Battle of Goslauth

The Battle of Area Itoum 533 (aka Battle of Gosroth) was the first major battle of the war between the Star Forces Patrol Ship Goslauth (Gosroth) and the United Mankind's 10 assault ships in Operation Hercules. The battle was by all intents a disastrous victory for the United Mankind and the Four Nations Alliance but served the purpose for them at least to give them a Casus Belli against the Humankind Empire of Abh and further to use later in the war as propaganda within the Alliance territories to paint the Empire as the aggressors.

Prelude to Battle
Prior to the engagement, the Nova-Sicilia Treaty had been signed for create a flexible alliance between all nations in the galaxy to compete against the only nation not present to sign the treaty, the Humankind Empire of Abh. The United Mankind and its allies wished to conduct extragalactic exploration to attempt to acquire new resources and/or further the development of humanity in general. That objective was impossible since Kingdom Ilysr formed a border that encompassed the entire galaxy and the Empire restricted access to its space solely to its own vessels.

Additionally, Count Hyde was to be escorted to Lakfakalle by Princess Abriel; both of whom would be using Patrol Ship Goslauth to arrive there. Unknown to any among them, the United Mankind wished to stage an assault which they may score a quick overwhelming victory with no survivors and claim that the Empire attacked a small military contingent of the Alliance and thus demand reparations in the form of military access for Kingdom Ilysr.

Battle
Starting the battle, Gosroth was outnumbered 10 to 1 and their computers calculated no more than a twenty percent chance of victory. In spite of this, Lexshue ordered Abriel Lafiel and Jinto Linn to abandon ship and permit her to fight to screen their retreat. Eventually the headstrong Princess obliged and left the battle up to the Hecto-Commander.

The battle turned into a swarming brawl as the United Mankind ships spent most of their ammunition attempting to at least weaken the patrol class ship. The Gosroth scored good hits early on to reduce the numbers to 7 using their mines; however, this still didn't greatly reduce the beating that the ship would withstand. Gradually the pounding affected the maneuverability of the Gosroth and turning to bring the primary EM cannon to bear became a next to impossible task. One by one the enemy was picked off by the primary EM cannons brought to bear by the Gosroth, yet the final shot would never ring. With next to no turning ability left, their final target was 12 o'clock high of their position. The enemy fired one good shot precisely through the center of the fuselage with its anti-proton cannon. It pierced the antimatter fuel tank. The tank's magnetic containment collapsed in a burst, and the ship burned inside-out. Almost three hours after the start of the battle, the Gosroth and her crew were no more.

Aftermath
Following the battle, the United Mankind used this as a premise to move forces to occupy planet Sufagnoff and demand it be ceded to them along with the Empire granting military access to Kingdom Ilysr as compensation for their losses during the battle, since as they made clear to the Empress that their entire alliance assumed the Empire was the aggressor. Empress Frybac Ramaj would have none of it, clearly being able to infer that they had attacked and killed Abh servicemen without provocation. On the spot without opening up for further discussion she declared war upon the United Mankind and initially three of the four Nova-Sicilia Nations responded with open aggression to support their "victimized" ally.

Only in part did this battle serve the purpose of the human nation's objectives. They would, for a short time, gain the access they wanted to Kingdom Ilysr and temporarily win victories over the Abh initially. However, their objective to blackmail the Empire to provide concessions was met with a conflict that no know civilization has ever or should ever witness. Despite "half the galaxy" being at war with the Empire, numbers were on no one's side as later proven by the Battle of Skaresh.