Prefsbelt Commander
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
The world of Kaeshana was one which had been the proud home of the Eldorai. However, approximately, one hundred years ago, the world was rocked by an asteroid collision which saw the exodus of many, but to the detriment of others, being left behind. These being the Forsaken. The world was visited often by those who successfully evacuated, in the form of the Tygaran Alliance, who had set up a new world for the species on Tygara. While there were diplomatic overtures, which oft ended in failure. While the Eldorai tried to rehabilitate the world, and stop the suffering, it would be in vain. Kaeshana for all its suffering, would be again visited by destruction and despair when the world became the object of desire between two competing Galactic powers. The First Order and the Galactic Alliance.
Conflict between the First Order and the Galactic Alliance was an inevitability. Despite what the leadership of both the Galactic Alliance and First Order would say, the two sit as very similar regimes with similar goals. Both were heavily militarised authoritarian societies, with the goal of Galactic resettlement and the resurrection of a Galactic worldview, be it imperialism, or the eventual establishment of a new democracy.
Even from the very beginning, the two had a terse history to say the least, with Galactic Alliance forces having assaulted the First Order's original homeworld of Eridau. This aggression was met with the then Supreme Commander of the First Order’s military, Aram Kalast, glassing a portion of the world upon his retreat. Since this act, the two sat in a state of militant opposition to one another. But never, total war.
Since the First Order's retreat, the state of the power dynamic of the Galaxy had changed. The One Sith, once thought to be one of the greatest and most effect military powers of the Galaxy, collapsed. The weight of its crusade against the Galactic Republic, infighting, and perhaps most prevalently, the Galactic Alliance, finally shattering the tyrannical regime during a pitched battle on Coruscant. For the ruling triumvirate of the Alliance, it was a moment of satisfaction.
After years of bloodshed, the Galactic Alliance had rose to challenge. It had fulfilled its mission statement, the liberation of the Core against the sadism of the Dark Side, and in doing so created the largest standing force seen in an age. However, the final swinging blow to extinguish the One Sith, would yield some surprise. As One Sith forces scrambled to finish and defend the Omega Weapon. A weapons system was the first real rehabilitation of the Death Star-like projects which had plagued the Galaxy hundreds of years earlier. In response, the Galaxy and the powers that be rallied its forces to defeat the weapon. And it would be during this battle, that one force managed to distinguish itself. The First Order.
The First Order sent arguably the largest contingent of warships, and for the wider Galaxy, it saw the emergence of the First Order as a real player in the world of war and politics. While the Galactic Alliance had continued prosecuting their crusade, the defeated First Order remnant retreated across the Outer Rim, and established themselves on Dosuun, making the city Avalonia, its capital. From there, the influence of Supreme Leader Sieger Ren spread across the stars, engulfing the Anoat Sector, amongst others. The hardline approach to crime, slavery and piracy harkened a new era of law and order, which had not been seen before in that sector.
The results of this campaign of ruthlessness were felt immediately. Hundreds of thousands flocked to the First Order, forging a new army of stormtroopers, and crafting new destroyers, inspired by centuries old designs. Imperialism, now received a resurgence, even as the One Sith waxed and waned. While the First Order’s ranks swelled, its actual capacity as a force, was untested.
While the First Order had experiencing wiping out small insurgencies, the professional culture of the military had not been established. The quality of raw recruits was poor. Many were not quite up to military standard, others, while zealous were not tested in the field of battle. Humiliations such as Eridau and the Ssi-Ruuk Imperiums’ occupation of Dosuun did nothing but instil shame amongst the military's leadership. This was despite the best efforts of One Sith refugees who fled, and attempted to modernise their new home, but it lacked a fighting culture. This would come to change.
The First Order was emboldened by the victory over Castameer, and now saw a new stage for themselves to forge a new destiny. Despite the highly militarised society they had forged, Dosuun wanted to formalise a presence, which would not be entirely dominated by armed intervention. With the borders of the First Order expanding, it became something of a pet project for head of government, Grand Moff Natasi Fortan, to provide aid to the toxic world, in the form of food, medicine, and return the rule of law to the planet. The taming of Kaeshana was to be of a priority. The First Order’s gift of civilisation would be a propaganda victory for the Order, and provide fresh bodies to toil for its war machine.
As the First Order made their plans, the Galactic Alliance, now began to broach the Tygaran Alliance diplomatically. The Tygarans had approached Sullust, with a proposal for the Galactic Alliance to act as a peacemaker between for proposed negotiations between the Tygaran refugees, and the Forsaken Eldorai. The Tygarans, wished to return home, and their exiled matriarch Queen Tirathana the Seventh petitioned the Galactic Alliance’s triumvirate to support these efforts, and it was approved by the Alliance’s ruling triumvirate. In exchange for the mediation, the Tygarans would allow the Galactic Alliance to incorporate Kaeshana into its Alliance, and under Sullust’s protection.
The First Order were the first to arrive upon Kaeshana. The Order dispatched its medical teams and camps around the former capital city of Santaissa and the nearby Citadel of Dawn, with the latter acting as a command post for the security detachment on the planet itself, as well as a general base of operations. Medical camps were spread in and around the city, and continent. The clinics were staffed with a mixture of military doctors, and personnel to ensure security and supply distribution, while volunteer doctors from Dosuun, Bespin, Ison and Varonat would tend to the illnesses. These camps also acted as food distribution centres, handing out clean rations and fresh, clean water, something of a rare commodity on Kaeshana. Although the locals were initially cold, to the visitors, many would come to seek treatment for the radiation sores and illness which ran rife on the planet.
In addition to the humanitarian mission, a scientific detachment was sent to the planet to observe the effects of prolonged radiation exposure to the environment, and to perform data intake on those being admitted. Amongst the stars, the First Order Navy undertook a mapping the sector for anomalies, as well as chartering it for its own use. Through their efforts, they located an isolated space station, occupied by pirates. The station was regarded, for a time immaterial to efforts, and no means of interception were to be taken, until reinforcements arrived.
The First Order’s mission to Kaeshana did not go unnoticed. While the Galactic Alliance were not alerted to the incursion, the Tygaran Alliance however, received information from loyalist cells on Kaeshana of the arrival of foreigners. Despite the large loathing and contempt held for the fleeing elites, during their exodus, a number of Forsaken stayed true to their Queen, and the cause of reunification. While they were in the minority, they did however keep in constant contact with the Tygarans, providing intelligence in regards to developments on the planet and visitations such as this.
The Tygaran royals were not amused by the First Order’s offer of aid in the least. It first and foremost undermined their attempts to proclaim themselves as Kaeshana’s rightful heirs. It delegitimised them as rulers, and as an autocracy, not too dissimilar from the First Order, this competition of loyalty could not, and would not stand. As a secondary note, it meant that for the Tygaran Alliance months of negotiations may have just fallen through with the Galactic Alliance. That months of politicking had been rendered useless.
Ultimately for the First Order the first day of its mission was normal, until the ugly spectre of what Kaeshana had become, reared its head. Not all the Forsaken were peaceful scavenger eking out an existence. Some had turned to banditry to survive, thieving off of others, and with this fresh new source of supplies, they proved unable to resist, and poked the bear. During the night, the First Order camps were raided by Forsaken scavengers and raiders.
Casualties were minimal, on the First Order side. From the raids, came only seven deaths, and thirty wounded. Two First Order civilians, two Forsaken patients, and three military personnel killed in the fighting. These casualties, were not a surprise. A planet as ravaged as this, was considered to most certainly going to be desperate for access to those supplies at any cost. But, the First Order was riled by the raids. And what in particular took the interest of the First Order, was the kidnapping of one Sioux Chambers.
Unbeknownst to her captors, Chambers was in fact the executive secretary, and by extension personal confidant of Grand Moff Fortan. With news of her friend, and secretaries capture, Fortan rallied the First Order’s high command, Central Command, to dispatch a search force. Within hours, a fleet of star destroyers had taken position over the planet to lock it down. In order to ward off any attempt to sell off the Grand Moff’s secretary as some lowly slave, a strike force of stormtroopers, dispatched to eliminate the pirate presence.
With the First Order presence on the planet intensifying, and the use of more extreme military measures, the Tygaran Alliance’s resistance cells began to activate, falsely believing a genocide was afoot, made a request for immediate support. The Forsaken loyalists reported the mass bombings and the military excursion, to which the reaction was immediate. The Tygaran Alliance, furious now. The First Order had taken control of the situation, and now bombed their planet. The Tygarans for their part, too scattered and far away to mobilise, decided to call upon their trump card. While the Galactic Alliance had not yet formalised any form of military treaty with the Tygarans. But that would not stop them. The Eldorai hoped to leverage the Alliances own righteousness against it. And that they did, with the ruling Triumvirate unable to accept the First Order’s use of such brutal, and extreme force.
Within hours, the Galactic Alliance had mobilised its armies, and a fleet was dispatched to liberate the Forsaken from the supposed First Order subjugation. Tygaran Alliance forces, in the form of Firemane were also dispatched. Rather than using a standing army for their expeditionary force, the Tygaran’s relied upon the Firemane Industries, an Eldorai shipwright, arms manufacturing concern and mercenary force to supply the offensive tool to retake Kaeshana.
The die had been cast, and now a new Galactic War seemed to be just on the horizon.
A division of the First Order’s First Fleet, Battlegroup Pride sat in orbit above Kaeshana, lead by Commodore Carlyle Rausgeber. A veteran of the Omega Crisis, Rausgeber had been dispatched to map the sector but with the search for Sioux Chambers, had come to command the defensive fleet. The First Order fleet, was by no means large, with the largest vessel under his command, being the recently created Imperial-X class Star Destroyer. Battlegroup Pride was awaiting resupply and reinforcements from the Riflor, while coordinating fighter support for forces on the ground performing anti-pirate operations.
The operation itself seemed to be by the book, until sensors picked up a disturbance at the edge of the sector. An unanticipated hyperspace jump. At the edge of the system, the Firemane fleet, had arrived. For the crews of the First Order Navy, this was a shock. They had not anticipated such an arrival. Rausgeber himself, was shaken by this revelation, but did not open fire. Rather, he put out a simple message:
“Unidentified vessels, you have trespassed into the orbit of the First Order. Any hostile action taken, will be considered an act of war by our Supreme Leader.” ~ FIV Vindicator, Battle of Kaeshana.
The Firemane forces, dispatched a multitude of transports to the planets surface from their position. The crew of Battlegroup Pride, waited there with bated breath, and watched the transports stream to the surface. Given the minute size of the group, it would be impossible for them to intercept all of the transports, and rather than provoke a hostile action, the group stilled itself. And waited to see what would come of this.
