Battle of The Crucible
The Battle of the Crucible was a vault attack carried out by NATO against Columbia's vault, The Crucible, as part of the Infinity War. The battle took place at the Crucible Vault in Valyria, Columbia on February 17th, 2020. The battle ultimately resulted in a victory for various World Police forces, and an embarrassing loss for NATO and its allies.
| The Battle of The Crucible | |||||||
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 The Mirian Navy arrives in Valyria City. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 Vault Mildly Griefed, Many Building Materials and Potions Destroyed | 1 Fighter Pearled, Time and Resources Completely Wasted | ||||||
Initial Events
In the early morning hours of Monday, February 17th, 2020, Columbian citizens awoke to find that their vault, The Crucible, had been griefed and that many of the supply chests in the vault, containing mostly building materials and potions, had been destroyed. It was quickly determined by YourAverageRick, a citizen of Columbia who first noticed the situation upon logging in to the vault, that the grief in the vault had to have been part of an inside job. Evidence began to accumulate very rapidly in support of this theory, and pointed to the long-time, on-and-off-again Valyrian citizen hollybell91 as the culprit. She had mistakenly been given moderator permissions to the doors and bastions group, enabling her to place blocks and /ctr certain aspects of the vault under the guidance of NATO. World Police forces were immediately alerted of the situation, and a team of six Entente and UDF personnel was dispatched to assess the damage and reestablish control over the vault. The block grief placed by hollybell91 was made up of significant amounts of IRO and DRO, and filled most of the ground and sky bunkers, as well as obstructed large sections of the rings. Many of the doors on the vault, particularly in the outer rings, had also been /ctr'd over to NATO-owned groups, making movement around the vault very difficult. Upon their arrival at the scene, the World Police forces set about securing the vault and bringing it to a state where it could be defended. They then prioritized freeing allied accounts that had previously logged out inside the newly block griefed sections of the vault.
The Initial NATO Assault
Approximately two hours after World Police forces arrived, a contingent of over a dozen NATO combatants was spotted underground a few hundred blocks North of the Crucible Vault. After being spotted, the NATO force immediately charged into the vault hole through a small tunnel at bedrock on the Northwest side, and began the outermost vault bastions. The defenders, at this point numbering around eight, set to the vault's sky defences and began shooting the attackers to hinder their progress, while certified International Officer of the Law jayms harassed them outside the rings to buy time.
Within five minutes of the harassment by NATO, an elite group of Mirian operatives known as Mir Team 6 was dispatched to relieve the siege. Upon seeing the login messages of Mirians, the NATO force immediately retreated back to their forward operating bunker in the North to regroup. This would allow World Police forces vital time to reinforce the vault's defenses and rally more defenders to the cause.
Climax
Mirian forces soon arrived at Valyria, evening both sides' numbers. Soon thereafter, NATO attempted a second push into the vaulthole, but against a more organized defence with equal numbers, they were quickly pushed back. The defenders then left the vault to break NATO's bastions from the surface, before entering and taking control of much of the attack tunnel. The attackers met them halfway through the tunnel, and fighting broke out in the cramped space.
After a close call for one of their fighters, NATO pulled back from the frontline slightly. Commander Ben Nyz, while walking up to the front to observe the enemy forces, noticed NATO fighter, Bob_The_Builder, hiding in a corner in the defender's side of the tunnel, separated from his compatriots and stuck behind enemy lines. Coalition forces immediately descended upon the defenceless builder, while at the same time blocking his escape and keeping the rest of the NATO fighters from rescuing him.
After 58 seconds of cramped, pained, and gruesome fighting, Bob_The_Builder was pearled and taken back to Crucible, with both sides disengaging and returning to their defensive positions. Only 30 seconds after the pearling, the server suffered a severe lagspike, prompting rumours of foul play.
Aftermath
Having lost one fighter, and failing to capture the vault or break even one bastion, the NATO contingent decided to retreat from the area. The Coalition, having successfully defended the vault, was now left to repair the vault, a long and arduous task which took multiple days, despite extensive international assistance.