TUC: The Battle of Giants III

They say curiosity killed the cat.  I've never let that stop me, because as adages go it's pretty discriminating: just because it killed the cat, doesn't mean it's going to kill me.  After all, the cat wasn't flying an enormous chunk of metal under the protection of one of the most powerful corporations in the galaxy, was it?  Not to the best of my knowledge.

It was in the later days of the ninety-eighth year of Unity; we'd just completed a fuel delivery to New Jørvik and my crew and I were preparing the ship for the jump to hyperspeed when the scanner steadily began to fill with contacts, all emerging from the atmosphere of New Jørvik. I began to worry that I'd forgotten to fill in the right forms before leaving the fuel depot, but the Unity ships ignored us and began to take up formation a short distance away.  It must have been the entire New Jørvik fleet there: ten angels, the Unity heavy fighter of which you usually wouldn't see more than one or two at a time; twice that many of the smaller enforcers; two saints, the heavy frigates of the Unity Navy; and, at the center of the formation and dwarfing every other ship, the avatar-class UNS Valiant.  Something told me this was not a training exercise.  It was simply the largest fleet I had ever seen in one place.

Until a few minutes later.  The alert sounded which signaled ships approaching, dropping out of hyperspace this time, and away to our port side.  Once the new ships had slowed and taken their position in formation next to their comrades from the surface, I took a quick count.  The new fleet was at least twice the size of the first, with two of the huge avatars forming the core along with no fewer than eight saints.  This was clearly in response to a very serious threat, and I ordered the helmsman to take us to a safe distance behind the massed Unity forces.  If this was going to be, as it seemed certain it must, one of the most momentous battles since the eradication of the alien fleet at Tortuga the better part of one hundred years ago, I was sure as hell going to be there to see it.

There had been rumours, of course, about anti-Unity sentiment on the fringe worlds; there always were, it was simply a fact of life.  All that had come to a head two years ago at New Jutland, when rebel forces assaulted the Unity base there and were slaughtered to a man in the attempt.  From the size of the Unity fleet assembled a few dozen kilometers away, I thought that this day's battle could well prove to be New Jutland's pissed-off big brother.

I didn't know what I expected to see drop out of hyperspace from the direction of the Caledonia system.  Maybe a dozen civilian fighters or so, probably backed up by a few of the heavier corvus-class vessels.  I was even prepared for the sight of a jagannatha, the largest ship available to civilians and carefully sold only to the most respected citizens of Unity.  What I didn't expect to see was four of the things, surrounded by six corvi and twelve jackrabbits, upgraded and armed to the teeth.  As the formation began advancing on the Unity ships, a cloud of smaller fighters were launched from the bays aboard the jagannathae.  It was an amazing sight, but there was no way that such a force had a chance against the combined Unity fleets.

By now the Unity ships had swung in perfect formation and faced the rebels, holding position against their advance. The avatars had launched their own fighters, which now formed the front of the Unity line; while there weren't as many of them as the rebels' gnats, the enforcers were superior ships.  My crew and I sat transfixed by the sight on the viewscreen, enhanced as far as possible to make up for the distance between us and the action.  Only my tactical officer, Dennie, had his eyes elsewhere: he preferred to watch the scanner, saying it gave a clearer view of what was going on.  Thus it was he who alerted us to the event that made everyone present - including, no doubt, the Unity commanders - reassess the situation.  A second rebel fleet, the same size as the first, had just exited hyperspace on the now-exposed port flank of the Unity ships.

I could imagine the commands being shouted across the secure military frequencies as the vessels from New Jørvik hastily shuffled their formation to face this new threat.  Just as this maneuver was completed, the first heavy warheads were launched from each side.  What was to enter the history books as the Battle of Giants began.

It was immediately clear that the main tactic of the rebel force was going to be engaging the Unity fleets at close range.  The first wave, the rebel gnats, dove straight into the fray on both fronts, cutting past the enforcers and angels to swarm among the bigger ships.  As the Unity fighters turned to engage them, the rebel jackrabbits  hit their line and began causing mayhem.  All the while, the heavier vessels drew closer and closer to the fray, missiles darting across the shrinking space between the fleets.  It was still not clear who the victors would be, and our fate as the freighter of a Unity-run corporation was even less certain should the rebels succeed.  I ordered Aran the helmsman to take us to safe distance for a hyperspace jump, in case we needed to make a swift exit.

That eventuality began to look more certain as Unity's port flank buckled, the two saints and most of the fighters lost.  Already the smaller rebel ships had flown past the UNS Valiant and joined their comrades assaulting the larger Unity force, leaving the Valiant to the mercy of the jagannathae, of which two now remained.  As soon as they entered range, the space between the ships lit up with laser fire, streaking back and forth and impacting on the vessels' shields.  Soon enough, the avatar's shields gave out and the lasers cut into the armoured hull.  It took a frighteningly short time for the breaches to begin breaking out along its sides, and before long it was little more than floating wreckage.  Escape pods streaking toward the planet's surface were ignored by the rebels as they powered toward the remaining Unity ships.

It wasn't over yet, though; the rebel ships were taking heavy losses in their fight against the larger of the two Unity fleets, the pair of avatars at the centre proving to be more than a match for most of what was thrown at them.  Indeed, it seemed that the tide had turned in their favour when another small group of ships rose from the atmosphere of New Jørvik, bearing the insignia of the planetary militia.  It wasn't a large force - just a heavily upgraded mercury and a dozen or so gnats - but in a battle this closely matched, it could make all the difference.  As they neared the ongoing mêlée, I was surprised to notice that the rebels were ignoring the newcomers.  The reason soon became clear, as the mercury launched a missile at the UNS Steadfast and the gnats flew in to add to the confusion surrounding the bigger ships.  I began to appreciate the scale of this rebellion: it was no provincial uprising this time, but an organised and serious challenge to Unity's monopoly on power in the galaxy.

Soon enough, all that remained of the Unity fleet was the UNS Steadfast and an awful lot of floating debris.  As the rebels moved in for the kill, the mercury broke off from the fight and flew toward us, stopping well out of missile range.  I was about to give the order to make the jump to hyperspace when a voice came over the radio:  "AFC vessel, this is Commander Pelk of the New Jørvik militia flagship Stonegate.  We intend you no harm, and ask that you return to your superiors and inform them of what has transpired here today.  This is not a rebellion, but a declaration of war on Unity by the First Freedom Alliance."