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Description
The year was 2934. The devastating effects from the century-long Terran-Vorla war where just beginning to mitigate and life was really starting to return to normal through the efforts of the decades-long, galaxy-spanning reconstruction project active throughout the LMC. Hundreds of species all working together to rebuild what was lost during the war with the goal of maintaining a long-standing peace across all space-fairing species. It was widely considered at the time to be one of the Terran Alliances' greatest undertakings of all time. To rebuild and update the infrastructure of an entire galaxy in less than 50 Earth years.

With the newly formed Vorla Republic being put in charge of the logistics of the entire operation, with only minimal Terran oversight, the project was slowed and delayed by decades simply due to the fact that many species refused to even speak to the representatives of the new Vorla Republic and where unwilling to accept the fact that not all Vorla where like the Imperial armed forces. Some would go further, firing on any Vorla ship that entered their system and some small cells of anti-Vorla extremists would launch small scale attacks on Vorla personnel and equipment, but these attacks where sparse and rarely effected the actual construction or clean-up schedule beyond a few hours.

The biggest delay came when the assassinations of several high-profile Vorla diplomats and elected officials where carried out by remnant Imperial forces who transmitted a galaxy-wide subspace transmission that promised continued attacks until all species not native to the LMC left. Needless to say, this did not trigger the response they where hoping for and before the bodies of the first victims had cooled, the newly minted EWADS network, initially designed to spy on and interdict Vorla warships had received and traced the signal back to it's original source. A small moon in orbit of a familiar gas giant. The hellish world below became the final resting place of one of the Empires two mighty Centaur-class dreadnoughts. Shot down by the the Terran heavy cruiser Tunguska Event (The Empire Falls. ) and had since been given the title of "Trekta", the Vorlan word for "Grave" by the Vorla people.

A band of former Imperial leaders had escaped capture after the formal surrender and had fled with their families and several hundred thousand Imperial sympathizers. Over the next two decades they built a small colony on the surface of one of the small moons orbiting the gas giant Trekta and had spent their time raising a small army of brainwashed zealots who believed their birthright to rule the stars had been taken from them and that it was their divine right to claim it back through violence and conquest.

All the while using the planets close proximity to the Vorla home world, being in the third closest star system to theirs and strong magnetic field as both a shield seeing as though no one was looking for them, at all really, but if anyone was. The last place they'd look would be right next door. Even if they did. The moons close proximity to the gas giant itself meant it was well within the planets radiation band. This made any sort of accurate, real time scans of the surface, not impossible, but requiring a lot of focus for a dead world of no interest. They also used their proximity as a means to keep tabs on both Terran and Vorla ship movements and personnel schedules.

More detailed scans from Terran scout drones reveled that both on and under the surface they had constructed several shipyards, none of which where a match for even some of the mobile dry docks the Alliance has in terms of capability, but they where being used to print out hundreds of small, corvette-type gunships which where being stored in a large, circular birthing yard connected to the rest of the colony itself. They also where very clearly refining large amounts of uranium, plutonium, and moscovium. The ladder is used to generate artificial gravity for everything from medical scanners to starship drives and is otherwise fairly inert. The former two are used mostly for bullets and bombs.

Their plan was devious, and highly effective right up until they decided to transmit their ultimatum. Had they done it even a few years eariler, the new EWADS ships would not have been fully deployed and may have missed it. The Vorla terrorists bounced their signal through dozens of relays dotted across the LMC but even so it only took the new Terran sensor ships seconds to trace it back to it's source. That info quickly found it's way back to the Vorla Republic who immediately requested UESN special mission support in their mission to bring the war criminals to justice.

Over 2,000 warships, most of them Vorla in construction and occupancy would enter the system right above the moon only 48 hours later to the shock and horror of the occupants of the colony below who believed they had successfully masked their transmission.

