Democratic Army Conflict

The Democratic Army Conflict, also called the Democracy by any means conflict, (after the rallying cry of the titular Democratic Army) was fought in 2009 between several major nations in Melivorica. The full scale war between sovereign states was caused by severe diplomatic disparages between several nations and the Federal Union of Barrettstia, which were in turn the result of efforts by an extremist pro-democracy terrorist organisation calling themselves the Democratic army, that made repeated violent attempts at the lives of autocratic rulers in Melivorica. Making attacks on Revolvisia, then making further threats towards all dictatorships.

Once it was discovered that key funding for the organisation was coming from within the Barrettstian government, widespread blame for the attacks shifted to the nation in lieu of any further information on the organisation itself. Despite heated arguments and requests from many nations to do so, Barrettstia refused to release the government official responsible into the hands of the Revolvisia, where he would in all likelihood be executed. While the talks continued, two further attacks, on Berethond and Fasdia, put further pressure on Barrettstia as more autocratic nations joined the ranks of Revolvisia in demanding the prisoner be given over. Continued refusals resulted in a declaration of war between Barrettstia and these three nations, with many other nations allied to either side swiftly joining the ranks.

The war lasted just over two months, and despite several devastating losses by the Autocrats (labelled the "axis" by many on the democratic side), would result in the complete collapse of Barrettstia, which the Autocrats look at as a victory, however hollow. Due to the scale of the conflict, it has been one of the most violent and destructive wars in Melivorica for over a century, costing the lives of several million people, about a quarter of which were Barrettstian.

Lead up to the conflict
Sometime before the conflict, the Democratic Army (DemArm) was formed in several nations around the Greater Peninsula, particularly in Barrettstia, where pro-democracy sentiments were strong and also unhindered by repercussion from the government. Establishing a foothold among the youth culture, the Democratic Army began to slowly grow in power, until the point where it had sympathisers in the Barrettstian government, notably one James Baltimore, who worked in the Ministry of Defence. Diverting government funds and some equipment into the organisation, Baltimore allowed the Democratic Army to divert it's aims from vocal condemnations toward the many autocracies in Melivorica, to preparing themselves for a more active, and physical role in attempting to spread democracy across the region. By September 2009, the DemArm slogan "Democracy by any means", had become less of an idealistic wish, and more of a devised goal.

At 7:10pm on the 4th of September, the region-wide television networking system was over-ridden, and a short video of a speech was delivered from somewhere in the Greater Peninsula before the new signal was in-turn pulled down by the network. The speech was delivered by a man in a white mask, and the crux of it's message took the form of a threat against all dictatorships in the region, demanding that they all introduce elections within a month of the broadcast, or face severe retaliation. All autocrats immediately chose to ignore the demands, and beyond putting some effort into finding the source of the broadcast, returned to their daily routines with little second thought. Four days later, on the 8th of September, members of DemArm attacked the Lucid Tower in Revolvisia, reputedly killing hundreds.

This attack raised alarm bells, and led to many dictatorships scrambling to make allegiances amongst each other more pronounced in the time of crisis. Barrettstian investigators had by this point uncovered Baltimore's place in the organisation, and were hesitant to release the information, but decided to do so in a show of good faith, and promptly arrested Baltimore. Revolvisia's leader Johannson Ignaseous swiftly came to demand that Baltimore be released into Revolvisian custody, where he would likely be executed. Objecting to the latter aspect, and to the principal of subjecting a Barrettstian citizen to Revolvisian law, Premier Chris B Chiken refused the demands. While the matter dissolved into nearly a month of heated arguments over who should have the right to detain Baltimore, two further attacks took place in Berethond and Fasdia.

On the 7th of November, seeing the continued attacks as proof that the Barrettstian government had not done enough to restrain the Democratic Army, Revolvisia and many other autocrats declared war on Barrettstia. The public reason for war was at the time anger towards Barrettstia's refusal to co-operate to the level that Revolvisia and the other autocrats had hoped for. It is likely however, that behind the scenes they were also agitated that they had no definitive way or sufficient information on their location to fight the Democratic Army itself, and so settled on the possibility of invading Barrettstia and at least cutting off what they assumed was it's spiritual base of operations, as well as the origin of a large majority of it's financial support.

