Kanorian–Laronian War

Belligerents|  Kanorian Empire* BPA

### Battles

Hotanberg, Hartberg, Express of Death, Granfisk (1st), Terminax Iyuba, Thodia (siege), Aurius, Drakia, Vohavad (siege), Atronia, Viel Iyuba, Corvus Iyuba, Cea, Exicalum, Seresia, Neba Idigona, Granfisk (2nd), Laronsberg, Delphicalum, Anastasia Iyuba, Ring Road

> "...we must acknowledge the pain that has befallen us, but let it be a catalyst for our collective resurgence. Let the embers of our national pride blaze anew, igniting a fervor that will guide us through the darkest nights... In the face of adversity, Kanorians do not cower; we rise. Kanorians do not retreat. We advance!" — Jeremios I, Emperor of Kanoria
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The **Kanorian–Laronian War**, also more simply called the **invasion of Laronia** to reflect the multinational character of the conflict, was a major war sparked by the Kanorian Empire's efforts to reassert its authority in Central Helinska after over two centuries of gradual decline. It was the culmination of the Kanorian Crisis, a diplomatic quandary that began in early 2195. The imperial invasion of Laronia commenced in 2196, after an uprising by the Laronian BPA caused the Kanorians to "intervene on humanitarian grounds."

Anticipating Kanorian aggression, the Interstellar Cooperation Organization had already formed an alliance against it – the Laron Committee – but was unable to quickly muster an international force for a variety of logistical and political reasons. This left Laronia on its own to face the bulk of the invasion on its own for the first few weeks.

## Timeline

### Start of hostilities

In mid-2196 and at the instruction of his Arch-Chancellor Inglebert von Bosch, Kanorian Emperor Jeremios I of the House of Zana issued a proclamation instructing various political organizations to rearm themselves, aiming to establish a "militarized society" in Kanoria. One such organization was the Brotherhood and Prosperity Alliance (BPA), which maintained offices in Kanoria and in Hotanberg (formerly *Hotan*), a Laronian city with a sizeable population of ethnic Kanorians. The BPA was forbidden from carrying guns by the Laronian government, but it ignored this restriction after receiving the Kanorian Emperor's instructions to rearm. Almost immediately, the BPA began smuggling weapons from its offices in Kanoria to its offices in Laronia.

This smuggling was eventually discovered by agents of Laronian president Julian SIta. He hoped to prevent a second civil war, since the first one had been started by the arming of political parties, so he ordered the national police to swiftly raid and subdue the BPA offices in Hotanberg. However, the operation was not entirely successful, as local resistance intensified in response to the police actions and many weapons were left unconfiscated. After learning that the operation was personally ordered by President Sita, civilians in Hotanberg began rioting. It was not long until the BPA joined them, with many rioters openly carrying guns and screaming pro-Kanorian slogans. The police moved back in, attempting to disperse the riots, but were met with live fire from the BPA, causing a gun battle to break out.

National police were driven from the city with heavy losses, and the BPA officially declared itself "at war with the Laronian government." This gave the Kanorian Empire the justification it needed to invade. In a televised address, Arch-Chancellor von Bosch stated that the Imperial Kanorian Army was crossing the border in several key locations to conduct "humanitarian interventions" and "protect Kanorian civilians."

### Crossing the border; battle of Hartberg

The main objective envisioned by the Imperial Kanorian Army was a quick offensive that could pierce through the Republic of Laronia's strong lines of defense, drive on the capital city of Sidonia, and install a BPA-led provincial government to prepare the way for imperial annexation (similarly to what had been done in Valeron). The main effort of the IKA at the start of the war was to utilize Hotanberg, in the hands of friendly BPA militants, as a bridge for conventional armies to cross into Laronia and overrun its defenses.

Firstly, the 1st Army Corps under Field Marshal Luther von Kiefer crossed into Hotanberg in force, occupying it with a full complement of 20 regiments. They were met with jubilant crowds who extolled the idea of reunification with Kanoria. Immediately, the Laronian 1st Army jumped into action. Its 30th Brigade, which had withdrawn from Hotanberg at the start of the BPA uprising, united with the 57th Brigade at Epopus, establishing a 6-regiment force there. When reports came in of the Kanorian 3rd Army Corps crossing the border toward Hartberg, more regiments of the Laronian 1st Army linked up at Epopus, including the 62nd, 117th, and legendary Corvus 1st Armored Brigade. However, the situation was still grim, as this force had only 16 regiments to the Kanorian 40. The central government promised imminent reinforcements from Sidonia and Nirus before instructing the combined elements of the 1st Army to "confront the Kanorian invaders at Hartberg, and hold them there" so as to prevent them from occupying additional territory.

