First Ralkovian War
| First Ralkovian War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Romani-Mar'si Union, Lamoni, The Commonwealth of Morrdh, and the Timocratic Republic; Eitoan | Ralkovia | ||||||
The First Ralkovian War was a military conflict between Imperial Ralkovia and The Alliance fought between MC 2028 and 2030.
The Metal Sea. January 5th, 2028-February 5th, 2028.
The seeds of the Ralkovian War had been planted for generations amongst the soon to be Alliance, whose largest member states of the Romani-Mar'si Union, Lamoni, The Commonwealth of Morrdh, and the Timocratic Republic were all opposed to the act of slavery while Ralkovia was the largest slave-trading nation in Greater Dienstad. It was decided in 2025 that after generations of growing power and greater ability to move in the region, it was time to strike at the heart of the Ralkovian Empire. At a meeting in the Romandean capital of Vesta, more than a dozen nations signed a secret agreement to cofull-blownl blown combat operations no later than December 31st, 2027. This set up the initial phase of the war, the growing anti-slaver naval operations of the various Allied forces.
For years before the official outbreak of the Ralkovian War, blood was being spilled in the name of slavery across the seas of Greater Dienstad. The Romani-Mar'si Union had open bounties for all slaver vessels and had a shoot on sight order, while allied nations such as Lamoni would intercede against Ralkovian traffic as well. Thousands of ships annually would be captured or destroyed every year. This represented only a small portion of Ralkovian shipping but a still significant amount of loss every year. Likewise, Ralkovian naval assets were tasked with responding to such threats and many small, unnamed naval battles happened over these shipping lanes in an undeclared yet decidedly bloody naval war.
The first moves of the war were to increase the intensity of such operations slowly, and to lead the responding Ralkovian forces into a series of traps in the high seas. This slow build-up of Allied naval forces was noted by Ralkovian naval command, but it was believed to be a commitment to already started objectives than anything else. By the time December 31st, 2027 was reached, the Allied forces had been able to achieve a degree of naval build-up across Western Greater Dienstad that was considered an optimistic ideal at best. The Allied forces started a full-fledged anti-naval interdiction campaign and announced that a state of war existed on January 5th, 2028.
The Ralkovians responded to the Allies' naval initiatives without full knowledge of the size or scope of the enemy they were about to fight. This was an intelligence failure, but as post-war records have shown, early war Ralkovian decision making was plagued by an inability to grasp the threat they faced. As such, their naval forces were dispatched with less than ideal knowledge of their enemy. In a series of increasingly devastating engagements, the first wave of Ralkovian responses were overwhelmed and annihilated. All the while, Ralkovian shipping was consumed with increasing ferocity. 'Safe lanes' were left open only to shuttle together large elements of Ralkovian shipping, to be struck by subs, carrier battle groups, and swarms of small missile boats. The colonies, already undergoing extreme strife due to the Marshite demands, were cut off in due time.
The Ralkovian Navy would recover from these setbacks quickly, their skill, determination, and professionalism coming into play. They would respond en masse to try and force one-half of the Allied force into an open battle to try and defeat it, then pull back, regroup, and defeat the other. Their knowledge of the waters and their desire to wipe out the allies was strong; their intelligence, however, was not. The Marshites alone had tens of thousands of combat vessels out by now, with the forces of Lamoni and other Allied forces bringing their significant forces to bear as well. Romandeos and other Union States were were also deploying naval forces en masse, with only scant knowledge of their force being known to the Ralkovians. This would become a critical error in Ralkovian intelligence, one that would decide the course of the war.
The Battle of the Slaver Bay was not one large engagement, but dozens, perhaps hundreds, of smaller battles. Many of them are worthy of tomes all their own and are among the bloodiest battles in the history of naval warfare individually. The Ralkovian Navy engaged the Allied Navy with an initial advantage. However, the Allies had far more than the Ralkovians had prepared for and the Ralkovians proved unable to push deeper into allied waters, and indeed found themselves on equal footing. It was then that Marshite and Union naval forces, operating in a wide strike, struck at the rear and supply lines of the Ralkovian battle fleet. The Ralkovian Navy attempted to push back but found themselves surrounded, outnumbered, and increasingly outgunned. Not only were mainland naval bases pressured intensely, but a ground invasion of the Ralkovian Slaver Bay Enclaves cut them off further. These enclaves would be taken in a matter of days and were quickly repurposed into entirely military-operated areas of control.
Vessel after vessel ran out of munitions. Vessel after vessel was destroyed by concentrated fire, while the Marshite and Allied navies were able to keep up a steady stream of fire and were easily resupplied. Ralkovian resupply efforts were repulsed by the Union navies. Breakout attempts were thwarted with extreme prejudice. The skill, bravery, and cunning of the Ralkovian Navy was of the highest quality, but they found themselves pitted against enemies who shared these same traits. Escape lanes would appear in 'disorganized' allied naval lanes, only to be closed like the jaws of a great beast on those who attempted to make good their escape. Over the course of several weeks, in open water, the Ralkovian Navy was erased from the war as an active threat to Allied plans, with the last large combat action against the Ralkovian Navy taking place on February 5th. So devastating were their losses that in some places ships could no longer sail, as the sunken ships at times stacked to create a virtual sea bed of steel and death a dozen or so feet from the surface. So much tonnage was lost and at such volume that the waters off of Eastrn Ralkovia would become a horrifying petri dish of disease for years afterwards, while the sea level would rise to cause small scale flooding in the colonies and Eastern Ralkovia.
Allied losses were devastating as well. Several hundred carrier battle groups were crippled while submarine forces suffered crushing losses, to name just a few of the notable . Luckily, they had the numbers, and the main battle groups who had been prepared for the battle were pulled back and replaced by the second stage forces of the War in Ralkovia: The securing of the skies over Eastern Ralkovia (Operation Dawn Compass) and the Marshite invasion of the Colonies (Operation Riptide).