Clairmont
14-02-2004, 21:58
Sol System
15 Light-minutes from Jupiter
Protectorate Space Station Hephaestus
The speakers podium was placed on a large stage, set at the front of Boat Bay 1, in front of the main entrance to the shipyard and out from the boat bay. The podium, and the stage were empty, but the same could not be said for the boat bay. Men and women stood shoulder to shoulder on the floor of the bay, over a thousand people were gathered here. Yet, there were still thousands more people all over the shipyard structure, gathered around view-screens in masses and waiting in silence.
The wait was over, a tall man in the black and gold uniform of the Clairmont Space Navy, walked to the speakers podium from the side of the stage. All of the thousands of people could not see the insignia of a Fleet Admiral on the mans uniform, but that was not necessary, everyone gathered to observe this knew who the man was.
Sir Thomas Caparelli, First Space Lord of the Admiralty, Chief of Naval Operations walked briskly to the podium and stood rigidly, facing the crowd and eyeing them.
"We are all gathered here today to celebrate the completion of a grand endeavor, a project which was first seen as impossible, but which now is reality because of men and women who believed it was possible." He spoke, and yet no sound came from the crowd.
"You have all given years of your life for this project to succeed. You have all worked hard and under constant pressure to bring us to this point. "
"I cannot place in words how i feel at this time, but rest assured, there is not a fragment of displeasure in my feelings at this day."
Now a man in the uniform of Clairmont Space Engineering Corps stepped to the stage and walked beside the First Space Lord, holding a red pillow, on top of which silver scissors were placed.
The First Space Lord turned and lifted the scissors, placed them on the ceremonial red tape situated at the front of the wide entrance to Hephaestus, "I hereby declare the Protectorate Space Station Hephaestus officially completed and commissioned to the service of the Sword!" and then he cut the tape.
The boat bay was engulfed in a literal roar of applause and cheers at the moment the red tape was cut and it fell to the floor. Yet it did not end there. Throughout the entire yard, cheers and shouts of joy were being generated.
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Admiral Honor Harrington stood at the front of a two meter tall and ten meter wide viewport, gazing outside at the thick web of structures, the ten kilometer wide yard that now represented the greatest concentration of industrial might in the entire Protectorate.
She sipped from her champagne and eyed the sight. There were ships in different stages of completion on every single building slip of the yard. Altough the yard had been completed only now, the construction facilities had been in use for quite some time allready. Every time a single slip had been completed, it had been taken to use. So altough the yard had taken 9 years to finish, it had been churning out ships for the last three years allready. Ofcourse,the yard hadnt been operating nearly at full capacity during the construction, percentage wise, each building slip had only been 65% effective before last month. But that had changed now. The yard was operating now at maximum capacity and the Admiralty could not be more pleased with the efficiency the yard and its personnel were showing.
"Quite a sight isnt it?" The sound of Duke of White Haven, Sir Thomas Caparelli came out from behind her and the 188 centimeter tall man appeared standing beside her.
"Yes it is." She answered.
"Took a lot of blood , sweat and tears from the people responsible of the construction to get this done but they did it."
"Quite true. And now when its done, we can finally start forming up the fleet that we for so long have needed but havent had." Harrington said, with an edge of eagerness in her voice.
"Yes. As a matter of fact, the first order of business will be the construction of the Home Fleet. As you know, we allready have a single squadron of Battlecruisers and Heavy Cruisers and a division of Superdreadnaughts. However, that still is only about 10% of the planned weight of metal for the Home Fleet. And after that the job will get even harder. We'll need to start the 1st fleet from scratch, and before we get the 1st fleet completed, we wont have any Offensive power out of Sol system."
Honor nodded in understanding. Ofcourse she had known about the Admiralty's plans over two months ago but it was good to hear what was the plan from the mouth of the First Space Lord himself.
"And we are off to a good start with the plans" Honor replied "Slips ten thru sixteen have allready begun construction of heavy metal.Currently, two Manticore-class Superdreadnoughts, two Protector-class Assault Carriers and two Perseverance-class Dreadnoughts are in the process of construction."
"From what i last heard of Admiral Hughes, the SD's will be done in about ten months, the Dreadnoughts in another nine and the Assault Carriers will actually be done in another four months since they have allready been building those for four months." Honor yet added to her comments.
Caparelli grunted in satisfaction at what he was hearing.
"But now Dame Honor, lets get back to the party. Admiral Hughes is propably thinking that we have gone off to break his command!"
============================================
Official Announcement
After many years of construction, humongous amounts of funds, man-power and effort, the Protectorate Shipyard Hephaestus is finally completed.
This yard will serve as the primary constructer of Clairmont Space Navy, providing it with every kind of warship it requires. At first the yard will be serving the Protectorate only, for the demand of Space Forces requires every ounce of capacity from the yard. In the future however, the yard will be available as a production center for our allies also.
Last but not least, the Protectorate would like to thank those of our allies who have made this project possible by offering both man-power and funds to make Hephaestus exist today.
We thank the New Order Of Eizen, for providing us with both funding and thousands of experienced workers.
We thank the Star Empire of Steel Butterfly, for also providing us with funding
And yet we thank the Glorious Kingdom of Vrak for yet providing more funds to the budget so that the yard could have even more production facilities.
