The War on Deneba

Halleck Guards fighting through an urban environment

"If the Republic doesn't answer us by tomorrow, we'll do it our fucking selves" -Commandate Felix Liane

The Separatist invasion of Deneba was a part of the Clone Wars, designed to establish an operational zone to strike at undefended Republic sectors. Due to the Republic's unwillingness and inability to assist the citizens of Deneba, local militias were responsible for fending off the Droid attacks.

These militias took the form of the Deneba Mounted Volunteers, under the command of Commandante Felix Laine. The Volunteers were a loosely joined together confederation of fighting forces, thus different militias took different forms in organisation and command.

The war was one of the most brutal conflicts of the Clone Wars, with civilians oftentimes (and purposely) being caught in the crossfire between the Droid Army and Mounted Volunteers.

> "That's why we won't back down, We won't run and hide, That's why you stick to your game plans and party lines, but at night we're conspiring by candlelight, we are the orphans of the Republics Dreams" - The first phrase of a common Deneban song from the occupation.
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## The World of Deneba

### Geography

Deneba is a much younger planet than most of its neighbors. It is believed that the planet's core is much more unstable than most worlds. Deneba is a desert world, harsh and rocky. Survival is difficult and most of the population lives in large urban areas around oasis' and small rivers and creeks. Outside of those cities are a mixture of barely sustaining towns and mining villages.

Deneba's magnetic field is another curious anomaly. The field is extraordinarily unstable and varies in strength over thousands of years. 4.6 million years before the Battle of Yavin Deneba's magnetic field became extremely turbulent, affecting atmospheric conditions, causing massive storms (Ionic, Magnetic, and conventional storms). This radical change in climate would lead to an ecological collapse. Since the collapse, the magnetic field has been weakening and by the Old Sith Wars leading to Deneba becoming habitable again. Atmospheric storms still factor into Deneba's climate of course, as a result, ships could only fly with low weight loads, lest they lose structural integrity. As such most transport took place on ground highways to areas where the atmosphere was stable enough for consistent air travel to orbit.

Deneba has no oceans, all water on the surface either exists in an oasis or small lakes, rivers, and creeks. There is some evidence that millions of years ago Deneba had several large seas and massive rivers, however by the Clone Wars all the remained of those seas were dried sea beds. Many of Deneba's beautiful canyons date from this period of wetness.

Deneba is also known for its large ore and precious metal deposits, which spurred on a large period of settlement to mining towns in the desert mountains and plains. However, due to the lack of Republic garrison and security forces, mining companies bought poorly armed PMCs to guard mining caravans and the stealing of small amounts of metals.

### Flora and Fauna

Not much exists natively on Deneba. Archeologists have found fossils of massive planets and animals. However on modern Deneba most of the flora on Deneba consists of mosses, cacti, and some small aspen like species of trees. In terms of fauna, the only large animal (outside of sentient species) is the Deneban Desert Horse which requires little water.

### Sentient Species

Deneba also had a native near-human native population, who rarely interacted with the larger populations but formed cordial relations with the isolated hamlets and mining towns. These Natives survived mainly as hunter-gatherers, though pre-human colonisation there were some agricultural areas. However these early attempts at civilisations were found to be abandoned by the time of colonisation.

Colonization took place from 8,000 to - 7631 BBY, directed from human core worlds after large outcroppings of important raw minerals were found. While some non-human populations came on as cheap mine workers, the vast majority of settlers hailed from Coruscant, Correllia, and Corulag. The first city would be the later capital, Meru. By 5,659 BBY the entire world had been settled by humans.

### Political Geography

Deneba is broken up into thirteen provincial sectors of varying size and population. Most of the "internal provinces" rely on trade and finance and have large (for Deneba) cities. The "outer provinces" were where most of the large mining complexes resided and where most mining towns were. In the aftermath of Karth's Crusade and the Great Sith War there was a brief civil war between the outer and internal proviences.

## CIS invasion of Deneba

### Initial Invasion

In 22BBY, wanting to get an early advantage over the Republic, CIS leadership decided the Republic planet of Deneba in the Midrim would make a good target for the invasion. Owing to Deneba's position in the Midrim and the Republic's lack of protection of nearby systems and sectors.

The Republic's small but elite Clone Army had to be used sparingly in areas of immediate crisis, and so Republic planners put very little thought into protecting Deneba itself. The idea was the should the Separatists strike at unguarded flanks, the Republic could respond to those attacks and liberate Deneba down the line.

So when a droid army battle-group landed outside the Capital province, the only resistance to the landings were a small coalition of PMC troops from nearby mines and the Capital Police Force. Being poorly trained and poorly armed, Deneba's feeble defenders were slaughtered in combat with the CIS. A small strike force of Republic Clones from the 501st's Vanguard Battalion. The Clones orders prevented them from engaging in a protracted engagement with the Confederates and promptly withdrew. Within the hour the Capital city, Wallen, had fallen to droid occupation.

