The First Brother's War

The First Brother's War was a military conflict between the colonists of the Leteiran cluster and the United Nations Leteiran Joint Command. Leteiran colonists fought against but were defeated by a combined force of the United Nations member countries

Overview

Naming

Within the Leteiran Cluster the most common name for the Brother's War is the First War of Independence, with the Second Brother's War is commonly called the Second War of Indepedence. Most nomenclature within the Cluster focuses on the desire for independence by the Leteiran Cluster
Outside of the cluster, the Brother's Wars is the more common name for the war. The name comes from a propaganda effort by the cluster's Colonizing Powers in order to paint the Leterian Cluster and Orion Arm as an unseparable family, and hopefully to discourage further rebellions. This effort was also taken up in both the Orion Arm and any future colonies to portray the Leteiran Cluster as breakers of a sacred bond to colonies both during and after the Brother's Wars, causing the name to spread to across the galaxy as the primary name for the conflict.

Participants:

The Leteiran Joint Command

The Leteiran Joint Command was the command structure which the Orionis response to the First Brother's War was structured around. The primary contributors to the Joint Command were the United States of America, European Federation, People's Republic of China, Grand Russian Federation, and the CANZUK Alliance. The African Union and Republic of India were also notable contributors. Most early participation had been piecemeal, with most responses to the unfolding rebellion being local. In response to news about the Battle for Third Moon arriving to the Orion Arm, the United Nations would convene an emergency meeting on March 20th, 2245 in order to discuss what the response to what was then referred to as the Leteiran Crisis would be. The decision would then be to form the Leteiran Joint Command. The member nations, comprising most interstellar powers at the time, would then send a combined fleet to the Leteiran Cluster under the command of European admiral Antonio de Torres.

The Leteiran Liberation Council

The Leteiran Liberation Council was formed as the primary body to coordinate the growing war against the Orion Arm. Organized out of the combination of militias and other rebel groups that participated in the early uprising, they would form the Army of the Cluster in order to unify and cooridnate the war effort. Notable militias that would join the Army of the Cluster would include the Brightenia Irregulars, 5th Star Legionnaires, Luke's Guard, and The Markers. As a consequence of the forces that joined on, the Council's power would be concentrated in the cluster's south and west. The provisional capital of the Council would be Kiniroiyama.

Unaligned Leteiran Forces

One of the major problems from the outset in the war would be the lack of unity on the part of the Leteirans, and there were a number of major militias that did not join the Army of the Cluster. These militias tended to be concentrated in the north of the cluster. This left much of the defense of the region scattered and uncoordinated. Many local militias drew defensive plans focused on their own planets alone, without plans for withdrawal or other efforts to support the rebellion after the potential capture of their homeworlds. And even some multiplanetary militias would still not join the Liberation Council, doubting its ability to protect their interests or worrying about some parts of the cluster being viewed as more important than the other. Some notable militias that were unaligned were the Leteiran Irregulars, New Leteiran Liberation Army, and the Yuan Bian Army of the People's Liberation.

Liberation of the Leteiran Cluster

Opening Engagements

Many of the early engagements of the war were largely skirmishes between Leteiran militias and loyalists garrisons. The earliest notable such skirmish was the Battle of Outlands South, a skirmish between the Brightenia Irregulars and the colonial garrison. The Irrelugars would surround the Outlands South Military Base on Champlain's continent of Outlands over the course of several days leading up to November 19th, where they would then attempt to seize the garrison. The attack was able to catch the garrison off guard and the Irregulars were able to capture equipment and soldiers of the colonial forces.

