Report Regarding the Felician Conflict (Top Secret, for Protectorate Advisors Only)
The planet of Felicia is located approximately 750 lightyears away from Earth. Colonized by a population coming from Canada, it has preserved the use of both English and French languages - and also the initial tech level, the ability to communicate with other planets, and its neighbouring beacon. Nonetheless, there's more to it than meets the eye; the planet's proximity to the Dust Zone is a huge problem for the Felicians.
The Dust Zone is a breeding ground for piracy and banditry; unfortunately for many, a lot of Protectorate trade routes run very close to it. Many times local planetary forces, coalitions, and even Protectorate punitive fleets attempted to put an end to piracy to no avail. Within the Dust Zone, there are several stars with planetary systems; their populations' cultures are very similar, as all of them ultimately originate from a single ship. At the middle of the first half of the Great Expansion, the USA government decided to get rid of the numerous convicts flooding the prisons. Half a million inmates were loaded onto a colony ship, set out for a planet discovered recently; one rich in resources, but extremely difficult to colonize due to its unstable crust and atmospheric conditions changing far too often.
A mutiny set the ship off-course. After drifting for three years, it crashed onto a planet orbiting the largest star of the Dust Zone, with none of the crew and only a tenth of the "passengers" surviving. In 10-12 generations, the population, having had progressed from its primitive form back into space, unsurprisingly (taking its origin into account) turned into the Dominion's pirate center.
With many trade routes running around and through the Dust Zone, human flotsam from the entire Dominion started accumulating. The planet which the ship had crashed on was dubbed Tortuga, honoring the Old Earth pirate haven of the same name; but it wasn't the only planet. Over time, more than three billions inhabited half a hundred of Dust Zone planets.
Felician trade vessels were constantly attacked by pirates, but this wasn't the reason for a catastrophe. As it usually happens, two languages, two nations, and two religions resulted in a civil war - a war going on for over 100 years with short pauses, later dubbed the Hundred Years' War. The warring sides, fortunately for their descendants, did not use nuclear weapons; biological weaponry, however, was widespread. By the end of the century, the overall planetary population was forty times smaller - and this wasn't the worst thing to come.
A combat virus mutated and received two new characteristics: it stopped being vulnerable to known treatment methods, and it started targeting males and males only. Five years after the war, men of Felicia went almost extinct, and birth rates plummeted, threatening the whole civilization with extinction as well. At the same time, gravitational storms around the Dust Zone made interstellar travel to and from Felicia impossible for 55 years, leaving the planet to try to survive on its own.
The few surviving males gained immense authority; men were now ruling the remnants of civilization, while women, by necessity, were assuming the hardest and most dangerous roles; army, construction, restoration of the destroyed world. After a while, the entire planet was united under the rule of the King of Felicia. >In approximately 200 years after the war ended, birth rates returned to normal. The population grew, the males were common once again, but the traditions persisted; women still comprised 97% of army, police, spacefleet, and similar organizations' personnel. Meanwhile, it was always a king ruling the planet, never a queen; introducing elections later on did not change that either. Such was the state of the planet by the start of the Second Wave.
Based on experience of the First Wave, the imperial high command agreed that it was useful to conduct sabotage within Dominion societies to destabilize planets planned for conquest (more on that in lord-admiral Corigan's report for the General Staff). The Empire started supplying pirates and smugglers with money and weaponry so they could serve as agents of chaos, paving the road for the main forces. Almost all pirate leaders of the Dust Zone accepted such terms; whith the Empire crossing the borders and starting full-scale warfare, hundreds of small pirate armies lashed out at the less-defended Dominion planets. Felicia was one of such worlds.
The assault on Felicia was commanded by Markus the Three-Eyed, so nicknamed for the artificial eye implanted at the center of his forehead. Being a superb strategist and the oldest of the Dust Zone pirate lords, he maneuvered to his great tactical advantage. The target for his attack was Siamia, the capital city of Felicia; the richest city - and the most delicious morsel for every star pirate.
