Operation Lunar Storm was the largest military mobilization in the LittleBigPlanet Union's history, albeit a covert one. Its goal was to oppose the aggressive doctrine of the troll organization which called itself Judgment. It resulted in Judgment falling into inactivity, while the LBP Union continued on to face the April Judicial Crisis.
Prelude
In August 2014, Union intelligence was made aware of Judgment as a rising force, and that its leadership was composed of various former clan leaders from the Shadow Epoch, mainly from the Fallen Republic. This immediately set the Union up to oppose the group, but the LBPU did not decide to act any further than staying away from the organization.
Some time later, Wanida12 approached the Union Protectors on the subject of Judgement on behalf of the Silentium Contra. Wanida12, fearing the worst could come from Judgment's establishment, proposed that the Union align itself with the Silentium Contra, Remnants Union and the Axis Powers. The Protectors initially refused the offer, citing that the Remnants Union and Axis were enemies of the Union and had been thwarted already. The Union administration also believed that the RU and Axis were far too weak from their past conflicts with the Union to be active at all. However, days later, the Union Protectors agreed that the possibility of the leaders of Judgement returning to power was not acceptable under any circumstances, and the Union became part of the alliance with its former enemies. The Union was still wary of the members of this alliance however, and made plans to prepare itself to combat Judgment without them if necessary. Recruitment of the Union Task Force was now in full force.
Judgment Reveals Itself
In a combination of both a level and several messages addressed to the Union and other powers, Judgment revealed itself and its doctrine, stating that it would 'disband alliances' because they were 'not suited' for Judgment's vision of a new clanning community. This was interpreted as a threat towards the Union, Remnants Union and Axis, which was a driving force towards aligning the three sworn enemies.
Operation Changeling
In addition to this, the Union was distracted by a counterintelligence operation within the Union, known as Operation Changeling. Union counterintelligence learned of the possibility of an espionage clan called the 'Ultimate Wizard Clan' inside the Union working under the jurisdiction of the Evurikal Legion. It was feared that the Evurikal Legion was actually working alongside Judgment. Counterintelligence also revealed that the Evurikal Legion's operation, which was known as Operation Exclave, was intended to generate a Union civil war. Eventually, Hardware34, the Legion's leader, was approached by the Protectors and he quickly pulled out the Wizard Clan, citing that his observations of the Union had been wrong. Evurikal Legion's past relationship with leaders of Judgment was also seen, which was predominately negative. The Union Protectors inferred that it was highly unlikely for the Legion to be working alongside Judgment.
The Allied Coalition
The coalition began to take form, with most non-Union members referring to it as 'the allies.' The LBP Union referred to it as the Independent States Allied Forces for the duration of the conflict. A group instant messenger Kik chat was quickly established for the leaders of the coalition. President M88youngling was present to act on behalf of the Union in the alliance group chat as opposed to the rest of the Protectors.
Wanida attempted to motivate the alliance to employ old Shadow Epoch tactics, and many of the leaders wanted to face off against Judgment in an old fashioned create war. This was opposed by President M88youngling immediately on grounds that such actions would only advertise Judgment and they would become more known in the community, which is exactly what Judgment wanted. After days of explaining this repeatedly, Judgment agreed to follow the Union's strategy, which was to starve Judgment of attention. Thus, Operation Lunar Storm became very covert and not publicized.
Despite this, coalition leaders often were approached by Judgment leaders and conversation was opened up, which only egged on Judgment when coalition leaders replied.
The coalition was kept a secret for as long as possible to throw off Judgment, but the coalition's existence was eventually leaked by XFinal_IsaacX from the Remnants Union.
The LBP Union's officially titled and began the campaign Operation Lunar Storm on October 19th, 2014.
Operation First Strike
Choosing to act first without the allied coalition as a test of strength, the Protectors order an attack on a Judgment level owned by TheTornTerraform parodying a Union press conference on grounds of its illegal drug references. Due to this being before the Novus Carta's ratification, the Union Task Force was able to be utilized offensively without order of the Security Council via a police action. A newly reformed UTF under the command of Minister of Defense MidnightLights10 and President M88youngling, the UTF's 1st Tactical Squad Gladius was dispatched for a reporting strike against the level. The combined force submitted grief reports within the course of an hour. Within 24 hours, the level was observed to have disappeared. Operation First Strike, as it was dubbed, was a complete success and the tactical capability of the Union Task Force was observed.
The Defensive
It was not long before Judgment decided to take action to eliminate what it saw as the three major alliances: The LBP Union, the Remnants Union and the Axis Powers. Judgment launched three separate offensives to attempt to destabilize and knock out each alliance.
The Axis Powers
At this point in time, PolarisPhaedra had stepped down as Lord President of the Axis and was attempting to run logistics of an election for a new Lord President, which was being held between several factions within the Axis. As such, the Axis had already become incredibly unstable without proper leadership, and the many factions within were bickering to achieve their spot as ruler of the alliance. Judgment sought not to further destabilize this, but instead attempted to stabilize the conflict under their control by trying to take the reigns of the election with their own agents. According to Nickalis02, one Judgment agent, Eris_Lillith, succeded in winning the election. According to this story, Polaris cut the election off at this point and appointed Awetfloor as Lord President.[1] Regardless, the attempt was unsuccessful as the Axis was far too disorganized. However, it had grown to the point that the Union was considering sending in its own agents to take control of the elections to try and stop Judgment from taking power. This plan never came to fruition.
