Cotland
17-08-2008, 21:00
Somewhere outside the village of Targeteig
7 km from the Cottish-The People's Freedom border
«Right chaps, quiet down.» The man said quietly, kneeling in the small forest clearing.
«We're just a few hundred meters from the village now. Everyone remember their tasks?»
The seven other men nodded quietly.
«Good. Remember, don't hit any of them, and for Gods sake keep your heads down! We're going to be shooting on Cottish soldiers here, and they will be returning fire with live ammunition. These chaps have the new seven ninety-four millimeter rifles, so one hit will hurt. Finding out that the shooters are Cottish would totally fuck this operation up. Where's the rabbit?»
«Right here sir.» One of the men said, pulling up a back-binded and gagged man dressed in the same uniforms as the eight men were before pushing him back to the ground.
«Good. Keep an eye on him and pull him up when I say so. And for heaven's sake, not a word in Cottish from now on. Got it?»
«Yes sir.» The seven men answered in unison, and in the language of The People's Freedom.
«Move out.»
Two minutes later, the calm and quiet at the village of Targeteig, seven kilometers from the border with The People's Freedom, was shattered by a series of gunshots from the forested area to the west of the village. The village's populace were torn violently away from their sleep along with the infantry battalion of troops that had been temporarily stationed in the village due to the ongoing war in Haven.
Soldiers stumbled out from their tents in various states of being dressed, clutching their newly issued G9E3 carbines (http://www.forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13783936&postcount=511) as they wondered what the hell was happening. Over the gunshots, orders and questions were barked out, ordering troops to rally, wondering where the fire was coming from and/or ordering the troops to return fire, while civilians were hugging the floor in their houses, trying not to get hit.
After a minute's worth of confusion, the first Cottish troops began returning fire towards the forest, aiming for the muzzle flashes, returning fire with live ammunition.
Inside the forest, the eight men began ducking when the heavy 7.94x56mm rounds began flying over their heads, and they kept them down when the MG260E3 (http://www.forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13799934&postcount=540) machine guns began opening up. It was time for them to take their leave, but first they had to finish the business first.
The man who had been tied and gagged was pulled to his feet and pushed out into the line of fire. It wasn't many seconds before a series of 7.94mm rounds tore through his torso and took his life, killing him more or less instantly. One of the men quickly crawled over to the corpse and removed the gag and rope he had been tied with, and put a rifle into the man's hands, making it look like he had been one of the shooters. With that done, the eight men withdrew quickly and quietly before the Cottish infantry could get its bearings and advance on the position.
When the infantry reached the site after having approached the forest cautiously and with weapons raised, they discovered a single corpse dressed in the battle uniform issued to the Army of The People's Freedom, complete with dogtags and identification papers that identified the man as a corporal in the TPFian Army, and with a K28 rifle, which was one of the two standard issue rifle to the TFPian military. All around the area, they found hundreds of empty 7x50mm aluminum casings in the same caliber that was the standard issue to the TPFian military.
The information was immediately reported back to teh battalion commander, who reported it up the chain of command. Within twenty minutes, powerful people in Eeobroht were being awoken from their sleep.
Cottish News Broadcast
The next morning
The trademark jingle of the CTV News Channel faded out and was replaced by images of Cottish soldiers guarding a village, heavily armed and ready for battle, before the images were replaced by a camera zooming in on the beautiful blonde anchor woman of the CTV News Channel, twenty-seven year old Anniken Orkden, who smiled warmly to the viewers.
«My name is Anniken Orkden. and this is CTV Morning News. Welcome.
«Yesterday evening, foreign armed forces brutally attacked the peaceful village of Targeteig, which lies no more than seven kilometers from the Cottish-TPFian border. Fortunately, the village served as the host for an infantry battalion from the Army's 396th Infantry Division of the 9th Infantry Army that evening, and the valiant soldiers immediately came to the village's defense and routed the attackers. One attacker has been confirmed killed by the valiant defenders, but his identity has not yet been confirmed. We now go to our reporter Oskar Heideberg in Targeteig. Oskar?»
The image shifted from the beautiful blonde to a thirty-something heavy-set man with bright red hair wearing a blue flak vest with the words «PRESS» on a patch on the vest, standing in the middle of the village with a bunch of heavily armed Cottish soldiers around him.
