NationStates Jolt Archive

"Privateers" pursued into foreign waters after attack

The PIN training vessel Dewaruci, a tall ship, was under way off Banda Aceh when approached yesterday by, authorities claim, two, "large speedboats". Witnesses -local fishermen and survivors of the incident- report that automatic weapons fire erupted shortly before the Dewaruci caught fire, hit, the Admiralty says, by one or more rocket-propelled grenades.

Two sailors, both aged in their late teens, perished and four others were injured either during the attack or while battling to save the ship from fire that engulfed part of the deck and rigging.

Imperial Navy forces reacted swiftly, but as the region has not been considered high-risk, small local forces were unable to capture the attackers.

The corvette Fatahillah was dispatched to give chase, and eventually tracked the attackers, now described by Nay Pyi Taw as privateers rather than mere pirates, to Great Nicobar, an island in the southern end of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, belonging to India.

The Fatahillah, in news not reported by the Empire, deposited a shore party of armed sailors and gave fire-support with its deck gun until the privateers retreated into the nature reserve that covers most of the remote island.

In the hours that followed, light transport aircraft derived from the famous DC-3 were dispatched from Sumatra to deploy members of the Parachute Regiment -described by Yangon as counter insurgency experts- across the Nicobarese islands. In a rapidly co-ordinated operation that may surprise observers who credit the Pyekan military with little deployment capability, transport and assault craft from Yangon were immediately dispatched towards the Andaman Islands, where most of the chain's population is located.

Port Blair, South Andaman Island

The capital of the region, home to a good hundred thousand people, has seen little conflict since the Second World War. Though the islands have witnessed clashes between Indian settlers and aboriginal tribes, it is a long time since bombs have fallen here. Not since the Japanese siezed the islands from the British has there been such a scene.

Modified transport aircraft dropping retarded bombs on the beaches and in the tree line made no attempt to cause serious damage or inflict casualties, but sought only to intimidate locals, whose chief defence is an outpost of the Indian Coast Guard, hardly a major fighting force likely to resist strongly as the Pyekan Imperial Navy vessel Panaku deploys light attack aircraft and assault helicopters to storm the port facility, raking the waters with heavy machinegun fire and loosing light aerial rockets into nearby forest in a show of force.

To the south, the armoured cruiser Pan Jaya soon cuts an imposing silhouette, having arrived surprisingly shortly after the reported privateer attack on Banda Aceh.

Within hours, more than eight hundred Pyekan military personnel are deposited across the ANI chain's slightly more than eight thousand square kilometres, and the imperial standard is being raised on numerous islands.

http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/pyeki.jpg

No major attempt is made by limited Marine and Parachute forces to enforce control over Port Blair's population, but loud hailers and propaganda drops over the town demand peaceful co-operation, and inform any who may think of fighting that an entire division-worth of the Pyekan National Army is being mobilised in Sumatra and Yangon to, "secure stability in the pirate islands".

With only one Pyekan soldier for every four or five hundred residents of the islands, and no willingness to clear the city of Port Blair, which may still be defended by coast guard staff, the deployment of more troops before any possible Indian counter move is imperative.

Moving from pursuit of pirates one minute to accusations of an act of war committed by the Indian state and a full scale invasion of the ANI territory, it seems clear that Yangon has been waiting for an excuse to move on the islands as part of its Pyekanma policy of imperial expansion.

Yangon wishes by deploying its light carrier and heavy cruiser and mobilising several thousand regular troops to convince New Delhi of the uselessness of fighting over these small islands, adjacent to the Pyekan-Kuogu and remote from mainland India. And, after all, Emperor Pan Yoshimura is perfect in judgement, is he not?...

OOC: I'm a tad confused. Considering I have a few thousand troops stationed their, mostly in its capital Port Blair and on the coast, I am wondering whether you have taken this area or are just bombing it. Because as its not exactly 100,000 against 20, I should be able to resist. For now, I'll RP as if you have taken the Southern island of Great Nicobar and possibly most of the Nicobar Islands and are planning to invade the more populated islands.

