Fighting for Utopia: the War on Haraway's World

Fighting for Utopia: The War on Haraway’s World

Introduction

Haraway’s World was settled by one of the first long shot missions to leave earth and one of the first attempts to set up a completely new form of society in the colonies. Its founding principles were utopian and pacifistic, seeking a peaceful world, far from the struggles and conflicts still plaguing earth in the mid twenty first century.

Less than one hundred and fifty years after the colonies founding, Haraway was the site, and major participant in, the twenty second centuries largest conflict, and the biggest space battle in human history.

In this article I will examine how Haraway both the events of the War on Haraway and the events of the war it’s self, paying particular attention to how to the transformations it caused to Harawayan Society, and then look to the future.

Prelude

Founding

Haraway was one of the first longshot missions to leave earth. Its colonists were members of the Fifth Wave feminist movement, the last hurrah of the great feminist social movement on earth before true gender equality was finally achieved. Haraway’s founders were fundamentally utopian in their beliefs, seeking to build the perfect society on a distant planet without the conflict and uncertainty that plagued mid twenty-first century earth.

Landing on Haraway they found a beautiful, lush, hot and thoroughly poisonous world and set gamely to the task of making it theirs and them its. The Initial colonisation was entirely transhumant and they quickly adapted genetic engineering techniques to allow themselves and their children to survive in Haraway’s heavy metal rich environment and high temperature (around 55 degrees at the equator, giving rise to a massive and constant belt of high pressure storms that restrict colonisation to near the iceless poles. Efforts were made to reduce the colonies affect on the alien ecosystem, both for ethical and scientific reasons, and this gave birth to the system of augmented reality that still marks Haraway today, Harawayans were able to carry their civilisation with them in their implanted computers rather than plough over the wonderous alien environment that the colonists had found.

Cities were built however, first around the posthuman assembly plant on landing, then further afield, and the population rapidly expanded. Great works of art and culture were created, as was Haraway’s colour system of communitarian transhumanism and direct democratic government. The caste systems origins came from both a technical and social problem. It was observed that in Haraway's relatively mild conditions and with manufacturing systems like fabers, it would become possible for a truly transhuman beings to live essentially alone, without needing contact with anyone else. Further, while it was possible to create a transhuman who would be good at a large range of areas, a specialist transhuman would be far superior in her speciality than a generalist. These two observations combined to lead to the creation of the Colours, both allowing better transhumans and making better community.

Many Harawayans still remember their time of isolation as Haraway’s golden age, without military expenditure or the need for protection from a hostile universe to suck government spending away from the public good, indeed, government its self was limited, with few matters coming before the citizenry for voting, the government’s primary business was to provide necessary resources to all Harawayans and ensure a smooth transition from one job to another.

No era can be entirely without politics however, Haraway's age of isolation no exception. While during the early stages the needs of creating a colony overrode any disagreements, as cities developed so did a split between Harawayans who inhabited the outer areas over various issues, including the right of each community to set its own rules and laws and the extent to which these local political structures should be subordinate to central government. Generally, the more travelled and solitary violets supported central government while the more city based Yellows and Blues supported local politics, with the Reds and Greens evenly split. However, political dispute at this time was not really caste based. Instead disagreement was more around local vs. rural divide, with caste based political activism only appearing during the breakdown. In general, Haraway's first sixty years were peaceful but relatively static, a good time to live but without the dramatic economic or technological developments that have marked resent times.

Recontact through UN’s Stargazer program shattered Haraway’s dreams of a splendid, isolated existence forever, and amazed Harawayan public opinion, who until that point were mostly of the opinion that the Post Human's FTL drive technology was unlikely to be ever viably replicated, let alone improved upon by mere humans. Recontact bought Haraway's first period of rapid political change, strengthening the central government and transport infrastructure and leading to the creation of a space program and Harawayan defence force initially around ten thousand strong.

The legacy of this defence force is still seen today, with many Harawayan units having the wearing the 10,000 badge as part of their uniform reflecting the fact that their unit was part of this initial fraternity. The initial defence force was fairly lightly equipped, with mostly hand carried arms created by local designs. At first they carried mostly small calibre assault rifles and rocket launchers, (though they rapidly adopted more modern designs) with what heavy weapons they did mount launched from aircraft. The biggest problem was the sheer area they needed to cover and most of the defence force's fabricator cycles were devoted to sub-orbital craft.

