Mara Lithaen

The War Continues After beating back an unexpected sneak attack from Cascadia with massive enemy losses, the Federal Army continues its assault into Texan territory. General di Santos praised the enemy forces, saying, "We're fighting for every inch of soil we're taking from them - but, by God, we are taking it." Losses on both sides continue to mount as each struggle for dominance without quite being able to achieve it for very long in any one place.

The message was received immediately, though it took a moment to process through the President's battalion of forest fires he had to put out with a garden hose. When it did though, he responded immediately.

--- Major James Dahmer watched the Navy techs reloading the CIWS that had just saved his command truck - for the third time. Pieces of Tomahawks littered the ground around for two miles plus out in front of his unit. A petty officer in tricolor camouflage and a helmet jogged up to him, the perched eagle spraypainted onto his helmet serving as identification. "Another minute and we'll be back up and ready, Sir." The Major grinned back at the enlisted man, extending his hand to shake. "That's some fine work you sailor boys are doin'. You sure you don't belong in the Army?" The FC2 chuckled, shaking his own head even as he took the Major's hand, pumping it twice. "I'm good where I am sir. I have to say, those Texan $%&@ers -" he said the word, pausing to spit, "sure as hell seem to be trying to gut our leadership. They're not having a hell of a lot of luck, based on the chatter I'm receiving. We crossed into hostile territory with the search radar active - and, I gotta say, if they were trying to fly nape of the earth with these birds, they were off by a few hundred feet, and they ain't exactly what you might call stealthy." the Navy man said with a guffaw. "Good ol' Connie here -" he said, patting the side of the trailer which held the mount, "picked them up immediately and started spamming the RECOMMEND FIRE indicator. All we had to do was stop, switch it to AAW AUTO and let it rip. The CIWS platform this is based on is designed to take down Mach 4 targets - subsonics don't really give her much of a workout. They may call it a Counter-Rocket Artillery Mortar platform, and she's had some hardware/software tweaks to make her think she's bigger than she is so she'll shoot at things coming down further away, but she's a CIWS at heart - and what is a missile but a guided rocket?" The Major nodded, lopsided grin still on his face. "Keep up the good work, FC2. I don't want to eat a Tomahawk." he said. "Me either, sir." The Major ducked away, hopping back into his command vehicle, where radio chatter greeted him as soon as he opened the armored door. "We've got two mission-killed Abrams and a couple of Strykers here, but the bridging unit is still intact. ETA two hours on Abrams repairs. Four C-RAM units in effective operation - two more on reload right now. Can confirm passage of two-one-zero friendly vehicles including armor and AA. Engineers and SAM battalion report they've got the S-300s up and running and- wait - two S-400ss launched from Altus AFB at inbound hostiles. Two hits, no confirmed kills as of yet..." --- One problem with launching anti-ship missiles at that sort of a range is that you have to know where the enemy is coming from to even take the rudimentary measure of backtracking their course - which is defeatable by simple doglegs in between source and endpoint. The Texans had neither that luxury nor the luxury of spysats to try to find something as relatively small as an aircraft carrier in the vast expanse of the ocean - so those DF-21s, for all their sophistication and unproven capability (because, after all, the Chinese had never reported testing the weapons on anything other than a stationary target in the Gobi desert), were utterly useless in the face of having no information upon which they could track their targets. So flying away they went, to a point some 800 miles from their launchers... when the fleet that was harassing the Texan coast was only 400 nautical miles away. Every launched DF-21... missed. The MIM-104Bs, on the other hand... "Black Knights, this is Black Knight actual. I'm getting tracking radar hits out the wazoo - looks like the locals are on to us. Charlie Flight, Delta Flight, drop to the deck and take out those SAMs. Everyone, light up your ECM rigs - jam hell out of them. Everyone who isn't Charlie or Delta Flight, give them air cover. Hostiles inbound from zero-six-zero relative - consider yourselves to be weapons free. There's two hundred of us and God knows how many Huns. Good luck and good hunting." "Hooyah!" The Black Knights - the combined air groups of the two carriers - roared in, two flights detaching to go hunting for