Kothlis summed up the war for me. Just death, blood, fire everywhere you looked...it was fight or be killed...my friends dying all around...it was just hell. Pure, bloody hell.
—A Necasian soldier reminiscing on the battle, following the war
The Battle of Kothlis was a large battle that took place during the second year of the Cruentusian War. It occurred when the Srav Federation, deciding to exploit the turmoil amongst the Necasian Military following the collapse of the Necasian-Zayre alliance, launched an attack on the Necasian-controlled world of Kothlis. Kothlis was rich in resources and also a strategically located point for both sides, with a number of Necasian installations located there. Outnumbered and taken by surprise, the Necasians dug in the Freta Archipelago, where their forces were concentrated. Under the command of their leader Askar Invado, the Necasians attempted to mount a solid defense, but their numbers and equipment proved inadequate to slow down the Srav advance.
The Necasians managed to hold out for two days, fighting on land, sea, and air, with the Sravs gradually pushing forward along the Archipelago using island-hopping tactics. The Necasians believed that defeat was certain until the arrival of the Necasian fighter ace Renard Curl, who, along with accompanying reinforcements, turned the tide of the battle. The Sravs were pushed into retreat by his onslaught, although much of the Necasian infrastructure in the archipelago was wrecked by them in their retreat.
Although the battle was not considered to have massively impacted on the course of the war, it came to be remembered as one of the bloodiest battles of the conflict. This was said to have been due to the loss of life on both sides and the so-called brutality enacted by troops of both factions. For this reason, the battle was also noted for being especially traumatic for the troops who took part.
Prelude[]
Kothlis is a planet we cannot afford to have destroyed, and Vlad, I want it intact. Please refrain from following Gresev's example on Cul-Huq.
—Jasef Yuiln to Vlad Mutin
Following the Skirmish in Ilatas, which saw the dissolution of their alliance with the Zayre, and coupled with the spreading of the supposedly fanatical Death's Tongue Militia group, the Necasian military's upper circles were in turmoil. Realizing that he had been somewhat over reliant on the Zayre in the duration of his alliance with them, Necasian supreme leader Askar began reinforcing the Necasian border worlds, and focused especially on Kothlis. Rich in resources, Kothlis was providing a stable supply of resources and was also a strategic point. Necasian commanders considered it a potential staging ground for attack on key Srav worlds that were nearby. Therefore, Askar supervised the construction of makeshift construction facilities, and the setup of several new NHD-52577 artillery platforms on the planet's main islands.
Unbeknownst to Askar, the Srav Federation had its eye on Kothlis for its tactical value, and took advantage of the Necasian turmoil to plan an attack on the tropical ocean world. Srav spies sabotaged Necasian supply convoys heading to Kothlis, weakening the defenses, and Srav infiltrators and Necasian traitors in the employ of the Sravs installed themselves in the key Necasian base, on the Freta Archipelago. Upon learning that Askar himself was on Kothlis, supervising the strengthening of the defenses, Srav Command decided that it was the time to attack, as they could potentially capture the leader of the military as well as capturing an important world. Srav commanders Vlad Mutin, known for his affinity for radiation weaponry, and Boras Magdiyek, reputed for his quality tank designs, were tasked with the assault. Ivran Gresev, the highest-ranking Srav commander, stressed to both of them that they keep use of heavy-duty nuclear and radiation weaponry to a minimum, as they needed the Necasian resources intact.
Luckily for the Sravs, a tropical storm began passed near the archipelago, scrambling Necasian sensors. Messages were sent to the Srav infiltrators in the Necasian camp, instructing them to commence with their pre-planned sabotage. The Necasian early-warning systems were disabled, allowing a Srav fleet of Klasnost-class transports, vessels designed for military transportation, positioned not far from the planet, to enter the atmosphere. They were aiming for a landing site on the lightly-defended southernmost island of the archipelago, in a large caldera. However, as they entered the atmosphere, the bad weather had moved on, and some of the Necasian sensors re-activated.
