NationStates Jolt Archive

In the Osean capital, New Constantinople, something completely unexpected had happened. Alexius Habsburg, the son of of the last Holy Osean Emperor had arrived in the capital with a group of supporters and announced his intend to restore the Imperial throne. The group then marched on the government buildings, joined by the citizens of the city and any forces that were sent against them. They quickly gained control of the city, and the old government was locked away, untill the new government could decide what to do with them.

Alexius immediadly met with his advisers to decide what to do. After a while they decided that they would need to deal with the few provinces that had decided not to follow the new government and that reports coming in suggested were going to fight. They would also need recognision. So after the meeting, the armed forces were told to prepare to retake the rebelling provinces, and a message was sent.

To: Nations of the World
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

As many will now know, the Osean nation is once again an Empire. We wish to inform those that might see this as something that should be reversed immediadly that, apart from a few areas that were heavily controled by the old government, we are supported by the Osean people. We also have made sure there was as little bloodshed. This government is legitimate and we wish that the nations of the world will recognize that fact.

Sincearly,
His Imperial Majesty, Alexius I, Sovereign of Osea

To: The Holy Empire of Osea
From: Wolf Hold Central Command

We would like to inform you that whilst you are entitled to the provinces that support you, an attempt to take back provinces oposed to your rule, will seriously endanger relations with our Armed Republic as well as our allies. We request that you let these provinces resolve there affiliation by election

To: The Armed Republic Of the Wolf Hold
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

We are certain that the provinces controlled by the rebels are not supported willingly by the people in them. We also wish to inform you that the old government had a habit of rigging elections. We will only hold these elections you suggest if you are willing to send unbiased moniters to make sure that the results are not altered in anyway by supporters of the old government.

To: The Holy Empire of Osea
From: The Armed Republic Of the Wolf Hold

We are willing to deploy un-biased monitors, However we request that due to recent political events involving our nation, that peacekeepers are attached to our observers. We are not talking about a large force but a 2,200 man MEU to protect the monitors.

To: The Armed Republic Of the Wolf Hold
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

We undestand and will allow your peacekeeper to be with your observers.

To: The Holy Empire of Osea
From: The Armed Republic Of the Wolf Hold

We await a time and place for the elections, once this has been established we will deploy to the area.

To: The Armed Republic Of the Wolf Hold
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

We shall hold them in a months time. We have send the exact times and dates along with this message.


In the rebelling provinces, everyone gave a sigh of relieve as the approaching Osean turned away. Then they recieved a message from the Oseans informing them of the elections that were to be held and everyone, for whatever purpose they had, began to prepare for what lay ahead.

To: The Holy Empire of Osea
From: The Armed Republic Of the Wolf Hold

We have recived your message and Task Force Osea is readying itself for Deployment.

At an unkown airbase in the Wolf Hold, multiple grey hatted civillians wearing jackets with observer emblazend across the back and the black uniformed Wolf Hold Army troops intermingled as they made there final preperations.

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/1717/sealxr7.gif
The Holy Empire of Zaheran
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Official Communique




It is with great gladness that I today announce our official recognition of the Holy Empire of Osea as a fully sovereign and independent nation, and of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Alexius I as its rightful and legitimate ruler. On behalf of his Imperial Majesty and the Zaheranian people, I extend our congratulations to your successul reclamation of your father's throne.
Further, we offer our full assistance to the Holy Empire of Osea in its campaign to retake provinces unlegitimately occupied by rebel forces. Should you request it, we can give monetary, logistical or direct military aid to you and your armed forces.

Yours sincerely,

Marius Stee
Minister of Foreign Affairs

To: The Armed Republic Of the Wolf Hold
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

I am truely gratefull for your recognition of my nation and my throne. I am equaly gratefull for your offer of assistance, which might be needed soon.

Sincearly,
His Imperial Majesty, Alexius I, Sovereign of Osea

To: All Nations Operating with or in Osea
From: WHTFO (Wolf Hold Task Force Osea)


We wish to inform you that our peacekeepers and obsevers are ready to deploy and we now request offical permition from the Osean goverment to set up operations in the area.

(OOC- Isnt Osea from Ace Combat?)

