Oorah! (UST Marine Actions)

[Greywall]

Without their commanding officer a sense of panic was sent through the UST, "What do we do!?" soldiers were completely lost as officers tried to bring order. Some broke rank and began to leave, a few argued to defend their position. But most were starting to feel that it would be better to leave. Officers didn't have control of the situation and began losing UST troops to desertion rather quickly.

[VoxApocrypha]

The Kithium would shortly after the courier arrived, begin their advance on the town.

They advanced with infantry and their cavalry aiming to exploit areas that appeared weak, while their artillery was used on any suspected strongpoints.
As well, elements of hte cavalry would try to flank the defenses of the town. All in all, about 4000 soldiers, of which 3000 were infantry, and 700 were cavalry were committed to the attack, with the rest being the neccessary crew and personnel to operate and supply the artillery.

[Greywall]

Absolute panic began to break among the UST troops, officers in vain tried to regain control and order them to rank and file. As Kithium artillery began to rain down they began to break completely, the UST forces abandoned post and began full sprinting South and West from their border position. Without any senior command they began to flee anywhere to get away from the coming battle, among them were citizens trying to flee South from the oncoming invasion.

[VoxApocrypha]

The Kithium troops would roll back the intensity after they had found large segments of the UST's forces had broken and fled. They began to gather prisoners of war, and would use cavalry to try to collect the civilians to prevent them from straying too far from the town and away from shelter. They began to collect and process prisoners, and then as well, they began to move soldiers and Cult commissioners into the town to start checking the damage, to assess the loss of life among civilians, and as well to determine what aid to bring into the town.

 The Kithium would begin to dispatch their forces to the other parts of the island, starting an offensive to the West immediately while they gathered strength to surge to the East, with the main force for the East currently occupied by dealing with prisoners and the town itself. 

[Greywall]

UST forces were scattered across the island, whatever resistance left was gathering West in hopes of seizing some kind of naval craft and make a break for the main coast. Roughly 6,000 UST soldiers were hiding in the central countryside while another 8,000 began regrouping at Mwamdan the Western most city of the island and the major UST port. To their disbelief they not only found boats they could use to evacuate but the UST fleet, Admiral Vokuyo had apparently arrived during the winter and had been in port.

The UST forces selected officer Gurgen Toka to lead them, he sent some riders to find other survivors, but he had one clear goal. Get off the island, his troops began digging in defenses around the city but they had only small arms and the range of the fleet's cannons behind them to support holding off any assault. But if the Kithium arrived they would begin evacuations.

[VoxApocrypha]

The Kithium would eventually arrive at the city's edges, but they seemed content to form a containment perimeter around the city rather than launch any large scale attacks. Still however, they didn't let the UST get off easy, because almost immediately once they could, a constant sweeping artillery barrage was directed towards whatever defenses Kithium scouts could identify in the harsh conditions.

Units that might be lost out in the countryside would be shouted at that they had the option of giving up and surrendering, or they could die - and that would be the jist of it. If they did surrender, they had their weapons seized, they'd be handcuffed, and then sent to a prison camp being established in the north.

[Greywall]

OOC: This is to make up for the posts owed to Delta, everything occurring for the next 3-4 posts happens prior to the arrival of the Kithium.


Some villagers upon seeing the Frannerre land their two men onto the shore made their way to the nearby UST checkpoint. With the Franch attempting a coastal invasion the checkpoint sent riders to the nearest base alerting it. A nearby detachment of 3,000 infantry and 20 field guns began assembling for Banridi.

[callmedelta]

Unable to find anyone who spoke the language, Filip returned to the dinghy, who promptly returned to the Franerri vessels offshore. One of the large troop transports carrying their part of the 10,000 Marines and 100 artillery, made for waters closer to the dock before their troops dismounted on dinghies en-mass. Once the initial wave was off, the Franerri Marines would attempt to communicate with the locals as best as they could that they could vacate the port peacefully, or if they could be made to vacate it.

[Greywall]

No one in the town spoke common, so when the marines began to deploy into the port several citizens started acting alarmed and began packing up to leave the town. Knowing now what these strange people had come to do they wanted nothing to do with them, the nearby UST force marching toward the town would find a steady stream of evacuating citizens who alerted them via a translator of the arrival of the Franch.

"They don't know how many are in the town, let's set outside the town on the West side and place our artillery at a high advantage." The UST Commander didn't know if he could get support as most of the UST military was in the North watching the Kithium.

[callmedelta]

No one in town able to speak the language, the Franerri soldiers were forced to move the boats in the pier themselves, making way clear for their transports. In the meantime, the Franerri Marines and artillery continued to land via dinghies, while those soldiers who had already landed began to set up a defensive perimeter around the town.

[Greywall]

The UST simply reached out to the nearby bases but it would take some time to reach anyone, they remained in a defensive position. Citizens continued to evacuate from the town going past the UST encampment.

[callmedelta]

With little opposition, the entire force of 20,000 marines, 10,000 Standard Infantry, and 300 artillery would dismount into the small village. It wasn't great, but it was a start. With so many of the locals gone, the Franerri forces began to...reappropriate abandoned buildings, using them as command buildings, storage, or troop housing. At least some care was made not to disturb the former occupants' belongings too much, but it was of little concern for the vast majority of the army who wouldn't be staying in the village for long.

As General Lumine and his officers met in what was functioning as the command building for now, the plan was laid out one final time before everyone was to march. "While originally the Army was going to leave some troops here in Banridi, considering how small it is the Navy and I have decided that one of the destroyers will stay in port here to serve as a garrison and make sure the town stays in order while the rest of us march to Bantari further inland, making sure to take over any UST forts or garrisons along the way. We won't have naval support, but with any luck we'll be able to catch the Union off guard. From Bantari, we'll be marching southwest to Habudan, where the Navy will be waiting for us. From there, we'll backtrack to Bantari, then march north to Chuma and Mwamdan. I know no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but for the time being these are your orders. Now let's move out!"

The entire Franerri force of 10,000 Marines, 10,000 Standard Infantry, and 300 artillery would begin the march west to Bantari. The naval elements would stay in Banridi for the time being, resting before sailing towards Habudan.

[Greywall]

Scouts from the nearby deployment reported the approaching Franch forces moving west, with the the numerical advantage on the enemy advantage they decided an ambush would be best, they positioned themselves South of the road leading West of Banridi with their fields loaded with HE rounds and their riflemen ready to fire from any cover they could find.


Once the marching Franch came into sight they would open fire. They would assess their situation after the initial engagement whether to fight on or withdraw into the countryside to wage guerilla warfare.

[callmedelta]

The initial blow of the UST ambush caught the Franerri columns off guard, the Union able to get a second volley off before the Marine troops were able to reorganize, the Standard Infantry conscripts still panicking. Without the time to unload and set up their artillery guns or Gatlings, 9,000 Marines decided to charge the Union position, the remaining 1,000 attempting to bring the conscripts back into order.

[Greywall]

"Hold your positions!" UST infantry would hold their ground firing at the charging marines hoping to inflict enough losses on them to force the charge to stall out. Artillery guns continued to fire but once the Frannerre marines closed in they would be ordered to pack up and begin the process of withdrawing. Depending on the outcome of the enemy charge the UST forces would attempt to force a confrontation here in the hills or begin pulling back into the countryside once their artillery were safe and sound.