Before doing anything else, the flagship of the Terran task force assigned to this mission began transmitting a simple count down timer to the planet below on all possible frequencies. This both disrupted any outgoing communications and made sure that everyone saw it and had just enough time to contemplate it before the first transmission was sent. "Vorla forces on Trekta IX, this is Fleet Marshal Kincaid of the United Earth Stellar Navy. I have every intention to remove this moon and everything on it from existence, anything left on it's surface after the clocks hits zero will go down with it and it ceases to be my problem. I highly suggest that you listen very closely to, and strongly consider the offer your people have for you. Because you just heard mine.."

Negotiations where short, and the leaders of the Imperial recement agreed to surrender as long as those not even alive when the Empire fell would not face punishment. As they'd committed no crime, this was going to be the case anyway. However they would need intense phycological treatment to reverse the brainwashing and damage done to them by their parents and community leaders which would likely feel like punishment, but was absolutely necessary if they where ever to be integrated back into Vorla society. In record time, the colony of over 3 million was evacuated and taken into custody aboard a mix of Terran, Mi'arr, and Vorla warships with only an hour and a half to spare. The task force pulled back to a safe distance away from the moon, with many of the Vorla able to see it out of the windows as the clock hit zero and true to his word, the Terran warship opened fire with six of it's Mk-8 PDG-5 Planetary Defense Guns at full power. They fired a total of 28 shots in just under two minutes.

The damage to the moon was total and complete, with the massive warp guns tearing clean through the celestial body with ease. After only the first five or six shots with billions of tons of vaporized plasma began spewing out the other side at escape velocity as the entire moon budged and buckled under the stress of each hit as it began to glow frome pole to pole due to the shear amount of heat and energy being dumped into it. Surprisingly, the moon held it's form for several days; gradually taking on an egg-like shape before tidal forces from the gas giant tore it apart forming a small, thin partial ring that would eventually fall down into the clouds of Trekta and burn up over the next few centuries.

Officially, this was done to prevent any similar group from using it as a shrine or trying to restart the loyalists mission in the same spot; But the real reason was the space-based Mk-8 had never been tested at full power in a live-fire setting like this, and everyone wanted to see what would happen if these guns where turned back on to a world instead of being used to defend one as well as a show of force to anyone who thought it might be a good idea to go to war with the Alliance.

That was one ship all by itself that did that level of damage. It didn't even use all of it's Mk-8s. Only those on the starboard side. This fact both awed and terrified people across the cosmos. The UESN had, at this time nearly 200 Tunguska-class heavy cruisers (HCC) in active service which the entirety of the civilian population across almost all species started calling, and still calls a "Terran Dreadnought" well into the 45th century.

Even though by that time, actual Terran Dreadnoughts do exist, these ships where so big, and so powerful that in their heyday there wasn't a single combined fleet flying that was not part of the Alliance that could challenge even one of them. They were light years ahead of anything else in the skies at the time and it was important that everyone understood that the Terran tech used to build it vastly superior to theirs. Many of the species who's worlds needed massive amounts of repair never had a chance to be liberated and fight along side humanity, so they never saw the conflict. They basically just sat under the loaded gun of the Vorla Imperial Navy until it was recalled back to the home world. In many cases, they would flatten a few cities before they left as well.

In a strange juxtaposition to many of the other native LMC species who had fought along side humans and other species and knew of the human art of death and destruction very well. Many of those who where closest to the Vorla home world only knew humans showed up and where almost overly kind to them, never asking anything in return. They where cut off from the rest of the cosmos and didn't see the whole story play out, only the first and last chapter, so to speak. Many saw humans as compassionate and caring beings, but ones who's good nature could easily be taken advantage of and many where starting to do so. Stealing raw materials from construction sites and minor verbal abuses had started to become more common, and more sevear crimes like assault where also starting to rise against humans, simply because so many didn't seem to fight back. They didn't realize the sort of people who do planetary reconstruction and reclamation are basically saints. Most are deeply religious and take vows of pacifism or at least non-aggression.

