THE EVE OF BATTLE
On June 6th 2176, the forward lines in Uralis held by the Coalition of the Free against the Anhur Protection Forces collapsed, a mere three days before the planned invasion by the Alliance was slated to begin. This was achieved by a masterful aerial superiority campaign by the drone-pilots of both spaceborne and ground-based fighter-bomber squadrons, under the direction of General Sickle. Three entire corps of the CoF, two from the Anhur Republican Army and one from the Na'kharit, were surrounded in a strategic envelopment that threatened to destroy them. The rest of the Rebellion's forces withdrew to more defensible positions closer to the northern tundra, making a show of a competent fighting retreat in order to sap strength from the corporate forces as they advanced. Despite this, they were pushed back every hour, day and night, until the rebel capital at Novokuznetskaya was threatened. Not even Eclipse forces seemed capable of halting the advance, as rebel armour was annihilated by orbital strikes and overwhelming air support.
Both the surrounded corps and the withdrawing forces knew that defeat was merely days away, and that there would be no mercy. Despite what appears to be repeated requests on the part of the military leadership, the Corporate Congress would brook no possibility of surrender. For their part in resisting their enslavement, the rebels would be put to the sword. It was a fateful mistake. The abolitionist forces, particularly in the pocket that was slowly being squeezed, fought with a tenacity that bordered on the suicidal. Attack after attack to crush the surrounded troops was repulsed, the orbital artillery unable to track personnel effectively under the cover of decoys and fires deliberately started to jam scans. The terrain around these areas was turned into a charred hellscape of craters and burning oil. Small arms and man-portable anti-tank weaponry proved highly effective in the evergreen forests and cold rocky terrain that dominated the battlefield of the front line beyond. With their food, ammunition and medical supplies dwindling, such heroic efforts could not last forever.
Field Marshal DeRuyter was informed of the breakout by the corporate forces almost as soon as it happened, and moved up the invasion date by thirty-six hours in response. The Second Fleet departed from its defensive positions on the Verge and made their rendez-vous with the troop transports and planetary assault cruisers at Arcturus. From there, they proceeded through salarian space to the jump zones of the relays they would use to enter the Amun System, where Anhur awaited. As they awaited reconnaissance about the activity of the defenders' own fleet, she made a speech to shore up morale in what every combatant knew would be a dire moment in human history.
"To the soldiers, marines and crews of the Eagle Nebula Allied Expeditionary Forces, from Field Marshal Cassandra DeRuyter, commanding officer.
You are about to take on the great struggle which our species was born to carry. The eyes of the galaxy are upon you. The hopes and prayers of humans everywhere, march with you.
You will bring about the end of the slavers' war machine, the elimination of corporate tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Anhur, and peace and security for ourselves in a free galaxy.
Your task is not an easy one. The enemy is well-equipped, well-trained and battle-hardened. They will fight savagely. The tide had turned. The free peoples of Earth are marching together to victory. I have full confidence in your martial skill, courage, and devotion to our cause.
We will accept nothing less than total victory. Our flag shall wave from every mountaintop. From Anhur to Khar'shan, our empire of freedom will stretch across this galaxy.
Good luck."
THE BATTLE
Phase 1: Titanfall
The Alliance Grand Fleet jumped to the Eagle Nebula as a single formation, prepared for a major fleet action in the midst of a minefield and fixed defences. The expectations of the naval planners were grim. The combination of fighter, fleet and space-station firepower promised a heavy toll for entrance to the system, the only time that the enemy space forces were predicted to be able to stand up to the might facing them. Unlike the Hegemony's obsolete torpedo technology and rigid-yet-convoluted command hierarchy, the Corporate Congress had studied then adopted human naval technology and operations. In capital ships, the slavers were severely lacking, but Alliance Admiral Petra Hunt had only five ships of that classification in a fleet of hundreds. The two dreadnoughts and three fleet carriers were expected to come under heavy attack, as the loss of any of them would have been a severe political blow to humanity, as well as a significant weakening of the assets facing them. A loss rate of 25%, with irrevocable losses possibly as high as 10%, was considered the worst case scenario outcome. Such losses would be acceptable, but far from preferable.
The crew of each ship braced themselves for a devastating action as they were propelled towards the battlezone, and yet, when they finally arrived, nothing was waiting. The fleet transited to the jumpzone, scans of the immediate surroundings revealed no great ambush springing to trap it. The enemy flotillas were nowhere to be found. Even after reconnaissance sorties by frigate wolfpacks to every sector of the system, the corporate fleet was not located. This greatly troubled the Admiral, as he feared he would have to launch an extended search and destroy operation throughout the nebula to find them, or that the enemy was hiding in cold-space, waiting for the command to strike.
The truth was quite possibly far more devastating. With the invasion date moved up by thirty-six hours, the clearance and deception pre-phases had to be skipped over to allow for the speed of the attack. Whereas the enemy would have had no warning of the fleet's approach under the original plan, corporate spies and scouts had been able to send word back to Anhur. With thirty-six hours remaining, the Na'hesit had plenty of time to act. After consultation with both their military leadership and the Batarian Hegemony via FTL-comms, a decision was made. The entirety of their naval assets would evacuate at the last possible moment to the Terminus Systems via the Amun relay. Once there, they were to join and lead the coalition of Terminus pirates formerly under the command of Elanos Haliat, to menace both the invasion forces and the rear of the quarantine lines in the 'northern' section of the Skyllian Verge. The intervening time was spent transporting satellites to Anhur itself, where they were stripped of their weapons to bolster the AA defences of the planet. A mere hour before the arrival of the Alliance Second Fleet, the entirety of the corporate flotillas departed.
