Tales of the Aztec Sultanate

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March 5th, 1913:

After three months at sea, Captain Abidi was ready to be off of his ship.  Why he had let his cousin talk him into leaving the Jaguar Warriors to join the newly minted Seal Warrior Society....oh, right, his cousin, the Sultan.  And it had come with a healthy promotion as well, to full Captain, Naval Captain, rather than the mere Major he had been.  But finally, they were here, New Zealand as it was called on the map.  A place called Christchurch, named after the prophet Jesus no doubt.  And his men were pouring off of the converted cargo carriers and onto whaleboats for the run in to shore, even as some ships made for the crude fishing and trading wharf to unload under the watchful guns of their lone armored cruiser. 

"Badr, this is the last time we will have to resort to such crude measures" the Captain says.  "I've seen the first of the vessels for the Seal Warriors, Marines as they are called elsewhere.  Next time we are called upon to put to shore, we will sail right to the beach and walk off into the surf, with the guns of our landing ship supporting us."  "Yes, my lord" the sergeant major replies "that will be a good day". 

Over the next week, the majority of the local Maori tribes bent the knee to the Sultan and Allah and his Prophet.  But a sizable number of recalcitrants barricaded themselves in a "Pa" a local type of sunken hill fort turned storehouse.  With a siege likely to last weeks, Captain Abidi decided that a single example of the resolve and battle prowress of his Seals would both serve as an example for what would follow if a general resistance broke out and blood his men in the crucible of glorious combat. 

He stood at the head of an assembled battalion of four companies, 600 men armed with their 1910 Navy Rifles and 1909 Carbines, with some machine guns pulled from the ships for direct fire support along with the Seals 4cm mountain guns.  The artillery duel was anything but lopsided, as the Maori tribesmen had older but larger cannons firing from dug in positions against the rapid firing and accurate, if small, guns of the Aztecs.  But after several hours the guns one by one fell silent to shellfire or machine gun fire. 

With that done, Captain Abidi ordered skirmishers forward, firing at any Maori who raised his head to use a musket.  Drawing his cutlass, the Captain then led the assault by two companies, with the other two following into the warrens den of tunnels.  Young men, volunteers all, sprinted ahead with bundles of dynamite, hurling their cargo into the Pa, though many were cut down by fire before they could crawl away.  The explosions cleared a palisade of thornbrushes opening the way for the assault.  With ululating battle cries from the veterans, the Seal Warriors charged up the low slope and lept into the Pa, rifles and carbines crackling with fire, and bayonet and cutlass being used with abandon as Aztec steel met stone blades hearkening back to their own ancient past.  This was the type of fight that burned deep in the breast of every Aztec, and every man present who had not yet earned his sealskin baldric was keen to showcase his prowress and valor before his brethren.  Released to the madness of the melee, no further orders need be given, and Captain Abidi himself was only a leader of a small party of his staff as he shot and hacked his way into a dugout, catching a club to the ribs in the process of cutting through the rebels.

By the evening, it was all over.  The skirmishers had ensured that none of the Maori rebels escaped, while Captain Abidi, his own cutlass dripping with blood, pistol emptied of cartridges and held as a club, stood in the center of the primitive fortress, master of the field.  Nearly four hundred Maori bodies filled the dugouts and tunnels, while fifty Aztec warriors would need a funeral pyre and another hundred were wounded, most lightly.  Most of the killed were in the initial rush up into the Pa, with many Aztecs, including the Captain, earning a scar or two in the close combat that followed. 

Over the next month, Captain Abidi would see to allowing the locals to bury the dead Maori, though he took great care to show mercy upon those who were not openly hostile.  The battle of Christchurch Pa, as the locals called it, was spread as an example of the professional ability and ferocity of Aztec response to rebellion, while the lightly armed patrolling parties of Seal Warriors were an outward demonstration of the Aztec desire to use a gentle hand in its new territories unless provoked.

[TacCovert4]

March 25th, 1913:

It had been a mild winter.  While ordinarily good for the more tropical acclimatized Jaguar Warriors in the Army, General Actazuma had found the weather to be completely uncooperative to his mission.  His counterpart in Baja colony had swiftly and cleanly accomplished his duty, and even now resources were flowing into the new colony to build towns and industry. 