anti-air, the rest tearing ass past on an intercept course for the enemy air fleet- just as just short of two hundred S-400s launched from Lake Charles NAS in Louisiana, the stealth-hunting SAMs with more than 400km range hurtling in at high Mach. They would reach the enemy air fleet less than twenty seconds before the F-18Es would. Losses were expected. They were deemed acceptable. As soon as the F-18Es sensitive radar equipment, with assistance from ground-based AESA, could track a target, that target received a pair of AMRAAMs. No Federal aircraft would go home with missiles on its wings. Meanwhile back at the fleet, the former Kirov-class battlecruiser PFS Wrath launched an octet of seaskimming P-700 Granit cruise missiles at the fuel reserves and refineries in Galveston. The missiles were, perhaps, meant for anti-ship duty - but they had the range and the speed and the payload that the Federal fleet needed to accomplish that particular mission. The Second fleet, far out of range of Texan radar and never having been acquired by Texan satellites due to being a relatively small target in a lot of Gulf, received a similar fate for the missiles tasked to them by the Texans - that is, the complete missing of their fleet elements. --- "Sure is nice that they're not shooting at us!" shouted a dreadfully perky Corporal. She and the rest of her battalion were taking their turns running over a footbridge while the bridging unit laid itself out so that the heavy equipment could cross at this low point. Similar scenes played out at many different foot bridges across the border, as infantry, completely unopposed, crossed the aging structures, careful to adhere to personnel limits set by on-site combat engineers so they wouldn't break some of them. Of course, in some cases, older is better, and the craftsmanship of the bridges showed as endless streams of Federal troops advanced under the watchful eyes of C-RAM mounts and Pantsirs, along with S-300V4 mobile units set up as fast as they could be by the SAM battalions. There was no location on the Oklahoman border with Texas that wasn't in range of at least one S-400 installation, and more often anything flying above would be in range of not one but several at once, all driven by multiple AESA arrays. "At least the tankers aren't having to deal with this !@#$. They're all just patiently waiting for the Wolverines to lower their bridges, sitting around with their thumbs up their asses." "Some of them are dumb enough to drive right into the water. Thank god there's more than one of them in the tank so they should all have the braincells to not do that..." "Key word: Should." Behind them, a Pantsir opened up with cannon and missile - and a streak of flaming, screaming steel plummeted from the sky, an Air National Guardsman who had flown too close to the sun and gotten burned. The Corporal shivered. "Jesus," she said, crossing herself. "Hell of a way to go." she continued, crossing herself awkwardly with her rifle in her hands, as a heavy-lift helo chanced the cover afforded to them by the might of the Federal Air Force and the Army's AA emplacements to start hooking up and hauling Strykers and IFVs over the river to meet up with the troops who were already across. Beside her, a Specialist nervously hefted his Stinger-F, on the alert for any enemy aircraft - fixed wing or rotating - that might try to come ruin his day. There were dozens, hundreds, thousands just like him strewn across the borders, some armed with Igla-S and some with Stinger-F, on the alert for trouble - and often finding it. Often, killing it. After all, the TANG had put more than enough nasty hostiles in the sky for them to shoot at. Between them, Starstreak-armed Avenger systems, Pantsirs, and the S-300V4/400 missiles... life was very, very bad in the skies above the Oklahoma-Texan border for anyone flying the Texan flag. --- The B-1B Lancers had hit their targets, flying below the Patriots' engagement horizon - usually killing the Patriots themselves, that being their intended targets - turned around, and gone home long since, flying at nearly Mach 2 as they were, barely slowing down to subsonic in time to engage their targets before dropping their payloads, by the time the First Tactical Wing arrived. Forty miles, when one's target is going two miles a second, and at just above treetop level at that, is not a hell of a lot of engagement time. Two or three bombers were lost, though the third one wasn't clear as to whether it was enemy action or a freak mechanical malfunction that caused it to plow into its secondary target, exploding on impact. Dozens of tactical aircraft - all of which were indeed and certifiably tactical, as witnessed by an infantryman who reported, "I swear to God, Captain! The goddamn thing was painted