The Battle for Third Moon

The Battle for Third Moon was the first major battle of the war, with members of the Leterian Irregulars and local fighters. On March 16th, 2245, members of the Third Moon Liberation Army, a local resistance group, saw the scattered uprisings and decided to move forward plans they had to start a rebellion on Third moon. The initial phases of the plan were to capture the Webb Space Port and other major transport hubs on Webb, and then to make a move on the colonial garrison. After the initial uprising, the Leteiran Irregulars would begin to involve themselves in the rebellion. Initial deplomacy consisted of the Irregulars sending attaches and weapons to the Liberation Army. But, the rebellion also led to plans by a local Irregulars cell to move on the Frederick M. Takeuchi Military Base. On March 23rd at 5:13am local time, after waiting for the local garrison to be deployed to regain control after the Liberation Army's early attacks, the begin to fire mortars and rockets at Takeuchi Military Base. Snipers then attempted to pin down the defenders while the main body of the force attempted to move in. By 5:43 members of the Leteiran Irregulars Ninth Shadow Company had been able to reach the main gates of the base and began to breach the compound. After 2 hours of fighting, the Irregulars were able to capture the base.
However, the base commander, Major John J. Daniels, had been able to escape the fighting, and warned military elements in the region what had happened. This led to most of the military assets on Webb being focused on the base in order for the garrison to recapture it. On the night of the 23rd, Daniels decided to attack the base the next day in order to prevent the rebels from digging in any more. At 5:00am on March 23th, mortars and artillery of the 22nd Colonial Rangers' support ballation opened fire on the Takeuchi base. Other rangers attempted to push onto the base itself but were eventually repulsed by the defenders. After an attempted guerilla campaign, remnants of the planetary militia surrendered to the Leteiran Irregulars and the Third Moon Liberation Army.

Continued Rebellions

The success of the fighters on Third Moon lit a match in the Leteiran Cluster. Within the month, other major planets in the Leteiran Cluster such as McJanson, Yukkuri, and New Hyderabad had broken out into full rebellion against the Orion Arm. As local fighters would rise up on planet after planet, militias and pro independence political groups would begin to make contact with local resistance forces. In almost all cases, this led to the local forces being folded into the command of growing interplanetary militias. The Leterian Irregulars, in particular, were able to dramatically grow their presence in the northern cluster through this.
As militias would grow larger and larger by absorbing local forces, they slowly gained the logisticial capacity to hold interplanetary strikes and offensives. The first of these campaigns was Operation WHIT'S END, a joint operation carried out by the Committee on Leteiran Liberation (CLL). The committee a fledgeling alliance of the Brightenia Irregulars and 5th Star Legionnaires. WHIT'S END's objectives were to capture Crossroads, and to attempt to bridge a gap between Irregulars and Legionnaires forces in the south. The strategic position of Crossroads would also make it vital in any attempts to link up with forces in the north. Forces from the better equipped and more experienced Irregulars would attempt to capture American defenses and the planet's spaceport. The Legionnaires would then begin to supply locals with arms and provide local fighters resources to achieve their own local objectives.
On July 19th 2246, the Brightenia Irregulars' 3rd Regiment began to lay siege to Fort Ancella. At the same time, the Irregular's 2nd and 5th divisions would launch an assault on the spaceport. The 2nd and 5th would be successful, and would then be redeployed to Forts Jackson and Pace respectively. Local fighters would also begin to make their mark, raiding the local garrison's supply depots as well as freeing local manufacturing posts. Ultimately, all three of the planet's forts would fall to the combined efforts of the Irregulars and Legionnaires, and Crossroads would be declared free on August 24th, 2246.
The success of Operation WHIT'S END would allow for the total liberation of Brightenia. In turn, the inertia from the liberation of Brightenia would cause furthere rebellions in the south. By January of 2247, the CLL would declare the entire cluster south of Crossroads to be liberated.