The battle[]
The Srav landings[]
Our position is being overrun, we're outnumbered and outgunned, and our retreat is cut off. I am therefore compelled to state that the situation is essentially hopeless, sir.
—A Necasian soldier to Askar
A Necasian soldier reacts to the Srav attack.
As they descended, some of the Klasnost transports deployed Yukel fighters which performed surgical strikes on the Necasian camp that occupied the landing site. Stunned and confused, the Necasian soldiers in the camp barely had time to grab their weapons as the Klasnosts landed. Drapeznik hovercopter gunships were deployed, which tore into the Necasians. Kurtev and Drakuv tanks mopped up any survivors, and Srav soldiers set about modifying the Necasian workshops and barracks in the caldera landing sites in order to gain resupply facilities for their troops and vehicles. Meanwhile, more transports dropped Ryekin submarines and Zaba hovercraft into the sea around the island. Using information obtained from maps they found in Necasian facilities and from interrogating prisoners, the Sravs quickly learned the positions of key Necasian defenses.
By this point, the remaining Necasians on the island were aware of the Srav invaders, and dug in. A NHD-52577 artillery platform on the island's beach began firing on the landing site, but due to the positioning of the caldera few of the shells actually went in, and those that did made only superficial damage. Moving quickly, Srav troops spilled onto the beach, gunning down Necasian soldiers there. Any further dug-in Necasian soldiers on the island were taken out by tactical rockets launched from Okol missile launchers. The Srav soldiers proceeded to seize the artillery platform, with which they began bombarding the Necasian boats in the space between the island and the next one, allowing Srav aquatic forces to consolidate. The Sravs were considered to have the clear advantage: they were well-dug in, with large amounts of intelligence and superior firepower, but by that time they had lost the element of surprise, and Necasian forces on the other islands were preparing for an attack.
The Necasian defense[]
How humiliating. The local wildlife is proving to be a bigger threat than the enemy.
—Vlad
The Necasians fight back.
Setting up their camp, the Sravs began loading forces onto Zaba hovercraft, using the island as a staging around. Necasian artillery platforms on the next island opened fire on the Sravs, who were by this time well-entrenched, meaning that the artillery barrage caused little damage. In response, Vlad directed Ryekin submarines to launch tactical cruise missiles at the platforms, neutralizing them. Remembering his earlier orders to keep use of heavy-duty ordnance to a minimum, Vlad restrained himself from bombarding the islands with his ranged arsenal, and put Boras in command of the Srav landing force, which was now ready. The Zaba hovercraft flotilla carrying said force began moving. Trying to stop it out of desperation, a group of Necasian Swordfish hydrofoils intercepted the Zabas and began firing on them. Nonetheless, their weaponry caused little damage, and a wing of Drapezniks covering the Zaba landing force took them out.
The Zabas landed on the beach and deployed their forces, which encountered small but concentrated Necasian resistance. Mines on the beach crippled some of Srav vehicles, but mortar fire from Zabas and the size of the landing force made sure that resistance at the beach was cleared out. The remaining Necasians on the island holed up at the highest point of the island. Boras suggested using bombardment to clear them out, but Vlad pointed out that this would result in the destruction of the Necasian facilities on the island, which they had to take intact for strategic use. Reluctantly, Boras began pushing forward through the tropical forest on the island, which bogged down his tanks. Natural hazards such as predators and Necasian booby traps ranging from pits to claymore bombs also caused losses to the Srav infantry as they proceeded. Kresquitos also proved an annoyance, driving several Srav soldiers to anger with their persistent bites and causing them to lose their focus.
Despite these obstacles, the Sravs reached the Necasian camp. Although small in number, the Necasian troops there were well dug in, and badly damaged the first waves of Sravs before they were overwhelmed. Now in control of the second island, the Sravs again consolidated there, preparing their landing for the next island. Nevertheless, Askar was planning counterattacks and drafting contingency plans, and was determined to let the Sravs proceed any further. Realizing that the Srav advantage was in ranged firepower, he decided to focus on eliminating that particular asset, starting with their submarines.
