NationStates Jolt Archive

Marine Corps to be Reestablished
By Torstein Dahle

OSLO (CTB): Defence Minister Karin Park (Moderate) announced yesterday that the Royal Cottish Marine Corps, which was disbanded six years ago as a result of the first Defence White Paper after Cotland's territorial holdings were granted independence, was to be reestablished and reorganized. The announcement is entirely in line with the Gardason administration's promises before the election to strengthen the military.

The Marine Corps was disbanded by the Rothsky Administration in 2002 as a result of the independence granted to almost all of Cotland's colonies and overseas territories where the Marines had been garrisoned previously. In order to save money and shorten a then-oversized military organization, millions of servicemen were dismissed from service and hundreds of units disbanded, saving billions of Rikskroner.

Unfortunately, the massive downsizing of forces was premature. As a result of the August Skirmish, it was determined that the current force structure was insufficient to adequately defend the Realm and its interests from hostile-minded nation-states. As a result, the Gardason Administration has pledged to restructure the Armed Forces to reflect the changed threats posed towards the Realm and its interests.

Defense Minister Park said that a total of five divisions would initially be formed, numbered one through five, and be granted the unit history and battle honors of the former units. Each Marine Division will according to Defense Minister Park be capable of carrying out entirely autonomous operations, and will be a true combined-arms formation with armored, artillery, MLRS and mechanized infantry assets within its ranks.

The Defense Minister said that each of the divisions would number roughly eleven thousand troops. The initial personell would according to the Defense Minister be assembled from former Marine Corps personell who were amalgated into the Army's ranks or dismissed from service, as well as increase conscription numbers by fifty thousand per year.

The reformed Marine Corps will retain the elite stamp of the old organization, and conscripts who wish to join the Marine Corps must specifically request it at Basic Selection and pass strickt requirements in order to be allowed to call themselves Cottish Marines.

The Marine Corps will initially be organized under the Army, which will provide equipment and support for the Marines while the dedicated Marine Corps support infrastructure is rebuilt.

The five divisions will be organized into a single Army Corps, but will be deployed to different parts of the Realm and overseas.

* The First Marine Division will be deployed to Saint Petersburg where it will be part of Defense District Northwest and help defend Saint Petersburg from any would-be hostile force.
* The Second Marine Division will be permanently forward deployed to Guantanamo Bay on Cuba in the Empire of Layarteb, where the division will specialize in amphibious and combat operations in tropical conditions.
* The Third Marine Division will be deployed to the Netherlands, where it will be part of Defense District West and help defend the Low Counties from any would-be hostile force.
* The Fourth Marine Division will be deployed to Denmark, where it will be part of Defense District West and help defend Denmark and the Skagerrak Strait from any would-be hostile force.
* The Fifth Marine Division will be deployed to Arkhangelsk, where it will be part of Defense District Southeast and specialize in amphibious and combat operations in arctic conditions.

The first two divisions are expected to be formed within the end of the year with full operational readiness achieved by mid-2009, and all five divisions are expected to be formed and operational within the end of 2009 with full operational readiness achieved by the end of 2010.

Copyright (c) CTB, 8 September 2008, 09:36 CET

*****

Guantanamo Bay Marine Corps Base
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Empire of Layarteb
01.12.2008 - 09:00 hours local time

The activity in Guantanamo Bay had been pretty hectic for the past few months, but the hectic refurbishment of barracks and buildings in the freshly cordoned off section of the vast Guantanamo Bay military base that the Layartebian government had agreed to lease to the Cottish military. The eight kilometer by five kilometer section of the base would eventually house over eleven thousand Cottish Marines, and serve as the hub of Cottish military activity in the Caribbean area. It was however currently home to a mere four hundred men and women, all of whom were fresh out of refresher training. The four hundred men and women were all former Marines who had been amalgated into the ranks of the Army when the Rothsky administration decided to disband the entire Marine Corps six years prior.

Times had changed though. All four hundred had been headhunted back to the Marine Corps and once again stood proudly dressed in the parade ground in the short-sleeved khaki button-up shirt, black pants with a scarlet "blood stripe" down along the trouser leg, and the green beret with the Marine Corps badge (an anchor with a globe superimposed on top of it with a royal crown above the globe) that they had all earned after a lot of blood, sweat and tears several years earlier once again mounted proudly on the beret that hadn't been worn for six years. The non-commissioned officers displayed their silver-colored rank chevrons on the left and right sleeves, while the officers had their silver-colored stars and stripes that indicated their rank mounted on the shoulder board. The lowest-ranking non-commissioned officer held the rank of Sergeant First Class, while the lowest-ranking officer held the rank of Captain.