black and it had Picatinny rails all over it!" - began to engage the F-15Es striking from Oklahoma. Backed up by S-300V4/400 rockets, the swift fighters returned the favor with gusto, AWACS letting them backtrace the missile launches and fire their AIM-120Ds - and then bail. The AIM-120 AMRAAM's biggest drawback is that its seeker head is of necessarily limited size and power. To maintain a lock, one must continue to fly at the enemy... unless, of course, one could use another aircraft with significantly better tracking ability to do the pre-terminal guidance for you. The F-15Es also carried jammer pods; should they be required to keep their own lock, they did, and held it as long as they could while blasting jamming at the enemy. Meanwhile, the surviving Patriots, having lit up their locations by firing, would find themselves set upon by tree-skimming F-15Es in SEAD mode, streaking in just under the speed of sound to drop JDAMs on the launchers and/or fire HARM missiles at the radars that drove the missile units. Once the B-2 bomber appeared on the horizon - in the middle of the day, in full blown view of everyone and their dog - the giant, distinctive, batwinged black aircraft was promptly destroyed by no less than two dozen Stingers, Iglas and Starstreak missiles, while Pantsir fire chewed on the remains with 30mm cannon. The escorting units then received the full brunt of the defensive anti-aircraft fire which spiderwebbed the sky in a morass of sizzling tracers, shrieking missiles, and hunting radar. --- OOC: Yeah, don't roleplay my guys. The VIIth Corps, having been held up at the last minute, finally set off for Lubbock, while the VIIIth charged on to Amarillo. The Vth Corps, having been stationed in the city of Las Cruces, dug in, outnumbering their attackers, and swung back with everything they had - which was a considerable, and huge amount of firepower. The Air Guard found itself torn to shreds, having obviously not been expecting to meet the kind of resistance six divisions of troops, armor, and vehicles could throw their way. The Texans, bogged down as they were in Las Cruces, never got the chance to move on Albuquerque. With the full might of a Corps in front of them, a Wing of Federal fighters above them, and drones harrying their flanks and supply lines, the Texans would find that it would be more than they could handle just to not be driven from the city's periphery in a total route. AESA from mobile emplacements could, would, and did detect the aircraft comprising the 10th and 11th wing squads, and they would be dealt with by pouncing F-15Es and S-300V4/400 emplacements, not necessarily in that order. --- Finding the enemy, the 31st Wing would engage the 12th, being entirely outfitted for anti-air duty, and the troops themselves returned fire; Pantsirs, Avengers and plain old MANPADs wreaked their toll upon the presumptuous enemy, while the infantry, backed up by IFVs and tanks, moved on Adrian en-masse, the M777s falling victim of counterbattery fire courtesy of M109 Paladin units and drone strikes. The full might of one-hundred-twenty-thousand troops, tanks, and materiel fell on the settlement, and crushed it utterly. --- The 10 Divisions of the TANG smacked right into the II Corps, 60,000 men strong and directly in their path towards Lawton. Eight hundred M1A2s exchanged fire with their more numerous counterparts, backed up by AH-64s, M-777s, M-109 Paladins, M270s and HIMARS units as they were available, while a wing of Federal fighters clashed with the 13th wing. Once they got in range, the infantry joined in the tank brawl from the best cover they could find, using Javelin anti-tank missiles to engage the enemy's M1s. All this happened under the umbrella of both fighters and the typical heavy local AA and S-300V4/400 coverage. Meanwhile... "They blew up all the bridges, right?" "Yeah. What about it?" "Those $%&@ers are trying to swim the Red now. There's an Abrams drowning trying to cross." "Oh Lord. Billy-Jean, sweetheart, grab Pappy's Remington outta the closet would ya?" "Yes Pap." "Play til a hundred then bug the $%&@ out?" "Deal. Thanks, Billy. Get your brothers and sisters together and take 'em towards Aunt Sam up in McAllister. Give the sheriff a call and let him know the damn Texans are trying to force a crossing here and they forgot they blew the bridges. "Yes Pap." "Hold on Jim, lemme get my Red Man outta my truck and the M40 outta the rack." "Yeap." ... "Got it." "Good, let's go hunting." ... "Plinked that one's helmet." "I got this !