Fall of Denobula

The Fall of Denobula was by far the worst defeat the Coalition faced in the early days of the Xindi Conflict, resulting in the Denobula Trixia-system, the capital of the Principality of Denobula, falling to the New Xindus Cooperative, at the cost of almost twice the number of Coalition ships and one-hundred times the lose of life in regards to the Xindi invaders.

Prelude
Following the lightning Defeat at Andra on 14 August 2153, Andorian recon units made flybys of Mitey Inno on August 19 and quickly established that most of the Denobulan population has been killed and the Xindi Destroyer Squadron B was not present. Concerned that group could be making a move against Denobula, General Thy'lek Shran notified allied forces and the Colonial Thirty-Fourth Battle Group redeployed back to the Denobulan homeworld as their ships were the fastest with the Colonial FTL-drive.

Order of Battle
Confederacy of Vulcan Cylon Imperium Principality of Denobula Second Hiigaran Empire Twelve Colonies of Kobol Andorian Empire United Earth New Xindus Cooperative
 * VCS Kafr'Siam
 * VCS Sekt'Rakham
 * VCS Tel'Nounes
 * VCS Tal'Kyr
 * VCS Ayn'Shuhaq
 * VCS Ni'Var
 * VCS Ti'Mur
 * VCS Arbin
 * VCS Dw'airke
 * VCS Esna
 * VCS Ja'bleoh
 * VCS Leonto
 * VCS Lisht'arn
 * VCS Ma'Misrin
 * VCS Maa'di
 * VCS Qam'sieh
 * VCS Sitar
 * VCS Tel'Nashab
 * CAS Beta-1107
 * CAS Beta-1956
 * CAS Beta-2014
 * CAS Beta-2229
 * CAS Beta-3044
 * CAS Beta-3052
 * CAS Beta-3070
 * CAS Beta-3455
 * CAS Beta-4193
 * HMDS Krexch
 * HMDS Ontuxuxoche
 * HMDS Siroxxo
 * HMDS Agabome
 * HMDS Xuxal
 * HMDS Zentaly
 * HMDS Auxoner
 * HMDS Beixamntoli
 * HMDS Broxixcelex
 * HMDS Faethei
 * HMDS Gegarerel
 * HMDS Halyl
 * HMDS Huxytex
 * HMDS Jononexo
 * HMDS Jort
 * HMDS Krex
 * HMDS Kreut
 * HMDS Kril
 * HMDS Nereux
 * HMDS Pria
 * HMDS Raeuxym
 * HMDS Thex
 * HMDS Vithou
 * HMDS Xegat
 * HMDS Ycybroxenam
 * HMDS Zeian
 * HMDS Zeixcaere
 * HMDS Zemeuxe
 * HMDS Beulyxta
 * HMDS Brym
 * HMDS Eryx
 * HMDS Gaticntu
 * HMDS Haraiuxthan
 * HMDS Liuxixa
 * HMDS Reno
 * HMDS xtelilu
 * HMDS Tuxen
 * HMDS Ymeryl
 * HMDS Yxim
 * HMDS Zexax
 * HMDS Aidichobra
 * HMDS Axta
 * HMDS Beuxixat
 * HMDS Caemuronar
 * HMDS Cuxi
 * HMDS Deux
 * HMDS Ixxion
 * HMDS Iuxuxthi
 * HMDS Lidol
 * HMDS Neuxtaleux
 * HMDS Onel
 * HMDS Rerymaphex
 * HMDS Thorgeto
 * HMDS Uxuxyle
 * HMDS Xyxip
 * HMDS Ylameroxt
 * HMDS Felexia
 * HF Ahuzat Barak
 * HF Giv'ot Bar
 * HF Nitzanei Sinai
 * HF Timrat
 * HF Ganot Hadar
 * HF Negohot
 * HF Lavon
 * HF Hofit
 * HF Kfar Avoda
 * HF Lapid
 * HF Nofei Prat
 * HF Nofekh
 * HF Gornot HaGalil
 * HF Bat Hefer
 * HF Kalanit
 * HF Beit Horon
 * HF Givat Ela
 * HF Hinanit
 * HF Harashim
 * HF Livne
 * HF Merkaz Hever
 * HF Mitzpe Netofa
 * HF Bat Hen
 * HF Moreshet
 * HF Eshhar
 * BSG Amphitrite
 * BSG Deimos
 * BSG Hecate
 * BSG Moirai
 * BSG Novensides
 * BSG Quirinus
 * BSG Aegina
 * BSG Asterope
 * BSG Cleone
 * BSG Electra
 * BSG Hamadryads
 * BSG Limnades
 * BSG Napaeae
 * BSG Nemea
 * BSG Oceanids
 * BSG Pacifica
 * BSG Basilisk
 * BSG Hawk
 * BSG Jupiter
 * BSG Cyclops
 * BSG Centaur
 * IAG Kanchanp
 * IAG Kath
 * IAG Kathman
 * UES Archon
 * UES Cowpens
 * UES Jein
 * UES Kearsarge
 * UES Kon-Tiki
 * UES Nez Perce
 * UES Olympus
 * UES Probert
 * UES Valley Forge
 * UES Yorktown
 * Destroyer Squadron A
 * Destroyer Squadron B
 * 748th Ground Detachment
 * 8 ships

