The Reclamation and Liberation

[BrumBrum]

Satursday 28 Nueva 1587 CE

It was a morning , just days after the statement by the Severyenne president threatening to bring an end to the Ramzan Government. Much debate had gone but it had been decided they must strike first, they must strike now. They must put into effect Plan Red right away.

Now was the day of the launch of the plan. In the afternoon a variety of schools, hospitals and emergency facilities around the country of Eretzora would be targeted with chemical weapons by ramzan backed belay terror groups, with a view to warding off Severyenne. Meanwhile just aftwerwards just minutes afterwards the airforce would set go right over the border bomb the airbases and military bases and then the army would breach the border while the north part of the army kept watch on the Severyenne border which they had heavily fortified taking troops from the western border.

President Ramzan Igorevich and his defence minister Arman Baltabekov authorized the military implementation of plan red, the liberation of all majority Belay territories in the west of Eretzora and then if they do not decease critical strikes on civillian and military infrastructure in the east potentially reclaiming the land for their own.

At 10:40 around the country maintanence men in the hospitals and schools attempted to put phosgene in all the air conditioning systems of the hospitals and schools they had managed to infiltrate under terror groups supported by the Belay government. They even had the weaponizer. Soon around the country children, elderly and wounded soldiers would be dying.The Fighter jets had took off heading towards the border just a bit earlier. ~They were already ready to breach Eretzoran airspace where they would bomb defence positions as well as airforce bases focusing on the airforce bases first to stop the take off of Eretzoran jets. Then would follow the movement of the troop and tank blitzkrieg over the border.Then war would be declared at mid day.

[Severyane]

320 Km South-East of Borogorod, Severyane
17 Elva 1587

---

The unfortunate truth of modern combat is that unless one has overwhelming superiority over their opponent, they are doomed to a ruthless battle of attrition. When your enemy has fortified themselves in mountains and bunkers, when they have put up their air defenses, and when they have prepared their artillery it does not present the ideal situation. This was the situation that the Marshal of Severyan Eastern Command, General Isidor Chakovsky, now faced. He was an aged man, his close cropped hair was grey-white which was offset by his black mustache, which he kept trimmed to the corners of his mouth.  General Chakovsky had been given his orders by High Command: Rout the Belay army in the north, seize their northern oil fields, and push Severyan forces towards the heartland of Belayazemlya. It was the opinion of High Command, and the General agreed with them, that if the oil fields were captured alongside the capture or destruction of the Belay fuel reserves, the entire Belay war machine would fall to pieces. With his orders given to him he and his staff had set about developing a plan of attack. His expected casualties were high, much higher than he was comfortable with, if he pushed his armies straight through the Belay defensive line. He couldn't allow that, those were his men and he couldn't throw lives away into a pointless meat grinder.

Luckily, his second-in-command had proposed an alternative solution. The Lieutenant General had pointed out that there was an entire corps of airborne infantry at his disposal. While the Belay border with Severyane was heavily defended, the border with Maghazea was not. The Lieutenant General had therefore proposed deploying the airborne troops, and their support groups, via a theater level air insertion. This force would require a response, and draw forces away from the Belay-Severyan border and allow the main Severyan force to push through. The entire operation would be prefaced by an extremely thorough SEAD, or Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses, campaign by the Air Force's Fighter/Bombers equipped with Anti-Radiation missiles. These were designed to seek out the radar equipment that surface to air missiles needed to have in order to lock on to air craft. The Air Force would also establish a no-fly zone over Belayazemlya in conjunction with the  Eretzoran, Saratovan, and Ceribian Air Force elements. Severyane's stealth multi-role aircraft would also penetrate Belay airspace and drop bunker busting bombs on key Command and Control positions, chemical weapons manufacturing facilities, and hardened air craft hangars. Severyane and her allies would have full command of the skies, which also allowed the Air Force to provide full fire support to the airborne infantry. This... this would be their plan. They would crack Belayazemlya open like an egg.

