Battle of Aomori

Battle of Aomori
Time
War	World War III
Previous	Mt. Fuji Incident
Concurrent	Battle of Tokyo
Next
Place
Date	September 30 to October 1, 1968
Place	Aomori, Japan
Result	Decisive Soviet victory, Soviet-Imperial ceasefire. Soviets gain advanced Imperial Technology
Combatants
Soviet Union	Empire of the Rising Sun
Commanders
• General Artyom Korzov	• Major Kyoji Kasshu
Strength
• 7th Siberian Army Detachment • 10,000 men • 20 T-58 Rhino Tanks • 20 T-64 Hammer Tanks • 20 KDB-2 Bullfrogs • 20 Terror Drones • 5 JS-3 Terminator Tanks •Improvised Landing Division • 15 Improvised Landing Transports • 10 Stingray-class Strike Craft • 3,000 men •Operation Dark Water • 1 Akula-class Submarine K-225 • 10 Naval Infantry Engineers •Operation Gearlock • 6 Tu-24 Badger Bombers • 60 Spetsnaz operatives	• Aomori Garrison • 4,000 men • 20 Model-80 Burst Drones • 20 Model-30 Tsunami Tanks • 40 Model-123 Jishin Buster Tanks • 15 Model-32 Mecha/Jet Tengus • 15 Model-40 Striker-VX/Chopper-VXs • Aomori Naval Garrison • 1 Shogun-class Battleship IJN Kurokumo • 4 Naginata-class Cruisers • 10 Model-53 Sea-Wing/Sky-Wings • 1,000 men
Casualties
Medium	Near Total
Civilian casualties
Medium

Background

After the near unsuccessful mission at Mt.Fuji and word of the Allied assault on Tokyo, Soviet high command declared that no further action was to be taken against the Empire of the Rising Sun, as it was deemed unnecessary. However, there were those who were infuriated by this, such as General Artyom Korzov.

Commanding officer of the 7th Siberian Army, he had fought a nonstop guerrilla war against the Imperial forces. Growing angrier with each day, seeing village after village demolished by the Imperials, Korzov truly looked forward to invading the Japanese mainland and burning it to the ground.

Angered over Moscow's decision, he literally snapped. Gathering up soldiers from the Seventh Siberian who he knew were of a similar mind, they scraped together a strike force.

While General Korzov was purely motivated by anger, he also was no fool. The Japanese knew that if the Soviets were to try an invasion, they would likely land on the northern island of Hokkaido. The massive island prefecture’s capital, Hakodate, housed the Imperial Northern Fleet, and the entire island was scarcely populated. It was covered with thick forests and mountains. Trying to attack there, he reasoned, was suicidal, for the southern peninsula of the island also contained the only other major city on the island, Sapporo.

Instead of attacking what the Japanese called their Northern Fortress, he chose to launch his assault on Aomori, the northernmost city on the main island. With only a small garrison and naval base, not to mention being surrounded by heavily forested terrain, they could practically take the city and dig in for siege warfare. They hoped to create so many Imperial casualties that the Japanese would give them anything to get them off their sacred island.

Force Composition

Soviet Forces

Even though there was sympathy for General Korzov’s forces, no one dared to support him directly out of fear of being executed for treason. Instead, his supporters sent him whatever surplus equipment they could under the excuse that it was lost in battle or was too destroyed to salvage.

Through his supporters he gained twenty each Rhino and Hammer Tanks as well as twenty Bullfrogs and Terror Drones. By far the most surprising bit of support came from the 30th Heavy Tank Regiment. Its commander, who had lost his wife and eight girls to the Imperials, somehow managed to slip him 4 JS-3 Terminator Tanks (supplementing Korzov's own JS-3 command tank), which Korzov would use to great effect.

To get the forces across the Sea of Japan, fifteen old freighters from the second war were commandeered, and finally calling in a few favours as well as blackmail, a single Akula submarine armed with an experimental weapon.

Imperial Forces

The Aomori garrison was considered only trivial despite the fact that it was the northernmost base on the island. The garrison’s arsenal consisted only of a handful of modern Tsunami Tanks as well as 15 Mecha Tengu/Jet Tengus and Striker-VX/Chopper-VXs each, while most of its vehicles were old Jishin Buster Tanks.

