NationStates Jolt Archive

Revolution Square
Proletarskiysk
1200 Hours

The day was mild, a slight breeze giving life to the innumerable Red Banners adorning the government buildings surrounding the square and clutched by spectators who had lined the square, some having come as early as two days prior to get a good spot for the day's festivities. Today, as the atmosphere clearly showed, was no ordinary day. Quite contrarily, today was the single most important holiday in the Union of Nevradian Republics: Revolution Day. Revolution Day marked the hanging of the old Czar, overthrowing the oppressive capitalist monarchy and bringing about a new order, one run by the proletariat. It had been marked yearly by a military parade, a patriotic speech from the General Secretary and a day of festivities, not to mention a day off for all workers. This year, however, marked the 70th anniversary of the Revolution, a fact which was sure to mean a parade greater and more magnificent than any before it.

At precisely noon on April 14th, 2009, the Red Banner was run up the flagpole on the Palace of the Revolution as the national anthem played, signaling the official beginning of the day's festivities. After a short speech by the Grand Marshal of the Nevradian Union, a short, burly man named Vladimir Rostov, the General Secretary himself stepped out onto the balcony of his palace which overlooked the square, preparing to deliver his speech, which was always anticipated by those in the know; it was said that you could predict the future by paying close enough attention to what the General Secretary said.

"Comrades, Brothers in the Revolution, today marks a glorious day in our great nation's history!," he began, pausing for cheers before holding his hand up for silence. "Today, we celebrate seventy years of freedom from czarist oppression, seventy years of freedom from capitalist exploitation, and most importantly seventy years of socialism! This past year has been a great one for the Nevradian Union and her people. Production of consumer goods has increased tenfold over the year before, giving our people a standard of living as cannot be found anywhere else on this planet. Our Commissariat for War has been hard at work developing new technologies to keep our great nation safe and strong, many of which you shall soon see paraded before you. Our nation continues to grow and prosper, with increases in every benchmark of prosperity possible. Through the sacrifices of the people, our citizens today live longer, happier lives than any under the czars, and it is today that we honor those sacrifices. Those who gave their lives in service of socialism's deathless ideal are commemorated today, as are those who fought and lived to see the coming of the utopia promised them by Comrade Marx and our Great Leader, Comrade Stepanov seventy years ago. Upon this day every year, we renew the solumn vow made by Comrade Stepanov as he entered this capital: never again shall our people live under the oppressive yoke of monarchism, and never again shall our people be exploited by the unrestricted greed of capitalism! This country may, and indeed must, change with the times, but we shall never forget the sacrifices of our comrades, and we shall never abandon the ideal they died for."

The General Secretary concluded his speech to thunderous applause, which he stood for for a few minutes before retreating into the palace. Normally, he would stay for the parade, but today was different: for today, 54 year old General Secretary Anton Petrov was going to do no less than open the nation to the world outside. Ever since the Revolution, the Union of Nevradian Republics had kept to itself, hateful of capitalism and wary even of other socialists, for fear they might be revisionists or worse, counterrevolutionaries who allowed the scourge of capitalism to exist within their nation even while proclaiming allegiance to Marxism. Now, however, times and attitudes had changed within the UNR and with the appointment of Petrov two years ago, it was inevitable that Nevrad would again be open to the world. Still, some were opposed to this idea, including the Premier, who happened to be at the Palace for the festivities this particular afternoon and whom Petrov had so happened to run into.

"Oh, good afternoon Comrade Secretary," the man said warmly, extending his hand as he stopped to chat. "Not staying to see the festivities?"

"No, unfortunately duty calls, even on Revolution Day. I've got something rather big I've been planning and its nearly finished. I'm afraid it just cannot wait another day," Petrov replied, hoping to cut the conversation short and avoid another lengthy discussion of his recent decision.

"I know what you've been planning Anton Illych, and you know damned well that the Politburo will never agree to it. Imagine what Comrade Stepanov would think, his Republic being opened to the capitalists and imperialist pigs! It's a shame, a shame I tell you. Bury this idea Anton and keep up what we've been doing, and you'll go down as the greatest General Secretary since Comrade Stepanov himself."

