Battle of Deneb
The most catastrophic single military engagement in the history of Klonor, the Battle of Deneb was a key turning point in the Great War of the 2330's. Taking place on 2.28.2335 in orbit over Deneb V, the then-Capital of the Klonor Empire, it involved portions of the 3'rd, 4'th, and 6'th Fleets of the Klonor Space Corps as well as approximately 600,000 infantry soldiers and mechanized operators stationed on the planets surface. Historians have various competing estimates of the Shivan forces involved, with the numbers ranging from a bare dozen Cruisers and the SD Lucifer to several hundred Destroyers and the SD Lucifer, but the outcome of the Battle is an uncontestable fact. Planned to stonewall the Shivan advance and eliminate the Super Destroyer that had been inflicting astronomical casuaties upon the embattled Corps, the result was the almost complete annhilation of the Klonor forces involved and loss with all hands of the GDD Intrepid. Though even before this particular defeat the tide of the War was undeniably going against the Klonor military, afterwards the remaining conflicts could be best described as a slaughter.
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The Instigation of the Battle of Deneb
To the surprise of most history enthusiasts who investigate this particular battle, the Battle of Deneb was actually instigated by the Klonor Admiralty. Ignorant of the advanced shielding technology aboard the Lucifer, but all to aware of the destruction it was raining upon the front-lines, the Admirals wanted to lure the Super Destroyer into a conflict where, hopelessly outnumbered, it would fall victim to the combined might of several System Fleets. Whereas they had previously taken all possible precautions to keep the location of the Klonor capital from falling into the hands of the enemy, going so far as to actually launching obviously futile assaults against distant stellar-systems to lure away the attention of the Shivan commanders (If such exist), the Corps contracted several civilian cargo vessels to begin frequent journeys between the Capital and Colonies of the Empire. While still making an extreme effort to keep their ships hidden, knowing if they suddenly began flashing a sign to the Shivans the aliens might detect something untoward, the very presence of the cargo vessels guaranteed that the Shivans would eventually discover them and their destination.
The Beginning of the Battle
When the Shivans discovered the transport vessels on 2.25.2335 they dispatched a single Cain class Cruiser to investigate the valuable materials seemingly being dispatched to an unpopulated and unimportant sysem. In responce the Admiralty dispatched a pair of Leviathan class Cruisers to eliminate the Cain and further reinforce the image that the Empire wanted to keep the shipments hidden, eventually retreating through the Jump-Node when Shivan reinforcements arrived on the scene. On the other side of the Jump-Node, where a purposefully flawed ambush awaited the Shivans, the aliens were once again presented with the image of an installation of prime importance that was minimally defended. Hoping that such a target would prove too tempting to pass up, the Admiralty expected the Lucifer to soon appear to finish off the defenceless target.
Once the Super Destroyer appeared in-system on 2.28.2335, accompanied by the unknown amount of support vessels, the bulk of the Corps forces moved to assault the suddenly outnumbered force. Unfortunately, while the combined might of the Klonor military outgunned the Shivan vessels present, they were completely unprepared for the invulnerability of the Lucifer. Despite the massive casualties inflicted upon the other Shivan vessels in the system, and the repulsion of the ground forces landed during the early stages of the battle, the inability to damage the Lucifer in any way gave the alien military the edge they needed to incapacitate each Klonor capital ship one by one.
The Loss of the Intrepid
Ignoring the drastic losses the Klonor forces were sustaining, the commanders of the Fleet still held out hope of destroying the Lucifer. Acknowledging the possibility of such an unfavorable turn since the very beginning of the planning, the Admiralty had added one of the three remaining Orion class Destroyers to the fray. The Orions, superior in firepower to all Shivan classes excepting the Lucifer itself, seemed a beacon of hope to the demoralised military and the Admirals felt that its additional weaponry would insure the destruction of the feared Super Destroyer. Even after the apprent invulnerability of the Lucifer was established, the massive vessel sustaining no damage despite the countless missiles which impacted its hull, it was believed that the GDD Intrepid, the Orion present, could eventually wear down the defences if it was simply given enough time. Once the Intrepid itself was destroyed by the massive Flux Cannons aboard the Lucifer, illustrating the futulity of further combat to even the most foolhardy of commanders, the Admiralty ordered the immediate retreat of all surviving vessels (A total of three Fenris class Cruisers, two Leviathan class Cruisers, and five Deimos class Corvettes). Deneb V, now undefended in the aftermath of the unexpected rout, was subjected to orbital bombardment by the Lucifer for an estimated nine hours, reducing ninety percent of the planets landmass to an uninhabitable wasteland. Though the damage has since been largely repaired in the centuries since the assault, the casualties on the planet alone are estimated at three billion individuals.
The Aftermath
In the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Deneb there seemed to be no hope of surviving the Shivan onslaught. With the forknowledge that they would be engaging the Lucifer, the Corps had committed almost half of the remaining Navy to the initial assault. The result was nearly a halving of the combat capability of the Klonor Empire, the loss of seven of the Leviathan and Fenris Cruisers utilised as command and coordination vessels, and a nation-wide loss of hope among the civilian population. The Corps commanders, in turn, changed their strategy from defeating the Shivans, a possibility with the continued service of the Intrepid, to simply surviving as a species. Unfortunately, even that goal seemed unattainable as the Shivan war-machine continued to grind down their already weakened forces.
Though the forces of Klonor did eventually triumph over the seemingly unstoppable forces bent on their destruction, the loss of their capital system and several billion civilian lives continued to leave ripples throughout Klonor society for years to come.