Heavy fighting commenced around Hartberg, with the Kanorian 3rd and later 1st Army Corps engaging the Laronian 1st Army, which hoped to block their advance until reinforcements could arrive. Those reinforcements were: five brigades from the capital (Sidonia), and one from Nirus, which aimed to arrive at Hartberg mid-fight. Unfortunately, the Kanorian 2nd Army Corps under Rikert von Rapp drove through the border faster than expected and interdicted the 85th Brigade from Nirus, annihilating them in a ten-to-one engagement at the decisive Express of Death, before capturing Ratthold, Nirus, and even Nizarius for good measure.

Faced with three Corps-level formations of the Imperial Kanorian Army, there was little the Laronians could do but wait for reinforcements to arrive and hold the line at Hartberg. Unfortunately, their situation was made more complicated when additional imperial formations (the 4th and 5th Army Corps) crossed the border and began breaching various defense lines in the south of the country. These corps occupied Granfisk after a short battle, causing the Laronian 3rd Army to draw back most of its forces and consolidate at the internal city of Seresia.

The opening of a second front meant the mobile 4th Light Army of Laronia, which was stationed roughly between the two main combat zones, had to choose which one to reinforce. It was obliged to pull most of its brigades westward and join the fighting around Hartberg in order to defend the central government, leaving large gaps in the border and leaving the 3rd Army at Seresia on its own. They left only a handful of brigades to protect the amalgamated city of Exicalum, believing its natural fortifications made it optimal for a skeleton defense.

The third main thrust of the Imperial Kanorian Army relied on the 6th Army Corps of Foehrkolb Nachtegaal, a scion of the Nachtegaal family from Kamst. His job was first to simply hold the Laronians in the north, and then, when the Imperial forces got more of a foothold in the country, he could advance north to Atronia and Laronsberg. He seized much of the so-called "northern wastes", hilly regions with few people, before making his headquarters in the Laronian city of Terminax Iyuba.

### The Drakia offensive

By this time, the main bulk of the invasion force had secured a costly victory at Hartberg. They had been staunchly resisted by Laronian forces under the 1st Corvus Brigade, who conducted an orderly retreat to the city of Thodia when their situation became untenable. Thodia was subsequently besieged. Meanwhile, Kanorian troops poured eastward to occupy Corvus Iyuba, namesake of the Laronian 1st Corvus Brigade, which struck a blow to the defenders' morale. Some imperial regiments also occupied Viel Iyuba and pushed even further east, striving to take Aurius. However, they were confronted here by Laronian and ICO forces sent on a sortie from the amalgamated city of Exicalum, and the Kanorians were driven back to Viel Iyuba with heavy losses.

At around this time, good news reached the central government in Sidonia; ICO-backed lend-lease assistance was arriving at ports in Laronsberg, to prepare the way for a full-scale intervention. This news alarmed the Kanorian side, who acknowledged that they were already outclassed by the quality of Laronian arms and equipment. Consequently, Inglebert von Bosch pulled the 2nd Corps off the siege of Thodia and sent it west (occupying Cosas along the way). Their orders were to reinforce Foehrkolb Nachtegaal's 6th Corps, before aggressively driving north. If they could take Drakia and Vohavad, they would be able to cut the ICO-administered supply route from Laronsberg to the capital.

A massive battle broke out at Drakia, between the Kanorian 2nd and 6th Corps and the Laronian 2nd Army under General Petras. It became clear that the outnumbered Laronians were going to lose, so they began the process of retreating to Vohavad. But mid-retreat, Petras himself was captured by a Kanorian Golem and taken, bloody and bruised, to an audience with Field Marshal Nachtegaal. It was here that Petras surrendered his army to the Kanorian Empire. No one could be sure if the order had been issued under duress, as the Kanorians were well-known to employ torture on their own citizens and hold little respect for enemy combatants. Laronian subcommanders sought to verify news of the surrender, and thousands of soldiers were imprisoned by Nachtegaal's men in the process.

Ultimately, more than half of Petras' officers refused to surrender and continued their fighting retreat to Vohavad. Upon arrival, they were quickly reinforced by reserves from Flumen Iyuba, but this would not be enough, and they requested men from the capital. However, the central government was locked in a fierce struggle at the siege of Thodia and could only send small elements to help Vohavad. The troops there were ordered to hold the city at all costs, it being the last remaining route for military supplies to be taken from Laronsberg to the capital. So began the siege of Vohavad.

