Major naval engagement off Marijuania's West cost

[Whaleboy]

The fleet of Q-ships building off our West coast has been engaged by the Marijuanian Navy. We suspect them in the involvement with the recent terrorist incidents, as one of our gunboats engaged two of theirs, disabled them and found a nuclear device. See the other threads for more info on that.

Two days ago, a drone launched from our carrier came under heavy AA fire when it flew a surveillance flight over the suspicious ships. Again see other threads. They were thus classified as "attacking threat".

Our ships, a fleet consisting of our new superbattleship the MSS Hood, two other battleships, 4 destroyers, 6 frigates and 35 gunboats, as well as two submarines and a carrier, not to mention air support from the Marijuanian mainland, surrounded the 74 enemy ships. They made radio contact and asked for their surrender. We were responded by a small motorboat, which appeared to be manned, sent towards the Hood. It was not crewed. When scanned, it was found to have an armed nuclear warhead. It was disabled by bomb disposal with 3 minutes, 23 seconds to spare .

The terrorists then engaged their weapons systems. Our ships could make out 5-inch guns, a few 9 inch guns, primitive rocket launcher system, chain gun placements, anti aircraft rockets and machine guns, as well as heavily armed crews.

The entire enemy fleet then proceeded to attack at our weakest point, the arc of gunboats. Four of our gunboats were lost, 17 were damaged, with the loss of 7 of theirs and 22 damaged.

Our frigates and destroyers then engaged, neutralising 29 of their boats with rockets, shells, then opium-based knockout gas. Those not destroyed were captured by boarding parties, their crews arrested. No frigates or destroyers were lost, although one frigate suffered moderate damage when a lucky shot got through a gap in the armour, igniting a fire on a lower deck.

All of our vessels then withdrew, allowing an airstrike, which damaged 30 of their ships, and sunk 12.

The remaining 26 ships fled to the west, away from Marijuania, including several damaged vessels, are being chased by the Hood, subs and smaller battleships, and outflanked by the gunboats on the South, and frigates and destroyers from the North. Our ships will NOT shoot to kill. All shells contain knockout gas or weed, to incapacitate the crews. Ground attack aircraft have been ordered to damage the ships engines. We do not want to lose any information regarding this threat, by sinking these ships. Further news about this battle will be posted as soon as we get it.

We advise ALL nations to keep their navies and coastguards on full alert, as well dont yet know if there are more battlegroups like this one we are facing. Suspect all small private yaughts or fishing vessels.

We warn nations number 41 to 49 on the map to be especially alert, as they are directly in the path of the enemy ships. Nation 39, Sheepsta, Alecrast, Wine and Cent are also close to their current path (they are heading West from Marijuania (nation 69)).

All military and other support will be available to their governments. We request permission from those nations already mentioned above for our task force to enter their waters (although this wont include the gunboats as they will be out of range), in order to pursue the enemy vessels.

We dont believe this will be necessary, as they will most likely be caught by our superior forces within Marijuanian waters, but we like to take precautions!

More info will be released as and when we get it.

[Whaleboy]

Two Stanleystan battleships and the SSS Esses, Stanleystans superbattleship twin to the MSS Hood, has cut off the escape route of the enemy ships. They are now surrounded on all sides, their only tactical options is surrender or be defeated. It is still possible that a vessel or two can escape, but it will be followed and disabled. However, we do still think it is wise for the worlds navies to be on full alert.

[Jack_www]

ooc:
For terrorist to have a nuke like that and 60 ships I would say is a lot.

This sounds not like a terrorist group at all. No terrorist group could have such resources, only a nation state could do something like that.

[Drogue]

Ben: You can't head off one way on the map and reach the other side. This map is just our region, and has other regions bordering it.

[Whaleboy]

Sorry, we were under the impression it was a 2-d representation of the globe.

Our only evidence thus far is that it is a terrorist group that is well funded, and has been operating undercover funding itself and providing vessels through fishing activities. We suspect they got their bomb(s) through links with people that stole the Wine bomb, whether they themselves are involved or not is a different matter.

