All for one, one for all (Closed, EII, MT)

[United States of PA]

May 30th, 2012
Hyderabad, Republic of India
“Raajochit Haveli”

The building had long been known as the “Palace of the Royals”, “Royal Palace” and many others. The entire building had originally been made in the early 1500s to serve as the home of the Emperor of the Marathan Empire.

After the fall of the Empire in the early 1800s, the building served as the home of the President of the Republic of India, before falling into anonymity during the reign of the White Man during the 1900s, before being revitalized into its second role with the founding of the Second Republic a little over two years prior to current day.

The Front Gate, crafted out of pure gold, had remained in basically the same condition for the past 210 years, ever since it had been blasted out by a cannonball and pockmarked by Canister shot in the original Rebellion.

President Gadhavi had the honor of being the first man in over two centuries to occupy Raajochit Haveli, and the site of it was nothing less than amazing.

Despite its extensive creature comforts, the President was rarely here just to relax, and today was no exception.

The fighting in Jammu & Kashmir was heating up extensively, having been characterized in the past few weeks by an ambush that had succeeded in killing 62 Indian Soldiers and wounding several times that number.

Elements within the government believed that the rebels, a group known as “The White Tigers” were operating major portions of their operations across the border in the regions of Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

While in session throughout May 28th-30th, the National Parliament in Both houses decided to grant President Gadhavi whatever power needed to secure the safety of the nation, from both foreign and domestic enemies.

President Gadhavi knew that this meant that Parliament wanted him to see too it that the remaining free regions of Pakistan were brought under Indian Control, seeing to it that the White Tigers had no places to hide that didn’t see them possibly getting shot at.

With the new powers vested within him, President Gadhavi decided that it would be in the Republics best interests to see to it that the remaining regions of Pakistan left outside the control of the Republic of Paix were brought under National Control, as well as the Nations of Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, whether by peace or by force.


June 1st, 2012
Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, Republic of India
1st Mountain Infantry Division Headquarters
Lieutenant General Nagendra Mhasalkar

The 1st Mountain Infantry Division was one of the numerous divisions within the Indian Army dedicated to fighting in the Mountains, namely the Himalayas which happened to span such a large amount of the Indian Border.

The divisional leader, Lt. General Nagendra Mhasalkar was a long time veteran of the Indian Army, well known for trying to keep his troops out of harm’s way to the best of his ability, as well as being a cunning and capable commander.

Late in the night of May 31st, General Mhasalkar received a command from the Chief of Staff that he was to move his division of 10,000 men north into the region of Gilgit-Baltistan, taking the villages of Taobat, Hilmat, Sardari, and Janwai to the west while moving towards the village of Kel and the other villages to the west along that road with one brigade, while another would split north from Kel towards Shountar and Domail.

He was given no stated reasoning for the move, other than the including knowledge that another pair of Infantry Brigades would also be moving west to secure the rest of the unclaimed territory.

General Mhasalkar set the jumping off time for his units at 00:30 hours on the first of June, barely enough time to get his units ready for the attack. Also involved in the attack were a pair of Airborne Brigades, which would be used to jump strait into the regions Capital city of Gilgit, a city of roughly a quarter million, hopefully cutting the head off of the snake and leaving the body, or the rest of the region, to wither and die.

To the southwest, near the nations border with Azad Kashmir, a couple of Infantry brigades were preparing to march towards the city of Muzaffarabad, a city of nearly 700,000 people which served as the seat of the remaining areas of Kashmir. Supporting them as well was a regiment of Tanks and Mechanized infantry.

June 1st, 00:30 hours
Uri, Jammu & Kashmir, Republic of India

Near the town of Uri, which was in turn near the Azad Kashmir-India Border sat a force of nearly 15,000 Indian Soldiers prepared to cross the border into Azad Kashmir and capture it in the name of the Republic.

