Peace Through Infamy [Solaren Theatre]

[Großlausitz]

Lagezentrum der Geheim- und Sicherheitsdienste (LZGS) – Centre of the secret and security services of Franken

As everywhere else, Franken’s security and intelligence analysts were busy crunching numbers and data on the completely surprising attack upon the capital of Wiese. Other than in the cases of Wendmark or Wiese, there was no basic paranoia historically entrenched in the collective mind of Franken’s leadership. Since Franken’s rise to colonial grandeur in the late 18th/early 19th century political considerations had dropped the notion of a Wieser Catholic attack. It was in that period Franken re-asserted its ancient position as the empire’s port. Only this time both states were equals in the eyes of the law of nations.

It was her belief in the fundamentals of the law of nations that caused Franken to be so surprised and shocked about the attack against Augsburg. Not even Franken had ever dared to violate the neutrality of a state. Albeit the assault was a literal bombshell for Franken’s complete leadership, the satellites and electronic warfare stations had picked up signals of the impending doom. One of Franken’s satellites had had a lucky streak and took an image of several missiles being launched from the water from what was obviously a pretty large submarine. On the very first glance the quality of the image was impeded by the large cloud of contrails caused by the massive launch. Currently the LZGS had a special computer program analyse all visible parts of the missiles and the submarine to find clues “who the hell unleashed that huge pile of crap”, as the LZGS’s chief of intelligence analysis put it.

The Wieser would be sent the momentary result of the data analysis plus the promise of a definitive result within the next 24 hours.

 

[Anglyn]

<<TOP SECRETE>>
To: EDF Headquarters,
Nurmburg, Franken
From: Office of Naval Intelligence
Winchester, Anglyn

After careful study of the information provided by Lorraine and Eiffelland, based on the number and type of cruise missiles launched against Wiese it has been determined that at least two (2) submarines equivalent to the Posiedon class of guided missile submarines developed and and in service in EDF fleets were used in the attack. Considering that all EDF guided missile submarines are accounted for and none have been supplied to non-EDF navies, it would have to be of a similar but foreign design which narrows the possibilities. In addition, intelligence indicates that submarines of the type indicated are not in service in the Solaren navy they may be in service in Greater Sarmatia and Breotonia.

Please pass this information onto the Imperial Ministry for State Security, Wiese.

 

[Rheinbund]

Staatsschutz headquarters
Trier, Eiffelland

“The Wieser secret service asked for additional files to document our information.”
“Didn’t I send them? How stupid of me. I’ll send them the transcriptions of the communications we intercepted from the Gulf of Lorraine. I will also send the triangular position determining we carried out. Anyway, those submarines are gone now.”
“Everybody is chasing for them, but how in Heaven’s name can they be found?”
“Something else, how did they come there, right under our nose? This must have been submarines we considered safe and therefore did not watch.”
“So no Solaris or Engellexic submarines. Not even Sarmatian submarines. We have a problem.”


Southeastern Solaren

Under the protection of attack helicopters and fighter planes, the mine sweeper had cut a hole in Carentania’s mine field. The amphibious assault ships and amphibious transport docks started to unload soldiers with equipment, tanks and other transport vehicles on a beach near a fishing town. Their mission: That fishing town. Also ABC protection materials were put on land, together with anti-missile equipment etc.

 

[Wieserreich]

Imperial Ministry for State Security, Augsburg
Swabia, H-Hour +8555

The past 48 hours had been oddly productive for the State Security teams working on incriminating Europe for the missile attack. Indications and intelligence provided to Wiese by the EDF, Wendmark and Breotonia, and of course its own intelligence network that was not one to be underestimated, had led to the compilation of reports thousands of pages wrong. Oddly enough, the greatest help in the intelligence race was Carentania, in the form of its media reports: one of the illustrated the situation so wonderfully, it was surreal.

There was no doubt as to what had Augsburg been attacked with, and from where. There were two large guided missile submarines capable of firing a net of two hundred and forty-four missiles, belonging to a naval power active in the Gulf of Lorraine. The missiles had travelled over Winnemark, Eiffelland and Danmark to strike down targets in Wiese. This had dramatically minimised the missiles that arrived, as nations sought to defend themselves from the perceived attack.

The two most likely candidates for this were the Breotonian Prowler class and the EDF Poseidon class, both capable of delivering such a payload of power. The missile used had been the Breotonian-produced and designed Archer, a submarine-launched variant. Furthermore, Breotonia's intelligence had given clear indications that the cruise missile had been shamelessly, liberally exported to other countries: an EDF country could have easily purchased a number.

The challenge provided here was to see who was lying, and who was not. Breotonia itself had directed Wiese against Solaren; yet Solaren had not fired a single Archer during the war, and had not used a hidden arsenal ship or submarine against much more viable threats than Augsburg. It would not want another enemy against it, not when Wiese's conventional missiles could easily rain death anywhere inside it from positions in Lorraine or Eiffelland; or Wiese itself, if the secretive [wiki]R-85 Speer[/wiki] was accounted for.

The EDF, on the contrary, did not direct Wiese against Solaren, which was odd. If this was some kind of conspiracy theory, you would guess they would be trying to indeed lead Wiese to participating in war with them. In the opening moments of this war for the Empire, after the missile attack, there were touches for air bases within Solaren's reach, but these seemed to be mere ideas by now. Even more oddly, the EDF did explicitly mention that Solaren seems to never have had the capability to attack Wiese in such a manner.

The real key to this puzzle was the salvaged remains of Archer missiles that had been acquired by the Staatsiherheit. Other than being of Breotonian design and manufacture, they bore no clear identification. The only third power which could have launched them, and the only that Wiese could name that would like to stay secret, was Sarmatia; and yet they had been silent in this war, with no indications of sending such units within firing range of Augsburg. And why attack indirectly anyway?

The intelligence officers were, by now, definite: it had been one of the major naval powers in the Gulf of Lorraine. At least one could be blamed: Breotonia, for exporting the missiles if not firing them. A second actor could still be identified: the attacker himself, which was, in all due likeliness, either the European Defence Federation, a bunch of friends and allies of Wiese; or Breotonia, an established neutral power which had a lot of money to gain from arms trade.

The only way Wiese could do it, was to start ruling out the possible actors. When that could be done, the blame could be pinned for real. And it would not take long for them to do so, as a pair of communiques left the building.

<<TOP SECRET>>
To: EDF Headquarters,
Nuremberg, Franken
From: Imperial Ministry of State Security
Augsburg, Wiese

Additional intelligence requested, STOP. Please provide information for whereabouts of Breotonian guided missile submarines in Gulfs of Lorraine, Venetia, STOP. Please forward to individual agencies of EDF, STOP. Include information for last ten days, STOP. Matter is of urgent importance, STOP.

Signed, STASI-FUEHRER.

<<TOP SECRET>>
To: Office of Naval Intelligence,
Lunden, Breotonia
From: Imperial Ministry of State Security
Augsburg, Wiese

Additional intelligence requested, STOP. Please provide information for whereabouts of EDF guided missile submarines in Gulfs of Lorraine, Venetia, STOP. Include information for last ten days, STOP. Matter is of urgent importance, STOP.

Signed, STASI-FUEHRER.

With that done, the mystery chief grinned and puffed on her cigar.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Capraria
Countryside

The tiny raindrops that had been falling for all day long were blown away by the turbulences from the landing helicopters rotor, forcing the soldiers surrounding the landing zone to cover their faces from being covered in the fine haze. Its wheels touched the ground and the Carentanian "firefly", a versatile crossbreed of a gunship and a troop transporter, shut down its engines, the rotors slowing down until the eight individuals inside the helicopter could safely exist. They were journalists, brought out into one of the more remote areas of Carentanian controlled Capraria to report about the war effort and the Revolutionary Army's successes in rooting out partisan activity.

"Welcome in watchtower 21," a young guardsman saluted the journalists politely. "First things first: for your own safety, please stay to the paths set up by us and heed the advice of the soldiers around here. Certain routes up the hill have been mined to prevent surprise raids by Solaren forces. No one of us wants anyone of you to end up in one of those danger zones."

The journalists weren't surprised or set back in any way. In the introduction speech previous to their departure they had already been informed of this little fact, amongst others - though it stood to reason that the officer in charge of the watchtower would repeat it, just to be safe. While the group began walking along the path to the top of the hill - the largest in the entire area, and the one with the steepest sides - and the helicopter began rising into the sky again to return home, the Carentanian officer began explaining the purpose of the watchtower to his visitors.