Operation LIBERATION

Main Article: Operation LIBERATION
Progress remained slower in the north. The Leteiran Irregulars were quickly emerging as the preeminent force in the north along side the Yuan Bian Army of the People's Liberation (YBAPL) and the Leteiran Liberation Army (LLA). But, better organized and coordinated defense in the north slowed progress by Leteiran rebels. The Leteiran Irregular's proposed solution to this was Operation LIBERATION. Planned as a phased offensive to liberate the cluster's north, LIBERATION's plan would consist of systematically striking hyperspace choke points to isolate garrison forces and then liberating planets cut off from outside support one by one. The objective of the operation would be to liberate all planets north of Shinmon, laying the groundwork for more offensives The plan would prove to be reasonably effective, as due to the lack of possible reinforcements garrison forces could ill afford to shuffle around forces lest it open them to another offensive or local resistance.
The first phase of the plan would be initiated on November 2nd 2246, with the Irregular's newly formed First Army Corps attacking Camdia, Outrigger, and Anderson's Folly. The offensives on Cambia and Anderson's Folly were successful, but an unexpected last minute reinforcement of Outrigger slowed down progress on the planet. Eventually, 9th Division's Command Headquarters on Outrigger would be discovered by American intelligence. The bunker would then be hit by an orbital bombardment launched by elements of the USA's 16th fleet, killing 263, approximately 60% of the 9th Division's command staff. The loss would cause all progress on Outrigger to come to a standstill until a new chain of command could be created. Because of this the 9th Division would be rotated out for the 12th Division on world.
But, despite the loss on Outrigger, phase one was largely successful and the offensive on Outrigger was folded into phase two. Further attempts to liberate Outrigger would be attempted, with the 12th Division eventually capturing Saria, and the final elements of the garrison surrendering. Phase two would also consist of "infilling" the territories that were isolated by the capture of Camdia and Anderson's Folly. Cut off from supplies, whatever colonial garrisons did not defect to the Irregulars would often surrender with little resistance.
The most critical phase, phase three would be the conquest of Shinmon, essentially isolating all remaining colonies in the cluster's north from reinforcements from the south of the cluster. For this stage in the operation, the Irregulars would assign three divisions, the 3rd, 8th, and newly reconstituted 9th to the operation, as well as all if its Shadow Companies. The divisions would be assigned objectives across each of Shinmon's five continents. The 12th division would be assigned to capture industrial centers on planet and the 3rd division would be assigned to capture the bureaucratic centers on the main continent of Oyama. The oldest of the divisions, the 9th divison would be assigned the most prestigious of the operations, capturing the planetary garrison. On May 11th, 2247, after being smuggled on world by civilian transports, members of the 12th Divsion's First Brigade and 16th, 22nd, and 23rd Shadow Companies would launch small raids on industrial sectors in the north. These raids were intendend to draw out the garrison forces, but they were unsuccessful. After three days of no movement by the garrison, the 12th Division would move to capture most of the industrial centers on Oyama. By this point Irregulars command had decided that the colonial garrison would not be moving. In order to dislodge the defenders, the Irregulars would instead deploy their shadow companies to capture the garrisons. The shadow companies were able to infiltrate the garrisons on planet, paralyzing defenses allowing the 9th Division to move in to capture garrisons.
With the successful capture of Shinmon, the phase three of Operation Liberation would be successful, and the phase four, the liberation of the remaining colonies in the north would successful. The remainder of Operation LIBERATION consisted of working with the NLLA and YBAPL to liberate any remaining colonies in the north. With the success of Operation Liberation and the capture of Crossroads in the South in combination with sporatic uprisings within the rest of the cluster meant that most of the cluster would be free. The last remaining objective would be the capture of approximately 4,000 light years of The Spine called the Grossland Salient.

