The Conflict in Hutanjia [Closed]

[Falkasia]

Montvieux Beach

Fire picked up as the reinforcing QRF platoons arrived at the beachline. They had encountered no resistance along the way, trading caution early on for speed as they broke rank in an attempt to close the gap as fast as they could. It had been a simple matter once the bunker line was in sight, forming up in a small clearing behind one of the blockhouses and filing in slowly so as to not clog the small entrypoint. Their only impediment was the lack of space, due to the confining nature of the hastily-erected concrete structure. Those who could not fit within the works were stationed outside, manning positions in the dirt trenches or relieving stationary weapons operators along the nearby buttes.

As the large LED spotlights tracked the receding line of zodiac boats as they departed, the M777 cannons took over. The retreat informed them no future troops would be arriving, advocating a switch to cluster rounds. They were brought up, retrieved from an internal magazine and wheeled into the fortification on large carts. Resighted to an angle placing the rounds just overhead, refreshed crews began sending munitions into the drink. They did not expect to hit anything except sealife beneath the waves, but fire-for-effect was stil lan effective means to informing them "do not come back."

With a screech, several aircraft lurched overhead. It took only a minute before their running lights erupted from out of the darkness, followed by a series of lesser helicopter missiles flying helter-skelter into the concrete. Chunks flew everywhere as the Air-to-Surface missiles impacted and detonated, erupting into huge balls of fire that lit the surrounding beach up with a reddish glow. Several of the M777 batteries were consumed, the missiles having focused in on their bright IR signature. On eof the cntral blockhouses took multiple hits, belching orange fire from the shooting slits in the front face as the internal magazine combusted. There was no telling how many were killed in the inferno.

The AA defenses kicked in instantly, defensively spitting missiles into the air that gave chase to the dwindling flare of jet engines. The telltale sound of rotors followed, also targeted by AA as the Harriers left effective range. Several Tamir missiles jolted through the abyss, making minor corrections as they approached the Moliors and attack helicopters. Flares erupted from their flanks in an attempt to shake the incoming bogeys.

Behind the Beach

They were heard much more before they were seen. Kazyanov didn't even have to order his men to react. Their own self-preservation instincts took over, and training was brought back forward and acted upon. The Harriers were fast-movers, nearly unhittable when it came to soldier-based weaponry. They would be ignored as best they could. Hopefully too they wouldn't cause too much damage. As for the approaching helicopters, if they came into sight they would be dealt with accordingly.

Troops quickly spilled out from the barn, mounting Lyran MANPAD launchers and assuming various positions around the farm. Several teams advanced to the edge of the forest, where defensive helicopter fire could be mitigated by the thick foliage. It didn't take long, only a few minutes, before the Harriers were overhead. At the center of the camp, several of the trucks buckled and exploded. Molten shards were sent in every direction, piercing the thin walls of the farm and barn and allowing the internal light to bleed through. The idling Skyguard AA systems instantly lit up, flashing the surrounding area with cannon fire. It created the effect of an eerie strobe lamp. Apparent that their autocannons would do little, several SAMs were launched in hopes of catching a few Harriers off guard.

As the helicopters approached, the Skyguards righted their turrets and filled the sky again with autocannon rounds. The farm brightened considerably as the MANPADs were fired, effectively announcing to the incoming helicopters their relative locations despite the damage they hoped to rend. It was quickly answered as the attack helicopters came overhead, slamming rocket barrages into the remaining convoy of idling trucks. One was absorbed in a fireball, while another one was launched off its suspension and through the farm stable. A Viper cannon took the roof off of the farmer house, shreding two SAM teams who were caught re-arming inside. One of the Skyguards took a glancing rocket hit to its side, sheering the rear off as the projectile richocheted off into a grain silo and exploded in a white-yellow fireball. The sky began to rain oats as a huge black plume grew from the smoldering hole in the side. The other Skyguard, unable to keep up, took several seconds of sustained chaingun fire to its flanks. The engine belched forth flames as it tried to move, eventually dying as the engine exploded outwards. The gun continued to fire, despite the embers and burning oil slick on the grass several yards behind.

======

The rear platoons had continued patrolling the area, stopping on numerous occassions to check their surroundings. It became obvious rather quickly something had been following them, with the rustling of shrubbery and footprints seen in the wet dirt. The appearence of a herd of deer had quelled such a fear, and the boot prints were checked off as those of a farmer and his friends.

The sounds of battle had grown rather rapidly behind them, and the sound of helicopters began to cause the surrounding woods to vibrate. They were hard to see, shilouetted against the night sky. Only when they blocked out the shy stars could they be seen, that was until they stopped. In an instant, huge floodlights came on as they dropped their payloads into clearings within the woods. It was only for a moment, a simple act of confirming everything had been delivered safely, before they buggered off. The scout platoons hadn't the time to even deploy light rockets to deal with them, and were forced to approach the dropped vehicles alone.

They did so, inching forward carefully with weapons raised. Their IR/NV goggles glowed a dull red as they did, illuminating the pitch-black terrain before their eyes in vivid green. They could make out faint heat signatures to their flanks, possibly enemy observers but more likely sleeping animals or hotspots in the terrain. It didn't matter. The platoon split into fireteams, ten or so men, and fanned out to secure a convoy of vehicles. The vehicles, heavier APCs it seemed, were darkened in their viewfinder goggles... but entirely real and in working order.

They probed carefully, making sure the vehicles weren't booby-trapped. In the distance, several engines suddenly roared to life. It was startling, causing the troops to jerk up. At the same time, fire erupted from behind them and shattered off the armor plates of the vehicles. The Falkasian troops went to ground, but not before a few of them were dropped by well-placed enemy fire. With their AKs brought to bear and heat signatures pinpointed in the dark, fire was returned. Several grenadiers, with their underslung grenade attachments prominently displayed offshooting from beneath the barrels of their rifles, launched several cartridges downrange.

Noritts

It took only a few minutes for both Zvezda and Romeo flight to get refuelled and refitted. They were going for blood, going for broke, and going to destroy the backbone of the invasion. Teaming up with a recently refreshed Oka flight, all 30 of the remaining fighters circled Noritts as they waited for a flight vector out over the channel. They would have plenty to do, rigged to the teeth with copious amounts of air-to-air missiles. They also possessed two AShMs and two light bombs each, concealed within their weapons bays. They were forces to be applied as needed in an attempt to lighten the assault on the Isotopians.

It had been a challenging affair prepping the runway for take-off not even an hour after the attack. In fact, they hadn't even used the runway. Instead, the same stretch of taxiway that had been used to land was repurposed for take-off. It had worked, barely... claiming the aircraft of Oka Nine but not the pilot. He managed to abort at the last minute, ejecting as his plane launched off the end of the tarmac, off the small strip of grass at the opposite end, and into the ocean thirty feet below. The ground crews were busy dealing with the delayed-exploding munitions, a fact they had discovered too late. Notes were made to bring this up at the end of the conflict, although the extent to which it may affect negotiations were unknown.

"Task Force Retribution, your clearance is confirmed. Vadim sends his wishes... How copy?"

Moroslav, being the senior most squadron leader was also the designated commander of the combined strike force.

"Oka One, Tower... roger that... Turkey Shoot is a go... on our way..."

He turned his Shadowhawk, banking in gently to the right as he turned the aircraft northwest and slammed the afterburner. His wingmen needed no further instruction, following his lead instinctively as soon as they saw the color of his twin-turbofans' exhaust change.

"Snap to it gentlemen," he broadcast over the radio.

Chenko, in Romeo One, rolled his eyes. With his free hand, he switched frequencies to Gavrin's.

"Full of words today, isn't he kid?"

"Yes sir... something must be bugging him." Gavrin replied from Zvezda One.

"Maybe he's on his period?" Chenko joked.

"Some would argue he always is," Gavrin returned, having no caught on to Chenko's rather mundane attempt at humor. "Perhaps this is his time of the month when he isn't?"

"I dunno.. we'll see... good luck kid... Romeo out."

Gavrin sighed, having finished his pre-op checks and brought his airframe up to speed with the rest of the flight. He had a sinking feeling in his gut, one he never got unless things were about to get bad.

"Really hope this all turns out ok," he prayed to himself. "Really hope it does."

Bala Vaga, East Cardwith

The 42nd Field Artillery had a very special task. Their position in Bala Vaga gave them an unprecedented view of the carnage on Western Cardwith as it unfolded. The naval fleet that had massed in the channel proved to be a significant obstacle to the Isopotians' defense, and would have to be dealt with accordingly. With the cat more or less out of the bag as to where the size and weight of the Royal's assault was going to be, the Falkasians could secure down their deployments and get straight to business.

Given their designation as a "Special Weapons" artillery unit, the 42nd had in their arsenal a variety of special weapons that could be applied to a plethora of situations. In this case, their dozen or so Hellion Missile batteries had been deployed up and down the sandy western coast of East Cardwith as an affront to any landing forces. They had remained idle, bregrudingly, as Noritts was attacked and the Isoptopians were forced to give ground on all sides. That chapters was about to come to an end.

The order had come from command at Noritts to ready the missiles for an assault. Truck loads of additional munitions had arrived in the wake of the airborne assault. There were less than expected, as some had been lost to successful bombs, but more than enough to punch some holes in the New Edomite ships-of-the-line. It would be a quick and decisive matter, an outcome determined in only a few dozen minutes or so.

The beaches, ordinarily packed with bathing locals or oblivious toursits, was cordoned off hastily-erected concertina wire and posted guards. Falkasian soldiers were spaced every fifty to one hundred feet, fully-geared with rifles presented diagonally across their chests. Very formal... albeit entirely unnecessary. Eight Skyguard mobile AAA units were positioned at points across the beach, attentively scanning the sky for approaching threats. Back, closer to the city, three PATRIOT missile batteries were also operational. Like the Skyguards, they too were keeping careful watch of the airspace. As soon as the missiles hit their targetsm it wouldn't take a genius to do the math and backtrack their flightpaths to this launch site. Unlike at Noritts and Montvieux, they would not be taken by surprise.

The order was given, passed down through the line. There was a moments delay, but one by one the Hellion missiles screamed off their launch rails and out over the water. Their targets were the Edomite fleet, presently engaged with the New Isotopians. Targetting had been done pre-launch, with coordinates and laser-tracking locked-in. Assuming the course of battle didn't change dramatically, the effect upon impact would be more than evident from their position.

[New Isotopia]

South West Cardwith's

The Isotopian and Cardwithian soldiers, still in the heat of battle, began to notice enemy forces slowly withdrawing. It began with the Mcnerian's, who had exited the beach minutes before, most thought due to heavy casualties they were sustaining. Then the enemy air cover began to thin, soon to practically nothing, allowing for Isotopian aircraft to shift the aircraft there to the North. It wasn't till long when the enemy fire almost completely ceased, and the enemy commander surrendered himself and what appeared to be three platoons, all that remained of Rangers on the beach.

Immediately the Isotopian artillery fire was called off, as it was considered stupid to continue to shell a surrendering enemy. Slowly Isotopian and Cardwithian forces began to approach the surrendering forces. The Anti-Monarchy forces were paranoid of a ambush, so necessary precautions had to be taken.

A officer used a mega phone to order the Rangers around. "Everyone on your knees! Anyone who is caught standing will be considered a act of aggression! Which will be met with force!" The Isotopians began to separate the Rangers by platoon, and began to take them off the beach for transport to makeshift POW camps further inland, the Isotopians also collected the enemy wounded and began to transport them to field hospitals further inland.

This was the Isotopians first victory on the Cardwith's, hopefuly it wouldn't be the last.

Blue Beach

Isotopian vehicles, primarily trucks/jeeps but also APC's and tanks that were still stuck in the traffic jams were systematically destroyed by Pro-Monarchist soldiers who rampaged through the clogged roads. Friendly armor, mostly of Lyran and Soviet origin began to return fire to the soft skinned Uli vehicle's, who typically exploded on impact if the Isotopians could manage to hit them.

Within the city, limited numbers of Isotopian infantry, who had either been stationed there before hand or had managed to slip in during the chaos fought for their lives in horrific street fighting, likes of which hadn't been seen since Crecea.

Meanwhile, the limited numbers of Isotopian infantry (Many were already engaged in combat else ware on the island) rushed to intercept the enemy armor which was racing east ward. LY224 HIFV's, LY-4's, BMP's, and T-72's/T-80's (both fitted with ERA armor), engaged the enemy forces. Infantry who dismounted from APC's fired small arms at enemy infantry.

Orange Beach

The Isotopians, under the face of withering and intensive naval and air fire began to systematically withdraw farther inland. Many defensive positions had been hit in the murderous barrage from Edomite ships. To make sure they wouldn't be completely overwhelmed, they peeled off by platoon, one leave every four minutes. Those who ran farther inland faced enemy helicopter fire, which claimed many good men's lives as they scrambled inland. But men who had managed to survive the mad dash began to use MANPAD's and various machine guns to fire on the enemy helicopters, some of it managed to damage, destroy, or at the very least cause the helicopters to break off their attack.

[McNernia]

CHASTILLE

Ryder knew he had to do it, he had reasons for going back to Chastille, it was his order, he had the sitreps that would give him good reason for pulling Foxtrot out. The rangers as well. The men were ready to go back in. The Captain of the MRS Odin would be investigated, the damn bastard. Then again Thomas had requested evac. He entered the room silently and grimly.

"Generals, I take responsibility for this whole affair. The Special Forces were not ready for this. Also we are ready and willing to go back for them, and I can have aircraft in route to deal with the sitiuation. Also Prince Emett has made headway with Purple beach. Torusugu will fall."


NORTH CAIRDWAITH

The city of Torusugu was proving to be a tough nut to crack. The artillery was kept up as units of men headed into the warren of streets. The Navy had done a good job in trying to flatten it. The UFF here was just about on their last legs. The Hutanjians and the Havenians began the grim and dangerous task of clearing the city. Gunships circled overhead like vultures looking for prey. There were IFVs in the streets. The men moved in slowly.

[The UFF of Hutanjia]

WESTERN NESSELBERG

The mixed group of Isotopian Revolutionaries and UFF guerrillas kept on the move. Several times, they avoided close calls with Royalist helicopters and observation planes overhead. Steadily, they made progress towards their goal of linking up with the FSIS man, Yuri.
At one point they heavily debated attacking a RHA patrol that was close by, but Jorgazu was against compromising their main mission of linking up, and he was able to convince Riordian, who in turn, reigned in his men.
There would be plenty of time to attack Royalist patrols, depots and bases, once they got some clear direction and a better idea of the new network the Joint Rebel Command wanted to set up. Rather than wasting time lashing out randomly, they wanted to set sights on a certain framework of targets that would push the Royals in a certain direction.

NORTHWESTERN EAST CARDWITH

The Commander for the 4th UFF Regiment was bothered by the reports he was getting. They needed to finally get this obvious diversion ploy knocked out and locked down. One of his patrols had obviously stumbled right into them, as they no longer reported back. Their last known position had been on the way to that beach north of Montvieux. Now, the Falkasian northern command was going crazy with multiple air and ground engagements. They didn't let him get direct access to their VICE equipment, but he didn't need it to know that something was very wrong. He also had Colonel Saragaptke down in Noritts breathing down his neck to get things handled so they could send reinforcements across the channel.
Keeping one platoon of the A Co., 33rd DSR Armored in reserve, he brought the other one, consisting of 5 T-72s and a ZSU AA tank, forward, sending them towards the roads near Montvieux, if they could assist the Falkasian QRF, or at least stumble upon the Royalist troublemakers, they would be of some usefulness. Also, 2 more companies were sent to back up the Falkasian reaction force. There was no way the Royalist commandos were escaping their little corner of Northwestern East Cardwith.

