Angel of Light Operation

The Angel of Light Operation was a unilateral operation enactioned by Tristan Angel utilizing the resources of Angel Fire as a major strike against the Nolak Clans. Due to political and prophecized ramifications, the Forgotten Territories would depart Aberdeen and the majority of her leaders would go into a self-imposed exile off-world.

The Angel of Light Operation was a story told by forgottenlord as an attempt to bow out of the game.

Background

The Angel of Light Operation was a response to the activities of many actions and operations conducted previously by other forces.

Nolak Clans

Due to Tristan and Kane Angel’s departure from the Nolak Clans, the latter being the first clan leader to join a so-called “infidel faction” like Aberdeen, prompted the Nolak Clans to make Aberdeen their primary target and mobilize the entire Clans against them. While their noted operations had been few up until the Operation (in fact, the Hekloslogravia Coronation Incident was the only operation activated since the decision had been made by the Nolak Council) numerous underground operations had been started and preparations had been made in the few months the order had been active.

With Aberdeen bracing itself for an all-out attack from one of the largest and fiercest terrorist groups of the era, attempts to find quick solutions were numerous. The Angel of Light Operation was determined to be one that could succeed by its planners.

Angel of Light Prophecy

The Angel of Light Prophecy was one written by Nolak within the Book of Nolak. Like many aspects of the Book of Nolak, minor changes had been made, but the most notable was that its position within the book had been changed. At one point, the Prophecy was at the start of Chapter 22:26, speaking of corruption and thus turning the other prophecies within the Chapter as being redemption and reconstruction. However, the revisions showed the Prophecy as being an act marking the end of the way of Nolak.

It also put the Nolak Council off guard as Nolak’s prophecies up to the Chapter had all come true in order. As such, they hadn’t been expecting the Angel of Light Prophecy to come true next as it wasn’t supposed to be the next one. However, by the original order they were written in, it was supposed to and indeed did come true.

Metis Liberation Front Civil War

The Metis Liberation Front Civil War was related only insofar as it provided the nuclear warhead. At the culmination of the incident, a nuclear missile was disabled as it streaked towards Forgotten City, Forgottenlands. While the impact of the crashing missile caused extensive damage to the city, killing thousands, the warhead didn’t detonate and remained relatively intact.

Building the Plan

Acquiring a Warhead

The warhead was the easiest component to matching the prophecy. However, the Metis Liberation Front warhead had suffered damage rendering it inoperable – though its uranium core remained intact.

However, Tristan had the technology and expertise at her disposal to remedy this minor setback. Employing a team of specialists in private, she quickly began a development process to rebuild the warhead in a single delivery fashion. Nuclear technology had already been experimented with by both Angel Fire and Forgottenlands prior to their acquirements by Forgottenlord and so the knowledge was readily available – even if Aberdeen did not allow Nuclear Weapons. As such, they were able to develop the weapon, stating a 2 month development timeline.

The greatest trick, however, was in acquiring the warhead discretely. Tristan knew at the offset that she had to keep the plan a secret from her brother. As such, she turned to Jane Allen to acquire the core from the missile shortly after it had crashed. Several days later, the Forgottenlands government discovered that the core was missing and because of the extensive surveillance, had written off the missing core as possibly not being in the missile to begin with

Liz Paul

Liz had not been aware of Tristan’s operations when she discovered the Prophecy separate from the Angels. She had been studying the Book of Nolak in preparation for war with the forces when she discovered the Angel of Light Prophecy. Realizing the ramifications of the prophecy and the fact that Tristan matched the description of the so-called “Angel of Light”, Liz confronted the elder woman about the matter.

Tristan had known there would be a need to find a good exit strategy but it wasn’t until Liz had approached her that Tristan realized the exit strategy was readily available: Liz had formerly been ruler of the Galaxy, she could easily set them up with a new home elsewhere.

Liz made the preparations as the plan was finalized

Target location

The target had been specified in the prophecy as the Nolak Council, and Tristan saw little reason to deviate from this suggestion. However, she did not know where the Nolak Council lay – only people with the status of Priest or higher at the religious level were allowed to visit the Council. Fortunately for her, she was married to a Priest.

