Little Green Men (Closed, IC, Kylaris)

[Senkaku]

Little Green Men

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“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

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Chapter One: Peony
Namkwon
Ca Giang Province
Phan Dinh
18:00

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The field headquarters for the QTO exercise force was quite pleasant- they'd taken over a palace that had once belonged to the Namkwok imperial family, before they'd been toppled during the Emergency. The Nguyens had been incompetent, corrupt puppets, but no one could deny that their palaces were impressively lavish. They had all generally been turned into government offices or museums, or in a few cases public parks (and in a few others, burned to the ground). The Phan Dinh palace housed a number of offices for various government departments, but it had been rapidly transformed in the last few days into an excellent command center, hosting dozens of top officers from the enormous QTO force that was maneuvering near the Siamati frontier.
Of course, little did anyone know, that was not all that it was doing.

Colonel Wu Chanming hurried along one of the palace's elegantly colonnaded hallways, his shoes clicking on the marble floor as rain pitter-pattered off the tile roof and gently watered the courtyard he was hurrying past. As he passed into the interior of the next building, he began looking at the numbers that hung on brass plates beside every door.
6114, 6115, 6116... here it is.
Room 6117 was a spacious room with a vaulted ceiling and a view over the city, with old wooden fans and gas lamps that had been retrofitted to use electric bulbs. It had a balcony, too, with stairs descending from either side to what appeared to be a little garden terrace on the palace walls, also looking over the city, though no one was outside in the increasingly heavy rain. A vast rosewood table dominated the center of the room, with old wooden chairs set all around it, and screens made of silk and sandalwood partitioned off the areas around it. Inside each of these elegant cubicles were a few officers and large computer screens, whose blue glow made a strange contrast with the softer golden light of the lamps. More screens had been set up on the walls, displaying all manner of information, and someone had wheeled in a whiteboard and set up a projector on the table as well.
Chanming tapped his tablet's screen, calling up the seating arrangement so he could remember where he was supposed to sit. Ah, yes. Alright. He nearly tripped over a bundle of cords on the way to his seat, and finally settled into the great armchair, setting his things on the table and sinking back into the cushions.
Someone's phone buzzed for a moment, and then General Liang rose.
"I received a report from the MSJ at sixteen hundred hours stating that one of our militias on the other side of the border has managed to open the Glyt bridge across the Srepok River, seventy-nine kilometers north of here."
Someone- Chanming could not quite tell who, from this end of the table- broke in in Namkwok-accented Songhua. "The Glyt bridge?"
"It's what the locals call it," the general said, waving a hand. "Apparently built by some Glyt charity. I don't know the real name. Anyways, this bridge is on a paved road and in the vicinity of Phimai, which is an important target. It means that we no longer have to use small boats to cross the Srepok, which is helpful. Our Farsi friends-" Liang inclined his head towards a group of senior Farsi officers- "will be sending a Revolutionary Guard unit across tonight. Two hundred and fifty men, three infantry fighting vehicles, a dozen trucks, and some machine guns and mortars as well as ammunition and various medical and food supplies. They will be linking up with some militiamen and tomorrow will attack a little hamlet outside the town of Sephon, that currently has been held by SRA troops against the militias. This will let us begin encircling Sephon. We'll also be sending a contingent of one hundred Namkwok soldiers from the Special Forces over a land crossing south of here tomorrow morning with some mortars and machine guns and supplies, who will rendezvous with a small band of militia and proceed northeast. They will be responsible for severing the rail line that runs from Phimai to Sephon at the Sayong stop- a small hamlet with dirt roads leading to the nearest towns, it shouldn't be difficult for them to seize."
"And what of the infiltrated troops who are not attacking Sephon? We have what, nine hundred who are busy elsewhere? What are they doing?", a Namkwok colonel inquired.
General Liang looked straight at Chanming. "Colonel Wu is our liaison with the MSJ and also works with your security services, perhaps he can explain."
Chanming stood up, clearing his throat. "Around six hundred of the soldiers we have already infiltrated are currently busy helping to train the militia or helping to guard areas we've already subdued, particularly border crossing points. Keep in mind these militiamen have generally seen nothing more sophisticated than a BB-8 in their lives. Some might have seen an RPG, but they need to learn how to use some of the better and heavier weapons we're bringing across. They're used to operating with small arms and improvised weapons."
"That still leaves three hundred unaccounted for," the Namkwok colonel said.
A Farsi officer cleared his throat. "That is the Revolutionary Guard unit we infiltrated ten days ago. They're still making preparations to attack the town of Sachian."

---

Siamat
Had Mai Province
Phimai Prefecture
Sephon County
Udori
06:00

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Udori was a tranquil little hamlet, set amidst picturesque rice fields and patches of jungle on the road into Sephon. Normally, at six in the morning, its population of farmers would be rising to greet the day ahead, beginning their daily tasks to care for the fields or their animals. Now, though, it was the soldiers of the Siamati army who were doing this, save for the sentries who had been on duty during the night. Udori's population had fled or been evacuated after two militia attacks in just the last month. In the first, they had simply rolled out of the darkness and seized the village. The village was mostly ethnic Namkwok, but two Siamati families had had some of their rice and chickens stolen, and two men were killed when they tried to protest. Their house was partially torched as well, though the wealthiest man in the village had hurried over with his fire extinguisher to put the blaze out before the entire building was destroyed. The army had posted some soldiers there, after that, and with reports coming in of elevated militia activity in the countryside, some people had left.

The second attack had been a good deal worse. Once again, the militia had come in the middle of the night- but this time two dozen Siamati soldiers with a pair of heavy machine guns had been waiting for them. There had been quite a firefight, and the soldiers had finally had to retreat. Udori's buildings had taken quite a beating in the firefight, and the rebel soldiers had torched several buildings, plundered food stores, murdered, raped, and then had to hastily retreat themselves, when two hundred Siamati troops in armored vehicles had come zipping down the Sephon road.
Nearly everyone who had survived left for Sephon or nearby villages, and a few days later those who had grimly stayed on were plopped on trucks by the army and driven away. Now it was just one hundred and fifty soldiers, sleeping in battered houses and sheds or tents, and a single, aging Negaran-built infantry fighting vehicle.

Those who were still in bed were rudely awakened by the whistling and concussive blasts of a rain of mortar shells. The growl of machine guns soon followed, and then there was the deeper bark of cannons. The Siamati IFV burst into flames as the Farsi troops advanced with their ragtag Namkwok allies, and the Siamati soldiers, confused and panicky, were cut down in droves by machine guns, snipers, small arms, mortars, and cannons.
Within a few minutes, Udori was once again silent, except for the crackle of a few burning houses and Siamati vehicles.

---

Operation 949: Phimai Zone, Stage One

EYES ONLY: CONTROL LEVEL 5

Property of the Sensitive Affairs Bureau · Destroy after reading · Redactions removed · Reproduction prohibited

This briefing has been provided to select MSJ and Supreme Command officers and is available to the State Council. Redactions have been removed but classified material remains highlighted. Any sharing or reproduction of this document is punishable by death, and it is to be incinerated after reading.

At present, roughly 1,250 QTO soldiers have been infiltrated over the Siamati frontier, engaged in assisting local rebel and militia forces in seizing several towns around the city of Phimai near the border in Had Mai province. The town of Sephon, a minor rail juncture located on the line to Had Maiand the town of Sachian, which has a small airport, are considered priorities. Both towns are currently being encircled, and will provide good forward operating bases once seized. Their seizure will be followed by the seizure of a number of towns around the city of Phimai. The city's encirclement will be followed by gradual inwards attacks that will hopefully not draw too much attention from Negaran forces or the international community. To minimize information escaping the target, radio transmitters, phone lines, communications and data cables, and cell towers will be targeted for seizure or destruction. Additional troops will be infiltrated across the frontier, particularly ethnic Namkwok soldiers or Siamati speakers for their ability to pose to some extent as local residents. Significant forces will be required to encircle and attack Phimai and to hold off Siamati forces who will doubtless attempt to relieve the city and quell the insurgency. To continue to help maintain the pretense of an insurgency, minimally advanced weaponry, preferably generic and common models, will be supplied for now to the rebel forces.