"The Politburo has already agreed to it," Petrov replied with a tinge of annoyance in his voice as he saw Vasily deflate somewhat. "We cannot continue to live within ourselves forever, Vasily Ivanovich, and the Politburo knows it. Even with our vast manufacturing there are some things we need, things we can't produce here. Opening relations with another nation, another socialist nation, will help our nation in the long run."

"Anton, I'm shocked," Vasily replied. "When the Politburo appointed you you swore an oath to the Revolution, and now here you are speaking of trade like some common capitalist! Is that what the leader of our Party has become? A capitalist in Marxist clothing?"

"I could have you arrested for that right here and now Vasily, but I'm going to forget I heard that," Anton replied dangerously. "The Politburo wants this. The People want this. I want this. Are you going to stand in the way of progress, or are you going to realize what I've been screaming at you for the past ten minutes?"

"Fine. I still think this is a bad idea but you're the one in charge. If you'll excuse me, I have a parade to watch. Happy Revolution Day," Vasily replied, sulking off.

A few minutes later, Anton was sitting in his lush office signing the communique, and putting the finishing touches on another document: an arrest warrant for one Vasily Ivanovich Lavochkin. Pausing for a moment as if to consider something, he ran the latter document through the shredder beside his desk, obliterating the arrest warrant and quite possibly sparing his younger comrade's life. He had made a mistake, and Anton was confident he would not do so again.

Palace of the Revolution
Revolution Square
Proletarskisk, Proletarskisk Oblast
Nevradian Federal Socialist Republic


Union of Nevradian Republics
To: <open communique>
From: Anton Petrov, General Secretary of the Nevradian Communist Party

Greetings, nations of the world. My name is Anton Petrov, head of government for the Union of Nevradian Republics. For seven decades, my nation has lived in pursuit of the utopia of Karl Marx, seeking to refine socialism into pure communism, a state without a state. In pursuit of this ideal my predecessors have kept our glorious union sealed off from the world around it, but today this ends. To achieve the true Marxist ideal, we must eliminate scarcity of goods, and in order to eliminate scarcity of goods, we must trade that which we have in surplus to obtain that which the people desire. It is for this reason that I wish to establish relations with the nations which make up this world, preferably socialist nations such as Nevrad itself. It is the hope of this government that the expansion of trade and friendly relations with fellow nations, both socialist and capitalist, will serve to increase the prosperity of the Nevradian people and that of partner nations, and further advance the causes of Marxism within our great nation. In conclusion, I eagerly await the replies of my fellow world leaders.

Anton Illych Petrov
Anton Illych Petrov
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Nevradian Union

Vasily Ivanovich Lavochkin
Vasily Ivanovich Lavochkin
Premier of the Union of Nevradian Republics

To: Anton Petrov, General Secretary of the Nevradian Communist Party
From: The Republic of Latransylvania

We are a former communist state that had removed it's corrupted, Stalinist government. We are willing to trade with your nation, as the former government left our poorest villages without the goods they needed and instead cared only for it's members.

Signed,
Felix Salazar
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Republic of Latransylvania

Government Communique From The M.R.C Of Hydrosteria

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd165/ProffessorEGADD/NS/HydrosteriaCommunique.png

To: Anton Petrov, General Secretary of the Nevradian Communist Party
From: Chancellor Winston Everd Of The Metropolitan-Regional Council Of Hydrosteria

Dear sir, I wish to warmly welcome your nation onto the internaional stage, and despite our drastic idealogical differences it is hoped by my government that we can have a bountiful relationship in international affairs.

Hyrdosteria is a pure Laissez-Faire capitalist state, the very antithesis of your socialist workings and communist aspirations. However, our two nations share a common factor, each of our governments strive to accomplish the utopian ideals our respective populations believe in. Your people for example place their confidence in the shared collective of Karl Marx's utopian visions, our strive for the aspirations of Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy.

Although our ideaologies may be differ, and our conception of utopia is drastically diverged, it is hoped by my administration that your government will recognise that unlike most governments who utilise capitalism to set up an elite amongst themselves our populace has instead chosen to follow this idealism tempered by common sense out of a collective will; why, merely three months ago our nations people brought an end to a corrupt government trough a gruelling miniture revolution lasting a great many months; as you can see, the peoples will is evident although it manifests itself differently.

As such, we open trade to your nation, you will find that our goods and services are exceptionally cheap due to our Laissez Faire capitalism and that we will certianly be able to supply you with virtually any products, services or materials you seek or desire.

