In 3952 GE, the Ascended Empire launched its first invasion of The Aquian Polity by attacking the planet Turvenan in the Morvada System. Prior to the invasion, the system was one of many on the border with the Empire that experienced probing raids which had consisted mostly of light ships that rarely came close to defended planets; however, Turvenan was the only planet in which one of the raids had attacked the planet directly.
Prior to the Invasion
The first raid on the Morvada System was in 3902 GE, prior that same year the Fume System had experienced light raids. Ascensionist ships entered the system and attacked a relay station in the fringes, but the defense fleet stationed in Morvada were able to drive off the enemy fleet. The next raid took place only three months later but had a similar outcome. The third raid; however, was far larger and made it to Turvenan.
Heavy ship fire rained down on the planet, but the guns, being made for ship-to-ship combat, did no large scale damage. 187 people were killed, including the casualties of the defense fleet. Fearful of another attack, the Morvada System Representatives, joined by Fume System Representatives, presented a bill to the Lower Legislature that would create a defense fund for the Fume System and Morvada System. This was met by minor push back from other Representatives that worried that it would lead to the Polity being dragged into yet another war, but it was passed with a vote of 187 to 56, with all Admiralty Board and Commerce Board members voting in favour. It was then quickly passed through both the Upper Legislature and Oligarchs, both of which voted unanimously in favour.
While the intention of the bill had been to create a large fleet and planetary defense systems, most of the fund went to recruiting and arming the planetary auxiliaries, and eight trained divisions were sent to Morvada and Fume, creating the Morvada and Fume Border Corp respectively. When questioned about the direction of the funds, the Admiralty Board, who had been tasked with its execution, stated that deploying a large fleet indefinitely to the Systems was unreasonable as neither System could sustain the supplies required nor was it feasible to consistently rotate out ships and crews, but the Board did relent slightly and bolstered the current defense fleets.
By 3940, any raids on the Systems had been swiftly pushed back by the defense fleets, and Turvenan had not been attacked again. Confident with the defense of the Systems, the Legislatures voted to reappropriate the majority of the fund and direct it to other projects. What was left would be used for fleet maintenance. In other Systems, particularly the inner Systems, the raids had become nothing more than background news.
The Attack
In 3952 GE the Ascensionists launched their first full scale attack on the Polity. When the first Ascensionist fleet entered the Morvada System, the defense fleet moved quickly to engage, destroying several Ascensionist corvettes. Many on Turvenan woke to or fell asleep to the news of another raid and were assured of certain victory.
As the defense fleet engaged the raiding fleet, two more Ascensionist fleets entered the system, both hosting the firepower of Ascensionist Extermination Fleets. These fleets moved swiftly, ignoring the defense fleet and heading directly for Turvenan. Rear Admiral Yarkon, seeing the scale of the battle, issued the order for the defense fleet to withdraw from the system. As it retreated, several ships were destroyed by breakaways from the Extermination Fleets.
On Turvenan, the communications with sensor relays had been cut, and without the defense fleet, there was no way for the general populace to know that the Ascensionists had overpowered the defense fleet and were coming into far orbit around Turvenan. Ensuring the people of Turvenan that the sensor relay must have sustained damage during the raid, the Governor of Turvenan, Jesur Hal, spoke on a live broadcast, praising the defense fleet and Rear Admiral Yarkon. He was hesitant to deploy the auxiliaries but sent a ready alert to the Morvada Border Corp as he had during every raid.
While he went about laying any concerns of attack to rest, the broadcast was cut as the capital centre was destroyed almost instantaneously by concentrated fire from the Ascensionist fleets. One of the Morvada Border Corp divisions was annihilated by the first wave of the attack, and the ruins of the capital became the first landing zone for invading Ascensionist troops.
Auxiliaries were deployed to stall the incoming invaders, but despite being equipped with the most modern arms the Polity could provide, and having enough munitions stockpiled to fight a prolonged war, very few of the auxiliaries had been adequately trained and not one had seen any real combat. Over armed, but under trained, they were quickly overwhelmed by the Ascensionists and the spreading Murk.
Within less than a month, the planet was considered lost.
Aftermath
The invasion was seen as a great loss to the Polity but was turned into a rallying cry for the war effort. Recruiting advertisements would often sport the slogans “For the Liberation of Turvenan,” “Remember Turvenan,” or questioning “Will you stand with lost souls of Turvenan.” While the Admiralty Board and Oligarchs saw the actions of Rear Admiral Yarkon as an act of cowardice tantamount to treason, they knew any amount of the truth would sour the moral of the Polity, and already pushing for wartime resolutions, labeled the Rear Admiral as a hero, silently placing him on administrative leave.
Hastening the passing of wartime resolutions, the invasion drew the Polity into the War of Absolution.
During the war, Turvenan remained under control of the Ascensionists until the year 4093 GE. The planet was in ruins and almost completely swallowed by the Murk. Without means to disperse the Malediction, the planet was left to its own devices, and the roughly 1,800 survivors, or descendants of survivors that had put up a resistance to Ascensionist control were left on the surface under a quarantine. After the adoption of the New War Strategy, however, Turvenan was bombed heavily from orbit and any that survived were abandoned.
Use as Propaganda
As noted above, the tragedy on Turvenan was almost immediately used to push wartime resolutions and used as a propaganda arm of the Polity to spread support for the war. After the planet’s liberation, its use fell out of style, and by 4200 GE it was seen only as a small talking point.
Near the end of the war, as the New War Party was amassing political and military power, the treachery of Admiral Yarkon was leaked to the public. This renewed the use of the Invasion of Turvenan as a tool for propaganda. Yarkon was used as the symbol of the cowardice of the old generations, and the loss of Turvenan as one of their many failures. A popular use of Yarkon’s name was in the “March On” Campaign which featured the tagline “Don’t be a Yarkon, March on!” under which was some variation of xenophobic phrases although most successful was “Arm Yourself Against Extrinsic Threats.” Due to the All-Species Parity Act (ASPA) of 3749 GE, the New War Party could not outright display Veltenri or other Alien species, even those they were fighting against in war, as the “threat,” so most of the campaign used images of Polity naval cadets or vague enough silhouettes meant to be the Necroguard.
Stories of H Merrill 
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