Lower Marches Campaign

The Lower Marches Campaign was a military operation during the 2nd Azuli War. Strike Squadron 42, under the command of Commodore Lord Zuko, was assigned the task of interrupting commercial shipping and war production facilities deep within Azuli territory in an area known as the Lower Marches.

The Lower Marches consisted of two neighboring star systems, known as Drau March and Sann March, whose largest contributions to the Azuli war effort were food and fuel. They were so deep in Azuli territory that they were initially only lightly defended, with the intent to be that the mission would end once they had done significant enough damage that they Azuli would then have to divert significant additional ships there - rendering it unsafe to continue the mission.

To aid in the mission, the Squadron of 7 ships (including the Cruiser Astute, the frigate Paladin, the corvettes Swift, Daring and Ranger, and the gunboats Hope and Fury) was bolstered with 2 tankers (to aid in reaching the destination and staying on station), and 2 screening ships (which dampen emissions, allowing an area to hide against passive sensors).

The Squadron was split once it arrived on station, with a detachment commanded by Captain Carel of Paladin consisting of Paladin, Ranger and Hope moving to the less-busy Sann March to conduct operations, with the remainder going to Drau March under the command of Commodore Zuko.

The first merchant was captured without incident in Drau March on the following day, a heavy ore carrier with a small crew, then a pair of lightly-armed protein-root transports that were traveling together for safety; they offered a token resistance, but with guns disabled they surrendered quickly.

Once ships started going missing, the Azuli started sending escorts and transports began gathering together for safety. Unfortunately for the Azuli they hadn't yet realized the size of the force they were dealing with, so the first convoy was ill-prepared. A gunboat and a corvette were destroyed, along with one tanker, with only minimal damage to the group. By the time a force arrived that was too strong for them, they had captured a heavy ore carrier, a light ore carrier, three protein-root transports, and two tankers... which they used to resupply the fleet and refill their own tanker before sending them on to Tyrin. Two Azuli gunboats, two corvettes and three merchants were were destroyed, with one frigate escaping with heavy damage.

Once the system got too hot, Commodore Zuko made the decision to halt operations and pull back, giving the Azuli time to relax their posture and assume the Tyrin invaders had left... while he planned a more permanent strike. Moving their forces in under cover of a screener, they took up a central position by a gas giant, and when the time was right they made a simultaneous attack on three shore facilities; an ore processing center and two fuel refineries... of these one refinery and the processing center were obliterated, while the other refinery and it's surrounding infrastructure took heavy damage, requiring at minimum four months to make it operational again. The damage to the Azuli war effort was incalculable.

Among the main group at Drau March were four losses of life and twenty-six injured; a number of those were from Astute. On it's attack run a missile struck the superstructure, causing heavy damage from to the command bridge... two technicians were killed from decompression, with four casualties including shrapnel to the Commodore's leg and a deep laceration to Captain Archer's face. Though the hull automatically sealed before the entire space depressurized, the command bridge had to be abandoned. The bleeding Captain Archer was credited with saving the Commodore, who was unable to walk, and Commander Akassa was credited with dragging out the unconcious Lieutenant Zeff, the ship's assistant tactical officer. None of the ships escaped unscathed, but only Astute and Daring would require drydocking. With the strike runs complete, from Sick Bay Commodore Zuko gave the order to retreat to Vanguard station at best possible speed.

Captain Carel's detachment at Sann March did not fare so well. They did manage to capture a tanker and two food transports, but the Captain became over-cautious once the transports began traveling with escorts, and for several days made no attempts. Then he decided to make a run on a small convoy, while using an asteroid as cover Paladin moved in too close and made impact with the asteroid, causing heavy damage to Paladin. While Paladin limped away, Ranger and Hope provided cover for her from the two Corvettes that were bearing down. One Corvette was destroyed and the other damaged, but Hope was heavily damaged and nearly lost.

Though the mission was considered an extreme success and yielded a wealth of prize money for the senior officers, Captain Carel's failures resulted in him being relieved of command.

Azuli Losses

Captured

• 1 large ore carrier
• 1 light ore carrier
• 5 food transports
• 3 tankers

Destroyed

• 2 gunboats
• 3 corvettes
• 3 merchants
• 1 ore processing center
• 1 fuel refinery

Damaged

• 1 frigate
• 1 corvette
• 1 fuel refinery

Tyrin Losses

• 22 dead
• 32 injured
• Heavy damage to Astute, Paladin, Daring and Hope with drydocking required