Battle of the Neck

### Outcome:

Inconclusive:* O'Lear occupies parts of the the Neck, from Serenity to outer Mistad, from 1926 until being forced out in 1929
* Destruction of the Johninian Naval Corps at the Warmwater Chain
* Both sides militarily and financially exhausted

Belligerents|  **Union of O'Lear** Free State of Katavia**Supported by:** Aquilon-Askalis Concordance |  **Treaty of Tradition** Karostain Empire* Karostainian Estevara

> We may have thrown tens of thousands of men at the enemy, but our assault has been disjointed. Instead of whipping the 'Johninian' dogs with a chain… we elect to bludgeon them slowly with each individual link!
>
> Vagar the Black

The **Battle of the Neck** was a massive battle fought largely between the Union of O'Lear and the Treaty of Tradition from 1926 to 1929 in a region of the TOT homeland called the Neck. It was the opening engagement of the SRJ Reunification War: a preemptive strike designed by the O'Leary (and their Concordance allies) to cut the Treaty in half and scour the region of its military resources.

The first landings were designed to seize a string of factories that dotted the western Neck and would provide effective beachheads from which to launch a wider invasion of the Treaty. The invaders' initial objective after the landings was the Axiom Transit Hub, a sprawling industrial facility and the headquarters of the Johninian Aerial Corps.

What was originally conceived as a rapid decapitation strike against the TOT's armed forces soon turned into a drawn-out bloodbath. And while the conflict was aimed only at the Neck, its effects soon spilled out across the entire Treaty of Tradition and beyond.

## Background

* Incorporated Territories
* SRJ Reunification War

## Timeline

### Hitting the Beaches

#### O'Leary preparations

The O'Leary families Clan Frederiksen and Clan Larsen were placed in command of the naval and ground assault components of the first Landings at the Neck, respectively. The primary formation used in the initial attack was the 13th Naval Legion, consisting of Frederiksen, Larsen, Koett, Birger, and Olney troops. Most of these soldiers were human, with a much smaller amount of orcs and elf bards.

#### TOT preparations

Councilman Murdoc Janssen oversaw the creation of "patriotic Johninian militias" to resist the invaders in the opening days of the war. The Axiom Transit Hub was designated the regional command center and the necessary reinforcements were made.

#### The Landings at the Neck (Operation JUGULAR, 8/26)

*Main article: Landings at the Neck*

O'Leary and Katavian forces seize the coastline in the duration of about a week.

#### Advance Vector Axiom (Operation BLOODLINE, 8/26)

*Main article: Operation BLOODLINE*

O'Leary forces push TOT troops back to the Axiom Transit Hub. It's during this period that the Johninian Aerial Corps starts to make its presence known in the campaign, launching semi-regular sorties against the advancing troops. This battle lasts around 2 weeks before O'Leary troops are in striking distance of the Axiom Transit Hub.

#### Battle of the Axiom Transit Hub (Operation BRIMSTONE, 9/26—10/26)

*Main article: Battle of the Axiom Transit Hub*

The TOT Central Collective reinforces Axiom Transit Hub with new divisions from the south. Skirmishes and raids continue along the outskirts of the Hub and its outlying villages for around two weeks. Eventually, a massive frontal assault is launched by the O'Leary and Katavian troops. The attack scatters the defending TOT forces, but it takes almost a month for the entire sprawling area to be secured due to ferocious partisan warfare and airship raids. Though nominally a victory for the attacking side, much of the O'Leary 13th Naval Legion is now a spent force -- unable to advance further into the Neck -- and the formation requires over a month to establish the Axiom Transit Hub as their new base. During this time period, the TOT relocates the Aerial Corps headquarters to the southern city of Mistad, and is also strengthened by a ranger division sent by the Karostain Holy Empire.

After a series of unsuccessful incursions towards Mistad, the Union of O'Lear committed their 5th Naval Legion to the campaign under the command of Clan Sorrel and its vassals. Family forces from Clan Skulder and Clan Farsvarr also joined this flotilla, making it the largest single O'Leary army ever assembled since the unification of the country under Alvar I. The Sorrels were effectively in command of the invasion now, supplanting the Frederiksens. They arrived at Axiom Transit Hub after a two-week trip.

Reorganization of the invading forces commenced. Captured ground vehicles and the odd airship recovered from Axiom were hastily put into the O'Leary reserves. The scattered Katavian units that had accompanied the O'Leary landings were united into a cohesive grouping under the banner of the Clansteel Brigade. This sizeable formation that was attached to the vanguard of the 5th Naval Legion. Feeling that his forces were sufficiently strengthened, Admiral Erik Sorrel ordered both Naval Legions to prepare for a renewed offensive against the enemy.

### War of Attrition

#### The First Mistad Offensive (10/26—12/26)

*Main article: First Mistad Offensive, Fall of Gahn*

Starting at this point, O'Leary combat operations were not given official codenames, since that practice was only followed by Clan Frederiksen. The 13th and 5th Naval Legions realized they would only be able to make one last major attack before winter fell. They mounted a vast offensive in the direction of Mistad, supported by units from various Clans and of course, the Katavian troops who joined the war effort at the very start. However, this push only lasted around two weeks before it began to slow down. A month after that, it had been completely checked.

The Johninians had heavily fortified all routes to Mistad and their extreme focus on attritional defensive warfare blunted the raw power of the O'Leary assault forces. Despite this, a few symbolic gains were made: forces from Clan Skulder captured a large pacification complex in the town of Gahn, among other things. These victories held little value beyond buoying the O'Leary morale for quite a while. Now too far from the coast for the Legions' naval elements to be of any use, the O'Leary were forced into an intensive winter warfare scenario.

#### Winter Sets In (12/26—5/27)

*Main article: First Battle of Jollity, First Battle of Compromise*

Neither side was able to make a huge offensives during the winter months. However, both sides did have special units that were capable of making controlled attacks against towns or strongpoints in winter. In the case of the O'Leary, Clan Skulder's allegiant troops and elite Red Roaches were specifically trained in subzero warfare and made modest gains during this time. For the TOT, their specialized Kith battalions were unaffected by the cold and menaced the backlines of the O'Leary Naval Legions throughout the winter. The only significant territorial changes during this nearly five-month period was the capture of the towns of Jollity and Compromise by the O'Leary.

Strategically, both the attackers and defenders began to reconsider their methods.

Councilman Murdoc Janssen, who had conceived of the Patriotic Johninian Militia (PJM) program, launched a new recruitment campaign in Mistad by promising food and shelter during the hard winter for any citizen who voluntarily enlisted. Soon, a significant chunk of the adult population of the city was involved in the war effort to some degree. The TOT Central Collective also began bolstering the Johninian Aerial Corps in Mistad to prepare for an unprecedented wave of aerial operations in the spring.

At the same time, the O'Leary began to recognize Johninian airships as the single most deadly obstacle in their way. Clan Larsen recommended a northerly attack from Axiom, reasoning that with most airships down in Mistad, the O'Leary would be able to advance upward without nearly as much difficulty. This would also put pressure on the Treaty's government to capitulate. The 13th Naval Legion was put to the task, while the 5th Naval Legion and associated forces would continue advancing in the direction of Mistad.

#### The Larsen Offensive (5/27—7/27)

*Main article: Larsen Offensive, Battle of Serenity*

> My family has made war a science.
>
> Ulrich Larsen

The 13th Naval Legion had already seen the heaviest continuous fighting of any O'Leary military formation in the nation's history, but this had also given its forces experience. Furthermore, its Larsen troops were disciplined and enthusiastic about the upcoming offensive, having been trained at their famous Clan School of Infantry Warfare. The rank-and-file O'Leary forces were also optimistic about the prospect of an offensive that would be resisted by very few airships compared to the Mistad front.

When the so-called Larsen Offensive was launched by the 13th Naval Legion, it surprised even the TOT Central Collective in its boldness. The Larsens rolled over initial Johninian strongpoints north of Axiom and advanced nearly unimpeded over at least 40km of ground, seizing small settlements and garrisons. At the same time, the Central Collective scrambled Army Subgroups Ennui, Judgment, and Balance to meet the Legion and halt its advance around the town of Serenity.

When the two huge forces collided at Serenity, neither could initially gain the upper hand. Judgment, an artillery-centric Army Subgroup, began to pound the O'Leary vanguard from the edge of town while the other TOT forces began the arduous process of digging in to fortify the city proper and its outlying regions. However, the Larsens were not interested in a drawn-out siege and saw their opportunity to avoid one as leaves started to fall from the trees. A detachment of around 10,000 troops under Clan Birger would break off from the rest of the Legion and maneuver as if to head southward, back towards Mistad. In reality, they would be repositioning themselves for a sudden flanking attack against Army Subgroup Judgment, scattering the TOT artillery and opening a foothold from which the rest of Serenity could be seized.

