~Rea Zonyua~ - The Battle of Zonyu

The Battle of Zonyu was a Lashunta Asana-Allied raid on a Formian hive-colony on the island of Zonyu, located in the southern-middle Bulwarks. The Valmaeana High Staff sent Qabarat and allied forces there to exterminate the hive, and to cause a diversion from the Asana-Allied fleet attacking Shakol further westward. Although a relatively minor engagement within the Bulwarks War Campaign, it had more significant political repercussions within the Western Asana Alliance.
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The Conflict

Prelude

The Valmaeana High Staff initiated the 24,538 campaign after receiving a significant allied expeditionary force led by Qabarat, wherein it planned to push through the Bulwarks and establish Shakol as a Bridgehead. Depending on the extent of success, they would then try to reach the site of Lost Valmaea on the Colonies' mainland. In preparation, the main Allied fleet gathered at Qoaronaea, with forward secondary squadrons ready at Ofu-Vou and Ofuroau, with the campaign to begin on 2. Vealae.
The forward squadrons engaged the Formian Bulwarks Patrol off Sheherazu on 8. Vealae, where they caught the the shell hulks in pincers on the island's windward side and drove them into the shallows, wrecking and sinking about a half-dozen enemy ships, whose survivors fled onto the island, and opening a gap in the Formians advance reconnaissance - although the survivors doubtlessly broadcast a psychic warning back to their home hives.
Prior to the campaign, Valmaeana reconnaissance had identified Zonyu, south of Sheherazu, as a small, relatively new hive colony. Within the allied strategy, it was deemed a soft target the fleet could use as a diversion to distract from the main effort attacking Shakol. Furthermore, extermination of the hive on Zonyu would provide a location for a new Lashunta forward stronghold.

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Deployment

On 8. Vealae after the victory off Sheherazu, the Ofu-Vou squadron sent a detachment of six ships: two warhulks; two scout-flyers; and two carrier-hulks, southward to Zonyu. The carrier-hulks bore a significant raiding force of 240 infantry and Shotalashu cavalry, mostly Qabarata with other allied cities from Hanazhyana, Mahyat, and Son - which had earned this detachment the name ~Morama Yaroa~ - the Yaro Host - plus a company of Valmaeana scouts. The choice to select the allies for this mission had considered their experience and training typical of the northern cities in megadendra jungle warfare as appropriate for the rough and varied terrain expected on Zonyu. Additionally, these ~Moara Zhosysha~ - jungle-warriors - had been reckoned as less valuable for expected set-piece conflict planned for Shakol, where the Valmaea heavy infantry was assigned. Yet, although only a minority had previously seen combat against the Formians, all had served at least the ten-year basic enlistment common to the Lashunta militia system prior to assignment to the Formian War.
The scout-flyers, which had previously performed reconnaissance on Zonyu, guided the detachment to a bay on the island's northwestern shore on the night of the Ninth. Although too shallow to get the hulks to shore, the Yaro Host effected a landing by swimming the Shotalashu to land and skiffs ferrying the infantry. The host then hiked into the island's hinterland to cross the spine, while the ships withdrew their skiffs and sailed northward to hold position beyond the horizon, so as not to alert Formian sentinels of their presence, and with the scout-flying ranging further to detect any Formian relief. Thus the whole landing was accomplished completely undetected. The warhulk's contingents of marine infantry were kept on ship as reserves.
The Formian hive-colony on Zonyu's southern end, estimated at a population of 3,000, would have had a native contingent of about 200 hive-warriors, with about half deployed on patrol at any one time. Additionally, and unbeknown to the Lashunta detachment, a shell hulk had docked at the hive, presumably after an extended reconnaissance, increasing the Formians' forces by an additional 200 warriors. Per standard defenses, hive-warriors would be watching sentinel from the island's highest points against ship-bound incursion (and which the Lashunta's nightime landing had intended to foil), ready to send instant alert to the hivequeen, who could then automatically relay any orders to the rest of the population.
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Battlefield

Zonyu appears on most maps as a shallow, irregular crescent formed from the island's ridge wich runs roughly southwest to northeast. The southwest end, where the hive was located, included a small bay with a harbor where large ships could dock at high tide. The northeast ended in a raised headland with moderately steep sides but skirted with beaches where boats could land. From the Lashunta's landing spot on the eastern side, roughly mid-island, the central ridge, while rough, was crossable through several passes.
The island's terrain varied widely, dominated by patches of rocky scarps, jungle in the northeast, and shfiting to tiered farmland in the southwest near the hive. Both the farmland and scarped tended to increase the overall visibility, relative to the Yaro Host's experience in jungle warfare.
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Conditions