War
From the outset, the Democrats chose to fight a largely defensive war, concentrating themselves around Barrettstia. Though civility and common goals amongst the Autocrats was not as wide-spread, the intention to invade Barrettstia via a naval expeditionary force was accepted by most. Revolvisia and Fasdia in particular made immediate plans to start the land invasion with an assault on the port city of Pederton. This was not a well disguised aim, and the days after the declaration of war saw the Democrat defenders gathering in number around that city and it's immediate waters. The distances involved, along with some logistical challenges unique to the region, meant that the defenders had quite a while to prepare themselves while the Autocrats gathered themselves together for the joint strike.

Fasdian & Brachyurian Naval Interdiction
When writing up plans for the invasion of Barrettstia, Fasdian military officials were concerned by the role Norheimir had taken in the conflict; as it lay not just in the way of their intended expeditionary fleet's path, but was close enough to them that aerial strikes against the Fasdian mainland or it's protectorates was a very real possibility. While the bulk of it's forces embarked towards Barrettstia, a small section of the Fasdian military, in particular it's navy, remained in and around their native waters of the Vexarian Gulf, patrolling for all manner of possible Democrat hindrances to their efforts. Being the next closest allied nation, Brachyuria also sent a portion of it's fleet down to the area, departing on the 10th of November, and remaining in the area until nearly the end of the conflict.

Early on, this force would simply escort the convoys to the battle zones through local waters, until the possible threat of Democrat attacks were out of range. Later, when the amount of such convoys other than returning casualties was much smaller, this force took a defensive role in the stretch of water between the Fasdian Bloc and Norheimir; acting as floating early warning radar screens, and with the addition of the Brachyurian navy, a deterrent against aerial operations by the Democrats.

Assault of Norheim
Main article: Bombardment of Norheim

On the 12th of November, the detachment of the Brachyurian Navy sent down to the Vexarian Gulf arrived at it's appointed destination, and rendezvoused with the Fasdian fleet left in the area. Though it was never planned, and in some circles advised against by officials, the combined fleet moved south to use their numbers as a show of force, in an attack on the Norheimic capital of Norheim. The action was sanctioned by both King Irvine and Gregory Thorn in what has later been described as an "over-excited loss of reasoning." In adition to the native defences, it was well known by the Autocrats through intelligence reports that Closian units had been flown in to Norheimir during the lead up to the war. Most officials concluded that this doubtless included some measure of resisting naval assault, but the hastily assembled plan went ahead regardless.

Moving into range, the combined fleet conducted a few moderately effective bombardments, before defending air power and Closian anti-missile countermeasures made the projected cost of continuing the action too high and the fleet began to break away again. As a result of the battle, protocols were put in place in Brachyuria and Fasdia to deny any further spur of the moment decisions to launch offensives by a unit set in a defensive role. It was not a necessary precaution, as the leading Admirals of both Fleets were deterred from the idea by their experiences. In Norheimir, the worry of being invaded by the Autocrats was worsened, and they did not commit any new forces to Barrettstia for it's defence, but kept what was already present in the country regardless. Though they did not know it at the time, the result of this short bombardment had effectively cast the prospect of invading Norheimir off the table, Fasdia committing to simply putting up with the pressure Norheimir was putting on it's convoys.

Assault of Pederton
Main article: Assault of Pederton

Since the start of the war, the Revolvisian fleet had been idle in the Neoacian Sea, waiting for the arrival of it's allies. It would not be until the 13th of November, when the Fasdian expeditionary force would arrive from the south, that any of it's allies would join them. By this time, the Revolvisian high command was growing impatient, and increasingly eager to take the fight to Barrettstia. Not waiting for any other of it's allies to join, even though the recently departed Brachyurian fleet was merely half a day's travel away, Revolvisian and Fasdian commanders resolved to start the invasion of Barrettstia by themselves. At their chosen target of Pederton, Closian and Barrettstian naval defences guarded the mouths of the many Fjords that formed Pederton's harbour, and a joint force of Barrettstian, Closian and Norheimic ground forces were in position within and around the city itself. Barrettstia was further supported by it's position in an international alliance, ODECON, which resulted in a large contingent of troops and Naval support from New Chalcedon.