This plan went off without a hitch: the Judgment artillery had been pre-sighted on the main force of the 13th Naval Legion and was not at all prepared to bombard O'Leary forces attacking from another vector of advance. Clan Birger's troops overran the half-finished fortifications on the edge of Serenity and decimated Army Subgroup Judgment. In a hasty maneuver, the rest of the 13th Naval Legion followed them into the city and brutal urban combat broke out. Caught completely by surprise, the Johninian forces withdrew further from the city center and it began to look like a general rout was imminent. Only through the strategic thinking of Coordinator Aurelius Vacker were the TOT forces at Serenity saved from complete destruction. He ordered Army Subgroup Balance's armored reserves into the city, blunting the force of the Larsen attack long enough for the TOT lines to stabilize 5km away. However, the use of tanks, coupled with the already ferocious ordnance being poured into Serenity by both sides, had completely leveled the city. It had been turned into a ghost town, the charred remnants of which would be used as a headquarters by the 13th Naval Legion going forward.

Army Subgroups Ennui and Balance stretched their forces thin and bent their lines severely, but through attritional defensive tactics they were able to bring the Larsen Offensive to an end north of Serenity.

A huge wave of TOT airship attacks struck the O'Leary forces on the Mistad front around midsummer, focusing especially on armored and artillery positions. This created distinct weak points in the invaders' lines. The 5th Naval Legion was growing increasingly vulnerable to the Johninians' technique of aerial warfare.

Realizing that the O'Leary forces had been divided for the northern operation and that the damage dealt by Johninian airships was severe enough to exploit, PJM forces around Mistad were directed to ratchet up their guerrilla activities. The ultimate goal was that their partisan warfare would pave the way for a Johninian breakout push towards Axiom. However, this went nowhere. The sheer size of the O'Leary 5th Naval Legion, its effective counter-insurgency units like the Red Roaches and Clansteel Brigade, and lack of serious training for the PJMs prevented them from inflicting critical losses. They did, however, project an inflated amount of TOT troops in the Mistad area, which led Admiral Erik Sorrel, now in *de facto* command of the entire invasion, to be extremely cautious when considering his next move against the city.

#### Politics, Military Intelligence, and the Concordance (8/27)

As the Battle of the Neck stretched into its second year, the strategic importance of the conflict finally began to dawn on the heads of the Aquilon-Askalis-Jabeyrack Concordance. To support the O'Leary invasion effort, the Republic of Volaysia sent a naval flotilla to join the 13th Naval Legion's fleet, as well as a complement of Marines to reinforce Axiom Transit Hub. The Republic of Ospalar also sent their IV Army Corps under the command of Foundational Yavilos Kuriskeer. This force was quickly attached to the 13th Naval Legion. The Ospalans brought along a large amount of heavy ordnance, beginning an artillery duel with the TOT Army Subgroups Ennui and Balance along the frontline north of Serenity.

#### The War in the Air (9/27)

The Johninian Aerial Corps, now operating out of its provisional headquarters in Mistad, had received an incredible amount of strategic priority and protection from the government since the fall of Axiom. Not only did it operate the finest airships in Helinska, its service members enjoyed an extremely low casualty rate due to the O'Leary lack of airpower. However, as Concordance forces arrived at the Neck to strengthen the invaders, the Central Collective began to place exponentially more responsibilities on the Aerial Corps. Sorties became more and more frequent and the dossier of acceptable military targets was expanded. TOT air crews were stretched thin, but their efforts were starting to make a difference. After a dozen flights into O'Leary-held territory, the *Palatial*, a *Consul-*class airship, managed to destroy seven munitions stockpiles and rendered an entire armored platoon inoperable. Persistent aerial attacks such as these exacerbated the worsening logistical situation among the invading forces. A report by Oskar Aastersen, Inspector-General of the O'Leary Armed Forces, at the end of 1927 found that airship attacks were the leading cause of injuries and deaths at the Neck, responsible for roughly 55% of all casualties since the assault began. It also found that if the war continued on its current course, and resources continued to be destroyed at a steady pace, the O'Leary would be forced to withdraw from the Neck within six months.

To counter the threat from above, O'Leary forces began to dig their forces in deeper along the Mistad front, thoroughly entrenching themselves along the Compromise–Jollity–Gahn line and moving field artillery to protect important strategic positions. These light artillery pieces generally stood the best chance at bringing down an airship. Sustained, heavy machine gun fire from multiple sources was also known to cripple airships, but this was only done successfully on incredibly rare occasions. Still, the threat from the ground-based invaders was not nonexistent. And of course, an airship attack on the O'Leary naval fleets was practically suicide. The Central Collective concentrated its airships on mainland operations.

#### The Second Mistad Offensive: "Skulder's Push" (10/27—1/28)

*Main article: Second Mistad Offensive*

Having spent over a month refortifying their positions at the southern vanguard of the 5th Naval Legion, Clan Skulder's war commanders at the Neck — Erd, Lars, and Stefan Skulder, sons of Vagar the Black — began lobbying to supreme commander Erik Sorrel for a huge winter offensive towards Mistad. Their request was backed by the Clansteel Brigade, who had spent months fighting PJMs around Compromise. Sabotage operations against occupied settlements and garrisons were the norm. Sorrel was cowed by this extensive partisan activity and believed a full-scale assault on Mistad would be a gamble too large to take. He authorized a limited advance toward the city, and refused to commit the family-allegiant forces of Clan Sorrel or the Red Roaches of the 5th Naval Legion to the operation. In total, around 30,000 troops were withheld from the Skulders on these grounds.

The lack of support from Red Roaches in particular were confounding for the Skulders. Without them, their family forces would bear the brunt of the responsibility for the advance, since the Skulders were the only O'Leary regulars well-trained in winter combat. Seeing this as an opportunity for immense personal glory, Vagar's sons disregarded Sorrel's order of a "limited advance" and ordered a full-scale offensive with Mistad as the ultimate objective. Clan Skulder's troops and vassals, supported by the Clansteel Brigade and other components of the 5th Naval Legion, began throwing themselves at the Johninian defense lines north of the city. However, unlike the first offensive towards Mistad, the TOT forces were not spread thin in an effort to slow down a broad advance. They were heavily concentrated along a belt of strongpoints designed to turn the forests and fields north of Mistad into killing pits. Additionally, Councilman Janssen regularly sent PJMs out beyond the trenches to disrupt the Skulder advance. Some Johninians even impersonated O'Leary infantry in an effort to confuse smaller assault groups.

Beyond these strategic differences, the most difficult obstacle to overcome was the unbearable winter climate of the southern Neck. Hypothermia and associated medical conditions were rampant among the invading forces, with only the Skulders consistently well-equipped for the climate. Additionally, advancing across the snowy terrain made it easier for airships to spot the O'Leary. Surprise attacks were essentially impossible for the attackers, while the Johninians made good use of the terrain to launch ambushes and hamstring their progress.

The greatest victory won during the Second Mistad Offensive was the Skulders' partial capture of the Johninian outer trench network along the outskirts of the Mistad Region (roughly 12km from the city center), and even this was won at a massive cost. The closer the O'Leary got to the city center, the more frequent the airship and PJM raids became. And the attackers were simply not strong enough to force a victory over the city in the dead of winter. Eventually, they were forced to dig in at the outskirts and accept their minimal gains.

In general, the second operation against Mistad was a grueling and bloody affair that only served to deplete the forces of Clan Skulder for extremely limited gain. Without the Skulders' winter forces at full strength, the 5th Naval Legion would be hard pressed to hold their lines, let alone advance, during the colder months. The offensive had been an unmitigated disaster that left them vulnerable.

### Unstoppable Force vs. Immovable Object

#### TOT Reorganization (1/28)

Following the devastating failure of the Second Mistad Offensive, and the unprecedented O'Leary casualties that it caused, the Treaty of Tradition took to converting their entrenched assets for a risky wintertime counterattack. Checking the advance of the Skulders had put Johninian morale at an all time high: even their predominantly human force was largely ready and able to fight in the inclement conditions.

With the Central Collective acknowledging their chance to inflict a severe blow on the 5th Naval Legion and their Skulder shock troops, the Treaty of Tradition organized its remaining forces at Mistad into Battlegroup Tranquility, a formidable and well-organized fighting force later credited with some of the most pivotal victories of the entire campaign at the Neck. It consisted of a large fleet of airships evacuated from Axiom Transit Hub, able-bodied inhabitants of Mistad and Councilman Janssen's "patriotic militias," as well as whatever organized reinforcements that Central Collective could muster. The Battlegroup was outfitted with less-than-conventional weaponry, such as commercial airships retrofitted to bear arms against the O'Leary threat. Councilman Sven Landock, a close ally of Janssen, was tapped as the field coordinator of the formation.