"High Command is very worried that the remote and difficult nature of Capraria could foster a prolonged partisan presence on the island that is going to disrupt any attempt at pacifying and rebuilding the country. We are here to make sure this does not happen. Watchtowers are small outposts scattered across the interior and usually placed on fortified hills, overlooking the surrounding valleys and smaller hills in order to monitor any activity in the area and engage possible threats. All our supplies come in with the helicopter and we're pretty much alone out here, but we maintain constant contact with our mainbase in Panetelleria and if there's any threat to big to handle on our own, we can always call in the cavalry..."

As if to reinforce his last point, two Carentanian fighter jets on a close air support mission flew across the hill in low altitude, the defeaning sound of their engines silencing any conversation that had been going on up to now.

"But this usually only happens if we have one of our patrols running into a group of Solaren soldiers. The watchtower itself is well fortified and the slopes of the hill and its thorny vegetation provide perfect protection against even larger assaults. Even the helicopter landing zone down in the valley, though we consider it our weak spot and try not to keep our choppers on the ground longer than necessary, isn't easy to attack. If you look up to those barely visible sandbag piles to the right and left of the wooden stairways, you may notice that heavy machine guns overlook any area from which one could see the landing zone." His finger pointed somewhere to the end of the path they were walking.

"We are currently two platoons here in watchtower 21," he continued his monologue "making us one of the largest watchtowers on Capraria. Most others usually consist of maybe one or two squads, but intelligence has determined this area to be a hotspot for Solaren activity. Our hopes are to supress Solaren resistance before it can organize any real partisan activity in liberated areas. This is especially important as we may soon see a sudden rise in the number of Solaren soldiers hiding in the hills, once the Carentanian offensive comes to an end and the organized, conventional ground forces of Solaren are defeated on this island."

As he spoke, the group entered the watchtower by walking up the wooden stair and passing the two machine gun nests. Placed inside a sizeable depression on top of the hill, surrounded by bushes and sandbags and barbed wire fortifications and thus impossible to see from below the hill, an entire camp had been set up. First tents were already being replaced by more sturdy wodden shacks and there was a campfire in the middle of the area, set up in secure distance to the ammunition stockpiles. Surrounding the camp amongst the thorny bushes and thick thistles growing on the hill were several machine gun and sniper positions from which it was easy to take down anyone wandering haplessly into the surrounding valleys.

"Though it may not look like it, our main mission up here is not to engage Solaren units straying into the area, but to gather information and monitor their movements, so adequate responses can be made that do not endanger our soldiers the same way as confronting them head on would."

Somewhere behind him, a shot rang and a sniper team confirmed their hit.

Bay of Venetia
Aboard the Samobor

"Comrades," the commander of the marines company tried to contain a sense of urgency in his speech to the officers of his unit. "You are all aware we are here in the bay not for vacation but because we got a job to do. Up to now, command has been awfully silent about our mission. Well, not anymore."

He unrolled the map of a small island in the Bay of Venetia on the wall, exclaiming "This, comrades, is Iscla. Its strategic location and proximity to the EDF has made this Solaren island the target of massive attacks by Lorraine early in the war, probably in preparation of an invasion that never came as the attacks by Engellex and Platte distracted the EDF's attention. For the Workers' Republic it means that Iscla, bombed and cut off from supply since the beginning of the war, is ripe for the taking and offers us a base for future operations in the far north of Solaren. A strategic advantage that can not be emphasized enough.

Comrades, you guessed it. We are to take Capraria.

As we speak, fregates of the Samobors battlegroup have launched unmanned reconaissance drones to gather additional information on the resistance powers of the forces on Iscla. Following the drones there will precision bombardement with cruise missiles. And then, we go in. We'll be deployed with firefly helicopters, which will stay around to provide some firepower against fortified targets and, if present at all, enemy armored vehicles. This whole mission is pretty straightforward and every platoon has been assigned goals that, if achieved in their total sum, will mean we control Iscla. If, however, Solaren strength should prove unexpectedly large, you are to take control of the port facilities here and wait for additional reinforcements we can ship in from Capraria."

His fingers rested on the map.

"Dismissed."

 

[Wieserreich]

Imperial Ministry for War, Augsburg
Swabia, H-Day +4

As the State Security and Military Intelligence officers worked on finding answers, the War Ministry was buzzing with a different kind of activity. Envoys to defence firms, talks with EDF countries, thorough negotiations about arms deals, visits by the Chancellor; the Reichswehr was bound for some reorganising after this.

It had always been argued that Wiese's tactical ballistic missile programme, even with the intermediate-range [wiki]R-85 Speer[/wiki] in service after 2004, would not pose a credible retaliatory force against an enemy. To this end, the [wiki]R-80 Greif[/wiki] cruise missile had been cooperatively designed and procured with the Empire's EDF partner states.

Wiese had unique interests in the Greif even among the designer countries. With no naval force to speak of, it was the first to have pushed for an air-launched variant; although its interest remained in the ground-launched cruise missile, which offered it immense and cheap tactical and strategic capability at a low cost. What Wieser military analysts disliked was the Greif's low payload when compared to the more expensive ballistic missiles they had designed, but even so, the missile formally entered service in 1987 in large numbers.

The problem, as of 2011, was this; does Wiese have enough Greifs as a deterrent? And should Wiese arrange the procurement and/or development of nuclear weapons as a further deterrent? With conversions, Wiese's ballistic and cruise missile arsenal originally intended for strict military use could pose a major threat to any power within the 3000 km reach of its most powerful rockets. The problem was financing this.

As talks with arms manufacturers went on to procure more munitions, secret talks between the Chancery and the War Ministry studied the opportunity for nuclear weapons. A nuclear arsenal would help prevent such an attack on Wiese next time, the mere threat of a nuclear counter-attack both adding to the damage toll, and Wiese's assurances for peace.

The problem was financing this super-weapons programme. Up to now Wiese had managed to pull off a rather large, elite war machine and a considerable shelter network just from the money it was saving by not researching, developing and maintaining nuclear weapons. The political considerations of a budgetary shift would be massive, let alone potentially catastrophic for the country's flourishing construction and arms manufacturing sectors.

But could Wiese's large, conventional war machine remain a deterrent for war into the 21st Century? The country had always preferred fortifying, counter-attacking and launching pre-emptive attacks, than leaving the comforts of being a defender and unleash a catastrophic preventive war. Rest assured, its paranoia now seemed justified. Perhaps, given a little flexibility and more ruthlessness, the country's Orwellian elite would settle things once again.

 

[Rheinbund]

Königliches Gymnasium
Trier, Eiffelland

“You,” Prince Ludwig’s friend Philipp Cretu said to Prince Ludwig’s bodyguard. “Guardian angel of our special friend. What can we play for you?”

Ludwig was a member of the schoolband. He had a phantastic voice, played keyboards and bassguitar very well, and could even handle a small synthesizer.
But the real centre of the band was Ludwig’s best friend Philipp Cretu. He was the son of an Eiffellandian female singer and a composer of syntesizer music who had fled from Sarmatia to Eiffelland. Philipp himself was an absolute talent on the guitar, was blessed with a tremendous voice and even composed his own music. He was 1.5 years older than Ludwig, but had stayed down one year so that he was in the same year as Ludwig.
During the years, Philipp and Ludwig had become very good friends. Especially when playing music, they understood each other after only a few words.

“Well, we have 10 talented musicians on a row here, so I should take the Little River Band or the Eagles. What about The Night Owl? Let’s end your practice session with some power,” Ludwig’s bodyguard said.
“That is a difficult one,” Philipp said.
“But let’s try it,” Ludwig said.
“Yeah, it’s easy for you. You don’t have to play the bridge in the middle,” Philipp said.
“I’ve heard you playing more difficult things, so you can do it,” Ludwig said.
And so they started. And indeed, Philipp played the bridge in the middle without any problems.

After the practice session, Philipp and Ludwig walked to Philipp’s bicycle together.
“So the charity event for Augsburg will be on the first Friday of October. And you made it busy for yourself again. You organise the event and play with us during the party at Friday night,” Philipp said.
“Indeed. But this time I won’t run in the sponsor run. I did so last time, but that was a bit too much. Something went wrong but I could not step in because I was running. I don’t want that to happen again,” Ludwig said.
“Ah, there we have our control freak again. But what about playing at the party then?” Philipp asked.
“From a certain moment onwards, everything will go of itself. Furthermore, everything is concentrated in the aule of the school then. Then I can be missed,” Ludwig said.

Then he paused for a minute.

“War is a dirty business,” Ludwig continued. “I wish we could do without, but we can’t. Homo homini lupus.”
“You are really afraid of joining the army next year,” Philipp said.
“Indeed. I’m afraid to die. Like everybody. Even the people that say they are not. But I also know what would happen to me if Pope Urban would get his say here. And maybe he would even go further. I consider him capable of killing all the Eiffellandians because of our gay rights. King Wilhelm of Winnemark is not that bad, but he rejects everything I stand for. I’m afraid I have to fight, at least for the right to love Sebastiano,” Ludwig said.


