Starsurfer
Since the very beginning, man has looked to the stars in both wonder and fear. Navigators were able to sail the world by them, farmers used them to know when the weather would change.
Religion's were made, and forgotten. Cultures built great, stone monuments to track and record their movements. Since the day Galileo first turned his telescope to the handle of the Big Dipper, Astronomers have studied them.
When mankind first began to venture deeper into the Solar System in the mid 2020s, they looked to the nearest stars and wondered, even as they moved across interplanetary space, well on their way to colonize Mars or the Moon.
The Mons-class of explorers, first launched in 2056 in the midst of a global world war, and shortened the journey for crewed missions greatly, down to around 30-70 days. Even with these new, faster ships. It would still take such a vessel thousands of years to reach the nearest star system.
We could see them, we could study them. But we could never touch them.
In 2077, eccentric billionaire roboticist Alex Kincaid brought the first sapient android "CJ" Kincaid online in an attempt to resurrect his deceased son; He failed, but in his failure created a new form of life. And with it's creation, a new species of "Human" now looked to the stars with the same wonder and longing.
With the help of CJs ability to take in massive amounts of data and intuit it in ways regular computers cannot, combined with the most powerful supercomputers ever built, Alex Kincaid funded the Starsurfer Initiative. CJ had an ability to process information in a very unique way. Human thought patterns inside a computer made for some interesting, and creative concepts.
As such, he was put in charge of the project and designed much of the ship himself. Something he found to be a very therapeutic as it was as far away from the battlefields and combat he had spent much of the previous decade in.
It took years of hard work, but in the fall of 2097, everything was finally ready to be launched, but only days before construction was to begin, CJ changed the design to include a large internal hanger, eight new windows, and instead of the bare-metal finish they had initially planned. The ship would now be pained with a glossy white base and a subtle, two-tune blue paintjob and include several new interior changes and additions.
It would take another three months for reprogramming and re-tooling of the custom built mill made to mill out the massive, forged steel rings used to make up the bulk of the inner-hull. Many believed that the ship was some kind of investor scam, as the scientific consensus was still that warp travel was at least theoretically possible, but still well beyond the capabilities of humanity.
Even with the recent reveal of the electrograviticlly propelled "Black Widow" prototype first-gen starfighter; There were still plenty that insisted we would likely never have the knowledge necessary to design, so much construct a drive. Not only that, but the method of using such a heavy vessel made from solid, milled stainless steel seemed beyond ridiculous and expensive to pretty much everyone, making some potential investors very nervous.
The naysayers where quickly silenced on the morning of October 6th, 2199 when during a livestream watched by over a billion people, Starsurfers' Alcubierre-White Ring charged up, and what would soon become a common sight within the Sol System; Cherenkov radiation emitted from the exhaust slots spread across the inside of the drive ring.
In a flash, space appeared to bend around the ship for a brief instant before the ship disappeared into the blackness at unimaginable speed, she seemed to be traveling backwards and forwards at once. On her first run, Starsurfer reached a top speed of FTL 1.0167.
Starsurfers shakedown cruise would make her the first ship to visit every single planetary body within the Sol System in a single mission. Completing the entire tour in under a week. 4 days to be exact. Completing the mission by collecting tholin and core samples of both Pluto and Charon before returning home to Earth.
After a short but detailed examination of the ship, CJ insisted they set out again on a mission of his own planning. This time, they would located and intercept the Voyager-1 probe and both restore power by attaching a new power source, as well as adding a more modern, more efficient transmitted. Though most of the probes original function would remain offline, attitude control and basic telemetry would come back online.
Shortly after in 2102, the Mi'arr species' massive, intergalactic ark became public knowledge and Starsurfer was outfit with several nuclear missiles. In a brilliant maneuver, three Mons-class vessels, the Jacques Cousteau, Olympus Mons, and Salacia swung around Neptune at the same time the alien ship passed by it.
