Invasion of Gibsonton

Invasion of Gibsonton
Date:	29th April 2008 to 29th May 2008
Place:	Gibsonton
Result:	Clear PKer Victory
Combatants
Survivors x PKers
Groups
- Survivors :	Imperium of Man, Dulston Alliance, Gibsonton Nationals, Manei Domini, The 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team Third Echelon, Malton Department of Defense, Independent Bounty Hunters
- PKers :	The Imperium Must Die Coalition consisting of: DORIS, Red Rum, Philosophe Knights Columbine Kids, Gibsonton Independence Board, Independent PKers
Commanders
- Survivors :	BrotherMcBeaner, max890, Garviel Loken, Maria Lombardi, randomzero, Mr Tee Man, Kikashie, Ottari, Lemonhead, Alpharius, Ioncannon11, Colonel Burton 10, Vincent, Others
- PKers :	Canderous Ordo, Turkmenbashi, The Dancing Banana, Sir WV, Others
Strength
- Survivors :	75+
- PKers :	80+
Casualties
- Survivors :	240+ (estimate)
- PKers :	80+ (estimate)

The Invasion of Gibsonton was a major war in the spring of 2008, when several PKer groups, led by The Imperium Must Die Coalition, invaded the suburb of Gibsonton. After a month of fighting, the PKers emerged victorious and dissolved their coalition; the suburb was later reclaimed by the Dulston Alliance.

Background

The Imperium of Man was a mostly local group in Gibsonton prior to a series of reforms and an extensive recruitment drive which corresponded with an expanding presence on the UD Wiki. As part of this increase in activity also led to a surge in Imperial activity on Brainstock in an effort to bolster recruitment and forge additional alliances. The most prominent member for some time was Garviel Loken.

After a time, one Canderous Ordo observed these ventures and took offense at them. It reached a point where Loken left Brainstock for a short time simply because of the hostility and lack of restraint or dignity. This led to an increase in Imperium presence on the wiki. Loken increasingly completed janitorial edit on Imperium related articles, added news to Gibsonton, and claimed territory. It was here that Canderous Ordo became especially incensed with the Imperium.

Declaration of War

Following this clash Canderous Ordo issued the following call to war and declaration of war, full text and related discussion here:

"...DORIS and its friends in Red Rum will be sponsoring another event. This event will not coincide with a death of a DORIS leader but will be another act of Global Warming, our word for jihad. We ask that starting April 29th all PKers head to Gibsonton and kill as many Imperium noobs as possible.

Why April 29th? This coincides with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. To prove that video games leads to violence we will kill those that follow another game...a very gay game.

We ask all our previous allies to join us yet again:

*DORIS

*Red Rum

*The Spartans

*The Columbine Kids

*Pathetic Bill

*Philosophe Knights

*LUE

*And anyone else who wants

Kill Imperium"

The Imperial response, sent by Loken, was much shorter:

"We'll be waiting.

And we won't be alone."

Imperial diplomats immediately notified their allies in the area and proceeded to work starting from the date of the issuing of the declaration until the commencement of hostilities to do whatever they could to evacuate other unaffiliated survivors from Gibsonton to other safe locations as there could be no certainty of their safety or swift revival.

One such effort, posting a warning on the wiki news page for Gibsonton, was removed by the leader and architect of the attack, for NPOV reasons, as shown here.

Objectives

Imperium Must Die Coalition

There were various goals that Coalition members had for this conflict. Some were specifically DORIS's goals, not those of the coalition. The coalition-specific goals were, simply, to kill Imperium members.

Imperium of Man

The Imperium's objective was to fight the invading forces and defend their territory. The Imperium directly stated on their page that Gibsonton is considered Imperial territory according to their map. Imperial Territory is: "The Imperium defines its territory as that which it can project its power over effectively either directly by deployment of Guard, Ecclesiarchy, and Mechanicus forces, by serious devastation by invading hordes leading to a need to declare the suburb under our protection, or through other survivor groups who have petitioned the Imperium for Allied status. Those which have a solid enough Imperial presence in the form of the Guard, Mechanicus, and Ecclesiarchy are considered Imperial territory." This means the Imperium stated that they considered the suburb under their protection, much like a survivor group would/could consider a mall under their protection.

Dulston Alliance

The objective of the Dulston Alliance was as simple as that of the Imperium: to inflict as much damage on the PKers in question as possible. The other allies who would join the war effort following the Dulston Alliance intervention were operating under similar such objectives.

Progress of the War

Opening Moves

On the appointed day the PKer forces moved in at which point all evacuation efforts for civilians ceased as the main energy of the defending forces would need to be spent on defeating the invaders. The immediate losses for the Imperium on the first day were substantial, but within the same day all the casualties were revived and based on Imperial and allied reports a higher number of PKers went down during this day, including the death of Canderous Ordo at the hands of Imperial Guard officer MkoII among many other kills. The Imperium, instead of standing in Gibsonton and dying en masse as was likely expected, instead save for a small skeleton force retreated to the nearby suburbs to use them as bases of operation for raiding against the attacking PKers. During the first few days of the fighting Imperial casualties remained light while regular reports of dead PKers flowed into the various allied command centers.