OOC: Yes, it is.
IC:
To: The Armed Republic Of the Wolf Hold
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

Permission is granted.

OOC- Thought as much

IC:

"Ok There is are confrimation, Lets Go!" The Civillian co-ordinator yelled as he packed up his laptop. The 2,200 men and women of the 3rd Infantry Battalion were already airbounre on en-route to Osean airspace. The Observers with their grey caps and flak jackets were quickly boarding there C-130s and pilling the last of there equipment aboard. 2 hours later the whole of WHTFO was airbourne.

Official CSSA Communication

To Whom it may Concern:

Per standard protocol, the Constitutional Sovereignty of the Saevitian Archipelago does not at this time recognize the legitimacy of the Osean Holy Empire. Should the Empire prove itself capable of maintaining order and quality of life and gain the internal authority necessary to establish a peaceful and self-sufficient nation-state, the CSSA's official recognition would be gladly extended at that time.

Until then we wish the Holy Empire the best of luck in its attempts to consolidate internal sovereignty, and would be pleased to open formal diplomatic relations once it has reached the criteria necessary for international legitimacy.

Gerard Karajan
Sir Gerard Karajan
Crown Secretary for Foreign Affairs
9th Earl of Saint Thomas Island, et cetera

[OoC; Permission for a small invasion of one of the provinces by rebel Spec. Ops troops? To cause trouble, of course. They would take over a town or to and then hold out for a while.]

(Occ- I have no problem with that, it would give my peacekeeps somthing to fight, that is if Osea agrees)

OOC: I also have no problem with it.
IC:
To: The Constitutional Monarchy of the Saevitian Archipelago
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

We look forward to the point when you can recognize our legitimacy.

(OOC- Bump!)

Soon, a number of airfields were prepared for the arrival of the Wolf Hold peace keepers. All that was left to do was wait for their arrival.

WHTFO, IL-76 Aproaching first LZ

"Landing in 3...2.....1, prepare to disenbark!" The IL-76 carrying the main HQ element of WHTFO touched down on the airstrip set up in th biggest breakaway provinnce. The Marines began to set up a perimeter and the civillians working on the HQ tents. All over Oseas breakaway provinces this scene was repeated as WHTFO planes touched down.

A Battlehawk Navy Cruiser was sitting just outside the Oseans Terrirotial waters. They were observeing the situation.

The Dominion of Sarrowquand would like to dispatch a team to assess the situation in Osea.

We propose a ream of six bureaucrats and can ready a DoSA plane immediatley.

To: The Dominion of Sarrowquand
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

We will give permission for you to dispatch your team.

Federation of Cukarica

Official Short Comunique

Federation extends its hand of friendship to our trusted allies and congradulate His Majesty Alexius Habsburg on his coronation,also we will take this oportunity to inform you that all CISFOR troops stationed in Osea are currently ready to react towards any security threats.
If needed Senate is willing to apoint more troops to your aid.
Good luck and best wishes,
Federational goverment.

Within twenty minutes of confirmation a DoSA Fokker 70 departed Sarrowquand City international airport, the six bureaucrats onboard began flipping through their notes on Osean politics and culture each occasionally looking up from their studies to glare at the seventh passenger who had joined them at the last minute, a small dark skinned woman with seaweed coloured hair and ice blue eyes who was passing her flight by watching the clouds roll by.

There were still several stops before the regional aircraft would arrive in Osea but the young woman knew that none of the bureaucrats would speak to her in all of that time, still the clouds were interesting enough to watch and she wondered what it would be like to meet a real Emperor.

To: All nations involved with the situation in Osea
From: WHTFO (Wolf Hold Task Force Osea)
Subj: Elections

We wish to inform you that our civillian observers are well on the way to setting up the base for loacal elections inside the breakaway provinces, the local breakaway leaders seem to be co-operating and our peacekeepers have the breakaway provinces under control. We wish to inform you that it is safe for any international party to inspect the plans for the local elections however these will be dwon to the Osean goverment and local leaders, we are just here to make sure they happen peacefully and hopfully without bloodshed.

Staff at the various airports quickly met up with the WHTFO member and quickly began helping them whatever way they could. Meanwhile the Sarrowquand Fokker 70 was contacted and sent the following message.

