Region: Sondria
Nation: Ngāti Onekawa-Nukanor
Coordinates: N/A
Specific Location: Ngāti Onekawa-Nukanoa/Paraksani Border
Birds chirp near the border. You can hear them wherever you go, much of the area is dense woodland. All sorts of creatures that call the forests home can be observed and studied. For several decades much of this area was like a honey trap for all kinds of researchers. They would come to study the flora and fauna, and then they would never leave. Because they were often in the ground. The local 'militias' never appreciated people having a look into what they considered their woods. To them, it wasn't controlled by either Ngāti Onekawa-Nukanoa or the Republic of Paraksani. But, the kidnappings and killings of several Māori researchers a few years ago had drawn the intense ire and hatred of a nation that would not allow such a thing to occur, to allow some 'freedom fighters' to get away with something so disrespectful. When it had primarily been foreigners it wasn't a concern, although the occasional retribution killing was often done to make up for it.
But for the children of Tane-Māhuta, for one of their own to be taken, such a thing could not be allowed. Paraksani had never been too concerned with these groups, they had some kind of ethnic connection with each other, and they rarely took people from the other side of the border. But Paraksani had failed to even attempt to mitigate the problem. Broken promises lay on the diplomatic floor as Paraksani simply shrugged and claimed it wasn't their problem. It reached a tipping point when they had refused to let Ngāti Onekawa-Nukanoa perform strikes in Paraksani territory, since that was where most of these milita bases were based. As a result, Ngāti Onekawa-Nukanoa simply shrugged its shoulders in return and started moving forces to the border.
Originally, this border had been lightly manned. Ngāti Onekawa-Nukanoa had never feared an invasion by the Republic of Paraksani, and there had never been a need for large concentrations of troops there. Kaitiaki had often found themselves there, as this kind of warfare had been best suited to them, and they had been successful. The inability to move across the border though meant they could never fully demolish the enemy. Although every time they engaged in a fire fight there was little left of the milita forces, they never had the opporunity to finish their mission to a satisfactory conclusion. Now, however, they would get an opporunity.
And not just the Kaitiaki would be able to take part in some aggressive action. The entire Ngāti Tumatauenga would have a role to play in this upcoming conflict. Besides two hokowhitu worth of Kaitiaki to take part in the initial phase of the war, three Taua Groups were deployed, as well as innumerable assets from Taua Ea and Taua Moana. Equipped with the latest equipment, many of these forces would begging for blood, straining at the leash. The Taua Ea had some new toys it wanted to unleash, but the Paraksani Air Force wouldn't even be a match for the FM.29A in service, so the new F.25M wouldn't be used in this conflict, at least not initially. The designers still wanted to tinker with it as they always do, although it had reached combat capability some months ago.
Still, the FM.29A, known affectionately as the Pīwaiwaka in service, was to begin this operation. The backbone of the Taua Ea, the FM.29A would serve as the tip of the spear alongside the Kaitiaki on the ground, who were responsible for removing the ground-based early warning radars and SAM systems. Once those were eliminated, the assault could begin in earnest.
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Birds chirped that night, but the men weren't sure what it was, they weren't really paying attention to it though. The noise just faded into the background orchestra that is the night life of a forest. Just as they disappeared into the surroundings. Paraksani Army personnel were sitting around, having some smokes whilst they gazed at they gazed at the stars and talked about there poor rations, as they usually did. It was a complaint that pretty much every member of any armed force was well aware of. But despite this sloppy showing, the equipment the Paraksani forces were protecting was certainly no joke. The S-300 was a very potent system, and would have to eliminated. Paraksani was said to have over 30 S-300s in service on the border, and as many as a dozen S-400 were also in operation. They had to be eliminated as quickly as possible, to ensure that the Paraksani forces would have minimum time to react tot the sudden elimination of much of their Air Defence structure. The Taua Ea should be able to handle the Paraksani Air Force should they decide to throw down in the skies. These men were protecting this S-300, a platoon of roughly 30 men. Originally a whole company, the Kaitiaki had made sure to destroy those forces stationed further afield.
There was a quiet cough, and one of the Paraksani men slumped over. He had been asleep, and it appeared his comrades thought he had simply fallen off in his slumper and laughed. One even pulled out a smartphone and took a selfie with him and his now apparently sleeping friend. The laughter stopped however when selfie mans head decided to explode during his photograph taking. While his phone was falling the Paraksani forces started looking around, getting agigtated. To be expected. The rest of the Kaitiaki opened fire with their standard-issue LY21 AHLAR, the assault rifle of the entire Ngāti Tumatauenga. They never even had a chance, with less than 10 seconds passing all 30 men were dead, or so severely injured they would die very quickly.
The smartphone lay lying on the ground, on its cracked screen an image of a Paraksani man and his apparently sleeping friend. He had never known his friend hadn't even been alive. The roar of turbines could be heard overheard as the FM.29A moved into Paraksani airspace to destroy any multitude of targets.
The birds chirped that night.