Janssen also acquired a series of supply drops from the north to better-equip his PJM forces during this time period.

During this period, the Karostainian forces in the Neck were given a choice: leave immediately for their homeland or be absorbed fully into the ranks of the Treaty of Tradition. Elements of the 3rd Karostain Rangers under Brigadier William Harfer remained behind and were integrated into Battlegroup Tranquility at Mistad. The 7th Royal Artillery Regiment under Lieutenant Commander Astvam Derhieser and all other Karostainian forces were sent home.

Now sufficiently reformed, the Johninian Central Collective had to mull its options. On paper, their forces were more organized and combat-capable than ever before, while the 5th Naval Legion were still recovering from their painful Skulder offensive. A broad counterattack from the TOT before they got the chance to recover could envelop the O'Leary invaders and drive them back, maybe even all the way to Axiom. However, such a counterattack would carry some of the same risks that the Skulder Push did: primarily the brutal wintertime conditions. In the end, it was Councilman Janssen who argued most vigorously for a counterattack against the O'Leary along the Mistad front. His words swayed the Central Collective into authorizing the plan. The Councilman personally oversaw preparations in early January, committing Battlegroup Tranquility and most of the Johninian Air Corps to the planned offensive.

#### The Winter Counteroffensive and Turning Tide (2/28)

*Main article: Johninian Winter Counteroffensive, Second Battle of Compromise*

> To surrender is to forsake your purpose. Soldiers who have abandoned their purpose may find themselves, in turn, abandoned by their army.
>
> Murdoc Janssen

When the time came, the Johninians were fierce and remorseless. The first phase of the winter counteroffensive was to recapture the trench lines outside Mistad, and this was achieved easily thanks to the overwhelming firepower, coordination, and numbers of Battlegroup Tranquility. The suddenness of the assault also shocked the O'Leary vanguard. In some sections of the trench network and the fortified outer districts of Mistad Region, the Katavian Clansteel Brigade fought an intense campaign of urban warfare to slow down the new TOT offensive. However, they were ultimately called back to the city of Compromise by Clan Skulder.

Compromise, which had been the forward operating base of Clan Skulder, their vassals the Czegos, and the Clansteel Brigade, was a fat target for the Johninian counteroffensive. If they could maintain their momentum and reach the city, they would get the chance to inflict serious losses on the invading forces.

There was one tool that greatly aided the Johninian attack: the airships of the Johninian Aerial Corps. These vehicles gave the ground forces additional fire support that allowed them to advance over more ground, more quickly. With the airship component operating at full strength, it appeared the TOT would break through to Compromise in a matter of days.

Admiral Erik Sorrel realized that his 5th Naval Legion had been badly overextended during the Skulder Push in early winter, and that the Legion would need consolidation to remain an effective force. With as much haste as possible in the brutal winter climate, he rushed a supply convoy to Compromise in an effort to stem the tide of the counterattack. This column of trucks and armored vehicles was loaded with Sorrel troops, weapons and equipment.

#### The Liberation of Compromise (3/28)

Compromise had been turned into a small fortress by the O'Leary, standing defiantly opposite the urban sprawl of Mistad. Anti-airship emplacements, consisting of naval machine gun turrets or field artillery, were strategically placed around the city to provide protection from constant JAC raids. Four large munitions storehouses provided weapons and equipment for the roughly 60,000 soldiers based there. Infantry and armored reserves of the 5th Naval Legion were regularly drilled by Clan Skulder at Compromise before being deployed to another part of the front. The sons of Vagar the Black, who had been appointed commanders of the Skulder contingent at the Neck, were essentially the warlords of the city.

And they were furious.

Having lost many kinsmen and allies in the Skulder Push, and now facing a brutal riposte from the TOT, all three had been stricken with a lust for vengeance so powerful it influenced much of their strategic thinking. They collectively decided that the city of Compromise would be the battlefield upon which the Johninians would finally be broken and scattered. Preparing defense lines inside and outside the city to ensure Battlegroup Tranquility could not maneuver around them, they aimed to draw the enemy into a pitched attack that would crash uselessly against the defenses of Compromise until forced the withdraw. Their wish for a full-frontal assault was granted, but it played out much differently than they imagined.

Receiving regular updates at his office in Mistad, Councilman Murdoc Janssen was well-informed of the defenses at Compromise. He reasoned that unless the Johninians could establish total air supremacy and bombard the city with impunity, casualty rates would be unacceptable and the momentum of his counteroffensive would degrade. Janssen devised a straightforward solution to this quandary: lighter airships would approach first and neutralize the O'Leary air defenses while heavier vessels would bring up the rear to conduct a campaign of "blanket bombing" against the city. At the same time, Battlegroup Tranquility would heavily assault the outer defenses of Compromise, encircle the city, and finish off the defenders when the bombing stopped.

It was an inelegant plan, but if successful would eradicate the Skulders -- the only O'Leary Clan capable of sustained, widespread winter warfare. Taking them out would pave the way for a further offensive towards Axiom Transit Hub. Everything hinged on the capture of Compromise.

The battle began when a picket of five *Senator*-class airships made their way towards Compromise. The O'Leary defenders spotted them from a great distance, opening up with field artillery from their hardened emplacements. This inaccurate fire resulted in no damage to the airships, which got closer. They were now in range of the O'Leary machine gun emplacements -- these were heavy repeating guns designed for use on a sailing ship, and were capable of rending through armor. When the machine guns started their barrage, airships started dropping. First, the lead ship in the picket started to lose altitude as the support struts for its balloon were blasted apart. Moments later, the gas in the balloon ignited, destroying the entire vessel in a conflagration of wood and canvas. This shrapnel hit a nearby airship, which started burning. It veered off and took up the rear as the remaining three *Senators* continued their approach. Now close enough to begin their barrage, the vessels unleashed a torrent of rocket fire in the general direction of the ground emplacements before making a hurried wide turn and heading back towards Mistad. A third airship was plugged by a lucky field artillery round while retreating. It exploded instantly.

This first aerial salvo was not very effective. It inflicted modest casualties among the Skulder troops on the ground but only destroyed two air defense emplacements out of ten. The cost of the raid was two dead airships and one more damaged. But Janssen had more vessels to deploy. Two more light pickets were ready to set off, and the heavy picket was being staffed and loaded.

The light pickets crashed into the defenses of Compromise, exchanging fire with the ground defenses in a brutal slugfest until most anti-airship emplacements had been neutralized. However, the burning hulks of destroyed airships now littered the ground outside Compromise. Gliding in behind this first wave was the looming heavy picket, composed of *Consul* and *Mediator*-class vessels. As they approached, the ground assault commenced. Battlegroup Tranquility slammed into the O'Leary defense lines outside the city and intense close-quarters fighting broke out.

The sons of Vagar the Black were now fully committed to the fight. In an effort to bolster morale and achieve personal glory for themselves, they were fighting leading the troops from an inner command trench, under heavy fire from Battlegroup Tranquility's mortar reserves. One of them, Stefan Skulder, ordered a major Red Roach counter-raid to neutralize the mortars. The Johninians, not expecting this, hurriedly pulled back the mortars and attempted to encircle the raiders. However, they did not fully close the net around the Red Roaches, and the flanking action degenerated into a messy multi-sided firefight.

All around the city, military order was rapidly deteriorating. Lines of supply started to break down as O'Leary ammo runners began prioritizing troops of their own Clan and unit. Destroyed airships limited the field of view for the mortar and artillery spotters who had not pre-sighted their guns. Meanwhile, Battlegroup Tranquility continued to systematically capture the trench network outside the city. And they were now aided by the heavy airship picket.

Bombs and rockets, bearing huge ordnance, began pounding the city and the trench grid, vaporizing all they touched. The sons of Vagar the Black called their forces back into the city, not wanting them to be left exposed to airship fire. In response to his order, the remaining O'Leary troops in the trench lines made a fighting retreat to the perimeter of Compromise. Once most of their forces were inside, Vagar's sons left their command trench to withdraw into the city. It was at this moment an aerial rocket struck their position, eviscerating all three sons in a conflagration of epic proportions.

News of this shocking loss quickly rippled through the O'Leary forces in Compromise. Sander Czego took provisional control of the defending forces, but his orders were largely ignored by the remaining Skulder components in the city. The defense had lost all sense of structure and discipline, which the TOT was taking advantage of. Continuing to use their heavy airship picket to barrage Compromise at will, they forced most of the O'Leary defenders into buildings and strongpoints, which allowed Battlegroup Tranquility to rapidly gain ground throughout the city. After three hours of desperately holding his position under incessant bombardment and ground attacks, Czego ordered a general withdrawal from Compromise. A disorganized mob of 5th Naval Legion troops from Clan Czego, Clan Sorrel and the Clansteel Brigade quickly cut their losses and fled the city, maneuvering towards Jollity. The remaining Skulders still in Compromise finally realized their situation was hopeless and followed suit, taking outrageously high casualties.

