Battle of Hethos

The Battle of Hethos was a decisive naval battle in the Zaretian Campaign that took place 6 months after the Luminarian Entrance and 2 months after the Assault on Balis. The Luminarian Navy under Admiral Aslai and Rear Admirals Valka and Xentha defeated the Zaretian Monarchy Navy under General Peacha and Admiral Galthos defending the Hethos Star System, inflicting devastating damage on the Zaretian Fleets, destroying most if not all the remaining frontline Monarchy Naval Forces in the Luminarian Front, allowing Luminarian forces to break through the Monarchy front lines.

The Luminarian operation, like the earlier attack on Balis, sought to eliminate major Monarchy logistical bases within the sector, scattering and forcing the Monarchy's forces to retreat. At the same time, the operation was also designed to lure the Monarchy's capital ships into a trap and increase the Luminarian Rebel's defensive perimeter, preventing any invasions from the Monarchy from reaching the Luminarian worlds. This operation was also considered necessary to link up with Aeverian naval forces and to create a secure logistical line between the 2 allied navies.

Monarchy forces were preparing for a major Luminarian strike against their forces. General Peacha and her Nightshade division had been collecting intel on Luminarian naval movements and were capable of anticipating the attack on Hethos. As such, Peacha began the work of preparing the system of Hethos to be filled with ambushes and other dirty tricks. Their main objective was to bleed the Luminarian Navy enough that support for the war would turn, turning the Luminarian public's support for the war around.

However, LCID, with the assistance of ACI managed to break the encryption that the 7th Fleet was using prior to the invasion, enabling the forewarned 2nd BattleFleet to avoid and set up their own ambushes. 7 Luminarian Battleships and 10 Zaretian Battleships participated in the battle, with the LNBs Unyielding, Admiral Aslai's flagship, and the ZMS Pansophical, General Peacha's flagship engaging multiple times over the course of the battle.

After the loss of Hethos, the Zaretian Monarchy would be hard pressed to conduct any further operations within that sector. Alongside with the loss of Gazika to the Aeveria, the Monarchy pulled further back into its own territory. This allowed the Luminarian and Aeverian navies to setup secure supply lines, allowing both navies to push further into Zaretian territory relatively unhindered compared to the opening battles.

Background
The 2nd BattleFleet's entrance into the Zaretian Campaign had caught the Monarchy's forces that were arrayed against the Aeveria off guard. This allowed the 2nd BattleFleet to accomplish its strategic goals of securing a buffer space between Monarchy forces and Luminarian worlds. However, the initial push was quickly slowed when General Peacha, originally assigned to assist Varthos in containing the Aeveria managed to quickly redirect frontline units to block the 2nd BattleFleet. The next few months saw some of the heaviest fighting recorded between the Luminarian Rebels and Zaretian Monarchy.

Admiral Aslai's primary strategic goal was the elimination of the Monarchy's heavy capital ships and bomber squadrons, which he believed were the main threat to the Zaretian Campaign. This concern was mostly due to the numerous Gemini attacks that were launched from ZMS Galaxy - Class ships, moreover due to the Zaretian Sprint Drives, afforded their ships a level of tactical mobility that the Luminarian ships could not match and was ruthlessly exploited by General Peacha.

Under continuous hit and run attacks, Admiral Aslai reasoned that in order to force the Zaretian Navy to commit to a fight, he had to hit a major logistics base in the region. LCIE operatives managed to identify the system of Hethos, as well as the planet, were the main resupply base for the 7th Fleet, prompting Aslai to select it as his main target.

Operation Thermal Detonation
Aslai's plan was to stage a massive shock offensive against Hethos using the 3 largest BattleGroups within the 2nd BattleFleet, while the other BattleGroups would hit neighboring systems to draw off Monarchy forces. Thanks to LCIE and ACI, Aslai was able to obtain the 7th Fleets OrBAT and was able to factor it into his plans.

In the few months spent fighting against General Peacha's fleet, Aslai would get a full measure of her character and tactics, and as such believed that by bringing the hammer down before Peacha could enact any of her plans would be the key to victory. As such, he ordered LCIE to doctor logistical records, leak tampered data and even letting the LNFg Vicarious, which was laden with falsified data, be captured by Monarchy forces, all to deceive the NightShade Division into getting the timing of the invasion wrong.

Luminarian SOC Operations
3 weeks prior to the battle, a Luminarian SOC detachment, led by Major Tolos entered the border of the Hethos Star System in the LNFg Penumbra, a heavily modified Aeverian Ranger-Class Frigate and cold coasted into the system. LCIE and ACI had managed to intercept and decode 7th Fleet communications and had pinpointed 3 major ambush points.


 * "Planetary Shotgun" at Hethos's moon
 * Neutron Bombs installed at the Minor Shipyards
 * Concealed Railgun Batteries around Hethos's asteroid ring

SOC Commandos would be inserted to disable and subvert these ambushes prior to the offensive. SOC elements engaged their NightShade counterparts and were able to subvert the detonation trigger for the Planetary Shotgun and Railgun batteries. However, NightShade operatives detonated the neutron bombs preemptively, killing several SOC commandos and Major Tolos.