To: Sarrowquand aircraft
From: Osean air traffic control

We have been ordered to direct you to the Osean International Airport at our capital. This is to enable you to work more closely with us on the situation.


The Oseans also made other preperations. Alexius was determined not to lose territory that had long been Osean just after becoming Emperor. The mood in the rebelling seemed to be a reluctance to the idea of splitting from the Empire. But he wan't going to risk it hapenning, however unlikely it might seem. So, teams were dispatched into the rebelling provinces to kill any individuals that sought independance for their provinces. The teams were only given one restriction, to make sure that the killings looked like they were done by the people of the provinces to make it look like the separatist movements were unpopular. Just in case that didn't ensure the result they wanted, plans were drawn up to restore sovereignty over the provinces.

SIC:
De la Milicia Líquido

I am Coronel Marces Bernado, under my command
is a large group of individuals with their own agendas
that are under one vague banner, la Milicia. We are
willing to attach ourselves to your military units, or
move against enemy positions your own generals consider
to heavily fortified. We ask several things in return. The
costs for clothing, ammunition and housing be covered by
your nation, amnesty be granted to the members of la Milicia
if it is ever required by our group, and payment in the form
of sixteen Mi-8 transport helicopters, with an addition of a
no-questions asked policy. In return we are willing to engage
the full force of la Milicia against the rebels in your nation, and
thus eradicate anyone contradicting your government views.
In return for this our men will return the no-questions asked
policy no matter what the deed, within practical barriers where-in
we will not endanger la Milicia's members via other members of
the same. Also, that our participation of this conflict be... omitted
by any historians or media satellites.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll31/DemonLordRazgriz/AC%20flags/BelkanFlag.png
Principality of Belkaland
Grand Duke Razgriz H. Demon
SecDef Maj. Gen. George Hammond
SecState Detlef Fleischer

To: The Holy Empire of Osea
Subject: International Recognition

The Principality of Belkaland hereby recognizes the Holy Empire of Osea and its rightful claims over the rebelling provinces. We wish congratulate the Emperor for retaking what is his by birth, the role as the Supreme Leader of the Holy Osean Empire.

As a gift to the Emperor, the Grand Duke has sent a pair of extremely fined-tuned .45ACP Nameless Pistols (http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll31/DemonLordRazgriz/Belkaland%20military/RoyalFirearm.png) for the Emperor's personal use.

Sincerly,
Razgriz H. Demon
George Hammond
Detlef Fleischer

Derrick sat back down at his desk to continue reading the ten thousand page report of the happenings of the world this month. Aside from the conflict in The Soundgardens he also took note of the reclaiming of the monarchy in Osea. He cracked a smile. Things like this happened each day. He was greatly tempted to order a full scale invasion to secure a new market for Shakal goods, but thought better of it. That would lead to far to much bloodshed for little gain, plus it would make the Shakal look like a paria on the international stage. Instead he decided to simply watch the situation unfold and if anything of importance happened he would be quickly informed.

The DoSA Fokker circled the capital at dusk and landed at the international airport after liasing with Osean air traffic control. The six bureaucrats and their plus one disembarked and waiteed for the whatever group had been sent to greet them. Each appeared pensive in their own way, the air in the capital seemed charged but it was hard to tell if this was with excitement or fear. The revolution was said to have been bloodless but the half-light of the Osean sunset had prevented the passengers from seeing the city in any detail from the air and they had slept through the last part of their flight only waking when the pilot had announced their descent. The girl with green hair turned to the others smiled and began to tell a joke, the lead bureaucrat raised his hand and cut her off.
"Sirrah Lyonsen at the request of the council of speakers we have brought you here, as your cousin sirrah Etarian asked we have asked the Oseans that you be given an audience with the emperor, we have tolerated your presence but I ask please do not speak to us. We will wait here quietly untill whatever group is sent to meet us appears and then we will likely part ways as we engage in serious affairs and you no doubt wile away the time frivilously taking tea with fellow royalty."
Having said all she seemed interested in saying the bureaucrat lowered her hand and moved over to a nearby window, the smile on the green haired girl's face faltered and faded and she seemed to let out a small sigh as she resolved to quietly pass the time.

