Companion class cruiser

Background

Despite the extreme loss of historical references as a result of World War Three, the overall facts and impacts (no pun intended) of the Swarm crisis are generally well understood by the modern populace. However, because the development and operation of the Companion class, Earth’s first designated cruiser, are both so dependent upon those events and the geopolitical developments that followed, a brief synopsis is warranted.

The Impact Diversion Inspection Centre was an early Western Alliance (WA) project that grew out of NASA’s highly-automated system for predicting threats from near-Earth objects (NEO). In 2026, the program reported an extremely high probability of a series of strikes from 17 asteroids on a multi-millennial orbit of the Sun. The catastrophe was anticipated to occur over a three-year period starting in 2031.

The timing of the threat could not have been earlier and still result in such a positive outcome, as it was only in this point of Humanity’s history that it first had the ability to fend off such a calamity. The New United Nations (NUN), through the collaborative efforts of many of the world’s countries, was able to not only send manned and drone craft to intercept and divert every single one of these cataclysmic-level threats, but six were actually captured and placed in Earth’s L5 position, becoming mining and scientific habitats. The benefits to humanity were immediate.

This collaboration also came with political lessons. Premier Lee Kuan of China, though very appreciative of the results of the planet’s collective efforts, was inspired by how important the Eastern role was to the success of the overall mission. In 2031, he convinced like-minded nations in the Far and Middle East to form a political and militarized partnership similar to the WA, with the intent to grow a political base rivaling the one that had developed within the NUN. However, it became even more clear, when the Eastern Coalition (ECON) made overt attempts to re-balance authority in their favor, that the Western Alliance held most of the best cards.

The Companion cruiser was conceived during the crisis environment of the Swarm threat and launched in the politicized period of the ECON parturition. Even as early as 2029, when the first plans for the class were presented, the Western Alliance comprehended the probability of the world’s survival of the existential threat and prepared for the potential of a growing competitor to its NUN dominion from Eastern nations in a post-Swam system. When unveiled, the Companion was heralded publicly as a mission spacecraft designed to destroy medium-sized asteroids flocking around the primary 17 metropolis-sized rocks and a post-Swarm response to future NEO threats; internal to the military coalition, it was understood the ships would serve as pre-existing “defense” cruisers to any future Eastern naval force that would be conscripted from the post-Swarm civilian flotillas.

The arrangement of the ship in its anti-asteroid mission was well-reasoned, though justifiably militaristic when the operating agency was considered. The most outstanding features were the thirty-two red jettisonable fuel tanks so very common on ships of the intrasystem era, completely ringing the longer aft engineering section. These tanks were considered essential for the multiple high-gee maneuvers in approaching and then decelerating against the mission targets. Laser weapons of the pre-Sorac classification, in the 51-mw capacity, were heralded as the best focused-energy tool ever yet mounted on a mobile platform and praised for their peaceful purpose. Because the cycle time was limited to once per minute, four were mounted on the bow in order to maintain continuous engagement of the targeted asteroid. Two missile bays were also mounted in the bow, to allow for multiple nuclear-armed missiles to assist in the break-up of subjects of reasonably greater mass. (The massive primary threats to the planet were handled by individualized projects employing multiple teams and vessels; embedded explosives were employed only where engineering specialists deemed most effective in changing the targets’ centers of mass via fracturing, so that tug vessels working in concert could alter the trajectory and velocity.) The three additional missile bays located around the sides of the bow section were not explored in the open-source media of the time, other than identified as secondary delivery systems for the ordnance.

The bow served as the command & control module for the 22 Western Alliance crewmembers, and included messing and medical bays. The central “stalk” of the vessel was primarily limited to berthing and considered rather spacious, with most of the crew enjoying two-person suites, each with multiple portholes (that could be blackened with internal lead-lined plating). Gravity couches were installed throughout all manned areas of the ship in order to allow the bridge watchstanders to immediately take maneuvering actions deemed necessary, without injuring any of the vessel’s crew. The twin Goion-branded GI-47 main ion drives were supported by the massive engineering module that provided the multiple lines of fuel delivery from the external tanks to the drives; the section also contained all but the sectionalized emergency life support equipment for the entire ship.

In reality, the Companion “mission spacecraft” was rather late to the game. Even though the first three of the 14 vessels (named after Western state leaders of the recent past) were launched in early 2033, the NUN’s Swarm Diversion project did not factor the class into its principal plans. The “flocker”-sized asteroids were assigned for destruction to tertiary contract companies and their attendant vessels; those efforts were only re-assigned as the Companions arrived on the respective scenes. The vessels had zero tow capacity and, thusly, their only endeavors were limited to gunnery duties. When the secretary-general exuberantly proclaimed victory in the second half of the year, eight additional vessels were still under construction. Publicly-raised concerns to the SWARM project lead—amidst her responsibilities in shuttering the project—regarding the continued production were deferred to the Western Alliance; short and ambiguous statements about developing a permanent NEO patrol & response schedule for the ships were returned. Inquiries into operational authority by the International Space Agency (ISA) went unanswered.

True to their word, the Western Alliance deployed the Companions along intricate patrol paths that included all the Aphrodites (now employed as small stations, both by the ISA and private entities), points throughout the Main belt, stopovers above Venus & Mars, and “pop-up patrols” above and below the solar plane. Though purportedly meant to serve the NEO awareness role, missions often overlapped with those of the ISA, including first response & rescue, supply runs, and the overt showing of the flag, especially at ECON-associated activities (private & public). A procedural tradition developed on these patrols, wherein a Companion would transmit its available supply inventory to Aphrodite stations within days of projected arrival, so that transfers could begin immediately and then patrol routes re-joined. All were used to this service and engaged positively, with the exception of one remote station privately owned and inhabited by a reclusive and disgraced electric ground vehicle magnate; his simple response of a colloquial challenge to the vessel’s commanding officer to engage in congress with his or her own mother became the expected close to the semi-regular radio communications, though those unexpectedly stopped in 2039.

At some point after the conclusion of the Swarm crisis, the “mission spacecraft” appellation was dropped in favor of “cruiser”, though historians think this started occurring closer to the year 2052, as tensions within the New United Nations started simmering. Mostly exhibited by the ECON towards the authority of the Western Alliance, some of the developing African and near-African leagues could be goaded to break from the usual political blocs that had taken root, especially in regards to economic sovereignty issues. Starting in 2053, the Western Alliance would find its dominating presence challenged at some locations by the ECON’s own Keldysh cruiser class which, while smaller than the Companions, was considered to be equivalent in combat capability. (Some details of alleged clashes between these vessels will be detailed in a later issue.)

It is not clear as to when the Companion class became non-operational, but post-First Contact reports by the Vulcans do not mention the vessels in any capacity.

Ships

• AWSS Alan Ball (United Kingdom)
• AWSS Anton York (United States of America)
• AWSS Florentin Côté (France)
• AWSS Gabriel Jansen (Denmark)
• AWSS Hannes Reubke (Germany)
• AWSS Juan Carlos Pedrero (Spain)
• AWSS Karol Zdanowicz (Poland)
• AWSS Lars Raes (Belgium)
• AWSS Marcus Holder (Canada)
• AWSS Romolo Ezzo (Italy)
• AWSS Sarah Susan Eckert (United States of America)
• AWSS Stamatios Melou (Greece)
• AWSS Torben Kästner (Germany)
• AWSS Tue Dalsgaard (Denmark)

Note: Names followed by country of origin of the subject.

Blueprints/Orthos

Last Updated on 2403.18 by admin