First Dwarven Invasion of Tellus

The First Dwarven Invasion of Tellus (24 April 2879-13 July 2881) was the first interplanetary war in the Hyperbrasil system. It was fought between the Dwarven Dynasty (dissolved) and the Tellan Colonial Administration (subsequently reformed into the Electorate Triarchy of Tellus) on the surface of and in orbit of Tellus. Ultimately, Tellan forces would defeat the Dwarven Dynasty Space Navy, forcing their remaining spaceships to retreat or surrender. In 2879, Tellus had a population of about 207,000. At least 27,000 would be killed by Dwarven forces, both directly and indirectly.

Led by Genth Keegold (who would later change his legal name to Keegold the Invader), the Dwarven Dynasty was made up of all the city-states in Terrisus, either willingly or by subjugation. In 2877, Dynasty had levied sanctions against Tandua, causing Tandua to face a shortage of rare metals required to procure spacecraft, orbital infrastructure, and other related components. This spread Tanduan military forces thin, leaving the moon Actis almost completely undefended. In 2878, the Dynasty made a play for Actis, which is arguably the most strategically important moon in the Kepule system. Securing access to the moon provided the Dynasty with the necessary fuel to wage a large-scale, interplanetary war.

Following the seizure of Actis, the Dynasty finished the construction of the Hyperbrasil system's first domestic war fleet. In 2879, Keegold ordered 40 of the 63 ships to depart for Tellus, with the plan to decisively defeat the defending spaceships and begin orbital bombardments and a ground invasion once orbital supremacy had been gained. Keegold aspired to gain at least partial control of Tellus to obtain access to the vast sums of biological materials and solar energy available there.

The Tellan Colonial Administration was made up of the Nares' Landing colony and several smaller, surrounding colonies. Upon realizing they were under attack, the colonies quickly, but informally, united. After the war, they would be officially known as the Republic of Tellus.

The Battle For the Tellan Well

The Tellan Well refers to the gravity well of the planet Tellus. The Battle For the Tellan Well was fought for control over the gravity well of Tellus.

On a trajectory set to intercept Tellus, the Dwarven Dynasty Space Navy's (DDSN) fleet of 40 Ceesilver-class warships (there was not yet any consensus of warship typing, as the Ceesilver-class was the first to be built and used domestically) were first spotted by a Tellan infrared telescope on 24 April 2879. While long range missiles were exchanged between the Dwarven and Tellan forces, neither side could effectively pose any threat to the other at such extreme ranges. Fighting in earnest would start and end on 2 May 2879. The derelict ships of Tellan Space Corps. (TSC) were no match for the Ceesilver-class, being both outnumbered and outgunned. The ships were very old (mostly pre-Wipe), understaffed, undersupplied, and many had fallen into disrepair. In the week leading up to the battle, the TSC scrambled to bring the ships to a battle-worthy condition, but only three were able to be completely restored. The remaining 33 were forced to make due. Ultimately, the TSC was defeated by the DDSN with its superior Ceesilver-class. The DDSN lost just one ship, the DDSNS Ceesilver, which was the lead ship of the class, as well as 4,263 personnel.

Following the battle, TSC Admiral Bob H. Nonce fled to Eris with two spaceships, TSCS Gollish and TSCS Big Fish, establishing Nonceville.

The DDSN had gained orbital supremacy over Tellus, now only challenged by surface-to-orbit and surface-to-space missiles. The 18 of the remaining 39 Ceesilver-class warships that were damaged moved to orbit Teln for repairs, while the other 21 ships maneuvered into an elliptical orbit to begin bombarding key locations on the surface of Tellus.

Ceesilver claimed it was "a lucky shot" that destroyed the DDSNS Ceesilver. In reality, it is more likely that the ship overextended.

Dwarven Landings and Orbital Bombardments

The Dwarven Landings were an attempt by the Dwarven Dynasty Space Navy to land troops on the surface of Tellus proceeding the Battle For the Tellan Well.

On 6 May 2879, Grand Admiral Ceesilver ordered 21 DDSN spaceships to attack strategic locations on the surface of Tellus via orbital bombardment. The Ceesilver-class proved an inadequate orbital bombardment platform; it was not equipped with the proper munitions required for precision strikes, and did not allocate enough of its payload to perform saturation bombardment effectively. Dwarven engineers and scientists that inhabited Terrisus, a moon with no natural atmosphere, were not familiar with the physics of atmospheric entry and reentry at extreme velocities and were thus unable to design munitions of quality. Many were solid, unguided rods made of dense materials metals. Few weapons hit their targets, with most missing entirely, some being intercepted by Tellan missiles, and others breaking apart during reentry.

