Galactic Rim Chronicles: SCS Liberty

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The Liberty's command staff hurried to ensure that the frigate was completely prepared for her new mission; however Colbert started looking more dour with each passing day, which Lee felt seemed ominous.

It was quite possible that Security wasn't quite onboard with either the establishment of a High Commission on Jafar, or clearing up if anything unusual happened to be within the system, and that would mean, she would have been given a set of instructions and sealed orders, as to what actions to take, should something happen that Security wanted the Navy to be unaware of.

Or, close an eye to.

Two tugboats manoeuvred Jafar's new hi/port underneath the Liberty, and was clamped with a forced linkage apparatus, rated for five kilotonnes. This doubled the volume that the Liberty's jump drives had to take with them into another dimension, and halved their range. Though, that was enough to reach Jafar on one tank of gas.

The starport was a planetoid, that nominally would act as a starport, that would act as the new transition point between the planet of Jafar, and the greater universe. Despite the hull configuration, it was considered somewhat luxurious, since it had gravity tiling installed, and didn't need to have a portion, or all, of the hull, spun.

 

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Since the two engineering modules were split on opposing sides, Liberty's Chief Engineer coordinating them from the engineering station in the bridge. Lieutenant Jacques Kerensky supervised the second largest department onboard.

Each engineering module had a three hundred fifteen tonne jump drive, and two thirty five tonne manoeuvre drives, which kept their acceleration safely below factor/three, which the primitive material used in the construction in some of the frigate's modules weren't supposed to exceed.

Factor two point eight naked still kept them below the standard factor five required for fleet deployment, but was sufficient to escort most convoys, and park itself over any planet, exerting presence. It wasn't enough to either pursue escaping spacecraft, nor trying to make a run from a more powerful opponent.

That was why patrol starwarships had been increased to the size of destroyers, and the destroyer's primary armament of a large bay particle accelerator, that reached out to distant range, in more or less an instance.

While the factor/one particle accelerator spinal mounts caused potentially eight times more damage, it was seven times larger, and less range. Though, nearly seventeen times more expensive, and requires more than twelve times more energy.

Considering that the usual spacecraft a patrol ship encountered was submonokilotonnes, they would be widely outmatched by the Liberty.

 

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The power plants weren't quite as modern as those on the line of battle ships, or even those installed on the newer destroyers, but highly technologized improvements of basic fusion reactors, representing the optimal balance between cost and squeezing out every last power point.

For half their cost, the cheaper power plant could produce fifty six percent of the energy, so on a per power point ratio, those would be more economic, but need double the volume, which is basic determinant the performance of any given spacecraft.

For basic ship services energy requirements, the primitive material modules of the frigate only needed one twentieth of that of the modules that were manufactured using the normal materials, and with six Neapolitan turrets, the four fuel tank modules needed only thirty six power points, each.

Power plants were generously distributed throughout the hull, ensuring that the power requirements of each module was met, with the largest reactors connected directly to the manoeuvre and jump drives, and once removed, the particle accelerator.

 

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The networked fusion reactors require fuel, unlike the sterling fission reactors. This is known as watering the plants, usually carried out by the Logistics branch, whose duties were ensuring that the spacecraft as a whole, functioned as intended, outside of areas that required a more specialized touch, such as the engines, sensors, and the ship's computer.

Logistics ensured that the spacecraft was supplied, that those supplies were stored correctly, and accounted for. They also maintained the appearance of the vessel, more in the sense that the cleaning droids didn't miss a spot.

During combat, they manned the turrets, pretty much like their ancestors operated anti aircraft guns, to deter the enemy from coming too close. And, if necessary, repelled boarders.

Since prize money was still a custom in the Confederation Navy, they were quite enthusiastic in boarding enemy vessels.

Logistics had acquired the nickname of merchant marines, though were not referred as such, but the actual Marines, who called them housekeeping.

 

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Frigates usually didn't have a dedicated Science Officer, since it seems unlikely they would be in a situation, where such knowledge would be required. The Science Branch did include Medical, and a registered nurse, supervising a group of three licenced nurses, one of which would be assigned to the onboard Marine squad, when deployed off ship.

Since they would be looking after the well being of healthy, athletic humans, mostly young, outside of actual combat, it was expected that the resources of the medical bay were not going to be strained. Medical had additional duties and responsibilities that were health related, such as nutrition, and monitoring life support, separate from shipboard security, that monitors that as well, as part of their duty of ensuring the integrity of the vessel, and it's continued smooth operation.

Science Branch personnel were usually only required for system surveys, and other exploratory operations, usually along the Confederation's rimward border. The spinward border required more specialists capable of interpreting Aslan psychology, and humans that had gone native. Coreward, Imperium technology and intentions, which was more Security related.

Trailing was a combination of all of the above, since facing the Confederation seemed an organized and extensive highly developed alien civilization, who were reputed to interfere in their neighbouring civilizations affairs.

Reaver's Deep, and Hinterworlds, counted less as expansion, as the rimward frontier, and more as potential security issues, that needed to be examined.

 

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While Lee, as the captain of the Liberty, didn't have to do watchkeeping, he took a four hour shift per day, to allow one of his senior officers more time finish preparations for the coming deployment. Positioned in the bridge, with the extensive surveillance equipment available, actually facilitated close supervision of the crew, as they worked overtime, to ensure that the vessel was about as ready as was possible, in a week's time.

The frigate's drones were busy picking up the orbital activities that a sector fleet headquarters generated. While the Imperium's Scout Service had commissioned tens of thousands of hundred tonne scoutships, or last mile couriers for the last thousand years, the Confederation had reached backed over three millenia, to Venture Drive powered starships.

