Battle of the Black Hole

The Battle of the Black Hole was the final battle of the Green Drone War. It saw the destruction of the Artifact, an ancient device worshipped by the Green Drone Armada, as well as the last remnants of the GDA Fleet by the combined efforts of Red Wood Industries, Crazy North Logistics, and the Royal Coalition of Spatial Protection.

Prelude
The Green Drone Armada had searched and fought tirelessly to obtain, study, and weaponize the Artifact, only to lose it to RWI during the Battle of Ravcor. The Battle of Icarus soon followed, during which the GDA managed to reclaim their prize from the RWI Black Vault Research and Development Facility. This, in turn, prompted RWI and CNL, and later RCSP, to launch an invasion of the GDA capital world, P3-X2. However, the leader of the GDA, the Controller, fled the system with the Artifact on board his Super-Dreadnaught. The Controller, the Commander, and the ships that were able to escape P3-X2 rendezvoused at a black hole, where the Controller began charging the Artifact in order to use its power to take over the galaxy and exterminate all organic life.

The Plan
After withdrawing all forces from P3-X2 following the failure to recover the Artifact, the leadership of RWI, CNL, and RCSP met at Icarus, the capital world of RWI. Grand Admiral Adam Williams, leader of the RWI Navy, was informed by the crew of the RWI Challenger that the Artifact's location was confirmed to be aboard the Super-Dreadnaught, which was being guarded by the Commander's Dreadnaught and five other GDA Destroyers. Williams and his executive officer, Commander Edwards, gathered the command staff from key starships of all three factions. Among those present were RWI Admiral Isaac Sheppard, captain of the RWI Osiris, Captain Gideon of the RWI Zheng-He, and Captain Jack Roberts and Commanders Sam Reed and Craz of the RWI Eclipse. From CNL was an unnamed admiral and from RCSP was Commander Venom of the RCSP Harbinger.

Williams informed them all of the GDA Fleet and that the Controller was planning to activate the Artifact somehow. The officers planned to destroy the Dreadnaught, which was already heavily damaged, to disrupt the chain of command among the surviving GDA ships; the joint fleet would then engage the Super-Dreadnaught and buy time for the infiltration teams to board the massive warship and destroy the Artifact for good. Captain Jack Roberts was put in charge of the strike team.

Once the plan was finalized, the officers prepped their crews and starships. Thirty minutes later, the fleet was ready. Grand Admiral Williams broadcasted a rallying speech to all the ships, and then the fleet jumped into hyperspace to meet the GDA in battle.

The Battle Begins
The three RWI Daedalus-class Battleships, the Apollo, the Osiris, and the Zheng-He entered first, followed by the CNL battleship Kallax, the RCSP Legacy-class Dreadnaught Harbinger, and the RWI Eclipse, as well as other supporting vessels. Commander Craz and Lieutenant Morslupus launched from the Apollo in V-203 Interceptors. The GDA Destroyers charged forwards, and the first shots were fired.

The Kallax took two Atlas Laser blasts right off the bat, and the Osiris also lost its shields momentarily. Nevertheless, no ships were lost on either side as the two fleets traded fire for several minutes. Eventually, the GDA Destroyers began slowly moving forward, only to get picked off one by one by the combined close-quarters firepower of multiple Allied starships. The CNL Frigate Stönse was destroyed in exchange for all five Destroyers. Craz's fighter was also incapacitated, though he managed to get a new one from the Apollo.

A Heavy Loss
Though the RWI Zheng-He was taking heavy damage, it managed to bring down the final Destroyer with its main X-3 Heavy Cannon. Once the way was cleared of the Destroyers, the Dreadnaught soon entered firing range and charged its four Atlas Superlasers. Captain Gideon tried to take evasive action, but it was too late; the four laser beams carved through the bridge and starboard hull, killing Gideon and the bridge crew instantly. Commander Reed, who was serving aboard the ship for the duration of the battle, was not killed, as he was in the engine room when the blast hit. Williams managed to contact him and instructed him to get to the bridge and check on the damage.

Turning the Tide
With the Zheng-He critically damaged, the rest of the Allied fleet engaged the Dreadnaught head-on. Its laser turret weaponry dealt major damage to the ships' shields, but after some tactical analysis by the Eclipse 's AI system "DJ", a combined barrage from the remaining ships was able to finally defeat the deadly ship. Meanwhile, on board the Zheng-He, Reed arrived at the bridge to find Gideon and the bridge officers dead and a few crewmen enacting frantic repairs. As the highest-ranking officer still alive, Reed was put in temporary command of the dying battleship for the rest of the battle. Fortunately, with the supporting fleet destroyed, the path was clear for the boarding parties to attack the Super-Dreadnaught. Captain Jack left two experienced officers, Lieutenant Mors and Ensign Finchy, to command the Eclipse while he and the rest of the Eclipse 's crew transferred to the Apollo to prep for their infiltration. Meanwhile, on the Super-Dreadnaught, an officer reported to the Controller that the Artifact was forty percent charged. He ordered the Commander to be brought to his chamber to answer for his failures.

