[Earth II] "He or she who through use of violence..."

by **Cotland** » Mon Dec 16, 2013 8:56 am

"He or she who through use of violence, threats or in any other illegal manner forcefully aquires control of an aircraft or ship underway or who interfers in a flight or sea voyage, shall be punished by imprisonment for life, or to suffer death if bodily harm or death has been inflicted in the course of the illegal action.
In the same manner, he or she who through such means as mentioned above forcefully aquires control over devices or facilities on the continental shelf, shall be punished."
- § 139, Criminal Code 1965 (Realm of Cotland)

MV "MAERSK ACHERON"
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
1200 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

The Mediterranean was a relatively chilly place in the middle of December, the Master of the Cottish-flagged merchantman "Maersk Acheron" felt as he closed his windbreaker jacket. With temperatures of just over 15 degrees Celsius, and strong westerly gusts, the seas were starting to get choppy. The Cottish-flagged "Maersk Acheron" was a 14,120 ton container ship, sailing the "milk run" from Gibraltar via Crete to Port Suez, carrying goods and equipment for the many different customers that used the Maersk Group to haul their respective goods.

MV "Maersk Acheron" had left Gibraltar that morning, after having loaded up 600 TEUs from the small container port there, and were now en route to Crete where she would disembark 400 of the TEUs and pick up another 500 TEUs for the Port Suez run. Her crew of 21 men had just come aboard, having rotated with another crew in Gibraltar the previous afternoon. Now, she had set off to sea and were steaming towards Crete at 14 knots. Due to the weather conditions, her master had decided to sail on a somewhat southerly course this time in order to avoid the worst of the weather further north near the Spanish coast. He had decided to ignore the warnings from the Cottish Maritime Advisory Board that there might be piracy activity near the Moroccan coast, believing that the simple fact that his ship was flying the Cottish merchant flag was sufficient to keep any potential pirates away.

NEAR MELILLA
MOROCCAN COAST
1200 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

After the fall of the Byzantine Empire three months ago, the Byzantine province of Morocco, once a calm, peaceful place had decended into chaos and anarchy, with a next to non-existant central power trying to control the various regions that had collapsed into anarchy and de facto autonomy. In the chaos and confusion that had erupted, Abdul ibn Mazahan, a local officer-turned-warlord had taken control of the Oriental provine of Morocco and established himself as the de-facto leader, mainly through the use of promises, threats and excessive force against anyone who opposed him. While his forces weren't that large, he did have 12,000 men under his command, about two hundred tanks and armoured vehicles, a handful of artillery pieces, and more importantly, a Floréal class light frigate and three OPV-64 class patrol boats, as well as a number of smaller skiffs and fast RHIBs which could carry armed men.

These had been used to great effect over the last month, taking merchant ships from smaller, insignificant nations as prizes and bringing them into Nador harbour, where the ships were offloaded and the captured goods sold on the black market, while the ships themselves and the crews were held captive while awaiting the payment of ransoms.

It was just after noon that the surface search radar mounted on the Tres Forcas mountain picked up a new potential prize for the Mazahan group. Given the size of the radar return and the AIS information that matched the radar plot, it looked like a good-sized merchantman, ripe for the picking.

Twenty minutes later, the patrol boat "Raïs Charkaoui" sortied from Melilla harbour and headed north towards Alborán Island at 20 knots.

MV "MAERSK ACHERON"
SOUTH OF ALBORÁN ISLAND
1430 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

MV "Maersk Acheron" was 20 nautical miles off the Moroccan coast, well in international waters when the bridge lookout reported a warship coming on a collision course them, apparently making full speed. Confused, the Master picked up his binoculars and looked at the fast approaching grey-painted man'o'war. As he looked, the warship started flashing morse signals to them, ordering the ship to stop and heave too and prepare to be boarded for safety inspection. The Master had not been informed of any navy conducting any form of safety inspections here, and certainly not in international waters, and chose to ignore the flashing lights. At the same time, jamming of the maritime VHF channel 16, the internationally recognized emergency channel, started. So too did were the internationally recognized emergency radio frequencies in the MF and HF bands.

A few minutes later, the warship, which had now come within 1000 meters of the merchant ship started flashing lights again. As the lights were ignored, the warship fired a warning shot with its 40mm bow gun across the bow of the Cottish merchant ship.

This prompted the Master of "Maersk Acheron" to start manouvering radically, forcing the OPV-64 to carry out evasive manouvers, while using the INMARSAT-C terminal on the bridge to send out a distress call to the company main office in Copenhagen in Cotland.

To illustrate his displeasure, the OPV-64 opened up with his port-side 14.5MM machine gun, raking the starboard side of the "Maersk Acheron"'s bridge, injuring the helmsman in the process as he was hit in the side by ricochets. At the same time, a 40MM round was fired into the "Maersk Acheron"'s masts, destroying the radiomasts, including the INMARSAT-C antenna.

Deciding he had no chance of getting away from the attacker, and seeing the bleeding helmsman in great agony, the Master decided that it wasn't worth it to continue to risk the lives of his men. He ordered all stop to the engine room, and the "Maersk Acheron" slowed from the flank speed of 18 knots to dead in the water as the crew gathered themselves in the crew's mess. The instructions from the Master were clear: don't be a hero, don't resist, and do as they say.

As "Maersk Acheron" slowed down, "Raïs Charkaoui" manouvered itself alongside and threw grappling hooks over the side, holding position as twelve heavily armed men climbed up onto deck and started making for the engine room and the bridge.

As they reached the bridge, they found the Master alone on the bridge and, after a little bit of threatening and screaming, forced him to instruct the crew to come out with their hands up. The crew did as ordered, and the "Maersk Acheron" was secured by the pirates within half an hour. Unfortunately, the crew had sabotaged their ship and left her dead in the water, forcing the "Raïs Charkaoui" to take her under tow back to Nador.

A.P. MAERSK MØLLER GROUP HEADQUARTERS
COPENHAGEN, PROVINCE OF DENMARK, REALM OF COTLAND
15:50 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

The Christmas holidays were fast approaching the Cottish homeland, though there weren't an snow in the streets of Copenhagen just yet. That was the last thing on the mind of the CEO of the A.P. Maersk Møller Group, Nils Smedegaard Andersen, right now. Director Andersen had been on his way down to his Mercedes town car to go home to his family when a secretary had come running after him, telling him that he was urgently needed in his office right away.

After taking the elevator up to his lavish office in the 7th floor of the Maersk Building in the fashionale Esplanaden street of Copenhagen, Director Andersen was bluntly informed that their container ship "Maersk Acheron" had sent out a distress message where they reported being under attack from an unknown warship, and that further attempts of contacting the "Acheron" had been unsuccessful.

Shocked, the Director instructed that the crisis staff be convened and that the report be passed on to the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Defence. If "Maersk Acheron" really had been attacked by a foreign warship, that was most certainly to be considered an act of war.

Worse still, the company's insurance didn't cover acts of war.

by **Cotland** » Mon Dec 16, 2013 9:47 am

ADMIRALITY
OSLO, PROVINCE OF NOREG, REALM OF COTLAND
16:30 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

"Say again?" Rear Admiral Evensrud, the Flag Officer on Duty in the Admirality said with disbelief.

The Commander who had delivered the news re-read the email they had received from the A.P. Maersk Møller Group headquarters only ten minutes earlier.

"Sir, the Cottish-flagged merchant ship 'Maersk Acheron' is reported attacked by an unidentified, foreign warship near Melilla, Morocco, approximately two hours ago. The Maersk group have been unable to contact their ship and therefore requests military assistance. The Ministries of Shipping and Defence have been informed and have passed it onto us."

The Rear Admiral took off his glasses and looked the Commander squarely in the eyes.

"Who is operating in that area that don't like us?"

"I am uncertain sir. The Byzantines weren't ever really friendly with us, but that country collapsed almost three months ago. The Spaniards haven't made any noises in years, not since the late 2000s when the Third Spanish States collapsed. The Pheonicians have yet to make formal diplomatic inquiries with us, but they appear friendly and more concerned with making a profit than going to war. What information we have on them is from our Layartebian allies. Apart from them, the Apilonians are operating in the area but they are among our closest allies, thus making it highly unlikely that they have been part of this. Frankly sir, we don't know."

"That isn't good enough Commander," The Admiral said sharply. "I want to know who is responsible, and I want to find out where that merchantman is. What units do we have in the area?"

"Sir, as far as submarines go, the fleet submarine U.422 is operating off Cyprus, keeping tabs on the situation in Turkey. The fleet submarine U.408 is off the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, conducting joint exercises with the Layartebians, while the tactical missile submarine U.481 is in transit from the Barents Sea towards its patrol area off Malta. Last time she reported in, she was off Ireland."

The Commander looked down at the print-out he had brought to the briefing, expecting the Admiral to want to know what units were nearby.

"As for surface units, elements of the Danske Løve amphibious battle group is docked in Souda Bay, Crete for shoreleave and recreation before starting their transit home for Christmas tomorrow. Other elements of the same group are docked in Gibraltar. The group in Souda Bay consists of the battleship Danske Løve, the amphibious assault ship Ottoman, the light carrier Norrbotten, the heavy cruiser Sverre Sigurdsson, the light cruiser Mangust, five destroyers, two frigates, four landing ships and two replenishment ships, as well as a Regimental Landing Team built around Marine Infantry Regiment 16. The ships in Gibraltar consists of a destroyer escorting an oiler to Crete. A grant total of sixty light fighters, forty helicopters and four thousand six hundred Royal Marines, sir."

"No fleet carriers?" The Admiral, himself a former naval aviator, asked.

"The closest fleet carrier is the Finland carrier battle group, which is off western Ireland and heading home for Christmas."

"Very good. Draw up orders for the destroyer in Gibraltar to investigate, and give the carrier and amphibious groups warning orders. Also, contact the Apilonians and Layartebians and see if they know anything about the situation."

"Very good sir."

Twenty minutes later, orders reached their recipients.

HMS STEGG (J.713)
TYPE 55 "SMERTE" CLASS GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER
OFF GIBRALTAR
16:57 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

His Majesty's Ship "Stegg" had just passed through the strait of Gibraltar, and was about to enter port in Gibraltar for a day of shore leave while they waited for their charge, the fleet oiler LA.1482 to be topped up and ready to leave port, when a signalman came onto the bridge with a message slip.

The Captain, sitting in his comfy leather chair on the bridge took the slip, read it, and cursed out loud, attracting the attention of the bridge team. Turning to the signalman, he said, "Make to Admirality, 'Orders acknowledged.'", before rising and walking over to the electronic chart table. "Officer of the watch, get me to Alborán Island. Best speed, if you please. I'll be in OPS."

With that, the Captain turned and left the bridge team looking puzzled at the signalman, who handed the message slip to the Officer of the Watch before making a bee-line for the Comms room. The OOW ordered Stegg to come about before he read the message out loud.

"From Admirality, to STEGG. Message begins. One. Cottish merchant ship 'Maersk Acheron' MMSI 256329771 reported attacked by unknown warship in vicinity of Alborán Island. Have been unable to contact "Maersk Acheron'. Last reported position 35 degrees 47.5 minutes North, 3 degrees 3.4 minutes West. Two. STEGG to investigate and recover 'Maersk Acheron'. Three. Normal Rules of Engagement apply. Four. Port visit to Gibraltar cancelled. Message ends."

There was a collective moan from the bridge crew, who had been looking forward to a night of debauchery in the most excellent Apilonian harbour city.

Five minutes later, after having contacted Gibraltar Control and cancelled the port visit and ditto harbour pilot, the sleek 8,000 ton destroyer kicked in all four gas turbines and started making for the last reported position of "Maersk Acheron."

The destroyer would cover the 116 nautical miles in less than four hours, making 32 knots.

by **Layarteb** » Mon Dec 16, 2013 12:40 pm

December 16, 2013 - 14:30 hrs [UTC+1]
Balearic Sea
24 nautical miles from Ibiza
(38° 43' 42" N, 1° 50' 31" E)

The Empire of Layarteb claimed twenty-four nautical miles as its territorial waters and a further twelve for its contiguous zone. Two hundred nautical miles was considered the Empire's exclusive economic zone and in many cases, that overlapped into similar claims by sovereign countries. If the Empire recognized said country, a compromise was worked out, if the Empire did, the limits stood and the Empire enforced them vehemently. However, that wasn't to say that the Empire flatly disallowed the use of its seas. In fact, the Empire believed strongly in freedom of the seas and acted against claims that were considered excessive or baseless. For that reason, the Empire had a sizeable fleet of patrol vessels and corvettes that patrolled territorial waters. In the event of war, they were the final defense between an enemy fleet and the Empire's shores.

On patrol south of the Balearic Islands was a single, Druid-class patrol boat. Weighing just 118 long tons, the Druid-class was only 117-feet long. It had a short endurance, with supplies for only two weeks at sea and a crew of just thirteen. The Druid's were built for speed though. At flank speed, they could do 65 knots and they could cruise at 33 knots; however, most of the time they spent at speeds below 20 knots. A CODAG vessel, the Druid was meant to outrun anything on the water and as such, it was an interceptor vessel. It was lightly armed with a 45-millimeter main gun, two heavy machine guns, and a 4-tube anti-ship missile launcher. Export versions featured downgraded capabilities and weaponry.

Cruising along at 18 knots, the Druid was three days into its two-week patrol and since the Balearic Islands were a special cultural zone of the Empire, missions around it were often of a rescue nature. Every so often smugglers were caught but there was little incentive to smuggle goods into the Empire's SCZs, the rules and restrictions of trade were greatly relaxed. Motoring along on rather calm seas at the edge of the Empire's maritime boundary, the crew was mostly relaxed. Drills had been conducted for the first two days, and today was a day "off," so to speak.