Southeastern Solaren

The amphibious assault fleet had put 4000 men with equipment and about 150 tanks on the beach of Southeastern Solaren. They had immediately gone to the fishing town. Meanwhile, 20,000 men were dropped in an area around that fishing town that comprised a circle with a 50km radius. Like the Carentanian strategy, these men were to confuse the Solaris army and to keep it on a distance as far as possible. The aim was to make the situation in and around that fishing town so confusing to the Solaris, that they would not know where the Eiffellandians were and where their own people. Although they would know soon that the Eiffellandians would arrive in that fishing town.
An attack on that fishing town with cruise missiles was anticipated. Therefore, mobile antimissile installations had also been part of the amphibious assault force.
The fight for the fishing town had been hard. Extremely hard. In the end, 1000 people had lost their lives and 30 tanks had been destroyed. But the fishing town had been captured. Now the soldiers had the very difficult task to convince the inhabitants of that fishing town of their good itentions with Solaren in general. And that was hard.
They all had aid packages which were comparable with the ones used by the Carentanians, with the most important difference that antibiotics were not part of them. This was done so, because the Eiffellandian government was very well aware of the phenomenon bacterial resistance against antibiotics. In Eiffelland, it was only possible to get antibiotics when a physician had prescribed them, and the physicians only prescribed them if it was clear that the infection could not be cured without the help of antibiotics. In this way, it was also prevented that patients took a drug against bacteria because of an infection that had been caused by viruses.

After the town had been captured, a strip of asphalt was prepared to serve as landing strip for more planes.

Before the coast of the Solaris fishing town, one amphibious assault ship and one amphibious platform dock had anchored to serve as platforms for the attack helicopters. They were accompanied by two multirole destroyers and one submarine. The amphibious assault ship contained a small hospital complete with operation room. As soon as the fishing town had been captured, it served as a third base for the attack helicopters. That was needed, because the two amphibious ships that had stayed behind had been a bit overfilled with helicopters. Now there were 50 multirole helicopters in the neighbourhood, divided over the fishing town and the two amphibious ships. As soon as a decent hospital facility had been built up in the fishing town, the two amphibious ships would leave.


Air force bases

Plane after plane took off to drop people above the tip of Southeastern Solaren. In the end, it was planned to get 50,000 people there.


Naval ports Lübeck and Bad Hersfeld

The next load for the amphibious assault fleet was prepared. This time for 4 amphibious assault ships and 4 amphibious transport docks.


Staatsschutz headquarters
Trier, Eiffelland


OOC: Homo homini lupus = Man is a wolf to man.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Torrance

Cardonna blew his nose. An early fall cold was rough on him, especially in such a warm climate. It had basically formed a summer cold; the absolute worst. Cardonna and his partner had to abandon the cafe after the last stake out. The waiter was becoming too friendly. Now they stood 2 doors down, disguised as painters. The old building seemed to have been built in the 1920's. Conveniently it was undergoing renovation
and was only 50 feet or so from where the cars stopped at the Foreign Ministry Annex. Cardonna and his partner, Anthony Friaro, did little but show up and told the foreman they were specialists who had been contracted to put a special primer on. He looked confused but shrugged his shoulders and the men went to work.

The rented van was pulled onto the closed sidewalk, blocking them from view of the cafe and other onlookers. The two agents looked over their shoulder. Today was the day. The two would kill that bald fuck Calesteno right outside the foreign ministry. It was a large granite structure, somewhat neo gothic. It appeared to both men as sort of an oddity.

Calesteno would stop by almost daily. From what they gathered he had a quick meeting and moved on. His official position was unclear to almost everyone but it was clear that he wielded quite a bit of power. 'Either way he would not after today', thought Cardonna. They had already delayed it a few days but today was it. Early that morning, the two disguised as Torrance Street Department workers had planted a small bomb in the storm drain. After that, for appearance purposes, they painted a few small lines in spray paint and drove away. The bomb's power was little, but it would be loud....Plenty loud.

The small green van's left side sliding door was open and was full of various painters tools; but under the canvas sat some toys for Cardonna and Friaro. Cardonna went in for appearances and spoke to the foreman. "We'll be out of here in about 10 minutes. Probably come back tomorrow to see how it dried. It takes several hours for this special stuff" said Cardonna. The foreman shrugged and went back to yelling at some lazy carpenter. Cardonna turned to swiftly make it back outside. The men had put a crappy primer over the front of the building for appearance sake. Nobody had said a word. They began to look as if they were cleaning up to go but Cardonna looked at his watch- 8:11 AM. Any second, Calesteno would pull up and the two men would have only seconds to do the deed.

The two cars pulled up in front of the Ministry's side entrance a few minutes later, one in front of the other. Cardonna and Friro had almost called it off that day and would have to come back for more painting tomorrow. But the two cars arrived. Cardonna and Friaro went over to the van. Friaro flicked a switch on what looked like a child's control for an RC Car. He extended the antenna and waited. Cardonna opened the front door and looked like he was looking for the keys. He eyed Calesteno while he looked round. Slowly, he and 2 security men.....No. Cardonna looked back at Friaro who shrugged. 3 men. Cardonna only could assume another security man. They would have to deal with it. Cardonna slid the key into the ignition but did not start it. He watched. Calesteno had stopped to look at his phone.

It was time. Cardonna nodded to Friaro who merely flipped a switch. The sound was enough to make Cardonna's and presumably everyone else's ears ring. The heads of the security men swiveled and Calesteno had taken a step back, slightly away from his security men. By the time the security men went to push Calesteno into the car, the two Nicosian agents were half way across the street. Friaro's 9mm submachine gun let out a belch as a bodyguard grasped his neck and rounds slammed into the wall behind the second as he leveled his automatic. Cardonna's hand was extended, the high capacity military pistol fired several times before catching the second body guard in the side. Cardonna and Friaro were all the way across the street, only yards apart. Cardonna turned his attention quickly to Calesteno who had finally begun to react to the situation. He moved for cover behind the second automobile whose driver was holding his arm as it ran with blood, clearly panicked. Cardonna held his breath and squeezed his trigger. Calesteno and the drivers appeared to be unarmed.


Friaro turned to come towards Cardonna when the third bodyguard appeared, revolver in hand. Cardonna himself was too slow to react. The recoil and Friaro's head snapping back and to the side violently did not register with Cardonna. His mind merely shut down. Cardonna unleashed round after round into the bodyguard until his weapon was empty. He was down. Cardonna moved to pick up Friaro's machine pistol. The round indicator said 8. Cardonna swung himself around the hood of the first car to see Calesteno propped up against the rear wheel of the second vehicle, holding his forearm. Both his forearm and ankle were pouring blood. Cardonna approached him. The men locked eyes and without a word, Cardonna put two rounds in this chest. Throwing the weapon down he ran for the van.

Cardonna drove slowly, parking the van down an ally. He passed police cars and military vehicles. She shuddered. Killing the monster took less than 2 minutes. It seemed so much slower. Friaro was dead. The last time an agent died in the field was in the early 90's when he had an allergic reaction to some peanut oil. This....this was new. Cardonna donned his new disguise and slipped into a small convertible. It was not over yet.


Lorrainian VI Corps, Northeast Solaren

Captain Aimasso was happy that he was finally moving. The Nicosian contingent had been assigned to the Lorrainian VI Corps and held the most Eastern flank. The small Nicosian contingent only numbered about 30,000 with only about 20,000 dedicated to combat. Captain Aimasso knew his men were fairly evenly matched with the enemy. While the armor left something to desired, in infantry terms, his men were equally well equipped but slightly better trained. The enemy on the other hand seemed to range from fanatical to 'extremely motivated' he liked to say. More appeared to be on the fanatical side, at least from now. He had often wondered what Solaren would look like. The advance was slowed due to the heavy resistance the Eastern side of La Spina would face. The villages he passed through afforded him an eery feeling. Some seemed locked in a time capsule. Some barely had electricity. The villagers looked at them with cold and steely eyes. He tried not to make eye contact. Let the 'Civilian Liasons' deal with that shit he thought.

Soon he hoped the resistance would dampen. Air cover had been moderately decent and his men were fighting hard. Aimasso wondered how long this war would last. He checked his thoughts and tried to focus. His focus was rattled by the sound of oncoming mortar fire. "COVER!" he screamed in Nicosian.

 

[Guiana]

Northern Solaren

It had been months since the 1st Brigade was deployed to Southern Lorraine and now it finally gets to do what it was designed to do, fight. A veteran brigade of the Freiheit War, the Iron Brigade now faces what could be considered the most religiously fanatical troops in the world, soldiers that followed, not the teaching of a man that died on the cross over two-thousand years ago, but instaead, a megliomaniac who starts a war in which it is his followers that he expects to pay the ultimate price while hides. Well, Urban may have a messiah complex, but he sure doesn't have a martyr complex.