The Commander of this force, which comprised of two individual Brigades with two supporting regiments, was Colonel Swapnil Korrapati. According to provided intelligence courtesy of both Military Intelligence and IIB (Indian Intelligence Bureau), Colonel Korrapati and his men had fewer than 6,000 enemy combatants in front of them, poorly armed, equipped and trained, but motivated and perhaps most importantly of all, concentrated within the city of Muzaffarabad itself.

Colonel Korrapati had initially declined opening air support for the operation, preferring to attempt to close as close to the city as possible before alerting the militias of his units presence, before relenting and agreeing to allowing the units helicopters to go ahead of the main force and scout or eliminate encountered forces.

As 00:30 hours came, the units lead battalion took off down the road towards Muzaffarabad, aiming to cover the 50 kilometers between the border and the city before dawn. After the men had crossed the border, Colonel Korrapatti looked up as he heard the sounds of a flight of Attack Helicopters scream low over the treetops and up the valley, looking for any and all possible hostiles and eliminating them or reporting them as needed.

High above, the Indian Air Force was offering its own assistance, in the form of Fighter Bombers standing by to provide Close Air Support whenever needed.

The attack went well at first, with the ground forces receiving few engagements thanks to the work of the helicopters leading the way, and remained on schedule all the way up to the city outskirts. Unfortunately, Colonel Korrapati’s goal of remaining undetected was not realized, as when they reached the city they found most of the cities defense force ready and waiting for them, having been warned by scouts on the route in.

08:00 June 1st, 2012
Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, Republic of India
Lieutenant General Nagendra Mhasalkar

In the north the attack had proceeded at a faster pace, thanks largely in part to both the involved units being of higher mobility and less of a threat of coordinated defense. The one brigade had accomplished its goal of reaching Kel before Dawn, while the other had already turned north towards Gilgit, where the Paratroopers had dropped in and were currently clashing with the small defense force there.

Despite the more complete lack of defenses compared to the attack on Azad Kashmir around the regional Capital, the equally incomplete infrastructure was impeding advance on the city to relieve the Paratroopers, which would have to be done within two days to prevent them from running out of supplies.

Thimphu, Kingdom of Bhutan
Tashichho Dzong
8:00am Local

The Kingdom of Bhutan and the Republic of India had always enjoyed good relations dating back to the founding of each respective country. While the two countries relations had been up and down, as all countries relations are inevitable to do over the course of history.

Kamal Nibhanupudi was a lifelong diplomat and servant for the Republic of India, and had for the previous two years served as ambassador to the Kingdom of Bhutan, working effortlessly to maintain excellent relations between the larger, more powerful Republic and the smaller, more peaceful Kingdom.

Since his posting to Thimphu Kamal had been able to make close friends of most of the major figures in Bhutanese politics, to the point where he was on a first name basis with both the King (Who he still honored as such by referring to his title officially) and the Prime Minister, plus many of the representatives who now occupied their seat in the Tashichho Dzong, the seat of Bhutanese government.

The Tashichho Dzong was an ancient Buddhist Monastery and Fortress, having been around in one form or another since the 1200s. Kamal could never help but to admire the beauty and grace built into the building’s design, no matter how many times he had visited the building.

Unfortunately, this time Kamal regretted that he could not be in the presence of such esteemed heads of states for a pleasure meet. He had requested permission to speak before the states Druk Desi, which had summarily been accepted.

As he stepped up onto the podium from whence he would be speaking, he couldn’t help but sweat bullets, not knowing one bit what the response of the government would be.