«Thank you Anniken. Here in Targeteig, tensions are high following the attack last night. According to the military here in the village, the risk of a second attack upon the village remains high, despite the substantial military presence and measures taken to secure the village from further attacks. The identify of the attacker is not known at this time. However, local sources have told us that the killed attacker was a soldier in the Army of The People's Freedom, and that the attack was orchestrated by the People's Freedom. If this is so, then the attack on Targeteig is clearly an act of war against the Realm.»
«Oskar, I've just been informed that the Defense Ministry is starting an extraordinary press conference. We're going live to the Defense Ministry.» Anniken interrupted before the image shifted to a press conference, where two suit-clad men and five uniformed men – Generals by the look of it – were just entering the room and taking their seats in the podium. After some commition, things quieted down and one of the suit-clad men, the Cottish Defense Minister Jon Alvheim, spoke.
«Good morning and welcome to this extraordinary press conference. I'm sorry to have given you such short notice, but we felt that this information that we are to present is far too important to keep from the people.»
He took a sip of water before continuing.
«Yesterday evening at just over eleven o'clock, the peaceful border village of Targeteig was attacked by the armed forces of The People's Freedom, but the attack was routed by the men of the fourth battalion of the three hundred ninety-sixth infantry division, which falls under the operational control of the ninth infantry army.
«The identify of the attackers has been confirmed by the discovery of a dead soldier of The People's Freedom at the scene of the crime carrying a rifle that was used in the attack, as well as litterarily hundreds of shell casings of the same caliber as the caliber used by the People's Freedom. Fortuantely, there were no Cottish casualties in the attack, but damages for several thousand Rikskroner were inflicted upon the village. Worse still, this was a deliberate attack upon the Realm of Cotland by the armed forces of the People's Freedom, and from the information the investigators have discovered, it is not the first.
«His Majesty's Government have reason to believe that armed forces of The People's Freedom are responsible for several hundred disapperances of Cottish citizens in the western provinces over the past decade, and that these kidnapped citizens have been sold on to Doomingsland as slaves.
«The reason why The People's Freedom would sell our kidnapped citizens as slaves is unknown, and quite frankly we don't care much for their twisted reasoning behind this blatant act of hostility. What matters is that The People's Freedom have attacked Cotland, inside Cottish territory, with their armed forces. This is a clear and obvious act of war.
«Therefore, His Majesty has, after reviewing the evidences present, decided to take defensive actions in order to prevent such attacks from occuring again in the future by authorizing the activation of warplan Maktkamp Vest. As of this moment, the Realm of Cotland shall consider itself to be in a state of war with The People's Freedom, and reserves the right to take whichever actions it deems fit to defend itself from further TPFian attacks upon Cottish soil.
«Thank you, that is all.»
Cottish-TPFian Border
Simultaniously with the live press conference
«At target alpha nine three four, twelve rounds, time on target! Fire!»
The four SDA-5F1 self-propelled artillery vehicles in the forested area twelve kilometers from the border elevated its 155mm cannons and opened fire, sending three 155mm shells each against the target – a TPFian sector command post – twenty-six kilometers away, well within the range of the SDA-5F1. The twelve shells were fired so that all twelve hit the target simultaneously, causing immense damage in the command post.
Throughout the border region, literarily thousands of artillery vehicles and rocket launchers fired off 155mm and 203mm shells and 250mm artillery rockets against the known TPFian border defenses, which had been mapped and watched over the past ten years. The Cottish had a pretty good idea of the location of the TPFian troops in the area and their border defenses, and had a target book for the various sectors with the exact coordinates of pretty much every target worthy of an artillery strike, and then some that weren't really worthy of an artillery strike but that had been added to the list for good measure. All of those were being attacked now, being prepared for the onslaught.
Ten to ninety kilometers behind the border, Lyras-made Skyguard surface to air missile batteries using the guidance given by the large network of fixed radar sites and smaller mobile radars began firing missiles against TPFian military aircraft within reach, sending at least two LY4030 or LY4031 SAMs against each target.