More and more regular contact with the EU and other colonial actors followed over the next twenty years, and Haraway increasingly traded the drugs and other products of the Harawayan ecosystem for high technology and designs, many of which they rapidly retroengineered, copied and sometimes improved by the green caste with what was seen in many quarters as a complete disregard for intellectual property.

Rather than something as tawdry as intellectual property that was to bring war to Haraway however, it was great matters of trade, territory and international law. Specifically the idea that seas off earth could have international waters, and the precise definition of what was owned by the colonists under a UN chartered Colony.

While the Harawayans were willing to synthesise and trade drugs for various EU products they proved notable reluctant to open themselves up to investment, and more importantly capital outflow and hot money Or to the possibility of native businesses being bought by EU corporate interests, and stubbornly committed to doing things their own way. Despite the propaganda spread by various EU sources, the prices they set were not excessive, nor supplies kept artificially low. Supplies were however under strictly local control, and the majority of cash was kept locally.

After lobbying by several major EU marine development and pharmaceutical companies, the European Council proved willing to press the UN to apply the UN Convention on Laws of the Sea off world, effectively internationalising Haraway's oceans. As if this was not enough, the UN backed the claim that those areas of Haraway's World without permanent settlements could not be regarded as sovereign territory. This allowed EU companies to operate freely at sea, deploying massive factory ships which Harawayan regulations had previously prohibited, and set up a number of ports, compounds and outposts to support them and support the land based ecology on various islands and on Beta Continent. Many corporate operations took place in the previously fallow Northern hemisphere, protected from the main areas of Haraway by the storm belt. Several species of interest to biological science occurred only in the South however, so it was necessary to engage with the local population.

Harawayans were shocked by this invasion, but not initially violent. Peaceful protests, trade embargos and diplomatic negotiation were all tried and eventually failed, in several cases with demonstrators being beaten by corporate security forces. Tension gradually escalated until a Corporate factory fishing vessel, the Pride of Valencia rammed and sunk a Harawayan protest boat, killing all hands.

There was wide spread revulsion at this incident among Harawayans, and it was demanded that all off worlders immediately cease operating and withdraw or face action by the self defence force. Unfortunately for Haraway it quickly became obvious that not only were the corporations unwilling to give into its government's demands but they had the tools to make their rejection stick.

War of 2149-51

The three year war on Haraway was a extremely bloody and hard fought. In order to defend their claims against potentially violent transhuman natives, the Corporations bought together a mishmash of formed PMCs and individuals willing to kill for profit. They came from numerous sources, some were soldiers or ex-soldiers, offered higher pay by the corporations than they could earn in an armed force. Others were professional mercenaries of one kind or another, drawn from the more unstable parts of earth and the inner colonies. Finally there were the frontiersmen, those who had been at the head of earth's exploration of space in the 2120s but found the universe thirty years later an all together too safe and boring place.

They are a colourful cast, with figures such as Tim Othendo, Colonel Gerald ‘Jared’ Mcintyre, Artemis Tactical Solutions Group, Shiva Security and a host of others. With corporate propaganda suggesting they were denying necessary medicine to the populations of the core, and general paranoia about transgenics that pervaded EU discourses, not to mention the harsh conditions on Haraway prevented much core media attention being devoted to the conflict and allowed the PMCs a relatively free hand.

Among prominent early incidents was the assassination of Kara Joi, a prominent anti-corporate activist by UAV launched missiles, and several other killings of Harawayan leaders, together with the occupation of several Harawayan settlements. The Self Defence Force was able to hold corporate troops from taking over the major cities and fabricators, though more experienced and better equipped mercenaries took a horrible toll of the previously unblooded Harawayans. Initial Harawayan attempts to strike at corporate bases in the North were also unsuccessful, with several suborbital craft lost to the long range laser systems the corporations had jointly set up to cover themselves.

The first year of the war saw battles mostly waged in the forms of small ambushes and bomb attacks against corporate units, ships and bases by often small bands of Harawayan militia, including hostage takings and piracy. The corporations in turn waged violent reprisals against the local population in an effort to root out guerrilla bands and destroy local morale.. While this coercion was successful in some areas, it only escalated attacks in others, and was ineffective in preventing the SDF and the larger guerrilla bands from steadily increasing in skill and equipment.