### Sita's gamble

Besieged in two enormously critical pressure points, president Julian Sita was in an impossible situation. If he reinforced Vohavad, Thodia would surely fall, and thus allow the Kanorians to lay siege to the suburbs of the capital. But if he pulled troops from Vohavad to assist the capital, the flow of guns and ammunition from the ICO would cease. Shipments could be brought through Polmarian Quesi, but this was much less reliable. The shipping infrastructure did not exist there.

Sita understood that technological sophistication was where Laronia shone. Its weapons were simply superior to those of the Imperial Kanorian Army. However, Laronia's dark history of civil war made him very hesitant to arm civilians, even in an existential crisis. He feared the specter of warlordism and the breakdown of central authority if he rearmed political parties. But as Vohavad languished under siege and Atronia, the bastion of communard stubbornness in the civil war, fell without much resistance, he felt he had no other choice but to establish a "militarized society" in Laronia similar to the one that had been imposed on Kanoria. The army began handing out weapons to major political groups, especially the ruling Institutional Reform Party but also the Laronian Left Party, Party of Rights and Freedoms, Quesi League, Green Party of Laronia, and most controversially, the far-right LIP. Weapons shipments were sent throughout the country and civilian militias were set up under the nominal supervision of the government.

Anticipating political violence in the capital, Sita introduced martial law in Sidonia, with soldiers patrolling the streets and breaking up internecine political fights before they could occur. The wealthy Sita political dynasty made huge donations to the military, and even deployed their private security to protect state assets in the capital. An atmosphere of tense unity arose in the city, with all groups recognizing the existential threat posed by Kanoria. All, of course, except the Fraternity Party, which was linked the BPA and promptly banned. Its members were arrested. Laronian paramilitaries began to participate in the siege of Thodia and additionally helped defend Laronsberg, which was coming under increasingly frequent attacks by the Kanorians.

The public continued to be fascinated and encouraged by the presence of the 1st Corvus in Thodia. As the only armored brigade of the Republic of Laronia, its value, professionalism, and national status were unmatched. President Sita began to ponder how he could best use them. Against the wishes of his advisors, who believed their best use was in Thodia where they could encourage the masses, Sita chose to take another risk. Knowing that most of the IKA was concentrated around Thodia, he sent the Corvus Brigade on a hard march eastward, away from the siege. They restocked in Exicalum before hitting the Kanorians hard from behind.

They rapidly reconquered the southern villages of Viel Iyuba and their namesake city of Corvus Iyuba. Pictures of this feat were widely circulated on Unity and boosted by Laronian and ICO politicians as a symbol of the Laronian will to resist. Soon after capturing Corvus Iyuba, they drove on the occupied village of Cea, where they met the first major Kanorian counteroffensive. Though the 1st Corvus managed to break this counteroffensive, utilizing superior tactics and firepower to crush the scattered and poorly equipped Kanorians, they were forced to pull back. It had become clear that a larger push, spearheaded by the 3rd Army Corps, was maneuvering to meet them. This force, consisting of well over a dozen regiments under Duke Reinhardt of Manemsberg, would surely annihilate the Corvus. They were obligated to flee eastward back to Exicalum, giving up the cities they had recaptured. The Duke pursued them, using his sizeable 3rd Army Corps to capture Aurius and Stadtus along the way, before digging in outside the amalgamated city in preparation for an attack on Exicalum.

### First Battle of Exicalum

An eclectic group of Laronian formations held the huge city of Exicalum. Elements of the 4th Army who stayed behind when their comrades went to Thodia exercised command. They were backed up by sizeable militias, fielded by the newly-armed IRP and LLP. Given the size, depth and industrial nature of the amalgamated city, it would be nearly impossible to take in a long siege. Such an operation would severely bleed Kanorian manpower. Both sides knew this, and thus anticipated a frontal assault on the city aimed at clearing it street by street. The Laronians in the city baited the Kanorians by launching several abortive sallies until Duke Reinhardt gave pursuit and stormed the city. His men were surrounded by the numerically inferior Laronians and cut down in vast numbers. Even several Golems were slain in the fighting, mostly through the use of rocket-propelled grenades. The remains of Duke Reinhardt's forces fled Exicalum, and the Laronians in the city immediately called for backup so they could pursue.

