NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Map from GIS

http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/Game/BigIdeas/Images/penglai-map.jpg

Map Of Penglai

On the furthest Southern Edge of the Ustio system lies a planet. A planet that no one on the other planets talks about. It was expunged from Imperial records at the end of the War Of Reclamation, and pledges were made to never speak of its existence again, for the sake of peace. But the pledge has been broken, and Penglai's existence has been brought into the limelight.

Penglai is a varied planet. The concrete jungles on Dengdian and Hanxiang, the snowy wastes of Hao-Ran and Tien Hu, and the lush forests of Linyi, Lienru and Goufanglei. Between them lie the Silver, Pearl, Jade, New Yellow and Western Seas. It is inhabited primarily by the Tau, though many Tau sympathisers went there during the War. The infrastructure is mainly Tau, though many small human-style settlements exist around the Lao Plateau.

Penglai had long gone undisturbed by Imperial Forces as part of the ceasefire terms at the end of the War. But now, times have changed. The time was now right to reclaim Penglai from the Tau.

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A small Imperial Strike Cruiser had entered Penglai's planetary orbit. It had gone unnoticed, due to the sensor jamming equipment on board. A small craft exited the ship, followed by another, and then more. They descended into the planet's atmousphere and down onto the jungles of Linyi.

Soon, a small base had been erected and the nearby city of Nung-Wu was now under the watchful eyes of the Imperial Observers. Soon, the battle for Nung-Wu would begin. The Tau had no idea what was going to hit them.

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OOC Stuff: So this is the beginning of my "Breaking The Truce" plans. Feel free to establish a military presence on any of the islands, though expect heavy resistance from Imperial Forces on Linyi and from Tau forces on Dengdian and Hanxiang. No nukes, no godmodding, etc.

Bump! And for the sake of it, some IC stuff:
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Imperial Forces contined to land at Staging Point Alpha, in the jungle near to Nung-Wu. It was becoming a vast base, but soon they had to move on the city, before the Tau had time to figure out what was happening. The plan was thus: Move in in two forces: elements of the 1st Ustian Rifles - moving on foot, with armoured vehicles and under artillery cover - take out Tau resistance on groud level, destroy key Tau defence points and other important locations. At the same time, soldiers from the Imperial Special Forces (ISF) would deploy from Valkyrie transports, moving from building to building and they were tasked with finding and capturing the Tau leader in Nung-Wu - Ethereal Au'd'la.

Richard Blake (http://www.insomniacunion.com/resistance-fall-of-man/characters/img/lieutenant-cartwright.jpg), a young Lieutenant in the ISF, was amongst them. He was known as Dusk to the other members of his team. He and his team were sat in their Valkyrie, waiting for the go order.

Phoenix counted the blips on this sensor screen again, double checking that everyone had arrived at the FRV. The blips represented 27 Raptors which made up Task Force Epsilon’s transport complement. It would have been 28 but they had lost one to a FTL failure 3 or 4 jumps back, it had been a long slog so far and Lieutenant Commander William ‘Phoenix’ Lawson was starting to feel the strain.

It was a big deal for a Raptor squadron to make a closed formation jump and they had made 12 jumps over the past 2 days. It was crazy; the Task Force had been jumping between patrols, skirting around stars and hiding in nebulas for what seemed like weeks.

“All ships,” he said, keying his communicator, “Check FTL drives and start run up procedures. Remember, this is the final jump and its inter-atmosphere so make sure your drive manifolds are open before the jump, I don’t want any ships falling out of the sky.”

A series of acknowledgements chirped over the radio, Phoenix wasn’t listening though; he was far too busy looking around the cabin of the cramped transport. His ECO was sat in the rear of the Raptor double checking the jump calculations all the while fighting for space with the 8 Task Force troopers crammed into the small space.

They’d managed to fit a company of Marines and a fortnights worth of supplies into the squadron’s collective space. The Marines were from various units, cherry picked from whatever was available ranging from Special Operations Regiments to the Fleet Marine Force.

The whole point of the operation was sat in another Raptor, somewhere at the rear of the formation probably. A science team led by Doctor Richard G. Sykes was being sent to Penglai to investigate... something... the military element of the task force hadn’t been informed what. All Phoenix knew was that they were carrying a lot of kit with them.

“Ok, I’m showing Green across the board,” called the ECO, “We’re good to go.”

“Right,” replied Phoenix, flicking his communicator on, “FTL Jump 13, time is 1832 Standard, All Ships FTL jump in 10... 9....”

Phoenix’s Raptor flashed out of existence first by about a faction of a second. The void left behind was quickly enveloped by the darkness of space again.

The space which the Raptor reoccupied was very much different from deep space; it was snowing to start with.

A gust of wind shook the Raptor as Phoenix struggled to adjust from space flight to intra-atmosphere flight. These sorts of jumps were always dicey but the snow storm they appeared in made matters five times worst.

“Jim,” he shouted back into the Cabin at his ECO, “Get up here.”
“Right,” replied the ECO staggering up to the co-pilot chair.
“Check the port quarters, and call out my altitude every 5 seconds.... I can’t see shit,” shouted Phoenix straining to see through what was fast becoming a white out as the energy dissipated around the jump area. He flicked the communicator on again, “Watch your quarters, loosen up your formations and drop speed.....”

It took longer than they expected, but the squadron managed to touch down somewhere near their planned LZ on the southwest tip of Tien Hu, no loses, a testament to the squadron.

Phoenix couldn’t feel his arms as he stepped out of the Raptor into the freezing cold, shuddering as it went straight to his bones. They’d made it, admittedly somewhat shaken, they were on Penglai and, for now, their job was done.

Artillery shells sliced through the air, slamming into tall Tau towers and causing debris to rain down on the soldiers below. The Tau Fire Warriors were unprepared for the attack, but they were not yet defeated. They took up defensive positions in damaged buildings, and Hammerhead tanks used their powerful railguns to deal significant damage to the Imperial Armour. From overhead, Lightning strike fighters swept in, launching missiles and taking out much of the Tau's armoured support in Nung-Wu.

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Dusk watched the chaos unfold from the air. Each of their Valkyrie gunships had a different building to target, based on visual intelligence gathered by the observers. His squad was to hit the Etheral Caste Palace, at the centre of the city. Below them, Leman Russ battle tanks, surrounded by Imperial Troops, attempted to push through the ruined streets. They soon passed over, away from Imperial air cover, and into Tau controlled airspace. Heavy plasma rifles pounded their craft but they pushed through, and were soon landing on the roof of the palace. The rear ramp opened as they came in low, and the soldiers inside pulled their protective masks on. Dusk turned to them

"Green light!" he shouted over the sound of plasma fire striking the craft "Go, Go, Go!"

Grabbing their kit, they hurled themselves out into the battleground. The Tau had obviously warned about their arrival, and several Fire Warriors had taken position on the roof. Dusk dived for cover as the Valkyrie lifted off

"Echo-1, We'll Circle Back In Three Minutes. Alpha and Delta Squads Reporting Negative On Target"

"Roger that Kilo-11" He shouted into the radio, stopping to fire a few rounds from his carbine into an approaching Fire Warrior