Battle of Evensong

The Battle of Evensong is a decisive battle between the Superiority and the Defiant coalition of planets which takes place at the outpost Evensong.
== Background ==
The DDF gained control of vital intelligence during their raid at Luna, which is where they learned that the Superiority held a vast number of taynix together in one place at Evensong, their main communications hub. Winzik began gathering forces at the outpost, a fact which convinced Spensa that the tactical thing to do was to attack the Superiority there instead of waiting for them to attack at either ReDawn or Evershore. She took her idea to Jorgen, but he forced her to wait for a unified decision. In the meantime, the Superiority opened communication with the delvers and attempted to make a deal to gain the delvers' help in defeating the Defiant coalition in exchange for destroying Spensa. As a direct result of this deal, Brade used one of the times Chet lost control of his emotions to hyperjump to Detritus and kidnap both Spensa and Doomslug. However, after an escape attempt by Spensa caused Winzik to distrust Brade, Winzik was about to back off and dismiss the fleet gathered at Evensong. Brade killed him to prevent that from happening and took control of the Superiority openly. The coalition having finally decided that Spensa's idea was a sound one, Jorgen accelerated the timeline of their attack after M-Bot made brief contact with Spensa and discovered that she was at Evensong.
== Battle ==
The Defiant coalition of planets hyperjumped Detritus to the vicinity of Evensong, and Brade immediately instructed the captains of the fleet of fighters to make the coalition fighters bring the fight to the Superiority, where they would be protected by their array of inhibitor stations. The coalition sent the Defiant toward the battlefield. As it advanced, Captain Becca Nightshade broadcast a speech to the Superiority officers warning them of her intention to destroy them if they did not back down. Brade then initiated contact with Jorgen as they waited for their forces to approach each other. Jorgen informed her of their intent to free the taynix before demanding that the Superiority surrender. Brade, scornful of his openness with his enemy, ordered her staff to lock down all of the hyperslugs and confirmed that the installation shield was up.
At the outset of the battle, the Defiant coalition fielded only one flagship; multiple kitsen cruisers; Detritus; a "set of long-range, ultra-speed missiles," one of them modified to fit Hesho and allow him to steer it; and around three hundred starfighters, each equipped with a cytonic capable of producing an inhibition field. They faced a force fielded by the Superiority composed of three carriers, two battleships, six destroyers, and a superior number of smaller ships.
=== Tactics at Play ===
As the coalition lacked inhibitor taynix, they sent out their fighters in pairs and utilized the kitsen cytonics to protect each pair with its own little inhibition field. Brade devised tactics based on the assumption that the humans would be sentimental about protecting the Defiant and ordered the Superiority forces to pressure it. The coalition planned to send its fighters against the individual inhibitor stations surrounding Evensong, with the idea that if they could disable enough of them they would then be able to hyperjump Detritus in range to use its weapons. They planned to use their own inhibitors to keep the Superiority forces, and especially its command, from escaping. In the meantime, the coalition's goal was not just destruction of the inhibitor stations but to get the taynix inside to switch loyalties and aid in taking down the Superiority. The battle turned on the matter of whether the coalition could remain on the offensive and force the Superiority to defend their inhibitor stations or whether the Superiority would switch to attacking the Defiant and force the coalition to choose to retreat in order to defend it. Brade chose to press the latter and began to throw Superiority forces into the attack, despite the fact that they for the most part had only manned fighters present, and the tide of the battle began to turn.
Kimmalyn and the crew of the Swims Upstream found themselves largely ignored on the edge of the battlefield after defeating an enemy ace, so they attempted to approach one of the taynix in an inhibitor station. Making the mistake of shooting it, the pair of fighters fled as the vastworm attached to the station began to pursue them. Kimmalyn snuck back to the inhibitor station as the Swims Upstream drew the vastworm away. The slug inside refused to come with them, though they did agree to drop the inhibition field. The Superiority general with Brade found it highly curious that the coalition did not destroy the inhibitor stations when they had opportunities to do so.
The coalition found that their plan to disable enough inhibitor stations to be able to move Detritus within range of Evensong required them to spread their troops too thin. Jorgen was on the verge of calling a general retreat when Becca Nightshade suggested that they lure the Superiority in to defeat the Defiant while they hyperjumped some of the gun batteries from around Detritus to that location to create an ambush. To aid in the illusion of weakness, Becca commanded that the crew of the Defiant leave on transports after turning off three of the four engines and planting explosives at one of them. She turned the ship to run just as the Superiority forces finally overwhelmed the shield and began dealing damage to the ship itself. In the moments after the Defiant's destruction, Jorgen ordered the coalition to hyperjump the gun platforms to the space behind the disintegrating ship. They opened fire on the Superiority forces, which were now trapped there by inhibitor fields put up by the taynix who had agreed to help the coalition. Seeing that the Superiority fleet was destroyed, Brade called on the two carriers and three destroyers the Superiority could find for reinforcements; no one else was willing to answer the summons. She also received the help of thirteen delvers.
=== The Delvers ===
Even as Brade sent fighters in towards the Defiant, she contacted the delvers to ask for their aid. However, M-Bot had been among the delvers, working to discover their weakness and establishing communication with Brade as one of them. Spensa used Brade's antidote to remove the effects of the drug they had administered to her, and she and Brade begin to fight in the command room. The overwhelming sense of loss Spensa felt when Becca died threatened to send both her and Chet into a panic, but with the help of Skyward Flight, Chet finally understood the comfort that love and friendship could bring in moving forward from grief. When the thirteen delvers entered the somewhere to assist the Superiority, Spensa entered the nowhere and brought time with her in order to cause the delvers to confront their pain. She pointed to Chet as an example of how to move forward and connected the delvers with the taynix so they could feel the same support. This caused the delvers to discard their hostile intent towards the coalition. The Superiority officials discovered that the slugs were involved in stopping the delvers, so Brade ordered them all executed. The delvers became upset when they realized that the taynix were being killed. As the efforts to execute the taynix were hampered by Brade's previous order to lock them down, they only got so far before she became aware of the delvers' growing displeasure. Brade fled Brez to go authorize the executions on Evensong, sending M-Bot back to the station to deal with Spensa. The delvers began to send out little drones to collect the taynix from their inhibitor stations. The coalition was baffled by this behavior, even as they saw that the drones were delivering the taynix onto the surface of Detritus. M-Bot formed a body for himself and picked up Spensa from Brez, giving her a mode of transportation to pursue Brade. Skyward Flight arrived to help Spensa box in Brade, and Spensa finished her off in the coalition's final blow against the Superiority.
== Aftermath ==
In the days following the battle, the delvers rescued every single Taynix from their places of captivity throughout the Superiority, effectively isolating the different planets. The Defiant military coordinated deliveries of food and other needed supplies to the various planets, while the taynix assessed them to decide if they would agree to grant them their services again. The taynix played a crucial role in other economic agreements between planets, agreeing to provide a certain amount of transportation in exchange for planets exporting their food. No official government was immediately formed; instead, there was an alliance of peoples with a forum run by Rinakin as a moderator. The taynix largely took over the planet Detritus, and they formed a treaty with the delvers to regulate how often they would hyperjump anyone.
== Known Participants ==
Defiant coalition of planets and allies
Superiority
== Casualties ==
== Notes ==