New Lands and new headaches ( E2 only rp) [Archive]

Layarteb

20-04-2008, 22:26

All entries with the asterick (*) are top secret IC meaning that specifications on them are not public, performance is not public, their existence is not public, and knowledge of their existence may be deduced only to rumors and grainy photography taken by a lucky UFO nutso who may have gotten close enough to a secret airbase to actually get a shot off.

Order of Battle
Operation MYSTIC RIVER

Imperial Layartebian Air Force
Location: Incirlik Air Base, Incirlik, Turkey, United Federation of Eurasia
Elements: 38th Air Control Wing, 32nd Bomb Wing, 181st Fighter Wing, 57th Logistics Wing, 44th Space Control Wing, 42nd Special Operations Wing
Personnel: ~7,000
Pilots: 1,260
Base Air Defenses: AABMS Site (1), AADMS Site (2), APDS Units (16), Crow Air Defense Site (2), LAADS Units (16), Replicator Air Defense Site (1), Wizard MANPADs (100+)

3801st Air Control Squadron: E-9A AWACS (2)
3802nd Air Control Squadron: E-10A MC2A (2)
3201st Bomber Squadron: B-10A Badger (12) & EB-10B Badger (4)
3203rd Bomber Squadron: B-6A Dementor (12)
18101st Fighter Squadron: F-35A Raven (16)
18102nd Fighter Squadron: F-26A Typhoon (16)
18103rd Fighter Squadron: F-22B Raptor (16)
18104th Fighter Squadron: A-15A Cobra (16)
18105th Fighter Squadron: F-16G Super Falcon (12) & F-16H Super Falcon (4)
5701st Logistics Squadron: C-17B Globemaster III (12)
5702nd Logistics Squadron: C-130J Super Hercules (16)
5703rd Logistics Squadron: KC-10B Extender (8)
5704th Logistics Squadron: CV-24A Bulldog (16)
4401st Space Control Squadron: U-2S Dragon Lady (8)
4402nd Space Control Squadron: A-26C Condor* (4)
4403rd Space Control Squadron: MQ-14A Firefly* (16) & MQ-15A Zweihänder* (12)
4404th Space Control Squadron: EC-21D Learjet 80 (4)
4408th Space Control Squadron: RQ-4B Global Hawk (6)
4201st Special Operations Squadron: AC-27C Sledgehammer (4)
4204th Special Operations Squadron: MC-130J Combat Talon III (4)

Imperial Layartebian Army
Location: Forward Operating Base Imapala, Bashtanka, Ukraine, United Federation of Eurasia
Elements: 3rd Airborne Division, 17th Assault Regiment, 17th Logistics Regiment, 17th Reconnaissance Regiment, 10th Special Operations Regiment
Infantry: 24,214
Personnel: ~25,000
Pilots: 738
Base Air Defenses: AADMS Site (1), APDS Units (6), LAADS Units (6), Wizard MANPADs (200+)

1701st Assault Battalion: AH-103A Cheyenne (12), AH-104A Cherokee (12)
1702nd Assault Battalion: AH-99A Anasazi (24)
1703rd Assault Battalion: AH-6M Little Bird (24)
1701st Logistics Battalion: CH-47F Chinook (6)
1702nd Logistics Battalion: CH-53N Super Stallion II (6)
1703rd Logistics Battalion: UH-60M Black Hawk (12)
1704th Logistics Battalion: UH-72A Lakota (12)
1705th Logistics Battalion: UH-96A Panther (12)
1706th Logistics Battalion: UV-24D Bulldog (12)
1701st Reconnaissance Battalion: OH-72B Lakota (12)
1702nd Reconnaissance Battalion: OH-72B Lakota (12)
1703rd Reconnaissance Battalion: RAH-70A Arapaho (12)
1704th Reconnaissance Battalion: RAH-70A Arapaho (12)
1001st Special Operations Battalion: MH-6M Little Bird (16)
1002nd Special Operations Battalion: MV-24B Bulldog (12)
1003rd Special Operations Battalion: MH-53P Pave Low V (12)
1004th Special Operations Battalion: MH-60M Black Hawk (16)

Airborne (Enlisted): 15,358
Airborne (Headquarters): 68
Airborne (Officers): 3,074
Airmen: 714
Infantry (Enlisted): 244
Infantry (Headquarters): 15
Infantry (Officers): 12
Reserves: 5,000
Total: 24,485

M777A1 Lightweight 155 ART: 16
M2009A1 Fennek RV: 8
M2015A1 Cobra APC: 48
M2015A2 Cobra MRTR: 16
LAADS Units: 20
M2025A1 Piranha AT: 24
M2027A3 TEL: 24
M2031A1 Tumbler BV: 8
M2033A4 MTV: 16
M2033A6 MTV: 8
M2033A7 MTV: 8
M2033A11 MTV: 8
M2033A13 MTV: 16
M2033A15 MTV: 16
M2033A16 MTV: 16
M2034A2 LTV: 16
M2034A4 LTV: 32
M2034A6 LTV: 16
M2037A2 HEMTT: 8
M2037A11 HEMTT: 12
M2037A20 HEMTT: 24
M2047A1 Arrow APC: 32
M2047A2 Arrow MEV: 56
M2047A3 Arrow C3: 4
M2047A4 Arrow AT: 8
M2047A5 Arrow RV: 8
M2047A6 Arrow TD: 32
M2048A1 Shark IFV: 8
M2050A1 Serpent LBT: 24
M2052A1 Cougar: 48
M2052A2 Cougar: 48

Imperial Layartebian Defense Forces
Location: Dnieper River
Elements: 1st Maritime Patrol Group, 7th Maritime Patrol Group
Personnel: ~300
Pilots: None
Base Air Defenses: LAADS Units (2), Wizard MANPADS (10+)

[b]Nightmare Flight II: 16

Imperial Layartebian Marine Corps
Location: Forward Operating Base Suburban, Kherson, Ukraine, United Federation of Eurasia
Elements: Various
Personnel: ~600
Pilots: None
Base Air Defenses: LAADS Units (2), Wizard MANPADS (10+)

Piranha Class: 32

Location: Forward Operating Base Corvette, Odessa, Ukraine, United Federation of Eurasia
Elements: 9th Marine Division, 1st Brigade
Personnel: ~6,500
Pilots: 126
Base Air Defenses: LAADS Units (4), Wizard MANPADS (20+)

AH-99B Anasazi: 6
CH-53N Super Stallion II: 12
F-35B Raven: 4
HV-24C Bulldog: 8
M777A1 Lightweight 155 ART: 18
M2009A1 Fennek RV: 6
M2015A1 Cobra APC: 16
LAADS Units: 4
M2017A2 Frog APC: 16
M2031A1 Tumbler BV: 12
M2032A2 Sabertooth MBT: 10
M2033A4 MTV: 22
M2033A6 MTV: 4
M2033A7 MTV: 4
M2033A9 MTV: 14
M2033A10 MTV: 4
M2033A11 MTV: 4
M2033A12 MTV: 4
M2033A13 MTV: 12
M2033A14 MTV: 2
M2033A15 MTV: 58
M2034A2 LTV: 14
M2034A4 LTV: 42
M2034A6 LTV: 4
M2037A2 HEMTT: 10
M2037A10 HEMTT: 2
M2043A1 ACB: 12
M2047A1 Arrow APC: 16
M2047A2 Arrow MEV: 38
M2047A3 Arrow C3: 4
M2047A6 Arrow TD: 16
M2048A1 Shark IFV: 32
M2048A3 Shark CFV: 6
M2050A1 Serpent LBT: 20
M2051A1 CMPLV: 50
M2051A2 CMPLV: 54
M2051A3 CMPLV: 50
M2052A1 Cougar: 18
M2052A2 Cougar: 22
M2059A1 Rattlesnake AT: 12
M2060A1 Buzzsaw: 16
MQ-8C Fire Scout: 2
UH-95A Super Huey: 9

Location: Forward Operating Base Camaro, Melitopol, Ukraine, United Federation of Eurasia
Elements: 9th Marine Division, 2nd Brigade
Personnel: ~6,500
Pilots: 110
Base Air Defenses: LAADS Units (4), Wizard MANPADS (20+)

AH-99B Anasazi: 6
CH-53N Super Stallion II: 12
F-35B Raven: 4
HV-24C Bulldog: 4
M777A1 Lightweight 155 ART: 18
M2009A1 Fennek RV: 6
M2015A1 Cobra APC: 16
LAADS Units: 4
M2017A2 Frog APC: 16
M2031A1 Tumbler BV: 12
M2032A2 Sabertooth MBT: 10
M2033A4 MTV: 22
M2033A6 MTV: 4
M2033A7 MTV: 4
M2033A9 MTV: 14
M2033A10 MTV: 4
M2033A11 MTV: 4
M2033A12 MTV: 4
M2033A13 MTV: 12
M2033A14 MTV: 2
M2033A15 MTV: 58
M2034A2 LTV: 14
M2034A4 LTV: 42
M2034A6 LTV: 4
M2037A2 HEMTT: 10
M2037A10 HEMTT: 2
M2043A1 ACB: 12
M2047A1 Arrow APC: 16
M2047A2 Arrow MEV: 38
M2047A3 Arrow C3: 4
M2047A6 Arrow TD: 16
M2048A1 Shark IFV: 32
M2048A3 Shark CFV: 6
M2050A1 Serpent LBT: 20
M2051A1 CMPLV: 50
M2051A2 CMPLV: 54
M2051A3 CMPLV: 50
M2052A1 Cougar: 18
M2052A2 Cougar: 22
M2059A1 Rattlesnake AT: 12
M2060A1 Buzzsaw: 16
MQ-8C Fire Scout: 2
UH-95A Super Huey: 9

Location: Forward Operating Base Cobalt, Kazanka, Ukraine, United Federation of Eurasia
Elements: 9th Marine Division, 3rd Brigade
Personnel: ~6,500
Pilots: 110
Base Air Defenses: LAADS Units (4), Wizard MANPADS (20+)

AH-99B Anasazi: 6
CH-53N Super Stallion II: 12
F-35B Raven: 4
HV-24C Bulldog: 4
M777A1 Lightweight 155 ART: 18
M2009A1 Fennek RV: 6
M2015A1 Cobra APC: 16
LAADS Units: 4
M2017A2 Frog APC: 16
M2031A1 Tumbler BV: 12
M2032A2 Sabertooth MBT: 10
M2033A4 MTV: 22
M2033A6 MTV: 4
M2033A7 MTV: 4
M2033A9 MTV: 14
M2033A10 MTV: 4
M2033A11 MTV: 4
M2033A12 MTV: 4
M2033A13 MTV: 12
M2033A14 MTV: 2
M2033A15 MTV: 58
M2034A2 LTV: 14
M2034A4 LTV: 42
M2034A6 LTV: 4
M2037A2 HEMTT: 10
M2037A10 HEMTT: 2
M2043A1 ACB: 12
M2047A1 Arrow APC: 16
M2047A2 Arrow MEV: 38
M2047A3 Arrow C3: 4
M2047A6 Arrow TD: 16
M2048A1 Shark IFV: 32
M2048A3 Shark CFV: 6
M2050A1 Serpent LBT: 20
M2051A1 CMPLV: 50
M2051A2 CMPLV: 54
M2051A3 CMPLV: 50
M2052A1 Cougar: 18
M2052A2 Cougar: 22
M2059A1 Rattlesnake AT: 12
M2060A1 Buzzsaw: 16
MQ-8C Fire Scout: 2
UH-95A Super Huey: 9

Imperial Layartebian Navy
Location: Atlantic Ocean
Elements: 9th Amphibious Assault Group, 12th Submarine Attack Group
Personnel: ~750
Pilots: 34
Base Air Defenses: Various

MH-60R Sea Hawk: 1
MQ-8C Fire Scout: 2
SH-102A Sea Lord: 2
Venom: 1
Verrazano Flight II: 1
Virginia Flight II: 1
Voodoo: 1

Location: Black Sea
Elements: 9th Amphibious Assault Group
Personnel: ~18,750
Pilots: 1,676
Base Air Defenses: Various

AH-99B Anasazi: 4
CH-53N Super Stallion II: 10
Dnalkrad Flight II: 1
Earthquake Flight II: 1
F-35B Raven: 12
Heretic: 1
HV-24C Bulldog: 6
Independence: 1
Jackal: 2
MC-11B CSA: 4
ME-11C CSA: 4
Mexia Flight V: 1
MH-60R Sea Hawk: 15
MH-60S Knight Hawk: 9
MQ-8C Fire Scout: 17
Ocean: 1
Odin Flight II: 2
San Antonio: 2
SH-102A Sea Lord: 5
Supply: 1
UH-95A Super Huey: 3
Unforgiven: 1
Verrazano Flight II: 1
Virginia Flight II: 1
Wilson: 2

Location: Mediterranean Sea
Elements: 9th Amphibious Assault Group
Personnel: ~15,000
Pilots: 804
Base Air Defenses: Various

AH-99B Anasazi: 2
Arsenal Flight II: 1
CH-53N Super Stallion II: 4
Dnalkrad Flight II: 1
Emperor: 1
Hampton: 1
Heretic: 1
HV-24C Bulldog: 6
Jackal: 2
Mexia Flight IV: 1
MH-60R Sea Hawk: 11
MH-60S Knight Hawk: 7
MQ-8C Fire Scout: 17
Ocean: 1
SH-102A Sea Lord: 12
Supply: 1
UH-95A Super Huey: 2
Unforgiven: 1
Virginia Flight II: 1
Voodoo: 1
Wilson: 7

Imperial Layartebian Special Forces
Location: Varied
Elements: 3rd Special Operations Group, 4th Special Operations Group, 9th Special Operations Group
Personnel: 76
Pilots: 0
Base Air Defenses: Various

3rd SOG "Force Reconnaissance": 3 teams [12 men]
4th SOG "Rangers": 6 teams [48 men]
9th SOG "Ghost Recon": 4 teams [16 men]

Layarteb

21-04-2008, 04:52

April 20, 2008 - 23:00 hrs [GMT+2]
4.8 kilometers NE of Melitopol, Zaporizhia Oblast

"Forever fades away." Doug repeated as he shot a glimpse through the iron sights of his M81A2 Marine Assault Rifle. He and his squad of Marines were patrolling the perimeter near their base, FOB Camaro, situated northeast of Melitopol. Melitopol was a city in the Zaporizhia Oblast, a province of Ukraine. Ukraine was full of these oblasts, most of which weren't in the full control of the Eurasian government. Of the twenty-five oblasts in Ukraine, just five of them were under full control by the Eurasian government, eight were under some control, and the remaining twelve were untouched by Eurasian control. It was a precarious situation in Ukraine. The country had once been part of the great Fourth Reich of North Germania but descended to its own state of independent anarchy following the collapse of Berlin. The Eurasian Federation moved in shortly thereafter and established control in the southern part of the country, along the Black Sea, as well as in Kiev, further to the north. They had made some headway in the border regions to what they already controlled but had made little progress in the larger, northern part of the country, save for Kiev, which was, essentially, surrounded by rebellious forces. When the situation had grown to a certain point, the Eurasians had requested help from their allies in the October Alliance, the Empire being one of them. The Imperial Layartebian Military dispatched a sizeable force to Ukraine not long after the request, which consisted of a full Marine division, a paratrooper division, and various other elements of the ILM; however, most of the ILM bases were in the safer "green zone." FOB Camaro was the exception. Situated in an oblast where control was considered shaky, at best, the base had come under heavy fire from rebellious forces from the moment it was errected. The technological and tactical superiority of the Marines kept it alive all these months, even when supplies weren't too close on the horizon.