The underwater battle[]
Get our frogmen to deploy! Let's see how those crim bastards like this!
—Askar
A Necasian diver approaches a lurking Ryekin.
As the Sravs prepared their next wave of landing forces, Askar had specially-trained divers deployed, equipped with limpet mines for taking out aquatic vehicles. Necasian Razorshark boats, from a safe distance, used radiation-detecting Geiger sensors to pinpoint a number of nuclear-powered Srav Ryekin subs lurking in the coral reef. Askar knew that he could not risk deploying his naval forces on a large scale without them being torpedoed by the submarines, so he directed the divers to destroy the submarines with their mines. Swimming into the coral reefs, the divers used stealth to approach some of the closest submarines and destroy them with mines.
Almost immediately, Vlad became aware that the Necasians were deploying anti-submarine countermeasures, so he had his own divers deployed from the submarines. Swimming through the reef, the Srav divers surprised their Necasian counterparts by attacking them with harpoon guns. Using the structures of the reef as cover, the Necasian divers tried to fight back with knives, as only a few of them were equipped with harpoon guns. Nonetheless, they were soon finding themselves scattered as the Ryekins began torpedoing the parts of the reef where said divers were hiding. Some of the remaining Necasian divers managed to destroy several submarines before they were finally driven away or killed. Askar's underwater skirmish had failed, although nevertheless the Srav underwater presence was crippled. As a result, he felt that the sub numbers had been reduced sufficiently to make it safe for his Razorshark boats to commence the discharge of depth charge explosives.
Beach combat[]
Think of it as a day on the seaside, but with bullets.
—A Necasian colonel reassuring his men
Elsewher, accompanied by Swordfish hydrofoil boats, Necasian Razorsharks began to move into position, and commenced bombardment of the Srav landing forces on the island beach as they prepared. Using their sensors, the Swordfishes began detecting the remaining hiding Srav submarines, and the Razorsharks commenced with depth charging, destroying more of the reef and forcing the submarine out of hiding. A few Drapeznik gunships moved to engage the ships, but were driven away by Swordfish anti-air fire.
Vlad was losing patience, and despite Boras's reservations he went ahead with the landings onto the next island, having completely seized the first. Both the Sravs and the Necasians knew that the island after following the next one was the central island of the archipelago, where the main Necasian command center was located. Askar knew that if said central island fell, the entire Necasian defense network for the archipelago would collapse and the Sravs could take over easily. He ordered his troops to fight to the death, an order that they did not take to happily.
As the Zaba hovercrafts moved across the water, they came under fire from the Razorsharks, which succeeded in sinking a few. In response, Vlad deployed a wing of Yukel fighters, which used their nuclear-tipped air-ground missiles to sink some of the Razorsharks, their altitude and speed too much for the gunners of the Swordfishes. Desperate to eliminate Srav air supremacy, Askar scrambled the small force of DarkBird fighters he had available, despite the pilots being novices and the fighters themselves in need of maintenance. Taking to the skies, the DarkBirds engaged the Yukels in the air above the archipelago, taking some of them down, but hails of Srav surface-air missiles, or SAMs, and flak explosive from below began knocking them out of the air. To finish the job, Vlad ordered his submarines to move close to the central island and had them launch missiles at the Necasian air field. At this time, the Necasian anti-missile laser countermeasure system on the central island was partly online, but it was not enough to intercept the missiles, which devastated the airfield. Deprived of airpower, and his naval forces taking heavy damage, Askar diverted his attention to the Sravs as they commenced their latest beach landings.