Transmission Highly Encripted
To: De la Milicia Líquido
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

Your help will be appreciated and we are more than capable of meeting with your requests.


As the Sarrowquand aircraft landed, a group of Oseans prepared to meet the group as they exited their plane. The airport itself was towards the outskirts of the city, as the Oseans generally refused to demolish the ancient architechture of the city, so it had to be built outside the original, but still well maintained city walls, although it was still within the walls that were built to replace them once the city began to expand outside the original walls.

The group of Oseans included some armed guards and were next to a number of armored cars that were to take them to the palace. The group did include some ministers of importance but the most important ones were waiting at the palace. Once the plane landed the group moved forward to greet them.

[OOC: I'll edit if you find something distasteful in here.]

Coronel Bernado entered his plane that was stationed in a small island a few hundred clicks from the coast of El Salvador, with that four commercial aircraft flew towards Osea. Each one only suppose to hold around two hundred, but each was crammed full with almost a thousand men each, one of them was responsible for carrying the mortars, small arms and ammunition, and by default he was the most skilled pilot. They were headed for Chita.

On board the ship, two hours before they were set to land Bernado got on his laptop and set up a web-cam link on an encrypted channel to the Osea command echelon, "La Milicia, es aqui. We will be landing in Chita, we have several men who have the ability to pilot the helicopters, and as thus we will not need any more instruction other then the 'official' label of our unit by your government, and a direction in which to attack the rebels." He coughed a bit, a side affect from his decades of smoking. He switched off the camera but stayed on line awaiting a response from the command.

The two hours had based reasonably quickly for Bernado, but in complete contrast his men were exhilarated by the fact that they would finally get off the hell spawned by the plane's cramped compartments. There were rally cries, curses, blessing to god and the occasional weed blunt that was being smoked, along with a multitude of more cigarettes in the air. The men were routy as hell, but they maintained discipline as their unit COs ordered them to report to the aircraft (designated TAA) to get their HK-416s, RPG-7s and other weapons from a variety of back rounds.

The Oseans drew up plans on where the mercenaries should be deployed to make the best use of them. As the planes landed and the mercenaries exited their planes, additional vehicles and supplies were called to the area, and a message was sent to their commander requesting that the commander visit the nearby base to discuss what the mercenaries would be doing and where they would be deployed.

Bernado hadn't looked at his computer for a rather long interval, and so decided it was time to see whether they had replied yet. As he did he had the pleasant effect of seeing the message for his arrival to nearby base on the outskirts of Chita, and he quickly assigned two men to come with him as bodyguards, along with a Osean driver that began to ride them to the base.

The men he had assigned to himself was Sargento Miller and Cabo Dangon, both men veterans, both wearing the uniform of la Milicia, black cargo pants, green t-shirt with a jungle camo jacket along with a blue bandanna around their heads. Around their right shoulders (left for Dangon) was slung an HK-416 which was recently bought and cleaned.

Seven minutes later they had finally arrived at the installation and the men leaped out together, Bernando throwing the driver a GdP noted for a hundred, which was equivalent to a hundred thirty USD. The Coronel along with his men entered the base and there they met the man who had called him, "So what do you need?" Was the plain reply, it wasn't one a disrespect nor a respect, it was a neutral business tone.

The commander that Bernado met was John Aurelius, the commander of all the forces in the province. He was with a number of guards and other military commanders were in the room, looking at various maps and displays.John took a look at Bernado before putting a marked map in front of him and saying "What we need is an good excuse to move our troops into the rebelling provinces.

We intend to first deploy you into the Amur province. It has a rebel presence in it. We need you to ensure that the rebels support in the province is weakened. This is to be done by aiding pro-Imperial forces in the province and by destroying the seperatist groups. We do not want foreign sympathy for the rebels to increase so you will be supplied with uniforms like those of the pro-Imperial forces. The peacekeepers are still setting up, so it should be easy to avoid them. You will be given further details of what to do by the local commander of the pro-Imperial forces". He then put the map away before asking "Do you have any questions?".