[Neu Engollon]

NORTH OF MONTVIEUX
EAST CARDWITH

Cluster munitions started to detonate just behind the zodiacs heading out for the safety of the New Edomite fleet to the west. A couple RHN patrol boats were dispatched as well from the allied fleets to meet them halfway and escort them along. Air sorties over the channels continued. From the Uli AWACs coming on station, they were alerted to keep cover over the retreating Uli Lambda Company men.

Some of the Falkasian ordnance exploded close enough to the last boat to leave the beach that two of the men received some small shrapnel wounds that escaped their body armor. It wasn't enough to do damage to the sturdy raft.

Meanwhile, the Uli fighter/bombers and helicopter support that had slipped through the East Cardwith coastal defenses were breaking off their attacks on the Falkasian and UFF positions back from the coast. They were now on the receiving end of deadly rockets.
They had apparently missed a few AA and SAM sites during their suppression run, as evidenced by the missiles that chased them after their somewhat successful attacks.

The jets got away, but a Molior and Viper were hit, despite the countermeasures and evasive maneuvers taken. The crippled Viper still flew, but it slowed considerably as it shot back to the coast, following the other Uli air elements. While the multi-role jets sped for Vesselle, the choppers headed towards the nearby safety of the northern West Cardwith and the Blue beach heads firmly in Uli control.

The Molior, unlike the Viper, wouldn't make it. The transport helicopter lost motor function after the impact and flopped into a nearby field, skidding along. The flames started to spread along the top of the craft.
Warrant Officer Mencia, a Catalunyan recruited pilot, shook off the nausea and shock. He reached over to Lt. Sofie Wehrsach, his co-pilot. Her neck was at an odd angle, broken on impact. Her lifeless, glazed eyes started back at him.

"Hereux?...Renzetto? You still with me?...Hey!"

"Yeah...um, yeah. Hereux's knocked out, but breathing."

"Get him out of his harness, see if you can grab the survival and first aid packs...nevermind, wait..."

Mencia had unbuckled and stumbled his way back. As Renzetto got the injured man and started to pull him out the bay door, the CWO grabbed the packs he could. Then he moved back to the cabin and got Sofie out. He couldn't just let her burn up. The heat was becoming intense on his back. He might be on fire.

The Molior crew made their way away from the wreckage, as the bird started to pour out thick black smoke and the flames engulfed the whole body.

"Chief, you really should roll a bit on the grass. You're smoldering."

"Not now, Renzi, keep moving...That baby has enough fuel left in it to go up...Distance...dis...tance."

The Molior didn't explode after all, but it made the brightest torch they'd ever seen. They sat at the edge of the trees with their comrades pulled onto their laps.

"What now Chief?"

"Rescue or capture."

On the ground, the 3 squads of 6th Platoon, L co. were on their own without air cover for the foreseeable future. They had broken out from the beach head and were rushing through the thin copse of trees towards the Moliors that were dropping their FAVs. The timing was a little off, as they'd hoped to be present for the drop, but they within half a klick.
Trouble again reared it's hideous head. They realized they were racing rebel forces to the vehicles as other shapes broke from the other side of the clearing.
Their grenade launchers were put into action as they closed within rifle range. This was going to get hairy.

SOUTH OF BLUE BEACH
WEST CARDWITH ISLAND

Gamma, Delta, Psi and Iota fought through Anjoux, with Hutanjian armor support and continual air sorties. Light artillery was finally set up and also churning up the fortifications that held them up. In the end, it still came down to man to man, house to house fighting.

Trucks brought up crates of grenades, as the Uli troopers went through them like popcorn. Water, ammo and other essentials, including more heavy weapons and flamethrowers were also on the utility trucks and in the APCs that shuttled back and forth.
Then the trucks brought the casualties back to the aid stations set up just south of the beaches.The entrenching tools got lots of use, fighting off the close in machete charges of clumps of DSR defenders. Counter snipers were dropped air assault style onto cleared roofs to continue taking out the Cardwithian sharpshooters in the upper levels of the city.

Anjoux was now rivaling Covington City as some of the fiercest urban fighting the Regiment had ever seen. Even many spec ops recruited fighters, NATO veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, had trouble remembering anything so bitter and contested. Surrender did not seem to be an option for the Cardwithian defenders. Their ranks had thinned considerably, though, as the Uli Companies closed in on the final southern outskirts of Anjoux's suburbs. They started to encounter pockets of Isotopian troops who had filtered in, or been in place during the first hours. The advance slowed as they dealt with greater firepower and caginess of the Isotopian hold outs.

The refugee column south of Anjoux still streamed on, starting to blend with the columns from Palegata. While some random squads had been able to pinpoint rebel reinforcements on foot, they mostly left it alone. Especially after losing 3 of their FAVs and several troopers to rocket fire.
It was the Uli and royal allied helicopters that did the most damage to the enemy vehicles, losing only one Viper and a couple RHAF (Royal Hutanjian Air Force) Gazelles to AA fire. The northern central sector was just about secured. They would soon start veering east.

PALACE WAR ROOM
CHASTILLE, NEVORN

Lt. Col. Galien walked up as General Hespatu finished his brief.

"I concur with everything the General said, General Unwerth. Not much else to add. We're just about ready for Phase Two.
The only concern is that the Falkasian expected counterattack seems to be finally in effect. The first Cardwithian defenses on the Blue Beaches and in Anjoux anyway, are breached and cleared. Our armor and mech are breaking through and the Uli behind the lines, logistics disruption is having the desired effect. Any orders to redirect or new targets that we should know about?"

[New Edom]

Nourselle

"Wasn't this supposed to be a diversionary attack?" said one of the engineer officers to Colonel Hagar as they stood watching another flight of helicopters landing.

"Yes, but it seems to have been a pretty successful diversionary attack; we seem to have slaughtered the Red bastards," said Hagar with a chuckle. "But what did you expect?" he clapped the man on the shoulder and glanced at a war correspondent who was landing with the second wave. "Hey there, Tim."

"Colonel." the young man was wearing combat boots and a flak vest and helmet and just carrying his equipment, and smiled. "Good to see you looking so well."

"Thank you. Make sure you get a shot of this." To the astonishment of everyone present, Colonel Hagar began to walk rather casually towards Nourselle, with a group of Light Troops moving to the road sides, moving along the road itself, engineers going with them with metal detectors and helicopters droning overhead. Hagar lifted his voice and the Light Troops began to sing a hymn.
Holy Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty...early in the morning my song shall rise to thee!... their voices rose in surprisingly good harmony as the units began to advance towards the town, all but Hagar moving with great caution and care.

Landings near Fort Mason

Captain Zeldorinius under clouds of protective chaff and flanked by two attack helicopters took a deep breath of filthy air (laden with battle smoke, ash, whiffs of a scent of death, blood and other horrors) as his bird went down to the LZ, leapfrogging from its last position right onto fleeing Isotopians and Cardwithians, the awfully scarred man with his web like look to one side of his face from terrible burns shouting, "Follow me!" and taking his CP out of the bird, the other helicopters of his Troop landing around him. They had casualties being taken back to the Sterry from the last drop, and now here they were again; the heavy weapons platoon setting up their mortars and rockets quickly, machinegunners firing from the hip as they ran forward with the riflemen and grenadiers. "TROOP ADVANCE!" shouted Zeldorinius.

On the command bird, the Master of Horse, Major Rubinstein, reported to Colonel Weber who was just landing that A Troop had hit the LZ. While the Isotopian counter attack bought time for retreating forces, the 21st had left the beach and had begun moving into a flanking position of the fort itself. The staggered waves of Cannondale and Incursor attack helicopters, while distracted by the SAM and MANPADs attacks, were capable of dealing with multiple targets at once, and the pilots were trained to be aggressive, to immediately counterattack as they parried attacks with countermeasures; swiftly they began to lace the areas they had detected threats from with ripping autocannon fire, punching through light armour, hammering through buildings and cover.

Moving in from the beach, Lieutenant Ephren lost all control of his body for a moment as there was a wave of terrible heat and whirling fragments all around him, half his CP cut to pieces in seconds by the destruction of his Javelin APC. He lay on the ground, thinking to his horror that he had lost his lower body--all he felt was wetness...and as he frantically tried to move, he realized to his utter relief that he had merely shit and pissed himself. He didn't even think of humiliation; he was sobbing to realize he still had his legs, his genitals, his ass, and then had to crawl towards one of his NCOs who was screaming as hot metal burned under his collar, one of his arms ripped to rags, and he had to help the man. Other APCs were moving past the wreckage of his platoon, he stammered names but realized that before the enemy had retreated his forward platoon had been decimated. He couldn't remember the words. He couldn't...he stared around him; smoke poured out of wreckage, fires licked here and there, and a butcher's yard beyond belief all around him, and finally he managed to scream "MEDIC!!!"

The Fleet

The Hellion attacks came swiftly--one of the fastest non-ICBM missiles in the world's arsenals, it struck almost at the speed of thought relative to the distance, and even as the Storm Giant had adjusted fire to focus its powerful guns ahead of the area calculated for operations for the 21st, and at the same time aimed 20 Exocets at the Isotopian flagship, anti-missile batteries already focused on the Isotopian fleet were adjusting fire to deal with the missiles striking at them. In addition, two shadowhawk pilots fired off a missile barrage at the missiles inbound. The unexpected attack from inland was dealt with well, but not perfectly well as the Tuulikki Class cruiser was struck with an explosion the size of a house at the waterline. To the horror of people who saw it--to Admiral Galt it looked like someone had taken a toy ship and simply folded it in half.

"Mother of God." someone in the CIC said. No one needed to give orders to send a rescue, but Galt had to sternly turn his mind away from what he knew was happening. Flooding compartments rushing with water and dying men and women screaming as the lights went out and the ship pulled them under; deck crews desperately scrambling up companionways, and people desperately dropping like fleas off a dying animal from the ship, some...perhaps many...sucked down with it.

It was almost a reflex to target the enemy in turn, and like falcons a flight of UAVs were directed to fire ATGM (Brimstone) missiles as they were fed the target by intelligence officers on the carrier New Edom, moving up to about 10 KM range before doing so; at the same time a flight of Sparrowhawks were ordered to do a search and destroy mission against the battery that had launched the missiles.

Palace War Room

Unwerth nodded to the McNernian. "See to it then. These things will happen. See what can be done. It's too bad, but there it is." turning to Hespatu, he said, "Let's have a bombardment of the Falkasian movements, with fighter bombers, bombers and we can provide escorts of a flight of Shadowhawks from our carrier. If that is feasible, General, let's get it done."

A report came in by the satellites set up for communications and intelligence by the Estovakivans and Edomites, from Colonel Weber, that the flanking movement around Fort Mason had begun: the Isotopian and Cardwithian forces were on the retreat; Marines landing effectively with some casualties, light casualties in the 21st.

[McNernia]

CHASTILLE


Adm Ryder saluated. His grey eyes glinted with the prospect of the coming action. "General Unwerth you wil not be dissapointed." He saluted and left the war room. There was an C-7 Carrier Cargo aircraft waiting for him. He boarded and headed out. His staff had come with hims so he could plan with Unwerth if he had to. He turned to them now.

"Ok people, we need to get an operation going."

Intelligence cheif Donald Lewis spoke "The Rangers have been taken to the west of West cairdwaith it would seem from the most recent SAT pass." he got a raised eyebrow from the Admiral. "Also the UAVs have been monitoring the sitiuation as per your orders."

"Good, good. Major Daniels I am sorry you were not with your men, you are the senior Special Forces officer wich means you must be with me."

Daniels nodded at the truth in the statements of the Admiral. "F-Squadron is in poor shape, about 2/3 are either dead or wounded and well the rangers are also in poor shape."

Peterson nodded, "Can you put together at least 50 men or so to raid the POW camp?"

"I think I could."

The transport landed on the Iliad and the staff disembarked. The Admiral went to his office to plan the whole thing according to the intelligence he had wich was not much. And SATINT it seemed was delayed with something elese. Time to call on the MRAF SAC.


KAISONG ISLANDS
MRAF SAC
9th SRW

The AR-95s of the 9th SRW had been on call for the whole of the war in Hutanjia. The big long black jets of the 3rd Squadron had been constantly airborne flying some sorties to take pictures and transmitting them to Chastille and the Kaisong Islands. The pilots who flew these birds were some of the best and the machines were very good aircraft. The night fell over the base as a briefing was called for a crew. The two men donned their pressure suits before heading to the breifing. They had their helmets under their arms.

The two men stood to attention as the briefing officer came into the room. The briefing officer bade them be seated, a former FR.95 pilot he knew what those suits were like to wear in a tropical place. The lights were dimmed.

"Evening gentlemen. I take it you have heard of the whole Hutanjia thing."

The two crew men nodded.

"So, let us begin. The mission is to take pictures of the island of West Cairdwaith. SATINT is unavailable. So the job falls to us as a unit. You are looking for a prision camp of some kind. Yes a prision camp ,Special Forces are going to attack it and well, you will encounter SAM sites and radar may pick you up. But you can surely outrun them." There was a kind of banter among such men. "You will have specifics sent to you enroute.'" The two pilots stood up saluted and filed out of the room. Two airmen carried their cooling cases that were a nesscessity.

They boarded a van outside the headquarters building and drove to the flight line, the animals of the jungle sounded distant in the helmets and the van. The van came to a stop and the crew disembarked. Under the flood lights looking out onto the strip like some bird longing to take to the wing was the FR.95 the two men would be flying. The two pilots climbed up the gantry and settled themselves into the cockpit. The technicians helped the pilots in their borderline space suits conner their pipes to the systems of the aircraft. The Canopy was closed and the thumbs up signals started to sprout as the ground equipment was cleared away.

"Stand by, spin engines." the large turbofan at the back of the jet ignited moving it towards the runway. The two large scram jets were "dormant" they would be ingnited later. The jet turned onto the runway.

"Hawk eye one, runway clear."

"Copty control run clear. Request takeoff clearence."

"Take off clearence granted."

"Roger that." The pilot shoved the throttle forward and the aircraft thundered down the runway and into the air, the turbofan made it sound like a fighter jet or an airliner taking off. The jet climbed up to the edge of space. At about 70,000 feet up in the air the turbofan was deactivated and the scramjet engines were ignited. The jet flew over the Cairdwaiths in long circles taking pictures.


Tosugoru
North Cairdwaith

The DSRCDF bastards just kept on coming. There was fighting hand to hand in the city streets. The Mcnernians had taken flamethrowers on board for their practicality in dealing with the DSRCDF troops that were holed up in the ruins. The Hutanjians had proved invaluable in helping to learn about using the flame throwers. The Mcnernians soon became adept at the use of the flamethrowers in the close quarters. A constant annoyance would be and was the DSRCDF bayonet charges with machetes.

A patrol of Havenians moved into the city. The night was cool and there was the odd gunshot. Fires burned from Naval and air strikes. The worry was the insurgents that were hiding. The Havenians had bloodied their blades on these fuckers. The invasion force had swept north and west all around the city the forces had fought. There were rebel holdouts in need of a good walloping. The patrol moved through the city.

"No sign of anything."

"Famous last words."

THUNK. "You here that?" the Havenians lowered their NVGs looking around the city. "All clear, wait, you see that guy."