The response in Great Nicobar was frenzied. They saw them coming, at first they thought them Indians but soon a far worse realization hit them, that they were unknowns, from the devil nation across the waters. Men ran into the forest, armed with what they had, willing to die to defend their tribes and people, whilst the women, children and old had to face the trauma Pyekian invasion, and the propaganda they brought.

Soon afterwards many of the other smaller islands fell, as the Nicobar Islands gradually were overun by the red flag. Military presence in this area was tiny, the outpost of Coast Guard containing just troops to protect the coastal waters. However, sirens alarmed across in the Andaman Islands, where 300,000 people heard the news of the attack, and soon felt the bombs. A handful were killed but the effect was felt. The Indian Coastguard, 3012 of them, brought their rifles to protect Port Blair if a ground invasion came and sent out two Interceptor Boats to scout the waters of Nicobar, bringing back the news of what the Pyekian navy had sent, which they relayed to the Indian government.

The response from the Indian government was one of anger. Anger at there inability to stop this surprise attack, and anger at Pyeki for drawing them into war. Indra Patel called on his army officials, including the Chief of Staff General Deepak Kapoor, for an emergency meeting done within the hour the news of the attacks broke. It was time to show the Pyekian's a lesson the consensus was, and to prevent them from taking the full islands.

And so a naval task force, perhaps too grand for the event, was prepared. The naval mobilized the INS Gandhi aircraft carrier which held thirty-five planes, bringing with it a set of SEPECAT Jaguars, HAL Tejas and helicopter transport/attackers Mil Mi-8 and Mil Mi-24. To accompany it came two Sukanya class patrol craft, filled with ballistic missiles, transport ships the INS Jalashva (L41) and INS Shardul (L16) would carry 1500 troops and thousands more would travel by air. To add, Deepak demanded his most deadly submarine fleet, perhaps not too deadly to Westerners, the Shishumar four created in Germany. The fleet set off with the protection of destroyers and frigates to bring back the islands to India.

Finally, Indra Patel sent out a message to Pyeki and the world. In the message he stated that "India has been savagely attacked by unlawful Pyekian forces" and called on the world to offer severe condemnations of the vicious invasion of the Nicobar Islands. He also said Pyeki had twelve hours to state its desire to withdraw and until the Indian fleet arrived to begin withdrawing, others India would retaliate with "necessary force".

((OOC: I'm not really saying that we've taken all the islands, just started to land troops. In most cases this would be seen as a de facto capture of them since there won't be Indian troops on the majority of the islands. Presumably you don't have the means to stop airborne and marine troops landing in parts of even the more populated of the Andaman Islands, though we'll have to fight to take Port Blair, and maybe other little towns, mostly in the Andamans and one or two in the Nicobars if you choose to contest them. I would suppose that it'd be mostly armed police and maybe armed citizens in most of those towns, though, at this point, wouldn't it?

After all, Pyeki hasn't attacked anyone since the Konfrontasi ended in 1966.

I assume that it'll take at least a few days for India to put together a serious battle-ready fleet and to deploy several thousand troops over distance, given that this is a nation with a per capita GDP about in line with Sudan's? Our whole plan hinges on having ended major resistance in the islands before the Indian Navy can arrive in force enough to challenge us.

This map, I think, is fairly clear, though a bit dated. The population of Port Blair, of course, is now somewhat more than indicated there.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/islands_oceans_poles/andaman_nicobar_76.jpg

Oh, just one other thing: I assume you don't actually mean ballistic missiles, do you?! Not on patrol craft, anyway!

Sorry, I'm a bit pressed for time, so I hope this isn't too messy.))

The Nicobar Islands

On Great Nicobar, respect for the nature reserve covering most of the island was clearly not a concern to the Pyekan National Army once its forces began to arrive in strength. Small armoured vehicles resembling retro-'30s IJA tankettes began to crawl up into the forests, spraying 6.5 and 7.7mm machinegun fire at any sign of movement and belching flame through hoses hooked up to lightly armoured tankers hauled behind some of the vehicles. On this island at least the Pyekan-Kuogu was officially hunting privateers sponsored by Delhi, and would give them no quarter.

