We have been forcing the Union to focus on the Lorraine system. We will bring it to the bring of secession and independence.
Sowing chaos
Lorraine Bounty board has been setup via a proxy to pour foreigners into Lorraine and show that the Union cannot handle the security. The Outcasts are not included but seem to not need any incentive and pour into Lorraine anyways - stopping them takes precedent and they are to be shot on sight. Different groups have been asked to lend a helping hand.
Union food supply blockade
Corsicans and Brigands have been contacted - FLG's extremist arm and Maquisards are destroying Union's food convoys and killing all people aboard in a spectacular fashion to deter them from supplying Metz that suffers from famine to increase tensions against the Union in the system and make the people grow restless.
Hiring Sirian haulers
To increase unrest against the Union, and to show people of Metz and Lorraine they are better off going independent we have hired several Sirian companies to haul tens of thousands of tonnes of food supplies and propaganda to the planet on behalf of The Front. A sirius wide contract was offered. Con-Ex,The Core and Harlan Freight have accepted.
Once the ground is ready, trust in the Union is corroded to sufficient levels, an offensive will be dispatched on a specific day to help Liberate the system and allow the people to rise up, calling on everyone we can find that can move onto Lorraine. Feasibility of a terrorist strike to disable the Lorraine jump gate to Picardy temporarily will be evaluated to trap and divide the Union forces.
Blockade progressing well. Food is indeed being attempted to be supplied to Metz. I have taken down at least 30 Union transports and freighters trying to pass through.
Harlan freight has been seen and escorted - the Sirians seem reliable and even share some of our sentiments about the Union.
Code:
[25.07.2021 11:24:07] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: And who might you be!
[25.07.2021 11:24:14] HFC|Tern: Yates: Greetings FLG vessel!
[25.07.2021 11:24:29] HFC|Tern: I am captain Melinda Yates of the Harlan Freight Company
[25.07.2021 11:24:37] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Harlan!
[25.07.2021 11:24:40] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Oui!
[25.07.2021 11:24:46] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: We were told about you
[25.07.2021 11:24:47] HFC|Tern: your Front has chartered our vessels to deliver aid to planet Metz
[25.07.2021 11:24:59] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Excellent - proceed I shall escort
[25.07.2021 11:25:15] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: lavigned this is one of the Sirians I mentioned
[25.07.2021 11:25:19] [FLG]NT-Carapace: Lavigned: Bonjour!
[25.07.2021 11:25:27] HFC|Tern: We would be very grateful. We already had some issues in the past with the authorities
[25.07.2021 11:25:28] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Helping Starving people on Metz !
[25.07.2021 11:25:38] HFC|Tern: plotting course
[25.07.2021 11:25:38] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: On our behalf
[25.07.2021 11:25:45] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Following
[25.07.2021 11:26:03] [FLG]NT-Carapace: Lavigned: Escort him, I'll deliver my cargo to the destination.
[25.07.2021 11:26:09] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Roger!
[25.07.2021 11:26:12] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Save travels
[25.07.2021 11:26:20] HFC|Tern: Thank you!
[25.07.2021 11:26:52] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: How niceof you to think of people of Gallia Yates
[25.07.2021 11:27:00] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: I am sure they will appreciate it!
[25.07.2021 11:27:09] HFC|Tern: Yes, but the authorities .... My colleague, Captain Green got the shorter end of the stick
[25.07.2021 11:27:12] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Our Fae contacts should await you on surface
[25.07.2021 11:28:06] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Well, the Union is Xenophobic as you are finding out probably
[25.07.2021 11:28:30] HFC|Tern: Indeed, they don't seem to like us Sirians
[25.07.2021 11:28:51] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Long history of Nobles putting themselves ahead of others
[25.07.2021 11:30:01] HFC|Tern: Oh, they didn't actually harm him, as far as I am aware... Just detained him because of wrong papers
[25.07.2021 11:30:21] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Bureocracy in the name of a totalitarian Military state
[25.07.2021 11:30:29] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: This is what we fight against
[25.07.2021 11:30:31] HFC|Tern: I am sure the boss will sort it out with them
[25.07.2021 11:31:18] [FLG]Heros.De.Picardie: Well you can make it from her Sirian - safe skies and thank you for your assistance
[25.07.2021 11:31:28] HFC|Tern: And here we are. Thank you for your escort!
