The People's War

[Zimmerwald]

And then, just like that, they were close enough.  Where had the morning gone, thought Osman, checking the safety for the fifth time in as many minutes.  Seeing it was off, he once again brandished it, and fired.

The nearest tank, the one leading the column, vanished in a storm of flying metal and red smoke.  Osman expected return fire, and got it, ducking down behind a low stone wall, built to keep the building's occupants from falling to the street below.  As the building shook from the tanks' pounding, and bullets whizzed overhead, he heard first Rami, than the other fighters open up on the regulars.

But they were too few.  Their positions were tenuous, and they knew they'd have to withdraw at some point.  After popping off the rest of his grenades, and wreaking more havoc on the tanks, Osman ran across the roof and down the stairs, grabbing a Kalishnikov from one of his comrades, and throwing the RPG into the back of an old pickup, which had stirred to life, ready to carry the fighters away the moment they needed it.

[Xyrael]

Zyanya had taken a quick ferry to Islas Filipinas (OOC: Supremo is Islas Filipinas, Supremo is the title of the leader as far as I can tell) and brokered a small deal there. A little bit of money here and there and the beautiful Xyraelite stood at a dock before a rather large freighter, a smile crossing her face. 10,000 crates decked the vessel, and she was sure Viktor would appreciate the better portion of them. As the vessel continued loading, she received a message on her beeper. It was a simple message, Support inbound, but Zyanya knew what it meant. The submarines would be at Gallipoli China in around 3 weeks, but Zyanya couldn't wait that long. She contemplated for a moment before deciding on the underhanded.

Islas Filipinas had decided to support the fascist Gallipoli-Chinese with soldiers and most likely supplies. She searched through the flags stored on the vessel until she found the Filipino flag. Zyanya was quite pleased with herself, and told the men to hoist the flag. She made one more quick phone call to the dock in Corfu and tickled the mans greed with a tempting offer of several hundred thousand yuan, and quickly enough she had a warehouse as well. Signalling the captain of the chartered freighter she ordered the course be set for Corfu, Gallipoli-China.

(OOC: Assuming ~22,000 km journey north past Acle then east to G-C, submarines at 20 knots, equiv to 37.1 kmph, 593 hours, roughly 24.7 days)

[Zimmerwald]

Selim didn't care what anyone said.  Eastern Corfu might be in ruins, but they'd left the docks alone, and he was making a handsome profit.  Especially since that Filipina had decided to stort thousands of tons of goods in his warehouse.  The vessel containing them would be at his doorstep in only days, and he could almost smell the money.  What was even better was that there was no buyer as far as he could tell, so he'd be collecting dues indefinately.

What was disturbing was that the Filipina had told him she would be keeping an eye on him personally.  He didn't like people telling him how to run his business, but money was money.

[Xyrael]

The vessel had no trouble with the Gallipoli-Chinese navy and arrived in the doc uneventfully. Zyanya was quite thankful for this, the Light had graced her path today. She waited for the vessel to dok, which finally occured almost an hour after arrivel due to haphazard traffic in the port. It was obvious the governments intervention on the island was causing chaos. Once the vessel docked Zyanya made sure no one asked any questions about the containers. She had deep pockets, and she was quick to silence and curiosity.

She ordered a shipment of 40 TEU's to be sent by train across the countryside. She snuck onto the train, and while the conductor believed himself alone she approached the man from behind with two loaded pistols pressed against the back of his head. "Hello, sir. I'll have to ask you to step aside."

He complied grudgingly, and Zyanya thought to kill the man, but decided such action would be pointless. She grabbed the brake lever and pulled down hard. The train slowly grinded to a half and she kicked the conductor out the door before sending Aram a signal with the location of the train.

[Zimmerwald]

This is absolutely perfect, thought Aram.  When he had told the others of the TEUs that had been sent across rural China (I'm putting this on the mainland, northwest of Validus, while Corfu is on a small island in the far west), they had immediately gathered a few people to help to pick them up.  Most Chinese peasants had long been cowed by the government, but there were a few who had perked up at the leadership's promise of freedom.

