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This article or section refers to elements from Expanded Dune |
The Assault on Rossak[2] was an attack on the planet Rossak, carried out by Cymek forces in 201 BG. The assault was a retaliation by the Cymeks for the Sorceress and League Armada liberation of Giedi Prime where the Titan Barbarossa was killed by the Sorceress Heoma.
Prelude[]
Dante informed the Titans that the woman who killed Barbarossa was called "Sorceress" and came from Rossak. After a brief council, the Titans settled down that Agamemnon would lead Juno and Xerxes against the planet.
Agamemnon eventually asked permission from Omnius to launch the strike against the Sorceress home world in response and guided a force of neo-cymeks.
Assault[]
Agamemnon led the fleet that followed the cymeks, sleek projectiles with enormous engines and heavily loaded with artillery. The orbiting Rossak sentry stations detected them but the picket ships and the sentries at the system's perimeter never had a chance to launch a shot. Few surface-based warships and armored kindjals rose to join the defense in space.
Zufa Cenva at that time was conversing with her lover Aurelius Venport and she prompted him to evacuate the people. Aurelius responded and led the unskilled people to his personal supply caches, shelters, processing huts in the jungles. Six young men ran from room to room in the cave city. Zufa Cenva gathered her Sorceress commandos and prepared themselves inside an internal room that Venport had designed for his business meetings. Venport had made certain every woman had a breathing mask while he evacuated the rest of the population.
Meanwhile the cymeks cruised closer to Rossak, and prepared their armored warrior-forms. The three Titans would use powerful glider-forms, armed flying bodies. In contrast, the neo-cymeks wore destructive combat bodies.
As the first robotic salvos hit the defensive stations above Rossak Agamemnon's ships plunged toward the smoky atmosphere and Xerxes complaining, led the vanguard as he did in the Battle of Zimia. As soon as the cymek attack ships shot past the orbital platforms robotic warships pummeled the space stations with exploding projectiles.
Landers crashed into the wilderness, and started to burn the foliage with fireguns. Xerxes cruised toward the enclave of Sorceresses at the pockmarked cliffs and launched fifteen projectiles upon a landing area while plasma grenades incinerated a pathway to the tunnel cities.
Defences[]
Zufa sent Camio to strike their first blow. She heard the whistle of an approaching projectile and pressed herself against the tunnel wall which struck the cliffside but she regained her balance. She let go with a mindstorm that boiled the brains of the three closest neo-cymeks, and damaged two others just beginning to climb the cliff. Five cymeks, removed from the battle. Four more Sorceresses emerged.
Eventually the cymeks realized once more that the Sorceress are a dangerous foe. Silin, the sixth volunteer, returned alive, found nothing left to destroy because they started to retreat. The attack was driven off, but like many other raids against planets, the costs were very high for Rossak. Many Sorceresses were killed, and large parts of the jungles were burned.
Aftermath[]
In time, the scattered refugees would return. Aurelius Venport would bring them back. Under his supervision, the Rossak people would rebuild and repair the cliff cities with pride and confidence, knowing that they had stood up against the thinking machines.
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dune: The Butlerian Jihad: When the unexpected attack began, a handful of surface-based warships and armored kindjals rose from the polymerized jungle canopy to join the defense in space.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dune: The Butlerian Jihad: "Though we lost several neo-cymeks in our direct assault on Rossak, we did inflict mortal cellular damage on at least five of the powerful Sorceresses."
- ↑ Dune: The Butlerian Jihad: Now the cymek attack ships shot past the already-embattled orbital platforms above the jungle world. Robotic warships pummeled the space stations with exploding projectiles, releasing geysers of contained air. One docking station began to wobble and fall out of orbit.
- ↑ Dune: The Butlerian Jihad: "With Rossak’s two orbital stations severely damaged by the robot warships, and thousands of humans dead on board, the thinking machine fleet withdrew from the wreckage of ships and platforms.