Battlegroup Tranquility captured Compromise shortly afterward. Councilman Sven Landock, in charge of the formation, reported his victory to the Central Collective and to Janssen in Mistad. The airships of the heavy picket were recalled to JAC headquarters in Mistad while new light pickets could be built to escort them on future missions. Meanwhile, Battlegroup Tranquility was ordered to advance past Compromise, creating a "safe bubble" between the O'Leary lines and the city. Landock complied with this order, moving his troops a further 9km into enemy-held territory along the Axiom front.

The town of Gahn, held by 5th Naval Legion troops of Clan Farsvarr, was heavily besieged by a component of Battlegroup Tranquility during this time, languishing under an incessant artillery duel for many months afterward.

The next objective for the TOT was the town of Jollity, where the remainder of the 5th Naval Legion was headquartered. However, without massive air support and time to rebuild his forces, Landock knew the town would not fall like Compromise had. So he elected to take up new positions some distance from the town: far enough away to avoid constant skirmishing but close enough to act as a forward operating base when the battle for Jollity inevitably began. Janssen was unhappy with the decision to end his winter counteroffensive outside Jollity, but understood the reasoning behind it. A failure during the coldest months of the year would devastate Battlegroup Tranquility.

#### Operation SLACKJAW: Failed naval counterattacks (4/28)

*Main article: Operation SLACKJAW*

Confounded on the ground, the Central Collective sought to open a new front of the war and intensify pressure on the O'Leary invaders by striking an area that had been largely uncontested since the start of the campaign: the sea. At least 30 combat ships of the 13th and 5th Naval Legions were continually blockading the eastern coastline of the Neck, preventing seaborne resupply or reinforcement and forcing Johninian army units inland. This formidable grouping was tightly organized, and its senior officers were experienced — the ships of the 13th more so than the 5th. Admiral Holt Frederiksen was physically present at the blockade, commanding the 13th Naval Legion's fleet from his flagship the *Battleaxe.* In contrast, Admiral Erik Sorrel of the 5th Naval Legion was away at Jollity, and his orders could not be conveyed quite as smoothly.

A disastrous airship raid against the fleets had dispelled any notions of quickly resolving the siege in 1927, and most of the Johninian leadership was resigned to the idea of O'Leary naval supremacy during the battle.

However, the Winter Counteroffensive in early '28 opened up new possibilities for the Treaty of Tradition. Top analysts and historians had spent months poring over the history, culture, and military command structure of their enemy, probing for vulnerabilities, and they finally discovered a string of weaknesses in the 5th Naval Legion particularly. If the naval forces of the Legion were heavily assaulted, their overall commander Erik Sorrel would be forced to withdraw from Jollity and delegate ground command to his fractious web of vassal lords. This arrogant individuality, while obscene to the sensibilities of the average Johninian, also served as the perfect military opening. They needed only to intensify pressure against Jollity, allowing the minor O'Leary commanders to create their own plans for a counterattack, quarreling as much with their peers as with the Johninians. Losing cohesion, the 5th Naval Legion would flail hopelessly against the might of Battlegroup Tranquility and be steamrolled all the way to Axiom Transit Hub, and perhaps even off the continental Neck entirely.

Of course, this entire plan hinged on the Johninians' ability to mount a massive naval strike against the O'Leary fleets, which were famously experienced in warfare on the high seas. To design the operation, Central Collective brought in famed naval historian and theorist Wilter Hargreaves, who had designed the Johninian network of trade routes to and from its fellow Dynastic Pact countries.

A series of large-scale incursions, aimed at the blockade from multiple seemingly random directions, would target the prevailing flaw of the O'Leary military: its disunity. The attack was dubbed "Operation SLACKJAW," and was to utilize over two-thirds of the seaworthy ships at the Central Collective's disposal, totaling around 35 ships of variable quality, and a large supporting picket from the Johninian Aerial Corps. Any less than overwhelming force, in Hargreaves' view, would be a grotesque gamble.

The Central Collective took a different tack. Preferring to defend the areas of the Johninian coastline not under blockade, they withdrew multiple naval units from the planned operation - bringing the total number of combat ships assigned to SLACKJAW down to a measly 22. The goal of SLACKJAW was reoriented to simply soften up the fleets, to force the flight of Admiral Sorrel. The complete decimation of the O'Leary was no longer an objective. Against the strong protests of Hargreaves, the attack commenced.

In a four-pronged attack, the TOT navy struck out against the blockade. The 13th and 5th Naval Legions were caught entirely by surprise, with multiple ships of the 5th being severely damaged in the opening salvos of the battle. Admiral Holt Frederiksen pulled back his roving ships to the site of the attack, but they were intercepted and heavily engaged *en route*. However, as both sides accelerated to maneuvering speeds, casualties became lighter and the battle more of a cat-and-mouse game. As in the past, the aerial attack fared tragically: at least a half-dozen ships were gunned down in the fighting before the JAC withdrew its picket.

Six O'Leary ships and ten Johninian ships were sunk or crippled beyond repair during Operation SLACKJAW. In addition to the ruination of the airship complement at the battle, it was initially looked upon as a total failure by the Central Collective.

However, they had not anticipated the degree of paranoia they had inflicted upon Admiral Erik Sorrel with their incessant PJM raids north of Mistad. The admiral wholeheartedly believed SLACKJAW was merely a probing attack, while a larger assault was imminent. He successfully petitioned the Inspector-General of the O'Leary Armed Forces, Oskar Aastersen, for a relief force of 14 newly-built combat ships drawn from the clan-allegiant forces of Clan Algotsen to be attached to his own command. However, even this strengthening of his naval presence was ultimately insufficient, and his paranoia gave way to a serious strategic blunder.

As intended by the Central Collective, he withdrew from Jollity and joined the naval blockade in person, leaving his vassals Niall Wayland, Olivar Vandreis, and Sel Selby in command on the ground. Their conflicting ideas on how to govern the 5th Naval Legion soon escalated, creating factionalism and opportunism where Erik Sorrel had sternly tried to suppress it.

Operation SLACKJAW had created a chink in the armor of O'Lear. Janssen and Hargreaves immediately set about making plans to exploit it.

#### The College of Clans (5/28)

*Main article: Second College of Clans*

As the war dragged on, King Alvar II Aastersen called the Heads of the Great Clans to hold a grand meeting of the College of Clans in Lear. In attendance were Balthasar Sorrel, Augustus Baxter, Isak Frederiksen, Ulrich Larsen, Vagar Skulder, and Håkon Farsvarr, along with their various retinues and guards. Laurents Baxter, the most powerful Seer in O'Lear, joined his father's delegation.

The Clan Heads divided roughly into camps: Skulder and Farsvarr strongly advocated for continued involvement at the Neck, with some support from Larsen. Meanwhile, Frederiksen and Sorrel advocated for a peaceable settlement with the Treaty of Tradition for reasons of military necessity and trade opportunities, respectively. Aastersen and Baxter created a compromise, and were able to garner the support of Skulder and Larsen:

The Baxter Holy Raids.

Magic had not been widely used at the Neck. With the Baxters assuming ground command of the 5th Naval Legion, they could employ new methods against the Johninians and potentially turn the tide of the war. Sorrel was offended by his family's role being reduced to that of the naval commandery, and did not believe the Baxters were capable of overseeing combat operations on the ground. Only one thing placated him: if they could scare and pressure the TOT enough, they could negotiate trade agreements beneficial to the Sorrels. Still, the insult would only fester and grow.

#### Baxter's Holy Raids: Rage against the Johninians (6/28—7/28)

*Main article: Baxter Holy Raids, Second Larsen Offensive*

Laurents Baxter was placed in temporary command of the 5th Naval Legion's ground component, and Jaeson Taverly was appointed his second-in-command (Counsellor). Their goal was essentially to stabilize the Mistad front (now more or less the Compromise front), restore the badly lacking O'Leary morale, and create vulnerabilities in the Johninian lines for a renewed assault. However, they began to clash with Erik Sorrel's ground commanders, especially Wayland, who had his own ideas on how to run the war. He believed that, rather than a series of raids to soften the enemy, a hard flanking maneuver should be executed to cut off Compromise and retake the city. However, Laurents Baxter ultimately outranked him and the raids went ahead.

