[color=004b80][b]West Coast Brotherhood Aerial Expeditionary Force – Across the Midwest[/b][/color]

The overflights were the first step.

The standard operating procedure was simple, a take-off and rapid ascent to 12,000 metres, optimal surveillance level it had been decided in a dawn flight. Low enough to enable the best pictures to be taken, and high enough to avoid notice, and if noticed, to be likely dismissed as a bird. After all it was reasoned, in the centuries since the great war, who kept their eyes on the skies for aircraft? Not since the Enclave had there been any continent-wide flights on a semi-regular basis. That and it was noted that the Cult’s airspace defence measures were, as ongoing black-op raids and surgical strikes had gathered, non-existent for the time being.
 
The surveillance gathered revealed a bevy of actionable data for the entire warfront, cult troop movements enabled a thorough review of possible future offensives in the vein of deep battle operations. The possibility was raised in the Western Brotherhoods staff elements of a single offensive dislocating an entire warfront of the cult all the way through to its rear echelon areas. It was ultimately decided to forward the proposals over to the Midwestern and Legionary staff elements at the central command in the SAC bunker where the central command node had been established.

Whilst feedback on a potential deep battle offensive was awaited, the Western Brotherhood general staff plotted the opening stages of the “Public” aerial campaign. The original plan of a swift and massive bombing campaign was, following intelligence from midwestern briefings following the arrival of the aerial expeditionary force, found to be both logistically over-confident for the moment, and also a threat to future joint operations. In particular, Dayton was removed from targeting lists following confirmation of allied elements having established themselves in the settlement. This change in course had resulted in much grumbling from the general staff, more used to unilateral action. 

The watchword of the day however, was multilateral action, and with that in mind the general staff had settled on an in-depth series of reconnaissance flights and intelligence sharing. Following this series of missions and subsequent reflection, a new war-plan was devised. A series of staggered aerial bombardments in which the entirety of the western brotherhoods aerial expeditionary force was concentrated on a single settlement in turn, over the course of two months rather than week. This would allow a stockpile to be built up for missions, until such time as the logistical networks could be connected properly.

And so, days turned to night turned to days and come the approach of the dusk, the first great raid of the Western Brotherhood’s Aerial Expeditionary Force took flight. From dawn until midday, the work had begun, moving planes from hangars to their waiting bays, munitions rolled in and loaded up and pre-flight checks undertaken. Then, at the stroke of midday and lined up upon the runways of Peoria Airbase, macro-fusion engines were initiated and away they went. Up and up to their maximum flight ceiling, and in tandem with forward operational directions by a special forces team on the ground, they were guided to their target.

The route selected involved cutting over the 69th highway between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne and then over the 75th. Overflying primarily rural country to avoid any possible spotters in place in Cult lands. It was felt that with the relatively recent conquest of this area, that most of the Cult’s focus would be controlling the major settlements and roads, and thus plans were drawn accordingly. On and on they went, deeper into enemy territory until at last, they were in line for their bombing runs.

Down and down the aerial force descends, lower and lower to increase the accuracy and effectiveness of the run. The radios become saturated with the voices of the bombardiers as they align their sights and order corrections on aircraft bearings and altitude. And below, as the land was bathed in the red rays of a setting sun, with the city swaying in the growing autumn breeze that promised respite from the hot summer heat of the weeks before, the first bombs were dropped.

The munitions for the Columbus raid comprised a mix of microfusion cell clusters, plasma grenade clusters, mini-nuke clusters and phosphorous based incendiary cluster bombs. The mix of weaponry saturates the centre of Columbus, igniting a thousand fires across the city in the space of a few minutes. The fires took only a few minutes more to gather into conflagrations spanning what passed for city blocks in the shell of Columbus. All of this was a mere opening movement to the infernal symphony that would become known as the Scouring of Columbus.

Following the great war, and with the lack of “Modern” building methods, most methods of repair involved patchy repairs of structures utilising whatever could be found. Production of concrete and metal was, as the decades had worn on, forgotten and replaced instead by the more readily available material of timber that grew in abundance in the countryside surrounding the many settlements scattered across the wasteland. Further fuel for the fires was, quite literally, the firewood gathered and stored in abodes across Columbus in preparation for the harsh winters that seized and froze the region each year. Added together with the previous summer heat that had dried out the city and aided in their spread by westerly winds, so it was that the flames rose higher and higher across the city of Columbus.

 Roaring and screaming across the city, the inferno sucked in the air towards it in monstrous gasps, hungry for air and burning out in search of more tinder to devour. And as night blanketed the Midwest, for Columbus, there was no night, only the fire. Inside the city, panic reigned across Columbus, all viewed ahead by the progenitors of this act of fiery carnage. The West Coast brotherhood’s planes circled the city, intentionally seeking to try and create an updraft from their motions, and all the while occasionally dropping munitions and unloading bullets into the city below them to stoke the panic of the cultists below and distract them from any attempts at firefighting. 

At last, satisfied with their work, the Brotherhood circled one last time and left, leaving behind a long night of terror for those behind them. And come the morning sun, a sight came to greet those who rose with it within and without the former settlement of Columbus. All that was left were the charred remains of the buildings and denizens of the targeted settlements melting into one another. A swirling firestorm had been unleashed upon the city, a pillar of smoke billowed into the air for dozens of miles around as the embers hissed and cracked as they died away. The flames had now grown out of control, beyond the ability of any possible actions to contain them without a massive directed effort. Such an effort did not come, shell-shocked and strangled by the fire and the smoke, Columbus burned.