1687 Florencian crisis
| 1687 Florencian crisis | ||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||
 Mulej
| Council of the United Isles Kunsill tal-Kosta
|  Benacia Command
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The 1687 Florencian crisis began as a series of conflicts between supporters of the Kamra ta 'l-Għelieqi (Chamber of the Fields), the representative body of the inland communes of Florencia, and the Kunsill tal-Kosta (Council of the Coast), elected by the merchant houses and burghers of the island, for control of the island.
Initial disturbances
In 04.II.1687, the Mulej, elected prince of Florencia for a life term, ordered the re-establishment of the Esercito Florentiana (Florencian Army) and the Corpo dei Carabinieri (Carabineers Corps), as a means of curbing the rise of brigandry throughout the island. In spite of the proposed force being of only modest size, and in line with historical precedent, the Kunsill immediately sought to veto its establishment - fearing that an armed force at the command of the Mulej would inevitably be used to curb the liberties of the merchant houses, who had no desire to relinquish the great freedom of action they had acquired for themselves following the expulsion of the Black Legions. In spite of the Mulej offering to compromise and limit the forces raised to a smaller unit of Carabinieri alone, the delegates of the Kunsill, now seeking to formalise their supremacy over the executive, rejected the proposal and voted to withhold supplies from the Mulej for so long as he persisted with his plans. This in turn enraged the Kamra, whose communities had been sorely affected by the rise of organised crime on the island, and who voted to support the Mulej by withholding supplies to the merchant houses and by imposing tolls upon road traffic into and out of the cities along the coast. Unsurprisingly the Kunsill was further outraged at this development and denounced the members of the Kamra as being brigands and highway bandits in their own right.
The Mulej meanwhile, constrained to rely upon the resources of his own house, unfurled the civic gonfalone from the Governor’s Palace in Capitolia on 08.II.1687 and summoned his comrades from the War of Independence and the armed retainers of his house to the defence of his person and his office. 581 armed fighters heeded his call and helped to fortify the Governor's Palace. The members of the Kunsill, alarmed at this provocative act, called upon their supporters to assemble at their grand town houses and there to receive arms in turn.
On the following day, as news spread across the island and barricades began to be erected in Capitolia, the Kamra sent out a warning to the communes to arm their nightwatchmen and constables and to deputise men of fighting age to assist in the defence of their communities. In Capitolia itself the Kunsill busied itself hiring local unemployed youths to protest in the plaza before the Governor's Palace. The initially peaceful demonstration turned violent when the fighters within the palace sallied to disperse, with cudgels and rifle butts, an impromptu street market run by known black marketeers which they feared was being used as a cover to establish an encampment in the plaza from which a siege of the palace could be sustained. The attempted eviction turned into a massed brawl as the stallholders desperately fought to defend their wares whilst the protesters began to pelt the Mulej's fighters with rocks and broken up portions of pavement slabs. One such rock struck an inexperienced young fighter, sending him sprawling to the ground, dropping his M1656 submachine-gun - a weapon notorious for its accidental discharges and going off half-cocked if suddenly jolted. So it would prove in this instance, resulting in a burst of sudden gunfire that panicked the crowd of demonstrators and convinced the defenders of the palace that they were being fired upon. Fearful of being rushed by the stampeding mob, the gunmen now fired into the crowds of civilians, killing sixteen and sending the rest scattering in terror. As news of the killings spread the fury of the mob knew no bounds. Properties belonging to known supporters of the Mulej, along with homes and businesses belonging to individuals from the inland communes were set ablaze. An unknown number of individuals were slain by the rampaging mob during the ensuing night of violence, though reports of assassinations, stabbings, lynchings, rapes, and beatings were legion. By morning's light a pale of smoke hung over the city and upwards of twenty-thousand terrified citizens were fleeing for the highlands of the interior.
Sanaman forces on the island, consisting of the I and II Marine Expeditionary Units totalling 3,200 troops, of which the first one was based in Capitolia, initially remained passive during the crisis. When the extent of the unrest became apparent, the I MEU moved to secure and hold Capitolia port, while II MEU secured Capitolia's main airport. The official reason was to provide routes for both relief and evacuation efforts.
Escalation
Beginning on 10.II.1687, fearing that the occupation of the airport and the harbour, effecting the de-facto closure thereby, by Sanaman forces was intended to reinforce the landward blockade of the capital by the inlander communes, protesters, led by armed-retainers from the leading merchant families, began to establish barricades along the roads leading to both locations. An attempt by the I MEU to negotiate safe-passage for a supply convoy to troops deployed in the harbour district resulted in an exchange of gunfire and the forcible dispersal of the protesters, leaving behind two dead, an unknown but considerable number of wounded, and one slightly injured Sanaman marine.
