Operation Aglaia
| Operation Aglaia | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Corum War | |||||||
 Native fishing boat, taken and burnt on suspicion of illicit activities during maritime interdiction operations. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Raspur Pact |  Confederacy of the DispossessedCorsair Fleet remnants Local smuggling networks |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Trans-Euran Command Regional Inspectorate of Corum
| Unknown Corsair commanders | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Regional Inspectorate: • Honourable Air Corporation • Regiment of the Blackfriars' • Veterans Association Constancia: • Black Banner Fleet • ESB Corps • Foreign Legion Nouvelle Alexandrie: • Task Force Vigilant Protector • X Corps (RRF) Natopia: • Task Force Bucranium Others: • Oportian Contingent • Zeedic Contingent | Corsair naval elements Armed fishing vessels Smuggling craft |
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| Strength | |||||||
| Naval: • 3 Caputia-class cruisers • 1 Susa-class carrier • 1 Dominator-class missile cruiser • 6 Sustainer-class replenishers • 4 maritime cutters • Multiple support vessels Ground: • X Corps (corps strength) • 3 Foreign Legion brigades • 1 ESB Division • Multiple company-sized units Air: • Honourable Air Corporation assets • Carrier-based aircraft | Unknown number of coastal vessels and irregular forces | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None reported | 12+ killed 9+ captured 7+ vessels destroyed/captured |
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| First major Raspur Pact deployment to Corum following outbreak of Corum War | |||||||
Operation Aglaia, commenced on 10.I.1748 AN, was a deployment of allied forces to Corum under the auspices of the Trans-Euran Command, in response to the recent outbreak of hostilities between Floria and groups aligned with the Confederacy of the Dispossessed.
Preparations
In the initial preparatory stages, the Trans-Euran Command requested of contributing powers within the continental theatre of operations the mobilisation of elements of the Constancian Foreign Legion, ESB Corps, and directly contracted veterans of the Oportian Foreign Legion.
The Regional Inspectorate of Corum was reactivated with the directive to ensure that base facilities on the Île des Ombres, Naya Island, and in cantonments outside Corum Electric City, were in a suitable condition to receive forward deployed personnel and equipment. Oportian defence infrastructure on the Île des Ombres in particular still bore the scars inflicted during the Fourth Euran War and would require significant work to repair, upgrade, and expand.
As planning progressed, a slight hiccup occurred with regards to the forward deployment of allied forces to Corum Electric City, as it was remembered that East Zimia and the Wallis Islands, whilst a subject realm of the Mondosphere, remained technically outside the Raspur Pact. Whilst the possibility of proceeding regardless was briefly countenanced, it was, at length, considered more prudent to dispatch emissaries to consult with Mondo ahead of any action, with the hope of securing permission for the deployment of forces as a minimum, and ideally to obtain a full measure of cooperation. Fortunately for all concerned, the response to the various entreaties was a jolly one.
Build-up of forces
On the maritime side, Nouvelle Alexandrie was invited to contribute the Caputia-class cruisers, HMS Caputia, HMS San Genaro, and HMS San Francisco, under the guise of a farewell cruise ahead of their decommissioning towards the end of the year. The Constancian naval contribution would take the form of the Black Banner Fleet, fully forty percent of its available surface fleet, led by the Susa-class aircraft carrier the KP Imperial Will. Zeed promised vaguely to support the operation at sea with four patrol ships, although it was not immediately apparent where it intended to obtain these from - there had been some discussion of a transfer of older Oportian naval vessels into Zeedic service as a form of reparations for damages incurred during the Fourth Euran War, but this had yet to materialise. The Oportian Security Forces themselves, in recognition of the difficulties that might be encountered in getting combat vessels ready for an extended deployment under their own presently straightened postwar circumstances, was requested to contribute six Sustainer-class fleet replenisher ships to the allied armada.
The Île des Ombres Naval Base Treaty, signed on 15.V.1748 AN, initiated a further wave of Alexandrian deployments to the region, as the ruins of the former Boulanger Naval Station and Air Base would be further repaired, redeveloped, and expanded, with extensive maintenance complexes, advanced communications infrastructure, and accommodation facilities. The 195th (Airborne) Engineer Regiment was dispatched from Susa in the following month, embarked aboard the Marcellus Paixhans, an Ignatius-class amphibious transport dock vessel, and the Harmony, a leisure cruise ship, both chartered from the Honourable Company. The Dominator-class missile cruiser, HMS Viracocha was also retasked to the Île des Ombres. Forces contributed by the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie would be grouped as Task Force Vigilant Protector under the command of...
In VII.1748 AN, the Trans-Euran Command made the eyebrow raising announcement of a comprehensive operational sustainment contract, signed with the aforementioned Honourable Company, including the provision of combat air support and force mobility assets by the Honourable Air Corporation. Eyebrows were arched yet further when the ESB Group began subcontracting various aspects of the new mission, including to the Surenid Forces of the Home Guard and the Regiment of the Blackfriars'. These "corporate security" contributions would be placed under the authority of the Regional Inspectorate of Corum.
