Hopefully once I have more time I can improve this.
Anyway, thought I'd share this with you. More to come.
Ships of the Outlanders
The little seen D Class series of ships.
Developed by a little known, isolated sect of humanity, nicknamed the ‘Outlanders’ (our name, not theirs) and believed by some to be in response to perceived threat to their homeworld.
Whether this is an external threat from attackers (possibly thargoid, or other humans), or in response to some natural disaster of lack of resources is unknown.
Previously very rarely seen in normal space, in recent years more incursions into ‘regular’ space have been spotted, which has led to an increasingly tarnished view of these as ‘miscreants and low lie scum not worthy of even the name of pirates’.
Whilst this is probably not entirely deserved, on some occasions encounters with these ships has, at least initially, been from a perspective of mutual distrust and wariness, but at least not-out-and-out aggression, with even rumours of occasional successful trades, more frequently than not they exhibit behaviours associated with pirates.
Rumour has it the increasing incursions into more known Galcop space, mistrust of outsiders and predatory behaviour is driven by some cataclysmic event on or threat to their home world, and their increasing forays into civilised space (yes Edzaar – even you!) is in response to this. These are unconfirmed. Attempts to engage in sensible dialogue usually rapidly descends into “give us your cargo, sister and coffee machine, or we’ll spit you into the nearest solar corona with just a copy of the Tionisla chronicle for sunscreen“.
Such is the contempt and mistrust around the Outlanders, that thus far there have been several submissions to the GalCop council in attempt to reclassify these ships, and their crew as ‘sub-human aliens’, thus allowing a ‘shoot on sight’ policy for all suitably equipped traders, bounty hunters and planetary authorities.
Thus far this has not been successful, despite several attempts, supported by strong lobbying from industrialists and trade representatives of numerous systems, and even the Federation of Pilots as, genetically at least, they are human.
Opposers of these motions naturally argue that these actions merely vindicates the Outlanders mistrust and behaviour, and removes all hope of resolving these issues in a manner that does not involve escalation of conflict.
It is felt however, that unless something drastic changes, this motion, and change in formal status to ‘alien’ is probably inevitable. Doubtlessly rumours of this filtering back to the Outlanders will only serve to feed even more predatory behaviour on legitimate shipping.
Their origin is unknown, some say from outside of ‘known’ spaces, others point to the some of the more isolated systems in the universe which are rarely visited, or possible to visit using normal means. One rumour has them residing near the systems of the prodigal suns. As yet, no-one really knows, and the way things are going, it’s doubtful they will care.
On a positive note, their shield technology has been generously described by one weapon system architect at Cowell MgRath as “so piss poor my nanna’ in an adda’ could shoot through it”. This is of scant conciliation when you have 6 to 8 of the blighters on your six to deal with though. And to give the Outlanders some credit, some of the larger ships do have significant numbers of energy banks….
Our advice?
You’d never heard of them until now, they’re probably all scum anyway and marry their own sisters/brothers/pets/portable appliances/thargoid neighbours, who knows where they really come from (and if you did know, would you really want to go there anyway?), so let’s shoot them all on sight and make the problem go away..
Thus far four primary classes of ships have been identified in use, both in formal designation and nickname:
D1: AcridRain
D2: ScorchedWind
D3: FeveredSquall
D4: ArdentThunder
D1: nicknamed ”AcridRain”
Appears to be a light support fighter, usually found escorting D3 FeveredSquall class ships. Quick, nimble, lightly armed principle defence is size, speed and ability to dodge, individually easy to kill, can be more problematic if you meet in a pack, combined with larger ship providing missile support/ECM cover.
Speed: 380mls
Pitch: 3, Roll: 3.5
Energy banks: 3
Recharge: Medium
Missiles/pylons: 0
Cargo:1T
Forward lasers only
D2: nicknamed “ScorchedWind”
Large heavy support fighter, known to fire the odd missile and generally found in support of the ArdentThunder class of ship. Packs slightly more punch than the AcridRain, though doesn’t appear any better defended. Known to operate in isolation, possible as long range reconnaissance vehicle for long term deep space exploration. Some cargo capacity, and believed to contain significant life-support systems enabling prolonged space travel using crew stasis fields.
Speed: 340mls
Pitch: 1.6, Roll 2
Energy banks: 3
Recharge: Medium
Missiles/pylons: 2
Cargo:6T
Fore and aft lasers
D3: nicknamed “FeveredSquall”
Primary support vessel/cruiser. Rarely seen without escort. Missile equipped and usually with looted cargo. Whilst not overly nimble itself, when in action as a missile cruiser combined with agile D1 ‘AcridRain’ class escorts is able to put up a solid defence.
Speed: 300mls
Pitch: 1, Roll: 1.5
Energy banks: 6
Recharge: Medium
Missiles/pylons: 4
Cargo:38T
Fore and aft lasers
D4: nicknamed “ArdentThunder”
Large support vessel/cruiser. Well equipped with missiles, usually with escorts. Combined with escorts considered a formidable match for light/medium equipped ships.
Speed: 250mls
Pitch: 1.2, Roll 1.5
Energy banks: 7
Recharge: Medium
Missiles/pylons: 8
Cargo:38T
Fore and aft lasers
Breaking Update:
A further batch of these miscreants have been spotted – notice from the Galcop Authorities is ‘shoot on sight”.
Whilst outwardly based on the same hulls, they appear to be better equipped and armed than earlier variants, and carry the designations:
D1: Piercing Rain
D2: HowlingWind
D3: ZealousSquall
D4: TempestuousFervour
In addition, a larger classes of battlecruisers have also been identified:
D5: RighteousStorm
D7: MalignantMaelstrom
These should be regarded as extremely dangerous, and frequently come with escorts.
In addition two variants of another ship – D6: PoisonedWind and D6B GloriousMalcontent have been identified. The D6B variant appears to be carrying some form of payload, but as yet it is unclear what.
Screenshots:
Compatibility. Written on 1.77.1 and 1.79. Don't know about earlier versions.. try it and see?
To download: v0 2
https://app.box.com/s/0vhyh58sktpjzj5se7z7