The four hundred Cottish Marines stood in a horse-shoe formation facing a podium where the distinguished guests, which included King Haakon VIII of Cotland and the Emperor of Layarteb, as well as Prime Minister Gardasøn and Defense Minister Park from Cotland, several Cottish generals and admirals, and a number of Layartebian general officers and officials, would sit. Decorating the back of the podium were the Cottish flag, the Layartebian flag, the flag of the Royal Cottish Army, the flag of the old Marine Corps, and the October Alliance Flag.

At exactly 0900 hours, local time, the senior non-commissioned officer among the four hundred Cots - a fifty year old Sergeant Major who had been in the Marine Corps since he turned eighteen and retired six years ago, and just recently returned to the service stood forward.

"Giv akt!" [Atten-hut!] He bellowed out, causing the remaining three hundred ninety-nine Marines to snap to attention in one unanimous move. After looking around to make sure the order had been carried out, the Sergeant Major preformed a perfect about-face and faced the podium, completing the about-face before he saluted.

"Avdelingen er oppstilt, fire hundre mann, alle! Avdelingen avventer Deres befal!" [Troops are assembled, four hundred men, present! Troops awaiting further orders!] He barked out while maintaining the salute.

Up on the podium, a Cottish general with a lot of gold on his shoulders and a chest full of decorations stepped up to the microphone and returned the salute, whereupon the Sergeant Major preformed another about-face and returned to his place in the formation. After the Sergeant Major had returned to his place, the general began.

"Good morning Marines."

All four hundred replied with a unanimous barytone "Good morning General!"

"At ease.

"Your Majesties, your excellencies, honored guests, generals, admirals, Marines. We are assembled here today to witness a historic event. The activation of the first Marine combat unit in fifty-two years, and the first Marine unit to be activated since the reestablishment of the Royal Cottish Marine Corps.

"We are gathered here on this foreign soil today to reactivate the Second Marine Division of the Royal Cottish Marine Corps." The General began, giving a few announcements before he began the carefully scripted sequence of events. First, the General would give a short presentation of the troops and battle honors of the Division.

"The Second Marine Division is the proud bearer of a long and rich tradition of defending the Realm and its interests throughout the world. In nineteen fourty-two, the Second Marine Division spearheaded the counter-offensive into the despotic nation of Sunnmore which foolishly tried to conquer Cotland. The Marines of the Second Marine Division were instrumental in the securing of peace in the wartorn areas of India forty years ago, and again in Siberia to free enslaved Cots when the first Russian empire collapsed thirty years ago. Elements of the Second Marine Division took part of Operation Avenging Shield, which was the successful counter-attack that was preformed when the Nerotikans invaded Vologda seven years ago. These and many other honorable actions are part of the rich history of the Second Marine Division, and I am proud to be part of the Second Marine Division's reactivation."

This marked the next step of the ceremony, which saw a young corporal step forward carrying a cylindrical brown leather holster which was approximately one meter long while four Marines stepped forward from the assembled four hundred Marines, one of them carrying a Cottish flag and the man next to him carrying a empty flagpole. The two Marines were flanked by two Marines who were carrying HK416 assault rifles at shoulder arms.

The honor guard marched forward to the podium and halted just in front of it. A short exchange of formal orders and replies later, the General opened the leather holster the Corporal was carrying and carefully removed a piece of textiles that had rested inside the holster undisturbed for six years before he walked down the three steps to the honor guard, followed closely by the corporal, holding the textiles in front of him with both hands as if it was his own newborn. Stopping in front of the honor guard, another short set of formal commanders were exchanged before the bearer of the empty flagpole dipped it down, allowing the Corporal to attach the textiles to the pole. With a discreet nod, the General stepped back as the Marine carrying the flagpole jerked the flagpole back up to the vertical position, unfolding the Second Marine Division's colors for the first time since 2002.

The colors showed a pair of green axes laying in crosswith a green anchor below the axes, and a golden royal crown above the axes. All of this was on a blue background. The symbolism was strong. The green axes, the branch symbol of infantry, with the green anchor, symbolizing Marines. The crown above the axes displayed that the Cottish crown, i.e. the King, was the master of the unit, and the blue background symbolized the ocean.

