Background
2 years earlier, Tate took control of the entire South Galaxy (with the exception on neutral Rahasy) and Weasel went missing. Tate ordered his army to occupy every important planet in the South Galaxy and begin enforcing Tatian rule there. Every planet he invaded surrendered with out a fight, except for Ryu 108, which had to be conquered using force (but this was done with extreme ease during the 2nd Battle of Bjørnholm). Since Weasel's old friends were all designated enemies of the state, they were hunted down mercilessly by Tate's army. The only inhabited planets in the galaxy remaining independent at this point were Arturia, Rahasy, Aztlan (though nobody knew of its survival after Xibalba struck the planet) and Ishgabangaloodoo. Ryan, who was forced to become Tate's advisor since Tate was the new King of Aurea, eventually got fed up with the job and fled to Ryu 97. Meanwhile, Taftenkhamun was on Eaglypt, trying to figure out what happened to his people. Reshon had returned to Planet Squid, since he was one of Tate's lower-priority targets. Meanwhile, Nate had traveled to Aztlan to see if there were any Aztlanians who survived Xibalba. What he found were small groups of survivors, hiding out in difficult-to-reach places such as Cenote and the Tierra de Brea. Over the next few months, Nate oversaw the reconstruction of the city of Tenochtitlan, though this time, all but the deepest parts of Lake Coxcote were drained since it was already choked with ash and dust from Xibalba's impact.
Phase One: Ryu 97
Upon arrival on Ryu 97, Ryan spent a week or so living in an apartment in Jade City, but the Tatian presence was so large there he knew he would have to flee or else be caught and face execution. He snuck out of the city and sailed south to the hilly, jungle-covered continent of Nha Dun. Here, he began living out a simple life as a farmer in an impoverished, rural village. However, he soon got news that the Tatians were moving a garrison into the area to keep an eye on the local tribes. This made Ryan think that life was pointless on the run and that he should just turn himself in and be executed. However, when he tried to turn himself in, he did not find the enemy garrison. Instead he found the Ryu 97 Resistance Movement wearing the uniforms of slain Tatian soldiers. They took Ryan into their resistance, and he eventually became their leader. After a small skirmish with Tatian troops in the jungles near Ka Nhang, Ryan and the resistance stole some enemy transmitters. They then went into the transmitters' call history and discovered Tatian plans to move an entire legion of troops to Ha Koi, a fortress deep in the jungle that the Aureans used during the war. Ryan and the resistance quickly moved to set up defenses there. The jungles nearby were covered with mechanical landmines and there were crouching tiger cannons and ballista elephants on every tower. The Resistance movement also made use of some Aurean tanks and planes they found in the hangar. When the Tatian Legionnaires arrived, they were subjected to resistance they did not expect and the legion was easily decimated. All those who were not killed were captured and used as informants. The Ryu 97 Resistance Movement then made Ha Koi their base of operations and began intensifying their raids on enemy troops. Before long, the Tatians began to conclude that this resistance movement was responsible for the unexplained disappearance of their legion. Pengkhianat, the Tatian governor of Ryu 97, decided to send four legions against Ha Koi. The Resistance then used the stolen transmitters to wiretap enemy communications, alerting them to the attack. Mines in the jungle that had either been exploded or cleared were replaced. Before long, Tatian fighters were seen performing recon. The planes took note of the position of the cannons and the ballista elephants, and even fired at the ground to check for mines. Ryan ordered the cannons to fire at the enemy planes before they could return to the Tatian base. Through lucky shots, the cannons managed to shoot down one of the enemy planes, but the rest escaped without incident. Using ghillie suits to camouflage themselves, Tatian legionnaires snuck into the jungles surrounding Ha Koi, along with de-mining squads. The Ryu 97 Resistance Movement did not have the equipment to spot them, allowing them to perform their work undisturbed. Before long, there were enough mines cleared out for Pengkhianat to begin his plan to build a siege embankment. The next day, the Tatian Legionnaires arrived, with the middle formations focused on building the embankment and the outer ones focused on defending the embankment during construction. Tatian fighters distracted the Ryuans' Aurean planes, preventing them from bombing the embankment or enemy troops. Cannons and ballista elephants, however, proved to be a massive problem for the Tatians. The fighting continued like this for a few weeks until the embankment was complete, but by the time it was finished, the Tatians did not have enough troops remaining to launch a successful mission to take Ha Koi. Pengkhianat