[Nexus] The Spectre

[Darkcomet]

The Spectre is something of a legend among those not outright knowing of its existence. But among others, mostly high-ranking Imperials, the Spectre is known to be very real, and is often referred to as the 'Emperor's Folly', thanks to Vyrn's appointment of the former general Drelin to a position that allowed him to steal it so easily.

Invisible to the prying eyes of MagSat and other such methods of detection, the Spectre has eluded those hunting for it...until now.

Outer Appearance

Spoiler

Show

Outwardly, the Spectre is a very large, jet-black craft, dotted with turbolaser cannons, rapid-fire pulse laser turrets, and missile launchers. Many of these weapons are concealed beneath the craft's armor most of the time.

The ship is rather unusual in appearance, and some might mistake it for a spacecraft. Four engine-like structures lie in the rear, one row of two above the other, emitting not jets of flame, but an unusual bluish exhaust, though this isn't exactly visible when the ship is cloaked. The engines are, naturally, unusually quiet, though anyone near the ship might hear an odd hum from them, even when it is cloaked. But that's not nearly as loud as, say, jet engines. On the middle of the underside is a massive repulsor 'engine', used to keep the Spectre aloft, making it somewhat akin to a hovertank of all things, though the Spectre's engine is much larger and more powerful, in order to enable the behemoth craft's flight. Small, precise laser turrets surround it, acting as point defenses against attacks from the ground, but this stealth-encouraging feature still makes it a weak point for the Spectre.

There are four drop bays visible at the front and rear of the repulsor engine. These also serve as entrances for when the ship is landed.

The ship's bridge is at the rear of the craft, in front of the engines. It's a heavily (compared to the rest of the ship) armored tower-ish protrusion, dotted with small point defense turrets as well.

The ship has rather wide wings at the sides, likely for maneuvering, and has a generally sleek profile.

Interior

Spoiler

Show

The bridge is the control center for the entire craft. It houses the main controls, along with those for the weapons and stealth systems.

The reactor room proves significantly more interesting. It houses the ship's main power plant in the form of a fusion reactor. Oh dear.

The engine room is fairly standard, other than the fact that the engines aren't exactly normal jet engines. Details to come when someone investigates them!

The cargo bay is...a cargo bay. Simple enough.

The drop bays function as...drop bays. And entrances. As it was described in the exterior description, really.

The crew quarters are rather barracks-like, with little attention given to comfort, functionality being the main focus. The nearby mess hall is quite average and does not merit a detailed description.

Stealth Systems

Spoiler

Show

The Spectre is equipped with an advanced cloaking device that protects it from many means of detection, even extending into protection from infrared scans. It's also equipped with modern-day-esque anti-radar measures.

The cloaking device is unusual in that it has no real set 'location' on the ship, instead being a decentralized system. Essentially, the 'device' exists throughout the ship. This happens to be how something the size of the Spectre can even cloak.

However, this will also make repairing the cloak difficult for those who don't know its specifications, should it be damaged.

[Moff Chumley]

The Firebird continues slowly forward and upward, until its prow is about ten feet above the Spectre's superstructure. That is, if it isn't fired upon first...

[Darkcomet]

Assuming the Firebird has some method of receiving comm transmissions, one will be received right about now.

"Surrender immediately and prepare to be boarded." The voice is likely recognizable as that of an old man, and has a strong tone of command.

Meanwhile, a barrage of laser fire is aimed at the Firebird. Or, well. At the thing is a bit of a lie. It's more aimed...around the thing. To make sure it doesn't get any closer.

[ApeofLight]

Well, no it has no way of receiving communication. And the name is the Magnificent Firebird.

[Moff Chumley]

The Firebird stops moving forewards, and begins rising, slowly. It doesn't have any method of recieving communications, however.

[Darkcomet]

DC is well aware of the ship's full name. He is simply too lazy to type it out every single time he references it.

Back to business.

Too bad they couldn't hear Drelin's command. That'll prove troublesome.

The Spectre's fire shifts, a rather large number of lasers firing above the Firebird to keep it from ascending further. At the same time, the Spectre seems to be ascending as well-as if trying to trap the Firebird...

Meanwhile, from the bottom of the black behemoth, four humanoid figures bearing jetpacks rocket up toward the potentially-trapped Firebird. A boarding party of some sort, no doubt.

[Moff Chumley]

That plan ain't working... Oh well. The Moff steps out of the command chair, after stopping The Firebird, and unsheathes The Cost.

[ApeofLight]

Warren is up on deck not looking too pleased. " Captain? Any ideas? "

[Lord Iames Osari]

"Hold on tight." Shanghai goes into the command cabin and takes the control chair. She maintains the hover for a moment, watching through the ship's sensing mechanism.

[Darkcomet]

Shanghai will probably be able to tell that those four coming from below are armored in Imperial Army soldier armor, though the armor is modified. What with the jetpacks. All markings denoting unit or rank have been removed from the armor.

They seem to be armed with Imperial-issue pulse scatterguns.

[Moff Chumley]

The Moff plays a single, extended note on Synchronicity as he waits for the soldiers to land on Firebird. He draws The Cost, and calmly walks towards the first soldier that lands on the ship.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Shanghai throws the fire-portals wide open, blasting fire at the incoming ex-Imperial troops. At the same time, she rams the throttle forward (so to speak) and puts the Firebird into a rapid spiralling descent, twisting one of the fire portals around to give the Firebird a convincing-looking smoke trail as she tries to get underneath the other ship.

