Earth's Orbit:
Captain Drofa Haffard watched as the shuttle approached his new command, the Los Angeles class heavy cruiser Moscow. It was the first of the new class, commissioned only a month ago. Over 800 meters in length, some had called it a supercruiser, or even a battlecruiser.
This last term slightly confused Haffard, as the galactic standard would make a battlecruiser thousands of meters long and larger than an Imperial Star Destroyer. But Earth had its own logic to warship classifications, which made more sense than the convoluted Anaxes system. In the old waterborne navies of Earth, a battlecruiser had been a battleship with thinner armor and therefore faster speeds. While a relic of a bygone age in naval warfare, the term became more useful as the size of Earth's ships grew and grew.
Physically its front looked like the nose of a Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser, with a heavily armored box-shaped forward section. Its hull spread out along both the right and left sides, however, giving it more internal volume. This spread out and narrowed in thickness even further at the rear of the ship, giving it the appearance of wings. This larger horizontal size meant that more of the ship's weapons could provide forward firepower.
The ship carried a diverse loadout of weaponry, with a larger focus on ion and missile systems. 30 quad heavy turbolasers gave the ship half the turbolaser output of an Imperial Class, but the centerpiece of its armaments was a single forward-mounted heavy ion cannon. With a maximum power output close to a planetary defense cannon, it was capable of disabling many ships or punching through their shields for some time. To exploit that breakthrough, two dozen missile and torpedo tubes gave it the ability to cause damage to a ship's hull. It also featured a decent network of secondary medium and light turbolasers to deal with smaller capital ships. The designers had not forgotten an array of point defense cannons to deal with starfighters and missiles. Perhaps most important, its fire control was highly computerized and automated. This allowed for more accurate targeting at range as well as requiring far fewer crewmen to man the guns.
The ship's shielding and armor were both extensive for its size and provided it high quality of protection. The designers had borrowed the philosophy of Mon Cala shipwrights when it came to shielding, that a network of smaller, more redundant shield generators was better than a single central projector. This network contained both ray and particle shields, allowing the ship to be well protected against both energy weapons and physical objects. This would make it difficult to incapacitate the shielding of the craft. Its armor also provided another level of protection against incoming fire, though this was a secondary defense.
Many of the internal systems of the ship were heavily computerized, allowing for a crew of only about 2,000, which was low for a ship of its size. This internal size allowed it to hold 48 starfighters and a dozen shuttles and troop transports. With a fast class 1 hyperdrive, it had a faster than light speed to keep up with the fastest warships in the galaxy. All of these factors meant the ship could easily take on any Imperial cruiser and even some smaller star destroyers like the Victory Class.
While some might see the reassignment of Haffard as a demotion as he had previously commanded both the captured Imperial Star Destroyer Impassable and the newer revenge, he had been assigned to this ship to undertake a special mission deep into Imperial space. He was going to meet the leader of the Free Confederacy to help coordinate the upcoming offensive and escort the diplomatic team that would establish relations with them. Haffard would also gather intelligence on the position of Imperial fleets in the sector. Both Harrington and Johnson had not wanted to send a larger ship such as a captured star destroyer, so this would be the ship sent.
Entering the ship's ventral hangar, the Captain was pleased with the quality of the ship's design. Nothing looked out of place and the crew seemed to be attending their duties with all haste. The ship would be getting underway in under 6 hours, so there was a lot to be done.
"Do you wish for me to take your bag to your quarters, Captain?" A marine saluted as he stepped off the shuttle.
"That won't be necessary, Corporal. Return to your post."
Haffard noticed another officer who saluted as he looked towards him. He was medium height with brown hair and piercing blue eyes.
"Welcome aboard the Moscow, sir." It was Commander Sheffield Harris, the ship's executive officer. An englishman in his late 20s, he had formerly been an officer in the Royal Navy before being among the first of the now many air and naval personnel trained to fight in space.
Haffard returned the salute and produced a hand. "It's good to finally meet you Commander."
"Indeed. Same for you." He replied as they walked out of the hangar and into a corridor.
"Is there anything to report so far?" He asked his xo.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Most of the crew and supplies are aboard, and we will be receiving the diplomatic team in about an hour." He replied. The team sent by secretary Pierre would be negotiating with the leadership of the Free Confederacy.
"Good, I will take my things to my quarters then meet you on the bridge." He said, walking off to his quarters.
After unloading his stuff, he made his way to the bridge. It was clean and spartan, with a number of consoles and the computers on the walls being manned by crew members. The center of the ship had a large console and a holoprojector for the senior officers to strategize and discuss the ongoing events of a battle.
"Captain on the Bridge." One of the officers called and the remaining crew saluted and stood at attention. Haffard dismissed them and told them to get back to work. There were several other officers he hadn't met standing in at the central projector. They all began to introduce
"Commander Stacy Greene, CAG reporting for duty sir." (commander air group) A medium height blond haired woman said.
"Captain Nathanile Brown, marine commander." A tall dark skinned male reported, with an accent that Haffard guessed was Australian.
