Dauntless

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Introduction

The Dauntless - Arbiter class Insurgency Battleship was on active duty in the conflict betwen the Insurgents and Liberty. It was commanded by Captain John Miller, a military man from a military family of four generations.
Captain Miller was a man that always did things by the book, without trying to show off and prove himself to the superiors. That being one of the reason for his rapid climb in the military ranks at a young age. His career as a Captain was first put to the test in an Insurgency Judicator class cruiser for several years, until he has proven himself worth of captaining the Arbiter class battleship.

The Dauntless was a standard loadout Insurgency Battleship, with several prototype components including an improved communication encrypting and decrypting hardware along with a prototype long range scanner.
Captain: John Miller
Liuetenant: Brandon Cayden
Comm. Officer: Dominic Lake

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Beginning of the end


In the last days of the conflict in Vespucci, Cpt. Miller was tasked to delay the navy's fleets as much as possible, allowing to evacuate as many people in the meantime. Dauntless's gunners were able to destroy several gunboats and heavily damaging two of the Liberty navy's cruisers, before it had to retreat, as it suffered heavy damage itself. One of the bombers hit a lucky strike with two torpedoes damaging the ships life support and the bridge. The ship was flying full thrust at the set course, without the crew being able to stop it for days until the repair crew was able to seal the auxhilary command room and re-pressurizing it. With Captain Miller realizing the extent of the damage, that he was unable to continue fighting, the order was given across the ships comm. "The fight is over for us, tend to the wounded". It was the last order heard on the ships internal comm, before the war ended.

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Finding a new purpose

With many systems damaged or destroyed, Dauntless was a floating wreck. Every man not injured was tasked with emergency ship repairs and damage control as some compartments were still on fire, draining the remaining oxygen that the ship had rapidly. Cpt. Miller, his First Luietenant and officers, decided to wait out on the edge of Vespucci system, until there was no trace of Liberty ships in the system, it took months of rationing the remaining food, during which the battleship was ducttaped together to a point it would survive a few jumps through wormholes into other systems to make its escape.
Without knowing who to trust and where to go, the only option was to jump through lawless systems far enough to disappear from Liberty Navy's reach.

Nobody knew what future had in store for them, the only thing that was certain was they needed a drydock or at the very least, an outpost to get supplies and resources needed for ship repairs.

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A way out

With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Captain Miller flew the Dauntless towards the destabilizing jumphole, leading to the Omega 55 System. Almost reaching the jumphole, the Battleship ran into a squadron of Liberty Navy heavy fighters. The patrol decided to relay the sighting of the Insurgency Battleship to the Navy's Carrier.
With no other option, Dauntless needed to jump to Omega 55 system, before the Navy could scramble additional fighters and bombers to intercept them.

The jump through the wormhole damaged several non critical systems on the battleship that were patched up before-hand. All the more reason Captain Miller needed to find a station willing to aid them.

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Pile of junk

Not long after the Dauntless arrived to the Omega 55 system, they were spotted by a group of Junkers. Seeing the state the battleship was in, they offered to assist the crew of the battleship, by delivering food, water and pharmaceuticals. Cpt. Miller also wanted to send a message to someone higher up the chain of command of the Junkers in the system, trying to set up a meeting to discuss their presence in the system.

As promised, a junker salvager frigate, accompanied by two freighters returned to Dauntless's position. The transfer of goods began with tractor beams, both the crew and the refugees did their part, distributing medical supplies and food among themselves. In the meantime, Cpt. Miller set a meeting with the leaders of a nearby Junker depot in the Auxhilary Command room.
Both parties came to an agreement, the Dauntless will remain stationary in the orbit of Planet Wiesbaden, where it will be crewed by its original crew only, the refugees will be transfered with Junker ships to Bornholm Depot, to avoid being detected by the Liberty intelligence patrols. Junkers also provided a repair ship, along with its crew to fix the battleship to a fly worthy state.

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Status update

After extensive repairs, Dauntles is once again in a fly-worthy state. Internal repair crews worked alongside Junker's repair ship for nearly a month on fixing the life support, communication hardware and returning some basic functionality to the battleship. The main bridge however, still remains inoperable. The only way to repair the bridge is at a drydock at a suitable shipyard.

During the testing of the short-range scanners however, there was an unknown contact popping on scanners, then disappearing and later reappearing again. First it was considered a glitch due to the possibility that it needs further calibration, until a worrying transmission came through from another unknown vessel. It contained an encrypted message, which the technicians and signal analysts werent able to decrypt with their limited sources.

Cpt. Miller had to know what was happening, as he still had a lot to lose, with almost nothing to defend with, with weapon systems still not at full capacity.. But he had no way of investigating the unknown activity without light fighters that would be able to fly out and scan the area.

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The Order ?

Just a day after intercepting a decrypted message, three ships flew by on the far side of the Planet Wiesbaden. Far from the usual flight paths, patrols and trade routes, it seemed Dauntles wasnt the only ship in the system trying to avoid detection. As the ships flew further, Dauntles picked them up again and Cpt. Miller with his officers couldn't make sense of .. why would the infamous Order be doing in Omega 55 with a wing of bombers.

Miller immediately sent out a message through a secure channel, to the Order wing, saying if they approach too close to them, the battleship will open fire on them.
The wing lead, Agent :Callsign: Dim-Mak replied with a simple transmission: "We're not here for you, we are tracking down an unknown, possible alien in origin ship". With this new information, Miller offered to help the Order pilots, with ammunition and any supplies they might need to continue their mission, asking nothing in return but information.

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Connections of the past

During the short resupply for The Order bomber wing aboard the Dauntles, Captain Miller and his senior officers exchanged a few words with the Order pilots about the aliens (Nomads - they called them) and the tactics they use to avoid detection and their MO

Time was of the essence, so the meeting wasnt very long, but before the Order agents left, they mentioned that one of the Insurgency Captains - callsign Montana also joined their cause some time ago.

With this information, Captain Miller and his 2nd in command Liuetenant Brandon Cayden decided to try and reach the Omicrons and get in touch with Montana in hopes to providing a better future for his crew and possibly, a new purpose for the Arbiter Battleship.

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Through Omegas to Omicrons

With a new mission, to reach Omicrons - all non-essential crew members returned from Bornholm Depot, and Captain Miller immediately started the engines towards Omega 7 and Omega 5 next.
The Arbiter detected some Hessian and Corsair heavy fighter patrols on the way, evading them by keeping their distance all the way through Omega 41 as the Arbiter still wasn't combat ready.

Knowing that Omicrons wont be as easy and tolerable to mistakes than the Omegas. especialy with the new threats of aliens.. Captain Miller sent a scout craft through the Jumphole to Omicron Theta, to report of any activity near the jumphole exit and jumped through at the oportune moment when there was no traffic around.

When the Arbiter was safely across, Captain Miller made a quick getaway for the nearest nebula, to try and mask the battleships signature, from where the Communications Officer Dominic Lake could safely send a broadcast.