Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
Mr. ManyWorks: Rest assured, I will not ruin Luke like Disney did. The reason for his disappearance has only minor similarities, but will be vastly different for the most part.
MatbeK01: That lack of information is on purpose. Can't reveal all my secrets at once :) No, the Resurgent class was built before Jacen defected. As for him killing Snoke...maybe. We'll see
Rico: I'm not familair with that scalem so I'll get back to you. As for Elon Musk being involved in starship design, yes, he was, but at this point in the timeline, he's dead. Also, Jaina will not be marrying Jagged Fel. I'm not going to actually show her marrying anyone in this story. You'll see why later.
MangoWango21: Don't worry, Anakin will not be going to the dark side.
Banzai Bill 28: No, no special reason. He just wasn't on the mission. He's still very much alive and a member of the Jedi.
Ke-Pa: I won't be including the vong in this story, I promise that.
thalesaugusto20061: I know. I'm extremely familiar with Brazil and even speak some Portuguese (very little, so don't ask me to demonstrate). I know thats the correct way to write it. I just didn't know how to do it on my computer.
Chapter 7- Strength of the Fleet
(April 26, 2049)
In the headquarters on the Terran Starfleet in Norfolk, Virginia, a receptionist is sitting at the front desk, typing away at her keyboard, sorting some visitor records from the last few days before submitting them to records.
The receptionist hears the doors open. Thinking it's just another arrival, she says, "Welcome to Starfleet Headquarters. How can I help you?"
"I think I know my way around," a voice responds with some slight humor.
The receptionist jolts her head up, and finds herself staring into the face of Jonathan Page. "Oh, sorry. My apologies, Admiral. Yes, I'm sure you know where to go," she says.
"Thank you. Have a good day, Amelia," Jonathan says before he walks past the front desk into the building.
Jonathan smiles a bit as he walks down the halls of the building. Jonathan is now 65 and is now a Fleet Admiral in the Starfleet. Jonathan had insisted on staying in the cockpit as commander of the Hammer Squadron until he was 51 years old. He had tried to stay in the squadron for longer, arguing that Giora Epstein had flown until he was 59, but the Admiralty told him he was getting too old and ordered him out of the cockpit. So, Jonathan had finally left flight duty. However, he had been immediately promoted to Rear Admiral and assigned the position of vice commander of the Starfighter Corps.
Since then, Jonathan had continued serving in various leadership roles, refusing to retire. During his early years as an admiral, he had spent a lot of time with Grand Admiral Thrawn, who had retired by then, and had learned a lot from the Chiss. Now, at 65, he is now the head of the Admiralty and one of the most capable tacticians and strategists the Alliance has to offer.
Today, he is here at the headquarters to attend a meeting with the Admrialty, after which he'll be leaving on a trip offworld to inspect the Starfleet's Project Starfire.
Jonathan makes his way through the halls of the building and up to the second floor until he reaches the main meeting hall where the Admiralty has their meetings. Jonathan enters the room, and finds nine of the other eleven admirals on the Admiralty are already there.
"Jonathan," one of the other admirals says, standing up and shaking Jonathan's hand.
"Kim," Jonathan greets the Korean admiral in return.
Soon enough, the remaining two admirals, including the vice chair of the Admiralty, a British Fleet Admiral named Arthur Thomas, arrive in the chamber. Jonathan of course greets the two arrivals, and then calls for the Admiralty to take their seats so the meeting can begin.
Once all of the admirals have taken their seats, Jonathan begins to speak, "Welcome, everyone. Well, let's begin. I believe the first topic of discussion on our agenda for today is current ship assignments in the Milky Way Fleet."
"Yes, Admiral Page. I have put together the most recent lists as to which ships are assigned to which fleets," one of the admirals says, pulling out a holoprojector and setting it on the table. It brings up a list of the various fleets and what ships are assigned to each one.
