Margaret Rose
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| Margaret Rose | |
|---|---|
| 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 the 23rd of January 2777.[1] At this point, the Margaret Rose was a WarShip serving in the SLDF black water navy as the SLS Margaret Rose, and she was one of the vessels assigned to take part in Operation LIBERATION.[2]
Among the objectives of Operation LIBERATION was securing the communities known as the Belter communities, which lay predominantly in the regions known as the Jovian L4 and L5 Lagrange points, largely as communities and installations built into various asteroids of the Trojan Asteroid clusters. While the Belters were an isolationist community at the time, there was a long tradition of individuals from Belter communities serving in the various commercial merchant fleets that bloomed under the Star League as well as in the Star League Defense Force navy. The communities also maintained and operated small shipyards, a notable strategic asset; this, combined with his abhorrence of the idea of allowing a group free rein or autonomy, led Stefan Amaris to attempt to control the Belters through the use of political overseers, military governors and threats of force via WarShips or the Caspar drones that formed a large part of the Terran SDS network.[2]
The SLS Margaret Rose was one of the WarShips assigned to remove Amaris' forces from Belter space, where a number of facilities had already been struck by troops loyal to Amaris. The Margaret Rose was operating alongside a sister ship, the SLS Tally Ho, when the SLDF ships received a call for assistance from a Rim Worlds Republic WarShip, the corvette RWS Achilles. The Achilles had been undergoing a refit at the Mercator-Campion Shipyards in the Andromache asteroid in the Trojan Asteroid clusters in Jupiter's L5 Lagrange point when the SLDF WarShips had deployed to Jovian space, and the crew of the Achilles had decided to break free of their moorings and make for Jupiter's gravity well, but the Achilles had succumbed to malfunctions and failures in her life support system and maneuvering drive and been left stranded in the L1 Lagrange point between Jupiter and Io. Buffeted by constant hard radiation from the radiation fields around Jupiter that would quickly kill the crew, the crew of the Achilles had opted to call for assistance from the SLDF, although the Republicans stopped short of offering to surrender.[2]
The SLS Margaret Rose and other SLDF ships moved to assist the Achilles, but with the self-inflicted damage suffered by the Achilles during her departure from the shipyards it was impossible for any of the SLDF ships to dock with her and move her crew off. None of the SLDF vessels had enough space suits shielded against hard radiation to effect suitable repairs on the Achilles, and personnel in conventional suits would swiftly succumb to the radiation; equally, while some personnel could be moved off the Achilles by shuttle, there was no way to move enough people off the Achilles before she too succumbed to the local radiation.[2]
Captain Nadine Durham of the SLS Margaret Rose came up with a viable plan to rescue the Achilles; a pair of BattleMechs jetted across to the Achilles, and in a dangerous ninety-minute operation, attached a tow line to the Achilles. That tow line was used by the SLS Margaret Rose and the SLS Tally Ho to tow the disabled Achilles up to a higher orbit before securing and arresting her crew.[2]