03-02-2017, 10:10 PM
Three hours later, two hours after the beginning of the Nigerian-led Expeditionary Force's advance and the collapse of the Legion command-and-control capacity in Algeria...
"Uhh...in line! Add umm...add 100? fire for effect." Andre, a student with a minor in geography, and a good mind for maps and distances, had quickly found himself working as the liaison between Liberian drone operators and the Legion 1st Legion Artillery Battalion. With the help of Colonel Commandant Sauvage, young Andre had managed to grasp the importance of not only knowing how to read a map, but to truly understand it.
"Add one-zero-zero! Aye! Splash in four-fife!" There was no video link to the 1st L.A.B., and the sound of three M777's carrying out a fire mission were load over the audio feed. The video feed from the Liberian drone that was on display showed a trio of Nigerian Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) advancing in a tight column along a narrow back-country road, and the dissipating column of smoke from a single 155mm round that had hit ahead and left of the advancing column.
At another nearby smart-table, Metod, a Slovakian student majoring in international law, scrubbed his hands through his hair in apparent exasperation as he tried to iron out the wording of the official wording of the joint war declaration, while struggling to get agreements from Liberian and Sierra Leonean counter-parts. There had been a brief argument over including, at least notionally, representatives from the Guinean Restorative Government, but had agreed in the end not to, as the rebuilding efforts in Guinea would be likely be years before any unified government was truly established there. The lad had a dozen different screens open, and even a hard-cover text book, which sported dozens of dog-ear'd pages as he struggled to keep up with his 'qualified' African counterparts.
Karina Rao sat in one corner of the room, back to the wall, and her Benin-based counter part, Karthika Narang, sat in the office of President Derrick Fasano and some of his own advisers. She paused briefly, staring towards Andre's table as the thunder of 155mm howitzers barked off his audio feed in the rather bustling cafe.
Jacques stood in the center of the room, leaning over a table that displayed a map of north-eastern Liberia. Even with the unchecked spread of the Sahara Desert, the region was still densely forested, something which had played to the advantage of both the Liberian defense forces that had sided with the people against their own government, and the Legion forces that had moved in to assess their capabilities. Officially, at least. Nigerian intelligence had failed to realize just how much of the Legion's forces had been moved into the area, expecting an aggressive move by the Nigerian/Malian 'Expeditionary' force.
Real time markers indicated Legion/Liberian positions, and Liberian drones had managed to keep track of much of the Expeditionary Force's advance. "Mademoiselle Tamboia. Prog-Rep on those defensive positions?"
Placida Tamboia, a rather tomboyish young Italian woman, working on a major in construction engineering, palmed her Wallet and looked over at Jacques with a rather harried expression, "They can hear the front line, the on-site foreman is getting spooked. But, they're almost done."
He nodded slightly and offered her a comforting smile, "Well, our forward elements will be falling back to that location in a few minutes. Have them wrap up and withdraw."
She nodded and turned away to resume speaking to the foreman in Liberia. She had been tasked to lead a mostly volunteer civilian work force in building a earth-works defensive line that ran along what passed as a major highway, little more then a wide, hard-packed dirt road through the Liberian jungles. That line was going to brunt the Nigerian-led advance, which had already been bloodied on its advance along narrow roads and through the dense woodland.
Artillery strikes had boxed in the Expeditionary Force's advance, as had a series of ambushes and hit-and-run attacks on their rear echelon and logistics lines. Strikes that had been written off by the Expeditionary Force commanders as the work of stragglers. They hadn't bothered tracking those strikes, hadn't bothered trying to get a picture of what was happening as their forces advanced.
In three hours, some three thousand Nigerian, Malian, and Ivory Coast troops had advanced into Liberia. Tanks and IFVs had led the assault, with soft-skinned trucks and supply vehicles following behind. They had taken dozens of Liberian villages quickly, only to find many already abandoned. And believed that to have been because of the recent upheaval in the Liberian government.
They had found scattered Liberian military forces, which had retreated only after the Expeditionary Force had gathered enough forces in place to over run their prepared positions, which only slowed the Liberian advance and bolstered their confidence. They had ignored the Liberian drones; the country had no artillery, after all. And there was no fear of a coordinated response; the Legion facility in Algeria had been crippled by means of electronic warfare.
Two hours into the advance, the first signs of resistance had begun. By the third hour, reports were swarming in of Liberian forces in full retreat, and of scattered contact reports in the rear. And the artillery strikes had begun. But they had been sporadic, inaccurate, and seemingly ineffective. When entire platoons stopped responding, it was assumed due to poor radio reception; a common fault that had only worsened as the Expeditionary force had advanced deeper into Liberia.
