Operation Condor
| Operation Condor | |||||||
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| Part of The Adrestian Wars of Liberation | |||||||
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Operation Condor was a large military operation and pre-emptive colonization effort devised by the Adrestian Royal Navy, in response to the fall of Palesmenia in 1698. It was one of a series of such operations named aptly after carrion eating animals. Undertaken by the Adrestian Regency Council simultaneously with other major operations, it was part of a large, theater-level bid to aggressively expand the territory in the wake of a total loss of USSO allies for its Ralgon counterparts that very same year. Other operations in the larger theater included Operation Buzzard and Operation
The first of the truly imperial ambitions of the government of Adrestia, Operation Condor was designed for one sole purpose: the virtually bloodless conquest of nearby peoples that had recently fallen into anarchy. After initial squabbles in secret with the Calbain government on the high seas, the Adrestians eventually decided that their best course of action was to continue west of former Palesmenia, instead of directly across the remaining stretches of sea from the northern reaches of Scarterra. Otherwise, the Adrestian government risked accidentally triggering a war with their Calbain counterparts, while alerting the Ralgons themselves in Cibola of the Regency Council's plans on setting up a proper empire for Masamune III, who was still a minor and not ready to take the Princely throne of the quickly-expanding country. In reality, the Operation was but one arm of the Adrestian Regency Council's ambition of transforming Adrestia into an empire.
Although the island country was already thriving, expanding, and now larger than its cousins in Drag'os in every sense, it was still a dependency of the faraway territory whose own ambitions were little match for their own. Operation Condor shattered what little remained of this continued relationship with Ralgon. Now, the Adrestian government knew that, of the two, they were by far the superior force on the seas and could act with impunity with regards to all of colonization, military operations, and even foreign policy with entities otherwise disliked by the Ralgon government, unlike in 1685 in the wake of the Ralgon Civil War. Overall, Operation Condor proved extremely crucial to laying the groundwork for the subsequent, much larger Adrestian Wars of Liberation, due to the overwhelming and swift show of force the Adrestians discovered they could project in their home region, as well as the speed of which they could execute military operations regionally, fully independently of their Ralgon cousins. In short, this otherwise eventless military adventure set the stage for the Adrestian state to emerge independently onto the world stage.
Events
Response to Palesmenia's Demise
In the wake of the collapse of Palesmenia and Nova England in 1698, the Adrestian government realized that there was no USSO presence to keep the organization alive and relevant in the country. Knowing that it was now surrounded by only a single neighbor in the expanding Calbion and/or anarchic territory on virtually all sides, the Adrestian Regency Council was forced to act in the country's motivated self-interests. With the Emperor Shiro I of Ralgon virtually incapacitated outside of Drag'os, the country had found itself in a position where it was truly alone... and free to act in whatever way it saw fit.
The country hurriedly called Admiral Koga Yamagawa to the scene, and sent an aircraft carrier group as well as a full military escort along with it. Additionally, a large group of colonists sponsored by the Great White Fleet organization happily assisted, eager to lay claim to strategic trading sites before either the Navy or any competitors could beat them to a potential gold mine. The scrambling of the fleet, while hasty, still produced a truly formidable force that would be more than capable of subjugating the region they found themselves in and bringing it to order.
Foundation of the Northwest Territories
They set off in late 1698, and immediately set sail for eastern Palesmenia... where they encountered Calbain forces with the same idea in mind. Wishing to avoid direct conflict, Admiral Yamagawa instead decided to take the fleet around the failing country to islands northwest of Palesmenia formerly owned by Francia shortly before its collapse. The fleet prepared for battle as it approached the largest islands first... and met no resistance from the locals. As it turned out, the locals had been stranded there with no outside help since the Francian Crisis of 1685. In short, the islanders were happy to be once again be in contact with civilization, and surrendered the islands without resistance. However, they had moved to larger islands; Port Goose had long been abandoned, and there was, instead, infrastructure on nearby islands the newly joining colonists from Gondolin could use to found a town, now named after the Admiral in command of the expedition.