We doubt it would be a nationstate, because if so, they would surely put up a more formiddable fleet, consisting of military vessels, not amatuerish weaponry made out of modified pipes, rocket launchers and machine guns. We suspect these weapons are used to harrass and steal other vessels to assimilate into their fleet. They and their weapons would be easy to hide because of their cover as fishing and private vessels.

Marijuania has had a number of reports recently of small fishing vessels and private boats disappearing, or more specifically their crews. We did not devote much resources to this, as it was considered a police matter. It would appear that we were mistaken.

[Whaleboy]

"Ben: You can't head off one way on the map and reach the other side. This map is just our region, and has other regions bordering it"

Wouldnt it be so cool if someone were to RP another region?

[Whaleboy]

Marijuania has obtained victory in this sea battle, at a price.

The chase was led by the MSS Hood from the East and SSS Esses from the south. However, they slowed to deliver an artillery bombardment, so the other ships could catch up and surround the enemy vessels. The 26 ships were reduced to 15 by airstrikes, and then our ships capturing those damaged vessels. The MSS Hood and SSS Esses accounted for 4 of the 11 neutralised by a roughly aimed spread of shells to "buckshot" their fleet. The survivers were later picked up.

As our vessels surrounded the remaining 15, 8 of them hoisted the white flag and aimed straight for a formation of a destroyer, frigate and 5 gunboats. As our ships were preparing to accept their surrender as the pulled alongside, one surrenderer to one Marijuanian ship (two to the destroyer, the MSS Slash), the enemy vessels simulataneously exploded, with what must have been the force of tons of TNT.

All of the aforementioned Marijuanian ships were lost with all hands.

The remaining 7 ships had their engines taken out by machine gun fire from the remaining warships and precision airstrikes. As their situation became clear, they surrendered, by evacuating their ships into small rafts sent by our fleet. The ships, as well as those captured in battle, are being boarded now, and will be towed back to a Marijuanian port.

The 7 ships lost will be raised immediately, and their crews buried with full military honours.

[GeneralTacticus]

Regarding the matter of who is behind all of this... we have been conducting our own investigation into this matter since we were informed that some of our intelligence reports had been stolen, and the most promisisng leads that we have found can be traced back, at several removes, to the self-proclaimed "Rogue Nation" of Elethar. The intelligence reports were stolen by an agent in the employ of the Lumobo International Bank, which has links to the Eletharian government and a number of international terrorist and organized crime networks, and the fact that they later wound up in the hands of these terrorists suggests that they were connected. Moreover, upon arrest this agent implicated a number of others, all of whom fled the country before we could catch them, several ending up in Elethar, the others simply vanishing. While we are continuing our investigation, and this should by no means by seen as certain, we feel that if we do have a rogue state running amok and sponsoring terrorism against so many states at once, people should know about it as soon as possible.

- Confidential memo to all involved governments.

Signed, Megan Kroeger, Minister of State Security, Centralis.

[Whaleboy]

Marijuanian naval forces have been assigned to patrol all Marijuanian waters, the coastguard close to shore. Special attention will be given to the approaches to Marijuania from Elethar.

Our intelligence states that this nation certainly checks out as a possible suspect, and would be easily capable of fielding a subversive fleet like the one we have faced. The airforce has been placed on full alert, and all military personel have been called up. The same goes with Stanleystan.

We will not act in any way against Elethar until we have more evidence, but Marijuania will be secured in the interim.

Where is Elethar on the map?

[GeneralTacticus]

Where is Elethar on the map?

Spot #55, as of about a minute ago...

[Whaleboy]

Yish! Thats a little too close for comfort. Marijuania is using its sensory capability from air and space to check all activity from Elethar. We have not yet given authorisation to watch that nation itself, pending advice from the international community. Any thoughts?

[Whaleboy]

We request guidance from the international community as to whether we should use our "spy" satellites to watch the nation of Elethar itself, as well as the traffic going to and from, which we have already been doing. Others who are more familiar with this nation may be able to gauge its possible reaction better than we can.

[Drogue]

Akiria feels strongly about privacy and sovereignty. If you can show that Elethar is responsible for this, then spying would be ok. Otherwise, it would be a breach of the privacy and sovereignty of that nation.