On 9 May 2879 Grand Admiral Ceesilver, in a fit of rage over the ineffectiveness of the DDSN's orbital bombardments, ordered the four TCS spaceships that surrendered to the DDSN to be scuttled by crashing them directly into Tellus in hopes of destroying any important targets they would be unlikely to hit. This order was canceled before it was carried out. Instead, the four spaceships were repaired to an acceptably operational status before being modified to perform a powered landing on the surface of Tellus, similar to the plan of first Tellan colonists. These four captured ships would attempt to ferry about 23,000 troops and crew to the surface, with no guarantee of returning to orbit. The first would be intercepted by a Tellan missile, killing all 4,452 aboard. After choosing a new set of landing locations that were out of missile range, the other three ships would successfully land 18,548 dwarves on Tellus by 29 March 879.

While ineffective at destroying targets, orbital bombardment would continue to be employed as a terror weapon to degrade Tellan morale. Initially, it succeeded in this, but Tellan citizens would later realize that the dwarves could not effectively destroy them in this way, which instead resulted in morale improving.

As the ships' munitions ran low, Ceesilver ordered regolith and megaliths to be gathered from Teln and hurtled toward Tellus. These rocks were equally as ineffective, and orbital bombardments ceased entirely by 12 July 2879.

In December 2879, Keegold the Invader ordered 30 spaceships to return to Terrisus post-haste, leaving Ceesilver with just nine. Ceesilver consolidated remaining munitions, supplies, and fuel, and then sent the spaceships on their way, famously saying, "Go, now, and travel well, mighty ones. Resistance will be utterly defeated and the bounty will be ours by the day of your return." The latter sentence is often forgoed when quoted.

Dwarven Forces on the Tellan Surface

29 March 2879 marked the first time foreign forces would land on Tellus. 18,548 dwarves were safely deposited on the surface, all of which were trained soldiers and space sailors. Of the three ships that landed, one would later topple over on the unstable beach it landed on and be rendered inoperable, while the other two would serve as improvised command centers and basecamps. The remaining nine ships in orbit would serve primarily as intelligence units and would occasionally resupply troops when possible.

Tellus' dense jungles and rain forests would prove challenging to the dwarven invaders, slowing the movement of troops. What little armored vehicles the DDSN did land on the surface were almost entirely useless as they were not designed for such a humid and squishy environment. Most vehicles got stuck in mud or were impeded by flora. They would be relegated to static defense of the landing sites, the ground of which became hardened and dried by the immensely hot exhaust gases of the ships. A significant portion of the dwarves' equipment would be lost to water damage.

Thanks to the high humidity of the Tellan atmosphere, warm temperatures, and the lack of immunity to local diseases (an oversight on the part of Keegold the Invader), disease was able to propagate easily. Over the course of the war, various diseases would kill 2,152 dwarves, the vast majority of which would be killed shortly after landing.

Gravity would also serve as a challenge to the dwarves, who had become accustomed to low or no gravity during the voyage from Terrisus to Tellus. While no dwarves would be directly killed by the high gravity of Tellus, they would be tire more quickly and be unable to carry as much as they would have been able to in Terrisus.

On 1 January 2880, there were a total of 16,396 dwarven troops on the Tellan surface with two major encampments and 15,970 space sailors crewing nine Ceesilver-class spaceships.

Tellan Retaliation

On 3 January 2880, the dwarven encampments had been fully established, with communications between each other and the nine orbiting ships. After abandoning orbital bombardment, Grand Admiral Ceesilver situated his ships in such a way that they would be able to provide a rudimentary global positioning system and communications network for the troops on the surface. Tellus, lacking access to orbital infrastructure, had no data on the precise location of either of the dwarven encampments. Plans were drawn up to strike the camps with long-range missiles, but could not be carried due to a lack of adequate guidance system. Instead, they stockpiled their remaining surface-to-orbit missiles and, on 26 January 2880, launched all of them at the DDSNS Scopper. Scopper was too large and slow to effectively evade the attack, and its point-defense systems were overwhelmed by the sheer number of incoming projectiles. The attack would obliterate Scopper completely, killing about 1,700 space sailors.