As the Osean group approached the Dominion delegation the bureaucrats stood and drew together in a small line with the lead bureaucrat a pace ahead and Lyonsen a pace behind mostly hidden from view.

The leader took another step forward and raised his hand into what looked like a static wave. “Ave Osea” she said “I am Alex Nu-Moone of the Grey Bureaucracy’s bureau of foreign affairs, the department of CIS nations, in the newly formed Osean office; I serve as Grey 55,820.”
She paused briefly before continuing
“I am pleased that we can be here and hope it pleases the Osean government and her people and land that we have entered the capital. We hope that the relationship between our two peoples shall prosper and that we shall both be enriched for the experience.”
Once again she paused.
“These five behind me are attaches to the bureau of foreign affairs. They serve as my assistants and secretaries, and…”
She paused one last time before turning to her aides and nodding. The six bureaucrats parted revealing the short green haired girl Lyonsen.
“This is Harp Lyonsen daughter of the 5th Speaker of Sarrowquand Panthea Lyonsen and niece of the 26th Speaker of Sarrowquand Tria Etarian; related by blood to the former royal Sarian line of kings and the former imperial house Etarian. She comes here as a representative of the Speakers council and appointee of the New Foreign Office. She politely requests an audience with the emperor.”
After concluding this speech Alex Nu-Moone finally fell silent. Harp Lyonsen smiled past her at the Osean group.

To: Alexius Hapsburg, Holy Emperor of Osean.
From: His Imperial and Serene Majesty, Michael VI, Emperor of New Chalcedon.
Re: Governmental change.

Your Majesty,

The Empire of New Chalcedon wishes to send observers to monitor the poll conducted to determine the will of the people in the matter of the governmental composition of hte Holy Empire. Should our observers determine that a free and fair election has ratified your ascension to the throne, it will be our pleasure to recognise the Holy Empire's legitimacy at that point and invite an application for an Embassy to our capital city of Constantinopolis Secundus.

We await your response to our request with interest,

Regards,

Michael VI
Emperor of New Chalcedon,
Grand Duke of Constantinopolis Secundus,
etc., etc.

(OOC: New Chalcedon you are aware that my peackeepers and observers are there for that exact reason, a free and fair election)

(OOC: Yeah. Thought that I'd Icly want my own. Two pairs of eyes, after all.)

To: His Imperial and Serene Majesty, Michael VI, Emperor of New Chalcedon
From: The Holy Empire of Osea

I will accept your observers and hope for good relations between our nations.

Sincearly,
His Imperial Majesty, Alexius I Habsburg, Holy Osean Emperor.

"I have two thousand men, plus the sixteen helicopters that you're giving us. For this operation will the amount of air support that we have under our control increase? Also what are the Rules of Engagement, I'm more than willing to take up a dress like the rebels and start massacring men and women, so long as it is what you need. But we will wear your uniform, as we would prefer it. Would the Pro-Imperial forces know we are from out of country, or will they be ignorant of our origin? Also, how many rebels can we expect, and are there any extreme area where we can be almost a hundred percent assured that every male in the area is a member of the rebellion? Also could you attach rocket pods to our helicopter, as it is expected we will need this. Another thing, how far is the base from the urban centre?"

John smiled slightly before replying "There will be some support from Osean Special forces aircraft, but not much. I should inform you that a the rebels are mostly composed of political military units loyal to the old government, some militias and extreme seperatist groups taking advantage of the government, with a few volunteers. They have managed to develop some level of organisation between each other.

There are few areas that you can expect every male in the area to be a member of the rebellion, but you can expect any combatants to be uniformed. We have decided to tell the Pro-Imperial forces that you are freindly forces and we will create identification so you can prove it to them. We will be ready to supply you with whatever additional weaponry you might require, and will I will sort out fitting your helicopters with rocket pods once this meeting is over".

-----------------------------

The Leader of the Osean group, Theodora Komnene, replied " It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Theodora Komnene, Prefect of Constantinople. She the gestured to a man to her left, "This is Nicephorus Tzetzes, one of Osea's most capable diplomats. The others with us are our aides. We will have to ask the Emperor before your request can be answered".

