Battle of Helksag

"So this war begins here... Let them remember who they messed with.."-Unknown Rebel Soldier.

The Battle of Helksag was the longest engagement and one of the costlier ones of the war. Fought between the newly formed Free Peoples of the Milky Way Galaxy and the Orion Empire in the year of 2407 soon after the start of the war. It was mostly fought in trenches but also had occasions where both sides attempted to break the stalemate, it was also one of the few battles where chemical warfare was used.

Belligerents:
Free Peoples of the Milky Way Galaxy

The Orion Empire

Allied:
Empire of Calisto:

Admiral Pitchard Loksten

General Robert Halogan

General Mikhail Junharam

BlackLight Corporation:
"The Director"

Field Commander Joshua Hansen+

United Rebellion to Reestablish Freedom:
General Howard Jamison

General Michael Hawham+

Central:
 Orion Empire: 

Admiral Roger Jamison+

General Kyle Yamano+

Field Marshall Tranam Hyomer+

Field Marshall Richard Hammon+

Weapons used, tactics, trench life, and early engagements.
The ground battle began as forces under General Michael Hawham encountered Orion scouts under Field Marshall Tranam Hyomer near the city of Iomer. Most of the troops were killed in a vicious firefight and fell back. Both sides began digging trenches in order to defend against assaults. The Orion Empire made trenches that had shutters, duckboards, and rugs as well as some furniture inside the dugouts. They also built elaborate trenches in and around Capitol City of Iomer and the surrounding towns. The Orion Empire was now trapped in the city as well as fighting rebels also trapped in the city. The Empire of Calisto sent a force of 500,000 to join the rebels in their crude but effective trenches and began improving them as the campaign went on. The coniditions were hellish for both sides. They would endure constant shelling from the enemy and the introduction of new and devastating weapons such as shrapnel cannons meant that it was nearly impossible to cross "no-man's land" A more fluid war took place in and around the city of Marcadia, where a combined Blacklight and Rebel force captured the city with relatively little resistance before digging in, entrapped. It was here that Joshua Hansen was killed during an Orion Empire gas attack. Blacklight fought non-stop for 4 weeks and managed to break out of the city.

Meanwhile, around Iomer, the battle line shifted a couple of yards or miles if an offensive was effective for 2 years. During the Calistan and Rebel offensive in the Spring of 2407, the Orion Empire introduced a terrifying new weapon, poison gas, namely Sarin, was deployed on the unprotected troops. Terrified, more than a quarter of the force fled while the rest were killed. The Orion Empire, however, failed to take advantage of the 32 km gap in the allied lines, and Rebel volunteers were rushed to secure the position. Calisto almost immediately deployed it's own chemical weapons, known as "Silent Death", a combination of Diphosgene, Lewisite, and Hydrogen Cyanide. It was overwhelmingly effective on the Orion Empire, and it was also copied by the Orion Empire, who built a much simpler version which was a combination of Sarin and Phosgene. Quotes from soldiers fighting against the gas were often depressing.

"Gas, one of the most horrifying weapons, we'd always see a new recruit not get his mask on in time, and we'd be forced to watch him claw for air, desperately, trying to get a breath of it, and then collapse. It's a horrible war."

"Early morning of January 10th, 2409, Our batteries fired off around 2 million shells at the enemy trenches, they later retaliated and managed to bust open a hole in our barbed wire. We were then subjected to vicious gas from the enemy, whom had launched a half dozen shells of Phosgene at our lines, we hadn't been well prepared and you could hear the cacophany of coughing and hacking from our boys down below."- Rebel Artilleryman Corporal Edgar Huff.

Generals desperately tried to bring back movement to the war on Helksag but it was inevetable, as the Anti Aircraft guns and Orbital Defense Guns around Iomer and Marcadia were preventing a mobile, rapid, and air supported war to bring the fighters into a quick showdown, so Generals on both sides were forced to adapt to trench warfare. The arrangement of sectors were usually Calistan, Rebel, Rebel, Calistan, Calistan, Rebel, Calistan and so forth. Both sides were forced to attempt suicidal human wave attacks against a wall of machine gun fire and barbed wire, even if they had tanks with them, landmines and artillery negated the effectiveness. Some areas were lucky enough to have little to no AA fire and allowed both sides to conduct organized, air supported assaults. These areas were usually patched up. Artillery bombardments were brutal, lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a few days, or even weeks.

A stalemate ensued as better defenses were made, but no offensive progress was made. It was mostly quiet during the lull between assaults, each man had different duties such as latrine cleaning, sentry duty, or scouting out the enemy trenches and calling in artillery bombardments. The constant rain on Helksag made it vital to carry pumps in order to remove water from the trenches, which would commonly flood. One scourge for both sides was the rat, which would gorge itself on dead bodies. Soldiers would constantly take pot shots on the rats, even though this was prohibited as it was considered a waste of ammunition.

