathering instruments on four principal areas. The Strobovia Strait, the area around Cotland with an emphasis on the border with San Neriana, the area around the former Yuslevakia, and the region of Gholgoth with a special emphasis on Aequatio. Anti-satellite weapons were also prepared in the event of war.

Ten minutes after the Questerians had declared Aequatio's holdings in Haven was to be annexed by Questers, Cotland was starting to mobilize for its own national defense. That could however change rapidly as the situation changed. The situation would be followed closely, and would be the sole topic of the War Council meeting which was to start in thirty minutes.
________________
* = Let me know if you want to have the full description of the border defenses. For now, I won't post them as war between Cotland and Allanea doesn't seem to be happening immediately. Let's just say that they're pretty extensive.

temporarily remoed

*Wonders how Allanea knows that Shan mined his waters, considering how it's all, you know, territorial waters.*

EDIT: Also,
OOC: please slow down and wait for next weekend when Scand and Doom can come back.]

guys, please don't make any (non diplomatic posturing) moves until Scand and Doom are back so that they can actually move. Just make your leaders blow steam, they're all good at that if the conference thread is any evidence.

Official Message from the President of the United States:


Friends, Allaneans, Freemen!

Today, our allies have suffered from unprovoked military attack by the Doomani slaveowners and their filthy allies. Moreover, the Shansekian barbarians have mined neutral trade waters, depriving the United States of key trade and endangering Allanean shipping. Friends of liberty, I am loathe to report to you that, under the NATO charter, we are now at war.

Friends, even as I speak, the Allanean Artillery divisions are beginning the shelling of the Questarian foe. I bear no hatred to the Questarians – they are a civilized, freedom-loving nation. I have many friends in Questers, and donated a lot of money to Questarian charity. For those Questarian mothers and wives that are watching, mothers that will soon bury sons and wives that will soon become widows – I am sorry. But this is not my fault. This is the fault of your government, for aligning with the Doomani and participating in this terrible attack on our allies.

For one last time, I implore the Questarians – do not do this. Do not doom yourselves to a losing fight against a foe that you cannot beat – and whom you have no reason to fight. Even now, when our sword is unsheathed and outstretched, we implore – nay beg – King Alexander of Questers. You alone have the power, even now, to end this carnage. End the war. Come back to the negotiating table.

During the Cottish crisis, we settled and agreed to cut down the armaments on our mutual border. Before that, we sent billions in aid to Questers' people, and even volunteers to protect that noble country against the Maoist threat. Questarians live and work in Allanea, and Allaneans study in Questarian colleges. Our peoples should not be at war – and yet here goes your government, throwing itself in head first – and they haven't even made sure if there's water in the pool before jumping.

I can understand why they made that. Error.

Allanea is a peaceful nation.

We are dedicated to the purpose of Free Markets, Liberty, and Peace.

It's easy for some to confuse our peaceful attitude for weakness. Our freedom for decadence. Our wealth for a layer of fat, enveloping our society, making it weak and soft. But the people who made that error in the past had a tendency to pay dearly for it.

And so will our enemies this time – with tears and blood.

For when Free Markets, Liberty, and Peace are threatened by acts of aggression, there is one thing left to do. The same thing our forefathers did. Declare a war, fight it, and win it.

And we will win it. Have no doubt about that, Questarians. We will win.

That is all.

May God bless Allanea.


* * *

The Allaneans watched the conflict unfold with some disgust. As far as they were concerned, this wa all really, really stupid. The war was unnecessary, they felt – but it has begun, and it was not them who started it. And now, they had obligations to fulfil – and there were two border divisions directly within the range of their cannon.

And so, the choice was clear:

The Questarian Border divisions needed to die.

And for his, a three-pronged strike was enacted – on the ground, in the air, and on the sea.

Ground Warfare

The 16-inch turrets were the first to launch their salvos – two salvos of high-explosive fragmentation shells – at the various Questarian border positions. They were followed, in rapid succession, by the fire of the Modernized artillery – 4,000 155mm self-propelled cannon and a fourth that of MRLS launchers. Within ten minutes, they unleashed 60,000 MRLS rockets armed with FAE and cluster munitions and 12,000 155mm cluster shells carrying thermite incendiary submunitions. Between them, they delivered about 20 various submunitions for every Questarian soldier, not counting the FAE rounds of course.

Naval

From Navy Arsenal ships in the Allanean Canal, a single, unified salvo of 5,200 guided rockets was fired. These were the ordinary Shockhammer anti-ship rockets – but their targets were no ships. Fed from observation satelite was data on the various airbases between the Allanean border and London.

But on airfield facilities, the thermite-explosive mix carried in the warheads would also do a fine job.

Air

There were not many aircraft – 300 Barsuk Air Defense Suppression Bombers, and an escort of 600 ACI-73N Aquilas.

The Allanean aircraft did not get deep into enemy territory – rather, they came in fast and low, using the full benefit of their stealth technology, dropping chaff as they crossed into airspace – and then, fired a total of 1200 HARM missiles at whatever flashed an enemy RADAR at them within 350 kilometers. Then they went home, never having come deeper than 40 kilometers into Questers.

[OOC: as I said earlier, but I'll repeat now, I've got a post coming that's timed right with the little release questers had, so let's wait till all are ready, and then the fun starts.]

Border

It was hell on the ground. Border divisions are usually only 15,000 strong, but across the Army it varies, and these particularly divisions were slightly larger - but they had made many, many decoys along the border. Major General Hamilton smiled as he lay on his stomach, binoculars pressed to his eyes. Lowering his binoculars, he watched as a row of decoy bunkers exploded in flame, the smoke drifting across the foreground of the spectacle detailing Allanean artillery power. As the thick smoke blocked his sight of across the border, he knew that on the radios on the frontline were now playing pre-recorded messages of the screams of dying Questarians, soldiers faking the shouts for help, explaining how they had lost their entire company to artillery and needed reinforcements...

Of course, the very soldiers who had recorded those messages were now slipping back behind the fortifications they had built and were loading up into trucks well behind the Allanean artillery's salvo box. Furthermore, General Hamilton knew full well that at this time, Frontal Aviation was giving the Allaneans hell. Regardless, losses were still heavy, but the Questarians were not going to pull any heroics. With the loss of a couple of thousand troops - many were already well behind the line at the start of the bombardment, though they were represented by decoy barracks and fortifications on the frontline, the two Questarian Border Divisions faded away and began to withdraw fifty kilometres to the hilly ground, where the artillery of 210. Motor-Rifle Division was hiding, already firing their rocket artillery behind the retreating Questarians, laying vast minefields for any Allanean troops to cross. Over five thousand soldiers were lost from the immense bombardment, but given the vicious counterattack Frontal Aviation, Major General Alexander had high hopes for the defence in depth strategy that was being implemented.

The unmanned radar antennas along the border picked up the Allanean aircraft coming well before they were in range of firing their weapons, and at that moment all radars in range of anti-radiation weapons immediately turned off to allow the Allaneans to pass through unpassed: the aerial component of Op Ardent was not yet in position. As the HARMs detached from their aircraft, their high speed worked to the Questarian advantage, as they quickly homed in on a number of actively running decoys, wiping them off the face of the earth but leaving the Questarian defences almost entirely intact, ready to fight off the wave of missiles that long range air defences deeper into the country had just detected arriving. The sheer numbers, however, were somewhat discouraging and the Questarians would have to be somewhat inventive to defeat it.

In the last war, it had been noted that a preffered Allanean tactic was to throw missiles at the Questarians like there was no tommorow. Therefore, in the mid-war late defence buildup, Territorial Air Defence had installed a number of magazined, reloadable, revolver VLS which fired strategic SAMs. Of course, there were airfield defences too, so it was no surprise that a high intercept rate occured, given this was the sort of warfare that the Questarian military had trained exactly how to beat. Light white smoke flew into the sky and dissapeared slowly as the revolver VLS cycled off its strategic SAM weapons faster than humans could even react. Nevertheless, four airfields were put out of action and a fair amount of their depots destroyed, and logistics of the Royal Engineers immediately went about the task of fixing them.

The Airborne Early Warning Director, watching as the Allanean planes crossed the border three kilometres behind that position was quite happy to carry out his duty: the vectoring of 2nd TAD Division interceptors to return fire on the enemy. Under orders, the 8th Interceptor Regiment and their comrades accelerated their engines forwards and pointed their noses in the sky, away from their patrol vectors. Not emitting any radar signals, they were receiving information directly from the AEW&C aircraft, which fed to them the whereabouts of the enemy bombers. Pushing themselves to two thousand seven hundred kilometres per hour they needed no fancy maneouvres to carry out their duty, though they full well knew their success would be reported on the news not so long after, if they performed well enough.

Each had six G-48 Air to Air Missiles onboard, a rather different load-out to the standard interceptor pattern, but nevertheless as they closed the range with the fleeing Allanean bombers, their radar contacts appearing as three green horizontal lines on their screens, they loosed their missiles at two hundred and fifty kilometres, and as they soon accelerated to Mach Three, their active radars would pick up the targets being detailed for them and home in for the kill. At the range in which chaff and flares would have been any use to the Allaneans, the G-48s would switch to infrared imaging to identify their targets, which made them all but virtually invincible to countermeasures suhc as chaff. The three hundred bombers that had made an attack on Questarian soil now had 576 extremely deadly missiles following them, and by the time the Allanean planes had turned around, the Shawshanks and Scimitars would be heading for home.

In the ground along the border lay many, many counterbattery radars. Except their role, after detecting the fire of Allanean artillery batteries, was not to guide return fire. Their role was much different, as the Blackburn Brigand S.3 aircraft of 11th Frontal Air Division were about to demonstrate to their NATO foes. Underneath the fuselage and wings of each aircraft where twelve ATC-50 CSOW cluster weapons, and while the bombardment was ensuing, the aircraft formed up on their squadron leaders. The information they had programmed into their cluster weapons was received from the counterbattery radars who were now streaming an endless amount of data back to Air Command Military District North. Firing their weapons, the canisters opened up well out of sight of the Allanean MRLS and SP artillery, which now found itself in the precarious position of being directly under precisely 27,648 anti-tank bomblets, powerful enough to blow apart any lightly armoured vehicle in as little as two hits. Firing from a lo-hi-lo position, the Brigands were under no threat from surface to air weapons as they returned from their airbases, the Questarian national anthem playing loudly through the radio.

Now, it was time for the counterattack.

Lifting off from their airbases, two entire Frontal Aviation Divisions would make the first strike. Their top cover, in the form of 144 De Havilland Dauntless aircraft, had just been fueled up by tankers and were approaching the frontlines. They were not broadcasting radar at all, preferring to rely on their AEW&C so far behind the line. With the Dauntless F.3 fighters were Beaufort FGR.2s, one per two fighters, which were louded down with anti-radiation equipment: any radar that lit them up would soon receive an ARGP.40 to the face. Forming up in their squadrons, farmers looked up from their field work to see hundreds of aircraft heading north and making a lot of noise of it as they flew low and fast over the Questarian countryside. 96 Blackburn Brigands, 72 Hawker Harpoons and 72 Blackburn Beauforts provided the attack wave.

Each of the Brigand interdictor bombers were equipped with twelve AIC-50 weapons, the Harpoons with ten AGR-30K missiles, and the Beauforts with six of the same weapon. As they crossed into Allanean territory, they would would work with the top-cover. If any SAM sites lit up, they would either be hammered from above, or hit from below with the guided missiles on the aircraft. Accompanying the Strike Package, 24 Blackburn Boxers, each with a sizable ECM load-out and configured for reconaissance, acquired targets. With 576 of the anti-infantry cluster weapons that had struck back at Allanean artillery, and 1,008 anti-vehicle missiles, the Questarians, under the protection of their top cover, began actively prosecuting Allanean land forces and engaging them with the weapons they had, targeting infantry groups, artillery, SAM sites in passive mode, and supply dumps.

[OOC: I know we're slowing down for Scand/Doom, but I'm sure that Allanea doesn't require Scandavian help... still, lets try to keep this on the slow until this weekend.]