Similarly, the naval garrison only had trivial defences. It only had two Wave Force Towers guarding the harbour's entrance. Furthermore, the harbour was not big enough for a large number of ships. Stationed there at all times were only ten Seawing/Skywings and four Naginata Cruisers. Also there on the day of the attack was the Shogun battleship IJN Kumogakure, which had sustained heavy damage during the battle for the North Pacific, but had to be redirected to Aomori to wait until there was space at the Northern Fleet's docks in Hakodate, which were completely occupied due to the large number of ships damaged from the battle as well as the battle for the Bering Strait anchoring there for repairs. Commanding both garrisons was Major Kyoji Kasshu.

Highway Dyed Crimson

On September 30, at 2100 hours, General Korzov's forces made landfall on Honshu near Imperial Highway 101. Literally blasting their way out of the hulls of the run aground landing ships, the 7th Siberian began to cut a bloody swath towards Aomori, following the 101, which passed all the way through Northern Honshu. During the three hour march, the Terminator Tanks served as the spearhead of the formation. Not only did they run down trees or smash through highway bridge supports, but they also bulldozed and wiped out entire towns without firing a single shot. Leaving hardly any survivors in their wake, for time was of the essence, the forces made it to the outskirts of Aomori just after midnight. The Terminators were then drawn back to the rear of the line and by diverting all engine power to the guns, began shelling the areas of the city around the Imperial army and navy garrisons to clear the way for the rest of the forces for a quick capture.

While this was done, K-225, an Akula-class submarine had reached its destination - the Tsugaru Strait submerged tunnel running from the northwestern part of Honshu to the southernmost tip of Hokkaido. This structure on the sea floor was considered by many in the Rising Sun to be their greatest marvel of civil engineering. Built with nanotechnology, the double-decked tunnel contained electrical, gas and water lines as well as rails for the famous bullet train on its top level, while on the bottom level was a six-lane highway wide and tall enough for two King Onis to walk through side by side. Because of this, General Korzov knew it had to go, for they could use it to send heavy reinforcements from Hokkaido. K-225 got into position and readied its special weapon - an experimental Vacuum Imploder warhead that could take out entire naval bases in one massive blast.

The massive warhead, which had to be strapped to the forward deck of the sub with counterweights on the rear accordingly, managed to cleanly separate and began a shallow dive towards the tunnel's roof. At the same time, K-225 pulled a 180 degree turn, detached the counterweights before they could drag the sub down by its rear end and sped off towards open waters.

After a massive amount of shaking, the sonar was switched back on. After a minute of listening, it was confirmed - the sonar operators heard the sound of massive amounts of rushing water. The warhead had exploded with enough force not only to rip open the tunnels roof, but also to create a second hole down to the traffic deck. With the only means of Aomori getting heavy reinforcements destroyed, K-225 accomplished its mission and began heading back north to Pevek.

Raiders From The Sky

30 minutes after General Korzov's forces entered Aomori city limits, six Badgers landed on a strip of beach about a dozen miles outside the city. When Premier Cherdenko heard about Korzov's treason, he originally wanted to send in a force of the elite Spetsnaz to eliminate him and his command structure and leave the rest of his disobedient rats to be slaughtered by the Imperials. However, Cherdenko was convinced to leave Korzov be and use the opportunity to take the Shogun battleship anchored there waiting for repairs, citing that the battle would be a perfect distraction, and if they could successfully reverse engineer even a small portion of it, their military technology could flourish, especially in the fields of naval combat and robotics. A Spetsnaz detachment was hastily assembled and deployed to Aomori.

When the Badgers landed, they immediately came under fire. A small group of local militia that survived when their village was flattened by Korzov's advance charged down the hills guns blazing. Needless to say, the militia was quickly slaughtered. However, all 6 Badgers went up in flames. The planes' armour was so thin that the militia's World War 2 surplus weapons were able to pierce the fuel tanks easily.

With half their men and all their Tesla battery powered miniature utility vehicles burnt to a crisp with the planes, the Spetsnaz improvised. Hot wiring a handful of tiny midget trucks which the militia seemed to have used, they made their way to the Aomori shipyard.

There, the Spetsnaz radio operators managed to overhear that Korzov had ordered the entire harbour and all the ships in it levelled. Already there were two Terminator tanks shelling the Wave-Force Towers.