The Firemane transports rapidly deployed entire divisions of forces, centred around the ruins of the Kerrigan-Alcori Estate. Artillery and other ordinance was rapidly deployed, along with the material for an entire mechanized division. Command of Firemane troops, came under the jurisdiction of one Siobhan Kerrigan. Siobhan Kerrigan, unlike many within the First Order, was a battle hardened leader. An Eldorai noble who had fought during the Galactic Republic-One Sith war. Among the many prestigious titles she held she was as a General of Firemane forces, the CEO of Firemane Industries, and Countess of the Kerrigan-Alcori House. This was along with the powerful background in cultivating both Dark, and Light side force usage.
Accompanying Countess Kerrigan, were a number of master force users, who, through either companionship with the noble, or by virtue of wishing to liberate Kaeshana. Amongst the Firemane group were two droids, HK-36 and Six-0, a mercenary, and the Baron of Abraghado Rae. The former deployed his soon to be infamous, Greycloak units, in nigh every theatre, while Six-O along with a small portion of mercenary personnel began to arm and drill the Forsaken, Eldorai loyalists, to fight as partisans.
In the stars, the Galactic Alliance Fourth Fleet, commanded by Commodore Vilin Nor, and Therapy Command, commanded by the ever present Admrial Cathul Thuku arrived, and again, exploiting the hesitation of Commodore Rausgeber, managed to deploy a mixture of Omega Pyre, and Galactic Alliance Defence Force [GADF] personnel to aid in the Firemane’s objectives. To the returning Tygarans, their objectives were simple. Retake Santaissa. Retake the Citadel of Dawn. Burn the First Order.
To understand where the battle shall take place, it is important to understand the geography of Santaissa and the surrounding area. The ancient ruin had fallen into disrepair during the course of the hundred year darkness which had consumed the planet. It was a myriad of ruins, forged by weather, and through a lack of repair. The civilian populace of the city was small, and scattered, living either underground or in limited settlements on the surface. To the north east, sat the Citadel of Light, the First Order headquarters, a number of miles away. The Citadel sat behind a great mountain range, which allowed access to the fort by only one of two paths. One to the South East, and the other, North of the city. The Firemane provisional headquarters sat at the South West, in the hills there, where its artillery was set up. First Order humanitarian camps were scattered throughout the city, on the edges, primarily, but also within the more provincial regions.
At the advent of battle, stormtroopers were still scouring the city, wiping out any who dared to defy imperial law, or imperial justice. Their justice was a hard one, with entire buildings razed to satisfy the need to destroy the enemies of law and order. The twin principles which guided the First Order’s military and society. General Graush was personally overseeing the final stages of wiping out the resistance within Santaissa, when his aides de camp alerted him to the arrival of hostile forces. Graush sensed an attack was imminent, and relayed a request for aerial supremacy to Commodore Rausgeber.
In orbit, Battlegroup Pride strengthened itself, against what it saw was a nigh inevitable assault. But, it would wait, before firing. The Commodore felt it unsuitable to begin what he believed would be an ultimately disastrous diplomatic incident. In the hope of diffusing the situation, Commodore Rausgeber decided a show of strength would be appropriate. That, with high powered naval support in low orbit, he could stave off any conflict, and force those who threatened the humanitarian mission to negotiate. For this task, the Commodore dispatched the FIV Wrath, to fulfil Graush’s request. The FIV Wrath commanded by Captain Ranulph Gudderian, Rausgeber’s deputy and arguably closest confidant. The Commodore felt that the operation would be in safe hands with Gudderian, given his conservative nature. The Commodore hoped Captain Gudderian’s cautious nature would shield the First Order and its civilians, with the hopeful deployment of the destroyer to see that sense and reason prevailed.
As the FIV Wrath entered orbit, it deployed it’s TIE fighter complement, to perform forward reconnaissance over the city. The Imperial-X Class Star Destroyer now sat over Santaissa proper, its massive guns silent. A sentinel to try and deter the enemy from interjecting and stifle any offensives. With this piece in play, Graush decided to make the first move. He would try to wipe out the Firemane Field Headquarters while they were still transfixed upon the giant vessel. The tool for the operation, a swift series of bombing run from his TIE Bombers currently razing Forsaken raider settlements. Graush diverted them from demolitions duty, to perform the attack. But as the TIE’s approached, their assault was blunted. Firemane forces had become too entrenched, with their Anti-Air capabilities.
In orbit, the Tygaran and Galactic Alliance fleets of Admiral Gould and Commodore Vilin began to press forwards, charging their heavy hypervelocity ordinance. This was when Commodore Rausgeber realised that this was the nightmare scenario. Knowing that he was outgunned, and outnumbered, Battlegroup Pride opted for a tactical retreat, sinking their vessels to low orbit, and hoping that Kaeshana’s natural gravitational pull would divert the weapons, and veer them off course. This was but a temporary tactic, for Rausgeber to call in reinforcements, and buy time to come up with a definitive answer to this aggression. However, with the Alliance jamming of long range come, no help could come for the desperate commander.
On the ground escalation now continued. Santaissa was now a virtual warzone, as Tygaran loyalists assaulted the First Order presence. Eldoarai armed to the teeth seemed to crawl out of the sewers, and walls attempted to push the First Order out of the city. The situation, was untenable. Not with the chaos ensuring, or the artillery. Out of spite,the 1st Stormtrooper Grenadiers began to target holy sites in their retreat. To force the Eldorai to raze their own monuments to their archaic Gods. This partially worked, in shielding the First Order’s stormtroopers, during the exodus from the city, but fuelled the Firemanes calls for holy war had been declared upon the imperial heretics.
But it was not only the military that would experience great chaos. The medical camps, run by civilians, found themselves under siege as a human wave of civilians attempted to seek shelter from the street to street fighting. Deciding for the best, the camps moved to vacate themselves. Calling in transports either by speeder, or by air to evacuate from the increasingly volatile situation. Great convoys of commandeered civilian, and military vehicles began to rapidly depart the city. However, with the amount of personnel needing to be moved in such a short space of time, with nearly no logistical support from the local military command, it was but an impossibility. So while many were evacuated from the medical camps, many were trapped. Those who stayed, would later perish.
The Citadel of Dawn, was rocked by barrages of artillery. And while the shells, did not pierce the defences, it was an untenable position. Particularly given, the exposed nature of the base camp, and the threat it maintained to the armoured division worth of equipment currently being deployed. For that, immediate and effective action had to be taken to counter the threat. General Graush, understood this, lest the already beleaguered, and unprepared stormtrooper force, fall victim to further attrition.
The Firemane forces, felt certainly threatened by the FIV Wrath, and Siobhan Kerrigan consolidated her inner circle, to perform the rituals in order to summon a powerful force storm. Atrisia in recent history came to be crushed by one of these storms, which killed many of the Galactic Alliance’s, New Jedi Order operatives, and the Sith they hunted. Despite this history, the group persisted, summoning a great, meteorological terror.
The storm whipped through the city, a massive show of wind, thunder and withering lightening which caused the immediate dogfighting within the city, to be halted, as fighters and bombers were blown off course. The storm arrived just as dozens of transports, laden with Forsaken, and First Order medics attempted to depart, blowing them off course, and crashing to the ground. Hundreds who had hoped to escape, perished as lighting drained vessels of their power, slamming them to the ground and killing the lucky on impact. Those who did survive, often were left in agonising pain, to bleed till they were dry.The refugee camps also suffered as an effect of the storm. With some camps, having entire tents torn from their pegs, and blown into the treacherous wind.
First blood was drawn, and it was civilians who suffered.
With the First Order forces within Santaissa in full retreat, General Graush ordered Captain Gudderian to bombard the Galactic Alliance’s artillery pieces, in order to cover the fall back. The FIV Wrath obliged despite the targeting limitations of the storm, to provide devastating rebuttal to the artillery which had until that point, fired uncontested. The bombardments aim, was to de-fang what was, at the time, the Firemane forces greatest asset. Their material on the ground. And so, the gunners of the FIV Wrath aimed to hills, where shells of withering fire had originated.
The bombardment lasted by thirty seconds. But its effects were felt instantaneously. The largest casualty, was felt also in material losses. The hills in and around estate which had been primed with artillery and anti-air batteries had been vaporised. These hills now fell silent, as steam rose from the acrid ground. The artillery, the ammunition for these weapons, and the crews, ceased to exist. The invaders had been robbed of their key advantage, and could no longer assail the First Order at range.
The second largest casualty was arguably the Firemane command centre of the Kerrigan-Alcori Estate. The Estate itself, rendered non-existent after it was brutally turned to slag by the superheated turbolaser ordinance of the Star Destroyer. Most of the command staff, of senior Firemane, and Galactic Alliance officers, liquidated in that key moment. With the estate gone, Firemane and the GADF’s remaining commanders would need to relocate. But despite the critical blow to the command staff of the offensive Firemane forces, the key and arguably most powerful leadership group failed to be assassinated. Countess Kerrigan and her cohorts would continue to inspire the Firemane assault.
Captain Ranulph Gudderian, satisfied with the completion of his objectives during the assault, now turned his attentions to his own survival. The force storm which now acted in full force and fury wreaked hell and havoc unto the vessel. Lightning sapped energy from it systems, and the Wrath’s navigation systems were compromised, Captain Gudderian attempted to pull away from the system, to no avail. Countess Kerrigan, as an act of revenge, channelled her energies and those of her comrades into one objective. The destruction of the Wrath as it wrestled with the conditions. The combined energies of these force sensitive, near Godlike figures, was felt upon what was thought of, at the time, unrivalled engineering.
As the FIV Wrath moved closer to the storm, ionic lightning lashed its hull, meaning its engine power, while sizeable, was failing, and quickly. With the additional pull to the surface by these force adepts, and the immediate concern of engine failure, it became clear to the staff on deck that the Wrath would not be able to escape the planet. If there was any victory to be had that day, for Captain Gudderin and the crew of the Wrath, it would be Pyrrhic in nature. Setting his reactor to overload, Gudderian plunged his destroyer into the broken planets surface. According to statistics, eighty four percent of the crew died, in either the impact, or ensuing fires. Another nine percent were rendered disabled. Unable to continue service, with the remaining seven percent, able to continue service. The explosion, rocked the immediate area around, with some Forsaken reporting feeling tremors, at least three hundred kilometres away.
In robbing the Order’s enemies of their advantage, the crew of the FIV Wrath made the ultimate sacrifice.
Columns of Firemane mechanised and armoured divisions were now on the move, pressing to the southern passage, through the mountains and to assault the Citadel while First Order forces rapidly attempted to regroup and defend their headquarters from the looming onslaught. The FIV Wrath’s destruction, was right on top of them, and saw a horrendous loss of life for both the First Order, in terms of crew aboard the vessel, and Firemane soldiers trapped beneath the vessel. The southern passage, was now rendered unusable, clogged with debris, and a steep crater that could not be traversed. Firemane forces using the passage, had been decimated, and those fortunate few who survived, were cut down as they arrived to their destination by an enemy more prepared than they had anticipated.