Attached to the Lorrainian V Corps, the mechanized and armour battalions advance down the western side of the La Spina, Urban's Spine as many of those in the brigade refer to it, and though the brigade is not in the vanguard, it is hoped that eventually they will have their chance at the Black Templars.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Capraria
Panetelleria

"Attention, Commander present!"

All the men and women in the staff canteen rose from their seats and saluted as Milena Hafner, commanding officer of the entire army group, entered the room. It was dirty, stuffed and warm, the air filled with various odors and flavours ranging from grilled meat to pasta sauce. Occasionally, a cockroach hurried across the floor and the commanders first thoughts concerned possible improvements to be made to the hygienic situation. But then again, this all was a temporary solution anyways and hopefully, it would change within a matter of days.

"At ease," she waved and gestured the soldiers to sit down. "As you all have been notified, this is my first inspection visit to Capraria. I hope the tightened security does not cause you too much trouble, but I needed to see the problems we face here myself to be able to better respond to them. So, my most important question to all of you: how's the food?" A short burst of laughter ringed through the hall. Milena had always been in touch with her subordinates and the men and women of the First Army respected her for both that and her achievements.

"It's the only thing worth being here for, mam," one of the soldiers joked, causing another burst of - approving - laughter. Carentanias traditional cuisine was famous throughout the world and the quality of their army rations exceptional. One of the best ways to keep morale up was after all to keep soldiers well fed and satisfied with what's entering their stomach. But other than that, Carentanias units on the island were facing some serious problems. With four brigades on the island and the civilian population to care for as well, their supply lines were stressed to say the least. The Revolutionary Army would soon need to both improve its capacities to bring supplies on the island as well as reduce the size of their deployment.

"I'm letting you know that I'll be here the entire day, wandering about the secured port zone. We don't want some lone Solaren fanatic to have a shot at glory by assaulting the commander of the entire war effort on this section, so I'll need you to be my eyes beyond the barbed wire fence at liberation road." Liberation road was the name the Carentanian men and women in Panetelleria had given to the empty strip seperating the army camp and port area from the civilian areas of the city. "Feel free to talk to me whenever there's something you think I should hear or you know of a problem that needs to be adressed urgently." Even for a Carentanian commander, Milena Hafner was very close to the soldiers. It made breaking hard news to them easier, too.

And there was quite a pill to swallow for them. The Solaren forces on Capraria, driven back all the way to a number of small towns in north-eastern Capraria, had refused any demands to surrender. Their current position would become the area of their last stand in defiance of Carentanias invasion of the island. Intelligence suggested that they had run out of fuel, meaning they could not mount any kind of offensive manouvers, but there was still plenty of ammunition left. Carentanias revolutionary army would have to face them head on in difficult and partly urban territory, favoring the defender. Naturally, they could wait until the Solaren forces began to starve and thus had to surrender, but Carentanis own supply problems on the island meant that, until that happened, it would be forced to weaken its presence on the island, allowing more and more Solaren soldiers to slip away into the interior of the island, increasing the threat of partisan activity and loosening Carentanis grip of this important island in the Long Sea.

Having to choose between a short but bloody battle or a prolonged campaign against a major partisan force, Carentania chose to mercilessly bring down the hammer on north-eastern Capraria and make an example of the Solaren resistance on Capraria. Artillery had been driven into position and would scorch the earth wherever the Revolutionary Army suspected Solaren forces. Fourty-Eight hours in total, two days and nights, the guns and rocket launchers would pound away at the Solaren positions, flattening them to the ground before mobile units, for the first time since the landing on Capraria supported by Main Battle Tanks, would chase down the survivors. Once victory was achieved and Carentania controlled the island, it would begin to return the majority of its forces on the island to the military base near Paki in northern Carentania.

Iscla

A lonely missile, probably from a MANPAD, drew a line of smoke across the sky, slamming into the front of a Carentanian helicopter that crushed to the ground, scattering into burning pieces of trash. The pilots and an entire squad of Marines aboard was dead, that much could be assumed, but the soldiers witnessing this scene themselves had their hands full with Solaren fire coming from several small bunkers to the north. Using RPG's and mortars, they tried to crack open the fortified position, but to no avail. A team trying to evade the machine guns and approaching them from their right flank had been pinned down themselves in the middle of a road, losing one of theirs to the Solaren bullets before a missile from a Carentanian "firefly" took out the Solaren position and allowing them to move forward.

Still, as they approached the fortified hill, again there was fire from a machine gun, forcing them into cover. It was clear to the Carentanian marines, that this approach would amount to nothing and more firepower, capable of penetrating the steel concrete of the Solaren bunkers, was needed. Yet, as the Marines were about to fall back and call in a cruise missile strike from one of the nearby ships, the Solaren fire ceased. For the first seconds, there was little realization that the fighting had stopped, but then it dawned on the Carentanian marines. And as the first Solaren soldiers came walking down the hills, hands raised above their heads and a look on their face that was both angry and disappointed, their suspicions were confirmed.

-

Company Commander Ivan "babyface" Slavik was a large, thin man with light-blonde hair and almost no beard at all. He had completed two tours as volunteer conscript in different infantry brigades before settling for a career as guardsman. In the Third Mechanized he quickly rose through the ranks as his fellow soldiers respected Ivan Slaviks professionalism and leadership skills. When he finally was reassigned to his current unit, the First Marines, there was no doubt that he'd be elected into a leadership position again - and thus he ended up the commander of the company that was sent to take Iscla.

Still, he had never expected to be granted a place in history when he took his position, not even when he received orders to command the assault on Iscla. But here he was, the man to accept the first surrender by an entire Solaren unit in the war. Driving towards the main camp of the Solaren army in an armored car, he still had a hard time believing the Solaren unit surrendered, but the flag of Pope Urban had already been replaced by the plain red Carentanian flag of liberation. He could see it at every roadblock, many houses, government buildings and sometimes even placed on top of random landmarks. Within mere hours, his soldiers had not left out any opportunity to mark their territory.

Finally, there he was. Colonel Guiseppe Antonelli, an unimpressive, small and bald man, with a thick black beard that the men obviously struggled with to keep it in check and maintain a somewhat well groomed impression. If there ever was a visual antithesis to Commander Slavik, here it was. Perhaps ideologically and morally too, the Commander liked to think. Antonelli had a little bit of a name amongst the Solaren population as someone who was reliable and brutally efficient when it came to putting down local unrest. At least that was when he was still commanding units on the mainland. On Iscla, there was too little civilian population to pose a problem at all. This history, however, made it even more confusing as to why this man, of all the commanders in the Solaren army, had been the first to break with the Pope's demands to fight to the death.

"Colonel, your weapon." the commander wanted to make it quick. A few pictures for the press, a morale boost for all Carentanian soldiers and then he'd leave. Mission accomplished, with only twelve losses and one helicopter down. But as he took Antonelli's sabre and his pistol, there was one more thing Slavik needed to know. "Why?" he asked, seemingly surprised. "I find it hard to understand. Why did you surrender?"

Antonelli looked insulted. Having his decision questioned by the enemy, of all people. "There was no sense in having my men slaughtered by you savages. I saved their lives so they can serve god in the future." No matter what he said, as Antonelli spoke, it became clear to Slavik that he did it not for anyone else, as he claimed, but only because Antonelli himself was afraid of dying.

"And none of your men objected? Wishing for martyrdom?" Slavik now sounded almost inquisitional, drawing the ire of Antonelli who felt the communist was mocking him.

"My men, in difference to your heathens," he spit out with anger and despise "know how to follow orders."

Slavik had pushed it far with Antonelli already, but there was one thing he really wanted to tell him before his soldiers would take him along with the rest of his, already disarmed, unit.

"Colonel, the Workers' Republic accepts the surrender of your entire brigade to my company."

The words left Antonelli hanging in disbelief. Iscla had not been lost after all. He had given away a victory to the enemy, for free.

 

[Rheinbund]

Southeastern Solaren

A landing strip was prepared so that supply planes could land there instead of having to drop everything. Meanwhile, the soldiers had a very hard time fighting the Solaris soldiers. They were prepared for facing a very fanatical army, but still they were surprised from time to time. In spite of this, the Eiffellandians managed to gain control in the southeastern tip of Solaren. Air support was given by the helicopters stationed in the fishing town and at the amphibious ships, and by the planes from the aircraft carrier FT‑1.


Southern Lorraine

While the Lorrainians, Nicosians and Anglysh land forces rolled into Solaren, the Eiffellandian air force continued to give air support.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Carentania
Rijeka

"I got one hour before I have to meet with the other Commissars, prepare public speeches, coordinate our foreign policies and about a dozen of other things. So if one of you would possess the gratitude to give me a complete evaluation of the strategic situation, I'd appreciate that."

