NationStates Jolt Archive

CSS Crimmond
Brotherhood Class Supercarrier

As the carrier group approaches the lands that had once been deemed far too dangerous to approach, the ship identifies herself and her nation of origin. Redundant, given the name, but still standard procedure.

They reveal that there is a diplomatic team on board who wishes to speak to whoever leads the strongest faction, both militarily and politically, in Haven. According to the team, there are matters to be discussed which will only be discussed with that faction and no other.

Strange that the Empire of Crimmond would sail to Haven, considering that the nation is without it's long-time Gholgothic allies and is more or less standing alone against the world.

To add to the intrigue, the diplomatic team relays that there is a time limit on these matters and if Haven refuses to cooperate, there are others that will.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
An Invitation

Giving the current civil strife that is ongoing in Haven, it is my position that the "strongest faction" should be the one with the least military obligations and tangled alliance structure. As the largest, and possibly best fortified, state in Haven, allow me to extend a warm invitation to this diplomatic envoy on behalf of Brettonia.

We would be more than pleased to meet at a mutually-decided location. Do be in touch.

H.R. Bergmann,
Director of Foreign Information

Axackal Sea
0600 GMT

Due to the crisis in Prestonia, the entire Axackal Sea was full of Questarian ships operating their blockade of the Strobovia. AWACs dotted the entire ocean, from the mouth of the Allanean canal to the east of Strobovia. It was the singularly largest deployment since the Four Day War, even triumphing what had been done against the Doomani. The Admiral in charge of the Axackal Military Sea Zone was Fleet Admiral Keyes, who had commanded Questarian shipping in the Strobovian Strait in the Four Day War and was one of Questaria's most renowned Admirals. He had been granted control of the Aero-Naval forces assigned to the AMSZ to act independently and carry out the charter he had been given. Indeed, he had permission to launch military actions that he deemed a threat to the peace in West Haven.

Therefore, when the Questarians picked up the identification of the Crimmondi (sp?) ship, they triangulated the source of the message and coordinated that with data from their AWACs. Still, moving peacefully, locating the exact position of the Crimmondi Battlegroup would be more tricky. As they moved cautiously into the waters of Haven, Keyes ordered his AWACs to close around them and create a pentagon formation around the battlegroup at a distance of half a thousand klicks. Submarines provided more rough triangular data and soon enough, there was enough information on the Crimmondi Battlegroup to give Keyes the prerogative he needed to act. They wanted allies in Haven. This was a disturbance to the General Peace, and no less from a country he had technically fought against during the Four Day War.

AOG.39 consisted of eight squadrons of Blackburn Blackadders and their respective support and electronic aircraft. At any time, AOG.39 flew half of its squadrons in patrol missions over a roughly similar sector of airspace in the Axackal. The Control Vessel for that sector, a floating electronic command base, vectored them in to the positions that had been marked out for the attack. Ninety six aircraft, laden with three AS.145 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13393003&postcount=2) missiles each moved to their locations at subsonic speed and in a semicircle, like a fan, launched their missiles in the front of the Crimmondi Battlegroup. They ran silently at the lowest possible altitude, meaning that they would not come into LOS radar range of the ships until about 250km. By that time they would be moving at about mach 3.5, taking them about four minutes to reach their targets. However, running low and silent it might well have been a much shorter distance before their detection, depending on the operating status of the enemy radars.

They were guided roughly to the target by the pentagon formation of AWACs aircraft that were broadcasting the movements of the Crimmondi ships to the Blackadders themselves. When they had fired their missiles, they swapped "swarm control" to the AWACs and they took over the guidance. This meant that the Crimmondi ships would only know they were being locked on by a radar until the missiles were 50km away, which was when they switched on their active radars and assigned themselves targets. With just under ten missiles per ship, each capable of knocking out a destroyer in a single hit and a carrier in several, the message had been delivered loud and clear.

[Crimm. As in the name of this account.]

The ships numbered thirty in total on the surface. Though with Crimmond, this usually meant there were at least eight submarines lurking about. Perhaps even a dozen.

The missiles were sighted from much further out than 250km from the carrier, given that the group was spread out into a normal protective formation. Several of those protecting ships barely had time to react, their anti-missile systems targeting all they could. It would be later estimated that only half the missiles were taken down. Nowhere near enough. The carrier weathered the storm the best, as the closest ships concentrated their fire on missiles heading for the carrier. Combined with the carrier's own defenses, it was struck twice. The flight deck was a burning wreck, hiding a sizable crater in the armored deck in thick smoke. The port side of the ship had been ripped open halfway between waterline and hanger deck, smoke pouring from it as well.

