History: The Battle of Sarren Valley

Background

The Battle of Sarren Valley was a long time in the making, with skirmishes and negotiations gradually pushing the border back to the mineral-rich valley over the course of two decades. Historically, Sarren was part of Etrusea, and though it had been in Aludran hands since the Reformation War, almost fifty percent of its four million inhabitants still bore joint or full Etrusean citizenship.

The region also contained hundreds of manufacturing plants, two hundred and fifty coalmines including two of Aludra's largest, and eighty iron ore mines. Several acts of sabotage in the two main coalmines, Zollyn and Karzen, over the preceding year had led to increased security measures, with Etrusean nationals singled out particularly.

With tensions high, war was actually triggered by a convoluted plan hatched by Etrusean intelligence. Aludran security forces had been alerted that something was planned, meaning when a young activist, Mika Jannes*, tried to scale the fence at Karzen Coal Pit, she was shot and reported killed, though she was actually in a coma after falling fifty feet into the pit.

While this was not the plan (she was supposed to have been arrested), Etrusea ran with what they had, arguing that this was proof that Aludra was misgoverning the Sarren region and that an intercession to protect their citizens was justified.

Operation Blackjack

The Etrusean plan involved a rapid deployment of light armour supported by extensive heavy bombing by the Army Air Force, which was felt to be more than enough to deal with the light mechanised division stationed on the border and seize the regional capital, Geran. This was to be supported by the 250-foot fast aerial corvette Falchion, with the mission given the code "Operation Blackjack."

In the event, Aludra used the partially-completed Transport Air Destroyer Valiant to transport sixty tanks and heavy IFVs of the 31st Armoured Division to bolster the force at the border. Horribly outmatched, the Etrusean taskforce was forced to retreat before the bombers had even left their bases, with minimal support from Falchion and a handful of Fencer ground-attack aircraft.

Since Valiant was still top-secret and it was worried the skeletal frame of the Leviship might reveal her as a submersible designed for a future attack on Omar, she left as soon as the tanks were on the ground, leaving them to make their own way to their bases. Since two Fencer ground-attack aircraft with cluster bombs were not accounted for and there were fears of the tank column being attacked in civilian traffic, the 31st's commanding officer, Major Ingrid sen Sola, ordered her tanks to split up, each moving with a single IFV, and return to their families. Ingrid's opinion was that it would not be respectful to the laws of proportionality for the Etrusean aircraft to attack two armoured vehicles rather than sixty. It would later turn out this action was unnecessary since one Fencer had crashed in a farmer's field while the other, severely damaged, had landed at a small civilian airfield in Aludra, but it proved an excellent propaganda exercise. Tank transporters were later sent out to retrieve the vehicles.

Aftermath and Operation Anvil

Etrusea relinquished all claims over Sarren Valley and grudgingly offered a full formal apology for their allegations against the Aludran government. Mika Jannes later fully recovered; her handler had told her that her actions would enable negotiations to help Etrusean citizens like her beloved wife, whose papers she was supposed to present to show she was an Etrusean national rather than Aludran. While she was to be charged with treason, the Empress instead granted her a full pardon.

Ultimately she indirectly achieved her goal; in the days following the battle there were fears of an even greater clampdown and reports of weapons being smuggled to Etrusean citizens. Instead, with the ability to blame all previous tensions as agitation by the Etrusean government, the Empress ordered a large-scale reduction in security measures in Sarren; while there was a brief upsurge in sabotage incidents, these quickly dropped off as the heavy security presence was replaced with locally-recruited sheriffs, many of them Etrusean. Relations today are calm.

The Spring Offensive of the following year, Operation Anvil, was a thunderbolt from a clear sky, a massive Aludran armoured force supported by the S-Class aerial battleships Scorn and Spite pushing the Aludran border over a hundred miles East. For a time it was feared to be a full-scale invasion with the goal of seizing Vermillion City itself and the use of nuclear weapons was seriously discussed by the Etrusean government. However, it was soon realised the entire Northern flank of the Aludran force was a feint and the true goal was taking the Keska Lowlands to create a buffer zone around the Sarren region.

The incredible initial success of Operation Anvil led to a large commitment of Chiran forces to the critical Enola Valley region, and the skirmishes that followed were inconclusive. Aludra returned to the negotiating table and restored much of the territory in the North to Etrusea (including, to the surprise of many, the large munitions plants at Iron Point, which they returned totally undamaged) in exchange for retaining the Keska buffer zone.

Note: "Army" and "Navy" Leviships

There is a vague delineation between Leviships designed to primarily to operate over land and those designed to operate over water, though both are operated by the respective country's Air Navy. The first "true" land-attack Air Destroyer was Perkunas during the Aludran Reformation War, though large dedicated bomber Air Destroyers were never particularly popular.

A small aerial corvette like the Etrusean Falchion is constructed like a large, multi-turreted tank with many systems adapted or taken directly from land armour; in particular almost always mounting explosive reactive armour. The most common mission of such a vessel is low-altitude engagement of air defences designed to attack conventional aircraft; in effect, it is a giant attack helicopter. Such relatively small Leviships are usually vulnerable to high-velocity IFV and tank cannons; Falchion, for example, retreated after serious damage from 40 and 50mm cannon fire from Broadsword IFVs and Black Swan tanks.

A Navy Air Destroyer like AANV** Scorn, on the other hand, is built in a manner far more closely resembling a warship, with the primary protection a combination of heavy composite armour and a multi-layered hard-kill anti-missile system.

There are only a handful of land vehicles capable of dealing any meaningful damage to a capital-scale Leviship like Scorn, mostly outsized self-propelled guns like the 370-ton Aludran Tarantula, and ground forces dread encountering one.

*While this surname would normally be rendered Jannez in Aludran, she always preferred how her wife wrote it.
**Aludran Air Naval Vessel