To: Union of Nevradian Republics
From: The Empire of the Elven People

Greeting

Our nation is interested in trade and establishment of Diplomatic Dialog. We like to offer the following agreement to your nation

1. Exchange of Ambassadors and establishment of embassies with in each other territories
2. open trade between our nations
3. Exchange of military advisors, technologies, and skills (we can offer many unique skill you may not possess IE Magic.)

Feel Free to offer any concerns and suggestions

Sincerely
Lord Yuelnor Sha'rua
Vice Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Palace of the Revolution
Revolution Square
Proletarskisk, Proletarskisk Oblast
Nevradian Federal Socialist Republic


Union of Nevradian Republics
To: Whom it May Concern, Republic of Latransylvania
Whom it May Concern, Empire of Elven People
Chancellor Winston Everd, Metropolitan-Regional Council of Hydrosteria
From: Anton Petrov, General Secretary of the Nevradian Communist Party

I am highly pleased at the honor of your timely responses, and do wholeheartedly wish to enter into a trade agreement with your respective nations. Though you may be capitalist, as in the case of Hydrosteria, it is my belief that we as world leaders are united by a common desire to serve the interests of our people, irregardless of what ideologies we or they might espouse. If it is desirable to my fellow world leaders, I shall also dispatch an ambassador to your nations so as to facilitate greater communication between our nations, and invite all to do the same here in Nevrad.

Yours in Friendship and Solidarity,

Anton Illych Petrov
Anton Illych Petrov
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Nevradian Union

Vasily Ivanovich Lavochkin
Vasily Ivanovich Lavochkin
Premier of the Union of Nevradian Republics

OOC: Bit of a rushed post, pardon the brevity. Elven Forces, I'm really not interested in magic because I'm doing a MT nation.

Government Communique From The M.R.C Of Hydrosteria

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd165/ProffessorEGADD/NS/HydrosteriaCommunique.png

To: Anton Petrov, General Secretary of the Nevradian Communist Party
From: Chancellor Winston Everd Of The Metropolitan-Regional Council Of Hydrosteria

Dear sir, we are happy that you are willing to enter into trade with our nation, and we are pleased to accomodate one of your delegates in our nation to aid in communication and relations between us; in return we are also happy to dispatch a delegate to your realm also.

OOC: Since no one has posted the obligatory anti-commie saber rattling, here it goes. Kudos on the very well written OP by the way. Also, if your nation is located inland, just let me know and I'll edit my post accordingly.

Task Force 43
200 nautical miles from Nevrad

Tolvanic foreign policy had always been a strange thing. The Commonwealth held a plethorea of overseas territories and outright colonies, and yet it was staunchly non-interventionist in most dealings. The fact was most Tolvans had little interest in the interal affairs and international squabbles of other nations. However, the Commonwealth was also vehemently anti-communist. While the Commonwealth didn't go around invading communist states with the intention of changing their reigimes, it was in the habit of deploying military forces near communist nations to conduct "exercises". In keeping with Tolvanic tradition, no communique would be sent to Nevrad as the Commonwealth was not in the habit of communicating with communists states. Also, as Nevrad had no existing trrade, diplomatic, or travel ties with Tolvan there was no need for a the bans on such activities typically levied on communist states.

For now the twenty-six ships of TF-43 would patrol the waters near Nevrad and conduct training exercises.

Tu-95KM "Bear", Callsign Krasny 2
125 nautical miles from Tolvanic fleet
0900 Hours

"Comrade Major, fleet coming on radar now. Appears to be about twenty-five vessels, including a carrier. Shall we fire on them?" Twenty-two year old Junior Lieutenant Yuri Kulikov was anxious, and rightly so. A recent graduate of flight school, today was to be Yuri's first trip up in the bomber whose RADAR systems he had spent three months mastering. An easy hop, they told him, just scoping out some fishing boats and getting a feel for the plane's capabilities. As luck would have it however, imperialists from a nation neither Yuri nor the other six members of the crew had ever heard of was attempting to...well, what they were attempting exactly was unknown to the crew, but Command had told them to keep an eye on the Tolvanic fleet and that was what they were going to do.