While the Galactic Alliance and the Tygarans pressed their attack in Santaissa, the Citadel of Dawn had been a hive of activity, in preparation for the oncoming onslaught. Combat engineers from both the stormtrooper corps, and First Order regular army deployed minefields, dug trenches and constructed fortifications to try and defend the Citadel. While the Citadel was most certainly a secure, and greatly reinforced, it became clear to the First Order forces on the ground that, this was a do or die battle. That there would be no escape, and a final stand here, was a final stand for all of them. So when the first wave of depleted Firemane forces attacked, they were repulsed, by a dug in force of troopers, supported by walkers.
With only one path they could feasibly march through, Firemane forces, now fully supported by GADF motorised infantry, began the long, hard push to the Citadel of Dawn. The force storm in the sky, had evolved, blanketing the Citadel, and the smouldering ruins of Santaissa in snow. By now, word of the battle had spread, with the deployment of Kathol Outback Marines, under the command of one Outer Rim Coalition officer, Colonel Joza Perl. But even with reinforcements, the first few attacks were easily repelled, for two reasons. The first, being the stormtroopers adequate defences, which allowed them to pick off enemies at leisure. The second, the Knights of Ren.
While the Dark Lord of the One Sith had died at the hands of his own underlings, Supreme Leader of the First Order, Sieger Ren, had cultivated an elite cult of force users. Adept in usage of the dark side, and loyal only to him, the Knights of Ren acted as the mysterious informants for their leader. Until Kaeshana, the Ren had been sparsely used, with limited contact with the other branches of the military. Officially, they were mercenary dark siders. Contractors who would assist in the execution of raids, but even the most hardened troopers would heed the Ren. The coming war, would be a test for them to say the least.
The deployment of force users, was a surprise to the Firemane, and forward elements of the Galactic Alliance’s New Jedi Order, which had anticipated nothing but stormtroopers, and vehicles were caught offguard by the use of dark siders, in such large concentrations. The Ren made their presence known, and put their training to good use, leading zealous charges against their enemies.
While the Ren made their attack, the First Order’s Supreme Commander, Ludolf Vaas who had been present, in the search for Sioux Chambers had deployed his own force of Sabercat walkers. Vaas’ attack was successful to say the least, and tore into the oncoming troops, and in tandem with the Ren, tore into the forward GADF elements such a ferocity, yet to be properly countered.
With the airspace around the Citadel contested by both First Order TIE fighters, and the force storm, the Firemane command team, lead by Countess Kerrigan had been forced to relocate away from the fighting. Flying by gunship, the group of elites imbedded themselves in the massive troop movement, and sallied forth with their troops, moving to the front of the formation. It was upon their arrival, Kerrgian realised how dire things were, and again leapt to decisive action.
Almost as if an encore of the Wrath’s destruction, the force was again used as a weapon. The group pushed the gargantuan Sabercat walkers over. Supreme Commander Vaas was then robbed of his advantage and left on the ground, with the rest of his men, and now in the thick of it. The brief push which had been supported by the Supreme Commander was now pushed back, with the walkers unable to push back against the tide of GADF and Firemane forces who enveloped the walkers and their wrecks.
The stormtroopers, now pulled back to their defences, and attempted to hold against the unrelenting force of the Firemane forces. As the bodies piled up however, the situation for the troopers on the ground became untenable. Each man down, meant one less gun suppressing the enemy. For every gun lost, another meter gained. The First Order, would not hold forever.
In space, the Galactic Alliance and Tygaran grip was solidified. The First Order fleet was on the run, and with the destruction of the Wrath, its fleet was now under strength and outnumbered. Galactic Alliance reinforcements arrived in the form of Tanomas Graf, and the imperial remnant.
Graf, was a former First order officer himself, who had just jumped ship to join the mysterious Emperor, on Kamino. With new vessels, and a fresh command, Graf wanted to simultaneously get the Alliance off this new Imperial Remnant’s case having heeded the warnings of Eridau. But his presence was twofold, with the Admiral aiming to acquire notoriety and prestige for the Remnant. The arrival of Graf’s vessels, and his assimilation into the Alliance’s larger formation, continued to devastate the First Order Navies morale.
But all was not lost. Grand Admiral Cyrus Tregessar soon arrived, with his own task force, in an attempt to ascertain what the situation on Kaeshana was. With such critical VIP’s working on the planet, the lack of contact received from forces there worried sector commands in other surrounding First Order holdings. Tregessar, decided to spearhead a task force in order to establish contact.
Cyrus Tregessar was a name known throughout the Core worlds and Galaxy at large. He had been one of the One Siths most influential and effective naval commanders. However Tregessar would not go down with the ship, as was anticipated in naval tradition. When he saw the One Sith’s end, after the Battle of Coruscant, he used his influence to form together a convoy of One Sith battlecruisers and destroyers filled with the One Sith’s military, political and economic elite, before departed to where he saw the new future of the Galaxy, Dosuun. His name preceded him, and despite being a refugee, was offered the post of Chief of Navy, and the official rank of Grand Admiral. From there, he along with the late William Kerkov would attempt to reform the First Order war machine.
The arrival of Chief of Navy saw the First Order’s morale now lift. Tregessar, with all his experience, buoyed Commodore Rausgeber, who halted his tactical retreat, and fell in with the formation of Tregessar’s vessels. Tregessar’s plan was to drive the First Order’s larger vessels, which collected around his Darr Ittah Battlecruiser, into the heart of the enemy fleet, to break them apart, and use the fleets separate commands against each other. As they scrambled to try and aid each other, they would weaken themselves.
Tregessar’s thrust was met with an unexpected result. Tanomas Graf’s retreat. Although it was not First Order naval prowess which caused the event but rather a ragtag group of Knights of Ren. A detachment who had been sat in orbit, trying to reinforce their compatriots on the ground. Reading the IFF signatures of a traitorous, opposing imperium, the Knights boarded Graf’s flagship, the Devastator. The Ren’s impact was felt instantly by the green imperial remnant crew, who fled system, with Ren in tow. The departure of Graf, now left large portions of the Alliance’s formation in disarray.
Now the two gargantuan fleets began to close in on one another, batteries trained as they bombarded one another, relentlessly. Tregessar’s fleet became bogged down fighting Therapy Command’s Admiral Thuku. Cathul Thuku for her entire career had wanted to fight Tregessar, and had in fact designed vessels directly to counter his flagship, the Darr Ittah Contempt.
While Tregessar got bogged down with Admiral Thuku, Rausgeber seized the initiative, and charged the enemy fleet head on. Outnumbered, but emboldened by the presence and command of such a senior superior, Rausgeber pressed ahead, filled with vigour. If he were to die this day, it would be in the glory of the Order. Now, the battle was pitched, and the First Order ready to prove itself.
While battles in orbit, and on the ground continued, a less, physical form of combat ensued. A battle of wits. The largest First Order vessel in system was not Grand Admiral Tregessar’s vessel but was in fact the FIV Concordia. The Concordia was the first of its generation, Resurgent-Class Star Destroyer. Acting as the commanding vessel during the Omega Crisis, the Concordia was now the flagship of Grand Moff Natasi Fortan. With her was the current governor of Riflor, Nathaniel Barret, if the Kaeshana reclamation operation was the brainchild of the Moff, then Barrett was the father.
Opposing the duo was Sullust’s president, Jaius Sovv. Sovv was a senior political leader within the Alliance, thanks to his status as president of their capital. Sovv arrived to Kaeshana, in a little less ostentatious travel arrangements, in the form of a Republic diplomatic corvette. There was immediate hostility once the two parties made contact. Sovv, having analysed reports and the Firemane intelligence of the time, believed that the Alliance had presumptively won the day. That the First Order, who had aggressively assaulted the planet were being driven back on all fronts, which was true to an extent.
For Grand Moff Fortan, who had just watched her fleets attack, and was viewing the carnage from orbit, she was obstinate. There would be no surrender to these aggressors, and no yielding to those who sought to negotiate and threaten her. The Moff’s iron will met the President’s iron resolve, with the two trading barbs, and for a brief moment there was a hint of philosophical debate, about the merits of imperialism in juxtaposition to the democracy the Galactic Alliance sought to form.
The two traded barbs as their fleets closed, and as thousands on the ground below perished in what was ultimately a pointless conflict. The Grand Moff attempted to reason with Sovv, in regards to the humanitarian mission, and the civilians deployed there. That the First Order’s intentions were earnest and honest in nature. But Sovv did not believe her. He remained true to the intelligence he had received and saw the humanitarian mission as a front for the Order’s expansion.
With no real reconciliation, and both sides unable to reach a ceasefire, Sovv departed the system. The President saw Grand Moff Fortan’s position was one of deluded zealotry and readied himself for the delivery of a declaration of war against the First Order. While Grand Moff Fortan steeled herself for the path to come.
While much of the battle was fought across Kaeshana, it would erroneous not to take some time to account for the incidents circulating in and around the planet of Chanceleon. A mid-rim planet rife with slavery, and other criminal endeavour. Sitting in the sector over, as a neutral system, Chalcedon was an important strategic point. It could act as a juncture for the funnelling of supplies, or as a recon post. Despite not being a part of the conflict proper, the events here would shape the battle one jump over.
As a preparatory act, for the Firemane offensive was the establishment of a communications post on the planet, before troops moved unto the planet proper. The Galactic Alliance then, under the command of Admiral Lothkra Dawning, proceeded to violate the sovereignty of the system, establishing a reinforcement point, to funnel reinforcing vessels to the system. This all the while not interfering in the local slave trading operations. The Alliance’s presence here, was not as strong, but it still carried squadrons and vessels able to perform military missions. But despite all the weapons and armaments, the blockade would be brought down. Not through force. Not by an armada. But by one man.
Maurice Dalton.
Maurice Dalton, the charismatic Commissioner of the First Order world of Yalara was a One Sith veteran. He had fought in the One Sith army as a special forces operator, but an injury had him drummed out of the forces. He would later work as a Core world architect, but when the One Sith regime collapse happened, Dalton retreated. Upon his arrival in the First Order, Dalton set about helping to turn the slums of the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions into grand cityscapes. This endeavour would later see him apply, and successfully become a politician on Yalara. Dalton proved popular, he was a man of the people. A mix of his easy charm and winning smile won him the admiration and respect of the people.
Maurice Dalton was aboard a single civilian transport as he entered the system. Dalton was initially entering the system to refuel while en route to a conference in a nearby sector, when he was ordered to halt by Admiral Dawning. Dawning explained that Chalcedon was a warzone, and that he needed to identify himself and his actions. Dalton was naturally quite sceptical of the claim. It was an outlandish one to say the least, and not at all usual in what was chartered as neutral space. However Commissioner Dalotn knew of the Kaeshana mission, and to have an Alliance military operation this close to it, spelled trouble.
