The Battle of Xelaya was one of the final conflicts in the Kaylon conflict and marked a decisive turning point in the ongoing Kaylon invasion, due to the successful deployment of the new Quantum weapon.
Prelude[]
After the newly elected Krill Chancellor Teleya withdrew the Krill from their alliance with the Planetary Union, and Moclus, the Union's primary weapons builder, was expelled from the Union, later that same year, the Union appeared at its most vulnerable since the conflict began. Soon after, the Kaylon deployed a fleet of sixty-one Kalyon Spheres to invade Xelaya, one of the core worlds of the Union, and one of the closest to Kaylon 1.
The Union was aware of the Kaylon invasion plans beforehand, and deployed several dozen ship to defend Xeleya. Furthermore, in their studies of a pacifist Kaylon Timmis, Isaac and Ensign Charly Burke of the USS Orville had devised a counterattack weapon. Drawing power directly from the Orville's quantum reactor, the weapon was designed to disrupt the synchronization matrix which connected both the Kaylon ships and the Kaylon themselves, and create a feedback loop, destroying both.
Battle[]
The first wave of nineteen Kaylon ships approached the Union fleet, which had taken up a defensive formation to protect the Orville. This was followed quickly by a second wave of forty-two Kaylon ships. The Kaylon promptly engaged the Union fleet and surrounded them.
After the weapon was fully charged, Captain Ed Mercer ordered Isaac to activate the weapon. The weapon worked precisely as intended, with the resulting energy destroying all Kaylon ship within a radius of ten million kilometers, bringing the conflict to an end in a matter of minutes.
Aftermath[]
With the successful use of the weapon, a highly contentious debate emerged in both the Union's military and civilian leadership regarding the use of the weapon with further power to eradicate the Kaylon entirely. Some, such as Admiral Perry argued that there was no hope of dialogue with the Kaylon and that the weapon should be used as soon as possible. Others, such as Captain Mercer, found the employment of the weapon on such a large scale to be morally troubling and possibly tantamount to genocide.
After a heated debate within the council, a compromise was reached, in which the weapon would be used as a deterrent, to pressure the Kaylon into agreeing to a cease-fire. After discussions with Admiral Tom Halsey, the Kaylon agreed to just that.
The Union, however, did not anticipate the theft of the weapon by Admiral Perry, who promptly turned it over to the new Krill-Moclan alliance. Ironically, this would lead to a long term Union-Kaylon alliance due to their shared objective to destroy the weapon.