She then turned to the Osean group and began quitly whispering with the rest of the group before turing back towards the Dominion delegation and continued "We have suitable transportation. If you wish, we can take you to the palce now, or if you wish to rest for a while before we start, we can provide appropriate accomodations for your group. Whatever you choose, feel free to ask any questions during our trip".

"Fuck it." Coronel Bernado yawned, "Anything that you could hand over for free would be perfect. The best that we could use is a few mortars, protected multi-purpose vehicles and even more gunships. But we'd be ready to, last thing we want is expected military strength of the rebels, i.e. numbers, tanks, etc... We have SAM-7s and some RPG-7s. After that I think our business is done here."

Harp Lyonsen stepped forwards with a smile on her face, “It seems as though my mother’s request has caused a stir. Sirrah Nu-Moone I’m sure your team would like to begin your research immediately and that I would be underfoot if I were to stay with you. Perhaps you should head over to the palace whilst I take our hosts up on their offer for refreshments and accommodation. I don’t mind starting my own work now but I’m sure the new Emperor is very busy so it might be sometime before I can gain an audience. Unless the honoured ambassador Tzetzes or prefect Komnene thinks otherwise; I’m happy to take your advice either way.”

Alex Nu-Moone nodded “Sirrah Lyonsen is right that my team would like to begin work immediately”.

John looked at one of the documents on the table before replying "You will mostly be dealing with infantry, as they will be keeping their armour to help them in case we invade. We will supply you with anti-armour weaponry, if you need it, to deal with any armour sent against you, along with any other pieces of equipment you feel you might need. The rebels will outnumber you, but we are more than capable of providing your force with better equipment than any of their units, excluding political military units of the old government". John then gave the maps and documents to an aide before saying "With that, I believe the meeting is concluded".

-----------------------------

Theodora confered with Nicephorus before replying "We have no issues with your proposal. We will have a vehicle take Sirrah Lyonsen to the accomadations we have made available. Ambassador Tzetzes and myself will travel with you to the palace".

Bump

"Alright, lets do this shit." He yelled a bit more vigouresly. His mode had changed since he had first landed in the country and the men beside him assumed it was because he was getting into another fight, something that always excited the commander. "Oh, could we get a few extra Mi-8s, just for initial transportation." He said half-heartedly as he charged out the room to get back to his unit, of course he would have to acquire a taxi, and who would pick up three guys all with rifles?

"Of course" John replied to Bernado as he left the room. He then returned to working on the situation with his staff. There was still much to be done.

OOC: El Centro, I've read your message and the answer is yes.

OOC:I'm confused, Osea are you actually sending troops into the breakaway provinces?

OOC: I'm not sending my troops in, at least not yet. But El Centro is entering one of the provinces to aid pro-imperial forces inside it.

OOC: Which would brining him into direct conflict with my peacekeepers, got it. Now I know the situation

“In that case goodbye Sirrah Lyonsen, I expect I will see you back in Sarrowquand” Alex Nu-Moone turned and headed away from Harp Lyonsen, the rest of the Grey Bureaucrats in tow,
“Oh I expect not Alex.” Muttered Harp Lyonsen.

Amur Province
The identifications had been handed out to each individual soldier and the men had been briefed on their intentions. The summary of which was that they would move into the Amur Province and attack the provincial capitol which was designated PC-A. From there they would use their granted eighty-four Mi-8s to land on the edge of the city. There they would split into two forces, one batallón would fall back approximately three kilometers and set-up a helicopter and command base, while a regimiento and a batallón would move into the city and try to meet up with PIMP forces and co-ordinate a terrorist crack down, and if those fuckers killed a few of Bernado's men before they met up with PIMP forces then he was liable to let them go into a killing spree, though his XO might be able to calm him down.

Grupo Á moved in with three fourths of the helicopter forced and landed just outside the city, Grupo B landed several hundred meters behind Á and began falling back to look for a good place to set up a base camp. Meanwhile Á began moving into the city slowly, they moved up in Pelotóns that were fifteen meters apart, the troops did not enter any homes or try to be to rough with the city dwellers, however if there was the occasional straggler outside they would be roughed up a bit and asked if they knew where the PIMP forces were stationed.

