Madame Scarface strikes

At around 2 PM in Valspon time, right as Buttermilch’s detachment was beginning its warp along the Lübeck hyper lane, distorted space had begun to materialize itself amid the destroyers that were ahead of Mazzarelli’s section. The rather erupt warp rift had alarmed the officers of those destroyers, who quickly recognized it as a warp exit point and ordered the vanguard units to pull back out of its vicinity. For some, the order came too late and perished in the subsequent shock wave as a result of the warp rift.

Li Chou’s war party warped in—almost literally—right on top of the forward squadron of cruisers ahead of Mazzarelli’s section.

Some of her ships had even warped directly in front of the destroyers, causing further chaos from ships inadvertently colliding into each other and causing further confusion from the resulting explosions.

Li Chou’s flagship the Castelforte was one of the last ships to arrive in the system. When the warp effects wore off, she was in shock at the metallic hellscape before her. Li Chou quickly assessed the situation and promptly reorganized her fleet. Then gave the order to deliver a missile barrage and rush the Federation positions.

Li’s pirates rammed into what remained of the pitiful destroyer squadron and continued its momentum into the column of Mazzarelli’s section.

Mazzarelli’s ship, the MSN Yilan, was rammed in particular. The ram caused many in the bridge to lose balance, and particularly one steel beam overhead had loosened as a result of the impact and penetrated the upper torso of the ship’s commanding officer. Mazzarelli, who was nearby, had witnessed the grisly scene and panicky called for a medic.

But it was not to be. In his dying breath, Buttermilch handed command over to Mazzarelli, ordered him to do what was right, and passed away from his grave injuries.

Mazzarelli relayed the passing of the deceased Buttermilch and announced he was the new commanding officer of the Lübeck detachment. He immediately ordered the tactical withdrawal back to Chal’s forces who were not yet aware of these developments.

The detachment was in a grave situation. It would’ve been impossible for Mazzarelli to maintain a rearguard action. With most regret, he ordered a general retreat without such, leaving behind stragglers to their doom. Some ship officers took on the forlorn duty knowing all too well that well they would die in the process.

At 4 PM, Mazzarelli had managed to maintain a good distance between him and the previously pursuing Mafia fleet. Upon more debilitation, it seemed that Li Chou had turned her attention to the detachment heading for the Ides star zone. They too, like Chal’s main host, were not yet aware of the hellish developments—and Mazzarelli feared it would be too late.

In the after-action report following the Toscana campaign, he lamented the decisions he was forced to take at this juncture.

“[…] After the initial military action with the 217 Mafia, My detachment was, literally speaking, torn to shreds like the swiss cheese back home. I was faced with the dilemma of needing to choose between letting my superior officers still at the capital Side know of the advancing Pirate threat, or rush to the aid of the Ides detachment and save them from slaughter.

Who knew if the regional pirates here were like their Ruthenian counterparts—ruthless and without quarter. I could not choose one or the other given my detachment’s strength. The men were poisoned with fear and leading them into a charge would yield meaningless bloodshed.”

A hesitant Mazzareli had to begrudgingly continue the withdrawal back to Chal’s host.

At around 5 PM, the Li Chou fleet had descended upon the Ides detachment in complete surprise and annihilated it in one fell swoop. Li Chou, who had a reputation as Madame Scarface was ruthless when it came to Federation sailors that surrendered. The men she led were also her comrades from back then and did not need to be told what they were familiar with.

“No quarters for the cowardly.”

With her rear secured, Li Chou turned her gaze back toward the relief of her besieged brother.

When Mazzarelli returned to the safely of the encamped Chal host, he found that Dong Che’s fleet was in the process of leaving the Side they were in, signaling the end of the siege. When he boarded a shuttle and hastily went to Chal’s flagship, Chal was rather surprised and shocked at Mazzareli’s return.

Mazzarelli quickly informed him of Li Chou’s sortie from Lübeck, the near annihilation of his detachment, Buttermilch’s untimely death and passing of command, and surmised that the Ides detachment may have suffered the same fate.

But before Chal could respond to these developments, an early warning line had caught both officer’s attention.