At the moment the colors were unfolded, the assembled band began playing the Cottish national anthem, causing all assembled to salute the national anthem.

After the national anthem was completed, another set of formal commands were exchanged between the General and the honor guard, and the Division's colors were relinquished to the General, who carried them with dignity and honor back up to the podium.

A second general officer, this one dressed in the same manner as the assembled Marines in the parade ground below, only with golden shoulderboards and two golden stars decorating them, stepped up to the General and saluted the colors formally before he took the podium and unfolded a piece of paper.

"To, Major General Frederik Reitan, Royal Cottish Army. Subject, change of station. General, You are requested and required to assume command of the Second Marine Division, the Marine Corps, stationed in Guantanamo Bay Marine Corps Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as of one December two thousand eight and oversee activation of Division and subordinate units to full operational readiness no later than ten July two thousand nine. Signed, General Sverre Diesen, Army High Command, Oslo, on Thursday, nine October two thousand eight."

Major General Reitan returned the piece of paper to his pocket before he preformed another about-face and faced the General holding the colors.

"General," He said formally. "I stand ready to carry out orders."

The other General replied in equal formality, "Major General Reitan, I hereby transfer the Second Marine Division to your command." As he presented the division's colors. Major General Reitan accepted the colors and took over the colors.

"I hereby accept command of the Second Marine Division." He stated formally before he marched down the podium and to the waiting honor guard. After exchanging a set of formal orders to the honor guard, including the traditional challenge from the flagbearer's guards, the colors were returned to its flagbearer. With that, the honor guard returned to its position in the end of horseshoe formation while Major General Reitan returned to the podium.

After a few short speeches by the new Divisional commander, the King of Cotland, the Layartebian base commander, the Chief of Army Staff and the Defence Minister, the official ceremony was concluded just before 10:00 and the four hundred Marines that currently made up the Second Marine Division were dismissed from formation. The assembled honor guests and the senior-most officers of the new division would gather in the base's Officer's Club for a reception later in the day, and the rest would participate in various other receptions and what-nots, including the reactivation of another, albeit unformal, Marine activity: locating and identifying a divisional bar in the nearest civilian population center.

In the next weeks and months, the Division's subordinate regiments (6th and 9th Naval Infantry Regiments, 15th Naval Artillery Regiment, 2nd Naval Tank Regiment and 25th Logistics Regiment) would be activated in the base and personell would be assigned and flown in so that the Second Marine Division would reach its authorized strength of 11 000 Marines before the set date, which was 10th of July next year.

The Division's troops would begin joint operations with the Layartebians before that though.

Stinger class Special Operations Craft
Somewhere in the Caribbean Sea
09.12.2008 - 07:00 hours local

Master Sergeant Daniel Motun inhaled deeply, letting the fresh air fill his lungs completely as he tasted the salty flavor of the sea air pass though his nostrils. He had missed this sensation ever since his last sea duty back in 2001 when his battalion had been embarked aboard a San Antonio class LPD and patrolled these waters. Back then, the Realm had truly been the land where the sun never sets. If it wasn't day in Oslo, it was in either Bridgetown in Barbados or in Madagan in Siberia.

Sadly, the Rothsky administration had decided to let go of the overseas territories not long after that patrol was concluded, and it wasn't that long after that it was decided that the Marine Corps was a, how had they worded it? Oh yes. A redundant capability that no longer was required. For five years, the politicians and medias had sold the people of Cotland the story that the world was a peaceful place now, and Cotland didn't need to have so strong forces anymore. The worst part was that the people ate it, hook, line and sinker. Then the Fourth Reich went belly up and Rothsky went a little overboard against the tinpot regime that emerged from the ruins of the Reich. The brass realized that they had made perhaps the biggest fuck-up in modern Cottish history, and now they were desperate to rebuild. The trouble was that the know-how and competance that had been built over a century of continued existance and development had been lost in less than a year with the drastic cuts that had been preformed, and even the most optimistic analysists estimated that Cotland would need at least a decade to get back up to the level it had been at when the Marine Corps was disbanded.

Motun scoffed when he thought about the sorry state the Cottish military had been in, all because of the fucking politicians. He knew that he wasn't the only one who thought this way. Most of the non-commissioned officer's corps and even most of the officer's corps felt the same way, and the contempt for politicians were at a all-time high.