Kane had not been aware of the plan up until this point as Tristan was uncertain how he would respond. With mere weeks until the plan was sprung, she knew she would have to act and thus queried him. After much persuasion, he revealed its location to her and gave her access via spy-satellites and other equipment he had access to so she would be able to locate it without difficulty.

Launch Vehicle

However, there was still a major problem – the Nolak Council was deep within Nolak territory, nestled in a mountain range and the entire region heavily protected by both anti-air and anti-surface weaponry. In fact, it was more advanced and more complete than the entire armed forces of all of Aberdeen combined excluding Angel Fire.

However, Tristan had never planned to fly the weapon in, well aware that the problem would exist in the first place. Instead, she diverted resources from another project that was already in place – the test flight of the Thunder star-fighter, a fighter capable of operating in space. Instead of having it launch and land safely, she modified its orders to proceed on a suicide mission, picking a pilot who was devoted enough to Angel Fire to carry out his orders.

Enactment

Informing Forgottenlord

As the days wound down to the activation of the Operation, Tristan found herself more conflicted about her role in the operation. She felt the operation was paying poor service to the kindness and amnesty her brother had given her and her family. In the final hours before the operation, she no longer could contain it and confessed to him.

To her relief, Forgottenlord allowed the operation to proceed, realizing that political ramifications would be extreme even if he did recall the mission and deciding the best course of action was to proceed. However, he, himself, was conflicted regarding the entire incident.

The Forgotten Council

As the Thunder test flight was launched, the Forgotten Council had a larger-than-usual session involving not only its normal cast but a wide variety of political leaders throughout the Forgotten Territories. They were briefed upon the operation and all were invited to join the group leaving for space. Of note, Chuck Dobson, Prime Minister of Forgottenlands UN, rejected the prophecy and chose to remain behind. Forgottenlord handed Dobson the mantle of Interim President, but not before giving temporary command to Sage Azuth to ensure the Forgotten Territories were moved to a different location, outside of Aberdeen.

Overall, the reaction from the Forgotten Council was minimal

Nolak Council

The Operation was a complete success. The Thunder fighter had been shot down over the Nolak Council but was able to launch its cargo anyways, successfully wiping out the Council.

The Nolak Council was vaporized when the Nuke exploded.

Aftermath

Forgotten Territories

The Forgotten Territories were moved out of Aberdeen 15 days after the detonation of the warhead and the day following the departure of the exiles. Its withdrawal from Aberdeen crippled it economically and the loss of the leadership of Forgottenlord coupled with Chuck Dobson proving to be not as charismatic or politically gifted as his predecessor resulted in the three nations falling into disrepair, eventually disappearing from the face of history

Like many nations throughout history, the Forgotten Territories were unable to survive without the strength of their founder. While Forgottenlord would later indicate he felt that he could’ve trained someone to be capable of taking over the Forgotten Territories (specifically indicating Alison Riben), his shortened time in Aberdeen prevented this from being achieved.

Aberdeen

While Aberdeen had strong leadership, particularly in the form of Imperfectia's Governor David who was Forgottenlord's successor as Aberdeen's Prime Minister, she would suffer a terrible military blow. Angel Fire was the unrivaled military superpower in the region controlling the largest army (about 10 fold bigger than the next largest Army of Eramia/Mittsville) and having a complete monopoly on the large Zerg regiment within the region and the elite Night Sisters.

Within two months, both Eastern Earl and United Kingdoms of Trans-Galsea and Morovia attacked Aberdeen. The combined forces of UKTGM and Eastern Earl striking at both sides of Aberdeen nearly simultaneously has lead to the suspicion that they were taking advantage the departure of the regional superpower. It should be noted that the forces were not allied before the onset of the Great Aberdonian War but they did ally shortly after separately engaging the region. Angel Fire's naval fleets alone would've matched the two external powers' naval forces in their respective invasions.

While the action would not mark the downfall of Aberdeen, there are few that question that the tide of the war would've been significantly changed had the Forgotten Territories remained.

Nolak Clans

The Nolak Clans were effectively defunct without the leadership of the Nolak Council. However, the same prophecy that lead to the attack speaks also of their revitalization - following the path Nolak truly believed in. What this path is remains unknown and may not be discovered for centuries.