Notification of Naval Exercises in East China Sea

[Triyun]

The United Federation of the East formerly notifies the world that it will be conduct naval exercises in its sovereign waters: The East China Sea. These exercises will involve drills of rapidly deploying large scale naval mine warfare. Therefore we advise any and all nations to avoid the drill location. This will be used as our live fire test ground. Avoid the area enclosed in red.

[center][img]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a112/Triyun/minefield.png[/img][/center]

Edited April 4, 2011 by Triyun

[Amyante]

"As long as shipping routes to and from the Korea Strait will not be cut off entirely, and the United Federation of the East ensures that all mines are accounted for at the end of the test so they may not drift into the aforementioned shipping routes, the Zargathian government sees no reason for concern. Consider all traffic scheduled for the eastern channel diverted to the western channel for the duration of the exercises and clearing operations."

[Triyun]

[b]4:00 am off 11 nautical miles the Coast of Nagasaki[/b]

The UFE Coast Guard Cutter [i]Pride of Guangzhou[/i] was finishing up its mine laying mission. Tensions were high as the coast of Japan was within site. Relations which never had been overly warm, certainly could not have been made better by the UFE dangling the Nanjing Diktat in the Japanese face. Many of the men aboard the ship were very nervous. They weren't full time soldiers like the Navy or Maritime Self Defense Forces, normally they ran smuggling interdiction or rescued refugees. Now they were on top of a rather large mine field. It was remote activated and the UFE IFF protected them, but they could never the less not help but feel uneasy and for good reason...

The minisub [i]SS-38[/i] had spotted the intended target with its scope. Having skillfully positioned itself in Nagasaki Harbor undetected, the sub was now lining up for a shot of its single long range torpedo. It had been specially crafted by the Naval Special Black Operations Taskforce in Wuhan, and like the boat it was being delivered on, it was completely without record. The men aboard were seasoned field agents, accountable to no one but the Director of the Special Projects Division, Ming. The Special Projects Division had been an outgrowth of the People's Commissariat of Intelligence Affairs that had been allowed to fall off the grid, specifically to be several steps beyond the knowledge of the Imperator, while knowing the will of the Imperial Council.

"Got 'em." the gunner said. "Good we can soon get out of this hell hole." the pilot replied. The two men had been stuck in the cramped quarters of the submarine for 15 hours. Now they would finally be able to do what they were sent to do.

A swishing sound was made as the torpedo tube was flooded and the anti-ship torpedo was launched outwards across the harbor into the the [i]Pride of Guangzhou[/i]. As it impacted the rudder, a huge explosion and then a column of water shot up into the air. The entire aft of the coast guard cutter was ablaze, while the mini sub slipped silently away from the scene.

[quote]Emergency Dispatch from UFECG [i]Pride of Guangzhou[/i]

Message: Critical Damage
Body: Suffered massive explosion to rear of the vessel. Ship is on fire, likely going down. Twelve reported injuries, eight fatalities. We received brief sonar signal of a torpedo coming from Nagasaki Harbor. Request immediate assistance.[/quote]

Two patrol ships were rerouted form nearby routes were sent to the [i]Pride of Guangzhou's[/i] location to rescue the crew. As the fire spread it was unlikely that the ship itself could be saved. Three naval mines were caught in the explosion furthering the damage as the crew abandoned ship.

By 5:00 am a squadron of fast attack boats was on scene to rescue the crew, but the vessel was lost, along with an estimated forty sailors.

In the military headquarters of the Federation in Taibei, naval war planners were scambling to go over the data of the attack. The report of a torpedo being fired was highly disturbing and seemed provocative.

By 5:30 am the August Imperator was awoken in his private quarters and Zhongnanhai. Already not a morning person, he was in an especially foul mood, first for not being awoken earlier, and also for what seemed to be clear Japanese aggression against the Federation.

Jia spoke to his chief of staff and Vice Imperator Kou who had been in Taibei at the time, "Damn it all to hell. I was us to begin preparations for Operation Downfall beyond contingency planning now. Are your people ready?"

Kou responded, "They will be sir. I've ordered the 8th Naval Forensic unit deployed on seen, we are equipping them with the necessary USVs for the job and IFFs."

"Make it quick." Jia snapped. "Begin other preparations. I will not tolerate this crap." Jia angrily declared, he pressed a button ending the transmission.

Turning to his Chief of Staff Qi and scowled, "We knew the damn Japs haven't changed." "Sir, I'll have your coffee brought in at once, if you excuse me I have a meeting scheduled." Jia raised an eyebrow, "Something important?" he asked.

Qi shook his head. "No it couldn't be less so, just some people who are making noise and we need to keep them quiet. Its nothing for you to bother with, but people like to at least get to meet with your Chief of Staff." "Right." Jia said. Qi was a man who Jia deeply trusted having been a tutor of Jia's when he was younger, Jia admired Qi as even though he was among the closest people to Jia he never was of high profile. Few knew who the man even was outside the close circle of friends and advisors to the August Imperator.

As Qi left the room he made his way to an unmarked car which would take him to the private area of Beijing's International Capitol Airport. There he would meet with Ming. "Did your men get out?" Qi asked immediately. "Yes. Without a problem." Ming said. "Good." Qi replied. "The August Imperator is livid, as he should be." "Its good we keep him in the dark on this?" Ming asked. "The Imperator knows where we need to go, but getting there can require methods distasteful for someone in his position to use. I assume your forces are ready to move to phase 2?"

Ming nodded, "It is already being done."

