Background
While Weasel and his friends succeeded in getting the Atlantean Tomes at first, they were confronted by Tate in the Trial of the Sharks, and beaten to within an inch of their lives by Tate and Santa Muerte, after which Tate took the Atlantean Tomes. While the Tatians had until then been confined to a small base on an uninhabited volcanic island in the middle of the ocean, Tate had been secretly planning to take back the planet for months, as part of a larger counterattack on Aurean and Ishga lines after the smashing Tatian defeat at Aurea that left most of the fleet crippled and Aurea rejuvenated. With his fleet back up and running much sooner than anticipated, Tate assembled an invasion force large enough to conquer three star systems, put General Dean (a veteran from the Northern Front) in charge of the campaign, and sent him to retake Atlantea and trap Weasel and his friends on it so they could be captured.
Scouts sent by General Dean managed to gain the support of the Crustacean Empire, an undersea power controlling most of Atlantea's seafloor, and the Crustacean Empire conducted several raids on the Ishga Underwater Colony of Atlantea that did major damage to the dome keeping the city dry, but this alerted Weasel and his friends to Tatian presence on the planet much sooner than anticipated. The end result was Weasel and his friends obtaining the Atlantean Tomes and Tate having to personally step in to retrieve them before the invasion. While unable to capture Weasel and his friends, Tate managed to get the Atlantean Tomes back.
Phase I: South Taku Islands Landings and Preparations by Both Sides
Coincidentally, General Dean's invasion was scheduled to begin the next day, and it began with a fleet of Tatian ships entering Atalntea's atmosphere above the South Taku Islands. The Ishga garrison of these islands only numbered in the hundreds, and as soon as the Tatians started paradropping troops in and started bombing the few Ishga bunkers that existed there, the garrison evacuated the island chain and regrouped on Taku Island. Within hours, the Tatians had taken control of all of the ports and airfields on the South Taku Islands, and began landing planes and seaships there.
Central to General Dean's strategy was opening up a Tatian-controlled sea corridor to the Tatian base at Fort Palm by taking control of Dolphinesia and Squidia, encouraging opposing political entities to surrender via constant air raids, and taking control of Taku Island so he could prepare to attack and neutralize the massive Ishga base and Yirian Capital at Jubenar.
In response to the sudden Tatian invasion, the response of Michael was at first complete and utter panic. While the Tatians had 350,000 troops to work with, the Ishgas could only muster barely half that number, even when their allies on the planet gave them what troops they were willing to provide. Weasel, who was on the planet at the time, tried calling in Aurean support, but the entire Aurean Military was tied down fighting off simultaneous Tatian counterattacks on all fronts, similar to the one that was unfolding on Atlantea. Michael began to seriously fear losing the entire planet, as the troops he called for from his allies would take time to mobilize, and even then the Tatians would still outnumber them almost 2-1.
The Tatians meanwhile, planned to send seaship-based invasions in several directions at this point: one would go northeast and land at each of the four major cities on Taku Island. Another would go southeast, land at the Dolphinesian capital before the Dolphinesians had time to mobilize, and force a Dolphinesian surrender. Another would head northwest and attempt to land at and capture Jubenar, which if successful, would force Yiri to surrender and the Ishgas to evacuate the planet. The last would head east, and drop depth charges on the dome of Atlantea City, which would force it to surrender, preventing the survival of the Ishga Undersea Colony.
Thinking the Tatians would attack Taku Island and Dolphinesia first, Taftenkhamun and Michael stationed almost all of their available troops on Taku Island to prepare for an invasion, while the Dolphinesian troops would be focused on defeinding their homeland once they were mobilized. Troops were shipped out alarmingly fast, however, since most of the Ishga allies had compulsory military service, the troops they provided were mostly reservists who were at least somewhat well-trained.
Phase II: Air Raids Galore
Within two days of the capture of the South Taku Islands, Tatian air raids on cities all over the region had begun. Operating out of airfields on the South Taku Islands, the Tatians launched bombing runs on all of the cities in the southern half of Yiri, literally all the inhabited islands of Dolphinesia except for the extreme south, Platypusia's southern islands, Motakiora on the southern tip of the Platypusian mainland itself, and even as far afield as Eyjagard City and Haugr. This created a sense of fear and panic in the civilians and even governments in the places bombed, with many terrified of the fact that the Tatians could exert so much power at such long distances this early on. Many voices, particularly in Dolphinesia and Yiri, even called for surrender, but those in favor of defending their homeland to the end won out for the time being.