In the air, FA-77A Kovas air superiority fighters were moving towards the border, backed by EP-191B Aurora AWACS aircraft well behind the Cottish lines. Their task was to attack any TPFian aircraft in the sky that the Skyguard SAM sites hadn't been able to nail, and to provide overwatch for the attack aircraft, something they did at distances of 120 kilometers with the LLM.67 Kampspyd radar-guided medium-range air to air missile. The Kampspyd missiles had a secondary IIR guidance in case of jamming or chaff, something that had proven to be a very good afterthough on the behalf of the missile's designers in the recent clash between Cottish and Kriegian forces in Kahanistan. They were expected to be just as effective against TPFian aircraft.
In support of the ground troops, hundreds of brand new AJ-36A Blodøks ground attack aircraft were flying low and relatively fast, being laden down with weapons as they were, heading for the TPFian lines. The AJ-36s operated in pairs of two, each with a specific target. When they neared the border, the pairs headed off to their respective targets, which were troop concentrations, border defenses, bases, important infrastructure, et cetera. In other words, just about anything that would need to be hit in order to support the ground troops.
Operating in conjuntion with them, EB-177A Coldun electronic warfare aircraft were moving towards the TPFian SAM sites with jammers on max, sending a lot of white noise in their direction and jamming all known TPFian radio frequencies with white noise, horrible Kahanistani popular music, old speeches by various Cottish politicians, terrible synth-pop from the 70s and all other kinds of horrible noises that were designed to frustrate the TPFian military personell and deny them use of their radios. The Colduns had a second task, namely the task of firing their Karma anti-radiation missiles against any TPFian SAM site radar that lit up and send their deadly payload onto them.
Likewise, FB-177A Barsuks, cousins of the Colduns but with different tasks, were flying low and fast, laden down with cluster bombs and iron bombs, hell-bent on hitting TPFian military targets with special emphasis on airbases, fuel depots and supply depots, as well as troop concentrations.
Closer to the border, attack helicopters of the type ACI.37M Corvus crossed the border and began scouting the terrain and harrassing any TPFian troops they found, using the 70mm CRV7 rockets and 23mm autocannons against the infantry and the Corona ATGMs against any tanks or armored vehicles they encountered.
Back over Cottish territory, well behind the SAM range of the TPFian territory, massive B-22 Zeus heavy strategic bombers were airborne, laden down with long-range cruise missiles of the type Imsdal. The Imsdal was a hypersonic land attack cruise missile armed with a variety of warhead options, enabling it to hit targets 850 kilometers away at speeds of Mach 7 when in its terminal phase. For today's purposes, just over a thousand missiles would be fired from the hundred or so of B-22s, targetting TPFian air- and army-bases, transportation hubs, and RADAR sites. To knock these targets out, Imsdals armed with cluster munitions and 318 kilogram penetrating blast-fragmentation warheads would be used, with a ratio of 2:1, meaning that out of every three missile fired, two would be carrying cluster munitions and landmines, and one would have the penetrating blast-fragmentation warhead. The idea was that the missiles would both destroy their targets (the cluster munitions), and make it difficult to clean up the damages for the ground personell after the attack (the landmines). They would have to be cleared one at the time, a time-consuming process that would hopefully cause the target sites to be out of commission until the next time they got hit.
While the artillery and air force softened up the enemy defenses, the Stormpioneers crossed over the border and began clearing the TPFian minefields, using MICLIC-type equipment and mine clearance vehicles of the type Sirion, guarded by Praetor IFVs or Nakil 1A3HA main battle tanks. Any TPFian soldier or border guard that came near would find himself attacked by and probably killed by 57mm auto cannon fire or 15.7mm machine gun fire.
Within a half hour, the first tanks would begin rolling into The People's Freedom, avenging a crime that only a very few people, all of them in the higher echelons of the Cottish government, knew had never been committed. It was believed that within the first hour, twenty thousand Cots would be inside The People's Freedom attacking at seven different locations, none closer than fifty kilometers from each other.
With an initial invasion force of two and a half million soldiers, most of whom had been at the border since the start of the Havenic war, and the element of surprise, the Cottish generals expected that the TPFian border-area garrison of 40 000 men would be defeated swiftly and the Cottish Army be able to advance swiftly across the relatively flat terrain.
Simultaneously with the opening strike, groups of hackers started attacking TPFian websites, servers and message boards, trying to inflict as much havoc as possible against the The People's Freedom.
