Second Battle of Ankarr (Cruentusian War)

The Second Battle of Ankarr was a large battle of the Cruentusian War. Having learned of the adopted Zayre homeworld of Ankarr, the Srav Federation launched a full-scale invasion of the planet, intending to subjucate the Zayre and remove them as threats. To bolster their numbers, the Sravs hired a large force of Savi Alliance mercenaries. Both sides then launched a lightning assault on Ankarr, with Zayre heroine Storm Ironwings and former Necasian leader Carsal Redharn conducting the defence. Nonetheless, the Zayre were eventually overwhelmed by numbers and firepower, and the Sravs began a repressive occupation of the planet.

Prelude
A few weeks before, the Zayre had attacked the planet of to test out their crystal weaponry. In the process they had hired some Savi mercenaries and killed them upon the conclusion of the battle to prevent them from leaking information on the Zayre location to the Necasians or the Sravs, both of whom were bent on eradicating the Zayre. However, a few mercenaries had survived and had tracked the Zayre to Ankarr.

The Savis decided that the Sravs would be the best recipients for this intelligence, as they had had entanglements with the Necasians on Cul-Huq and Toydaria, and their ranks contained a number of Necasian deserters. Savi leaders arranged to meet Srav supreme leader Jasef Yuiln within the Politikdel building in the Srav capital of Yuilnokrad, Sviat. In the meeting, the Savis presented what they had discovered, in exchange for a fee beforehand. The Sravs dispatched some spy probes, which confirmed what the Savis had said.

Srav commander Ivran Gresev immediately pressured Yuiln for an invasion of Ankarr, stating that the Zayre needed to be eradicated before they could become a threat. Due to the fact that many Srav forces were occupied elsewhere with the ongoing offensive on the Necasians, Yuiln made an offer to the Savis to pledge a large force to bolster the Srav invasion force. The Savis quickly agreed, deciding they needed the prestige.

Gresev hand-picked several top Srav commanders, including Srav heroine Nataska Vergulva, who had had combated the Zayre earlier in the war on, as well as elite sniper Rak Dremsk. As the Srav and Savi joint taskforce was mustered, Yuiln stressed to Gresev to occupy the Zayre rather than exterminate them, feeling that they could be eventually indoctrinated into the Srav cause. Gresev was disappointed, but nonetheless complied. To this end, he brought two kommissars along, Laverta Suka and Anatol Kurzak, to aid in the subjucation. Within a few days, the taskforce was prepared, and as planned headed out to Ankarr. Gresev stressed to his commanders to use any means necessary to suppress the Zayre.

Crimson skies
The combined Srav and Savi fleet appeared out of hyperspace in Ankarr's high orbit, with Gresev immediately ordering full orbital survelliance sweeps of the planet, assuming that the Zayre were too primitive to have any form of sensors. Nonetheless, the Zayre possessed some rudimentary communication and detection equipment they had gained from a skirmish with some mercenaries over a year before, and were aware of the threat within minutes. A few of the Zayre noblewomen panicked at the size of the invasion force, and Redharn was also alarmed, but Ironwings insisted that they fight, stating that they had overcome all other threats on their homeworld up to now.

As Srav landing waves assembled in the upper atmosphere, the Savis, under the command of former Necasian officer Holst Kolgan and female mercenary Rafe Taker immediately launched wings of FireWing interceptors, targeting rural Zayre villages and farms. Groups of Savi mercenaries were launched straight into some of said locations via drop pods fired from Savi Strat-class cruisers, where they began random murder of Zayre they came across. Nonetheless, Ironwings was already enacting invasion protocols that she and Redharn had been planning for the best part of a year, and Zayre warriors were already moving in to the Savi drop locations, engaging the mercenaries.

Nonetheless, Kolgan considered these as mere preliminary scout forces, and the bulk of the Savi force was descending in borrowed Klasnost-class transports along with the first Srav invasion waves. Gresev used small-scale tactical nuclear weapons on spots near the landing sites, but was shocked when missiles descending near the central Zayre city were intercepted by bolts of lightning. Unbeknownst to him, the Zayre were using the Worship Crystal to boost their powers, intercepting the missiles with their elemental abilities.

However, the Sravs and Savis were already unloading forces at their predetermined landing sites. Rafe was leading the forward Savi groups personally, with Kolgan commanding from orbit. Nataska Vergulva and Dremsk were both in charge of the foremost Srav brigade. Due to his unfamiliarity with Zayre culture, Gresev assumed that simply taking out various targets in the region where the Zayre population was most concentrated would force them to surrender.