@#$%^& in the balls." "Twenty three." "Twenty seven." "How the hell-?" "The one who fell over squeezing the trigger and offed four of his buddies when I shot him." "That doesn't count!" --- Dillon --- Dillon said: Operation Mile High With Texas now official requesting assistance from the Cascadian Empire it would be time for them to act. 48,000 troops from first army would be sent from Wyoming in to Colorado with the main objective to capture Denver, which was less than 100 miles from the border. These troops would be fast moving as they would need to punch down the state, to help with this they would split into their Battalions and use CTVs and LAV-25s to move quickly. Troops would very regularly send out smaller UAVs to search out enemy tanks and artillery that would then be engaged by Cascadian Marksman Artillery Systems or Leopard 2A7s. Battalions were ordered to not travel close together to help strain any enemy artillery that was not engaged in time. Another 2,000 troops would be airdropped south of Denver, LAV-25s and B1 Centuaro Tank Destroyers. These troops would quickly push forward into southern Denver. --- /Dillon --- The border post started picking up something strange, and the bored Specialist manning the UAV console jerked in alarm, seeing a massive dust cloud on his TV screen which materialized into a massive armored column barreling towards the Cascadia-Plains Federation border in Colorado. "Oh for Christ's sakes!" the man yowled, hammering a large red button placed next to his console, clicking over to the outpost's command frequency on his radio. "Someone let High Command know we've got a whole bunch of jerkasses pointed straight at us coming out of Wyoming. Seeing a whole bunch of armor but not a trace of air." the man said, and listened to the response. "Yes Sarge. We're packing up now. Be outta here in five minute tops - the drone picked 'em up about thirty miles away so we've got a mite of time." With that, the border post piled into the armored Humvees that composed their vehicle pool and fast tracked it the hell out of Dodge. Meanwhile, that Sergeant, working from a satphone in the back of one of said Humvees, informed the Air Force in Buckley AFB in Denver and Schriever in CO Springs. Buckley and Schriever put squadrons in the air almost immediately... two squadrons of F-15s covering a squadron of A-10s. Each. The tankbusters roared forward, the ones from Denver reaching the enemy first, the F-15s going in and busting up the AH64s (because the enemy had not put up air support) and any local AA they might have had (the outpost indicated there were only normal LAV-25s, not the reasonably deadly LAV-AD version. The A-10s swooped in, their wings loaded for bear with CBU-105 cluster munitions and Maverick missile. The cluster bombs were dropped on troops and troop-carrying vehicles to lethal effect. The A-10Cs' massive 30mm guns lit up the artillery and tanks, turning the once-proud warmachines into blazing carcasses. Meanwhile, the attempted airdrop was intercepted by not only radar-driven SAMs but F-15Es from, again, Buckley, which were launching to support the A-10s, and the unescorted transports were chewed to pieces before they could even disgorge their payload; It was a total slaughter. Warren AFB in Wyoming would also find itself under attack, as 30 Tomahawks armed with cluster munitions, thermobarics and conventional warheads came in, destroying everything they could in the old Strategic Missile base. --- Dillon --- Operation Wicked The bulk of Cascadian Forces that would be engaging The Plains Federation would be entering Kansas from Nebraska. 100,000 troops would push down from the border. Largely carrying out the same attack that was being played out in Colorado, troops would move in smaller units, usually battalions, equipped with CTVs and LAV-25s. They would be escorted by Leopard 2A7s and B1 Centauros that would engage enemy tanks. UAVs would constantly be conducting patrols seeking out SAMs, Artillery, and tanks, that would later be engaged by Cascadian Armour. They would keep pushing into the state until they reached Wichita. --- /Dillon --- The UAVs that crossed first into Kansas, barreling towards Wichita, were first picked up by the AESA radar attached to the SAM battalion at Fort Riley. The targets were localized, even as the warning klaxon shook the six divisions of the IX Corps into life, mustering them in their defensive posts outside of Salina; they dug in outside the junction town, throwing up artillery and SAM positions almost immediately, putting up mobile AESA installations, knowing that any armed force that hoped to make any sort of time would have to come through the area if they hoped to hit Wichita, which was, really, the only target of importance in the state. UAVs swept out from McConnell AFB south of Wichita, and four squadrons of F-15Es and four A-10 squadrons along with them. When the enemy was found, they would engage them with their guns and missiles and cluster bombs... without any air support, the situation looked grim for the forces of Cascadia, who would lay their bones down in a land far from home due to bad planning on their leaders parts. --- Dillon --- Operation Lincoln This attack would probably be the quickest out of the three. 