### The Battle of Seresia and fall of the east

What followed was a complex game of intelligence. To begin, it is important to remember the three main fronts of the Kanorian invasion. The northern front under Nachtegaal laying siege to Vohavad, the central front under Kiefer laying siege to Thodia, and the third (southern) front under former Arch-Chancellor Lystiteles Dreyer. This third front was geographically the closest to Exicalum, but rather than attack that city, it was sitting in Granfisk, playing a game of chicken with the Laronian 3rd Army under General Michael Orlin. Both armies, roughly equivalent in both size and strength, badly wanted to attack each other, but recognized the difficulty in doing so.

As it happened, the Kanorian commander Dreyer had cracked the Laronian commander Orlin's radio system. He then allowed the Laronians to believe they had cracked *his* code, so he could feed them misinformation under the guise of being legitimate Kanorian military chatter.

After the battle at Exicalum resulted in a decisive Laronian victory, Dreyer used his compromised radio to signal that he was going to break some regiments off of his army to reinforce the ailing Duke Reinhardt in the west. He also instructed other generals to issue phony orders based on this fake maneuver. The Laronian General Orlin was believed by this, who now believed he was in command of a superior force. He felt comfortable sending some of his own men to reinforce Exicalum, expecting that when Dreyer's men reinforced the Kanorians, the city would suffer another attack. In reality, though, Dreyer had not actually split any men off from his army, but Orlin had. This made Orlin's army weaker. As soon as Orlin's brigades split off in the direction of Exicalum, Dreyer launched a massive assault on his headquarters at Seresia, committing all of his forces to the effort.

So began the battle of Seresia. Two IKA Corps-level formations under Dreyer attacked the Laronian 3rd Army, which, despite recent swelling from by civilian recruitment, was nonetheless badly outnumbered. Almost immediately, the brigades that Orlin had detached from his army turned around and headed back, but by the time they arrived, Dreyer had taken the initiative. The city was his after only two days of fighting. A thorough rout ensued, in which tens of thousands of Laronian soldiers and civilians caught up in the crossfire were killed. The remnants of Orlin's 3rd Army were prevented from fleeing eastward, and thus retreated west to Exicalum. All major resistance having dissolved in the east, Dreyer pushed onward, taking Macedonia, Neba Idigona, and numerous other cities. He faced guerrilla warfare, but didn't shy away from sacrificing his own men in large numbers to blunt the force of the local resistance movement. Some remnants of the Laronian 3rd Army, stationed in Xedonia, launched an attack on Granfisk, temporarily occupying the town in hopes of breaking out toward Exicalum, before being fully encircled by the Kanorians and forced to surrender. The eastern campaign had proven to be an unmitigated disaster for Laronia, and a massive boost to Dreyer's prestige.

### The Nachtegaal-Dreyer envelopment

It was at this time that the Kanorian armies besieging Vohavod in the north changed their strategy. They decided to split into two: the 2nd Corps under Rikert von Rapp would continue the siege while the 6th Corps under Nachtegaal would take Laronsberg, which had been languishing under aerial bombardment for weeks. It was now conceivable that Laronsberg could fall before Vohavod. Nachtegaal and his Kanorian army assaulted the city, facing for the first time a sizeable contingent of ICO forces attached to the Laron Committee. These troops, which included ICOTAL High Commissioner Johan Friedman, fought well, and wielded high powered technology equivalent or better than that of the Laronians.

But the ICO forces were still very few in number. They were able to weaken and bog down the Kanorian assault, but not stop it - especially when Nachtegaal utilized his trump card; a large force of golems, led by the Golem Lord *Imperious.* These war machines stormed the streets of Laronsberg and wreaked havoc. They unleashed fury on the civilian infrastructure of the city, destroying bakeries, libraries, and apartments with just as much enthusiasm as barracks and fortifications. The ICO troops were forced to flee into the Laron Channel on boats and supply ships, taking heavy fire as they did so. The Laronian units in the city dissolved and were picked off by Nachtegaal's troops and golems. Some, such as Friedman, managed to flee with weapons and loyalists, disappearing into the hills and pledging to fight on.

But the absence of organized resistance in Laronsberg meant that the Kanorian flag could be safely raised over the bombed-out city. It also cleared the way for the nearby city of Mihailis to be occupied.

