Years of war: 35
Jason stood on the railing of the cargo ship that was transporting the force of Marines to their target. He was now the third man in his family to serve in the war, having joined the marines just a year ago. They had been living under the new Communist government for almost 20 years now. For as long as he could remember, Jason had known only the Communist government. The Party had told everyone that it was their duty to their motherland to defend it, and if they wouldn't join the military, they had to contribute another way. Jason had decided that rather than work in a factory, he would follow in the path of this father and grandfather and join the military. However, not everyone was happy with this government. One such individual was Jasons father, Thomas, who was so angry over the fall of the democracy that he had left. Jason didn't know where he had gone, but it is most likely that he went into the Grand Babylonian Desert. It was vast and largely uninhabited except for some seaside towns, with only three major roads running through it. If there was anywhere to disappear, it would be there. But Jason fought anyway, if for no other reason than to defend his home.
Now he was on a cargo ship full of marines. He didn't know where it was going other than the direction was south. The mission was being kept incredibly close to the chest by high command, and they hadn't even told the troops where they were going. But where ever it was, the force was massive. Just in his convoy, he could see seven other transport ships which could each hold over 50,000 marines each, plus support ships, several of battleships, and dozens of smaller warships. And he had heard that there were at least two other convoys of the same size. It was certainly a strong show of force against anyone foolish enough to try and fight them. However, there was not much to fear from the wooden sailing ships of the Zulu navy. The warships were likely there for fire support when they got where they were going. Just then, he felt the ship turn under him and saw the other ships start changing course as well, with the convoy now heading east. Jason turned around to start going back to his bunk, but then several groups of marines ran by. He stopped one of them.
"Whats going on?" Jason asked the other marine.
"They are giving us the mission briefing in the cargo hold." The marine said before running off. Jason was not far behind. He was able to get close to the platform where he saw the admiral standing there with several other officers. After the hold filled up, an officer called for attention and the room started became quiet. The admiral stepped forward and began to speak.
"Comrades, I am now at liberty to tell you where we are going." He pulled the cover off of a map that had been on the stage as he finished speaking. It was a map of the southern half of the Zulu Empire. After doing this, the admiral began to speak again.
"We are going to be attacking the southern half of the Zulu Empire, and launching an attack on their capital, Ulundi." At this, a murmur started to float around the hold. However, the admiral quickly brought the troops back to attention and began speaking again.
"Our force will be divided into three groups. The first group will be a unit of marines that will capture the island city of Bulawayo. This city will act as a supply base for further operations against the Zulu mainland. The second force will be you marines. You will land and capture the Zulus main port city of Nobamba, which is a mere 50 miles from Ulundi. After this, a heavy task force from the army will land at the port and begin moving in to take control of the capital, and hopefully bring an end to this war. It is critical that you capture the port intact so that the heavy transports can land. Once you are on the shore, you will hold the city at all cost, or die trying, as your motherland demands Comrades. Ooh-Ra." He finished with the common marine cry, followed by the other marines. After the briefing, Jason headed back up to the deck to look out at the sea as they continued to steam toward their objective. He had been told that they were just three hours away now, and the other men in the unit were going about their usual pre-battle rituals. Some were having cigarettes, others getting a few last hours of sleep before the fight, and some wrote notes to loved ones back home. Jason went to watch the ocean. He always felt calm around the water, and it was partly this reason that he became a marine. He knew that soon, they would be landing, and hopefully, this three decade long war would be over, and people could finally go home. After a few more minutes out on the deck, Jason headed back to his bunk room with the rest of his squad to get his gun ready to fight.
3 hours later
The Zulu lookout sat in his tower overlooking the barracks in Nobamba. Right now, he wasn't watching for anything dangerous, instead sitting in his chair and drinking from a whiskey flask. Normally, drinking alcohol on duty would result in a flogging and time in the brig, but the commander of the Nobamba garrison usually looked the other way as long as people didn't get into fights. The reason for this was because they were so far from the front that the morale boost was greater than the chance to cause poor fighting. The lookout took another swig of whiskey before standing up again to go back on watch. He looked around the sleepy port city, seeing that there was nothing major going on in town. They were close enough to the capital to that there was little crime and corruption, and they were far enough from the front that there was little risk. It was the easiest post in the entire Zulu Empire. He then turned to look at the bay, and that's when he saw it. There was a massive black cloud over the water that appeared to be raining soot, as if the very sea itself was on fire. Believing that he had in fact drunk too much, he rubbed his eyes to clear his vision, but the cloud remained, and even seemed to be getting bigger and closer by the second. The lookout turned his telescope to the water, hoping that it was just nothing and that he was hallucinating from the drink.
However, as he looked to the bay through his telescope, he almost jumped back in shock and terror from what he saw. Just off the coast, there were hundreds of massive ships, many of which appeared to be well-armed and armored, while others were dropping boats full of soldiers into the water below as they began forming into lines. But they all shared one thing: They all flew the Babylonian flag from their mast. He quickly reached over and started to crank his siren to alert the garrison. Upon doing this, the commander came out of his bunkroom and shouted up to the lookout.
"What is going on?" he shouted up the tower.
"Babylonians! Babylonian ships in the harbor!" the lookout shouted back.
"What?! How many ships are there?"