"Dime for your thoughts first sarnt?" A voice said from behind. Motun looked over his shoulder and identified the person who had interrupted. Sergeant First Class Ole Bakke, the radioman in the sixteen-man team that Motun was part of, stopped next to Motun and leaned on the railing of the fast-moving Stinger. In the background, one of the Layartebian crewmembers were busy doing some routine maintenance on one of the rear-facing M50A2 machine guns. Bakke had served as a private and vice-corporal in the old Marine Corps, but Motun hadn't met him before they both flew to Cuba together on 28 November. Now, he was assigned to the same team as Motun and dressed the same way, in COTPAT field uniforms.

"Just thinking of the good old days, and the total fuck-ups we have calling the shots."

"I don't know. Gardason looks like he might be able to get shit done. After all, he got us this far."

"I doubt that Gardasøn's responsible for reestablishing the Corps." Motun replied. "It normally takes a lot longer than what, three months to get new units organized and what-not. It's probably been in the making for a long time, and Gardason's just taking the credit for it. That's how these politicians do things."

"You sound like you don't like the politicians." Bakke commented.

"You're damned right I don't like politicians. If it hadn't been for them, the old Corps would never have been disbanded and we wouldn't have to spend the next ten years rebuilding what they took less than a year to rip down."

"Yeah I know what you're saying."

"Do you?" Motun replied with a hint of sarcasm. Bakke had made a less than impressive impression on Motun when they had flown together to Cuba.

"Listen, I was in the old Corps too. I remember how it was like."

Motun was about to respond when a alarm suddenly interrupted the discussion, followed by the Layartebian commanding officer's voice. "General quarters, general quarters. All hands, man your battle stations!"

The two Marines bolted down to the assembly area where the remaining fourteen Cottish Marines were already located, not one of them ranked below Sergeant First Class.

Within minutes, they were informed by the Layartebian commanding officer that they had been informed of a pirate attack against a merchant vessel, and that they would try to follow the pirates and locate the pirate's base of operations, and hopefully put it out of commission. They were also informed that the Stinger would be assisted by a Layartebian corvette in this operation.

Motun swallowed hard as he realized that he would be going into battle again, for the first time since he participated in thwarting the Nerotikan invasion of Kostroma in 2000. He had gotten through that mess and earned a War Cross for bravery above and beyond the call of duty back then, and he knew he could do it again if he had to. His only worry was that he was going into battle with an untested team that had only trained together for five days before embarking on the Stinger for this patrol.

The Ra class corvette was brand new and only three hulls were in commissioned service. However, out of those three, only one was truly operational and that one was the first hull. Designed to replace the Leopard and Vindicator corvettes, previously purchased from the Realm of Cotland. Outdated, the two classes contained a combined 116 hulls, all destined to be replaced one by one with the Ra class. More heavily armed, larger, and better equipped, the Ra was a fast patrol corvette designed to counter everything from small motorcraft containing pirates to enemy escorts as large as frigates.

Piracy had been a concern in the 1970s and early 1980s but the Empire had resoundingly defeated them during the Conquests. However, they were back and more determined than ever. Using fast motorboats lightly armed with surplus military machine guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers, dozens of pirate groups operating around the Caribbean had wrecked havoc on Layartebian merchant shipping since 2006, when the first incidents arose again. Their light motorcraft were usually small, light, and fast, able to outmaneuver just about everything in the waters. This lead to the development and procurement of the Druid class, a light, fast patrol craft that could outrun and outgun the pirate motorboats. Now, with the Ra, there was no chance for piracy to survive once it had been engaged. Not only could the Ra outrun most of the motorcraft, they could attack their points of origin too with powerful naval gunfire and even travel down the rivers of many of the islands thanks to a relatively low draft. Piracy would have no place to hide.

It was early in the morning of December 9 that the Ra would get its first combat action. A group of pirates numbering just eight operating two boghammers attacked a merchant cargo ship moving vehicles from Venezuela up to Alabama. The vessel had been only about forty-five miles out of Guantanamo Bay when the pirates attacked and the distress signal was received there immediately. It would be an unlucky day for pirates as the Empire had two vessels on patrol not far from the merchant vessel, which increased its speed to flank and changed its heading for the Layartebian base, turning hard in the relatively calm seas of the Caribbean. They couldn't outrun the pirates but they could delay them while the Imperial Layartebian Defense Forces bore down on them. Lightly armed, the merchant ship's crew prepared to defend themselves against the pirates, pulling a few small arms from their cabins and uncovering the ship's LRAD device. Since piracy had risen again in the Caribbean, several shipping companies encouraged their crews to arm themselves and private military contractors were used to guard extremely valuable and important cargo. There would be no backing down.