They approached the train from the north, all the time watching for Government patrols.  It wasn't likely, but it was possible that the stoppage had been detected.  However, they managed to reach the train safely enough.  Viktor had stepped into a small tussock, and twisted his ankle, but it was nothing serious.

Quickly, they boarded the train.  Aram and Viktor found Zyanya in the engine, waiting.  Two bodies lay unconscious in the cab, but she appeared unconcerned.  The rest fanned out to the rear cars, looking for any other passengers or train workers.  They didn't want anybody knowing where this train was going.

[Zimmerwald]

In Corfu, the battle continued.  The outer positions had been given up long ago, and the fighters were retreating towards the center city, and the old fortress.  From far off, they noticed a Filipino ship in the harbor.  Damn, thought Rami we're going to have to fight them too?  Osman, however, took it in stride, pulling a piece of shrapnel out of his leg and looking grimly at the ship.  He said nothing.

[Xyrael]

Zyanya smiled at Aram. "You'll find 30 of these crates to hold more weapons you need. Radom AKM's, some RPG-2's and a few light mortars, and even a handful SA-7 Grail's in case you have problems with helicopters."

She turned to Viktor and smiled. "There's also ten containers filled with rice and wheat, a gift. I have a vessel docked in the harbor at Corfu under the Filipino flag, and a warehouse where all the supplies are being stored." She handed the keys to Aram. "There's two thousand more containers of weapons and ammunition there, and eight thousand TEU's of food to feed those whose home have been destroyed by your enemies."

She placed her hands behind her resting against the small of her back, showing off her physique to the men to entertain herself. "Is there anything else you boys need?"

[Zimmerwald]

"This is ample, Zyanya.  We might be needing ammunition far in the future, but that won't be for a while.  You've done splendidly.  Now...all we need to do is start the train, and distribute these across the countryside.  Hopefully that will relieve the pressure on Corfu if the whole country is up in arms."  He looked around, slightly bewildered.  "I assume you know how to start this thing?"

"What worries me," mused Viktor, not really paying attention, "is not the government.  They will fall if enough people resist; it's happened before.  But other countries will intervene, and I see no way to prevent that.  They might delay us indefinately, perhaps forever."

[Xyrael]

Zyanya pulled several levers and started the train, and threw a smile back at the Viktor. She always seemed cheerful for some reason.

"Victory doesn't come on the field, it comes from winning the hearts and minds of the people. Even if 'Corfu' fails, if the rest of Gallipoli-China learned that there was indeed resistance they too would join you. And a nation-wide revolution is a force no one can suppress."

[Feniexia]

Slowly, Mayia Sirien walked through the large transporter zeppelin to the commando bridge.
"When we´ll arrive at Gallipolli-China?" she asked May Clarewater, the blonde-haired, beautiful young woman in a colonels uniform standing near the communication computer. "Sire, we´ll arrive in about.." she looks quickly at her watch "...5 hours 29 minutes. Do you wish anything else to know?"
"Yes. Try to get a connection with Gallipolli´s communication services."
"Yes sire." she saluted "I´ll try what I can do."
Then, she quickly went to the big workstation-computer, hastily typing into the keyboard.

OOC: G-C, do you have communication services? If yes, please tell me. My people dunno where to land with their 6 large zeppelins. If you wan´t to RP this out, May will ask you mainly were to land, and which places should be avoided. She will be very politely.
OOC 2: My people have their own food rations which will last for about 2 months.
OOC-EDIT: Naw, May´s blonde...she is related to a RPG-character I created before for my computer game.

[Zimmerwald]

OOC: yeah, most of the infrastructure's sound, and the rebellion hasn't spread beyond Corfu yet.  It will shortly spread to the mainland, north of Validus, but as you said "Gallipoli," which is the western islands, I'm assuming you're avoiding the mainland.  As long as you stay away from Corfu, you're pretty much fine.

IC: The zeppelin port at Tekirdag, on the largest island in Gallipoli province, hadn't been used in years, and was slowly falling into disrepair, but it was reasonably certain that it would last long enough to be used for a few more years at least.  The zeppelins who had contacted the tower an hour ago would have no trouble, and they would meet ships waiting to take them to trouble spots too dangerous to be approached from the air.

