Streïur uis Faïren

Streïur uis Faïren
Date 22.XI.1733 AN – Location Benacia
Belligerents
Shireroth	Benacian Union
Units involved
Imperial Forces	Benacia Command  Benacian Union Defence Force International Volunteers

The Streïur uis Faïren (Praeta: kin strife), was a major conflict between the Benacian Union and Shireroth, bring to a head the longstanding geopolitical competition for hegemony over the continent of Benacia.

Background

By the eleventh month of 1733 AN the scale of the build up in Shirerithian forces, evidenced by their reconquest of Sathrati during the previous year, had made it abundantly clear to Benacia Command and the High Presidium of the Benacian Union, that there would be no prospect of preventing the massive reinforcement of the Imperial Republic in Benacia from Greater Kildare. Moreover, the absolute advantage of the Imperial Forces in naval tonnage and manpower would place the entire coastline of the Benacian Union at risk of assault from the sea. Defensive counters, such as building up the coastal defence forces and repairing the East Wall, were both feared to be insufficient countermeasures. As such, Benacia Command came increasingly to the view that the only chance the Benacian Union had of achieving "Endsieg" would require immediate action within a rapidly closing window of opportunity.

The Ankh incident

The Ankh incident

Date	22.XI.1733 AN
Location	Red Elwynn above Ankh
Forces Involved	Captaincy of the Three Ports River Fencibles of Borden Central Armada Command IRS Lacrymosa I
Summary	River Fencibles flotilla of three armed merchantmen and six speedboats driven off after a sharp engagement midchannel with the Shirerithian corvette IRS Lacrymosa I.
Related Articles	1733 Ankh incident

Activation of Bad Neighbour II

Map of the nuclear exchange in the first 48 hours.

Assembled and calibrated on the command of Kaiseress Salome following the death of Princes Rubin and Ichiro, Bad Neighbour II received orders to fire a warning shot on 23.XI.1733 AN in response to the Ankh Incident.

At 4:13am, residents of Shirekeep were wakened by a general alert: all windows within the Inner City higher than 5 stories were to be removed or boarded up for civilian safety. Similar alerts had been issued in the months prior, usually in the middle of the day and followed by a "resume normal activity" within the hour. This time, however, the alert to remove or board up windows was repeated at the top of the hour for the next four hours. At 9:00am, another general alert was sent out, this time instructing residents to take cover. A sonic boom was felt throughout Shirekeep a few minutes later, shattering a few windows that had not been sufficiently protected in the northwest corner of the Inner City. A hypersonic object appeared on RADAR, crossing the border into Alalehzamin on a ballistic trajectory, reaching the Ardashirshahr metropolitan area three and a half minutes later. After the electromagnetic pulse dissipated, it was determined that a 350kt nuclear warhead had airbursted within the Bailiwick of Babran.

Estimates after the fact indicated that the strike claimed the lives of 599,300 subjects with a further 224,940 injured. Fortuitously the height of the airburst was such as to preclude the production of significant radioactive fallout. Nonetheless, all of the Ardashirshahr metropolitan area was under the shadow of a mushroom cloud that towered to an altitude of 16 km. Command and control for the 58th Combined Arms Army and its subordinate formations were immediately thrown into chaos, whilst communications reliant upon the Benacian Data Network in the Governorate of Alalehzamin were temporarily disrupted by the loss of a network node and the concurrent spike in data traffic.

Riposte: Musica burns

Benacia Command was still reeling from the strike delivered against it from somewhere within the bounds of the Imperial County. The Benacian Union had triggered its continuity of government protocols within the first hour of the strike, and its leadership cadres, including the staffs associated with the High Presidium and the Security Council, had dispersed. Under these circumstances operational control defaulted to the General Staff of Benacia Command. Fortunately the BUDF had been on an war footing since 1731 AN, in long anticipation of this moment. Orders, once issued via encrypted channels, were swiftly acted upon. At 10.49 am, from the Selmuliet Bastion in Ransenar and the Šlomxala Arsenal in the Unified Governorates, dozens of missiles were fuelled, prepared and launched in rapid sequence against Shireroth. In the next six minutes these were joined by a further seventy-five launches from trailer units situated in remote forested sites throughout the Governorate of Austland. The major targets were the Imperial Shirerithian Air Forces bases located in the departments of the Gaudin and the Guttuli. A further wave of one hundred intermediate range ballistic missiles followed an hour later, again from dispersed sites in Austland, this time focused more narrowly upon Shirerithian bases located within the Schwinn Circle of Brookshire. None of the Schlächters launched in the first hours carried anything other than conventional high-explosive warheads. Except one.