The first flight of Allanean aircraft into Questers was almost completely destroyed – 90% of the fighter escort and 75% of the bombers were lost immediately Happily it is the truth with modern aircraft engagements that the pilot rarely ever survives. The few survivors hid in the terrain wherever they could, and, given it was close to the border, tried to slowly leg their way towards it.

As for the attack on the Allanean artillery, it had slightly less success – both due to the fact the vehicles were partially shielded by the usual fortifications Allaneans were fond of, and because of the Allaneans' abuse of active defenses – both the usual onboard active defense, and the more obscure SEPS. Nevertheless, 1500 various vehicles were destroyed immediately, and 500 more damaged.

And then the Frontal Aviation came. All across the border, 50mm automated turrets flared alive in a re-enactment of the famous Defense of Belgrad (albeit with better RADAR) – ten thousand remote-controlled quad cannon, firing madly away in a re-enactment of the OK corral. Later, as they approached the Allanean encampments, they were fired at by a variety of ground-to-air guided missiles, and engaged by air patrols of Allanean fighter aircraft.

And of course, the encampments were protected by Nautilus defense systems and front-scale SEPS, that would interdict at least some enemy submunitions before they impacted the defenses of Allanean vehicles – and still, fires raged everywhere. Three thousand troops were killed in these first hours of the fighting, and at least nine thousand injured. Two Mid-Range Supply Depots, a Divisional Worksop, and a Sector Workshop burned down to the ground. Three airfields were unusable.

The Allaneans asked for reinforcements and resupplies. They would soon be here.

And in the meanwhile, two Force Projection Battlegroups began making their way down the Canal.

Army Headquarters, Taradoxica
Emperor Conrad's eyebrow twitched as he read the second horrible telegram of the day. His command had assured him for weeks that in the event of war the Allaneans would not be willing to go to war with the Questarians again, especially when unthreatened. 'The Allaneans are too libertarian to accept another consecutive and likely devastating war with the Questarians' they had said. Now Conrad was reading, in the form of Alexander Kazansky's hate-filled speech and Questarian military reports, that Allanea had initiated the first major military actions of the war, and had directly involved NATO for the first time.

"Well," Conrad stood up from the desk that faced the entire command centre,"The Questarians are obviously going to want backup this time. Last time we were incapable of doing so but this time we are not going to let them down. We will help push back the Allanean menace and failing that we will make them fight tooth and nail and pay in their own godsdamned blood to take an inch of Questarian land. I want the third, fifth, sixth, and eighth armies deployed to Questers ASAP. No time wasted, understood?"

The entirety of the room's occupants stood and saluted saying in unison,"Yes, Highness!"

"Good," Conrad began to exit the room, surrounded by several Honour Guards of Aiur,"Inform von Kesse that he is now in command of the Zukariaan Expeditionary Force to Questers."

With that, Conrad exited the room, leaving it in the flurry of activity that it would be in constantly for days on end.

In the north, Alfred von Kesse received word that he would be leading the ZEF into Questers and would be fighting side-by-side with the Questarians. He was informed to take what was basically a fleet of transports from Zukariaa up to Questers through the strait between Aunesia and Bruxella. They were nowhere near any enemy nations, and had very little to worry about. As such, when dozens of transports and the other armies began to arrive, and Kesse met with their commanders at his HQ far north near the Bruxellan border, he was ready to move.

Nearly four million men, 15,000 Nakil MBTs, 30,000 VAM.V Praetor IFVs, 25,000 VAM.A APCs, and 20,000 VAE Multipurpose APCs plus thousands of support/logistics vehicles would be involved in the movement and would be taken through the strait in many trips. The coastal towns in southern Questers where they would be making landfall would be home to a steady trickle of Zukariaans for days. The operation, called Operation Repulse, which would indeed likely be in conjunction with Kampferian, Aunesian, and Bruxellan forces, had begun.

When the men made landfall hours later, and the vehicles of war began rolling up the streets of southern Questers, the Zukariaan army was greeted by hundreds of cheering Questarians who had received word of their coming. The first landing was ordered to march through the streets in neat columns so as to give the people a good show. Rows of tanks and IFVs drove their ways through the city streets, and Zukariaan troops waved to their allies, yelling things such as,"We have come to help our brothers!" and "Allanea shall falter!"


Meanwhile, Conrad had arrived back in Aiur and was about to give a speech. Hundreds of Aiurites had come to listen on the lawn of the Imperial Palace. He stepped out onto a balcony overlooking the lawn, dressed in his military uniform. The crowd cheered loudly, only stopping when he raised his hand to speak.

"Greetings, citisens of the Zukariaan Empire! It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the rumours that war has been initiated by Allanean forces against Questers. They have attacked without warning, launching major attacks into the northern border unprovoked. In the length of an hour, 5,000 Questarians and 3,000 Allaneans have been killed. I must tell you, dear subjects, that we will not be standing by this time. This will not end as a repeat of the Four Day War! Years ago we stood by, we kept our movements slow and were never able to get help to the Questarians. This time it will be different, I assure you, and I assure them! Our commitment to our Questarian brothers is total.

"My father-in-law, Alexander, will not have to fight these unlawful, uncivilised people by himself. Already our forces have begun the movement to reinforce them, and we can only hope that they will arrive with enough time to fight, for I have no doubt that if we do not hurry there will be no more Allaneans to kill!"

Conrad was sure to emphasise this statement as he rose his voice and a clenched fist. The response was a deafening roar from the crowd. Conrad let them at it for several moments before raising his arms once more for quiet.

"I will not be extending any words to the Allanean leader, Kazansky. That man is an animal and deserves no political statements from a civilised man such as myself. I will not waste my breath only to receive a barrage of threats and petty, childish insults from him. He is a murderer and a coward and he has forced the Allanean people into a war I have no doubt they do not want. I can only hope that they will come to their senses once and for all and depose that madman for forcing their sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, and law abiding citisens to fight and die because he wishes only to be a warmonger.

"But to the leaders of NATO nations abroad, I say this: you are not obligated to declare war upon Questers or its allies. You have the choice to declare neutrality and stay out of this war and save the lives of millions of men. Do not make this conflict anymore bloody than it will already be. If any nation declares war on Questers they will have brought war upon themselves. Questers and its allies will have had no part in it."

With that, Conrad closed off his speech and went inside. He did not expect his warnings to do anything but pass through the heads of the leaders in NATO.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x204/Sgt-Alex/DiplomaticSeal.png

TO: [Open Communique]
FROM: Alexander Nevskij, Minister of Foreign Affairs, The World Soviet Party

The Socialist States of The World Soviet Party hereby declares their neutrality in the coming conflict, we will not take part in the killing of innocents, as both sides have done in the past, and thus, request that iour neutrality is respected.

We also request that the sovereign nation of Aleos refrains from using it's base in Festung Island to launch attacks or mass forces, as this would make it a target of enemy combatants and, therefore, bring TWSP into the conflict.

Furthermore, we shall be increasing our military presence along the Holy Marsh, Chevrokian and Granatian borders, in order to avoid "nasty" incidents including, but not limited to the intent of trying to ferry military personnel and equipment through Soviet territory, invasions and all the assorted military operations that come along with them.

Signed,
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x204/Sgt-Alex/NevskijSignature.png
Alexander Nevskij, Minister of Foreign Affairs, The World Soviet Party.

Victory Square
Krogstad
1200 Hours

"What a lovely day for a parade," King Sverre IV remarked to his wife, who was sitting next to him. He, along with his wife and military brass, were sitting in a bandstand high above the square, watching a military parade. A week had passed since the first mobilizations, and while DEFCON had been raised to 2, the majority of the nation was optimistic. Surely, they thought, the closest the war would get was Arguin, and even then the NATO pigs would be soundly smashed! Sverre himself had a much less optimistic view of the situation. He remembered well the Four-Day War, though he was only 16 at the time. His father had wisely kept Hryvinia out, but nonetheless he saw the newsflashes every night. It was all the same: death, destruction, lands torn apart, and for what? Ego? Imperialism? Sverre knew not, and did not care to know. Better to focus on the present war, the present worries, he thought. The square below him was a sea of blue, white and silver Hryvinian flags and goose-stepping Royal Hryvinian soldiers dressed to the nines in ceremonial uniforms, with patriotic marches and music blaring from concert-sized speakers. The whole of Hryvinia had been in a nationalistic mood of late, though a declaration of war from the Althing or King himself had yet to be made.

Suddenly, as a song ended, a junior diplomat appeared on the bandstand. Bowing before the King, he offered up a letter, which the King took before dismissing him. Opening it, he scanned quickly and discovered that NATO in the form of Allanea had fired the first shots, an invasion of Questers. Also attached was a press release of President Kazansky's speech. He skimmed it quickly, deciding he would read more in-depth later. At the moment, he had a speech of his own to make. Raising his hand for silence, he stepped toward the microphone and began speaking.

Citizens of Hryvinia and Loyal Subjects of The Crown, I bring to you today grave news.

I have received word that the war has officially begun. This morning at approximately three o'clock local time, forces of the United States of Allanea invaded our allies in Questers. In the course of the battle countless thousands of Questarians were killed, and possibly many more taken prisoner.

The vile dogs of Allanea know no limits, respect no laws of man. This is plainly evident by their firebombing of London in the last war, which resulted in untold civilian deaths. As any logical individual can see, these people are not civilized in any sense of the word. They represent nothing less than a threat to civilization and to the freedom-loving peoples of Haven and the world. As your King, chosen by God Himself, I swear to you my subjects that I shall do everything within my power to assist in the downfall of the uncivilized race calling itself Allanea.

To my esteemed relative in Questers, I say this: you have the full support of Hryvinia. Anything you need, we shall provide. Too many times the Allaneans have attacked the sleeping giant of Questers, and now they shall pay.

To President Kazansky of Allanea, I say this: You are nothing more than a warmongering dog. How many times President Kazansky, how many times have you thrown your nation into pointless wars? Throw your petty words at me if you wish, though they will solve nothing. I can only urge you to consider the lives of the people you throw so nonchalantly into war.

Finally, to my subjects who may feel that my course of action is unwise, I say this: The time of Hryvinian isolation from the world has passed. With danger lurking on our own doorstep, there is no place to retreat. We must fight now, or perish from the earth. For the sake of your Glorious Fatherland, I urge you to reconsider your stance.

May God Bless Our Fatherland!

As Sverre turned back to his seat, someone began singing the national anthem. Within a minute all fifty-thousand civilians and one-thousand soldiers assembled in the square had joined in. By day's end the video had been played countless times over the news and Internet, serving to whip the populace toward the inevitable war.

The mood of the gathering was grim, to say the least. Gone was the pleasant banter that would have normally been exchanged across the room. Gone was the gentle ribbing that was almost universally directed at the affable, eccentric and mildly absent minded director of the Protectorate Research and Development Commission, Field Marshal Jacob Wallington. Gone were the ongoing moderately-heated discussions between Field Marshal Karl von Helmgart, director of Lyran Intelligence, and Field Marshal Tokovsky, architect of the economic marvel that was the Lyran Governmental Trade Department, over the question of what to export, and what to hold for the exclusive use of the Protectorate.

Marshal McConnaught, the gentle giant of a man that was normally to be found semi-reclined back in his chair, was instead sitting upright, back ramrod straight and seat pressed up against the table that was the centre of the war room.

Marshal Gideonchild, hard-edged and wiry, was leaning forward, eyes locking and tracking everyone in the room, measuring them, and fuelling his own inscrutable calculations on the developments that were central to the agenda.

Marshal Cassandra Atherton, the only woman in the room, was strangely silent, her normally animated demeanour muted to the point of almost being sullen. Years of working her way up to the command of the Lyran navy had generated an easy, amenable and relaxed relationship with her compatriots... a far cry from the sentiment she now projected.

There were, altogether, eight people in the room. Together, they were the most powerful people in the military entity that the rest of the world knew as the Protectorate of Lyras. They were the people that made up the Executive Command Staff, the highest governmental body within the Protectorate. Their words held the force of law for billions and, while nearly faceless to the outside world, their decisions were felt keenly in how Lyras moved through the world.

The only person absent from their number was the one for whom they waited, the cause for the delay. Rarely late, his delay was felt keenly, and added greatly to the tension that was building in the room.