But Hidalgo was anything but 'pacified'.  The Jaguar Warriors had easily overrun the few established villages and trading posts, sure.  And he had established a line of outposts and 'forts'.  But those were typically blockhouses, or palisades around a warehouse and barracks for a platoon or company, connected by mapped roads, with a few railroads beginning to push north.  Fine for securing a kilometer of territory around and resisting a war party, but not a fortress.  Nothing like the thick concrete walls and engineer-designed fortresses of the Oaxacan Line.  Even then, General Actazuma didn't think those fortresses would do much.  Against the Romans, sure.  But Romans were an infantry and artillery army of the first order.

Against these Comanches, something new would have to be done.  Aztecs had never found the need for mounted troops.  Horses had always been pack animals, with donkeys or mules far more prized for their endurance and usefulness at the plow or the pack trails in the jungles and forests.  The new Sultan's modern bent had meant that his Jaguar Warriors had been uncharacteristically blessed with trucks and cars, but these were not in large numbers and tied down making supply runs to the small garrisons holding his 'conquered' territory.

No, against the Comanches, one had to join them to beat them.  Losses had been light in the initial taking of the territory, mostly because these local animists were scattered far and wide.  But it was their very nomadic nature that was now working against him, as they had no base of support or supply to tie them down.  Comanche war parties ranging from a dozen to several hundred mounted warriors would simply materialize, attack, and then disappear into the vast tracts of Hidalgo and the lands beyond.  On their swift ponies they could cover ground faster than even the finest infantry, and their fieldcraft was excellent as was their natural ability at this type of war.  The only advantage given the Aztecs was that of artillery and modern rifles, for the Comanche fought with muskets, single shot breachloaders, lever action carbines, and even bows and spears.

Jaguar Warrior companies sent after them would find nothing, and foraging parties or patrols would simply disappear with evidence of short and sharp battles marking their demise.  A 'lightning platoon' of Jaguar Warriors mounted on a few trucks had returned only two weeks ago to give yet more proof of their quarry's skill at this new type of warfare.  Thirty Jaguar Warriors on four of his precious trucks had gone to pursue a small war party.  A week later, two bullet-riddled trucks filled with wounded men returned to his headquarters.  Their tale was one of days of driving into the desert in pursuit, only to be ambushed from all sides and then harried by small parties until they were nearly back to the headquarters before the Comanches broke off.  His warriors said that they had killed thousands, but even if they had killed hundreds it was not enough to call the column a success.

No, this was a new type of warfare entirely.  But one he was determined to learn.  And obviously his junior commanders were getting an education from the grand masters of light cavalry operations.  Fortunately, Allah and the Sun God had smiled upon them, for this territory had herds of tough ponies, and their initial advance over some of the larger villages had captured thousands.  Even now, dispatch riders from within the Sultanate were teaching soldiers how to ride these ponies, and care for them.  Some converted Comanches and minor tribal natives were also teaching his officers about their way of war and how to read the land and find water, browse, and buffalo in the wilderness.  Saddles and tack had been made and sent North, for the Comanche used neither.  And a new society, the Snake Warriors, named after the sideways slithering rattlesnakes found here, had been formed. 

Mounted on tough native painted ponies, and carrying rifles, machine guns, and light mountain guns rebuilt onto large-wheeled carriages, the Snake Warriors, he was certain, would turn the tide and regain lost momentum in the expansion into this vast land.  And momentum the Aztecs must regain, for other fierce tribes, the Apache, the Crow, and the Sioux and Cheyenne were rumored to be to the North, and there the Aztecs would have to contend with both the natives and the

It would take months, but with General Actazuma's iron will, he was forging not only an eventual victory, but a legacy of mounted warfare that would expand both his own legend and the abilities of the Sultanate.

[TacCovert4]

March 26th, 1913.

Having completed their inspections, and with parts and crews aboard for the steam with the Japanese diplomatic party and and accompanying collier, the following ships names were noted in the register as being transferred on lease to the Empire of Japan:

Tenochtitlan

Scout
Picket

The three older, albeit refurbished in this decade, cruisers would steam to the Japanese holdings on the West Coast of North America as part of the agreement for the engineers which were now assisting Aztec engineers and planners in integrating new technologies quickly into the Aztec shipbuilding industry.

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April 15th

Ambassador Mohammed, Admiral Tochtli and General Coyotl watch the Japanese aviation demonstration with great interest.  Demonstrations of balloons and aeroplanes, with extensive walk arounds were on the agenda for today's meetings as part of establishment of an official Embassy with the Empire of Japan.  The Sultanate's representatives also took short rides on an aeroplane, and both the General and Admiral were impressed.

