*Static*this is Foxtrotconfirm radar contactover*static*
*Static*copy thatCharlie Victor confirms contactshes beautiful*static*
With those words, the Zoner salvage mission descended into the debris field. The year was 45AS. Ten years prior, a Zoner citadel ship belonging to Clan Rameus detected a debris field in deep space on the edge of the Sirius Sector whilst conducting tests on its new refracting array. Within it, they had made out the blurry silhouette of a ship, far larger than anything seen in Sirius at the time, and it had been with great ecstasy and enthusiasm that the clan rushed itself into movement.
Within a fortnight, an amazing time in those days considering the drives used, Clan Rameus had amassed themselves and their entire pool of resources on the very cusp of the Edge Nebula. Being a small, politically alienated clan within the Zoner hierarchy at the time, their armada was made up of a ragtag bunch of ships; the citadel ship Rapturous and its escorts being the only combat worthy ships in the fleet, accompanied by dozens of smaller, obsolete craft; cargo and supply barges, house ships, runabouts, and most importantly, a fully equipped band of Junker salvage mercenaries.
The journey was a long, bitter affair, and the endurance and resolve of those brave men and women who made the journey is honoured by the Zoner population as a superhuman achievement. Four years into the supposed six year journey, the Rapturous sustained heavy damage to its engines due to an explosion of unknown origin, taking with it the majority of the fleets H-fuel supply. They limped on for four months at a much lower rate of acceleration, hoping to conserve as much of their remaining fuel as they could manage, before the order was given to abandon the Rapturous and any vessel that depended on her.
With their escorts gone, and supplies running low, the situation deteriorated progressively. Some ships, running critically low attempted to cut their losses, and left the fleet to head back to Sirius. Those that did never made it back. One by one, the transports ran out of fuel, and with overcrowding already becoming a serious problem on the remaining ships, having already shared out the crew of the Rapturous between them, there was nothing to do but watch in horror as they drifted into the distance, unable to keep pace with the fleet. The only hope for the survivors was to find a miracle at the end of their journey.
It was in this fashion that, ten years after they started out, the hungry, desperate remnants of what had used to be the Zoner clan came within radar contact of their quarry. Everyone held their breath as the salvagers and engineers entered the derelict to explore its silent depths. It turned out to be just the miracle they were hoping for. Though the ship was evidently vastly older than anything previously encountered by anyone, and there was extensive damage throughout it from reasons unknown, the ships interface was compatible with the Zoners, and once an emergency generator was brought aboard, the marvel that the ship was became more and more apparent. Readouts showed long dormant systems far superior to anything seen previously in Sirius, and in particular, most fortunately for the clansmen, an advanced drive system capable of bringing them back to Sirius in a matter of weeks rather than years.
Cannibalising the remaining ships, Clan Rameus made interim repairs to the most essential systems and transferred their remaining supplies and personnel to the ship, hurriedly christened the Europa, and it was only after the ship was already well underway on its way to Sirius that everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and investigated the ship more carefully.
According to fragmentary data obtained from the ships data core, the vessel had been dispatched much in the same fashion as the Alliance sleeper ships had been, though from a much further point of origin than Sol had been to Sirius. It appeared that some sort of catastrophic event only partially recorded in the data cores last entry, postulated at the time as being the result of a fatal rupture of the ships coolant systems, had killed the crew and damaged the ship as the superheated, pressurised material blasted its way into space. Most of the escape capsules had been jettisoned, though none had been detected in the debris field when the clansmen had arrived; what had happened to the survivors was a complete mystery.
The Europa re-entered Sirius sector via the Edge Nebula in the early hours of the first day of 46AS. Clan Rameus did not receive a warm welcome. Three other Zoner clans had mobilized to meet them, and, with the biggest fleet seen since the Sol war, demanded that Clan Rameus hand over the ship. They refused.
Even in its damaged state, the Europa made short work of all three Zoner fleets in the ensuing battle, with the enemy capital ships failing completely to pierce her advanced shields. In under an hour, the balance of power within the Zoner faction had shifted to Clan Rameus. The ship and her crew put into Oder Shipyard for final repairs, paying for it with the resources salvaged from the previous battle. The clan did their best to safeguard the secrets of the ship, and on the whole managed to do so, keeping an intense security net active whilst the ship was docked. However, recent evidence suggests, especially with the dramatic increase in the design quality of Rheinland battleships after this point, suggests that the BDM had been effective enough to slip through the Europas security net.
With repairs completed, the Europa departed for the edge worlds, maintaining a fairly quiet presence in Sirius politics, allowing the three, previously hostile clans to rebuild in a slightly uneasy period of cooperation. As the clans disappeared into the newly homogenized Zoner faction over the decades, it became something of a tradition that all crewmembers aboard the ship be a kinsman (albeit in name only,) to the now defunct Clan Rameus. Never once having to fire her weapons in anger after her first engagement, she acted as an effective deterrent in Omicron Theta 500 years later to dissuade the Corsairs from mounting their planned takeover of the area.
Eventually, Sirius caught up with the ageing vessel, and the Zoners were forced to design a suitable replacement for the Europa; the famous Jinkusu class of ships, though heavily based on technical readouts from the Europa, were considered more effective both in cost and combat worth, and the Europa was evicted from its frontline duties. Now effectively a Zoner headquarters in the furthest reaches of Sirius, the Europa continues to fly its Zoner colours, and retains its full combat capability and commission, and is sometimes used for its awe value at diplomatic meetings. Though outdated, she is still theoretically the ship that can take the most punishment of any ship built so far, and with considerable firepower still available at hand, the Europa is still a force to be treated with respect.
The Europas engines are brought online
\\Feel free to leave feedback here! This ship does not exist in-game. I put it together on a little test server of my own for testing and thought I'd write a small bio for it. Hope you enjoy it!
![[Image: Europa_resized.png]](http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab176/MadCat787/Screenies/Europa_resized.png)