Balance Mod Game Story - Rise of the Xiati Empire

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Rise of the Xiati Empire Main | Previous Chapter 2422.1-2423.0 | Next Chapter 2424.1-2425.0

Turns 2423.1 to 2424.0

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A Year to Remember...

The last year for Emperor Tax'renath has been been full of challenges and opportunities. The Xiati continue to maximize their fleet's odds with favourable defending positions and opportunistic attacks to take out generally superior enemies at most engagements. Ambitious plans to expand both east and west have been launched as resource stocks continue to dwindle as colony space and remote mining opportunities are already maximized. The Cue Cappa and EEE empires are not content to let the Xiati advance, and continue to fight back as they have done for almost 20 years. Xiati colonies are generally happy and besides rampant terrorist strikes have are now well protected by several system layers.

Warp Point Mystery leads to Opportunity?

In 2423.4, sensors in the Lacerta system detected a new gravitational signature in the system, only a few sectors to the east of the Lacerta star. Incredibly it was a new warp point of apparently natural origin. This was the first event in the quadrant's history where a new warp point's emergence had been documented. It's been theorized that warp points could be artificially created, but to the best of Xiati knowledge, none of the empires have any such capabilities.

Warp Point Terminus in Lacerta System:

With the Lacerta system relatively secured, the Lacerta Defense Fleet made the first pass through the new warp point and arrived in the Dussullet system, the traverse almost twice as long as any other known warp point. The Dussullet system is in mostly Terran held territory with Phong and EEE colonies present. The system is relatively blocked in and would make a good expansion point for the Xiati in the south with limited opposition. The Lacerta Defense Fleet contains to hold the Dussullet entrance and Invader class transports are being stocked at Xiati Prime.

North-Eastern Front

With the newly designated Sirius Attack Fleet (8xDEs,6xLCs,2xCRs; former Lezzari Defense Fleet) blockading the Sirius-Andross warp point in 2423.0, a Cue Cappa fleet (6xDEs,2xLCs,3xCRs,1xBB,1xDN,1xMF,2xLFs) engaged from within the Sirius system and fought the Xiati at close range. Although the Xiati fleet managed to destroy the Cue Cappa, the Sirius Attack fleet lost 5xDEs and 1xLC. With the loses, the Sirius Attack Fleet did fall back to the Sirius-Fezzran WP to await additional ships from the Fezzran Defense Fleet.

Battle of Sirius-Andross WP in 2423.0:

At the same time, another Cue Cappa Fleet (2xLCs,2xDNs,3xCRs,1xBB,1xLF,1xMF) finally broke through the Lezzari-Cunaxa warp point satellite defenses, although they did suffer heavy damage and were not considered a threat to Lezzari I. With the transfer of the Lezzari Defense Fleet eastward, a new defense group hadn't been assembled yet. With the Cue Cappa breakthrough, Emperor Tax'renath sped up plans for their replacement.

In 2423.2, the Cue Cappa struck again with another fleet (7xDEs,5xLCs,5xCRs,2xBBs) against the Xiati's top fleet, the Fwandrei Defense Fleet (15xDEs,15xLCs,10xCRs,2xBBs,5xSFs), which was holding on the Lylat-Fwandrei warp point on the Lylat side. Although greatly outnumbered, the Cue Cappa engaged at very close range which allowed them to inflict moderate damage (-4xDEs,-2xLCs) to the Fwandrei Defense Fleet before being destroyed. During this time, the Xiati's Lylat capture group consisting of 4 Charger class boarding ships was busy picking off lone EEE and Cue Cappa freighters.

The Lylat system continued to be a hot spot and two EEE fleets (4xDEs,2xLCs,5xCRs,2xBBs,4xDNs,1xLF; 6xDEs,3xLCs,4xCRs,2xBBs,2xDNs,2xLF) entered the system on a direct course to the Fwandrei WP. Since the EEE had generally better ships for direct combat, the Fwandrei Defense Fleet dropped back through the WP to the Fwandrei side where an addition 70 satellites and 245 fighters were present. With the overwhelming firepower and first strike advantage, both EEE fleets were dispatched in 2423.4 without any Xiati ship losses although 22 satellites and 151 fighters were destroyed.

Back in the Sirius system, by 2423.4, the Sirius and Fezzran fleets had been merged and had added two Invader class transports loading with troops and fighters. The target of their attack was the Cue Cappa intelligence colony of Sirius V, which of the 4 EEE/Cue Cappa colonies in the system was considered the weakest. Although it was the weakest target, it was still heavily defended and the orbital attack saw 3xDEs and 2xLCs lost. The planetary invasion was successful and Sirius V was captured mostly intact. Approximately 200M split between Cue Cappa and Terran(!) population were captured.

Orbital Battle over Sirius V in 2423.4:

Immediately, Emperor Tax'renath ordered new defensive units to be constructed on Sirius along with a space port. The Sirius Attack Fleet remained stationed over the planet and for the time being, the Sirius-Andross warp point was left opened.

In late 2423.8, the Cue Cappa struck again against the Fwandrei Defense Fleet through the Lylat-Fwandrei warp point. The Cue Cappa Fleet (1xDE,1xLC,2xCRs,2xBBs,5xDNs,1xMF) was heavily skewed to large ships and many survived the first strike volley from the Xiati ships and satellites, setting up another short ranged battle. The Fwandrei Defense Fleet (10xDEs,12xLCs,11xCRs,4xBBs,5xSF) plus 134 fighters and 50 satellites destroyed the Cue Cappa fleet but lost all remaining fighters, another 17 satellites and 3xLCs and 1xCR.

