The Crimm
17-04-2009, 03:23
Ursala Mobuto felt her ship, the CSS Barbary Coast, thump against the thick rudder bumpers of the dock at Gdansk. Once a thriving port city of Poland, the city had been twice levelled and rebuilt under Imperial rule. Each time, it came back with a vengeance, seeking to surpass it's previous heights. The Admiral always loved this city and not the least for it's expansive port facilities. The city was also home to the Crimm Naval Academy and she would often take time to revisit the grounds. Not this time, though. This time, she was here on much more serious business.
It had been a year since she had been in the city, but she had been quite busy. As a legendary pirate hunter, she continued those operations... but she was also conducting her own operation. It had taken months, but he had met with several other admirals and captains. They were all in agreement... The Empress was leaving the Empire increasingly exposed to conquest. For a woman that was once a top Colonel and an intelligence officer, she was sowing a total lack of forethought or command.
She knew that there were three fleets with her. And, as of last week, the First and Fifth Marine Battalion came under her defacto authority, through old friends. They were top men, willing to follow their leaders into hell and back for a just cause. And restoring the Empire to glory was such a cause. She had received word not twenty minutes before her ship docked that the Fifth Fleet's leadership had refused to join her, but had indicated they would remain neutral during the conflict. An interesting choice, she had to admit... but Admiral Sawiki was an interesting Admiral, she had always thought. No matter. With his refusal to fight, she was left with a weaker opponent.
Now all that was left was the final stroke... the people of the Empire. If they swayed to Volsung, it was all for naught. If they swung towards her, however, she could retake at least the European province in the first few days.
That was why she was here. And why she had an interesting file on here dataslate. One which detailed the still classified fate of the CSS Crimmond battlegroup. And how Volsung was responsible for the whole botched operation.
----
"Empress!"
Volsung jerked her head up from her work as an aide ran in. "What is it?"
Instead of speaking, he grabbed the remote for the hidden television screen and activated it. A few seconds later, the news was on... Sonya dropped her fountain pen, spilling ink across the paperwork. "Wha... who? WHO?!" She shouted, standing up sudenly and glaring at the aide. "Who is responsible for this?" Again, the aide did not speak. This time, he didn't have to...
Even as the footage of the CSS Crimmond's deck erupting in flames from Havenic missiles, another section of the screen revealed the face of an Admiral. Volsung took a second and identified her as Vice Admiral Mobuto. She was speaking about the operation, what it's purpose was, how it was caught so unawares and how the whole blunder was being hidden from the people. It had happened almost a year ago and not one family was aware that the entire battlegroup was dead, save for the submarines. They managed to slip away without a single loss, but all surface ships were torn apart. Even as she spoke, another missile strike came in and did just that to the CSS Crimmond.
As she stared at the screen, General Hilts had somehow appeared in the room. "Empress, there is a massive Marine movement towards the city. I believe it is elements of First Marine. Parts of the fleet are opening fire on several military installations, destroying their air defenses... Sonya, we have to get you out of here."
She slowly turned to him. "And go where? Africa? Hmm? It will just add fuel to her fire. If I run, I give up something powerful."
"If you don't run, you die." Came the response from her old ally. "There is no other way, Empress. If we can get you to Cairo, where our position is secure... we can counter attack this coup. We have the Fifth Fleet in the Med and they have specifically stated that they do not support this coup in the slightest. We will be safe there."
It took fifteen minutes for the group to get airborne. The capital was rioting. Small arms fire from the streets was directed at her chopper as it left the palace. There were Marines shooting into the crowd... automatic fire, not tear gas. It was at that point Sonya knew that even if she won, she had lost. It was confirmed as soon as they landed in Cairo. Mobuto had captured the palace and had her hands on several files that Sonya had no time to destroy. Mobuto was broadcasting her service record to the Empire. Listing the names of all it's citizens she had personally tortured and executed over the years as an agent of the Black Staff and as head of the Imperial Inquisition. All the illegal and immoral things she had done 'in the name of the Empire'. How she was the single most dangerous individual that the Empire had ever produced.
