Verionian–Raspur War: Difference between revisions

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*'''{{team flag|Batavia}}''': The newly elected prime minister [[Jacques Montrarde]] announced the start of [[Operation Iron]]: a massive police action against the Iron Company. The company was charged with having which bribed government officials of the Mackay cabinet, having stolen state funds and illegal attempts to replace the Batavian Navy with its own [[Iron Fleet|mercenary fleet]].
*'''{{team flag|Batavia}}''': The newly elected prime minister [[Jacques Montrarde]] announced the start of [[Operation Iron]]: a massive police action against the Iron Company. The company was charged with having which bribed government officials of the Mackay cabinet, having stolen state funds and illegal attempts to replace the Batavian Navy with its own [[Iron Fleet|mercenary fleet]].
*'''{{team flag|Constancia}}''': After news of the biological-warfare attack, daily newspaper ''Constancia Nea'' reported that a quarantine of the Imperial State was instituted, and direct travel to Port Farrar and the Florian Republic was halted. Florian nationals residing in Constancia were granted conditional asylum. The Government condemned the use of this nefarious weapon of mass destruction in the strongest possible terms, declared the Iron Company, its officers, employees, and associates, as a terrorist organization and enemies of the Imperial State, has frozen and confiscated all assets of the Iron Company within Constancian jurisdiction and subjected its officers, employees, and associates to immediate arrest. The Government likewise announced full mobilization of armed forces reserves to enable the Imperial State to deal effectively with the developing crisis, and offered any and all assistance necessary to the Raspur Pact and friendly nations to immediately resolve this crisis.  
*'''{{team flag|Constancia}}''': After news of the biological-warfare attack, daily newspaper ''Constancia Nea'' reported that a quarantine of the Imperial State was instituted, and direct travel to Port Farrar and the Florian Republic was halted. Florian nationals residing in Constancia were granted conditional asylum. The Government condemned the use of this nefarious weapon of mass destruction in the strongest possible terms, declared the Iron Company, its officers, employees, and associates, as a terrorist organization and enemies of the Imperial State, has frozen and confiscated all assets of the Iron Company within Constancian jurisdiction and subjected its officers, employees, and associates to immediate arrest. The Government likewise announced full mobilization of armed forces reserves to enable the Imperial State to deal effectively with the developing crisis, and offered any and all assistance necessary to the Raspur Pact and friendly nations to immediately resolve this crisis.  
 
'''{{team flag|Senya}}''': The Senyan government released a statement calling for both sides to find a non-violent resolution, offering itself up as a location for any potential peace talks.


[[Category:Iron Company]][[Category:Florian Republic]][[Category:Los Liberados]]
[[Category:Iron Company]][[Category:Florian Republic]][[Category:Los Liberados]]

Revision as of 17:39, 2 February 2020

Verionian–Raspur War
Date 1680–present AN
Location Port Farrar, Togafaga
Result TBD
Belligerents
Iron Company

Los Liberados
Verionian Empire
Kalgachia Kalgachia (co-belligerent)

Raspur Pact Alduria Alduria
Supported by:
Union Australis Union Australis
Units involved
Iron Fleet
Milicia de Hierro
Strength
452,400

437,900
112,400

Florian Republic 766,360
Casualties and losses
Florian Republic 4,320+
Civilian deaths:
  • Florian Republic 51,625‬

The Verionian–Raspur War is an ongoing global conflict between the Verionian Empire and the Raspur Pact that began following punitive expedition instigated by the Iron Company and allied states against the Florian Republic. This expedition itself having been instigated in direct response to the threat of appropriating Iron Company assets in the Florian Republic by the Federal Government. The Florian Campaign started in late 1680 after negotiations between a goodwill team from the Iron Company and the Florian government were broken off.

Florian Campaign

In the months leading up to the Campaign, the Iron Company had prepared extensively for a situation in which the Florian government would become hostile to its interests. Having greatly aided the faltering Florian nation following the War of Lost Brothers, this turn was unacceptable to the Board of Governance of the Company. The decision of Floria to join the Raspur Pact, which can be regarded as a front for National-Humanists keen on world domination, was decried by the Iron Company representatives in Floria, as well as the government of Los Liberados, who until that moment had been a keen ally of the Florian people. The Raspurid intentions of removing all free trade in favour of monopolistic dominance by front organisations of the Raspurid leadership meant that the bloc had become increasingly hostile towards the Iron Company, which had lead to significant problems for the Company's operations on Benacia. Not willing to repeat this in Floria, the Iron Fleet was prepared to act and, following a statement of the Florian Government that confirmed their intent on nationalisation of Iron Company assets, immediately moved to block the narrow access to the North Raynor Sea that Floria has.

