The final elements of Battlegroup Gladius had broken the Navy blockade and escaped into the barrier. The remnants of Battlegroup Harmony had chosen to make a stand at their home, as there was nowhere else left for them. Knight's sudden and unannounced departure with their flagship was seen as a betrayal of the entire force, who banded together and mutually agreed: With Linford out of action and turned over to a friendly force, her protege, Amber Eclipse, would captain the Discovery and hunt down the traitor, and destroy Knight and the Harmony. Making a break for the exit as Navy forces converged on Marshall Station, the Discovery left the system as their home shipyard sent it's final transmission and vow to take as many of the Navy with them as possible. They did not stay and let their sensors pick up the inevitable. The Ohio's forces were insurmountable now, and battlegroup Harmony in all but spirit, was destroyed at last by Navy forces.
The Discovery took through to the jumphole, knowing Gladius had managed to break through. Their mission was almost impossible, however. Without escorts, no onboard fighters, and limited supplies, the battered battleship first had to get to a supply point. It planned to move towards the jumphole to Cortez and eventually into Crayterian territory. This plan wouldn't come to fruition however, the 5th Fleets flanking force arrived in strength. A full size task force consisting of the carrier Yorktown, battleships Wisconsin and Omaha, two battlecruisers, four cruisers and a number of support ships, the Discovery was hopelessly outgunned, and Liberty wasn't keen on talking first after the initial blockade had been forced to retreat. The warships opened fire immediately, and the Discovery responded in kind. With this action they knew they were doomed from the start, but like their comrades making their stand at their home, so too would Amber make her stand, if nothing else but to ensure Gladius' trail went cold.
"All hands to battlestations, the Navy is coming at us in full force, helm, evasive action, gunnery, fire at will!" The renegade battleship began it's evasive action as the first volley of heavy weapons slammed into the shields of the ship. "We're hit! Shields down to 36%, activating primary shield charging array!" It was a hopeless battle to begin with. The Discovery and the 5th Fleet continued to exchange fire, but once more the shields were quickly overwhelmed, rocking the ship as it took direct hits to the hull. "Shields are down, the charge provided by the secondary charging array is drained, we're sitting ducks!""Maintain fire! Helm, move back into the asteroid field, we can lose them in there!" The Discovery began routing back towards Wendell field, but it left them critically exposed and two torpedoes slammed into the engine, detonating on the patched together armor, the explosion rocking the compartment and disabling the engines. Years with of patchwork and repair have finally caught up to this old warrior.
More torpedoes and primary cannon fire would rock the hull, damaging and destroying several more subsystems and causing fires on the ship, the skeletal damage control team trying to fight the fires. "Engines are down, we're immobile until they're restarted, shield array is heavily damaged, decks 3, 7, and 8 reporting fires. Damage control is doing it's best.""Damn it.. So it ends like this.. Wait, are those boarding shuttles?! Alert all marines onboard, Navy forces intend to capture the ship! Prepare scuttling charges, I will not let our ship fall into the enemies hands!" Despite her multiple orders, there were only so many extra hands onboard not currently doing something. Only a hand full of men could put scuttling charges onboard the key points of the ship, and very slowly at that, as the remnants of the Marine detachment gathered in the blown open but force shielded shuttle bay. Two assault shuttles landed in the bay and deployed their forces, leading to an intense gunfight with Liberty Marines at an initial disadvantage due to pre-planned ambush positions. Unfortunately, amongst the Marine force was a black ops team led personally by a highly trained NID operative. "Locate and eliminate the security force. Do not allow the enemy to scuttle this battleship. Secure the engine and engineering compartments. Bravo, Charlie and Delta, push the bridge. Echo, Foxtrot and Gamma will reinforce the anti-scuttling efforts."
The situation was growing more and more desperate. They barely had any combat-capable troops beyond the soldiers sent down to the hangars to fend off the boarding party, but they were being quickly pushed further and further back by the much more well supplied force. Engineering couldn't get the engines restarted and the scuttling charges were being placed at an unacceptable rate. If given too much time, the entire should could be flooded by Liberty forces and seized from under her. Amber had to think quickly. "Every able-bodied man and woman is to take up arms and assist in the scuttling efforts. We can't allow the ship to fall into enemy hands. The bridge staff and I will remain here to coordinate." The Insurgents went about carrying out their orders, trying to assist in gathering the necessary charges and placing them at the vital support sections.
With the Liberty forces, progress was getting rapid, and the Marines onboard were swiftly pushing back the under-equipped and ill-prepared Insurgent troops. "Gamma to Viper, we're pushing towards the bridge, orders on command staff?""Shoot on sight. All command staff are guilty of high treason and attempting to overthrow the Government.""Roger." Gamma squad continued their push, quickly gunning down any Insurgent foolish enough to try to stand their ground. Those who ran got the disgrace of being shot in the back. It was simply slaughter. The other Marine teams were operating under similar orders, and anyone that showed even the slightest resistance was being gunned down. Even some who attempted to surrender were killed because they were recognized by their long-worn out Navy-turned-Insurgent uniforms, original traitors from the first flight of Harmony.