Battle of Bowri
The morning of August 20, the Thirty-Fourth Battle Group jumped into the Denobula Trixia-system and quickly engaged the Xindi Destroyer Squadron A as it attempted a direct assault on Denobula VII or Bowri. Though the Colonial units were able to drive the Xindi out of Bowri's orbit, a counter attack with the Denobulan First Destroyer Squadron and the Vulcan Third Fleet failed to inflict any true loses on the Xindi. In total the allied fleet only managed to down two Xindi destroyers against the five allied cruisers lost, the VCS Ni'Var, while suffering 430 dead against inflicting 200 on the Xindi.

From August 20 to August 24th, Xindi forces continued hit and run attacks inside the Denobula triple solar system, attempting to outflank allied forces.

General Dolim, in sporadic and lagged contact with Commandant Dalop, ordered the complete and immediate destruction of all enemy units in the system and the bombardment of the Denobulan's into extinction. However Dalop chose to wait for the Denobulan to surrender, hoping to use their world to support further operations in the region while giving him the base he had lost at the Northland Relay.

Invasion of Denobula Trixia-system
After a 48-hour parlay to consider her options, Empress Ramxa IV of Denobula made clear in her August 26 address that Denobula would not accept conquest by the Xindi and refused Dalop's order to surrender and accept Xindi annexation. In countenance, Ramxa IV formally petitioned the members of the Coalition Naval Accords to convene as a true council of war and as their first act, defend the Denobulan homeworld from invasion. The response was the speedy formation of the Coalition Emergency Council which placed all allied military units under a united command structure whose first act was to deploy the newly formed Coalition Fleets to Denobula Triaxa.

Dalop's reaction to the declaration was to begin fighter raids on the inner Denobulan worlds while his fleet moved in system at impulse.

Operation From Darkness Comes Mercy
Even with the newly formed fleets, Coalition forces lacked the speed to properly deploy and defend the Denobulan homeworld, which currently was the most distant to major fleet hubs and deployment zones but closest world to the fighting. However the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, Cylon Imperium and Hiigaran Empire did field ships that were capable of FTL-travel, meaning they could deploy to the system in a matter of hours instead of days.