At times, especially towards the military professionals, Commissar for Defence Matija Dračar could be a very demanding man. He expected his men - the High Command was, even in Carentania, still exclusively male - to be prepared for such questions at any time and to have a permanent overview of an ongoing war. Of course, everyone in the Revolutionary Armed Forces as well as the Commissariate for Defence knew what to expect from the Commissar by now and thus it was no problem for a Commander to step forward and answer the Commissars' request even in a meeting that was called in on very short notice.

"The Solaren garrison on Iscla surrendered to our attack. We can consider ourselves lucky they, apparently under the impression of prolonged isolation from the Solaren mainland, grossly overestimated the scope of the attack. Had they decided to fight, we would have probably been dealt a devastating defeat at Iscla." Cvetko Bizjak, the High Command member who had stepped forward to answer the Commissar sounded a bit angry and disappointed, but the Commissar decided not to inquire as to whether this was due to the fact the Carentanians themselves had their share of intelligence failure when they grossly underestimated the size of the Solaren garrison on Iscla - or because the surrender of Colonel Antonelli had averted a defeat which Commander Bizjak could have used to stall the aspirations Commander Milena Hafner had for his post.

"On Capraria, meanwhile, the final battle is underway. We expect complete victory within the next hours and once that is achieved, we can begin reducing the size of our deployment on Capraria. This will be necessary until we can increase the amount of supplies that reach the island daily. With the current rate, we are confident we can supply an infantry brigade as garrison force, but not the preparations for an attack on the mainland. That's the reason we will return most forces to Paki and prepare further attacks from the base there, while improving the logistical situation on both Capraria and Iscla in preparation of strikes on the mainland."

"What are the next steps? I'm aware there is a plan for an operation termed Kraken? Indulge me..." The Commissars eyes remained fixated firmly on Commander Bizjak.

"In short: we plan to surround Solarens mainland by taking the islands surrounding it first, expanding our base there and then seizing major bridgeheads on different parts of the mainland. At least three major offensive will then slowly draw closer to Torrence, tightening the noose on the Solaren capital and cutting it off from its supplies, ressources and industrial base."

"If the EDF doesn't overwhelm Solaren while we are still occupied with the islands..." Matija Dračar noted, skeptically.

"Analyzation of the EDF's situation was actually what led to our own considerations for Operation Kraken," another senior officer jumped into the conversation. It was Nathan Petric, High Commands liasion with Army Intelligence and an outspoken expert on the EDF militaries. "We have serious doubts that the EDF, at the current state, is capable of maintaining either the northern or the south-eastern operations beyond just one of the major cities, not to mention Torrence itself. The supply lines of the EDF are insecure at best and the operations against Engellex drain valuable ressources. Our mining operations in south-eastern Solaren may not have prevented the landing of Eiffelländer forces, but it restricts its supply lines to very narrow paths and that makes the supply ships vulnerable and only few ports available to receive those ships.

Not to mention that, in the North, the Platte Confederation is unlikely to accept the presence of a major EDF offensive this close to their capital without taking action on their own. But the final and most serious threat to the EDF's operational capabilities come from the country itself. The further the EDF advances, the more they will have to deal with guerilla warfare and partisan activity, sabotage and unconventional warfare by Solaren fanatics. Maintaining supply lines through such hostile territory over long distances... well, to call it difficult would be an understatement. The very same problems would apply to our own operations of mainland Solaren. Actually, we have experienced them on a smaller scale in Capraria already, which is less densely populated than most parts of mainland Solaren. We thus believe it best to assault the mainland from several different brigdeheads, keep supply lines short and establish as many major ports as possible."

"Which brings us to another point," Commander Bizjak took the lead again, some naval commanders in the background nodding as he spoke. "Yesterday, another of our freighters was sunk by a Solaren submarine. This time one of our fregates managed to track it down and we believe the Solaren ship to be sunk, though we can't confirm it. But it's the third loss this week and we can't go on like this, especially if the public directs more attention to this. We must cut back on other operations and dedicate more to the actual chase of Submarines in the Long Sea. Order the mining operations to stop, the mine fields are enough of an obstacle to Eiffelland already. But losing our credibility in defending traffic in the Long Sea, not to mention the threat to our own supply lines - unacceptable."

The Commissar showed no emotion. "Make it happen then," he merely said, causing some relief in his Commanders. "Anything else?"

"I believe that is all, right now, sir. We will prepare the Samobor and the Maximo for a landing on Ustica, once Capraria is ours."

 

[Lorraine]

Operation Argonaut

With the invasion of Solaren underway, the order to commence Operation Argonaut had given. Though the planned amphibious assault on Iscla had been set to for an earlier date, High Command had postponed it when unknown submarines had launched a cruise missile strike on Wiese from the Gulf of Lorraine and due to the massive ASW operation that followed that attack, the operation was rescheduled. Under the overall command of Counter Admiral Jacques Derrigan, a combined force of three thousand men, more than a dozen naval vessels and over a hundred airforce, navy and army aircraft have been assigned to the initial operation with additional troops and support to be sent in soon after.

Iscla

As had been said, the Isle of Iscla has alway been considered a strategic point within the Bay of Venetia and has always allowed Solaren to threaten commerce that passes it, especially that that commerce that goes to and from Lorraine. Now it is time for that to change as the island has become warzone as two nations vie to wrestle the control of that island from Urban's clutches, though it is unlikely that it will be Urban that will reatin control in the end, who will control it is yet to be determined.

02:00 hrs (Amber LZ)

Lorrainian paratroopers make a nightime drop near the northeast shore of Iscla Island, though the island had been under almost constant aerial assault by Lorrainian air force jets since the beginning of the war, this is the first time ground forces have been inserted onto the island. The 2nd battalion of 1st Parachute Regiment have been given the honor to be those first Lorrainian troops to set foot on the island, though it seems that they are not the first to invade the island, as the Carentanians have assaulted the southern shore. This may be the reason that the opposition on the north end is so light as the Solarens have moved south to engage the communists leaving the north vulnerable to an assault by Lorraine.

The 2nd Battaion's objective, tho cut the roads along the eastern part of the island and prevent unfriendly forces to interfere with the the establishment of a beachead and to linkup with the 3rd battalion of the 2nd Air Assault Regiment establishing a LZ due west of their position.

Though light, it did not mean there was no opposition, though the roads and communications were easy enough to cut, there were pockets of Solaren soldiers and even armed civilians that had to be dealt with. As anything that moved bigger a tricycle had become targets for the air force, most of what was left was infantry and what could be termed as malitia, and though there were not many left, the lightly armed paratroopers found that in a couple of the cases they had their hands full and had to call in air strikes so as to stay on schedule.

02:30 hrs (Green LZ)

Unlike the paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion, the 3rd battalion of the 2nd Air Assault Regiment flew in by helicopter under the unbrella of Lorrainian jets. Landing near the northwestern shore, the consolidated their LZs and cutting off the coastal roads on their side of the island. They too seemed to be enjoying the fact that the Carentanians were invading the south as little resistance was encoutered even though they had landed a half-hour after the paratroopers, but because of being more mobile, and having attack helicoters at their disposal,

06:00 hrs (Red Beach)

The fist amphibious assault troops hit "Red Beach" on the northeast side of Iscla Island near the village of Casamicciola Terme. The landing force consisting of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment and fourteen CMI-10RC from the 1st Ambhibious Tank Battalion quickly consolidated the beachead and then capture the village and the small port there. The battle group under the protection of airforce fighters and the watchful eye of AWACs, consists of the helicopter cruisers La Résolue and Davout, the frigates Floréal and Nivôse, the minesweeper Sagittaire, 2 submarines (SS-102 & SS-111), the logistics ship Penefore (LSL-1), 2 LSTs (LTS-02 & LTS-03), 4 LCMs (LLS-15, LLS-17, LLS-18, LLS-19), and 4 Fast Attack Missile Boats (PMB-15, PMB-19, PMB-22 & PMB-23) that had set sail from Port of Toulon hours earlier.

With their forces in the south engaged with the Carentanians, as well as the reduction due to losses from the Lorrainian Air Force, the Solaren defenders were outnumbered but they still tried to put up a fight especially in the village. It took the three hours and 12 wounded and 4 killed to weed out the the nearly sixty Solaren soldiers and as many armed civilians before the village could be secured and it wasn't until noon that the could Counter Admiral

Jacques Derrigan could report the the first phase of Operation Argonaut, the expansion of the beachead, the taking of Casamicciola Terme and its marina, the link-up with the paratroopers and the establishment of a secure landing zone for incoming suppliy helicopters that will serve as a base of operations for the securing the rest of the island.