The pirates initially closed to within a few hundred yards of the vessel and began to exchange gunfire at over 20 knots with the crew members of the merchant ship. It was a futile effort as the pirates quickly gained on the merchant ship, moving at 24 knots, its flank speed. The boghammer speedboats quickly accelerated past 30 knots and the pirates closed faster and faster. Unsuccessful attempts to use the LRAD device left the crew members frustrated, their emotions taking control of their actions as they fired inaccurately at the pirates. They were not trained soldiers, obviously. It was only a matter of time before the pirates were alongside, firing up the hull of the ship while they threw ropes upwards and climbed along the rungs on the side of the ship's hull, maneuvering dangerously close to the merchant vessel, despite its own zigzagging movements, which were not as abrupt and erratic as was necessary to push away the pirates.

Boarding the ship successfully, the pirates, all six of them, traded heavy gunfire with the crew, neither side scoring any major hits. A few ricochets here and there threatened to come dangerously close to either side and one crew member was grazed by a tumbling round. For the pirates, it was nothing unusual until someone noticed an approaching boat, a boat that wasn't going to be friendly. It was small on the waterline but it moved fast and kicked up a lot of mist with it. The boat happened to be a Stinger class special operations craft carrying sixteen Cottish Marines and five Layartebian sailors. Armed with five heavy and three light machine guns, the boat was enough to make anyone's day a nightmare but it wasn't equipped with the sort of heavy firepower needed to do significant damage to anything other than human flesh or light speedboats. The pirate boghammers were definitely its prey and as it roared towards the vessel at over 45 knots, the pirates became jumpy. They shouted to each other in slang and speed talk, urging each other to get off the boat and run, the police were coming. For them, the police was the ILDF and the single incoming craft wasn't their only problem that morning. Several miles away, the Ra class patrol corvette was making its way towards them at flank speed too, 35 knots. The Ra wasn't armed lightly though. Its main gun as a 57 millimeter main gun and it was equipped with two heavy machine guns, surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, as well as a complement of twenty-eight Layartebian sailors and eight Marines, all gritted their teeth with anticipation, ready to attack the pirates. They hoped to drive the pirates away, to make them flee for their base of operations, where the Ra class would commence firing on it and the Marines would lead a ground assault. It would be the first action the newly reformed Cottish Marines undertook and the first combat action for the Ra. Both groups hoped for a resounding success.

The two Layartebian warships were successful in scaring off the pirates, and proceeded to stalk the pirate survivors back to their hideout, which was discovered to be located on Haiti. The pirate boghammer disappear up a small river that lead to a small town called Lafond, about 35 kilometers up-stream. Of course, the Layartebian authorities had control over Lafond, meaning that the pirate hideout had to be further downstream, closer to the ocean. Unfortunately, the two-ship squadron couldn't follow the pirates up the river because the river was too shallow for the Ra to follow. After a brief consultation between the two Layartebian ship captains and the Marine leaders, it was decided that the Ra's Marines would follow the Stinger up the river in the Ra's RIB.

Ten minutes later, everyone were set and ready to go. With a roar, the Stinger began its rush up the river, moving at nearly flank speed in order to maintain the element of surprise. On deck, the Cottish Marines were standing ready, some of them manning the machine guns and the rest just clutching their own weapons, ready to do their bit. Everyone were feeling a sense of anticipation and some fear, as was natural before one went into combat, but all sixteen Marines were determined to do their job to the best of their ability and prove to the world that the Cottish Marines were still a fearsome fighting organization.

About three kilometers up-stream, a Layartebian UAV had spotted a jetty with a moored boghammer and a small group of armed men, and a small trail leading north up to a bunch of shanty buildings up by the treeline. It was decided to land the Marines approximately four hundred meters from the jetty and small village, behind cover of a bend in the river that could block the pirate's line of sight to the Marines landing.

