Second Fleet

From FEInfobase

Created in 2404 by Fleet Admiral Taylor's first executive order of the year, the Second Fleet was orderd to head out in to space and make peaceful contact with Friends of the Federation in an attempt to secure more resources for the continued rebuilding effort. It was a move well-received by the starving Earth, viewed as a more pro-active form of help than the Re-Exploration Initiative.

The reality, however, was significantly less benevolent. The Fleet initially numbered only four ships hiding behind the cover of public relations maneuvers, and with a more sinister directive than peaceful co-operation for the sake of mutual assistance. Their true purpose was to find the resources needed by the Federation, and to take them by any means possible.

For a year the Fleet continued its operations unhampered, Command occasionally making large displays to assure the public of the importance of its mandate. The most significant publicity stunt was the announcement that the second Enterprise Class vessel, the USS Columbia, would be assigned to the Second Fleet upon its construction.

Command had not, however, anticipated the increase in public scrutiny the project would undergo with the opening of the Presidential elections. The campaign by Counsellor Stark would bring the issue of territorial re-expansion into the very centre of the public eye, and with it, the Second Fleet - for such a responsibility was seen to be the project's most natural eventual course of evolution.

Thus Starfleet prepared for the possibility that re-expansionism would be required of them, and did so by focusing further efforts on the Second Fleet. The project received more funding, more vessels, and the promise of the new starbase under construction which was originally intended for the First Fleet.

The appointment of Vice-Admiral Falco Tauvits to the Fleet, despite a short assignment, finally kick-started the project into action in early 2406. Tauvits, with his unbeatable knowledge of the uncharted space that would be the Second Fleet's theatre of operations, turned the rag-tag dead-end group into a fully fledged task force ready to meet the duty of expansionism. Thus by the time Tauvits was promoted to become head of Starfleet Intelligence the Second Fleet was finally prepared to begin operations, now under the command of the former Fleet XO, newly-promoted Rear Admiral Matthew Royce, an officer who has served with the Fleet since its creation.

Royce's first choice for the new Fleet Executive Officer was his former first officer from the Borg War, Captain John Avery, who was also granted command of the prestigious new starbase of Deep Space Five, still under construction. However, within days of this assignment and before Avery could even reach his new posting, a tragedy struck as the distiguished Starfleet Captain died suddenly of an unexpected heart failure.

Avery's death would send a ripple of discontent through the fledgling Second Fleet, already having undergone many changes, for better or worse, and desperate for some stability. Many called for the new executive officer to be one of their own, and tended to favour the young, but brilliant Captain James Langley of the USS Caliburn. Royce, however, defied the pressure by appointing another old comrade of his, Captain Edward Beckett, former Deputy Federal Security Advisor, and presumed to be intended as an outside source of stability.