"Prepare for landing!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Admiral, there's a new transmission coming in from command!"
"Oh no..."
"Admiral von Feuerland, we understand that the situation in Transsuneria is... intense," the Head of the Navy intoned. "But the situation here is more drastic! You must return immediately!"
"Sir, the situation here is hanging from a thread. Sedunn and Transsuneria need our support here and now!"
The Head of the Navy sighed. "I know there's no arguing with you, Admiral, but we need reinforcements." An explosion was visible through the back window. "The rebels are bombarding Octavo Square. Send a third of your fleet back here as soon as possible, and no less."
Admiral von Feuerland saluted. "Yes, sir!" The message cut out. He turned back to the lieutenant. "Begin landing immediately!"
The landing ships and transports detached from the fleet and headed toward the Transsunerian coastline.

Off the Transsunerian Coast
"Begin landing!" Ordered the Admiral.
After weeks of preparation, the troops finally started landing in Transsuneria. Supported by aircraft provided by the aircraft carrier KSS Hoffmann and missiles from the destroyers KSS Spirit and KSS Endurance, the landing ships approached the Transsunerian coastline.

KSS Liberty 
After the ship was retaken, it was visited by Special Forces operatives to see if there was sarin left on the ship and to take the hostages back to Karnetvor. Helicopters brought Captain David Jarić and the other hostages back home. After the bridge was decontaminated, the Liberty was towed back to Karnetvor for repairs.

Near the secret Federation base:
Four of the Sedunnic cruisers in a line formation facing Transsunerian shores simultaneously fired a barrage of cruise missiles. The missiles' trails were clearly visible and the crews could follow them until they reached shore. Distant explosions could be heard in the bay, the Soormanns possessed no modern countermeasures.

"Admiral, all missiles on target, good effect!"
"Fire volley number two!"

Large explosions could once again be heard in the bay.

"Captain, order the 11th light battalion and the 32nd coastal ranger battalion to deploy."
"Yes!"

While the Darkstraitese and Karnetvoran units landed directly on the docks the Sedunnic units were ordered to land behind enemy lines to trap the Soormanns in a crossfire. The landing was supported by a few helicopters and grenade launchers mounted on some landing crafts.

At the secret Federation base:
The base was surrounded by the Soormanns, who had inflicted large casualties on the defending battalion. Some of the Federation soldiers desperately tried to ready some of the cannons that were stored within the base, but they lacked forward observers, rendering the cannons useless to them. Suddenly explosions tore the air apart. It was the missiles from the Sedunnic and Karnetvoran ships that begun bombarding their enemy. The tired soldiers started cheering as they also saw friendly landing crafts approaching the docks.

Soormann's secret location:
"Grandmaster, we nearly succeeded at securing the base, but our units are now under heavy fire and enemy landings are soon expected." One of Soormann's generals was nervously bringing Soormann the news.
"I will send reinforcements. Have the brigades Ret and Blakk transported there immediately."
"Yes Grandm." The general was abruptly interrupted.
"Let me finish! We must use all available resources. Have our last fighter jets fly low to avoid enemy radar and bombard the docks were most of the enemy units are landing. Have them crash on their targets if necessary! If that landing is interrupted the base and the Sedunnics would be vulnerable to our counter attack." Soormann angrily observed his general expecting him to interrupt him before he was finished. This time he could continue uninterrupted.
"We still have a lot of that gas. If we do not manage to halt the invasion we should threaten to use it to hold one of our major cities ransom for our enemies to stand down. As planned."
"Yes Grandmaster!" The general now dared to answer and left Soormann's office with loud steps.

Landing Location, Transsunerian Coast
The Karnetvorian soldiers successfully landed in Transsuneria, but were pinned down by enemy fire. Enemy aircraft started bombing the docks. Most of them were intercepted by Karnetvorian F-16s or destroyed by anti-aircraft missiles, but some of them managed to hit their targets.

Some enemy aircraft intentionally crashed with the objective of destroying the ships that were providing support; they destroyed two landing boats, but couldn't hit the destroyers or the Hoffmann aircraft carrier.

Eventually, the Karnetvorian troops managed to advance, thanks to the support of the aircraft.

