Battle of Norsus

The Battle of Norsus, as it came to be known, was a short lived albeit fierce conflict that occurred on and in orbit of Norsus, the Homeworld and former seat of power to The Rach Empire. What was originally planned as a quick re-acquisition of the Planet from the Zaretian Monarchy by a small force of Allied Peacekeeper Forces quickly escalated into a conflict resulted in a clear cut defeat for the Peacekeeper Alliance.

Due to the Warlord Forces having gained a stark advantage over the much smaller Peacekeeper Forces in the form of significant reinforcements from The IAE, the Warlord Forces were able to defeat the Peacekeepers, forcing them to retreat and surrender Norsus.

Despite the outcome of the battle Warlord forces did not seize the planet, leaving it once again solely to the Zaretian Monarchy. The Warlord Victory is considered a major blow to Peacekeeper Morale.

Beginning
Ever since the Rach retreated into the Warp a little over ten years ago, Norsus had been occupied by the Zaretian Monarchy. The Monarchy was salvaging much of the planet in order to fuel their military and kept a large number of slaves here. At the same time, they were also using Norsus as a military staging point for their troops in the sector. This went largely uninterrupted until the arrival of the Gronian Imperium, who sought to eliminate Zaretian forces on the planet in order to disorganize their troops and lessen their influence in the region. Fighting between the two had been going on for some time before the actual Battle of Norsus started.

Soon after their return from the Warp, the Rach, under the command of General Gorach, returned to Norsus. They sought to force out Zaretian forces and reclaim their former homeland while bolstering the morale of the Rach. One of the first targets was the old radio broadcast tower that was used to block and send transmissions to and from Norsus. The Rach were hoping to use it to send out a distress signal towards any and all Peacekeeper empires. Successfully making landfall without being detected, spec-ops forces under the command of Gorach and Special Ops Lead Kertak managed to secure a path to the tower. Zaretian forces caught on to the act as Gorach began sending an emergency transmission and sent troops in an effort to stop them; however, they were unable to halt the transmission from being sent. Numerous Peacekeeper empires received the transmission and send troops to investigate.

It did not take long for the Rach to be noticed by the Gronians, who at the time did not know what the Rach were, simply referring to them as 'locals.' The Gronians quickly became annoyed by the Rach because of their intrusion into their operations. Gronian patrols attempted to intercept Rach forces but were for the most part unsuccessful. Eventually, however, one Rach was successfully captured and taken prisoner for questioning by Lady Calpria.

The first Peacekeeper forces to arrive were Luminarian forces under the jurisdiction of Commander Lyrek, who was initially heading towards a different location but decided to detour to Norsus to investigate the transmission. The commander's forces were ambushed by Zaretian forces but were able to defeat them. Soon afterward, a Rach spec-ops encountered them and invited Lyrek to speak with General Gorach. Lyrek agreed to help Gorach retake Norsus.