Of course, their staffs were at times terrified, and at others concerned, and for completely opposite reasons.  After discussing performance figures and what advances were being looked into, the senior officers were also concerned.  For it was well known that Rome had an extensive aviation program.  The Admiral was mostly interested in the possibilities of lighter than air aviation for shell spotting and extending line of sight of the fleet.  The General, he was worrying about the possibility of machine gun armed aeroplanes hunting down and massacring artillery batteries behind the lines.  Missives and cables sent definitively showed the break between the services.  Both expressed a need for the Empire to improve its aviation capabilities at once.  But the Army was practically ordered to go into a crash program for a machine gun with half again the range of the existing 8mm Maxim, the imperative to the General Staff being that hordes of Roman planes with marksmen or machine gunners upon them could maul artillery batteries or infantry columns with impunity unless a gun with longer range could be made to stop them and soon.  The Navy received wholly different guidance from the mission.  The concern of aeroplanes was there.  But the plane types observed would primarily be scouting types.  So a much larger automatic gun would be needed to discourage them from drawing too close to the fleet or its screen, but it was felt that there was plenty of time to draw up plans and specifications, and then properly develop the weapon moving forward.

[TacCovert4]

June 6th, 1913

The Battle of Del Rio

It was hot.  Major Zuma could remember days in Tenochtitlan this hot, but there were always baths, well designed rooms, and shaded patios on his family's estate.  An estate that he had been ripped from by order of the Sultan, primarily because of his family's standing for breeding some of the swiftest horses in the Sultanate, and Zuma's numerous trophies for his riding prowress in his younger years.  The meeting with the reigning monarch was friendly, as Sultan Ali had counted Zuma's son amongst his friends in his youth, and the marriage of the Sultan to one of Zuma's daughters had been briefly entertained before it was decided that the two of them were both strong willed in opposite directions and the match would not be suitable.  Strong will was also a longstanding family trait, one that made the men either honored dead or notable warriors, and the women notorious as being disagreeable. 

But the heat of Hidalgo Colony was something else.  The full fury of the sun beat upon him, even with the broad-brimmed hat that he wore, as he rode astride his horse.  Nearing sixty, Major Zuma had been retired from the Eagle Warriors for almost a decade when his oath was called by the Sultan and he was ordered to go to Hidalgo and assist in the establishment of the Snake Warriors and take command of the Fifth Battalion.  He had studied the Comanche, and learned from the prisoners and advisors just as he had done from the Maya over three decades ago. 

The Comanche had finally moved to give battle.  The crude fort at Del Rio, a place once discovered by prolific catholic missionaries but never claimed properly, was garrisoned by two platoons of Jaguar Warriors, just one in a chain of small forts of adobe placed as outposts along the lines of communication.  And as he glassed the distant structure he could see it surrounded by hundreds of Tipi.  A boat on the Rio Grande had attempted to resupply the fort, but had been unable to.  Even with the Maxim guns on the fort and the 4cm gun and Maxims of the river boat, the Comanche had been able to hold the river and the relief platoon had been unable to establish a corridor that could allow supplies and men to reach the Fort.  The Comanche were well ware of the power of the 'endless repeaters' and had instead sent a steady stream of arrows arcing over small defiles, or sniped at the men from concealed positions. 

But the Comanche had made a miscalculation.  By concentrating, they at least gave him a target, rather than the endless small patrols that had borne little fruit in hunting the elusive tribal warriors across the vast plains.  A target that easily outnumbered him three to one, but a target for a set piece battle nonetheless. 

And so, the Fifth Battalion would be the ones blessed by Allah with the chance to bring the Comanche to at least some decisive grip.  Major Zuma smiled behind the shemagh protecting his face from the sun and dust.  Fifth battalion, unique amongst the Snake Warriors, if derided, because it is, with the exception of its commander, an all female battalion.  In the need for trained riders, Zuma had put forward that the women of the Sultanate were great in number, and that horseback riding was a popular pastime for well born women.  He also noted that women were lighter burdens for horses, and their slighter stature, a detriment on foot marches, was no barrier.  After a discussion with his majesty, including recounting the exploits of Khawlah bint al-Azwar, the experiment was approved, as the fifth battalion of the four battalion brigade. 

They had crossed fifty kilometers upriver from the siege, and ridden East until they located the beleaguered encampment.  Now, with sunrise removing the advantage the Comanche have at night with their dispersed and stealthy movements, Zuma turned to the Captain of the first company of his 300 woman strong battalion.  His daughter, the one notorious for her strong willed disposition.  "Captain Zaniyah, I will lead the second and third companies to cut off the Comanche.  You may begin your attack, Allahu Ackbar"  And with that, the grizzled veteran rode away, leaving the 100 riders of the First Company to make the main attack.