Five minutes later, the Marines waded ashore. With the Cottish Major leading the Cottish Marines being the highest-ranking officer, the forty year old veteran with twelve years of experience in the old Marine Corps and a further six years of experience in the Army was given operational command of the ground operation. The Major had available one recoilless rifle team of two Cottish Marines armed with a Carl Gustav recoilless rifle, two light machine gunners with an MG4 5.56mm light machine gun each, one Layartebian light machine gunner with a M106A2 SAW, one Layartebian sniper/spotter team, one Cottish marksman armed with a scope-equipped HK417 designated marksmans rifle, two Layartebian and four Cottish grenadiers armed with 40mm grenade launchers attached to their assault rifles, three Layartebian riflemen, and fifteen Cottish riflemen, himself included. With this in mind, the Major quickly devised a attack plan with the Layartebian scout/sniper team finding good overwatch positions so they could cover the rest of the team with the powerful M89A2 designated marksman rifle, and he had the recoilless rifle team tag along with the Layartebians. The idea was that with the Carl Gustav in an overwatch position, it would be easier to get accurate and devestating covering fire.

Next, he would have the three machine gunners set up positions that provided fields of fire that overlapped each other and covered all three visible axis of approach, along with one rifleman each to assist and protect the machine gunner. The machine gunners were deployed to the northwestern and north-eastern corners where they could provide overlapping fire into the buildings and mutually cover each other.

The grenadiers and riflemen were assembled in their normal four-man fireteams, giving the Major one Layartebian and four Cottish fireteams to manouver around. The Layartebian Lieutenant commanding the Layartebian Marine detachment were given command of the Layartebian and one of the Cottish fireteams and asked to cover the south-facing axis of attack. Two fireteams were given to the senior-most Cottish non-commissioned officer, a forty-six year old Sergeant Major, and the remaining three fireteams were held under the Major's personal command. The tactical elements were named B, C, and A Sections, respectively. The Cottish Major made it clear to the section leaders that he intended to start the operation with having the Stinger come around the bend in the river at max speed and open up with everything she had on the pirates at the jetty and against the buildings, giving the pirates a one hell of a scare. That would be the que for the Marines to begin their attack, which would start with the machine guns, sniper/spotter team and recoilless rifle beginning to attack targets of opportunity. After sufficiently softening up the enemy shanty town, the sections were to move in and finish off the opposition, secure prisoners and whatever else there was to secure, and secure the shanty town before exfiltrating via the Stinger and RIB back out to the Ra, which was on-hand to provide naval gunfire support.

Satisfied that everyone knew what to do, the Major ordered them to move out and quietly take up positions. There was little use in wasting the element of surprise, especially when they didn't really know how sizable the enemy force was or what they were armed with.

Twenty minutes later, all elements reported in that they were in position and that everything was set. The Major took a deep breath before he radioed the go-code to the Stinger.

A minute later, down on the jetty, the seven armed men suddenly turned around to see what the noise they suddenly hear was. The sudden expression of horror on their faces when they realized who they were facing was priceless (and captured by the Stinger's photo mast). After a few seconds of shock, one of them unslung his M30A4 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7809793&postcount=2) assault rifle and squeezed off a few rounds in the general direction of the Stinger from the hip while yelling something in Spanish. That was about how far he got before the men manning the heavy weapons on the Stinger let rip and massacred the seven armed men standing on the jetty.

In the shanty town, people began emerging from the shanty shacks, armed with everything from M30 carbines and AK-47 assault rifles to RPG-7s and hunting shotguns. While some were heading down to the river to see what was going on, most were heading in the general direction of the forest. They got about ten meters away from the shanty shacks when the Marines opened up with everything they had. A 84mm high explosive shell slammed into a shack with a PKM machine gun position while a pirate got his head split open by the Layartebian Marine sniper. The three machine guns laid down accurate and devestating fire, shooting in short bursts to conserve ammunition while the riflemen that were concealed behind tree trunks and rocks fired at everything that wasn't in COTPAT or MARPAT uniforms and moved.

In the first fifteen seconds of the engagement, the Marines took out an estimated forty pirates, but they had stirred up a hornet's nest, with an estimated 100+ pirates remaining in the shanty town. The pirates began to pull back to the center of the shanty town where they couldn't be directly hit by the Marines who were fighting from defensive positions or from the river where the Stinger continued to send a deadly torrent of lead up into the shacks, and started setting up defensive positions.

The Major decided heavier stuff were needed and called in fire support from the Ra that was located off-shore, requesting fire support into the center of the shanty town. He wanted to even the odds a little bit more before he pushed into the shanty town.