Liberation of the Grossland Salient

Following the liberation of Shinmon and Crossroads, the final portion of the Leteiran Cluster still under the rule of Orionis powers was a 4000 light year salient along The Spine called the Grossland Salient. The liberation of the salient would be primarily carried out by the CLL, other militias like the Leteiran Irregulars and Leteiran Liberation Army would provide troops and material support to the offensive. The offensive would be carried out in two stage. The first stage would be to link up with bridge the gap between Committee's front line at Crossroads and the Irregulars front line at Shinmon, as well as closing the resulting pockets at rimward of the spine. From there, the next stage would be to drive on to New Liege taking the western end of the Golden Road. Finally, CLL forces would start a wide offensive across the front line, with the eventual goal of reaching linking with the ongoing rebellion in New Stuttgart.
Phase one would begin on June 17th, 2247. Time to coincide with local protests, the Brightenia Irregulars 1st and 5th Regiments and the 5th Star Legionnaires 3rd Legion would rise up on New Moscow targeting industrial facilities spread across the planet. As the garrison would sortie to respond to the attacks, additional regiments lying along major roads would ambush the sortied troops. This left a number of understrength and isolated formations across the planet. The 9nd and 11th Regiments would then attempt to move in on garrison's forces bases, successfully capturing most of them. After another week's of attempted fighting most of the garrison forces would surrender to the CLL. New Moscow would be liberated on July 22nd.
From there, the CLL would continue to push north. They would continue kindling resistance and uprisings on planets along The Spine and using the ensuing chaos to move liberate planets. They Leteiran Irregulars would also provide support with over 60 Shadow Companies deployed to planets along the spine to disrupt defenses. After several months of grinding offensives, CLL forces would eventually reach Shinmon on February 9th, 2248. Luke's Guard and the Leteiran Liberation Army would assist in closing the newly formed pocket in the west, while the CLL and portions of the Leteiran Irregulars would prepare for a push onto New Liege.
Due to the strategic importance of New Liege they would attempt to capture it faster than they had the path the Shinmon. To this effect, the as there were no hyperspace choke points between New Moscow and New Liege, they would move troops straight from New Moscow to New Liege. At the same time, the Irregulars would begin to deploy Shadow Companies both along the golden road but also within the Grosslan pocket to weaken local garrisons. The CLL were successful in getting troops on planet, and on April 29th they would begin attacking installations on planet. Initially, CLL troops would focus on securing administrative centers and the space port and while the space port was successfully capture the spaceport they failed to capture the administrative centers. Following this, they would then shift to disrupting supplies to the garrison in hopes that it would make the garrison surrender. While the supply raids were not single handedly making the defenders surrender, they make it so that the garrison was understrength enough that the local CLL forces deemed a direct assault on local bases to be feasible. These would be successful, and on June 15th, New Liege would be declared freed by the CLL.
After the capture of New Liege and the very eastern end of the Golden Road the remaning portion of what was now the Grossland Pocket would mostly consist of mopping up the remaining settlements. Cut off from supplies and with the shadow companies causing chaos both in and behind the front lines the CLL would take most remaning planets with little notable activity. After seven months of gradual campaigning, the CLL would declare the whole of the Leteiran Cluster Freed on April 2nd, 2249. While the CLL had been directing operations in the region, the Leteiran Liberation Army (LLA) had a long established presence in the region and both becaus of that, and as a gesture of good faith, the CLL would hand over administration to the LLA

Stalemate

Between 2249 and 2254 there was a stalemate between the Orion Arm and the rebels in the Leteiran Cluster. This was mostly caused by the travel time between the Orion Arm and Leteiran Cluster. Even though travel time had improved, it would still took approximately 9 years to travel between the Orion Arm and the Leteiran Cluster. This meant that any fully fledged Orionis military or material response would have to wait 9 years for reinforcements to arrive. This meant that by the time the response fleet was in transit, the entire Cluster already had fallen. This logistical problem was the very reason that the Leteiran Cluster had been so heavily militarized in the first place. But, by the same token the Leteiran Cluster did not have enough of a logistical train to support any actions to secure their independence with any direct action against the Orion Arm. So therefore, both sides were stuck in stalemate while they waited for the Orionis response to arrive.

Formation of an Orionis Response

While many were initially skeptical of the need of a full response by Orionis forces, the it would quickly change after the Battle for Third Moon. After news of the battle arrived in the Orion Cluster, the United States of America immediately called for the United Nations Security Council to convene. At the emergency session, the colonizing powers agreed on the formation of a joint command in order to end the rebellion. The exact details about command and troop deployments took another month and a half to determine.
One of the major roadblocks for negotiations was what amount of support was considered accetpable. Most powers feared that the others would use the unfolding situation in the Leteiran Cluster and the multi-decade deployment that it would require to move on the Orion Arm and secures dominance in the Orion Arm. In order to solve this, the UN eventually came up with a compromise. Every power donate an amount of material and manpower to the response such that the amount of war material left in the Orion Arm would be evenly distributed across all major powers. Additionally, of the material left in the Orion Arm, half of it would be given to a secondary UN fleet command which would then be deployed if any one power attempted power plays within the Orion Arm. This satisfied all involved, particularly with the economic threat than an independent Leteiran Cluster posed to the Orion Arm.
Ultimately, two UN fleet commands would be formed. The first would be the Orionis Joint Fleet Command, comprising of the portion of the fleets remaining in the Orion Arm donated to the UN for the duration of the joint response. The second would be the Leteiran Joint Fleet Command, the expeditionary portion. The Leteiran Joint Command would comprise of 4 fleets, divided into about 19 Task Forces. In total, approximately 1340 ships would join the Leteiran Joint Fleet Command. This comprised the largest single concentration of naval power in the galaxy to date. Elements that would form the joint fleet would begin leaving the Orion Arm in May. The last ships would leave in early July.