The turning point in the war is usually regarded as June the Ninetieth Twenty One Fifty, when a lift vehicle carrying ammunition to Shiva Security troops operating on Island 1257 in the Northern Hemisphere was struck by a submarine launched ground to space missile, crashing on the landing zone and killing both the crew and over two hundred ground staff, the first major attack on corporate forces in the north.

From then on the war entered a different tone, with corporate security elements increasing suffering defeat against now experienced, well equipped and often heavily augmented Harawayan forces, as what had once been a relatively low intensity insurgency rapidly turned into a full scale industrial war. Naval and armoured forces were increasingly used, and the first Harawayan wet navy warships were deployed.

On March Tenth 2151 Harawayan Self Defence Force regulars and citizens militia looked down from their fighting positions on the forested hills of Javindra as the final heavy lift vehicles carrying Martins Pharmaceutical personnel departing for their jump ship beyond Haraway’s orbit. The encampment was the last major off world corporate facility on Haraway. Slowly, word spread that the last invaders had retreated. The Harawayan self defence force had come a long way from the small, inexperienced and often poorly led force it had been in 2149.

It was a two weeks since the airstrike that had obliterated Xenologic Resources' primary compound on Kirsa Atoll, almost two months since Colonel Gerald ‘Jared’ Mcintyre and his famous Expanse Tactical Solutions, more commonly known as the Ravens had been slaughtered to a man in an ambush by an SDF armoured battalion on Beta Continent, with their Northern Hemisphere bases methodically reduced by air, sea and land attack, the corporations had cut and run. All that was left was to hunt down the last pockets of dead enders, those unable or unwilling to evacuate with their parent companies.

Haraway’s political elite was less cheerful. Despite military success, the brutal nature of the fighting, which featured targeting of civilians on both sides, and shortages of Harawayan produced pharmaceuticals had drawn the attention of the EU, and with it the UN security council. Intervention by the great powers was commonly expected to be only a matter of time, and the business of steeling the population for another round of fighting after victory, not to mention military preparations for engagement against one of Earth’s regional blocks was a daunting prospect.

The war between Haraway’s government and the various corporate interests that sought to claim the planets natural bounty had been fierce, claiming over a million lives over a three year period, and seen far more than its fair share of atrocities committed against Harawayan civilians. Now, facing the prospect of their hard one gains being overturned by great power intervention the Harawayans prepared for another, much longer and bloodier struggle against the might of the EU.

Security Council resolution 9855 passed in mid December, despite Harawayan diplomacy, and provided for the creation of an international force to stabilize Haraway, enforce the UN convention on the Laws of the Sea and ‘protect legitimate business interests’. A force led by the UK and Turkey was being assembled and had made its first jump away from earth when the breakdown hit, leaving them stranded and plunging Haraway back into isolation.

ZOCU and the Magnate War

While the Breakdown saved Haraway from invasion it caused a serious political squabble. Haraway became split between those factions who believed that they could return to the way they’d lived before recontact and sought to put the war behind them of forces and those more farsighted individuals who believed that they could no longer hide from the rest of the universe, and that one way or another the Breakdown was a temporary phenomena. The former group coalesced around the name Restorationists while their opposition called themselves the Progressives.

As well as long term policy problems there were more short term worries, first the continued existence of several of the largest and most heavily armed guerrilla bands as private individuals, but still with their weapons, and secondly the growing political demands of Harawayan's of the red (physical) caste. The Reds had shouldered the brunt of the brutal fighting and taken most of the causalities (with corporate units often simply killing people they believed to be Reds on sight) demanding a greater say in the political and economic life of Haraway which up to now they had been somewhat excluded from due to their lesser mental and social attributes, and their lack of the levels of inherited cash and prestige possessed by the violets.

Weary of warfare, the public initially supported the Restorationists, who's program included heavy cuts in the self defence force and forcible disarmament of the remaining guerrillas. While there were no outright clashes between guerrillas and SDF units, the situation became increasingly tense, with some guerrilla units taking to the hills.

