2nd Battle of Bjørnholm

Prelude

It has only been a few days since Tate's coup on Aurea. All of the solar systems previously allied with Aurea have surrendered to Tate's new empire except for Ryu. Ryu consists of two inhabited planets. One of them, Ryu 97, has a much higher population than Ryu 108, but Ryu 97 has surrendered to the Tatians, while Ryu 108's King Ragnar Lothbrok refused to. Since Ryu 108 has significant coal deposits Tate wants for his gigantic military, he has decided he will need to take the planet by force. He tasked his warlord, Lord Etbo, along with Field Marshal Hiawatha with conquering and subduing Ryu 108. Since the start of the war, Ragnar Lothbrok has had time to perform some limited modernization of his army, including using Ishga-supplied materials to create longships capable of flying and even space travel. His army also has some Aurean and Ishga tanks and planes purchased during the war, but no firearms. Lord Etbo, knowing the planet still uses mostly primitive axes, swords, and arrows, is prepping to invade the planet with only the materials he has in his starcruiser: 3 legions, 10 Heavy Walkers, 30 Light Walkers, 100 Fighters, 80 Bombers, and 10 Naval Battleships. While Ragnar Lothbrok was expecting an attack in the near future, conscription of local warriors was still in its infancy and the defenses of the capital, Bjørnholm were only beginning to be prepared. However, he did have some of his space-equipped Longships monitoring the planet's atmosphere for signs of an invasion.

Battle

At around 7AM, the Tatians' invasion cruiser came out of lightspeed over Ryu 108 and began its descent into the atmosphere. The space Longships were all easily destroyed by the cruiser's superior firepower before they had time to warn the 108ers on the ground. That warning only came when the Tatian Cruiser was seen hovering above the South Sea by a fisherman, who quickly returned to Bjørnholm's harbor in an attempt to warn King Ragnar Lothbrok. However, by that time, Tatian Fighters and Tatian Bombers had already left the starcruiser's hangar and had begun bombing the city. The wood-and-thatch buildings of Bjørnholm burnt to the ground in minutes. Around this time, the Aurean and Ishga aircraft Ragnar had purchased during the war took off and began to engage the Tatian Fighters and Bombers. However, the Tatian Bombers had destroyed more than three quarters of these aircraft while they were still on the ground, so these aircraft did little more than temporarily distract the Tatian Fighters while the bombers continued bombing unabated. Meanwhile, Tatian Naval Battleships were rapidly approaching Bjørnholm with 15,600 infantry aboard. The 108ers had some limited successes here, with their longships managing to sink 2 enemy ships before being destroyed. With no navy left to repel them, the Tatians easily landed on Yggdrasil Beach and engaged the 108ers waiting to repel them. The 108er objective was not to defeat the invaders, but to delay them long enough for Ragnar Lothbrok to escape the city, which he managed to do. Although strong resistance by the 108ers allowed them to repel the invaders on the beach for some time, the Tatians began picking them off from the air like fish in a barrel, causing them to retreat through the city of Bjørnholm and into the Ulvskog. When the Tatians entered Bjørnholm, they found a ruined city, with the only remaining buildings being a few homes, Ragnar Lothbrok's Palace, and the blacksmith shop.