Edited by Jacques, Mar 6 2017, 07:20 PM.
"Uhh...in line! Add umm...add 100? fire for effect." Andre, a student with a minor in geography, and a good mind for maps and distances, had quickly found himself working as the liaison between Liberian drone operators and the Legion 1st Legion Artillery Battalion. With the help of Colonel Commandant Sauvage, young Andre had managed to grasp the importance of not only knowing how to read a map, but to truly understand it.
"Add one-zero-zero! Aye! Splash in four-fife!" There was no video link to the 1st L.A.B., and the sound of three M777's carrying out a fire mission were load over the audio feed. The video feed from the Liberian drone that was on display showed a trio of Nigerian Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) advancing in a tight column along a narrow back-country road, and the dissipating column of smoke from a single 155mm round that had hit ahead and left of the advancing column.
At another nearby smart-table, Metod, a Slovakian student majoring in international law, scrubbed his hands through his hair in apparent exasperation as he tried to iron out the wording of the official wording of the joint war declaration, while struggling to get agreements from Liberian and Sierra Leonean counter-parts. There had been a brief argument over including, at least notionally, representatives from the Guinean Restorative Government, but had agreed in the end not to, as the rebuilding efforts in Guinea would be likely be years before any unified government was truly established there. The lad had a dozen different screens open, and even a hard-cover text book, which sported dozens of dog-ear'd pages as he struggled to keep up with his 'qualified' African counterparts.
Karina Rao sat in one corner of the room, back to the wall, and her Benin-based counter part, Karthika Narang, sat in the office of President Derrick Fasano and some of his own advisers. She paused briefly, staring towards Andre's table as the thunder of 155mm howitzers barked off his audio feed in the rather bustling cafe.
Jacques stood in the center of the room, leaning over a table that displayed a map of north-eastern Liberia. Even with the unchecked spread of the Sahara Desert, the region was still densely forested, something which had played to the advantage of both the Liberian defense forces that had sided with the people against their own government, and the Legion forces that had moved in to assess their capabilities. Officially, at least. Nigerian intelligence had failed to realize just how much of the Legion's forces had been moved into the area, expecting an aggressive move by the Nigerian/Malian 'Expeditionary' force.
Real time markers indicated Legion/Liberian positions, and Liberian drones had managed to keep track of much of the Expeditionary Force's advance. "Mademoiselle Tamboia. Prog-Rep on those defensive positions?"
Placida Tamboia, a rather tomboyish young Italian woman, working on a major in construction engineering, palmed her Wallet and looked over at Jacques with a rather harried expression, "They can hear the front line, the on-site foreman is getting spooked. But, they're almost done."
He nodded slightly and offered her a comforting smile, "Well, our forward elements will be falling back to that location in a few minutes. Have them wrap up and withdraw."
She nodded and turned away to resume speaking to the foreman in Liberia. She had been tasked to lead a mostly volunteer civilian work force in building a earth-works defensive line that ran along what passed as a major highway, little more then a wide, hard-packed dirt road through the Liberian jungles. That line was going to brunt the Nigerian-led advance, which had already been bloodied on its advance along narrow roads and through the dense woodland.
Artillery strikes had boxed in the Expeditionary Force's advance, as had a series of ambushes and hit-and-run attacks on their rear echelon and logistics lines. Strikes that had been written off by the Expeditionary Force commanders as the work of stragglers. They hadn't bothered tracking those strikes, hadn't bothered trying to get a picture of what was happening as their forces advanced.
In three hours, some three thousand Nigerian, Malian, and Ivory Coast troops had advanced into Liberia. Tanks and IFVs had led the assault, with soft-skinned trucks and supply vehicles following behind. They had taken dozens of Liberian villages quickly, only to find many already abandoned. And believed that to have been because of the recent upheaval in the Liberian government.
They had found scattered Liberian military forces, which had retreated only after the Expeditionary Force had gathered enough forces in place to over run their prepared positions, which only slowed the Liberian advance and bolstered their confidence. They had ignored the Liberian drones; the country had no artillery, after all. And there was no fear of a coordinated response; the Legion facility in Algeria had been crippled by means of electronic warfare.
Two hours into the advance, the first signs of resistance had begun. By the third hour, reports were swarming in of Liberian forces in full retreat, and of scattered contact reports in the rear. And the artillery strikes had begun. But they had been sporadic, inaccurate, and seemingly ineffective. When entire platoons stopped responding, it was assumed due to poor radio reception; a common fault that had only worsened as the Expeditionary force had advanced deeper into Liberia.
Edited by Jacques, Mar 6 2017, 07:20 PM.