The chamber was packed to capacity this Monday morning, not only by European heads of state and their security chiefs, but President Wolf Schneider had invited all those heads of state that had suffered from the Friday bombings. Presidents from the Eastern Alliance [China Japan, Korea, Viet Nam, etc], Antipodeian Commonwealth [Australia and New Zealand] and the South American Confederation, as well as President Orwell. The only delegate that was not a head of state or a recognised member was Rick Pickles, who had been co-opted by the Prime Minister of Israel. The session was set to begin at ten and delegates were continuing to arrive, however private meetings had been going on for close to an hour.
President Schneider was first to speak, "Welcome on behalf of the European peoples and indeed the western world," there was some clattering and many background noises as delegates took their seats, "Almost all our countries have suffered atrocities over the past few days and my heart-felt sympathies go out to all those who have lost dear ones, family and friends, and those delegates that this council has lost. For which we will observe two minutes silence." The chamber suddenly became deathly silent, heads of state and government officers stood with heads bowed, the military personnel stood to attention, heads up in the attitude of salute. It was President Schneider who broke the silence at the end of the two minutes. "However we are not here to lick our wounds and bemoan what we have lost but to decide on what collective action we should take to remove the menace of the aligned Islamic states once and for all. Whatever action this council decides upon, it will not be in revenge, but must be in defence of this Earth of ours, and its peoples. We of the free world have an obligation to protect those who are oppressed and enslaved, To our continued shame Nazi Germany, The Birlin Wall and the evil empire of the USSR, Saddam Hussein, Bashar Hafez al-Assad, the Islamic State, and Russia's conflict of oppression over the Ukraine, the list goes on, all have been removed by the collective efforts of the free peoples. From talking to most of you I gather that we are of one mind, that something needs to be done. It is now up to you to decide what that 'something' is."
Rick Pickles was waiting to the side of the podium and had been asked to brief the council on the current situation in Israel. Pickles gave a ten minute briefing of what had, and what was happening, along the eastern borders, but then surprised the delegates by proposing a strategy for the combined forces of the allies. Many of the heads of state stared at each other in amazement and bewilderment as the Pickles' plan was unfolded, 'Who was this individual' many asked, and whispers echoed around the chamber carrying abbreviated bios of Rick Pickles. As Rick revealed his plan heads started to nod in agreement and the amazement at his audacity turned to amazement at the value of his plan.
At three that Monday afternoon a vote was taken on several proposals that had been seconded. The proposals were eventually filtered down to just two alternatives, and at just after five in the afternoon the final vote was taken and an overall majority gained on direct, swift and decisive action. Every country, union, commonwealth and coalition committed there and then to form an alliance that would completely surround the Islamic states involved. The military had their mandate and the commanders, generals and strategic planners went away to formulate their plan, the 'Pickles Plan', which was to become 'Operation SNUFF'.
Dhekelia, Eastern Sovereign Base Area, had been in the possession of Britain since nineteen-sixty, when Cyprus had attained independence from the British Empire. The two areas, one in the west and one in the east of Cyprus had been granted sovereign status by the treaty of independence. The RAF maintained a base at Akrotiri and the British Army maintained the base where the allies had established their HQ, both bases would be heavily involved in the western attack force. The eastern secondary base had been established in Sri Lanka, who had distanced itself from the Islamists and from India. Here the forces of the Eastern Alliance and the Antipodean Commonwealth, together with the US Pacific fleet and Western USAF units were amassed.
Friday, March 3rd had been designated 'D-day' or in this case code 'COLD BLOW'. All ships and aircraft had been equipped with the energy dampening devices, for which Pickles Industries had been producing at high volume, incidentally making Rick Pickles a fortune beyond even his wildest dreams. Other munitions manufacturers had also been producing at more than full capacity since January twenty-third, missiles, stealth drones, energy weapons, and conventional bullets and shells were also making people fortunes. There seemed to be an endless logistics stream from the various munitions manufacturers to the many bases around the Pacific and the Mediterranean Sea.
At Dhekelia the commanders were gathering, and the airspace above Cyprus had been closed from midnight the previous night, to all but allied military traffic. Marshal (OF10) Sir Alan Robinson, had arrived the previous day in order to welcome the western world's commanders. The next two weeks would be dedicated to holding the huge forces of the Islamic Axis (IA) in stalemate, whilst the commanders moved troops and machines around in readiness for 'COLD BLOW'. Every available surveillance satellite had been moved into position over enemy territory. The latest estimates of the size of the IA army came to around twenty million, information that was a little disheartening to the allied military. However the allies had their secret weapon, Rick Pickles.
All Russian and Indian surveillance satellites had been disabled over the past two weeks by ENP blasts from low-orbit spy-planes, effectively blinding the Islamic Axis. Slowly and under cover of night the allied forces had spread themselves out along the borders of the member enemy states. The main force of the enemy had amassed along the western boundaries of Syria, Russia and Turkey, from which the main western thrust was expected, mainly supported by disinformation. Several known photonic line taps had been used to misinform Russia of troop movements and air traffic. Specific Air Traffic Control centres had been used to feed false radio communications and images to the axis. All western airlines had cooperated by temporally changing communication frequencies to military encrypted systems, whilst actors had taken over the normal 'Air-bands'. It was hoped that enough had been done to fool the Axis states, and the latest satellite images had suggested that the subterfuge had been successful.
At ten minutes after midnight the coded signal went out to all divisional commanders, COLD BLOW. Seconds later the troops started to move forward, their theoretical destination, Tehran. At the same time thousands of weapon equipped drones took off from warships and land bases around Europe and North Africa, their aim was to take out all the command and control installations that had previously been identified by the various satellite images. The work of the drones, most of them the new stealth type ZP22 from Pickles industries, or built under licence by General Electric, and Lockheed, was being monitored from the Long Term Manned Space Station (LOTERMS) a joint project between Europe and the US.