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Operation Black Deluge, sometimes referred to as the Battle for Eulumia, was a military operation carried out by the Corporatocracy of Harbitros, with the aid of the Sons of Ulciscor, against the Regulators and later the Caeli Holdouts.
Prelude[]
After the events of the 2083 Cascade of Terror, the Corporatocracy of Harbitros strenuously and closely monitored the activity of the Regulators and its leader Proviso Dorva. Harbitros, by the order of Fiscal Patriarch Ray Paul, threatened Proviso's Eulumian Federation that if the situation in Isteroxe had not calmed down by the end of Quintillitus, Legionnaire International and the Harbian Eclipse Agency would intervene. At the end of the prequisite month, Ray Paul's words held true. On the first day of Lamenthrobust, 2083, a large fleet of aerships arrived from Avarice over Eulumia and Verall. Legionnaire personnel began to be sighted through the streets of various Larusian cities. Proviso Dorva made a public announcement decrying and condemning the actions of Harbitros, and announced that all Harbian personnel were enemies of the Federation of Eulumia. Ray Paul ordered the Harbian forces within Isteroxe to act quickly, as fears of Proviso coming into control over Eulumia's nuclear arsenal became a very real threat.
The Operation[]
First Week[]
Three Regulator footsoldiers
After combat had initiated between the Regulator footsoldiers and the Legionnaire personnel, Eulumia and most of Larusia devolved further into chaos and bedlam. Large firefights and urban skirmishes ignited between the opposing forces throughout Eulumia's cities, causing many civilians to desert the streets in fear of being shot. The Deus-class Aercarrier, HAS Arcturus, was also brought from Avarice to central Eulumia in order to bring forth order. Wraith Unit, a covert Eclipse special operations unit led by Adrian Endswood, was also deployed and carried out various secret missions and objectives throughout the entire conflict.
Second Week[]
After the events of the first week, Operation Black Deluge intensified in its ferocity. The vigilante paramilitary group Sons of Ulciscor joined the fray on the side of the Corporatocracy of Harbitros. Many Ulciscor vigilantes were noted as wielding Prismbeam weapons. Such weapons were used against the Regulator footsoldiers, who wielded the stolen energy weapons. Several firefights between these two sides were described as "lethal light shows, as if from a sci-fi movie".
During Harbitros' assault into Constellium, several powerful anti-aircraft artillery were able to shoot down three Overseer-class Aerships, killing dozens of Harbian crew and personnel. Nonetheless, Constellium fell under Harbian occupation by the end of the week.
Revelation[]
A Wraith Unit operative during a firefight with the Regulators
After two weeks of violent battles and firefights between the growing might of the Regulators versus the forces of the Sons of Ulciscor and the Corporatocracy of Harbitros, the Wraith Unit discovered that the Regulators and the Caeli Holdouts had been secretly allied since before the beginning of the Cascade of Terror. The Corporatocracy of Harbitros, upon confirming this report, released it publicly, specifically across all of Isteroxe as a way to break the public's approval of the Regulators. This partially worked, and many civilians and militiamen turned against Proviso and his faction. Seemingly realizing that their cover had been blown, the Caeli Holdouts showed themselves once more en masse during the Battle of Western Virago. The new leader of the Caeli Holdouts, Eor Stragsden, made himself known to be affiliated with the Regulators, and joined them in Versienna, as the Eulumian Federation secured the capital.
The Battle of Versienna[]
Aerial Assault[]
Two Overseer-class Aerships being shot down
Wendel Crayton as Creydal, flying through the hollow space of a Harbian aership
By Lamenthrobust XXII, 2083, the Corporatocracy of Harbitros had decided to make its move in capturing Eulumia's capital city of Versienna. HAS Arcturus led a fleet of aerships over the city of Versienna, and it began its artillery assault on all visible targets. However, the Harbian aerships were met with the attacks of highly advanced stealth VTOLs. Attempting to fire upon these invisible nuisances caused immense collateral damage against various structures in Versienna. Creydal also gave the Harbian Aernavy trouble with his vertical take-off flight suit and him apparently wielding a highly experimental plasma cannon. Targeting weak points on several aerships allowed Creydal to cause substantial damage by his lonesome. However, during his flight toward HAS Arcturus, the left wing of his biomechanical suit was destroyed by stray artillery from the Deus-class Aercarrier. The Regulator plummeted out of the sky, and crashed onto the street, dead on impact.
Palace de Viveta[]
A large group of Regulator footsoldiers and Caeli mercenaries gathered around the Palace de Viteva, and fired upon nearing Harbian personnel with their energy weapons, pinning them down and halting the ground campaign to reach Eulumia's capital building. Eor Stragsden and Glade Sunderval stood in front of the main door of the capital building, overseeing their subordinates' capabilities. However, at around 7:40 PM on Lamenthrobust XXII, a joint-battallion of Legionnaire and Eclipse personnel confronted the large enemy congregation, and a massive firefight erupted in the courtyard of Palace de Viveta. Part of the group of Harbians was Adrian Endswood. Whilst the battle took place, Adrian secretly entered the capital building, and he began searching for Proviso.
