The Mystique

Per Fortitudinem Ingenii

UCS Mystique was a Valorous-Class Aircraft Carrier of the United Commonwealth Navy. Commissioned in late 153 A.S., a year and a half after her launch, her first operational deployment would be as the flagship of Vice Admiral Olivia D. Oxley's Carrier Task Group Mystique, under the command of Captain Lee Kai Feng. Sent forth in January 154 as a deterrence measure against the Republic of Nouvolouis and its expansionistic leadership, her month long voyage to the region would be interrupted by the Nouvoloian declaration of war, and the subsequent start of the Islander War.
After the crippling of UCS Formidable, the Mystique would be the only UC capital ship in theater until the end of the conflict. She would serve well as the Task Group's strongest asset, and with her escorts would fight a successful campaign against a numerically superior opponent, the ship's air wing sending over a dozen major surface combatants to the bottom. Sustaining numerous hits, the Mystique's "adamant refusal to give up and kindly die", in the words of her skipper, would give her a reputation as a lucky ship amongst the crew and task group.
After the war, the ship would enter more conventional service, serving mostly within the Fleet Rapid Action Force on roving patrols that would bring her to every corner of the 12 Worlds. She would loose both of her wartime flag officers shortly after the war, and numerous commanders would hoist their flags on her decks over her career.
Mystique would play minor roles in various crises and minor conflicts for the next half decade, until onset of the First Great War in 162 A.S. An older, almost obsolete, vessel by that time, she would nonetheless serve with distinction in her last conflict. Docked at UCNB Harthport before the war, her aircraft would sortie in the conflict's first pre-dawn hours to savage the Ocrisian Imperial Fleet in port, before returning to ground attack duties in support of the Army. She would receive numerous wounds in this conflict as well, most suffered in those bloody first months under the onslaught of Ocrisian missiles.
The Mystique would be removed from the Alphanian theater as fast as she could be, and soon afterwards would spend her time as a training school for the immense influx of newly arrived aviators and ship crews. The ship would ultimately return to frontline service as an escort to her much larger Endeavour-Class successors. Her last taste of combat would be in flying strike and air patrol missions in support of Operation RIVER, the landing of UC forces on the southern coast of the Ocrisian Empire. She would fly over two hundred sorties that day, almost equalling the larger and better equipped UCS Explorer and Escapade.
Still, the writing was on the wall for the UCS Mystique. Her hull was growing old and weak after a decade of strain, and her propensity for surviving hard knocks left the ship in an almost uniquely poor structural condition. That last issue was likely the most serious, putting an end to proposals for the Mystique to join her less wounded sisters as a repurposed amphibious assault ship.
After much deliberation, and significant pushing from members of the public aware of the vessel's illustrious history, the Admiralty opted not to scrap her. Instead, after her decommissioning in 166 A.S., she was sent to Harthport Shipyards to be repurposed as a museum ship. After a year, UCS Mystique would be unveiled to a crowd of thousands at West Spray Pier as The UCS Mystique Museum And Memorial.
In attendance at the ceremony, were her two first commanders. Rear Admiral Lee Kai Feng, who'd since assumed the post of Project Executive Director, Fleet Carriers, gave a speech. He was then followed by Admiral of the Fleet Olivia D. Oxley, Chief of the Admiralty and highest ranking naval officer in the UCN during the First Great War. The two old friends would receive a guided tour of the ship before its public reveal, and provide a final award to the personnel of the museum, their ship's final crew.

Class

Valorous-Class

Designation

UCS

Motto

By Strength Of Wit

Creation Date

153 A.S.

Decommission Date

166 A.S.

Current location

Harthport

Width

80 m

Length

320 m

Weight

70,000 Tonnes

Speed

35 Knots

Complement / Crew

2,200