A fleet of Confederation Star Destroyers dropped out of hyperspace to enter the Hapan-inhabited Corulag system, and immediately opened fire on the Battle Dragons. In response, the Dragons, who were already facing the Confederation entryway, began to fight back with their rotating laser cannons, and the Miy'til starfighters were vomited from the Dragons' hangar bays to engage the enemy's own fighters. Those Dragons who were facing elsewhere, either Corulag itself or in other directions, suffered greatly under the barrage of projectiles fired from the Confederation fleet as they turned to face them, even with their own cannons blazing against the enemy.

Aboard the Queen's Liege, one of the several Battle Dragons facing the way that the Confederation fleet entered from, Commander Gebbam gripped the armrests of her command chair as she braced against the impacts that the Dragon took from the Confederation onslaught. "Looks like that peace treaty with the Confederation is off the table," Gebbam said aloud for the rest of the crew members on the bridge.

"Commander!" the lieutenant at the sensor station reported. "We've already lost a quarter of our cannons to the enemy!"

"Keep firing, everyone!" Gebbam barked at the cannon operators on the bridge. "We don't stop until all our cannons are gone!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the cannon operators responded in unison, not stopping for a millisecond in their own work.

Half an hour into the battle passed, and while the other Battle Dragons in the system lost several of their own laser cannons just as the Queen's Liege did, the Liege herself only lost roughly five more cannons. The Hapan fleet itself was now cut down to about a fourth of its size, and their enemy was getting close to the level with them.

As Gebbam stared out at the viewport of the flagship of this fleet with a determined expression, the inset comm on the right armrest of the command chair beeped. She answered it.

"Commander Gebbam," Admiral Joon's distressed voice came through, "are you being attacked by Confederation forces over Corulag right now?"

"You, too, Admiral?" Gebbam replied as her answer.

"Several of the other worlds that our fleet has captured so far have already been taken from us by the Confederation now," Joon elaborated. "I'm currently embattled over Borleias, and I've lost already more than half my forces to the still-powerful enemy, Commander. I'm preparing the remnants of my fleet to pull out, and I suggest you start to do the same before you accumulate any further unnecessary losses like I have."

"You can do that if you wish, Admiral, but my fleet is still capable of bringing down the Confederation fleet here," Gebbam said. "The Consortium has already expanded its territory over the past week; I, at least, don't intend to lose this system to the Confederation, of all things!"

"Fine, lead your fleet and yourself to your doom for all I care, Gebbam, just as Giggag and Nion did," Joon responded in scorn. "But I'll do the wise thing and get out of here while I still can." Joon then signed off.

As Gebbam looked back out toward the enemy fleet, her determination unfazed even after she witnessed an entire squadron of Miy'tils go up against a squad of old-fashioned X-wings, the commander thought, What a coward. It's a wonder why Tenel Ka promoted her to be the head of the entire Hapan military. What a damned fool Joon is.

Twenty minutes later, Gebbam thought, What a damned fool I am, as the Liege was the last Hapan warship - never mind Battle Dragon, as the occupying fleet lost the last of its Miy'til squadron a mere five minutes earlier - in the Corulag system. The Dragon's engines and hyperdrive motivator were out, along with its very last cannon. And since the damage to the Liege was now so great that their comms were destroyed, no one could call for a surrender to the Confederation even if Gebbam wanted to sue for peace.

No one aboard the Liege had anywhere to turn to before the warship went up in flames against the still-mighty barrage of projectiles from the enemy fleet. The Second Battle of Corulag in the Third Galactic Civil War thus fulfilled the doomed destiny of its arrogant commander and her misguided subordinates.

.

Sitting on her prestigious throne aboard the Dragon Queen II, which was still orbiting Bastion, the Queen Mother's expression was grave as her chamberlain delivered the bad news.

Poik periodically looked up at Her Majesty and back to her own datapad as she made her report, her tone and inflection unsteady given the tragedy of what had occurred. "From these initial attacks, Milady, the Confederation forces have already managed to take from our fleet over fifty percent of the territory that we, in turn, originally took from the Galactic Alliance. Prominent military leaders such as Colonel Nion and Commanders Gebbam and Giggag perished in the respective systems that they were guarding, and Admiral Joon, General Booja, and Commander Illok opted to flee back to the Transitory Mists for safety.

"Overall, we have lost exactly sixty-one point four percent of our forces in the Alliance space e took so far, Your Majesty, which is exactly forty-eight point seven percent of the entire Consortium fleet."

Allana sighed. "I knew that the Alliance would turn to the Confederation," she growled. "And now this war is being renewed because the likes of Denjax Teppler and Genna Delpin want more territory to make their little government more relevant in the larger galactic community."

"If I may say so, Milady, you did at least manage to convince Head of State Reige to side with the Consortium," Poik pointed out with a half-enthusiastic tone. "We won't be fighting this renewed war alone now."

"Very true, Poik," Allana agreed evenly. "Still, given our significant losses now, the chances that the Imperial Remnant will turn on the Consortium, whether it'd be during the war or after, have no doubt increased. And while I have little doubt that Reige would be so low, the likes of Moffs Daala and Lecersen among others will need to have a close eye kept on each of them."

"Are you suggesting that we insert spies into the Remnant, Milady?" Poik inquired.

"Yes, but not just yet," Allana answered. "We want to keep any compromises to our partnership with the Remnant to a minimum for the duration of this war. Sending in spies when they would no doubt be caught by the paranoid Imperials is too much of a risk; they're not like the Alliance, where espionage was relatively easy for our secret agents."

"Understood, Your Majesty," Poik nodded. "So what will be our next move?"

"We gather up the likes of Admiral Joon and everyone else in our military," Allana said, "and with the Imperials on our side, we will spare neither the Confederation or the remains of the Galactic Alliance any mercy."