The missile, lofted from a bastion facility in North Lunaris, had followed a ballistic trajectory towards ancient and storied Musica, where it detonated as a groundburst directly upon the dockyards and seaport of the city. The only nuclear device in the BUDF's declared arsenal, the M1708 special munition, had a maximum yield of an equivalent to 15 kilotons. Estimates made by the Operations Directorate of Benacia Command anticipated that immediate fatalities in the city would not exceed twenty-five thousand souls. However, by electing to detonate the device on the surface, an area of 148 km² around ground zero would be subjected to over one-hundred rads per hour from the fallout plume that drifted on the wind in the wake of the 6 km mushroom cloud. The purpose of the strike had not been to exact an a death toll from the Shirerithians equivalent to the one that they had inflicted, but rather to ensure that a strategic port and its associated infrastructure had been rendered completely inoperable for the duration of hostilities.

Shirekeep and the Confluence

A little after midday on 23.XI.1733 AN, lines of communications were briefly restored to an extend sufficient to allow a single succinct order to be relayed from the Northern Banner Group HQ to 60th Siege Army in Varpûr. That order, once decrypted, was simply one word: “commence”. Within the hour orders had promulgated down the chain of command to the corps and division level and shortly thereafter 1,824 203 mm self-propelled howitzers, grouped into batteries of six apiece in prepared positions behind the Alalehzamin Security Line, began to open up against a number of pre-sighted targets in the Greenwood district of the Imperial County.

At 1.54 pm a F-18 Cyclone from the 4th Air Division of Strike Command launched four S-2/A(S) air to ground missiles whilst overflying the bailiwicks of Zarddeh and Aslanshahr. The gesture was mostly symbolic, two missiles directed against the Palace of Zirandorthel and two against Raynor's Keep.

More impactful would be the mixed packages of F-18 Cyclones and F-17 Axaranas that would shortly be ranging over the airspace of Brookshire and the Guttuli methodically hunting out Shirerithian radar sites and communication hubs.

As the second day of the war lengthened into its evening, the F-9 Ashavan II strike aircraft assigned to support the Northern, Eastern, and Southern Banner Groups were airborne on route towards their assigned combat air patrol coordinates, with the intent to counter in full force whatever the Shirerithian side might put up in retaliation.

And all this, whilst all across northern and eastern Benacia the ominous rumbling of innumerable columns of armoured vehicles could now be heard.

Operation Hiericus I: Strategic Bombing of Alalehzamin

Juvenile subjects in Ardashirshahr engaged in mandatory prayers for national victory, prior to evacuation to Mishalacia. 26.XI.1733 AN.

With the opening of open conflict, His Illustriousness Zhao Feng, the Minister of Military Affairs, authorized Operation Hiericus. Bad Neighbour II was brought back up to firing speed and, by nightfall, the first sonic booms had begun to ring out again across the Imperial Capital, this time from the south of the Inner City at hourly intervals. By morning of 24.XI.1733 AN, the civilian population had begun to adapt to the routine of the hourly sonic boom, followed by a broadcast message, warning civilians to avoid looking northwest for the next few minutes.

Operation Hiericus I's targets, substantially closer than Ardashirshahr's warning shot, took between 58 seconds and 1 minute 28 seconds from launch to airbursting behind the Outer Security Belt of the Alalehzamin Security Line.

Operation Blue Shield

Phase I: Defense of the Alalehzamin-Shirekeep Border

Following the opening of hostilities, 5. Corps and attached civil defense and reserve troops began the evacuation of the civilian population of Greenwood southwards across the Blue Elwynn. The increased hostilities over the past few years between Shireroth and the Benacian Union had already encouraged civilians to consider seeking safer living accommodations elsewhere, making the job of civil defense a matter of identifying which homes had already been abandoned versus those that had to be evacuated.

13. Legion and 14. Legion were deployed in reserve behind screening units, who were deployed forward in distributed small units to receive initial offensive movements. All were issued radiation badges and respirators to be used in the event of exposure to fallout or chemical weapons.

Phase II: Offensive into Southern Alalehzamin

Two soldiers of the 40 Kavallerifördelningen, in the Governorate of Austland, XI.1733 AN.

As news permeated through the Shirerithian government of the Benacian message to His Serenity, Louis Thuylemans, concerning the cessation of strategic bombing, orders were issued from Raynor's Keep for a general advance through the Alalehzamin Security Line, which by the morning of 1.XII.1733 AN had been thoroughly disrupted from some two dozen atomic bombs.