Burning earth
"Advance! Kill these mongrel freaks! Made their towns glow!" "I like your attitude, comrade. Carry on."

- Kolgan and Gresev

As the Sravs took a more cautious approach, assembling their forces into divisions with specific tasks, the Savis quickly advanced forward, their vehicular forces mostly consisting of custom built tanks, anti-air vehicles, and artillery. The Savis immediately headed for nearby shrines in the countryside, intending to loot and pillage them. Flak from their anti-air vehicles repelled Zayre warrior women who moved to stop them, and Rafe, covered by Srav snipers, dispatched those who attempted to stop them on the ground. Savi artillery shelled random structures, such as bridges and granaries.

Nonetheless, under the invasion protocols, Zayre were already fleeing the villages to locations in the remote mountains and forests across the continent. Warriors and skilled civilian fighters were already performing hit-and-run raids on the Savis, neutralising artillery concentrations. However, some of them found themselves struck down as Vergulva and Dremsk's snipers advanced to hotspots along the advancing front lines.

Meanwhile, the Savi Strat cruisers were responding by shelling locations from orbit, although their lack of accuracy meant that they often ended up desolating random fields. FireWing and Zulkrum squadrons attempted to perform airstrikes on the Zayre capital, but with the Worship Crystal the Zayre used electrical discharges to disable their electronical systems.

Angered, Gresev launched nuclear strikes on some of the mountains and fields rural Zayre were fleeing too, noticing them from orbit. Dispirited upon seeing their supposed safe havens engulfed in nuclear fire, many of said Zayre became dispondent, but others became more determined to repel the invaders and returned to the main region of battle.

Night of the long guns
Nonetheless, the Sravs and Savis were moving forward at a stable pace. In occupied villages, Zayre were tagged and herded into large buildings such as temples for later transportation, and the ones considered most attractive ones were used as camp whores by soldiers of both the other factions, with their wings cut off or amputated for easier pleasure. Villages where resistance was too fierce for them to be occupied were razed for orbit, and the areas around them shelled to eliminate survivors.

Night was falling, but Gresev did not want to lose the momentum of his advance. Many Savis, however, took the opportunity to take over Zayre homes to rest for the night, drinking and raping. Rafe and veteran Savis, however, continued to aid in frontline operations, destroying Zayre aquaducts and resistance pockets.

However, Ironwings was already responding. Zayre warrior women used volcanic-vent based launchers to fire crystal bombs at the advancing enemy. Impacting around the Srav/Savi frontline, the crystals expanded rapidly on impact, weakening forward units and creating barriers that proved durable under shell and missile fire. In response, Srav Vesetroikas and Savi Strats filled the skies above the region with flak, taking out many Zayre crystal bearers.

Ironwings was determined to do something about the enemy orbital support. On Redharn's advice, she took flight and engaged a wing of Srav Zulkrum fighters, using her reflexes and crystal-boosted abilities to dodge their missile and gatling fire. Engaging one, she tore the pilot of the cockpit and dragged the figther as high as she could fly, in the upper atmosphere, pointing it at a Savi Strat cruiser. She then let go and flew down, the fighter carrying on with its own momentum. The crew of the Strat noticed it as it approached, but as the computer systems recongised it as a friendly object they did not note it until it was very close. Then, the fighter impacted into the cruiser, the nuclear-tipped missiles it was equipped with causing an explosion that critically damaged the cruiser and caused it to flounder and lose height.

Buoyed by this, Ironwings headed to the frontlines, avoiding flak, and moved to eliminate an advancing Srav/Savi contingent in a wood. Using the darkness to her advantage, she took out several soldiers from above the treetops, before they put on infra-red goggles to gain visibility. In response, Ironwings conjured up a localised but intense lightning storm that ravaged that area of the wood. However, some stragglers equipped with missile launchers and some Srav Molot anti-infantry walkers began firing on her, driving her back.

Nonetheless, Ironwing's presence and actions had increased the Zayre will to fight, and the invader's progress was slowing. The damaged Savi Strat cruiser, meanwhile, had entered the atmosphere and plummeted into one of the planet's oceans, causing a tidal wave that damaged the relatively unscathed Zayre coastal settlements. Despite this, the Zayre were euphoric that the seemingly untouchable enemy presence could be damaged. By the time morning broke, it appeared that the Srav/Savi taskforce had been forced to a halt.