Hundreds of small pirate gangs disembarked all over the planet, rampaging and plundering, distracting the army and police. The armed forces took the bait and separated, trying to hunt the pirates down and restore order. In the meantime, Markus' main units landed in the Round Valley - an enormous stone-walled depression in the center of the Grey Alps, a mountain chain in the north. A direct path led to Siamia from the Round Valley, with only a tiny garrison in the pirate horde's way.
Catherine des Bois, the garrison's commander, ordered it to prepare for battle. By the time Tortugans reached the garrison, the planetary general staff figured out that they got tricked by the pirates and began to reassemble the army into larger units, but none of them could arrive to Siamia before Markus; the only hope was that des Bois' soldiers could hold for at least a day.
For thirty hours, the squad endured the assault of an army a hundred times larger; a 200-soldier-strong garrison reduced to 30, half of these wounded, too. Alexander Bricks, a special forces sniper and the only man in the unit, was among the severely injured. A military transport helicopter that arrived on the second day of fighting to evacuate the wounded found itself in the thick of the battle; the fortifications were done for, with the pirates surging inside. The extra firepower from the copter still couldn't allow for everyone to be evacuated; a suicidal counterattack by des Bois bought enough time only for the thirteen wounded, Bricks included, to get on board and leave.
The Tortugans breached the initial obstacle barring the way to the city, but precious time had been lost along with the tactical advantage provided by it; three regiments of planetary guard were now denying Markus passage, with three more approaching the capital from the north and south. A grandiose battle played out on the plains of Svinbick*, thirty kilometers away from Siamia. Markus rushed to the south, into the capital, knowing that it would be harder to dislodge his forces were they to take the city; however, luck was not on the Tortugans' side. Another planetary guard regiment joined from the east, and city militia dealt the pirates a blow from the west. Captain-admiral Carrie struck Markus down in personal combat, sowing panic among the pirate army. Having had broken through the barrier at the Grey Alps, they fleed to their ships, hoping to escape and save their lives. They did not succeed.
Twenty airplanes belonging to Felician airforce launched from a base north of the Grey Alps, carrying on board a drop regiment ready to join the battle at Svinbick; following Markus' death and the pirates' flight, the plans changed. The planes turned back north; as the pirates were boarding their ships, paratroopers hit their very heads, but did not win the ensuing skirmish and were forced to retreat to the caves at the south of the Round Valley. Units led by captain-admiral Carrie run the pirates down, ready to destroy them all; but a pirate captain from among Markus' followers, his name not preserved by history, shown himself to be a cold-headed and capable warlord. He arranged his landing cutters across the ravine and used their weapons to hold the Felician advance down long enough as to move a ship and destroy the canyon walls with its guns. The Tortugans boarded their vessels and took off for the Dust Zone, decisively defeated.
Meanwhile, the 12th Strike Fleet of the Empire arrived to the planet, aiming to conquer it; along with it, four Whale-class landers, each carrying an entire division of line infantry, and a drop regiment was ready to assault. The ground and space forces of Felicia, however, were already warmed up; almost all imperial landing boats were shot down in the atmosphere, the few units reaching the surface utterly destroyed in the absence of orbital support, despite fighting desperately.
On the orbit, bombers of the Felician spacefleet torpedoed eight Empire destroyers, leaving the capital ships unescorted. Moreso, the fleet of the neighbouring planet of Gomel, reinforced with the 75th Rapid Response Squadron of the Protectorate, arrived at the height of the battle. Acting in concert, the allied fleets destroyed every Whale-class vessel and General Rommel, the flag first-class battleship; the remnants of the 12th Strike shamefully escaped, hiding in subspace.
So ended the invasion on Felicia. After the Third Wave, which spared Felicia, it became one of the border systems between the Protectorate and the Empire.
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| Factions: | Dusty Zone Raiders, Militia of the Planet Velian, Pirates of Marcus, Ruthenian Guard, Spetsnaz of the Planet Felicia |