Wing Commander reboot, part 30

2663

Revolution

After years of running the mines on Ghorah Khar ruthlessly, and as well as keeping their claws upon the throats of the colonists, a spark finally hit the Kilrathi world of Ghorah Khar. One of the three largest Prides upon the planet, with support of virtually all the minor Prides, lead an attack against upon the garrison. There were three major Prides upon the planet, and not wanting to risk either getting to strong, scions from the Kilrah Pride took over all three Prides. Only a month before the rebellion began, the M’krah Pride was taken over by a pair of veterans from Repleetah, after they successfully defeated the previous three Kings (which happened to be Imperial Cousins) and laid claim to the Pride. Without having anyone from Kilrah looking over their shoulders, the Pride females organized a rebellion.

The garrison defending the largest of the mines was overran before they realized what was happening. Imperial soldiers were accustomed to fighting aliens and Kilrathi males. When a hundred thousands angry Pride females descended upon them, they hesitated, moving to defend themselves only after it was too late. Junior officers upon Kilrathi warship in the system launched their own coups, deciding to side with the Ghorah Khar rebels. Their motivation was not widely known, for Kilrathi will turn upon their own kind if they see an advantage to their own blood line. It is entirely possible these officers hoped to claim a Pride of their own.

As soon as the other two major Prides were defeated, and taken over by local males, the M’krah Pride declared itself the Ghorah Khar Pride, and Ghorah Khar declared its independence from the Empire. Normally, a rebellious planet would be ignored if a greater threat existed, or simply blasted off the face of the planet. However, Ghorah Khar was one of the few places known were a certain crystal vital for cloaking devices could be mined in large quantities. Envoys from Ghorah Khar reached for Confed lines, bringing a message to the Confederation. For the first time, an entire planet was willing to defect. The only thing worse than losing the mines would be losing them to Confed.

Retreat

Due to the rebellion on Ghorah Khar, and mutiny in its defending ships, Kilrathi forces in the Novaya Kiev System packed up and headed back to Ghorah Khar, effectively abandoning the system. When the TCS Wolfhound, on duty in the Enigma Sector between 2661-64, entered the system to raid the Kilrathi, it discovered it devoid of enemies. The Kilrathi did not even bother to destroy everything in sight while they retreated. Confed assembled a rapid response force, with a landing party of only ten thousand Marines, and entered the system. True to Wolfhound’s　report, the system was abandoned. Similar reports across the Sector claimed Kilrathi forces were thinning on the front line as the Kilrathi moved back to secure their rear.

The Ghorah Khar rebellion not only deprived the Kilrathi of the ability to produce cloaking devices in large quantities, but also pulled off forces that were pressing in on Confed. The fighting in Ghorah Khar was fierce, and the rebels gained a victory when the crew of an old Snakier rose up and killed their senior officers, all scions from one or another of the Eight Prides. It was a slight boon, since the newer Brantkara-class carriers, much larger than the old Snakiers. A number of Kilrathi pilots switched sides during one engagement, causing chaos in the Ghorah Khar System. Seeing a chance the Kilrathi might recapture the system, Confed rushed its own forces into Novaya Kiev and massed for a fight.

Last Survivors of Repleetah

With both sides pulling out forces due to shifting balances of power, the last of the Repleetah veterans to ever escape the planet were pulled out in later 2663. The Kilrathi pulled out 200,000 soldiers while Confed moved 300,000 of their own. There were still four million total soldiers left on the planet, and rapidly spiraling into savagery. Over the next year, virtually all of the four million soldiers, regardless of species, would be dead either by enemy fire or a degraded environment.