One of the most famous shipbuilding corporations, the Twin Star Shipyards, having received a copy of MAC plans if the United Empire ever needed them to contstruct one, attempted to create a more effective and better equipped version of the MAC. Black Star operatives, having learned of the plans for a new MAC ship to be given to Emperor Maximilian as a present, create plans to destroy it. The sabotage happens December 31st of the year 3730.
Twin Star Shipyards[]
Founded upon the first colonised planet in the Sholazar system, Sholazar II, which gained the nickname The Iron Gate after being the last surviving colony of a pirate fleet that destroyed the other colonies of the system, to be destroyed by Sholazar's ships later. Sholazar II quickly grew into a shining beacon of UE technology, becoming an important producer of arms and alloys. The Twin Star Shipyards was founded by Juleas Troatmir, and has grown quickly as an important inventor of strong and powerful Warships, having designed The Merely Glimpsed as well as the Agamemnon and Warricks' flagship, the Decimator.
The Plan[]
Knowing that the shipyards would be too defended to let a new MAC variation to be disturbed, the United Universal Republic sent a small fleet of frigates using trade ship codes to near the shipyards without any attention being drawn to them. As they neared they discussed their situation, they can't get near the shipyards main office to steal the designs, and they can't risk their single operative inside. The leader of the strike force, Captain Joe Rossair, designs a plan that they will do a quick double hit and run, hitting the critical systems of the orbital shipyards to drop the skeleton that is the MAC MK.II into the Arid planet then keep going until they near the office and fire their missles at the location of the TSS servers, destroying any and all traces of the MAC, and the MAC II concepts and prototypes.
The Sabotage[]
With the 5 minutes of time they strike force has before the nearby patrol will arrive to the scene, the fly around the planet, gaining speed and begin the assult. Striking the generators that powered the mechanical arms that held the MAC, two of the 7 frigates get hit by the shockwave, exploding on contact. Furious, having underestimated the generators power levels, and realising that the arms were manually locked, he orders the remaining fleet to fire their slugs at the ball joints of the arms. As Rossair watched the slugs fly, he noticed that a fleet, not part of the patrol was flying to them. Cursing at himself for forgetting that a military ship building company obviously has its own security force, he tells his fleet to fly through the dock in hopes that the security won't dare fire at their employeers. Sadly this was not the case, as by the time they were in the dock, the MAC had already begun its slow descend into The Iron Gate, creating an opening, and another two frigates were destroyed, and a third critically damaged. Rossair commands his fleet to continue the plan and they start speeding to the office building, as they get within 20 kilometers from it, the patrol warps in right above it. The captain of the damaged frigate, the ironically named Lost Cause temporary command, only to order the remaining fleet to head back, as he will crash his ship into the office building. Getting the ships name, Captain Stanislaus Cornelius, a poor merchant from Madrigal II, Rossair orders the other remaining ship to follow orders, and they escape. Stanislaus dies before making it to the office, but his ship, the Lost Cause already had momentum, and hit the office dead on.
Result[]
Decisive victory for the Republic.
The United Universal Fleet loses 5 frigates, but they destroy the only attempt at improving the MAC. The Republic's morrale had never been higher since pre-siege Madrigal.
The United Empire doesn't recieve any casualties besides the MAC II, but one of their most important military providers has lost all of its plans and designs, and had to buy all existing plans again, and repair their shipyards, causing them to near bankruptcy.