19th February would forever be marked in history books as the date when the first human Aether Flyer was launched. RFA Douglas, an Andreas class colonist transport, with 158 crew and sub-lieutenant Harry Akhtar in command, was not supposed to be the first ship - that honour should have gone to the scout-explorer HSM Sojourn but it was not to be. Douglas ferried over a group of scientists and hardy pioneers to kickstart the British Lunar colony.
April saw the activation of the first Kaiserliche Xear Kompanie in Vienna as well as the launch of HMS Sojourn, the first human scouting vessel. It would take 259 days for the Aether Flyer to reach Odin, the suspected origin of the message but, unless something drastic happened, Great-Britain would reap the rewards of this race.
On 29th May, when Sojourn was between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, Germany launched SMS Mittenwalde. Not only would she depart well behind the British ship, her slower speed meant that she would spend over a year in transit. German leadership were not impressed but it was too late to modify the ship - the Kluge Shipwrights naval shipyard had already retooled for the Altdorf class tankers that the General Staff logistics planners had requested to support operations around Minerva. Mittenwalde was unique and would forever remain so.
Meanwhile, British planners took advantage of the larger engines that Bevill and Vulcan were able to put out, creating a new freighter design called Crosby, that could haul twenty-five times as much cargo as the Andreas class, though it was slower and could not transport passengers. It was also gigantic, clocking in at whopping 40,000 tons! For comparison, Andreas class was only 9,000 tons. While Watts Services was expanded, the yard would continue to build Andreas class colonist transports. The second design was simply called Sojourn Mk.II and would replace the original Sojourn class once Morton Builders reached 4,200 tons of capability. The Mk.II carried four more geological survey sensors for a total of five and the larger Vulcan Con-Eng 40/40-100 gave it decent speed, though the increase in size did mean that it was somewhat slower at 476 km/sec compared to the originals’ 568 km/sec. The additional sensors also required significantly larger pool of crew, going from 45 to exactly 100 souls.
By 24th August, the second and last Russian Ksenoarkheologiya Otryad was commissioned. Now three powers had xenoarchaeology formations ready - the USA, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Russian Empire. Two days later, the Germans finalized the design of their new survey corvette, one that was meant for more permanent work in the system and not just going to Minerva-Odin.
Hessen class Survey Corvette 6,800 tons 156 Crew 495.4 BP TCS 136 TH 80 EM 0
588 km/s Armour 1-31 Shields 0-0 HTK 31 Sensors 5/5/0/1.0 DCR 1-1 PPV 0
Maint Life 3.04 Years MSP 545 AFR 370% IFR 5.1% 1YR 89 5YR 1,330 Max Repair 50 MSP
Fregattenkapitän Control Rating 2 BRG SCI
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months CDE 20% Morale Check Required
AG Vulcan Con-Eng 40/40-100 (2) Power 80.0 Fuel Use 50.0% Signature 40.00 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 257,100 Litres Range 13.6 billion km (267 days at full power)
Siemens Gravimeter 2/5-20 (1) GPS 40 Range 4.8m km RES 20
AEG TH Detektor 5/1 (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect 1000: 17.7m km
AEG EM Detektor 5/1 (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect 1000: 17.7m km
Conventional Geological Survey Sensors (5) 1.0 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Survey Ship for auto-assignment purposes
With doubled deployment time and larger engines, Hessen was quite a bit more capable. It also carried actual sensors ensuring that it could ‘see’ in Aether around itself. Then on 27th of August, the first human tanker, German Altdorf class aether flier SMS Passau was completed.
On 23rd December, RFA Ramsey, the second Andreas class Colonist Transport was ready and it immediately joined with Douglas to form the GB CLT Fleet.
