Project PRISM

Situation

The Frontier Wars of the '80s shook the confidence in the capitals of Earth, turning the freewheeling optimism of the '70s to cynical pessimism. The promise return to unquestioned economic and political superiority was shattered on the anvil of well-armed indepencent movements. The '90s tempered these into an era of pragmatism, as a new generation of leaders came to power in the postwar era. The lines had been drawn but both sides now knew the rules.
Seven years have passed since the ZOCU war ended in the halls of the UN building in Geneva. While the EU was a nonbelligerent in the greater conflict it was involved in localized actions, most notably on New Mercia and to this day shares a prickly peace with its former colonies. Funding to update the fleet and set up planetary defenses have absorbed the lion's share of the EU's discretionary budgeting and the headlines have been grabbed by sophisticated new warship designs, not much-needed replacements for the EU's old survey ships.
In this political climate it is no surprise that Operation Phoenix was politically divisive. The very idea of sending out Neue Silesia's newest capital ship on a mission to re-establish contact with the PRISM worlds was seen as the heights of folly. Even with the Consolidated European Trading Company (ConEuro) throwing its political backing behind the Kylmann administration, the St Patrick's Agreement on New Mercia was the only thing that kept the government from failing its confidence vote.

Mission

Operation Phoenix's goals are to reach the PRISM worlds and complete a chart of the Hydra Passage, a goal originally intended to be completed in the '70s but since delayed due to shifting priorities. In fact the survey ship attached the small flotilla - the FV Ptolemy - is the same ship originally assigned in the abortive 2177-2178 expedition. Another goal of equal priority is to re-establish contact with Cinereous and Henrietta. These worlds were cut off by the Breakdown and consequently have suffered four decades of isolation and official records remain unclear as to just what percent of the population could not evacuate in time. Finally, a secondary goal is to attempt to reconstruct the loss of the original PRISM mission of 2146, if such a thing is possible.
The reason Operation Phoenix was so politically charged was due to the escort demands; unlike during the glory days circa 2100 AD, human and posthuman activities have roused Velan drones to increasing threat levels. A simple massdriver to discourage the rare inquisitive mining machine is no longer sufficient. Dedicated warships are necessary, warships taken away from vital role of protecting the interests of the EU.

Flotilla

The flagship of the flotilla is the NSS Dominion, the second Europa class battleship to be completed and the first to enter service in the Neue Silesian navy. While the use of Neue Silesia's 'most powerful ship' in such a questionable endeavor was a major criticism, the counterargument that it was far more suited for these sorts of long-duration independent operations than the legacy Drakes.
Armed with new, high-performance Mercurius kinetic-kill cannons in several turrets and a positron cannon in a retractable housing the Dominion sports a heavy gun armament. Additional flexibility is afforded by the Dominion's missile room, capable of deploying a variety of weapons and probes. Neue Silesia has not publicised that the Dominion will be equipped with a number of medium and high yield fusion devices.
The advanced systems on the Dominion are not limited to the armament; the Dominion includes a full gravity-resist system and is designed to land, operate, and launch from gravity wells and atmosphere. Finally in a first for EU capital ships (and one of the reasons why the Europa program was so controversial) the ship includes substantial hangar volume for a mixed array of mobile suits and aerospace interceptors.