Doug was a lowly corporal, a foot soldier with the Marines serving his two year mandatory conscription. Barely nineteen years old, he wasn't really the model of a soldier and his family was of the upper classes of Layartebian society. Still, he wasn't exempt from service and when his unit got orders to ship out to Ukraine, his family thought of more than one ingenious way of getting him out of the fight. It didn't work and now, a kid, with an assault rifle in his hand, he and seven others were crawling into a position on the northern perimeter of the base. The previous night, a group of fourteen rebels had probed their defenses and were brutally repelled by a pair of Marine snipers who managed to kill four of them. They expected a similar attack tonight, if not the full attack itself. That was why a hundred Marines were out, patrolling around the perimeter, waiting to engage enemy forces. Doug's squad was an eight man team that was equipped with both a fire team and an assault team. Doug was part of the fire team, one of two grenadiers and he had an M115A1 Grenade Launcher fitted underneath the barrel of his assault rifle.

Doug's squad was led by 2LT. Jacob Hartsdale, who they all gave the nickname "Buzz" for his uncanny resemblance to Buzz Lightyear, from the movie, Toy Story. SSG. Carl Murray was the leader of the assault squad and everyone just called him "Carl" in a sort of undeserved tone. He wasn't a favorite among the men, mainly because of his superior attitude. The other grenadier in Doug's squad was CPL. Michael Richardson, another conscriptee who wanted nothing to do with the military. The fourth part of their squad was the radioman, SPC. Thomas Martin. In the assault squad, they had Carl, two corporals, James Wesley and Adam Davidson, and one specialist, Victor Reyes. Aside fro Hartsdale and Murray, none of them had reached their twentieth birthday yet. The relatively green squad had seen a good amount of combat since deploying to Ukraine and this was nothing new for them. When asked what Doug thought about the war, the night sky, and the whole surreal nature of their lives, by his friend and high school buddy, CPL. Richardson, he had only one thing to say, "Forever fades away." CPL. Richardson didn't know what he meant at first and asked him to repeat it and he did, as he carefully watched the horizon around him. It was dark and somewhat chilly. None of them were allowed to smoke because the glowing embers of their cigarettes would give away their locations, though they all wanted a cigarette. It helped calm their nerves, after all. Despite being painfully unhealthy and addictive, they were still handed out to soldiers and not discouraged. Nicotine gum, on the other hand, was becoming more favorable since it had far fewer dangerous chemicals than cigarettes had. Unfortunately, for the squad, none of them had any and they were sitting on the ground, wishing they all had some.

"Quiet." 2LT. Hartsdale ordered as he overhead Doug and Michael conversing. They were in an ambush situation and talking wasn't going to be helpful to them. It was going to give them away. It wasn't even midnight yet and they had hours to go before the sun rose, before it was safe to get up and head back to base for some sleep, unless the enemy decided to shell them again with mortars, like they had done the past three days.

April 20, 2008 - 23:00 hrs [GMT+2]
150 kilometers SSE of Odessa, Black Sea

Aboard the deck of an ILN Odin Flight II class amphibious assault ship, a pair of F-35B Ravens sat ready for takeoff. Their pilots had already climbed into the cockpits, locked the canopy's, and were done with their preflight checks. They were just awaiting clearance now. Each of their aircraft were armed with a pair of AIM-221A LRAAAM missiles internally, a pair of one thousand pound JDAM II bombs, also internally, and a pair of 600 gallon fuel tanks, externally. Their relatively light load was simply because they had only a small target to attack but it was far away. They needed enough range to get there and back and the drop tanks would allow them to get far enough that they could come back without them, limiting drag and increasing their fuel efficiency. They didn't need to be carrying the LRAAAM missiles either since the Ukrainians possessed no viable air support option but the Ravens wouldn't be caught off guard if, suddenly, a MiG or something dropped down on them. Their target was a small communications site located near Cherkasy, in territory the Eurasian forces had no control over and which was considered a frontline territory. The communications site was being used by the rebels to transmit satellite communications throughout the globe and, also, to intercept battlefield communications being used by the Eurasian and Layartebian forces, though cracking the encryption was still out of their means.

Cherkasy was right on the Dnieper River, about two hundred kliks south of Kiev and a major chokepoint for the city. Layartebian gunboats running along the Dnieper were guaranteed to take heavy small arms fire from the area surrounding the city. With nearly 300,000 inhabitants in the city, it wasn't going to be easy to quell when the Eurasian armies got that far. Entrenched along a river and well supplied, Cherkasy was high on the list of destinations for the Layartebian paratroopers to conquer but they had been held back thus far. This was a Eurasian war and the Layartebian presence, though not classified, wasn't overt. There had been a few Layartebain casualties since the ILM entered the war but far fewer than in the same time frame in either Mato Grosso or the Amazonian Republic.

The seas were calm that night and the Odin LHDN rolled very little as it sat quietly in the northern part of the Black Sea, a number of support vessels scattered around it and the Med. Equipped with forty-one ships, including submarines, the single Amphibious Assault Ready Group (AARG) deployed to the Ukrainian theater of operations contained more firepower than the navies of some countries on Earth. However, this wasn't, necessarily, a war about firepower. Technologically superior, better trained, better equipped, and better prepared, both the Eurasian and Layartebian military's deployed could easily win every battle they fought with the Ukrainian rebels. The biggest threat was the urban fighting tactics. All of that technology wouldn't be the end-all, be-all for them in the cities and towns as they forced their way northward.

The clearance for flight operations came at 23:00 hours and the two pilots lifted their F-35s into the air after a short takeoff roll down the deck of the amphibious assault ships. To conserve fuel, they wouldn't take off vertically but rather use the deck to gain speed, in order to take off quickly. Once in the air, they would climb to 25,000 feet, well above the pesky shoulder-fired missiles the rebels possessed. With their aircraft lights off, the two F-35s sleekly flew through the dark skies, invisible to those on the ground and barely visible to the countless radars over the country.

Layarteb

24-04-2008, 04:50

April 21, 2008 - 03:00 hrs [GMT+2]
Outside Poltava, Poltava Oblast

Spectre, Dust, Raptor, and Diablo had arrived on site just before midnight, after three days of crawling, crouching, and sprinting through miles upon miles of dangerous terrain, all of it controlled by rebel forces. They had done a HAHO into position in the middle of the night, diving out of the back of a C-28A Gulfstream VI from an altitude of 35,000 feet while over Roman territory to the west. The Gulfstream had civilian registration data and easily slipped through airspace all over the world. At that altitude the four men fell for a few seconds before they popped their chutes and glided into hostile territory, using their GPS devices as guidance, drifting for almost forty miles. They dropped in, gathered their gear, and waited for a specially modified Super Hercules transport, which snatched their gear up and took it away, back to base. From there, they were entirely on their own, weapons in hand, night vision goggles fitted, and supplies well stocked. They had a single mission, which was to get to the rebel camp, observe it, and then blow it to pieces. Two days into the mission, their orders changed. They had done well, avoiding contact with several rebel patrols and one anti-aircraft emplacement. They marked it on their maps and transmitted the coordinates shortly thereafter.

When they stopped it was in the middle of a powerful thunderstorm. Their rain gear was soaked and they had used the limited visibility to their advantage. Their change of orders was based on new intelligence about the camp, intelligence that meant they needed to be on site. Intercepted communications had revealed that the rebel camp was set to receive a shipment of surface-to-air missiles, man-portable ones. The rebels throughout Ukraine had an unimaginable supply of surface-to-air missiles, all of them advanced systems left over from the Germanian era. They had already used it to shoot down a number of Eurasian aircraft thus far. They had taken about a dozen shots thus far at Layartebian aircraft, both helicopters and fixed-wing but failed to score any hits. Layartebian flight doctrines did not permit any fixed-wing aircraft to fly under 10,000 feet and helicopters flying at normal operating altitudes were equipped with infrared jammers and consistently released flares. These were hard lessons learned from decades upon decades of fighting in areas where man portable SAMs were the most potent and effective weapons of the campaign. Since the end of the Conquests in 2006 and the Age of Realization, the Layartebian military had lost only a handful of aircraft to man-portable missiles, despite being engaged in South America and elsewhere throughout the world. The most recent loss was in Mato Grosso, when a Layartebian Super Stallion II was shot down. Unfortunately, it marked one of the bloodiest days in Layartebian history as dozens of Layartebian soldiers died.

The weather promised to be bad throughout the entirety of the mission, which was a relief for the men but, when it cleared up on the 20th, it was not a breath of fresh news. They moved into position just before midnight and had been there for almost three and a half hours and watched everything that happened in the camp from a safe mile away. They used powerful binoculars that could digitally zoom to high resolution levels and provide night vision capabilities as well. Spectre, the lieutenant and team leader held the binoculars in his hands as he swept from one end of the camp to the other. Raptor, the sniper, and Diablo, his spotter, were positioned two hundred meters away with their high-caliber sniper rifle while Dust, another gunner with the squad, was paired with Spectre. They both looked kept their rifles handy and the four man, Force Reconnaissance team was set and ready for action. According to the intelligence report, the missiles were going to arrive between 02:45 and 03:15 hours. They arrived around 03:10 hours, almost outside of the window. "Alright boys. It's here. Stay sharp. We don't have any patrols but that doesn't mean they aren't out there," Spectre said as he released the microphone on his neck and looked through the binoculars as the military truck came to a halt in the middle of the camp. They watched as a group of foreigners, definitely not Ukrainians, step out of the truck and begin conversing. "That's them. Dust. Lase the target." Because their target was the truck and, because of the situation, they couldn't simply use a GPS device to get the proper coordinates of the vehicle. For them, it was smarter to use laser guided weaponry and, now, the fun began. Spectre looked over to his side and saw the thumb's up from Dust when the target was lased. "What's the range?"

"Nineteen hundred forty-five."

"Boxer Four. Boxer Four. This is Granite. How you doing tonight?"

"Granite. This is Boxer Four. We're good. Looking for a few fish."

"We've got some for you right now. Bait is set."

"Roger that. Acquiring. Acquired. Coming down gentlemen!"

"Roger. We're ready." Forty thousand feet above them a B-10A Badger medium-bomber, loaded with four GBU-47 Paveway V laser-guided bombs, began its own mission. They were carrying two bombs equipped with powerful, BLU-118 thermobaric warheads and two with penetrating BLU-116 warheads. For this drop, the co-pilot selected the thermobaric munitions and rotated the ATRL in the bomb bay and initiated the drop sequence. The main bay doors shot open and the first munition dropped free and, several moments later, so did the second one. The Paveway V was equipped, primarily, with a semi-active laser sequence, like the Paveways before it and, like the EGBU series, added a GPS device. Once the laser location was locked in, the GPS switch took over and increased the accuracy of the weapon. The second bomber was slaved to a different location at the base and the laser designator was switched off as it was no longer needed, these were stationary targets.

Hirgizstan

25-04-2008, 22:42

Dnipro River, 20 Miles North of Zaporizhzhya

"Fucking United States, bunch of pantywaists, I'm tellin' ya. The minute they start taking casualties they'll cut and run, leaving us in the middle of it. And whats worse, we're up here freezing our butts off in this Eastern shithole."

Liutenant Chucky Jumuas wasn't as pissed off as he sounded. The impending war in Africa was a hot topic among all of the armed forces, especially the elite units, of which he was one.
The SBS (Special Boat Service) were the Hirgizstanian Navy's most elite unit. Each member had to have at least two years exemplary SEAL or Marine Force Recon service before applying for assessment. The SBS was small and secretive, few people ever mentioned them outside the Navy and their exploits were never reported above certain levels.

Thats the way Chucky and his men liked it. They were, for all intents and purposes, invisible. Tonight, on the Dnipro River, they were also invisible.

The Class 145 VSV (Very Slender Vessel) 'Alligator' Interceptor craft was the stealthiest, fastest and most deadly in the Navy's arsenal. A crew of five fitted snugly into the thin, dagger-like boat. It was low to the water, painted dark grey and was invisible to both radar and the naked eye at night.

A casual look in the daytime and the boat would appear not to be armed, but a panel below the thin bow concealed a CROWS 25mm ACCSW, while a panel above the stern concealed two Mk.550 'Flying Fish' mini-torpedoes capable of taking out small to medium sized vessels. The missiles would simply jump out out of the launcher, arcing over the boat before diving into the water and screaming underwater towards a target.

The four inboard engines were also capable of pushing the craft faster than any other known naval vessel in the world. The maximum speed was reported, in tests, to be around 80 knots, more than enough to catch rebels on a black Ukranian night.

Chucky was sitting on the racing-car bucket seats under the eery green stealth canopy. He faced the drivers back and looked across at two of his men. The younger man under the waterproof balaclava and equipment was CWO4. Stokely "Stokes" Ghilles. Stokes was a former computer programmer who'd signed up to the Navy to get some sunshine and exercise into his life, but he'd liked handling guns and became a SEAL candidate, failing once before getting his 'trident' the second time around. The guy beside him was Snr.Chief Lee "Shimmy" Kilaro, a climber in his former civilian life and now one of the Navy's best snipers, winning the Marine Corps Medallion, the most coveted marksmans award in the country, two years running.

Directly beside Chucky was Mstr.Chief Sam "Burnout" Burns. Burnout was older than Chucky but had been in the Air Force STS (Special Tactics Squadron) before crossing to the Navy SEALS and eventually finding his way into the SBS. He had been demoted several times for destroying Navy wheeled property by doing burnouts, hence the nickname.