[Whaleboy]

We concur. We await more information from Centralis. Meantime, we are keeping Marijuania is a state of high alert for the foreseeable future (up to the Mill Limit of course).

Our airforce is on constant patrol, the army has been deployed in the home island, and the navy and coastguard are patrolling the coastline and approaches to our waters. The MSS Marley is in geostationary orbit over Marijuania. Talk about paranoid jk

[Jack_www]

Originally posted by Drogue
Akiria feels strongly about privacy and sovereignty. If you can show that Elethar is responsible for this, then spying would be ok. Otherwise, it would be a breach of the privacy and sovereignty of that nation.

This from a nation who stole a nuclear weapon form anther nation using covert teams? We laugh at such a statement.

[GeneralTacticus]

TO: All governments involved in Elethar/Marijuania Crisis
FROM: Centralis Ministry of State Security
SUBJECT: Elethar investigation

We have continue dour investigation of this matter, in collaboration with agents from the EIO, and we believe that based on the evidence we currently have, the only conclusion that can be reached is that Elethar, at the very least, knew about what was going on and could have stopped it, but did nothing; and, more likely, was directly behind it all. The evidence is as follows.

1) An anonymous source within the Lumobo Bank (henceforth referred to as the LIB) has confirmed that the bank's CEO and chief shareholder, Roberto Lumobo, specifically ordered the theft of intelligence reports from Centralis and the other nations, which were then employed to help plan the attack on Wine, among other things.

2) A study of LIB actions on financial markets in the time periods leading up to the nuclear blast in Jackson indicates that they made huge profits through put options on companies which would be severely affected by the blast, indicating that they knew it was going to happen.

3) The LIB agent arrested for the theft of our intelligence reprots has confessed that he met a number of times with agents of Elethar's notorious Grand Intelligence Agency, and recieved training in terrorism and espionage with a number of others in camps run by the Eletharian Holy Order, the religious police of that nation.

4) From the information we have been able to acquire, the wepaons used on the Q-ships that attacked Marijuania are identical to those manufactured by the arms industry, the only substantial private industry in Elethar, which is (surprise, surprise) also largely owned by the LIB.

5) Finally, and perhaps most damning of all, an EIO mole in the GIA today ahnded us an internal directive, signed by the head of the GIA and the Grand Poobah himself, authorizing the use of any means or resources required to destabilize and ultimately destroy a list of governments designated as 'subversive' by that directive. The list included Wine, Jackson, Marijuania, Zetaris, Centralis, Alecrast, and a number of other governments outside the region. The directive also made reference to a number of past operations, praising them as models for the future, although one was singled out as an example of what not to do; in an appendix added at the end, our source stated that these referred to activities related to the terrorist acts we are concerned with along with a few others, and that the one considered a bad example was that recently foiled by Marijuania.

Signed,
Megan Kroeger,
Minister for State Security,
Centralis

[Whaleboy]

"The list included Wine, Jackson, Marijuania, Zetaris, Centralis, Alecrast"

We recommend that these nations pool their resources to solve this problem.

[GeneralTacticus]

"The list included Wine, Jackson, Marijuania, Zetaris, Centralis, Alecrast"

We recommend that these nations pool their resources to solve this problem.

Just a note for the record - there appears to have been a minor error when this memo was being sent. That sentence should have read "The list included Wine, Jackson, Marijuania, Zetaris, Centralis, Alecrast, and a number of other governments both inside and outside outside the region."

Anyway, yes, that sounds like a good idea. We have made some discret enquiries with the Eletharian government about this matter ('discreet' in the sense that they won't know who's asking, so they won't know we know anything), but have yet to recieve a reply, and arent particularly expecting one, either. And something to remember when dealing with Elethar - their ruler is not the most sane of people. He often acts in a most irrational manner, and is highly unpredictable.