Outcry of the Honorable Phlox
Only two hours after Ramxa IV's address and vote to form the Coalition Emergency Council, in a secondary speech to the Quorum of Twelve, Cylon Council and Hiigaran Diamid, famed Denobulan Doctor Phlox beseeched the joint session for assistance, as all three fielded the fastest fleet of ships in known space. Citing Denobulan charity and mercy in providing immense amounts of medical assistance in the aftermath of the Cylon War and the Homeworld War, Phlox called the events in Denobula Triaxa-system "the slaughter of a people who had only showed mercy and compassions to counter the coldness space could offer." The Twelve Colonies, Cylons and Hiigaran Empire vote unanimously to order the immediate deployment of military and rescue ships to Denobula and to set up emergency refugee camps on Anaxar, designating the action Operation From Darkness Comes Mercy.

Arriving on 27 August 2153, Colonial Brigadier General Rico Hoshi abroad the Colonial Planet-Fall Regiment or Cassini Company, was ordered to perform a holding action with the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Tenth Viper divisions near Denobula VI, M'nike, while Admiral Silas Nash commanding the Colonial Twenty-Second Battle Group, Seventeenth Battle Group and the remainder of Thirty-Fourth Battle Group began to prepare the defenses around Denobula.

The counter attack manages to delay the Xindi advance significantly at the cost of 89 pilots and their Vipers. However five Xindi destroyers were taken down and Xindi deaths numbered 171, double their Coalition counterparts.

In retaliation however the Xindi 748th Ground Detachment gunned down 97 Denobulan scientists at the research compound on Jiah on August 27th even as Colonial, Cylon and Hiigaran ships began to arrive at Denobula.

Evacuation of Denobula
On the first day, Coalition forces manage to evacuate 7,669 Denobula civilians. Many had to embark directly from spaceports landing strips onto eleven Colonial, nine Cylon and twenty-five Hiigaran vessels and assorted allied large ships, while others had to remain on the pads, waiting for hours to board in the rain.

To delay the evacuation and hinder Coalition organization, Dalop began to order Xindi fighter squadrons to begin strafing Denobula cities on August 28th, dropping ordinances on military and infrastructure targets. 274-thousand civilians and military personnel lost their lives in the strikes. This did not stop ten additional United Earth destroyers from joining the rescue effort and to attempt rescue operations in the early morning. Though unable to land, several thousand were rescued through tight-band usage of transports to remove civilians from the surface. In total Coalition forces manage to evacuate 17,804 Denobula civilians.

Distracted by the attacks on Denobulan ground targets and the evacuation, Xindi stealth fighters managed to make it into the heart of the Vulcan Second Fleet and detonate their warp core, vaporizing the entire fleet. The loss of seven destroyer was so sudden and given the chaos of the invasion, the destruction was not known to the following day. 178 Vulcans were killed and seven Sitar-class destroyers, the VCS Leonto, Lisht'arn, Ma'Misrin, Maa'di, Qam'sieh, Sitar and Tel'Nashab were lost while only five Xindi and five fighters were killed.

Concurrent to this, attempts to evacuate the mining stations around and on Denobula III or Kama, and to deny the Xindi access to the extensive mines were met with disaster as without proper flak coverage, Xindi fighters downed many evacuation transports. The Andorian Forty-Fourth Fighter Division managed to intervene after two hours and hold off Xindi fighters for another three hours before they lose almost all of their ships, however the remaining 39 ships managed to remove the remaining 22-thousand. Death tolls rose to as high as 14-thousand and 35 evacuation transports were downed, while four Xindi destroyers were destroyed.

On August 29, 2153, the Xindi launched a massive firebombing of Denobulan cities, surging through the gap left by the loss of the 2nd Vulcan Fleet. Denobulan General Faxinia realized the Vulcan Second Fleet had been destroyed and sent the battle-worn Denobulan Third, Fourth and Eighteenth Frigate Divisions to fill the gap. Frigates of the Colonial Eighth Lancers stopped the Xindi at Sheen’shax Station as the Divisions were moving into position, preventing a flanking action. Coalition deaths numbered 380-thousand and nine ships lost including the Colonial Battlestar Pacifica, the Defense Cyclops and the Battletender Centaur, while Xindi deaths numbered 390 and eight ship lost.