Following the seizure of the hamlet of Udori and pending the severing of the rail line at the Sayong location, attacks to completely surround Sephon are tentatively slated for July 5th, and follow-up attacks on the town itself will proceed as soon as possible. Pending the arrival of additional ammunition for mortars, the attack to shut down the Sachian airport is slated for July 6th, and it is expected that once it has been shut down the infiltration of additional forces will allow the town to be fully encircled by July 9th, with follow-up attacks proceeding as soon as possible.

At present the rate of infiltration has been left to the discretion of Phan Dinh command, but on July 5th (or whenever Sephon is surrounded) a minimum rate of 550 troops are to be deployed every 24 hours, with increases to this rate being left to the discretion of Phan Dinh command.

[Senkaku]

Chapter Two: Foxglove
Siamat
Had Mai Province
Phimai Prefecture
Chayathon County
Sayong
18:34 Hours

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The train station looked somewhat incongruous, sitting in the middle of a collection of traditional brick houses with thatched roofs or faded blue tiles. It was a modern monstrosity of glass and steel, looking like an enormous futuristic sailing ship, dwarfing the huts of Sayong around it. There was a nice crossing just past the station, where the road that ran to Chayathon crossed the tracks, and as night was falling lights began to come on in Sayong's homes and in the station's huge transparent ribs. Sayong had once been a miniscule hamlet, but the construction of the original train stop had seen it grow significantly as people drove along the newly paved road from Chayathon to take the train into Phimai. It was now a respectable village of perhaps a thousand people, still smaller than Chayathon or Sephon but far larger than most local farming communities.

Lin Quan Lanh peered through his binoculars and ground his teeth.
"When is the next train scheduled to arrive?", the Namkwok captain asked to no one in particular. They were hiding in bushes at the edge of the treeline on a small hill overlooking the village.
"Six minutes, sir", his lieutenant said quietly. The leaves and palm fronds rustled in the evening breeze, twilight casting strange shadows.
Lanh squatted, still looking through his binoculars, waiting. Guards outside the station, we expected that. The snipers will take care of them. Hopefully there aren't too many hiding out of sight.
He took in a sharp breath as a flash of white appeared a ways down the tracks. "The train's coming," he murmured. "Radio it down to the forward squads." It was one of the new trains that they'd put on the line when it had been refurbished with all-new stations and a system so they could run electric trains on it instead of older diesel ones- a landmark project by the provincial government, some years back, installing modern train lines all around Phimai.
It began slowing as it approached Sayong, finally slipping into the station. A minute or so later, the first of the tired-looking commuters were coming out of the station, heading towards buses or cars or motorbikes or just walking.
Lanh flicked a switch and turned on an LED lamp. A moment later, from a hill on the opposite side of town, a red flare shot into the sky. Lanh hefted his BB-8 assault rifle as mortars began to bark and sniper rifles cracked. Most of his troops were concealed from the town behind a bend in the road, riding in pickup trucks. He'd sent a few smaller squads to sneak into the outskirts of the village, and positioned his mortars and snipers on the two hills.
The glass walls of the train station seemed to dissolve into a crystalline typhoon as the first mortar shells plunged through the roof and exploded, swiftly vanishing behind ugly grey-brown mushrooms of smoke. The pickup trucks came roaring up into the village, men leaping out and opening fire or shooting as they moved.

The flare still burned, an angry red sore on the face of the fading twilight, casting an eerie glow as more mortar blasts echoed off the wind-torn clouds. There were screams now coming from the town, orange tongues of flame lapping at the train station and various houses and buildings, some people running in a desperate attempt to escape. Through his binoculars, he could see the few Siamati soldiers posted at the train station, along with the odd police officer, desperately trying to return fire- but Sayong had never been a target before, and was lightly defended against the insurgents.
The screams continued, punctuated now and then by mortar blasts or gunfire, as the Siamati soldiers toppled one by one or two by two, picked off by snipers or blown to shreds by a hail of bullets or mortar explosions, and all the while the glow of the flames began to mingle with the flare's bloody light.

A most violent way to delay the sunset, Lanh thought darkly.

---

The next morning, when the sun's face finally once again looked upon it, Sayong was all but deserted. A few people staggered through the wreckage, but dozens of buildings had been set on fire either by rebel fire or by the frenzied panic of their inhabitants to escape the sudden attack. Most had fled to Chayathon or Sephon or other villages- only those who had hidden and ridden the assault out now remained in the bombarded village. The train station was a smoldering husk, its roof smashed in, its walls blown out, the tracks blown to uselessness and even ripped up in some spots. A few birds or stray dogs worried at the corpses in the streets- mostly Siamati soldiers and police officers, but there were a fair number of civilians mixed in, caught in the ugly crossfire of the surprise attack.

The guerrillas, meanwhile, were gone- and meanwhile, down the ruined train line, more little hamlets like Udori around Sephon were going up in flames.

[Senkaku]

Chapter Three: Lotus
Siamat
Had Mai Province
Phimai Prefecture
Sachian County
Sachian
14:00 Hours

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"That last one was a hundred bloody meters too far down the street. Now they've all driven off, you idiot. You just blew the convenience store to kingdom come, though." Jia Bao blew out a stream of smoke as he listened to the faint Namkwok grumbling on the other end of the line. A voice cut in in Farsi, and he sighed. "Listen, I told you, I don't speak Farsi," he said in Songhua. Can't they just fucking run out of ammunition already? I'm amazed someone thought to haul this many shells across the border for one goddamn gun.
"I speak better Songhua than I do Namkwok anyways. You're the artillery spotter?"
"Your friendly MSJ infiltrator, calling from behind enemy lines to ensure maximum satisfaction for the customers of our shells."
"Right. We're firing down... Ornlamai Street? Is that right? I have a map here."
"Well, you were. You were aiming at the intersection of Ornlamai and Bunyasarn," Bao said, looking at his own map and peering out the window of the apartment. "You hit a hundred meters past that, at the intersection of Ornlamai and Sakda. The trucks I saw parked have promptly driven off, since some bright fellow down there must've realized you'd straddled them in your last two shots."
"Brilliant," the Farsi grumbled. "Why didn't they send maybe more than one heavy artillery piece? Perhaps with better targeting systems than a fucking satellite phone and an MSJ officer in an apartment?"
"That's classified," Bao said in a snarky, superior tone.
"I've half a mind to drop a shell on you instead."
"You may end up doing that entirely by accident. Perhaps I should direct you to a target further away."
"We've already hit all the static targets we could spot or that you told us about."
"Well, here's a suggestion for a target," Bao said, peering through his binoculars for a moment and then glancing at his smartphone. This fucking satellite phone is heavy to hold to your ear for so long. "Try dropping a couple of shells in Sangsorn Square, in front of the town hall. It's a logical place for soldiers to be, I suppose, and I think I've seen some trucks and stuff going in and out, though I don't have a great angle."
The apartment rattled suddenly as distant mortar explosions boomed. Sachian was in flames- the single Type 979 artillery gun that had been brought across the border had been set up somewhere outside the town, and had spent the better part of the day heaving shells onto various targets. The town's small airport had been shut down by shelling and gunfire for two days now, but with the entire settlement surrounded, the town itself and its defenders were now under attack.
There was another long whistling noise, and Bao winced as the explosion shook the entire building.
"Where did we put that one?"
Thankfully away from me. He peered through the binoculars again.
"Nicely done. Looks like you grazed the town hall a bit, but that landed in Sangsorn Square, as far as I can tell. I'm afraid there really isn't much more for you to do in the town center- are you sure there aren't squads that don't need artillery support or something?"
"That's classified," the Farsi officer said acidly, then chuckled. "No, the advance comes later. We're just shelling them to soften them up at the moment."
"Riiiight." Like in the trenches, during the Great War! That always works. "If no one's already told you to, I'd say save your ammunition. There are plenty of Siamati soldiers around here, you're going to need it."