This time, the Necasian defense was much stronger than the previous one. Infantry equipped with NWD-KA12 missile launchers, hiding in the jungle tree line along the beach, disabled several landers and tanks as they went onto the beach, and shrapnel mines caused heavy losses to the first wave of infantry. In some parts of the beach, makeshift pillboxe emplacements blew down Srav troops as they landed on the beach. Mortar troops in the jungle opened fire, causing further damage. Angered, Vlad launched several precision missiles from his Okols on the other island at the jungle near the beach, clearing several Necasian nests, but the blasts also damaged the Sravs. Nonetheless, the Necasians on the beach were soon overwhelmed, and had to pull back into the jungle, much to Askar's anger. Consolidating on the beach, the Sravs prepared for another jungle push.
Jungle warfare[]
Worry not. No jungle can stand up to treads and tons of armor, comrades.
—Boras
The Necasian encampment comes under fire.
After a short consolidation period, the Srav landing force finally began pushing into the jungle that covered most of the island. Even though the survivors of the previous jungle push were confident that this time the push would be easy, they soon discovered to their horror that the fauna was infested with hazards, both Necasian and natural. Explosive and shrapnel landmines were hidden in the undergrowth, and the Necasians had also hidden camouflaged pillboxes and machinegun nests, with many Srav soldiers being cut down by NWD-JR5 heavy machineguns as they made their way through the dense foliage. Boras, who was in charge of the push, tried to use air strikes from Yukels and Drapezniks to take out the hidden Necasian pockets. Nonetheless, the aircraft sensors had difficulty distinguishing troops from the jungle around them, and the Necasians were using NWD-STI88 anti-air missile launchers to great effect, driving away most of the air support.
In response to this, Boras had his tanks, form the front of the Srav advance, but with the thickness of the jungle and the various anti-tank mines scattered through it, they found their progress was difficult and slow. Coupled with that, the Sravs, unlike the Necasians, had no idea as to the animals which lurked in the jungle, with a number of Srav infantrymen falling foul of several predatory plants and creatures that lurked amongst the plants. Nonetheless, the Necasians were insufficient in number to halt the Srav advance, and soon they were pulling back to the highest point of the island. The Necasian colonel on the island requested an evacuation from Askar, who refused, not wishing to be defeated. With morale low because of this, the Necasian soldiers began a half-hearted defense as the first Srav troops reached their encampment, using grenades to flush them out. A few Necasian tanks and armored vehicles managed to hold back the Srav troops for a matter of minutes, before being taken out by gunships and tanks.
At this point, the Sravs were in sight of the main island. However, it was now late evening, and the troops of both sides were exhausted. The Srav commanders decided to let their troops spend the night resting, and took the opportunity to repair any damaged vehicles and replenish ammunition. The Necasians also made use of this break in the fighting, consolidating their forces in the central island. Askar formed a naval blockade around the main island with what was left of his aquatic forces, and began dismantling the artillery platforms on the other islands and setting them up on the main one. He had intended to perform a massive shelling of the Srav camp through the night, but was informed that there was insufficient ammunition for such a barrage. Askar improvised; he loaded dud shells and other bits of metal into the platforms and began firing throughout the night. No damage was caused to the Sravs, but the constant firing of the artillery kept many Srav soldiers awake throughout the night and traumatized some of them. Askar congratulated himself on this triumph of psychological warfare, but this also backfired; it kept some Necasian troops awake too, and had the same effect on them. Nonetheless, troops of both sides managed to block out some of the noise by making makeshift earplugs.
The final push[]
Gentlemen, there is a possibility that we may not make it. So I want to say that this is all your fault and that I am shamed to have served with men like you.
—Askar to his commanders
An elite Necasian troop fires back.