Driving the boat was CWO5. Oswald "Oz" Linkga. Oz had been brought up in the Seychelles as a fisherman and was well respected as a boat driver in the Navy and SBS in particular due to having run the 'gauntlet' for a whole year. The 'gauntlet' was a six month or year long fishing season in the south Pacific, stationed on Howland Island. More fisherman were killed on those trips than anywhere else in the COH, and Oz had survived the fishing for a year driving different sizes of boats. The VSV was like a finely tuned performance car, Oz had no trouble guiding it up and down the Dniper.

Chucky was himself a four year SEAL veteran and a long-time SBS member, a respected man in the small fraternity. There was no one better to run up the Dnipro in the pitch dark looking for bad guys.

Chucky's ruminations on their situation met with a series of approvals in the small cabin. Burnout turned slightly in his seat to look at Chucky, "I reckon we're better off here."

Chucky looked surprised, "Enlighten us Burns..."

"Well, from what I've seen on maps and stuff, the rivers in the Ivory Coast are thin and dry for most of the year, and non-existent in parts of Mali. We'll see more action here, I guarantee you that."

Stokes was shaking his head at this, "Hell no Burns, unless the rebels are serious, and I reckon they ain't, we'll be lucky to be here another week."

Shimmy nodded approval, "I hope your right Stokes, my kid is starting kindergarten in a month, I wanna' be home for that if there's no action here. No point freezing our asses off if this war ain't gonna hot up."

It took the calm, low and even tone of Oz's voice to bring the other four out of their assessment and back to the job at hand. "More contacts on radar, we're in the suspected smuggling area. This is near were our UCAV blew up that boat a few days ago."

Chucky stood up and went and stood firmly, as the boat rolled and pitched due to its speed and size, behind Oz's seat, looking at the radar on the fighter-aircraft like control surfaces.

He saw the contacts on the radar and sat back down, unclipping a screen from above his head. It was a touch-screen for the boat's commander.

Chucky brought up a satellite feed of the river ahead and brought the 25mm ACCSW online as he waited for the sat-feed to load.

He had the sat feed online and zoomed in to the radar's co-ords, finding a thermal image of two boats, tied up close to the side of the river. He zoomed out a bit and sure enough, three trucks, engines hot and ticking over, were sitting on the bank nearby, a few people smoking beside the vehicles.

"I think this is it guys, get ready."

Chucky fiddled with the control on his arm and brought down his head-strap mounted visor and earpiece.

He didn't need the visor, just the earpiece. "This is Dark Surfer for Beach Bum, come in Beach Bum."

"Reading you Dark Surfer, go ahead, over."

"Beach Bum, we have tourists in the resort, repeat, we have tourists in the resort, over."

"Copy that Dark Surfer. Green light, over."

"Roger Green Light Beach Bum, Dark Surfer out."

Chucky shouted in the cabin, "We're a go, just as we planned. Oz, do it."

Right on cue Oz killed the engines. The little noise they put out at cruising speed now disappeared completely and the slight rumble in the cabin gaveway to a light swishing noise as the dagger shapped craft sliced through the water toward the targets.

As they crossed the half a click margin, Chucky opened the fore deck and the 25mm ACCSW came up silently. Chucky now had the CROWS view on the touch-screen and he used the screen's touch pen as a joystick, slipping it into a little hole and moving the video gunsite.

The grey night vision picked out the scene in perfect detail. The two boats were average size trawlers, nets and cranes drawn in and most of their running lights off or dimmed.
The two boats were pulled up at an old concrete jetty and there were people moving on the jetty itself, where the three trucks were pulled up, back gates down. Large crates sat on the jetty as more were hoisted up by men on the boats.

On the roof of each boats wheel-house a man stood with a sniper rifle, neither of them doing anything except smoking, the rifles slung on their shoulders. A couple more nonchalant guards walked on the jetty.

Chucky checked his watch and said one word, "Go."

Burnout, Stokes and Shimmy stood up and exited the boat, plunging over the side into the water, disappearing quickly like they were never there.

At three hundred metres Oz halted the boat by dropping a small anchor. The stabilized ACCSW remained true on the torso of one of the snipers.

Chucky waited for five minutes before he heard in his earpiece, "Fishes are in position."

"Roger that, firing now."

Chucky clicked the top button on the little pen joystick and a single 25mm AP round tore out of the barrel toward the sniper on one of the boats. He wouldn't have even heard the shot as the round exploded into his body, mangling and tearing through his organs at supersonic speed, before shattering his ribcage as it exploded out the other side.

Chucky had the second sniper down before he'd even dropped his cigarette and then began strafing the hulls of the boats before tracing the gun up toward the trucks.

He stopped after about seven seconds. Then he heard Burnout's voice say in his earpiece, "Fishes are swimming."

Ten minutes later a live rebel and two crates of advanced North Germanian AA Missiles and launchers, as well as two laptops and a ships manifest and log were safely aboard the Alligator as it sped down the Dnipro toward friendly waters.

Layarteb

26-04-2008, 03:13

OOC: We should iron out "operating" sectors.

April 21, 2008 - 03:00 hrs [GMT+2]
Dnieper River near Nikopol'

The Piranha class PBR moved slowly through the crisp and clean water of the Dnieper. Its crew of four were doning their body armor and on high alert, watching the world through their night vision goggles and carefully manning their weapons. In the front, on the twin M31A2 15.5MM Heavy Machine Guns was CPL. Jarvis, a conscriptee who had another eight months before his tour of duty was up and he could go to college. Driving the small, river patrol boat was MSG. Shepard, a lifer who started out in a Marine cavalry division but switched career paths to driving river boats shortly before war in Mato Grosso. The other two men on the boat was SGT. Davis and CPL. Healy, both of them conscriptees, although Davis had less than three months before he was done. He was thinking of extending his tour of duty by two more years. He enjoyed the Marines and he enjoyed river service even more. He was an action-junkie and was famous for his blatant disregard of military decorum when nobody was looking. He had been the infamous one in his unit that water skiied off the back of his PBR once. The unit commander was ready to send him to the brig for two weeks but the following day a Black Hawk crashed a few miles away from their base and Davis had personally pulled three men from the burning wreckage while taking heavy small arms fire. For his heroism he was awarded the Navy Cross and for injuries sustained during the brief firefight, he was awarded a Purple Heart. The unit commander decided to wipe his slate clean after that, hoping it would change his attitude. It didn't and when he received orders to relocate with the rest of his boat crew to Ukraine, he celebrated by throwing a toga party at his apartment, off base of course. MPs broke it up about two hours after it began.

The glue that held them together was Shepard, a thirty-five year old veteran of several wars. He joined the Marines in 1991 and saw combat in French Guiana, Kaliningrad, Colombia, Ireland, Cuba, Venezeula, the Amazonian territory, and Mato Grosso. He was more than just a veteran, he was a war hero with medals all over his chest when he wore his dress uniform. However, out there, on the boat, he was the opposite of any war hero. He wasn't a hard-charger like he had been as a Marine infantry man, jumping out of the back of an M2 Bradley or M2015 Cobra. He was calmer, cooler, and much more calculating and reserved. This was a trait he had gained with age and experience and now that he led just three men, rather than an entire squad of eight or more into combat, he could focus his attention on them and on their advancement in the Marine Corps. Though they were three conscriptees, he still treated them as if they were life-time soldiers and tried his best to ignore their talk about "getting out" when their time came. He had respect for his crew and they had respect for him, which meant, when he spoke, they listened. He made that point abundantly clear on the first day he met them. He had, by now, lost a lot of his composure that he had once had, when he had been a drill instructor. Seemingly, he had done it all and now he was wrapping up the final three years of service on the river front, with a boat, a small crew, and a lot more freedom to act under his discretion.

MSG. Shepard had left dock earlier that evening and moved quickly out of "green" territory and into "yellow" territory where his orders were to make sure no smuggler's vessels snuck through. Other Piranha class PBRs and some Nightmare class PBRs from the defense forces moved past him, moving up or down river throughout the night, many of them waving as they went by, keeping their own composure and course. Since they had arrived in country just six weeks prior, their PBR had seen combat twice and, both times, they came out the victors. The first instance was against a small motorboat transporting explosives and small arms. It lit up like a firecracker when CPL. Jarvis let out a long, steady burst of 15.5mm machine gun fire, tearing through its unarmored hull and igniting high-explosive grenade shells. The second engagement was against an ambush carefully planned out by rebel forces along the shore just north of Voyskovoye. A steady blast of machine gun rounds tore the ambushing party to shreds and saved the lives of the four men.

Now, MSG. Shepard and his crew were moving at a few knots, up and down a long patrol corridor, watching out for smuggling ships. They liked to use small, agile, and quick craft, especially in the early hours of the morning. However, against the larger, more powerful, and still agile Nightmare and Piranha craft, the rebels were often outmatched. Dozens of motorboats had been destroyed and captured in the past six weeks since the Piranha crews arrived in country and a dozen or so more the month before, when Nightmare vessels from the defense forces were operating.

This night was like most of them, calm and quiet. The rebels often watched the Layartebian patrol boats and were excellent at avoiding them. They had made it into an art form and they were quite impressive at it. The boat crews always commented that they felt the rebels watching them, calling out into their radios where they were. The PBRs were equipped with a small sensor suite that allowed them to detect threats via thermal imaging or acoustics, though the latter was less reliable. They also had a small magnetic device that watched out for submerged obstacles such as Czech hedgehogs, which devestated Layartebian PBRs during the 1970s in Venezuela's civil war.

Ottoman Khaif

26-04-2008, 20:55

Kiev, Ukraine, Eurasia

In the barracks

“ Fuckin bullshit you know…why the hell we have to stay in this god forsaken city, where our enemy has nearly total control of countryside.” Remarked Lt. Abbas

“Oh stop your damn bitching…relaxed last I heard, the general staff will be sending four paratroop divisions to break the rebel hold in the countryside, plus the four inf divisions already station here..I believe we can break the damn fuckers in no time..:” said Major Muhammad Akbar, while he was cleaning AK-108 rifle.

“I hope you right,sir…Now I have to led a fireteam and hunt for rebel hideouts in the city.” Said Lt.Abbas and he left the room

Meanwhile at HQ

“Sir, we lost over 40 soldiers in firefight with rebel forces in a village just outside the city. I am please that we took control of the village and killed over 400 rebels.” Reported Major Tashfin

“The losses for our forces are still too high Major….we can not keep throwing away so many troops for minor operations to take these villages which I am aware that the rebels are using for rocket attacks on the city…we must focus on the big picture, hence…I am ordering a full assault within the next 72 hours once we have the paratroop divisions…we going to clean this area once and for all.” Said General Yaglikçizade Nisani, overall commander of Kiev garrison

Meanwhile waves of paratroop transports begin landing in Kiev International Airport, under heavy fighter escort. Within three days a major offensive operation will soon begin…

Hirgizstan

27-04-2008, 00:05

UKRANCOM ORBAT

ARMY

FROM MIDEASTCOM

Unit: 2nd Corps, 30th Army
Location: Mykolayiv, Ukraine, Eurasia

40,000 Soldiers, 36,800 Combat Ready
280 M1A5 MBT
300 M3 Arrow BCV
500 Super Avenger
500 Sky Guardian
250 M1114 Up-Armored HMMWV
500 Cougar 4x4
250 Cougar 6x6
1000 HEMTT
50 ST-39K1H MBT
25 ST-92K2 MBT
25 LP-M8 Lvl. 3
100 MV-87KG
25 Crusader TMAS
25 M270 MLRS
25 M112 203mm
200 LAV-AG
2 Cougar Mine Clearance Vehicle
2 Cougar Engineer Vehicle
25 Cougar Ambulance
2 M-3T Titan Tank Transporter
2 DEUCE
2 M1 Grizzly Breacher
2 M4 C2V
2 M104 Wolverine Bridge
20 M108 Universal Carrier
10 M9A31 Fox NBCRS
20 M115 MEWSS
20 All Terrain Lifter
20 All Terrain Crane
20 All Terrain Container Handler
100 Logistics System Vehicle
100 M1078 FMTV
100 M3 Arrow MA
100 M3 Arrow MMV
25 M3 Arrow PSOV
25 M3 Arrow SSC
10 BGM-233

Unit: 1st Regiment, 1st Air Wing, Army Aviation
Location: Odesa, Mykolayiv and Kherson, Ukraine, Eurasia

50 AH-6
100 AH-53
500 AH-94A
250 RAH-95A
1000 CH-47D
50 OH-58D
1500 UH-60M
500 CV-22
200 C-380
100 MV-87KG

Unit:4th Airborne Division
Location: Militopol, Ukraine, Eurasia

19,300 Soldiers, 16,500 Combat Ready
3 Regiments

500 UH-60M
500 CH-47D
50 OH-58D
100 AH-94A
50 RAH-95A
10 AH-53
25 AH-6
100 C-380
500 MV-87KG
500 M1114 Up-Armored HMMWV
250 LSV
500 M3 Arrow BCV
500 M3 Arrow AM

AIR FORCE

Unit: 3rd Air Expeditionary Force
Location: Alexandropolis, Greece

50 A-10X Sonic Thunderbolt
200 F-15L Super Strike Eagle
50 F-16XCDL Super Falcon
200 F/A-22D Raptor
200 F-104X Starfighter
100 F-4SX Phantom Blackstar
30 F-39A Tengriy
25 F-111P Aardvark
100 F-81A Savage
100 F-78A Sokol
10 B-52J Stratofortress
2 EB-52 Mega Fortress
30 Tornado GR.7B
20 AN-225 Cossack
25 C-17 Globemaster III
20 C-130J Hercules
2 AC-130U Spooky
2 AC-130H Spectre
2 RC-135W Rivet Joint
2 EC-130E Rivet Rider
2 EC-130H Compass Call/Rivet Fire
2 EC-135 Looking Glass
4 E-8C JSTARS
2 E-5A Bateleur AEWCC
4 E-6B Mercury
4 KC-10A Extender
2 KC-135R Sratotanker
2 MC-130H Combat Talon II
2 MC-130P Combat Shadow
25 RQ-4B Global Hawk
25 RQ-1 Predator
35 F-117E Nighthawk
20 SR-71E Blackbird Interceptor
20 CV-22B Pave Hammer

(Various units from Greece and MIDEASTCOM will also be available as required.)