Infiltrating the Super-Dreadnaught
Jack, Craz, and the rest of the strike team boarded their Valkyrie-class Dropships and set out for the Super-Dreadnaught. As Williams was informed that GDA reinforcements could arrive at any moment, the shuttles boarded the Super-Dreadnaught's massive hangar and were met by firm resistance from GDA Infantry drones and several fighters. A few dropships were destroyed and multiple RWI marines were killed, but Jack and his team managed to secure the hangar and infiltrate the vessel's maze of hallways. Dozens of Sentry drones and Infantry drones awaited them, so they split into two squads and traveled along separate paths to reach their destination. Craz led a team to plant explosives on a reactor core, while Jack's group fought their way through waves of security forces and finally managed to meet up with Craz's group in a huge chasm in the middle of the ship, close to where the Artifact was being held.

Before they could advance, a gigantic Mega-type drone emerged from the depths of the chasm and engaged the team on the bridges that connected the doors. Before long, they were able to expose its reactors and took it down using explosives lobbed by Jack. Once it was destroyed, Jack ordered Craz to arm the charges on the reactor, and they moved towards the Artifact's chamber. Before they could enter, the Commander emerged from the door and vowed to defeat Jack and his crew once and for all. Taunting them, he jetpacked up to another Mega drone and took control of it. They traded shots for a few minutes before the Mega drone fell, crashing into the platform below. The Commander crawled from the wreckage and threatened Jack again before Jack executed him with a shot from his pistol. Craz started the explosives' countdown for two minutes, and the team charged onward.

Fallen Warship
Meanwhile, outside the Super-Dreadnaught, things began to look bad for the Allied fleet. GDA reinforcements had arrived and engaged other battlegroups around the main fight between the Apollo 's fleet and the Super-Dreadnaught. The Super-Dreadnaught's laser weapons had become operational and began firing on the fleet. The RWI Serenity was reported as destroyed, and the RWI Eclipse was being damaged as well. With time running out to stop the Artifact's charge, Williams ordered the fleet to press the attack, but Edwards advised him that targeting the wrong section of the Super-Dreadnaught may affect Jack's team.

Aboard the Eclipse, Finchy and Mors tried to move between the fleets and screen firepower, but the Eclipse 's shields were heavily weakened. An Atlas Superlaser on the Super-Dreadnaught targeted the corvette, blasting it to pieces and killing Finchy and Mors. The debris of Jack's beloved ship smashed into the hull of the massive enemy ship and drifted away into space.

Final Stages
Jack and his team fought through the last security forces guarding the Artifact chamber, including a specialized sentry drone with a deflector shield protecting the door. The crew secured the entrance to the room and Jack came face-to-face with the Controller. The Artifact was seventy percent charged, and Jack tried to order the Controller to stand down, but the Controller refused, telling them that they were about to witness the start of a new, drone-controlled age, and that the "organics" of the galaxy were irrelevant. He revealed that the ancient creators of the Artifact could be brought back by the Artifact's power, which the GDA were trying to unlock.

As the Artifact neared eighty percent charged, the two sentry drones suppressed the crew behind bulkheads as the Controller laughed. Finn, the chief engineer of the Eclipse, suggested planting explosives on a series of computers to interrupt the Artifact's power flow. Jack and Papple quickly took out the drones, clearing Finn's way. The Artifact became ninety percent charged, and the explosives on both the computers and the reactor detonated. As the Controller screamed in despair and rage, Jack ended his reign of terror with a blast from his shotgun.

Destruction of the Green Drones
With the Controller and Commander dead, the Artifact's power contained, and the Super-Dreadnaught crippled, the battle was won for the Allies. However, the danger for Jack's team was not over yet; with the reactors offline, the Super-Dreadnaught's stabilizers and gravity controls were also offline, causing the colossal ship to begin drifting closer towards the black hole's event horizon. Jack ordered the team to evacuate at once, but remained behind to confirm with DJ that the Artifact would definitely be destroyed in the black hole. DJ confirmed, and the captain retreated to the hangar.

Outside in space, Williams and his bridge crew discovered that the Super-Dreadnaught was losing power, and Williams ordered all of the Apollo 's remaining warheads to be launched. Jack advised Williams to pull the fleet back a little in case the drone ship went critical and detonated. The strike team's Valkyrie dropship exited the hangar as the Super-Dreadnaught drifted further into the black hole, docking aboard the Apollo 's hangar. As the last remnant of the Green Drone Armada disappeared into the abyss, the Apollo and its supporting fleet FTL-jumped away to safety. The war was over at last.

Aftermath
With the GDA gone and the war over, the galaxy and its people could finally focus on rebuilding what had been lost. One month after the Battle of the Black Hole, Jack Roberts had been promoted to Admiral and Sam Reed had been promoted to Captain. They had been put in charge of the new RWI naval project, codenamed "Odyssey". Jack's friends had gone their separate ways as well - Craz rejoined CNL and took up command of a battlegroup. Finn and Castle started a salvage company, though the latter rejoined RWI at some point in the following year. Venom reunited with RCSP command and began taking back RCSP territory from surviving GDA forces. Crewmembers Owen, Ler, and Papple remained with RWI in the engineering department. Jack also placed a model of the Eclipse in his office aboard Cyrus Station, the main naval space station above Icarus. Jack reminisced over the war and the adventures that he and his crew had been on in a voice log one day.

Behind the Scenes
The Battle of the Black Hole took place over the course of Colony Lost Episodes 87 and 88, the finale episodes.