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And so ends decades of peace with the Empire and an end to neutrality, casting off the last remnants of our cruel vices. But I firmly believe we have chosen the good side this time, something the DCP was too afraid to do before.

- Emperor Lunarai-Khan

The Battle of Farochel was a massive naval clash during the Plazithian Wormhole Campaign of the Second Great Cyrannus War, pitting the allied fleets of the New Cyrannian Republic, the Allied Terran Republic, Apalos, the Defensive Systems Bloc and the Delpha Coalition of Planets against the Imperial Navy of the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus. The battle, fought over control over the New Republic Plazithian capital of Farochel and the system's wormhole to Cyrannus, marked the first engagement between the Empire and the DCP.

Course of Events[]

Prelude[]

When the Second Great Cyrannus War began with the destruction of the New Republic capital of Mou'Cyran, the civilisations of the First Gigaquadrant were united by their shock and horror at such a blatant act of genocide against a peaceful planet. With the nations of the Mou'Cyran Accords declaring open warfare against the Empire as a result, the drums of war were sounded in the Milky Way Galaxy. Striking quickly, the Empire won a decisive victory over the Defensive Systems Bloc at the Battle of Gravitas and became locked in a war of attrition against the Allied Terran Republic and Apalos in the Tirnanóg System. All indications pointed toward Grand Admiral Daeron Siruliulus' fleet moving along the hyperlanes to Republica Plazitaen—the New Republic colonial sector in the Milky Way. The DCP had until this point in the war remained eerily quiet since their initial announcement that "our vengeance will be as swift." for the fall of Mou'Cyran. They had in fact been watching events escalate from afar while fighting an incursion of their own space by their old enemies, the Heralds of Mosivam. Seeing the defeats and stalemates of their allies made them concerned.

The Battle[]

In anticipation of the Empire's next move, the Defensive Systems Bloc, the Allied Terran Republic and Apalos deployed fleets to the Farochel System to reinforce Commodore Monoud's armada protecting the system. After the Battle of Tírnanóg, Apalos had focused most of its Temple Ships on rapidly building improved defences around their Biosphere Preserves and the rest of the Universal Trading Union's wormhole nodes, leaving only a far smaller force of dedicated warships available to help their allies.

The DSB had not suffered further incursions, and so was willing to risk sending a full fleet of battleships lead by a Vanguard-class dreadnought under the command of Admiral Hulashek to aid in the defence. The Terran Republic, under continued assault from the Empire, sent a smaller armada, made up of several Arcadia-class battlecruisers, though given the relative scarcity of such ships, requested that they remained on the flanks of any allied battlefleet. Meanwhile, on the surface of Farochel, Senator Theodynak, one of the few surviving Republic government officials, coordinated closely with the Republic fleet in orbit, awaiting the seemingly inevitable arrival of the Imperial invasion force.

Within three days of the arrival of the Allies, an Imperial battlefleet commanded by Grand Admiral Daeron Siruliulus arrived at Farochel, guns blazing. At the centre of the fleet, the Imperial flagship Sovereign was flanked by three Judicator-class Battlecruisers, with an entire battle wing of Imperator-class Star Destroyers forming the foward line. The DSB Revolutionary-class Battleships moved in to engage the Empire, unleashes a barrage of plasma pulses as their ships moved into position, blocking the Empire's weapons from firing at the rest of the allied fleet.

Siruliulus judged that, though the DSB has prevented an initial assault on the bulk of the allied fleet, they would be unable to prevent a full scale strike by a wing of heavy Imperial starfighters from breaking through their lines to attack the slower cruisers. Hundreds of vessels launched away from the Imperial fleet at high speed, with one squadron from the Sovereign's flight group attacking the DSB destroyer Vermillion and another to attack the Terran flagship Yorktown.

Battle of Farochel

The Empire engages the allies for control over the critical Farochel System.

While the Grand Admiral's forces were unable to break the forward DSB fleet, he enacted the second phase of his strategy. Utilising precision hyperspace jumps, another Imperial fleet dropped out of lightspeed between the DSB fleet and the main allied armada, separating them with a wall of Star Destroyers commanded by Fleet Captain Rhén Caentaris. Trapped between both Imperial battlegroups, the DSB were forced on the defensive. However, despite intense firepower, the shields of the largest vessels held up in time to be joined by the New Republic, Apalos and Terran reinforcements, with space above Farochel erupting as deadly broadsides lit up the void.

Despite the versatility of the DSB's shields, being a hard nut to crack even for Siruliulus's turbolasers, the Imperial ships were manoeuvring between the shield wall's flanks and started to cause disarray amongst the smaller ships. Worse still, fresh reinforcements were moving in to pincer the allied stand. The retreat was beginning to break down, and Admiral Hulashek and others knew that the Imperials would show no mercy. But as the turbolaser fire began to intensify in periodic fashion at the allies, a shimmering of light began to wax and wane between the stars and turbolaser fire.

As the shimmering resolved itself into intense flashes, DCP Star and Monitor Dreadnoughts came into focus at strategic points across the battlefield. One could say that there was a faintest pause of fire between the belligerents, as both sides scrambled to guess the DCP's intentions or indeed alignment. And then the dreadnoughts began to fire violet-white beams of glasma at the Imperial star destroyers, utterly decimating the hulls of ships already under strain and reverberating the power coils within the Sovereign.

Surprised by the sudden appearance, Siruliulus regained composure and called on his battlecruisers and star destroyers to return a rain of fire at the Star dreadnoughts. The DCP ships responded by ghost phasing and racing away Imperial lines. It became clear the DCP was not there to directly change the course of the battle, but to give the allies a noble retreat. The Star dreadnoughts extended their shields to smaller cruisers and power to the massive DSB dreadnoughts while others spearheaded an escape route with the help of Republic, Terran, Bloc and Apalos forces.

On the bridge of the Republic flagship Tythorán, Monoud had successfully overseen the evacuation of most of the planet's population, using massive Phoenix-class supercarriers to land on the surface and retrieve citizens while the DCP fleet dealt with the advancing Imperial armada in orbit. By the time the last ship took off from the planet's surface, the allied armada had begun a synchronised retreat to another system, the DCP dreadnoughts and swarms of Apalos droners protecting the supercarriers and civilian ships as they fled.

Aftermath[]

When the allied fleet arrived in the nearby Antiroprus system, Senator Theodynak congratulated the allied commanders for saving a good portion of the allied armada, the truth soon became evident. It was revealed that the DCP fleet under command of Yo'krikur lost a number of ships and more were crippled. Future engagements would likely end in more casualties without using an element of surprise. However, Emperor Lunarai Khan announced he would send as much craft as necessary to lift the Imperial blockades and kick them from the galaxy, and promptly sent forces to assist the Republic in a counterstrike.

Until then, however, Grand Admiral Siruliulus had won a strategic victory, capturing the Republic capital in the Milky Way as well as the Cyrannian wormhole in one fell swoop. Fresh reinforcements from the Cyrannus-side of the wormhole came through the wormhole, reinforcing the Grand Admiral's armada in preparation for the titanic clashes to come. Indeed, while the DCP had robbed him of a total victory, he admitted to his first officer that they lived up to their fearsome reputation. As word from Imperial propaganda that Siruliulus had successfully engaged the DCP reached the Empire's populous, there was tremedous jubilence, and eyes turned to the DCP's colonies there.

Trivia[]

Further Reading[]

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