Weather was deemed moderate by Lashunta perspective for this season, equating to Blighttide (summer) in the Southern Hemisphere. The rain varied from nonexistent to moderately heavy, and impacted visibility at times, but was never considered severe enough to be a detriment.
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The Engagement

The Yaro Host, after leaving the beachhead, headed westward upslope and crossed the island's ridge unopposed. They then turned southward, seeking the hive-colony, and reached the hive's farmland shortly after dawn on 10. Vealae, where they found hiveworkers already tending crops. The Lashunta host had gotten explicit orders to conduct genocide against their historical foes, and thus executed an envolopment of the northernmost fields, drove the hiveworkers into a pocket, and slaughtered them. Then they set fire to the crops and moved further southward to begin another envelopment. This was done with full foreknowledge that the Formians, although initially surprised, would broadcast a psychic alert back to the hivequeen, and then to the Colonies' main forces, thus initiating the diversion required for the attack on Shokal, with the local strategy being to methodically exterminate resistance. If they successfully laid siege to the hive, they would call for reinforcement to effect a concentrated breach.
The Formian reaction to the Lashunta attack, along with recalling all workers to the hive's safety and deploying all warriors from the hive and visiting shell hulk, was to muster all nearby warriors for a counterattack, in which about 100 insectile warriors participated. This hasty response left them unsupported, which, given the hive's relative newness, might be attributed to the hivequeen's youth as she panicked from psychically reading her worker-children's deaths. The allies' Valmaean scouts gave ample warning and allowed the Lashunta time to shift from extermination to a ready battle plan. The Formian charge, however, succeeded in pushing the Korasha infantry back, until the Shotalashu-riding cavalry, led by a spearhead wedge of outriders, flanked and attacked. Despite the breach in the Formian formation and the Lashunta's superior numbers, however, the Allies were surprised by the Formian's dogged determination and willingness to sacrifice their own lives to bring Lashunta down with them. Thus as part of this initial engagement, the Lashunta had to kill the Formians almost to a bug and took about forty casualties, higher than expected, and found their tactical cohesion compromised.
While the allied captains were sorting out casualties and their units' chaos, the scouts brought word of the Formian main body, about 250 warriors, coming from the hive. Realizing they had underestimated the enemy's strength, exhausted from the last fight, and bewaring additional enemy patrols mustering on their flank, the allies chose to withdraw toward the island's northeast end, where they could contact the naval detachment and arrange pickup off the headland. This path would take them along safer, more open ground than again crossing the island's spine, whose passes would now be more easily blocked by the Formian patrols parelleling their path.
At word of the Lashunta withdrawal, the Formian main body pursued. Furthermore, the hivequeen, on divining the Lashunta goal and their likely escape, psychically directed the inland patrols to hurry ahead and block the invaders from reaching the northeast headland. In this they succeeded, and when the allied host arrived at the northeast end, they found about forty Formian warriors occupying the neck leading to the headland.
The allied captains, realizing they could not afford to be pinned between two forces, ordered a general assault to break the Formian cordon and take the headland. In desperate fighting that again saw almost every Formian killed and another forty Lashunta casualties, the Yaro Host broke the Formian cordon, and then occupied the same ground taken from their foes, right before the Formian main body marched up. Shortly after both forces formed battle lines, the allied naval detachment hove back into view,.
An uneasy stalemate ensued. With the transport hulks waiting below the headland with skiffs ready, the allied captains realized they could not simultaneously exfiltrate their troops and hold the headland's defensive neck. When the Lashunta war hulks took position south of the headland where a beach offered amphibious landing, the Formians' leading myrmarchs realized a similar dilemma, in that they could not allow themselves to be beset on two sides: if they attacked the headland, the allied marines would land and take their rear; if they awaited the marines, the Yaro Host would take the intiative to attack from the headland. Along with this impasse, both sides suffered under the uncertainty that their foes' could get reinforcements at any time, since that had been the Lashunta allies original intention (wrought too well) while the Formians correctly divined this assault had been part of a larger operation in the Bulwarks. Time appeared to be on neither side.
Thus, in an action unprecedented within the long history of the Lashunta-Formian War, a parlay was called between a Formian Myrmarch (designation unknown) and Lady Vaeol Zolaemaue (later Yaranevae), a flagmaiden from Son. In a negotiated truce, the Formians agreed to let the Lashunta depart Zonyu, leaving the Formians in control of the island, and without either side taking further casualties. With that agreement, the marines stayed aboard their war-hulks while the transports deployed their skiffs to the beach and the Damaya riders swam their Shotalashu out to the hulks. Then the detachment sailed rather ashamedly back to Ofu-Vou, leaving the Formian hive to deal with the damage and loss of life.
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Outcome

