Rising Tide of War [regional]

[New Axiom]

Imperial Citadel, Elysium: twenty-four Hours Ago:
The High Council had assembled in a meeting room deep within the armored layers of the Citadel at the request of Emperor Cyrus Silva. The meeting unsurprisingly was about the recent turn of events, when a Talitorean ship had allegedly intercepted and raided a German merchant ship, seemly in revenge for a previous incident when a German destroyer engaged and sunk a Talitorean merchant ship. Silva has just got done outlining his battle plan, as usual focused more on leading military campaigns rather than his nation. Even Silva’s best freind Minister of Defense Dairus Taylor thought Silva had made a better general rather than a world leader. “This area, the Talitorean Passage within the Indian Ocean, is obviously claimed by Talitorea, right?” Silva had begun. “The fifty-first Battlefleet is deployed up north of here, in the Persian gulf, carrying out combat excersises with the New Speroian Federal Navy. They’re also acting as one of New Axioms Indian Ocean QRF units. So, we redeploy these ships down into the Indian Ocean, you know, to protect civilian ships from further rouge Talitorean agent attacks.” Silva’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicole Reeves then spoke up. “I didn’t realize New Axioms’ stance on piracy was that tough?” “It’s not,”Silva replied. “But we’ve been looking to curb Talitorean expansion for some time, and with the current situation in South and Central America, they’ll be looking to expand even more very soon, and we need to destroy their ability to do so before that happens.” Silva continued. “They’ve poured millions, if not billions, into rebuilding Alleria after the New Spero Civil War, and they’ve probably spent even more by moving north, destroying any local military forces and then fighting off insurgencies. After all, War is expensive. If we can throw them out of India and Indonesia, ideally we would have ensured that Talitorea does not expand for at least another decade and secured New Axiom as the dominant superpower again for the next century.” The High Council now knew Silva’s ambitions. They also knew the spoils of war if victory was secured. Patriotism would run even higher, more and more volunteers would join the military, and New Axiom would secure several trading ports in the Indian Ocean, not to mention it’s strategic location for mid-range missile bases. “Now, if we redeploy the 51st Fleet down into the Talitorean passage, this would provoke Talitorea. No one likes foreign ships in their waters. If all goes well, Talitorean Navy ships engage ours, and we can initiate Cooperative Operational Plan Twelve. Dairus!” “Yeah?” “Get in contact with German military leadership and get them onboard. Tell them not to move onto their designated target until Phase One has begun.” “Got it.” “High Council, you are dismissed.”
With that, the fate of the world was about to be forevermore changed. Only time will tell in who’s favor.

51st Battlefleet, Aboard the INS-Maelstrom, Roughly 90 Miles Southeast of the Maldives!!
It was approximatly 15:00 hours, three in the afternoon. For Fleet Admiral David Chapel, it merely felt like morning. He had been sleeping most of the journey here, he didn’t want to let his command skills slip due to lack of sleep. “Bearing Zero-Five Niner, ones hundred knots steady, Admiral.” “Good.” Admiral Chapel stood on the bridge of the INS-Maelstrom proudly, enjoying a thick Federal-made cigar. These were rare commodities these days, as the recently ended Federal Civil War had stopped cigar production. The Maelstrom was widely regarded in Imperial circles to be the best ship ever built. It was big, armored, armed to the teeth-which was due also armed-fast and had all the advantages of Marine Assault Ships, Battleships and Supercarriers all rolled in into one gigantor warship. This thing was built to win wars by itself: the other nine ships in the Battlefleet were just icing. Five frigates and four heavy cruisers. Chapel was confident that this should prevail over whatever the Tailitoreans could throw at it. Captain James Stone, captain of the Maelstrom, got up from his command chair in the center of the bridge and walked towards Chapel, standing near him. “Admiral, do you think the Talitoreans understand the concept of international waters?” “No, Stone, I do not. I believe that the Talitoreans believe, for some reason, that they have unspoken rights to all ocean territory between their colonial territories and their homeland.” Chapel finished with a puff of smoke. “If the Talitoreans fire upon as as promised when we are technically still in international waters, that would make them the aggressor, justifying any military response. Do you think Grey will go back on his threat?” “No, captain. That would make him, and Talitorea, look weak. It would make the world lose respect for them, and that is something Talitorea won’t risk. Not if their leadership is truly adherent to their petty ‘code of honor’ bullshit. While the world recognizes international waters, Talitorea doesn’t, my freind. Don’t let your mind slip, we will be in combat soon. I will be in the CIC if you need me.”

INS-Maelstrom, One Hour Later
Admiral Chapel stood in the Combat Information Center proudly, hands folded behind his back. He was watching his fleets movements on several holographic displays. According to said displays, they would be crossing into Talitorean-claimed waters within the next few minuets. Chapel flipped a switch on his console, and spoke into a microphone, one that would relay his voice to every speaker in every ship in the fleet: “Attention 51st Fleet, this is your commander, Fleet Admiral David Chapel. We are about to embark on the most dangerous naval operation since the Battle of Panama. There is a high chance of being engaged by the Talitorean Navy, or their poor excuse for one. Whatever happens, know that in the end, we will emerge victorious. Those of you that die today will be avenged at the end, your deaths will not be in vain. Make no mistake, if we face Talitorean combat ships, some of you will die. Ships will be lost. But the road to victory will be paved with our blood, and no matter what happens, we will be victorious when the day is done. Now keep your minds sharp and your bodies ready, comrades. Fleet, maintain course.” Chapel hung up the microphone. Captain Stone turned on his radio in the bridge; now Admiral Chapel and Captain Stone could hear each other’s orders. “Ready the fighters and charge the main cannons. I want those fighters launched at the first sign of trouble.” Stone ordered. “Ready the Tridnet missiles.” According to the display, all ships in the fleet were preparing for combat. Guns loaded, Trident batteries readied, bulkheads locked down. “All ships, maintain course until further notice. If the Talitoreans engage is out here we will engage them with firepower never seen before. Maintain strict radio silence. Hold steady.” Chapel said into his comm suite transmitting to the fleets command bridges. New Axomite Imperial Navy vessels were equipped with top-range laser communication suites, allowing ships within a certain radius to communicate without fear of the enemy intercepting said communications. As chapel looked onto the display, he quietly said to himself; “Now we just sit and wait for the Talitorean to to shoot at us...”

Thread Rules
MT/PMT only
NO advanced bipedial fighting machines. Primituve ones can be used so long as they’re not OP.
Anyone that’s not in the region, dont post here.
Fuck it, nuke away. Just don’t deploy more than, say, three nukes per theater.

[Talitorea]

Near the coast of Sri Lanka: Talitorean naval battalions

Admiral Lorkhan is taking his rounds around the bridge making sure everything is operational and going to plan. "Are the New Axiom ships on their way?" "Yes admiral, on route just as expected and they are none the wiser of what they are rolling into." "That's perfect." Lorkhan proceeds to move to a communications terminal and activates it. "Chevaliers report." Lorkhan said sternly. "Cavalier one active and ready." "Cavalier two armed and ready." "Cavaliers 3, 4, and 5 are green." "Good, one and two angle upwards angle and prepare the torpedoeds, 3 through 5 prep your missiles for sub aquatic launch." "Yes sir, right away sir." Lorkhan goes through the rest of his checks getting green lights from the stationed mid range missile launchers on the close land masses and the air forces. "Alright New Axiom ships will be upon us soon, scout reports say that they have some new experimental super vessel. The likely hood of us destroying it is unlikely but we can damage it enough to disable it and keep it out of the conflict for a sizable duration of the soon to be war. We're the front lines of this first wave of ships and our survival is not expected of us, our goal is to soften up an make them think our forces are weak and pitiful. After the first attack the rest of our forces will make their way forward and wipe out the New Axiom forces. Everything our majesty Aden Grey has been planning on this even if New Axiom came sooner then expected. It's been an honor serving with you all."

Cost of Sri Lanka thirty minutes later

"New Axiom ships are in range sir, shall I send the warning message?" "Yes helmsman." Lorkhan said coldly. Ten minutes later. "Sir they haven't responded back yet and they seem to have increased their speed." "Well good, they only charge further into their demise. Chevaliers are you ready." "Yes Admiral Lorkhan." "Good, the land and air forces have given us the green light and are eager to stick it to these bastards." Lorkhan goes to the communications terminal. "Land missiles fire." As he says that and a barrage of missiles from the land looking like tiny lights in the distance leaving streaks in the air, as they get closer the New Axiom anti missiles defense are opening fire with a few missiles making it through to the ships but none make contact with the super vessel. "Alright while they are distracted Air Force go and fight their fighters and keep them off of us." "Already on it sir!" "Alright, Vexillarii Dreadnaughts prepared your railgun installations three per side. While they are priming fire the naval canons upon all the ships, target the weaker ships the go for the super vessel." As all orders are carried out the assault happens in a flurry of explosions and fire, rockets surfacing from the water caught everyone off guard making contact with the New Axiom vessels and a few on the super vessel while a barrage of canon fire is being sent from both sides a total of every New Axiom vessel except the super vessel has been destroyed but the super vessel has destroyed a total of fifteen of the starting forces ships leaving only six left giving continuous railgun fire upon the super vessel. "Damnit that thing has to stop soon!!!" Just as Lorkhan shouts that the Vexillarii Dreadnaught to his left explodes in a massive fire bad. "Damnit!!! Get to BE-E VTOL's over to it and try and land some soldiers on it, we'll either sink it or steal it for all I car..." Lorkhan is cut off over the communications network as his ship explodes. This is the second assault forces mark to converge on the conflict zone.

Stratholm, Imperial Tower, 7:48 P.M.

Aden Grey sits at his desk waiting for the status report of the naval conflict. His office door is opened by one of his Magister's, he has no clue which one this is because they usually end up dead because of other Magister's in the Magisterium vying for power. "My lord reports of the battle have come in, the enemies are being successfully stalled in their advance." The Magister said shaking possibly fearful of Aden. "That's good, please inform the other naval ports to send ships towards South America. I want to see if we can make some more friends, oh and make sure Archon Desmond accompanies them. Making friends requires a voice of our people to convey what... they want to hear. That will be all, you can now excuse yourself." "Y-yes sir." The Magister leaves quickly leaving Grey in his office alone drinking.

[New Axiom]

INS-Maelstrom, Indian Ocean-16:04 Local Time
Fleet Admiral David Chapel stood at his fleet command console within the CIC of the Maelstrom. “Scanning for arial threats, none detected. Sonar detect possible submarines inbound, engaging hydrophones.” “Bearing zero four niner steady.” “Fighter groups one through eight reporting ready for launch.” “Main cannons charged.” All were assorted transmissions between fleet ships. Chapel watched his displays thoughtfully. The Talitoreans could launch an attack from any direction, above or below the waves. Chapel patched in to the bridge comm. “Captain Stone, are we ready for combat?” “Yes Admiral, the Maelstromis ready for combat.” There was a brief pause. “Admiral, we’ve picked up possible submarines, due bearing one nine five from our current location. There is also a Talitorean fleet miles to our east” “Noted, captain. Resume current operations.” Chapel switched off the bridge comm and resumed watching his displays. After a few minutes, shrill alarms began wailing. “Admiral, we’ve got missile launches detected,” a CIC tech said. Chapel didn’t respond, only rubbing his chin thoughtfully. The displays registered that the fleets shredder CIWS Systems came online instantly, destroying all of the incoming missiles. More alarms. “Enemy aircraft incoming.” Displays showed the Malestrom Fighter compliment launching. “Order the fleet to engage those Talitorean vessels. Aircrafts are a secondary priority.” Chapel ordered. “Yes sir, orders relayed. Trident missiles away.” Suddenly more alarms went off and displays showed rockets streaming from the water towards the fleet. More alarms and the ship shuddered. Two frigates disappeared from the tactical movement display. “We’ve been hit by railgun projectiles. CIWS eliminated most of those sub-launched rockets, and the frigates INS-064 and INS-715 have been destroyed.” Chapel continued to rub his chin. The Maelstroms’ cannons opened up and even more Trident missiles flew from launchers. Yet another salvo of Talitorean shells and rockets destroyed four more Imperial ships and sent more shudders throughout the Maelstrom. “How is our fighter screen doing?” “Considering the circumstances, pretty well.” “Ready the Sea Angel Fighter-Bombers, configure them with an anti-ship loadout. Deploy all of our Fighter compliment right now.” CIC techs just looked at him. Fleet admirals were not supposed to command specific ships, rather command entire fleets. Chapel was stepping on Captain Stones toes but he had no choice. “Just do it!” “Yes, Admiral. Flight operations, launch all remains fighter units, Chapels orders.” Chapel got on the radio to the bridge. “Captain Stone, I have a plan. I ordered the deployment of all our fighters, and I need you to order our other fighters back to the ship. They don’t need to land but they just need to bring the enemy right above us.” Stone looked uncertain. “That’s a fucking order, Captain!” Tactical displays showed the remaking three ships in the fleet die. Chapel flipped a couple of switches on the comm console to his left and picked up a phone on his main console. “Admiral Chapel.” The voice on the other end greeted. “Minister Taylor. We’ve been fired upon, sending you the battle data now.” “Thank you, Admiral.” Chapel hung up the phone. Displays bowed only six Talitorean ships left. “Concentrate railgun fire on one ship at a time, south to north.” Chapel ordered. “And cease firing the tridents. We may need to save those for later.” “Sir, they’ve dispatched VTOL craft, they’re heading straight for us.” This last move confused Chapel. After all, the Maelstrom was layered in Anti-Aircraft Artillery emplacements, and the CIWS Systems were also programmed to fire at enemy aircraft. Dropships would make relatively easy targets. Chapel patched in to the bridge comm again. “Captain, we need to get out of here. We can rendezvous with reinforcements near the Maldives or near Yemen.” “Copy that. Helm, bearing two-seven-niner, full speed.” The comm line was terminated. “How much ammunition do we have left for all of our weapons?” Chapel asked. “About three-quarters, sir.” Chapel walked away from his console and walked to the middle of the room where a large table was located. This table was one of the main maps in the CIC, a fully holographic display showing nearby fleet movements. The display could be configured to show different things, and chapel configured or to show Imperial Navy movements within the Indian Ocean. ‘We can regroup with the other two Indian Ocena QRF units at Madagascar, or rendezvous with a designated Navy strike group at the Suez.....’ Chapels mind began to wander about where to regroup with reinforcements.

