2nd Ralkovian War [IC|Greater Dienstad Only]

[Eitoan]

OOC: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=510910

Orav International Airport
Eitoan Occupation Zone
Federation of Ralkovian States


The line for Balkovian Airlines flight 66, Orav to Kelso, Eitoan was unremarkably long and unremarkably surly. And, of course, Balkovian was unremarkably late for boarding. Overall, an unremarkable flight was impending in the dingy terminal. Men and women of Eitoan Occupation Forces Ralkovia on leave, Kelso businessmen and lawyers, a few more well to do Ralkovians, and a large crowd of bargain seeking Balkovians formed the line, sloppily monitored by the airline gate crew and indifferent Federal police. Most of the police yawned as they performed their duty, easy work for them, but not yet awake for the early morning shift. The first rays of the sun broke through the clouds on that day as dawn grudgingly rose over Orav, that sprawling industrial city in the midst of rebuilding and recovering from the war. Passports and visas inspected at the gate, a few hassles with older passengers, the line moved along slowly down the jet port onto Balkovian 66.

In the cockpit the pilot chattered away with the co-pilot, both wartime survivors, both happy to be back in the air after the postwar slump in air travel. Experienced pilots were hard to come by in Federal Ralkovia, so when Balkovian offered a chance to sign on for international flights, both eagerly jumped at the chance. The pay was good. The hours were a bit rough, but the ambience of time in Eitoan was more than enough to make up for that.

Boarding finished. After a short delay for flight plan confirmation from the tower, the pilot announced preparation for take off. They made the announcement in Ralkovian, a flight attendant translated into Balkovian. Taxiing down the runway, a bump, and Flight 66 was in the air. Climbing to 12,000 feet, leveling off, on a course skirting the lake east southeast, most passengers settled in for a long flight. There was a bump on the cabin door. Then a much harder, louder bump. The pilot and co-pilot exchanged surprised looks.

At Orav tower, Aaron Gardner stretched out at the controller in charge’s desk. Captain Gardner, Eitoan Air Force had been one of the first air traffic controllers on the civilian side in the Eitoan Zone, after long duty assignments in Belovo Air Base and S’ra. He knew the country, and had the advantage on being in on the ground floor as civilian air traffic control was cautiously handed off to the federal authorities. But still, with the dearth of trained, reliable Ralkovian controllers, the Alliance military was in charge throughout the Federation. He’d been part of the approval process for the newly graduated controllers, and the review of deraskovized veteran Ralkovian controllers. And he was familiar with his crew this morning. Reporting directly to him for this shift was Dakayah Kradev, one of the first graduates of ATC School, a freed slave. At 28, a few years older than the other graduates, Dakayah perfomed steadily and competently, although civilian traffic could hardly be described as heavy in southern Ralkovia at this time. Still, Gardner was glad to have him. The two young Balkovian controllers, Georgiana Vraduva and Margareta Malciu chattered from time to time, recent ATC School grads, still young and perky. The chatter dropped off as traffic picked up that morning. Off to the side was Rakard Hralevi, older, a holdover from before the war at Orav tower. He was viewed by suspicion by the newer controllers, especially the Balkovians, but Gardner kept tensions under control during his shifts. Still, there was a disconnect. The newer postwar graduates were schooled in the Alliance SV10 system, Hralevi getting only rudimentary training. The girls turned their attention to their screens, Hralevi involved in scanning the entire span of control for the tower. Kradev was engrossed with monitoring audio and visual communication from the flights, including requests from and responses to military traffic.

Malciu’s assignment this morning was the eastern sector. Few inbound flights were on screen. The six outbound flights appeared normal. Time passed. Malciu sipped at her coffee. Eitoan coffee was bitter to Balkovian tastes. She dumped two packets of sugar into the brew and returned her attention to the screen. 75 miles out of Orav Flight 66 continued on the prepared path. She glanced away for a moment. When her attention returned to the screen, Flight 66 flashed yellow. Balkovian Flight 66 had veered slightly northward for two minutes, something that could be easily explained by weather or air current changes. Time passed. Flight 66 continued slightly northward off course. Then there was a sharp drop in altitude. Then the screen traced a sudden turn northward course.

Malciu turned to Kradev. “Dak, we have a situation yellow in eastern sector. Request verbal contact”.

Kradev looked up, turned and looked at Captain Gardner, and thought for a moment. “Granted. Initiate verbal contact”.

Malciu returned to her screen, now showing Flight 66 continuing in the wrong direction. She brought up the menu for verbal contact request, and selected Flight 66. In the cockpit on Balkovian Flight 66, the request notification was received, both visually and with a ring tone. Neither pilot or co-pilot picked it up.

Malciu resent the request. She called in to the cockpit. “Balkovian 66, this is Orav tower. Explain flight path deviation. Over”.

There was no response.

Malciu repeated the plea. Again, no response. Flight 66 suddenly climbed. The screen indication flashed red. Kradev jumped up and came over to Malciu’s desk. Looking up, seeing notification on his screen, Captian Gardner followed suit.

“How long has 66 been off course?” asked Gardner.

Malciu, still engrossed at her screen, answered curtly “4, 6 minutes. I’m going to try verbal contact again”.
She made the same plea. Again, no response. Flight 66 turned again, this time northwesterly. Clearly a problem.

Chatter at the tower, behind Malciu between Gardner, Kradev and Hralevi. Contact Eitoan Air Force control? When does Flight 66 stray into S’ra tower control? Into Kalemba control? How long to give 66 until crisis declaration?

Malciu tried again to contact the errant aircraft. Time passed. Notification of incoming transmission flashed on the screen. She put Flight 66 on speaker.

“Sh’ta ground command, do you read me? This is Action Group Tranka, Balkovian 66. Await further instructions. Over.”

Gardner nudged Malciu away from her desk. He leaned in to the display, clicked on transmission to Flight 66. “This is Orav tower. Flight 66, explain last transmission. Explain flight plan deviation immediately!”

Silence form Balkovian 66. Then their response. “Orav tower, this is Balkovian 66. All is going well, all going on course. Confirm?”

Gardner, Kradev and Hralevi stared at each other. Gardner took to the keyboard. A coded message went to Balkovian 66’s onboard computer. 89BB AC8D 9901 F455.

Moments passed like an eternity. Malciu’s screen showed the message “Flight in distress. Balkovian 66. Incorrect communication.

Gardner shot up, commanding Malciu to return to her station. “Margareta, put all flights in eastern sector notice of likely grounding. Georgiana, send initial notification of discrepancy to all western sector traffic. Rakard, you contact all neighboring sectors, Kranzov, S’ra, Barv of the situation, and open a channel with Balkovian Airlines central tracking. Maybe they know what’s up. Dakayah, you’re in charge of the desk until I return. I have a few calls to make”.

Aaron Gardner rushed back to his desk, sat down and punched up the line to Eitoan Zone EAF Air Traffic Command in Belovo.

The communications officer at Belovo picked up the call. “Belovo ATC, Lieutenant Branav. Is this Orav Tower?”

“Orav Tower, Captain Gardner. We have a Class 1-B situation here. Balkovian 66. Put me through to the situation manager on duty.”

There was a momentary delay. Then two short clicks. A voice came on, typical Eitoan Central Corridor flat accent. “Belovo Situation Room, Major Magdeff. What’s the trouble, Captain Gardner?”

“We have Balkovian 66 off course, Orav to Kelso. Appears to be headed north after a couple unexplained altitude shifts. Troubling communication with Orav tower.”

Magdeff thought for a moment. “Provide escort?”

“I’d get some interceptors up there, for observation. Confirm?”

“Confirm” replied Magdeff.

Meanwhile, at Malciu’s workstation, the display showed further disturbing behavior. Several more changes of altitude, at irregular intervals. A short turn southward, followed by several sharp changes, zigzaging in a westerly direction.

Kradev received notification of an incoming video call from his contact at Balkovian. The caller, visibly excited told him “You’ve got to see this!”

His mouth agape, Kradev watched in horror as the scene unfolded. Obviously a passenger video, widespread mayhem in what appeared to be the first class section of the flight. One passenger had been very obviously shot, bleeding out, slumping back in his seat. A flight attendant screaming in horror, stabbed through the right eyeball. Panning toward the cockpit door, two burly men, apparently Balkovians were beating the shit out of a scruffy, scrawny hijacker in cammo. The video cut short.

“Balkovian, can you resend this?”

“Will do, Orav tower”.

Kradev summoned Gardner and Hralevi to the display. They watched as the video repeated.

Minutes later, two Eitoan Air Force I-25a interceptors scrambled out of Tirasopol Air Base into the gray Balkovian sky, headed west, flying low over village and farms. Civilian air traffic had been grounded in Orav and adjacent sectors as the two swooped toward the search vector. Instructions flashed on screen as they approached a thinly populated area of scrubland, yeilding to increasingly dense pine forest. At another time, it would be a beautiful place to explore, but their mind was finding and reporting the whereabouts of Balkovian Flight 66, a flight clearly in distress. They peeled westward, following a river, scanning the horizon. Notified of contact, they honed in a a tiny speck in the distance, becoming clearer as they closed in. Confirmation of visual contact made to Tirasopol, the interceptors came within 13 miles of Balkovian. Then, suddenly, the passenger airliner made a nosedive.

It took most of the day for the rescue squad to cut their way through to the wreckage of Balkovian Flight 66. Federal resources were strained to the maximum at the remote location. Later in the day, rescue and recovery from the Eitoan forces in the vicinity pitched in. There were no survivors. There was very little in identifiable remains. A sad scene. Reports of the tragedy filtered in to the public, first through rumor, then, finally, news coverage.

---

Eitoan Overseas Radio
Ralkovian Service: Етаан Замежныя радыё Смецце Абслугоўванне
Balkovian Service: Ейтоан отвъдморските радио балковски услуги

Orav Air Traffic Control has confirmed the loss of Balkovian Airlines flight 66, Orav to Kelso, Eitoan this morning, following flight irregularities during the segment of the route between Orav and Kraznov. Further comment is forthcoming from Federal Ralkovian rescue which is currently at the site, assisted by units of Eitoan Occupation Forces Ralkovia. The tragedy follows in the wake of four previous crashes this year which have been defined as hijackings. Police reports in those hijackings have pointed the finger at Regime Ralkovia or Regime inspired terror cells operating in the Federation. At this time, the number of survivors, if any has not been announced. The crash occurred in a dense section of Braszny National Park, the nearest hospital being 67 miles away. Family of passenger have been notified by Balkovian Airlines, and those awaiting word are being counseled offsite at Orav Airport.

A spate of bombings in Spracko and Korakoa this week has called out extra police protection for schools and hospitals in those cities. Civil authorities have set up command centers to track down the responsible parties, and patrol the streets to prevent inter community demonstrations seen earlier this year after previous attacks. So far, seven suspects are in the Korakoa lockup awaiting arraignment on charges related to the recent bombings. The suspects have been linked to the bombing at Public school 43, in which three fourth graders on the playground at the time were slightly injured. More serious injuries were prevented when the teacher in charge of the playground at the time noticed the unusual package, and hurried the children at recess away from it.

In Razmaki dicussions between Federal security officials and the Alliance Kommandatura continue regarding the recent uptick in terrorist activity. This follows a walkout in the Federal Senate last week by Balkovian Senators in protest of the violence, in particular, acts targeting their community. The walkout of five Balkovian Nationalist and three Balkovian Communist Senators was meant to underscore discontent with both the Federal and Occupation Forces response to date.

Weather today calls for partly cloudy conditions in the Federation south, with clearing skies in the north ushered in by a cold front. The cold front is bringing ground cover snow to the Raumfestung, with depth of 3 to 5 feet in higher elevations. In the Regime, sun is forecast for Penada and the lakes region, with clouds rolling in across river ports followed by rain later in the day.

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

MES Ralkovian Station
Barskav
Ralkovian Federation

It was a typically cold and dreary fall morning in what remained of the Ralkovian city of Barskav. The city, which had seen some of the heaviest fighting in the Ralkovian War, had still barely recovered from the ordeal. Rubble was still strewn across streets, basic city services were often unavailable, and large sectors of the city still lacked basic utilities. Arcaenia had been assisting the other allied powers in major reconstructions of the city center, retaining the city's pre-war road system in the city center and attempting to repair and rebuild what remained of the infrastructure. Nevertheless most of the city's outlying residential and industrial districts were virtually in the same condition that they had been when the ceasefire has been declared the previous year. It was in the industrial districts that the Arcaenian Military Intelligence and Security Service (Arcaenian: Militäre Efterretning Sikkerhedstjenestee, MES) had located it's Ralkovian station rather amusingly in the city's former Ralkovian Regime secret police headquarters. The building was a hideous concrete monstrosity, originally built as a paper mill before it had been converted into an apartment block and then into a police headquarters.

During the early morning shambling of commuters little attention was paid to the three black SUVs that had left the Arcaenian embassy in the city center, hurtling down the central boulevard before turning into the a side street which led to the industrial districts. In the right backseat of the center vehicle was Thomas Hirdman, the Arcaenian Ambassador to the Ralkovian Federation. In the left backseat was Erik Kristiansson, a Generalmajor in the Arcaenian Luftwehr and director of the Arcaenian MES. Both men had first been summoned to the Arcaenian embassy upon news of the terrorist attack which had downed Balkovian Airlines flight 66. Having finished the security and press briefing at the embassy the men had left for the MES building where an emergency meeting had been convened to discuss the ongoing terrorist situation in the Ralkovian Federation. Weaving through multiple side streets the three SUV's turned onto the the industrial's boulevard's main avenue before turning into the security gate which led to the MES headquarters. Outside the gate a guard checked the motorcade's papers before they passed the main gate, through a secondary security gate flanked by guard towers, and then into the parking lot in front of the building. Both men exited their vehicle, accompanied by the security detail in the other two vehicles, and entered the building's main entrance. Heading through several long corridors both men were escorted into the building's main conference room. Already seated were the leaders of the subordinate sections of the MES Ralkovian Station, members of the MES intelligence office, and Generalfeldmarschal Heinrich von Eberstein, leader of the Arcaenian occupation forces in Ralkovia.

The Ambassador turned to Kristiansson "Have there been any discussions on the Ralkovian Regime's communications channels of this attack?"

"No", responded Kristiansson. "And besides, this isn't something they would discuss on any official channel"

Kristiansson, appearing somewhat annoyed, then turned to the other members of the meeting. "Gentlemen I won't keep you long. We suspect the Ralkovian Regime is responsible for the recent spate of bombings and for the recent airliner hijacking. We checked the manifest of Balkovian Airlines flight 66 and found the hijacker. He used a fake identity to board, he's a member of the Raskov Liberation Army, the terrorist group which we have confirmed is responsible for most of the recent bombings in Balkovia. We have evidence the RLA is being directed, trained, and equipped by members of the Regime's security forces.

"What evidence", interrupted the ambassador

"The other day one of our commando teams conducted a raid on an apartment building in one of the residential slums in Orav that was being used as an operations center by members of the RLA. The terrorists were killed in the raid after one of them detonated a suicide vest but amongst other evidence we managed to recover several SIM cards from the scene. We cross referenced the contacts in the SIM cards and found hundreds of calls and texts to multiple contacts in locations in Regime Ralkovia we suspect are cover locations being used by Regime security agencies. Suspicions which have been confirmed by electronic intelligence intercepts and by our field agents in the Regime."

"So it's an act of war" interjected the Generalfeldmarschal. "Now we finally have the excuse we need to finish what we started"

"It would appear so" replied Kristiansson.

"The Federation must be notified at once!", the ambassador exclaimed in a rather panicked voice.

"Not so fast" replied Kristiansson. "We suspect the Regime has agents within the Federation government and security services. These terrorists are also being smuggled into the Federation across the DMZ, which given the extensive surveillance and military forces on the border would only be feasible if they had help on the inside. We can't alert the Federation of our intentions only to have our war plans be leaked to the Regime."

"So what will we do", the ambassador replied, his tone of voice becoming ever more exasperated

"We wait" replied Kristiansson. "We will continue our efforts to root out the moles in the Federation government and security services. In the meantime the Regime is almost certainly in the process of planning more attacks. Perhaps with our new found intelligence we will catch them in the act."

[Eitoan]

News of the Arcaenian raid in Orav filtered in to Eitoan Occupation Forces Ralkovia, in outposts throughout the occupation zone. Little was made of it at the time, the EOFR military police being preoccupied with routine outpost security and assistance in the training and deployment of local security, as both federal and Balkovian authorities rebuilt their tattered resources. Still, upon further analysis, the raid received greater scrutiny. There were rumors of Raskov Liberation Army throughout the zone, but little hard evidence. Infiltration activity through the porous sectors of the demilitarized zone was well known, usually attributed to smugglers, and the military police had other fish to fry. A great amount of that activity was viewed as part of the landscape, and in most cases, the goods being smuggled were outbound as Federal Ralkovia rebuilt it’s agriculture and basic industries. In those areas along the line of control hard up against Regime position, infiltration was hardly a concern. EOFR was vaguely aware of likely infiltration into the Federal security services, and kept a watchful distance from them when it came to sharing sensitive information, preferring to deal more directly with their Balkovian counterparts. The Balkovians were pretty green, but ethnic animosity between them and their former Ralkovian overlords provided a wall of separation when it came to passing on sensitive information. EOFR had received scant information from the Orav raid from their Arcaenian counterparts, so far, but as the details behind the hijacking of Balkovian Flight 66 came to light, interest picked up. At this time the military police attached to the crash investigation had reported signs of Regime involvement; retrieval of some mobile devices no longer in use in Federal Ralkovia, a photograph showing an officer on leave with his family in the old Raskov uniform, pieces of a suit jacket with weave available only from a certain Tyran shop. Piecing this together, the district officer in charge of investigations decided to initiate a discussion with the Arcaenians.

Word came down the line to the outpost in Barskav to dispatch an investigator to the Arcaenian embassy there. Short of staff at the moment, with most of the investigators busy, the chief of post pulled the work load review and found the current most available staff. He reviewed the army lieutenant's qualifications, and frowned. Very weak on detailed work, fresh out of college. Next were an force and and army captain that were picked up pretty much from desk jobs in Eitoan. Not suitable. Finally, he saw who he wanted. He was familiar with her work, Captain Alison Misak, Eitoan Joint Military Intelligence Service. She’d been in country since the final push across Balkovia, with heavy experience in interrogation and an understanding of Regime activities in the occupation zone. Satisfied with his decision, he switched to the assignment dashboard and arranged for her briefing. Searching through the relevant information in the espionage database, he found and forwarded all relevant links to her briefing folder, cleared security for her, and sent them off. He then opened his link with the Arcaenian embassy, to notify them of Misak’s assignment. Finally, he forwarded the request to military police headquarters to go up the line, bringing attention about the assignment ultimately to General Neal Gates, Commandant of EOFR for transmission to his counterpart, von Eberstein.

The next day, after briefing in person and review of all relevant links, Captain Misak headed off to the embassy. Tall, blonde and fairly attractive, her formal JMIS white uniform with gold piping was a smart outfit, the orange and brown EOFR shoulder patch prominent. So far as she knew, it looked like there was some Regime involvement in the hijacking, but what? RLA activity in the Eitoan zone seemed to be at a low level, and in an case hadn’t been a major concern so far. What was to be expected? Most of espionage activity she was familiar with consisted of renegade operatives and small timers. What did the Arcaenians know? These were the thoughts that crossed her mind as she drove up to the MES headquarters's gates, and presented her credentials.

The sentry frowned, looked at her identification badge, scanned it, and intoned “wait here”, as he disappeared into the guard shack.

---

Belovo, Federal Ralkovia, Eitoan Occupation Zone

A large field north of EOFR Headquarters had been cleared, and the first prefabs were in place housing the nerve center of Project Marble, the much anticipated Alliance move against Regime Ralkovia. Still part of the major Eitoan base in the first substantial city liberated after the drive across the continent, the existing headquarters building were always bustling. But Project Marble required it’s own work area, apart from the more mundane activity of administering a conquered nation. This was to be a major offensive, requiring it’s own dedicated staff and space. Work was still apace, building additional access roads and parking areas. Two new garages were under construction. Every day brought additional construction crew, mostly from the Eitoan Uniformed Support Corps. Senior army officers supervised the flow of work. From his office in the middle of all this, General Lawrence Reitz, designated commander of Project Marble worked long hours as the buildup gained momentum.

His attention was mainly focused on arranging the large Eitoan forces undergoing assignment and training both in federal Ralkovia and at home. The Fourth and Fifth armies were already in Ralkovia, their assignment to be turned over to Reitz from occupation duty. Orders for outfitting the two for offensive action had been placed and were working their way through the supply chain. Joining them, but mostly on paper at this point was Force PF, consisting of an augmented Eitoan Seventh Army. The Seventh was staffed at the NCO level with veterans, while the junior officer corps had a large contingent of recent academy graduates. Additional training was needed and plans for that were under his review. Rounding out Force PF were several armored divisions, as well as a large contingent of Special Operations Forces. Reitz was dissatisfied with the SpecIOps assignment, and currently arguing with the High Command for more. These would be needed during the critical opening stages of Marble. He was also deeply involved in the plans for pre-launch deployment of the Eitoans. Plans called for allocation of three sectors separately, from south of Ba’alkobia, then a segment along the Ba’alkobia-Bar’agul line, and finally one in the north that would become the right flank of attack.

Logistics for the project were complicated, and took up much of his staff’s time at present. Road and rail traffic was easy enough to control at home, and where available in the Eitoan zone. Negotiations and arrangements were underway in the states between homeland and Ralkovia. These were always dicey. Money helped. Quietly, with little fanfare the Eitoan navy shifted many ASW assets to the Great Inland Sea, never completely safe from rouge Regime raiders. Word had reached the High Command that Holy Marsh was planning on increasing the riverine flotilla to choke off the chances of an uptick in Regime naval activity reaching the Inland Sea, but that was not in place yet. In the meantime, he had to guard Eitoan shipping of supplies and arms. The skies above were safely Eitoan, so air supply was less of a concern. Purchasing or appropriation for expansion of existing air bases was proceeding apace, with many smaller fields planned closer to the frontier with the Regime. And throughout the frame of operations, Reitz had established contacts with the Federal Ralkovian Self Defense Forces for in depth ground security.

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

MES Ralkovian Station
Barskav
Ralkovian Federation

The security guard at the main gate had looked down at Misak’s identification card before radioing his superior

“The Eitan women is here”

“Affirmative. Let her in”

“You’re clear to proceed” the guard murmured to Misak in accented Stevidian before turning and gesturing at the guards stationed in the inner security gate. The guard then flipped a switch on his console, causing the steel doors in front of the main gate to part open.

Once inside Misak was escorted to the conference room where Kristiansson and other members of the MES had been conducting their briefing.

“Captain Alison Misak, Eitoan Joint Military Intelligence Service”

“General Erik Kristiansson, Arcaenian Military Intelligence Service. Please, have a seat”

Kristiansson then gestured at an empty seat across the conference table before continuing “I’ll try and get you up to speed as fast as possible. We forwarded the intelligence we garnered from the Orav raid along with other signals intercepts we’ve collected to your colleagues in the EOFR. The raid was a very heat-of-the-moment situation, we received a tip from an informant that the RLA had set up an outpost in an Orav slum that they were using as a staging ground for future attacks. We thought about notifying the local police and occupation forces but decided a direct action attack would be the most time expedient and effective course of action”

Misak listened attentively. “Yes, of course. Can you tell me about any of the RLA cell leadership? We haven’t picked up much on that group, formally, in Orav. The few of which we are aware are small fry, mostly drifters looking to pick up easy money. There are a couple in Orave that we are watching, though. You may want to see what you have on them. There’s a Sergey Gerson, now in an Orav cell. The local cops picked him up a few days ago, some larceny charge. It seems they’re going slow on the investigation. Anyway, he lives pretty large for a flooring installer, one that’s got a spotty work record too. Captured in the war at Kraunko, scored a 72% on deraskovization before his release. He drives a nice car, seems to be flush with cash. Then there’s an oral surgeon, Ivan Saranoff. He’s low ranking former nobility, hangs out with a lot of former imperial officers. We have nothing on him, since he’s never had to undergo scrutiny, but one of his friends is a suspect under Federal observation in an extortion case.”

“Those fit the profile of the suspect’s we’ve looked at” replied Kristiansson. “Mostly criminals and former regime soldiers who have decided to stay behind or who have been smuggled into the Federation. We believe the lack of any high profile cell organizers or money people is because signal intercepts have led to the conclusion that their operations are being directly controlled and financed by the Regime’s secret police forces. What the immediate political objectives are is unclear but we believe this is part of the Regime’s effort to destabilize the Federation as part of their long term plan to eventually reconquer all of Ralkovia. ”

Misak considered Kristiansson’s point, mulling it over for a minute. “This sounds like a much deeper and wider web than we’ve encountered. Do you have any indication of contacts in the Regime secret police? What does their cross border communication network look like? We can pretty well clamp down or trace suspicious messaging using rebuilt channels, but any legacy systems are going to take more work. Any indications where moles may be embedded within the federals?”

"We have managed to break some of their ciphers and intercept and decrypt some of their communications using side-channel attacks" replied Kristiansson. We believe that the Regime has managed to set up a spy ring in the Federation Foreign Office and the Federation's Intelligence Service. We've forwarded a list of possible Regime moles to your superiors at the EOFR for evaluation. We don't believe it would be smart to arrest them at this point, rather we believe it would serve our interests to feed them false information that they'll pass onto the Regime, deceiving them about our future intentions. "

“Very well. I’m sure EOFR will follow up with the Department of Foreign Affairs. Although we’ve got a pull on the reins with Federal Intelligence, it sounds like it would be up to Foreign Affairs to have a discussion with the Federal counterparts. This could make some difference in plans to bring FedRalk into closer integration, but it sounds delicate. It’s far out of my wheelhouse, in any case. But, what can we do on the ground, or behind the scenes to coordinate with your investigation now?” asked Misak.

“I believe in the short term we can disrupt their operations on the ground. We can shut down their cross-border smuggling networks to stop the flow of militants and weapons into the Federation. We’re currently focusing our own efforts on decrypting the rest of the Regime’s clandestine communication channels with it’s RLA proxies so that we’ll be able to stop future attacks before they happen. The Regime spies in the Federation will also inevitably have to be dealt with. In the meantime we’ll be sure to keep your people in touch and coordinate on all future counterintelligence operations”

“Thank you. I’ll request additional resources both on the ground in my sector, and additional attention from JMIS Cyber at home”.

General headquarters of the Arcaenian occupation forces
Barskav
Ralkovian Federation

Meeting at the headquarters of the Arcaenian occupation forces were Generaloberst Ernst Linder, the Chief of Staff of the Arcaenian Army High Command (OHL), Generalfeldmarschal Heinrich von Eberstein, leader of the Arcaenian occupation forces in Ralkovia, and the commanders of the three Arcaenian Army Groups which had participated in the First Ralkovian War including Generaloberst Erik Frisell, Commander of Arcaenian Army Group A, Generaloberst Gustav von der Goltz, Commander of Arcaenian Army Group B, and Generaloberst Carl Wrangel, Commander of Arcaenian Army Group C, to discuss a revision for the Arcaenian Army counterpart to the Eitoan Project Marble; the operation to conquer and destroy the Ralkovian Regime. Plans for an Arcaenian offensive into the current territory of Regime Ralkovia had been created before even the end of the first Ralkovian War. The initial plan, codenamed Operation Fortress (Unternehme Festung), was intended to retake territory in western Ralkovia that the Alliance had lost as a result of the Ralkovian counter-offensive during the summer of 2030. The original Aufmarschanweisung N°1, Unternehme Festung (Campaign Instruction No 1, Operation Fortress) was devised by Generaloberst Ernst Linder, the Chief of Staff of the Arcaenian Army High Command (OHL), and involved a total of three Army Groups (Army Group A, Army Group B, and Army Group C) with the intention of attacking south with Army Groups A and C and conquering the Ralkovian held cities of Kravak and Urar before turning north and conquering Haraxby, Ralankov, and Tyran. Army group B, positioned along the front between Barskav and the mountains north of Korakoa, was to hold the front line during the first phase of the operation and then to attack north with Army Groups A and C in the push towards Haraxby, Ralankov, and Tyran.

Johan Armfeldt, commander of Army Group A's I Panzer Corps and a veteran of the Third Krasnovan War, had proposed a far more radical plan which aimed at completely encircling and destroying the majority of the Regime army rather than a gradual push to reconquer the lost territory of what was now Regime Ralkovia. The attack by Army Group C to capture Kravak and Urar would be turned into a diversionary attack intended to lure Regime mobile reserves south. Army Group A, positioned at the front near Bar'agul, would attack north before turning west and then swiftly advancing towards the coast north of Urar, cutting Regime supply routes and trapping their mobile forces in a large encirclement. Army Group B would simultaneously launch a feint offensive in the direction of Haraxby, screening the open right flank of Army Group A from a Regime counter-offensive from the north. Frisell, Commander of Arcaenian Army Group A, had been convinced by Armfeldt's plan and had proposed to von Eberstein to arrange a meeting at the headquarters of the Arcaenian occupation forces to incorporate Armfeldt's plan into a revised version of Operation Fortress to be conducted at an indtermined date in the future at the resumption of hostilities between the Regime and the Alliance.