---

Luo Jian had been watching the shelling since nine in the morning, but the big gun- or guns, he had no idea how many there were- stopped firing around two in the afternoon. Now it was eight at night, and he was very quietly walking across the backyard of an empty house at the edge of town, holding a BB-8 and an uncomfortably full bladder. This is what you get for too much instant coffee before a night attack, Jian. One of the windows had been broken, and it looked like there were a few bullet holes in the walls and shattered tiles on the roof.
A Farsi soldier was walking a few paces behind him, while two more pairs followed them- each one consisting of a Farsi and a Namkwok local. His other fifteen men were still lurking at the treeline, mostly Namkwok. Jian had found it distinctly peculiar for the first day or so of the infiltration to find himself and his fellow Songhua in the minority, but he'd adjusted.
He and his partner quickly searched the house- it was only a few rooms, single story, and whoever had lived here had packed most of their things up before they'd nipped off. He went back to the back door as machine gun fire bounced off the sky like a particularly martial birdsong, and raised a hand.
His soldiers began appearing like ghosts at the treeline, wandering in warily towards the town.

---

Two hours later, Jian found himself considerably more aggravated.
"Now for fuck's sakes don't waste that, alright?", he said, jabbing a finger at the Namkwok militiaman- barely a boy, in truth- who had an RPG hefted on his shoulder. His arm was throbbing with waves of pain, making him grit his teeth. Helpful of that fucking police officer to decide to shoot me instead of just die conveniently or run away. The Siamati IFV's cannon barked again, shaking dust from the ceiling and rattling Jian's teeth in his head, and there was suddenly an immense crash and plume of dust from outside the lobby of the little apartment building. Shame our one fucking artillery gun is busy elsewhere at the moment.
"Go, now," he barked at the boy, and then boomed up the staircase. "Covering fire!"

Ly Van Duong found himself pondering the decisions that had led him here as he rushed out the apartment building's door and into a swirl of plaster and dust. It appeared that the Siamati tank had knocked a sizable chunk of the shoddily-constructed building into a heap of rubble in the street, which he was now tripping over while trying to hold an RPG. There was a deafening burst of gunfire from the surrounding buildings, and he could hear shouting in Siamati up ahead, make out the form of the tank through the swirling dust and smoke.
Almost without thinking, still wondering how exactly his life had come to this, Duong pointed the RPG and squeezed the trigger. There was a terrific noise, followed by a less intense hissing, and then suddenly a tremendous explosion that sent him stumbling and falling flat on his back amidst the concrete.
When he looked up, the Siamati tank was a furnace, flames gushing from seemingly everywhere. Some of the soldiers who had climbed out of it were lying on the ground, others were staggering away, others dancing madly as burning gasoline splashed onto them.

Ah, good, he blew up the IFV, Jian thought with a smile as he heard the second, much louder report from his crouched position. Shame he probably won't make it back inside, but better him than everyone in this damn building and the ones around it.
Incredibly, though, the boy did scurry back inside, looking awestruck by what he had just done. Probably thinks he blew up a proper tank. The gunfire along their block gradually petered off to silence, leaving them to listen to other little battles all around them.

Jian's walkie-talkie suddenly crackled to life. "All units, remain in place and consolidate your holdings. You have one hour to pause the advance inwards and treat or evacuate wounded and the like, unless enemy forces make contact and you are forced to take action."
The boy moved to the window, next to one of his friends who had helped provide covering fire, and was opening his mouth to say something when the report of a sniper rifle came to them. Blood spurted out the back of his head, and he toppled over, motionless.
Jian gritted his teeth again. "Everyone, keep clear of windows!", he boomed. "Keep your eyes peeled so we can call in some mortars or arty to deal with that sniper."
He looked at the dead boy's body as blood pooled on the floor. Shame. I wonder if he lived here, in Sachian, before all this.
He flicked on his walkie-talkie's transmitter. "Squad 16, I have a sniper..."

Outside, meanwhile, Sachian continued to burn through the night.

[Elepis]

Chapter Four: Memories
Siamat
Had Mai Province
Phimai Prefecture
Sachian County
Pakse
07:00 Hours

---

Green boys, they wouldn't last a second in a real war thought the Farsi colonel, pushing the rain out of his eyes with his wrists. You would think that rain would put fires out, apparently that assumption was wrong. It had been a long time since Hasan had been involved in a real war, the 1988-1990 war in Darshistan was the last real conflict, since then he and his fellow Revolutionary Guard soldiers had been fighting low-intensity counter-insurgency wars in Darshistan and greater Badawiya, either with or without the knowledge of the rest of the world. It did not escape Hasan that the man who made his name in counter-insurgency was now the insurgent. It may have been over a decade since the Darshi Crisis as it was now known, but the smell, sight and feeling of a war had soon came back to him.

They wouldn't have lasted a month in Besraba he thought, shaking his head at the sight of two Namkowk boys were reading a liquor store, one of the few that wasn't burning.The Siege of Besraba had been the worst of it, when he thought back to those days he saw flashes of memory. Hejan attack helicopters swarming like gnats overhead; the sound of Scud missiles crashing and burning in the streets around him; the sight of a Darshi boy's head disappearing in a cloud of red and pink under a hail of lead. Hasan and a few thousand Farsi soldier had been trapped then, cut off from the outside, their world limited to Scud attacks and pointless patrols. These were the daemons that haunted him from every war he had ever fought in, though compared to Besraba, the daemons that would follow him from this oriental tiff would be small and few in number.

The soldier put on his sun-glasses, all but pointless in the morning light, and turned away towards his command building. His main memory from this conflict would probably be the eternal rain, the rain that bounced of the brim of the Farsi baseball caps and soaked gradually though their light fatigues. It was funny really, for a nation that had a less than cordial relationship with Asteria, the Farsi military, or at least the Revolutionary Guards, had adopted the Asterian baseball cap as a part of everyday wear. Them, and sunglasses as well. As a light tank rumbled behind him, colonel Hasan walked in to the relative dry of his command post.

---

He pulled up a chair in a curtained off section of the building and called for one of his aids. Ismail or Issac, something strangely Salamic.

"Remind me wear we are" said the commander, lighting a cigar as he did. When one was a soldier, one tended not to care about cancer, even at the age of 44.

"Hear sir" said the Farsi boy, pointing at a spot on a map "Paske"

The commander nodded, gesturing for the aid to continue

"This is one of the last villages we have been told to....procure....before we rendezvous with the other units and converge on Sephon." The aid replied, pronouncing the phrase "procure" with distaste.

"These local children will have to gain some discipline before the attack on Sephon begins. Or else they will all die under a hail of fire." The commander mused, puffing on his Roesselan cigar.

"You have done well sir, they are better than when we first arrived." the aid said, trying to offer support to the grizzled soldier.

The colonel looked up from his chair "Not enough though." Hasan stood to leave, holding the cigar in his mouth.

"Where are you going sir?" asked the boy.