Fortress Base Palisade, Elysium-16:14 Local Time
General Cameron Ashe stepped out of the black Moose truck stopped on the tarmac and begun to stride over the the IB-73L stratetegic airlift transport, headed for India. Ashe was on the phone, talking to the Minister of Defense. “Yes sir, understood.” Pause. “Yes sir, I’ll be in the hot zone in three hours.” Ashe hung up. He had clear but strange orders; he was to command a campaign of attrition in central and southern India. He was not to push Talitorean forces out of India completely, but rather force them into committing to the Indian theatre. As he climbed into the plane, he thought about how he would execute this strategy...

India, 16:37 Local Time
General Ashes strategy was a major two-pronged assault. Each prong consisted of an entire army group with the end goal of each prong focused on the Talitorean city of Alleria. To ensure Talitorean forces didn’t outflank the Imperial infantry advance, a separate dedicated army group was spread out accross India with extensive artillery and gunship support. Imperial forces in the area had originally thought this was a continuation of the previous nights combat excersizes, but surely enough that was not that case. Each prong of the assault was spearheaded by a Mechanized Infantry division, equipped with Battlewagon AFVs, followed by an Armored Division and then regular infantry. The Allerian Push, as it was called, was ordered by Ashe, as he believed that the capture of Alleria would prompt a massive response from Talitorea, which was exactly what the Ministry of Defense wanted in this theatre. This whole campaign was known as Phase One, and was kickstarted with heavy artillery bombardments of ninety milestone inland from imperial lines, hopefully softening up the enemy. Heavy strategic bombers flew thousands of feet overhead, escorted by a couple hundred Jackal fighters. These bombers were targeting major Talitorean troop concentrations, artillery bases, and airfields. The Push was, having just began, was complemented by gunship support and long range missile artillery support. Spearheading the assault by hundreds of miles were special forces units deployed via HALO drop from tiltritor aircraft. Among these special forces inflitration forces were the legendary Wolf Brigade; a hardcore team of seasoned SpecOps Blackbook Units. Wolf Brigade served in multiple operations, including seizing biological weapons in enemy territory, assisting rebels dipuring one of the Talitorean Civil Wars, operating covertly in both Promethian and Federal territory, and even securing nuclear weapons from terrorists. Wolf Brigade wasn’t even the units official name; rather it was a moniker earned from that specific squads reputation for sheer brutality. Regardless, their mission was relatively simple; find their target airfield about three kilometers west of their landing zone, use a laser designator to mark it for incoming missiles, and radio into command to launch a large-yeild explosive cruise missile from a mid-range mobile missile base in northern India. Special operations like this were taking place at all Talitorean airfields in India. The operation was risky; while Talitorea would have no reason to be listening in on radio traffic, and while the transmissions were heavily encrypted, the Talitoreans could trace the signals back to the squadsand the special operations forces would be vulnerable for at most four minuets. However, if these operations succeeded, New Axiom would have secured air superiority over India. One squad of ten men was deployed to each Talitorean airfield, all with the same goal of destroying it with a laser guided cruise missile.

Imperial Citadel: Ministry of Defense, Elysium-16:43 Local Time
Minister of Defense Dairus Taylor sat in his personal office, following tactical displays of the just beginning Indian Campaign from his PDA, when an aide entered his office. “Minister, the 51st Fleet was nearly wiped out by Talitorean forces. The Maelstrom is the only survivor.” “I’m aware, Miss Campbell,” Taylor said. He had an... unconventional relationship with this specific aide. “I’ve already deployed an additional three fleet ship to the area, do right now we are waiting for the Germans to begin Phase Two of the operation. Get in contact with the Maelstrom, tell them reinforcements will arrive in the Oman Gulf in three days. After you do that, come back for some overtime...” Miss Campbell exited the room with a wink.

[Novus Apexia]

New Verdun, Capitol Tower-16:47 Local Time
High Overseer Olivia Hayden threw her PDA tablet accross the room with a scream of rage. She had just read a direct message from New Axioms Minister of Defense threatNjng a full scale invasion if they had assisted Atlitorea in any way. Which was impossible to do, since Talitorea was Novus Apexias main trade partner, and New Axiom would likely see these continueing transactions as assistance. In addiction, if these transactions ceased, Novus Apexia would lose millions, or possibly hundreds of millions in profit. There were two options here: fight a losing war on three fronts with New Axiom or lose hundreds of millions of Bitcoins worth or trade. Neither option was perferred. Standing in Hayden’s Office, in front of her desk, leaning foward in two overstuffed chairs was her Defense Secretary John Thomson and General Abraham Roberts. Miss Hayden, our only option is military action.” Secretary Thomson began. “And what then? All three of us know that any military action assisting Talitorea would result in a huge land-based invasion from the north. We can’t rely on Talitorean military assistance right now, and our own military would not hold up against a direct confrontation.” Olivia replied, frustrated. “Our military may very well be the smallest but we can use that to an advantage,” General Roberts suggested. “Assuming the New Axomite advance in India succeeds, we can launch a major pre-emptive strike out of our West, they’re west, cutting them off from their northern supply lines. We wait until the advancing New Axomites are far enough south into India, then cut them off.” “General, while that is an outstanding plan, what about the imminent counter invasion from our northern neighbor?” “We can launch another preemptive strike on their Kamchatka Naval Station. That would divert at least some attention.” Hayden picked up a phone on her desk. “Get me Admiral Mendez.” She hung up, gesturing at her General. “However, General, the New Axomites have at least ten Infantry difantry divisions on our border at all times. An attack on Kamchatka would only divert half of those troop sentences at most.” “We can use nuclear weapons.” Olivia stared at General Roberts in disbelief at his suggestion. “That would only succeed in nuclear retaliation, killing billions of innocent people, not to mention poisoning land! Do better, General, and get back to me then.” The two men saluted and procceded out of the room. Afternoon they left, Hayden picked up the phone again. “Schedule a meeting with the Overseers, I want to meet with them tonight.” She hung up the phone as someone knocked on the door. “Yes?”the door opened to reveal a grey haired man in his early fifties. “Admiral Mendez, good to see you.”

[Nazi Fuhrer Germany]

Reichstag, Berlin Germany
Fuhrer Richtofen while reading an old classic book on How to Properly Spit on a Mans Shoe sits back in his chair next to a warm comforting fire in a relaxing position and stares into the books pages with the most puzzled look on his face. After flipping through the last few pages of the book, Richtofen slams the book shut starring blankly forwards for a few moments then proceeds to calmly sit up from his chair and walks up to the warm cozy fire. He looks into the fire as his face turns to a look of frustration and in one quick motion pulls his arm back with the book clenched in his fist and proceeds to chuck the book vigorously into the fire screaming various words of profanity. To cool his raging temper he turns on the gramophone sitting on his desk and puts on an old Elvis record playing Heartbreak Hotel then continues to sit at his desk with his arms crossed over and head laying down face down on top.

Not even 5 minutes has past and the sound of knocking is heard at the door. Frank Cummins, Adviser of the Fuhrer, bursts through the door "Mien Fuhrer!". Richtofen filled with rage does a violent sweeping motion across his desk flinging the gramophone off the desk smashing it into the wall along with other items such as pens and papers "WHAT, WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT NOW, DID YOU BUST A NUT!? WHAT IS IT!". Frank pauses for a moment trying to comprehend what was just said, "No, We have received word that the New Axiomites have begun phase one and have engaged in battle with the Talitorian tally waking scumbags. They're awaiting for us to commence phase two". Richtofen clearing his throat, "Alright then let us not keep them waiting. Have Admiral Kesslar take three fleets of ships, 1 submersible, 1 invasion, and 1 battle fleet and have him sail through Panama Canal across the Pacific and begin his invasion on the Talitorian Indonesian Islands". Frank simply nods,"I'll inform the Admiral immediately".

Somewhere in the Pacific
Three German fleets sail across the Pacific Ocean on a mission. A Submersible fleet consisting 3 large nuclear subs armed with ICBMs and around 25-30 smaller stealth subs designed to sink unsuspecting enemy ships. An Invasion fleet consisting of 2 aircraft carriers 5 assault carriers and 12 destroyers. And a Battle fleet consisting of 1 super battleship 6 battleships and 30 destroyers. Under command of Admiral Kesslar the fleets make their way towards Indonesia. Kesslar on board of the supper battleship Katesh, stands over mapping table looking over a map of the Indonesian Islands "Captain Sputnik, are the orbital MAC Cannons in position?" Captain Sputnik, Captain of SB Katesh, approaches the map table, "Aye Captain we have a total of 17 Obital MAC guns overhead of Indonesia". The Admiral takes a puff from an old style Sicilian cigar, "Perfect, Commence Orbital bombardment on these cities Singapore, Brunel, Jambi, Pontanaik, Pangkinpiang, and any other neighboring city town or village. Also have the sub fleet dive down to the ocean floor and turn off all unnecessary equipment and tell'em to remain undetected". "Aye Admiral". Orbital MAC Cannons above Indonesia are given coordinates to constantly unload MAC rounds upon. Even though the MAC guns are given specific coordinates they could miss the target by up to a mile. As Orbital MAC cannons continuously shell Indonesia Both the Invasion and Battle fleets continue pushing on towards their target.

Between South China Sea and Java Sea (Couple Hours Since Orbital Bombardment Commenced)
It is night time now as the fleets enter the area, the crews on deck watch in awe as they watch the coastal cities burn and destruction rains down from the sky. Every half hour or so give or take ten minutes you can see the occasional beam of light rain down from the sky and strike down. It's as if Zeus himself was taking his anger out on the Talitorians. A Loud speaker sounds, "This is Admiral Kesslar, It is our mission to remove power from the Talitorian barbarians hands into ours. We must secure these islands for our selves to expand our beloved Reich and diminish these blood thirsty savages. These blokes started this war and were going to resolve it, commence the invasion". SB Katesh positions itself off the coast of Singapore and begins naval bombardment upon the city. Four other battleships do the same thing to the other four cities listed. Destroyer are set up to defend allied ships and assist in the attack. Landing craft filled with tanks, troop, and other ground forces make their way to the beaches as attack helicopters are sent in to defend them and eliminate any resistance on beaches to ensure landing zones are secured.

[Talitorea]

Adens War Room
"Soooooo.... he's aware he only bombed like three... banana plantations right?" Aden said quiet dumbfounded. "It's better not to question the choices of the blind and short sighted your majesty." Count Godfrey said over a holo communicator projection. "Plus, we now now the location of the orbital weaponry and we could easily have our national space station send its engineers over to them and disable or rewire them to our usage." Godfrey continued. "Fair point Godfrey, I'll need you to request the engineering teams on the station to go do that in the mean time Countess Montilyet, how goes the invasion of New Axiom into our boarders?" Aden said inquisitively. "Quiet well my liege, we have special operations United United, Osiris, and Beta performing sabotage tactics and military camp destruction detail on and off since before they first showed up on the boarder, it maybe small but if one cog in a well oiled machine is out then the whole thing breaks down. Plus our troops have been digging in and building fortifications since before the naval assault, we have everything we need from rations to antimissile defenses." Countess Montilyet said with a smug confidence. "We should be able to hold back their forces like an older sibling holding back a child." Montilyet continued. "Very good Lady Montilyet... very good. Now Count Jophry how goes the naval situation?" "Very good my lord, our ships are sustaining as far a distance as they can while also being in range of the New Axiom super vessel whilst also having our BE-E VTOL bombers unload payloads of bombs and fly back to their designated air craft carriers for reloading and refueling, disabling this ship is our top priority but we understand that destroying it will most likely be the outcome." Jophry said as any soldier reporting to a commanding officer would speak. "Very good Jophry. Now people we have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. Jophry I want ships being sent towards the German ones that are near the islands that they are destroying for no reason. Godfrey continue with your idea of having our space station engineers sabotaging the Germans orbital weaponry. And Montilyet, I have a very special chemical compound that you could use against the New Axiomits, report back to me in one hour to get the details about it and how you should use it. That's all everyone, back to your business." Aden switched off the holo communicators and sat back down in his desk to continue enjoying his glass of wine smugly.