SPECIAL FORCES

Unit: 1st Squadron, Special Boat Service
Location: SOF HQ At Kherson, but units are deployed in various places

95 Soldiers, 70 Combat Ready
25 Pegasus Class Mk.4 SOC
25 Fast Intercept Class 145 Alligator VSV
50 CRRC
10 Crab Mini Subs

Unit: 1st Regiment, 1st Special Forces Cavalry

50 HMMWV
25 LP M8 Lvl.3
80 M1A5
20 LAV-AG
50 LMTV (SOF)

Unit:1st Battalion, 1st PsyOps Unit

1000 Personnel
200 PsyOps HMMWV
100 PsyOps HEMTT

Unit:2nd Squadron, ParaRescue/CSAR
1 Battalion

1000 Soldiers
50 MH-60L
10 MH-47E

(Various other units may be deployed on short notice.)

Hirgizstan

27-04-2008, 20:50

COH SOF HQ, Kherson, Ukraine

Pavlo Tarasochslav still didn't know where he was nor what time it was. He simply remembered shooting on the river and then a black figure appeared from nowhere crashing a rifle butt into his face. Then he was sure he felt the rocking of a boat on water before remembering the rumble of a diesel engine and the feel of concrete beneath his bare feet.

Now the cold was invading his senses and the dingy, bare concrete room gave away no clues as to his whereabouts. Panic had already set in and had passed back when he thought he was in a truck. A burlap sack had disoriented him completely until he'd been stood in the concrete room and had it removed by a man in a digital camouflage uniform, with no markings whatsoever.

His panicking was over now. But his brain kept reaching out for clues as to where he was and what was happening. Educated enough, he knew he must have been captured by someone but who was the real kicker.

There were several TOA forces now operating in Ukraine, plus an unknown number of loyal North Germanian troops, not so-loyal troops and a whole bunch of different factions trying to stamp control over certain areas.

Pavlo was simply a member of what they called the 'Resistance', a loose formation of rebels dedicated to a Ukraine free of Eurasian rule. Any number of factions could have shot at him and his group and then taken him hostage.

He wondered if anyone else had made it. He'd seen his own sniper, Timyo, go down on the wheel-house of one of the boats, and some of the boat men definetly bought it. They weren't in his group but they were allies nonetheless.

He barely had time to shout a few orders before he'd been smashed in the face.

He shivered violently. He was wearing only a pair of white shorts and was stood in the center of the concrete room, the walls of which were completely bare, not even a CCTV camera, or so he thought.

He now began to pace around the room, shaking his arms and jumping up and down every few seconds to get his circulation going and warm himself up.

All of this was watched across the hallway by two DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) operatives. One of them was Colonel Fotis Daralexis was a former ER MD in the Alexandropolis Metropolitan Hospital who'd burnt out with exhaustion. He'd taken a leave of absence and began to read about adventure holidays, something to get his mind off the pace and desperation of ER medecine. From that he'd been drawn to the so called 'ultimate adventure', the Army. He became a Field Medic before becoming a Field Surgeon, during which time he'd been approached by the DIA.

Several years later and he was one of SOCOM's most accomplished interrogators, learning the art in Hirgizstan and in several other TOA countries. He had never encountered a subject he couldn't break and he could see that Pavlo Tarasochslav wouldn't be a major problem. He'd already shown his ineptness by carrying a wallet, from which his name and home address were garnered.

Daralexis leaned close to the DIA 'techie' in the room with him. The Tech was looking at the subject through the small fish-eye camera camouflaged in the old metal door. "Liutenant, begin the white noise. Let's test his reaction. Give me level five."

The Tech flicked a switch on the monitoring console in front of him and turned a dial to the number five.

The subject immediately stopped running and looked up to the roof and began to look all around him, moving quickly around the room trying to pinpoint where the agitating noise was coming from.

"Good, he's alert. Level 12 please."

The dial inched up slowly to 12 and the immediate affect on Pavlo was visible. He covered his ears and began to scream as the noise penetrated into his eardrums. He paced about the room like an angry bear before collapsing against one of the walls and drawing himself, screaming, into the foetal position.

"Turn it off."

The Tech obliged. Pavlo didn't move.

Daralexis exited the monitoring room and quickly stepped across the hall, opening the subjects door and shutting it quickly. He took one pace forward and moved off to the left so as not to obstruct the cameras in the door.

Pavlo groaned in the corner and slowly came out of the foetal position. Daralexis spoke loudly, giving nothing away. "Pavlo Tarasochslav, Flat 21A, Brandenburg Tower, Odessa."

Pavlo turned over at this to face Daralexis. "Who...who..."

"Who I am is not important Pavlo. Who you are, who your counterparts are and what you do is important."

The subject pathetically shouted, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"

Daralexis softened his voice, "Information, Pavlo. If you tell me how the rebels in your area get their weapons, what weapons they are and how you plan to use them I think I can get you back to Flat 21A soon. Do you understand Pavlo?"

The man was gently sobbing in the corner. Daralexis had cracked him quickly. Thats what he was best at with low-key subjects with little or no training. Hit them hard and fast with certain methods and their defenses came crumbling down around them.

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

Several Hours Later

Pavlo had told all. There wasn't a huge deal of information, but there was enough to start making inroads. Daralexis was pleased. He'd pass the info on to the Eurasians and anyone else who wanted it, keeping Pavlo alive in case any other of the TOA nations wanted to speak to him. Then he'd be shot.

Daralexis was sometimes asked by the Field Surgeons he sometimes trained for SOCOM how he could be an 'Interrogator' after being an MD and taking the hippocratic oath and all that went with it. He told them simply that it was something he was good at and that his job, done well, often saved many lives. Thats how he, and other interrogators, justified their work.

Pavlo wouldn't play on his mind at all, he was just another unlucky statistic that had chosen the wrong side. In war, thats what happend.

Daralexis fund Liutenant Chucky Jumuas waiting for him in one of the briefing rooms set up in an old North Germanian Army barracks that housed the majority of the COH SOF HQ.

Jumuas was on his own. The two men didn't salute each other, that wasn't the special forces way. They just shook hands. Jumuas was eager to know whether the catch he and his team had risked themselves for was any good.

"Well, we got some info that will be of use, it will definetly help us. I have my report here and its on the Battle Net if you want it there. Basically, he gave us a local Commander up in the Dnipropetrovs'k area. They are using a North Germanian AA site as their main base and he says its fully working as the soldiers there are now resistance. The weaponry they were getting he is not too sure about, he only knows it was a mixture of AA launchers and some disposable AT rockets from somewhere out West across the Dnipro."

Chucky listened, mostly pleased. "So are we going up river or is it someone else's party?"

"Not sure on that Liutenant, I reckon you might be out on more patrols instead. From what he told me I gather there is a significant amount of weaponry going across the river both ways, some up to Kiev, the rest down south on both sides into the Semi-Controlled zones. You'll have to wait and see what you get, but this guy was a good find."

"Yeah, would have liked a bigger fish. Whats the situation like at the moment?"

"Shit Liutenant, from what the Eurasians tell me we could be here awhile. This isn't the mop-up job I thought it would be. To me it looks like there'll be plenty of time to catch some big fish."

"Lets hope so."

Layarteb

28-04-2008, 02:05

April 21, 2008 - 07:00 hrs [GMT+2]
18 miles northwest of Balta, Odessa Oblast

With the morning sun already over the eastern horizon and the temperature steadily climbing, the bad weather that plagued Ukraine the previous week had been blown away. Now, with good weather, operations could resume at full efficiency. Part of those operations was a Marine Corps cavalry unit consisting of three M2032A2 Sabertooth main battle tanks, four M2048A1 Shark infantry fighting vehicles, two M2060A1 Buzzsaw urban combat vehicles, and two M2047A1 Arrow armored personnel carriers. The eleven vehicles were crewed by thirty-eight Marines and they carried with them forty-eight infantry men in eight squads of hard chargers, heavy gunners, snipers, and anti-tank engineers. The small armada of force was on orders to move up to Olhopil in the Vinnytsia Oblast, just north of the Odessa Oblast and reinforce a company of Eurasian reservists that had come under recent attack from rebel forces from the north. Vinnytsia was a large "yellow" sector but, bordering it to the east was a vast sea of "red" zones and that zone was less than thirty-five miles away from Olhopil, making a short run for rebel forces carrying weapons and munitions.

Due to the severe thunderstorms the previous week, Layartebian satellite reconnaissance and aerial reconnaissance had been incapable of monitoring the situation and, the rebels used the opportunity to their benefit, restocking and resupplying forces along the front lines. Eurasian forces were in trouble too. They had been holding out for a long time there and though the supply lines were still intact, the efforts to keep Kiev in Eurasian control was hurting the efforts elsewhere along the lines. The small Marine Corps cavalry unit was to clear a zone wide enough for supply lines to open up another route through, to the besieged city. "Men. We have a thirteen mile drive to make. We're going to move north, to Chechelnik Airfield, make sure that it remains in our hands, and then move east, right to Olhopil. We will definitely encounter rebel forces along the way but it should not take us more than an hour to make this journey. Keep your weapons sharp and your thermals on, I don't want to lose any vehicles on this one. Is that understood?" The Marine major yelled out as he and the vehicle drivers and squad leaders stood around a loose patch of dirt where the major hastily drew their route with a stick. "Anybody got anything?" He looked up from the ground, the idling sound of the eleven vehicles in the background loud enough to require him to yell. Nobody had anything to bring forward so, he dropped the stick, stood up, and kicked his map away with his boot and pulled a cigar from his pocket. He had been smoking it earlier when he was forced to put it out to take a call from the section commander back in Odessa. He lit it and exhaled a large amount of smoke with a rich, Cuban flavor for it. "Let's get moving gentlemen!" He yelled as he and the men turned around and headed to their vehicles, his being one of the three Sabertooth tanks. Equipped with large antennae, he could easily communicate to all of his units as well as command back in Odessa.

He picked up the radio headset and put it over his ears as the whine of the Sabertooth's powerful, gas-turbine engine suddenly grew louder as the engine was revved up out of idle speed. He wouldn't be able to communicate without the headset during certain parts of their engagement. With his hatch open, he breathed his last breath of cool, moist air before he sealed himself into the seventy-six ton behemoth and gave the order to go. His tank was leading the convoy. "Let's get the fuck out of here!" The tank lurched forward as the driver pushed down on the throttles and sent the tank forward. The other tanks followed and their journey had begun. Their behemoth was the main battle tank of the Imperial Layartebian Military and had been recently upgraded from the "A1A" and "A1B" models. Their "A2" featured a revolver based autoloader with a pair of cylinders that each held a total of twelve rounds, giving them an immediate ability to fire twenty-four rounds or missiles with an additional thirty-six stowed away in an ammunition locker. In addition, the "A2" featured an internal 60mm mortar much like the "A1B" before it along with sixteen rounds. The Sabertooth was a mean machine that had, as its main priority, the utter destruction of an enemy tank while keeping itself and its crew alive and, it did that well. "Beetle Four. Beetle Four you out there?" The commander said as his tank turned onto a paved road and began its march towards Chechelnik Airfield, a few miles in the distance. "Beetle Four. Beelte Four. Come in. Over?" He called out again as a sea of static filled the radios.

Then, a voice peeked through the thick static and called out in a panicked state, "Yeah. Yeah. We're out here I mean. Yeah this is Beetle Four. Who's out there?"

"Beetle Four this is Echo Five-Two. You holding up over there?"

"Echo Five-Two. We're under heavy fire from the east and the north. It's looking grim. We've got rebels all around us. Thousands of them. We need support fast!"

"Hang in there Beetle Four. We're on our way. We'll be there within the hour. We've got a stop to make first."

"A stop to make? Are you fucking serious?"

"Watch it son! I know you're scared but you have to maintain your composure. You are a military unit!" There was some gibberish on the other end that the major didn't understand. He didn't speak Eurasian languages and he didn't understand what he was saying. "Come again son? I didn't hear that."

"Echo Five-Two. You better hurry! We just lost two of our snipers. We're under intense bombardment."

"We're on our way. Hang in there. Echo Five-Two is out." He put released the microphone button and looked down at the men in his tank. "Gentlemen. We're walking into the biggest combat zone this side of the Dnieper. It's not going to be easy so make sure you're cool and calm out there. This is my tank and I want to drive it back to base when this is over and put some fine stenciling on it. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" They had no idea just how heavy the firefight at Olhopil really was...

Hirgizstan

28-04-2008, 21:29

April 21st, 0705hrs, Odessa

There was a quick meeting in the Ready Room at the airfield. The Army QRF were using an old North Germanian heli-base that was still covered in Germanian military posters, the snack machines still filled with local and national snacks that tasted alrite but for some pilots that spoke no North Germanian, they were a bit of put luck about what you actually ended up eating.

Major Robert 'Shifty' Powers was holding forth on the phone with the base commander while the rest of his men gathered around him in a semi-circle. He signed off the phone and turned to his men.

"All right, we're a go. It's gonna be a fast and low flight up north to Olhopil, lets just hope the guys on the ground can hold out for the Layartebians, otherwise we'll be up shit creek without a paddle. Remember, stay low and fast to get there quicker, watch for power lines and for God's sake watch out for AA. We ready?"

He got a resounding "ARMY AIR" from the assembled pilots. They then broke and stormed out the door, helmet and flight bags in hand, onto the still wet tarmac of the heli-field. The crews already had the six aircraft spooling up as the pilots slung on their helmets and jumped into their cockpits.

Before his ass even touched the seat Shifty was flicking buttons and checking the stats while one of the ground crew went through the check-list over the radio. His Co-Pilot scrambled in beside him and did the same. Hugh 'Baron' Mazsowe was a 1st Lt., a newer pilot that Shifty had found to have great reactions in the big aircraft, and only the best Army helicopter pilots got to fly 'Big Betty', the AH-53 Serpent.

Shifty's QRF command consisted of another AH-53, two RAH-95A Shadows and two AH-94A Stalkers. His AH-53 was the first to lumber off the ground into the light grey sky and fly low over the end of the runway, ensuring the systems were good and the checkpoints working.

In the back of Shifty's aircraft sat a crew chief who was in charge of ammunition replenishment for the three fuselage weapons, two 7.62mm Mini-Guns on the sides and a rear mounted double barrelled 25mm cannon. The aircraft's huge engines and large fuel tanks pushed it to high speeds and allowed it to loiter longer than most other aircraft, and whats more a chin-mounted fuelling rod could also be attached, allowing for in-flight refuelling. However, the QRF birds didn't have those.

On the wings of Shifty's aircraft sat four Hellfire missiles, two AGM-90 'Shredder' Airburst weapons and on the underbelly sat a 1000lb iron bomb. All in all the QRF was tooled up with similar loadouts on the other aircraft.