Eor Stragsden firing his arm-mounted laser cannon
Another individual in this group was an Eclipse operative tasked with field-testing the only XB-81 Tau Accelerator. Thise Eclipse agent found an appropriate vantage point, and waited until Glade Sunderval and Eor Stragsden were both in the proximity of the tau cannon's blast. At last second, however, Stragsden took notice to the Eclipse operative -- barely visible amongst all of the chaos -- and aimed his large, mechanical arm at the Harbian. As the cannon began to accelerate its tau particles, Eor's biomechanical arm transformed from a human appendage to a an arm-mounted laser cannon. Just as the tau cannon fired its ray of energy towards the two Regulators, Eor discharged his laser arm. The Eclipse operative's face was partially vaporized from the diret hit, but Eor and Glade were unable to dodge the oncoming blast. The tau beam hit Eor straight in the chest, and passed through his molecules, heading straight into Glade Sunderval. Instantly, both of the individuals' biomechanics -- Eor's life support system and prosthetic limbs and Glade Sunderval's cryosuit and nanites -- began to malfunction. Suddenly, Eor's laser arm exploded, killing him instantly and leaving him dismembered. Sunderval's cryosuit failed on him, and his nanites went haywire, beginning to corrupt his insides. Sunderval, succumbing to both the pain inside of him and the weight of his dead suit, fell to the stone of the Viveta Courtyard. The battle, however, steadily raged on between the Regulators, Caeli mercenaries, and Harbian personnel.
Brett Colgreave's nanites overloading from the tau explosion
Brett Colgreave, noticing that his comrades had been defeated from inside the capital building, entered the fray, and began to burn down entire groups of Legionnaires and Eclipse operatives. The courtyard became scorched and charred from Colgreave's pyrogenesis. A brave Legionnaire mercenary, noticing the idle tau cannon on the ground, ran for the weapon. Colgreave realized what the Harbian was doing, and attempted to stop him by spraying fire towards him. The man was out of the fire's reach, and rolled into cover, grabbing the tau cannon. Fiddling with the tau cannon, the Legionnaire desparately tried to accelerate another beam of tau particles at Brett, but was not having any luck. Colgreave began to walk towards him. Suddenly, the cannon began to hum with activity, and its accelerator began to glow and shake. Realizing what was about to take place, Brett ran towards the Legionnaire, flames high. Just as Brett grabbed ahold of the cannon, and began to scorch the Legionnaire alive, the tau cannon fired right into the Regulator at point blank range, causing an immense and unexpected surge of energy. The XB-81 tau accelerator was instantly disintegrated, and Colgreave was thrown across the courtyard. Upon getting up, he saw that the biomechanical augmentation monitoring his nanites was destroyed, and his pyrogenesis overloaded. Colgreave became set completely alight, and in a fiery explosion was no more but ash and detritus.
Meanwhile in Palace de Viveta, Adrian Endswood found the Chancellor's office, with Proviso Dorva watching through the window -- onlooking the city-wide battle between his faction and the Corporatocracy of Harbitros. Endswood attempted to sneak up on Proviso and kill him, but was parried by the seemingly unrealistic reflexes of his adversary. The two then entered melee combat, both landing metallic punches and hits on the other's body.
After several minutes of moving through the office, attempting to kill one another, Proviso landed a quick blow to Adrian Endswood's abdomen, and then repeated his move except now extending his forearm blade into the Wraith Unit leader. Proviso retracted the blade, and began to thrust his blade at Adrian's head, but was suddenly thrown off balance by a gunshot to his back. Proviso twirled over Endswood's body, and faced the door to the office. A large group of Harbians stood in the doorframe, and began to fire all of their weapons -- both regular firearms and energy weapons. The barrage of ammunition ripped through Proviso's coast, mask, and body, and he was thrown into the glass by the force of every wound. The final shot entered through his ribs and exited through his spinal chord, shattering the window. Proviso's body then toppled out and 20 meters down, splattering the ground in his blood.
Victory[]
After the Corporatocracy of Harbitros captured and secured Palace de Viveta, Versienna fell under Harbitros' occupation. All of the Regulators had been killed in combat, except Glade Sunderval. Sunderval had gone missing during the firefight in the Viveta Courtyard, leaving behind the dead weight of his broken cryosuit.
Aftermath[]
The state of Versienna after Operation Black Deluge
Operation Black Deluge did not end until several days after Versienna's capture, but the firefights and battles quickly began to subside and diminish in both energy and occurrence. Eulumia, Verall, and several other severely affected nations were forcibly occupied by Harbian forces until further notice, to assure that the Caeli Holdouts and Regulator remnants could not take any further hold. After the fighting in Versienna had entirely cooled down, Eclipse operatives recovered the corpse of 'Creydal', and removed his armor to discover that he was the Harbian fugitive Wendel Crayton.
Upon raiding Palace de Viveta of all records installed by Proviso Dorva and Eor Stragsden, it was revealed where the headquarters of the Caeli Holdouts was located -- Tranche Island, off the coast of Castrona. Documents also showed that Proviso was obsessed with the United Soviette Republics, and had raided the Gorvga-7 Soviette Vault for all of its contents. Such technology found in this particular vault was prototypical stealth technology, which he later perfected when upgrading VTOLs with them. He also had helped modify the Caeli Holdouts' stolen MPV Rock Ramblers. Further investigation by the Harbian Eclipse Agency allowed them to determine that Proviso and his 'regulators' had allied themselves with the Caeli Holdouts, but then betray Mohzeus Maliroy and killed him, allowing Eor to take control. The Harbian Mafia also seemed to somehow be related to the rise of the Regulators -- likely through finance and funds.