Within hours of the initial landings, amphibious tankettes were swimming across St.George's Channel to Little Nicobar, while aircraft and ships continued on to the rest of the chain. Tankettes climbed over reefs around Camorta Island, and it was only at Car Nicobar that caution was displayed, Marines advancing slowly as if expecting possible resistance as they entered Malacca and tried to sieze the anchorage there. The 120mm deck gun of a corvette was used to deliver warning shots to possible defenders in hopes that fighting could be avoided.

The Andaman Islands

Forces here were coming from what once was Burma, and arriving thick and fast as it appeared that Port Blair would not immediately surrender.

Diglipur was confronted by a whole company of PNA troops armed with infantry mortars, machineguns, and RPGs, and invited to give up as Parachute forces landed on Saddle Peak and attempted to set-up light guns and mortars.

More tankettes were trying to come ashore at Port Cornwallis with the hope that they could then press directly down the main road to Kartara and Betapur, and soon approach Port Blair from the north while the Nicobarese task force sailed across the infamous Ten Degree Channel.

Pyeki's own Great Coco Island was also the scene of major activity as fighter aircraft were flown in to its small airstrip, where engineers were working to expand facilities. This would be the Pyekan-Kuogu's unsinkable carrier in the Andaman theatre.

Pyeki

It appeared that India was preparing to fight, and the failure of Port Blair to surrender immediately was seen as a possible cause. Nay Piy Taw ordered the city be taken immediately, and authorised the captain of the Pan Jaya to bombard the defenders with his cruiser's 8" rifles if a surrender was not quickly secured. Warning notes were dropped by light transport aircraft to convey this threat.

Still, the Indian Navy was not to be scoffed at, and when it mustered its full strength and moved across the Bay of Bengal, Pyeki's hold on the islands, even if it had been established by then, would certainly be in question. The Emperor did not want total war with Delhi, and really hoped that the Indians would back down and accept the loss of these little islands.

But the Empire needed to give India's leaders a good excuse, or else they would want to avoid the loss of face.

In Chin and Rakhine states, near the border with Mizoram, and further north, the National Army was ordered to begin mustering mechanised forces to threaten Cox's Bazar, Imphal, and other Indian towns close to the frontier. No border crossings were to be attempted, nor shots fired, but Delhi must believe that there was a real danger of escalation if it followed through with its threats.

Yangon

Responding to Russian announcements of a fleet deployment to ANI region, Pyekan National Defence Force Captain Jun Tazaki declared that, far from being expected in ten days, the Russian fleet would, "probably have to wait that long just for the extra stores that will be required for it to approach via the Tasman and southern Australia, if it expects to arrive at all with the intention of interfering with South Asian affairs!"

This, presumably, can be taken as a statement of intent to challenge the passage of the Russian fleet through the Strait of Malacca or other waters close to the Pyekan homeland.

While the Russian fleet is undeniably more capable than the Pyekan Imperial Navy, in the close waters of the Pyekan-Kuogu itself, SSKs, FACs, shore-based gun and missile batteries, and hundreds of helicopters and jet aircraft, Yangon insists, would be more than capable of putting the entire Russian navy on the bottom.

Nay Piy Taw, meanwhile, states that the police action in the Bay of Bengal is of no concern to nations beyond the South Asian theatre, and is merely a response to security concerns highlighted by both piracy and suspected state-sponsored terrorism. The imperial capital also highlights recent violence in India-proper and the authorities' failure to protect ethnic Pyekan as a sign of Delhi's hostile intent.

OOC: according to wikipedia, the Coco Islands are leased to China, and even if you overwrite that, all military activity there, which is not confirmed, will have been created by China surely, so I'm a bit unsure whether there is an actual air base there. I'm also kind of assuming most of your naval is on the east, and mine on the west. And they can carry a couple of ballistics, though only a couple.

Cheers, from the ones who could muster it, came as the Indian planes flew, in a somewhat ceremonial way, towards the Andaman islands. Port Blair, still standing at the expense of hundreds of lives, was being hailed back at home as an amazing Indian stand-off - a few thousand ill-equipped Indian Police keeping off a well organized military attack. But, in fact their battering was clear; many dead littered the streets, and as some two thousand Indian troops landed on India's stronghold, besieged by Pyeki, the first issue was quelling angry civilians desperate to leave.

