From the Begining New Chapter Added (9/12/06)

[Starhawk]

2401.9 Interception and Battle
Captain Bradley and the crew of HMS Repulse were on edge as their the enemy frigate's light signal drew closer on the tactical display.

"Sir we're gaining on her, we should get her before she reaches the warp point." Commander Ripley's voice was anxious as she watched the chronometer and counted off the speeds of the two warships.

Meanwhile Haden supply base had been established on the Phong Frontier to establish a forward base for any ships in that region.
Another supply base had been established on the opposite edge of the frontier to keep ships on exploratory missions for a longer period of time.
The Phong Frigate was no faster or slower then it's Icaran counterpart under normal circumstances, but these were not normal circumstances as the Icarans had the advantage of slingshoting themselves around the planet using their forward GFG to repulse them off the atmosphere and then kicking in their after GFG to shove them along at nearly 100 gees, from that point on all they needed to do was coast along on their normal drives to overtake the Phong.
The chase had been going on for the Last two days with the Repulse slowley overtaking the Phong warship and now it was down to a matter of an hour before intercept, the entire crew was at battlestations her missile tubes had been loaded, and her cannons charged, even though with their enemy still 200,000 kilometers off a hit was impossible from either weapon.

The Phong were headed for the warp point and if they made it physics would take over, there would be no way Repulse could catch up to her, and for all Ross knew that enemy warship would head streight for Icaran space, afterall the Norvor system (home system of Icara it's self) was only three jumps away and with her fleet out exploring Icara would be utterly defenseless.

"Captain we are closing, in weapons range in five minutes." Tactical officer Simmons announced as her eyes remained fixed on the light dot that represented the Phong warship.
With a sudden gasp her voice chimed again "Captain! make that two minutes she's turning about to engage us!"

"Thank you Lieutenant my compliments..." Ross smiled to himself as he noticed how startled the young officer was that the enemy Captain would turn about to engage her hunter.

Two minutes passed as the warships closed on one another but finally Repulse was in range and she could do what she had been built for, fighting another warship of a hostile power.

"Guns, launch missiles from tubes one and two." Ross said coldly as the enemy frigate came in range.

Two massive fusion missiles launched from their tubes and began closing on the enemy ship at .4c. Both missiles were equipped with a "compressed control fusion warhead" which generally meant that it was a nuclear bLast focused into a "bottle" that could blow a nice hole in a starship or within an atmosphere it could level entire city blocks while keeping radiation to a minimum.
As the two missiles closed the enemy ship suddenly jerked to her right and fired two tiny cannons in rapid vollies until the first missile exploded, thousands of little slugs sprayed at the second missile but it was already in too close and moving to fast...

"Got a hit captain!" Simmons voice was jubilant as the main display showed a brilliant flash on the hull of the enemy frigate, debris and atmosphere spilled out of the whole but still the enemy came on.

"Sir they are in cannon range......they're firing!" Commander Simmons sounded tense as the monitors showed three fast moving cannon rounds closing in on them.

The Phong frigate was armed with four Depleted Uranium cannons, one of which had been blown apart by their first missile impact.

Three was enough however as the three slugs slammed into the hull of Repulse and the frigate rocked as fire sprayed from the breached hull and debris spilled out into space.

"Sir we've had a hit on decks A and B, we have a hull breach." Commander Ripley switched her personal disply monitor to the damage control camera's in the effected area and almost vomitted in her preasure helmet as she saw bodies smashed against the bulkhead or thrown into space as the atmosphere of the entire section was sucked into the void.
The ones that had been sucked into space still had hope as the crews of Icaran warships were equipped with vac suits just in case of hull breach but those who had been slammed into the bulkheads had been torn apart by the force or had been speared by flying debris.

"Sir cannon two is gone, I'm reading damage and casualty reports from the effected areas." Comns Officer Thompson sounded suprisingly calm for a man of his young years but his eyes flashed rage as he read the casualty reports coming in.

The Repulse maneuvered into position where she could fire her surviving two cannons, as she closed on the Phong, silver flares announced the firing of both her cannons and two resounding bLasts on the Phong's hull showed two direct hits. Hull plating and atmosphere sprayed into space, bodies and wreckage drifted free from the frigate as the enemy ship continued to close.

"She's down to one quarter speed, I am only reading one cannon intact." Simmons voice was almost cheerful as the Icaran frigate moved out of range of the enemy frigate.

"Finish this, fire missile tube one and both cannons." Bradley's voice was pure venom as he gave the order to destroy the ship that had killed an unknown number of his crew.

Seconds later the missile impacted followed swiftly by two Depleted Uranium shells and the Phong frigate began tearing it's self apart from the inside out as explosions rent her hull....flares of energy and wreckage burst forth as the Last intact remnants of the hull blew apart.

The victory was sweet clear but Repulse had paid the price for it, one of her cannons, her comn systems and even her forward grav field generator were destroyed by the enemy shots that impacted her hull. Twenty crewman had died and another ten were wounded in the attack meaning that almost a third of the crew, and that made Bradley feel sick.

HMS Repulse limped her way home, it would take months and she woudl likely run out of all supplies as she made it into the Norvor system but at least she had emmerged victorious.