The attacking Soormanns were getting desperate. Their attack had been abruptly halted and turned into a retreat. The Soormann pilots had not been successful in destroying the Darkstraitese and Karnetvoran beach head, which allowed for a rapid Sedunnic movement towards the back of the Soormanns lines. The reinforcing brigades sent by the Grandmaster were, despite terrific speed of movement, too far away. Many of the seniors of Soormanns' men were fanatics, but most of the attacking forces realised that the war was over for them. They surrendered unconditionally to a Karnetvoran colonel.

News of their surrender reached the brigades Ret and Blakk fast. The high-ranking officers ordered a counter attack , but further advancement was made impossible by precision bombing of roads and lead vehicles by coalition forces. The brigades were ordered to dig in.

The Grandmaster was furious. Every plan had failed, and the long desired victory seem less and less likely for every passing hour.
"Dig in and hold positions! We have a final trick at our disposal." Soormann was briefing his senior officers in his office, a place he had not left for an entire week.
"Contact the Coalition, I don't care how, and tell them we will use gas on the city of Beck af Suner and our capital if they do not withdraw immediately!"
"Yes Grandmaster!" the officers answered in unison and hurried out of the office.

To the Coalition forces currently unlawfully trespassing on our soil:
Now hundreds of thousands of lives are in your hands. Withdraw immediately or we will be forced to deploy large amounts of sarin in densely populated cities.
You have no business here and no right to interfere.

"Archchancellor Ridcully!"
Ridcully sighed and rubbed his face. He wasn't going to run for reelection, he had decided. It was too much stress.
"What is it?" he snapped. "Has Vimes reported back yet?"
"No, sir. It's the Transsunerians, sir. The Soormen have threatened to use sarin on civilian populations!"
Ridcully said a few very bad words of the variety that are not allowed on television. (OOC: see George Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say on Television, preferably when young children or grandparents are in the room. )
"Are there any available options?"
"Yes, sir," the aide reported. "We have come up with several potential solutions to this issue."
"What are they?"
The aide took a deep breath. "Von Feuerland's men have provided us with aerial photos of the targeted areas. The Transsunerian government has given us access to their records and we have a few locations that we think are Soorman hideouts. Of course, von Feuerland has given us his own options, but they all... lack subtlety."
Ridcully nodded. He was quite familiar with von Feuerland's planning skills.
"I'll skip von Feuerland's propositions, most of which involved a "secret" evacuation of the city, then an attack of some sort on it. I've already discussed this matter with many of the higher-up employees and found four decent options:
"First option, proposed by virologist Dr. Ponder Stibbons: distribute the antidotes in mass quantities within the cities targeted, then move forward as planned. The people will be affected, but the medical teams will work quickly to administer the antidotes."
"Too many holes," Ridcully interrupted. "First, do we even have the antidote available in mass quantities? Second, how will we get it to the medics without people noticing? And finally, won't the medics be affected?"
"Exactly," the aide said. "Which brings us to the second plan, proposed by engineer and chemist Ned Simnel. We distribute basic dust masks, along with a bottle of alkali solution. When the sarin bombs go off, the public is alerted by means of air raid sirens. They soak the mask in alkali solution and put it on. If the sarin reaches the mask, it has to go through the alkali solution, which breaks it down into nonlethal components. And if anyone isn't paying attention, or has hearing issues, or is just really, really dumb, we ship in enough antidote to be useful, but not so much as to drain our supplies."
Ridcully nodded. "It's a good one, but how many supplies will we need? Seems like an awful lot, and we just don't have the resources right now. By the way, what's your name? I don't believe we've been introduced."
"Havelock Vetinari, sir," the aide said smoothly. "The third proposal, from the known pacifist representative Precious Jolson, is fairly simple: our men stand down and pull out of Transsuneria."
"That creates more problems than it solves," replied Ridcully angrily.
"Exactly, sir," said Vetinari. "The fourth option, proposed by Commander A.E. Pessimal, head of the Elite Assassin Teams, may be the cheapest viable answer: we temporarily stand down. We send Assassins into Transsunerian cities and have them silence the Soormen within the cities. We could also implement Simnel's plan at the same time in case the Assassins fail."
"Brilliant!" Ridcully shouted. Then he winked. "I'll be watching you, Vetinari. You'd make an excellent Archchancellor some day."
"Thank you, sir," Vetinari replied.

