The Ascomanni War

"They leave nothing behind, nothing but death and ash.”

Those were the words that heralded the start of the Umbrian Republic's first intergalactic war. The vicious, cybernetically-enhanced alien race known as the Ascomanni would strike at the distant colony world of Battipaglia, slaughtering the planet's civilian populace and the first wave of rescuers sent to save them.

The initial assault would go unnoticed, hidden by a communications blackout. No one knew the extent of the problem until the Frontier Reaction Force, or RF, a paramilitary organization responsible for maintaining law and order in the distant reaches of the Republic, sent a team of engineers to repair the system's communications infrastructure.

Instead, they would find the colony eerily deserted, and their own attempts to call for help would come to a violent end, with only a partial message transmitted.

Seeing an opportunity to expand its own prestige, the Reaction Force would quickly marshal all of its might and send a fleet of customs corvettes and its elite infantry unit, the vaunted Rapid Response teams, to secure the planet.

Under the command of Aulus Festus, the Rapid Response teams found the planet's primary settlement had been razed to the ground, and no sign of the colonists or the planet's initial garrison or the team of engineers.

Determined to try and understand what horrible fate had befallen the colonists, Festus marched his soldiers to the planet's primary extrasolar relay, several kilometers from the ruined capital city. After marching through the afternoon, they would find their missing comrades, their mutilated remains scattered about the badly damaged communications station.

Shocked by the brutality of the scene, Festus realized his force of approximately five thousand soldiers was insufficient to confront whatever force had attacked the planet. He asked for the commander of the RF naval flotilla to extract them from their current location.

Instead, his counterpart, Titus Calpurnius, refused, arguing that the relay was less defensible than the ruins of the planet's capital. Festus would relent, and as Battipaglia's sun began to set, the RF troopers began marching back to the capital.

Before long, reports of movement in the jungles surrounding their path began to come in. In time, even Festus came to believe they were being followed. The RF commander ordered his soldiers to pick up the pace, but before they could reach the colony they were ambushed.

With a chorus of terrifying screams, hulking, half-naked warriors charged out of the tall foliage on either side of the road, heedless of the Umbrians’ weapons. Scores of the fanatical enemy would fall, but those who got through crushed and maimed any RF soldiers that came within reach.

Festus would be cut off at the head of his column and critically wounded, saved only by the intervention of his men. As dusk set in, the sounds of screams and small arms fire slowly receded. No one else would break through the enemy encirclement. Only thirty-seven soldiers of the two thousand strong force would be evacuated.

After the disastrous first encounter with the aliens, the Umbrian Republic military would swing into high gear. The news of the extraterrestrial attack was reported by all of the Republic's major news outlets, and a sense of uncertainty and dread settled in over the Republic. The Republic's economy fell into recession, as each Umbrian finally confronted the reality that their people were no longer alone in the galaxy.

For a year, the Umbrian Republic Army would attempt to wrest back control of the planet, but every inroad inevitably lead to another setback. In time, even the stronger elements of the Umbrian Republic Navy would begin to be pushed back by the invaders, and the decision was made to evacuate the planet.

This would be but the first in a series of invasions, battles, and outright massacres that would occur over the next five years.

While the news from the front remained grim, the Republic's elected political leaders continued to present a rosy assessment of the conflict. This pattern would be broken by Triumvir Publius Decius, who insisted on shaking the Republic from its self-induced delusions.

In time, the Republic military began to slow the enemy offensive, culminating in the unexpected victory at Gela. While it was hoped that this would be the battle that turned the tide, fresh setbacks have quickly doused the public's dream of pending victory.

Instead, the brave soldiers of the Republic continue to resist their superior enemy, hoping to finally stall out the Ascomanni assault before it can reach the vastly more populated planets of the Republic's core.