---

Fydorovich Air Base, Severyane
18 Elva, 1587

---

The General of the Air Force's Severyan Eastern Command had issued his orders, straight from the Marshal. Fighter/Bombers, and their Interceptor escorts streamed from the airbases in the east. Their targets were all along the Belay border, air defense RADARs which were key to the functionality of the Belay SAM launchers, and as such, the stability of their entire defense network in the North. Each St-34 jet was equipped with eight anti-radiation missiles, and a targeting pod that would pick up on RADAR signals and allow the ARMs to be given targeting information. The missiles would need to be fired from inside the Belay RADAR coverage however, which would give the SAM operators time to target them. Fortunately, the SAM missiles did not have the range to reach all the way to the edge of the RADAR's search area. The pilots would have to fire at just the right time, and then turn tail before they entered in the SAM bubble, the task was no easy one. The initial results of the air raid were positive however, from what information the General had received. The Belay positions had been hit, most had been assumed destroyed, and almost all of his aircraft it seemed would be returning home, while their escorts struck out at any Belazemlyan aircraft in the sky. These raids would continue over the next 48 hours, and the fighter bombers would be joined by Severyane's super sonic heavy bombers which would begin the process of softening up the Belay defenses. The General would count his losses as they came, but he did not expect many.

[Arkiania]

Somewhere over Severyane
17 of Elva 1587

It was the first time Saratov had declared war since its independence from the USR. The only thing the men knew was their grueling combat training, but they had no idea what it was like to be in combat. The spirits of the men were high and all them were hoping for a quick end to the war and an end to suffering of the people of Belayazemlya. Along with them and escorting them were the couple of squadrons also included in the expeditionary force. Their objective is to distrupt the communications of Belayan military and also starve them of their supplies. They would soon be in Eretzora to receive their first orders.

[Tivona Shneider]

Eretzora at War

Eretzoran Belays, with financial assistance from the Belay government in Gorodlvov ,carried out two successful attacks against Eretzoran civilians, in hospitals in both Ayalon and Kiryat Shlosha. Authorities were quick to quarantine both locations and those in proximity to the attacks. The success of both attacks, which occurred simultaneously, assisted authorities in preventing further attacks that were due to take place moments later. Exactly thirty one further plots were thwarted across Eretzora, in other hospitals and schools across the nation. Authorities have arrested over fifty individuals related to the attacks, all Eretzoran Belays, and expect to make more arrests within the next few hours.

Prime Minister Chava Svetlova, who had, since being elected the country's Head of Government last year, made improving relations between Eretzoran Alsterenis and Belays one of the utmost priorities of her administration, had long been a proponent of peace and wary of those advocating war between Eretzora and its immediate neighbour, Belayazemlya, led by Ramzan Igorevich. Armed conflict with Belayazemlya should, according to Svetlova, be avoided at all costs and most certainly be pursued as a last resort, even if Eretzora had been gearing up for a future conflict with Belayazemlya for at least a decade.  She had been informed a day prior to the attacks that war breaking out between Belayazemlya and Eretzora was no longer a mere possibility, but it was now most definitely an inevitability. Both the Ministry of Defence and the country's main intelligence organisation had been closely monitoring the movements of the Belays for months, particularly since the latest increase in hostile rhetoric coming from Gorodlvov, and had concluded that war would break out in a matter of days. After consulting with her closest and most trusted advisers (those with security clearance, of course), as well as her counterpart in Severyane, the Prime Minister decided against launching a preemptive strike, even though she was well aware that by doing so she would be potentially jeopardising her career regardless of the outcome of the upcoming war.

