Operation Anticipation
- This article is about an in-universe event. For the in-game mission, see Consequence of Power.
Operation Anticipation was a Cascadian Independence Force operation to retake from the Pacific Federation the major economic of Prospero during the Cascadian Conflict. The CIF's main goal was to retake Prospero's airport, the source of defending air power. Sicario's Hitman Team and other allied fighters supported CIF ground units during the operation.
While the CIF's air forces were successful in shooting down most Federation aircraft, the operation ended in failure after the Federation deployed cordium-tipped cruise missiles to the city. This led to major cordium detonations underneath Prospero that decimated the city, later referred to as the Prospero Disaster. The detonations at Prospero caused a chain reaction of cordium detonations all around the Ring of Fire, leading to the Cascadian Calamity Event.
Prelude
- "Can't we get Crimson on the horn?!"
"They're spread thin trying to cover a lot of the retreats." - ― Federation defenses attempting to summon reinforcements
The trade center of Prospero was seized in the beginning of the civil war, becoming the site of the Federation's Regional HQ. With the war becoming in favor of the Independence Force, most Federation air traffic now operated out of the city's port facilities; this effectively made the city one of the last remaining sources of air power for the Federation, with fighters being rotated in and out recently for counterstrikes, either from the impregnable underground runways or outside of the city.
The Independence Force had already surrounded and bombarded the city's defenses in the days leading up to the operation, weakening them significantly without causing too much damage to public facilities. Other than retaking a major stronghold, they wanted to decimate the dominance of Federation air power, disrepute Federation defense of global interests, and destroy their defensive momentum once they reached Presidia. They also wanted to establish a forward base using the runways in a lightning offensive.
Seeing the Federation on the brink of defeat, some of their officers, both within Federation High Command and the Peacekeepers, devised a plan to terrorize the rebels into losing the war, starting with shutting down Prospero's geological monitoring station and airspace and evacuating military VIPs using seized civilian aircraft, stranding the civilians themselves in the process. They intended to lure the rebel forces as deep into Prospero as possible and then launch a massive swarm of cordium-tipped cruise missiles to level the city and eradicate a large chunk of the CIF's military strength. They then broadcasted this plan to the defenders by need-to-know basis, using them as bait while some others took shelter underground.
Battle
- "Why are you even trying?! God damn, just surrender already, don't make me do this!"
"They know what they've signed up for, just keep fighting!" - ― Peter kennedy and Evelyn London during the fight
Once the Independence Force and their pilots began liberating the city proper, the Federation sent out three air wings to engage, including from the northern vector, leading to a furball above. As soon as Hitman Team's Monarch was recognized, the Federation defenders focused all fire on him, with some pilots attempting to outright ram his aircraft. With the defenders themselves cornered and Federation air power, CIF General Morgan Elizabeth announced a surrender request to prevent further bloodshed.
During this time, one officer, Flowers, challenged the Cascadian Peacekeeper Commander's directive to launch the attack upon being approached with it, culminating in a brief standoff which ended with the latter killing the former to get his way. Concurrently, Federation troops - several of them Cascadian - began surrendering en masse, Elizabeth's orders being to escort them out to extract intel as usual.
The disaster and aftermath
- "This is AWACS Galaxy to ALCON, I repeat, this is AWACS Galaxy to ALCON, ALCON, ALCON, we have incoming ordinance, cruise missile type, thermal signatures are off the charts, hunker in place or get out of the area!"
- ― Dominic Zaitsev announcing the cruise missile strike
Soon after the Federation defenders of Prospero were overrun, they launched the cruise missiles, deployed by a mobile artillery battalion.[1] The remaining rebel fighters then struggled to shoot down the missiles, but could not intercept all of them because of their durability and sheer numbers. One missile vaporized Elizabeth and his nearby troops, prompting surviving units to flee Prospero. In short time, fissures began forming on roadways, owing to the cordium warheads reacting on the city's large reserves.
The fissures began rapidly spreading from the city into the rest of the North American continent. Initially assumed to be the volcano somehow becoming active and erupting, it was put aside for cordium pollution from all the traffic that had flowed through the city or latent cordium randomly going off. Upon deducing the true cause of the tremors, geological scientists put out warnings to both sides about the impending disaster.
The sheer thermal radiation from the explosions ruptured sensors and other electricity-based systems right before large explosions rocked both Prospero and the entire country, among other locations as well, leading to a new, downsized Calamity. In addition to devastating the city, the cordium weapons demonstrated an existing theory on the cause of the Calamity, namely an uncontrolled cascade reaction of igniting cordium.[4]
The disaster affected the entire Ring of Fire to some degree, although Cascadia as the epicenter was the worst-hit, not to mention the immense loss of life (numbering in six digits military-wise),[2] nature, and infrastructure. Because of these factors, Prospero was abandoned after the cataclysm, being designated a No Man's Land, but was reoccupied by CIF units during Operation Recall two months later to fulfill their original objective, concurrently with the geothermal fissures settling down.[5]
The Federation's use of cordium weapons led to other powers such as the West African Concordat condemning its actions, supporting the Independence Force, and planning to seize Federation assets.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sector D2. (2020). Project Wingman [Video game]. Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: Cascadian Calamity Event (AC 432).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Sector D2. (2020). Project Wingman [Video game]. Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: The Cascadian Conflict.
- ↑ Sector D2. (2020). Project Wingman [Video game]. Humble Games. Campaign Mission 18: Return (Transcript).
- ↑ Sector D2. (2020). Project Wingman [Video game]. Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: Prospero Disaster.
- ↑ Sector D2. (2020). Project Wingman [Video game]. Humble Games. Campaign Mission 18: Return (Transcript).
- ↑ Sector D2. (2020). Project Wingman [Video game]. Humble Games. Files Archive → World Entries: Prospero Disaster International Fallout.
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