Dozens of piecemeal assaults lashed the Johninian lines in the summer of 1928, led by screaming Baxter troops and bards whose devotion to the Spirits Graol was absolute. Airships were much less effective against the scattered guerrilla warfare employed by the O'Leary raiders, except to level entire swathes of forest. TOT forces at the vanguard were reinforced by reserve elements of Battlegroup Tranquility in an effort to shore up the defensive lines, but this only signalled to Laurents Baxter that the enemy was rattled. Raiding parties, which now included regular forces from the 5th Naval Legion including Sorrels, Waylands, Vandreises, and Selbys, struck deeper into enemy territory before retreating, usually after destroying an ammunition stockpile or assassinating a patrol of guards.

The Johninian supply lines were quickly straining, and were even at risk of buckling under the pressure from Baxter's elite contingents. The Clansteel Brigade was even pulled back into active service to support the raids. At Mistad, Councilman Janssen was well aware of the stakes - allowing the O'Leary to retake the initiative in the war would be catastrophic, both for his men in the field and for his political career. To stamp down the raids, he sent PJM cadres into the woods of the central Neck, where they clashed with the Baxter forces on a daily basis. He also ordered airship attacks in the direction of Jollity twice a day, and many of these raids were operational successes. His aim was to enact a steep toll for every successful raid by bringing the consequences of the O'Leary campaign directly to their headquarters. This certainly gave pause to Niall Wayland and Olivar Vandreis, who were stationed in Jollity, but Laurents Baxter, Jaeson Taverly, and Sel Selby were off commanding their men in the field, where raid activity was continuing to escalate. The war at the Neck had degenerated from the pitched battles of the winter into something entirely new: a messier, less organized affair that had the risk of spiraling completely out of his hands. The Baxter zealots were beginning to take trophies from their victories, and it was rumored that Laurents Baxter had personally captured a piece of rare Johninian technology and was tinkering with it in private.

At the same time, the 13th Naval Legion attempted a limited offensive against TOT positions north of Serenity, advancing roughly 10km in the name of the Spirits Graol before being stopped and forced to retrench.

While the reputation and mystique of the Baxter invaders had grown during the raids, they had not caused severe damage to the Johninian lines, nor affected a major breakthrough. Councilman Janssen felt confident that the energy of the raiders would eventually die down if the leaders were put under enough pressure, and his theory was quickly proven correct. Continual Johninian Aerial Corps attacks against Jollity led Niall Wayland and Olivar Vandreis to petition first Clan Baxter, then King Alvar II for an end to the raids, arguing that small-scale attacks would cost the O'Leary far more than it would gain them. This argument gave way to squabbling between the two men and the ground commanders led by Laurents - division carefully planned-for by Murdoc Janssen.

Laurents Baxter and Jaeson Taverly were called back to Courienta. Wayland, Vandreis, and Selby re-inherited ground command of the 5th Naval Legion, while Erik Sorrel retained naval command. With the exit of Laurents Baxter, the Clansteel Brigade was withdrawn again to Axiom Transit Hub for resupply.

#### A Crisis of Logistics (8/28—9/28)

*Main articles: 8th Naval Legion, Sweating Sickness*

It was now that the winds of war began to well and truly turn against the invader.

The material demands triggered by invading a nation a continent away were complex, putting enormous pressure on the O'Leary defense industry to provide the necessary ships, vehicles, weapons, ammunition, equipment, rations, uniforms, and medicine. This was in fact the most efficient stage of the supply chain; Clan Frederiksen and Clan Larsen were already possessed of numerous facilities for the production of weapons of war. It was not the building, but the transporting of materiel that confounded the O'Leary.

The OLAF lacked dedicated logistical forces, as no Clan had ever attempted a sustained invasion of Helinska in their history. Thus, the burden of replenishing and provisioning the invasion force fell primarily to the 8th Naval Legion, which was normally assigned to coastal patrols. The 8th Legion was composed of 24 combat ships and 10 supply ships at the start of the war; however, these numbers swelled as the invasion of the Neck dragged onward. By late 1928, the 8th Legion was made up of 28 combat ships and 16 supply ships. But it was the owners, not the builders, of these ships that complicated the situation at the Neck.

The 8th Naval Legion was largely staffed by the troops and vassals of both Clan Aastersen and Clan Baxter. Despite the best efforts of Inspector-General Oskar Aastersen, supplies more often ended up in the hands of families and military units that were tied to those two Clans. Clan Sorrel never wanted for equipment, but the situation was much messier for their vassals and subordinate forces. This earned the vehement criticism of Niall Wayland and Olivar Vandreis, who alleged that Sel Selby's men were being prioritized over their own units — probably, they claimed, a Baxter reprisal for their earlier petition to expel Laurents from command. Wayland and Vandreis complained numerous times to their direct superior, Admiral Erik Sorrel, who downplayed the problem. After this, they approached Oskar Aastersen, who advised them not to petition King Alvar II on the subject (largely because the issue of materiel misappropriation would reflect poorly on the King's family and exacerbate internal tensions). After Wayland and Vandreis made their intention to petition Alvar perfectly clear, he quickly decreed that he would not hear petitions relating to material or logistical questions at the Neck.

Taking matters into their own hands, Wayland and Vandreis began confiscating 80% of the inbound equipment intended for Selby and staffed their own forces with it. Since Alvar had closed himself to petitions, there was little Selby could do to regain his flow of materiel without leaving the frontlines, returning to Lear, and calling a full meeting of the College of Clans — which would ignite tensions in an unprecedented manner. He could do nothing but retrench near Gahn with his remaining troops and equipment, now unwilling to attend the war councils of Wayland and Vandreis. The Sorrel vassal lords had been split down the middle, and the 5th Naval Legion was permanently weakened. This undesirable situation was compounded by a renewed series of attacks by Johninian forces (including PJMs) against the so-called "Axiom Run" which had been used to reliably reinforce O'Leary troops along the Mistad front for several years. With the advent of these new TOT attacks, the allegedly safe corridor and probably the single most important supply chain at the Neck was rendered vulnerable and required significant reinforcement. No one wanted to be responsible for defending the route, but the undesirable task most often fell to the Waylands and Vandreises, who fought back the Johninian raids in order to protect the supplies they had wrangled from Selby.

Meanwhile, Erik Sorrel was still at his flagship, and could have at any time returned to Jollity and retaken command of the front from Wayland, Vandreis, and Selby. However, he remained thoroughly convinced that a full-scale Johninian naval attack was imminent, and that his presence was required to stave it off. Murdoc Janssen invested significant resources into this illusion, launching feint maneuvers with airships and combat vessels in the direction of the 5th Naval Legion's flotilla to keep them edgy.

As the 5th Naval Legion began to degenerate into a loose collection of clan-allegiant forces, the 13th Naval Legion remained relatively coherent, well-fed, and confident north of Serenity. Its ground commander, Viggo Larsen, had engaged in numerous dialogues with his Johninian counterpart, Aurelius Vacker, and even offered a bout of single combat to resolve the fighting, which was declined on the grounds of "barbarism."

Despite the comparatively positive position of the 13th Legion compared to their southern allies, they were also a massive drain on resources despite very little territorial gains. The unrelenting artillery duel north of Serenity that began with the arrival of Ospalan reinforcements in late 1927 consumed 90% of the heavy ammunition used by the O'Leary invaders, and was also responsible for a significant chunk of the casualties and equipment losses. If the 13th Naval Legion had not been engaged in their northern "forever war" against Vacker, it is likely that the logistical incongruencies felt by the 5th Legion would be virtually nonexistent.

Introducing a fatal element of misfortune into the frontline was an outbreak of an unknown disease amongst the O'Leary troops, primarily those concentrated in the vanguard. Thousands of soldiers became severely ill with a "sweating sickness" that was immensely difficult to treat. An investigation by Oskar Aastersen uncovered circumstantial evidence that the Johninian forces had introduced biological agents into the water supply of the Jollity Region, Gahn Region, and three other districts. However, he was unable to substantiate his findings, as the symptoms of the disease also closely aligned with a natural tick-borne ailment. Conflicting arguments about his report abounded. Some believed he was attempting to pin the blame for the outbreak (and consequent depopulation of multiple Clans worth of troops) on the enemy.In theory, this would re-galvanize or at least stabilize the morale of the troops on the ground, and conveniently push the blame for the outbreak away from Clan Aastersen which had authorized the invasion the Neck. Håkon Farsvarr claimed it was an attempt to create a justification for withdrawing from the southern front.

Oskar's credibility had been weakened over the course of the war, with Clan Sorrel and most of their vassals advocating for him to be replaced with a more grounded official. Niall Wayland was nominated for the position, but this proposal was narrowly defeated. He was preparing a second bid for the position when he became stricken with the "sweating sickness" himself while visiting the front lines. Returning to Jollity for medical care, his convoy was attacked by Johninian partisans and he was impaled with several pieces of shrapnel.

