The Gelt Incursion of 419 IE was an invasion of three Compact colonies engineered by General Laral Jorl of the Realm Warrior Caste and a “Tianese” calling himself Marq. They convinced Lattus Kai to sign over his granted world of Essenar in exchange for the taking of two “rogue colonies” Marq asserted were illegally settled.
The incursion began with the destruction of the terraforming project on Farigha as a test run. Once Lattus was convinced to sign on, Laral then marshaled his own and Realm forces to invade the Compact colonies of Gilead and Amargosa. Lattus, however, grew suspicious when a fusion device destroyed Gilead City during the invasion. His concubine Tishla also pointed out that rogue colonies did not usually have large orbital stations above them. A trip to Gilead’s surface revealed that the charred skulls of settlers who died in the fusion blast looked nearly identical to those of Gelt. An interrogation of a dying family of settlers revealed that Gilead, renamed Hanar, actually belonged to another world called Metis, a member of the Compact.
The incursion did not use Warriors as ground troops. The exception was the taking of Deming on Amargosa. Instead, the Larals used transported convicts to whittle down the human population and secure the planet.
The Incursion ended six days after the initial invasion of Amargosa with the arrival of colony transports bringing Warriors and civilian settlers, most forcibly repatriated from other worlds within the Realm. While another attempt on a Compact colony would occur about three months later, the Incursion ended with Farigha abandoned (and peacefully retaken by troops from Metis), Gilead transformed by Gelt and human working together into Hanar, and the year-long Laral Occupation of Amargosa. The incident would put the Realm at odds with the Compact despite the wishes of the Sovereign of the Realm.
Appearances: No Marigolds in the Promised Land, The Roots of War