“Friends, it is with great pleasure that I have been allowed to speak here today. It gives me equally great displeasure however the message that I am here to deliver too you from my nations government. In order to avoid wasting your time with worthless rambling, I will instead make my message short and to the point. As I am sure some of you, if not all of you have heard, my nations Parliament not too long ago granted emergency powers to President Kunal Gadhavi, in response to the adverse situation currently being faced by our great republic. He has informed that due to current threads, both to our government and yours, foreign and domestic that he feels it would be in both of our nations best interest to combine at the national level, combining militaries and foreign policy. However, under this agreement, the Kingdom of Bhutan would be able to maintain its current government and daily operations, laws and customs, just would be required to follow the foreign Policy of the republic. If this generous offer is refused, than my President has also asked me to inform you that we will see to it that our northern border is secured from any threats by any means, including force if it comes to that”

[United States of PA]

June 1st, 2012
Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir
18:00hrs, City Outskirts

Muzaffarabad was a naturally beautiful city to those who found the sites of smog filled city skylines attractive to the eye. Colonel Swapnil Korrapati had been raised in the country and had always found the sight of a city’s skyline, smog and all, to turn his stomach. He loved wide open fields, the ability to see for miles and miles and shoot one’s own food. None of this was afforded to a man in a city, with its choked streets and traffic jams and unfriendly people.

Today’s visit to Muzaffarabad was no exception, albeit for extremely different reasons. Inside the city sat an estimated 6,000 hostile militiamen, ready to shoot him and all of the roughly 15,000 men under his command at a moment’s notice.

His forward elements, a few companies of Mechanized infantry had encountered limited resistance en route to the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, probably thanks in large part to the Attack Helicopters which had been making runs up and down the valley for most of the night.

That all changed immediately after coming into sight of the city. The Militia was alerted, and while not particularly well armed, still well armed enough and numerous enough to stop the lead elements and force them to wait for backup.

They had dug in in the mean time, with the unit’s sharpshooters and marksmen exchanging shots with their counterparts in the city and picking off militiamen dumb enough to stick their heads out. While it ended up being several hours before the main force arrived to begin the attack into the city, which would unfortunately for Colonel Korrapati be limited to just one direction. Luckily the militia would hopefully be unaware of that fact, hopefully spurred on in this belief by the airstrikes he had ordered throughout the city, not just from the south.

Colonel Korrapati had waited for most of his forces to arrive before deciding to attack the city. He had set the jumping off point for the attack at six pm that evening, supported by Jets, Attack helicopters and howitzers.

[United States of PA]

June 1st, 2012
Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir
18:00hrs, City Outskirts
Lead Elements of the Indian Army

Suresha Iyer was a expert marksman. When at home in his cabin near the Himalayan Mountains, he spent his time using up the hunting tags that were provided to him on the various types of animals that roamed the mountainsides.

When he was spending his time on active duty, he continued to hunt, albeit just a majorly different game. As he sat on a chair inside someone's two story house on the outskirts of the city of Muzaffarabad, staring into the scope of his bolt action sniper rifle, he hunted men.

At its heart, being a sniper was similar to hunting game in the mountains of northern India, with one of the major, if only differences being that humans could shoot back. In practice, the tracking and hunting remained similar, with simply different tracks. That and humans were generally not as smart as the animals he normally hunted.

As he and his spotter, Surya Nibhanupudi scanned the rooftops, windows, roads, barricades and cars of the outskirts of Muzaffarabad for enemy soldiers, snipers especially, he heard over the radio which they were keeping in the room that the main attack force was too roll out towards the city under cover of a artillery barrage.

Despite this minor distraction, Suresha and Surya never took their eyes off the city, and it paid off.

"Eyes on sniper, 5 Story apartment building, 800 meters" Surya reported before taking a quick glance at his compass to get the direction "North Northwest, just in front of that large office building"

"I see him, windage?"

"Approximately 20kmh east to west"

"Roger, taking the shot"

A supersonic crack resounded throughout the area immediately around the house, kicking up dust as the muzzle of Suresha's rifle spat out a .30 caliber round downrange.