Dalton replied to Dawning, directly over communications. But not before he broadcasted the incident on a public channel. He bluffed himself to the surface, as a civilian, but traded barbs with Dawning, publicly questioning her and her authority over the system before landing on the surface. Once he was sure he could get it out, Dalton sent a frantic, encrypted message to Central Command. Something was wrong.
With the Citadel defences failing and the defenders now becoming increasingly encircled and beleaguered, a move to retreat was organised. Although the storm circled overhead, pilots volunteered to take the critically injured out of harm's way, in order to protect them from the unrelenting fire and presumed, reprisals of the enemy. They were taken to Outpost Fenrik, a hastily constructed firebase in the southern hemisphere.
Camp Fenrik had been one of the few medical camps which was not within the Santaissa metropolitan area. Because of that, it had been spared the ruthlessness of the elements, and instead stood on its own. When news of the battle began to surface, Captain Grold Barne, organised the fortification of the camp, in case of any attack. When it became evident none were coming, Fenrik became a supply post and fall back point. Providing shelter for the retreating civilians, and for wounded troopers who were forced from Santaissa.
With the situation at the Citadel now critical, and the wounded in threat of dying due to the treacherous weather, many braved the transports in the hope they would deliver them to safety. And while some did, many fell prey to the weather, and its power, again like the civilians during the Battle of Santaissa. Others were gunned down by concerted anti-air of the steadily advancing GADF column or intercepted by the better armed Firemane gunships.
While the odds may have been awful, many did brave the conditions, in the hope that it would provide a new point to begin the defence again. It became the fevered dream, of the surviving senior officers, who now froze in the frigid inner sanctum of the Citadel, that Fenrik was the key to victory. That a successful mass evacuation to the Outpost could support a counter offensive and lure the Firemane to a fight the First Order would have on its own terms.
It was the deluded dream of men desperate not to have themselves, or their comrades freeze to death in odds which could not be won against. But if an evacuation were to be the case, they would need time to organise the effort. And time was a commodity the troops who clung to the Citadel’s trenches and battlements, did not have much of.
As the battle around the Citadel raged, the Galactic Alliance continued to reinforce its offensive with fresh reserves, the noose around the First Order tightened. Feeling the strain, Lieutenant Rexus Wenck of the Seventh Platoon of the White Wolves legion, began a break out on his own initiative. Ordering a barrage of grenade and mortar fire, Rexus lead his men, the Seventh Platoon, and charged into the fray, in the hopes of giving their comrades some much needed relief.
The Seventh Platoon, were not some unknown unit, unlike the norm with most First Order stormtrooper units. The platoon also operated under the moniker of the Gundark Gunners. The Gunners unlike many conventional military units, were a punishment platoon. Originally formed to cage in those able to serve the stormtrooper corps, but also holding behavioural issues, the Gunners had been the butt end of Central Commands joke since the arrival on Dosuun. The dumb, insubordinate and simply criminal were all packed into one little platoon described the worst of the worst. However, the Gunners, had recently caught the attention of General Graush during the subjugation of Na’Tan for their bold and innovative conduct. Now, the group of ragged, ill-tempered and ill-disciplined soldiers charged out in a last ditch attempt to hold the line as the wounded were evacuated.
The Gunners managed to make their way, largely unmolested to the forward trenches, where they began to perform guerrilla operations, attempting to dent the oncoming reinforcements. To force the Alliance troops to divert themselves in order to force the Gunners away. This was a monstrous undertaking to perform. To put this numerically, the Gunners, who at this point were just under fifty men strong, and near exhausted, were fighting against nearly twenty thousand GADF and Firemane mechanised forces, many of who had done nothing but launch missiles at the occasional TIE fighter or transport. The Gunners, initially operated with little resistance. The Alliance troops kept steaming towards the Citadel. To great effect the stormtroopers used their final thermal detonators and other remaining explosives in an attempt to divert and delay forces while the evacuation of wounded occurred.
However, an irritating presence of this size, and effect was unsustainable. A mighty hand would come down and strike the Gunners. And this hand came in the form of the droid baron, HK-36, who was personally accompanying the advancing tanks. When his force encountered the spirited resistance of the Gunners, the droid ordered its fellow automatons to break off the main line and concentrate on neutralising the threat. Assisting in rooting out the gunners were Omega Pyre elements who also began an offensive, which saw the Gunners, dig in amongst the shrapnel, and craters. The stormtroopers of seventh platoon began to valiantly hold out against the overwhelming firepower of reinforcing spider droids and Firemane jet troopers.
For a good hour, the Gunners held on. They used their superior mobility, speed, and shear brutality to hold on. But that would not hold forever. Soon forty became thirty, thirty became twenty, and then little over a dozen full strength stormtroopers remained, attempting to aid their comrades at the Citadel, while also recovering the wounded from their own squads. Even the Gunner’s CO, Lieutenant Wenck was grievously injured, his left arm torn asunder by a thermal detonator.
The Gunners had held on for as long as they could, and now found themselves working against a tide of enemies they could not win against. The delay they had caused did save some, but at the cost of their own safety, and as they huddled together, pooling the wounded, the men and women of the Gunners waited. Amongst the now withering fire of short ranged ordinance, the suppressing blasts of shatterguns, the Gunners, some of whom for the first time, prayed for deliverance.
And deliverance came, in the form of the mourning howl of low flying TIE fighters. With the surviving pilots now accustomed to the stress of the conditions, the TIE pilots of the now half strength Griffon Squadron strafed the Alliance’s forces. Whole the Alliance’s troops scrambled for cover, and to arm anti-air missiles, a mix of medical and troop transports dispatched from the Citadel performed an emergency evacuation. The Gunners had gone above and beyond what was expected of them, and although many did not live to see the day, many would remember it, and a legacy was forged.
While lines of communication had been severed, officers and the political elite throughout the Order grew anxious, at the knowledge, something, or someone had jammed comms. The warnings from Chalceon and Commissioner Dalton, as to Alliance expansion were the final straw and Central Command authorised the mobilisation of an almighty relief force in the form of the forward elements of the First Order third and fourth fleet. After an initial reconnaissance force lead by Admiral Fiolette Yvarro, and her engagement of the Alliance forces, this precipitated the arrival of dozens of destroyers and their affiliated vessels.
After establishing a SITREP of the system, TIE bombers were sent to the Citadel of Dawn. The massive column of troops was devastated by the attack, and although they felled some bombers, the situation was simply untenable. They may have won the city, perhaps even won the Citadel, but it was all too much. After exhausting so much effort, marching through the mountains, the troops on the ground could not fight back.
Amongst the stars, the Galactic and Tygaran Alliance fleets, moved their vessels into low orbit, picking up as many troops as possible, before the thunderous fire of star destroyers. While many did make it back, the Firemane and GADF’s scrambled retreat saw to billions worth of heavy military hardware left behind. Entire platoons of tanks and speeders were left in the hands of the First Order who consequently took it. Any Firemane or GADF soldier, who was unfortunate enough to have not died, or have been one of the few chosen in the exodus, either froze to death, were hunted and captured or killed by vengeful troopers.
The dust of Kaeshana now settled. And with it a new era began.
The Battle of Kaeshana, for all participants involved was a seminal shift in the balance of power of the Galaxy. For all the protagonists of the battle, its effects were felt in different ways. And while the First Order may have won the day, all had lost. For the Tygarans, it was heritage. For the Galactic Alliance, it was pride. And for the First Order, it was innocence. None of them, would ever truly be the same again,
The Battle of Kaeshana shattered the Tygaran Alliance. In the aftermath of the relentless bloodshed caused by the Firmane forces, and their recklessness in the field, alienated them from the very denizens they sought to reunite with. In particular the conduct during the Battle of Santaissa killed hundreds of innocent Forsaken attempting to take shelter. With their Queen discredited, many flocked to the First Order’s banner. The immediate moves to terraform and rehabilitate the planet and its people by Governor Barrett stood in stark contrast to the conduct during the battle. In the wake of the Tygaran withdrawal, the Forsaken largely fell into line and many began to enthusiastically support the rule of Grand Moff Fortan, and Supreme Leader Ren. For the first time ever, the the age old matriarchy of the Eldorai society had been successfully subverted, with authoritarianism now becoming a gender neutral proposition for the species. With time, the Tygaran’s homeworld, now became a bastion of loyalty and might for the First Order, with many joining the stormtrooper corps, being enjoying life in newly rebuilt cities, and star destroyers welcomed as a protective presence.
The Galactic Alliance had been humiliated by the expedition politically and militarily. After having vanquished the menace of the One Sith, and now marshalled the most experienced, and largest standing army seen in near four centuries, the GADF had been blunted by an upstart autocracy in the Outer Rim. A largely ragtag, and underperforming force had managed to dupe them. Diplomatically and politically the move on Kaeshana was disastrous. The countless civilian casualties, and the aggression pressed by the Alliance were bad press to say the least. The actions on Kaeshana did little to assist the credibility of a triumvirate under pressure to keep accountable to their member systems, and a lot of political capital had to be expended to try and fight these fires abroad, and more importantly on the homefront. Perhaps most starkly was the contrast for how the Alliance’s year had gone. It had begun the year with its clinical finish of the One Sith, and consolidation of the Core, and would end it, beginning another bloody war with a new and more considered enemy.
The First Order, was now permanently scarred. The political and military psyche of the Order was one which would hold onto this battle forever at the back of its mind. Never again. Kaeshana was a grievous wound for the First Order and turn it would turn many of its most optimistic thinkers, and politicians from doves of peace, into brutal, and unrelenting hawks. Thousands of the First Order’s finest doctors and tens of thousands of soldiers perished in the bloodbath. The reaction from the Moff Council, and Central Command was swift. This action, could not and would not be ignored, something the civilian population agreed with. Escalation was an inevitability, and any question of reproach, or diplomacy discarded. Recruitment centres found themselves overwhelmed, and training academies buckled under the pressure to train and arm a populace hellbent on revenge. The First Order was out for blood, and the Galactic Alliance would bleed.
Intent: To document the first engagement of the First Order-Galactic Alliance War.
Image Credit: A big thanks needs to be given to the ever helpful [member="Bambi"] and [member="Rolf Amsel"] for the wonderful assistance they provided in persisting with me during this.
Credits: A big thanks to [member="Zark"] for helping out during this, and making sure I didn’t veer too off course. As well as [member="Natasi Fortan"], [member="Asharad Graush"] and the countless others who helped make this a reality.
Links: Casus Belli | The Rebellion of Kaeshana [X], World Turned Upside Down | First Order Dominion of Kaeshana [X}
Event Name: The Battle of Kaeshana.
