Battleship Incursus

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<span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%][font=Agency FB]Class (original) [color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]CV-1 Osiris Light Multipurpose Battleship
[font=Agency FB]Class (current) [color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]HF-X Incursus ELINT / Tactical Fire Support Battleship
[font=Agency FB]Manufacturer[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]Order / Black Squadron
[font=Agency FB]Owner[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]Hellfire Legion
[font=Agency FB]Construction site[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]Evora Shipyard, Omicron-100 system
[font=Agency FB]Comissioned by[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]Fleet Admiral Dustin DBoy Hoff

[font=Agency FB]Laid down[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]814 AS
[font=Agency FB]Completed[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]815 AS
[font=Agency FB]Destroyed[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]816 AS
[font=Agency FB]Reconstructed[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]816 AS
[font=Agency FB]In service since[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]815 AS

[font=Agency FB]Former Commanding Officers[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]Supreme Commander Drake Thastus, Executive Commander Kai Thastus
[font=Agency FB]Current Commanding Officer[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]Executive Commander (in reserve) Aethelu
[font=Agency FB]Former Executive Officers[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]None
[font=Agency FB]Current Executive Officer[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]Type-MCCCXXXVII Grace Artificial Intelligence Prototype with complementary Experimental Personality Subroutines
[font=Agency FB]Crew count[color=#FF8800]: [color=#FF6611]386 Souls form the actual crew of the Incursus, with enough spare quarters to accommodate roughly 200 more in case of emergencies.

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[font=Times New Roman]Th[color=#FF7711]e first incarnation of the Incursus came into being as the result of an equipment and information exchange between the Hellfire Legion - led by Supreme Commander Drake Thastus - and the Black Squadron - led by Fleet Admiral Dustin Hoff - in late 814 AS. The exact details of the exchange have been lost, as the Black Squadron has disbanded and its remnants have been integrated into the Order Primary Fleet, while on the Legion's side copious amounts of historical information have been lost during the uprising in late 817 AS. What is known can be summarized as follows:

Both organizations had an obvious interest in the Nomad species and had been cooperating with each other in the field and beyond when their interests overlapped, which was a frequent occurrence during that time. An equipment and information exchange was a logical step to make way for a stable relationship between both groups, creating a solid foundation for such.
As the Hellfire Legion found itself lacking a sufficent force of capital warships at that time it was agreed on that one CV-1 “Osiris”-class battleship was to be part of the exchange.

That particular Osiris' hull was laid down immediately on Evora Shipyard in the Omicron-100 system as the pact was sealed. It was constructed with agility and tactical flexibility in mind, incorporating the by-then latest technological advancements of the Order while leaving plenty of room for the Legion's own modficiations. It was launched from Evora Shipyard in early 815 AS and christened the “Incursus”, in reference to the ship's future role - to lead covert incursions into hostile territory, gather tactical and strategic data on the opposition, strike against targets of opportunity, and then disappear before the opposition could retaliate - a role the other battleships of the Legion had not been designed to fulfill, being by far larger, more cumbersome and easier to detect than the Osiris-class.

Immediately after, the Legion took the Incursus to Vespucci where it would spend two months undergoing extensive modification and customization procedures in order to outfit it with the latest in top-secret Legion technology. Once that task was complete it was put into front line service, fulfilling its designated role admirably under the command of by-then Grand Admiral Kai Thastus, Drake Thastus' son.

Roughly a year afterwards, the Incursus was lost at the same time Supreme Commander Drake Thastus disappeared for the second time, together with his son, Executive Commander Kai Thastus. What exactly happened to the ship and its crew is unknown but it was found adrift in a badly-damaged state deep within the southeastern reaches of the Veracruz Ice Field in the Vespucci system.

It didn't take long for search and rescue parties to be sent to the remains of the Incursus, and what they found was nothing but a mystery. External damage to the ship was immense, the hull having apparently been torn apart by Antimatter and Particle fire. Most of the bow was completely destroyed and entire sections, like the central superstructure, were outright missing. What was left were the reactor systems, hangar bay, crew and storage compartments, the electronic warfare facilities and the miraculously unscathed rear half of the ship. It was the scenery aboard combined with the environment that would end up raising the largest amount of questions, most of which are left unanswered to this day. Not only was there no loose debris, not even small bits of metal and hull plating to be found around the wreckage, the entire ship had also been decompressed and all systems, even the secondary and emergency ones, had been shut down. All storage banks for any and all kinds of data had been wiped, leaving not a single file aboard the ship. Obviously, not one live crew member had been found but as if per miracle there were no traces of any life that had formerly existed aboard the ship either. No corpses, no personal belongings, not even a piece of paper with some handwriting on it. What remained of the Incursus was, for all intents and purposes, empty. And dead.

