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Project Cruentus

Listen up, people. One thing's for certain: no matter what, by the end of this day this war will at last be over. Our task is to make sure it ends in the right way, that the wrongs that we are against are rightened, that our people can inherit an intact galaxy, and...ah, hell with the crappy speech. You all know what to do. Let's get out there.
Haveer Jarn

The Battle of Byss was the final battle of the Cruentusian War. It occurred when Askar Invado, leader of the Necasian Military, attempted to begin use of the Sky Rink above Byss. His intentions were for the station to remain a secret until it was ready, however the enemies of the Necasian Military soon discovered the plan and arrived. Although Askar had contingency plans for an early enemy arrival, they arrived sooner than he had hoped, and a large battle was soon taking place both on and over Byss, with the United Coalition of Worlds, Srav Federation, and Death's Tongue Militia all battling each other. Nevertheless, a group of former heroes from the other factions on the side of the United Coalition managed to board the station and kill Askar, finally bringing the war to an end.

Prelude[]

Askar Invado had, for some time during the Cruentusian War, had his military research division focus upon a project that would, if successful, provide his faction, the fascist Necasian Military, with a superweapon that would see them gain a decisive advantage in the war. Using technology from the now-disbanded Simiyar Tech weapons corporation, in addition to self manufactured weaponry and machinery, Askar ordered construction over the planet of Byss. In addition, Askar also attempted to use the Hand of Darkness to bolster his own strengths and those of the station, the Sky Rink. The origins of the battle as far as the Hand of Darkness was concerned could be stretched back to much earlier in the war, when the Rakatan commando team known as the Lost Ones discreetly entered the war, retrieving an artifact known as the Hand of Darkness on the mining world of Kopalnia during a battle. The Hand itself had a variety of abilities, some of them vague even to the Lost Ones, including empowerment of a holder and allowing access to Rakatan installations of technology. Following this, the Rakatans had attempted to use the Hand to unlock a cache of Rakatan technology on the desert world of Ahara, but were defeated by other factions, and the Hand found itself in the hands of the Zayre species. Oblivious to its purpose, the Zayre kept it on their adopted homeworld of Ankarr.

However, later on, the socialist Srav Federation faction launched a invasion of Ankarr, subjugating the Zayre, and the Hand again changed hands. Nevertheless, the Sravs were also unaware as to its purpose, and assumed it to be a worthless trinket. However, a Srav convoy transporting loot from Ankarr was ambushed by a Necasian force, and again changed owners in the battle. This time, Necasian analyzers sensed that there was something different about the Hand, and sent it to Necasian leader Askar Invado for inspection. Due to his familiarity with Rakatan artifacts from his time as their slave, Askar was able to deduce its purpose. However, he too only had a vague idea of its capabilities, and the notion that he now had such power began to destabilize him, in the eyes of some onlookers. Convinced that the Hand could give him ultimate power, Askar began experiments on it at the Sky Rink over Byss.

Elsewhere, at about the same time, the United Coalition of Worlds, an alliance of some previously neutral worlds, entered the war, attacking the Necasians, Sravs, and the fanatical Death's Tongue Militia guerrilla group. Nataska Vergulva, a former heroine to the Srav people who had been forced to go underground following a coup by Srav high military commander Ivran Gresev, decided to join the United Coalition of Worlds, hoping that with its support she could restore what she considered proper leadership to the Srav Federation. Haveer Jarn, Vergulva's equivalent among the Necasians, had also been forced to go into hiding after deserting the Necasians following his uncovering of evidence that betrayed Askar's treachery in the war. Despite his capture in a trap orchestrated by Askar on Boz Pity, Jarn had been rescued by a UCW force commanded by Vergulva. Owing to the two harboring romantic feelings for each other, Jarn decided to join the United Coalition of Worlds, albeit with some reluctance.

Nevertheless, the war was about to come to what would be considered its crescendo. With some considering his mental stability to have been disturbed by the Hand, Askar had recently abolished the Necasian High Council and made himself Emperor, a move that was met with controversy among the Necasians, many of whom also began to question his sanity. Askar believed that his experiments with the Hand were almost complete, and that he could transfer its energy into himself, making himself all-powerful. The leaked intelligence regarding his presence on Byss to the Sravs, United Coalition of Worlds and Death's Tongue Militia, intending to draw them in and destroy them. Although most privy to his plans believed that Askar's intentions were purely selfish, Askar believed that by harnessing the power of the Hand and the Sky Rink he would be able to destroy his enemies and finish the conflict, meaning he could restore peace and order to the galaxy, and his actions were justified.