Belligerents:
The First Order v The Galactic Alliance | The Tygran Alliance | The Imperial Remnant | The Outer Rim Coalition
Commanders:
The First Order
General Asharad Graush
Supreme Commander Ludolf Vaas
Grand Moff Natasi Fortan
Commodore Carlyle Rausgeber
Grand Admiral Cyrus Tregessar
- The Galactic Alliance:
- President Jaius Sovv
- Commodore Vilin Nor
- Admiral Cathul Thuku
- The Imperial Remnant:
- Admiral Tanomas Graf
- The Tygaran Alliance:
- Queen Tirathana VII
- Admiral Kyranna Gould
- Countess Siobhan Kerrigan
- Baron HK-36
The Tygaran Alliance:
Countess Siobhan Kerrigan
Queen Tirathana VII
Admiral Kyranna Gould
Baron HK-36
Results: First Order victory and the withdrawal of Galactic and Tygaran Alliance forces. Beginning of the first Galactic Alliance-First Order War.
The world of Kaeshana was one which had been the proud home of the Eldorai. However, approximately, one hundred years ago, the world was rocked by an asteroid collision which saw the exodus of many, but to the detriment of others, being left behind. These being the Forsaken. The world was visited often by those who successfully evacuated, in the form of the Tygaran Alliance, who had set up a new world for the species on Tygara. While there were diplomatic overtures, which oft ended in failure. While the Eldorai tried to rehabilitate the world, and stop the suffering, it would be in vain. Kaeshana for all its suffering, would be again visited by destruction and despair when the world became the object of desire between two competing Galactic powers. The First Order and the Galactic Alliance.
Conflict between the First Order and the Galactic Alliance was an inevitability. Despite what the leadership of both the Galactic Alliance and First Order would say, the two sit as very similar regimes with similar goals. Both were heavily militarised authoritarian societies, with the goal of Galactic resettlement and the resurrection of a Galactic worldview, be it imperialism, or the eventual establishment of a new democracy.
Even from the very beginning, the two had a terse history to say the least, with Galactic Alliance forces having assaulted the First Order's original homeworld of Eridau. This aggression was met with the then Supreme Commander of the First Order’s military, Aram Kalast, glassing a portion of the world upon his retreat. Since this act, the two sat in a state of militant opposition to one another. But never, total war.
Since the First Order's retreat, the state of the power dynamic of the Galaxy had changed. The One Sith, once thought to be one of the greatest and most effect military powers of the Galaxy, collapsed. The weight of its crusade against the Galactic Republic, infighting, and perhaps most prevalently, the Galactic Alliance, finally shattering the tyrannical regime during a pitched battle on Coruscant. For the ruling triumvirate of the Alliance, it was a moment of satisfaction.
After years of bloodshed, the Galactic Alliance had rose to challenge. It had fulfilled its mission statement, the liberation of the Core against the sadism of the Dark Side, and in doing so created the largest standing force seen in an age. However, the final swinging blow to extinguish the One Sith, would yield some surprise. As One Sith forces scrambled to finish and defend the Omega Weapon. A weapons system was the first real rehabilitation of the Death Star-like projects which had plagued the Galaxy hundreds of years earlier. In response, the Galaxy and the powers that be rallied its forces to defeat the weapon. And it would be during this battle, that one force managed to distinguish itself. The First Order.
The First Order sent arguably the largest contingent of warships, and for the wider Galaxy, it saw the emergence of the First Order as a real player in the world of war and politics. While the Galactic Alliance had continued prosecuting their crusade, the defeated First Order remnant retreated across the Outer Rim, and established themselves on Dosuun, making the city Avalonia, its capital. From there, the influence of Supreme Leader Sieger Ren spread across the stars, engulfing the Anoat Sector, amongst others. The hardline approach to crime, slavery and piracy harkened a new era of law and order, which had not been seen before in that sector.
The results of this campaign of ruthlessness were felt immediately. Hundreds of thousands flocked to the First Order, forging a new army of stormtroopers, and crafting new destroyers, inspired by centuries old designs. Imperialism, now received a resurgence, even as the One Sith waxed and waned. While the First Order’s ranks swelled, its actual capacity as a force, was untested.
While the First Order had experiencing wiping out small insurgencies, the professional culture of the military had not been established. The quality of raw recruits was poor. Many were not quite up to military standard, others, while zealous were not tested in the field of battle. Humiliations such as Eridau and the Ssi-Ruuk Imperiums’ occupation of Dosuun did nothing but instil shame amongst the military's leadership. This was despite the best efforts of One Sith refugees who fled, and attempted to modernise their new home, but it lacked a fighting culture. This would come to change.
The First Order was emboldened by the victory over Castameer, and now saw a new stage for themselves to forge a new destiny. Despite the highly militarised society they had forged, Dosuun wanted to formalise a presence, which would not be entirely dominated by armed intervention. With the borders of the First Order expanding, it became something of a pet project for head of government, Grand Moff Natasi Fortan, to provide aid to the toxic world, in the form of food, medicine, and return the rule of law to the planet. The taming of Kaeshana was to be of a priority. The First Order’s gift of civilisation would be a propaganda victory for the Order, and provide fresh bodies to toil for its war machine.
As the First Order made their plans, the Galactic Alliance, now began to broach the Tygaran Alliance diplomatically. The Tygarans had approached Sullust, with a proposal for the Galactic Alliance to act as a peacemaker between for proposed negotiations between the Tygaran refugees, and the Forsaken Eldorai. The Tygarans, wished to return home, and their exiled matriarch Queen Tirathana the Seventh petitioned the Galactic Alliance’s triumvirate to support these efforts, and it was approved by the Alliance’s ruling triumvirate. In exchange for the mediation, the Tygarans would allow the Galactic Alliance to incorporate Kaeshana into its Alliance, and under Sullust’s protection.
The First Order were the first to arrive upon Kaeshana. The Order dispatched its medical teams and camps around the former capital city of Santaissa and the nearby Citadel of Dawn, with the latter acting as a command post for the security detachment on the planet itself, as well as a general base of operations. Medical camps were spread in and around the city, and continent. The clinics were staffed with a mixture of military doctors, and personnel to ensure security and supply distribution, while volunteer doctors from Dosuun, Bespin, Ison and Varonat would tend to the illnesses. These camps also acted as food distribution centres, handing out clean rations and fresh, clean water, something of a rare commodity on Kaeshana. Although the locals were initially cold, to the visitors, many would come to seek treatment for the radiation sores and illness which ran rife on the planet.
In addition to the humanitarian mission, a scientific detachment was sent to the planet to observe the effects of prolonged radiation exposure to the environment, and to perform data intake on those being admitted. Amongst the stars, the First Order Navy undertook a mapping the sector for anomalies, as well as chartering it for its own use. Through their efforts, they located an isolated space station, occupied by pirates. The station was regarded, for a time immaterial to efforts, and no means of interception were to be taken, until reinforcements arrived.
The First Order’s mission to Kaeshana did not go unnoticed. While the Galactic Alliance were not alerted to the incursion, the Tygaran Alliance however, received information from loyalist cells on Kaeshana of the arrival of foreigners. Despite the large loathing and contempt held for the fleeing elites, during their exodus, a number of Forsaken stayed true to their Queen, and the cause of reunification. While they were in the minority, they did however keep in constant contact with the Tygarans, providing intelligence in regards to developments on the planet and visitations such as this.
The Tygaran royals were not amused by the First Order’s offer of aid in the least. It first and foremost undermined their attempts to proclaim themselves as Kaeshana’s rightful heirs. It delegitimised them as rulers, and as an autocracy, not too dissimilar from the First Order, this competition of loyalty could not, and would not stand. As a secondary note, it meant that for the Tygaran Alliance months of negotiations may have just fallen through with the Galactic Alliance. That months of politicking had been rendered useless.
Ultimately for the First Order the first day of its mission was normal, until the ugly spectre of what Kaeshana had become, reared its head. Not all the Forsaken were peaceful scavenger eking out an existence. Some had turned to banditry to survive, thieving off of others, and with this fresh new source of supplies, they proved unable to resist, and poked the bear. During the night, the First Order camps were raided by Forsaken scavengers and raiders.
Casualties were minimal, on the First Order side. From the raids, came only seven deaths, and thirty wounded. Two First Order civilians, two Forsaken patients, and three military personnel killed in the fighting. These casualties, were not a surprise. A planet as ravaged as this, was considered to most certainly going to be desperate for access to those supplies at any cost. But, the First Order was riled by the raids. And what in particular took the interest of the First Order, was the kidnapping of one Sioux Chambers.
Unbeknownst to her captors, Chambers was in fact the executive secretary, and by extension personal confidant of Grand Moff Fortan. With news of her friend, and secretaries capture, Fortan rallied the First Order’s high command, Central Command, to dispatch a search force. Within hours, a fleet of star destroyers had taken position over the planet to lock it down. In order to ward off any attempt to sell off the Grand Moff’s secretary as some lowly slave, a strike force of stormtroopers, dispatched to eliminate the pirate presence.
But the largest logistical effort would be put in planetside when General Asharad Graush deployed his White Wolves division, and began a full scale search for Ms Chambers. Security on the planet was doubled, and although operations at medical facilities continued, the gloss of it was taken from it. Graush was relentless in his search. While stormtroopers concentrated their search in and around Santaissa, the campaign was furthered in scope to wipe out banditry on the planet entirely. In order to achieve these results, the General ordered the carte blanche bombing runs of suspected raider activity. Stormtroopers scoured the landscape, to no avail and ruthlessly snuffed out any resistance.
With the First Order presence on the planet intensifying, and the use of more extreme military measures, the Tygaran Alliance’s resistance cells began to activate, falsely believing a genocide was afoot, made a request for immediate support. The Forsaken loyalists reported the mass bombings and the military excursion, to which the reaction was immediate. The Tygaran Alliance, furious now. The First Order had taken control of the situation, and now bombed their planet. The Tygarans for their part, too scattered and far away to mobilise, decided to call upon their trump card. While the Galactic Alliance had not yet formalised any form of military treaty with the Tygarans. But that would not stop them. The Eldorai hoped to leverage the Alliances own righteousness against it. And that they did, with the ruling Triumvirate unable to accept the First Order’s use of such brutal, and extreme force.
Within hours, the Galactic Alliance had mobilised its armies, and a fleet was dispatched to liberate the Forsaken from the supposed First Order subjugation. Tygaran Alliance forces, in the form of Firemane were also dispatched. Rather than using a standing army for their expeditionary force, the Tygaran’s relied upon the Firemane Industries, an Eldorai shipwright, arms manufacturing concern and mercenary force to supply the offensive tool to retake Kaeshana.
The die had been cast, and now a new Galactic War seemed to be just on the horizon.
