Second Euran War

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Second Euran War
Date 1665–1667 Location Eura Result As of early 1667 Iteran Crisis ends with the destruction of river valley civilisation by Raspurid and Cerid marauders. Constitutionalist uprising against Primo de Aguilar in Constancia degenerates into interfactional civil war. Loyalist forces regroup around Aqabah and Nivardom. Suren Confederacy formed against House of Osman in Raspur. Vey is destroyed by orbital bombardment. New Zimian War League occupies Euranikon Theme. Disputes over economic exploitation rights continue
Belligerents
Raspur Pact  Constancia (Loyalist)  Natopia  Raspur  Shireroth ESB Euran Directorate	Azad Eura  Iteru Constancia (Constitutionalist) Movement for the Restoration of the Constitution National Liberation Front People's Liberation Movement Movement for the People's Liberation People's Front for the Liberation of the Nation Aspadana Suren Confederacy Mbasana	USSO Haifo-Pallisican Imperial Trade Union Greater Eurani Trade Association Province of the River Erik
Commanders and leaders
Primo de Aguilar George Maniakes Demetrios Thesalonikis Kūruš Artashata	Amenhotep IX Paul Lamola Grigoris Spártakos Lady of Aspadana Shahrukh of Suren Dāryuš of the Suren Mitradokht of Suren

Revolt in Constancia

The day started ordinarily enough, with the Autokrator of Constancia scheduled to make a public address announcing the possibility of revisions to the Constitution Act, the fundamental law of the Kingdom. The attempted assassination attempt created ripples across the political, social, and economic spheres of Eura and the entirety of Micras.

Operation Tempest Wind

Operation Tempest Wind was a contingency plan formulated under the auspices of the Program Management Office of the Constancian Ministry of Defense, in accordance with a decree [1] from the Autokrator of Constancia bearing date at Vey, the 18th day of the 11th month of Gamilios, 1656. Quietly practiced every year, its sudden activation and implementation out of the blue on the 21st day of the 14th month of Apellaios, 1665, some seven years later, proved its significance.

The attempted assassination of the Autokrator of Constancia immediately set Operation Red Poppy in effect, which further heightened both preparation and defense condition levels theater-wide. The ongoing Operation Steppe Fury ensured that the Kingdom was merely one step closer to a shooting war.

Combat Air Patrol was doubled, with all Royal Constancian Air Force Fulcrums put to the skies over Eura, and warning deployment orders were issued to all active and reserve units. As Royal Constancian Navy and Merchant Marine ships along the River Erik were preparing to depart and put to sea [2], civilian air traffic over and nearing Constancia and Raspur was diverted elsewhere, where possible, or permitted to land for quick turnaround refueling and departure. Vessels intending to enter the River Erik or the Sandy River Estuary were tersely advised that it was closed to incoming traffic.

Aqaba: Raspur Pact forces regroup

As luck would have it, Trans-Euran_Command Theater Commander and Magister-Generalissimus George Maniakes was in Aqaba, which was serving as the Raspur Pact forward command post for the Iteran Campaign. He was in a command conference with Antistrategos (Lieutenant General) Demetrios Thesalonikis, Yponavarchos (Rear Admiral) Konstantin Moudros and Daryāsālār (Vice-Admiral) Esmeralda al-Osman of the Khanate of Raspur when news of the assassination attempt, as well as the standby orders started coming in. The contingency plans were executed without problems, save for a few minutes when Maniakes had to comfort the very shocked Daryāsālār, who soon departed to undertake her own duties and contingency measures.

