The Battle of the Ladon is a massive battle that occurred on the surface of Mercury in 754 PCE from January 5th to January 6th, in which the Solar Republic's Free Legions managed to decimate the Society Remnant's armies and survive while preventing the Remnant forces from taking control of Heliopolis.
Background[]
In August 753 PCE, ArchImperator Darrow O'Lykos launched an Iron Rain against the orders of the Republic Senate to seize control of Mercury. Shortly before the battle, the Society Remnant sent Julia au Bellona and Asmodeus au Carthii to request a cease-fire for the negotiation of a peace treaty between the Society and the Republic. Darrow correctly deduced that the request and offer of peace were a ruse, and proceeded with the Iron Rain regardless.
A month later, Darrow spoke to the Senate on Luna to request additional troops for an assault on Venus to finally bring an end to the Solar War. However, Julia had arrived on Luna shortly after Darrow had, and Senator Dancer O'Faran permitted her to present the Society Remnant's offer to the Senate. As punishment for disobeying their orders and concealing the emissaries from them, the Senate strips Darrow of his rank as ArchImperator and issues a warrant for his arrest.
Recognizing that the peace talks were a diversion for the Society Remnant to distract the Republic, Darrow and a small team of Howlers fled Luna for an unsanctioned black-ops mission on Venus to assassinate the Society Remnant's official leader, Magnus au Grimmus, in his home on Gorgon Isle. As part of their plan to infiltrate Gold territory, they infiltrated Deepgrave prison and freed Apollonius au Valii-Rath in order to use his vendetta against the Ash Lord and his brother Tharsus' connections to gain access to Magnus' citadel.
Fearing that Darrow would use the loyalty many soldiers had toward him to seize power for himself, the Senate placed Imperator Cadus Harnassus in command of the Free Legions, and ordered him to send half of the Republic's White Fleet back to Luna.
Darrow and the Howlers arrived on Venus in mid-November 753 and found that fewer of the Society Remnant's warships were present around the planet than they had expected. After fighting their way through the Ash Lord's defenses in the Battle of Gorgon Isle, they discovered that the Ash Lord had secretly been dying of poison for the last three years thanks to the efforts of Apollonius. Magnus revealed that the peace talks were a ruse devised by his daughter Atalantia, who now serves as Dictator of the Society Remnant in his stead. With the Republic Senate distracted by their fear and paranoia over Darrow, Atalantia lead the Ash Armada in a brutal counterattack that destroyed the majority of the remaining ships in the White Fleet, leaving the Free Legions stranded on the surface of Mercury.
While Sevro au Barca took one group of Howlers and returned to Venus in response to the kidnapping of his and Darrow's children, Darrow and the rest of their party stole the Ash Lord's private shuttle, the Necromancer, and raced to Mercury to rescue the Republic troops.
Prelude[]
The few ships that survived the ambush of the White Fleet - including its flagship, the Morning Star - were damaged and unable to take off without significant repairs, leaving the Republic forces trapped on the continent of Helios, where they had established their central base of operations in the planet's capital city of Tyche.
While the continent's tropospheric shields protected the Republic legions from orbital bombardment by the Ash Armada, they remained vulnerable to guerilla attacks by Atlas au Raa and his Gorgon operatives of Legio Zero Pavor Nocturnus. Shortly before Darrow's arrival on Mercury, Atlas' forces kidnapped Republic Imperator Orion xe Aquarii from her personal quarters in Tyche and slaughtered her guards before leaving her severed fingers on the bed to mock the Republic forces.
Within his hidden bases in the Hesperides mountains, Atlas tortured Orion over the next three weeks while skinning alive Republic trackers that attempted to rescue her. When Society forces attempted to transfer her into orbit for interrogation, the transport was intercepted by Darrow and the Necromancer, who successfully extracted Orion after three weeks of gathering intel on the Society's movements from orbit and killed the Death Knight in the process.
