Difference between revisions of "Operation Hellfire"

Revision as of 21:07, 17 October 2005

Major Combatants

Gholgoth Powers Automagfreek Pantera Aequatio

Allied Powers Praetonia Sarzonia Hogsweat

Minor Combatanants

Space Union Willink Halberdgardia VS Doomingsland

Origins and Opening

Operation Hellfire refers to a series of wars involving nations aligned with Automagfreek battling nations supporting Praetonia or Hogsweat. Due to the large number of nations fighting in support of either side, the war is also known as (in Praetonian text books) 'The Great War'. The war started after a dispute between Hogsweat and Automagfreek regarding the latter's mobilisation near the Cariya Islands, a chain claimed as sovereign Hogsweatian territory. After what could be described as a game of diplomatic volleyball, verbal tensions between the two countries erupted into a shooting war when Hogsweatian forces exchanged fire with the Automagfreek fleet. Praetonian reinfocements arrived a period of time later and the war began to escalate when the retreating Automagfreek fleet saturated the Islands with naval gunnery. Praetonian and Hogsweatian forces returned fire resulting in the loss of several vessels on both sides. Hogsweatian fleets gave chase only to be beaten back by shore guns from the Automagfreek mainland. Shortly thereafter, Praetonia and Hogsweat dispatched reinforcements to the islands and Sarzonia sent its own fleets to support their Praetonian and Hogsweatian allies.

Sarz-Panteran War

Shortly after the onset of hostilities in Gholgoth, Pantera responded to the Sarzonian mobilisation by attacking its Manium colony of Branwyn in what Sarzonian historians called the Sarz-Panteran War. The Panterans warned the Sarzonians that negotiation was "not an option" and demanded the colony surrender, preparing to land the Reavers to overrun the colony and its cobbled together defence of colonial militia and a Sarzonian army that disgraced itself in the Inkana Civil War. However, the Panterans were surprised when the combined efforts of colonial militia and Sarzonian regulars put up a stiff defence, causing significant damage to Panteran fleet assets and significant losses among the Reavers who attempted to land.

Meanwhile, the Sarzonian government made an announcement it expected would galvanise the Branwynians behind their war against the Panterans by recognising the colony an independent nation. The government hoped the declaration would cause the Branwynian freedom fighters to view the Panterans as their enemies and undermine their efforts to sabotage the combined colonial-Sarzonian war effort. However, the declaration led to the Lord Reaver proposing a cease fire and a treaty to end the war, which resulted in the Seastone Accords. The agreement met the Panteran objective of getting Sarzonia out of the war at the expense of their direct participation in hostilities.

The Cariya Nuclear Incident

Shortly after the indecisive first round, a submarine claimed to have gone rouge by the AMF Government launched an ICBM towards the Cariya Islands which impacted shortly afters, killing everyone on the islands and damaging or destroying around 50% of the small Praetonian deployment to the area. Some time before the impact, a flight of B-2 bombers launched an attack on the Praetonian fleet which arrived some time after the impact. This attack was picked up by radar onboard the Praetonian vessels and the bombers intercepted by fighters (the Praetonian fleet SAM systems being largely inoperable), shortly ater releasing their payload of torpedos which destroyed several Praetonian vessels and damaged many more.

Shortly after the initial blast, the AMF government quickly denounced the attack and pointed the finger at Captain Aeomer Sunstone, a rebellious and headstrong sub commander. In a gesture of good faith Damien Dreadfire ordered that a small search party be dispatched under a white flag of truce to assist in the capture of Sunstone. After several days had passed, the search time was fired upon by the Hogsweatian navy, sending the 6 ship search party to the bottom of the ocean. Due to this Sunstone managed to slip away, and continues to elude capture.

The Second Front Emerges

Shortly after initial hostilies began, a second helping of nations quickly rose up to openly challenge Automagfreek, including The Fallen Races, Findan, Aust, and Dracun imperium. Assuming that their coalition could easily trounce AMF defenses, naval elements of The Fallen Races foolhardily rushed into AMF waters without any allied support. Within minutes their fleets were pounded so heavily by long range Freek missiles and underwater mines that they were sunk before TFR commanders knew what hit them. The bodies of the dead TFR sailors were then retreived and put on display on the eastern shores of Automagfreek, and a grim warning was issued that unless they surrendered, more of the same would await them. Needless to say, within hours The Fallen Races surrendered to Automagfreek High Command, marking an early turning point in Operation Hellfire.

Ineptia continued to plague the Eastern Front, with the forces of Findan continuing to execute one blunder after another. Several poorly planned attempts were made to bombard the Automagfreek coast with cruise missiles, but all were shot down by naval and shore based anti-air batteries. Yet another attempt was made to attack AMF proper, but this time Findan high command sent a large wing of B-52 bombers to strike coastal targets....without any sort of fighter escort. Needless to say, the bombers were destroyed before they even came close to their target, marking yet another low point in the war for the coalition against Automagfreek.

Meanwhile, the navies of Dracun imperium began to swing around to the south of AMF proper and attack from yet another direction in hopes of penetrating AMF defenses.

The Main Theater

In the days following the Cariya Nuclear Incident, the AMF search party that was charged with the task of hunting down Aeomer Sunstone was destroyed by the Hogsweat Navy. As a result the rogue submarine known as the 'Barricuda' managed to slip away totally, all the meanwhile still carrying several nuclear weapons. In addition, shortly after remnants of the Praetonia Navy (carrier based fighters to be exact) downed the B-2 bombers that were sent to harass the ships in the area, and large missile launch was detected from the mainland of Automagfreek, and as a result the Praetonia Navy fell back and regrouped with Hogsweat vessles several miles further out to sea. This in turn ignited a fierce mud slinging campaign by the AMF government, accusing Praetonia and Hogsweat of being cowards, incapable of acting on their promises to defeat the AMF war machine.

In the weeks that followed, the vicious slew of propaganda continued to pour out of Automagfreek, in fact so much that other nations (particularly those allied to the Allied nations, mainly Sarzonia and Dracun imperium) began to take notice. Several attempts were made to stirr the Praetonian and Hogsweatian ships into action, but mistakes made early on in the war continued to plague the Allied nations.

NOTE: This article is incomplete, pending input from other participants.