Desert Empire

Name: Desert Empire

Capital City: Maiha

Government Type: Imperial Councils

Region: South Central Norihing, Desert areas

Associations: MACOFS Trade Agreement

Population: 1 billion

Description:

History: The Desert Empire was established by Jon Medaris, a former oilfield worker in the oil-rich Shapas Desert region of the Norihing continent on the planet Maf.

Establishing the sleepy trade village of Maiha, located at the eastern edge of the Shapas Desert, at the base of the mountains of X, as his capital, Jon Medaris walked into a bar where oil field workers, on leave from their jobs in the deep desert, would often spend their time. Here he met Andrew Johnson, a disgruntled oil field worker. Later, Andrew Johnson introduced Medaris to Harold Bronson, another disenchanted oil field worker, Zarkov Androve, a Professor at Maiha University, Walf Sniel, a shop owner in Maiha and Roebfal Thi'Botlin, an office worker for one of the many oil companies.

Zarkof Androve then introduced Medaris to Andrew Johnson (no relation to the previous Andrew Johnson), another Professor at Maiha University.

With these men, Jon Medaris then declared Maiha and 100 miles radius land around it (roughly), as an independent nation, the "Desert Empire," on December 24, 1974. Most nations found this amusing, and none were concerned except for The Empire (Empire of Xanydeo and Xanthus) which was entrusted with the security of the oil fields throughout the Shapas Desert region, which was only mildly interested. 

Medaris named Zarkof Androve as the head of his military and the first Andrew Johnson as his aide and advisor. The second Andrew Johnson and Harold Bronson were appointed as Army Generals. Roebfal Thi'Botlin was appointed as a Colonel for Special Assignments in the Air Force. Walf Sniel was appointed as Chief of Procurement for the military. Walf Sniel and advisor Johnson then began building a military force with equipment from their neighbor to the east and from Morpasya, a mountainous nation located south of the Shapas Desert.

At the end of the first year, the Desert Empire claimed several dozen tanks, 19 artillery, a handful of helicopters and about 20 fighters and 12 bombers. 

Nearing the end of the second year, 1976, December 1, the Desert Empire fielded an army of 400 tanks, several dozen artillery, around 80 fighters, 20 bombers and 25,000 troops, mostly disenchanted men recruited from the oil fields with a promise of higher pay, better living conditions, greater say in their futures and a chance at "adventure."

Medaris and his group were promised "much more equipment to come," and even many troops, if. If they could reclaim the Shapas Desert from the eastern nations, (mostly oil companies based in Peplle, Vladimery and Jonesboro) and from the Empire who protected it, returning it to the "rightful owners," the desert dwelling Kaolsan tribes.

For a year and a half, Androve and Bronson had been constantly drilling their troops in the desert sands surrounding Maiha. After 6 months they moved their drills closer to the border. Beginning in September 1976, these drills were advanced right to the declared border of the Desert Empire. 

Tanks, trucks and jeeps would race toward the border in attack formation and then swerve at the last second to avoid crossing the border. 

When these close border drills were originally announced, the Empire was somewhat alarmed and sent a handful of tanks, several jeeps and several dozen troops to observe the drills from distances initially ranging from a few hundred yards to over a mile distant.

As the drills continued without controversy, The Empire's observors diminished in number and observed from greater distances, ranging from 1 to 5 miles. 

Throughout the month of December, 1976, several hundred tanks, hundreds of trucks, logistics vehicles and over 20,000 troops advanced to staging areas within striking range of the border, some long distance forces hidden by the curvature of the ground, but closer forces hidden by berms, sand dunes and natural features of the desert. 

At midnight, December 24, 1976, Desert Empire forces crossed the border in strength destroying the Empire's observors, capturing their equipment and continuing into the desert. Over the next 2 weeks, the Empires' 7 forward bases, ringing the southeastern quadrant of the Shapas Desert were destroyed with most of the troops defending those bases being killed and much of the equiment being captured.

In the center of the Shapas Desert, Wetrock Airfield was the central airbase for the Empire, its aircraft and helicopters patroling the skies over the desert. Here also, helicopters and light aircraft serviced the many oil installations across the oil-rich desert bringing food, water, supplies and rotating oil crews in and out of the oil fields.

At Wetrock, the Empire maintained a small fleet of 80 or so fighters, a dozen bombers and hundreds of small transport aircraft. On March 4, 1976, the Desert Empire captured the airfield after a brief fight. Although hundreds of defending troops were killed and aircraft destroyed, the Desert Empire was able to capture nearly 200 aircraft in excellent condition, mostly transport aircraft. These were immediately pressed into service to provide supplies for the Desert Empire's continuously growing Army.

Due north of Wetrock, across several hundred miles of desert is the "ranch state" of Soulsen. A "ranch state" is a sovereign country operated as a private company and owned privately. Soulsen was owned by expats from Jonesboro and Peplle. The northern two thirds of the country is in the grasslands. Here beef cattle was raised primarily for export to the oil fields to the south.

The southern third of Soulsen lay in the desert. Here, hundreds of oil refineries covered the desert landscape, refining the products of the oil fields to the south. From the oil fields, great pipelines stretched north over a hundred miles to the great river, where the oil products were loaded aboard tankers which traveled east to Peplle and the Eastern United Nations countries and westward to the Empire and the countries in the southwest.

Northwest of Wetrock lay Spartania. 

(See "The Myth of Spartania Sovereignty")

During World War 2, the Empire fought against the nations of the Republics of Waon, a loose coalition of nations stretching northwesterly along the eastern edges of the Dielvan Wac Desert for a distance of over 2,000 miles. Covered by grasslands and rolling hills, the Republics had also been fiercely independent of the Empire or the nations far to the east that constituted the Eastern United Nations. The Republics were often alligned with the Kaolsan states but occasionally had miffs with them also.

