The rebellion is down but not out.
The UN thought controlling supplies to the other colonies will starve the rebellion of food and ship building materials. But they were wrong.
Since Admiral Pyotr Walker destroyed the bulk of the Rebel fleet at the Battle of Tirent 12 years ago, it was thought that the rebellion could not sustain itself. Walker, now the head of Central Command (CENTCOM) on Cygnus, warned of overconfidence- the very thing which nearly caused the UN to be overrun in the very war he managed to salvage.
However, complacency is everywhere in the fleet. The Bureau of Naval Intelligence(BuNaI), perhaps the most important part of the UN’s anti-rebellion efforts, does not have any concrete leads on alliance activity, not even capable of accounting for the 19 rebel warships which has escape annihilation at Tirent.
But everything will change in a single Garnerian morning.
5th July 2692
Garneria, Threshold System, Sector 2-E, Outer Colony
The Vanguard was 32 years old by then. Built to raise moral during the resurgence war, it had served as flagship of the UN Space Navy through 5 insurgencies and 3 wars. It is the oldest “frontline” ship in the fleet- and the largest, at that. It is a heavy cruiser, built to withstand ridiculous amount of fire. Nicknamed “lead buckets”, they are slightly bigger then light cruisers at 2.4km long but cost 20 times more expensive. Designed to serve any purpose from long range artillery support to rapid ground insertion, they are rarely built- only 3 were ever built by the UN in their 7 century space naval history.
The elite 35th Shock Battalion was deployed on a seemingly routine rebel hunting mission on the Altine, a terraformed moon orbitting Garneria. Their pods landed near Sumulta peaks, a series of mined, hollow hills. It was expected abandoned mines like this to become rebellion bases- already fortified by the titanium cave walls, they are perfect as bunkers.
As the 50-men shock battalion made their way to one of the known cave entrances, they are ambushed from pillboxes only accessible from inside the caves. Not taking risks on a routine mission, Lieutenant-colonel Ling called in orbital support. 2 minutes later, the Vanguard made its voice known by raining precision rounds. While the bunkers were caved in, it alerted the attention of others.
3 minutes later, unidentified ships were detected at system edge- somewhere no civilian ship will ever go- heading straight for the Vanguard. Captain Aryan disregarded them until they are closer and can be identified better.Pytor Walker (now a Fleet Admiral) was on board the ship and overturns Aryan’s order, ordering all ships in the sector to jump to Threshold immediately.
However, he did not clearance to order the 35th back. They were temporary under BUNAL control of the highest level- and the last thing he needed was the intelligence spooks on his ass.
With his orders clear, Aryan decided to maneuver the Vanguard to a less exposed location- however, that would mean leaving the 35th without support.
While the unidentified ships’ ETA was 9 hours, Walker decided it would be best to get reinforcements to jump insystem in case anything went wrong- within 6 hours, destroyers Atlas and Menuka joined the Vanguard in orbit around Garnenia. As the 35th was meeting unexpected heavy resistance, Ground Assault Craft Anglophile was also en-route to provide reinforcements. 3 other warships of the 5th battle group, 2nd fleet are inbound, consisting of the light cruiser Aires Faine and its escorts destroyers Royal Soverign and Faith Arc.
Even with reinforcements, the unidentified ships did not change their course. As the Anglophile deployed more troops on Altine, the 35th was called to return to the Vanguard.
3 hours to interception
By now, the gravitational radar of the Vanguard has managed to identify the classes of the incoming ships- 2 of them are cargo ships and the third one appears to be a passenger vessel. However, they are moving much faster then any of their thrusters will allow- implying they had been modified, likely into armed trawlers.
Walker will not take any more chances, and maneuver the ships into battle formation. Battlegroup Aires Faine is already in-system and moving at flank speed towards the situation.
By now, it is clear to everyone this is a rebel attack- not a lost merchant. UN space command keeps tabs of every ship in every system within human-controlled space, and ships which are not given clearance is most likely rebel. Worse, they appeared from the system edge, not the approved zones where FTL traffic is allowed.
As the ships started to enter the gravity well of Garneria, they changed their courses very slightly- and at that speed near the speed of light, it put them in a U-shape orbit around the planet. The UN ships opened fire ,but scored no hits. That is when 54 nuclear tipped missiles striked the 3 ships without any warning.
The Atlas instantly collapsed inwards and the Menuka broke into 3 parts. The Vanguard, being the most armored ship in the fleet, managed to survive the 23 missles which hit her but is critically damaged. Aryan knew the Vanguard is too valuable to be destroyed, and ordered for the Damage Control (DC) teams to focus on getting the FTL cannon back online, ignoring the raging fires and disabled cannons.
Meanwhile the crew tried to figure out what hit them- and the only possible indication were 25 small meteor-sized objects the anti-meteor lasers managed to pick up. Walker figured the meteors which are evading the lasers are not meteors, but are small combat crafts. They had no counter measures as the UN strategists thought that such a small ship could not posses powerful enough thrusters to become effective.
With the Anglophile in 8 seperate pieces, the ground forces on Altine were stranded with no support and were quickly picked off by the bunkered rebels.
As the alliance fleet came out of their burn, heading towards the remains of the battlegroup, the small craft disappeared, presumably to reload. Everyone knew the Vanguard can not hold out against another strike- and with (fleet admiral) Walker on board, they can not afford to be destroyed. That is when the newly arrived battlegroup Aires Faine denies orders and head straight for the rebels. As it entered range of the ships, they managed to fire a few rounds in a futile attempt to buy some time.
Within minutes, all 3 ships of the battlegroup suffered the same fate as the Menuka and Atlas. But they managed to delay the rebels, and the Vanguard managed to get its FTL drive online. With its thrusters are still inoperational, it has no other choice but to jump in such proximity to a moon.
The gravity well caused by the jump shattered half of Altine. Such a big hemisphere could not be supported by its own weight, causing the moon to collapse into itself, shattering into millions of pieces.
Out of 150,000 souls the moon, there were just 23 survivonrs, lucky enough to be on a ship taking off the exact moment the moon collapsed. As the moon broke up, some of its debris formed a belt around Garneria. The larger pieces around the size of Britian crash into the planet, killing millions more and rendering the planet near inhabitable.
