Battle of Malisk II

The Battle of Malisk II refers to an early Buyuk Empire attack on the EIT capital, and the resulting siege of Vyzalinkh-Bogdana. From mid 1715 ATGW to late 1717 ATGW, Buyuk troops encircled and assailed the city, resulting in millions of deaths on both sides.
==Background==
The initial Buyuk attack on the EIT had gone relatively well, with the Imperial Navy stretched painfully thin and in disarray, defending vital lines of supplies and shipyards. The Imperial Army and Imperial Marine Corps were unable to freely move from world to world, and thus unable to reinforce Malisk II. As most units based on the capital world had been deployed to other frontier worlds, confident the Imperial Navy would prevent encirclement action by the Buyuk, only six Imperial Army infantry divisions were present on Malisk II when it was attacked.
While many Eteno worlds quickly fell under Buyuk control, and the EIT struggled to regain its footing, the Buyuk still desired a decisive blow against their enemy's spirit. Malisk II was the most obvious target, with a large population, commercial importance, and cultural significance. Tens of millions of Buyuk troops assembled for the attack in early 1715 ATGW, expecting an easy victory over the vastly outnumbered Eteno formations.
==Initial Attack==
Supported by orbital naval gunfire, Buyuk troops landed en masse on the upper layers of Malisk II's towering cityscapes, with shock troops landing in Vyzalinkh-Bogdana with instructions to take control of the capital city by any means necessary. It was immediately clear that what little Eteno forces present on the island chains were totally isolated, and that their only hopes for survival lay in the cities that ruled the surface.
===Rescue of the Supreme Commander===
Eteno military intelligence had failed to alert Sius that an attack was incoming. Organization of the attack progressed too quickly to be picked up by what few intelligence assets had not yet been rooted out within Buyuk command. Supreme Commander Silmet Joosekav was on-planet when Buyuk scouting forces made probing attacks against Malisk II's defenses. Aware that the planet would soon be subjected to a full invasion, Admiral I Heino Ljubomir, commander of Naval Station Kolwaina, dispatched a squadron of reserve gunboats to extract Supreme Commander Joosekav from Malisk II.
Kolwaina had been partially evacuated, and Admiral Ljubomir personally went down to Malisk II with some of the station's security staff in shuttles to evacuate the Supreme Commander. Once they had returned to the orbiting gunboats, the main Buyuk fleet had just arrived. A heavy battleship, unknowing of the gunboat squadron's important passengeer, attacked Ljubomir's ships ahead of the fleet. Ljubomir and the Supreme Commander retreated while the rest of the gunboats held off the battleship. The rescue was successful, and Supreme Commander Joosekav remained at a deep space naval station until the Buyuk occupation of Malisk II was ended.
==1715-1716 ATGW==
Deviating from established defensive doctrines set at the beginning of the war, armed civilian, military, and police resistance rarely went on the offensive. Instead, Eteno forces fortified themselves in the cities that they knew Buyuk troops would be forced to clear street by street, building by building, and room by room.
In the first few weeks of the attack, light vehicles and infantry stormed the upper layers of most of the planet's cities. Fierce but disorganized Eteno resistance resulted in heavy casualties for both sides. Many of the cities' defenders retreated to the lower levels, where general lack of space prohibited the Buyuks' use of light vehicles. The invaders soon held many of the megacities' upper levels, as well as many key buildings, such as the Imperial Palace. However, they had failed to achieve a knockout blow to the planet's defenders, who readied themselves for a siege. Firmly entrenched in the rubble, these hundreds of thousands of men had established intricate systems of early warning and defense, as well as deadly layers of traps. Elite Buyuk troops made the first descents into the lower levels of the cities, and immediately took massive losses. They attempted to dislodge the entrenched Eteno defenders through speed, a strategy that translated into reckless tactical movement.
Dissatisfied with the number of casualties, Buyuk commanders began full-scale attacks on the lower city levels. Large, regular formations worked slowly through the ambush-laden bowels of the cities, and while they received proportionally large casualties the whole time, genuine progress was made. Some few areas became fully secured, and quickly became supply dumps and field headquarters. Buyuk troops continued their offensives, but became bogged down as the sheer size of the megacities began to take their toll. Defenders never needed to hold territory, but the Buyuk were forced to station large garrisons in areas they controlled in order to keep them safe from the threat of attack. Buyuk equipment became standard issue for the cities' defenders, and they put their constantly-improving guerrilla skills to great effect.
It soon became clear that Buyuk troops would be unable to take control of the cities through offensives alone. While some proponents of further attacks protested the order, high-level Buyuk leaders eventually called for a siege. The defenders would be starved out.
At that point, Eteno forces went on the offensive. Large raids on Buyuk positions occurred daily, for the purpose of weakening the besiegers, as well as acquiring equipment. As food stores ran out, these raids also became critical for the acquisition of flesh to feed the resistance. Few were pleased with being forced to eat Buyuk flesh, but there were few other options.
Late in 1716 ATGW, Buyuk forces increased the frequency of raids against Eteno-controlled areas. In response, the defenders increased the frequency of their own raids. Fighting began to pick up, and minor Buyuk build up was a sign to many that another offensive as on the horizon.
==1717 ATGW==
At the turn of the new year, neither the defenders nor the besiegers were in good shape. However, the Buyuk invasion forces were such a shadow of their former strength that many units began to withdraw from lower city layers entirely. Eteno raids increased in frequency yet again, and soon, almost all Buyuk forces had been pushed back to the upper city layers. Calls for one last counterattack were made amongst Buyuk command, but the pressure of the rejuvenated Eteno military prevented any major buildup from occurring. Some commanders on Malisk II attempted their own counterattacks, but these were met with little to no success.
Halfway through the year, the 888th Defense Fleet of the Eteno Imperial Navy managed to rout Buyuk forces in orbit around the planet, and a few days later, Imperial Marines were landed on the uper layers of all of the planet's cities. The remaining Buyuk forces on the planet, stuck between fresh Eteno troops coming from orbit and veteran guerrillas streaming up from the lower city layers, surrendered.
While the battle was won, the EIT was left with a shattered capital city and a devastated civilian population on Malisk II. As the empire rapidly recovered from the initial Buyuk invasion, the planet's megacities were rebuilt over the decades. By the time Vaikan King Rustiagon Karrel was hosted on the world, the scars of terrible siege had been erased.
==Damage to other parts of Sius==
During the three years of intense warfare on Malisk II, the Buyuk systematically destroyed all of the infrastructure in Sius, from the smallest orbital warehouses or fuel cell stations to the largest loading docks and manufacturing plants. Naval Station Kolwaina was scuttled by Eteno naval infantry and partially detonated, but this was the only act of real resistance against the Buyuk trail of destruction
Malisk I and Malisk III were completely occupied by Buyuk troops, and all mining installations on both planets were totally destroyed. Malisk IV's methane extraction operations were disrupted but not completely destroyer, and Tyrgen's gas extraction facilities and shipping warehouses were annihilated. All of Sius' space stations and major manufacturing centers were obliterated or occupied.
After the Buyuk were repulsed, the rebuilding of Sius went slowly for many years. The local economy suffered, and the system experienced a rare period of emigration. However, by the 80th anniversary of the attack in 1795 ATGW, almost all of the system's space stations and industries had been repaired or replaced, except on Malisk III, whose remaining mineral reserves were too small to warrant a total reconstruction of extraction facilities on the planet.
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