Intercepting the alien vessel in the vicinity of the moon Triton. As they came into visual range, Starsurfer came out of FTL behind the Ark in a position to fire over five gigatons of thermonuclear hellfire straight up their ass.
Thankfully for both parties, that never happened and the Mi'arr people were instead permitted to take up refuge in the Sol System. Some were allowed to relocate to Earth and Mars as the aging and severely damaged generation ships' systems were beginning to fail.
CJ would turn command of Starsurfer over to another commander in 2107 after being the first ship to visit over a dozen local star systems. Making it as far as Teegarden's Star at just under 12.5 light years away.
Though he turned his ship over, he would go back to work designing a new class of ship. The future Osprey-class Heavy Cruiser that would go on to serve as the backbone of the entire Milky Way galaxy's military might for the next eight hundred years.
Starsurfer itself, though meant to be a prototype would continue to explore the Solar System and other near-by star systems for over sixty years.
Finally being retired in 2165 due partially to obsolescence, but mainly due to cost of operation. Newer models were far more refined in many ways, especially in their reactor and engine design.
She was donated by Starlite to the newly founded Martian Institute for the Preservation of History. (MIPH) a top Olympus Mons on Mars where she remains, and is kept in running condition well into the 45th century.
The Starsurfer-class would cease production in 2132, but it would never truly die out. Though Starlite Aerospace only ever built 120 original Starsurfer-class transports, thirty-six were lost or destroyed, and nine were scrapped.
Those surviving ships are considered collectors items if not museum pieces and are basically priceless. Even so, if you have one. Starlite will service and repair it free of charge just to keep it around for future generations to see and enjoy.
The design was actually quite simple, and thus copied and reproduced hundreds of times by many companies and different species over the eons. Some are quite good ships, others; absolute deathtraps. Because of the abundance of Starsurfer-clones and the high level of functionality small ships have for the common man, the basic design remains common well into the 45th century.
In 4446. Starlite Aerospace released a single image showing the poorly-defined outline of a what the public described as a "Modernized" Starsurfer-class hull with the newest, split-geometry warp drive technology and the caption "Legends don't die - They Ascend"
Hinting at the long awaited and anticipated "Mk-II" Starsurfer-class was in the works.
When Starsurfer first made it's inaugural flight and ushered in the age of faster-than-light travel in 2101, plans were already in the works for larger, better vessels built on the same principles. In 2102, remnants of Mi'arr species aboard their severely crippled "Super Ark" arrived in the Sol System. Changing the course of the entire galaxy forever.
Their computers contained a vast database of knowledge, all that their species had ever obtained. This, combined with rapidly advancing Terran technology meant that humanity had a whole new toolbox of materials, sciences, and construction methods to work with.
On Contact Day (February 21st) of 2122. Starlite CEO CJ Kincaid announced online that final prototype testing had completed and production of a new class of ship had already begun. He added that it would "Guarantee our future among the stars and maintain Terran superiority of the skies for generations to come"
As grandiose as it sounded, those words would prove prophetic to say the least. The Starlite Aerospace HC-5 Predator Known as the "Osprey-class" Heavy Cruiser in the newly formed United Earth Stellar Navy would launch for the first time 2 months later to great fanfare.
The ship performed so well that it became the go-to vessel of Humanity overnight. She was the first vessel built by Humanity to not utilize chemical rockets, anywhere. Rather opting for the fairly new gravitic thrusters much like those on the Starlite S-8 fighter, which the Osprey-class had eight built-in stations, specifically for S-8s.
Her for thruster pods contained the most Mi'arr technology of any aspect of the ship. Each pod contained five Mi'arr-designed gravitic thruster nodes and each pod contained their own independent fusion reactor and drive-rod system. Freeing up power from the ships main reactors allowing for the warp drive to produce artificial gravity throughout the ship while traveling at FTL.
Something neither of Earths other FTL capable ships, the Proxima Terra-class and Starsurfer-class could not do. And though all ships built by Starlite after the Osprey-class can do this, it would take nearly a century for it to become a standard feature on non-Starlite ships. Making them amazing vessels to serve on compared to anything else.
