Battle of the Rift

Part of the War in Heaven

Strength| * Nine Terran battlegroups
* Various allied forces

The Battle of the Rift was the final conflict of the War in Heaven and an event of near or actual religious significance for all species of the milky way galaxy.

> ""The path to this moment is a long and winding one. None will ever truly know if divine providence guided the terrible path of the Greater Terran Union to this moment. What cannot be denied however is that but for the centuries of war and suffering inflicted of the Terran people, the galaxy would not stand here now gazing into the abyss of oblivion""
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*High Marshall Marcia Fieldman*

## Background

The Battle of the Rift was the final major engagement of the War in Heaven that took place in what remained of the territory of the Florian Matriarchy. Due to the unrestrained use of jump drives by the Jaz Gavaz, the boundaries between the universe that encompassed the milky way galaxy and a nearby planar universe were weakened. This allowed the creation of an artificial "bridge" by the Unbidden race to the Milky way. This rift was supported by a inter dimensional anchors located in nearby systems that supported it. Efforts by the Jaz Gavaz and later the Stellar Axis in assaulting the rift failed in spectacular fashion due to both the presence of a powerful unbidden fleet protecting it, and the subspace links protecting it from attack.

Following the massive Battle of Styx, the unbidden invasion was halted decisively by the Greater Terran Union, leading to a massive counter attack as 9 separate Terran fleets supported by auxiliary forces from the League of Non-Aligned Powers spread out around the rift system itself until all inter dimensional support anchors had been destroyed.

## Battle

> ""The egg heads say that the rift is supported by some sort of sub space mcguffin linking dimensions through a tear in space and time, and that the only way to close it is to overwhelm it with a greater real space energy then whatever exists in the opposing universe. The basic takeway I got from that was that to close the rift we needed to hit it with a very big hammer, and the biggest hammer in the milky way was the Terran Navy.
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*Admiral Enim, Son of Roston, commander of the 2nd Expeditionary Fleet and overall fleet commander of the Federated Coalition Battle Group.*

The destruction of the Unbidden forces in the Styx System left their front line exposed, and the overall commander of the the Coalition, Admiral Enim, took immediate advantage of the situation. Enim was himself an anomaly in the Terran Navy, being of the Wessari race rather then the Humans. At the start of the First Galactic War, he was the first officer aboard a Terran Cruiser when the Nex Uprising began. Following the death of his ships commanding officer and the squadron admiral in the chaos, Enim assumed command of his ship and its sisters and successfully retook control of their anchorage from the Nex. As the strain of the war pushed for greater demand on experienced officers, Enim would rise rapidly. At the battle of Last Light, he would be the vice admiral of the 2nd Expeditionary. Following the destruction of the flag ship of both the combined fleet and the 2nd, Enim would assume command of the entire battle towards its end. As reward he was promoted to full Admiral and given command of the 2nd Expeditionary and during the War in Heaven he would be given command of the combined coalition fleet, with the marshals determining giving a non-human overall command would provide greater efficiency in work with the protectorates and allies navies.

Enim wasted no time in taking advantage of the unbidden weakness following the Battle of Styx, and pushed hard through the Ragutharian Imperial Domains, until the rift itself was enveloped by the expeditionary fleets of the GTU and their allies. While the rift was protected by one of the most powerful fleets of the Unbidden and a supporting fortress, it proved no match to the combined force of the Terran Navy and the Coalition. Efforts by Unbidden fleets to attempt to reinforce the breach were intercepted by the Joint Strike Force of the Star Concord and left the rift exposed to the full might of Terran Fleet Command. A massive blaze of fire was poured into the breach until the subspace links were ruptured and the rift collapsed.

## Aftermath

While not the most costly of battles in the horrific War in Heaven, the Battle of the Rift was its last. Against the backdrop of the 20 million dead in Styx, the "mere" 1.5 million at the rift was seen as simple. The consequences of the battle would however be far reaching. As overall commander, Admiral Enim would cement a non-human military dynasty into the annals of honor of the GTU, and his great grand daughter Tyrjan would become the first Wessari high Marshall. It would also sweep away the last lingering vestiges of xenophobia within the GTU. The light from the destruction of the rift would also spread out across the Milky Way Galaxy for the next 50,000 years, and planets where the light of the battle could be seen would know to the moment when they could turn their telescopes to the heavens and witness the moment all life in the Galaxy was saved.