From this came India's naval task force, spearheaded by the INS Gandhi, and one of her smaller aircraft holding cousins. A division, containing the submarine fleet, the few Sukanya class patrol ships and the bulk of the destroyers, cruisers and frigates headed for the Bay of Bengal, cautiously followed by the well protected through both air superiority and naval assistance INS Jalashva (L41) and INS Shardul (L16). As the troops grew in Port Blair they better equipped the some two and a half thousand remaining police troops too, and the five thousand men prepared to counter-attack. And INS Ghandi launched it's first raid, HAL Tejas and Dassault Mirage 2000 were flown to the two airbases that remained in the Andaman islands and lifted from the INS Ghandi, fighting for air superiority over the Andaman islands.

And, then came out SEPECAT Jaguars, littering the Pyeki groups of troops and small rest bases with bombs as for hours on end. India would not leave Andaman without a fight. The final warning was sent to Pyeki, simple saying, state your intent to withdraw immediately.

Russian Pacific Fleet Task Force, Indian Ocean, 60 miles off the coast of the ANI

The task force, made up of 23 ships including the RFS Yeltsin Carrier sailed towards the archipelago in ahead of them. Russia had always maintained pretty good relationships with India, and it was only fair for the Bear to show that it could help out if need be. For now the fleet was there to observe, but Moscow could wire them at any time ordering a counterattack on the Pyeki Pirates. The Bear was going to show its claws one way or another this day, and only fate could decide what the outcome would be.

((OOC: If you got that information from Wiki, you must have read the words, "since 1994" in reference to that lease, eh? Needless to say, since, in 1994, Burma's government didn't exist to do the leasing, and, I dare say, China's didn't either (rather it's the Mongolian Empire), the lease does not exist in ESR. Instead of a Chinese base to observe the Indians is a Pyekan base to attack them :)

As to the ballistic missiles... it's just, ballistic missiles on a patrol boat? It doesn't make any sense. Perhaps you mean some sort of cruise missile? Anti-ship, or such?

I also assume our fleets are largely still east and west, as you say.

One last thing, other than Port Blair, where's the other Andaman airstrip you're using?

Candistan, read up a couple of posts. Pyeki is going to challenge your fleet if you try to steam through SE Asia. You'll either have to wait for extra oilers and supply ships and go a ridiculously long way around Australia or something, or else you'll have to call our bluff and try to push through the Indonesian territories and up the Malacca Strait, a large part of which we control on both shores.))

Overview

While Yangon still maintains that the Russian fleet will not be allowed to simply pass through the middle of the Pyekan-Kuogu, and will be interdicted thousands of kilometres from the Andaman Sea, the conflict itself becomes more serious.

That Port Blair's airstrip had not been taken was extremely bad news for General Na Lahu, commander of the initial invasion, as Indian aircraft began to arrive.

Taking Car Nicobar seemed to be going well enough, the little and isolated island apparently having little way to resist as tankettes rolled across it and on to the airstrip, but, like Great Coco Island, this was till relatively far from Port Blair, which was proving difficult to strike.

The General was likely to pay as Indian bombs began to fall, with parts of the ANI chain still beyond his control. Pyekan forces were supposed to be entrenched and in command before the first Indian counter attack, and the Pyekan-Kuogu was not accustomed to military failure.

Since the Konfrontasi, National Army forces had put down numerous insurrection attempts and fought prolonged counter-insurgency conflicts, and must surely have been the most experienced and hardened troops in the whole region. For Na Lahu this setback marked him out as a distinctly un-Pyekan failure. The loss of honour he could already feel weighing on his shoulders... but that was no great hardship, for those same shoulders would likely soon be unburdoned of his useless head.

He had one brief chance to redeem himself before Yangon could dispatch a replacement, sword in hand.

'The Battle of Port Blair'

Attempts by Pyekan fighters to interdict Indian transport and attack aircraft were hampered by a lack of reliable radar coverage in this remote theatre. The smallness of the Coco Island airbase meant that the Air Force could not keep up an unbroken CAP over the Andamans, even with the help of the light carrier Panaku.