By morning, the majority of the Srav troops had rested up, their vehicles were ready for battle, and their commanders had spent the night devising what they believed would be a foolproof plan for seizing the central island, and thus the rest of the archipelago. The Necasians themselves had dug in, their artillery cannons were fully loaded, with actual shells this time, and Askar felt that his naval blockade's anti-air power would nullify Srav airpower and missile bombardment. He also set up a basic anti-missile laser countermeasure system on the island just to be sure. The Necasians had also set up a large number of machinegun nests, bunkers, and pillboxes along the beach. Despite this defense, morale was still low amongst the Necasians; the Sravs had taken damage in their advances of the previous day, but they still had a numerical advantage. Ammunition for small arms and vehicles was also low amongst the Necasians, with infantry resorting to using bits of old cutlery-knives and forks-as makeshift bullets.
For most of the morning, the Sravs prepared for the landings and loaded up infantry and hardware, making sure to stay off the beach until the last minute to avoid ranged fire from Necasian artillery and Razorshark boats. Ryekin subs had tried to perform an abortive missile bombardment of the Necasian defenses, but the laser countermeasures had deflected their barrage. Finally, Zaba hovercraft began to move out of the relative safety of the jungle and across the water. Vlad prioritized speed over all else to avoid the Necasian ranged fire.
The Srav landing forces took heavy fire during their crossing. Several Zabas were lost to Razorshark fire, and more to the artillery platforms. In response, Vlad commenced with a full air attack, dispatching Yukel fighters to sink the Razorsharks and Drapezniks to bombard the beach defenses. Although a combination of Necasian SAM barrages and their laser countermeasures nullified the Drapeznik assault somewhat, the sheer noise of the battle caused widespread shell-shock and confusion amongst the Necasian troops. As a result, resistance was half-hearted as Zabas finally settled on the beach and disgorged their troops, raking the beach with their machineguns first to clear out any mines. Meanwhile, the Yukel attack was more successful than the Drapezniks, with almost all the Razorsharks sunk, thus stopping some of the bombardment on the Sravs.
Askar was panicking as the Sravs began advancing through the jungle, this time using widespread countermeasures against all the traps the Necasians had employed in their previous jungle defenses. He had consolidated too many of his troops on the beach, which was being overrun. To his further horror, some of the Srav troops seized two of the artillery platforms, which were close to the beach and lightly defended. The Necasian encampment came under shelling from its own guns, and Askar himself got mild shell-shock. He began an evacuation of priority staff, but more Yukel strikes destroyed the Necasian landing platforms, as the advancing Sravs began taking out anti-air emplacements and the laser systems. Askar loaded his personal gun, preparing to commit suicide. However, his hopes suddenly rose when sensors picked up a Necasian Elthior-IV class frigate entering orbit, with a familiar communications signature.
Renard turns the tide[]
Flight commander Renard Curl, reporting for duty! Are we gonna get this party started or what?"
"Just get out there and do your job, you arrogant idiot...
—Renard and Askar
A DarkBird swoops.
Fortunately for the Necasians, Askar's calls for reinforcements were heard by Renard Curl, and his garrison of DarkBird fighters, stationed on the planet Sessa, where they were engaging in training exercises of the fighters. This was so that the fighter division of the Necasian military would be strong enough to inspire fear in all aerial opponents, such as the Zayre. Renard, leader of the fighters, answered the calls by Askar Invado to help fight off the Sravs, and to keep control of the planet Kothlis in Necasian hands. The fighters arrived at the beach, where they encountered Srav guards keeping watch and dispatched them quickly and efficiently, in the eyes of Curl, before making their way to the jungle. The fighters made use of the Renard slipstream maneuver, which was considered difficult but effective, and involved barrel rolling above the ground to create an air vortex, to take out ground forces. This turned the nominally dogfight-oriented DarkBird into a ground support weapon.
Flying above the jungle, the fighters under Curl discovered the large areas of destruction caused by the battle, allowing a view into the jungle through the holes created by the battle. This meant that Curl and his fighters were able to see the missile launchers being transported through the jungle towards the encampment, and Curl ordered his fighters to attack the missile launchers. The attack was quick and devastating in Curl's opinion and the Srav officer in charge of transport, one of the few to escape the attack on the missile launchers. With the threat of the missile launchers attacking the base having been neutralized, the encampment was able to hold off the siege until Curl arrived, this meant that the encampment would be able to hold off the siege until Curl arrived.
