Beautiful Caladria

[Ayzek]

HIMS Picea Glauca
12 km NE of Histria Island
Earlier

"Swat it," the Picea Glauca captain ordered. No sane aviator would approach a navy ship on the best of days, much less during a conflict. If they were trying to get away from the occupation, they'd have flown straight to Argune. The captain was not willing to risk the two hundred men and women and two-and-a-half billion dollars he'd been entrusted with over an idiot at best and insurgent at worst.

As the civilian aircraft moved into range of the ship's last lines of defenses, the missile pods and CIWS stands swiveled and pitched, leading its trail. All of a sudden, one of the guns opened fire and 25mm rounds tore through the civilian aircraft. One of the wings was lost before the burst stopped and the aircraft banked in the other direction, tumbling into the waters.

"Execute a search of any surface wreckage," the captain commanded, watching it crash a few hundred kilometers east of his ship, "and report the incident up the latter." At some point later, the empire would conduct a more in-depth search of the floor.


Caladrian Coast Guard Group
5 km SE of Caladria
8:16 P.M., 26 Fein

"Oscar 12, come in Oscar 12," came a reply over the radio. "This is Charlie Four Four Two of the Holy Lanlanian Imperial Navy on an interception course with your group. We must search your vessels to determine best course of action. Will you comply? Over."

Though still a distance over the horizon, there were indeed half a dozen helicopters flying low over the ocean towards the coast guard vessel and its charges.


Southern Histria Island, Caladria
20 km south of Southern City
05:54 A.M., 27 Fein

Holy Lanlanian marines were the first coalition conventional forces to land on Histria. Much like Polonda, the empire's U.A.V.s lead the effort, ensuring the marines had immediate air support available as they touched ground. However, as special forces had confirmed the site's safety earlier in the night, there were far fewer drones in the sky.

Nonetheless, the marines, arriving in amphibious personnel carrier and hovercraft, advanced up Highway 7 to the near city, where they'd secure landing zones for reinforcement by helicopter. After securing the city and its meager facilities, the coalition planned to quadruple its ground commitment to over 6,000, which'd spread out to secure the southern and western halves of the island before advancing on Histria in force.

The penal brigadiers would continue to wait.


Polonda, Caladria
27 Fein

Contrary to Vestor misinformation, the Holy Lanlanian landing was ultimately tame. The heavy drones lead the charge not only to highlight coalition firepower superiority, but to minimize the risk to coalition servicemen at their most vulnerable. However, the nonexistence fortifications and lackluster token resistance by coup forces lead to zero airstrikes or naval artillery requests. Instead, the Skörd H.C.S. drones primarily provided heavy suppressive fire to coalition infantry as they swept the island and secured key locations.

Within a handful of hours, the coalition forces had largely secured the island and isolated pockets of resistance. Resources were then focused on the refugee camps that had formed after evacuations of villages and towns closer to the erupting volcano. As coalition vehicles and helicopters aided in such evacuation efforts, food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies were ferried in from Argune.

Civilian casualties nonetheless existed, of course. However, rather than the result of coalition fire support, they came primarily from IEDs planted by resistance forces and stray gunfire as coalition forces pressured resistance pockets.

Explosions would, however, occur later in the day, as military engineers assisted Caladrian civilian planners in attempts to route lava flows away from inhabited areas.