The Rajska Campaign
BY PETE NEALEN
A major fleet of the Confraternity of Bronze, one of the Paladin clans, arrives in the Rajska system, announcing that Rajska occupies a strategic position on the flank of a gwar muster happening in the nearby Megeara system. Rajska is an old protectorate of the Kingdom of Myr, and has until now avoided Imperial attention. Stubbornly independent, and confident that they can muster greater force than the Paladin fleet, the Rajskans refuse to stand down and allow the Imperials to stage on and above their world, attacking when the Confraternity refuses to leave immediately. The war begins.
The initial Confraternity assault is devastating, securing footholds on both the second moon and the Varanian Plain, the high plateau that dominates the main western continent. Strategist Kiriakos tries to avoid collateral damage, though the Rajskan forces on the Varanian Plain are mostly annihilated. The Rajskan resistance, however, is soon bolstered by aid from The Clade and the Duchy of Gula, a Myran remnant. Frontlines soon solidify, as Clade-augmented forces probe the south shores of the continent.
Faced with the risk of an encirclement, Strategist Kiriakos organizes an offensive to drive on the Brungarian Isthmus, the narrow land bridge between the eastern and western continents. It turns into a brutal, extended bloodbath, setting the Paladins back considerably, and the Rajskans and their allies retake ground on the Varanian Plain, even as the orbitals remain contested.
The war turns into a stalemate until the arrival of the 77th, 438th, 210th, and 1121st Ixtlilton Phalanxes to reinforce the Confraternity.
Before they can do much more than consolidate, however, just barely pushing the defenders back to the battle lines at the Isthmus, the gwar arrive, all but unopposed in space as the human fleets have increasingly spread out through the system in their own ship-to-ship duels. While Rajska was not in direct line of the gwar hordes’ rampage, the battle has drawn their attention, as to their minds, only a great deal of plunder could justify the war currently being waged.
The war then turns into a three-way conflict. The Imperials are now seeking to defend the Rajskans themselves against the gwar and the Clade. Many of the Rajskans, horrified by the Clade’s excesses and biomechanical horrors, have sided with the Imperials, and a shaky, still vaguely hostile alliance exists between the Imperials and the Duchy forces now. The Clade, meanwhile, seeks complete domination of the system for themselves, while the gwar just want to strip the planet of wealth and take its people for slaves.
This is getting really good!