Roleplay > War and Conflict

Holmgång

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KrisNord:
OOC- Thanks to Dave for the loan of his people.
17th December 2023

It had been just over a week since the three person committee of General Tobias Dahlsson, Admiral Jonas Stromberg and Air Commodore Timothy Ravenburg had been forced to all but declare martial law on Nya Åland. In that time there had been sporadic violence across the nation but following the Gungnir being driven out of Uppsala yesterday things had been pretty quiet. The three men were due to meet at the Longhouse  with Andrea Jacobsson who as leader of the Odinic Rite had informed them that she had secured more than 50% of the Odinic Councils seats thus making her the Allsherjargoði in waiting. Each travelled in their own vehicle with a guard drawn from their men. With the Gungnir active it was not out the realms of possibility that they may be targeted. Each arrived at a staggered interval with a heavy military presence around them. Only once all of them had arrived did Andrea arrive in her own vehicle protected by members of the Mjolnir Special Forces. Thankfully for all concerned they had all arrived safe and sound.

"Mrs Jacobsson" General Dahlsson greeted her. "Welcome, we want to meet you as we don't want our military trio to become the defacto government of the Republic. We need a representative of the people and we see no real option other than that being you. Its clear you are going to be Allsherjargoði so for now that makes you our option for their representative. Now just to be clear we will brief you on all matters except any relating to the decision of the Head Gothi situation. I hope you understand?" Dahlsson said showing her to the forth chair round their square table.

"I understand" Andrea replied, "What I however don't see is why you are not ordering people to get this sorted, our nation is in limbo and you need to fix tha...." the words never were finished as a large explosion over the river ended their conversation. "What was that?" Andrea asked as the windows in the Longhouse building shook.

Three men appeared quickly in the room dressed in khaki with rifles across their backs "The Civil Service buildings just had a car bomb go off outside" the Sergeant of the guard informed them. "Follow me." The Sergeant walked them out the room and four teams of soldiers waited at the foot of the door each taking responsibility for one of the senior leaders and the future Allsherjargoði. There was a bunker in the basement and each were taken there. As they reached the door another boom could be heard and a corporal carrying a radio back pack pressed a finger into his ear. "Outside the Central Police station" he informed them.

"Don't worry" Captain Tuure Petersson of the Mjolnir informed them. "We've this building well locked down and this place is perfectly safe" Already as Petersson was talking armoured units were scrambling out of the barracks on the edge of the city.


The Mjolnir were the nations special forces, commandos who undertook some of the more complex operations the nation required. It was though the Huscarls who were the elite of the Mjolnir. "You're to take the kayaks to this point, from there find the target and take it out" Noak Heikke briefed the four men in front of him.

"Its a bloody Moose" Lt.Rowe of East Moreland's Red Legion explained. "You're briefing us like its a damn Borlander or something." he shook his head disapprovingly.

"Listen Rowe" Heikke continued, "This may not be the typical cowboy shit they let you do in East Moreland but the things caused thousands of krona of damage to the village and we're the closest people."

"Thousands of Krona......thats about five quid right?" Saxby made a play of doing sums on his fingers making the two Morelanders laugh. It was moments like this that frustrated Heikke about the Morelanders at times. They were great soldiers but they never seemed to take anything serious. Red Base out in the wilds of the north was a shared facility to give the Ålanders a chance to work alongside another elite while it gave the Morelanders chance to experience conditions very different to their homeland, but every now and again they got some interesting jobs helping control wildlife but even that could serve a useful purpose. Today Rowe and Saxby joined by two Huscarls were going hunting for a nuisance Moose. "Question skip!" Saxby asked "If we get it can we eat it. I mean there has to be a tonne of meat on a Moose." Once it was confirmed that they could indeed butcher the animal and bring some of its meat back the two foreigners seemed far happier about their expedition. The foursome headed off to draw supplies from the quartermaster when all of a sudden Rowe heard a tale tell whistle. It was almost instinct as he pushed the other three off the track as a "BOOM!" filled the air. "Mortar round" he explained as two more hit in quick succession. Alarms began blaring out across the base and soldiers, only around half clad in uniforms hurried out of buildings. Gun shots could be heard as the distant crack of rifles suggested a more sustained attack. In the radio shack by the waterside Sergeant Kimi Alfredsson began putting out a distress call. Sentries on the fence had begun searching for where the gunfire was coming from.