In the morning of the 14th of November, the attack on Pederton began. Engaging the Democrat fleet, the Revolvisian and Fasdian Navies captured the attention of the defenders, receiving heavy losses while the first wave of Autocrat troops were sent ashore. Comprising of Revolvisian slave soldiers packed into suicidal "transport torpedoes", the casualty rate for this first wave was very high, but was just enough to allow the second wave, a mix of better trained and more highly valued Fasdian and Revolvisian troops, to come ashore by more conventional methods. The defenders initially held the shoreline of Pederton for just over an hour, before a breakout action by Fasdian troops caused the West flank of the Democratic line to crumble. Unable to regain any sort of initiative within the city, the Defenders were then slowly driven back over the course of the day until the Autocrats had control of Pederton, aside from one pocket of resistance where a small number of Barrettstian and Norheimic troops had become surrounded.

Arriving later in the day, the Brachyurian fleet added to the existing Autocrat numbers in the ongoing naval battle, and the addition of these several hundred undamaged ships was enough to force the Democrat naval force into a retreat towards Amburgh. Brachyurian ground troops then came ashore in Pederton, and joined the Revolvisian and Fasdian forces in the defensive lines around the Northern end of the city. Over the next few days, further Autocrat forces would be flown or shipped into Pederton by Archonis-Thay, Khedive Rex and Berethond, while the Democrats would make several attempts at retaking the city, the most successful attempts resulting in high casualties on both sides, and taking as much as two thirds of the city back into their hands. In the end however, the Autocrats had gained too strong a foothold, and on the 21st of November, the Barrettstian high command relented, and approved the decision to begin bombarding the city while it's previous defenders moved away to the north, to guard other vital areas from possible attack.

Siege of Amburgh
Main article: Siege of Amburgh

After the loss of Pederton, the Democrat forces were unsure if the Autocrats would next target Amburgh, the capital of Barrettstia, or sweep across smaller settlements of importance along the way. Although some intelligence reports did indicate heading directly for Amburgh would be their next move, the decision was made to prepare defensive lines along the main roads to these secondary settlements. Due to the size of the combined armies moving from the confined mountain roads of Pederton, the Autocrat forces did end up using some of these side routes as detours, in order to avoid the convoys succumbing to a dangerous amount of traffic congestion, which would have left them an easy target.

As a result, there were several battalion sized battles as Autocrats spread out across the Peder plains and ran into Democrat defences, among them the larger battles of State Highway 12 and Colline D'arbre. Though the number of combatants in these battles was restricted, the spread out nature of enemy forces suggested to the Democrats that the Autocratic armies were going to make an attempt at the nearby settlements, and much of their main defensive line, positioned on the highway to Amburgh, moved to these locations to protect the populaces. In the event, the autocrat forces merged back into a fairly uniform route, and a large proportion of the autocrat forces had circumvented these towns before the defender's mistake was realised, that the convoys would not be turning off.

At a reduced strength, and with the returning extra defenders arriving too late, the Democrats holding the main route to Amburgh were almost overrun by the unified autocratic ground forces, and had to make another retreat to Amburgh itself, leaving what amounted to a third of it's remaining forces trapped on the other side of the Autocratic route of advance. Airborne attempts to relocate these trapped forces to Amburgh were moderately successful, but much in the way of ground vehicles, especially armoured support, had to be left behind. Hearing that the Autocrat's arrival was immanent, Chris Chiken declared a state of emergency from the capital building, and ordered all Amburgheese civilians to either reach established safe zones within the hour or stay inside their houses. Establishing a defensive line just outside the city itself on the 1st of December, it took four hours of fighting before the bulk of the Autocratic forces had assembled in the area, and the weight of numbers forced an entry into the city. Fighting inside the urban center, the attackers were faced with agonisingly slow progress. It took several days, and repeated failed attempts to assault the defender's positions, before the Autocrat's were able to advance far enough into the city, that the entirety of their ground forces could actually fit inside the territory they had gained.

