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| Battle of Mykonos | |
| Time | |
| War | World War III |
| Previous | |
| Concurrent | |
| Next | |
| Place | |
| Date | July 7th, 1967 |
| Place | Mykonos, Greece |
| Result | Pyrrhic Soviet victory, Allies are denied Fission Research |
| Combatants | |
 Soviet Union
|
 Allied Nations
|
| Commanders | |
| • • Colonel Cima Len Davidova |
• Air Marshal Giles Price II. • Major Andreas Papagiannakopoulos |
| Strength | |
• Black Guard Expedition
|
• Mykonos R&D Security Detachment
• 1st Experimental Testing Unit
|
| Casualties | |
| Nearly total | Moderate |
| Civilian casualties | |
| • Moderate
• Several vacation houses and hotels damaged • 64 civilians and 4 scientists killed | |
Background[]
The Paris Project[]
The Paris Project was a secret attempt by the Allied Nations to research the interaction between the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces in an atom. In the interaction of a specific particle, later called a meson, mediated a force between all nucleons, including protons and neutrons.
This force explained why nuclei did not disintegrate under the influence of proton repulsion, and it also gave an explanation of why the attractive strong force had a more limited range than the electromagnetic repulsion between protons. Later, the discovery of the pi meson showed it to have the properties of the Allied mysterious particle.
The Allies believed that they were on the verge of understanding how exactly the process of force affect the integrity and decay of atoms. The study of the strong and weak forces led Allied physicists to collide nuclei and electrons at ever higher energies. However, as the Soviets invaded France the project was hastily postponed and evacuated to prevent the Soviets from capturing the research.
The Geneva Records[]
Shortly after the Battle of Geneva, Soviet intelligence began to notice the odd transfer of resources and personnel, not only to Britain and America as expected but to the Greek archipelago of all places. Records had shown that the Allies were studying several notes based on a theory of strong force, to explain how the nucleus of an atom holds together.
The Premier of the Soviet Union ordered the Allied research to be captured. It was wildly feared, at the time, that the Allied Nations were close to finalising new research in atomic science, some even suggesting them finding the secret of atomic fission which had eluded the scientists for so long. Fission used in weaponry would surely drive the Union to its knees.
The Allied gains in Europe had forced the Soviet Union to only commit part of its elite forces under Colonel Davidova to find and capture, or destroy if necessary, the Allied research facilities. Soviet recon soon found out where the scientists had been transferred; the small island of Mykonos in the Cyclades, where an Allied naval base was already present.
Force Composition[]
Soviet Forces[]
While most of the Soviet Army was fighting for its life in Europe, the Union had sent its most promising commander Davidova alongside the best forces they could muster. In fact, they were taken directly from the Premier's Black Guard itself and were now far from the Kremlin, instead fighting against the Allied forces in the slightly warmer Aegean Sea. As a result of the ongoing Normandy Landings, as well as the inability of the Soviet Army to break through the Allied resistance by the Corinth Canal, the initial invasion force was forced to fly in from the Attica peninsula only a few feet above the water in Twinblades late at night while an MCV crossed the sea under the cover of darkness.
The force consisted of a small group of elite soldiers, including Natasha Volkova, fresh from the Mission in Krasna-45 despite protests about the Greek weather, ten T-64 Hammer Tanks and four V4 Rocket Launchers, although limited in use due to the natural limitations of the area. Seven Stingray-class Tesla Boats, eight KDB-2 Bullfrogs and five Akula-class Submarines were also deployed as escorts alongside the MCV. The fourteen Twinblades used for transports were also to take part in the invasion. Lastly, a few expert Combat Engineers were brought to Mykonos, who would take care of the Allied research. While outnumbered severely, the units were some of the most experienced in the Soviet military, and their skills on the battlefield would be vital to the Soviet effort. Luckily, the forces did not encounter any Allied patrols on their way to Rineia, an island close to Mykonos designed as the position of the Soviet forward base during the mission. Thus they could deploy in safety, setting up a minor forward base while waiting for dawn to arrive.
Allied Forces[]
The Allied Forces had been driven out of much of the European mainland, and were only beginning to regain momentum in Western Europe. The majority of the surviving Allied forces in the southeast had retreated to the Peloponnese peninsula, and held back the Soviet Union at the Corinth Canal. The Islands of the Aegean Sea remained within Allied control due to the heroic efforts of the Turkish Allied Air Reserves that had established aerial supremacy early in the conflict, together with the Allied navies who didn't let the Soviets out from the Black Sea.
The Allied forces in the region had been divided under three separate military commands, in order to ensure that the Soviet Union would not gain safe passage throughout the Mediterranean in the event that an invasion was launched against the remaining Allied strongholds in the region. The Turkish Air Reserves under the recently transfered Air Marshal Giles Price II. had seniority over the other two commands and was responsible for the defense of the Aegean Sea. A combined Greek and Albanian Reserve force led by Major Andreas Papagiannakopoulos held the peninsula.