DDSNS Scopper exploding as seen from the ground.

On the surface, both dwarven and Tellan forces would mobilize. The Dwarves had the objective of capturing or destroying Tellan settlements, primarily Nares' Landing, while Tellan forces aimed to kill or capture all dwarven forces. Neither side was equipped with long range rockets, missiles, or artillery; most engagements would take place at ranges that rifles and machine guns are effective. Both sides had very limited access to armor and aircraft, meaning the vast majority of battles were fought entirely by infantry. The Tellans would have air superiority throughout the duration of the war thanks to their having of rigid-hull airships. They were primarily used for reconnaissance and occasionally for light bombing missions, although they were mostly ineffective at the latter. No Tellan zeppelins were shot down during the entire war, although some would be sabotaged or destroyed on the ground.

While Tellan scouting parties and airships searched for the dwarven bases and advancing troops, Neck was fortified while its inhabitants prepared to defend their home against the oncoming dwarven invasion.

A map showing the dwarven camps (gray) and four of the most important Tellan settlements (yellow) during the war.

Battle of Neck

The Battle of Neck (3 March 2880-24 July 2880) was a battle that took place in and around Neck, Tellus during the First Dwarven Invasion of Tellus.

Neck is situated on a small land bridge connecting two larger land masses, making it a choke point. Trees were cleared and trenches were dug that reached from the southern shore to the northern shore, forming a defensive line. Both Dwarven and Tellan forces would be spread thin across the line, lengthening the conflict as troops had to first locate each other while navigating the jungle and attempting to stay hidden themselves. The western side of the line was heavily mined by the Tellans. After the mines were planted, the Tellans would remain on the eastern side of the line, waiting for their enemies to appear. Occasionally, one side would attempt to burn part of the jungle in which enemies were suspected of hiding, but the fires would usually be quelled by rainfall within hours or days. It is unknown how effective gas attacks were due to the common inability to locate corpses; an enemy may have been killed and not found, or the attack could have missed entirely.

Early on in the battle, Tellan airships easily spotted dwarves on the ground due to their lack of adequate camouflage, although they quickly learned to make improvised ghillie suits—something the Tellans had already mastered.

Ultimately, the dwarves would break through the Tellan line. While the Tellans were not outright defeated, they became disorganized guerrillas, attempting to harass and impede the dwarven forces whenever possible, but could not totally stop them.

Balle's Mutiny

Sargent Michael B. Balle was among the estimated 1,500 Tellans captured after the Battle For the Tellan Well. About half of the prisoners were taken back to Terrisus. Beyond that, their fate remains unknown. Some prisoners are suspected to have been killed in the aforementioned obliteration of the DDSNS Scopper, leaving around 670 Tellan prisoners spread across eight ships.

Balle was held aboard DDSNS Malloy, the ship that Grand Admiral Denish Ceesilver had transferred to after the ship she previously commanded, DDSNS Ceesivler, was lost. He, and the other prisoners aboard, were frequently interrogated and sometimes tortured by the dwarven crew, who were attempting to acquire knowledge of Tellan supplies and weapons, key locations, leaders, tactics and strategies, and other important information.

On 31 October 2880, Balle was able break free of his captors' grasp while being transferred back to the brig after a routine torture session. Thanks to living on a high-gravity world, Balle's strength was superior to that of the dwarves, who had undergone significant bone and muscle loss due to living in microgravity for the past several years at least.

Balle stole the sidearms of his two captors and killed them both. He timed his escape to happen when the door to the brig was open, allowing several other prisoners to escape. They were then able to free the remaining 73 prisoners without resistance—a result of dwarven overconfidence. The 79 men had two pistols and fourteen rounds between them. There were 1,770 dwarves aboard the Malloy, most of whom were trained with small arms. Unfortunately, the landing forces had taken most of the man-portable weaponry to the surface, leaving the space sailors with mostly sidearms. Balle's forces quickly mobilized, fleeing the brig. The Ceesilver-class warships had small, cramped tube-like corridors, often permitting only a single person to transit at once. Shootouts in these tunnels would often lead to a corpse being used as a shield while the living forces pushed it though the tunnel from behind.

