This report is highly classified should only be read by those with lvl 8 security clearence. The report details the rebellion by a titan class battleship and would be a severe blow to morale were it to ever become public knowledge.
report is 90% accurate 10% speculation
Captain Trent looked into the expanse of black that was cold dark space, He found it odd how the time could pass, just standing on the observation deck staring out at stars, nebulae and occasionally comets. However today he was not looking to see, he was looking to focus his mind. When staring at something as blank as space the mind can think clearly and undistracted.
His thoughts were on one thing. The truth. Rumors had abounded, mainly from garbled transmissions to Earth from the Nadesicobut seeing as they were always at the front it seemed to be the most reliable source. He made up his mind, he was going to do it, and to hell with the consequences. He tapped a nearby comm button and transmitted to all of the command staff.
'Meeting in the observation lounge, now'
time to break the news
The assembled crew sat on whatever chairs they could find, Spencer, the engineer, looked hilarious almost been swallowed by an armchair made for a man twice his size, although anyone who pointed it out would get a broken nose, Spencer didnt like cracks about his diminutive height and was, needless to say, about as subtle as a rhino when solving a dispute.
The chatter between crew was halted by the Cpt. Trent with a wave of his hand, and he prepared to announce to them his decision, he stood up and gathered his courage, he could get shot for this, but, he reflected, this is war, I may be gone in a month anyway.
"Officers of the UEAF starship Triumphant, many of you have heard rumors about the Jovians being human and I cannot tell you for certain because I do not know so" he paused for breath and to collect a little more courage "We are going to find out, we are going to find the Nergal ship Nadesico and get some answers!" his mood darkened and his face followed "with or without the High Commands approval"
The crew were shocked, they knew that the Nadesico had been blocked from all transmissions and didnt think the reported transmitter failure was to blame. To go after it meant Treason and Mutiny, although it would possibly be the first mutiny in history by a Captain.
"All right Captain, Im with you" declared Spencer
"With ya Cap'n" pronounced Higgins, communications extrordinaire
"Im in" this time it was the soft voice of Hiru Kaga, the ships Japenese Science officer, Only Jenkins from security had to make up his mind.
"I dont like our odds, and Im not happy with the idea but I pledged to protect this crew and I will do it, trust me, but dont count on me to save your ass in a tight spot"
"its a deal" Trent had expected this, hed known the man for 17 years, since Lunar academy, and was going to protect his friend, it was after all his job.
"If were going to do this the ship must be firmly under our controll, find out who is likely to support us and who wont, when we dock at station G27 I'll clear out as many as I can for whatever reason I can find, I need this to be bloodless"
When the Triumphant docked at G27 about 57 crew were thrown off, about 3% of the crews full complement, security was preparing to round up other hard line Earth Soldiersand engineering was recieving a headache.....
"What the hell do you think your doing to my ship!" Spencer looked up at the base engineer, "I'm just following orders, this new system has been designed to fight the Jovians, it can deal with multiple targets at once, the Firefox PDS is an amazing piece of weaponry and one that will increase your life expectancy"
Spencer was not convinced
"Has it been tested?"
"Well, yes, were giving it to you guys for a trial, so you can iron out the bugs"
Spencer had heard this before, hell, hed used it before so decided to translate to scare the poor sap,
"You mean it was tested, blew up, left very few survivors, cost loads of resources and pissed off a lot of top brass?"
"Hole in one, shorty"
Spencer normally liked been told he was amazing but not when he was been insulted as a follow through.
"Take that back or I'll ...."
"You'll what, your just a loudmouth midget who has ..."
It was right here that Spencer kicked the man in the balls, he doubled over clenching his nuts and was punched squarely and solidly on the nose for his trouble, before falling over and watching Spencer leave.
Within 6 hours of leaving G27 the ship had been taken by security, the brig was full of protesting militants, and a course had been laid in for Nergal's Lunar facility were the Nadesico was been repaired, now the problems would start.
The unjailed crew were informed of the goal of the mission and were surprisingly supportive, the truth held a much higher place in the crews hearts than Trent had believed and was damn proud of it, a screen appeared in front of his face, this he thought, is the beginning.
It was Admiral Fuzima from High Command
"Captain Trent, your ship is way off course, explain yourself"
"My ship is on course Sir, the course I selected, this vessel is going to make contact with the Nadesico and find the truth about the Jovians, weather you like it or not"
"This is treason Trent, what would your father say if he heard this"
"Not much Sir, he's dead, but if he were alive he'd tell me to stick by my convictions"
The Admiral had not expected that and tried a more direct approach,
"You turn around and dock at G27 or Ill send whatever ships I can find to blow the crap outta you"
Trent replied with even less eloquence and than the Admiral
"With all due respect, go fuck yourself"
The transmission was severed
Fuzima was, to put it mildly, pissed and to work off his rage ordered four destroyers, a carrier and a cruiser to engage and destroy the Triumphant.
It was lucky for Trent that Space was so big, the battle group deployed by the Admiral could destroy his ship if they were to catch it, however they couldnt and made their way to near Lunar orbit to intercept it upon arrival, the extra time was to prove valuable.
