The Fall of Tartarus

#### History

The *RPS Tartarus* is the Republic's largest prisoner transport and was designed to house and train a massive human force. Despite its advanced engineering and defenses, multiple events caused great damage to the ship over time, such as the impacts of multiple nuclear warheads rivaling the capacity of the Tsar Bomba upon its hull and the Great Exodus in which a great many personnel were injured or killed and the ship sustained a breach, leaving about five percent of it unihabitable until repairs could be made. However, the *Tartarus* was too large for any space port under Republic control to repair and no longer capable of withstanding atmospheres, meaning that it could not be repaired on-world either. Instead, the compromised sections were quarantined and the ship would remain in commision until a replacement could be built or a space port capable of repairing the ship could be created.

#### Event

During the year 2032 on Earth, while the *RPS Tartarus* is nearby the TRAPPIST system, an all-out assault against the vessel was launched. Only a few weeks previously, the ship was holding one of the Republic's most wanted prisoners. They had captured one of the Federation's council members. Due to previous damage to the hull causing serious breaches in security, the entire fleet assigned to the ship was already deployed. The fleet, however, was never meant to withstand such a massive onslaught and with the near immediate destruction of the Ares-class *RCS Campe*, the only ship capable of making their supply runs, the morale of the crew was shattered. Defensive actions were mounted almost immediately, but were of no use. In the next few seconds, multiple massive explosions decimated the defensive force, leaving only a handful of Enyo-class fighters and a single Phobos-class flagship standing, however the Phobos-class was inoperable and disabled.

This immediate destruction of the standing fleet came as a massive surprise to the crew and captain, as the *RCS Campe* was specially designed to respond to attacks like this and give the *Tartarus* time to escape. However, the odds it was designed to fight were outnumbered 4:1 standard formations, with the attacking fleet outnumbering the *Tartarus* fleet 25:1. How the massive fleet cloaked itself and avoided detection until striking, no one knew.

Boarders were immediately deployed with escort to discourage the few remaining Enyo-class fighters from reentering the fight. Dozens of boarding vessels would approach the main entry point of the open hull while others would hit key areas such as the bridge or the crew quarters to either distract or overwhelm forces on board and keep the disarray they so desperately needed in order to complete the mission properly. In three short hours, the forces on board the *Tartarus* were decimated as well and the high value target, as well as all Federation prisoners aboard, had been freed and brought back to Federation safety. Federation ships were quick to leave the field as soon as everyone was back to the fleet. The *RPS Tartarus* was left without the crew to man it properly, without communications to call for help, and without the supplies or facilities for proper repair.

The days after the attack were frantic attampts at survival for the remaining crew of the *Tartarus*. The *RCS*