The defeat of the Jaaq'tah Imperial Alliance during the Draconian Civil War has always been a sort of anomaly to military historians simply because the Draconian League and the Nerimian Defense Initiative never achieved what could be considered as a true strategic victory over the Jaaq'tah. While the front-line military units of the Jaaq'tah were routed at Ursa, Vox, Guardias, and Guardias by Draconian League forces, the vast expanses of Jaaq'tah territory were largely untouched by the Draconian League's war machine.
The war was won due to the extensive covert operations of the elite Orion and Phantoms Special Forces units employed by the NDI. The assassination of Emperor Xaassla XXIV and his eldest son and successor, Sai'duk brought the Jaaq'tah to their knees as a society, which made them more apt to sue for peace. But both sides knew that such a peace could never last.
Admiral Vladimir Ruzhyó's spectacular offensive in the Cygni Sector may have appeared to be one of the most stunning offensive's in military history, but the Jaaq'tah forces in that area intentionally retreated in the face of a rabid NDI force in order to preserve their fighting strength for an anticipated invasion of the Beta Lyrae and Kitana systems in the core of the Jaaq'tah Alliance. It has been determined that if the Jaaq'tah forces had offered stiffer resistance that Ruzhyó's offensive would've stalled at the Mu Delphi system.
Nevertheless, the Cygni Sector exists mainly as a buffer zone between the states of the Draconian League and the Jaaq'tah Alliance. Both sides have built up their military forces substantially and war has become inevitable.
Act One: The Awakening Serpent
The story begins as the new emperor of the Jaaq'tah Imperial Alliance, Xaassla XXV, comes to the throne with a promise to bring the empire back to its former glory and erase the shame of losing to the forces of the NDI in the first war. Xaassla XXV's intense rhetoric sets off a series of red flags inside of the Nerimian Confederation as Jaaq'tah fleet movements are monitored closely by the remote sensor stations controlled by the Draconian Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence.
Meanwhile, the former commander-in-chief of the Nerimian Defense Initiative, Cameron Blackblade, makes his return to the world of Crius from his home on Earth. After a political scandal ended in Cameron resigning his prestigious role as the commander of all Confederate military forces six years previous, Cameron accepted a position in the Edwards Administration as the head of the Defense Ministry.
Cameron's return to Crius, however, brings back the true source of his problems – head of NDI Special Forces, Alicia Clark. His romantic involvement with the woman brought forth a chain reaction that ended in him losing his job, his wife, and a great deal of political capital that he had accumulated over the years. When Cameron went to see Alicia, she had an equally surprising announcement to give him: their affair had produced a child by the name of Chris.
While this produces an entirely new dynamic between two of the Confederation's senior officers, developments elsewhere come to their attention, which forces them to work with each other while all these personal issues remain unresolved.
In the Ayenee system, an alien fleet made their appearance, forcing the NDI's 25th Fleet to spring into action after detecting the fleet's hyperspace jump. The battle that ensued was quick and was a true display of the NDI's exceptional fighting prowess. The fleet belonged to a race that called themselves the Aurorans and was quickly dispatched. While the enemy was easily routed by superior NDI forces, it was a part of a chain of events that would continue to raise red flags in the intelligence community.
The Confederation's chief executive, Prime Minister Alexander Edwards, in the middle of a re-election campaign, was in the midst of a political speech when a sniper's round almost took his head. While the sniper round missed, it raised yet another red flag in the community. The end conclusion: The Jaaq'tah was trying to decapitate the government of the Nerimian Confederation.
Act Two: Cat and Mouse
The forces of the Grand Star Army of Yamatai make their first appearance as they begin to watch the actions of the Jaaq'tah Alliance from afar without actually making their presence known. While the GSA fought alongside the 1st Ryuken Marine Legion on Ayenee Prime during the Chaos and Hive Wars, they were still largely distrusted by the Confederation as a whole.
Meanwhile, the new commander of the Third Fleet, Admiral James Korbin had received marching orders from the Confederation Strategic Command (CONSTRACOM) to get his forces ready as they would be the opening wave of the NDI's strike against the Jaaq'tah in the event hostilities broke out. Korbin began to assemble what would be the largest Confederate battle force since the first war with the Jaaq'tah, bringing together elements of the Third, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Fleets.