The Druid did not have the sophisticated gear of a major warship. Instead, it had only the systems it needed to track and intercept vessels of a non-battle nature. The Druid wasn't meant to go toe-to-toe with a major warship such as a frigate or a corvette. Its tactic in such a situation would be to fire all of its missiles and run for safety at top speed. The vessel did not even have any anti-missile systems outside of a limited ECM system and a decoy launcher. One thing it did have though was a healthy array of radios, which were always manned.

Moving around south of Ibiza on a south-southwest course, the Druid was too far away from the situation off of Morocco to be of any good, or to even know what was happening but the radioman's curiosity was piqued when several bursts of static, akin to noise jamming, echoed over the open VHF, MF, and HF frequencies, the ones used by vessels to hail one another for emergencies. The Druid was too far away to be affected but with good atmospheric conditions, the returns from the situation off of Alborán Island came through clearly enough but only for just a few moments. The radioman made an entry in his log, called the duty officer, and reported the signal burst.

There was nothing further that the Druid could do nor would do, they had a patrol area and that wasn't it. Without further information, the radioman went back to monitoring for traffic while the Druid continued along on its watch.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ | ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

December 16, 2013 - 12:30 hrs [UTC-5]
Norfolk, Virginia
Atlantic Fleet Headquarters
(36° 55' 22" N, 76° 18' 20" W)

Intelligence for the 1st Fleet of the Imperial Layartebian Navy was routed through a single office, which had liaisons with the Ministry of Intelligence and other intel shops throughout the Ministry of Defense. Intelligence within the Imperial Layartebian Military and the "civilian" agency was one giant spider web, interconnected and intertwined. Thus, when the request for information from the Royal Cottish Navy bounced its way over the Atlantic Ocean and to fleet headquarters in Norfolk, the chief intelligence officer of the 1st Fleet, Captain Sam Haynes could tap into the vast intelligence network of the Empire for an answer. The position of CIO for the 1st Fleet was a prestigious position and though it was commanded by a captain, it was a powerful enough position that even admirals hushed when the CIO spoke. CPT Haynes had been there for four years already but he had spent twenty years in naval intelligence. An "egghead" by definition because he had never been a sailor, CPT Haynes understood the important of actual experience. Half of his staff was bonafide sailors and the other half were eggheads, like him.

Offhand, CPT Haynes had no answer to give the Cottish communiqué. To his knowledge, the area around Gibraltar was as safe as could be; after all, Gibraltar was under control of the Apilonians and the Apilonians believed in open seas as much as the Layartebians did. Not one to give the Cottish a quick and unsubstantiated reply, CPT Haynes picked up the phone on his desk and called down to the "cubicles" as they were called, which was the main working area for fleet intelligence. The duty officer was Lieutenant Herbert Hudson, a fellow egghead. "Lieutenant Hudson, what is the situation down there this morning?"

"All green across the board sir, is there something flowing down?"

"No," CPT Haynes said, scratching his head. It was odd that the Cottish were asking about a precarious situation in a precarious area and his people had no information. "But I just received a request for information from the Cottish for an area north of Morocco, perhaps you're familiar with it, Alborán Island?"

"Alborán Island huh sir," repeated LT Hudson as he scribbled down the name on a pad. "Nothing rings a bell but I will look around and find out if we have anything. How quickly do you need this?"

"Fairly quickly Lieutenant."

"Okay sir; give me fifteen minutes, if I can't find anything in fifteen minutes it doesn't exist."

"Good enough, thank you Lieutenant," CPT Haynes said as he put the paper aside, hung up the phone, and went back to what he was working on, putting a nagging worry in the back of his mind aside, for another fifteen minutes.

Several floors below, LT Hudson began to query the database for Alborán Island and the surrounding areas. He went back as far as five years and while the system ran, he finished a cup of coffee that he had been neglecting. Lucky for him, it was piping hot when he made it so it retained some degree of warmth. Twelve minutes and thirty-nine seconds later, the database pinged a hit and LT Hudson nearly fell out of his chair as he scrolled through the dispatch.

Immediately, he put in a call CPT Haynes, passing through his receptionist in the process. "Sir, we've got something."

"What is it Lieutenant?"

"Sir I'd rather not say over the line, are you open?"

"Come up right away," answered CPT Haynes, whose blood pressure suddenly began to rise. When LT Hudson walked through his door four minutes later, he dispensed with any greeting, "Give it to me Lieutenant."

"Sixteen months ago, we intercepted a transmission from a Roman merchant vessel. Technically it's illegal what we did so that's why I don't want to put it on open air."

"Go on."

"It came through the 9th Maritime Patrol Group and it concerned piracy near Alborán Island. The Roman merchant vessel was not attacked but the bridge crew reported seeing unflagged warships pouncing on an Egyptian-flagged freighter. The Roman vessel continued unharmed and reported the situation into Rome. We didn't pick up anything afterwards. The information was just catalogued. Then, three months ago, the 9th MPG intercepted another transmission, this one from a Brazilian-flagged freighter that was attacked southwest of Alborán Island by two high-speed warships. The warships fired upon them but boarders were repelled when the Brazilians fired back with small arms that they had onboard.

"Again, it was catalogued and there was no follow up but a general warning went out to merchants making the Gibraltar run to stay clear of Alborán Island. Sea-lanes already do so the warning was likely moot. We received no follow-up from anyone."

"That's a doosey isn't it Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir it is. Here's the interesting analysis. A Roman freighter was untouched, as far as we know no Apilonian merchants were attacked. Certainly, no Layartebian vessels were attacked. They hit an Egyptian and a Brazilian vessel. Neither country has any level of defense in regards to merchants, unlike the Cottish, the Apilonians, or us. In addition, neither have naval forces of a substantial nature and both of their governments are in bad shape, or at least were at the time."

"So we've got pirates, that's what this amounts to?"

"In my estimation yes but this is based on two reports."

"Two first-hand reports."

"Yes sir."

"First-hand knowledge is key Lieutenant. Thank you, I will transmit a reply to the Cottish. Whomever they are though, this was about the biggest mistake that they have made yet."

"I'll agree sir."

"Put out a priority on the area and let's gleam what we can from around the world. Somehow, I think this is going to make it up the ladder."

"Yes sir." Minutes later, CPT Haynes drafted his reply to the Royal Cottish Navy. He was vague, mainly to protect the intelligence-gathering efforts, which was a bit of a joke, since the Cottish had just as intrusive of an intelligence-apparatus as the Empire had. He warned them that reports of piracy had existed around Alborán Island and that a general warning had been issued to Layartebian-flagged vessels, but as no attacks against Layartebian-flagged vessels were recorded, and the area was not necessarily the Empire's responsibility, there was little information or action that the Empire could offer.

by **Terra Reborn** » Mon Dec 16, 2013 1:39 pm

Captain John Flynn DSO
H.M.S. Zealous, Outbound from Gibraltar
Mediterranean Sea
Monday 16th December 2013, 1700hrs Local Time (0700hrs Imperial Capital Time, 1700hrs Zulu Time)

The sleek from of the Imperial Type-45E Destroyer rounded the Rock of Gibraltar and began to head eastwards. Leaving the Aircraft Carrier Reprisal, the Battlecruiser Defiant and an assortment of cruisers, destroyers and frigates that made up the rest of the bulk of the Imperial Mediterranean Fleet, the other bit was over at Rhodes. The ship was HMS Zealous, a seasoned ship commanded by a seasoned commanding officer: Captain John Flynn, who had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his service during the Portuguese War, serving under Viscountess Standford. The enhanced Type-45 was a design unique to the Imperial Navy, they had taken the original design, which had been designed back when the Imperial Navy’s budget was much smaller, and generally made it better to the extent that it was, now, able to compete with the best air defence destroyers out there, and it was indeed one of the most capable types in the world, but it was also not an effective multi-role warship if called upon.

It was for a decidedly non-air defence role that the Zealous was getting underway from Gibraltar. She had been the Fleet Ready Escort for the Mediterranean Fleet, this meant that she was at fifteen-minute order to sail at all times and was intended to be able to get underway to respond to any incident within the Fleet’s area of responsibility far sooner than any other asset might be able to. The Imperial Mediterranean Fleet had been informed of the situation by the Cottish and although they had no specific information on the situation it had allowed them to get a ship underway as quickly as possible. The fact that this was not an Imperial ship was beside the point, it was an allied merchant ship so it was their duty. More to the point, no Imperial Naval Station was likely to tolerate a piratical element anywhere within their area of responsibility, one so close to Gibraltar that it could be reached in only a handful of hours. That it had been allowed to remain was probably a result of a fuck-up at Naval Intelligence and the Admiralty, now it fell to one ship to respond immediately to this incident. That ship was the Zealous, and although she’d probably arrive too late she at least had to try.

Captain Flynn stood on the bridge wing of the Zealous and watched as the Rock slipped further aft of them as the destroyer sped eastwards at speeds in excess of thirty-two knots. He had replaced his peaked cap with the Navy’s standard black beret and grabbed his binoculars and placed them around his neck. Holding them up to his eyes he looked directly off the ship’s head, maybe a half dozen nautical miles distant the shape of a Cottish destroyer was likewise speeding eastwards. That ship, which had meant to be coming into Gibraltar for a run ashore had been redirected to respond. Surely two destroyers would be sufficient to deal with any pirate elements that might be out there, even if they were operating a warship of some sort. The Zealous herself had two quad missile launchers carrying the Perseus cruise missile for offensive actions, he had yet to check up on the armament of the Cottish warship in Janes Fighting Ships but he figured that it would have some form of surface-to-surface capability, and of course both ships had their main guns and supporting weapons for force protection and engagement with smaller craft.

Zealous was under orders to provide any and all assistance that was required to the Royal Cottish Navy for the duration of their operations within the Mediterranean, if the situation demanded it additional ships would be deployed. Captain Flynn had orders from Vice Admiral The Viscountess Standford, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Mediterranean Fleet, to subordinate himself and his command to the senior Cottish officer for the duration of any involvement in this entire affair, this was not the time for a chain of command issue and this was after all a Cottish ship that had been attacked in this case so it was only right. Flynn watched as some of his ratings came out on the deck and attached the signalling light, turned it in the direction of the Cottish Warship and began to signal.

The following message was signalled:

Cottish Warship, this is Imperial Warship Zealous, Warship Zealous, Warship Zealous. Break.

Have been ordered to render assistance to your operations against pirates in this area. Break.

Have been ordered to subordinate to your authority for duration of involvement in this matter. Break.

Will follow your lead. End.

by **Cotland** » Mon Dec 16, 2013 3:03 pm

HMS STEGG (J.713)
TYPE 55 "SMERTE" CLASS GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER
OFF GIBRALTAR
17:26 HOURS, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

The flashing light was read by the signalman on the bridge, and relayed to the Captain, who immediately instructed to send back the following.

WARSHIP ZEALOUS THIS IS WARSHIP STEGG

ROGER YOUR SIGNAL

REQUEST YOU SEARCH AREA NORTH-NORTHEAST OF ALBORÁN LIGHTHOUSE. WILL SEARCH AREA SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF SAME.

FURTHER COORDINATION VIA SIGNAL TO FOLLOW

OUT

HMS STEGG (J.713)
WEST OF ALBORÁN ISLAND
20:51 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

Klaxons rattled throughout the destroyer, waking up those who were still in their bunks and jousting others from whatever it was they were doing as the klaxon was muted and a calm voice was heard over the 1MC.

"Hands to action stations, hands to action stations, hands to action stations. Assume Damage Control State ONE, set Condition Zulu. Surface Warning RED, Air Warning YELLOW. Hands to action stations, hands to action stations, hands to action stations."

The klaxon was heard once again, but by now, the 330-strong crew of the guided missile destroyer were already running to or reaching their action stations, donning white anti-flash gear as they ran along. In the magazines, ammunition for the ship's guns was brought up to their respective guns, missile batteries were run diagnostics on and made ready, while the advanced sensor suite of the destroyer was brought online.

The reason for the alert was that the CE/SSR.57 surface search radar mounted in the mast of the destroyer had detected a medium-sized radar contact some 10 nautical miles out, right on the horizon, which did not respond to IFF queries nor did it shine AIS info. This had been enough to bring the Cottish destroyer to a heightened state of alert, in this case action stations, as they closed to investigate.

It was quite dark by now, with the lighthouse at Alborán Island being the only source of light in the horizon as "Stegg" was operating without running lights. Having slowed to 12 knots, the destroyer hardly made a bow wake as it scanned the horizon with its radars and its lookouts scanned the horizon with night-vision binoculars.

The Captain appeared on the bridge, wearing anti-flash gear and protective equipment (helmet, body-armour and a gas mask in its carrying bag on his left hip) like the rest of the crew, having decided that he would get a better situational awareness from the bridge where he could actually see things rather than down in the operations room in the bowels of the ship. The Executive Officer, who normally ran the ship from the bridge in order to leave the warfighting to the Captain, naturally gave the bridge to the Captain when he appeared.

"Contact, green thirty, appearing on the horizon!" A lookout on the starboard bridge wing reported, causing the bridge crew to look in that general direction.

PATROL BOAT RAÏS CHARKAOUI
21:58 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

The crew of the "Raïs Charkaoui" could hardly believe their luck. After almost a week of no catches, they suddenly got two marks in one day! The patrol boat had barely finished delivering the blue-painted merchantman to Nador before they were called upon once again. The radar on Tres Forcas had reported another contact, this time one that didn't shine AIS, but that was sure to be a nicely sized coaster that was taking his chances going close to Morocco. Perhaps it was a Brazilian one again? The last one had given the Mazahan group a nice ransom, and some fantastic loot to boot!

