Battle of Demus

The Battle of Demus was a battle fought during the Green Drone War. The forces of Red Wood Industries (RWI), aided by their ally Crazy North Logistics (CNL), fought to secure the Artifact, an ancient device of immense power, from the clutches of the evil Green Drone Armada (GDA). Although a key RWI warship, the RWI Valiant, was forced to crash-land on the surface of the ice planet Demus, the Artifact was safely transported back to Icarus, RWI's capital world, aboard the high-tech science vessel, the RWI Discovery.

Battle of Ravcor
The Artifact was taken from the GDA by Captain Jack Roberts and the crew of the RWI Eclipse during the Battle of Ravcor. Although RWI's losses during both the ensuing ground and space battles, the RWI Eclipse and the RWI Valiant were able to escape the system mostly intact. Captain Jonathan Hunter of the Valiant was badly wounded during the escape and the Valiant was heavily damaged, leaving the Daedalus-class Battleship more or less disabled. Nevertheless, the Eclipse and the Valiant managed to jump away to the Amre System, where they hid in an asteroid-infested, blue-colored nebula.

Securing the Transmitter Station
As Captain Hunter was left unable to command the Valiant due to his injuries and the second-in-command of the vessel, Commander Chris Lock, was killed during the escape from Ravcor, Captain Roberts was the de-facto commander of both the Valiant and the Eclipse. He assigned his friend Commander Craz to take RWI troops Owen, Morslupus, and Ler, to fly the Valiant 's remaining V-203 Interceptors, Red Squadron, on a patrol around the area, during which they located a few wrecked RWI starships scattered around the asteroid field, as RWI had previously had a small presence in the system before the GDA invaded the galaxy. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew repaired the Eclipse and began repairing the Valiant 's damaged systems.

During Red Squadron's patrol, they came across a GDA outpost on a large asteroid, which deployed a deadly GDA Destroyer and a handful of GDA Falcon-class Fighters to attack the RWI ships. Despite the Valiant 's extensive damage, many of its weapons were still functional, and with the Eclipse and Red Squadron, the RWI ships were able to defeat the GDA ships and Roberts took Commander Sam Reed and crew members Finn, Bash, and Castle to infiltrate the outpost. Inside, they found an Atlas Superlaser - a powerful energy weapon capable of destroying most unshielded ships in one shot; a weapon that was fitted onto the bow of every single GDA Destroyer in their armada. The crew immediately scanned the device and ground it down for its components. As they departed the base for the Valiant again, Roberts came up with the idea to construct two Superlasers on the bow of the Valiant, as the main Mk1 Cannon Batteries were destroyed and the space for the cannons would fit the Atlas Lasers perfectly.

CNL Rescue
No sooner had the dual lasers been completed did a small GDA battle group appear and ambush the RWI ships. Fortunately, while the Eclipse and Red Squadron ran interference, Roberts positioned the Valiant to aim the Superlasers at one of the destroyers and obliterate it. However, the other destroyers had the RWI ships completely encircled. Out of nowhere, a CNL Frigate appeared and fired on one of the GDA ships. A second frigate arrived soon after and the RWI and CNL ships were able to escape the area and regroup a short distance away from the transmitter base.

Two CNL officers met with Roberts, Reed, and Craz aboard the Valiant. Reed reported that Hunter was slowly recovering in the infirmary, and that Jack was the official acting captain of the Valiant. One of the CNL officers explained that they were sent to help reinforce their position by RWI, and that further RWI reinforcements were on the way. The four ships set out again and attacked the GDA ships that had now reinforced the transmitter base. Though both CNL ships were destroyed in the fight, Craz took a team to the base and sent the distress signal. The RWI ships were constantly under attack by the GDA fleet until reinforcements finally arrived in the form of the RWI Discovery, a Venture-class Science Cruiser outfitted with highly advanced technology. With the Discovery’s arrival, the GDA ships withdrew, giving the RWI team a reprieve to check the status of the Valiant, which had taken even more damage.

Final Stages
Aboard the Discovery, Roberts and Reed talked with Captain Sarah Hawk, the ship’s captain, about the situation. Craz entered and informed them that the Valiant’s FTL drive was damaged beyond repair, meaning the Valiant could not jump to hyperspace again. Hawk suggested that the Discovery could tow the Valiant back to Icarus, but Roberts knew that would leave them too slow and too open to attack. He asked Hawk what the Discovery’s current cargo capacity was at, and Hawk replied that they were not carrying and cargo and had plenty of space aboard. Roberts then gave the order to evacuate the Valiant’s remaining crew to the Discovery, as well as the Artifact to be transferred from the Eclipse to the Discovery, as it stood the best chance of escaping. Captain Hunter also boarded the Discovery and returned to Icarus, since his injuries were too severe.

Although the Discovery was fully loaded with the Valiant’s crew and Artifact, the GDA attacked again, preventing the science ship from escaping. Roberts took Reed, Castle, and Finn to crew the Valiant while Craz, Owen, Ler, and Mors flew V-203s and Bash and Finchy crewed the Eclipse. Since the Discovery was not meant for combat, the Valiant covered it, taking even more damage in the process. After a tense battle, a GDA Destroyer was blocking the escape path of the Discovery. In a last-ditch effort, Roberts rammed the dying Valiant into the enemy vessel, clearing the way for the Discovery, which jumped away to safety. The escape of the Artifact marked the conclusion point of the Battle of Demus.

Aftermath
Unfortunately, after ramming the GDA ship, the Valiant was pulled into the gravity well of the planet Demus below, and due to its damaged engines it could not fly out of it. The skeleton crew braced for a rough landing and crashed in an icy tundra soon after. Due to the constant presence of GDA ships in the space above Demus, the Eclipse and Red Squadron were also forced to land on the planet, recovering the Valiant crew and setting up a small outpost at the ruins of the ship.

Meanwhile, the Commander of the GDA armies was furious with his lieutenant for failing to stop the Artifact from escaping. The officer protested, saying that it was a success since the Valiant was destroyed, but the Commander reminded him that the Artifact was extremely important to the GDA’s war plans, and upon losing it to RWI, it put a major dent in their plan for after the war. The Commander then had a drone soldier execute the unfortunate lieutenant for failure, and he soon contacted the Controller, the leader of the GDA, about the situation. This sparked the next phase of the GDA plan, in which the Commander would soon lead a massive fleet to invade Icarus and steal back the Artifact.

Behind the Scenes

 * The Battle of Demus takes place over the course of ‘Space Engineers: Colony Lost’ episodes 43-46.
 * These episodes were also the first time the RWI Discovery appeared and the first time Icarus was mentioned in the Colony Universe.