15 Light-minutes from Jupiter
Protectorate Space Station Hephaestus
The speakers podium was placed on a large stage, set at the front of Boat Bay 1, in front of the main entrance to the shipyard and out from the boat bay. The podium, and the stage were empty, but the same could not be said for the boat bay. Men and women stood shoulder to shoulder on the floor of the bay, over a thousand people were gathered here. Yet, there were still thousands more people all over the shipyard structure, gathered around view-screens in masses and waiting in silence.
The wait was over, a tall man in the black and gold uniform of the Clairmont Space Navy, walked to the speakers podium from the side of the stage. All of the thousands of people could not see the insignia of a Fleet Admiral on the mans uniform, but that was not necessary, everyone gathered to observe this knew who the man was.
Sir Thomas Caparelli, First Space Lord of the Admiralty, Chief of Naval Operations walked briskly to the podium and stood rigidly, facing the crowd and eyeing them.
"We are all gathered here today to celebrate the completion of a grand endeavor, a project which was first seen as impossible, but which now is reality because of men and women who believed it was possible." He spoke, and yet no sound came from the crowd.
"You have all given years of your life for this project to succeed. You have all worked hard and under constant pressure to bring us to this point. "
"I cannot place in words how i feel at this time, but rest assured, there is not a fragment of displeasure in my feelings at this day."
Now a man in the uniform of Clairmont Space Engineering Corps stepped to the stage and walked beside the First Space Lord, holding a red pillow, on top of which silver scissors were placed.
The First Space Lord turned and lifted the scissors, placed them on the ceremonial red tape situated at the front of the wide entrance to Hephaestus, "I hereby declare the Protectorate Space Station Hephaestus officially completed and commissioned to the service of the Sword!" and then he cut the tape.
The boat bay was engulfed in a literal roar of applause and cheers at the moment the red tape was cut and it fell to the floor. Yet it did not end there. Throughout the entire yard, cheers and shouts of joy were being generated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Admiral Honor Harrington stood at the front of a two meter tall and ten meter wide viewport, gazing outside at the thick web of structures, the ten kilometer wide yard that now represented the greatest concentration of industrial might in the entire Protectorate.
She sipped from her champagne and eyed the sight. There were ships in different stages of completion on every single building slip of the yard. Altough the yard had been completed only now, the construction facilities had been in use for quite some time allready. Every time a single slip had been completed, it had been taken to use. So altough the yard had taken 9 years to finish, it had been churning out ships for the last three years allready. Ofcourse,the yard hadnt been operating nearly at full capacity during the construction, percentage wise, each building slip had only been 65% effective before last month. But that had changed now. The yard was operating now at maximum capacity and the Admiralty could not be more pleased with the efficiency the yard and its personnel were showing.
"Quite a sight isnt it?" The sound of Duke of White Haven, Sir Thomas Caparelli came out from behind her and the 188 centimeter tall man appeared standing beside her.
"Yes it is." She answered.
"Took a lot of blood , sweat and tears from the people responsible of the construction to get this done but they did it."
"Quite true. And now when its done, we can finally start forming up the fleet that we for so long have needed but havent had." Harrington said, with an edge of eagerness in her voice.
"Yes. As a matter of fact, the first order of business will be the construction of the Home Fleet. As you know, we allready have a single squadron of Battlecruisers and Heavy Cruisers and a division of Superdreadnaughts. However, that still is only about 10% of the planned weight of metal for the Home Fleet. And after that the job will get even harder. We'll need to start the 1st fleet from scratch, and before we get the 1st fleet completed, we wont have any Offensive power out of Sol system."
Honor nodded in understanding. Ofcourse she had known about the Admiralty's plans over two months ago but it was good to hear what was the plan from the mouth of the First Space Lord himself.
"And we are off to a good start with the plans" Honor replied "Slips ten thru sixteen have allready begun construction of heavy metal.Currently, two Manticore-class Superdreadnoughts, two Protector-class Assault Carriers and two Perseverance-class Dreadnoughts are in the process of construction."
"From what i last heard of Admiral Hughes, the SD's will be done in about ten months, the Dreadnoughts in another nine and the Assault Carriers will actually be done in another four months since they have allready been building those for four months." Honor yet added to her comments.
Caparelli grunted in satisfaction at what he was hearing.
"But now Dame Honor, lets get back to the party. Admiral Hughes is propably thinking that we have gone off to break his command!"
============================================
Official Announcement
After many years of construction, humongous amounts of funds, man-power and effort, the Protectorate Shipyard Hephaestus is finally completed.
This yard will serve as the primary constructer of Clairmont Space Navy, providing it with every kind of warship it requires. At first the yard will be serving the Protectorate only, for the demand of Space Forces requires every ounce of capacity from the yard. In the future however, the yard will be available as a production center for our allies also.
Last but not least, the Protectorate would like to thank those of our allies who have made this project possible by offering both man-power and funds to make Hephaestus exist today.
We thank the New Order Of Eizen, for providing us with both funding and thousands of experienced workers.
We thank the Star Empire of Steel Butterfly, for also providing us with funding
And yet we thank the Glorious Kingdom of Vrak for yet providing more funds to the budget so that the yard could have even more production facilities.