Despite this, the Restorationists were increasingly able to institute their agenda, cutting the space program and the SDF to levels that would only be able to deal with the remaining guerrillas, and pushing for a return to the old style of Harawayan living. There was a general belief at the start of the Breakdown that it would last forever, or at least a very long time, indeed, perhaps it was even directly caused by the posthumans, annoyed at how badly humans had used their gifts. Guerrilla bands were eventually disarmed and careful diplomacy and negotiation defused the potential for military conflict. Out of contact for the next several years the Progressive's agenda seemed increasingly irrelevant to a population sick of war.

This situation changed dramatically when LNS Hydra in system bringing a diplomatic party from Londenium in November of 2159. The very fact that FTL travel still existed caused a brief panic on Haraway, but skilful diplomacy by the Londenium embassy was able to calm most of the immediate fears and strike a deal with the Progressives. The Progressives in turn had been in negotiations with red rights groups for some time, and had gradually begun gaining ground using equal treatment and non-discrimination (two founding principles of the colony) to drive their agenda forward. The Arrival of the Hydra proved them right about several other issues and the presence of the Londenium Delegation and Red Rights allowed the Progressives to begin developing their program in earnest, with the SDF expanded again, equal rights for all castes enshrined in law and various educational and welfare provisions.

Without large theta dust deposits of its own, Haraway was initially reliant on Londenium for Theta dust, but never the less it’s general technology grew by leaps and bounds, with great advancements in transhumanism, bioroids and AI, and a vast improvement in space industry. The first slipways was contructed in orbit above Home Island in 2161, with its products, the destroyers Athena and the Isis The Athena would historically make the trip to Londenium in 2162 bringing Haraway’s representatives to the Council of Londenium for the formation of ZOCU. While somewhat inferior to Londenium designs, they proved quite capable in combat.

The Isis had its own historic moment of a darker kind in 2165 when it became the first Harawayan Space Warship to fire in anger as part of the Harawayan contingent sent to Nidaros, successfully engaging several Magnate naval vessels. The Harawayan Two Hundred and Fifth Brigade also proved their metal on the ground, its members being one of the few groups capable of coming close to matching magnate super soldiers in physical ability. The Two Hundred and Fifth was engaged in many actions, culminating in the battle of New Frederiksberg, in which it held against two Magnate infantry divisions for three days with heavy allied aerospace support before being relieved by the Londenium Forty Sixth Combat Frame Division.

Harawayan officers at Nidaros were extremely impressed by the performance of the OMF-4 Peltast which they witness first hand at the battle of New-Frederiksberg, and with the liberation of Nidaros diplomatic efforts were rapidly begun to secure both a number of frames and a licence to produce them domestically. Despite some wrangling with Londenium Metals a licence for domestic production was eventually secured, along with an initial delivery of thirty six frames from Londenium, within four years, the production line was fully established and Harawayan SDF units were deploying large numbers of Peltast including their own specialist variants such as the underwater adapted Peltast-Marine, with design studies being conducted on the first all domestic Harawayan mecha.

Haraway’s military build up continued into the 2170s, with more star ships being produced, including the iconic Concord class, and a series of military reorganisations culminating in the Harawayan Self Defence Force being split into three branches, the Army, responsible for operations on land and lower atmosphere, Aerospace Force responsible for space craft, and the Navy, responsible for sea based defence of Haraway’s vast oceans, and including a substantial marine component.

Indeed, despite their reorganisation, each of Haraway’s branches continued to include elements of the other three, with the Navy and Aerospace Force deploying Marines and Espaiter infantry and mobile suits while the army included not just gunships but interceptors and flying mobile suits, GEVs and small boats.

This period also saw the second stage of the red rights movement, with increased political attacks on what was seen as non-overt forms of discrimination such as lack of encouragement for Reds in maths and science classes in their education, and affirmative action in the professions. This equalisation in many ways went hand in hand with the increasing nationalism and militarism of Harawayan society, culminating in the creation of the triservice system.

Despite this rather hazy institutional divide, by the end of the 2170s Haraway had built up a very strong military force. It was just as well, as the end of the breakdown bought a renewal of their decades old conflict with Europe.

Before the Thunder: 2181-2184

2181 to 2184 were a strange time in the Expanse. While war had yet to really start, the situation was not really peaceful either, with ZCM and PACT/EU forces almost continuously confronting one another. Haraway was no exception to this rule, and its military was extremely active during this period, both on Haraway and elsewhere.