Volsung strode into the command center and found the news feed playing. "Shut that damned thing off. And give me a status report. Who is still with us?"
As the short list appeared, she realized that she had lost Europe already. Africa was still behind her, but she was uncertain of some in that group. The people were already in open revolt in Europe... the people in Africa were still just murmuring, according to reports. There were only a handful of Africans on the lists of her victims. And none of them were well liked. The Crimmond had been based in Europe, not Africa. In short... the people of the three African Provinces had no direct emotional stake in the conflict and seemed willing to ride it out. Sonya wished she had the same option...
"Deploy the Commandos. Bring me Mobuto... alive if possible, but dead is just as good."
-------
The city of Gdansk was a war zone within two hours of the orders from the Empress. The heavily armored commandos were tearing the normal Marines to pieces, despite being outnumbered ten to one. They were faster, stronger, better trained, with more combat experience and sheer force of will than the larger force they were fighting. Only one Commando was without the full bodysuit of armor. Wearing his trademark brown overcoat and hat, Colonel Ian Daunt strode through the war zone as if it was nothing. He raised his revolver and fired. Down the block, a Marine fell. He took cover behind a truck and spoke in a low voice. The pickups attached to his throat meant he didn't need to shout. "Alright, we're three blocks from the Naval Base. We have not sustained losses as yet. Do not expect this to continue. Because it damn well won't." He rolled and popped out from behind the truck, firing twice. Another marine fell, in the distance, but got back up a few seconds later. The round had stopped in his armor. "Move!"
Running from cover to cover, the Commandos looked unstoppable. They never fired blindly and always took the necessary second to level their aim. It was the only way to ensure that they would take out enough Marines to make it inside the base. For ever Commando that died, they would take at least twenty Marines with them. The final push began and within fifteen minutes, they were at the gates of Imperial Naval Station Gdansk. The flimsy chain link security gates were easily ripped apart with an explosive charge and then the Commandos were loose inside the base.
Daunt was stepping through the gate and looked satisfied, just as a Marine popped up and heaved a grenade at him. It slammed into his head and knocked him over... but didn't go off. A one in a billion dud. And it was doubly fortunate for Daunt that the grenade had hit him. It meant that he was out cold, down behind a guard shack. That would save his life when the base his men and women just stepped into exploded. Every building was a gigantic bomb. Filled with jet fuel and high explosives, plus God only knew how much scrap metal and ball bearings...
Only three Commandos survived the bomb's initial blast, besides Daunt. Two died as ruble collapsed on top of them and the third, Sergeant Samantha Laran, somehow managed to crawl almost three hundred feet without the aid of having legs, before collapsing into shock. She was executed with a shot to the head when found by Marines coming in to clear the base. It was listed as a mercy kill, as living as a crippled Marine was not a pleasant thought. Plus, the woman was the nation's top sniper. She was a threat to the Admiral.
Daunt was found almost immediately and was heavily drugged and bound. Despite his rotund frame, the man was as strong as any two normal Marines. He was taken alive for a very special purpose. Proof of the Admiral's abilities. The video emerged three hours later...
------
Even as the Empress watched, the rest of the world was seeing it as well. It showed Colonel Ian Daunt, the toughest man Sonya had ever known, beaten and barely conscious. He groaned softly and had to be supported by the two sailors who had hold of him. By their clean uniforms, they hadn't actually been a part of the beating. Something that Sonya intended to note, when they were captured and on trial. They'd receive some sort of punishment for working with the traitorous Admiral... but not as harsh as others, whom they had proof of active roles. They set him down in a chair and left.
