In response to reports of increased raids by Hurdak pirates on frontier colonies, in the late 2430’s Star League dispatched the 148^th Frontier Defense Brigade as a show of force in the region. On star date: 17.8.2439 they deployed on Tuxaris VI, a marginal world but rich enough in rare minerals for a valuable mining colony to have been founded. A few standard days before their arrival, a large force of Hurdak had hit one of the periphery townships, capturing a large number of the colonists there.

By the time the 148^th had arrived, the pirates had fled into the highlands, taking the captives with them. Thermal scans of the region showed a large mass of bodies within one of the mountain valleys, where, they assumed, the pirates had established their outpost and were waiting for transport offworld with their prisoners and loot. Hoping to prevent this, General Harding her brigade into the valley, on foot, hoping to catch the pirates by surprise.

Unfortunately, this proved to be a trap. As soon as the women of the 148^th had entered the valley and approached the base, its slave pens packed with the captured colonists, the pirates emerged from their hiding places along the edges of the valley, swiftly closing off any escape for the women within. Even at this point, General Harding wasn’t unduly worried. Her ladies were highly trained, armed with the most powerful ray pistols and the most advanced personal shields which made them more then a match for the usual rabble of pirates.

However, as the women of the 148^th advanced across the bare, cover-less valley floor towards the steep cliff edges, they were in for a nasty shock as the pirates opened fire from their concealed position. Instead of the usual ray beams, easily deflected by their personal shields, the women were hit with large, round globules of some sticky black goo. The globules low velocity was calculated to be slow enough to pass through the soldier’s protective shields, hitting the unprotected woman inside. And once the goo had connected with a moving object, the nanites within activated, causing the goo to quickly swarm all over her body. Attempts to pull the goo off were futile and anyone attempting to aid a stricken comrade soon found herself wrapped up alongside the first victim.

Within the first ten minutes of this sudden attack, nearly a quarter of the Brigade, including General Harding, had been downed, reduced to helpless, struggling packages waiting to be scooped up by the pirates. Bravely, the women of the 148th continued and launched several attacks on the pirate’s defensive line, hoping to break out, but each attack failed, leaving hundreds more of their comrades squirming and struggling on the slopes.

With half their number taken out, the remaining soldiers of the 148^th retreated back to the pirate outpost. On the way, they found that even the goo rounds which had missed remained active, should an unwary woman step too close and during the retreat many found themselves stuck and wrapped up. To their dismay, the survivors had no choice but to leave their stricken comrades behind, watching helplessly as the pirates swarmed down from the hills to collect their new bounty of captives.

But they were to have only a temporary reprieve. Still trapped within the dubious shelter of the pirate’s outpost, the remaining women of the 148^th found themselves trapped and subject to fierce attack from the pirates, eager to finish them off. Several attempts were made to resupply or evacuate the trapped Brigade by orbital shuttle but as soon as they had neared, pirate saucers launched from concealed landing zones in the mountains. Half a dozen shuttles were forced down in the valley before further attempts were called off as futile. The crews of those shuttles would join the rest of the 148^th in being overrun and captured on 19.8.2439.

The stunning loss of the 148^th Brigade was a shock for the Star League. The Brigade had represented a major pillar of frontier defense and with it gone, pirates and raiders swarmed across the frontier, attacking further colonies. The effectiveness of their new weapons and the failure of the 148^th protective shields emboldened the pirates to challenge further frontier defense units whilst they still held the advantage. For the pirates, their ambush was a success beyond their wildest dream. In addition to the cutting edge military weapons and equipment, they also succeeded in capturing an entire Brigade to a woman along with the thousands of the colonists they’d captured before hand and rounded up in further raids after on the now defenseless colony. That year, there was a glut of slaves on the markets of Hurdak Prime. They were to be the first of huge influx as the Star League struggled to defend its frontier against the emboldened pirates at the dawn of the 2440’s.