Battle of Hephaistos
From The New Systems Commonwealth Wiki
The Battle of Hephaistos was the opening round in the Nietzschean Uprising against the Systems Commonwealth. It was the battle that saw the Andromeda Ascendant trapped on the edge of the Event Horizon of a black hole.
[edit] History
Hephaistos was the direct result of the Treaty of Antares, where the Commonwealth ceded several systems to the savage Magog. The Nietzscheans became disenfranchised with the Commonwealth and vowed they'd set it right, by replacing the Vedrans as the head of the republic. Hephaistos made a perfect ambush point due to over 70% of the population being Neitzschean (with a total population of over half a billion). When the black hole destabilized the planet, the Nietzscheans laid their trap and waited. Whether the black hole was a natural phenomena that the Nietzscheans exploited, or whether they created it, is unclear. However, Tyr Anasazi mentions that Nietzscheans only have one method of destroying a planet, and the science behind Nova Bomb technology was beyond them as well, so the former seems more likely.
[edit] The Battle
Luring High Guard starships to the Hephaistos system with messengers and distress signals, the Nietzscheans waited in ambush with over ten thousand ships. When the Andromeda Ascendant arrived, the Nietzscheans encircled her and opened fire. Being too close to the gravitational pull of the black hole to enter Slipstream, and realizing the Neitzschean conspiracy, Dylan Hunt ordered the evacuation of the Andromeda, and for survivors to warn the High Guard. Hunt, along with Lieutenant Refractions of Dawn, piloted the Andromeda straight towards the singularity to attempt a slingshot effect. Gaheris Rhade, who was being escorted to the brig by ship security, killed his guards and made his way to the bridge, sabotaging the Andromeda's AI and power systems on the way. Rhade arrived on the bridge, killing Dawn and opening fire on Dylan. After revealing the motive behind the rebellion, Rhade and Dylan engaged in a firefight and hand-to-hand combat, ending in Hunt killing Rhade before becoming trapped in the event horizon.
[edit] Aftermath
It's unclear how many ships the Commonwealth lost at Hephaistos to the Nietzschean ambush. But when the High Guard finally found out what was happening, the war began in earnest. Most of the Andromeda's crew survived the evacuation and would later go on to settle refuge planet of Tarazed.
A rescue mission was launched to recover the Andromeda by Hunt's fiance Sara Riley, but met with minimal success after being ambushed by Nietzscheans. Dylan would later go down a hero as Sara told everyone on Tarazed that he would return to restore to Commonwealth one day after meeting him in a strange temporal occurrence.
Rhade went down as a hero on both sides. The Commonwealth remembered him as one of the first great officers to be lost in the conflict. But the Nietzscheans remembered him as a spy and informant who played a key role in laying the great trap. Dylan Hunt later came to the conclusion that Rhade was a double agent, but did try his hardest to let Hunt know the rebellion was coming, short of betraying the rebellion itself.
Rhade's betrayal would haunt Hunt for many months afterward, influencing his perceptions of Nietzscheans forever. He expressed he wanted "to just kill every last one of them" to Rev Bem upon meeting Orca Pride, convinced that Rhade's friendship with him had all been one giant act. When he met Gaheris' reincarnated form of Telemachus Rhade on Tarazed, and was faced with betraying Telemachus and his values in exchange for a signatory to the Commonwealth, Dylan finally came to terms that Gaheris felt he was serving the greater good. Dylan's attitudes towards Nietzscheans in general became softer from this point on, though still suspicious.