Evacuations were further hindered when Xindi fighter squadrons made particular note to harass the unarmed civilian crafts, The Colonial Liners Heart of Gemenon was mined in Denobula orbit, killing 300 civilians, followed less than five minutes later by fighter attacks on Pan-Colonial Liner 1508 near Sheen'shax Station, killing 790. Before the hour was done and the Xindi driven back, the Virgon Carrier sustained heavy damaged and subsequently had to be evacuated and abandoned, drifting into Denobula's atmosphere and burning up. While devastating, Coalition forces still managed to evacuate 47,310 Denobula civilians.

Concurrent to this General Stanax managed to keep seven Xindi fighter divisions and several hundred ground troops busy on the Denobulan moon of Melix by faking his position of a highly strategic power generator for Denobula's defense using false deuterium shells. The stalling action manages to remove several of the Xindi's top ground divisions for the remainder of the battle but cost Stanax 780 of his men and the frigate, HMDS Lidol, assigned to his defense. However he managed to bleed the Xindi of 2,300 soldiers and two ships while still keeping them busy.

The next day, 30 August 2153, 39 Andorian bulk transports were asked by the Vulcan shipping bureau to assist. The Andorian transports—able to approach the surface very closely due to their flat bottoms and atmospheric shielding—were credited with saving 22,698 Denobulans but for the loss of seven ships. Coalition forces managed to evacuate 53,823 Denobula civilians before the day was over.

The following day, the Xindi nearly punched through at Sheen’shax Station, however two Colonial Defender-class destroyers, the BSG Novensides and Quirinus, managed to maintain the fighter screen for two-hours before help arrived via the Battlestar Galactica. Concurrent with that, the Xindi massed for another attack at Sheen’shax Station. Eighteen Colonial Raptor bombers found the Xindi while they were still assembling, and scattered them with an accurate bombing run. 120 Coalition officers lost their lives, including the crews of two ships, yet the Xindi deaths numbered three times the Coalition's at 320 and four times in ships, eight destroyers lost.

During this Coalition forces managed to rescue 68,014 Denobulan civilians.

By this period the 23rd Xindi Combat Group arrived in system, bringing Dalop fresh reinforcements and many heavier units. His first act was to destroy the Denobulan battleship HMDS Siroxxo and kill General Faxinia who was supposedly abroad. While the Siroxxo was shot down with all 150 hands, Faxinia had departed just an hour before to meet with Coalition advisors on Sheen'shax Station. The loss of the Siroxxo marked the last Denobulan battleship to fall and was a serious hit to Denobulan moral.

On the 1 September 2153, Xindi ships struck the space around Denobula in eleven different positions, forcing Faxinia to abandon several minor positions in order to reinforce critical ones. Odev Station, a minor transport hub in outer Denobulan orbit, could not be reinforced as Sheen'shax Station required the most defenses. The Xindi destroyed the facility instead of occupying it, due to its strategic worthlessness. The Xindi assault was stalled forcing Dolap to retreat and consolidate when his cruisers began to take a pounding from Denobula's defenses. 1260 Coalition officers lost their lives, while nine Coalition ships were destroyed, including the Defenders Basilisk, Hawk and Jupiter, along with the Denobulan destroyer HMDS Felexia. Xindi loses barely numbered 70 and Dalop only lost two frigates.

The severity of the attack caused the Coalition to increase the speed of the Denobulan evacuations and by end of day, evacuated 64,429 Denobula civilians.

Tragedy struck the next evening when General Stanax's position was hit hard, Dalop wanting to remove Denobula's defense grid from future assaults meant the base was the site of one of his largest incursions to date. Knowing his position could not be reinforced, Stanax held out long enough to draw in as many Xindi as possible before detonating his base's reactor core moments prior to its fall. The blast kills the last 27 Denobulans but took 1,600 Xindi and several troop transports with them.

By this stage, Xindi forces had managed to push the defending Coalition forces back to within two AUs of Denobula, securing almost the entire solar system for themselves. Concurrent to this Coalition evacuations managed to remove another 26,746 Denobula civilians from the planet.