Spanning two decades, multiple planets and a half-dozen cancellations and near-deaths, the Europa program is one of the most controversial military programs of the past half-century. Originally proposed in the early 70s as a new generation 'frontier battleship' to supplement and eventually replace the by then three decade old Drake class, the first few design drafts were conventional in nature and heavily inspired by American and Chinese System Control Ships. These proved unacceptable to lawmakers and the program was shut down in 2173, only to be reestablished the following day under new direction.
After several more years of rework and scale tests, the design candidate was a powerful warship capable of transporting and deploying both a drop battalion and escorting aeospace forces. Most importantly it included a full grav-lift system enabling the ship unassisted travel into or out of a standard-strength gravity well without the complexities of a water landing. Unfortunately this transformational ability pushed the EU's technical resources to limit and continued delays and problems did nothing to endear the project to the EU admirals or lawmakers. The project was nonetheless considered too important to kill despite mounting complexity in various mechanical and engineering aspects, as the advanced rough-field gravity lift system was intended for both the Europa and the smaller Sofia assault ships.
Other problems plagued the Europa as well. Most notable was the spin-gravity habitat, an assymetrical dual-axis block that needed to operate properly not just under thrust and in null-gravity, but under planetary gravity as well. While solvable engineering it was a continued source of problems and had a sharply limited internal volume. The advanced weapon outfit was not problematic so much as simply progressing slowly and overbudget. After the expenditure of tens of billions of Euros the project was seen as simply haemoraging money and continually missing tehnical goals. Despite the wobbling entry of its smaller cousin the Sofia into service, only the flare-up of the ZOCU war saved the Europa from cancellation in 2185.
With the conflict threatening to spill out into the Eurozone the Europa project was reassed yet again, and in 2187 underwent a further and penultimate shift. By this point the project had been taken over by the Franco-Italian Nouveau Ecole and shifted yet again to include combat frame launch facilities. Hotly debated inside the Admirality, the Europa project became even more of a technology testbest while the aquisitions budget instead went to the by-then proven Sofia and Danube classes. The final design change happened in 2191 after the original and at the time only hull was halfway complete; early attempts to integrate artificially generated gravity proved successful and the disliked rotating habitat was scrapped before installation to be replaced by onboard gravity generators capable of generating a steady 0.7 G gradient. Internal volume for troops and drones was increased, allowing the exceptional ability to transport a full drop division in admitedly ungravitated conditions. Renewed interest saw a further three hulls laid down for outer zone planetary fleets.
Each of the four Europas differ in various aspects. The Europa herself has approximately 500 tons of superfluous structural mass, a relic of the removed spin gravity section. The Dominion and the Ophanim were the closest to each other, but the latter fitted several mega particle guns in the place of part of its kinetic-kill armament. The Italia was completed without any onboard gravitation as only three of the four sets of posthuman-derived artificial gravity gear were found to operate adequately. All featured a 'Mercurion' cruise drive and a set of fusion 'sprinters', a design choice giving excellent flexibility and unsurpassing cost that has not been repeated to date.
It remains to be seen if the Europa is representative of the EU's future direction in shipbuilding, or just expensive abberations.

The other warship is the EUS Zrinyi, a Hammerhead class 'pocket battleship'. A somewhat older warship, the Zrinyi was laid down in the early 80s for long-range patrols and independent operations. Well-armed and defended and equipped with a respectable small-craft bay, the Hammerheads also proved to be expensive for the capabilities they featured and suffered from insufficient specialization. Few were built and most tend to find themselves on similar missions.

The flotilla's survey ship is the FV Ptolemy, an old Explorateur class survey ship. Refitted in 2172 with a new jump drive (replacing the previous locked-up Gen 1 unit) and new sensors she was active in refining the jump plots for over fifty systems before being put to work as an auxilary picket cruiser from 2184 to 2189. The Ptolemy was almost scrapped in the 90s, but instead underwent a SLEP, seen as a cheaper alternative to buying new survey ships.
Originally an austere design, progressive modifications over the past five decades have reduced manning and increased supply bunkerage and equipment payload. Today's Ptolemy is a tired but comfortable ship with a civilian crew split between multi-decade veterans and eager young novices.

The last ship is the FV ConEuro Thalassa, a ConEuro FE-7 'Far Trader' acting as the flotilla's supply and logistics ship. Like the Ptolemy the Thalassa was re-engined in the early '70s and spent much of the subsequent two decades operating in the peripheral Eurosphere, including into ZOCU space during the prewar period. While structurally robut due to sheer size, the Thalassa is no warship and is, as the flotilla's cargo ship, a vital asset.

Crew

The PCs will take the positions as various department heads in the Operation Phoenix flotilla. Characters do not need to be onboard the Dominion, though this is recommended.