Battle of Selnor

The battle fought in From Ruins, in the Selnor System, which concluded the Alliance-Chatcaavan War.

Setup

Traitor-Second took his "scouting" fleet and attacked the Alliance, then kept going spinward. When the remainder of the forces massing at Apex-East heard of this, fighting broke out between the system lords and the Navy, and the Emperor arrived to put an end to their squabble. (See Battle at Apex-East.) Before and during the battle, many ships, mostly militia but also some navy, took advantage of the distraction to disappear. Some of them may have gone to the Throneworld to reinforce the Usurper, but some of them -- quite enough to be a serious threat -- went hunting the Pelted.

Events

While still mopping up in the Throneworld system, the Emperor sent Lisinthir ahead on the Silhouette to speak for him to the Alliance, promising his aid -- what little of it he could offer. The Throneworld battle had been costly: half the Emperor's numbers were gone, and the Usurper's loyalists had to be destroyed almost in their entirety. Then the Queen Ransomed (and Breath of the Living Air) arrived with the fleet of her new vassal, the Twelveworld Lord.

The Emperor left the Worldlord and Deputy-East behind to guard his throne, then combined his remaining fleet with the Twelveworld Lord's forces and raced toward the Alliance.

When the Silhouette arrived at Fleet Central, Lisinthir concluded from the signs that instead of piecemeal raids (which Fleet would've been able to repel), the system lords were massing somewhere for a coordinated attack. It wasn't long before their target was revealed: the Chatcaava were attacking Selnor, with a force large enough that the Alliance would have to use itself up in destroying it.

The system lords were all in the capital system, halfway to the planet, as the Silhouette took up scout duty, when Jahir, with a boost from Vasiht'h, reached Lisinthir's mind with the news of the Emperor's augmented fleet coming to the rescue.

So Lisinthir and Jahir coordinated between the White Admiral and the Emperor to crush the system lords between their fleets.

Results

Following their rescue by the victorious Emperor, the Alliance settles into an uncomfortable truce with the Chatcaava. They await another confrontation with Second. They name the battles around this time the *First* Chatcaava War, as they are angry and anticipate the second to be a confrontation with Second-that-was.

Witnesses

• on the Silhouette: Laniis, Lisinthir, Meryl, Na'er, Shanelle, Knife, Kuuvel. During mop-up, add: Patrick (backup medic), Andrea.
• on the Emperor's flagship: Sediryl, Maia, Uuvek, Jahir, Vasiht'h, Emperor, Queen Ransomed, Admiral-Offense. Probably also the Faulfenza, but that's just based on where they start (on the Vault) and where they end up later (saving Sediryl on the pirate base); there's no mention of them during the battle.