Famous Battles of the Interstellar Age:
The Iron Hills

Battle of the Iron Hills
Conflict: Corvian War of Independence
Date: 17 March 2086
Place: The Iron Hills, Corvia
Outcome: Allied victory
Combatants
Republic of Akasha	Terran Military Order, Federation of Corvia
Commanders
Walter Emerson	Douglas Feldman
Strength
Three corps, plus supporting divisions	Two corps, plus supporting divisions
Casualties
15,102 dead, over 20,000 wounded	2,978 dead, over 5,000 wounded

The Battle of the Iron Hills was the opening engagement of the Corvian War of Independence. This surprising victory proved to both serve as the newly formed Corvian Self-Defense Army's successful baptism by fire and to exorcise the Terran Fifth Corps' ghosts from the Akashan War of Independence. The battle was also the first time that the opposing commanders, Douglas Feldman and Walter Emerson, once blood brothers and now bitter enemies, faced each other in combat since the latter, earlier conflict.

 
CONTEXT

Corvia's declaration of secession could not have come at a worse time for Chancellor Vijay Singh. Facing severe and rising unpopularity at home, Singh refused to negotiate with what he considered an illegal government and instead opted for the sword by merging the Republic's most elite troops and the bulk of its rapid deployment units into the Akashan Expeditionary Force. The Chancellor then demanded that Commanding General Walter Emerson take personal command of the AEF. Under intense pressure to quickly crush the separatist movement and to regain control of the breakaway world, after making planetfall, Emerson ordered a series of forced marches north toward the capital of New Liberty.

Right before the AEF arrived, an outbreak of influenza cut the number of Corvian effectives in half. However, the separatists managed to keep this a secret from the Akashans.

In the advance to New Liberty, the Second Corps, the pride of the Republic Army, under newly promoted Lieutenant General Denise Castle, formed the right wing of the AEF. Castle had recently replaced Lieutenant General Robert Gould Shaw, a highly popular and skilled officer who had been accused of harboring separatist sympathies. However, Castle proven to be a poor choice: though a superb division commander, she would be unable to handle corps command. After a series of miscommunications, the Second fell more than a day behind the rest of the Expeditionary Force. To make up lost time, the new commander made the ill-fated decision to take a shortcut behind the east side of the Iron "Hills" (which, to her chagrin, turned out to be a mountain range).

Thus, Castle's corps walked right into a trap set by the Allies.

 
THE BATTLE

Always better on the offensive, General Feldman decided to attack the advancing Akashans despite being outnumbered. To meet the Republic's isolated Second Corps, he sent his own Terran Fifth Corps, supported by three additional Corvian divisions so the Allies would have local superiority. The last time the two corps had met, the Fifth had been humiliated, and they were thirsty for revenge. After Castle's lead division crossed the Avernus river, it found itself under an overwhelming aerial and artillery barrage. Within minutes, half the division was gone. However, in a testament to their training and discipline, they didn't panic or flee, but held their ground as best they could.

Not wanting her corps to be destroyed in detail, General Castle ordered a fighting withdrawl to the nearby village of Talin to regroup. However, as the greybacks approached, two pre-positioned divisions of mobile armor emerged from the village. Suddenly, the Second was caught in a pincer movement between the advancing MAs and a spirited cavalry charge led by Major General Lorraine Sheridan. Castle found her corps sliced into three pieces.

As the battle raged, General Emerson repeatedly demanded a sitrep, but an overwhelmed Castle didn't respond. Then the Corvian First Corps struck and, despite being outnumbered, successfully pinned the main body of the AEF. However, much of the credit is also due to the fact that Feldman sent Major General Alex Martinez with the elite Iron and Arrowhead Brigades to "reinforce" the First Corps.

After four hours with no reply, in frustration, Emerson sent Major General Rasheed Foster and his 94^th Airborne Infantry Division over the Iron Hills to secure the Second Corps' escape route and to demand that Castle retreat or be relieved of command. To her credit, Castle took her orders in stride and ordered the retreat.

The same Iron Hills that had separated the Second Corps from the AEF now cut off the Fifth Corps from the rest of the Allied army. If Emerson had turned to attack the Corvian positions on the west of the Hills, he would have had a better than two-to-one advantage. However, believing that he faced a much larger enemy force and not knowing the extent of the damage to the Second, in this test of nerves, Emerson blinked first and retreated.

 
AFTERMATH

Immediately following the battle, Emerson took full responsibility and tendered his resignation, which the Chancellor wisely refused. Nevertheless, the ramifications of the Commanding General's decision was immense: not only might Emerson have smashed the Corvian First Corps, but, advancing forward, he likely took have taken nearly the entire disease-ridden Corvian Second Corps as well. Additionally, the delay gave the CSDA time to recover from the influenza and reach full strength, and the defeat was a severe blow to the morale of the Akashans, and a correspondingly positive boost to the young Self-Defense Army.

Though not a decisive military victory, the battle still had far and wide-ranging effects. Two more worlds seceded from the Republic to join the growing Federation of Corvia, while Chancellor Singh's domestic opponents were emboldened enough to publicly demand that the Senate open an investigation into the Chancellor's activities. Meanwhile, what Singh had initially hoped would be a quick military operation began to increasingly look like a protracted war.