"Thank you for taking the time to meet, gentlemen" Frisell started as he laid out an operational map of the frontline before the other men. "As you are all aware, the current version of the Fortress plan has the main effort of the operation in the south, here near Kravak, where Army Group C is to attack south and launch a frontal assault on Kravak before turning northwest and attacking Urar in coordination with an offensive by Army Group A launched from west of Ba'alkobia. As our wargames and computer simulations have shown this is not likely to lead to a decisive defeat of the Ralkovian Regime. At best we can expect to throw the Regime back to their positions before the Ralkovian counter-offensive during the last war"

"The original plan was devised under the constraints of the last war", interrupted Linder. "The supply situation at the time was quite poor, as such a bolder offensive plan was not considered feasible. A large enveloping maneuver would not have been possible given the fuel situation and state of Ralkovian transportation infrastructure in the region at that time"

Which is why a more aggressive plan is now feasible" replied Frisell. "Generalleutnantl Armfeldt has proposed that the main effort be shifted to an attack by Army Group A launched from further north, here around Bar'agul, where they can attack northwest before breaking into the plains and turning sharply west and driving to the coast"

"But then you will have two open flanks" interjected Wrangel. "The penetration by A would be incredibly vulnerable to getting itself counter-enveloped by flank attacks by Regime mobile reserves on either side of its penetration sector and by a Regime counter-attack launched from the North"

"Which is why we propose Army Group B conduct a simultaneous spoiling offensive to the northwest in the general direction of Haraxy to shield the right flank of Army Group A and disrupt the assembly areas that the Regime would use for a counter-offensive South against Army Group A" replied Frisell. "Army Group A can then drive to the coast and encircle the Regime forces in the Kravak-Urar area. They will also be in a position to interdict any mobile reserved the Regime sends south to reinforce its front in the South"

"It's risky, but I would not object to this" replied Wrangel while nodding his head in agreement.

"I support the change of the main effort". added von der Goltz. "The Regime's defensive line's are much thinner in the northern sectors of the front line, with the poor terrain they likely wouldn't be expecting the main thrust of our offensive to occur there"

"I support this plan as well" concurred von Eberstein. "Generaloberst Linder and the rest of the Army general staff will prepare a second revision to the campaign instruction for Operation Fortress which places the main effort at the point of Army Group A. When this is finished we will present this plan to the Eitoans and the other Alliance members. In the meantime I will order all Arcaenian divisions deployed on the frontline to be increased from 90% to 100% manning. With that I am concluding this meeting, you are all dismissed"

[Eitoan]

Belovo, Federal Ralkovia, Eitoan Occupation Zone
Project Marble Headquarters

Construction continued at the headquarters, supervised by General Reitz, but at this time most of the day to day activities had been delegated to his staff. Today his mind was on the task ahead, moving Project Marble forward from the planning phase toward actualization.

Early planning called for the movement westward along three axis. South of Ba’alkobia offered the ripest opportunity for the earliest gains in the capture of the large Regime airbase that lay between Kravak and Urar. Possession of this airbase would permit the Eitoan Air Force to build toward domination of the air in southern Ralkovia during Project Marble. Following the project’s conclusion operations from the base would menace all military and strategic industrial logistics centered around the Big Dikk ports. Such disablement was a key objective for Project Marble. Kravak itself was not a major objective, and consideration of bypassing it was under consideration, in fact, such a move would apply the greater force in the southern sector toward a rapid advance to the airbase. To that point, an amphibious landing west of Kravak or combined amphibious and air assault operation was also on the table to secure key bridges and roads in advance of the main southern force.

Plans called for enveloping of Ralkovian forces in the next segment north, west of the Ba’alkobia-Bar’agul line. Here the disablement of forward Regime positions was envisioned in the hill country facing the Line of Control, bypassing and isolating the Regime counterparts and striking for air bases and supply centers. It was anticipated that the heavy engagement and destruction of Regime armor and depletion of enemy missiles and other supplies would be accomplished north of that segment, forming the right flank of the drive. Once the reduction of Regime capabilities had been accomplished the Eitoan advance could fan out toward the Big Dikk, seizing military vantage points and destroying important transportation, energy and industrial facilities.

Arrayed around his desk were his senior staff. General Richard Baxter, assigned from his job as the Executive Officer of the Eitoan Sixth Army was a veteran of the Eitoan push into Ralkovia, serving in that capacity with the Sixth, which was now on occupation duty. His Air Force counterpart, General Gannen Barrow rejoined his comrades in Ralkovia from the staff of Fighter Command in Vladarsik. Barrow had been heavily involved in the war, commanding the Eitoan First Air Force as it deployed early on in critical battles over the homeland and Aurensia, through the Inland Sea Crossing and finally into the heart of Ralkovia itself. Rotated back to Fighter Command, Barrow found himself back at Belovo again. The Joint Military Intelligence Service was represented by General Vilho Holleman, second seat the the JMIS Ralkovia desk, and a frequent visitor up north even before the outbreak of hostilities.

Reitz addressed the group. “Gentlemen, the buildup continues apace and at this time we need to review Marble’s plans. It’s a little early to set anything more than a preliminary jump off date. Force PF is still negotiating for more special forces. Training and staffing for the Fifth Army is going smoothly, but there are a few areas of improvement we need to see in the Fourth”.

Baxter winced, and scribbled a few notes. “I’ll get on their asses, Larry”.

“Thanks Rich, much appreciated” Reitz continued. “Right now I have no basis to challenge the initial deployment, but this is the time to pay more attention to it. And that’s where I want your people to help. So drill down to the next level. Winter is approaching fast, and we’ll need to borrow weatherization from the occupation army, and if so, how much we can request. There also needs to be a thorough evaluation of ground transportation improvement needs before we can even approach a date to move.

What can we expect to gain in the next few week in terms of knowledge of Regime forces? It’s understood that terrain and distance from strategic targets cause a thinning of their guys north of Bar’agul, but we’re thinking that will become strengthened if the Regime seeks to make a flanking attack on our right going forward. Can we get any confirmation of that assumption? Vilho?”

Holleman glanced at his staff counterparts, and spoke softly and rapidly. “Satellite intelligence is a bit sketchy right now. The Regime appears to have upgraded it’s ground stealth capabilities. But informants in the neighborhood don’t report any road upgrade projects that would sustain a higher capacity for reinforcement there, nor any unusual buildup of strength. We’d need more time to find information higher up in the Regime military through covert sources. These things take time. Our best pipeline is through Federal intelligence, but all of their information needs vetting. They have reached out to some of the former nobility, and have some good leads there. We’re going to try to develop that.”

Barrow added his opinion. “How soon do you think you can secure that major airbase? And what damage assessment can you forecast at this time? I want that base as a high priority. That’d take a lot of the fight out of the Regime Air Force, and give us flexibility for all aircraft to deliver payload to all points south of Ralakov”.

“So noted”, Reitz responded. “We’ve also got to factor in our opportunities following an initial breakthrough. This of course will depend on our position and the attrition rate of our forces after the first two to four weeks. At this time we are not anticipating the need to break through to the Big Dikk. Air dominance will give us much of the ability to harass and reduce Regime capabilities all along the Big Dikk and it’s hinterland. Extension of the army fully to the river may be an expensive gain of territory without a big payoff, particularly if we can destroy a goodly part of the Regime armor closer to our jump off point. However, if it appears that Urar is vulnerable to us as the result of a Regime blunder or through sheer luck, we’ll have to consider it’s occupation. Overall though, I don’t think there’s enough value in capture of any of the cities outright in this project. We need to maintain momentum once it’s established. Diversion of resources to flush out some of their stragglers would be counterproductive. In general, though, if a major industrial, energy or transportation facility on the outskirts of Urar or Kravak appear easily obtainable as operations wind down, we’ll likely go after them if casualties are expected to be low.

Now, we need to think about the next steps, setting a foundation for resuming the offensive.”

Baxter and Holleman chatted quietly. Barrow fidgeted contemplatively.

“First” said Reitz, “There needs to be an assessment of defensive capabilities at the Line of Control. What can we expect from Federal Self Defense Forces? From allies?”

Baxter chortled. “Not much from the Feds! Almost all units at the border are barely up to Eitoan Militia standards. Some of the more advanced ones, at best are at the poorly performing level for our National Guard. I’m pretty sure about the leadership at the junior officer level, many Balkovians and freed slaves, but above that, all the retread Imperial officers, all the moron nobles in uniform, not a good outlook.”

“Yeah, I know.” Reitz answered. “Pretty sorry lot. A lot of cannon fodder, probably. But I need a serious assessment of each unit assigned in the forward area. Where can we expect a three to five day holdout under intense attack? Let’s try to get the most capable leadership assigned where there’s weakness around the points of any likely Regime counterattack into Federal Ralkovia. And we’ll want to be in touch with General Gates to replace the deficient units with Occupation Army forces. Now, we’ve also got to see what our friends to the north can offer. We should get in touch with the Arcanean command about this. I’ve heard they’re considering a similar action. Without tipping our hand, exposing anything to espionage let’s open up a channel with Von Eberstein. I’ve met him a few time, seems OK. They’ve got the bulk of the forces in the next sector north. I can talk with the Morridanes too, but they’ve got their hands full closer to home.

I want all of you to identify the primary and secondary targets for the opening stages of Marble. Detail what’s reachable, what the expected costs are in taking these, and contingency plans as combat unfolds. Remember the objective; reduce Regime capabilities and capture strategic assets.”

Baxter spoke up “The key for army planning is to identify where and how soon we can engage and destroy the Regime armor. Hill fighting can be costly and slow, bogging down much of the regular infantry. But it’s the mobile forces we need to find and destroy to make Marble a success. I’m less concerned about industrial targets in the first few weeks. If we stymie the Regime mechanized, we can pick those of more easily as we get closer to the Big Dikk.”

Barrow added “I don’t want to harp on this, but you’re going to hear it throughout the planning process. We don’t need Kravak and we don’t need Urar. Just get us to that big airbase in the south. Then you can do pretty much whatever you want all along the river.”

“Yes, of course” agreed Reitz. “That’s for certain. Also, looking toward the closing phases of marble, it’s just possible that the Marshites could send a flotilla up the Dikk, maybe capture Urar or Haraxby. We’ve got to talk to them. It can’t be a primary consideration, we need to destroy the Regime on land, but our depth of penetration could be a factor in the event of a need to link up with their assault. Since we’re going to meet with Von Eberstein’s people, let’s bring up their take on an offensive. We’re in close proximity and if they’re going to join in we’ll need to define sector boundaries and logistics so we don’t step on each other’s toes.

[Eitoan]

Project Marble Headquarters
Belovo
Eitoan Occupation Zone
Federal Ralkovia



The convoy of four Lynx 4x4 tactical vehicles approached the enormous Project Marble compound from the south, passing through the numerous checkpoints and security gates that had been arrayed around the perimeter of the compound. In the vehicles were Generalfeldmarschall Heinrich Von Eberstein, leader of the Arcaenian occupation forces in Ralkovia along with Generaloberst Ernst Linder, the Chief of Staff of the Arcaenian Army High Command (OHL). After pulling into the central rotunda the two men and their bodyguards emerged from the central two vehicles and approached the headquarters buildings flanked by additional security details from the leading and trailing vehicles of the convoy.

General Lawrence Reitz was in the large conference room at Project Marble Headquarters, arrayed around him were chiefs from the Army, Air Force, and Joint Military Intelligence Service. At the time he was chatting with General Richard Baxter, in command of the Army for the project.

Baxter objected “Larry, the three pronged approach is all well and good, but let’s keep the southern prong overlapped and covered by the Fourth Army. At least until we’re sure the Regime will stay bottled up in Kravak. Just for insurance. They’ve got the armor to cover, and the distance to aid the Fifth Army isn’t so great we can’t send a division south in the early stages. You know, the fast advance toward Urar is risky. A lot of men could get cut off if we spread too thin too early.”

Reitz considered the request briefly, then waved away the objection. “It’s early yet, Rich. And the Fourth will proceed opportunistically. And as you point out, the distance from the Fifth’s advance isn’t far, as the crow flies. And let’s see what our guests have planned for our friends across the Line of Control.”

Just then a pert, blonde Staff Sergeant poked her head in the doorway. “General Reitz, sir. The Arcaneans have arrived”.

“Yes. Thank you Sergeant Henry. Tell Security I’ll be down in a minute. Well men, I hope you’re ready. Time to greet our guests!”

General Reitz walked energetically through the bullpen outside the large conference room, down a long corridor, taking a left onto a shorter corridor, and out the entrance to the awaiting dignitaries. Finding Field Marshall von Eberstein, the senior officer at the front of the group, he strode up to him and snapped a sharp salute.
“Field Marshall von Eberstein, Project Marble welcomes you!” he announced, smiling slightly. Regarding him for a moment, Reitz offered a handshake, which was met firmly by Eberstein.

“A pleasure to meet again” Replied Ebertsein before turning and introducing the other men in his entourage. “This is our Army chief of staff General Ernst Linder who will be briefing you on the ground portion of our operation”

Ebertsein and Linder then followed Reitz, who ushered them to the large conference room. Introductions were offered, as were refreshments. Finally calling the meeting to order, the audience took their seats facing a large screen. Reitz moved to a lectern behind them and started the presentation.

“Project Marble is designed to bring Regime Ralkovian military capabilities to a level clearly subordinate to that of the occupation forces, and to that of the Eitoan military as a whole. Longer term planning in Vladarsik includes two more phases; Project Granite, the reduction of Regime held territory to that of a rump state that is incapable of offensive military action on the continent, and finally Project Quartz, the end of all Regime control in Ralkovia. These plans were formulated absent the assumption of Alliance involvement. Since we have been made aware of similar plans by Arcaenia, a review of impending operations under Marble has become necessary, thus this meeting.
The reduction of Regime capabilities has several objectives. In the military sphere one of the primary objectives is air superiority over all southern Regime held territory. This of course will consist of total control of the airspace above the theater including all River Dikk ports and their hinterland. Gaining this control will require us to the destruction or neutralisation of enemy air assets that can pose a threat to Alliance forces in the south such as fighters , bombers and recon aircraft. This will also require seizure of critical Regime military airfields of such size and complexity that they cannot be replaced easily in the territory held by the enemy at the conclusion of Marble. Destruction of Regime assets must be thorough to the point of maintaining Alliance air superiority for two to four years beyond the end date of Marble. On the ground we require destruction of Regime first rate forces at a loss of one army and three divisions. This will sufficiently weaken their ability to carry out attacks on Alliance or Federal Ralkovian forces or civilian targets. In particular, we aim for destruction of a quarter of Regime armor, which should severely limit their offensive capability at any point along the new cease fire line.

Another goal of Project Marble is diminishment of Regime status as a credible power on the continent. The Eitoan public, as well as those of our neighbors will be reassured that Ralkovian aggression will not return in our neighborhood. Other powers on the continent that are still mired in a quasi slaver state, or recently emancipated will be shown that there is no benefit in hedging their bets with a Ralkovian resurgence. Marble will demonstrate materially the erasure of Regime Ralkovia as an offensive force on the continent. In the economic sphere, the capture or destruction of manufacturing and energy facilities south of Haraxby will cripple the Regime in rearming post projects.
In the battle for air superiority we plan for the opening phase we anticipate a fairly routine approach of inflicting major damage on front line and nearby rear air facilities, including command centers and SAM sites. Bombing raids will be conducted nearly constantly in the first two days of Marble along the line, preceded and followed by fighter escorts for the most part. As attacks move deeper additional fighter involvement is planned for engagement and reduction of Regime interceptors. As ground forces move forward EAF will be providing support of their movement throughout the theater with air strikes as needed. In the south, beyond Kravak there will be major airlift operations to provide for rapid advancement. I’ll explain more about that when discussing the ground strategy. Also as the fighting develops in the early stages the EAF will emphasize advance targeting of near front line facilities, such as fuel dumps and distribution centers. In terms of defensive action for Federal Ralkovia, this will be handled routinely by EAF squadrons assigned to Eitoan Occupation Forces Ralkovia. The strategic plan in the air will unfold in the later stages of Marble. This involves rapid deployment of air strike squadrons so captured Regime facilities, enabling us to harass troop movements as the Regime responds to our advances. In particular is the importance of the large Regime base at Point N, 2/3 of the distance from Kravak to Urar. It’s capture will be a major blow to Regime air defense, and is the key to air superiority all along the Dikk River. It’s an ambitious objective, but a key one. The buildup of EAF offensive power at Point N is critical to superiority at all points south of Tyran.

The Eitoan ground game has three components. The Fifth Army will deploy south of Ba’alkobia. The Fifth has two regular infantry, one airborne and two armored divisions. The objective in the south is to capture Point N. Here speed is essential, hence the inclusion of the airborne. The Fifth will jump off north of Kravak and head west at all due speed. One armored division is slated to be on the tail end of the advance to block defenders in the vicinity of Kravak. In the Ba’alkovbia - Bar’agul sector we will postion the Fourth Army, three infantry and two armored divisions. Here we will be seeking weak points in the Regime defenses to isolate smaller formations. This will be a flexible advance, allocating resources where resistance stiffens. As the Fourth breaks through to the rear it will bypass and siege major Regime transportation centers before regrouping and pushing west toward Urar. North of Bar’agul we will assemble Force PF for what we anticipate will be the heaviest engagement in Marble. PF will have the Eitoan Seventh Army of three infantry and two armored divisions, buffeted by three additional armored divisions. Force PF has the longest distance to cover in the hills before breaking into the plains to menace Regime defenders between Urar and Haraxby. The plans are for PF to advance in a sweep, denying the Regime opportunities to take advantage of open flanks or any gaps in the advancing line. This is expected to be the most costly part of Marble, but will also do the most damage to the enemy army.
We have evaluated the concerns and opportunities with these plans for Marble. As we move into more detailed operational planning we need to cover any gaps at offensive line boundaries. These gaps if left unattended would provide for localized enemy counterattack. We recognize the risk of the rapid advance in the south toward Point N. General Baxter and I have spent much time lately discussing this, and those discussions are not over yet. This approach is the biggest military risk on the ground. There are also several opportunities that may present themselves as the fighting commences. The rapid advance of the Fifth Army anticipates bypassing Kravak. But as Kravak becomes more isolated we may be able to pick it up with minimal casualties. If things unfold favorably it may also be possible to take Urar too. The loss of these two cities would be seen on the continent as proof positive that the Regime is on the wane. Much of it depends though on the disposition of the local Regime military leadership. The ordinary Ralkovian commander may be more amenable. Those Death Guard veterans though, they’ll shoot every damn last one of their own civilians they can’t hang if anyone under their control falters. Very brutal stuff. In some cases, through our or Federal Ralk intelligence we may be able to encourage some defections. This would shake up Regime leadership, maybe get them to sack their better officers. We hear that some in Federal intelligence have connections with deposed nobles on the other side, some with family ties in Federal Ralkovia that are disgusted by the disintegration in civil society. Some may be willing to jump. At the same time, especially as we approach river ports agents could agitate for civil disturbances; work stoppages, pillaging and the like. This would hamper enemy resupply and redeployment. It should be encouraged, if it materializes."

General Linder, who had been vigorously taking notes as Reitz had been presenting, stared as his own campaign report before standing up and beginning his presentation

“The Arcaenian Army currently has three near full strength Army Groups in Federal Ralkovia which can be committed to offensive operations against the Regime. We propose the Arcaenian forces be deployed north of the Eitoan forces on the front stretching between Barskav and Korakoa where we can break through the weaker defenses in that sector and drive to the coast, cutting the Regime’s supply routes and encircling and annihilating the Regime forces opposing the Eitoan offensive in the South. Judging by their current defensive fortifications and deployment of forces the Regime is likely expecting that any future alliance offensive will happen in the South as it did in the last war with a main effort aimed at Kravak and Urar, two cities the Regime considers vital to its existence due to their strategic location. If the Regime feels those cities are in danger of falling they will likely send reinforcements from their strategic reserves in the North to bolster their defenses, forces which would be in a position to interdict with an offensive launched west from the point along the front northwest of Barskav. The terrain in that region is fairly poor with lots of rocky hills, swamps, and marshes and is being defended by the Regime’s second-rate units, likely making the assumption that the difficulty of moving large numbers of armor and equipment through that sector would give them plenty of time to send reinforcements if that sector was ever attacked. Commiting to an attack here would a risk but we believe our forces would be capable of rapidly breaking through and driving to the coast to split the Regime forces in half”

Reitz, still at the lectern, fiddled with a few controls. After General Linder finished, he slightly darkened the room, and on a screen facing the assembled group appeared a more detailed map of the front from Kravak to Korakoa. Presently, the Eitoan and Arceanian units were shown in blue, followed by their known Ralkovian counterparts. He looked up and said.

“Thank you General Linder. It is good to know what we have available to us, and our respective expectations. As you can see, gentlemen, the to movement planned individually appear to form an arc, with focal point on Urar. I believe this will meet the objectives of our respective governments in reducing Regime capability in the south. At the conclusion, the remaining Dikk ports will be extremely vulnerable. In the arc movement, the Eitoan forces have the short segment, the Arcaenians the long segment. In terms of ability to match opposing Regime forces, the match is fortunate; the Arcaneans covering a more sparsely guarded frontier, allowing them the ability to overcome opposition and move forward more rapidly over their greater distance to the Dikk. Force PF is expected to grind out and destroy a more dense coverage, but will have a shorter distance to close before approaching Urar. Further to the south, under a combined offensive, the Eitoan Fifth Army capture of Point N will provide the pivot point for our movements. To that effect, I would plan for the Fourth Army to advance in close proximity to advance units of the Fifth designated to take Point N.

There are three major details I can see that need exploration if this will be an approach. First, in the north, we need to work out boundaries where the Eitoan and Arcanean offenses, for logistical purposes of course, but also for cross coverage of Force PF’s right flank and the Arcanean left flank. Secondly, we need to estimate and try to arrange deployment so that the timing forms a sweep from the pivot at Point N, leaving less opportunity for intact Regime formations to counterattack. The key question here is what speed can we expect for all units along the line of advance? Finally, and this will likely be determined as the early phases roll out, what value is there for the Eitoan Fifth in taking Kravak, as opposed to it’s long term isolation. The advance of the Fifth to point N would largely isolate Kravak, but if it proves to be poorly defended I would hold back some divisions and seize it, and direct the Fourth to rendezvous closer to the forward elements of the Fifth at Point N.

“I would propose placing the boundary between our forces at the right flank of Force PF, just northwest of Bar’agul” replied Linder while pointing at the Map projected at the screen. “From there Army Group A, with its nine panzer and panzergrendier divisions, could break through into the plains and drive towards Urar while screening the right flank of Force PF. Army Group C with another nine panzer and panzergrendier divisions would then attack between Bar’agul and Barskav and drive northwest towards the coast between Urar and Haraxby. Army Group B, with four panzer divisions, two panzergrenadier divisions, and three jager divisions would then be positioned north around Barskav and would conduct a spoiling offensive towards the North to cover the right flank of Army Group C as it drives towards the coast. With their northern flanks screened by the Arcaenian offensives this would put the Eitoan forces in position to capture Kravak and Urar while we attack and destroy the Regime forces that counterattack from the North”

General Reitz considered Linder’s proposal, then responded. “Yes. I think this provides a good opportunity to take Kravak and Urar. It has merit, and a great deal of force behind it. And it covers PF’s right flank well. If the Regime sends a substantial contingent southward, their forces may be reduced beyond Marble’s expectations. So, let’s sketch out how this could work.” He fiddled around with the pad on the lectern, and a whiteboard appeared on screen, detailing the southern portion of the line of attack. “Spitballing our approach, let’s look at the likely assignments. Here, south of Baragul, PF will face low hills, but the main avenue of approach, especially for the heavy armor will be funneling through the Mrahilyow Valley. Upon exiting Mrahilyow, PF can then turn south and close in on Urar.”

General Baxter, directing Marble’s land offensive noted “We should deploy the bulk of PF on the south bank of the Mrahilyow, and the low hills adjoining that corridor on the left. I’m concerned that any delay could give the Regime the chance to blow up the far bridges further down the line. We’d have a delay if we can’t take one or two of those”.

“So noted, Rick”, quipped Reitz. Now, to the south of those hills all the way to Kravak we’re facing a wide and flat plain, a lot easier for the armor, and with a denser, more improved road network. So what I see is the Fourth Army in a sweep of that plain south of Ba’alkobia, through open country. The Fourth should have a lot of room for maneuverability. Now the Fifth, being able to operate in more concentrated formation with this plan will take Kravak. Of course, the frontier is heavily defended, but the threat of the Fourth tearing up everything nearby is going to contribute a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt to the Regime. This should take some pressure off the Fifth. I still want an advance movement west of Kravak though, preliminary to taking the air base at Point N.”

Baxter raised a point. “That’s still pretty ambitious Larry. We may not want such a stretch objective if there’s still active resistance at Kravak”.

Reitz raised an eyebrow. “Well, yes. It is. But don’t forget, the Fourth will be looming close by, reducing resources the Regime could apply against a thrust toward N. And, depending on the progress of the Fourth to the west, some of their units could peel off toward N in the advance on Urar if the opportunity presents itself.”

The Air Force’s Gunnen Barrow, lounging at Baxter’s right, casually remarked “I think we’ve got this, either before or after we can take N. It’s going to be a dogfight over Kravak, in any event. Let’s keep up fighter coverage, after we can take out SAM sites early on, really run down the Regime air defenses. Then, with better control over the theater of operations, we can concentrate on disabling N. At least it would give us superiority in the far south. N will fall, as you’ve pointed out Larry. Then the fun begins!”

“Okay Gunnen, keep it in your pants.” Reitz chuckled. “General Linder, I think we have a workable solution. I’d like to kick things off say, in the last week of the month. What do you think?”

“We concur with this plan” injected Von Eberstein.

“Our forces are currently preparing for an X-day targeted for the 21st” added Linder.

Reitz thought for a moment. “Thank you, sirs. We will so plan and work further with your staff to coordinate toward an X-day of the 21st. Now, if you’d care to join us, there are drinks and cigars at the Officers Club”.

[Xuande-Xiphoi]

PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE, REVNAMI, XUANDE-XIPHOI

Tiny streams of rainwater fell down the floor length windows of the office of the Prime Minister of the Republics & Kingdom of Xuande-Xiphoi. The afternoon shower over Revnami’s Parliament Complex greyed, but did not darken, the skies overhead. Prime Minister Samariadi, seated perpendicular to the windows overlooking the capital, sat alone as she worked through the tremendous stack of Cabinet papers. The furnishings took inspiration from the history of the nation, built by master craftsmen from eastern rosewood and western oaks and maples. The pitter patter of rain that one might expect was muted as compared to the folding and scratching of pen on paper; the thickness of the protective glass was naturally soundproofing.

Outside that glass laid a near world and a far world; in the near, a country governed by the rule of law. A country grounded in the values of community and in freedom. A country that thrived and evolved daily with a population supported, but not controlled, by the government that Samariadi was elected to lead. In the far off laid a different world; one where modern pirates, slavers, exploiters, and criminals often controlled the lives of people. While bastions of freedom and at least functional authoritarian states existed in that sea like islands, the straits between were defined by danger as they had since the development of oceangoing ships.

A knock came at the wooden double doors, the Prime Minister’s duty secretary entering soon thereafter. Rachel Lam, who had occupied the role since Samariadi’s election in September, made the introduction of the person summoned to the Prime Minister’s office.

Jacob Olwisna stepped forward, ushered in by Ms. Lam. His thin frame and gold rounded glasses, and thinning brown hair were generic enough to describe a man in just about any profession; Ambassador of the Holy Marsh was just one of the more impressive one. The summoning of an Ambassador was generally a rather significant event in diplomatic protocol. Normally, the offices of bureaucracy and the whispers of rumours sufficed to translate diplomatic activity into actionable intelligence. The use of a summons was such to act as a polite way of informing a particular diplomat to attend to the Prime Minister so as to receive a very firm and professional “get fucked.”

This was different. Even the most severe of reprimands to an Ambassador attracted some ceremony; tea and salutes or something of the sort. This one had been organised quickly, quietly, and with the utmost need for answers directly to the top of Xuande-Xiphoi’s Government. The Ambassador, like most men assured in their position, did not find any sense of amazement in meeting the Prime Minister of Xuande-Xiphoi – a valuable change for people constantly subject to selfies and smiling citizens – and he carried himself as though a neutral party. A bringer of knowledge free of any bias or initiative. The messenger and only the messenger. Of course – this was never the case with people like Olwisna.

“Ambassador,” the Prime Minister said, standing and meeting the Ambassador at the middle of the office. The two shook hands, exchanging a smile. “A pleasure as always to see you, albeit not in the most normal of circumstances.”

“Of course, Prime Minister,” he replied, the curl of a smile. “But it is of course always my honour to be in your presence.”

In the centre of the office, inside the double doors, one fet hammed in by brightness. Recessed lights and lighter coloured woods adorned the walls, while the great glass windows and view of the skyscrapers of Revnami’s central business district generally acting as the first thing drawing an individual’s attention. This office, at the uppermost and easternmost point of New Parliament House, held commanding views of the city, Lake Neike, the confluence of her rivers, and the Neike Bridge to the left. At the floor, woven covertly into the deep colour in a gridlike formation, was the Century Sun, emblem of the state.