This invasion coincided with a strategic shift in Operation Hiericus, shifting from the outer and middle belts to target hardened locations along the Redoubt Line.

A bad day for Lichkeep

Lichkeep at 11.30 am on 2.XII.1733, viewed from north of the river.

Without recourse to orbital observation platforms controlled by Natopia and Nouvelle Alexandrie, it was not until the morning salvos of 1.XII.1733 had been analysed that the BUDF's Air Defence Command had been able to triangulate with a reasonable degree of accuracy the main loci of launch points for the Shirerithian system that had been pummelling Alalehzamin.

An anxious debate then ensued via remote conference between the members of the Benacian Security Council. Everything indicated multiple launch points which would require multiple strikes in order to effectively disrupt. The fact, inescapably, was that these were occurring from a densely populated region of the Imperial County, which would entail a catastrophic loss of life and further erode the limited sympathy that the Benacians had been able to garner after the destruction of Babran. Moreover, evacuation of juveniles from Benacian cities had only just begun, anything that would potentially initiate countervalue strikes by Shireroth against the Union-State before that process could be completed would endanger the survival of precious lineages cultivated at great expense as well as deprive factories and farms of the labour substitutes they would require as adult males were called up.

Set against this, the Alalehzamin Security Line had been ruptured, the 60th Siege Army seriously degraded, and lines of communication and supply seriously disrupted throughout lower Alalehzamin. Everything beyond the Redoubt Line, the backstop of the security line, had already in effect been cracked open. The Shirerithian armies of the confluence, were they to chose to advance into the hell of their own making, would be able to push through and effectively not encounter any organised resistance until they reached the belt of fortifications between Varpur and Mariyechelân. If the Shirerithians were to begin hammering other sections of defensive works in a similar manner the entire strategy of containing and isolating Shirekeep from the rest of the Imperial Republic would rapidly fail.

After hours of fraught debate, the recommendations of Lors Bakker-Kalirion to strike Lichkeep with full force were adopted by the BSC. At the same time the proposal of Ayesha al-Osman was adopted, that the Benacian Legation in Hurmu communicate an offer to the Steward of Shireroth via the Order of the Holy Lakes that there should be no further countervalue strikes against civilian population centres, and that strikes against military and industrial targets outside of those population centres should be limited to devices with a yield of 20 kilotons equivalent. Acceptance of the offer was to be required within forty-eight hours. By the time that Thuylemans was in receipt of the offer, the awful spectre of Lichbrook's fate would be hanging over him in order to focus his mind.

At 11.29 am on 2.XII.1733, Lichkeep was bracketed by nine S-3 intermediate ballistic missiles. launched from dispersed locations in the backwoods of Austland and Mishalacia, with the first initiating an airburst at a height of 1,200 metres above the centre of the city, with the remaining eight detonating as surface impacts in a radial pattern around the zero point of the initial device. Each warhead being equivalent to fifteen kilotons of high explosive, the salvo had been required to achieve a zone of death within the heart of Lichkeep, bracketing the supposed launch apertures of the device which had been lashing out at Alalehzamin over the last two days. Within the zone of death, as the multiple overlapping shock waves subsided, the rising fireballs and the thousands of instantaneous fires that had been triggered in the gaps between them by cumulative heat pulses, quickly drew together into a single conflagration. One minute after the near simultaneous detonations, the nine mushroom clouds had all but converged into a single 9 kilometre tower of broiling black smoke looming over the Imperial County south of the river. As cooler air rushed in to replace the rising cloud, it provided fresh oxygen for ever fire that raged below, especially those in areas caused by ruptured fuel pipes and storage tanks. The result was the ignition of one vast and terrible firestorm, with flames fanned to an extent that the inferno would rage out of control for more than twenty-seven hours to come. As oxygen was burnt out of the surrounding area, those who had been fortunate enough to find shelter in bunkers, basements, or air raid shelters, would find themselves slowly asphyxiated by the accumulation of carbon dioxide – if they were fortunate – while those less so were slowly roasted to death in sealed air tight compartments that had in effect become little more than ovens as the temperatures rose inexorably but without the oxygen to serve as the requisite fuel for combustion. And yet again was the terrible scourge of fallout, from the eight surface detonations laid upon the land, with winds drifting north-west towards Cabbagefall.

A duel in Lindstrom

Delegates of the Benacian Union and Shireroth, on the rapidly unraveling Permanent Commission of the Raspur Pact, decided to resolve a question of honour between them. The scene would subsequently unfold on Lindstrom Square in the heart of the eponymous city.