With this in mind, the "Raïs Charkaoui" was making twenty-three knots towards the contact. They had radar and could just pick the coaster there on the horizon. It wasn't even trying to steer evasively! This would be easy.

Ten nautical miles out, as the coaster was appearing on the horizon and they probably would be appearing on his radar screen, the pirate boat started his customary jamming of emergency bands.

HMS STEGG (J.713)
22:06 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

"Bridge, Radio. We've detected jamming on MF, HF and VHF emergency frequencies. No jamming on other nets."

"Radio, CO. Roger." The Captain replied over the intercom before turning to the XO. "Looks like someone don't want us to talk to people."

"Indeed sir. He's closing fast. Recommend we issue warning off." The XO suggested.

The CO shook his head.

"No, not yet. Let him get closer. I want to know who he is and what he wants first." He picked up the intercom unit and pressed the button that connected him to the operations room.

"Ops, CO. Are we sure that this isn't a Layartebian or Apilonian?"

"CO, Ops. Yes sir. We interrogated with IFF, no joy. Besides, the Apilonian destroyer is searching to the north of us as per your instructions. This one's in the southeast."

"Right, I just had to get confirmation. Thanks. Out." The Captain said, depressing the OPS button on the intercom and terminating the connection before he looked in the general direction of the contact.

"How long until he's within gun range?"

"He's within range of our thirteen centimeter sir." The XO said. "Distance to target, now seven nautical miles. He appears to be doing approximately twenty-three knots, collision course. Twelve minutes until he's alongside sir."

"Very good. Prepare to fire an illumination round and to follow up with warning shots." The CO said, before turning to the signalman who's action station was on the bridge where he was to be ready to take signals down to Radio and send signals by flashing lights. Now, he was about to do the former.

"Make to Admirality and Zealous: 'Have sighted suspicious vessel in position, give them our position, am investigating.'"

PATROL BOAT RAÏS CHARKAOUI
22:11 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

"Raïs Charkaoui" was fast approaching the coaster, but things were a bit strange. The coaster didn't have running lights going. This would be a bit more challenging, the captain of "Raïs Charkaoui" thought, especially since he didn't have any functioning night vision equipment onboard. Still, he would press on regardless. Mazahan paid a pretty penny for prizes, and he definately needed the money if he was to retire to India.

He checked the radar plot again. Six nautical miles... No, make that five and a half. Close enough for them to read the light signals.

"Hamza, send the challenge!"

Hamza, standing on the port bridge wing, picked up an Aldis light and started signalling the challenge.

HMS STEGG (J.713)
22:14 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

"He's signalling sir!" A lookout reported.

The signalman, who had just returned to the bridge after delivering the message slip, immediately translated the blinking lights out loud. Despite the CO and XO both knowing how to decipher the signals, the signalman had younger, fresher eyes and did this for a living, thus translating quicker.

"Merchant vessel. This is coast guard. You are in territorial waters. Stop and heave too and prepare to be boarded for safety inspection." The signalman said out loud. "He thinks we're a merchantman sir."

"There are no merchant vessels close by. He must be meaning us sir." The XO stated.

The CO nodded slowly, a theory emerging in his head. It seemed that the "Maersk Acheron" had been stopped under pretense of a coast guard inspection and perhaps hijacked? He decided to play it cool.

"Send no reply. Maintain course and speed. Let's just see what he does."

A minute and half a nautical mile later, the signal was repeated, this time with a round fired across the bow of the destroyer.

Unfazed, the Captain turned to the XO and said laconically, "That was rather rude of them. Let's return the favor. Fire an illumination shell and issue hostile warning by Aldis."

A few seconds later, the 130MM cannon on the forecastle of the destroyer elevated itself and ejected a starshell.

PATROL BOAT RAÏS CHARKAOUI
22:16 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

Suddenly, things started going downhill. There was a sudden flash that had a nasty resemblence of a muzzle flash, then a sudden burst of light over the patrol vessel that illuminated the area of sea around the boat. Four nautical miles away, the captain of "Raïs Charkaoui" could see the dim outline of a warship much bigger than his. At least a frigate, if not a destroyer!

Almost immediately, there was flashing light activity from the warship.

"UNIDENTIFIED WARSHIP, THIS IS COTTISH WARSHIP J 713. YOU ARE ACTING IN A HOSTILE MANNER. STOP AND HEAVE TOO AND ESTABLISH COMMUNICATIONS WITH ME ON VHF CHANNEL 08 OR I SHALL OPEN FIRE UPON YOU."

The captain gulped as he gave hard left rudder and turned away from the destroyer, while screaming for the engine room to give him every last horsepower they could muster. He had a chance of getting away still.

HMS STEGG (J.713)
22:17 LOCAL TIME, 16 DECEMBER, 2013

"He's making a run for it sir." The XO reported.

"Well, we can't have any of that, now can we?" The CO said. "Weapons, CO. You are authorized to open fire. Disable him please."

The weapons control acknowledged the order and targeted the engine room of the fleeing patrol boat, which had yet to be properly identified. As "Stegg" increased to flank speed and started manouvering in order to get into an optimal firing position, the port-side 30MM autocannon and the 130MM main gun both opened up, sending twelve 30MM live and three 130MM "cold" rounds into the engine compartment of the patrol boat.

The effect was almost instant. The large rounds had smashed the machinery and rendered the patrol boat dead in the water, while the smaller rounds had wrecked the controls and killed the engine crew. Black smoke soon belched out from the rear of the patrol boat, which tried to return fire with its armaments. Its fire, manually operated and firing against a fast-moving, manouvering, dark target in the pitch black night, was quite ineffective.

Deciding that being fired upon was unacceptable, the destroyer's CO ordered the patrol boat silenced, and opened up with his guns at 4 nautical miles. A one-minute bombardment later, where almost all rounds hit home, the patrol boat was left a burning hulk, illuminating the night sky.

Closing up on the burning wreck, HMS "Stegg" lit up its searchlights in search of survivors in the water. Detecting five men in bright orange life jackets that were alive, the destroyer heaved too and lowered two RHIBs, each with an experienced boat crew and an armed detachment of Royal Marines who would control the survivors.

By 22:35 hours local time, the recovery effort was completed and five survivors had been picked up and brought under armed guard to the sickbay for a medical checkup.

The Captain, pleased with the preformance of his crew and noticing that the jamming of the emergency bands had ceased, sent off a signal to Admirality.

Z O 162137Z DEC 13
FM HMS STEGG
TO ADMIRALITY
HAMS ZEALOUS
INFO COMMIDFLT
COMAMFGRU 9
AMFGRU 9
MOD APILONIA
MOD LAYARTEB
BT
B E G R E N S E T
SIC ALA/WAU/MAA
RELEASABLE TO APILONIA AS RESTRICTED
RELEASABLE TO LAYARTEB AS OCTOBER RESTRICTED
MSGID/CONTACT REPORT/STEGG/001/DEC13/UPD/002//
1. HAVE ENGAGED WITH GUNFIRE AND SUNK UNIDENTIFIED PATROL BOAT IN POSITION 35.39N-003.16W AFTER BEING FIRED UPON IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS.
2. 5 HOSTILE SURVIVORS RESCUED.
3. NO FRIENDLY CASUALTIES.
BT

by **Terra Reborn** » Mon Dec 16, 2013 3:52 pm

Captain John Flynn DSO
H.M.S. Zealous, North West of Alboran Island
Mediterranean Sea
Monday 16th December 2013, 2210hrs Local Time (1100hrs Imperial Capital Time, 2100hrs Zulu Time)

The Zealous, as requested, had moved into a position north and North West of Alboran Island to begin their search. Much like their counterparts in the Cottish Warship to the south the Zealous was operating subtly, having extinguished all lighting and having only red lights on the bridge as well as slowing down to a more subtle, not to mention economical, speed. Despite all this the Imperial destroyer was busy, the ship was operating on a heightened state of alert, it was unlikely that anyone would be silly enough to attack a fully-fledged warship once they knew what they were up against but Captain Flynn wanted to take no chances. The ship was set at Damage Control State Two Condition Yankee, which essentially meant that two watches were on-watch whilst the third was getting some shut-eye so that they’d be fresh when they came on-watch, it was not ideal of course but it was better than full Action Stations and allowed the ship to respond to an attack better than at normal peacetime cruising. At this point Captain Flynn had decided that defence watches were not yet necessary.

Captain Flynn had retired to his cabin to get on with some other work, the situation was not enhanced by his presence on the bridge or in the Ops Room so he had left the ship in the more than capable hands of his officers, who had been keeping him more than up to date via shipping reports. Like those members of the crew that were awake Flynn was in combat gear, although for now his anti-flash gear was pulled down off his head, not particularly relishing the hot and stuffy atmosphere they created whilst he tried to maintain some normality and get through some of his paperwork. Alas it was not to be for the ship’s intercom buzzed by the side of his desk until he reached over and picked up the phone.

“Captain, Sir, Officer of the Watch.”

“Go ahead.”

“Signal from the Stegg, they are reporting a suspicious vessel and are moving to investigate,” The Officer of the Watch replied. “They are issuing any orders, what do you want us to do, Sir?”

“Hold a moment, I’ll be up in a moment,” Flynn replied.

Standing up he grabbed his helmet and placed it onto his head and secured it, as he walked he checked the attachments of his body armour and that his sidearm was still firmly secured in its holsters. He made his way quickly through his ship, he knew it like the back of his hand after all, until he arrived on the bridge. At once he moved over to the WECDIS terminal and looked down at the display, neither of the two ships he was looking for were active on AIS, but then neither was Zealous right now, but the Cottish Warship had a marker next to it none the less as it had been tracked by the Zealous’ radar since this operation had begun. Another contact that was closing upon the Cottish warship was no doubt this suspicious vessel. Without any specific orders Flynn had to decide what to do next, they had detected nothing up here so he would head down to support the Stegg on the off-chance that they got into any trouble.

“Officer of the Watch come starboard ninety degrees, maximum speed,” Flynn ordered.

“Yes Sir, port thirty altering one eight zero,” The Officer of the Watch said. “Full ahead both engines.”

“Stand-by on the main gun, we’re not wasting missiles on corvettes,” Flynn commented dryly. “Comms, keep a listen out for anything from the Stegg.”

“Midships, steer one eight zero,” The Officer the Watch said in the background. “Set course one eight zero and put the ship on automatic.”

The Zealous surged southwards just in case she was needed, but she didn’t leave her search area totally unoccupied for she had launched one of her helicopters to continue the sweep. The flight crew had needed flight hours and night search experience anyway so it was a good compromise whilst the destroyer herself moved to assist if required, it wouldn’t exactly be hard to get back in position once this was all over. Sure enough it wasn’t long before a report came in that the Stegg had successfully sunk an unidentified warship consistent with what they had been expecting out here. Flynn doubted that they were finished however, he couldn’t imagine the enemy only having one ship so he expected to be ordered to continue searching as required. Never the less it was good news that came as welcome to the ship’s company, especially given that no allied personnel had been killed in the action.

“Officer of the Watch has the conn, get us underway back to ours search box,” Flynn announced as the time began to approach twenty-three hundred hours. “I’ll be in my cabin if you need me.”

by **Cotland** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 5:59 am

HMS STEGG (J.713)
TYPE 55 "SMERTE" CLASS GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER
20 NAUTICAL MILES EAST-NORTHEAST OF MELILLA, MOROCCO
05:11 HOURS, 17 DECEMBER, 2013

In the hours after the Action of 16 December, 2013, as the engagement between "Stegg" and "Raïs Charkaoui" would be known as in the history books, the Executive Officer, the Master-at-Arms, and the Sergeant of Royal Marines onboard had interrogated the rescued survivors of the hostile patrol boat. Through a mix of friendly conversation, coercion, withholding of food and medicine, and outright threats to throw them overboard or hang them from the mast as pirates without trial, a lot of information had been extracted from the survivors.

It had been the words of one of the younger survivors who had been picked up, a scared, traumatized boy of 17 who had come onboard after the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, that had been the real icebreaker in the investigation. He had told the interrogators of a blue merchant ship that they had captured the same day as the failed attack on "Stegg", and of how they had taken control of the ship and brought it back to homeport.

The port, the boy said, was called Nador.

When confronted with this information, three of the other four broke their silence and confirmed the boy's statement. The fifth remained silent.

That information had been recovered just after 3:30 in the AM, and immediately brought to the attention of Admirality and "Zealous." The commanding officer of "Stegg" had sent a seperate signal to "Zealous", requesting that she rendezvous with "Stegg" in a position in the Provencaux Bank, some 20 nautical miles off Melilla, well inside international waters and beyond the horizon of the coast. "Stegg" had reached the position just after five o'clock in the morning, and now she was just cruising in a lazy pattern-eight, waiting for "Zealous" to arrive and for dawn to break so that the destroyer could send up one of its ScanEagle UAVs to investigate.

Meanwhile, the radiomen onboard "Stegg" continued to try to reach "Zealous" via UHF comms on a frequency that had been signalled to "Zealous" the previous day. Once comms would be established, the Cots informed the Apilonians of the Cottish intentions.

"Zealous, this is Stegg, Charlie Oscar. My intention at this time is to await the dawn in this position before despatching an unmanned reconnaissance drone over Nador and Melilla harbours. If we locate our missing merchantman there, my intention is to close in on the coast, establish a blockade and stop and turn back any ship trying to enter or leave the harbour, and maintain that blockade until reinforcements arrive. How copy, over."

