Difference between revisions of "Great War"
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==The Loss of Regulus== | ==The Loss of Regulus== | ||
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| + | An instance of near-hope came when the Shivans launched an assault against the Klonor colony system of Regulus. The ''Lucifer'', for unknown reasons, was withheld from the assault and remained in Ross 128 where it continued to repel Klonor attempts to re-take the system. Without the presence of the Super Destroyer, of which there appeared to be only one in existence, the two opposing militaries were on near-equal footing. Though the Shivans were undeniably superior in technological aptitude, without the ''Lucifer'' present a Klonor victory was at least a possibility. | ||
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| + | The initial assault, coming through the Polaris-Regulus Jump-Node, was costly for the Klonor forces; losing three Cruisers and five Corvettes before they were forced to retreat towards the interior of the system and the full force of the 2'nd Fleet. However, even that defeat was a morale-booster when the Shivans, who to date had lost only three individual fighter-craft, were forced to abandon and destroy two Cain class Cruisers when it became apparent that Klonor boarding parties, dispatched once the enemy forces had been detected, were on the verge of seizing control. Though it was not a direct victory for the Klonor Space Corps, the Shivans own weaponry being the source of the Cruisers destruction, it marked the first time that any of the enemy capital ships had been eliminated in any way. Civilians believed it was a sign of the inevitable turn-around and the Corps took it as a sign of the Shivans mortality, giving them the small dot of hope they needed to continue the fight. | ||
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| + | What followed in the next two weeks were a series of minor battles, nothing on the scale of the Ross 128 assault or even their initial foray into Regulus, as the Shivans secured the Jump-Node and began to construct and fortify cargo depots throughout the system. The Corps launched two ill-fated assaults against these depots, destroying both and eliminating the vessels guarding the cargo, but the drastic losses suffered during the attacks made each victory a hollow one and they soon abandoned any offensive tactics; hoping to preserve their forces to slow the Shivan advance towards the inhabited planet when they finally launched a large-scale assault. | ||
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| + | The civilian population of Regulus, despite their initial hope after the first minor battle, was consumed by fear as time progressed without the Shivans being expelled from the system. After the first Depot Assault, which saw the destruction of four Klonor Corvettes compared with the Shivan loss of only a single Cruiser, a large-scale exodus of the system was underway and within one week the majority of the civilian population had relocated to either Deneb or Epsilon Pegasi. However, approximately 17% of the population refused to evacuate and, to safeguard these stubborn individuals as well as the territory they refused to leave, the Klonor Space Corps remained in-system in the hope of saving the inhabited planet from complete destruction. | ||
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| + | Though the final Shivan push was a long time in coming, it made up for it in ferocity and pure cunning. Originally nothing more than one of the many minor raids plaguing the Corps ships, a common occurance since the Shivans arrivals, it was expected that only a wing of assault fighters, or perhaps a Cain class Cruiser at most, were involved in the raid. When two Fenris class Cruisers were dispatched to the site of the incident they instead found three Shivan Destroyers waiting for them. Though they managed to combat the Destroyers for a long enough time to warn the remainder of the 2'nd Fleet, Klonor knowledge of Shivan tactics having expanded greatly in the brief time they had been combating the hostile aliens, they nonetheless quickly succumbed to the excessive firepower present. The reinforcements which arrived on the scene soon afterwards, the systems sole Orion class Destroyer and a complement of Leviathan class Cruisers, were likewise engaged and, despite their accomplishment of disabling one the three enemy Destroyers, destroyed soon afterwards. | ||
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| + | What followed after the ambush, which eliminated the most powerful Klonor warship in the system as well as several of the most distinguished Cruisers, was a brute-force assault against the Corps vessels in orbit over the Colony planet. Though fighting valiantly, the sheer numbers and firewpower of the attacking Fleet soon rendered the defenders incapable of further combat. An estimated nine hours after the commencement of attack, the time since original contact between the two Fenris Cruisers and the three Destroyers, the Admiralty in Gamma Draconis ordered a full retreat of all surviving Corps vessels through the Jump-Node to the remaining Klonor systems. The Shivans, now with uncontested control of the Regulus system, moved to hunt down and eliminate all vessels within the system that were unable to evacuate upon the Admiralty's order. The civilians on the Colony planet, however, were unmolested by the Shivans and seemed to not even be noticed by the successful conquerors. | ||
Revision as of 15:37, 17 January 2006
The Great War, referred to alternatively as the First Shivan Incursion or the Coming Darkness, was an armed conflict between the Klonor Empire and the Shivan Imperium during the mid-2330's, with combat throughout the entirety of the Klonor nation. All five of the stellar-systems under the rule of the Grand Duke Solomon Klonor endured assaults from the xenocidal Shivans and, with the Klonor Space Corps unable to inflict anything approaching severe damage upon the alien military, the Klonor people were constantly on the brink of complete defeat and, ultimately, extinction. There was no successful communication between the Duke and whatever leaders may or may not have existed among the Shivans, and the sole goal the Shivans seemed to posess was the complete extermination of all Klonor life. When faced with such a powerful enemy that was unable to be reasoned with, defeat seemed inevitable.