As the NDI Spacy prepared its forces for a war of unparalleled scale, the Internal Security Forces were on the prowl as they stalked the man responsible for trying to kill Prime Minister Edwards. ISF agents Gabriel Cross (Codename: Saint) and Ilysa Aten (Codename: Templar) are hot on the trail of a rogue agent by the name of Kieran Caldera (Codename: Redeye). In a series of cat-and-mouse-like games, Saint and Templar pursued Redeye trying to probe him for information on who exactly he was working for and if he was one of the Jaaq'tah's shape-shifting spies installed inside the Confederation (This story arc will be detailed further in a future Black Ocean novella, Nailed to the Cross).
Simultaneously, the Special Forces Divisions of the NDI were assembling for deep space operations against the Jaaq'tah's war machine, going so far as to re-activate two five-star elites from cryostasis—Kael Ridger and Dante Calaka (This story arc will be detailed further in a future Black Ocean novella, Babylon Rising).
The NDI was now at a state of readiness that allowed them to go to war at any minute. Under the authorization of the Foreign Ministry, the NDI began to meet with its ASC, GSA, and KIF allies to discuss the terms of their assistance in the war against the Jaaq'tah Alliance. As the allied vessels began to arrive, a pirate flotilla made their appearance and launched a devastating surprise missile attack that delivered surprising damage to a group of NDI warships. These missiles were equipped with an advanced experimental warhead that the NDI had yet to deploy – the quantum aetheric flux warhead, also known as the quintessence torpedo.
Further analysis from military intelligence revealed that the warheads were of the same type and gave off the same radiation signature as weapons detected as belonging to the Jaaq'tah Alliance. Coupled with Jaaq'tah fleet movements, attacks in Ayenee, and the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Edwards, this information pushed the Confederation to their highest state of military readiness. Nevertheless, it left one question unanswered: Why were the Jaaq'tah simply toying with the Confederation instead of going after them directly?
Inside the borders of the Confederation, one-half of the elite Orion Team were undertaking an operation to investigate a hard-line Tactical Aerospace Officer by the name of Lucien Grant. The Orion Team's operation to isolate Grant was largely unsuccessful in preventing the terror to come.
Jaaq'tah covert operatives managed to infiltrate the Draconian Senate on Draconis and launched a devastating attack that claimed the lives of thirteen senators inside the chamber of the Emerald Star Citadel. With all the events that preceded it, it was the final straw that would drive the Nerimian Confederation and the Draconian League into full-scale war.
Act Three: The Gathering Storm
The Third Fleet and its accompaniment forces launched head-first into the assault against the Jaaq'tah Alliance, moving towards the pre-determined Imperial Fleet Base of Tau Ceti. Unfortunately, at this point in time, the Prime Minister had not yet announced that the Confederation was in fact at war with the Jaaq'tah. It was a bureaucratic action that forced the hand of Supreme Commander Nathan Rakuseki to stall the Third Fleet's assault until the appropriate moment. Much to the chagrin of Admiral James Korbin, the Third stalled its assault, reforming with the allied vessels of the Koqui Imperial Alliance in the Zerinthes system.
As the Third prepared its forces for what would be the largest naval battle in the history of warfare, the Draconian Alliance rallied its military forces into action. As elements of the 21st, 56th, and 88th Draconian Navies moved into position to support the Confederate spearhead, other Draconian Navies filled the gaps where offensive units had left to ensure that any counter-attack by the Jaaq'tah would be stalled in its tracks.
The Jaaq'tah watched this curiously, hearing the declaration of war by the Confederate Prime Minister and raising their defenses. If the Confederates were intent on attacking them, they would smash the offensive then and there and counter-attack with incredible ferocity.
Once the declaration of war was made, the James Korbin launched his attack upon Tau Ceti. The Second Draconian War had begun.
Act Four: Into the Belly of the Beast...
The Battle of Tau Ceti proved to be the largest, most chaotic, and bloodiest naval battle in the history of space warfare. The Nerimian Confederation's Third, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Fleets, collectively known as the First Naval Battle Force, launched an all-out strike against the Jaaq'tah Alliance's Crimson Fleet alongside several fleet divisions of the Koqui Imperial Forces. While the NDI and KIF fought the Jaaq'tah outright, the Grand Star Army's First Expeditionary Fleet and Sixth Fleet unleashed their own strikes against the serpentine enemy.
