Battle of Sopamis

The Battle of Sopamis, known to its last defenders and their successors as The Last Stand at The Bastion, was the final event of the Tribune Wars. Involving over twenty million combatants.
Most of the battle took place in the vacuum of space over the grassy world. The Saegon First, Second, Third, and Seventh fleets took on the Tribunes last ships. Most of these ships were retrofitted civilian ships, most UT military vessels having been lost at the Siege of Avberto.
== Prelude ==
The Battle of Sopamis was in every way the Tribunes last stand against their opposition. Everybody they could muster began moving all remaining technology to what would become "The Bastion", a heavily fortified series of bunkers and warehouses. The buildings and fortifications on the surface were empty and unmanned, the real structure a 1/4 mile underground. Enough to sustain orbital strikes, the Saegon would have to meet them face-to-face in the confusing maze of concrete hallways.
By this point the UT could consider itself membered with around 17 billion service members, along with the billions more in civilian supporters and industrial backers. But these supporters, from the Tribunes varying species and worlds, saw the writing on the wall: The war was lost. While the 18-19 million that were on world fought, they were universally untrained and ill-equipped to fight the professional forces of the Saegon Army & Navy.
== Space Battle ==
The Tribune fleet had organized a defensive layer over the Bastion, preventing a direct bombardment. Most ships were freighters and transports with only basic weaponry, some only deigned to destroy space debris and not hostile vessels. A large portion of the ships were asteroid mining ships, whos lasers, while short-ranged, could deal enough damage to be considered dangerous.
The Saegon Navy sent the big guns. The First Fleet comprised of the Starhammer Supercraft, the imperial leaders flagship, along with thousands of ships ranging from battleships to fighters. The Third Fleet held a smaller but similar attachment of battleships and destroyers, also carrying fighters for escort. Bombers filled the gaps where the fleets larger ships could not provide suppression. The Seventh Fleet, the naval detachment that had fought the Tribune the most out of any other part of the navy, was led by veteran Admiral Orquege. A sound strategist, he calculated where his fleets destructive capability would come into play at the most critical parts. This proved the be deadlier to the UT forces than the power the Starhammer brought. Uninvolved, the Second Fleet acted as a net for any stragglers or routed rebels. Intelligence revealed their opponents had decided to die by fighting, the Second Fleet thus saw it's involvement as being largely unnecessary. A result of not taking precautions, around a million Tribune runaways were able to slide past the Second Fleet and flee for deep space before re-jumping to other worlds. Internal investigations were unable to prove this was a fault of incompetence by the crew, or ignorance by the admiral. Regardless, the public was thrilled the war was won and cared less if a few cowards ran way. The investigation was dropped, but the fierce reputation of the Second Fleet was noticeably weakened.
Drawn out and hectic, the battle was a nightmare for the thousands of fighters duking it out in the darkness of the void. Saegon pilots guarded their larger vessels and would disengage if too far away. Meanwhile Tribune fighters and bombers had to pick their targets and figure the best way to destroy them. With only the bare minimum of leadership, the UT ships were essentially on a free-for-all against a coordinated Saegon force.
After nearly 4 hours of fighting, the UT Navy's remnants began to fade into history. Saegon anti-fighter corvettes mowed down resistance fighters, and ships such as the Vanquisher-class destroyer would incinerate the transports and mining vessels that made up the Tribune's numbers. Without larger ships, the UT Navy wasn't able to absorb enough fire before being able to return effective damage. Some ships were vaporized before they even fired their first rounds, the Starhammer laser able to pierce multiple craft in a single shot.
While several ships continued to fight, the bulk of Saegon forces were at last able to begin preparations for invasion. The Seventh and Third fleets pummeled the surface with heavy bombardment. As they did not know where the enemy was, the imperials fired in wide-range patterns. Forests, plains, and the surface area of the Bastion were pounded and burned, anything alive in the area quickly disintegrated.
The last of the UT forces, excluding a few small fighters and other craft standing their ground in space, were untrained "soldiers" in the vast array of tunnels underground that made up the Bastion.
