1st Audrian War - The Endgame 2501 - 2578

The Rutak Juggernaut

   Another massive Rutak offensive began along the entire northern Rutak frontier in 2505. Imperial forces had never seen anything like it. Battles involving thousands of starships and lasting months raged all along the front. The pace of the fighting was unsustainable for the Imperials. Month by month, year by year they were pushed back as their lines of supply and communications were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the fighting. The Imperial armies and fleets could not train, equip replacements in sufficient numbers to equal their losses. At home, Imperial Alliance citizens expressed alarm and anger over the continuing losses in territory and lives. Food was beginning to become an issue. To feed the populace meant starving the troops.

Imperial Riposte

   Naplian fortunes turned around in 2523, with the appearance of two Naplian officers, one Onwe and one Ffawe, who for all their youth, were exceptional tacticians and strategists. Their superior officers tried to hold them back but soon they were each in command of an army group and then a fleet task force. They worked together to push back the Rutak in whatever sector they were assigned. They were so successful that by 2550, the Proq and the Dresch had capitulated and the Rutak had withdrawn from the war via a separate treaty with Naplia.

   In 2552, the two officers, Benaltep and Bonate, each occupied parts of Proq and Qomiti and both empires sued for peace and signed nonaggression pacts with Naplia. By 2553, the Briddarri were so alarmed that they initiated general conscription to deal with the emergency. Audria was wavering. Things were going well for the Naplians until Bonate discovered a plot to strip him of his command. The Onwe high command was jealous and fearful of Bonates popularity. Bonate was a Ffawe; a 'lesser' Naplian. In response, Bonate, on his own authority repudiated the nonaggression pact with the Qomiti in 2554. Bonate called for a Ffawe insurrection believing that the Naplian Onwey Empire was near the breaking point and that a renewed war with the Qomiti and possibly the Rutak would topple the Onwey government and pave the way for his takeover of the Naplian Empire. Bonate tells his ally Benaltep to expect war with the Qomiti.

Treason and Revolution

   In 2555, Attel, a member of the Imperial Alliance, traitorously entered into a secret pact with the Audrians, Briddarri, and Dresch, to declare neutrality in exchange for certain territorial concessions and even more should the Attel join the Briddarri and their allies.

   Although Qomiti was officially out of the war with Naplia and her allies, they played a dangerous game of diplomacy when just a year later in 2556, they agreed to joint starship patrols along the Qomiti frontier with the Audrians. Audria guaranteed Qomiti independence but the Qomiti stopped short of allying with the Audrians. Bonate feigned surprise.

   Heavy fighting continued in Audria during the next three years but it was evident that the Naplians were running out of time. General Bonate launched his long-promised attack on the remaining Qomiti starsystems in the Pressak corridor in 2559 and in response the Qomiti allied with the Audrians and re-entered the war. Naplian forces in the east were stretched to the breaking point as they scrambled to defend their exposed southern flank. Bonate's forces then struck east into the heart of Qomiti territory. 

   Throughout the 2560s fighting raged along the Naplian southern and eastern borders while the Ffawe consolidated their hold on Proq, Pressak and Qomiti in preparation for the coming confrontation between the Onwe and Ffawe.

The Last Offensive

   In early 2573, the Naplia launched a general counteroffensive in Audria that lasted two years with no appreciable result. The Naplian economy was in shambles and began to collapse. The Ffawe, now completely under Bonate's control, revolted and demanded that the Onwe government give way to a new Ffawe controlled administration. Fighting flared between the loyalist Onwe and rebel Ffawe in 2574.  In fall of that year, the Attel made good on their agreement with the Grand Alliance and withdrew from the war, declaring neutrality.

   By 2575, The Onwe Naplian government, with a Ffawe revolt on their doorstep and the Imperial Alliance crumbling sued for peace and a treaty was signed between all parties in the summer of 2578, officially ending the conflict and leaving Naplia in the midst of a bloody civil war.

Next time...Naplian Civil War

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