Vice Admiral Ursala Mobuto stepped in behind him and lifted his head so that he looked towards the camera. "People of Crimmond and the rest of the world... I have bested the top soldiers in the land. Colonel Daunt's Commandos are all dead, killed in the fighting outside this facility. He alone was captured... and I only suspect that this was because he was knocked out by flying grenade that happened to be a dud. Let this be a warning to the Empress. I rule Europe now. Not you. And soon, I will deprive you of Africa as well, freeing my home from your feeble grasp. Attempt no more assassination attempts upon me, or force more good Crimm to their untimely deaths." At that, the Admiral removed her pistol and shot Daunt in the back of the head, executing one of the Empire's greatest war heroes like a common criminal. "Let that be a warning as well... I will not hesitate to kill anyone who supports you, Empress. This nation is led by weaklings who have left us staked out in the sun and are waiting for the vultures to begin picking at us. NO MORE! We will return to the old ways... Imperialism. Not unchecked capitalism that has led us to value profit over honor and power. Let it be known that I will have you on your knees in front of me soon enough, Sonya. And you won't receive the fast mercy of a bullet for your crimes against the Empire."
An instant later, the screen's image broke up as Sonya's combat knife embedded itself to the hilt. Right between Mobuto's eyes. "General Hilts..." She waited for the man to turn. "Prepare a coordinated tactical strike. I want the entire electrical network of the European province destroyed. Hit every power station's outgoing lines. Hit the lines at random intervals. Take that damn system down."
As her Marines moved to carry out the orders, another thought struck her. One unrelated to the sudden civil war... Damien Dreadfire predicted this... the day I left Gholgoth, he predicted this. It galled her that the ruler she had come to despise had been so apt. She was losing her nation. She had lost almost a third of it already... and now had barely any fleet left to defend the other two thirds. And she knew that the Admiral was a strict follower of the slogan that had always been used by the Empire. 'To have mercy upon an enemy is to always have an enemy. Let not one survive.' The world was no longer big enough for both Sonya Volsung and Ursala Mobuto.
Sonya knew that this initial victory by Mobuto was short lived. Africa was separated by the Mediterranean Sea and was well defended, now that the threat had revealed itself. There would be no immediate assault. Not until Mobuto could secure her gains... that would leave her forces with at least three weeks time to prepare.
And there was still another variable... Fleet Admiral John Chapman. He was not inside the Empire. He was currently patrolling in the Arctic, with the Mammoth battle group. As far as she knew, he was contacting bother her forces and Mobuto's, raising all hell at both and demanding to know exactly what was going on. Time would tell which side he would choose.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2226/mobuto.jpg
Vice Admiral Ursala Mobuto
Controls European Province
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3047/volsungvj1.jpg
Empress Sonya Volsung
Controls African Provinces
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/8919/daunt4xd1.jpg
Colonel Ian Daunt
KIA
It had been a year since she had been in the city, but she had been quite busy. As a legendary pirate hunter, she continued those operations... but she was also conducting her own operation. It had taken months, but he had met with several other admirals and captains. They were all in agreement... The Empress was leaving the Empire increasingly exposed to conquest. For a woman that was once a top Colonel and an intelligence officer, she was sowing a total lack of forethought or command.
She knew that there were three fleets with her. And, as of last week, the First and Fifth Marine Battalion came under her defacto authority, through old friends. They were top men, willing to follow their leaders into hell and back for a just cause. And restoring the Empire to glory was such a cause. She had received word not twenty minutes before her ship docked that the Fifth Fleet's leadership had refused to join her, but had indicated they would remain neutral during the conflict. An interesting choice, she had to admit... but Admiral Sawiki was an interesting Admiral, she had always thought. No matter. With his refusal to fight, she was left with a weaker opponent.
Now all that was left was the final stroke... the people of the Empire. If they swayed to Volsung, it was all for naught. If they swung towards her, however, she could retake at least the European province in the first few days.
That was why she was here. And why she had an interesting file on here dataslate. One which detailed the still classified fate of the CSS Crimmond battlegroup. And how Volsung was responsible for the whole botched operation.
----
"Empress!"
Volsung jerked her head up from her work as an aide ran in. "What is it?"
Instead of speaking, he grabbed the remote for the hidden television screen and activated it. A few seconds later, the news was on... Sonya dropped her fountain pen, spilling ink across the paperwork. "Wha... who? WHO?!" She shouted, standing up sudenly and glaring at the aide. "Who is responsible for this?" Again, the aide did not speak. This time, he didn't have to...
