Set in the universe of David Weber's Honor Harrington Series this PBEM follows the maiden voyage of HMS Centaur.

HMS Centaur

Crew Roster

Mission Briefing

The Story So Far....

Pictures

Office of Naval Inteligence (HMSS Vulcan)

Deck Plans Bridge, Sickbay, Pinnace

Links

These are the Voyages of her majesty's Ship Centaur.....

The officers packing the drill hall stood at parade rest, as the Holo-wall displayed the launching of their ship. The guest of honour stepped forward and wispers of "The Queen!" hissed around the room.

"I would like to thank the peoples of the Alliance who's fund raising has allowed us to build this fine Star Knight class cruiser. In acknowledgement of this contribution, particularly by non-manticorans, I have asked Duke Cromarty to crew her with personnel from all the allied worlds. In truth this is not MY ship it is a ship of the Alliance, a symbol of our determination to stand together against our common enemy. I Name this Ship Centaur, may God bless her and all who sail in her" pronounced Queen Elizebeth III reciting the age old launching prayer that had not changed in over two and a half millenia.

The bottle of finest Manticoran vintiage impacted against the ship's bridge it's space frozen contents shattering into a glittering aura. (hitting the Bow area with a bottle had ceased to be practical given the fragility of impeller nodes). One by one, the umbilicals began to detach and with a final burst from her thrusters the Star Knight Class Heavy Cruiser HMS Centaur slowly departed Vulcan Station.

The Holo-wall faded back to it's default "parkland" setting revealing the four officers sat on the raised dias. A Captain of the Grayson Space Navy short muscular, with iron grey hair and beard, "The Silver Fox" wispered one Grayson NCO as if that meant something. Next to him were the squadron's inteligence officer and a ridiculously young looking Commodore in a tailor made Manticoran unifom...and on the far right.... an Admiral......Admiral Hemphil

"So there you have it, the rather public launch of the Star Knight class HMS Centaur" lectured hemphil "I am here to tell you it was all a sham for the benefit of the peeps. THIS is the real HMS Centaur.."

A holo of a Star Knight appears, perfect in every detail and begins shedding hull plates to reveal a leaner meaner silluette. "This is the Pegasus Class Strike Cruiser HMS Centaur, a hybrid if you will, between the cruiser and carrier design concepts. We expect great things from this ship. ...I expect you to eat Sultan Class BCs for breakfast people." boasted the admiral....

 HMS Centaur 

   HMS Centaur - (Extract from Jain's fighting ships)

Note: sufficient ordnance carried for 50 full broadsides.

   Concise Mission Briefing

   (for a complete text of the briefing follow this link)

Intel officer Shepperd looked to the Captain and asked "Sir, has our deployment schedule been finalized? "

LAC Squadron Leader St. Charles raises his hand at this point, "Sir, sorry I was late, You may have answered this question already, but are we having a shakedown period before we go into action?" He waits for the answer, while considering the stupidity of being late to this meeting and looking around to see what other officers are at this meeting.

"These questions lead rather neatly on to our mission orders gentlemen" replied Captain Chesterton. "In fact we have two missions. Our Primary mission will be an anti-piracy patrol of the Silesian confederacy. Admiral Harrington pretty much cleared out the Breslau and Posnan Sectors and it is believed that the Pirate Cartels have shifted their attention to Northern Silesia, the Terrance, Tumult, and Carlton Sectors."

"We are to travel to the Basilisk system where we will pick up the remainder of our personnel and conduct shakedown operations. A short time thereafter a squadron of three Q-ships will be joining us. We will then depart in company for Silesian Territory acting as 'escort' for our 'convoy' of Q-shps. As an independent unit our orders allow us considerable latitude once on station in Silesian territory."

"The second mission is nowhere near as straight forward. Allow me to intruduce Commodore Shearwater of Naval Intelligence, he will be in command of matters relating to Mission 2."

The improbably young looking Baron seemed to uncoil from his chair, looking more like some holo-star version of a spy than seemed proper for the real thing.

"Thank you, old chap....Mission 2....What we have is a little mystery. A few months ago in a blaze o' glory Commodore Harrington returned from the dead with several milion escaped prisoners of war. Since then those ex-prisoners have been telling us their life histories. We will be following up one of those stories... A Peep Naval Courier Pilot called Chau Velan was sent to Cerberus for the "crime" of reading the header on a message that some StateSec Comissar had failed to encode properly. What it amounts to is this , we know that the Peeps, specifically StateSec are planning "Something Big" on one of the planets in your assigned patrol area, we don't know what, we don't know where, but you chaps are going to find out....and stop it dead."

Pictures

<Seeker After Truth> called "Holmes" by his Person

Hawkwing Class DD - with Wedges up

 Vulcan Station -  DD Docking Bay

   Harrington Links

   Militray Uniforms

   Royal Manticoran Navy Officer's Manual

   Ranks and Uniform information from David Weber's Tech Bible

   RMN Official Honor Harrington artwork

   The Honorpedia

For My other Site go to

Disclaimers: The name Honor Harrington, and all related characters, cover images, plots, incidents, and novel titles are the trademarked and copyright property of David M. Weber and Baen Publishing Enterprises. Permission to copy the text portions of this file for non-profit purposes maybe granted on request, provided no changes are made, copyright notices are retained, and full credit is given to the authors.