From here, a visitor could find themselves invited to the left or the right of the double doors. To the right, the traditional desk and chair arrangement, with a flag to stage right. To the left, a more comfortable arrangement with a couch and armchairs around a coffee table. Comfortable, casual. So, as Ambassador Olwisna was directed to the chair across the Prime Ministers table, a point of firmness was paid immediately to this meeting.

Settling back into her chair, the Prime Minister took a document, marked with the emblem of the Intelligence Corps, alongside a Confidential marking.

“Mr. Ambassador,” the Prime Minister began. “it appears the Marshite Government has been rather busy.”

HOURS PRIOR
MAR’SI, THE HOLY MARSH

The streets of Mar’si were dynamic at all times of day, pulsing with the movements of people. This society was in many senses antithetical to the ideals of Xuande-Xiphoi. Freedom of movement was replaced with isolationism. A government constitutionally restricted from nominating a state religion was replaced by a pure theocracy. A government that contributed trillions of NS dollars to its all-expansive military, creating a social program and national identity through military capacity, instead of developing a force that was just one part of a larger society. There was, of course, still a dynamism – the bustling, borderless city of more than a billion residents could not help but busy. Towering temples and religious figures milled with the working and dress uniforms of military members and Marshite workers flocking to wherever they needed to flock to next.

For Kieran Stephanidis, it was another day on the job. The third secretary ranked diplomat of the Xuande-Xiphoian Embassy in Mar’si was one of a large corps of diplomatic and consular staff at this Embassy, considered a prime posting by virtue of the relatively close economic relationship between Xuande-Xiphoi and the Holy Marsh. Indeed, the consular section was particularly worth its salt – Xuande-Xiphoian merchant vessels and protected seamen often finding local police to be rather strict – what with the whole theocracy business. This of course did not make his diplomatic authority any less important. His role as the Assistant Cultural Attaché for Creative Industries found him in charge of a few attaches, his team charged on paper with attracting all types of creative endeavours to produce, exhibit, and create jobs in Xuande-Xiphoi. It was a plum position – working with Xuande-Xiphoian businesses and Government to make all types of creative industries happen in Xuande-Xiphoi. His stakeholders were diverse and often wealthy, and as a natural “snakecharmer” he found a commendable level of success. The life of a cultural attaché was a dynamic one.

Not that he would know. For Kieran Stephanidis, it was indeed another day on the job. The operational member of the Foreign Intelligence Directorate, charged with working under diplomatic cover to advance the intelligence interests of Xuande-Xiphoi across the Holy Marsh and the region. With previous postings in a couple of countries to his name, this was the biggest role of his career, with tasks including developing an understanding of whatever form of government and bureaucracy the Marsh possessed. As cultural attaché, he also worked to bring Xuande-Xiphoian travelling shows and exhibits to the Marsh. These were, of course, very appropriate affairs to wine and dine the various potential sponsors and patrons of such shows.

Men like Royce Hochberg enjoyed the finer things in life – like foreign cinema and the free booze that came about as a part of it. People who were of course good religious men – good Marshites – but people who also appreciated the tangible goods of the world god had given them. Royce Hochberg also occupied a particular role as a senior Vice President of Covenant Arms – the weapons export arm of the Holy Marsh. A role that no doubt was awash with security analyses and constant vigilance, but one that also afforded it’s office holder with the opportunity to travel to overseas nations to strike deals and make friends. Striking deals was, of course, easier to do when working with a foreign Embassy.

For Hochberg, his appreciation of fine arts – like the cinema of June Liu, the noted Xuande-Xiphoian director – had led to meeting the cultural attaché at one of many events, and developing a relationship in appreciation of film and television from the nation that he had personally sponsored some of the very exhibits he attended. As a friendly country, the relationship between the company man and the junior diplomat had come with a guideline of what to look out for, but no tremendous concern. Indeed it had been fortuitous – Covenant Arms had been listed as a trusted supplier and provided a major supply chain resource for the Xuande-Xiphoian Armed Service for their need of consumables.

This meeting between the two at a little café in the inner part of Mar’si on a Friday morning was one amongst a chain over the last two years, taking the opportunity for a morning coffee catchup and helping to organise, with the support of Screen Oppentin and the Revnami Film Office, potential opportunities for young Marshite film professionals to study via a scholarship in Hochberg’s name. It was a task often handled directly – but of course, the relationship with the cultural attaché was already there… why not just use it?

It was now some 20 minutes late as the diplomat finished his first cup of coffee, keeping an eye on his environment as he read through the state run news of the day. Hochberg’s arrival was met with a wave from Kieran standing stooped as he invited him over to sit. A waiter was not soon away.

“Hello Captain Kieran!” Hochberg exclaimed, using the diplomat’s nickname, won when the diplomat had somehow launched a jet ski onto a boat ramp during a break on a shared trip to a Xuande-Xiphoian film festival. The collection of Marshites had found it rather funny to see the beached diplomat.

“Hello Admiral!” the diplomat responded, a counterclaim he had made – not that it had stuck for anyone else. “How’s Hema and the kids?” he asked.

“They are excellent. Good grades at school are always good, but things have been excellent with Hema. She’s extremely excited for the upcoming trip, particularly that cruise off the Cinnamon Coast. Kicking back and having a lot of coconuts on the deck of a sailing ship – it’s a wonderful time. And it works very well for me.”

The two men shared a knowing chuckle.

“Well I’m keen too. We’ll have a couple of other attachés and visitors along for the ride so should be a lovely ship there. But I know you wanted to see where they filmed the spider scenes in Goblin.”

“Sure am.”

“Well Royce,” the attaché said, showing him a youtube video on his phone, “you’ll be doing it by air!”

“Wonderful!” Royce replied, enthralled by the idea of the scenic flight. “Hey, sorry for being so late. Had a work call that ran over.”

“Ah, not a worry.”

“Does make me far more excited though. Hey, between you and me,”

The spy’s mind starting ticking over.

“I need it immensely more than you can imagine. I’ve had about a half hour of sleep the last two days.”

“Business being good, I hope?” the attaché responded. “I need to make sure you’ve got that sponsorship potential flowing, you know?”

“Ha!” Royce responded. It was this moment the spy remembered the tired mind had much the same effect on a person as the drunken mind. “No, no. No, it’s all very good. Lot of custom orders, I’ve been in the Learjet for the last couple of days in, you know, Petrinicea, Coradele, all over.”

Those places rang a bell to the attaché, mentally noting their mention.

“But it’s all done today I’m hoping, then, onto this.”

The two men spoke excitedly for some more time, the attaché mentally prepared.

---

HOURS LATER
XUANDE-XIPHOIAN EMBASSY AT MAR’SI, HOLY MARSH

The tremendous compound of the Xuande-Xiphoian Embassy matched the strategic importance placed on site. A grand office structure comprised the centrepiece, with gardens surrounding and leading to the Ambassador’s Residence, itself a wonderful space to host large events. These were held quite often, promoting every aspect of the Xuande-Xiphoian economy to this important trade partner.

Inside the larger office building, with a view over a suburbia of houses to one side and a city cluster to the other, a collection of men and women met at a large conference table, a large screen reading a red and blue TOP SECRET forming the head of the table. Present included the senior intelligence members on site – including the military attaché, FID station chief, and the Embassy charge d’affairs – the Ambassador out on duty.

“Ok, let’s hop into this one.” Said the station chief, Francis. “Our helpful cultural attaché Mr. Stephanidis has been instrumental in building up an intelligence picture on a moving military development. Go.”

“Thanks boss.” Responded Kieran.

The slides advanced – the mandatory covering slides rolling through quickly. They’d all seen it 100 times before.

“This is Royce Hochberg. Mr. Hochberg is VP of marketing and international development at Covenant Arms, who we all know well. He is a developed source, but not an intelligence target. Very friendly fellow, very capable, and a pretty vanilla life – no particular exploitables. Other than a bit of drug use in Xuande-Xiphoi but, of course, that’s quite legal and the religious side would probably be happy to give him a mulligan. All in all – a useful person to know, but not someone who I’ve been developing as a major source.”

The slides flipped forwards again, showing a map of the Holy Marsh.

“I spoke to him this morning under standard cover; he let slip to me then that he’d travelled to a couple of interesting cities.”

The various travels of Hochberg – partially tracked via OSINT of his aircraft’s movements – appeared on the map.

“Brigadier Vien,” the officer said, referring to the uniformed Army officer acting as military attache, “you noted that over the past couple of days that exercises had been extended and naval and strategic air assets were being inspected. I believe that Mr. Hochberg may have let the cat somewhat out of the bag today.”

The slide moved to satellite images attained from the Xuande-Xiphoian Air Force’s contributing element to the Damocles observation satellite network.

“There has been a noted increase in movement and apparent mobilisation in some of the Marsh’s specialist units. As you all know, the Marshite military is all-consuming and there are constant drills, but we bookmark their behaviour from a few key units; particularly their field hospital units. For operations in-country there isn’t much use for them, obviously, but when the Marshites have planned major overseas operations they spin them up.”

Additional images came up on screen.

“And we have seen a ten-fold increase in their expected movements.”

---

Seated across the desk from the Prime Minister, Ambassador Olwisna settled into the wooden, cushioned chair. The room was soundless, other than the sound of the two settling in their chairs, before the Prime Minister opened a desk draw and withdrew a thick manila folder. The seal of Xuande-Xiphoi decorated the cover in monochrome, and topped with the markings of a top secret document. The Prime Minister handed it to the Ambassador, who looked up for the PM’s nod to open the folder and inspect.

Inside, a number of redactions had clearly been made. Satellite photos clearly degraded in quality. It showed reports on the Holy Marsh and some of their coalition partners, images of increased mobilisation.

“An interesting mark of friendship to fly satellites overhead, Prime Minister.” The Ambassador said, wryly.

“The Damocles network is an open skies affair, Ambassador.” She replied. “Whatever they have of the Marsh I can be sure they have ten times as much on us.”

The Ambassador withheld further remarks – not that he didn’t have them.

“Ambassador, simple question. Why is it that my Intelligence Corps is telling me that the Holy Marsh is preparing a military mobilisation, and why is it that this is coming in the dust of Ralkovia collapsing?”

---

In Mar’si, Xuande-Xiphoi’s Ambassador Edward Pierce-Matthaios was being shuttled through busy streets in the Embassy’s chauffeured car. Inside, the Ambassador, an older man with greyed hair and a finely maintained brown-grey goatee, received the final briefing from one of the many intelligence officers assigned to his Embassy.

The vehicle made it’s way through city streets, the blur of pedestrians in civilian, religious, and military garb seemingly equal. As the vehicle drew closer to its destination, buildings seemed to grow older and shorter, before a colossus emerged.

The First Cathedral was the home and office of the Marshite Arch-Bishop – the head of state, government, religious leader, and dictator. Under specific direction from Xuande-Xiphoi’s Foreign Minister, the Ambassador had requested an urgent meeting, fuelled by a meeting having just occurred with his opposite in Revnami with his Prime Minister.

Drawing to the First Cathedral, one could be enraptured by it’s artistry. The grand open courtyard gave rise to what seemed to be easily twenty or more stories of carvings into the metalwork, which gleamed gold. Grand windows and the crest of the Arch Bishop decorated the central face, a huge carved figure of a predecessor at the uppermost housing before the grand spire raising well above anything in sight.

This was a cathedral to the Marshite gods, but moreso, to the Marshite dictator. The vehicle pulled up at the fore of the great doors, manned by the religious guard special forces that provided the practical and ceremonial guard here. The Ambassador was of course aware that the real guards were based in some sort of crypt underneath the very car he sat in, armed to the teeth.

He exited the vehicle, taking care not to look particularly awestruck by the tremendous complex. It did not do to play tourist while representing the interest of seventeen billion of your countrymen. He still felt the piercing eyes of the holy guardsmen as he passed through the grand doors.

Where one may expect the hall of a cathedral to reveal the trappings of religion – pews, organs,and the like – this room instead opened to a secondary security screening, of equal aesthetic value to the fore of the structure, and halls of what seemed to be secretarial and clergy staff busy at work.

“Your Excellency,” came a voice from a black-cloaked man. “I am Mr. Palas, from the protocol branch.”

The man bowed, acknowledging the Ambassador. “Please, follow me, the Arch-Bishop awaits your arrival.”

Marching through the grand cathedral, the Xuande-Xiphoian Ambassador couldn’t help but look into the sloping rafters. Religious symbology and grand structures greeted him, lights dancing across the structure. The tapping of heavy boots and tidy shoes echoed henceforth in the hallways, the leagues of Marshite workers progressing to the various spaces they needed to occupy. Each of them likely represented an apex of their industry or field – so one must, that they should be honoured to work here in the First Cathedral.

Through a rat run of hallways, doorways, halls and echoing chambers, the Ambassador soon found himself and entourage at the connecting point of the Cathedral; the Arch-Bishops chambers and offices directly ahead. Royal Guards, towering men armed with ceremonial weapons that likely still worked sufficiently well to kill various offending envoys, stood to the fore. Likely many more in combat fatigues lurked in the hallways and windowless rooms of this Cathedral.

The Ambassador began the long walk through the grand doors, knowing his message was sure to strike alarm bells in Revnami.

”When will Holy Marsh go to war in Ralkvoia?”


 

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HOURS LATER
VIDEO CONFERENCE

It was extraordinary how quickly a meeting of the Xuande-Xiphoian Cabinet could be assembled, using the underground tunnels that connected the Parliamentary Complex’s buildings to each other, and drawing the remaining members onto site with secure connections. The emergency meeting, which had cleared the Prime Minister’s schedule for the entirety of the afternoon and well into the evening, had been assembled due to the simple summary of the situation given by the Prime Minister’s Aide-de-camp.

“As Ralkovia has fallen, some seven billion civilians stand at the borders of a Marshite invasion and a collapsing tyrannical regime. As these forces converge into what will be in effect a holy war, these seven billion people will become targets. We believe hundreds of millions will die if no intervention is made.

The blood of millions of people, innocent but for their existence under a tyrannical regime, could not be spilled by Marshite and Ralkovian forces while free countries stood able but unwilling to aid them. Yet, the price for action could be devastating. Every Xuande-Xiphoian had in their memories the tragedy of the freedom of navigation mission launched by the twice-former Prime Minister which had seen four ships sunk, dozens of sailors killed, and all the remainder captured. That had been the man’s political downfall, and Xenia Samariadi was not interested in scuppering her premiership at the start of her reign.

Nevertheless, the agreement was reached by the Cabinet that Xuande-Xiphoi could not afford to stay silent. In that agreement, however, was reached an idea and an opportunity. The Kenos region, a faraway one to most countries at the crossroads of east and west, had been defined by chaos. The Kenos States, a loose confederation of only less than 100 million citizens, painted an archway of islands to the Zellatian Empire and Andrenade Republic; two ancient adversaries separated in near to every way, but for the long DMZ separating them. It was an area that Xuande-Xiphoi and her peacekeepers were now quite familiar with.

The recent election of Grand Admiral von Leone in Zellatia represented however a new era in public trust and democracy in the Empire. Similarly, the Council of Ambassadors in the Republic had begun to experiment away from Andrenade’s relative position of splendid isolation, working closer with the region and international partners to develop the nation’s presence and influence on the world stage. The two states had reached a détente in the recent decade, and of course, with all challenges come opportunity.

This crash meeting of the Kenos Ocean Economic Forum – the pseudo-regional body for the Kenos region – had brought together the three heads of government, with the Council represented by Andrenade’s Prime Ambassador. The topic was clear to all – an intelligence brief having been issued out some hours prior. The leaders had shared the normal small talk before proceeding to the substantive matter of how the region could respond to the expected surge of war in Ralkovia.

“Gentlemen,” began Prime Minister Samariadi, “we are standing on the precipice of ethics and of our responsibility to protect. As you are all aware, the efforts that we have made towards enhanced regional cooperation are designed to provide economic benefits, enhance political stability, and help to create a Kenos voice that is heard on the world stage. As we speak, Marshite forces and their coalition are mobilising to surge forces into Ralkovia. Let me be clear what this means – unrestricted warfare. Weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction. A campaign to punish the slaveowners and slavetraders of Ralkovia; not in courts of law, but by razing their land and slaughtering the citizens and civilians who existed under the bootheel of Ralkovian government oppression.”

The Prime Minister took a pause.

“Gentlemen, I have already instructed the Xuande-Xiphoian Armed Services to prepare operational plans and to begin recalling members to be deployed to prevent mass death. Our Ambassador in Mar’si met earlier today with the Arch-Bishop of the Holy Marsh, and based on his estimates and that of my military commanders, I believe we have approximately three and a half days before the Marshites begin their new campaign.”

“You have, of course, received the briefing documents from the Xuande-Xiphoian Intelligence Corps. I trust that each of you are equipped to make the fullest considerations as to our combined actions as we look down the barrel of a humanitarian crisis.”

“The question therefore is simple; will our region be able to cooperate in delivering a humanitarian response to Ralkovia, utilising our combined armed forces?”

Grand Admiral von Leone, a towering man, was next to speak.

“Prime Minister, Prime Ambassador, the Empire agrees that the challenge we face is one of the utmost regional relevance. Of course, my countrymen face another challenge as there is a resident minority population of Zellatian nationals and citizens. We cannot tolerate the Marshite scorched earth approach. While the Prime Ambassador and I,” he said, taking a pause in recognition of the two nation’s dislike of Xuande-Xiphoi’s differing policy, “are agreed that slavers are well deserving of capital punishment, we cannot sit by and tolerate the Marshite’s religious holocaust going ahead.”

The Prime Ambassador spoke, carrying the weight of the 10 member strong Directorate collectively acting as Andrenade’s head of government. “The Directorate of course agrees, Prime Ministers, that a humanitarian tragedy is likely. Similarly the Directorate finds agreement that a regional response is appropriate in how we choose to respond, on the privso of course that such a response is truly regional. Andrenade, as a state, is not prepared to send significant portions of the Armada without the cooperation of the Kenos region.”

The three parties took a moment, notes being made and background chatter just audible.

“Of course,” Prime Minister Samariadi continued. “Xuande-Xiphoi does intend to make good on the promises that Prime Minister Hayes made to you all at the last Kenos Forum in Sangshu Pinzhen. The challenges that have been experienced in securing peace in and between our countries are challenges that Xuande-Xiphoi has been keenly involved in. I believe that for the reasons that we have discussed prior to this meeting, and the assurances I have received from the Arch-Bishop of the Holy Marsh, that we as a group of states are at a crossroads.”

“Xuande-Xiphoi is prepared to deploy our Armed Services and our civilian experts to establish and reinforce a protected area that will remain out of bounds for the Marshite forces. There, I anticipate millions of refugees will flock to us. It is, thereafter, our responsibility to remove them from the theatre of war.”

“Agreed,” replied the Zellatian Prime Minister – as the only one in the conversation with military experience, he was highly aware of the task ahead, “but of course our Government would have a prime interest in recovering our own and Kenosian citizens.”

The two other leaders nodded in agreement.

“Andrenade is also concerned about the considerable influx of refugees, and how they may be processed given the potential that some undesirable types may be amongst them. Slave owners, of course. We would be very interested in ensuring those people are brought to justice and not lost amongst our populaces.”

Again, the leaders agreed.

“Xuande-Xiphoi has the equipment and the personnel to establish the necessary facilities to intake and process a considerable number of refugees. Of course, we would intend on forwarding a number of refugees to Zellatia and Andrenade for further processing. We would invite refugees to make that determination for themselves with preferences, but our operational needs would lead that response. My aide de camp can provide our national plan for that emergency to you now.”

von Leone – the former Grand Admiral - added quickly, “The role of the Navy cannot be understated of course. Though that may itself be limited, and I look to Xuande-Xiphoi’s fleet of hospital ships which served my citizens so well in the Insurrection to rise to the occasion yet again.”

“Yes, Prime Mnister,” replied Samariadi, “I have the full confidence in the Xuande-Xiphoian Navy. But I am of course concerned about the military response we are likely to receive near Ralkovia.”

A quiet moment emerged – the political live wire had been nudged.

“Prime Minister,” said von Leone, determinedly. “Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of Zellatia stand for freedom. We pledge our lives to the protection of our Emperor and our nation, and in serving this role we can be sent anywhere. I believe the Zellatian military will rise to the challenge.”

“I too,” added the Prime Ambassador, “have confidence in the Armada of Andrenade. Our men and officers are equipped for the job. Indeed, the challenge for us will by comparison be our logistical capabilities. I believe we as the Kenosian region can achieve the logistics task, but frankly, the air and sea bridge which has been explained to me by my Defence Ambassador is a tremendous challenge. This will require the full mobilisation our air assets, and that is only a fraction of total needs.”

“Yes, Prime Ambassador,” replied Samariadi. “But Xuande-Xiphoi stands ready. “I am told that there is capability within the Xuande-Xiphoian Air Force supported by the Navy to achieve the logistical challenge.”

“With that said, Prime Minister Samariadi,” said the Andrenadean, “I believe that the Directorate can allot an offensive force to secure a position within the Ralkovian territory. Indeed for the challenges presented to us by… historic military needs… we have the airborne and long range forces that are best for doing this mission.”

With some further discussion, as the sun set and gold ceased glittering off the steel and glass of Revnami and her tremendous lake, a historic agreement was reached.

Operation Threefold Reach was underway.

---

OPERATION THREEFOLD REACH - SUPREME COMMANDER
DISPATCH

---

TOP SECRET <<SUREBET>> - XXO/ZEL/ADR EYES ONLY

DISTRIBUTION - ELEMENT AND NATIONAL COMMANDERS

This is a message dispatched by order of Chief of Joint Operations, Xuande-Xiphoian Armed Serivces.

Operation Threefold Reach is to begin planning in accordance with the orders of the Governments of Xuande-Xiphoi, Zellatia, and Andrenade.

The operation is to commence no later than 2000h, ███████████ - approx 100 hours from time of dispatch issuance.

Godspeed

CJOps
XXAS

 

[The Macabees]

KRÍERSTATÓN POTTHAN



An F-36/A screamed through the clouds, banking to the right as it extended its patrol over the blue waves of the Baí d'Kadaín — the Bay of Chains —, below.

Beneath it, the gargantúan Kríerstatón Potthan extended east to west as far as the eye could see. Tall robotic cranes lifted giant concrete blocks and heavy steel beams into place, helped by an army of tractors and workers below. Kríerstatón Potthan was subject to seemingly perpetual expansion, backed by Macabéan ríokmarks that flowed to contractors and locals alike. It was an effort to grow the base into a formidable group of fortifications capable of housing a mighty fleet and the doubtless allied and aligned warships that would want to make calls there. Sitting, strategically, just beyond the mouth of the great River Dikk, Kríerstatón Potthan was the Golden Throne's westernmost base and it afforded the empire significant control over the flow of naval traffic into, and out of, the river. At least, that was the purpose — the means for which had recently arrived and were continually being expanded.

When the arms-for-base deal was first announced, the assets to be housed there were simply not available. Half of the Kríermada, the imperial navy, was wrapping up its presence in Gholgoth. The other half was tied down in central Greater Díenstad, as the war against the Ordenite Reich raged in Krasnova and the Killian Republic. However, now with an armistice in place and the return of the Gothic forces, the Golden Throne's armed forces were free to reorganize their strength within the region.

Several eskúadras returning from Gholgoth were reorganized into Kríergrup Kadaín and ordered to deploy to their new home base, in northern Potthan. They joined over 100,000 tercios previously deployed to Kríerstatón Potthan and were now the primary offensive force available to the empire in the west. A second kríergrup, or fleet group, was to be sent west, to be based at a new base in Samarasta, but these were not yet in the theater. As such, while things in Ralkovia remained quiet, Kríergrup Kadaín involved itself in matters in Samarasta, sending its decorated and veteran 93rd Raid Eskúadra in the previous, recent, months. The rest of the fleet group remained put and kept itself busy with regular patrols.

Now, however, things in Ralkovia were heating up again and traffic — especially of the military kind — up the River Dikk was increasing. This had put Kríerstatón Potthan on high alert, and with it Kríergrup Kadaín. Air patrols were intensified. Naval patrols up the Bay of Chains, through the Jesheoda Channel, and to Eitoan were strengthened. Likewise, the same was done between Potthan and Samarasta. In this way, several layers of piquets were established like a crescent to cover all of the approaches to the mouth of the Dikk. The Ordenites, who were by now entrenched in Fustera, were not notified in advance or later given a reason why, which would undoubtedly make their heads spin as things were heating up in Tupenga and Istoloa. Let the fascist bastards stew.

Clandestinely, nuclear attack submarines had been making regular patrols up and down the coastline of the western continent for many years now. These continued, business as usual. Adding to them, though, the number of diesel-electric submarines in-theater increased over the coming weeks as the Kríermada bolstered its local defensive forces in case it needed to dispute access to the River Dikk. These were to call at Kríerstatóns Potthan and Samarasta, depending on their position, but otherwise sit tight in case an enemy battle force needed a good ambush.

Perhaps more important than changes in the military disposition of Macabéaeen forces in the area, there was a flurry of intelligence activity as various data from underwater, coastal, aerial, and satellite surveillance systems were collected, analyzed, and shared with Arcaenia and Eitoan. They had sizeable forces in the area of their own, and the Golden Throne was not directly partaking in military operations in Ralkovia, nevertheless, the Fuermak put its permanent military intelligence network and infrastructure at the disposal of its two close allies. It was hoped whatever information of naval traffic in the area these assets could provide would be doubly useful once a maritime exclusion zone was declared over the length of the river and just beyond into the bay.

Furthermore, port facilities were made available to forces of the Romani-Marsh Union, also participating in the war. Apart from Marshite brown water patrol forces, a large Palmyrene carrier strike group was to rely on Kríerstatón Potthan for resupply and refitting, as well as to offer Palmyrene sailors a place for rest and leave. Because the port was still being expanded, part of the reason much of Kríergrup Kadaín's raid eskúadras were sent to operate to the south and made to call at Tongolosi, in Samarasta, was to open up space for friendly ships which needed to dock in Potthan.

Of course, martial matters formed only a small part of Macabéan interests in the west. Diplomats, military officers, and civilian contractors flew in and out of Kríerstatón Potthan, using it as a base of operations as they then traveled to Eitoan to meet with those overseeing operations in Ralkovia and the post-war order. Ralkovia and the Golden Throne had never seen things eye-to-eye and, in fact, relations between the two countries had been worse than those between the empire and the Reich. The growing influence of the Eitoani and Arcaenian governments in former Ralkovian territory were opening up new markets and the Golden Throne, which considered itself one of the most important economies in the region, wanted a piece. As such, diplomatic and commercial activities were just, or more so, furious than even military activities in the Bay of Chains. There were not only post-war reconstruction contracts at stake, but more broadly opportunities to capture new sources of demand for manufactured goods, as well as financial and technology sectors that could fuel further growth among imperial companies whose fattening incomes would translate into fattening tax revenues for the Imperial Bureaucracy.

There was also the concern of strengthening the empire's submarine patrols of the northern waters, which were now relatively far from any major base of operations or ports where the Kríermada held resupply rights. The most affected area was, namely, the Bay of Slaves. Renewed war in Ralkovia could present new opportunities in that area, as well, although investigating options there was something better left for future days.

In the empire itself, even as military forces in Kríerstatón Potthan were put on high alert and diplomats danced their jig, the multi-ethnic people of the Golden Throne — from the core provinces to New Empire, and from Free Killia to Theohuanacu — were tuned into news sources that depicted the airline hijackings and other acts of Ralkovian terrorism. Official footage of mobilizing Arcaenian and Eitoani military forces was shown around the clock, setting the tone for what was to come. Bolstering images of the empire's continued strength and dedication to its allies, under these propagandistic clouds of the renewal of the "good war" against the Ralkovian slavers and with the growing Ordenite threat in Fustera in the back of everyone's minds, screens also told the news of another fleet group sailing to the west. Composed of eskúadras recently returned from Gholgoth, it was called Kríergrup Shartoum. Once it arrived, it meant that the Kríermada had around 1,000 ships in the far western theater.

All the same, it was known that the imperial people were tired of war. Years of combat, and the millions of resulting casualties, against the Scandinvans and Ordenites had taken their psychological and physical toll. Even while war fervor in favor of the empire's allies was once again ramping up, the Imperial Bureaucracy made perfectly clear that it intended to remain wholly neutral in the conflict unless its entrance was explicitly requested by any of its allies.