Ramxa IV Decree
On 4 September 2153, feeling that Denobula was destined to fall but the Coalition would not abandon them, perpetuating the destruction of the large fleet that was desperately need elsewhere, Empress Ramxa IV ordered all military units to abandon Denobula and for ground forces to prepare for immediate invasion. Protests erupted among Coalition and Denobula command officers however the situation was grim. General Faxinia led the last 13 Denobula warships, along with the remaining 43 Coalition vessels, out of system, but not before mining Denobulan orbit extensively and de-orbited Sheen'shax Station in order to avoid the facility being used by the Xindi occupation.

In total the Coalition forces managed to evacuate 338,226 Denobulans, 26,175 on the last day. Yet out of Denobula's population of 12-billion, this barely amounted to 0.00002% of its population.

Aftermath
Denobula officially fell on the morning of 5 September 2153, when Xindi forces entered orbit and after suffering light damage from the orbital mine fields, bombarded Denobula's surface for five hours before landing ground troops. In total the Coalition and Denobulan forces has lost 89 ships to the Xindi 44 and almost 677-thousand lives, against the Xindi's 5,900.

By the afternoon, the Denobulan government collapsed as civil chaos erupted and Commandant Dalop personally led Xindi troops into the Palace of Havxin and ordered for Ramxa IV to formally surrender and declare the Principality of Denobula an annexed territory of the New Xindus Cooperative. Her majesty's response was to detonating a low yield tactical warhead, vaporizing the entire eight-hundred year old Palace of Havxin, Dalop, four-troop transports, 400 Xindi and herself. With the government gone, the act of fighting the occupying Xindi under newly promoted Admiral Dhren was taken over by local resistance forces and the newly appointed Vice-Countess Midexla with the Denobulan government-in-exile on Axanar.

Losses & Casualties
Confederacy of Vulcan Principality of Denobula Twelve Colonies of Kobol
 * VCS Sekt'Rakham
 * VCS Ni'Var
 * VCS Ti'Mur
 * VCS Leonto
 * VCS Lisht'arn
 * VCS Ma'Misrin
 * VCS Maa'di
 * VCS Qam'sieh
 * VCS Sitar
 * VCS Tel'Nashab
 * HMDS Siroxxo
 * HMDS Xuxal
 * HMDS Zentaly
 * HMDS Auxoner
 * HMDS Beixamntoli
 * HMDS Gegarerel
 * HMDS Halyl
 * HMDS Huxytex
 * HMDS Jort
 * HMDS Krex
 * HMDS Kreut
 * HMDS Kril
 * HMDS Nereux
 * HMDS Raeuxym
 * HMDS Thex
 * HMDS Vithou
 * HMDS Xegat
 * HMDS Ycybroxenam
 * HMDS Zeian
 * HMDS Zeixcaere
 * HMDS Zemeuxe
 * HMDS Beulyxta
 * HMDS Brym
 * HMDS Eryx
 * HMDS Gaticntu
 * HMDS Liuxixa
 * HMDS Reno
 * HMDS xtelilu
 * HMDS Tuxen
 * HMDS Ymeryl
 * HMDS Yxim
 * HMDS Zexax
 * HMDS Aidichobra
 * HMDS Axta
 * HMDS Caemuronar
 * HMDS Cuxi
 * HMDS Deux
 * HMDS Ixxion
 * HMDS Iuxuxthi
 * HMDS Lidol
 * HMDS Neuxtaleux
 * HMDS Rerymaphex
 * HMDS Thorgeto
 * HMDS Felexia
 * BSG Amphitrite
 * BSG Deimos
 * BSG Hecate
 * BSG Moirai
 * BSG Pacifica
 * BSG Basilisk
 * BSG Hawk
 * BSG Jupiter
 * BSG Cyclops
 * BSG Centaur

Resolution
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