Explorer-5
The Explorer-5 was one of two explorer-class battle cruisers in Tom Connery’s Wormhole Expedition fleet to survive the passage through the wormhole. On January 2, 2642, the ship’s weapons depot was assaulted by a group of 53 insurgents, who used the stolen arms to forcibly seize control of the bridge and kill several key military leaders there. Unwilling to negotiate, the insurgents were quickly overwhelmed by the armed response ordered by Mission Commander Connery, but the damage was already done. In all, over 70 people, mostly insurgents, died in the incident.
Due to the facts that a 50-man assault on a military garrison ship was all but a suicide mission and that the stolen weapons could have allowed them to capture any smaller ship in the fleet, Connery speculated that the insurgents’ goal was simply to weaken the military leadership aboard the fleet. What this might be in preparation for, however, he had no way of knowing. In response, the Commander called a secret meeting between himself, the remaining military leaders, and insurgency representatives aboard the civilian ship Discovery-7 in an effort to broker a cease-fire agreement.