Politics of Liberation

The defining issue throughout the political discussions following the liberation of the Leteiran Cluster was the divide between the northern and southern cluster. The southern cluster was, on average, wealthier than the northern cluster. This was due to the fact that nations in the south were more lenient with their colonies then those who colonized in the north. This meant that pro-liberation groups based in the south were, on average, more willing to work with the Orionis powers than pro-liberation groups from the north were.
This divide between the northern and southern Leteiran cluster would continue to affect the attempts to formalize the liberation of the Leteiran Cluster. While many of the southern independence groups, like the CLL, would be willing to accept independences with some caveats northern indepedence groups would accept no conditions.

Formation of the Leteiran Liberation Council

Following the closure of the Grossland Pocket, talks would begin between various militias and other pro indepedence groups for the formation of a united front against the Orionis. The first conference would be organized on Third Moon between the Leteiran Irregulars, Committee on Leteiran Liberation, Leteiran People's Liberation Army, and Luke's Guard amongst others. The conference would start on April 3rd, 2249 continunig for the next several days to little progress. Eventually, the militias were able to draw up some rough plans for joint defense, and there was were vague commitments to a second summit.
A second conference would eventually be arranged. Coming together on May 2nd also on Third Moon the main topic would once again be the formation of a unified defense of the cluster. While some of the pre-existing coalitions like the Committee on Leteiran Liberation (CLL) would be in favor of the formation of a unified council and military command, militias that had made it more on their own were less willing to join a united front. This drive in particular was put forward by the CLL. This would be compounded by the fact that most groups arguing for the formation of a unified council were from the south, while the most successful of the militias, the Leteiran Irregulars, was formed in the American Sector in the north. This meant that the Irregulars were largely untrusting of the CLL's attempts to form a unified front as they did not trust them to negotiate an unconditinoal peace.
Ultimately, they would a third conference would be called. The CLL and their allies would continue to call for the formation of a united front. The Leteiran Irregulars would continue to resist the proposal. After several days of discussions, they would eventually hold it down to a vote. All those who voted in favor of creating a united front would be joined into the newly forde Leteiran Liberation Council with the military branch becoming the Army of the Cluster. All those who voted against would be left out. Ultimately, the vote would not carry total support. Among the members, the Brightenia Irregulars, 5th Star Legion, and Luke's Guard would be the most notable. Among those who would remain seperate would be the Leteiran Irregulars and Yuan Bian liberation army. Notably, one of the major armies in the central cluster, the Leteiran Liberation Army, would be split over whether or not to join the newly formed council and Army of the Cluster. This led to large amounts of internal strife, eventually causing the LLA to split. The original Leteiran Liberation Army would join the new council and become part of the Army of the Cluster. On the other hand, most of the members of the LLA to the north would split off and from the New Leteiran Liberation Army, taking over much of the territorial control of the originial LLA.

The Orionis Counter Attack

The Joint Fleet Arrives

Main Article: Leteiran Joint Fleet Command
On January 17th, 2254, Task Force Roman exited hyperspace over New Liege. Over the course of the next month the rest of the Leteiran Joint Command would continue to enter the Leteiran Cluster, with the last task force arriving on March 2nd. Immediately Task Force Roman would begin to carry out its objectives. By January 29th, the Task Force Roman had secured and pacified major centers on New Liege, and was preparing staging points deeper into the cluster. As Task Force Roman was setting up staging points, Task Forces Hazel and Football jumped into the cluster to link up with fleets trapped in the cluster.
Task Force Hazel eventually was able to link up with the CANZUK Fourth and Ninth Fleets, as well as China's Yuan Bian Fleet at the edge of CANZUK territory. As all three of these fleets were primarily comprised of cruisers, they would mount a raiding effort based in Yuan Bian. Task Force Football was unable to locate any other fleets, and eventually would go to link up with Task Force Hazel
On Feburary 27th Task Force Goliath arrived at New Liege after approximately 9 years of transiting the Golden Road. The main fleet of the Joint Command, Task Force Goliath comprised most of the Orionis battleships, in addition to much of the Joint Command's ground forces and their supply train. They moored at New Liege for 8 days before continuing onwards.