To their naked eye, blimps among the stars were all that it took to confirm what was happening.

Li Chou had mopped up the Ides detachment and had finally caught up to the main fleet in the early stages of a skirmish with the early warning line.

Chal ordered all ships to assume an attack formation, by ordering this maneuver a majority of his ships went to face Li Chou’s naval force—away from the surrendering pirate ships in the proximity of the Side capital.

This would prove to be an unwise move. Dong Che, upon seeing the opportunity, had secretly ordered all his ship commanders to resume hostilities. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Chal’s fleet was bombarded in the rear, resulting in moderate losses. Mazzarelli advised him to order a rearguard action, which he(Mazzarelli) would undertake, while Chal would lead a general retreat to Preuben.

Mazzarelli returned to his MSN Yilan and tactfully performed his rearguard duty while Chal had warped the bulk of his armada back to Preuben.

By 7 PM, Mazzareli’s detachment was the only Federation flotilla that remained in the Valspon zone. Although outnumbered and half encircled, Li Chou, in a sign of goodwill, ordered all ship commanders to hold their fire.

Li Chou offered to meet with Mazzareli in person in the middle of their respective fleets, to which he agreed. Both parties also agreed to have only bare minimum security.

When the two of them met, Mazzareli was surprised to find such a young woman in command—but was even more surprised this was the famed Madame Scarface.

"You have fought well to preserve your superior’s ignorance. May you return home safe and sound and be rewarded for your merits at the behest of widows and mothers who mourn for sons and husbands that perished without dignity.”

- Li Chou to Mazzareli

After they exchanged words, the two parties returned to their fleets. Li Chou permitted in an open broadcast to "leave... and never come back.”

With Mazzareli gone, Li Chou immediately ordered the fleet to turn around and warp back to Velksland—knowing full well her ruse had likely run its course by this point. She communicated very little with her half brother, and quietly reinforced her losses with some of his squadrons as she departed.

Dong Che was in no shape to protest the acquisition of his fleet and resigned himself to assess the damage done to the Cluster colonies and keep an early warning system of the hyper lane to Preuben.

Unlike before, Li Chou did not stop once she warped into Lübeck. She maintained a steady speed and ordered the fleet to commence more warp jumps as soon as they were outside Lübeck’s gravity well.

In the memoirs of one of the sailors under Li Chou,

The Madame did not care for our wellbeing at that specific time. It was dangerous not to let us rest after extensive jumps. But it was also more dangerous to let the Federation make headway into Mafia territory. So, we endured it, for the Madame’s sake.”

It was a little after 2 AM, August 15th 221 in Lübeck time when Li Chou had initiated warping into the Lübeck-Velksland hyper lane.

A few hours earlier, at 8 PM, during Mazzareli and Madame Scarface’s encounter, DeRyck had received urgent news from reconnaissance shuttle that they have been deceived—the Mafia armada was no longer at Velksland!

Shocked but also bewildered, DeRyck gave the order for the Metropolitan armada to advance into the Diessenland-Velksland hyper lane, but at Garofano’s advice, they did not warp as both feared it would lead into an ambush.

At 11 PM, the forward Federation vanguard engaged in a brief skirmish with a squadron of lightly armed destroyers. Suffering enormous losses, the squadron pirate commander pulled back and hastily sent a decrypted broadcast to the Don, informing him that the Federation had finally made their move.

Feeling uneasy, Dong Zhui ordered them to charge forward and delay them, but the squad commander disobeyed and said he was withdrawing to the Clusters. To which Dong Zhui remarked, “Better to suffer at the hands of the Federation than be executed as a coward!”

In distraught at the Don’s words, the squadron commander released his sailors in escape shuttles and configured what remained of his tattered flotilla in autopilot mode, and set them to self-destruct mode when he got close to the Federation fleet.

His men watched in disheartening silence as they watched their ships—and their commander—partially succeed in halting the Federation advance. Although his ship was eventually struck by several missiles—most of which were duds, the last one went off successfully, blasting off his clothes and flesh but unexpectedly resisting death in the melting inferno that he once called his bridge.