"Nyet Yuri, we're not going to fire on them, not yet at least," came the voice of the pilot, Maj. Andrei Korolov, through the headset. "We'll leave that one to our faster friends back home," he chuckled, referring to the numerous Tu-22M Backfire bombers undoubtedly on standby back at Stepanovsk Naval Aviation, the bomber's home base. Kicking the aircraft around suddenly so that it was oriented parallel to the fleet, Maj. Korolov flipped his headset to the general frequency and began speaking, apparently addressing the commander of the fleet below him.

"Unidentified fleet, this is Nevradian Peoples' Air Force bomber Krasny 2. You are in violation of the Nevradian Union's Economic Exclusion Zone, I repeat, you are in violation of the Nevradian Union's Economic Exclusion Zone. You are ordered to alter course and egress the area at once. Failure to comply with these orders, or any attempt to interfere with the mission of this aircraft will result in hostile action being taken, over." That transmission finished, Korolov banked his plane away from the unidentified fleet, intending to hold position until he got a reply.

"Stepanovsk tower, this is Krasny 2. Fleet intercepted and ordered to egress, awaiting response. FYI we have fuel for twenty minutes loitering. Advise orders, over," Korolov said smoothly, hoping the tower would let him get back to base in good order.

"Roger Krasny 2, hold position until further orders," came the response from the tower. "Be advised we have several units inbound, just in case, over."

"Damn, so much for a quiet morning," Korolov swore to himself before radioing an affirmative to the tower. Today had been an out of the ordinary day for the Nevradian Union; whether or not it became a catastrophic one lay in the hands of the twenty-six vessels steaming below.

Task Force 43
200 nautical miles from Nevrad

The Staff Officer of the Watch, Lieutenant Ramone Garza, quickly summoned the TF Commander, Rear Admiral Sir Dexter Waters, to the Flag Bridge as soon as the Nevradian plane had broadcast its warning.

"Sitrep." Waters barker as he strode onto the Flag Bridge.

Garza stepped over to Waters' chair and gave his report. "Sir, we've been challenged by a Nevradian aircraft calling itself 'Krasny 2'. The TF AAW Coordinator designates it as Oscar Four-Nine. AWACs holds contact at 125 knots out on parallel course. Tentative ID is a Tu-95 or equivalent. They've 'ordered' us to depart their EEZ or risk force."

Waters' eyebrow arched at the least sentence of Garza's report. "They've ordered us have they? What unhospitable blokes these commies are Mr. Garza." Waters stood and removed the mic from its stand and addressed the Nevradian bomber. "Krasny 2, HMS King Jacob - This is Rear Admiral Sir Dexter Waters, CO of the Tolvanic Royal Navy Task Force 43, we are conducting routine exercises in international waters. The Commonwealth of Tolvan does not recognize the territorial sovereignty of a nation's EEZ, only its exclusive right to exploit the resources found therein. As we are not exploiting said resources we are bound by your order and such are not compelled to comply. Also, be advised that we are conducting live fire exercises at this time and as such have enacted a fifty nautical mile safety zone around our task force. Violation of this zone will dealt with accordingly, including the use of force if so waranted. Over."

Once the mic was disengaged, Waters faced Garza again. "Pass the word that all ships are to move to Condition 2 and to post Ready AAW details. Also have Captains Jasper and Cooke to increase their CAPs, I don't want any commie bombers getting anywhere near my ships."

Tu-95KM Bear "Krasny 2"
125 nautical miles from TF-43
0920 Hours

"So what the fuck do we do now Comrade?," came the voice of Junior Lieutenant Kulikov through the headset, addressing Maj. Korolov. Korolov said nothing in reply, apparently not knowing quite what to make of the situation. On one hand, he had to admit, the Tolvanic fleet was doing nothing wrong strictly speaking; on the other, STAVKA was unlikely to permit some roving imperialists to gunboat and strongarm the Union, which was in a manner of speaking exactly what the Tolvanic Task Force 43 was doing at the moment. Torn, Korolov flipped the radio to Stepanovsk Naval Aviation's frequency and began reporting the updated situation.

"Tower, Krasny 2. Bogey fleet identifies as Tolvanic, states they are conducting live-fire exercises and not bound by our EEZ on grounds of no exploitation of resources. FYI we have received no hostile actions as yet but have been informed of a fifty nautical mile killzone in place. Advise course of action, over."

A few minutes passed, as it seemed the tower was at a loss for what, exactly, was to be done. After what seemed an eternity, the headsets of Krasny 2's seven-man crew cracked to life.