[Palmyrion]

ARMED FORCES OF PALMYRION - OFFICIAL ORDER OF BATTLE

Operation Enduring Liberty
Federal Republic of Ralkovia
Commander: Field Marshal Victor Sarabia, Supreme Expeditionary Commander PAREF-Ralkovia

VI Corps (c. 100,000)
Commander: Field Marshal Elisabeth Petrova-Iglesias
Area of Operations: Northern Ralkovia

• Corps C4ISR Battalion (c. 1,000)
• 1021st-1024th Quick Reaction Regiments (c. 3,500 each)
• 221st-224th Combined Arms Divisions (c. 15,000 each)
• Engg Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• STRATARTY Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• ADA Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• Corps Aviation Regiment, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• Corps Sustainment Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)

VII Corps (c. 100,000)
Commander: Field Marshal Gerald De Vera
Area of Operations: Southern Ralkovia

• Corps C4ISR Battalion (c. 1,000)
• 1025th-1028th Quick Reaction Regiments (c. 3,500 each)
• 225th-228th Combined Arms Divisions (c. 15,000 each)
• Engg Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• STRATARTY Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• ADA Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• Corps Aviation Regiment, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• Corps Sustainment Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)

Central Ad-Hoc Corps (c. 50,000)
Commander: directly under the control of Field Marshal Sarabia
Area of Operations: PAREF-Ralkovia HQ

• PAREF-Ralkovia CENTCOM Battalion (c. 1,000)
• 1185th-1188th Quick Reaction Regiments (c. 3,500 each)
• 213rd, 278th Independent Combined Arms Brigades (c. 5,000 each)
• Engg Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• STRATARTY Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• ADA Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• Corps Aviation Regiment, VI Corps (c. 5,000)
• Corps Sustainment Bde, VI Corps (c. 5,000)

8th Marine Expeditionary Task Force

• 8METF HQ Battalion (c. 1,000)
• 8METF Marine Aircraft Wing
• 8th Marine Expeditionary Division (c. 15,000)
• 15th Marine Strike Regiment (c, 2,500)
• 16th Marine Strike Regiment (c. 2,500)

Battlefleets SILAKBO (ADM JESTER FARIÑAS PN), ESKRIMA (ADM POLINA ROBREDO PN), PARALUMAN (ADM EMILIO ARENAS PN), HABAGAT (ADM SIMON VALDEHUEZA PN), each comprised of:
1 CARSTRGRU

1 CV/N (Aragon-II-class CVN)
2 DDG/N
2 FFG
2 B/CG/N
1 DDH
2 SSGN
1 T-AOE

2 COMNAVRON

2 DDG/N
2 FFG
2 CG/N
1 DDH
1 T-AOE

2 SUBRON

8 SSGN

15th (RADM MIKAELA MACASAET PN) and 16th (RADM RADOMIL VOLKOV PN), each comprised of:

• 1 LHA
• 1 LSD
• 1 LPD
• 1 COMNAVRON
  
  2 DDG/N
  2 FFG
  2 CG/N
  1 DDH
  1 T-AOE

Miscellaneous naval units:

2 T-AKE
2 T-AOE
2 T-AH
4 MCMV
4 Submarine tenders

NOTE: Battlefleet PARALUMAN will be reassigned to the River Dikk following issuance of briefing.

(OOC: Aerospace Forces assets pending as per discussion in Discord server)

OPORD SLAMDOWN - PAREF-Ralkovia CENTCOM
ATTN: Battlefleet PARALUMAN, 15ESG, 16ESG, 15MSR, 16MSR, T-AH-14, T-AKE-11
(henceforth "Task Force Slamdown" or the "task force")

1. SITUATION

a. Area of Interest. The Dikk River is, by far, the only major body of water that Regime Ralkovia has access to. Lately there has been a major uptick in Regime activity in the Dikk River, and the Coalition wants to further stem the Regime's access to and utility of the river.
b. Area of Operations. The river is, on average, 250km wide and interspersed with islands of varying sizes, leaving little to moderate room for manoeuvre for large combatant vessels and formations. Furthermore, the river serves as the main waterway for accessing Regime territory, so heavy civilian cargo traffic is present in the area.
c. Enemy Forces. Most enemy forces would be Regime navy units conducting naval escorts on Ralkovian shipping, as well as dedicated combatant patrol units conducting a search-and-destroy patrol against Coalition naval forces. Enemy ground forces are expected to be mostly amphibious hit-and-run units stationed on the various islands in the river. Ordenite reinforcements are expected.
d. Friendly Forces. Reliably expected friendlies will include Marshite brown-water naval forces and marines, Macabeean naval forces, and naval forces and marines from fellow NMAA member-states. CENTCOM is certain that these forces have the same mission of stemming Ralkovian access to and utility of the river, so consistent collaboration with these forces is a must.
e. Attachments and Detachments. Aside from the aforementioned units in the ATTN section, none.
f. Civilian Considerations. The river is a major conduit for civilian shipping, and many neutral nations border the river. Exercise caution and discretion when engaging with shipping.

2. MISSION

WHO: Battlefleet Paraluman, 15th and 16th Expeditionary Strike Groups, 15th and 16th Marine Strike Regiments
WHAT: Reinforce allied and friendly naval presence in the river. PARALUMAN's commanding officer ADM EMILIO ARENAS PN is to be the Task Force Commander.
WHERE: The Dikk River and Bay of Chains.
WHEN: Effective upon receipt of OPORD and until orders to withdraw.
WHY: A major uptick in Regime Ralkovian military activity in the river.

3. EXECUTION

a. Commander's Intent: SEC-PAREF-RALKOVIA intends to further limit Ralkovian access to the river. Blockading the Ralkovian shoreline, if possible, must also be pursued.
b. Concept of Operations. Battlefleet PARALUMAN, as the main naval component of the operational order, is to conduct naval search-and-destroy missions against Ralkovian naval forces and, alongside 15ESG and 16ESG, provide naval fire support for15MSR and 16MSR. 15MSR and 16MSR shall be on alert to quickly act for targeted amphibious strikes on targets of opportunity. PWS Georgina Soledad (T-AH-14), as a hospital ship, is to be primarily used to provide medical care for the task force, but allied nations' units can be accommodated at the captain's discretion. PWS Waterbearer (T-AKE-11), as the primary cargo ship, is to haul and provide reserve supplies on top of what is carried on the assigned units' T-AOEs.
c. Movement and Manoeuvre. The whole task force is to move up the river, attacking Ralkovian naval units and targets of opportunity, eventually culminating on a blockade of the Ralkovian shoreline at the river if possible.
d. Coordinating Instructions. Information on amphibious and air-based anti-shipping elements in the River is to be immediately reported to HQ. Neutral vessels are not to be hailed other than for typical maritime navigation and communication protocols.

4. ADMIN AND LOGISTICS

a. Administration. EPWs are to be immediately shuttled to Macabeean Krierstaton Potthan for pickup by Palmyrian forces. Casualties that require medical attention other than can be reliably given by the assigned naval units (such as prolonged intensive care) are to be evacuated to Krierstaton Potthan as well. Delinquent personnel can also be withdrawn to Krierstaton Potthan.
b. Logistics. The primary point of supply for the task force is Krierstaton Potthan, with T-AKE-11 and the assigned units' T-AOEs serving as forward supply runners for the task force.

Bay of Chains, at the mouth of the Dikk River
ADM Emilio Arenas PN
0643H LOCAL

Admiral Arenas looked over at the OPORD again, sitting on his station at the CIC. He had just arrived at the CIC after eating his breakfast and getting bathed and dressed up for the day, wearing naval field duty uniform. The primary point of resupply for the task force was a Macabeean naval station in northern Potthan situated at the mouth of the Dikk River. He had total control of the task force, and they were assigned to conduct a search-and-destroy operation against Ralkovian naval forces and, through the ESGs and MSRs assigned to his task force, carry out direct action strikes on amphibious targets of opportunity. Not far from the CIC - and in the same room in fact - was the bridge, where the helmsman resided alongside communications, electronic warfare, and ISR personnel. They were busy going on the lookout for anything suspicious or interesting that might appear on their ISR feeds, aided by lookouts at the crows' nests serving as visual lookouts.

Admiral Arenas walked over to the bridge to check up on the sailors in the bridge section, seeing to it that they were working well. All was fair and good as he walked around the corridors shared by the bridge and the CIC, until the helmsman alerted him that Krierstaton Potthan was nearby and within radar reach.

"Admiral." the helmsman called for the Admiral, who immediately jogged towards him. "Malapit na ang Krierstaton Potthan." (Krierstaton Potthan is nearby.)
"Sige. Dadaong tayo sa Krierstaton Potthan for resupply and R&R. CommO?" (Roger. We'll dock at Krierstaton Potthan for resupply and R&R. CommO?) the Admiral replied, afterwards calling for the communications officer, which was replied to by a succinct "Yes sir?"
The Admiral immediate followed with a command. "Sabihan mo ang Krierstaton Potthan na dadaong tayo for resupply and R&R bago tayo magpatuloy sa ilog tite." (Tell Krierstaton Potthan we will dock for resupply and R&R before proceeding further into the Dikk River.) "Sabihan mo na rin gusto kong makipag-usap sa kanilang commanding officer kung pwede." (Tell them I also want to talk to their commanding officer if possible.)

The CommO barely held back a chuckle as he heard the term "ilog tite", already a colloquial name for the river among those stationed in Ralkovia. Nevertheless he replied with a succinct "Yes sir."

The communications officer promptly switched communication frequency to that used by Krierstaton Potthan, and immediately spoke. "Krierstaton Potthan, this is Palmyrian naval task force Slamdown assigned at the Dikk River. We would like to request docking permission for resupply and R&R, as well as our commanding officer talking to yours. How copy, over?"

[Greater Ordena]

SOUTHERN FUSTERA

Tensions had been rising for some time following the direct Marshite intervention into the Tupenga conflict. Not only did the Ordenites in Fustera have to worry about the Marshite military who were moving it's forces for a likely invasion of Tupenga, but it also had to worry about a strengthened Macabean Erjemacht presence in the West. Kríerstatón Potthan was a very viable and imminent threat to Ordenite military operations in and around Fustera should war break out again with the Golden Throne. Currently only 3 Kriegsmarine Flotilles were based in the Fusteran Protectorate with 1 in Southern Fustera and the other 2 in the Northern half of the country. In total this meant that the Kriegsmarine had over 600 vessels for force projection in the West, such a low number could be attributed to the primary focus of the Wehrmacht in Central Dienstad.

However as of late naval activity had been on the uptick concerning the Golden Throne and its Navy. Its presence had seemingly increased in the Jesheoda channel and in the Shartourn Sea. Ordenite surveillence of the theater had noticed this and fed what intel it could gather to the Wehrmacht Command in Elani, Fustera. Of course other local powers and members of the RMU and Triumvirate were also becoming more active in the area. Eventually orders would come from the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht in Ordena which would see a increase in Kriegsmarine Flotilles in the West from a meer 3 to a projected 8 which would see over 1,600 vessels be deployed to Fustera. This of course meant expansion of already existing Fusteran Harbors and Ports used by the Fusteran Navy to accomodate this increase in vessels. The Luftwaffe in Fustera would in response to the ramp up of activity begin sending more frequent flights of surveillance UAVs to monitor and gather intelligence on naval activity in the Shartourn Sea and the Jesheoda channel.

Ordenite diesel electric submarines would now also become more common in the waters surrounding Fustera, with the Ochse's long range patrol capability of being able to travel at a maximum range of 22,000km it would make it able to cover the main approaches into the Shartourn Sea such as the Jesheoda channel and the strait separating Fustera and Tupenga. The Type 224 Poseidon SSN's which are the workhorses of the Kriegsmarine's submarine fleet would also make more frequent appearances and in the likelihood of a renewal of conflict between the Reich and The Golden Throne would be used as first strike options on Kríerstatón Potthan and Samarasta. Although for now the chess game between the Ordenites and the Golden Throne would continue with pieces being moved into place in Western GD.

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

Northwest of Barskav
Arcaenian occupation zone
Ralkovian Federation

With the invasion date looming hundreds of thousands Arcaenian troops and tens of thousands of armored vehicles had begun covertly massing in camouflaged assembly areas along the Regime-Federation border north of Barskav. Arcaenian Luftwehr aircraft and RPVs had been conducting regular overflights of the border region and flying aerial surveillance missions into Regime Ralkovia for the last several months, monitoring the movements and disposition of Regime forces along the border. Meanwhile thousands of Arcaenian self-propelled howitzers, missile launchers, and rocket artillery systems were emplaced behind the front in pre-prepared camouflaged firing positions, ready to unleash a torrential bombardment upon the Regime's forces and defensive fortifications at the commencement of the invasion. Further behind the front included the preparation of hundreds of forward arming and refueling points stockpiled with fuel and ammunition for helicopters and drone aircraft that would be operating close to to the front. The colossal logistics preparation for invasion included the stockpiling of millions of tonnes of ordinance and billions of liters of diesel and jet fuel in logistical supply hubs, the ones along the front constructed underground beneath several meters of earth and reinforced concrete. Arcaenian pioneer and railway construction units had over the last several months laid down thousands of kilometers of standard gauge and narrow field railway behind the front line, allowing supplies and equipment delivered to northern Ralkovia by sea to be shipped directly to units along the the front line. With the winter weather most of the Arcaenian Army's trucks had been swapped for KfZ 310 all-terrain articulated vehicles, significantly improving the mobility of supply units tasked with following behind Arcaenian panzer and panzergrenadier units.

For the invasion the Arcaenian Luftwehr was organized into three Air Fleets (Luftflottes), one to support each Arcaenian Army Group. With the end of the Third Krasnovan War the majority of the thousands of Luftwehr combat aircraft that had been committed to that conflict were now transferred to Ralkovia and assigned to the three Air Fleets in preparation for the Invasion. The opening hours of the war would see thousands of sorties by the Luftwehr's fighter, fighter-bomber, and strategic bomber aircraft to destroy the Regime's air bases and destroy the majority of Regime's remaining aircraft on the ground while suppressing and destroying Regime air defense units and supporting Arcaenian spearhead units with interdiction attacks by fighters and fight-bomber against Regime columns which moved to confront the Arcaenian attacks. The Luftwehr would also use its fleet of stealth transport aircraft to paradrop small teams of Fallschirmjägers behind Regime lines who would be tasked with seizing bridges and railroad junctions before retreating Ralkovian units could destroy them, locating and destroying camouflaged Regime surface-to-surface missile TELs, attacking rear area Regime headquarters, and other reconnaissance and infiltration tasks before being relived by the advancing Arcaenian ground forces.

Arcaenian military intelligence had concluded that the Regime defenders, with former Ralkovian Empire units that were largely understrength and depleted a as a result of the catastrophic casualties the Ralkovians had suffered in the first war, would not resort to the mass assaults and inflexibile defense of their predecessors but would instead fight from fortified defensive positions arranged in depth and conduct delaying actions over distances of dozens to up to several hundreds of kilometers until they reached their prepared defensive lines. The success of the first phase of the Arcaenian offensive would thus depend on the Arcaenian panzer units advancing so rapidly and penetrating so deeply that the Regime defenders would be unable to man a continuous defensive frontline and enveloping and destroying Regime forces before they had a chance to fall back. The second stage of the campaign would be the drive to the coast to capture Urar, with distances to be covered being between 400 and 600 kilometers across mostly open steppe terrain. The success of this phase would be determined by the success of the armored thrusts of the first stage in collapsing the Regime frontline, the condition of the remaining railroads in Regime Ralkovia, and the ability of Arcaenian logistic units to keep pace with their advancing panzer units. The struggle for the marshes, swamps, and river areas in the area North of Haraxby would dominate the third phase of the campaign, Arcaenian military planners estimating it would take 2-3 weeks to cross the 100-200 kilometers of terrain in this region where at this stage the Arcaenian and Eitoan forces would either achieve a decisive breakthrough and drive north and capture Haraxy or resort to encircling and destroying the previously shattered Ralkovian forces piece by piece. However if the the bulk of the Regime's army in the south was still capable of offering determined and organized resistance the start of the third phase it would have to be delayed until those forces were destroyed and sufficient supplies were brought up to support the continuation of the offensive further north. Arcaenian military planners estimated the total time required to attain the designated initial objectives of the campaign was estimated to vary between a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 8 weeks. In the unlikely event that the Regime government did not collapse or make an offer for peace the offensive might have to be continued past Haraxby and further North to Ralakov and Tyran, after which point the Regime would be longer be capable of conducting military operations but could still set up a government past the mountains and maintain a state of war for an indefinite period into the future.

Bay of Chains
Western Dienstad

While the Arcaenian Army was making its invasion preparations the Arcaenian Königsmarine had sent a flotilla of two dozen Hydra class nuclear cruise missile submarines through the Bay of Chains and into the River Dikk. Although the Ralkovian Navy had been essentially obliterated in the first war the Arcaenian's were intent on waging a campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare against the Regime, cutting it off from all trade. Exploiting the underwater hydrophone network that their Golden Throne allies had deployed in and around their Kríerstatón Potthan naval base the Arcaenians would declare a total maritime exclusion zone and close off access to the river to everything but alliance and alliance allied military shipping. The Königsmarine's mission in the war was to neutralize the Regime fleet in the north of the Dikk, preventing any Regime naval forces from escaping down the river, sever the Regime from all maritime trade, safeguard alliance shipping into Federal Ralkovia, and transport supplies into ports along the Dikk as soon as the Army had seized the ports along the coast. At the start of the Invasion the Königsmarine's Hydra class submarines in the river would also also support the Luftwehr's air campaign by unleashing a barrage of several hundred hypersonic boost glide missiles against airbase, underground bunkers, and other high value targets in the Regime before continuing on their anti-shipping patrols.

Army Group A

• I Panzer Corps
  
  • 1st Artillery Command
  • 1st Pioneer Command
  • 1st Air Defense Command
  • 1st Army Aviation Command
  • 1st Signal Command
  • 1st Maintenance Command
  • 1st Supply Command
  • 1st Medical Command
  • 1st Panzer Division
  • 5th Panzer Division
  • 7th Panzer Division
  • 8th Panzer Division
• III Panzer Corps
  
  • 3rd Artillery Command
  • 3rd Pioneer Command
  • 3rd Air Defense Command
  • 3rd Army Aviation Command
  • 3rd Signal Command
  • 3rd Maintenance Command
  • 3rd Supply Command
  • 3rd Medical Command
  • 12th Panzer Division
  • 2nd Panzergrenadier Division
  • 6th Panzergrenadier Division
  • 11th Panzergrenadier Division
• IV Panzer Corps
  
  • 4th Artillery Command
  • 4th Pioneer Command
  • 4th Air Defense Command
  • 4th Army Aviation Command
  • 4th Signal Command
  • 4th Maintenance Command
  • 4th Supply Command
  • 4th Medical Command
  • 2nd Panzer Division
  • 3rd Panzer Division
  • 13th Panzer Division
  • 12th Panzergrenadier Division
    
• V Panzer Corps
  
  • 5th Artillery Command
  • 5th Pioneer Command
  • 5th Air Defense Command
  • 5th Army Aviation Command
  • 5th Signal Command
  • 5th Maintenance Command
  • 5th Supply Command
  • 5th Medical Command
  • 6th Panzer Division
  • 10th Panzer Division
  • 15th Panzergrenadier Division
  • 4th Panzergrenadier Division
• Luftflotte 1
  
  • 3rd Flieger Division
  • 4th Flieger Division
  • 2nd Luftabwehr Division

Army Group B

• II Fallschirmjäger Corps
  
  • 2nd Artillery Command
  • 2nd Pioneer Command
  • 2nd Air Defense Command
  • 2nd Army Aviation Command
  • 2nd Signal Command
  • 2nd Maintenance Command
  • 2nd Supply Command
  • 2nd Medical Command
  • 3rd Fallschirmjäger Division
  • 5th Fallschirmjäger Division
  • 7th Fallschirmjäger Division
  • 8th Fallschirmjäger Division
• XV Gebirgsjäger Corps
  
  • 15th Artillery Command
  • 15th Pioneer Command
  • 15th Air Defense Command
  • 15th Army Aviation Command
  • 15th Signal Command
  • 15th Maintenance Command
  • 15th Supply Command
  • 15th Medical Command
  • 2nd Gebirgsjäger Division
  • 3rd Gebirgsjäger Division
  • 6th Gebirgsjäger Division
  • 7th Gebirgsjäger Division
• VII Panzer Corps
  
  • 7th Artillery Command
  • 7th Pioneer Command
  • 7th Air Defense Command
  • 7th Army Aviation Command
  • 7th Signal Command
  • 7th Maintenance Command
  • 7th Supply Command
  • 7th Medical Command
  • 4th Panzer Division
  • 1st Panzergrenadier Division
  • 3rd Panzergrenadier Division
  • 5th Panzergrenadier Division
• VIII Panzer Corps
  
  • 8th Artillery Command
  • 8th Pioneer Command
  • 8th Air Defense Command
  • 8th Army Aviation Command
  • 8th Signal Command
  • 8th Maintenance Command
  • 8th Supply Command
  • 8th Medical Command
  • 9th Panzer Division
  • 11th Panzer Division
  • 15th Panzer Division
  • 10th Panzergrenadier Division
• Luftflotte 2
  
  • 1st Flieger Division
  • 2nd Flieger Division
  • 6th Luftabwehr Division

Army Group C

• VI Panzer Corps
  
  • 6th Artillery Command
  • 6th Pioneer Command
  • 6th Air Defense Command
  • 6th Army Aviation Command
  • 6th Signal Command
  • 6th Maintenance Command
  • 6th Supply Command
  • 6th Medical Command
  • 21st Panzer Division
  • 23rd Panzer Division
  • 24th Panzer Division
  • 27th Panzer Division
• IX Panzer Corps
  
  • 9th Artillery Command
  • 9th Pioneer Command
  • 9th Air Defense Command
  • 9th Army Aviation Command
  • 9th Signal Command
  • 9th Maintenance Command
  • 9th Supply Command
  • 9th Medical Command
  • 16th Panzer Division
  • 8th Panzergrenadier Division
  • 9th Panzergrenadier Division
  • 13th Panzergrenadier Division
• X Panzer Corps
  
  • 10th Artillery Command
  • 10th Pioneer Command
  • 10th Air Defense Command
  • 10th Army Aviation Command
  • 10th Signal Command
  • 10th Maintenance Command
  • 10th Supply Command
  • 10th Medical Command
  • 17th Panzer Division
  • 19th Panzer Division
  • 20th Panzer Division
  • 25th Panzer Division
• XIII Panzer Corps
  
  • 13th Artillery Command
  • 13th Pioneer Command
  • 13th Air Defense Command
  • 13th Army Aviation Command
  • 13th Signal Command
  • 13th Maintenance Command
  • 13th Supply Command
  • 13th Medical Command
  • 14th Panzer Division
  • 18th Panzer Division
  • 22nd Panzer Division
  • 19th Panzergrenadier Division
• Luftflotte 3
  
  • 5th Flieger Division
  • 6th Flieger Division
  • 3rd Luftabwehr Division

[Birina]

The Delmontese Enclave Isola Miscatone
Off the Coast of Ralkovia
The Headquarters of the Birinian Government-in-Self-Imposed-Exile
The “Bad” Conference Room

---

Arthur Miller glanced around the conference room. He took in the fluorescent lights, of both the flickering and non-flickering variety, and the chairs which were different colors and sizes. Yup. This was the bad conference room alright. As Chairman of the Windmill Committee of Birina, it was not merely Arthur’s job to act as a stand in for the author and embezzle money from his citizens. He was also in charge of the assignment, maintenance, and scheduling of conference rooms without which the complex bureaucracy that kept citizens and journalists stonewalled would fall apart. That included designing and purchasing the conference room chairs, which is why he was called Chairman. At least, that’s what he thought. And who would know better than him? He was also in charge of taxes and the military or whatever.

In his conference room-based responsibilities he had obviously been remiss given the state of the room he beheld. He gathered that there was only one good chair. Somewhere after he started contemplating where it all went wrong and before he dismissed drugs as the culprit the State Philosopher Gilbor Hofstradtman entered the conference room behind him.

As State Philosopher, the decrepit old man had a vote in the Windmill Committee. Sometimes he had more if he could convince them he did. Gilbor had been paying for sex for about thirty years now, so Arthur placed his age somewhere around eighty five. Due to the merciful unavailability of cybernetic organs, the old man would certainly expire soon.

Gilbor cleared his throat and gestured around the room with his completely normal, analog cane. It was made of something boring like wood.

“This conference room is ah-“

“I’m aware, Gilbor. I’m looking at it. Maybe it’s time to get out of here.”

“You mean end the self-imposed exile of the Birinian government and return to Birina?”

“What? God, no. I don’t want to go back there. Have you met our citizens? They’re fucking awful. And besides, the Delmontese have a level of wine production fit to keep up with my alcoholism. No, I meant we go over to the first floor conference room and kick those assholes out of there. I mean what are they even talking about?”

“The failing healthcare system.”

“See? I knew it was something stupid.”

A high brass general entered the conference room. He looked like every other general Arthur had ever seen. Arthur narrowed his eyes and extended his hand, trying to determine whether or not this man was part of the Birinian military. The general saluted. Arthur relaxed and grabbed the saluting hand and shook it.

“General Durrant reporting, sir. It’s an honor to meet with so many high ranking members of the Committee, although I wish it were under better circumstances.”

“Why? Something’s wrong?” Gilbor said.

“No, I’m just talking about the conference room, sir. It’s awful.”

“Belay that honest observation, General!” Arthur barked. He caught motion out of the corner of his eye. Gilbor was edging his way along the wall towards the good chair! That bastard. Arthur jumped forward and snatched it away from him. His brilliant political maneuver paid off and his lumbar would be supported for the foreseeable future.

“Let’s get this started.” He announced. Gilbor hobbled away in defeat, leaning on his shitty analog cane for support as he went to the other side of the table.

“Maybe some day in the distant future, we will have hydraulic canes that my descendants can use.” He sighed, “Oh, well. For now this normal pimp cane will have to do.” He eased into his chair and popped some pills he found that he hoped were opiates. “Go ahead and brief us, General.”

“Well, the various occupied zones of Ralkovia have undergone multiple terrorist attacks. By Ralkovian terrorists.”

“Wow.” Gilbor mused, “A bunch of people bomb and occupy them and they’re not even grateful! Were there any terrorist attacks on the homelands of the occupying nations?”

“Nope!”

“So, Ralkovian terrorists went into deep cover and attacked exclusively Ralkovian targets or groups occupying Ralkovia.”

“Correct.”

“Well, that’s really convenient. They’re a very accommodating terror cell, only attacking military targets and only structures on their own territory, albeit occupied.

“Yeah…” Arthur said, rubbing his chin, “It’s almost like if you only attack military targets that’s not actually terrorism. Just, yaknow, normal warfare? I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, General. Isn’t that how warfare works?”

“Well, Chairman, I got this position through a combination of bribery and nepotism, but I’m pretty sure that that’s the case.”

“Got it. Seems kind of like they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Either consent to permanent occupation or if you have the audacity to resist, get dogpiled. It’s like me asking Gilbor ‘Have you stopped beating your wife lately?’”

“Yeah, a rhetorical question, because obviously I haven’t stopped and don’t intend to.” Gilbor leaned back in the second best chair, “Do we have any information on the terror cells?”

“Yes.” Durrant replied, “Arcaenian forces managed to raid the people at the very top who were giving orders to literally all the terrorists. You might be wondering how we know that, well shut up idiot, because I’m about to tell you. Even though the base they raided was destroyed in an explosion triggered by a suicide bomber who, I guess, was waiting in his own base to set off a suicide bomb, all the SIM cards on their phones weren’t destroyed.”

“My SIM card is fucked if I take it out of the phone wrong or it gets a little mist on it… How could they survive an explo-”

“The SIM cards showed calls placed to all the other terror cells.” Durrant finished.

Arthur scratched his head. “How do they know that was all of them? Like, if you find my SIM card and it shows I’ve called 5 people, there could be more people I’m working with that I just didn’t call.”

“No, no.” the general reassured him, “It was all the terrorists. Just roll with it.”

“Alright, then. Well what we need to do is pretty clear in my opinion. We need to infiltrate Ralkovia insofar as we can with small strike teams under the guise of humanitarian assistance and destroy all windmills we encounter. Because that seems like a thing we would do. Also, we need to find and apprehend these explosion proof SIM cards.”

“It’s still me talking.” Arthur said, “Let’s initiate… Operation Dead Horse.”

In much less time than it took to have this meeting, Birinian forces began moving out from Isola Miscatone, presumably in boats or something else that would get them across the water. History books would note that they deployed so efficiently because they managed to reserve the good conference room.

[Eitoan]

As the kickoff of operations approached, logistics for Project Marble were almost entirely in place. Defensive units of the Eitoan Occupation Forces Ralkovia withdrew from the forward frontier areas, coalescing along strategic transportation routes and major cities in western Balkovia. Most of the Federal Ralkovian Self Defense Force in the area of operations followed. Construction having been completed in logistical, fueling, supply and medical stationary facilities, these were fully staffed. The massive air support construction project of enlargement of existing air bases and establishment of many new airstrips was similarly finished, staffed, tested, and populated by three Eitoan Air Force groups dedicated to the offensive.

Behind the forward area the Army’s Medical Support and Evacuation Corps established supply depots, primary, secondary and specialty hospitals, and a massive fleet of helicopters and transport for both ferrying the wounded from the battle, transport to further back in the Eitoan Occupation Zone or home to Eitoan, and rushing medics, nurses, and medicines where needed. Special Operatins Forces similarly were deployed, both in sectors expecting heavy urban warfare, and where considerations of terrain or difficult objectives demanded their presence. Also in the rear were deployments of the Uniformed Support Corps, providing construction, logistics, evacuation, and medical support to all other branches. USC provides alternative service in Eitoan for conscientious objectors, and those who cannot fulfill standard military training or assignment. Officers and NCO's are provided by the other uniformed services. Enlisted personnel do not carry weapons, NCO's may carry sidearms, and officers may be fully armed. In some cases USC units may would be attached to forces in the field, but were never the first choice for field operations. In the cities, towns and villages along the border with Regime territory civil defense was handled by Federal Ralkovian authorities, under the watchful supervision of the each occupying army of The Alliance.