Even as the footage of the CSS Crimmond's deck erupting in flames from Havenic missiles, another section of the screen revealed the face of an Admiral. Volsung took a second and identified her as Vice Admiral Mobuto. She was speaking about the operation, what it's purpose was, how it was caught so unawares and how the whole blunder was being hidden from the people. It had happened almost a year ago and not one family was aware that the entire battlegroup was dead, save for the submarines. They managed to slip away without a single loss, but all surface ships were torn apart. Even as she spoke, another missile strike came in and did just that to the CSS Crimmond.
As she stared at the screen, General Hilts had somehow appeared in the room. "Empress, there is a massive Marine movement towards the city. I believe it is elements of First Marine. Parts of the fleet are opening fire on several military installations, destroying their air defenses... Sonya, we have to get you out of here."
She slowly turned to him. "And go where? Africa? Hmm? It will just add fuel to her fire. If I run, I give up something powerful."
"If you don't run, you die." Came the response from her old ally. "There is no other way, Empress. If we can get you to Cairo, where our position is secure... we can counter attack this coup. We have the Fifth Fleet in the Med and they have specifically stated that they do not support this coup in the slightest. We will be safe there."
It took fifteen minutes for the group to get airborne. The capital was rioting. Small arms fire from the streets was directed at her chopper as it left the palace. There were Marines shooting into the crowd... automatic fire, not tear gas. It was at that point Sonya knew that even if she won, she had lost. It was confirmed as soon as they landed in Cairo. Mobuto had captured the palace and had her hands on several files that Sonya had no time to destroy. Mobuto was broadcasting her service record to the Empire. Listing the names of all it's citizens she had personally tortured and executed over the years as an agent of the Black Staff and as head of the Imperial Inquisition. All the illegal and immoral things she had done 'in the name of the Empire'. How she was the single most dangerous individual that the Empire had ever produced.
Volsung strode into the command center and found the news feed playing. "Shut that damned thing off. And give me a status report. Who is still with us?"
As the short list appeared, she realized that she had lost Europe already. Africa was still behind her, but she was uncertain of some in that group. The people were already in open revolt in Europe... the people in Africa were still just murmuring, according to reports. There were only a handful of Africans on the lists of her victims. And none of them were well liked. The Crimmond had been based in Europe, not Africa. In short... the people of the three African Provinces had no direct emotional stake in the conflict and seemed willing to ride it out. Sonya wished she had the same option...
"Deploy the Commandos. Bring me Mobuto... alive if possible, but dead is just as good."
-------
The city of Gdansk was a war zone within two hours of the orders from the Empress. The heavily armored commandos were tearing the normal Marines to pieces, despite being outnumbered ten to one. They were faster, stronger, better trained, with more combat experience and sheer force of will than the larger force they were fighting. Only one Commando was without the full bodysuit of armor. Wearing his trademark brown overcoat and hat, Colonel Ian Daunt strode through the war zone as if it was nothing. He raised his revolver and fired. Down the block, a Marine fell. He took cover behind a truck and spoke in a low voice. The pickups attached to his throat meant he didn't need to shout. "Alright, we're three blocks from the Naval Base. We have not sustained losses as yet. Do not expect this to continue. Because it damn well won't." He rolled and popped out from behind the truck, firing twice. Another marine fell, in the distance, but got back up a few seconds later. The round had stopped in his armor. "Move!"
Running from cover to cover, the Commandos looked unstoppable. They never fired blindly and always took the necessary second to level their aim. It was the only way to ensure that they would take out enough Marines to make it inside the base. For ever Commando that died, they would take at least twenty Marines with them. The final push began and within fifteen minutes, they were at the gates of Imperial Naval Station Gdansk. The flimsy chain link security gates were easily ripped apart with an explosive charge and then the Commandos were loose inside the base.
Daunt was stepping through the gate and looked satisfied, just as a Marine popped up and heaved a grenade at him. It slammed into his head and knocked him over... but didn't go off. A one in a billion dud. And it was doubly fortunate for Daunt that the grenade had hit him. It meant that he was out cold, down behind a guard shack. That would save his life when the base his men and women just stepped into exploded. Every building was a gigantic bomb. Filled with jet fuel and high explosives, plus God only knew how much scrap metal and ball bearings...