"Hit, good effect on target. He won't be getting back up"

"Gotcha, radio command, see if they want us to move to better support the attack or stay here"

"Understand. Command this is Sniper Team Alpha-Bravo 1-1, do you want us to stay at our current location or move to better support the attack"

A moment of silence ensued before the radio cackled to life "Wait one, will advise"

"Roger command, Alpha-Bravo 1-1 out"

A minute or two passed before the radio came back to life, command on the other end

"Alpha Bravo 1-1 come in"

"This is Alpha-Bravo, over"

"Alpha Bravo, you are to make your way over to the hill just east of the Jalalabad Stadium. Advance Forces have taken the hill but are reporting heavy return fire. We have got Helicopters en route to support, as well as artillery, but we can't afford to get bogged down so we're also sending snipers. Once there you are to go to the 3rd Battalions commander. Your being attached to him personally and will take orders from hit for the duration of this mission. Over"

"Roger Command, Alpha Bravo is moving"

"Pack up Suresha, we're to move south towards Jalalabad Stadium and link up with the 3rd Battalion. We'll be under the personal command of their commander from there"

"Lovely"

18:10hrs, Jalalabad Stadium
Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir
3rd Battalion

Jalalabad Stadium by world standards was small, providing seating for only a few thousand people and little to no amenities. It looked a lot like a lot of western Baseball parks, with have the stadium being of a "open" design, with low single set seating, and the other half having a upper balcony. The stadium rarely had any grass growing on its field, and the only vendors that were ever there were those who sold food out of the back of pickup trucks or vans.

The stadium was rarely used for ticketed events, due to economic problems in the region, but was constantly in use by children just looking to play a nice old large game of soccer or other such games.

Just not today.

Today the Stadium was backlit by a wall of smoke from the city, caused by the Indian Army's bombardment. Intelligence estimated that roughly 600 to a thousand militia held the stadium and surrounding residential areas, defending against a 1,800 man Indian Assault force consisting of two infantry battalions and a Armored Battalion.

Combined with Air and Artillery support, both of which the Militia lacked, ideally it would be a easy task to capture the Stadium and surrounding areas, though all of the soldiers in the attack force knew that no plan survived first contact with the enemy.


Corporal Debdan Avninder had only recently joined the Army, being a veteran of only a year and half prior to the assault on Muzzaffarabad and with zero combat experience. Despite these shortcomings, Debdan had established himself as a capable soldier and fire team leader.

Debdan today found himself in command of a fire team of Mechanized Infantry for the assault on the Jalalabad stadium and the nearby residential areas.

As the Corporal and his six man fire team sat inside the squads Infantry Fighting Vehicle, they could hear the sounds of artillery shells flying overhead and bullets hitting the exterior of the vehicle.

As they vehicle lurched forwards towards the stadium, not one of them was without fear.


Visakhapatnam Naval Base, India
INS Beas, Viraat Class Aircraft Carrier

The Beas was a majestic ship, one of the Indian Navies 11 Supercarriers and 7 Viraat Class Carriers. She weighed in at over 123,000 tonnes on average. Assigned to the Indian Navy's Eastern Command, her responsibility was that of patrolling the eastern half of the Indian Ocean.

[United States of PA]

June 2nd, 2012
Thimphu, Kingdom of Bhutan
Tashichho Dzong
6:00am Local Time

The Indian government had given the governments of Bhutan and Nepal a twenty four hour time period with which to respond to their demands which had been fielded at 8am the day before. The next morning, a few hours before the Indians deadline for response arrived, Kamal Nibhanupudi was a little surprised to be called back into the chambers at the Taschicho Dzong. He had not expected to be called back till just a little before the deadline, if at all.

As he entered the chambers, he could feel the dejected looks of the various policymakers all around him, and this gave him the feeling that they had decided to give in to the Republic's demands.

As Kamal arrived before the throne that the King of Bhutan occupied when meeting with the rest of his nations government. As was customary, Kamal continued to show his respect to the King, bowing down before him and giving the customary greeting.

