Battle for Vaivenes

The battle for Vaivenes, also known as Operation Peixe Voador, was a military operation led by the Army of Chaos during the Solíno Civil War (events of Just Cause 4). This is a part of the New and Improved Solís project.

It was an airborne-amphibious operation, launched to protect the newly-conquered city of Vista Futura. It ended with the Ojo de la Pradera base and El Molino being surrounded, with the first being seiged and the second razed by aerial bombings.

## Background.

The frontline around Vaivenes and Abundancia before the attack. In red the Black Hand, in blue the Army of Chaos, in yellow the bombing routes.

After the terrible battle for Vista Futura and the moderate success of Operation Key, the Army of Chaos found itself in a delicate position. Weakened, surrounded by enemies, and with two enemy bases just nearby, they had to rapidly get themselves out. A land assault, while repeatedly considered by the high command, was at last rejected by Mira Morales, who thought that Ojo de la Pradera would be too difficult to attack from the ground. Instead, old discarded plans for attacking Villanueva were adapted for the new battlefield. Just two weeks after the massacre in Vista Futura, the troops were already being told to prepare for battle.

## Fielded troops.

### Army of Chaos:

* 9th, 10th, 12th and 15th Infantry Divisions
* 2nd and 3rd artillery regiments
* 1st aerial bombing squadron.
* The Navy of Chaos.

The Army of Chaos’ troops were commanded by Mira Morales in the land operations and by Luis Sargento in the sea operation.

### Black Hand:

* 4th Anti-Tank Division, 8th Mountain Infantry Division, 6th Infantry Division, 2nd Tank Regiment
* 5th Artillery Brigade

The Black Hand’s troops were led by General Carlos Pacheco de Navarra in the south and General Octavio Benjamim Mendes in the north and El Molino. General Gabriela Morales also directed operations from Prospero Balìstica.

## The attacks.

### Bombings.

Ten minutes after midnight, the 1st Bombing Squadron took off from the Nueva Voz airport and a swarm of bombers and fighters flew over the Black Hand territory and repeatedly hit Joya del Sol, Ojo de la Pradera, El Molino, Reina Maria, Sueroloco, Hacienda Valle Viejo and many more of the fortified villages in the region. The bombings destroyed several warehouses and burned down the farms in Hacienda Valle Viejo. 359 people were left dead; military installations all across the region were destroyed as the waves of bombers flew for over two hours continuously.

### Air and water landings.

Between 2:30 am and 3:00 am, the two Conquistador corvettes Horacio Valdez and Santiago Nunez-Prieto guarded the departure of the Maria Hidalgo Spearhead carrier and its arrival in front of Joya del Sol; it was the first operation of the Army of Chaos’ navy after the devastating defeat in the Battle of the Southern Seas. Maria Hidalgo carried the bulk of the men from the 15th division, while the others were divided into 5 civilian tugboats, 6 Stormwater patrol boats and a modified corvette, stripped of its weapons after being captured. The other ships were set to land on the rest of the coast, surrounding the whole region.

Approaching Joya del Sol, sailors described the once beautiful city as reduced to a single fire, drenched in thick, black smoke. Few artificial lights remained; the city, told survivors of the bombing, had fallen to the darkness of the night.

A small garrison of Black Hand troops had rushed to the city at the end of the bombing to assess damage and saw a fleet of amphibious Reptile AAVs and Thunderbarge boats moving towards the beaches.

At the same moment, however, C-47 Skycastle planes were dropping troops, Prizefighter IFVs and Warrior trucks on the small base and power station that sat on top of a hill, in the back of the city.

The landings in Joya del Sol deserve to be talked about longer due to their violence and the fierceness of the Black Hand fighters. Surrounded, attacked by the sea and the air, they kept fighting and managed to slow down the amphibious landings for more than an hour; but in the end, as the paratroopers had captured all roads coming out of the city, they were forced to surrender. The battle left 78 of the Black Hand servicemen dead; they managed to kill 348 of the Army of Chaos soldiers, destroying ten light-armoured vehicles and two Prizefighter IFVs. One of the Conquistador warships was also damaged and had to return to base and be replaced.

