Saharan Unification War

HSL prepare to charge during the Battle of the Dust.

The Saharan Unification War (common known as the Unification War) was the longest war so far known in modern Oria history lasting for 4 months. It resulted in the deaths of 30,000 of 40,000 people. It was the deadliest conflict known in Persistian history.

## Prelude to War

### Jon's exploration

Jon had set out to see what was beyond the Pera Heights to see if Varaism was true. He eventually discovered that Varaism was false. He would see the landscape of forest and beautiful landscapes and even Raptoria.

Once he left Raptoria, he headed back to the Saharan people to let them know of his discovery.

### Saharan reaction

With the return of Jon Persistent to the Saharan clans, many believed that the religion of Varaism was to be false with Jon also stating a massive world exist beyond the Pera Heights. However, many believed Jon was now a demon that came to destroy the Saharan people. This was due to Saharans being strong in their beliefs. This would then begin to turn violent as Saharans began fighting each other over Jon's story being true or false.

### War begins

With tensions getting worse, 5 clans would form the Holy Saharan League including the clan in control of Peratoa. The League vowed to kill Jon and his followers and restore the status quo of the tribes before Jon's exploration. In response, the remaining 4 clans decided to unite under Jon Persistent and name their alliance after Jon calling it the Persistian Alliance and hopeful to establish a united kingdom for the Saharan people. With the Alliance established, on January 1st, the HSL declared war on the PA.

## Course of the war

### Battle of Hari Ridge - January 27th

The first major engagement of the war was at Hari Ridge on January 27th. 200 HSL soldiers with Four Mark V Tanks were camped along the ridge as they prepare to launch a attack on Radima a few miles away to the south of Modern Fort Vienna. The plan was to use the village as a base of operations to push the PA soldiers in the North from the coast. However, a PA scout had spotted them, the force of 120 PA soldiers with 2 Leopard II Tank launched a attack on the camp.

The tanks would open fire on the camp site destroying 2 of the Mark V tanks. While the HSL forces were being shelled, the PA soldiers advanced surrounding the ridge and appearing to having larger numbers than what they actually had. The one of the tanks had malfunction and became a sitting duck while the other tank was destroyed. After 20 minutes of fighting, the HSL surrendered ending the Battle for the ridge. HSL lost a total of 54 soldiers compared to the PA 11 soldiers.

### Battle of Vermio - February 1st to February 3rd

To the south, Jon was preparing to launch a offensive towards Peratoa with a total of 900 soldiers, six tanks, four fighter jets and 8 attack helicopters against 1,500 soldiers armed with 10 tanks. The offensive began on January 31st as Jon would lead his forces towards Vermio, a once small city with 350 defenders. On February 1st, Jon first let the tanks bombard defensive positions throughout the day. At nighttime, Jon led a raid on defensive positions.

Jon would then find himself cut off but he then discovered a horror of all 5,000 inhabitants killed with their corpse piled up in the city center. After another day of skirmish, a full scale assault began. The HSL defenders were overwhelmed very quickly and by mid-day the city was taken with only 18 PA soldiers dead but with all the defender killed due to the refusal to surrender. The site of the corpses was a horrific site and made Jon realized the war wouldn't be a clean one.

### Battle of Radima - February 2nd to February 7th

After being pushed back off Hari Ridge, HSL forces gathered once more this time having a force of 600 soldiers and 2 bombers. This time, Radima had 150 PA Soldiers, 5 Leopard II's and 1 attack helicopter. On February 2nd, the attack first began with the Ridge taken but advancing this time non stop towards Radima. Radima civilians began evacuation nearly 200 civilians were killed by bombers intentionally attacking them. This meant civilians were trapped. The defenders had dug in trenches and manage to hold onto the city for the first night suffering minimal casualties.

Second day of the battle, was relentless bombing on the city and defenses. The attack helicopter would attempt to counter this by firing on HSL soldiers but was shot down. The Leopards were destroyed. 600 of the 1,400 inhabitants were killed at this point. The third day, saw more bombing run and this continued for 3 more days. The defenders now numbering 30 and most of the city's population gone. The HSL would launch a massive assault, the defender made on last stand but were eventually defeated. All human in the city was killed with only a few surviving by hiding.

### Bloody Bombings -February 7th to February 25th

After Radima, the HSL members had believed that the PA wouldn't be able to gain a proper air force in time for a few months. With this on February , the HSL began a near month long bombing campaign on their own cities (Peratoa only being spared from this) and villages to villianize the PA in the hopes of recruiting more soldiers. They would also attempt to bomb deep into PA territory but they were always managed to be repulsed. However, because of the bombings, the offensive towards Peratoa that Jon planned was halted to deal with the bombings after he had heard the reports of civilian casualties. In total, 15,000 people were killed and only ended in the Battle of the Air.

### Battle of the Air - February 25th

With the bombing campaigns slaughtering civilians by the thousands, Jon began heavily investing in making a air force to counter the bombers. By February 20th, the PA had amassed a total of 20 Fighters. The HSL only had 9 favoring Bombers which were now numbered to being 30.