"The Kaiseress is Tired"

As the hours ran out on the 48-hour ultimatum, Thuylemans cabinet became increasingly concerned for the consequences. After their daily meeting with Salome on 2.XII.1733 AN, they learned that the Kaiseress had ordered an increase in Bad Neighbour II's tempo, and that it was to begin targeting locations in Holwinn and Monty Crisco as well; this would be in order to support Operations Green Shield and Red Shield respectively. The Kaiseress had also isolated Bad Neighbour II from the command structure of the Ministry of Military Affairs, officiating what she had begun when she circumvented the chain of command to initiate Hiericus and begin the war.

Once news had arrived on casualties in the Benacian Union strike on Lichkeep, Thuylemans received a private visit from one Tribune Herzl, indicating that a portion of 1. Legion was with him and his interest in stopping the nuclear war. The firestorm had burned through neighborhoods containing many of their families.

Housearrest of Salome, ordered by Thuylemans in attempt to stop escalation into full-out nuclear war. Fighting in Raynor's Keep between Salome-loyalists and guards who are loyal to the Steward and lost family during the Benacian counter-attack.

The war in the air

As the reeling continent absorbed the consequences and full horror of the "limited nuclear exchange" between the two belligerents, the emphasis of the war shifted towards the struggle for dominance in the skies, as the Benacian Union struggled to establish air superiority over its southern neighbour – a war of attrition which would take up the final three months of 1733 AN.