Unaware of this development, Admiral Hunt advised a cautious approach to Anhur in conjunction with search operations. Field Marshal DeRuyter overruled him. The rebels were on the cusp of defeat, and delays were entirely unacceptable. Operation Scipio was initiated. The fleet arrived over the planet in force and began the invasion. The first half hour saw N7s and small groups of marines drop onto the planet to observe and defend landing zones, as well as paint AA batteries for destruction by orbital bombardment. The GARDIAN batteries that had been taken from the defence satellites had primarily been placed in Uralis, where the existing defences had been eliminated by the warfare there. Now, they were destroyed almost piecemeal courtesy of the Alliance Navy.
With the dropzones ready and clear of significant threats to the titans, the main drop began. The planetary assault cruisers began to detach titans into the atmosphere, and launched their assault pods. The flying fortresses glided to their operational altitudes accompanied by the sound of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which had been selected by the PsyOps specialists at the Defence Intelligence Directorate specifically for the invasion. In total, some 160,000 troops were to deploy in this manner on the first day, along with thousands of vehicles. They were deployed by task force along an eighty kilometre line directly in front of the main corporate advance towards the continental capital. First down was the European 3rd Orbital Assault Division of Task Force Wizna, fresh from its victory on Elysium and deployed at the very centre of a formation of six divisions. To the left were the 5th and 15th EU Orbital Assault Divisions from the Thirteenth and Twenty-First Legions. To the right, the African 12th, 13th and 26th Orbital Assault divisions landed, occupying less of the line in order to concentrate against two corporatist armoured divisions directly opposite their landing zones. The objective was simple: Push through to the three corps of rebel forces trapped behind enemy lines.
The fighting was immediate and bloody. With a day and a half to prepare, the Anhur Protection Forces had been able to dig in along the salients they had been advanced through, and despite the loss of their most effective anti-aircraft weaponry, they could still threaten the titans and units in front of them. Indeed, the kinetic barriers of three titans carrying companies of the African 12th were downed and the transports boarded via gunship. Two of the assaults were repulsed, while another was destroyed when corporatist saboteurs successfully breached the reactor safeties. Four more titans were shot down by the remaining AA defences, albeit after inflicting serious casualties. Squads landing via assault pods and walkers arriving via their sub-orbital landing devices were met within minutes with localised counterattacks or sniping from the Na'hesit lines. For two hours, the invasion troops and the defenders clashed on more or less an even basis, despite every attempt to overrun the landing zones. Despite these efforts, the line stabilised, and the second drop began.
Another six orbital assault divisions landed, and the 'deep battle' phase of the beachhead action began. The first six divisions pushed forwards against the enemy's four, to varying successes. All achieved their primary objectives, pushing south towards the rebel pocket, but the western edge of the attack got the furthest of all the attacks, making it some twenty miles in three hours. On the fourth hour, four of the six fresh divisions were moved to the area by titan and shuttle under gunship cover, and together they repulsed the enemy armour before swinging around the back of the remaining corporatist forces facing Alliance units. The enemy formations to the east and west of this action, unable to engage due to the presence of determined rebel forces in front of them, were forced to retreat to the positions of their comrades occupying the flanks of the rebel pocket. As they did so, the final four orbital assault divisions were deployed directly into the rebel holdouts, and began harassing the corporatist lines on every side. By the end of the day, the pocket had been relieved. General Sickle knew that he had lost the round. There would be more opportunities to beat back the invaders.
The cost had been steep. Ten thousand Alliance soldiers and marines had been killed or wounded badly enough to render them combat ineffective for the rest of the campaign. As many as half had received lesser wounds. Losses for the Protection Forces were comparable. Had the Alliance been facing batarian forces, they would have killed or captured possibly as many as fifty thousand. However, the troops of Anhur were better led and better equipped. The Jiris hovertanks were able to withdraw more quickly than the walkers of the Alliance paratroopers could advance, while the Verush Heavies simply laid down heavy carpets of AA and AT fire to suppress attacks long enough to escape. Accurate orbital strikes were confounded by extremely sophisticated jamming devices that could mask moving units for a significant period of time.
The cost for the Alliance had paid huge dividends, however. By nightfall, the first armoured divisions were being landed by heavy-lift shuttles and the troopships had begun disembarking at the the spaceport at Novokuznetskaya, off-loading the first of thirty-six million soldiers more to come. DeRuyter herself landed in the central square of the rebel capital. She stepped off the frigate Valley Forge to ecstatic crowds, and supported by five brigades of Alliance marines, took official control of the colonial government and the war as Supreme Allied Commander and Provisional Military Governor. The Pale Blue Dot was raised over the city on every flagpole to cheers of humans and batarians alike. From the edge of defeat, hope had come at last.
The liberation of Anhur had begun.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those wondering when Battlefield 2183 and/or Battlefield 2157 will be updated, November will be a Mass Effect month. Multiple updates for everything, particularly on November 7th (N7 Day) and November 12th (First anniversary of 2183 being published). Thanks for your patience!