Battle of Auroa

The 2025 Auroa Incident, also known as the Battle of Auroa by Ralph Rager and various Auroa residents, refers to a series of military interventions and expeditions on the archipelago of Auroa around early May and ended around late August that same year. It led to the exposure of the Wonderland conspiracy and massive civil, political and economic unrest in the United States and abroad.
== Background ==
Main article: Wonderland conspiracy
In 2025, the archipelago of Auroa, hub of a drone company called Skell Tech, has gone dark, with all communications between the archipelago and the outside world severed. In response, the United States of America, the European Union, South Korea, Turkey, and Japan all launch separate investigations into what transpired.
The United States responds with Operation Greenstone, deploying a platoon of US special operations soldiers known as the Ghosts, to investigate.
The European Union and UK launch Operation Nest Wrecker, deploying a joint task force of French, British, German and Italian soldiers, codenamed Vanguard, to investigate.
However, the situation on Auroa doesn’t just attract the attention of national militaries: a joint task force codenamed “Avalon”, comprising of former Turkish intelligence agents led by Sera Onan (Deniz Baysal) and former Italian national intelligence agents under the command of someone codenamed “Nostradamus” is also deployed to the island after obtaining questionable intelligence indicating the development of a new, deadly drone swarm weapon that may very well be used against Turkey and other NATO countries.
In addition, China orders an investigation into what is happening on Auroa following a drone attack on a civilian airliner that kills everyone on board. In retaliation for the deaths of Chinese nationals, the Chinese government activates Division Zero, a special operations unit of the People's Liberation Army, and authorizes Operation Divine Fury, a stealth operation intended to infiltrate the island, locate, and arrest Jace Skell, the CEO of Skell Tech. 
Also joining the investigation is a team of civilian investigators and DedSec hackers led by Ralph Rager, his siblings Brock, Judith, and Jordyn Rager, & his cousins Rodney Batt and Laura Batt, along with DedSec hackers Aiden Pearce and Marcus Holloway.
Unfortunately things go wrong before the missions can even start…
== Course of events ==
=== Operation Greenstone & Ralph's escapade ===
Having arrived roughly a week after Sentinel's takeover, the platoon of Ghosts deploy from USS Wasp during the evening. Deploying in 4 Gyps helicopters, the platoon is ambushed after Sentinel deployed a swarm of Legion drones. Within minutes, all of the Ghost helicopters are brought down, with many operators dying or suffering grievous injuries. 
The Rager siblings and their cousins, the Ragers, also arrived on the island by helicopter to investigate, but were ambushed in the same drone swarm attack. Ralph and his siblings and cousins survive, but are separated and forced to scatter as they are pursued by hostile soldiers.
Deployed to hunt their former comrades, the Wolves start systematically eliminating any unlucky operators that were wounded, including US, British, French, German, Chinese, South Korean, Turkish, and Italian soldiers. With most of his unit injured but still active, Weaver attempts to establish a defensive perimeter, with the hopes of rallying the few remaining survivors to their location. Among the few to respond to their mayday call is Dominic "Nomad" Rubio, who narrowly survived the crash landing. However, badly wounded, Nomad arrives too late to assist his subordinates as he witnesses Walker execute Weaver and his unit. Ralph also witnesses Weaver being executed by Walker, both of whom he instantly recognizes as mutual friends of his father Andre. Horrified and enraged, Ralph swears his revenge on Walker before continuing on.
Eventually, Ralph gets ahold of a radio, where he is told by a mysterious voice to meet up with a small cadre of survivors on the western side of the archipelago. 
Meanwhile, the Avalon soldiers manage to reach Auroa unscathed but they also run into trouble: first, they discover that the Outcasts’ base of operations has been attacked in a brutal massacre leaving a large amount of Outcasts dead. Second, they discover that their contacts, Outcast leaders Haruhi Ito and her twin sister Sadako, have been captured. Thirdly, and most jarringly, they discover that Russian Spetsnaz soldiers have pulled off what appears to be a military takeover of Auroa alongside the mysterious American soldiers.