Thirty years after its creation, Resolution 9555 was widely regarded as a dead letter, however as conflict on New Mercia worsening, and PACT and the EU becoming increasingly concerned over the level of military force controlled by ZOCU, it was resurrected as a way to deploy forces to Haraway. The initial force was a composite UN group, UNSFH, or UN Stabilisation Force Haraway, with six thousand troops including a mix of contingents from various European and third country forces with what became a fairly limited mandate.

Haraway reluctantly allowed this force to deploy to uninhabited islands, but the government issued a warning, sanction by popular vote that any attempt to restart resource exploitation operations under the guise of UNSFH would be met with all necessary means to prevent it, a threshold the EU was not willing to push, and which EU public opinion would not initially bare.

The next four years saw several small boarder incidents in space and on the ground, ranging in size from a confrontation between a flight of Peltasts and a flight of Maelstroms too a company level fire fight between a unit of Harawayan Army troops who got lost on exercise and strayed too close a UN position and an equal sized force of Ugandan troops.

Harawayan forces also deployed Task Grouping Ravana to New Mercia at the end of 2183 as part of the ZCM efforts there, where the first direct battles between EU and Harawayan forces took place. These confrontations allowed the Harawayan armed forces to gain valuable information on EU equipment and tactical doctrine, not to mention the strengths and deficiencies of their own equipment, and it was obvious the EU was a different beast from the Magnate and Corporate forces they had faced before. With the possibility of Kanon coming under siege, Haraway created several varients of the Peltast in anticipation of the need to fill gaps in their forces, most notably the improved Peltast-H model which would see much of the war's initial fighting before the Hoplite could enter the field in numbers.

The new mobile suit's came none too soon, the first wings of Peltast-H were just undergoing work up when resolution 11079 passed the UN security council and the ZOCU war began all across the Expanse.

2185: War in Earnest

The moment that the news of resolution 11079 reached Haraway, the Harawayan military swung into action. A quick vote was held and public support was given for an ultimatum calling for the immediate surrender of all UN forces. Harawayan forces surrounded the UN posts and gave then twelve hours to surrender. When this deadline ran out the Harawayan armed forces launched an immediate strike against all UN positions.

Several UN units from third party nations did surrender rather than join a war they considered not their own, while artillery, air and space strikes lashed down on the positions that refused to capitulate, where most UN troopers were already sheltering in prepared positions due to the expected assault.

After the bombardment Harawayan stormed the remaining encampments against stiff resistance, over the next three days the remaining defensive positions were overrun, though the battle was unexpectedly fierce with the Indonesian contingent being wiped out after refusing to surrender and elements joint Franco-Dutch force managing to break out into the hills of Blue Trees while their comrades held back the Harawayans. Three days later the EU relief force arrived, covered by several divisions of cruisers it would form part of the numerous spoiler attacks launched by the EU fleet in order to facilitate British Home Fleet's push to Londenium.

With most ZCM forces pulled back to defend Londenium and Kanon, and with several skirmishes having already shown that even the upgraded Peltast-H being unable to properly push through EU air defences the Harawayan aerospace force declined to engage the EU force in open space, preferring to maintain the orbital parameter above Landing and Random Islands and their shipyards. The convoy was able to successfully make orbit, pinning down Harawayan forces with orbital fire and successfully landing four divisions, with a total of around eighty thousand men.

The compared to the mostly uniform nature of the PACT forces invading Kanon, the initial EU force deployed to Haraway was an eclectic mix of different units drawn from across the Union, consisting of a solid core of elite marine infantry, trained to fight in the island conditions they found on Haraway.

The core of the force was the British Royal Marines of Three and Five Commando Brigades and the a divisional level force from the Spanish Infantería de Marina. As well as these formations from the French, Italian, Turkish and Portuguese Marines, a Swedish infantry division inexplicably posted to the tropical paradise of Haraway, a battalion of British Paratroopers who were quiet unwilling to see their rivals in the Marines grab all the glory, and a mixed collection of German, French and Belgium light armour units equipped with hover craft and other amphibians. The total force was around a hundred thousand, together with numerous drones and teletroopers.

