Stardate 90719.54
My old teacher Grand Admiral May-Ar once said you learn more from defeat than from victory, but that doesn't mean victory doesn't teach you its own lessons. Victory teaches us that our values and our cause are true and just, that our methods are sound, and that our strengths are our strengths and not mere mirage.
We have won an enormous victory against the Sinatti fleet, decimating their forces and utterly dissolving their ability to materialize any sort of threat upon our frontier. After what we did to their assault force, I don't believe they could muster twenty battle-ready craft in defense of their home sector were we to press our advantage and go on the offensive. But what would be the point? The Sinatti work better as a neutral buffer against the armward states like the L'Bama Hegemony or the Klem Zone Imperium than they would as a failing outlying province of our empire. As such, we will not be ranging into their space. Even as I commit this log to the record, our negotiators are establishing the new set of rules by which the Sinatti will be sworn to neutrality for the foreseeable future.
With that said, as total as our victory is, the battle did not look so simple and easy from the beginning. The Sinatti's commander, Imperator Fikk-L, was once a great officer in the Bukki Star Empire, one of Grand Admiral May-Ar's most trusted adjutants in fact, though he served before I was of age so I never knew the man. I'd read all the dossiers--a keen tactical mind, great leadership potential, calm under pressure. All the makings of a good commander. His fleet, too, looked the part. The Sinatti's particle cannons are known for the punch they pack, while their modulating frequency shields gave Wolva's weapons fits during their skirmish last span. As for personnel, the Sinatti patterned their officer corps and cadet training on the Bukki model. In many ways, their space force was a warped reflection of our own star fleet, albeit smaller and less well-funded. Adding to that, they deployed their forces so quickly and efficiently that we barely had the time to scramble a full-sized taskforce to meet them. All these conditions being true, it should have been a close one, or at least a messy encounter.
Instead, we blasted them to dust. I still don't know why they attacked. Whatever the reason, I'm sure they regret it, for nothing could have been worth the losses they took. Once more Captain Feeldz acquitted himself admirably, deleting several Sinatti ships with a brilliant attack run of a unique style some of the junior officers are already terming the "Feeldz Maneuver." Feeldz wasn't the only one who shone. That half-ton man mountain in power armor, space marine Master Sergeant Chae-Yong led a boarding party that seized control of the Sinatti heavy cruiser Riddlr. I wasn't there myself, so can't say if this is true or not, but it's said that as soon as the plasma torch had carved open a breech in the Riddlr's hull, the Sinatti security officers on board dropped their weapons and all but gave the Sergeant control of their ship. A reputation can be a powerful thing. In a brilliant maneuver, he then used the Riddlr to block a Sinatti counterattack, driving it straight into the path of a Sinatti light cruiser that broke up like a soft satellite on impact.
All told, the Sinatti lost 42 ships in the engagement. Our own losses? Zero. Only a few marines and spacers killed by the unavoidable accidents combat entails. I keep telling the men not to let victory go to their heads, but sometimes it feels good to savor a triumph. You don't get too many like this--unblemished.
Signing off for now,
Admiral Dae Riyan, Supreme Commander of the Bukki Star Empire