Ralph is led to a camp and meets up with a former CIA operative who calls himself Prophet. Prophet tells Ralph that he is rallying survivors of the helicopter crashes and is aware of what has happened on Auroa. He claims that he is also aware of Walker's treason and seeks to bring him down, but needs help gathering reinforcements. To further incentivize Ralph, Prophet even offers his own assistance in helping Ralph locate his family. With the horrific memory of Weaver's death still fresh in his head, Ralph enlists his support. Prophet also introduces Ralph to several deserters from the Wolves and Sentinel, all of whom tell Ralph about the takeover of the island and their reasons for defecting, all of which involve a crisis of conscience upon learning the full extent of the takeover of the island and its implications.
Ralph, Prophet and the Sentinel deserters pursue Walker with the intention of exacting their retribution against the traitorous ex-Ghost. Fighting their way past Walker’s forces, they track Walker to Howard Airfield. After fighting past Walker’s security detail, the vengeful cadre of Ghosts, hackers and civilian vigilantes break into the base and confront Walker.
Walker is initially astounded by the fact that out of all people, the Ragers had decided to hunt him down first. Wasting no time, Ralph calls Walker out on his treasonous actions. Revealing himself to be a former acquaintance of Walker’s, Ralph further contends that the real Walker would have never betrayed his own. Walker retorts by accusing Ralph of having “no vision of what the future could be” before offering them all a position in his Wolves. When Ralph responds that there’s no way they’d join forces with a traitor, Walker simply laments that he’s been forced into a situation where he must kill his former friends, before opening fire on Ralph and company.
What follows is a chaotic firefight between the joint task force of Sentinel deserters, Prophet, and the Ragers against Cole Walker and his Wolves, which ends with Ralph fatally injuring Walker. Before succumbing to his wounds, Walker warns Ralph and company of the inevitability of a conspiracy he calls “Wonderland”, much to Ralph’s bewilderment.
Ralph and his new allies spend days evading Sentinel forces while gathering what information they can about the takeover. They eventually happen upon a hideout belonging to the technophobes calling themselves the Outcasts, who take them in after they reveal their mutual enemy. Ralph's cohorts are taken to Haruhi Ito, the head of the Outcasts. She allows the group to stay with them and out of gratitude, the team assist the Outcasts in launching supply raids and conducting sabotage operations against Sentinel. 
Meanwhile, the Avalon operatives under Nostradamus and Sera’s command launch a series of sabotage operations and supply raids against the Russian forces occupying the island, culminating in the rescue of Haruhi Ito, though they learn that her identical twin has been killed. 
As retribution for Sadako’s death, the Avalon operatives cripple the occupation force by killing Russian lieutenants and sabotaging the occupation force through supply raids and the capturing of resources in preparation for a counteroffensive by the Outcasts to liberate the archipelago. They also capture several key Russian lieutenants: Fyodor Archinov, Kostas Tcherkov and Vassili Kropotkin.
To their surprise, Archinov and Kropotkin immediately announce their intentions to defect from the Russian Armed Forces, citing a “Come to Jesus” moment they both had. All three lieutenants reveal that the Russians made an “alliance of convenience” with rogue US military soldiers and a private military company called Sentinel Corporation and invaded Auroa together.
With communications jammed and opposition forces now aware of their presence, the few remaining Ghosts scattered across the island quickly flee to makeshift safe houses. During the chaos, Holt is narrowly rescued by a network of survivalists calling themselves the Homesteaders and brought to a cave called Erewhon. He is later joined by Ralph Rager and his cohorts, who stumble upon the cave completely by accident after killing Walker and are taken in by the Homesteaders, where they reveal that Rodney Batt is alive, albeit badly wounded like Holt. Ralph is also reunited with Dominic Rubio, revealed to be another old friend of his from a previous adventure. 
The Homesteaders reveal the military takeover executed by Sentinel and the Wolves. Batt also reveals to his cousins that Victor Coste, CEO of another PMC called Paladin Nine, is on Auroa. Rodney deduces that Coste is on Auroa as part of a CIA investigation into the situation, which galvanizes Ralph Rager and the others. Gathering a new team, Ralph fights his way past Sentinel soldiers and meets with Victor Coste. Coste in turn redirects the team to Sam Fisher. Meeting with Sam Fisher at a Sentinel munitions depot, they learn that Fisher is tracking a military genius known as the Strategist, suspected to be behind a series of kidnappings across the globe. To Ralph’s disbelief and rage, the Strategist has also captured Brock Rager for unknown purposes
Ralph and his surviving siblings immediately pledge to support Sam Fisher in his mission but emphasize that their primary goal is saving Brock. 