The air raids kept going unabated for days, until the Ishgas and their allies could get enough planes into the air to contest the skies. Meanwhile in the east, General Gabe made his first questionable decision of the campaign: while his original plan was to drop enough depth charges and torpedoes on Atlantea City to force a surrender and end the Ishga Colony there, he decided that he wanted to punish the Crustacean Empire for betraying Tate and joining the Ishgas weeks earlier. As a result, many of the seaplanes sent to attack Atlantea City were diverted and directed to drop depth charges on the Crustacean Empire's cities, including the capital of Sargassopolis. While these depth charges and torpedoes were successful at killing thousands of Crustacean Empire civilians and causing extesnive infrastructure damage, not enough explosives were dropped on Atlantea City to completely compromise all 3 airlocks, and only a minor leak was reported.
Phase III: Taku Island Landings, the Battle of Moetorua Begins, the Battle of Jubenar, and the Battle of the Barramundi Sound
Three days later, an Ishga supply convoy delivering supplies across the Barramundi Sound to Taku City, escorted by a reasonably sized Ishga fleet of seaships and an aircraft carrier, sighted a large fleet of Tatian seaships moving in a direction that seemed to be headed straight for Taku City. Alarmed, the Ishgas sent planes from the one aircraft carrier they had with them to sink as many Tatian seaships as they could. While the element of surprise allowed the Ishga planes to take out a Tatian destroyer, the Tatians had two aircraft carriers with them and were able to outnumber the Ishgas' planes once they realized what was going on. The superior speed and firepower of the Ishga seaships nevertheless allowed them to surround and sink the Tatians' fleet before they could cause much trouble, but in the fighting, the Ishga carrier had been sunk and most of the planes in battle had been destroyed. The surviving planes, without a base, had to make an emergency flight to Taku City to land.
Elsewhere, however, things were not going well for the Ishgas. All at the exact same time at the exact same day, Tatian landing craft appeared in the harbors of Nukuoro, Anuta, and Rekohu. These small Taku Island ports, all located on flat terrain that proved very difficult to defend, were easy targets, with Anuta's garrison being forced to abandon the city after only ten hours of fighting. The garrison at Rekohu lasted fourteen hours before being surrounded and forced to surrender, and the garrison at Nukuoro held out for a full three days before running out of ammunition and having to surrender. This was a disaster for the Ishgas, as the Tatians had won three beachheads that they could attack from, catch Taku Island in a pincer, and capture the whole island.
The same day as Nukuoro fell, a massive fleet of Tatian seaships appeared in Jubenar Fiord, a narrow body of deep water between two steep mountains that led directly into Jubenar Harbor. Simultaneously, wave after wave of Tatian bombers with fighter escorts rained fire on the city. However, Michael and Taftenkhamun were prepared. Coastal batteries were able to sink three of the Tatians' seaships by the time the latter were able to neutralize them, and using the jungle-covered mountains lining the fiord as cover, Michael and Taftenkhamun had spent almost the entire time since the invasion began moving turbolaser cannons and rocket artillery into impossible-to-hit positions. The ensuing artillery barrage managed to sink one of the three aircraft carriers the Tatians had with them and disable the other two. As this was happening, the Ishga fleet responsible for winning the Battle of Barramundi Sound appeared in the southern mouth of the fiord, and another Ishga fleet from Neenynah had arrived at the northern mouth of the fiord. The Tatian invasion force was trapped and had to surrender. The easy defeat of the Tatian invasion fleet meant for their capital proved to be a massive boost for Yirian morale, and many Yirian reservists who had not even been called up rushed to volunteer.
Things were going much better for the Tatians further south, as yet another massive fleet of their seaships appeared off the coast of Moetorua, the atoll that served as the capital of Dolphinesia. While artillery managed to take out some of the Tatian transports approaching the harbor and even a couple of destroyers, General Dean had positioned his aircraft carriers far enough out to sea to be completely out of artillery range. This allowed Tatian bombers to inflict heavy damage on the city and for Tatian fighters and dive-bombers to strafe Dolphinesian soldiers with virtual impunity, as the Dolphinesians had no planes of their own, relying on the Ishgas for air support (which was unavailable due to all Ishga aircraft in the Atlantea Star System at the time being used to defend Taku City and Yiri against Tatian air raids). However, the Ishgas had left the Dolphinesians with enough machine guns and blaster cannons to make a Tatian landing directly in the harbor impossible.
