Axis Order Crussade into Bench Press Empire

"The Benchus believe themselfes to be superior to us. Let us wake them from this ilusion. Remember what we fight for. Remember who we fight for. Remember Yun-Yun. And make sure they will remember today. For we are the Harbringers of War, and the Goddess is on our side!"

~ Grand Admiral Kazuma before the battle with the Fleet of Vengance

General
The Crusade against the Bench Press Empire lead by the Axis Order was the first example of a combined war. While not the first all out war of two empires, it was the first time in galactic history that several nations fought together under one banner. The result of this conflict would shape the political landscape of the galaxy like nothing before.

Early war (2282-2285)
The beginning of the crussade was rather uneventfull. Because the war came as a surprise to the other Covenant members, who were basically forced into the crussade by the AO, the war in these year mostly consisted out of small skirmishes. The AO managed to hold out against the superior BPE military because of four reasons:

1: The AO was heavily militarized and has been preparing itself for this war for decades. They established defensive structures around their borders and improved the size and equipment aswell as the tactics of their fleet.

2: The Deal with the Schwebtron Manufactoring supplied the AO with many high class weapons, vehicles and ships, easing the strain put on their alloy industry due to the war and allowing them to use the freed manpower in the war. This also was followed by the extensive use of Schwebtron Mercenaries in the later years of the war.

3: The BPE believed the Axis Order attacks were simple raids and didn´t bother to commit a lot of forces to the border, still believing in their supperiority. Exept for Arch Commander Rav Xarr the BPE military high command was completely overwhelmed and surprised when the Covenant reinforcements arrived.

4: Technological stagnation in the BPE meant that even though they were outstanding fighters in both ground and space warfare, they were simply outclassed by the EC ships.

The fierce phase of the war (2285-2289)
When the EC reinforcements arrived in late 2285, a massive assoult lead by Grand Admiral Kazuma was launched. They advanced quickly and were only intercepted by the Fleet of Vengance under command of Admiral Raxus Haen, who was completely overwhelmed and defeated. It was only now that the BPE began to realise the scale of the EC invasion. They quickly assembled their fleets and put their entire strenght into the defense of the colony Benchara. It was here at Benchara on the 29.12.2286 that the decisive battle of the war begann. Lasting several weeks and taking place both in space and on the ground, it was a battle on a scale unheard of in the galaxy. The result of the battle was a near totall annihilation of the BPE forces, with only Arch Commander Rav Xarr being able to flee, and Benchara being completely devastated. The other systems fell quickly thereafter and in 2289 the EC had occupied Parimea and proclaimed victory over the BPE.

Occupation Phase (2289-2309)
The victorious Enlightened Covenant split the Bench Press Empire into three occupation zones, with the Axis Order gaining controll of all the colonies. However, the Axis Order never had actuall controll over these new colonies. Most of their forces where concentrated in Vadumaa, while their colonial occupation forces mostly remained in their occupation forts. Some inhabitans of the coloies didn´t even know that their world was occupied, or just didn´t care. The administrative controll the AO had over the BPE colonies was so small the only profit they made was by raiding their ressource depots.

An attempt to profit from the occupation was made by abducting Benchus and putting them to on a penal colony in the outer territories of the Axis Order. Large scale slavery was proposed, but quickly shot down due to its violoation of the Covenant principles. This didn´t stop the penal supervisors however, as they were largly uncontrolled and often times turned the Benchus into Warrior slaves, until the penal colony was reformed in 2417.

In this time the Benchus Freedom Front also begann to act and fight the EC to great success. Their Guerillia warfare was to much for the EC occupatiom Forces to handle, in part because most of the EC had already moved on from the war and was focusing somewhere else.

In 2309 the EC decided it was enough and instead of continuing to try to subjugate the BPE they begann to remove their troops.

Phase of removal (2309-23017)
Facing increasingly greater losses due to BFF activity and without any real gains from the occupation the EC begann to slowly remove their troops from BPE territoty and only the Axis Order continued to hold on to some uninhabited BPE systems to use as a pufferzone in case of another war. The process of removing the troops lasted one decade because the EC wanted to leave the BPE as weak as possible. They took every last ressource they could find, destroyed infrastructur and executed important leaders and especially scientists to hold their progress. When the removal ended the BPE was left in ruins and stuggeling to survive.

Battle of Benchama
The battle of Benchama was the decisive battle of the Crussade and took place both in orbit and on the ground of Benchama. It was here where most of the BPE military command, including Benchmaster Jar Hadaa found their demise.