The war was on.
7 km from the Cottish-The People's Freedom border
«Right chaps, quiet down.» The man said quietly, kneeling in the small forest clearing.
«We're just a few hundred meters from the village now. Everyone remember their tasks?»
The seven other men nodded quietly.
«Good. Remember, don't hit any of them, and for Gods sake keep your heads down! We're going to be shooting on Cottish soldiers here, and they will be returning fire with live ammunition. These chaps have the new seven ninety-four millimeter rifles, so one hit will hurt. Finding out that the shooters are Cottish would totally fuck this operation up. Where's the rabbit?»
«Right here sir.» One of the men said, pulling up a back-binded and gagged man dressed in the same uniforms as the eight men were before pushing him back to the ground.
«Good. Keep an eye on him and pull him up when I say so. And for heaven's sake, not a word in Cottish from now on. Got it?»
«Yes sir.» The seven men answered in unison, and in the language of The People's Freedom.
«Move out.»
Two minutes later, the calm and quiet at the village of Targeteig, seven kilometers from the border with The People's Freedom, was shattered by a series of gunshots from the forested area to the west of the village. The village's populace were torn violently away from their sleep along with the infantry battalion of troops that had been temporarily stationed in the village due to the ongoing war in Haven.
Soldiers stumbled out from their tents in various states of being dressed, clutching their newly issued G9E3 carbines (http://www.forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13783936&postcount=511) as they wondered what the hell was happening. Over the gunshots, orders and questions were barked out, ordering troops to rally, wondering where the fire was coming from and/or ordering the troops to return fire, while civilians were hugging the floor in their houses, trying not to get hit.
After a minute's worth of confusion, the first Cottish troops began returning fire towards the forest, aiming for the muzzle flashes, returning fire with live ammunition.
Inside the forest, the eight men began ducking when the heavy 7.94x56mm rounds began flying over their heads, and they kept them down when the MG260E3 (http://www.forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13799934&postcount=540) machine guns began opening up. It was time for them to take their leave, but first they had to finish the business first.
The man who had been tied and gagged was pulled to his feet and pushed out into the line of fire. It wasn't many seconds before a series of 7.94mm rounds tore through his torso and took his life, killing him more or less instantly. One of the men quickly crawled over to the corpse and removed the gag and rope he had been tied with, and put a rifle into the man's hands, making it look like he had been one of the shooters. With that done, the eight men withdrew quickly and quietly before the Cottish infantry could get its bearings and advance on the position.
When the infantry reached the site after having approached the forest cautiously and with weapons raised, they discovered a single corpse dressed in the battle uniform issued to the Army of The People's Freedom, complete with dogtags and identification papers that identified the man as a corporal in the TPFian Army, and with a K28 rifle, which was one of the two standard issue rifle to the TFPian military. All around the area, they found hundreds of empty 7x50mm aluminum casings in the same caliber that was the standard issue to the TPFian military.
The information was immediately reported back to teh battalion commander, who reported it up the chain of command. Within twenty minutes, powerful people in Eeobroht were being awoken from their sleep.
Cottish News Broadcast
The next morning
The trademark jingle of the CTV News Channel faded out and was replaced by images of Cottish soldiers guarding a village, heavily armed and ready for battle, before the images were replaced by a camera zooming in on the beautiful blonde anchor woman of the CTV News Channel, twenty-seven year old Anniken Orkden, who smiled warmly to the viewers.
«My name is Anniken Orkden. and this is CTV Morning News. Welcome.
«Yesterday evening, foreign armed forces brutally attacked the peaceful village of Targeteig, which lies no more than seven kilometers from the Cottish-TPFian border. Fortunately, the village served as the host for an infantry battalion from the Army's 396th Infantry Division of the 9th Infantry Army that evening, and the valiant soldiers immediately came to the village's defense and routed the attackers. One attacker has been confirmed killed by the valiant defenders, but his identity has not yet been confirmed. We now go to our reporter Oskar Heideberg in Targeteig. Oskar?»
The image shifted from the beautiful blonde to a thirty-something heavy-set man with bright red hair wearing a blue flak vest with the words «PRESS» on a patch on the vest, standing in the middle of the village with a bunch of heavily armed Cottish soldiers around him.