Those waking up in Asia that day would hear a live broadcast from Vice Admiral Nguyen, the Chief Naval Operation Officer of the United Federation of the East. Standing at the press podium for the Taibei Military Command Center, he read a brief statement.

[quote]Good morning. Today the United Federation of the East Coast Guard Cutter [i]Pride of Guangzhou[/i] was hit with a critical explosion 11 nautical miles off the coast of Nagasaki in the United Federation's sovereign waters of the East China Sea. Forty sailors lost their lives, and eight are in critical condition. At this time, the United Federation of the East is unable to give exact information about the cause of the explosion. The Naval Forensic Taskforce shall be dispatched to the scene to pin point the cause of the explosion. Once the report is concluded we shall make it known.

In the mean time the United Federation of the East wants to make it absolutely clear that it deplores acts of violence, and shall act to deter aggression. I will not be taking questions.[/quote]

After finishing the statement he walked briskly away.

Meanwhile military planners had begun to do intensive double checking of SAT INT to begin the acquiring of Japan's nuclear triad. Orders were slowly disseminated through the command structure and notification was given to allies (save for the Japanese of course and those obligated to private messages with them) privately of suspicions which the UFE harbored along with the preliminary evidence, including the sonar logs, and the testimony of several crew members.

The Special Projects Division had also begun its next phase of the plan. Cyberwarfare units began spreading highly advanced worms into the Japanese public utility and mass information distribution systems which would be sleepers for when the time for an attack was right.

Edit: Naval attack, satint, and cyber attacks were done via spyrolls.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Triyun

[jeff744]

The CAS hopes that the UFE is able to find the people responsible for this horrendous crime and bring them to justice.

[Amyante]

Reading the news report on the telex, Amyante figured that the incident was most likely due to a problem with a new mine laying system. If, during rapid deployments, a mine would end up getting stuck, she reasoned, then there was a chance of it detonating prematurely. Still, awaiting the results of the report -- or lack of one, if it ended up being covered up -- she still contacted her Japanese allies, to see if she could find out anything through their side of the story. Since the incident took place eleven miles off the coast of a major city, putting it well within the range of commercially available binoculars.

Given that the UFE was essentially a foreign navy holding military operations within Japanese waters, she doubted there wouldn't be anything written about it in the Japanese media by tomorrow. Hell, with news of an incident at this range, it would most likely be front page news!

[Triyun]

OOC: Amyante you might not be aware, but the Japanese signed a declaration recognizing the Nanjing Diktat which makes the East China Sea in its entirety UFE waters, so there are no Japanese waters in that region.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Triyun

[Axolotlia]

The PRA hopes that the UFE is able to find those responsible for this attack and bring them to justice.

[TheShammySocialist]

"We echo the sentiment of the PRA, and send our condolences to the UFE, and the families of their sailors."

[Amyante]

[quote name='Triyun' timestamp='1302123949' post='2685694']
OOC: Amyante you might not be aware, but the Japanese signed a declaration recognizing the Nanjing Diktat which makes the East China Sea in its entirety UFE waters, so there are no Japanese waters in that region.
[/quote]

OOC: Thanks, didn't know that. Oh well, won't be changing the basics of my post anyway, footage of it would still likely be all over the Japanese news within a day.

[Triyun]

The Federation had used computer projections based on black box data about the ship's sonar, the projected force of a mine exploding, along with real time images using USVs to thoroughly document the wreck. The results had all been the same, while there were mine explosions, they all occurred after an initial impact of something traveling with considerable kinetic force behind it. A single mine would simply not have the power to do the initial damage. Further, all mines in the field were functioning properly and there was no outage made.

The Federation Government would forward the evidence of their preliminary investigation to its allies (save for the Japanese). The result was clear, the blast highly resembled a Japanese torpedo attack.

Orders were given covertly to military forces which had been prepared over the past several weeks. The PLAN was at sea on full deployment in the East Pacific and East China Sea. Marine task forces had long been forward positioned in the Ryukyu Islands and Korea. Now they were being ready to move out against Japan. The Army of Korea's weapons, fuel, and missile stockpiled had been increased along with the activation of the Korean reserves.

More importantly though a large concentration of mobile Medium and Theatre range ballistic missiles had been moved towards the North. Most of the new arclight packages were also positioned for military operations.

In Jia's office he spent hours staring at the report. Japan was not a country which was as central to his dislikes as it had been to some of the older guard. Yet the August Imperator did feel that the Japanese had shown a remarkable degree of near complete neglect. He would not shed tears for what was to be done. Qi entered his office. "Sir?" he said. Jia nodded. "Begin final preparations. I will make a statement when we are ready to march. Keep our missile forces on high alert, if the Japanese attempt to strike first, field commanders are authorized to return fire and Ding is to execute Operation Overlord's initial phases. Strategic bombers have been deployed to the South out of enemy fighter range?"

"Yes sir. And we have them on rotational permanent airborne status." Qi said.

"Make it so." Jia said. He sighed, it would soon begin. "Order officials and their families to begin covertly moving to shelters. Just encase." "And you sir?" he asked. "I will be leading from Beijing." Qi shook his head. "Imperator, Qingyuan or Taibei is far safer." "No this is a war for Asia, Beijing is its center." Qi nodded, "As you wish Imperator."

[Kankou]

The Korean reserves were returned to the peninsula, and things were bing prepared. Thousands of landing boats and hovercrafts were assembled in Busan and Ulsan, and all airbases were readied.

Meanwhile, about 50,000 men were on regularly scheduled cruise boats to Hiroshima, and 30,000 also to Fukuoka. With long established ties, there were no problems with them gettng there. They would arrive around the same time as the start of operations.