The raid was fended off, but his grievous injuries coupled with his sickness meant he had to be evacuated to the 8th Naval Legion's medical frigate for the best possible care. This left Olivar Vandreis in charge of his military forces in the south, continuing the program of confiscating supply runs meant for the Selbys. Sensing weakness, Sel Selby deployed his clan-allegiant forces in a bid to ensure the supplies made their way to Gahn as intended. Vandreis backed off, allowing Selby to regain the advantageous train of materiel from the 8th Naval Legion. However, this all but ensured that the 5th Naval Legion's ground forces no longer existed as a cohesive unit, instead being split up between several warlords. Having been weakened, blighted with disease, and now set against each other, the O'Leary in the south were as weak as they had ever been. In Mistad, Murdoc Janssen prepared his masterstroke.

### The Explosive Finish

#### Operation TRUNNION (9/28—11/28)

*Main article: Operation TRUNNION*

One of the great strengths of the Treaty of Tradition had always been its sheer capaciousness when it came to human capital. Untold hundreds of thousands, indeed perhaps millions, of its citizens could be converted into a fighting force in the event of an emergency. Desertion rates were low, even amidst the worst throes of the war, and defection rates were nigh nonexistent. Many of the best forces available to Murdoc Janssen had already been organized as Battlegroup Tranquility, which was deeply engaged along the entire frontline.

However, no pool of manpower was at its best when it wanted for equipment. Throughout the entire war, the Johninian Central Collective grappled with the fact that their national military infrastructure had been bisected by the marauding invaders. Road-borne resupply and replenishment efforts were impossible when hundreds of kilometers of occupied land lay between a supply depot and its intended target. Additionally, the naval stranglehold maintained by the O'Leary 13th and 5th Naval Legions had made it exceedingly difficult to resupply TOT troops along the Mistad front with anything less than an airlift. The proximity of enemy artillery and anti-airship countermeasures made even aerial supply runs a very dangerous and messy affair. However, the counteroffensive through Compromise had severely pressured the O'Leary, forcing them to withdraw their heavy weapons back to the Jollity Region, which was typically avoided by Johninian airships. Thus, the skyways from Mistad to the north of the country became open for resupply pickets.

One of the most crucial materials required by Janssen's forces in Mistad was ammunition. The sheer amount of firepower required to hold back an invading force with the aggression of the O'Leary was unprecedented. All four of the regional supply depots in the Mistad Region had been drained after the first six months of warfare, and in many places along the frontline Janssen's regulars were relying on surplus ammunition, scarcely airlifted bullets, or even stolen weapons to hold back the invaders.

In late 1927, at the height of the invasion's momentum, the Council of Internal Pacification revealed to Janssen that they had access to a secret network of underground tunnels that spanned the Neck and its outlying environs. These tunnels were purportedly used for the transportation of valuable military-grade assets, such as high-grade or radiological rounds, as well as wounded or incapacitated Kith soldiers. However, they served a second helpful purpose: the CIP could use them to quietly monitor the goings-on of every major settlement in the Neck, ostensibly for the purposes of monitoring dissident activity. Whatever their original intent, these tunnels quickly took on a vitally important role in the Johninian supply train. So long as they were kept secret from the O'Leary, these tunnels could be used to ferry materiel from the northern fringes of the country all the way to Mistad. And they served that exact purpose for over a year, steadily rebuilding Janssen's supply of ammunition and equipment from the brink of depletion.

The most critical asset that Janssen had slowly been stockpiling through these tunnels were field artillery. Hundreds of guns of variable size were ferried through the underground supply chain, and almost none of them were sent to the front. This was because he was preparing them for a time and a place where they could be used decisively, to break the enemy and send them fleeing rather than create a new status quo, as the Winter Counteroffensive had done.

The moment of glory for Janssen's artillery came in late 1928, when the O'Leary 5th Naval Legion around Jollity and Gahn was riven with sickness and falling apart at the seams. His planned assault, "Operation TRUNNION," aimed to brutally brush through the invaders in the south, forcing the 13th Naval Legion and its attached Ospalan gun corps to withdraw from their lines north of Serenity. They would be expecting an artillery duel, but would be utterly overwhelmed by the massed firepower Janssen had built up in the foundries of Mistad. At this point, a general rout would take place, and the O'Leary would be expelled from the mainland TOT.

Operation TRUNNION began with the reorganization of Johninian lines around Gahn, which was widely regarded as the weakest point in the O'Leary lines. The town was mainly held by the "Little Great" Clan Farsvarr, the prodigal clan-allegiant forces of Clan Selby, and the still-shattered remnants of Clan Skulder's unit, hardly able to recover from the Second Battle of Compromise more than half a year ago. Gahn had been weakened over time by an incessant artillery barrage, gradually intensified through reinforcements drawn from Battlegroup Tranquility. But as Operation TRUNNION started, the main bulk of Tranquility suddenly initiated a heavy assault on Gahn — panicking the disjointed O'Leary defenders. After only a day of fighting, the Farsvarrs, Selbys, and Skulders were pushed out of the city and fighting began in the forests surrounding it.

Begrudgingly forced to support Sel Selby, the ground-commanders in Jollity deployed all of their available regulars to stem the tide of the Johninian advance. These include clan-allegiant forces of Clan Sorrel, Clan Wayland, Clan Vandreis and a small party of Red Roaches. However, even with more bodies on the field, the O'Leary were unable to bottleneck the Johninians and continued to lose ground at an alarming rate. It was now abundantly clear that the people of O'Lear were more suited for assault than defense. Vandreis called for the 13th Naval Legion to withdraw southward and stop the Johninians, exactly as Janssen had planned, and also requested that Admiral Erik Sorrel return to Jollity to personally take command. Both parties immediately accepted his requests, Vandreis's messages came too late, as both the 13th Naval Legion and Admiral Sorrel were several days away. The TOT was ripping through the 5th Naval Legion, and almost all of its remaining forces outside Jollity were falling back to the town as quickly as they could.

Jollity had served as the forward operating base of the O'Leary southern front since the fall of Compromise, and was only a short distance from the main staging area of the war: Axiom Transit Hub. It housed dozens of OLAF officers, including several minor lords and nobles. Since Viggo Larsen and his 13th Legion were retreating from Serenity, that meant that the theoretical fall of Jollity would reduce the invaders to merely a toehold presence in the Johninian homeland. These thoughts plagued Olivar Vandreis as he organized a desperate defense of the town, attempting to stitch together a coherent command structure from the now-hopelessly-devolved Clans of the 5th Naval Legion. His efforts were largely ineffectual, and some clan-allegiant forces began stealing from or even fighting each other.

Meanwhile, Battlegroup Tranquility was rolling over dozens of kilometers of terrain, forcing back the various Clans all the way to the edges of Jollity. They were briefly slowed by a cadre of Red Roaches, but this elite unit was captured and imprisoned, sent through the underground tunnel system to be processed by the Council of Wartime Affairs.

Upon reaching Jollity, the Battlegroup adopted a wide axis of attack, seeking to overrun the enemy in multiple places on the assumption that they lacked the cohesion for proper reinforcement tactics. This assumption was correct, and the Johninians broke through the fortified borders of the town in three places. The assault on the Peace Gate was particularly bloody, as hardened veterans from Clan Selby rained a hail of flak fire on the Johninians from multiple nearby apartments. Once the town was breached, however, Olivar Vandreis lost any illusion of control he might have been desperately entertaining. The 5th Naval Legion no longer existed, having been supplanted by warlord units bound only by blood ties. The forces of Clan Sorrel held the town square for an hour before retreating from the city. Seeing this, the Waylands railroaded Olivar Vandreis into pulling out his own clan-allegiant forces. After being informed of Vandreis's retreat, Clan Selby under Sel, Clan Farsvarr under Agron, and finally Clan Skulder under Sander Czego mounted their own fighting retreats in the direction of Axiom Transit Hub.

Shortly afterward, the Johninians had reasserted control over Jollity. The unlucky O'Leary holdouts in the city were either taken captive or executed.

The 13th Naval Legion arrived at Axiom at around the same time as the 5th. The two formations were in radically different condition. While Viggo Larsen had maintained control of his various regular units and clan-allegiant forces, keeping them as a cohesive military body, he was disgusted with how decentralized Erik Sorrel and Olivar Vandreis had allowed the 5th to become. The three men clashed frequently once Erik arrived at Axiom, which was now the only major O'Leary stronghold on the mainland Neck.

Larsen proposed that his Legion be deployed to blunt the force of Battlegroup Tranquility, arguing it was a stronger and more capable Legion that should face stronger and more capable foes. At the same time, the 5th should advance northward, its "more separate nature" making it a better opponent to the various Army Subgroups led by Vacker the Wall. Though his plan was initially opposed by Sorrel and Vandreis, who perhaps dreaded the task of reuniting the fractured 5th Naval Legion, Larsen's ruthless style of argumentation coerced his fellow officers into going along with the plan.