«Thank you Anniken. Here in Targeteig, tensions are high following the attack last night. According to the military here in the village, the risk of a second attack upon the village remains high, despite the substantial military presence and measures taken to secure the village from further attacks. The identify of the attacker is not known at this time. However, local sources have told us that the killed attacker was a soldier in the Army of The People's Freedom, and that the attack was orchestrated by the People's Freedom. If this is so, then the attack on Targeteig is clearly an act of war against the Realm.»
«Oskar, I've just been informed that the Defense Ministry is starting an extraordinary press conference. We're going live to the Defense Ministry.» Anniken interrupted before the image shifted to a press conference, where two suit-clad men and five uniformed men – Generals by the look of it – were just entering the room and taking their seats in the podium. After some commition, things quieted down and one of the suit-clad men, the Cottish Defense Minister Jon Alvheim, spoke.
«Good morning and welcome to this extraordinary press conference. I'm sorry to have given you such short notice, but we felt that this information that we are to present is far too important to keep from the people.»
He took a sip of water before continuing.
«Yesterday evening at just over eleven o'clock, the peaceful border village of Targeteig was attacked by the armed forces of The People's Freedom, but the attack was routed by the men of the fourth battalion of the three hundred ninety-sixth infantry division, which falls under the operational control of the ninth infantry army.
«The identify of the attackers has been confirmed by the discovery of a dead soldier of The People's Freedom at the scene of the crime carrying a rifle that was used in the attack, as well as litterarily hundreds of shell casings of the same caliber as the caliber used by the People's Freedom. Fortuantely, there were no Cottish casualties in the attack, but damages for several thousand Rikskroner were inflicted upon the village. Worse still, this was a deliberate attack upon the Realm of Cotland by the armed forces of the People's Freedom, and from the information the investigators have discovered, it is not the first.
«His Majesty's Government have reason to believe that armed forces of The People's Freedom are responsible for several hundred disapperances of Cottish citizens in the western provinces over the past decade, and that these kidnapped citizens have been sold on to Doomingsland as slaves.
«The reason why The People's Freedom would sell our kidnapped citizens as slaves is unknown, and quite frankly we don't care much for their twisted reasoning behind this blatant act of hostility. What matters is that The People's Freedom have attacked Cotland, inside Cottish territory, with their armed forces. This is a clear and obvious act of war.
«Therefore, His Majesty has, after reviewing the evidences present, decided to take defensive actions in order to prevent such attacks from occuring again in the future by authorizing the activation of warplan Maktkamp Vest. As of this moment, the Realm of Cotland shall consider itself to be in a state of war with The People's Freedom, and reserves the right to take whichever actions it deems fit to defend itself from further TPFian attacks upon Cottish soil.
«Thank you, that is all.»
Cottish-TPFian Border
Simultaniously with the live press conference
«At target alpha nine three four, twelve rounds, time on target! Fire!»
The four SDA-5F1 self-propelled artillery vehicles in the forested area twelve kilometers from the border elevated its 155mm cannons and opened fire, sending three 155mm shells each against the target – a TPFian sector command post – twenty-six kilometers away, well within the range of the SDA-5F1. The twelve shells were fired so that all twelve hit the target simultaneously, causing immense damage in the command post.
Throughout the border region, literarily thousands of artillery vehicles and rocket launchers fired off 155mm and 203mm shells and 250mm artillery rockets against the known TPFian border defenses, which had been mapped and watched over the past ten years. The Cottish had a pretty good idea of the location of the TPFian troops in the area and their border defenses, and had a target book for the various sectors with the exact coordinates of pretty much every target worthy of an artillery strike, and then some that weren't really worthy of an artillery strike but that had been added to the list for good measure. All of those were being attacked now, being prepared for the onslaught.
Ten to ninety kilometers behind the border, Lyras-made Skyguard surface to air missile batteries using the guidance given by the large network of fixed radar sites and smaller mobile radars began firing missiles against TPFian military aircraft within reach, sending at least two LY4030 or LY4031 SAMs against each target.