International responses & diplomacy

•  Constancia: Within hours of news of the nuclear detonations, the Imperial Constancian Government recalled its Ambassador from Shirekeep, mobilized and called all Constancian nationals in Benacia to active duty under the command of the nearest Constancian Embassy, legation, or consulate, and directed evacuation of women and children from the Imperial Republic. The Viscountess of Lumenetra issued a statement deploring the escalation and calling upon fellow Landsraad members to hold the Government accountable for the intentional targeting of civilians. Forces in the Viscounty of Lumenetra were placed on full alert. Forces within the Principality of Arboria were likewise placed on full alert.
•  Floria: President Hutchinson harshly condemned the nuclear attacks committed by both sides and has called for severe sanctions towards both nations whilst acknowledging that Floria should also face the spotlight regarding its use of WMDs. Military alertness was raised to 'heightened' and nuclear air defence was deployed for the first time. Hutchinson also marked this as the nail in the coffin for the Raspur Pact and stated that the nation would remain neutral throughout the conflict however was aware of mass volunteering to the Vanguard Division.
•  Hurmu: On 25.XI.1733 the Benacian legation in Ghawlama approached the Order of the Holy Lakes with a request that it serves as the protecting power for Benacian interests for the duration of its conflict with Shireroth. The legate further requested that a message be communicated to the Steward, pointedly not the Kaiseress, that there should be no further countervalue strikes against civilian population centres, and that strikes against military and industrial targets outside of those population centres should be limited to devices with a yield of 20 kilotons equivalent. Acceptance of the offer was requested within forty-eight hours.
•  Imperial Federation: Following the commencement of nuclear hostilities, the central government at Gondolin and Glacier City immediately ordered all subjects, citizens, and nobles of the Imperial Federation not there for humanitarian purposes to depart Benacia at the soonest possible opportunity. However, a small number of such subjects would conveniently re-interpret the order and take it upon themselves to join one side of the conflict or another as armed volunteers, thanks to strong cultural, historical, or political connections these people held in common with either side of the fresh conflict. Most of these would be subjects of low birth swept up by either side's propaganda campaigns, but a few were minor nobles hoping to win themselves gold and glory as wannabe soldiers of fortune.
•  Meckelnburgh: Vice Chancellor Christine Alfons gave a statement to the Royal Meckelnburgh Broadcasting Corporation following the destruction of Babran, calling the Shirerithian attack "one of the greatest crimes of our modern time." All citizens on the Benacian continent were warned to return due to danger of escalating nuclear attacks.
•  Natopia: After radars and sensors in Arboria registered the nuclear exchange in Benacia, Chancellor Eiiard Darkroot issued a strenuous condemnation of both Shireroth and the Benacian Union, swiftly recalling its ambassadors from both. The Court of the Calm Waters issued urgent advisories for all Natopians to leave Benacia at once, as "there is a likelihood that nuclear strikes may continue unimpeded." The Natopian Defense Force begins mobilization of all its forces, giving orders for full readiness of all forces, especially the Natopian Spacefleet.
•  Normark: On 25.XI.1733 AN, as the extent of the initial exchanges became clear, the government of Normark gave notice that the Shirerithian embassy in Elijah's Rest was required to quit the country at the earliest moment that practicality and international norms and customs would permit. At the same time it responded favourably to a request by the legation of the Benacian Union to invoke the Boreal Defence and Security Agreement, committing the kingdom to the provision of full logistical and material support to the Union-State such as may be required and provided.
•  Northbloom: Minutes after the initial nuclear strikes, Northbloom closed the airspace over Ermingander Village and announced that an "experimental energy barrier" was in operation over the capital. The latter is believed to have been responsible for the temporary outages subsequently affecting Northbloom and northern Kalgachia.
•  Nouvelle Alexandrie: Upon news of the first nuclear attack, New Alexandrian Secretary of State Morissa Baumann stated, "This heinous act against humanity cannot go unanswered. We call upon all nations to unite in condemning this barbaric use of nuclear force and to impose stringent sanctions against the Shirerithian government." Following the retaliation by the Benacian Union not soon after, which resulted in another nuclear strike, has further raised alarms in Cárdenas. Reports confirm that tens of thousands of Ransenari citizens, fearing a repeat of The Scouring 40 years earlier, are attempting to obtain asylum in Nouvelle Alexandrie but local authorities in the Benacian Union are forbidding it. "Decades ago, many Elwynnese and Ransenari came here to escape another nuclear holocaust. We cannot stand idly by while another happens on our watch."
•  Oportia: Federal Representative Galilea Montijo, while campaigning for re-election in the city of Pax, Oportia, announced that it was high time that perhaps "we have a real debate on the value the Raspur Pact provides - will it condemn us to more nuclear catastrophe? Is this the alliance we think it is?" After the rally, the Oportian government released a statement stating that "the State of Oportia unequivocally condemns the reckless use of weapons of mass destruction, yet again, in the continent of Benacia;" while also announcing that it was recalling its ambassadors.
  • Following the statement by the Oportian government, Federal Representative Galilea Montijo called for an emergency meeting of the Tripartite Pact, which has been confirmed by Natopia and Nouvelle Alexandrie to coordinate responses and mutual support.
•  Sanama: Following the confirmation of a nuclear blast in the Benacian Union, the Sanaman Union Armed Services were put on full readiness and a general mobilisation ordered. All border crossings with Shireroth were closed and the ambassador to Shirekeep recalled. The government issued a statement condemning the use of weapons of mass destruction. Sanaman citizens currently in the Benacian Union or Shireroth were advised to return immediately. After the bombing of Musica, a further condemnation was issued and the ambassador to the Benacian Union recalled.
•  Suren Confederacy: Following the use of atomic weapons against the majority Babkhan Governorate of Alalehzamin, a nationalist mob, waving the flags of old Babkha, engaged in seven nights of protracted disorder during which Shirerithian owned properties in Mehrshahr were ransacked and torched. Gendarmes were reportedly instructed only to ensure that no foreign lives were lost during the tumult but to otherwise give the protesters free rein during which to vent their anger. The senior Shirerithian diplomats in Surenshahr were subsequently summoned to face the Surenšāh, whereupon they were berated for the "barbarity" of their conduct in the war. With the Suren Confederacy's own protracted civil conflict only coming to a close recently, the regime was in no mood to become directly embroiled. Nonetheless, it was common knowledge that any Humanists or Babkhan nationalists who wished to enlist with the Benacian Union Defence Force would experience no obstacles to their plans.

•  Vegno: The Government of Vegno has harshly and harshly condemned the nuclear attacks of the two nations. Both the President of the Republic of Vegno Orazio Torlo-Marani and the Prime Minister of Vegno Luca Zarrella spoke out harshly against the attacks. Every flight departing from the Cossa International Airport and Mhazar Central Airport to the continent of Benacia was canceled and the airspace above Benacia was closed and prohibited to all Vegnese aircrafts. Flights from Benacia to Vegno remain open to allow vegense citizens to return home. A special asylum visa will also be granted to any citizen of the Benacia's countries who wishes to enter Vegno as a war refugee.
  • The former Prime Minister of Vegno and High Commissioner of the Raspur Pact Angelo Greco commented on the incident: "We were aware of the tensions between Shireroth and the Benacian Union, but we never expected such an evolution. I am strongly disappointed by the respective governments, which will create unprecedented damage on Benacia and all Micras"... "Following these events I'm going to present to the Permanent Commission my resignation as High Commissioner of the Raspur Pact."