The naval fire mission called in from the Marines on the ground couldn't have come at a better time for the sailors inside the Ra class corvette. The Stinger wasn't armed with anything other than heavy machine guns and what the Marines carried, powerful enough to rake a small encampment but not enough to destroy a shantytown full of enemy pirates. For that, the Ra class would use its 57mm rapid-fire cannon. On board, sailors smiled as they went into the motions of staging the fire mission. They were excited now that they would get to use their gun in anger and show just how versatile the Ra class could be against an enemy threat.

In the CIC, one man operated the gun. Automation and highly advanced computers took care of the rest. The magazine was entirely automated as well, the gunner could choose from a variety of shells from the magazine of 120 rounds. There were 240 more rounds stowed, which would have to be made available through the use of human interaction but that would take just one more man to accomplish. The target was a shanty town only 6,500 yards from where the corvette was, well within the range of the corvette's powerful, 57mm gun. A rapid-fire system, the gun could put 240 rounds into the air in a single minute, meaning that the gun could exhaust its magazine in just thirty seconds.

The gunner brought up imagery from the UAV and cross-layed it over satellite imagery, all within a matter of seconds. He could watch live footage of the battle if he chose but he wasn't going to watch anything except his target. Using an electronic pointer, he touched various points on the screen, each time watching a green Bulls-eye appear where he touched. So long as it was green meant that he could proceed with the fire mission. Yellow meant it was close enough to friendly positions to be considered dangerous but still doable. Red meant that the fire mission could not proceed for any number of reasons. These were all green, the Marines holding their distance from the shanty town, while pirates inside reinforced their positions and waited for their enemy to charge in after them.

He placed twenty circles on the map and selected his ammunition, the 3P shell. Instantly, each Bulls-eye turned to a radius circle, most of them overlapping each other, which was what he wanted. The radius circle represented the effective fragmentation radius of the shell and that was an area that covered over 4,000 square feet. The gunner selected the timer option on the fuse fearing that the proximity option might make the round prematurely detonate due to the all of the objects along its flight path, namely trees. The fire mission was then ready, twenty rounds to be fired, all rounds out of the gun's barrel in just five seconds. Each 13.67 pound projectile would detonate just 16 - 20 feet in the air, showering the ground below with tungsten pellets and fragments, each one with enough power to shred the armor of a lightly armored vehicle. A single 57mm shell could disperse approximately 8,000 fragments, each round moving at over 3,500 feet per second when it left the barrel of the gun.

"SIR! FIRE MISSION READY!" The gunner shouted as he looked at the panel, which was just awaiting the push of a button. It loomed in front of him, underneath a thin, plastic lid, illuminated and glowing red. He was shouting to the officer in the CIC, one of the four on the vessel. The CO was on the bridge, the XO behind him, and the other two officers dispersed between the rear of the ship, in the propulsion section and the other in the CIC. All in contact with each other, they were all on duty and on alert when the fire mission came over and the CO ordered the CIC to prepare. Now the final order was needed. The officer, a first-rate ensign fresh out of the naval academy in Annapolis. He moved to just behind the gunner, an enlisted petty officer third class, fresh out of A-School, this being his first assignment as a gunner. The officer picked up a phone on the wall next to him and rang the bridge.

"Sir. Ready to commence firing!" He said, not shouting but with clear authority. "Aye sir. Commencing fire mission immediately!" He repeated, hanging up the phone and looking down at the gunner, who stared ahead at his panel.

"Let her rip Harris." He said with a smirk as the gunner lifted the cover on the panel and pushed the button just once. The whole boat shook to life as, in a matter of just seconds, the gun motioned 38° to the starboard and the gun barrel elevated to the proper orientation. Then, the magazine shifted below deck and the rounds were drawn up, to the firing chamber, one by one, until all twenty had been fired, a five second process, the gun barrel recoiling backwards every time a round left the chamber. A flash hider on the muzzle of the barrel kept the gun flash hidden and it was just an expulsion of hot gas. There was no way to silence the noise though and each shot sounded like a loud nail gun and compressor, slamming rounds into the air, accelerating at over 60,000 G's.

The twenty rounds roared through the air and bore down on the encampment, the fuse counting down the nanoseconds as it drew closer and closer to the target. The pirates would never hear the shots nor would they expect what hit them. Each round came inbound at speeds so fast that nobody could counter or hide from them. For the Marines it would be heaven as the twenty rounds detonated, almost simultaneously overhead, showering the ground below with fragments. The whole encampment suddenly became enveloped in a cloud of dirt, dust, and smoke as the twenty rounds detonated with a puff of black smoke. The Marines would know the effects before the gunner would and they could call in an additional strike or move inward. The gunner highly doubted he would be called upon to fire again, knowing the full potential of his weapon better than anyone on the ship.

