Miriani

High Guard Strikes Major Blow Against Praelor - Commonwealth Condemns!

Today the Alliance High Guard announced that it had struck 'a major blow' against the Praelor with a large-scale offensive resulting in victory in Praelor Grid 664. Allied task forces hit several key targets in the area simultaneously, resulting in the destruction of six Praelor installations, over two hundred Praelor starships and the destruction of a major Praelor population center in the area.

"We saw an opportunity to strike, and we used that opportunity to great effect," said High Guard Fleet Marshal Jonathan Donovan in an interview. "This offensive was made possible by the great bravery of the officers and crew of the 5th and 7th fleets, and the contributions of the alliance pilots who assisted us in the operation." It was reported that three Leviathans were deployed in the area, with concentrated strikes on four locations. It is thought that the destruction of the hive world and six starship construction facilities nearby will do great things for the war effort.

"Make no mistake, we're fighting a war here," said Admiral Simone Dubois, commander of the High Guard 7th Fleet. "There was a great loss of Praelor life here, but it's them or us. We are fighting a foe for whom every single civilian can be mobilized as an industrial or military force at a moment's notice. Worker Praelor can be morphed into warrior Praelor within seven days and can be burning our colonies the week after that. When you consider the reality of fighting, every living Praelor is a war asset." The Praelor population assessment of the hive world put the colony at six billion, four hundred and eight-two million, six hundred and nineteen thousand, three hundred and twenty-four, including drones, workers, warriors, subqueens, and the hive queen. Loss of life on the planet was total; it is believed that the High Guard completely saturated the surface of the planet with thousands of nuclear warheads. The planet is expected to be completely uninhabitable by any life for thousands of years.

The use of nuclear weapons has provoked a backlash in the Commonwealth, with Defense Secretary George Moore describing the use of nuclear weapons as 'completely inhumane' in keeping with the typical Commonwealth stance on such weapons. The strong anti-nuclear policy in the Commonwealth had its roots in Terran anti-nuclear movements, and persists today due to Operation Icarus Fallen; better known by names such as the Fall of Earth and the Terran Holocaust, wherein rogue elements in the AIE and the Hale sterilized Earth with neutron bombs, completely eradicating the then much-larger CTN. The operation was undertaken whilst peace talks were underway on Luna at the very end of the War of Independence, out of fear that they would eventually re-absorb the alliances into the CTN, and led to the deaths of almost ten billion people. It would be the third time nuclear weapons had ever been deployed on Earth; first in the Second World War in 1945, second in the India Crisis in 2013, which caused nearly one and a half billion deaths directly and indirectly. The need to preserve the population is the reason for the heavy investment in starship safety technologies, and also the heavy restrictions on lethal weapons.

The High Guard is currently the only group with access to the Peace Vaults, an enormous stockpile of nuclear weapons cached in a number of secret locations across the galaxy. It is thought that the High Guard were using nuclear weapons before during operations in Praelor Space, but this is the first time such a great quantity of warheads was deployed. The shift in policy is noted by Admiral Dubois, who also said, "Humanity has ever been known for its high-risk, high-reward strategy. It is about time we started using the ingenuity and aggressiveness that is a defining factor of our species to defeat a foe like we have never encountered before."

Dated: 07/29/2358