And now, for your reading pleasure, I present The Emperors Reach:
Yuri Obolensky, third in line for the Imperial Throne, spent years painstakingly accumulating information for various missions around the globe, all organzied by the Emperors Hand. By combing through military and Imperial records, interviewing the participants (including General Reznov himself) and using his position as a member of the Imperial family to find out the whole truth, he is able to give us a never before seen look into one of the most feared organizations on the planet and just how powerful they are. For the first time ever, the common man is able to see just how powerful the Emperors of our great nation are and just how vulnerable our enemies can be, even abroad.
- Dr. Radomir Vasilyev, Professor of Military History, University of Kiev, 1973
OPERATION Oncoming Storm was the largest military action in history. Russian troops and their Imperial allies struck nearly simultaneously across three continents, sending tens of millions of troops against the British and their allies in Scandinavia, Germany, Guangxi, Persia and Turkey. But that is not the full story of how the Second World War started. Over a decade before the attack on Dumyat, Russian forces were working to secure victory before the first shot was even fired. The tip of the Russian spear was (and remains to this day) the Emperors Hand. These elite troops spend their lives training to serve the Emperor and eliminate his enemies, wherever they may hide. In the years leading up to World War Two, they and other proud Russian patriots struck across the globe, bringing death to those who would hinder Imperial glory. Herein lie their stories.
OPERATION Riposte-Madagascar 1925-1928
In Russia, the British inciting and funding rebellions throughout the Imperial Scandinavian holdings in the Kongo in 1924-1925 marks the start of the final Anglo-Russian War. This was the first open attack by the British against a Russian ally since the end of the Great War. It forced the Imperial government to reshape their world view, as the British-back uprisings in Abyssinia and Adjuuramark now meant that war with the United Kingdom was now inevitable. But here was an enemy far removed from Russia, with a large and powerful fleet. How could they be defeated?
Surprisingly enough, it was the British who gave the Emperor the idea. While operating in Abyssinia, the Emperors Hand had found that the British had invested very little into funding the various rebellions, but had managed to tie up numerous Russian resources. It was determined that such operations could prove to be very useful against the British themselves. Before it was implemented on a global scale, a testing ground would be needed, and nearby Madagascar proved to be the perfect location. In 1926, the Emperor ordered that roughly [5 EP] worth of weapons and ammunition be given to the rebels on the island. As there existed no contacts, most of the weapons were simply left on the beaches for the locals to find and use. When the Suez Canal was closed to all Russian and Roman shipping and the fleets off of Tadjoura were forced to go completely around Africa to get back home, even more excess equipment was jettisoned to Madagascar, ostensibly to lighten the ships' loads for the long journey home. This including laying sea mines through several British patrol paths, resulting in the sinking of two British ships.
Though the rebels were eventually crushed, OPERATION Riposte was deemed a success. This was due to investment; at the height of the rebellion (1926-1928), the Russian government with roughly [10-20 EP] had managed to tie down over [200 EP] of British troops, planes and ships. And all this was to maintain hold of a colony that was producing a mere [2 EP] a year! Imperial approval was given to implement the strategy and it proved to be highly effective. For the next decade, the United Kingdom would be forced to invest time, troops and money to put down rebellions, support allies and try to blunt Russian interests across the globe, always spending more than Russia had. A prime example of this strategy was in the Reclamation War. Jacksonia received more foreign aid in 1939 (mainly from Great Britain and their allies) than Russia had invested in the United States total, up to that point. Despite this, the UPRA was destroyed, Florida was pushed back and Jacksonia would soon have to retreat back across the Rockies. Russia had forced the British to invest heavily in the Proletarists, Jacksonians and Floridians and yet those forces still lost.
The Fireworks Massacre- Xinjing 1930
With the Russian government now set on war with the British, steps were taken to strike at the most valuable of Britains colonies: Guangxi. With the nationalist Red Army operating throughout the three Chinas, a bounty program was implemented to tie down British assets throughout the region. Money from Russia (funneled through the Unified Realm) would be paid for the killing of British and Guangxi government officials, military members, and, most importantly, the British backed King of Guangxi. When the Guangxi government announced that they would be holding a massive celebration in 1930, it proved to be the perfect time to strike a crippling blow to the enemy.
