Fall of Antis

"'If Antis falls, we're taking those bastards with us.'""- Theo-783 proposing the usage of DEITY bombs."The Fall of Antis was the apex of the Capital Words campaign of the Forefather War. The capital and most populated planet of the Krythenan Empire, Antis was incredibly important to both the empire and to the Galactic Alliance, making it a necessity to keep the planet under their control.

Background
The S'southi had, for the past six months, waged a brutal campaign of merciless destruction of the Inner Defense Grid, and by November 20th had completely breached it. With a clear shot at attacking the Krythenan homeworld, the S'southi prepared their Armada for the coming battle.

Antis was a heavily defended planet, with over one hundred Krythenan-pattern Orbital Defense Platforms, a defense fleet numbering in the thousands and hundreds of other vessels belonging to the Galactic Alliance. Alongside numerable defenses in space, units on the ground numbered in the hundreds of thousands which were backed up by thousands of Alliance soldiers, including Sangheili and Jiralhanae.

Despite these defenses, there were several key flaws. The majority of the Antis defense fleet was made up of antiquated vessels from the Krythenan Civil War, and were horrendously outdated. Despite still being heavily armed, armoured and effective, they lacked the speed of newer vessels and were not able to use speed or maneuverability to their advantage, which was devastating when fighting the S'southi. Alongside this, an attack on Antis was not expected to take place so soon, with the Galactic Alliance's intelligence operations pointing towards an attack in early January of next year.

The Battle
"'That's the single largest S'southi fleet we've ever seen!'""- Colonel Devin Weeks aboard the Renewed Faith."On the morning of the 29th of November, the S'southi fleet unexpectedly exited their version of Slipspace in the Antis system and began immediate attacks against the defense fleet. Taken by complete surprise, the fleet was scattered and lost many ships in the first hours of the engagement. Multiple Orbital Defense Platforms were boarded and captured by invading forces, with one even having it's gravitational locks disengaged and it tumbling down onto the planet below.

Despite the battle raging on above, the S'southi had now opened up a hole in the defense platform grid and deployed millions of soldiers to the surface. Engagements quickly began across the urbanised surface of the planet, with S'southi Orbital Bombardments devastating entire continents alongside the ground attacks. By this point the S'southi had gained an upper hand in the space battle above, and were beginning to gain ground on the surface.

Evacuations Begin
Recognising that Antis was too far gone, Galactic Alliance forces began to evacuate civilians and soldiers from Antis on mass while they still had a combat-capable fleet in orbit. Krythenan forces on the ground continued to put up stiff resistance and were not recalled. Without support from Alliance soldiers, Krythenan forces were eventually overran, but not before inflicting heavy, unsustainable casualties on S'southi forces on the ground.

In an effort to preserve Krythenan fighting spirit and save them the shame of having their capital fall to their enemy, the commander of Krythenan ground forces put a series of DEITY bombs on an unstoppable countdown to their detonation.

Krythenan forces would warn the defense fleet and evacuees of the impending explosion, and both began their retreat. Krythenan forces would be pulled off-world in massed numbers, and they alongside the Alliance fled into Slipspace.

The DEITY bombs would be detonated a short time after the withdrawal of the Alliance, destroying most of the planet's surface and killing the strict majority of surviving S'southi warriors on the surface, alongside a number of vessels that were in-atmosphere. The Rus'evi Executioner Dreadnought Tesbata E'sa would be among those caught in the blast.

Alliance Aftermath
"Darasma: 'I can't believe we lost Antis.'""Cobadarama: 'For now.'""- Conversation between Darasma and Cobadarama following the battle."Following the defeat at Antis, the Alliance was forced to prepare for the inevitable S'southi invasion of Alliance space. The Krythenan Empire had been defeated, and the S'southi were unlikely to focus on the remaining lightly defended outer worlds.

The Krythenan Empire immediately dissolved following the battle, the majority of the leadership either refused to evacuate or died during the battle and subsequent explosions, with the very few who remained pledging loyalty to Supreme Admiral Cobadarama and his reformed government which pledged to continue fighting against the S'southi. A side effect of the fall of Antis was the bolstering of Krythenan morale. In their eyes, they had nothing left to live for. Their people had fallen and their worlds had been torn asunder by invading forces. Due to this way of thinking, they became highly tenacious, often fighting to the last man to insignificant targets, which devastated the human-wave tactics of the S'southi.

S'southi Aftermath
"'Though they did not falter, and their merciless swarms won the day, it was ultimately the beginning of their self-induced downfall.'""- Observations of The Watcher."S'southi leader Sark would report his victory to Binding Enlightenment and the Forefathers, who were exceptionally pleased at the results, but far more worried with the losses suffered for a single, now uninhabitable planet. The S'southi established Antis as their forward command center in preparation for their new campaign deeper into Alliance space.

Over the course of the battle and immediately following the detonation of the DEITY bomb, around a half of existing S'southi warriors were killed or destroyed, which presented a major problem in upcoming campaigns.