History
The Hayden Class survey ship was originally designed as a
geological survey ship for use in the early stages of humanity’s colonization of other
star systems. This original mission was for extreme long duration surveying of pre-selected targets, so the ship itself had a relatively small crew and a relatively large amount of crew space. These ships would largely be responsible for the initial high-detail surveys on the early colony worlds. Over their life-time they would see themselves constantly refit with new technology and tasked with additional assignments such as long range exploration, acting as a communication relay for early colonies, and even diplomatic transport work.
The Edward Deming for the past ten years has been conducting operations out of the Hawking star
system. The ship received refits and modifications yearly for more than a decade. This has allowed the ship to participate in long range exploratory expeditions to other star systems, conduct elaborate diplomatic engagements between
nations, virology research, deep space rescue, and field testing of new technology such as particle beam coupled lasers.
Most recently Edward Deming was pulled apart and completely rebuilt by
the Magnetic Assembly. Many of the internal creature comforts were kept along with the ship’s superluminal systems but everything else was redesigned entirely. Union officials then designated the ship to be scrapped along with all of the Union’s military supply ships, ships that were also produced on Hawking. The entire situation came from corruption and political posturing inside of the union. This situation led to the Hawking Elections that led to the
Hawking System withdrawing from the Union which in turn resulted in the recovery of the newly redesigned Edward Deming.
The new Edward Deming would be one of the few ships fielding by the Magnetic Assembly that could support a
human crew comfortably. and would also be the only manned ship that was deployed to
Reiss for the defense of the planet against the expected initial Union response to the Hawking withdrawal.
Edward Deming, Book 0: Redux
CE 2318,
Heram Wazu uses his own money to fund an expedition to
[REDACTED]. The expected duration of the operation was 6 months, with most of the time being devoted to travel. The Science team and their marine escort would be kept in Cryo-sleep for the majority of the trip. Eager to get started, Heram would take a small unit to the surface that included his sister
Quarum Wazu, where they would first encounter
[REDACTED].
[REDACTED].
Dr.
Dorris Muller would come to the aid of those onboard the ship, overriding the acting captain, Callsign
Green-Thumb, and successfully landing the Marine Group on the surface.
[REDACTED].
[REDACTED].
Their actions would result in the destruction of
[REDACTED], and considerable loss of life including
[REDACTED], and
[REDACTED]. The
American Union Office of Intelligence Services Counter-Conceptuals Division have lodged a formal complaint and still wish to interview all involved.
Edward Deming, Book 1: Being Diplomatic
CE 2319,
Upon return to
New Cambridge from the previous Expidition, Heram Wazu would start to organize a diplomatic summit onboard the Edward Deming between the Major Powers in the area to assist the American Union Diplomatic Core. During this shore leave there would be an abduction attempt that would be foiled by
Green-Squad. Heram blamed the American Union Office of Intelligence Services Counter-Conceptuals Division for the attempt, but an internal investigation has cleared them of the charge.
The abduction attempt would happen at the same time as the New Cambridge
River City incident. A local
Grawla warlord would use burred
nuclear weapons to divert a river into New Cambridge and cause extensive damage to the city. After Heram's rescue by Green-Squad, he was able to use orbital weapon-systems to re-divert the river away from the city.
Despite these issues, the diplomatic conference between major powers would be organized and held onboard the Edward Deming. Despite his best efforts, the Union Diplomatic Core would horribly bungle attempts to create defensive agreements with allies, and would allow the representative from the
Empire of Daqin,
Hoshiko, to threaten and goad newly discovered allies and friends into dangerous positions. They would threaten some, and launch the outright invasion of others.
In one instance, Wazu was able to negotiate an agreement with Hoshiko to tour the low-technology world of one of his allies. Resulting in the two of them briefly being lost in the wilds and held captive by a primitive civillization.
