It takes only a few moments to realize why Romania has become so important to the defense of the Mediterranean against the Union of Han Airmen, the aerial horde which sprawls across Asia.
The night is lit by flames as MiG-23 jets thunder skyward in groups of three. Each carries ENY manufactured Sidewinder A missiles.
Romania is a formidable air-power. The only pre-event Warsaw Pact power to manufacture its own jet fighters, the IAR-93 fighter-bomber. While the IAR-93 only barely outperforms the Los Angeles built F-97, Romania has over forty of them in active service in addition to four makes of MiG and other jet aircraft the Romanian air force, heavily underwritten by the Soviet Union and Dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu's willingness to impoverish his own people, the Romanian force dwarfs that of many larger powers.
Against an enemy that travels by air, the Romanian Air Force has been an uncomfortable but reliable partner. Here at Câmpia Turzii, we are on the front line of the action against the Han Armada.
The initial Han attack saw 15 ships, most the size of two or three city blocks, break through the northern gate, and fan out over the countryside. The Han clearly expected a success, but in a 16 hour battle they were forced to retreat with four vessels lost and several more badly damaged.
Massive military aid stood behind the action. An unprecedented international effort on the part of states as diverse as Los Angeles, Athens, the Tri-City Republic, and the Empire of New York produced a major initiative with funding and an ITF resolution to stop Han aggression.
The balance shifted over the next three weeks as the Han began a considerably more focused and moderate plan of attack. Concentrating their air forces to avoid the disastrous consequences of the previous assault, they began to stage ground troops, and began a sweep towards the Romanian South.
The Troops have so far proved poor fighters, ferocious and disciplined but tactically uninspired. This may be good as the Romanian Army has suffered from unprecedented levels of desertion among its senior officers. Much of the Romanian military leadership is made up of Vampires, or humans who sought to become Vampires, and they have little loyalty to their undead master Nicolae Ceaușescu. Some estimates believe that as much as forty percent of Romanian senior command has left the country. The Han seem heavily invested in TL7 weapons which work within a short distance of their platform ships, but are poorly equipped to fight at TL6, relying heavily on gas and light arms. Their lasers outrange machineguns, but many TL6 standoff weapons have near parity with them.
"Their doctrine calls for quickly overruning artillery and armor with complete air superiority" said Col. Polito of the Tri-Cities Republic, commanding an ITF support mission. "They don't have a lot of weapons to engage with tanks, relying principally on TL7 near their ships and a couple of fairly quirky small antitank weapons which trade size for effectiveness...even against these old Soviet T-72 tanks they require a precise hit to get a kill, and they're not very good with them. They simply aren't used to a fair fight, and they're all aggro but very little thinky."
Nevertheless, the Han are expanding their territory. Following two breakthrough fights, they control about an eigth of Northern Romania.
"They're valley hopping" says General Sykes of the Empire of New York. "It's pretty obvious. Those big ships can defend a valley pretty easily so they are moving along one valley at a time. We need to take down the big ships and that's proving difficult."
The Romanian Air Force has only a handful of high-end Soviet interceptors capable using speed to make close attacks the Han Ships. Most of their aircraft, like the wing of ENY F-97s, are limited to careful standoff weapons, trying to dodge at the edges of the range of the Han Vessels. The result has been some hits and damage, and some lost aircraft, but little decisive action.
"We're moving to a single ship strategy" said Gen Andras Istvan. "We throw all of our force at a given vessel with a few diversionary attacks. We've had some success. Two Han ships lasst week."
The success comes with a price. Romania has lost over 20 jets, many in the initial defense. ENY has lost four F-97 aircraft and an A-10. "CAS isn't really effective against their ships," said Sykes, "but it's keeping them from expanding their ground presence much outside their proximity."
The option for using nuclear missiles has been put on the table. The problem is that nobody has any. The Empire of New York has a version of the AIM-26 Falcon which could mount a nuclear warhead, but if they have any of the remaining US warheads they aren't admitting it. Under the Warsaw Pact, the Soviets held all nuclear weapons. The only known source is the TL7 USSR which has maintained large stocks of Soviet Era weapons, but has remained ambivalent about the Han. Rising Sun has the capability to quickly manufacture nuclear AAMs, but faces a Catch-22 in that much of its own case in maintaining a network of embargoes, sanctions, and credit freezes against Malaysia stems from a Malaysian nuclear attack.
"Technically speaking," said Penn State analyst Colby Kerr "there's a big difference between using a nuclear AAM on the battlefield and using a nuclear warhead against a population center. But when it comes to nuclear weapons, people don't tend to talk technically."
ENY sources indicated that the Hive and Rising Sun had been requested to run "stability analysis" to indicate the feasibility of using nuclear force in Romania without causing a maelstrom effect as "a precautionary measure."
The War the Ground
If the war in the air is dicey the war on the ground has additional dimensions. In the west the Romanian Military has all but lost control of the ground war, and Catholic Partisans have seized initiative on the ground, supported by local army mutineers. Local Romanian commanders deserted, leaving the partisans to take control of military hardware and even organized military units. The partisans have been aided by their own international supporters, including Witchfinder General Sykes and Pope Urban II, who are believed to have assisted in providing aid, material, and men to the Partisans.
The situation makes things difficult for the international forces. There is little love for the Ceaușescu regime, however the prospect of getting involved in a Romanian civil war is equally unattractive. "supporting a Civil War would lead to a breakdown in coordination and cooperation in the air effort...and that could be disastrous," says Kerr. "The Han aren't great ground troops, but they're dedicated and they aren't dumb. If the pressure is relaxed, they'll exploit it."
In ENY the fight against the Han is popular, but there is an expectation that the Government will act against vampires. "Why are we fighting only one enemy" asked an editorial in the biweekly newspaper Catholic New York.
The Ceaușescu government has largely rejected major infantry support, but has accepted humanitarian relief. Supplies of food and medicine are being delivered by international teams. "Ceaușescu is desperate" says Theresa Paul, a Penn State expert in international affairs. "He's got to be desperate to be letting people into the country to see the extent of what has happened there. It is disastrous."
The Romanian Government looks shakier by the minute. "In any other situation, if an ally was having a 50% desertion rate, we'd move to take control of that ally's forces just for safety's sake," said an ENY official speaking on condition of anonimity. "We're holding our hand now for fear of upsetting the apple cart. But at some point it's going to become more of a problem to support Ceaușescu than to take over. It doesn't help to have Pope Urban destabilizing things."
For now the Han are contained, and the international effort is successful. But one thing has been made clear.
"They're not giving up" said Kerr "and going home."