"Krasny 2, what is your fuel status, over," came the tower's response.

"Tower be advised we are on critical fuel, over," Korolov responded almost immediately, knowing that his mission had to be nearly complete. A few minutes later, the magic words crackled through the headset.

"Roger Krasny 2, return to base. Good work Comrade."

Korolov let out a whoop of delight and banked the Bear around, gunning the throttle to get home as quickly as possible. For now, his mission was over.

Sovremenny Class Destroyer Voronezh
75 nautical miles from Tolvanic Fleet
30 Minutes Later

The Bear that had been sniffing out the Tolvanic Task Force may have left, but these foreign intruders were by no means out of the woods yet. Sent in the stead of the Tu-95 was the Nevradian Red Banner Fleet's destroyer Voronezh, a Sovremenny class vessel and one of the fleet's newest. Bristling with Moskit AShMs, 533mm torpedoes and 130mm guns, the Voronezh was more than capable of dealing a severe blow to any vessel that dared cross her, Tolvanics included. For now, however, her mission was not to destroy but to survey; she would hold position 75nm from TF 43 and keep an eye on their exercises, assisted by the aircraft of Kuznetsov Class carrier Admiral Yuschenko, which was steaming toward the area to cover Voronezh should things get ugly. With these two vessels on station, plus another fifteen in the area and a wing of Backfires and Badgers on standby, it was hoped that the Tolvanic fleet would get the message and leave.

OOC: Pardon the crappy ending.

Task Force 43
200 nautical miles from Nevrad

"Our friend appears to be leaving Sir. However, AWACS reports several surface contacts in our general area, including one destroyer size vessel that appears to be moving to shadow us."

Waters nodded in recognition of Garza's report and looked back down at his map board. "Pass the word to split the TF. Rear Admiral Fletcher will assume command of TF 43.2. Have hime move his force twenty nautical miles to the west. Let's see how these wankers deal with two seperate battle groups."

OOC: Here's my ORBAT:
2x Monarch class CVNs (90 aircraft)
3x Resolute class cruiser
6x County class destroyer
3x Province class destroyer
5x City class firgate
2x Town class frigate
2x Shark class attack submarines
2x Fort class fast support ships
1x Kestrel class fleet tender

I apologize for the brevity of this post, I'l try to post again later tonight.

Stepanovsk Naval Aviation
Outside Stepanovsk
1015 Hours

It was early, but the sun shone brightly over the massive complex that was Stepanovsk Naval Aviation, gleaming off of the metallic hangars and necessitating the use of decidedly 1980s-vintage aviator sunglasses for anyone who wished to venture outdoors. Today, however, the uninformed observer might well think it was a quiet day, the sole activity this morning having been the takeoff of a Bear bomber, which was now landing and taxiing to its hangar. This assumption, however, could not be further from the truth.

Deep within the complex, over 500 flight crew members, nearly all the complex's flight staff, were crowded into an auditorium-like briefing room where an officer from the intelligence division of the complex was speaking, gesturing occasionally at the projections and pictures behind him.

"Comrades, look here. The enemy fleet is in the process of splitting itself into two battlegroups, consisting of a carrier and some surface combatants in addition to three support vessels. We also believe there are likely submarines, but those are not your concern for now. For now, we're going to teach that surface fleet a lesson about flaunting our exclusion zone," the officer began, flipping to the next slide, which showed a diagram of the coming operation.

"Chyerniy wing, your mission is to bracket the enemy fleet. Chyerniy one through five will bracket group one, and Chyerniy six through ten will bracket group two. From there, elements of Zhyeltiy wing will approach from the north and lay down a bracket of chaff. When that happens, Chyerniy one through three and six through eight will engage radar, making the enemy think the attack is coming from the north. As soon as that happens, the raketonosci of Siniy, Zyelyeniy, and Byeliy wings will streak in under radar and launch missiles. Timing is everything on this mission Comrades, I cannot stress that enough. All units must work as one to achieve the objective. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Comrade Major!," came the response in unison. After a quick series of salutes, the pilots departed for their aircraft, minds focused on driving the imperialist from their waters.