The Remnants Union
Also unstable and inactive from the past conflict with the LBP Union, the Remnants Union was now officially run by El Presidente Thomahawke142, however this was not very well known. As a result, Judgment instead attempted to directly target XFinal_IsaacX who was still affiliated with the RU. Isaac was present in the coalition group chat, and sometimes involved in the planning. Isaac was harassed by Judgment via messaging and attempted to be turned to their side various times, or at least give up. He nearly did several times, but in the endgame he was not swayed.
The LittleBigPlanet Union
Judgment's attempted attack on the Union was one of politics. In an attempt to raise internal conflict, a former member of the Union turned Judgment agent known as The-Pool_is-Open, approached the Protectors, asking for a trial where he would attempt to fight for his innocence. He had been charged with treason prior for working with members of Judgment. The traitor published a manifesto attacking President M88youngling's reputation. This document was called Pool's Manifesto. This document did more to attempt to deface the president's reputation than it did to attempt to prove his innocence. The Union administration accepted the offer to give the traitor trial, with President M88youngling's reason being that it would help build the judicial branch of the Union. The Judgment agent however attempted to fight to have the leader of Judgment be his defense attorney. This was fiercely opposed by the Protectors, citing that someone outside of the Union could not serve as an attorney in the Union Supreme Court. President M88youngling soon saw that there was no text in the Constitution or Union law saying that an attorney couldn't be from outside the Union, and the Protectors worried this might be used to some sort of advantage. Though this was not realized by the traitor at the current time, this would prove to be much more dire in a later incident. In the meantime, the situation was put at bay for the remainder of the conflict and no damage was done to the Union. This situation would later escalate in the April Judicial Crisis.
Operation Arrowhead
While the Judgment attack on the Union was in limbo for many months, on November 9th, 2014, ISAF launched a joint offensive in an attempt to get Judgment's leader banned with reporting strikes. Deciding to hit an old Fallen Republic Reichstag for nazi symbolism, at 1600 hours the Union Task Force struck alongside any other coalition forces that might have participated. It is unknown how many non-Union assets participated in the operation, however the entirety of the Union Task Force participated, now under the command of UTF Commander OjibOgichida-78. The mission was partially successful with unintended results. The targeted level was removed, as well as another level called Battle Planet Syria. Ironically, during the planning of the operation, PolarisPhaedra pleaded that Battle Planet Syria not be targeted. It was not targeted by ISAF forces and its deletion was considered collateral.
Though the levels were removed, the real objective was not completed. The leader of Judgment was still at large. The message of ISAF's power was still apparent. However, the LBP Union saw that it had pulled most of the weight in the operation, not seeing any allied ISAF participation outside of the Union Task Force. This, supplemented by Operation First Strike's results led the Union to believe that it was the only power in the coalition capable of launching operations.
ISAF Disbands
After Operation Arrowhead, skepticism was high among the Protectors over the Union's membership with the coalition. This was brought over the threshold when other ISAF leaders were seen bullying a member of Judgment in text chats. While initially President M88youngling warned these leaders that their actions were unacceptable, upon bringing back news of the incident back to the Union there was a harsh outcry. Union leaders and representatives issued statements opposing the Union's membership in the coalition and demanded to leave in protest. After a Protector vote, President M88youngling issued a statement to the ISAF leaders announcing that the LBP Union would no longer be working with the other members of the coalition due to their actions. After the Union left ISAF, the coalition collapsed nearly immediately. It is inferred that this was because the suspicions of the Union pulling all the weight all along were correct. The other powers in ISAF were very small and also unstable. The Union now stood against the threat alone, though together. Knowing that the Union had the power to stand against Judgment on their own bolstered their morale and outlook of the campaign.
Operation Round Table
To train and help demonstrate the Union Task Force's capability in a rating warfare situation, a simulated scenario referred to as Operation Round Table was conducted under the command of Commander Ojib, with President M88youngling and others acting as an aggressing force at a blank published level called Area B7R. At this level, UTF and simulated aggressor forces left reviews and attempted to compete for top review. The winning team was the one who had top review at the end of 24 hours. The Union Task Force won by a significant margin, however some of the uprates for the UTF review were unaccounted for. Where the extra reviews csme from is unknown, but it was suspected that it may have been due to Judgment sabotage to throw off planning calculations for future operations.
Operation Terrapin and Furries
With the first Union Refoundation Day holiday upcoming, the Union suspected that it may be a prime target for Judgment to attack, and plans were made to provide rapid defensive response to published event levels. Surprisingly, instead of attacking these levels around the time of the holiday, Judgment pursued the harassment of furries to augment its attention. These furries were immediately sought out by the Protectors who advised them to report, block and not respond to the trolls in question. Though it had been the basis of the entire conflict, this quickly became the Union's primary countertroll doctrine and became incredibly effective.
DyOS
A worrying development that Judgment was engineering an advanced operating system on LBP3 was showing prominence as 2015 set in. The project, known as DyOS, was not a threat directly, but it showed promise to be an incredibly impressive design. If it was to become popular, Judgment would have a new tool of recruitment and possibly would garner a Team Pick. The level was eventually published and within days gained over a thousand plays, but a calculated play to like ratio showed that it did not surpass the ratio of the Union HQ. The level also was never team picked and seemed to not help Judgment all that much. Waiting out the storm, the Union watched as Judgment fell into inactivity and declared Operation Lunar Storm complete on March 7th, 2015.
References
- ↑ Nickalis02's Testimony