Lyras had been to war on numerous occasions since each of the people in the room had sat where they did. Always, the questions had revolved around how best to accomplish the Protectorate's objectives, with a minimum of loss, and always with half an eye towards how the conflict may be percieved beyond the Protectorate. Now, however, the situation was phenomenally different.

One of Lyras' closest allies, The Peoples Freedom, was on the brink of war again. Not an unusual situation, and one that had rarely been of great concern to the Protectorate. That state was more than capable of defending itself, and had never sought Lyran assistance. Indeed, more than once Lyras had been approached by third parties, requesting that the Protectorate assist in brokering a peace settlement.

Only on one occasion in living memory had TPF been notably defeated in an armed conflict. That had been against that most notable of states, the Excessively Armed Empire of Automagfreek. Freekish forces, accidentally fired upon by TPF military units operating out of Foxbury, had retaliated, and with an aggression and brutality which had become virtually synonymous with their name. TPF, rapidly realising the overmatch, had surrendered, and Freekish forces had occupied Foxbury, renaming it, as was their due by right of conquest, Freeksburg.

Lyras had not intervened. AMF had been fired upon, and had every right to retaliate. TPF had surrendered the area, and that, as far as most were concerned, was that.

The situation was escalating, however. Far from beginning an occupation, Freekish forces were beginning a genocide. TPF, rightly appalled and incensed by the horrific slaughter of so many of their people, people who themselves had had no part in the mistake that had been the weapons release against Freekish naval units, declared war, and appealed to their allies for aid.

Allies which, of course, included Lyras.

It was that situation that brought Executive Command together in unscheduled session. A situation that put the Protectorate in a very difficult position indeed.

The wait ended abruptly with the conference room door being pushed open, its silent opening at odds with its great weight, and the obvious age of the person opening it. As one, the eight people in the room stood.

Warmarshal Leon Krell, despite his gradually failing health and advanced age, was the master of Lyras. Having held the position of Warmarshal for nearly forty years, Lyras, as it was, was so because of Leon Krell. Irritable, taciturn and increasingly stubborn in his old age, Leon Krell was nonetheless a superb strategic and operational level strategist, and geopolitical manoeuverist. Under his control, Lyras had emerged from near-isolation to become one of the world's most notable military-industrial powers.

He sensed the mood quickly. Indeed, if he had pondered it, which he didn't, he had actually been aware of the mood while he was still someway down the hall, the usual buzz of conversation generally not entirely filtered out by the soundproofing. Today, however, the corridor to the Executive Command conference room was silent, the carpetted walls and floor seemingly oppressive for the first time since Krell had risen to power within Lyras.

He therefore had been far from surprised to determine that not one of his immediate subordinates was talking, when he entered.

He moved around to his chair at the head of the oval table, and pulled it out, studiously taking care to life the chair, rather than drag it, so as not to wear away the carpet.

Just before sitting down, his head came up sharply, eyes scanning the faces of the room for half a second, before speaking.

“What are you all sulking about?”

Marshal Gideonschild snorted in amusement, but he was the only one, Krell's humour seemingly insufficient to break the tension. Seeing that his attempt had been unsuccessful, the Warmarshal changed tack. Still not sitting, and thereby keeping the eight other people in the room on their feet, Krell tried again, a slight edge entering his voice.

“I meant that question, lady and gentlemen. What are you all sulking about?”

The body of personnel began to look decidedly uncomfortable, but still no one answered.

“Alright then.”

Pulling himself up to his full height, Krell pointed, open handed, at Marshal Atherton.

“Marshal Atherton, why is everyone sulking?”

She hesitated, and the Warmarshal interjected.

“Out with it, Marshal.”

Krell's irritation was beconing plain to see, and she finally answered.

“The situation within Foxbury, sir, and the attacks launched by Allanea against Questers.”

Krell nodded, and sat down, and the mood eased somewhat. The cat was out of the bag. He went on.

“I see. Not an unexpected reaction, I must admit. The situation is certainly well worth very serious consideration, and it is, as you all know, precisely why we are meeting here today. Karl, would you be so kind as to inform us of the situation?”

“Sir.”

Von Helmgart nodded, and stood, passing out documents across the table.

“These are the latest reports from Foxbury, or, if you prefer to refer to it as such, Freeksberg. Enclosed is the most recent orbital reconaissance imagery of the island, which we will use as reference while I present the rest of this briefing.”

A number of the officers present flicked through the dossiers, but most didn't. They would get to it later.

“As I am sure most of you are aware, Freekish forces within Foxbury have been far from restrained. While personally not one to find Freekish excesses of brutality unusal or of particular noteworthiness, here the issues are more clouded.”

Indicating the first of the satellite images, von Helmgart turned, and pointed at an enlargement displayed on the projector on the opposite wall to where Warmarshal Krell sat.

“TPF has issued a formal condemnation and has requested assistance from its A.P.O.C. allies and Questers has responded with the ultimatum that we are all familiar with. This (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13592442&postcount=18) is why...”

Adjusting the settings on the remote control, von Helmgart zoomed in on a particular area of the image, which came quickly into stark relief.

“This, folks, is an incinerator. Please note the line snaking its way out of the main facility to its south, through here...”

A laser pointer traced a wobbly line from the incinerator, providing a general direction, and making its point clear.

“Those are people. The Freekish occupation is burning people alive, and has purpose-built facilities to that end. On this basis, the Questarian demands, and TPF appeal, is entirely justified.”

Von Helmgart shut off the projector, and faced his peers and superiors.

“Minister Hartman of the Excessively Armed Empire has publicly denounced the Questarian initiative, defending what he has termed a time-honoured tradition for establishing order, and outright denying that which we see the evidence of before our eyes. He does, however, and with some justification, point to Freekish sovereignty over the territories, and has, to paraphrase, told Questers to butt out, and subsequently demanded an apology. Our initial analysis considered such an apology unlikely, at best. Given that information, it was assessed as probable that war will come, and likely soon.”

He paused, before continuing on further.

“As some of you may be aware, General Wallins is in Jesselton at the meeting, but he reports that progress has been, as he puts it, mixed. I would not be surprised if that is diplomatic speak for 'they have yet to go for each other's throats, but it is certainly on the cards'.”

Wallington pursed his lips, but there was otherwise no response around the table.

“To the man's credit, he has been able to contact a sizeable number of our allies, and a good number have pledged support. Varessan naval units are, even as we speak, sailing into Port Finch, meeting up with the Longsword battlegroup. Further fleet elements, our own and allied, are converging. Communications have been entered into reference emergency acquisition of further naval hardware, as it is estimated that the initial engagements will be fought over the water.”

Nodded heads indicated acknowledgment, and von Helmgart opened the floor to questions. McConnaught leant forward, and raised a finger.

“Who, exactly, are the enemy? We have heard the background, but what is the theatre-level conflict shaping up like?”

“A good question, sir. At the moment we are unsure. We are attempting to contact alternative sources to determine what exactly is likely to be the conflict point, and against what, and whom. Rest assured, we are the equal of any on land. None against whom we are likely to fight will be insurmountable. Our biggest difficulties will be at sea, at least initially.”

A commotion broke out, and a colonel rushed into the room, and thrust a stack of papers into Von Helmgart's hands, and muttered into his ear. The Lyran Intelligence Director's eyes widened, and he nodded at the man twice, before gesturing for him to leave.

All eyes watched the Field Marshal.

“Questers has declared war, on behalf of A.P.O.C. Allanea has fired upon Questers...”

Warmarshal Krell cut him off.

“More later, Karl. That is that, people. Mobilise all fleet elements, and put all airfields on alert. Activate all skyguard units.”

He turned to face Marshal McConnaught.

“I want 600 divisions ready for sealift within 3 days. And, unless you have anything better in mind, I want Field Marshal Ward commanding them.”

McConnaught nodded stiffly.

“As you command.”

Lyras was going to war.

Contents of a note handed to the government of Allanea and a seperate copy to the Automagfreek embassy to Pacitalia, addressed to the Heads of State thereof, later published in the Royal Archives and on the website of the Praetonian Foreign and War Offices, as well as subsequently by numerous Praetonian newspapers.

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Sir,

In the past days there has been much frenzied discussion in the Crown Commonwealth of the situation in Foxbury, the degredation and despair of whose inhabitants becomes more clear by the hour, and for a much greater time of the expansionist tendancies of the Gholgoth Powers, who are presently engaged in attempting to dominate the entire continent and populace of Nova Europa. The question of the Questerian Ultimatum, certainly supported in moral comradeship by the greater part of My Realm, has been the topic of the first session of the House of Commons to sit overnight since the 4 Day War.

It was the policy of My Government, and of this Realm and its dependancies and protectorates, and that of its Royal Georgian League, not to engage directly in that conflict until it became clear that no peaceful outcome was possible. Fortunately for the general good of the world, a peaceful outcome proved swiftly to be a possibility, and the Crown Commonwealth breathed a sigh of relief that the World would not then fall into General Conflict. It is the belief of My Government that this possibility is no longer extant with regard to the present Emergency.

As Gholgoth seeks to hold Nova Europa and its free peoples at gun-point, and punishes with murder and terror the innocent populace and surrendered army of a free colony whose only crime, commited by a handful, was to fire in error upon a small group of passing ships, the Free World can no longer content itself merely to watch in disapproval, but must take up arms against the clear and present threats that reveal themselves, to Haven and to the General Liberty of Mankind. The presence and attitude of Quisling states, such as Allanea, that seek to defend by the blood of free citizens the ability of the armed forces of Automagfreek and others to do as they please with the Peoples of the World does not deter us from this great and noble task.

Having consulted with My fellow Sovereigns of the League, and with their dependent legislatures, such as may be required by law, I regret to inform you, Sir, that a state of war now exists between us.

George IV
[Signed and dated]

Undersigned,

His Majesty King George IV
For the Crown Commonwealth of Praetonia

His Majesty King William VII
For the Imperial Crown Kingdom of Clandonia

His Majesty King Haakon
For the Realm of Cotland

[OOC: Military post coming...]

The drums of war had been sounded, and Cotland was about to rise to the call to arms. Having joined the Royal Georgian League less than a month ago, it was already time for Cotland to honor its obligations to its allies, many of whom were already in APOC, and for the Realm to join the war on the side of its allies in Questers and Praetonia.

Cottish radio stations and television stations suddenly interrupted their regularly scheduled broadcasting, with flabbergasted radio hosts and news anchors reporting that they interrupted in the broadcasts because the King was to hold a speech in a few minutes. To make sure that the people listened, the public broadcast system that was installed in all Cottish cities and major public areas would also transfer the speech live. While there was much speculation, most people made a logical guess that the speech would concern Allanea, who had gone to unprovoked war with Questers just hours ago. The people was confident that Cotland could easily defeat Allanea though, having had that thought nurtured by the weeks of state-sanctioned propaganda through the official media outlets and to some extent the independent medias.

Unbeknownst to the public, Allanea had been a source of much concern in the High Command since they first started their insane six hundred division strong wargames a few months ago, and defensive battleplans had been drawn up quickly. Fortunately, that crisis was reduced, but it had left an important lesson for the High Command: Allanea could not be trusted anymore, and appropriate measures had to be made in order to ensure the safety of the Realm. So, a number of battleplans, both defensive and offensive in nature had been drafted, and forces and equipment had been quietly sent to secretive bases just outside of the 30-kilometer "demilitarized" border zone the Cottish had agreed to have with Allanea. The only exception to this agreement were the border forces, which were to be no stronger than fifteen divisions of soldiers. For the Cottish, this was sufficient to station three hundred thousand men within the 1 200 kilometers of border there was. This gave the Cottish roughly 250 soldiers per kilometer that was to be defended. Of course, the Cottish didn't just station their men directly at the border.

No, they had chosen to instead build three seperate defensive lines within the thirty kilometers, utilizing the terrain to the maximum. The terrain on the Cottish-Allanean border was very rugged and extreme, with any valleys and hills overlooking the areas, and several small rivers in between that any attacker would have to cross. The few bridges that crossed over the rivers were all rigged with enough explosives to bring them down ten times over, ready to be detonated in the event that the attacker came close. The hills and valleys began a kilometer and a half from the actual border, which consisted of three four-meter fences positioned ten meters from each other, with concrete bases sticking down three meters into the ground, with barbed wire on the top and flaking the fences, and a sign every fifty meters saying that this was the Cottish-Allanean border and that illegal crossers were subject to be shot on sight. It said nothing about what lay behind.

