It's the Enterprise! by Starlite-Official on DeviantArt (original) (raw)
The fourth of the Terran Alliance's mighty new Tunguska-class heavy cruisers first built during the final days of the Terran-Vorla. UESN-1701 Enterprise carried on the ancient tradition of keeping the naval registry number of UESN-1701 reserved for ships named Enterprise.
Launched on Christmas day of 2909. Enterprise arrived at the outer parameter of the Vorla System only 24 hours before the Vorla Agreement of Unconditional Surrender was signed on January 8th of 2910, just in time to participate in the event which took place on the flight deck of the heavy cruiser UESN-100 Tunguska Event
The former Enterprise, an ancient and outdated Osprey-class heavy cruiser was badly damaged during the war and retired from service nearly a decade before.
The new Enterprise was assigned as flagship of the Terran 5th fleet on January 15th who would quickly found themselves embroiled in a feud between two small interstellar factions, the Yitall and Vermess peoples; Each hellbent on destroying each other over an uninhabited planet both claimed to have rights to.
Two grueling weeks of seemingly endless back and forth with ambassadors from both sides ended in bloodshed when one of the Yitallian delegates drew a knife from his waste band and stabbed two Vermessian delegates, one quite severely but he was treated and did survive. The second suffered only minor injuries.
However the event sparked a nearly instant firefight between the two fleets at around 750 kilometers above the surface. The Vermessian starships were overwhelmingly superior than the Yitallian vessels one on one, but the Yitallian Imperial Navy was orders of magnitude larger in the number of vessels they had.
The battle only lasted a few moments before it was interrupted by four bright flashes coming from the Terran behemoth. Each was quickly followed by blinding flashes on the surface of the planet below.
As the light quickly dimmed, the shockwave of the explosions could be seen parting the planets atmosphere, evaporating global-scale weather systems and flash-boiling entire seas in an instant.
The planet was totally destroyed, and the Enterprise powered up it's shields for the first time in the conflict. As the alien fleets were deciding what to do, the Captain of the Enterprise transmitted a hasty message.
"This is Captain Richardson of the Enterprise. As you can see, the planet is destroyed. In about 30 seconds, what I estimate to be about 30 billion metric tons of molten hot, hypersonic ejecta from the impact sites are about to tear through this fleets position. I have full confidence my shields will hold, Do you feel the same about yours? Lets find out!"
With that, he ended the transmission and sat back in his chair. Within 15 seconds, the sky was clear of starships except for the Enterprise. Knowing full well both fleets were watching still, and would likely try to attack if they showed weakness, the crew of the Enterprise held on tight and let the ejecta collide with their shields.
Once it had passed. The Enterprise suffered only minor cosmetic damage and both fleets could be seen on long range sensors ditching damaged ships and fleeing for their home systems as fast as possible.
The Enterprise would continue to serve for centuries with notoriety and success. Being one of the Alliance's best PR assets in many ways, the Enterprise was almost always the ship that showed up to be part of any major groundbreaking ceremony for the Alliance and carry the flag over the site.
But she also served in many conflicts and combat campaigns over the years as well, flying right up until the point her original engines finally quit on her while in-between the Milky Way and Triangulum galaxies.
She was towed back to Sol and received her first major refit in the summer of 3534. She was totally gutted right down to bare metal, her hull extended a full 200 meters, and every major system replaced.
For the next nine hundred years, she would serve the Alliance as flagship of the 5th Fleet on multiple fronts while holding a specials place in the hearts and minds of the Terran citizenry across the cosmos.
As the Alliance grew, it's slingshot network greatly expanded the reach of anyone with even a basic shuttle craft. No more did you need to hitch a ride on an FTL, or try and find a cheap one second hand. You could now just fly through the ring and be twenty galaxies away in an instant.
This meant that Terran warships as well now had a wider range than ever before. Enterprise was one three Terran warships to make the nearly 100-million lightyear connection between a Terran-built slingshot in the Watchtower 3 Galaxy to the Peno Galaxy, seat of power to the Peno Empire during the great Ier-Peno War.
The warships Incursion, Enterprise, and Star Wyvern all attempted to make the trip, but the ring lost connection while Wyvern was only about three quarters of the way through, cutting the ship into two pieces instantly.
With two of her three drive rings still operational, she was able to continue operating in the area in a support role until reinforcements could arrive. Getting the wyvern home was deemed too risky and expensive, so she was flown out into intergalactic space and her drive core overloaded, the explosion was so violent that only dust and radiation was left behind.
Enterprise was set to loose her mantel as flagship of the 5th fleet, this was certain. The new Divinity-class dreadnoughts were already flying and the Alliance knew they wanted them at the forefront.
However, she was also on the chopping blocks to be retired and sold off entirely, with no ship planned to replace her namesake. When the news broke that the Alliance was permanently retiring the Enterprise namesake, there was a notable amount of disapproval among the public, including some very notable people within the Navy itself.