Their short range both limited, and promoted, short hops, that made interstellar travel affordable, and was sufficient to patrol neighboring space, picking up information dumps from sentry satellites that monitored system approaches upto five light years away. Jafar, being two parsecs away, wasn't within this surveillance sphere, though with it's insystem interdiction facilities, should have been sufficient, to have early warning of anything unusual occurring there.

Since the Navy had decided to mass produce the Venture Drive on low technological level worlds, and justify it as part of the Confederation's industrialization programme, there were easily as many Venture Drive modules in the Confederation, as there were ten tonne jump drives in the Imperium.

 

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The short legged patrol ships were popular with the Confederation's member navies, being cheap enough to maintain a sizeable number, and having sufficient performance to poke around their system, and that of their immediate neighbourhood.

The Confederation Navy maintains large numbers along their borders touching the Empire, the Hierate, and the Federation, using them to constantly patrol the connecting parsecs. It also allows them to expose their flight crews to actual operational experience; it wasn't an assignment that Lee had enjoyed, stuffed in a relatively tight space, together with an electronics technician, an engineer, and a gunner.

While the Empire had categorized their hundred tonners as scoutships, and sometimes couriers, Confederation Navy practice had labelled them as cutters. They were widely utilized by member Navies as search and rescue ships, as well as customs and border patrol, with enough fuel for three jumps, which allowed them to reach their patrol area, jump to an area of interest, and then return to base.

Once the Venture Drive had developed a negative quirk, the cutter was usually placed in ordinary, where if it was deemed of no further use to the Confederation Navy, it was either scrapped, or disposed of. Disposal could take the form of being loaned out to former personnel of the Navy, or other personnel of Confederation institutions considered to be of good, if not excellent, standing.

 

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Lee had always wandered if it was deliberate, or just a coincidence, that the Confederation Navy lower velocity hull types were named after ancient Terran sailing vessels, and that the faster ones with Atomic era descriptors.

Frigates became the primary patrol ship, mirrored by destroyers, that were the primary fleet escorts. Dreadnoughts and battlecruisers were the frontline of battle ships, and the galleons were their cheap counterparts, that technically had the same armament and protection, but lacked their speed.

Despite the usual homogeneity within the Confederation Navy, intermediate and major combatants, specifically cruisers, never great in numbers. were hard to pin down as having a standard class, postbellum, as practically every one of them appeared to be differently constructed, or outfitted, and mixed in were carracks, caravels, and many other variants of starships, that were militarized.

There had been an attempt, probably not serious, to term the line of battle ships as Solomani of War.

Most commercial starships didn't require an acceleration greater than factor/three, and atmospheric transits required heat shields if factor/three was exceeded, regardless whether the hull was streamlined, or not.

Insystem spacecraft mostly didn't exceed fifty tonnes, which still could be easily controlled by a cockpit. Subsidiary hulls would be added to the primary one, if a larger tonnage was needed, leading to wide usage of multihull spacecraft.

 

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The shuttles delivered the naval personnel to the spacestation, after Logistics had loaded it with a six months supply, and the materials needed to construct the High Commission compound.

There was the spacestation crew itself, which would relieve the current complement stationed on the interdiction satellites in the Jafar system.

The Confederation Civil Construction Corps, which despite it's non militaristic name, was a separate service, but integrated as part of the Confederation Navy, that built forward naval facilities, and did field repairs on damaged starwarships, had sent along a detachment to construct the planned compound, which would include a landing facility for smallcraft.

And finally, a technical detachment from Science, that specialized in computer forensics, which Colbert had been placed in charge of.

"With all due respect to Major Colbert, she doesn't seem to be bloodhound type, to be in charge of an investigation of a security breach in an interdicted system, observed Kane to Lee, when both were inside his cramped office.

"Could be deliberate. Jafar isn't being alerted that we're coming, nor that they will be relieved, prematurely. The operation is need to know, and dumping the inquiry on Lauren as the lead, and only, investigator, ensures that the true purpose of the operation remains within a closed circle. Which would, it appears, exclude the majority of Security in the Anteusian bureau."

"It seems," Lee carefully chose his words, as he looked at the poster of the SCS Victory, formerly His Majesty's Ship, on his wall, resting in it's antigravity dock in the Naval Museum on Home, "that some people in Security may have a better idea what going on in Jafar, than has been revealed."

 

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Chapter Four

 

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On schedule, if speeded up, the SCS Liberty was ready to deploy to the Jafar system.

A galley drifted by, on it's way to an outer zone patrol area. The galley could be described as a system defence ship, but rigged out with a Deep Space Manoeuvre System and reactionary rockets, that allowed it to operate beyond a thousand diameters from the local star, or any gravity well. Galleass were jump drive variants, that could insert themselves into the outer system of any system, or even navigate fairly well in empty hexes.

Surprisingly, very few Imperium Navy starwarships had been equipped to operate in deep space, and Solomani strategists were experimenting if this could be leveraged against them. Certainly, if the galleys cruised beyond a thousand diameters, they remained out of the effective range of most, if not all, weapon systems.

Lee had donned the shipsuit. It was a precautionary measure, that had been adopted, when combat was expected, or before any transition. While the odds that any mishap would occur were really remote, it was considered good practice, in the event that some form of hull breach did occur, and to get the crewmembers used to wearing them; no one was fond of attaching the plumbing, though, as a smallcraft pilot, Lee had the dubious pleasure of suiting up in them for every flight.

It could be considered a full body diaper, that would slowly accumulate body waste over the next week, if necessary. You were naked underneath, but with the attached gloves, boots, and the plastic helmet hoodie, that was hidden in the collar, it could keep you alive in a emergency situation, for the next half hour, until you could evacuate to a pressurized area of the spacecraft, or find an oxygen container.

There were more luxurious models, with longer organic life support, but the Confederation Navy supplied those to flag officers, and their staffs.