They were also incredibly fast for their day. Capable of reaching speeds in excess of FTL 500. When the starship Terra Scorpius made contact with the Ankalli species a year later in 2128 near Gliese 667 Cc; FTL / Subspace communication had not yet been invented. So the ships sent out to distant stars had a chance of never being heard from again, so they had no way to report what they'd discovered.
It would require a 4 year and 3 month journey at FTL for them to deliver the news. However, with the Mi'arr arrival. That too changed. And subspace transmitters and receivers were quickly outfit to every spacecraft that had the power to run one.
The combination of the new communications technology and the newer, faster ships meant that those aforementioned ships that set out into the cosmic dark with no chance of live communication home now would have a live feed back to Earth.
The trip between Gliese 667 Cc and Earth took around 3 months for the faster, yet significantly smaller Starsurfer-class, and just over 4 years for the Proxima Terra-class. The Osprey-class could do the same trip in 3 weeks. So, eager to take his new toy out. CJ took command of his second starships, El' Matador (pictured above) and set off to deliver subspace communication systems to 4 different Proxima Terra-class ships.
Terra Scorpius was the 2nd ship that CJs Matador would rendezvous with in deep space. The crew of first ship, the Terra Aquarius damn near had heart attacks when a ship nearly as large as theirs just dropped out of FTL a few thousand meters of their starboard side. The crew was so shaken by it that some had to be medically sedated.
So for the next one, CJ and his crew unanimously agreed that it would be best to drop out much further away, well beyond visual range and radio them first. That plan, like most didn't survive first contact because as soon as they entered the system, another new technology entangled cosmic string scanning which allowed for real-time scans at great distances showed something it shouldn't have.
Two ships, not one. One was clearly a Proxima Terra-class, it's signature was unmistakable. The other was about twice as large, and appeared to be either bearing down on the Scorpius, or the angle they were looking at it from simply made it look that way. This was a very new technology and nobody really understood it all that well yet.
So, CJ did what he was all but born doing, indeed had spent the bulk of his life up to that point doing. He ordered his crew to "Load the guns and get ready to kick some ass."
Seconds later, Matador dropped out of FTL just under 10,000 meters behind the unknown vessel and prepared to fire.
But, the Scorpius appeared to be in tact and healthy, as did the alien ship. Thankfully, CJ didn't order his crew to open fire because the Ankalli would go onto become one of humanities most valuable allies among the stars. This first mission would set the foundations for what would become the Terran 2nd fleet in the future, with the Matador being the first flagship of the 2nd fleet.
Over the next eight centuries, CJ would command the fleet in times of conflict, and in times of peace, he'd go home and do other things. Often working to improve his designs and finding ways to extend their usefulness as far as possible.
In 2905. The Terran-Vorla war was waning down, though it wasn't quite over yet. Under the command of now Fleet Marshal Kincaid aboard his flagship. The 2nd fleet was Earths premier combat fleet with the lowest number of losses and highest number of kills for any fleet active in the conflict.
That came to a screeching and painful halt one Monday morning during a seemingly safe transit between the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies. Vorla combat vessels used the waypoint station and automated refueling depot known as "Vinnies Moon"
to mask their EWADS signatures and ambushed the 2nd fleet. Though the Vorla lost all but a single ship in the ambush due to superior technology on the side of the Alliance.
Despite the superiority of Terran technology and combat skills. The 2nd fleet suffered heavy looses. Of the 114 ships in the fleet at the time, only 14 returned home. Matador, CJs flagship was not one of them. In fact, it was a central focus of the attack.
A single, well placed fragmentation round from a Vorla battlecruiser penetrated Matadors hull, blasted past the layers of decks and equipment, and continued through the armor that protected her CIC. Though all that armor slowed or stopped most of the shrapnel, enough made it through that it tore a large portion of the command crew apart to ribbons.
