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14976^th Royal Battleship Squadron Commonwealth Navy

 History and Log Book of the the "Liberator" Battleship Squadron

"Freedom is what we leave.  Terror is what we bring."

(Squadron Composition)

Squadron Commander Admiral Michael Nogueira, Royal Navy.

 By Steve Dinis

sdinis@worldnet.att.net or xxfltcom@yahoo.com

4 Campbell Rd

Stoneham, MA 02180

 Squadron Log

 2 January 6832

Well I haven’t written one of these in years so any mistakes are probably your own fault for not understanding. Anyway, in order to make this a complete account of the accolades and sorrows of the best crews and ships of the greatest battleship squadron ever created then I must include the story of how it came to be.

The date was 12 December 6831 and I was at my old command as Vice Lord of the Shannedam County Division of the Ministry of Naval Research and Development, a position that had as much worth as that of a captain’s steward. At the time I was in charge of the shipyards at (**************** Censored*************). I was "paper strategist." Many a pivotal battle was fought on my desk. That day I went to oversee the launching and maiden voyage of the third Republic Class Battleship at (****Top Secret****). I hitched a ride to the pre-launching ball in the mansion of the local Duke by corvette. It had been a long time since I had been on an interstellar transport that small. The Captain of the boat was a young lieutenant still wet behind the ears. The boy seemed to have asserted control of his small ship quite well and he was proud of that fact, unfortunately.

The ball had to have been one of the greatest wastes of 500 or so naval personnel’s time and talent that I have ever had the displeasure of being forced to attend. As usual I was the most senior officer present (at least in terms of years of service) and because of that I was coerced by a higher ranking officer into speaking on "how it was in the old days." Indeed, how I long for the time when I had been giving the orders and  sending thousands of TOG sailors to their deaths. The  ball saw many of the top ranking naval commanders in all of the Commonwealth wash away all the terrors and turmoil of the worst war this galaxy has ever seen (with the hardest liquor in the sector). 

The following morning was the launching ceremony. It wasn’t actually the first time she had been sailed. The ship had been moved from its construction yard to Harvest in the Rilus V system and had a high thrust trial near the construction yard as well. But this would be its maiden voyage, the voyage that would take her out into T-space and put her through the rigors of interstellar travel. This test would  see if she really was ship shape and Bristol fashion.

As in all ceremonies the most honoured guests take centre stage and since I gave the speech the previous night I was doomed to speak again in the morning. But this time it had to be brief, because the more time I spent the less time the Duke had to politicise the entire gathering. Well with that looming over my head I had one of my staff officers prepare a twenty four page speech comparing the different construction techniques used in the creation of the Republic Class and all other classes of battleships from Commonwealth to TOG and all in between.   I read it very slowly. Very slowly indeed. I must say that with that speech I must have been the first person in all of history to ever put the inhabitants of an entire quadrant to sleep. But it did not please a certain "deity," who because of his anger had unfortunately no control over a life long problem, stuttering. As he attempted to correct the problem by concentrated on the task, he got more and more nervous. Well the rest can be viewed on any holo-vid in the galaxy, to find it look under fool!

The moment finally arrived for the launching. Since I was to command the ship on this voyage I boarded her and went to the bridge immediately after my speech.   Thus I managed to both to brief the crew and avoid assassination from the Duke’s personal guard.

The crew was and still is the best in the entire galaxy. These sailors can man any ship in the entire navy, Commonwealth, TOG, Kess’rith, Baufrin, you name it they can fly it; from a fighter to a battleship. They could take a cardboard box, make it space-worthy and pilot it through T-space.

Everything was set and the old bag launched the ceremonial bottle of champagne at the ship. As soon as that damn bottle hit the side of the ship I yelled, "Master of the boat, all back full thrust make your heading niner eight zero mark five tree…all ahead full thrust…navigator make your calculations for minimum t-space entry speed on such course." There were a few "aye aye, admirals" all around and I watched the surprise on the faces of the dignitaries, as they wondered why the Liberator wasn't passing in review as scheduled. I couldn’t stay in that Sodom and Gomorra a moment longer. A pit full of officers that journey around the galaxy in search of another damn party to drink and have relations with men, women, aliens and oh God only knows what else. That may be a little too harsh but after attending that bash one would not be as kind as I was previously.

As we moved away from the planet two Gav’Rosk Class Cruisers, the CWS Hannibal and CWS Clancy along with the 1237^th Strike Squadron (a destroyer screen, under Commodore brevet Gistive) joined to escort us to Tiven where I would hand over command of her to her first captain. But before that could be  accomplished I was tasked with testing   out the FTL drive at 5 different entry speeds, test the ships hull at a sustained full thrust, and give the sensors and communications equipment a once over.

After we had accomplished the T-jumps we were mid way through the stress test when all hell breaks loose. Somehow Royal Navy Intelligence had not been able to keep our area of operations a secret. A full strength TOG aggressor squadron was approaching perpendicular to my port side. Now this could not have been luck. Somewhere there was a leak, a leak of great proportion. They approached in a wedge formation. The escorts forward of the main body and with no fighters deployed. I faced a Shiva and three Syracuse Cruisers along with an assortment of smaller craft. And that was when I decided that I would power up the weapons and turn the ship into the on-rushing squadron. At that moment I felt something in my heart that had been missing for what felt like an eternity.  Unfortunately there is no one word I can use to describe the sensation. It was like what you experience when meeting a superior opponent on the playing field but instead of conceding the obvious defeat you face him with the belief that you have a chance to win.

That was what I felt as I started yelling out "Helmsman hard to port…Master of the boat make your heading two tree niner mark eight six and go to full thrust. Tom get on the weapons console and start booting up the fire control systems…Jane go down to the mount’s coil control room, take 20 crewmen from anywhere and get that on line! Attention to orders throughout the ship, this is the admiral speaking, all personnel red alert, battle stations, battle stations! Move to your assigned areas now! This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill!"