Balle's forces split into two parties. Balle would lead half of the men to take the bridge, while Alexis Zelter and her men attempted to sabotage the ship wherever possible. Ultimately, Zelter would succeed in temporarily shutting down communications, but would halted at the engines. One engine was damaged beyond repair, but dwarven forces were able to kill Zelter and her men before they could sabotage the remaining propulsion and attitude control systems. Balle was successful in reaching the bridge, although he had lost most of his forces in the process; of 39 men, Balle had just 12 remaining. For four days, Balle would successfully hold hostage Grand Admiral Denish Ceesilver and several high ranking officers. Eventually realizing the hopelessness of their situation, Balle and his men placed Ceesilver and the other officers on a lifeboat with the radiators removed and the heaters set to maximum. The controls of all of the lifeboat's systems were also sabotaged. By the time the lifeboat was retrieved by another ship, all of its occupants had been effectively cooked alive. There were no survivors. After the lifeboat had launched, Balle and his men fought only to kill as many dwarves as possible. Ultimately, all 79 escapees and 546 dwarves would be killed.

Balle's Mutiny successfully eliminated the chain of command for the DDSNS Malloy, permanently damaged the ship's propulsion system, and killed 30% of the ship's crew. The Malloy would later attempt to retreat to Terrisus, but would ultimately be scuttled before arriving.

Sketched rendering of a push through a tunnel by an unknown dwarf.

Bombing of the South Camp

The bombing of the South Camp was a massive series of Tellan air raids against the southern dwarven encampment starting 18 November 2880 and ending 1 January 2881. It saw the expenditure of over 900 tonnes of bombs dropped from 22 rigid-hull airships. Bombing missions were weather-permitting, as poor visibility would mean missing the target was extremely probable, and high wind speed could blow the airships off course. Paired with the low speed of the airships, the bombing campaign took far longer than Rodney Giles, mastermind of the campaign, had anticipated.

Ultimately, the Southern Camp was razed entirely to the ground. No Tellan airships were shot down, but one was lost to weather, having been blown out to sea. The crew members of this airship were never recovered.

Photograph of a Tellan bomber airship taken 18 December 2880.

Cessation and Aftermath

By 1 February 2881, Tellan military forces outnumbered the dwarves on the ground almost three to one. Neither side knew this, of course, and fighting continued until 13 July 2881 when Commanders Hent Feedman and Gon Degree surrendered their remaining ground forces unconditionally to General Marth A. Cromwell.

With no capable leadership in orbit, the remaining seven ships expended all of their remaining orbital bombardment munitions to little effect and then retreated to the Kepule system.

At the end of the war, about 50% of the Tellan military forces had been killed—about 12% of the total population of Tellus. Of the 120,000 dwarves present at the start of the invasion, exactly 81,512 had retreated or been ordered to return to Terrisus, 5,263 dwarves had surrendered on the surface, and 23,886 had been killed.

Domestication of elephants became regular practice on Tellus for military and civilian use, primarily as pack animals. Elephants were chosen for their strength and because they fared better than other animals in the Tellan jungles.

The city-states of Tellus under the Tellan Colonial Administration would unite and reform into the Electorate Triarchy of Tellus. Hailed as a hero, General Cromwell assumed power. Before his death in 2894, he established a pseudo-democracy in which three oligarchs with near-absolute power would be elected every five years.

Nonceville established an alliance with the Electorate Triarchy of Tellus in late 2881. Nonceville would serve as a military and research outpost on Eris in exchange for supply supplements.

Airships would serve as the dominant air force above Tellus for some time and would also be adapted for transport of goods and people. Guerilla warfare tactics would become a major part of Tellan military doctrine. Dwarven space superiority demonstrated the need for a stronger military force in space and for better surface-to-space weapons. Communication between Tellan population centers would be improved with landlines and radio repeaters. Balle became a legendary figure among Tellans after his actions became known. The First Dwarven Invasion of Tellus would plant a seed of hatred for dwarves in Tellan society.

The general ineffectiveness of the Ceesilver-class, especially at orbital bombardment, would prompt the design of new class that would never be completed. Failure to capture Tellan resources, the primary goal of the invasion, would hurt the Dwarven Dynasty economically, although not greatly. Keegold the Invader would flee the Hyperbrasil system in 2889 after being overthrown at the end of the First Kepulic Interlunar War.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse