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« Last post by Kurt on February 10, 2023, 02:37:39 PM »
Author's note: I'm not back to the point where I can sit at the computer for any length of time, but I decided to push out some things I already had written just to keep things moving forward during my down-time. Enjoy -
Month 222, Aurarii Home System
Early in this month the Doraz reach full communications with the Norn, the former subjects of the Aurarii in their home system. The Norn, who credit the Doraz with saving them from Aurarii occupation, quickly agree to a trade relationship with the Doraz. The Doraz begin facilitating communications efforts between the Norn and the Alliance as well.
Month 222, Day 1, Doraz Home System
A fleet consisting of a light monitor, two heavy cruisers, two destroyers, and ten corvettes, accompanied by three supply ships, leaves the Doraz home world, bound for the Lothari system. To get there in a reasonable amount of time, the fleet is taxing the engines of the monitor.
Month 222, Day 1, Lothar Home System
Skull-Splitter’s fleet was in unquestioned control of the Lothari home system. The Lothari fleet had been destroyed, along with their orbital defenses and shipyards, and Alliance ships roamed the system with impunity.
The Alliance 2nd Fleet, consisting of nine battleships, sixteen battlecruisers, ten heavy cruisers, and eight destroyers, was divided into four groups, sitting on opposite sides of the two heavily populated planets in the Lothari system, warily watching the planets. The fleet’s carrier force, consisting of twenty-six carriers of various types and four hundred and forty-four fighters, was divided into two groups, sitting a bit further away from the planets, within support distance if needed. The fleet’s scout force, twenty-nine corvette carriers, was dispersed around the system hunting for any remaining Lothari ships and watching for intrusions from out-system. The Alliance’s 1st and 2nd Survey Groups were also in-system, conducting a warp point survey.
The Lothari appeared indifferent to all of this. The Lothari population had hunkered down since the destruction of their orbital defenses and infrastructure, disappearing into bunkers and basements. Their remaining military was obviously on high alert, and encrypted communications were constantly being exchanged. In spite of obviously being aware of the presence of the orbital force, the Lothari had completely ignored them, refusing the repeated attempts by Skull-Splitter’s staff to initiate negotiations. It was clear that the Lothari government had no interest in negotiations. Worse, there were indications that the Lothari had started construction on several PDC’s in widely scattered locations on the ground.
Skull-Splitter had hoped to avoid a full invasion of the Lothari home world. The planet was heavily populated, and almost certainly had heavy ground defenses. The Alliance had gathered a massive ground invasion force from all of the heavily populated inner systems, but Fleet HQ had warned that further reinforcements would be limited and would take time to gather and transport to the Lothari system.
By day 5, with construction of ground bases becoming obvious and the Lothari continuing to ignore communications attempts, Skull-Splitter ordered the landings to begin. Transports entered the atmosphere under the watchful eyes of the orbiting warships, headed for remote areas of the planet to establish beachheads. The landings went off almost without a hitch, and by the end of the day most of the Alliance troops were on the ground. That’s when things began going wrong. The Alliance had expected resistance to be heavy, but the ground force commanders were caught by surprise when hidden Lothari ground forces launched heavy and well-coordinated attacks on the landing areas. The planned breakouts never happened as the Alliance ground troops were forced on the defensive. By the second week of fighting, it had become increasingly clear that the well-trained Lothari troops would be difficult to beat, if they could be beaten at all. By week three, Skull-Splitter was forced to send an urgent request for reinforcements. Without massive reinforcements the invasion was doomed to fail.
The Alliance Council went into closed session upon receipt of the request. On the first day only the actual member representatives were present. On the second day the Council requested the input of the representatives of the associate members. As a result, the debate became acrimonious, particularly between the Doraz and Zir representatives. The three member-race representatives withheld their opinions, wishing the associate races to give their opinions without prior influence by the opinions of the more senior races. Of the associate races, the Doraz heavily supported the plan to bombard the surface of the planet to reduce Lothari resistance, while the Zir were adamantly against it. The Torqual supported the Doraz, although not as adamantly as the Doraz might wish. The Chirq and Bir, both relatively minor races with little interest in the debate, were nominally against bombarding the Lothari, but were not willing to commit to supporting the Zir either. The Aurarii, who were the newest associate members of the Alliance, were still on probation and were not allowed to attend this meeting.
The second day’s meeting stretched hour after hour as the Doraz and the Zir representatives debated, at times, hotly. By the end of the day the Doraz had gone so far as to call for the extermination of the Lothari if they refused to surrender, while the Zir advocated a blockade and continued attempts to negotiate, and threatened to leave the Alliance if the bombardment was approved. Finally, after seeing that the debate had degenerated into a series of circular arguments with no likely resolution, the Council Chair called for the day’s session to be closed and the associate race representatives were thanked for their input and dismissed.
The Council met again in closed session on the third day, but this time their meeting was brief. A message was sent to Skull-Splitter authorizing bombardment of Lothari Prime to end resistance.
The message arrived at Skull-Splitter’s flagship by the end of the day on the 28th, thanks to the Alliance ICN and the string of communications ships the 2nd Fleet had left at the warp points between the Lothari home world and the Liawak system. Skull-Splitter, who had been prepared for this eventuality, called his staff together and presented the authorization and orders from the Council. Ensuring everyone understood the gravity of the situation and the reasoning for the order, he had his staff prepare a bombardment plan utilizing the six missile-armed battlecruisers in the fleet. Targets were identified, and plans were drawn up and transmitted to the six battlecruisers, along with the appropriate authorizations. And so it was that at 0700 hours on the 29th day of the month the battlecruisers began firing on targets on the Lothari home planet. Sixty missiles were launched, targeted on military and infrastructure targets. The targets were not primarily civilian population centers, but on a planet with a population in excess of forty billion, civilian casualties could not be avoided, and were, indeed, part of the plan to force the Lothari to surrender. Casualty estimates quickly ran into the hundreds of millions, with more than a billion expected as the disaster played out.
The Lothari remained silent.
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