On the verge of mortal death, he watched, as the carcass of his ship drifted through space, as the few ships made it to the Federation vanguard, and mustered what remained of his strength to detonate the switch left unscratched— the last thing he ever saw before closing his eyes was the woman he had loved so long ago…

The heroic sacrifice proved to be a great success for the pirates. It forced DeRyck to lose the initiative and reorganize his vanguard into an effective fighting force, costing him hours of precious time.

The Federation advance resumed at 1 AM, which faced some ferocious opposition. As the battle progressed, however, Dong’s staff insisted that he withdraw as the situation looked hopeless. Dong retorted that he would rather die in battle than rot in a Side unable to fight.

Dong dismissed his staff afterward and assumed supreme command of his motley little fleet.

Disgruntled his former staff plotted a mutiny against Dong. They did this by sending some of the conspirators to ship commanders in the rear, and some were skeptical but ultimately agreed with the idea.

Before the mutiny could take off, however, news eventually came of Li Chou’s arrival from Lübeck. Madame Scarface’s arrival strengthened the resolve of the Mafia pirates in combat, leaving the idea of mutiny in the dust.

With newfound vigor, the small pirate pushed forward in the hopes of making an opening in the lines for Li Chou. Many sailors would lose their lives in the resulting endeavor—never getting to see Li Chou perform the miraculous exploit that would save Dong Zhui’s pirate regime.

At the helm was Garofano, who hoped to maintain distance between his forces and the suicide charge. However, his orders came too late and were often misunderstood by his subordinates. Resulting in a metallic mosh pit with some of the fearless pirates successfully breaking into the rear.

Even a few brave crew had advanced as far as to make it adjacent to DeRyck’s flagship, the MSN Trinidad. But had been forced to surrender once it had become encircled, and its supplies of fuel and ammo became depleted.

It was 4 AM when Li Chou reached the front lines, and after a brief moment of assessing—and cursing her father for allowing such irreversible disastrous losses on his part— had ordered her fleet(at this point, utterly exhausted to the core), to drive through the opening created by the prior suicide charge, which was bravely kept open but rapidly losing ground, and keep the wedge long enough to pressure the Federation to withdraw.

Li Chou calculated that even that wouldn’t be enough, and surmised she has to gamble on challenging its leadership for them to retreat.

Ultimately, Li Chou convened with her staff and after a hastily assembled war council decided to target the MSN Trinidad through a decoy maneuver.

She sent two squadrons worth of cruisers supplemented by a battleship to the far flank of the Federation— where the enemy was the weakest in and hoped this would force their local commander to direct more ships to chase after the bait.

The squadron used as bait succeeded in capturing the enemy’s attention, and became harassed by a large portion of ships that had detached itself from that flank, which some historians describe as “a glaring overcommitment in pursue of fame and glory at the cost of maintaining discipline in the ranks”. Therefore strengthening the wedge and relieving the stress of the pirates in that sector.

This was Li Chou’s chance.

She rammed through the weakened Federation flank and maneuvered behind the now-confused Federation rear, swinging around until she was in close distance of DeRyck’s MSN Trinidad.

Some reserve squadrons have tried to stall her ferocious rush but proved to be futile.

With this, Li Chou now had DeRyck hostage.

In an open broadcast to both fleets, Li Chou threatened to destroy the MSN Trinidad DeRyck was present on(by extent, her also, since her Castelforte was right next to it) if the Federation did not withdraw Velksland—and Toscana as a whole.

Despite being encircled by several Federation squadrons, if any Federation officer dared to order firing on Li Chou’s Castelforte—they would also risk firing on their commander as well.

It would be another hour and a half before the deadlock was finally broken.

Like with Mazzarelli before, the two leaders agreed to a one on one meeting, with DeRyck sharing the same sentiment that Madame Scarface was such a charming young lady.

“Had we met under different circumstances, lived different lives… drank different water… I’m sure we could’ve become something more than good friends. But that is not the case… as you have made sure my men will never grow old, as I have done with yours, and such sins could never be overlooked. Fate is a cruel mistress, isn’t she?”