Rowe and Saxby managed to get to the armoury and found several of the Huscarls, including Heikke grabbing weapons and ammo. "Missions changed" the Huscarl said as he clipped up his webbing. "Still hunting though."

"We're not eating them, even we draw the line" Saxby said as he told the armourer which number his rifle was. It was handed over in quick time and more and more men were arriving. By the time Saxby had grabbed his rifle, three mags of ammo and a set of webbing around ten guys, a mixture of Morelanders and Ålanders were ready to get to work. "We got any eyes on." Saxby checked his comms.

"The guys in the boat house got a small UAV up. Spotted what looks like three mortar teams to the South, few marksman dotted around, then someone took a pot shot at the UAV and clipped it." Heikke glanced around the door, no clear target he burst out and slid behind a utility vehicle. Nothing happened. Soon others followed all taking up positions and examining the ground before them. "We're going to advance on the positions of the mortars, keep your eyes open."

"No need"  Sergeant Kimi Alfredsson had grabbed his radio pack and was with them, a rifle slung across his back. "Anvil 2-1 this is Red One we have target"

"Roger" that crackled over the radio, "Send grid when ready."

"Anvil 2-1 grid is 4-2-4-8-3-3. Five meters south of tree line." A Tuker trainer plane had been out using the targets off the coast but now its live ammo was being utilised for something else. The student on board may not have gained his wings yet but today his instructor was about to give a real life demonstration of strafing.

"Roger, beginning run" The buzz of the planes engine could be heard over the gunshots and mortar rounds and as the planes machine guns raked the tree line the ground teams moved up. Anvil 2-1 found itself getting a few holes but nothing too major and now the pilot performed a beautiful turn and passed a second time before declaring itself out the fight and poddling off back to base. It took five minutes before the ground teams reached the mortar positions and the teams had bugged out leaving behind three dead and one wounded. There was no sign of any of the gunman and despite an evening spent patrolling the woods and UAV's scanning the area nothing was found except a few blood trails that ran to a road. "Trails dead" Heikke informed them. The sneak attack had left two members of the Mjolnir dead and one Red Legionnaire being airlifted to hospital.


"We've a problem"  General Tobias Dahlsson informed Admiral Jonas Stromberg and Air Commodore Timothy Ravenburg alongside Andreas Jacobsson. "Thirteen strikes against government targets within the last two hours, and Red Base amongst them. We're going to have to get their ambassador up to speed and let Northfort know." The others agreed.

"Do we know who has done this" Jacobsson asked.

"I'd say it would likely be the Gungnir but who knows. What we do know is we've a total of 62 dead and triple that roughly injured"






OVER 60 DEAD IN DAY OF TERROR
As of going to press 67 members of the civil service, government security and the press have been killed in terror attacks mainly focused on the capital. A series of car bombs rocked the city of Krokom and Red Base has come under attack. As a result the capital is now going into lock down. Ambassadors of East Moreland have been informed and a spokesman for the Army has said Red Legion operatives were involved in the reaction to the attack. More news will follow as we get it.

KrisNord:
The nation was still coming to terms with the bomb attacks and the military had been placed on high alert. The Gungnir had already tried several other attacks on military instillations and now people feared to walk the streets incase a sniper or bomber was on the loose. The crew of ANS Hringhhorni were relatively confident that in the midst of Naval Establishment Malaren they were away from the chaos that the capital was seemingly becoming. The crew had been permitted to go visit family while the ship underwent routine resupply and only a skeleton crew remained behind, mainly counting boxes being loaded into the freezer onboard. "Did you feel that?" Santtu Bergström asked those helping him take inventory. With 15 years experience the self proclaimed "Head Chef" of the navies only and aging aircraft carrier was not someone to have imagined things but the three juniors shook their head and continued counting the tins of tomatoes. "There again" Santtu asked confident that he'd felt the ship moving but that was impossible, they were in dock and Malaren's harbour was like a millpond. The engines were silent and he couldn't think of any other explanation.

"You've been at the cooking sherry again" Milian, his "Commis Chef" jested as he ticked off the latest items on the list. The others laughed and continued the task at hand.