50,000 Cascadian men would move through Wisconsin and attack Illinois with the intention of capturing Chicago. This attack would be almost identical in terms of the beginning invasion fast moving infantry would push through the first few towns until they were 24 miles outside of Chicago, there M777 howitzers would take station and begin firing at military targets discovered by UAVs. The troops advance would be covered by Apache Attack Helicopters, which would destroy enemy tanks. The CNS Eva would make her way into Lake Michigan alongside her escorts of three destroyers, seven frigates, and fifteen corvettes. The Eva would launch her Marine Assault Force at Chicago and would begin to siege the city from the coast. --- /Dillon --- The second the Cascadians crossed the border, busting through border posts, alarm klaxons wailed all over the state. Even before the troops inside the state could muster, the civilians of the long-held Federal state were fighting the invaders, taking potshots from roofs with rifles, throwing molotovs into engine decks and Humvee turrets, generally making life absolute hell for the invaders. Then, the real troops were ready. F-18s from the MCAS in North Chicago tore into the AH-64s, assisting the five divisions of National Guardsmen who were there to protect their homes, armed with Stinger-Bs and Iglas, not to mention Avenger anti-air and Pantsir units, all ready and tearing to burn the invaders out of the sky even as A-10s from Scott AFB in St. Clair tore into the enemy armor from the sides and rear, their cluster munitions, Maverick missiles and 30mm main guns harassing and destroying the enemy infantry and armored units while the M1A2s of the National Guard and the Guardsmen's Javelins wreaked their own toll upon the enemy. AH-64s joined in on the fun, pounding enemy artillery positions with impunity, their chainguns tearing into light armor and APCs. Once that was completed, the A-10s and F-15Es would return, reload, and go out again, though this time the F-15Es would load up BrahMos anti-ship missiles and go attack the naval force which had mysteriously appeared in the Great Lakes near Chicago. There were twenty-four aircraft, carrying two missiles apiece. Forty-eight missiles streaked out towards the target painted by the radars of dozens of different commercial vessels and harbor patrol craft, and twenty-five of them were targeted on the Eva. The other twenty-four missiles were aimed as follows: three to each destroyer, two to each frigate. The A-10s, once they were reloaded, would go back out to support the National Guard fighting off the large fighting force barreling towards Chicago. The F-15Es would reload with Harpoons, and go hunt down the corvettes that remained in the area. General James MacArthur looked at the man who'd, absurdity on top of absurdity, ridden a horse all the way across the border to deliver a message of war from the Californians. "Well..." the General drawled, an Arkansas drawl thick as molasses. "I'd shoot you if you were armed, but no. That'd be un-gentlemanly of me." the general said, and the man seemed to relax. "Strip him down to his skivvies and tie him to the horse." the General ordered, and the protesting man was forced back onto his horse, now sans everything but his boxers, and the General taped a reply to his back with duct tape. To the ass whom it may concern, Fancy words are the province of victors; you haven't proven your worth yet. General James MacArthur, X Corps With a slap on the horse's buttock, he send the man back over the border. Turning to his adjutant, he asked. "Are we ready, Oliver?" The colonel nodded back to him. "All positions are reporting one hundred percent readiness." "Good. We might not be fighting Texans today, but some Californians are sure going to regret their interference." Thus it was that the 60,000 men of the X Corps dug in, radar strobing, SAMs ready, UAVs in the air, artillery sighted in and well hidden, helicopters waiting, tanks snorting behind well-hidden sandberms, fighters on the horn... and waited. The UAVs MacArthur had dispatched had given him information, leading him to believe he would attack Santa Fe. Thus X Corps was deployed outside of Gallup, which was the quickest route the enemy could take in that direction. However, in the event they tried the northern route, MacArthur's XI corps was also deployed near Shiprock, another 60,000 strong force in equal disposition. UAVs swept the areas in between them, looking for any sign that the enemy decided to take the most direct - yet slowest- route by going overland.