"Hey you." the man ran on . The soliders fired at him. He was on the ground, dead. A cry went up as a bunch of Reds charged the Havenians who had bayonets fixed. The Havenians met them with automatic fire and the bayonet. The men stood very little change against such men as the Kings Havenian RIfles. The soliders had killed most of them. One was still alive, he was shot for he was wounded very badly. And so the war continued.


MRS Troy
Special Forces contingent


Thomas sat in his bunkroom staring at the wall, "Damn my eyes, I should have put the wounded in boats and called for more air support." he was tired, like any good leader in the Mcnernian military he was seeing to his men who were tired. His mind was on the Hutanjian rangers he had left behind. The poor fuckers, they were forced to surender, they were not his responsibility one side of his mind said, the other was aruging he was the senior officer on the field so he should have been the one to get them out. The door recieived several knocks.

"Who the fuck are ya and whaddya want with me."

"Laurnce its me."

"David, I thought it was you."

Lt David Tyrun of the 13/2 rangers entered the room and sat next to his navy comerade. "What is eating you?"

"Fucking ,guess"

"I know it has been eating me too."

"Should we have left them behind?"

"I dunno, we have orders and we obey them."

"Does that excuse the act of abandonding ones allies?"

"I dunno, I came to tell you that we are to report to breifing."

"Ahhh ok." The two men got up and left the room heading for the breifing room wich was a converted sort of cargo bay. There were a bunch of men their in uniform ready to go. Major Peter Daniels was the one delivering the breifing. The two men took their seats.

"Alright lads I know we had that Cockup on Ranger beach and we need to redeem ourselves. The Honor of Special Forces is at stake." He pressed a button on his remote that he had. The screen in front of the room came up with a picture of a makehift prision camp. The men looked it over and were quiet. "This is the place where the men we left behind are being held."

There was silence as the men looked over the pictures, they had papers that were reports of the analysis of the faciltiy from SATINT and the MRAF regarding what could be gleaned from the facility, The intelliengce was good, the number of gaurds and the various defenses. Land mines were a possibilty and yet this was a place that would be devoted to keeping trained soliders inside.

"No questions gentlemen?"

There were none. The mission was clear.

"Ok , no questions boys. Hit the firing range, Recce teams go in tomorrow." The units stood up and left to the firing range in a cargo bay. The quality of the marksman ship was never really in doubt, it was a Special Forces unit after all. They shot well enough. There were some wounded who were deemed fit to return to duty. They were put through Rehab on the ship and deemed fit for this action.

The next day several sticks of six men transfered to the six deisel submarines that had been there. It was to be a small unit style thing. Not a mass full squadron raid on a beach for no appearent reason other than to cause a diversion. This was to be a cordinated raid on the


AVIATORS


The aircraft onboard the Sparta had undergone a checking over, Illusions were checked, the same with the helicopters that would be used in the raid on the camp. The pilots were breifed on the mission at hand. There was an airbattle over north cairdwaith. That left few fighter jets to make the coverage good for the raid on West Cairdwaith and the prision camp. The big helicopters that would be used to evac the commandos and their charges were made ready.

The plan was told to the pilots of the Illusions. They were good flyers well trained in the arts they were being asked to conduct, namely road cratering and areial interdiction of enemy reinforcments to the prision camp. The helicopter pilots were trained in what the brass called "clandestine manuvers" wich was quite a summary of the skills expected of each pilot of the helicopters.


Command Staff:

Peterson was happy that things were going as planned, He had his forces loaded and ready to go. But as was war he thought it best before kicking off such an operation as the one that was planned out he wrote general Unwerth.

MAXIMUM MILITARY PROTOCOL

From: Vice Admiral Ryder Peterson
To: Lt Gen Johnathan Unwerth

Greetings

The plans are place general. The assets are in position. I thought it only proper to consult the commanding authority.

[Hutanjia]

ACROSS NESSELBERG

With the shipping out of most of the Ranger Companies and the remaining companies of the 21st and 34th RHA Regiments on the defense to protect the vital staging area of Vesselle, many of the counter insurgency patrolling duties had fallen to the KHS Special Detachments. The KHS troops had scattered operating bases all over the island.

Chief Atave also had reinforcements shipped in from Nevorn to bolster operations. They played cat and mouse games with UFF guerrillas from the 4th and 5th and dozens of PAST cells still operating behind the lines. 'Control' of many of the coastal fishing villages and the few inner tribal hamlets switched back and forth between the KHS and the UFF. Not knowing who to trust and who would put them under the machete, the rural Nesselbergians (everyone outside the greater Vesselle region) did not even claim to have mayors, chiefs or any kind of leadership for their people anymore. If one did openly stepped forward, their lives were measured in days, and usually that of their whole family, too. Even the protected 'safe' villages established by the Royalist Allies in the north for relocated civilians weren't immune to reprisals and infiltration.

Both sides committed atrocities. PAST and KHS moles were also prevalent. While the KHS tended to rely on pressure and threats for recruitment, the UFF relied on morality, patriotism and vengeful feelings. Both sides also used copious amounts of redirected foreign aid money to good effect to keep the info flowing. It was the dirtiest politics played out every day for the highest life and death stakes. In the meantime, the common people attempted to survive and eke out a life.

SOUTHEASTERN NESSELBERG

The hamlet of Rogtwjuk was the target of Stingray team, a KHS Special Squad. Rogtwjuk was a southern outpost, on the main road that led to the Southeastern coast. Beyond the road lay nothing but dense thick jungle and it was 20 kilometers to the nearest coastline. Stingray Team worked their way in carefully, watching for UFF patrols, tripwires and boobytraps. The thick undergrowth was also extremely hindering.

They would observe from cover for a couple days before moving in on suspected UFF members. They reached their destination and camouflaged themselves and their gear well, setting up three outlook points surrounding the small village. They didn't have to wait long for the appearance of the rebels.

ABAMETE, NORTH CARDWITH

It crept its way along the shifting piles of white and grey drywall and concrete dust, its legs lightly dusted in the powder. Eight hairy legs found purchase and kept moving along, over a brass AK shell and back down. It climbed up the maroon plastic of the AKM's barrel hand grip and paused to shake a dusty leg off from the grains of grit. The hairs of a spider were its main sensory organs after all.

Finally, it picked a course up the barrel, instead of down towards the receiver. Brown and red concentric designs swirled out from it's abdomen, also called a opisthosoma to it's prosoma, the head and thorax. It was both beautiful and deadly, a female from the markings. It was called a Hutanjian Plantain Spider, and it was quite venomous. One bite would not kill a man instantly, but without treatment, in a few days it would have its deadly effect. In high school, Corporal Mitchell Gyamapte had studied specimens of it, along with others. He had won a Science Prize for his behavior studies of the spiders. He had signed up with the Marines with no real prospects for a scientific career on the islands. Now here he was, with a Hutanjian Plantain Spider, the deadliest on the islands, crawling next to him. It was rare to see it out of the deep jungles of Nesselberg. A coastal town in North Cardwith would not be its preferred habitat, but stranger things had been seen.

Outside were voices, foreign, Falsean, confident. They had been part of the counterattack that had struck back hard at the 8th Royal Marines here near the southern outskirts of Abamete. He lay waiting, hopefully corpse like enough to pass rough inspection by the Falsean patrols that were ghosting past on their way to hit the main thrust of the 35th RHA.

On the other side of the debris pile that Mitchell had burrowed himself in and covered himself with, was the body of his squadmate, Private Wapuma, squashed up against the wall.
The smell of drywall caked in his nose only did so much to stifle the smell coming from Wapuma. Besides being eviscerated by the heavy machine gun, he had voided himself at the moment of death. Dignity in death was a priviledge and a rarity for most.

The Falseans were too throrough in their search. Two of them crawled through the window, widened by a shell blast. They climbed over the debris piles and looked over Wapuma. Then they spotted Gyamapte, or the part of him not covered in debris.

They poked at him. Thankfully, they didn't have bayonets attached to their rifles. The two men started to move on and then the worst happened. His body picked that moment to sneeze. They spun and fired off their Kalashnikovs. He took a round through his arm and it went instantly numb. At the same time, he'd rolled, bringing up his AKM, spraying the two enemy troopers and the wall behind them.

They had body armor on them, but they still fell from the impacts. He'd gotten one through the legs, his comrade dragged him out the door and flipped a grenade back into the room.

Corporal Gyamapte scrambled for the grenade, but was not able to grab it before it exploded into his face, shredding it into hamburger. The Corporal fell onto the debris of the ruins, quickly bleeding out. The spider, on the other hand, had survived being flung off the rifle and into the corner of the room. It decided to scale the wall and move to higher horizons.

PALEGATA, WEST CARDWITH

The RHAF Mi-24s raced in to deal with the enemy armor. On the ground, tanks from the 29th Armored were also racing to close in on the reported position. Were the rebel T-72s allowed to keep taking out Saracens and BMPs at will, it might seriously hold up the progress of the invasion on the Green Beaches. Reports kept coming in from Kiowas that buzzed low enough to spot the column but not close enough to get cut down by the ZSUs that were part of the Cardwithian armor unit. They were on the move and faster without accompanying infantry, but they were also vulnerable to Royal infantry teams armed with AT launchers. The net closed.

The RHA T-72s flanked past the enemy tanks, while Saracens with mounted TOW launchers stood by to strike if the DSR tanks moved forward. The Royalist T-72s, four from the north and three from the south, got within firing range of the Cardwithians, as the RHAF Hinds hung back from the ZSU AA tanks' range.

VESSELLE AIR BASE

The three remaining TU-22Ms of the RHAF were refueled and rearmed after their runs on northern West Cardwith. In compliance with orders from Generals Unwerth and Hespatu, they would be heading back up to hit the troublesome Falkasian missile batteries on East Cardwith. They would be joined by a considerable allied escort of superiority fighters, hopefully also joined by the new Uli F-36 fighters arriving at Trakanu AB.

SOUTHERN WEST CARDWITH

The remaining Royal Hutanjian Rangers did as they were told by their Isotopian captors, kneeling on the beach as they were ziptied and led away to the trucks. It was hard to come to terms with having victory so close and having it all collapse around them so quickly.
They didn't know their destination, but hoped their captivity would be short, considering the Royalist forces driving from the north.

[McNernia]

Nesselburg
Mcnernian Royal Marines
35 Commando


Some Marines had been detailed to gaurd the Veselle base that was the hub of the operations to invade the Cairdwaiths. The presence of UFF behind the lines nesscessitated the use of force to root them out. Two battalions of Marines were detailed to protect the civilian areas. The KHS were regarded with a bit of mistrust, the friendly fire incidents were remembered. There was an odd kinship among Marines. The civilians did not trust the foriegners, the marines and Royal Engineers decided to start doing small acts of kindness for the locals. They patroled around the island, they were there to protect the people from the UFF ,the Government , KHS. The whole thing was a bit strange.

The civilians were struggling that much was clear as the patrol entered the villiage. The Marines were wary of the civilians, there had been french courses wich had been snapped up so it was a bit easier to communicate with the locals. There had been truckloads of aid from the Kaisong Islands that had been flown into Vesselle. The Marines came into the town with weapons in easy reach.

"What is this villiage?"

"Map says Rogtwjuk, dont ask me to pronounce it again."

"Dont worry I wont.:" The Leiutenant in charge of this outing from a firebase was a bit worried about the conditions of the locals. The whole place seemed to stink, the KHS would be watching the people. He had seen similar stuff in Al-Azkar. He had only been there on the end of things. So he could not rightly speak of that place.

One of the Marines spoke to a child in french.

"We are here to help."


NORTH CAIRDWAITH
2nd Horse Gaurds

The night came on and the tanks still moved around the field of battle. The HT9A7s of 2 battalion were spread out in the jungle near Abmante running artillery duty. A great many of the guns were away near Tosugoru The tanks were sealed against the hot air. They waited with crews of men who were tired and somewhat annoyed. The Falsean lines were not entirely breached, that fell to other gaurdsmen in armored vehicles. The top hatches were to remain closed, risk of UFF tossing in grenades. The night wore on, then a call came in.

"Ok. plantoon 3 F company. Under fire. Neil ya got the cordinates."

"Yeah, HE in the chamber." the motors sounded as the big gun was raised under the covering."

"Fire" the gun lurched and the casing was ejected.

"That is a hit." The crew cracked open a soda each and settled down to wait until the next call came in.


OVER NORTH CAIRDWAITH
Fleet Air Arm Illusions

The battle had worn on. The Falseans were good pilots, the Mcnernians had claimed some but well now some had been claimed it would seem, an Illusion had spiraled past Dobbs canopy the pilot was struggling to control his plane. Dobbs looked around for the mans attacker. There was a Su-35 heading straight at him. Dobbs banked for his life. The battle was changing against the Mcnerians it would seem ,the skill of the enemy was clear.

"Ghost 5-6 Ive got him"

"Shit I got one on my tail, dumping flares."

The pilots had dissolved into a state of mutual awareness, missiles were fast running out so some were at guns dogfighting, some had missiles and these they fired at the Falseans. They fired back. The SAMs were less of an annoyance to the pilots for more MIGs and Sukhois were joining the battle for the Cairdwaith. Illusions were holding the line keeping the space clear of the enemy, but the Falseans were still coming. Dobbs was tired but his system was beeping at him

RADAR LOCK,RADAR LOCK

"Yeah, yeah." Dobbs looked over his shoulder, miG 35, tough bugger to bag. His HMD locked the man up, the missle was released and the Mig broke away.

Kill

"yeah."

"All aircraft, releif force en route."

Dobbs put on speed to get away.

[Falkasia]

Doing this piecemeal. Will respond to island business next post tomorrow. PLUS Yuri.

Northern WEST Cardwith

All 30 Shadowhawks streaked across the ocean. Whether on part of luck or simple deft skill, they had managed to evade whatever RADAR coverage permeated the island and channel. There remained the question as to who was presently in control of said RADAR coverage, but the matter at hand belayed such a fact. Very little had escaped West Cardwith since the initial assault, except for the very audible explosions that rocked the area. Allied positions were unknown, but the enemy movements were easy enough to locate.

Just offshore, Moroslav gave the order to form up.

"All right gentlemen," he said stoically over the communicator. "We have arrived at the Gates of Hell. If you haven't already done so, dispense your prayers and piss now before we go in."

He allowed a short moment for final words to be shared. His VICE overlay quickly filled in with green lights.

"Ok then guys... this is it... were gonna be facing air targets only. Scatter and evade any SAM launches, although given the active nature of the ground engagements below, I highly doubt either side has static defenses up yet..."

A chorus of confirmations came over his headset.

"Fighters only! IFF and VICE should do an effective job of managing who's who. Stay together in pairs, and you should be well off...And I don't need to remind you... if you have to ditch and pull off surviving, move inland. The Iso's are holed up in the center... any questions?"

There was no reply as Anatoly waited, the distance between them and the coastline closing rapidly.

"Good to go. All Flights, assume attack formation Delta..."

The 30 aircraft splintered, forming three distinct groups of their respective Flights.

"Romeo, Delta Formation... I'm in front," Chenko put flatly, attempting to cancel out pre-op nerves with neutral inflection.

"Zvezda... time to party... Delta formation," Gavrin had different ideas, prefering a vivacious cowboy approach.

In their three wings, Romeo, Oka, and Zvezda fired off a volley of targetted long-range missiles as they screamed over the sandy beach. Their oblong black shapes were shilouetted against the rich blue water only momentarily as they burned altitude, jinking to avoid small arms fire from troops on the beach.

