The Rail Wars
| The Rail Wars | |||||||
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| Part of Wars of the Disinherited | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Moorland
|  The Green  Confederacy of the Dispossessed.
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The Rail Wars is the name given to the ongoing military conflict between the Kingdom of Moorland and remnants of the Confederacy of the Dispossessed over the abandoned remnants of the Trans-Keltian Express around the city of Revby, Moorland's Green Line railroad that extends through the Green from Nevermoor to the Kells, and the surrounding territory.
Background
For several years Moorland had been operating what it called the Green Line, a spur railroad that extended through unclaimed territory in the Green from the city of Raveness west to the port of Kells. Seeking to limit its expansion, Moorland had hesitated claiming these lands but struggled with the economic woes associated with the East Keltian Collapse and subsequent breakdown of the Trans-Keltian Express. While neighboring Mercury was able to secure the Hagbard-Signe tunnel to keep the express open to their lands, Moorland was cut-off by the loss of the Revby section and forced to ship goods via the much longer northern route. Furthermore, the Green Line was unreliable as it was a low-grade track that had been hastily constructed through hostile territory, constantly under attack by hostile forces such as the Fuath.
Conversations with Bassaridia Vaeringheim to normalize relations and develop stronger economic ties made having a secure transportation network much more desirable. This need was exacerbated by the rail companies who were taking losses from raids and accidents on the low-grade track. Seeing that a boon was to come from increased trade with Bassaridia, the rail barons put pressure on the monarchy to secure the Revby section of the TKE and seize the area around the Green Line so a high grade track could be installed without fear of attack from hostiles. Therefore, in 1744.10, King MacMartin order the MAF to begin securing Green Line as a hard stop to hostile forces south of the line. He also issued an edict declaring the unclaimed lands north of the Green Line, between the Strait and Mercury, to be claimed by Moorland. To secure this objective, the MAF would launch into a series of conflicts dubbed the Rail Wars.
Major Battles
The Green Line
For nearly a decade, Moorland had been operating what it called the Green Line, a spur of the TKE that extended from the Dunn Mountains Viaduct, east across the Green to the port of Inverkell. Due to raids by hostiles, mostly Fuath, the train has been kept strictly armored and does not transport civilians. Most of the time it carries freight goods to/from the port. Fargus MacDoon, President of the Dunn Line that operates the train, a wealthy millionaire tycoon, had long been pushing for Moorland to invade the region and formally annex it in order to allow passenger rail to be extended along the Green Line; a move that would result in greatly increased profits for the DL. The King, wary to overextend Moorland's forces, and dealing with the reverberations of the East Keltian Collapse, had consistently pushed back against this idea. However, in 1744, with continued attacks by hostile forces in the Green, relations with Bassaridia normalizing, and a failure to support the abandoned portion of the TKE through Revby, coupled with pressure from the rail barons, the King finally relented, launching what would be the start of the Rail Wars.
The first major confrontation occurred along the Green Line. For years the Fuath had been raiding the line, seizing train cars and goods, or sabotaging the line itself, causing train accidents. These persistent problems became a costly fiasco for the Dunn Line. Not only did it require the trains to be constantly armored and given a security detail, but the loss of revenue from theft and damage cut deeply into profits. The owners of the company began hiring mercenaries to protect to railroad, bypassing MAF units deployed in the area. Also, unlike the MAF, the mercenaries were not bound by the ethics of civilized warfare. Whereas the MAF had previously only targeted combatants, mercenary forces attacked Fuath encampments indiscriminately, burning whole villages to the ground. This prompted concern from the Moorlander government, and in 1744.12 the King issued an edict forcibly disbanding the mercenary companies but, in allaying the rail companies, agreed to provide security and launch a full-scale invasion of the region.
Thus in 1744.13 elements of the MAF arrived in the area, including the Nevermoor Knights, who immediately began a sweeping campaign to secure the landscape on either side of the Green Line. The MAF began a systematic rounding up of Fuath into detention encampments, including women and children. This was deemed necessary both for Moorland's protection and their own. The rogue bands of Fuath, while poorly organized and without a centralized leadership, nonetheless continued to attack MAF forces and disrupt the rail line wherever they could. But they could not withstand the full brunt of the MAF being deployed to the area. What had been restrained fighting, Moorland unleashed the full power of its armed forces. Within two months, by 1744.15, the MAF had secured the territory south of the Green Line roughly 33km and north of the line about 6km.
Two internment camps were established, one at Inverkell and the other at a military encampment that would be named Fort Ruthven. Around three-thousand Fuath were placed in detention and given temporary shelter, food and medicine. Final disposition of the prisoners had, as of late 1744.15, not yet been determined. The King's Council remains in debate over how best to release civilians without endangering Moorlanders. In the meantime, MAF forces began fortifying the territory south of the Green Line in order to wall off any further attacks on the rail. The focus now being to sweep across the north, secure the spur of the Blue Line to the TKE, and restore the abandoned section to Revby.