Only three Commandos survived the bomb's initial blast, besides Daunt. Two died as ruble collapsed on top of them and the third, Sergeant Samantha Laran, somehow managed to crawl almost three hundred feet without the aid of having legs, before collapsing into shock. She was executed with a shot to the head when found by Marines coming in to clear the base. It was listed as a mercy kill, as living as a crippled Marine was not a pleasant thought. Plus, the woman was the nation's top sniper. She was a threat to the Admiral.
Daunt was found almost immediately and was heavily drugged and bound. Despite his rotund frame, the man was as strong as any two normal Marines. He was taken alive for a very special purpose. Proof of the Admiral's abilities. The video emerged three hours later...
------
Even as the Empress watched, the rest of the world was seeing it as well. It showed Colonel Ian Daunt, the toughest man Sonya had ever known, beaten and barely conscious. He groaned softly and had to be supported by the two sailors who had hold of him. By their clean uniforms, they hadn't actually been a part of the beating. Something that Sonya intended to note, when they were captured and on trial. They'd receive some sort of punishment for working with the traitorous Admiral... but not as harsh as others, whom they had proof of active roles. They set him down in a chair and left.
Vice Admiral Ursala Mobuto stepped in behind him and lifted his head so that he looked towards the camera. "People of Crimmond and the rest of the world... I have bested the top soldiers in the land. Colonel Daunt's Commandos are all dead, killed in the fighting outside this facility. He alone was captured... and I only suspect that this was because he was knocked out by flying grenade that happened to be a dud. Let this be a warning to the Empress. I rule Europe now. Not you. And soon, I will deprive you of Africa as well, freeing my home from your feeble grasp. Attempt no more assassination attempts upon me, or force more good Crimm to their untimely deaths." At that, the Admiral removed her pistol and shot Daunt in the back of the head, executing one of the Empire's greatest war heroes like a common criminal. "Let that be a warning as well... I will not hesitate to kill anyone who supports you, Empress. This nation is led by weaklings who have left us staked out in the sun and are waiting for the vultures to begin picking at us. NO MORE! We will return to the old ways... Imperialism. Not unchecked capitalism that has led us to value profit over honor and power. Let it be known that I will have you on your knees in front of me soon enough, Sonya. And you won't receive the fast mercy of a bullet for your crimes against the Empire."
An instant later, the screen's image broke up as Sonya's combat knife embedded itself to the hilt. Right between Mobuto's eyes. "General Hilts..." She waited for the man to turn. "Prepare a coordinated tactical strike. I want the entire electrical network of the European province destroyed. Hit every power station's outgoing lines. Hit the lines at random intervals. Take that damn system down."
As her Marines moved to carry out the orders, another thought struck her. One unrelated to the sudden civil war... Damien Dreadfire predicted this... the day I left Gholgoth, he predicted this. It galled her that the ruler she had come to despise had been so apt. She was losing her nation. She had lost almost a third of it already... and now had barely any fleet left to defend the other two thirds. And she knew that the Admiral was a strict follower of the slogan that had always been used by the Empire. 'To have mercy upon an enemy is to always have an enemy. Let not one survive.' The world was no longer big enough for both Sonya Volsung and Ursala Mobuto.
Sonya knew that this initial victory by Mobuto was short lived. Africa was separated by the Mediterranean Sea and was well defended, now that the threat had revealed itself. There would be no immediate assault. Not until Mobuto could secure her gains... that would leave her forces with at least three weeks time to prepare.
And there was still another variable... Fleet Admiral John Chapman. He was not inside the Empire. He was currently patrolling in the Arctic, with the Mammoth battle group. As far as she knew, he was contacting bother her forces and Mobuto's, raising all hell at both and demanding to know exactly what was going on. Time would tell which side he would choose.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2226/mobuto.jpg
Vice Admiral Ursala Mobuto
Controls European Province
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3047/volsungvj1.jpg
Empress Sonya Volsung
Controls African Provinces
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/8919/daunt4xd1.jpg
Colonel Ian Daunt
KIA