Operation WHIPLASH

Operation WHIPLASH was the Orionis plan to suppress the Leteiran rebellion. The plan involved moving a significant portion of all warships in the Orion Arm to the Leteiran Cluster. Using New Liege as a staging point, the Joint Command would then move on to capture New Moscow. With the most important junction of the Leteiran Cluster under the control of the Joint Command, they would then pivot north to fight the Leteiran Irregulars. The final stage of the plan would be to break the resistance of the Leteiran Liberation Council.
The first phase of Operation WHIPLASH began on March 7th, 2254. The warship portion of Task Force Goliath jumped from New Liege to New Moscow, arriving on May 14th. After entering orbit of New Moscow, they spend the next 4 days securing the planetary system. May 21st, the Task Force Goliath's ground troops would arrive in system. After entering New Moscow's orbit, they would begin the ground invasion. A total of 4 corps droped onto New Moscow, with the initial objectives of securing all former military installations and the planet's spaceport. With orbital bombardment preventing any large scale movements of troops by the defenders, the Joint Command's troops were able to quickly secure their landing zones before capturing their objectives. Local forces would then be assigned to pacify local population centers and rehabilitate the local garrison. After an attempt at continued resistance, the local Leteiran Liberation Council defenders surrendered to Task Force Goliath.
After the victory at New Moscow, the Joint Command would continue with Operation WHIPLASH by pivoting north to destroy the Leteiran Irregulars. While Task Forces Roman and Virginia would hold the newly formed salient along the eastern Golden Road. Due to their lack of proper warships, the Leteiran defenders would never be able to dislodge this defense. The Joint Command's First Fleet would be assigned to the offensive. After three months of travel, they would arrive at Shinmon. Although throughout the journey, the Shadow Companies attempted to undermine the movement of the First Fleet, they would arrive to Shinmon largely unscathed on September 21st. After entering orbit, the First Fleet would proceed to drop the entirety of the Second Field Army onto Shinmon. Once again primarily targeting the military bases on planet, they would be able to secure their objectives by September 30th. Once the defenders of Shinmon had surrendered, the First Fleet would continue to push north.
The First Fleet would continue to push north, supressing rebellions along the way. The eventual target of the operation post-Shinmon was to capture Third Moon, the unofficial capital of the Leteiran Irregulars. Spreading out to create a larger front line in the hopes of stretching Irregulars resources thin, they would also use the opportunity to cause smaller groups to surrender. The Yuan Bian Army of the People's Liberation would surrender on March 9th, 2255. The offensive would continue, causing other smaller militias to surrender along the way. On July 18th, 2256, the frontline of the First Fleet would reach Third Moon.
The Second Battle for Third Moon would begin on July 21st, 2256. The Joint Command's 4th Field Army would be dropped onto Third Moon, once again targeting major military installations. Despite fierce resistance by the Leteiran Irregulars, Orionis armored units would prove to be overwhelming to the Irregulars defenders. The Second Battle for Third Moon would end on November 20th, ending in a defeat for the Irregulars and leading to their eventualy dissalution. The fall of the Leteiran Irregulars would have a drastic impact on the course of the war. While the Leteiran Irregulars never joined the Leteiran Liberation Council, they would still regularly deploy Shadow Companies across the Leteiran Cluster whenever it was other militias and militaries requested their use. The Shadow Companies had become invaluable in the both the liberation and the defense of the cluster, as their skills, especially in assassination and guerilla warfare, was able to serevely disrupt the Orionis invaders. While the vast majority of the Shadow Companies would continue to exist well into the Second Brother's War, the logistical infrastructure that backed them up vanished with the surrender of the Leteiran Irregulars, limiting their strategic utility.
While the First Fleet was supressing the north, the Second, Third, and Fourth would begin focusing on the south. Since military planners of the Joint Command viewed the Irregulars as the most dangerous of the militias in the cluster, they were chosen as the first to fall. This meant that the First Fleet jumped straight to Shinmon without closing the gap between New Moscow and Shinmon. It was up to the Second Fleet to close this second Grossland Pocket. It would begin a grueling series of jumps, with the eventual target of New Stuttgart, the provisional captial of the New Leteiran Liberation Army. This campaign would start on November 11th, 2254. The naval superiority of the Joint Command allowed them to jump their fleets forward to hyperspace chokepoints to cut off reinforcements, while the regular army would push forward planet by planet in the newly created pocket. By this approach, it took 13 months to reach New Stuttgart. After the 9th Field Army was dropped onto the planet, the local defense quickly crumbled. The second Grossland Pocket was closed by January 2257.