In the initial hours of Project Marble those air strike fighters would savage Regime defenders at the frontier, along with a frequent barrage of surface to surface missles. These attacks in the opening hours were not at great depth, being designed to reduce resistance to the Eitoan push across the Line of Control. The air strikes would take place under cover of fleets of interdiction fighters, drawing out and destroying their Regime counterparts. Drone decoys interspersed among the fighters or in mass sorties would join the attack fleet, reducing the Regime stockpile of surface to air missiles. As the first two day of fighting wears on, Eitoan air strikes were to focus further behind the front, on communications, supply and staging areas. Close by airstrips were prominent among the targets. Special missions involving larger contingents of bombers and fighters were designed for major telecommunications complexes, power generation and supply installations, and the portside fuel storage depots in Kravak proper.

The five armored and four infantry divisions of Eitoan Force PF, flanking Arcanean Army Group A on the south faced relatively flat terrain. Similar to the Regime forces facing the Arcaneans, the Ralkovains were slightly understrength there, lightly defending the Line of Control. As PF moved west, more stalwart defense was expected in the low hills following the Mrahilyow River, likely to be thornier going for the Eitoan heavier armored vehicles. For this early part of the offensive, the infantry and lighter armor would be deployed to neutralize Ralkovian strong points, while the main thrust continued along the south bank of the Mrahilyow, where the old Imperial Ralkovian Highway connecting Urav and Bar’agul was intact and in relative good condition. Upon exiting the valley, Eitoan armor would tear due west toward Urar. South of PF the Eitoan Fourth Army of two armor and three infantry divisions would face off Ralkovian defenders on the plain south of Ba’alkobia, the best terrain close to the border for armored operations. The Fourth’s objective was similar to PF, to head toward Urar with all due speed. But the Eitoan commanders could employ fear uncertainty and doubt as a weapon. The Fourth’s proximity to heavily defended Kravak could be seen by the Regime as having that city as their prize. That was not to be. Instead, the job fell to the Eitoan Fifth Army, close by Kravak in a more concentrated battle space. The Fifth had two armored, two infantry and one airborne division, slightly more capabilities than Ralkovian defenders drawn tightly around the city. Kravak was also the home to an estimated 30,000 Ralkovian Home Guard, roughly equivalent to the Eitoan Militia, still troublesome in urban street fighting. Early planning called for the airborne to deploy early capturing the far approaches to Kravak, then rapidly redeploy on an advance assault on the massive Ralkovian airbase at Point N, closer to Urar. Disablement or capture of Point N, major repair facility for the Regime Air Force and home to about 45% of the fighter and 30% of their bomber fleets south of Tyran would cripple their defense throughout the entire theater, and give The Alliance dominance in the air.

Within Kravak itself, Federal Ralkovian intelligence had many contacts, among them a middle aged systems administrator in the city’s Emergency Services Department. A religious man, offended by the Regime’s turn away from god, the sysadmin was contacted to work with the federals through his brother in law, minor nobility similarly offended by the upstart Regime dispossession of his class. Through the FedRalk intelligence skunk works, with the assistance of Eitoan developers with knowledge of the arcane Grassav 4 operating system, an update to that operating system was scheduled for the weekend before Marble commenced. That update contained a program allowing relay of all fire and ambulance traffic to a chain of servers, including the Federal Intelligence SIGINT center in Raskovia. When the initial attacks came, the information would trace the exact location and indicate the effectiveness of the Alliance air strikes.

Meanwhile, in Vladarsik, other allies were given a vague indication of Marble’s goals. The Department of Foreign Affairs had been drawn closer to the planning recently. As events in the west heated up elsewhere, business interests in The Golden Throne, a key Eitoan partner in the Northwest Mutual Assistance Agreement (NMAA) had begun to take an interest in purchasing Ralkovian properties likely to fall under Eitoan’s control. Eitoan diplomats had raised the possibility of Federal Ralkovian admission to NMAA as an observer, but had been blocked by Emperor Fedor. But with increasing interest a bargain was in the air: Federal accession at the price of prize properties. The Eitoan military objected to such carve outs before any capture of Kravak or Urar, but the idea had gained traction at Foreign Affairs. Avoiding destruction of computer chip, heavy equipment and automotive factories still functioning in Kravak would pose a challenge, but it was becoming likely to be part of the plan as the Eitoans moved forward.

Fourth Army
16th Infantry Division
24th Infantry Division
77th Infantry Division
23rd Armored Division
100th Armored Division

Fifth Army
40th Infantry Division
73rd Infantry Division
25th Armored Division
82nd Armored Division
58th Airborne Division

Force PF
-Seventh Army
4th Infantry Division
28th Infantry Division
81st Infantry Division
55th Armored Division
88th Armored Division

-Supplementary Armor
22nd Armored Division
26th Armored Division
95th Armored Division

-Special Operations Forces
Group 5
Group 7
Group 12
Group 21

Eighth Air Force
4th Fighter Wing
83rd Fighter Wing
99th Fighter Wing
62nd Combined Group (Fighter/Special Tactics)
46th Attack Group (Bomber/Large UAV)
42nd Attack Group

Twentieth Air Force
12th Fighter Wing
14th Fighter Wing
98th Fighter Wing
2nd Combined Group
51st Attack Group
70th Attack Group

Second Air Force
13th Fighter Wing
17th Fighter Wing
15th Combined Group
97th Combined Group
81st Attack Group
93rd Attack Group

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

"Walls of stone and walls of iron,
Fall down all the same.
They may delay but don't prevent
The hail of death and pain."

Northwest of Barskav
Arcaenian occupation zone
Ralkovian Federation
0500 local time

Dawn. At 0500 local time the Arcaenian offensive was started by a 30 minute artillery bombardment of over 300,000 shells and 40,000 artillery rockets fired by 17 centimeter self propelled howitzers and 28 centimeter multiple rocket launcher systems from camouflaged and entrenched firing positions on the Arcaenian side of the border. Regime armor, artillery, and surface-to-air missile systems which had been identified by space based radar synthetic aperture radar scans were the primary targets of the bombardment and were subjected to a deluge of tens of millions of shaped charge cluster bomblets and tens of thousands of sensor fuzed submunitions while entrenched fighting positions and bunkers were bombarded with 17 centimeter delay fuzed high explosive rounds and 28 centimeter rockets with unitary penetrating warheads, the latter capable of penetrating through several meters of reinforced concrete before detonating their thermobaric fill explosive. The bombardment was accompanied by hundreds of AEJ 36 Seraph and AB 37 Spectre stealth fighter-bomber aircraft screaming overhead in the stratosphere at over mach 2, pounding Regime fortifications, artillery emplacements, command centers, and troop concentrations along the border with thousands of fuel-air explosive and cluster glide bombs. It was also during this time that the Arcaenian's, who in the weeks before the invasion enforced complete electronic silence along the border, activated their electronic warfare systems they had deployed along the border, employing EKS 270 and EKS 310 electronic warfare vehicles along with additional helicopter, aircraft, and drone based electronic warfare systems and artillery delivered expendable jammers to disrupt and degrade the Regime's radio communication systems and inhibit their ability to effectively respond to the attack.

During the the artillery bombardment the 30 frontline divisions that would spearhead the attack had moved out of their assembly area into combat formations. At 0530 the the ground units then initiated their movements to contact, the divisions deploying into brigade columns, into battalion columns, and eventually into platoon attack columns as they began to penetrate into the Regime defensive line. At this point immediately proceeding contact the Arcaenian artillery shifted to the fire support phase, supporting the advances of the leading panzer and panzergrenadier units will interlocking rolling barrages into the depth of the Regime defenses. As was typical of Arcaenian doctrine entire panzer artillery battalions would be assigned to attacking panzer and panzergrenadier companies at the spearhead of the offensive, supporting their attack with massed fires onto forward enemy positions and screening their flanks with rolling barrages of white phosphorous shells. The panzer and panzergrenadier divisions involved in the initial assault had been assigned a breakthrough sector of between 20 and 30 kilometers, a sector around half the width of its normal offensive frontage. The brunt of the breakthrough effort fell on the divisions panzer pioneer battalions who would support the leading panzer and panzergrenadier units in breaching through the multiple defensive belts the Regime had constructed across the border region. The pioneers employed their MiRpz 341 robotic assault breacher vehicles with short-range fuel-air explosive rocket artillery launchers to blast paths through the dense minefields and defensive obstacle belts that Arcaenian panzers could then advance through. Bunkers, pillboxes, and other fortified positions that had survived the artillery and air bombardment were then dealt with using the same tactics the Arcaenians had used when breaking through the Ordenite Grossman line in Krasnova and before when destroying Death Guard fortresses in the first war; deluging them with a barrage of 17 and 12 centimeter white phosphorous shells and mortar bombs to blind the defenders while StuM 383 assault guns escorted by PzKpfw 151 tanks approached to within close range and vaporized them with 38 centimeter shaped charge rockets. The breaching operations had been facilitated in part by Arcaenian Fernspäher long range reconnaissance troops who in the days before the offensive had been infiltrated several dozen or more kilometers into Regime territory both on foot and using stealthy high speed helicopters to identify and survey the fortifications that Arcaenian troops would have to to breach in the initial stage of the offensive and to locate and designate concealed Regime command posts and artillery firing positions for Arcaenian air and artillery strikes.

Breaching operations were accompanied by probing attacks across the entire frontline by panzer reconnaissance battalions organic to each panzer and panzergrenadier brigade who had been tasked with engaging and destroying Regime reconnaissance forces and making contact with the main body of Regime formations, fixing them in place while panzer and panzergrenadier units then enveloped them from one or both flanks. Screening the movements of Arcaenian armored spearheads were the AKH 80 high speed reconnaissance/attack helicopters organic to each panzer and panzergrenadier division whose missions included using cannons and short-range air to air missiles to shoot down drones and loitering munitions while attacking Regime armor and artillery units with swarms of standoff anti-tank missiles. The offensive would also mark the first massed employment of unmanned combat vehicles by the Arcaenian Army. Although they had been used on a limited basis in the Third Krasnovan War on a trials basis this war would be the first time they would be employed en masse as part of standard Arcaenian units. Each panzer and panzergrenadier brigade had been assigned a combat robot company or kampfroboterkompanie with platoons of RKpz 301 and RKpz 101 vehicles. Although their autonomy was somewhat limited and the exact doctrine for their employment had not fully established Arcaenian commanders employed them for armed reconnaissance tasks and often simply as bait, using them to draw fire from concealed Regime defensive positions so that manned armored fighting vehicles and dismounted infantry could then flank and destroy them. The weather in Ralkovia at this time of year, with temperatures that rarely rose above -10° C, was also an asset to the cold hardened Arcaenians as swamps and small rivers that would otherwise bog down heavy armored forces had completely frozen solid.

Further beyond the front line thousands of Seraphs and Spectre fighter bombers and B 80 Vampire and B 90 Wraith strategic bombers were flying sorties deep into Regime territory from hundreds of airbases in the south and the west of the Federation, pulverizing Regime airfields with hardened penetration bombs, anti-runway cluster bombs, and cruise missiles while additional escorting Seraphs sanitized the airspace of Regime aircraft and suppressed and destroyed Regime surface-to-air missile systems with standoff attacks using hypersonic anti-radiation missiles. Additional Luftwehr assets supporting the offensive included A 13 Vanguard surveillance aircraft, one of which had been assigned to each attacking Arcaenian corps which alongside its crew contained the commander of each's corps artillery command who would use the aircraft's long range surveillance sensors to direct the fire of each corp's artillery assets. The Vanguards would orbit several dozen kilometers behind the frontline under the cover of Arcaenian surface-to-air missile systems, using their enormous side-looking FMG 110 surveillance radars to scan hundred of kilometer deep into Regime territory to locate and track Regime mobile armored units and surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missile launchers behind the front line and then provide targeting information for Luftwehr strike aircraft and for Arcaenian army cannon artillery, rocket artillery, and RBS 99 ballistic missile systems who could then swiftly neutralize the detected targets with airstrikes and massed long range fires.

Code: Select all

FROM: Arcaenian Foreign Ministry
TO: Greater Díenstad Regional Council
ENCRYPTION: None

On behalf of my government and his Majesty the King of Arcaenia I am informing the Greater Díenstad Regional Council that the Ralkovian Regime and the Kingdom of Arcaenia are now in a state of war. The Ralkovian Regime, which posses the vast majority of the former Ralkovian Empire's military assets and leaders, is an illegitimate state whose continual threatening military posture and gross provocations of the peace threaten the stability of the newly established Ralkovian Federation. As such the Kingdom of Arcaenia, the Republic of Eitoan, and the Grand Theocratic Empire of the Holy Marsh have launched a military operation to destroy the Ralkovian Regime and permenantely remove it a threat to the free people of Greater Díenstad.

Signed,
-Ludvig von Würtemberg, Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Arcaenia.

---

Dikk River
0500 local time

Dozens of meters below the surface the Hydra class nuclear attack submarines of the Arcaenian Königsmarine that were operating in the Dikk River had the previous day received orders send via laser communications satellites to begin unrestricted submarine warfare operations at exactly 0500, the time of the commencement of the Arcaenian ground offensive. The submarines had spent the last several days deploying hundreds of moored influence mines and torpedo deployed mobile mines in and around Regime ports along the northeastern coast of the Dikk River, the mines set to timers that would activate them at the official commencement of hostilities the following day. In the hours before the invasion each Hydra had moved into its assigned patrol zone and begun searching for potential targets, the patrol zones of the arranged in a way that any ship that tried to pass through the Dikk to or from the Regime would have to cross through patrol zones of several Hydra class submarines, a certainly suicidal proposition. At 0445 the Hydras would also begin the aerial bombardment, firing over 500 RBS 97 hypersonic boost-glide missiles and RBS 95 supersonic cruise missiles at targets deep in the Regime whose appearance on Regime radar screens would coincide with the commencement of the Arcaenian artillery barrage and air strikes. In the skies above S 7 Proteus aircraft escorted by additional AEJ 36 Seraphs patrolled the river, using their long range side looking FMG 160 radars to survey traffic through the river and attacking Regime shipping with RBS 110 air launched supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles.

Code: Select all

FROM: Arcaenian Ministry of War
TO: To whom it may concern
ENCRYPTION: None

 The Dikk river running from the Bay of Chains to the coast of the Ralkovian Regime hereby is hereby declared to be an active war zone. Every Ralkovian Regime vessel, submarine, or aircraft encountered in this zone will be subject to immediate attack without warning. Any other naval or merchant vessel or aircraft civilian or military operating in the river in support of the Regime will also be treated as hostile as subjected to attack. Although Arcaenian combat units have instructions to avoid attacking neutral ships and merchant marine vessels the safety of any neutral vessel in Dikk waters can not be guaranteed, as such it is advisable for all neutral ships to avoid entering this area.




[Eitoan]

Line of Control
Federal - Regime Frontier
Eitoan Occupatoion Zone



Air operations in the Eitoan sector commenced nine hours before mission launch on the ground for Project Marble, at 2100 hours the preceding day. The actual ground offensive in the sector, scheduled at most points along the Regime-Federation frontier initiated at 0600 local time, an hour’s delay from the Arcanean action. In the air, building gradually from low level volumes the initial assault was comprised mostly of surveillance and guidance drones. Alone or in swarms, often below radar detection, the cheap UAVs provided more precise targeting for artillery strikes on forward Regime positions and military traffic flows, relaying the vital information to Eitoan field commands. Components of this part of the air attack included the micro responding AS-1011, flying close to the ground in the two-to-five-mile range, and the more sophisticated, stealthy Dragonfly X2, covering a wide range of enemy military communications in both the radio and cyber spheres. Also in the opening hours Eitoan aircraft attacked selected Regime airbases to a depth of 450 miles behind the Line of Control, estimating that distance as the limit of effective stealth before Regime fighters further west could be informed and airborne. The Eitoan volume ramped up in the air in the first two hours and many flights of decoy air strike fighters launched to draw out and deplete SAM batteries near the front. This too flushed out Regime positions, enabling their targeting and destruction by subsequent artillery fire or air strikes. Starting at approximately 0030, Eitoan air strike fighters began missions against first line Regime positions, including embedded armor and artillery assets. Most of the first sorties were at minimal depth, a tactic of “get in, get it done, and get out” to avoid undue losses to responding Regime aircraft.

Closer to 0600, more heavily armed, larger Eitoan formations struck with greater depth at Regime targets. More heavily protected in those early hours by F-36c and F-36d air superiority fighters, these attacks targeted near front infantry staging areas. Flights were shorter, with faster turnaround time for aircraft nearest Kravak, a target rich area, more distant further north. Identifiable armor emplacements and staging and repair facilities at near-front depths were also targets in this phase, victims of A-51 Shark attack aircraft and both laser guided bomb systems and unguided rockets. Also, where detected supply depots were prime targets, similarly, raided by the A-51s and protected by the F-36s

As initial air assault continued, and the Regime mounted it’s expected response, small groups of fast F-36a fighters baited a response closer to Regime air bases, followed by bigger groups of the F-36c and ds, drawing out and engaging much of the Regime capability in the early hours. Most of the F-36c flights had recently been upgraded with OTR’s Finley active phased array radar system, recently approved as standard by the Northwest Mutual Assistance Agreement. All Eitoan pilots in the F36 series employed the most current Visor Display System, simplified after experience in the Third Krasnovian War. Most were equipped with eight air to air missiles, an improvement also from that war, owing mostly to reduced payload weight. As the attack continued into the morning, larger swarms of F-36a and A-51s emerged form more intense attacks.

With the Eitoan crossing of the line of control the Air Force maintained support for ground operations but added the dimension of targeting strategic opportunities in the sector. This involved larger formations requiring more complex planning. Particularly large raids were staged on the old RalkoTel operations center west of Bar’agul, as yet unhardened, and the fuel storage tanks in the West Docklands neighborhood of Kravak. The West Docklands attack was especially heavy, drawing a vigorous response and lasting for seventy minutes. The volume kept up during that initial day, with the objective of depleting enemy aircraft. And air strikes in support of the attack on the ground escalated as the initial battles began.

At 0600, north of Bar’agul the Eitoan army initiated probing attacks by small infantry units, mostly in forested areas off secondary highways and minor roads. Where defending armor was suspected, those units were equipped with antitank weapons. Most of these attacks were in platoon strength. In some towns close to the Line of Control Eitoan forces moved forward cautiously nudge the Regime forces away from strong points. In most cases, where there was significant opposition the Eitoans held where possible and requested assistance, in the form of air strikes where the regime was out of range of their weapons, or heavier weapons or armor where they were proximate to an important objective. As information became available through cyber, areal or ground observation, formations massed to exploit weak points in the Regime defense, particularly along the axis of attack, the  Mrahilyow River valley and the parallel old Imperial roads and rail right of way connecting the Dikk Riven with Balkovia. There were many known strongpoints in Regime territory in the surrounding hills. In some cases, the defenses in front of them were well manned, in some cases not. Most of these early moves comprised of movement to contact. The goal of a movement to contact is to make initial contact with a small element while retaining enough combat power to develop the situation and mitigate the associated risk. Where possible, favorable conditions for subsequent tactical actions were established. In those early hours the enemy situation was vague and not specific enough to conduct an attack. As follow through, commanders in the field decided which opportunities were ripest for attack, and which formations were to be bypassed. In general, where significant Regime forces were found with a good possibility of reduction of capabilities, the Eitoans opted to engage rather than bypass. Although the approach would provide for a slower advance, the reduction in enemy capacity was thought to pay off in terms of lower chances for a counterattack and elimination of force that could be applied later in the campaign. The Eitoans in this part of the sector included a large commitment of armor. Given the hilly terrain facing them, a large component of the initial Eitoan advance included larger caliber tank guns on light weigh platforms. This was a calculated risk but given the higher grades in the area a necessary one for effective attack. These battle tank’s frontal armor array could withstand fire from 105mm ammunition but was less effective against 120mm ammunition. While less useful in a hunter-killer role, these platforms were adequate for infantry support in those opening days. Advanced tanks were available, but in reserve for use in subsequent engagement closer to major transportation corridors. Once lead units were able to clear the approaches to those highways, and where opposing armor was identified, the heavier, modern tanks were an important element of the attack. Attacks along the axis of advance were generally deliberate and commenced for the most part after situation assessment. This required the attack commanders know at least part of an enemy’s dispositions. This knowledge enabled commanders to better synchronize and employ combat power, including employment of artillery for the most part. Away from the main axis of advance the engage or bypass decision was trickier, and in most cases where engagement was chosen there was a greater dependency on air support in lieu of heavier armor or artillery away from the main transportation routes.

South of Bar’agul two Eitoan armies, the Fourth and the Fifth massed for the push into Regime territory. Much of the terrain was open, flatter, the westward extent of the Balkovian Plain. Although lined with many small creeks and streams, no great river presented a major challenge to movement, either for the attackers or defenders. Dotted with towns and villages, the area was a productive soybean and wheat producer before the war, now struggling to regain it’s previous status. Both sides of the Line of Control were cleared to a depth of fifteen miles for the most part after the end of hostilities, clearing the path for defensive fortification and facilities. The road network on both sides had been improved continuously since that time, in order to support military traffic. On both sides major and minor roads followed a grid pattern for the most part. On the Federal side the highway from Kravak to Ba’alkobia, now severed at the Line of Control was in good shape, mostly due to the massive reduction of traffic. The same was true for the Kravak-Barv highway. The reduction in civilian traffic worked to the advantage of the Eitoans. Deployment of men and material in along these routes, while hardly stealth, was efficient. Here there were fewer restrictions in the use of armor than further north. The lightweight platform of choice for infantry support and rapid thrusts was the FTS-3. The FTS-3 has a crew of two, armed with an auto-loading 120 mm main gun, two .50 caliber machine gun, and a 40 mm automatic grenade launcher. It provides precision fire at a rapid rate and can destroy multiple targets at standoff ranges quickly. In early engagements in the south, it was to be used to provide direct support to the dismounted infantry in an assault, defeating bunkers, and breaching walls during tactical assaults. It’s heavier, more heavily armored compliment the FTS-4 supports the H-22 Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) 155 mm howitzer, a successor to the M109 howitzer. The howitzer has the ability to switch shell types quickly on a one-by-one basis allowing an illumination round to be followed by a point detonation round, to be followed by an area-effect round. This gives the system the ability to fire different rounds as required by different fire calls or to change types of shells. For instance, destroying a building then engaging anyone fleeing the area with the next round. The rate of fire in the proposed system enables more rounds sent downrange in a given amount of time, allowing more firepower per system than available with the previous systems. Another capability is multiple rounds simultaneous impact (MRSI) where the cannon fires a sequence of several rounds at different trajectories such that the rounds all hit the same target at the same time, resulting in little or no reaction time for the enemy to adjust its position. Infantry in the south included support of multiple types of missions. Urban warfare was expected in the towns, and in Kravak itself. An airborne division was included, both for use in securing the far approaches to Kravak, and for a deep, rapid thrust toward Urar later in Project Marble. The quality of the forces facing the Eitoans were known a little better here. Kravak itself was ringed with defensive lines and invested with a significant force of the Regime’s Home Guard. Veteran tankers and several brigades of the Death Guard were present in this theater too. Weather in the south was cold, as was the case further north. The open terrain, and winds off the lake provided the additional problem of lake effect snow, good for defense, but troublesome to any Eitoan advance.

The toughest part or the attack was expected along The Slant, the horizontal part of the Line of Control north of Kravak. The Regime held the high ground, a series of ridges and low hills overlooking Kravak. The Slant was heavily mined on both sides of the line, tricky going for the Eitoans. Eitoan forces had available the latest, inexpensive R422 Demining Robot, useful for the older Ralkovian mines, but less so for their newer, quieter models. Here the transportation network was dense, connecting villages and the Kravak exurbs five miles across the line. Many of the abandoned factories and warehouses close to the line had been converted to strongpoints by the Regime. On the Federal side, civilians had been evacuated from towns close to the line for a month, and road and rail connections along the lake shore from Kravak to Barv were open and in good condition for the positioning of troops and equipment. This was also true north of The Slant. Although there was little strategic depth for the defenders, armor and experienced infantry, and much heavy artillery were deployed for the defense. A spirited fight was expected in the Kravak suburbs into the city center. The lake itself did not present a major battlefront. The regime maintained a small fleet of lake frigates, facing about one third as many under the command of the Federal Navy. The Eitoans had provided no navy on the lake, having turned over all assets there that they seized over to Federal control. The Eitoan Army did, however, obtain a contingency fleet of cargo ships, to be used for amphibious landings. Ralkovian routes westward on land were in good shape, and traffic cleared for the supply and reinforcement against the anticipated attack. Eitoan intelligence studied Regime preparations for evacuation of Kravak as the kickoff neared, so as to reduce the chances of significant salvage of forces for use by the Regime further west. The Eitoan strategy envisioned three components. Combined armor and infantry, with heavy rocket and artillery support formed a facing force at The Slant. Further west, more armor dependent, a flanking force would move forward, with the objective of separating Regime armor from supply closer to Kravak, and to take the northwest approaches to the city. It was expected that the push into the city itself would come here. Finally, provision was made for exploitation of opportunities as they developed, mostly the airborne and other light infantry. It was hoped that this could be used to advance rapidly past Kravak, toward strategic objectives closer to Urar.

Further back, in Belovo in the far southeast corner of Federal Ralkovia, the Project Marble command center hummed with activity around the clock. Shift supervisors at the main control, the analysis section, and the individual sections for the Eitoan Army, Air Force and Joint Military Intelligence Service kept a close watch throughout that first day. General Lawrence Reitz, Project Marble commander held fast at main control for most of the day, catching a cat nap in his office intermittently. All personnel at the headquarters were remanded to base until further notice. Arcanean and Marshite liason had been present on base in freshly painted quarters for two weeks, their leaders similarly glued to the project command center. Similarly, in Vladarsik at the Randy Braswell Barracks the Eitoan High Command remained at their post throughout that first day, and the day afterward.

Eitoan and Federal intelligence had been particularly busy in the run up to Marble. Field intelligence intensified, both along the Line of Control and in Kravak. Road workers and truckers in Regime territory, Eitoan agents sent encrypted messages about defense deployments and munitions shipments, sometimes operating in unlikely locations such as bars or high school basketball games. Usually, assignments lasted for one week before they were shuffled off to the north, avoiding a trail of evidence. Defectors from the Regime were hustled across the Line of Control, some ranking as high as Major. Federal and Eitoan intelligence enticed some by family connections on the Federal side, some through disgruntlement with the atheistic and anti-nobility thrust of recent Regime policy, and some through outright bribery. The information thus obtained was invaluable in the early phases of the attack. And within Kravak itself teamsters and dock workers, many of them ethnic Balkovians, provided a ready source of information about the city’s defenses.

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

RALKOVIAN THEATRE

Ralkovian Front
Southern Regime Ralkovia

In the north the offensive of Army Group B faced the least resistance, with the Regime front lines defended by largely understrength and second rate units that offered stubborn but uncoordinated resistance. The Arcaenian assault consisted of spoiling offensive in the general direction of Haraxby by the VII and VIII Panzer Corps which was intended to divert Regime's reserves away from the offensives in the south. By the end of the day the leading elements of the VII Panzer Corps had penetrated some 80 kilometers into regime territory along a 120 km wide front to the outskirts of the city of Bargon where much to the chagrin of their officers they were ordered to halt in order to avoid overstretching their offensive and to permit rear area logistics units to keep up with the advance. Army Group B's II Fallschirmjäger Corps also had the objective of screening the right flank of the Arcaenian advance and capturing key bridge crossings before retreating Regime forces could cross and destroy them. In what was the largest heliborne operation in Arcaenian history at this point several hundred TH 90 medium lift and TH 97 heavy lift compound helicopters escorted by several battalions of AKH 80 attack helicopters had ferried elements of several Fallschirmjäger brigades over 200 kilometers into Regime territory with the objective seizing crossings across the strategic Mrahilyow River.

In the center Army Group C faced stiffer Regime resistance with large numbers of fortifications along with rocky and hilly terrain that further impeding the rate of the Arcaenian advance. Nevertheless Army Group C had made good progress the first day, it's frontline divisions advancing some 50 kilometers into Regime territory across a front over 200 kilometers wide with its VI Panzer Corps and IX Panzer Corps capturing the towns of Gabarban and Robarat northeast of the city of Barat while the X Panzer Corps had reached the town of Kibarban to the south, threating an enormous pincer encirclement of several Regime armies which defended the city. In this sector that Regime had occupied a defensive line across the front from Bar'agul to Barkav that included the remains of several death guard fortresses that had been left over from the first war. Regime defensive positions along the line were attacked with small fixing forces to pin the defenders while panzer and panzergreandier units broke through and enveloped them from both flanks with support from overwhelming amounts of massed artillery fire and fighter-bomber strikes. Progress was slow and methodical, with large pockets of Regime defenders that would have to be systematically reduced and wiped out in the upcoming days.

In the south Army Group B had in the first day advanced some 60 kilometers across a 180 kilometer front, it's I and III Panzer Corps reaching to an area east of former Balkovian city of Barak in the face of fierce but largely uncoordinated counterattacks by elements of several Regime Armies. Further South the IV Panzer Corps attacked along the right flank of the Eitoan offensive north of Bar’agul and had advanced to an area south of Barakov against against strong resistance from Regime units that seemed to have overcome the initial shock of the advance. Nevertheless the forward elements of some 12 to 15 Regime divisions had been badly mauled during the advance, retreating east past Barakov where they would seek to establish defensive positions and defend the City from the Arcaenian offensive.

In general the Arcaenians were satisfied with the progress of the first day. The Luftwehr had gained almost complete air supremacy with the Regime's air bases obliterated by massed strategic bomber raids and its fleet of aircraft, essentially the few Ralkovian Empire aircraft that had been left over from the first war, blown up inside their hangars. Tactical strikes by the Luftwehr fighter bombers had also been decisive in the initial phases of the attack, obliterating Regime strongpoints and interdicting retreating columns of Regime mechanized forces. The logistics situation was for the time being satisfactory, with railroads that functioned surprisingly well given the conditions and Arcaenian units operating off supplies from forward depots constructed along the border before the attack. Regime units along the front fought stubbornly, yet the overwhelming firepower advantage of the Arcaenians and their dominance of the air would break whatever ability the Regime had to withstand the onslaught. At the current rate of advance Bargon, Barak and Barakov would fall within the week, where after Kravak fell to the Eitoans the Arcaenians could then drive to Urar and bisect the Regime and complete the total encirclement of the Regime forces in the the former Balkovian territory of the Regime.

Project Marble Headquarters
Eitoan Occupation Zone
Federal Ralkovia

At the Project Marble headquarters building the Arcaenians had established their own liaison office which oversaw the coordination of the Eitoan and Arcaenian military operations. As a member of the Triumvirate, the largest military alliance in central Dienstad, Arcaenians were at this point fairly accustomed to conducting operations with other militaries. Intelligence sharing had been the biggest point of emphasis with the Eitoans benefitting from Arcaenia's extensive strategic signals and electronics intelligence collection capability while the Arcaenians employed the Eitoan's large intelligence network in the Regime to support the advance of their forces with partisan operations and hourly intelligence reports on the state of Regime movements behind the front. Operations during the first day were a state of pure chaos with an overwhelming flood of radio and signals intercepts, decrypted Regime transmissions, and reports from agents operating inside the Regime that the liaison office had to process before passing on either Arcaenian or Eitoan military commands and military intelligence services. Nevertheless the intelligence was critical to the initial success of the operation, with information supplied largely by defectors from the Regime that included accurate force dispositions of Regime units that would be deployed to defend against the invasion that Arcaenian field commanders had used alongside space and aircraft based electronic and photographic reconnaissance to plan the location of their initial thrusts.

[Eitoan]

In the far south, the bulk of the Eitoan Fifth Army pushed off to the west of The Slant, bypassing the impassable, forbidding landscape blocking the direct path to Kravak. On that first day the infantry advancing immediately west of The Slant’s western endpoint was highly successful, obtaining an unexpected advance of thirty to forty miles through the patchwork of towns, villages, and open farmland. Airborne assault by groups of five to seven large D’var-K2 helicopters succeeded in capturing key points along the route of attack, securing key bridges and clearing Regime strong points ahead of the main Eitoan attack. Although the overall results were good by the end of day, it was not without cost. Bitter midday fighting yielded the crucial intersection of route C-94 and The Sonozeh Highway, north of the town of Tolyaurapol. The Eitoan Fifth suffered 26 dead, 35 injured there. Regime defenders lost 103, with an estimated 51 wounded before the Eitoans finally took it, leaving Tolyauranpol defenseless. An estimated 15 civilians were lost in the fighting there. On a wider arch, the Fifth’s armor, following closely along the Korakrassk Road corridor was engaged by heavy resistance from both Regime armor, antitank weapons, and sporadic air attack from aircraft still operating from bases west of Kravak that had escaped the early Eitoan and Arcanean onslaught. The Eitoan advance there bogged down seven to twelve miles from starting point, ending the day on a line running through the villages of Lipercraw and Moisherkino.

The Eitoan Fourth Army found resistance as expected early in the day. Infantry led the way in the Fourth’s attack, pushing back Regime defenders from vantage points and calling in air support to dispose of dug in armor. The Fourth ran into a bit of luck. At 1100, an advance scouting patrol detected an unexpected gap in Regime armor as the enemy responded to the Eitoan Fifth, and started repositioning forces for the defense of Kravak. The information was quickly relayed up the chain of command, and Eitoan ground, drone and overhead intelligence confirmed the movement away from the Fourth to face the Fifth’s onslaught. Alerted to the news at Project Marble headquarters in Belovo, General Reitz ordered the 100th Armored Division to exploit the opportunity. As soon as could be deployed, the 100th poured through the 17 mile gap, severing the city of Ohel Sharon and the two Regime divisions north of it from the main resupply route, and endangering their means of retreat. The 100th’s success continued the next day, advancing 35 miles. Overnight and into the third day, they captured the towns of Roslakhnaly and Norravluk twelve miles further.

Otherwise on the second day the Regime forces facing the Fourth executed an orderly retreat, although with the loss of the armored division lost in the pull back toward Kravak on the first day. To the south, the Fifth Army’s progress slowed in the face of determined resistance to it’s move enveloping Kravak.

Force PF in the north, adjacent to the Arcanean IV Panzer Corps, found progress as expected. Fighting was generally light as the Eitoans moved into the hills with probing attacks leading the way. The Regime re positioned in an orderly manner in the face of the attack, following a classic defense, moving toward greater concentrations of artillery and missile coverage deeper in their territory. More sparsely settled in this sector, both sides’ movements were less hampered by civilian population centers and traffic. In the face of increasingly successful air strikes, Ralkovian air defenses fell silent, their supplies dwindling, and soon were abandoned in the initial engagement zone. Alliance air superiority was firmly established by dawn on the second day, allowing for much greater air support where resistance was mounted. The armor advance here was moderately successful, progressing along Routes 820, 46, B-46 and 31. Supply, repair and fueling transport benefited from the clearance of Regime advance positions and Alliance control of the air, and logistics ran smoothly for the Eitoan armor. By the end of the second day the infantry had taken all objectives, progressing 25 miles along the front, and capturing the key villages of Velamara, Boradonye, El Alar and Zahav Shellat.

The following two days saw Force PF facing stiff resistance from one Mechanized Infantry and one Armored division. These Regime assets skillfully defended a key objective, positions before the first Mrahilyow bridge capable of carrying the heavy Eitoan FTS-4 tank. Adjustments were made on the battlefield, delaying other Eitoan operations before the Regime and calling up additional antitank units and hardware to clear the problem. They were met with stubborn resistance from Regime defenders, among the a battalion of Death Guard. But the defenders eventually were overcome by Eitoan air strikes. The Eitoans faced no air strikes from the Regime, the air war in this sector and further north having been extremely successful. Elsewhere in the north some Eitoan successes exceeded their support. The city of Spudranup on the main highway northwest of Bar’agul had fallen without a fight in the early hours of the first day. But as Regime forces regrouped in the area, the always inventive and resourceful Colonel Ben Anatoli rallied disparate units, surprised an Eitoan armored column passing through and retook the town for 48 hours. Elsewhere, the Regime continued it’s orderly retreat toward Urar, with stiffening resistance to the advancing Eitoans.

As information poured in to Project Marble headquarters, it became apparent that the fight for Kravak needed attention. The success in the air worked to the Eitoans advantage. Initial plans for Marble called for a rapid advance by the Fifth Army, bypassing Kravak and taking the massive Regime air base at Point N, closer to Urar. With air superiority becoming apparent in the first days, the importance of that distant objective waned. The risks for advance airborne assault ahead of Point N were high. The Eitoan 58th Airborne Division, attached to the Fifth Army could be used to take the far approaches to Kravak, closer to the main advance and of more immediate advantage. The key for the Fifth was to battle through closer to the ring highways circumscribing the city itself, where objectives taken by the 58th would be in close striking range of the main force. As the fourth day approached, the main force of the Fifth Army was not yet in a position to take advantage of an airborne assault. The Fifth would have to gain Route C-49 and nearby roads, hampering Regime mobility just outside the city and poising the threat of a breakthrough into Kravak. On the positive side, Regime redeployment of armor following the Fourth Army’s breakthrough was causing traffic problems in their ranks, delaying their moves to designated points. Although fighting was intense, Ralkovian defenders were uncertain if the Eitoan Fourth Army would pivot toward Kravak, or continue an advance toward Point N. The Fourth, spearheaded by the 100th Armored Division continued westward at all due speed, passing the vicinity of Kravak, but followed by additional infantry and armor. Meanwhile, the Eitoan raid on the fuel storage tanks in Kravak’s West Docklands was taking it’s toll on Regime planning. Although still putting up stiff resistance to the Fifth Army, Regime armor began a withdrawal west of Kravak, on the fourth day, avoiding the outer roads north of the city which were close to the fighting, instead passing through major highways in Kravak. The thought was to redeploy closer to fuel depots west of the city, and possibly mass for a counterattack to cut off the Eitoans in the event they took Kravak. Their plan had merit, but was risky for the Ralkovians. Regime armor was thus caught up in a guessing game with the rapidly advancing Eitoan Fourth; remain in the lakeside territory for a push against the Fifth, or follow the Fourth to defend Point N, and, ultimately, Urar? Within Kravak itself, martial law had been declared a week before the attack, enforced with ruthless brutality. Businesses and housing was now commandeered in preparation for an Eitoan move into the city, the homeless encamping in parks, schools, and the Kravak subway. Eitoan and Federal intelligence operatives in the city stepped up surveillance of these moves, the information transmitted to Belovo, as special units of the Fifth’s infantry prepared for a push into Kravak, and the inevitable urban warfare that would follow.

[Andrenade]

Ralkovian Front
Southern Regime, Ralkovia

A news team from Andrenade's warzone journal segment Checkpoint. Sporting Blue Helmets and Vests, they venture the lines. Getting close to various peoples as possible before getting turned away. Upon a scenic opening, Monica went live.

"Good morning, Kenosia! This is Monica Sanz, leading coverage anchor, today pointing at an uneasy ceasefire in this partitioned Ralkovia. Had to one-up my 3600 Seconds concerning an example of modern indentureship and its jarring similarities to standard incarceration. I haven't seen this much tension since my piece on the DMZ during the Zellatian Civil War a few years back.

A faint scoff could be heard from the cameraman, but before she could scold him, her train of thought was interrupted by numerous bright lights in the Horizon towards the "Greater Dienstad Aggressor Alliance", as many referred to them as. She had a gut feeling something bad but gave into her wanderlust for strife and asked for coverage.

"Turn that cam to the sky. What's that?

Several Hours Later

Under a gap in the rubble of a large structure, Monica lay on the fabric of what was possibly a lounge couch, across a late member of her security detail, whom sat cold from succumbing to hypovolemic shock and his burns. His lifeless brown eyes stared stout, vigilant to the very last moment. She struggled to breathe through her debris-caked gas mask, but pressed on, holding the camera from her head cameraman to herself like a heavy puppy. She was dirty, pale, but remained dignified in pose in the face of dire adversity.

"Check, check. Hello again. I am safe for now, and alone. But, that's okay. The love and support from my viewers will carry me through. I'm sorry if some of the content will be more graphic than usual, but you all deserve to know what's been happening no matter what. It wouldn't be Checkpoint.


Ralkovian Front
Southern Regime Ralkovia
DCSE-UDA 1 Reliquary" Center for Directorate Expeditionary Security, Forward Activities Unit"

Embedded yet neutral to the Regime to the were a contingent of Officers, whom, like the few other teams, were asked to perform SIGINT and HUMINT duties the old fashioned way, with discreet markers having been emplaced throughout the lines and simple interactions with locals. A secluded subterranean area offered cover and allowed them to remain operational through the siege. Despite the stringent RoE, they were put in a vague situation where things may have happened for them to survive as long as they have. Now fully enveloped by GDAA forces, The whereabouts of Ossuary and Crypt remain unknown. Being put in a difficult situation, a casus foederis rose amongst whatever surviving regime forces were in the area, lest they wanted to cede to an infamous force.

A friendly QRF, named Corvid, exists beyond enemy lines, yet their last instruction was to standby but otherwise ensure the continued shipments of hardware via hired hands' fleet of narco subs. It was a miniscule trickle but anything in mass would require the routing of the GDAA's southern fleet, which wasn't currently feasible.

Having received Monica's whereabouts through a brief verbal and visual update on his satellite phone, UDA leader Terrier of Reliquary was forced with a difficult decision of either remaining in place and let Monica fall to the hands of a heartless enemy or extract her and possibly induce a political crisis. He figured she would be the Crypt and Ossuary's most likely rally point. but it was likely that the GDAA would send operatives of their own with the slight possibility of them being friends from years past. Neutralization comes before reconciliation.


QRF-Corvid

The QRF’s OIC, known as “Corvid” himself, approached the Mokan mercenary leader with news regarding the journalist and the lost UDA teams with a contained urgency.

“I want to run the prospects of a possible rescue mission by your warriors first. It’s your call if they participate”


Major Martin Rey nodded, accepting that they could take on the work. He'd have to forward the after action report to the head honcho, Allen Carpethia, back at command, but that was part of getting paid for fighting. Like most mercenaries from Eastern Military Deployments, he was from the People's Unified Federation, but decided to strike it rich as a gun for hire. Turns out there were lots of places that needed soldiers more than they needed gold.

This rescue operation would likely be the unit's first round of combat in Ralkovia. Although his small company of soldiers were far from green. For example, Martin had started as a PUF soldier during the Drug war, and he managed to join the special forces for the Department of Pharmacy and Controlled Substances. After knocking over a few narco bases, military occupation ended and he eventually joined Eastern Military Deployments. There he fought in Krasnova against the Ordenites, until that war went nuclear. Lots of covert work in that frozen wasteland. After a few years off odd jobs, EMD finally landed a major contract in Ralkovia, and he could finally put his skills to work again.

"What's the plan and what do we need?"

Being as this wasn’t some overthought plan, but a contingency, Corvid Actual found slight amusement from Martin’s response. Regardless, he trusted the EMD’s combat prowess and ability to function without rigid micromanagement.

“We will use our speed, firepower, and low signature of our technicals to thunder run through any security forces, to the location of the survivors of the opening barrage, once they've designated a preferred rally point. This would be somewhere near Kravak. This should be doable on a tank of gas.”

“Disengagement criteria is any contact with any armored force of more than six and-or a flight of any aircraft.

“Support will be limited to intermittent ISR and temporary contention of airspace, if they decide to throw fast movers our way. Localized SEAD, PGMs, and SRBMs will be available on an equally limited basis as well. Definitely enough to get their attention, which is why this should remain an extraction and not an interdiction.


“Seeing that we are the QRF, no one is coming to help except any Ralkovians that want to rebel against their occupiers. Assistance from KENFOR is pending, but I wouldn’t count on it.”

“An additional complication comes from the knowledge that there is an influential celebrity journalist that wound up in this hellhole. She is a whole briefing within herself. I will provide a dossier after this.Needless to say, we need to get to her before those sadists do.”

“As for what we need…we need continued discretion. We are assumed to be Ralkovian militants, unless compromised.”

“Any questions?”

"Might be fun to call in SRBM on a target. None yet, I'll get 2nd Platoon ready for deployment. That's 24 men, including 6 marksmen, 6 grenadiers, 2 LMGs and one anti-air, just in case. Hopefully they won't need all of that.

If you think more firepower is required, 4th Platoon has half the marksmen, but adds two Anti Tank RPGs. We can also bring an Anti Tank squad. 3 more RPGs but 8 more men. How much firepower do you want?"

Major Martin Rey was a little hesitant to be working with the press. They always had an agenda, and had no problem stabbing you in the back even if you saved their ass. Mercenary work was easy, free from the confusion of politics and policy. Fight someone, get paid. The press brought all that back. Hopefully they could remain hidden as "local rebels" and avoid any unnecessary camera exposure.

“All of them”

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

RALKOVIAN THEATRE

OHL Command Bunker
Northwest of Barskav
Federal Ralkovia
7 days since X-day

Generalfeldmarschall Heinrich von Eberstein, Commander-in-Chief of the Arcaenian Army and the supreme commander of all Arcaenian forces in Ralkovia, was often compared to a shark by his subordinates. He was an utterly ruthless and implacable man who acted as if all aspects of his personality not directly contributing to the diligent execution of his duties as a military commander had been burned away by eons of evolution. His face bore an "iron mask", a visage that seemed to bore a permanent calm but severe expression. The architect of most of the Arcaenian Army's modern tactical doctrine, organization, and training system Eberstein had molded the Arcaenian Army into the modern fighting force that had successfully fought under his command in the recent Ralkovian and Kransovan wars. As an officer Eberstein combined a competent strategic mind with a supreme tactical and operational genius and excelled at commanding and coordinating combined arms forces in highly fluid and chaotic battlefields.

As supreme commander of the Arcaenian forces in Ralkovia Eberstein was responsible for overseeing the entire Arcaenian war effort and coordinating the maneuvers of the three Army Groups that had been assigned to offensive operations against the Ralkovian Regime. So far Eberstein's Army Groups had performed as expected, pushing the Regme's forces back on all fronts. Casualty rates so far had been in line with the loss rate experienced during the Fourth Krasnovan War and during the first Ralkovian War with around 14,400 casualties including some 2,400 KIA during the first week of the offensive. As expected the Regime had changed its tactics from the mass assault tactics employed by the Ralkovians in the first war, choosing to fight from camouflaged and fortified defensive positions arranged in depth in urban area and other close terrain where the overwhelming Arcaenian advantage in airpower and artillery would be less decisive. The Regime had also avoided expending its remaining manpower in suicidal mass counterattacks, instead conducting local counterattacks and delaying actions in the face of the Arcaenian offensives. Nevertheless the Arcaenians continued to surge forward, pushing west to the coast through the territory of former Balkovia and threatening to sever the Regime's territory in two and trap its southern forces in an enormous envelopment.

Meeting with Eberstein at an Army command train in Ralkovia to discuss the progress of the invasion were Generaloberst Ernst Linder, the Chief of Staff of the Arcaenian Army High Command (OHL), the commanders of the three Arcaenian Army Groups including Generaloberst Erik Frisell, Commander of Arcaenian Army Group A, Generaloberst Gustav von der Goltz, Commander of Arcaenian Army Group B, and Generaloberst Carl Wrangel, Commander of Arcaenian Army Group C, along with the chiefs of staff of each Army Group and officers from the operations, intelligence, and supply branches of the Army General Staff. The meeting would cover recent intelligence information, organizational matters, and tactical and logistical problems on the theater and army group level. Eberstein spoke first, starting with a speech that aimed to summarize the current situation.

"Adequate progress has been made on all fronts of the offensive. In the North Army Group B's VII Panzer Corps has captured Bargon after a hard fought battle. At the same time the VIII Panzer Corps have driven a wedge across the river Mrahilyow River using crossings captured by the II Fallschirmjäger Corps. The XV Gebirgsjäger Corps has linked up with the Marshite forces on their western flank. In the center Army Group C's VI Panzer Corps and IX Panzer Corps has advanced to the Mrahilyow and taken Gabarban and Robarat while the X Panzer Corps has taken Kibarban, trapping several Regime armies in a pocket around the city Barat. The Regime defenders have constructed three concentric defensive lines around the city which our forces are expected to breach in the next several days before taking the City and liquidating the majority of the Regime's forces in the center. In the South the corridor from Barak to Barakov has largely been cleared of Regime forces while Army Group B's I, III, and IV Panzer Corps advance on the city of Barakov, with the Regime withdrawing its remaining forces to defend the city. Furth south the Eitoans have made good progress and will soon have Kravak encircled. And yet every man listening is aware that the Regime's army is far from collapse and will continue to offer stiff resistance for the foreseable future. Now the colonel will brief us on the current intelligence situation"

Colonel Gunnar Karlson, head of the OHL's Information Division, spoke next on the strategic and tactical state of the Regime's forces.

"We believe that of the 140 to 160 divisions the regime had available before the war only 25 to 40 percent are currently capable of combat operations. Heavy regime casualties have forced them disband an additional 15 divisions to bolster their strategic reserve. While their forces in the east fall the Regime has been reconstituting and regrouping its eastern forces and making preparations to defend Urar and Haraxby. As such the destruction of the remaining Regime forces holding out in the west over the next several days to prevent them from consolidating their positions in the west will be of the utmost importance."

"With the Regime's strength decreasing and their inability to replace losses it is in our interest to continue the offensive at full speed towards the coast" Added Eberstein, who like virtually all Arcaenian officers believed in the supreme power of the offensive and only the offensive to decisively win wars. "How is our logistic situation doing" he then asked while turning to face Edvard von Lewinski, the quartermaster-general of the Army and the chief of the OHL's Army Logistics branch

"Our logistical preparations before the invasion appeared to have been adequate" replied Lewinski who as quartermaster general served as the supreme logistician of the Arcaenian Army. "Current supply consumption of all units is approximately 168,000 tonnes per day which is within our current supply throughput capacity. Most of the major rail lines and roadways in the region run east-west which has allowed our units to advance parallel to major supply routes. The push north in the second phase of the operation will be more difficult as the only major railways and highways run along the coast from Urar to Haraxy. Further inland is mainly marsh and swamplands and will be a burden to push through when warmer weather arrives"

"Which is why the immediate destruction of the Regime's remaining forces is of the utter importance. If they are allowed to retreat in mass to the northwest and consolidate their defenses they will make this war much harder for us" added Ebertsein, adding additional urgency to the task that lied ahead

Outskirts of Barakov
Regime Ralkovia
2300 local time

Wilhem Lindgren, a 1st lieutenant in a panzergrenadier company in the 7th panzer division of Army Group A, leaned against the side of the burned out husk of a Regime tank while staring at the fires burning in the city ahead of him. The scene was almost surreal, the cloudy skies above being illuminated in a haunting blood red glow by the inferno. Wilhem, who like most of the officers and NCOs in his unit were veterans of the Fourth Krasnovan War, remembered seeing an almost identical scene during that conflict when his unit had fought across the Chernayan steppe to the outskirts of the Ordenite held city of Chernaya. The environment around him was intimately familiar. The acid taste of gunpower fumes and burning petrol. The distant chattering of machine gun fire. The low thumping of artillery and the howling of multiple rocket launchers.

The tank Wilhem was leaning against had taken a direct hit from a hypervelocity kinetic energy missile fired by one of the IfKpfw 501 infantry fighting vehicles in Wilhem's company during fighting earlier in the day, the impact of the missile having ripped the turret from the tank and thrown it several meters into a ditch on the side of the road the tank had been advancing besides. For Wilhem this was the first moment of rest after over a week of non-stop offensive operations. Like the rest of his unit it was only constant doses of Pervitin and Modafinil that had sustained him up to this point, the officially sanctioned drugs of choice for the Arcaenian soldier when the biological necessity of rest could not be allowed to interfere with a successful military campaign. Lindgren's panzergrenadier company had been at the spearhead of Army Group A's offensive, assaulting and destroying Regime positions on the outskirts of the city. Barakov, one of the regional capitals of former Balkovia, was a crucial Industrial city of the former Ralkovian Empire and had been turned into a veritable fortress by the forces of the Regime who were intent on defending it to the last man against the Arcaenian invaders. Like the jaws of an enormous steel beast the Panzers of Army Group As I, III, and IV Panzer Corps were closing in around the city in an enormous double pincer envelopment.

As the Arcaenian Panzers advanced into the city the Luftwehr had spent the several days subjecting Regime positions inside the city to a torrential bombardment, expending thousands of tons of missile and bomb ordinance on military and industrial targets inside the city. The city center, which held the Regime's southern military headquarters building, and the surrounding industrial areas containing several of the regime's largest armament's factories, had been all but pulverized and reduced to a heap of twisted steel and concrete. An observer looking at aerial or satellite photographs of the destruction would not have been blamed for assuming that the city had been hit with several tactical nuclear weapons. The carnage was heightened by the regime's choice to intentionally relocate disperse military and industrial targets in dense civilian areas that held the cities' mostly ethnic Balkovian population.

Further destruction was wrought by the advancing Arcaenian forces who subjected the city to an enormous and sustained artillery and missile bombardment as their armored spearhead began to penetrate into the rings of defensive lines the Regime defenders had erected around the city. Neighborhoods and residential areas that contained Regime defenders were reduced to rubble, the Arcaenians learning their lessons from the first Ralkovian war and preferring to vaporize buildings they took fire from with tank cannons and artillery rather than risk excessive casualties clearing them individually with infantry. Arcaenians were ruthless in their advance, systematically isolating and crushing pockets of resistance with a methodical and machine-like efficiency they had honed in previous wars across the continent. The Arcaenian war machine had arrived and Barakov would fall.

Arcaenian Ministry of War Headquarters building
0800 local time

Code: Select all

FROM: Arcaenian Ministry of War
TO: To whom it may concern
ENCRYPTION: None

Effective 24 hours from the date of this announcement the waters of the Dikk river running from the Bay of Chains to the coast of the Ralkovian Regime are hereby declared to be a total exclusion zone. Any ship and any aircraft, whether military or civil, which is found operating within this zone without prior authorization from the Arcaenian Ministry of War will be regarded as operating in support of the Ralkovian Regime and will thus be regarded as hostile and will be subjected to attacks by Arcaenian Forces.


[Xuande-Xiphoi]

JOINT BASE ARISTIDIS KOKKINOS
MT. PYTHON DEMISE, SOLDEU, XUANDE-XIPHOI

The zipping sound of cordura straps and hard plastic buckles clicking was nearly drowned out by the drone of generators powering tremendous stadium style lights, illuminating the field and those occupying it. Barracks and offices reflected a portion of the light, though the main power was directed on a parade ground-cum-field. Across it, hundreds of Xuande-Xiphoian soldiers, each occupying a precious few square metres of space over the finely cut grass.

“One minute!” cried an older enlisted man through a bullhorn, his aged maroon beret perfectly formed to his skull. The Sergeant, a truly senior rank within the Xuande-Xiphoian system, was the seniormost enlisted man in the battalion of paratroopers he had spent most of his military life within. A scuffle of activity was continuing amongst the 100 odd men of Bravo Company, finding and organising outstanding equipment and stores. This kit inspection had been preceded with the issuing of weapons – so this was a complete kit inspection where no steps were being skipped.

The soldiers, themselves proudly adorned in the maroon berets of their unit, were hard men. This was, of course, the 2nd Airborne Division of Xuande-Xiphoi. An advanced unit, part of the Army’s corps of special service soldiers, the paratroopers were fitter, better, and more ready than the average trooper. Their duties forced them to be.

Lance-Corporal Jack Zhi was one of the section commanders of this company. A soldier without a combat deployment yet to his name, but years of experience and the confidence of his men, he had the task of both getting all of his equipment laid on display on his camouflage patterned hooch. Everything from his weapon, a Ripper Mk4 bullpup rifle, the individual components of the first aid kit, his spare underpants and – tellingly – the CBRN defence equipment freshly issued earlier that afternoon.

“Stand to!” yelled the Sergeant on the bullhorn again, the men of the Company quickly readjusting their berets and standing to attention. “Company at ease!” yelled the voice again, the men assuming the more relaxed position.

“NCOs, check your soldiers!” came the next command. Rapidly, those NCOs – including LCPL Zhi – took the first stand, checking their own troops quickly for any outstanding issues. They had, really, only moments for each of their troops – the senior NCOs were really in charge. And so, with the next command, it was done; the lance corporals reassumed their positions alongside their men for inspection.

Zhi stood, looking forwards. Flashes of green fatigues and maroon caps came with the echoes of questions and yells from Corporals and Lance Sergeants, as well as the Company and Battalion officers and seniormost NCOs similarly inspecting. Standing here, unmoving, the Lance-Corporal breathed. There was, of course, nothing more he could do until a Corporal or Lance-Sergeant came to pull his kit apart. As he did, the thoughts rolled through his head. This was a preude, surely, to something. They had been recalled just a half hour before the end of day. As the high readiness unit, he knew that there was not likely to be a situation in which they’d be suddenly called to exercise. Exercises exhausted and injured men, and at this point would not have the training value as it did in the leadup. Newly single, with his girlfriend of 18 or so months having just that week unceremoniously dumped him, he didn’t have the feeling of family separation that was sure to be travelling through the minds of his comrades. For Zhi, it was now a curiosity – what could be happening?

“Lance-Corporal,” came the voice of his platoon commander, Lieutenant Tomasz. He immediately came to attention – no salute required for this part. The two men, the officer assisted by another NCO, checked that all of the required equipment was present and accounted for, and that specific equipment was in serviceable condition. For Zhi, a consummate professional, he was quite happy to see not a single item was missing.

Standing back to east after this, he had little to do but think. It was a moment of reflection – why had his unit been called in so unexpectantly? The options were, of course, practically unlimited. As the high readiness unit, in one of the highest readiness parts of the Army, he had of course signed up for the odd wakeups and random readiness drills. He ran through his mind – what nation was likely to be in enough chaos to warrant a whole company of airborne troops being organised? Missoura? Zellatia, again? Perhaps something on Kenos – though that would surely be the Marines at that one.

Nonetheless, the young paratrooper was without the intel he needed. Curiosity swam with anxiety in his brain, though overtaken by another thought.

Who am I going to have to kill when I land there?


ABOARD XS XANTHI, PORT OF SUCKSTEAD HOUSE, PORT NERAIDHA REGION, X.X.