"After the opening engagement, we need a ten-mile spread," Chenko screamed over the radio as he flung his Shadowhawk into a radical roll to avoid errant tracer fire. "Gavrin, think you can handle some independent CAP?"

======

Noritts

Vadim eyed the VICE display in front of him with intensity. While the transgressors were more or less neutralized to the north, and the new air offensive opening up over West Cardwith, the addition of several airborne targets originating from Vesselle proved troublesome.

"We can deal with them, no doubt about it," he said coldly in his usual manner. "Its a matter of maintaining adequete presence here in Norrits."

"Yea, I would tend to agree. Its better to only deploy required assets, whereas keeping the rest liquid allows for flexible response."

The FSIS Attache removed his beret and scratched the tuft of hair concealed underneath. Hs sideburns were streaked grey, despite the rather youthful appearence of his face.

"Indeed," Vadim mumbled.

He pressed his index and middle finger together, drawing a virtual circle around the 1st Battalion Warhawks on patrol just to the south of Noritts. In an instant, VICE recognized his input and instantly selected the unit's real-time data stream. A context menu appeared, featuring a rough sit-rep coupled with a live-stream video from the squadron leader's helmet camera. A line was instantly opened.

"Noritts Base, this is 1st Battalion. You called?" he spat out rather quickly.

"Da," Vadim replied, "New orders... we've got a sizeable bogey force approaching from Vesselle... alongside another contingent from the Edomite Fleet... redirect and run air cover over Bala Vega."

"Roger that sir," the squadron leader quickly shot back.

VICE instantly alerted the two to the Battalion's course correction, alongside a visual depiction of their trajectory and ETA lain eschew to the map's topography.

"Make sure you deploy pickets... lighten them up as best you can... ground assets should deal with the rest."

"Roger that," the squadron leader mimiced himself.

Vadim closed the channel, highlighting the 42nd's position along the coast. Vital statistics were displayed, although a latent datemark at the bottom suggested a significant delay since their CO had inputted new data. It would suffice. A channel was automatically opened, upon which Vadim would recieve live updates.

"Get ready for an airborne assault. We've got fighters scrambled, but have your SAMs on high alert. No surprises this time."

The commander said nothing, replying to Vadim only by relaying the orders down the line in the background.

"They'll cover you... keep up the fire if you can. I udnerstand the first barrage had marginal effect on target?"

"Aye sir. We saw several explosions, but my VICE feed maintains only one of their larger capitol vessels was struck fatally. I'd call that mroe than marginal, sir."

Vadim said nothing, instead staring down the map as it flash-updated in real-time.

"How long until the launchers are ready again?"

"Not long sir. Maybe ten minutes... half an hour at most. We've got the leftover Hellion II's berth'd... just waiting on Intel to send down the targets."

"Good... what about the others?"

"They're arriving staggered, sir. We've got several trucks that pulled in about twenty minutes ago packing the AShMs. We'll mount those up once the Hellion's are off... drivers are complaining of something blocking the road though sir... might wanna check it out."

"Thank you for the head's up Captain. Fight smart. Norrits Out."

The line was closed with a single tap on the virtual interface. Vadim and his attache exchanged glances.

"This should get interesting."

The FSIS Agent nodded. "Yes, but with the Exocets arriving, I doubt this assault should do much of anything."

"I wouldn't go that far. You still need machinery to launch these missiles... otherwise we might as well strap them to planes for additional fuel. All the same though, with the forces we're committing here, the bombers should have a negligible effect."

"Are you planning on keeping the launchers operational the whole?"

"Of course," Vadim spat. "If they aren't firing, what purpose are they serving? Weren't we just discussing getting back into the game?"

Their VICE alerted them once again to the approaching enemy.

"How much time do we have?"

"Enough to get off the remainder of the Hellions, that's for sure."

"Should be enough for the time being," the FSIS Attache smirked.

[Hutanjia]

ROGTWJUK
SOUTHERN NESSELBERG

Stingray Team had observed for a day and watched as what could only be UFF cadres ordered around some of the villagers and prowled underneath huts in the center of the village. They were stashing an arms cache for later use.

Sergeant Kalaptga had seen enough, the KHS Special Team would move on the village within an hour. He signaled the plan and they spread out, prepared to net their prey before they weaseled out of the coming trap. A boy, no more than 13, ran up to one of the UFF men breathless. The drafted runner looks hysterical, but at this distance, the KHS men can't overhear what he's sputtering out. It's enough to put the UFF men in frantic motion. They check once more under the huts and two of the men head down a path leading towards the creek. The other two head out to huts at the edge of the village, away from the center. They duck in to them, no need for disguises as they all wear the typical drab peasant garb.

Sgt. Kalaptga motions again for his team to be ready, but hold in place. Five minutes later, a McNernian patrol trots into the village, oblivious to the drama they put in motion. Mackie Marines! Why do they always show up at the most opportune times? They would wait it out, watching to see what the McNernians would do.
They had orders to avoid the allies, especially the Mcnernians, as much as possible. Stingray Team would do their best to stick to those orders.

IN THE VILLAGE

The foreigners came into the village, and as usual for the last few weeks, no adult came out to greet them. No one wanted to be mistaken for a leader and jailed, or worse. The children ran out, knowing that they didn't have to fear a rampaging UFF group, as they were already under the watch of one, also this was not a vengeful KHS group, as they were obviously white foreigners.
The children begged for candy:
"Bon bons?" and slipped little hands into the Marines' pockets and web gear, coming out with trinkets, letters and even money, which quickly disappeared into the pockets of their own soiled, raggedy shorts.
A little girl named Ophelia looked up at the lead Marine and he spoke to her,

"Nous sommes la pour vous aider."

She looked on with a blank gaze, before recognition struck her. The man was using the missionary language. One word stood out, shared with the patois they spoke deep in this part of the jungle.
Eh-deyr

They wanted help! It must be the heat, they were sweating profusely. She held up a hand to him to wait and ran back to her home. The Mcnernians looked on, dumbfounded.
She returned with water, brought up from the well that morning. She held the clay pot out to the soldier, smiling and proud.

"Ez de oo! Me ay-dey tow."

A woman stepped out of the same hut,
"OPHELEE! Wah de tow fe? Gi ba' en de' shou!"

Terror stricken, the girl ran back to the hut and ducked under the arm of the swatting woman. She'd left the clay pot in the hands of the Marine. The irate woman walked up defiantly to the patrol.

"Why are yoo 'er? We have nuttin' for yoo cracks. You tak ar oo, wasee - also? Go aweh!"

CHASTILLE

General Hespatu gave several orders to ensure that the RHAF Mig 29s, Mirages and F-16s were refueled and back up to escort the Backfire bombers to East Cardwith. The call also went out to Allied air support. Every available aircraft that wasn't already running a sortie over Nesselberg or northern West Cardwith was put into play.
The Uli Regiment's new planes were being serviced and matched up with pilots at Trakanu. For now, they only had a handful of pilots that were able to fly the new F-36 Joint Superiority Fighters.
After tackling a few other minor issues, Hespatu prepared to depart himself for Vesselle, preparing to be closer to the action. He would also be relieved to get away from the tense capital. The KHS presence was overbearing lately. They seemed to be everywhere and ever closer to the Palace.

To be sure, before he left, he would be visiting the commanders of the 5th RHA and the 2nd Royal Army Rangers, and most importantly, the leader of B Company of the 29th Armored. He needed to probe their loyalty and check on their vigilance. He had crawling sensations that Atave was up to no good and he didn't need a waffling, ineffectual Army commander at the heart of Hutanjia at such a vulnerable time. Worse yet, if the Mongoose had bought off one of the commanders, it could spell the doom of the Kingdom ultimately.

The Edomite women also made him nervous. He knew the Council Policewomens' presence should be a comfort and counterbalance to his other fears, but their foreignness and eerie demeanor gave him the creepies just as much. He would be glad to get away, if even for a brief couple days from both the KHS and Edomite CP's to the clarifying saneness of Vesselle and the mundane logistical tasks awaiting him there. He stepped into an armored, covered jeep and they pulled away from the Palace with an escort.

[McNernia]

ROGTWJUK
NESSELBURG
35 Commando

The leiutent in charge looked over at the woman. "Uhh your daughter is a good girl.." he put the pot down and stepped back a little while. The fact that the little hands were looking in their pockets was easy to find out. They were aware of their surroundings and well there was the odd thing that would have to be paid for. The had plenty of candy bars wich would be enough to get back their things as it proved very good at getting the kids talking. There were a few marines who were more sticklers for objectives.

"Sir, we have to look around for any Charlie."


"Right, right. Sargent search bottom up."

"Aye sir, You heard the Lieutenant....check the huts, bottom up ya louts and if you dont remember what I mean. Check under the huts first." The men went to work checking the huts, some were clear, some were not clear. The occupants of the huts wich weapons were found under brought the Marines knocking, and their was a call for reinforcements. The Marines had mixture of kindness and well what some would call cold ruthlessness. The Lt wanted to shoot someone, these kids were wretches ,fucking miserable. The people who had been secured were talked to politely in french.

"Do you know why you are being treated like this? We found guns under your house, if you had them to defend your familie. Then you would keep them in your house no? Well we may turn you over to the KHS if you dont talk."

"Scout B-1/3, to base. We have found an arms cache in this town."

"Have you secured subjects.?"

"Yes, we have".

The sound of a helicopter was a welcome thing, that meant that reinforcements were on the way, not that a perimeter was not already set up. The platoon was well trained in such things as what they were doing now.

The AT 25 helicopters were high overhead looking around for more terrorists. The helicopters had Airmobile Marines on board who were good at fast high speed insertions. The pilots scanned the jungle with their cameras. The men were tense in the back. The helicopters hovered guns sweeping the jungle

"Vulture 4-6, I dont see anything."

"4-6 they are in the jungle. Maintain station." The choppers circled the villiage.

[The Cardwith Islands]

GAUMAIN

Nellis sat with some of his commanding Generals and officers while Leila sat in the next room with the VICE set up loaned to them by the Falkasians. It was like a video game addiction for her. The President was having an increasingly difficult time peeling her away from that to attend to other duties. On the other hand, her almost constant updates to the DSR units out on the front lines was crucial to the current effort. She would scroll and touch the screen several times, then punch info into her secured tablet, sending it out on the command text channels.
She seemed to hardly eat, sleep or take care of personal business.

"Mr. President, I need to get out to the front," this from the deputy commander of the 9th DSR Regiment, Colonel Dweganu. He checked his watch.

"Yes, about that, Colonel...how much longer are we going to be able to maintain a front?"

"Well, sir, it's getting a whole lot closer to Jalakra than we'd like. There are some hold out pockets around Palegata and Anjoux, but many of them are being enveloped and overtaken by the Royalist forces. As you know, they've leapfrogged in around us and have units and gunships causing disruptions behind the lines...besides our own civilians fleeing the fighting and bombings. Those two factors have held up reinforcements from getting to the collapsing front. The Isotopians are holding around Fort Mason, but getting encircled as well. It's only a matter of time, I fear."

The 6th DSR Commander spoke up,
"Sir, we have seen a clearing and cleaning up of the southern beaches that they hit. Other than Nourselle, which has temporarily fallen. We are bringing several reinforcements in from the west, now that their fighting is done, the 2nd Brigade is coming to the aid of the 3rd Brigade, and the 2nd and 3rd Isotopian Revolutionary Brigades as well are swinging many of their forces to bear on the Royalists at Nourselle. The Edomites have moved into the town, but should they move any further to the outskirts they will run into some nasty concealed defenses of the Isotopians and ours. They seem to be pretty casual according to our observers, considering they are about to be hit by a wall of our men rushing from the west.
Regarding our comrades in the North:
We are sending several companies of the 1st Brigade up from Ugeteka to meet up with the forces in Jalakra. Soon, we should be able to send more to help in the north with the 9th and the Isotopian defenders. We might also need to consider evacuating into my sector further south...including your headquarters here, Mr. President."

Leila had walked in, "It might even be safer to get you off the island altogether. The Isotopians have space on one of their subs, the safest way to avoid the enemy air patrols right now. I would like to get you and some of our officials to East Cardwith."

"Is it really as dire as that. What of the Falkasians?"

"The Falkasians are coming, and their air force is in action, but they can't bolster the northern front when there's not much left to bolster. Gaumain may not be safe anymore in the next couple days, we have to be pro-active, here, sir."

"Very well. Let's not give up yet. It sounds like we still have some fight left in us."


OVER THE NORTHERN
WEST CARDWITH FRONT

The Estovakivan missiles streaked in towards their targets, a mass of Isotopian modern MIG fighters. The MIGs were pursuing other Royalist fighters that were in turn, pursuing Isotopian gunships and missile batteries.

Right off the bat, five were hit with the AIMs and turned into fireballs. The rest took evasive action and launched out counter measures, with no skimping on the button. Four more fighters were hit by near bursts or crippling blows and limped back to their airfields in central West Cardwith or the Air Base south of Hesttens. Isotopian gunships also took some hits and the survivors had to take evasive actions. The missiles seemed to blanket the sky for a wide radial area around the Orange Beach LZs and Hesttens area. Many were unable to connect to their targets because of jamming, chaff and flares, but enough did to really throw a wrench in the Isotopian air defense. It left a hole for the Edomite gunships and Terriers to exploit.
The Estovakivan Ae-98Ks continued the pressure from afar. The Isotopian MIGs responded to the enemy, trying to both evade the barrage and circle around and turn the tables on their predators.

Just ahead of the Falkasian Shadowhawks, the two surviving CAF MIG 29s joined the fight. ACC at Noritts, knowing how outclassed they would be by many of the recent arrivals that didn't put off a slower signature like the RHAF MIGs, tasked them to aid the Isotopians chasing down the RHAF Mig 25s, and Mirages, plus the numerous gunships and RHAF light attack helicopters (Gazelles and Kiowas) that had been visually sighted and were continuing to cause issues at the front for the defending forces. Two measley planes were a drop in the bucket as far as representation in the air was going at the moment, but for the Cardwithian military it was their sole ability to fight in the air and it had to count for something. Their honor was at stake to have a good showing in their own home defense.

As far as the whole rest of the Air War was going, the bulk of the McNernian Illusions and Falsean fighters seemed to be tying each other up over North Cardwith and were not a concern, or much concerned themselves with what was going on further south.

Joint Air Command at Noritts was tracking it all.
There did seem to be two more air contingents heading out from Vesselle, one mass with several fast movers protecting some slower movers, more than likely bombers. Another group had moved northwest from Vesselle, heading for the tight channel that divided all three islands. They would either touch down on North or West Cardwith, but they were definitely shooting by East Cardwith. This group seemed to have some fast movers circling a good batch of rotor wings and possibly VTOLs. Both groups were being watched and Falkasian and available Isotopian fighters were dispatched for intercept.