A division of the First Order’s First Fleet, Battlegroup Pride sat in orbit above Kaeshana, lead by Commodore Carlyle Rausgeber. A veteran of the Omega Crisis, Rausgeber had been dispatched to map the sector but with the search for Sioux Chambers, had come to command the defensive fleet. The First Order fleet, was by no means large, with the largest vessel under his command, being the recently created Imperial-X class Star Destroyer. Battlegroup Pride was awaiting resupply and reinforcements from the Riflor, while coordinating fighter support for forces on the ground performing anti-pirate operations.
The operation itself seemed to be by the book, until sensors picked up a disturbance at the edge of the sector. An unanticipated hyperspace jump. At the edge of the system, the Firemane fleet, had arrived. For the crews of the First Order Navy, this was a shock. They had not anticipated such an arrival. Rausgeber himself, was shaken by this revelation, but did not open fire. Rather, he put out a simple message:
“Unidentified vessels, you have trespassed into the orbit of the First Order. Any hostile action taken, will be considered an act of war by our Supreme Leader.” ~ FIV Vindicator, Battle of Kaeshana.
The Firemane forces, dispatched a multitude of transports to the planets surface from their position. The crew of Battlegroup Pride, waited there with bated breath, and watched the transports stream to the surface. Given the minute size of the group, it would be impossible for them to intercept all of the transports, and rather than provoke a hostile action, the group stilled itself. And waited to see what would come of this.
The Firemane transports rapidly deployed entire divisions of forces, centred around the ruins of the Kerrigan-Alcori Estate. Artillery and other ordinance was rapidly deployed, along with the material for an entire mechanized division. Command of Firemane troops, came under the jurisdiction of one Siobhan Kerrigan. Siobhan Kerrigan, unlike many within the First Order, was a battle hardened leader. An Eldorai noble who had fought during the Galactic Republic-One Sith war. Among the many prestigious titles she held she was as a General of Firemane forces, the CEO of Firemane Industries, and Countess of the Kerrigan-Alcori House. This was along with the powerful background in cultivating both Dark, and Light side force usage.
Accompanying Countess Kerrigan, were a number of master force users, who, through either companionship with the noble, or by virtue of wishing to liberate Kaeshana. Amongst the Firemane group were two droids, HK-36 and Six-0, a mercenary, and the Baron of Abraghado Rae. The former deployed his soon to be infamous, Greycloak units, in nigh every theatre, while Six-O along with a small portion of mercenary personnel began to arm and drill the Forsaken, Eldorai loyalists, to fight as partisans.
In the stars, the Galactic Alliance Fourth Fleet, commanded by Commodore Vilin Nor, and Therapy Command, commanded by the ever present Admrial Cathul Thuku arrived, and again, exploiting the hesitation of Commodore Rausgeber, managed to deploy a mixture of Omega Pyre, and Galactic Alliance Defence Force [GADF] personnel to aid in the Firemane’s objectives. To the returning Tygarans, their objectives were simple. Retake Santaissa. Retake the Citadel of Dawn. Burn the First Order.
To understand where the battle shall take place, it is important to understand the geography of Santaissa and the surrounding area. The ancient ruin had fallen into disrepair during the course of the hundred year darkness which had consumed the planet. It was a myriad of ruins, forged by weather, and through a lack of repair. The civilian populace of the city was small, and scattered, living either underground or in limited settlements on the surface. To the north east, sat the Citadel of Light, the First Order headquarters, a number of miles away. The Citadel sat behind a great mountain range, which allowed access to the fort by only one of two paths. One to the South East, and the other, North of the city. The Firemane provisional headquarters sat at the South West, in the hills there, where its artillery was set up. First Order humanitarian camps were scattered throughout the city, on the edges, primarily, but also within the more provincial regions.
At the advent of battle, stormtroopers were still scouring the city, wiping out any who dared to defy imperial law, or imperial justice. Their justice was a hard one, with entire buildings razed to satisfy the need to destroy the enemies of law and order. The twin principles which guided the First Order’s military and society. General Graush was personally overseeing the final stages of wiping out the resistance within Santaissa, when his aides de camp alerted him to the arrival of hostile forces. Graush sensed an attack was imminent, and relayed a request for aerial supremacy to Commodore Rausgeber.
In orbit, Battlegroup Pride strengthened itself, against what it saw was a nigh inevitable assault. But, it would wait, before firing. The Commodore felt it unsuitable to begin what he believed would be an ultimately disastrous diplomatic incident. In the hope of diffusing the situation, Commodore Rausgeber decided a show of strength would be appropriate. That, with high powered naval support in low orbit, he could stave off any conflict, and force those who threatened the humanitarian mission to negotiate. For this task, the Commodore dispatched the FIV Wrath, to fulfil Graush’s request. The FIV Wrath commanded by Captain Ranulph Gudderian, Rausgeber’s deputy and arguably closest confidant. The Commodore felt that the operation would be in safe hands with Gudderian, given his conservative nature. The Commodore hoped Captain Gudderian’s cautious nature would shield the First Order and its civilians, with the hopeful deployment of the destroyer to see that sense and reason prevailed.
As the FIV Wrath entered orbit, it deployed it’s TIE fighter complement, to perform forward reconnaissance over the city. The Imperial-X Class Star Destroyer now sat over Santaissa proper, its massive guns silent. A sentinel to try and deter the enemy from interjecting and stifle any offensives. With this piece in play, Graush decided to make the first move. He would try to wipe out the Firemane Field Headquarters while they were still transfixed upon the giant vessel. The tool for the operation, a swift series of bombing run from his TIE Bombers currently razing Forsaken raider settlements. Graush diverted them from demolitions duty, to perform the attack. But as the TIE’s approached, their assault was blunted. Firemane forces had become too entrenched, with their Anti-Air capabilities.
In orbit, the Tygaran and Galactic Alliance fleets of Admiral Gould and Commodore Vilin began to press forwards, charging their heavy hypervelocity ordinance. This was when Commodore Rausgeber realised that this was the nightmare scenario. Knowing that he was outgunned, and outnumbered, Battlegroup Pride opted for a tactical retreat, sinking their vessels to low orbit, and hoping that Kaeshana’s natural gravitational pull would divert the weapons, and veer them off course. This was but a temporary tactic, for Rausgeber to call in reinforcements, and buy time to come up with a definitive answer to this aggression. However, with the Alliance jamming of long range come, no help could come for the desperate commander.
On the ground escalation now continued. Santaissa was now a virtual warzone, as Tygaran loyalists assaulted the First Order presence. Eldoarai armed to the teeth seemed to crawl out of the sewers, and walls attempted to push the First Order out of the city. The situation, was untenable. Not with the chaos ensuring, or the artillery. Out of spite,the 1st Stormtrooper Grenadiers began to target holy sites in their retreat. To force the Eldorai to raze their own monuments to their archaic Gods. This partially worked, in shielding the First Order’s stormtroopers, during the exodus from the city, but fuelled the Firemanes calls for holy war had been declared upon the imperial heretics.
But it was not only the military that would experience great chaos. The medical camps, run by civilians, found themselves under siege as a human wave of civilians attempted to seek shelter from the street to street fighting. Deciding for the best, the camps moved to vacate themselves. Calling in transports either by speeder, or by air to evacuate from the increasingly volatile situation. Great convoys of commandeered civilian, and military vehicles began to rapidly depart the city. However, with the amount of personnel needing to be moved in such a short space of time, with nearly no logistical support from the local military command, it was but an impossibility. So while many were evacuated from the medical camps, many were trapped. Those who stayed, would later perish.
The Citadel of Dawn, was rocked by barrages of artillery. And while the shells, did not pierce the defences, it was an untenable position. Particularly given, the exposed nature of the base camp, and the threat it maintained to the armoured division worth of equipment currently being deployed. For that, immediate and effective action had to be taken to counter the threat. General Graush, understood this, lest the already beleaguered, and unprepared stormtrooper force, fall victim to further attrition.
The Firemane forces, felt certainly threatened by the FIV Wrath, and Siobhan Kerrigan consolidated her inner circle, to perform the rituals in order to summon a powerful force storm. Atrisia in recent history came to be crushed by one of these storms, which killed many of the Galactic Alliance’s, New Jedi Order operatives, and the Sith they hunted. Despite this history, the group persisted, summoning a great, meteorological terror.
The storm whipped through the city, a massive show of wind, thunder and withering lightening which caused the immediate dogfighting within the city, to be halted, as fighters and bombers were blown off course. The storm arrived just as dozens of transports, laden with Forsaken, and First Order medics attempted to depart, blowing them off course, and crashing to the ground. Hundreds who had hoped to escape, perished as lighting drained vessels of their power, slamming them to the ground and killing the lucky on impact. Those who did survive, often were left in agonising pain, to bleed till they were dry.The refugee camps also suffered as an effect of the storm. With some camps, having entire tents torn from their pegs, and blown into the treacherous wind.
First blood was drawn, and it was civilians who suffered.
With the First Order forces within Santaissa in full retreat, General Graush ordered Captain Gudderian to bombard the Galactic Alliance’s artillery pieces, in order to cover the fall back. The FIV Wrath obliged despite the targeting limitations of the storm, to provide devastating rebuttal to the artillery which had until that point, fired uncontested. The bombardments aim, was to de-fang what was, at the time, the Firemane forces greatest asset. Their material on the ground. And so, the gunners of the FIV Wrath aimed to hills, where shells of withering fire had originated.
The bombardment lasted by thirty seconds. But its effects were felt instantaneously. The largest casualty, was felt also in material losses. The hills in and around estate which had been primed with artillery and anti-air batteries had been vaporised. These hills now fell silent, as steam rose from the acrid ground. The artillery, the ammunition for these weapons, and the crews, ceased to exist. The invaders had been robbed of their key advantage, and could no longer assail the First Order at range.
The second largest casualty was arguably the Firemane command centre of the Kerrigan-Alcori Estate. The Estate itself, rendered non-existent after it was brutally turned to slag by the superheated turbolaser ordinance of the Star Destroyer. Most of the command staff, of senior Firemane, and Galactic Alliance officers, liquidated in that key moment. With the estate gone, Firemane and the GADF’s remaining commanders would need to relocate. But despite the critical blow to the command staff of the offensive Firemane forces, the key and arguably most powerful leadership group failed to be assassinated. Countess Kerrigan and her cohorts would continue to inspire the Firemane assault.
Captain Ranulph Gudderian, satisfied with the completion of his objectives during the assault, now turned his attentions to his own survival. The force storm which now acted in full force and fury wreaked hell and havoc unto the vessel. Lightning sapped energy from it systems, and the Wrath’s navigation systems were compromised, Captain Gudderian attempted to pull away from the system, to no avail. Countess Kerrigan, as an act of revenge, channelled her energies and those of her comrades into one objective. The destruction of the Wrath as it wrestled with the conditions. The combined energies of these force sensitive, near Godlike figures, was felt upon what was thought of, at the time, unrivalled engineering.