Skies Over Iscla

The air force units assigned to the operations had simple order, to destroy any and all targets that pose a threat to Lorrainian forces on and around Iscla and to respond to request for support from the units involved in the operation. Using air tankers to allow the fighter to stay ovr iscla longer periods of time, the ground forces were confident, and rightly so, that when they call for air support, they will receive it quickly.
​

Northwestern Solaren

Along The Spine

The lead elements of the 1st Armour Brigade of the V Corps have been pushing south and has finally reached the outskirts of Bargia, and though the advance has not been what the the Franconians one would call a "Blitzkrieg", it has been steady as Solaren ground force are either pushed south or they head eastward into the mountains where they a bottled up as fighters and bombers pound their positions. It is not exactly the Solaren ground forces that have been the greatest reason for the lack of progress, it is what they leave behind as they retreat, as mines, IED and other boobytraps and what what they destroy such as bridges. It is this that keeps the engineers busy clearing the obstacles and soldiers on their toes, as more troops have been killed and wounded by the IED and boobytraps then have been by Solaren bullets.​

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Carentania
POW Camp 1

Deep in the Haemians, as far away from civilization as possible in the densely populated Carentania, that's where the Carentanians had brought Antonelli and his soldiers. Housed in wooden shacks between barbed wire fences, watched by snipers on guard towers, though with adequate sanitation and even a few amenities, such as a freely accesible library. Camp number one, as the Carentanians unimaginatively called it, was your unimpressively average prisoners of war camp, which meant it was far better than anything those captured by Solaren forces could expect, as even Antonelli had to admit - with a shred of sarcasm, however, as he'd always approved of delivering divine retribution to the forces of evil. Kill the lot, let god sort them out, that had been his policy.

"Colonel," someone shouted from behind, angry. "So is this still part of your plan? You told me you had one when you ordered the surrender. Do you want to know what I think?"

"No one wants to know what you think," Antonelli replied calmly, not even turning around. "You are a maggot and maggots have not been granted the right to speak up by god, much less against god himself. I'm the man in command here, I represent the will of the pope and the pope represents the will of god himself. Do you understand that?"

"I think you're a traitor, Colonel."

"Courageous words, coming from a traitor. Has Satan caught your tongue? Do you wish to sow discontent amongst us here so we can never fulfill gods will on the soil of Haemia? Do I need to bring the peace of god to you all by my own hands?"

"What is this nonsense?" The argument was interrupted by a sudden, sharp and cold voice. A Carentanian officer, accompanied by two guards with automatic rifles had approached the Solaren colonel. "Guiseppe Antonelli? You are to follow us. Please do not resist." Even though the Carentanian officer did not explicitely state the consequences, he left no doubt as to what would happen were he to put up a fight against the Guardsmen.

And so, Antonelli followed him. They brought him to a small room in one of the few more solid buildings in the camp. A pre-war outpost to watch out for fires in the remote woodlands, now converted to house the guards, communications and, most importantly for Antonelli right now, an interrogation room. It's interior design was... classic. A table, two chairs, a lamp. Guards on the door facing Antonelli, while he was waiting for the man he was about to meet: Slobodan Rozman, a high-ranking officer within section one of the Revolutionary Army Intelligence. Under normal circumstances section one was tasked with operations in Carentania itself, which meant counter-intelligence, protection of army secrets and a few other operations that were set within a very narrow frame by the constitution of the Workers' Republic that wasn't too fond of any intelligence operations within its borders. Now, however, section one would also handle the interrogation of Solaren prisoners.

But Rozman was unlike the other Army Intelligence officers already present at the base, who were busy trying to get any useful information at all out of the average Solaren grunt. He reported directly to High Command itself and was a specialist at advanced interrogation techniques. Sometimes involved with the investigation of crime cases when Army Intelligence couldn't come up with enough work for him to do, he had been ordered from Rijeka to POW camp one for just this one task of interrogating Colonel Antonelli. The hours in the train to Koper and from there in an army car to the camp had left him with enough time to brood over several different strategies on how to get the Colonel to tell him what he wanted to know. No doubt, the Solaren man was not at all prepared for what was coming to him as the impressively unremarkable face of Slobodan Rozman sat down in the chair opposite to his own.

"Colonel Antonelli I suppose?" Rozman waited a few seconds for a reply, but only silence greeted him. "I'm Slobodan Rozman, with the Carentian RAI. Well, I have a few questions here I would like you to answer... would you mind?" He waved a clipboard around for the Colonel to see, causing the Solaren commander to wonder what kind of beuraucrat the Carentanians had sent for a job that requires a true warrior. He remained silent, about it though, as he continued to refuse any question at all. "Good, well... first question: have you ordered any of your troops to be left behind to act as partisan operations?" Again, only silence greeted the Carentanian.

Rozman sighed. "Very well Colonel, I understand. If you don't want to talk, you could have told me right from the start instead of making me look like an idiot. You don't want to talk? You don't need to talk. But I'll have to sit here for the next sixty minutes, because my orders explicitely state I need to talk to you for a full hour. Can't leave this room before the time is up. It's my job, I hope you understand. If it's okay with you, we'll just sit it out and then we can get back to our lifes... okay?"

"Fine by me..." For the first time since meeting, Rozman heard the voice of Colonel Antonelli, causing him to smile for the fraction of a second. Then he place a small stopwatch on the table, set it to 60 minutes and waited. Rozman kept watching Antonelli carefully as the Solaren commander sat there idly, left to his thoughts about the incident earlier that day. His soldier had been right, there was no secret plan Antonelli had when ordering the surrender. He could still remember that moment when the reports about the Carentanian landing had reached him, back on Iscla. Had he panicked when he thought that his entire brigade was going to be wiped out? Wasn't the soldier right when he told Antonelli he had gone against god's will, deceived his men?

Antonelli shook of such thoughts. Clearly, god had guided him that day on a most unusual path. He knew his faith in Urban was unshaken, that's for sure. And a man of faith in Urban could never fall for a trick of the devil. If Antonelli and his men were here on Haemia, then he had a plan for them. Antonelli just had yet to find the path laid out for him by the lord himself.

The stopwatch ringed as the sixty minutes passed. Rozman hadn't tried to initiate conversation throughout the entire hour and neither did Antonelli, who maintained his policy of silence towards the Carentanian officer.

"I believe it is only fair to warn you in advance: we will meet again tomorrow - and every day after that. My superiors have scheduled these talks. As I said, my orders, I have to follow them. Make the best out of it, Colonel. See you tomorrow." Rozman left the room without further gestures other than signalling the guards they could take the Colonel back to his barrack. Antonelli meanwhile was a bit surprised about what had happened. He had expected a lot, even prepared his mind for gruesome torture of the kind he had used against prisoners himself. But in the end, all the Carentanians could come up with was some bored, amateurish beuraucrat who was already giving up on his job simply for the reason the Colonel refused to talk.

It was similiar the next day. Again, Rozman put a stopwatch on the table, set it to sixty minutes and waited, while Antonellis bored mind tried to make sense of the situation he found himself in. Deep in the lion's cave, there had to be a purpose for him, something he could do to make the loss of Iscla to the Carentanians turn into a fateful turn of events to the disadvantage of the reds. "I am going to have the guards get me a coffee... do you want one as well?" Rozman interrupted the Colonel's thoughts. "Sure, why not," Antonelli replied absent-mindedly, before the two men returned to silence again. As a guardsman brought in two mugs of Coffee and placed one in front of Antonelli and Rozman each, the Colonel leaped forward, swapping the mugs, the sudden movement causing the guards to stiffen up. But Rozman voiced no protests and the guards relaxed once again.

"Don't worry. The civil rights association would have my head if I were to drug a prisoners coffee," Rozman joked and blew some air onto his coffee to cool it. Finally, the stopwatch rang again. "You can keep the coffee, but please return the mug and do not try to stab anyone with shards of porcelain..." Rozman laughed and stood up, again signalling the guards to return Antonelli to his shack.

Day three of the Colonels' interrogation came and again, Rozman put his stopwatch on the table, setting it to sixty minutes.

"Do you smoke, Colonel?" He offered him a cigarette, causing Antonelli to raise an eyebrow in suspicion. "Don't worry, it's normal tobacco, not one of those Yuka marihuana cigarettes."

"Really? I thought there was no tobacco in Carentania and that's why you all smoke hemp," Antonelli noted as he accepted Rozmans offer.

"In 1920 maybe. True, they advertised the Yuka cigarettes as alternative to tobacco back then. But this is the 21st century, it's just that over all the decades they have become more popular than real tobacco."

Antonelli took a deep breath from the cigarette, enjoying its rough taste and the inebriation that followed it. It had been his first smoke in weeks. Even back on Iscla, they had run out of cigarettes when the supply lines were cut. "So it's not even the lack of alternatives that make your people sin. They chose satan willingly. How curious." The Colonel grinned as he made his snide remark towards Rozman.