Sunrise would be at 0814 hours local time, approximately three hours from now.

by **Terra Reborn** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 7:54 am

Captain John Flynn DSO
H.M.S. Zealous, Twenty Nautical Miles off Melilla,
Mediterranean Sea
Monday 16th December 2013, 0510hrs Local Time (1510hrs Imperial Capital Time, 0510hrs Zulu Time)

The Zealous had barely been back in position when the Stegg had requested a rendezvous and, after checking with Captain Flynn, the new Officer of the Watch had ordered the destroyer southwards once again. Flynn had taken the trip southwards, even if it was at flank speed, to get his head down he rather suspected that one way or another he would be quite busy by the time morning came. He could only assume that they had some information and indeed, when he woke at zero four hundred for the Morning Watch there was an intelligence file waiting for him that he read as he made his way up to the bridge, report in one hand, cup of tea in the other, a covering of cling-film preventing it from spilling as he absently climbed up the various steps towards the bridge, his crewmembers getting out of his way as he walked past them. Arriving on the appropriate deck the lighting was read and as such the effect of stepping out into the total darkness of the bridge, save for the displays which were in night mode, wasn’t as severe.

Over the course of the next hours the Zealous continued southwards towards its rendezvous, it seemed that the Officer of the Watch had used his initiative when the intelligence had come in and set course southwards anyway, meaning that when the request for a rendezvous had been sent they were already well underway. Flynn couldn’t help but wonder what the Captain of Stegg had planned, this was after all his show, no doubt now that they had find a home port for these pirates it was likely, given where the rendezvous point was, that he had something in mind. Whether it was a blockade or a bit of gunboat diplomacy would be determined in short order. Either way the Zealous stood ready to assist as required. According to reports from Gibraltar, Viscountess Standford was waiting for further information on hostile capabilities before she deployed more ships, although other assets of the Imperial Mediterranean Fleet were being prepared to get underway, possibly as soon as dawn if the situation demanded it. Of course it depended on how widespread the problem was, Flynn couldn’t seen the enemy being able to outgun the two destroyers, but if they had massive amounts of coastline to cover, that could be problematic.

As they approached the rendezvous point Flynn glanced down at the radar display and sure enough there was a contact marked ‘Stegg’ upon it which they were approaching at quite some speed. Bringing up night vision binoculars he could just see the outline of the ship as it went on its position holding course. Ordering the ship to slow down as they approached they would eventually fall into formation with the other vessel if they stayed in place for long enough.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the Communications Officer appeared reporting that the Cottish were on the UHF frequency that they had been given. Flynn made his way over and picked up the headset.

“Stagg Charlie Oscar, this is Zealous Charlie Oscar, reading you five-by-five,” Flynn replied and frowned slightly, sinking a hostile ship was obviously within his purview as Commanding Officer, unilaterally sinking civilian vessels was not, only the Admiralty could clear something like that. “Intentions received and understood… interrogative on Rules of Engagement, are you intending to sink civilian vessels that do not turn back, I will need to clear my own ship to do that with the Imperial Admiralty.”

by **Layarteb** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:50 am

December 16, 2013 - 20:00 hrs [UTC-5]
Layarteb City, New York
Fortress of Comhghall
(40° 41' 28" N, 74° 0' 58" W)

The sun had long since gone down by the time the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Intelligence made their way over to the Fortress of Comhghall to discuss the day's happenings off of the Moroccan coastline. Rather than go to the Emperor's office however, they were escorted into one of the Fortress' several entertainment rooms. These rooms had been converted into small theaters for private screenings, small stage shows, or group presentations. The Emperor was watching a private screening of an upcoming war film concerning the Kaliningradian War. The film wasn't going to invoke any patriotic sentiments nor would it rehash old wounds. Seated comfortably in the middle, where the sound and the picture were optimal, the Emperor was quietly watching the events unfold before him, making notes on a small pad. The film didn't profess historical accuracy but neither did it profess historical inaccuracy either.

"Sir," said the Minister of Intelligence, who approached the Emperor's row.

The Emperor looked at his watch, checking that it was the appointed time. Rising, he met his guests and asked that the Minister of Defense stop the film and clear out the projector room. It took mere seconds and when the three of them were seated again, the impromptu meeting began. "All right, tell me what's happened off of the Moroccan coastline."

"Sir," answered the Minister of Defense, "earlier this morning, a Cottish-flagged merchant vessel appears to have been seized by pirates. Upon investigation, a Cottish destroyer was attacked by said pirates. They returned fired, destroying one vessel. Now they're establishing intelligence on the area."

"Since when has that area had pirates?"

"Sir, we have had two reports in the past sixteen months of piracy but never against vessels flagged for superpowers, only minor players. They obviously erred here." Responded the Minister of Intelligence.

"Where are the Apilonians on this?"

"Helping the Cottish sir."

"Then our help isn't needed, am I correct in that matter?"

"Yes sir you are," the Minister of Defense answered. Reeling from the Georgian debacle and the previous year's bloodbath in Guangdong, the Empire didn't need another military action so soon. "With your permission though, I would like to sortie a vessel out of the Balearic Islands, a light frigate. They will take up a position outside of any Cottish or Apilonian exclusion zones and be on hand to provide backup, to show solidarity with our allies. They will not be under orders to assist but I will ask the vessel's captain to use his best judgement. They will not be subordinate to either Cottish or Apilonian commanders."

"And in the unlikely event that they should be needed?"

"Sir they could act, the frigate is loaded with surface-to-air and surface-to-surface weapons."

"All right then Minister, you may sortie the vessel. I'd prefer it if they did not act though. The last thing we need is another dead Layartebian serviceman."

"I agree sir." The Minister of Defense responded. With no further discussion for the moment, the film was resumed and the three men watched the conclusion. Afterwards, they merely mentioned that the film would likely flop in the theaters. If there was one thing the Layartebian people loathed, it was revisionism. Historical movies that were as accurate as could be did well; those that weren't, flopped.

by **Cotland** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 3:29 pm

HMS STEGG (J.713)
TYPE 55 "SMERTE" CLASS GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER
20 NAUTICAL MILES EAST-NORTHEAST OF MELILLA, MOROCCO
05:13 HOURS, 17 DECEMBER, 2013

“Stegg Charlie Oscar, this is Zealous Charlie Oscar, reading you five-by-five,” The Commanding Officer of His Apilonian Majesty's Ship "Zealous" replied over the UHF net. “Intentions received and understood… interrogative on Rules of Engagement, are you intending to sink civilian vessels that do not turn back, I will need to clear my own ship to do that with the Imperial Admiralty.”

"Zealous, Stegg. My intention is to stop any ship that tries to break a blockade by less-lethal means. It is not, repeat, not my intention to employ deadly force unless fired upon or otherwise attacked first. If that means I have to ram them in order to stop them, then that's what I'll do. I seriously doubt a small fishing boat can win playing chicken with an eight thousand ton destroyer. For your information, my current rules of engagement permit me to take such actions if I deem it necessary in order to defend Cottish lives. Over."

by **Terra Reborn** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 4:09 pm

Captain John Flynn DSO
H.M.S. Zealous, Twenty Nautical Miles off Melilla,
Mediterranean Sea
Monday 16th December 2013, 0510hrs Local Time (1510hrs Imperial Capital Time, 0510hrs Zulu Time)

"Zealous, Stegg. My intention is to stop any ship that tries to break a blockade by less-lethal means. It is not, repeat, not my intention to employ deadly force unless fired upon or otherwise attacked first.” The Cottish Captain replied. “If that means I have to ram them in order to stop them, then that's what I'll do. I seriously doubt a small fishing boat can win playing chicken with an eight thousand ton destroyer. For your information, my current rules of engagement permit me to take such actions if I deem it necessary in order to defend Cottish lives. Over."

Flynn nodded thoughtfully, chuckling slightly. He didn’t like the idea of using his ship as a battering ram, primarily because there was the possibility that the enemy might put explosives aboard their ships, but if they were stopping civilian vessels then that would be acceptable to him… warships would be another matter entirely of course. Flynn loved his ship, he had commanded her for over a year now, she was due to go into a refit period and he was relinquishing command of her on New Years Day, he wasn’t sure where he was heading after that. He just hoped that they could go out on a high note.

“Stegg, Zealous, message received and understood, non-lethal force unless engaged,” Flynn confirmed. “My own ROEs allow me to take similar actions, should this ship be directly endangered. Otherwise we’ll continue to follow your lead.”

by **Cotland** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 7:06 am

SCANEAGLE UAV
OVER NADOR HARBOUR
08:17 LOCAL TIME, 17 DECEMBER, 2013

The small unmanned aerial vehicle had been launched from the helicopter deck of "Stegg" half an hour earlier, while still under the cover of darkness, lofting to the skies with the aide of a small pneumatic launcher that was normally stowed inside the helicopter hangar of the guided missile destroyer. After a few basic tests to make sure everything was in order, the ScanEagle had been sent on its way to violate the Moroccan airspace.

As such, the UAV had been in position over the vast harbour of Nador when the sun rose, capturing the dramatic shift from pitch dark through sunrise to broad daylight with its high-definition cameras. As day broke, the UAV operator in the operations room could see a number of merchant ships anchored a bit to the south of Nador, well inside the Mar Chica basin. None of the ships were flying national colours, but as daylight improved, the ship's names were relatively easy to read.

After investigating three merchant ships, the UAV operator discovered their mark.

"Sir, I think we have her." The enlisted man said, zooming in. Even though the UAV was flying at 12,000 feet, the excellent optics allowed the Cots to read the name on the blue-painted merchantman without difficulty.

"Maersk Acheron of Copenhagen, sir."

The Captain leaned over to see more closely, handing his mug of steaming hot navy coffee to the Chief Petty Officer next to him so he wouldn't spill any on the expensive console. It looked like the merchantman had been taken by force, judging from the wrecked mast park and the apparent bullet holes and wrecked windows on the starboard side of the bridge structure.

Nodding in agreement, he reclaimed his mug of coffee and took a deep sip before sitting down on his console in the operations room, pulling up a message template and started typing up a signal. Meanwhile, the UAV operator made sure he was recording everything and gathering information on all ships in the port basin. After this was done, Melilla harbour would be investigated, and a provisional order of battle would be gathered on what sort of defences the pirate bay contained.

Ten minutes later, a signal was sent to Admirality.

O P 170745Z DEC 13
FM HMS STEGG
TO ADMIRALITY
HAMS ZEALOUS
INFO COMMIDFLT
COMAMFGRU 9
AMFGRU 9
MOD APILONIA
MOD LAYARTEB
BT
B E G R E N S E T
SIC ALA/WAA
RELEASABLE TO APILONIA AS RESTRICTED
RELEASABLE TO LAYARTEB AS OCTOBER RESTRICTED
MSGID/INTREP/STEGG/002/DEC13/UPD/001//
REF/A/ADMIRALITY/O 161654Z DEC 13/FRAGO 13-359//
1. MERCHANT VESSEL Q MAERSK ACHERON UQ LOCATED ANCHORED IN POSITION 35.11N-002.55W. VESSEL APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN TAKEN BY FORCE. MARKS CONSISTENT WITH WEAPONS USE CLEARLY VISIBLE ON VESSEL SUPERSTRUCTURE. NO VISIBLE INDICATIONS THAT SHIP IS UNSUITABLE FOR SEA TRAVEL. SEE ATTACHED IMAGERY. NO SIGN OF Q MAERSK ACHERON UQ CREW.
2. FOLLOWING VESSELS DETECTED IN HARBOUR
A/MERCHANT/MAERSK ACHERON/COTLAND/35.11N-002.55W/ANCHORED//
B/MERCHANT/IBERIUM STAR/BRAZIL/35.13N-002.55W/ANCHORED//
C/MERCHANT/HORORRA MAIBEL/BAJA CALIFORNIA/35.15N-002.56W/ANCHORED//
D/MERCHANT/MISR/EGYPT/35.15N-002.54W/ANCHORED//
E/MERCHANT/BOURGHIBA/MOROCCO/35.11N-002.57W/ANCHORED//
3. FOLLOWING ENEMY FORCES LOCATED:
A/FLOREAL CLASS FFGL ANCHORED IN POSITION 35.90N-002.54W//
B/TWO UNKNOWN PG ANCHORED IN POS 35.12N-002.54W//
C/COASTAL ARTILLERY BATTERY CONSISTING OF THREE 40MM BOFORS GUNS IN POS 35.12N-002.51W, FACING SEAWARDS//
D/COASTAL ARTILLERY BATTERY CONSISTING OF TWO 100MM ANTI-TANK GUNS IN POS 35.13N-002.52W, FACING SEAWARDS//
E/COASTAL ARTILLERY BATTERY CONSISTNG OF FOUR 100MM ANTI-TANK GUNS IN POS 35.10N-002.49W, FAING SEAWARDS//
F/COASTAL ARTILLERY BATTERY CONSISTING OF THREE 40MM BOFORS GUNS IN POS 35.12N-002.55W, DOMINATING MERCHANT VESSEL ANCHORAGE//
G/COASTAL ARTILLERY BATTERY CONSISTING OF THREE 40MM BOFORS GUNS IN POS 35.17N-002.55W, PROTECTING MELILLA HARBOUR//
H/FIELD ARTILLERY BATTERY CONSISTING OF FOUR 122MM HOWITZERS IN POS 35.14N-002.57W, COVERING ANCHORAGE AND APPROACHES//
I/FIELD ARTILLERY BATTERY CONSISTING OF THREE 122MM HOWITZERS IN POS 35.18N-002.58W, ABLE TO COVER ANCHORAGE AND APPROACHES//
4. ASSESS THAT FORCED RESCUE OF Q MAERSK ACHERON UQ BY OWN MEANS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT UNDUE RISK TO OWN SHIP AND CREW. THEREFORE, MY INTENTION IS TO ESTABLISH BLOCKADE OF NADOR HARBOUR AND PREVENT ANY FURTHER VESSELS ENTERING AND LEAVING PORT. KINDLY REQUEST REINFORCEMENTS.
BT

Almost immediately, "Stegg" signalled "Zealous" a simple signal via Aldis light:

ZEALOUS THIS IS STEGG // COMMENCE BLOCKADE // OVER

by **Terra Reborn** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 7:40 am

Captain John Flynn DSO
H.M.S. Zealous, Twenty Nautical Miles off Melilla,
Mediterranean Sea
Monday 16th December 2013, 0820hrs Local Time (1820hrs Imperial Capital Time, 0820hrs Zulu Time)

“Stegg is signalling, sir, ordering us to commence the blockade.”