From nearby, Curl contacted the Necasians in the encampment, alerting Askar to the fact that they were approaching, and the Necasians inside would have to break out and assail the forces as soon as Curl and his fighters had distracted them. Arriving at the base, Curl’s fighters swooped down to the under canopy and attacked the heavier vehicles first, destroying numerous Srav heavy weaponry in one move. Distracted by this new threat, the Sravs turned their attention to the fighters, allowing the Necasians in the compound to break out and attack the Srav forces once more, meaning the Sravs were now under attack from both sides. The Sravs soon became overpowered, and fled back to the beach, in attempts to be airlifted. However, as Renard and his squadron performed surgical strikes on Srav pockets on the islands, the Srav retreat descended into a disorganized rush. The Sravs remaining at the original landing site managed to escape, and those left to occupy the other islands tried to call in airlifts to extract them, despite the fact that the Necasian fighters were eliminating Srav transports with ease. In desperation, Sravs who realized they had no hope of rescue destroyed the Necasian facilities on the islands they were on before killing themselves to avoid being captured and executed, and others hurriedly took out other installations as they made breakneck retreats to landing zones. Nonetheless, within a few hours the vast majority of the Srav forces present had either retreated or had been eliminated. By this time, it was clear that victory belonged to the Necasians.
Aftermath[]
If this is what a victory is supposed to be like, then give me a defeat any day.
—A Necasian soldier following the battle
After the last hiding Srav troops were rooted out, hours after their retreat, Askar finally announced that victory belonged to the Necasians, and allowed his troops to celebrate. However, he was unable turn a blind eye to the damage and casualties the Necasians had suffered in the battle. Half of their facilities in the archipelago were destroyed, their original garrison had nearly been annihilated, and the Sravs had also sabotaged many of their mines in their retreat. As a result, Kothlis's resource output was greatly hampered.
A few days later, Renard and his reinforcements were forced to leave to replenish Necasian forces elsewhere. Askar spent a few more days rebuilding the defenses on the island, designing the network himself, to compensate for the lessening of the garrison. Meanwhile, he ordered Necasian news reports to paint him as the one who had won the battle, downplaying Renard's role. Renard did not complain, as Necasian propaganda had already glorified his exploits elsewhere.
In the case of the Sravs, Vlad was held mostly responsible for the defeat, although he protested that the Necasians had more or less lost their tactical hold on Kothlis, and the only reason for the defeat was a factor he could not have predicted. Nevertheless, the battle was still considered a damning logistical and propaganda defeat for the Sravs, and they decided it was not worth trying to launch a second attack to avoid casualties and the fact that they believed that the Necasians would be more prepared.
Meanwhile, leaking radiation from Srav vehicle wrecks prevented the Necasians from retrieving them, and caused mild mutations in the ecosystem around them. These mutations would baffle biologists of the Galactic Republic government millennia later, as they did not match the biology of other biological life on Kothlis. Also, the Necasian base would eventually be abandoned after the war, and would crumble, leaving iron dust-infested patches on the islands of the Freta Archipelago that would likewise baffle future visitors to Kothlis. They could not postulate a natural cause as to this, and the fact that it was inconsistent with soil composition around also contributed to this.
Legacy[]
Bah! You are hopeless, all of you! Had I had been in command, we would be raising the red flag over Kothlis with pride!"
"Gresev, had you been in command, the planet would be covered in mushroom clouds by now. In any case, we must now work on adjusting to this defeat before the Necasians get ideas above their station.
