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BREAKING: EU DECLARES WAR ON MERIDIAN

With the Eucadian Crisis stabilized, in part due to EU military and diplomatic pressure, the Eastern Union has taken the next step in cleaning house - finally dealing with the thorn that has been in its side for years. The justification given was simple: constant malevolence. Not only did Meridian repeatedly and deliberately break the terms of the settlements put in place after the War of Three Councils with Shrive, they have attempted to interfere in foreign events outside their sphere of influence, such as their unjustified colonialism in Telemarcia and attempts to send military forces to Eucadia amid the recent crisis.

Operation Shimmer

The opening salvoes in the war against Meridian have been planned and are being executed under the codename Operation Shimmer. Operation Shimmer is a massive surprise attack that is designed to cripple Meridian's forces in the opening days of the war, since they do not have the economy to outproduce the EU. There are several operations that fit under the umbrella of Shimmer, but so far, there are only two being executed, those two being Operation Turtledove and Operation East Wind.

Operation Turtledove

The first shots of the war have already been fired, with the first battles beginning immediately after the declaration of war was handed to the Meridian Ambassador to the EU. No major engagements have started in the land, air or sea yet, but immediately, the Union Space Defence Forces and the Imperial Shriven Abyssal Navy launched massive surprise attacks on the Meridian StarForce. Both the USDF and StarForce are heavily fighter-based forces, with the significant firepower in Meridian Space Forces coming from SDF-Class spacecraft. However, the SDF-class relies heavily on energy shielding, and as such is incredibly dangerous to the extraordinarily fast projectiles of the Ryoju-Class Space Dreadnought. Not only does the EU have a firepower advantage, they have a massive numbers advantage as well. Major surprise attacks have been launched on several installations in Terran orbit, Lunar Orbit and Kaulderan Orbit.

Meanwhile, small contingents of the Union Space Defence Force and the majority of the Imperial Shriven Abyssal Navy's committed forces target and destroy Meridian infrastructure, such as spaceports, storage depots, repair facilities, and mines. No major land offensives have been launched on Luna or Kauldera, as it is infeasible for either side to launch an offensive without orbital superiority. As such, wary of desperate Meridian attacks, the EU has evacuated citizens on Luna and Kauldera to lower levels and taken up defensive positions. Extra care has been taken at Eikō-Shōri, which is the most populous EU Lunar City and the capital of space operations. Eikō-Shōri is surrounded by Meridian on the surface (although deep tunnels do connect it to the rest of the various EU lunar holdings). If the defenders can hold on to Eikō-Shōri for a week, it is expected that dominance in orbit of Terra can be established and they can be resupplied. Meanwhile, the thousands of Rechian Space Mines, deactivated two decades ago at the request of Shrive before their EU membership, have all been reactivated. At the same time, the Shriven Kabuki Array and the smaller Rechian and Eucadian Kinetic Bombardment Arrays have begun shelling Meridian positions on Luna, Kauldera and Terra. While on Terra, many of the projectiles are intercepted before they can reach their targets, they reveal the positions of Meridian's Anti-Orbital Guns, providing added, surefire intelligence for Operation East Wind.

Operation East Wind

Operation East Wind is very similar to an operation performed by Shrive with Rechian air support in the War of Three Councils. However, where the 60,000 Shriven Guerrillas were dropped in to destroy the Meridian economy and create chaos to support a land invasion, this time the mission is smaller in scale and tighter in focus. Approximately 23,000 fighters of mostly Shriven origin from the IMP X-04 "Gyrfalcon" Special Forces Unit. Inserted seconds after the declaration of war before the Meridian defenders knew to look out for them, the X-04 soldiers have one purpose - destroy the Meridian Coilguns. Scattered across the country, the X-04 soldiers will, when possible, guide in EU hypersonic missiles, and if not possible, manually destroy the coilguns. Once this task is complete, each unit has a different purpose. IMP X-04 is designed specifically as a suicide unit (the reason why the majority of members, who are all volunteers, are of Shriven origin), used for missions where extraction is impossible, odds are deemed impossible, or the destruction of the unit has strategic value. Once the coilguns are destroyed, the soldiers will destroy infrastructure, assassinate important figures, assault military bases, lay low and support the eventual land invasion, et cetera.

The EU has released a brief statement regarding the declaration of war:

With all of our member nations back at full strength, it has been decided that the best course of action is to reassert our global dominance. The EU is the world's leading power, yet we have allowed ourselves to be pushed around. That ends now. A belligerent nation who has been stepping on our toes, violating peace treaties deliberately, and attempting to take military action against member states will be put into its place. As of seven minutes ago, a state of war exists between The Great Union of Meridian and the Eastern Union. Rest assured that this war would not be prosecuted if it could not be won, and this war would not be prosecuted if casualties would be too high. As this broadcast airs across the union and the world, our Union Space Defence Forces and the Imperial Shriven Abyssal Navy are combating the enemy, and we pray for all involved. This war was not a war we wanted, but it was a war that was necessary. We know that the people of the Union will rise to the task, to protect their nation and their fellow countrypeople. If there is one lesson we have learned from history, it is that we are strongest together. The union will win, and we will win as one.