Oorah! (UST Marine Actions)

[callmedelta]

General Lumine stood on the deck of the KFS Setange as the island came into view. Lumine didn't know the name of the god-forsaken rock his boys would be landing on, and he didn't care. All Lumine needed to know what the defenses would be like, and what the best places to land would be. With any luck, the island would be ungarrisoned with all the troops needed for the main front, but Lumine wouldn't believe that until he could see it himself. The Setange and the Desterque would be making as close a pass as they could, a dozen men with binoculars on this deck alone trying to spot anything they could. At the first sign of serious threats to the battleships, they'd either try to eliminate the threat or run, depending on the circumstances. 

[Greywall]

Boamba island had been left lightly guarded by the UST with most of the military shifting to the mainland, the 30,000 troops left behind with roughly 100 field guns and a dozen mortars were there to keep the Kithium on the Northern half at bay. The island was seeped in poverty and no attempt to rebuild the destroyed towns seized during the Kithum-UST war were made leaving islanders having to live in squalor.

The UST military detachment was led by Major Dorik Sakombo, a 'war hero' of the Kithium war who aligned most of troops in the Northern section of the island to keep border traffic under control. Major Sakombo was confident the island would never be targeted by the war happening in the North and was treating himself to some Amali wine in his private quarters. His troops enjoyed the relaxed post, much preferred to being shipped with the thousands upon thousands to fight in the north.

[callmedelta]

The 30,000 men strong garrison was not quite what General Lumine had wished to see. With any luck, though, the threat of the Kithium and Franerre’s naval guns should give them the advantage, so long as they stick to the shore. Such details like those would need to be hammered out back at base, where the General had a proper staff to help him plan,

~

Lumine looked over a map of Boamba Island, placing down markers where Union positions had been scouted to be. With the Union’s soldiers spread out and focused on the Kithium League, a landing in an unguarded port on the southern side of the island, Banridi, would be best. From there, the best course of actions would be to hit as many Union positions as they could before they could consolidate, using their 300 artillery pieces and expertly trained marines to prosecute a lightning war. Even if that failed, they should at least be able to get a foothold on the island and hold it long enough for reinforcements from Franerre to arrive.

~

Admiral Denis Baudelaire stood in the bridge of the KFS Desterque, watching soldiers load into transports for the second time this year. This, though, was a very different day than when these men left Franerre. Baudelaire still held that joy in his heart, but it was tempered with the knowledge that soon, battle would come. The battleships Desterque and Setange, the destroyers Swift, Surefoot, Nobility, Ferocity, and Steadfast, and the transports full of 10,000 Marines, 10,000 Standard Infantry, 300 Artillery, as well as all of the supplies they would need would leave Fuaz and set sail for Boamba Island.

~

The Franerri convoy arrived off the coast of Banridi, sending a small dinghy ahead to the port as the main fleet anchored safely out of artillery range. It bore two men, carrying a message for the town to surrender peacefully and show no resistance to the arriving Franerri troops.

[EpicToaster1]

The small dinghy would splash through the waves of the Luraric Sea, the loud puttering of its tiny engine fighting dense water loud as it closed on its destination of the port of Banridi. The cold water would lap up over the sides, the cool mist dowsing the messengers; they certainly didn't want to wind up in that water.

The dinghy would arrive into the port...though port was a generous term for the wooden structures extending from the shore into the shallow sea. Half the docking spaces were occupied by what looked to be fishing vessels, a single cargo ship, old and rusted, also moored as a team of hand-cranked cranes work to slowly unload the wooden crates aboard.

There wouldn't be a lot of people, maybe a few fishermen standing around, and a few who look like dockworkers who aren't busy manning the cranes around the cargo ship.

Further beyond from the dock would be a few warehouse-looking buildings, some dirt roads running between them all, which would lead further into the town with their one- and two-story buildings.

[callmedelta]

The Franerri dinghy pulled up to the 'dock,' one soldier dismounting the boat while the other stayed in with the engine running. The man who stepped out, one Private Filip Kruzel, would announce in the loudest Commons he could as he read from the now slightly soggy letter in his hand. "Attention everybody! This port is now under the authority of the Kingdom of Franerre for the time being, as part of the larger war concerning the independence of the Tafatu. We ask that you please cooperate with all demands made by the Franerri Army and Navy. If you do, no harm will come to you. If you actively attempt to resist, Franerre will use the full force of the Army and Navy she has brought to bear here to stop your resistance and ensure your compliance, but we only wish to do so as a last resort. Please, bring me to whoever the authority of this city is so that we may ensure peaceful compliance from you and fair treatment for you."

[VoxApocrypha]

 They had crossed the long ice sheet in the night of the deep winter, the forces of the Kithium League's 3rd Army, or FLTG 3, had amassed in the Runan Pocket on Razu, the largest holding of the League maintained after the initial conflict on the island. Numbering 150,000 strong they had concentrated themselves into three distinct strike groups. Their initial targets were Chuma and Bantari, with Banridi being their next. They'd then surge across the island to the west, with the intention of taking everything from Bantari to Mwamdan. 

 In the late afternoon they had dispatched scouts that would arrive at the border at night, and begin their mission to find and identify points of UST resistance around the town of Chuma, in advance of the main force following a few hours behind them - they had chosen a night of relative calm to launch this endeavor, so that they'd be able to work without blizzard to obscure their sight.

