"Take Your Race To The Stars"
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First Moves
The Telians, Tortugans, Pelorans, and Bastet met each other over a hundred years ago in the Earth year 2307 AD. Knowing of the growing threat the Alkari projected from the north, Aneerin of the Confederation broke the normal Peloran rules and helped forge an alliance with each race. He was removed from his position in the White Council and as an admiral of the Gwynyth Fleet for that since Gwynyth Family wished to be allied with the Alkari, not the weaker aliens surrounding them.
But in 2308 as the Earthers measure time, the aggressive Cronyl Family precipitated a nearly disastrous territorial dispute with the Alkari. The Alkari Empire, nearly the size of the entire Alliance and far more advanced in technology struck Cronyl hard. The Cronyl warriors had never even contemplated what deflector shields could do and were completely unprepared for them. That and the far better Alkari fighters made defeat for Cronyl in Soryn a forgone conclusion. The warriors there fought hard and slowed the Alkari long enough for them to get word back to Homeworld where a cry for help quickly went to their new allies. The allies that Gwynyth had not yet had time to tell where they could stick themselves.
The Alkari followed up with a two pronged attack into the Vorclyne and Hollyn systems. The Cronyl defenses were strong, but the sheer overwhelming numbers and technology carried the day for the Alkari assaults. The Bastet were the first to respond to the Confederation's plea and sent several squadrons of fast destroyers to help. Only the stealth technology of the Confederation and the Bastet saved the battles in Hollyn and Vorclyn from being a complete defeat for them though. And only with the help of Duron and the Bastet were the Cronyl able to withdraw nearly half of their standing fleets in those two systems back to Homeworld. The Alkari then waited and prepared for a massive two pronged assault on the Homeworld of the Confederation.
The Telians and Tortugans were slow to respond though, not trusting the Confederation because of Aneerin's removal. Gwynyth Family was quickly removed from its position as the Confederation's voice to the aliens and the Confederation Council began looking for Aneerin who had completely disappeared. They finally found him in the company of Crelyn the Grey, a three hundred year old Grey Master. The council told him that he was free to make alliances and pacts as he saw fit and Aneerin agreed to return. He quickly moved out to speak with the two reluctant allies and the Tortugans were instantly mollified by his return. They began marshalling for war.
The Battle of Homeworld
Two days later, the Alkari attacked Homeworld. It was a brutal battle, with massive numbers on the Alkari side forcing their way into the system on two fronts. On the first day, the Alkari assaulted the warp points and gained a beachhead into the system. The next day the Alkari continued to push in-system with innumerable skirmishes and tactics being employed. However, despite losing ground the joint fleets of the Families and the Bastet were holding their own and were beginning to stifle the Alkari attack. The Alkari admiral recognizing that the initiative could be lost and having just heard that the Bastet had attacked the system now known as Prilan on the other side of Alkari space brought in large numbers of reinforcements and planned an all out attack on Homeworld itself. The third day was the bloodiest of the battle, with a concentrated attack on the planet, and the Alkari hoped to once and for all defeat the Confederation.
Below is shown a surviving image of Duron's First Battle Fleet and a force of Bastet destroyers moving to flank the Alkari formation.
In the end, it was a Pyrrhic victory for the Alliance fleets. Losses were heavy on both sides but the Alliance still controlled the skies around the planet. The Alkari controlled much of the outer system still and would for a very long time with fighting in the system happening nearly 24 hours a day. The battle would go on for more almost a year as the Alkari continued to try to push the Confederation out of the system and even determined pushes by the Tortugan fleets were unable to defeat the invaders. The 'Homeworld Meat Grinder' was the nickname given to that long year of hell.
The Alkari had expected an assault by the other Alliance members during this battle and planned accordingly. The first assault by the Bastet led by the Vir Soban and Durenam clans broke through into Prilan and used a prototype ship and weapon to destroy an Alkari base. The ship and her consorts then moved to the main planet in the system, fighting a running battle with the surviving Alkari forces all the way. The ship's first shot on the colony killed a hundred thousand Alkari civilians and their remaining forces attacked with a fury that Bastet could not handle. Putting aside all thoughts of survival, they simply destroyed everything they could. In the end a handful of escorts and a single fleet carrior survived the fight to defend the system.
A week later, the Tenth Space Wing jumped into Eladral, found the Vir Soban and Silaven base that had supported the research and developement of the new ship, and burned it to the ground with nuclear fire. Dirty nuclear fire. The other Bastet clans responded and pushed the Tenth Space Wing out of Eladral. Not knowing what the two clans had done as everyone who knew anything other then the Alkari were dead, the Bastet never forgave the Alkari for cold-blooded attack and vowed to make them pay for destroying the power of two clans. But instead of pushing harder there on the fringes of their space and losing the Peloran Homeworld, the Bastet began moving ships and personal into Confederation space in support of the Battle of Homeworld while retaining a defensive posture in Eladral. Again Admiral Aneerin came through and convinced the Telians to honor the alliance despite their distrust of the odd politics in the Confederation. It was finally a war of four versus one, but it was far from over.