As the FIV Wrath moved closer to the storm, ionic lightning lashed its hull, meaning its engine power, while sizeable, was failing, and quickly. With the additional pull to the surface by these force adepts, and the immediate concern of engine failure, it became clear to the staff on deck that the Wrath would not be able to escape the planet. If there was any victory to be had that day, for Captain Gudderin and the crew of the Wrath, it would be Pyrrhic in nature. Setting his reactor to overload, Gudderian plunged his destroyer into the broken planets surface. According to statistics, eighty four percent of the crew died, in either the impact, or ensuing fires. Another nine percent were rendered disabled. Unable to continue service, with the remaining seven percent, able to continue service. The explosion, rocked the immediate area around, with some Forsaken reporting feeling tremors, at least three hundred kilometres away.
In robbing the Order’s enemies of their advantage, the crew of the FIV Wrath made the ultimate sacrifice.
Columns of Firemane mechanised and armoured divisions were now on the move, pressing to the southern passage, through the mountains and to assault the Citadel while First Order forces rapidly attempted to regroup and defend their headquarters from the looming onslaught. The FIV Wrath’s destruction, was right on top of them, and saw a horrendous loss of life for both the First Order, in terms of crew aboard the vessel, and Firemane soldiers trapped beneath the vessel. The southern passage, was now rendered unusable, clogged with debris, and a steep crater that could not be traversed. Firemane forces using the passage, had been decimated, and those fortunate few who survived, were cut down as they arrived to their destination by an enemy more prepared than they had anticipated.
While the Galactic Alliance and the Tygarans pressed their attack in Santaissa, the Citadel of Dawn had been a hive of activity, in preparation for the oncoming onslaught. Combat engineers from both the stormtrooper corps, and First Order regular army deployed minefields, dug trenches and constructed fortifications to try and defend the Citadel. While the Citadel was most certainly a secure, and greatly reinforced, it became clear to the First Order forces on the ground that, this was a do or die battle. That there would be no escape, and a final stand here, was a final stand for all of them. So when the first wave of depleted Firemane forces attacked, they were repulsed, by a dug in force of troopers, supported by walkers.
With only one path they could feasibly march through, Firemane forces, now fully supported by GADF motorised infantry, began the long, hard push to the Citadel of Dawn. The force storm in the sky, had evolved, blanketing the Citadel, and the smouldering ruins of Santaissa in snow. By now, word of the battle had spread, with the deployment of Kathol Outback Marines, under the command of one Outer Rim Coalition officer, Colonel Joza Perl. But even with reinforcements, the first few attacks were easily repelled, for two reasons. The first, being the stormtroopers adequate defences, which allowed them to pick off enemies at leisure. The second, the Knights of Ren.
While the Dark Lord of the One Sith had died at the hands of his own underlings, Supreme Leader of the First Order, Sieger Ren, had cultivated an elite cult of force users. Adept in usage of the dark side, and loyal only to him, the Knights of Ren acted as the mysterious informants for their leader. Until Kaeshana, the Ren had been sparsely used, with limited contact with the other branches of the military. Officially, they were mercenary dark siders. Contractors who would assist in the execution of raids, but even the most hardened troopers would heed the Ren. The coming war, would be a test for them to say the least.
The deployment of force users, was a surprise to the Firemane, and forward elements of the Galactic Alliance’s New Jedi Order, which had anticipated nothing but stormtroopers, and vehicles were caught offguard by the use of dark siders, in such large concentrations. The Ren made their presence known, and put their training to good use, leading zealous charges against their enemies.
While the Ren made their attack, the First Order’s Supreme Commander, Ludolf Vaas who had been present, in the search for Sioux Chambers had deployed his own force of Sabercat walkers. Vaas’ attack was successful to say the least, and tore into the oncoming troops, and in tandem with the Ren, tore into the forward GADF elements such a ferocity, yet to be properly countered.
With the airspace around the Citadel contested by both First Order TIE fighters, and the force storm, the Firemane command team, lead by Countess Kerrigan had been forced to relocate away from the fighting. Flying by gunship, the group of elites imbedded themselves in the massive troop movement, and sallied forth with their troops, moving to the front of the formation. It was upon their arrival, Kerrgian realised how dire things were, and again leapt to decisive action.
Almost as if an encore of the Wrath’s destruction, the force was again used as a weapon. The group pushed the gargantuan Sabercat walkers over. Supreme Commander Vaas was then robbed of his advantage and left on the ground, with the rest of his men, and now in the thick of it. The brief push which had been supported by the Supreme Commander was now pushed back, with the walkers unable to push back against the tide of GADF and Firemane forces who enveloped the walkers and their wrecks.
The stormtroopers, now pulled back to their defences, and attempted to hold against the unrelenting force of the Firemane forces. As the bodies piled up however, the situation for the troopers on the ground became untenable. Each man down, meant one less gun suppressing the enemy. For every gun lost, another meter gained. The First Order, would not hold forever.
In space, the Galactic Alliance and Tygaran grip was solidified. The First Order fleet was on the run, and with the destruction of the Wrath, its fleet was now under strength and outnumbered. Galactic Alliance reinforcements arrived in the form of Tanomas Graf, and the imperial remnant.
Graf, was a former First order officer himself, who had just jumped ship to join the mysterious Emperor, on Kamino. With new vessels, and a fresh command, Graf wanted to simultaneously get the Alliance off this new Imperial Remnant’s case having heeded the warnings of Eridau. But his presence was twofold, with the Admiral aiming to acquire notoriety and prestige for the Remnant. The arrival of Graf’s vessels, and his assimilation into the Alliance’s larger formation, continued to devastate the First Order Navies morale.
But all was not lost. Grand Admiral Cyrus Tregessar soon arrived, with his own task force, in an attempt to ascertain what the situation on Kaeshana was. With such critical VIP’s working on the planet, the lack of contact received from forces there worried sector commands in other surrounding First Order holdings. Tregessar, decided to spearhead a task force in order to establish contact.
Cyrus Tregessar was a name known throughout the Core worlds and Galaxy at large. He had been one of the One Siths most influential and effective naval commanders. However Tregessar would not go down with the ship, as was anticipated in naval tradition. When he saw the One Sith’s end, after the Battle of Coruscant, he used his influence to form together a convoy of One Sith battlecruisers and destroyers filled with the One Sith’s military, political and economic elite, before departed to where he saw the new future of the Galaxy, Dosuun. His name preceded him, and despite being a refugee, was offered the post of Chief of Navy, and the official rank of Grand Admiral. From there, he along with the late William Kerkov would attempt to reform the First Order war machine.
The arrival of Chief of Navy saw the First Order’s morale now lift. Tregessar, with all his experience, buoyed Commodore Rausgeber, who halted his tactical retreat, and fell in with the formation of Tregessar’s vessels. Tregessar’s plan was to drive the First Order’s larger vessels, which collected around his Darr Ittah Battlecruiser, into the heart of the enemy fleet, to break them apart, and use the fleets separate commands against each other. As they scrambled to try and aid each other, they would weaken themselves.
Tregessar’s thrust was met with an unexpected result. Tanomas Graf’s retreat. Although it was not First Order naval prowess which caused the event but rather a ragtag group of Knights of Ren. A detachment who had been sat in orbit, trying to reinforce their compatriots on the ground. Reading the IFF signatures of a traitorous, opposing imperium, the Knights boarded Graf’s flagship, the Devastator. The Ren’s impact was felt instantly by the green imperial remnant crew, who fled system, with Ren in tow. The departure of Graf, now left large portions of the Alliance’s formation in disarray.
Now the two gargantuan fleets began to close in on one another, batteries trained as they bombarded one another, relentlessly. Tregessar’s fleet became bogged down fighting Therapy Command’s Admiral Thuku. Cathul Thuku for her entire career had wanted to fight Tregessar, and had in fact designed vessels directly to counter his flagship, the Darr Ittah Contempt.
While Tregessar got bogged down with Admiral Thuku, Rausgeber seized the initiative, and charged the enemy fleet head on. Outnumbered, but emboldened by the presence and command of such a senior superior, Rausgeber pressed ahead, filled with vigour. If he were to die this day, it would be in the glory of the Order. Now, the battle was pitched, and the First Order ready to prove itself.
While battles in orbit, and on the ground continued, a less, physical form of combat ensued. A battle of wits. The largest First Order vessel in system was not Grand Admiral Tregessar’s vessel but was in fact the FIV Concordia. The Concordia was the first of its generation, Resurgent-Class Star Destroyer. Acting as the commanding vessel during the Omega Crisis, the Concordia was now the flagship of Grand Moff Natasi Fortan. With her was the current governor of Riflor, Nathaniel Barret, if the Kaeshana reclamation operation was the brainchild of the Moff, then Barrett was the father.
Opposing the duo was Sullust’s president, Jaius Sovv. Sovv was a senior political leader within the Alliance, thanks to his status as president of their capital. Sovv arrived to Kaeshana, in a little less ostentatious travel arrangements, in the form of a Republic diplomatic corvette. There was immediate hostility once the two parties made contact. Sovv, having analysed reports and the Firemane intelligence of the time, believed that the Alliance had presumptively won the day. That the First Order, who had aggressively assaulted the planet were being driven back on all fronts, which was true to an extent.
For Grand Moff Fortan, who had just watched her fleets attack, and was viewing the carnage from orbit, she was obstinate. There would be no surrender to these aggressors, and no yielding to those who sought to negotiate and threaten her. The Moff’s iron will met the President’s iron resolve, with the two trading barbs, and for a brief moment there was a hint of philosophical debate, about the merits of imperialism in juxtaposition to the democracy the Galactic Alliance sought to form.
The two traded barbs as their fleets closed, and as thousands on the ground below perished in what was ultimately a pointless conflict. The Grand Moff attempted to reason with Sovv, in regards to the humanitarian mission, and the civilians deployed there. That the First Order’s intentions were earnest and honest in nature. But Sovv did not believe her. He remained true to the intelligence he had received and saw the humanitarian mission as a front for the Order’s expansion.
With no real reconciliation, and both sides unable to reach a ceasefire, Sovv departed the system. The President saw Grand Moff Fortan’s position was one of deluded zealotry and readied himself for the delivery of a declaration of war against the First Order. While Grand Moff Fortan steeled herself for the path to come.
While much of the battle was fought across Kaeshana, it would erroneous not to take some time to account for the incidents circulating in and around the planet of Chanceleon. A mid-rim planet rife with slavery, and other criminal endeavour. Sitting in the sector over, as a neutral system, Chalcedon was an important strategic point. It could act as a juncture for the funnelling of supplies, or as a recon post. Despite not being a part of the conflict proper, the events here would shape the battle one jump over.