OOC: Understand, PD, that I am a CIWS operator. The Centurion, or C-RAM, weapons system is a thing. Understand, again, that I am 110% more likely to know EXACTLY how this operates than you are. Your "strikes" were ineffective. I RP'd losses; you do not get to tell me how many I took or what they were. The C-RAM is in effect a Block 1A CIWS with almost every package needed to make it into a 1B Baseline 2. The only fucking difference is that it doesn't have a PTI attached, so it's not meant to engage surface targets. In every other fucking way, it is the same goddamn CIWS I work on, which, and I assure you, is more than capable of blowing the everloving fuck out of a slow-assed cruise missile like the Tomahawk. You have angered me. You did not ask me in IRC today when you had the chance. You said nothing, you mentioned nothing. As of now, I go from a war of conquest to one of scorched earth. Expect a response reflecting that tomorrow when I have the spare neurons to devote to you. Also, at Triyun, since I know you are helping him - let him fight his own !@#$@#$ war.

The Texan fleet would find it nigh-impossible to "surround" the First and Second fleets, being that they lay most of four hundred nautical miles away from Texas's shoreline, and not close enough to be reached in any time less than a day's travel. The Federal aircraft were on orders specifically not to return to their motherships; instead, after making their strike, they would land in Louisiana while another strike group from a shore installation took its place on the carrier. In this way, the carriers acted as shuttles, merely floating staging grounds for Naval Super Hornets using drop tanks to get to their targets. The first strike group was pure shock and awe - not at all armed to attack ground targets, but rather armed to destroy enemy air support. The F-18Es would have a field day with anything less than an F-22, and even then the odds were even between the craft. Those "unnecessary" and "non-vital" bridges would become the backbone of the now-spread Federal assault. Bradleys and Strikers blazed over the bridges ahead of Abrams and Pantsirs, none of the tracked vehicles giving a singular solitary damn for the carnage they were wreaking on the roadway. When the surfaces started to wear out, they would be supplemented by bridging equipment if necessary and if not ignored until it was. The Federation would bring its anti-air assets along just behind the first wave of its assault, extending battlefield anti-air as far as they could. They didn't need to worry about ever having too few anti-air units in place, for the saying had been in place since the Second World War: "He who controls the skies controls the battlefield." And the Federation aimed to control the skies, so it brought along plentiful amounts of SAM-armed vehicles and the radar directors to make them hit. Neither of these targets were active military bases, and thus the $500,000 dollar Tomahawks were wasted on paper tigers. The 60,000 strong contingent of the VII Corps continued its press towards Amarillo seemingly un-opposed, taking the city within an hour from its launching point in Eastern New Mexico; meanwhile, the secondary attack force in Southern New Mexico came under attack. The V Corps there under the command of General Marshall would dig in hard, M777s and M109s responding to the enemy artillery with fury and flame. The infantry would dig in in Las Cruces with the rest of their forces, Abrams trading fire with enemy armored vehicles while Javelin-toting infantry backed them up with top-attack munitions. F-15Es moved from an airbase further north, rushing to close to grips with the enemy air superiority fighters and annihilate them, while Pantsirs and S-300s guided by the V Corps mobile array supported them from below. Counterbattery radar would let the Federal artillery positions slam their Texan counterparts as soon as they began to speak. (Note: Nowhere in my posts did I say they were flying as a mass. I did, however, say they were almost at the border before you even had anything in the air.) Bomber is a relative word. Generally, when one says "bomber", you think of a lumbering, ungainly craft capable of delivering massive loads of bombs once it gets where it's going - and, as a general rule, you'd be right. However, the B-1B Lancer was anything but ungainly. Two squadrons of the supersonic aircraft streaked into enemy airspace just above treetop level, coming over the Arbuckles and using the fallen mountains as radar-scatter cover, a roller-coaster ride for the pilots for sure. Their sensors were up and listening, and they found enemy anti-air installations relatively quickly near the border. Boosting into their full speed, the bombers swept their wings back and roared in for the kill, slowing down to subsonic just long enough to drop a rain of cluster munitions on the installations they found, ensuring total and complete destruction wherever they hit. The fighters in the first attack wave were armed with a mix of SEAD and air-to-air equipment; the