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[ARDN] AUC-HCR-939

Manufacturer: Hephaestus Defense Industries

Affiliation: Artemis United Coalition

Product Line: Artemis

Ship Class: Heavy Cruiser

Operational Ranges: Space/Moon

Crew: 4~8

Registry #: 939

Designation: [ARDN] AUC-HCR-939




The 939 represents the heavy hitters of the Artemis Fleet. While there are certainly ships with greater forward firing power, the HCR is intended more for area denial. The 30 or so turrets adorning the hull provide a heavily saturated range of coverage to strike any target at any position relative to the ship. The 6 forward integrated railguns provide the ability to reach out to distance and strike enemy craft with prejudice.

Commonly used to secure large areas in space for blockade purposes, the HCR class ships are massive ships with sufficient internal space to accommodate a crew long term. On board facilities, while not intended as luxury, provide all the essentials for use for extended assignments.

Redundant conveyoring, backup server systems, and AUX CIC allows the ship to operate even if certain critical systems are damaged from incoming ordinance.

Presently, one of these ships has earned the honor of being a 'Named' vessel. The Defiant.



\\\\\ LORE /////

[ARDN] AUC-HCR-972 'DEFIANT' LORE

The 'Defiant' is a name awarded to the HCR-972 for outstanding valor and perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds. Due to the sudden call to arms for the deployment to Pertam upper orbit, there were not technically enough crew to effectively staff all the ships since more than 1/3 of the overall personnel were on shore leave on Terra Prime. Setting out with the minimum crew needed to operate the vessel, like many other ships, the 972 moved to the designated jump formation only to find that it did not exit J-Space with the rest of the fleet. When details were checked, the navigator was revealed to be an unassigned conscript who was not even supposed to be onboard. It was quickly revealed he was not even a member of [ARDN] and was detained after he was found inside the reactor room attempting to start a meltdown. Fortunately he was stopped before any real damage was done but the real issue persisted. They were on the far end of Artemis. Not just on the far end, however, but so far that they had actually jump outside the system. Diagnostics showed that 3 of 4 JDS were burned out by the heavy load and the remaining one was in bad shape. It was the first time in recorded history since arriving that a known vessel had left the system. The 972 was literally in uncharted territory.

Identifying the star Artemis-01, the crew set course for home. En route, they were forced to enter the surrounding asteroid belt that encased the star system. While not particularly dangerous in its own right, the crew soon discovered that it was infested with dumb fire emplacements controlled by the SOR. The 972 forced its way through the belt, enduring constant fire on its armor but no critical damage. Eventually it was able to exit the belt and make a final jump once inside the system and arrive at the staging area where the fleet had already engaged the intruding forces. This final jump fried the remaining JDS but allowed the 972 to join the fleet and help secure victory. This is the only ship in the fleet to not only engage in combat with two separate enemy forces on the scale that it encountered but also achieved noteable success in both battles all within a single day. It destroyed the SOR ambush encampment and destroyed numerous Alaryan ships, including 2 cruisers rivaling its own size. How it successfully avoided critical damage in either battle is a matter of study in current battle planning courses in present day. It is worth mentioning that the crew chose not to be jump towed to the nearest drydock but instead traveled via sublight propulsion. It took the 972 2 months and 3 days to return to port. Although it sustained no further damage according to the crew, it barely made it in before fuel reserves were extinguished. It was later revealed that one of the JDS housings were not properly secured anymore and if they had been J-towed, it would have ripped the ship apart in transit.

In a bizarre twist of fate, the very next sortie that called for it to deploy seen it malfunction in J-Space. While it was determined to not be the result of sabotage, it did end up near Zeta-02, a free orbiting moon that orbits Artemis-01 at the far edges of the system near the asteroid belt. It is also one of several moon sized bodies in the system that are not associated with a planet but held in system by local gravity rings. Upon dropping out of J-Space, the 972 was almost immediately struck with incoming hostile fire from SOR forces who had settled the moon. Again, the ship was out numbered and was forced to endure enemy fire from multiple sources as it returned to AUC controlled space. Sustaining no major damage, the ship has not bothered to get repairs as of yet and simply moved to the assigned deployment as instructed originally and remains there to this day. The damage on its hull a grim reminder of what can happen if you find yourself alone amidst enemies in space.

It received the honor of becoming a 'Named' vessel once it arrived to its designated location by acting Command Admiral Jester Malik, informally bestowing the ship with the name 'Defiant' for its great perseverance. The name was accepted and when it returns to base over Terra-2 it will be officially marked.

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Ship Specs:

Blocks: 6,603
PCU: 47,559
Mass: 5,872,160



Just a quick note, this ship utilizes several design techniques borrowed from a good friend Omega. He produced a ship called the Mainstay and it is a fabulous item so go check it out at the link below. He also made the thumbnail overlay that I use.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2772015530