Dying New Galasia

[Aerandariel]

10 DOSA, 1584
Battle of Rhine
Second Day

The Regime survived the first day of the Battle of Rhine with control of the city and many of its airfields, though the Angirisian Empire's Air Force and Navy shattered much of the city's most potent defenses. All that stood between the 150,000 Imperial Legion troops still on the other side of the Angirisian border and the city of Rhine was the many Regime planes still capable of being in the air and what Regime troops stood within the city.

The second day's fighting started at around seven in the morning. The Regime, hoping to catch the Angirisians off guard and to relieve some pressure off of Rhine, launched two surprise attacks. The first was an attempt at an air raid on the Imperial base at the Arcane Sanctuary, located in far southern Aranoch in the strip of territory cutting Drazen off from Eastmarch. Taking off from bases in eastern Drazen, the Regime Air Force slammed the Imperial base with everything it had. Much like the Angirisian attack on Rhine the previous morning, the Regime attack on the Sanctuary Base stunned the Angirisians and for a few minutes completely confused the Imperial forces in the area before regrouping and opening anti-air batteries. No Angirisian planes were nearby to launch, so the ground forces had to rely on the batteries to hold out. The base's commander called for reinforcements, afraid that Regime ground troops were incoming. There were no such troops following up the air raid, at least not immediately. The attack lasted two hours and while the Empire held the base, the damage was significant enough that it prevented Imperial troops from using the base as a potential staging area for a second front in the eventual ground war.

The second attack came against the impending ground invasion forces still on the Angirisian side of the border. Hoping to do enough damage to keep the massive army away from Rhine for another day or two to allow Regime reinforcements to arrive, the Regime sent the planes it still had near Rhine against the invasion army. Aware of the attack on the Sanctuary Base, Belisarius saw this one coming. He ordered Angirisian planes into the air to stave off much of the attack, but ordered much of the infantry into hastily-constructed bunkers to limit casualties. The Regime bombers found themselves without sufficient targets, and fell easy prey to Imperial stealth fighters that swarmed them in mere minutes.

With the surprise attacks over, the Empire launched a counterattack. Another onslaught of bombers and cruise missiles fell upon Rhine and this time upon the airfields outside of the city. Specifically targeted were the majority of the remaining planes still on the ground. With those out of the way, the Legion had free reign across much of northern Drazen. But the Angirisians ran into a problem. The Regime hid some of their planes south of Rhine, and they caught the Angirisians completely by surprise. Four Imperial planes were blasted out of the air, and two more had to try and land on one of the aircraft carriers out at sea.

By now, Belisarius has had enough. He sent word to Admiral Farragut, asking him to send his battle planes east towards Rhine to keep them off of the bombers. Sixteen planes taking off from the Barrister sped east. They were heavily armed, but just light enough to be among the Empire's fastest fighters in its arsenal. They reached the battle zone within forty-five minutes and took two Regime planes down within seconds. A second dogfight erupted, with the Empire getting the upper hand despite their bombers going down. With too few bombers in the air, Belisarius diverted the primary attack plan from bombing raids to using the battle planes to directly attack the Regime's standing forces in Rhine. But that part of the plan required the battle planes land back in Angiris to refuel. After all, they were short-range fighters and couldn't go long distances so quickly. That would take several more hours.

10 DOSA, 1584
Columbiana, Southhaven

With the primary invasion army setting up north of Rhine, a second smaller force comprised of two divisions plus a regiment of Elite Imperial Guard troops commanded by none other than Emperor Tyrael himself had arrived in Columbiana preparing for his part of the battle. As of this point, the Emperor was now the most superior Angirisian officer in the field; not even General Belisarius could order the Emperor's forces into anything.

The Emperor's battle plan consisted of moving his army west to attack Drazen from the east. Despite the setback of Sanctuary Base's fall, Tyrael had the resources available to rebuild the base and build a new Command Center there and to link up with the two brigades scattered between Drazen and Eastmarch in far southern Aranoch. With that link-up, Tyrael's army would make for the Arcane Sanctuary by mid-month and hopefully by the end of the month be approaching Drazen's eastern frontiers.

By the time Tyrael reached Columbiana, word had reached Belisarius near Rhine that the Emperor's army was on the move. Belisarius formed a new plan and pitched it to Tyrael: the Emperor's army would sweep the eastern and southern areas of Drazen while Belisarius would move through the north. Once the frontiers were clamped down and Rhine had fallen, both the Emperor and Belisarius would make for an all-out attack on the capital at Alsace, and end the Regime once and for all.