Members of the Emperors Hand were dispatched to liaison with Red Army contacts in China and plan the best way to attack. Great care was taken to ensure who knew of direct Russian involvement, for purposes of deniability. A number of different ideas were suggested and then discarded: poisoning the food, an all-out assault by infantry units, an aerial bombing. It was at this point that one of the Russian advisors, Captain Nikolay Volkov, suggested an artillery strike. The targets would be at a known location that the attackers could easily scout out before hand and have zeroed in precisely. When it was determined that smuggling artillery into the Guangxi capital would be impossible, the plan was adapted for mortars to be used. In order to belay suspicion from falling upon Russia, the Emperors younger cousin Anton was selected to attend the event. Being of simple mind, Anton held no actual role in the Imperial government and his death would not hinder the running of the Empire while giving Russia the perception of innocence.
The Emperors Hand trained Chinese operatives in the use of mortars deep in China. These operatives then trained members of the Red Army who would perform the attack itself. This created a buffer between Russia and the Red Army, making it nearly impossible to tie the event directly to the Empire. Several members went so far as to travel to Xinjing to spot out attack locations that were later relayed to the Red Army, but beside that there was no direct contact between Russia and the attackers. The attack itself was a resounding success. Not only was the King of Guangxi killed, but the British monarch was killed as well. Such a brazen assassination meant that Britain was forced to respond and they became embroiled in a war where they gained nothing and lost much. In the aftermath of the attack, Russia refused British overtures to join them in attacking the Unified Realm and the Red Army, stating that such a war would not bring back the British King or the Emperors cousin. Yet, the British went ahead anyway, declaring war on the Red Army and the Unified Realm. For the next nine years, the United Kingdom was embroiled in a war half way around the world, where they poured in troops, equipment and money and in the end had nothing to show for it. The Red Army was defeated, but the Unified Realm remained, Guangxis infrastructure was wrecked and they had suffered horrendous casualties. Throughout the course of the war, the German and British air groups sent to help their efforts were often nearly destroyed, both on the ground and in the air. This was not only expensive in terms of money and planes, but in pilots, as the air groups operating in the theaters often consisted as almost the entire air forces of the two nations. So, in the end, the British and Germans expended money, equipment and men and gained nothing, while Russia was able to evaluate how their equipment (including the T-28 and S-100) matched up with the enemies and ensure that the British and Germans were sufficiently distracted so that they were unable to oppose or respond to Russias military build-up. It is telling that the British possessed proof (albeit it circumstantial) that Russia had facilitated the war and were not only able to punish the Empire, but failed entirely to prepare themselves for the war that was clearly coming.
OPERATION Nightshade- Burgundy 1934
In the early to mid 1930s, when Russia began to prepare for the Second World War in earnest, it was determined that selling off the previous generation of tanks and plans would be an efficient way to not only get rid of older weapons and upgrade the Russian military, but also build allies and force the enemies of the Emperor to become further involved in pointless conflict. Therefore, in 1933, diplomats were sent to Burgundy to facilitate the sale of T-20 tanks and H-1921 Close Air Support planes to the new regime of Alexander Hollande. The Russian representative, Baron Zinoviy Krupin, described the French leader thus:
[An] excitable little man. He was most agreeable to your [Emperor Mikhails] terms of sale for our older tanks and planes. As you ordered, I made a point of implying that Russia would support any efforts taken by Burgundy to reclaim the rest of the Confederation. This made the President [sic] most agitated with excitement, causing him to wave his hands about and start to froth slightly around the mouth. While he will surely serve the Emperors purpose, there is clearly madness within his eyes.
