End of the Beginning: To War the Galaxy goes

On the 5th of May, 229 of the Universal Calendar, at 7:00 am local Youdon time, following a ceasefire the hour prior, Tory along with a host of officers entered the Schiebfonda. They were ‘greeted by a particularly groggy Rubenfield—a nice and tidy uniform as one might expect, but a sullen face if there could ever be one’ as Chal recalled in his memoirs.

The audience between Rubenfield and Dolz was a swift one. The surrender officially came into effect less than thirty minutes after their arrival. Rubenfield was given permission to evacuate to Federation territory. Rubenfield negotiated the return of his men as well, but naturally Dolz refused. But after Chal reasoned with his superior, Tory let him leave with only the sick and wounded— the rest that were still deemed fit for duty would be in Confederate custody and sent to prisoner of war camps under Chal’s supervision.

On the journey back to Terra, his subordinates noted he became even more ghastly— and sometimes woke in cold sweats from nightmares of those he couldn’t save. In memoirs that were recovered after the war, Rubenfield was deathly afraid of the punishment that await him in Sydney— to return with news of defeat and only a detachment of injured soldiers.

On the 15th of May, at around 2:00 PM, Rubenfield’s fleet made landfall off the coast of Sydney. A hour later he stood before a anxious parliament and live television to report the news of the fall of Schiebfonda.

The bombardment and subsequent capture of Schiebfonda came as a gargantuan shock to every corner of the Galaxy. In Sydney, it served as a patriotic rallying cry for the populace—if there was any doubt about being on the fence, Schiebfonda had eliminated any such uncertainty in the hearts and minds of the people.

“Remember Schiebfonda! The Federation needs YOU!”

Using a vast array of media outlets, propagandists wasted no time to capitalizing on the fall of Schiefdona to instigate the public to join in arms against what they called the ‘Confederate menace’. Or, in less kinder words of the day ‘Ruthenian mongoloids.’ Untold hundreds of artists of all specialties were employed by the Sydney government to generate such dehumanizing content. The ranks of the Federation navy as well as the ground armies swelled at an almost unrealistic scale; even without resorting to universal conscription it was seen as a patriotic duty to enlist in some way or another. Similarly, war bonds were issued and civilians were encouraged to ration common goods for the impending war effort.

Rubenfield’s fears of ridiculed as a coward were contradicted by reality. To his surprise, he was hailed as a national hero for surviving against surmountable odds and displaying acts of steadfastness. In the coming months he would go on to tour territories as part of the propaganda campaign to encourage young men and women to enlist. Later, he would be promoted as a rear admiral with control of several destroyer squadrons.

In order to keep up with this growth, the Federation authorized the creation of more than 15,000 ships ‘for the purpose of suppressing the rebellion in the central starzones and restore civil order’. This would bring up a combined strength over 20,000 ships strong. Bern Halil, the Federation Prime minster voiced concerns to his cabinet that this would sway less loyal systems to join the Confederacy.

In truth, this was partially correct. When news came of some starzones in the Kongriega corridor joining their secessionist brethren, along with a few in the Greater Sol[ A historial term for the planetary sector that included Marsol, Cambreau, Dondes, Asland, Saubia and depending on context use Salalla. It directly connected to Metropolitan Sol through Satursol, and connected to the Ruthenia starzones through the Taishō corridor.

By the 4th century this term had fallen out of use, and was referred to as the Westphalian region from then-on.] region. Coupled with the news of Schiebfonda, it proved to be too much to handle causing Halil to suffer a mental breakdown that turned into a severe illness.

With Bern incapacitated and left without a strong leader to keep momentum, DeRyck was nominated as Acting Prime Minister in Bern’s stead. DeRyck, who was becoming weary of politics declined and kept to his vow of being at the forefront of war—which he did so a week after the fall of Schiebfonda. The colossal responsibility of prime ministry fell on minster of defense Cesara Laurendeau, who himself was appointed after his predecessor resigned in disgrace upon Schiebfonda’s fall.

