Project Avenger
From FABT
Project Avenger, also known as the Avenger Project or simply Avenger, was a Cerberus military project spearheaded by Armistan Banes to perform at Minuteman Station by the Prometheus Cell at the behest of the Illusive Man. Serving as an auxiliary project to Project Lazarus, the goal of Avenger was to not only reconstruct the SSV Normandy but to improve upon the original design, including the removal of critical flaws, adding additional armaments and protection, as well as new state-of-the-art facilities and an improved drive core, and making the ship significantly larger: all of this would ultimately resulted in a new class of ship, one that far exceeded its predecessor in every way. When the Illusive Man originally devised Project Lazarus and the plan to resurrect Commander Shepard, he knew that it would not be enough to return the man to the fold, and that he would need a new ship, a crew and every edge he could get in the coming fight against the Reapers. While Lazarus was underway at Lazarus Station, the Prometheus Cell was put in charge of Project Avenger, with the goal of replicating the original Normandy and rigging it for heavy frontline combat in addition to its stealth capabilities, which were also to be improved. Armistan Banes, one of Cerberus' most prestigious and effective officers in the Cerberus Navy, was put in charge over the project, who immediately deduced that gaining access to the ship's original plans would be necessary for a one-to-one replication, as well as to identify the glaring flaws they needed to fix. Cerberus spies working within the Alliance Navy were able to steal a copy of the Normandy-class plans from the Alliance navy archives on Mars within a month, and work on Avenger began shortly after once they were in possession.
Rebuilding the Normandy proved one of the biggest obstacles for the Cerberus military, being almost as expensive and difficult to pull off as Lazarus due to the highly secretive nature of the project and the resources required to build such a sophisticated warship. Resources from across almost every shell company that sponsored them were pulled from across the galaxy, with Cord-Hislop Aerospace, the chief supplier for the Cerberus Navy, providing the majority of the manpower, materials and money required for the gargantuan project. Initially, a one-to-one replica was planned, but Banes was highly ambitious and quickly began to intervene in the project, adding more and more improvements that the ship quickly evolved beyond its original design, becoming an entirely new ship class of its own. Whilst still called a "frigate", the new Normandy had the mass of a destroyer, with the firepower of a cruiser all combined with the speed and maneuverability of a frigate: this mish-mash of classifications was made even more pertinent by the Illusive Man's insistence on civilian luxury-grade amenities and facilities, with a fully stocked kitchen, starboard and port observation and relaxation lounges, sizable quarters for the XO, and an entire level dedicated to the captain's quarters complete with a large private fish tank along the wall and display case: these were added on the insistence that such a high-risk mission would require downtime for the crew to recuperate, and they couldn't always rely on a port-of-call for shore leave, and it's secondary intention was to be welcoming to what was planned to be a sizable amount of non-human guests. This made the new Normandy, codenamed Avenger during development, an enigma, essentially a pleasure barge with the armaments and armor of a warship, and excelling in both roles. The Normandy SR-2 also incorporated an augmented Tantalus drive core, significantly boosting its efficiency and energy output to compensate for the larger ship, and a revamped IES stealth system to allow the Normandy to remain in stealth mode even when exiting FTL, and for longer periods of time, something the original ship could not do. Hull armor, shielding and arsenal were expanded upon, although Cerberus deemed it impossible to truly counter the powerful particle weaponry of the Collector cruiser, and so further improvements were planned to be made after it was launched, and later were, with additions such as cyclonic barrier tech, Silaris armouring and a reverse-engineered thanix cannon being added later that made the new Normandy a juggernaut of firepower on the battlefield, wielding firepower that made it comparable to a dreadnought. The ship was also outfitted with a first-of-its-kind cyberwarfare-specialized shackled AI called the Enhanced Defense Intelligence, although the outfitting, installation and management of this AI was handled under Project Sentinel, another auxiliary project to Project Lazarus.
Construction began in late 2183 CE after a couple months of planning, and continued for two years at Minuteman Station in complete secrecy. Armistan Banes, while impressed with the ship's specifications, was a military man at the core and balked at what he deemed to be unnecessary civilian amenities, calling it garish and far too focused on offering comfort rather than building a proper warship, but as per the Illusive Man's insistence, the facilities were ordered and added once the ship itself was complete. Before the ship was fitted with its secondary facilities, Armistan insisted on a small shakedown run across the Irisa system in February 2185 CE, stress testing its new engines and performing limited weapons testing, both of which exceeded expectations, with it returning to port shortly after. In the next few months, with the ship itself complete, the other facilities were added and the ship's colors painted, although the Illusive Man decided they would hold off on the ship's name until Shepard decided on it, rightly assuming he'd want to name it Normandy instead of the placeholder Avenger Armistan had chosen, with Avenger referencing the ship's purpose in avenging its predecessor. The ship would finally launch on schedule in August 2185 CE after Shepard's revival, with the name Normandy officially chosen and the ship launching on its mission not long after, fully staffed and entering service.
Project Avenger was an enormous success for Cerberus, jokingly named the "Normandy's Lazarus project", and while the new Normandy reconstruction was intended to be the sole purpose of the object, this changed when the Normandy Squad went rogue following the destruction of the Collector Base in October of the same year, taking Cerberus' expensive recreation with them, despite a failed attempt to reclaim their stolen property. As Cerberus began its rapid militarization in preparation for the inevitable Reaper invasion, Armistan proposed reviving Avenger, using the blueprints for the SR-2 Normandy in order to build a sizable fleet of ships just like her. The Illusive Man initially approved construction of one new ship at Minuteman Station, with the Deliverance being built and put into service not long after the Reaper War began, with Armistan in command. During the war, two more ships were ordered under Avenger, the Inheritor and Forerunner, although the ships would be captured by the UGC during their assault on Minuteman Station just before they were scheduled to be fitted and painted, with the UGC quickly crewing and deploying the ships for use in their own forces, where they would participate in the final battle over Earth, later being officially fitted and painted in Alliance colors and commissioned into the Alliance Navy. Project Avenger was effectively considered complete by the loss of Minuteman Station and officially following the dissolution of Cerberus.