The fleet rapidly set to work, with sailors setting up a naval base in Fort Intrepid on the largest island in the group, and refrained under direct orders from the Admiralty from directly colonizing the mainland. To the south, Port Chuuji was rapidly built to control access to and from the Bay of Palesmenia, which would make efforts to subjugate the territory near those waters much more efficient. Overall, these two rapidly built bases and the Northwest Territory's initial foundation shortened the otherwise long supply chain (especially in the way of food) that Admiral Yamagawa would otherwise experience on a long-term deployment.
In less than a month, the conquest of the islands was already complete. In the next three months, the town of Koga was fully operational and had established a fully functioning, local supply chain on behalf of the Navy. In the meantime, the Adrestian Royal Navy had already sent several thousand more troops into the area, and raised additional conscripts among islanders volunteering for service in exchange for citizenship. While further forays into the failed Palesmenian state would inevitably take several more months, the Adrestians knew that the same held true for the Calbain forces, and secret negotiations for division of the territory would, inevitably, bring the two countries closer to normalcy (and maybe even cooperation) than they had at any other point in their respective histories.
Aftermath
Adrestia
The event was an epic success for the Royal Adrestian Navy. Having quickly founded three bases there, they swiftly followed suit to cement their presence in the region by establishing the small trading town of Koga, by which they could ferry supplies from the well-defended islands to the small army they were already sending into former Palesmenian territory to restore order. Additionally, the port town of Koga could serve as a freeport for trade with the nearby expanding power of Calbion, which the government of Adrestia hoped to secretly recruit as a co-conspirator in their extended forays into this region of Keltia (even if temporarily) in the days to come.
The ease of which the Adrestians managed to secure these outlying islands was startling for the government. Although they had expected little resistance in their efforts at rapid colonization, the near-immediate capitulation of the formerly Francian population was also startling to the Admiralty, which expected to record at least one major battle over Dragospire Island, if anything else. This general lack of resistance, along with a too-successful show of strength from the powerful Adrestian Royal Navy met with extreme pressures from the nobility on the Regency Council to also complete its conquest of South Island, which had stagnated as the country focused on a slow-and-steady approach during the illness of the late Masamune II and during the current vacancy he left behind.
In the eyes of the Regency Council, the stage was now set for their next monarch to take the stage, hopefully at the helm of an emerging, vibrant empire. Fired up with nationalist and imperialist sentiment, the Regency Council itself was now caught in the tide of the times, and was eager to expand its domains on South Island more than ever. No longer reluctant to simply bow to popular demand, the Council now collectively sensed that the time for expansion and conquest had come. The USSO was gone, and it was time for Adrestia to truly move on its own, for the first time in its history.
Ralgon
When news of the conquest and brief contact with the Calbain forces had leaked and reached the Ralgon Imperial Senate in Glacier City, they were, despite all their own efforts, powerless to stop their now-wayward colony from continuing their newly adopted aggressive posture. The Ralgons lacked a decisive Navy, their Army had already suffered from mass defections to the Adrestians or attrition in the now-endless Ralgon Reconquista, and their treasury was, for the first time in recent memory, dangerously close to depletion. In a word, they found themselves once again at the mercy of their own subjects, and so shortly after the Ralgon Civil War. Unable to stop the Adrestian Regency Council's open defiance of the Crown, the Emperor Shiro lost further prestige due to his inability to recover from yet another existential crisis for his nation.
In a word, the stage was set and the time was ripe for the subsequent Adrestian Wars of Liberation to occur, and there was little anyone, not even Nobunag'an IV of Ralgon, could do to stop this rapidly accelerating course of events. Both sides had already mobilized their forces in case of conflict, and the Drag'os side of the standoff was now, after years of constant fighting and economic crises, unable to project power outside its own capital. The only thing standing between Ralgon and an untimely end was the continued existence and, if possible, military success of its Emperor on different battlefronts. Little did the Imperial Senate know that he had already sold his crown for just that... and by the time this change was effected, Operation Condor had already completed and set a nationalist spirit in the minds of prominent Adrestians.