"To impose some discipline" he replied, the village burning around him

[Negara-West Hesia]

Operation KEMUNSI

TOP SECRET: FOR REVIEW BY SENIOR OTDI PERSONNEL ONLY

[KEMBALINYA KEKUATAN UNTUK SIAMAT]

With the intent of both instructing senior ODTI personnel with some of the broad implications of the Negaran Republican Army's planned conduct of a war in the Siamati-Namkwok Theatre and of leveraging the knowledge and experience of said personnel in making improvements to the standing plan, the Negaran Department of War has made this introductory document available to senior military leadership figures in ODTI countries. As per security protocols, it is only to be made available to personnel with OF-9 clearance or above, and is to be strictly limited in issuance to political figures.

[PICTURED: Overview of DASELA forces, including earmarked reserve formations in gray]

Estimates for OPFOR strength in the Siamati theatre vary, but ELINT and IMINT sources have placed the number as reliably granting numerical parity to NRA forces in-theatre, with approximately 400,000-600,000 Songhua troops in divisional deployments. This is generally consistent with troop deployments to joint Songhua-Namkwok exercises in-theatre, which are expected to serve as a model for combat operations. This may elicit some concern. Intelligence suggests that despite numerical parity, NRA units can generally be expected to have superior performance in meeting engagements. Air parity or limited superiority are a chief contributor to this expectation; performance at sea and in the air will both be heavily reliant on ODTI deployments, but in any case the NRA can generally be expected to repel a Songhua, Namkwok, or combined assault.

NRA operations in the case of a conflict are based on the assumption that due to the distance of ODTI assets and the limited nature of both Asterian and Gaullican commitments to the Negaran theatre, ODTI assistance will not be forthcoming. As such, heavy emphasis must be placed on speed of maneuver, especially in the opening stages of the conflict. While Negara possesses relatively large reserves, it cannot be expected that these will be brought to the front in time, and as such the nature of initial operations will likely be aggressive, even potentially forfeiting political advantages to gain operational ones. It is to be hoped that the long-standing nature of the conflict, relatively good relations with ODTI states, and Negara's generally defensive political posture will lead to the rest of ODTI being willing and able to rally public opinion to Negara.

That being stated, Negara's nature as a democratic state provides it with certain unique disadvantages. As with all conflicts, any fighting must be conducted with a view to a political end; unlike Songguo, Negara is much less able to sustain losses politically in the short term. As such we can expected that Songguo- and by extension, Namkwon- will attempt to take the lead in initiating conflict in-theatre. This is helpful politically, but forces us to consider a Songhua assault likely. The absence of strategic depth in Siamat, in addition to variable public sentiment to a war in defense of Siamat, make any loss of the Siamati capital politically unsustainable. This concisely renders defense in depth non-viable in the event of a war. As such, we must be willing to consider the tactical use of nuclear weapons in the defence of Siamat's capital and key political institutions.

Moreover, it is to be expected that the likelihood of Negaran success in conventional operations in the Siamati theatre of operations will induce the Songhua leadership to seek alternatives to opening a conventional conflict in the region. In order of likelihood, these are expected to consist of:

• A diversionary, conventional all-arms assault with limited scope along the Southwest Frontier,
• Inciting further conflict in northern Coius to further draw NRA assets away from the Siamati theatre,
• Inciting a nonconventional conflict in the Siamati region to destabilise Siamat. 1

In any case, we must remain prepared for any eventualities. Further information can be found on pages 3-7 of this document.

1: Recent reports from HUMINT sources assure us that recent developments in Siamat are unrelated to Songhua exercises in-theatre.

[Senkaku]

Chapter Six: Distant Thunder
Siamat
Had Mai Province
Phimai Prefecture
Sephon County
Sephon
08:49

---

Zhang Xian stepped gingerly over a corpse- some Siamati woman, holding a basket of limes that had rolled everywhere. Near her, a pair of Siamati soldiers were sprawled, their camo fatigues drenched with blood and torn where it look like they'd been machine-gunned. Xian could hear rotors rumbling somewhere overhead. An old Z-6 utility helicopter, armed with some rockets and machine guns and cannon, had been brought across the border to aid in the assault on Sephon, along with several pieces of old artillery. Given the way the entire street he was walking down appeared to be filled with corpses and burning things and debris, he guessed the helicopter had made several passes over this area. Heat washed over him as he strolled past a burning Siamati APC, a charred corpse leaning in an agonized position out of the hatch on the top over a heavy machine gun. Good Lord, what a fucking mess. Distant gunfire pattered further away, and he hefted his pistol and looked around for a moment before continuing.

There was suddenly a series of distant barks, and as a whistling noise grew louder Xian dropped to the ground. There was a massive explosion perhaps two hundred meters ahead of him, and he could see plumes of smoke and dirt and debris erupting over the town's buildings in the distance.
His cell phone started ringing, and he pulled it out and swiped to answer. "Yes?"
"Xian. Get to the top of the building to your left. Address should be 1064. There's still enemy movement in the sector you were given earlier."
"Yessir." Xian walked through the open door into an apartment building of modest size, with a tiny, deserted lobby. The ground-floor windows had been blown out, probably when the attack helicopter had fired some rockets nearby or an artillery shell had landed too close. Xian started climbing the stairs. Oof. Someday I hope they'll make a lighter fucking rifle,
he thought, glancing resentfully at the sniper rifle and backpack he was carrying.
On the third floor landing, he heard a slight noise from down a hallway. Instantly, he dropped into a crouch, pulling out his pistol and looking around.
The noise came again, like a shoe landing very quietly on wood floor- but this time the floorboard creaked. Suddenly there was a blur of green camo, and Xian squeezed the trigger of his pistol as quickly as he could.

The Siamati soldier crumpled like a rag doll, thrown backwards by the force of five bullets hitting his torso more or less at the same time, and slid down the wall behind him, leaving a bloody streak. His fatigues were torn, his leg already bloody from a previous wound, and he only had a long knife for a weapon. Probably camped out here after his squad got blown to bits outside. He kept climbing, putting a new magazine in his pistol and taking a little more care to be quiet as he crept upwards.

In any event, there were no more Siamatis waiting to sneak up and stab him. The door to the roof was unlocked- doubtless someone had used it earlier to run to the fire escape or something. He jammed it shut behind him, and carried a planter full of tomato plants over and dropped it in front of the door for good measure. Any more of them try to sneak up and brain me, I'll hear them coming.
Xian plopped his sniper rifle down, setting up the little stand at the end of the barrel, and laid out his things before settling in and scanning through the gun's scope.

It was a long time before he found a good shot, the clouds shifting overhead. Occasionally a Siamati soldier would pop up- a helmeted head glimpsed briefly through a window, someone in a combat uniform scurrying across the street- but mostly Xian just found himself sitting in the hot Siamati sun, waiting.

There was a distant thump, and then a whistling noise that he recognized. He saw someone dart out from a battered-looking building, wearing a combat uniform and helmet...
...and just as they came into his crosshairs, the entire block vanished behind a smoke plume and Xian felt the shockwave of the shell explosion slap him across the face.
Time to keep waiting.

