Sol Refuge Fleet Anchorage in deep space, Sector 44213, Yardship San Francisco, February 4th 082 SDE:

Captain Jane Kirk walked down the corridor. She had arrived just a few minutes ago, and soon she would be accepting her first command. The SFS Bastion. She had read everything she could on the ship. It was a new configuration of Battlehawk class heavy cruiser and featured quite a bit of next-generation technology. Much of which had only been field-tested on LPCs. There were a number of features that had caught her eye, items developed in the last nine months for this ship. The first was the armor, it was listed as mark-five overlord armor. There were a number of technological improvements made to the armor. Including a prototype for next-generation integrated mitigation shielding. They were still months away from achieving what the simulations said was possible, but it was still better than the makeshift system the fleet is using.

What really caught her attention with the armor was the material. The ship was made using a Neutronium-Rydium composite alloy that frankly had some impressive properties. They had named the alloy Adamantium. The material when exposed to AIF fields became virtually indestructible. There was almost nothing in their arsenal that could even scratch the stuff much less penetrate it. The only weapon that managed to penetrate the test plating during the preliminary tests was AMF Penetrator bombs. Although Adamantium armor was not cheap to produce even when using lattice lacing techniques to reduce costs. She had already heard that the fleet was only going to armor select ships with it because of the cost. They could not afford to equip the entire fleet with Adamantium armor. Hell, they could not even afford to armor her ship with pure Adamantium plate armor. Instead, she had Titan II alloy plating reinforced with Adamantium lattice. The same lattice lacing technique had been used to reinforce her internal bulkheads and the starframe. The Bastion was likely the toughest ship in the fleet.

To go with that she had even been given a new generation primary power plant. The mark four single core dual reactor setup common to older Battlehawks had been replaced with two of the new mark five antimatter reactors. Tri core reactors to be specific. This setup gave her more than ten times the power generation of older cruisers. She had heard the rest of the fleet was slated for these upgrades. The extra power was desperately needed in combat situations after all. All of her key systems had been adjusted to take advantage of the extra power. Weapons, armor, propulsion, even her emergency batteries.

Speaking of the batteries. She had been equipped with the new mark eight compression cells. They could store an impressive amount of energy and increased the hyperwarp jump range of the Bastion from 1200 lightyears to 2000 lightyears. A very respectable eight hundred lightyear increase, and with the increased power generation the recharge time had been cut significantly. This effectively made the Bastion the fastest ship in the fleet.

Her weapons had received a lot of attention as well. She had 32 heavy phase lance arrays, 12 banks of superheavy pulsed phase lances. Dual spinal superheavy phase lances. Turreted dual AA phase lances supplemented with micro torpedo launchers. She still carried fore and aft torpedoes, but her electro cannons had also received a lot of attention. The extra energy reserves and power generation had allowed her to support a denser battery of electro cannons. She had more than double the number of electro cannon banks as the last generation of cruisers. Not only did she have more, but the cannons had been reconfigured to take advantage of the extra power generation as well. Benefiting from increased recharge times and higher yields. All of her energy weapons had similar modifications. In effect, she carried more guns, and they were all harder hitting than her sister ships, but those sister-ships were slated for similar upgrades. Even if most ships won’t be outfitted with Adamantium reinforced overlord plating the increased power generation and weapons capability were huge enough that all vessels will eventually be upgraded accordingly. Rumor had it that the Accentor was slated to be first for those retrofits.

Naturally, her propulsion wasn’t left standard either. The Bastion was equipped with the latest in pulse wave engine technology. The standard mark II engines that all older Battlehawks had been equipped with had been replaced with the new mark III. The new mark III engine featured several notable improvements. The improvements focused mainly on reducing fuel consumption, and they worked. The Mark III used 15% less fuel during normal cruising, but attention had also been paid to combat operations. The engine used 30% less during combat cruising compared to the Mark II, although that was still a lot more than used during a normal cruise. The engine also had a better overall performance chart. Testing showed the engine could turn and accelerate about eight percent faster. That translated to better mobility.

Her warp engines were also improved, but the focus had been entirely on efficiency and reliability. As such, her cruising speed had not increased compared to her sister ships, but her engines used far less fuel. They had also improved the reliability of all system components and further hardened them against damage. They wanted to be sure that any ship could make an emergency jump even when heavily damaged. Efforts had also been made to reduce her warp signature. Making it far harder to detect the Bastion at long range. Stealth and efficiency were the most important factors for them. Warp five was fast enough to get where you were going most of the time, and if you need to go faster they could reach warp seven without much issue.