[New Axiom]

Northwestern India, 17:17 Local Time-Roughly 157 Miles Northwest of Alleria
The sun was setting. It was spectacular; the storm moving in from the south accented the sunset perfectly. It was unclear weather or not black clouds were smoke or rain clouds, but whatever they were they were pouring down torrential rain. Private Kane Sinclair was an infantryman, part of the 41st Infantry Division, one of six participating infantry divisions that made up a core part of the Allerian Push. Sinclair ran the best he could through ankle high mud and dove behind a wall of sandbags, where three soldiers of his ten-man squad was hiding behind. Bullets whizzed past overhead as Sinlcair wiped some mud off his assault rifle. One of his squadmates laughed. “Don’t worry about it mon, these things don’t break no matter what.” Sinclair huffed and peeked over the sandbag wall to examine the terrain. What used to be a pristine field was now dotted with bunkers, pillboxes, blockhouses, rail stars, blast walls and other assorted defensive structures and concrete trenches built by Talitorea. Directly within his squads path was three bunkers, a concrete blockhouse, an artillery bunker and several machine gun nests. A bullet fired from a machine gun hit the sandbag in front of Sinclair, blasting sand in his face. He cursed as he ducked behind the wall again. “Squad, move your asses up here rickey fucking tick!” Sergeant Raynor was screaming into his squads comms. Fuck, Sinclair thought. “Moving!” One of his sauadmates yelled as Sinclair and the other soldier, Jenkins was his name, aimed their rifles over the sandbag wall to provide covering fire. The rifles chattered as they spit out rounds towards the closest machine gun nest. Davidson, the soldier that ran towards the rest of the squad, dove behind the blast wall that the rest of the squad was hiding behind. The machine gun nest opened fire on Sinclairs position. “Fuckin hell!” Jenkins shouted as he ducked yet again. “Listen, man, we’ve got to take out that machine gun nest if we’re going to and it up there in one piece!” Sinclair shouted to be heard over the gunfire and explosions. Jenkins, as the squads grenadier, had an underbarrel grenade launcher on his rifle. He took a grenade out of a hip pouch and loaded it into the launcher, aimed, and flipped a switch on his holographic sight and pulled the launchers trigger. “Money!”Jenkins yelled as the launcher belched out a grenade towards the nest. The machine gun nest exploded, and bodies, or pieces of them, exploded out of the sandbagged hole in the ground. “Alright, Jenkins, move up, I’ll cover ya!” Sinclair fired at assorted enemies as Jenkins sprinted towards the wall. As Jenkins dove behind the wall, Sinclair ducked behind the sandbag wall again. Raynor was screaming in the comms for Sinclair to move up. Sinclair set his rifle down for a second and he moved his goggles form his helmet down to his face. Sinclair counted to five, grabbed his rifle, and leapt over sandbag wall. Sinclair sprinted, catching a glimpse of a Talitorean tank driving towards the New Axomite lines. Another brief gimplse of a muzzle flash to his left was the last thing he saw before his helmet was suddenly thrown off of his head, almost snapping his neck. Sinclair was thrown into the ground and his vision turned flashy. He heard his squadmates curse as they rushed to drag Sinclair behind the wall. “Yer lucky man, the bullet snagged your helmet!” Seargent Raynor siad, slapping Sinclair’s shoulder. Sinclair was still recovering as Raynor scanned the terrain. An imperial Paladin tank drove past the wall, its twin autocannons hammering the enemy infested trenches. The Talitorean tank fired at the Paladin, destroying it and showering Raynor and his squad in shrapnel and destroying half of the blast wall. Another Paladin fired at the Talitorean tank, destroying it, then procceded to continue raking the trenches with autocnnon fire, before it was knocked out by a Talitorean artillery piece. Raynor shook his head and pushed a button on his comm microphone. “This is Sergeant Raynor, requesting priority close air support directly south of my position, over?” There was a pause as a nearby IFV unloaded a full compliment of Imperial Army troops before it was destroyed by another Talitorean tank. “Copy that, Raynor, CAS is inbound, standby.”

Overhead the Battlefield, Three Minuets Later:
Imperial Marine Gunship Pilot Katherine Savage flew a Sledgehammer gunship low and fast, barely over the heads of the advancing New Axomite troops. She was a veteran chopper pilot, beginning her career during the Great War, flying CAS missions in both Central America and Promethia. Her combat résumé only expanded form there. Now, she found herself piloting a modified Sledgehammer with three other crewman only feet above the ground towards the battlefield. She flew in formation with another gunship, flying just a tad higher than she was. She turned a couple dials on her hyperspectral camera controls. Since the camera could be directly displayed on several screens around the cockpit, Savage could see perfectly despite the harsh conditions. Savage flipped on her comms. “This is Savage, Rockets primed, crew, you ready?” Responses of yes came back from her nose and side gunners. She smirked as she continued. “Copy that. Attention, this is your captain speaking, please ensure your meal trays are locked in the upright position, if you find yourself nauseated, plsease, stop being a little bitch and deal with it like you have a pair.” She smiled moreso as her crew replied in witty remarks and she flipped her comms channel to squad. Falcon one, you ready?” “Copy that Falcon Lead, it’s time to chew ass and kick bubblegum, and I’m all outta ass!” Savage chuckled as her objective came into view. She flipped on her helicopters loudspeakers, playing hardcore rock music as motivation for freindly troops, alongside that squad of soldiers, pinned behind a barricade by what appeared to be some very pissed off bad guys. “Crew, hold your balls. Left hand side, right hand side gunners get primed and loaded, we’re doing a jay run. Falcon One, execute the same maneuver, let’s awe these tally-whackers with an awesome display of explosivy death and acrobatics. Go!” Savage pushed down hard on the stick and made her chopper practically dive into the enemy trenches. Savage passively hoped that the enemy noticed her custom falcon detailing that covered her helicopters entire tail boom. As she manhandled her choppers controls, she also unloaded her choppers rockets as her nose turret gunner opened fire with rapid fire thirty millimeter explosive death. Falcon One and Savages choppers came within mere inches of each other at the climax of the jay run, an attack maneuver where the chopper moved in such a way similar to a capital J at the end of the move. After the maneuver was finished, Savage and her wingman entered an attack orbit around the objective, their gunners eventually liquefying anything that wasn’t protected by a bunker with the choppers three explosive-spewing 30mm Shredder cannons. Savage did a quick scan with her hyperspectral camera suite to ensure everything was dead, but the results were disappointing. “This is Falcon Lead to CentComm, requesting fast-mover heavy CAS, we were unable to clear out the remaining hardened enemies, how copy, over?” Savage waited as she continued to orbit around the bttalefield. Her choppers gunners continue to fire at the bunkers and enemy reinforcements as the Infantry below moved up and was resupplied with additional men and armor. “Copy that, Falcon Lead. Zeus CAS inbound, hold position until bombardment commences. Continue to provide overhead support until at the bingo fuel mark. Central Command, over and out.” “Copy that centcomm, Falcon Lead out.” As Savage continued to maneuver her aircraft in a steady circle above the advancing allied forces, she casually chatted with her crew. Before long, a single Imperial Zeus medium jet bomber aircraft apperead on the horizon. As the aircraft flew over the line of concrete fortifications, it began to drop high explosive bunker busting ordinance over the Talitorean line of bunkers. As the bombs exploded, the once imposing concrete structures became simple rubble. Savage lowered her altitude to cover the Imperial Infantry, who were now being loaded into IFVs. She snickered. “Good luck, boys.”

India, Priority Target Three, Approximately 34 Miles Southeast of Alleria-17:28 Local Time
Captain Howard Dawson lay silently in the muddy bushes. He didn’t shiver, despite the light, cold rain pelting him. His team was spreading out over a square mile, and his nearest teamate was five hundred meters away. They were operating deep behind enemy lines, in a crucial part of the Allerian Push. Dawson led a small strike team of ten men who’s objective was to paint their target airfield with a laser designator and guide in a state of the art cluster munition. Dawson’s legendary team, known by the unofficial moniker Wolf Brigade, were both feared and respected by the worlds military forces, and considered a myth by others. But they were very real, and deployed deep in Talitorean territory. The Wolf Brigades misision was simple; they were to paint their target airfield, as previously mentioned, and then radio in to Central Command to launch a missile. Only problem was that once they radioed in, the Talitoreans might be able to somehow trace their short bursts of five second radio chatter. So, Wolf Brigade, In a plan to ensure no radio chatter could be traced back to their location, jury rigged a radio transmitter to a steel power pylon a couple of miles away; one of many leading to the airfield. The wireless set used an internet connection, making it harder to trace than a radio signal. The idea was that once the squads radio was set to transmit, the signal emanating form the power pylon would drown out the squads other, more important radio signals, making them impossible to trace before th airfield was struck. Now it was time to put the theory to the test. “Squad, test the laser designator.” Dawson said into his squad comm mic. The laser designator operator ensured his backpack-sized piece of machinery worked. It was a UV laser, invisible to the naked eye, night vision and thermal imaging equipment. “It’s working, green and green.” “Copy that, paint the target.” “Painted.” “Gallagher, radio in centcom, tell them the target is painted, tell them to launch.” A pause. “Dawson, Centcoms confirmed that the missile launhed. Now, we’ve just got to hold position for five minuets.” “Relax, squad. After all, we’re the fuckin Wolf Brigade. Besides, if they were going to find us at all, they would’ve by now.” The minutes ticked by slowly, every minuet Dawson felt like he was creeping closer to hyperthermia. It was dark, black as midnight. Dawson’s watch only read it was barely five thirty in the afternoon. The storm was nice for a special forces perspective; the thunder and rain covered up most sounds any foot patrols would hear. Not that there would be any this far behind Talitorean lines. Within a couple more minuets, the entire airfield exploded in a brilliant flash. The weapon used was a Mk-81 Tactical Battlefield Domination Cluster Munition. It was a SCUD-sized missile with the very outer layer was a light aluminum casing, designed to be blown off by six small C-2 explosive charges, releasing layers upon layers of bowling ball sized high explosive charges, and at the very core of the weapon, beneath all of the frame and explosive charges was a fuel-air Moab weapon. Designed to destroy large clusters of infantry, tanks, or, in this case, military installations. Dawson smiled. “Squad, mission complete.” If all of the other special operations executed at each of Talitorean four airfields was as successful, New Axiom would secure air supremacy over the Indian theater. Now, Wolf Brigade would be on their own until Central Command issued new orders or sent an extraction bird. As Wolf Brigade began to move to regroup, Dawson radioed CentCom, reported on then success of the attack, and signed off.

Indian Theater Command Center, 17:34 Local Time
General Cameron Ashe observed the battlefield from a massive circular holographic map. He wore green camoflauged combat fatigues, but no armor. His armor and rifle was sitting nearby in a chair, however. He observed, intently, as he leaned on the table. The Allerian Push was going so far as planned, the initial fortifications were nothing but trenches and sandbags, all easily overwhelmed by a coordinated assault by tanks, infantry, gunships and bulldozers. Progressively the fortifications got tougher, as expected. All things considered, the Allerian Push was being executed perfectly. Losses were climbing, but that was acceptable, especially regarding the recent report from Blackbook Squadron, aka the Wolf Brigade. Ashe continued to watch the tactical map. Forces making up his left prong of the assault, including the infantry squadron led by Raynor, were about to head into a long valley that continued for miles. The display showed artillery bombardments pepper Ashes lines, nothing unexpected. That is, until an alert popped up on his command console. Chemical Presense Deteted, followed by a series of grid locations. Ashe straightened up. Shit, he thought. His forces were just attacked by chemical weapons. He turned to a technician sitting at a command and control console to his right. “You. Did you pick that up?” Ashe asked, “Yes, General. Chemical weapons were used on the Western Operations Group.” Ashe shook his head. “I need to get CBRN teams down there ASAP, see what you can do.” Ashe ordered, just before yet another technician spoke up. “Sir, we’ve got reports of chemical weapons being used on all of our forces, save our defensive Army Group up north of the advance.” He stepped over to the central holographic table, and zoomed out until it was showing all of Ashes troop movements. All had the same signature of chemical weapon usage. Ashe shook his head. “I need you to relay the order for all armored vehicles to button up, regardless if it’s a tank, APC or a fucking armored dildo, I want anything with any form of armor sealed up tighter than my wives pussy. Make it happen!” Ashe rushed out of the command and control room. The worst thing about chemical weapons wasn’t the losses they caused; but the paperwork.