---

13:47

---

Chanming muttered a few curses as the helicopter set down hard. Fucking incompetent Namkwok pilots. They were in the second of two helicopters that had been sent across the border thus far- this one some ancient knockoff of a Gaullican model that the Siamati army had once used.
The soldier sitting across from him reached over to slide the door open, and Chanming made a face as the engine wash blasted in, bringing dust and heat into the air-conditioned passenger cabin. He unstrapped his seat belt, stepping out onto the pavement and squinting as his guards jumped out behind him. A moment later, the helicopter roared up and away, and they were left in peace to gaze on the ruin of the Sephon Town Hall. It had been a boring block-shaped structure, originally, utilitarian and almost brutalist with all the poured concrete, before the attack on the town had commenced. Two lower rectangular wings had extended out from a taller, square central area, aligned on a north-south axis like the rest of the grid plan the town had been aligned on.
Now, the southern wing was a pile of rubble, and the central block's roof had been smashed in. Only a few windows in the northern wing had survived the shelling and fierce fighting that the building had fallen victim to when a group of Siamati soldiers had holed up here to make their last stand. One of their armored personnel carriers was still smoldering a little in the street, and corpses and debris were littered everywhere. Fucking unprofessional and disgraceful, he thought to himself. All of this mess should've been cleaned up. He noticed there were civilians in the mix too. Good Lord, these idiots need some goddamn discipline.

Chanming started climbing the steps up to the ruined town hall, stepping over the occasional body of a Siamati soldier on his way in, anx turned left as he passed through the shattered doors into the ruined lobby, into the more intact northern wing. A guard stepped out from behind the door, looking him up and down before bowing slightly and moving aside.
There were two more posted outside the door where everyone was meeting, and Chanming strode in briskly. Immediately, everyone- or almost everyone- got to their feet and saluted. Chanming saluted back and sat down at the end of the conference table, taking a quick glance at the shattered window.
"Why have the bodies of the Siamati troops not been removed?", he asked bluntly to the room at large.
A Namkwok militia officer, who looked to be no older than twenty-five, who had not risen or saluted when he'd entered, scowled at him. His Songhua was strongly accented. "Why would we give those dogs any dignity in death? And who the fuck are you?"
"I am Colonel Wu Chanming, and the next time you speak to me that way I'll have you arrested and shot and erased from existence. I am now in command here. I want all the bodies buried or burned, respectfully. I'm willing to overlook some minor looting, but any rapes, murders, or arsons, and I want the perpetrators arrested. We'll also need to start having men clear some of the debris away, especially from the roads, since there will be more troops moving through here now that we've seized the town."
The Namkwok rebel looked like he was about to speak, but an older militiaman sitting next to him, with graying hair and a beard, cuffed him on the head and spoke in Namkwok. "Shut up, you young fool."
"Send patrols around to search for hiding Siamati soldiers and to distribute food and medical aid to any civilians who have hunkered down here. I was told we might have to target the pipes leading to the town reservoir- did that come to pass?"
A Farsi Revolutionary Guard captain shook his head. "No, Colonel. The Siamati shut the water off themselves."
"We'll turn it back on, then. I assume electricity has been knocked out?"
"Yessir," the Farsi man said coolly. "We shelled the substation and destroyed the high-tension pylons outside of town. The cell tower was taken out this morning by an artillery strike."
"Fine. We have our own generators, the civilians will have to manage with darkness. There will also be a unit of Strategic Missile Troops coming in tonight with short-range artillery rockets- nothing fancy, no MLRS or heavy rocket artillery. They'll be setting up near the start of the road out to Phimai, so I'll get the exact details of where they plan to set up so we can post sentries, fortifications, and maybe some foxholes and whatnot to make sure any stray Siamati units don't wreck their whole setup. Is there anything I haven't read about I should be aware of?"
"Two things, sir", a Namkwok special operations major said. "Firstly, there's an IWC office in town- no one's bothered them."
"Send some people over. We should make it clear we're in charge, and limit their movement and communications, but have them work on treating injured civilians and any of our wounded. The second thing?"
"The town library still has some Siamati troops holed up in it, sir. We think between twenty and fifty men. They have two machine guns and a few snipers but we don't think they have much in the way of supplies, and there haven't been any transmissions or anything from them to Phimai or elsewhere."
"Sounds like a nuisance. Why haven't they been obliterated?"
"There are civilians also sheltering in the building, sir. Some appeared to voluntarily flee to the building, others were taken in by the Siamati. We also think that it's possible that some of the town government could have escaped there, and we were hesitant to order an artillery strike with civilians present."
Chanming sighed. "As much as I appreciate your discipline and adherence to military code, Major, I'm afraid these are extenuating circumstances. A pocket of resistance while we're making preparations for attacks against Phimai, and seeing as how we're moving a lot of troops through here and artillery rockets... perhaps use the Z-6 that's been deployed here? And a unit of your special forces troops, supported by snipers, machine guns, and RPGs might be suitable for storming the building. Arrest any government officials and try to minimize civilian casualties, and kill all the Siamati soldiers."

---

Namkwon
Ca Giang Province
Phan Dinh
18:55

---

"So, Colonel, Sephon has been secured?", General Liang said to the screen. Chanming's face was a bit grainy, and the frame was shaking- he was in a car of some type, it seemed, talking to them from his phone.
"Yes, General. I'm afraid I had to implement somewhat strict disciplinary measures- some of the militia forces are... untrained in the finer points of international law, unfortunately. Other than that, the town is entirely secure and we're still cleaning up and delivering some aid to civilians who were trapped here."
"Very good. How is progress on the artillery rocket battery you're setting up?"
"The launcher sets are fairly basic, sir, so at this point all that remains to do is to build a proper perimeter. I also received a report that we've taken a number of prisoners in Chayathon. I was wondering what should be done with them, if anything."
"Ship them back to Sachian, since it's our most secured target. Colonel, we've also reached a decision on how many troops will be sent across tonight. We're planning on 1,500, a mixture of SFAF and Namkwok regulars, and they'll bring some tanks- only Type-75s, though- and heavier guns, mostly 979s, across with them."
"Very good, sir. Based on our advances today, and once our forces are repositioned and reinforced by tomorrow morning, we should be able to seize quite a bit of ground around Phimai and perhaps begin attacks on the city's outskirts. Has the MSJ come up with anything important regarding the movement of Siamati forces?"
"They've obviously strengthened from their normal baseline in the area over a course of months, but it seems that Siamati high command may not be fully aware of what is happening. Thus far they're not sending major formations towards Phimai, and the MSJ believes they are not necessarily entirely aware that we actually pose a threat outside the rural areas."
"Alright sir. My phone battery is running low, so if you'll excuse me."
"Thank you, Colonel." The screen went black.

[The Kingdom of Glitter]

Sephon, Siamat

The Sephon Office of the International White Cross was in the dark, and had been for quite some time. This was of course both the case literally and figuratively. Seven tired faces filled the small office, which consisted of a main room with two small offices attached, one of which had been converted into a conference room, as well as a break room equipped with a kitchenette, vending machines, and access to bathrooms. Cubicles and office chairs dotted the room, some propped up against doors and windows alike to act as barricades. A mixture of panic and confusion had fallen upon the IWC workers, who had hurried to the office the night before after communications and cellular service had been lost. It was of course the proper thing to do according to IWC protocol, and had been following the Kasaros Incident during the Iyakasari Conflict nearly twenty years ago. Their city was under siege, and historically that was not particularly a best case scenario, especially for foreign aid workers.

The Director of the Sephon, a Parchise national by the name of Carla Devereaux, had for all intents and purposes retreated into her office. The fighting had put a strain on her. She was nervous she was ill equipped to handle the situation, after all she was only in her thirties and had never seen anything like this before. All attempts made by herself and her coworkers to reach the IWC office in Laphun, the Siamati capital, had failed. Now, all they had to comfort them was the dim red lights from the emergency exit signs and whatever sunlight had managed to creep through the closed blinds. Battery powered LED lanterns lit up the room as if they were over-sized lightning bugs. Carla's deputy director, a Caeseni national and veteran of service in the IWC, had taken it upon himself to ensure everyone's various needs were met. He raided the vending machines, breaking the glass to distribute the food, and managed to pry open the door on the drink machine. The rest of the workers all hailed from a variety of nations: one from the Federation, another from Lusitana, and one from Gaullica. The rest of the workers were Siamati, natives of the city of Sephon and the surrounding area or sent by the Laphun office.