Na Lahu issued a new order, and the Imperial Standard was replaced over the cruiser Pan Jaya with a banner of unadorned red. To anyone informed of this particular maritime tradition, the signal was simple: Port Blair has been given the chance to surrender, and has refused; as a consequence, the order is give no quarter!

The first Indian fighters were being ferried in to Port Blair when Pan Jaya's primary battery spoke in anger for the first time in decades. Nine 8" rifles hurled shells, the first volleys crashing into little Ross Island moments before two amphibious tankettes attempted to swim ashore, followed by three motor launches filled with Marine infantry.

5" dual purpose guns aboard the cruiser, loitering just east of the town, initially received orders to fire on incoming Indian fighters as they tried to land at Port Blair, presumably to change from ferry to combat load-out, before launching sorties against the Pyekan force. The effect of this fire is questionable, but once aircraft began to land, General Na Lahu stuck out his already marked neck and ordered the airstrip shelled directly.

127mm shells from quick-fire guns began to rain down on the facility as Mirage and Tejas jets came in to land, dropping on to buildings and the airstrip itself with intimidating regularity. If he couldn't use the airstrip, the General would be damned if he'd let the Indians use it against him!

The cruiser's main battery continued to support Marine landings on Ross Island, from where tankettes and APCs intended to approach Port Blair via Aberdeen while larger forces advanced slowly down the Andamans from the north to set up guns at Hope Town and east of Namunaghar, from where to shell the defenders across Navy Bay.

Jaguars were potentially quite dangerous aircraft from the Pyekan point of view. Good low level attack jets with handy speed, and the light Pyekan forces so far in place had only minimal air defence equipment, mostly machineguns that would not be highly effective against this foe.

It was fortunate that the Indians had only one large carrier, just begining to approach the theatre, and were limited in the number of sorties they could sustain, as even these were having a serious impact on parts of the operation. Approaching from the north, a boat-hulled tankette on which five infantrymen were riding, clinging to loopholes, was struck by a bomb fragment, and its desperately thin armour put up little resistance, killing all five soldiers and three crewmembers instantly.

Marine Engineers had to push the wreckage aside without stopping even to recover bodies lest they suffer the same fate. The site would have intimidated greener recruits, but these Marines all had innocent blood on their hands, having not long ago attacked and wiped-out a whole community of so-called boat people off Yangon, and instead the effect was to induce anger, which would be taken-out on the Indian population.

At this stage, with Port Blair under heavy shelling and the airstrip likely to be rendered unsafe for use, the Pyekan General felt that he was gaining the upper hand once again, but the approach of significant Indian warships and the hourly increasing possibility of submarine activity had him worried.

The Indians had impressively managed to get five thousand men on the ground, and the Ross Island to Aberdeen assault looked increasingly crucial. Swinging around the bay, National Army forces attacking Port Blair from the south encountered the dense woodland there, and found the counter-attacking Indians impossible to get by in these conditions.

Still, as supplies were ferried to units ashore, MANPADS shoulder-fired missiles would soon make the Indians think twice about low-level air strikes against infantry moving through the islands.

Yangon continued to build up forces on the mainland border in hopes of convincing Delhi to hold back incase of invasion in the northeast, but this could only go so far, since the Empire was in truth just as reluctant to fight a major landwar at this juncture, and only had its fierce reputation to convince the Indians otherwise.

OOC; Seriously, ballistics. Though, again, only a few.

And also, I mean, can you just build an airbase their, when there is no proof of existence. I mean, if that happened I could say I have ten airbases here due to your very real threat. I’d rather we resolved this issue soon, as to not continue with its fate in the balance. Also, could you make it clear how many ships you have, I’ve been quite vague but I only really know you have two…and I’m sure you have more. So this can be adjusted with specific ships, though its clear things like the ballistic would focus on the bigger, bulkier armoured cruisers etc.

