NationStates Jolt Archive

In orbit of Luna, there is a shipyard. Inside are ships of the Crimmond Imperial Navy, being refitted and repaired. But dwarving those ship are two others. The newest ships of the Fleet.

Over 2,000 meters long, each ship filled three 'drydocks'. Well, the second one would, in time. At the moment, it was only 600 meters long. The other, though, was activating all it's running lights as the last armor plates were sealed to the hull.

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CSS Juggernaut, you are cleared for exit. Flight plan takes you to Northern Lunar pole to Northern Terran Pole. Captain's discretion at that point. Have a nice trip and we'll see you in a week or two.

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Onboard, the trainees, cadets and junior officers were all at their posts, though just along for the ride until the ship cleared Lunar Yard Three's jurisdiction. On the comm came a voice.

"Greetings officers, crew and trainees. I am Captain Erikson.... Helm, take us out on full maneuvering thrusters... You are among the few in the Fleet to be chosen to serve aboard a Specter Class Dreadnought. Only twenty will be made and only two are out of the yards, the Specter herself and us. She's a tall ship and I'm proud to be her captain. Improved weapons, shields, armor, scientific and engine designs have put us at the forefront of the fleet. In addition to that, the Specter Class will be the only class to have the new Hyperspace Rift Generators. We will be the envoys of Crimmond beyond Sol. This distinction is a reflection upon you. For the pride of the Fleet is only manned by the pride of the Fleet."

Exiting the dock, the ship made for the Northern pole of Luna, as the Ops officer spoke to the crew. "The Juggernaut is a multi-mission starship, not purely a vessel of war. There are five typical mission types that we will undertake on our tour of duty...

Deep-Space Exploration, utilizing our improved cartographic survey equipment and scientific investigations, which include that of virus analysis or genetic engineering, both of which are normally secondary goals of a mission.

Contact with other nations, both Terran based or otherwise, will be core of all missions and will test our xenobiologists and translation software.

Warfare... defense of an ally or a tactical strike at an enemy may be called for at any time, therefore the ship is made to be faster than one would assume. The ship is able to loiter in a battle zone for extended periods, but we'd rather not, for obvious reasons.

Diplomacy. A word foreign to all warships of Crimmond for the most part, the Dreadnoughts will be core in relations with non Sol based nations.

Finally, there is emergency assistance to a planet or space station. The ship's cargo bays are large enough to hold a small colony or a station's crew for short periods of time, but a planetary population is impossible to relocate, even if all twenty were assisting.

In short, we're a warship, science college, diplomatic envoy and ambulance all in one. Surprised we don't slap the Swiss flag on the side and add a can opener. That is all." The laughter from the last comment was throughout the ship, but short lived as the ship reached the Pole and rotated to face the gleaming, yet scarred jewel that was Terra.

All over, one could see the desolate zones that war had left and few of the natural features were untouched. Eyes fell to the night side, where Europe was and where Crimmond was. The bright star on the planet that was Myer marked the nation like a beacon. Soon, the ship was under full acceleration towards the North Pole.

The captain looked away from the screen to the plaque on the bulkhead. He smiled as he read the words there.

CSS JUGGERNAUT
SPECTER CLASS DREADNOUGHT
CRIMMOND THIRD NAVY
CAPTAIN VICTOR ERICKSON COMMANDING

[OOC: Specter Class Dreadnought (http://usera.imagecave.com/Alpha-Zero/Starship.jpg)]

UHS Monitoring Station Sentinel
Edge of Sol System
1253 EST

Lieutenant Birkos looked at the radar and whislted. "Quite a beast. Crimmond, is it?"

Ensign Benetti glanced at the datalinks. "If their markings mean anything, sir."

"Keep on eye on them. They might wish to start offcial contact with the UHS. We might want to, anyway."

"True, sir. We hardly have any relations with Sol nations, ever since Independence."

Atlantian LRR class Shipyard Defender
Kuiper Belt
Admiral Dergot

The largest Atlantian presence in the Sol system. Purchased from LRR several years ago, the Defender was the Atlantian cluster's first line of defense agenst forgian invasions from the Sol system.