Noises could be heard outside the door to their office, which had been blocked from the inside by several office chairs. Shouts in a foreign language, one that sounded both familiar and unknown could be heard as bangs on the door began. The aid workers began to panic, some trying to decide if this or the shelling had been worse. It mattered not, as they were just as equally mentally scarring. After a while the door burst open, and several armed soldiers flooded into the room, tossing the chairs aside. Some of the workers began to panic, while others ran to hide in the break room. The Director jumped out of her chair and bravely made her way into the main room. One man clearly had authority over the other soldiers, and he promptly identified himself.

So they're Songhua Devereaux thought to herself, promptly followed by a silent well fuck. "Greetings gentlemen" she said first in Gaullican, hoping one would be able to reply. What she believed to be a lieutenant or sergeant starred blankly at her. She then tried to remember what little of their language she could. "Hello" she said in a rusty and broken Songhua. "May I ask your business?"

"You are IWC workers yes? We have wounded, and you have to treat them. Try anything funny, and we have orders to make you disappear."

Carla understood roughly half of it, but was able to make our key words as "wounded", "treat", "orders", "you", and disappear". That was enough for her to comply. She nodded her head and spoke to her workers, this time in Gaullican. "They have wounded, it is time for us to do our job folks. Hop to it."

---

Phimai, Siamat

Elsewhere in Siamat the IWC was actually able to meet its mission, not yet being bogged down by the fighting that engulfed Sephon. Refugees from through the Had Mai province had been trickling in towards the prefectural capital, Phimai. The IWC office there was quick in its response, and opted to establish refugee camps in a hamlet outside the city. Supplies arrived promptly from the capital and various ports by rail, but the situation was growing more complicated. Supplies were becoming more limited, causing mild panic among the ranks at the far larger Phimai Office.

Several thousand refugees arrived after the fighting had picked up and the IWC was scrambling to accommodate them. There were also those who opted to stay with family while in the city, alleviating the burden placed on the Director, Richard Davidson. Phimai and all of Siamat was far different from his homeland of Valentir, but he had found the transition easy. Besides, he was doing work he loved, what more could a man ask for, or so he thought. He often scurried around the camp, harassing his Deputy while scrambling to hand out food, water, blankets, and other supplies to the refugees. Davidson believed in a hands on approach, and it was not uncommon for him to help set up tents. In fact, that was just what he was doing. Two of his staffers, a Samastaran and a Svelt watched him as they took a break from the organised chaos.

"You know, I heard the rail lines out of the province had been destroyed, is that true?" the Svelt inquired.

"I am not sure. I've heard the same, but I heard it was only partial. Damn locals are just in the dark as we are" his Samastaran coworker replied.

"Damn. These insurgents mean business" he said.

"They always do." She blinked. "The Main Office is monitoring the situation, or at least I hope they are. All I know is it isn't in my job description" she said with a chuckle.

[Senkaku]

Chapter Eight: Morning Star
Siamat
Had Mai Province
Phimai Prefecture
Phimai
04:17

---

The eastern horizon was beginning to blush bruise-blue, faintly lighter than the black sky, and the carpet of lights that was the city of Phimai glittered, reflecting off the clouds and shining back at the stars that twinkled faintly above. A soft, cool breeze was blowing out of the east, and it was pleasantly warm outside. The humidity, so unbearable when the air grew hotter, now just felt soft against the skin.

A huge square of lights suddenly blinked out in the city, arrayed in the valley below, as Chanming watched. Within a second, the blackout was spreading, rolling and switching off the lights all over the city. A moment later, he heard the distant growl of an explosion- that would be whatever bomb or shell had destroyed the power lines. It was followed by more deep thumps, almost muffled by the soft morning air. Against the darkness of the blacked-out city, it was easy to make out the flashes of explosions, and he could see fires starting, smoke rising into the dark sky. Tiny lights began arching down from the sky- artillery rockets, launched from the vicinity of Sephon.

Chanming walked back to the command tent. He was not in overall command, any more- that responsibility went to General Zhen Haiming, who had driven out from Phan Dinh the previous day in another convoy of troops. General Zhen also happened to be a low-ranking imperial prince- the imperial family's power would naturally touch an operation so consequential to the nation, and giving an accomplished officer a posting like this seemed like a relatively harmless bit of nepotism compared to stories Chanming had heard before.
There was another thump, a little closer, near enough to rattle Chanming's bones. Phimai is going to have a rough morning.

---

The siege of Phimai had begun. In the wee hours of the morning, before the shelling had started, the last cell tower serving the city had been seized and shut down, on one of the hills overlooking Phimai. Phone lines had been cut as well, and it had been days since trains had been able to get into the city. The night before, the last cars and trucks came in- after that, the roads had been closed off entirely as well.

Then the shelling began. Government and military buildings were targeted at first, and strategic points like the main radio broadcast tower in the city center. Artillery spotters in the city directed the guns to hit Siamati troops and spots where they had stopped or holed up or cached supplies, but eventually the shelling began to abate. The heavy guns would now be supporting the troops who were moving into the suburbs and outer districts, slowly battling their way inwards.
The artillery rockets from Sephon, however, were more difficult to aim. These were not highly precise, mobile MLRS systems being fired, but simple steel tubes with no guidance systems and very vague targeting at best. As such, they were simply being scattered indiscriminately across the city center, occasionally landing in a street and blowing up a water main or falling on random buildings.

The noose had begun to tighten.

[Senkaku]

Chapter Nine: The Silk Cord
Siamat
Had Mai Province
Phimai Prefecture
Phimai
23:17

---

Phimai had seen a week of bombardment and steady attacks, now, with QTO artillery hammering defensive positions in support of the dozens of squads that were slowly working their way towards the city center. Rockets from Sephon had continued to fall without any sort of rhyme or reason, leaving buildings and streets in rubble, and the entire city remained in darkness. People were getting desperate, now, running out of food and water as the sounds of gunfire drew closer. Water could at least be collected from the gutters during the frequent late afternoon thunderstorms that came through, or taken from bathtubs and sinks and containers that had been filled in anticipation of the siege, but food and gasoline both were becoming scarce. Generators sputtered out or were targeted by the guns hiding in the hills around the city and sent up in flames, and the lights they had briefly brought back on soon flickered out. Food rotted in overheated refrigerators or melted in useless freezers, and the Siamati army was being forced to requisition both food and increasingly scarce gas to feed their soldiers and run their vehicles (which grew fewer day by day).

The QTO forces outside the city, meanwhile, continued to multiply, as more and more streamed under cover of darkness or beneath trees across the border. They had a few tanks, now, a wide array of APCs and IFVs, multiple helicopters, a little more than two dozen artillery tubes, and thousands of soldiers. They had food, ammunition, water, gasoline, medical supplies- everything that this force needed to strangle the city's defenders, everything that those defenders needed if they hoped to hold out for much longer, was being sent across the border along with more and more reinforcements like clockwork every night.
Chanming peered through his binoculars at Phimai's city hall. It was an elegant building in the Euclean style, with a prominent dome that drove it up above most of the apartments and office buildings in the downtown area and lent it dignity and grandeur that most of the nondescript concrete blocks around it lacked. Even darkened from the lack of electricity, it was still visible against the rest of the city, illuminated in shifting waves of orange by fires burning nearby from artillery strikes and rocket blasts.