Canderous Ordo's Ultimatum

Following what appeared to be no major headway the leader of the assault, Canderous Ordo, issued the following demands of the Imperium on the pain of continued war on Brainstock on May 3^rd, 2008:

1. Kick Garviel out of the Imperium.

2. Tell Garviel he's tarded and announce it to all who ask.

3. Declare Pluto your Lord and Savior.

4. Declare Steve Irwin the one true Prophet.

5. Declare Saddam Hussein your King.

6. Declare Charlton Heston your Messiah.

7. Concede defeat in the Global warming Jihad.

8. Give us two bowls of Cheez-Its and mini Utz Pretzels, and three 2-liter bottles of Dr. Pepper, Sunkist, and Diet Pepsi.

9. ???

10. Profit!

While the original statement was removed by a moderator on Brainstock who deemed it offensive, the list was sent to Imperial Command who sent their own response.

Imperial Response

The Imperium briefly discussed the demands and roundly rejected them for many reasons, namely that demands 3-6 would be blasphemous and counter to everything the Imperium stood for, the first two highly unlike to happen as Loken was not seen in the Imperium by most as the cause of the war, Imperial commanders felt that defeat was not in fact imminent but the war was going well according to their plans, and items 8-10 were simply dismissed as facetious.

The Imperial response, like the first response to the declaration of war, was suitably laconic and to the point:

After in-depth discussion with Command, we have decided to let DinkyE to deliver the response for us in the following manner:

Message

War in the Streets

Following this response the Imperium continued vigilant patrols against the invading force. Blow and counterblow continued but little decisive action took place from either side as neither clustered in any one location making massacres highly unlikely. Kills continued to be racked up on both sides but neither seemed to be able to land a deciding blow. The fighting mostly ground on, Imperial numbers slowly declining in a war of attrition they were struggling to fight.

After having declared that they would defend the suburb against all who would seek it harm, the Imperium abandoned direct defense of the suburb and went to adjacent suburbs in order to mount raids. That seems to indicate that the Imperium abandoned their direct defense and the general protection that their presence gives the general populace and moved to use a few hit and run tactics on the PKers. Once routed from the suburb, they asked the DA for assistance in clearing out the PKers.

Second Ultimatum

On May 6^th, 2008 Ordo reissued his demands on Brainstock, emphasizing that Loken had to quit Urban Dead, not just the Imperium. This demand was forwarded to the Imperium as a whole and was again soundly rejected, many of the Imperium crying foul over a war motivated solely for the sake of attempting to drive one person out for what by the Imperium's perspective was a very petty justification.

Philosophe Knights Ultimatum

Copied from Brainstock's The Imperium Must Die thread

Max890 (Lord Inquisitor of the Imperium) said: "This is war, not a light lunch with cucumber sandwhiches and tea. I also deny any involvement, the group was operating without my knowledge, and will be dealt with shortly."

Garviel Loken (Castellan of the Black Templars 1st Fighting Company) said: "Said sub-group was out of contact since mid-March and we didn't know about that until after when you guys did. Trust me, the guy who tried that stunt is roasting over a slow fire right now and there's discussion underway of ejecting them en masse for that."

That being said, we Knights have known about this act of espionage for some time now & we've awaited for some sort of response from your leadership. It was your lack of action that has brought the Philosophe Knights into this current conflict. Had you taken action previous to this moment, we would not have felt it necessary to involve ourselves in this dispute. Understand that the Knights do not give a damn about your argument with Saromu. We care only about the underhanded act that was done upon us & the Imperium's lack of action in the matter. So as a Knight, I'm going to give my demands which will satisfy the Philosophe Knights in this matter. And because of Max890's inability to see the "bigger picture", I'm in the mood to demand alot.

• I demand that the Imperium disband the NecroInquisition permanently. All current members of the NecroInquisition are to be kicked out of the Imperium family & not allowed to rejoin any other Imperium sub-group ever. We have the names & links to all of those characters who are part of the NI & we can and will check periodically.

• I demand that the Imperium post a statement on Brainstock (in it's own thread & not buried in this thread), Resensitized, the The Imperium Talk page and the Philosophe Knights' Talk page. This statement will address the fact that you all are aware of the attempt of spying against the Philosophe Knights. You will condemn the act of spying & offer apologies. All Imperium leaders will also sign off on this statement. The statement posted on your groups' talk page will stay up for one continuous year.

• The Imperium will adopt the UD policies of Centers of Learning, Artifact Protection, Fine Art of Malton, Royal Society of Malton and also you will sign off on the Coalition for Fair Tactics.

• The Imperium will notice Socrates as a martyr in the war against ignorance & recognize February 15 of every year as a day of mourning for a great teacher.