First encounters at sea

With the receipt of the Iron Company's ultimatum Fleet Command had issued orders to the captains of the fleet to make necessary preparations - to take on stores and munitions, to cancel all shore leave and to ensure that personnel were recalled to their ships and duty stations as appropriate within the shortest period of time. With the formal rejection of the ultimatum, the corvettes (FRS Levant, FRS Lion, FRS Leander, and FRS Lycurgus) of the Norfolk Isles Squadron had put to sea, escorted by the Melusine-class missile attack craft - ten to port, ten to starboard, three in the vanguard, and four to the rear - and had made with all speed for the Alriggian bridge, spanning the bottleneck of the Gulf of Sennar.

In the weeks following the rejection of the ultimatum, armed trawlers escorting commercial vessels towards international waters had reported being shadowed and obstructed by a squadron of cruisers operating under the Verionian flag. These stand-offs, in spite of their impact upon commercial shipping, had been hitherto played down but now a confrontation was seemingly unavoidable. The Verionian naval blockade consisted of nineteen destroyers and four cruisers, that sealed off the small part of the sea to which Floria has access.

Approaching the vast edifice of the Alriggian Bridge, a megaproject only made practicable by Ralgon prowess in structural engineering and ruinous levels of indebtedness to Daocheng, the Norfolk Isles Squadron's columns fanned out to assume a new dispersed formation, with each corvette, a kilometre or more distant from its nearest neighbour, each with an escort of five missile attack boats, whilst a further five of the fast craft surged ahead scouting for whatever laid in wait.

The focus of the Iron Fleet was to prevent any Raspur-alligned vessels to reach the Florian waters to be able to threaten the naval blockade. To that end, the Fleet mainly operated its submarines to scout and take down any ships that could pose a risk to the blockade. The submarines were organised in packs of seven and were dispersed along the northern part of the North Raynor Sea in order to quickly anticipate any Raspur naval movements.

Attack on Port Farrar

On the morning the announcement was made by the Florian Government, the Iron Fleet deployed four aircraft carriers to Port Farrar, as well as the Amphibious Transport Docks of IFS Felix and IFS Escobar. In the months leading up to the Campaign, the security and Iron Militia presence in Floria was greatly expanded. Two waves of air raids by B-78 bombers were aimed at eliminating key elements such as roads, rail networks and military bases near Port Farrar. The Iron Militia and the Iron Fleet set out to occupy and control the docks.

The first wave of B-78 bombers was detected by a M1673-L7 Avenger of the Army Air Defence Regiment newly established in a position on the aptly named Lookout Cliff, overlooking the bay in which Port Farrar nestled. Assigned to assist the Coastguard in surveillance of the littoral waters rather than being primarily engaged in aerial defence monitoring, the inexperienced crew had initially mistook the incoming blips for calibration errors. They were running a second level software diagnostic by the time the duty warrant officer chanced upon the scene and proceeded to bellow some sense into them. Warning signals were duly flashed to 3rd Army Headquarters and, after some agonising mishaps, an encrypted data connection was established feeding the live signal returns to the air operations room at GHQ. By the time that the scramble order was given at dispersal airfields across the southern sectors of Army Group East's area of operations, the trace of the oncoming attackers was appearing on the radar images visible to civilian air traffic control, whose frantic calls of alarm and efforts to clear the skies of commercial air traffic coincided with the air operations room's efforts to vector the scrambled T-3 Akóntios towards their targets. Guided towards the oncoming bomber streams by ground-based air controllers the T-3's made a head-on pass against the lead B-78's of each formation, greeting the intruding aircraft with a burst of 20mm cannon fire and a salvo of unguided rockets, before banking sharply to left or right and diving away. The Florian air arm was still a relatively untested service and not every Akontio was deft in its disengagement, with one misjudging its turn and sheering headlong into the starboard wing of a B-78, sending both doomed aircraft into a doomed spiral like falling seed pods with a blossoming trail of parachutes left in their wake.

The garrison of Port Farrar was provided by the 19th Volunteer Grenadier Division of the Honourable Company, itself comprised of employees of the Honourable Company's various corporate security establishments, most notably of the Jagdverbände and a contingent of Euran heritage. As such there had already been, even prior to the recent deterioration in relations, something of a less than amicable rivalry between the volunteers and those members of the Iron Militia who had fetched up in Port Farrar. Indeed a strange form of segregation had developed through the city, where pubs had gradually - through a combination of patronage and a desire for some modicum of protection from near continuous brawling - been forced to declare whether they were "for" the ESB Group or the Iron Company. Where the pubs led, neighbourhoods were obliged to follow, and soon streets whose inhabitants had seldom given much thought to such matters were being forced to decide and declare whether they were for, by extension, such esoteric things as "Humanism" or "Classical Liberalism", "Capitalism" or "Guild Mercantilism", or even to be obliged to argue the comparative merits of the Batavian Confederation or the Raspur Pact. As such the city was already ribboned and festooned with checkpoints and barricades, even as the magnitude of the attack being mounted upon it became apparent.

For the garrison in the city, even as the first plaintive wails of air raid sirens began to be heard, the objective was two fold, to hold on to the barracks and depots within the city, and to push on to secure the Iron Docks. To that end a mixed column of a dozen universal scout carriers, mixed in with forty snatch land rovers and a half dozen pod armoured personnel carriers formed up on the Hawthorne Motorway. Into the compartments and onto the backs of these vehicles clambered the First Cohort of the Grenadier Division's Watch Regiment. These then gambled winning the race for the docks by driving hell for leather.

The ambiguously named General Service Corps, whose cantonment nestled within the Navy's Salford Docks, decided against waiting for orders and instead acted, as was their wont, of their own initiative in preparing a batch of 40 Type 1 Operator Directed Torpedos for a mass "swim out" against Iron Company registered shipping anchored in and around Port Farrar. In this sortie they would be supported by 80 or so Coastguard in-shore fast patrol craft whose crewmen touted Wren light machine-guns and a less than sunny disposition as they set out to conduct a sweep of the harbour area.

In the midst of this cacophony of preparations, twelve helicopters of the 31st Transport & Communications Regiment lofted from their helipads, whilst the balance of their compatriots were wheeled urgently towards their hardened blast shelters. These ADAPTOV helicopters, notable for the distinctive tiling on their fuselages, loitered but a moment before banking away to the south-east and towards the harbour area. If any of the surplus support personnel at the Coastguard air station, who were presently in the process of being issued with a rifle, two full magazines of ammunition, a flak jacket of dubious provenance and vague directions towards the airfield perimeter, had had occasion to glance up at the helicopters passing overhead, they might have remarked upon the six barrels strapped to the slid-back passenger compartment doors of each.

The surprising amount of ESB personnel present in Floria led the Iron Fleet to change tactics. The tactic of scorched earth, being a weapon well-known to Verionist forces was implemented in the North of Port Farrar, where Iron Militia personnel set the steel factory complex ablaze, but not before having stuffed the factories with samples of a modified strain of Virus Y. Before instigation, the majority of Iron Company employees had evacuated to the southern docklands, the primary stronghold of the Iron Company in the city. Calculated based on the strong South-Eastern wind, as well as modifications made to the Virus Y by Kasterburger scientists, the area affected by the deadly virus was North-Western Port Farrar. A small squadron of special Iron Militia forces remained in the area, well-protected and equiped with gas masks. At the same time the Complex was set on fire, ten squadrons of C-77 Zopilote fighters from the nearby aircraft carriers attacked the recently employed helicopters, as well as the ESB patrol boats that were making progress along the coasts.

Joining the aerial melee over Port Farrar, the F-9 Ashavan II's of the 35th Fighter Group, arriving over the city from the west, jettisoned their long-range fuel pods and activated their Froyalan radars in an effort to lock-on to the Zopilote intruders, firing off a salvo of S-2 missiles towards their quary whilst cycling through their own chaff and flares in turn.

The battle that had been developing for control of the port had come to an abrupt halt with the release of a biological weapon by the Verionian insurgent force, necessitating the defending Florian forces to devote more of their energies to controlling the ensuing outbreak of "Virus Y", containing it to the ruinous harbour town and restricting its spread so as to prevent a regional pandemic. The entire remaining force of the Florian XXII Corps, far from reinforcing a decisive push to retake the port, had been obliged to hastily cordon the port from the landward side, with barbed wire, caltrops and hastily prepared stake-pits, and hem the infected populace back where they could do no harm to their fellow countrymen by spreading an - at that point - incurable contagion.

