Ardosia Conflict

The Ardosia Conflict was a small-scale war on the planet Ardosia between the Human settlers of the planet and the planet's original inhabitants. The governor of the colony led the settlers, while the traditional chieftain of the natives led his people.

The Beginning
"It all has to start somewhere."

- Akak Shouja after learning how the war began

The war began in 89 ABY with a raid against one of the outlying outposts of the colonists during the bitter winter months. When news of this attack reached the ears of the governor, he immediately ordered a genocide of the native villages surrounding the colony without waiting for the details of the attack. The militia was called out and three villages of natives were slaughtered and burned to the ground. The few survivors that escaped the holocaust retreated to the other villages and warned them of the impending doom, so when the militia reached these outlying villages, they found the houses deserted.

The militia was ordered to complete a complete sweep of the area to wipe out any survivors that hung around, but several search and destroy parties were ambushed by angry natives with ACP (Accelerated Charged Particle) light repeaters that had been purchased from the colony for protection from Ardosia's dangerous predators.

The Battle of Pel'nar Field
The Battle of Pel'nar Field was the first major skirmish in the Ardosian conflict. It happened in 98 ABY, nine years after the start of the war, and just after Akak Shouja had arrived from the Core Worlds to take command of the militia. The new commander was tasked with meeting the natives in the large Pel'nar Field, about fifty miles from the colony itself, where the natives had been found setting up a temporary camp.

Sneaking in with three hundred armed and amored men was not an easy task, but Akak managed to organize his troops into three divisions, which would attack in a pincer movement from the East, the West, and the North, which effectively pinned the natives against the Pel'nar Sea and cut off their escape route. The battle would have been a clean sweep and ended the conflict there, but the natives had the forethoght to build ships, which they used to sail to another continent and join a brother tribe. Most of the women and children escaed unharmed, but nearly three quarters of the men were killed in the bloody battle.

The First Battle of Traisk
After the Battle of Pel'nar Field, most of the natives left the continent and went into deep hiding. A few, however, stayed behind with the Chieftain and raided the outlying villages of the colonists and destroyed several of the outposts. During this time the colonist militia switched from using energy shields, which did nothing agains the ACP light repeaters of the natives, to heavy armor, which slowed or stopped the slugs before they could kill the soldiers. Battle slowed in 112 ABY, then stopped altogether at the beginning of 113 ABY. For the first time in decades, the inhabitants began to feel safe.

This feeling of safety did not last long. The natives returned with a vengeance when the Chieftain led his men into the very colony of Traisk, the main settlement of the colonists, and captured Akak and six of the other miltary strategists of the militia. They executed the six leaders but kept Akak around for long enough for the mercenary to learn enough of their language to communicate. The natives, who were not naturally prone to conflict, freed Akak and sent him back to the colony with a message of peace.

The message was ignored and Akak was imprisoned, which brought on the Second Battle of Traisk.