Most of the archipelago was under control by the Greek Reservists, except the aforementioned island of Mykonos which was under the command of an Allied Research and Development team tasked with the Paris Project. The Paris Project team included a special security detachment of 31 Riptides, 57 Dolphins under Poppy McFeests, 27 Multigunner IFVs as well as a minor Allied Naval Base where a number of Hydrofoils and Assault Destroyers were stationed to protect the island. The Allies had also deployed a strange cannon that didn't seem to be fireable in a normal way up in the mountains. The Soviets didn't know what to make of it, but noted that it should be watched just in case.
Another small outpost was present on Dilos island, used for ore mining and for protecting the experimental Signal Jammer. While only a prototype, the construction was created to disrupt certain known radio frequencies, which would in practice make the units using them useless for combat as they could not be commanded. While the Allied decryption team would frequently hack new encryptions, they had mostly been successful on vehicles used in the field, and not the Kremlin Black Guard, it would prove useful to the Allies if they could export the technology to the field.
In addition to the Paris Project, the Allies were working on a secret project unknown to the Soviets other than its existence. What was known was that scientists had been evacuated from Switzerland at the same time as the Paris Project moved.
Vamos a la Playa, Comrade[]
On the morning of July 7th the Allied watch noticed that buildings that definitely weren't there the night before had been built on Rineia island. He sent an alert directly to Commander Price himself, who immediately deployed the available forces to protect the base around the Signal Jammer and of course Mykonos itself. To ensure the survival of Allied science, the Allied scientists working on the Paris Project were ordered to instantly pack up and leave, except for a couple who stayed behind to retrieve the data. Unfortunately, the password key was lost in the hasty pack-up, which would delay the Allies quite a bit.
The Soviets initially had to make due with the limited resources, due to supplies being needed in the west and the Signal Jammer interfering with Davidova's communication with her tanks. The battle had to be fought on the sea and in the air. Fortunately, the Soviets could set up a Refinery by an ore concentration in the sea, giving them the extra resources they needed. After some recon by the Twinblades, it was noted that the amount of Allied anti-air weaponry was relatively low, most of the defense of Dilos consisting of Spectrum Towers. Therefore, the Twinblades were sent alone to deal with the Signal Jammer. Darkening the sky for the Allied garrison, missiles and bullets rained down on the base, destroying it and the Signal Jammer. With its demise the Soviet tanks immediately regained radio signals. Another ore concentration was secured on the island, and a forward base was constructed.
But, of course, not everything was going the Soviets' way. The Allied navy approached Dilos in order to retake the island before the Soviets had finished building. As the Twinblades were chanceless against the Hydrofoils, they had to retreat back to Rineia and the protection of hastily assembled Flak Cannons. Instead, the Soviet fleet was sent out to approach its Allied counterpart along with the sweaty Natasha. While the submarines distracted the boats, Natasha could call in a bomber stationed on the mainland to destroy the Hydrofoils primarily, allowing the Twinblades to return to the front and defeat the Allied ships. The Soviets now steamed towards Mykonos and the research center.
Don't Enrage an Englishman with Bombers[]
As the Soviets approached the Allied base on Mykonos, the Air Force called in from Turkey by Air Marshal Price arrived at the Aegean islands. Cutlass Ramjets appeared in the skies to take down the Twinblades, which they did with some success; five helicopters were downed before the Soviet Bullfrogs shot down the planes. Century Bombers and Vindicators bombed the Soviet base on Dilos to smithereens, forcing the units present to relocate to the sea. The Soviets now had to race to destroy the Allied base before the air force could take them out.
At 12.06 PM the Soviets made landfall on Mykonos, by Natasha swimming to a beach close to the base unnoticed, a feat in itself, and hiding in a palm tree. Target painting the Naval Yard, a Badger Bomber soon came in and blasted the Allied shipyard apart. Suddenly the number of Hydrofoils guarding the base was drastically reduced, yet again allowing the Soviet helicopters to advance assisted by the navy and attack the base. While the Allies defended their base bravely, the last Spectrum Tower collapsed an hour after the landing giving room for the Soviets to move in and clear the base.
However, the Allied Air Force still made life hard for the Soviets. Indeed, by the time the base was destroyed more planes had arrived to take down the foreign invasion force. The Soviets tried to avoid the bombs, but they could not avoid the destruction of many of their vehicles. The remaining force hurried up the cliffs, to find the Research Center, guarded only by a couple of tanks and a strange, small cannon, with lights glowing bright red on its back.