Meanwhile the best available estimates suggested that the infection ravaged the ranks of the 19th Volunteer Grenadier Division, reducing its operational strength by 20%, representing the incapacitation or death of 4,320 effectives. ‬For the civilian population, the fate was indescribably worse, with 75% of the unevacuated peacetime population struck down in the first fortnight of the outbreak.

Behind the quarantine-line short-range unguided rocket batteries were set in place to keep-up a steady harassing bombardment of the Iron Docks, with launches being made from towed-platforms driven into place under the cover of darkness and the launchers disassembled for transport and driven away again before the coming of the dawn's light.

After being accused of three serious crimes: murder, treason and espionage due to his links with the Iron Company. Julius Wallace, mayor of Port Farrar, was arrested and was executed by public hanging in Northcliff Central Park.

Event Log
Date Attacker Defender Action Response Outcome Casualties
. . .

Invasion of Togafaga

The small island of Togafaga has been the second base of the Iron Company since the first pact between Floria and the Company was signed. Aldurian presence in the region had forced the Company to scale back operations, but all infrastructure, including the only airport on the island, are owned by the Iron Company. A large segment of the Iron Fleet was deployed to secure Togafaga, due to its small population, the invasion force, once ashore would be focused mainly on re-establishing full Company presence on the island as well as maintaining the security and integrity of the island.

The Florian garrison on Togafaga, established after the Iron Company had been obliged to scale back its operations there, comprised of a mere demi-regiment, or 600 men and 20 officers, of the Coastguards supplemented by a Florimell-class Troop Landing Ship and its crew adapted for survey and fisheries protection work. One of the increasingly ubiquitous "Tadpole" reconnaissance drones had recently been delivered to the island but remained in its crate awaiting the arrival of an operator and support crew from the 624th Reconnaissance Regiment. The small detachment was hilariously overmatched by the force dispatch to assail it, but the naked act of aggression on the part of the Iron Fleet's sponsors had stirred a furious response in the Euran powers of Alduria and Constancia.

Event Log
Date Attacker Defender Action Response Outcome Casualties
. . .

Mutual defence clause

Immediately, the Unified Governorates invoked the SANE Treaty and the clauses pertaining to mutual defence, stating that an attack on Floria, an officially recognised member-state, was an act of aggression against the entire Raspur Pact, necessitating a collective and unflinching response against the Verionian Empire and all sponsors of the Iron Fleet. After a tense debate during the last day of XIII.1680 the Council of Eliria reached a majority in favour of authorising the use of force against the Verionian Empire.

The Batavian Confederation is not involved in this conflict, but will only act according to Article 4 of the Statute if an enemy attack is made against the citizens of one of its members. This position being complicated by one of its members, Los Liberados being an aggressor in the present conflict.

Keltian theatre

Event Log
Date Attacker Defender Action Response Outcome Casualties
24.XV.1680 Verionian Empire Verionian Empire x6 Asleep-class submarines & x12 Type XXV U-Boats, in a combined Sanaman-Talenorian wolfpack operation, had positioned themselves off the southern limits of the Verionian Empire's Keltian holdings during the course of the preceding weeks and remained thereafter silent in the surveillance of the hostile shores until today. The combined force launched 27 cruise missiles against Verionian air defence targets on the Imperial City of Valarion. A second wave of 17 missiles was launched later that day against the Citadel of Valarion. Thereafter the attacking force divided into 3 wolfpacks of 6 u-boats apiece to hunt for vessels of the Iron Fleet in Verionian waters.

Benacian theatre

Chryste

The Chryste Blockading Squadron was a unit of the Navy of Ransenar, seconded to the Eastern Banner Fleet of Benacia Command, created during the Verionian-Raspur War to enforce the Raspur Pact blockade on the Verionian Empire's sole port in eastern Benacia.

Following the proclamation of a blockade of Verionian ports on 07.I.1681, Benacia Command found it necessary to subdivide the territory assigned to the Eastern Banner Fleet. This resulted in the creation of the Chryste Blockading Squadron in the same month. In orders sent on 09.I.1681 Frainan Hohmin Selardi Jen Daniyal, controlling magister of the Eastern Banner Group, formally directed the Ransenari Navy to establish a cruising squadron to patrol the approaches to Chryste and to engage in vigorous and energetic actions to prevent the ships of Verionian or Iron Company registry from reaching harbour and to protect the shipping of third party nations by escorting them to the nearest Ransenari port for the inspection and compensatory purchase of cargos found therein to be either bound for or received from the markets of Chryste. Commodore Mattias Horne received this order and took command on 10.I.1681. His new command was to be headquartered at Zolt and entitled him to take possession of and requisition crews and materials for the vessels collected there for war service.

