Battle of Dinin Gate

The Battle of Dinin Gate was fought during Operation Snow Crystal; a major operation carried out by the Laburec during The War. The relatively young admiral Jamupeel managed to stage a fighting retreat in an attempt to fulfill orders to deliver Abriel Duhir to Kotoponi's 13th Fleet Snow Crystal.

Prelude
Well after the start of Operation Snow Crystal, rear guard and reserve fleets had been assigned. The previous fleets from Operation Twin Thorns were still being reorganized at two staging areas, a forward operating base served by the 5th Fleet Snow Crystal, and a rear base in Skiil overseen by Imperial Admiral Abriel Dubeusec. The initial stages of the operation had gone well up until a surprise strategic offensive by the now Four Nations Alliance; Hania's government or military appearing to spring a trap and force Hania to join the war.

The ensuing Battle of Kryb saw Abh rear-guard units collapsing en masse, out numbered in some engagements by more than 10 to 1. The entire border along Hania and the Kingdom of Kryb became a front-line, with a massive salient piercing the center of Kryb, allowing Hania to assault the rear, including the base at Dinin, which seemed to be virtually undefended.

Your Orders, Deliver the Prince
Admiral Jamupeel, perhaps the youngest admiral given any command in this operation, had been given command of the logistics 5th Fleet to provide supplies and run lightly armed convoys for the assault. He found himself in a precarious position when he received the last known decree from Admiral Kotoponi; deliver Prince Abriel Duhir to Operation Snow Crystal headquarters immediately. This order would be rather unusual in that in no operation prior to this had Abriel VIPs been secured, even in Operation Phantom Flame, where Princes [{Abriel Lafiel]] had nearly been killed in the line of duty. While precise reasons for this order are unknown, Jamupeel convened a council of war with his captains on the next course of action.

Hania would need to hit them to disable the logistic convoys from Skiil to Kryb, and given his fleet was not intended for combat he'd risk the lives of his command in an effort to save a prince. Additionally, with communications cut, that implied they were the next target and would soon be up to their necks in enemies shortly. After this, Jamupeel decided retreat was wiser and would intend to break for Skiil where he knew proper battle fleets of the line would be ready to join him in order to fulfill his decree. He also knew some elements of 1st Fleet were cut off in his system, he began to set plans to hurriedly combine commands and get the battle underway.

Battle for the System
Hania had accomplished all their initial strategic objectives by surprising and disrupting the cohesion of Abh forces engaged in Operation Snow Crystal. Their second objectives would be now to contain and destroy the remaining pockets of Abh resistance before they could counterattack. One key system on their route temporarily ignored was Dinin. Hania dedicated a fraction of their overall force to secure the gate to prevent further supplies or communication passing between the Abh units in either Kryb or Skiil.

Jamupeel knew this, but only had a lightly armed logistics fleet that carried a VIP, but he intended to honor his orders in so far as he could. Now informed of a VIP in his fleet he needed to act immediately. Unconventionally for a fleet intended to retreat, he turned his fleet to contact Guderusu, intending to reinforce the 1st Fleet Snow Crystal elements stranded in his system. Soon Hania began to pour into the system and proceeded to engage everything in sight.

5th Fleet's Engagement
The lightly armed; however, heavily armored fleet began to soak fire from the encroaching Hania enemy. Likely due to either lacking tactical directives and being a fringe operation, they failed to coordinate and assault Jamupeel's units aggressively. Also likely due to their late entry into the war, their ship-identification may have been lacking, mistaking the convoy ships for patrol or larger ships.

Admiral Jamupeel exploited this lack of aggressiveness and attacked the enemy and made an effort to break for a neighboring portion of the system where Guderusu had been facing stiffer resistance and had not broken off to meet him yet. From what few reports are not, Jamupeel managed to avoid any major losses before joining his supply fleet with Guderusu.

1st Fleet's Engagement
As a known combat unit intended to ferry to the front, Guderusu was under command of 1st Fleet Snow Crystal; however, during a routine resupply, the 1st Fleet was currently divided and Guderusu now standing alone against Hania attackers. They were informed that reinforcements were en route, yet did not know it was merely Jamupeel's logistics fleet. The battle fleet held their ground well and despite being out numbered alone 2:1, they dealt serious damage before Jamupeel linked up with them.

An issue that may have arisen that given some success already had, the command may have wanted to fight to the last man, having been defeated already at Kryb. Jamupeel disregarded this desire, intent on saving his fleet, and honor his orders to safeguard the life of Duhir and the lives of his command. Acting as the current highest military authority in the system, he ordered Guderusu's unit join the 5th Fleet and proceed to fight their way back to the Skiil-Dinin Gate to make their escape.

Re-organization and Retreat
Hania failed to prevent the link up of the two units; however, still held the initiative and ability to cut the fleet off entirely in Dinin and destroy Jamupeel's force in detail. Determined to avoid such a fate, Jamupeel assaulted the gate to Skiil, reorganizing his units into strike forces to force Hania's attackers to lose some cohesion, if just enough to open a breech. Not expecting such fierce resistance, the units fractured and began to break, giving Jamupeel just enough room to begin slipping through and escaping. Before the Hania commanders rallied and began to coordinate a counter-attack, Jamupeel slipped away keeping both his force and Guderusu virtually completely intact.

Aftermath
For his first combat command, Jamupeel reacted creatively and decisively to save his fleet and a neighboring unit. While Hania accomplished their objective in driving out Abh presence from Dinin, they could not destroy the 5th Fleet, which now moved to link up with forces now fighting in Skiil. It is not known how Jamupeel may feel about having accomplished his retreat. While he did not fulfill his primary objective, "Deliver the Prince", he fulfilled his more pressing objective; keep the Abriel Duhir and the fleet alive. He managed to honor his orders despite the aggression of his foe.

He retreated from one battle only to end up exiting at the next sord and immediately ending up in Battle of Skiil, which was ongoing. His own force, still organized would need to begin fighting immediately in order to try to consolidate the Skiil pocket and attempt to link up or discover the whereabouts of Abriel Dubeusec.