The destruction of Vey

As will have been recounted further up the page, the course of the Constancian revolt can be succinctly summarised - a clique of officers, supported by monarchists and liberal politicians, attempted to stage a coup in order to depose the Alexandrian dictator who had, by taking the Free and Associative Kingdom into the Raspur Pact and through the purposeful neglect of the expected norms of the constitutional rule of law, become cuckoo in the Constancian nest. While the attempted assassination of the Autokrator had succeeded in puncturing his aura of invincibility in the eyes of the sullen masses, the efforts of the Basileusian Private Guard to follow this up by storming Nirytos House, the dictator's residency, was thwarted by the rapid mobilisation of ESB operatives placed in key posts to control communications and civic infrastructure. As the Tagmata of the small professional army declared for Primo and began sending armoured vehicles into Vey to cordon off the Great Palace of Vey and the barracks of the Basileusian Private Guard, it looked as though the uprising had been swiftly crushed, yet neither side had considered the reaction of the demos to the sight of the elites battling it out amongst themselves. To the horror of all concerned, it soon became apparent that the cadres of the Home Guard had come together to discuss the situation and reached conclusions intensely discomforting to either side - the rallying cry, spreading from the Home Guard barracks and armouries and out onto the streets, was for the expulsion not only of the hated Shirerithian advisers, but also of the discredited and enfeebled monarchy which had allowed the ESB to become so firmly entrenched in the heartland of the homeland in the first place. With the best troops of the Tagmata already deployed to Aqabah and Nivardom to support operations against Iteru, and the Private Guard decimated, having been caught in a crossfire between the regular forces and the ESB operatives, neither faction was able to give an effective answer when the Home Guard broke the seals to its own armouries and passed out rifles and carbines amongst the rapidly swelling crowds. Soon, several hundred thousand strong were in the streets, calling for the overthrow of the entire corrupt system. As barricades went up, and roads in and out of the city were cut, the surviving defenders of a government divided against itself were forced to temporarily put aside their murderous differences in order to fend off the assaults of the hoi polloi now intent on exterminating them all.

The dwindling band of ESB contractors, attracting the especial fury of the mob, elected to make a last stand atop the ruined ziggurat which had been the focus of their mission to Eura since the "industrial archaeology expedition" which had inaugurated the intervention on the Euran continent. This sacrifice, culminating in a bayonet charge after the last rounds of ammunition had been expended, bought time for the arrival of allied helicopter gunships and Natopian shuttlecraft in and around the palace, delivering devastating and indiscriminate suppressing fire, and allowing for further shuttles to land and begin the evacuation of the royal family, government ministers, and the injured. In spite of being the priority for evacuation, the Autokrator, in his inimitable style, had refused to leave until every last man was air lifted to safety, and only after the Constancian standard had been secured and lowered from the flagpole. It is said that a Shirerithian special forces operative had nodded sympathetically to those words, and then socked the Autokrator squarely on the jaw, allowing him to be carefully carried aboard and flown to the comparative safety of Aqabah. In spite of the best efforts of the close air support and supplementary strike packages, the position was untenable and ultimately the palace was overrun.

The Government which hastily reconvened in Aqaba on the day after the loss of the capital was crestfallen and despondent. News was that the mutiny amongst the Home Guard had long since spread past the point where it could be contained, and that the rebellion had spread from the capital into the outlying towns and cities of the metropolitan territory. The cabinet and privy council was also hopelessly divided now between those arguing to a negotiated settlement with the rebels and those who in their despair now argued for the immediate abandonment of Eura in favour of a government in exile on Jaris or even in Natopia itself. The arguments between the two groups of opinion went round and round, coming no closer to an agreement but instead growing ever more acrimonious with each passing moment, until at last Primo spoke. There would be, he said, no further retreat, and no negotiation. The people had revoked the social contract, broken faith with their sovereigns, raised arms against legitimate authority, and it was fitting and just therefore that an example be made of them. It was then that the Autokrator announced to the meeting that he had already made a formal request to the Joint Military Council of the Raspur Pact for the teeming nest of vermin, the former capital city of Vey, to be glassed by orbital bombardment. It is said that the Minister of Agriculture died from a heart attack almost immediately. The Finance Minister has not spoken a single word since that day and remains convalescent in an ESB sanatorium outside Nivardom. Many cursed, some wept, a few had the presence of mind to resign on the spot, but it was all of no avail. The train of events had already been set in motion and a new Constancia was about to be born from the burning scorched embers of the old.