CJ was standing in front of his command chair, holding on the a railing when the shot tore it's way through the ship. The noise was deafening and smoked filled the room instantly.
The smell of burnt metal and blood was something CJ unfortunately knew all to well. He slowly opened his eyes to see a gaping, smoldering hole where the entire starboard side of the command deck had been. The emergency shields had snapped on and kept the atmosphere in, but those wouldn't last forever.
In fact, the sever level of damage meant they were already starting to flicker. CJ estimated they had 10 minutes at the most before the shields fail and everyone gets blown out into space.
On the ground in front of him was a pool of blood, bone, and flesh that had been his navigator only a moment earlier. His lead pilot, and best friend Adam sat eyes wide at what was left of his station, The skin on his right arm had peeled back and the shine of his metallic Skelton was visible. He looked over at the navigators seat, then to CJ.
Adams expression quickly changed from shock, to fear as he locked eyes with CJ. "Ohhh, shit! Medic!"
Adam screamed as he stumbled from his seat towards CJ.
And it was at that moment the sounds of agony and terror from his crew clicked, and he tried to stand, but couldn't. "What the hell am I stuck on?"
He thought as he looked down, trying to figure out what was snagging his shirt.
But to his surprise, his shirt was little more than a tattered peace of cloth at this point. His entire right side was totally devastated. He could actually see his rib cage and his synthetic stomach was literally spilling out of a hole in his side. He remembered looking at his ribs, and thinking "Huh, those are shinier than I remember"
before his systems shutdown.
Normally, when an android is damaged/injured. You treat them in the same basic ways you would anyone else. However when an androids body is that severely damaged, even attempting to repair it would be akin to a form of torture. You let them "die" as sick as it sounds, and is hard as it may be to watch someone you love beg for help. "Helping" often only prolongs suffering.
The best way to help them is to let them shutdown. Being shut down is as good as being dead, but unlike being dead and biological. You can turn an android back on. Even under ideal circumstances, robotic bodies breakdown, degrade, and need to be replaced. This sucks under the best possible conditions.
Android memory cores can actually survive a nuclear blast. Getting them out is suppose to be hard. Usually, when a body is damaged the memory core is surgically removed and the data swapped over to a new one.
The damage done to CJ was so sever that a Marine trying to help him got desperate as the ship came apart around him and in a panic was able to reach in to his chest, remove his memory core, and put it in his pocket. By doing so, he saved his life.
CJ would take a very long time to recover from this. Physically, he was fine as soon as a new body was built. But phytologically he was damaged. He had sever PTSD and spent nearly a year at home in Texas, not able to leave his house without having a panic attack. He did eventually get treatment and recovered.
He'd later admit to his friends that he was ashamed to admit he needed help, but also ashamed he let his own attachment get the better of him. Matador should have been retired a century earlier. But CJ just refused to accept it was no longer fit for the ever-changing battlefield.
He would not make this same mistake with his next ship, Incursion. When it clear that it was time to upgrade, he did. Taking command of Nineveh in 4445. Despite being far more emotionally attached to Incursion than he ever was to the Matador.
After the Terran-Vorla war. The aging Osprey-class cruisers were slowly retired and replaced with the new Tunguska-class and Syracuse-class heavy cruisers. Quite a few remained in service with the UESN for quite a while as trainers and for low-priority missions. By that time, the Alliance was already quite large and consisted of 100s of species.
Many of those species also acquired large blocks of the aging warships for very near scrap price and would go onto utilize them for centuries to come. Large numbers also found their way into the hands of civilians where they became passenger liners or cargo ships.
The final Osprey-class vessel to be serving as an active military vessel belonged to the Vanadari people and was retired in 3,745. Despite being ancient, a select few are kept in flying condition in the 45th century. One is kept preserved in working order at the MIPH museum, while several others are in cold storage. Quite a few are still around in the hands of civilians as well, though very few if any are still being used commercially.