Ahead of the attack, most of the Dolphinesian Government had fled to Nukupunga in the far south, out of the range of Tatian bombers. However, King Kamehameha stayed behind to personally lead his troops in the defense of Moetorua, with his son Prince Lihau in Nukupunga, ready to ascend to the throne should Kamehameha die in battle or be captured. Since his forces would be shot to oblivion by machine guns if they attempted to enter the harbor, General Dean had to try a new approach. Instead, he landed his troops on a sandy spit jutting out east from the city. He had precious little time, however, as the spit was only exposed during low tide, and he only had a few hours to advance onto the beach proper before he and his army drowned.
While a good two thirds of the Tatians were able to get past the beach defenses and off the spit before the tide came back in, the other third did not and had to be evacuated by boat before they drowned. Once all the troops that could not be landed were back on the boats, he ordered his planes in the air to begin targeting the machine gun positions near the harbor. However, by this time, the Dolphinesians had set up their anti-aircraft guns just behind the harbor and were reducing the effectiveness of the Tatians' air attacks, as well as shooting down a few planes. Faced with basically no other choice, General Dean ordered his remaining troops to land under heavy machine gun fire in the harbor. Losses were heavy and many of the units lost so many men that their chains of command fell apart, but as hours went by, the Tatians were able to overwhelm the defenders by sheer force of numbers and neutralize both the remaining machine gun positions and anti-aircraft guns.
While his situation looked incredibly bleak on paper, King Kamehameha still had one ace in the hole: some of the troops he had spent the past week or so mobilizing were on boats and were rapidly approaching Moetorua from the southwest. Over the rest of the day, the Tatians advanced rapidly through the city, pushing the Dolphinesians back on two fronts. They managed to separate the city's defenders into two groups: one fighting in the city center, led by King Kamehameha, and another desperately defending the city's crucial airfields. While those in the city center were able to hold out until the end of the day, the group defending the airfield eventually found itself surrounded and had no choice but to surrender, handing the Tatians another massive airfield to conduct bombing raids from.
Phase IV: The Taku Island Campaign Begins, the Battle of Moetorua Continues, and More Bombing Raids
Meanwhile on Taku Island, more and more Ishga and allied troops arrived by sea in Taku City, the vast majority of them Yirians. Smaller numbers of Platypusians, Ishgas, East Islanders, and a couple cohorts of Arturian Cowlanders that happened to be on Atlantea at the time of the attack were also included. They were immediately sent deep into the jungles of Taku Island to intercept the imminent attack on Taku City. All on one day, the Tatians began their advances on three fronts towards Taku City. One from Rekohu, another from Nukuoro, and a third (completely unforeseen by the Ishgas) from Anuta. In fact, the Ishgas only found out about the third front when their intelligence informed them of a massive army moving west from Anuta towards the small (but strategically important due to its airfield and position at the head of a vital passage through the Taku Highlands called the Waititi Track) village of Waititi.
While the Ishgas and their various allies were able to halt the Tatian advance in the flat parts of the jungle, the small garrison of Waititi was overwhelmed and had to flee up the Waititi Track to avoid being encircled and forced to surrender. Over the next week, troops and supplies would continually be funneled from Taku City into the Waititi Track to reinforce the troops already defending it, but the Tatians had not only a numbers advantage but also machine gun and artillery support, since the Tatians had decided to drag their heavy equipment up the mountain track and the Yirians had chosen to leave most of their heavy equipment behind, erroneously thinking it was too heavy to carry through the hilly jungle terrain. A particularly bad setback for the Yirians occurred when the Tatians were able to scale the 300-foot-tall Waititi Escarpment, even though it was defended by a numerically superior Yirian force, simply because the Tatians blew the latter to smithereens with turbolaser cannons.
By the end of the week, not only were the Tatians on the Waititi Track within sight of Taku City, but a small force of Yirians sent through the jungle to try and liberate Anuta and flank the Tatians from behind found itself surrounded before reaching the city and had to surrender. However, help did come to the Ishgas, just not in the way they intended: over ten thousand indigenous Taku Islander guerillas had started launching raids on their Tatian occupiers, especially in the highlands, jungle, and along the Waititi Track, distracting the Tatians. They also provided medical, logistical, and intelligence assistance to the Yirians, which the latter greatly appreciated. However, some of the Ishgas treated them poorly due to racism. As a result, friction over this often occurred between the Yirians and Ishgas when the Yirians defended the indigenous guerilla warriors from racist remarks or belittlement, distracting the entire force and allowing the Tatians to gain even more ground on the Waititi Track.
