Major naval engagement off Marijuania's West cost

[GeneralTacticus]

Confidential Memo

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.