Battle is Joined

The Imperial State of Constancia: Benevolent hereditary dictatorship, constitutional monarchy, laissez-faire technocracy, aristocratic corporate state, organized crime family syndicate or liberal autocracy? It depends on the day.

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Strategos Metaxas
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Battle is Joined

Post by Strategos Metaxas »

The first incoming blips had been detected on a south to north track, following the path of the Sandy River to a point just south of Portus Felix, before blossoming into a new pattern as the missiles followed their programmed flight paths towards the aerodromes, civilian airports and active radar transmitters.

The aerodrome at Portus Felix had the least time in which to react, and the CASA CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft tasked with patrolling the southern approaches was caught on the ground and in its hanger undergoing maintenance when the barrage struck, costing the lives of fourteen members of the Epsilon Squadron.

The small Cessnas of the Βeta Squadron had been dispersed around the edges of the airfield and as explosions ripped through the hangers, accommodation blocks and the fuel and munition stores, toppling the conning tower, the pilot and 'bombardiers' of the Squadron were rushing from their dispersal huts to their aircraft, the engines already running hot, with aircrews beside them preparing for the retaliation strike even as the air-raid sirens had begun to reverberate around the aerodrome and in the neighbouring port town. As more explosions rocked the runway, these light aircraft taxied onto the dirt taxiways which now had to serve as their take off points.

Further north, two PC-9M's of the Alpha Squadron were already airborne on combat air patrol over Vey when the attack warnings came in. With time to spare, as the pounding of Portus Felix aerodrome stepped up and the radar sites started to go dark, they were joined swiftly by Constancia's only jet fighter, the Javelin, as it scrambled up to its altitude ceiling of 9,000 metres. Together they formed a strike package heading south. The missile strikes had by now begun to pound upon targets around Vey, cratering the runway as the remaining three PC-9M's were taxiing for take-off, forcing the third strike package to abort.

The Delta Squadron, also based at Vey, had failed to disperse its aircraft properly, leaving the Learjet and Defender of the Royal Flight and the Police Air Support Unit as burning hulks of scrap in the twisted carnage of the ruined hangers. The commander of Delta Squadron was subsequently arrested for negligence and is now awaiting court martial.

As the battleships out in the river meanwhile began to bring their main armaments to bear against the riverside fortifications of the Constancian Army, the Navy began its do or die sortie against the enemy fleet. Concealed amongst the dense reed beds and marshes of the Sandy River's eastern shore, hundreds of Boghammar fast attack boats now sped out towards the screen of corvettes and armed trawlers protecting the fleet. On each of the un-armoured but exceptionally fast boats was a crew of five geared towards operating mounted recoilless rifles, heavy machine guns, mortars, or other relatively small weapons systems, which raked the nearest trawlers with a whithering hail of bullets and explosive ordinance. Soon flames were seen to be leaping from some of the nearest ships as the small boats swept past them. However, beyond the trawlers, the enemy corvettes and destroyers were better armed to repel small surface craft and soon the surface of the river around Portus Felix was thick with the debris of smashed, swamped or burning boats.

All the while the sounds of alarm rang from the shoreline as the Constancian Infantry and Artillery Tagmata, concentrated at Portus Felix by the Basileusa's prudent order, rushed to their defensive positions and foxholes, ready to repel the expected landing, only to watch in mute horror as the enemy landing craft came into view and were seen to be moving northwards, past their position. The 25 Pounder Guns of the Artillery Tagma and those of the Training School vented their frustration by lobbing a few shells at the passing boats, swamping a few with the thrown up spray of their impact plumes but only scoring one discernible hit, which only had the effect of slowing the landing craft rather than bringing it to a full stop, or better yet sinking it.

It would have to fall to the Home Guard and the horrors they had staked into the river bank to turn back the first wave of the enemy's assault.
Andreas Metaxas | Mesazōn of Constancia | Exkoubitorōn Theos

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Re: Battle is Joined

Post by Continuator »

Meanwhile the ESB supervised 'Infernal Machine' production lines in the factories and basements of towns and villages throughout the Kingdom, began to turn their attention to the creation of improvised explosive devices for use on land. The premises of a number of electrical stores were entered and ransacked. Distraught proprietors receiving an IOU and a curt 'thank you' for their troubles.