The Jaaq'tah began to adapt their battle tactics to fight against this strange new enemy as the Grand Star Army possessed combat abilities that were drastically different from those of the Draconian League. A series of pitched battles between the Jaaq'tah and the Grand Star Army were waged, with the Jaaq'tah launching a series of raids to test out the true extent of the GSA's fighting prowess. All the while, the Jaaq'tah were preparing for a massed counter-strike.
Their attacks were spread out over hundreds of light-years, choosing targets in every member state of the Draconian League and Yamatai Star Empire. The sheer speed and ferocity of the attack spread the resources of the allies thin as they scrambled in the opening hours of combat to put forces in the path of the awesome Jaaq'tah war machine. The Diamond, Sapphire, and Ruby Fleets of the Jaaq'tah unleashed hell upon the allies, but the allies rallied, winning stunning victories at Antares, Stellaz, Guardias, and Ayenee. But the Jaaq'tah counteroffensive had done extensive damage as the systems of Vox and Ferias burned under the mighty sword of the Jaaq'tah war machine. The Confederate capital ship Rings of Saturn and its commander, Trevor Harigata, were lost to enemy action – the only capital ship to ever be lost.
The Jaaq'tah used this as a spring board to launch attacks against the center of allied war production – the Eridanus star ring. The battles centering on Eridanus Serpentis and Scorpius were every bit as ferocious as the battles of Antares and Ayenee, but paled in comparison to the battle in Tau Ceti, which continued to rage.
The Crimson Fleet clearly had the advantage from the get go, but pinpoint strikes from the GSA and NDI Special Forces crippled the Crimson Fleet's ability to shift its military forces at will, which allowed the NDI and KIF to direct their forces in a defeat in detail manner. The KIF forces performed exceptionally well, launching simultaneous strikes against Tau Ceti V and VII with great success, while the NDI took on the remainder of the Crimson Fleet.
In the end, the Battle of Tau Ceti raged on for four and a half Earth-standard weeks, claiming over forty percent of all allied forces and nearly eighty percent of the defending Jaaq'tah forces. Space Superiority had been attained at a great cost, but Admiral James Korbin had earned his role as a great among greats in the Admiralty.
But the Jaaq'tah Alliance would not take defeat so easily...
Act Five: The Northern Campaign – Keele vs. Aasrael
Coming Summer 2004
[Author's Note: Some elements were dramatized simply for continuity of the story.]
The war was won due to the extensive covert operations of the elite Orion and Phantoms Special Forces units employed by the NDI. The assassination of Emperor Xaassla XXIV and his eldest son and successor, Sai'duk brought the Jaaq'tah to their knees as a society, which made them more apt to sue for peace. But both sides knew that such a peace could never last.
Admiral Vladimir Ruzhyó's spectacular offensive in the Cygni Sector may have appeared to be one of the most stunning offensive's in military history, but the Jaaq'tah forces in that area intentionally retreated in the face of a rabid NDI force in order to preserve their fighting strength for an anticipated invasion of the Beta Lyrae and Kitana systems in the core of the Jaaq'tah Alliance. It has been determined that if the Jaaq'tah forces had offered stiffer resistance that Ruzhyó's offensive would've stalled at the Mu Delphi system.
Nevertheless, the Cygni Sector exists mainly as a buffer zone between the states of the Draconian League and the Jaaq'tah Alliance. Both sides have built up their military forces substantially and war has become inevitable.
Act One: The Awakening Serpent
The story begins as the new emperor of the Jaaq'tah Imperial Alliance, Xaassla XXV, comes to the throne with a promise to bring the empire back to its former glory and erase the shame of losing to the forces of the NDI in the first war. Xaassla XXV's intense rhetoric sets off a series of red flags inside of the Nerimian Confederation as Jaaq'tah fleet movements are monitored closely by the remote sensor stations controlled by the Draconian Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence.
Meanwhile, the former commander-in-chief of the Nerimian Defense Initiative, Cameron Blackblade, makes his return to the world of Crius from his home on Earth. After a political scandal ended in Cameron resigning his prestigious role as the commander of all Confederate military forces six years previous, Cameron accepted a position in the Edwards Administration as the head of the Defense Ministry.