Crimson dawn
Nonetheless, Gresev was losing patience, and brought forward units of Kurtev tanks, which shattered the blocking crystal formations with their nuclear shells. He also authorised the use of poison gas in Savi artillery shells, and ordered toxins dumped into water channels leading to the Zayre capital city. As a result, numbers of Zayre found themselves falling ill within several hours in the capital, and Zayre priestesses were overstretched trying to provide witch doctor duties and spiritual support. Gresev was also tempted to simply bombard the capital to the ground from orbit with conventional shells, but the fact that he had been ordered not to fully destroy the Zayre populance prevented him from this.

From the Zayre point of view, their noblewomen were begging Ironwings to surrender to prevent further destruction, but Ironwings retorted that their honor needed to be preserved, even if they lost. However, Redharn noted from the old Savi equipment readouts that the Sravs appeared to be transferring spare nuclear reactors from their orbital presence to a place not far from the battlefield in a valley, and seemed to constructing some sort of device. Accessing Necasian intelligence networks to work out what this meant, Redharn to his shock learned that this corresponded with the construction of a Tsarka bomb, a superpowered nuclear weapon that the Sravs had already used before on Kasa.

Redharn quickly spoke with Ironwings, informing her that if the Sravs completed the device they could potentially devastate most of the planet, reducing the Zayre to extinction. Ironwings was unconvinced until Redharn showed her footage of the bomb being detonated on Kasa. Visibly horrified, Irownings gathered her personal bodyguards and took flight, creating cloud cover with their elemental abilities.

This was what Gresev wanted. In the battlefield, the Zayre defence floundered without Ironwing's command, and the Sravs began launching missiles filled with nerve gas at the Zayre defence lines. The gas proved fatal to regular Zayre, although more experianced veterans among their number were able to either purge their systems of the substance or create air bubbles around themselves. Both Dremsk and Vergulva were taken aback at this, but decided not to voice their concerns, as the Zayre were now being pushed back. Many Zayre were now heading back to the city, dispirited upon seeing the now-desolated countryside around.

Beginning of the End
Arriving in the valley where the bomb was seemingly being constructed, Ironwings and her comrades came across a number of sentry guns and automated anti-air batteries, as well as a few Molot walkers. Noting that the bomb seemed almost complete, Ironwings quickly moved in, but her wing was wounded by a barrage of armor-piercing bullets and missiles. Taking cover, Ironwings's wounds were repaired by one of her healing-specialising accomplices, but she was still finding the bullet barrage overwhelming.

However, one of her teammates quickly had an idea. Flying upwards quickly, she directly attacked a nearby Srav Drapeznik gunship, pulling the pilot of the cockpit and ripping off the side-mounted weapons. Returing to the valley, she attempted to use the mounted gatling cannon, but failing to due this used the missiles, throwing them like grenades and destroying most of the defences. This was Ironwing's cue to move in and eliminate the rest.

Unbeknownst to her, she was playing into Gresev's hands. The Tsarka bomb seemingly being constructed was a decoy mock-up, and Gresev and Kolgan had both guessed that she would try and eliminate it. Gresev primed the nuclear reactors lying there, and Ironwings noticed. She quickly realised what this meant and began flying away at maximum speed, moments before Gresev detonated them. Radiation spilled through the valley, and Ironwings was caught in the fallout. Weakening rapidly, she called for other Zayre to help carry her, intending to get back to the city and bathe in the 'pool of healing', a fountain containing unique healing water.

Shocked by the sight of their foremost warrior in such a state, many Zayre began to fight in what they considered a half-hearted manner. Establishing a line not far from the capital, Gresev readied both Srav and Savi artillery, and ordered Vergulva and Rafe to don anti-chemical masks.

Shatterpoints
The artillery then opened fire, covering most of the area between their lines and the capital with noxious gas. Vergulva, Rafe and several Srav Hammer Division elite troops equipped with gas masks then moved across, using the cloud as cover and orbital uplink to find their way. Viewing the smoke as 'foul enemy magic', the Zayre warily keep an alert.

Reaching the walls of the city, wearing camoflague as a precaution, the team blew open a hole in them with high-explosive charges, and moved into the city. Some Zayre noticed and engaged them, but were gunned down. Approaching the Worship Crystal, some of the Hammer troops weakened it with missile launchers, while Vergulva took out Zayre around it and Rafe covered her.