An hour later, the appointed time by the plan, a hundred riders advanced at a fast trot towards the Comanche siege.  Smoke still rose from Del Rio, but the Aztec and Jaguar standards still flew, showing that the elite warriors inside the fort had resisted yet another night of Comanche attacks.  Undoubtedly the high and thick adobe walls had continued to serve them well, along with the machine guns at each corner, though that ammunition had to be running dangerously low by this the 9th day of the siege. 

A hundred riders, clad in khaki, with flowing pantaloons taking the place of skirts while still appearing 'proper', advanced, faces wrapped in shemaghs for the sun and dust as much as modesty out here, the snake pennant flying from the guidon.  At the sound of the trumpet, they sped, covering ground, 1 kilometer....the Comanches are fully alerted to the danger and their camp is like an anthill disturbed...warriors leap upon horses, rifles, muskets, bows, and spears held high as they whoop and ride towards them.  Half a Kilometer....the column splits into a broad wedge, an arrow giving each rider her horse's head and a field of fire for her rifle.  A hundred rifles sling around and come up.  300 meters, rifles crack, and crack again as the cavalry fires at the trot, pouring 6mm fire into the first knots of Comanches charging towards them, felling men and horses as the 1st Company empty their magazines into their foes.  One hundred meters....rifles are dropped and with ululating war cries, the 1st Company spur their horses to the gallop, pistols and scimitars sliding free of scabbards as the outriders edge further inward, tightening the wedge as their Captain leads them into the clash.

Trumpets blast from elsewhere about the Comanche Camp, and two companies headed by Major Zuma crest a low rise, riding fast towards the North flank of the Comanche camp.  The Comanche try to pull up short of the First Company, their following war parties confused by the sudden appearance of the enemy from an unexpected direction, leaving the first war party to face the first company alone.  Pistols snap with fire, and scimitar meets tomahawk as the First Company smashes into and through the first war party, leaving the survivors unmolested as the eighty still mounted Snake Warriors plunge onwards towards Del Rio. 

Major Zuma's remaining companies hit the camp from the North, scimitars rising and falling as they cut down dismounted warriors who are running to their grazing horses.  Rifle, pistol, and scimitar reap a toll in blood as the battalion fights its way through the camp.  The Comanche, past masters of the hit and run cavalry raid, are temporarily paralyzed.  Not by the ferocity of the attack, few could supercede the ferocity of a Comanche brave.  But by the rigid discipline, the shock tactic, and the straight line advance, without wavering, without seeking the arcing maneuver and fast ranged engagements of plains warfare, but rather the brutal firepower and close combat that is the hallmark of the Aztec warrior.

Once in the camp proper, a few Snake Warriors dismount, dragging 6mm Madsens from their mounts to set them up on any convenient perch and pour fire into and between the Tipis, slaughtering scores of Comanches as they make for their mounts.   With most of the Comanches caught away from their horses, the battle is one of cavalry against very light infantry, and Zuma keeps his battalion moving, always pressing, always firing, unable to be pinned in one place and dismounted.  The machine guns atop Del Rio open up a fire towards the Eastern Camp, the Jaguar Warriors recognizing their salvation and using their guns to prevent the Comanches from reinforcing their Western and Northern Camps.

Captain Zaniyah and her first company, nearly half dismounted, casualties, or both, reach Del Rio, turning to cut around the fort walls to stymie pursuit as they reload for a second engagement.  A few minutes later, the rest of the battalion also reaches Del Rio, and forming up, moves to make a second charge out into the Comanche Western Camp.  From atop Del Rio, the machine gunners can see their cavalry counterparts, islands in a sea as the Comanches flow around them in their efforts to escape, some of the islands spitting fire, and some of them falling silent as they're overrun.   The Fifth Battalion advances again, coming onto line, their rifles spitting 6mm death as they close on an assembling group of braves.  The braves charge, tomahawks and spears held aloft, some of them firing muskets and rifles, and the range closes down as the trumpet sounds the trot, then the canter, then the full gallop as scimitars are once again drawn, rise, and fall on the battlefield. 

The much reduced 5th Battalion reforms again, to find the Comanches in flight.  And the Battalion reduced by nearly half in just two hours of combat.   But the Comanche dead and wounded, soon to be dead, litter the field, and hundreds of squaws and children are rounded up. 