PALEGATA, WEST CARDWITH

B Company of the 33rd DSR Armored fought tooth and nail against the RHA onslaught. Lieutenant Entapku's tank, B-1, moved on a northeasterly track, as Corporal Lagatsu manned the RPK, he blazed away at RHA infantry that tried to get too close with their AT launchers and RPGs. They were on borrowed time now as the ZSU tank had finally been taken out by rockets from an enemy Hind. They were open to air attack. Entapku had gotten on the comms to the other tanks. It turned out that two tanks had AA launchers stowed away. Now those crew members were on the outside of their tanks, launchers raised and ready.
An RPG hit B-2, blasting the Sergeant on that tank out of his cupola and knocking loose the RPK and tumbling it, smoking, to the ground.
Lagatsu vengefully ripped into the RHA trooper who'd fired it and the team covering him. They had been too busy watching the results of their shot to remember to duck. All three of them were shredded and dumped to the ground around the outcropping of small trees they'd been hiding in earlier.
The shrinking Company of DSR armor trudged on. They had lost all their scouts, technicals converted from Toyota pickups, to enemy MGs and RPGs long ago. If they still had them, they might be able to keep the AT hunter teams at bay, but such was not meant to be.

A round from a flanking RHA T-72 slammed into the back of B-5, scoring nearly a direct hit. Supercharged gases shot the turret half off it's mounting as flames leapt out. There was no movement of men out of the burning armored beast. Then B-2 was hit again, this time from a lethal piercing round, possibly from the same enemy tank that hit B-5. It's tread broke off and skewed aside. Immobilized, B-2 was still operable as a stationary cannon. The turret swiveled and pumped a round back at the enemy tank, winning them some more time as the RHA opponent started to smoke.

Entapku turned to check the status of his remaining command, when he whipped his head back, flipping his commander's helmet back up, it was in time to watch as several black dots shooting flame got huge as they headed right for him. The Hind's rockets vaporized the Lieutenant and tore apart B-1.
Within 25 minutes, the rest of B Company, 33rd DSR Armored was similarly dispatched by the RHA encirclement, but not without considerable cost to the Royalists.

TORUSOGU

The troops of the 3rd DSR fought bravely alongside their Falsean allies against the Havenians and the 35th RHA. They took a punishing from the Mcnernian tanks, but they were able to get some shots in with AT launchers. House by house, rubble by rubble pile, they did not give ground easily. The Royalists were winning the air war, so the gunships and Illusion runs were starting to take their toll on the pockets of Falseans and Cardwithians in their bunkers. The Royalists took some prisoners, not very many, but some. The 3rd DSR commander ordered a retreat to the line of defenses outside of town, eventually, they would have to work their way east under heavy bombardment. They left many nasty surprises behind for the Royalist troops taking over Torusogu,

ORANGE BEACH/FORT MASON

The fort was becoming a mountain of rubble, more than the recognizable old colonial landmark it once was. The fort dated back to the days of the French presence, before being taken over and renamed by the conquering British commander during Hutanjia's capture in 1813. The outer aesthetics hadn't changed much, but the inside had gone through several renovations, with several underground rooms, tunnels and steel and iron reinforcements put into place prior and during the Japanese incursion in 1942 and the Indonesian invasion scare in the 60's.
Currently, half the rail guns were still in action against the Edomite troops on Orange Beach and more defenders, Isotopian and even some Cardwithians from Hesttens were arriving to bolster the defenders and burrow in for a longer siege. Some rooms were taken up by bodies of the defenders, killed by bombs, shells and rockets from the Royalist invaders.

HESTTENS

As Edomite forces got to the shattered outskirts of the Cardwithian capital, they were met by firepower from old men, boys, women and a handful of DSR Home Defense Guards to guide them. Isotopian snipers on roofs and upper floors also made the invaders' lives very unpleasant. Enemy gunship rockets and artillery pounded the defenders in turn, churning up more rubble and making tombs out of the industrial sector buildings they holed up in.

JALAKRA

The Cardwithian and Isotopians falling back from Anjoux and Palegata met the reinforcements coming up from the south. Defenses were set, bunkers of logs made and trenches dug. Mines were set and concertina wire strung. Isotopian tanks arrived and found enfilading sites to maneuver around from when the battle came. They were determined to hold Jalakra against the monarchists.

[Neu Engollon]

TRAKANU AIR BASE

Flying the planes all the way from the Mediterranean, with midair refueling from one of the Uli-Schwyz KC-135s, the first F-36 Joint Dominance Fighters arrived. Six of them landed at Trakanu in Nevorn. UNADS training staff were also flown in to help bring some other select pilots up to speed on the new superiority fighters. They were being paid substantially, courtesy of the Hutanjian Government, so that the amount of Uli pilots that were F-36 capable could be doubled in the next few days. The already trained pilots hopped another flight out on transport back to the main base. They would sleep on the flight and be ready to bring in another flight of the F-36s in a day. The new Gripens, along with other needed supplies, new replacement UAVs and new recruits, would be arriving by cargo ship in a few days. It was deemed that the front could not wait that long for the F-36s to arrive, so it had sped up the process. Another flight, piloted by the rest of the trained pilots and the other KC-135 would be arriving in another couple hours.
As sorties wrapped up, some of the selected pilots were shuttled from Vesselle to Trakanu to train with the UNADS staff and simulators. Lt. Kernau and Captain Rudolph, former downed pilots and POW, were among the pilots selected. Fatigue was a real concern, but need to bring the new planes into action overruled those concerns.

VESSELLE

Captain Shlomo Ari-Galan was itching to get into the fight. He understood that his expertise was needed at Kenega, but he'd been extremely frustrated to learn of the ongoing events at Montvieux and his being unable to help his comrades of Lambda Company. Now, many of them were back at the base after the semi-failed raid. He would be back with 6th Platoon, teaming with 7th Platoon and 5th Platoon. They were gearing back up to go in, this time to West Cardwith, to help with the assaults between Anjoux and Hesttens. They would be going in with many Hutanjian Royal Army Rangers who were also ravenous for revenge against the socialist bastards after the fiasco near Dernierville. VTOL insertion this time instead of the dreaded amphibious boats. They were in a hangar on the eastern side of the base.
Grenades were checked, rifles given a last minute cleaning and gear triple checked and stripped of unnecessary junk that would weigh them down.

"Otteni-prep wer!" (Let's get ready/suit up) The call went out from the Sergeant Major. Frandit was used traditionally, even though the Uli-Schwyz Regiments hadn't officially been Neu Engoleen in centuries.
Many of the men of 6th Platoon were not Neu Engoleen and so their Frandit was minimal, but they understood that battle call.
The Ospreys started to fire up and the blades turned on their escort Vipers as they got ready for their umpteenth mission of the campaign.

[New Edom]

Nourselle

Everyone was a little surprised; they'd expected that their diversionary attack would simply be pushed back and that they'd do a fighting retreat, but as usual, the Light Troops knew how to improvise. Colonel Hagar ordered UAVs to patrol widely around the town, and began setting up defenses. The town, to him, merely became another battleground. They didn't want to be cut off from available LZs or a direct retreat to the beach. Furthermore they began looking for local intel--civilians who had anything interesting to say (Hagar's intelligence officers tended to be rather casual about this--they started conversations, offered cigarettes and drinks, and just seemed to be gossiping to see if they could get tongues wagging). Local places that were likely to have maps were inspected and if the maps were more up to date than what they had, taken and paid for. A dressing and field ambulance station was commandeered, and any enemy wounded left behind brought there as well. For a while it was more like a really big work party than anything else, and the Light Troopers grumbled cheerfully about this. Hardass Hagar was working them to the bone again--typical. Hagar found a house or hotel to use as his temporary HQ and had radio operators, his immediate staff and a small security detail set up there. One of the things he wanted the UAVs to determine was what to expect--were reinforcements coming, were other units advancing flanking him? What was the general situation? Apparently the Rangers had been defeated, from what he had heard from Unwerth.

Fort Mason

Captain Zeldorinius gritted his teeth as his CP came under fire from the buildings on the street they were trying to advance on, and they were ducking behind a half shattered wall, one of them cursing as a ricochet that had been flying around finally landed hotly against his neck, and grabbing at it with burning fingers tossed it away. Another was sent onto her ass by a ricochet hitting her right in the chest, stopped by her body armour. "Sergeant Corwin, we need this area cleared of snipers. I want your people to spot them and mark targets for the Cannondales."

"Yes sir," came the stoic reply. Corwin for his part was crouching with his platoon behind some kind of small warehouse, with smouldering vehicles around them. They couldn't see who was shooting at them; they presumed it was retreating Isotopians or Cardwithians (who else could it be?) and they seemed to be frustratingly good shots. "Give me some covering fire," he told two of the squad leaders; as they opened up on the surrounding buildings with grenade launchers, assault rifles and machienguns, he took a peek with a mirror at what was going on, and watched for muzzle flashes, though he was sure that any sniper worth his salt would have a suppressor just to make his job harder.

The other Troops were doing similar things; the plan was to continue the leapfrogging; the moment that the defenses of an area were pinpointed Cannondales came rushing in to pound the area with rockets and heavy machineguns and autocannon, then wheel off for resupply. It wasn't just the light units slowing them down; it was that resupply. Colonel Weber only had 32 attack helicopters (the other 4 were damaged and being repaired) and was using them in relays to make sure there was always a flight in the air. Once the area was suppressed, two Troops would be landed in the new LZ while the other was picked up to be landed in another hot one. It meant taking casualties, and there were a number of walking wounded even in Corwin's unit, but they were grimly pushing on to the encirclement.

From the beaches, the Marines were actually taking the brunt of the casualties, but the leapfrogging advance was enabling the last of them to get off the beaches and advance forward along with the Hutanjians with their tanks and engineers. Because the two fleets were still battling it out, there was a lack of ground attack fighters except for a single flight of Terriers that had begun helping search and destroy against enemy SAM and artillery batteries. From the sea Storm Giant continued to pound into Fort Mason with its huge guns, sending the timed fuses slamming in and sending up terrifying explosions.

[The UFF of Hutanjia]

CENTRAL NESSELBERG

After all the griping, Jorgazu and Riordian relented on ambushing a Royalist patrol. Especially since the same one seemed to be doing loops around them, overlapping their path many times. It was probably a matter of time before they skirmished anyway. It would also improve the morale of the men, who'd been slogging through the thick jungle and going stir crazy. At points they'd had to hack through with machetes, taking turns as the point men wore out quickly. They were still at least a day out from meeting Yuri, the FSIS agent.

The day before, a panther crossed their path. Many of the UFF men saw that as a sign. If they didn't strike soon, they'd be struck down themselves. The panther had assessed them as not meal worthy and moved on, looking for primates, or less armed, non-warrior types.

They lay in wait now off the trail and watched as the enemy point man did his careful probing and scooting. It wasn't likely that he would find their mines, and they hadn't strung any tripwires to be easily seen by an alert point man. They would wait for the whole patrol to walk into the trap. They had made a game out of it, with the Isotopians on the one side of the trail and them on the other. They would see who bagged the most.

Jorgazu watched and focused. These weren't any ordinary RHA troopers or Rangers, he could tell by uniform details and little signs. This was a KHS special unit, for sure. That meant they were out of the military northern half sector and into the southern sector that the KHS had jurisdiction over.
His men started to notice the difference, too. Bagging a KHS group was even sweeter than the expected RHA prey. The UFF had a lot of evening of the score to do with the KHS.

His men relayed the signal up that the tail of the patrol was in sight. He in turn caught sight of the Isotopian leader, Riordian, across the trail.
Get Ready! One minute to go! He motioned to him.

Riordian motioned back, I know, we see it too.

Bullets would be flying very soon.

WEST CENTRAL NEVORN

The PAST group and the FSIS men made it to their coastal rendezvous, after several close calls at checkpoints. Dimitri and Vasili had spent a bit of time under old smelly rags and clothes. The launderer cover had held, along with a little bribe money to smooth things along. Corruption was rampant this close to the capital and eastern Chastille.

The fishing trawler would take them out to a Falkasian craft, a sub or other boat. Miles and Amalia didn't know or care. They only had to get the FSIS agents on their boat.
Amalia gave hugs all around and the PAST #12 men shook hands. Miles and Kenneth, too, said their goodbyes, as they would ride with the Falkasians to the mid sea rendezvous.

"I hope you get some R and R before your next operation, maybe we will meet again." Amalia said as she gave Dimitri a brief handshake.

[Falkasia]

Montvieux Beach

With the remaining Ulis in more or less full retreat, the defenders along the cliff line made haste to close the gap even further. One of the blockhouses on the defensive line's flank emptied, spilled dozens of irate Airborne soldiers onto the cliff face and down the tight and constricted path. It was a precarious trek given the shallowness of breadth between the edge and sheer face, but was far quicker than rounding the side of the beach and climbing the sand dunes as the mercenaries had to do.

With fire continuing overhead, and a constant stream of flares and tracer fire illuminating their path from all around, the soldiers emerged several hundred feet below from behind a rocky outcropping. The shape and nature of the rock face acted as natural concealment, potentially explaining why the Ulis hadn't employed it. The soldiers took up defensive positions at the base, crouching behind and pressing themselves into the static rocks. At the surfline, a single boat bobbed gently in the water. It was surrounded by several soldiers, and numerous inanimate corpses.

The detachment's Sergeant quickly lifted his shoulder and shouted something into the attached radio. No more than a second later, the beach and all its guns fell silent. At the same time, the Falkasians stormed out from their hideaway with AK's raised. Flashlights were on, blinding the men and preventing them from ascertaining just how many of them their were. Even though they outnumbered them perhaps three or four to one, it was better they had no idea how many had come. Made the decision to surrender far easier for them.

The gap was closed in a few seconds, probably not enough time for them to react to both the lights and the soldiers' sudden appearance. Great pains were taken to semi-circle them from multiple angles, providing a retreat only into the raging ocean. It was a psychological tactic, one proven effective in operations such as this.

"Drop your weapons!" dozens of voices screamed at them in heavily accented English. "Drop your fucking weapons! On the ground!"

======

Behind the Beach

The vehicle itself, in a strange twist of irony, became the focal point of defense. The soldiers knew that, whatever it was, was desired by the enemy. And it was also because of that exact reason that they knew their opponents couldn't be allowed to have it. It was rather juvenile logic, but it was sensical enough in combat.

A defensive posture was set up around the vehicle. Orders were quickly given to shoot anything that moved in the underbrush. The Fireteam Leader's VICE feed informed him no other Falkasian units were in the area, so it was a safe bet that any movement was an enemy movement. Other fireteams were beginning to radio in similar contacts, locking down their area with the goal of eliminating the threat.

Their FAV behind them was rather spartan. Given its lack of armor and featherweight construction, very little in the way of its effectiveness was elft to the imagination. It was a raiding vehicle, not designed for return fire. For the time being however, it would serve the Falkasians well. As the initial grenade barrage was sent into the trees, two Falkasian troopers ducked around the back and climbed into the rear compartment. The double LMGs were pre-loaded, much to their surprise. It made no difference, as they were quickly trained on the forest and left to do their work.

The grenades had ignited some of the foliage, causing small fires to erupt interspersed between the dense clumps of palmetto and ferns. It cast an eerie orange glow on the position, accentuated by the sustained fire and harsh red light from the Fireteam's IR/NV Goggles. Shapes in the bush were made sharper, making easier targets out of those who didn't know to keep their heads down. A low creaking drone could be heard in the distance. It was unlikely to be Uli, that was for sure. Who they were though was a mystery, as the Falkasians didn't have heavy armor onsite either.

Overhead two huge explosions tore through the sky. Each was a helicopter, hit by SAM missiles on their return trip north. One seemed uninjured, aside from the smoldering oil plume it left in the sky. The other however, fatally attempted to regain stability in the night sky. It lurched left and right before locking into a death spiral, spinning wildly as it lost altitude. It came in low overhead, still rapidly cycling left-right and screaming loudly as it narrowly missed the FAV. It slammed into a thicket of palmettos some distance away, releasing a terrible crunch as it crumpled into the ground. Thick embers ignited small fires around it, acting as natural flares for all to see.

