Operation Thunder Drop

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Operation Thunder Drop is part of a wider conflict that occurred in the Sea of Storms and the southern half of the Strait of Haifa, involving the Imperial Federation, Confederacy of the Dispossessed, and other Raspur Pact members operating in the region. It is considered part of the Wars of the Disinherited, which triggered shortly after the collapse of Bassarid authority along the Strait of Haifa, with pirate activity centered on Jangsong (known also as Dalen) and Blore Heath proper.

Thunder Drop represented the third phase of the Imperial Federation's plan for the conflict. After dividing the inland pirates and depriving them of their only major base on the Keltian coast, the Imperials successfully cut the Dispossessed at sea from any land-based supplies. Instead, they now controlled the Strait near Blore Heath, and almost the entire region were it not for the Corsairs' rebasing to numerous, tiny atolls near Micras's equator, many notably located near the midpoint of Imperial territory between Cibola and Keltia.

In addition to sharply increased pirate hunting activities, the seaborne phase consisted of the mass raiding of these atolls and the conquest of the larger islands. These raids also included the shelling and total destruction of the smallest bases of no strategic importance to the Imperials. Ships, where possible, were captured and then repurposed for service in the Imperial Merchant Marines. The landward phase ended up being much harder for the Imperials, who fought a mostly defensive war with massed artillery inland.

The Imperials were able to swiftly consolidate control of the Strait through these actions. In doing so, they succeeded in cutting off the Dispossessed from the vast majority of their fleets based out of the Sea of Storms. However, the enemy in mainland Keltia's interior was mobile and very numerous, and so the Imperials were forced to stick near the waterways, encountering much the same difficulties Normark did during the Siege of Dalen.