"Sin, huh..." Rozman said, his eyes now focussing on Antonelli as if he was a lone wolf closing in on his prey. "Say, Colonel. Isn't it really curious how you ended up here? Aren't you a soldier of god supposed to fight to the death against us... sinners. My superiors don't care, but this is something I really would like to know. Why did you surrender?"

Antonellis expression turned from mischievous to angry. "Not like you would understand the motives of a believer, now, would you? No need to justify my actions to you..."

"Why did you surrender, Colonel?" Rozman pressed on.

"I have a role to fulfill yet and so do my men. It's not so much that I took the decision to surrender but more that god made me do it so I can still be of use to him."

"God... made you do it?" Rozman sounded sceptical.

"I tould you. The mind of a sinner can not comprehend the guidance of ones actions by god."

"So you still believe in Urban? Believe he is the manifestation of the will of your god, here on earth?"

"Yes, I do," Antonelli said with a firm voice. "I'm still loyal to Urban and there is nothing that could change it."

"Even though you disobeyed his orders. Disobeyed gods orders himself." Rozman sat there motionlessly, his lips moving without his face showing the slightest of emotion. "Explain that to me, Colonel. How can you be a loyal servant of god and disobey him at the same time?"

"I don't have to explain anything to a heathen." Antonelli was on the edge of his chair now, foaming at Rozman for his inquisitive questions. "I did what I have to do, did what was necessary to fulfill gods will. If that means you have the upper hand for now, so be it. But trust me, in the end, god will triumph over satan and his followers and I will have the last laugh here."

"I am sure Pope Urban will understand that, won't he?" Again, for the fraction of a second, a smile appeared on Rozmans lips as he was, in the back of his mind, enjoying himself and how he got Antonelli to talk after all. "Here's what I think, Antonelli. I think all this is just a facade. All this tough crusader image you built up and your stalwart loyalty to Urban... deep down inside you know, there is some truth to all these rumours that Urban isn't occupying his throne rightfully, that it wasn't god who put him there but the hands of man. And boy, there sure is a lot of blood on these hands. You didn't surrender because it was gods will, you surrendered because it was your own choice, because you felt there was no need to sacrifice yourself and your men to a cause you knew wasn't the will of god, but merely some usurper clinging to his power after having pissed on every single one of his neighbours. You didn't want to be a sacrifice for this old man. The question is, do you have the guts to admit this to yourself? Or do you try to cling to your fairytales of doing Urbans will when going against his orders?"

The stopwatch rang as Rozman finished his sentence. Without a word, the Carentanian RAI officer stood up and left.

 

[Rheinbund]

Southeastern Solaren

The continuous air strikes had macroscopicly reduced Solaren’s armed forces to quite a large extent, but microscopicly the situation was different. After the Carentanians had attacked Capraria, the Solaris had taken into account that an amphibious landing on the east coast could take place as well. As a result, the Eiffellandian forces had to deal with the same problems as the Lorrainians had to deal with: Mines, IEDs and boobytreps.
Meanwhile, the Eiffellandian force in Southeastern Solaren had reached its maximum strength with 50,000 men. Carentania’s mining operation had indeed left only small sea routes, but that was a problem that was easily dealt with. Eiffelland’s air force did not only consist of fighters but of transport planes as well. With the air superiority in the hands of the Eiffellandians, the transport planes could do what they wanted, apart from an occasional stinger during dropping operations. Landing strips had been prepared throughout the areas occupied by the Eiffellandians, so that transport planes and even fighters could land and take off. It was decided to station a total of 50 fighters in Southeastern Solaren.
The advancements were such that the Eiffellandians were at about one‑third of Tegeata. Now they faced the mountains in Southeastern Solaren. Batallions of soldiers specialised in mountain warfare were preparing themselves, while helicopters were already attacking various targets in the mountains.
Also here sometimes soldiers surrendered. One PoW-camp had already been built in Southeastern Solaren.

Because one of Eiffelland’s neighbourcountries, Venetia, was Italian‑speaking, Italian was taught at the Eiffellandian Realschulen and Gymnasia. Most officers had at least a grasp of the language spoken in Solaren, and the humanitary workers that operated along with the soldiers spoke Italian quite well. Eiffelland’s focus on learning languages paid off in that sense.
Solaren appeared to be quite underdeveloped. Actually the Eiffellandian field hospitals were better equipped than the local Solaris hospitals. The Solaris physicians and nurses were well‑educated, but they often could not go further than diagnosing the diseases. Treatment other than surgery was not available, and sterilising equipment properly could not be carried out, either, so that surgery was a risky business as well. Not because of the quality of the surgeons, but because of infectious diseases. Therefore, at least the hearts of the physicians and nurses were won easily when proper medicinal treatments and basic hospital equipment were delivered. Solar panels to generate electricity did the job as well.

Meanwhile a propaganda campaign was started to make the soldiers and the population surrender. One of the slogans used was: “There will be a post-war Solaren. God will want you to build that up. Surrender to carry out the will of God.”
Solaris internet servers were hacked to get those slogans on the web pages. Solaris radio and television senders were temporarily taken over for a few seconds to broadcast that message. A very strong sender was placed in Southeastern Solaren to setup a radio station.


Southern Lorraine

The Eiffellandian air force continued its air strikes in Solaren to support the advancement of EDF-troops.


Eiffelland

It finally became a bit relaxed for the air force. The tasks to be performed in Solaren could be handled by the fighters in Lorraine and Southeastern Solaren, and the fighters on the carriers. The air space above Eiffelland was still intensively patrolled out of fear for an attack by Winnemark, but the majority of the Eiffellandian fighters could stay on the ground. The transport planes, however, continued to carry goods to Southeastern Solaren, escorted by fighters.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Ajaccio, Nicosia

The pilots had amassed quietly at the tiny airfield. The windowless room stank of stale coffee and of cigarettes. Packed into the room was every fighter and strike pilot that Nicosia had. Unlike the army, all were professionals who had trained everywhere from Anglyn to Franken. The rooms buzz came to an abrupt stop when the lumbering and barrel shaped figure of Nicosia's King entered the room. Deathly quiet, only the hum of the fluorescent lights and the foot steps of the King were heard before somebody had the idea to call attention.

With the men and women seated, the King took to the little podium at the front of the room. "Ladies and Gentlemen. The briefing you are about to hear is for our most ambitious operation of this conflict. This operation is of the highest importance. I know many of you are tired and I promise you a rest, but tonight there is work to be done. This is an extremely dangerous mission. The possibility that some of you won't come back is real. There was discussion on if this should be disclosed to you or not; but in the end I decided you should hear the truth. G-d bless you all on this mission. Colonel....."

The King slowly made his way out of the room as the men and women stood and the Colonel took to the small podium. A small projector screen was lowered. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Port of Mazara," said the Colonel as a satellite photo of the harbor appeared. "This was taken this morning. As of now, the Solaris Navy has been rather schizophrenic. In and out of port. However, they have had at least 3 frigates in port at any one time. Also, there appears to be a number of missile ships in port at any given time. Right now, we are expecting 4 ships to be in port. We will plan for that; but there may be more. Tonight we will be hitting them" said the Colonel. The pilots had mixed expressions of fear, challenge, and excitement.

"We expect the anti-aircraft batteries to be active. The ships being in port will most likely be more relaxed. Our goal is to send them to the bottom of the port. We will avenge the Ajaccio" said the Colonel. The briefing went on for another hour and a half before the pilots headed for their aircraft.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Capraria

It was over. Capraria belonged to the Carentanians and the Solaren soldiers had paid a heavy price for their continued resistance. North-eastern Capraria, more precisely the Daunia peninsula, had been chosen as the area of their last stand. Fortifying the peninsulas many small fishing communities, hilly landscape and setting up roadblocks along the rough paths through the remote country, Solarens soldiers had prepared for this final battle which their governments regime would undoubtly use in their propaganda. The soldiers on Capraria had chosen martyrdom and refused to surrender as their comrades on Iscla had done. Carentanias Revolutionary Army had punished them fur this stubborn refusal to acknowledge the futility of their mission.

Having dredged every last piece of artillery on the island within range of the peninsula, Daunia had literally been set on fire. Rockets and mortars had pounded away on the Solaren positions while Carentanians close-air-support had dropped over a hundred tons of ordonance on enemy towns, including incidiary bombs. Whenever the bombardement of a town, hill, valley or road section had stopped, mechanized units of the Carentanian army waltzed in minutes later, shooting any Solaren soldier still alive after this cruel assault. And more often than not, Solaren civilians suffered the same fate as Pope Urbans soldiers. Carentanian high command was, throughout the operation, breathing down the Carentanian commanders' necks, harassing them with phone calls and urging them to push on. As this pressure to conclude the operation as quickly as possible was passed on, shooting every Solaren soldier quickly turned into shooting anything that still moved while rushing across the peninsula in full speed, the armored vehicles of the Revolutionary Guards not stopping for once.

