The Battle of Groombridge

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The Battle of Groombridge

The Battle of Groombridge refers not only to the particular battle that took place, but also the entire action - the war itself is referred to as "Groombridge," or the "Groombridge war."

History of the Battle

Around the year 481 A.C.E., the Shivans made an incursion into Arenumbergian territory and pushed them back until they were trapped in their last defenses. A long siege ensued, and desperate to break it, the survivors sent on an encrypted distress signal to two locations - Skeelzania and Arizona Nova. Skeelzania never heeded the message, and at first the Diplomatic Corp did not know what the message was, and forwarded it up until it reached one of the digi-sents that took residence on the Hyperion coreships, who finally broke the encrpytion. A task force of about two-hundred and fifty ships lead by the A.N.S.S. Truncheon and Admiral Kelt was deployed to engage the Shivans. Suffice to say the Shivans were not long for negotiation outside of massive explosions, and soon the Arizonan fleet was battling the Shivan invaders in a deadly exchange of MAC and beam cannon fire. The first few minutes of battle was traditional line fighting - the Arizonans taking up one side while the Shivans stood on the others, trading fire - until, at least, the Sathanas coreships showed up on the Arizonan flank. With no time to lose, Admiral Kelt had the Arizonan fleet charge head on into the Shivan line to escape being flanked by the Sathanas in what is now memorialized as "Kelt's Charge." The desperate tactics paid off, and to add to the chaos the Jormungand digi-sent deployed to the battle also rammed one of his crippled vessels into the Shivan formation, detonating it and untold tons of pure Gilium into the Shivans, causing enormous destruction. At this point, the Sathanas coreships began to try to maneuver to get back on the Arizonan flank, but Arizonan reinforcements showed up at this point with two coreships and a relief battlegroup, though in sheer desperation Admiral Kelt ordered the crew of his ship to abandon ship, and rammed it into one of the Shivan Sathanas, causing a meltdown which destroyed it. The Shivans, heavily battered, withdrew, and Arizona Nova slimly won the day.

The Legacy of Groombridge

Although the battle was a loss of many men and ships, ultimately, it lead to greater development of Arizona Nova's military and armed forces. Expressly as a result of the flanking of the Bulwarks, plans were drawn up to build and release a new line of battleship; the Neodämmerung class, which sported massive MAC cannons in both its fore and aft to make it better prepared for flanking maneuvers - an advance which even further down the road resulted in the development of the couched MAC. A more organized fleet protocol was also enacted, strictly dividing the Arizonan fleet into three main groups - The First Fleet (or Core Defense Fleet), the Second Fleet, and the Third Fleet (or Armada Fleet). The late Admiral Kelt was also memorialized, and a few literary works were wrote about his legendary charge into the face of the Shivan fleet as well. Groombridge as well was also the first significant international action taken by Arizona Nova, and it is the dividing line in history between Arizona Nova's early years, and her ascension into empire.