The Great Nicobar Assault

The Indian forces were ready to attack fully. The intent of Pyekan was clear, now it was time to develop into full scale combat. The INS Jalashva (L41) and INS Shardul (L16), under huge cover from the some dozen destroyers and frigates and air support in the form of bombers which were pounding to dust the Pyekan troops on land, the troops began to land on the Great Nicobar island. Some one thousand poured onto the shore, and despite the savaging of Pyekan troops through the Jaguar bombers, more than a dozen men were gunned down. In a D-Day like scene, they quickly set up makeshift anti-aircraft guns, and held the beach near the town of Pulokunkji, which hundreds of troops them dived into, as low-level fighters targeted the Pyekan resistance, and the thousand swarmed across the island, fighting through the rainforest conditions they had trained in.

And nearby the frigates and destroyers of India’s navy moved and opened fire on the Eastern situated Nicobar Pyekan fleet. One thing India did benefit from through colonialism and its friendship with the world was its inherited resources – whilst Pyekan equipment was entirely either old or styled poorly at home, despite being the ‘older’ equipment, it was at least the older stuff of great powers, such as Russia, Britain and Germany. The second carrier, a light aircraft carrier with mostly a selection of bombers such as the Jaguars coming fresh from the beach fight, fired down on the Pyekan naval resistance on the East side of the Nicobars. This was the Pyekan stronghold, and as the troops battered them on the ground in bloody fights, aided by what remained of the tribal men, the Pyekan navy on the East side was being bombed heavily and engaged (with the vagueness of your ships I can’t say what is being bombed etc., it’s a general savage bombing). And in an earth-shattering explosion a ballistic was carried across the sea striking one of the Pyekan cruisers in a thunderous explosion.

‘The Battle of Port Blair’ Part II

The INS Gandhi and its accompaniment was left keeping the Port Blair defence stable. Port Blair however was gradually losing its need for much air support, thankfully due to the fact a lot had been redirected to the Great Nicobar assault, as the Indian troops with effiency began setting up makeshift anti-aircraft guns and ground machine gun posts on rooftops, beaches, the ground, dozens of them. If they got past the planes they would targeted with this. The civilians were warned to keep indoors, as with the immense fighting it was the safest place to be.

The General at the scene, a stuffy man who was just called Gen. Singh, ordered the submarine fleet, four Shishumar, to be sent to “kill off” the bombarding fleet who had nearly destroyed the air strip and in the process a couple of Tejas’s. Pan Jaya was it’s target, and as no doubt radar began to notice them they launched a vicious synchronized attack, blowing up the belly of the armoured cruiser that was the favourite of the Pyekan fleet and targeting the other ships around it.

The Airfield Strike
(OOC: This will only stand if we clear up the airfield issue, as I don’t think its their and I want proof…so I can destroy it ;)

Despite the fact there were still Pyekan troops on the ground the final Jaguars who had been bombing troops on the Andaman islands were redirected to a more worrying threat. The five thousand in Port Blair were able to defend themselves, but the airfield in the Grand Coco island was a threat. And so, Mirages in hand, they took across the water with their fuel. The Pyekan were ready, first a Jaguar fell, then a Mirage, but they came. But they littered the airfield with bombs, the Jaguars bombed the airfield itself and its intelligence outposts, the Mirages swooping low and attacking each plane in foul barrages of bullets, and airmen too. However, they turned quick after the destruction as they were under some fire. Whilst Pyekan still remained a naval power in the East of the Andaman’s, a positioned challenged with the explosion of its pride Pan Jaya and attack in the Nicobars, India was determined to keep air superiority.

OOC; Also, I have no idea were Ross Island is ;) I think we need a map of the areas we control. I'm assuming I have the most of Andaman, especially the South, and you have a takeover of Nicobar.


Back in India, they of course countered the Pyekan increase in forces by doing so with their own. Indra Patel, currently riding high on a record, for some five years, 82% approval rating, ordered that they show the Pyekan's they have a defended border. He could not predict the movement of this nation, so also desired to remain safe, though could see very few reasons why Pyekan would desire a full scale war currently.

Meanwhile, the Russian fleet was welcomed with a tad hint of uncertainity in New Delhi. They were friendly with Russia though still unsure as to why they had sent this fleet around Asia, though if they were here to assist India or to "observe warfare", there presence was happily acknowledged as long as they remained in international waters unless permitted and vocal in assisting India.