With the fall of Wallen, a majority of the mining companies chose to abandon Deneba, fearing the Confederate wrath for not immediately surrendering their operations to military control. While some companies relocated their workers off planet, many of the labourers and employees of these mining companies were abandoned to live under droid occupation. The CIS quickly moved to occupy these mining towns and their associated mines, and pressed the local population into working for survival.

### Felix Liane

Felix had lived on Deneba for most of his life, originally from Onderon his father had brought young Felix to Deneba when received a government job in Wallen. Despite not being a birth Deneban, Felix grew to love his new home and explored much of the deserts around Wallen during his teenage years and early twenties. By the age of 30, Felix had become an officer in the Capital Police Force and had become rather respected in Deneban society.

When droid forces arrived on Deneba and began their march towards Wallen, Felix was one of the many members of the CPF to meet the advancing force in combat. Despite the utter defeat the CPF was handed, Felix managed to survive the battle, and set to work on ridding Deneba of the Confederate menace. Felix's first move was to create the "*Union of Deneban Free Fighters*" among surviving CPF members. The Union, while short lived, made contact with Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and requested aid in their fight against Separatist tyranny. Unfortunately for Felix and his ilk General Kenobi refused their call for aid, citing more important battles the GAR needed to focus on.

With confirmation the GAR would not come to their aid, Felix came to the decision to rid Deneba of the CIS himself through a war of attrition. Shortly after the GAR's refusal of aid, a droid AAT was blown up outside Wallen, with the Union taking credit for the attack.

### The Union of Deneban Free Fighters

Under the command of Liane the Free Fighters got to work on making public displays of resistance to Separatist rule of Deneba. Vandalism, bombings of droid equipment, and pubic rallies and protests were the initial tactics used by the Union. Liane's group was only a handful of surviving CPF members, and as a result, their actions were of small scales by necessity. While the attacks and operations were almost always successful in their goals, those goals were often too small scale to do any real damage to the CIS occupation.

Wanting a large scale attack to draw public attention and support for the Union, Liane devised "*Operation Stolen Wings"* a bombing a droid starfighter depot that'd been recently set up near Wallen

### Operation Stolen Wings and the Formation of the Mounted Volunteers

Shortly after establishing control of Wallen and the nearby Capital Province, Confederate leadership were faced with the issues of Deneba's unique geography and storms. It would be difficult to maintain total control over all the far flung population centres and mines. In light of these circumstances, a fighter wing of specialised Vulture Droids were deployed to Wallen. The thought was that the CIS could control the major cities and towns along with the mines directly, while the rest of the planet could be kept in line with air power. Should any town rebel again the Confederacy, it could wipe off the face of the map with a barrage of bombs and blaster fire from the air.

For Liane, such a reality couldn't be allowed to pass, so the Union devised a plan to destroy these new droids. Disguised as labourers working on expanding the airfield, UDFF agents would sneak onto the base and place timed bombs on key buildings, fuel depots, and aircraft. The hope was that these bombs would set off a chain reaction that would leave the Confederate Air Corps on Deneba crippled.

On the day of the operation, the UDFF managed to sneak onto the base and planet their explosives on their targets. However, before the escape, several agents were caught by droid security forces and were forced to use a manual detonator, killing all agents involved but destroying the Vulture droids and their support equipment.

After Stolen Wings, Liane's UDFF were given a bittersweet victory, while the Confederate plan to control the skies of Deneba was foiled, or at least delayed-most of the UDFF's best agents and members were killed in the debacle. Luckily for Liane and the survivors, their attack had inspired a general uprising in Hattah and several mining towns began a strike, refusing to work until they were fairly compensated. In Hattah, Vincent Wilson, led a group of armed civilians to strike the Confederate operating base in Hattah. Through hours of fighting with droids, Wilson's managed to overwhelm the droid defenders. The building the Separatists were operating out of was burned and Wilson set about preparing for a droid retribution attack. In the few days between the Hattah uprising and the return of the droid army, Liane and Wilson met in Hattah. Liane's UDFF were far too small now in number to do any real damage to the droids and these Hattah militiamen were far too inexperienced to keep fighting for long. The two men agreed to form a new group, the Deneba Mounted Volunteers, a decentralised organisation of resistance fighters who would fight the CIS across Deneba. Liane would serve as the leader of the organisation as a whole travelling across Deneba, helping to establish new anti-Confederate resistance groups.

## The War of Deneban Freedom

After the Hattah uprising, as expected a droid battle group arrived to restore order in the city. The newly formed Telio Guards had spent the time preparing and fortifying the city of Hattah for the attack. For four days the Guards fought against against the droids making the Confederates pay for every block and home they took from the Telio Guards. Being outnumbered, outgunned, and outplanned, the Telio Guards resorted to fighting a dirty war to maintain their ever shrinking zone of control from collapsing. Machine gun nests, mines, and improvised explosives all became incredibly common during the Battle of Hattah and would go on to define much of the war on the desert world.

Two weeks into the fighting the Telio Guards had been reduced to three isolated pockets of resistance. Of the 750 men who'd taken up arms against the Confederate counter attack, only 200 still lived. Both Vincent and Liane would escape through the sewer with as many as they could get out. With 202 men the Telio Guards would spread out across Deneba to organize anti-Separatist actions.