At the moment, it was the only surface ship besides the cruisers under it's own power. Two cruisers were adrift, but they would survive if not attacked again. Others came along and tied up to them, attempting to tow them out of the area. When the oiler went up, though... that was a sight to behold.

The carrier was turning away from Haven and making best speed towards open water. But it still had something to say. "All you bastards had to say was 'go the fuck away'."

---

A formal communication came to all of Haven rather quickly, no matter what happened to the carrier after it made it's farewell message.

Firing on a non-aggressive, non-aligned carrier group attempting to open diplomatic ties to your region... I had no idea you people could be so ignorant. It's a shame that the international courts are nothing but jokes, because it would be quite nice to hear you defend yourself in front of a judge.

We came to you with an offer... you would not even hear it before shooting. We came to you in peace and you obviously wish nothing short of war. There is no excuse for what happened this day, but I am willing to give you my offer anyway. With the obviously hostile intentions of certain members, with the amount of devastation being dealt out, there is bound to be a massive amount of cleaning to do. Be it conventional or radioactive.

My Empire is prepared to offer our services to Haven in handling such tasks so that you may be free to direct your attentions at blowing each other to bits, without the hassle of cleaning up the resulting messes. The Empire is willing to handle such tasks for the nations of Haven. This would be a non-aligned, totally neutral state handling these affairs for your governments. As long as no one fires on them, no one gets fired on. I'm even willing to ignore the blind attacks by Questers... they were operating under the belief... well, actually I do not know what they believed our motives were. Regardless, I will not attempt reprisals.

The point of my offer is not to insert Crimmond into your politics. Far removed. All this offer is... is a business proposal.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7175/sonya1ng4.jpg
Sonya Volsung
Empress of Crimmond

It was now time to finish the job. With the carrier still in AWACs line of sight, a second sortie using three squadrons of AOG.90 was planned and put into operation before the Crimmondi "fleet" could leave. A further 216 missiles were delivered in the fashion of the first sortie. The aim was to finish the job and to give a clear message that Questaria would not welcome Crimmond in Havenic waters, ever again.

Questarian media would report the Operation, named Operation Affront in a favourable light. Crimmond was not taken seriously as a nation by the general population and furthermore, her suggestion that the Governments of free Havenic states would do business deals with a military-industrial complex was taken as an affront to Havenic principles and values, at least in Questers. The Straits Times pondered why it was that Crimmond did not send civilian diplomats via air, the usual and even cheaper method of negotiation. The Axackal Sea Telegraph hailed Questarian arms in their repulsion of Crimmond from Havenic Seas. All in all the issue brought the Questarian Government higher rates in the opinion polls - quite a necessary act in the present times - and solidified the Questarian view that the Axackal was their "Mare Nostrum."

The five remaining ships had no chance of survival. A few of the missiles were taken out, but it was a feeble attempt and no ship can ward off forty missiles streaking towards it.

Under the sea, however, it was a different story. The nine submarines were sitting quietly, spread out over a thousand nautical mile area. If they sat tight for a while and slowly left the area there would be little chance for attacks. After all, only three of them were within two hundred miles of the carrier when it went down. Without knowing what to look for or where, the Havenic forces would be hard pressed to find the subs before they withdrew to safer waters.

The presence of Doomani forces in the Axackal was, to say the least, predictable; after all, Classis Axacalis was the largest single formation in the Holy Fleet, and Paralentum had recently seen one of the bloodiest wars in Havenic history. When data regarding the attacks on the Crimmish ships began to file in, the Governor of Paralentum ordered rescue forces to be dispatched in order to take on any survivors, the priority being the diplomats.

While Doomanum's diplomatic history with Crimmond was, to say the very least, less than friendly, the strike on the Crimmish fleet, which had a stated diplomatic intention, so close to Imperial waters, was not taken in a good light by the Doomani government.

Low earth Geosynchronous orbit
The ASD Operates a whole fleet of satellites many of which have Visual and Thermal capabilities. ASD Cyberforces also have a tendency to hack civilian or relatively low encryption Military Sats. just for fun. Unfortunately, it was a hijacked Satellite that "happened" to be overlooking the area in which the Crimm fleet was operating. The ASD cyberforce Operators watched first in shock then in outright horror as Questerian aircraft blew the fleet to shreds. Sigint analysts Sifted through data quickly and realized within an hour that there was nothing to find. The crimm had sent two messages and received nothing back for the Questerian (sp.) forces. Soon, it was remarkably clear that Quester had murdered an entire Crimm taskforce for no apparent reason.

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=60608&d=1220905611
Official Message
To: The Crimm
From: The ASD Cyberforce division, CIC Tony Lan
Message:
We have an electronic intercept that may be of interest to you attached. We are sorry to be the bearers of bad news and offer any possible aide in this matter.