Up on the bridge the carriers captain Saku Sundberg was busy checking instruments, he too felt something wasn't right. All the read outs said nothing and an alarm would have blaring had even the slightest issue have been underway. Then it happened, there was a sudden jolt and the ship twisted to Port. Saku could see some of the deck crew outside stagger and then it was even more visible, they were listing. Saku picked up the intercom and called for one of the engineering team to check the ships systems but minute by minute the list began to worsen.

Below deck having ruled everything out Kauko who was manning the engineering control went down to check the ballast tanks. "Shit" he exclaimed and then called it in, "Sir, the three ballast tanks on that side have been opened. I don't know who by, better get the Marines to run security checks."

"Kauko get them closed, pump them out get us back level and then bring me someones head on a silver platter." The captain was reliefed that at least he wasn't imagining things. Below deck Kauko went to turn the first of the valves closed before turning on the pumps as he turned the valve the first of the required six twists to fully close it he had not enough time to register the strange object tucked behind it as it exploded throwing him across the room and destroying the valve ensuring it would now remain open. Alarms now rang out through the ship.

It took the crew nearly an hour to get the flooding stopped and fire the pumps up by which point the captain had evacuated everyone off the ship. Investigations began on how it had happened and Kauko was pronounced dead. The crew of leave having heard via the Navies jungle drums what was happening were lining the quayside to see what was happening to their second home. The investigation was also swift. The Navies investigation team spotted three individuals that Saku easily identified opening the valves and planting explosives behind them. Earlier in the day another individual had disabled the alarm systems and now Marines scoured the ship looking for them while others searched their lockers. The investigation team found footage of the four departing the ship in civilian clothing and driving away and now as their lockers were searched an envelope was found in each one with an identical letter inside.


--- Quote ---
We are the righteous warriors of the All Father.

We swore oaths to serve the Republic and the Gods, now the Republic is leaderless and our commanders dishonour Odin by their spineless inaction. We, the Gungnir, declare that Magnus Odinsson is the true Head Gothi. We placed our trust in democracy and the judicial system and this has been found to be misplaced. We therefore call on the ancient rite of Holmgång and thus challenge Stein Ulfsson and Olivia Robertsson to meet Magnus in single combat to determine the rightful leader of the only true Odinist nation on Mundus. If they have the courage of their convictions the Holmgång shall take place at the Sacred Grove of Uppsala in three days time.

 May the All-Father bless the righteous.


--- End quote ---


"They want what?" Stein Ulfsson bellowed as he was briefed on the situation. The heads of the armed forces had called him in and he had believed that this would send the nation the message that he was the rightful leader following the recent election fiasco. When he had seen Olivia Robertsson was already there he had thrown what could best be described as a tantrum and refused to come in until she had left, or would be briefed separately.  Admiral Jonas Stromberg was already in a mood following the news of the carrier disaster and he was not interested in dealing with political falling outs and so he had stated it clearly, Ulfsson could sit in the briefing or not be briefed and much to Olivia's amusement he had sat down but not before moving the seat to be further away from his opponent.

"Your a Gothi, you know very well what a Holmgång is." the Admiral mocked.

"There hasn't been one in about 600 years." Ulfsson explained

"Yes" Olivia recalled one of her high school history units that had been a study of the history of Crime and Punishment over the last 1000 years in her homeland. "But the problem was it was just removed as an option for the judicial system, technically if everyone is in agreement then have at it." Olvia shrugged. "I reckon I could take you" She mocked with a chuckle, "But this Magnus guy probably not."

"We're not considering it......are we?" Stein suddenly felt some panic.

"Of course we aren't" the Admiral screamed. "What kind of fucking precedent does it set that anyone with a sword can just claim control of our nation just because their a bit handy. We'd be balls deep in Morelanders by the end of the week. We're going to monitor the place incase this is some insane gesture and the moron turns up. Now as for the Gungnir in the military we've known its always been impossible to fully weed them out but the reassuring thing is those involved in this latest issue are in less than six months. Our plan is now to send a panel of five judges out the nation and have them make a decision on which of you two is going to be leader. Until then I'd ask you to put yourselves in our custody for protection."

"Agreed" Olivia said

"I suppose so." Stein grudgingly accepted.

"Excellent. We're sending you to the Isle of Tar in Lodja in the next twenty minutes. Get you out the way."