Tu-22M "Siniy 7"
500nm from TF 43.1
1030 Hours

Major Aleksandr Pavlov was tense, as he always was during missions. To him, this mission was no different from any other he had run, except that this time his targets were live and not some old ships the Red Banner Fleet no longer needed. His Tu-22M Backfire naval strike bomber was flying low to avoid radar from the enemy fleet, and carried three KSR-5 antishipping missiles under her wings and in her bomb bay as was the rest of her sixteen ship wing. Siniy wing, together with half of Zyelyeniy wing, had been assigned TF 43.1 as their target, with the other half of Zyelyeniy joining with Byeliy wing to attack TF 43.2. All told, each half of the task force was going to be on the receiving end of 72 missiles impacting nearly simultaneously as soon as the order was given.

At 1035, the headsets of the aircraft partaking in the operation crackled to life with news of the first piece of the operation underway. "This is Chyerniy 1, all Chyerniy elements are in position. Zhyeltiy wing, commence operations, over," came the announcement from Col. Dmitri Nikitin, Chyerniy wing leader and commander of forces for the operation. The fleets below were now unknowingly enclosed in a pentagon of Tu-95RT Bear ELINT aircraft, which were currently running with no active radar systems engaged. That, however, would soon change.

Five minutes later, the rough voice of Capt. Stepan Lukanov, Zhyeltiy wing commander, came through the headset. "Zhyeltiy 1, chaff in place. All wings commence attack!" At that moment, the three Bears on the north side of the pentagons bracketing each element engaged their active radar, scoping out the enemy fleet. For all intents and purposes, it appeared the Nevradians were going to stage an attack from the north.

That, however, was not the case, as Maj. Pavlov and the rest of the Tu-22Ms knew and the Tolvanic fleets were about to find out. "Siniy wing commencing attack!," came the Raid Commander's voice over the headset, echoed by the commanders of Zhyelyniy and Byelniy wings as they dropped their missiles in unison. The lethal KSR-5s would climb to 65,000 feet before dropping on the enemy vessels at around Mach 4, hopefully obliterating them. After the last missile dropped, the aircraft turned and began the flight home, singing the national anthem over the headset and generally carrying the air of one who is certain of total victory. Their mission had been completed, but just how successful it would be remained to be seen.

Sovremenny Class Destroyer Voronezh
75 nautical miles from Tolvanic Fleet
20 Minutes Before Launch

"Yes Admiral. Yes, of course. Thank you Admiral Tarasov." Capt. Andrei Baranov hung up the phone in the bridge of his destroyer and walked over to the controls of the vessel, raising his hand as if to make an announcement. With all eyes upon him, he spoke in his usual businesslike tone, commanding the attention of all in the bridge.

"That was Admiral Tarasov, from the Yuschenko. He says the bombers from Stepanovsk have fired on the enemy fleet. Quartermaster, take us out to 100 nautical miles from the enemy and raise all hands to condition two. Our orders are to assist the rest of the fleet in destroying whatever survives their attack. Enjoy the fireworks, Comrades." Baranov concluded his impromptu speech to thunderous applause from the bridge, repeated tenfold when the speech was recited over the intercom to the crew. Baranov, who knew the AVMF's tactics tended to favor overkill, doubted there would be much left, but would have no reservations picking off whatever they left him.

OOC: Query me for ORBAT and suchlike, I don't particularly like to clutter threads with them.

[OOC: Smash the Yankee Imperialists! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3yGmmEtnPg)]

OOC: Well, that's somewhat of an overreaction.

A couple points:
1. The Tu-22M is a rather large and unstealthy plane and flying low will not allow it to evade AWACS (which I have deployed at all times).

2. The KSR-5s estimated range is only 300 nm, there's no way your bombers could launch at 500 nm out.

I'll hold off on an IC response until you've responded to my concerns.

OOC: Perhaps, but I'm a paranoid formerly closed Communist society. Overreactions come with the territory. Also, a few counterpoints:

1. The Tu-22M is a large beast but I doubt they'll register flying at around 500 feet. Failing that, the purpose of the Bears and the chaff field was to distract your radar people from the Backfires, which I would think would work to some degree.

2. I'm aware, the time delay was supposed to account for the Backfires closing to range.

ORBAT in the works, expect to see a TG soonish.

OOC:

1. AWACS would likely them detect all the way down near sea level and you can't fly such a massive plane that low. While the chaff would be distracted, it's hard to sneak two full wings of Backfires past anyone. The Soviets never planned on sneaking them past anyone, their doctrine, a I understand it, was to got in hard and fast behind a wall of jammer birds and try to spam the CBG at maximum range with their huge ass AShMs.