Shifty was now flying out over the city of Odessa, the green of the suburbs drawing nearer in the huge cockpit windows as he inched up the speed and watched as the other QRF aircraft formed up in a line each side of him.

At top speed, low down they might make Olhopil within an hour, or just over that. But that meant sacrificing loiter time, which Shifty was happy to do as long as the Layartebians could get there within a similar time.

He was on the way now and he handed control over to Baron to use the radio. "Echo Five-Two, this is Lightning One-One, please come in, over."

The TOA forces would each have the major operational names for their main units each day. Five-Two, the Marines, would only have to check their computers to find out who Lightning One-One was.

OOC: Lay, hope you don't mind me getting involved here- looks like a bit of fun.

Layarteb

29-04-2008, 00:13

OOC: Sure, just don't annihilate too much of it. Olhopil is supposed to be a gritty place, especially on the ground.

"What do we have here?" The Marine commander asked himself as he listened to the incoming transmission. His column had just left the airfield and it was secure still. They were taking sniper fire but nothing serious enough to hold up the convoy of tanks and armored fighting vehicles. They would maintain their original purpose and now headed east, towards Olhopil, where smoke billowed high on the horizon. There were thousands of rebels entrenched around the city and within the city and they were angry. "Yeah go ahead Lightning One-One. This is Echo Five-Two." The commander said as he ordered his vehicles to maintain a proper spacing of attacking. He could already sense that they were about to walk into an ambush. It was just too quiet and they weren't exactly sneaking up on anyone as loud as they were.

They were about four miles from Olhopil when the first bullets clanged off the side of the lead Sabertooth. "Sir. Here they come. We're taking fire."

"Location?"

"All over. Mostly small arms right now."

"I can hear that. Find me some targets. Slave the co-axial and the machine guns to them. Five-Two. Five-Two. This is lead. We're taking small arms fire. Ambush point ahead. Weapons free. Engage targets." He looked into the sights for the remote turret on the roof, which fired a powerful M31A2 15.5MM HMG and switched his sighting from electro-optical to thermal. Instantly, the horizon changed to a bluish tint with countless red, yellow, and orange hotspots. "Jesus! We've got over a hundred of them out there." He said as he sighted them and fired off a few bursts, sending five to ten rounds against each target, tearing them to pieces. The clanging sound of the M31 on the top of the Sabertooth was joined by the continuous fire from various heavy machine guns behind them, from the variety of vehicles moving along with the convoy. "All units. All units. Watch for RPGs!" A missile streaked across the small battlefield, missing any of the vehicles. The convoy continued to take hits from small arms fire but none of the rounds were causing any damage to the vehicles as they were sucked into the trap. "What the hell do they have planned?" The commander yelled as he let out another burst of eight rounds from the heavy machine gun.

The convoy moved another mile and a half through the ambush, slaughtering the rebels as they did. A number of anti-tank rockets, primarily shoulder launched and a few rounds from a recoilles rifle were fired off at the various units. One Sabertooth took a pair of rocket hits and a hit from a recoilless but the damage was minimal, partly thanks to the impressive amount of armor the Saberooth boasted. Most of the fire was small arms, from rebel soldiers trying to put up some sort of distraction. It didn't work too well though and saw their own demise more than it damaged the convoy. Hundreds of them had been hiding in the tall grass along the road to Olhopil but the thermal sights of the tanks and fighting vehicles made them very visible and the convoy mowed them down, mostly before they could pop up and engage.

They were only about two miles now from the city and they could see the disaster that was Olhopil. That was where their attention was drawn to but it wasn't their only source of attention. "TANK!" The driver of the lead Sabertooth yelled out as an armored vehicle appeared, instantly, off to the north of the convoy. "NORTH. RANGE 2,500 METERS!" He yelled out as the laser return verified the range to the target.

The Marine commander smiled, "Finally. Let's get him. SABOT!"

"Roger that. SABOT UP!" The gunner said as he selected the nearest SABOT round in the autoloader and swung the turret of the Sabertooth. The crosshairs immediately locked onto the front glacis of the tank and he fine tuned the aim. "LOCKED!"

"FIRE!" The tank shuddered to life as the 125 millimeter armor-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding-SABOT round left the muzzle of the 52-caliber, 125mm ETC gun of the Sabertooth at an impressive velocity of 6,200 feet per second. It tore through the air and the round tore itself apart, revealing the long, sleek, and deadly depleted uranium dart. Milliseconds passed and the enemy armored vehicle, which was reclassified as an IFV exploded in a bright fireball as the round penetrated its cuppola and blew the turret clean off the hull.

"WAHOO!" The Marines yelled out as the armored vehicle was stopped dead in its tracks.

"All units. All units. We have hostile armor. Approaching from the north. Check out flanks to the south. I repeat, check out flanks to the south." He looked through his sights again and watched as another fighting vehicle appeared to the north. "Engage it! SABOT!"

"SABOT UP!"

"FIRE!" Again, the tank rocked to life as the round tore through the air and sent the second armored vehicle the way of the first, in a brilliant fireball.

Hirgizstan

29-04-2008, 17:34

Just after Shifty contacted the Marines another voice cut into his radio as he was about to reply. "Lightning One-One, this is Sky Eye. Echo Five-Two is taking heavy fire, suggest you hustle, over." Sky Eye was a COH JSTARS aircraft somewhere above. With their sensors and IFF technology they could track and co-ordinate multiple battles at once, never mind a few units.

"Roger that Sky Eye, relay what you see to Echo Five-Two, it might help."

"Way ahead of you Lightning."

The controller thousands of feet up could see the Layartebian armored column clear as day on his screen, the image relayed from a low flying drone over the Layartebians.

"Echo Five-Two this is Sky Eye JSTARS, you have multiple incoming enemy armor. We count six Leopard IX's and twelve AFV's of various types, as well as enemy troops from your eleven to three o'clock. You need any info, we're up here ready. Lightning One-One is 16 minutes from your position, repeat one six minutes from your position. Sky Eye out."

Shifty inched the throttles up as far as they would go. He watched the torque on the aircraft as they skimmed low over hills and flitted down the other sides, the aircraft wanting to lurch upwards every time, but Shifty kept it low and flew at the envelope.

They were still at least fifteen minutes out from the Layartebian Marines, but they'd be there soon enough.

Ottoman Khaif

29-04-2008, 23:30

72 hours later

Kiev Offensive

General Yaglikçizade Nisani gives the go ahead for offensive to retake the countryside. The Eurasian taskforce consisted of four paratroop divisions plus four infantry divisions and heavy air support. The attack went off like clockwork, the Eurasians were able to send in waves upon waves of A-10s were send in to make attack runs on rebel positions, while the Attack helicopter squadrons support the infantry units in the fighting. Yet the Eurasians were in surprise..

A town near Kiev, a massive firefight was happening and the troops of the 18th assault battalion of the 9th Army Regiment were send in to support the paratroopers to the town.

Major Tashfin look at his men and said “ Be on the watch…don’t ever underestimate these motherfuckers…they will pull out all the stops to nail you. Is that understood?”

The men nodded, and then they exited the BMP-4(troop transport) and join the fighting.

Bullets and RPGs were flying all over the place, taking down people on both sides of the battle. But Major Tashfin and his men use the Troop transport as cover while they advance to the center of town. It was non stop fighting all the way to the center of the town, but Major Tashfin press his men forward to fulfill his objective of taking the town. All around him was death and destruction; four attack helios and a number of burnout troops transports. Once his forces were close enough to the town center, he yell out his command

“Glaze the fuckers!” and with that his troops fire at will at their foes that were hold up in plaza with no mercy, plus Major Tashfin had the fire support of two MAD.IVM Imperator Main Battle Tank which provide much needed fire support against the rebels. After 20 minute firefight his forces came out on top with minimal losses.

But that wasn’t the case in other areas, the Eurasian took heavy losses in the fighting over 1,000 causalities plus a number of troops transport and helios lost in the fighting. But the end result was the Eurasians regaining control of the countryside around Kiev. Soon more offensives will be launch from south to link Kiev directly to Eurasian held land. It was only matter of time.

Hawdawg

30-04-2008, 03:53

Hawdawgian ORBAT
Ukranian Campaign

Special Operation Forces
Code Name: The Templars

1st Special Operations Group-GP/Offensive Strike (Eta Group)
5x 6 man teams (30 total)

2rd Special Operations Group-Recon/Sniping (Tau Group)
5x 4 man teams (20 total)

4th Special Operations Group-Demolitions (Upsilon Group)
2x 8 man teams (16 total)

Black Operations Forces
Code Name: The Gideons

3rd Operations Group-Asassinations (Team Xi)
2x 4 man teams (8 total)

Total personnel deployed: 74

*Note these units are rumored to be in the Ukraine. No intel as to their whereabouts will be shared, even with firm allies. They operate alone.*

Layarteb

30-04-2008, 23:48

"Lightning One-One. Echo Five-Two. Sounds good to me. You say sixteen tangos and twelve foxtrots. We got it covered. By the time those boys from Odessa get here there won't be anything left of them. Keep calling them out!" The commander said with a smile as he got back on the radio and contact the rest of his unit. "All units. All units! We've got J/STARS overhead and sixteen tangos and ten foxtrots remaining. Eleven o'clock and three o'clock. Engage at will. Tangos are priority! Bottle of Jack to whoever gets the most. I'm already two ahead of you so you better outshine me! MARINES!" All over the radio, the Marines cheered as they locked onto targets, well past the engagement ranges of the Leopards and fighting vehicles. The Sabertooth was a new breed of tank that carried a main weapon system that could engage targets beyond the engagement range of most main battle tanks out there, especially the older Germanian ones, which, until the Sabertooth, easily outclassed anything the Empire had. "Find me a target boys!"

"Got one sir. Four thousand meters. Long range."

"Lock on a Corona. FIRE!"

"Roger that. Locked. Firing!" The Sabertooth carried a pair of Corona ATGMs ready to fire on its turret side and the missiles were fully capable of destroying almost any tank out there with its top-diving attack. The missile launched away seconds later, after receiving the lock, and homed in on the tank with IIR seeker but, to make sure it would not miss, it was wired guided as well. The missile hit moments later, blasting the tank to pieces. "HIT!"

"Good job! That's three. Let's keep the fight up! All units. Break formation." The tanks broke formation and split into a well choreographed assault. The first tank, the commander's tank, headed to the three o'clock position and the one behind it to the eleven o'clock position and so on and so fourth, alternating as they went down the line. With a combined infantry/cavalry assault on the Layartebian vehicles and the impressive firepower of the Layartebians, it would be a grueling deathmatch. The three Sabertooths were the biggest force for the Layartebians and they pounced the hardest. The Shark IFVs, on the other hand, due to their precious cargo of Marines, stuck to anti-infantry tasks, along with the two Arrow APCs. The Buzzsaws went right after both targets, using their Corona missiles against tanks and fighting vehicles but mainly trained their gun systems against the various infantry forces on the ground. This left most of the vehicles to the tanks.

Three minutes into the fight, the Layartebians were already 6 - 0 against the rebel forces. SABOT rounds shot from the barrels of the M2032s at high velocity and pinpoint accuracy. Moving at near full speed, their shots were perfect and they weren't kidding when they boasted they would have most, if not all of the enemy vehicles gone before the Hirgizstanians got there. They went 10 - 0 before the first rounds hit the Sabertooths but, they were ineffective.

Surprisingly enough, it was the commander's tank that took the hit. As it bore down on a pair of fighting vehicles and a tank, the tank fired, sending a hard shot right into the forward armor of the Sabertooth. The round damaged the armor plating but did little else to the tank. "Son of a bitch! Get that fucker!" The commander said as the tank rocked from the hit. The Leopard was about three kilometers away and the Sabertooth was directly facing it and that made the Sabertooth horrifically deadly. Locked onto the tank, the commander directed a LOSAT missile against the tank. In the two skids of the Sabertooth were a pair of dual-tube LOSAT launchers and each LOSAT missile was a pure kinetic energy weapon. "LOSAT! FIRE!" The commander shouted out as the driver, who controlled those missiles, squeezed off the trigger. At the same time, the gunner, who controlled the turret and its weaponry, locked onto one of the fighting vehicles with the main gun. Though the tank and the gun barrel were pointed in different directions, both directions were engaged equally. The LOSAT missile released from its tube moving at a speed faster than most tank rounds but with over two hundred pounds of weight, giving it an insane amount of kinetic energy. The Leopard tank never got a second shot off and blew to pieces, some no bigger than a coffee mug as the fighting vehicle took a direct hit from the main gun, causing a brilliant red and orange fireball. "Good job men! Get the last fucker and let's focus on those other tangos."

"Aye sir. Locking on now. Target locked. Firing!"

"Send them to hell!" The next round, a HEAT round, left the barrel at an equally impressive velocity and smashed hard into the fighting vehicle, blowing it up in the same fireball as the last one and the count moved to 21 - 0, with just three minutes remaining until the Hirgizstanians arrived on scene. The other five vehicles were still at ranges of more than four kilometers from the Layartebian tanks and they were moving in, firing off ineffective shots, most of which missed or flatly bounced off the armor of the Sabertooths. As for the infantry, they didn't fair well at all either. The combined assault force of the IFVs, APCs, and the Buzzsaws tore them to shreds. The vehicles mostly used their lower caliber weaponry, to save for the fight inside of Olhopil, where they would be fighting street to street, house to house, corner to corner.

Layarteb

01-05-2008, 02:14

April 21, 2008 - 07:35 hrs [GMT+2]
50 miles south of Sevastopol, Black Sea

Around the same time that the Layartebian Marines had just scored their 21st kill against the rebel armor, twelve minutes into the fight, with the Hirgizstanian Marines only three minutes away, a pair of Layartebian strike bombers were flying over the Black Sea. The pair of B-6A Dementor strike bombers were flying high, at nearly 40,000 feet and maintaining a subsonic speed of 610 miles per hour. They were roughly fifty miles south of Sevastopol and four hundred and fifty-four miles from their target outside of Kiev, in the small city of Rohoziv. Rohoziv was just twenty-nine miles southeast of the center of Kiev, a city in Eurasian control but surrounded, on all four sides, by rebel forces. Word had been passed from the Eurasian high command, down to the Layartebian high command that a major offensive was going to begin in order to take some of the countryside around Kiev. The offensive would begin early on the morning of April 24 and consist of various elements of paratroopers, infantry divisions, and air support. The Layartebians would do what they could in advance of this offensive and these two strike bombers were on that duty.

