Battle of The Crucible

The Battle of the Crucible was a battle in the Infinity War which took place at the unfinished Crucible Vault in Valyria, Columbia on February 17th, 2019. The battle resulted in a tactical win for UDF/Mirrian forces, and a major setback in a push to the West by NATO.

Background
In the lead up to the Battle of the Crucible, Columbia and other UDF nations had taken part of the Pinkerton Vault Break, though not publicly until leaked information was presented to UDF leadership that showed the truth of the matter. After this, the nations of the UDF collectively voted to join the ongoing Infinity War on the side of Mir, Entente, and SATO nations which the UDF had worked very closely with in the War of the Coalition. This declaration led to early concerns about the safety of Columbia due to its location near NATO territory-primarily Polska and Hallow. The result was an invested interest in protecting the region, and many UDF troops were positioned nearby.

First Wave of Attack
In the early morning hours of February 17th, Columbians awoke to discover that their Crucible vault in Valyria, which was under construction at the time, was heavily greifed by a former Valyrian who had mod access to most of the doors and reinforcement groups on the vault. Much of this grief was also done using IRO and DRO, unheard of in vault greifing at the time on such a large scale. UDF forces were quickly mobilized to locate accounts which had been effectively logboxed and dig them out, with orders being sent out by Columbian leadership to not log on until it was safe to do so. Shortly after the discovery, however, 5 NATO accounts including Robokaiser and Hantzu entered the Crucible relatively unrestricted to the North Side and it became clear that NATO was behind the initial grief. Military wires to allies of Columbia were then sent out, and major components of the UDF Combined Forces were put on standby for a potential pullout from the vault should things turn out bad for them. However, very quickly forces from Entente and Mir managed to get to the vault and force the first retreat of NATO forces while initial repairs were made on the vault to get it back in semi-operational state.