Although the regions bordering Belayazemlya were by far the least populated regions of Eretzora, hundreds of thousands of civilians still resided there. Since war was literally "just around the corner", evacuating as many civilians as possible from these regions was a matter of the utmost importance.  The Prime Minister instructed the Eretzoran Defence Forces to begin evacuation procedures immediately, starting with the most populous Alstereni-majority communities in the region referred internationally as the Yarv Valley. The security cabinet unanimously voted in favour of evacuating the Belay-majority areas of the region also, albeit at a later stage (after the last Alstereni had been safely relocated). It was widely believed that an invading Belay army would likely use Eretzoran Belays as human shields in clashes with the EDF and it was thus in Eretzora's best interests that the area be depopulated to prevent such a scenario. EDF divisions already stationed in the Yarv began evacuating civilians immediately, as other units headed towards the region to assist preparations for war. Mothers, children and the elderly were the priority, since all able men and women in the reserves would be called to serve in the forces.

It was agreed that in the event that Belay forced overwhelmed EDF ground troops in the Yarv, the region would be temporarily surrendered in the initial stages of the war so as not to result in too many fatalities. The area would, after all, be difficult to defend against an invading Belay army due to the fact that Belay mountains overlooked much of the region. The air force would be employed almost immediately, from bases throughout the country (outside the Yarv), to wipe out the Belay air force in the east. Supply routes would then be targeted. EDF infantry units would defend the Eretzoran border and push forward to the best of their ability. Air force units would back these units up by bombing Belay forces in Belayazemlya and the Yarv in the event the Belays successfully captured the valley. Commanders had been given concrete instructions to win this by employing whatever means necessary in order to expel the invading forces.

((ooc: BB and I discussed these points and agreed on the above.))

[BrumBrum]

Gorodlvov 17 of Elva 1587

The airforce launched a full strike with all its fighter jet squadrons and ground to ground missilses into both Eretzora and Severyanne to wipe out all the air bases, army bases and bridges it could and also targeted cities rockets. Its 629 fighters may have been slightly older but hopefully with overwhelming numbers they could cripple the ability of Eretzora and Severyane to fight back. They set up rocket positions from schools, hospitals and civillian areas so that if they got hit so did the civillians. They pushed forward on their offensive through the Yarv valley, any resistance they would shoot the person dead, no matter how old or young and no matter what gender. If they so much as threw a rock they would be killed on the spot, no one would resist as per Ramzans orders. He had given the military access to chemical weapons, first they would release chemical weapons in the area to clear out troops and then move in reducing casaulties of Belay troops. They managed to push ahead and hold the line on the border up north for now, Ramzan was hopeful but he knew the war had only just begun.His government distributed leaflets saying the Eretzoran army would kill all men,women and children and plunder and that it was a war for the very existance of the Belay race , propoganda aired on all the TV stations, radio and newspapers, they'd win through military might and propoganda or at least try. As the day ended progress had been made by the Belay military and they were surprised just how little opposition they faced.

[Tivona Shneider]

Eretzoran Alsterenis being evacuated from their homes in the Yarv Valley.

Evacuation procedures were implemented almost immediately after Prime Minister Chava Svetlova had been informed that a Belay attack was imminent. Eretzoran Defence Forces units already stationed in the Yarv Valley began assisting residents of the largest Alstereni communities to evacuate from their homes, which proved to be more of a challenge than anticipated. Some ideological settlers - those residents who decided to make the Yarv their home for the sole purpose of thwarting the peace process, effectively acting as human barriers to the very prospect of an independent Belay-majority state in the Yarv or the region being ceded to Belayazemlya - resisted attempts by EDF soldiers to escort them from their towns. The success of the left-wing Katzist Union at the last election and the formation of a centre-left coalition had left many in the most ideological communities feeling rather nervous about the future, with many convinced that their communities would be dismantled in an effort to broker a peace deal with Belayazemlya. The order to evacuate immediately was thus, naturally, viewed with suspicion and contempt. Some barricaded themselves in their homes whilst others even got physical with EDF soldiers. In the end, the EDF units responsible for evacuating the residents succeeded in forcibly removing them from their homes, forcing them to join the rest of the Yarv's Alstereni residents in heading to safer territory. More units from elsewhere in the country arrived in the territory to assist in the evacuation procedures, especially since the region's Belay population would undoubtedly resist the evacuation order. Alstereni residents of smaller towns were instructed to leave immediately and make for safer territory - a coastal city far from the volatile frontier. The Alstereni community of Karakova - a community of Alsterenis, numbering around 3,000 individuals, residing in the majority-Belay city of Karakova, with a total population of 120,460 persons - was the first community evacuated as it was feared that the evacuations elsewhere in the Yarv could have caused a panic in the city, potentially resulting in the community being attacked by the city's ethnic Belay majority. After the vast majority of Alsterenis had been cleared from the Yarv, the EDF prepared for the next stage of the evacuation plan: moving the Belay residents. As it was feared that the invading Belay forces from Belayazemlya would likely recruit ethnic Belays in the Yarv to fight alongside the Belay army, the security cabinet agreed that it was vital that the Belay residents be moved to another location and be closely monitored. Just as the EDF began to initiate this stage of the evacuation, the first Belay missile penetrated the border...

