Template:UnderConstruction Template:CivilWar-Faction The Phoenix Movement was a resistance movement formed during the latter half of the Hapan Civil War that emerged as the victorious faction culminating with the end of the Dark Age and the birth of the Phoenix Age. The Phoenix Movement was founded by Andrew Starfyre Sr and Derrik Florda, two farmboys and adventurers-turned revolutionists who would rally the devastated and war-ravaged peoples of the Hapes Cluster into a military outfit against the battling factions vying for power over the divided Hapes Consortium.

The resistance began as small underground movements in Charubah. They were initially regarded as insignificant peasant revolts against the Hapan nobility. Exploitation of the Hapan worlds grew increasingly disastrous as noble houses from all sides of the war squeezed out whatever resources and labor were available. The innocent civilian populations were often casualties of war while the subjugation of the rest led to massive starvation crises in some planets. Those that served as settings for major battles produced billions of refugees that further depleted resources and humanitarian aid. The devastation of the Hapes Cluster would give rise to the Phoenix Movement, so named for the rebirth out of the ashes for the Hapan people.

The Phoenix Movement would evolve from a band of peasants to a significant military faction, forced to be recognized following their successful campaign against the Draconian Union in the Charu system which began in 3985. They championed the ideals of liberty and equality, and could have easily been considered a civil rights movement for the male and alien population against the female-dominated nobility. Though they lacked the resources and sheer numbers in their military force, the revolutionists of the Phoenix Movement fought courageously, with utter disregard for their own livelihoods, for indeed they truly had nothing to lose in the battle for their freedom. After defeating and annexing the Sword Confederacy in 3996, they engaged and defeated the final major faction, the Draconian Union in the Second Battle of Gallinore in 3998.

Following the signing of the Gallinore Accords in 3999 and re-unification of the Hapes Consortium with the coronation of King Andrew in 4000, the Phoenix Movement was officially dissolved, although its ideals lived on under the benevolent rule of the new Phoenix King.

History

”Birth of the Phoenix”

The legend of the heroes of the Phoenix Movement, Andrew Starfyre and Derrik Florda, has been embellished into mythical proportions. What is canonical regarding their story is based on excepts from the biography of Andrew Starfyre written by Nilij Cal'taru, the famed Hapan diplomat and historian. The biography is entitled, “The Birth of the Phoenix,” and was written by Cal’taru from her compilations of interviews and meetings with the Phoenix King prior to his assassination in 4027.

The adventures of the Phoenix heroes began in the relatively peaceful world of Charubah, a planet controlled by the industrial House Olanji, the supply of the mighty warships of the Draconian Union. Starfyre was a peasant farmboy, the son of a male pleasure slave. Florda was a hotshot pilot, having served briefly in the Draconian Fighter Corps and had traveled the Hapes Cluster, amazed at its wonders, yet at that time ignorant to the effects of the Hapan Civil War. Starfyre himself was an avid scholar of starships and space engineering, but he most desired to escape his mundane life in Charubah to seek adventure with Florda.

Sometime around 3979, Starfyre and his childhood friend Derrik Florda found an old XGH-50 stock freighter in a scrapyard and bought it off the scrapyard overseer with their entire life savings. They repaired and modified the ancient ship with a faster engine and a few weapons upgrades with the help of Kalyna Amethius, a skilled engineer who had worked briefly for Olanji/Charubah. The three of them, along with Florda’s sister, Melina, used the rebuilt freighter, which they named the Phoenix, to traverse the Hapes Cluster under the guise of a mere supply transport. The ship’s old authorization codes allowed them to visit many restriction regions of the Cluster. The four traveling companions had no interest in the affairs concerning the Hapan Civil War, but in time, their travels would place them directly into the conflict.

The Scars of War

In their travels, they traversed the outer regions of the Hapes Cluster, befriending local populations along the way. It was evident, however, that even in these worlds away from the core of the Cluster that the war was taking a toll. Worlds, especially those in the outer territories, were rich in resources, and the noble factions took full advantage of them, fueling their war machines and military forces. The native populations were subjected to forced labor and treated maliciously. Starfyre and his crew, fueled by an intense desire for justice, assisted the native peoples as much as they could. This often led to trouble with the ruling nobility, though they were usually dismissed as mere troublemakers. The nobility, of course, had more concerning matters at hand.