As a preparatory act, for the Firemane offensive was the establishment of a communications post on the planet, before troops moved unto the planet proper. The Galactic Alliance then, under the command of Admiral Lothkra Dawning, proceeded to violate the sovereignty of the system, establishing a reinforcement point, to funnel reinforcing vessels to the system. This all the while not interfering in the local slave trading operations. The Alliance’s presence here, was not as strong, but it still carried squadrons and vessels able to perform military missions. But despite all the weapons and armaments, the blockade would be brought down. Not through force. Not by an armada. But by one man.
Maurice Dalton.
Maurice Dalton was aboard a single civilian transport as he entered the system. Dalton was initially entering the system to refuel while en route to a conference in a nearby sector, when he was ordered to halt by Admiral Dawning. Dawning explained that Chalcedon was a warzone, and that he needed to identify himself and his actions. Dalton was naturally quite sceptical of the claim. It was an outlandish one to say the least, and not at all usual in what was chartered as neutral space. However Commissioner Dalotn knew of the Kaeshana mission, and to have an Alliance military operation this close to it, spelled trouble.
Dalton replied to Dawning, directly over communications. But not before he broadcasted the incident on a public channel. He bluffed himself to the surface, as a civilian, but traded barbs with Dawning, publicly questioning her and her authority over the system before landing on the surface. Once he was sure he could get it out, Dalton sent a frantic, encrypted message to Central Command. Something was wrong.
With the Citadel defences failing and the defenders now becoming increasingly encircled and beleaguered, a move to retreat was organised. Although the storm circled overhead, pilots volunteered to take the critically injured out of harm's way, in order to protect them from the unrelenting fire and presumed, reprisals of the enemy. They were taken to Outpost Fenrik, a hastily constructed firebase in the southern hemisphere.
Camp Fenrik had been one of the few medical camps which was not within the Santaissa metropolitan area. Because of that, it had been spared the ruthlessness of the elements, and instead stood on its own. When news of the battle began to surface, Captain Grold Barne, organised the fortification of the camp, in case of any attack. When it became evident none were coming, Fenrik became a supply post and fall back point. Providing shelter for the retreating civilians, and for wounded troopers who were forced from Santaissa.
With the situation at the Citadel now critical, and the wounded in threat of dying due to the treacherous weather, many braved the transports in the hope they would deliver them to safety. And while some did, many fell prey to the weather, and its power, again like the civilians during the Battle of Santaissa. Others were gunned down by concerted anti-air of the steadily advancing GADF column or intercepted by the better armed Firemane gunships.
While the odds may have been awful, many did brave the conditions, in the hope that it would provide a new point to begin the defence again. It became the fevered dream, of the surviving senior officers, who now froze in the frigid inner sanctum of the Citadel, that Fenrik was the key to victory. That a successful mass evacuation to the Outpost could support a counter offensive and lure the Firemane to a fight the First Order would have on its own terms.
It was the deluded dream of men desperate not to have themselves, or their comrades freeze to death in odds which could not be won against. But if an evacuation were to be the case, they would need time to organise the effort. And time was a commodity the troops who clung to the Citadel’s trenches and battlements, did not have much of.
As the battle around the Citadel raged, the Galactic Alliance continued to reinforce its offensive with fresh reserves, the noose around the First Order tightened. Feeling the strain, Lieutenant Rexus Wenck of the Seventh Platoon of the White Wolves legion, began a break out on his own initiative. Ordering a barrage of grenade and mortar fire, Rexus lead his men, the Seventh Platoon, and charged into the fray, in the hopes of giving their comrades some much needed relief.
The Seventh Platoon, were not some unknown unit, unlike the norm with most First Order stormtrooper units. The platoon also operated under the moniker of the Gundark Gunners. The Gunners unlike many conventional military units, were a punishment platoon. Originally formed to cage in those able to serve the stormtrooper corps, but also holding behavioural issues, the Gunners had been the butt end of Central Commands joke since the arrival on Dosuun. The dumb, insubordinate and simply criminal were all packed into one little platoon described the worst of the worst. However, the Gunners, had recently caught the attention of General Graush during the subjugation of Na’Tan for their bold and innovative conduct. Now, the group of ragged, ill-tempered and ill-disciplined soldiers charged out in a last ditch attempt to hold the line as the wounded were evacuated.
The Gunners managed to make their way, largely unmolested to the forward trenches, where they began to perform guerrilla operations, attempting to dent the oncoming reinforcements. To force the Alliance troops to divert themselves in order to force the Gunners away. This was a monstrous undertaking to perform. To put this numerically, the Gunners, who at this point were just under fifty men strong, and near exhausted, were fighting against nearly twenty thousand GADF and Firemane mechanised forces, many of who had done nothing but launch missiles at the occasional TIE fighter or transport. The Gunners, initially operated with little resistance. The Alliance troops kept steaming towards the Citadel. To great effect the stormtroopers used their final thermal detonators and other remaining explosives in an attempt to divert and delay forces while the evacuation of wounded occurred.
However, an irritating presence of this size, and effect was unsustainable. A mighty hand would come down and strike the Gunners. And this hand came in the form of the droid baron, HK-36, who was personally accompanying the advancing tanks. When his force encountered the spirited resistance of the Gunners, the droid ordered its fellow automatons to break off the main line and concentrate on neutralising the threat. Assisting in rooting out the gunners were Omega Pyre elements who also began an offensive, which saw the Gunners, dig in amongst the shrapnel, and craters. The stormtroopers of seventh platoon began to valiantly hold out against the overwhelming firepower of reinforcing spider droids and Firemane jet troopers.
For a good hour, the Gunners held on. They used their superior mobility, speed, and shear brutality to hold on. But that would not hold forever. Soon forty became thirty, thirty became twenty, and then little over a dozen full strength stormtroopers remained, attempting to aid their comrades at the Citadel, while also recovering the wounded from their own squads. Even the Gunner’s CO, Lieutenant Wenck was grievously injured, his left arm torn asunder by a thermal detonator.
The Gunners had held on for as long as they could, and now found themselves working against a tide of enemies they could not win against. The delay they had caused did save some, but at the cost of their own safety, and as they huddled together, pooling the wounded, the men and women of the Gunners waited. Amongst the now withering fire of short ranged ordinance, the suppressing blasts of shatterguns, the Gunners, some of whom for the first time, prayed for deliverance.
And deliverance came, in the form of the mourning howl of low flying TIE fighters. With the surviving pilots now accustomed to the stress of the conditions, the TIE pilots of the now half strength Griffon Squadron strafed the Alliance’s forces. Whole the Alliance’s troops scrambled for cover, and to arm anti-air missiles, a mix of medical and troop transports dispatched from the Citadel performed an emergency evacuation. The Gunners had gone above and beyond what was expected of them, and although many did not live to see the day, many would remember it, and a legacy was forged.
While lines of communication had been severed, officers and the political elite throughout the Order grew anxious, at the knowledge, something, or someone had jammed comms. The warnings from Chalceon and Commissioner Dalton, as to Alliance expansion were the final straw and Central Command authorised the mobilisation of an almighty relief force in the form of the forward elements of the First Order third and fourth fleet. After an initial reconnaissance force lead by Admiral Fiolette Yvarro, and her engagement of the Alliance forces, this precipitated the arrival of dozens of destroyers and their affiliated vessels.
After establishing a SITREP of the system, TIE bombers were sent to the Citadel of Dawn. The massive column of troops was devastated by the attack, and although they felled some bombers, the situation was simply untenable. They may have won the city, perhaps even won the Citadel, but it was all too much. After exhausting so much effort, marching through the mountains, the troops on the ground could not fight back.
Amongst the stars, the Galactic and Tygaran Alliance fleets, moved their vessels into low orbit, picking up as many troops as possible, before the thunderous fire of star destroyers. While many did make it back, the Firemane and GADF’s scrambled retreat saw to billions worth of heavy military hardware left behind. Entire platoons of tanks and speeders were left in the hands of the First Order who consequently took it. Any Firemane or GADF soldier, who was unfortunate enough to have not died, or have been one of the few chosen in the exodus, either froze to death, were hunted and captured or killed by vengeful troopers.
The dust of Kaeshana now settled. And with it a new era began.
The Battle of Kaeshana, for all participants involved was a seminal shift in the balance of power of the Galaxy. For all the protagonists of the battle, its effects were felt in different ways. And while the First Order may have won the day, all had lost. For the Tygarans, it was heritage. For the Galactic Alliance, it was pride. And for the First Order, it was innocence. None of them, would ever truly be the same again,
The Battle of Kaeshana shattered the Tygaran Alliance. In the aftermath of the relentless bloodshed caused by the Firmane forces, and their recklessness in the field, alienated them from the very denizens they sought to reunite with. In particular the conduct during the Battle of Santaissa killed hundreds of innocent Forsaken attempting to take shelter. With their Queen discredited, many flocked to the First Order’s banner. The immediate moves to terraform and rehabilitate the planet and its people by Governor Barrett stood in stark contrast to the conduct during the battle. In the wake of the Tygaran withdrawal, the Forsaken largely fell into line and many began to enthusiastically support the rule of Grand Moff Fortan, and Supreme Leader Ren. For the first time ever, the the age old matriarchy of the Eldorai society had been successfully subverted, with authoritarianism now becoming a gender neutral proposition for the species. With time, the Tygaran’s homeworld, now became a bastion of loyalty and might for the First Order, with many joining the stormtrooper corps, being enjoying life in newly rebuilt cities, and star destroyers welcomed as a protective presence.
The Galactic Alliance had been humiliated by the expedition politically and militarily. After having vanquished the menace of the One Sith, and now marshalled the most experienced, and largest standing army seen in near four centuries, the GADF had been blunted by an upstart autocracy in the Outer Rim. A largely ragtag, and underperforming force had managed to dupe them. Diplomatically and politically the move on Kaeshana was disastrous. The countless civilian casualties, and the aggression pressed by the Alliance were bad press to say the least. The actions on Kaeshana did little to assist the credibility of a triumvirate under pressure to keep accountable to their member systems, and a lot of political capital had to be expended to try and fight these fires abroad, and more importantly on the homefront. Perhaps most starkly was the contrast for how the Alliance’s year had gone. It had begun the year with its clinical finish of the One Sith, and consolidation of the Core, and would end it, beginning another bloody war with a new and more considered enemy.
The First Order, was now permanently scarred. The political and military psyche of the Order was one which would hold onto this battle forever at the back of its mind. Never again. Kaeshana was a grievous wound for the First Order and turn it would turn many of its most optimistic thinkers, and politicians from doves of peace, into brutal, and unrelenting hawks. Thousands of the First Order’s finest doctors and tens of thousands of soldiers perished in the bloodbath. The reaction from the Moff Council, and Central Command was swift. This action, could not and would not be ignored, something the civilian population agreed with. Escalation was an inevitability, and any question of reproach, or diplomacy discarded. Recruitment centres found themselves overwhelmed, and training academies buckled under the pressure to train and arm a populace hellbent on revenge. The First Order was out for blood, and the Galactic Alliance would bleed.
