by Ava D. Dohn
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A large portion of the Second Fleet had been siphoned off to support the First Fleet at MueoPoros. The Second Fleet’s commander, Admiral NikaoEimi, centered his remaining big warships around the Hindly Page Jump Portal, leaving Stargaton protected by a patchwork quilt of ancient dreadnaughts, carracks, barquentines and cutters, along with a jumble of converted tankers, freight liners, and howkers. The cruiser, PinChas, another relic from before the Great War, was Commodore ErdenGraach’s flagship over this ragtag fleet.
Although the commodore put up a brave fight, he was no match for the armada he opposed. After two hours of heavy combat in which he lost ninety percent of his fighter squadrons and all his heavies, what remained of his tattered battle group retreated into deep space leaving Stargaton to its own defenses.
With Erden’s ships removed from the fight, the assembled enemy armada was free to rain death and terror onto Stargaton’s surface. The Navy yards and Army depots at Mordem and other larger cities were blasted apart. Mordem itself was incinerated with plasma bombs, leaving it a smoldering pile of ruins.
Although no invasion had been planned at that time for Stargaton, the enemy armada intended to resume hostilities after it re-supplied its fighting ships from the freighter convoy which was some distance away from the battle zone. An urgent request from the MueoPoros invasion fleets forced a change of plan.
Asking for the armada’s two carriers to lend support left the commander without his major fighter groups. Fearing an attack from Admiral Nikao’s Hindly Page fleet should he find out the carriers had departed, the enemy commander removed his entire armada from the scene taking them all toward MueoPoros.
The enemy armada left in such haste it did not take the time to search the debris field for any survivors.
(Author’s note: Official policy on both sides was ‘take no prisoners’, and this policy was usually carried out by the enemy except in rare circumstances. Conversely, commanders in the Children’s Empire were provided the option to decide for themselves what to do. Many showed mercy and allowed for prisoners. Eventually several penal colonies were established where these prisoners of war set up homesteading for the remainder of hostilities.
The policy of ‘take no prisoners’ was later modified by the enemy for various reasons. A primary one was to provide more conscripts for the Army. As the war turned against them and their numbers began to thin, captured soldiers and civilian populations in occupied areas were turned into slave laborers, especially for farming. Often this meant being shipped deep into the heart of Asotos’ kingdom, far away from any hopes of rescue. Although usually treated harshly and half starved, this policy did inadvertently save millions of lives that would have otherwise been needlessly snuffed out.
MueoPoros was the one exception to this change of policy. Legion tolerated no prisoners unless they were to serve some particular purpose. Death by torture was meted out to countless thousands. Field Marshal Trisha soon tired of this disgraceful folly and began adopting some of Legion’s policies with her prisoners.
The Battle of SunLupeo, where she ordered captured combatants lashed to the bumpers of her advancing armor, was the first public notice given to Legion’s army that these creatures from the Lower Realms played at war much differently than their fellow sky children).