They do not represent all of humanity, just like the Imperials didn't represent the entirety of the Vorla people. The shooting down of Trekta IX changed that in many ways. It was the ultimate expression of the human saying "don't mistake my kindness for weakness."

This act also made Incursion. the only starship in Alliance history that can officially count an entire celestial body as a confirmed kill, and the story of "that time the Terrans splashed an entire moon because a few people who they where just at war with got killed" is one that still precedes humanity into the 45th century for both better and worse. With the Tunguska-class going into full mass production shortly after, replacing the Osprey-class heavy cruisers as the UESNs primary workhorse that had served humanity since the early 22nd century, they soon became commonplace patrolling shipping lanes and securing the most distant reaches of Alliance space and it was well known by anyone who encountered one that it's guns could tear a moon in half.

But, at the same time. Humans have such a strong reputation for being fair and honorable, at least most of the time. Enough so that many pirates and criminals who are wanted or marked for death by another pirate cell or criminal gang will often just surrender to a Terran warship as such a thing is grounds for asylum and no criminal syndicate is going to try and follow you there. Even if you're the person they want dead the most in the universe. The guns on UESN vessels literally tear moons in half. Imagine what they'll do to a shitty old pirate ship with half the ships critical systems jerry-rigged to work and the other half totally non-functional.

The best pirate ships ever are probably the Voidrunners. Malcolm Guinness-class battlecruisers, (often called simply "G-2s") which some of the larger, more powerful pirate cells purchase brand new from the factory. Though over 99% of G-2s are operated by the VRRN, or Voidrunner Republican Navy which is a decently reputable organization. They get the image as pirate ships from Voidrunner pirate cells, which are some of the worst in the cosmos. They are reliable, powerful, and formidable warships that can be used to oppress entire star systems if left unchecked, but they're still no match for the Tunguska-class witch leaves it completely outclassed in every metric.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This little story is heavy influenced by the story of the USS New Jersey sinking an island. Here's a short video on that:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KnSB8…

Description
The year was 2934. The devastating effects from the century-long Terran-Vorla war where just beginning to mitigate and life was really starting to return to normal through the efforts of the decades-long, galaxy-spanning reconstruction project active throughout the LMC. Hundreds of species all working together to rebuild what was lost during the war with the goal of maintaining a long-standing peace across all space-fairing species. It was widely considered at the time to be one of the Terran Alliances' greatest undertakings of all time. To rebuild and update the infrastructure of an entire galaxy in less than 50 Earth years.

With the newly formed Vorla Republic being put in charge of the logistics of the entire operation, with only minimal Terran oversight, the project was slowed and delayed by decades simply due to the fact that many species refused to even speak to the representatives of the new Vorla Republic and where unwilling to accept the fact that not all Vorla where like the Imperial armed forces. Some would go further, firing on any Vorla ship that entered their system and some small cells of anti-Vorla extremists would launch small scale attacks on Vorla personnel and equipment, but these attacks where sparse and rarely effected the actual construction or clean-up schedule beyond a few hours.

The biggest delay came when the assassinations of several high-profile Vorla diplomats and elected officials where carried out by remnant Imperial forces who transmitted a galaxy-wide subspace transmission that promised continued attacks until all species not native to the LMC left. Needless to say, this did not trigger the response they where hoping for and before the bodies of the first victims had cooled, the newly minted EWADS network, initially designed to spy on and interdict Vorla warships had received and traced the signal back to it's original source. A small moon in orbit of a familiar gas giant. The hellish world below became the final resting place of one of the Empires two mighty Centaur-class dreadnoughts. Shot down by the the Terran heavy cruiser Tunguska Event (The Empire Falls. ) and had since been given the title of "Trekta", the Vorlan word for "Grave" by the Vorla people.

