Mission 12 - Death Blow

## 12 - Death Blow

The desperation against the Thorun Empire is such the Athraels attempt old tricks once again.

## Battle Information

### Conflict

Thorun Retaliation, prior to Thorun Civil War

### Location

Vemama's interior orbital defense complex, Sedra System

### Aftermath

Total Thorun Empire Victory* Athrael Theocracy complex destroyed.
* Vemana bombarded from orbit, extensive industrial and life losses.
* Remaining Athrael forces retreat to remote systems.
* Sedra System turned into a Thorun Empire province, Kagan appointed as Marquis.
* Sedra campaign forces under Thalok return to Algor System, now under Emperor Bleda following Tyran's passing.
* Start of the Thorun Civil War

## Belligerents

* Thorun Empire

* Annaki Order
* Azrati Order

## Commanders

* Thalok

* Nephral
* Zeraphim

## Forces

* Complete Thorun arsenal
* Skull Bearer

* Complete Athrael arsenal
* Psychic Dome

## Objectives

* Destroy all Athrael forces.

* Repel the Thorun assault.

## Casualties and losses

Severe
Massive

## Involved Characters

* Thalok
* Garuga
* Kagan

*Death Blow* is the twelfth mission of Chapter 02 - Ascension in the Five Nations campaign.

## Setting

With the defeat of the major Athrael defense force, even with an attempted assistance of an incoming new alien force, the Thorun forces under Prince Thalok stood poised to start the invasion and eventual bombardment of the Athrael home moon of Vemana in the Sedra System, which now only had one final orbital defensive complex left, according to Imperator-warden Kagan. Thalok took the opportunity of reprief to dedicate the upcoming battle and the prior victory to the lives lost at the Obra Sector.

The celebration was short-lived, however, as Grandmaster Garuga arrived with urgent news - the Athrael Theocracy had opened numerous wormholes from other provinces, recalling their armadas in a desperate attempt to neutralize the Thorun fleet while they attempt sieging Vemana's orbital defense complex, the Thorun forces surrounded on both sides. Thalok, knowing that retreating or a defeat would be costly, perhaps fatal, thus put Kagan in charge of the legions to fend off the incoming remote Athrael fleets while Thalok continued the siege of Vemana.

## Fool Me Once...

Thalok's personal forces established themselves close to the Athrael defensive complex as Kagan led the exterior forces in fending off the Athrael reinforcements, on which Kagan stated would fight to the last for Thalok. Thalok's forces would set up facilities meant for a complete siege, including the necessary equipment for the feared Flagships, the most feared vessel in the Thorun arsenal, as well as Breakers, an exotic form of support craft. Early attempts by the Athrael defenders - namely the combined forces of the Annaki and Azrati Orders - to attack and neutralize this staging point had failed.

Thalok's battle plan, while effective, wasn't perfect however - shortly after the Thoruns had fixed positions, Garuga informed Thalok that the Athraels had once again established a Psychic Dome, akin to the one which almost took control of all Thorun legions before. Given the Thoruns had a limited amount of time to neutralize this device before it was activated, Thalok was forced to commit to a battle far sooner than he would have liked, using the Skull Bearer to spearhead the rushed assault. In addition, the Athrael reinforcements from the remote provinces had found and forced breaches into Kagan's blockade, making their own advances to Thalok's staging area.

At a considerable cost and damages to his vessel, Thalok was able to put an end to the Psychic Dome before it could be activated, and then retreated to the staging ground, repairing the damages and gathering strength before the Athrael forces were spent, and Thalok could advance, effectively sieging and destroying both the Annaki and Azrati positions, effectively destroying the last line of defense on Vemana's orbit.

## So The Changes

> "The seeds of a new province have been sown here. Kagan, I empower you to finish our campaign here. You will be the Marquis of this realm while I go back to the Algor to deal with Bleda."
>
> - Prince Thalok

With the collapse the orbital defensive complex, the Athrael remnants had fled from the Sedra System into the remote provinces, leaving the stranded Athraels defenseless. The Thorun armada, which now had free reign in the system, began the devastating orbital bombardment of Vemana, causing the deaths of millions of Athrael lives. Thalok, now determined to return to the Algor System and confront Warlord Bleda, promoted Kagan as the Marquis of the Sedra System, empowering him to finish the campaign as Thalok took half of the legions (including Garuga) back to the Thorun homeworld.

As Thalok arrived at Thorun Prima, however, they had discovered Emperor Tyran had already passed away and Bleda had taken the throne, proclaiming himself Emperor. Thalok refused Bleda's claim, however, and thus the inevitable happened - the Thorun Civil War had begun.

Meanwhile, with the intended effect of neutralizing the joint efforts between Humans and Athraels accomplished, the true forces behind the recent events now had the free reign to exact their own designs...

## Walkthrough

The player will start at the command of a modest base with most Tier 1 stations, including a Guild and a Forum, as well as a small group of Predators, a Devastator, a couple of Corsairs and the Skull Bearer. As there'll be an above-short distance between the Material Silo and the Capitol, the player should research Extended Cargo while expanding the number of Extractors at the resource asteroid fields that, while indeed plentiful, will not last forever. Two additional fields lie at the north side of the map, one at the northeast only guarded by the Athrael defenses (yellow) consisting of Polaron Spheres that can be neutralized by the Corsairs and Devastator, and one directly to the north whose sole access for the Zoner is blocked by several asteroids, requiring at least two Grinders. The Mastodon Reactor upgrade is recommended for this particular expansion as this site allows no Capitols to be built close by and the Zoners may prefer delivering materials to the Capitol at the northeastern expansion site, if it's taken.