"ALL OF THEM!" the lookout shouted in a panic. With this, the commander started going around to the bunks, kicking the doors open and shouting for soldiers to get up and get ready to fight, and in a short time soldiers were running out of their bunks, rifles in hand and hurrying to put on body armor and load their lever actions. The lookout turned his attention back to the massive Babylonian fleet sitting in the harbor, just in time to see several of the larger warships open fire with their main guns. The blast from the guns were so strong that just the firing of the gun nearly knocked the wind out of him. Shortly after, shells started landing in the city setting off massive explosions. With the shells landing around him, and more ships opening fire, somehow the lookout was able to look through his telescope, only to watch in horror as the landing craft started to make their way toward the shore.
Jason was at the ready inside his landing craft with the rest of his unit, ready to start the attack. As they got closer to the shore, he made one last check of his Browning Automatic Rifle and put the bi-pod into the down position so that he could set it up quickly after landing.
"30 Seconds!" shouted the landing craft pilot, telling the squad how much longer until they hit the shore. However, at this point they closed into range of the Zulu guns, as rifle rounds began to ricochet off the metal ramp of the craft, and explosions started to hit the water around the craft as the cannons on the shore opened fire, destroying some craft in the process. After what seemed like the longest 30 seconds in Jasons life, they finally hit the shoreline. As soon as the ramp dropped however, rifle fire ripped through the now open front of the craft forcing those who weren't hit to jump over the sides or run out the front. The fire from the Zulu riflemen was intense, and cannons hit the shore in an attempt to throw the Babylonians back out into the ocean. Just then, some destroyers opened fire and hit Zulu positions on the hills overlooking the beach, easily destroying their makeshift sandbag defenses. Jason and his squad made it to the only true defense the Zulu had in the form of barbed wire, which was easily cut through. It was clear that the Zulu had not expected an attack on this city as the defense were light, and most of the defenses had been throw together in desperation by the Zulu defenders. As they crested the small hill, Jason found a cannon battery shooting down onto the beach. He set his BAR down on a sandbag and opened fire, his automatic weapon tearing through the cannon crew easily. He threw down a green smoke grenade indicating that the location was in the control of Babylonian forces. This didn't go unnoticed by the Zulu desperately fighting down on the beach who retreated back toward the hill. However, they were gunned down by Jason and his squad in a hail of automatic and semi-automatic weapons fire.
As the cannon batteries were overrun and the rest of the unit started to come ashore, the Zulu started to fall back toward the center of town. Jason and his squad started to advances toward the harbor to make sure it was still able to have transport ships land in it. They were joined by hundreds of other men, and they were all needed to take the harbor. There was a large Zulu force there fighting a last stand to stop the Babylonians. Jason used his BAR to pin down the Zulu riflemen as the rest of his squad advanced into one of the warehouses on the port. It continued like this building to building until they finally had the port secured, and deployed an orange flare to tell the second task force to start coming ashore. Soon after, the entire Marine force was advancing on the center of town, where the Zulu had gathered in a final last stand to drive back the Babylonians or die trying. Jason set down his BAR on some rubble and opened fire at any Zulu he saw as his squad fired on others. But with each Zulu soldier that was shot down, it seemed like 5 more took his place, no matter how much fire Jason and his men laid down. Realizing they needed help to throw back the Zulu attack, Jason told his radio man to call in an artillery strike from the battleships off the coast, and after a short time, they heard the thunder of the guns and shells started landing in the city square, destroying what little defense the Zulu had left, and sending the few survivors running from the city. Shortly after the Zulu started retreating, Jason saw a group of regular Army soldiers start advancing by, supported by new equipment that had been developed, an armored vehicle called "tanks". They advanced toward the edge of the city, ready to start on their war path to the Zulu capital.
At that same time
The Admiral had been watching the battle from his flagship in the bay. They now had all their forces ashore. The marines had the city locked down, but had suffered a large amount of losses. But now that the army was ashore, their tanks would be able to advance on the capital and for several miles, they would still be able to be covered by the battleships artillery. Just then, a sailor ran up to the Admiral with a paper in his hand. The admiral took it and started to read it over. It was a status report from the second landing on Bulawayo Island. They had managed to capture the city with very little losses. They had also managed to capture the harbor completely intact, and it was large enough that the battleships could come and lay anchor. The admiral looked back at the city of Nobamba and with his binoculars watched as more tanks and soldiers were unloaded from the cargo ships.
"This war is finally going to come to an end." He said to himself.
AN: Normally, I love living in the country and hate the city. This is not one of those times as my internet has been screwy for the past month. The fact I am even able to post this at all right now is a sign that my internet has decided to show me mercy. Now, onto stuff regarding the story:
After this chapter, the years are going to start advancing by large amounts and then stay in that area for a few chapters. Partly this is because I want to get this story wrapped up, but its also because that is basically what happened in the actual game, the the conflict resembling the real Korean War. Meaning: I attack and capture, he attacks and captures back, we stop fighting for decades on end but the war is still declared, repeat. So it would get very boring seeing the same fight over and over again, and I will focus on the big campaigns and events that started closer to the end of the war.
Also, since DMX0000 brought it up: Dont worry. While I wont give away any spoilers, we havent seen the last of those sneaky Egyptian bastards, and they will in fact be appearing in a few chapters. You will have to wait and see what happens.