======

Nesselberg

Yuri stared at his VICE feed, not so much out of anticipation but moreso out of necessity. He knew tides were changing, but for whom remained to be seen. In his line of work, where the real "lines" were made and destroyed, things changed dramatically everyday. Things may have appeared lost in North Cardwith, but he knew the right pressure in the right place would bend the line just enough to pop the island back within the fold. It was a common interrogation tactic, only expounded upon in a more abstract application.

He needed information though. Information was key, and without it, any operatino was doomed to failure. The Isotopians were coming, probably along with a UFF contingent. They were expected to have arrived long ago, leading Yuri to believe they had either been consumed by the jungle or neutralized. Neither option was particularly appealing nor satisfactory, but things of that nature did happen.

He had posted his squad on duty through the area, ever watchful for signs of life through the thicket. Although never finding what they desired to find, the sentries had reported back curious discrepancies in RHA patrols around the area. Their presence had dwindled, the cause of which was unknown. Whether on part of laziness or a false sense of security, very few if any foot patrols came around anymore. Helicopters were more prevelant, if one could call once a week a common occurance.

Yuri stood up straight, enjoying the dull pain that shot through his re-aligned back. It felt good, given the fact he slept forteen feet off the ground in a hammock made out of recycled banana leaves. A walk would do him good, he decided. Leaving the VICE console alone, he strolled around the interior of the logging hut. Very little had changed since he had arrived. While there were less weapons lining the walls, there was more clutter in odds and ends they had collected since their arrival. The seclusion had given them the chance to fortify their position further, reinforcing the walls of the building's basement with a plaster mixture they had concocted with concrete mix, tree bark, and water from a nearby stream. It was a thick, sickly, pasty substance that clung to the dirt walls just about as well as it clung to their own fingers.

Yuri descended the uneven steps into the basement. This too, along with the new wall texture, had been expanded. The abandoned root cellar now houses nearly all of their equipment, as well as an armory of all the other materials they had brought with the intention of handing it off to the rebels. Off to one side they had opted to build an emergency exit, concealed from above by a dead, albeit very-much-alive looking tree. It still didn't extend far beyond the buildings themselves, but encompassed a larger area underneath. He ducked as he reached the last step, avoiding an exposed tree stump from above as he entered the room. The silent-run generator upstairs powered the electric lighting, essentially glorified Christmas lights strung between and mounted to the exposed roots from above. The room was lit a motley green-red-blue-yellow. Quite festive, Yuri had thought. Flashlights were still a must on the frontiers, given the decorative lighting's relative lack of power.

Unopened, untouched crates leaned against the plastered walls. Missiles and launchers were propped on top of heavy crates, which filled the center of the room and spilled out in all directions. The layout was not as helter-skelter as it seemed, actually built up around a very efficient defensive plan. The crates would act as a blocking force and maze, disorienting any attackers within and allowing Yuri and his men to escape. They would then collapse the cave from above by triggering the explosives within, burying the RHA or KHS troopers alive.

He looked around momentarily, hefting an AK-113 from on top of a crate. His eyes studied the barrel, its dull hard metal offering nothing but cold to his hands and faceless death to his eyes. It was of a modest weight as he lifted it a few times, allowing it to bounce slightly in his clasped hands. He replaced it, nodding grimly as one of his men approached him from behind.

"One of the wires have been tripped."

"What does VICE say?"

"Nothing sir. They're invisible... could be wildlife, but it could be a KHS Hunter-Killer team."

"Or..." Yuri started, "It could be the Isotopians... and they just don't have the patience to play around anymore."

[McNernia]

TORUSUGU


The forces attacked the city hard. The fighting was hand to hand in the streets and the houses. The Havenians loved this the officers from Mcnernia were also somewhat minded towards the same. It was hard going for the troops as they slugged into the terrorist filled city. The DSRC had left all manner of booby traps to defeat the advancing troops as they moved into the city. The Falseans were lending their weight to the defense of this city on the north flank of the Royalist invasion. The IFVs and the tanks led the attack on the city men were tense as they moved.

"Alpha 3-2 moving with Hutanjians." A tank rolled up a street the cameras and turrets looking around.

"There are Vultures up but stay sharp. We lost two already, they took hits from up above. A helicopter sounded overhead ,the fact that the gunships were up a bove the field was a good thing for the men of the Havenians. The day was clear, up above their was alot of sounds of jets fighting. There was battle in the streets. An RPG flashed closed by.

"Contact on the roof". The big tanks command gun swivled up towards the threat. The infared camera spotted them. "Three foot mobiles on the run. A team of Hutanjians broke off and headed out to get them. The big tanks main gun swivled around to face.

"Loaded."

"Firing". The big cannon barked out death upon the enemy.

"Did we get them?"

"Hang on...yeah I think we got them. Hutanjians are checking....yeah the fucks are dead."

"Good, lets role out." The tank moved off down the street. The Hutanjians saw the tank moving off and followed it they had grown to like the fire power and protection it provided. The Horse gaurds were good tankers. The HT9A7 for all the discomfort was a good tank that could take punishment as the several dented vehicles sitting in the repair yard, the crews were still alive and the tanks had claimed several of the enemy.

Up above the feared AT-25s circled around the field looking for insurgents. The people were afraid of the invading army, the Mcnernians tried not to kill civilans. Keep the civilian deaths to a minium and help all who they could. The tankers were vigilant against the heat, there was some AC but well the temptation to pop a hatch was strong. One other tank had done it and well, thank goodness for fire extininglishers. The forces solidered on through the city sweeping north.

In other parts of the city fighting wore on, the men of 23 Royal Marines and D Squadron of the 2nd Horse Gaurds had been locked in action with a unit of Falseans and DSRCDF troops. Led flew thick through the air. The whole damn area was thick with Reds. The men were pinned down by snipers.

"This is 5-6 requesting air support, they have AT teams out in force. We cant bring the tanks through."

"Keep your heads down, HE DANGER CLOSE." The shells came roaring in from the big howitzers. The guns had hammered the foe. Now all they had to do was root them out. Snipers were posted to seek out the enemy. The tanks rolled into the area the men had weapons at the ready.

"Keep sharp lads."



AVIATORS

The Navy Aircraft had been reinforced with more aircraft. The war was in the favor of the Fleet Air Arm against the FPAF, the pilots were in high spirits despite the rate of sortie. Many had celebrate kills and inevitably had mourned more than one loss. The cameraderie among the pilots was high. The battle was a sort of drug.

"Two MiGs dead ahead. Lets get him."

"Roger that mate." The two jets released missles as the MiGs came in close to fire their own. The two Illusions broke. The HMDs had the target locked up. The missles were released and they flew in towards the target.

"Shite, Incoming."

The two jets broke and dumped flares to distract the missles that were incoming. The pilots looked to get off more shots. "You got a radar on ya."

"Engaging jammers." The jammers seemed to work, that and flares to keep the missles at bay. The pilot dove for the ground , a Su-35 followed him soon after and then turn back up, see him in your sights, "Guns, Guns ,Guns." the cannon spat out lead and the and the Sukhoi started to smoke.

" I see a chute"

"Good and human kill"

"Thank ya"

The business of air combat was a tiring thing. A unit of engineers had cleared a small airstrip for the pilots to land and refeul at, the place was manned by volunteers from the carrier, mostly helicopters were coming in and out. The odd Illusion, Navy crews were not need soon enough, pilots were getting rest and yet some tiredness was evident.

[Hutanjia]

THE MONGOOSE DEN
CHASTILLE, NEVORN

The Mongoose sat in his office, a rare respite from his rapid travels around northern Nevorn and to Nesselberg. Everything seemed in place for future plans. The Tiger had his orders, his men were doing their best at keeping things going on the war front. KHS Special teams were hunting down terrorists on Nesselberg and even some in Nevorn. The Parliament bombers had left a trail of destruction in their escape, but they were small potatoes really, in the scheme of things. He wasn't as bothered by their escape, as much as he was by the incompetence of some of his men. 3 KHS unit commanders in the Chastille district lost their heads. The good news for the district was that he was very close to turning one of the Army commanders.

He had to work on the plans for the Palace and other sites around Chastille. His mole in General Hespatu's staff was doing a great job of keeping tabs on him and redirecting away from KHS operations. The mole was also giving him some interesting information on the 'special ladies', the Edomite women that had flooded into the capital recently and taken up many staff and clerk jobs in the Joint Allied Command.

An intimidation visit to the Palace was in order. Officially, it would be a review of the 137th KHS Palace Guard Batallion. He tucked away his reports and got up to grab his phone and other items. He had called for a car. He took a last look in the mirror and straightened his stark, unranked and unmarked uniform, tucking in the Nehru style collar. He really enjoyed making Vobatu squirm and would enjoy it that much more when he squirmed on the end of a blade.

CENTRAL NESSELBERG

Samba Team was indeed a Hunter-killer team of the KHS. They were veterans of many months of combat against the UFF and PAST guerrillas on the island. For the last week they had been tight on the trail of a UFF group, sight unseen. They knew they were out there close and were determined to bring them down. Lieutenant Akjatgu watched as the point man probed and signalled. They were close, very close. They crept along the trail, AKMs at the ready.

PALEGATA
WEST CARDWITH

The last Cardwithian resistance was crushed in the city. Groups consisting of tanks of the 29th RHA, Saracens of the 41st RHA Mech, scouts in jeeps and following surviving infantry with heavy weapons, AT launchers and RPGs of the 12th RHA, headed out, some over the fields and some down the roads on their west and south to Jalakra.

Following reinforcements swept through the town on mop up duty to ensure there weren't holdouts that would disrupt the logistics train from the beach. The final couple days of battle in Palegata had brought down many RHA soldiers and vehicles. The DSR armored counterattack, along with some rebel sniper teams had been particularly rough on the Royalist Hutanjians. They had realized that the going wouldn't get easier and the expected cake walk they'd been promised would never materialize.

RHAF sorties of MIGs and gunships still flew ahead clearing targets. A small municipal strip had been taken over near the town and was being expanded by Royal Engineers from B Company of the 23rd. Soon, the RHAF wouldn't have to keep heading back to Vesselle for refueling and rearmament, but it would take some time. For now, they used up all the fuel at the airport for the Hinds and Gazelles that were continually in action.

Along the Green and Blue beaches, supplies were being brought in by both air and transport ship as fast as the last supply drops could be cleared and trucked inland. The front moved south.

SOUTHEAST OF ANJOUX
WEST CARDWITH

Uli troops moved beyond Anjoux, while Delta Company worked to flank and encircle the Isotopian defenders who'd holed up in the southern suburbs, the rest headed towards Hesttens to relieve the Edomites coming in on Orange Beach. They were led by T-84s of the 19th RHA, Uli Piranhas and RHA Saracens followed close behind to clear out DSR and Isotopian AT teams.
As the Estovakivan air assault cleared the enemy from the skies, or tied them up, the Uli and RHAF air assets moved in.
Viper and Agusta gunships also scooted ahead to add their fire to defenses ahead of the advancing columns. FAVs scouted ahead, except in areas they couldn't traverse, then the new M-75s went into action. The tracked scouts were well armored, yet still fast and suprisingly maneuverable. Only one was lost to enemy rocket fire as they closed in just south of Fort Mason. The first combat test for the Diamond Star M-75 ARV-Ts, The Fight for Northern West Cardwith, was an overall success. The Royal Hutanjian Army officers took note, determined to order some at a future date for their forces.

The lead company of the 18th RHA Artillery had been escorted in by Uli infantry and Piranha IFVs. They got within range of Fort Mason and started to pound the crumbling structure with their 88mm , 155mm howitzers and rocket batteries.

Uli Beta and Theta Companies moved in with a company of tanks from the 19th RHA on Hemsworth Heights, a posh northwestern suburb of Hesttens.

TORUSOGU
NORTH CARDWITH

Private Nepago was at the point of his squad from the 2nd Platoon of the 35th, as they came around the corner of a shattered building. A Falsean group were lining up an AT launcher on a HT9A7 tank. The Mackie tanks were their power punch to these Red bastards, and they couldn't afford to lose many more. He sprayed the AKM in his hands immediately, if only to disrupt the holder of the launcher. Mission accomplished, the launcher was dropped as the Falseans scattered for cover.

The rest of his squad ran around the corner and took cover in the rubble. Kalashnikovs spat at each other from extremely close quarters as the two groups battled it out. Brass rained like chimes all over the stone debris.
Soon grenades were flying both ways. Shrapnel buzzed through the intersection and thick smoke enveloped the fighting men. The Corporal of his squad stood up, bloody shreds and uniform tatters hanging, most of the rest of the group were in the same condition. He raised his machete and led a charge:

"AAAAAAGAAAAAAAAWWAAAAAAHHH!!"

The Hutanjians charged into the Falseans swinging machetes or firing their AKMs point blank.
Abruptly, the chaotic yells and screams ended.
Half the squad was down, horribly maimed or dead, but so were all of the Falseans. They moved on to root out the next nest of commies.

OVER THE CHANNEL

The RHAF Backfire bombers and their escorts got prepared to hit their targets. Pink, a flight of Uli Harriers and Kestrel Flight, consisting of RHAF MIG 29s, swooped in low for more AA suppression ahead of the group. They were in a lighter defended area, north of the Noritts sector. Still, they let fly with their air to ground missiles onto as many possible targets with radar locks that they could. Their goal was to catch the Exocet missile launchers that had hit the Edomite fleet and bomb them back, as well as hitting them with whatever air to ground missiles were left from the initial assault on the eastern coastal SAM sites. They were minutes away from cleaning up on the launchers not taken out by the Edomites.

[New Isotopia]

South West Cardwith's
POW Camp 'Foxtrot'

The trucks carrying the prisoners arrived at the camp around 2 in the morning. The camp had been hastily constructed around 12 hours earlier as new began to come in saying the resistance in the South was crumbling. The camp had several large tents to serve as sleeping quarters, kitchens, and a shower room. They were already striped of their combat gear upon capture at the beach and were sorted by rank and platoon. While MP's and the Cardwithian's ran the camp, Isotopian revolutionaries/Echo Force operatives were stationed nearby in case of a enemy raid on the camp to free the POW's. Several SAM's and AA guns that could be spared from the front were put in concealed positions nearby as well.

"Move it maggots!" One of the Cardwithian's said as he pushed a Ranger towards the checkpoint, where they would be once again checked for weapons before being sent to the main part of the camp. When they entered they were given warmer clothing to help them stay warm for the expected storms. Overhead speakers played propaganda, as a attempt to demoralize the Rangers.

'You have been betrayed and left to die by your government and their allies, why serve a country that thinks of you as meaningless? Cooperate with us for yourselves, your families, and countrymen, for we will bring about peace, democracy, and Socialism.' Similar things came out of the speakers.

In the background NIIA men watched from the shadows. They were sent to interrogate the prisoners for information on possible plans for the enemy in the North.

"They fought hell of a battle."

"Yes... But with all the action in the North I guess their well being was put as second priority to the success of the Monarchists in the North."

"Something we could exploit?"

"Yes, yes. But remember, no torture, we are more civilized than that and it's unproductive and a waste of time ."

"So whats the plan?"

'We interrogate them, get as much information as possible, then we hold them for ransom."

"Sounds good." The two NIIA interrogators walked over into the camp.