((OOC: It's on the map I linked. Look at the inset, it's a zoom on Port Blair, and Ross Island can be seen on that.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/islands_oceans_poles/andaman_nicobar_76.jpg

See the inset? There's Port Blair, including Ross Island.

I assume that we've taken most of the northern parts of the Andamans, but you still firmly hold Port Blair, and the southern Andamans are being heavily fought over. Coco Island has an air strip because I say so. We've had sixty-odd years to build one, so it's there.

Thing is, if you built more defences on the ANI chain, we'd have attacked with a bigger force. I'm working on the assumption that, as we said, this would be a smaller conflict, like the Falklands. If you have huge military bases all over the chain, I'd have used 100,000 men, not a couple of thousand, and I'd have won on day 1, by killing every Andamanese citizen in a few hours. As it is, I'm using a small force.))

The Nicobars

This theatre was Pyeki's back yard. It had to be admitted that an Indian assault here was a surprise. Defenders were caught a little off guard.

But it was a surprise because it was a stupid idea. The Nicobars were all but in the home waters of the Pyekan-Kugou.

Imperial fighters swarmed over Indian attempts to attack these islands. Even reserve fighters -archaic MiG-17s- had nothing to stop them machine-gunning Indian bombers. It was a turkey-shoot. Flying from shore, the Pyekan fighters could launch numerous sorties for every one launched by the Indians, and use fresh pilots every time. Out of Banda Aceh, the Pyekan-Kuogu had easy air superiority.

Shore-based fighters lifted off to attack Jalashva and Shardul. With, "mostly a selection of bombers such as Jaguars" these had little with which to interdict the Pyekan fighters, dozens of which were being launched from Sumatra.

This was so ridiculously close to the Pyekan home islands that shore-based missiles were being launched against frigates and destroyers. The Indian navy seemed to be on a suicide mission. This was an impossible situation... no attempt had been made to subdue Sumatran shore-based defences, and the Indians would be massacred as a result.

Needless to say, the ballistic missiles launched at Pyekan combat ships under way, missed by hundreds of metres at the very best, and the Pyekan-Kuogu was left to wonder at the wastefulness of its enemy. Why spend millions of dollars on ballistic missiles and then launch them into the open sea? Yangon had no idea.

Port Blair

Pan Jaya was steaming north of the east coast of South Andaman, having shelled Port Blair and near-by Ross Island. Unfortunately for the Indian submarines, these were waters close to the Pyekan homeland. Pan Jaya was skirted by several of Pyeki's 38 corvettes and 14 frigates. Chasing the target down on electric motors would be difficult at best. To get here, the Indian submarines crawled deep into waters patrolled by ASuW aircraft flying from both Sumartra and the Asian mainland.

Once again, the Indians seemed to be sticking their necks out rather far at such an early stage in the conflict, and Pan Jaya's anti-submarine screen was far from being breached. Several times corvettes using active sonar pinged Indian submarines, leading to the cruiser's rapid acceleration.

At least, though, the submarine threat did end the bombardment of Port Blair's air strip. If the Indians could get engineers in, they might repair the facility and launch new aircraft.

Coco Islands

This was puzzling. Thousands of kilometres from the Nicobars, and the Indians were still launching aerial assaults, at both ends of the chain.

Obviously, their resources were stretched. The strike on the Cocos was a serious problem for the Empire, which could not prevent it. But, on the ground, MANPADS would surely account for numerous attack jets as they came in low across the featureless sea. Nowhere to hide, their approach path obvious, another suicide mission.

Coco Island's small aerial facility couldn't take much bombing, and was soon put out of action, but the cost to the Indians would surely be numerous modern jets off a very small carrier fleet.

In the end, though, the Indians had done little to threaten Pyekan air superiority in the Nicobars, which was only likely to be transfered north. This theatre was simply too close to Pyeki, and too far from India.

The Fleet

Initially, Pyeki had hoped that India would give-in cheaply, and did not expect heavy fighting. The only danger was presumed to be from submarines and possibly some aircraft.

The cruiser Pan Jaya was skirted by half a dozen corvettes, four frigates, and at least two dozen patrol craft, only a few with sonar. The carrier Panaku, further away, had another eight corvettes and two frigates around her, plus more than forty small craft dipping in and out of Pyeki home waters. Scores of jet aircraft and helicopters were flying from the Pyeki mainland and Indonesian islands to cover the fleet, which also contained a dozen landing craft of various sorts.