The massive naval bombardment did its job. In a matter of seconds, the bulk of the shanty town was reduced to little more than fragmented wood, shattered furniture and human body parts scattered all around the place. As the smoke cleared the potshots that the pirates had fired off in the general direction of the Marines and the relatively accurate return fire the Cottish and Layartebian Marines had fired back at them had been replaced by an eerie silence. Cautious, the Cottish Major ordered the overwatch team and machine gunners to cover them as he motioned for the three sections to advance slowly into the remains of the shanty town.

Master Sergeant Motun led his four-man team into the fray, keeping his HK416 constantly at the ready as he advanced through the wrecked remains of the shanty town. It reminded him of the small Cottish village in Kostroma where a battle stood between Nerotikan paratroopers and a mixed force of Cottish regular infantry, home guardsmen and other service members living in the area who had been hastily recalled from R&R. Motun had been among the latter, being a mere Corporal back then when he had hastily kissed his wife goodbye and made his way to the nearest Cottish outfit where he had gotten himself a rifle and joined the unit. It had been a nasty fight involving bayonet charges and fighting the enemy with bare fists that had lasted for a full day before the Cottish force finally had managed to slay the last of the invaders. For his personal courage, and for killing four Nerotikans with his bare hands, Motun had been made a Hero of Cotland – Cotland’s highest military award – and promoted to Sergeant.

“Sarnt, this one’s alive!” Sergeant First Class Bakke called out, attracting the attention of the entire fire team.

“Is he a threat?” Motun asked as he approached Bakke’s location and noticed the person on the ground, muttering Spanish curses in between groans of pain.

“Negative, he’s incapacitated.” Bakke said with glee, pointing to the pirate’s knee. Only a bloody stump remained of his knee, the rest having been clipped off by the Layartebian naval gunfire.

“Tom, do what you can.” Motun said to the Marine medic that accompanied his fire team.

“We’re helping this scum?!” Bakke half asked, half demanded.

“He’s wounded and no longer a threat to us. Besides,” Motun said, “The brass wants prisoners if possible.”

“He’s lost a lot of blood. Artery was cut. If I can get a clamp on it, he might pull through. Note: might.” The medic said as he worked on the knee (or remains thereof) of the pirate. The medic would manage to save the pirate’s life by first placing a tourniquet on the thigh of the pirate before the medic managed to put a clamp the artery that had been ruptured, thus stopping the blood loss which would surely kill him if it wasn’t stopped, followed by applying a pressure bandage on the bleeding part along with a IV solution that was meant to temporarily replace the blood that was lost.

“Do what you can doc,” Motun replied softly before he motioned for the rest of his fire team to continue the sweep through the remains of the shanty town.

Ten minutes later, the Marines had captured three pirates that had somehow managed to escape the shelling alive, and administered thirty-two headshots to pirates that were too far gone to make it back to the Ra, let alone the base. A number of very interesting documents and a few laptop computers that might hold something interesting were also confiscated, and whatever weapons were still intact were gathered into one pile. Once the captured pirates were stable enough for transport, they were loaded onto the Stinger along with the captured intel and most of the Marines, while a small detachment tied up the loose ends. The assembled weapons cache was (save for a few M1911A1 Colt pistols and a PPSh-41 that somehow had managed to get into pirate possession that were covertly “liberated” by the Marines) destroyed with the aid of a Thermite-TH3 grenade, and the area booby-trapped and mined so that when whoever supported the pirates came around to find out what had happened, they’d get a nasty surprise as well.

With that, the Marines on the Stinger and the Ra’s RIB headed back to the position off-shore where the Ra waited. The operation had gone off flawlessly, with zero friendly casualties, three captured pirates and a lot of intel that would turn out to hold some interesting information about the pirate MO. Once back on the Ra, the Major would transfer the prisoners to the corvette which was better suited to accommodate them than the Stinger was.

Furthermore, this operation had ensured that the Second Marine Division would be justified in adding the battle streamer “KARIBIA-HISPANOLA 2008” to its colors, and more importantly, proven that the Marine Corps was still a viable fighting force that had a place in the modern combat environment.