Situation Room, Presidential Palace, Karnet City
General Rendici, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, entered the room. He was greeted by President Kerenskiy, General van Heyden (Minister of Defense), and the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. 

"Well, what's the situation?" Asked Kerenskiy.
"We have received a message from the Soorman's Fighters. They say that if we don't leave, they'll release sarin on major cities," replied Rendici.
"Dammit!" replied van Heyden angrily. "First the Wolframists in Darkstrait threaten to use a nuke, and now this?!"
"Calm down." said the President. "Are there any solutions available?"
"I propose to just attack the city as planned," said Admiral Yarmolenko, the Chief of Staff of the Navy. "We can distribute antidotes once we arrive."
"That wouldn't stop the attack." replied van Heyden.

After a few minutes, van Hayden spoke again.
"Apparently Darkstrait is planning to send it's elite corps, the Assassins, to the cities to stop the Soormens before they can do anything; I think that's the best course of action. We can send the Delta Force and the Navy SEALs to assist them, and at the same time distribute gas masks to the population, just in case."
Rendici asked. "Wouldn't it be costly?"
"Not quite. We have some leftover masks from the Civil War. Cost wouldn't be a problem."
"Well, that plan is brilliant." said the President. The plan was approved unanymously.

"Every unit besides special commando units Radyt 1 and 4 have been withdrawn." Radyt was one of Sedunn's most secret elite units, specialized in covert surveillance, behind-the-lines rescues and sabotage. Sedunn had also decided, like Darkstrait and Karnetvor, to withdraw and to covertly stop the gas attacks. The colonel responsible for the Sedunnic land operations was briefing the fleet battle group commander.

"How did our Transsunerian allies react?"

"They were horrified when we told them we had to withdraw." He smiled. "But of course, since we were in such a 'hurry', we didn't manage to bring back our mortars and heavy equipment from the naval base."

"Don't tell me you also forgot about the mines you planted around the base?!" The Admiral let a tiny smile slip through.

"What mines, admiral?"

Although bringing in reinforcements, the Federationalists had been worried that the base could fall in enemy hands when the coalition forces withdrew. The Radyts' orders were, unlike their reaming allies, to locate Soormann.

One major concern in the planning was that the men who were going to carry out the gas attacks would not reveal their presence and abort their preparations for distributing the gas if there were no coalition forces left in Transsuneria. To make sure such preparations were to be carried out, Sedunnic naval units were ordered to remain within Transsunerian waters. A necessary risk.

The cities mentioned by Soormann were the only two major cities not entirely devastated by the conflicts. They had not been evacuated and were because of this likely targets. However, the capital, one of the targets, was not under Soormann's control and the roads leading into the city were heavily guarded by Federationalists. The other city was however under Soormann's rule. Information about the cities was limited to satellite images and older tourist maps.

The Assassin squad had stowed away on a barge bringing scrap metal into the smaller city. They were now gathered on a map in the lower decks.
"This area is known to be Soorman headquarters," said Intelligence Officer Propus. "We can send in the scout drone once we arrive."
"How can we be sure that the Soormen won't shoot it?" asked Agent Engers.
"Because our hackers have found that Soorman has ordered a few dozen to police the city. Same model, same markings."
"So, we'll get into the city, use the drone to find the areas where the Soormen are gonna release the gas, then investigate ourselves, then take out every Soorman-affiliated spot in the city?"
"Basically."

Transsunerian Capital
Three Delta Force squads entered the city. It was heavily guarded, but the teams were ordered to go there "just in case". 

Smaller City
A Delta Force squad arrived by boat. It was midnight, so they weren't spotted.
"This map, obtained by the NIA*, shows the possible locations where the gas will be released. Our job is to get there and stop the attack before it happens" said Lieutenant MacGregor, the leader of the squad. "Miller, Phillips and Rogers will go here." He pointed at the map. "Ivanović, Kuznetsov and Fritz, here. I will be with Smith, Fedorov and Timoshenko, in this location. A drone it's currently patrolling the sky above us, it will provide us with air support if things get out of hand. Also, you must have in mind that the intel could be wrong; if that's the case, we'll use the drone to find the locations". 

"Alright, let's move!"

*= National Intelligence Agency