Category:Battles of the Pilgrim War

'2626.018: The Pilgrim War

Systems involved: Sol, Celeste, Alpha Centauri, Proxima Centauri, Sirius, Cygnus, Frase, Bradshaw, Luyten, Beacon

The Beginning:

With the invention of the Akwende Drive by the Terran Confederation, non-Pilgrims were suddenly able to explore space once more. Benefitting from wealth and resources accrued over the last hundred years, Confed was able to spread its reach far and wide into the Hawking and Gemini Sectors. Alarmed at this new incursion into space, the Pilgrim Alliance protested strongly against Confed interstellar travel, claiming that it violated the Luna Treaty of 2462. The Confederation refused to accede, replying that the Luna Treaty in fact only prohibited sloship travel by Hopper (Morvan) Drive, as well as encroachments into Pilgrim space in the Vega Sector, both of which the Confederation had not broken. Thus Confed exploratory missions continued, to the annoyance of the Pilgrim Alliance.

Then in 2615, a militant faction gained political and religious control of the Pilgrim Alliance, and the Pilgrim leadership decided that Terrans had to be contained in the Sol System once and for all. The Pilgrims had always viewed themselves as the only ones chosen by divinity to roam the stars, and considered the Terrans to be outcasts. Thus Terrans venturing past Pluto's orbit was blasphemous at best, and diabolic at worst. In addition, Terran exploration meant that the Pilgrims now had to share a territory they saw to be their manifest destiny to begin with, and this was just not acceptable. The Terran Confederation had to be stopped by any means necessary.

The Battle Of Titan:

As a result, the Pilgrims launched a battle fleet to attack the Port of Titan on 2625.244, then the only port where jump-capable ships were being constructed and launched. The Pilgrims had expected to quickly destroy the port, and thus eliminate Confed's source of exploratory vessels, and then go on to Earth to force submission from a primitive and unprepared foe. Instead, the Pilgrim battle fleet was shocked to discover that the Terran Confederation was in fact lean, mean, and quite ready to rumble. The Battle of Titan was thus underway, and after three days of intense battle, the Pilgrim forces were forced to retreat, with the Titan station still intact.

Believing they had proved to the Pilgrims that they were not to be trifled with, the Terran Confederation offered to renew negotiations with the Pilgrim Alliance. But this offer was ignored, and over the few months the Pilgrim Alliance continued fighting a guerrilla action against the Confederation, attacking colony worlds and disrupting shipping.

Declaration Of War:

Then on 2626.017, a Confederation military outpost in the Celeste System, as well as the mining colony below, was attacked and destroyed by Pilgrim forces. Tired of the continued aggression, the Terran Confederation officially declared war on the Pilgrim Alliance on 2626.018 .

In the following months, while the Pilgrims continued on a hit-and-run campaign against Confederation territories, the Confederation adopted a defensive posture, strenuously defending all Confed colonies, but making little effort to liberate any captured ones. With mass executions and enforced slave labour taking place on Pilgrim-occupied worlds, the decision must have been a tough one. But it was necessary, as Confed had something else in mind.

The First Grand Fleet:

Confed's strategy took form on Confederation Day, 2627, with the launching of the First Grand Fleet, the result of more than a year of concerted wartime production. Confed decided that it would concentrate its resources on a single decisive strike against the Pilgrim Alliance government seated in the Beacon System, rather than engage in a long and drawn out battle across dozens of systems. And within a few months, the First Grand Fleet acquitted itself admirably. In an awesome display of might, the powerful fleet broke through the Alliance defences, capturing the Centauris, Sirius, Cygnus, Frase, and Bradshaw Systems in five short months of battle. With the Pilgrim fleet in disarray, the next stop for the First Grand Fleet was Beacon.

The Siege Of Peron:

With their primary system coming under threat, and their devastating losses at the hands of the Confederation, the Pilgrim Alliance decided to make a final stand to defend the agricultural colony of Peron in the Luyten System, one jump away from Beacon. Then the First Grand Fleet of the Terran Confederation jumped into Luyten.

Above the Peron colony, the two fleets battled. For seven long months, each side launched offensive and counter-offensive in the hopes of gaining some kind of advantage over another, of making even a crack in the other's defences. And after seven long months of intense and bloody fighting, the battle remained in stalemate.

And then the Terran Confederation got a much-needed reprieve. On 2628.288, the surviving ships of the First Grand Fleet was joined by the Second Grand Fleet, an armada half again as large as the First's original size. The Pilgrim Forces could not stand up to the new fleet's combined might, and were defeated after two weeks.

The Cygnus Treaty:

With the capture of the Luyten System, there was nothing to stop the Confederation joint fleet from jumping to Beacon. On 2628.359, the Confed fleet arrived in the Beacon System, and were contacted by the Alliance leadership with an offer of surrender. The Alliance would dissolve their government and cease all military action. In return, the Confederation would guarantee the safety of all Pilgrim civilians, and allow non-military Pilgrim worlds certain limited rights to autonomous rule, including McDaniel's World, the religious centre of the Pilgrims. After six weeks of negotiations, the Treaty of Cygnus was signed on 2629.049. From that point on, the Pilgrim Alliance officially ceased to exist.

A big thank you to Drake who did a heap of work back in the day so I could use it now :) all Kudos to you mate.