—Ivran Gresev and Vlad Mutin, following the battle
The effects of the battle on the side of the Srav Federation was a decrease in profits, with the damage to weaponry caused by the Necasians to the Srav Federation causing much of the Srav money to be spent refurbishing old weapons or buying new ones, something considered a large inconvenience by the administration of the Srav Federation. The general opinion was considered to be one that believed the money would have been better spent funding new battles against the Necasians or Death's Tongue Militia instead, but new weapons were needed to be produced to replace those lost on Kothlis, or the Sravs believed would be below the quota they felt they needed in terms of munitions quantities. The Srav soldiers, in turn, were quoted to have been 'demoralised' by the turn of events on Kothlis, something the Srav leaders were quick to attempt to combat by downplaying the casualties of the battle in propaganda broadcasts.
In turn, the Necasians were quoted to have felt exactly the opposite, in terms of morale, to the Sravs. Following the battle, Necasian broadcasts featured the inability of the Sravs to end the battle on Kothlis and the ability of Renard Curl to rescue the Necasians on the planet, a point Askar Invado was quick to exaggerate in the various propaganda feeds and posters used by the Necasians on the planets under Necasian control. While many Necasian weapons had been destroyed in the battle, the Necasians were still able to harness remaining natural resources of Kothlis, something they'd been able to retain, to pay for the various repairs or new trades needed to fix the Necasian arsenal back to what it had originally been before the battle, with no reported dip in Necasian profits being recorded because of this.
With the battle being situated upon Kothlis, the repercussions on Kothlis were not on the scale of those during the battle on Cul-Huq, with just a single region of land being devastated, instead of an entire planet and species as had happened to the natives of Cul-Huq. A species of a primate kind was reported to have been made extinct by radiation and the destruction of its nesting sites, although the name was not recorded in the Necasian battle report or the Srav report either. In terms of the galaxy's opinion of the various factions, it was reported that the hatred of the Cruentusian War by the general inhabitants of the galaxy, caused by its carnage and destruction, decreased by some amount, after it was seen that the battles did not need to devastate entire planets.
Behind the scenes[]
This article was created as part of Project Cruentus, in a collaboration between Unit 8311 and Darth tom. Originally, it was meant to be little more than an average-length battle article, similar to others such as the Battle of Raxus Prime or the many other shorter battle articles, before Unit 8311 proposed that the article should be raised to good article status. This would make it, if it was successful, the second Project Cruentus good, and by extension featured, article. Unit 8311 had no exact reason for focusing on this particular article other than that he simply felt that the project needed another Good Article. Originally, it had been little more than an introduction section before the two had decided to do more work upon it, and raised it by a large amount. Although Darth tom felt that it was quality and not quantity that made an article, and was not working for the status but rather for the good of the Project, a larger article of greater quality would be a better article overall.
Parts of the battle written by Unit 8311 were inspired by real-life conflicts, such as the Island hopping tactics employed by the United States of America during WW2 to push the Imperial Japanese back, and in particular the Battle of Iwo Jima. Said battle saw the invasion of the island of Iwo Jima by the United States Military as part of the Pacific Front. This was reflected by the Srav strategy used in the article, which was focusing forces on a single island before moving on to the next, thereby pushing the enemy forward, which is an analogy of said American-employed tactics in the Second World War. Unit 8311 also aimed to emulate what he felt was the gritty atmosphere of the Battle of Iwo Jima, where American troops fought across the island while facing stubborn Japanese resistance and defense implacements, and likewise put elements of this battle into the article. Although not a complete copy, it is undoubtedly influenced by such historical events.
The parts written by Darth tom were pure imagination, inspired by the piece of music Requiem of a Dream, which Darth tom regularly listened to in order to gain inspiration for the battle article, and which he felt allowed him to write both faster and with greater ideas, with the fast tempo of the music, coupled with the loud dynamic moments helped to fuel his imaginations with images of gunfire and battle. each clash of the music representing a Necasian attack in the mind of Darth tom. The musical piece had originally been proposed in the Project Cruentus forum as a 'theme' for the Srav Federation, which is where the idea to use the piece as inspiration came to Darth tom from. However, instead of gaining inspiration from music, Unit 8311 wrote with inspiration from written and historical sources.