Since the prospect of a future conflict with Belayazemlya had dominated the discourse of consecutive Eretzoran governments since at least the early 30s, it was made an issue of the utmost importance to develop a system capable of defending the country against the aircraft and rockets possessed by the Belay state. The warming of diplomatic relations with Severyane by the mid 40s made way for the government at the time to explore the possibility of cooperation in the field of defence with their new Severyan allies. The partners worked on joint-ventures aimed at minimising the threat that Belayazemlya posed to the civilians of both nations for the next three decades, developing systems capable of meeting the needs of both parties in the event of war. Magic Wand -  as it is known in Eretzora - is the latest military system developed by the Eretzoran defence contractor Avital Advanced Defence Systems and its Severyan counterpart, being in operation for less than a year. The system is capable of intercepting enemy aircraft, drones, medium-to-long-range rockets and cruise missiles. A similar system by the name of Adar's Sling - developed to intercept short-range rockets- had been developed several years prior and would be used alongside Magic Wand to combat the Belay threat. These systems had been developed and put in place for this sole purpose; their effectiveness in actual armed conflict would today be tested for the first time. As the first rockets pierced through the skies above Eretzora, the Adar's Sling defence system prepared to intercept them.

[BrumBrum]

The war had appeared to be going well as the troops gained ground with seemingly little resistance but then they started to realise why. 400 Fighters have been devoted to the assault on the Eretzoran territory in the east crossing the border, they thought given the numbers advantage they'd be able to bomb the bases very quickly however this was not to be. While they did strike a blow to the forces in the area and even some forces beyond where they held ground they started to lose jets at an alarming rate. The old technology and lack of defences against modern anti-air systems of Eretzora and modern jets suffered as missiles struck them and dogfights were lost within 48 hours the 400 fighters sent to fight on the eastern front were reduced to 75 before Ramzan finally allowed the airforce to retreat. This was on top of only 100 fighters surviving the northern batter The lost was devestating resulting in the countries airforce going from 629 fighters to just 175. The military was concerned by the massive loss. Furthermore while the northern line held for now on the eastern front for the first time they faced significant resistance in Eretzora after getting beyond the Yarv valley with resistance from local Belay, the EDF and also some Alsteneri people. The army ran a brutal campaign, if anyone threw a stone even if a 12 year old did so they would just shoot them dead, no resistance would be accepted, furthermore not risking resistance from prisoners of war the decision was made to not take prisoners, anyone who surrendered would be tortured for information then shot dead after their use expired. Ramzan had ordered for their to be no mercy and not retreat. The constant pushing forward cost more and more troops lives as they met more organized lines until it had gone to a stalemate but despite pleas to allow a withdrawal, Ramzan refused. He would not let his army give up one inch and any general who ordered a retreat would be shot.The military were starting to get concerned over the state of the war, it seemed that they may yet face a spectacular defeat.