Operation Twin Thorns

Operation Twin Thorns  (ICY 959) was an offensive operation of the Humankind Empire of Abh against the Four Nations Alliance, fought in the territories of the United Mankind in the Great War. The objective was to split the United Mankind in half and to isolate it from the Four Nations Alliance.

Background
As the war rages on, the Empire found it necessary to break the supply lines of the Four Nations Alliance, respectively Three Nations Alliance, in order to shorten the war. Based on the success of Operation Phantom Flame which had significantly impacted the efficiency of the Peacekeeping Corps of the United Mankind, the Laburec planed to launch this as one of the first encirclement campaigns to crush enemy fleets in detail one nation at a time.

The Peacekeeping Corps. still posed the greatest threat, so the objectives of this operation were to diplomatically and militarily isolate the United Mankind, and make sure that no member nation of the alliance could easily reinforce the other without needing to fight on Abh terms.

Implementation
Commander-in-Chief Abriel Dusanyu appointed Admiral Kotoponi as the Imperial Admiral in command of Operation Twin Thorns. She developed a plan with him to split her assigned force into two contingents:

Task Force 1 Operation Twin Thorns, Commanded by Imperial Admiral Rekef, veteran of Operation Phantom Flame. His objective would be to seize the anti-matter facilities and destroy enemy combatants in the Kemal sord region, thus cutting off the United Mankind from the People's Sovereign Union of Planets. He was given the smaller of the two contingents, 24th and 25th Fleets Twin Thorns.

Task Force 2 Operation Twin Thorns, commanded by Imperial Admiral Kotoponi herself. Her objective would be to seize the Elkon and Marial gates to cut of the United Mankind from the Republic of Greater Alcont. Given that the United Mankind and Greater Alcont planned to defend Mairal and Elkon together, Kotoponi secured a larger contingent, her headquarters fleet 13th Fleet Twin Thorns, and 11th Fleet.

The 14th, 15th, and 1st Fleets would serve as a reserve to be deployed to either front in the event that any flank risked being turned by the enemy.

Part 1
The Empire first intended to split the United Mankind once and for all from the Siullzede/Rasuisu and Barke Kingdom by moving to the galactic Sord center. This would also serve to cut off contact and supply between the United Mankind and their allies.

Part 2
The Laburec intended to circumnavigate the galactic Sord center and cut the connection between the United Mankind, the Republic of Greater Alkont, the People's Sovereign Union of Planets, and the Hania Federation, which would diplomatically isolate the Federation and provide further incentive for them to stay out of the war, cease their supply of allies, or potentially broker a separate alliance with the Empire.

Two groups of forces were created to implement the plans simultaneously.


 * Task Force One was sent to assault the Kemal system. Rekef would command this operation.


 * Task Force Two was sent to take the Mairal system, using Elkon to access the position. Kotoponi would command this operation.

Begining of the Operation
Sometime after the Martine Gate War Games in the Hyde System, the Star Forces launched Operation Twin Thorns in ICY 959. There appeared to have been a brief reprieve for all forces following Operation Hunter and Operation Light Snow, since the Laburec had been on the offensive for almost a year straight.

Battle of Kemal
The operation met moderate resistance from the People's Sovereign Union of Planets on the Barke Kingdom side of the operation.

Soon the Star Forces reached one of its primary target, the Kemal Sord. As the main military production base of the PSUP the Kemal system was heavily defended. The Battle of the Kemal Gateway claimed among the most casualties of the Laburec since the 2nd Battle of Aptic, yet would not be the sole bloodiest battle during the operation. The PSUP's use of long-range separation mines effectively slowed Star Force advance, but ultimately the Star Forces broke through by force of numbers, an event Admiral Kotoponi hoped to avoid. The Empire typically had been outnumbered prior to this, so needing to use superior numbers to achieve success somewhat alarmed Laburec command.

The new attack ships of the Devastation squadrons from the 24th Twin Thorns fleet proved their value in the main assault on the main installations around the gas planet Akaddo. Coupled with their success, the 24th Fleet could now be moved to the developing bloody situation in the Alcont-Mankind Warzone and the lengthening battles for two gates.

Battles of Mairal and Elkon Gates
The Star Forces met more fierce battles with the United Mankind. It took the operation longer to reach the supply junction of the three nations triangle in the Mairal system. However, already weeks before, the Star Forces had successfully cut off the supply route to the United Mankind forces. The Republic of Greater Alcont had already reversed the flow of supply for their own forces while the Federation of Hania kept back but secretly provided further logistic support.

To prevent the base from falling into the Empire's grasp, the United Mankind prepared to scuttle their base. To avoid this resource loss, Kotoponi's headquarters fleet, the 13th Fleet Twin Thorns, moved with the 11th Fleet to pierce the Alliance defenses at Elkon and Mairal. The Laburec had succeeded in seizing one of the two gates in the region, but still needed to seize Mairal proper. The 11th fleet would begin a series of assaults over one week to attempt to destroy the enemy fleet. They achieved success once reinforcements arrived form the the remaining Twin Thorns fleets, however, by this time the United Mankind had already retreated and destroyed the base. In its place the Star Force set up their own new supply base as usual.

Aftermath
Near the end of the operation the Star Forces accomplished the destruction of one of the Three, later Four Nations Alliance most important supply bases, conquered the most important military production base of the People's Sovereign Union of Planets. Additionally the Laburec fulfilled its primary objectives of isolating the United Mankind for her allies.

Following the end of the operation the Star Force initiated Operation Snow Crystal in an effort to secure the Federation of Hania, as its government reported that it desired to join the Empire as an autonomous region. The War seemed about to end a lot sooner than expected in favor of the Empire which was expected to launch one more encirclement campaign which would remove a background supplier and supporter of the Alliance.

Territories conquered

 * Elkon system
 * Kemal system
 * Socratic system
 * Mairal system