One of the heaviest ships Port Block Yards was operating at the time, and designated an Armed Fleet Tender, HES Sirius marked a change in the specification of Port Block Yards vessels. While still technically a support vessel, meant for assisting other vessels in space consistent with the repair and maintenance ideals of the engineering conglomerate, her equipment bordered on that of a combat vessel.

During her service there were unprecedented losses from the Yards' fleet. HES Supply and her sister ship HES Prince of Wales were both lost under mysterious circumstances, and it may have been in anticipation of these strange days that the specifications for HES Sirius were drawn.

Our photographs here come from one of the staff of the Archives Section, who had managed to score a trip out to HES Sirius when she had returned to Earth for maintenance and for the senior staff to attend a lengthy set of briefings with the Diplomatic Command. The command crew were returned to the ship by one of Logistics Command's ex-Republic Rothana LAAT/i gunships, and its clear that the archivist launched some unauthorised recorder droids to get some of the pictures. Nevertheless, the Board of Archives has released this set.

The inbound leg of the trip provides for a nice overview of the ship, and the droids picked out some of the features.

A few of the pictures show the command crew making their transfer. By their uniforms, we see the Captain and Chief Engineer, and probably the First Officer. It is not possible to discern from these pictures who they were, and the crew roster for HES Sirius in this period has not been declassified. Even the crew specification is incomplete. In any event, declassified specifications for HES Sirius include:

• Type: Armed fleet tender
  
• Energy source: Matter/Anti-matter conversion
  
• Propulsion: Warp Drive, Impulse Drive
  
• Crew:
    Captain
    Master (Chief Engineer)
    First Officer
    Officers (2)
    Medical (2)
    Engineer (3)
    Quartermaster
    Security (4)
    Pilot (3)
    Specialist (2)
  
• Equipment:
    2 x maintenance/service exosuits (unarmed, fully spaceworthy - not pictured)
    2 x Graham Engineering KR-6E Tractor/Repulsor suites (port facing)
    1 x Graham Engineering KR-2G Tractor/Repulsor suite (forward facing)
  
• Size: 150l x 42w x 38h
  
• Weapons:
    4 x swivel/tilt mount quad phaser (offensive and defensive)
    1 x swivel/tilt mount quad missile launcher (defensive)

Each of the Tractor/Repulsor suites had been modified for use as mass drivers. The forward facing GE KR-2G could deliver a substantial projectile at an impressive speed, but this was inconsequential compared to the power of the port mounted GE KR-6Es. The arrangement brought back visions of the golden age of sail upon the salty oceans of Earth, where a vessel's true firepower lay in her broadsides. Each of the tractor/repulsors had perfectly sensible uses for a capital ship tender - the forward mounted for deflector and close quarters navigation, and the port mounted for manipulating heavy ships at range and close aboard as part of the maintenance work for which Port Block Yards is rightly renowned. However it was also true that few vessels or ground installations could stand the kind of heavy bombardment these devices could deliver. In the vacuum of space, they could accelerate massive projectiles to extreme speeds, and fire again in a very short time. While too heavy for effective use against nimble objects, they could be devastating against fixed and ponderous objects (like bases or capital ships).

There is no record of HES Sirius having used these devices as weapons or in anger but it has been pointed out in numerous reviews that Port Block Yards' famed access to a variety of technologies from a variety of cultures would allow it to deliver other power's ordnance, or even untraceable asteroidal material with a low probability of discovery.

The sailing ship echoes were heard even more loudly when it becomes clear that while the arrangement of the other weapons represents entirely sensible placement for their respective purposes, every weapon aboard could be brought to bear on a port side target.

Beyond the equipment/weapons irregularities, there were also othe changes rung in by HES Sirius.

Gone is the large flight deck that marked so many of the Yards' vessels. Instead, there are six docking ports suitable for larger ships. The large flight decks were associated with small ship support, and in-atmosphere operations. HES Sirius was a capital ship tender in every way. Even the inclusion of the 2 huge service exosuits represents a shift towards working with and on much larger ships, where unenhanced engineers in spacesuits would be inadequate more often than not.

The operational details that are known of HES Sirius include:

• Assisting with the defense of Yaneer IV, when that planet was threatened by a meteor the size of Earth's moon. Mission elements included evacuating the royal family (the planetary space fleets having been decimated in the recently ended civil war), and co-ordinating the assault on th meteor which resulted in its being both diverted and reduced to more manageable elements in less threatening trajectories.

• Leading the investigation of the loss of HES Supply in Sector 62. While many rumours circulated as to the real reasons for the loss of HES Supply, which has never been explained to the satisfaction of some of Port Block Yards' detractors, it is generally accepted that this mission represented the start of the unexpected and little understood alliance with Clan Ice Panther.

• Restoring the generation ship Dawn Streak to her original course following her difficulties in the Arwadi Field, by replacing the destroyed starbord attitude control packs, and clearing her a path out of the field. The success of the mission was attibuted to the fine control exhibited by the helmsman, since HES Sirius was essentially riding huge generation ship through the field, responding to and mirroring the navigational and evasive manoeuvres she took, and without a readout on the underlying command logic.

As for so many other things about HES Sirius little is known about what became of her. Her status is still 'active' on Port Block Yards' register, even though there is no public record of her in over 170 years. She has been superseded in most every way by the later Avenger class and De Bouillon class vessels, and is currently the oldest ship on the Yards' register.