blew his horn and the Tatians retreated to their base. The battle had not gone well for the Tatians, who lost almost half of the force they sent out to take Ha Koi. Pengkhianat was now in a complete panic. All Tatian forces on Nha Dun were ordered to the port of Kai Gon, which was Nha Dun's capital. After hearing of the resistance's defeat of the Tatians at Ha Koi, support for the resistance among the civilian population increased dramatically. Local villagers began offering them supplies as they passed through the land, and many new recruits joined the resistance itself. Some even journeyed all the way from the northern continent across the sea to join. Soon, the resistance had almost 10,000 men. At this point, Pengkhianat decided to tell Tate about the situation on Ryu 97. Tate told him that this rebellion was small and insignificant, and could most likely be dealt with by defoliating the jungle to deny them cover. He said that if worst came to worst, he could order in a Tatian cruiser to perform orbital bombardment. A week later, Tatian fighter squadrons began flying over the jungles of Nha Dun, dumping napalm all over the place. Although this did cause the deaths of at least a few hundred resistance fighters, this killed almost a million civilians and was discontinued once the Tatians realized the civilian cost of such a move. Seeing the government that was supposed to be protecting them burning down their villages instead, the locals began to enlist in the resistance en masse. The resistance soon had 16,000 troops, surpassing the size of the Tatian garrison on the continent of Nha Dun. The resistance began seizing control of Tatian airfields, planning to use those in an air offensive over the Nha Dun capital of Kai Gon. Since the resistance did not want to kill the people whose rights it was defending, they sent spies into the city. The spies informed the population to spray paint fake lesions and bruising onto their bodies to make it look like they the black plague. The next morning, the entire city pretended to have an outbreak of the plague, causing the city's guards to let them all out of the city. The spies ensured that the citizens were let out in waves so that the guards did not get suspicious. By this time, all Tatian aircraft on the continent of Nha Dun had either been destroyed or captured with the airfields. Once the city was cleared, the resistance launched a colossal bombing operation from the captured airfields. The bombers targeted Tatian military command centers, munitions stores, hangars, and other places of military importance. Pengkhianat was killed due to being inside the Kai Gon's military command center when it was blown up. Without control of the skies, the Tatian Garrison of Nha Dun surrendered. All remaining Tatian troops on the continent were rounded up and put into POW camps set up deep in the jungle. During the capture of Kai Gon, the resistance found a Tatian Cruiser that had been refueling there at the time of the attack. Moving quickly, Ryan saw a golden opportunity. If he could get the cruiser into flying shape before the Tatians could bring in reinforcements, he could use it to liberate the rest of Ryu 97 as well as possibly even Ryu 108. Resistance crews got to work on the ship, and it was ready ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, Tate had heard about the capture of Nha Dun and the death of Pengkhianat, and began to take the threat somewhat seriously. He sent a Tatian Cruiser to Ryu 97 with 3 legions and some equipment on board. Since the Tatians were not expecting the resistance to have any air power on that scale, they were caught off-guard when they came face-to-face with the resistance's captured cruiser. After a lengthy battle, the resistance won out and destroyed the cruiser in the planet's sky, causing a fireball visible across the entire planet. Seeing the destruction of a Tatian cruiser like that rallied the citizens of Ryu 97's main continent, who banded together, rose up, and toppled the Tatian government there within a week. A battle for control of the main continent was not even necessary; any hope the remaining Tatians had of defending what they had left of Ryu 97 went down the toilet as soon as the resistance landed their cruiser in the 97er capital of Jade City. Emperor Aaron was restored to the throne. Ryan then got the idea to travel the galaxy, reassembling all of Weasel's old friends and maybe even finding Weasel himself one day. They would amass a larger and larger army, and then use it to liberate the galaxy from Tate's brutal rule and reinstate Aurean hegemony galaxy-wide. Ryan then told the resistance about this, and changed their name to the Aurean Alliance. Ryan then spoke with Emperor Aaron, who agreed to make Ryu 97 the first member planet of the Aurean Alliance. Knowing that the Tatians would soon arrive with reinforcements, Ryan decided to have Aaron stay on Ryu 97 and oversee the construction of a larger fleet and the expansion of the Aurean Alliance military in general, while Ryan gathered his original forces into his cruiser and liberated nearby Ryu 108.