The battle[]

Orbital Clash[]

As Askar prepared to initiate the process he hoped would transfer the Hand's power to him, a Srav fleet appeared above the planet out of hyperspace, hours before he had calculated they would arrive. It was commanded by Gresev himself, aboard his flagship, the Crimson Tide. Taken aback at the size of the Sky Rink, Gresev nonetheless quickly judged that Askar was aboard it, and ordered his forward ships to open fire with tactical nuclear missiles and mass-drivers. However, most of the missiles were intercepted by the station's laser countermeasures and the armor absorbed the mass-driver shells, forcing Gresev to switch his attention to Necasian vessels moving in to intercept.

Moments later, United Coalition of Worlds ships also appeared out of hyperspace. Aboard the flagship, Janos Snake began to process visual intelligence as forward ships began scanning the planet. Hacking into the Necasian defense network, United Coalition of Worlds analysts aboard the ship quickly learned that the Sky Rink was defended by two large ground defense installations that were providing it with substantial fire cover. He announced that he would be leading the ground attack on said installations, believing that eliminating them would make the approach on the Sky Rink substantially easier. Meanwhile, he tasked Jarn and Vergulva with taking down the Srav fleet and the Necasian defenses, and former Necasian leader Carsal Redharn, consort of Zayre leader Storm Ironwings, provided tactical backup.

Meanwhile, all sides began to scramble fighters. Necasian fighter ace Renard Curl, leading the Necasian fighter wings, selected the United Coalition of Worlds's fighter wings as the greater threat and began engaging some of them in the upper atmosphere. As the Sravs and UCW began to launch transport waves to land ground forces, several Death's Tongue Militia Strat-class cruisers also exited hyperspace, and also came under fire. Death's Tongue Militia commander and leader Sabsa Junn ordered his forces to be distributed planet–side via drop pods and high-atmosphere parachute. As this folded out, Askar remained in the central core of the Sky Rink, delegating command to his subordinates while he waited for the operation to be ready, announcing confidence that his victory was inevitable.

Descent into Hell[]

Srav, DTM and UCW forces landed at different sites in the region of the planet where the two defense installations were located. Groundborne Necasian forces responded with large amounts of flak and anti-air missiles; the UCW landing waves received the lesser damage with this by generating ECM jamming fields that scrambled the guidance components of incoming missiles, though they still suffered damage from flak and fighter attacks. DTM forces dropped by pods managed to surprise Necasian soldiers in small urban areas and minor installations around, but were rapidly isolated as flak began to cut down the drop pods.

Landing in several zones, Srav ground forces were commanded by tank specialist Boras Magdiyek and veteran sniper leader Rak Dremsk, and split into two divisions, one heading for each installation. Necasian defense units attempted to engage them, but were taken out by tactical missiles launched from Okol-class mobile missile launchers. Rez Jorm, commanding Necasian forces on the ground, pulled outward troops back towards the installations to solidify his defence.

Elsewhere, the UCW troops also successfully landed, and began unloading troops and armor. From orbit, the UCW had become aware of a Shatter device, a large weapon capable of projecting ultrasonic waves, near the second facility, and Snake, leading his forces on the ground, advised to proceed from caution. Though harassed by Necasian mortars, and abortive airstrikes by Srav fighters, UCW UC12 Viper-class battle tanks advanced towards the large plain near the two facilities. Elsewhere, Srav tanks and also assembled and were also proceeding forward. DTM vehicles that had successfully landed had met up at a rendezvous point and were also proceeding, intending to hit all the other factions with maximum force. Noticing this, Jorm sent up his own tank battalions to meet them, setting the stage for a large armor battle.

Ladies Like Heavy Armor[]

As Srav, Necasian and UCW tank waves moved in to meet each other on the planet, DTM light vehicles began hit-and-run attacks on the installation perimeters, with Rapier combat bikes striking targets with missiles and explosive-laden buggies impacting into defense structures. In response, the Necasians activated the Shatter Device, briefly creating an ultrasonic field that destroyed everything in front of it for three kilometers, destroying DTM forces and a few Srav armor groups attempting to flank the installations. Noticing this via orbital scan readouts, Snake had commandos dropped in via pods next to the Shatter Device, and directed them to detonate a small EMP device there. This was a success and the device was disabled, though the commandos were cut down minutes after by Necasian troops, and Jorm made sure the anti-missile laser weapons were directed to intercept incoming pods.