- Andreas Von Weiser,
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Centralis

[Whaleboy]

Our surveillance satellites has spotted 8 flotillas of small vessels, probably similar Q-ships to those that we recently defeated, forming just off the Elethan coast. This time, they appear to be supplimented by a number of larger military vessels, what appear to be destroyers, light cruisers and heavy cruisers. They are also covered by an air force, although we are not fully aware of Elethan military capabilities. The courses of these fleets we have extrapolated include 3 to Marijuania, one to Jackson, one to Centralis, one to Alecrast and two to Zetaris. We recommend that those nations place their armed forces on their highest alert.

Marijuania will henceforth treat any attack or attempted attack on its soil, seas, air, space or shipping as an act of war by Elethar on Marijuania. As soon as any Elethan ship of these fleets sails into Marijuanian waters, our military has authorisation to destroy them. We recommend other nations do the same.

We will not as yet attack them in international waters, as that would be considered by us to be an unprovoked attack.

We request any nation who has them to publish the military stats for Elethar.

We are preparing a conference on Elethar to which all affected nations, including those mentioned in the list, are asked to attend. This will be held in a secret location in Marijuania.

[GeneralTacticus]

Our surveillance satellites has spotted 8 flotillas of small vessels, probably similar Q-ships to those that we recently defeated, forming just off the Elethan coast. This time, they appear to be supplimented by a number of larger military vessels, what appear to be destroyers, light cruisers and heavy cruisers. They are also covered by an air force, although we are not fully aware of Elethan military capabilities. The courses of these fleets we have extrapolated include 3 to Marijuania, one to Jackson, one to Centralis, one to Alecrast and two to Zetaris. We recommend that those nations place their armed forces on their highest alert.

Marijuania will henceforth treat any attack or attempted attack on its soil, seas, air, space or shipping as an act of war by Elethar on Marijuania. As soon as any Elethan ship of these fleets sails into Marijuanian waters, our military has authorisation to destroy them. We recommend other nations do the same.

We will not as yet attack them in international waters, as that would be considered by us to be an unprovoked attack.

We thank you for issuing this warning, and are acting accordingly. We have prepared our navy for strikes against these ships should they display hostile intend, and are preparing an ultimatum to the Eletharian government to have them stand down or face war. We will, however, wait on issuing it until they indicate that they are actually hostile.

We request any nation who has them to publish the military stats for Elethar.

Has been done. Unfortunately, we don't have a great deal of information on the capabilities of Eletharian equipment, nor on their basic combat doctrine, but we do know that their troops aren't all that well organized; their troops are decently trained and morale is at tolerable levels, but their officer corps is horribly incompetent, as competent officers tend to get politicised and then shot. It's also very corrupt.

We are preparing a conference on Elethar to which all affected nations, including those mentioned in the list, are asked to attend. This will be held in a secret location in Marijuania.

We will make sure to attend it, (especially given that we seem to be thre regional authority on Elethar); the list of our officials who will be attending is:

- Lucretia Bialaszewiski, Minister for External Intelligence
- Theodore Daubert, Deputy Foreign Minister, and
- Siona Kubicek, Chief of the Counterterrorist Division at the Ministry of Defence.

[Whaleboy]

We have further information on the fleets heading towards various nations. They each consist of approximately 1 cruiser, two destroyers, and three missile frigates. There are about 30 heavily armed gunboats, and another 30 - 35 Q-ships. These are generally heavily armoured at the expense of firepower. There are 4 large unidentified vessels at the centre of each fleet. We do not know what they are as yet, they appear to be similar to civilian liners. The best guess at the moment is that they are troop carriers, in which case, we advise all target land armies to be ready.

The three fleets heading towads Marijuania have now amalgamated into one giant fleet. We send an urgent message to the Elethan government demanding their ships immediate return to Elethan waters. We sent a simliar message to the ships. The response from both was identical:

"Prepare to die"

Launched from one of our carriers, we sent a surveillance drone disguised as a light Marijuanian civilian aircraft, at an altitude of 2000 feet, 2 miles West of the incoming fleet. We made it seem like a civvy cessna blown off course. It was shot down by anti-aircraft missiles from the fleet. We now classify this fleet as officially, a threat.