The fall of Laronsberg meant that morale in Vohavod collapsed. The troops there realized they had no reason to defend anymore since the supply routes they were protecting had been cut off at the source. Laronian commanders in Vohavod requested to retreat back to the capital, fearing a complete encirclement. A confusing string of orders came through; they were first told to hold their ground, then make a fighting retreat to Maedia, and finally to reinforce the Ring Road around the capital. The Laronian forces withdrew from Vohavod soon after, giving up the city to the imperial invaders. This allowed them to freely take numerous western cities including Flumen Iyuba, Otwin, Thaebius, Radikos, and Maedia. The territory still held by Laronian forces was rapidly shrinking.

Meanwhile, Dreyer's forces in the east linked up with the Duke of Manemsberg, and together they made a vicious push through the central lowlands of Laronia. They met fierce local resistance in the form of armed partisans and some minor armed elements operating out of Exicalum. It was a bloody campaign fought in the underbrush of the country. An especially atrocious battle was fought at Delphicalum, including on the historic battleground of the civil war. The Kanorians won this contest of arms, clearing the way for a partial encirclement of Exicalum. But the prospects of another assault on the "amalgamated city" were still grim, so the Kanorians mostly ignored it in favor of easier targets.

Soon afterward, Anastasia Iyuba fell, bisecting the territory held by the Laronian government. In effect, this was a broad encirclement of Exicalum. President Julian Sita began daily talks with the ICO about intensifying aid, but internal holdups plagued mobilization efforts across the organization which had not seen such a massive war in centuries.

### Siege of the Capital Ring Road

With Kanorian forces closing in, President Sita made impassioned calls for Laronia's neighbors to directly intervene, specifically calling out the Second Republic of Polmaria or Federal Republic of Ionia to intervene independently of the ICO, but his calls fell on deaf ears. It seemed that the international community only wanted to act as a collective unit. The siege of Thodia began to become a liability, as it was located outside the defensible Ring Road around Sidonia. So President Sita made the agonizing decision to abandon Thodia and focus entirely on defending the capital. A long artillery duel commenced, with air raid sirens blaring round-the-clock in the capital.

But faced with the full might of the Imperial Kanorian Army, he could not hold out. There were simply not enough Laronian troops to cover the entirety of the Ring Road. It was not long until it was breached and fighting in the capital began in earnest. Numerous state institutions were damaged in the fighting, with the House of Representatives building in particular being torched. Though he hated to abandon his people, President Sita was forced to flee after receiving reports that Kanorian golems had been sent into the capital to kill him. He mustered what loyalists he had left, including most of the 1st Corvus, and made a fighting retreat out of the encircled capital. He punched through Neba Valosia and made an illegal border crossing into the Polmarian Quesi region. A foreign leader crossing the border with thousands of soldiers was poorly received by the Polmarians, who issued protests and sent troops to the area. But they were instructed not to fire on Sita. On his march to the Quesi region he actually picked up hundreds of volunteers, who joined his ragtag resistance movement. He also sparked protests in various Quesi cities, demanding that the Polmarian government intervene in the ongoing atrocity in Laronia.

Soon after this, the last remnants of Laronian resistance in the capital collapsed. Thousands were taken prisoner, and looting was widespread. Only Exicalum remained outside the hands of the Kanorian Empire. Kanoria began making plans to install a friendly government in Sidonia under the BPA's leadership.

Meanwhile, President Sita was still illegally sitting on some territory in the Quesi region. A large party of Polmarian diplomats met him for the first time, where they agreed on several terms:

* Sita would disarm his force, which numbered some two brigades (four regiments or 16,000 men) plus irregulars, and in exchange he would be granted asylum in the Second Republic of Polmaria
* The Polmarians would provide a full airlift for the city of Exicalum and evacuate soldiers, civilians, and diplomatic personnel to their territory
* The Polmarians would not militarily intervene in Laronia unless (and until) the ICO did

### Exicalum Airlift

The Polmarians commenced a massive airlift of Exicalum in late 2196. Tens of thousands of Laronian civilians were evacuated to the Quesi region. Several transports were damaged by Kanorian forces in what was described as "targeted fire" - investigations showed that the Kanorians deliberately aimed at these transports in the belief that they held Laronian officers. None did, however - three were troop transports and one held civilians.

After the airlift, the Kanorian Empire quickly seized control of Exicalum, which had been heavily damaged by the war.

## Aftermath

With the fall of the Laronian government, the so-called *Plan for the New Laron Province* was instituted, in which Laronian state functions were transferred to the Brotherhood and Prosperity Alliance in tandem with Kanorian military authorities. The process of annexation was quickly started.

WIP