It had been hoped that Burgundy would take its new equipment and invade one or more of its neighbors, forcing the Germans to intervene. This would tie down one of Russias enemies and potentially force them to crush any and all pro-reunification factions in France, which (it was hoped) would sway more of those factions to siding with Russia. Despite much saber rattling by Burgundy and hand wringing by its neighbors, nothing came of the sale and it seemed that peace would reign. It was at this point that General Dmitri Reznov, the head of the Emperors Hand, made a suggestion: if Burgundy would not attack on their own, perhaps they could be forced? Russia had cultivated a number of contacts and so called sleeper agents throughout Germany after the end of the Great War. Some were Prussian assets whose families were being held in Siberia, with a promise of reuniting if certain tasks were accomplished, some were simple people who enjoyed the Emperors money, and some were German children indoctrinated in Russia and sent back home to await further contact. One of the latter was a young man named Hans Wirner who lived in Frankfurt. In 1934, he was given an order by his Russian handlers Kill Alexander Hollande, flee to the German embassy, admit to your crime and demand protection.
The plan was to create an international crisis that would spark a war that would drag in most of Western Europe and keep more enemy assets tied down in a pointless conflict. However, it succeeded too well. Using a high power rifle, Wirner perched upon the roof of a small library in Paris, across the square from where Hollande was giving a speech on a large raised platform. After shooting Hollande in the chest, Wirner fled down a fire escape to his waiting car and made his way towards the German embassy. Unfortunately, the law enforcement officers chose to pursue supposed leads linking the attack to local proletarists and other dissidents that lived nearby and did not properly establish a check point and Wirner managed to get to the embassy unmolested. There, as ordered, he confessed to his crime. Once more, unexpected actions foiled the ultimate plan. The German ambassador, rather than attempting to hide Wirner in the embassy, instead smuggled him back into Germany, where he was awarded a Medal for Heroism for his action and returned home and told to keep quiet. Though Burgundy would go to war, it was not against Germany and their poorly thought out attack plan and out dated equipment and army doctrine meant that they were doomed from the start. If anything, the quick war worked against Russian interests, removing one of the last pro-Russian regimes from the former Confederation and paving the way for unification under the liberal leadership of Occiantia.
OPERATION Trident- London, Berlin, Stockholm 1936
As the time grew closer for OPERATION Oncoming Storm to begin, it was determined that something must be done about the known British and German agents who had infiltrated Russia. Their capture and removal would leave a gaping hole in the enemys intelligence network and greatly reduce the likelihood of them learning of the ongoing preparations for OPERATION Oncoming Storm. The Emperors Hand then began the largest spy hunt in history, carefully monitoring known enemy agents (some of whom had been under observation for years, including several midlevel members of the Diplomatic Corps) to see who the interacted with. This allowed them to paint an extremely accurate picture of enemy infiltration. As Imperial agents prepared to round up these dangerous individuals, Russian assets in Germany reported that not only did there seemed to be no indication in Munich that the Germans knew what was about to happen, but they were woefully unprepared for any war. Cultivating these and other reports, it was determined that a strike against the secret headquarters would cripple the entire German Intelligence network. Operatives in Stockholm and London reported similar standings; the buildings were unguarded, hidden in plain sight and extremely vulnerable to attack. Further investigation revealed that enemy agents abroad were also easily susceptible to attack. And so, what had started as a simple series of arrests evolved into the greatest intelligence strike in history: OPERATION Trident.
Trident had three main objectives: eliminate enemy contacts in Russia and blind them to the coming war, destroy known enemy assets abroad to further hamstring their intelligence gathering and destroy their bases of operation at home. This would mean that as Russia and its allies were entering the final stages of preparation for the war, the enemy would have to start all over again and essentially be blind and deaf. And so it was that as Russian Secret Police were moving to arrest traitors at home, members of the Emperors Hand were striking in Germany, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, the United States, India and throughout Western Europe. Most of the attacks abroad were small and not newsworthy, concealing the killing of single enemy spies or assets as robberies, car accidents and drug overdose to name a few. In the United States, members of the Emperors Hand were deployed with the recently arrived Russian Expeditionary Force, killing British spies in the States and Scandinavian contacts within the UPRA. In India, teams were dispatched to solidify Federalist holdings by eliminating enemy businessmen and advisors who had been aiding the Regionalist rebels. Every known or suspected contact in Europe was killed. Had the enemy intelligence networks been operational, they would have seen sure signs of attack and known that war was soon. However, they had their own problems to deal with.