Fort Mason

Lieutenant Jessayman Dortch, a soldier in the 16th Naval Infantry Regiment, one of three regiments in the 5th Naval Infantry Division, with his men took cover in a small apartment building to hold the advance of the enemy. "Michelson I want that PKM up, pin em' down, robert I want you to do the same with the RPK." Them and the rest of the squad fired into the street, towards the Edomite troops. Jessyman checked his radio, command was sending out a secure message about the creation of a new defensive line being established a while south of what was now being identified by command as 'Orange Beach'.

"A message to all unit near the Fort Mason area. A new defensive line is being established south of the beach head, coordinates are, 5 2 Bravo Foxtrot Zulu. This message will repeat every ten minutes."

Armored Vehicles, mostly Lyran or Soviet made, began to arrive, supporting the men in street battles with Edomite troops. Among the reinforcements were more advanced AA weaponry. One such group of vehicles were 4 T-80U's, the most advanced Soviet made tanks in the Isotopian arsenal, several Yohannesian Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer 2E's, and a small group Mechanized Infantrymen.

"We have a lock, enemy helo, three o'clock." The gunner onboard one of the 2E's said as the red light blinked, indicating a lock on a enemy craft.

"Roger that you are authorized to fire."

'Launching missiles." Two Nimbus III-F SAM's were fired at a enemy helicopter.

Fort Mason, a once proud colonial era Fort, was a smoldering pile of ruble. Underground tunnels, while some had caved in but others were still operational, were filled with Isotopian and Cardwithian dead and wounded. Still however, fortifications continued to fight on, and the fort's few operational rail guns continued to fire into their targets on the enemy beaches. What they needed however was something to take out the Cruiser. Rail Guns wouldn't be able to take it out, on the account of the enemy ship being constantly in motion, anti ship missiles were either destroyed or dry, and aircraft, save for a single squadron of SU-25's were all engaged in aerial combat. Their best bet was to just wait till naval assets could be freed up to take care of the problem.

Nourselle

The Revolutionaries and their Cardwithian comrades, due to the naval shelling temporarily fled the town. As enemy UAV's and helicopters began to fly over the town, it was determined it wouldn't realistic to engage in the street battles until after the UAV's were dealt with. While their larger AA weapons were left in the town, they had brought a good amount of MANPAD's. After a few minutes of preperation, the Isotopians fired off a barrage of MANPAD's towards the enemy UAV's.

Hesttens

As Edomite forces gather for a assault on the city, Isotopian and Cardwithian soldiers, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, fired at the invaders. The defenders were very diverse, men, women, teen's, and children, many were equipped with older AK or even some WW2 era weapons such as MP-40's, PssH-41's, and bolt action rifles. On the rooftops, snipers equipped with bolt action rifles as old as Kar-98's and Mosin-Nigants or semi automatic weapons such as Draganov's and SKS's fired on enemy troops from the rooftops of Hesttens.

Central Nessleberg

Riordian nodded to Jorgazu. "Let's do this."

The Isotopians, there were around 20 of them participating in the ambush with the rest in hiding nearby, ready to reinforce the men there in the case of a emergency. The 20 men got into position on the right of the trail. The men readied their weapons, most of them assault rifles, SMG's, and shotguns. the faint sound of actions being pulled back and magazines could be heard.

The enemy point man entered the kill zone. As he did the man stepped on a mine, blowing his legs off and sending deadly shrapnel and other fragments into the men behind him. Almost all at once Isotopian and UFF men emerged from their hides, sending a wall of lead into the KHS Team.

Several Miles South of Pagenta

Finally, after over a week of travel, the Isotopian reinforcements had arrived and not a second to soon Alligator Landing Ships and several other landing craft began to land on the shore, under the cover of various destroyers and frigate that had come with them. Two of the ships, carrying supplies and various vehicles, including helicopters landed farther south. A entire division, the 30th Motorized Rifles Division was landing on the beaches, mostly via hover craft or IFV's. Immediatly upon their landing they began to head North to combat the enemy, who was rampaging across the North.

Each convoy of vehicles had low level AA protection of either ZU-23-4M4's or Yohannesian made Self Propelled Anti Air Artillery, to combat any enemy aircraft.

The Air Above the West Cardwith's

The enemy's missile barrage left over ten aircraft either damaged or destroyed. This however did not spell defeat for the Isotopian air force. While some aircraft in the area, mostly MiG/SU variants or American made aircraft turned around to engage the Estovakivan aircraft, any aircraft that weren't either already engaged or on the ground being refueled rushed in, attempting to cover holes in the Isotopian airspace near Ajoux.

Due to the strategically vulnerable state of the main airstrip, air crews slowly packed their gear onto trucks and peeled off to several makeshift airstrips farther south that were still under construction.

Naval Battle

Neither side had scored a decisive blow against each other, it was barrages of anti ship missiles and cruise missiles being exchanged. It seemed that both the Edomite's and the Isotopians had relativity similar amounts of casualties, each having two ships crippled or knocked out. The Isotopian cruiser, NIS Lenin, had one of the most advanced anti missile systems in the navy. That, along with the combined fire power from other ships allowed her shrug off the missiles launched at her.

Ajoux/Pangeta

Despite the Revolutionaries being pushed completely out of the town, isolated pockets of Revolutionaries continued to fight on, likely to the death. Meanwhile, reinforcements from Jalakara poured in by whatever means they could. Soon regular army units from the 30th Motorized Rifles Division began to arrive on the scene, with superior fire power and training than that of the Revolutionaries/Cardwithians. They began to pick off enemy T-84's with AT weapons such as SPG-9's and 9M133-1's that were hastily set up in small fox holes.

OOC: Finally... It's here. Please excuse any mistakes that are in here, I will edit any thing that seems illogical or god-moddish.

[McNernia]

TORUSOGU


The crew of the tank in question watched the Hutanjians. The courage of the men was remarkable. They were zealaots like the predecessors of the modern tankers the Horse gaurds had charged into action in the Latin Wars, the big tank had nearly been shot. APS was active but the thing was no good against targets that had not fired yet. The Hutanjians were deemed worthy of some protection. The giant turned and rolled after them through the streets. The Mcnerian tank over took the patrol. A sniper pinged against the armor of the HT9A7. The camera picked up a body.

"One round APAM, see the target?"

"Target sighted." The turret was moved to look at the building. The shell clicked home"

"Loaded."

"Fire" The gun barked and the shell was fired at the bulding. The radio crackled and the tank was made to move off. There were rumors of DSRCDF BTRs crawling around. And appearently one had been spotted just near their position. A BMP appeared behind the tank, the squad would be well looked after, the engine growled as the tank increased speed to catch up with the force gathering at the end of the street.

A pair of MA9A2MGS waited at the end of the street for the tank the three armored vehicles rolled into the wider streets in the heart of the city, the campaign was becoming one of the biggest urban fights of the Mcnernian Armed Forces. The snipers were proving just as vital for victory as the Armored vehicles ,the three units rolled down the streets. Splitting up and regrouping. No sign of DSRCDF or Falsean armor. The city was being abandoned and the defenders were falling back to the line that was around Abemante. The Marines and Havenians along with the Hutanjians had faught long and hard. The DSRCDF was still in the field though.

The Marines moved through the streets, the air was foul with mud and blood, the hospitals had casualities from the fighting in the city. The men were tired but war was a drug that drove the men on. Havenians were like supermen ,raised in the Jungle and born for war, they found this to be a place were they could dwell and fight. The Marines, grim professional fighting men were trained for this sort of thing.

The sniper teams moved into the half destroyed city. SR1 and F02LR rifles at the ready the teams set up in bulidings covering the lines of supply that were being stretched. The snipers of the Reconisance Companies were good at their deadly trade of picking off the enemy whereever he was. That included snipers belonging to the enemy. The teams were out in force to deal with the enemy.


MRS Iliad


Vice Admiral Peterson was prone to some lapses of memory. The trait was unfortunate, the Navy discipline that had been hammered into him, Unwerth had ordered him to see to it. He thought for a little while ,that was as good as orders, it had been at least a night, he would do it and damn the consequences. The commandos were rearin to have another go at the Communist enemy. The teams that would Recce the area were in place aboard diesel submarines. A convoy drop had been dealt a death blow with arrival of the New Isotopian prisoners at their camp, it had been occupied for some time now.

MAXIMUM MILITARY ENCRYPTION
From: Vice Admiral Sir Ryder Peterson O.M.E
To: General Jonathan Unwerth

Greetings

Having ordered me to see to the rectification of the situation of the Hutanjian Rangers I am dispatching my soliders to deal with the sitiuation.


The orders came down to the waiting scout teams on board the subamarines. The order of the day was to get ashore and have a look at the prision camp. The teams waited unitl night fell before inserting on boats. This was small teams of men inserting onto the beach from over the horizon. So as to not expose the submarines to shore fire. SBS honor was at stake in this endevour, one man in each stick had a metal dector for the long crawl that was to be expected up the beach, it was known the defenses would be active so the decesion was made to come ashore at places not well defended.

The boats dropped the teams into the water within sight of the beach, from there they were expected to swim ashore dragging their heavy packs behind them. That was possible. The men wore the right gear for the mission. They swam into the beach, before they headed ashore one man checked with his sniper scope, then a few more heads appeared above the water.

"Lets do this."

"Bloody hell ya"

"Alright nobody say any more."

The six men were one of several teams that were inserting that night, the SBS were trained in small unit insertions like what they were carrying out. No sign of resistiance or any sentry posts. The commandos used the same tactic to move up the beach at each beach. The men covered themselves in heat tarpulins, the kind of blanket used to prevent the escape of heat from the body. The blankets would reduce their heat signature to the New Isotopians who would no doubt be waiting. Single file, metal detector first the teams crawled ashore.


MRS Primus
SSN-45

Commander Laurence had been detailed to monitor the New Isotopians, the big Swiftsure II boat was quiet as the sonar worked to process the New Isotopian fleet landings. They had missed a chance to intercept them, a stupid mistake, they had not hit the supply lines of the enemy, the whole orders from general of New Edom. The ship was close to the fleet as it was, they waited for a moment to fire.

[Falkasia]

Sorry guys. I had a whole post for the air assault over Northern WEST Cardwith… and then I accidentally hit a button on my keyboard and it reloaded the page. When I’m not shaking from frustration, I’ll attempt to rewrite it.

South of Noritts

The Air Garrison had been dispatched to the south to deal with the approaching flight of supposed reinforcements. At the behest of Norrits ACC, they were to engage the flight and thin the ranks as best they could. Some would get through, that was a given, but as long as their effectiveness was neutralized the forces around WEST Cardwith would be able to effectively contend with them.

Of the 24 Warhawks that made up the air patrols around Noritts, 12 had been rerouted to deal with the incoming transgressors. Their intercept vector put them about five miles ahead of the pack, provided they made appropriate haste. It was rapidly becoming apparent the nature of war was based off of air superiority, and not one’s ability on the ground. The island chain, separated on all sides by draughts of water, limited mobility. Where ships failed, aircraft replaced. Thusly, the benefits conveyed by dedicated Air-Superiority aircraft would prove crucial in the upcoming engagement. Not to say the approaching Ulis weren’t as well equipped, but they didn’t nearly have the same drive their Falkasian counterparts did.

Arriving on-scene, the 12 Warhawks splintered into three flights of 4 each. The plan was a tactical one, designed around pinching the enemy in and squeezing the survivors out. Of the three flights, one would maintain the horizon line and meet then enemy head on. The other two would assume top cover and underbelly support, and strike from above and below the attackers as required.

Given the nature of the strike, the incoming Ulis would be effectively flying right into the Falkasian squadron. It was imperative then that the Warhawks get the first strike, allowing the initial volley of missiles to separate the group and allow a more organized assault of the rotor-wings in the center. It also meant gleaning the momentum and initiative of combat, as the attacker and defender were determined within the first few moments of combat. Any advantage would give the Warhawks an upper hand. Although complete annihiliation of the flight was desired, delaying them would be enough.

======

Bala Vaga, EAST Cardwith

The Falkasians were not caught unprepared. This time, they had been waiting. With ECM nets up, the Ulis came overhead and began their assault on the beach. The Warhawks from the 1st Battalion began their interceptions, swarming the fighters and bombers from all sides likes irate wasps from a nest. There were 24 of them, tasked with providing air cover and dealing with whatever targets the ground defenses could not handle.

It was a rather easy mission so to say. Aside from the numerous planes trying to shoot them down, the slower moving bombers made for easy targets at range. No soon had they crested the horizon than when the Warhawks let fly dozens of BVR missiles. It was fully expected that only a few would be smoked out, with the rest either going wide or retargeting the less dangerous escorts. A squid-tentacle maneuver would be employed. Enticing the escorts off of their bombers with easy targets, the Falkasians would swoop back around and eliminate the threat. Pretty simple.

Ground batteries opened up as well. From within hardened locations inside the village, the PATRIOT missile launchers quickly locked in on the TU-22s from a great distance. With loud belches of fire, they one-by-one discharged their contents into the air. The missiles would scream to height, detonating on contact and subliming whatever they touched instantly. The Skyguards, closer to the ground, would deal with the Harriers as they came in low for attack runs. Autocannons alone could shred the nimble albeit weak jumpjets, but preference was given to missiles as a far more accurate choice. Packing four apiece, each Skyguard could hold its own.

As an added, albeit questionable added layer, soldiers on the ground repurposed machine guns into AA emplacements. Their effect would be negligible, but anything to fill the air would make it that much more dangerous for the air strike. Several SAMs streaked up from the beach shore, no doubt shoulder-mounted MANPAS launchers. Although not designed for high altitude engagements, they too would serve a large role in defending against low-level Harrier strikes.
The air-raid siren began to scream as the first bombers came overhead. Even as they began to explode from missile and AA fire, bombs began to drop on the city and beach. Some were dealt with quickly by coastal defense CIWS cannons, transforming into tiny black poofs as they were forced to detonate well above target. Tiny pellets peppered the beaches, harmless shrapnel from above. The Skyguards were working overtime, lurching this way and that as their turret mounts began to steam from the effort. Huge white streaks erupted from the village a bit away as the PATRIOT batteries were reloaded, throwing huge fireballs into the air as their missiles cut through the sky.

The real ruckus was on the beach where, even amid the bombs, the launchers fired off yet another volley. One by one, the remaining Hellion II’s skidded off the rails and jumped into the sky. Their thrusters burned brightly, unfortunately leaving thick white trails leading back to their places of origin. The ECM suites nearby would help to protect the exposed launchers, but for a few it was already too late. Well placed bombs impacted at the flanks of the coast, crumpling one launcher in a heated fireball and melting the poor individuals who had been manning the station. Another bomb had somehow impacted a Hellion as it left the lip of the rail, exploding both of them in a superheated conflagration of hell.

A smoky fireball appeared in the sky behind them, coupled moments later by the explosive roar. One of the ammunition dumps had been hit, and it along with all of its contents had immolated. A Harrier swooped low over the beach, spitting off flares as the pilot discharged countless AGMs. As he angled up, several different MANPAD launchers found their mark. Three missiles, from three different angles, connected up and down the airframe. Suffice to say once the fireball had died, the only remains of the aircraft was half a wing that had been flung upright into the nearby soft sand.

It was obvious that the Falkasians were not going to give up easily. It was even more obvious that for every single thing they destroyed, the Ulis would pay a steep price to do so.

[New Edom]

Palace War Room

General Unwerth was rarely angry but he was angry today. "Let me see if I understand this--enemy reinforcements seem to be constantly arriving--to the point that my last report from my brigade commander is that my forces are actually outnumbered."