Turning to the situation at hand, Snake had fighters covering his tanks overhead against enemy airstrikes, though he was concerned over the heavy concentration of enemy anti-air. Meanwhile, Magdiyek sent his tanks straight forward, engaging the first Necasian waves in the plain. Srav, Necasian and UCW fighters began dog–fighting above, with the Necasians being forced to cut down on their flak to avoid hitting their own craft, and Magdiyek attempted to bring the odds in his favor by having several tactical nuclear-based weapons fired into the midst of the enemy armor. This turned out to be futile for him when the missiles were intercepted by Necasian and UCW craft, or by lasers from nearby Necasian defense installations.

As Necasian and Srav tanks began engaging each other, DTM vehicles laded with explosives laced with eborax bacteria moved at high speed into the fighting, damaging the other factions in suicide attacks. Elsewhere, the DTM began launching KRUD missiles and eborax bombs from orbit into civilian areas, hoping to demoralize their enemy. Most of the volley was intercepted, and with most civilians in cover the damage caused was relatively minimal. On the ground, DTM Seraphim battle tanks engaged the enemy, but were forced back when they took heavy losses. Although the Sravs seemed to be gaining the upper hand, Snake was maneuvering his tanks to their rear, and the UCW Viper tanks began projecting ECM fields which stymied enemy communication. Cut off from further orders, Srav tanks began randomly engaging at will, frustrating Magdiyek, who began to pull back towards the second Srav division which was skirting around the battle to the second installation. Necasian tanks pressed what they saw as an advantage, and supported by Airhammer-class battle hovercopters they began to push the Srav tanks back, despite their considered inferior firepower. However, with the UCW ECM use disorientating their communications as well, Snake was able to use his tanks to isolate the Necasian armor into small groups, allowing them to be destroyed with airstrikes or mass-driver bombardment from orbit. In the fighter battle above, the Srav fighters were pulling out due to losses, and despite having got around the ECM use of UCW fighters Renard Curl was being distracted by Empress interceptors purposely leading him elsewhere. Nevertheless, with Necasian and Srav armor now scattered into groups, Snake was able to bring his main tank force forward into a spearhead, pushing through the heart of the enemy battalions towards the installation.

Elsewhere, Madgiyek and the second Srav force were approaching the second installation, destroying Necasian defence tank divisions. Magdiyek found the comparative lack of defences there somewhat suspicious, and ordered his vehicles to proceed with caution. Then, in orbit, the Sky Rink fired a large energy-based beam, powered by the Hand of Darkness, destroying the installation and everything around it in a radius of three miles, killing Madgiyek. Unbeknown to the other factions, Askar had intended it as a decoy. With Srav forces now starting to pull back as a result of this loss, and DTM operations on the ground collapsing, Snake was able to concentrate on clearing Necasian armor around what he now knew to be the main facility, and ordered infantry forces to come forward.

Knockout[]

Horgan: “Bakas? You really gonna shoot me? You really gonna listen to that crusty bastard Invado?
Bakas: “...kriff it, I can't shoot a brotha. I knew Askar was a crazy asshole all along anyway. Let's throw down.
―Horgan and Bakas Mofo

As UCW tanks began finishing off Necasian vehicles around the facility and blasting down wall defenses, Snake sent in a wing of Ikarus-class troop transports laden with commandos, led by former Necasian officer Snaipes Horgan. The transports took fire from flak and anti-air launcher-equipped infantry, losing two of their number before they reached the facility. Flying low as they approached to avoid missile fire, the transports flew over the facility walls, clearing landing spots with their heavy kinetic Gatling cannons. Inside the facility, the commandos faced opposition from veteran Necasian soldiers handpicked for their loyalty and SpecOps troops, who were fewer in number but considered more dangerous.

Under Horgan's command, the commandos began taking down the missile and laser emplacements with explosive while others laid down suppressive fire to cover them. Rez Jorm himself began to enter the fight personally as his command center caught fire, taking down several UCW commandos before he was shot dead by the guns of one of the Ikarus transports.

However, with the UCW commandos having taken out most of the facility's anti-missile laser emplacements, the DTM seized this advantage. Their flagship in orbit, the Viper's Spit I, fired down several drop pods containing the Death's Knock Assassins, the feared group of DTM veteran warriors. The drop pods landed at several points around the installation, and the assassins began attacking both the Necasian and UCW troops.

With Jorm dead, the Necasian command was collapsing, and many of their troops were confused or disorientated. Necasian SpecOps officer Bakas Mofo by default began to assume command, when Horgan approached him. Owing to his close relationship with Horgan, Mofo found himself unable to shoot him, and decided to switch over to the UCW side. Following his example, most of the Necasian troops under his command began to fight the DKA along with the Necasians. DKA leader Fayyad Ghazi went straight for Horgan and Bakas, cutting down most of their surrounding troops, and after knocking their weapons out of their hands began to engage them in physical combat, and succeeding in pinning Horgan to the ground. However, Bakas was able to stab him with a combat knife, allowing Horgan to reach for a weapon and gun him down. Seeing this, the DKA were at a loss as to what to do. From orbit, DTM commander Krennel Kaan ordered them to pull out and escape.