The Phoenix crew picked up several more passengers along the way, those that were helped by Starfyre and his friends and became rebels without much of a cause. However, in 3982, Starfyre and his friends became fully entrenched in the events of civil war. During an excursion in the Alsace system, they had docked in an unmarked Golan I station over the planet Cavallero hoping to fuel up for another journey. Unbeknownst to them, they had stumbled upon a secret penitentiary station used by the ruling House Shaa in detaining political enemies and those they deemed as insurgents. The Phoenix crew was confronted by the prison guards, who believed them to be Sword Confederacy spies. In a moment of sheer impulsive (and which Starfyre himself would later describe as “foolhardy”), the Phoenix crew retaliated, much to the surprise of the Draconian troopers. Kalyna Amethius managed to slice her way into the prison’s security system to release many of the prisoners, causing a mass panic throughout the station. The Phoenix crew then escaped the chaos with one new crew member in tow, Remiel Windcloud, who had been a prisoner of House Shaa for his role in the Alsacian rebel cell, Tears of Dawnstar. The Phoenix crew’s actions at Alsace also earned them official bounties placed by the Draconian nobles.

Remiel Windcloud would introduce the Phoenix crew to the atrocities committed by House Shaa in Alsace, which was consistent with the experiences the rest of them had in their travels throughout the Hapes Cluster. As the Phoenix made its way back to Charubah, the crew made a pact with one another that they would no longer remain ignorant to the plight of the Hapan people, for they knew that only the elimination of the power-hungry warring factions and re-unification of a shattered Consortium would finally restore peace to the system. (Starfyre would be quoted in his biography that he believed this was the moment of the true birth of the Phoenix Movement, although historians generally point to 3985 as the official recognition of the Phoenix Movement as a faction in the Hapan Civil War).

Hapan Civil War

Rise of the Phoenix

For the next three years, Starfyre, Derrik Florda and the rest of their crew members began systematically recruiting in Charu – amongst the male peasants, working class, and alien populations. Eventually they expanded to include any one who was discontent with the nobility or the Hapan Civil War in general. Small pockets of resistance movements began underground, starting in Charubah and extending to other planets in the system. This loose organization, lead by Starfyre and Florda, maintained a secret presence in Charu, slowly amassing a fleet of mostly foreign-made ships smuggled into the Cluster. By the time House Olanji and the Draconian Union recognized the need for retaliation, the Phoenix Movement had made significant headway into forming an organized military outfit. The battle for Charu had begun.

The Varium Massacre

The first full-scale confrontation between the Draconian Union and the Phoenix Movement occurred in 3985, as retaliation for the tragedy known as The Varium Massacre (also referred to as ‘’The Jyll Massacre’’). The planet of Jyll was the only planet in the system with viable deposits of valuable varium, and House Olanji maintained strict control over the mining excavations. The unbearable heat on the planet, however, made any mining operation difficult without the proper installations and supplies, something that House Olanji had no interest in supplying their labor due to the war efforts. Thus, Jyll became a hotbed of insurgent activity, and ripe for the ideals of the Phoenix Movement to emerge. In August 15, 3985, in one of the hottest days on record for Jyll, tempers arose between pro-Phoenix miners and Draconian foremen during an early morning rally. The miners were forced back to work, but the confrontations continued. Although there are conflicting evidence pointing to the cause, it is generally accepted that in the midst of the chaos, a Draconian foreman, in an effort to squelch the rioting, used an explosive charge too close to the infrastructure of the mines. The explosion triggered a chain of reactions that lead to a massive cave-in of the varium mines. Thousands of miners were trapped inside and suffocated to death, despite the rescue efforts.

The massacre of the miners, whether intentional or not, became a rallying cry for the Phoenix Movement, and the response was quick. Andrew Starfyre issued his first mobilization order, sending his fleet to Jyll. The Phoenix fleet met minor resistance and took control of the planet in a matter of hours. It was the first military victory for the Phoenix Movement as an organized faction and was a great moral victory as well. Critics, however, were quick to point out that Starfyre sought to claim Jyll only for its varium mines. Nevertheless, the brief battle over Jyll marked the first true salvo thrown by the new player in the Hapan Civil War and the first deployment of what would become the Phoenix Fleet.