Battle of Fwandrei-Lylat WP in 2423.8:

Immediately after, the EEE engaged with another large battlefleet (5xDEs,2xLCs,5xCRs,1xCX,2xBBs,5xDNs,1xMF,2xLF,8xDr) which put over 60 ships in the battle. The EEE's use of Repulser Beams were effective in dispersing the Xiati defending units and ships allowing most of the EEE ships to survive the WP transit. Xiati forces suffered some confusion when the Fwandrei Defense Fleet flagship was knocked off course, causing the remainder of the ships to abandon their attack and re-group. Despite the confusion, the Xiati managed to suffer minimal losses while taking out about a third of the EEE fleet. Somewhat surprisingly, the EEE fleet used the gap in weapons exchange to move towards the Fwandrei VIII colony. The Fwandrei Defense Fleet re-engaged and destroyed the remainder of the EEE fleet. Overall losses between the two battles was a paltry 9 satellites and 1 destroyer.

Battle of Fwandrei in 2423.9:

The Fwandrei colonies have started building new ships and units to fortify the central region's overall fighting force as the EEE, Cue Cappa and Ukra-Tal are eagerly fighting back. The Lylat system does have some vulnerable colonies, but attacking that system would create two new defensive warp points, rather than the one that the Fwandrei Defense Fleet protects now. Emperor Tax'renath has deemed it impractical to consider such a new offensive, especially with expansion plans in the works to the west and east.

The Western Front Opens

The Xiati colony systems of Fornax and Ventrux are valuable and productive territories, but have generally been overlooked by both Xiati officials and enemies alike. Outside of the odd skirmish and despite the myriad of warp points in the region to defend, there has been little action until recently. When the Phong declared war, they had taken out the small satellite group defending the Ventrux-Bespin WP and had stationed a small fleet there ever since. Emperor Tax'renath was ok with this development as the colonies were well defended and the Ventrux Defense Fleet wasn't well equipped to displace the Phong in open space.

Almost 3 years later in 2423.1, the Ventrux Defense Fleet had been supplemented with larger ships and with the Phong becoming increasingly aggressive, an attack was launched to remove the Phong fleet and restore the WP blockade. The Ventrux Defense Fleet (10xDEs,12xLCs,1xCR) took out the Phong Fleet (4xDEs,2xLCs,1xCR,4xMF) easily with any losses. Immediately after,Palantir satellite launchers were dispatched.

In retaliation, the Phong attacked from the south, destroying the minefield and unit group protecting the Ventrux-Drepana warp point. The Phong fleet (5xDEs,8xCRs,1xLCX,1xBB,3xSDr,2xLF) only lost its drones in the attack. At this time it was decided by Emperor Tax'renath that a new strategy would be employed. The Ootoola Defense Fleet, some 20 ships and mine sweepers, sat mostly unused on the Ootoola-Drepana WP. With its mine sweeping capacity, it was ordered into the Drepana system to gauge the system's current status. Drepana had several Phong and Ukra-Tal colonies along with a single Jraenar colony. It became apparent it made more sense to blockade the southern warp point the Drepana system to Haphik with a merged fleet, cutting off the Drepana system completely from all but Xiati space. This would allow only minor defenses in Ootoola and Ventrux to protect the Drepana bound warp points (with no major enemy fleets to worry about) and eventually for the Xiati to pick off the enemy colonies in Drepana. To this end, the Ventrux Defense Fleet attacked the Phong fleet occupying the Ventrux-Drepana warp point in 2423.9.

Battle of Ventrux-Drepana WP in 2423.9:

The battle was intense and the Ventrux Defense Fleet (10xDEs,12xLCs,1xCR,50xFtr) lost -4xLCs,-1xDE,-50xFtr against the Phong Fleet (5xDEs,1xLCX,8xCRs,1xBB,2xSDr) which was destroyed entirely. The Ventrux Defense Fleet continued southward and now occupies the Drepana-Haphik warp point with the Ootoola Defense Fleet.

Cutting off the Drepana System:

Norak and Jraenar Strike... Periodically

The Jraenar and Norak again launched simultaneous attacks on the Eskirk Defense Fleet. Although the Jraenar attack was easily defeated with minimal losses, the Norak fleet was able to take advantage of the Eskirk's fleet poor positioning and was able to attack at point blank range. The Norak fleet (5xDEs,3xLCs,2xCRs,1xCX,5xBB,3xDNs,73xFtr) was eventually destroyed but 50 fighters did survive and escape into the Eskirk system. The Eskirk Defense Fleet (10xDEs,5xLCs,6xBBs,30xSat) suffered heavy losses (3xBBs,-2xLCs,-3xDEs,-1xSF) including the first losses for the Ravager class battleship. Emperor Tax'renath has decided to go forward with a bold strategy to take the fight into the Drax system once the Eskirk fleet is replenished with ships.

Sergetti Empire Hangs On...

The Sergetti Empire lost its homeworld in 2423.1 or thereabouts. Exact details are unavailable, but the Sergetti are done to their final colony hidden away in the very end of a system chain, Equandul. The once friendly ally of the Xiati Empire has quickly fallen once the Norak invaded their space 5 or 6 years ago.

Quadrant Map 2424.0: