Battle of Sirius
| Battle of Sirius | |||||||
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 A dynmap image showing the very beginning of the Battle of Sirius. No ships had yet been sunk. | |||||||
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| Participants | |||||||
 Separatist Alliance |
 United Luxit States | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
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8k Frigate (NovaManGood2110)
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12k Destroyer (WitherV)
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| All ships lost | 3 ships lost | ||||||
The Battle of Sirius was a major military engagement between the combined forces of Imperial Nova and the Separartist Alliance against the armada of Vega, Vask Authority, Oblivion, and United Luxit States. The battle was fought over custody of the ArtifactGamma Siege Station, and was the first major military expedition of the Novan-Separatist Alliance following its establishment the prior day on 6 March. The Battle of Sirius is the largest military engagement to occur on Horizon's End since the Battle of Asteri, and is the second-largest military engagement ever in server history.
Context
In the months following the 30 December Incident, Imperial Nova and Vega existed in a state of politically-ambiguous military hostility, punctuated by occasional minor combat engagements and Siege Station battles. No formal conflict was declared or pursued by either party in this time, due among other factors to the pronounced inactivity of Imperial Nova in January and February of 2025.
On 25 February 2025, Imperial Nova publicly announced in a post in the #server-news channel of the Horizon's End official Discord that they were (as NovaManGood2110 put it) "officially un-killing the nation", soliciting recruitment of new members and cooperation with prospective allied groups, and claiming to offer "political influence, ships, materials, infrastructure, combat training, military protection, [and] action". On 6 February, the new, combat-oriented nation of Separatist Alliance, consisting of players who had recently joined as a group from CCNet, took up the Novan offer, striking a formal alliance with Imperial Nova at 3:06PM EST.
Previously, Separatist Alliance had engaged in hostile military action against members of several nations on the server, including Halastian Imperium, United Luxit States, Cortesia Del Mar, Orovika, and Vega; however, their alliance with Imperial Nova stipulated that they "act defensively", which was in contrast with their previous behavior. Within the hour of their alliance's formal declaration, a joint Novan-Separatist fleet proactively attacked and sunk known pirate z4nityy's Starfighter, and then proceeded to assist yodabird19 and Equiila of Cortesia Del Mar in a small engagement against Oblivion pirate forces; these events signaled a new direction for the Separatist Alliance.
Summary of Events
At approximately 4:00PM EST, a 6-member [[Nova]n-Separatist fleet departed Aret, arriving to siege the Vega-owned Siege Station ArtifactGamma at 4:11PM. While a Novan siege against Vega was not outside the norm at this time, the Novan-Separatist fleet was significantly larger than a typical Novan siege detachment, which drew attention to it. The siege proceeded uncontested (with the station being captured 15 minutes later); however, this left half an hour in ArtifactGamma's siege window in which Vega could attempt to retake the station. Subsequently, forces of several nations friendly or allied to Vega gathered at the Vegan Trade City of Hegemony on Qatra, visibly signaling Vega's intention to re-siege the station with a supernumerary force. Despite having the chance to retreat before Vegan-allied forces could attack, the Novan and Separatist pilots elected to remain garrisoned at the nearby Novan station claim of Omega; _Longy would later explain this decision as owing to the fact that the Novans and Separatists "wanted some combat".
Following an unsuccessful probing attack by MaidPierce's Interceptor "VS Suicide Run", at 4:48PM EST, a Vegan-aligned fleet numbering 12 ships (later 13 with the arrival of braersss) departed Qatra and warped in to ArtifactGamma; while a Novan attempt to isolate BlockBuster019 via timed use of a Starship Gravity Well was briefly successful, the entire fleet ultimately congregated inside of the siege station, at which point WitherV initiated the re-siege. Despite being outnumbered approximately 2 to 1, the Novan-Separatist fleet, maintaining tight formation, went on the offensive, approaching ArtifactGamma from the east. The Vegan-aligned fleet did not move from its position at the center of the siege station until z4nityy, Blockbuster019, and DivineArtisan broke formation and moved to intercept the Novan-Separatist fleet to the southeast, at which point the fleet moved uniformly towards the southeastern section of the station.
As both fleets consisted almost entirely of small ships (with all but two participating ships being Direct Control-based fighters, and all but three being Gunship class or below), after contact was made between the fleets, fleet cohesion broke down on both sides, and the battle devolved into a chaotic interchange of approximately 19 ships. Over the course of the following 3 minutes, the four Separatist Starfighters and one Novan Gunship were swiftly picked off by the superior Vegan-aligned fleet. NovaManGood2110's Frigate survived the longest, retreating to the east and successfully taking down z4nityy's Tackle Gunship before succumbing to the superior firepower of the dozen-strong attacking fleet.
Following the end of the fleet battle, the now-shipless Separatist and Novan pilots made efforts to board and kill the pilots of Vegan-aligned ships. While most were swiftly picked off by turret fire, NovaManGood2110 successfully boarded an unpiloted 1k Gunship owned by Vegan pilot vikator2583, prompting the remainder of the fleet to fire on the ship, and consequently sinking it.