Major Engagements
The major battles had begun during the Summer of 2408, as the Calistan and the Rebel leaders discussed a plan to launch a major offensive near Elektra, a key town surrounding Iomer. In order to execute this, the 34th Infantry and Tank division led by General Hawham was to move into nearby Hinarma. This would draw the Orion Empire's 13th Infantry division to the town in order to stop the assault. Meanwhile, the combined forces of the 79th Infantry Batallion, led by General Junharam, the 45th Armored Batallion, led by General Jamison, and the 21st Anti-Armor division led by General Jamison as well. These 3 groups would advance into the Orion Empire's trenches, manned by a reserve division, one that was raw and had no combat experience, and quickly take it through sheer numbers. The plan was flawless, at least the Generals thought so. It was nicknamed OPERATION:RED FRIDAY. The mass movement of shells, artillery, tanks, and troops into that sector, however, led Field Marshall Hyomer to believe that it would come under assault, as such, he moved the 5th Reserve Batallion and the 9th Purge Batallion into the sector. The morning of July 23rd, the troops advanced forward into a wall of machine gun fire and artillery shells. It was a one sided slaughter that resulted in 250,000 dead or wounded within the first 24 hours. The 34th had only captured parts of Hinarma and were struggling with the 13th Infantry and the 55th Special Armored Forces division. The Battle of Elektra ended in a catastrophic defeat for the Allies. With only 8 Miles gained after Hinarma was taken. This ended up causing a large bulge in lines, and Hinarma remained contested until 2410.

On September 20th, 2408 the ISC and Orion Empire launched a second assault on Chronora, a key planet and Medical Planet, which drew a majority of Calistan elite forces, including the 79th, 24th, 92nd, Gold Company, and Shadow Company away from Helksag and meant that new recruits were to take place of the "old breed". This predicament drew to the Orion Empire's Autumn Offensive of 2408, better known as OPERATION: JOUST, which lasted for 4 months and gained a total of 130 miles in certain sectors. This catastrophic defeat meant that more recruits were needed, and the Rebellion was about to shatter under the pressure it was coming upon. The Orion Empire had nearly reached the City of Yinarma, the headquarters in the Northern Sector for the Allied troops. Calisto rushed troops to the line in Yinarma In September, newly arrived Republic of Equinox troops were rushed to the front. With Second Chronora coming to a close, the Allies gathered their strength once more.

The morning of April 4th, 2409, the Allied forces launched OPERATION: SWEEPER, in which Calisto, holding Yinarma by a hair, gathered with forces from Equinox and began moving forward at a rapid pace to retake the fortress of Howania. To the East, at Hinarma, Rebel and Calistan forces would advance and take Cobalia, and then swing around to attack Elektra from behind and the sides. Equinoxan and Rebel forces to the West would assault the Orion Empire's weaker position and attack Westwind in order to surround Elektra completely. The Operation took a total of 2 Months, and had regained 98 Miles from the Orion Empire, liberating Howania and beginning the push into Cobalia. The battle then became a stalemate for both sides, fighting viciously to keep a hold of their position.

One of the last offensives into the Battle was fought in Marcadia, where Blacklight and the Rebels were trapped for 1 and a Half years. OPERATION: HAMMER STRIKE brought an end to that stalemate, and mobile war was fought for a few months between the ragtag and low morale armies of BlackLight and the Orion Empire. This was a period before they had the more advanced tactics to take each other on with mobile forces. Soon after, the assault was halted outside of the Orion Empire's Southern Headquarters in Saomira, in which the Orion Empire launched OPERATION: BLACK TIDE, which was a lightning strike on the weakened rebel lines around Llarium, where both sides held the city. The Allies launched OPERATION: IRON SHIELD in response, pushing south from Hisnuram, but failed to gain much ground. The Central Powers then launched OPERATION: DEATH VALLEY, which nearly took Marcadia, but halted just outside the city, where the lines stayed the same until the Orion Empire's 2409 Offensive of OPERATION: QUEEN THE PAWN, in which they broke out from the lines, and pushed straight into the heart of Marcadia. The Allies responded with OPERATION: FOUR KNIGHTS, during this operation, they pushed East and West, squeezing the Imperials into Saomira and Llarium, as well as push them out of Marcadia.

Afterwars, the Imperial's last offensive was OPERATION: TAKEOVER, which consisted of lightning strikes towars the weak point in Allied lines between two pushes towards Saomira.

Outcome
The outcome of the battle was a decisive victory for the Free Peoples of the Milky Way Galaxy but a costly one too, totaling to 56 Billion dead or wounded on both sides. Around a tenth of the casualties were gas casualties, mostly on the side of the Empire of Calisto. It also marked the beginning of the weakening of the Orion Empire and turned the war in the favor of the alliance. It showed the Galaxy that the Allies had won a key p[lanet and were prepared to take on the universe.