Entry 1-A New Dawn.
26 Dec 2015Black ZR1
The Asp that I had bought a few weeks ago was, unsurprisingly, on its last legs. It was built to explore for long periods at a time, with little amount of jumps. Not the constant barrage of hyperspace jumps I was putting it through, thanks to the a series of smuggling runs some friends of mine dubbed "The Robigo Run". But I was almost done. I'd served with the Empire as a bounty hunter and a trader, with a Courier serving as the predator and the Clipper, a gift from the Emperor herself, was a fine trading vessel. Yet I'd always wanted something far more capable to serve the glorious Empire in, as well as hunt for enemies of EXO, the faction I was apart of in Wolf 1301. My dream ship was Gutayama's newest creation, the Imperial Cutter, the largest ship a commander could buy. At 208 million credits, it was also the most expensive. However, it also required the rank of Duke, whereas I was merely a Squire. So I looked to Faulcon deLacey for my next ship, for anything from Core Dynamics, the Federation's ship builder, was out of the question (Who in their right mind would fly a Federation ship under the Imperial banner?). So after docking at 109 Piscium, I browsed the shipyard catalog. There was the Eagle, a decent ship, however not the Imperial Eagle that was making waves in Imperial space for its blistering speed, even outpacing the Cobra Mk III. That version of the Eagle was produced by Gutayama as a special request from Emperor Arissa back when she was a Senator during the fight with the rebel group know as the Emperor's Dawn.
Next, there was the Viper Mk III and the new Viper Mk IV. The Mk III was starting to show its age, and despite its improved armor, its newer counterpart wasn't quite in the realm of power and presence that I was looking for. Same applied to the Cobra too, however, it did have the speed I was looking for.
That left the Anaconda, the Python, and the Fer-De-Lance. The Anaconda, while my second most desired ship, was still well out of my price range, and a fully optioned one would go for 400 million, money I didn't have. Plus the insurance was ridiculous. That narrowed it down to two. The Python was a decent sized ship, a very capable multipurpose ship. But it was slow and it's maneuverability wasn't so great, so I made the decision to go for the Fer De Lance. I got it for 15% off, for 43 million, which was a steal compared to its base price of 51 million. The Asp helped bring that price down too. I had also heard that this year's version had its powerplant upgraded to a Class 6, alleviating the power issues it had previously, as well as enhanced mobility and heat dissipation technology. Plus, it was just as fast as the Cobra. I climbed aboard my new ship and sat in the comfortable pilot's seat, and thought of a name for it. Then one came to me as I thought of the Fer De Lance's red and white exterior, and how the white stripes reminded me of rays of sunlight at the crack of dawn...and that was it. The Ray of Dawn.
Once I entered the name, I began the process of outfitting The Ray. I bought all the A rated components save for sensors and life support, and an A rated class 5 shield generator. Then I looked at my weaponry. The Fer De Lance had 4 medium hardpoints with two that were positioned alongside the cockpit, and two more further down. It also had one very well known and powerful secret-a huge hardpoint on its underside. I decided on going with the most powerful weapon I knew- the Plasma Accelerator. Being a fan of Halo, I liked the idea of using plasma against my enemies. I looked at the output of the powerplant, which stated there was up to 25.20 MW of power available. So I started with the huge hardpoint, and placed a plasma accelerator there, a B rated Class 3. While I would have liked to have the Class 4, it was simply out of my price range and power capacity. Next, I added two more plasma accelerators to the two medium slots that were on opposite sides of the cockpit, and then finished the weapons with two beam lasers. I then added 5 A class shield boosters, pushing the total shields up to 936 MJ. I then took a look at the armor, and then bumped it up to 1065 with two 4D hull reinforcement packages. I didn't add the military grade composite, for the cost was extremely high and my jump range was already poor. I then threw on a chaff launcher, a fuel scoop to combat the bad jump range, and a Frame Shift Interdicter, to help the KOS team. When I finished, the Ray of Dawn was all set to go on the prowl. I fired up the engines and left Saunders, and headed for Empire space.