Template:Infobox battle
The Battle of Corrin was a major military event that marked the demise of the thinking machines as a major force in the Known Universe. It took place in the space surrounding the planet Corrin in the Sigma Draconis star system, the last stronghold of the thinking machines.
Background
Though the Butlerian Jihad was deemed officially over following the Great Purge, the armies of the League of Nobles remained busy guarding the planet of Corrin - the last haven of Omnius. The deadlock continued for some 20 years, with the thinking machines unable to break free and the League of Nobles unwilling to use sufficient force to deal a final blow.
Two key events rekindled humanity's interest in destroying Corrin once and for all. First, and most significantly, the Omnius Scourge - an engineered virus that killed untold millions of free humans. Second, the arrival of Pirana Mites - non-gel circuitry machines which attacked humans on Salusa Secundus and Rossak. After the League came to the realization that the thinking machines could still strike at humanity Vorian Atreides used the situation to push for a final strike against Omnius.
Sequence of Events
After a formidable League of Nobles' military force arrived at Corrin via conventional space travel, and joined up with the existing 'watchdog' fleet, the battle began. The combined League's battle group was three times larger than the watchdog fleet, and included large space-faring battleships, smaller Kindjal vessels, conventional ground troops, fanatics of the Cult of Serena, and mercenaries from Ginaz.
The thinking machines, under the control of the two Omnius incarnations SeurOm and ThurrOm and the consultation of Erasmus, were hard-pressed to fend off the fleet after more than two decades of attrition. With Corrin having been strip-mined, few natural resources remained, which limited their ability to regenerate combat equipment and personnel. In a desperate bid to repel the League forces Erasmus recommended that some 2 million human slaves (including a clone of Serena Butler) be put into orbit and linked with the pulse satellites that keep the thinking machines on Corrin.
Erasmus' had hoped the move would weaken the resolve of the free humans. But Vorian Atreides' determination to defeat Omnius at any cost saw him order the forces through the defense network, a decision that was protested by a horrified Abulurd Harkonnen. His disgust led him to disobey direct orders and disable the automated weaponry of the fleet.
After discovering their lack of artillery, the furious Atreides decided to use pulse atomics against the defense forces and push forward. Upon crossing the threshold that should trigger the death of the 2 million slaves, the fleet is happily surprised to see nothing occur. The trigger had been defused by Erasmus upon his discovery that his human ward Gilbertus Albans had joined his beloved Serena Butler clone in orbit.
The League battle group progressed through three lines of space defense before gaining clear access to the surface of Corrin. After defeating ground-based defenses they descended to the planet's central city to destroy the Omnius incarnations. As they prepared to destroy the last Omnius (who with Erasmus' help had recovered from the attack of SeurOm and ThurOm and regained control of the planet just before the end of the battle), a pulse of concentrated data is sent out into space in a final desperate bid to keep the artificial intelligence alive.
The battle concluded with the destruction of the last surviving thinking machines and the liberation of many of the surviving slave humans.
Ramifications
Several critical events occurred during the Battle of Corrin, and proved to have a huge impact on the future of humanity:
- The final vestiges of thinking machines were destroyed, and a commandment emerged that forbade the creation of machines in the exact image of a man's mind.
- The Butler family, under the leadership of Faykan Butler, took control of free humanity, renaming themselves as Corrino after the battle.
- The long standing rivalry between House Atreides and House Harkonnen was established with the disobedience of Abulurd Harkonnen, who was deemed a coward afterwards.
Behind the Scenes
The Battle of Corrin is described in the Legends of Dune novel of the same name, written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The Battle of Corrin is also mentioned in passing in Frank Herbert's original Dune novels, who places significant historical importance on it.