2. Thank you for the clarification.

Also, how far inland is your capital?

OOC: Capital is about 250km inland sitting on the bank of a major river a la Moscow. Fair enough w/ the Backfires.

Task Force 43
200 nautical miles from Nevrad

Waters had to give the Nevradians points for originality. The typical method for such an attack was for the Backfires to make high speed attack runs behind a line of EW variant Bears and attempt to saturate the battle group's defences with long range AShMs. In this case the Nevradians had opted for misdirection, utilizing jammers and chaff to draw the fleet's attention to the north and then attempting to sneak two wings of bombers in from the rear. The plan would have likely worked to perfection had the TF not had its E-2F "Hawkeye" AWACS deployed. A total of four of the big AWACS birds were up and despite being more than a little distracted with the decoy attack to the north, no halfway competent radar operator could miss two wings of Backfire, even if they flew low.

The Backfires high speed, even at low level, would allow them to reach launch range before the CAP could be redeployed to intercept. However, the AWACS had detected the bombers early enough to allow the TF time to prepare its defences. The Ready CAP's six F-22Ns were launched to join the four F-22Ns and six F-194A "Pandora" fighters already deployed. Since there was no chance of the CAP intercepting the bombers before launch, they were ordered to clear the TF's SAM firing solutions. Given the Backfire's tremendous speed, it was unlikely the fighters would be able to run them down after launch anyway so the CAP would be kept on station to deal with any other tricks the Nevradians might pull.

As the missiles closed the fleet's defences were brought online. The Royal Navy had trained for decades to counter Soviet style bomber attacks on its carriers and the crews were well aware of what they had to do. Throughout the fleet the ship's powerful onboard jammers were powered up and put on stand-by, in addition numerous SROBC (Super Rapid Offboard Blooming Chaff) launchers were brought online. Finally, the fleet's active defences came up as well. The first salvo of SM-6s, one hundred were fired at each group of missiles, were launched to engage the inbound missiles before they entered their terminal phase. Even though the SM-6 had some of the most advanced sensors in the world and traveled at near Mach 4, the Bureau of Weapons estimated a kill rate of between 43% and 52% against the AS-6 in preterminal flight.

Meanwhile, even more SM-6s, as well as Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) and Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) were brought online to form the next lines of defences. Finally, the fleet's Mark 37 "Linebacker" 35mm CIWS mounts spun up to form a last ditch defence against "leakers" that might get through.

Not all activity in the fleet was defensive in nature though. Deep in the bowels of several ships Cruise Missile Targeting Parties (CMTP) were hard at work plotting attack routes targets within Nevrad designated as First Tier Strike Targets. The tagets had been pre-selected by the Combiend Staff before the TF had even arrived on station and TF 43s ROE called for a immediate cruise missiles retalitory strike in the event of Nevradian attack. As most of the TF's AGM-304 "Lance" cruise missiles were loaded aboard the Resolute class cruisers and Province class destroyers, which were not taking part in launching the first SAM salvo, the launch of the cruise missiles began immediately. As the AGM-304 could travel at Mach 1.15 at sea level, the 144 cruise missiles would clear the TF's airspace well before it was time to launch the next salvo of SAMs. The cruise missile strikes were concentated in the area near the Nevradian capital. Most of the missiles would strike military bases with priority given to air and naval bases (mostly targeted with AGM-304Bs, which carreid 100 submunitions), as well as air defence sites and command and control hubs (mostly targeted by AGM-304As, which carried a 350 kilogram warhead). However, several missiles were aimed at army bases and a few would strike government buildings, including nine missiles aimed at what the National Directorate of Intelligence (NDI) had identified as the building that housed the office of one Anton Illych Petrov, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Nevradian Union.

