(On D-Day, 8:15 a.m.)
The skies were grim and cloudy. The wind and seas began to be a bit choppy. The Eurasian Navy was standing by miles away from the shores of the Nationalist-controlled Halifax city. Battleships, aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, cruisers, hovercrafts; everything the Eurasians could offer on the American East Coast. The jets on the aircraft carriers took off immediately as radars detected Nationalist jets taking off from Halifax airport. The hovercrafts circled around near the navy, waiting for the order to pass down from high command. Several Nationalist jets fell out from the skies, knocked down by the Eurasian Eurofighter jets. But the Nationalist Patriot missiles kept the Eurofighters away for a distance; with two of the Eurofighters shot down by the batteries that came too close. Then a message from high command reached the navy. The landing was to be commenced.
The first wave of hovercrafts broke out from their circling formation and headed towards the shores with speed. The battleships fired their shells on the coast, softening the beach defenses. The Nationalists responded with its own bombardment from their Paladin artillery tanks, with hits near the approaching hovercrafts. One artillery shell hit a hovercraft; two tanks and 20 soldiers died on board. The hovercrafts continued on. The battleships fired more rounds at the Paladin group that fired the rounds. The group disengaged, buying more time for the hovercrafts to land. The laser turrets that were used for taking out missile projectiles were used to take on the hovercrafts. Two hovercrafts were sunk by the laser turrets. The cruisers launched a volley of rockets and missiles on the turrets, but were mere misses. Only 15 out of the 20 hovercrafts reached the shore. The hovercrafts unloaded their troops and head out back into the ocean.
The landed Leopard tanks quickly fired shells at the laser turrets, destroying them, but couldn't move further because of the antitank obstacles. Some troops ran up and reached the barbed-wire shingle under a spray of machine gun fire from pillboxes perched atop cliffs; some were gunned down, but most of them made it. Snipers made the advance harder for the soldiers. The Leopard tanks that were stuck on the shore were battered by the relocated Paladin artillery tanks. Nationalist missile infantry launched rockets at the shingle, blasting some Eurasian troops to the fright of their lives. Some scattered; the machine guns took care of them. The ones carrying packs of C4 managed to plant some at parts of the shingle to make a pathway to the concrete pillboxes. They blasted the C4, making pathways for the soldiers to get through. But they never thought they'd encounter mines just after passing through the shingle. The first soldiers were completely blown to bits; those that survived were gunned down by snipers and machine guns. Now that they were stuck at the shingle with the sea at their backs and a mine field and pillboxes in front of them, it was a matter of time before the Paladins reset their position and bombarded the area and the first attack wave was annihilated.
But the first attack wave did its job. It destroyed the laser defender turrets, which paved way for the missile cruisers to strike. The cruisers launched a new volley of rockets on the beach, destroying several pillboxes and managed to erase the Paladin division out of existence. They also carved a way to the land by detonating the mine fields and clearing the beachhead. The second wave went in more successfully, taking out the Patriot missile batteries and advancing further inland.
Transport planes appeared from behind the clouds and headed inland, since the primary air defense systems were disabled. The Eurofighters led air squadrons, knocking down any Nationalist jets that may cause trouble to the paratroopers in the transport planes. Nationalist anti-air Stryker IFVs raced towards their positions, shooting down some of the transport planes and Eurofighter jets. The Leopards and Challenger tanks raced inland and took out the Strykers; but a group of anti-tank Strykers came from the flank, spewing out smokescreens and attacking the tanks. Some transport planes carrying Russian troops dropped them in the heart of the battlefield; with RPG-7s in hand; they swiftly took out the Stryker IFVs. Other transport planes carrying troops from Germany and Britain headed towards the Halifax airport and dropped their troops there. There was heavy anti-aircraft fire from the stationed Nationalist Bradley IFVs. Some aircraft were hit and were crashing down not far from the airport. Most of the paratroopers made it to the ground safely, arming their Panzerfaust 3 RPGs and M72 LAW to destroy the Bradleys. Among the paratrooper team was Yulie Pendragon, who came to America to get her younger sister, Arthuria, home. She quickly dodged some bullets coming from the terminal and hid behind a ditch with several other paratroopers. German troops in the ditch threw smoke grenades to blur the Nationalists' vision. When the smoke filled the airfield, they quickly ran out from the ditch with their Panzerfaust 3 RPGs and took out the machine gun emplacements in the terminal building. A Stryker group tried to flank the paratrooper squads but were taken out by a hovering AC-130 gunship.
"Bloody hell, I better not die here just to get her," commented Yulie to a British paratrooper.
"Who?" asked the soldier, holding up an M72 LAW.
"My sister," replied Yulie before jumping out of the ditch and rushed towards the terminal, firing a few rounds at the terminal building. A few of her fellow British soldiers followed her.
On the opposite side of the channel, on Halifax harbor, Douglas Kreig, Terry McCormick and Ivan Gredenko with their team of Spetsnaz 19 and Waffen-GSG troopers were fighting from container to container, gunning down the Nationalist regulars with ease. Then several bulkier soldiers burst off from the waterfront and landed on the harbor pavement, cracking the concrete pavement with their heavy equipment.
"Navy Stormtroopers!" exclaimed one of the Spetsnaz troopers. The Navy Stormtroopers, with their heavy miniguns, sprayed bullets on the team, killing off two unfortunate Waffen-GSG troopers. The rest managed to find cover while they readied themselves for target practice.
"Ready!?" announced Doug as he got his eyes primed on their Stormtroopers' weak points; the neck. They waited until the Stormtroopers stopped firing to prevent the guns from overheating. That was a good enough sign for the team to attack.
"Go!" announced Doug as he popped out from behind the container and plucked the Stormtroopers through their necks. The other troopers followed suit, missing the first shot but getting it right on the second. The Stormtroopers were stunned by the accuracy and therefore ran back to the waters.
"Yeah! Go back to where you came from!" cheered Terry as the Stormtroopers pussy out (as how Ivan would put it) and jumped back into the waters. The Spetsnaz then stood at the water's edge and fired more rounds at them before regrouping with the team.
"They won't be gone for long. Better get moving," said Doug before they moved into the residential areas of Halifax, clearing the city for the amphibious assault groups to land in the city.
Yulie and her team of the 21st British paratrooper battalion had managed to secure the airport. Russian Hinds carrying vehicles unloaded them on the tarmac, and the soldiers quickly moved to secure the jeeps and tanks. More transport planes landed on the tarmac; Russian Antonov An-225s were used to carry the T-90 main battle tanks while the hovercrafts skimmed over the ground to the airport to unload the heavier German Leopard 2s and British Challenger tanks. SAS Group F soldiers came out from one of the transports and walked towards Yulie. They stopped before her and saluted to her. Yulie saluted back and asked.
"What's all this?" asked Yulie. The commander of the British 21st paratrooper battalion came from behind and spoke.
"You have been reassigned to lead the SAS group to capture a vital city," said the commander. Yulie immediately held the commander by the collar.
"Hey, I came here to get my sister, not to lead another group into another battlezone!" yelled Yulie on the commander's face. The commander was definitely scared at her tone; having served in many important battlefields puts her in a higher level than he was.
"That's the reason why we have to capture it! It's Toronto, the crossroad to where the Freedom Forces from the West will be meeting with us!" stuttered the commander. Yulie put him down and then looked at the SAS group.
"Alright, we'll be acting quickly from now on. No questions asked. Just do what you're told. Is that clear?" said Yulie.
"Yes, ma'am," replied the soldiers.
"Get ready at 1300 hours. The plane leaves by then," said the commander, adding to what Yulie had just said.