"Mister Nibhanupudi, it is with great displeasure and humiliation that I hereby inform you that it is the decision of this government too accept your ultimatum, on the sole condition that this government is able to operate as a completely independent State under the Indian Republic. If this is guaranteed in writing, than we accept, if not, than we will be forced to resist by arms"

"Your honor, those terms are more than acceptable" Kamal responded firmly, and with a slight smile on his face, which only served to make the King know that he was now the subject to another man, and not the ruler of them.


Unbeknownst to either man, or the large number of politicians around them, the Government of Nepal had been presented with the exact same offer, with the exact same consequences and time frame. A little more than a half hour after the Government of Bhutan caved and accepted the ultimatum, so too did the Nepalese Government.


The Indian Republic was now two provinces stronger.

[United States of PA]

June 1st, 2012
18:10hrs, Jalalabad Stadium
Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir
3rd Battalion

Jalalabad Stadium had once been a place of some beauty. However, it was now reduced to little more than something barely visible and mostly destroyed in front of the wall of smoke that now made up the city's skyline.

The stadium had been reduced to a barely standing hulk of what it once was, with holes in nearly every part of the structure from tank and artillery shells, as well as aircraft rockets and bombs.

The 3rd Battalions objective was the Stadium and surrounding areas. Corporal Debdan Avninder's unit was tasked with the residential area's to the northwest of town. Artillery and aircraft bombardment had been working it over for the better part of the day, and return fire was light. Recon had reported that it appeared as though most of the militia had retreated from the area's immediately around the Stadium under the prolonged bombardment.

As the IFV advanced quickly towards Avninders units target zone, a few pings off of the vehicles external Armor proved that there were still a few enemies left, if only a few.

Looking out one of the rarely used firing ports in the side of the IFV, Debdan could see that they were now within the urbanized sector of town, as burning or destroyed buildings passed the vehicle on both sides of the street.


INS Beas, Viraat Class Aircraft Carrier
Bay of Bengal
June 1st, 2012

The Beas was a massive vessel, core of a Carrier Strike Group and one of the most powerful, important vessels in the world. Escorted by up to seven cruisers, frigates and destroyers at a time, the group possessed enough fire power to potentially cripple entire cities.

The INS Beas CSG was nominally commanded by a Rear Admiral, and today was no different. While the Beas herself was commanded by a Captain, who had final say on anything going on onboard the ship, the Admiral had complete command over the entire group and its Air Wing. Rear Admiral Madhav Bachchan was in his mid 50s, having spent most of the past 30 or so years aboard ships in the Indian Navy.

As he sat in the command chair in the ships Combat Information Center (CIC), a Chief Ensign walked up to him with a transcript of a radio message from Naval Command.

"Admiral, I've got a message here from Command"

"Thank you Ensign, your dismissed, return to your station"

"Yes sir" the ensign quickly replied with, coupled with a snap salute.

Code: Select all

To: Rear Admiral Madhac Bachchan, INS Beas
From: Naval Command, Visakhapatnam

You are to move your group south to  12° 7'19.47"N  85°33'53.87"E and rendezvous with the INS Chenab and the Amphibious Assault Group which they are escorting. From there you will proceed South South-East towards Perth and Fremantle Harbor, Western Australia. Further orders will follow en route.

[United States of PA]

June 1st, 2012
19:00hrs, near, the Sultani Mosque, City Center
Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir
3rd Battalion

The attack into the City of Muzaffarabad had proceeded far faster than planned for. Most hostile contacted had melted down and disappeared before the Indians had been able to effectively respond. While this sporadic contact had cost the Indian forces a fair number of wounded men, and more importantly, Killed in Action, the assault force had remained mostly intact, and Debdans Unit now found itself deep in the city, near one of its many mosque's.

"Hey Debdan, whats up with all these Mosque's in this city? We've passed like five now?"

"Apparently the Muslims are insanely religious. I don’t know why though. Done them a helluva lotta good. This place is so ass backwards that I don’t even think our great Grandfathers could've recognized it from their time"

This comment was quickly followed by a chorus of laughter from the rest of the men in the squad, as they slowly made their way up the street, taking a cautious pace after losing one of the units IFVs to a hidden RPG, when their Company commander relayed a order coming down from Colonel Korrapati.