Gamma team was now at the gates to the bridge, which had been fortified with what few munitions were left, but were a meager few pulse grenades and small arms, with junk barricading the entrance. Resistance quickly became less organized as the dedicated troops were killed, and the bridge crew was all that remain. "Take up positions, ready that charge to blow!" Unfortunately for Amber, the Marines were close enough to hear. "Push forward, don't let them detonate an explosive in there!" Gamma squad pressed the attack, using their boots to kick over the junk-barricade and began firing indiscriminately into the bridge, unsure of who had the explosive charge. In the blind firing and urgency to stop them from blowing a charge, the bridge staff had been killed. After it was clear the Insurgents had stopped moving, Gamma team secured the bridge, inspecting the staff. Gamma teams leader kneeled down, ripping away Eclipse's dog tags, identifying who was just killed. Pocketing them, he hailed the other teams, reporting the scuttling efforts had been disrupted, and the engineering team, under threat of death, restarted the engines. With Delta teams expertise, the battered warship began to limp towards Cordoba, the 5th Fleet hailing in SAR for support, as the battle fleet took to the jumphole, sealing the noose around Marshall and any stragglers who tried to flee.
Battleship Discovery has fallen into the hands of the 5th Fleet, and it was no doubt a treasure trove of information, and would provide a harsh, unfiltered look into the minds of Separatists and Insurgents alike. What kind of ordeals, modifications, and adaptations were made to keep this dreadnought in service with the traitors. "This is Operative Viper aboard Battleship Discovery hailing Cordoba, do not engage, this vessel is now under the control of the Liberty 5th Fleet. I repeat, do not engage."
After the vessel was towed by a responding SAR force behind the 5th Fleet assault force, the Discovery was interred at Norfolk Shipyard. The forces onboard the ship swiftly transferred control of the vessel to 5th Fleet security forces and Norfolk technicians. Alongside the boarding troops was the 5th Fleets R&D Director, Rear Admiral Nicole Prower. "Repairs to the main reactor are to be prioritized, I want this vessel operational for transfer to Juneau Shipyard for full repair and refit." The engineers and technicians moved swiftly to complete their focus while Nicole led NID operatives to secure the bridge, a secondary team sent to the ships internal blackbox. This warship holds incredible insight into the Insurgency, and one of it's elder halves, Battlegroup Harmony. Of great interest is just exactly how they returned this old warbird to action again with so few resources. Not only was this battleship returned to active duty, it excelled under the command of the Separatists.
Stepping onto the damaged bridge, Nicole approached the captains chair, a long worn out piece of furniture, and sat in it. Its a view she sees very often, but in this chair, on this ship, it was different. This wasn't the bridge she was used to, this was what Separatist and Insurgent officer saw when launching attacks on Navy assets. She wondered just how far a once proud navy officer had to sink to keep this ship operational. No doubt they believed in their cause, but the logistics behind operating a battleship in isolation for so long, no doubt many convoys that never arrived were a result of this effort. She knew full well the officer that used to claim this chair as their own was dead, she ordered it to be so, after the Delaware.
Nicole sat here for hours as her teams worked on breaking the internal encryption to the databases, a final act of defiance from this defeated ship and its fallen crew. "Admiral, we've broken the encryption.""Very good, begin downloading the ships databanks, I want all of it. The contents of this ships blackbox and databanks are classified top secret, I want security on all servers 24/7.""Ofcourse, Ma'am." Nicole watched as more NID forces boarded the ship, looking out at the trade lanes as the engines received their repairs, dozens, if not hundreds of personnel dedicated to this order. It would be their trophy, and this warship would see a total refit to see service within the ranks of the 5th Fleet. For now though, there was much to be done, and security onboard must be tight. No Insurgent sympathizer can be allowed near the ship to damage it or the precious information inside.
"Admiral, we've found something you would be interested in." Nicole took the datapad from the agent, inspecting it. Contained within this datapad were the most recent orders of this vessel, to hunt down the Battleship Harmony and destroy it for treason against the Insurgency, and the Battlegroup. Nicole only frowned, somewhere out there, Knight had managed to escape justice once more. "Battleship Harmony is still out there, and still a threat. Knight must be running out of places to hide. Deploy the reserve fleet and double patrols.""Admiral, surely one battleship outside any form of allied network doesn't present such a threat.""I am not concerned with the Harmony's threat as a warship, I am concerned with what it represents. Or rather, I am concerned by what we allow it to represent by failing to destroy it. Whispers of this battleship escaping can inspire belief that the Republic is incompetent. In time such whispers can spark another Separatist uprising, and that, Agent, is something I cannot have. Make no mistake, from now on failure will have consequences. Agent Nox, deploy our spies and reach out to our informant networks. We will discover the whereabouts of these criminals, and we will make examples of them."
