Unity City (Individual WarShip)
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- This article is about the WarShip. For other uses, see Unity City.
| Unity City | |
|---|---|
| Vessel Profile | |
| Type | WarShip |
History
General Aleksandr Kerensky, Commanding-General of the Star League Defense Force, launched a campaign to liberate the Sol system under the name Operation LIBERATION on 23 January 2777.[1] At this point, the Unity City was a cruiser-class WarShip serving in the SLDF black water navy as the SLS Unity City, and she was one of the vessels assigned to take part in Operation LIBERATION.[2]
One of the objectives of Operation LIBERATION was the liberation of the commercial shipyards at Titan, which were likely to prove essential to the support, maintenance and refit of the SLDF black water navy during the campaign for Terra and future operations, particularly with the shipyards at Luna and Mars likely to suffer damage during the campaign. The SLDF believed it likely that forces loyal to Stefan Amaris had rigged the shipyards with demolition charges, in keeping with the scorched earth policy the Amaris Empire Armed Forces had been using on worlds across the Terran Hegemony. Due to the urgent need to secure the shipyards intact, Admiral Janos Grec—Commanding Officer of the Star League navy at the time—came up with a plan that utilized a low-key approach to securing the shipyards, in the hope that surprise would give the mission a greater chance of success. The SLS Unity City was one of two WarShips selected to conduct the operation alongside the assault transport SLS Ocean.[2]
Waiting until Titan was sunward of Saturn, the Ocean and the Unity City jumped into Saturn's L2 Lagrange point. With their jump signature masked by Saturn, the two SLDF WarShips accelerated into Saturn's gravity well and then shut off their drives and all nonessential systems, conducting a ballistic slingshot using the mass of Saturn and the gravitational effects of the various moons; this allowed them to make a slow, stealthy approach to the shipyards. It took eight days of silent running for the Ocean and the Unity City to approach the shipyards, and once they were within two hours of the shipyards the Ocean deployed half a dozen boarding shuttles transporting a total of six platoons of marines. The shuttles then used maneuvering thrusters accelerated ahead of the two WarShips in preparation for an attack on the shipyards.[2]
The Ocean and the Unity City waited until the six assault shuttles had passed 100 km above the shipyards, out of range of the anti-collision systems of the various orbital facilities; the shuttles then drifted past the shipyards, but were still close enough that their powerful drives would be able to propel them into contact with the shipyards quickly. When the Ocean and the Unity City were just twelve minutes distant from the Titan yards they powered up all of their systems and immediately fired their drives to perform a high-G braking maneuver.[2]
The two WarShips were detected immediately by the shipyards and captured the attention of Amaris' forces, as intended; as the Republican troops scrambled to react to the Ocean and the Unity City the assault shuttles from the Ocean quickly boarded the shipyard and engaged the defenders. The marines swiftly overcame most opposition, seizing the shipyards within twenty minutes; not only were less than twenty casualties taken in total on both sides, but only two demolition charges were activated, each destroying an outlying satellite. The administrators put in place by Amaris quickly surrendered, and the ground installations at Ligeia Mare and Shangri-La surrendered soon after.[2]