The border defenses started about one hundred meters from the fences with a one kilometer deep no-man's-land filled with landmines of all shapes and forms - Bouncing Betties, Claymores, ATG-44 anti-tank mines, wooden "Shoemines" and many other different kinds of mines, and concealed punji pits, interspaced with an intricate network of small infrared sensors which sent an invisible laser beam from one sensor to the next, serving as a sort of early warning system that would notify the sector border checkpoints to any illegal crossing. There were also a great deal of dragon's teeth and “Czech hedgehogs" spread around the minefield in order to make an invasion more difficult for mechanized and armored units.

Following the minefield, the first series of Border Forts, in reality not more than a well-camouflaged buried bunker that were positioned so that they exploited the terrain to the fullest, holding the high ground and provided overlapping support to each other, started and exploited the terrain to the max. Each Border Fort was equipped with an old tank turret with a lot of extra armor placed on top, a few heavy machine guns, and a radio, and was crewed by ten men. Each of the bunkers had a secret underground bug-out tunnel that linked them with a large subterranian garage a few hundred meters away where a bug-out vehicle - probably a Centauro Sparks APC - would be waiting in case the attack became too ferocious. While the Cottish hoped that the Border Forts would be sufficient to stop any foreign aggression, no one really planned on it to happen. Their main purpose was to stop small-scale incursions into Cotland, and to hinder an all-out invasion for long enough for the Army to wait for the invaders if they finally managed to get past the border defenses.

However, the Cottish had made some alterations that the Allaneans would have no knowledge of.

The first serious alteration was that the first "line" of Border Forts were dummies. Sure, they looked like the real thing, with the cannon and all, but they were unmanned, unarmed, unusable, and this fact was completely unknown to the Allaneans. They had a pyrotechnic charge that would detonate after a few good enemy hits, making the enemy overconfident and thinking they had taken out an enemy bunker. It was believed that this would make the attacker overconfident and more careless, something the Cottish border soldiers intended to exploit to the fullest. The real first line of defense lay a mere kilometer behind these, on the next ridge.

The second serious alteration was that the area around the Border Forts were also littered with landmines. Claymores, Bouncing Betties and other nasty anti-personnel mines were littered around, with ATG-44 anti-tank mines positioned in the valleys, which were the only places that vehicles could move. These too were filled with dragon's teeth and “Czech hedgehogs" in order to make moving vehicles that much more difficult.

The third serious alteration was the extreme amount of support units the Border Forts - there were three lines of Border Forts, with each line being ten kilometers deep. There was first a five kilometer gap between the lines where minefields and obstacles were positioned, before the next series of Border Forts. Two kilometers behind the Border Forts, the Cottish had positioned an substantial amount of old howitzers and MLRS units. The first line of defense - the first series of Border Forts - had a twelve-gun battery of M198 or M114 155mm towed howitzers per Border Fort underneath camouflage nets on reinforced concrete casemates with underground ammunition bunkers and well-dug out trenches for the artillery crew to hide in if the enemy counter-battery fire became too intense. These cannons were positioned just behind the last line of bunkers in each series of border forts, and had a number of 81mm mortars for close-in defense. These would be used as a self-defense measure before the crew would have to destroy their guns before they evacuated. The next line of defense had a twelve-gun battery per border fort, plus an 18-unit battalion of 300mm MLRS vehicles for long-range rocket fire per thirty-kilometer sector. The third line of defense had even more artillery. An estimated two twelve-gun batteries per border fort, as well as one 18-unit battalion of 300mm MLRS per thirty-kilometer sector, plus heavier weapons - a small number of the railroad-mounted 280mm "Oslo Gun" were assigned to the border defenses, along with several SSM battalions fitted with tactical missiles that rained deadly submunitions on the invaders, and independent 155mm self-propelled howitzer battalions that would use scoot-and-shoot tactics behind the last set of minefields.

The Cottish Air Defense Network was also well represented in the border region, with litterarely hundreds of SAM sites and 105mm and automated 35mm AAA batteries positioned to provide cover for the border against enemy aircraft. The SAM sites were deployed to provide continuous overlapping coverage of the border, with the AAA positioned along likely avenues of approach, inside valleys and covering the artillery positions.

Behind these defenses, the Royal Cottish Army prepared itself to move in towards Allanea, surging forces to prepare a potential invasion of San Nereiana while the Royal Cottish Air Force got to business.

The Air Defense Regiments that defended the Cottish border with Allanea assigned missiles to the Allanean military aircraft within range, relying on data streamed from the powerful fixed RADAR sites, and once they had a good lock, they fired two Lyras-made LY4031 Skyguard medium-range surface-to-air missiles per target. These missiles had a maximum range of 210 kilometers, although the Cottish generally didn't engage targets farther away than 175 kilometers in order to have a good chance of actually hitting the target as they took into account jinxing, counter-measures and just plain running away, and this time was no exception. Fired from between fifty and eighty kilometers inside Cotland, the LY4031s would be engaging targets inside Allanea within 100-125 kilometers from the Cottish border. With two missiles per target, each receiving constant mid-course updates from the powerful RADAR sites inside Cotland, most were expected to hit.

As the Air Defense Regiments were handling the aircraft already in the air, the Cottish began taking steps to ensure that the Allaneans would remain on the ground. From hundreds of kilometers inside Cotland, HEMTT trucks modified to carry cruise missiles began firing off their payloads in the form of the BBM.20 Imsdal cruise missile. This Cottish-Layartebian designed missile was the mainstay land attack cruise missile in the Cottish arsenal, and enabled the Cottish to engage land targets up to 1 100 kilometers away with a wide array of lethal warhead options. For today's operations, the E variant and the F variant, each with 205 Combined Effects Munitions (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/blu-97.htm) or 140 incendiary napalm submunitions respectively, were to be used. Their target: Allanean airbases and army garrisons near the border. Additionally, a number of the C variant, which contained a 317.5 kilogram heavy Advanced Unitary Penetrator warhead designed to penetrate through reinforced concrete, earth or armored steel in order to get to the buried bunkers and fortifications they normally targeted, would be fired towards the Allanean border defenses. More precisely, the 16” turrets on the border. The Cottish knew where they were, as it was pretty much impossible to hide such a large target from the sight of the spy satellites that had scanned the area for years.

As the King started his speech to the people, the first of the thousands of Imsdal missiles that were to be fired streaked up from their launcher trucks towards their cruising altitude of 23 500 meters, quickly achieving their cruise speed of Mach 3.8. At that altitude and speeed, the Imsdals cruised towards their pre-designated targets at a sufficiently high altitude to completely negate the threat posed by AAA and reduce the threat posed by SAMs and fighters.

As the missiles finally reached the target area, they began a steep terminal dive where the angle of attack varied between 75° and the completely vertical 90° while increasing speed to an impressive Mach 7. This would make it damn near impossible to intercept the Imsdal missiles, and even in the unlikely event of the warhead misfiring, the kinetic energy released when the missile hit the ground would be great enough to cause significant damage.

A total of ten Imsdal-Fs with twenty Imsdal-Es following ten minutes after the first strike were fired against each Allanean airbase within three hundred kilometers of the border, thus allowing the napalm to have burned out by the time the submunitions hit, and each Allanean SAM site within the same range was tasked with one Imsdal-F followed five minutes later by three Imsdal-Es, again allowing the napalm's effects to be over and the Allanean survivors to believe that it was all clear when the next series of missiles hit, hopefully destroying anything the napalm hadn't. Additionally, two Imsdal-Cs were assigned to each 16” turret on or near the Cottish-Allanean border.

Back on the television screens, the image shifted to an archive clip of the Royal Palace in Eeobroht with the national anthem playing at full strength, instilling a sense of patriotism in almost all Cots who heard it. After one verse, the image shifted again to inside the King's official office in the Royal Palace, with King Haakon sitting behind the impressive red marble desk, wearing the khaki Class A uniform of the Royal Cottish Army, complete with brown leather bandoler over the right shoulder, a lot of decorations on his right chest, and the six gold stars on the golden shoulderboard that signified that he was the highest-ranking officer in Cotland's armed forces. From the look on his face, it was clear that the King had ominous news to the people.

The King spoke in eloquent Cottish, so any foreign channels picking up the broadcast would have to rely on translators translating the speech in real-time.

"My dear countrymen.

"Moments ago, our glorious ally Praetonia declared that a state of war exists between the Royal Georgian League, an alliance in which Praetonia is the leading member state, and the United States of Allanea.

"Allanea claim to be a peaceful nation. Yet they hold million-man military 'exercises' within sight of the Realm's borders, creating a dangerous and completely unprovoked situation which had the potential of becoming a real shooting war. I am glad to report that our valiant Armed Forces reacted with the cool, professional behavior to that situation, refusing to fall victim to the obvious Allanean provocation, which can have but one agenda: War. Are these the actions of a peaceful nation?

"Allanea, the so-called peaceful nation, declared war on our allies in the Questerian Empire a few hours ago, and immediately started attacking Questerian border defenses. The Allaneans had not been provoked into this by Questers or any other member of neither APOC nor the League. Yet they conduct a vicious and vile attack on a peace loving nation such as Questers without any provocation or justification. Already, the warmongering nation of Allanea have claimed the lives of thousands of brave Questerian servicemen. Are these the actions of a peaceful nation?

“The Realm is a member state of the Royal Georgian League. You probably remember the vast media coverage when I signed the League’s charter a month ago. As a member state of the Royal Georgian League and of the Alliance for the Preservation of Civilization, Cotland will not stand idly by and watch as one of its closest allies is invaded by a hypocritical and self-righteous warmongering state such as Allanea. Our national honor and more importantly, the ideals and principles for which we stand and our self-respect as a nation demand we take action, now. Rest assured, Cotland shall rise to the call to arms and fulfill its obligations in accordance with the charters of the Royal Georgian League and of the Alliance for the Preservation of Civilization.

“Therefore, I have declared that a state of war now exists between the Realm of Cotland and the United States of Allanea.

“We shall make the warmongers pay for their unwise actions, but we must be prepared that victory will come at a price. To the mothers, fathers, wifes and children of our men and women in uniform, I urge you to remain strong and steadfast to our cause, and to continue to send your love and prayers to not only your own loved ones, but to all those who proudly wear our nation’s uniform.

“I have instructed the High Command to initiate offensive military operations against Allanea with the intent to remove their ability to pose a threat to the Realm or its allies. As we speak, our valiant Armed Forces are in the early stages of conducting offensive military operations against Allanea. I would like to take this opportunity to send my good wishes to our valiant men and women in uniform, who work hard day after day to ensure our safety and prosperity. I wish you good hunting, and that you fight with honor and courage against the vile foe.

“To the Allaneans, I have naught but this to say: Until you cease your unwarranted acts of aggression towards Questers and APOC, Cotland will continue to fight for justice and honor. Be wise. Give up now, and spare your country widespread destruction and devestation.

“My people, we are heading for troubled times, but with the might of our valiant Armed Forces and a little bit of help from Almighty God, we shall prevail from this conflict and reign victorious once and for all. I ask that Almighty God bless Cotland and each and every one of you. Thank you, and good day.”

With that, the image on the television screen changed once again, this time to assorted images showing off the variety and the beauty of Cotland, all while the national anthem played again. In the streets, people had stopped up completely and listened to the speech, and they were now joining in the singing of the national anthem. Throughout Cotland, more than five billion people sang the national anthem while the Cottish cruise missiles streaked through the skies towards their targets.

____________________

OOC: Not sure how many SAM sites, airbases or turrets you have within the range specified, so I'm just saying the number of missiles fired on each airbase and site.

Minister Kyle W. Foraker, head of the Department of Foreign Affairs stepped forward as the other two men tried to keep their eyes from Kara's exposed legs. "Just three hours ago this morning the Questarians issued a declaration of war against Aequatio and Illior."

[OOC: Erm, what? Since when did I make a declaration of war on anyone...?]