First Contact: 1.7.2335
The first documented contact with the Shivans was in the form of an unprovoked assault on the Klonor military installation Riviera within the Ross 128 system. The first casualties were the pilots of an out-system standard patrol who, despite piloting the most advanced of current fighter craft, were quickly and brutally slaughtered without downing a single enemy craft. Though one fighter did manage to escape the battle and report the assault to the distant Riviera, the warnings of the frantic pilot and his descriptions of the brief battle were misinterpreted as to mean he had been ambushed by "rogue" members of the Jimathonian military. Ever since the Klonor/Jimathon Split from years earlier there had been a surprising amount of defection from the Jimathon armed forces to piracy. Though officially denied, it was widely believed they were acting with the knowledge and support of the Jimathon government and such ambushes had become almost routine. However, since none of the ambushes had involved anything larger than armed freighters, the command staff of the Riviera felt they were safe from attack and saw no need to immediately dispatch its stationed combat vehicles.
Unfortunately, the Shivans posessed a force which greatly surpassed the Jimathon pirates and, when they emerged from Sub-Space a bare few seconds after the Riviera dismissed the terrified pilots warnings, the entire military facility was demolished by what was later determined to be the SD Lucifer. However, it should be noted that, though the recovered evidence does point to the Lucifer being present, that conclusion is actually conjecture due to the lack of any concrete sensor information. There were no survivors from the assault and the entirety of the of the vessels in-system were either completely destroyed or disabled beyond hope of repair.
Declaration of War
The Riviera and the other vessels of the Corps stationed within Ross 128 were defeated within minutes of the Shivans arrivals and, with the complete surprise of the assault, the station Commander was unable to dispatch any message to the Klonor Admiralty stationed within Gamma Draconis. As a result, the other systems of Klonor remained completely ignorant of the Shivan assault and were only concious of a suspicious silence from the Ross 128 garrison. Two days later, 1.9.2335, a Fenris class Cruiser was dispatched from Deneb to investigate the lack of communication. Upon its arrival in Ross 128, and finding only rubble and debris where there was once a heavily armed and defended installation, the 5'th Fleet from Gamma Draconis was mobilised to re-secure the system and investigate the cause of the bases destruction. For several days afterwards there was no indication of who, or what, had destroyed the installation and, with no known weapon technology identified from the wreckage, the Corps was considering the possibility that an unknown alien species was responsible for the attack. When several of the cargo shipments ferrying supplies between Gamma Draconis and the ships newly stationed within Ross 128 were intercepted and destroyed on 1.16.2335 the suspicion became fact.
Initial attempts at communication were met only with violence and the 5'th Fleet was quickly driven out of the Ross 128 system, sustaining massive casualties and only forestalling complete destruction by a hasty retreat. All assaults against known Shivan positions within Ross 128 were defeated easily and, when the Duke was forced to concede that the Empire had effectively lost the system, the Klonor forces stationed within the remaining systems were mobilised to defend against a large-scale invasion. There was one final attempt made at opening communications, a disastrous mission which resulted in the loss of 514 lives, before the Admiralty realised that there could be no dialogue established.
In responce to the Shivans actions, the invasion of Ross 128 and the continued assaults on other Klonor holdings, the Klonor Empire officially declared a State of War on 1.23.2335. Unfortunately, despite the activation of the entirety of the Klonor Space Corps and a sudden surge in enlistment, it seemed impossible to drive the Shivans from the territory they had already conquered.