Cameron's return to Crius, however, brings back the true source of his problems – head of NDI Special Forces, Alicia Clark. His romantic involvement with the woman brought forth a chain reaction that ended in him losing his job, his wife, and a great deal of political capital that he had accumulated over the years. When Cameron went to see Alicia, she had an equally surprising announcement to give him: their affair had produced a child by the name of Chris.
While this produces an entirely new dynamic between two of the Confederation's senior officers, developments elsewhere come to their attention, which forces them to work with each other while all these personal issues remain unresolved.
In the Ayenee system, an alien fleet made their appearance, forcing the NDI's 25th Fleet to spring into action after detecting the fleet's hyperspace jump. The battle that ensued was quick and was a true display of the NDI's exceptional fighting prowess. The fleet belonged to a race that called themselves the Aurorans and was quickly dispatched. While the enemy was easily routed by superior NDI forces, it was a part of a chain of events that would continue to raise red flags in the intelligence community.
The Confederation's chief executive, Prime Minister Alexander Edwards, in the middle of a re-election campaign, was in the midst of a political speech when a sniper's round almost took his head. While the sniper round missed, it raised yet another red flag in the community. The end conclusion: The Jaaq'tah was trying to decapitate the government of the Nerimian Confederation.
Act Two: Cat and Mouse
The forces of the Grand Star Army of Yamatai make their first appearance as they begin to watch the actions of the Jaaq'tah Alliance from afar without actually making their presence known. While the GSA fought alongside the 1st Ryuken Marine Legion on Ayenee Prime during the Chaos and Hive Wars, they were still largely distrusted by the Confederation as a whole.
Meanwhile, the new commander of the Third Fleet, Admiral James Korbin had received marching orders from the Confederation Strategic Command (CONSTRACOM) to get his forces ready as they would be the opening wave of the NDI's strike against the Jaaq'tah in the event hostilities broke out. Korbin began to assemble what would be the largest Confederate battle force since the first war with the Jaaq'tah, bringing together elements of the Third, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Fleets.
As the NDI Spacy prepared its forces for a war of unparalleled scale, the Internal Security Forces were on the prowl as they stalked the man responsible for trying to kill Prime Minister Edwards. ISF agents Gabriel Cross (Codename: Saint) and Ilysa Aten (Codename: Templar) are hot on the trail of a rogue agent by the name of Kieran Caldera (Codename: Redeye). In a series of cat-and-mouse-like games, Saint and Templar pursued Redeye trying to probe him for information on who exactly he was working for and if he was one of the Jaaq'tah's shape-shifting spies installed inside the Confederation (This story arc will be detailed further in a future Black Ocean novella, Nailed to the Cross).
Simultaneously, the Special Forces Divisions of the NDI were assembling for deep space operations against the Jaaq'tah's war machine, going so far as to re-activate two five-star elites from cryostasis—Kael Ridger and Dante Calaka (This story arc will be detailed further in a future Black Ocean novella, Babylon Rising).
The NDI was now at a state of readiness that allowed them to go to war at any minute. Under the authorization of the Foreign Ministry, the NDI began to meet with its ASC, GSA, and KIF allies to discuss the terms of their assistance in the war against the Jaaq'tah Alliance. As the allied vessels began to arrive, a pirate flotilla made their appearance and launched a devastating surprise missile attack that delivered surprising damage to a group of NDI warships. These missiles were equipped with an advanced experimental warhead that the NDI had yet to deploy – the quantum aetheric flux warhead, also known as the quintessence torpedo.
Further analysis from military intelligence revealed that the warheads were of the same type and gave off the same radiation signature as weapons detected as belonging to the Jaaq'tah Alliance. Coupled with Jaaq'tah fleet movements, attacks in Ayenee, and the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Edwards, this information pushed the Confederation to their highest state of military readiness. Nevertheless, it left one question unanswered: Why were the Jaaq'tah simply toying with the Confederation instead of going after them directly?
Inside the borders of the Confederation, one-half of the elite Orion Team were undertaking an operation to investigate a hard-line Tactical Aerospace Officer by the name of Lucien Grant. The Orion Team's operation to isolate Grant was largely unsuccessful in preventing the terror to come.
Jaaq'tah covert operatives managed to infiltrate the Draconian Senate on Draconis and launched a devastating attack that claimed the lives of thirteen senators inside the chamber of the Emerald Star Citadel. With all the events that preceded it, it was the final straw that would drive the Nerimian Confederation and the Draconian League into full-scale war.