Imperial Citadel, Elysium-17:45 Local Time
Minister of Defense Dairus Taylor finished reading a report from his frontline general commanding the Allerian Push, Cameron Ashe. The report was alarming. Chemical weapons had been used on advancing Imperial Army forces, but the alarming part was that it was a fairly new and unheard of chemical compound. Taylor stood up, stretched, grabbed his guns and coat, and strode to the couch in his office and draped his trench coat over some half-naked babe that he had a faint memory of copulating with roughly an hour ago, probably while drunk, who occupied said couch. Taylor walked out the door of his office in the Ministry of Defense quadrant of the Citadel, the starkly lit corridors felt fairly crisp against his bare arms. Taylor went to find Silva; who was both his superior and friend. He found him roughly ten minuets later in a corridor near Silva’s office. “Hey, Cyrus, I’ve been looking for you!” Silva tunred around, surprised. “Dairus, you catch the goalball playoffs last night?” Silva asked happily. “No, I didn’t. I barely got any sleep last night as it is.” “Ahhh, all them bad bitches you got keeping ya up at night?” Taylor shrugged, “Well, there’s that plus the war. Cyrus, I need to talk to you, preferably in private.” A few minuets later the duo were in the Military High Command Center; the nerve center for the entire Imperial War Machine. Taylor was describing casualty details. “So, generally, the new chemical weapon is estimated to have killed about half a million troops; all who were exposed to the initial deployment of this chemical compound.” Five hundred thousand troops dead in under five minuets. Two whole Infantry Divisions. Thankfully, anyone in any vehicle more advance more advanced than a basic truck would be safe. Tanks, IFVs, helicopters, APCs, dropships, fighters, bombers, and several other types of vehicles were equipped with pressurized hulls and overpressure sytems, allowing them to operate in radioactive or otherwise contaminated areas. However, the chemical attack, combined with several enemy surgical assaults behind New Axomite lines were estimated to delay the assault by three days. Silva didn’t like complications, but additional reinforcements couldn’t hurt. Besides, something about this new chemical weapon seemed familiar, and he knew just who to coerce into telling him everything he needed to know... Silva stood up. “I need a chopper on the roof in ten minuets.”

The Indian Front-17:47 Local Time
Seargent Raynor, Private Sinclair and the rest of 12th Squad was riding in an Anvil-pattern APC when an amber light inside the red-lit passenger cabin began to flash and a crew member in the forward cabin alerted the passengers that they would be redeploying behind the lines, as were most other troop-carrying vehicles. Apparently, there was a chemical threat outsid of the APCs pressurized hull. There were pros and cons to this, Sinclair thought. A pro was a little R and R time when they got back to base, a con was sitting in the uncomfortable seat for four hours.

Indian Ocean, Aboard the INS-Maelstrom-17:48 Local Time
Admiral Chapel was standing onbaord the Command Bridge of the battlecarrier Maelstrom. For the last eight hours, it’s been the same loop of Talitorean hit and run attacks. They kept sending bombers. This made no sense; they just kept getting shot down by the ships CIWS system. The other strategy was more annoying; enemy ships popping in and out of range. Until recently, they just kept getting destroyed every time they popped into the Maelstrom’s railguns range. However, after hours of continuous firing the ship was beginning to run low on ammo; just below half ammunition stocks. Captain Stone asked, “Admiral Chapel, will the reinforcements be arriving on schedule, as planned?” Chapel paused. “If it all goes as planned, Captain, then yes. But plans rarely ever go as planned, Stone.” Chapel turned to face the younger man. “I’ll be in the CIC, I’ll be seeing you up here again once we rendezvous with the reinforcements.” “Yes sir.”

[New Temporis]

Torres Strait, Australia, 2:00 local time
"Attention on deck!"
The bridge of the NTS Atlas was suddenly filled with silence. Admiral Thomas Curnow stood at the rear of the bridge, ready to begin the morning's briefing. He spoke with a tone of confidence:
"Today we are scheduled to see our first combat in the ongoing war between Talitorea and a joint force of Nazi Germans and New Axiomites. Effective immediately, the orders for our ship and rest of our naval group are to search and destroy any hostile naval forces near Talitorean territories. The German Navy is confirmed to be operating in our vicinity, so they will mostly be the first hostiles that New Temporisians make contact with during the entire war."
The Admiral paused for a moment and took a sip of his coffee. He continued, "As such, I intend to make the largest possible impression on the Germans as we possibly can. So, men and women, be sure to take the head off of the first German patrol unlucky enough to cross our path."

Three hours later, in open water east of Singapore
The silence that had earlier filled the bridge of the Atlas had long vanished. As soon as German patrols had been spotted by scout helicopters, the entire attack fleet had come alive.
The ship's fire control officer yelled, "targets are coming into range now, sir!"
Admiral Curnow responded, "turn the guns toward them! Prepare to fire missiles, full broadside! Tell the destroyers to begin laying down a torpedo screen, I don't want anything getting past us! And get the laser system online!"
As the dreadnought turned, it brought its guns to bear on the German vessels. The hostile vessels were already firing, but only unguided shells had any effect on the New Temporisian fleet as the Atlas's laser close-in weapons set any missiles ablaze in mid-flight.
"Fire!" Curnow exclaimed.
The deafening thunder of the Atlas's twelve 20-inch guns rang out as they each ballistically catapulted an anti-ship missile into flight. And on the dreadnought's mark the rest of the fleet opened fire; the first shots ever fired by New Temporis against Germany.

Bay of Bengal, New Temporisian amphibious assault group off the coast of India, 6:00 local time
Master General Arnold Browning stared in dismay at the foggy waters in front of him from the bridge of the NTS Defiance, a new Orion-class battlecruiser. His dismay wasn't because of the fog. In fact, the fog and choppy waters had allowed the New Temporisian assault group to remain largely undetected to other ships. Browning's dismay was because of the political climate of the war. He had fought closely alongside the New Axiomites in past wars and thought it a shame to have to fight against them now. After all, it wasn't the fault of the soldiers for what had happened between the formerly close allies.
But none of that could change right now. The new elected Prime Minister of New Temporis, Silas Thompson, had decided to come to the aid of Talitorea via a surprise counter-attack on the nation's aggressors. In addition to this, it was planned to open another front to the war when the time came to reclaim New Temporis' territories lost in its previous conflict with New Axiom, but now wasn't quite the time for that.
The General walked across the bridge the map screen-table in the back. He looked down at it. According to aerial and satellite reconnaissance, New Axiom's land forces were steadily moving southward through India. Browning had come up with a plan to put a stop to this advance. New Temporisian ground forces would land as quickly as possible north of the Axiomite-Talitorean front line. From there they would move west, cutting across the rear lines of the New Axiomites. The goal was to cut the front line forces off from their support in the rear. The plan was most surely a risk, but if it was successful, it would give the joint Temporisian-Talitorean forces in the south of India a much needed chance to mount a counter-attack.
Feeling satisfied with the strategy, Browning contacted his ground force commanders and gave the go-ahead to attack.

[Nazi Fuhrer Germany]

Day of the Indonesian Invasion (This is before New Temporis has arrived)
Three hours have passed since the beach landing in the invasion. Admiral Kesslar watches from the bridge of the Katesh curiously with a closed fist over his mouth and chin. Something isn't right, there seems to be a lack of explosions, gunfire, war cries and screams of terror. After a moment of puzzling, Kesslar begin calling out for the Captain, "Sputnik!... SPUTNIK!". The admiral walks up to an officer working on terminal, "Where's the Captain?" The officer looks up at the admiral, "uh.. what, sir?" Kesslar stares back blankly at the dumbfounded officer... then suddenly out of complete rage, "WHERE THE HELL IS SPUTNIK!!!". The officer flies back out of his chair, headset falling off papers flying, "errRRAAHHH.... I think he's in his quarters". "Thank you...". Mean while Sputnik is "enjoying" himself in "private time" when Kesslar bursts through the door, "SPUTNIK!", "AHHHH" Sputnik proceeds to scramble to pull up his pants and to hide his nude mags falling backwards out of his chair. "What are you doing?!" "...uh..." "You know what, never mind, just never again" "uh yes, sir" "... LIKE EVER" "okay" "Do you understand?" "I SAID OKAY!" "GOOD... while you're at it have
Col. Heisenberg contact me and give me a sit rep" "Okay, sir, right away." "Also how are our orbital MAC guns doing?" "They're all nearly out of ammo, the most one has is 9 rounds." "okay then have them stand by for when we need them again, once they run dry give them coordinates to crash into." "Yes, sir" "...oh and remember... NEVER EVER AGAIN". Sputnik lowers his head and mummers under his breath as he tries to get in contact with Heisenberg.

Singapore Island
"Keep pushing Comrades, it's only a matter of hours before we completely take these territories for ourselves". Col. Heisenberg was shouting and doing multiple hand gestures as he stood out of the commanders hatch of his Leopard 2a8 MBT. The invasion hasn't even been going on for a full day and yet they will have achieved victory in a couple of hours. The Wehrmacht came in with enough support, supplies, fire power and man power to start an invasion expecting heavy resistance expecting it to last weeks or months. Although the Intel provided for the area was incorrect. Instead of massive cities and heavy resistance there were only extremely large plantations occupied by a lot local population workers and small resistance, so once the invasion commenced victory was already at hand. The resistance dug in deep into a small fortified position to use as a their last stand before accepting defeat. Col. Heisenberg now currently leading his men on the final push to victory. A line of Leopard 2a8's and BTR-90's continue to unload their cannons and .50 machine guns onto the enemy's position. The Smell of gun smoke, dirt and debris and the sounds of soldiers shouting, cannon fire, shell casings hit the ground and screams of death and agony all fill the air. "Sir you got call coming in, It's from the Admiral, he wants a sit-rep". Heisenberg picks up his headset and holds the mic and one earphone against his head, "Yes Admiral, what can I do for ya?" "I need a sit-rep on our current invasion, why is it so damn quiet out there. It's only fun when you can hear the enemy scream and beg for his life followed by multiple gun shots and more screams of agony." "Uh... yea, sure admiral... It seems that our Intel was wrong about these islands. Instead of large population, major cities and heavy resistance. There is only a couple huge plantations with small resistance defending. With the large invasion forces that we brought with us we are currently kicking the living schist (That's a rock) out of the Talitorians. The last of their resistance is held up in one final fortification once we obliterate it we should have complete control of the islands achieving victory". "Well then that's great Colonel. Who knew that false Intel would allow us to achieve victory at a far more quickened pace.... I should have that Intel officer shot for screwing up, he obviously can't be trusted to do his job right". "Well then Admiral, I'll leave you to it then. I'll inform you once we have achieved victory. Heisenberg takes off his headset and looks out to the enemy fortifications nearly in complete ruins and notices that their guns have stopped. "All units cease fire!" the shell casings stop dropping and the smoke from the guns clear. "Alright comrades, it is time to finish this. Let's move up on their position and crush them, we give them no quarter. The charge will be led by armor followed by infantry on my go". A short moment of silence that seems like forever follows... "CHARGE!!!"Whistles are blown by officers, soldiers shout their battle cries to strike fear in the enemy. Armored vehicles move forward at half speed so that the infantry can keep up. small mounted machine guns and other small arms fire come from the remain enemies as a last hope of desperation. infantry fighting vehicles light up enemy positions as tanks drive right through the outer defenses sheltering the enemy. A tank shell blasts through a wall that was providing cover for enemy soldiers knocking them to the ground. German infantry moves through the destroyed wall gunning down the wounded and dazed soldiers. The charge lasted for less than 5 minutes before it was all over. A small group of enemies surrender as their cornered. "We have a couple of cowards over here, what shall we do with 'em". A Lieutenant known for his brutality that goes by the name of Lt. Krauser comes up. "So we got a couple cowardly tally-whackers who want to surrender to the German War Machine. You know what the Col. Heisenberg said, no quarter. Grab a couple of flame throwers and burn the bastards alive". The remaining survivors were locked into a wooden room where gasoline was pour on top of them through an opening through the roof then it was all set a blaze by two men with flame throwers. Their screams of agony and pain were drowned out by the crackling of the fire and the sound of the flame throwers at work. A couple of hours after the victory the Col. Heisenberg reports to the admiral that all islands have been secured and he can commence the building of outposts and bases, a variety above and dug in defenses to protect form potential counter invasion, large makeshift ran ways capable of large strategic bombers and transport and a gigantic flood wall built on the west coast recommended by New Axiom. Navy ships are set up to defend all waterways leading into the sea to protect form enemy attack, along with torpedo nets covering all entry ways into the sea and a schist ton of water mines set up around the islands in strategic locations to prevent enemy ship movements into the sea. It's like as this sea and the chain of islands have been transformed into a much larger scale version of Fort Knox, nearly impenetrable. For the next couple of hours the German invaders celebrate their victory by drinking, playing national the national anthem and firing off rounds of ammunition.

Two days after Invasion Victory (Now current Time)
Back on the Katesh the radar seems to be picking up some ships coming in, presumably hostile. "Admiral we have something on radar it appears to be New Temporis warships coming in from the East" The Admirals eyes widen "Get in contact with the submarine fleet pronto, have them send in a dozen or so U-Boats to come in behind the New Temporis fleet. If they try to come in and attack us we can hit them from two sides and they wouldn't even know it was happening." "Sir their ships are closing in, SHOTS FIRED, I REPEAT SHOTS FIRED!! New Temporis forces are hostile" "New Temporis has no idea what kind of mess they have just gotten themselves into, OPEN FIRE" Barrages of cruise missiles rain fire upon enemy ships, battleship rail gun turrets begin to fire at will, along with a shower of armor piercing VX canister rounds penetrate and explode into New Temporis ships contaminating their vessels both inside and outside. U-boats come in from behind an begin to subtly shooting off torpedoes to sink enemy ships trying their best to not be spotted.