CVN-13 is a Bāxiān class Aircraft Carrier, and it is a vessel most definitely deserving of the title. 349 metres long and nearly 115,000 tons in deadweight, one would expect it’s every move to cause groans and stresses against the water. But, as it were, as the super ship pulled away from the portside after taking on provisions it made barely a sound to the sailors on the flight deck. Water churned around solid bronze propellers as the warship advanced forwards.

The line abreast of sailors, dressed in their blue working uniforms and high viz rather than the formal dress of a normal port visit, were scanning the deck for foreign object debris, an important safety step for the flight operations. Leaving some time ago from the fleet base at XXFB Dāndǐng Hè in the eastern region of Feng Huang Gu, the ship and her company of 3,214 had already been sent on operational deployment, heading west to take part in the regular operational patrols assigned to the nation’s carriers.

What was unusual was the turnaround time here. Suckstead House, in the nation’s far north-west, was generally the last stop before departing Xuande-Xiphoi proper. It was a chance to take in a bit of shore food, club life, and ladies. Normally, a sailor might be able to look forwards to two or three days of R&R before heading off to whatever bit of the world they were told to go see.

Able Seaman Marcus Lui leaned down, picking up a tiny piece of plastic. It looked like some bit of a chip packet or something of the like – nonetheless, it had to go. On the dock below, more sailors were filtering back to the ship – some well dressed with nowhere to go. The recall to the ship had been sudden – just a couple of hours after a bulk of the ship’s company had been allowed to depart. Provisions that would’ve taken days to onload were being done in the course of hours. Below decks, in the stores, and in the hangar, it was sure to be manic.

“Hey Marcus,” called another Able Seaman from two spaces over, who quickly swapped with the two junior seaman between them.

“Sammy!” he replied, fistbumping the fellow sailor, “they didn’t let you out of the fucking nuke room did they?”

“Luck of the draw man, I got the shit stick to stay but now they’re all coming back. As soon as this is over I’m back down there.”

Sam Metaxas was one of the ratings working in nuclear propulsion, while his old school buddy Marcus was one of the deck crew – two very very separate worlds indeed.

“So why do you reckon they’re pulling us out now?” Marcus asked, his eyes still scanning his little lane of deck. “They said this mission was focused on anti-piracy as usual. Just go and show stuff.”

“Said so,” responded his comrade, “but shit can happen. I’m thinking it’s out west though, otherwise they’d send another carrier group, you know?”

“Logically yeah mate,” Marcus responded, “but this is the Navy, remember.”

“Ha – yeah but I’m right, you know!”

“Oh, you’re right, yeah sure, sure!” Marcus responded with a laugh in his voice – Sammy’s confidence was remarkable.

“There’s some shit going down in Ralkovia,” said a Seaman to their left, himself still looking down. He’d have been eavesdropping, if not for the two sailors rather loud conversation.

“What’s happening there?” came Sammy.

“Well, there’s been a civil war brewing for ages,” the junior sailor replied, “and it’s right in Greater Dienstad. So, it wouldn’t be too far away. I guess the Government could think it doesn’t hurt to have a carrier nearby in case the shit hits the fan and they need to evacuate citizens or something?”

The sailor raised a good point, of course, answered in quick form by Sammy’s appreciative “yeah maybe man – but also maybe they just want to wave a dick at some foreign dickheads!”

As the sailors above made safe the runway, eighty-four fighter jets were being readied for combat in one of the nation’s most significant operations to date. 

SIMRAN AIR BASE, OPPENTIN, XUANDE-XIPHOI

The roar of the four Pratt and Whitney engines at the base run-up area meant earmuffs were a necessity, but even then the sound was thundering to the engineers and technicians monitoring the hulking C-17 in front of them. The grip of summer in this mountainous area, upon which XXAF Base Simran was positioned, only gently let up in the evening. In any case, the radiant heat of the runway kept those stood on it nice and warm, and would do so well into the evening.

Leading Aviator Virginia Hu was among those maintainers, her role to carefully monitor the engine data being relayed to her Toughbook on the hood of the maintenance truck. Watching the mammoth cargo plan be moved into the run up enclosure, she had taken the time to appreciate the extraordinary size of the airplane – it was always so much bigger in person than anyone could really explain.

As the roar of engines settled down with the test complete, Hu and her colleagues were drawn by the sound of even louder engines droning out even the C-17. In formation, two of the Air Force’s F-23X Sarissa air superiority fighters were being launched from the main runway, streaks of flame from their engines in the falling light. They reached takeoff speed in no time, leaping into the sky; just a moment later, another two planes joined them. Then, four more.

“Hey Art,” Hu yelled, gesturing to the Artifex overlooking this whole maintenance job. “What’s up with that? Didn’t know they were training tonight.”

The Artifex, Vik Thiruppi, responded that “there wasn’t!”

A two ship of stealth fighters leaping into the night could be seen to be for any reason – late night retraining, or a request to move to another base? Maybe, just maybe, a quick response, although the Air Force’s Air Guard squadrons typically took that role with their now retiring fleet of Griffin multirole fighters. Eight – wait, now ten – fighters leaping into action was either a planned exercise, or a real life tasking to move.

“Any idea about that one then Art?” asked another maintainer, as Hu watched another two sleek jets lift off.

“Negative – but if they are going somewhere, they’re going to need us to lift their shit to wherever they are going! So let’s get this thing back in service. Three engines to go!”

SCIRE OFFICE VELO CITY, WHITTENBLUFF, XUANDE-XIPHOI

This unit was probably the only part Armed Services where you could kill the enemy from 20,000 kilometres away wearing flip-flops.

Xuande-Xiphoi’s Scire was the dedicated cyber warfare branch, with a key focus on defensive cyber to protect Xuande-Xiphoi’s Government and economy from foreign cyber threats. The Scire also provided the Army and other forces with deployable cyber assets, including the technicians that deployed alongside tanks and infantry to control electronic warfare and cyber ops at the tactical level. Herb Papageorgiou, a Leading Technician, led a small team of men and women – well, woman – who were charged with an entirely different role. In this branch, the mission was offense. They took the cyber fight to the enemy.

The culture of the Scire was, in many regards, barely military. Created partially out of a simple legal report that suggested cyber operators conducting military operations were technically required to carry insignia of military members, and mostly out of the suggestion of the Army and Navy – but not of the Air Force – that the cyber domain was deserving of it’s own place on the defence totem pole. With friends in Revnami, the Scire thereby followed. It’s members, who went to work wearing camouflage uniforms, were an eclectic bunch. To attract talent, the usual grooming rules were relaxed. It wasn’t unusual to see piercings or eccentric hair colours, tattooed extremities or beards; fitness for the office based technicians was similarly less crucial to success – indeed, some members required wheelchairs and mobility aides. The crucial point was that you didn’t need to be Rambo to work here and be a military member, but you had to be a serious computer whiz kid.

This was the case for Papageorgiou. Having joined the Scire in the year it was created, the junior NCO had taken part in multiple operations focused on intercepting military signals intelligence from a variety of adversary states, with a personal coup de grace of having broken into the management software of a power station, which would have granted him the ability to shut it down remotely if ordered. It was, in many regards, an awesome power. A dam releasing a flood of water could kill just as many people as a nuclear strike, in many parts of the world.

His current mission had been given to his team, all of whom held top secret classifications, alongside a delivery of energy drinks and snacks – a surefire sign of a brutally long night ahead. Their shared office – setup deliberately in the style of a coworking space – was designed for just such a task. Even the most comfortable chair in the best lit office would just eventually become a prop in a commercial cage.

Thankfully, the job ahead would deter exhaustion. It had come down the wire that a tremendous portion of the Scire was being redeployed to service a major operation – in 90 hours, a parachute drop would be planned for the southern Ralkovian foothills. That was all they knew, other than their role. To facilitate the mission of the paratroopers, key infrastructure on the ground needed to be… repurposed… for the benefit of Xuande-Xiphoi and her allies.

As it was commanded, Papageorgiou and his team of eight were now breaking into the tasks required. Paratroopers were famously self-reliant – for eight or so hours, anyway – but they needed a few bare essentials. For the soldier, his enemies were the trees and the rocks and the human infrastructure that littered modern countrysides. The Air Force and Intelligence Corps were in charge of this element, finding landing positions across the southern Ralkovia for the impending drops. Immediately thereafter, a paratrooper found himself as just a man in a field. What the enemy would throw at him became his next concern.

The Ralkovian rear lines, by these foothills, were of course relatively low risk. They were battle weary and on rotation out from the frontlines, taking the opportunity of “guarding” rear infrastructure as the opportunity to rest and recover from the rigours of the front. That infrastructure, of course, was the key item. Power stations were of course critical to run things like streetlights, which illuminated highways and villages. They also powered airports, though they in turn had emergency generators which would separately be targeted, a core target of any assault force.

The beauty of cyber operations was in two things. Immediate effectiveness and targetability. A precision munition, even the best of them, could err and hurt the wrong people or destroy the wrong buildings. But a cyber strike was an attack from within – only the incompetent technician would, say, accidentally take out a hospital or protected site instead of their designated target. Degrading the enemy’s military and civilian infrastructure was a truly precision art.

Such was the case for Papageorgiou’s team. While Ralkovia’s infrastructure had been beaten and battered in the civil war, much of it remained functional and networked and particularly so in the south. This included the nation’s 4G and 3G telephone networks in the south, one of a few assets that formed the comms infrastructure that one might use to command military operations. For Xuande-Xiphoi, control of the asset meant the ability to temporarily disable it, for long enough for the paratroopers to land and establish their initial lines of defence. This would have consequences – for instance, anyone calling for an ambulance would suffer, unable to access them – but the laws of armed conflict considered the proportionality and necessity of each individual act, and, well, the Scire’s legal officers seem to have given the team the thumbs up.

The slide of a glass door cut through the noise of whirring computers and chatter, a 1st Lieutenant entering. The second in command of the overall team, he was here to see what the status was of Papageorgiou’s team. The news was good.

“Well sir,” Papageorgiou said, proudly broadcasting to a large screen the internal software of the local police force dispatch system, “when the boots hit the ground, the local cops won’t know left from right. They’ll be back to walkie talkies and runners – and the deployable techs will probably knock them down to just runners.”

The cyber dimension was gradually playing closer and closer into Xuande-Xiphoian hands. 
DEMIZAKAS AIR BASE, ZELLATIA
Written by Zellatia

“Parachute packed yet?” Cpl. Zamul asked Private Wendiko. Corporal Zamul’s father had been a mercenary sent to Zellatia during the civil war in 1976. His mother was a local, a waitress in a dive bar in Zelatun. How they met was supposedly confidential, but if anyone asked the Corporal, he’d break their nose.

“Of course,” Wendiko replied, “Stop asking. You asked five minutes ago,” she said, rolling her eyes as she adjusted the strap a little better on her shoulders. Unlike the 6’2’’ Corporal Zamul, Private Wendiko was barely 5’4’’, smaller and far wirier. Though, with the hefty equipment strapped to her body, her parachutes, rifle, and supplies she’d need for the landing, the fact she was still standing belied the training she’d put in to be able to carry nearly her weight in gear.

“Stop jawing about,” Sergeant Slauss shot to the duo, “some of us are trying to pray.” Sgt. Slauss was a fifth generation Zellatian – his great, great-grandfather had been a Xuande-Xiphoian living in what was now a suburb of Revnami but had come to Zellatia to serve as the sheriff for a lord in the Pederon Highlands. It paid well enough that he’d brought his family over, had a few more kids, and settled into Fross just as the city was starting to grow due to the Zellanite mines that now dotted the landscape.

Kneeling down, metal scraping against his knee, he grimaced as he began to speak to himself, and to his ancestors – he was, as it stood, a devout Thelakist, the dominant religion of Zellatia. “May the ancestors guide us, keep our souls safe in this wicked land. May we guide the people we meet to justice and may we free the feeble from the bonds they have been shackled to,” he began, mumbling to himself as the other two rolled their eyes.

“No one needs to hear any of that. We know why we’re here, don’t we?” Wendiko whispered to herself quietly. Her family, unlike either Zamul or Slauss, had been in Zellatia for at least a thousand years – though she grew up in the casinos of Eiru and had lived the highlife considering her family’s wealth. Not that she’d mentioned this. “Zams, what about you? Did you check your parachute?”

“Shit,” Corporal Zamul said, slipping it off of him and gliding his hands across the parachute, checking that everything was packed correctly.

“Figures,” Slauss said, rising to his feet. “Wendiko, why is it that you bring out the brain-wormiest out of us?”

“Someone’s been watching too many horror movies. Brain worms? Seriously?” Wendiko retorted.

“You know what I mean. To clarify, I mean that we’re so busy worrying about you that-“

“You’re worried about me?” Wendiko interrupted, “I don’t recall showing up in your way-too-loud prayers.”

“Ignoring that,” Sgt. Slauss continued, “do you remember when we did our first practice jump? If Private Boyd hadn’t been right by you-“

“We both know the real reason why he was right above me.”

“Again, ignoring that, you would have died. So forgive me if the two of us are concerned you’re not properly prepped for your first potentially life-threatening active mission dive into a ancestors-spurned slavocracy fed by who knows how many secret projects, Shadite-echoing shit for brains.”

“Jeez…” Pvt. Wendiko responded, “Are you saying that these people are like the Shadists?”

“Worse,” Slauss said, with a shudder, “And those are just the civilians. Well, some of the civilians,” he adds, “but we’re here to keep non-combatants safe. If we die, no one’s going to do that. Okay?”

“So, what, I’m supposed to leave the whole ‘Shadist’ thing alone for your lecture?”

“The Forward Shade Party is still out there. Could be that members of the FSP are hiding here among the Zellatian population of Ralkovia. We won’t know until we start meeting with local Zellatian-Ralkovian leaders,” Sgt. Slauss continued, sighing. “Besides, the FSP would be right at home with some of the tactics we’ve heard the Regime might be using.”

“And what about the coalition? Not ours, the, uh, Eitoans? Marshites?” Wendiko asked.

“What about them?”

“Are they seriously going to indiscriminately shell Regime towns?”

“Maybe,” Corporal Zamul said, interrupting the two as he resecures the parachute on his back, “I mean, they did set up the Federation, but even that is fragile. And as much as we all hate slavers, the Marshites include non-slavers as collectively guilty for not fighting slavery here, despite the fact that collective action on the scale that would be required just isn’t possible without the right spark. Besides the bullshit that slavery is seen as a good thing in some parts, its been part of Ralkovia since its founding. It’s like demanding that we stop using our face-paint,” he said, dipping into a pouch at his waist and reapplying the dye on his skin.

“So, what? We’re here to protect slavers?”

“Again, civilians,” Sgt. Slauss countered, “we’re not the Marshites. If there is a heaven, I very much doubt they’re entering that or the positive part of the cycle of rebirth.”

“Didn’t realize you were one of those Rebirthers, Slauss,” Corporal Zamul said, “took you for an Afterlifer.”

“I’m agnostic on that matter,” Slauss said, “but either would be fine by me, as long as I go down protecting people who can’t defend themselves.”

“Lets hope that this’ll be a peaceful trip,” Private Wendiko offered, “and that we don’t see any signs of FSP activity. If there is, shit…I can’t imagine the Emperor or the Prime Minister tolerating their involvement in this matter whatsoever.”

“You’d be right,” Zamul said, “but we’ll get to that when we get to that.”

“Any word from the Xuande-Xiphoian or Andrenadine forces?” Sgt. Slauss asked.

“Negative. Which is a good thing, I’ll remind you – means everything’s working as it needs to.

“Yeah,” Pvt. Wendiko says, shaking her head, “I’d be more nervous if our radios were going wild with updates. We almost at the drop sight?”

“Almost,” Zamul said. “Ready?”

“Yes sir,” both Private Wendiko and Sergeant Slauss said, saluting and getting into position.

It was almost time.

NORTHERN XUANDE-XIPHOI
Written by Andrenade

TF-Falchion

Falchion was the extent of Andrenade's allowance of specialized assets being in control of a foreign entity. A mission of this magnitude necessitated such things. Xuande-Xiphoi's unmatched airbridging capabilities was a reluctant tradeoff, as it allowed for the quicker transportation of heavier assets. Not all things needed an exception, as surnames were explicitly sanitized, being a standard procedure for the Armada during such deployments for personal security reasons.
Compact rebreather masks and jumpsuits set them apart from traditional light infantry, being expected to deploy at high altitudes where air is thin. These were true paratroopers and an advancement of a concept abandoned by many other airborne troops around the world, often preferring leisurely air transport. It hasn't been that long, but much had changed since his last combat jump, in a flashpoint proxy-war between a nation that was longed wiped out by the international community. Not doing it alone, machines join the fray in the form of load-bearing Urva UGVs and combative counterparts, which both also acted as a tangible reference point during jumps. Their bricky transitional camouflage coating resisted most scuffs but couldn’t resist the profane words nor the random lustful drawing added by the paratroopers.
At the rear of the fuselage, St2.Mirco stood out amongst the dozens of others in the pressurized cabin through not being able to relax during the flight. He shook his head around, playing with the shifting view of his HUD and fidgeting with his carbine’s underbarrel 30mm grenade launcher, already loaded with a IR guided HEDP munition. The mission itself was unfathomable in nature and size to a lower enlisted like himself. As a distraction, he dazed about
This was noticed by his nearby section leader, Lt.Maxence, whom was otherwise content analyzing his tiedowns and those of his paratroopers within his domain, ensuring the junior leaders did their jobs. He took a second to amuse himself, tilting his head to his subordinate. “Mirco, if you find a tall redhead with a bottle of white wine, send he my way, ya?”

“Yes, Chev” mocked Mirco.

The officer was beyond armchair politics, seeing that this operation was simply a multinational vibe check, as some of the younger generation elsewhere would put it. Greater Dienstad may lack the uneasy peace of Kenosia, but they lack the gearing towards annihilation that comes with a balance between powers. The lenient usage of military forces to commit genocides and other unjust crimes against humanity against vulnerable populations doesn’t count. They will experience true power if they prove to discard former co-operation in Taskforce Atlas for sadistic pride.

From the darkness of the front cabin corner towards the front, Jumpmaster Drasilla emerged from her hole and stood at a confident 174cm and yelled into her microphone the second the dim ambience shifted to an abrasive red to the naked eye. Behind everyone’s augmented views, it merely distorted the colors like that of a stylistic photo filter whereas she wore a low profile glasses and a half-mask, partially revealing a face somewhat prettier than her profession would imply.
“Ignore the displays you wear on your faces. Expect mild deflection. Steady descent. It’s an airfield, so if you land hard, that’s on you.” She instructed with a feminine coarseness. She strode to the rear, grasping onto new side netting every other step. She continued to speak as she inspected the various people and equipment she was about to exalt from her aircraft.

Mirco started to disassociate, only subconsciously noting the further instructions, as it was no different from the countless hours of rehearsals. “Everyone is awake, equipment is fine, attire is fine, section UGVs are fine, we’re clear of the adjacent loads, don’t shoot at KENFOR, don’t shoot at KENFOR…” He thought, trying to think of more savory things like his most recent outing with a foreign exchange student.” He didn’t win often, having been overshadowed by his immediate peers throughout life, but appreciated any he got, especially the good ones.

“Red on! Red on!” Yelled the Jumpmaster.

It was nearly time to jump. He could already feel the turbulence play with his jumpsuit.

TOP SECRET - - - TASKFORCE ORBAT

First Taskforce - Airborne

Second Landing Taskforce - Air Deployed and Marine

[Eitoan]

Kravak
Project Marble, Day 17

On the 17th day of Marble, The Eitoan Fifth Army had succeeded in penetrating Kravak proper. Fighting in the northern and northwest sectors had advanced to the point where the two outermost bypass roads, Routes 48C and 48B had been cut off and held successfully against first sustained, then sporadic small arms, mortar, and assassin drone fire. The drive into the city had been deliberate, going forward along industrial areas flanking the now idle Kravak Norada International Airport. The broad avenues and industrial parkways lacing throughout the factories and warehouses, and the airport itself presented the greatest opportunity for movement of Regime heavy equipment, and even armored counterattack. Civilian casualties was never a concern, not for the Regime, not for the Eitoan Army. But the Eitoans sought the avenue of least exposure in their drive to the lake, and, ultimately, the surrender of Kravak. The Regime, responding to the Eitoan advance, was busy redeploying assets through all avenues, by rail, road, and barge to the west. The heavily defended “Slant”, the horizontal border between Regime and Federal Ralkovia had been bypassed by the Eitoans, and Regime defenders raced to move the heavier armor westward, to more defensible positions in the open areas of Kravak itself, and further west along the lakeshore in an attempt to keep the coastal road open for any potential counterstrike. To the west of the city then, the race was on between the fleeing Regime armor and the pursuing Eitoan heavy armor. Still distant from the shoreline, the Eitoans held the advantage of fear, uncertainty and doubt. Regime commanders were left to puzzle when and where the Eitoan tanks would finally foreclose any escape from Kravak.


0800
Adrakov Road

Following the breakthrough of 48C, Rifle Squad A of the 25th Platoon took point that morning, inching carefully down Adrakov. Squad A was headed by the able Staff Sgt. Henderson, a veteran of the First Ralkovian War. The sharp eyed Henderson was supported by the two Team Leads, Alpha Team’s Waller and Bravo Team’s Valento. Waller had been with Henderson for seven months, always reporting to him directly and to the point. Valento was a less familiar quantity, having been assigned six weeks ago. Both had good ratings, but Valento was somewhat more reserved, and harder to figure out. Of greater concern to Henderson were the three women on Squad A, two in Alpha and one in Bravo. Of the 25 enlisted under his command, 7 were veterans of the First Ralkovian War. None of the women were. He was skeptical of their capabilities, especially if the going got rough moving through the industrial landscape of the hostile city. Nevertheless, it was up to Waller and Valento to make the teams work.

Adrakov was a big, wide thoroughfare, four lanes in each direction, running north to south from the lakeshore to beyond Route 48-C. Built to carry heavy trucks to those highways, Adrakov was burdened by few traffic lights or stops, not that it mattered much now. The pavement was in good condition, recently resurfaced for this stretch. Henderson reckoned that was the reason they were fighting on Adrakov; easier access for supplies and troops moving through the city. He was right, but didn’t pause to consider it further. He hadn’t thought about much else than the next step, the next block since the order to move out at 0500. At this early hour, as the sun lit up a cloudless sky, drone swarms buzzed around Squad A, the tiny, annoying Regime Mosquito surveillance drones, and the Eitoan CZ9a’s pursuing the same information. Both were irritating, but part of the mission for both armies.

Henderson’s communicator put out a short, terse announcement. “Clear for advance, to 1400 feet. Go”. Eitoan operators and analysts had found no armed Ralkovians within a half mile either side of Adrakov, air and satellite reports did not detect artillery within range of Adrakov, so he signalled to Waller and Valento to move out. Alpha took the left on the street, Bravo the right. Alpha moved first down Adrakov, and came across a bridge over Kalinigiyev Creek. Alpha halted, and the point man visually inspected the gully. Waller called in a CZ9a. In four minutes the CZ9a buzzed the creek beds, first to the west, then doubling back over the east. Five tense minutes later, Waller was given the all clear. Alpha moved cautiously across the bridge. After the last man cleared the bridge by 25 feet, Bravo followed across Kalinigiyev.

The next major intersection was Nazlatas Avenue. The far side left was an open field, about five acres, the right was an extensive junkyard. Again a drone was requested. Again the all clear was given. Bravo crossed Nazlatas. Bravo continued down Adrakov. Alpha followed Bravo. Fifteen feet beyond Nazlatas a single shot rang out. The last in Alpha fell down, dead. The entire squad took cover. It was too late for one private in Alpha, shot in the side as he ran for cover. As both teams reestablished positions, another CZ9a, this one equipped with heat tracing and reporting sent to Waller and Valento an indication of what they were up against. The ambush was laid out by Regime regular infantry, as far as could be determined, a group of four hiding nearby in the junkyard. Alpha returned fire. Waller ordered three riflemen to flank the Regime position cutting into the junkyard, covered by debris as the rest of Alpha provided them covering fire. Shooting was sporadic, as Waller’s men groped forward for better vantage points. The defenders used their ammunition sparingly, mostly aiming at those covering the advance into the junkyard. Fifty minutes later, the men in the junkyard determined they could take their shot. Sights were set, and two Ralkovians fell. Another twenty minutes passed. Then forty. A CZ9a flew overhead. Two kills were indicated. The other Ralkovians couldn’t be located. Waller had a man and a woman stay behind to guard the wounded, and signaled Medical to evacuate the casualties. Both teams pressed on.


1400
West Kravak
Home of Bran’ym Sharon

It was an extensive house, splayed out over 4000 square feet, in the popular 21st century modern frame and glass style. The Sharon family was comfortable there, Bran’ym, his wife M’lanka, and their two daughters and son that were still in school. Their two older sons were serving, one in the Regime army, the other in the Air Force. Their oldest daughter was in Haraxby, at college studying architecture. Live was good there. All the houses had spacious lawns, well maintained, on a section of the estate of the Greater Lord Petranka, sold piecemeal to developers. All homes bordered the golf course, membership in which was part of the house title. And it befitted Bran’ym, a successful Physician, although the fortune it cost him had more to do with his wife’s dowry, a scion of the Lesser Lord Bartzion. This afternoon was about to shatter his tranqulity.

Air raid sirens screamed out. This was nothing new, since the Eitoan onslaught seventeen days ago. So far their lives had been untouched. But that morning traffic was stopped cold for a hour and a half on his way to the clinic. At Yakuturynisk and Zelranrev, a mile from his work, he could see a parade of tank transports rumbling through the intersection, preceeded by some artillery mounted on trucks, followed by a caravan of gas tankers and PG90 heavy troop transports, and trailed by more mobile artillery and missile launchers. It seemed as if something was going to happen in or around his quiet world, soon.

Bran’ym gave up hope of reaching work that day. He called in to cancel his appointments. The office manager, solo in the office told him nobody was there, not the nurses, not the other doctors, or the patients. She also told him that Civil Defense had ordered lockdown of District 11 at noon. And so he went back home.

Bran’ym and M’lanka were having lunch in the kitchen, joined by their youngest daughter, when he heard a distant rumble. He looked out the sliding door window, onto the patio and beyond. There was a hazy puff of smoke in the far distance, obscured by trees on the golf course. Bran’ym didn’t know what to make of it. He went back to his sandwich. The rumbles got louder. They got closer. He dropped his sandwich on the plate, excused himself and went back to the door. Peering up at the rise, he was surprised to see a massive KF Hippo, work horse of the Ralkovian Armor coming over a rise, lumbering to a halt next to a distant outbuilding. Another Hippo joined the first one. He opened the sliding door, cautiously, yelling to his family to get into the office and lock up behind them. Then he walked rapidly out toward the tanks.

The hatch popped on the first tank. A short, black haired driver peered out of the hatch, staring at Bran’ym. Bran’ym held up a hand, the drive reciprocated. Bran’ym moved out to greet him.

“What’s going on here? I wasn’t told of anything like this? What are your doing?” he demanded.

The dirver, a young man barely out of high school smiled, and motioned for Bran’ym to come closer. “We can’t tell you, sir”, he said respectfully. “But it’d be best if you took cover in the house. “There’s been a resssignment, because of recent conditions”

“Reassignment?”

“You may have heard. We’re convering all possible avenues.”

“Avenues?”

“Well, you know, open spaces.”

“You mean the golf course? All open spaces?”

“Yes. That’s all I can say. You ever been in the Army old man?

“No. Air Force”.

“Ah. I see. Open; flat, no buildings or obstacles”

There was a thud in the distance. Then a flash.

“Better get inside, old man”


2200
Adrakov Road
South of Y’dravn’y Street

Henderson’s squad had proceeded steadily throughout the day. There were no further casualties. A few Regime Home Guard took some potshots, then melted away. At this point, Henderson picked up the evening information summary, and reported on the afternoon’s events. He was ordered to dig in and rest up. It was a dark night, barely any moonlight at all. Street lighting had been shot out along Adrakov, or the power transmission had been cut. All building within a mile seemed abandoned. His next objective was sent. They were about two miles west of the airport, next to a big container terminal. The monitoring and control facility there was his next target. The terminal had a burgeoning community of itinerants, mostly freed slaves and day laborers, swollen by the displaced from towns overrun by the Eitoan advance. These were not gentle people, and could be as deadly as Regime regulars for any squad member that got detached. Before ordering the squad to retire, Henderson told both his sergeants to reconnoiter ahead a quarter mile. As the Team Bravo advance man returned, a truck screamed around the corner, bearing down on the squad, fishtailing wildly all over the pavement.

Out of control, a speeding beer truck meandered all over the road. A shot rang out from the left, beyond the Eitoan position. The driver slumped over dead, blood streaming from his temple, head on the steering wheel. Six bums rushed out to loot the truck. Five were shot dead. Waller stared ahead at the scene, shocked. Who was it? Other looters? Police? Regime deserters?