In the central Zayre temple, Ironwings was bathing in the Pool of Healing, and was informed of the intruders. Ironwings felt that she should leave and attack them, but the priestesses around her insisted that she was still in no state to do so. Zayre ordered elite Zayre beserkers to engage and eliminate them. Meanwhile, Redharn was readying an escape route.

Elsewhere, the commando team was moving to the crystal, placing explosive charges along the bottom. They were suprised by said beserkers, who took out some of the Hammer troops, but Rafe had sensed their approach, and began eliminating them with quick pistol shots, until she found herself out of ammunition. Vergulva kept them back with grenades as the Hammer troops set the last charges, and then the team pulled back. Feeling that they had driven the intruders out, the Zayre cheered.

Rafe remarked that they were celebrating too soon as they made their way back out of the city. As they did so, Vergulva detonated the charges, destroying the crystal, and informed Gresev and other Srav officers of this. Upon this cue, divisions of Srav and Savi vehicles rapidly rolled towards the city, dispersing the gas cloud with counter-chemicals. The city walls were weakened by artillery barrages, and Savi mercenaries were dropped via orbital pods in the outer streets to weaken resistance. Ironwings could not sit back no more and moved to fight, despite not being fully healed.

Broken honor
Already forward Srav and Savi tanks had reached the wall, and quickly broke through it with quick shell barrages. Zayre taking to the air found themselves kept down by flak and Savi FireWings, while Zulkrums and Drapezniks performed random airstrikes. Meeting up with the forward units, Vergulva and Rafe led the advance of their respective sides, incapitating or killing Zayre they came across. Many civilian Zayre tried to flee, but were often cornered and killed or captured.

Vergulva herself had managed to reach the main temple, and suddenly Ironwings appeared, cutting down the troops around her. Standing before one another, Vergulva attempted to reason with Ironwings, asking that she surrender to avoid further bloodshed. Ironwings replied that her 'barbaric kind' knew nothing of honor, and that she would fight to the death. Then she moved to attack, but Vergulva dealt a roundhouse kick to her head. Still weakened from radiation, Ironwings found it difficult to fight, and was further wounded when Vergulva shot her with her VLOK-19 combat pistol, Ironwings' armor taking most of the bullet's blow. Then, Vergulva did her head in with her rifle butt, forcing her to the ground. Shattered, Ironwings decided that she did not want to be seen in this state, and the honorable thing would be to flee. Knocking Vergulva to the ground with a kick of her own, Ironwings quickly made her way back to the temple and with Redharn began to escape in a secret tunnel that lead to mountains some distance away, caving in the entrance behind her.

With Ironwings gone, the Zayre High Priestess was the next hightest authority, and moved to meet Vergulva in the ruined city square, announcing her surrender. Vergulva accepted it. Moments later, Gresev arrived in a shuttle, and was informed of the situation. Pleased, Gresev made sure as many Zayre as possible were watching, and then shot the priestess in the back of the head, declaring that Ankarr was now a territory of the Srav Federation.

Aftermath
In the immediate aftermath, the Sravs set themselves as the new authority of Ankarr. Dispirited, most Zayre offered limited resistance. Camps were set up continent-wide for the Zayre population, and new borns were taken for 'superior Srav education'. Zayre considered too dangerous were sent to gulags set up in the arctic territories of Ankarr. Rape and theft of Zayre was common and sanctioned by Gresev, and Vergulva was appalled at this. Most Zayre had their wings clipped, which they found extremely painful. The two main Srav kommissars, Anatol Kurzak and Laverta Suka, would then take over occupation after a few days, with Gresev leaving for battlefronts elsewhere.

Legacy
The battle was considered to have a large legacy in Zayre culture. It and the subsequent occupation would be remembered by the Zayre as one of the darkest times in their history. The kommissars who were responsible for the occupation, prominently Kurzak and Suka, would eventually become boogeymen figures in Zayre culture generations later. It would also eventually result in Ironwings and Redharn joining the United Coalition of Worlds.

Behind the scenes
The article was created by Unit 8311 and partly by Thomas 'Darth tom' Rattim, with minimal inspiration from outside sources. 8311 largely created the article from pure imagination, although he did watch clips of the Russian invasion of Georgia while writing it. 8311 also recommends listening to militaristic rock while reading this article.