The difficulty in taking the city can be rightly attributed to the efforts of the defenders, but other factors also beset the effectiveness of the Autocrats. Revolvisia's slave divisions were notoriously under-trained, and not only showed poor morale, but also mistakenly fired upon allied forces on repeated occasions. A large proportion of the Royal Brachyurian Marines became intoxicated shortly before the offensive, and Rexian forces of all branches had a high number of personnel under the influence of powerful hallucinogenic narcotics. In an attempt to regain the initiative, airborne troops of Berethond, Archonis-Thay and Fasdia tried to launch an offensive deeper into the city using helicopters, and in doing so underestimated the available anti-air capabilities of the defenders. To make matters even worse, at least seven allied helicopters of various nationalities were shot down by devout Brachyurians. The worst problem however, was that their sheer numbers left them cramped together inside narrow streets, where it grew increasingly hard to manoeuvre, whereas the defenders could just stay put in their well established defensive positions.

It would take weeks, before the center of the city was reached on the 18th. Finding the jail cell of Baltimore empty, some autocrat troops reportedly began taking vengeful anger out on captured soldiers and Barrettstian citizens. Losing enthusiasm, the following days efforts to drive out the remaining defenders are full with stories of desertion, deliberate friendly fire incidents and repeated accounts of body mutilation on the dead Democrat troops. Forced to take up arms against this new height of violence, Barrettstian citizens stepped up the small partisan efforts that had been ongoing since the invasion began, and started having a noticeable effect on the mobility and casualty rate of the Autocrats.

After losing patience entirely on December the 24th, the Autocrat forces withdrew to the outskirts of the city, and allowed the combined fleet to begin bombarding Amburgh. Despite efforts by Closian and the remnant Barrettstian air forces, the Autocratic navy continued their bombardment, firing what by some conservative estimates has been said is an average of one round every twenty seconds. After almost two days of near endless firing, the bombardment stopped. The end result left most of Amburgh in ruins. Still frustrated that they had captured neither Baltimore or Chiken, the Autocrat command spent the next few days being indecisive about what to do next.

Christan Revolution
Even as the first wave of Revolvisian slave soldiers came ashore on the beaches of Pederton, the long standing antagonising political presence in Barrettstia was preparing to make a ploy for revolution. The northern Barrettstian province of Christa had been against the war from the outset, a hugely popular political movement, known as the National Party of Christa (NPC) continuously stated that they had no wish for Christan citizens to fight in what they called "A Barrettstian's war, over Barrettstian faults." After the loss and near-destruction of Amburgh, the remaining defenders were pushed back further north, raising the possibility that like Pederton and Amburgh, Christa could in turn be the scene of a highly destructive battle. Reputedly goaded to doing so by Rexian diplomats, the NPC leader Philipe DuPhont made a broadcast through military radio on the 30th of December that Christa was seceding from the federation.

Around three quarters of the Christan-born soldiers left in the remnants of the Barrettstian army immediately defected and attempted to return home, those already in defensive positions around Christa took to ejecting other nationalities from the province borders. While anxious on how the Autocrats would exploit this development, the Barrettstian army moved a small force into Christa as an attempt to peacefully quell the uprising, and was fired upon. From there, remaining Christan troops outside the province borders, loyal to the federation or not, immediately became a potential threat, and the Barrettstian military promptly became effectively useless as a fighting force. Other Democrat forces tried to assert control over what remained as best they could, but were unable to reorganise in the face of the entire Barrettstian military structure collapsing in on itself. Pausing the offensive in order to recover after the costly and disorganising affair in Amburgh, the Autocratic forces took no action, and simply watched, as the words of a Fasdian commander put it "as the war won itself for us."

Attempts in the days and weeks following by the Democrats to turn back the Autocrats were met with little success. Firefights between pro-Barrettstian partisans and Christan soldiers caused widespread confusion, and resulted in hundreds of cases of mistaken identities, both from the Christans wearing the same uniform as loyalist Barrettstian troops, and also from the partisans being in plain clothes like non-combatant Barrettstian civilians. In a last ditch effort to stabilise the province, Closian and Norheimic soldiers raided Christa city and tried to capture Philipe DuPhont, but ended up killing him in the fire-fight, which in the end did nothing but further the National Party's intention to secede from the federation.