If not for the acting Executive Commander, Aralie Phelps, the ship would have been left to drift through Veracruz in its ravaged state for all eternity. Phelps however, facing raising unrest in the Legion's ranks and foreseeing that soon every single ship the Legion could muster would count, decided to have it towed to the Phoenix Shipyard in order to restore the Incursus back to operational condition. It should be noted that he held no particular attachment to the ship and that he simply decided to take what he saw as the best course of action. Upon arrival at Phoenix the first in-depth analysis of the ship took place and it unveiled a little of the mystery surrounding the events that turned it into the broken carcass of a ship it was. Acquired data showed that the damage the ship had suffered had been caused by nothing else but actual Legion weaponry and that somehow the ship's shielding systems had been deactivated prior to the weapon impacts that shattered the central superstructure, thus destroying the entire command section of the ship. Afterwards the Incursus had been unable to change course and must have collided with a large object in the way, possibly with another ship, causing a massive explosion that tore off the Incursus' bow.

How it came that no loose parts of debris were to be found at the site the Incursus had been left at or how it happened that the ship was decompressed or even what actually had gone on aboard that led to all data and signs of life disappearing from the ship remained unclear. Wild theories of sabotage and betrayal were making the rounds, but not a single one has been confirmed to this date.

By now most of them have been forgotten as the ship has been restored to its former glory, however it took a fair while until that task had been completed.
The damage the ship had suffered was immense, with key critical systems having been nearly completely destroyed, leaving them in a state that was beyond repair. This wasn't particularly unexpected but unfortunately some of said systems proved to be troublesome, Legion technology being not suited to serve as a replacement to several vital components which only the shipwrights of the Order could provide. It was even more unfortunate that the relations between the Legion and the Order had degenerated from an under-the-table alliance to mere neutrality, mostly due to internal changes in both groups, with the Black Squadron having been in the process of disbanding and integration into the primary fleet while the Legion itself was stuck without actual guidance due to the Thastus' disappearance. It was acting Executive Commander Phelps once more who would interfere with the Incursus' being by putting a halt on the restoration process, the consistency of the fleet having turned into a concern of secondary nature to finding a suitable replacement for the now-gone Supreme Commander, which had become the by far most pressing matter at that point in time.

The ship was to remain at Phoenix, untouched and in its dormant state, until a handful of months later when a new Supreme Commander would have risen from the Legion's ranks. That particular man went by the name “Aethelu”. It didn't take long until his absolute command over the Legion was established and once he had settled in, a restructuring of the fleet took place. At some point he stumbled upon the Incursus' remains sitting in one of Phoenix' drydocks and he gave the ship's situation a throughout look, evaluating whether it was worth restoring the Incursus to operational capability. Seeing that strengthening the ties with the Order was one of the points on his agenda and the Incursus had filled a vital role prior to the mysterious incident that led to it being at Phoenix now, it only struck him as fitting to request the Order's aid in reconstructing the ship, or rather supplying said necessary and most vital components for reconstruction to be possible at Phoenix.

Suffice to say that Aethelu was quite successful in his efforts and did manage to improve the strained relationship with the Order, by that time under the command of Fleet Admiral Ophidian, and got to acquire the necessary parts to bring the ship back to operational condition. Just as previously however the details of the exchange are unknown, with only Aethelu and Ophidian being aware of the exact magnitude of the arrangement. Rumor has it that in exchange for the necessary components and precise manufacturing blueprints in order to be able to replace them as needed, Aethelu traded off a replica of the long-range sensor device known as the “Spyglass Scanner”, but the only men who could possibly confirm that haven't ever spoken about the arrangement and it is unlikely that any clear information regarding it will ever see the light of day.

Nevertheless, it only took three months for the engineers and technicians at Phoenix to completely restore the ship, reconstructing roughly 47% of its internal systems, the bow and the central superstructure from scratch, thusly returning the Incursus back to its former glory.