Well, it has started. LGNS have really laid on on thick but hey - who are we not to use a really unrelated opportunity to further our goals. Marseille and Metz have little in common, but an opportunity is an opportunuty. I just hope the Corsicans won't be too pissed for abusing their victory for our unrelated propaganda goals. If the LGNS staff start mysteriously dissapearing I will know who to look at first.
Now we wait for the Sirians to give us detailed report from Metz and we can start more direct propaganda efforts targetted at Lorraine directly
The stars are aligning. The Bretonians will not only make an exception to their blockade of the Union temporarily, they will even protect the haulers on part of the journey. I have had little fayth in the compromising and seemingly blind Sirians being directly involved but hey - we will take what we can get.
I don't want to fuck up our relationship with the Corse, or having to fight a war on two fronts. So the Corsicans were warned and we have attempted to strike the Outcasts in the Taus with our warships [FLG]VG-Revolutionnaire,Lionesque, Guepard and the bomber [FLG]31's.Ballista. Only their battleship, HS>Marsaxlokk was put out of action by our own cruiser, Guepard before we had to retreat, met by strong force that might threaten Lorraine. God willing the Corsicans with our help will keep the Sniffers busy while the Sirian transports slip by, confuse the populace and deter them from taking up arms against us with their humanitarian helpwhen the day of the Lorraine uprising comes.
Boucher smirks, wipes his bloodied face and goes onto send a message to fellow Maquisards. We never could have imagined how well our plan would work out. Losses of Maquisard lives might be present frequently in Lorraine, but the reaction is overwhelmingly above and beyond what we dreamed of.
We are witnessing the strenght of the Union's war machine at it's might - I don't even know where they brough so many warships from, but it is clear the large majority of the Union's forces have descented upon Lorraine. Massive impenetrable walls or their latest technological terror are present, showing us how steep the hill we need to climb to defeat the Union just is. Do not give up, keep wasting their resources and instigating chaos!
They are so eager they don't hesitate to commit multiple warships at unarmed transports
And one of our heroes was so annoying his one rusting old Courbe managed to draw wrath of 7 Union Battleships that furiously chased it!
Your sacrifices are not in ven fellow Maquisards. Statues will be erected, hymns shall be sung and your heroic deeds here, right now, in Lorraine will be applauded by many generations to come. Keep on your current course for I promise you - ultimately your actions and sacrifices will lead us to our inevitable victory!
The idea to stage a diversion was born when late stages of planning The Champagne Heist revealed that to have chance of capturing the Council technology from Chaumont and Cambrai battlegroups that were in the process of being scrapped succesfully we could not face the Union Forces head on, or let them lay idle and have time to reinforce the EFL corporate defenders en masse.
Hence in May the idea was revealed.
(05-25-2021, 11:29 PM)Lionel Boucher Wrote: An unprecedented distraction
We will need a distraction. One of massive proportions. Orkney was a child's play next to this. Every piece of our propaganda machine will need to be at work, a lot of money will have to be spent, the Liberated Gallia thruth spreading outlet will be told to go into overdrive. We will hire multiple 3rd parties.
It is a crazy, bold and complicated plan, but if succesful it will buy us more than enough time. Even if somehow The Union sniff out or plan, they will have no choice but to move their forces away from Champagne, or risk a massive political blow to their entire regime. I am not ready to reveal said plan until I confirm the High Command that it is even feasible. But stay tuned.
Choosing Lorraine
The diversion was decided to be Lorraine after long deliberation. The system was a bastion of Royalist support, even during the Confederacy. The Union and former Royals and their armies would stop at nothing to not lose a system like this, either to independence or even Maquisard control. Lucky for The Front, there was an opening - Gallic News Service: Food Issues on Metz. Famine is the breeding ground for discontempt of the lowest classes, one we could abuse for our own ends.
The Lorraine system also was heavily damaged since the War, and there was the easiest access by Sirians - either mercenaries we could hire, haulers that could give us and Sirius support, and even the Outcasts causing issues - the instability of the system was a breeding ground for propaganda impact.