"Very true, Zyanya.  I'm afraid we've neglected to take the long view lately," said Aram.  "Even Viktor."  The two men exchanged glances.  They both knew that Viktor was the most holistic of the leadership.  If he was losing the long view, then things were almost certainly moving too fast.  "Incidentally, Zyanya, are there any vehicles in those crates?  The train doesn't stop everywhere, and once we reach the first villiage and manage to convince the people, we'll need to distribute these far beyond the route of the rail line."  Viktor remained silent.  He had taken Aram's glance, and the message it contained, to heart, and was thinking about how they could best appeal to the inhabitants of Macao.

[Xyrael]

Zyanya frowned. "Just two duece and a halfs. Enough space to haul a load of guns and supply a town at a time, but not enough to abandon the train in one spot." She looked down at her pager and frowned. "Also, some of my fellows have spotted reinforcements. Usually it would not be my place to help you, long wars are most profitable, but I have respect for you. I expect you will have much trouble if a full scale foreign intervention takes place."

(OOC: By profit, her orders are all money she makes are given to the Fallen. She's taken a vow of poverty, and owns nothing, but instead the Fallen own the money, and give as they will.)

Her beeper clicks and she looks down and reads a small message, which informs her of the Gallipoli-Chinese response to her Elders. She looks up at Aram with a smile but says nothing, seemingly dismissing it.

[Zimmerwald]

I'm not even going to ask what that's about, thought Aram.  Viktor finally piped up.

"We will probably be stopping in Macao a long while.  You were right; we don't just need to arm people.  We need to have them commit.  And that's not going to be easy..."  He trailed off, going back to his thoughts.

OOC: I envision a political game going on in Macao, that Viktor is aware of.  They will have to stop for a while there, and wrangle with the municipal government about this and that, all the while "evangalizing" the population.  That's why I asked about vehicles.

[Feniexia]

After about 3 minutes of waiting, a message box appeared on the screen.
"Connection established." May said. "Do you wish to talk?"
General Siria shooked her head. "You was ordered to do the communications."
May saluted again. "As you wish."
Then, she drawed her UNI visor* and connectioned it with the workstation via a long cable.
She was the only soldier (except for General Siria) who speak chinese.

A little bit of talking later....

"Report." the general ordered after May put of her visor.
"Sire, they gave us the coordinates of their zeppelin ports.
Shall I gave orders to the pilots of all the zepellins?"
"Yes. And, transmit some messages all soldiers should be ready.
I´ll take care for the soldiers on this zeppelin."
She saluted again, before she put on her visor again.

....About 7 hours later....

The sun is going up. Not far away, the soldiers in the cockpit and in the lookouts could see the Tekirdag zeppelin port. The 5 very huge zeppelins are preparing to land. Three of them did land outside the port because of the lacking of free space, but two of them were damaged a bit on the long journey and needed reparation.

General Siria stepped off the plattform lift of the airship. Then, she looked around.

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OOC: Siria is waiting for someone to greet her. She´s human. She will be politely when she speaks to someone. She´s a bit arrogant. Just RP her greeting and asking for orders. Left and right of Siria, there are 3 squads a 10 soldiers of the standard artillery guarding her. My people are all well trained, but they lack of practical war experience. They are neither pro- or contra-rebels, but they will follow the orders Siria give them. Siria will follow G-Cs government until she got other orders from Feniexia or G-C is ordering them to slay unarmed civils or similar.

[Xyrael]

Zyanya nodded, "I'm not the only one here, I can have you more vehicles in a weeks time. How many do you need?" She glanced to her beeper, she was waiting for a message.

If this 'Euryl' continues, the Fallen Council will not take kindly to this offense... she was nervous. The government of Xyrael may not have a national army, but the Fallen Council of the Pazca was tantamount to a such an entity. She was quite entertained, the Gallipoli-Chinese Prime Minister had unwittingly gravely insulted the Council of Xyrael's most militant tribe.