Eventually deciding that the situation was irreparable, the Democrat forces chose to withdraw, and pressed the issue of an end to the conflict to the Autocrats. Autocratic forces had still not obtained Baltimore, and requested he be handed over before the ceasefire be officiated, this caused some setbacks to the proceedings. Days before the revolution had taken place, Baltimore had been transferred to the Christa provincial penitentiary. Upon the declaration of Christan independence, Baltimore had been taken from the prison and hung from the flagpole of the city library. Photojournalism of the event served as evidence enough for the Autocrats, and peace was then agreed upon on the 16th of January.

Aftermath
Though the Autocrats left immediately after the peace agreement, having gotten what they came for, Democrat forces remained in Barrettstia for some time, attempting to restore Barrettstia to it's previous state. In the end, the divisive revolution was too disruptive to make this possible, as splinter groups making very separate demands almost immediately began to form from the larger two opposing groups in the civil war. By the end of January, large scale protests at home, upset that even once the war was over their soldiers were still being killed, forced the Democrats to give up, and left the remains of Barrettstia behind. The civil war itself would claim 4 million further lives, and achieved no real conclusion, with Christa itself collapsing within three months after declaring independence, and all the other provinces of Barrettstia breaking apart into small localised communities attempting to retain some sort of order, which broke down into gangland warzones around mid 2010, as warbands originating from the disputed territories around the centre of the great peninsula moved west to loot the ruins of Barrettstia's infrastructure.

For the Democrats, the loss of Barrettstia was a crippling blow to the balance of power in the region. Though they had always been minorities in Melivorica, the influence of Democratic nations was greatly lessened after the conflict. No remaining elected leader has yet presented themselves displaying the same level of charisma and reasoning that Barrettstia's Chris Chiken did, and the ability for Democratic nations to have their views considered by the region at large has been greatly lessened. Autocratic powers fell back into casually distrusting one another after the conflict, to the extent that the alliance proposed between Archonis-Thay, Berethond, Khedive Rex and Brachyuria during the war, never came to formulate any official alliance in the year following, until eventually the entire prospect passed out of public memory. The Democratic Army itself would unceremoniously disband in shame after the war, blaming themselves for bringing one of the only true democracies in the region to ruin through their antagonising of the Autocrats. The true leader of the organisation never revealed himself, and may well have been an anonymous casualty of the fighting in Barrettstia.

Autocrats
Typically, the majority of the Autocrats chose to engage in a propaganda war to support the physical one, and were prepared to cover up unpleasant details or the numerous examples of stuff ups and failures that all branches of the autocrat forces made stretched over the course of the conflict. Both Fasdian and Brachyurian media claimed to have been "maliciously goaded" into their poorly executed bombardment of Norheimir, and most countries left out the specifics of friendly casualties in reports on the war. Berethond, which had essentially begun the war by executing a man on television, set itself a precedent to record the war by, and it's journalists went out of their way to record as most gruesome and depraved aspects of the conflict as possible, including being on the scene during the hanging of Baltimore.

In some extreme cases, the propaganda outlets became too impassioned with the freedom of fabricating whatever "facts" they wanted, and took things to a level that was literally unbelievable to the readership. Memorably, Brachyuria's flagship propaganda machine All hail the glorious leader claimed that during the battle of Amburgh, their progress was delayed by "swarms of Closian demon-planes attempting to drop crying Barrettstian orphans onto our brave lads and ladettes, who graciously endeavoured to save all such beleaguered children by catching them as they fell, and so used up precious city-capturing time." Additionally, the newspaper credited King Irvine Niederhaus as the first to arrive at Barrettstia's capital building once the city was taken, and added that he had personally defeated an entire division of enemy troops by astonishing them into surrender with his "glorious facial hair." All despite the King's objections that he was still safe in Brachyuria.

Democrats
Local Barrettstian journalists formed the bulk of media sources for the Democrats, along with amateur footage and accounts from civilians. Others generally deemed the warzone too dangerous for journalism, but allowed a limited amount of footage to be taken outside of military media circles. Democrat media was by comparison less limited in what they could say about wartime conduct without repercussion, though a number of independent Closian journalists got in trouble for criticising the defence of Pederton as "pathetic."