“Thank you PO,” Flynn nodded to the signalman who had just walked into the wardroom, then turned back the majority of his senior officers, save for the current watch. “Alright people, we’ve got a blockade to carry out.”

Flynn reached down onto the wardroom table and picked up a print-out of the intelligence that the Cottish UAV had been able to gather when it had been launched. He had read through it on his way down of course but would use it for reference, he was also grateful for the act that modern technology allowed them to gather such information without putting his ship into harm’s way, he wouldn’t have liked to have taken his ship in there and only discovered the artillery when it was too late. At least now that they knew where they were his options to take them out would allow them to stay outside of their range, no doubt if it came down to it the two destroyers could wipe out those defences in fairly short order, although that might be easier said than done.

“In addition to the Cottish merchant vessel there are four other merchant vessels in the anchorage, the Cottish are also reporting a frigate and two smaller war craft, possibly patrol vessels,” Flynn informed them. “In addition there are substantially artillery batteries around the coast, ranging from Bofors to AT guns and Howitzers, obviously we don’t want to go anywhere near them if they are still intact.”

Flynn glanced around at them.

“The Cottish Captain is still intent on carrying out a blockade and prevent any ships from approaching or leaving by pre-discussed rules of engagement, we’ve received word that Viscountess Standford has authorised the deployment of additional vessels which arrive later this afternoon,” Flynn continued. “As of this moment we’ll be going onto defence watches for the duration of the blockade, I want our helicopter fuelled up and ready to go at a moment’s notice, we’ll assume non-lethal force but be prepared to use disabling fire.”

Flynn looked over at his Principle Warfare Officer.

“Bill, I want you to take a look at the intelligence provided by the Cottish, work out a strike package for our Perseus missiles against the most threatening enemy targets, but I still want missiles left over to deal with that frigate if we have to,” Flynn instructed. “In the meantime, let’s get started people. Dismissed.”

With that the briefing dispersed and the Zealous got underway. She set herself into a patrol pattern that would take her back and forth across an arc around the harbour, keeping her out of range of their guns but more than close enough to keep an eye on the harbour and prevent anything from getting close or trying to leave. She would operate at her normal cruising speed, it would allow them to stay on station longer but might lure a hostile ship to try and run the blockade at which time the Zealous could go to flank speed and pounce on them with vengeance. Never the less the sooner more ships, Cottish or Imperial, arrived to reinforce the better and the more secure the blockade would be, the last thing anyone on Zealous wanted was for them to miss a ship, although the likelihood of anything outrunning a destroyer going at 32+ knots was comparatively unlikely, except perhaps that light frigate, which was the one ship they definitely wanted to snag.

Flynn settled into his seat on the bridge, they were in for the long haul.

by **Cotland** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 8:23 am

HMS DANSKE LØVE (S.61)
TREFOLDIGHETEN CLASS BATTLESHIP
OFF CRETE
170900Z DECEMBER 13

On the flag bridge of the battleship "Danske Løve", flagship of Amphibious Group IX, popularly called either the "Danske Løve amphibious group" or "AmfGru 9", Rear Admiral Einar Stålhandske received two signals at the same time. One was from the destroyer "Stegg", informing him of the location of the missing merchant ship, and a second one was from Admirality ordering him to bring his entire group to off Morocco as quickly as possible, and to assume tactical command of the rescue and recovery of "Maersk Acheron".

The distance from the present position, where the amphibious group was forming up after leaving Souda Bay a few hours earlier, to the area of operation was roughly 1,300 nautical miles out. With a speed of advance of approximately 20 knots, the group would be within range of the pirate area in 65 hours, or more precisely roughly around midnight on the night of December 20.

With his marching orders in hand, the Admiral ordered the group to make for the ordered rendezvous point. It looked like it was going to be Christmas at sea after all.

In the next few days, there would be much planning and preperations to be made.

by **Terra Reborn** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 9:45 am

Captain John Flynn DSO
H.M.S. Zealous, Twenty Nautical Miles off Melilla,
Mediterranean Sea
Tuesday 17th December 2013, 0820hrs Local Time (1820hrs Imperial Capital Time, 0820hrs Zulu Time)

“Good god, she’s sortied the entire Gibraltar Squadron,”

The Zealous had just completed her north-easterly arc and was visually clearing the northerly point that stuck out into the Mediterranean Sea and served as the westerly edge of the ‘bay’ when both the radar team and the lookouts reported large surface contacts to the West. A quick check on AIS had confirmed that the ships were running without their transponders inactive, but given the timing he was fairly confident he knew what those ships were. The relative proximity of Gibraltar had made it almost certain that Imperial reinforcements would arrive first. Viscountess Standford had deployed them at ten o’clock that morning and now, four hours later, they were just arriving to reinforce the blockade. Sure enough an IFF interrogation confirmed their identities as they continued to close and they could tell what they were by their visual. The collection of ships was in cruising formation and, collectively, had more firepower than many small navies.

It was of course only a drop compared to what either the Imperial Navy or the Royal Cottish Navy could deploy if they really wanted to, and Flynn knew from checking allied deployment charts that there was no doubt a substantial Cottish deployment on its way. By contrast the Imperial Navy was spread comparatively thin in the Mediterranean, if only because it wasn’t really of much interest to the Empire at this point, and the Atlantic Fleet was better suited to hold onto larger forces as they could be deployed anywhere as required. That meant that the Mediterranean Fleet had to make do, which was why the rest of the Gibraltar Squadron was here. The Rhodes Squadron was both too far away to arrive in time to be useful and was tasked with holding down the entire eastern Mediterranean, whilst the Reprisal Carrier Battle Group at Gibraltar was only four hours away, but given that a 65,000 tonne Supercarrier was overkill for a blockade and that they were easily within range of land-based fighters from Gibraltar, it had stood to reason that the Gibraltar Squadron would be sent it was never the less surprising to see that Viscountess Standford had sent the entire force, no doubt a gesture of solidarity with their Cottish allies. Not to mention that this was the first time that the Imperial Navy and Royal Cottish Navy had worked together on a large scale for a very long time, and the growth in capability since the Rebirth of the Empire had come on startlingly, even for those in the Navy.

Flynn was glad to see the other ships of the Gibraltar Squadron, which Zealous was indeed part of under normal circumstances. Lead by the Saga-Class Battlecruiser HMS Defiant, for a long time the Cottish design had been the largest ships in the Navy, and whilst they no longer hold that honour they were still incredibly popular and useful ships and could be found all over the world. She was trailed by Zealous’ sister ship, HMS Zodiac. Flanking the Battlecruiser two to each side were four Type-26 Frigate, HM Ships Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle and Darwin, all named of course for cities within the Empire. Now that the Zealous could effectively rejoin the Squadron it might not be the largest collection of Imperial Firepower in the world but, short of the Reprisal getting underway, it was the largest in the Mediterranean Sea and Flynn couldn’t help but smile as the ships cruised alongside his own, he couldn’t help but get a warm feeling whenever he worked with other Imperial Warships.

Of course the fact that the Defiant was flying her battle ensign only made the situation more memorable, as were the other ships in fact, the massive white ensign fluttering proudly as the Battlecruiser surged forwards. Flynn narrowed his eyes as he noticed something else fluttering from the Battlecruiser, specifically the rank pennant of an Imperial Commodore. But then he shouldn’t be surprised that Commodore William Wilson, the Gibraltar Squadrons Commanding Officer, had come out with them. Although he doubted it’d be a problem, Commodore Wilson was the right sort of man and he despised pirates as much as anyone, having made his name in the Imperial Navy as CO of a Frigate involved in anti-piracy operations a few years previously. Besides, this had started with a Cottish merchant ship getting attacked, so it was very much their operation, the Imperial Navy wasn’t about to quibble about putting its ships under the temporary command of one of its closest allies in such situations.

Flynn looked back of his shoulder to where the Cottish destroyer was carrying out its own patrol patter before looking back and noted that the Defiant was now signalling with Aldis lamps to both of them.

Zealous and Stegg, this is His Majesty’s Ship Defiant, Flagship of the Imperial Gibraltar Squadron. STOP.

Under orders from Vice Admiral The Viscountess Standford, CINC IMPMEDFLEET, to provide any and all assistance to Cottish naval operations against all piratical elements within the Mediterranean Sea until further notice. STOP.

Will join blockade at this time under Cottish operational command. END

by **Cotland** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 3:48 pm

HMS STEGG (J.713)
TYPE 55 "SMERTE" CLASS GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER
OFF MELILLA, MOROCCO
170826Z DECEMBER 13

'What the hell...' the Captain of "Stegg" thought as the signalman relayed the Aldis signal from "Defiant". His thoughts were mirrored by the ship's Principal Warfare Officer, who had the position as Officer of the Watch for the 8-12 watch. The Captain intended to shift to war watches after the 12 o'clock dinner, giving everyone one last night of proper sleep before the six-hour war watches were set.

"It would appear, Captain, that you are currently commanding a Commodore. My congratulations sir."

Raising an eyebrow, the Captain simply nodded as he turned to the signalman, who was still waiting for a reply.

"Make to Defiant: 'Kindly request your frigates and destroyers deploy to cover all harbour entrances, with cruiser held back in order to stop any ships trying to enter area of operations. Further Cottish ships expected within three days. Intend to use helicopters and UAV to monitor ocean area and interdict any ship attempting to enter port. Request you set listening watch on frequency, give them the appropriate frequency, and use same for task group coordination. Happy Christmas.' Message ends."

The signalman nodded and relayed the message via Aldis light to the mighty Saga-class cruiser that was making its way towards the lone Cottish destroyer. As he signalled the cruiser, he couldn't help but to admire the sleek lines and sheer brutal impression the massive vessel gave off.

ADMIRALITY
OSLO, PROVINCE OF NOREG, REALM OF COTLAND
170930Z DECEMBER 13

"Good morning everyone, and welcome to this extraordinary briefing. I'm sure you have all been informed of yesterday's events?" Grand Admiral Theodor Mikkelsen, Commander-in-Chief and professional chief of the Royal Cottish Navy said to the assembled group sitting around the conference table. Everyone nodded.

"Very good. Then allow me to bring you an update. His Majesty's Ship 'Stegg' have successfully located the missing merchantman. That's the good news."

There was a collective sigh of relief. This relief would not last.

"The bad news is that she is held by hostile forces in Nador harbour, in eastern Morocco. As you can see from the imagery forwarded by 'Stegg', taken just over an hour ago, she was taken by force. The status of her crew is not known. There have been no demands for ransom as of yet, nor have there been any statements issued by any of the armed groups that currently dominate Morocco."

A well-dressed civilian man in his late forties flicked on his microphone and seized the floor.

"Why haven't 'Stegg' gone in and retaken the 'Maersk Acheron'? Surely they have more than enough firepower and Royal Marines for such a task!"

"My Lord Minister, I'm afraid the situation is a bit more complicated than that. In her report, 'Stegg' reported that the only entrance to the harbor where the hijacked vessel is located is heavily defended with coastal artillery emplacements. To try to force her way in would most likely result in a greviously damaged destroyer and many own dead, if not a sunk destroyer. To try to helicopter in an assault force would be equally difficult, given that 'Stegg' only have two Sea Hawk helicopters and two dozen Royal Marines onboard. In other words, not enough manpower to secure the anchorage and retake the merchant vessel in question. Even if we were to try that, we have no idea where the crew are being held, or what condition they are in."

"So we're just sitting around doing nothing then?"

"No my Lord. With the Admirality's blessing, 'Stegg' has instituted a blockade of Nador harbour with instructions to stop any vessel trying to get in or out of the harbour. This will contain the threat until reinforcements arrive. Some allied reinforcements have already arrived, according to the latest situation report from 'Stegg' in the form of the bulk of the Apilonian Gibraltar Squadron, consisting of one heavy cruiser, two destroyers and four frigates, thus greatly strengthening the blockade."

"Alright, so there's a viable blockade in place. What's being done about rescuing our merchant marines?"

"My Lord, an amphibious battle group headed up by the battleship 'Danske Løve' is currently en route with additional warships and, more importantly, some forty-six hundred Royal Marines, including a squadron of Naval Special Forces. When these forces are in place, it is our intention to make a forced landing in the area, defeat any defenders of the anchorage and coastal artillery batteries, and liberate the 'Maersk Acheron' and her crew."

"So basically we're going to invade a foreign country." The suit said.

"Technically it isn't a country as there is no functioning central government, but in essence, yes sir." The Grand Admiral replied bluntly. "While it may be construed as an act of war, the initial act of war was made by the opponents when they attacked and seized the 'Acheron'. We are merely acting in self-defence. It is perfectly legal, and the world community and, more importantly, the Cottish people, will buy it."

"So we go in, take back our ship and men, kill a bunch of pirates, blow some stuff up, and then just get out? What's to stop them from retaliating against further Cottish shipping in the area? What about the long-term picture Admiral?"