The Loss of Regulus
An instance of near-hope came when the Shivans launched an assault against the Klonor colony system of Regulus. The Lucifer, for unknown reasons, was withheld from the assault and remained in Ross 128 where it continued to repel Klonor attempts to re-take the system. Without the presence of the Super Destroyer, of which there appeared to be only one in existence, the two opposing militaries were on near-equal footing. Though the Shivans were undeniably superior in technological aptitude, without the Lucifer present a Klonor victory was at least a possibility.
The initial assault, coming through the Polaris-Regulus Jump-Node, was costly for the Klonor forces; losing three Cruisers and five Corvettes before they were forced to retreat towards the interior of the system and the full force of the 2'nd Fleet. However, even that defeat was a morale-booster when the Shivans, who to date had lost only three individual fighter-craft, were forced to abandon and destroy two Cain class Cruisers when it became apparent that Klonor boarding parties, dispatched once the enemy forces had been detected, were on the verge of seizing control. Though it was not a direct victory for the Klonor Space Corps, the Shivans own weaponry being the source of the Cruisers destruction, it marked the first time that any of the enemy capital ships had been eliminated in any way. Civilians believed it was a sign of the inevitable turn-around and the Corps took it as a sign of the Shivans mortality, giving them the small dot of hope they needed to continue the fight.
What followed in the next two weeks were a series of minor battles, nothing on the scale of the Ross 128 assault or even their initial foray into Regulus, as the Shivans secured the Jump-Node and began to construct and fortify cargo depots throughout the system. The Corps launched two ill-fated assaults against these depots, destroying both and eliminating the vessels guarding the cargo, but the drastic losses suffered during the attacks made each victory a hollow one and they soon abandoned any offensive tactics; hoping to preserve their forces to slow the Shivan advance towards the inhabited planet when they finally launched a large-scale assault.
The civilian population of Regulus, despite their initial hope after the first minor battle, was consumed by fear as time progressed without the Shivans being expelled from the system. After the first Depot Assault, which saw the destruction of four Klonor Corvettes compared with the Shivan loss of only a single Cruiser, a large-scale exodus of the system was underway and within one week the majority of the civilian population had relocated to either Deneb or Epsilon Pegasi. However, approximately 17% of the population refused to evacuate and, to safeguard these stubborn individuals as well as the territory they refused to leave, the Klonor Space Corps remained in-system in the hope of saving the inhabited planet from complete destruction.
Though the final Shivan push was a long time in coming, it made up for it in ferocity and pure cunning. Originally nothing more than one of the many minor raids plaguing the Corps ships, a common occurance since the Shivans arrivals, it was expected that only a wing of assault fighters, or perhaps a Cain class Cruiser at most, were involved in the raid. When two Fenris class Cruisers were dispatched to the site of the incident they instead found three Shivan Destroyers waiting for them. Though they managed to combat the Destroyers for a long enough time to warn the remainder of the 2'nd Fleet, Klonor knowledge of Shivan tactics having expanded greatly in the brief time they had been combating the hostile aliens, they nonetheless quickly succumbed to the excessive firepower present. The reinforcements which arrived on the scene soon afterwards, the systems sole Orion class Destroyer and a complement of Leviathan class Cruisers, were likewise engaged and, despite their accomplishment of disabling one the three enemy Destroyers, destroyed soon afterwards.
What followed after the ambush, which eliminated the most powerful Klonor warship in the system as well as several of the most distinguished Cruisers, was a brute-force assault against the Corps vessels in orbit over the Colony planet. Though fighting valiantly, the sheer numbers and firewpower of the attacking Fleet soon rendered the defenders incapable of further combat. An estimated nine hours after the commencement of attack, the time since original contact between the two Fenris Cruisers and the three Destroyers, the Admiralty in Gamma Draconis ordered a full retreat of all surviving Corps vessels through the Jump-Node to the remaining Klonor systems. The Shivans, now with uncontested control of the Regulus system, moved to hunt down and eliminate all vessels within the system that were unable to evacuate upon the Admiralty's order. The civilians on the Colony planet, however, were unmolested by the Shivans and seemed to not even be noticed by the successful conquerors.