F-15Es were the most accomplished aerial killers of the modern era, and their pilots flew them knowing this full well. The SEAD armed fighters dropped to ground level, shielded by their more numerous and lethal air-to-air armed counterparts, and began to do the same job that the bombers had started, clearing out enemy anti-air positions with AGM-88 HARM missiles and home-on-jam missiles. They would exact a harrowing toll on any target they found. The Texan forces, it seems, did not assume competence among their adversaries. That was their first mistake. Their second mistake was trying to launch strategic aircraft while tactical air superiority aircraft were still capable of dropping out of the sky and ruining their days - which did happen. Repeatedly. Followed by Federal Tomahawk launches, aimed at destroying every Air Guard runway within three hundred miles of the front. Mobile CIWS platforms, known as Centurions, were fully capable of firing on the move - and did. The 20mm radar-guided guns, selfish machines that they were, perked up when they began to see the signatures of enemy missiles on their horizons. If the weapons had faces, they would have grinned.They slewed and elevated, tracking, tracking, tracking, speaking among themselves over the ADA battlenet, their multiple-weapons-coordination components talking to each other, marking their respective territories as clearly as a pride of lions. They claimed their targets - then, at their maximum engagement range (which varied, depending on the Naval Fire Controlman assigned to the platform, but generally all at about two miles) they began to speak the language of fire. Tongues of flame spouted from their muzzles, sending white-hot streams of tungsten penetrators out to stab the slow-moving 'Hawks from the sky. Against such relatively slow targets, the automated guns could kill as many as ten missiles apiece before needing to be reloaded by the team attached to each mobile unit. Dozens of guns silenced incoming cruise missiles, preventing them from reaching their targets. Some would be missed; nearly a thousand Federal troops would die over the course of the next few hours due to either misses or empty guns unable to protect them. However, their greatest defense was simply to keep moving: in the jamming-heavy environment established by EW planes, the cruise missiles could not receive the live course corrections needed to deal with the rapidly dispersing Federal assault contingent. The contingent, despite its losses, kept pressing forward, aiming to take the northern Texan cities and their military installations as quickly as possible. The mechanized/armored combined offensive had air support in the form of F-15Es, AH-64s and AH-1Zs, all descending on any target that could be found to cut it to ribbons. The artillery would perform a similar role, slamming their counterparts down and then taking out targets called by the advancing troops, never staying in one position for more than a couple of shots.

I Piddy the fool who doesn't vote for President David.

President Reece was eminently tired of the lies already from this man he'd known for years at this point. "Governor Sparks, I don't know where you're getting "a month" since the United States fell. It's been more than a decade. For the last six years you were a member state of the Plains Federation. Now maybe this is a case of mass amnesia on your part, in which case admitting to it is your best option, otherwise I'll be forced to assume you're intentionally lying to me. Lying to me is a bad, bad idea." Air Marshal Weatherby tapped him on the shoulder. "One moment, Governor." he said, and covered up the phone's mouthpiece, looking at the head of the Air Force. "Yes?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Mister President, the lead elements of our strike are about to fly over the Red River. They're reporting that the bridges have been closed across the River; our AWACS are standing by to begin jamming, and I've got fighter pilots ready to blow the border stations to hell and gone, Sir. Just give the word." the elderly Air Marshal told him. General di Santos was at his side. "And in the event that they blow the bridges, I've got bridging units ready to make crossings for us. The river is low this year; we won't have to go very far out of our way to get across even if they knock out the big bridges." he said, and Admiral Wright cleared her throat. "My boys and girls are already slinging Hornets off the decks of the Federation and Defiance. They'll be in Galveston and Houston within the hour." "Thank you, lady, gentlemen. Give me a moment." the President declared, before taking his hand off the mouthpiece. "So, Governor, you've got two choices; come clean and either A. admit to mass amnesia on the part of the population of Texas - which is absurd, by the way - or B. Admit that you're lying, stand down your forces and wait for my troops to secure the state. Or, you can persist in your lies and I crack your state open like a pecan under a train wheel. Which'll it be?"