Furthermore, a recognition of the celebration of Kuchikiri no Gi on the first sunday of every year's October.

• And lastly, since your organization was so interested in knowing what went on behind closed doors of our mansion, we demand that you allow full access to your message board to any Philosophe Knight that requests entrance. Do not expect us to return the favor because this is more of a lesson about having someone snooping around your message boards & not about exchanging resources/information.

Imperial Response

The Imperium responded to these demands as well, stating that they had expelled the NecroInquisition as a result of the spying as it was an act done without the knowledge or permission of Imperial Command. Furthermore, they stated that the Fair Tactics Pledge was not something they were hostile to, but had other matters they needed to attend to before signing off on the pledge. Past this they have refused to concede to any of the demands on the grounds that the Imperium would not negotiate with such individuals.

Intervention, Escalation, and Expansion

On May 9^th, 2008 the Dulston Alliance, allies of the Imperium, declared war on the Imperium Must Die Coalition and ordered a contingant of Alliance troops, nicknamed the "Allied Expeditionary Force (AEF)", into Gibsonton to fight the war stating in the Dulston Dispatch:

"The Dulston Alliance voted unanimously yesterday to declare war on the "Imperium Must Die" coalition of PKers. It has been decided that (aside from their cause of griefing the Imperium being immoral and unjust) they're a bunch of rotten PKers and should be dealt with as such".

This was consummated by the killing of Canderous Ordo by Kikashie, in Gibsonton, on the 13^th of May.

When the Dulston Alliance came into the conflict, the suburb was sparsely populated with Imperium members (as a bulk of them were either dead or engaging in hit and run tactics), while the main force of PKers was scattered along the border.

On May 12^th two other groups approached the Imperium declaring their intention of joining in on the war against the PKers. One of these, Manei Domini, announced their presence on the Gibsonton news page with the only information given to any other survivors know of was that they were involved solely for revenge on the Philosophe Knights, the second was the 173^rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team which declared they were with the survivor forces against the PKers as they felt this conflict was part of the larger war against PKers and the location as a region relatively safe from invading hordes is a significant battlefield.

On May 21^th the 173^rd Airborne Combat Team successfully convinced Third Echelon to join the Survivor effort against The Imperium Must Die group as well as the Malton Department of Defense.

Continued Conflict

With this increase in survivor numbers the conflict continued with no signs of let-up from either side. Forum taunting by both sides in the conflict continued, although what impact said taunts have had is as yet unknown.

Disbanding of the Gibsonton Nationals

With the arrival of allies on the side of the Counter-Coalition was an unexpected move among the survivor forces. The Gibsonton Nationals announced, as of May 19^th, 2008 that they were officially disbanding. Alpharius urged his people to fight on against the invading PKer forces in the disbanding order.

Gibsonton Independence Board

On May 20^th, 2008 the Gibsonton Independence board formally declared their existence to the public and launched their long-planned attack on the Gibsonton Nationals just three hours following their disbanding. Beyond this the influence of the GIB on the conflict has yet to be determined either way.

War's End

On May 27^th, 2008 Canderous Ordo posted the following declaration on Brainstock:

Attention all DORIS members and other PKers.

May 29th will mark the end of the Coalition.

Why? That date will mark the 1 month anniversary of us forcibly taking over the suburb. We have destroyed the Imperium to the point where you can go days without finding a single one of them. They have fled, their leaders have been proven useless, they are nothing. We were not able to have Garviel kicked out, but there was no way to really get this done since all of the Imperium are idiots, they wouldn't listen to you if you told them not to stick their hand in the oven. We have, however, ruined their public image for years to come. We have made their fellow survivors look down on them with hate. They are broken.

So after the 29th all Coalition members, including DORIS, can go their seperate ways. DORIS has no plans yet. We may PK together some more but we will not create a big event like this again until 8/24. No one is required to follow DORIS but it is encouraged. We may join up with either Red Rum or the Philosophe Knights to show them thanks for their support.

Total Coalition Casualties: 75+ Total Imperium, Allies, and Civilians Casualties: 200+

The next DORIS event will be on August 24th to commemorate the mourniversary of Pluto. The location has not been decided yet. The group targeted has not been decided yet. We will let everyone know soon.

Result Controversy

After the declaration of the conflict's cessation, The Imperium public newsreel claimed victory. However, citing the disparity in casualty numbers, the Coalition claimed that it was absurd to consider the Imperium to be victors. On a PKer station, a broadcast was made mocking the Imperium's declaration. The issue was eventually taken to arbitration, and ruled upon in the Coalition's favor.

Aftermath

After the Coalition left Gibsonton and the surrounding areas the Dulston Alliance reclaimed the suburbs with little resistance, as no one was there, and revived the victims of the war. Soon afterward, the Imperium disbanded and formed a variety of sub-groups due to internal conflicts. Gavriel Loken left Urban Dead, though he claimed it was for unrelated reasons. About three months after the disbanding of the Imperium, Gavriel Loken returned in order to reform the Imperium.