OUTCOME: AUREAN ALLIANCE VICTORY, TATIAN DEFEAT
Phase Two (Side 1): Ryu 108
Since Tate knew that any backup he sends would take time to arrive, he sent a message to Field Marshal Hiawatha, the Commander of Tatian Forces in the Ryu System, to prepare to defend Ryu 108 from rebels flying a captured cruiser. However, Hiawatha only managed to conscript around 3,000 bear warriors from the city of Bjornholm and the surrounding countryside. Ryan, on the other hand, had assembled around 20,000 resistance fighters from Ryu 97, as well as some travelers from Planet Squid and Rahasy who heard about the revolt on Ryu 97 and wanted in. Ryan knew that he would need air superiority in order to take control of Ryu 108. Knowing that the Tatians on Ryu 108 did not have a cruiser at their disposal, Ryan decided to bring his own cruiser into the battle to compensate for having less planes than the Tatians. When the cruiser approached the city of Bjørnholm, it was immediately swarmed by Tatian Fighters (their bombers were currently suppressing a revolt on Planet Squid). Ryan's fighters were immediately released from the cruiser's hangar. Since Ryan's force was composed almost entirely of veterans from the war, these pilots proved a tougher nut for the Tatians to crack than the Ryuan conscripts they wiped out 3 years earlier. Combined with sustained turbolaser fire from the captured cruiser, the Aurean fighters soon sent their Tatian counterparts flying back to their base in Andrew's Holt. Now that they had free reign over Bjørnholm's skies, Ryan sent out his bombers. However, these bombers did not terror-bomb the city the way the Tatians had done when they invaded. Instead, they simply destroyed the wall surrounding the city so Ryan could land his tanks and ground troops. Waiting for them on the beach were Bjørnholm's 15,000-man garrison, 3,000 local conscripts, 10 Heavy Walkers, and 30 Light Walkers. Since Ryan's army controlled the skies, they were able to easily best Field Marshal Hiawatha's ground troops even with inferior numbers. Some members of Bear Lives Matter heard the battle going on and flanked the Tatians from the woods, ending their chances of winning and forcing them to retreat to Andrew's Holt. Over the next week, Ryan oversaw the recruitment of thousands of new troops, mostly from Bear Lives Matter and other resistance movements. 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. When the battle started, 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. 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.
OUTCOME: TATIAN VICTORY, AUREAN ALLIANCE DEFEAT
Phase Two (Side 2): Planet Squid
Meanwhile on Planet Squid, the Tatian occupation is fully underway. Tatian soldiers patrol the streets of the cities of Baobab and Zulundi. Any who dare resist Tate's rule are imprisoned or executed. However, unknown to the Tatians, the Baobab Council, the planet's governing body (basically an alliance of constantly feuding tribes) has been meeting in secret in Drum Jungle. Reshon, the old Zebra king, had to step down from his throne before the Tatians arrived due to him being one of Tate's targets. Cole, the Hyena king had to do the same. Both instead chose to go into hiding and lead resistance movements. While Cole and Reshon began recruiting fighters from around the planet, the Baobab Council had managed to assemble almost all of Planet Squid's army during the war (including several Aurean tanks), keeping it well-hidden in a base deep in Drum Jungle. However, this army was nowhere near enough to take back the planet from the Tatians. In addition to this, the Baobab Council is extremely ineffectual and corrupt, having essentially no experience in how to form and train an army. Although the tribes of Planet Squid had been fighting each other for millennia, they all agreed to put down their arms and unify in resistance against the Tatians. However, once the Baobab Council discovered what Cole and Reshon were doing, they ordered them to turn over their growing resistance armies to the Council. Only after being threatened with a civil war did Reshon and Cole relent, turning their armies over to the Council. Attempting to catch the Tatians by surprise, the Council foolishly sent a force of 3,000 Gorillas, Chimps, Elephants, and Zebras, led by the extremely incompetent General Mtethwa, to take the Tatian stronghold of Zulundi. Since the city of Baobab was off-limits, the Squidians were forced to march for miles through the desert, an endeavor that cost them much-needed supplies. Upon arrival in the outskirts of Zulundi, 2,000 Squidians decided to frontally assault the fortress while the other 1,000 opted to flank it. However, due to the incompetence of General Mtethwa, the Squidians made no attempt to disguise their presence, causing them to be subject to annihilation as soon as the Tatians sent out their walkers. After this embarassing defeat, the Squidians are forced into an extremely costly retreat through the desert that caused many who survived the battle to die of dehydration. By the time they returned to Drum Jungle, the Squidians had lost over 2/3 of their troops, while the Tatians hadn't even hit 600 casualties. Around this time, Taftenkhamun, a tactical genius and an old friend of Reshon and Cole, lands on the planet after failing to locate any traces of Eaglyptian civilization. Taftenkhamun meets up with these two, who tell them of the Baobab Council's ruining of their plans to liberate the planet. That evening, Taftenkhamun, Cole, and Reshon spy on the Baobab Council meeting, during which they see the Council's military ineptiude on full display. As soon as General Mtethwa is relieved of his command by the Baobab Council, Taftenkhamun, Reshon, and