With that, the UCW began to mop up remaining resistance in the installation, and deactivated its remaining weapons. Snake sent a message to the UCW orbital presence, informing them that his part of the operation was complete. With a substantial portion of the Necasian orbital cover removed, UCW ships were able to move closer to the Sky Rink, bombarding its defenses. Now, a team consisting of Nataska Vergulva, Haveer Jarn, Storm Ironwings and Carsal Redharn providing backup began to initiate the second phase of Snake's plan.

Riding the Tide[]

Gresev: “You treacherous, stupid little bitch! Can you not see that I am the one to lead our people to victory? Can you not understand what a fool Yuiln was? What a pity! Soon--
Vergulva: “Gresev. Shut up. Now, for high treason and for crimes against the Srav people, I hereby sentence you to death."
"I'll see you in hell, then!"
"I'll look forward to it.

―Gresev and Vergulva

As UCW ships began to disorientate Srav missile systems and flak targeting computers with ECM fields, three Ikarus transports approached the Crimson Tide, with the main team aboard. They had the objective of killing Ivran Gresev; Vergulva made it clear that the task of executing him was to fall to her, although she gave permission for the others to kill him should she get killed.

Approaching the Tide, which was at the front of the Srav fleet, the transports came under fire from flak and kinetic close-combat machineguns that were being manually aimed, and one of them was severely damaged and went adrift. However, Vergulva began to hack into the Tides defence systems using her knowledge of Srav computer systems, allowing them to approach it and latch onto the hull. Drilling through the surface of the ship, the team and a squad of commandos boarded the ship.

With Vergulva leading the group, they advanced. The Srav personnel aboard were surprised at Vergulva's presence, having been told that she was dead; nevertheless, most of them stood down and let them pass at her behest, and those that did not were quickly shot. Gresev himself quickly began aware of the intruders and ordered loyalist security teams and Crimson Elite Guard presidential guards to the bridge.

Arriving on the bridge, a firefight quickly broke out. Nevertheless, the UCW quickly gained an advantage, with Irownings using her elemental abilities to confuse the enemies and Jarn using his personalized assault weapon Lil' Jen to simply mow them down. Within a few moments, the remainder of the security personnel was dead or surrendered, and the bridge was secured. With that, Vergulva approached Gresev and announced that she was sentencing him to death, and then shot him through the head.

Having done so, Vergulva accessed the Srav communications system and announced to the Srav fleet that she was alive and Gresev dead, and ordered them to switch focus all fire on the Necasian vessels and the Sky Rink. Despite some arguments on a few ships, the Srav fleet complied, and the UCW vessels ceased fire on them. With much of the Sky Rink's external defences now down, Snake gave the order to move in and board it, and commence the final phase of the battle: locating and eliminating Askar. However, large energy buildups were detected on the Rink, so Snake advised them to hurry.

Final Confrontation[]

You consider youselves so self-righteous, don't you?! You believe yourselves to be white knights riding in to defeat a self-centered despot, don't you! You disgust me! Don't deny that you only are doing this for your own gain! I am doing this for the good of all the galaxy! I will restore peace and order, and--"
"Shut the kriff up, Invado! You either come peacefully or get a bullet up the ass!"
"Hah! Big words from a traitor! Now, you will all pay the price for your lack of vision!

—Askar and Jarn

Approaching the Sky Rink, the transports came under sporadic fire from intact defences, but with most of the Necasian fighter force distracted in dogfights in the upper atmosphere and above the ground, the transports had a comparatively stable run. Landing in the hangar, Jarn took the lead this time, and with Carsal remaining on the transports to provide tactical backup.

Moving through the corridors of the Rink towards the reactor area, the team faced minor resistance from Necasian Marines, but upon seeing Jarn some switched over to them. Confident that they could not be stopped, the team entered the main reactor chamber, where Askar had set up the Hand of Darkness to both the reactor and himself, and was in the process of commencing the energy transfer process.

There, Jarn demanded that Askar surrendered. Instead, Askar emitted electricity from himself, knocking the team to the ground, empowered by the Hand. A few of the Marines and commandos tried to shoot him with no discernable effect, and Askar responded by electrocuting them to death. With the process almost complete, Askar announced that he had won, and that soon he would crush all in his way.

