Dachia: Difference between revisions

Meanwhile to the sector-west, the [[Tahora Whai]] eyed their neighboring system not for the exploitable resources expected to be harvested from the world, but for the traffic and immense support a mining colony would require on the hostile world. Ships laden with foodstuffs and equipment were a prize more useful and proven than any hypothetical gold field. In the void of Cacho system, the Whai set up several smuggler’s havens and pirate coves, often using ship husks and deep space asteroids as foundations.

[[Piracy in the Kikorangi|Whai piracy]] in Cacho was a plague on the mining group. Investments in The Dachia Group’s missions were often lost to the pirates and Dachia's surveyors lacked the equipment and time to establish permanent bases. Funds were short enough that they couldn’t supply escorts to their freighters. As outside forces rallied their ships to seize the Ice World of its resources for themselves, the Mining Corp and the Whai reached a tentative agreement: The Whai who witnessed the treaty agreed to halt all piracy in the system in exchange for salvage rights to the remnants of a suspected upcoming battle between great powers. Whai havens would remain in system, but instead as launch points further into the heart of beacon space. The Dachia Group also provided formal access to the consortium’s Exchange Consulates, often as a means to buy-back lost mining equipment.

Critics of the treaty note that due to the structure of the Whai at the time, only the signatories and crews loyal to them were beholden to the agreement rather than every Dynaean pirate. Thus, piracy still challenged Cacho, although reduced to a manageable degree. A single surface way-station over a proven uranium mine developed in the lull. The small city of Hurion carved a pocket of heat out of the ice and provided a jumping off point for further expansion. Mining efforts as a whole still flagged despite the settlement, but now, greater investments as attention was drawn to the world by the machinations of great powers. The astro-political heavyweights would indeed duke it out to decide who would reap the rewards of that investment.

On Startdate 122 BP, two coalitions formed up in lines above Dachia. Far as the sensor could see, warships of all makes and models faced up against each other, waiting for the other to flinch. Delegates met in a blustery cold outpost on the surface. Behind closed tent-flaps, heated words were exchanged, hot cocoa was tossed in faces, and battle would commence. Who knows why they attacked each other in such formal ways. Some historians say the commanders were arrogant snobs who thought themselves already rightful owners, others framed it as a duel blown way beyond proportion. For both sides ownership of Dachia was seen as denial of the other’s claim more so than desire for the iceball itself. All in all, far too many crews would lose their lives in the ensuing commotion.

And my, what a show it would have been! Rockets and lasers. Clouds of fighter craft swarming conning towers. Bridge crew wrestling with armored marines. Cascading core engine failures daisy chaining with neighborning vessels, going critical in a domino of explosions. Accounts from the day are horrifying in the scale of destruction wrought by ego and avarice.

Beyond the edge of the fight, the Whai watched on in dismay. The inability for understanding caused the indescribable terror. When the smoke cleared, both capital ships were gone, their commanders facing the music. Losses incurred in the fight were irreconcilable–some say a whole faction was lost in the scrum–and the coalitions disbanded. Neither fleet could call the engagement a victory, some say that their own ships were the last to retreat but no corroborated accounts survive of a fleet holding the field of battle. No one won Dachia, the mining group soon lost all its outside funding and abandoned the doomed mission to squeeze rocks from an ice cube.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Tahora Whai maintained a modest presence over Dachia. The only entity with any formal rights to the salvage, they picked the wrecks and space hulks clean of the most useful goods. Wrecks from the battle survived a century, through to the arrival of the [[Starlit Court]] into the system. Remnants were finally cleared from the skies during the demanding [[restoration of Sihi]].