Adlerian War

The **Adlerian War** was a large-scale conflict in early 1995. The Grand Adlerian Empire waged war against the Republic of Agila and the rest of the Allied Forces, including the Federal Republic of Erusea. Adleria's aim was to re-annex the territory it had lost during its previous wars with Agila.

The war officially began on the 25th of March, 1995, with Adleria's invasion of Agilan lands. Adleria's initial invasion tactic was a blitz campaign that quickly overwhelmed its targets. One week later, a coalition force known as the Allied Forces was created and initiated a counterattack. The Allied Forces then received intelligence that Adleria was developing mass retaliation weapons. Working with this information, they invaded southern Adleria and marched on the north. In a desperate attempt to prevent them from entering their northern territories, the Adlerian military detonated seven nuclear weapons, killing over twelve thousand civilians.

## Overview

Adleria launched a surprise attack on the 25th of March, invading Agila. By the 2nd of April, Adleria had reclaimed all of its former territories and continued to progress into Agila. This lightning offensive on multiple fronts was accomplished by the Adlerian Air Force doctrine of tactical air supremacy, denying the defending armies any close air support.

Erusea announced its intention to cooperate with Agila on the 3rd of April, and the alliance would be called the Allied Forces. The Adlerian military had overextended its logistics capability and did not launch any further offensives after the 3rd, with the Adlerian Air Force being especially fatigued due to its small size. Unable to progress further if they wanted to, any tactical victories brought little strategic gain. This allowed the Allied Forces to regroup and prepare counterattacks. The Allies began their counterattack with diversionary skirmishes on the 20th of April. Erusea aided Agila's military by committing airborne assets to their front, resulting in the liberation of all occupied territory on the 13th of May.

Having been pushed back to their prewar borders, the Adlerian military withdrew to two defensive lines; one that ran the length of Adleria's mountainous border, and a secondary line on the plains of the south. The Allied Forces expanded their mandate to include an invasion of Adleria under the pretense of nuclear arms inspections. On the 17th of May, they launched offensive airstrikes against the first defensive line, allowing the invasion of Adleria proper to begin. This was  followed by suppression of air defenses along the second line on the 19th of May, but attempts to consolidate the bridgehead were delayed.

The Adlerian army attempted to fight the Allied advance across the southern plain, but the growing disillusionment and frustration of southern Adlerian citizens hampered their efforts. Over the latter half of May, southern Adlerian cities declared themselves demilitarized, believing that the military saw them as merely a buffer for more integral Adlerian territory to the north. Expelled from the demilitarized cities, the military withdrew to the mountains. By the 30th of May, the Allied Forces had the reached the mountain passes, but were forced into protracted sieges against dug-in units.

On the 28th of May, the Allies launched Operation Battle-Axe, a fighter sweep over the front line that became the largest air battle in history. After achieving air superiority, they began carpet-bombing Adlerian cities in order to target Adlerian industry and more quickly end the war. Furthermore, the Allies continued progressing towards northern Adleria on the ground.

On the 6th of June, a hardline faction within the Adlerian military detonated nuclear weapons in seven strategic mountain passes. Killing over twelve thousand civilians and military personnel in the initial blasts, the electromagnetic pulses from the detonations threw Allied and Adlerian communications into disarray. Though Allied and Adlerian diplomats quickly agreed to a ceasefire, fighting continued for another two weeks. The EMP was partially to blame for the initial confusion, but rogue elements within the Adlerian military organized resistance to the government and attempted to regroup to the north, with the intent of taking the capital city.  An Allied strike package composed entirely of mercenaries disrupted the attempted coup, and, on the 20th of June, the peace treaty was signed by Adleria and the Allies, officially ending the Adlerian War.

## Aftermath

The end of the war again brought about further territorial losses for Adleria; Agila reannexed all of Adleria. Although disillusioned with the old regime and Adlerian militarism, the region's residents largely resented Agilan control and maintained Adlerian identity into the 2010s. Various Adlerians with and without malicious intent made their way into Erusea's industrial-military complex.

Despite the end of hostilities, some Adlerians turned to terrorism to avenge their defeat. The most prominent of these groups, A World With No Boundaries, was explicitly anarchist and included disillusioned soldiers from both sides, but was unknowingly being manipulated by the Adlerian government. Armed with experimental wonder weapons and a nuclear-tipped ICBM, they hoped to catalyze the collapse of the superpower-led world order, but were foiled by an airstrike on their launch complex on the 31st of December, 1995.

The shock of Adleria's actions and the economic devastation brought about by the war prompted cooperation between Agila and Erusea. Both nations committed to nonproliferation programs, and tensions came to a gradual end.