This is in the same universe as my previous Lunar Incydent and Diplomacy and Spies.
Prologue – Unexpected Aggression
Location: Ypres Colony, Theodosia System, 2148 May=
The Ypres Colony was a small colony of just 10,000 people and yokai. They mainly made their living from mining Quantium-40 and had only one Regula I-type space station so that civilian ships could refuel and so that the new resources could be transferred.
Quantium-40 was highly desirable for powering the Jump-Gate and generally as a good energy resource. Regula I-type was the most frequently seen station in Federation space. Tiny, barely 100 meters high, and 40 meters in circumference, it consisted of 2 main sections. A nearly circular command and quarters booth on top and a cylinder with a fusion reactor attached and a place for loading. Between these sections were 3 hangers to which one of several modules could be attached, or ships could be docked directly. There was research, storage, habitation, and other things. In this case, there was only one storage module.
As for defensive capabilities, only 4 Phase cannons and weak shields. But the crew could only consist of 5 personnel and still operate at full capacity.
Thanks to contacts with Dac Monarchy and the rest of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, they had many large merchant ships that could move several of these stations at once.
"Damn these fairies." - said Officer Amara as she entered the command deck from the shuttle she had just arrived in - "I really don't know how they can just prank anyone, no matter what. It drives me crazy."
"Well, they're technically children." - said the station commander, Karlos - "You can't be too hard on them. It's not like they're attacking you or anything."
Amara simply bit her tongue and went to her console. Someone had to be on the bridge at all times, and now it was Amara and Karlos. Only two people, but in most cases it would be enough. Besides, the shuttle from the planet to the station would only take 10-15 minutes depending on the weather.
"So, anything interesting before I got here?" - Amara asked.
"No." - Karlos quickly added "Civilian transports are supposed to show up in... 10 hours. So it'll be after your and my shift. Also. Simonis fixing something at the reactor now. Apparently, the connectors to gun number 3 are down."
"So I'll be bored here for the next 8 hours." - Amara said and sat down in a chair, then turned on her phone and started browsing the internet.
"Fun at work?" - Karlos asked, artificially nervous.
"I'll take the job if they give me one." - Amara replied, not even looking at Karlos - "I joined the navy to do something interesting, not sit in this backwater. They said I'd see new worlds and meet new people. Even aliens. We've been in contact with them for 5 years, and I still haven't seen a single one! If only I could get a place in Arcturus, or Sol, or any of the stations near the border, maybe I could see and do something. And here, I'm just bored."
"You didn't miss much." - Simon stated, they boarded - "They're not much different from us. When you meet him for the first time, you're like, 'Oh, crap, he's an alien,' and then you talk for a few minutes, and it's all the same. And there's nothing like a moment of peace. Believe me, something breaks and wears out all the time at the border. And here, it's only once a month."
"I see you fixed our cannon." - Karlos stated. "Meh, the wire just had a slight scratch. Probably when Julka fell. A quick cable replacement, and it can be fixed in a minute or two, but I'll do it on the next shift. That'll be tomorrow."
Amara still didn't care, looking through her phone, but suddenly something beeped on the console. She looked at it and suddenly put the phone away and said - "We have incoming through the gate."
Karlos went to his station, and Simon to another.
"Sir, we have some ship that entered the system. Unknown and damaged." - Amara finished, unconsciously adopting a more military tone, instead of a normal one.
"Not good." - Karlos said, rubbing a small stain - "Damaged ships are never good information. Amara, keep an eye on the scans. I want to know if they even sneeze. Simon, prepare shields and cannons but don't load them. This station may scare off a gang of pirates, but anyway, it's our death."
"Shouldn't we send them a first contact package?" asked Szymon.
"I'm doing that now." - replied Karlos - "I'll remind you that for the station to operate at full capacity, we need at least 5 people, not 3. For now, focus on weapons and scanners, I'll take care of communications. Also, information to command and a request for ships... of course, there's nothing in the area!"
"What about the group over Roman colony?" - asked Amara.
"These are ships from the Garrison Fleet." - replied Simon - "To get here, they have to return to Arcturus and then reach us. The nearest patrol is a few hours away, and that's if we're lucky."
"So maybe we'll get lucky in First Contact instead." - said Karlos, smiling while looking at his console - "We got a response. I'll send it to the command to take care of it and maybe we'll have a good time."
"Good." - Amara said. After a moment of staring into space, she asked - "And why is the Jump-gate so close to the planet? Shouldn't it be a bit further?"
"Originally it was, but we dragged it out." - Karlos replied - "Most of our ships are slow and can't do intra-system FTL where they like, like any other race, so in order to make mining properly profitable, we had to move the Jump-gate here."
"Actually, that's not entirely true." - Simon said - "Inter-system FTL using Hyperdrive can only be done in appropriate hyper-lanes, which means traveling from one gravity source to another. Like planets, moons, etc."
"Well, that's why the fleet is switching to Warp drive." - said Karlos - "Although I still don't understand why we have such small ships compared to the rest of the Galaxy. I mean, our largest, Yorktown-class battlecruisers are, what... 300 meters long."
"A single Mon Calamari battleship requires at least 40 times more resources than a single Yorktown." - said Simon - "And then you have to add the cost of the crew, maintenance, where to dock it, the shipyards to build it... overall, one such ship will cost us as much as at least 100 of ours. Believe me, it's not worth it. At least not for the next few decades. Maybe later, when we have a larger infrastructure or an actual need to build such huge warships. Especially since torpedoes do the same damage, no matter if fired from a dreadnought or a corvette."
"But we have merchant ships that size."
"Because it's engines, cockpit, and empty space for everything that will be carried. And even then they are only profitable for the Army because they can transport an entire division at once, and when contacting large colonies and home worlds. So for us only Terra."