Leaving behind him the life of Parliament, DeRyck begun forming a volunteer fleet that was comprised of veterans that served under him during his anti-piracy campaigns. He acquired a few squadrons of destroyers and battleships that were previously mothballed over the last decades and were in dire need of maintenance before they could be serviced. Rubenfield had also offered his services to which DeRyck accepted. Through the help of Cesara, he was also bolstered by a flotilla of warships transferred over by the regular armada.

Due to many of his older generation ships’ paint jobs becoming decayed from time, DeRyck decided to paint them in a more colorful scheme in contrast to the industrious royal black standard that Federation ships were known for. It also happened that was all he had in supply at the moment. Thus, DeRyck’s First Autonomous Strike Group would garner the nickname of ‘Flying Circus’ for it’s vibrancy.

While DeRyck was in the process of retraining the Flying Circus ‘up to Federation wartime standards’, the Metropolitan Sol armada under grand admiral Viktor Mazzarelli was in it’s own process of marshaling fleets in the Maalhatla starzone.

In the Frankish Domains, admiral Garofano was similarly assembling a smaller size of 1,000 warships in the Lothian region. The decision to merge the two fleets and strike as one was debated between Garofano and Mazzarelli, but finally decided that Garofano’s fleets would remain stationed in the Frankish theater to deter a Confederate invasion through there. Historians would debate if this was the right decision in the end as it could’ve made a differing impact on the war effort in the coming years.

Meanwhile, in the Confederacy the capture of Shiebfonda became a deep rooted symbolism of secession. The newly institutionalized ministry of propaganda was haste to commission a legion of artists to justify it’s war of aggression. Likewise, was the circulation of war bonds and encouraged wartime rationing, especially those that lived in Cluster colonies as resources in those would lead to faster depletion than those in planetary settlements. Fears of war exhaustion was far more prevalent in the Federation than the Confederacy, as they relied far more on Cluster for inhabitants but was offset by trade with their Frankish Dominion.

Enthusiasm took the country by storm. Eager men and women volunteered by untold numbers—over 14 million answered the call to arms. Furthermore, the Congressional Assembly passed bills that drafted a further 20 million for up to three years plus five years in reserves. The Congressional authorized the construction of over 30,000 ships which would be undertaken by several defense companies.

Dolz was hailed as a national hero. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his great deeds by the Congressional Assembly while also receiving the promotion to High Admiral and appointed as Supreme Commander of all Confederate forces.

Chal, too, enjoyed some career success; he was recognized for his handling of the blockade in Tory’s leave to the war ministry and was promoted to vice admiral. Both men enjoyed the public popularity—although in the former’s case, his social cliques revolved around women of which it was no secret he enjoyed the company of such.

The capture of Schiebfonda had swayed even those in the anti-war and anti-separatist camps. However, some remained steadfast in opposition of a armed revolution against the mother country. Among them were senator Russ Lemnich who had given a speech before the Congressional Assembly a month ago. Outraged, it is reported that upon hearing of the action at Schiebfonda he “slammed his cane on his desk and caused a great ruckus”;

“This grand and noble Confederacy was meant for greater things… clearly, we are not led by rationally grand people… but mass murdering delusional maniacs. This path of destruction has swayed us from the path of liberty, prosperity, and cooperation. Have all of you lost your humanity to send your sons and daughter that you cherish so much to arrive vertically on the battlefield and return home horizontally? I want no participation of this irrational nonsense.”

Lemnich resigned from the Congressional Assembly not long after. His outburst made it clear that anti-war movements were still strong and indeed, it’s medic coverage in the weeks after roused interest from a small minority of the total population. Notably, those from from the poor brackets—namely farmers and laborers from planetary systems.