During the Christening ceremony for the new flagship of the 5th fleet, Uruk in 4447, Secretary of the United Earth Stellar Navy, George McKay announced.
"On this day we set our magnificent new machine into the blackness of the void for the first time. Let us pay homage to the ship that came before. The Enterprise..."
"For eons, the name Enterprise has been a symbol of hope, and prosperity - Of strength, of liberty, of or honor and pride and indeed of all the things that make this Alliance so great. I am pleased to announce that as of this morning."
"That legacy has been extended into the foreseeable future. Currently, there are three more divinity-class vessels in late production and they should be delivered by the end of the month."
"Those ships are the Yangtze, Colorado, and the Nile. The next batch was to be the Danube, Thames, and Amazon. However, given recent public outcry at our ill-considered decision to remove the name from the registry after the prescribed date. The ship that was to be christened Danube will now bare the name... Enterprise."
On that date, when the new ship is launched. The current Enterprise will be stripped of it's name and registry in favor of the newer, better vessel. What she'll be renamed, if she'll be renamed is still unknown. Though her CO does get a say in the matter, and he's suggested the name "Firecrest" which seems to have stuck among the crew for the time being.
Until then, she's been assigned to the Terran 2nd Fleets' Heavy Cruiser Element, where Fleet Marshal Kincaid who is known for having an affinity for "Good ships"
And believes in the concept that "some ships are just lucky or unlucky" has quietly vowed to her longest standing and most loyal crew members to keep her flying and in the fight as long as she has value, which she undoubtedly does and he can afford to do.
As of 4447, Enterprise remains in active service after over 1,500 years of near-constant operation. If her crew are to be believed, she's got at least another 1,500 in her. At LEAST.
Needless to say, despite being one of the oldest Tunguska-class warships in existence, she is deeply cared for by her crew and doesn't seem ready to retire just yet. While ships half her age are hulled off for scrap, she plows forward into the front lines.
"She may not say Enterprise on the hull for much longer, she'll have a new name soon enough; But she'll always be the Enterprise to me."
-Captain Enrique Goetz, UESN Enterprise. 4412 - Present.
Osprey-class: (The previous Enterprise)
The Divinity-class: (The Next Enterprise)
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Specs:
Name: Enterprise
REG#: U.E.S.N - 1701.
Class: Tunguska Mod-6.5 (upgraded from Mod-1)
Type/Alliance classification: Heavy cruiser.
IGC classification: Battleship
IGC reporting name: Wombat (This applies to all ships in the class.)
Status: Active.
Callsign: Echo-Lima six - one.
Ships' motto: "Honor, Glory, Timeless."
Affiliation: UESN
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Power plant:
4x SL-FU7 hydrogen based plasma confinement fusion reactors (these power basic ship's functions such as lights, computer terminals, etc)
3x Z-11 Grazer-induced artificial singularity (Kugelblitz) reactors. (These run the amplifiers or "warp drive")
Fuel(s)
MLH-1 (MLH = Metallic Liquid Hydrogen 1 = highly refined / Starship grade.) (fusion reactors, RCS)
Liquid Oxygen (RCS)
Lead 208. (Mass for feeding singularities. Literally anything will work but abundant, non-radioactive heavy elements like lead are ideal)
Moscovium 295 (generates anti-gravity / space-warp effects)
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Engines:
3x LT-2700 AWR (Alcubierre Warp Ring) gravity field amplifiers.
1,405 Hydrogen-Oxygen PTZT-31HO Vernier engines. (RCS)
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Main weapons payload:
22x Q-211 warp-guns.
Quad-mount Mk-86 WFA weapon system.
7x MK-8 PDG-5 "Thunderwell" Planetary Defense Guns.
20x RG-6 FHPCs
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Secondary Weapons payload:
105 STS-145 missile tubes
21x
DDS-2 500mm RKKV launchers.
2x
25 meter DU drop rod batteries.
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Tertiary Weapons payload:
24x CIWS-86M point defense guns.
8x
DDL-14 250mm RKKV launchers
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Armor:
Graphene-reinforced, triple redundant titanium hull.
Advanced ceramic-composite battle plating.
Shields: High output primary and secondary shield grid, tertiary emergency shield grid.
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Countermeasures:
Full-spectrum cloaking system
Advanced ECM.
Chaff and flare dispensers.
"analog" fire-control systems. (computer-guidance is of course the norm, the analog systems are a redundancy.)
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Sensors and scanners:
1x twenty-meter binocular telescope. (used to look at things. It can read your texts off your phone screen from orbit in perfect clarity. It can also do Night vision, X-ray, and FLIR.)
Starlite Aerospace MK-2 TMBT.
15x EDAR-721/A7 scanning system suites. (Used to detect sub-light ships or "Static" objects such as asteroids, planets, or space stations at great distance in real time.)
81x _Tesseract_-L54 hyperspace scanning nodes (used to detect and track ships moving faster than light)
500+ Automatic scanning pods. These can be anything from RADAR nodes, to plasma wave scanners and even simple radios
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