Battle of Elin

The Battle of Elin of 2845, one of the first engagements in the history of the Royal Naval Service, was a protracted chase engagement over the length and breadth of the Ikeopo system. It began with an attempted by the Customs Cutter HMS Rememberancer to intercept a suspected specialist-legger (A vessel smuggling specialists onto Sivad in order to avoid the payment of the Specialist Retail Tax and the General Naval Levvy, both large parts of the heavy taxation brought in by King Franklin I to pay for the Royal Navy). The vessel fled, and the Rememberancer gave chase, only to find the vessels mother ship, a dreadnought which had apparently been stolen from the shipbreaker and been refitted. In a brief engagement, the Rememberancer was lost with all hands, but not before transmitting the coordinates of the enemy vessel.

Within moments the HMS Resilience and the HMS Endeavour, two of the newest class of RNS frigates, gave chase, converging on the enemy near the small moon of Elin on the outer fringes of the Ikeopo system. A lengthy stern chase ensued, in which the Resilience was damaged by a missile from the enemy vessel, dropping it from the engagement. The Endeavour, however, continued to close, drawing alongside the enemy at a distance so near that the vessels shields were ineffective. Broadsides were exchanged which caused terrible damage to the vessels, the Endeavour losing almost half its crew, and prompting it's captain, Sir Winston Woolfe, to take a desperate gamble. He equipped his crew with vacuum suits and proceeded to ram the enemy vessel, dispatching his marines in an impromptu boarding action which carried the enemy ship. Sir Winston was created the first Earl of Elin for his action, and each man on the crew received prize money in excess of 7,500 yojj, worth approximately 100,000 yojj-sterling today.