Giambattista

Surinam toad

Reconfigured as Naomi's dangerous gate-transit experiment, Giambattista overloads its reactor, carries added mass through Arcadia, and creates the wake meant to catch Marco's fleet.

Story so far

The Giambattista is the Ostman-Jasinzki faction's converted water hauler, which carried thousands of improvised assault craft to the Medina operation. It survived the enemy's first torpedo pass and opened its holds to send Bobbie, Amos, and the first wave through the Ring, becoming the launch point for the successful disabling of the Medina rail guns.

With Medina exposed to Marco's returning ships, Naomi turns the carrier into the center of a desperate experiment. The remaining boats are loaded back aboard, their residual fuel adds mass and energy, and its reactor and internal power grid are tuned close to overload. Its captain initially believes the plan will feed the ship to the unknown force behind vanished transits; Naomi has to explain that, if her model is right, Giambattista should pass safely through the Arcadia gate and leave a temporary hazardous wake for the following ships. The captain accepts once he understands that success takes his crew out of the imminent battle.

Giambattista begins its hard passage burn eighteen minutes before the Free Navy reaches the Sol gate. Its transit occurs as planned, though Naomi has to remind its crew to raise the internal grid above normal. The ship's departure starts the decaying curve that the Pella and its packed force must now meet.

Appearance

A long, thick-bodied converted ice hauler, its massive holds repacked with small craft and its systems stressed close to overload; a bright hard drive plume carries it toward the Arcadia gate.

Role

Giambattista becomes the sacrificial-looking but intended-to-survive trigger for the one defensive plan Medina has besides direct battle or flight.

Relationships

[[Naomi Nagata]] — She designs and coordinates its high-mass, high-energy transit despite the uncertainty of the mechanism she is exploiting.

[[Gate transit disappearances]] — Its carefully amplified passage is meant to create a predictable wake rather than expose its crew to the dangerous threshold itself.

[[Marco Inaros]] — The timing of its transit is calibrated so Marco's tightly packed ships reach the Sol gate while the temporary hazard remains active.

Sources — 4 recorded facts, by chapter

Chapter 39

A converted OPA water hauler, Giambattista is packed with thousands of improvised craft for the hazardous first blow against Medina's rail guns.

Chapter 40

Docked to the Rocinante, Giambattista carries Bobbie, Amos, and a precarious swarm of assault craft toward a Ring run already noticed by the Free Navy.

Chapter 44

Giambattista survives the first torpedo pass with minor losses, then opens its hull and sends its immense improvised assault swarm toward Medina.

Chapter 51

Reconfigured as Naomi's dangerous gate-transit experiment, Giambattista overloads its reactor, carries added mass through Arcadia, and creates the wake meant to catch Marco's fleet.