The Iavan Dispute
With a Bryorian invasion of Iava looming in the future, both sides negotiated a humanitarian corridor to the east through which civilians could flee the island on ship. Individual UNSA and SFS states declared their intent to support the evacuation efforts, and both alliances used this as a cover to smuggle much-desired equipment to the mobilizing Iavan forces.
The Bryorian military expected a fairly easy march across the island - Iava had only begun to industrialize in recent decades, and both their air force and navy were barely extant as a result. The invasion was intended to occur over three separate phases. The first step was the air and sea campaign, where Bryorian land- and carrier-based aircraft and their relatively superior navy would identify and strike targets to make way for the invasion force. The second phase was the invasion itself, with the bulk of Bryor's forces landing to the west to carve into the island and take Iava's only military base and airbase. A smaller force made up of Bryor's elite would perform a direct assault on Iava's largest port and capital city in the north aided by the bulk of the fleet. The final phase would see the Bryorian military mop up any dissidents in preparation for long-term occupation and reintegration.
Bryor would being their operations a little over a month after the situation was laid out in the Perpetual Conference, and would immediately feel the presence of foreign aid to Iava. Initial aerial incursions included lower-altitude scout aircraft and a handful of escorts in the air to act more as a deterrent in case of pursuit than a reactionary force to counter-strike Iava's dated biplanes. Unbeknownst to the Bryorian pilots, Iava had two SFS-manned
GRADAR Stations installed on the island - one attached to the military base, and the other near the peak of the mountain to the south of the capital overlooking the city. Very, very early warning could have given Iavan biplanes the opportunity to intercept and deter the faster Bryorian scouts, but these had recently been replaced by
Sakonet and
Daedalus fighters from SFS and UNSA states. By the time Bryor's ship-based radar had detected the Iavan planes and relayed the information it was too late for the escorts to make any meaningful preparations. Sakonets dove on the Bryorian formations at high speed, forcing them to scramble and break formation and downing one Bryorian in the process. The Bryorian pilots attempted to respond but were then struck by the Daedaluses. While not as fast as the Sakonet, these planes were much more agile and moved to engage the scattered Bryorians in favorable duels. The disorganized flight quickly fell apart and retreated, leaving the scouts at the mercy of the Iavans. Future incursions were likewise lopsided, although lacked the element of total surprise, and the Bryorian's greater numbers meant they did eventually see successful scouting operations - just not great ones, and definitely not thorough ones either.
The Iavan navy, made up almost entirely of coastal patrol boats and a handful of
Herring and
Okhotnik destroyers provided by UNSA and the SFS, largely chose to remain unengaged, focusing more on surviving to defend the capital port should it come under attack. This left the Bryorian Navy free to bombard coastal locations they assumed had a military presence in an effort to soften up their landing zones. With the Iavan threat from the air during the day, the Bryorian fleet opted to being their operations at night, using lights on Iava as rough targeting guides.
Unfortunately for them, the Iavans were also supplied with
L-46 "Firefly SPOT" Liaison Aircraft. Using the Light-Amplifying Spotter's Helmet installed in the levisteel flying boat, these planes were able to scout the seas and easily locate enemy ships in the darkness. While Bryor's three battleships had guns large enough to hit the coast outside of the range of the coastal guns, their smaller ships did not. When they got within range of Iava's network of camouflaged defensive works along the coast, the sky and sea around them lit up as the coastal artillery launched UNSA-provided flares into the air. UNSA and SFS-provided smoke rounds gave the gunners better gauges of windage, and UNSA's white phosphorus and high explosive rounds came following after. Two destroyers and a light cruiser suffered significant damage throughout the first bombardment, and damage to the Iavan defenses remained extremely limited.
The final preparatory operation was a special forces landing at a number of points along the coast to prepare beachheads. Bryorian paratroopers were to drop outside of the Iavan capital and force the commitment of defenses inland. The units landing on beaches had much the same problem as the ships during the previous night, with
Firefly SPOTs pinpointing targets for flares to illuminate and other munitions to deal with. While it was generally a slaughter, some Bryorian special forces landed and began to carve out their objectives. These would again face immense issues thanks to foreign support - a majority of Iava's forces were not committed directly to the defense of the coastline, and were instead acting as a mechanized rapid response force. Two of the SFS' designs, the
Oruz and the
Perevozka, made this possible. Both of these vehicles had armored bodies attached to four wheeled legs that responded to uneven terrain extraordinarily well in order to keep stable. The Perevozka can manage to carry twelve soldiers or supplies at speeds of 150km/h, giving the Iavans the ability to place infantry anywhere they had to be at short notice. The
Oruz came with a 100mm cannon, two 8.5mm machine guns (the
Pulemet No.6, with a RoF of 800RPM and effective range of 1000m), and up to 200mm of armor, which added an even more unexpected punch to the reacting forces despite their small number. A significant portion of the pockets were crushed before sunrise, and some so rapidly that they couldn't relay the change of situation back to the fleet. Those few pockets that did manage to hold soon found themselves under fire from
Bol'shoy 108mm and
M2 Lawless 120mm guns.
As dawn and high tide came, so too did the main invasion force. Aircraft dueled overhead as the Bryorians attempted to clear the sky for close air support, their superior numbers being their only saving grace. Some of the smaller craft in the Bryorian fleet moved in to maximize their ability to devastate the coast, even if it meant placing themselves within range of the Iavan defenses. As if the situation hadn't been fumbled enough already, the amphibious assault craft used by the Bryorians had deeper bottoms than the smaller craft used to infiltrate the night before, and found themselves getting snagged on previously unnoticed
Salviosi Jacks placed along large sections of the coast. Bryorian soldiers were forced to leap into the wintry seas or face the wrath of hidden bunkers and their
Combine and
Pulemet No.4 and
No.6 machine guns. The assault vehicles and amphibious tanks that managed to make it ashore then had to face infantry in fortified positions with a wide variety of arms.
