Five Days' War

## Overview

The Five Days' War was a brief military conflict between anarchist and anti-Bandorian rebels and Bandorian military forces in the Folkar star system. The conflict technically started on 9 March 5229, when rebels on Leuturn fired several interplanetary-type missiles at Bandorian military bases on Beria; three days later, Bandorian naval, ground, and air forces were deployed to the system en masse. It took place in Folkar system space and on Beria and Leuturn between 12 March 5229 and 17 March 5229. The end result of the conflict was the surrender of the rebel forces and the end of the anarchist and anti-Bandorian movements in Folkar.

## Factions

Bandorian Protectorate

Santonian Order

vs

various armed rebel and anarchist groups

## Timeframe

12 March 5229- 17 March 5229

Result: Bandorian Protectorate victory, rebel/anarchist coalition defeat

## Background

Throughout the Protectorate and in human society in general, anarchist movements have always sprung up occasionally. In Folkar around the year 3950, many anarchists became prominent and started gaining large numbers of followers. The anarchist movement there gained many supporters from all echelons of life; the Protectorate government, as usual, did not suppress these activists because they viewed them as simply practicing freedom of expression, which was allowed in the Protectorate. At the same time, many anti-Bandorian activists, covertly supported by the Asgardian Alliance, began operating in Folkar, and they also gained many supporters who were swayed to the view that the Bandorian government was oppressive and had too much control over the citizens. An unofficial alliance was made between these two movements sometime around the year 4200, and they started growing in power and in numbers, as they began to receive weapons in secret shipments from the Asgardian Alliance. Many UEO members also came to Folkar to practice piracy on the spacelanes there, and the system's defense forces were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of pirates; in an unusual departure from Bandorian tradition, the system's governor at the time did not call for more bounty hunters to assist with cleansing the pirates, or for additional official system defense forces. By the year 5000, the rebels had grown to almost a million strong, which, combined with massive immigration to Folkar that raised the population from just over 5 million in 4000 to over 35 million in 5000, meant that the situation became much more tense and potentially disastrous. The rebels had continuously engaged in small-scale terrorism starting from around 4500; attacks with small missiles and similar devices, attacks with speeders or hovercraft with self-destructing reactors, and many incidents where armed rebels would conduct raids into areas of cities held by loyal Bandorian civilians, killing many civilians over the course of these raids. The Bandorian government forces tried to confiscate stockpiles of small missiles, but were not always successful in their efforts, as the rebels were ingenious when it came to manufacturing small missiles and rockets that were used in many different attack strategies. Often a single person would set up and launch a single rocket, then when police forces arrived other rebels who were hiding nearby would launch more rockets at them. Around the year 5000 the rebels had also started to manufacture larger missiles; the Asgardian Defense Force secretly continued to give them surplus weapons and equipment each year; each year, the deliveries got larger and began to consist of more powerful and dangerous weaponry and equipment. The delivery in 5228 notably included five guidance systems for Slipstream interplanetary missiles. The rebels had many installations in underground bases on Leuturn where they manufactured missile weaponry; they had already started medium-scale manufacturing of three distinct missile designs, the Genshin medium-range heavy guided missile and the Vestas and Dalrok long-range medium guided missiles, which were also used as anti-ship missiles. These installations were often located in the sides of craters, which were used as landing sites for small ships and aircraft operated by the rebel forces. During the second half of 5228, the rebels put massive efforts into building five interplanetary missiles, using the five Asgardian Slipstream interplanetary missile guidance systems; while it was originally planned to place these guidance systems in an entirely new missile, the rebel commanders opted for efficiency and chose to use a heavily modified version of the Vestas missile instead. On 12 February 5229, construction of the missiles was completed; the rebels used the next few weeks to move the missiles to a suitable firing location.

## Opening stages

On 9 March 5229, the rebels fired all five of the interplanetary missiles, which were given the name Shinden, at Bandorian military bases on Beria, launching them from sites on Leuturn. The Shinden missiles were designed to achieve a very high velocity, which made it extremely difficult for interception systems to work against them; however, one of the missiles was still intercepted by the Bandorian 114th Airspace Defense Regiment before entering the atmosphere. Another missile went off course and hit a civilian population center, causing nearly 4,000 casualties. The remaining three missiles hit Bandorian military bases, causing a total of over 10,000 casualties. Despite the extreme nature of the attack, it was seen by some as simply a slight escalation compared to previous attacks; however, the governor of Folkar at the time, Umar Kassifi, who had been elected on 1 May 5228, was much more strict compared to previous governors, and had been looking for a major reason to call in reinforcements to "deal with the terrorists once and for all", as he put it. He immediately declared martial law with the restriction that it would end within one month, declared the anarchist and anti-Bandorian movements to be in rebellion against the lawful government, contacted the Supreme Leader of the Protectorate to request military aid in putting down the rebellion, and activated all Bandorian military forces in the system, conducting massive bombing runs of rebel bases with the Bandorian air forces on Beria and Leuturn. On 12 March 5229, the Bandorian First Fleet arrived in the system, along with many transports carrying aircraft, troops, and equipment for ground forces, and the First Fleet of the Santonian Order.