== Land Battle ==
What wasn't demolished by orbital bombardment was the vast series of underground hallways and corridors that eventually led to the command bunker.
As seen in the vast disparency of casualties between the combatants, the Saegon soldiers killed an average of 25 Tribune members. Despite having the defender advantage, even the Tribunes people, who had built the tunnels, did not know their way around. UT officers were given maps detailing the ins and outs of the system. In an ill-fated attempt to prevent the enemy from learning the system, these maps were written in each officer's native language to ensure a captured map wouldn't give the enemy an idea of where to go. However, as the officers fell one by one, their subordinates were lefts lost, as most officers were a different species than those they led. Should a soldier be able to read these maps, the lighting in the tunnels was inadequate, and even native speakers had immense trouble reading the maps. Even with such confusion on both sides, the fighting prowess of the Saegon meant a corridor could be cleared in as little as a few minutes. Extensive networks slowed the invaders down, and the piles of bodies from both forces dismayed and impeeded Imperial and Tribune alike. One Saegon was noted as reporting "Many lights were flashing, meaning the only light we had was either from the ceiling bulbs for alternating seconds, or from the gunfire. In those brief flashes of light, all you could see were bodies and cement." Conditions in the tunnels were abysmal, and countless stories from Tribune survivors mention in some shape or form how their fallen brothers and sisters never saw the light of day again, only brief glimpses of the enemy's barrels pointed at them.
Around two hours of fighting endured in the tunnels, and slowly but without question the Saegon forces came closer to the command bunker where the UT leadership was. Once the enemy was but 100 feet away from the command center, General Du told his leaders to evacuate. Empress Opal was notably distressed, not wanting to leave her people but also capable of seeing how the day would end. Eventually, Vaultsaac and Dakien were able to prod her to leave. The last generals and their personnel remained to combat their enemy one last time to buy the UT leadership a moment to escape.
== Evacuation ==
The United Tribune leaders that had survived thus far made it to the only shuttle capable of escaping unseen: Empress Opal's transport. Anti-radar meant it could fly away low to the ground, until out of eyesight of spotters on the fleet. There it could shoot off to wherever they decided, something they had not planned ahead.
Upon loading what little they could, blaster fire sounded off from the close hallway, indicating the command center had fallen, and it was now or never. Opal, still disheartened at what became of her people and empire, simply sat on a cargo crate next to the shuttle entrance. Vaultsaac went to comfort her, before a laser round whizzed through the air, instantly killing Sir Kentrol. Saegon soldiers poured in from the doorway and engaged the guardsmen. Opal, running on autopilot, finally left with Vaultsaac. Before he could help Bishop Metriatra, she was shot in the back and fell face-first into the shuttle ramp. The ship quickly sped off as the guardsmen hopped on and closed the rampway.
Inside, the scars of battle were not yet over. It was discovered that Emperor Dakien had been grazed by laserfire, and slowly began to bleed out. Before either Opal or Vaultsaac could say anything, the droid pilot interjected, asking where to set course. Emperor Dakien motioned the two to come closer, and only whispered "Go, and forget this all. Live what lives you can in peace. And let this failed dream of ours finally die." Dakien had passed, leaving Empress Opal and Commodore Vaultsaac as the sole leaders of the United Tribune. Following his wish, Opal told the pilot to take them far away from Sopamis and the Saegon Empire. Far away from what was the United Tribune.
== Aftermath ==
The fall of the United Tribune gave the Saegon immense authority in it's region of space. Dozens of worlds became bustling colonies, many more pillars of industry. Alien races who had supported the Tribune, whether by direct involvement or mere encouragement, were scattered. Nearby worlds threatened by Saegon expansion abandoned whole systems in an effort to put literal space between them and the Empire. Victory celebrations across imperial sectors went on for days, and approval ratings for the High Senators and involved military leaders skyrocketed.
The chaos of the warzone left millions dead, many of whom had never fought in a previous battle before. And the war's total devastation meant the UT nations were all but footnotes in the annals of history. It seemed there was no stopping the Saegon and their never-ending desire for galactic conquest, and only decades later would the United Tribune discover its full, true self as the Phantom Concordat.