Operation Grand Master - 12 - Battleground Rio

Within a few days of the start of Operation Grand Master it was apparent that it would be nearly impossible to conduct large scale infantry operations in the South American continent without a thorough analysis of the vast spectrum of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical agents spread all around the region. At all the landing points of the Airborne troops several soldiers had fallen sick with infections and hundreds of them are now quarantined in a secure hospital at St Helena. It was decided that any combat activity would have to be done mostly by mechanized units for the time being, an option that was proving to be more and more difficult in the apocalyptic and rubble strewn cities of the continent which turned out to be more or less centers of hostile activity.


A week after the invasion it was found out that all the cities of South America fell into either of two categories – absolute depopulation due to massive WMD attacks or centers of extreme militant activity, survivors of decades of the most intense civil war human history has ever seen. Literally hundreds of S-RECOs are now flying across the skies of South America with special packages to detect trace amounts of NBC agents in the atmosphere. The abandoned Dois de Julho International Airport was reclaimed by the Quarter Master Command after a thorough Cleanup by one of several NBC Cleanup teams that are flying in now from the Kingdom. A massive warehouse inside the airport compound has been sanitized by Quarter Master Command to be a quarantine center where the hundreds of S-RECOs and its sensor pods would be analyzed. A massive contingent from Center for Biological Warfare Defense and Center for Chemical Warfare Defense have also arrived to take station at this quarantined base to study the spectrum of diseases and agents that is wreaking havoc on the land. CBWD and CCWD have over the years done a wide variety of highly sensitive research and all the experience in Falklands assisting HAE in routing out the contagious diseases there would prove its value now. Already mass inoculations of special vaccines and antigens are being carried out at all Task Force Headquarters for incoming troops with thousands of tonnes of inoculates being mass produced back in Cochin. Even so it there are possibilities that hitherto unknown NBC agents are also in work in the area. A conflict zone of this zone has after all never ever before seen in the world. However no recuse is still possible for the several cities and areas that have become nuclear wastelands though certain attempts are being made by Strategic Command to conduct cleanup operations there too.


However it is not just diseases, radiation and chemical weapons that are inflicting a death toll on the Cochin forces, the city of Rio de Janeiro, the landing site of Task Force Khampa is turning out to be a battlefield of the most heinous sort. Though only 10% of its pre-civil war population, the city is full of vast bands of heavily armed militia and replete with internecine inter favela warfare. Rio is in fact a city over run by the favelas surrounding it. S-RECO reconnaissance showed images of the once booming Centro and South Zone districts laid out to absolute ruin. The threat from the favelas were found to be so severe that the Task Force Khampa was forced to shift its landing site from the coast of Gavea to Santa Cruz after a week of heavy attacks and excessive casualties. It was decided that a better tactical strategy would be to encircle the city before pacifying it. This decision came after the loss of almost 1400 soldiers in the week of fighting to secure the beaches. During this week the other brigades of the 8th Marine Division and 9th Marine Division landed at Santa Cruz and secure a defensive perimeter. The fighting retreat of the lead battalions of the 8th Marine Division was secured through ample fire support from the Arsenal Ship CNS Genghis, Cruiser CNS Talwar and the Metac Aerial Artillery Platforms of the RM05 squadron. With the securing of second landing site Santa Cruz, the heavy divisions of Task Force Khampa are being landed especially the Fifth Mechanized Division and the 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment, whose firepower would be vital in the battle to conquer Rio de Janeiro.


However as in other parts of the continent this war is first being waged by the S-RECOs flying over the city in droves to detect NBC agents. Only after inoculating the soldiers for the agents awaiting them in this once beautiful city would the Battle for Rio begin.