Cole emerge from the bushes and demand to be given control of the army. Since the Council had nothing left to lose at this point, they reluctantly went along with it. The troops, however, were much more enthusiastic, throwing them a massive party that night in celebration. A few nights later, Taftenkhamun decided to drastically switch tactics: every night for the next week, a small force of Gorillas and Chimps would sneak down the Great River to Baobab, and under the cover of darkness, sabotage whatever Tatian defenses or material they could find. The Tatians, led by the completely inept General Possumwhatan (a Caput Tatiian tribal chief who was pressed into military service as the result of a deal with Tate), decide after a week to take the fight to the Squidians and cross the river into the extremely dense jungle the Squidians were using as cover. Possumwhatan's lieutenants decided that this was such a stupid idea that they did not even bother coming along for the mission. Despite their protests, Possumwhatan sent 2,000 men and 3 walkers across The Fords of Msizi (one of the only places where walkers could cross the river) into the jungle. Since the fords had literally no cover, the Squidians saw the Tatians preparing their troops and hurriedly built all kinds of nasty traps, hiding them in the foliage. The Squidians themselves hid in the trees, waiting to swing down on approaching troops, kill them, and run back into the brush before the enemy could react. When the Tatians entered the jungle, they were completely unprepared for the Squidian traps and ambush tactics, in addition to having essentially no visibility in jungle that thick. The Tatians lost over 1,200 troops before they decided to retreat. The Squidians even manage to use an old Aurean tank to down a light walker. News of the victory swept the planet like wildfire, and a massive revolt in the city of Zulundi wiped out the Tatian garrison there in one night by sheer force of numbers. The Tatians who survived the Battle of Baobab , however, managed to spot the Squidians returning to their Drum Jungle base, giving Possumwhatan the idea to prepare for an all-out attack on their base. He and his troops would attack from the south, crossing the Great River at the Fords of Dingiswayo to do so. The Tatian Garrison on Shining Mountain (the last remaining garrison on the planet), would then flank from the west and force the Squidians to surrender. By the time the Tatians had prepared for their attack, however, the Squidians had already moved most of their base to Baobab now that they had control of the city. However, the Baobab Council was still in Drum Jungle, meaning the Squidians could still by no means afford to lose it. Meanwhile Reshon, Cole, and Taftenkhamun had worked together on a plan they believed would not only prevent a Tatian victory in Drum Jungle, but ensure a Squidian victory planetwide. A large primitive dam was built upstream a year or so earlier to compensate for the destruction of Mirror Lake, the Great River's source. The dam was guarded only by a century (80 men) of Tatian troops, so a raid was sent out before sunrise that morning. This raid succeeded in killing the century and capturing the rest, giving the Squidians control of the dam. Whenever the Tatians tried to check in on the dam's garrison by radio, Squidians would hold captured Tatians at spearpoint and have them do the talking. Assured by (unbeknownst to him) compromised men, Possumwhatan decided to go through with the attack on Drum Jungle. His troops and walkers march across the river, and it goes well at first. The walkers cut through the Squidian lines like a hot knife through butter, and even Cole, one of the architects of the master plan, began to fear a repeat of the Zulundi incident. However, everything changed when Taftenkhamun ordered the Zebra troops in control of the dam to use gunpowder barrels they had forced the captured Tatians to prepare for them to blow the dam. Just when all hope seemed lost, a loud explosion could be heard all around the area, which was followed by the approach of a massive wall of water. Since the Squidians knew what was coming, they had all retreated back into Drum Jungle when the wall of water flooded the Fords of Dingiswayo and completely annihilated the Tatian force. The force of the water was enough to simply knock over all of the Tatians' walkers, removing one of their largest advantages against the Squidians. The next day, Possumwhatan surrendered to the Baobab Council. What was left of his army was captured and sent to a POW camp in the Elephant Graveyard, while Possumwhatan was forced to leave the planet an told to never return. Planet Squid was now the second planet to be liberated from Tatian rule. A week or so later, Taftenkhamun received a call on his transmitter from his old friend Ryan. Ryan was on Ishgabangaloodoo, having recently liberated Ryu 97 from Tatian rule and amassed a small army. He had joined forces with Michael, Ishgabangaloodoo's King, to form the Aurean Alliance, a rebellion bent on overthrowing Tatian rule and returning freedom to the galaxy. Taftenkhamun told Ryan that himself, Reshon, and Cole had just raised an army and liberated Planet Squid from Tatian rule, saying he would be happy to have Planet Squid join the Aurean Alliance. However, when Taftenkhamun presented the idea to the Baobab Council later that week, they vetoed the plan, citing the dangers joining such a large-scale rebellion would involve. Only after Reshon threatened to send the Squidian army to depose them did the Baobab Council relent and agree to send a delegation (Reshon, Taftenkhamun, and Cole) to sign the Alliance Charter and join the Aurean Alliance.