The Soviets expected an easy fight this time. But when they attacked the tanks, the odd vehicle fired at them and suddenly they realised that the enemy Guardian Tanks were firing much faster than normal. Contacting Commander Davidova, they understood that the vehicle had slowed them down when she started speaking extremely quickly and in a high pitch, sounding like she was high on helium. As if the situation couldn't get worse, the strange enemy vehicle's lights turned blue, and fired at the Guardian Tanks - who began shooting even faster.
While a number of Stingrays and Hammers (that had been transported over by Twinblades) were lost, the Twinblades saved the day yet again as they joined the ground vehicles to attack the new invention. Incidentally, after a barrage of missiles the vehicle exploded, taking the Guardians and unfortunately the Twinblades with it to the other side. The threat was, however, gone for now, and so the Engineers were shot up to the Research Center by Bullfrog, and proceeded to enter the building. The scientists who tried to recover the data had just found the password key, and frantically tried to open the lock to the data storage room. Their efforts were unfortunately in vain, as the Engineers barged in and shot them and the lock, opening the door to a room full of notebooks, tapes and other recording materials.
Evacuation, Russian Style[]
As the Engineers started collecting the data, Commander Davidova on Rineia noticed that the large gun overlooking the island moved, pointed at the sky and fired. Her common sense told him that the Allies probably wouldn't fire at the moon, and so she fled the VIP Bunker just before it was annihilated by a series of huge blasts, just like the rest of the Soviet base. The only thing remaining was her portable radio, which would prove crucial to command the remaining forces; now practically only consisting of Natasha, the Engineers, a battered V-4 Rocket Launcher and the veteran soldier Comrade Mikhail Gorbachev, as the Allied Air Force had yet again hit the Soviet task force hard.
Time was running short; the next wave of planes would surely destroy the Soviet force, if the gun known to the Allies as an experimental Proton Collider would not be faster. Natasha and Comrade Gorbachev were sent to deal with the gun, as the Engineers tried to figure out how to cross the sea fast enough to get away with the information they could get hold of - Twinblade reinforcements from Attica were available, but they would have to leave unnoticed so Giles couldn't send Ramjets after them; which effectively meant that they had to reach Rineia and depart from there. They took everything they could hold in their hands, only a fraction of the total knowledge, but all the Soviets could take. The rest of the research was destroyed, in order to at least disrupt the Allies.
Natasha, having climbed the mountains with haste, target painted the Proton Collider for Badger Bombardment. Unfortunately but still fortunately, when it arrived it was chased by Allied Ramjets, who shot it down from the sky, crashing into the gun and tearing it in two. While not what was planned, the result was satisfying and Natasha returned, to find that the Engineers had started working on the broken V-4. One of the missiles had been stripped of its warhead, with the Engineers instead stacking all the material that fit inside it inside the rocket. The Launcher was then reloaded in record time, and fired farther than was thought possible; one of Comrade Gorbachev's Molotov Cocktails had been added to the rocket fuel, giving the launcher the extra power needed for the dud to land on Rineia. Unfortunately, it also caused it to explode. The dud did land just off the coast of Rineia, where Commander Davidova personally swam out to take care of it and called for Twinblades to sneak past the Allies and pick up her and any survivors.
As the unmistakable sound of Century Bombers crept closer, Natasha jumped into the water and swam towards Dilos, hopefully before the Bombers would spot her. The Engineers boarded their sputterboats and sailed away as fast as they could - while they would not be fast enough to outpace the Allied aircraft, they would act as cannon fodder along with Comrade Gorbachev, allowing Natasha to swim back to Rineia unnoticed. Indeed, the six remaining men all fell victim to the Allies, but Natasha reached Rineia and flew back to Attica in the Twinblade, taking the stolen records with them. While pyrrhic, the mission was a Soviet victory.
Aftermath[]
Davidova and Natasha returned to Moscow as heroes, only staying briefly before returning to the field. The research that the Engineers got hold of was sent to the top Soviet scientists, who would find that there was no trace of fission technology in the recovered data; instead, they mostly contained unsuccessful tests on nuclear decay. The Soviets shelved the information for the time being, but were satisfied that they stopped the Allies all together.
The Allies, upon returning to the research facility, found all their "years of research gone, destroyed by the Communist barbarians who couldn't tell an atom apart from their mothers" as formulated by Allied scientist Robert Oppenheimer in his memoirs, The Science of War. The facility was subsequently closed down, sold and taken over by the Mediterranean Syndicate, with most research moved to safer places, and the guarding of said places increased tenfold.
While the operation was a failure for the Allies, Commander Giles was commended for his achievements in allowing the Soviets to not get hold of more than they did. What the Syndicate is using the facility for is unknown.
Perhaps the largest consequence of the battle was that the Allied research into Fission Technology was set back by at least seven years, with all the records from that time until the invasion had been stored on Mykonos. They would not be able to replicate much of the data even in present time. Fission bombs were not to be Allied, it seemed.