We have deployed two superbattleships, the MSS Hood and MSS Slash-A to intercept the ships when they are within our air cover in Marijuanian waters. Hopefully, the Slash will fare better than its predacessor, destroyed in the last encounter with an Elethan suicide ship. The other Hood-class (12x 24inch guns), the MSS Liberty, is patrolling the waters closer to shore, in case of other attacks. We are meeting this threat with two aircraft carriers, three smaller battleships (9x18 inch guns), 10 destroyers, 15 frigates, 30 light cruisers, 15 heavy cruisers, 110 type 2 gunboats and 50 type 4 gunboats (same armament as destroyer, less armour, faster). A squadron of 8 H/K subs have also been deployed. Air superiority from the Marijuanian mainland as well as the carriers will be maintained over our fleet and theirs whilst in Marijuanian waters.

Any other military assistance from other nations would be most appreciated, we have not been able to afford the deployments we would have liked, while we do have a clear tactical superiority in numbers and quality, we do not have as much as we would like. Needless to say, if we are not otherwise engaged, we will assist others, especially those that assist us, according to the terms of the alliances to which we belong.

We recommend that other nations field such strong fleets in defense, as we saw last time, the gunboats and Q-ships are seemingly willing to blow themselves up. Use air-strikes and long range artillery bombardments where possible.

Unless ships surrender by withdrawing from the battlezone and powering down engines, weapons, and abandoning ship, then we will shoot to kill. We have made that clear to the incoming fleet.

Our anti-aircraft and anti-missile batteries both on the ground, in the air and in space are ready to defend against all incoming missiles and aircraft.

The airforce squadrons not involved in this, on Marijuanias North-East coast will soon be in a position to strike the fleets heading towards Centralis, Alecrast, Wine, Zetaris and Jackson. We can soften up these fleets if you wish, but we cannot do much more as we must defend our Island for the time being.

[Jack_www]

The USJ Navy is not on high alert. The 7 Carrer Battle Groups from the East and West apolyton fleets are on there way to the area. Nothing will get past them I assure the nations of Apolyton.

As for the nation of Elethan, you are to surrender unconditionaly, you have 24 hours to do so. If you do not surrender, you will face the full might of the USJ millitary.

[Whaleboy]

We thank kindly thank Jackson for their help, but advise caution, as it is possible that ships could have got through without us noticing. We believe and have evidence for these people to be responsible for the bomb in Jackson, as well as the attempted attack on Marijuania, so best be careful.

We shall keep the fleet aimed for Marijuania busy until your fleets arrive, we will give you our transponder codes to prevent friendly fire incidents. Hopefully, if our tactics are as good as simulations suggest, there wont be much of an attacking fleet left by the time you arrive. We're somewhat stronger since last time you kindly helped us!

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Jack_www
This from a nation who stole a nuclear weapon form anther nation using covert teams? We laugh at such a statement.

Please read it before making accusations. Akiria never stole a nuke from anyone. Akiria does feel strongly about privacy and sovereignty, and is a lot less trigger happy than USJ seems to be regarding anyone it sees as some sort of "Rogue Nation". We are increasingly worried by your seeming belief that military will solve all these problems. If someone has done something wrong, please show evidence and try them for it, if not, then please do not attack them.

Zetaris has so many soldiers, Akis, and a large part of the Akirian Navy station their, as it is a base for that area, which seems unstable. However, Elether is quite far away, and any ships that do not respond to hails in Zetarian waters will be stopped by blockade. If they attempt to ram, they will be destroyed. No ship will get within a few miles of Zetaris. Indeed, we may try to capture a few ships, as the Marine's stationed on Riga have come up with a plan.

[Whaleboy]

We have just received the following statement from Elethar:

"Due to subversive governments, polluting our minds with ideas of freedom, liberty, idealism, and other such damaging concepts, we hereby declare war on Marijuania, Jackson, Zetaris, Akiria, and their allies. May the blood of the slain run like wine across the chests of the Elethans."

Marijuania now extends its spy satellites mission into the Elethan nation itself, tapping communications etc. The airforce is on standby, with 40% constantly in the air. The army has been deployed along the coast, all cities and strategic points. Tank battalions are ready.