The three main attacks on the enemy intelligence headquarters were spectacular. In Scandinavia, known nationalists and Imperial sympathizers smuggled in members of the Emperors Hand. Infiltrating Stockholms sewer system, a large collection of bombs were set up directly under the main buildings of the National Intelligence Commissions complex. Upon detonation, the bombs caused the tunnels underneath the buildings to collapse, bringing the Scandinavian Intelligence network with them. The Russian agents were smuggled out via Denmark while a radical Norwegian separatist group was set up as the fall guy. In London, Russian and Imperial agents posing as tourists were able to scope out the target. Here, an added layer of subterfuge was added. Using a captured British agent in Russia, they sent a message stating that a package with sensitive information would soon be arriving. And so it was that the Emperors Hand personally delivered the bomb that gutted the British Special Intelligence Service to them. Little is known the Russian contact in Munich. There had been contact with the man, a crazed anarchist, for some time, with very little coming of it. It was determined that he should take the blame for the fire-bombing of the German intelligence headquarters. This was accomplished by setting a bomb next to the main gas storage for the buildings heating system. While attempting to fake the mans death shortly thereafter, his girlfriend unexpectedly visited and also had to be eliminated. In the end, the result was the same. The enemy was blinded across the board and Oncoming Storm came as a near total surprise.
OOC:
Taking Sides:
Circuit once commented that Proletarism was not a major concern in the UK but Russia was and that shaped much of their foreign policy. Keeping that in mind, I did my best to force my enemies to support either lost causes or ones that would tarnish their global image by supporting, such as the Italian rebels. If Civil War erupted in Italy, since I was supporting the monarchy, by necessity the British and Germans would have to join Scandinavia in supporting the Proletarist rebels. This would anger the Pope (who was also having problems with the same rebels) and play into the propaganda I had been spreading that the British and Germans were doing exactly that. Since they were backing Scandinavia (who was funding, training and/or instigating Proletarist movements in the Russian sphere), I could state that the British and Germans were also doing so. In order to strike back at me once the war started, chances were that they would then actually start funding these groups, validating all my arguments in an instant.
Even better were situations where I didnt lose no matter who won, such as the Reclamation War and Indian Civil War. By supporting the US and Federalist Indians, I became friendly with nations that had become pariahs either by their own actions or the actions of their governments. For a few hundred EP each, I gained a nation that was publically indebted to Russia. This forced the Proles, Brits and Germans to respond in kind and start supporting their opposition. If the side Im supporting wins, I gain a new ally who (by treaty obligation) would then come to my aid against the British. If they lost on the other hand, I once more get to test my equipment against what the enemy has to offer, and a weaker, more regionally centered government takes over in both nations. This would make it difficult for them to them fight me in the future for sustained periods of time (lest their member states start rebelling at home). In the US, it would have resulted in new British back Proletarist nations being established, which would further solidify the British as Proletarist sympathizers and backs and Russia as the champion of combatting Proletarism.
Catalonia:
The situation in Catalonia further exemplifies my overall plans of creating situations where Russia would benefit and my enemies would lose, no matter what the outcome. Catalonia was (and is still considered) to be Spanish territory and its inclusion in an Occitanian led Confederation would result in only one thing: war. If war was not to occur naturally, I would have forced it similarly to how I precipitated it in Burgundy, this time using bombings, random shootings along the border and the tried and true method of promising support to both sides (as I did the Uruguayan Crisis). Spain, as a recently resurgent power with powerful backing, was fast approaching the time when they could reclaim all the territory that Germany had broken off from them at the end of the Rhine-Rhone War, even if it meant war with their neighbors. Best of all, Russia had agreements with all parties involved: there was the agreement with Spain and Brazil to close off the Mediterranean and cut shipments of contraband to the British in exchange for trade concessions and the secret negotiations with the Confederations resulting in their neutrality so long as Imperial troops didnt cross the Rhine and their allegiance if I gave them the German Burundian holdings. War between them would have led to a very awkward situation for Brazil, one I meant to capitalize on to the fullest extent.