New Masada, Kahanistan

Kahanistan found itself in a very precarious position. It was under Praetonian protection, allied with Allanea, and had many friends, allies, trade partners, and enemies on both sides of the conflict, many of whom would no doubt seek to force them to take one side or the other.

However, not all was bleak. Kahanistan was not a strategically important area, being thousands of kilometres from the fighting, for the most part. There were two hundred thousand soldiers in San-Nereiana who had travelled there for a training exercise. Kahanistanian President Nadia Sklenova, not one known for her aggressive tendencies, was adamantly opposed to entering a war with Praetonia under any circumstances. She was so opposed to the idea of war that she had allowed Kahanistan to become a protectorate, and unlike her more nationalistic fellow politicians in the Senate, she had no love for Allanea.

The government's first and most pressing problem was the extraction of its soldiers from San-Nereiana. They had been sent to train, not to fight, and would have to be withdrawn before any of them became casualties in the Second Haven War. Given the Cottish attitude toward Kahanistan in general, and its military in particular, the urgency of the situation could not be overstated.

On the other hand, Kahanistan did not wish to abrogate its relations with Allanea - the Nationalist Party which had control of the Senate and much of the military was not going to allow that. How Kahanistan conducted itself internationally would determine if it would survive the conflict.

Official Statement of the Free Republic of Kahanistan

The Government of Kahanistan is saddened by this recent turn of events. There are many states on both sides of this unfortunate conflict that we count as friends, allies, trade partners, rivals, or enemies.

Kahanistan will withdraw the 200,000 soldiers from San-Nereiana sent to train, until hostilities cease. We ask that the Cottish Government and any other forces in the area allow them to return to Kahanistan unmolested.

Our government will remain neutral in the conflict; we would not wish to injure our diplomatic or economic relations with other nations on either side of the fence. We are willing to host peace talks in our neutral territory, should combatant parties return to the table.

Signed,
Nadia Sklenova,
President of Kahanistan

The President sent the letter to the heads of government of all Gholgoth, NATO, R.G.L., and APOC nations. She was determined to keep her involvement on the diplomatic level, rather than military...

The following communiqué was sent to Kahanistan via the Praetonian embassy in Eeobroht two hours after it was received and after a conversation between the Royal Ministry for Affairs Beyond the Borders of the Realm and the Praetonian Office for the Protectorates, as Cotland and Kahanistan had no official connections that would permit for the use of encrypted communiqués between the two countries.


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Encrypted Communiqué via Praetonian embassy in Eeobroht to Kahanistan


To whom it may concern within the Praetonian Dependancy of Kahanistan.

Frankly, we are shocked and appalled by the audacity that the Praetonian Vassal of Kahanistan displays by fielding "soldiers" of its own. These "soldiers" can have but one reason for their existence, which is to wage unlawful and treacherous insurgency towards His Praetonian Majesty. Had we not been benevolent, the Realm could very likely have reduced that number of pitchfork-carrying women that you call soldiers to zero as punishment for your clear intentions of causing rebellion and harm to His Praetonian Majesty's property and land, you ungrateful children of rats.

However, His Cottish Majesty is most generous and has decided to spare your miserable lives, thanks in no small part to His Most Generous and Forgiving Praetonian Majesty's plea for your "soldiers". Therefore, we shall permit you to ship your women out through southern San Nereiana. However, we warn you. If as much as a single Kahanistani traitor comes within one hundred kilometers of the Borders of the Realm, we shall smite her sorry soul back beyond oblivion!

You have been duly warned.

- The Realm of Cotland

Imperial City, Lusankya
Imperial Palace

Emperor Galius Falucia of the Continental Empire of Malatose walked slowly down the long halls of the Imperial Palace, flanked by dozens of Imperial Royal Guards. He was to attend a meeting of the Imperial Senate that very evening. However, plans were about to change. From his office, which was located in the massive Imperial Palace, Military Executor Xecr Nist rushed behind the Emperor, trying to catch up to his entourage. In hisr hand, he held various intelligence reports and scandocs, which detailed the latest news and information.

"Emperor Falucia, I have some information, which you may find important."

The entourage stopped. The various Imperial Guards quickly standing at ease, as the frail Emperor Falucia turned around.

Emperor Falucia turned around, taking a deep breathe. "What is it Exector? May I remind you, I have a busy appointment that I must attend."

Nist gulped. "My Emperor, I apologize. However, we have just recieved word that aggressive action has just commenced between Allanea and the Questarian Empire. Imperial Intelligence is reporting that opposing APOC forces could strike into HolyMarsh at any moment."

"A grave situation, Executor. How do you suggest we go forward?" The Emperor responded.

Xecr Nist moved forward, placing his arms behind his back. "Your Majesty, I suggest we place forces on high alert. It also wouldnt hurt to do the same here. We must be ready for anything, external or internal"

"Good plan, Executor. You have chosen wisely, I have forseen it. I have also forseen things, things which could destroy the very workings of this Empire. Be that as it may, we must also take the appropriate security actions here, we must not let another plague take control of this land. We must not."

Xecr Nist nodded. "Your judgement is wise, my Emperor"

"Leave me Executor. I have important things, that I must take care of now"

Emperor Falucia and his Royal Guards departed; while, Executor Xecr Nist quickly headed towards his personal escort, which would drive him back to Imperial High Command.

HolyMarsh
Imperial Army Base

"We have just recieved word from Imperial High Command, on direct order from the Military Executor, to place all Imperial Forces here on high alert." Surface Marshal Seerdron read out to his senior staff.

He looked around the room, only stopping to look into the eyes of the various senior officials. "I trust you all know what to do."

On the front lines, in the north and east, Imperial Forces were preparing themselves for combat. Imperial Tanks and various other armored vehicles were now fully fueled and ready to go, at a moments notice. On the ground, Imperial soldiers, now fully equipped in their XE-101 Xenias Combat Infantry Gear, went into their appropriate positions, be it in tank formations or heavily fortified locations. No longer were the Imperial forces listening to music or playing checkers. They were now in a combat state of mind, ready to kill at a moments notice.

In the skies, a combination of Imperial TF-70 and TF-71As patrolled HolyMarsh airspace and the border regions, both north and east. They flew with their missiles armed, ready to shoot down any opposing aircraft, at a moments notice. Air Surveillance aircraft assisted them in this operation, helping them detect any and all aircraft. Surface to Air Missile batteries, in heavily fortified locations, were also placed on high alert.

President Sklenova did not reply to the insulting Cottish message. She merely ordered the soldiers out of San-Nereiana, post-haste.

If they don't soften their attitude... the next President may very well go to war. Unless she was very careful, the next President was likely to be a Nationalist - opposed to Praetonian hegemony and willing to fight if the situation degenerated. As it was, the Nationalist Party was growing more discontented with Kahanistan's situation, even as the Liberal Party became more pro-APOC (though not pro-Doomani.) As long as the balance could be kept between the pro-Praetonian and anti-Praetonian factions in Kahanistan, however, the state would remain neutral unless directly attacked.

Two hundred thousand Kahanistanian soldiers lined up to board vessels out of San-Nereiana before the fighting in Allanea grew too intense for them to leave. Kahanistan wanted no part of this war.

“Fathers, brothers, I thank you all for coming today on such short notice. I realize that you are all still quite busy with your own dioceses considering recent events.”

The Emperor’s voice echoed around the hall, a desert of tiles, tall windows, and chandeliers; a haven for the countless vanities of the Imperial institution. The early morning sun lit Nikolai’s face, causing the buttons and medals on his ceremonial jacket to shimmer.

“The Church has always been the Emperor’s backbone, especially in times of crisis. I recognize as well as any of you that Orthodoxy is inseparable from Empire. This philosophy led me to the position I hold now, and we have all seen firsthand what lethal consequences an attempt to separate our state from its Christian institutions can have. My policy over these past months has been one of reconciliation between the Generian Orthodox Church, her vast flock, and the Imperial crown. I entrust my salvation as well as the unity of the nation to you, and likewise, I have chosen in the past weeks to call upon you before any others for council regarding domestic crises.”

The heads of the hundred bishops, archbishops, abbots, and hieromonks seated in rows before their sovereign bobbed at his words. Still, there was silence. Though he was the ceremonial patriarch of the Generian Orthodox Church by birthright, it was rare for an Emperor to address the high ecclesiastical body. The sovereign’s words were unusual, as if he was leading up to something, buffering the sensibilities of the holy men against some approaching, thunderous revelation.

“As it stands, the reversal of my father and brother’s secularist policies has met with some resistance; my adherence to the ancient traditions that made Generia a great and respected tradition has inspired dread among some weak-willed members of the elite. Secularist rebellion in the west testified to the degree to which certain men will go to preserve the power they gained in my father’s old age at the expense of the general wellbeing of the Empire. These avaricious elements, however, were soon brought to justice; their treason to their God and to Generia dealt with swiftly and without compromise, as is the law. Still, such sentiments have proved poisonous, and it is for this reason that I rely now more than ever on the steadfast nature of my Church to ensure that in the coming months, the Empire will not falter in the face of what it must do.”

His words, spoken calmly with the practice of a man accustomed to addressing the powerful, fell heavily on the ears of the men assembled before him. An archbishop in the first row shifted in his seat, his eyes focused on those of the Sovereign which moved over the faces of each member of his audience.

“Your excellencies have no doubt become aware of the tensions that have arisen in the world, owing to fierce disagreements between our own Gothic allies and the Alliance for the Preservation of Civilization. A week ago, the nation of Questers issued an ultimatum to our allies in Haven that they were to immediately cede their colonies over to APOC control, a demand so exorbitant that it could not have been accepted even in a dream. I myself was in attendance at the conference that preceded this ultimatum, and heard firsthand the bloodthirsty rhetoric of the APOC alliance. Perhaps at the time, some of their number truly hoped for peace. Regardless, as it stands, peace seems impossible.”

Nikolai paused, taking a step closer to his audience.

“Yesterday, Questers ordered that all Aequatian and Illiorian territory in Haven was to be forcibly appropriated by the APOC. This is an unabashed act of war against both NATO and Gholgoth. It is certain, at this time, that both of these alliances will meet APOC aggression in a similar matter. As a Gothic state, Generia is bound by her oath to stand beside them. I, as the sovereign of this Empire, am honor bound to join our brother nations in a declaration of war. I have called you here to ask your blessing, and to plead that the Church unify behind me, and behind the Empire we both shepherd.”

The room was silent. Grim expressions filled the faces of the assembled. Nikolai stood directly before them, like a pillar, his eyes piercing, carrying the weight of his words. Then, a bishop in the first row stood. The Emperor’s eyes turned to him, followed by the eyes of all the others. He spoke, this proud old men, with the sharpened tongue of an old schoolmaster.

“You speak of APOC, your grace, as if it were a single entity; one serpent to be beheaded and cast away. But you forget that we ourselves once stood beside many of these nations in one way or another. One in particular stands out: a nation of faith, one with whom we share a great deal of history.”

“Then you speak of Doomingsland, the ‘Catholic Imperium,’” replied the Emperor. The name carried weight, was laden with many mixed emotions to all Generians.

“The Doomani and the Generians,” continued Nikolai, “have been entwined for centuries, by the histories of our people and a shared belief in the Almighty God and his Church. Even our royal bloodlines are entwined. You are right to remind us that we once aligned ourselves with these people. I must in turn remind you why such an alliance no longer exists. It was indeed my father who separated our path from theirs, and who charged them with barbarism to the ears of the entire world. Such rhetoric was his, however, not mine. I will not deride them, but I will say that the cause of the Emperor, if not his words, was just. Doomingsland is an Imperial power, and though her faith is great, so is her avarice.”

“The Doomani are Christians,” said the bishop, his voice charged with emotion. “Surely you cannot ask us to condone a war against the few who still call God their Lord and Master?”

“Let it be known that the Doomani Imperium forsook the cause that Generia shared with her, and now stands beside the very nations that we, together, once opposed; nations that stand for greed, corporatism, and faithlessness. I will call for no holy war, nor ask you to condemn fellow Christians, however misguided they may be, but I am prepared to send our soldiers to fight the Doomani as allies of a greater evil.”