The Alkari learned of this and quickly attacked, capturing [107] from the Telians. The Telians had probably the weakest military and the Alkari were hoping that the Telians would make a quick exit from the war. The Telians would not back down, but neither would they attack the Alkari just yet.
The Tortugans responded with a massive assault into [120] that lasted for days with an eventual Tortugan victory. This was the first victory for the Grand Alliance as it was beginning to be called and a much needed sign of hope. However, the Alkari brought in reserves and counterattacked back into the system. Another battle ensued and the Tortugans were pushed back out.
The Battle of Homeworld was drawing almost all of the military might of the Alkari into it though and the allied commanders realized they had an opportunity to pull a classic pincer move on the Alkari. All three allies would hit the Alkari on different sides at the same time, their hope being that the Alkari would not have as many ships in place because of Homeworld. In addition, the alliance got its hands on information referring to a massive Alkari push into Homeworld. They had been moving large numbers of troops off the other fronts to Homeworld for the largest assault yet. On the day of the assault, three forces attacked the systems [107], [120], and the system now known as Y'rano's Shame winning resounding victories. Particularly crushing was the Bastet assualt into the latter system and the disastrous defense of Admiral Y'rano which cut one of the Alkari supply lines to Homeworld. Y'rano's clan was stripped of all possessions and power for that mistake, its people banned from ever setting claw on the eyries of the Alkari Empire. The assault on Homeworld itself was heavy and casualties were immense. Twice the Alkari were on the brink of victory but inventive tactics by Admirals Aneerin and Tillan saved the day. When news reached the Alkari admirals that Y'rano's force was destroyed they were forced to admit defeat and retreat from Homeworld.
A Breath Before Battle
Both the Grand Alliance and the Alkari had been exhausted by the first year of the war and neither of them had the spare hulls to assault the other so they both hid behind fortresses, preparing for the next stage of the war. For the Grand Alliance it was the stage that would forever change them. Hundreds of millions of tonnes of Alkari technology was salvaged from the Peloran Home system alone, including an Alkari support fleet of freighters, repair ships, and one factory ship captured by the Tortugan's First Expeditionary Force, giving the Alliance's scientists plenty to work with as they tried to replicate the advanced technology. As the smaller Grand Alliance fleets explored space, skirmishing with Alkari explorers also looking for ways around the main battle lines, the scientists with Aneerin's full support began to design and build a new fleet of warships using Alkari technology mixed with the designing expertise of all four races. Even the best scientific minds of all four races could not understand everything, but with the aid of the factory ship they could duplicate it. Aneerin sent the new designs and new Alkari factory components to the other races and they began to build their own fleets of these super ships.
Finally, after three years of painful rebuilding and skirmishes stretching across twenty systems, the Grand Alliance was ready to go on the offensive. First, the Bastet and Confederation fleets slammed into Vorclyne behind a wall made up of the First, Second, and Third Grey Fleets. The Alkari had been more then ready for a normal assault, but this assault by their own technology had surprised them and they were unprepared for it.
Here is one scene of the Second Battle of Vorclyn. A squadron of Gwynyth Llewellyn class battlecruisers supported by a squadron of Bastet destroyers are shown hitting the flank of the main Alkari battleline after the First, Second, and Third Grey Fleets blew a hole through the Alkari's primary warp defense line.
Another aspect of the Second Battle of Vorclyn, this picture shows the Llew's Fire, the one-of-a-kind assault carrier flagship of the Cronyl War Fleets, being attacked by a squadron of Alkari fighters in the early stages of the battle.
The picture below shows the remnants of the First Grey Fleet after the Second Battle of Vorclyn.
In the end, after a long hard battle, the Bastet and Confederation forces defeated the Alkari and pushed them back one more system. The Tortugans assaulted [121] while the Telians hit [123] and a combined Gwynyth/Bastet force finally broke through into Prilan.
End Game
With the core system [124] under pressure from two sides, the Alkari began diverting resources to defend it and several more systems fell to the advancing Bastet and Confederation fleets. A full five assaults into [124] were repulsed by the Alkari reinforcements but the cost in systems lost to the Bastet and Confederation were hard to bear. They redistributed the defenses yet again and waited for the attacks to come, with truly massive numbers of fighters on watch for any incursion. Months passed and assault after assault by the Grand Alliance into [124], Altair, and F'Laren's Jewel, the last three worlds under Alkari control, were stopped cold by the Alkari fighter fleets and the war stalemated yet again.
That stalemate was broken when a combined Telian/Tortugan offense from [123] attacked and captured [124] with the largest fleet yet seen. But still the Alkari fought on, their military and economic might great enough to keep up with the allies even though it was now a lost cause. In 2317 as the Earthers measure time, F'Laren's Jewel fell to an equally massive Bastet/Confederation fleet and the Alkari were down to one world. The Battle of Altair was a near mirror battle to that fought in the Peloran Home system nine years before. At first the Grand Alliance fleets attacking from three warp points captured the outer system and then began to attack the inner system. It took a year of full scale warfare to defeat them once the outer system fell and in 2319, the former Alkari Empire was formally split between the four races of the Grand Alliance.
Altair was held by the Confederation as it had suffered the most at the hands of the Alkari.