The Rifle Worlds Campaign

The Draconian Ministry of Propaganda was at full force, downplaying the Phoenix Movement as mere peasant revolts that would be suppressed swiftly. However, the Draconian forces in Charu were caught completely off-guard, now having to fight another front in the very heart of their industrial source. Despite their smaller fleet and lack of military training, Derrik Florda proved to be immensely talented military tactician, while Andrew Starfyre was a brilliant orator and leader. While Starfyre's impassioned speeches rallied more and more followers to the Phoenix cause, Florda devised a guerilla, hit-and-run strategy against the larger Draconian fleets, such as those including the mighty Tractia Heavy Cruisers. Rather than destroying gunships, they planned covert infiltrations in order to commandeer them for their own fleets. Their starfighters were poor matches to the Miy'cals, however they were flown by seasoned pilots and smugglers, who relied on wit and skill to combat against the firepower of their opponents.

In 3991, the Phoenix Movement made its most daring assault on the famed Charu Wheels of Olanji/Charubah, successfully claiming control of the region in the Second Battle of Charu. The loss of the shipyards, the pride of the technological might of Olanji/Charubah, was a devastating blow to the House Olanji. The Olanji twins, Lady Eledri Olanji and Lady Aladri Olanji, were left with a difficult decision – whether to continue to fight and reclaim the Wheels, or to relocate their operations in order to continue their ship production for the war efforts. The sisters had differing opinions, but it was the elder Eledri that ordered the evacuation of the stations and the retreat of the Olanji fleet out of the Charu system.

Three-Way Struggle

The capture of the Charu Wheels and the operations of Olanji/Charubah proved to be a major turning point for the Phoenix Movement. They now possessed the resources and technology to churn out a massive fleet. Although they were unable to figure out how to operate the Charu Wheels at maximum capacity, under the watchful expertise Kalyna Amethius, they would produce over 200 capital class ships, including the Quasar Battle Cruiser, which would serve as their flagships for the remainder of the Hapan Civil War, as well as access to the Miy'cals and Druui bombers, that would comprise the famed Phoenix Wing fighter squadrons.

Starfyre’s and Florda's command of the Phoenix over their victory in Charu was impressive, earning them high regard within the Phoenix and the Sword Confederacy, but not with their Draconian opponents. House Olanji was quick to point out that the majority of their mighty fleet was off fighting other fronts against the Sword Confederacy. It was a valid reason, and even Starfyre and Florda knew that they not only needed a larger and stronger fleet to contend, but they also needed to devise an effective strategy to fight the two remaining powerhouses in the foray, the Sword Confederacy and the Draconian Union. The Hapan Civil War essentially became a three-way struggle, with each faction hoping the other two factions would decimate one another.

The Phoenix Movement found itself in a difficult situation, with Charu being caught in between the heavily Draconian Rim Worlds region to the southeast and the Draconian Union capital of Lorell to the northwest. Starfyre first deployed his Phoenix Guard Gamma southward in an effort to control the southern region of the Rifle Worlds. He placed Remiel Windcloud in command of the elite starfighter squadron, Phoenix Wing. Captain Windcloud and fighter ace Damar Centii formed a formidable tandem, resulting in impressive victories such as in the Eighth Battle of the Keltros Expanse, which culminated with the destruction of the iconic Fist of Ci'hani. With the southern region briefly in Phoenix control, they massed themselves by the Nele'serin Arm with the intent on attacking the Draconian-controlled Rim Worlds.

Meanwhile, Admiral Derrik Florda took command of the Phoenix Guard Beta and began his campaign against the Draconian Union capital of Lorell. Florda was unable to take Lorell, which was a setback for the Phoenix Movement, as the pivotal system would have been a key staging point in striking the Hapan capital system via the safer routes of the Knot Holes. The offensive in Lorell, however, did serve to distract the Sword Confederacy from Florda's altered plans. In the midst of a long, but futile assault on Lorell, Florda called for Phoenix Guard Delta to begin deployment into the more dangerous Charu-Capital expanse of the Transitory Mist. It was a risky, but calculated move by Florda as he was aiming for a surprise assault at the Capital system, and the very heart of the Sword Confederacy.