"Lieutenant Deluge is in engineering making sure all the ship's systems are in order and ready to go." Harris said.
"I can meet him later. It is more important that the ship is ready."
For the next hour the ship was readied for departure as last minute preparations were finished. Calibrating the internal compensators, securing ammunition for the missile tubes, and a divisional roll call to make sure everyone was present and accounted for.
"Captain the diplomatic team's shuttle is approaching, estimated time to arrival is five minutes." The ship's communication officer reported, expressionless.
"Thank you for the information, Lieutenant." Haffard turned to Harris and Greene. "Let's go meet our guests."
Once arriving in the ship's hangar bay they waited several minutes, observing the complex operations. Flight personnel helped guide fighters and shuttles to smaller bays on the sides of the hangar where they were kept for maintenance. Cargo recently offloaded from shuttles was moved to specialized bays for it to be stored. The bay ray horizontally across the entire ship, meaning a fighter or shuttle could hypothetically fly right through each end.
Soon the diplomatic shuttle arrived. It was a modified version of the new MKII shuttle suited for high-profile diplomatic guests. Two men and two women got out, with three of them appearing to be aides to the women in the lead.
Sophia Lyon stepped out of the comfortable shuttle with her three aides in tow. The young french woman had personally served as an aide and later advisor to now Secretary-General Pierre when he had been an internationally renowned political advisor. This service had continued once he had become the Secretary-General, with the frequency and challenge of his assignments only increasing. She had found herself traveling across the globe, speaking with leaders of nations from Japan to Botswana and convincing them to support giving their national resources to help fight the Empire. She had been present when Earth had negotiated with the rebel alliance, but this would be the first time she led the effort to gain the support of a leader outside Earth.
Despite having only a modicum of knowledge of the operations on this hanger, she strode confidently up to the senior officers congregated near the corridor out of there. She was by all accounts attractive, with sun-tanned skin and piercing blue eyes. An advantage that she had often used in her negotiations, but one she never fully gave in to. She was more content to have the bids for her service and the multitude of thoughtful (but often eccentric) gifts increased. The higher everyone else offered for her diplomatic services, the more Pierre would give her.
"Captain Haffard, it is a pleasure to meet you." She said with a soft smile while reaching out her hand. The file she had read on him had been fascinating and much of the information extracted during his interrogation about the inner workings of the Empire had been unparalleled in accuracy especially when backed up by information given by the Alliance.
He shook it as well. "It is good to meet you as well." He then proceeded to introduce some of the senior officers, who all exchanged normal pleasantries with her. She and her aides then brought their bags to their quarters, ones that had been specifically prepared for them.
A few hours later after the ship was underway, she was invited to come to the Captain's quarters to discuss the upcoming mission. Arriving at the room, she found herself in an organized but spartan living area. Haffard sat in one chair, motioning her to another next to him.
"Would you like a drink Ms. Lyon." He offered her. Since she didn't have a formal role, s is he could not be addressed by any kind of rank.
"No thank you, Captain. I believe you wanted to discuss the upcoming mission with me." She knew that Haffard was an all business type of person, and decided against trying to make any kind of small talk with him.
The captain moved over to a computer and pressed a few buttons, showing a map of the Zoloch sector with parts of others littered about as well. Some of the lines were colored, showing a path.
"To avoid the Empire, we will be traveling on these yellow lines. Due to this it will take about four days to reach our destination. I do not know anything about the Free Confederacy or it's leadership that is not in their file, but I can unequivocally say that there is some suspicion about us."
"Such suspicion is natural. They are meeting us for the first time." She replied.
"What do you intend to pursue during the negotiations?" He asked.
"Establishing diplomatic relations will be first. There will be some planning for the upcoming offensive, which I hope you can take the lead in as I am not an officer. Once the territory is occupied we will need to come up with a way to divide it, and figure out which one of us will be controlling it. If we need additional bargaining power I intend to offer them arms." She stated neutrally.
"That seems like a good start, considering we know little about their capabilities. Do you anticipate any problems with them?" He asked.
"Everything and nothing. We could be walking in a trap or establish a long lasting partnership. In diplomacy we generally know a lot more about who we are negotiating with and how we can do this." Lyon said, sighing.
"Well we will have to see what is presented to us. Make yourself comfortable ma'am, since it will take us a few days to get to our destination." Haffard said. "Are there any other concerns you have?" He asked.
"None currently. Thank you for your time, Captain. She said, departing the room."
Lyon was intrigued by Haffard. There was a reason why he had risen to become one of the senior most captains in the fleet, He was efficient, hardworking, and had the dI S D ain for internal politics that Admiral Johnson had. It was natural for him to be where he was.
But there was something else to him that worried her. Besides his morals and ideological conviction against the Empire, what kept him motivated to fight for Earth. Duty, honor, discipline, and maybe money, but money could be gained at a higher rate elsewhere. If things went south, she was worried about what the ex Imperials would do if given the chance. And he didn't have any real connections to this place that would make him stay, like a family, spouse or close friends. He needed to become more invested in this planet.
And she knew just who could make him.