Askar. You're an asshole. And this is for all the treacherous crap you've done. Now, how about we go to hell together, eh?
—Redharn's last words

It was then that Redharn entered the room, wearing a powered armor suit. Leaping forward, he grabbed Askar and pulled him into the reactor, taking the Hand with him. Both were atomized by the energy, along with the Hand, and the reactor began to overload. Picking themselves up, the team began to quickly make their escape, with Irownings distraught by what she had just seen. Across the station, power conduits began to overload as the Rink began to tear itself apart. Meanwhile, the DTM fleet had taken severe damage, and the Viper's Spit was rapidly deteriorating. DTM leader Sabsa Junn decided that he would not survive, so he plowed the ship down onto the planet below, causing a large explosion that severely damaged forces of all factions there, killing himself and Req Makada. Krennel Kaan, on another ship, retreated with the remainder of the DTM force.

Escaping aboard the transports, the team made their escape as the reactor finally imploded. The resulting explosion vaporized most of the station and the rest was torn apart, to burn up in the planet's atmosphere. With that, Vergulva and Jarn both established communications with their respective fleets, and both respectively announced that they were now by default in command of their factions, and ordered their fleets to stand down and hold fire. The fleets complied.

The Cruentusian War was over.

Aftermath[]

This is a historic day. The bloodiest conflict in history is over. It is our duty to make sure that our descendants will not have to bear witness to such bloodshed.
Janos Snake

In the immediate aftermath, news of the peace was spread around the galaxy, and met with almost unanimous jubiliation. Both the Necasian and Srav peoples were mostly weary of four years of war, and met news of the peace with relief. Some hardlining Necasian and Sravs would heavily object to the peace, but were either intimidated into silence by secret police or eliminated outright, or were forced to go underground.

A few days after the war, Jarn and Vergulva met on Corellia to ratify the peace treaty, starting the Conference on Corellia. After signing it and bringing the war to an official end, a war trial commenced, in which people such as Emela Makakson and Vlad Mutin, as well as Krennel Kann in absentia were sentenced to imprisonment. Some accused this of being a kangeroo court, claiming that Jarn and Vergulva had also partaken in war crimes, but were silenced.

The two sides also agreed to commence disarmnament following the battle. Both Jarn and Vergulva proceeded, along with Snake and others, to form the Coalition Galactic Council, a predecessor of the Galactic Senate.

Legacy[]

The battle was considered to be very important, and a turning point in Galactic history. It established the United Coalition of Worlds as the dominant government of the galaxy, and although the Necasian Military and Srav Federation continued to exist officially for a few more decades, with their leaders now on the UCW council they had essentially lost their sovereignty. The UCW would continue to rule until the Unification Wars, during which it transited into the Galactic Republic.

With the loss of its leader at the battle, and having taken heavy losses, the DTM began to fall apart, and despite new leadership under Krennel Kaan and propaganda chief Reloiux Dqwer it was soon considered to be little more than a nuisance by the rest of the galaxy, and eventually faded away.

Jarn and Vergulva continued to play a part in UCW leadership until old age, and they eventually settled down and conceived a son, Samuel Jarn, who would press for democratic reform in the UCW, and would eventually become one of the founding fathers of the Galactic Republic and one of the authors of the Galactic Constitution.

As for the Menunadexu, they decided to make peace with their enemies.

Storm Ironwings would return to Ankarr and would mourn Redharn's death for a while. With the Zayre having lost a significant portion of its population during the war, the species would temporarily adopt an isolationist stance.

A more long-term consequence of the battle was the consolidation of leftover Force energy from the Hand of Darkness over Byss; Sith Lord Palpatine would exploit this to extract the souls of sentient beings as part of a plan of his millennia later.

Behind the scenes[]

This battle was created by the users Unit 8311 and Darth tom as part of the Project Cruentus drive on the Star Wars Fanon Wiki. The battle was designed to tie up several storyline threads of the Project—namely, the one concerning the Hand of Darkness, which had been postulated by user Darth mavoc, and the relationship between the characters Haveer Jarn and Nataksa Vergulva, formulated by Unit 8311 and Darth tom. Although 8311 and tom had collaborated on other battles of the project before, this one was the first one in which they genuinely disagreed storyline-wise—8311 had initially been of the strong opinion that character Storm Ironwings should be killed in the battle, for dramatic effect. Tom strongly disagreed, so they compromised by settling on Carsal Redharn. Tom also wanted the actual Sky Rink to play a large part, whereas 8311 originally felt that the station itself was irrelevant, and merely a backdrop.

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