Cantilever Station

Cantilever Station was one of the largest space stations ever constructed in the known worlds, rivaling some of the space works of the Gudersnipe Foundation. It is best known for being the sight of a famous battle during the Corporate Wars. Built by the Mabach Consortium, the station was an important hub of commerce throughout the region, and dominated trade lines stretching for thousands of light years.

Battle of Cantilever Station

By A.Y 4707, Cantilever Station was in a very despicable state. Only about ten percent of the total station area was still habitable, and maintaining it had become impossible. Its proximity to Mabach Prime still assured it great importance, so the Consortium was putting in significant efforts to keep the place operational.

While Cantilever's orbit was mostly stable, about once every fifty years it encountered a tricky gravitational interaction between the fifth and sixth planets. In the past this had been corrected by using the station's artificial gravity for station-keeping, but with the huge drain on resources fighting the Coporate Wars, the Consortium had been unable to complete the necessary repairs. Without the correction, Cantilever risks colliding with Mabach Prime, an inhabited world with roughly eight billion residents(all employees of the Mabach Consortium).

Mabach Consortium was thus forced to bring the bulk of it's fleet to the Mabach System to engage in a gravity tractor operation and correct the stations orbit. Along with them, they were joined by ships from Subtria, Kongo Gumi, and Mikaa Combine, which had gathered to defend the delicate operation. The newly christened KPMM saw the well-publicized event s an opportunity to strike a single, decisive blow.

Ship Strength

KPMM Attack Force

KPMM prepared for the attach by refitting as many of their outdated and surplus warships as possible, moving these into strategic zones where a security presence was more important than actual fighting strength. They then gathered over two thousand ships for the assault on Mabach. The plan, which would not be made public until after the war, was to attempt nothing less than the complete and utter annihilation of Mabach Prime by disrupting the gravity tractor maneuver and causing the station to fall on the planet. If the operation failed, the fleet was also armed with tens of thousands of N1.5 warheads, which would be used in an act of corporate genocide.

Beaver Collective

In addition to the KPMM ships, a secret alliance had been made with Beaver Coalition granting them exclusive mineral rights to the Mabach and surrounding star systems in exchange for participating in the attach. This remained secret even to the Mabach Consortium. The Beavers brought five hundred additional warships to the fight, though these were smaller and less well-armed than KPMM or Mabach's ships. However, as they planned to attack on an entirely unexpected axis, they felt the advantage would be theres.

Mabach Defense

Unbenounced to KPMM, Mabach was aware both of the impending attack and of the plans to disrupt the tractor operation, and prepared a powerful in-depth defense. KPMM had more ships, but Mabach's were better. They had additionally developed space mines and orbital weapon's platforms, which they were able to deploy in huge numbers. While the new KPMM could bring as many as 2,000 ships to the battle, they were confident that the 750-ship strong force assembled, backed by 400 orbital platforms, 20 battle stations, and a billion mines, would be enough to hold the line.

Battle Begins

Mabach had anticipated KPMM's attach down to the hour. The gravity tractor operation on the space station was set to last seventy-two hours, the final twelve of which were the most important. Since the dates and times for this event were public knowledge, Mabach rightfully reasoned that KPMM would launch it's offensive at the beginning of that twelve-hour window. As speculated, H-hour began within minutes of the reasoned time.

and the first wave of ships dropped out of FTL directly into a minefield. Drop coordinates for a dozen of the battle groups had been gained through espionage, and allowed the ships to be destroyed immediately upon arrival with no chance to raise shields or warn the ships behind them. 

However, KPMM had anticipated a strong defense, and had no commited the bulk of it's fleet--especially its nearly invincible capitol fleet--to a direct assault. The much larger, slower battle ships left FTL well outside Mabach's defensive rings, and despite heavy resistance, were able to push forward. At H+5 hours, KPMM ships breached the second defensive line and attached the sixth planet.

At H+6 hours, the Beaver Collective arrived, attacking from the opposite end of the solar system. Mabach's lines were weakest here, the Beavers easily broke through and began dropping dirty bombs on the heavily populated second planet(then on the far side of the sun from the Mabach Prime). The second planet, called Miristead was not actually owned by the corporations, and had been an independent government before the war began, though was under de-facto corporate rule by then. Five hundred million civilians died in or the in the immediate aftermath of the assault.

With the Miristead attach, Mabach was forced to pull ships off the line for a desperate defense, which in turn allowed KPMM to break through the lines and clear a path for the assault on the tractor operation. While most of Mabach's warships were involved in this, any disruption in the operation(such as ships breaking off to fight) would lead to the destruction of Mabach Prime.

It was at H+11 hours when the the first tractor ships were forced to break off and mount a defense. The operation was still four hours from completion, so the line only had to be held for so long. Mabach's CEO(who directed the defense) would later comment that "A mire sixty minutes stood between us and the largest mass-death in history".

Peace Keepers Arrive

At H+11 hours, with 1 hour remaining on the tractor operation, both side's high commands detected a new group of signals dropping out of FTL. The fleet that arrived was comprised principally of Crimson Blade warships, but was accompanied by Alliance regulars, Runarins, and vessels from over a hundred Alliance member worlds. The MK'Haren's did also contribute six battle groups, but despite revisionist claims, none enagged directly in combat.

The Crimson Blade warships arrived and immediately took up a position between advancing KPMM forces and the tractor operations. The Alliance, meanwhile, was spread through much of the field. Along with the ships were an inordinate number of communication and control vessels, which began broadcasting stand-down orders on all frequencies. The message was simple: and corporate ship that did not immediately power down its weapons would be subject to the full force of the Alliance. While the Alliance ships themselves were not on their own a serious threat, the presence of Foundation-built super-capitols gave the words significant strength.

Despite the warnings, KPMM pressed the attack, and were able to bring a crushing blow to the tractor operation. This was only accomplished by several score KPMM destroyers and cutters making suicide runs against the Mabach cruisers pulling the station. For their effort, the Crimson Blade destroyed most of the KPMM ships. Though in the aftermath it was claimed they were merely "caught in the crossfire", over two hundred Mabach cruisers were also detroyed by the Crimson Blade. These were ships that, upon the failure of the tractor operation, set out to take revenge - in defiance of the stand-down order. The directives had been very clear: there Coalition was on no one 'side', they were there to put a stop to the fighting.

Collision Eminent

Cantilever Station