## Main battles

At 0600 local time on 12 March 5229, the Bandorian First Fleet deployed all ground and air forces to Beria and Leuturn to assist local Bandorian forces in destroying rebel positions and forcing their surrender. The ground forces included 20 regiments of Rocket Artillery, 100 regiments Disruptorguards, 200 regiments Guards, 50 regiments of regular artillery, 20 regiments of missile defense, and 2 regiments of Nocturns, in addition to 50 regiments of the Santonian Order troops and the Tactical Assault Corps, a special unit which was trained to rapidly take over and destroy enemy positions. The air forces included 800 fighters, 200 interceptors, and 400 bombers. The local Bandorian military had approximately 25 regiments of ground forces, and for air forces they had 200 fighters and 80 bombers. Additional forces were brought up as armed loyalist militia were deputized. By 1200 local time on 12 March 5229, all rebels had been forced out of cities on Beria, taking nearly 12,000 casualties in the process, while the Bandorian forces suffered less than 500 casualties. Meanwhile, ships from the Protectorate Navy were patrolling the system, hunting down the UEO and rebel ships; a significant majority of these ships were destroyed by the end of the day on 12 March, though search-and-destroy operations continued until 17 March, when the system was declared free of rebel influence. On 0600 on 13 March, the Bandorian ground and air forces on Beria mounted major offensives designed to destroy the rebel bases there. In two hours, they killed over 20,000 rebels and forced the surrender of 150,000 more; the rebels on Beria were almost completely destroyed at this point, although a few batteries of missiles were dueling with the Bandorian 39th Rocket Artillery Regiment in an isolated area; an estimated 4,000 rebels were entrenched in positions around the missile batteries. At 1536 local time two flightgroups of Bandorian military bombers from the First Fleet and one flightgroup of bombers from Folkar's defense forces attacked this position; at 1600 it was declared suppressed, and 300 rebels surrendered there. At 1745 another group of nearly 10,000 rebels on Beria surrendered after seeing the MLRS of the 75th Rocket Artillery Regiment approaching their position. This left less than 50,000 rebels on Beria, holed up in an area known as Golkov's Pass, a valley between two large hills. They were surrounded by at least 20 regiments of Bandorian ground forces, including the 47th Rocket Artillery Regiment and three regiments of Disruptorguards. This area was heavily fortified, and the rebels here had multiple Vestas and Genshin missile systems, which they used to destroy approaching Bandorian hovertanks. Bandorian EMP artillery returned fire, knocking out most of the rebels' communication systems and their remaining guided missile systems. The rebels resorted to using unguided smaller rockets, which were placed in lines connected by fuse wires, then one end of the fuse wire would be electrified and all the rockets would launch. This tactic resulted in many Bandorian casualties, though the hovertanks and MLRS were now free to advance without fear of heavy missile attacks, and they bombarded the rebel positions continuously through the night. At approximately 0900 on 14 March 5229 the commander of the rebels in Golkov's Pass surrendered; the rebel forces had suffered nearly 27,000 casualties. Meanwhile, the Bandorians turned their attention to Leuturn. Starting at 0400 on 14 March 5229, the Bandorian air forces pounded rebel bases there mercilessly. Spacecraft from the Protectorate First Fleet, Santonian First Fleet, and Folkar System Defense Forces orbiting Leuturn also fired energy weapons and torpedoes at the rebel bases, causing massive damage. The Tactical Assault Corps was deployed to Leuturn with rapid redeployment capability being made available; they would attack one rebel base, neutralize it, then get back in their small transports and travel to another base, while artillery units and the Santonian First Fleet in orbit would support their attacks. There were around 760,000 rebels on Leuturn, almost all of them holed up in these small bases scattered all round the moon on the edges of craters; the Tactical Assault Corps and the Santonian ships neutralized over 400 rebel bases with an estimated 500,000 rebels inside by the end of 16 March 5229, and on 17 March 5229 the general leader of the remaining rebels surrendered. A vast majority of the rebels who surrendered in all of the battles in the war were deported to the Bandorian penal colonies in Hradona and Farsight.

## End results

The rebel movements in Folkar were completely destroyed; less than 10,000 rebels, most of whom were people who had merely expressed sympathy for the movement, were allowed to remain in the Folkar system, and they were kept under observation. The Supreme Leader of the Protectorate issued an official warning to the government of the Asgardian Alliance, stating that any future support for anti-Bandorian rebels would result in severe consequences for them.