[EpicToaster1]

The people on the docks would all look at the Franerri soldier weirdly, the group a mix of human and kithium. None would seem to understand the private, this backwater town not educated enough to understand commons. One would simply point towards the center of town, presumably towards someone who would understand what they're saying.

---

The scouts around Chuma would be met with the cold winter tundra as they approached Chuma. There wasn't any snow on the plains around the town, but the cold, frozen ground was still audible under their feet with each crunchy step. A few makeshift forts surround the town on the western side. The scouts in the east would be captured by patrolling soldiers, being unable relay what they find back to their units.

Much like the rest of the island, the town would be very non-descript. A bunch of one-story buildings with a single larger one-story building semi-near the middle of town. A few groups of soldiers could be spotted, though exact numbers ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand soldiers.

[callmedelta]

"Stay here," Filip said to the man in the dinghy, "We've got-" he quickly checked the watch on his wrist "-20 minutes before we need to go back to the fleet. If I'm not back by then, assume something's gone wrong." With that, Filip set off for the middle of the village in hopes of finding someone who could just speak the damn language.

[VoxApocrypha]

When the some of the scouts failed to report in, the Field Marshal would consider his next action.
They were likely being interrogated, but since they didn't really know anything vital about the formation, other than it was big and it was here to kill, she wasn't overly concerned.
What she decided however, was that if they were to take the town, asking wouldn't be worth the time. But on the request of the Empress, given the town was likely still populated, she decided on a new approach.

She'd send a small force of around ten thousand light infantry with an emissary holding a white-flag, and a letter written in a series of langauges for the local commander.
It was a letter demanding they surrender, and that if they did, they would be treated fairly and eventually extradited back to the UST. If they didn't, they'd be slaughtered.
The force would arrive with the bulk of the main force following not long behind it, with the emissary and a small force of guards advancing towards the town with a white flag held on a pole in the arms of the center one. They had about a hundred or so light infantry with a backing of ten cavalry, with one of them clearly a courier and not a fighter given the different uniform and the notable shield and martian cross emblazoned on their shoulder. 

One of them, clearly half Festria given their size and bulk, as well as fur tone, would cup their hands together and shout.

"We demand a commanding officer of present UST Forces, step out and come here to talk!" 

[Greywall]

OOC: Just doing the reply for Vox, Moth will do the reply for Frannerre.


The UST forces had already scrambled and began to prepare for the oncoming battle, after the call came out from the half Festrian Major Sakombo decided to speak to them. "Get everything prepared, send riders out and get us some damn help...from anywhere." Sakombo pulled his revolver from holster and handed it to a nearby soldier before walking out toward the Festrian. 'What damn luck, of course the Kithium hit us while we're in the middle of this shit' he thought.

He approached the Kithium his arms spread out, "Well?...you needed me here. What do you want?"

[VoxApocrypha]

They would wait for them to approach, and then set the flag's stake to rest against their boot, holding it with one hand.
"This letter is a demand from the League's monarch. We demand that you surrender. If you do, you will be afforded all protections listed in the letter as prisoners of war and returned to the UST at the earliest convenience."
She would continue after a short pause, handing over the paper to them.
"If you do not, we will kill you and not return your bodies to your homeland." They said. "Weigh your choices carefully. What I bring back to my commanding officer decides if you are even remembered as a person in a decade's time, or if you and all the men in your command will fade into the snow-pack and be forgotten."

The letter itself roughly echo'd these terms though provided details.
If they surrendered here, they'd not have to face down the Kithium Army behind the emissary and would, as said, be returned to the UST - should it still exist - at the end of hostilities or at a earlier point of convenience for the League.

If they didn't, the wording of the letter rather blatantly implied the Kithium would have no qualms with the idea of mass murderering the UST garrison, any of their family or associated personnel, and likely, they'd not take prisoners either.

[Greywall]

Adrenaline pumped through Sakombo, he didn't trust the Kithium nor doubt their threat. He fought them years ago and was lucky they didn't recognize him. "I'll need time to relay this to my officers, five hours and you'll have your answer."

[VoxApocrypha]

"Unacceptable. Decide now for you and the garrison here." They'd demand. "Then after, you will send that order to the rest of the island."

[Greywall]

"Then my answer is no, let's go to hell." Sakombo would walk back to his line, "Prepare for a tactical retreat, have the artillery do their best to fire payloads and get the rear companies to move as fast as they can for the Western shores. Anyone at the front defenses...they'll be remembered dying for the Union." He would tell his officers, Sakombo was fine being a dishonest man, it was what won him so many battles on the island. But for now he needed to survive.

UST artillery guns would open fire at Kithium as front line infantry lined up their rifles above the defense line, rear companies would begin pulling out heading West.

[VoxApocrypha]

"So be it."
As he turned to walk back to his line, the officer holding the flag let go, and drew from their holster a single shot pistol.

"This is for Zacoraya, Sakombo." She said, before she shot him in the lower back, the large caliber bullet destroying his lower spine and blowing a hole through his stomach, leaving a bloody red mist hanging in the air as the Kithium group began to make back for their lines post-haste. The Courier was already the furthest ahead, having made for their lines the moment Sakombo said no to their demand for surrender.

The guards with the Kithium emissary would fire their weapons by squad, and then begin to retreat, while the cavalry would move back with them and be unable to fire as the horses would be spooked.
The gunshots would be heard however back at the line of the rest of the force of around ten thousand began to prepare for an assault on the town itself.