First Battle of Deinazephanais (Wrath of the Gods)

The First Battle of Deinazephanais, fought in 2955 ED between the Adiguliz and the Śiter Guliz, was the first battle fought in orbit around the planet of Deinazephanais. It was also the first space battle of the Deinazephanais theatre of the Wrath of the Gods, involving over two hundred ships. The battle was decisive in breaking the blockade that the god Satar had placed around the planet and was one of his first major defeats. The success of the battle allowed Golise of the Adiguliz to reinforce his ally, the Ateter Kingdom, and saved it from being crushed by the technologically-superior Śiter Guliz.

Prelude
The Wrath of the Gods, beginning in 2990 ED, had already raged for thirty-five years, but the fighting had been almost entirely limited to the systems owned by the Adiguliz and the Śiter Guliz, with Deinazephanais forming only a minor theatre in the conflict. The only warfare on Deinazephanais was between the Ateter Kingdom and the independent cities in Hieret, a conflict which had been started by King Mako I of the Ateter Kingdom on Golise's recommendation.

However, by 2967 ED, the tide of the war had changed and the Śiter Guliz had overwhelmed the Adiguliz, outnumbering them in terms of ships, troops and systems. In 2961 ED, a fleet under the command of Satar, comprising of over two hundred ships, arrived at Deinazephanais and set up a blockade around the planet. Satar set himself up as god-king of the city-states of Hieret which had not yet been conquered by the Ateter Kingdom, and prepared to destroy and conquer all of Deinazephanais.

Golise had promised King Mako that the Śiter Guliz would not be allowed to gain control of Deinazephanais and assembled as many ships as he could spare to sent. He placed the small fleet of fifty-five ships under the command of his most-trusted commander ??? and sent them to reinforce the Ateter Kingdom. The fleet's first engagement was with a small force of Satar's ships that were ferrying slaves from Deinazephanais, at the Battle of Qeleph Qeliseot. The fleet arrived in orbit around Ein-Ceixos in late summer of 1085 ED.

Skirmish at Eindinus
The fleet, reduced to fifty-three ships by their previous battle, first arrived in orbit around Deinos Ai, Deinazephanais' nearest neighbour. Reports showed ??? that Satar had set up a tracking station on the surface of the Eindinus, Deinazephanais' largest moon, and guarded it with several defence posts and ships. ???'s plan of attack was to send seven of his ten stealth vessels to disable the tracking station, while the rest of the fleet remained out of detection range.

The seven ships took the moon's defence systems completely by surprise. Undetected until they opened fire upon the tracking station, the ships took only minimal damage before the tracking station and the five ships guarding the moon were destroyed. All forms of transmission were completely blocked by the stealth vessels' advanced anti-communication systems, and reports of the attack were non-existent until after the battle.

The Main Engagement
Receiving the reports of the success of the mission, ??? moved the rest of his fleet to Eindinus, from where he assessed the situation. ??? suspected, and further reports proved him correct in his suspicions, that most of the blockading fleet would be positioned in an orbit that would be located on the same inclination as Hieret, with only a few ships being left around the equator and around the poles.

Only a few hours following the arrival of the fleet at Eindinus, ??? set a course to bring them into orbit above Hieret, calculating the trajectory that would bring the fleet towards the weakest point in the enemy defences. Satar had roughly one ship for every six kilometres of orbital circumference, but had placed varying numbers of ships in large groups. ???'s trajectory took his fleet above Hieret when the majority of Satar's fleet was on the other side of the planet.

Although Satar's fleet had lost their tracking station, the ships within the fleet had their own tracking capabilities, which detected ???'s fleet as they approached. At distances of up to one thousand kilometres, the two sides engaged, with the Adiguliz fleet firing the first shots. Satar refused to allow his ships to return fire, thinking that the approaching fleet was of another member of the Śiter Guliz and was attacking out of confusion, and instead attempted to open communications. Satar's hesitation allowed the Adiguliz fleet to score several casualties freely and it was only after the loss of ten ships that Satar issued a fleet-wide order to intercept and destroy the enemy fleet. The order ultimately came too late for the bulk of Satar's fleet to reposition themselves to attack.

Satar's fleet lost five ships before they managed to destroy a single Adiguliz vessel. The engagement entered into its close-combat stage, with vessels engaging each other at distances of as little as two kilometres. Gun platforms on the surface of Deinazephanais began firing, destroying several Adiguliz ships. Despite these guns, Satar's fleet was in complete disarray and many command ships had been destroyed in the initial attack.

Aftermath
???'s fleet managed to break through the blockade with the loss of only twelve ships, though several would be too damaged to continue service and were converted into gun batteries later, and around fourteen thousand crew and other personnel. On the other hand, Satar had lost sixty-one ships, about a third of his entire fleet stationed at Deinazephanais, and over sixty thousand personnel.

The battle resulted in a shift in the balance of power on Deinazephanais. With a considerable fleet to contend with, Satar would no longer be able to dominate and overrun Deinazephanais. Furthermore, the Adiguliz fleet landed with most of its fifty thousand troops alive, who would reinforce the Ateter Kingdom and train their Ateter allies.

Following the battle, Satar ordered several of his surviving officers to be executed and destroyed several Aziphox settlements in various parts of Deinazephanais in retribution. He also initiated an offensive campaign against the Ateter Kingdom, aiming to destroy them before their Adiguliz allies could be put to use.