The History of FLEET (page 3)
The moment that sticks in the Board's collective memory about FLEET was not the serendipitous arrival of the Commodore...oh no. The moment that laid the groundwork for their reputation (and, perhaps, sparked their legendary arrogance) was when they went from one ship to dozens. The little lost satellite (but see below...)'s incoherent burst of static had taken months to reach another receiver. Barely a quarter of the data was even remotely readable by that point, but there was enough to recognisably be a signal, rather than mere background radiation, and that was apparently enough to attract attention from galactic passers-by. The first arrivals had loitered outsystem to set up a refuelling platform around Jupiter. In the process, they had hooked up with other stragglers and lost vessels and made common cause...the Board suspect their patroness might have been involved here, but FLEET tend to slap CLASSIFIED stickers on any records. Whatever their reasoning, the resulting armada's cautious advance towards Earth was quite spectacular. And "armada" was the word. Everything from colossal warships to fuel tankers and equipment transports seemed to find their way into the solar system over the next few months, but most importantly for the Board, they brought skilled engineers, inspired tacticians, urgently-needed supplies and technologies...and a couple of downright scary flag officers. A master of Byzantine politics, Admiral Lowen's political cunning saw to the creation of FLEET as a Board lobby group along the same lines as the old Speculation cliques (when informed it was traditional for the name of such a group to be an acronym, he suggested the questioner imagine whatever he thought appropriate), and within a few months he'd acquired enough influence and favours to ensure the Board held relatively little political power within it. A quiet spin campaign also attracted many of the best and brightest of the new generation of Board recruitment into FLEET's ranks, alongside a steady trickle of periodic new arrivals. And then came FLEET's baptism of fire, when Mental turned traitor and took most of the Acanceh base with him in an attempt to silence the Goddess. The Board's counterattack was swift, impressive...and firmly lead by FLEET units, which demonstrated just what they could do in a spectacular recovery operation. Success followed success as combined forces capitalised on their victory by rooting out troublesome cabals, terminating suspected dark sorcerers, and outright obliterating anywhere Hell was suspected of having a foothold in the corporeal realm. For a heady, glorious few months, the Darkness seemed to be being smashed at every turn and FLEET could do no wrong. Then the Dragon showed up. |