Battle of Harth Gool

The Battle of Harth Gool took place in 115 ABY. It was the culmination of years of efforts by the Order of Keltrayu and Royal Intelligence to track down the mysterious slaving syndicate Red Eclipse, and was the first open confrontation between the slavers and the Golden Empire.

Background
Harth Gool had been enslaved by Zhin-Vel in 92 ABY. The planet was on the periphery of the Golden Empire's territory, but had not been a member world of the Tetrarchy of Mezlagob. In 115 ABY, the Armada apprehended a Red Eclipse ship full of Heshoo slaves intact and took the liberated prisoners to Queen Rin Sakaros herself. Using her, she extracted their memories of their homeworld for Royal Intelligence, which quickly plotted a course to Harth Gool.

Battle
Tariun Sakaros led the Prime Fleet and reinforcements from the rest of the Armada to Harth Gool, intending to catch the slavers by surprise with overwhelming force. Zhin-Vel himself was tipped off and escaped thirty-six hours before the invasion, but the rest of the syndicate was still present and caught the full brunt of the Empire's attack. Sayl Leikvold, Zhin-Vel's second-in-command, assumed leadership during the battle.

Leaving command of the space battle to his subordinates, Tariun led the ground assault personally, taking seven full cohorts, including two Massassi Cohorts. Meanwhile, Rin Sakaros (who had "" the Heshoo language, Heshuub) broadcast a message over the planet, informing the Heshoo slaves what was happening and encouraging them to take heart. Many Heshoos revolted. Slave camps were lightly guarded by heavily armed men, and while several Heshoos were easily mowed down, some camp guards were beaten by sheer weight of numbers.

Meanwhile, the Royal Army assaulted Zhin-Vel's palace. Some two hundred slavers and mercenaries were taken prisoner; the rest were slaughtered. Sayl Leikvold escaped offworld with only a handful of guards and the few ships which had remained in-system and survived the withering fire from the Armada. Once the planet was secured, Rin Sakaros came down to oversee the interrogation of her prisoners, who were tied to stakes in the open sun and tortured until someone talked. After she had determined that all useful information had been catalogued and recorded, she had the slavers disemboweled and burned alive.

Aftermath
Harth Gool joined the Golden Empire immediately after the battle. Substantial resources were sent to the planet to aid rebuilding and recovery, and Rin Sakaros commanded that no company could exploit or harvest the resources on the planet without the consent of the Heshoos themselves.

Zhin-Vel's escape saved him from the wrath of the Empire temporarily, but his betrayal of Red Eclipse caused a vengeful Sayl Leikvold to sell him out to the Empire herself. He temporarily eluded capture at Synno, but his murder of two Centurions there only increased the pressure on his hunters; he was killed shortly after at Haerch.

Sayl Leikvold continued to lead Red Eclipse for another few months until her death at Bolera.