Admiral Dergot watched as recordings from the Orion showed Crimmond's new weapon of terror.

"Joy..." he said, contacting Cirrus, the Atlantian home system.

The Juggernaut reached Earth soon enough and circled the pole once, twice, three times while Captain Erikson decided where to go next. After deciding, he stood and looked around. "Bring the Generator to full power. Lets see what this ship can do. Lay in a new heading, bring us about to Neg 30 degrees off the Galactic core."

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To the outside universe, the ship wheeled about and lined up on it's new heading. It's main engines flared once and then died altogether. The four auxillery engines were still online though and they let it 'limp' away from the planet.

Looking to have stalled, for the most part, the ship's two forward pylons, on opposing sides of the main fighter bay, opened their hull plates, allowing the generator's energy to be released in a controlled manner. In the ship's path formed a rift and the Juggernaut flew right into it as the generator shut down. The rift sealed behind them, leaving only distrurbed space dust behind.

At the other side of the asteroid belt, near to Jupiter, the rift and the Dreadnought reappeared after only a few moments. The main engines were brought back online and the ship reoriented itself to Earth.

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On the bridge, the crew looked up at their captain. "Watch out galaxy... We're back." he said softly, smiling to himself. I wonder what the rest of the system thinks. I doubt they knew we had an interstellar drive onboard. I know only the command staff and the engineering crews knew, untill he announced it.

Dergot sent another message to the Senate, detailing the fact that the new Crimmond ships had some form of FTL drives.

Crimmond was now officialy a threat.

Not a very large threat, mind you, but a threat all the same.

The course of the Juggernaut took it in an arching path beneath the asteroid belt, as was normal proceedure unless the ship was hunting targets of oppertunity.

After a few hours, they were approaching it. The shifts had changed and the Cpatian reluctantly left teh bridge, to tour teh areas of the ship he had only been through once or twice.

As he entered the crew lounge, he got a few salutes and a bunch of cadets pale. "Allright, boys and girls, no need to act like I'm God come to judge ya. Carry on as you were. I'm offduty." At that, he sat by one of the viewports and ordered a Black Russian from the menu.

He saw a bunch of people crowded around a holographic display tank and asked the crewman who brought the drink what that was all about. "Oh... that's Ensign Killmer's new and improved Elasi cruiser design. New engines and an upgraded control system. Improved survivability against our heavy cruisers by fify eight percent."

Erikcon smirked and took a sip of his drink. "Have to make sure a mind like that doesn't get away..."

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As the ship approached the asteroid belt, the IFF codes began to broadcast. The ship's ID and nationality are repeated every few seconds, along with another code, that seems to be just a random mixing of numbers and letters. Probably meant for another Crimmond ship's AI to interperate.

The ship itself was running in a near low power mode, with only a skeleton crew actually attending to duties. The rest were settling in, sleeping, partying or off doing their own thing. For a few, that meant pulling double shift, as the equipment on board was among the best. The only defense the ship had online was the hull hugging shields, which would deflect space debris that hapened to strike the ship.

The Captain stepped onto the bridge and right back off as he entered his office. Inside was a waiting message, encoded. "Computer. Voice print recognition: Victor Erikson. Captain, CSS Juggernaut."

The message opened a moment later and he listened to the contents. He pressed a control on his desk and smiled as the message vanished. Stepping back onto the bridge, he moved to the command chair, the que for the junior officer to relinquish command. "Communications. Send an acknowledgement. Helm, bring us about to... neg 10 degrees off the galactic core and five degrees above the galactic plane. Alert the crew that we have recieved new orders." He watched the Ensign turn back to his controls when he realised it was the one from the lounge. "And Ensign... if we run into any Elasi, don't sell them new engines. No need to make your job harder." He got a smile out of the man with that and leaned back in his command chair. Best to show I'm not a total hardass quick.

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The ship once again changed course and headed back the way it had came. Towards Jupiter and beyond.