On 11.II.1687 a forceful communique from Benacia Command was received at the office of the Representative of the United Isles denouncing the incident, placing the blame solely on the "partisans" of the Kamra ta 'l-Għelieqi, and promising an appropriate response to the insult upon the dignity of Raspur Pact forces deployed in the United Isles. In response to this ominous message the Representative, Pasquale Paoli, felt obliged to summon the delegates from the Chamber of Cannons on the Council of the United Isles to discuss the status of defensive preparations on the isles. Upon re-reading the message it became apparent that Benacia Command had confused the Kamra ta 'l-Għelieqi with the Kunsill tal-Kosta, but debate then ensued as to whether attempting to point this error out would only exacerbate the ill-temper of the Raspur Pact's continental theatre command towards them.
Towards 8 p.m. on 11.II.1687 it was decided to establish dialogue with the Sanaman garrison on the island, to ascertain its intentions, deescalate tensions, and hopefully - discretely - to correct any misapprehensions distorting the perspective of Benacia Command regarding the situation on the island. Accordingly Tlato Mengs, the Iridian representative of the Chamber of Ships, approached the I MEU force compound to open a dialogue with its commanding officer. Having been brought into the compound and taken into an interview suite, Mengs was kept waiting for forty-five minutes before a major of the marines entered the room. The interview was brief and succinct, the major brushing aside all attempts at offering an explanation - concluding the unsatisfactory interview with a brusque instruction to the shocked representative that it was now time to "make all necessary arrangements for an orderly transition" as actions had now been set in motion that could not be undone. Shocked, and immediately discerning the meaning of what had been said, Mengs asked for the use of a phone and the opportunity to speak with his colleagues. This being granted Mengs was given the opportunity to put a call through to Paoli. After a brief discussion, Paoli concurred that the sudden change in attitude on the part of the Sanaman forces on the island could only betoken one thing. Mengs was instructed to return immediately while the Council returned to its deliberations and urgently sought to put into motion its plans, such as they were, for the defence not only of Florencia but all of the United Isles.
Intervention
Between 9.15 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. on 11.II.1687, gongs were sounded and horns blown in cacophonous alarm in temple courtyards throughout the length and breadth of the coastal communities of Florencia, in the prearranged invasion warning alarm - the din being taken up and spread still further by the sounding of crude sirens operated by the local civil defence committees and by the banging of pots and pans by teams of youths racing up and down the streets in relays, hollering at every passer-by and pounding on every accessible door with such enthusiasm as to raise the dead. Warning messages, and summonses for militia members were soon being widely shared across the island via the hand-held communications devices which had proliferated since the Kalirion Fracture.
The initial chaotic reaction to the alarm saw militia bands taking to the streets in Capitolia, Fucconara, Buccisi and Lapano, and further groups piling into trucks to drive out of town to secure the coastal artillery emplacements on the Saena, Pietra, and Scarponi. These last groups generated some stand-offs and uncertain fire fights with the watchmen raised by the inlanders to defend the boundaries of their communes. The reports of gunfire on the edge of city prompted the Council of the United Isles to proclaim a state of siege in Capitolia, a move mirrored by the thoroughly alarmed merchant guilds in cities and towns in coastal towns around the island as word, amplified by rumour, spread.
At 11.36 p.m. the Fiore Power Station, the largest power facility on Florencia, which provided approximately half the island's electricity, was severely damaged, bracketed by a series of twelve intense air-burst explosions, causing widespread power cuts which affected much of the island, resulting in blackouts across Capitolia.
With the air traffic radar, and the networked Panopticon nodes interfacing with the Benacian Air Traffic Management System, inaccessible to the forces loyal to the Council of the United Isles on account of Capitolia International Airport firmly under the control of the Sanaman I MEU, the eyes of those forces were effectively blind safe for the last minute warnings afforded by the network of coast watchers employed by the various merchant houses. These were of no help, as the S-2 Standard Missiles streaked in from off-shore and detonated above and around the critical power station, killing two dozen engineers, and thirteen more militiamen and watchmen from the rival Florencian factions at that moment engaged in a stand-off for control of the site which now dissolved into flame around them.
The representatives of the Council of the United Isles, along with their staff and such gunmen and guild members who had been milling about the council chambers during the day, were in the process of completing a hurried evacuation of the building when the next salvo of four missiles struck their location five minutes later. Representative Paoli, concussed and lacerated, was one of the few pulled alive from the burning rubble of the building in the aftermath of an attack that left one-hundred and eighty-seven dead, forty-nine missing, and one-hundred and nineteen wounded.
Even if the Mulej had been in a position to take any satisfaction with regards to the fate of the Council, he would scarcely have had the opportunity to express it, as three minutes after the strike on the council chambers, another four missiles detonated at a high angle above the Governor's Palace, lacerating the building with shards from their directed fragmentation warheads as the simultaneous blastwaves caused the masonry of the north facing wall of the palace to crumple like cardboard.