Nikolai turned to the rest of the audience.

“I do not exaggerate when I say that the peril the Empire faces at the hands of the atheists of APOC is the greatest we have known since the days of unification. Gholgoth and NATO, our friends and brothers, are the few who share the recognition of this peril. Take the Questerian declaration as an example of what lengths APOC will go to to ensure that they have no rivals on the world stage. Let their megalomania become apparent through their words and their actions. The Empire must now stand firm, beside our allies, and to do so she must rely on her faith and the commitment of her Church. Do not abandon your flocks now, fathers.”

The old bishop remained standing. Indeed, he was a man of great influence, an aged disciple of an old order who had been mentor to many of the men in the room, and held their ears as surely as did their sovereign. He was silent, however, contemplating the Emperor’s words. The eyes of the two men met, now, and the bishop nodded his head. He spoke slowly, deliberately.

“I am no fool, my son. I have long known the threat the nations of Questers, Praetonia, and their cohorts face to faithful men who hold their traditions dear. They have long brandished the word ‘freedom’ like a sword, cutting down those who disagreed with their ‘enlightened’ ideals. I am sad that a brother nation has fallen victim to their silver tongues, with its promises of power and influence, but I will not let this sadness weaken me. This will be no Holy War, my son, but the Church will bless your campaigns.”

The bishop sat down. The Emperor nodded to him, then turned to the others.

“Then so be it. Generia will march with her allies. With the blessing of God, we will stem the tide that rises against us, and we will fight beside our allies to protect what we have fought so hard for in the past.”

With that, it was done. The last obstacle cleared, Emperor Nikolai bowed to his clergy, and turned to leave.

OOC: I do not understand! I posted in this thread this morning!

This is Army Radio, Zero-Zero hours Liberty-City time. Today, our positions on the Cotlandi borders have been hit by enemy missiles. Due to heavy bunker defenses, 'Nautilus' and other anti-missile defenses, only 24 16-inch turrets have been destroyed by the enemy, and 16 disabled. However, damage to airfields in the demilitarized zone has been hard – 80% of all divisional airfields in the area have been hit and damaged...

Naturally, the attack merited a response, and as such, the Allaneans fired right back at the Cotlandi. From mobile trucks and immobile emplacements, missiles were fired, targeting heavy bunkers and airfields in the Cotlandi portion of the Demilitarized Zone in the same fashion and with the same density of attack that the Cotlandi attacked the Allaneans with.

In the meanwhile, in San-Nereiana's civilian airfields, ten Ouroboros-D aircraft took off towards Allanea's extra-Havenic colonies. They carried about 20,000 civilians each – so far, an orderly evacuation of men, women, and children from the warzone. So far.

* * *

An urgent diplomatic message was sent out to all NATO, APOC, and Gholgoth states. It was simple in its content.

We would like to reiterate what we said in previous dispatches:

The United States of Allanea does not want war. We will fight if our allies are attacked, as the Aequatians were. But we do not want war.

We realize, of course, that the Aequatians wish to retain their land and have a right to do so. Should anybody try to take even the tiniest piece of Allanea, we'd fight them, too. But that said, perhaps some agreement can be reached? Perhaps some assurances given to the Questarians and their allies that the new colonies do not threaten them would suffice?

We are ready to front compensations and reparations to the Questarian people, to boost the defense of Questers and to reassure that NATO is not their threat.

We are ready to sign a multilateral NAP which will include the NATO and APOC countries together, and ensure peace and trade among our countries.

Are not liberty, free markets, and peace values to which all our nations are dedicated? What is the purpose of this mindless slaughter? Must we re-enact the Great Wars of Havenic history again and again, with no sense or rhyme or measure to them?

We appeal to all combatant states in a call for a ceasefire and peace negotiations. If others join in, we may yet be able to avert disaster.

Does anybody actually want this war?

Warminster, Clandonia

War was declared, already the streets of the capital were lined with those for the hostilities and those of the dove lobby against the war. Police had to remove the protesters from the main roads so that military vehicles had priority access. Across the country the effects of Kings Order No.4 were felt, airports were mostly taken over as Clandonian based carriers fulfilled their duty to the Crown and donated their assets towards the war effort. Colonies needed to be reinforced as the first troop flights headed towards Tristan to begin assembling the taskforce for the invasion and landing on Innovota. Large ocean carrying cargo and passenger ships were placed under control of the Royal Naval Reserve to assist in the logistic operation as the bulk of the Grand Home Fleet prepared to head North towards the Arctic to assemble and wait for the combined Praetonian naval force to begin combats operations in the Haleigha Sea. Millions of boys from the age of sixteen were ordered out to armed forces recruiting station to serve for King and Country. The heavy class based system meant the working class would assume the role of cannon fodder while the middle classes were sent to staff colleges and upper and blue blooded classes preferring to assume the hierarchical roles, especially so in the Royal Army. Moustached officers in pith hats marched thousands of young men into waiting transport and civil aircraft for the flight to Tristan. Equipment and vehicles were loaded onto the large Sabre and King Sarius space planes that had been loaned to the RAF by private carriers for use in the war effort. Twenty divisions from the 1st Clandonian Expeditionary Force Army Group were on their way to join with the eight Royal Expeditionary Marine divisions that had been sent following the Yukelvakia situation.

In the large ports of Southampton and Dover in the South a force of three thousand vessels from the Imperial Expeditionary Fleet were leaving at a steady rate of a battlefleet every four hours, the massive hulls were requiring help from the smaller cruisers and tugboats. Followed by two Nelson Class Super Dreadnoughts HMS Waterloo and HMS Repulse, on their maiden combat voyage. The three week cruise would stop in Shrewshire to refuel and supply ready for the battle to liberate Innovata and Burning Bay from Aequatian and Illorian tyranny. At Northampton and Hull on the North coast the Grand Home fleet was leaving towards Clandonian Arctic Territories in the Cayuga Sea area at a steady rate, over three thousand vessels along with the Nelson SD's HMS Nelson and HMS Victoria were tasked to ensure swift victory for the Allied navies in the Western Haven area against the Scandinavian and Allanean navies. The final detachment from the coastal area of Epsom on the North East peninsula saw the task force of one thousand vessels steaming North to meet with the Praetonian Imperial Navy to begin the assault on Aequatias Decca, to finally end the threat that had troubled both countries due the close proximity to their homelands and major cities.

With the de facto declaration of war, the Clandonian government wanted surprise attack as the plan of operation for running the war time government went into effect. Important cabinet ministers along with the Prime Minster, Royal Family and senior Military Chiefs of Staff went into hiding in specially dispersed underground bunkers to prevent a total decapitation strike. Confirming the planned first strikes via videophone the government agreed to launch the attack at 2300 Hours Warminster Time. An announcement would then be broadcast on the news indicating that the Imperial Crown Kingdom was answering the Questerian call to rid Illior and Aequatio of their colonial holdings from Haven.


RAF Leominster, Clandonian Arctic Territories

Along with the vast RAF base there was a rocketry squadron at the base, launching satellites used for primarily military purposes. Twenty additional RORSATs with their powerful ocean searching radar and optical imaging cameras were being shot up at a carefully scheduled rate into low orbit to provide the Royal Navy with the most accurate intelligence on the location of NATO surface vessels around the target areas of operation, the combined ‘systems of system’s approach of the Royal Air Force’s Space Command Division would be vital in the naval war to distribute Fleet and Air assets according the threat severity. Should the Aequatians copy what the Questerians had done from Seylon then a further forty birds sat prepared at the base with more at the main RAF Space Command centre of RAF Trinian in Northern Clandonia.

1700 Hours local time was the time when the four hundred of so aircraft took off from the large air force base. Going into their selected formations to launch a combination of IAD-26 Hawk GLAM, MAS Interdiction I10 JSOW's from the B-22 Zeus and Blackburn Blackadder MS2. bombers against the Aequatian target of Volstad. Each B-22 bomber was carrying eight of the missiles along with twenty Mk.99 GDAM bombs. Hell would rain on Volstad as the Clandonian Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm targeted all military that was visible from satellite and IR imagery. Suspected hidden bunker entrances and heat sources would be pin pointed for destruction by Falling Hammer Earthquake bombers dropped from the upper atmosphere by the forty or so ITA-200 Sabre-B/IA bomber which had taken off from the isolated airbase in the Northern Territories in the Home Nation only twenty minutes before from 12th Sabre Inter-Atmosphere Bomber Wing. Dropping three of the massive bombs onto what were suspected to be underground and command structures.

In escort RAC-201 Shrike and ACI-73 Aquila flew from the most Western of the RAF bases, RAF Poole along with Blackburn Blackadder MS2.R refueling aircraft to stop the jet engines from going thirsty. The final and last ar wave would come from eighty Type 1000 nuclear aircraft launching the final strike of MAS Trespasser, four from each aircraft against any ships that were in the vicinity, thus making the Royal Navy's job easier when it arrived in theatre. The missiles smart guidance system had been updated with the latest in all known Aequatian ship designs, targeting the largest ships such as battleships and the important aircraft carriers.

The first missiles and bombs were scheduled to hit at exactly 2300 Warminster time the official war was to begin with the Kings speech to the nation.


RAF Tristan, Tristan Peninsula

The airfield had been buzzing with activity during the rising tensions between NATO and APOC over Yukelvakia. An entire air expeditionary air wing of bombers had arrived and set up base as the islands and small peninsula became one massive military establishment as the civilian population left. Now all that remained were large scale temporary hangers for the four hundred or so B-22's along with four hundred Blackburn Blackadder MS2. With such a short distance between Tristan and the Aequatian island of Innovata the Clandonians wanted to initiate the first strike before Illiorian an Aequatian forces retaliated with unknown force against Tristan. At 0100 Local time the bombers set off with maximum payloads loaded with IAD-26 Hawk GLAM, MAS Interdiction I10 JSOW's for the B-22 Zeus and Blackburn Blackadder MS2. bombers against the Aequatian target of Volstad. Each B-22 bomber was carrying eight of the missiles along with sixty Mk.99 GDAM bombs. The Blackadders carried eight Hawk GLAM's on their rotary launch systems.

The island was to be laid waste to, the heavy concentration of munitions used was to ensure that nothing was left of Aequatian military infrastructure. The nearby 2nd Southeast Haven Battlefleet which had taken up strike positions launched its aircraft from the County Class CVN's, RAC-201 Sea Shrikes and ACI-73n Aquilas took off from the eight super carriers, thirty Aquilas and twenty Shrikes making a total force of four hundred navally launched aircraft firing Lance ASM's, Hawk GLAMs and launching ARMED 1500 kg anti-runway bombs to disable the Aequatian ability to counter attack Tristans own airfields and runways. Also armed with MAS Reaper guided by semi-active radar, optic and thermal, picking up the warm engines of Aequatian aircraft before they could scramble to intercept the bomber force. With the battlefleet 200 km's off the coast they were vunerable to anti-shipping missiles both launched from land and air, Blackadder MS2.R's were on active duty from Tristan dropping sonar becons on the hunt for enemy submarines.

The final wave was by the ships of the Royal Navy, emptying their VLS tubes filling the sky with Lance ASM's targeting any hull that was on the island that floated. The Royal Sovereign Dreadnoughts, Avenge Class Superheavy Battleships and Cheshire Class BTN's proved their procurement with the awesome display of fire power as the night sky became a tint of fiery orange and red, visible from Tristan according to some Royal Marines who were on observation duty. Aircraft on the Pheasant CLVN's were prepared for emergency scramble, the RAC-201 Sea Shrikes could carry the heavy T-18 'King Henry' nuclear anti-air missiles, programmed for low yield use to stop any heavy anti-shipping missiles that could damage the powerful capital ships of the battlefleet.

The two battlefleets of 'Force Z' had reached Royal Navy Base Tristan now from their mad dash from the Omz Sea, once replenishment and transfer of the brand new RAC-201 Shrikes to the newly formed Tristan Colonial Air Defence Squadrons the four hundred or so ships to begin the task of harassing the Aequatian and Illorian navies in conjunction with the Praetonian detachment from Shrewshire while the main Imperial Expeditionary Fleet sailed down, nearly three weeks away.


