Khorsky Incident

The Khorsky Incident was an event that took place approximately a dozen years prior to the events in Constitution. After detecting a massive buildup of ships moving toward Brittania, then-Commander Timothy Granger assumed it was a new Swarm invasion. He saw what looked like a Swarm ship in orbit over Vitaly Three in the Khorsky Sector, along with several Russian ships. He ordered his ship, the ISS Formidable, as well as the frigate commanded by Abraham Haws, to intercept the Russian ships. They q-jumped in and the Russians fired on them. The fight escalated into a full-on orbital battle.

The flagship of the IDF fleet, the ISS Valiant, arrived a short time later and put an end to the short battle and escorted Granger and Haws away. Granger was facing a court martial, but Haws burst into the room and threatened to expose the entire incident, so they were given command of the Constitution instead, with Granger being promoted to captain.

The official story was that Granger had attacked the Russian fleet while it was on a training exercise, and that most of those involved were either dead, in prison, or demoted. As Granger had suspected at the time, this was one of the initial meetings between the Swarm and the Russians.