Massacre at Torfan

The **Massacre at Torfan** was a direct retaliatory strike by the Systems Alliance against a major pirate base on the aforementioned moon of Nymbar. Though technically a victory for the Alliance, it came at a heavy price as many soldiers were killed in action.

## Description

### Background

After the terror that was the Skyllian Blitz, the Systems Alliance poured a vast sum of time and resources into hunting down and exterminating batarian-funded pirates throughout the Skyllian Verge and the rest of the Bahanak Frontier. Coming to a head in 2178, the hunt led Alliance Intelligence to the small moon of Torfan, a major pirate hideout within the Skyllian Verge.

### The Assault

Alliance Marines, led by Major Franklin Kyle, stormed the base in the early morning hours of the hideout's local time cycle. Caught off guard by the sudden invasion, the first waves of pirates were downed in seconds. As the fighting and sounds of fighting spread across the base however, the tide quickly turned.

Rallying themselves against the invaders, the pirates began to put up a staunch defense. Makeshift traps were made to scatter and maim the oncoming soldiers, wreaking havoc on the already scrappy infrastructure of the compound and sewing even more chaos across the field. In one documented example, a pirate by the name of Brushk "Half-Face" Na'dorz doused himself in some of the facility's homebrewed liquor supply and set himself ablaze, running haphazardly through the waves of human soldiers and causing as much harm as physically possible before being consumed by the inferno.

After nearly two hours of fighting, the Alliance forces had brought the pirates to their knees. With their own forces having been halved and Major Kyle himself having been severely injured, the leadership role fell to a Naval Officer. With the pirates retreating to what remained of their vessels, the battle seemed over in all but the history books.

The Naval Officer in command would not allow it.

Enraged at the loss of so many of his comrades and unwilling to let even a single pirate escape the moon alive, the Commander rounded up what survivors he could and pushed them forwards, storming the hangar facility once more and continuing the slaughter. When the dust settled, every pirate in the outpost had been eliminated regardless of their hostility. The Alliance in turn had lost almost 70 percent of their attacking forces to death or injury.

### Aftermath

In the wake of the massacre, batarian interests across Citadel Space began retreating even further, and hatred of humanity as a whole began to seem justified for some who had held out in years prior. The Hegemony became even more determined to fund piracy against interests of the Systems Alliance, though took great care to continue to hide such ties publicly.

Major Kyle recovered from the injury, but never from the scar of losing so many soldiers. He was given an honorable discharge almost a year later, seemingly dropping off the galactic radar not long after. That Naval Officer, for his part, continued his service with distinction, eventually turning the success of this mission into an invitation to the Interplanetary Combatives Academy.