Issues - cannot go it alone
To credibly stage a fake uprising that would draw the bulk of the Navy forces from Champagne we knew propaganda on the Neural Net and in the press alone was not going to cut it. We needed feet on the ground in Lorraine. We had a big issue however, the entire logistical strenght of The Front was nowhere near Lorraine - them and our physical propaganda Runners were scouting and securing the Champagne system, so were the majority of our forces, readying and carefully planning the Champagne Heist all year.
Along with the LGNS being encouraged to grossly overplay the issues on Metz and intent of the Maquis and direct propaganda being pumped out en masse, we needed people, people we didn't have.
This is where the Sirians came in. A by-effect of this action would be long term softening of the Anti-Sirian Union doctrine, but really all we cared about is chaos in the system and getting propaganda into the hands of people of Lorraine without the need to be physically present and divert resources from Champagne, all to add credibility to our plan. Sirian haulers were called and paid for at great expense. We have even negotiated a temporary Embargo break with the BAF. Our plans aside, the Sirians have surprised us by the readiness with which they were willing to help the common people of Gallia and work with us, there just might be hope for the furure afterall, and our pro-Sirian focus that builds on the Council tradition is finally bearing fruits. That was not our priority however at that moment. We wanted to create discontempt on Metz and flood the planet with propaganda using our contacts with presence on the planet and means of distribution.
This worked incredibly well, the Union counter-propaganda added even more credibility to the Uprising. This wasn't all, we have used an affiliated man with Sirian contacts to incite Sirian mercenaries to cause chaos in Lorraine. We have called the Blood Dragons for help, the group who has been bonding with Maquisards in Tau-53 for years and even routed the KNF and KSP together few months ago, and even asked the Golden Chrysanthemums to add to the chaos.
The "Uprising" begins
In a way many Maquisards were the victims of our own propaganda success - for a minute many seem to have started believing we could actually win in the former Royalist bastion. Our plan to simply draw the Union forces in and disable the gate behind them without the fight was forgotten about as many Maquisards have rallied, the Outcasts were a wild card that could strongly create even more chaos and Sirian Haulers were doing a better than expected job.
When the fighting broke out it was clear that there will be no victory for us in Lorraine. We realized that even without vast majority of our forces being focused on Champagne there would be no victory in Lorraine. The Union so grossly over-reacted to our propaganda they have sent a dominating armada that must have been syphoned from entire Gallia.
The Uneven fighting soon broke out, and the battle raged on for days.
The heroism reached incredible heights, we convinced the Union that we actually commited to Lorraine so hard that at times a single fighter of ours managed to draw an entire armada of warships to furiously pursue it, our defenceless liners were chased far into Nebulae by multiple warships.
The Departure
Our goal achieved, the entire Union Armada present in Lorraine, we proceeded with our plan. Destination: Champagne
Code:
[07.11.2021 19:42:12] [FLG]Balian.Remi.: We make our move! Prepare Maquissards!
[07.11.2021 19:42:29] Jump drive charge 100%
[07.11.2021 19:42:39] [FLG]Balian.Remi.: Citizens of Lorraine, The Maquissards have paved your way, rise up, fight!
[07.11.2021 19:42:40] OK Coordinates verified: Champagne 55194.224.9775
[07.11.2021 19:42:42] /jump
[07.11.2021 19:42:45] [FLG]VG-Bulldozer: Good luck Lorraine
Epilogue
We have achieved greatness here. This plan seemed so crazy, so insane and hard to pull off few believed it would work out. In the end, we have lost more Maquisards than we would have if our propaganda was not so succesful, our own people started believing our own hype and actually thought we could go to head with the Union forces after telegraphing our intent for months.
Lorraine has shown that even with bolstered Pamiers Battlegroup any conflict in the open should be avoided at all costs for years to come when the Union has time to prepare, the extremist arm should be in the frontlines doing what they do best with their plots, while the soon to be bolstered Military arm only going after isolated objectives where they won't be forced to face the entire Union Armada in the open.
The Lorraine uprising has been a massive victory on the battlefield of propaganda and ability of getting 3rd parties and Sirius involved in aid of liberating Gallia. It lead to more than enough space created for Champagne to be an effortless success. The clear defeat in the open battlefields of Lorraine however revealed that we have a massive hill to climb before we have any semblance of a chance of defeating the Union. Especially after the treatcherous abomination that the Confederacy was showed us that our enemies must be wholesomely defeated and partial victory that would force compromising with them is out of the question.
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Union food hauling civilian carnage
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