He could also occasionally see muzzle flashes from its windows, where Siamati soldiers were desperately fighting to hold on to the building and keep it out of enemy hands. Chanming could only assume that they would have evacuated any logistical units or supplies or officers from the area by now, if they'd ever had anything resembling a headquarters there.
The artillery strike hit faster than Chanming could've believed, and he was unprepared- one became accustomed to the whistling of shells flying to their targets after spending a week outside a city under siege. He flinched a little as there was a great flash, and suddenly dust and smoke was flying out of the windows of the city hall, flames blossoming from beneath the tiles of its roof and ripening into inky smoke that melted into the night sky.
With a great groan, the lovely dome of the city hall began to lean, then to crumble, a huge cloud of dust flowing out from its base and obscuring it as it crumpled and imploded.

---

By sunrise, the last Siamati soldiers in Phimai had surrendered or been killed, waving a white flag from their makeshift fortifications in the rubble of a destroyed office complex as a tank ground around the corner and bellowed at them with a loudspeaker to surrender or die. A few others, a couple blocks away, chose to sacrifice themselves for their motherland, stubbornly remaining entrenched in the empty apartment building they had holed up in. A pair of Songhua tanks and a few artillery strikes sufficed to bring it collapsing into a pile of rubble.

[Negara-West Hesia]

Siamat
Had Mai Province
Pen Ratchma Prefecture

0417

Sleep in the barracks was always a gladly-taken opportunity. So much so, in fact that when a klaxon called for assembly, the whole camp came dangerously close to mutiny. Of the soldiers waiting in the briefly room, Corporal Tep Kukit was one of the few still too busy rousing himself to wish some unpleasant fate on Captain Tuntayakul, the commanding officer, as the latter entered the room.

"Good morning, gentlemen," he began, addressing a room of well-armed young adults. "A bit of a rude awakening today, I'm afraid."

'Get to the point,' Kukit thought privately in the second row, watching Tuntayakul strut about in front of a blank whiteboard like a camouflaged peacock.

Surprisingly, the thought seemed to work. "At about 0300 this morning," the Captain began, "Reports started coming in of Phimai being cut off. We're not entirely sure what's happened, there, but we can only assume that it has something to do with the rebel offensive we've been facing up against recently. What's more, is that we're getting reports about the rebels being far better organised and equipped than usual."

An odd hush washed over the room; the captain smiles slightly and strangely. Evidently having achieved his desired effect, he waved his hand vaguely at the board behind him before continuing.

"Our orders are as follows; we're to link up with the rest of the brigade at Pen Ratchma, fifty miles East of Phi Mai." Clasping his hands together, the officer stared at his men. "Starting now," he added helpfully.

A quiet murmur, and then the sudden rush of noise of the company rising all at once filled the room. Sergeants led their men out to crawl into cramped metal boxes of parked AFVs, and with the roar of engines, to drive out along the western road towards Phimai.

[Senkaku]

Chapter Eleven: Hellfire
Namkwon
Ca Giang Province
Phan Dinh
19:00

---

"This meeting will come to order," General Liang said heavily, sharing a quick eyeroll with Chanming, who was viewing the whole thing out of the camera of a tablet. General Zhen Haiming, sitting next to Chanming, got his own tablet, and appeared not to notice.
"General Zhen is obviously directing the campaign in the Phimai area. Colonel Wu of the Federal Ground Force, our MSJ liaison, directed the attack on Sephon and is advising General Zhen. They have information that led me to call this meeting."
Haiming cleared his throat, and Chanming suppressed his own eyeroll. The imperial prince was competent, at least- but irritatingly vain and self-important. Well, he's a prince, so it comes with the job description.
"We've detected major Siamati troop movement. Obviously they've previously sent in some troops and their garrisons around here have resisted, but we're detecting movement of much larger formations- several thousand troops, moving west from the Had Mai metropolitan area. Colonel Wu, as the MSJ liaison, has further information regarding this."
Chanming inclined his head to Haiming- a useless gesture, particularly since no one at the table in Phan Dinh could really see it. "Thank you, sir. The MSJ has received reports from sources in Laphun, corroborated by informants within Had Mai and the surrounding area, that roughly a brigade-sized force of Siamati troops are being deployed from the Had Mai area. They will be rendezvousing and staging, probably for a counterattack against Phimai, at Pen Ratchma, a town fifty miles east of Phimai, twenty-three miles west of Had Mai on the main road."
An MSJ officer at the table in Phan Dinh spoke up. "We don't think Laphun has a clear picture of what exactly is going on, besides that they've lost contact with Phimai and there has been greatly increased rebel activity of late, which means that there haven't been any information compromises."
"We should attack immediately," one Farsi colonel said. "If we can hit them while they're still preparing in Pen Ratchma, or better yet even while some are still on the road-"
"Let's not overextend ourselves," a Namkwok officer cut in. "Organized resistance in Phimai may be at an end, but it's a decent-sized city. We'll need time to secure it and clean up, deal with the citizenry and the foreigners who were there. Better to lure the Siamati towards us, let them think that it was just some rebels who caught the local garrison with their pants down, and then to envelop them and crush them. To get to Pen Ratchma, we'd have to drive hard- fifty miles, and the enemy has more mechanized assets than we do."
"I'm afraid I must disagree," a Namkwok special operations officer said. "Attacking immediately and as hard as we can will bring us closer to our objective- namely, Had Mai."
"But we must also consider the incursions that are beginning in the south in Sukhoket Province, and how that will affect our flow of reinforcements," he was countered.
General Liang intervened. "The rate at which reinforcements are deployed is presently at our discretion. We can strike hard in the south and still have sufficient numbers to proceed aggressively around Had Mai."
Haiming jumped in, piling on, while Chanming sat back. Either way, the imperialists have no idea what's coming, he figured. They have no idea what we're going to do to them.
"I think letting the Siamati attack would be a mistake. We have plenty of men, but our armored forces have intentionally been kept light. If we let them attack, the most effective way to ensure a defeat would be to draw them into Phimai, where their AFVs will be less effective than in the field- and I cannot support subjecting the city to further urban fighting or giving ground to the imperialists, when it will doubtless prove difficult to dislodge them even if we do manage to surround and strangle them. If we can send light infantry teams through the jungle and the fields, perhaps with some mobile artillery or our helicopters, and launch a surprise attack while they're still preparing or while they're on the road- that would be ideal. They will not expect a rapid advance."
The Farsi colonel managed to get another word in. "Why not just send a spearhead down to attack them? I know our armor is light and less effective, but they will certainly not be expecting a large and coordinated rebel attack, and one so rapid? We can destroy a rather significant component of the forces who will end up defending Had Mai without block-by-block fighting."
Chanming finally decided to chime in. "Furthermore, if we operate delicately and attack their staging area, we may even be able to seize some of their vehicles and weapons, which will certainly be helpful."
General Liang nodded approvingly. "A surprise attack will be the best tactic in this regard. Colonel Diem, you'll go out to Phimai to coordinate your special forces for this. If it's possible to get men there quickly enough, while the Siamati are still there, then we'll send special assault teams through the jungle for a night attack on Pen Ratchma. They'll still think the rebels are fifty miles away at the closest until the shooting starts. If they depart before our teams can arrive, we'll change plans and hit them somewhere on the road. We'll increase reinforcement flow, and most of the Phimai force will begin proceeding with all possible speed down the Had Mai road to either seize Pen Ratchma after the assault teams strike it, or to engage the Siamati along the road if they leave too early for that to happen. This SRA brigade will be surrounded and wiped out."