It was all of the above, a free for all. All seemed to be oblivous to the Eitoans. In short order, volleys of small arms fire from a parking lot cleared the riff raff from the scene. Firing on the Eitoans, not hitting any, two brave Regime infantrymen ran out to cart off cases of beer. Waller ordered return fire. His men slowly advanced on the truck. Cautiously, after establishing a perimiter, two of his men grabbed cases and headed back to camp under covering fire. A brief, intense firefight around the truck ensued. Three men rushed at Waller and those covering the truck out of nowhere. In the dim light they could see the green lion patch, insignia of the Ralkovian 11th Regiment, the hated, feared Death Guard. Waller knew he was in for a fight. A man mountain, red haired freak lunged at him. Waller sidestepped him, drawing his knife. The Death Guard tried twice to knock it out of his hand, Waller sidestepping each blow. Waller was thrown to the ground, and the Death Guard pounced, his eyes glazed with bloodlust. The two tore and grabbed at each other, Waller enduring a mighty pounding before finally leveraging his nemesis off him. Choking the Death Guard from behind, summoning every ounce of his strength, Waller applied pressure until he could feel the enemy weakening. Then, finding his mark, he plunged the knife into the giant’s jugular.

The other Death Guard ran off. One abandoned his weapon.

Waller cleaned off his knife on his pants, resheathed it. He cracked open a brew.

“Totally worth it” he announced.


Point N, Regime Ralkovia
Granats’k Air Base
Project Marble, Day 18

The Eitoan 4th Army had made rapid progress since the start of Marble. With Force PF flanking the Arcaneans to the north, and the 5th enveloping Kravak, the decision was made by General Reitz: the complex of Regime Air bases known as Point N would remain a threat to Marble if left unoccupied. Any Ralkovian counteroffensive that could put one or more of them back into commission would threaten air dominance of the Alliance forces in the south, so they had to be taken. Point N consisted of a complex spread out over 900 square miles two thirds of the way between Kravak and Urar. There were 5 individual air bases, 2 repair facilities and 4 fuel depots. Facing the Eitoans on this day was one front line Mechanized Infantry division, six reserve brigades, roughly 25,000 lightly armed Homer Guard, and a collection of units redeployed from the front thrown together as the 102nd Reorganized Division.

The first target of the Eitoan advance was Granas’k Air Base. This had been home to 5 fighter squadrons and one surveillance squadron before the Regime evacuation. More importantly was it’s adjacent repair facility. With most if it’s equipment intact, any return of Regime air assets would be highly capable of great damage throughout the entire theater of operation. Simultaneous to the assault on Granas’k, the Eitoan 4th would attack the defenses of the base at Yemedyo, which hosted a fighter squadron and a bomber squadron. The base itself was less important thatn Granas’k, but the two represented the outer northern perimiter of the Point N complex. Possession of both would not only represent a significant portion of the capacity of the entire complex, but would also put the rest of the Point N facilities within range of Eitoan short range artillery and surface to surface missiles. The Eitoan 82nd Armored Division, moved up rapidly since the 4th breakout spearheaded the advance, taking advantage of dry weather and relatively flat terrain. The 82nd was tasked with clearing major concentrations of Regime armor guarding Point N, and the initial breach of the airbases themselves. As defending positions became more readily identified, the movement on infantry was preceded by supporting artillery and missile barrages. This was thought to be most effective where defenses were manned by the more poorly trained Home Guard, and the makeshift 102nd. Eitoan infantry followed the advancing tanks as the runways of the first targets were breached, obtaining the primary objective of disabling them for any possible Ralkovian return. Once these were secured, the Eitoans could flush out any defenders in the buildings at their leisure.

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

RALKOVIAN THEATRE

Downtown Barakov
Regime Ralkovia
0900 local time

The Arcaenians were not planning on a long siege, instead Barakov would be subject to rapid onslaught of armored penetrations that would physically dislodge the Regime defenders from the city. The I Panzer Corp's 5th Panzer Division had acted as the fixing force, conducting a broad frontal attack on the city in order to pin the regime defenders in place while the remaining divisions from the I Panzer Corps including the 5th, 7th, and 8th Panzer Divisions and another four divisions from the III Panzer Corps enveloped the city from all sides.

On the right flank of the offensive stood the 7th Panzerdivision's 19th Panzergrenadier brigade which had been assigned a "reconnaissance in force" or Gewaltsame Aufklärung mission, attacking ahead of the division as an advance guard and assessing the Regime defenses inside the city. Task organized into a Kampfgruppe with additional divisional level assets and supported by an attack helicopter battalion and multiple battalions of cannon and rocket artillery the brigade would assault up the city's central highway before turning east and regrouping with the division's 20th and 21st Panzer Brigades which had been assigned the task of capturing Barakov International Airport on the outskirts of the city. Emphasis was placed on the speed of the assault. Any vehicles immobilized by enemy fire would have their crews transferred to another vehicle and be either recovered or destroyed by follow on forces. The division's rocket artillery would be used to destroy roadblocks and armored vehicles the Regime had positioned in side streets from which they could fire into the Arcaenian column as they drove by. Arcaenian AKH 80 attack helicopters provided the air cover for the attack, screening either side of the column and attacking Regime forces in prepared positions in front of the advance and moving toward it from side streets.

Only minutes into the assault enemy rifles, machineguns, RPGs, ATGMs, & mortar rounds erupted from both sides of the highway at the attacking Arcaenian force. Wilhem's panzergenadier platoon was at the forefront of the attack, positioned at the head of the formation which was advancing in three battalion size columns in echelon along the city's central highway. Ahead of the advance a sustained creeping barrage from the brigade’s panzer artillery battalion was smashing the intersections ahead of the columns, destroying roadblocks and levelling overpasses where the defenders could fire down onto the attackers. Passing through a heavily shelled intersection Wilhem's platoon of four IfKpfw 501 IFV's came to a screeching halt before returning fire with their 50 mm chainguns and 40 mm grenade machine guns at the Regime defenders who were shooting down at them from the rooftops ahead. Attacking at the head of the formation Wilhelm's 1st platoon had been ordered stop and clear intersections of potential ambushes before the rest of his company and the formations behind it could advance. Behind his platoon were some 100 other IfKpfw 501 IFVs and PzKpfw 151 MBTs advancing along with several dozens other tracked vehicles. Overhead dozens of drones were flying ahead of the advancing columns, scanning the streets ahead for Regime defenders and marking them for artillery strikes or for attacks by AKH 80 attack helicopters.

"Dismount! Dismount!" yelled Wilhem at the panzergenadier section inside the vehicle as the hydraulic ramp door at the rear of the vehicle dropped onto the pavement. With covering fire provided by the IFVs Wilhem, his platoon HQ section, and the three panzergrenadier squads in his platoon sprinted to cover behind the ruins of an apartment building complex on the side of the road before returning fire with their machine guns and recoilless rifles. Pausing for a short moment to recover his breath Wilhem glanced around to evaluate the surroundings. On the other side of the road he could see a platoon of PzKpfw 151 tanks and another platoon of IfKpfw 501 IFVs advancing along the other side of the Highway. Behind his position was another IfKpfw 501 platoon from his company and a platoon of four PzAfz 501 reconnaissance IFVS who were in the process of dismounting their panzergenadier sections to move up to his position. Behind them he could briefly see a flight of four AKH 80 helicopters unleash a barrage of anti-tank missiles at a distant target before turning out.

"Take 2nd squad and clear the back side. Make sure there's no hidden anti-tank teams ready to ambush us" he instructed to his platoon sergeant Ernst Dönhoff as several mortar bombs and RPGs exploded behind them. "I'll take 1st and 3rd squads and clear the front. We'll rendezvous back this position and remount "

"Yes sir" replied Dönhoff as he motioned to the 2nd squad's sergeant to follow him.

Missile! Incoming!" suddenly screamed on of the solders in his platoon over the sound of the gunfire. Turning to face the street ahead Wilhem could briefly could see the flare and smoke trail of an ATGM heading right at the leading IFV in his platoon. Ducking behind the wall he could hear an explosion followed by a barrage of shrapnel impacting just over his head. Popping his head back around the corner to look at the vehicle he could see that one of the active protection system bricks on its glacis had detonated, the blast from the directional charge destroying the incoming missile and showering his position with its remains.

"Alpha this is Alpha 3, we're taking missile fire from one of the buildings ahead, moving to engage" It was the commander of the IFV that had just been hit. The vehicle then began to back up out of the intersection, returning fire with its chaingun and automatic grenade launcher at the building on the other side of the intersection that the missile had been fired from. The buildings front face, which overlooked the left side of the intersection, was in a perfect position to provide defilade fire on the Arcaenains assaulting up the highway and was unleashing a barrage of missile, RPG, and missile fire that was pinning down Wilhem's platoon and would have to be neutralized before the columns of Arcaenian vehicles behind him could advance.

"Copy "replied Wilhem, his eyes scanning the top of the same building before ducking to avoid an RPG fired from one the building's windows. Looking back at the other side of the street he could see the two platoons of PzKpfw 151 tanks and IfKpfw 501 IFVs along with several squads of panzergrenandiers advancing along the other side of the intersection. Wilhem then motioned the platoon forward observer to his position.

"Call for howitzer fire on that four story building on the right side of the intersection" instructed Wilhem to Rudolf Bünow, his platoon's assigned artillery forward observer, while pointing at the target building in question.

"Copy that" Bünow responded as he used his tablet map display and binocular pair to locate the target building before calling in the strike with his radio. "Z57 this is Z71. Position Grid 213- 415. Fire for effect. Eight rounds HE. Polar. Direction 1680, distance 3500, over"

"Z71 this is Z57. Position Grid 213- 415. Fire for effect. Eight rounds HE. Polar. Direction 1680, distance 3500, out" responded the battery FDC over the radio

"I authenticate, Z71 out"

Less than a minute later a 17 centimeter high explosive shell hit the building, obliterating the right half of the fourth story and caving in the building's roof. Several seconds later another seven shells then hit the building in quick succession, leveling the entire structure and throwing up an enormous cloud of dust and debris. Satisfied the the threat had been eliminated Wilhelm ordered his platoon to remount and continue the assault.

"Alpha-3 this is Alpha, Rendevouz your platoon at my position to remount" Wilhem then instructed to his lead IFV over the radio. Looking at the map display on his wrist computer Wilhelm could see another intersection less than a kilometer away they would have to clear followed by a freeway overpass they would have to assaults underneath before making a left turn and advancing their way to the airport.

Northern Regime Ralkovia
1900 local time

From 20,000 meters up the view from the cockpit of the AEJ 36 was breathtaking. Banking his aircraft gently to the right Captain Gustav Kurt Hagerström could see the great T'harvestung Mountain Range to the north which were being silhouetted by the setting sun in the northwest. Named "The Great Barrier" by the Ralkovians, the enormous mountain range acted as an almost impassable barrier that divided Ralkovia into two. On his left he could see his wingman along with a formation of inboard AB 37 strike aircraft that had been tasked to targets in his "kill box". His AEJ 36 was flying a strike coordination and reconnaissance mission, coordinating with A 13 surveillance and airborne control center aircraft in the theatre to identify targets that had been assigned to the AEJ 36 and AB 37 strike aircraft and then finding other high value enemy targets in the target area to attack. The AEJ 36s tasked to this mission were assigned in pairs to a 2,500 square kilometer "kill box" to patrol where they would make detect and track the assigned targets for the strike and then act as a forward air controller for inbound strike aircraft, vectoring and coordinating strike aircraft to their targets and providing battle damage assessment of targets hit in the strike. With the thousands and thousands of Arcaenian, Eitoan, and Marshite strike aircraft operating over Ralkovia this type of command and control was extremely valuable, ensuring the enormous number of strike aircraft assigned to simultaneous strike missions across the entire theatre effectively located and engaged their respective targets.

""Meteor 1 this is Orion" it was the A 13 surveillance and airborne control aircraft that was responsible for the air sector the AEJ 36 was operating in

"Go ahead Orion" replied Hagerström

"We have a mechanized column target moving northeast to 50 Northing, transferring target track files over for strike vectorization" instructed the A 13, indicating that it was transferring it's current ground track tracks over to the AEJ 36 for it to then begin tracking the targets itself and vector the incoming AB 37s onto the target.

"Copy, moving to track". At this point Hagerström activated the aircraft's side looking radars, employing the ground moving target mode to locate and track the column of moving vehicles the strike was supposed to attack. Having confirmed the target presence and location the AEJ 36 would then authorize the lead of the AB 37 flight to proceed with the strike and transmit the target grid coordinates to the strike aircraft flight.

"This is Meteor 2, SAM launch, right 4 o’clock!" it was Hagerström's wingman, suddenly warning him of a detected surface to air missile launch. Although the Regime's air defense network had largely been silenced by massed SEAD sorties they still would occasionally fire fire volleys of surface to air missiles from hidden launchers to disrupt alliance strikes on their territory. The aircraft's distributed aircraft system then generated an audible directional warning tone in the cockpit as the launch appeared on the pilot's augmented reality heads-up-display. Locking back to his right he could see the faint smoke trail of a rocket motor in the distance with his HMD indicating the direction of the launch and the angular closing rate of the missile.

"It's not heading for us" alerted the pilot to his wingman. Activating the aircraft's main search radar he then locked his radar onto the threat missile.

"It's still going ballistic, I don't think it's a SAM." Realizing they were dealing with a hostile ballistic missile launch Hagerström, who was closest to the missile, reacted by maneuvering his aircraft onto a course where he could hit the climbing ballistic missile with his aircraft's own air to air missiles. The speed of the rapidly accelerating missile meant he would have to launch his missile's while climbing at top speed, giving his own missiles just enough initial launch energy to catch the enemy ballistic missile before it left the atmosphere.

"Moving to engage" Hagerström alerted to his wingman. Shoving the throttles up and forward to light the afterburners of the aircraft's RM220 turbofan engines the aircraft then began to rapidly climb and he turned the aircraft into a course that would intersection the direction of the ballistic missile's flight path. With the missile centered in his HUD he could see the altitude and mach display in his HUD changing as his aircraft climbed and accelerated.

200...210....220....230

2.2 ... 2.3 ... 2.4

Having accelerated to a speed of Mach 2.5 at an altitude of 24,000 meters Hagerström then depressed the thumb switch on the aircraft's sidestick, releasing two Rb 100 Wyvern missiles at the target. Although designed as a long range air-to-air missile the solid fuel ramjet engine of the missile gave it enough speed and acceleration to intercept ballistic missiles during their initial boost phase, destroying them before they could leave the atmosphere and deploy decoys or other countermeasures. Moments later he could see the missile's rocket motor plumes in his heads up display, the missile's using their solid fuel boosters to accelerate before their solid fuel ramjets fired and propelled them towards their target. He then pulled back on the throttles, dropping the engines back to full military power as he pulled out of his climb.

The next few seconds that passed seemed like an eternity. Staring at his HUD he could see his two outgoing missile tracks closing on an intercept course with the target missile track, each indicated in the HUD by a box with the closing velocity and distance to intercept. The intercept would be barely within the Rb 100's engagement envelope, the missile's ramjet flaming out at an altitude of 35,000 meters where it's residual kinetic energy would be just enough to hit the climbing ballistic missile.

What followed next were two distant flashes in quick succession as the warheads of both missile detonated. The extreme closing speed of the intercept gave the possibility that the fragment spray of the warheads missed the target missile, requiring that Hagerström continue tracking the target to ensure it had been hit and destroyed. At first the ballistic missile continued interrupted on its flight trajectory before tumbling and catastrophically breaking up a few moments later.

"Meteor 2 this is Meteor 1, target trashed" Hagerström indicated on the radio to his wingman who had been orbiting below during the engagement, confirming that the target had been successfully destroyed.

"Copy Meteor 1" replied his Wingman.

"Transferring target track file to Orion. The warhead could be still live, have to make sure friendlies in the projected flight path are alerted "

[Eitoan]

Eitoan Overseas Radio
Ralkovian Service: Етаан Замежныя радыё Смецце Абслугоўванне
Balkovian Service: Ейтоан отвъдморските радио балковски услуги

Eitoan Overseas Radio, 11 AM News.

The situation in Kravak continues to stabilize, even as Eitoan units continue to mop up scattered resistance in parts of the city and Regime units remain intact in formations up to battalion strength in outlying areas to the west. Stabilization is underway in secure areas on the east side, and in suburbs running up to The Slant. Small scale resistance has been reported over the last eight hours in the towns of Balrasa and Lahoysk, and in the Kapyi and Lepel neighborhoods and the campus of Arad Technical University. These areas remain under martial law, and the 6 AM to 6 PM curfew remains in effect there. Curfew violations are punishable by immediate imprisonment and a hearing under a court martial. The fires caused by arson overnight at the Kanyev Plastics Extrusion plant on Horaki Street are still burning and the immediate area has been evacuated. A Federal Ralkovian/Occupation Authority Joint Commission is in the meeting at the Aspravochy Trust building as a to lay the groundwork for appraisal of businesses for foreign investors, most notably including some Golden Throne concerns. The area of a 5 block radius around Aspravochy Trust has been cordoned off during the commission proceedings.

Basic services in central Kravak, and along the waterfront have been largely restored as order returns to the Central Business District and major docking and haulage facilities. Marine traffic on the lake remains under wartime prohibition, and berthing prices have risen significantly in Orav, Barv and ports in neutral states bordering the lake as vessels registered under the Regime fled the war zone at the start of hostilities. The Central Business District and wards 2, 3, 5, and 8 remain under a 6 AM to 6 PM curfuew. Police presence has taken an upswing in the last 48 hours, and the expected release of 4800 officers and patrolmen following interrogation in the next three days to duty has been announced. Civilians are warned that congregating in groups greater than three remains cause for suspicion, and are advised to act appropriately. On the west side entrenched rear guard action from Regime remnants continues in the area bordered by Tzidon Road, Route 48-A, the West Kravak Industrial Railroad tracks, and Travrev Creek. Further to the west, along the lake and the areas surrounding Route 10 elements of Regime armor and infantry remain in control as the force there apparently attempts a breakout to areas beyond Eitoan control. The situation remains very serious there, and civilians are advised to take all precautions.

The Eitoan Army reminds civilians under occupation to continue to follow local authorities until such time as they are removed and replaced under military control. Once cleared of complicity with Regime or Raskov military, intelligence or terrorist activities local authorities will be reinstated. Civilians are reminded that since the Tyrazev Forest Massacre of Eitoan prisoners, no prisoners identified as belonging to the former Imperial Death Guard are to be taken, and those civilians found to be hiding Death Guard of their own free will will also be shot. The army also reports synagogues in Ein Ganim, Amon, Krayat B’yalak, and Krayat Motz’kn will be opening for services this Shabbos, under approved rabbinate.

The Army advises those Regime forces trapped west of Kravak that surrender is now their best option. No road or rail traffic has been permitted into the pocket in the last 7 days, and all routes are under drone surveillance. Supplies of food and medicine within the pocket are dwindling fast. Evacuation across the lake is impossible, and all marine traffic is subject to air and missile attack. Those Regime forces, whether officers or enlisted following normal surrender will be escorted to internment away from the fighting, for eventual repatriation as arranged by Federal Ralkovian and military authorities. Those initiating fire or returning fire will be hunted down and killed if refusing surrender.

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Estate of The High Lord Y’ravsky
West of Traboloff Ridge

The men advanced at a pace, deliberately through the stubbly prairie, part of the Eitoan advance. The men of the 7th Army, 81st Infantry, part of Force PF were the southern anchor of the force, now fanning out across the plain, the hill country to their backs. Further to their north, the Eitoan Armor was rolling, finally, at full force. To their south, the Eitoan 4th Army, beneficiaries of a rapid advance early in the fighting. This was fallow land, bordering on a small stand of birch trees on the estate. As far as could be reconnoitered by the unaided eye, this company was unopposed. Satellite and drone intelligence reported small units of opposition from the retreating Ralkovians, still likely to inflict damage. Here Squad L, mostly a young crew, in country for the first time under fire advanced toward a barn and several sheds.

The men continued carefully along for the next 45 minutes, over relatively open country. As they apporached the barn, Sergeant Alward called for a pause. The men fell out, some smoking, some napping. Alward contacted intelligence once again, to confirm the all clear to enter the buildings.

“Yes, OK. We’ll move in, secure the barn and outbuildings, and bivouac for the night.”

“Roger that, Alward. Proceed”.

Alward ordered the men up. They geared up, spread out, and approached the farm buildings.

Corporal Nabraz’y led the way. 2 yards to his right, PFC Dranan trailed him by a few steps. Abrams, a short, freckle faced draftee three months out of high school in Caseyville fanned out to Drannan’s right. It was quiet as the sun sank lower in the haze. A slight breeze kicked up. Abrams fell dead.

“Down, down, down!” barked Alward. The men flattened.

“Where the fuck did that come from?” screamed Dranan.

“Quiet there” Nabraz’y ordered.

Another shot. This one wide right of Alward.

The sergeant quickly contacted sector drone control. “We’re taking small arms fire, likely sniper, in front of outbuildings, Traboloff estate. No handle of direction or strength of force. Get some damn identification and support in here. Now”

Nine minutes later, two KT-4 hunter killer UAV hummed overhead, then darted off to the nearby glade of trees. The drone noise dampened. The drones disappeared into the thicket.

Two minutes passed. One drone reemerged. Four more minutes. Two shots. Five more minutes passed.

Alward’s communicator crackled. “This is sector drone control We have a confirmed kill. Advise to proceed with caution.”

“Thank you”, said Alward.

The men continued on.

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To: General Wanda Koincov, Eitoan Army, Director, High Command Council,
Randy Braswell Barracks, Vladarsik, Eitoan

CC: Generalfeldmarschall Heinrich von Eberstein, Commander-in-Chief, Arcaenian
Army

Daily Summary of Progress, Project Marble



At this time all airbase facilities at Point N, Ralkovia are firmly in Eitoan hands, although small arms fire has been reported in the hinterlands beyond the Zhukov airfield. Perimeter of Point N facilities are under heavy patrol on foot, vehicle and UAV. All prisoners taken at the approaches to Point N have been evacuated eastward to holding camps more than 40 miles from current lines. The Point N sector is quiet. Now in the third day of operation, the Air Force reports 75 sorties out of forward airbases, no loss of pilots. Two older F-35s down for maintenance, awaiting parts. Jet fuel is in limited quantities, inhibiting air superiority operations at Point N. Of yesterday’s action, 73 flights were in support of ground operations for the 4th Army and Force PF, 2 raids on nearby SAM sites close in to Urar. Drone operations continue at N, 24 reconnaissance missions yesterday and 15 close ground air strikes against dug in Regime units.

As forces build up in the 4th Army sector and the Arcaneans and Force PF make progress from the north, the major decision regarding deployment comes to the value of destroying or alternatively isolating Regime units south of Urar. We estimate the equivalent of four divisions south of the city to the border, much of it consisting of units retreating from Kravak. As long as port facilities remain open there remains the possibility of Regime opposition from the south. We do not have reason to believe that even at full strength Regime forces south of Urar pose a threat to dislodge us from key points, or to stop the advance toward the city itself. That threat diminishes as elements of the 5th Army advance toward the city, contingent on mop up operations in the pocket west of Kravak. Overall, we are thinking to cut off access to Urar itself from the south, mainly through air and missile operations, and let the Regime remnants hang out to dry as we move on the city. It may be possible also to encourage desertion across the border to the downriver states on the Dikk. This could be facilitated by selective elimination of key Regime commanders among scattered units.

Logistical efforts are directed to redeployment of major 5th Army formations to the 4th’s left flank. The bulk of the 5th’s armor is scheduled for transfer this week, with sufficient force remaining in place from the 82nd Armored to prevent breakout of remaining Regime units from the West Kravak pocket, at least without significant heavy equipment. Two transport companies from the Uniformed Support Corps have joined the 4th this week from Occupied Ralkovia and are performing as best as possible. Uniformed Support Corps has also replaced orderlies throughout most of the remaining medical facilities in the Kravak and Slant sectors. It is expected that the remainder of the 5th’s infantry, exclusive of airborne currently deployed in central Kravak will be replaced by the Occupation Army, and such units will be given 4 to 5 days leave starting late next week before shipping out toward Urar.

Further north Force PF is now largely exited the Mrahilyow Valley, and is currently in pursuit of Regime armor. PF has made progress catching up with the right edge of the 4th, and is now keeping pace with the Arcaneans as planned. Casualties are as expected, but resistance is stiffening. At this point PF hasn’t been the beneficiary of repositioning of air assets westward, but this will be remedied in the upcoming week, by additional sorties originating in Ba’alkobia and in fields captured in the early fighting.

Casualty rates are currently at 6% and improving week over week. The heaviest losses to date have been in the 8th Air Force, 46th Attack Group. The attrition rate has been high for them, losing six bombers and, surprisingly, 15 large UAVs in the last month. I will in all likelihood request pulling operations for the 46th, and will have General Barrow devote more time to review of their performance and make changes to get them up to speed.

General Lawrence Reitz, Commander, Project Marble
Belovo, Federation of Ralkovian States

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

THE FALL OF URAR

Urar
Regime Ralkovia
4 weeks since X-day

Urar was eastern Ralkovias largest port city. Situated on the Dikk River the city had been one the largest trade empires of the former Ralkovian Empire, importing the raw materials and countless slave needed to sustain the Ralkovian machine. With the capture of Urar the encirclement of the Regime forces in southern portion of the Regime would be complete and the process of liquidating the pockets of Regime resistance could commence. The Eitoains had captured Kravak and had begun pushing north toward the Arcaenian spearhead, liberating the Arcaenains from having to defend their open southern flank and allowing them to continue pushing North. The spring thaw had complicated the Arcaenian offensive, the floods and deep mud slowing the movement of the advancing Arcaenian mechanized units.

The task of capturing of the Urar had been assigned to Army Group A which would encircle and capture the city while Army Groups B and C drove northward, pushing towards Haraxby while Army Group A completed the encirclement of the Regime forces in the south. the I Panzer Corps was to attack into the city from the north while the III Panzer Corps attacked from the south, creating an enormous double pincer envelopment that would destroy the Regime forces inside the city. The last several days had seen the Arcaenians break cut through the defensive rings the Regime constructed around the city and created bridgeheads over the Urar River, opening the door to the city proper. Having encircled Urar the Arcaenians then launches a two pronged attack into the city proper, the I Panzer Corps attacking the north of the city while the III Panzer Corps attacked in the south.

Four week of aerial attacks against the military and industrial targets in the city by the Arcaenian Luftwehr had reduced virtually everything outside the residential districts to rubble. Massed aistrikes by Luftwehr B 80 and B 90 strategic bombers had been used to break the regime defenses in and around the city, relentlessly attacking and destroying Regime troop columns, tanks, fortified positions, and supply depots in the face of the advancing Arcaenian army. The attack into the city itself was supported by massed cannon and rocket artillery fires, tactical ballistic missiles strikes, and massed airstrikes by Luftwehr fighter-bomber and strategic bomber aircraft. Entire city blocks were vaporized by thousands of shells and artillery rockets while more hardened targets were dealt with by heavy penetrating bombs dropped by Luftwehr bombers.

In the North the I Panzer Corp's 1st Panzer Division had attacked into northern Urar along either side of the Urar-Haraxy railroad meeting stiff resistance from entrenched Regime defenders in the northern city suburbs that had to be broken with air strikes and fire support from AB 37 fighter bombers and StuM 383 assault guns. The 5th Panzer Division attacked simultaneously up from the main highway to Haraxy, fighting its past several Regime armor units in the city suburbs and capturing the city's main airport. Outside the city the 7th Panzer Division screened the advance and captured the other major northern road exits of the city to prevent the encircled Regime defenders from fleeing north. In the south the III Panzer Corp's 12th Panzer Division and 6th Panzergrenadier Division attacked in echelon into the southern half of the city from the east, the advance being slowed by a series of deep anti-tank ditches lined with Regime anti-tank missile teams which had to be broken by dismounted infantry attacks before the armor could advance. By the end of the day the divisions had converged on the city center and captured the city's main railway station. The following day elements of the the 1st and 5th Panzer Divisions managed to break through the stout Regime defenses in the northern suburbs and factory districts and link up with forces of the 12th Panzer Division and 6th Panzergrenadier Division in the central square of the city. During the day the The 12th Panzer Division had also detached one of its brigades who broke out and re-entered the city from the south in an effort to encircle the regime defenders in the center of the city. By this time around two-thirds of the city was Arcaenian control. The next two days would see the Arcaenian units engaged in brutal urban combat, clearing the city block by block and building by building of Regime forces. Four days into the battle was city was largely cleared of Regime defenders, although fighting continues for another days as the Arcaenians cleared the remnants of Regime resistance from a factory complex in the north of the city.

With the fall of Urar and the fate of the Regime had been sealed. The Regime units that has been sent south were now trapped in the ensuring encirclement that had split the Regime's territory in two. Most of the trapped Regime units began to surrender in mass although additional Regime units, in particular the elite Ralkovian Death Guard units that remained, continued to fight to the bitter end and would see their isolated pockets of resistance liquidated over the next several days. Having lost several dozen divisions and virtually all of their armor and heavy weapons the Regime would now be forced to defend a front over 1,000 kilometers wide without the frontline troops or reserves to counter any kind of alliance breakthrough. Behind the scenes negotiations for armistice with the remains of the Regime's high command had been initiated by the Alliance. The armistice would be signed on February 25th, 35 days after the start of the invasion. Regime Ralkovia would be divided in two with everything from Barskav to Urar absorbed into the Ralkovian Federation and under alliance occupation. This would mark the end of the 2nd Ralkovian War. The peace however, would just be temporary. With a resurgent Ralkovian Reich and elements of the former Ralkovian Empire plotting to retake their once great nation renewal of war in Ralkovia was only a matter of time.

THE END