Their target was a rebel command center in Rohoziv, buried underground and defended by reinforced concrete. It had once been a Germanian army barracks and the Layartebians had assisted in the construction of it, giving the air force a unique ability to know exactly what to use to destroy the barracks. Each of the two B-6A Dementors took off from Incirlik Air Base's 4,000 meter runway with four AGM-203C Imsdal hypersonic cruise missiles inside their internal bays. Though they could carry the missile externally, they opted to carry only four internally, reducing drag and increasing range. Given the location of Incirlik and the range of the Imsdal, they could fire their missiles from over Turkey but they would fire them from closer, to reduce their flight time.

The two heavy bombers kept a half mile spacing, with the lead aircraft ahead and to the port side of the trailing aircraft. It wasn't a combat formation but it was effective, given the lack of enemy aircraft. Air defenses were and threat and would be a threat if the bombers got too close but they wouldn't be getting much closer before they fired and turned around. They were set to unleash their payloads near Sevastopol, giving the missiles only four hundred miles to fly. It was nearly half their range and, cruising at high altitude and Mach 3.8, their flight time would be around ten to twelve minutes, covering almost forty-two miles every minute once they reached cruise velocity, at 75,000 feet. Then, they would descend to their target, attacking at a 81.4° angle, slamming into the ground at Mach 7, penetrating through the earth above the bunker, the roof of the bunker, and most of the bunker, before detonating a devestating, seven hundred pound, penetrating warhead.

http://www.forsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/LDC/b6.jpg

Codenamed Rocky flight, the two bombers were linked into the Layartebian satellite network and the offensive weapon's officer on each aircraft had already targetted the bunker and programmed the GPS coordinates into the missiles. They could launch whenever they wanted but they would get closer before they unleashed the fury of the Imsdal, a missile jointly developed by the Cottish and the Layartebians in the late 1990s to replace the older, subsonic Tomahawk and CALCM cruise missiles. However, the Imsdal was limited. It was designed as a land-strike missile but had seen a lot of use against ships, though to mixed results. A newer, anti-ship version was under development that would carry an eleven hundred pound, armor piercing warhead, albeit at a shorter range, given its weight and newer flight characteristics. The "H" version still wouldn't be ready until early summer 2008.

"Rocky 2. How's the view back there?"

"Looking good lead. Looking good. We about ready to play?"

"Ten more miles to Foxtrot Papa."

"Roger that. We're good to go. Coordinates are programmed."

"Understood two. Keep it steady." The short conversation put both aircraft in sync with each other, although not actually. The aircraft couldn't datalink to each other and fly together but their crews were in sync, ready to fire when the time came. Ten miles would take them just one minute, given their cruising speed and that wasn't a lot of time. "Open bay doors." The pilot of the lead aircraft stated as the doors of the Dementor opened up, taking just fifteen seconds to fully open. Already the countdown sequence had begun inside of the bombers and the system was set to automatic. A programmed, forty-five seconds would elapse before the first missile was released. The rotary launcher would cycle and the next missile would launch. Of course, the rotary would cycle again and release the third missile, cycling a last time to release the fourth. All four missiles would be gone within just sixty seconds, allowing plenty of time between the time that the missile was released and began. This sort of spacing wasn't a big issue either, since they were attacking a target without air defenses. Against a ship, it was too far apart. Those forty-five seconds went quick for the bomber crews and the first missiles were launched.

The launch sequence was beautiful. The missile fell free from the rotary launcher, falling with the aide of gravity. Four seconds elapsed and the missile's rocket motor kicked in, propelling the missile forward at an impressive acceleration rate, pushing it out, in front of the bomber. Eight seconds later, twelve seconds into the launch sequence, the missile took a sharp climb and began to fly towards its cruise altitude. The second, third, and fourth missiles followed the same sequence and, when the launch sequence was over, the weapon system's officer closed the bay doors and the missiles were on their own.

Both of the bombers took easy turns to their port and reversed their course, heading back home to Incirlik, which was about five hundred and thirty miles away. It would take them another hour to get back to base. They would go through debriefing once they landed but they would know the results of their mission before they ever got back to base. They continued to link themselves to the satellite feed and watched the target area. Both the pilot and the co-pilot and the offensive weapon system's officer watched, on their MFDs as the target area lay peacefully still. Timers on the bottom right of their MFDs showed the time to impact. The minutes counted down and, eventually became seconds. When the timer reached zero, the scene drastically changed from peaceful serenity to unordered, totaltarian chaos. The eight missiles struck successively, penetrating both the earth and the bunker with little effort, blasting it to miniscule pieces. "Two. That's a shack wouldn't you say?"

"Roger that lead. That's a shack. Some dead rebels there."

"Indeed." The bombers landed almost forty-five minutes later and sat in debriefing for another hour and a half. The mission was a success as post-strike analysis showed that the bunker had been obliterated. The Eurasians would benefit from the strike, which could eliminate the chain of command in an entire sector, easing their offensive. A U-2 flight out of Incirlik was scheduled for April 22, which could reveal better imagery of the strike as well as rebel troop positions in the area. That data would be relayed to the Eurasians.

Hirgizstan

01-05-2008, 17:33

"Echo Five-Two, this is Sky Eye JSTARS, we count all enemy ground units are down and your mopping up the infantry pretty well. Your route is clear to Olhopil, we'll be here if you need us. Sky Eye out."

Shifty was slightly dissapointed there was nothing left for him and his men, the Layartebians had been too good. But there was still Olhopil. But he commanded a QRF unit, not a major combat force. He keyed his radio from the stick and spoke to base, "Snake Pit, this Lightning Flight, requesting permission to join Layartebian and Eurasian forces in repulsing rebels at Olhopil."

The reply took nearly a minute to come back, "Lightning Flight, this is Snake Pit- thats a roger, you are clear to assisst those forces at Olhopil, we've set out another QRF back here, we're good. Good luck Lightning, Snake Pit out."

Shifty smiled at Baron and they immediately got on the radio to the rest of the helicopters, "Lightning Flight, this is lead, your heard Snake Pit, we've been re-tasked. We're headed to Olhopil, expect low flying urban combat against armor and infantry. Arm your weapons now gentlemen, we're entering the hot zone. Follow my lead in Wedge formation."

Shifty himself turned back to look into the huge cargo/ammo bay of the aircraft and keyed the internal comms, "Weapons on guys, hot zone coming up. Check your targets, we got Eurasian and Layartebian frendlies on the ground, make sure your IFF is working. Lock n' Load."

He turned back to face forward and breathed deeply before arming the cock-pit controlled weapons, namely everything on the wing stubbs and the fearsome 30mm cannon beneath the nose.

He now needed to contact the Layartebian Marines who he was about to overfly, "Echo Five-Two, we're going to follow you to Olhopil and help you guys out. I'm seeking permission to locally sync and link our battle networks to help with the fight, over."

Layarteb

02-05-2008, 01:20

OOC: I left you seven vehicles to blow up man you didn't. Now I'm dead. WTF! LOL j/k but seriously I left seven vehicles for you.

As the helicopters passed overhead, after they had already launched anti-tank missiles into the five remaining fighting vehicles and tanks, the Marines cheered. "Good work men. Good work. I think someone out there got a high score of seven or eight. Good work. Let's get moving now. All units. Resume formation. Rules of engagement shift. Priority infantry and vehicles. We're going urban. Buzzsaws have the right of way." The commander's tank reformed the line and they moved towards the city. It was beseiged by thousands of well-equipped and well motivated rebels. The vehicles were just two miles from Olhopil when the battle ceased, leaving upwards of four hundred rebel infantry dead, sixteen tanks blown to smitherines and twelve fighting vehicles melted to liquid metal. The Layartebian vehicles had taken hits but none of them serious enough to slow them down. "Lightning One-One. Echo Five-Two. We sure could use the help. We're going urban now. We've gotten a lot of reports from reconnaissance birds about ground missiles, particularly Stingers. Keep your jammers on and let us know the minute you're in trouble. We'll try to do what we can but we're it." The Marine commander said into the radio as he switched his sights to thermal to get a good view of the cityscape. There were fires everywhere and the Eurasians were dug in, hunkered down, and fighting off a brutal offensive by the enemy. "Beetle Four. Beetle Four. How you hold up there?"

"Echo Five-Two? That you?"

"Roger that Beetle Four. What's your status?"

"Not looking too great. They're surrounding us. All over. We've got a lot of casualties and we're combat ineffective. We're going to need you here right now!"

"Calm down. We'll be there in a few minutes. We're approaching now. You've got rebels all over this area, we had to make a pit stop and dispatch them."

"Roger that Echo. Beware, the rebels have armor in the city. Not a lot but it's torn us to shreds."

"We need your positions to avoid fracticide." The Eurasians gave their positions, through codes and the Marines identified them. They were scattered around the city, which didn't help, even though it wasn't a terribly large city. The positions were transmitted to the Hirgizstanian helicopters overhead as well as the fact that the enemy had armored vehicles in the city. For the helicopters, those were priority.

Hawdawg

02-05-2008, 04:51

Overlooking Kovel Insurgency Compound

Tau Group 3 had been tasked with gathering Intel for the various Hawdawgian SOF operatives working in Northern Ukraine for a little over a week. MSGT. Miles and Gunny Ocha had been laid up in their hide for almost three days carefully watching and recording the movements of the enemy forces into and out of the camp. The camp was heavily occupied with what looked like fresh recruits ready to head straight down the road to martyrdom. As Gunny Miles dialed in his 15X spotting scope he noticed something peculiar about today’s formation. All of the NONCOM’s and regulars had put on clean BDU’s and where steadily barking at the recruits working on formations. These were all clues that a big-wig was coming to visit. At around 4am Gunny Ocha clicked on his Panasonic Toughbook and carefully sent an encoded message laying out his detailed notes on the camp layout, numbers of troops, vehicles, weaponry, etc. A simple key stroke and the message was away encrypted on a maximum level via satellite uplink.
A few minutes after the message was sent a reply stated the simple words, “Large target of opportunity inbound tomorrow. Eliminate her.” Gunny Ocha tapped MSGT. Miles for his shift and as he showed him the message he rolled over to take his much earned 2 hour nap.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/images/m107-usarmy-image02.jpg

At 11:30am a convoy slowly approached the camp. Much to both the men’s surprise the lack of extensive security was a lapse of judgment that would prove fatal. Gunny Ocha carefully clicked the safety off his M82A4 Sniper Rifle and began to dial in the range on the third car in the procession. It appeared to be carrying someone of importance. As the convoy stopped MSGT. Miles adjusted his spotting scope and began to call out yardage and windage to Ocha. Time slowed to a crawl as the sniper team began the breathing exercises they used to slow down there heart rate, pulse to an almost zen-like state. At 11:45am a tall slim woman sporting urban style BDU’s and wielding an AK-47U stepped from the SUV onto the parade grounds. The troops had assembled to greet this guest little did they know they were about to become witnesses to her death. Gunny Ocha took one deep breath and held it as MSGT. Miles gave the fire, fire message. Ocha carefully adjusted the windage one last time placed the crosshairs on the back of the woman’s head and carefully squeezed the trigger. As the powder ignited the .50 caliber round tore out of the barrel raising the 1900 meters downrange at a blinding speed. Almost instantly the head of the woman disintegrated into a thousand pieces of splintered skull fragments, blood, and grey matter, spraying the assembled troops, as the limp body fell to the ground. Instantly chaos ensued as the insurgents scattered across the camp grounds looking for cover. The snipers had done the deed of both taking out a high value target and demoralizing a Regiment-sized force with a single .50 caliber bullet. Slowly Tau Group 3 slid into the underbrush and melted into the woods. A helicopter extract had been scheduled 4 clicks away, there services were needed elsewhere for the time being.

Hirgizstan

02-05-2008, 18:35

Shifty left the seven remaining enemy armored vehicles to the other AH-53 flying behind him. He watched as his wingman dropped down and could see the long tongues of flame lick out from the 30mm cannon as he tore into the enemy vehicles, turning them into collanders, fit only for a scrapyard.

A couple of Hellfire III missiles were also fired to finish off a pair of Panzer IX's. The III was a much imrpoved version of the ubiquitous original Hellfire and was the main AT weapon used by COH heliborne forces.

As the other Serpent rejoined Shifty's wedge formation he was able to pick up the low-level Olhopil skyline and could see various plumes of light and dark smoke rising steadily up into the almost windless sky.

"Beetle Four, this is Lightning, we're about to overfly your position. Get your heads down, we'll clear off anyone close to you, over."

"Thank God...roger that...roger that."

"Sky Eye, this is Lightning Flight, what have you got for us?"

"Lightning Flight, sending you targetting data now, looks like 23 Panzer IX's within touching distance of the Eurasians, plus some assorted smaller armor. Happy hunting."

"Roger that Sky Eye, Lightning Flight is engaging."

In his visor Shifty immediately saw the green square target reticules appear, he couldn't actually see any tanks yet, but they were there. Within a second the outer green squares had red diamonds in them with the words LOCK beneath. "Lightning One-One, missiles away."

He spoke instead of pressing any button, the cockpit Voice Command System allowed Hirgizstanian pilots to concentrate on flying and with a JSTARS or equivalent overhead they didn't even have to find targets, they could be found and locked by the aircraft overhead and then set direct to the aircraft targetting computer via the Battle Network. Granted, it only worked for missiles but it had proven itself time and again.

Shift and Baron both watched as the eight Hellfire's on the wing stubbs dropped free, making the aircraft jump a little due to the release of weight, and ignited, reaching out their grey-blue smoke trails toward the enemy.

More missiles came from the other helicopters and a few seconds later the JSTARS was confirming the hits as 'destroyed'.

"Lightning, this is Beetle Four, you're fucking getting them! Fucking get them."

"Beetle Four, this is Sky Eye, don't get too excited, you got infantry on all sides and smaller armored vehicles still around, plus tanks throughout town. Echo Five-Two is almost to you, over."

"Beetle Four copies."

In the cockpit Shifty looked over to Baron, "Time for the shredder I think?"

Baron smiled and nodded. The AGM-90 'Shredder' was a pure anti-infantry cluster munition that burst 10 feet off the ground, spewing razor sharp metal pieces downward and out to between 15 and 20 feet. The pieces of metal would literally shred a human body, even with decent armor, to pieces in under a second.

"Beetle Four, Lightning One-One here, I'm dropping cluster munitions danger close to your 11 and 2 O'clock front, get your heads down now."

"Copy that Lightning."

Shift pointed the nose down while Baron lased a spot crawling with rebel infantry between two wheeled IFV's that were firing on Beetle Four's position. He fired the first shredder and Baron repeated the procedure for another position and the next missiles dropped away and ignited, headed straight toward the ground.