The European combined force (designated European Colonial Corp. Two in official documents) was perhaps better equipped for local conditions than their counterparts on Kanon, with most of its troops mounted in helicopters or other air transport, and possessing good air and orbital defence as well as attachments from the EU's terrestrial navies including several small frigates and a flotilla of Royal Navy sub-fighters, and was command by two strong willed and experienced officers who by all accounts loathed one another's company.

General de Ejército Eduardo Amenabar, a Spaniard was in overall command of the invasion, part of coalition diplomacy which saw that while the initial effort might be British led that several operational sub commanders would be from other EU members. By all accounts an extremely patriotic man and a devote Catholic, Amenabar had first risen to fame as a Captain when he'd led a rescue team to retrieve a group of European parliamentary observers who'd helicopter had been shot down by insurgents in the Kurdistan War of 2143. Amenabar was on record as despising both the concept of transgenics and the many social experiments in the Expanse of which Haraway was the most obvious to the European public, but also for his strict adherence to both the letter and spirit of international law and rules of engagement, at point having sacked a full colonel who had called an artillery strike which had killed civilians in violation of the rules of engagement.

On the other hand Lt. General William Seaton of the Royal Marines was a pragmatist, and had participated in several somewhat murky special operations during the Breakdown, working closely with the SAS and SBS. He was a thoroughly apolitical officer, but apparently devoted to the British state and the European idea in general. Seaton bought a certain ruthlessness to operations on Haraway, and his personality seems to have been better suited to the high intensity ground fighting that he found there than Amenabars, but he and his commander were unable to form a good working relationship, and while political considerations prevented Amenabar from sacking Seaton, it's know they argued extensively.

Commanding the Harawayan operations on the ground was Marshal Leona Malki, overall commander of the Harawayan army. The Yellow caste offspring of a pair of Red parents, Malki was by all accounts the most skilful of Haraway's wartime service leaders. Having seen service during the Magnate War and working closer with Admiral Reiko Tenmo of the Harawayan Navy she proved a skilful and highly aggressive counter for the battle seasoned EU commanders.

Initial EU operations saw the EU's forces landing in several drop zones, largely uncontested by Harawayan forces who pulled back to avoid major attrition from orbital strikes, except on Blue trees, where Harawayan forces still pursuing the remains of the Franco-Belgium UNSFH contingent became caught up in a fierce battle with Royal Marine Commandos and Turkish Marines landing to relieve them. After several hours and heavy losses on both sides, Harawayan forces pulled back to defensive positions around Miranda's Crater, leaving the field to the Europeans.

The next few months saw a series of ambitious European offensives push the European parameter out across multiple islands. Despite successes these offensives saw heavy causalities on the European side, including several cruisers lost in fierce orbital battles during Harawayan sallies from their orbital parameter or EU attempts to penetrate it. In general however the Harawayan forces allowed the EU to spread out without contesting them, deploying only local militia, marines and airborne battalions to attrite the EU's advance. The European forces were content not to strike at any truly well defended Harawayan position. With the British Home Fleet now advancing on Londenium, and the heavy losses they'd suffered for their gains the EU forces decided to dig in and wait for the victorious British Home Fleet and space control to turn the tide of battle.

The Battle of Londenium shattered the idea of a victory under the guns of EU battleships as surely as it did the British Home Fleet, much to the alarm of the EU staff on Haraway. There was some talk of evacuation or even surrender, but Amenabar would have none of it. Instead he and Williams created a plan which called for a rapid strike while space superiority was still present aimed at taking three of the six core Harawayan Islands: New Reykjavík, Random and Landing, the capital. This would require one of the biggest airborne assaults in history, careful deception and rapid action while the Europeans still had space superiority.

As part of the deception plan, the EU used their suborbital assets to move heavy equipment to new bases in the Northern Hemisphere, making it appear that they were pulling back behind the stormbelt to preserve their position. It was hoped this would lull the Harawayans. At the same time however the European air commander, Tümgeneral Tunc Coban insisted that in order to safely deliver such a large force to the three islands in question the Harawayan base at Steel Reef had to be neutralised. While this might tip off the Harawayans to their intentions Coban correctly pointed out that if the base was not neutralised then its AWAC and aircraft could well lead to the detection and early destruction of the invasion force.

Meantime, Marshal Makin was already expecting a strike from the EU, and was not deceived by the move to the North, as local recon teams and UAV scouting showed that most of the EU's helicopter forces were still present. The only question was where the hammer would fall.