[Talitorea]

Singapore After German Soldiers Burned Surrendered Captives

"Can you fucking believe that. Burning civilians alive who were just trying to defend them selves." The clocked and masked figure said with a high quality video camera aimed through the scope of their Kett long rifle. "And I got it all on camera. If this doesn't give us more national support and backing to the fact that Germany kills civilians then I don't know what will." The figure pulls down their hood revealing a helm at with a breathing apparatus and two greenish viewing ports having a singular headphone looking device come from the right ear and proceeds to press a button to distort their voice to the out side world to be nothing but weird inhuman noises to all except those with the specific channel to understand. "This is Reaper one, I have evidence of German war crimes and heading back to the stealth carrier, Reapers two through seven report." Few seconds go by and the comm devise responds. "All accounted for Ma'am, and no enemies around the parameter." "Used thermal view on your helmets tight?" "Yes Ma'am the Germans don't know we're here." "Have you been feeding the the communications of us preparing a chemical strike on this island?" "Yes Ma'am, they appear to believe that we are going to give them an agonizing death... wish we were." The male voice said disappointedly. "Hey don't be so down, I'll let you torture the next German we capture for information. But there are still a few civilians down there so mass killing the Germans isn't a great idea with our people still there." The female figure gets up and pulls her hood back up then proceeds to dash back to the BE-E stealth VTOL without making a sound as her feet hit the ground, she has become a specter to the world.

BE-E VTOL 4 of 6, Prisonor Transport, On Route to Stratholm

Hours before the Reapers caught three Germans on patrol that got a little to close the the escape shuttles so they decided to capture and get info from them. Hours later the three Germans finally gained consciousness waking up tied to chairs with Reapers one and two and Demon seven staring at them. "Your going to tell us any information you know on your future plans in this conflict now, or this isn't going to be pretty." Reaper two said coldly. "We aren't going to tell you anything you helmet wearing freaks!" One of the Germans shouted to him spitting in Twos direction. "I was hoping you would say the, Seven if you would be so kind as to show our new friend some of your hospitality... oh by the way I'm pretty sure he's the one who killed Six." Just as Two says that Seven charges the soldier and plunges his wrist mounted blades into his stomach and pulls up letting his entrails spill out. Seven chuckles a little. "Isn't he fun? It seriously if you don't tell us anything it's going to get worse." "We aren't saying a word." The heights ranked German Soldier presumably the German equivalent of a Master Sergeant with a quiver in his voice. "Oh really? Seven kill his friend." Two said calmly. Without hesitation Seven grabbed the previous soldiers entrails and proceeded to strangle the other soldier with them. "Now this may take your friend a little to die so you still have the opportunity to save both of your lives if you give us information on troop movements, weapon stashes, shit even the bathrom habits of you commanding officer I love shooting people's heads off when they are on the toilet just tell use and your free to live in a prison until the end of the war. Scouts honor." The last soldier is just staring in disbelief and the fact the the large muscle being in full body armor is chocking his fellow comrade with his other former comrades small intestines, he hesitantly looks at Two unsure if he should just give them what they want. "By the way if you don't speak by the time we land in three minutes your going to experience something worse then that... like the only thing you will ever know is torture for the rest of your life. Soooooooooo.... have fun." Reapers one and two sit back down while Demon seven is still strangling the other soldier to death. Demon seven the whole time is whistling some show tunes.

[New Axiom]

Indian East Coast, Bay of Bengal-18:27 Local Time
Seargent Frankiln Jackson and his ten-man light Infantry squadron were on a patrol mission on the east coast of India as part of a foward field reconnaissance mission in order to watch for any Talitorean forces moving to flank via amphibious assault. The ten man squad drove accross the sandy beach in new Hyena off-road military trucks, designed to be a modern replacement to the aging but legendary Moose line of trucks. While it shared a similar appearance, the suspension and engine was completely reworked and modern armor and creature comforts, among other things, had been added. Folk music blasted from a boom box as Jackson floored the gas pedal as his truck leapt over a sand dune. Technically, these troops were behind enemy lines, although intel suggested there would be a minimal enemy presence here. “Sarge, why do we have to listen to this shit anyways?” Jackson’s passenger asked. “Cause I’m in charge, that’s why.” Suddenly, the soldier sitting in the turret ring slapped the roof three times, hard. “Sarge, we’ve got lights on the water, due east!” Jackson looked, and sure enough he saw boats. “Turn off the boombox!” He slammed on the brakes and flipped the light switch, and the truck behind him did the same. The pair of trucks were now dark. The radio in Jackson’s truck cane to life. “Sarge, what the fuck!” Jackson threw his trucks door open and leapt out. Every soldier except the turret gunners also dismounted. Jackson pointed at the approaching boats. “Brandt, you see those?” “Yeah, those ours?” Jackson grabbed his tactical monocular from a belt pouch. He examined the approaching landing force and expected to see an approaching Talitorean landing fleet and saw...New Temporisian boats? “Yo, Brandt, take a look.” Jackson tossed his Monocular to Brandt. “You see those insignias? What are they?” He asked as Brandt examined the approaching flotilla. “Sarge, are those New Temporis boats?” “Guess so. Squad, stand ready!” Jackson barked as he went back to his truck to use the radio. This needed to be reported to Divsion Command. Jackson picked up the radio mic. “Division Command, this is Seargent Franklin Jackson, 56th Infantry Foxtrot Romeo Foxtrot, we have a situation here.” Pause. “This is Division Command, what is your situation?” “We’ve got a New Temporis landing party inbound approximately...” Jackson glanced. “...six clicks offshore due east of my current position.” A longer pause. Too long. Jackson talked agin. “How copy?” “This is Division Command, come again, didn’t you say New Temporis?” “Yeah, they’re going to be all over us in the next five minutes here.” “How many troops are there?” Jackson glanced. The fuckin brass wants to know everything, he thought. “A substantial amount! Division Command, we’ve gotta fall back, we are not going to make it out of here if we stay.” Jackson’s turret gunner gave him a nervous look. Another long pause, the New Temporisian forces were mere minutes from landing now, and Jackson’s troops were getting nervous. “This is Division Command, your orders are to fall back immediately. We’ve logged your position. Division Command, out.” Jackson hurriedly climbed into the truck and called out. “Squad, mount up! Move it or your ass is grass!”

Indian Central Base Camp, 18:32 Local Time
General Cameron Ashe was observing the same holographic map he’d been staring at beforehand. After the chemical weapons attack by Talitorea, he decided to request more troops-eight divisions worth-which was met with uncertainty by the Ministry of Defense, but Ashes request was fulfilled after Minister Taylor ordered the deployment himself. Alongside the eight infantry divisons originally requested, Ashe also received two Mechanized Armor Divisions. Walkers. He was also issued new orders; he was no longer required to lead a war of attrition but he was to capture or destroy Alleria. It was mildly disappointing for Ashe; such simplistic orders were fairly benign compared to the challenging orders of forcing his enemy to commit to this theatre. Capturing a city was boring; bleeding them dry would at least be challenging. Ashe hadn’t eaten yet today, so he munched on an uncooked toaster pastry as he observed. As he ate, Ashe pondered new opportunities in the war; the special forces raids he’d ordered early in the battle were wildly successful; all four Talitorean airfields were destroyed and New Axiom had secured air superiority in the theater. This meant that the Allerian Push would go immensely easier. Saturation Carpet Bombing executed by long-range strategic bombers would soften up or outright destroy most ground-based defenses, allowing ground forces to move in easier, and without enemy airfields in India, it would take enemy planes longer to get there to intercept said bombers and allow the relatively short-range Jackal Fighter escort to stay on station longer. For the moment, Ashe decided that for the time being, he couldn’t decide where to deploy his newly arriving trooos until he gathered up to date information on the actual frontlines. So, he walked one room over, where there were dozens of tactical analysts sitting at rows of computers. He strode over to a random station, pastry in hand. “General.” The woman sitting at the station greeted. “Hi. I need you to patch me through to Foward Division Command, preferably a division commander.” “Yes sir.” The woman flipped a few switches and such before saying “I’ve patched you through to High Captain Cato Allurus of the 13th Infantry. His image will be on the main screen shortly.” “Thank you.” Ashe stowed his food in his pocket as he walked to the center of the room. Before long, an image of a man in gas mask with a red, hazy background appearedon the main screen. “General, this is High Captain Allurus, you wanted to talk?” High Captain Cato Allurus was the son of the revered General Marcus Allurus, and also a member of one of New Axioms most prestigious and traditional old families. For this conflict, Cato commanded the 13th Infantry Division alongside the entirety of the Western Push. “Yes, Captain. I need a situational report on the current situation on the frontlines.” An explosion was heard in the background as Captain Allurus began. “Well, sir, it has it’s pros and cons. The gas killed most of the defending Talitorean troops, although there are still pockets of resistance here and there. We’ve been under sporadic artillery bombardment from various artillery emplacements and firebases scattered around the country, but the Imperial Air Force is having a hay day hunting down and destroying those.” Ashe smirked as Cato continued. “Talitorean armor attacks have also increased in number, nothing we didn’t expect or planned ourselves once the gas was dropped.” Ashe asked, “Did you lose any ground after the gas attack?” “No, General, we did not. Infantry losses were moderate, but our armored vehicles were able to hold the line as reinforcements from the rear were shipped to the front in APCs. So long as our boys don’t tear their suits and leave their masks on, they'll be fine.” Ashe smiled. “Captain, how long until our artillery is within striking range of Alleria?” “I’d say, at our current pace, our artillery can begin shelling Alleria before dawn. If all goes well, Alleria will be flying red and black banners in twenty four hours, General.” Ashe nodded. “Excellent work, Captain.” Ashe saluted and ended the video feed. After the conversation was over, Ashe went back to his command table, but was intercepted by a tactical advisor carrying urgent news. “General, there’s a situation.” Ashe blinked. “What is it?” “Sir, Infantry patrols on the east coast spotted a full scale amphibious landing operation by New Temporis.” Ashe did a double take. “New Temporis?” “Yes sir.” Ashe thought it was kind of funny; last time he fought alongside New Temporis, the two were shooting each other by the end of the week. Ashe tapped a button on his command table and the Image was projected into a three dimensional hologram. He turned the map of India to his preferred angle and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He just received eight infantry divisions, so he could deploy six of them to the eastern front to counterattack the enemy landing force, as well as deploying the two eastern defensive infantry divisions to intercept the landing force, while still allowing the three infantry divisions that made up the eastern push to continue their push to Alleria. That would project eight divisions worth of Infantry, alongside armored and air support on the landing New Temporis military forces. While that was by no means a permanent defense, the massive counterattack would buy more than enough time to redeploy even more troops, tanks, gunships, bombers, maybe walkers. He issued these orders, playing with the idea of authorizing chemical weapons as he set a priority alert on the redeployment orders, before setting up a video call with the Minister of Defense. Nah, he decided. He wanted a challenge; he was going to see what the New Temporisians had to offer first.

Somehwere in the Northern Wastes, Northern New Axiom-18:48 Local Time
Emperor Cyrus Silva took a drag of his cigar and stepped outside of the massive concrete fortress and onto the freezing roof walkway leading to the helipad where his chopper was ready and waiting. It was pitch dark outside, the only light was coming from the sweeping floodlights that illuminated the officially nonexistent state prison and surrounding area. His helicopters side door opened and Silva took one last, long drag of his cigar before he flicked it off the roof. He climbed into the chopper and was surprised to see Dairus Taylor, the Imperial Minister of Defense. As the chopper door closed and the helicopter flew away, Taylor asked, “So, how’s Amon these days?” Silva chucked. “Mental. Spending years in an imperial prison will do that to ya. The best part is that he believes his Talitorea is dead; he believe so it was wiped out in nuclear war and the sole world superpower is New Axiom.” Taylor laughed. “Huh, why’s that, I wonder?” “We’ve only been ‘mentally conditioning’ him for the past few years. I asked him about this new chemical weapon, right? I told him it was used by terrorists on a Talitorean refugee camp and if he didn’t tell me how’d to cure it, all those people would die.” Silva erupted into laughter, and Taylor asked if it worked, to which Silva replied “not sure yet, I need to run the interrogation tape by some analysts first.” There was a few moments of silence before Taylor announced what he came along to discuss. “Cyrus, our old New Temporisian freinds are getting involved in our little shooting war. They’ve begun an amphibious Assault in India and have started a naval conflict with the Germans in Indonesia.” Silva shook his head. “Man, what’s that guys name, their newly elected leader? Simian, Silias....Silas! God that guys a dumbass. First year in office and he’s already choosing the wrong side.” Taylor snickered. Silva took a more serious tone and went to the front of the cabin, picking up a telephone that allowed the users to talk to the pilot. “I want a full debriefing on the military situation once we set down at the Citadel, got it?” “Will do, Emperor. I’ll get in the comms and have the High Council be ready for a meeting with you.” “Good man.”