Similar to navies on Earth, especially the US Navy, the Terran Starfleet was divided into various fleets. The two main divisions were the Andromeda Fleet and the Milky Way Fleet, which referred to which ships were deployed in either galaxy. From there, each main fleet was subdivided into smaller fleets. The Andromeda Fleet was subdivided into 5 numbered fleets, each of which fell under the command of a specific admiral and was assigned a certain task. The Milky Way Fleet was divided into 8 numbered fleets, the Starfleet's Reserve Fleet, and the Home Fleet, which was specifically assigned the defense of Earth itself.
The projection brought up shows the Home Fleet and the 8 numbered fleets of the Milky Way Fleet, as well as which classes of ships are deployed in each fleet and how many of each are deployed in each fleet. Most ships are deployed in the 5th, 9th, and 10th Fleets, which are the fleets responsible for the sectors where most of the fighting of the Grysk War is occuring. Looking at the list, Jonathan privately reflects that at the current time, the Home Fleet is the smallest it has been in decades due to the need for ships on the front lines.
"I see," Jonathan says.
One of the other admirals, Admiral Antonio Campos from Brazil, who is one of the admirals responsible for helping to oversee the operations of the Andromeda Fleet, leans forward and speaks up, "Admiral Page, I have received a request from Admiral Tanaka. As you will remember from our recent Andromeda council, the First Order has become more aggressive in recent months. What particularly alarms him is recent New Republic moves to pull more of their fleet towards their capitol on Hosnian Prime and the Core worlds."
"Yes, of course," Page answers.
"Admiral Tanaka has asked that we be willing to spare at least one small task force to reinforce the Andromeda Fleet. Admiral Tanaka hopes that by showing we are bringing more vessels to Andromeda and are gearing up for war, it might deter the First Order from attacking, at least for a little while. He formally requested we be willing to spare one battlecruiser, at least 6 Star Destroyers, and two assault ships," Admiral Campos says.
There is quiet for a few moments before one of the other admirals says, "Admiral Page, this might be possible. As you know, the battle for the planet of Theseus-4 recently ended with the complete destruction of the Grysk battle fleet over the planet, and the battle for Ploria has been seeing heavy ship losses among the Grysk's fleet. With the number of ships we have committed to the fight and the recent success of our newest nuclear missiles, I believe we can afford to spare the ships that Admiral Tanaka has requested."
Jonathan considers the matter for a moment before he says, "I agree. What does the rest of this council say?"
The other admirals nod or give confirmations of agreement. "Very well. I'll send orders to draw the requested ships from the 5th Fleet. We'll alert Admiral Tanaka his request has been granted," Jonathan says. He is quiet before he says, "Alright. Now, moving on to…"
(April 27, 2049)
On the bridge of the heavy cruiser Kamino, Jonathan watches as the Terran Star Forge approaches. Jonathan had taken the Kamino as his transport to visit the Star Forge.
"Alright, sit tight, Admiral. We're almost there," the man at the helm says.
The helmsman manuevers the Kamino towards a specific section of the Star Forge. This section is a special area of the Star Forge that is used for special projects. Commonly, new ship designs were first produced here, as well as experimental craft. This is an area where less of the work on any ships being built is done automatically by the Star Forge, and shipyard workers and droids spend more time helping to build them. This is where Project Starfire is located.
"Alright, call them. Let them know we're on approach," Jonathan says.
Within a few seconds, the radioman gets on the radio and contacts the Star Forge. "Star Forge gate control, this is cruiser TAS Kamino. We are on approach to Construction Bay 1. Request that you open the doors," the radioman says.
After a moment, the call comes over the radio to the cruiser, "TAS Kamino, this is Star Forge gate control. Copy that. Opening the gate now."
Up ahead, on the surface of the Star Forge, a massive gate begins to open into the construction bay, big enough for the cruiser to enter. The helmsman guides the cruiser carefully towards the opening, and within a minute or so, the cruiser has entered the Star Forge.
As the cruiser enters the construction bay, Jonathan walks up to the viewport and looks out at the dark hull of the massive ship being constructed in the bay. The most secret project the Starfleet was engaged in, and also the most powerful ship they had ever attempted to build. The massive Super Star Destroyer TAS Enterprise.
