Mission 11 - Crushing Allies

## 11 - Crushing Allies

In an effort to halt the advance of the Thorun Empire, the Athraels call upon the aid of others.

## Battle Information

### Location

Vemama's exterior orbital defense complex, Sedra System

### Aftermath

Decisive Thorun Empire Victory* Athrael Theocracy complex destroyed, even with attempted support of the United Federation.
* Joint Human/Athrael alliance broken.

## Belligerents

* Thorun Empire

* Annaki Order
* United Federation

## Commanders

* Thalok

* Nephral
* Benjamin Colburne

## Forces

* Complete Thorun arsenal except Flagships and Breakers
* Skull Bearer and Silent Blade

* Complete Athrael arsenal except Harbingers
* Complete Federation arsenal

## Objectives

* Destroy the Athrael complex.
* Rout the assisting "Blue-ish Creatures".

* Repel the Thorun assault.

## Casualties and losses

Extensive
Massive

## Involved Characters

* Thalok
* Garuga
* Kagan
* Benjamin Colburne

*Crushing Allies* is the eleventh mission of Chapter 02 - Ascension in the Five Nations campaign.

## Setting

After the recovery and repair of the Skull Bearer, while Grandmaster Garuga advised Prince Thalok to return to the Algor System and fight Warlord Bleda as he took over the Thorun Empire, Thalok was determined to stay and finish Bleda's campaign in the Sedra System before he abandoned it, to prove Thalok's right to inherit the throne.

After this, Imperator-warden Kagan arrived with good news - with the destruction of their main manufacturing complex in Morael, the Athrael Theocracy forces had retreated their forces to protect their home moon, Vemana. Vemana itself was protected by two orbital defense complexes which served as staging grounds for the Athrael fleets, and thus had to be neutralized before the Thoruns could strike at Vemana itself. At the helm of the Skull Bearer himself, Thalok vowed to lead the legions himself.

## Here Comes a New Challenger

Thalok's forces set up a staging ground and started preparing a heavy assault fleet, including Devastator cruisers with potent Proton torpedoes against heavily armed cruisers, as well as subspace generators - a Zahak-based technology - on which these cruisers entered an ethereal state on which their hulls behaved like deflector shields, while fending off the attacks of the defending Annaki Order.

However, in the middle of the battle, Kagan's scouts had reported of a new station under construction, close to the Athrael complex, but clearly not one belonging to the Athraels themselves. Unknown to the Thoruns, the United Federation Navy under Admiral Benjamin Colburne had arrived to assist their Athrael allies, aware that the fall of Vemana would most likely leave the Sol System vulnerable to the Sylon Collective. Despite not knowing this new adversary, Thalok nevertheless ordered his legions to eradicate the newcomers.

The intervening Federation forces proved to be a surprising match for the Thorun forces, with their cruisers capable of providing heavy firepower, including nuclear ordnance that heavily damaged a modest part of the Thorun legions, forcing Thalok into resorting, for once, on strategy and tactical acumen to match that of the new enemies. Kagan's raiders did find weaknesses in the Human infrastructure as well as an unguarded access via an asteroid field on which the Thorun Grinders could open a breach, allowing a Thorun invasion force to attack and destroy the Federation expedition's infrastructure, forcing Colburne to sound the retreat.

Despite the extensive losses, Thalok's forces still possessed enough numbers and strength to siege and destroy the Athrael facilities, also forcing the retreat of the Annaki order.

## Walkthrough

The player will start in command of the Skull Bearer, the Silent Blade, a pair of Devastators, some Predators, a pair of Marauders and a spread out base, including a Material Silo to the north with access to both Helium-3 and Tachyon, but very far from the starting Capitol and it's construction radius. The player should, as soon as possible, construct a close enough Capitol with Welders to allow a faster income with it's Zoner. A second Capitol, close to the player's Metal deposit to the south, is also recommended as the player will want fast resource income for this mission. Both resource sites will come under constant harassment from enemy fighters, so the player will need at least two Guard Stations per resource site, as these will be the primary source of income for at least half the mission. Ion Cannons will also be needed afterwards as the resource sites - especially the northern one - will come under attack from cruisers, so the player should build enough Power Stations to at least support a +20 energy income. A large number of Welders with the Friction Welding researched at the Forum will be a must to be able to repair vessels, especially the Skull Bearer. Because of the extensive detection in this map, the Silent Blade should definitely be left out of this battle and kept safe at the Capitol, as Kagan's death will fail the misssion for the playet.

Shortly after the mission starts, the enemy Federation base (Colburne) to the northwest will be revealed to the player and the objective to destroy them as well as the Athrael (Nephral) base to the northeast. While the Athraels will attack mostly from the east side, the west side where lies a stellar cloud field should not be ignored of defenses, as well. Nephral will attack at first with Intruders, Warpgliders and Flankers before escalating with Lancets, Martyrprobes, Rectors, Invaders and Motherships while Colburne will send in groups of Hurricanes, Orcas and Hailstorms and later escalate with Dockyard vessels and Crows, most waves with Pasteur support.