Clandonian Virgin Islands, Eastern Haven

In the far east of Haven the quiet island chain was still gearing up for war, the grand stretches of ocean made it very hard even for the East Haven Fleet, a force of one thousand vessels with many more support and submarine squadrons active to control the Eastern entrances to the region. With allied nations of Chevyrocks to the South and Soviet Bloc to the West the Clandonian Royal Navy was the first force any foe would encounter. Its battlefleets spread covering the area. Blackadder MS2.R's were out on active patrol from RAF St. Johns, noting in particular naval activity conducted by Alacean and Velkyan forces.

None the less preparations were made, air defences were prepared and the island was a ideal launch spot for the T-2 'Titan' anti-satellite missile that the RAC-201 Shrikes carrier under their bellies, the metal glinting as the sun rose at 0600 marking the start of another blisteringly hot day. As the sky turned red the first news of the strikes to the West made its way onto Armed Forces TV and Radio...


---

On every television network and radio station, along with many internet channels the King prepared to make his official announcement of the start of hostilities.

GONG!

"Good Evening, the time is Eleven o'clock, we take you straight to a live television address by His Majesty the King."


"My loyal subjects,

Following the combined declaration of war by the Royal Georgian League I would like to announce that as I speak strikes are currently underway against the Aequatian targets of Volstad and Innovata."

A map was shown alongside the King, showing the location of the territories under attack.

"Following the failure to answer the Questerian ultimatum I made it clear on the phone to King George IV and King Haakon that the Clandonian armed forces are ready for the liberation of Haven. The brave men and women of the Navy, Air Force and Army are at this time engaging or preparing to engage Aequatian targets across Haven, from the North West to the South East. Several changes may occur, already millions of brave men and women have volunteered themselves to fight in the war, we must brace ourself for total war. I have taken the task to safeguard our main population areas with mobile anti-air units along with thousands of new RAC-201 Shrikes to defend our skies from bombs and missiles alongside our already existing defence networks. All commercial aircraft have been taken into temporary public ownership for the sole purpose of transporting troops and equipment to our territories and fronts where our allies need help. Already the evil menance of Allanea has attacked our dear ally of Questers. I have spoken to King Alexander and offered the support of the Clandonian Expeditionary Force which is preparing for deployment overseas to aid the fight for liberty and long lasting peace in Haven."

Pictures were shown of the destruction and attacks on the Questerian side of the border from news material that had been shown throughout the day on Clandonian television networks.

"This war will not be an easy one, some of our sons and daughters will not live, some may never even return to the Home Nation. Personal sacrifices may be needed should the might of the Royal Navy which protects the imports to our beloved nation be needed elsewhere in operations. From next week the government under Prime Minister Sistilin will bring the announcement for a War Time Budget should the conflict become prolonged along with temporary powers for the state to control private property for the war effort. The government has also released travel advice for all Clandonian citizens to avoid NATO countries for their own safety and to exercise caution in other non-aligned nations due to the heightened security situation."

"I ask you to pray tonight for the bomber pilots that are unleashing the cleansing fires onto Aequatian assets in Haven and the brave sailors of the Royal Navy that are on route or conducting combat operations in these early stages of war."

"Thank you and goodnight."

The broadcast then cuts to material just released by the War Office, images of the bombardment launched by the Royal Navy onto Innovata along with pictures of thousands of troops disembarking for Tristan to assemble for an island hopping invasion of the Illiorian and Aequatian assets in South Eastern Haven. Then the near continuous media coverage of what the situation was going with dozens of analysts, retried members of the armed forces, strategists, economists and academics all giving their view on the conflict and how it was going ensuring the war would be 24 hour news for a long time to come.


OOC: Please can you wait for Praetonia to post first before counter-posting Aequatio, thanks.

War in the East!
Battles reported between Cotland and Allanea; Air Force Deploys to the East

Late last night the Colonial Defense Ministry confirmed reports that major fighting has erupted between the Realm of Cotland and the San Nereiana colony of the United States of Allanea. The latest confirmed reports indicate that this has been confined to a rocket artillery duel though rumors have spread of downed Cottish and Allanean pilots being interned if found on Rosdivani soil. At press time, these rumors were being denied by the Colonial Defense Ministry.

The Colonial Air Force has announced that it is currently deploying three extra wings of F-35AR fighters and E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control platforms to the eastern airbases. A stern warning was also delivered to Cottish and Allanean emissaries warning that any intrusion of Rosdivani airspace will be met with lethal force. At the same time, the borders are open to civilian refugee movement and numerous local relief groups have announced programs to aid refugees fleeing from the fighting.

Governor Tudor has requested that both sides agree to a cease-fire before the fighting spirals out of hand. In order to further the cause of peace, he has offered to act as a mediator for any negotiations and has offered the services of the colonial capital, Tudor City, to serve as a neutral location for the negotiations.

Although the reserves are not being called up at this point in time, a war warning has been declared and all leaves cancelled. All members of the reserve are officially under notice that they may be subject to a 24 hour call up. Civilian rationing is not expected at the moment but may be instituted in the event that the Commonwealth is forced into this conflict.

Kahanistan

The first shipment of soldiers returned from San-Nereiana. Their order of weaponry had not arrived yet, so the main arms of the troops were FN FAL's for the better trained troops and Tavor assault rifles rechambered in 6.5mm Grendel for the recruits, who wore gas masks, helmets and ceramic body armour. They had originally gone to San-Nereiana to train, and while the training hadn't ended the way they'd hoped, they were about to prepare for the mission they had been fielded for.

Contrary to Cottish delusions of paranoia, these soldiers were not fielded to raise an insurgency against Praetonia - such an insurgency would, if it took place at all, be run by civilian rebels, not soldiers in full uniform, and require support from the government to be successful - which wasn't coming from President Sklenova. She was too weak emotionally and politically for a sustained conflict. They were fielded for the eventuality of Kahanistan no longer being a Praetonian protectorate... or Praetonia no longer being able to fulfill its end of the protectorate treaty by virtue of having obligations elsewhere, like going to war with Allanea and its allies. Of course, with Kregaia making threats toward Praetonia (http://www.forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=554460), Kahanistan wouldn't blame Praetonia if it couldn't protect them.

The terms of the Treaty of Haversham meant that Kahanistan could not wage war without Praetonian approval. It was in adherence with this obligation that Kahanistan had withdrawn from San-Nereiana - there was no way in hell Praetonia would approve Kahanistan fighting its ally. They had officially stated neutrality, as they had friends and trade partners on both sides, neither of which they wanted to alienate. Besides, they saw no reason to take sides in a war between two different groups of superpowers.

---

Fort Green Proving Ground, eastern Kahanistan

Staff Sergeant Roberta Martin stood before a group of 1,000 recruits. Interestingly given her views on the Cottish, she was... a pitchfork-carrying woman. Literally. She was about 35, stood about 5'8", weighed around 160 pounds, and had numerous shrapnel scars and chemical burns over her face and arms. Of course, she didn't just have a pitchfork - strapped across her back was an FN FAL.

One of the bravest (or stupidest, it was hard to tell) recruits asked, "Sarge, what's with the pitchfork?"

Martin's face went red. She struck the young man over the head with the flat end of it. He cried out in pain and rubbed the bump on his noggin.

"This pitchfork," she said, "represents something. It represents that we will fight with any tool at our disposal for our homeland. It represents desperation, the desperation of a soldier who has run out of ammunition, who has nothing left but this pitchfork. Most importantly, it represents us making a stand, tooth and nail, to the death against an invasion force, because this time, there is nowhere to retreat to, there is no new land to flee to, and we are here because we would rather fight to the death than lose another war."

"Now," continued the sergeant, "if there are no more smartass remarks, you turds are going to run five kilometres across that expanse, where those combat engineering vehicles are working to give us some nice trenches for defence in depth when the 'Goths, or Corporate Alliance, or some other opportunistic nation taking advantage of Praetonia's other engagements, come for us. Then, you'll do some practice with your penis substitute." She slid her FN FAL off her back, locked, and loaded it. "If you do well enough, you might even get a big one like mine. Otherwise, you'll be stuck in the front lines with those pieces of crap, which won't even penetrate the hard abs on a Doomie, let alone their body armour."

The soldiers ran across the fields, many tripping and getting back up, some falling into trenches and having to be pulled out, a few even getting facefuls of mud or narrowly missing being run over by the combat engineering vehicles as they plodded about digging fortifications. They had to complete this run whilst carrying their weapons, helmets, gas masks, oxygen tanks, body armour and other gear. After five kilometres, targets were posted, wooden or ceramic images of men painted to look like Doomani soldiers, which the recruits had to shoot with their bullpup Tavors.

When the last target was "killed," they were driven by IFV back to base, where they did pushups and lifted heavy weights before being allowed to unwind in a hot shower and go to bed. Martin wasn't finished yet.

"You will sleep with your rifles. You will give your rifle a girl's name, since this is the only pussy you are going to get until you complete your training and show me and the rest of the Army that you're a true soldier, that you can fight off whatever rampaging barbarian trash decides Kahanistan is theirs for the taking, and you're - "

The man whom she had clubbed earlier with the pitchfork interrupted. "I'm gay. I don't like vaginas."

Martin punched the recruit in the gut, hard. Not for being gay - gays, women, and straight men served openly in the Kahanistanian military, and were integrated into the same units. She did it for interrupting her and being a smartass. "Then give your rifle a man's name, smartass. And pray to whatever god you believe in that the Doomani never capture you," she said as he lay on the floor, clutching his stomach in excruciating pain. "Now, where was I. Oh. Until you're finished with basic training and go on to your preferred military jobs. Lights out, motherfuckers."

Cottish Front
The air defenses did its best to take down the incoming Allanean missiles, shooting down quite a few of those missiles that flew in low and in their terminal phase, but despite the efforts of the air defense crews and early warning stations that had detected the incoming missiles when they approached the border and duly sounded the alerts to the sectors in question, the Allanean missiles took out several of the border forts in the first and second lines of defense, but due to the heavy armor the Cottish had on, quite a few of the crews had just enough time to set the self-destruct features and sprint down the long tunnels to the waiting Centauro Sparks APC, abandoning their positions, before the Allanean missiles destroyed the positions. Still, hundreds of Cottish lives were lost in the attack on the Border Forts, but these paled to the casualties that had been caused when a group of Allanean missiles struck a Sector Command Bunker, taking out its entire complement of 400 officers and soldiers. It was the single largest loss thus far in the war, but probably wouldn’t be the last losses the Cottish would endure.

Fortunately for the Cottish, the Allaneans were limiting their counter-attack to the confines of the thirty-kilometer wide demilitarized zone, where Cotland maintained little other than the vast minefields and Border Forts. The Cottish airbases were positioned far behind the border, starting at fifty kilometers behind the DMZ and continuing north, and they were thus untouched by the Allanean missile strikes. Not that they would have had too much effect anyway. When the readiness level was increased, the Flyvåpen had started dispersing aircraft and personnel out to secondary and tertiary airstrips in an effort to minimize casualties and the likelihood of a decapitating enemy strike at the primary airbases. Therefore, there were no attacks on the airbases, although the thirty helicopter bases within the DMZ where the Border Guards’ transport and reconnaissance helicopters were based were hit, with the loss of a total of six hundred lives and forty-nine helicopters of various types. Relatively light casualties in other words.

A retaliatory strike to the Allanean retaliation was immediately carried out, targeting the immobile positions where the Allaneans had fired from, targeting them with Imsdal-C, -E and -F missiles, intending to completely destroy the positions to prevent further such attacks upon Cotland.

Additionally, the strike on the airfields and SAM sites continued, using the same attack profile as before. This time, the priority was given to those airfields that still remained intact, but a few more Imsdal-E missiles were fired against the airfields already struck. The reasoning for this was obvious. The submunitions would wreak havoc with the poor maintenance soldiers trying to repair the ravaged airfields and spread even more submunitions which would need to be removed by EOD teams, something which was a hazardous and time-consuming task.

The Air Defense Regiments continued their attacks on Allanean aerial contacts that strayed within range of the missiles, having been given permission to fire at will from Sector Command. Their task was also obvious: They were to deny Allanea the use of the airspace above the border area, and clear the way for the Kongelige Cottiske Flyvåpen, who were about to enter the fray.