2402.0-2402.5
The Icaran exploration expeditions continued in ernest as the Royal Navy began searching regions of space for suitable colony sites to expand.

Meanwhile the HMS Repulse had returned home a hero, and was towed into port for repairs and remanning.

[Starhawk]

2402.6 Welcome to the fleet.
Commander Sandra Fowler stood in front of the large viewport in the off duty rec area aboard HMSS Wycoff orbital shipyards and looked out upon the two famous Saber class frigates that were in port with awe.
HMS Repulse was still undergoing heavy repairs and the massive hole in her port side stood out like a sore thumb on such the grey hull and Fowler couldn't help but wince when she saw such a beautiful ship scarred so badly.

Her attention drifted a little to the stern of the damaged frigate and her mood brightened a little as she saw HMS Saber herself docked in port, her gleaming grey hull with that unscarred perfection, the shimering pure white prow with the Royal blue trim at the front of the ship made Saber look almost like a dagger to the newly promoted Commander, the sight filled her with confidence as she remembered that she would Command such a vessel some day soon.
She tried to remember what she could about the Frigate's when she had first been assigned to the orbital shipyards and one paragraph stood out in her mind.

(The prow of a warship was not simply decoration, it was where the forward gfg was located and perhaps almost as importantly it was where the ship's two missile tubes were located, hidden under armored plating as she waited in port. Her dagger shape is in fact why the frigate recieved her name.)

A slight click behind her snapped her attention back to the present as the young captain turned around and tensed to attention, reflexivley saluting the man behind her. "Sir!" her voice trembled slightly and she couldn't help but reproach herself.
The older man simply saluted back and smiled politely, he wore the gold tri-star of a Rear Admiral on the cuffs of his space black tunic and the dark blue troUsers wore the red stripe of a "non-combat" officer as apposed to the white of a fleet officer.

"At ease Captain......we need to talk." his voice sounded lighthearted but his eyes considered her seriously as he calmly walked next to her and looked out of the viewport.

"What about Admiral Ralley?" her voice was finally under control but her nerves were not, somehow even though Ralley always came across as fatherly he always made her very nervious, ever since her days at the Academy.

"Well Commander I have good news for you, but you'll need to meet me in my office at 0500 hours if you want to find out. "Ralley smiled at her again and without even giving her a chance to ask him another question he walked of down the corridor.
As Fowler realized what time he had mentioned she groaned to herself quietly, still four hours away by the station's clock....she figured she'd better get a little sleep first and walked casually to her quarters.

*****

Commander Fowler walked into the office of Admiral Ralley rather cautiously, as if she were walking into a room full of tree vipers and stopped up short when she noticed who sat at Ralley's desk with him.
"Captain Ross!...." Fowler said rather sheepishly as she snapped to attention and saluted as smartly as she could manage.
Ralley made her nervious enough because of his rank but now she a bonified hero sitting in front of her, Ross hadn't seen any combat action like Bradley had but he was a hero none the less and Fowler noted he wasn't much older then her.

"At ease Commander" Ralley said with a smile as Ross stood and offered his hand to the young woman, she took it out of reflex and shook it crisply before letting go just as quickly (mainly to hide the fact that when she got nervious her hands trembled a little).

Ross showed her to her seat and looked over to Ralley with what could only be called a grin on his holostar handsom face. "Well Ralley you are right, she is young." his voice was more human then Fowler had expected.
She almost blushed at the remark before remembering what Ralley had told her back in the Academy, something about no officer ever got anywhere blushing like a Feldoni Peakock.

Both her superiors laughed softly a moment before Ralley focused on her, those peircing grey eyes seemingly sizing her up.
"Sandra Captain Ross is going to be transfered from his command in two months to a new ship that the Shiptech boys beleive is the (wave of the future) or some such like that." His smile grew broader and Ross grinned back.
"Well anyway Commander, he was given a list of all available officers that had the seniority or grade to command a ship of their own and we were wondering if you had any sugjestions for his replacement?" Riley's smile disapeared instantly and he looked at her quite seriously.

The youung woman's mind raced as she began considering all the officers she knew of that were of the proper qualifications and grade when Ralley suddenly started smiling again.

"Relax Sandra, he chose you after I told him what a good officer you are, congratulations Commander, though it won't be official till Ross takes command of his new ship." Ralley had always backed the cadets from his class but Sandra was a special case to him, she was almost like a daughter to him because of all the hours he had to spend with her, helping kick her butt into shape so she could graduate the academy, and the swell of pride in his eyes could have made the room light up.

After a few seconds of letting it sink in Sandra too began to smile and thanked her superiors for almost twenty minutes streight before Ross offered to give her a tour of her future command.

Enterprise
The "new command" Ralley had been talking about was a new class of starship that had been designed at the Wycoff's own Shiptech bureau, they called it a destroyer.
The Enterprise class was 50,000 tons more massive and half again the size of a 300m frigate. More then that she packed an extra missile tube, a fourth cannon and a new weapon called a "sprint missile" launcher which was a close in high speed weapon designed to increase the close in killing power against Point Defense weapons.
The first ship of the new class HMS Enterprise would be finished in two months and when she was launched she would be the largest ship in the Icaran navy (for a time anyway) and she would be Captained by a living legend.
With the new threat on the frontier these new warships would be more necessary than ever now.