While Nephral can be mostly held off with some Guard Stations and Ion Cannons, Colburne will have full access to the Federation tech tree, including Avengers and Tellers. Thus, Colburne's critical tech structure - the Fleet HQ north of his Command Station - **MUST** be neutralized as quickly as possible before Colburne has the chance to deploy these units, as it will deny Colburne access to artillery and nuclear capabilities that will be devastating to the player. The key for this are large wings of Predators - at least 20 to 24 - with the Assault Predators upgrade researched at the Anvil, which can invade the Federation base from the western corner also micromanaged as to let out the Predators' fire in Assault Mode in volleys. The player is unlikely to be able to retreat these Predators once they enter the Federation base but the neutralization of the Fleet HQ, plus the fact that Colburne will not rebuild any structures, makes this effort a saving grace for this mission. The player can also later send more Predators, also on Assault Mode, to neutralize Colburne's Astro Telescope, especially before the ATB Program upgrade is researched, to deny him access to Hailstorms and Crows. With at least the threat of the Fleet HQ neutralized, the player can shift the attention back to Nephral, as the Athrael base has more facilities - especially a Cabal, Haven and Craft Mill outside the base's fortifications that can and should be destroyed - and destruction of it's highest tech structure, the Basilica, will only deny Motherships and Theocrats. Nephral will still be able to build Invaders as these have no tech requirements and the more important targets - the Conservatory and Martyrium - are far too within the Athrael base, protected by Rectors.

For sieging both bases, the player will thus need a battle fleet of cruisers to siege the Athrael base, of which the Skull Bearer will prove primordial for both it's main weapon, it's hangar capacity that allows for storing Predators in either mode and the Quasar Flare ability which allows to destroy small pockets of units or tighly grouped defenses such as barricaded Polaron Spheres and Obelisks. Aside from the Assault Predators which are available for this mission, the player can also build a Skycourt to allow construction of Corsairs, a Consulate to both unlock Vanguards and the Fast Charging upgrade (that will greatly benefit Welders and Ion Cannons), and a Hall to allow construction of additional Devastators, as well as the Senate for the Devastator's related upgrades, Ternary Fission and Subspace Shift. The Devastator will prove a better frontal assault option along with the Corsair, although Marauders and Havocs shouldn't be ignored, either. While suggested by Garuga however, Subspace Shift is not as much recommended for this mission as the Federation uses Dresdas to an extent, and most Athrael weapons are effective against shields. Though optional, as the standard units have more range and can destroy bases as fine on their own, Grinders can help destroy enemy structures faster.

When sieging both enemy bases, the player can use either a Havoc or the Skull Bearer's quasar flare to draw enemy defenders to outside the defensive perimeter and eliminate them with the battlegroup before sieging the bases themselves. The player's sole point of entry to Nephral's base will be by it's southern entrance - close to where the exposed Haven and Craft Mill are - but Colburne's base can be accessed by an asteroid field to the south, within a stellar cloud field, which ignores the main entrance guarded by a Defense Platform plus all other defenders. For this entrance, Grinders must be used to destroy the asteroids more rapidly. The player should focus on the primary production facilities on both bases to cut off the flow of enemy defenders, during the sieges.

When both enemy bases are destroyed, the mission is finished.

## History and Background

The total victory of the Thorun forces under Thalok over the Athrael Theocracy, even with the attempted Federation support from it's best ally, was the proposed final result of the Renegade Praetor's strategy program recovered by the Praetor in *Race Against Time*, applied in *False Flag*. With the defeat that would result in Vemana's inevitable collapse, the Athraels would be unable to provide assistance against the Sylon Collective, should the Sylus have ever decided to launch another attack at the Sol System, something that did not occur due to the events in the next missions following *Death Blow*.

The invasion of the Sol System would indeed occur again, but would be instead caused by the Children of the Izlar in Chapter 03 - Cataclysm.

## Trivia

* Due to close inspiration from the Hunnic peoples and their military campaigns around 434 to 453 AD for the Thoruns, this mission may have been inspired on the controversial Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, which depicted a massive confrontation between the Hunnic Empire under Attila the Hun and the Western Roman Empire. Several details accentuate the differences and similarities between both the historical battle and this mission.
	+ Both revolved around a large scale encounter between two major powers, one of which relied on exterior help to supplement numbers - In the mission, represented by the Annaki Order under Nephral supported by the United Federation under Benjamin Colburne, while in the historical battle it revolved around the Western Roman legions helmed by Flavius Aetius supported by the Gallic/Germanic tribes, particularly the Visigoths under Theodoric I and the Alans.
		- Contrary to the historical battle however, Colburne survived the confrontation and retreated from the Sedra Sytem. Theodoric, on the other hand, fell at the Catalaunian Plains.
		- Colburne's attempted assistance could also be a reference to the Alans, which were all but destroyed in the historical battle. Both in history and fiction, it's army leaders - Sangiban and Colburne, respectively - survived.
	+ Unlike the mission's outcome which became a major Thorun Empire victory and thus allowed Thalok to storm Vemana, the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains resulted in an arguable defeat for the Huns, whom were forced to retreat from Gaul and weren't only pursued due to Aetius tactical and political foresight of the consequences.
		- The mentioned consequences in the historical battle were the possibility of the Visigoths breaking their allegiance to the Roman Empire if the Huns were pursued and totally destroyed. However, in this mission, the alliance between Colburne and Nephral isn't broken, only dissolved because of the fall of Vemana, on which the Athrael Theocracy could no longer offer support to the Federation, and the Federation itself would not commit any further resources to assist in defending or reclaiming the Athrael homeworld.
		- A main difference between both the mission and historical battle is that Attila proceeded to invade Italy two years following the battle, despite the defeat. Thalok would immediately continue the assault on Vemana, capitalizing on his victory.