Destruction of Capella
WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the following storylines:
- FreeSpace 2
The Destruction of Capella is the final series of events which ended the Second Great War. The war was ended when a group of Sathanas juggernauts utilized their forward weapons to cause the Capella sun to go supernova. The supernova destroyed the entire system along with all the ships present.
After the GTD Aquitaine escaped the nebula, the war was completely focused around Capella. The 70th Blue Lions elite squadron successfully evacuated 3rd Fleet Headquarters which was under constant assault by Shivan forces. The GTD Messana was assisting, providing space for all the survivors. The destroyer was also attacked. Command agreed that the station should be destroyed, so the self-destruct systems were initiated.
Over 80 juggernauts were spotted gathering around the Capella sun, powering up a weapon of mass destruction. The only option for Command was to evacuate as many civilians as possible, using the bulk of the remaining fleet to defend them against the Shivans. A plan to stop the Shivan advance was formulated: Learning the side-effects of the engagement with the SD Lucifer in subspace during the Great War, two Orion-class destroyers, the GTD Bastion and the GTD Nereid were fully equiped with Meson bombs. Their mission was to start the jump towards and outside Capella and self-destruct, collapsing the jump nodes leading out of the system.
Meanwhile, near the Capella-Gamma Draconis jump node, a large group of Allied warships were engaging incoming Shivan warships. They successfully prevented the Shivans from reinforcing their fleet. The damaged GTVA Colossus was also assisting, taking care of ships which slipped away from the main attack force. The culmination of the battle was when a Shivan juggernaut seceded from the other juggernauts gathering around the Capella sun and attacked the Colossus. The captain of the Colossus denied direct orders to withdraw, intending to win time for the GTD Bastion until she completed her assigned task. The Colossus was destroyed and all fighters, along with the Blue Lions were diverted to the location of the Bastion.
The Bastion had been severely damaged and her escorts were sapped by the time the Blue Lions arrived. The Shivans launched heavy attacks and inflicted even more damage to the Bastion, but the mission succeeded. The Bastion made the jump and sealed off the jump node.
There were still ships left to be evacuated and The Blue Lions remained in the system to defend as many incoming civilians as possible. During the battle Capella became a supernova. Very few ships were fast enough to escape, and most of the civilian vessels were destroyed with the expanding supernova.
The few remaining pilots escaped to Vega, with no Shivans to ever follow.