Meanwhile, the Avalon operatives under Nostradamus’ command launch a series of sabotage operations and supply raids against the Russian forces occupying the island, culminating in the rescue of Haruhi Ito, though they learn that her identical twin has been killed. As retribution for Sadako’s death, the Avalon operatives cripple the occupation force by killing Russian lieutenants and sabotaging the occupation force through supply raids and the capturing of resources in preparation for a counteroffensive by the Outcasts to liberate the archipelago. They also capture several key Russian lieutenants: Fyodor Archinov, Kostas Tcherkov and Vassili Kropotkin.
To their surprise, Archinov and Kropotkin immediately announce their intentions to defect from the Russian Armed Forces, citing a “Come to Jesus” moment they both had. All three lieutenants reveal that the Russians made an “alliance of convenience” with rogue US military soldiers and a private military company called Sentinel Corporation and invaded Auroa together.
=== Investigating Project CLAW ===
After a raid on Auroa Powerplant with Sam Fisher, Ralph Rager discovered a list of names associated with a drone weapons project called CLAW. Working with Sam Fisher, DedSec and the Ghosts, it was decided that the squad would speak with the people involved with CLAW and turn them against CLAW. Through these missions, it was discovered that some joined Project CLAW willingly like former US Army general Reginald "Reggie" Paxton, and some were coerced into participating, like British ornithologist Hollie Mackenzie and her daughter Ruby Mackenzie, who joined Dedsec in protest & American entemologist Wym Van Dyke, who was coerced into staying with CLAW after his wife Rhonda was murdered for speaking out against it. Still others wanted out after a crisis of conscience, despite willingly joining originally, like Wolf defector and ex-Spetsnaz officer Karel Sekulic and legal advisor Stephanie Burgess. It was also revealed that the Strategist is really a man named Leon Fairrow. 
After gathering enough support. Ralph and Sam Fisher coordinated an assault on the Channels R&D Center, which housed the CLAW experiments. Fighting through Sentinel forces, Ralph and the Ghosts eventually confronted the Strategist, who unleashed waves of drones against the squad while taunting them. 
Ralph and the Ghosts managed to defeat the Ghosts and break into the observation deck, where Sam Fisher captured the Strategist while Ralph kept him distracted through a tense verbal exchange where Fairrow boasted that he had connections and vowed to render human soldiers obsolete. 
Fisher thanked Ralph and the Ghosts for their help, while Ralph re-emphasized his need to find his brother Brock. After Fisher departed Auroa with Coste, Nomad and Ralph discovered a testing chamber containing Brock Rager and another Ghost named Midas, who'd been forcibly linked to the drones along with other captured Ghosts and civilians. 
Horrified by what they had seen, Ralph and Nomad released Brock and Midas from the drone uplink and revived them both, before evacuating them to Erewhon. 
=== A new Ralph ===
Despite having rescued Brock successful, the horrors of Project CLAW deeply scarred Ralph Rager, who until this point was completely ignorant of the true extent of humanity's dark side. CLAW, in effect, exposed Ralph to a level of human depravity he had never experienced before. The horrific nature of CLAW left the young man falling under a state of depression that transformed him into a different person: he would have severe mood swings that left him happy one moment, and bawling his eyes out or lashing out angrily the next.
Ralph's sudden change in demeanor did not go unnoticed by his new friends and allies, and Ralph did reach out to them for help but they were of little help. After a particularly harrowing incident where Ralph had to be talked out of committing suicide, it was decided that Ralph needed therapy, a conclusion Ralph was very much in agreement with. Thankfully, the Homesteaders had a therapist in their ranks. As a result Ralph went on a hiatus from conducting military operations against Sentinel and the Wolves and started attending therapy sessions with Homsteader Reginald Ballard instead.
The therapy sessions were indeed helpful to the distraught Ralph, who found a host of coping techniques thanks to Ballard. 
Category:Incidents
Category:Battles