"At least its sunny" Olivia smiled, stood and shook the Admiral's hand, "Good luck sorting all this." She added as she left. Ulfsson meanwhile simply shook the Admirals hand and left.

KrisNord:
The time appointed by the message from the Gungnir had arrived. Just outside Uppsala was a tall stone circle of stones, each several meters high, that stood in a forest. It was here that the most sacred rites of the Odinist faith would take place from the swearing in of the modern Head Gothi to back in ancient times human sacrifices. The woods that ringed the sacred stone circle would be full of burials and gifts to the Gods. During normal circumstances the stone wall and gatehouses that had been built in the 16th Century ensured the site could only be accessed in a safe manner stopping anyone just wondering in and damaging the site. The site was so special that it even had a special squad of Police assigned to it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ensuring that it was not damaged. Today those police had been replaced by members of the Mjolnir Special Forces. They hadn't expected anything to happen but just after 8am a single black SUV turned up in the car park which was around 1km away from the grove. The soldiers had been warned of its approach and now as they watched from pre-arranged observation points. "Lets see what he does." The voice of Lt-Col Thorbjörn Ragnvaldsson came over the radio. He was watching from a command post some 5km down the road via a series of uplinks of gun cam and drone footage. The SUV door opened and a man dressed in military fatigues got out and then opened the rear of the truck, he picked out a long object that appeared to be wrapped in some kind of sheet or blanket. They watched as he made his way towards the actual grove. "Bravo team when he reaches you intercept and detain."

"Got it" the group of four commandos responded. As they watched the khaki clad figure appear on the forest path they sprung into action. Rifles levelled at him and screamed commands the team ordered him to place the object down and then lie down.

The man complied while speaking, "Just so you know you are being streamed" The man said as he slowly placed his objects down and then kneeling on the floor began to lower himself. "This is not how honourable warriors act" he said as though this was like a daily occurrence for him. The team moved forward, one taking control of dealing with the man the others fanned out keeping their weapons aimed at him. " I'm assuming there is no representative of either Ulfsson or Robertsson?" He enquired but was meet with no reply as the team conducted a search of him. "Under the rules of the Holmgång I therefore am the winner and declare Magnus Odinsson as the Head Gothi. As such I legally demand that you release me."

A Sergeant broke the silence having found an ID card. "Sivert Martinsen" the NCO spoke into his radio.

"Run a check Corporal" Lt-Col Ragnvaldsson instructed one of his team.

"No need Sir" The corporal said, "He's a member of the national Medieval MMA team.....guess if you're sending someone to a sword fight he's not a bad pick." The room went silent. The Gungnir were clearly up to something. It wasn't until a Private in the command post passed Ragnvaldsson a note. It was a screen grab of a social media live stream. "They've had the whole thing playing since the guy got into a car, some legal mumbo jumbo on the way to the scene and then what we've just witnessed, he's still streaming" she turned a screen to allow Ragnvaldsson to watch. The sound of the soldiers checking him and calling for a pick up could be heard but the screen was black as the body cam was now pointed towards the dirt in which he was lying. A quick radio call got the camera turned off and then the team moved him to the rear of an APC they'd brought along on the opposite side of the grove. Once Martinsen was in there he began to speak.

"I have orders from the new Head Gothi that you are to release me and convey me back to Krokom where we can begin the arrests of the traitors." The soldiers simply ignored him. The instructions continued for the 30 minute drive back to the command post where Martinsen was placed in a secure room. So far this didn't seem to make sense to anyone.