She turned a corner and reached the lift. She took a moment to double-check her uniform, and then stepped into the lift. It would take her down from the SFS San Francisco to her new ship via the umbilical connection between the two ships. This particular lift would deposit her at one of the starboard airlocks. There she would be officially transferred command of her new ship, and then she could head to the bridge. Where she would meet her officers and her crew. Kirk was finally captain, it had only taken her thirty years. From the day she joined her first department in the fleet. She was looking forward to her first command.

The lift delivered her to the airlock all too quickly, and Kirk stepped off the lift to find Supreme Protector Countryman was waiting for her. He smiled, and greeted her, “Welcome aboard Captain Kirk.”

She saluted, and he continued, “I can tell by your expression that you weren’t expecting me. The council however has a great deal of interest in this ship. She is packed with the latest in current and next generation technology. Including several valuable prototype technologies.”

She nodded, “I have read the specs, sir. She has an impressive list of upgrades over standard configuration cruisers. I can also see why the council has an interest in her. The armor alone is impressive.”

Countryman shifted, “That it is. Impressive but expensive.”

After agreeing, he quickly transitioned into giving her a rundown on her first assignment and then transferred the command codes for the ship to her. The nature of her first assignment was a shakedown cruise. It would start here, where she would test the sublight engines. Then she would make the jump to the nearby system of E-212. The system was for the most part uninteresting. The only thing special about it was its location in the nebula. It did have plenty of debris, and target drones had been scattered throughout the system. It was there that she would conduct her first combat operation. A test battle against armed target drones. There were thousands of them, but they were no threat.

A standard target drone was about three meters long, and carried a single pulsed particle cannon as its only weapon. They had mark one pulse wave engines, and Mark II polarized hull plating. A single direct hit from any weapon mount on her cruiser would destroy a drone. They weren’t much of a threat to fighters either. They were never intended to be a threat, and that played into why they were equipped with outdated weapons and armor technology. It did make them very cheap to produce and easy to replace.

They would make a decent enough test for her, and her crew though. They would need the practice, and it would help them get to know the ship. Not to mention learn to work with each other, but sooner or later they would need to face a real threat.

Countryman left as soon as he gave her the rundown on her shakedown plan. Kirk did not stay idle herself. She had to get the ship underway and make sure the whole crew was aboard. She navigated down the dim corridors to one of the tram lifts and told it to take her to the bridge. From there she could meet her officers and get started on the pre-launch checks. That was going to take awhile. Every system needed to be checked before they separated from the yardship.

It would not do to leave the yardship and then discover that something important wasn’t installed correctly. They needed to make sure all systems at least reported that they functioned. That was at least something she could do a thing or two about if there was a problem. What was going on with her little sister's kids back home though was something she couldn’t fix. She cursed that damn pheromone and its effects on her friends and family. She just hoped the rumor that a cure was in the works was true, but she had learned not to get her hopes up. A few previous solutions proved problematic or even made the whole thing worse.

She quickly pushed those thoughts aside. Not wanting to dwell on the problems at home, and waited for the lift to deposit her on the bridge deck. A minute later the door opened into a small corridor behind the bridge. To her left would be her ready room, although at the moment it was likely rather spartan. She would need to decorate, add a personal touch to it. On the right was the conference room where she could gather her officers and department heads to discuss key issues. Directly in front of her was the secured doorway to her bridge. The command center of her ship. She already knew what she would see. The Bastion had the same bridge module layout as every other cruiser in the fleet. The same basic design was even used on smaller ships, like the Saber-class destroyer. That door would open to the command balcony, and there was a lower entrance beneath the balcony. That one meant for her bridge crew. At the front of the bridge were the helm and navigation consoles. To port were the tactical consoles, and against the starboard wall were the engineering consoles. The strategic display console was placed centrally in the lower bridge. Against the rear wall of the lower bridge were the operations and science consoles.

Not that long ago she had been on a similar bridge as first officer. Now it was her turn to be the captain. To have actual responsibility for her ship and crew. She would have to get to know her own first officer though. They would be her advisor, and more.

With a bit of excitement and trepidation in her step, she stepped onto her bridge. The bridge was dimly lit and not very different from the light cruiser bridge she had been on not all that long ago. Yet this one felt special, it was her bridge. This was her ship, and she was going to do her best. Kirk wanted to reward the faith that had been placed in her. She took her seat overlooking the lower bridge and glanced only briefly at her old station before surveying her bridge. Already the crew was familiarizing themselves with their stations.