On the remaining villages of the coast, landings were almost unopposed. Troops had enough time to organise, with at least four waves of transport planes dropping paratroopers, vehicles and supplies before the Black Hand started retaliating.

At 6:00 AM, the first reports were sent by all units: fighting was still ongoing in Bajo la Nariz and north of El Molino, but Joya del Sol had been conquered and the fundamental checkpoint of Granja Marcos was secured. The next objectives were Zuniga and Mendoza, which would secure I-80 in the hands of the rebels.

### Land fighting

This started the second phase of the plan, with a huge artillery bombardment on the two settlements, which aimed to destroy the roads and forbid them from trying to repeal the attack on the coast. Then, troops from Vista Futura and Corazoncito advanced and attacked the enemy lines, effectively breaking through the enemy defences in the South and conquering Mendoza. Fighting in Zuniga was instead way more fierce, and lasted until 9 am, when an official report first said that the village had fallen.

At this point, the Black Hand had reorganised in El Molino and launched a counteroffensive against the rebels. They attacked Granja Marcos, surrounded it and started a shelling that would last for seven hours without interruption. They supported resistance in Zuniga until the end of the battle but were then fended off to Granja Marcos. They then moved towards Zambullida where they started fighting against the landing troops, who couldn’t advance further.

By moving through Mendoza, the Army of Chaos captured Camino Cortijo and surrounded Ojo de la Pradera. They then tried moving towards San Telmo but were ultimately halted.

Espinosa, who was closely following the situation, ordered general Mendes to launch a counterattack from San Telmo to El Molino. Mendes, instead, bombarded troops in Hacienda Valle Viejo and Zambullida, then tried moving to Zuniga. He evacuated El Molino, which was under heavy shelling.

#### The explosion in El Molino.

At 3pm, a 500kg bomb from an artillery gun of unknown allegiance hit a munition deposit in El Molino, which housed up to 3 tons of explosives and 5 tons of fuel. The resulting blast was the largest recorded during the war: it razed the warehouse and nearby structures, damaged several vehicles during the evacuation attempts and almost downed two helicopters hovering above. One of those ultimately crashed due to damage from the blast. Houses lost windows in Vista Futura and doors were damaged in San Telmo; further damage was caused by the debris launched from the explosion. El Molino was completely destroyed and this ultimately ended the battle as troops were unable to keep fighting in El Molino and the Black Hand surrended in Zambullida.

## Aftermath

The Army of chaos had suffered moderate losses, but the operation itself had a precarious result. It would have been easy for the Black Hand to counterattack, but General Mendes was under siege in San Telmo and General Pacheco de Navarra was locked in Ojo de la Pradera. They established fortifications, but neither side carried out bombardments as they had almost depleted their resources.

### Mendes’ death.

Two weeks after the battle Mendes was visited by two officers of the ANDEPS. They notified him that Espinosa wanted to try him for his disobedience during the battle and took hold of several of his notes and diaries as evidence. Mendes maintained a cool demeanour during the whole process and refused to give up or admit to having failed or sabotaged the counterattack.

The same night, firemen were called to his headquarters in San Telmo after his neighbours saw large flames and smoke coming from his garden. His fiancee and daughter were evacuated but the general himself could not be found.

The fire was quickly put out and paramedics entered the house to find Mendes in his study. It had been fully emptied and he was lying face down on the floor. His face was cyanotic and he had lost foamy blood from the mouth and nose. The room also smelled strongly of almonds and suicide via cyanide assumption was immediately suspected.

When the body was taken to the hospital, ANDEPS officers talked to the medics and forced them to release a death certificate stating he died of carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of the fire. In reality. Mendes had burned his documents in the garden and killed himself with cyanide. Espinoza had him honoured with a state funeral in Prospero Balìstica, which was now the main base of the quickly-collapsing regime. He was then buried in San Telmo, but his remains were moved to his hometown in San Marco after the war.

Mendes’ forced suicide was followed by the execution of General Sandoval, which triggered a chain of events that led to the end of the war.