Hunt for the SJ Sathanas

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The Hunt for the SJ Sathanas was a series of missions which resulted in a direct confrontation between the GTVA Colossus and the Shivan juggernaut.

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WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the following storylines:

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• FreeSpace2

Antecedences

The Neo-Terran Front was defeated. Admiral Aken Bosch escaped to the nebula and disappeared. The GTVA put more effort into combatting the [[Shivan menace.

Encounter with the juggernaut

The GVD Psamtik was leading an assault against Shivan gas miners and sentry guns. The craft which assisted was the GVCv Thebes, a Sobek-class corvette. The fighters of the 203rd Scorpions carried out the task and destroyed the primary targets. Shivan bombers then attacked the Thebes. The Scorpions were fast enough to successfully protect the Thebes. Then the tragic came in the persona of the SJ Sathanas. The emerging superdestroyer dismantled the Thebes in a single shot of beam cannon.

In order to determine the threat the GTVA was facing, Alpha 1 was sent to scan subsystems. The new GVF Ptah was invisible to Shivan sensors, making the mission of the pilot easier than it would be without the success of the stealth technology.

Luring the Sathanas

Only the GTVA Colossus could compete with the firepower the Sathanas possessed. Command knew this and prepared the bulk of the 3rd Fleet and the Colossus at the jump node of Gamma Draconis-Vega. Inside the nebula, the 3rd Fleet launched attacks against cruisers in the hope that the Shivans would divert the Sathanas to help. Instead, news surfaced that the Sathanas, instead of moving to defend the cruisers under assault, set course for the Gamma Draconis system.

Destruction of the Knossos device

Command were worried about the threat of the Sathanas. Even though the Colossus competed with the Sathanas, it had to be thought into what would happen should the Sathanas neutralize the Colossus. To prevent this possible outcome, a bold plan was inaugurated to stop the Sathanas from proceeding into Terran space: to destroy the Knossos device while the Sathanas is still in the jumping sequence.

Three Meson bombs were set ready and sent into the grinder of enemy fire. The plan was to detonate the bombs in the middle of the device to destroy it. This did not proceed as had been planned. The explosion aura of the bomb was too short which only did a minor amount of damage at the device. To ensure success for the second time, the remaining two Meson bombs were sent in, carried by Triton-class freighters. The bombs were now set near the diameter of the device and detonated. The device was destroyed and it seemed Terran-Vasudan space was in safe. This fallacy became false when the Sathanas actually entered the system.

The Ultimate duel

Terran and Vasudan forces co-operated against the Sathanas even further. Bomber pilots from the GVD Psamtik received orders to use the newly developed Helios bombs to neutralize the forward beam weapons on the Sathanas, which were the only anti-capital ship weapons the Sathanas was armed with. The mission partially succeeded. The Sathanas made the jump to the location of the Colossus to confront her. The aides of the Sathanas, including a Demon-class destroyer were successfully destroyed.

At the Gamma Draconis jump node in Vega, the two titans confronted. Despite of the success of the preceding mission, the Colossus did not gain the upper hand during the engagement. What eventually led the GTVA to victory in the battle was two tactical steps: Launching bombers to finish off the remaining beam cannons on the Sathanas and the sudden and elusive manoeuvre the Colossus did. Either of these would have been sufficient to win the battle.

The Sathanas was destroyed and it seemed the Shivans would be defeated for the second time in Galactic History.