I'm not normally prone to passing on information gained from only one source, but in this case the information is too good and from too reliable a source not to bring to the attention of our little band of rumour-mongers, conspiracy theorists and information brokers. You'll remember, I'm sure, my thoughts on the almost mythical Tartarus Station,
and the hidden cache of warships it supposedly plays home to from my last dispatch. Well, it seems that the Federated Suns wasn't the only group keeping some of their toys in that particular box.
Before we continue, it is important to remember two key pieces of information.
Firstly, that Tartarus Station
was founded and originally operated by the Terran Hegemony, not the Federated suns.
Second, while the arrival of the 32nd Pursuit Squadron is perhaps the first thought that comes to mind when one thinks of the survival of the station after the fall of the Star League, they were not alone.
With this information fresh in our minds, lets take a look at this latest nugget of information.
-StarlingStar League Defense Force ships held at Tartarus Station:SLS
Brooklyn (
Farragut class Battleship)
SLS
Marko Ramius (
Cameron class Battlecruiser)
SLS
Norfolk (
Sovetskii Soyuz class Heavy Cruiser)
SLS
Anchorage (
Congress class Frigate)
SLS
Terence Gilliam (
Quixote class Frigate)
SLS
John Paul Jones (
Essex class Destroyer)
SLS
Mahan (
Essex class Destroyer)
SLS
Rio Grande (
Naga class Light Destroyer)
SLS
Rubicon (
Naga class Light Destroyer)
The anchorage and repair facility that is to day known as Tartarus Station was first built by the Star League Corps. of Engineers at some point between 2577 and 2597. Officially, it was intended to serve as a forward repair, rest and refit base for SLDF warships taking part in operations against the Taurian Concordat, the Outworlds Alliance and other, smaller Periphery states. And while it indeed served this purpose well, it also acted as none-too-subtle knife held at the throat of House Davion, a heavily fortified naval base at the very heart of the Federated Suns, should the Hegemony ever feel the need to impose its will upon them.
As such, it was always host to a number of warships, both in transit between the Hegemony and the front lines, and a standing garrison out in place to ensure the stations security. Again, this standing guard force was a double edged sword; while it was officially in place to free up units of the far smaller AFFS Navy, it also insured that the Federated Suns never moved against the station. Despite this duality, it was still considered a low-priority posting, and was often staffed by older ships no-longer considered fit for front-line duty, but no ready for the breakers yard. Given the distances and costs involved, it was often considered more cost effective to simply mothball the oldest ships in the Tartarus system, rather than return them to the Hegemony for decommissioning, and over the years, the system became home to a second ghost fleet.
With the fall of the Star League and the arrive of the 32nd Pursuit Squadron, many of these ships were decommissioned; the refuges simply lacked the manpower and support base to operate so many ships, and the 32nd was still relatively combat ready. With this in mind, the last of the guard ships, along with a handful of other ships that had found their way to Tartarus, were mothballed along side, but distinctly separate from, the Federated Suns ships held there.
The most impressive, and from an historical perspective, the most important Star League ship still held in the Tartarus system is the
Farragut class Battleship SLS
Brooklyn. An original Block I
Farragut, the
Brooklyn served as part of the 174th Line Squadron of the Seventeenth Fleet for over a century. After several tours of the Free Worlds League, the
Brooklyn was transferred to convoy escort and patrol duty in the near Periphery as part of the 194th Line Squadron, Nineteenth Fleet.
Towards the end of the Reunification War, the
Brooklyn was badly damaged by a 500-kiloton nuclear mine, believed to have been a re-purposed warhead from a Peacemaker missile, an attack that the Taurian Concordat claimed responsibility for. The damage was bad enough that the
Brooklyn was ordered to return to the Terran Hegemony for repairs, but it soon became clear that there was unseen damage to her Kearny-Fuchida drive, causing unpredictable power spikes and drops, drastically increasing the risk of a miss-jump. One of the SLDF's
Newgrange class YardShips was dispatched to perform emergency repairs, but even then, the
Brooklyn's KF-drive proved to be temperamental at best. Unable to make it back to the Hegemony safely, the
Brooklyn was instead ordered to Tartarus Station for more extensive work.
Unfortunately for the
Brooklyn, the engineers at Tartarus Station found a series of small but growing fractures in the germanium core of the ships KF-drive; short of ripping the entire drive out and replacing it entirely, there was no way to ensure that the
Brooklyn would not suffer a catastrophic accident the next time she attempted to jump. Unfortunately, this would require effectively dismantling the entire ship, and it was decided that it was quicker, cheaper and easier to simply build a replacement from scratch. However, while her jump-drive was too badly damaged to be of use, it was a relatively simple job to repair the rest of the damage the mine had done, and could easily be done using the spare parts and equipment already on hand at Tartarus Station. Thus, as a cost saving measure, the
Brooklyn was permanently reassigned as the command ship for the garrison squadron.
The
Brooklyn served in this role long after the bulk of of contemporaries had been withdrawn from service and mothballed, protected by her unique situation. However, it was the fall of the Star League that saw her decline. While she wasn't scuttled, as per the orders from General Kerensky, the cutting off of any and all spare parts from the Hegemony meant that it was impossible to keep her operational as parts started to ware out and fail.
The arrival of the 32nd Pursuit Squadron was the final nail in the coffin, yet also oddly her salvation
With the
William Halsey to replace her as command-ship of the garrison, the engineering staff remaining on Tartarus Station were able to mothball the
Brooklyn, protecting her from further decay. Every care was taken to preserve her exactly as she was, a process that took almost a year to complete. There were some complaints from the Federated Suns, who had hoped to make use of the
Brooklyn herself if Tartarus Station no longer had need of her, but yet again, the treaty that covered the stations unique as an enclave of an allied foreign power (even a defunct one) meant that they were unable to press the issue.
Centuries passed, and with the technological renaissance of the 3050's, it once again became possible to produce, on a limited scale, parts compatible with the
Brooklyn. The Department of Military Intelligence carefully sourced these parts from across the Federated Commonwealth, using shell companies and cut-outs to stop anyone from realising just what was being manufactured. While repairing the damage to the ships jump-drive remains an improbability, the
Brooklyn has been partly reactivated, acting as a combination academy and system-defence unit, normally maintaining a close position relative to Tartarus Station. She is, in essence, a massive monitor, capable of in-system transit, but unable to safely leave. While it is theoretically possible for the
Brooklyn to make a jump, the risk of the KF drive suffering a catastrophic failure that could destroy the ship is considered too great at this time.
TBC...