During the first weeks of 1681 a four-man board, chaired by Corvette Captain Shamus Targe, was formed to study the implementation of the blockade and to make recommendations to improve its efficiency. In the board's report of 16.I.1681 it was recommended that the approaches to Chryste be further divided into northern and southern sectors. On 18.I.1681 the Fleet Operations Officer of the Eastern Banner Group endorsed the report and was instructed by the magister Selardi to prepare a directive to implement the division, with the dividing line being a line drawn between the promontories marking the outer boundary of the Bay of Chryste. The Northern Division to be patrolled by four Type XXV u-boats, supported by in-shore craft and coastal missile batteries, while the Southern Division consisted to ten Natopia-class destroyers supported by land-based aviation.

The new organisation would become effective from 24.I.1681 but until that time the restriction of Chryste's access to the sea would be the responsibility of local commanders attached to the VII (Combined Arms) Corps in Elsenar, and the VIII (Combined Arms) Corps garrisoned on the frontier with Guttuli Protectorate-occupied Lunaris.

Inner Benacia

Foreign Reactions

  • Jingdao Jingdao: The Jingdaoese Empire called upon both sides to escalate their hostilities and refrain from diplomacy. These calls were seconded by the Bassarids.
  • Ralgon Ralgon: The Ralgons were primarily concerned about the sustenance of smooth trade in the region, as well as the preservation of the Alriggian Bridge they had a major part in building. Having themselves suffered from terrorist attacks from the Iron Company in the past (with the attack on the Glacier City dockyards in 1675), Ralgon popular opinion there was solidly with the Florians, despite the long-standing friction between the latter and Ralgon's USSO allies. Nonetheless, as of late 1680 the Ralgon government has not yet issued official statements nor taken any decisive action. This is despite the fact that the present bulk of Iron Company-controlled territory (namely, in Ralgon opinion, the Verionian Empire) is relatively close to their single most important overseas possession, Adrestia.
  • Union Australis Union Australis
    • Vatakan Vatakan: After a public vote (and a heated debate in the Great Southern Hall), the Free City of Vatakan publicly announced its concerns over the Iron Company's (and affiliate groups) militant monopolisation and use of biological warfare, and also declared that it would be sending financial aid to any forces fighting the Iron Company.
    • Cira Cira: The confederacy espoused similar worries about the Iron Company's use of biological weaponry as well as their militancy, and was concerned about the safety of its overseas possession of Vatakan, which was close to the fighting. The confederacy publicly said that they would contribute their scientific experts to any effort to find a cure for Virus Y.
    • Caradia Caradia: Caradia did not announce any concerns over the use of bio-weapons or the Iron Company's tactis like its fellow Union nations, but it did begin accelerating the extraction and refining of coal and oil for classified reasons.
  • Palesmenia Palesmenia: The Nadcrasi issued a public statement of condemnation of the use of biological weapons by the Iron Company. It was announced soon after that a search of the old Iron Company docks on the island of Ángar would take place to insure that no harmful biological agents were present. However, the Nadcrasi announced that no further action would be taken unless it or one of its USSO allies were attacked by Iron Company of forces of the Verionian Empire or Los Liberados.
  • Batavia Batavia: The newly elected prime minister Jacques Montrarde announced the start of Operation Iron: a massive police action against the Iron Company. The company was charged with having which bribed government officials of the Mackay cabinet, having stolen state funds and illegal attempts to replace the Batavian Navy with its own mercenary fleet.
  • Constancia Constancia: After news of the biological-warfare attack, daily newspaper Constancia Nea reported that a quarantine of the Imperial State was instituted, and direct travel to Port Farrar and the Florian Republic was halted. Florian nationals residing in Constancia were granted conditional asylum. The Government condemned the use of this nefarious weapon of mass destruction in the strongest possible terms, declared the Iron Company, its officers, employees, and associates, as a terrorist organization and enemies of the Imperial State, has frozen and confiscated all assets of the Iron Company within Constancian jurisdiction and subjected its officers, employees, and associates to immediate arrest. The Government likewise announced full mobilization of armed forces reserves to enable the Imperial State to deal effectively with the developing crisis, and offered any and all assistance necessary to the Raspur Pact and friendly nations to immediately resolve this crisis.

Senya Senya: The Senyan government released a statement calling for both sides to find a non-violent resolution, offering itself up as a location for any potential peace talks.