Martian Crusades under Emperor Theodore

Military action

The Martian Crusades were a coalition of Earth’s great powers against the Martian Kingdom of Kesta. The coalition was led by Emperor Theodore of Britannia. Through his leadership, the allies won a total victory. Internal disagreements following the victory, however, allowed Kesta to survive with only the loss of many tributaries, although he would begin to decline after the war.

Emperor Theodore, who was one of Emperor Arthur's great-grandchildren who succeeded Emperor Edward in the year 2162 after his predecessor passed away from old age. Because of his experiences in wars against Yokai remnants on Lunar, he had been made Crown Prince due to Britannia's problems with the Kingdom of Kesta on Mars which had for several decades been raiding Britannian shipping in and along the inner asteroid belt. Tensions escalated into war when Kesta laid siege to the Britannian outpost of Elyse as well as other Terran (Earth) outposts on Mars in 2168. With the support of Japanese Emperor Azami, Theodore was able to form a coalition despite relations with the other great powers in decline since Arthur's similar collation in the lunar crusades. After assembling a fleet over several hundred ships, including several dozen battleships set out for Mars under Emperor Theodore’s command and his second-in-command German Crown Prince Albrecht. A few months later, the two fleets engaged in a massive battle in orbit of Mars, despite significant pressure on the allied left flank, which was made up of primary French, Russian, and Chinese ships, the coalition prevailed. Crown Prince Albrecht had pushed against the enemy left flank causing it to break, allowing at the same time, Emperor Theodore to send the Britannian Royal Navy reinforcements to hold their left from breaking. Following this, the Kesta fleet was routed with only some returning to the surface of Mars. With absolute naval supremacy, the coalition immediately went about arguing with each other over how to split the conquered land which would cause the coalition’s goodwill with one another to collapse, although each nation would continue the land war together. Britannia itself would continue to cooperate with the Japanese and conquer several tributary states of Kesta, creating colonies out of them, most importantly though Kesta would cease being a major naval power and was unable to threaten Terran interest in the inner belt.