Back with Grupo B they had found a small grouping of trees that was oddly two kilometers away from the edge of the city but its area was around a kilometer. The plan was to cut down and uproot every tree except a small ring of two on the border. They would use the wood to set up a barracks and then they would begin to build an underground tunnel that would support the commanders, but before either of these a landing pad would be set-up.

The pro-imperial forces were aware of the arrival of Bernados forces and began preparing to attack the rebel forces in an effort to meet up with Bernados men. Unfortunatly for Bernado and his men, the rebels also knew of their arrival and were ready to greet them, with force. They had known of the possibilty of an attack, and had fortified the city perimiter with MG-3 machine guns, morters and some light guns. The rebels had also set up positions in the city, with more MG-3s and morters. The rebel force was well dug in and would fight ferousiously for control of the city. This, Grupo Á, were about to find out, as the rebels began shelling them with their morters and light guns.

-----------------------------

Theodora, Nicephorus and Alex Nu-Moone were taken the vehicle that would take them to the palace. It was capable of holding the three of them and and an aide for both the Oseans and the Sarrowquand delegate, but would be sufficiently comfortable for the delegates to travel in. The rest of both group's aides were transported in the place in another vehicle.

The route they would take would have them go through the old walls and would allow them to see much of the city's grand architechture, such as its grand libaries, its places of worship such as the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God, palaces of nobility and other grand buildings, most of them built in a classical style. At the end of the journey, they would arrive at the Great Palace of New Constantinople, where the Oseans hoped that they could sort out the situation in their favor.

B-rrrr-aaatttt, sixteen men went down as the initial barrage of artillery hit the men unexpectedly. The rounds from the light mortars dented the ground very little, much to Bernado's anger, "Ponte en los cráteres!" He screamed as a salvo of machine gun fire further ripped down the number of men capable of fighting by around sixty-two. The mortar shells began to fall, each salvo taking anywhere from two to nine men, but creating more craters to be used as cover. However the craters created by the light mortars were just small indentations, and while lying prone did keep most of your body covered your head was a constant target. The machine gun rounds took a further twenty men down, but at this time most of the men were replying. What they answered back with was accurate 5.56x45mm rounds that were specified for the enemy machine gunners.

Bernado was in a ditch next to the radioman, a significant stroke of luck for him as he pulled him over and yelled, "Llame a la maldita helicópteros!" the radioman complied, his call for help was answered. The Mi-8s that were equipped with rocket pods, the sixteen owned by la Milicia had well over half their tanks full and made complete one eighty turns, they would arrive in about three minutes the radioman report. Bernado was about to order the man to call for Grupo B for support, but the protrusion of the radio from his back lead to its destruction as a bullet pierced it. There were other radios scattered threw out the group but going to fetch them would put more troops in danger, and that was something he couldn't have more of in this gruesome slugging match.

The rebels did not have much experiance with air attacks and it was weakening their morale. They did respond to the aircraft, that being anti-aircraft machine guns, their MG-3s and modified RPG-7s with a few Igla anti-aircraft missile launchers. The commanders of the rebel artillery decided to only use their light mortars on the troops closest to their defences, the idea being that only the light morters were not making craters in the ground and that they needed to make sure the enemy couldn't use the the craters to get close enought to take out their machine guns, while the rest of the artillery continued to fire on the rest of the troops to pin them down.

Most of the helicopters got off their six S-5 rockets, however several were hit by the Igla Anti-Air Systems, two had lost on of their wings and began to make a spiraling crash land, which left them stranded in the middle of the battlefield, but also created a block of metal that blocked enemy fire. Another helicopter was hit in the tail and made a more controlled landing, which left them about six meters from the nearest la Milicia member, and left one surviving pilot. The remainder of the helicopters fired off short bursts of PKP machine guns and began to fly away, low to the ground.

Bernado and his men were an estimated fifty meters from the enemy machine guns, which put both side well within range of each other's guns. The men had lost about a hundred twenty-one men and continued to lose more. However Bernado maintained his men's discipline and did not order the men to fall back, instead to maintain their precise aim against the entrenched enemy.

Meanwhile Grupo B heard the noises of gun fire, and noticed that sixteen went into the zone and only thirteen came back, and relatively quickly. The group's commander, Teniente coronel Renald ordered his men to form up. They began to move out towards the battle zone, they were moving in loose formation, it would take them approximately ten minutes to reach the battle.

