Battle of the Colony Planet

Commanders| * Captain Jack Roberts
* Commander Venom

Strength| * 1 Destroyer
	+ CSS Dawnbreaker
* 1 Corvette
	+ CSS Anubis
* 5 CNL Gunboat MK.IIs
* 1 Raptor-class Fighter
* Old Colony Base Defense Grid
	+ Harambarry MK.II
* 4 Spitfire-class Frigates
	+ Spitfire
	+ Thunderlane
	+ Flitter
	+ Grin Reaper
* Bee Drones
* 1 Dragon-class Frigate
* DRF Hive Defense Grid

Casualties| * All Combat Forces
* New Dawn Base
* Old Colony Base
* All Combat Forces

The Battle of the Colony Planet was the last fateful battle between the Colonist Survivors and the Drone Reactionary Force during their engagements on an unnamed Earth-like planet. The battle ended with both sides losing nearly all of their assets, save for one ships each for the crews to escape the planet into space.

## Prelude

### The Colonists

After the disastrous loss of the CSS Ironhand, the Colonists' heli-carrier, during Operation: Return, the Colonists began upgrading their production facilities to quickly construct CNL (Crazy North Logistics) Gunboat MK.IIs that they had modified for their needs, including the addition of a deadly spinal laser cannon in the bow. While the crew's commanders, former RWI (Red Wood Industries) Captain Jack Roberts and former RCSP (Royal Coalition of Spatial Protection) Commander Venom, finished the design and construction of their flagship, the atmospheric iteration of the CSS Dawnbreaker, the rest of the team built gunboats and crewmember Horza built his Anubis corvette. On a few occasions, the team strapped warheads to gunboats and used them as cruise missiles to bombard the DRF Hive and ships, though little damage was caused.

### The Drones

Meanwhile, the DRF engineers were constantly at work designing and building powerful warships, such as three more Spitfire-class Frigates created by Papple. Drone units known as "Bees" were also built as a way to swarm opponents in an AI-controlled flight pattern. The DRF's key ship, the Harambarry, was also given substantial upgrades to its flight and weapon systems.

## The Battle

### First Contact

As the DRF mobilized their war party - the Harambarry and all four Spitfires - they also deployed the Bee units to probe the defense grid built by the CSS outside their old base; however the drones were no match for the 900mm Autocannons and M-61 Vulcan turrets of the defense walls.

The CSS fleet then moved in and took up a tight formation over the defense grid, as they planned to use it to their advantage and get cover fire from all sides of the battlefield. Captain Jack ordered the five gunboats to link up and focus their laser fire on the first DRF target they saw. They didn't have to wait long, as a Spitfire-class Frigate, the Grin Reaper, was spotted behind a nearby mountain. Other DRF contacts appeared and began encircling the CSS fleet.

The battle opened poorly for the Colonists. One by one, the DRF ships did flybys overhead, and one by one, the Colonists' gunboats fell from the evening sky. The Anubis was also grounded, but could still fight. Nevertheless, the Dawnbreaker held its own and forced the Grin Reaper to crash into the nearby ice lake. The Harambarry also got too close to the rear defense wall and was grounded.

After this, the remaining DRF ships retreated. While Venom and Eike Sky returned to the CSS's main base, New Dawn Base, Jack and the rest of the team conducted hasty repairs on the Dawnbreaker and cannibalized parts of the Anubis to fix the flagship. Jack ordered Finn and iValz to travel to a tunnel near the DRF Hive (which Jack and Finn dug a few days prior) and infiltrate the Hive and cause chaos, and he, Horza, and Ler prepared to move the Dawnbreaker in for their last stand.

### Destruction

Unbeknownst to the Colonists, the three remaining Spitfires hadn't retreated at all. They had snuck around the old colony base and made their way over to New Dawn Base. Eike's patrol fighter was shot down instantly, and Venom had no time to arm the base's defenses before they were destroyed by the frigates' heavy firepower. The two took cover in the depths of the base as the bombardment continued to decimate the outpost.

As soon as Jack got the news from Venom that their base was under attack, and that three heavily armed enemy ships were closing in fast behind them, the Dawnbreaker moved out. No sooner had the destroyer crested the mountains surrounding the DRF Hive than the three Spitfires appeared behind them. Finn and iValz had been delayed, and their demolition charges hadn't been set yet. In a desperate effort, Jack brought the Dawnbreaker around and charged at the three Spitfires. Unfortunately, the combined firepower of the frigates, Finchy's unfinished Dragon-class Frigate, and the Hive's defense turrets were able to eventually down the mighty flagship. However, this had bought the infiltration squad enough time, and Finn detonated the charges planted inside the Hive, which imploded and destroyed the computers within. This caused the last of the drone ships to plummet from the sky in flames; their central computers had been destroyed. The battle was over as the last of the Dawnbreaker's wreckage was blasted to bits and the last Spitfire fell from the sky and into the ground before the smoldering Hive.

## Aftermath

Jack and the Dawnbreaker crew returned to New Dawn Base to find everything in ruins. The main building and the garage were wrecked and the welder pits were totaled, but thankfully, their escape rocket, the Arrow, was mostly intact, as it had been stored within the Waffle Iron silo. Dr. Craz, Jack's second-in-command, who had been in cryo-sleep during the entire battle, eventually woke up and boarded the rocket with the rest of the team. The Arrow launched from the Waffle Iron pit and into space, leaving the ruined base behind for good.

Meanwhile, the drones enacted a similar contingency plan. Due to it being on its own power grid, their huge battleship/exploration ship, nicknamed 'Dora the Planet Explorer', had not been destroyed along with the rest of the ships. The DRF team cut the scaffolds and boarded the ship, letting it carry them into space for some time before it somehow crashed onto the nearby orange desert planet of P3-X2. The two factions would not see each other again until their mutual discovery of an underground facility belonging to the Green Drone Armada, a sinister faction of drones bent on galactic domination.