A band of former Imperial leaders had escaped capture after the formal surrender and had fled with their families and several hundred thousand Imperial sympathizers. Over the next two decades they built a small colony on the surface of one of the small moons orbiting the gas giant Trekta and had spent their time raising a small army of brainwashed zealots who believed their birthright to rule the stars had been taken from them and that it was their divine right to claim it back through violence and conquest.

All the while using the planets close proximity to the Vorla home world, being in the third closest star system to theirs and strong magnetic field as both a shield seeing as though no one was looking for them, at all really, but if anyone was. The last place they'd look would be right next door. Even if they did. The moons close proximity to the gas giant itself meant it was well within the planets radiation band. This made any sort of accurate, real time scans of the surface, not impossible, but requiring a lot of focus for a dead world of no interest. They also used their proximity as a means to keep tabs on both Terran and Vorla ship movements and personnel schedules.

More detailed scans from Terran scout drones reveled that both on and under the surface they had constructed several shipyards, none of which where a match for even some of the mobile dry docks the Alliance has in terms of capability, but they where being used to print out hundreds of small, corvette-type gunships which where being stored in a large, circular birthing yard connected to the rest of the colony itself. They also where very clearly refining large amounts of uranium, plutonium, and moscovium. The ladder is used to generate artificial gravity for everything from medical scanners to starship drives and is otherwise fairly inert. The former two are used mostly for bullets and bombs.

Their plan was devious, and highly effective right up until they decided to transmit their ultimatum. Had they done it even a few years eariler, the new EWADS ships would not have been fully deployed and may have missed it. The Vorla terrorists bounced their signal through dozens of relays dotted across the LMC but even so it only took the new Terran sensor ships seconds to trace it back to it's source. That info quickly found it's way back to the Vorla Republic who immediately requested UESN special mission support in their mission to bring the war criminals to justice.

Over 2,000 warships, most of them Vorla in construction and occupancy would enter the system right above the moon only 48 hours later to the shock and horror of the occupants of the colony below who believed they had successfully masked their transmission.

Before doing anything else, the flagship of the Terran task force assigned to this mission began transmitting a simple count down timer to the planet below on all possible frequencies. This both disrupted any outgoing communications and made sure that everyone saw it and had just enough time to contemplate it before the first transmission was sent. "Vorla forces on Trekta IX, this is Fleet Marshal Kincaid of the United Earth Stellar Navy. I have every intention to remove this moon and everything on it from existence, anything left on it's surface after the clocks hits zero will go down with it and it ceases to be my problem. I highly suggest that you listen very closely to, and strongly consider the offer your people have for you. Because you just heard mine.."

Negotiations where short, and the leaders of the Imperial recement agreed to surrender as long as those not even alive when the Empire fell would not face punishment. As they'd committed no crime, this was going to be the case anyway. However they would need intense phycological treatment to reverse the brainwashing and damage done to them by their parents and community leaders which would likely feel like punishment, but was absolutely necessary if they where ever to be integrated back into Vorla society. In record time, the colony of over 3 million was evacuated and taken into custody aboard a mix of Terran, Mi'arr, and Vorla warships with only an hour and a half to spare. The task force pulled back to a safe distance away from the moon, with many of the Vorla able to see it out of the windows as the clock hit zero and true to his word, the Terran warship opened fire with six of it's Mk-8 PDG-5 Planetary Defense Guns at full power. They fired a total of 28 shots in just under two minutes.

The damage to the moon was total and complete, with the massive warp guns tearing clean through the celestial body with ease. After only the first five or six shots with billions of tons of vaporized plasma began spewing out the other side at escape velocity as the entire moon budged and buckled under the stress of each hit as it began to glow frome pole to pole due to the shear amount of heat and energy being dumped into it. Surprisingly, the moon held it's form for several days; gradually taking on an egg-like shape before tidal forces from the gas giant tore it apart forming a small, thin partial ring that would eventually fall down into the clouds of Trekta and burn up over the next few centuries.

