Battle of New Hampshire

The **Battle of New Hampshire** was a surprise attack by The Rebellion of the Federation Dockyard at New Hampshire on 31 May 2694, And the first major battle of the years-long Federation Civil War.

The Rebel attack, Which took place on 31 May 2694, led to the destruction over 700 Federation Ships, And gave the Rebellion a major advantage in the early stages of the Federation Civil War. The Rebellion followed up the opening victory with the Aegis Offensive, and soon besieged New Earth.

## Background

### The Federation-Mantis War

> "*For Aegis first hatred was not the Mantis, but the Federation... And he loathed it for what? For its tolerance! He wanted billions of Humans to rule with an iron hand an empire of billions ‘inferiors’— Engi, Mantis, Rockmen, Zoltan, Slug.*"
> ― Anonymous Historian, Circa 2304
>
>

Although Human Supremacy had existed for centuries, The movement had intensified during theFederation-Mantis War, During which Xenophobia within the Federation reached its peak. Many Human Supremacists volunteered to join the Federation army, And this led to Human Supremacists being over-represented in the army. - even though less than a tenth of the Humans were Supremacist, The Army was over one-third human supremacist.

The head of the Federation Fleet at the time, Admiral Aegis, Was also a noted Human supremacist. Opinion polls showed that three-fifth of soldiers in the Federation army felt disillusioned with the current Federation Cabinet, And some had instead shifted their loyalty to Aegis personally.

On 18 July 2673, The Federation and the Mantis signed the Alsace Accords, Ending hostilities. Many Human supremacists opposed the peace, And the Federation narrowly avoided civil war by defeating a coup d'état on 17 July 2673 (Known by its numeronym 17J) and purging the ringleaders. The ringleaders had asked Aegis to join them, But he was sick and thus did not respond, And was unaware of the coup until it was already over.

### March 6 incident

On 6 March 2694, Several Federation ships led an unauthorized raid into mantis territory, Plundering several planets and destroying several ships. After receiving a complaint by the Mantis, The Federation Government launched an investigation and found that most of the officers responsible were Human supremacists.

In April, Members of the Federation government secretly decided to pass a law prohibiting human supremacy in the Federation army, Which they would enact on the bi-annual Federation meeting on 1 June 2694. One of the politicians had Human Supremacist sympathies, And contemplated whether or not to warn Admiral Aegis of the impending purge, But was faced with indecisiveness, And it was not until the day before the purge that he panicked and decided to warn Aegis.

## Preperations

After hearing of the impending purge, Aegis contemplated what to do. He called his most loyal captain, Commander Terest, And asked him what he should do. Terest suggested that Aegis should occupy the Federation Capitol on the day of the purge, And assured Aegis that he would join Aegis in there.

However, in reality Terest had other plans. He did not believe that the fleets that he had control over, mostly composed of old, obsolete vessels, would be able to defeat the Federation Navy Home Fleet, but also that what little chance of victory they had could only be achieved with a quick knockout blow. He knew that the Federation had recently developed wiretapping technology, and with that in mind he lied about his plans. Instead of going to New Earth to join Aegis, Terest instead prepared for a decisive blow against the Federation Navy Home Fleet, stationed at New Hampshire.

## The Battle

Terest waited for hours for the Ships at New Hampshire to leave posts to reinforce the defenses at New Earth. Once they did, Terest sent the codeword "the die is cast", Which instructed his captains to attack.

Under the cover of Radar and sensor jamming, a mass of rebel ships then appeared out of the nebula, and released thousands of Hacking drones, a relatively new and experimental technology, at the bridges and command pits and sensor systems of Federation Vessels, or at other essential systems such as engines and piloting. While the captains were scrambling to figure out what happening, a massive missile volley passed through their shields and disabled their shields, And only seconds later a hurl of lasers destroyed their weapons. After these systems were disabled, The defenseless Federation ships were annihilated. Every single ship was destroyed. Some managed to flee their ships on escape pods, but the majority of Federation troops that participated died.

## Aftermath

The Battle was a massive opening victory for the rebellion, and it convinced many Human supremacists to join the rebellion, Who would have otherwise been neutral. The Engi, Who were in an alliance with the Federation, declared their neutrality and only secretly sent weapons. Within a month, over a third of the federation had fallen in rebel hands.