Dying New Galasia

[Aerandariel]

1 DOSA, 1584

War is coming... with all its horror... and all its glory...

Only a month prior, the Angirisian Empire set the wheels in motion for the Imperial military intervention in the New Galasian Civil War. The official declaration targeted the Alsace Regime's forces in the western province of Drazen, while leaving the eastern province of Eastmarch largely alone. It was clearly a stark difference from where Angirisian intentions seemed to lean towards if - and when - war actually begun. Now that it has begun, it is clear the Empire wants the Regime gone.

Months of planning had now to be executed, and the Imperial administration's strength now rested on the strength of its military. Put in charge of the entire operation was General Philipi Belisarius, who commanded Imperial forces in the Octitanian Civil War several years earlier. General Belisarius knew immediately what he had to do. First, he deployed Admiral Sarius Farragut's 2nd and 9th Battle Fleets - both fourteen to sixteen ships each - to the western coast of Drazen to bottle up the Galasian Navy and cut off much of their shipping supplies from Brigidna, Skathia and southern Ostara. Once established, the Fleets were to begin shelling coastal fortifications and cutting off communications. Farragut expected a massive naval engagement, and the first reports coming from intelligence sources suggested that the Galasian fleet - while seeming to lack in numbers and facing long odds - had enough firepower to put up a short fight in the Angirisian Gulf. But, Farragut reported to Belisarius, it was incredibly likely the engagement would not last very long and it would take a week to a week and a half to establish a blockade.

Second, Belisarius ordered a massive air presence over the skies of Drazen to institute a no-fly zone over the entire province in an effort to cripple the Regime by air. The plan called for a massive aerial bombardment campaign from both airfields in southern Angiris and from Imperial ships in the Angirisian Gulf. The cities of Alsace and Rhine themselves were now a major target, but more important targets laid all across the western coast of Drazen and the northern and eastern borderlands of Drazen and Angiris. With the no-fly zone in place, all the Empire had to do was smash the Regime's armies. That, Belisarius believed, would arguably be the toughest part of the war.

The Empire was prepared to commit over three hundred thousand troops to the ground war if they had to. They anticipated a long battle, especially for the cities. But Imperial generals were ready...

4 DOSA, 1584

On the 4th, the first shots of the Second Angirisian-Galasian War were fired by Regime missile silos hoping to inflict significant damage in the southern reaches of the Angirisian Empire. A barrage of cruise missiles were detected flying through Aranoch in the early morning. The Angirisian anti-air batteries through the deserts of southern Aranoch began to open fire. Many of the missiles were shot out of the air, but some hit. Two struck an Angirisian base eighty miles south of Lut Gholein, wiping out three anti-air batteries, killed six Imperial soldiers and destroyed an Imperial tank. They were the first Imperial casualties of the war. Another missile landed perilously close to the ruins of the Arcane Sanctuary in central Aranoch, knocking down pillars outside the entrance of the Sanctuary. Then came news to Admiral Farragut that the Regime fleet might try and break out and move for the islands of Xiansai off the southern coast of Pythos. The news was sent directly to Cathedrium, where Chancellor Apotecarius ordered the islands locked down and all military assets there to be on high alert with their radar sensors on twenty-four hours a day. Though the threat was likely to be minimal, the Southern Fleet could not take any chances.

6 DOSA, 1584
Xiansai City, Xiansai

Xiansai came under fire on the 6th, as Regime planes began blasting away at the Imperial Southern Fleet anchored at bay in Xiansai City. The Southern Fleet, after some two days of warning, was prepared. As the Regime's planes flew overheard dropping their tonnage, the ships on the waters below began firing back. Anti-air fire filled the air while alarms blared on every ship and air raid sirens sounded in Xiansai City, forcing the nearly one hundred thousand citizens of the city into a stunned panic.

Much of the Regime's attack did little damage, but the planes did get enough of the Imperial fleet to disable two ships, the Traveller and the Poikhoron. The Bucephalus took three direct hits from Regime missiles and sank in the shallow waters of Xiansai Harbor, taking 215 of its 450 sailors with it. The fleet shot down several Regime planes; the official count was ten, but it may have been fluctuated one or two.

Where the Regime's planes could not destroy the Southern Fleet they turned their attention to Xiansai City itself. At least five pilots, maybe more, circled back around the Harbor and proceeded to fire away at the city itself. The anti-air batteries within the city intensified their fire. Infantry forces began shooting upwards towards the planes in an attempt to knock them down. Some people armed with rocket launchers began firing projectiles at the planes as they came around. One rocket completely destroyed a plane in mid-air as it was firing down upon an a small group of soldiers on 18th Street on the west end of town. The ruins of the plane crashed down in a grassy area on the opposite end of Pilos Street on the northwest side of the city. Another Regime plane was shot down by anti-aircraft fire just above the city's industrial district, its flaming engine sent spiraling toward a factory and exploding. It sent thick black smoke billowing into the air, and city fire crews, backed up by National Guard forces, braving the gunfire to rush to put the flames out.

When all was said and done, the Regime did little damage to the Southern Fleet but caused havoc in Xiansai City. Twenty-eight Imperial soldiers and fifteen civilians were killed, along with 400 sailors. The Regime had lost about the half the planes it sent towards the Southern Fleet. Nobody knew of the fate of the ships that were supposed to have sailed close enough to Xiansai, but they could be assumed to have begun to fled north back towards Drazen, likely to square off with the two battle fleets beginning to take form off the western coast of Drazen.

The war, in earnest, had truly begun.