This sparked a fierce debate that lasted the better part of an hour, going through a lot of different alternatives and options before finally landing on a simple, last conclusion: If the Cottish were first going to invade, then they were not just going to be in and out. No, in order to properly stomp out the pirate menace that was developing in Morocco once and for all, they'd have to remain in the area for some time. That meant an invasion proper. And for that, they'd need some more men.

More Cottish service members were going to have their Christmas ruined because of the stupid actions of a few greedy pirates.

by **Terra Reborn** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 5:07 pm

Commodore William Wilson DSC
H.M.S. Defiant, Off Melilla
Mediterranean Sea
Tuesday 17th December 2013, 1000hrs Local Time (1000hrs Imperial Capital Time, 1000hrs Zulu Time)

Commodore William Wilson, Commanding Officer of the Imperial Gibraltar Squadron, stood on the bridge wing of his ship and watched as the ships of his squadron were spread about the area on patrol, the frigates got in closest but still kept clear of enemy range, with the destroyers hanging a bit further back and Defiant herself of course remained well clear. As ‘instructed’. Wilson wasn’t best pleased at the idea of being ‘commanded’ by a Captain but he understood the reasoning, he rather doubted that the Cottish would have been willing to turn over control of the situation to anyone, he certainly wouldn’t have been were he in their shoes, more to the point he had been ordered to do so by Viscountess Standford and she did outrank him, it was a curious situation but it was only for a few days. In any event, if there was anything drastic then he would be well within his rights to refuse the orders, commands between allies were a curious thing, even in formally mandated alliances, and this wasn’t that, despite the close relationship between the Apilonian Empire and the Realm of Cotland.

But given the situation, this was hardly the time to be quibbling about such things, getting the job done was more important. Commodore Wilson knew the threat pirates could pose if they were allowed to remain in place. He was personally, and professionally, mortified that they had been allowed to exist so close to Gibraltar, this was literally his backyard and he fully intended to rectify that, ideally by personally blasting the crap out of the enemy, until the Cottish reinforcements arrived he was standing aboard the most powerful ship present and if it came down to a fight before the reinforcements arrived he fully intended to make use of it. He had made his professional reputation fighting pirates and he didn’t intend to lose that reputation now.

What he didn’t get was why they hadn’t gone in and ended this ridiculous stand-off, a single frigate and a handful of shore emplacements were compelling over fifty thousand tonnes of warships to sit off the coast in blockade. They had spotting UAV airborne and enough cruise missiles to smash an entire nations defensive network. He could understand not wanting to risk the captives, but the longer they remained in enemy hands the more likely they were to get killed. If this had been an Apilonian Warship, and thus he was in command, now that he had overwhelming forces present he would destroyed the enemy emplacements by now and preparing to send in a strike force, between his ships he had a company’s worth of Imperial Marines ready to go, if need be. He could only assume they weren’t willing to use expensive cruise missiles to hit the enemy positions, an unusual stance to take with their own citizens at risk. His orders were to assist the Cottish as required, which was how the Admiralty had justified placing a Commodore under the directives of a foreign officer of lower rank as they were only ‘assisting’ rather than forming an integral part of the operation, so if the Cottish didn’t go for the help then there wasn’t much he could do about it.

Wilson glanced up as Commander Anthony Prestwick, his Flag Operations Officer, approached and saluted.

“Sir, report from all ships and our fire scouts, we’ve got targeting assignments for all ships based on all confirmed enemy positions,” Prestwisk reported. “We’ve spread the load with the Perseus missiles across the squadron, ready to fire on your order, Sir.”

“This isn’t our show Commander, we’re just here to help a friend,” Commodore Wilson replied thoughtfully, shrugged, then called into the opened bridge hatch. “Yeoman!”

“Sir.”

“Make to Stegg, have assessed enemy positions and stand-by to smite enemy batteries with cruise missiles and Imperial Marines are on-standby to deploy if required,” Wilson instructed, deciding how far to push it, he had the superior rank but as already stated and decided it was not his operation, and he didn’t want to risk a snub in this, the first proper Apilonian-Cottish joint ad hoc operation. “Gibraltar Squadron prepared to undertake any assistance operations requested by the Royal Cresian Navy at this time, otherwise will maintain blockade.”

by **Layarteb** » Sun Dec 22, 2013 9:47 pm

December 17, 2013 - 13:00 hrs [UTC+1]
Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca
Palma Naval Base
(39° 32' 47" N, 2° 37' 54" E)

Palma Naval Base was a world unto itself. Situated in the city of Palma de Mallorca on the island of Mallorca, it was surrounded by beaches, summer homes, and a giant party zone so vast that the entirety of the Balearic Islands had been declared a special cultural zone. Being posted there was coveted unlike any other posting and the island group was a bastion of excitement for sailors and soldiers alike. That the Imperial Layartebian Defense Force based fourteen naval vessels there had little to do with the coveted posting and more to do with the extreme position of the island group. Of the vessels though, only a couple were combat vessels whereas the rest were coast guard vessels. One of those vessels, a Druid-class fast attack boat was already on patrol while another, an Independence Flight II class frigate was the focus of considerable attention at the base.

The 3,750-ton frigate, armed for a multirole mission. It had a 76-millimeter/62-caliber main gun, two 27-millimeter secondary guns, four heavy machine guns, thirty-two VLS cells, eight anti-ship tubes, and a variety of other weaponry and systems. It was a multipurpose, light vessel with a high speed, respectable endurance, and a state-of-the-art electronics suite. Its mission was to patrol Layartebian waters and provide the Imperial Layartebian Defense Force with a major combat ship, rather than the corvettes and fast attack craft that populated its ranks. There were two such vessels deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, one here on Mallorca and the other on Crete, both belonging to the 9th Maritime Patrol Group. In total, the 9th MPG had some forty-six vessels, with most of them deployed on Crete as a force protection asset for the Suez Canal.

The ILS John R. Cabe (FFG-180), named after a Layartebian Ranger who was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during the Second Layartebian Civil War was always kept in a near-ready state. Because the 9th Maritime Patrol Group had only two vessels and because their patrol areas were independent of one another, the two vessels were always kept in a near-ready state, which required less than eighteen hours of preparation to get underway. The order to get underway came at 03:00 local time and now, ten hours later; the vessel was nearly ready to get underway. All systems had been run through their tests and everything was functioning as it should, the crew was being recalled and mostly all present, and the weapons systems were loaded in full. Fuel was being pumped into the vessel and it was already running on its own power. Food stores, on the other hand, would take another four hours to load completely so that the ILS John R. Cabe wouldn't get underway for at least another four to five hours.

From there, the ILS John R. Cabe had one priority, to get from Mallorca to patrol station approximately eighty nautical miles from the coastal city of Nador, where Cottish and Apilonian vessels were commencing major combat operations against the pirate-force therein contained. In total, the ILS John R. Cabe would be covering just three hundred nautical miles and running at eighteen knots on an economical cruise setting, the vessel would be there in about eighteen hours. By then, the Cottish and the Apilonians would be "having their fun" but the ILS John R. Cabe wasn't there to take part in operations. Its mission was to provide a rear screen and establish a Layartebian backup force. If and only if, the Cottish needed its services would the ship act. Otherwise, the ILS John R. Cabe was just a diligent observer.

This whole mess had shaken up the admiralty within the Imperial Layartebian Military and both the navy and the defense force were directly affected. The idea of an anti-piracy task force with combined assets from the Apilonians, the Cottish, and the Empire was being floated and passed around the corridors of the Ministry of Defense. In addition, the intelligence services were doing a deep dive through the archives of Layartebian intelligence to determine if there were other threats, akin to this one, that had gone unnoticed. Piracy, long assumed a thing of the 1600s and 1700s was as prevalent and as dangerous now as it had been. Even in the Caribbean Sea, until the Empire conquered the islands and the coastlines, piracy had existed in an on-off fashion. Worries concerning Mexican anarchy included piracy along the coastline. In the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh seemed rife for piracy, as did some of the unconquered islands of Indonesia, and the West African coast. Piracy out of Oman or Pakistan was possible, especially if the Theocracy of Amigard fell in the former. Thus, a minor instance here, was a catalyst for a major incident elsewhere in the world.

by **Cotland** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 10:02 am

HMS STEGG (J.713)
TYPE 55 "SMERTE" CLASS GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER
OFF NADOR COASTLINE, MOROCCO
171014Z DECEMBER 2013

"Stegg" had acnknowledged the signal from "Zealous", but her Captain had decided to ignore the underlying sentiment from the aggressive-minded Apilonian Commodore. Even with a company's worth of Royal and Imperial Marines, they had no idea what kind of strength the pirates had ashore, and he wasn't willing to risk his men's lives for little potential gain when he knew that if reinforcements were on their way.

The blockade was getting well underway, and already, RIBs from the various warships had stopped, boarded and inspected a number of fishing vessels, and informed their skippers in no uncertain terms that unless they wanted to swim back ashore, they'd better turn around and return to port since the coastline was currently under blockade. They were also instructed to inform the pirate leaders that if they didn't at once release the ships and crews held in captivity, there would be dire consequences. Equally so if any of the merchant marines held captive were harmed.

A few fishing boats had tried to run the blockade, but a few warning shots across the bows that had surely woken up the entire coastline had convinced them of the errors of their ways.

With the blockade established and firmly in place, the Cottish and Apilonians simply waited for two things: For the rest of the Royal Cottish Navy to make its appearance, and for the remaining pirate warships to contest the blockade.

HMS "NORRBOTTEN"
"YNOGA"-CLASS LIGHT AIRCRAFT CARRIER
OFF MALTA, MEDITERRANEAN SEA
181300Z DECEMBER 2013

The YNOGA-class light aircraft carrier HMS "Norrbotten" was forming the van of Amphibious Group IX as it proceeded towards the troubled area at full speed. Steaming ahead at nearly 28 knots, Task Group 39.02 was already far ahead of the rest of the battlegroup, which moved at 20 knots, and soon within range to deliver fighter aircraft against the targets.

The first sortie of the operation, which by now had been named Operation SORBET by the Admirality, called for two COT.52 Savage II fighter jets -- a fifth generation short & vertical take-off and landing aircraft whose production rights had been purchased from the North American former nation and former October Alliance member-state, the Armed Republic of Soviet Bloc, in the mid 1990s before that nation's collapse -- loaded lightly with drop tanks, photo reconnaissance pods and purely self-defence weaponry to fly to the extreme combat range of the jet, take photos of the coastline and surrounding countryside, look for any defences that were in the area, and return to "Norrbotten".

As the light missile cruiser "Mangust" was taking up its position a mile ahead of "Norrbotten" and the two destroyers "Villhunden" and "Korne" formed a screen off the port side of the cruiser, the two aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier and formed a tight formation as they flew over the Mediterranean Sea towards their target, 700 nautical miles away.

"FOXTROT 1-1", ROYAL COTTISH NAVAL AIR ARM
COT.52 SAVAGE II MULTIROLE FIGHTER JET
OVER THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA
181415Z DECEMBER 2013

A tad over an hour later, the two Cottish fighter aircraft had decended to a mere 400 feet over the ocean from the 12,000 feet they had transitted in, and not long after, the flight leader in the aircraft with the callsign "Foxtrot 1-1" established communications with "Stegg" over a secure UHF frequency, and was guided in by the Cottish destroyer.

Not too long after that, the two fighters flew low half a nautical mile ahead of "Stegg"'s bow at 550 knots as they prepared to go 'feet dry,' i.e. proceed over firm ground. The appearance of the aircraft had, naturally, been relayed to the Apilonians well before they appeared so that the Apilonians wouldn't get jumpy with the sudden appearance of fighter jets. The Cots, naturally aware of the jet's appearance, had prepared themselves and filmed the appearance of the sleek, dark grey-painted aircraft with the Cottish roundel and tactical markings. It would make for excellent propaganda footage.

In the cockpits of the two fighters, the pilots jettisoned the drop tanks, giving them more manouverability, and double-checked that the the electronic support measures and electronic counter-measures equipment was still operational and ready, and then activated the photo reconnaissance pods as they were a mere mile off shore.

The two aircraft flew along seperate routes, photographing areas along the coastside and the urban areas of Nador and Melilla, and searched the countryside for any military forces that might render some resistance to the Cots. The airport at Melilla was recce'd and found to be devoid of military aircraft, so too was the small airfield south of Nador. However, after being "feet dry" for some five minutes, the first flak started appearing on the skies around the anchorage where the merchant ships were being held and the urban areas, while the ESM gear started reporting fire control radars lighting up. The pilots immediately activated their ECM gear and started dropping chaff and flares at irregular intervalls to fool the radars and any IR seekers that might be looking for them. So far, no SAM had been fired.

The AAA fire was relatively ineffective, enabling the Cottish fighters to evade it, but it demonstrated that there would be some resistance to a military action against the anchorage. Pleased with the catch, the flight leader instructed his wingman to go "feet wet" and form up over the allied fleet. As he made for the sea, the flight leader chose to fly at mast height at Mach 0.9 over the captured merchant ships, hopefully giving any captive merchant mariners onboard hope that liberation was at hand. He evaded relatively heavy flak from the land and the warships in the area, which had started to go active, and proceeded at high speed out over the Mediterranean Sea. A bit further north, his wingman did the same, having recceed the Tres Forcas radar site "Stegg"'s ScanEagle had reported earlier.

The aerial incursion into Morocco had lasted not much more than 15 minutes, with no casualties what so ever, but the gain had been immense. Now, the Cottish had in their possession up-to-date, accurate, high-resolution imagery and electronic intelligence over what was in the area and a better idea of what they'd need to combat when they got to the landing phase of the operation. Of course, most information would not be known to the Cottish until after the fighters returned to "Norrbotten" and the recon pods' contents were gone over by the embarked intelligence analysts. However, it would form a good basis for the future planning.