The Enterprise was a project that had been underway off and on for almost 20 years before construction finally began on the ship. The design was in fact not a Terran one, but an Imperial one. Unlike previous Terran designs that simply took heavy influence from Imperial/Republic designs, the Enterprise was an Imperial design that the Alliance built themselves.
The original Imperial design data had been stolen from the Empire by the Zulu Force during a raid on an Imperial data archive on the planet Ansion in 2017. Originally, when under Imperial development, the ship was known as the Eclipse. It was a Super Star Destroyer far beyond anything that had been built before, and was intended to replace the Executor class ship of the same name as Emperor Palpatine's flagship upon its completion, at which time the Executor class Eclipse would be renamed. The construction had originally been planned to begin shortly after the Death Star's completion. But, with the Death Star's destruction and the start of the war with the Alliance, the construction of the Eclipse was put on the backburner, to the point where the construction was only about 8% complete when Kuat was captured, and the little portion that had been built was scrapped for other purposes, especially since the Kuat engineers erased the records of the Eclipse's design data.
After the war, the Alliance studied the design data for the Eclipse stolen from Ansion. They discovered that the design called for a ship somewhat reminiscent of naval warships. Although far less heavily armed than an Executor in terms of turbolasers and other such weapons, the Eclipse made up for this by a superlaser built into the ship along its center with about half of the power of the Death Star's superlaser.
The Alliance had played with the design over time, slightly modifying it and adding more regular weapons, but never attempted to build it until the early 2040s. In 2041, with the beginning of the Grysk War and the threat from the First Order, the Alliance decided to build the design for themself.
The design had been modified at this point, though mostly just in terms of its weapons. The design was officially christened the TAS Enterprise. The Enterprise was visually identical to the original Imperial design. It's bow was reinforced with the strongest metal that could be found, allowing to serve as an effective battering ram. However, the Alliance made some significant changes to the Enterprise's weapons compared to the original Imperial design. They had more than doubled the ship's external weapons array, with a total of 1,250 various turbolaser batteries, 250 ion cannons, 250 laser CIWS mounts, 100 Space Sparrow missile launchers, 150 Starhawk cruise missile launchers, and 20 railguns. The Enterprise also maintained the superlaser of the original Imperial design. However, due to the Alliance's goal for the superlaser, it had slightly less power than the original Imperial design. However, it made up for it with a slightly better targeting system and a better recharge time. As the Alliance mainly intended the superlaser to be an anti-ship weapon, these changes made it even more effective in its role. The Enterprise was also equipped with more advanced shield generators, though at the cost of 6 of the gravity well projectors in the Imperial design. The Enterprise's gravity wells were also less powerful and had less range
The Enterprise had begun construction in 2042. Now, after almost 7 years, the ship was finally almost ready to be commissioned. The Alliance hoped that once the ship was completed, it would prove a linchpin in turning the tide of war against the Grysk and serve as a greater deterrent against the First Order's aggression, though they intended to keep the existence of the superlaser built into the ship as secret as possible to capitalize on the shock effect of the use of the weapon.
The Kamino moves to dock within the bay, and Jonathan disembarks. As he starts walking towards the control center overlooking the construction bay to speak with the foreman, Jonathan continues to look down at the massive form of the Enterprise, allowing a smile to cross his face. The Enterprise will be the Starfleet's crowning achievement, and with luck, be a crucial part of bringing peace to both galaxies.
And, I'll end there.
I hope you like seeing Jonathan as the head of the Admiralty. I thought it was only fitting for someone of his caliber.
Now, I got quite a few questions in The Terran Alliance Strikes Back as to why I hadn't named a starfighter carrier Enterprise. This is the reason. From the beginning of The Terran Alliance Strikes Back, I had planned for the Alliance to eventually build their own version of the Eclipse named Enterprise. We will see the Enterprise in action a fair bit throughout this story. And, for those wondering, no, Enterprise will be a one of a kind ship, with no sister ships.
Next chapter will be up soon. Until it is up, please leave a review, and stay tuned!