Battle of Sintra

NAVAL POWER: 48.6
 ≛  Theudoricus (✒ 12) (≛+3) (1d20+3) ❤ 🟢
 Praeconinus (✒ 5) (1d20+8) ❤❤ 🟢
 Lanbur (✒ 9) (1d20+6) ❤ 🟢
 Kilar (✒ 1) (1d20+3) ❤🟢

**The Battle of Sintra** was the first battle of the Orientine War, in which Reformed King Theudoricus of Apulum attempted to retake his holdings away from the new Orientum Compact.

## Naval Battle

The private force of King Theudoricus, comprised in the main of mercenaries of various nationalities, would advance on Sintra in a direct attack at the main Compact fleet stationed at Sintra. Theudoricus wished to force a decisive battle, sensing an advantage in numbers as well as leadership.

The battle would begin with an indecisive skirmish between Reformed subcapitals and Compact sublight fighters in the outer system. In the face of Theudoricus's relatively well-ordered fleet, the surprised Orientines would scramble to draw their small capital fleet out of its wide defensive picket in the midsystem asteroid belt and into a proper line of battle. This gambit would succeed, as Compact starfighers launched from deep space asteroid bases would succeed both in keeping a cautious Theudoricus at distance with his battleship fleet and preventing opportunistic raids with his subcapital vessels.

As the Orientine fleet arrayed itself, the skirmish vessels of both sides melted away after close to a week of skirmishing. Though the Compact were heavily outnumbered, their commander, Freigar, opted for an extremely aggressive tactic so as to throw their numerically superior enemy into disarray: the Compact Admiral lead the tip of an arrowhead formation designed to punch through Theudoricus's centre.

This tactic, while bold, did not pay off. Arcadius Octavianus lead part of Theudoricus's core, and from his flagship personally directed the fire of his guns and those of his swarm of subcapital ships on Freigar's flagship as the arrowhead burned at speed. A terrible barrage of solid shot, guided missiles, and amat bullets ripped the outer hull of the Orientine flagship to shreds and knocked out its main power, rendering it combat ineffective and killing or wounding over half of the crew, with Freigar himself suffering a near-fatal shrapnel wound through his left thigh. What was left of Freigar's mighty battleship was forced to withdraw.

The Orientine formation fell into disarray with the loss of their leader, and this was compounded when the rest of Theudoricus's centre joined the fire with a withering fusillade directed against the formation more broadly. Battle-hardened Reformist mercenaries pummeled the remaining capital ships, and out of twenty, five were destroyed outright. Despite the horrible losses, they pushed forward until one Compact battleship, the *Liberation IV*, exploded in a horrific fireball killing all aboard. The hit was scored by a gunner on the Aratacian capital ship *Contender*, commanded by Prince Jilnaris Kilar. Reportedly, the fifteen year old Prince was so horrified by the turn of events that he had fainted on the bridge, and required revival by his command staff.

The destruction of the *Liberation IV* broke the resolve of the fleet, and in the space of three days the remainder of the fleet had successfully disengaged and beat a hasty retreat to the capital system of Neodorum. While the fleet was successfully dispatched, there remained the ring of asteroid fortresses in the middle system of Sintra that remained to be taken if any further progress was to be made into Compact space.

## Land Battle

### Zima and the Commonwealth Responds

Stojan Zima, leader of the Concourse Commonwealth, would respond quickly as news of the Battle of Sintra reached the Commonwealth. He loudly declares war on the person of King Theudoricus and mobilised his national fleet, holding at Shak Tuvi initially to prepare for the offensive into Sintra. The fleet-- a massive and unwieldy fleet of 171 subcapital ships attempted a bold passage through the Etheric Fog to Neodorum straight through Ur-Tesari space, before making a right and navigating successfully through a narrow gap in the etheric wall to arrive unharmed at the Compact's capital.