As they left the area, "Foxtrot 1-1" gave "Stegg" a heads-up that the frigate and patrol boats appeared to be preparing to sortie from the anchorage. After acknowledging the message and thanking the pilots for their assistance, the Captain gave the order for the destroyer to go to Action Stations for the third time that day.

As men ran to their posts, a warning was given over the secure UHF frequency the blockade Task Group was operating on.

"Flash, flash, flash. All stations this net, all stations this net, this is STEGG. Surface warning RED, weapons free. I say again, surface warning RED, weapons free. Authentication time is one four three seven zulu, I authenticate KILO VICTOR YANKEE. Acknowledge. Over."

As this was going on, high-explosive shells were being loaded into the ready-to-fire carousell on the 13-centimeter main gun, the 35MM CIWS and 30MM autocannons were being prepared to fire, and the destroyer's eight AMESM-Charlie anti-shipping missiles were being prepared for immediate firing as one of the destroyer's two Sea Hawk helicopters, which had been landed for refuelling, was hastily launched and prepared to take off and employ its Penguin anti-ship missiles if necessary, as well as acting as a spotter for the naval force's artillery.

by **Terra Reborn** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 11:11 am

Commodore William Wilson DSC
H.M.S. Defiant, Off Melilla
Mediterranean Sea
Wednesday 18th December 2013, 14400hrs Local Time (1440hrs Imperial Capital Time, 0440hrs Zulu Time)

“Hands to Action Stations, Hands to Action Stations, Hands to Action Stations, assume damage control stage zulu condition one, surface threat warning red,” The voice of Lieutenant Commander Ian Leach, Principle Warfare Officer of the Defiant, echoed throughout the Imperial flagship. “Hands to Action Stations, Hands to Action Stations, Hands to action stations.”

Commodore Wilson looked out from the bridge of his ship as the general alarm continued to sound in the background and various pipes were made across the ship to get it ready for combat. They had been at an increased readiness level already of course so it didn’t take anywhere near as long as it would otherwise. As soon as the message from the Cottish ship had been received Wilson had passed on the order to the rest of his squadron to go to action stations and to prepare to engage enemy surface targets on the flagships lead. The frigates would maintain the blockade, he didn’t want any of the locals to be able to run the blockade whilst they were dealing with the warships, the Saga-Class Battlecruiser would lead the two destroyers, although for the most part it would be the Battlecruiser who took on the enemy, the sole reason being that her eight inch guns had the longest range of any ship ion his squadron, or indeed the enemy vessels, giving him an obvious range advantage, because he certainly didn’t intend to engage the enemy with missiles if he could avoid it, god knew that they were already extremely close due to the requirements of maintaining a blockade. The destroyers were mainly there to make sure they could intercept any incoming missiles, despite the short range.

Wilson, having once again pulled his anti-flash gear and other combat clothing on as he made his way to the bridge, reached up for the intercom.

“PWO, Captain.”

“Captain, PWO,” Came the response immediately from Lt. Commander Leach down in the Ops Room.

“PWO, enemy vessels are preparing to sortie from the anchorage, god only knows what they are doing, I’m re-positioning the ship to an attack position, we’ll be taking substantial evasive action in case the shore batteries decide to weigh in,” Wilson informed him. “I do not intend to waste missiles on them so I want you to engage them with the eight inch, Zealous and Zodiac will provide defensive cover whilst we engage.”

“Understood sir, we’ve got firm radar locks on the target vessels and are prepared to open fire at your order,” Leach replied. “Recommend turn to starboard to unsheathe the aft battery.”

“Very well, open fire.” Wilson ordered. “Officer of the Watch, come starboard ninety degrees.”

It was a few moments before the radar lock was confirmed and, after the traditional tolling of bells (even if it was now actually a preprogramed audio recording), the forward twin 8-inch opened fire. As soon as the firing was done the ship began its turn and indeed fired again halfway through, but by the time they were firing for a third time the ship was now broadside on to the targets and her aft pair of duel 5 inch cannons were trained on the enemy and were also firing. The eight inch were targeted upon the enemy frigate whilst the less damaging five inch cannons were being tasked with engaging the enemy patrol vessels. The Imperial Battlecruiser was firing as fast as it could, whilst it and the two destroyers that were screening it were weaving all over the place to avoid fire from the shore batteries if they opened fire. The Battlecruisers anti-ship missiles were prepared in case they were needed but given how close they were Wilson didn’t really want to use them.

At the same time the four Imperial frigates were maintaining their patrols. The question that was on the minds of everyone involved was precisely what was the enemy doing. Surely they must have known that coming out would have been suicide, with warships going active none of the warships in the blockade were going to take any chances, they had to be assumed to be hostile and that, no doubt, was why the Captain of Stegg had ordered weapons free. It stood to reason that they were trying something, so whilst the Battlecruiser enegaged the enemy they were keeping a careful eye out for anything else going on.

by **Cotland** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 3:07 pm

HMS STEGG (J.713)
TYPE 55 "SMERTE" CLASS GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER
OFF NADOR COASTLINE, MOROCCO
181443Z DECEMBER 2013

"Vampire vampire vampire bearing two seven niner!" The frantic call came over the close-circut internal battle net. In the Operations Room (OPS for short), the Captain, who was manning his traditional position in the relative safety of "Stegg"'s OPS, immediately took action.

"AWO, Captain. Set point-defence system to auto!" He ordered into his headset.

"AWO, set point-defence system to auto!" The Air Warfare Officer (AWO) acknowledged, turning a key in his console that allowed the TYFON combat management suite that coordinated the radar sets, integrated weapons systems and information management systems, to automatically take action to defeat incoming air threats. A second later, the AWO spoke again.

Point-defence system set to auto... See-wiz engaging now!"

On the destroyer's quarterdeck, the port-side MK.355 "Gladiator" close-in weapons system mount turned towards the inbound threat and automatically elevated itself to the position the on-mount fire control computer calculated based on the on-mount radar return and the information being constantly fed to the mount from the TYFON system.

The reasoning behind the sudden action was the sudden emergence of the active fire control radar that matched the signature of the pre-firing Agave radar that was fitted on the Exocet MM38 anti-ship missile. That meant that as soon as the missile was detected, the EW team on the Cottish destroyer called out "Vampire", the brevity for incoming missile, and started jamming known frequencies that the fire control radar and active search and homing radar operated on, hoping to fool the missile. Two inbound Exocets were inbound, one clearly aimed at "Stegg", the other at one of the Apilonian warships. Range upon detection was 11,000 meters and closing very fast!

Immediately upon going active, the two 35MM gas-operated rotary cannons on the "Gladiator" mount started opening up with a rapid stream of AHEAD rounds, each deploying 152 heavy tungsten sub-projectiles that were meant to tear into any incoming aircraft or missile and destroy it. At the same time, two of the eight ready-to-fire Rolling Airframe Missiles on the mount were let loose, flying at Mach 3 towards the incoming missiles, which was less than 7000 meters away from "Stegg" at this point.

Chaff was also fired off as the destroyer kicked its engines to the max and accelerated rapidly to 36 knots and started manouvering radically.

The missile closed rapidly as the "Gladiator" adjusted its aim automatically. In what seemed to be painstakingly slow, the stream of AHEAD rounds closed in on the grey speck that was the Exocet, before finally, in a spectacular orange flash the AHEAD rounds impacted about the same time as the second RAM missile connected at a range of 1700 meters, the first one having missed spectacularly and veered off to impact somewhere south of Nador city, killing three cows grazing in a field and fatally maiming two more.

The destroyer itself suffered only mild fragments hitting the side of the hull, nicking the hull but causing no significant damages to materiell or personell.

With the missile shot down, the destroyer slowed down somewhat to 30 knots and turned to bring its main artillery to bear on the offending enemy ship, the Floreál class frigate that was making its way out the harbour sound now, trying to dodge inbound 203MM, 130MM and 127MM shells from the Apilonian battlecruiser, Cottish destroyer and Apilonian destroyers, respectively. Already, one of the patrol boats were burning, having taken direct hits from a 203MM salvo from "Defiant."

The pirate frigate was shooting back with its 100MM gun, being able to open fire since the range was now less than 16,000 meters. At 16,000 meters, "Stegg" opened up with her twin 130MM main gun, choosing not to waste an AMESM on the enemy ships at this time.

The engagement was quickly turning into an old-fashioned gun duel.

OOC: Api, if you want to RP the rest of the outcome of the battle, I'm cool with that.

by **Terra Reborn** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 3:48 pm

Commodore William Wilson DSC
H.M.S. Defiant, Off Melilla
Mediterranean Sea
Wednesday 18th December 2013, 14400hrs Local Time (1440hrs Imperial Capital Time, 0440hrs Zulu Time)

As soon as the incoming exocets were detected the two escorting destroyers took immediate action. Once it was obvious that only one was coming at them they concentrated on that, there was just no time for a missile from them to get to the other missile targeting the Stegg, the Cots would have to manage themselves, but then Wilson was more than confident of that. Each Type-45E Destroyer fired a pair of RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles at the incoming exocet, this was more than likely overkill considering that four interceptors were now homing in on the enemy missile but even combined the four interceptors only cost just over three million pounds, a drop in the water compared to either of the destroyers, much less the Battlecruiser that the missile was likely targeted at. The enemy missile was intercepted well clear of the group, two missiles actually struck the target the other was destroyed by the shrapnel whilst the other sped off and slammed into the water just short of the anchorage, Wilson was more than satisfied with their reaction times and a quick glance at the radar confirmed that the Cottish destroyer had downed their missile as well.

“Unless they’ve modified that ship, it looks like they’ve shot their wad, Sir” Sub-Lieutenant Thomas Cartwright, one of the bridge watch officers, reported as he looked down at a rapidly opened copies of Jane’s Fighting Ships. “Standard armament is a pair of exocet missiles.”

“Very good, send to Zealous and Zodiac; Bravo Zulu,” Wilson nodded and thumbed the activator on his headset. “PWO, Captain, concentrate all fire on the enemy frigate, leave the patrol craft to the destroyers.”

The next time the Defiant fired all six of her guns fired on the enemy frigate. Two of the five inch rounds straddled the bows whilst the other two skirted the stern, the two eight inch rounds however were directly on target. One went directly into the bridge, killing everyone there and in the decks below. The other shell went straight through the turret into the magazine before exploding. The resulting detonation of the ship’s magazines produced a larger explosion and fireball where the frigate had just been and when it cleared the ship had quite simply lost its foc’s’le and bows and the after section which was smoking heavily was rapidly sinking beneath the waves. By the time Wilson turned his attention away from this to the patrol vessels he noted that the Stegg had taken out one of the patrol vessels and that the third was frantically trying to avoid the fire of the two Imperial destroyers. For good measure the Defiant turned and fired a full broadside into the enemy patrol vessel, now extremely close by.

As it happened something remarkable happens. The shells of the all the ships firing on it hit the patrol vessel one after the other. In the face of such overwhelming firepower the enemy patrol vessel simply ceased to exist, where there had once been a ship there was suddenly nothing but flotsam and other debris. As the cease fire order went out across the group an eerie silence fell over the bay. Instead of huge blasts of the guns firing there was suddenly nothing. The three imperial warships ceased their evasive maneuverers and turned gradually to present their broadsides to the coast in the event that the shore batteries wanted to try their luck. Wilson couldn’t help but smile as he looked over at Zealous, her battle ensigns still fluttering proudly above the ships.

“Stand-by to pick up survivors, additional look-outs on the upper decks, remain at action stations for the moment, maintain firing solutions on shore batteries,” Wilson instructed, who couldn’t help but wonder if this ‘Battle Off Melilla’, was over or not.. “Signal Stegg, ascertain their intentions at this time.”

by **Cotland** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 6:37 pm

HMS STEGG (J.713)
TYPE 55 "SMERTE" CLASS GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER
OFF NADOR COASTLINE, MOROCCO
181458Z DECEMBER 2013

Satisfied that the major pirate surface threat now was decisively destroyed, the Captain of STEGG dictated a quick contact report to be sent to Admirality and the rest of the group, before instructing DEFIANT, ZEALOUS and ZODIAC to prepare to engage enemy shore batteries with artillery in retaliation for the missile attack.

At the same time, STEGG hoisted her full battle colours, which included the larger than normal Cottish naval ensign flying from her masthead, a second somewhat smaller naval ensign flying from her after radar mast, the Captain's commissioning pennant, and a twenty-meter long crimson and gold battle pennant, which was a holdover from the ancient age of sail when the crimson and gold pennant had been a certain identifier of Cottish warships in the gunsmoke and heat of battle. It was a tradition ranging back to the Cottish-Layartebian War in the late 1500s where engagements on the high seas had led to the need for positive identification before attacking, lest the Cottish men-o-war attack their own. It had remained with the Royal Cottish Navy through the ages up to the present day.

With the full dressed ship, STEGG closed on the shoreline and was greeted by artillery fire from shore. Without skipping a beat, she started engaging the offending batteries with her 130MM gun. Hopefully, the Apilonians would join in.

by **Terra Reborn** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 7:01 pm

Commodore William Wilson DSC
H.M.S. Defiant, Off Melilla
Mediterranean Sea
Wednesday 18th December 2013, 14400hrs Local Time (1440hrs Imperial Capital Time, 0440hrs Zulu Time)

“It’s about damn time,” Wilson grinned as he read the signal them thumbed the shipwide pipe. “Attention all hands, stand-by for combat manoeuvring and fast tempo firing for shore bombardment.”