Immediately a few seconds after the mission starts, the player will be informed of the Psychic Dome and will be given 15 minutes to destroy it. When the countdown expires, all of the player's units except the Skull Bearer are mind controlled and the mission is failed. While it's hinted an assault be rushed as quickly as possible directly from the northwest, with the Skull Bearer spearheading the few units available, the Psychic Dome has a vulnerability at it's Northeastern entrance (see image), where there are few Polaron Spheres that the Devastator and Corsairs can neutralize. The Obelisk and nearby Polaron Sphere, and then the Dome can be bombarded by at least six Havocs, but the Corsairs and Devastator should come in hand if the Dome's guarding forces (including a pair of Rectors and a Mothership on Hard difficulty) attempt to intervene. It will take a while, but as long as the player does not take long (i.e. past the 05 minutes remaining before the Psychic Dome is activated), it will be fine. When the Psychic Dome is destroyed, the player will be able to play the rest of the mission at his/her own pace.

When the dome is destroyed, however, a wave of Athrael vessels from the Azrati Order (brown) - at least three Flankers, two Invaders, a Rector and a Clairvoyant - will be warped in to attack the player from the southeast, into the main entrance, where the right corner (right of the Capitol) is exposed. Thus the player will need at least two Guard Stations, some Havocs and Marauders and the original starting forces to help hold off, else the player might suffer irreparable damage. The Skull Bearer's Quasar Flare ability will also prove to be of great help, as it's splash damage will help deplete the shields of both Invaders. The player should also research Friction Welding at the Forum as soon as possible to help mitigate the damages of this attack.

A strong defensive perimeter, of at least four Guard Stations and three Ion Cannons is recommended for the main base and the northeastern expansion due to the numbers the Athraels will send to attack. The Athraels on both the Annaki Order (green) and the Vemana Defenders (orange) will attack with Intruders, Lancets, Warpgliders and Flankers, before escalating with Martyrprobes, Invaders, Motherships and Harbingers.

The player should also build an Anvil and start researching the Assault Predators upgrade, as the Predators in both forms will prove instrumental in fending off enemy attack waves. These Predators should also be built on a strong, twenty-fighter wing as to attack the exposed resource sites - especially the Mass Transmitters - as described on the minimap image, as these sites are the enemy bases' primary sources for Tachyon and Helium-3, and neutralizing those will buy additional time or neutralize the frequency of enemy attack waves. Note that attacking sites 2 and 3 will require neutralizing the Psychic Dome's original defenses.

The player will have access to the Senate on this mission, and thus be able to construct both Flagships and Breakers. The Flagship is the most powerful capital ship in the game, capable of both storing Predators in both Fighter and Assault modes, as well as possessing a powerful primary attack that's only dependent on power, making the Fast Charging upgrade at the Consulate even more necessary. On the other hand, the Breaker is a potent spellcaster, capable of casting Antimatter Clouds which can deal area damage to enemy units, as well as using the Recall spell, which can teleport units (friendly or foe) to the Breaker's position, making it useful to both lay traps to enemy units and recall a battle group in the case of an urgent defense.

The player will want, to attack both Athrael bases, a force consisting of some Devastators (especially with the Ternary Fission upgrade researched), some Havocs to help handle Polaron Spheres and Obelisks, multiple Corsairs, and at least 4 other Flagships aside from the Skull Bearer, all filled with Predators in both modes, as well as a Vanguard for the Energizer Aura and, optionally, a Breaker for it's spells. The player will want to start at the Annaki base and then continue to the right, towards the orange base, as the Annaki entrance is a tight checkpoint along a stellar cloud field which the defenders must pass through, favoring artillery fire and the Antimatter Clouds. The player should take care to avoid destroy all of either green or orange's structures, however, as it will trigger the warp in of Azrati Order reinforcements that will charge the player's base if left unchecked. A second Breaker, with enough energy, should be left at the base to Recall the player's attack fleet to aid in the defense, if needed, and repel the Athrael attackers before resuming the destruction of both Athrael bases.

When both green and orange's bases are totally destroyed (all structures), the mission is finished.

## History and Background

The destruction of Vemana would set in motion the events that would lead to the Zhogarn Onslaught, depicted eventually in Chapter 03 - Cataclysm, and the divergence between the Annaki Order and the Athrael Theocracy, especially in regards to disregarding the Post-Izlar Synod edict to not return to the Izlar. It would also separate Kagan from Prince Thalok as the latter would fight the Thorun Civil War, preventing that one from learning the former's ultimate fate in *No Longer Slaves*.

Even though the intended goal of splitting apart the joint efforts of the Athrael Theocracy and the United Federation was successful, the Sylon Praetor's forces did not proceed with the original operation of constructing the Sylus Relay Node, as depicted in the following mission, *Prisoner*. As a consequence, neither the Federation or Athraels suffered from any further opportunistic Sylon attacks.

## Trivia

* The design for the mission, lore-wise, was likely inspired on the Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, the most known battle of the Gallic Wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Gallic confederation.
	+ Both battles (game and historical) revolved around the siege of a fortified position while being assailed by external forces.
	+ Both battles also had a game-changing geopolitical effect - In real-life, it represented the annexation of Gaul (modern France) as a province of the Roman Republic. The same occurs with the Sedra System, with it being a province of the Thorun Empire.
	+ Unlike real-life, in which the Gallic commander Vercingetorix had surrendered to the Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar, there is no surrender of any Athrael leaderships to Prince Thalok - Nephral and Adikara would evade capture in Chapter 03 - Cataclysm.