Act Three: The Gathering Storm
The Third Fleet and its accompaniment forces launched head-first into the assault against the Jaaq'tah Alliance, moving towards the pre-determined Imperial Fleet Base of Tau Ceti. Unfortunately, at this point in time, the Prime Minister had not yet announced that the Confederation was in fact at war with the Jaaq'tah. It was a bureaucratic action that forced the hand of Supreme Commander Nathan Rakuseki to stall the Third Fleet's assault until the appropriate moment. Much to the chagrin of Admiral James Korbin, the Third stalled its assault, reforming with the allied vessels of the Koqui Imperial Alliance in the Zerinthes system.
As the Third prepared its forces for what would be the largest naval battle in the history of warfare, the Draconian Alliance rallied its military forces into action. As elements of the 21st, 56th, and 88th Draconian Navies moved into position to support the Confederate spearhead, other Draconian Navies filled the gaps where offensive units had left to ensure that any counter-attack by the Jaaq'tah would be stalled in its tracks.
The Jaaq'tah watched this curiously, hearing the declaration of war by the Confederate Prime Minister and raising their defenses. If the Confederates were intent on attacking them, they would smash the offensive then and there and counter-attack with incredible ferocity.
Once the declaration of war was made, the James Korbin launched his attack upon Tau Ceti. The Second Draconian War had begun.
Act Four: Into the Belly of the Beast...
The Battle of Tau Ceti proved to be the largest, most chaotic, and bloodiest naval battle in the history of space warfare. The Nerimian Confederation's Third, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Fleets, collectively known as the First Naval Battle Force, launched an all-out strike against the Jaaq'tah Alliance's Crimson Fleet alongside several fleet divisions of the Koqui Imperial Forces. While the NDI and KIF fought the Jaaq'tah outright, the Grand Star Army's First Expeditionary Fleet and Sixth Fleet unleashed their own strikes against the serpentine enemy.
The Jaaq'tah began to adapt their battle tactics to fight against this strange new enemy as the Grand Star Army possessed combat abilities that were drastically different from those of the Draconian League. A series of pitched battles between the Jaaq'tah and the Grand Star Army were waged, with the Jaaq'tah launching a series of raids to test out the true extent of the GSA's fighting prowess. All the while, the Jaaq'tah were preparing for a massed counter-strike.
Their attacks were spread out over hundreds of light-years, choosing targets in every member state of the Draconian League and Yamatai Star Empire. The sheer speed and ferocity of the attack spread the resources of the allies thin as they scrambled in the opening hours of combat to put forces in the path of the awesome Jaaq'tah war machine. The Diamond, Sapphire, and Ruby Fleets of the Jaaq'tah unleashed hell upon the allies, but the allies rallied, winning stunning victories at Antares, Stellaz, Guardias, and Ayenee. But the Jaaq'tah counteroffensive had done extensive damage as the systems of Vox and Ferias burned under the mighty sword of the Jaaq'tah war machine. The Confederate capital ship Rings of Saturn and its commander, Trevor Harigata, were lost to enemy action – the only capital ship to ever be lost.
The Jaaq'tah used this as a spring board to launch attacks against the center of allied war production – the Eridanus star ring. The battles centering on Eridanus Serpentis and Scorpius were every bit as ferocious as the battles of Antares and Ayenee, but paled in comparison to the battle in Tau Ceti, which continued to rage.
The Crimson Fleet clearly had the advantage from the get go, but pinpoint strikes from the GSA and NDI Special Forces crippled the Crimson Fleet's ability to shift its military forces at will, which allowed the NDI and KIF to direct their forces in a defeat in detail manner. The KIF forces performed exceptionally well, launching simultaneous strikes against Tau Ceti V and VII with great success, while the NDI took on the remainder of the Crimson Fleet.
In the end, the Battle of Tau Ceti raged on for four and a half Earth-standard weeks, claiming over forty percent of all allied forces and nearly eighty percent of the defending Jaaq'tah forces. Space Superiority had been attained at a great cost, but Admiral James Korbin had earned his role as a great among greats in the Admiralty.
But the Jaaq'tah Alliance would not take defeat so easily...
Act Five: The Northern Campaign – Keele vs. Aasrael
Coming Summer 2004
[Author's Note: Some elements were dramatized simply for continuity of the story.]