Hundreds of warplanes from the Flyvåpen were already in the air, fitted with deadly live ordinance, each with a specific task designed to pave the way for the Kongelige Cottiske Hær. Tactical Aviation Command was in charge of this operation, and they didn’t intend to let the King and Fatherland down. Immediately following the second Imsdal missile strike, the Flyvåpen got to work. The orders were simple enough: Open three avenues in the front, each one hundred kilometers wide. For this purpose, three strike groups had been assembled, one for each avenue that needed to be opened.

Flying low and fast, the fast FB-177A Barsuk tactical strike bombers made their way through the valleys and uneven terrain of the border area, heading towards the Allanean border defenses. Five Independent Strike Regiments, each with thirty-six Barsuks armed with two LLM.67 Kampspyd air to air missiles and two LBM.64 Karma anti-radiation missiles as well as powerful jammer pods for self defense. Apart from this defensive armament, the Barsuks carried varied armament depending on their tasks. Some were armed with an almost full bomb load of ten 500-kg bombs, some were fitted with a mix of AIC-50 CSOW (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13163766&postcount=10) and ATC-50 CSOW (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13163989&postcount=14) cluster munitions designed to attack infantry and light armor, and armored columns, respectively, and some other were fitted with perhaps the most fearsome weapon: ten BFB-750 Ildmaker incendiary bombs loaded with 560 litres of Napalm-B each. The two regiments armed with the 500-kg bombs were tasked with taking out border fortifications and RADAR sites, the two regiments armed with the cluster weapons were to take out the Allanean ground formations and surviving air defense positions near the border, and the regiment armed with napalm was to attack infantry trenches, formations and suspected minefields. The hope was that the napalm would set off the landmines, thus clearing the way for the Cottish.

The Barsuk tactical strike bombers were covered by three Independent Fighter Aviation Regiments, equipped with air superiority fighters of the type Dauntless F.3, which had recently been delivered from factories in Questers, where the pilots had undergone hasted training to get qualified to fly the Dauntless fighters. Fortunately, the vast majority of the pilots were experienced pilots, having flown F-63K Tengriy or J-21C Typhoon air superiority fighters prior to transitioning to the new Dauntless fighter. Each regiment was equipped with thirty-six aircraft, all of whom had been given loving care and attention by the maintenance crews in order to ensure that they were ready for the fight. Now all of the 108 fighters were in the air, each armed with ten LLM.67A Kampspyd medium-range air to air missiles, four LLM.66B Stridspil short-range IR-guided air to air missiles and two external fuel tanks.

The 108 Dauntless fighters flew at two hundred meters, which was about one hundred and seventy meters above the Barsuks, and one kilometer ahead of the Barsuks in order to remain low enough to make it more difficult for the Allanean RADAR crews that were about to die to detect them, albeit not impossible by a long stretch, while at the same time attracting the attention of the Allanean air defenses that had survived the onslaught by the Imsdal missiles away from the Barsuks, making it more likely that they would survive.

The Cottish weren’t foolish enough to try to emulate pilots of many of the other nation-states of the world, and had therefore split their aircraft into semi-independent four-ship flights, giving the Cottish twenty-seven air superiority formations that could operate independently of each other or in support of each other if necessary. These fighters were spread out over the whole one hundred kilometer wide area where the anti-SAM Imsdal strikes had been the most intense, providing cover for the other aircraft that were attacking. They had for their support several EP-191A Aurora AEW&C aircraft which supplemented the powerful ground RADARs and provided control and early warning, and a number of KP-191D Starkeeper airborne tanker aircraft to refill the fuel tanks if they started to run dry.

While the Dauntless fighters handled any aerial opponent that might arise, the most apparent and serious adversary to the Flyvåpen was the Allanean air defenses. Judging from pre-conflict intelligence, the Allaneans had littered the area with SAMs, AAA and other threats to aircraft, and the Cottish had to neutralize that threat as quickly as possible. Therefore, several flights of EB-177A Coldun escort aircraft, the Barsuk’s electronic warfare sibling, were in the air and accompanied the Barsuks on their missions, jamming the airwaves and firing off LBM.65 Karma anti-radiation missiles at any SAM RADAR that lighted up on the screen. The other 24 EB-177s assigned to the Independent Electronic Warfare Regiment had a slightly different approach. These aircraft were also fitted with powerful jammers and the LBM.64 Karma anti-radiation missile, but they also had something far more important hanging under their wings – the TLL.1A Medium-Range Tactical Air-Launched Decoy (http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/index.php?showtopic=2342&hl=).

This 2.4 meter long, 180 kg heavy fully autonomous piece of airborne engineering was fitted with a RADAR signature that would make it undistinguishable from the Dauntless fighters, the Barsuk tactical strike bombers or any other light fighter, thus making the Allaneans believe that there were a whole lot more aircraft in the air than there really was, and judging from lessons learned from prior conflicts Allanea had shared with Cotlands allies, namely Questers during the Four Day War, that Allanea would fire off everything they had of air defense weaponry and then some at any contact. This tactic of using decoys would make the Allaneans expend their arsenal on relatively cheap decoys and make life a little easier for the Cottish pilots, not to mention actually keeping them alive.

Each of the Coldun EW aircraft in the Independent Electronic Warfare Regiment carried eight Karma missiles and sixteen TLL.1As mounted in quad mounts underneath the wings. As they crossed low and fast towards the border two minutes ahead of the Dauntless fighters, the twenty-four Colduns fired off all the decoys while still inside on the Cottish side of the border. The decoys all fired as they should and climbed to two hundred meters, flying at Mach 0.8 in squadron-sized formations just like real aircraft would, with the distances that would have been necessary to avoid in-flight collision if the decoys had been real aircraft. For all intents and purposes, the Allaneans would believe that they were tracking 384 Cottish fighter jets and not 384 decoys when they detected them on RADAR, which would probably be momentarily.

This was what happened on all three avenues. Each was being attacked by one Independent Electronic Warfare Regiment, three Independent Fighter Aviation Regiments and five Independent Strike Fighter Regiments, liberally supported by Air Defense Regiments armed with Skyguard SAMs, AEW&Cs and tankers, and with additional fighters on hot standby in the event that a decisive air battle were to develop in any of the three avenues. If the Cottish were lucky, they would be able to eliminate the Allanean Air Force and air defenses in the first day of operations.

Space above Haven
High above Haven, in the serenity of space, a seemingly harmless cylindrical object floated through space. It was an almost perfect cylinder, save for the two solar panels that protruded from the sides of the cylinder, and had anyone actually been close enough to see it, they would have seen that the object had markings identifying it as a communications satellite belonging to the TV8 News Corporation, a large independent news conglomerate based in Cotland. In short, harmless unless you were a politician or celebrity.

However, that wasn’t the whole truth. While the satellite relayed broadcast signals from the main office in Eeobroht out to the world, that wasn’t its primary purpose. Far from it. This satellite was one of a constellation of sixteen satellites designed to attack and neutralize enemy satellites, in this case Allanean satellites. For years, the satellite had been floating around space, relaying signals and conserving its fuel, just waiting for the correct authorization code from the surface that would allow it to carry out its primary purpose, namely destroying satellites.

Now, just after the declaration of war, the correct authorization code was uploaded to the satellite, which in the Space Force was referred to as Fugl 24-05, which meant that it was the fifth anti-satellite satellite in the twenty-fourth Anti-Satellite Constellation that the Kongelige Cottiske Romstyrke operated. After checking the received authorization code to the correct code stored in its processor and finding it to be correct, the satellite came to life. Had anyone been close enough to see inside the satellite, they would find that a grim red light had been turned on inside the satellite. Fugl 24-05 was operational.

The target for Fugl 24-05 was quickly uploaded and coordinates checked before the satellite began maneuvering, burning up its valuable maneuvering fuel in order to get into position high above Haven. Its target: An Allanean military satellite.

Fugl 24-05 was designed to impact the target and destroy it with a blast-fragmentation charge powerful enough to destroy both the target and the anti-satellite satellite. In reality, Fugl 24-05 was little more than a glorified suicide satellite, but it was relatively cheap and it was effective. Once the target profile, position, orbit and speed had been uploaded to the satellite, the internal guidance took over and began maneuvering towards the enemy satellite. The Imaging Infrared targeting scanners then compared the target satellite with the target database and locked on. From that point on, there was no way for anyone to break the lock. Jamming would be futile, as would attempts to blind the target. The target would be destroyed within ninety minutes, the maximum time it would take Fugl 24-05 to alter its orbit to intercept and to maneuver close enough to destroy the target.

A total of two constellations of anti-satellite satellites, thirty-two satellites, were attacking Allanean reconnaissance and communications satellites whose orbit moved over or near Cotland and San Nereiana. In addition, twelve Shawshank FAW.2 interceptors had been modified to carry the LRM.65 Kosmos anti-satellite missile, and had been tasked with intercepting Allanean missiles that flew above Cotland as they approached. Each Shawshank was armed lightly, with only one or two of the big Kosmos missiles underneath the wings, depending on whether or not Command expected more than one target to be within range during the sortie.

Bergen Orlogsstasjon
Bergen, Cotland

The Kongelige Cottiske Marine had thus far been unoccupied with hostilities, with the bulk of the five thousand ship strong fleet being in port preparing to head for sea at moment’s notice while the two defense fleets protecting Cotland and Korangar Island enforced Cottish sovereignty in Cottish waters. In the massive naval station outside the metropolis of Bergen, five hundred ships were sitting in their berths, the crews already aboard their respective ships after having been recalled from shore leave by gruff MPs and deadly serious officers. Everyone were told that something big was going to come, but most doubted it, believing it to be just another one of those big surprise exercises the High Command had thrown recently.

However, fifteen minutes after the first shots were fired on what was being referred to within the Royal Georgian League as the 'Cottish Front', the entirety of the Første Orlogsflåte and Tredje Orlogsflåte received orders to put for sea as quickly as possible. As the ships had been ready and waiting for an order such as this, it wasn’t even an hour after the orders were received before the first destroyers and frigates were headed out for sea, followed within a few hours by the cruisers, aircraft carriers and logistics ships. From their more concealed submarine pens, the Cottish submarine fleet that was in port also headed out for sea, quietly and discreetly.

Quietly and hopefully unbeknownst to the Allaneans, a pack of nineteen Type A class diesel-electric submarines and five Tigerhai class nuclear attack submarines were being deployed to off the northern shores of San Nereiana, within the Northfordian minefield that was going to be deployed in the area, in order to blockade the coast there to prevent any Allanean naval assets from breaking out. Quiet, stealthy and deadly, the submarines were manned by the finest of Cotland’s naval personnel, and they knew exactly what they were going to do.

The bulk of the Type As, fourteen of them, were to deploy off the Allanean ports in the area, with orders to sink any military or cargo transport vessel that entered their sectors and to gather information about naval movements so that the Naval Aviation could get something to do as well. The rest of the submarines were to roam the waves in this area, with the diesel-electrics closer to shore due to their smaller dimensions and their quieter propulsion system, with the nuclear subs further out to sea, under the same orders. Using the Mekugian Mk.70 Swordfish IIIA Improved (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13021189&postcount=38) torpedoes or their own UBM.30C AMESM anti-shipping missiles, the submarines stood a good chance of inflicting devastating losses to the Allanean navy and getting away with it.

Three hours after setting sail, the twenty Aircraft Carrier Flotillas the Første Orlogsflåte and Tredje Orlogsflåte had combined had started forming up into their respective formations out at sea, and after having taken aboard the airwings began heading for the new areas where they were to operate, as per the follow-up orders High Command sent them. The bulk of the fleet was to head for the Strobovia Strait to reinforce the four hundred ships already out there, but elements of the Tredje Orlogsflåte were headed west, towards the Strait of Doomanum. Another element of the same fleet were to remain in the vicinity of Cotland, providing naval air power for the allied forces in the relatively small strait.

Allanea were in for a lot of hurt if they didn’t take measures to get out of this conflict which they had brought upon themselves.

OOC: I received notice from several players that this war is retconned. As such, I consider my participation in it retconned as well.