However, the plan was almost immediately met with severe problems. Erik Sorrel had very little time to reorganize the 5thbefore being forced to advance north once more, in an effort to keep Vacker away from Axiom. The 5th Naval Legion and the units of Serenity Regional Command clashed around the base of Mount Eminent, wherein the Johninians scored many early victories. It seemed that reversing fronts was not good for the troops of the 5th, while Vacker's men had been continually advancing along familiar territory since the war began. Furthermore, Erik Sorrel had really made almost no progress in rebuilding the unity of his Legion, only commanding the respect of its various sub-commanders individually. They would listen to him, but not each other. Thus, Mount Eminent was a hard loss of men and morale that only stalled Vacker's advance.

At the same time, Larsen threw his 13th Legion at Battlegroup Tranquility, slicing two holes in its lines in the direction of Jollity. He surged forward the IV Army Corps of the Republic of Ospalar, under the command of Foundational Yavilos Kuriskeer, in an effort to break up the now-mythic unity of the Batlegroup. The Army Corps was artillery-centric, and he deployed it in his backlines specifically to batter the enemy and force them to split up. However, his artillery was met by Johninian artillery, and it soon became apparent that he was sorely outgunned. Counter-battery fire from Janssen's stockpiled artillery units devastated the IV Army Corps, and it lost all ability to substantially bombard the enemy. In the contest of guns, the TOT quickly emerged victorious. Losing his artillery lost Larsen his primary leg to stand on, and the main ace up his sleeve. His more-experienced and more-united Legion fared better against the Johninians south of Axiom, scoring minor victories in the later months of October 1928, but he was eventually put on the back foot when Janssen began to use his artillery more confidently. Ultimately, the last safe and defensible place for his troops to be was Axiom, so after a few more days of agony under the guns of the Johninians, he retreated.

By the start of November 1928, both the 13th and 5th Naval Legions were back in Axiom Transit Hub, encircled on all sides but the sea, which remained a reliable mode of replenishment by way of the 8th. Erik Sorrel sent a message to King Alvar II and to the College of Clans, asking what they wanted him to do. The guns of Battlegroup Tranquility and Serenity Regional Command were pounding Axiom day in and day out, and airship raids were a daily occurrence. However, the tens of thousands of men holed up in Axiom were not even considering surrender, whether out of tenacious commitment or resigned duty.

The O'Leary in Axiom suffered appalling casualties under the weight of hundreds of guns. 24/7 bombardment from Johninian forces was the norm, and could only be matched by the inaccurate bunker-busting guns of the 8th Naval Legion.

Alvar and the College of Clans debated for over a week on the issue, hearing multiple reports from Oskar Aastersen, Laurents Baxter, Niall Wayland, and other veterans of the campaign. The ultimate decision was that it would be "militarily preferable for the 13th and 5th Naval Legion to withdraw from the Johninian mainland, to be reinforced and reorganized immediately." Ardent pro-war voices, such as Håkon Farsvarr, advocated for a renewed attack to be launched in the summer of 1929, with heavier support from the Aquilon-Askalis-Jabeyrack Concordance. Whether this would have been pursued is irrelevant, as the decision was relayed to Erik Sorrel that his men should evacuate from Axiom. This was done via the ships of 8th Naval Legion, which brought the troops first to a nearby island and then back to the Warmwater Chain.

Johninian forces celebrated this turn of events, especially Vacker, who was for various reasons hesitant to storm Axiom. He began dividing his forces in an effort to consolidate uniform control over the Neck, where a few O'Leary holdouts were still rumored to be active. Battlegroup Tranquility was returned to Mistad for refit and resupply, as it was impossible to predict if, where, or when a second invasion would take place. However, Operation TRUNNION was regarded as an unparalleled victory.

The propaganda boon from the operation was enormous, and Murdoc Janssen, its principal architect, was hailed as a hero of the SRJ.

But the war was not quite over.

#### Battle of the Warmwater Chain (12/28)

*Main articles: Johninian Naval Corps, Great Fleet of Salbath, Battle of the Warmwater Chain*

The remnants of the 13th and 5th Naval Legion coalesced at the Warmwater Chain, specifically the fortified ports around Onnfrey. Waiting for them there were tens of thousands of fighting-age men from a multitude of families, mostly volunteers, with some notable exceptions (Boat 55). They would replenish the ranks of the battered Legions and undergo several weeks of training. In truth, it would take months or perhaps years for the O'Leary Armed Forces to reach the power they had at the start of the invasion.

The 8th Naval Legion, originally designated primarily as a logistical fleet, had been gradually strengthened to the level of a fresh combat formation, numbering at least 70,000 men and 35 ships in size. It was commanded by Bastien Baxter, a capable naval veteran who had been nominated by his cousin Augustus. To bring the 13th and 5th up to his level, Bastien had commanded Isak Frederiksen to begin building combat ships at an expedited rate, and had ordered all shipbuilding contracts intended for clan-allegiant forces to instead be given to one of the two Legions needing replenishment. Seeking good officers for the long term, Bastien also sponsored over two hundred applications to the Clan School of Naval Warfare in Onnfrey. King Alvar II and the College of Clans began awarding decorations to soldiers who had fought valiantly at the Neck, which would normally imply that the campaign was over. Time was needed to rebuild and reassess the military situation and overall strategy used by the O'Leary throughout the course of their invasion.

Håkon Farsvarr and Vagar the Black still pushed for war, occasionally supported by the Larsen military-industrial complex, but were most often drowned out by the voices of Balthasar Sorrel and Isak Frederiksen, who wanted business as usual to resume, and by Augustus Baxter, whose reasons were less clear. It seemed that the Battle of the Neck would naturally fade out with the withdrawal of troops during Operation TRUNNION.

That all changed when Laurents Baxter awoke in Courienta to experience a serious, unintentional Seeing episode. His subconscious mind, likely trawling through memories from his time at the Neck, had activated his magic sensors while he slept, and he awoke in a vision state - at first he believed he was still dreaming. The dominating images in his vision were fragmented glimpses of a Johninian naval control center. Wilter Hargreaves and his attendants were clearly depicted in his Sight drawing up plans to attack the Warmwater Chain.

With all three full-size Legions of the O'Leary Armed Forces concentrated at Onnfrey for the first time in history, Laurents reasoned that the vision was neither of the distant past nor future, and rather depicted the TOT's immediate plans. He brought the news to his father Augustus, who instructed him to enter a state of deep meditation and intensive Seeing. For the first time, the Sight would be used for a specific military application, rather than a religious or philosophical one. At great personal cost, Laurents was able to glean multiple important facts: Wilter Hargreaves planned to launch a naval attack on the Warmwater Chain and decimate the O'Leary Armed Forces and defense industry, thereby retaliating for years of brutal warfare and preventing a second invasion of the Neck for (at the very least) half a decade. To this end, he mobilized the entire Johninian Naval Corps, part of the Aerial Corps, and multiple groupings of the Infantry Corps to create a truly formidable war fleet. Laurents also learned that Hargreaves was planning a deception, wherein he would convince the O'Leary that a naval attack would fall on December 10th at Seiberg, when in reality would land at Salbath, using a completely different trajectory of attack.

Though he was exhausted and near-comatose after his intensive Seeing, Laurents delivered his findings to Augustus, who then relayed them to King Alvar. The monarch saw an opportunity to inflict a Parthian shot of sorts against the Johninians: "If they deny us their land, we deny them the Sea itself." He ordered the 5th, 8th, and 13th Naval Legions at Onnfrey to begin ship-to-ship combat drills, and alerted their top commanders of an impending battle. While the 5th and 13th would not be fully strengthened by December 10th, replacements for the hardest-hit of their military units and naval crews could likely be scrounged in such a short time. Preparations were a round-the-clock affair on both sides, until the Johninian fleet set out on December 7th. Hargreaves, with the blessing of Janssen, had carried out an extensive campaign of deception and misdirection as to the date of the attack, unaware that the O'Leary Sight rendered it pointless. In fact, the foreknowledge of their inaccurate nature meant the O'Leary could study Hargreaves' tricks more closely.

The TOT war fleet numbered 61 combat ships, including 10 rented from the stores of the Dynastic Pact's member-states. It was joined by 8 support ships, and a picket of 15 airships. They anticipated an easy, overwhelming victory that would sink dozens of O'Leary ships and allow them to withdraw relatively unimpeded. However, they were prepared to fight if necessary. Hargreaves personally led the war fleet from his flagship, the *JNC Magnificent*, staking his career on the results of the battle. He decided to forgo a JAC reconnaissance picket to give the O'Leary the smallest possible window of time to prepare their defenses.

