The LSS Agamemnon was commissioned as AR-14 in 2669, one of the later ships of the original Archigos class production run. Like her sisters, she was designed as an Advanced Research Destroyer with the powerful gravitic plasma lance that Fleet Admiral McKenzie believed essential for combating Sooni forces.
The Agamemnon served in the original configuration for over a decade before the mandatory class-wide refit of 2680. During this refit, she was redesignated DH-340 and converted to the Heavy Destroyer standard, losing her gravitic plasma lance in favor of a more conventional spinal grazer lance. Her missile capacity was significantly increased, and her plasma cannons were replaced with more efficient grazer turrets.
The ship found new life under the command of Captain Agnes Mae Whitaker, who took command when most officers viewed assignment to an Archigos-class vessel as a career dead end. Instead of accepting this reputation, Whitaker embraced the challenge and turned her crew into one of the most effective units in the fleet.
Under Whitaker's leadership, the Agamemnon not only outperformed the original Archigos in fleet exercises but proved superior in direct combat simulations. This was no accident - Whitaker made it a personal mission to demonstrate that the refit wasn't the disaster that die-hard McKenzie loyalists claimed it was. Her crew's exceptional performance was built on both her philosophy of working with each person's natural strengths and her determination to prove the refit's worth.
One of the Agamemnon's documented operations occurred when Captain Whitaker orchestrated the rescue of 1,200 Lyndri refugees from a corrupt Confederate governor's illegal slave-holding operation. The mission demonstrated both the ship's versatility and her crew's exceptional competence under pressure.
The operation began with Whitaker using her psychological manipulation skills to extract a full confession from the governor while appearing to conduct a routine inspection. When the governor attempted to invoke Fleet Admiral McKenzie's authority to prevent the inspection, Whitaker revealed her identity as McKenzie's cousin and proceeded to destroy the slave-holding station using improvised water-based explosives.
The ship then had to accommodate far more passengers than she was designed for, with Chief Engineer Quinn Lafayette improvising life support systems capable of sustaining 1,200 additional people during the journey to safety.
When Lyndri corporate slavers attempted to recapture the refugees, the Agamemnon faced a sophisticated ambush involving multiple subspace mines and hostile vessels. The crew's response showcased both their tactical brilliance and the ship's capabilities under her refit configuration.
The battle plan involved Navigation Officer Elena Castellanos plotting a dangerous "flip-and-burn" maneuver that allowed the ship to evade the mine field, while Conn Officer Alexander Mueller executed the complex navigation with racing-precision flying. The Agamemnon emerged behind the ambushers and used her spinal grazer to devastating effect, destroying multiple hostile vessels without taking a single hit.
The Agamemnon's success stems from Whitaker's ability to build a crew culture based on mutual respect, competence, and genuine care for each other's welfare. Her officers include:
The LSS Agamemnon continues to serve as one of the most effective ships in the League fleet, with her crew's reputation for achieving impossible results making her a sought-after assignment despite the Archigos class's general reputation as difficult ships to command effectively.
The Agamemnon represents the potential of the Archigos class when commanded by someone who understands how to use the ship's unique strengths, even with the controversial refit modifications. While most captains struggle with the class's unconventional design philosophy, Whitaker's approach of working with rather than against the ship's characteristics allows her to achieve exceptional results.
More significantly, Whitaker's success serves as a pointed rebuke to critics who dismissed the refit as ruining McKenzie's original design. Her consistent outperformance of the original Archigos demonstrates that the refit, properly utilized, could actually enhance the class's effectiveness rather than diminish it - a vindication that has important implications for how the League views both the class and its modifications.