On February 25th, Bombers were planning to bomb the city of Diru once more but were then met with the entire air force of the PA. HSL fighters went to the air in a attempt to counter them. By the time the HSL fighters arrived, 27 Bombers were downed. The HSL fighters were outmaneuvered and destroyed. The PA lost only 1 plane compared to the entire HSL air force crippled. This would signify the PA's control of the air for the rest of the war.

### Siege of Peratoa - March 2nd to March 27th

With control of the air, Jon was now focused on his goal to capture the richest and powerful city which was Peratoa. 800 Soldiers, 6 Tanks and 4 Attack Helicopters would take part in the siege. The siege began on March 2nd. The HSL numbered 1,100 soldiers but lacked any ground vehicles. 200 Reinforcements from the North would attempt to break siege on March 11th. The force began attacking Jon's left flank. Seeing this, the defenders began putting more pressure on his left flank. Jon would use his attack helicopters along with 2 tanks to hold the flank. The assault continued for 2 days until HSL forces stop their attack after losing 180 soldiers in total with Jon's left flank still perfectly in tact only sustaining 30 dead. The relief force would pull back but still stayed in a distance in which could fire on the left flank to keep them distracted.

However on March 22nd, Jon's center and and right flank began attacking the city. His left flank didn't move into the city but instead strengthen their defenses.Slowly the PA forward into the city. With PA forces now reaching the city, HSL leaders order the execution of all civilians on March 27th as they originally believed they could hold out. However, the HSL forces refused as these soldiers were native Peratoans. HSL Leaders would be outrage declaring them rebels and demanded the HSL soldiers to be executed.

The order was refused and led to shock in the HSL forces. In defiance of these orders, HSL forces in the outer city stop firing and surrendering their positions once news of these orders reached them. While this was happening, soldiers that were meant to protect the HSL forces declared mutiny and executed the leaders in the city. Eventually nearly every defender would follow suit and by mid-day, Peratoa was under PA hands with almost every HSL soldier defecting to the PA's cause.

### Battle of the Dust - April 3rd

After Peratoa was taken, the HSL relief force had pulled their forces back as they prepared to make a counteroffensive to recapture Peratoa and await more reinforcements. The numbers of HSL forces in the area were now 400 but then a dust storm had came on March 30th. Seeing this as a opportunity, Jon mobilized 500 soldiers to attack the HSL on April 3rd. The HSL was shocked but managed to hold for the first few hours.

Because of their managing to hold the PA, the HSL believed they were fighting a outnumbered force of PA. They saw this as a opportunity to sustain heavy casualties using the dust storm as cover. HSL would then reorganized and charge outward to destroy any remaining PA forces. This would backfire as the PA real numbers were revealed by the time the HSL had gotten far to close to them with the PA successfully surrounding them. The entire force was wiped out ending any chances of taking Peratoa and leaving the Northern Coast vulnerable.

### Siege of Jackson - April 11th to May 2nd

With most of the HSL forces from the North now completely wiped out, Northern PA forces launched a offensive and would clear the North of any resistance with little casualties. With the Northern areas secured, Jon now looked southeast to secure all of the Saharan people under his rule. He first needed to take the village of Jackson in order to get to the last stronghold of Diru.

On April 11th, 900 PA soldiers and four tanks would surround the village of Jackson. Their were only a total of HSL 100 defenders. During this time however, Jon wouldn't order a attack as he wanted the HSL defenders to surrender showing them mercy. However, the HSL refused. The siege continued until May 2nd in which the defenders surrendered due to lack of supplies. Only 2 defenders were dead due to infighting during the siege.

### Battle of Diru - May 11th

With Jackson captured, Jon set his sights on Diru. He decided to let his forces relax for 8 more days as he began planning on how he would take the city. On May 11th, he began marching towards Diru and would reach it the next day. However, while marching on approach to the city, Jon would hear gunfire. This gunfire would later be realized to have been soldiers executing civilians. Jon had then reach the city however bombs had then detonated and was revealed to be trap meant to create a gap in the PA lines but they detonated prematurely.

A near 500ft across crater would form but also the terrain was hilly. The HSL forces would strike first with a total of 800 soldiers. Jon would be here on the front lines. Both forces saw themselves eventually engaged into hand to hand combat due to the smoke and dust making it difficult to aim at far targets. The PA forces would gain the upper hand pushing HSL forces into or around the crater. The HSL would then make one desperate last stand around the crater. But lacking skills and experience of the PA soldiers, the HSL were defeated and the entire force was wiped out.

### End to the war

With Diru captured, the HSL leaders saw the war lost. In a bunker only a few hundred meters outside of Diru, the HSL leaders wrote that they had surrendered to their religious beliefs and wouldn't die on their knees to a demon. With this, the HSL leaders committed suicide. On May 13th, the bunker was discovered and Jon would declare a official end to the war.

## Aftermath

The aftermath of the war left Saharan people in ruins. Only 10,000 survived out of 40,000. However, with HSL now gone, Jon went to Peratoa in which he was crowned king of the Saharan and changed the name of his people to the Persistians. With this, all of the clans were united under one banner. Jon immediately began the process of rebuilding.

The war would leave Jon and his people in a state of caution. However, the war would inspire a feeling of unity and pride of Persistians. It would set the ground work to making Persistia become a economic power and have a place in Oria history.