1733 Ankh incident

The Ankh incident of 22.IX.1733 AN was a skirmish on the Red Elwynn that occurred as the cold war between the Benacian Union and Shireroth gave way to the Streïur uis Faïren.

Background

The speed with which the Shirerithian conquest of Sathrati had been effected raised serious alarm in Chryse and Ransenar. Visions of a vast armada of small boats assembling in the Guttuli to disgorge unnumbered multitudes of Jing auxiliaries were stoked by the tabloid press. In spite of the waves of mobilisation undertaken in 1730 AN and 1731 AN, and notwithstanding the efforts now underway to restore the East Wall, popular opinion remained greatly disquieted, and a sense of vulnerability permeated almost every layer of government and society.

Amongst the responses of a population now under the shadows of mounting fear was a revival in the militia movement. Volunteers, of their own volition began to organise a "Corps of River Fencibles" at Teldrin during 1733 AN, sponsored by the Honourable Company and the Guild of Factors in the bailiwick. This initiative would be mirrored by similar armed assemblies forming at Borden and Tyrelwynn. In order to ensure that this movement did not escape out from underneath the control of the authorities of the realm, the corps was duly recognised under letters patent issued by the crown in Ransenar and made subject to the Captaincy of the Three Ports. With the main effort of the substantial Riverine Fleet of the BUDF focused upon the Shirekeep blockade, the defence of the River Elwynn below the boom defences at Teldrin would remain largely in the hands of local Ransenari forces, including the new fencibles.

During this time of heightened vigilance, a Shirerithian Gong-class corvette, the IRS Lacrymosa I, was transferred to the Central Armada Command area of operations and passed the Gates of the Guttuli bound northwards for Ankh on 20.XI.1733 AN. Notably, the vessel had a Batavian captain and a majority Jing crew. This being a reflection of the conscious decision of the regime to begin intermingling forces from the eastern and western portions of the Imperium. The Ahmst-bí-Mari (Mair Griþ) of the ship, Leonard Muysson, and his executive officer, the Fiþnan Meng Dong, had cut their teeth clearing naval mines on the approaches to Novi Nigrad during the Sathrati Emergency. The tribune Muysson had developed something of a reputation for his enthusiasm for engaging the improvised explosive devices anchored in the roads with direct gunfire, even going so far as to organise competitions amongst the crew where prizes were given to any man amongst them who could detonate a mine with small arms fire from the side of the corvette. As someone with a now proven appetite for taking his vessel into harms way, Muysson was felt to be the perfect candidate for the task of reasserting Shirerithian rights along the course of the River Elwynn.

At Borden meanwhile, over two-hundred men, chiefly sailors, fishermen and other persons engaged in riverine trade, had enrolled themselves for service with the Riverine Fencibles and of their own initiative taken to arming a half-dozen commercial vessels and numerous small craft for patrol work. After electing their captains and drafting their terms of service and articles of war, these volunteers at Borden had taken it upon themselves to commence their enforcement actions against their chief rivals, the smugglers operating out of the Guttuli river port of Ankh. The tradition of smuggling contraband along course the Red Elwynn had a history dating back nearly a century to the efforts of the earliest incarnation of the ESB Group, operating out of Teldrin which had attempted to enforce tolls upon all riverine traffic in the name of Noor, then reigning as Queen of Goldshire. This initiative had not been well received by the boat captains of Brookshire nor the merchants of Shirekeep and Musica, and ever since that time it had become a customary practice for the boatsmen of the west bank and the east bank of the extort one another in the name of "tariffs". The initial years after the Kalirion Fracture had been a golden age of river brigandage, but the eventual coalescence of new states bound in fidelity to the Raspur Pact, had brought this happy time to an end with the normalisation of trading relations that were expected to be frictionless and tariff free. The smugglers' trade would once more blossom to life however with the closure of the Shiro-Benacian frontier in 1731 AN and the retaliatory blockade of Shirekeep's riverine trade that ensued. Within a few short years Ankh had cornered for itself a controlling interest in the cross-border trade of prohibited illicit goods and refugees passing across the borders in both directions, much to the chagrin of the good folk of Borden who would much rather have taken that role upon themselves, had the cudgellers and the magisters not been watching them so intently. In the time honoured fashion therefore, the newly incorporated fencibles of Borden, having been long unable to partake in a trade, now resolved to suppress it, and deny their rivals on the other side of the enjoyment of that which they themselves were denied.

At dawn on 21.IX.1733 AN the IRS Lacrymosa I was passing Irenaea on the western bank of the Red Elwynn when the first reports of Shirerithian riverine traffic being harassed by Benacian small craft flying Ransenari flags were reported as having occurred during the previous night. That these Shirerithian craft had crossed over to the Benacian bank of the river to offload contraband and receive emigres being smuggled out of the Union-State was left unsaid. During the morning patrol boats flying the ensign of the Imperial Border Guards were sent out from Ankh to monitor the situation. These were obliged to withdraw after coming under rocket and artillery fire from concealed Benacian emplacements along the shore. After retiring back to the Shirerithian side of the river, the regional command of the Imperial Border Guards made a series of requests for support by the Imperial Forces. These were subsequently received by the Imperial Commission for the Defence of Eastern Benacia which authorised the Department of the Guttuli to undertake whatever steps were necessary to deter further Benacian provocations. As show of strength fly-by of four F-9 Ashavan II and a B-80 Cassandrae was carried out up the river and along the line of control between Guttuli and Monty Crisco without eliciting a response from the Benacian side.

At 9 am the IRS Lacrymosa I received orders from Central Armada Command to proceed onwards to Ankh now at full speed and upon arrival to conduct riverine patrols in support of the local forces assigned to the Department of the Guttuli.