Ardclach Orbital Strike

Orbital strike on Ardclach
Part of War of Lost Brothers
Artistic rendering of the moment of impact
Date 12.IV.1656 Location Ardclach, Northern Keltia Result Damage assessment ongoing
Belligerents
Bovic Empire of the Natopian Nation
Units involved
Orbital Defence Force 2nd (Bombardment) Group
Strength
1 Damocles-class orbital bombardment platform
Casualties and losses

The Ardclach Orbital Strike was an incident that occurred on 12.IV.1656 AN, during the War of Lost Brothers and which marked the second occasion in which weapons deployed from orbit, in this instance the NSS Damocles, had been used against a terrestrial target, in this instance ship-repair facilities and military installations established by the New Zimian War League in the settlement of Ardclach, located in the ungoverned regions of Northern Keltia.

Authorisation for the strike had been given weeks previously but had been deferred to allow for a fortuitous conjunction of climatic and meteorological conditions. The rationale for the strike had its genesis in a deep seated desire to retaliate to the actions of the Stripping Path and their chemical attack in St.Andre. That the New Zimian War League was chosen for the target came as consequence of the assessment that Passio-Corum actively colluded in its planning and supplied the agent used. It was agreed by the Joint Military Commission of SANE that the target chosen would be of a military rather than an economic nature and that strategic weapons would not be employed against the territory of any sovereign nation, even those members of the USSO actively engaged in the conflict. This reduced the target list to enemy vessels at sea and to forces deployed into the Green, where non-combatant casualties would be most likely limited to stateless itinerants. Enemy vessels were excluded owing to concerns regarding the reliability of precision targeting with strategic weapons. This left forward deployed USSO forces and USSO aligned groupings:

• Llucmajor (Apollonia), an agricultural centre in the green (option: submarine launched ICBM)
• Jangsong (Keltia), a pirate haunt (option: orbital strike or atmospheric detonation of photon torpedo)
• Ardclach (Keltia), an outpost of the Grand Army of the East with small garrison - converting cargo ship for amphibious operations (option: orbital strike or atmospheric detonation of matter/anti-matter warhead)

Munitions deployed consisted of four kinetic "kill vehicles", GPS guided tungsten rods, deployed from an altitude of 410 km by the Damocles, which had assumed a geosynchronous orbit, maintained artificially by the platform's gravimetric stabilisers, over the target site on the night previously.

The attack was first reported as an unidentified seismic and atmospheric event of an unknown nature and origin by the Caputian Geological Survey.

This article is WIP