First Chatcaavan War

What the Pelted call what happened to them in Princes' Game. They aggressively named it the FIRST because they're determined to start the second when they find Second-to-the-Usurper and make him pay. Major events in this war as counted by the Pelted include things that happened on Pelted 'soil'. For the Chatcaavan version of these events, consult Insurrection.

Timeline, Early Events of the War

Major Events

Border Skirmishes

(largely unreported in PG, except as off-screen things; Maia mentions it I believe at the beginning of AR?),

Second's Push

"Our guess is that they crept out along the border, lined up at the edge of Sector Veta and headed spinward, because they also hit Sector Alpha" was Meryl's assessment.

• Bombed Tam-ley: "half the major continent, and part of the adjacent, when the tsunamis hit. Initial projections are that at least seventy percent of the population's dead." What remained of the population was advised to evacuate until the atmosphere settled down. Destroyed the orbitals ("almost nothing left there either"), and the welcome station at the system limit was completely destroyed.
• Passed through double system (Karaka'Ana/Seersana) in Sector Alpha, destroying the installations at heliopause ("billions of fins' worth of infrastructure")
• Bypassed Selnor (though they hit at least "four minor stations"), to raid "three separate colonies", but these were smaller groups and the damage wasn't as extensive
• "The few incursions Fleet had handled since Second’s passage had been minor and rare."

Battle of Selnor

After Second's attack, Fleet sortied a large percentage of its Fleet to Selnor (where FC is) to await redeployment.

"None of them said the obvious thing, which was how unneces�sary that scout duty was. Lisinthir didn’t need Meryl’s advanced training in tactics to read this situation. The system lords had come in force, and so long as they maintained cohesion there would be no stopping them. The Alliance might ruin most of the Chatcaavan vessels on the way in but it would use itself up in the doing, and it wouldn’t matter how few Chatcaava remained when the standards fell. There would still be Chatcaava standing, and no one left to gainsay them." When Jahir contacts Lisinthir on the Silhoeutte, Lisinthir reports: /Cousin, all the system lords are in the capital system, halfway to the planet!/ Jahir tells him that the Emperor's remaining fleet, combined with the Twelveworld levy, is more than enough to handle the remaining system lords (which implies that this combined fleet is larger than the force Fleet fielded, and Fleet's capital fleet is 15,000 hulls at this point in history). "Your lover says to leave some of the enemy for him… and his Queen says that today the wingless will retake the sky."

After that contact, Lisinthir serves as go-between, communicating psychically between the White Admiral (commanding the home fleet) and the incoming Chatcaavan allies. "The Admiral�Offense had ordered the safeties off the engines and they’d raced light to their destination… raced it, and won."

"A lot of people died in that battle," Vasiht'h reports (understatement of the century).

Aftermath

"In the wake of the battle, the Silhouette was assigned to search and rescue amid the wreckage, an effort that would require days of work and teams rotating on and off duty to avoid the mistakes made by fatigued and despondent crews."

Eldritch Prophecies

Not sure where else to put this, but it's relevant somewhere, so:

Only love can hold this, because the war for it will never end

You will have to make a choice, arii, a choice, you will have to make a choice

It is not enough to rule, one must Change

• "The future before us, and the empires we must maintain... only love can hold them. Or the war for them will never end." (Liolesa talking to Lisinthir)

• "It will pass," she said again. "You will find yourself having to choose, then." (Queen Ransomed talking to Vasiht'h)

• "Yes," the Emperor agreed. "Admiral-Offense, it is who we are. And we have held it apart from us for too long. It is not enough to rule. We must also Change."