This culminated in Jandamarra Boolway, a Yirian Lieutenant fighting with his Ishga counterpart over the latter excluding a party of indigenous warriors from dinner at the Yirian camp one night despite the warriors having spent much of that day carrying wounded Yirian, Ishga, and other allied soldiers off the battlefield to a field hospital. This fight escalated into Jandamarra bludgeoning his Ishga counterpart to death with a traditional Yirian nulla nulla club, resulting in Jandamarra being summarily executed by Ishga soldiers. The death of Jandamarra and the mistreatment of Taku Islander guerillas sparked outrage against the Ishgas both on Taku Island and in Yiri, resulting in Michael himself having to step in and do damage control before things could escalate further. Michael instructed Ishga generals to crack down on racism among their troops and to court martial any who discriminated against Yirians or Taku Islanders, publicly apologized for Jandamarra's death and thanked the indigenous Taku Islanders for their contributions to the war effort, and had the soldiers who killed him court martialed. While this assuaged the concerns of the Yirians and Taku Islanders, many Ishga soldiers expressed anger at being blamed for the situation, and Michael was forced to respond by financially compensating the family of the man Jandamarra killed behind the scenes and quietly promoting or raising the pay of some Ishga officers who did not necessarily deserve it to keep them quiet.
Meanwhile, the garrison in Moetorua's city center, surrounded and running out of supplies, had started making plans to surrender when as if out of nowhere, dozens of Dolphinesian-crewed Ishga planes appeared in the sky, vastly outnumbering the Tatian planes. Since taking control of Moetorua's airfield, the Tatians had used it to conduct air raids as far away as Telore and Clalor on the west coast of Squidia, but this air campaign was cut short when the newly arrived Ishga planes started strafing the airfield, destroying dozens of Tatian planes while they were still preparing for takeoff. Morale among King Kamehameha and the city's defenders soared, and they were even able to gain some ground against the Tatian lines, despite being completely surrounded, running low on ammunition, and starving. By the next day, the Dolphinesians had regained control over the skies over Moetorua, and started bombing General Dean's seaships in the harbor, which were now effectively sitting ducks. Checking his radar, General Dean could see three Dolphinesian aircraft carriers, undoubtedly where the planes were coming from, around ten miles out to sea in the southwest, along with a huge number of landing craft and a couple of destroyers. In addition, he saw two more Ishga carriers, a destroyer, and several more landing craft approaching from the southeast, which he concluded must have been coming from Squidia.
Now faced with inevitable defeat and most likely imminent capture, General Dean ordered a fighting retreat to the harbor and to begin evacuation of all troops in Moetorua. However, since almost two thirds of the Tatians' seaships had been sunk by Dolphinesian pilots, only General Dean and less than a third of the troops he arrived with were able to make it out of the city. The rest, abandoned at the harbor with no means of escape, had no choice but to surrender. When Tate heard the news that eight entire legions were simply abandoned in a city to surrender, he was so furious with General Dean that he considered firing or even killing him (sources disagree on the subject), but then he realized that there was no way Dean could have known about the impending counterattack and calmed down.
Just hours after the Tatians left, the Dolphinesian and Squidian reinforcements landed in the city, finding nothing but ruined buildings, King Kamehameha, a few hundred beleaguered defenders, and a huge number of Tatian POWs. While there was no longer a threat of a direct Tatian attack on the Dolphinesian Capital, the Dolphinesian Government chose to remain in Nukupunga for the time being, returning to the city only when it was rebuilt, unexploded ordnance was cleared out, and the threat of additional Tatian bombing raids had ceased. Led by the esteemed Ishga General Hutchinson, the Dolphinesians and Squidians, which were at full strength since they encountered no resistance, decided to simply re-embark and sail toward Taku Island, where they would land at Anuta and catch the Tatians in a pincer, along with the Yirians defending the Waititi Track.
