The Hades Intercept

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Treymiar
Chief Petty Officer
Chief Petty Officer
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Joined: Sun Aug 04, 2013 2:15 am

The Hades Intercept

Post by Treymiar » Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:41 am

This is probably a Starbase mission, or perhaps a joint ship mission.

Well away from Federation space, Orion has conducted slave trade on a wide scale. Over many years, they refined a secretive system for capture and delivery of slaves from a diverse hunting ground of planets. Huge Hades class ships cruise the depths of space, rarely putting to port. They are serviced by small, stealthy ships, usually Barbary class raiders. As the Hades tour their 'slave circuit', captives are brought aboard, kept in eco-customized holding cells, and then removed at destinations.

The Hades is a huge ship, little more than a mobile space station. Although slow moving, it does have FTL. If not used for its nefarious purpose, it might be a zoo or perhaps a large research station. No subspace transmissions come from the giant. All communications come and go via courier or by short range semaphores. It is a very silent traveler indeed. And although it depends upon raider ships as escorts, it is very well armed with both fighters and batteries. Oddly enough, however, the Hades does not have particularly strong shielding. The psychology is, nobody's going to unleash devastating firepower against it, lest the slave population be killed. In essence, it is using the slaves as a shield.

Venothorn kamikaze fighters - These "Thorns" are very small, maneuverable fighters capable of short bursts of speed. They function equally well with a pilot or in pilot-less drone mode. You will usually find one of two things in the cockpit, a pilot or a bomb. Firepower-wise, the Venothorn's high rate machine blasters are on the light side, less than contemporary fighters. They really have to pound away at runabouts to bring them down. To compensate, however, they usually carry a pair of hard hitting short range missiles. What makes Venothorns dangerous is their kamikaze attack. Especially if toting a bomb, they can cause severe damage to ships. In a space fight, you never know if one of them will shoot at you or go straight for the ram. Even against Federation fighters, they will sometimes employ this tactic to break up squadrons, take out identified flight leaders. While it doesn't take much firepower to destroy out a Venothorn, they have high reentry durability. In other words, it's difficult to pursue one in a dogfight near a planet. They make steep dives into the atmosphere, enduring severe atmospheric friction and heat which other fighters might not be able to withstand. The Hades will carry several squadrons of these short range, close support fighters.

As mentioned, the Hades mounts full sets of batteries, both large and small. The small batteries are intended to provide anti-boarding defence, while the large ones are meant to keep starships from making pin-point strikes. These batteries are heavily integrated with the battle tactics of its raider ship escorts, presenting a formidable combined threat to would-be attackers. The last thing Orion wants to do is engage in a Hades battle. However, they carry large numbers of high value slaves. This would make them high priority targets for competitors, vengeful home worlds (although Orion usually harvests more primitive worlds who don't have the means), and Federation liberators. But if it does come down to it, they have prepared well in advance for vicious battle.

Enter the mission. Federation incursion ship USS Sophie Scholl pursued an Orion Hades as far as it could. Too battered to continue, she sent a long distance subspace signal. There is one Federation starbase in the distance. Although the Hades would steer far clear of it, it would be in range if the Federation knew that it would be passing through that part of the quadrant. So! Warm up your garrison ships, scramble those fighters. Suit up the marines and mount up on the dropships. Don't get overconfident, Orion strategists are thorough planners. They have prepared plans in advance, dispatching a stealthy raiding force. If you attack the Hades, they'll attack your starbase and force you to withdraw!

There's your scenario! Can you take the Hades and liberate the slaves? Better hurry, though. We learned in Captain Kirk's era that Orions don't surrender. They'll detonate their self destruct hydrogen bombs! (No pressure, or anything. ;p )
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Other times, they become enemies because they do."

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