Possibly, it seemed, Delhi did not quite appreciate just how close to the Pyekan-Kuogu, and how far from India, this fight would be.

((OOC: I haven't had time to read back over it, yet, but this is just a general warning that I was, let's say, mildly intoxicated when I made that last post! Anyway, I thought perhaps we should set-up an OOC thread before going further? This could easily become a major war, from this point, and if we want to avoid that it's best to let other players understand what we're aiming for. And we clearly have a lot of minor differences on exactly how we see the fighting as it's progressing so far. Not sure if I'll have time today, but next time I'm on I plan to write up a few things OOC so we can progress without too much confusion.

I also need a bit of time to think about my air force and naval air arm, anyway. Need to figure-out where we got our jets from, how much domestic capacity we have, and so on. I'm not sure if I'll be using thirty year old MiGs with local modifications, copied F-16s, entirely original Pyekan fighters, or what, which is no good when it comes to figuring out how we fare against Mirage-2000s!))

((http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=556498 OOC thread!))

Yangon, Pyeki
(formerly Rangoon)

Celebrating sixty-four years since military leaders in Burma, Thailand, and Indonesia agreed to disregard the inevitable Japanese defeat and seek within their own ranks a new Emperor is a serious business in the Pyekan Kuogu. The authorities have seized upon Emperor Pan Yoshimura's recent declaration on the sanctity of base eight counting, and an amazingly quick discovery there after of documents proving that Indonesian and Burmese independence leaders met with Thai officers in 1944 to make it eight sets of eight years since the decision to pursue what would become the Pyekanma Doctrine.

A coup for patriotism in time of war! And a sign that the heavens are with us, as is natural, given the Emperor's divinity.

Thousands crowd Independence Square to hear National Defence Force Captain Jun Tazaki, speaking from the Defence Ministry's main balcony. Facing him across the square, eye to eye despite Tazaki's two-story elevation, a giant golden Buddha statue.

The Captain, a member of the Pangkai, Pyeki's Parliament, launched into his address with the highest praise for the Emperor and the prosperity and power enjoyed by the Pyekan Kuogu under his watch. His attention soon turned to India, Pyeki's neighbour, and the world's most populace nation, a hundred million citizens clear of the second, another neighbour, the Mongolian Empire.

India was Pyeki's barbarian at the gate, so it would seem from Tazaki's address. Delhi, he said, was the world's biggest sponsor of terrorism, and, worse, a western lapdog.

But, never fear, humble subjects of the Empire, for Pyeki is stronger than the beast! Tazaki describes to the ignorant masses that India has fractionally more than four times the Empire's population, but that its economy is less productive, with each Indian representing $2,500 or less through the last year, compared with at least $4,300 for each Pyekan. This lead has been held for years, as can be seen in Pyeki's superior industry that supports her invincible military!

Still, while the Captain applauds the Emperor's wisdom and the people's hard work in achieving a better than 5% growth rate over that last year, he makes no mention of India's probably more than 7% increase in the same period, moving on instead to his comfort-zone, the National Defence Forces.

"Thais never gave up their independence, Indonesians and Burmese fought to regain theirs, and Indians, Indians bought it with mercenary service to their Christian masters and a timid wait for the white men to hand it over!"

The crowd politely applauded to show agreement. "That's true, that's true" they said, "Indians are more interested in saving their own skin than standing up for their country. The only brave ones stayed in Burma with the Indian National Army." Tazaki now assured Pyeki of victory. India would be put in her place, for sure!

"Their heroes are made by picking up salt! Our heroes shall salt the earth from Karachi to Chennai!"

The crowd gave a single, "Hurrah!" in impressive unision.

"They shall be picking up salt for a thousand years!" He exclaimed.

After that, Tazaki could no longer go on, drowned out by the chanting of the spectators, more than forty-thousand strong. He simply raised his hands and nodded in appreciation of them as a large imperial banner was unfurled below the balcony.

"Richest State with Powerful Army! Richest State with Powerful Army!"