Ottoman Khaif

04-05-2008, 00:14

May air offensive

The Eurasian General Staff finally give the go ahead for massive bombing offensive against rebel stronghold of Lvov which had be confirmed by Intel as the Rebels center of operations, just the ideal target for Eurasian arm forces.

12 hour later

100 B-2 and 80 B-9A Sphinx took off from air bases, they had standing orders to raze the whole city and show no mercy. Within a matter of hours, waves of bombers soon descended upon their targets and drop their payloads of Thermate on the city. Within a matter of seconds a firestorm engulfed most of Lvov killing anyone that was in the city as according to plan to insure the rebels are deny a base of operations.

Shortly after the bomb raid, Eurasian Army in Southern Ukraine launches a full scaled assault on rebel positions in areas leading up to Keiv. Nearly 20 divisions were partaking in offensive to reconnect Kiev with Eurasian held Ukraine….it was certainly going to be bloody..

Layarteb

05-05-2008, 00:39

April 21, 2008 - 08:05 hrs [GMT+2]
Olhopil, Vinnytsia Oblast

Echo Five-Two came under enemy fire the moment it entered the streets of Olhopil. Rebel forces unleashed a torrent of anti-tank rockets and small arms fire at the convoy as it approached from the southwest. Returning fire wasn't even a question and the tanks and armored fighting vehicles, inside of a span of minutes, sent every rebel without visual range ducking for cover. It was all a ruse by the Marines to set up cover to let their infantry out of the vehicles. Smoke grenades popped out of their launchers and filled the air with a cooling, white haze of dense smoke, thick enough to hide the deboarding of forty-eight Marines, all of them holding their M81 rifles close to their shoulders. Before the smoke could clear, the Marines had split their convoy into various formations. Infantry forces headed, on foot, in various directions. A squad went to search for the Eurasians, who were trapped and scattered throughout the city while the other three provided back up for the armored units. One of these squads would soon break off and go on a search and destroy mission, looking for rebels and killing them. With Hirgizstanian air cover, the Layartebian Marines could easily move through the city, despite the density of rebel forces.

The biggest assets to the Marines for this battle wouldn't be the Sabertooths, which could easily demolish any one of the dozens of still standing structures in the city but rather the Buzzsaws. Made specifically for urban combat operations, the Buzzsaw was equipped with a pair of rapid-fire, 57 millimeter, ETC cannons, which could cut a building in half. It was also equipped with a 7.62 millimeter co-axial Minigun, a pair of 7.62 millimeter light machine guns on remote turrets, a dual-launcher for Corona anti-tank missiles, a pair of 40 millimeter grenade machine guns, and up to sixty 57 millimeter anti-personnel grenades. The Buzzsaws that rocked into Olhopil were full of everything they could carry and their crew of five carried assault rifles inside of their tank as well, just in case they had to leave their vehicle. Heavily armored, almost as much as the Sabertooths, the Buzzsaws emerged from the smoke first, along with the massive Sabertooth tanks.

The three tanks and two Buzzsaws split into three groups, one tank and one Buzzsaw for two of them and the third tank on its own, with the two Arrow APCs. The four Sharks split into two groups of two each and moved into the city on a different route. The eleven vehicles, combined, had a massive amount of firepower and, arranged in small groups, they could maneuver quickly while providing a high amount of protection. The commander of the group, along with his tank and a single Buzzsaw, headed towards the center of the city, essentially clearing a path for infantry forces behind them. With Hirgizstanian aircraft in the air, concentrating on armor within the city, the Marines could concentrate a little more on stomping the rebels on the ground. It wouldn't be an easy fight either, since the rebels had, essentially, surrounded the city and infested it like a swarm of cockroaches. The thermal sensors of the tanks and Buzzsaws showed them a sea of red, orange, and yellow, amongst the dark blue that made up the air around them.

Shortly into the advance forward, the Marine commander and his Buzzsaw began taking heavy fire from a dilapidated apartment building to their northeast, about four hundred meters away. There had to be at least fifty rebels in the four story building, firing everything from RPGs and heavy machine guns to pistols. The commander, whose tank was behind the Buzzsaw called out over the radio, "Hector. Tear that place apart! I'm covering rear."

"Roger that sir."

"Gentlemen," the Marine commander said to the men in his tank. "Do you know why they call it the Buzzsaw?"

"Sir we do."

"You're about to actually see with your own two eyes." The M2060A1 Buzzsaw moved forward a little, its heavy armor taking RPG hits as it sighted its gun system. Then, with a roar, the twin guns, which fired at a rate of 450 rounds per minute, unleashed a barrage of fire. Most of the rounds were high-explosive, incendiary ones, optimized for just this purpose and, as they tore into the building, the crew trained the turret from right to left. They fired less than sixty rounds in the single event but did exactly what their namesake suggested. "Buzzsaw." The commander said as the building groaned and shook, smoke pouring out of its windows. Then, with a horrific, high-pitched, creaking sound, the building's upper two floors fell forward and toppled over, the building, essentially, cut in half. From where they were, when the smoke cleared, they could easily see the bodies of the rebels, most of them torn to shreds by the massive firepower of the Buzzsaw. Both vehicles continued forward.

April 21, 2008 - 08:25 hrs [GMT+2]
Dnieper River near Novokyivka

MSG. Shepard and his Piranha PBR had just moved over into the yellow zone as they crossed past Novokyivka, a small village to their north, on the bank of the river in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. They were in territory that was only under some Eurasian control and they routinely took fire from rebel forces along the banks of the river, although rarely was it ever serious. They were still far away from the "red zone," which began just north of Kremenchug, way up the river. Anything north of there was in complete and total rebel control. In order to get to Kiev though, they would have to go there and, with the Eurasian offensive just three days away, they expected that they were, at some point, going to be going that far north.

Novokyivka was a small, fishing village that didn't want much to do with the war, regardless of who it was on their doorstep. They did; however, detest the Layartebian patrol boats, which stirred up the river and scared away the fish. On more than one occassion, fishermen gave them insults as they moved past, angered that they would be down another day's catch. Layartebian patrol boats were notorious for that kind of behavior too. To spit the villagers, who often had nothing but contempt for them, they would buzz by fishing boats at nearly eighteen knots, scaring every fish for a mile. It would only come back to bite them in the ass. When Layartebian Marines would head into the village to look for rebel supporters, they would be ejected out, quite quickly. Though the war wasn't against the villagers, the Marines often felt the desire to burn the whole village to the ground, for the utter lack of cooperation. It sort of engendered and a mutal hatred between the two opposing groups and, if anything, drove the villagers to the rebel side more than the Eurasian.

So, this morning, when MSG. Shepard and his crew moved through the river at a slow, six knots, they received nothing but curses from the villagers, despite their being far enough away from the fishing boats to not cause any trouble. "Shep. Why do they always curse at us?" CPL. Healy asked, not fully understanding the scope of the situation. "I mean they always curse at us but we ain't done nothing to them."

"They hate us because of our brothers. You see, the villagers here rely on fishing to survive. Every time we come through here, it scares the fish away. Some of our colleagues," he laughed at the thought. "Some of our colleagues like to buzz by them at high speed to piss them off."

"Why though? I mean I'm not a softee but c'mon."

"Boredom. Maybe it's because the villagers never help us so we don't help them."

"Healy. You're too naive." SGT. Davis yelled out from the bow machine guns. "Look at them. They're nothing but rebel sympathizers!" He held up his middle finger as they went by another fishing boat. "Yeah fuck you too you piece of shit!" He said loud enough for them, on the boat, to hear but not loud enough for the fishing boat to hear. MSG. Shepard had the sliding door open and the front window open as well, to get some air in the stuffy control section of the boat and quickly suppressed a laugh. Davis' antics did help quell the border that even the seasoned veteran couldn't help but feel.

Hirgizstan

05-05-2008, 23:34

Olhopil

Shifty had heard of the Buzzsaw only once before he'd seen it up close. There had been an article about it on some defense website a while ago, just after the Layartebians had bought them. They were an interesting concept based around a fearsome primary weapon that he now saw the full effect of.

His own QRF aircraft were buzzing over the town loosing rockets onto the rebel armor that was retreating toward their major fortifications in the center of the city, around an open square that was now scared with trenches, barricades, vehicles and rebel infantry. The Layartebian vehicles were making their way through the town at a decent pace, worrying more about the infantry, with the Hirgizstanian aircraft keeping the armor at bay.

The two AH-53 Serpent's could actually do both those jobs at once. Shifty and Baron concentrated solely on using the aircraft's exterior mounted missiles and armaments, while the crew in the rear could concentrate on infantry or lesser armored targets- thus while Shifty tore up a tank with the 30mm cannon, the dual 25mm Bushmaster could rake through lines of infantry or small armored vehicles, while the side mini-guns tore pieces off anyone not in cover.

Essentially the AH-53 was what all other attack helicopters tried to be- a flying tank.

Shifty watched from his own vantage point as the other AH-53 dropped in low over the fortified square at the centre of town, loosing its 1000lb dumb iron bomb. A few seconds later and the sound ripped throughout the place, sending huge shockwaves in all directions, before Shifty himself swooped down and dropped his own.

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

Dnieper River, south of Zaporizhzya

Liutenant Chucky Jumuas liked sneaking about in the Class 145 Alligator better than roaring around in daylight aboard the chunky Pegasus Class. The only good thing was the prescence that the Pegasus commanded. Its grey-blue-green digital paint and several large guns meant it basically had 'fuck off' written on the front in bright green letters for any other river users to see.

But then, the Hirgizstanian flag, just above a traditional Jolly Roger, was basically the same thing. Out on the river any fishermen simply kept their heads down and did their best not to even look at the Hirgizstanian boat. This wasn't a reaction the COH had tried to impress, it was one that the various rebel groups had themselves created when disseminating information about the various so called 'atrocities' committed by Hirgizstanian troops across the world.

There was, as ever, mention of Abu Dhubai, but more recently there was mention of Kazakhstan and various other places were Hirgizstanian force had shown itself. Some foolhardy groups and individuals used this information to fuel their fires of rebellion, but for ordinary Ukranians it was the stuff of nightmares.

Chucky had realized early on that boarding a boat turned out to be a rather easy affair. Flagging down a boat took all of five minutes with the fishermen or merchantmen literally cowering or shaking in fear as the Hirgizstanian troops searched through the boat. Of course, when guns or weapons or drugs or any sort of contraband was found, the boats were scuttled and the crew dissappeared.

Chucky wondered to himself what would happen when the Hirgizstanian Army regulars got on the offensive. Their standard mode of operation was to simply destroy cities, towns and villages from which they received resistance, exterminating anyone in the vicinity. Whether the Eurasians would let that fly or not was another matter.

Right now, Chucky was just glad that the Hirgizstanian militaries reputation of being the worlds most brutal was making his life a bit easier, allowing him to search boats without too much fuss or resistance. He was still on his guard though. Eventually someone would test whether what the rebels were saying was true. They'd find it was, but how much blood needed be spilt before that happend?

Layarteb

15-05-2008, 04:58

OOC: I will have a post up tomorrow continuing my storylines...

Layarteb

18-05-2008, 22:25

April 21, 2008 - 10:00 hrs [GMT+2]
Olhopil, Vinnytsia Oblast

The combined assault on Olhopil was more than just a battle. It was a rout. Layartebian Marines tore through the town, tearing apart the rebel hiding places with little effort. Layartebian Sabertooths had already collapsed several buildings, an hour after the battle began, and decimated much of the rebel force entrenched in the city. The sheer volume and density of the rebel forces were the only thing preventing them from being completely wiped out of Olhopil. Eurasian forces, who had now linked up with the Layartebian Marines on foot had shown themselves to be worthy and fierce fighters. The Marines were amazed that the Eurasians had held out for as long as they did without intervention. Combined now with Hirgizstanian attack helicopters and Layartebian cavalry, the Eurasian forces would soon be able to reclaim Olhopil as their own. With three days until the Eurasian offensive from Kiev began, Eurasian forces needed as many footholds in southern Ukraine as they could manage. In every "yellow" territory, Eurasian footholds counted for double what they would have in "green" zones.

Rebel forces were well equipped with former North Germanian weapons, giving them a potency few rebel groups had. They far outmatched the bravest of the brave in the Amazonian Control Territory and Mato Grosso, who were equipped with a plethora of Neuvo Rican arms, among many others. Fervor, fury, and determination drove the rebels in Olhopil but they were outclassed and outmatched by the now better equipped and better trained Layartebian Marines. They moved block by block, house by house, a slow advance that brought much reward. Aided by the sheer awesome power of the Buzzsaws and Sabertooths, Layartebian Marines cleared whole sections of Olhopil at once, driving rebel forces back or splattering their remains all over the stone and sheetrock walls of the city's structures. By 10:00 hours, an hour or so into the fight, rebel forces had already been driven away from Eurasian positions. They were now, for all intents and purposes, on the defense as Layartebian Marines and Eurasian reservists pushed outwards, using their superior training and better weapons to drive the rebels backwards. As they did, they drove them to the slaughter.

Layartebian armor had already moved throughout most of the outer rim of the city and was working to completely encircle the last remaining rebel positions, which were pockets more than anything else, along the edge. Rebel forces were excellent tacticians, the marines could agree but they weren't seasoned, not like the marines were. The combined, land and air assault on the city was a tactic that the rebels weren't well equipped to defend against. They had few shoulder-launched missiles with them to engage the helicopters and their unguided, anti-tank rockets would prove worthless against the fast moving, well armored helicopters. Their small arms would be utterly useless against the helicopters. Against any normal cavalry force, they may have had a fighting chance but, against the amazingly-well armored Buzzsaws and Sabertooths, they wouldn't be very successful. Their rockets did little to damage the frontal or even side armor of the armored tanks and, if they were lucky enough to get a shot to the rear, and that was a rarity, the slat armor grills attached to both vehicles simply deflected the blast potential of their HEAT rockets.

The rebels were fighting a force that had seasoned and honed its urban combat skills above any other in the world. They didn't know this of the Layartebians, despite the history books being readily available. Combat continued throughout the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon. Supply drops of ammunition and water from the marines helped greatly as Olhopil shook, shattered, and shimmied underneath the awesome potential of chemical explosives. It wouldn't be long before Olhopil faced a full, Eurasian onslaught.

