The Infocard Wrote:With the Gallic war winding into tighter circles around Bretonia, the Royal Fleet was faced with the reality of retreat. The northern front had receded to New London, forcing Bretonia to scuttle Southampton Shipyard, losing its most valuable wartime manufacturing plant. While the fleet was still strong enough in numbers to hold the capital, the loss of industry disrupted Bretonia’s supply chain to emergency levels. Yet while the pillars of her empire were crumbling, Bretonia did not stand alone in the face of conquest. A close tie with the Crayter Republic had become a steadfast alliance of mutual survival. The Liberty Navy, not seeking to lose a close ally and neighbor to the tyranny of Gallic rule, ratified a treaty of lend/lease with the Royal Society to supply new warships and equipment to the Bretonian fleet. This equipment was authorized for any use in the Gallic war, with one exception. Liberty Naval Command made a strict warning to the Royal Fleet that any use of Libertonian warships within the Omegas would result in serious diplomatic consequences.
Having nowhere to go, Bretonia needed to find a way to expand its dwindling manufacturing capabilities during wartime. Being the largest and most available region to Bretonia’s grid-east, the Omegas provided the best option for incursion. As the war swung her eastward, Bretonia had found herself faced with two opponents: the Independent Miners Guild and the Red Hessians. The Independent Miners Guild had once been close allies with the Crayter Republic, whose help Bretonia requested in mediating diplomatic talks to acquire Aland Shipyard. Bretonia offered to expand and upgrade the shipyard with advanced House technologies and return the station to the Guild at a later date when the war with Gallia had been won.
Much to the shock and dismay of the Crayter Republic, the IMG declined this offer and instead chose to take up arms against their former ally. Calling upon their friends in Rheinland and the deep Omegas, Aland was soon surrounded by a formidable defense of ALG and Hessian ships. Outraged by their unwillingness to aid the war effort, a group of Crayterians rallied behind the commander of the Olympia, who had pledged his loyalty to Bretonia in the conflict. The Olympia Battlegroup leant considerable strength to the effort of defeating their former allies in the battles ahead.
The siege of Aland began in early 826 AS. The first attacks on the station were assessments of defensive response capabilities. These light skirmishes were deterred by the defending forces, with minor losses to each side. This was followed by a series of capital engagements grid-west of Aland. Bretonian and Crayter Republic forces staged their attack from Battleship Norfolk, charging eastward in long drags that were easily detected by enemy forces. This line of attack was adjacent to a fairly active tradelane, providing the defenders an advantage for the positioning of snub craft. The Bretonian fleet quickly became aware of how active the Hessians had become in the western Omegas, with Aland Shipyard receiving a large amount of support from throughout the region.
One battle became two. Two became four. The Bretonians fought valiantly, but could not muster the strength to overcome the stalwart defense that was put up by the Hessian and IMG forces. Throughout the battles, the Olympia's cohort lost the most vessels in the attempts to take Aland. Despite the bitter rivalry between the Olympia Battlegroup and the Independent Miners Guild, it was the Red Hessians that most often met to defend the station.
Continued losses were not sustainable. What began as an attempted blitz had been baffled into a series of nine battles, each more costly than the last. Bretonian naval command ordered a halt to the attacks on Aland, returning the fleet to New London for a re-assessment of the strategic situation. While direct attack had proven unfeasible, there remained an ace in the sleeve. The Olympia Battlegroup possessed an experimental jump drive which was capable of taking the fleet in a simultaneous jump to a calculated destination. The Olympia's commander was eager to use this new technology to help secure victory in the war. The drive was installed on the Olympia herself, a Deimos-class dreadnought. It had been proven capable of taking a mid-sized fleet with it through a jump. However, the dense asteroid field around Aland was a concern to more skeptical Bretonian leadership.
In desperate need of a victory, Bretonian naval command refused to commit to any plan which was not thoroughly considered, and had the proper window of opportunity for success. The arrangements of the jump and ensuing battle were heavily deliberated. The discussion resulted in a two-phase plan. The Liberty battlecruisers supplied through lend/lease could not be deployed into the Omegas, however they could be used to relieve other ships of their orders for re-assignment to the siege of Aland. First, use the relieved Bretonian warships from New London to draw the Hessian forces out from the perimeter of the station, drawing them into combat in the tail of the Cross-Vandermeer Comet. Battling in the cometary tail would provide obfuscation to sensors and visuals. After the diversion was properly sprung, then the primary fleet would engage their jump from the north of the system and come out the other side right on top of Aland. Technical schematics of the station provided by the Crayter Republic exposed a vulnerability in the CO2 scrubber system which could be used to deploy sleeping gas across the entire station. In order to accomplish this task, the Bretonians assembled a task force of Royal Marines hand picked with the skills required for the mission. Amongst the warships would be six Clydesdale freighters, each carrying a marine fireteam. The vessels would ram strategic weak points on the station and cut an opening to board. The operation was devised to be as quick and non-lethal as possible, quickly taking command of the station without causing major damage to it. This operation was thus named Operation Chrysalis.
On March 23, Operation Chrysalis was initiated. Several prominent warships approached Aland from grid-south and drew out the Hessian forces. As Bretonia had hoped, the Hessians were eagerly led from base to pursue, high on the success of their previous victories. The diversion had begun. The primary fleet gathered grid-north of Aland and waited for the cue. The Olympia’s scanners were brought online and calculations were quickly made. The destination was a static point in space above Aland, with the exact position being slightly adjusted in real-time to conform with the movement of the asteroid material. The field was dense, but initiating the jump at the right moment would result in the fleet arriving unharmed. An automatic system onboard the Olympia was enabled, ready to trigger the jump at the correct time. With supreme confidence the captain of the Olympia greenlighted the jump. The warm light of subspace was the last thing that he saw. The jump drive had functioned perfectly, and delivered the fleet exactly where it was directed. While the calculations had been mostly correct, the latency gap of the scanner allowed for a minor discrepancy in the proper assessment of fleet position. Within an instant, one third of the fleet had been properly materialized deep inside of cosmic debris. The surviving fleet quickly sprang into action, the instant loss of vessels going unnoticed in the first moments of the frenzy of battle. Olympia had been delivered into a tight cluster of chunky asteroids, her hull now bisected by a dozen massive rocks. A handful of others shared the same fate, losing their vessels and their lives to the miscalculated arrangement of macro-dust, causing several human-rock transfigurations best left to the imagination.
The surviving Clydesdale freighters rammed targeted weak points on the station and began welding open an entry. Several marine fire-teams succeeded in taking command of the Aland’s control center, the other marine teams storming the life support facilities, dispersing sleeping gas into the atmosphere of the station through the emergency sprinkler system. Station lockdown prevented retaliation and compartmentalized the workers into different parts of the station. Marines were under orders not to kill personnel unless explicitly necessary. The captured personnel were now prisoners of Bretonia onboard Aland. The Hessian forces remained engaged with the Bretonian diversion, trading losses on both sides.
BMM now occupy the station and maintain the facility to Bretonia’s standards. The Olympia’s sacrifice was not in vain. The facility is currently being used to repair, re-supply, and construct new ships for the war against Gallia.