[Darkcomet]

That'll be some very tight maneuvering, considering the rather short distance Moff put between the Firebird and the Spectre, and the latter's later ascent to try to trap the former.

Regardless, the smoke trail is rather clearly fake, considering the Spectre's fire never touched the Firebird. A few seeker missiles are fired at the once-again-moving ship.

The Spectre, in the meantime, descends. The Firebird will soon have its window of time to get to the entrances/drop bays shut.

Shanghai should probably hurry it up!

Meanwhile, one of the cyborgs is engulfed in flames, the other three evading. The torched cyborg soon emerges from the flames himself, but he seems to be falling, his jetpack rather damaged by the attack. He'll probably land on the outside of the Spectre.

[ApeofLight]

Warren this whole time is gritting his teeth standing completely still on the deck. He's so glad for the not able to fall off thing that Ilyena did.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Oh, hey, look who else is here!

Now the Gnrlshrimp isn't running off every other day and has finally managed to catch up with things, Hawk finally manages to get rid of the deadtime that's been bothering him for so long.

Unfortunately he has no idea what's going on...

So for now he simply wanders out of his cabin and up onto the main deck to see what's causing all the bumping about.

[Moff Chumley]

So... do the intact cyborgs land on Firebird?

[Darkcomet]

They'll try to, I suppose, but it's up to Iames if they succeed now. What with the thing moving again.

[Lord Iames Osari]

That'll be some very tight maneuvering, considering the rather short distance Moff put between the Firebird and the Spectre, and the latter's later ascent to try to trap the former.

Regardless, the smoke trail is rather clearly fake, considering the Spectre's fire never touched the Firebird. A few seeker missiles are fired at the once-again-moving ship.

The Spectre, in the meantime, descends. The Firebird will soon have its window of time to get to the entrances/drop bays shut.

Shanghai should probably hurry it up!

Meanwhile, one of the cyborgs is engulfed in flames, the other three evading. The torched cyborg soon emerges from the flames himself, but he seems to be falling, his jetpack rather damaged by the attack. He'll probably land on the outside of the Spectre.

Shanghai pulls out of the dive the instant she gets to the underside of the Spectre and barrels toward the neaest entrance/drop bay. This will probably make it difficult for the cyborg soldiers and the seeker missiles to land on/track their progress.

((how big are the ships relative to one another? And do the drop bays open straight down, or to the side?))

[Darkcomet]

DC had imagined the Spectre to be the larger of the two by a significant margin, thanks to the firepower difference and military design. What with the Spectre's large weapon count compared to the Firebird's...four.

The drop bays open straight down, but there are also side entrances there. So...both, basically.

Regardless, that little maneuver has proven to Drelin that this is not going to be as simple as he'd like it to be. The Spectre's underside firepower is now getting turned on the Firebird, this mostly consisting of several rapid-fire laser turrets and turbolaser cannons.

This seems to be getting serious now.

[Moff Chumley]

...I'm having a sort of hard time visualizing what's going on. In a nutshell, can you guys let me know when it becomes practical for The Moff to take a jump at the Spectre?

[Darkcomet]

It is probably getting close to that, by my reckoning. The Firebird is currently underneath the Spectre and heading for one of the entrances/drop bays.

[Moff Chumley]

Okay, why the hell not? As soon as it becomes practical, The Moff takes an improbably huge leap at a drop bay. If there's anyone inside, he'll rush 'em before they can figure out what's going on.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Shanghai does her best to dodge the Spectre's attacks and turn the hits into grazes as she aims for a barely-controlled landing inside/alongside one of the drop bays, where she'll use the fire portals in an attempt to scorch it clear of enemies.

[Gnrlshrimp]

"Oookay...something tells me this was a bad time to wake up." Hawk stares at the massive black craft The Magnificent Firebird is engaging and sighs, he was sure he'd read somewhere that pirates only went after targets they knew they could beat.

Ah well.

He takes out a few knives and juggles them as he prepares to jump...

He won't be doing anything quite as crazy as Moff, though, he'll be waiting 'til he knows he can make it.

[Darkcomet]

Oooh boy. That was a...very daring maneuver. And an unexpected one.

The entrances are rather easily broken through by the impact, likely giving Moff and Hawk their jumping opportunities. Staying onboard during the impact certainly doesn't sound appealing, though they should be careful about the, you know, fire.

No enemies are currently visible in the drop bay, though lights now flash red and the sound of an alarm starts blaring...

They may not have found opposition yet, but it's certainly coming.

[Lord Iames Osari]

As the Magnificent Firebird comes to a halt, Shanghai lets down the door for her zombie crew/boarding party to hop out, and stays in the control chair just long enough to shut it once they're all out before she gets up, grabs her weapons, and heads out to join them.

[Gnrlshrimp]

And across they go! Hawk tosses three rather special knives up, chuckling as they disappear. Three little surprises for later on...

For now he takes out a few more knives, of various types, and waits for any sign of resistance.

[ApeofLight]

Warren stands there for a second with wide eyes. Then he blinks and snaps out of it running and jumping off down onto the floor below. " Let's go, we won't have that much time. "

[Moff Chumley]

The Moff runs up to the nearest door, and slices the lock of with The Cost. Follow me, please, gentlemen...

[Lord Iames Osari]

"And lady," Shanghai puts in, close on their heels.