The Peregrine's Flight [Defender-Class]
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:07 am
After a lot of positive feedback on my last thread, I decided to do as people wished, and flesh out the Explorator into a full hard-ish scifi fleet. Don't expect to see her again very soon, though. I had a concept, and I'm going to run with it. This is going to be a sweeping story arc. At the same time, I wanted to try providing history/exposition via first-person narration. Please comment (oh, and feel free to review the ship(s), too XD).
-- Journal of Douglas Peregrine, June 18/2144 --
-- Speech-Text Enabled --
I have a strange sense of Deja Vu for every launch, but this one more than most. The "II" on the end of the name doesn't keep me from thinking that I've slipped back forty years to the launch of the first Avenger. Only the registry number, A-571, reminds me that this isn't the first cruiser of her kind - she's the last. I'd only been with the United Aerospace Engineering initiative for a few weeks when the A-001 was launched. She wouldn't have launched at all if it hadn't been for that one pirate strike.
The United Earth bureaucracy would have had us believe that the old Defender-Class would keep the whole system safe. They're tough little ships to be sure; hell, some are still in service. But they don't have the engagement range to really keep the fleets of merchants and passenger ships safe. The poor souls on the Starstrider proved that well enough. A thousand civilians, an unarmed liner, an idiot, triggerhappy raider. The Avenger was commissioned within a week.
But I'm rambling - here she comes!
-- Speech-Text Disabled --
-- Vidcorder Active --
-- Vidcorder Off --
-- Speech-Text Enabled--
Just looking at her, I can see how much the design has changed; I ought to know, I was responsible for much of it. Forty years here, and half of them at the top of the R&D pyramid. The first Avenger didn't have half the armament or technological innovation as this one.
For that matter, most of the fleet is lacking. The Avenger II might be number 571, but there's barely three hundred of them surviving to stay in service, and only half of those are Mark 3-Bs like this one. We've been rotating them out of service for refits, but the fact that the UE higher-ups don't see the need isn't helping.
I've never seen action, or even been enrolled, but I felt as much on the front lines during the Poseidon Wars over Neptune or the ongoing pirate conflict someone dubbed "Captain Morgan's Revenge" as any soldier. Every time we got an action report we tried to fix whatever went wrong, or improve everything we could, to make the next Avenger a better Avenger. Mark 3-B is just a formality; there's upwards of a hundred variants, incremental improvements on the design. But I'm proud to say that I'd feel safe in action aboard this one.
-- Speech-Text Disabled --
-- End Journal --
Download Link
-- Journal of Douglas Peregrine, June 18/2144 --
-- Speech-Text Enabled --
I have a strange sense of Deja Vu for every launch, but this one more than most. The "II" on the end of the name doesn't keep me from thinking that I've slipped back forty years to the launch of the first Avenger. Only the registry number, A-571, reminds me that this isn't the first cruiser of her kind - she's the last. I'd only been with the United Aerospace Engineering initiative for a few weeks when the A-001 was launched. She wouldn't have launched at all if it hadn't been for that one pirate strike.
The United Earth bureaucracy would have had us believe that the old Defender-Class would keep the whole system safe. They're tough little ships to be sure; hell, some are still in service. But they don't have the engagement range to really keep the fleets of merchants and passenger ships safe. The poor souls on the Starstrider proved that well enough. A thousand civilians, an unarmed liner, an idiot, triggerhappy raider. The Avenger was commissioned within a week.
But I'm rambling - here she comes!
-- Speech-Text Disabled --
-- Vidcorder Active --
-- Vidcorder Off --
-- Speech-Text Enabled--
Just looking at her, I can see how much the design has changed; I ought to know, I was responsible for much of it. Forty years here, and half of them at the top of the R&D pyramid. The first Avenger didn't have half the armament or technological innovation as this one.
For that matter, most of the fleet is lacking. The Avenger II might be number 571, but there's barely three hundred of them surviving to stay in service, and only half of those are Mark 3-Bs like this one. We've been rotating them out of service for refits, but the fact that the UE higher-ups don't see the need isn't helping.
I've never seen action, or even been enrolled, but I felt as much on the front lines during the Poseidon Wars over Neptune or the ongoing pirate conflict someone dubbed "Captain Morgan's Revenge" as any soldier. Every time we got an action report we tried to fix whatever went wrong, or improve everything we could, to make the next Avenger a better Avenger. Mark 3-B is just a formality; there's upwards of a hundred variants, incremental improvements on the design. But I'm proud to say that I'd feel safe in action aboard this one.
-- Speech-Text Disabled --
-- End Journal --
Download Link