The Third and Fourth Fleets would focus on the Leteiran Liberation Council. The Joint Command decided to start by pushing down The Spine and then to turn around north into Brightenia. The offensive began on March 16th, 2255. Two months later, the Fourth Fleet would arrive at Crossroads. While the Fourth Fleet was focused on pacifying Crossroads, the Third Fleet would leapfrog them, pushing south. The primary objective of the southern drive was the recapture of Kiniroiyama. Task Force Virginia would arrive at Kiniroiyama on September 10th, 2255. Once the rest of the Third Fleet arrived in orbit, the 7th Field Army would be dropped on world. The army group was able to quickly capture the planet, and the local garrison surrendered on November 3rd, 2255.
While Kiniroiyama had for a time served as the provisional captial for the Leteiran Liberation Council, the government was able to avoid capture, fleeing to 5th Star in June. After the capture of Kiniroiyama the Third and Fourth Fleets would change objectives. The Third Fleet would continue spinwards to capture 5th Star and Brightenia while the Fourth Fleet would push onto New Hyderabad. The Third Fleet would begin its offensive in Late November while the Fourth Fleet would begin in Early December.
Using the same tactics that succeeded in the Second Grossland Pocket, the Fourth Fleet would isolate worlds to cut off supplies while the elements of the army would suppress planet after planet moving to the navy. This tactic proved successful again, and the Fourth Fleet would reach New Hyderabad on July 29th, 2257. The 5th Field Army would be dropped onto New Hyderabad, primarily targeting military installation. However, the defenders of New Hyderabad were more dug in than the Fourth Fleet had expected. While much of the 5th Field Army was able to make it safely planetside, they were bogged down in their defenses. Eventually losses in the 5th Field Army had been bad enough that the Joint Command would have to call in reinforcements from other armies. But, nothing could change the fact that New Hyderabad was cut off from the remaining portion of the free leteiran cluster. This meant that as supplies were dwindling and attrition began to take hold, the defenders would eventually have to surrender. After 10 months of defense, the defenders of new Hyderabad would eventually surrender on June 13th, 2258.
The Third Fleet's offensive spinwards into Brightenia would be the bloodiest front of the war. Many local commanders began to understand that the Leteiran Cluster had fallen once again, and wanted to make it so that the invading Orionis paid for every inch of land. This led to a number of planetary defenses taking to the last man approaches to defenses, leading to extremely high casualties both among the defenders and among the Third Fleet.
The objective of the Third Fleet was 5th Star, and the offensive began in late November of 2255. Because the defenders would often not surrender until completely exhausted of combat strength, the Brightenia front would prove to be the slowest of the entire war. While the Third Fleet would initially attempt to take up the same tactics of the other front lines, pushing forwards to cut of resupplies while planets would be reconquered behind them, this would eventually prove ineffective. The heavy defenses of the Brigthenia front was strong enough that the Joint Command determined that it was more important to have the warships that would be committed holding a blockade would have to be redeployed to the fighting in order to provide orbital support planetside.
The grinding offensive would continue for several years, with each planet capturing taking an average of 7 months to reconquer. Eventually, the Third Fleet would arrive at 5th Star on August 11th, 2259. The Third Fleet would then propose that the remaining members of the Leteiran Liberation Council surrender and that their sentences would be reduced. While much of the Leteiran Liberation Council's leadership would accept the deal, much of the defenders refused to take the deal. The Third Fleet would drop the 1st Field Army onto 5th Star. Rather than focusing on military bases initially, the offensive on 5th Star instead focused on capturing urban settlements. This change in priorities took the forces on planet by surprise, allowing the 1st Army to easily secure their initial objectives. From their, the would push onto the space ports to secure more access to supplies from orbit. Once supply lines to orbit had been established, they would then shift focus to on planet military installations. This took about a month to dig out the defenders. Eventually the last of the planetary defenders would surrender on October 27th, 2259.
With the surrender of the Leteiran Libeartion Council and the remaining defenders of 5th Star, the war was effectively over. While there were some planets that the Orion Cluster had yet to put back under their control, there were no longer any remaining structures around which to organize the defense of the Leteiran Cluster. After 14 years, the First Brother's War would be over, with the commonly recognized end date being October 2259.