The war situation for the Confederacy remained bleak. It boasted a near lopsided manpower pool and in resources than Metropolitan Sol(without factoring in the Franks) and was capable of stomaching a prolonged war. On the other hand due to the size and nature of being a Confederated state, leadership was prone to be utterly decentralized on a unprecedented scale. Their troops were of poor training and pay was sub par compared to the opposition. What the military lacked painfully in, they made in for esprit de corps.

The news of some Cluster and planetary dominions joining the Confederate in Greater Sol came as a warm welcome—as did the Kongriega colonies. However, strategists were quick to realize this could become a burden in the case of a Federation advance to invade Greater Sol—which has already seen low intensity raids between pro-Confederates and pro-Federates starting in June.

“By utilizing our besieged brethen in Greater Sol, we can attack Terra directly and strike at the nucleus of tyranny itself.”

“If we strike at the Franks, we can cut off the artery and bleed the Federation dry. The war will be over before they know it.”

“If we strike at the [neutral] governments in Zonal and Lombardia, we can snip in the bud a second front in the case of a looming extended war.”

Such conversations ebbed and flowed in the High Command. The Zonal-Lombard question was particularly spoken of the most—although they did proclaim absolute neutrality some months before, what is to say they won’t join the losing Federation and tip the balance of power? It was not known intelligence-wise what their strength was—realistically, it would be small. In any case, it would be impossible for the Federation to supply them with ships at first but would definitely prove to be problematic in the event that they wrestled control of the hyperlanes in those regions.

There was Hatillo, too, which thus so far resisted a meager frontal bombardment until now. Even if it wasn’t immediately captured, it would tie down a considerable number of fleets to blockade— fleets that could be better used for combat on the frontlines.

On top of everything else was the possibility of a third front being opened up if the Federation gambled on crossing through the Toscana corridor—which meant invading the pirate havens that resided there. This hypothetical scenario was surmised as being realistically feasible only if Hatillo remained intact. If it were taken, it would prove a far greater risk with minimal gain for Federal war planners—at least in Vardini’s eyes.

Additionally, even if Hatillo was not used as a launchpad into the rear of the Confederacy, there was still the issue of Toscanii privateers—a worrying prospect that Confederate admirals were keen of as early as February 229.

Come August, high admiral Tory Dolz announced his decision for the pending campaign at the war council in Montevideo Side, Dundaes starzone. He informed his convening officers that the provisional navy would deploy to Greater Sol. He stated that several echelons would remain behind in the Picardi starzone in order to defend a possible counterattack in the Caldonia corridor. When the issue of Hatillo was brought up, he remarked that a smaller garrison would continue it’s blockage until fruther orders and that nothing could be done about the neutralists in Lombardia-Zonal for now.

With that, Dolz and his provisional armada sailed into the black abyss toward the Taishō corridor with a fleet size totalling 4,500 ships. On top of that the sum of 900 ships stationed themselves in Picardi, some 700 among the Kongriega corridor, and a fewer amount to blockage Hallito.

Some weeks later in Maalhatla, the Federation completed it’s task of naval mustering. Grand admiral Mazzarelli received intelligence that Tory was heading for Greater Sol. Realizing that Tory perhaps intends to penetrate through Satursol and threaten the heart of Metropolitan Sol, Mazzareli immediately gave the command to march to Greater Sol as fast as possible, leaving behind stragglers if need be.

This fleet as it begun it’s first jumps consisted a little over 4,400 ships though factoring in DeRyck’s Flying Circus brought it to 5,100. A lump of 1,000 warships remained behind at Lambia in the event of a Confederate invasion—Mazzarelli, Tory, and Laurendeau all shared the same sentiment that the incursion in Greater Sol was a diversion, and the real invasion would come from the Caldonia corridor since they were aware of Confederate movement in the vicinity but lacked the intelligence to estimate ship numbers.

27th August, 229 of the Universal Calendar. It was the end of the beginning—the era of false peace was over. The age of pencil pushers has faded at last… diplomacy had absolutely failed. It was time for the warrior to take the stage with fire and sword.

The first battle of Mantua was about to begin.