In the air, FA-77A Kovas air superiority fighters were moving towards the border, backed by EP-191B Aurora AWACS aircraft well behind the Cottish lines. Their task was to attack any TPFian aircraft in the sky that the Skyguard SAM sites hadn't been able to nail, and to provide overwatch for the attack aircraft, something they did at distances of 120 kilometers with the LLM.67 Kampspyd radar-guided medium-range air to air missile. The Kampspyd missiles had a secondary IIR guidance in case of jamming or chaff, something that had proven to be a very good afterthough on the behalf of the missile's designers in the recent clash between Cottish and Kriegian forces in Kahanistan. They were expected to be just as effective against TPFian aircraft.
In support of the ground troops, hundreds of brand new AJ-36A Blodøks ground attack aircraft were flying low and relatively fast, being laden down with weapons as they were, heading for the TPFian lines. The AJ-36s operated in pairs of two, each with a specific target. When they neared the border, the pairs headed off to their respective targets, which were troop concentrations, border defenses, bases, important infrastructure, et cetera. In other words, just about anything that would need to be hit in order to support the ground troops.
Operating in conjuntion with them, EB-177A Coldun electronic warfare aircraft were moving towards the TPFian SAM sites with jammers on max, sending a lot of white noise in their direction and jamming all known TPFian radio frequencies with white noise, horrible Kahanistani popular music, old speeches by various Cottish politicians, terrible synth-pop from the 70s and all other kinds of horrible noises that were designed to frustrate the TPFian military personell and deny them use of their radios. The Colduns had a second task, namely the task of firing their Karma anti-radiation missiles against any TPFian SAM site radar that lit up and send their deadly payload onto them.
Likewise, FB-177A Barsuks, cousins of the Colduns but with different tasks, were flying low and fast, laden down with cluster bombs and iron bombs, hell-bent on hitting TPFian military targets with special emphasis on airbases, fuel depots and supply depots, as well as troop concentrations.
Closer to the border, attack helicopters of the type ACI.37M Corvus crossed the border and began scouting the terrain and harrassing any TPFian troops they found, using the 70mm CRV7 rockets and 23mm autocannons against the infantry and the Corona ATGMs against any tanks or armored vehicles they encountered.
Back over Cottish territory, well behind the SAM range of the TPFian territory, massive B-22 Zeus heavy strategic bombers were airborne, laden down with long-range cruise missiles of the type Imsdal. The Imsdal was a hypersonic land attack cruise missile armed with a variety of warhead options, enabling it to hit targets 850 kilometers away at speeds of Mach 7 when in its terminal phase. For today's purposes, just over a thousand missiles would be fired from the hundred or so of B-22s, targetting TPFian air- and army-bases, transportation hubs, and RADAR sites. To knock these targets out, Imsdals armed with cluster munitions and 318 kilogram penetrating blast-fragmentation warheads would be used, with a ratio of 2:1, meaning that out of every three missile fired, two would be carrying cluster munitions and landmines, and one would have the penetrating blast-fragmentation warhead. The idea was that the missiles would both destroy their targets (the cluster munitions), and make it difficult to clean up the damages for the ground personell after the attack (the landmines). They would have to be cleared one at the time, a time-consuming process that would hopefully cause the target sites to be out of commission until the next time they got hit.
While the artillery and air force softened up the enemy defenses, the Stormpioneers crossed over the border and began clearing the TPFian minefields, using MICLIC-type equipment and mine clearance vehicles of the type Sirion, guarded by Praetor IFVs or Nakil 1A3HA main battle tanks. Any TPFian soldier or border guard that came near would find himself attacked by and probably killed by 57mm auto cannon fire or 15.7mm machine gun fire.
Within a half hour, the first tanks would begin rolling into The People's Freedom, avenging a crime that only a very few people, all of them in the higher echelons of the Cottish government, knew had never been committed. It was believed that within the first hour, twenty thousand Cots would be inside The People's Freedom attacking at seven different locations, none closer than fifty kilometers from each other.
With an initial invasion force of two and a half million soldiers, most of whom had been at the border since the start of the Havenic war, and the element of surprise, the Cottish generals expected that the TPFian border-area garrison of 40 000 men would be defeated swiftly and the Cottish Army be able to advance swiftly across the relatively flat terrain.
Simultaneously with the opening strike, groups of hackers started attacking TPFian websites, servers and message boards, trying to inflict as much havoc as possible against the The People's Freedom.
The war was on.