In the other instance, The Empire of Daqin goaded an ally into attacking them and used it as pretext for invasion. Wazu would lead a relief effort to the high-gravity colony world with
Geiben Folami acting as commander of the ground team, and an old friend
Somnya Srilin helping bring some discipline to
the Edward Deming crew. They would find the disastrous invasion leading to high civilian casualties, but the accidental bombing of civilians by a Mercenary Group escorting the Edward Deming would end up causing a massive political disaster for the Union and the Edward Deming's crew, resulting in Geiben Folami being forcibly retired from the military. At the same time the Union would attempt to punish New Cambridge and the Magnetic Assembly by retiring the majority of ships developed used by the Magnetic Assembly, including the Edward Deming.
Edward Deming, Book 2: Operation Trustfall
CE 2319 to early 2320,
Not one to let a crisis go to waste, Wazu would spin the incident to showcase just how bad the situation had gotten when the Union and
Daqin were allowed to run things. Geiben Folami would become the poster-child for just how much of a failure the Union was at protecting its own. In the next few months opinion on Hawking would rapidly shift against the American Union.
The Magnetic Assembly would spend the final month of the year preparing, and would end up winning the elections at the end of the year in a landslide victory, giving them more than 50% control of the
New Cambridge Executive Council and over 90% control when including their various coalition groups such as the SEEKs.
As the election results were being announced, security forces would be rounding up members of the Union as the Executive Council met to dissolve the ties between Hawking and the American Union. Wazu would personally assist Geiben in reclaiming his old ship, the Edward Deming. Hand selected former members of the crew would sneak to
Rotislav where the ship was scheduled for decommissioning by the American Union and infiltrate the ship, ending up in a firefight with their former comrade in arms Somnya.
When the dust settled, the Union forces had been arrested, and Geiben would find himself in command of The Edward Deming.
RP Link
Edward Deming, Book 3: A Matter of Scale
CE 2320,
A starship the size of a small moon is detected heading towards Hawking, and the Union rushed to prepare an invasion fleet to start retaking the Hawking System.
Wazu would organize the defense of Reiss, the outermost planet in the Hawking System and necessary bridgehead for any invasion. At the same time he would also be preparing for the expedition to the newly discovered planet-ship named '
Azathoth' and assisting with the development of the
Echoni project.
The crew of The Edward Deming, led by Geiben, would manage to stop the attack on Reiss utilizing the laser facility on the sunward facing side of the planet to burn the American Union's 6th fleet. Though they managed to land soldiers on the planet, the loss of their
starships meant they were forced to surrender at pain of being destroyed from orbit.
Wazu then revealed to the crew that Azathoth was approaching, and preparations for the first expedition to the planet were started. The crew would explore several levels of the sprawling planetary-factory only to run across Daqin agents who had beaten them to the planet. The ensuing firefight saw the crew ejected from the planet by the local machines.
Deciding that they couldn't leave Azathoth to the
Humans (Or Grawla) the Daqin would send their forces in system to destroy it. The Humans would cut a deal with the Grawla to work together to save Azathoth, with the crew of the Edward Deming returning to Hawking to discover more about the ancient
aliyum invasion before returning to the planet to help fight off the Daqin. The final battle ending with the
Zoomer clan still alive, and the Daqin forced to end their attack though their forces were still present on the planet.
Geiben also managed to get the Aliyums to agree to terraforming a different planet, instead of continuing their 'invasion' of Hawking.
RP Link
Edward Deming, Book 4: Where no Grawl has gone before
CE 2321
With the Azathoth problem dieing down, Heram Wazu decides to take the Edward Deming on a trip to
Soyuz space to visit the original laboratory used by Dr. Stein. The Magnetic Assembly has taken great interest in see just how the destructive copy from man to machine was undertaken, and also uses this opportunity to forge bonds with the Soyuz.
Meanwhile the Zoomer Clan finds itself needing more Grawla to continue their work in space.
Sylas and
Eedded return to Hawking, looking to recruit more Grawl to their cause. This puts the
Zoomers right in the middle of a larger discussion amongst Grawla on how to handle Humans, Space travel, and their society at large.
RP Link
Edward Deming, Book 5: Doing Onto Others
CE 2322
After the Daqin's attack on Azathoth, Green-Squad recovered an odd Combat Robot who's creator was executed by the Daqin. The Edward Deming would end up recruiting them into their operations for their next mission: A Return to Azathoth to recover the Grawla's damaged starship. This would this robot named C-1 on a course for revenge.
RP Link