Tremerine, or as it was known when the colony was founded, 8255C, was one of the last worlds Earth might have expected to join the Great Secession War, or as is now called by some historians, the Twilight War. Though initially founded as little more than a fuel depot at the furthest reaches of explored space, it came to enjoy a booming shipbuilding economy courtesy of Earth.
Tremerine: Between Subservience and Separatism
In a way, it was a microcosm of the East as a whole – where most colonies were founded not for living space for the burgeoning Sol population, but as waystations and resource harvesting operations. Terra’s influence was felt weakly, but it was ever-present, more so on Tremerine than any other colony.
The ESA’s advanced shipbuilding labs, used for experimental ship testing and design far from the public eye, made Sol increasingly desperate to maintain control over the region as separatist sentiment grew in the colonies. The labs, known as De Pointe by the locals, churned out the technology that kept the fleets of Terra leaps and bounds ahead of any colonials with more spirit than sense.
That all changed after the Sirius II massacre in 2188. Despite the best efforts of the United Trans-Solar Administration, the news spread quickly, and out on the fringes of explored space the eastern colonies were some of the first to formally declare secession after the ill-fated attempt on Sirius II. After a riot overwhelmed De Pointe’s security, technology was quickly disseminated to other secessionist governments, reducing the one advantage that Terra had over the Outers.
De Pointe itself was a treasure trove of hardware, intelligence, and engineering data. It took a scant few months for information to be spread from system to system, and only a few years for the first domestic designs to begin to emerge from secessionist shipyards. With the emergence of these designs, the colonial fleets felt it safe to make their play for Mayflower.
The Battle of Mayflower
The Mayflower system was a vital supply route for Earth’s forces to reach the Outer Colonies, and was as such heavily fortified. Until the early months of 2195 it was simply an impossible objective for the colonial forces to take even with a united front. That all changed thanks to Tremerine’s contributions.
In March of 2195, the newly independent Tremerine sent a detachment of its own vessels to join the allied fleet that was massing in the Cygnus system, far away enough from the prying eyes of Terra’s scout corps to remain unnoticed. The fleet began to move on the 19th of the month, and by early April it was poised to strike Mayflower.
The aim of the colonials was to strike the system’s shipping hub, cutting off one of Terra’s few remaining safe supply lines and routes of reinforcement. The Terran high command was not unaware of its vulnerability either, and had garrisoned the system with a sizable defense fleet.
What they expected was a well-organized but ultimately underpowered fleet of repurposed freighters – numerous, but fragile. What they got was the Libertat pattern frigate.
Tremerine’s Liberator: The Libertat Frigate
The Libertat pattern frigate is emblematic of the latter years of the war, and variations of it were used all across colonial fleets for nearly a century after the war – mostly in training and policing roles.
The basic design was a product of the Tremerine-controlled De-Pointe, and was extremely spartan in comparison to its Terran counterparts – stripping away rear armor and hangar bays in favor of performance, large engines and a slim overall profile. What few scouts it carried were housed on an external flight deck on the lower hull.
The Libertat was the design basis for many of the colonial warships present at the Battle of Mayflower, and its capabilities shocked the Terran fleet – which, for the first time since the start of the conflict, was now significantly outnumbered by a fleet of real, actual warships.
In the end, small and heavily armed colonial frigates passed this trial by fire admirably, facing the Terran garrison in a head-to-head line battle which resulted in heavy losses on both sides. Reports are conflicting, but Colonial accounts speak of Terran vessels breaking formation and attempting to retreat as the battle ground on and defeat became more apparent by the hour.
The victory at Mayflower is said to have paved the way for Colonial forces to push the Terran fleets back to the Inner Colonies.
– Excerpt from “The Twilight War: A Retrospective on the Great Secession”, Chapter 15: Tremerine and the East, 2392
The Sparrow's Nest 