The Capital System Campaign

The campaign into the Capital in 3996 was a large full-scale assault designed by Derrik Florda and woudl be spearheaded by the Phoenix Guard Delta fleet, led by Vice Admiral Jacevel Canler. The assault caught the Sword Confederacy, as well as the Draconian Union, completely by surprise. Aside from minor skirmishes with several Sword Confederacy fleets, the Phoenix Movement had been occupied with the Draconian forces to the north and south of their base of operations, Charu. The massing of the Phoenix fleets at the Nere'serin Arm had served as a decoy, with the impression that Admiral Florda wanted the Rifle Worlds instead.

The mobilization of the assault fleets was difficult within the Charu-Capital expanse of the Transitory Mist. Admiral Florda had sought to take Lorell to control the Knot Holes, allowing for safer passage into the Capital, but the Draconian forces at Lorell held strong. Wasting little time, he recalculated his strategy and planned for a dangerous push through the Charu-Capital expanse. The fleet, rather than hyperspace together, made staggered jumps through the expanse and into the Capital. The navigations of the jumps were challenging and impossible to make accurate, but Florda counted on the fact that the various clusters of his fleet would emerged from hyperspace, at different times and scattered along the southwestern border of the Capital. This made it difficult for House Vercil and House Pal'durath to organize a concentrated defense.

Admiral Starfyre's own home fleet, Phoenix Guard Alpha, made the final jump, and (perhaps by chance) emerged nearby planet Nakatay. The rendevous and attack point was going to be a real-time decision by the Admiral, and this made the choice quite easy, as Nakatay, governed by a Sword Confederacy Duchii, was least defended. With a solid foothold into the Capital, Phoenix Guard Alpha and Phoenix Guard Beta met at Nakatay and began pushing eastward towards Vergill and Maires.

The Sword Confederacy forces mobilized to defend their system, but were unprepared for the unorthodox movement of the two Phoenix fleets. Maires and Vergill fell relatively quickly as the anticipation was that Starfyre and Canler were going to swing northward towards Hapes Prime. Instead, the Phoenix fleets swept east than northward, and finally pushing west towards the capital planet in a systematic manuevering that would be later known as the Counterclock March. After a siege of Hapes Prime, which lasted several months, the capital of the Sword Confederacy fell to the Phoenix Movement, with ruling Princess Inaq committing suicide on August 5, 3996. Starfyre and the Phoenix Movement now had full control over the Capital region.

Out of the Ashes

In the wake of Princess Inaq's death and the surrender of the Sword Confederacy fleet to the Phoenix Movement, Starfyre began prepartions of establishing his base of operations in the Capital system. A push began amongst the ranks of the Phoenix Movement to anoint Starfyre as the new Sovereign of the Hapes Consortium, but he rejected the notion, saying that he did not wish to rule a divided nation. On September 1, 3996, Starfyre delivered his famous speech, Out of the Ashes on the steps of the Fountain Palace, urging his troops onward toward reunification of the Consortium, while continuing his rhetoric of freedom, equality and justice.

The speech was well received by the Phoenix contingent, and was broadcast throughout the entire Hapes Cluster. It caught the attention of the remaining noble houses of the Sword Confederacy, as they were deliberating the turning over of their forces to Starfyre and the Phoenix Movement for the fact that they were historically loyally to whomever held the symbolic throne of Hapes Prime. In Novemeber 24, 3996, House Hal'ruut of the Zaa system led a delegation to Hapes Prime to meet with Starfyre. Impressed with the benevolence and leadership qualities of the Phoenix leader, Lady Hal'ruut invited Starfyre back to Zaa, in which Hal'ruut and the remaining noble houses comprising the Sword Confederacy symbolically handed over control of their forces to the Phoenix Movement. The meeting was organized and moderated by Nilij Cal'taru, a diplomat of the long-lived Morthorni race, who had served as a royal advisor for the past three Queen-Mothers and was often called to be a neutral diplomat in conflicts such as the civil war. The meeting at Zaa, held at the Morthorni city of Rel'gatha, would come to be known as The Morthorni Convention of 3996.

Draconian Retaliation

The events of the Phoenix campaign were heavily tracked by the leaders of the Draconian Union, as they had hoped that both sides would severely weaken one another. The aftermath of the campaign, however, was viewed as a setback, as it led the to strengthening of the Phoenix Movement and the skyrocketing population of its leader, Starfyre. Starfyre, though accepted as one who possessed a gifted tongue, was viewed mostly with contempt due to his low societal standing and his ideologies which were on the opposite spectrum of that of the Draconians. His "Out of the Ashes" speech further infuriated the leadership, and their response was swift and brutal.