Knowing they had to get to the battleship before the renegade tanks, they quickly blew a hole in the base wall with a demo charge, and proceeded to cut down anyone between them and the objective, military or otherwise. When they finally reached the ship the Spetsnaz were pleasantly surprised that it lay nearly unguarded. Most of the Imperial forces were headed for the front of the base in a desperate attempt to keep the two Terminators from breaking through to the yard, the Wave-Force Towers having fallen just moments before.

Once on the ship's bridge, the surviving specialists managed to get the controls online quickly. As it turned out, nothing was shut off but put instead in standby mode, so the ship could depart for Hokkaido at a moment's notice for repairs.

Once the specialists confirmed that the ship was seaworthy (although recommending that they not try to fire the guns as if he was translating the data on the screens correctly, the ship could go up in a massive fireball), the engines were started up, and thanks to the massive confusion of battle, the Spetsnaz got away with the IJN Kumogakure in what military planners would later consider one of the most successful improvised special operations in modern military history.

Dead Air

As the Seventh Siberian closed in on the airport, Major Kasshu was in a panic. Calls for reinforcements were only met with silence. Why this occurred is still a matter of debate. The most common consensus was that the Japanese were still reeling from the Allied strike on Tokyo, and it was thought that this attack was merely a diversion for a more massive attack on the Northern Fleet headquarters at Hakodate or that the Soviets had just gotten lucky and there was no way that the foreign barbarians could get any significant military force on the main islands.

Whatever the reason, Kasshu and his remaining men dug in for a final stand. Along with what was left of the Buster Tanks many civilian volunteers also joined, as the Soviets seemed to be ignoring all honour and butchering any civilians who got in their path.

The airport quickly became what someone would describe later as a lake of blood. At first Hammer and Rhino Tanks attempted to approach but the plasma-cutters of the Buster Tanks forced them back. The Busters were then bombarded and destroyed from beyond firing range by the remaining three Terminator Tanks. The other two had been immobilised by the garrison's complement of Chopper VXs, but not before they were all shot down by either the Terminators’ anti-air missiles or Bullfrog flak cannons.

With the garrison’s last line of defence gone, Korzov ordered the infantry as well as the terror drones which he had been holding back to charge in and gut them. When it was over, the Seventh Siberian was victorious and the Aomori garrison was almost completely wiped out. The only survivors were about a handful of Imperial infantry and volunteers who fled using a pair of airport baggage transports. Major Kasshu was nowhere to be found.

Aftermath

Soon after the battle, Emperor Kamina, who had just came into power a few hours ago, received Korzov’s ultimatum. Either he was to turn over the commanders of the Imperial Colonization Corps or he would finish what he started with Aomori's civilian population. Cherdenko, hearing of his rogue commander's ultimatum, further told Kamina that if he didn’t agree to both a immediate cease fire and allow him to keep the IJN Kumogakure as a war prize, he would airdrop Korzov enough supplies to "completely depopulate the entire northern half of the main island."

Emperor Kamina agreed, seeing as the Empire was no longer in any position to continue fighting, and both he and Cherdenko met on the CCCP Murmansk to sign the ceasefire. Following this, the Japanese had the five overseers of the group turned over to the Soviets where they were hung, drawn and quartered in the most gruesome execution ever on live TV.

While Allied officials condemned such a barbaric act at the time, when the ICC’s actions did come to light after the full end of all hostilities, more people came to approve of the executions, though few would say so openly. It remains unknown how many small villages in Siberia were wiped off the face of the earth and how many people were displaced or killed as a result of the ICC’s actions.

However, Cherdenko had a dilemma. While he could have had executed General Korzov for treason, many people in Siberia saw him as a hero who fought for them when Moscow abandoned them to the Japanese. On the advice of the KGB, Korzov was awarded in a highly public ceremony, given the order of Lenin, the second highest honour a Russian soldier could receive, and was promptly exiled from the USSR, although he would later accept an invitation to come back by the new Premier after the war. He was given command of all Soviet forces in Siberia, where he serves to this day.

Finally, the IJN Kumogakure was relocated to a Soviet naval research facility on the Kola Peninsula, although its exact location remains unclear. With the rise of several new classes of automated Russian combat drones, as well as the retrofitting of JS-4 Apocalypse tanks with newer and far more efficient Tesla reactors, it is apparent that the Soviets have made great progress into reverse engineering Imperial technology gleaned from the Kumogakure. As to what else may come from this project, it remains to be seen.