Also arriving during the seventh month of 1748 were four ex-Oportian maritime cutters, accompanied by a chartered merchant vessel flying the colours of Zeed, which would represent the long promised contingent from that realm. Aboard the merchantman were one hundred and eight volunteers drawn from the Armed Forces of Zeed, Zeedic White Guard, and the Garrisoned Police Force of Zeed, organised into the semblance of an independent rifle company.
During the ninth month of 1748 AN, the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie deployed a corps strength Rapid Reaction Force to establish the main garrison on the Île des Ombres.
Natopia would reinforce the residual NDF Naya Garrison with the Imperator-class arsenal ship NDS Asara, as well as with the Valeria-class destroyers NDS Egale and NDS Elijah, supported by a fleet oiler, as Task Force Bucranium. These would arrive on station as maritime interdiction operations began in the tenth month of 1748 AN.
Deployed Forces
- As of X.1748 AN
- Regional Inspectorate of Corum (Naya Island)
Honourable Air Corporation
Regiment of the Blackfriars'- Veterans Association of the Oportian Foreign Legion
Constancian Expeditionary Force (Corum Electric)
- ESB Corps
- Imperial Constancian Foreign Legion
- 5th "Barak" Brigade
- 6th "Nord" Brigade
- 7th "Imperio Anahuacano" Brigade
- Black Banner Fleet
- Expeditionary Air Group
Oportian Contingent (Île des Ombres)
Corum Command (Naya Island)
- Naya Garrison
- Task Force Bucranium
Task Force Vigilant Protector (Île des Ombres)
- X Corps (Rapid Reaction Force)
- Task Force "Vanguard"
- Task Force "Vigilance"
Zeedic Contingent (Île des Ombres)
Maritime interdiction operations
On 02.X.1748 AN, the Regional Inspectorate of Corum issued a communiqué accusing the remnants of the Corsair Fleet, associated with the Confederacy of the Dispossessed, of trying to rebuild their capacity in western Corum around coastal fishing villages transformed into strategic hubs for contraband smuggling, drug trafficking, slave markets, and piracy. On 8.X.1748 AN a fishing boat, its hold brimming with a repugnant native fish endemic to the local waters, was detained by a patrol boat from the Zeedic Contingent. Nine prisoners were taken off for interrogation, and a prize crew put aboard to take the boat to the nearest Allied-controlled port. That the boat was taken whilst positioned twelve nautical miles north-northwest of Brezovo and Yavorina, would oblige the prize crew to sail it towards the Île des Ombres Naval Station. Nothing of interest was found aboard, although Constancian marine biologists would subsequently be horrified and fascinated by some of the samples recovered from the hold of the boat. The Corumite crew were however transferred from the Île des Ombres to a Constancian Black Site, where they would assist with the mapping of human networks in the region, following a moderate level of debriefing.
On 10.X.1748 AN, the Black Banner Fleet conducted its inaugural anti-smuggling airstrike against a Confederacy aligned fishing vessel in the strait between the Île des Ombres and Brezovo. The Trans-Euran Command, acting on intelligence that the boat was operated by members of a Corsair sanctioned gang and laden with narcotics destined for Euran shores, unleashed a precision strike that incinerated the craft and claimed the lives of all twelve individuals aboard, as confirmed by the Committee of Euran Salvation in a video posted on Truth Social the following day. The strike was believed to have been carried out by a pair of Constancian F-21 Alecto, operating from flight deck of the KP Imperial Will, supported by a "Tadpole" spotter drone.
Over the next five days, a half dozen further small fishing boats and motor craft suspected of involvement in illicit corsair activities were boarded and burnt, following the removal of their crew.
During the first month of 1749 AN, a further four suspect craft were interdicted with the crew and contraband being taken to Naya Island and the boats used in a "SINKEX" training exercise conducted for the benefit of delegations from media outlets from across the Raspur Pact.
Operations ashore
Andrea Metaxas arrived in Corum Electric City during the final months of 1748 AN with the brevet rank of taxiarchos and an irregular commission to organise a razzia into the interior of the continent, targeting the parties lately engaged in ongoing hostilities.
Outcome
The conclusion of the deployment was announced by the Trans-Euran Command on 20.V.1750 AN, with the majority of allied and contracted contingents returning to their home bases as the Corum War had reached its conclusion.
The Nouvelle Alexandrie garrison on the Île des Ombres would however remain, and the naval base itself would, henceforth, serve as a major forward operating base for the Raspur Pact, should allied forces ever need to be surged to Corum in the future.
Of particular concern for the allies was however the revelation, gleaned from the "debriefs" of captives in Constancian custody, that the surviving corsair captains amongst the Dispossessed had voted to escape the Florian occupation and shift their main effort away from Corum and towards the Skerry Islands archipelago. Pressed, sometimes literally, on this point by their interrogators, some surviving crew members from the intercepted skiffs had confessed to have been heading into open waters in order to rendezvous with a small flotilla of disguised merchantmen, which would have been responsible for conveying the most able and enterprising of the Dispossessed leadership towards Keltian shores from whence to resume their operations.