Wilson couldn’t help but smile however as he looked out at the Stegg which was dressing ship as well. Now all four major warships, plus the frigates, were flying their full battle colours, Wilson himself could only imagine the gigantic Imperial Battle Ensign, amongst other flags now flying from the Defiant, flying high above his command as he had no time to go outside and admire it. In any event between them they were sure putting on one hell of a show for anyone watching and he had no doubt that now that the surface threat had gone there were official navy photographers out getting pictures of it, even if they were going to want to be careful as the ships moved to engage the enemy shore batteries. Wilson knew that they had the advantage, if for no other reason than that they were aboard ships and ships could move, enemy batteries ashore couldn’t and that gave the warships afloat a massive advantage.

Defiant, Zealous and Zodiac swept in towards the close line, getting just close enough to put down fire with their guns whilst at the same time limiting the fire they were getting back from enemy positions. At this point the three ships split up to more quickly destroy all enemy positions, naturally Defiant took the longest-ranged enemy positions with her eight inch weapons, whilst at the same time engaging other positions with her five inch turrets. Between the four of them Wilson had no doubt that they would soon have destroyed all hostile elements within short order. Once that was done what came next was a very good question, he didn’t know off-hand how far away the rest of the Cottish ships were although they couldn’t be too far away. That being said this entire day’s events had no doubt pissed off the pirates quite badly, he wouldn’t put it past them to execute the hostages as retaliation before scarpering to escape the drastic actions the Cots would no doubt take in such a situation, and rightfully so, personally if Wilson got hold of any actual pirates he fully intended to hang them.

Wilson couldn’t help but smile as the firing bells chimed cheerfully a second before the batteries of the Defiant let out another salvo towards the shore, no doubt ruining the day of some enemy artillery gunners. This might not be the most prestigious of all the battle honours held by ships named Zealous, Zodiac and, especially, Defiant, but it was certainly for a good cause and he was proud to have been part of it. It wasn’t finished yet of course, but they had done good work here already.

by **Cotland** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 8:44 am

HMS STEGG (J.713)
TYPE 55 "SMERTE" CLASS GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER
OFF NADOR COASTLINE, MOROCCO
181600Z DECEMBER 2013

After an hour of exchanging gunfire with the shore batteries, STEGG withdrew to a safe distance after having positively destroyed two batteries (as evidenced by the massive secondary explosions, presumably stockpiled ammunition, at the battery sites) and damaged another two. While the destroyer could have kept going with the bombardment, she was starting to run low on ammunition for the main gun, and the counter-battery fire was getting closer and closer to the destroyer, despite her evasive manouvering. Deciding to call it quits while the going was good, her Captain withdrew her to 20 nautical miles off the coast and resumed the blockade duties. The Apilonian Squadron was requested to do likewise.

ROYAL PALACE
OSLO, PROVINCE OF NOREG, REALM OF COTLAND
191000A DECEMBER 2013

It was Thursday, December 19th, and the snow was getting rather thick on the streets of the Cottish capital city of Oslo as the small motorcade of black sedans with tinted windows and flashing blue lights drove up the Palace Hill and through the gates of the Royal Palace of Oslo, stopping briefly to disembark the passengers before moving on to the inner courtyard. The cars had started arriving twenty minutes earlier, and by 10 o'clock, everyone except one had arrived at the hastily scheduled meeting.

As the men and women, clad in their finest suits and uniforms sat in the Grand Meeting Hall, waiting, they passed the time with small-talk and last-minute discussions about the day's topic.

At exactly 10 o'clock, the two large ornate double-doors leading into the meeting hall opened, automatically muting the small-talk and making everyone straighten up and face the doors, where a small entourage of men and women were making their way through the doors, led by a handsome young man with flowing blonde hair and a carefully groomed, full blonde beard trimmed in the Van Dyke style. Dressed in a crisp designer suit, he looked absolutely smashing.

Immediately, everyone present bowed deeply out of respect, even before the herald called out, "His Majesty the King!"

Ignoring the herald, His Royal and Imperial Majesty, Sverre II (by the Grace of God, King-Emperor of the Realm of Cotland, King of the Wends, the Goths, the Nenets, the Komi, the Samis and the Finns, Grand Duke of Livland and Storlitauen, Lord Protector of Kaliningrad and Polynesia, and of His Other Territories and Realms King, Supreme Warlord of the Realm, Defender of the Faith, and Protector of the Jews) took the time to shake hands with the assembled people before taking his seat in the throne in the centre of the hall. As the King sat down, he motioned for the rest to be seated in their respective chairs.

"My Lords and Ladies of the Council, I welcome you to the Palace. This Council is hereby in session." The King spoke, getting the formalities of a Council of State out of the way. "My Lord Chancellor, if you please."

On que, the Lord Chancellor of the Realm of Cotland, forty-six year old Andreas Riis Dahle, rose from his seat and nodded respectfully to the King (as was tradition) before speaking.

"As Your Majesty has been briefed on previously, the Cottish-flagged merchantman 'Maersk Acheron', homeported in Copenhagen was hijacked by pirates in the western Mediterranean Sea three days ago. The ship managed to send a distress call before being captured, and one of Your Majesty's destroyers, the 'Stegg' was dispatched to investigate. 'Stegg' discovered the 'Maersk Acheron' being held by unknown pirates in the harbour of Nador, in eastern Morocco the next morning. Using their discretionary powers, Admirality ordered the establishment of a blockade and dispatched a naval battle group to converge upon Morocco in order to force the surrender of the merchantman and her crew, all of whom are Your Majesty's subjects. We have yet to succeed in establishing communications with the hijackers to learn their intentions and deliver our demands.

"Since the last meeting of the Council, there has been some developments. A naval battle has taken place off Nador, where four pirate warships attacked 'Stegg' and the Apilonian warships our allies dispatched to assist in establishing the blockade. All warships were successfully engaged and sunk, with no own casualties or significant damages to our own ships. It is my honour to inform Your Majesty that 'Stegg' and her crew has behaved with professionalism and distinction in this present situation."

The King nodded favorably as he noted down on a notepad to make sure the destroyer and her crew were recognized for their actions.

"As of present, a functioning blockade is in effect around the pirate hub. The battle group dispatched by Admirality will be in position to deliver Royal Marines into the pirate hub and clear it out by this time tomorrow morning. Grand Admiral Mikkelsen can elaborate."

The King nodded, giving the word to the Grand Admiral, who rose and nodded respectfully to the young king.

"Your Majesty, we have assigned this operation the codename SORBET. At present, Amphibious Group IX is underway to Morocco, and will be in position to commence offensive operation at midnight tonight. The Group is built around the battleship 'Danske Løve', the light aircraft carrier 'Norrbotten' and the amphibious assault carrier 'Ottoman', with four additional amphibious ships, two cruisers, five destroyers and two frigates as the main naval force. The group has forty multirole fighter jets, twelve gunships and a number of transport helicopters available, as well as Marine Infantry Regiment number Sixteen, numbering two thousand, eight hundred Royal Marines with armoured and artillery support."

The Grand Admiral paused, letting the King take in the information before continuing. He knew that the King was a keen follower of the Military and was highly knowledgable in these matters.

"Majesty, the current plan calls for a forced landing in the anchorage and securing two airfields, one southwest of Nador, the other to the north near Melilla, for flying in reinforcements and flying out the liberated merchantmen. 'Stegg' and the Apilonian squadron have already bombarded enemy shore defences and started softening them up, easing the job somewhat for the group. As heliborne Royal Marines assault and secure the airfields with air and naval cover available as needed, a combined heli- and seaborne Royal Marines force will assault the anchorage and secure the area. SBS troops have been flown in to 'Stegg' and will start conducting pre-assault reconnaissance as soon as darkness falls tonight.

"The objectives of the operation currently call for a forced landing in the Nador area, with orders to take and secure a bridgehead that includes the cities of Nador and Melilla, and to seek out and capture or destroy the pirate elements in the area. Whatever pirates are captured are to be prosecuted to the full extent of Cottish law, and the area is to be pacified in order to prevent future pirate activity in the area.

"The trouble is that the enemy appear to have fortified the anchorage extensively. Additionally, we do not know the precise location of the captured merchantmen. Special Forces patrols are in the process of being inserted to the area of operations in order to locate them. Until they are located, we recommend that we wait with the landings as we cannot guarantee their security."

The King nodded gravely.

"How many hostile combattants do you expect our Marines will face?"

"Majesty, we do not yet have an accurate enemy order of battle, but we base our projections on the enemy being made up primarily of the former Byzantine garrison in the area, which when adjusted for some desertions following the collapse of the Byzantine Empire call for a total enemy force of between eight and twelve thousand enemy. The quality of the Byzantine forces were never the greatest, and we have reports that many of these are used in policing duties in the various cities and villages, maintaining some form of law and order. Reconnaissance have not discovered any major troop consentrations in the area. However, in order to reduce the risks for our men as much as possible, we request Your Majesty's blessing to increase the troop complement allocated to SORBET."

"How many troops do you require?"

"Majesty, we believe that the objectives can be accomplished with the addition of one Parachute Division and one Infantry Division from the Army."

An elderly man dressed in the uniform of a Field Marshall of the Royal Cottish Army rose.

"Majesty, 5th Parachute Division is currently on standby for deployment, and can be on the ground eighteen hours after the order is given. The quick reaction force infantry division this month is the 57th 'Irish' Foreign Volunteer Infantry Division in Livland, Forward elements of the division can be in place in seventy-two hours, with the rest of the division in place within a week of the order being given."

The divisions the Field Marshall referred to were the units that maintained high readiness for overseas deployment in the event of a crisis. The units rotated on having readiness responsibilities every three months, and coincided with where the division was in its workup and maintenance cycles.

"Where will they be based out from?" The King asked.

"Majesty, if the order is given, we intend to activate the emergency clause in the confidential supplement of the October Treaty and request to use Layartebian airfields in the Balearic Islands as a stanging area for the Paras and the forward elements of the 57th. The vehicles of the 57th can be loaded onto high-speed transport ships within a day and dispatched, with the troops airlifted directly into captured airfields."

"If the order is given today, when will the necessary forces be in place to commence operations?"

"Majesty," Grand Admiral Mikkelsen spoke, "With the Paras forward deployed to the Balearic Islands, we would use the time they require to get fully ready to complete the plans and target packages. However, the more time we use planning, the more time the enemy has in preparing. We recommend to launch the invasion no later than December 22, in three days. That should give us enough time to complete planning and pre-invasion reconnaissance."

The King nodded solemnly. He wasn't very keen on sending Cottish servicemen into danger just before Christmas, which was one of the most important family holidays in Cotland.

"Thank you sirs for your information." The King said. "My Lord Chancellor, what does the Council advice in this matter?"

Chancellor Riis Dahle rose again and spoke.

"Majesty, the unanimous opinion of the Council is to advice Your Majesty to sanction the operation. In the opinion of the Council, we cannot allow pirates to attack and harass ships sailing under Your Majesty's colours without consequences. It would set a very dangerous divergence from the presedence that Your Majesty's ancestors have set over the past seven hundred years, namely that illegal piracy upon Cottish ships will have most dire consequences for defaulters. It would not be the first time the Realm has gone to war to combat pirates. The Cottish-Layartebian war comes to mind. Additionally, there are twenty-one of Your Majesty's subjects being held by pirates, their condition being unknown. These men and their families have not deserved to suffer this indignity and suffering. Therefore, it is the advice of the Council of State to recommend to Your Majesty to sanction the operation as presented by the Grand Admiral and the Field Marshall."

The King nodded, and fell silent for some time as he pondered the consequences. This was one of the heavy burdens of his calling and duties as King. He held the power to decide life and death, and now, he has to decide whether or not to exercise that power. After being silent for several minutes, the King reached a decision.

"My Lords, you may proceed with your preperations."

A servant appeared with a document, the formal orders having been drawn up in advance in anticipation of such a decision, to which the King applied his signature, thus giving his royal assent to the operation.

An hour later, two Army garrisons in Cotland were given deployment orders, while a formal statement was issued by the Foreign Ministry of the Realm of Cotland.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT
ROYAL MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
THE REALM OF COTLAND
NO 1-7 VICTORIA TERASSE
NO-02062 OSLO, COTLAND

We Sverre II, by the Grace of God, King-Emperor of the Realm of Cotland, King of the Wends, the Goths, the Nenets, the Komi, the Samis and the Finns, Grand Duke of Livland and Storlitauen, Lord Protector of Kaliningrad and Polynesia, and of His Other Territories and Realms King, Supreme Warlord of the Realm, Defender of the Faith, and Protector of the Jews, do announce, that under Our Hand and Seal, in the Royal Palace of Oslo on Thursday, the Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Thirteen, have declared the following;

That due to resurgent piracy activity, a state of military emergency is declared in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. As a consequence, a Military Exclusion Zone (MEZ) extending from 35°05'N-002°13'W, north to 35°35'N-002°13'W, east to 35°35'N-003°15'W, and south to the coast of Morocco at 35°13'N-003°11'W has been established and is enforced by elements of the Royal Cottish Navy.

Military and warfare activity may take place in the MEZ without warning. All shipping and aviation is strongly advised to avoid this exclusion zone as far as is possible, as the safety of shipping and aviation within this area cannot be guaranteed.

A blockade of the coastline within the MEZ is currently in effect. Any ships or aircraft attempting to challenge the existing blockade will be refused. The use of deadly force in maintaining this blockade is authorized and will be employed against any blockade runners, regardless of nationality.

The beforementioned MEZ will remain in effect until further notice.

All foreign Governments are requested to forward this announcement to their respective merchant shipping and aviation.

[Earth II] "He or she who through use of violence..."

[Earth II] "He or she who through use of violence..."

Action of 16 December, 2013

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