"Guys." - Amara said suddenly - "We have another signal from the gate. It's opening again. And this ship is running away from the gate."
They both stopped talking and started looking at the screen that Amara displayed. From the camera zoom, you could see a blue vortex and 5 ships emerging from it. All of them were the size of a large frigate and had the shape of an ellipse with a smooth back with engines, and a small compartment at the front. It was green and orange and had many blocky elements. They had several visible places for weapons.
Which they quickly put to use and destroyed the first ship.
"That's not good." - Amara said.
Karlos did not answer. Instead, he began working on his console to try and get in touch with these new aliens, send a message to command, and order the evacuation of the population if it turned out that the group of heavily armed ships that had just taken out another ship were hostile.
Within moments, these ships changed course and headed straight for the station.
"Karlos!" - Amara shouted in panic.
He could already see what she wanted and replied, "I'm trying to communicate with them, but they're not responding. This is very bad."
"Shields and phasers are at 100% power." - Simon said, checking the consoles - "If they want us, we won't go down without a fight."
Karlos just sighed and said - "Then we probably won't live another few minutes. Amara, continue scanning and find everything. Armor alloys, room layout, gun emplacements, anything you can. I'll keep the data coming as long as I can... They're jamming us!"
"Ships are increasing power!"
Five ships fired green bolts directly at the small station. The station responded with red phaser beams. Seconds later, the green bolts instantly annihilated the station's shields and destroyed it, while the phasers managed to hit and slightly damage one of the frigates. After that, the ships maintained their course for Ypres.
=Codex=
Terran Federation Navy
The successor to the System Alliance fleet, it is the main combat and exploration force of the Terran Federation. It maintains the old Garrison and MassEffect fleets, but the Warp fleet has undergone modernization with the addition of new ship models, and a general expansion in quantity, and the installation of new weapons. At the same time, a new reserve fleet has been created.
-Reserve Fleet-
This is a strategic reserve of warships and pirate ships that the Terrans have captured in anti-piracy warfare or simply pulled from wrecks. Most of the ships are technologically superior to the Garrison and MassEffect Fleet ships, but are of low quality. Despite this, it is combat capable, if very limited. Its main use, however, is to train new cadets so that they have as much real experience as possible in combat with ships of this type.
-Battle Fleet-
Added ship classes[1:
Hunter-class frigate – A new frigate based on the Delta-class. Equipped with a cloaking devise and new plasma phasers, it is a fast ship that attacks enemy convoys alone or in small groups. However, the energy and space required significantly reduced the number of standard phase cannons and required the addition of an additional pair of Warp Necels so that it could operate behind enemy lines for extended periods.
Oberon-class cruiser – A cruiser based on the NX-class. Instead of doing something new, it simply improves on the old. By removing the additional exploration elements from the NX-class and expanding the hull, space was gained for 2 additional phase cannons to add to its growing arsenal. As a result, it is a cheaper ship than the NX and easier to build and maintain, although it no longer has the same exploration capabilities as its predecessor.
Cassandra-class torpedo cruiser – Another ship based on the NX-class. From the outside it closely resembles the Oberon-class, but the details lie in its internal design. Its armament of phase cannons has been reduced to just 8, the same as the Intrepid-class, but it has 10 torpedo launchers and can store 480 of them, a significant improvement over the Poseidon-class[2].
Yorktown-class battlecruiser - The most powerful ship in service with the Terran Federation. Built as a command ship for large groups of ships, it has some of the best communication systems and a fearsome arsenal that allows it to attack far beyond its class while maintaining speeds that allow it to outpace all ships in its weight class. It is the best ship created by the Terrans to date.
-Exploration Fleet-
Added ship classes:
Daedalus-class - Originally planned as a troop transport and cheap warship, it quickly became unpopular due to its lack of armament and inside-space. It was eventually replaced by imported models of ships from Dac Monarchy, but still found its uses as a Research ship, where weak armament is not a problem, and a small space becomes much more spacious when you don't have to transport hundreds of soldiers in one go. In case of trouble, it can serve as a medical ship, or even land on a planet and be a well-equipped hospital and laboratory.
-Exploration Fleet-
No new ship classes
New weapons:
-Plasma phasers-A weapon made in cooperation with the Gungan Council. It works based on the standard principle of phase cannons, but adding plasma to it significantly increases its impact. The weapon is extremely expensive and requires a lot of space, which is why it is spinal mounted for only some Federation warships.
New formations:
-Battlecruiser group-A group built around the Yorktown-class. This is the basic Terran Federation war formation built to combat potential enemies (Pantorans, Zigerrians and Trade). There are currently 12 of these permanent groups formed.
Composition:
1 Yorktown-class
4 Oberon-class
4 Cassandra-class
8 Intrepid-class
15 Delta-class
-Pirate Hunters- Groups of ships sent specifically to track groups of pirate ships. They are formed according to a certain pattern.
Composition:
1 Oberon-class/Casandra-class
3 Intrepid-class
11 Delta-class
-Heavy Patrol- Patrols sent to the borders of the Gungan Council and Sulustan Federation to intercept any pirate groups.
Composition:
1 Oberon-class
2 Intrepid-class
6 Delta-class
-Light Patrol- Small groups of ships patrolling the borders of the Terran Federation. They make sure there are no unauthorized activations of relays, Jump-gates or hyperlane mappings.
Composition:
1 Intrepid-class
3 Delta-class
[1]Classes are from Earth Starfleet - Earth - Romulan starships by zagoreni010, model made by jbobroony
[2]I am referring to the Posjedon-class as seen in The Romulan War: A Star Trek Fan Production, not the earlier image.