April 21, 2008 - 12:00 hrs [GMT+2]
2 miles southwest of Kharkov, Kharkiv Oblast

The Force Reconnaissance team had received new orders just after 04:00 hours and Spectre, Dust, Raptor, and Diablo had immediately made their way to the northwest. Their orders, coded, instructed them to move to Kharkov, the second largest city in the country and a major den for rebel activity. Intelligence suspected that the rebel headquarters was stationed in Kharkov and Layartebian aircraft were slated to bomb the city into oblivion during the Kiev Offensive. The recon team needed to get onsite to conduct reconnaissance and find out what was going on in the city. It would be a long hike, almost eighty miles but they wouldn't have to walk the whole way. They got about ten miles before they found a vehicle and stole it, driving for a good distance in the remainder of the night, covering a lot of distance until they reached 10 miles from the city. There, they ditched the vehicle and set off on foot again. By noon, they were at the city, just two miles away, carefully observing road traffic from a camouflaged position along E40, a major roadway that circled the city.

The air force had already mapped out nearly two hundred targets in the city, including several small bridges and buildings. Bombers and fighters were set to rain destruction on the city, in the middle of the night and, as the Force Reconnaissance team watched, through binoculars, as rebels packed into cars and exited the city or entered the city, a satellite passed by overhead. It snapped thousands of digital, high-resolution photographs of the city, at over 20 megapixels per picture and would soon transmit that data to an intelligence station in Turkey, on Incirlik Airbase. The photographs would provide last minute reconnaissance of some of the targets in the city but, they were just pictures. The men on the ground would provide the real data and they had three days to get into the city and "observe." They weren't authorized to "go loud" unless they absolutely had to and they wouldn't get into that sort of position.

Hirgizstan

22-05-2008, 20:02

Olhopil

It was time to go but Shifty was happy with what he and his crew had done. They hadn't lost anyone, but they had taken heavy small-arms fire and several AA missiles had come too close for comfort but now the Layartebian and Eurasian forces on the ground had the situation well in hand and were progressing well.

If he could have chosen Shifty would have stayed as long as possible but his two Shadows had already gone 'bingo' on fuel and had left the AO. Now he, the other Serpent and two Stalkers were about to go bingo and he had now expended all of his ammunition. There was no point in staying any longer.

"Echo Five-Two and Beetle Four, this is Lightning Flight. We are all now at bingo fuel and ammo, we gotta' head back south. Sky Eye will stay on station and if things get hairy another QRF is on station. Its been a pleasure to serve with you, good luck and good hunting. Lighting Flight out."

He keyed the radio mic off and banked the big aircraft away from the city, waving out the open side window to some troops on the ground before dipping the nose and heading south.

Layarteb

26-05-2008, 20:40

April 21, 2008 - 19:00 hrs [GMT+2]
Olhopil, Vinnytsia Oblast

The Hirgizstanian air support had been welcomed when it was overhead. Layartebian and Eurasian forces battled a city entrenched with enemies but they were leading. When the Hirgizstanian aircraft departed, it left a small gap in coverage for about half an hour, allowing the rebel forces to make some comebacks here and there. Then, Layartebian aircraft arrived overhead, mostly helicopters but a few Raven attack fighters were also overhead, armed with precision guided ordinance. Thousand pound bombs fell hard onto the ground as the Ravens dropped their ordinance on various targets throughout the city, spotted by the Marines on the ground. By the time the sun began to set, the rebels were practically in a full retreat. Layartebian fighters and helicopters had dropped so much ordinance into the city that rebels were more afraid of the aircraft than they were of the Buzzsaw combat vehicles, a peculiar situation since the Buzzsaw, alone, had killed more rebels. Olhopil would be secured by morning. Once the Kiev Offensive began by the Eurasian forces, Olhopil would be a staging and jumping point for Layartebian Marines pushing northward, into the yellow and, eventually, red zones.

Layarteb

30-05-2008, 02:58

OOC: Quick fast forward to coincide with the offensive for my storyline.

April 23, 2008 - 20:00 hrs [GMT+2]
65 miles northwest of Kiev, Kiev Oblast

The Eurasian offensive was just hours away and the Imperial Layartebian Air Force had one more target to strike before the offensive began. The rebel forces of Ukraine were decently equipped enough to fight on the ground, with tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, and what not. However, against airborne threats, they had little defenses except shoulder fired missiles and a few mobile anti-aircraft gun systems. The possibility of them coming into possession of larger, more potent medium or long-range SAM systems was remote, at best. However, there was the chance that they could use the Duga-3 radar systems near Pripyat or the one near Grekovka, both of which were in the extreme north of the country, territory that the Eurasian Federation had no control over at the present time. Both systems were over-the-horizon radar systems that could be used to locate and track Eurasian and Layartebian aircraft attacking Ukraine. Even if the rebels did not have control over deadly SAMs to shoot down these aircraft, they could alert their comrades. Both of these systems were being watched carefully by the intelligence agencies of both Eurasia and the Empire and there was no indication that either of them were online. They could easily be brought online though and they had been vital to the North Germanian air defense network. Now, they were a liability, too big to exist.

They were codenamed Delta Nine and Delta Ten, and they were high priority targets, too high to let exist. On the eve of the offensive, their numbers came up and a flight of four Layartebian B-6A Dementors took off from Incirlik Air Force Base to remove them from existence. Each of the four bombers were carrying four AGM-203I Imsdal hypersonic strike missiles. The "I" model was experimental, like the upcoming "H" model, which was a specific anti-shipping variant. The "I" model was based solely on the fragmentation armed "D" variant but with a lighter warhead for a more specific purpose. The "D" was armed with a 700.00 lb. blast-fragmentation warhead filled with 31,000 10mm tungsten spheres, enough to pepper an area as wide as four thousand feet across. Soldiers, vehicles, sensitive electronics, etc. would all be toast by this warhead. It's main purpose was to use against airfields and radar installations. A single Imsdal could easily knock out most of the aircraft on the airport tarmac, runway, and any electronics. Against a radar site, the missile would devastate everything. The newer "I" model was tailored specifically for fragmentation against electronics equipment, primarily that of a ship. With a more focused fragmentation effect, the AGM-203I would easily take down the entire electronics suite of a ship in a single shot, as well as do heavy damage to its bridge. It would specifically be used here in order to destroy the main radar array at both sites, while causing minimal damage to the associated structures, allowing the site to be repaired in the future.

http://www.forsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/Das%20Burn/duga3-01.jpg

http://www.forsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/Das%20Burn/duga3-02.jpg

http://www.forsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/Das%20Burn/duga3-03.jpg

Each site would be tasked by two bombers, one firing, the other in the air for backup purposes. They had taken off earlier and flew towards the target flying high, at 39,000 feet and 610 miles per hour. The Dementors took up a spaced formation as they flew over southern Ukraine, breaking off to hit their two targets. Inside the bombers, the offensive weapons officers entered the launch codes into the missile computers. Each missile was then capable of arming and the final checks were done to ready them for launch. On their rotary launchers, the missiles maneuvered into launch position and the bombers prepared for the strike. The launching Dementors each fired off their four missiles, sending them towards the target at high speed, cruising at an altitude of 70,000 feet and Mach 3.8. They would be at the targets in minutes, exploding at a preset distance from them, in order to maximize the lethality of their fragmentation warheads.

Layarteb

06-07-2008, 19:36

April 24, 2008 - 02:00 hrs [GMT+2]
Ladyzhyn, Vinnytsia Oblast

Ladyzhyn was a small city of around 25,000 just thirty-six miles northwest of Olhopil, where the Layartebian Marines had unleashed unholy hell just three days prior. The Marine Corps cavalry unit had been resupplied and reinforced with additional vehicles and support. In the three days since Olhopil was put back under Eurasian control, Marine engineers had established Chechelnik Airfield as a forward airbase for the Layartebian Marine Corps and moved the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the 9th Marine Division to the airfield. One third of all of the equipment and personnel previously stationed at Forward Operating Base Corvette, near Odessa to the south had now been moved north, to Chechelnik, codenamed Forward Operating Base Corsica. For the Kiev Offensive, the Marines would have, at their disposal, a forward deployed regiment with enough firepower to annihilate most rebel positions in a single push.

Already forward deployed were two AH-99B Anasazi attack helicopters, three HV-24C Bulldog transports, and four UH-95A Super Huey utility helicopters. In just three days, the Marines had set up countless emplaced positions for machine guns and anti-tank rockets and deployed an M2016A3 LAADS for point and air defense. A single M2016A3 could easily defend against any air threat the enemy possessed and even bring its guns to bear on ground forces. The same guns that were on the LAADS were now used in the Mark 205 CIWS system, which was the premier close-in defense system in the world. It was modelled on the Kashtan but significantly improved and combined with deadly 35mm autocannons and Rolling Airframe Missiles.

When the Kiev Offensive began just after midnight, Eurasian forces were the majority of the push. The Layartebian Marines on the ground in Vinnytsia had their own individual objectives. They would move north, in support of the Eurasian offensive and hook around to converge on Kiev's western side. They would move through Vinnytsia north into Zhytomyr and then east through Kiev to the capital city, where Eurasian forces were making their breakout. Once Layartebian forces made contact with Eurasian forces in Kiev, Layartebian paratroopers from the ILA would move to areas in western Ukraine and secure those areas. Eurasian and other October Alliance forces were primarily response for the south and east of Kiev. In total, there were ten areas that the Layartebians were to suppress and get under control. It would be a brutal and long-lasting offensive that could take anywhere from a week to three weeks.

By 01:00 hours, local time, the Eurasians began their assualt while the Layartebians would not begin theirs until 02:00 hours. Already in the air, from the various air bases in Turkey and aircraft carriers in the Med and the Black Sea, were dozens of aircraft. Heavy bombers from Turkey had already been put in the air and included a number of B-6A Dementors and B-10A Badger medium bombers. F-35 Ravens from the ships and from Turkey were in the air as well, all carrying precision ordinance, cluster munitions, incendiary munitions, and strike missiles. Helicopters were already in the air to aide in the effort as well as transport aircraft armed to the teeth. Bulldogs armed with Mavericks, unguided rockets, and bombs were in the air already too and would be forward deploying Marines and launching their own individual assaults. The enemy had no where to hide, especially not from the Layartebian Marines and aircraft.

The first aircraft to arrive on scene around Ladyzhyn were a pair of F-35s from Odessa, each carrying heavy ordinance. Both aircraft were loaded with a pair of 1,000 lb. JDAM II bombs internally, two more externally, a pair of Mavericks externally, and two short-range, air-to-air missiles. They were flying combat air support sorties and that meant they were at the disposal of the Marines on the ground. On the ground, the Marines tore open the battlefield with their armor as they pushed in to secure Ladyzhyn, a city with only about a hundred or so rebels. Ladyzhyn was just a stepping stone for Vinnytsia, the capital of the Vinnytsia Oblast, some 53 miles northwest. Vinnytsia was only partially in control of the Eurasians and the Marines would make sure that it remained fully in Eurasian control as the push northward began by the Marines.

Layarteb

27-07-2008, 05:51

April 24, 2008 - 06:00 hrs [GMT+2]
Vinnytsia, Vinnytsia Oblast

Four hours into the Kiev Offensive, Layartebian Marines, moving ahead of the main assault force had arrived on the outskirts of Vinnytsia. Marines and helicopters to the south were mopping up the last bits of resistance in Ladyzhyn, which had been quickly pacified by overwhelming force. Further north now, a company of 128 Marines inside CMPLVs had pulled up around the outskirts of the city and established a foothold on the city by securing four approaches from the south and two from the west. Vinnytsia was a large city with over 350,000 civilians and an unknown number of rebels, perhaps over one thousand. These were the type of hardcore rebels that the Layartebians and Eurasians feared would be to the north. There were several types of rebels and these were at the top tier.

The classes of rebels revolved around their different motives. Rebels who were defending their own homes and cities were more of the territorial types and could easily be bargained with, avoided, or steamrolled by the more powerful and technological military of the Eurasians or Layartebians. Then there were those who were ideologically opposed to the Eurasians and were more difficult to coerce. They were easily stampeded though just like the territorial ones. Then there were rebels motivated by some sort of deeper sense of nationalism and were those who made up the highest tiers. They could not be bargained with and they were plentiful, especially in the "red" zones and to the north. Eurasian forces had tried to convert or negotiate with these types of rebels but to no avail. This was now why the Kiev Offensive was underway. The Eurasians had to open up routes to the capital, a city they controlled but which was surrounded by rebel forces.

The hardcore rebels in Vinnytsia occupied most of the city's 23.5 square miles and most likely had the support of the populace, which was a demographic the Layartebians would want on their side. Reconnaissance satellites showed that the city was quite active, despite the intense fighting to the east. Layartebian fighter planes buzzed over the city just an hour after the offensive began to scare the residents down below but as late as 05:00 hours, there was still activity in the city. While most of the city was asleep there were plenty of cars on the road and other associated personnel working around the city. The reconnaissance also showed a significant amount of defenses and projected many, many, many more under camouflaged nets. Ambush zones, anti-aircraft artillery, and the presence of anti-tank systems were all seen on the satellite photographs and relayed to the Marines approaching. Those who secured the outer rim of the city were all prepared for a fight if the rebels came out to attack them.

Emplaced at their six locations around the city, the advance group of Marines dug in and prepared to defend themselves. They expected to be here another four hours before the main Marine force to the south arrived. Roads to and from Vinnytsia were secure and that meant the Marine units could move fast towards the city, which was a beautiful thing for a lightning campaign. Tanks and armored vehicles would be leading the convoy up from Ladyzhyn while a few units would stay behind to keep the city secured for twenty-four hours before Eurasian forces could come in and take over, relieving the Layartebians who could then move north. Overhead, a pair of F-35B Raven fighters streaked forward, towards Vinnytsia just about the hard-deck of 10,000 feet. Both fighters were armed with pair of cluster bombs internally and a pair of Maverick missiles externally. They vectored in on a series of air defense units, using satellite photos from earlier to target the mobile guns. Both fighters locked onto and fired at several guns, blasting them sky high, then using their cluster bombs against various ambush spots.

The presence of the Ravens overhead was a surefire sign to the rebels within the city that the Layartebians were coming. The pre-dawn strike alerted the whole city to the incoming Marines and they also created a massive exodus of civilians to the north. Fearing the worst, the Marines on the outskirts immediately cleared to "hot" and could now engage anyone with a weapon or to defend themselves. The situation tensed up instantly as, further south, Marine artillery units moved a battery of M777A2 howitzers into position just ten miles from the city. They would be called in to support the assault on the city along with several other batteries. They would be backed up by attack helicopters and a variety of aircraft flying for both the Marines and the Air Force.

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