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Basileusa Cleo
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Re: Battle is Joined

Post by Basileusa Cleo »

One day into the conflict, the Basileusa decided to make a personal statement to her people. Unlike most other occasions, this time she wore no crown. She had indeed pledged that she would appear in 'ordinary' clothes until the end of the war. Well... 'ordinary' is nevertheless quite a special thing for a Basileusa so conservative...

Subjects of the Basileus,
We have all witnessed the terrible scenes near Portus Felix of yesterday. The news keep coming and unfortunately many of them aren't as good as we would have hoped. Yesterday was a day of hope for those risking their lives in order to protect our Kingdom. Those who sacrificed themselves will forever remain in our hearts and memories. But their legacy is not yet preserved. Those who dared challenge an evil and barbaric empire had an ideal of a brighter future for our children. They did not accept slavery and would never do.

Tomorrow will be a new day during which we can strive to ensure that our values -those of freedom and liberty - will prove stronger than those of evilness and jingtatorship. I appeal to you all to do our best in supporting the Constancian army and navy, in stopping the Jingdaoese murderers from taking over Constancia's lands. We will fight with every piece of energy and for every piece of land. And by God's pleasure, in the end, whatever the difficulties, we shall be victorious!
Basileusa Megaliótate Cleo
Autokrateira of Constancia


(Co-Ruler)


Déspoina of the Basileusian town of Petros

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Strategos Metaxas
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Re: Battle is Joined

Post by Strategos Metaxas »


  1. No words can adequately describe the anguish of the Home Guardsmen who first witnessed those enemy panzers lumbering out of the smoke of the burning suburbs with civilians, women and children, lashed in chains to the turrets and chassis of the armoured vehicles. Those who witnessed this war crime will have to live with the memory of the sight for the rest of their lives, as they will with the knowledge of what they did next, for without exception they opened fire, even those who openly wept as they did so. Only those who pulled the trigger can know what it is like to hear the screams and pleadings of civilians, not even strangers in some instances, strapped to an an abandoned and burning tank as the fuel and ammunition stored within began to 'cook off'. If the enemy vehicle eventually exploded it was considered a mercy. As the defenders of Portus Felix saw it - those they had known and loved were effectively dead from the moment that they had fallen into the hands of the Jingdaoese. There would be a reckoning for this atrocity. Of that, all who had borne witness to the day were certain.

    As the panzers rumbled their way along the roads that led to the heart of Portus Felix they fed, unwittingly, into killzones prepared by the defenders. The lead armoured column of Marshal Xi's force forged ahead into the town until it reached a crossroad where a taverna, a convenience store and a builders yard dominated the street. As the lead tank turned to take the street that was believed to take it towards the administrative centre of the town it encountered a road block, a mound of rubble, felled telegraph poles and overturned lorries, buses and trams laid across the road. Contemptuously, the lead tank fired into the pitiful mound, sending debris scattering, blasting the glass out of nearby windows and leaving a not inconsiderable crater in the road. Now the armoured leviathan began to move forward, and it was this point that the first anti-tank missile  fired from the roof of the convenience store slammed into it. The missile had hit the Panzer's side armour and failed to penetrate. It had however caught the attention of those within, and hastily the Panzer shifted gears into reverse, whilst the turret traversed in an effort to pick out its foolhardy assailant. That was when the second missile, fired out of a window on the first floor of the taverna from a Metis launcher , slammed into the engine compartment of the same tank from above and behind, immediately the tank juddered to a halt and flames started to spurt from within. A crew hatch on the turret of the tank was thrown open and, as the smoke billowed out, one of the troopers from within tried to claw his way out of the inferno, a sniper firing from one of the windows of the upper storeys of the convenience store did for him. Out of compassion the same sniper also shot dead the twelve year old girl who had been chained to the turret, even though firing twice in succession risked exposing his position and now obliged him to shift location.