Surprised that their salvation is at the hand of a battalion of women, the Jaguar warriors are incredulous.  But they had seen the battle from their post, and could not dispute that the Fifth Battalion had fought with honor.  Over the next week, river boats take the prisoners down river to a rail head where they can be moved into camps, along with the wounded of the 5th Battalion and the Jaguar Warriors, and word of what had happened at Del Rio. 

Upon word reaching the Palace, the Queen demands of the Sultan that they be named her battalion.  And so they are immediately named Queen Fatima's Light Cavalry, though it would take a month for the official recognition, and the new heraldry to reach the frontier.

[TacCovert4]

September 1st 1913:

While things in Hidalgo province and expansions had proceeded apace after the early setbacks,  for general Montezuma in Baja province,  things had hit a wall.  Expanding north, he had run into a people who called themselves the Apache.  Similar to the comanches but somehow also different.   

Montezuma estimated their numbers at less than half of the comanche, maybe fewer.   But the Apache were different.   Even general Zuma, who had rode train and stagecoach to confer with Montezuma, agreed that the comanche were more disorganized and primitive.   

The apache warriors seemed to be far more regimented,  and their artificers or traders far better, as they had acquired a mix of weaponry that was far more modern than the comanche,  and seemed to be able to maintain it and even make repairs.  These were undoubtedly an industrious people,  and highly capable of defending their territory.   Montezuma knew that he could defeat them, but the expenditure of lives and equipment did not justify the poor land that the Apache called home.  So instead he was here, with full brigades of snake and jaguar warriors,  to meet with the Apache chief geronimo.  If an accord could be reached,  Montezuma would be the first to bring a new tribe wholly into the Sultanate sphere since before the civil war.  The thought of Apache warrior scouts leading his armies in northward expansion was appealing.   But could it be done?

[TacCovert4]

General Montezuma's reverie is momentarily interrupted as his batman tells him that Geronimo and his assemblage have arrived at the meeting site.  He tells him to go on, and the General's car begins moving to the meeting site.  The General sits back, cursing the uncomfortable dress uniform, and considers how things had gone in Apache territory......

From the first, things had been wildly different from the Comanche Wars to the East.  The Apache were skillful at avoiding combat, but were also skillful in defensive warfare.  Fighting both in ambush and in set-piece defenses, the Apaches had at nameless canyons and mountain passes held five and ten times their numbers in Jaguar warriors at bay.  While the Comanche were fine horse soldiers, the Apache showed no predilection to mounted or dismounted combat, and were equally comfortable on foot or in the saddle. 

And then there was Chihuahua.  An earthen and palisade protected camp of the Apache.  For 10 days, the Apache had refused to surrender, holding up two entire brigades of Jaguar Warriors.  The fighting had been fierce, and two escalades were thrown back.  Finally after a four day bombardment by 7cm and 10cm guns, the Apache had abandoned the position.  But yet they had not surrendered, they fought their way out of the encirclement and into the hills beyond.  Quite a number of officers, including the Colonel of one Brigade, had been killed in the fighting.  And when the Apache position was taken, it was found to have been pounded frightfully, with bodies left around, but far fewer than had been imagined.  An estimate was that the Chihuahua camp had held only 400 Apache, versus over 2000 Jaguar warriors with their artillery, of which the Apache had only two old cannon to the batteries of modern guns. 

The other thing of note in the conflict had been the honor shown by both sides.  The Apache were fierce fighters, as were the Aztecs.  But the bodies of the dead on either side had been shown honor, something that was again in stark contrast to the haphazard insults by the Comanche to the East.

And so, General Montezuma ended his reverie as he arrives at the arrayed tents for the delegations.  And sits across from Geronimo, war chief of the Apache......and after much discussion, Geronimo agrees to the terms. The Apache will be absorbed on paper as a self-governing tribe of the Sultanate.  The Sultan will allow them to retain their religion and their territory to themselves.  And in exchange, the Apache would provide a warrior society to the Sultanate, a chance to continue to prove their mettle in battle against foes near and far.

[TacCovert4]

Fall, 1913........

Commodore Abidi was getting final reports on the push through in Zealand, finishing the absorption of the island and the Maoris.  With just a few minor skirmishes between some recalcitrant sects of tribes, the Maori had been absorbed without major incident.  A number of his Seal Warriors had been sent home, replaced with Jaguar Warriors, and even now local constabularies were forming to handle patrolling in what had become a relatively quiet if distant colony.  From his command post in the prophet's city of Christchurch, he had merely needed to supervise logistics rather than lead another major campaign.  Based on his reading, his campaign had been one of unbridled success compared to the brutal fighting the deserts and scrublands of Hidalgo and parts of Baja. 

A messenger delivers a wire, transmitted at great expense via Japanese cables and ships as a priority message. 

"Commodore Abidi, your request for Emergency Leave is approved Post Haste.  Return to your Father at Earliest Convenience"

The Commodore grimaces and then orders his aide to have a spot on the next packet steamer to leave secured for him, and to contact the Japanese liason to request priority passage via the fastest route for the Commodore and himself. 

Alone in his office he begins furiously making notes for his trip.  "So, it has come to this.  I must be ready for what Allah wills be done"

[TacCovert4]

Admiral Chimalli was thrilled beyond belief.  From the Flag Bridge of Veracruz, the mightiest ship the Sultanate has ever put to sea, he has managed a task once deemed impossible.  Six Brigades, two of Seal warriors and four of Jaguar Warriors, made landfall into the African region known as Angola.  Overawed by the fleet presence, the coastal tribes submitted with only a single demonstration of Veracruz' firepower being necessary on a hilltop, reducing it from a wooded knoll to a blasted hellscape in two salvoes.  The Seal Warriors main landing was almost anti-climactic, and engineers and civilian administrators were already ashore and beginning to survey for a proper port city to be the capital of Angola Colony, already being named Chimalli City in honor of the Admiral, though he had stated it should be named Ali City. 

Braving the small fishing quays, the Jaguar Warriors and their logistics had been pushed foward, and they had stoically advanced deeper into the interior, fanning out in columns to establish the wider colony.  Reports from the interior had advised that the natives were both tribal and fractious, with no clear unified leadership.  Fighting had been primarily against bow and spear wielding tribes, with few firearms and even fewer of those remotely near modern.  While there had been casualties, the field hospital in Chimalli City had not been overwhelmed or even near capacity.  Of more concern was the climate, if something could be even more oppressive than Oaxaca province in summertime, Angola was it.  Engineers were already drawing up plans to divert streams and drain swamps, anything to eliminate the malaria which was beginning to take a toll on civilian and military personnel alike.  Which was one more reason that the Admiral had found no need to establish a headquarters ashore, opting instead to maintain military command in his flagship. 

A message is run to him by Veracruz' communications officer. 

"Admiral Chimalli, your request for Emergency Leave is approved.  Return to your Father at your earliest convenience"

"Where did this message come from?" the Admiral asks.  "Steamer just came in, she was straining her engines all the way across the Atlantic".  "Very Well, have the Captains all report to my mess at 1700hrs."

Admiral Chimalli tugged at his goatee.  He would need to make arrangements to leave a station cruiser, likely two given the numbers of international players in Africa, and then coal his ships for a speed run back to Veracruz.  Something was afoot, and with the code phrase, it boded ill back home.

[TacCovert4]

Admiral Tochtli sat in the gallery at the Tenochtitlan proving grounds, observing the proceedings.  An old gun, pulled out of storage, with a newly designed breech mechanism.  The old 7cm gun barked, and the Admiral watched, enraptured, as under recoil the cartridge ejected itself and the gun returned on its recoil track to have an open breech, ready for the next cartridge.  A dozen rounds were fired, with three stoppages, so obviously the mechanism needed additional development.  But it was definitely promising.  Returning to his office, the Admiral drafted a requirement for a gun using this mechanism to be developed.  Same should use the lightest caliber capable of a reasonable range and payload while having a high rate of sustained fire.  Same should also be a high velocity gun with long range to be used against spotting aircraft or balloons.  And the gun should have a time fused or quick fused explosive shell with the maximum of shrapnel effect for the purposes of combatting aircraft.  Of course, based upon the day's demonstration, he did not expect quick results, only effective ones in time.  Until then, the Navy would make do with its paired water-cooled MGs to discourage spotting aircraft from coming too closely.

[TacCovert4]

As high summer hits Zealand colony and winter rains fall on the Sultanate, the activity is something to make any dutiful shipwatcher confused.

Rumors going about herald that the Sultan is extremely cross with the Mayans for their moves in the region and plans to do something before too long, but concrete information is nigh impossible for even skilled espionage agents as the various Warrior Societies can be a black hole of intelligence when they so choose, and none have the need to transmit extensive messages outside the fortified palace complex of the Old City.

Seal Warriors are seen in Acapulco in large numbers, and stores and provisions are laid aside there.  And camps are prepared and organized in fallow fields in preparation for joint exercises announced to be with the Empire of Japan sometime in 1914 and the need to billet troops ashore.  Some enterprising reporter gets a copy of a rental agreement for a large tract of land near Acapulco for the purposes of an Empire-Sultanate training exercise to occur between February and April. Surveyors as well as Eagle, Jaguar, and Seal Warriors are seen on the land by reporters and reporters of a less media nature.

The sudden re-arrival of the fleet sent to Angola is a surprise to everyone.  But then the agreement with the Incans to rebuild two of the Sultanate's battleships into 'battletenders' for Incan coastal use is announced, and sailors are removed from those ships to serve on the new destroyers now in their shakedown periods.  And two 20-boat TB squadrons are re-assigned to the Eastern Caribbean, while a third is re-assigned to Baja colony to provide revenue cutter and patrol services to those colonies.

Yes, indeed a lot of things are in motion, but only Allah knows what the plan might be, if there is a plan at all......

[TacCovert4]

January 6th, 1914:

As reported by Parthian Diplomatic Services and Papers:

An Aztec cruiser of their "Scout" type, a small protected cruiser armed with 100mm guns, was spotted by Mayan forces on Point Loma at San Diego Bay in the morning mists.  The two Mayan Armored Cruisers in port, armed with 160mm guns, made steam and set out in pursuit of the interloper which was staying at relatively long range.  A few ranging shots were fired by the Mayan ships with some return fire from the Aztec cruiser as the Mayans exited the Bay accelerating to pursue the ship which was not rushing away.

And then......

Observers noted the words "All Hell Broke Loose" in interviews with reporters to the wire services.  Out of the morning mists sailing at a stately 15 knots came the Aztec 2nd Fleet.  Led by the Veracruz-class Dreadnought Acapulco, with the Saladin-class semi-dreadnoughts Tariq Ibn Ziyad and Harun al Rashid in line, the battleships cut the corner on the Mayan Armored Cruisers.  Some foreign press and diplomatic personnel, already roused by the sound of the medium guns firing were shocked into running to upper floors and other observation points by the great crash of big guns. 

The Mayan cruisers, already caught unawares that the fleet was there, turned to flee towards the open sea to the North.  Parthian Merchant marine officers said that they could tell it was already too late.  A running battle ensued for about an hour, with the Mayan cruisers desperately trying to get away and then charging the Aztec line only to be hammered by repeated straddles of 280mm guns.  Within an hour it was all over, as the Mayan ships were pounded by repeated hits at what would be a moderate range for the great guns.  The lead ship rolled over and sank, the trailing ship was a sheet of flame, still firing its guns until a broadside from Acapulco struck, when it brewed up from either a boiler or magazine detonation and went down quickly by the stern. 

Reports from the Captain of the Parthian Merchant Vessel Spirit were that Aztec destroyers moved in subsequent to the sinkings and began rescuing survivors.  Spirit herself was stopped by an Aztec scout cruiser which performed what was recounted as a quick and cordial inspection by a party of naval officers and then the cruiser escorted Spirit until it could reach Parthian territorial waters.  Spirit's captain also reported that Aztec forces transmitted a signal for all Mayan forces in San Diego to stand down and they would be repatriated without any further bloodshed. 

Additional reports from observers were that the Aztec Battleship Moctezuma laid off Point Loma and began a steady bombardment at long range of the Mayan defenses there.  Observers also reported multiple troopships and auxiliaries seen at a very long distance past the fleet.

[TacCovert4]

January 7th, 1914

Off San Diego

The Aztec fleet stood down for several hours after transmitting their demands to the Mayan troops ashore.  Less than a day of warning was considered enough to effect a surrender, but too little for the Mayans to make any fresh preparations that could not be undone in moments the next morning.  Destroyers sailed close to the beaches in the area during the afternoon, obviously making observations for the troops at sea preparing for the inevitable assault should the Mayans stubbornly refuse to cave.  And naturally the Mayans simply ignored the surrender demand, which had been expected.  The time, however, did open a window for foreigners to make good their escape by land or by sea from San Diego.

Early in the morning of the 7th, the Aztec fleet had obviously had enough of waiting.  Gunfire illuminated the ships of the fleet as they began bombarding three points.  Namely Point Loma, Imperial Beach, and Ocean Beach.  Point Loma being the obvious defensive position to protect San Diego Bay and Coronado Island was a certainty for bombardment, and the battleships made it their personal project.  Ocean Beach was another obvious defensive point, as right by Mission Bay it was the best and only really viable beach for an assault to cut Point Loma off from the mainland.  Imperial Beach was not an obvious defensive point, being south of the Bay, so the pair of cruisers that began firing on anything that appeared to be a potential bunker with 10cm gunfire were something of a mild surprise.

