August 16th, 2020, Lahos City
It'd been several months since the military's takeover of the government. However, for the average citizen, things looked almost the same as normal. People still went to work every day, the roads once again became excessively occupied, and regular broadcasting resumed its course, albeit with a slight bias so as not to anger their liberators.
Private Alexis Elilis had just finished boot camp training before his first assignment. The AAF was having a parade thrown in its honor, touring around the main roads of the capital. However, a fresh face would've more likely than not embarrassed the army's honor and pride, which is why he, along with other recruits like him, were relegated to guard duty on posts within the capital.
Elilis and his squad set up camp on an abandoned tower at the outskirts of the capital, parts of which were abandoned during the civil war and the nationalist takeover, both of which pushed away major businesses from keeping their assets in Akhara. The military government, however, saw no issue in re-taking these buildings and re-purposing them for their use -- be it military factories, outposts, runways, docks, or command centers. In this case, the height of the structure made a perfect overwatch for the rest of the city.
"Seeing anything, Eli?" asked private first-class Fotis, who was just a few days away from his promotion and had already begun thinking of himself as an NCO.
"Negative, sir. And, respectfully, sir, stop calling me Eli when you know it makes me sound like a girl."
"I don't think he can see anything over that massive ego of yours..." muttered recruit Takis, who had always had a particular distaste for authority yet ironically ended conscripted into the ground forces.
"And I don't think I can see your ranks, because you always run your damn mouth too much." countered the PFC.
"What's the point of getting into a fight about your ranks when the real enemy's whoever thought that we should be here breaking our backs instead of getting cheered by the public?" butted in the before-silent corporal Silas, who was supposed to attend the parade, only to be re-assigned at the last minute as one of the unlucky guard team leads.
"Is that defiance to your superiors, corporal?" asked Fotis as he glared.
"It's defiance to HQ being arseholes, friend. Also, what is that on your back?"
"Huh? What's what on my back?" the PFC began feeling around his body, to see if there was anything on him.
"Oh, yeah, I see it. I think it's the massive stick up your you know what comes here but we have to maintain a family-friendly rating."
Takis and Elilis burst into laughter while the victim of the joke ashamedly shut himself up. Silas tries to push the conversation:
"So, do you guys got any plans after this? I heard there's a nice fast food place near our barracks."
"Yeah, sure. I'll take the offer. Not like anything's gonna happen here anyway." replied Elilis.
"Don't jinx it now."
"What's the worst that could happ--"
Before he could finish his sentence, a loud explosion followed by several consecutive gunshots and a rising plume of smoke that could only be seen from places such as theirs alerted all of the men to combat positions.
"What's the worst that could happen, he said..." bitterly whispered the recruit.
Meanwhile, corporal Silas picked up his radio as he made a hasty transmission -- "Command, status report? What's happening down there?!" -- as he motioned his team to rush down the stairs.
"Patrols Epsilon and Theta are taking fire from the apartment blocks in district four! It's an ambush!" said the leader of another guard unit.
"What are our orders?! What's the status of the main unit? Are they in contact with us??"
"We just lost comms with Lambda! Helios, please, come in!"
After several moments of agonizing silence, a message came through on all frequencies:
"This is Fort Lahos, callsign Helios. We don't know what just hit us, but whoever did it is in the city. Units Alpha through Omicron, lock down the city. Everyone else, move in for SAR if you can, evacuate any wounded you find. We're coming in with support as soon as we can. Out!"
"Gee, how insert swear word here useful of them to tell us everything we already knew!" spoke out Takis once again as he burst through the doors of the building.
"Shut the insert swear word here up and get in the Bloodhound!" countered the corporal.
As the crew jumped into the vehicle, the driver speedily entered the key, before starting the engine and driving off into the urban area.
-------------------------------
Meanwhile, at Fort Lahos...
An unnecessary amount of panic ensued within the nation's central command as several rotor aircraft scrambled into the air, while armed convoys prepared to enter the city and officers rushed to their units. Sirens rang out, both in the actual city and the fort, getting everyone to their stations in a rapid manner.
Inside the actual fort, the situation was not much better -- the intelligence division was a mess, trying to collect data from field analysts while some more skeptical agents had already begun theorizing on how the attack could've occurred.
Within the High General's mind, however, there was only one immediate question -- who did this? It couldn't be a loyalist counter-attack, they'd already been wiped clean off the map, and a foreign attack doesn't make sense, either. Were they terrorists? Had hatred for his rule reached such an extent to where whoever was fighting against him would be more than happy to target civilian areas? There had to be an answer somewhere.
"Lead captain." intoned Karilis to a nearby officer. "Get me major general Alexandros on the communicator line. Secure connection at the highest level possible."
The captain nodded silently as he set up the comms system to regional messaging. Three small beeps were followed by a familiar voice.
"High general. I heard about the situation. The 181st and other spec-ops are on stand-by, and ASIA operatives are currently scrambling to trace down the origin of the attackers. Any additional orders, sir?"
"Yes, one in particular. Re-construct me the path of the enemy's forces and how they managed to escape us. Turn every place and corner upside down, you have full permission from me so long as it gets us a lead. Send me the report ASAP."
"Understood. Major general out."
Karilis awaited expectantly within his CIC.
10 hours later...
By now, combat had ceased within the city. The AAF was on full damage control, counting their killed and wounded, as well as looking for any remaining pockets of resistance. Miraculously, no civilians were killed, with only a few being wounded by collateral damage after the battle. The military, however, suffered several losses, including a couple of armored vehicles. Panic was replaced with confusion, confusion was gradually replaced with anger.
Meanwhile, within the CIC, the officers on-site, now including the air and naval commanders, had finished their download of the report from the Akharan Special Intelligence Agency, bringing it up for the High General to see on the room's wide projection screen.
The document contained video recordings from each stop of the terrorists -- though, no one paid them any mind. Much more important was the map on the screen, which dotted the route from Lahos all the way to a border village near Armatasian territory. Field agents had raided the area following the attack and discovered several abandoned vehicles and arms -- which most likely could not be brought into the capital without raising suspicion.
The final conclusion was simple yet divisive -- members of an ultra-communist/nationalist terrorist group known only as the "Akharan Liberation Corps" had begun hiding in the territory of Armatas, to avoid detection from the much more brutal Akharan forces. This was a common tactic by former Akharan resistance groups and a historically tricky one to handle.
High Commander Stavrou and high Admiral Kalla both wished for direct intervention, to neutralize the terrorist camps directly. This would circumvent the whole pesky diplomacy thing -- but that would most probably end in a war. Logistics and intelligence officers proposed a gradual infiltration and indirect intervention, to slowly kill off the ALC. This would be an effective strategy -- if they were given the commodity of time, but this is something they did not have. They needed a firm response, otherwise, they would lose credibility.
High General Karilis took into account both of these options. Both had good parts, yes, but they couldn't be applied here without some sort of side effect. To address that, he reached one final compromise, one that would also pave the way for the first-ever major international interaction Akhara would have.
"Get head representative Aleta to draft the Armatasians a message. This should work... I hope."
Territorio di Nessuno.