World War 2 ended in 1945 when the Empire dropped 3 atomic bombs on 3 cities within the Republics of Waon.

The Republics of Waon's southern border was anchored by the great river, across from the terminals feeding oil to the tankers. The Empire anticipated that the greatest military threat to the Shapas oil fields was from the Republics. Because of this, the bulk of the Empire's Shapas Desert military air and ground forces were concentrated in an arc along the northwest edge of the Shapas beginning at Soulsen and arcing westward and then southward to terminate at Spartania.

Spartania was the headquarters for all the Empire's operations throughout the Shapas Desert and was also responsible for monitoring events in the southern section of the Republics of Waon. 

Commanding Officer of Spartania was General Nysaurg. Nysaurg was urging the Empire to counterattack against the fledgling forces of the Desert Empire in order to defend the oil fields and the mineral and ore resources throughout the Shapas Desert. Nysaurg was ordered to hold his forces in reserve and watch for any signs of an attack from the Republics of Waon, despite the Desert Empire's lightning advances across the desert.

Nysaurg grew impatient and, against orders, began preparing his forces to strike the Desert Empire.

Spartania was named after the Sparta of ancient Earth. Military and security officials of the LMT corporation, Jonesboro and Peplle had established a base here, originally to train troops in desert warfare, but this almost immediately evolved into including operating a security mission for the oil fields and mineral rich resources of the desert.

With this expanded role, the Empire assumed command of the Spartania military center and by 1954, Imperial troops were over a million strong. By 1964, 3 million Imperial troops occupied the base drawn from every service of the Empire plus tens of thousands of troops from Jonesboro, Peplle and Vladimery and hundreds of troops from over a dozen other nations. 

As war erupted in the Shapas Desert, the Empire's military command and political leadership at first were amused assuming that the tiny Desert Empire would destroy itself in the vast and harsh landscape of the desert.

Even as the Desert Empire met with success after success, the military and political leadership of the Empire seemed unconcerned, continuing to focus on the "threat" they perceived to the northwest - from the Republics of Waon. 

Yet General Nysaurg insisted that the Empire must reorient to face the threat from the east - from the Desert Empire. This led to many heated debates between the Spartanian commander and his superiors in the Empire. News organizations within the Empire caught wind of this conflict of interest and soon began taking sides, inflaming public opinion with rival viewpoints.

This was unacceptable to the Imperial Military Command and they began seeking a way to relieve General Nysaurg of his command. This would not be easy as General Nysaurg was a highly decorated and widely recognized military commander and technically, had not officially disobeyed orders, as he commented that he was simply ramping up training of the troops under his command per his discretion as military commander, and not preparing them to attack the forces of the Desert Empire.

In November 1977, General Nysaurg was killed in a mysterious car crash. His command was left to his deputy commander, General Antoni Navalli.

On January 1, 1978, Desert Empire forces had encroached to within a few miles of Spartania. Although General Navalli was prohibited from taking offensive action against the Desert Empire, he was allowed to conduct small-scale "security and defensive operations" within 50 miles of Spartania.

At 4 AM, January 4th 1978, General Johnson began an offensive operation against Spartania from due west. Androve had positioned a force approximately 80 miles to the south and appeared, to the Empire, to be traveling westward into the desert, planning they thought, to attack and cross the great river near the country of Nik. 

Bronson's forces were sited 40 miles to the northeast of Spartania having already overun the nations of Lawvesta, the gem and mineral-rich Arkanzaia, Soulsen, and the city-state of Dalas. 

At 8 AM, Bronson's forces were on the move initially traveling west then turned south and struck Spartania from the north. At approximately 1 PM, Androve's forces attacked Spartania from the south. The 3.2 million troops of Spartania fought valiantly. The battle continued for nearly 15 days. General Navalli was killed when his command tank was rolled several times by the forces of the Desert Empire, 2 million Imperial troops were killed plus thousands from Peplle, Jonesboro and hundreds from a host of other nations. Many of these nations declared war on the Desert Empire. It was now official, on January 17, 1978, World War 3 was raging.

On January 27th, 1978 the Emperor and the President of the Empire were forced to resign. In the March 4th Special Election, the hawkish Regio Rapace was elected as the new Emperor and conservative Ilian Feranando Halstah was elected President. On March 5th, these two assumed office and the Empire formally declared war on the Desert Empire and its allies.

Modern Times: Today, the Desert Empire is a peaceful nation led by President Andrew Johnson, Emperor Medaris' advisor and aide. Jon Medaris is Emperor, but in name only. He no longer resides in the Desert Empire.

The Desert Empire occupies one of the largest land territories of any nation on the planet occupying all of the Shapas Desert, about 70% of the northern Dielvan Wac Desert and nearly 80% of the southern Kaolsan Desert, also known as the Morpasyan Desert stretching to the eastern ocean and also includes the nations of the Republics of Waon, and the states of New Shapas and New Combin.

Trade goods vary greatly ranging from oil and petroleum products, minerals and ores, steel and concrete, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, gemstones, clay, pottery, aircraft, computers and financial services.

Tourists visit ancient archaeological sites scattered throughout the vast desert region, hike, hunt in the mountains east of Maiha and in the high mountains ski resorts dot the landscape.

After a tumultuous birth and expansion, the Desert Empire today is a vast, peaceful nation experiencing high living standards in its hundreds of cities and with nomadic conditions retained by its Kaolsan desert tribes.