Although the Formians took more casulties, both among warriors and workers, the Formians maintained crontrol of Zonyu, which was further refortified by dispatched shell hulks from the Colonies. In this regard, the Lashunta attempt at using Zonyu as a diversion was arguably successful, although what outcome that had on the larger battle for Shakol remains debatable.
The Yaro Host that limped back to Ofu-Vou, having taken a third of their number in casualties, stood in no shape to assist their side for the rest of the campaign.
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Aftermath

The incident at Zonyu created a considerable scandal among the Lashunta cities, both in Valmaeana and Qabarat. News of the truce caused outrage across the confederation and the Shattersea, since there had been no recorded instance of a similar negotiation between Lashunta and Formian - who traditionally hated each other to annhihilation - over thousands of years. While cooler heads argued in favor of the preservation of Lashunta lives against certain destruction, popular unbelief demanded retribution. The Valmaean High Staff ordered Lady Vaeol to stand court-martial for collusion with the enemy. However, her popularity (already notorious) soared among the Qabarat contingent and other northern allies, who perceived she had saved hundreds of Lashunta lives by letting Formians live. Foreseeing the risk of breach between Valmaeana and Qabarat, the High Staff let her be acquitted.
The invasion's failure stood as an embarrassment for Qabarat, who had long claimed parity with Valmaeana in leading the Western Asana Alliance against the Formians, and whose rivals in the Shattersea quickly used to challenge that preeminent role. Yet the incident also highlighted deeper strategic, even philosophical, divisions between the Northern Allies and Valmaeana. Qabarat, and by extension the other cities of the Yaro Valley and the Shattersea falling within its sphere of influence, pursued the war on the assumption they could fight with a reasonable assurance of victory, within their best interests to do so, and could refrain from actions they deemed certain to lose or suicidal. The Valmaeana cities, in contrast, pursued the war as a way of life and almost seemed to disregard the destruction to themselves. This dispute would later fuel anti-war sentiment that flared in the near future, during the 24,541 campaign when Ofu-Laubu began to actively voice opposition to the war.
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Historical Significance

Legacy

Lady Vaeol, in token of her personal honor to keeping the truce she had negotiated, was the last Lashunta to leave Zonyu and swam her Shotalashu out to the transport hulk. In later years, she publicly regretted participating in the genocide of Formian workers and came to be associated with the anti-war faction in Qabarat and other cities. ~Uae viyae Vatheiara-eshodi,~ - she was quoted as saying: "Rue/regret will possess me until the World-Soul." While her detractors often leveraged the tale against her, the other survivors of Zonyu, along with other veterans of the Formian War, worshiped her for saving lives and came to wonder whether mercy toward their Formian enemies was possible.
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In Literature

Lady Vaeol provided an account of the Battle of Zonyu, written while sailing back to Qabarat, in her daylog, as later published in A Castrovel Adventure: Part 3.

Conflict Type

Battle

Start Date

9. Vealae, 24,538 ZS

Ending Date

10. Vealae, 24,538

Conflict Result

Draw

Location

Hatraeshiante - the Shattersea

Belligerents

Lashunta (Western Asana Alliance)

Formians (Hive & Shell Hulk)

Strength

Yaro Host: 200

• Outriders (heavy Shotalashu cavalry): 30
• Light Shotalashu Cavalry: 80
• Korasha Infantry: 90

Valmaeana Scouts (light infrantry): 40
Naval Detachment:

• Two Warhulks
• Marine Complement: 200
• Two Transport Hulks
• Two Scout-flyers

Warriors: 400

• Local: 200
• Marines: 200

Myrmarchs: 20 Hivequeen: 1
(3,000 estimated workers & traders)

Casualties

40 Dead or Missing 30 Wounded (serious)

120 Killed Wounded: unknown
Total workers/non-combatants killed: unknown

Objectives

Capture/Siege of Formian Hive on Zonyu. Extermination of Formians

Defense & Control of Zonyu