As the sun finally set somewhere west of the island of Capraria, first Carentanian units reached the tip of the peninsula. That day, they had seen many Solaren corpses and sent even more of their opponents to join those already burned to ashes. Compared to other battles in this war, it would go down as a small operation. Only selected units of the Third Mechanized Brigade were even directly engaging Solaren forces and after those had been cut off from supplies and subject to aerial assaults for a while now, they weren't in any position to put up much of a fight, especially after they had been shelled by artillery for 48 hours straight now. Their fighting spirit was unbroken and militantly religious, no one doubted that, but there was only so much someone with a broken leg and no bullets can do to a Main Battle Tank crushing through his barricade.

In fact, the biggest threat to Carentanias advance probably came not from the Solaren soldiers themselves, but from the mines they had prepared on several routes leading into the Daunia area. Artillery had cleared a good deal of the minefields, but occasionally, a Carentanian tank or infantry fighting vehicle would run across one of those and in total, Carentania lost 12 IFV's to mines and even two tanks were stopped, albeit not destroyed, by mines blasting their tracks. In the end, however, it achieved as little as this entire last stand on Capraria and the red flag was flying, finally, above all of Capraria. Carentanian press would later take a symbolical picture of the red flag being raised above Caprarias largest hill, to symbolize for the public back home that the battle was won, while Carentanian High Command was already busy shipping the first units from the island back to the Paki military base on mainland Carentania, in order to easy the tense supply situation on the island until the port facilities in Panetelleria were expanded and more supplies could be shipped in.

Amongst all these events, one small operation almost went unnoticed as Carentanian soldiers set off in their helicopters to occupy Isola di San Pietro. The small island was scarcely populated, even more scarcely than Capraria was and few, if any, resistance would be encountered on it. But it was of great religious significance to the Solaren people, as it was the island were Saint Peter had landed prior to reaching Tibur. Some Solaren theologists believe that Solaren had been his intended destiny, not Tibur, and use this speculative myth to add additional legitimacy to the Solaren churchs' claim of representing god on earth.

Whatever would happen on Isola di San Pietro, once it finally reached the public, it would have a significant impact on how the Carentanians were received by the Solaren people. The soldiers on this mission had been handpicked for their calm and disciplined nature, their respect to the religious feelings of other humans and a few were even members of the Solaren church themselves, albeit of the secular variant that rejected Pope Urban and viewed him as an usurper on the Papal Throne. Hopefully, not a single scratch would be dealt to the churches and monasteries, chapels and shrines on the island.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Ajaccio, Nicosia

The King listened to the wind absently as he stared out the window. His depression was hitting an all time low. This was not what he wanted for his tiny island. He did his best to remind himself that it was a matter of what he did when situations presented themselves, not when he presented them. He turned to his military aid coldly, and outstretched his hand, merely saying "phone".


The following morning
Ajaccio, Nicosia

The pilots all had a sense of relief and a sense of being let down. The mission had been scrubbed at the last minute. They were relatively perplexed as to why but were more suprised that they had remained in Ajaccio, leaving the airspace to the care of their allies stationed on the island. They were relatively relaxed, enjoying a breakfast of bacon, bread, coffee, and fruit when word came that they should prepare for another briefing. The rumors began to fly- The mission would take place tonight. The mission had been scrapped and they would be hitting Urban's stronghold, deep in the Spine of Solaren.

Ajaccio Naval Station

The Monte Cristo was ready to set sail. She had been a museum ship for almost 20 years, but due to her being commissioned as a museum ship; she was required to maintain all of her equipment. She had been Nicosia's largest ship and most powerful for years, now she had quietly reemerged to flex her muscle. Nicosia was about to put her foot down.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Carentania
City of Paki

Both the Samobor and the Maximo, Carentanias proud new Amphibious Assault Ships, had been anchoring in the military port of the city of Paki. The ships were being prepared for their next mission, while soldiers returned from Capraria on nearby docks. Paki's military base was one of the largest in Carentania, having grown to this size after the Jurzani revolution and the return of the Vrbas Kraj to the Workers' Republic as the country began changing its strategic priorities outward, beyond the shores of the Long Sea. Paki itself was at best a medium sized city, 120.000 citizens roughly, and known for its vibrant alternative and queer underground culture. The growth of its military base and the subsequent stationing of an entire army group along with making it a major fleet base for the Revolutionary Navy did not go without friction in the city of Paki.

Carentanian soldiers in Paki were increasingly encouraged by their soldiers to take the train to cities on the mainland during while on leave, to visit friends or family. But even Rijeka was far away from Paki and the appeals to soldiers that had just returned from a battle mission and desired nothing more but a drink to clear their head went largely unnoticed by most. And with alcohol and war experience came aggressive behaviour and fighting with locals. Several incidents in Paki, often with homophobic background, had the higher levels in the Revolutionary Army worried and hoping to get the men and women on Solaren soil as quickly as possible again after their well deserved break.

The first step towards reducing the deployment in Paki would occur soon, as soldiers of the Second Marines Brigade boarded the Maximo and the Samobor. While their comrades in the First Marines had already seen some of the heaviest fighting of the war during their landing in Capraria and the subsequent battle in Panetelleria, the Second Marines had spent all this time waiting for their first combat deployment. Carentania, busy to expand the logistical capabilities of their bases in Capraria and Iscla in order to sustain operations from these forward deployments, had assembled an excess of ammunition and fuel in their main military ports in Carentania itself. All that was left now was for the two Amphibious Assault Ships to embark alongside the destroyers and fregates tasked with assisting in the attack.

The next target of the Workers' Republic was Ustica, a larger island off the south-western coast of Solaren. Five fregates operating in the vicinity of the island had already been tasked with approaching the island in advance of the main combat group, starting reconaissance drones to be better prepared for what was waiting for them on the island. Once targets were identified, ships in the main assault group could fire cruise missiles at them, while first infiltration squads would land on the shores in a covert night-time operation. Finally, the main assault would come, swarming the island with marines assisted by the versatile "firefly" military helicopter.

Ustica would not greet the men and women of the Second Marines as their comrades had been on Capraria. The deployment there was far smaller, that much was for sure. But Ustica had other surprises, amongst them the steep black cliffs the island was famed for, denying access to the island along most of the coastline. This meant two things for the assault: the helicopters used in the attack would have a more crucial role, as only them could actually get the majority of the ground forces on the island. And secondly, the infiltration mission would need to watch out for hidden anti-air deployments or troops with portable anti-air weapons.

Finally, there was another complication. Ustica was a prison island for large parts. Whereas Capraria featured vineyards and romantic villages surrounded by wilderness, Ustica had barbed wire fences and cruel labor camps surrounded by the graves of those who did not survive it. The prisons of Solaren incarcerated and brutally punished your usual crooks, petty thieves and thugs, but they were also crowded with oppositionals, dissenters and religious heretics. Those groups would occupy a fundamental role if there ever was to be a succesful rebuilding of Solaren into a working progressive society. Their survival would need to be guarantueed by the infiltration teams, which were to launch surprise assaults on prisons in the early phase of the invasion, liberate all prisoners and arm them with the weapons taken from Solaren soldiers and prison guards.

It was Commander Milena Hafners idea to incorporate such a militia into the conquest strategy for Ustica and when pressed about the prospect of having armed criminals run loose on Ustica and the possible impact this could have on both stability and public relations, she used to joke that there was really nothing to fear, since "all the psychopaths in Solaren are granted positions in the government, not prison cells." Of course, she had support from the higher political levels. High Command, the Commissars and probably even the next All-Workers Congress in December, they all envisioned a clean slate, a fresh new start for Solaren once this all was over.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Ajaccio

The pilots had all shrunk in their chairs. So far, they had done little but harass Solaris shipping and patrol airspace. This mission was far different from anything they could have possibly thought of. Operation Bold Fury was to be the most ambitious Nicosian military operation in at least 200 years. The daunting mission had rattled some of the pilots; even Squadron Leader Colonel Theodore Della who had discreetly served in various EDF forces to get combat experience.

The pilots had fasted the day to prepare for the mission. No use in pissing ones pants before the bullets started flying. Almost the entirety of Nicosia's Air Force would be invested in this. The pilots slowly climbed into their aircraft as Colonel Della started the imported jet engine.

Long Sea

The museum ship turned active destroyer was handling nicely in the relatively rough sea. The Monte Cristo and the other destroyer cut into the light swells. Soon the Monte Cristo would unleash her might. Operation Bold Fury was well underway.