Operation Ascendant Justice
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| Operation Ascendant Justice | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Final War of the Deluge | |||||||
 YOLO detonation near Mount Sekot monastery | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Urcea |
 Varshan | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Royal Air Force | Varshani air defenses | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| YOLO | Various air defense weapons | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
3 Heavy bombers destroyed 2 Strategic bombers damaged |
Nearly entire priestly population of Mount Sekot 4 civilians held captive at Mount Sekot 214 various military personnel 14 civilian personnel | ||||||
Operation Ascendant Justice was an aerial bombing operation which was part of the Final War of the Deluge. Launched in part as a retaliatory strike after the Atomic bombing of Zakan Rot, the Royal Air Force intended to "decapitate the social institutions by which the Varshani regime is sustained", including the practice of human sacrifice and caste system employed by Orthodox Arzalism. As a result of the Operation, Mount Sekot was functionally destroyed and most Varshani caste records were lost.
Background
Following the Atomic bombing of Zakan Rot, policymakers within the Government of Urcea contemplated several different potential options for a retaliatory strike on Varshan. Anonymous sources told the Levantine Times Union in May 2022 that Apostolic King of Urcea, Riordan VIII, favored a "nuclear option" which would have targeted Mount Sekot and several unpopulated regions of Varshan with an intercontinental ballistic missile. Reporting by the LTU indicated this option was "explored in depth" until the Atomic bombing of Shimrra and subsequent international controversy rendered nuclear strikes politically untenable. The King's suggestion of targeting Mount Sekot remained popular within Royal Air Force circles and was eventually incorporated into a new plan which would feature the use of YOLO devices imported from Yonderre. Late in the planning stages, targeting Houses of Notables in order to weaken the caste system was added to the plan, and those could be destroyed by more conventional munitions carried by heavy bombers. These structures featured mostly undigitized genealogical records of the Varshani caste system and their records were essential for keeping specific track of who belonged to what caste.
Operation
Mount Sekot
The primary target of the operation was Mount Sekot, a major religious site of Orthodox Arzalism and a major hub of human sacrifice within Varshan. In the early morning hours of March 8 2022, eight modified strategic bombers crossed into Varshani airspace equipped with regular munitions as well as with four YOLO devices. The four YOLO devices were dropped in a line, with the first bomb dropped a few hundred meters in front of the Sekot monastery and the final bomb dropped directly on top of Mount Sekot. The other four bombers dropped a relatively small load of regular explosive bombs on the slopes of the mountain, which had already been hit with a YOLO, to ensure the desired landslide effect took place. The flight path of the bombers took them out of the way of most major urban sites and military structures and consequently faced little SAM missile emplacements and suffered no damage.
The Mount Sekot site was rendered unusable by the attack. Landslides covered the monastery almost completely, creating significant environmental impact to the region surrounding the mountain. The worship site at the top of the mountain was totally destroyed, and access to the site - by means of a rock-hewn staircase - was rendered permanently impossible. The cliff face of the mountain suffered considerable damage for a conventional weapon.