The Rim Worlds Campaign

[[Admiral] Derrik Florda had ordered a systematic retreat from the Lorell system while his campaign in the Capital system was underway. House Olanji, however, gave chase, eager to extract revenge for the loss of the Charu system with hopes of reclaiming their territory. By the time Florda and Phoenix Guard Beta returned to Charu, they were forced to engage the Olanji fleet at the turn of the new year, in 3997. The Third Battle of Charu was a costly battle for both sides, but Florda and Phoenix Guard Beta managed to hold off the large scale assault by the Draconian fleet, preventing them from launching dropships onto planet Olanji and Charubah. In retaliation, House Olanji destroyed the Charu Wheels by striking at its unshielded sections, before leaving Charu for good.

Meanwhile, Remiel Windcloud and Damar Centii struggled to maintain the southern region of the Rifle Words region. Though they successfully destroyed the menacing Fist of Ci'hani in 3993, it earned to death warrants and were constantly targeted by Baroness Vali Trini'qar and her Spitfire Squadron. Spitfire and Phoenix Wing engaged in memorable space battles. Trini'qar managed to infiltrate Charu and capture Kalyna Amethius. Using her as bait, she and Spitfire engaged the Phoenix Wing, eventually destroying the squadron, and captured and executed Centii in 3994. Amethius was rescued by Windcloud, who had taken command of Phoenix Guard Gamma after the previous commander had fallen ill, but the loss of his close friend Centii was heavy blow to himself and to his fleet.

Final Confrontation

The Gallinore Accords

Crowning of the Phoenix King

Military

The Phoenix Movement began with a makeshift military force, comprised mostly of male and alien peasants lacking military training. Many of them, however, were very skilled and seasoned pilots. Weaponry and armaments were archaic, but were adaptable. It wasn't until the Phoenix Movement were fully entrenched in the Charu system were they able to establish an organized ground force, called the Phoenix Army, and stocked with modified Draconian weaponry.

Their naval fleet were initally made up mostly of foreign stock fighters and heavily modified supply freighters. With the capture of the Charu Wheels, the Phoenix Movement's fleet grew exponentially, as they produced over a hundred Quasar Battle Cruisers to serve as flagships. Their fleet was further bolstered after the annexation of the Sword Confederacy, adding their remaining fleets to the already sizable Phoenix Fleet.

The Phoenix Movement's military force consisted of the following branches:

Military Campaign History

Actually began as small resistances in 3985, culminating in the capture of the Charu Wheels by the Phoenix Movement and the retreat of the Draconian Union (House Olanji) out of the Charu system.

Destruction of the 5th Draconian Order's flagship, the Fist of Ci'hani.

Draconian Union (House Olanji) destroys the Charu Wheels, but is forced to retreat.

Final major battle of the Hapan Civil War, penultimate defeat of the Draconian Union.

Industry

Legacy

Although the Phoenix Movement became a legitimate warring faction near the end of the Hapan Civil War and eventually emerged as the victor, the period in which the Phoenix Movement fought against the Draconian Union and the Sword Confederacy (3985 - 4000) has been alternatively referred to by historians as The Phoenix Revolution. In contrast to the warring noble factions vying for supreme power in an otherwise splintered Hapes Consortium, the struggle between the Phoenix Movement against those same warring noble factions had many elements that could be found in a revolution - persecution of social classes (peasant vs. noble), gender discrimination (minority male vs. dominant female), and racial discrimination (alien vs. Hapani-human race). But critics of The Phoenix Revolution theory point to the fact that the Phoenix Movement sought to unify the Hapes Consortium, not to destroy or expel their suppressors from the Hapes Cluster.

Although the Phoenix Movement, as an organization, no longer exists today, the ideology of the Phoenix lives on. The ideals of freedom of oppression and equality of genders and races have been incorporated as fundamental societal beliefs in the Hapes Consortium today. It is for this reason that historians portray the Phoenix Movement not only as a revolutionary or resistance movement, but also a civil rights movement as well.

See Also

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