Despite the death of their commander, the SOC detachment carried on with their mission and tagged several Monarchy capital ships and strikecraft supply depots just before the offensive started.

Zaretian 789th Fleet
The 789th Fleet arrived in system 20 hours prior to the offensive. General Peacha, believing that Aslai would commence his offensive in 4 days, recalled the 789th Fleet, a second line force, to reinforce the system.

However, the 789th was worn out by months of battle with Luminarian forces and needed weeks of repairs. The fleet flagship, the ZMS Gazer, led by Admiral Galthos had lost half her airgroup and as such docked with the shipyards orbiting the 2nd planet in the system, Gomoragh.

Further impacting the 789th's combat strength was several key defensive deficiencies that were present on most second-line ships. Pre-Norsus point defense systems had several design and configuration deficiencies which limited their effectiveness. To compound this deficiency, the 789th ships were not equipped with sprint drives unlike frontline forces and were unable to get into position when the Luminarians launched their offensive.

Quantum Torpedo Strikes
The Luminarian Claymore-Class Battleships, LNBs Unyielding, LNBs Falcata, LNBs Redoubtable, and LNBs Aether jumped into the Hethos system at different locations, drawing screening elements of the Hethos Defense Fleet away from the quantum gate deployment points.

The Luminarian Navy deployed 24 quantum gates at various points within the system, allowing for rapid redeployment of ships around these 24 points. Minutes after the quantum gates deployed, the Relentless-Class Battleships, the LNBs Orion, LNBs Ameliorator and LNBs Sternguard launched a massive Quantum Torpedo strike, engaging ships tagged by the SOC detachment, before having the BattleGroups, Telethia, Vasrius, and Noxia entered in system.

The initial torpedo barrage managed to sink 14 cruisers, 7 frigates, and the ZMS Gazer. Multiple Strikecraft supply installations were also blown up, reducing the number of Gemini squadrons that Peacha could utilize.

Battle at Gomoragh
BattleGroup Noxia, under Rear Admiral Xentha was tasked with subjugating the world of Gomoragh. Last minute intel given by the SOC detachment indicated the majority of the 789th Fleet was stationed there. Preparing for a heavy fight, Xentha approached the engagement with a relatively high degree of caution despite orders from Admiral Aslai. Due to the intense bombardment earlier, the 789th fleet's command structure was in tatters, the destruction of the ZMS Gazer killed Admiral Galthos, leading to piecemeal attacks by the remaining Zaretian defenders.

However, due to the cautious approach employed by Xentha, many of the 789th ships would be able to escape to assist with the fight at Hethos, including 4 Gemini squadrons onboard the ZMS Pack Mule, a Command-Class Carrier.

With little to no resistance left, Xentha followed Luminarian doctrine and bombarded military targets before holding her ships in orbit above civilian centers, demanding their surrender.

Battle at Hethos
Battlegroup Telethia and Battlegroup Vasrius, under Admiral Aslai and Rear Admiral Valka engaged the 7th Fleet in orbit over Hethos. The Zaretian 7th Fleet had numerical superiority over the combined battlegroups. In order to prevent the Zaretian heavy capital ships from overrunning the battlegroups, Admiral Aslai ordered the Luminarian forces to advance just right outside of the planetary shotgun's arc of fire.

Peacha, still under the belief that the planetary shotgun was still under her control, opted to send out a force to act as bait. 2 Battleships and their escorts wandered into the Shotgun's arc of fire in an attempt to lure the Luminarian forces into giving chase. But Aslai detonated the shotgun instead, setting off the massive amounts of explosives under the moon's crust. The resulting detonation maimed several escorts and the chunks of moon slammed into the Zaretian force, destroying it entirely.

With the numbers in their favor, the Battle at Hethos would begin in earnest, Railgun batteries subverted by SOC commandos would also assist the Luminarian Navy. However, stragglers from the 789th Fleet would manage to mission-kill the LNBs Redoubtable, taking it out of the fight for the next year.

After 3 hours, Peacha ordered a retreat, taking the 7th and 789th fleets out of the system, conceding it to the 2nd BattleFleet.

Aftermath
After 3 days and confirming no significant enemy presence, Aslai ordered the bombardment of military targets on Hethos. However, on Hethos, the line between military and civilian was blurred. Integration of military industry and civilian industry made it difficult for a clean surgical strike, moreover, LCIE operatives reported significant preparations were in place for a guerilla campaign, NightShade operatives were sighted supplying civilians with weapons. Additionally, LCIE also reported a buildup of Zaretian assets in nearby systems, preparing for an assault on Hethos.

As a result, Aslai broke from Luminarian doctrine and ordered the indiscriminate bombings of both inhabited worlds and their space-bound installations. Within 3 days of continuous bombardment, the system was scoured of Zaretians, both military and civilians.

Zaretian
With the utter destruction of the Hethos system, the Zaretian counteroffensive was canceled, and their forces fell back to more defended positions.

Aeverian-Lumi Relations
Aeverian and Luminarian Relations slightly deteriorated as a result of the indiscriminate bombings. However, having worked with the Karahotdoum before, they were relatively unfazed, and as a result, not much happened between the 2 empires, with only a request that the Luminarians not "pull this shit again, and let us handle it next time."