Not long after dawn, and only two hours prior to high tide, troopships began disgorging whaleboats and launches for the run in to the beach.  A scout cruiser sailed in with the launches, firing upon likely bunkers and MG nests with its 10cm guns.  When the troops hit the beach, the first wave being almost exclusively Seal Warriors, the Mayan defenders immediately crawled out of their dugouts and opened fire with machine guns and rifles.  The beach was a charnel house as the Seal Warriors charged out of the surf and up the sandy beach, a perfect target for massed machine gun fire. 

But charge they did, and continued to do, as Scout Cruisers and LSP-A Seal Warrior support ships sailed near the beach or in the case of the LSPs right up to the surf, risking grounding to get direct-fire shots wit their 10cm guns on the Mayan defensive positions.  It took almost two hours as the second wave of Seal Warriors and Japanese Navy Troopers reached the beach, but the Mayan crustal defense was finally cracked by the weight of shellfire and determination of Aztec and later Japanese soldiery to get into the trench lines and dugouts and root out the Mayan defenders by bayonet, sword, pistol, and grenade. 

Commodore Abidi stood in the trench line, looking at his Japanese counterpart.  It was tradition in the Seal Warriors that the commander of an assault go in with the assault waves, and he had made landfall in the mixed Seal Warrior and Imperial Naval Trooper landing just after 0700hrs.  He took a moment to recount the carnage, and the surreal experience of the landing. 

Coming ashore in a motor launch, the Commodore was brought under fire almost as quickly as he had hit the beach.  The light 'boonie cap' with commodore's insignia prominently displayed, along with the other very obvious officers in his party had made them a target.  Several brave lieutenants would not be going home.  Immediately Abidi and his command party had been made line infantry, charging across a hundred yards of open beach and into the defenses where other Seal Warriors were already fighting Mayan defenders. 

The Mayans had not had extensive fortifications, but dugouts and communication trenches alone had been sufficient to kill or wound more than half of the Commodore's command before they fell silent.  The Seal Warriors had proven their mettle, and had proven it at great cost to themselves.  The battle had been a maelstrom, with friendly gunners firing on targets of opportunity, but once the Allied troops had gotten amongst the Mayans, the gunners were no longer able to support and it had become a gutter fight.  Commodore Abidi had even led an assault on a dugout with his Flyssa and pistol, and his left arm in a sling was proof of the tenacity of the average Mayan soldier in holding these rude defenses. 

Looking over at his Japanese Counterpart, Abidi nods.  The Japanese force, having come somewhat mixed with the tail of his own, was in far better shape and organized.  It would be Japanese steel this time, with Aztecs in support, that forced the approaches to Point Loma.  The Commodore and his staff set about reorganizing his force and getting the second-wave, made up of Jaguar Warriors under their own General, ashore to continue the attack towards San Diego itself. 

The nearness of the LSP's to the beach were useful, as they gave relatively easy access to their communication suites compared to the fleet at sea.  Commodore Abidi did learn that the combined Seal and Eagle warrior assault on Imperial Beach had gone well with few casualties.  Evidently the most extensive defenses had been placed here, and the ferocity of the combat to the North of San Diego had managed to keep the Mayans from reinforcing the southern beaches.  Some good news, though hollow when counted against the dead and wounded staining the sand red.

[maddox]

This information I have to get to Cuzco, Loreseeker Iquita mumbled, working in an improvised lazaret.
This kind of slaughter must be defended from.

[The Rock Doctor]

Elsewhere in the Aztec fleet, Komandor Podporucznik Stanislaw Florczyk was taking notes of his own, while his assistant - Starszy Bosman Lewandowski - was off...doing whatever it was he spent the day doing. Schmoozing with the Aztecs, mostly, coming back with little insights into their equipment and procedures, stuff like that.

Both had been abruptly ordered to join the Aztec expedition when their cruiser had conveyed the Governor of Choco to the Aztec homeland for a diplomatic meeting.  They'd had barely an hour to gather their belongings and catch a train across the country in the company of an Aztec junior officer with a basic knowledge of Polish.  "Good times," Florczyk murmured as he watched the invasion's progress through a pair of binoculars.  "Good times."