It was, at last, time. The Soviet North Sea Fleet, Black Sea Fleet, and Mediterranean Fleet were now in the Atlantic, as were the Allanean vessels. From the Allanean colonies across the Atlantic, two dozen of B-22 Zeus bombers were approaching. None, of course, intended to get close to the enemy – but there was also no need. No surface ship, Soviet or Allanean, would enter closer than 600 kilometers from their targets. The furthest ones, armed with long-range cruise missiles, were as far as two thousand kilometres. It would hardly matter.
Their target was not able to dodge.
It was not able to move at all really.
Nor could it be missed.
The enemy would have but a single choice.
In the Main Building of the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, Soviet admirals and generals nodded for one final time in approval.
In the Ministry of War building in Allanea, in its tall, ornate tower, Baroness Priscilla Conde smiled at the admirals and said: "Let's go, then."
And, on hundreds of Soviet vessels, dozens of Allanean vessels, missile tubes and launchers came alive. It was a spectacle to behold, as flashes of red fire lit up the horizon, and, with the howls of hundreds of motors, missiles began to ascend into the grey skies of the Northern Atlantic.
At this point in history, almost every Soviet vessel, down the smallest cutters, and practically every Allanean vessel of war was capable of carrying some manner of missiles. Launched first were dozens upon dozens of supersonic Granit missiles, capable of carrying a vast payload of RDX at amazing speeds. Then came slower Kh-55 and Kh-101 missiles, launched from every vessel that could carry them – and as we mentioned, the Soviets had brought hundreds of ships to the fight.
The Allaneans, too, launched cruise missiles. The arsenal ship launched the rest of its payload. Three hundred missiles – nearly everything the ship had on board – had been also fired at the same target that the Soviets had. The missiles would not use guidance that could be jammed – no GPS, no CANASS, only simple inertial guidance and optical terrain comparison. The shape of the target was well-known.
It would be Fort Dalton, and the Royal Palace that rested within the fort, that would be the target of the coalition's focused fury. It was the same tactic that the Allaneans and the Soviets used against the Qaidi Sultanate – focus everything – absolutely everything – on the royal palace and key structure of governance.
Nobody was foolish, of course – nobody expected to kill the King or win the war through this means. They expected that, like the Allaneans with their underground bunkers, and the Soviets with Metro-2, the Shackleyans too would have under Fort Dalton immense, near-impervious structures. But anything on the surface would be endangered indeed.
The Allanean arsenal ship, as we had mentioned, dumped three-quarters of its munitions at Fort Dalton. The rest had been programmed to use their guidance to target surface ships. These were launched at Harbourough, where HMS Connery and its escorts were known to be docked – a hundred missiles for a handful of targets.
There was no way for Fort Dalton to dodge or to avoid its fate.
It could not deceive the missiles.
But what it could do, of course, was fight.
Their target was not able to dodge.
It was not able to move at all really.
Nor could it be missed.
The enemy would have but a single choice.
In the Main Building of the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, Soviet admirals and generals nodded for one final time in approval.
In the Ministry of War building in Allanea, in its tall, ornate tower, Baroness Priscilla Conde smiled at the admirals and said: "Let's go, then."
And, on hundreds of Soviet vessels, dozens of Allanean vessels, missile tubes and launchers came alive. It was a spectacle to behold, as flashes of red fire lit up the horizon, and, with the howls of hundreds of motors, missiles began to ascend into the grey skies of the Northern Atlantic.
At this point in history, almost every Soviet vessel, down the smallest cutters, and practically every Allanean vessel of war was capable of carrying some manner of missiles. Launched first were dozens upon dozens of supersonic Granit missiles, capable of carrying a vast payload of RDX at amazing speeds. Then came slower Kh-55 and Kh-101 missiles, launched from every vessel that could carry them – and as we mentioned, the Soviets had brought hundreds of ships to the fight.
The Allaneans, too, launched cruise missiles. The arsenal ship launched the rest of its payload. Three hundred missiles – nearly everything the ship had on board – had been also fired at the same target that the Soviets had. The missiles would not use guidance that could be jammed – no GPS, no CANASS, only simple inertial guidance and optical terrain comparison. The shape of the target was well-known.
It would be Fort Dalton, and the Royal Palace that rested within the fort, that would be the target of the coalition's focused fury. It was the same tactic that the Allaneans and the Soviets used against the Qaidi Sultanate – focus everything – absolutely everything – on the royal palace and key structure of governance.
Nobody was foolish, of course – nobody expected to kill the King or win the war through this means. They expected that, like the Allaneans with their underground bunkers, and the Soviets with Metro-2, the Shackleyans too would have under Fort Dalton immense, near-impervious structures. But anything on the surface would be endangered indeed.
The Allanean arsenal ship, as we had mentioned, dumped three-quarters of its munitions at Fort Dalton. The rest had been programmed to use their guidance to target surface ships. These were launched at Harbourough, where HMS Connery and its escorts were known to be docked – a hundred missiles for a handful of targets.
There was no way for Fort Dalton to dodge or to avoid its fate.
It could not deceive the missiles.
But what it could do, of course, was fight.
