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History > Battle of the Ikeopo Asteroid
Field
The Battle of the Ikeopo Asteroid Field, the largest space naval
engagement in the history of the Royal Naval Service, took place
in 2921. A fleet of warships under the command of Admiral Lord Horatio
Evander engaged the full might of the ruthless and powerful Polydenum
Pirates, a band of marauders who had intercepted millions of yojj
worth of polydenum from convoys over the previous decade.
The battle began when the HMS Swiftsure, a small sloop of the line,
made contact with a pirate frigate and followed it back to the main
fleet. Though hopelessly outmatched the Swiftsure's captain, Sir
Robert Edwards, offered action, hoping to buy time for the fleet,
then in orbit around Morrigan, to reach the asteroid field and pin
down the dreaded pirates. Unfortunately, Sir Robert was killed in
the first volley, and Lt. Commander Thelonious Cobb, his first officer,
took command, managing to dart through the much larger and clumsier
pirate ships until the fleet arrived.
The main Sivadian fleet, consisting of twelve ships of the line,
twelve cruisers, fifteen frigates, and some twenty unrated vessels,
engaged the pirate fleet of approximately seventy five vessels.
Admiral Lord Evander drove his ships through the pirate line, raking
them with broadside fire. Of the seventy five enemy vessels which
began the engagement, twenty were destroyed, fifteen rendered hulks
and scuttled, and twenty-one taken as prizes. More than five thousand
pirates were captured, and their leaders hanged, after a series
of trials on Sivad.
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