"I don't know how this could have happened," said Admiral Galt, on the speaker from carrier New Edom, "But it has. The fact is that we're experiencing a damned stalemate with our surface fleet. If the Estos don't arrive soon, we'll have to divert our CAG just to break the deadlock. The air support we had intended for the assault has been blocked, and according to the Brigade CO the ground forces are outnumbered. I should say "Acting Brigade CO" since Colonel Weber is now senior officer on the ground."

Unwerth wasn't sentimental about his troops like some people (Pahath-Moab, for example, or Augrim) nor was he a butcher like Hesperinus; he was a methodical kind of commander. But nevertheless he had a feeling for what the troops were experiencing, and he wanted to punch someone in the face. Reports were coming in that the 21st and the Marine Infantry were encountering heavy resistance now, while the Ulis and Hutanjians seemed to be doing very well. Of course Fort Mason was the prize.

"Inform Colonel Weber that she is to maintain her advance; the Ulis will outflank the Isos and the Cards." Unwerth said coldly.

Nourselle

UAVs targeted by SAM batteries were sent by their controllers to take evasive action, dispensing their chaff and buzzing out their counter-radars. While one of them was quickly taken out, and another badly damaged and then destroyed as it was guided to a hopeful landing spot, two of them were not yet detected as they had been flying fairly low and were using the natural landscape to avoid detection. The main thing was that the presence of Edomite troops in the area was known of. The two UAVs that had not yet been attacked remained stealthy and alert, to give the ambush that Colonel Hagar intended to set up advance warning.

Hagar, receiving this report from intel, instructed two of his companies in two of the likeliest areas of possible approach to set up ambushes and traps using what cover was available. Two Light Troops companies set out--one across a set of fields bisected by roads, where they began to set up IEDs for the roads, as did the other company on a main road. Making use of ditches, houses and other areas they began to set up their ambushes. Meanwhile in the main body of the town Colonel Hagar ordered a similar ambush set up with the other two companies, heavy weapons and engineers in order to give the other two a fall back position. As was customary, they would fall back by companies towards one of three potential designated LZs, while attack and support helicopters would help protect them as would the small squadron out to sea.

The Hesttens

Under heavy small arms fire, Captain Zeldorinius ordered his Troop to halt, having those who were wounded dragged back while the rest of the Troop set up a counter ambush--again. The Lancers were experiencing a slow grind, with the Marine Infantry protecting their flanks. On paper all very dramatic; in life it meant Zeldorinius crouching behind the remnants of a building and assessing how many of his walking wounded could still fight. His Troop Sergeant-Major and FO shook their heads.
"We need to fall back, Sir, while we still have people to fall back with." TSM shouted to him.
Zeldorinius cursed it; it was all the exposure; all the necessary leapfrogging. He had to make the call, and said, "Alright, I'll talk to the Colonel. Sergeant-Major, get them ready. FO, get us some covering fire so they don't think our asses are hanging out."
Affirmative nods, little time for courtesies in the field. He made the report to Weber, who was matter of fact. "You'll be relieved by E Troop, but hold on till then." she snapped.

Overhead a Cannondale took a glancing hit from a SAM as it took evasive action, but it was a tough bird and continued to fire off its missile load to give A Troop covering fire; Zeldorinius wondered how B Troop, flanking him, was doing.

In the rear, the Mortar Platoon was sending rounds pounding up ahead of the two advancing Troops, which had ground to a halt facing withering fire from the enemy from what seemed like every house before them.

Approaching Fort Mason

By now the Marine Infantry units (spearheaded by Captain Venn) were advancing with Marine Infantrymen trotting along beside Javelin APCs which were barking away, raking at anyone showing their face over a roof edge, pounding away into buildings, while offering some cover to the Marines. A flight of Terrier VTOLs streaked overhead followed by a flight of Incursors that were on a search and destroy for anything that might dare try to make a house or building of any kind into a fortress.

[Falkasia]

Northern WEST Cardwiths

In a single wave, the 30 Shadowhawks of the 7th Strike Wing launched into combat. From afar, they had fired several volleys of missiles in hopes of thining the initial impact of joining the combat. Several met their marks, recounted for all to see by very evident explosions in the sky. Others went wide, shooting everywhere which way or cascading to the ground in a lethal torrent. As they breached the shoreline and penetrated the menagerie of combat, the Wing separated into its three smaller component Flights. In turn, these split further into small sub-units for specific tasking.

It would be a straight out dogfight, with no frills or special tactics employed. In the maelstrom, it was rather an easy deal to gain advantageous positioning on the Uli and Royal fighters. With their sights turned on staying alive, it was doubtful at best they'd notcie thirty additional bogeys on their scopes until it was too late. The Shadowhawks jinked and dodged and rolled and deked to avoid everything, taking pains to set up attack runs several minutes ahead. With the amount of fighters in the air, it was bordering on ridiculous how confined everything was.

Gavrin, Zvezda One, quickly found his first target. By no means difficult, a RHAF MiG broke from the hornet's nest and made way out over the sea. Thick black smoke bellowed out from its engine. The elevators and a good chunk of the tail were shredded, either by a near-miss or well-placed cannon burst. Thusly, the aircraft leaned severely to the right. It was by pure skill alone that the pilot had managed to keep the plane aloft. It was unfortunate as Gavrin came in behind him, positioning his airframe to the rear and above the MiG. He had a more-or-less clear view of the fuselage, but the thick black smoke kept him concealed should the pilot have looked in his mirror. This situation was highly doubtful however, the pilot was more likely focusing on fighting the dying hydralics for control than maintaining awareness of his surroundings. Gavrin closed his eyes and sighed, squeezing off an AMRAAM and banking sharply to avoid the debris cloud. He hated kills of that nature, but as any instructor would say, it still counted. A damaged fighter could be repaired. A dust cloud could not.

The situation on the ground was grim. AA Tracer fire lurched into the air, separating and subdividing it into parallel and perpendicular yellow and green lines. A thick haze hung over the city from the gunpowder and explosions. Moroslav could see it every time he rolled his Shadowhawk through a barrelroll. More rubble than buildings... the only explanation as to why the defenders were still clinging on. Abandoned landing craft laced the all-to-near beach, as well as dozens of even tinier dots marking the unretrived body of a fallen soldier. Things were getting bad.

As if on queue, three fighters took it into their own hands to rectify the situation. Banking in low and hard, Romeo Two, Romeo Eight, and Oka Twelve screamed over the city. They were low, dangerous low, but the effect such a flyover would have on morale was paramount. With the defenders likely shaken and running, it was important to let them know a friendly force had arrived to relieve them.

It would be a tight run. As they started, the three aircraft liberally expelled their flares in an attempt to shake the locks they had. Although VICE lit up like a Christmass Tree as soon as the broke one hundred feet, the pilots knew most if not all of the contacts were spoofs not directed at them. Passive RADAR had a tendency to pick up everything, even when the barrel wasn't aimed at you. Still, it was better to be on the safe side. Plus, thousands of flares gave one hell of a fireworks show.

The thunder from their engines shook the city below as they came overhead, stirring up dust from the ground. AA Tracer fire jolted into the sky around them, close enough to see but far enough to avoid. Up ahead, a Hunter-Killer Helicopter rose out from an alleyway between buildings. It was directly in the path of the three jets, allowing them no time to gain altitude or veer out of them way. The only path was through. As soon as it was fully exposed, all three jets unleashed cannon fire into the oblivios target. It seemed as though they'd collide head on, but the Falkasians veered away in a hazardous maneuver placing them almost on top of the buildings. Seconds latter, they spun upwards into the sky and back into the mess.

[Estovakiva]

"""Approaching Fort Mason in support of the 21th lancers""
The Twin-Edged Sword of Aviation

Reaper Flight


"Alright boys and girls, you knew the drill regarding this mission we`re currently heading towards the heavily fortified and SAM infested areas, close by Fort Mason our mission is to eliminate enemy resistance and to support the 21th Lancers once again, Ghoul Squadron will take care of enemy forces at the beaches, Reaper squadron will take care of enemy SAMs and artillery until the helicopters arrive. Spread out and engage the enemy do not hesitate to use your self-defense missiles if enemy air-assets is a threat, Ivan out"

Minutes later
Ivan Rogdov would eye the sea at the sides of his aircraft as they we`re flying down at sea level to reduce detection chances by enemy long-range ground radars, Reaper squadron had already splinted away from Ghoul flight as agreed earlier on at their mission debriefing and mission reminder while they we`re under way. Information was arriving now and then reporting on allied-units through the Cromwell II integrated and adaptive battlespace network, their locations and their current situation reports were as well flowing in regarding enemy deployments such as fast moving enemy interceptors and SAM positions. Provided vital and life-essential information he had plotted out the best route, they would sweep in from the east to sweep westards aiming to attack the flanks, perhaps his aircraft and his squadron would be mistaken as someone else at least to the enemy, but that would be after they have fired their anti-radiation missiles.

The distinctive voice of Ivan could be heard over the crypted-comm-channel of the Ya-28s "Its time, fan out and designate your targets" Ivan would pull the stick, as his Ya-28 would increase its altitude and speed as he pushed his throttle down as his aircraft`s jet engines feed on the jet fuel like a hungry child as it quickly accelerated, with the rest of the squadron due to their mission, his flight had traded in their LA-420A1 Havik ll for two anti-radiation missiles on four pylons due to the nature of their mission which was known as SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) and one targeting-radar pod for guidence.

But Ghoul flight still carried their LA-420A1 Havik ll to target enemy vehicles such as the vulnerable top of tanks and other enemy units such as HIFV`s APC`s, their intended task we`re direct air to ground support to the 21th Lancers.

Ivan Rogdov, would then suddenly increase his hight as his squadron did as well, as their systems started to track enemy radar-sites and other things that gave of an high-enough radiation signal, classified as enemy radars, Ivan would have fired his four AS/R-6 ICARM (Improved Capability Anti-Radiation Missile) targeting four invidual sites or mobile AA-positions, and likewise with the rest of his squadron as the AS-R-6 ICARM missiles raced towards enemy sites within a range of 115km at the speed of Speed: Mach 2.5, carrying a payload of 75kg annular blast fragmentation it would sure ruin the day of something as soft as a surface to air system, after firing the jets would quickly descend to hug the ground as their radiation missiles homed in on their targets such as the Yohannesian Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer 2E's,and other anti-air systems within range now Reaper squadron would hunt the enemy artillery positions around Fort Mason.

Meanwhile Ghoul flight would hug to the terrain as they quickly apporached Fort Mason before increasing alitutde as to allow them their first strike cnsisting of 4 – Kh-38 tactical air to ground missiles provided by IR-guidence fired by tvelwe aircraft one by one as targets we`re picked, each targeting enemy armor such as tanks/HIFV`s or other positions such as fortifications/bunkers and the railguns with a 250kg warhead of HE which would truly ruin the day of anything it would hit, like the T-80Us and other enemy vehicles the secound volley after breaking of to approach again would consist of Kh-29D which is a fire and forget weapon, due to it using imaging infrared guidence. The Kh-29`s would be aimed at the most hardened enemy fortfications due to its 30km range and HE armour-piercing 320 kg warhead.

The ride of the Valkyries

Colonel Natasha Petrov eyed the landscape moving under her from the armoured cockpit inside her TMi-27 Tserat as the two squadrons of Estovakivan Attack helicopters we`re heading towards the New Edomite lines outside Fort Mason to provide the much needed air support. "Natasha what do you think of this war?, its pretty much bullshit!" Natasa eyed the back of her co-pilot Yagarin. "Well i must agree but sadly foregin nations JUST had to support the communists massivly with arms and even military units, however this translates into one thing civilian suffering and their wishes isn`t highly prioritized" Yagarin eyed the thermal camera of his Eye ball TV system "Well welcome to the world of realpolitikk nobody cares about the civilians" Natasha grined for a moment as she yanked the flight-stick as their helicopter decreased its alitude flying at tree-line height to avoid detection by anything which could hurt them.

"I just hope i survive enough to see that dandy New Edomite again"

The helicopters moved as well between trees and the landscape clinging to it as they raced towards the frontlines, the TMi-27 Tserat`s would forward attack enemy units with their M12 Heavy ATGM`s with a range of 9km with the Combined IIR and CCD guidence it would not prove to be a difficult thing to do as Armoured personnel carrier and UFF tanks would be on their hitlist infantry and less armoured objects would be dealt with their 30mm automatic cannon on the nose, firing HEI rounds at vehicles and men alike. Natasha we`re thrilled as she watched Havik ll missiles streak from above some trees fired by a Ka-52 aimed at a building with entrenched infantry, of course cordinated with the New Edomites through the Cromwell ll adaptive battlespace system, the Ka-52s provided information continiously as they we`re the long striking arm of the helicopter support providing strikes with Havik lls and M12/14 missiles meanwhile the Tserats got up close and dangerous.

"RPG rooftop! nine o`clock!" Yagarian would unleash a two second burst at the firing-team as the explosive rounds would devestate what it struck guided by its thermal eye-ball TV Camera, Natasha turned left as the heavy-attack helicopter followed her hand motion heading towards a more friendly neighborhood.

Hopefully they hadn`t come to late to help the new Edomites.

""Ae-98K""
OVER THE NORTHERN
WEST CARDWITH FRONT

The Estovakivan Ae-98K`s would have faned out as the enemy Sukhoi and Mig aircrafts attempted to close the distance between them quickly after the AIM-220s had dealt a crushing blow to their numbers and dwindeled it down to exactly then enemy airafts, Major Valeriya Vågard had decided to lay a litle trap for them as she positioned all of her aircrafts at their flanks north-east and north-west at diffrent alitudes the westeren one would fly lower then the easteren one by four-thousand feets thus reducing the risk of hiting eachothers, the enemy aircrfats we`re practiclly flying blindly into a fight they did not know would happen.

Valeriya would have watched one of her LCD-screen conected to the Forward-facing AESA radar of the Ae-98K, as she eyed the the surviving enemy aircrafts approching at maximum speed it seemed which would indeed increase their infreadred signature considerably "What fools are these?" she grined slightly as the aircrafts of her squadron would share the vector, speed and altitude of the approching enemy aircrafts between eachother ready to strike at her command as the enemy aircrafts we`re now within the range of the two-remaining missiles in their mainbay.

Indeed pretty standard tactic in the Estovakivan federation Air Arms we`re to fire two missiles of diffrent types at one aircraft for example one semi-active radarhoming and one infrared-homing missile the logical reasons we`re that its harder to decoy both and avoid them at the same time.

"This is Val commence firing"

Valeriya pressed the red-button on her flight stick as she selected one R-27ET AA-10 Alamo-D infrared-homing air to air missile missile and the R-27EM semi-active radarhoming air to air missile, sadly due to the SARH-missile she had to keep herself aimed at the enemy aircraft, as the mainbay opened up as the R-27 missiles flew out and activated their seekers and raced of at the speed of Mach 2.5 to 4.5 carrying their 39 kg warheads with radar-proximity and impact fuzes, 9 other aircraft`s of her flight did exactly the same, once fired the mainbay closed quickly as they attempted to use the extensive RCS-reducing design of their aircraft and IR-reducing measures as well to dramatically reduce enemy lock-on chances and tracking, hoping to blend in.

in total 1 SARH missile and 1 infrared-homing missile we`re heading for each of the ten surviving enemy aircrafts, from the range of 110/130km at their westeren and easteren flank. (Sides)