- DeRyck to Li Chou

When DeRyck asked her what she thinks about the state of affairs regarding the aftermath of this battle, Li Chou mentioned this to him,

“I have lost. I may have scored a decisive victory over you, but I would have neither the men nor ships to survive even one more engagement. The Federation lapdogs could ask you nicely to come back tomorrow and deliver the killing blow. If there was ever a Pyrrhic victory in the history of the Cosmos era, it would be this one.

Even if I did—by the miracle of the Creator—survive another battle, there would be mountains of victims… as high as the stars, the last thoughts going their minds before being extinguished would be the belief they died for a sense of great achievement... all for my sake. In reality, it is the opposite. In that case, history would remember it as a decisive victory in your favor even if you did concede defeat.”

When the two of them finished, they said their farewells, confirmed the private negotiations and returned to their flagships.

Despite heated objections from his staff, DeRyck announced he agreed to the ultimatum and promised her safe passage to her party.

At 5 AM, the Metropolitan armada began it’s quiet withdrawal back to Dissenland, which was watched from afar by the battered Mafia fleet. Once it was concluded the Federation kept their word, Dong Zhui ordered the fleet to return to Lübeck. Once there, he threw an elaborate banquet in celebration of his victories (in reality, Li’s) over the Federation, and resumed his degenerate hobby of displaying Federate sailors getting mawed to death for the (forced) enjoyment of the guests.

Li Chou, as usual, did not participate in these. She resumed her governing role in the regime. In her free time, she spent her time solemnly attending the funerals and graves of those that had served under her faithfully after all these years. Often financed out of her pocket, as the regime did not cover such expenses.

After DeRyck withdrew to Dissenland, his staff officers implored him to turn back while they have the opportunity and catch the Mafia off guard. DeRyck, of course, refused to do so. He has fought a worthy foe and did not believe he would have troops to maintain pacifying the region, particularly in the Cluster colonies themselves.

DeRyck went to great lengths to inspect his losses. The final casualty tally amounted to a little under fifty thousand servicemen killed. Furthermore, marine officers had come to conclude the loss of at least half a regiment worth of marines. DeRyck believed if he turned back now and tried to resume his conquest of Toscana, it would spiral into a quagmire of draining the Federation of its coffers.

At an emergency war council, DeRyck presented his opposition to returning to Toscana;

For one, they would need to rely on the cooperation of nearby colonial authorities to maintain a steady flow of resources and men. If they had to tap into Ruthenian colonies to do so, it would certainly upset leaders like Dolz.

Two, DeRyck could not estimate maintaining an occupation force for too long, given his current military strength. especially if he was forced into another pitched battle against the Madame Scarface.

Three, DeRyck believed it would be counter-intuitive to focus on a battle station (the Hatillo) and funnel resources into an occupied Toscana. Federation engineers were already in the process of another orbital fortress in Southern Ruthenia, the Schiebfonda, which was already straining Ruthenian relations with Metropolitan Sol regarding the construction of that. DeRyck believed they should continue constriction of the Hatillo and pursue a policy of containment into the Rouen region.

DeRyck’s points were strongly supported by Garofano, who suggested the creation of a similar station in the Bordeaux region.

With the issues of Toscana settled, for the time being, DeRyck left behind a few reinforced squadrons of heavy cruisers and made way to the Kongriega corridor, where the rest of the campaign was concluded without issue.

Although in February 221, after the Metropolitan armada pacified Brenaco and made way to the Bordeaux region, Dong Zhui reportedly “got spooked by these erupt developments” and raised a naval force with Li Chou at the helm to challenge DeRyck… who had turned around to travel across the Delhian corridor and returned to Terra by early 221 to much celebration.

Chal Hugo’s humiliating punitive expedition had him put on military tribunal sometime in May 221. His trial was only brief, however, and all charges were soon dropped, save for a few light ones. Chal Hugo was demoted to captain and transferred from the navy to a backwater colony in the Lesser Ruthenia region.

So ended the age of piracy. A turmoiling chapter appropriate for a new era in human history. It is, however, only the beginning of the worst to come.