> "The sky was burning brighter than anything I'd ever seen. Columns of ash spiraling towards the stars. If Hattah survives,it will never be the same" - Sergeant Uol Yalven
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### The General Uprising

Though Hattah was on paper a defeat for Deneba's defenders, it did prove that the Separatists could be held off and with more training they could be overcome. From the highlands of Halleck to the the salt planes of Deneba-Ilua Deneba's citizens began taking arms against their occupiers. In the dunes of Zenniff miners began a hunger strike demanding a Confederate withdrawal from Deneba. In the Dravan Mesas Separatist droids were butchered at Galtao Ranch.

Overnight it seemed as though the entire droid occupation was under threat of collapsing. Confederate planners had expected some minor resistance from the Deneban elites while the majority of the population would simply accept the change of management. If the Confederacy did not act quickly they could easily lose control of the situation. The decision was made that if Deneba was to serve as a staging ground for a push into the Republic's stronghold in the Core Worlds, this rebellion would need to pacified. While Confederate commanders and politicians could agree to Deneba's strategic importance, the methods proposed to handle Deneba were hotly debated. Civilian officials believed that the Deneban people had little real allegiance to the Republic, rather this rebellion resulting from the military's heavy handed tactics. Therefore Mu'un politician, Faran Pard, proposed a civilian government in order to give the droid occupation the legal and political backing he believed was lacking in the occupation. Pard's military counter-parts pointed to their victory at Hattah as proof the rebellion would be little more than a nuisance and could easily be put down,

> "The Deneban is geared towards mining and keeping his head down towards the dirt, once we start shooting at them enough they will run and beg to go back to work" -Lt. Colonel Dala Oze
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In the end, through enough political pressure Pard's plan was put into place with the formation of the Deneban Occupation Committee (DOC). Almost instantly Pard's plans ran into issues. The first was that very few Denebans were willing to work with the DOC. Pard attempted to engage in truce talks and several important Deneban commanders, hoping they'd be willing to switch sides and enlist with the DOC. While a few of the less important Commanders met with Pard very few of that minority actually switched sides. Without Deneban support Pard correctly concluded that the DOC would fail, so he turned towards the expats who'd fled Deneba in the initial invasion. Many of the expats were elites and had previously owned the mines the Confederates now operated. Again very few of these expats agreed to meet with Pard, with most denouncing the DOC.
Without native support, the DOC would have to bring in Confederate Government officials to replace their military counterparts. Pard began a program of Separatist colonialism as a new policy to weaken the Deneban rebellion,

> "The more of us there are on Deneba, the less we need to worry about the Denebans think" - Faran Pard
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### Gravendale Peaks

While Pard was setting up his Occupation Committee, his counterparts in the Separatist military continued pursuing the Mounted Volunteers. The mountainous highlands of Halleck made a great base of operations for the regions Mounted Volunteers, from which the Volunteers had been attacking Confederate assets in three provinces. If the Halleck Guards could be drawn out and defeated, the Confederate position would be far stronger.

To draw the Halleck Guards from their mountain camps, the military began sending larger and far less defended convoys through Halleck. The idea being these convoys would be a perfect target for the Mounted Volunteers to ambush. Once the guards committed to attacking the convoy, the Confederates could launch their own counter attack and more easily use their air assets.

The only glaring issue with the Confederate plan was that route that was most certain to provoke the Mounted Volunteers would need to go through the Gravendale Peaks, a smaller mountains range that acted as a sort of gateway to the Halleck highlands. The Peaks were tectonically unstable and had a series of magma pools and flows. It was known the Halleck Guards maintained small scout teams in the Peaks as well, which could tip off the main body of rebels before the Confederates were ready.

Despite the risks the Confederates moved forward with their plans. The small scout force they'd likely encounter could be overwhelmed before they could a message off and the Peaks had been stable for months, and didn't show any increased chance for tectonic change. Early in the morning a Confederate mining convoy three times the size of the standard convoy with half the escort set out from the Tonopah mines for the Halleck Highlands.

For a variety of mechanical and logistical reasons the droid convoy moved at about 2/3rds the speed the plan had called for. By the time the convoy reached the entrance to the Gravendale Peaks it was plainly visible. Almost immediately the convoy was spotted and its existence reported to the main camps in the Highlands. To compound on the woes of the droids tasked with carrying out this mission, as they continued their trek through the peaks, several lava spouts erupted. These spouts consumed several of the Confederate transports and forced the convoy to hold position.

In total chaos, the convoy was easily torn apart from small arms fire from the scouts, which only worsened the droids circumstance. Within three hours, the entire convoy had either been abandoned or destroyed. The entire fiasco turned out to be immensely embarrassing for the Confederate occupiers and would lead to the resignation or redeployment of over half the organic Confederate command staff. While the volunteers themselves had done little to defeat the Confederates it didn't stop the Halleck Guards from using the entire incident as proof the Volunteers could fight and win against the droid army. The "battle" had been a great propaganda victory for the Mounted Volunteers.