Vice President Anna Kennedy stalked into the President's office without much in the way of preamble, warning or invitation. His secretary trailed her by a footstep, trying to get her attention, but Anna simply ignored the woman. Pushing the door open to the President's office, she saw that he was talking to a few businessmen and women representing some industrial group or another. They were beneath her notice, however, and she slapped a newspaper down onto the President's desk. Texas Secedes! The headline declared. The text was facing President Reece, and he caught it at a glance. "Excuse me, gentlefolk, but it seems something's upset the Texans." he said, and read, unfolding to the story continuation. When he finished, he looked up at Anna, and raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't we see this coming sooner than this?" Anna shook her head. "I don't know, Mr. President. This came out of the blue, but all my sources confirmed it before I got to your office - and I'm surprised you didn't know before I did. John, " she said, using his first name, a fairly rare occurrence for her. " what are we going to do?" she asked. The President looked down at the headline, and back through the story. "Well, with this level of treason, there's only one thing to be done, I suppose. Call General di Santos, Admiral Wright and Sky Marshal Weatherby in; we've planning to do." he said, and looked at his former guests."I apologize, ladies and gentlemen, but it seems all our lives just got a whole lot more interesting. --- Federation Declares War! --- Four hundred thousand troops surged towards the Texan border from New Mexico, Louisiana and Oklahoma. In Louisiana, First Fleet steamed out of port, with Second steaming towards the Texan shoreline from the Caribbean. Every squadron of fighters and bombers in the country made their way south, with twelve squadrons of fighters almost over the border into Texas on strike missions before the National Guard even woke up to the new war. The fighters and bombers were targeted at Texas's anti air installations and airbases, seeking to gain immediate aerial superiority. The Declaration of War would be sent - to an undersecretary of an undersecretary of State in the Texan government, of course - at a time perfectly coinciding with those aircraft passing over the Texan border. The ground troops, of course, would make their best speeds to Lubbock, Amarillo, Dallas, Austin and Houston, while the naval assets would seek to pound the Houston Harbor with Tomahawks and strikes from carrier-based fighters. --- 30 minutes prior to the strike commencing... President Reece called Governor Sparks in Texas. When he finally got through to the man, he began without preamble. "This is President Reece. It wasn't a wise decision for you to leave the Federation. It goes rather violently against the Constitution, Governor, and you'll find that I react rather... badly... to people breaking the law of the land. So here's how this is going to go: Either you renounce your secession and come back into the Federal fold, or the declaration of war I just signed, hot from Congress, goes into full effect. It's your choice. I'm waiting."

Dispatch TO the so-called Empire: This province was never yours. Now piss off. (OOC: The proof's in my News Thread and the acquisition's noted in the World Map thread. Now fuck off, Triyun.)

CNRP-A: The Plains Federation's military begins to mobilize following disturbing reports of an invasion of North America from the island nation of the Imperium of Japan. Stockpiles of weapons are dusted off, and alert orders are issued to all Federal Army, Navy and Air Force commands.

A response was made from the Defiance and her battlegroup. "You're violating Federal protectorate waters, is what's happening. Please state your business or depart immediately."

"Oh? And what would you have in mind?"

Wisconsin now a State! Following the ratification of the Referendum to Incorporate Wisconsin by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Plains Federation happily welcomes its 10th state, and all the citizens thereof as citizens of the Federation. Elections of public officials are expected to occur in the next few weeks.

"And on the behalf of the Federation, I would like to thank you for your most generous gift." Admiral Dorner replied, his normal, stoic self. "I can assure you, it will be most appreciated."