Battle of Andrew's Holt

Prelude

(See 3rd Battle of Bjørnholm) Now that Ryan's army has controlled Bjørnholm for about a week, they have recruited thousands of local volunteers, mostly war veterans and Bear Lives Matter members, to swell their ranks. However, Tatian reinforcements have arrived sooner than expected and have set up shop at Andrew's Holt. Almost 30,000 new troops joined Ryan's army. Meanwhile, Orm Edgarsson, a 108er general and Tatian sympathizer working with Field Marshal Hiawatha to lead the Tatians, had repeatedly begged Hiawatha to prepare his forces for battle, but Hiawatha foolishly insisted on simply waiting for Ryan's army to retreat or surrender once they realized the Andrew's Holt was impregnable. Andrew's Holt is an ancient fortress in the most difficult terrain possible: it is situated on an island in a small river. To the north, west, and east, there are icy cliffs that are essentially impassable. To the south, there is a small bridge across the river, which leads to a small village surrounded by the dense forests of the Ulvskog. Ryan and his army have set up camp in the village, and now faces a daunting task: it must defeat an air force roughly three times the size of its own, as well as an entire enemy cruiser. The Tatians also had four times as many land vehicles as Ryan's Army. However, Ryan did have one advantage: his army was around 5,000 men larger than that of the Tatians, even with the reinforcements. Also, around two fifths of the Tatians' army consisted of local conscripts who had never seen battle before, while Ryan's army was entirely composed of either veterans from the war or members of Bear Lives Matter who were used to guerilla warfare.

Battle

Ryan first ordered his tanks and bombers to cross the bridge to Andrew's Holt and destroy any Walkers they found, and they would be accompanied by Fighters. When they invaded the island Andrew's Holt was built on, they were surprised to find all of the Tatians' aircraft and walkers on the ground, unmanned. Seizing this golden opportunity, Ryan's bombers mopped up all of the Tatians' planes and almost all of their walkers. However, the alarm at Andrew's Holt was sounded fast enough for the Tatian ground troops to arrive and force Ryan's tanks out before the last few walkers could be destroyed. When Ryan heard the news of the successful sneak attack on Andrew's Holt, he quickly got cocky. He ignored the advice of Hans Olafsen (the general that Black Live Matter provided him) and ordered a general attack on the fort. In response, the Tatians brought their starcruiser into the fray and began firing on Ryan's army, inflicting insane casualties. Ryan immediately regretted his decision, and decided that the only hope was to bring out his own cruiser. However, this cruiser was an older model than the one the Tatians were using, causing it to take heavy damage while only inflicting light damage on the Tatian cruiser. Realizing the battle was lost, Ryan ordered his Fighters and Bombers to distract the Tatian cruiser while he landed his own cruiser so his remaining ground forces could evacuate into it. Once this was achieved, the cruiser and the fighters left Ryu 108. However, they were not out of the woods yet, as the Tatian cruiser was still pursuing them. Ryan ordered his Fighters and Bombers to swarm the ship, which they managed to do. While the Tatian cruiser was distracted with the smaller ships, Ryan's cruiser was able to land a hit on the shield generator, destroying it and leaving the ship wide open. Although the outdated cruiser did not have enough firepower to outright destroy the Tatian one, it was able to damage it seriously enough to prevent it from moving. Once this was done, Ryan's Fighters and Bombers flew back into the cruiser's hangar and Ryan's cruiser went into lightspeed away from the Ryu star system.

Aftermath

Although Ryan had failed to liberate Ryu 108 from Tatian control, he did succeed in temporarily disabling a Tatian capital ship, preventing it from reconquering Ryu 97 for the time being. While the Tatian cruiser was stuck floating in space waiting for a repair crew, Ryan had brought his army to Ishgabangaloodoo, where the members of his army would become the first members of the Aurean Alliance, the group that would eventually topple Tate and save the South Galaxy.