The Battle of Steel Reef

The task of knocking out Steel Reef fell to 3 Commando Brigade of the Royal Marine Commandos. Commanded by Brigadier Malcolm Fennel, a tough and experienced officer. Consisting of eight battalions of infantry and shock infantry, it was known as one of Britain's best units.

The base itself was an architectural marvel, one of several artificial islands the Harawayans had constructed. Partly built into the rocky atoll but mostly floating on the ocean, and was garrisoned by a battle group of the Fifth Division, consisting of two infantry battalions and commanded by Colonel Irena Sandris. The Royal Marines had a tough challenge ahead as the Island was heavily protected from both the air and ground. The air defence network ruled out the idea of a direct airborne assault, but a seaborne strike would be just as difficult, first due to the EU force's shortage of long ranged boats and second due to the presence of Harawayan attack submarines, subfighters and underwater mobile suits in the area.

With the EU's naval contingent not powerful enough to neutralise the Harawayan sea threat a hybrid plan was drawn up. Fennel's staff hit upon the idea of deploying the royal marines on small personal GEV mounts from helicopters up to forty kilometres away from the shore. This would drain the mounts power by the time the marines hit the beach, but allow them get quickly ashore under the Harawayan defences.

3 Commando's landing went well, and they were able to get their entire force to the shore line before being detected. A savage battle quickly developed between the Royal Marines and Harawayan defenders, with the British knocking out a number of bunkers with their shock infantry then pushing deeper into the island, knocking out several anti aircraft sites as they went. They were then forced to cover by the arrival of several companies of Peltasts and Marine mobile suits, who's heavy weapons were enough to force the relatively lightly equipped marines to retreat into close terrain.

The Marines used rockets and sub-munitions to knock out the runways from their position and then collapsed one of the main underground hangers with demolition charges, while European airstrikes drove back the Harawayan mobile suits. Extraction however proved more difficult, as several dozen Peltasts remained in the shallows and knocked down several of the first attempt to lift the marines out.

Reluctant to spend any more aviation assets, Seaton prevailed upon Amenabar to launch Operation Castilla and leave the Royal Marines in place, confident they could hold out and any Harawayan reinforcements would be diverted to the fighting in their core areas. As the marines dug in massive numbers of helicopters departed for Landing, Random and New Reykjavik

2189: Rage against the heavens

While most of 2189 passed much like 2188 had, with small skirmishes around Haraway, the end of the year saw the biggest battle of human history. Much has already been written of the events of that fateful December day, so I will not dwell upon it too much at length, however, the battle in space highlighted both how far the EU navies had come in terms of mobile suit tactics and the problems of ZOCU, and particularly Harawayan command arrangements, which only included a small staff and informational systems which were largely reminiscent of the early 21st century in the way they delivered information.

This system had never been replaced, or draw lessons from the excellent Harawayan air or ground command systems as the skirmish nature of combat around Haraway and the mental enhancements of most of its Admirals (including Admiral Kimmel herself) had made such devices seem unnecessary. The Harawayan naval staff was simply unable to cope with the magnitude of the engagement facing them, causing the fatal lack of coordination which decided the outcome.

Despite the lost in 2189, ZOCU was able to win a relatively equitable peace with the Core, and none of its worlds were occupied, and at least many of its war aims fulfilled. Many on Haraway however see things differently.

Aftermath: Untrusting Peace

No story of the end of the War on Haraway is complete without a mention of Emma Lan and her development faction. Inspired by the Clyne movement on Kanon, the extremely charismatic and intelligent Green caste singer was in many ways Haraway's premier entertainer during the war, but maintained a reputation for being more than just a pop-star. Her turn to politics in the wars final year would have alientated the public from a less popular, charismatic or skilful operator, but somehow Lan managed to ride the waves of public opinion and was instrumental in the vote which bought Haraway to the peace table in January 2190, when many voices called for a continuation of the struggle, alone if necessary.

Five years after the end of the war, Haraway remains extremely hawkish about prospects of another conflict with the Core, and has lent considerable resources to the defence of New Mercia, as well as deploying a large number of resources to the exploration of the rim.

Time will tell if the peace on Haraway will last.

-Dr. Joanna Hastings is Chair of Military History at Westbrook University, Londenium