The Battle for Zavi
After the
Attack on Lord Ciwn, the
Zavi Station station was incorporated into the
Vondren Military's strategy further, this time as bait.
They leaked information to the bugs that lead them to believe that taking the station down was the key to winning the war. This kept them off the planets and focused in once place. Not only that, but it distracted their forces from their own home world.
The strategy, much like others concocted by
Admiral Baird, was one of two parts and relied heavily on distractions, misdirection, and bait. The first part was the diversion, where the enemy would be weakened and collected into a more 'managable' area. The second part being the planned attack on the bug's home world, one that would hopefully cripple thier ability to continue their advances.
But to pull it off many sacrifices had to be made, all
pirates in
Ciwn Securities capable of flying ships where in-scripted for this battle. Many promises were made, including pardons if they survived (and death if they ran). Though it turned out to be far easier to get them to fight than anticipated. It turns out pirates also didn't want to become food or lose their stomping grounds to giant insects.
For the first part of the plan the pirates would lure off more manageable sections of bugships and the military would swoop in and pick them off from a more advantageous position. The stand out group in this was that of squad Ree, lead by
Inverno Razorwinj on the military side, and his old rival
Oradoal on the pirate side. They took out more bug ships than anyone had expected possible, though most of the squad didn't make it.
For the second part a few teams were sent to the bug planet well in advance, most thinking they were there for recon. Of the groups the one that pulled it off was one that wasn't even meant to be there,
Shiftphaze, a military unit comprised of pilots testing out experimental
HyperRovers, some escaped bug experiments, and
Oth from
Ersha. They managed to not only deal a major blow to the bug's reserve forces and military production line as planned, but also managed to take the whole planet out.
Both
Mal Nonco, the head of Shiftphaze, and
Inverno Razorwinj were declared heros, for their service.