---

Siamat
Had Mai Province
Phimai Prefecture
Bang Muethet County
Bang Muethet

---

Bang Muethet was, like many of the towns around Phimai, usually rather sleepy, a place of little importance in the grand scheme of things. It had a small sugar-refining plant- this town was built on sugar, nowadays, after it had been introduced under the reign of colonial Werania before the Great War. Beyond its orderly streets, acres of sugarcane rustled gently in the evening breeze, as puffy cumulus clouds scudded along the darkening bowl of the sky.
However, where usually the streets would still be filled with voices as field laborers headed off to their homes and people began heading home from dinner or visiting friends, as bars started to fill and become lively, now Bang Muethet was nearly silent. Trucks and cars had been parked or abandoned along the main road towards Had Mai, as had piles of belongings. Some unlucky people who had fled Phimai recently were sleeping by the side of the highway, or had set up makeshift tents and campfires. The houses and apartment buildings in town were blacked out, stores closed up and deserted, and the sugar plant was silent, its lights extinguished.

Campfires began to be extinguished as the sound of engines and rotors suddenly began to come from down the road. High above, the black shapes of several helicopters swooped across the star field, and the headlights of tanks and trucks came into view around the bend of the highway in the direction of Phimai. The unfortunates who had been forced by exhaustion or illness or other reasons to delay and spend the night resting in Bang Muethet began to panic, restarting what vehicles still had gasoline, pedaling madly on bicycles, or fleeing on foot into the acres and acres of rustling sugarcane.

The Pen Ratchma strike force was on the march.

---

Operation 949 July 20th Briefing
EYES ONLY: CONTROL LEVEL 5

Property of the Sensitive Affairs Bureau · Destroy after reading · Redactions removed · Reproduction prohibited

---

This briefing has been provided to select MSJ and Supreme Command officers and is available to the State Council. Redactions have been removed but classified material remains highlighted. Any sharing or reproduction of this document is punishable by death, and it is to be incinerated after reading.

---

A major development has taken place. A brigade sized formation of soldiers of the Siamati Republican Army are moving from the Had Mai area to the vicinity of the small city of Pen Ratchma, a suburb in the Had Mai metropolitan area along the highway to Phimai. Forces from Phimai have been detached to deal with this enemy thrust, and ideally will be able to strike the enemy while they rendezvous in Pen Ratchma. Failing this, the town of Bang Muethet has been selected as an ideal location to engage the enemy along the road, and provisions have been made so that if enemy forces rendezvous and depart before an effective assault can be prosecuted, the enemy can be successfully encircled at Bang Muethet.

Secondly, insertion of forces into the western regions of Kephun province, in the south, is beginning. The initial forces will be special forces operators, entering the West Kephun lake country by way of small boats, to link up with rebel militia outfits in the area. This will be a prelude to increased direction of reinforcements to the southern operational zone. At present, primary objectives are to seize the towns of Kaptai and Yachaup, which are two strategic linchpins to taking the prefecture-level city of Kansin (the second-largest city in Kephun province, strategically located on the Koom River, which will allow for progress south and east towards Kephun by riverine forces).

[Senkaku]

Chapter Twelve: Shadow Sprinter

---

Operation 949 July 22nd Special Briefing
EYES ONLY: CONTROL LEVEL 6 · INCINERATION MANDATORY

Property of the Sensitive Affairs Bureau · Destroy after reading · Redactions removed · Reproduction prohibited

---

This briefing has been provided to select MSJ and Supreme Command officers and to the State Council. All material within this document is considered to be classified. Any sharing or reproduction of this document is punishable by death, and it is to be incinerated after reading. Improper destruction of this document carries a penalty of fifty years' imprisonment.

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Significant operations have been successfully undertaken in the area of Bang Muethet and Pen Ratchma, resulting in the destruction of a significant quantity of Siamati men and materiel (roughly a brigade) and the repulsion of the counterattack on Phimai. Around midday on July 21st, leading elements of the Siamati brigade that had rendezvoused near Pen Ratchma began proceeding towards the outskirts of Bang Muethet. Phan Dinh Command decided to prepare for the contingency of a strike against the enemy at Bang Muethet rather than attempt to strike forces still rendezvousing in Pen Ratchma. Artillery forces were positioned around Bang Muethet, while other units were positioned to defend the town itself. Other troops were positioned in the jungle and fields around the town in preparation for a double envelopment action, and fortifications erected on the road from Bang Muethet to Phimai. The Siamati forces came into contact with friendly troops in the early afternoon, around 1400 hours, and spent several hours clearing the town itself of QTO troops. During this time, artillery support was strictly limited and no close air support from helicopters or small aircraft was employed, so as not to arouse enemy suspicions. The forces waiting on their flanks also retreated or moved as necessary to give the impression of being just a few partisans hiding in the jungle. Artillery support was increased partially once contact was lost with the last units remaining in Bang Muethet to support the fortifications on the road, and Siamati troops continued to move into Bang Muethet from Pen Ratchma. By around 1900 hours, observation suggested more than 75% of the Siamati force was in the vicinity of Bang Muethet, either waiting in the town or carrying out duties there, proceeding up the road from Pen Ratchma or waiting along it, or engaging the defensive positions on the road to Phimai. At around 1930 hours, the operation went into effect. The flanking units that had been waiting launched their attacks, supported by helicopter gunships and increased artillery fire. Unprepared Siamati units were caught off-guard, and large quantities of materiel destroyed or captured. Bang Muethet was completely surrounded and a general assault began from all sides. Resistance in Bang Muethet itself continued until about 2330 hours, at which time the remaining forces in the town had all either surrendered or been wiped out. Outside the town, Siamati troops were either wiped out or retreated towards Pen Ratchma. Most of those retreating along the road were crushed by motorized units with helicopter support. The engagement leaves 2,041 prisoners of war in the Phimai force's custody, of whom 1,812 are wounded (617 are severely wounded and are being sent to Phan Dinh for additional medical treatment beyond what Phimai facilities can provide). An estimated 1,250 Siamati troops are either KIA or MIA, and roughly 750 (less than a quarter of the force) retreated back towards Pen Ratchma, of whom at least a third are likely wounded. A large but as of yet indeterminate number of Siamati vehicles were also captured or destroyed, as was a large quantity of materiel. Motorized units with helicopter and light artillery support have begun attacking Pen Ratchma and are expected to completely control the town by midnight tonight, in light of limited Siamati resistance. MSJ sources in Laphun and Had Mai indicate that Siamati high command and Had Mai regional command lost contact with the Bang Muethet force shortly after the main assault began and still do not have contact, as power in Pen Ratchma was knocked out by a sabotage operation at around 2350 hours on the 21st.

The victory at Bang Muethet is an enormous step forwards towards the larger goal of preparing to besiege Had Mai, which is one of Siamat's largest cities and will pose a considerable challenge even following Bang Muethet. The towns of Chianya and Payaphum are considered critical targets as well, before assaults can be launched into Had Mai's western districts. Following the seizure of Pen Ratchma and completion of ongoing logistical tasks in Phimai and Bang Muethet, forces will be directed to secure both towns and then begin advancing into the city.

Meanwhile, in the southern theater, the towns of Kaptai and Yachaup are both now contested. Special operations forces and local guerrillas have taken the hamlets surrounding Yachaup and are working on securing the town itself, while the villages along the main road into Kaptai remain contested. Once both towns' ports (along the Mae Chin River, a tributary of the Koom) and Kaptai's rail juncture are secured, the stage will be set to advance on Kansin. To this end, additional troops are being sent through the lake country with heavier equipment, and other forces have also been sent to escort engineer units, as the lake country's spotty infrastructure and unique terrain poses issues for logistics and supply of a larger force. Yachaup is expected to fall within forty-eight hours, but Kaptai is both larger and better-defended, and has not yet been fully surrounded, so it is difficult to estimate a timetable for its seizure yet.

Once Had Mai and Kansin are secured, as well as the outlying areas around them, and an adequate logistical situation exists in the Kephun lake country, the main portion of Operation 949 will commence within five days.