Operation ETERNAL PEACE

Operation ETERNAL PEACE an operation run parallel to Operation WHIPLASH and was the more secretive of the two. ETERNAL PEACE centered on the assassination of the leadership of much of the leadership of the Leteiran resistance, including the leaders of the Leteiran Liberation Council and major unaligned militias like the Leteiran Irregulars, New Leteiran Liberation Army, and Yuan Bian People's Liberation Army. This effort would be carried out by Task Force Latitude an experimental task force centered on stealth and rearline actions. The task force would be primarily constructed of lighter vessels and would carry detatchments from most of the Orion Arm's intelligence agencies.
Attempts would be carried out throughout Operation WHIPLASH, with the first attempt being on the NLLA's provisional finance minister. The first successful attempt would be on Carolina de Nueve, the supreme commander of the New Leteiran Liberation Army's Armed Forces. Assassinations would continue on, with at some points as many as a dozen assassination attempts occuring on major leaders per day. Task Force Latitude would usually be successful in at least 3 assassinations in a month, causing chaos within the Leteiran rebels chains of command. And even though not every attempt was successful, the increased attempts would still draw the attention of the rebellions leadership. Many became reclusive during the Orionis counter offensive, limiting their ability to serve as a rallying cry and propoganda tool.

Aftermath

The first truely galactic war that the Milky Way had seen, the First Brother's War would be the most destructive that the galaxy had seen. An estimated 621 million people would die throughout the course of the war, and untold amounts of infrastructure had been destroyed. Following the war the Orionis powers would start a two pronged attempt to prevent another rebellion. First, they would pour money into the cluster to help rebuild following the destruction that the war had wrought. Additionally, they would begin a propoganda campaign in order to convince the Leteirans that they were better off under Orionis rule. This propoganda effort is where the term "The Brother's War" would initially arise from, with the Orion Arm trying to make the Leteiran Cluster feel like an inseperable family with the Orion Arm. But, importantly the Orion Arm would not change the working conditions and civil restrictions that had led to the First Brother's War, deeming the resources too valuable to lose. This would mean that the tensions that had started the war in the first place would not be settled, directly leading to the Second Brother's War.
Additionally, throughout the course of the war many of the more moderate independence advocates would be killed or become so wanted that they could no longer engage in pro independence activities. This, combined with the fact that the Leteiran Cluster would despite everything still end up falling back to the Orion Arm with very little materially changing within the cluster caused much of the Leteiran Cluster to radicalize even further. The full impact of this would not be felt until the formation of the Leteiran Commonwealth following the Second Brother's War. The radicalization that occured following the First Brother's War, both of leadership and of the people, would directly feed into the Liberationist ideology that would dominate Leteiran politics for a century. This Liberationist ideology would be the spark that would lead to the near century long Leteiran-Accords Cold War which would dominate 24th century geopolitics.

Start Date

March 16th, 2245

Ending Date

October 27th, 2259

Conflict Result

Defeat of the Leteiran Colonists