Ships of the AFEC

Ticongeroga Class

The Ticonderoga is a 300 meter long frigate capable of deep system travel and is the public face of the AFEC fleet. It is a stylish and good looking ship, with exciting chunky bits and flashy gadgets, very visually engaging to look at. It was originally intended to be for the Federation navy, but the design for rejected for being mediocre and not wowing any of the review panels. In the AFEC, it has proven reliable, and with most of the weapons replaced with deep space gear and science labs, has proven a solid ship. The ship retains a 'Lancer' pattern naval particle cannon on the bow axis, as well as adequate self-defense missile and beam weapon batteries. In addition to being able to house 100 mission specialty personnel, the Ticonderoga can carry a company of marines, plus two dropships, six aerospace fighters, and a dozen mecha.

They are unfortunately terrible in actual ship to ship combat, and these weapons are better used fending off would-be pirates, facing potential dimensional fatigue events, and the big gun is good for sanitizing rogue installations, and less useful for shooting hostile ships.

Saratoga Destroyer

The Saratoga is a 250 meter long destroyer, and the most capable ship in the AFEC fleet. They are relatively fast and carry a decent complement of colonial marines and their gear, including larger numbers of dropships, aerospace fighters, and mecha. Most of these are externally mounted, meaning they are vulnerable in ship-to-ship combat, but most of the time, the Saratoga will operate as a 'carrier' and engages at range, rather than up close and personal. The ship is quick and has almost no scientific facilities.Saratogas are used as escorts for AFEC ships in potentially dangerous areas, and there are only a handful of these ships in service. The AtFed navy formerly used them as assault support ships, and after retiring most of them, sold a few to the AFEC for their own use. A number of Saratogas have been used as testbeds for AFEC ship experiments and experimental equipment.

Conestoga Cruiser

The Conestoga, named after the covered wagons of north American pioneers is the most common ship in the AFEC fleet. At 350 meters long, with a crew of 300, and facilities for another 500, it is the largest as well. These ships carry pre-con tactical bases, heavy industrial equipment, industrial mecha, and the other materials needed to start a colonyon another moon, asteroid, or some other celestial body. These ships are generally involved with a colonial start-up for 3-5 years, staying on site until the facility is sufficient enough to be maintained by the merchant marine, or to hand over operations to whichever corp or interest backed the start-up.

There is a Conestoga H model, with most of the interior hull stripped away and minimal crew capacity. These are the super heavy lifters of the AFEC and they grapple onto prebuilt space stations and habitats and move them to where ever they are intended to go. This differs from traditional hab movers as the Conestoga H can link to and use the station or hab it is carrying as part of itself, move it across the solar system, then drop it off at its destination. When not hauling stations, Model Hs are well known for their rescue operations, where they can grapple a stricken ship and take it back to port, even if the ship itself has no power. The image of an H dragging a cruise liner struck by an errant asteroid is the stuff that keeps AFEC high in public regard.

Shenandoah Cruiser

Formerly popular in the AFEC, the Shenandoah was a one-shot colonial ship. Once the ship arrived at its destination, it would literally be taken apart and reconfigured into the new colony. This fell out of favor as it was at best, a sub-optimal ship, and was not well-liked by its crews. The colonies founded by these ships tended to be small and cramped and had a rather high rate of failure. in attempting to be both a long-distance ship and a deployable colonial facility, it wasn't very good at either.

Three Shenandoahs remain in service with the AFEC. The Goldsborough survived a DFE that saw its onboard computer become sentient. The Goldsborough was instrumental in Seibertronian relations and has demonstrated the ability to deploy into a military operational base and revert back to ship form and leave where ever it landed. The Valkenburgh and the Aspinwall integrated the mechamorphic technology the Goldsborough demonstrated and were fitted with L/AISC command systems. Valkenburgh functions as a Colonial Rescue ship, where it lands at stricken colonies, and uses its resources to shelter the colonists while repairing their colonial assets, rather than just evacuating them. The Aspinwall is a mobile research accelerator and CogNet super node, and does most of its work in the deep system, servicing research centers.

Unit 73

The scientific arm of the AFEC is divided into 9 sections

Section 1 - Bio-research, including genetics, augmentation, and human experimentation

73-1 is a violation of almost every clause on genetic engineering in the Tycho convention, and an existential crime against humanity. They dont work with things as mundane as supersoldiers, but rather horrors like creating human-space planktonoid hybrids and placental simulacra

Section 2 - Dimensional Fatigue Research

Section 2 is in the business of deliberately causing DFEs to study them, and to extract new arcanotechnology from them. They are responsible for the Leviathan station being lost, and the Phobos Event.

Section 3 - Dimensional Fatigue Countermeasures and Rapid Response

Where Section 2 deliberately makes messes, it is up to Section 3 to clean them up, setting up a strong antagonism between the two branches. While Section 3 certainly has a large share of its own reflex personnel, they prefer to deploy mercenaries and other assets with minimal amount of briefing and send them in clean up style, while providing back up and support as needed, or nuking the site from orbit if required.

Section 4 - Security, Containment, and Protection - DFE samples and entity detention

Jokingly known as the SCP, the Vault, or the Morgue, Section 4 handles autopsies, cleaning up after Section 3 finishes, which is usually mops and blood remover and sanitizing bodies and facilities. Section 4 also has a number of special prisoners like encounter 45 and encounter 701. If Section 1 commits crimes against humanity, section 4 is keeping the records and the test subjects alive.

Section 5 - Training

New trainees, instructors, etc. A menial department.

Section 6 - Equipment Maintenance

The men and women who maintain the facilities used by Unit 73, ranging from fixing lights and offices to keeping the ammonia tanks filled for the thing in the glass vault that burbles obscenities, a menial department that has seen a lot of shit. Nerve staping isnt entirely uncommon.

Section 7 - Medical

Not so much crimes against humanity or corpse sanitation like 1 and 4, Section 7 is internal medical, treating mundane injuries, tending to cybernetics and genetic modifications, examining parasitic infections, alien diseases, and the like. A typical tour of duty for a doctor in Section 7 runs somewhere between and episode of House and an episode of the X-Files. Weird shit abounds, interspaced with broken toes and erectile dysfunction.

Section 8 - Administration

Like Section 7, Section 8 is internal administration and handles routine things like job assignments, laying out missions, evaluating operations and the like. It ranges from the mundane to the bizarre because Section 8 is accountants and managers keeping tabs on mad scientists, cosmic horror containment, and people who have a chance of exploding into parapsychic demigods, or just exploding. Section 8 refers to itself as Terminal, or Terminus, and have a very dead pan nature about them.

Section 9 - Intelligence

The spies, assassins, and internal affairs of Unit 73, Section 9 makes sure the mad scientists dont go too mad, and assassinate nascent parapsychic demigods before they manifest their full powers, and are generally feared by the rest of Unit 73. They are the discrete agents of paranoia and fear. The bulk of Section 9 that is visible is completely fake, and the majority of actual Section 9 personnel are dispersed through Sections 5, 6, and 7.