The Firefox Point Defence System was, as the now sterile engineer had said, was an amazing piece of weaponry, the journey provided the crew to figure out how to use it, the engineers how to repair it and the gossipers talked about it rather than blackmailing fellow crew mates.
Upon arrival at the moon battle ensued.
Trents insistence of getting the Firefox operating had made him take a roundabout route, as a result the Triumphant appeared on the other side of the moon where the UEAF battle group was not expecting it.Upon seeing the rebels arrive in system Captain Gredenko ordered the destroyers to engage while the cruiser and carrier turned around and powered up their drives, this was a mistake.
Ruri watched her monitors and listened to the radio chatter and watched Gredenko's move, she analysed the situation and came up with this, Four Sabre class destroyers are a formidable force, but no threat to a Titan class battleship such as the Triumphant any person in charge of a carrier battle group should be able to see that,
"Idiot" she said
"Prepare all fighters for combat, prime defence grid charge particle beams" Trents orders were rattled off and followed, this was not a time to question him
Yurika didnt like this, both sides had requested the Nadesico's help, however Miss Wan was going to have to decide on this one, internal UEAF disputes were not the Nadesico's concern and it was definitely an area where crossing the line would have her executed for treason to Earth, and to be honest after the revelation about the Jovians true origins the UEAF would be looking for any excuse to shut her up.
"Well" said Miss Wan, "That battleship appears to have some new weapon system, one which Nergal could find useful, we are going to help them and procure that weapon if possible"
Yurika accepted, didnt like the logic, but the thought of acting against Wan on this matter was definitely not an option, the firing squad image creapt into her mind.
"Ruri"
"Yes Captain"
"Prep the Aestivalis wing and arm the particle beams, do not power up the forward gravity cannons"
"Aye captain,"
The Nadesico launched and placed itself between the cruiser and carrier but the destroyers had passed them and the Nadesico had no chance of intercepting them, Trent would have to deal with those.
The Sabre class destroyers approached at top speed, Trent figured he had one chance to save the crew of those ships, and it was the ever ineffective diplomacy. He had a channel opened to all the destroyers.
"Captains of the four destroyers preparing to attack my ship, I am asking you to break off, you have no hope of even heavily damaging my vessel before you are crippled or destroyed, break off, for the sake of your crew"
The message was ignored and the ships came on, Trent squeezed out the order he had to give
"fire"
The starboard particle batteries on the Triumphant fired and the destroyers fired back. One of the destroyers was sliced clean in half as a blast of super heated plasma particles strafed its mid section before exploding, another took a hit and had a hole the size of a building blown out of it, sucking crewmen into space before the pressure doors on the ship sealed the other two ships were vaporised by the awesome firepower of the Triumphant, the crippled destroyer, wisely surrendered, and was remarked as neutral by the Trimumphant's computer.
Meanwhile Yurika was doing her best to hold back the remaining UEAF ships, without opening fire but Gredenko was not the sort of man who liked to talk, and was only held back by the thought of a whole wing of Aestivalis tearing his ship apart. Neither the Carrier or the Triumphant were equipped with ST's they were too expensive and generally pointless aboard a deep space vessel so the Nadesico held this advantage, however, the fighters aboard the UEAF vessels were far more manoverable than an ST and faster, if the carrier launched an attack on the Triumphant like that the ST wing wouldnt be able to intercept.
Trent was assesing the damage to his ship, a few breaches had been made in the main hull and a battery of particle cannons had be taken offline but no other damage had been reported, in the respite he had all the prisoners in the brig placed in unarmed shuttles and launched off the ship where they collected around the crippled destroyer and watched as cautious spectators.
The one thing Yurika had dreaded happened, the Carrier launched its fighters and they went full speed towards the Triumphant, Yurika held the ST wing back, it would be a waste to use them against the fighters, but one-hundred and fifty intercepters will overwhelm the Triumphant and destroy it.
Trent saw the incoming intercepters and smiled, this was the moment he had waited for, he had hoped it would never come to pass, but he wanted to see the Firefox PDS in action, he gave the orders,
"Deploy Firefox vulcan lasers, syncronize targets and prepare to fire"
The Firefox PDS was made up of a web 69 of gatling lasers, each of them fired plasma bolts at the rate of one shot every 5 second with pinpoint accuracy and an enhanced coolant to stop over heats, the intercepters were blown out of the sky in a matter of minutes, failing to cause any significant damage.
After this Gredenko opened fire on the Triumphant and was destroyed by Akito from the nadesico and the cruiser was crippled and sent limping back to Earth.
Trent asked the question and was told the truth. The Jovians are human, the war was no crusade to save humanity, it was punishment for its treatment of Lunar separatists 60 years before he was born, he collapsed into his chair, looked out at the sea of dead bodies and debris and cried.
Epilogue
The Triumphant was given to Nergal by Trent in return for his crews safety, Nergal have further developed the Firefox PDS and are installing it on their next warship. Many crew from the Triumphant joined Nergal and are to add their experience of combat to Nergals warships.