Two Hours Later; The Imperial Citadel, Elysium
Emperor Cyrus Silva was sitting at the end of his conference table, sipping on a whiskey, deep within the Citadel. He was informed on the general situation in his helicopter on the trip here and was fully briefed when he arrived. Silva’s High Council and several generals of the Imperial Strategos were attending the meeting. General Malcom Steele of the Imperial 32nd Marine Division was one of the attendees. “General Steele, is your part of the campaign ready?” Minister of Defense Dairus Taylor asked. “Yes, Minister. My marines are ready to deploy, just waiting for your go.” Silva asked, “Did we lose any ground in the chemical weapons attack?” “No, our armor was able to keep pushing forward as properly equipped Infantry were moved up from the rear, allowing us to continue the push.” A random general said. Minister Taylor stood from his seat. “Regarding the New Temporisian Intervention, Ashes strategy involves deploying many of his reinforcements and a couple of divisions behind the lines to counteratttack their landing party. If all goes well we will be able to stamp out the New Temporisian assault. Our forces should arrive to counterattack by midnight. Imperial Intelligence is predicting that by the time our intercepting force has arrived, New Temporis will already have had a substantial force deployed on the ground. While this is all happening, the Allerian Push is continuing as planned.” Taylor finished. Silva spoke up after pondering something for awile, slouched in his chair. “We need to be expecting another attack on our northern territories, the ones we won from New Temporis during the northern campaign. What can we do to prevent one?” Taylor rubbed his chin while looking a worldwide tactical map. “We can put the Homeland Defense Force on attack alert and deploy additional tanks, Infantry, gunships and air support to complement the HDF. We should start evacuating civilians—“ “No.” Silva interrupted. “That will only tip off the New Temporisian military that we are in fact pereparing for an attack and it might incite them to attack sooner. Plus, if New Temporis still has that dumbass moral code, they’ll limit their attacks in order to try and save civilian lives. We can begin evacuations once an attack happens, if it does.” Minister Taylor looked shocked, then shrugged. “You think troop movements won’t tip them off?” “Its New Axiom, those happen literally all the time.” Silva retorted before dismissing the Strategos. Once all the generals were out of the room, the High Council began to talk about the more sensitive side of operations. “I’m sure you all of aware of recent anti-German propaganda popping up from Talitorea? What are you doing to counter it?” Silva began. “I mean, it’s coming from a nation that’s fighting a futile war on two, soon to be four fronts. The smart ones know it’s a desperate, out of context call for help and the rest are going to believe that it was in fact a Talitorean staged propaganda operation where they burned their own civilians. We can play this and accuse the Talitoreans of yet another war crime on a growing list. After the war, regardless of who wins, Talitorea will doubtfully have any allies left.” Minister of Propoganda Jason Mahon said. “Good, now we need to prepare for phase two. I want six submarine fleets deployed to northern Indonesia, and to hold position there until we can begin Phase Two. They are not to fire and maintain maximum depth and complete radio silence at all times. They are not there to attack the approaching New Temporisian fleet.” Silva ordered. Sixty submarines deployed to one location was a lot but it wasn’t even half of New Axioms Pacific Submarine Group. “Also, this war needs to move faster. We need another decisive Strike in a theater no one expects. Any ideas?” Silva asked. Minister Taylor spoke up. “How about space? The ORBWAR program is still up; we should use its hunter-killer satellites to destroy enemy communication and military observation satellites.” Silva jumped up and clapped his hands once. “You, sir, are a genius. If it works drinks are all on me for a month. Dairus, come with me, we’re heading to Imperial Space Command. I want to watch this space battle. The rest of you, were finished here.”

In Orbit Arround Terra, 21:03
A lone Hunter Killer Orbital Drone fell though space, in an infinite orbit around Terra. It actually possessed a fairly modern AI construct, capable of making in flight decisions. It had the option to not follow orders from command but was programmed to. The drone was actually one of one thousand hunter killer drones all on the same mission. It’s orders were simple; it was to destroy anything that was Talitorean or New Temporisian. It decided what to destroy by using a sophistated geo-location system. By using memory from NUKEFLASH servers it was able to determine what orbital object was launched form where. And it was to destroy anything coming from Talitorean or New Temporisian launch sites. The strange part of its orders was that everything in orbit belonging to these nations were to be destroyed; not just military satellites. It didn’t understand; after all, what did a social media relay satellite have to do with the war? It found its targets though not only NUKEFLASH memories but also it’s own optical suite and radio suite. It was able to home in on radio “noise” and destroy the source. The drone found its current target that way. The target was identified as a military communication satellite belonging to New Temporis. With a detonation of one of its many mounted claymore mines, propelling a massive amount of tungsten ball bearings towards the satellite at millions of meters a second, destroying the satellite on impact. After the drone concluded the satellite was no longer operational, it moved away, hunting for more targets until it ran out of ammunition.

Indian Front, Near the Battlefield, 21:10 Local Time
Lieutenant James Pavlov was standing guard in the middle of a heavily guarded field behind the lines. The field was lit up by mobile floodlights and there was a flare in the middle of the courtyard. Not that Pavlov could see dick in this gas mask. The field was lit up enough where the red fog was barely noticable. Sunset was a half hour ago, so the floodlights were neccesary anyways. The sound of six heavy lift choppers temporarily drowned out the sound of explosions and gunsfire that was ever present on the battlefield. A walker BWS appeared out of the fog, carried by six Skylift choppers who were blowing the fog around. As the choppers maneuvered the walker over the LZ, Pavlov took a step back and nudged a seargent. “Look at that, it’s the size of my apartment building back home.” The seargent chucked. “You must not live in a megablock.” The choppers disenganged the harness and the Walker fell a few meters, landing and billowing fog. “Wow.” The soldiers muttered under their breath. The walker whirred to life after a few seconds, straightened up, turned on its sweeping floodlights, and walked towards the front line. “How many of these did we get?” “A whole division. I think. The other half of the offensive got one too.”

[New Temporis]

Indian Peninsula, 3:00 local time
The New Temporisian offensive on the side flank of New Axiom's invasion force in India had initially met little resistance. Three adjacent beachheads were established, and a largely mechanized assault force had driven a swath across almost a third of the Indian Peninsula. However, New Axiomite forces were met soon enough, and they had slowed the Temporisian advance to a crawl.
Colonel Alvin H. Davenport and his New Temporisian Vanguard were at the front line of the attack. The Vanguard were New Temporis' elite front line special forces and specialized in breaking down enemy defensive lines.
The Vanguard, along with the forces it supplemented, were in heavy contact with hostile New Axiomites. Tracer fire lit up the battlefield as both sides exchanged fire. T-110 "Lockdown" tanks deployed and entrenched themselves to stop the Imperial Military from regaining the ground the New Temporisians had taken. Thunderous booms were heard as the "Lockdowns" repelled enemy armor and demolished hostile entrenchments with their colossal 150mm cannons. All the while, the self-entrenched tanks used their deployable add-on armor to protect themselves and the slowly advancing allies behind them from torrent of tracers that threatened to erase them from existence.

Skies above India, meanwhile
The night sky above India held no less chaos. A fierce aerial battle was taking place as the New Temporisian Air Force bitterly fought to wrench air superiority from the Imperial New Axiomite air contingent above India. The advanced Phoenix mk.1s and Hurricance mk.2s clashed for the first time against Imperial Jackal fighters. The New Temporisian planes had been operating partially from aircraft carriers, but most were flying from various unprepared airstrips, hastily set up by combat engineers south of the Talitorean city of Alleria. With Colonel Samuel Douglas' 1st Task Force taking part in the fight along with dozens of other air regiments, the New Axiomite Imperial Air Force was surely beginning to feel the gravity of the immediate situation.

Somewhere in South Africa, Time Unknown
Although the New Temporisian military had many new tricks up its sleeve, many of its leaders - including the Prime Minister - felt that the nation could do with a few more to have at its disposal. As such, "military ambassadors" were sent to South Africa among other places to consult with various private militaries about providing assistance to the New Temporisian war effort. As one might expect with PMCs, many agreed to provide military support......for the right price. One South African militia in particular, White Lynx Security, even agreed to allow New Temporisian bomber wings to use their air bases. This was important, as it would put many of New Axiom's key military assets of the war within range of New Temporisian MOABs.

[New Spero]

Southern New Spero, Roughly 3:45 Local Time
General Horace Roland was riding in the passenger seat of a Patriot military truck, en route to the headquarters compound of the White Lynx Sevurity PMC. Federal early warning radar had picked up New Temporisian bombers on approach to several airbases owned by the mercenary company, and Roland’s men had been dispatched to investigate the incident. Roland had been briefed on the situation that had been developing for almost an hour; the head of White Lynx Security now had a warrant for his arrest; reason being allowing foreign military units into the nation and harboring them. The crews of the bombers that were already landed were being held by Federal Army units, while the bombers that were continuing on course were diverted to Pacem International Airport and escorted by Air Force fighter jets. As the truck drove up the freeway, the main PMC compound came into view, but something wasn’t right. There were too many flashing lights, and what looked like flames contrastingagaibst the black, early morning sky. As the truck drew nearer, Roland could see that indeed a bomber had been downed roughly a mile away from the compounds number two airstrip. As the truck approached the main gate, the situation was clearly very chaotic. Civilian protesters clashed against riot police while Federal Army tanks cautiously navigated through the human ocean. PMC soldiers trained their guns on both Federal Army units and civilian rioters. Obviously, public sentiment wasn’t t in favor of White Lynx Security or their foreign visitors. Floodlights waved over the crowd and loudspeakers boomed as the Patriot truck was forced to stop becuase of the crowd. Roland cursed and stepped out of the truck, trying to communicate with the soldier that was driving. To no avail, Roland manage do to swim, for lack of a better word, over to a Federal Army Rhino tank to which he climbed on the top, crawling over to the commanders hatch. The tank commander was clearly frustrated, trying to navigate his tank and crew through the riot. “Hey, commander, we need to get moving!” Roland shouted to be heard over the chaos. “Yeah no shit.” The tank commander glanced at Roland, and immediately recoiled after seeing his rank patches on the generals chestplate. “Sorry, sir.” “It’s fine, major. Tell me, what happened over there?” Roland asked, gesturing to the crashed airplane. “I’m not sure but I think the jist of it was a New Temporisian bomber refused to abort its landing and comply with its diversion orders so it was shot down by the Federal Air Force. The protesters showed up a little beforehand; shooting down the bomber only riled them up.” Roland smirked. “Look, we need to move. Fire the smoke grenades and floor it.” The tank commander retreated into his tank and closed the hatch, soon the engine roared. Two other soldiers jumped up onto the tank as it honked its hone three times. The tanks smoke grenade launchers finally coughed up their payloads, frightening the crowd and causing them to disperse. The tanks advanced into the compound as a fire engine blazed past, heading to the crash site. General Roland knocked on the tank commanders hatch. The commander opened it. “Major, take me to those three planes.” Roland pointed to the three New Temporis bombers lined up by a hangar. The situation inside the base was much calmer. Federal Army forces had occupied the entire base and many of White Lynx Security personnel were held at gunpoint until they could be properly detained if they posed a threat. Good, Roland thought. They had it coming to them after they began helping the New Temporisians. Those bastards lost the respect of New Spero the moment they supported the Promethian warmongers, and In Roland’s opinion, these mercenaries deserved to be shot for working with New Temporis. As the general leapt off the tank as it stopped next to a bomber, he spotted a seven man bomber crew on their knees with their hands behind their heads being held at gunpoint by two Federal Army soldiers. “Sir.” They greeted. “Men. Did these men resist arrest?” “Sir, they possessed small arms and had threatened to fire upon us if we forcefully boarded their planes. We breached and subdued them with beanbag riot guns. Roland nodded. “Look what the cat dragged in.” he seethed. Pure hatred flooded Roland as he kicked one of the bomber crewman hard in the face, splattering blood and teeth. Roland then pulled his sidearm and shot another crewman twice in the chest without hesitation. “Fucking inhuman fucks. You assisted the enemy that occupied our land, killed our people, and poisoned our lands, then trying to destract our allies that were trying to make the Promethians pay, and yet you have the gall to come here and show your ugly faces? You don’t deserve the life you live. Execute them!” Roland shouted, clearly shocking his subordinates. Part of Roland told him that it wasn’t these soldiers fault what had happened, but none of that mattered now. These soldiers fought for the nation that stood by Promethia in its final days, the same Promethia that killed Roland’s family in New Geneva, before he was a soldier and just a small beachfront vendor. These soldiers deserved something worse than death, Roland thought, but death was the worst thing that could be given. “What are you waiting for?” The soldiers glanced at each other nervously. They didn’t think they did executions. Roland just shrugged. “Fine.” He raised his sidearm and put a bullet into each crewmans head.