After making landfall on Mercury and reuniting with Orion, Darrow devised a trap for Atlas and the Society's forces, dubbed Operation Voyager Cloak, in which Atlas is planned to be allowed to create a gap in the Republic's shields over the Plains of Caduceus for Atlantia to land her troops, where two Republic army groups and a series of atomic mines, along with six hidden torchShips, could annihilate her legions from three sides and force them to retreat into the Waste of Ladon. To lead Atlas into the trap, Darrow sent a team of Howlers led by Thraxa au Telemanus and Alexandar au Arcos to herd the Fear Knight toward the mining city of Eleusis.
Meanwhile, Darrow prepared an insurance policy dubbed Operation Tartarus. With the reluctant aid of the Master Maker Glirastes, Darrow had the Storm Gods that were first used to terraform the planet centuries ago excavated and transported to the Sycorax Sea, where Orion and a team of Blues would use them to interfere with Society senors and communications. As a contingency to ensure that the Blues running the Storm Gods could not decide on how to use them without him, Darrow had Glirastes install a safety valve that could forcibly disconnect the pilots from the machines if they disobeyed him.
Instead of taking the bait at Eleusis, Atlas launched an attack on the city of Angelia in the mid-eastern Ladon where the Republic had evacuated the civilian inhabitants of the cities around the intended killbox for Atalantia's legions. By the time Darrow, Thraxa, and Alexandar reached Angelia, nearly two hundred soldiers guarding Angelia are impaled on the plains outside the city. As a precaution, Darrow ordered Orion to begin activating the Storm Gods.
While this was happening on the surface, a delegation from the Rim Dominion arrived in orbit consisting of Diomedes and Seraphina au Raa, accompanied by Lysander au Lune, to secure an alliance with the Society Remnant against the Republic. After confirming Lysander's identity, Atlantia was persuaded to open talks. As a show of good faith and a demonstration that Lysander is not a pawn of the Rim or a puppet of Darrow, the Dictator demanded that Lysander and one of the Raa participate in her attack against the Free Legions. Seraphina eagerly volunteered, and along with Lysander was assigned to Ajax's Iron Leopards for the coming battle.
While investigating the aftermath of Atlas' attack on Angelia, the Howler Marbles discovered that the networks used by the mining cities on Helios were still connected via hard-line, which Atlas used to overload the cities' nuclear reactors powering the Republic's shields over the northern portion of the continent. With the Republic's shields decimated, the Society Remnant launched an Iron Rain.
Battle[]
As the Republic's shields went down, Darrow hastily coordinated a Republic response. Thraxa was dispatched to lead the Republic's Third Army at Kydon, while Feranis was ordered to hold Tyche until Harnassus could send reinforcements from Heliopolis. The Republic's Second Army was ordered to abandon their positions and rally at Red Reach base, while the First Army and all other units assigned to Operation Voyager Cloak were sent to rendezvous with the Morning Star at Sector Seventeen.[1]
Lysander and Seraphina fell in the Iron Rain as part of Legio X Pardus alongside Kalindora au San, the Society's Love Knight. The remaining shields that protected Republic forces from orbital bombardment prevented them from contest the Society's descent. Once the Society's troops reached fifty kilometers from the planet's surface, Atalantia and the Ash Legion broke away toward the northernmost part of the breach, while the Iron Leopards continued toward the southernmost part.
As the Society Remnant's troops fall toward the surface, the Ash Armada fires particle barriers at the surface and drop atomic bombs on depopulated zones, while Republic forces fire back with particle beams and guided missiles.[2]
Aftermath[]
While the Free Legions remained stranded on the surface of the planet and were forced to fall back to Heliopolis, they dealt a devastating blow to the Society Remnant's forces and lived to fight another day. While four million Republic troops were lost or killed in Atalantia's assault, the Society Remnant suffered twice that many casualties as a result of the Republic's efforts.[3]
Not knowing that Orion had gone against Darrow's orders about the limits of using the Storm Gods, Glirastes became increasingly reluctant to continue working with the Republic, only remaining loyal out of fear of how Atalantia will punish him for defecting in the first place.