"All Victors and Mikes, are ordered to halt and secure your immediate perimeter. The Police Chief of Muzaffarabad has offered a cease fire in order to save the city further destruction and death. He has also promised to arrest and turn over anyone who violates this cease fire to us."

"Uh Captain, Corporal Avninder here, 3rd Platoon, why are we too trust a Police Chiefs Word to get a Militia to stand down?"

"Because he commands the Militia. Now Follow the order. Also, one more thing. According to scattered reports we are getting, fighting around Gilgit has all but halted. It appears as though the Paratroopers were able to wipe out all major resistance before the ground force arrived. Most of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are now under our control."

"Roger sir, Avninder out"

Around the squad, there were a few joking "Huzzahs" said out load, even though every man realised that their work was not over yet.


While officially the fighting may be done, unofficially it might as well have continued unabated. It would now only change focus.

[United States of PA]

Hyderabad, Republic of India
Raajochit Haveli
Presidential Office
June 3rd, 2012

Bhutan had been secured. Nepal had been Secured. Kashmir had been secured at low casualties. This left just Bangladesh, in the Eastern Portions of India.

Many within the Presidents inner circle felt that Bangladesh would capitulate quickly if given enough pressure, and if the terms were not extremely harsh. All in all the Government felt that it was now in a favorable position to see to it that Bangladesh either joined the Republic, or faced the wrath of a bad decision at a bad time.

On June 3rd, 2012, a message was forwarded to the Indian Consulate in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi Capital. It was stated explicitly that the sealed message was to be hand delivered directly to the President and/or Prime Minister of Bangladesh, with a deadline of 12 hours for a response from the time of delivery.

The message was to end up not being read by the Indian Ambassador, and was delivered as intended to the President of Bangladesh personally a hour and a half later.

While the complete contents of the note would never be known, it said in short "The Indian Republic feels that it would be for the best for both of our nations if we were to joined forces against foreign aggressors, and we will take appropriate actions if the nation of Bangladesh feels that it is better to associate with foreign nations that seek to undermine it, instead of its own neighbors".

A vaguely worded threat, one that the Indian Government hoped was enough.

[Amigard]

Dhaka, Bangladesh
June 3, 2012

Ambassador Yates sat behind his desk at the Amigard embassy in Dhaka stuffing tobacco into his favorite pipe as the delegate from Bengladesh, a small somewhat plump man, placed a manila folder onto his desk and sat in the seat across from him. Yates eyed the folder then brought the pipe to his lips, lit the contents with a lighter and puffed.

“This is the communiqué we received from the Indian government today” the delegate snapped as though the ambassador should already be outraged by its contents even before seeing them.

Yates again eyed the folder but rather than taking the folder he simply continued to puff on his tobacco pipe his eyebrows rising slightly “If it was meant for your government why is it on my desk?” he asked. Truth be told, Yates was not a fan of the Bangladesh government. He had been instrumental in putting together the deal that brought the Soter Naval Base into Amigardian hands, but there was no love lost between him and the Bangladesh government.

In his mind, Yates believed the Bangladesh got the better part of the deal; insanely reduced tariffs on Bangladesh goods going into Amigardian ports, rights of passage to all Amigardian ports, and several billion hosts in payment just so that the Theocracy would have a port in the region. He agreed that Soter NB was of significant strategic value for the Theocracy particularly in terms of its force projection capabilities in the Asian Theater along with the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but he couldn’t help but wonder if the Amigard government was too quick to give too much in exchange.

“The Indian government has essentially issued an ultimatum” the delegate fumed “it’s a join us or die declaration!”

Yates paused for a moment and with a look of irritation snatched up the file and produced the letter that it contained. He read it over slowly, twice, partially to make sure he understood exactly what was being said but also because it frustrated the delegate to be forced to wait. It certainly appeared to be an ultimatum as Yates read it, at least that would be how he would interpret it if it had been directed at the Theocracy.