Pacem, The Capital Building-One Hour Later
President Horatio Collins sat alone in his office, stroking his light beard as he watched live news reports from the war in India. He had personally issued an order for White Lynx Security operations to be shut down in the nation and struck from the Legal Militia Registry, mainly because of them granting refuge to foreign military units, even though so far New Spero was relatively neutral in this conflict so far. Collins wanted to remain neutral; however that was increasingly becoming far less likely. It was really a shame that White Lynx was officially ordered to be shut down; they used to be considered one of the ‘good guys,’ protecting relief convoys, trauma centers and other more long term infrastructure installations during the Sons of Spero insurgency. Many civilians in New Spero were understandably weary of mercenaries, since the SMC mercenaries, then considered the worlds best, assisted Promethia back during the Promethian Wars. Ever since then, if any PMC wanted to base any units in New Spero they had to meet the legal requirements to be put on the Legal Militia Registry and pay a small portion of all of their earnings to the federal government. White Lynx Security was primarily based in New Spero, although they had other bases in other parts of the world. It was common knowledge that White Lynx Security mainly chose New Spero becuase it was a relatively close location to the company’s counter-narcotics and anti-piracy operations in India and the Indian and Atlantic Oceans respectively. Now, all of their bases in New Spero were to be seized by the federal government, as were any other PMC bases supporting New Temporis. Collins sighed heavily. New Spero was on fairly good terms with the rest of the world, apart from New Temporis, but this war seemed useless. Talitorea held the world record for highest number of political coups in one year; what the New Axomites and Germans were trying to accomplish could be accomplished much easier if they waited until whenever the next coup took place. The new hardass no nonsense leadership failed to impress Collins or his administration; after all, the same approach was adopted by Edward Hawk, although the new feudal system added a new twist. However, allying in a military conflict alongside New Temporis was unthinkable. The public was still reeling from its perceived betrayal; while New Temporis did assist in wrenching New Spero from Promethian control, but they had switched sides at the last minuet and fought a multifronted war against the South American Federation, New Axiom, and to an extent the Germans, all who were trying to destroy Promethia one way or another. Another outraging factor to the New Spero public was the lack of support the received after the Promethian occupation. New Temporis didn’t contribute to any of the combat operations against the Sons of Spero, even though it was a splinter group of a New Temporisian terrorist cell, not to mention the fact that New Temporis had allied with the nation who caused those wars in the first place. Regardless of the facts about public support, an alert made Collins personal cell phone beep obnoxiously. As he read the message, his face filled with dread. General Horace Roland, the man Collins had dispatched to personally survey the situation in the south of the country, had personally executed three bomber crews that had been apprehended after their bombers landed-and then grounded-at White Lynx Security’s main command base. Thankfully, this was the only place that an incident like that happened; New Temporisian bombers that were diverted to Pacem hadn’t even been forcefully boarded. However, two bombers had been shot down for either trying to fly away back home or failing to abort their landing approach. Combined, these events didn’t look good to the rest of the world, particularly New Temporis. Collins immediately sent out an email scheduling a meeting with his cabinet ASAP, and sent out more emails ordering a media blackout in Southern New Spero. Hopefully that would buy a little time until the New Temporisians came baying for blood. General Roland would need to be reprimanded, but if these incidents caused all out war, New Spero might need someone like him.

[Novus Apexia]

Near the New Axiom Border, Northern Odin Province, 4:17
Commander Alex Lamar sat his console within the armored crew capsule of his Dominator tank. His was part of a massive assault focusing on the New Axomite Genesis Wall, in an attempt to break through and assault the New Axomite industry city of Imuria, located roughly thirty miles north of the wall. Lamar’s tank was one of five in twelve squad, radio handle Sigma Squad, of the Seventh Armored Brigade, spread out over a ten square mile area accompanied by mechanized Infantry and ground attack aircraft. Lamar opened his hatch, getting a blast of cold air that sent chill to his bones. “What the fuck, comamander, it’s cold out there!” His driver complained. He didn’t answer. He put his giggles over his eyes as the Genesis Wall cane into view. Sharktooth fighter jets screamed overhead at an altitude of roughly one hundred feet, their afterburners illuminating the attack force briefly. Explosions boomed throughout the field as the jets dropped bunker buster bombs onto the wall. Lamar heard attack sirens wail as the New Axomite defenses came to life. The walk was still miles away but missiles and anti-tank guns began showering the assault. Lamar cursed as heavy machine gun rounds began to pepper his tank. He retreated back into the hull, sealing the hatch. “Switch of the headlights, switch to night vision external cams.” He ordered. “Gunner, weapons free. Sigma Three and Sigma Six flank to my left and right respectively.” Lamar began speaking into the radio microphone. “This is Sigma Lead, Target wall is one mile out, all units engage rocket barrage.” Lamar replied affirmative as he flipped three switches, engaging the tanks roof-mounted missile pods. “Gunner, missiles are primed, ready to fire.” “Copy that commander, firing now.” Horrible shrieks pierced the air outside as all of the Republic tanks fired their armor-piercing missiles almost simultaneously, all at the wall. Massive explosions boomed yet again against the wall as more Republic tanks fell victim to defensive fire. More Sharktooth fighters flew on an attack approach, this time only to be shot down by defending Imperial forces. Enemy Zeus light bombers appeared on the horizon, escorted by Jackals. “This is Sigma Two to Sigma Lead, where is the rest of the attack force? Weren’t we supposed to link up with them twenty jokester back, they have the AA we need!” Pause. “Copy that Sigma Two, no sign of our reinforcements from Odin Province yet, we’re all we’ve got. Sigma Lead out.” Lamar cursed inside as he checked the range of the wall. Two hundred meters. They’d be entering minefields soon. “Driver, raise our suspension, prepare for anti-Armor mines!” “Roger.” The tanks four independent tread systems were lowered, forcing the main body of the tank upwards, increasing the chances of crew survivabilty in the event if a fatal explosion, which happened almost instantly. “We’ve encountered mines!” “Press forwards! Gunner, fire everything at the wall, twelve o clock! We need to breach it!” “Commander, our number two drive unit is critical.” More tanks were knocked out. The Imperial aircraft flew overhead screaming, dropping cluster munitions onto the advancing troop transports a few hundred meters behind the armored push. Lamar’s tank gun fired as fast as possible, as did the coaxial thirty-mil high explosive cannon. “Sir, we’re approaching the wall!” Lamar’s periscope was locked directly forwards, a section of wall where explosions constantly exploded, ereidmgbthe armored wall. “Floor it! This is Sigma Two to all republic forces, converge onto my position, we’re breaching!” “We’re about to high the wall, commander!” “Dump the throttle!” “Sir-“ “Do it!! Brace for impact!” The tank shook violently as it rammed a solid sandwich of armor and concrete at sixty miles an hour. This section of the wall, weakened by a constant stream of explosions and anti-armor rounds, was breached by the tank, making a not so neat tank sized hole. No sooner did this happen that Lamar’s tank was destroyed by an Imperial Paladin tank on the other side.

New Verdun Senate Building, 4:23
High Overseer Olivia Hayden was briefed on the war situation three minutes ago in her state car. The planned assault on Imuria was the military’s wet dream; the Republic Army had been looking for an excuse to launch an all out attack on New Axiom and everyone knew the northern neighbor felt the same way. However, while the assault was going well, there was a major obstacle. New Axiom had five Imperial Army divisions stations at permanent posts just north of them border, behind the Genesis Wall. This was common knowledge, and the way the War Office planned to counteract that was overwhelming force by deploying the millions strong military forces that had been illegally built up over the years in the arguably rouge Odin Province. However, the problem was that the generals in charge if those forces refused to deploy thier troops under an order from Hayden. This cut the strength of the Republic offensive by over half. Hayden didn’t blame the generals, after all, the attack order and declaration of war she issued was slightly illegal. She was severely abusing her power right now, but she knew that if the combined forces of Germany and New Axiom succeeded in their campaign, her nation, her little enclave of freedom and liberty would be surrounded on three sides by rather unfriendly nations, rather than just one. Three Overseers oppose the war declaration, which was understandable. War was unwanted, and if Novus Apexia lost, both Talitorea and the Republic could be destroyed, which was the very reason Odin Province wasn’t allowing their troops to leave. The risks were high but such was always the case. Hayden was gambling, hoping the offensive on Imuria would distract the Imperial Army, maybe diverting troops and thinning enemy troop numbers in India, just maybe making the fight easier for their Talitorean and New Temporisian comrades. However, in order for the assault to be successful, the Odin Province needed to deploy it troops, and rather sooner than later, and that was why Hayden was here at the Senate Building, to try to convince Odin Province senators to try to convince their Overseer to deploy the troops. After all, if Hayden wanted, she could arrest the Overseer for treason, but that would just make him a martyr. The state car came to a halt on the steps of the Senate Building. As Hayden’s door opened, she stepped out and took in the sight of the massive marble pillars surrounding the outside of the building. At the top of the quartz stairs, her stressed-looking, greying Secretary of War stood. “It’s good to see you again, Olivia.” “You too, Mahon.” They began to walk into the building. “Tell me you have good news.” “Well, not bad news. The assault is going rather well, considering our men have drastically reduced numbers. In fact, the Wall was breached a few minuets again. New Temporis deployed bombers to New Spero in a confusing move, and they were met with an expectedly unsavory welcome. The bombers were grounded by the NSFAF and so far haven’t been allowed to leave.” Hayden raided her eyebrows. “Why didn’t they deploy said bombers here? If they were trying to reach India we have much closer airfields and we don’t share the same sentiment towards them as New Spero does.” Secretary Mahon shot Hayden a look. “We don’t, miss ‘renegade example of the free world?’” He asked sarcastically, referencing a press conference regarding New Temporisian intervention against New Axiom alongside Promethia. Hayden glanced daggers at Mahon. “Well, maybe not as an extreme sentiment. Mahon, I need you back at Mjolinir, coordinating with the Republic Navy about the Kamchatka Blockade. I want a report on my desk here at the Senate regarding the plans ASAP. “You got it, Olivia. Great to see you.” A few minuets later, as Hayden sat down at her office within the building, she scheduled three senate hearings, sent an encrypted email to New Temporis granting them permission to use Republic airstrips, and sent another email to the CEO of White Lynx Security, offering him asylum in New Verdun. After these emails were written and sent, Olivia stood up, sighed, walked to a back room in her office, and fell facedirst on a cot. She’d been arguing, debating, convincing, coordinating, ordering, manipulating, whispering, and shouting fir the past thirty hours nonstop. She needed sleep, but sleep was a fleeting thing when the very survival of her people was at stake.

[New Temporis]

Prime Minister's Office, Main Legislative Complex, Unity, Greenland Territory
Prime Minister Silas Thompson stood pacing the room impatiently, awaiting the arrival of several of his advisers. The war, which had not been the Prime Minister's decision alone to join, had been keeping him nervous for the past several days. Silas couldn't shake the feeling that at any given moment an invasion fleet could show up on New Temporis' shores, or that a barrage of nuclear weapons could come down on their heads and extinguish the country for good. He looked up as a knocking was heard at the door.
As he opened the door, Thompson breathed a sigh of relief. Entering the room were the three Overseers of the Defense Oversight Council along with the Chief Officer of Intelligence. They all took seats in front of the Prime Minister's desk as Thompson took his own seat. The Prime Minister took on a much calmer expression as he addressed the officials.
"Thank you all for meeting here today," Silas said, "I'd like to keep this brief, so why don't we get started. What's the report?"
Jeremy Carver, the Overseer of the Navy, spoke first: "I received word from Admiral Curnow in the South China Sea. His fleet has made contact with and engaged German naval units. I don't have the numbers yet, but apparently both sides have taken losses so far. Word is that the Admiral has pulled his fleet back to a coastal city in Talitorea in order to undergo repairs."
Thompson nodded in understanding, then looked to the Overseer of the Army, David Chambers. "What's the situation in India?" the Prime Minister inquired.
"Troops and armor have been on the ground for twelve hours now. They've established defensive lines with the new Lockdown tanks. Advances have been slow and small, but steady. I'm sure our forces have been a significant thorn in the side of New Axiom's attempt to advance toward Alleria, and with the Vanguard spearheading the operation I believe we'll be able to hold out against them. There's very little chance that the Imperial Army will be pushing us back into the ocean."
Once again the Prime Minister nodded before referring to the Overseer of the Air Force, Aaron Richards.
Richards spoke: "I've got good and bad news. The good news is that operations over India are going considerably well. While we've definitely faced resistance from the New Axiomite Imperial Air Force, our aircraft have so far been able to keep up with them in the area of operations. We don't fully have air superiority over the region yet, but nonetheless our ground attack aircraft have been able to operate sufficiently with the current amount of air-to-air coverage. In Talitorea and its colonies, we now have bomber coverage. The 77th and 106th bomber wings are now ready for missions against German ships and forward operating bases in the South China Sea and surrounding regions. Air superiority should be claimed there shortly by fighters operating from the 18th, 21st, and 30th Carrier Fighter Wings. The bad news is that the 101st bomber wing that was inbound to India has been grounded on their stop in New Spero. Even though White Lynx Security promised confidentiality, New Spero's government was somehow notified about their movements through the country and put a stop to it. Three planes landed and refueled before taking off again to a dirt airfield in southern India; they made it. However, three more are still on the ground at White Lynx's airbase in New Spero. Word has it that some bull-headed military officer personally executed the crews of all of them. The rest of the 101st were either shot down or redirected to civilian airports and grounded there. If that weren't bad enough, we've begun losing communications and surveillance satellites. Luckily for us, we've so far been able to conduct recon over India with Kestrel mk.1 spy planes, but I can't give any suggestions for communications solutions. That's all for now, sir."
"Okay, thank you for your time, gentlemen. You are dismissed," Thompson said, referring to the Oversight Council. After watching the three Overseers leave the room, he turned to Carolina Barnes, the Chief Officer of Intelligence. He asked simply, "How bad is it?"
"Not as bad as you think," Carolina said coolly as she moved her chair so that it was directly in front of the Prime Minister. She continued: "As Richards said, we can use aircraft for reconnaissance. As for communications, we can still use radio telegraph networks. The Internet should continue to work as well; most of the connections are through physical wires rather than via satellite."
Thompson, looking less tense than he had moments before, spoke again, "Good, good. I may have a solution for getting bombers in range of India. I received a dispatch from High Overseer Olivia Hayden from Novus Apexia earlier today. She offered to allow us to operate aircraft from withing the country. What's your take on it?"
[Tab=]10[/Tab]Carolina met the question swiftly: "If your asking if we can trust them, I would say we can. The Novus Apexian military began and attack on the New Axiomite mainland according to some trusted sources. They don't have any foreseeable reason to fight with us either."
Thompson responded as he began typing on his computer: "That's good to hear. I'm going to tell Overseer Richards to mobilize bomber wings as necessary. I would also like to send an encrypted response to High Overseer Hayden. Can you send it to one of your sources to deliver it to her?
"Of course."
"Good. One more thing. What have you found, if anything, on the referendum?"
Carolina gave a disappointed expression to this inquiry. The Prime Minister had asked about this a week ago, when it was first decided to join Talitorea's war against New Axiom and Germany. Despite what many foreigners are lead to believe, the Prime Minister didn't have the sole power to declare war. The decision was made by referendums in each territory. In the past, the system had worked fine; citizens would vote on the decision and the territorial governors would report the results of the referendum. However, Thompson had felt that the system had become corrupt; that many of the territorial governors had falsely reported the referendum results in order to encourage the war. Carolina had been tasked with investigating these suspicions.
"I haven't found anything conclusive yet, but it's only been a week. I have my best and most trusted agents working on it," Carolina said calmly.
The Prime Minister, not satisfied but fully aware that nothing more could be done for now, dismissed Carolina from the meeting: "Thank you for your time."