Were Brazil to back their Spanish allies (via the Lisbon Pact), the Confederation would then be bereft of allies and in desperate need of help. This would only further cement the propaganda that I had been spreading that Brazil was untrustworthy and should be kept out of Europe. It would also invalidate the recent treaties Brazil had signed, showing them to be fickle allies. The Confederation would then have three options: First, go it alone and try to hold back the Spanish and Brazilians by themselves (with the marginal aid of the other breakaway Spanish states) and inevitably be overrun. Second, they could turn to the British for help, who would already be stretched to the breaking point, but happy to deny me access to the English Channel, and then use my issue of the present (the British Home Fleet) to fight my problem of the future (the Brazilian fleet). No matter who wins, they are irrevocably antagonized towards each other and they sink ships today that I wont have to sink tomorrow. The third option available to the Confederation (and most appealing) is to seek my help. By that point, I would be close to, if not on the Rhine River, the German military would be crushed and their country overrun. It would be easy for my battle hardened troops to then head south to help crush the green Spanish and Brazilian forces, securing Western Europe for me, along with a launch pad for my invasion of Britain. It would also mean that Sardinia and Corsica would either be unaligned (and thus easy prey for Italy) or on my side and working for the people who would eventually see them added to the Italian Empire.
If, on the other hand, Brazil abandons the Lisbon Pact for their new allies in the Confederation, I have even more fun. Now, Brazil is throwing one of their older allies to the wolves in favor of their new friends, which I can then use to call into question every deal theyve ever made. The whole détente in South America is now in question (if the Brazilians will betray an actual ally like Spain, what hope does Peru have of getting fair treatment from them?) and Brazil is vilified abroad and does most of my PR work for me in smearing themselves. Spain, having just screwed over the British by closing Gibraltar, has even less options than the Confederation and has no choice but to seek Russian aid. The Brazilian betrayal also means that Portugal (the largest free market supplier of arms in the world) will side with Spain and I get not one, but two new friends. I then get to invade the Confederation from at least two, possibly three sides (Germany, the Netherlands and through Italy), Italy in turn begins the attacks on the now isolated Corsica and Sardinia and I get to establish a new Holy Roman Empire in France and Germany (with Papal blessing of course to get yet another nation on my side). On the downside, the British and Brazilian (and probably Argentinian) fleets are now merged to oppose a landing in England. However, that will mean nothing in a land war in Europe, and with all of the Baltic and Mediterranean under Imperial control and all of Central Europe as a buffer, I can afford to spend several years cranking out subs, carriers and any other ship I might need and launch the largest naval pincer move ever to strike at England from all sides.
Last but not least is my favorite option, where Brazil decides to remain entirely neutral and does nothing. Now, they completely invalidate every agreement theyve ever made, and severing once and for all any good will they had in Europe, leaving the various nations there without any hope of American intervention against me. It also means that Brazil would finally have honored one of his agreements, the secret pact made between Brazil, the United States and myself at the height of the Uruguayan Crisis, giving North America to the US, South America to Brazil and Europe to Russia. Then, I would get to sit back and pick who I wanted to win and back them, or let them fight it out until they were both exhausted of manpower and warfare and I could sweep in and crush them both.
Even if they dont go to war right away and through their mutual alliances with Brazil entered the War against me, I would have gradually been able to separate them, using the existing tensions, much as I did with Florida and Jacksonia, focusing on one and sparing the other, breeding further resentment and hostility until one of them either bowed out, switched sides, or fell. Either way, I would have gotten what I wanted and more of my enemies would be dead.