Officially, this was done to prevent any similar group from using it as a shrine or trying to restart the loyalists mission in the same spot; But the real reason was the space-based Mk-8 had never been tested at full power in a live-fire setting like this, and everyone wanted to see what would happen if these guns where turned back on to a world instead of being used to defend one as well as a show of force to anyone who thought it might be a good idea to go to war with the Alliance.

That was one ship all by itself that did that level of damage. It didn't even use all of it's Mk-8s. Only those on the starboard side. This fact both awed and terrified people across the cosmos. The UESN had, at this time nearly 200 Tunguska-class heavy cruisers (HCC) in active service which the entirety of the civilian population across almost all species started calling, and still calls a "Terran Dreadnought" well into the 45th century.

Even though by that time, actual Terran Dreadnoughts do exist, these ships where so big, and so powerful that in their heyday there wasn't a single combined fleet flying that was not part of the Alliance that could challenge even one of them. They were light years ahead of anything else in the skies at the time and it was important that everyone understood that the Terran tech used to build it vastly superior to theirs. Many of the species who's worlds needed massive amounts of repair never had a chance to be liberated and fight along side humanity, so they never saw the conflict. They basically just sat under the loaded gun of the Vorla Imperial Navy until it was recalled back to the home world. In many cases, they would flatten a few cities before they left as well.

In a strange juxtaposition to many of the other native LMC species who had fought along side humans and other species and knew of the human art of death and destruction very well. Many of those who where closest to the Vorla home world only knew humans showed up and where almost overly kind to them, never asking anything in return. They where cut off from the rest of the cosmos and didn't see the whole story play out, only the first and last chapter, so to speak. Many saw humans as compassionate and caring beings, but ones who's good nature could easily be taken advantage of and many where starting to do so. Stealing raw materials from construction sites and minor verbal abuses had started to become more common, and more sevear crimes like assault where also starting to rise against humans, simply because so many didn't seem to fight back. They didn't realize the sort of people who do planetary reconstruction and reclamation are basically saints. Most are deeply religious and take vows of pacifism or at least non-aggression.

They do not represent all of humanity, just like the Imperials didn't represent the entirety of the Vorla people. The shooting down of Trekta IX changed that in many ways. It was the ultimate expression of the human saying "don't mistake my kindness for weakness."

This act also made Incursion. the only starship in Alliance history that can officially count an entire celestial body as a confirmed kill, and the story of "that time the Terrans splashed an entire moon because a few people who they where just at war with got killed" is one that still precedes humanity into the 45th century for both better and worse. With the Tunguska-class going into full mass production shortly after, replacing the Osprey-class heavy cruisers as the UESNs primary workhorse that had served humanity since the early 22nd century, they soon became commonplace patrolling shipping lanes and securing the most distant reaches of Alliance space and it was well known by anyone who encountered one that it's guns could tear a moon in half.

But, at the same time. Humans have such a strong reputation for being fair and honorable, at least most of the time. Enough so that many pirates and criminals who are wanted or marked for death by another pirate cell or criminal gang will often just surrender to a Terran warship as such a thing is grounds for asylum and no criminal syndicate is going to try and follow you there. Even if you're the person they want dead the most in the universe. The guns on UESN vessels literally tear moons in half. Imagine what they'll do to a shitty old pirate ship with half the ships critical systems jerry-rigged to work and the other half totally non-functional.

The best pirate ships ever are probably the Voidrunners. Malcolm Guinness-class battlecruisers, (often called simply "G-2s") which some of the larger, more powerful pirate cells purchase brand new from the factory. Though over 99% of G-2s are operated by the VRRN, or Voidrunner Republican Navy which is a decently reputable organization. They get the image as pirate ships from Voidrunner pirate cells, which are some of the worst in the cosmos. They are reliable, powerful, and formidable warships that can be used to oppress entire star systems if left unchecked, but they're still no match for the Tunguska-class witch leaves it completely outclassed in every metric.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This little story is heavy influenced by the story of the USS New Jersey sinking an island. Here's a short video on that:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KnSB8…