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Tuesday, September 10th, 2019 | 08:30 hrs [UTC+12]
South Pacific Ocean | Fiji
17° 50' 49" S, 177° 59' 53" E
The Imperial Layartebian Marine Corps deployed, on all amphibious ready groups, a sizeable contingent of men. All told, it was over five thousand men and they made up the core of the ILMC, the Marine Expeditionary Brigade. That brigade had six battalions arranged in three regiments. In one regiment was an assault battalion with one tank, two mechanized, and one light artillery company. A medical battalion existed in the same regiment to provide mobile hospital support in theater. It was a fully capable, combat-support hospital that could be deployed anywhere in the world with port access. The other two regiments consisted of two infantry battalions apiece and each battalion had three rifle and one weapons company. It was the rifle company that was the true core of the Marines' capabilities.
While two of those rifle companies and a number of smaller reconnaissance and special forces units had already deployed to Fiji, putting over a thousand men on the ground, the main invasion had yet to begin. The true thrust of the invasion would see the deployment of both mechanized companies into Suva and Nadi and the tank company into Suva where the heavy armor would be a stark contrast to anything the Fijian military had possessed, let alone Bray's men had seen or expected. It wasn't necessarily expected that the heavy tanks of the tank company would do much fighting but rather it was the psychological effect of a tank that the marines wanted to utilize. At best, Bray's men had technicals and at worst they were infantrymen without basic necessities such as helmets and body armor. Against a tank, they stood no chance regardless.
In advance of the eventual landings, two more recon platoons were deployed via helicopter to Suva and Nadi. There, they were put down in the vicinity of the landing areas, which they moved to and secured. Attack helicopters and Harriers circled overhead and the first landing craft departed their well decks at 08:30 bringing the two mechanized companies ashore first. Those landings ultimately went off without a hitch as Bray's men had already taken to fleeing to their sanctuaries throughout the cities and the jungles of Fiji, hoping to avoid the justice that was coming for them. All told, the trip onboard the LCACs was barely twenty minutes and then it was another few minutes to offload the armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles. It would take two trips to bring all of the vehicles ashore for each company but it would not impede the ability of the company to fight. To bring ashore the tank company would require another four trips, two to bring ashore the tanks and two for the assault elements that made up the rest of the company.
By the time the tank company was coming ashore at Suva, the landing site was more than secure. From there it was simply a matter of the units reaching out to secure their objectives. Helicopters would bring ashore two additional rifle companies to both Nadi and Suva to provide support. Later on that afternoon, the large, medical battalion would deploy. Requiring twenty-five acres of area to deploy it's 296-bed footprint, the medical battalion would be shuttled largely via air to a spot of open land just south of the Rewa River in the just northeast of Nakasi, approximately ten to fifteen kilometers from the center of Suva, close enough for helicopter evacuation and not terribly far by vehicle either. To support it, another rifle company would be deployed nearby to prevent Bray's men from making a run on the largely defenseless camp.
Three marine weapons companies would be deployed throughout the morning as well, two to support operations in Suva and Nadi and a third to support the medical battalion in Nakasi, providing additional firepower from nearby. By mid-afternoon, the military would have deployed five of twelve rifle companies, three of four weapons companies, three of four recon platoons, the entirety of its two mechanized, medical, and tank companies, and associated special forces units. That was quite a bit of manpower but it was focused solely on Suva and Nadi with much of the inner and outer regions of Fiji's main island uncovered. This would allow Bray's men to slip away into the jungle; although, they wouldn't be able to hide out for long. Plans for the second day of operations would see a sizeable force of marines - four rifle companies worth - deploying to the island to support operations around the rest of the island.
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