Battle of the Asteroids

Commanders| * Captain Jack Roberts
* Commander Craz
* Commander Venom

Strength| * 1 Dreadnought
	+ CSS Vengeance
* 1 CNL Cruiser
* 2 Avalon-class Corvettes
	+ CSS Avalon
	+ CSS Odin
	+ DRF Athena
* 1 Destroyer
	+ DRF Arrow
* 1 Frigate
	+ DRF Luna Wolf
* 1 Orbital Siege Platform
	+ DRF Groundhog

Casualties| * None
* DRF Luna Wolf
* DRF Groundhog

The **Battle of the Asteroids** was a battle that took place between the opposing fleets of the CSS (Colonist Survivors) and DRF (Drone Reactionary Force) during the Colony War. The two sides fought over the location of a mysterious crashed ship near an asteroid cluster, and although the CSS were victorious in holding the area, they also withdrew their ships to enact repairs.

## History

### Prelude

During the Colony War, the mysterious Green Drone Armada (GDA) was also operating in the P3-X2 System and getting their forces set up for their impending attack against the galaxy. However, for an unknown reason, one GDA Destroyer was lost, and its derelict wreckage impacted onto a large asteroid and remained there. A distress signal was beamed out from the ship and was received by both the CSS and DRF, and both factions gathered a small battlegroup to investigate the area.

The CSS leader, Captain Jack Roberts, was ready to combat-test his new flagship, the CSS *Vengeance* (piloted by Jack and manned by Finn), and sent the dreadnought to the location, along with Commander Craz's CNL Cruiser and two Avalon-class Corvettes built by Commander Venom, the *Avalon* (piloted by Venom and manned by Castle) and the *Odin* (piloted by Chris), acting as escorts. The DRF mounted up in a smaller force, comprised of the *Athena* (piloted by Hardman with Arron on board), a transport shuttle armed with long-range cannons, a siege satellite called the *Groundhog* (piloted by BB), and two warships, the *Arrow* (piloted by Conrod and ApathyGates) and the *Luna Wolf* (piloted by Ryan and Rhodor).

### The Battle

The two fleets jumped to the coordinates for the distress call at roughly the same time, entering the combat area near the asteroid cluster containing the GDA ship and attempting to fire the first shots. As a distraction tactic, Craz displayed a holographic projection of the *Vengeance* around his ship, in an attempt to confuse which *Vengeance* was the real one. This tactic was able to get the *Athena* to withdraw from the area, as it was too valuable of a ship to lose for the DRF. Meanwhile, the real *Vengeance* engaged the *Arrow* while the two Avalon corvettes engaged the *Luna Wolf*. The *Groundhog* took up a long-range attack position near the wrecked GDA ship, using the asteroid as cover, but lost a few of its solar panels due to some shots from Craz's ship.

The *Avalon* suffered heavy damage in the first few minutes, but along with the *Odin*, managed to deal heavy damage in turn to the *Luna Wolf*. The *Arrow* was also badly damaged by the *Vengeance* and Craz's Cruiser. It attempted to retreat but was chased down by the CNL Cruiser. The *Vengeance* then turned to face the *Groundhog*, using its X-3 Heavy Cannons to strike it from afar, although the *Groundhog*'s Magnetic Coil Cannons could also hit the CSS ships from the same distance.

Meanwhile, Venom managed to deter a boarding party from the *Luna Wolf* by jumping to lightspeed and emerging a short distance away from the battle. However, at this point, the *Luna Wolf* was crippled, and attempted a ramming attack on the *Vengeance*, but it missed and was left to defend itself with what few systems remained until it was completely destroyed by intense fire from the *Vengeance* and the *Avalon*. On the other side of the battlefield, the *Groundhog* was soon destroyed by the *Vengeance* and a side attack by the *Odin*. Craz's Cruiser and the *Avalon* also finished off the *Arrow* shortly after, and another boarding attempt to the *Odin* was thwarted by Chris inverting the ship's artificial gravity, which flung the attacker the other direction.

### Aftermath

At this point, the DRF was defeated. However, Captain Roberts made the decision to have all ships fall back to the CSS's base, Watchtower Station, in order to get repaired and rearmed, as all the CSS ships had suffered heavy damage. Later, Castle returned to salvage the destroyed DRF ships, even taking a large hull portion from the *Arrow* back to Watchtower. It is unknown what the Colonists did with the GDA ship, if anything. The DRF and the Colonists would not face each other again until the Battle of the Colonies.

## Behind-The-Scenes

* The Battle of the Asteroids takes place in 'Space Engineers: Colony Wars' Episode 73 for the Colonists' POV, and Episode 71 for the DRF's POV.
* This battle is the second (and canonical) version of the battle at all. The first version was much more PVP-centered on the part of the DRF team. Due to 'Colony Wars' being more story-driven rather than raw PVP action, Captain Jack and LastStandGamers agreed to reshoot the battle for a more story-driven result in which neither side was completely wiped out. The original battle can be found on Arron's channel here. Other reasons for the reshoot include:
	+ The DRF team breaking the story scenario of both teams discovering the unknown signal at the same time. The DRF fleet jumped in before the CSS fleet and lied in wait to ambush them, which is not what the objective of the battle was (the objective was to secure the signal)
	+ The DRF team used tactics such as jump-drive-hopping (jumping into of range, quickly shooting at the enemy, and jumping away before they could turn and shoot back) which left the Colonists completely unable to fight back and make their POV exciting for viewers. Although the DRF's tactics were incredibly effective and made for good raw PVP content, wiping out one team of the series leaves little to be desired for a story-driven scenario.
		- Unfortunately, many fans of both sides of the series were upset at the decision to reshoot the battle, despite Jack and Arron both agreeing it was the right move.