After the Fleet of Vengance was destroyed by Covenant Forces Benchtron Jar Hadaa and the Lord of Admirals Remox Iliux decided to confront the advancing Invasion force with the entirety of their Fleet. They knew that the EC had to conquer Benchama to deactivate the gravity well if they are to continue their advance, so they took a defensive stance in the Orbit of the colony. The fact that Benchmasters took a defensive stance Shows that they no longer took the Covenant lightly. They were hoping to be able to respond to the EC fleets movements and with the help of the Benchara defense Forces force the Covenant to retreat. However, it quickly showed that the technological Advantage of the EC was to great for the BPE to effectivly Counter. While they had originally hoped to lure the EC fleet into Close combat to board their ships and gain Support from the Benchara orbital defense System, they quickly had to realise that their plan was ruined. The EC ships simply stayed out of the BPE Fleets range and begann to slowly pick appart their Forces. The BPE had no choice but to counterattack and so they did. The fleets engaged each other and a fierce fight broke out. While the fleets were battling each other in space, an EC Invasion force was escoreted by several Corvettes to the planet Surface and launched an Invasion to gain Control of the planet.

When the BPE Fleet learned of that, they decided to Abandon the space fight and move the remains of the fleet into Bencharas Orbit to Support their groundforces. They were already losing the space battle, and while retreating the Plague of Justice with the Benchtron onboard was hit the a Schwebtron ship. Despite this, the BPE fleet didnt lose faith and followed Jar hadaas order to fight in Orbit until the bitter end. However Jar Hadda wasnt dead. The Plague of justice managed to pull of an emergency landing and despite losing most of their thrusters landed safely on Benchara. The wreck of the Palgue of Justice continued to resist the EC Invasion and remained one of the last BPE strongholds to stand on Benchara. The EC Forces who had quickly conquered most of their surroundings didnt dare to attack the wreck, as there where repords of Jar Hadaar himself killing dozens of man single handedly, and even two Long Boi Shocktroopers who moved in to try to kill him. In the end several EC ships had to fire their most powerfull weapons, the artificial Cloud Lighting that had been aqquired by the SM after their expedition into the Great Wound. These weapons are usually used to erradicate large scale cities and fortresses from orbit.

After Jar Hadaa has fallen Benchara managed to hold out for 3 more days until finally succumbing to the EC troops. Only Rav Xarr and a few of his men could flee the planet and fleed into the BPE outer Systems to beginn to organize a resistance. With the Banchus army being defated, the other worlds fell quickly, in great part due to the heavy orbital Bombardement. Only the battle of Parimea was worth mentioning as it was here that all soldiers who didnt join the BFF pulled of their last stand. A large number of Benchus Maximus Primus stopped the EC attack, but where ultimatly defeated when Gir Afe, son of Mafe and his Long Boi Shocktroopers arrived.

Performance
The Crussade was an outstanding victory for the EC and one of the best executed Military opperations the galaxy has seen. While the whole Army performed well, a few Units managed to stand out.

The Long Boi shocktroopers, who were put into development shortly after the BPE-AO first contact war ended by the Long Boi Alliance as a promise to Support the Axis Order in case of another war. Being the only Long Boi offensive force their doctrine was Quality over quantity, and so the LST where the most powerfull soldiers of the galaxy at the time.

''"The Long Boi Shocktroopers are a force to be recokned with. When our advances where haltet by fierce resistance, often only a few of them would be enough to clear the obstacles. They charged into the Frey, without mercy or remorse, and without losses. Im frightened by them even though their our allies, so I cant imagine what our enemies must feel like." ~ Polkanian assist commander Urbog Tidecaller in his Report to the Polkmaster''

The Axis Order Special Forces, known by their nickname "Battle Angels", who were specialy trained and genetically augmentated wih the help of the Long Bois. They also often possesed minor psyonic abbilities and where used as the Axis Order Special Units until their psyonic awakening around 100 years later. While not as powerfull as the LBS, they were much more stealthy and versitiel, being often used for operations such as infilitration or recconisance.

''"Those who are calld Battle angels by their allies are most interesting indeed. They posses immense skill and fighting cababilities, even though their Equipment, while still leagues ahead of that of normal Axis soldiers, is far from the best we could produce. Still, their efficency is something I doubt we could ever hope to reproduce. Only weeks after the assasination of Urbog they had already found the Insurgent Headquarters and almost managed to kill the hated Rav Xarr. Im most impressed." ~ Schwebtron Admiral Ik-Ik-Krokon in his diary''