The SFS had provided the
"Temnaya Vintovka" Semiautomatic Rifle,
No.3 Fragmentation Grenade,
No.4 Smoke Grenade, and
"Nebolshoy" Pistol, giving Iavan soldiers a reliable (except for the occasional dud or prematurely firing No.4), well-rounded kit. UNSA delivered
UNSA Model 1936A "Median" Self-Loading Rifles,
"Dallas" Sportsman Carbines that rapidly found themselves replaced with just about anything else being provided,
M1 Hand Grenades, and
UNSA Model 1946 "Peacemaker" Smokeless Rocket Launchers for an added punch. The Peacemakers make use of Gravite, a strange Caelium alloy, to launch HE-AT or HE-Frag rockets silently at 180m/s for six seconds or until impact. The soldiers armed with the Peacemakers found themselves positioned on the low ground in forward positions due to the strange nature of the ammo's efficiency in flight.
While it wasn't an easy fight, the majority of the invasion force never made it off the beach. With the punch aimed at disabling the military fully blocked, everything relied on the attempt to decapitate Iava.
The paratroopers landing in the suburbs expected to be reinforced in the morning by an invasion force thrusting into the port. Their job was to dig in and assault the city to draw the Iavan defenses toward them, and they succeeded very well at this task. Rapid response teams were able to react to the paratroopers quickly enough to hit them while they were disorganized. Lacking any heavy weapons, the Oruz ABRs proved to be devastating additions to the Iavan armory. Being attacked from the south, the Bryorian paratroopers were forced to retreat into the city.
It's there that they met one last Iavan secret: the UNSA-provided
Mark 1 Armoured Urban Weapons Platform "Awpee". With their speed and profile making them vulnerable to air attack, and with no need for them elsewhere anyways, Iava hid these vehicles among their urban infrastructure. The Awpee is made of two digitigrade legs supporting a cylindrical body with a fuel "backpack" that stands at 7.5m tall, with a left side 120mm QF cannon firing 7RPM and a right side double barrel 20mm autocannon with a fire rate of 600RPM. The three-man crew within receive protection from up to 250mm armor. While few and far between, these walking bunkers absolutely shredded Bryor's airborne infantry. By daybreak the paratroopers had been killed or captured with nothing to show for their efforts.
The invasion force attacking the capital struck at the same time as the coastal landing forces, with Bryorian forces expecting to assault a city already under siege. The bold move to send transport ships and assault craft straight into a port that cut into a city was immediately made to regret the brashness that had colored Bryor's whole invasion effort. The majority of Bryor's fleet, escorting the carrier that expected to position itself in the port as a sign of dominance, was forced to watch helplessly as a city they were ordered to capture intact sent hundreds of helpless men to their graves. The final nail in the coffin was the aerial counterattack by Iava. While the port assault floundered, three each of the
Lizing Li-4 and
B-43 Barragan strategic bombers passed over the city toward the fleet. Fighter escorts had already moved ahead to force the carrier force to engage, giving the bombers a chance to hit the Bryorian fleet with 36000kg of ordinance. The high altitude urban defense bombers struck the carrier with three separate 1000kg bombs, causing massive fires to sweep across the deck and blowing through the hull of the flagship. Embarrassed at every turn, the remains of the Bryorian forces were made to retreat and face international reprisals.
The Bryorians left, but the gunfire continued. Some volunteer forces raised to combat the invasion immediately marched on the capital building once the defense was complete, declaring their demands to dissolve the current government, rewrite the constitution, and install an economic liberal as president with known ties to UNSA businesses. While the population at large was unopposed to the idea of a more globally open Iava (thanks in part to an abundance of pamphlets made with
"Gutenberg" Ruggedized Mimeograph and Typewriters and dispersed throughout the island), a significant portion of the military operating in the south believed that the SFS had provided pivotal aid in their time of need moreso than UNSA, and were even able to produce documentation of UNSA's hand involved in both sides of the invasion. A number of units in the south mobilized to put down the rebellion going on in the capital. A brief skirmish occurred as pro-SFS soldiers came across occupied pro-UNSA militant positions, with neither side able to gain significant immediate advantage.
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Bryorian Military Crippled By Valiant Iavan Defense, Struggle Continues
After a week of hard fighting, Bryorian officials have declared an end to their special military operation, admitting that it achieved none of their stated goals, although they have yet to publicly admit the loss of their flagship to Iavan attacks - the Bryorian Ministry of the Navy has officially stated that their aircraft carrier "ran aground". Unfortunately for Bryor, photographs have been delivered to every news outlet displaying the extent of damage to the ship, now resting just above the waves as a monument to Iavan tenacity. Unfortunately, the country is now threatening to fall into civil war as an armed group of reformists has occupied the capital with minimal resistance. In opposition to this uprising is a bulk of the Iavan military claiming to aim to restore order in this vulnerable time...
A study has been released detailing the effects of impurities in water found all across the Northern Continent on the human brain. Northern-sourced water causes hyperdeficiency within the brain, shriveling it to the size of a rais- oh come on, I know we've been telling some stinkers lately but how did this get through? What the actual fu-
The feed suddenly cuts out.
Work Out In Warm Lands!
Mining operations in Desert require able hands.
$25 equipment fee to be paid on arrival.
Glory to the Federation!
Strike It Rich* In The Pine Barrens!
New discovery of ore deposits ready for picking.
First come, first serve.
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Topic: "Cold War" Arms Race // CORE THREAD // Turn 4 Public Record (Read 2542 times)