[New Axiom]

Indian Central Base Camp, 06:47 Local Time
General Cameron Ashe grabbed a mug of coffee from the mess hall on his way to the camps command center. On the other side of the cavernous room, soldiers lined up for hot meals distributed by cooks on the other side of a stainless steel counter. Nobody came up to him and saluted him, no one greeted him, no one came out of their way to talk with Ashe either. He just stood in the back of the room, passively watching. In the back of his mind, Ashe wondered how many of these soldiers-many being conscripts-would die. After finishing his glass, Ashe returned the pot to the burner and began his walk accross the base to the command center. He walked out of they mess hall, and the doors shut behind him as another troop marched towards the mess hallfor their morning meal. Ashe, already wearing his combat uniform, began to jog over to the command center. A run after his coffee might help wake him up; Ashe had only gotten two hours of sleep, he had been too busy following and commanding the conflict step by step, detail by detail. Fighter jets flew overhead as they escorted a strategic airlift transport on it said landing approach; no doubt the transport was coming back for more troops. The previous night had gone fairly well for the attacking Imperial forces. Surgical strikes conducted by Imperial SpecOps forces overnight had removed much of the Talitorean military leadership from command, with the Talitorean generals being either killed or captured. The Talitorean command structure had essentially collapsed, leaving the highest level of command left intact at platoon level. Theis allowed the Imperial Army to blitz accross India, and the eastern suburbs of Alleria were now under Imperial occupation. With the Talitoreans essentially removed from the war, it was bound to go much smoother. The war on the New Temporisian front was going fairly well also. New Axomite infantry and armor had been deployed in a three pronged counterattack on New Temporisian held territory, with an armored push leading the way. New Lockdown tanks deployed by new Temporis were countered by several means, mainly a heavy artillery barrage targeted directly at Lockdown positions, targeted via laser guidance from infantry teams or a laser guidence suite on Paladin tanks. Lockdowns reinforced armor were also somewhat vulnerable to Combustite shells, which would melt through the tanks armor and, if the shell entered the hull, the shell would either detonate the tanks magazine, shatter and kill the crew, or render the engine inoperable. Both ways were being commonly implemented accross the battlefield, not to mention helicopter gunships, air strikes and carpet bombing. Ashe had hoped no new developments had taken place that he’d need to be briefed on as he pushed the door open to enter the command center.

Skies over India, 07:03
The air battle overhead had gotten no less fierce overnight. Jackal fighters fought alongside new Archangel 3s. While the Jackal was designed to be a designated a multirole fighter capable of attacking both air, land and sea targets, the Archangel was designed to prioritize air combat over all else, however it was still able to carry air to ground weaponry. While the Jackal as a rather unremarkable aircraft, the Archangel was quite the opposite. Using the worlds most advanced avionics, software, design technologies and fly by wire computer systems the Archangel was able to outfly almost any other craft in the skies. Alicia Grey was a pilot of one such Archangel, escorting strategic bombers en route to a New Temporisian battle line. Greys wing consisted of six Archangel fighters, each with their units signature lighting bolt decals on each wing. Escorting the eight bombers were another two wings, both consisting of Jackal fighters. Grey shifted as she flipped a couple of switches on her radar console. “God this sucks.” Another pilot said over the comms. “I should be blasting away Hurricanes, not escorting fat slugs to blast some grunts.” “Relax, you’ll get your chance. We’re still six hundred miles out, well be encountering bad guys in roughly three minutes.” She replied. No sooner than the words left her mouth than her radar blipped. “We’ve got reds on the radar, bearing three five niner out of the north, let’s get em,” one of Greys wing mates called.” “Copy that, move to engage. Engage afterburners, drop your tanks. Wing Three, stay behind and engage any enemies that reach zero barrier. Wing Two, on us. Free drinks to the pilot who gets the most dogfights kills.” She banked her plane hard towards the enemies, and flipped a switch to release her fighters external drop fuel tanks. She maneuvered her fighter until her left wingtip was almost touching that of the Wing Leader Fokkers plane, and another fighter took position on her right. “Fokker, you ready?” She called. “Hell yeah, girl. I can’t let you get those dogfight kills though, sadly looks like I’ll be getting those drinks.” Fokker replied. He was apparently a legitimate badass with a combat record going back eight years, originally flying old Jackal IIs. Why he was still flying fighters and not leading them as a general was anyone’s guess. Greys RWR began to beep a second the enemy planes began to acquire lock. “Hold position.” Fokker ordered. Greys radar blipped six more times; more enemy planes. “Fuck, contact to our right, eight miles out.” “Focus people.” Greys RWR screamed as it detected a missile launch. “Hold tight, weight for my order to disperse!” Grey could see the black smoke of the missile trail against the sunrise. “Go now!” Grey banked her plane and deployed countermeasures, throwing off the missiles. The two fighters, identified as enemy Hurricanes, were still five miles away but the Archangels were closing fast. Within three seconds the planes were involved in a dogfight. Grey flipped to her nose mounted rotary cannon, switched off the safety, and began to search for her target. A second later she found it at her four o’ clock, and banked hard. The Hurricane fighter was closing in on another Archangel. The Archangel evaded, the Hurricane banked in an effort to line up another shot. Grey lined up her gunsight, but just before she pulled the trigger her target exploded and Fokkers plane-instantly recognizable by its black racing stripes-swooped in front of her shot, “Told you you wouldn’t get those kills!” He said playfully. “Fuck off!” She replied in kind. As she maneuvered to locate the second Hurricane, she saw it flying evasively while releasing chaff and flares. She tried to catch it but beforehand she could, a missile burst up from the cloud blanket and struck the enemy fighter. A benefit of fighting over New Axiomite occupied territory was the presence of ground based air defenses. Guided by powerful radar systems, self propelled anti air defenses roved about between fortified locations and continually launched missiles at the enemy aircraft. Their range meant the missiles could even reach several miles over New Temporis occupied territory. Grey was about to relax but just before she could her comes beeped. “This is Wing Three Lead, we’ve got enemy air power up the ass here!” Shit, she thought, the bombers! “Floor it back there!” Fokker called. A couple seconds later the mini battle came into view. Eight bombers flying in a straight line, one in front of another, with aerial chaos around them. New Axiomite strategic bombers had a number of point defense turrets built onto the hull, in order to make them less vulnerable to fighters and missiles. Radar showed several New Temporisian Hurricane and Phoenix fighters harassing the bomber convoy. Grey flipped three switches and her radar began tracking one of the enemy fighters. “Fox one!” A missile streaked away from her warplane. One of her wingmates fell in formation to Greys left, only to be exploded by a diving Pheonix. Grey cursed as she banked hard right. She felt her planes iwngs flex as she tried not to black out. She looped andexecuted several evasive maneuvers. She glimpsed in her rearview mirror, the Phoenix dove into its view. “Yo, I can’t shake this guy!” In an effort to startle the pilot before he could shove explosive shells into her planes engines, she popped some of her flares and banked. She glimpsed into the rearview only to see that Phoenix explode. Fokker then took it’s place. “Man, Alicia, step it up girl!” He said as climbed to rejoin the fight. Alicia climbed, saw a glimpse of a Hurricane out of the corner of her vision, then her plane jolted violently. Two of her digital cockpit screens flickered and went out, but rebooted two seconds later. “I’m hit! I’m hit!” Grey knew she’d been hit by cannon fire; a missile would’ve simply destroyed the plane. Her plane sputtered, another smaller explosion and she was sent tumbling. Her planes wireframe couldn’t read the tail section; most likely it was just blown off. Her plane recovered from the tumble but was sent into an uncontrollable roll. “Mayday mayday mayday!” Grey tried to recover her plane, maybe land it but there was no hope for that. She caught a glimpse of the Hurricane behind her, looking to finish the job. “Fuck!” She pulled two yellow handles above her head and there was a tremendous boom as her plane exploded around her. She had tried to eject too late.

Somewhere over Greenland, East of Unity, 07:34 Local Time
Air Force Colonel James Stamper sat in the pilots chair of a new Thunderbolt Deep Strike Strategic Bomber. On board the cockpit with him were his copilot, flight engineer, defensive and offensive weapons officers, and munitions specialist. They were currently 60,000 feet at 2315 miles per hour, over three times the speed of sound. Stamper and the other five bombers in the wing were on a simple mission; fly to the New Temporisian capital of Unity, explode some stuff, and leave. They were not, however, to target government targets, but mainly tourist locations within the city, buildings that held major cultural significance. The Thunderbolt bombers were regarded a small the Empires newest and greatest aerial weapon, faster than anything anyone else had at its top speed. It could fly faster and higher than most of New Axioms aircraft, with the exception of the Mach 4.4 capable Thunderstrike Interceptor. Thunderbolts were mainly only vulnerable when landing or taking off, and when dropping it’s ordinance. To drop its bombs it slowed to Mach 2, flying closer to the ground at 45,000 feet. In order to train for these missions, Stamper and his crew had been training at a bombing range in Kazakhstan. Weapons dropped at these speeds and altitudes had a roughly 70% accuracy rate, with the ordinance that missed landing within a kilometer. “Jim, we’re approaching the target location.” “Yep. Starting descent and deceleration. Thunderstrike Escort, be prepared for those interceptors.”

Imperial Citidel, Elysium-08:00 Local Time
Emporer Cyrus Silva sat at the end of conference table for his morning breifing on the war. Dairus Taylor walked in, looking rushed and disheveled. Silva snickered. “Long night?” Taylor just looked at him. Silva noticed he smelled like....perfume? Surely, Dairus had some female company overnight, Silva thought to himself. “How goes the conflict?” He asked. “So far, amazing. Special Forces in India has been wildly successful in removing Talitorean commanders from command and Ashes forces have moved into western Alleria. Ashe also reports he’s began shelling a few shoddy New Temporisian airstrips set up in southern Alleria. Ashes airborne helicopter cavalry has secured Allerias main airport, where we’ve set up an FOB. We’ve begun bringing in fresh fuel, bullets, and troops into the theatre through that FOB. As expected, these transports have a larger air escort. Ashes troops also have secured several freeways, and a railway depot. Some Talitorean resistance remains behind, and we expect New Temporis to move into the city either from the east or south. Bombing raids against New Temporisian supply lines continue, with much more resistance. We’ve deployed twice as many fighter aircraft there than we started with. In short, we’re winning, we’ve halted the New Temporisian advance for now, and Talitorea might as well be out of the war. Oh, and the bombing raid against Unity just started. Troop buildups up north are also going as planned. And, that’s it.” Dairus said after readin* everything in a thick packet. Silva jumped up. “Great, I’ve got a meeting in five minuets. Dairus!” “Yeah!” Pause. “Get some sleep.”