H E L L F I G H T E R
In addition, these units are equiped with specialized jump drives designed for multiple short jumps. A Racker does not normally stay nearby its fighter squadron. It jumps in, drops them off, jumps out, then jumps back in later to pick them up after the mission is complete (or scrubbed) and jumps back out again.
The nature of these specialized engines makes the Racker short ranged in general. But long range capabilities are not part of their primary mission.
Rackers normally operate in conjunction with Auxiliary Carriers or bases. They do not have the ability to arm, repair, or maintain fighters on their own. They merely extend the range and tactical capabilities of the fighters or bombers they are carrying.
The Racker is the only jump capable ship which can carry heavy bombers.
Class:Rack Launching Carrier
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Tactics:Deploy your fighters as close in as possible, and get the hell out. Rackers should never attempt to engage in combat. And should avoid hot pickup situations if possible. The point defense capabilities of this craft are laughable.
History:The forces of the Unites States of America were unable to repel the onslaught of the Quangee Empire. The humans carrier fleets were particularly vulnerable to Quangee surprise attacks.
The U.S. carriers housed their fighters internally and took considerable time and preparation to launch them.
The Quangee, on the other hand, employed a carrier which mounted its fighters externally. Launching its entire compliment was a simple matter of releasing the whole lot of them (their tendency to collide with each other did not apparently bother the Quangee).
The Quangee soon found that they could jump in very close to a human carrier fleet, launch their entire fighter compliment, and destroy the carriers and their escorts before the humans could launch their own fighters.
Nearly all of the humans' carriers were lost this way.
This technique required beforehand knowledge of the location of the human fleet. And the Quangee were pulling it off routinely.
Late in the war, as the Quangee approached Earth itself, Captain Donaldson of the U.S.S.N. Space Cruiser Excalibur believed he saw a pattern to the Quangee lightning attacks on their carrier fleets. Or to be more precise, he believed that the Quangee were aware of the U.S. fleet's text book movements... and were taking advantage of the human's predictable pattern.
His report to high command was ignored. The U.S. space navy was operating by text book procedures which ensured that their enemy could not guess where they would strike next. Besides, the Quangee attacks were far too eclectic. Despite their superior technology, they were unorganized as a fighting force, and lacked the cleverness to figure out the U.S. space navy's strategies. The U.S. space navy felt that they must face down their foe with superior organization and coordination of efforts.
High command believed there was a spy or informant in their midst that was feeding the Quangee the locations of fleet rendezvous, and they were concentrating their efforts on tracking down that leak.
In fact, there was no spy. The Quangee had captured a number of U.S. warships, and were in possession of the human's 'text book' on procedures. They found them to be entirely predictable. The Quangee are very devious and cunning, and it took little time for them to determine that certain combinations of attacks and sightings would cause the human's fleet to arrive at predictable positions.
When High Command ignored Captain Donaldson's report, he grew adamant and insulted the intelligence of High Command. When he was ordered to report for reprimand, he and his crew took the Excalibur and abandoned their battlegroup.
Two days later, the Excalibur raided a U.S. outpost station. The Excalibur demanded that the outpost surrender all of their heavy tugs, fighters, and fighter pilots. Not a shot was fired, but the history books are unclear as to whether this exchange was hostile. The Excalibur commandeered its prizes and left.
The next day, the Heavy Carriers U.S.S.N. Enterprise and R.N. Gustalov were operating together in a search mission when they were subjected to a lightning raid by Quangee forces. Four Quangee carriers and 6 of their warships jumped in and deployed their fighters, properly positioned to destroy both carriers and their escorts before either could launch a single fighter.
Moments later, the Excalibur and the stolen heavy tugs jumped in almost on top of the fracas. The stolen fighters had been mounted on the tugs in a similar fashion to the Quangee carriers.
The Enterprise recorded the historic transmission from the Excalibur, "This is Captain Donaldson of the Excalibur. The calvary has arrived. *turning to his first officer* Release the Renegades!"
At his command, Renegade Wing was launched from the stolen tugs.
It would be their first and last flight.
In what would later come to be known as 'The Battle of the Renegades', one of the largest battles of the war, the Excalibur and her Renegade Wing threw themselves into a pitched and hopeless battle against the larger Quangee fleet. Fending them off long enough for the Enterprise and Gustalov to launch their own fighter compliments.
At the battles end, the Gustalov laid listing, its aft section completely obliterated. The Enterprise was heavily damaged, but still operating under its own power. Fully three quarters of her fighters had been lost, and her escorts were wrecked. The Excalibur had gone down, all hands lost. And none of Renegade squadron had survived.
The Enterprise landed the 3 remaining fighters and surviving crewmen from the Gustalov along with the remainder of her own compliment, and together with the remaining destroyer, limped home.
It was the first victory of the war.
The Renegade class was designed based on the arrangement the heavy tugs had used. The war was over before the first was completed.
Every ship in this class has a small plaque mounted to the bow of its command pod which reads, "In honor of Captain Donaldson, the crew of the Excalibur, and the Renegade Wing. Your courage and sacrifice will not be forgotten."
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Game Concept Credit: David Peterson.
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The class has been so successful that it's come to be used in full battlegroups. In this role, they are often not assigned their own fighter squadron. Instead they carry one of the fighter squadron's from a full sized carrier's internal hangar deck. This facilitates the rapid launch or landing of the battlegroup's entire compliment of fighters without shuffling between hangar decks and flight bays.
Class:Escort Carrier
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Game Concept Credit: David Peterson.
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Class:Light Carrier
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Game Concept Credit: David Peterson.
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Class:Carrier
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Game Concept Credit: David Peterson.
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Class:Strike Carrier
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Game Concept Credit: David Peterson.
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Class:Heavy Carrier
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Class:Auxilliary Carrier
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