It was as though the cutting of the live feed was a signal. In the northern town of Östanåker was a small maritime college. It was home to around 500 students learning everything from maritime engineering to tourism. It sat isolated away from the town itself and for the new "Minister of Defence" of the Gungnir, Herleif Eriksen, it was where he would begin his work. Six large trucks rumbled into the college's gates at speed and ten men armed with rifles and in black fatigues exited making their way into the dorms, every person who they came across was ushered out into the courtyard and then into the large auditorium used for lectures. It took about 30 minutes to assemble everyone and then Eriksen addressed them. "Good morning Ladies and Gentleman, as you may have seen on the news Magnus  Odinsson is the new Head Gothi of the nation after the two candidates refused to show in a Holmgång. Under the reign of the last monarch of this land Holmgång's were still legally recognised as a way of settling disputes and when the nation became a Republic in the early 1700's all laws were simply transferred and then later some repealed, as access to courts for the common man became more simplistic the practice of Holmgång disappeared but no act of any government has officially ended it, therefore it remains a legal way to settle disputes and this dispute is now settled." The students turned and chatted with each other and a stern cough and raised hand from Eriksen silenced them. "Under the power of Head Gothi Odinsson we are here to enact the 2024 Immigration Act, that means that any of you here who are not Ålanders or Odinist are to be deported immediately. You will be taken from here today, placed on a ferry and taken out to one of the islands in Central Alucard Island Chain, from there you're homelands will be able to arrange your repatriation. If you are an Ålander and have your ID card on you please move to that side of the hall." He pointed and there were a few grumbles, a burst of gunfire into a wall made the process much speedier. "Excellent, now I need three groups, those who are Ålanders but have no ID on them." He pointed to the North wall, "Next those who are foreigners but follow Odin, you'll be taken to your rooms and need to show proof of either membership of a Odinic group or paraphernalia showing your faith." he pointed to the west wall. "Finally those who require the ferry" he pointed to the remaining wall. The students began to move, some faster than others and then once grouped the gunmen began escorting them off.

By the time the sorting was done of the 500 students all but 50 were in need of "deportation" and most of them were from Alucard nations. Eriksen spoke again, "Your embassies have been informed. You will be at your destination in 27 hours from there you can go home."

Paracambi:
"Haven Padmore, Dashiell Small, Grosvenor Ott and Stanley Irwin" the Ambassador to Nya Åland said the names of the four Paracambian students who had been at the Östanåker Maritime College. The four where all there studying Naval Engineering and Stanley was a member of the Paracambian Naval reserve. "So far all we have is a list of names, no details of where this island is. We've also no idea when this began"

"Thank you Brighton" Emperor Benson responded to his ambassador as he turned to look at the large map of the Empire and surrounding ocean on the wall behind him. "Admiral Pickering" Benson turned back to his staff on a large screen each occupying a square from wherever they were streaming from. "I would like the navy to move assets down into the Alucard. If we need to pick these people up I want it done quickly and I'd love to catch these people too. If we spot them before they place them on whatever island they claim they are then I'd like to first offer to take onboard everyone they're transporting there and then, and then simply track the perpatrators back to shore. Our priority is getting people out safe, then capturing these Gungnir folk."

"We've already a significant number of vessels in the region as always but we've the HIMS Insolent just finishing restocking, was going to head down to Cobble Field for some training scenarios but we'll keep it in the northern Alucard for now as I suspect that's where this island will be." Pickering replied having anticipated his monarchs orders.

"Excellent. Keep me notified." Benson said as he brought the meeting to a close.   

DaveIronside:
Brigadier Jim Corey strode into the briefing room wearing gym gear. "Nice legs boss" Redfern chuckled as the Commander of Red Legion tossed a towel onto chair at the head of the briefing table before picking up a cup of tea off the tray.

"Its called exercise Alex.....you might want to try it sometime" the Brigadier added a lump of sugar before taking his seat and quickly examining the press releases. "Rowe you online." He asked a blank computer screen.

"Indeed I am" Lt.Rowe was out at Red Base in Nya Åland and was supposed to be running some newly beret'd Red Legionnaires through some cold weather and amphibious training but as often was the case training teams could often be taken off their programmes and given real things to do. The base had been attacked about a week ago and a rather handy Åland Air Force aircraft had seen off a couple of mortar teams but since then things had been pretty quiet. Most of the Ålanders had been recalled to their own bases and so now the only people remaining was about 20 or so Red Legionnaires, an aircrew from the Joint Special Operations Aviation Wing and five Royal Marine Commandos helping out with the boat stuff.

"Excellent. Word from the King is that you're to shelter in place. Hold the base if needed, we're looking at the possibility of turning it into a safe haven if things start going a bit nuts. We need you to keep the runway clear and we're looking at putting a few big ships off the coast if need be. I'm sending down another twenty lads along with about the same number of Royal Marines. That should keep you guys safe against anything but a serious attack which we don't see coming. Should something go down then you're expected to make your way to the nearest friendly base."

"Roger that, we'll get the kettle on" Rowe smiled as the call finished. 

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