A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

IBSI Listening post, somewhere in the Nevaran Mountains, Duchy of Nevaras

A radio operator, Cpl Machado, was in the middle of playing an app on her phone.  She normally monitored the wired secure radio during the night shift at this particular listening post, and most nights passed with nominal reports from Kalistan's stations across northern Seleya.  A monotonous weather report over the Mad Dog Ocean had just begun, when all of a sudden, a loud buzz that noted an alert flashed over the speakers, and the Corporal nearly dropped her phone while just barely preventing herself from falling backward.  She snapped to attention and began to record the message.  She listened again for a little bit, realized it was repeating

"Captain.  Listen to this..."

The short captain in a tucked in short sleeved button down shirt moved to the radio.  In it he heard a mechanical teletype voice, similar to voice IBSI weather radio uses.  The Message repeated "major naval deployment detected in Keymon, significant increase in naval traffic detected in Northern Anantonese Ocean Detected.  Ack requested in OTH StatLik, OTH StatGre... Continuing to monitor...  CQCQ This is OTHAC, calling COMIMPINT WireStat.  ALERT Major naval deployment detected in..."

The captain took off his head set and sighed.  "Alright...  I have to make some calls.  This is going to really ruin my evening..."

The captain took the hand written message from the Corporal, disappeared into another room and closed the door.  The Corporal continued to listen to the message repeat wondering what it could mean.  As she listened to it repeat, it didn't change, but it became more ominous.

In a minute, the Captain returned and handed the Corporal a paper.  "Send this AllStat."

The corporal read the message, looked up at the Captain, who nodded, and then looked back at her console.  She flipped a switch which sent out a systemwide alert code, dialed in a specific number, and turned on her microphone.  "CQCQ This is COMIMPINT, calling ALLSTAT, Oscar Tango Hotel STATLIK, Oscar Tango Hotel StatGre, Acknowledge.  Continue Monitoring, MINREP Emergency.  MILINT 4th Fleet Initiate Protocol Kilo, HOURREP Standard.  MILINT 1st Fleet Initiate Protocol Bravo, HOURREP Emergency.  MILINT 2nd Fleet Initiate Protocol Bravo, HOURREP Standard.  Standby for further instructions from COMNAV.  This is COMIMPINT."

The Corporal didn't know what the protocols meant, but she knew gears were now moving.  The message from the Commander of the Regular Navy, likely coming within the next hour, would be very telling.  It would be unclear for a while whether this means that Kalistan would be preparing for some sort of conflict in either the Mad Dog or the Anantonese Ocean.  The captain was right though.  This had just become a very long night.

"Spencer better get on the ball..." he said, pushing his hair out of his eyes.  "I need a smoke.  Let me know if you hear anything."

"Aye Sir." said the Corporal and she went back to listening to her radio.  The repeating alert was soon replaced by various field units and different branches of the IBSI and military intelligence reporting message received.  The Corporal checked off each listening post on her ALLSTAT sheet until she had manually marked confirmation from all 85 field stations.  The confirmation process was completed in less than 2 minutes, and then the station went back to repeating weather reports from different segments of the Mad Dog and the Anantonese Oceans.