Air Defense Command 2
Near Konstantingrad
1050 Hours

Air Defense Command 2 was a sprawling complex, nearly as large in area as the city of Konstantingrad itself. One of five such commands, it was responsible for maintaining the defensive aircraft and missiles of a large sector of the country, which included the capital city of Proletarskiysk, and was buried deep within the Riphean Mountains, nearly impervious to all save a direct nuclear attack. Within the complex itself lay innumerable control centers and computers, used to coordinate the transmission of orders to missile stations which would come online to destroy incoming ICBMs or in this case, cruise missiles. At these countless desks, technicians and soldiers worked at lightning pace to get orders to fire missiles off to their various bases, as the gargantuan radar screen at the front of the room lit up with streaks representing incoming cruise missiles destined for the capital and other cities and targets of importance. A quick crunching of the numbers determined that it was nearly impossible for all the missiles to be successfully intercepted; although the Nevradians possessed enough missiles to saturate the targets, the targets in question were already beginning to go terminal and would soon be extracting vengeance upon the bases below.

Nevertheless, some were indeed stopped. Among these were all but two of the missiles inbound to the Palace of the Revolution, whose historic North Wing was severely damaged, with the loss of seventeen high-ranking Politburo members who happened to have exceedingly bad luck that morning. Stepanovsk Naval Aviation was also spared a good majority of the damage, losing only three hangars and about 20 aircraft which had not partaken in the morning's events. Other facilities, however, were not so lucky. Proletarskiysk Frontal Aviation was reporting 83% casualties of men and equipment including its commander, the Ministry of Information and offices of the Cheka had been damaged beyond repair and the Ministry of Agricultural Planning leveled entirely. Also hit were six army bases, whose levels of damage varied from total to moderate. All in all, the strike was bad, costing the Nevradians some two-thousand lives, but not nearly as bad as it could have been; most offensive silos were still intact and operational, and Missile Defense Command 2 was preparing a lethal cocktail of SS-21 Scarab short-range ballistic missiles to eliminate whatever remained of the fleet once the VMF had had its way with it. They may have been down, but the Nevradians were by no means out, and the Tolvanic Navy would be made to pay come hell or high water.

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Task Force 43
200 nautical miles from Nevrad

The first salvo of SAMs had been more effective than the BuWeps had projected. Some 56.25% of the incoming missiles (81 in all) were downed by the massive volley of SAMs. As the AShMs wenty terminal more SM-6s lept from the fleet's VLSs to meet them. Another seventeen missles were knocked by the SAMs but the remaining forty-six continued onwards. As they closed the fleet's ESSMs engaged ar medium range followed the RAMs. As the medium range missiles engaged the fleet's massive jammers went active and dozens of SROBC fired, masking the fleet in a wall of interference. The final line of defence was the fleet's CIWS and 127mm guns, the guns were of limited use against such high speed missiles, but they still managed to kill five of the big AS-6s. By the time the missiles impacted only fourteen had survived, three were were unable to achieve target lock due to the jamming and impacted the ocean surface, the remaining eleven scored hits. Fortunately, none of the missiles struck either carrier, however one missile struck the cruiser Audacity, inflicting heavy damage. The other ten missiles struck destroyers and frigates causing chaos throughout the fleet. Fortunately for the crew of the destroyer Downsley, the lone missile that struck the ship failed to explode While the missle caused structural damage and started numerous fires, the ship's Damage Control parties managed to contain the damage and ship remained conbat effective with "just" thirty-one dead.

In all the attack sank three destroyers and five frigates, crippled a cruiser (which Waters would order to be scuttled), and damaged another destroyer. A total of 1,853 Royal Navy personnel were killed and another 825 were wounded.

Waters had already order the ships to head further out to sea at high speed as soon as the attack was detected and the fleet continued to do so. A few ships would stay behind long enough to complete rescue operations and then join the fleet in retreated from near Nevrad. With the CAP keeping any other Nevradian bombers or recon planes at a safe distance, it would be very difficult for the enemy to localize the task force's location for a follow on strike.

Waters had already spoken to the Admiralty via SatCom before and after the engagement and was in agreement with the plan to pull back. While the Nevradians would be able to claim victory for this battle, Waters had no doubt the Royal Navy would return in force and teach the Nevradians the magnitude of the error they'd committed this day.

However, Waters had one partined shot to give the Nevradians. The cruisers Implacable and Ardent fell out of formation and turned to face the trailing Nevradian destroyer. Each cruiser fired four AGM-305 "Reaper" heavy AShMs. Each Reaper roared towards the destroyer at nearly Mach 2 at an altitude of just fifty meters. The big missiles carried a rather large 500 kilogram warhead and would give the Nevradian People's Navy a taste of its own medicine.