The rebels continued to fight the enemy. But the battle was taking a toll on them too, and they decided to slowly pull back to entrenched postions behind them once they had held their positions for as long as they thought possible. They would be able to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, with the excellent rate of fire their MG-3 machine guns and their artillery would fire on their positions immediadly once they had been lost to the enemy. The intent of the rebels was to do a defence in depth, that is to defeat the enemy by making them break through multiple defensive lines, with the rebel troops moving from a line once it was broken to the line behind it, reinforcing the next lines strength and making sure the enemy would suffer the most casualties possible.

Bernado slowly rolled out of his crater, they were still under fire, but not as heavily as before. The artillery was hurting them too, around a hundred seventy-two men were hit, about eight-six were wounded. As Bernado finally made his slow way to another radioman he called in to the helicopters once again, "Necesitamos unos pocos helicópteros para volver, esta vez con el humo despedido en el perímetro de la ciudad." He stated much more calmly before than during the more intense part of the battle. The radioman reported that they need to refuel and it would take them about ten minutes to come back. "Bien. Dile a todos a mantener el fuego contra el enemigo, y comienza a recibir a los heridos.", then, "Llame al Grupo B y decirles que se mantenga su posición y no tratar de venir a nuestro rescate." The radioman did so. His men continued to keep their fire constant against the falling back enemy, and the troops slowly retrieved the wounded men.

Meanwhile Grupo B received the message and turned back towards their position. Renald decided that once they got back he would put half his men to work building a trench system. The thoughts in his mind were rapid, he never expected the rebels to hit them so quick and have the perimeter lined so hard. He also, with out the consent of Bernado, made a call to the PIMP Forces, his English had a bit of a Spaniard's accent, "We've been pushed back by the rebel forces around the city. Where are your forces so we make link up with thems?"

The pro-imperial forces had launched their own attack on the city. But, despite having access to more artillery and their force being larger than the rebels, they were making no progress and the rebels had forced them into a stalemate. Their commander, Basil Phokas looked grimly at what information he had available about the rebels defences and the casualties his men were receiving.

Then an aide came up to him and gave him a radio, saying that the commander of the forces sent to aid him was on the radio. He thanked the aide and then listened to Renald's message. He then responded "We are based about a few hundred metres to the west of the city and are engaged with the rebels defences".

The helicopters had finally arrived, as Bernado perceived they halted slowly about a few hundred meters from the enemy city's perimeter, and fired off their unguided rockets that, this time, housed smoke-dispatching cases, which quickly obscured the view of the enemy combatants. This effect was expected to last anywhere from ten to fifteen minute, and he was going to make the best of it. "Mover hacia arriba! Estancia bajo!" He yelled to his men, as they all slowly got up from their ditches, the enemy artillery continued to be landing on them. The wounded were left in the ditches, Bernado planned to call for the helicopters to come and pick them up. In all honesty Bernado was only going to call in Grupo B if the perimeter got cleared, he wasn't going to spend anymore lives.

The helicopters had a much more successful time with the anti-air defenses, however an enemy's replying Igla caught one of the helicopters right in its cockpit, taking it down immediately and killing all the crew, the two gunners flung out widely as they were not strapped in tight enough. An idiotic oversight since they were part of the first wave and should have known the possibility of survival was largely reduced. Meanwhile on the ground the troops all moved at an either crouched stance or prone, those moving on their bellies were a good five feet behind the crouchers. A company decided to move from crashed helicopter, and they because of this they accomplished two things. Moved much faster than the other men around them, and they found the down pilot which joined their ranks.

Grupo B continued to work on building up the facility, this time the downed helicopter was close enough to them that Renald ordered a squad to retrieve any survivors they could, as they would find out the mission was a waste. Again his accent played as he talked to the PIMP commander. "One second," he changed frequency to Bernado's, "Las PIMP fuerzas se están moviendo en en el lado oeste, que están experimentando fuertes resistencias. Tienen una base fuera de la ciudad también, ¿qué debemos hacer?" It would take time for a radioman to report to Bernado so he could reply.