Rather than a token force or ill-prepared garrison, the JNC/JAC war fleet was steaming towards a monstrously large flotilla of 89 combat ships and 20 support ships, collectively representing the 5th, 8th, and 13th Naval Legions, in addition to smaller clan-allegiant formations owned by Clan Aastersen and Clan Algotsen. This flotilla was hidden on the far side of the Isle of Salbath in the Warmwater Chain, obscuring it from the view of the approaching war fleet. It was commanded by Erik Sorrel, Bastien Baxter, and Holt Frederiksen, but subordinate to the decisions of the High Command back at the Old Dark Lodge, which was monitoring the situation as it developed live. Laurents Baxter, aboard the 8th Legion's *OLS Thornwood,* was vindicated at the sight of the TOT war fleet, its arrival proving his Sight correct.

The 13th Legion under Holt Frederiksen led the opening maneuvers, with the 8th Legion taking up the middle position in the line and the 5th Legion bringing up the rear as a reserve force. There are conflicting reports as to the fate of Wilter Hargreaves, with some suggesting he was killed instantly by O'Leary shells in the opening exchange of fire, and others offering wild stories of him throwing himself off the bow of his ship at the shocking site of the massive flotilla. Whatever the case, Hargreaves was killed within minutes of the opening engagement, and command fell to his closest attendant.

With both forces heavily engaging each other, the JAC picket was under severe stress. Nine airships were downed or damaged before it beat a hasty retreat. At the same time, the 13th Legion made an aggressive drive through the Johninian war fleet, cutting it in two. The penal ship Boat 55 distinguished itself in this action, crippling two Johninian vessels. As capital-level ships like battleships and battlecruisers started to engage each other, the sheer of weight of numbers began to turn the battle swiftly in favor of the O'Leary. The 13th and 8th Legion fared particularly well due to the leadership of a seasoned Frederiksen and Baxter commander, respectively. Admiral Erik Sorrel saw less combat in this battle than he had in the past, as the 5th Legion was largely a reserve force to protect the other formations from suffering a breakthrough at the hands of the Johninians.

The battle raged for hours, with both sides pulling back and re-committing to the fight, until finally the *JNC Magnificent* was hit with a heavy bombardment and started listing. Sensing blood in the water, the 13th Naval Legion pulled forward and pressed the attack, forcing the other Johninian vessels to abandon their burning flagship. A few prisoners were taken from the listing hulk, and were eventually transported back to Onnfrey for interrogation. The momentum fully turned against the TOT, who beat a quick retreat, pursued at least a day by the 13th and 8th Naval Legions.

The massive battle off the Warmwater Chain functionally crippled the Johninian Naval Corps, which required years to rebuild itself, and confirmed O'Leary control over the southern waters off Helinska. It all but guaranteed that a Johninian naval counterattack against their invaders would be impossible. This was to be the trade-off for the brutal losses in the Mistad and Serenity theaters of war that had resulted in defeat and withdrawal. It was an unhappy compromise for some Clans, particularly the Skulders and Farsvarrs who wanted to fight to the death. But it was certain that O'Lear would not risk an open capital-level battle against the Johninians again. Committing everything they had off Salbath resulted in a decisive victory, but only because they had the element of surprise earned through brutal Seeing. Such a fortunate combination of events was unlikely to be repeated.

#### Final Moves (1/29—3/29)

Clan-allegiant ships from Clan Skulder and Clan Farsvarr, occasionally working together, raided lightly-guarded Johninian shipping in the early months of 1929. These were branded as pirates, and some of their leaders were rounded up and imprisoned on the Isle of Fengsel, which angered Vagar the Black.

#### The End (4/29)

Instead of preparing to go back to war after the Battle of the Warmwater Chain, Alvar II focused on rebuilding his army and domestic support, content to put the events of the Neck behind him, even as others in the Aquilon-Askalis-Jabeyrack Concordance were not. Indeed, the Republic of Ospalar, which had donated its IV Army Corps to the invasion, would launch its own separate assault on the TOT some months later.

Alvar understood that to repeat such a costly campaign was to put his throne and government in severe, nigh-existential jeopardy, moreso than it already had been. The individual heroism of soldiers during the ground campaign and the victory at the Warmwater Chain were emphasized in songs and stories, while the end result of Operation TRUNNION and the years-long killing fields at the Neck were not.

The conflict had done little to advance the political careers of any O'Leary nobles, with the noted exception of Augustus Baxter and his son Laurents, both of whom had played critical roles in several major victories at the Neck. This forced Clan Frederiksen and Clan Larsen to consider the Baxters with a note of respect, which they had certainly lacked at the start of the war. The war harmed the trade (and reputation) of Clan Sorrel significantly, and it needed at least six months to recover from the economic strain, which resulted largely from contracts they were forced to abandon in favor of wartime duties.

The war also strengthened the relationship between the O'Leary and the ethnic Katavians of the Clansteel Brigade, who supported the Battle of the Neck. This also began a period of general tension with the Yangxi Empire.

For the Johninians, it had been an existential and ideological triumph, militarizing its culture even more and dramatically up-jumping the career of Murdoc Janssen, Sven Landock (in charge of Battlegroup Tranquility), and Aurelius Vacker, the latter of whom was promoted to Councilman as a result of his actions with Serenity Regional Command. A national day of celebration was established for the date Operation TRUNNION concluded and the O'Leary were officially driven from the shores of the TOT: November 27th, "Resistance Day."

The Battle of the Neck was over. Both sides acknowledged an uneasy truce and focused on other matters, chief among which were stabilization and reconstruction.

> I walk a calm shore
> Flowers grow; men did before
> Does the ocean mourn?
>
> "Calm Waters," poem attributed to Jaeson Taverly, c. 1929

## Order of Battle

### O'Lear and allied forces

* **Union of O'Lear**
	+ **O'Leary Armed Forces -** **Supreme Commander King Alvar II Aastersen**
		- **13th Naval Legion - Admiral Holt Frederiksen (Naval Command), General Viggo Larsen (Ground Command)**
			* Ellias Koett - Commander of Clan Koett's CAF, subordinated to Frederiksen
			* Gage Birger - Commander of Clan Birger's CAF, subordinated to Larsen
			* Stefan Ofgrod - Commander of Clan Ofgrod's CAF, subordinated to Larsen
		- **5th Naval Legion - Admiral Erik Sorrel (Naval and Ground Command, 1926-June 1928, September 1928-1929), Grand Huntsman Laurents Baxter (Ground Command, June-September 1928)**
			* Niall Wayland - Commander of Clan Wayland's CAF, subordinated to Sorrel, and 5th Naval Legion logistical forces
			* Olivar Vandreis - Commander of Clan Vandreis's CAF, subordinated to Sorrel, and military intelligence
			* The Three Fists -
				+ Erd, Lars, and Stefan Skulder - Commander of Clan Skulder's CAF, nominally subordinated to Sorrel
				+ Sander Czego - Commander of Clan Czego's CAF, subordinated to the Three Fists until their death
			* Sel Selby - Commander of Clan Selby's CAF, subordinated to Sorrel
			* Agron Farsvarr - Commander of Clan Farsvarr's CAF, subordinated to Sorrel
	+ **Other Clan-Allegiant Forces**
* **Free State of Katavia**
	+ **Clansteel Brigade (Cmdr. Robert O'Malley)**
		- **1st Ranger Division**
			* **Katavian Raiders**
		- **4th Infantry Corps**
* **Aquilon-Askalis Concordance**
	+ **Republic of Ospalar**
		- **IV Army Corps (Foundational Yavilos Kuriskeer)**
	+ **Republic of Volaysia**
		- **37th Marine Battalion**

### TOT and allied forces

* **Treaty of Tradition**
	+ **Council of Wartime Affairs**
		- **Johninian Infantry Corps**
			* **Mistad Regional Command (Councilman Murdoc Janssen)**
				+ **Battlegroup Tranquility (Councilman Sven Landock)**
			* **Serenity Regional Command (Councilman Jasper Hardegen, Later Councilman Aurelius Vacker)**
				+ **Army Subgroup Ennui**
				+ **Army Subgroup Judgment**
				+ **Army Subgroup Balance (Coordinator Aurelius Vacker)**
		- **Patriotic Johninian Militia**
		- **Johninian Aerial Corps**
		- **Johninian Naval Corps**
	+ **Council of Internal Pacification**
* **Karostain Holy Empire**
	+ **3rd Karostain Rangers (Brig. William Harfer)**
		- **7th Royal Artillery Regiment (Lft. Cmdr. Astvam Derhieser)**

## References

1. ↑ Clan Sorrel made it clear they did not want to go back to war.
2. ↑ Erik Sorrel was called the "Sleeping Admiral" for his actions following Operation SLACKJAW.