The coastguard has withdrawn close to shore and inland waterways, the navy has pulled closer to shore to respond to threats directly as and when they happen. The ships in our fleet defending against their incoming fleet have deployed into their formations, and will fire when within range. The airforce will begin our first attack as soon as the ships enter Marijuanian waters, which looks like 39 hours. We will use Hastings-class fighters to attack from high altitude and obtain air-superiority, while they will also shoot down lower altitude enemy planes, aircraft on the ground and other military installations. Same goes with high-altitude bombers. Cruise and ballistic missiles are also being used. First priority is disabiling any nuclear installations and air capability.

Our missile satellites and shuttles will also bomb Elethar, disabiling their ability to make war on us. Our targets are purely military, nukes will not be used unless we absolutely have to.

[Whaleboy]

Our air patrol reports 8 Elethan long range jets shot down 40 miles off Marijuanias West coast. ICBM's have been disabled from orbit, though a piece of wrecking fell onto a village, killing a rabbit. We shall avenge that rabbit!

We are defending against all their offensive attacks, to bleed their capability dry.

[Whaleboy]

The conference has been moved to a safer location in Marijuania, but it is still going ahead. We shall move this discussion to a different thread.

[Jack_www]

Originally posted by Drogue

Please read it before making accusations. Akiria never stole a nuke from anyone. Akiria does feel strongly about privacy and sovereignty, and is a lot less trigger happy than USJ seems to be regarding anyone it sees as some sort of "Rogue Nation". We are increasingly worried by your seeming belief that military will solve all these problems. If someone has done something wrong, please show evidence and try them for it, if not, then please do not attack them.

Zetaris has so many soldiers, Akis, and a large part of the Akirian Navy station their, as it is a base for that area, which seems unstable. However, Elether is quite far away, and any ships that do not respond to hails in Zetarian waters will be stopped by blockade. If they attempt to ram, they will be destroyed. No ship will get within a few miles of Zetaris. Indeed, we may try to capture a few ships, as the Marine's stationed on Riga have come up with a plan.

ooc:
I meant that statment to be directed to Athkala not Akiria. Sorry i should have made myself clear on that. Opps.

[GeneralTacticus]

In response to the news from Marijuania (which has been confirmed by our own satellites), the Centralis Navy and Air Force are being mobilized to strike against the Eletharian fleets. Forces have been moved from Ferrozoica and Centralis proper and are now within missile range of the enemy flotilla. We are currently making final targetting plans on their ships, and have given them a fifteen minute ultimatum to halt and surrender, or else we start firing. The basic fleet disposition looks like this:



Once the matter of the fleets heading our way is dealt with, we can turn our attention to the other ones and Elethar proper; our Defence Ministry has already submitted a request that Centralian Q-119 strategic bombers be permitted to operate from Marijuanian airfields for strikes against the fleets headed for them, and against the Eletharian homeland.

In the meantime, we recommend that all governments involved give thought to the bigger picture, not just the purely military issue. Beyond the obvious threat of flotillas of eletharian vessels, there are subtler ones; terrorist networks extending throughout the regiona, poised to create chaos at a moments notice; and the even less obvious, but no less devastating, potential for economic warfare against us. The LIB has access to enormous financial resources, and if allowed to manipulate them as they wish, could cause great damage to us - to say nothing of their ability to mobilize organized crime networks and other terrorists organizations against us as well. As a preliminary measure, we suggest that all nations immediately begin to crack down on the LIB, confiscating any assets they may hold in your country and shutting them our of your economy. Taking action to blockade Elethar and cut them off from their trade partners would also be a good idea, as a lot of the LIB's earnings come from making huge markups on Eletharian diamond, arms, and drug exports.

[Urban Ranger]

Nooslandian Central Command dispatches Battlegroup Clayton, which is formed by a number of our vessels recently finishing regular exercises. Some of the ships are: command ship Artic Glow, battleship Invincible, heavy battercruiser Paris Commune, AEGIS cruisers Katokov and Rameron, missile crusiers Repulse Bay and Gobi, AEGIS destroyers White Ridge and New Cape, missile destroyers Storm Axe, Storm Blade, and Stormhammer.

Battlegroup Clayton excels at beyond the horizon surgical strikes.