Phase V: The Taku Island Campaign Continues, the South Taku Islands Campagin Begins, Orbital Bombardments, and Tatian Withdrawal
While the Tatians on the Waititi Track had their hands full dealing with local militias encroaching on them from the rear, the Arturian Cowlanders (heavy infantry from the planet Arturia and famed across the galaxy for their fearlessness, skill in mountain warfare, and gratuitous use of bagpipes) managed to launch a counterattack on the distracted Tatians, inflicting heavy casualties and buying critical time for reinforcements from Taku City to arrive. This time, the fresh troops came prepared with artillery, machine guns, and even some light tanks. Within days, the reinvigorated Ishgas and allies began to finally hold the line and even push back. While the skies over Taku Island had by this point become a chaotic mess with sporadic bombing raids conducted by both sides and each side being able to intercept each other at times, the five aircraft carriers from Moetorua easily turned the tide once they arrived, leaving control of the skies firmly in Ishga hands within six hours of their arrival. In addition, over the next few days, the Yirians rapidly pushed the Tatians back through the Waititi Track, retaking the village of Waititi and re-establishing control over the entire trail in a remarkable three days. Once the Tatians heard about the Squidian-Dolphinesian fleet approaching from the south, they completely panicked, ordering a complete evacuation of Taku Island to avoid another disastrous surrender.
Immediately, Tatian demolition crews destroyed a bridge over a deep ravine at the end of the Waititi Track to delay the Yirians, while they worked on setting up defensive fortifications to cover the mass evacuation. With the Yirians delayed by a ten-day mountain hike to get around the ravine, the Tatians got what anti-aircraft weapons they had together to defend against air attacks and began heading to the ports of Nukuoro, Rekohu, and Anuta to begin the evacuation. Due to the Tatians' anti-aircraft weapons, General Hutchinson's air raids were not as effective as intended, and pilots often missed their targets trying to avoid anti-aircraft fire. This resulted in the Tatians managing to escape virtually unscathed from Nukuoro and Rekohu. However, General Hutchinson, seizing a golden opportunity, arrived in Anuta harbor a day ahead of schedule and destroyed all the Tatians' ships before the Tatians could get on them. Trapped between General Hutchinson's force and the Ishgas and allies slowly approaching from the west, the Tatians in Anuta surrendered, ending the Taku Island Campaign.
Meanwhile in the South Taku Islands, Hrafn Ironsides of Eyjagard, having finally finished taking his sweet time to mobilize his troops, undertook a whopping seven simultaneous landings on all of the Tatian bases in the South Taku Islands, overwhelming and taking Soilufu, Lalolau, A'ufuta, Pileni, Nukumanu, and Sikaiana all on the same day.
Upon hearing of these disasters, Tate was absolutely livid. He ordered his fleet orbiting the planet to bombard the cities of Jubenar, Moetorua, Te-Hokianga-Nui-a-Kupe, Eyjagard City, Azuton, Newharbor, Lujara, and Taku City. As the technology was still in its infancy and the targeting was particulary inaccurate, only the blasts targeting Te-Hokianga-Nui-a-Kupe and Newharbor hit their targets, doing major damage to the infrastructure of both. The blast targeting Moetorua struck the ocean and did nothing, as did the blast targeting Jubenar. The blast targeting Eyjagard City hit the countryside and blew up some random farms, the blasts targeting Azuton and Lujara missed and destroyed random mountains, and the blast targeting Taku City destroyed a few hundred acres of nearby jungle.
After making his statement through the bombardments, Tate calmed down and realized that a counterattack on Atlantea was a non-starter and that his plan, at least on this planet, had been a failure. He gave orders to General Dean to assemble all the remaining troops on the planet and take them to Fort Palm, where they would be in charge of keeping both the base and the Atlantean Tomes stored within safe until Tate could figure out somewhere else to put them. The Tatian fleet ordering the planet was given orders to immediately withdraw before the Aurean Starfleet was avaible for a counterattack.
Aftermath
Tate's attempt to retake Atlantea had utterly failed, resulting in the deaths of almost 12 legions' worth of soldiers and the capture of just as many. In addition, Tate had just wasted more than a month of precious time on the failed counterattack, although this was partially made up for with substantial gains elsewhere, most notably the recapture of 15 UniSyn Colonies on the Southern Front. Nevertheless, the Ishgas and the various countries that made up Atlantea were not without their losses either, with the cities of Moetorua and Taku City being practically reduced to ruins, and civilian deaths numbering in the tens of thousands, as well as over 20,000 military deaths.