“Is there something in particular your government would like us to do about it?” Yates said as he returned the file to the top of his desk and pushed it slightly away from him toward the delegate. The delegate was a middle aged man, forty five years old, and was a regular sight at the Amigardian embassy. Amin Kazi was a pompous, arrogant fool and Yates had the impression that he was assigned to the Amigard embassy by his government as a form of punishment or penance. It was no secret that despite the fact that the two governments had come to an arrangement regarding Soter, relations had not always been terribly warm.

For one thing, the Bangladesh government had curtailed a good deal of the Amigardian missionary operations over the course of the past year citing concerns that the predominantly Muslim population had reacted violently to the presence of Catholic clergy and religious. Of course the government had done little to dissuade such violence and most cases of assaults against Catholics were only vaguely investigated and often quickly dismissed.

“Do you honestly believe the Indian government will honor our agreements? Do you honestly believe they will let your government maintain control of Soter Naval Base if they conquer Bangladesh?” Kazi swatted away the smoke that had begun to settle around them.

Seeing Kazi’s discomfort, Yates took another puff “They might, they might not, but I’m not aware of any mutual defense pact or other form of mutual aid agreement between our countries. There is no reason we should get involved.”

“No reason…” Kazi’s face was turning red “they have given my government twelve hours to respond…twelve hours!”

“Ridiculous I agree” Yates shrugged “Doesn’t sound like they have much respect for your sovereignty. I’d tell em to pound sand, but that’s just me.”

“Are you going to tell them to pound sand when they come for your embassy and your naval base? You’re telling me that your government intends to stand by while Bangladesh is overrun by these barbarians?”

“I’m not going to sit here and tell you its not a bad deal. The truth is the Theocracy cannot play policeman to the entire world. We’re dealing with enough in our own back yard at the moment. And lets look at this realistically. How much do you think my government could accomplish if the Indians do invade Bangladesh? Maybe you should be talking to the Layartebians or the Hi No Motons.”

Kazi was growing ever more frustrated as the meeting unfolded. Yates could understand; it really was a bad deal for the Bangladesh people. Unfortunately they happened to have an aggressive, power hungry, expansionist neighbor and it was unlikely that they could hold out against a full scale invasion for very long if the Indians did attack. The Bangladesh military was not nearly as sophisticated and modern or as well trained as the Amigard military was. If they were smart they could use the terrain to their advantage and make the Indians bleed for every inch of ground but the sheer size of the Indian military made it likely that it would just be a matter of time before the Bangladesh were crushed.

After the meeting with Kazi Mr. Yates put his tobacco pipe down and picked up the phone on his desk “Yes, get me the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…”

[United States of PA]

Hyderabad, Republic of India
Raajochit Haveli
June 4th, 0600 hour
Eight Hours after delivery of ultimatum

"Mr President, Eight hours have now passed since we delivered our message to the Bangladeshi government. Military forces all along our border with them are preparing to cross if needed, though hopefully Dhaka will see sense and will agree to our terms. We did not specifically mention it, but I assume that you would desire us to offer them the same deal as we did Nepal and Bhutan?"

"Yes, they get to keep their government, only on a now provincial level. Armed Forces would be integrated into our own, but otherwise they would be allowed to keep their own customs and official's."

"If you desire so, we could send them another message specifying that?"

"Please do, we should've done it to begin with, but better late than never"

"Understood. That brings us to another important note. The Amigardians and Soter. Intelligence reports that they have no desire, or need to defend Bangladesh's independence unless something were to happen to Soter."

"So basically, if it does come down to trading shots, don’t really expect the Amigardians to do anything other than sit on and twiddle their thumbs uselessly?"

"Pretty Much Mr. President"

"Alright, see to it the message is delivered, and make sure the Military is ready to jump off in four hours or so if they do not see the light"

"Yessir"