    The other tanks in the column now began to retire back, raking the taverna and the convenience store with machine gun fire from the commanders cupola  as the main guns traversed and raised up to their maximum elevation whilst seeking targets. It was then that the lorry sped out of the builders yard, laden with bricks and rubble it served as a mobile roadblock as the rear panzer reversed, unseeing, into it and was given pause. At this moment the Home Guardsmen who had been hiding in concealed positions amongst the buildings of the street darted forward and began to hurl petrol bombs at the panzer engine compartments. A pair of Guardsmen carrying a length of pipe filled with explosives, rushed towards a tank in the middle of the column and jammed their charge into tracks of the vehicle, hurriedly they lit the fuse and turned to run. Whoever had cut the fuse length had set the measure too short and both men were caught and cut in two; disembowelled by the resulting explosion.

    The Guardsmen now rushed to shift positions, even as cannon and machine gun fire was brought to bear upon them, with devastating consequences. Soon the entire street was reduced to burning rubble.
  2. The massacre that had befallen the fleeing civilians had filled those left behind with a numbing dread that the same fate awaited them and those they loved. This bred a certain fatalism and, as the Home Guard passed out Molotov cocktails, knives, pickaxe handles and axes amongst those civilians who had sought shelter in the churches and community halls, there was, amongst many a grim acceptance of the price that would have to be paid if any of the inhabitants of Portus Felix were to survive as free men and women.

    Meanwhile, at the offices of the Worker's Party within the city, card carrying trade unionists and socialist activists were still slightly incredulous at receiving a functioning rifle and a rushed hour long seminar on loading, aiming and firing a weapon. Each man or woman was given a rifle and eighty cartridges and told to make the best of it that they could. A stand was going to be made at the General Post Office and the Town Hall and every able-bodied person who could fire a weapon would be needed.
  3. As the tide of violence swept into the town, on the northern edges a new defensive perimeter was being formed on the landward side as the shocked Banda of the regular Tagamata began digging foxholes, scraping out shallow firing points in the dirt. The infantry kept up a whithering fusillade of small arms and machine gun fire on the surging Jingdaoese hordes that pressed against their positions. Meanwhile, crawling on their bellies, some of the infantry edged their way along the boundaries of the perimeter, setting caltrops, anti-personnel mines and sharpened stakes tipped with excrement. As this was carried on, sandbags and razorwire were being piled up to create an inner defensive perimeter. All the while the 25 Pounders carried on a barrage against the landing craft and attack hovercraft as well as any of the surviving corvettes and trawlers that ventured into range.
  4. By now the two PC-9M's had arrived over the enemy landing zone and began their own strafing run. The two planes, carrying rocjkts and 1,000-pound bombs to augment their gun pods swept down low and fast seeking targets of opportunity, landing-craft, piled munitions or fuel tankers as well as the columns of infantry forming up to press southwards in the direction of Portus Felix. They had time for only one strafing run each, whilst their escort – the Javelin jet fighter - circled overhead, before turning to home. The light Cessna aircraft had meanwhile been carrying out their own precarious mission, loitering over the battlefield throwing grenades and mortar bombs out of the co-pilot's window down onto the Jingdaoese positions below. Already one of these small planes had been seen to be riddled with bullets, having attracted the ire of every indignant rifleman and machine-gunner on the ground, and was seen trailing smoke and wobbling gracelessly ground-ward in an attempt to make an emergency landing.

    The Cessnas would be redeployed away from the vulnerable aerodromes towards stretches of metalled roads where they could be met by the fuel bowsers and ammo trucks that now spent their time skulking under bridges and in tunnels.
  5. The Scorpion Reconnaissance Vehicles and pick-up trucks of the Manoeuvre Support Group meanwhile were taking the opportunity to form up in the eastern districts of the town as an attempt to stage a breakout gathered pace. This wasn't a retreat of course, as those were contrary to orders and could result in a decidedly unpleasant court-martial. Instead it was a tactical redeployment aimed at reshaping the battlespace... or at leas that's what the report to Vey said. What the infantry cadets from the Scholai Tagma who were forming up to exploit the breakout may have thought was another matter entirely.
  6. And all the while, as these events unfolded, the Home Guard, supported by Trade Union and Student Militias in the remaining towns of Constancia began forming up columns to march to the relief of the beleaguered town. All along their route were billboards carrying exhortations, mirroring the pronouncements and orders of Strategos Metaxas and their gracious sovereigns the Basileus and Basileusa.
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Andreas Metaxas | Mesazōn of Constancia | Exkoubitorōn Theos

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