The surprise nighttime bombardment had been carried on from off-shore by a GV-7 Leviathan positioned 65 km north of Capitolia in hovercraft configuration, having been quietly assigned to the Cosimo Sea Flotilla, and ordered out to sea by Benacia Command as the crisis on the island had begun to deteriorate.
H-Hour for the Intervention, to be conducted by the Central Banner Group of Benacia Command, was set for 4.00 a.m. on 12.II.1687. 840 legionaries of the Sazn Þeïnszæhan Furgsaddâ departed Marinestation Šlomxala aboard thirty-five TR-279 Dronts bound for Capitolia International Aiport. At the same time two-hundred GAV-4(U) Jackalope escorted by sixty-eight GAV-5(P) Nereid, all drawn from the 6th Brunïak Afzælt-bi-Łoïdi, departed from force assembly areas around Marinestation Šlomxala carrying a further 3,960 legionaries from the Saznan Darneï.
Capture of the Saena peninsular
Over the two centuries of Shirerithian occupation the island of Florencia, like so many of the southern isles in the long archipelago stretching from Naudia'Diva in the west to Yardistan in the east, had been encrusted with coastal artillery emplacements. Many of these had fallen into neglect and ruin with the waxing and waning of various Imperial and feudal initiatives, but the battery of six 155-mm guns installed on a commanding promontory overlooking the tip of the Saena peninsular gave planners at Benacia Command pause. Fears concerning the power and range of these guns, installed during the reign of Anandja II Mita and last reported to be operational by the General Inspectorate of the Black Legions, which had a theoretical range of twenty kilometres, inhibited the dispatch of an amphibious task force in the first wave of forces sent to secure the island, and if left in rebel hands would pose a threat to pact shipping bound for Capitolia once that city was secure. Precision strikes and obliteration bombing were considered but the twenty-five hectare bunker complex which housed the battery was of a robust design consisting of three concrete and steel casemates, supported by two-dozen ammunition bunkers, barracks, defensive mortar pits and concealed machine-gun nests, all linked to a central subterranean fire-control bunker by two-hundred and fifty metres of tunnels. It was instead decided that whatever militia group had ensconced itself in the bunker complex would have to be winkled out by a close quarter airborne assault.
At 4.16 a.m. the six Jackalope gravimetric air vehicles assigned to the capture of the battery followed each other in, a minute apart, swooping towards the designated assault points for the legionaries carried within. The lead Jackalope, ploughed into overhead power-cables, whose existence the General Inspectorate's report of the site had neglected to mention, and smashed nose-first into the ground. The pilot and co-pilot, still strapped into their seats, were thrown out of the cockpit unconscious - the first legionaries to return to the island since the ignominious evacuations of 1684. Inside the Jackalope everyone was momentarily knocked senseless. Golsapbir Lors Bakker, the commander of the thirty-two man troop on board, hit the roof, and his helmet smashed down over his eyes; when he came to, he at first thought he had been blinded. The pilot had, nevertheless, brought the glider down within the perimeter of the bunker complex. Within seconds the men regained consciousness, leaped out of the grounded Jackalope and went for their target, gunning down two teenage militiamen who had dashed out from the barracks building to investigate the crash. One minute later the second Jackalope came to a controlled hover over its designated target area, allowing the legionaries aboard to begin the hazardous act of rappelling from a gravimetric vehicle, striving to their utmost in the dark to avoid becoming entangled in the repulsion field of the craft during their descent. The perils of this being amply demonstrated with the arrival of the third Jackalope, where the assault force's medic became caught in the aft repulsion field as he attempted to descend upon the rope flung from the side of the craft, and instead was flung a distance of twelve metres, striking the side of a casemate head-on and becoming the first Raspur Pact fatality of the intervention in so doing.
As Bakker and his men cleared the trenches and pillbox covering the approach to the entrance to the fire-control bunker, more legionaries were disgorged onto the site by the remaining Jackalopes, encountering heavy small-arms and grenade attacks from the defenders safe in their fortified emplacements. To assist them one of the Nereid's assigned to escorting duties was called up and raked the Florencian positions with its pivot mounted 35 mm rotary autocannon. Moving rapidly to overcome this resistance, the legionaries placed hollow-charge grenades on the gun emplacements, then dropped M1656 Demolition Kits into the ventilation shafts and stairwells of the bunkers. Stunned, demoralised, and disorientated, the militia group defending the bunker complex surrendered after twenty minutes of resistance. It was later discovered that, while the barrels of the 155 mm guns were indeed in pristine condition, they were entirely without ammunition, and that the autoloaders and breech-blocks of the artillery pieces were corroded to the point of being inoperable.
