Retrograde Solutions GmbH

Retrograde Solutions GmbH is a mercenary outfit, that mainly helps other factions with piracy problems. Neither they own a major fleet nor do they own complex technology. What they own is a strong will and a knack for improvisation, which lead to their designs.

## Origins

Retrograde Solutions started out as “The Maw”, a loose, nomadic alliance of pirate clans, which did not have any homesector. They lived in & of the ships they captured or salvaged. Their ships were often repaired with salvaged ship-parts and altered to their liking. This made them experts in improvisation, while not in interaction with other beings. Most of the time, the clans had smaller conflicts between each other. Sometimes they ended bloody, in those cases mostly with a duel of the respective leaders. But most of the time the worst fights ended in bar-brawls or insults because the most respected clans tried to mediate. Conflicts ended fast because everybody knew that they were outcasts. They had nowhere to go and they had to rely on each other to survive, especially for their fighting style.

## Fighting Style

When they spotted a convoy, small ships quickly flew in to take out the engines of the transports, while bigger ships tried to take out the escorts as quickly as possible. Once the transport’s engines were toast, the smaller vessels would begin to fly between the escort ships to try and trick them into friendly fire. Meanwhile the bigger ships kept some distance, as they were easier targets. After the escort ships had been taken down, the defenseless transport crews were mostly taken prisoner, their ships either captured or stripped for resources. Captured crews were held prisoner for a while, to see how well they can work and fit in with the crew. Every 40 days the crews of the ships with prisoners had a meeting. There were only two ways those could end for each prisoner: election or ejection. People who were considered useless or unfit were removed.

## Inner Conflict

This continued until 2230, where a Convoy of Raven Corp with no security was unfortunate enough to be discovered by “The Maw”. Apparently there were rumors of their “interactions” with their fellow spacefarers, as they immediately opened a Com-Channel with the unidentified ships. The Leader of the Convoy made them an offer. As the Convoy was carrying large amounts of the valuable Ylkoppian Cube-Snails for an important Customer, there was waiting a huge pile of cash upon safe arrival of the cargo. It was a lucky day for the convoy, because the clans had freshly repaired ships, full supply stocks, and just wanted to see if there was anything worth salvaging in that convoy. After a short time debating, most of the clans agreed to escort the convoy to its destination. Shortly before arriving, the convoy made another offer. “The Maw” could become the security partner of Raven Corp, as they were well known and not many pirates would try to attack them. It would be some easily earned money. Rolf Wollstern, leader of clan “Sternenpanther” quickly agreed in the name of the clans. This caused some inner conflict afterwards, as some clans saw a life as hired guns as dishonorable. The conflict peaked in a duel of Wollstern and Jack Steele, leader of clan “Black fox”, in the middle of a dusty asteroid field and with no spectators. Wollstern left as the winner, though neither Steele nor his ship were ever found.

## Internal Changes

With that, “The Maw” was undergoing changes, step by step. At first, they slowly stopped robbing ships, as the payouts of escorting them were big enough for maintaining a nice lifestyle. They did not have to steal supplies, salvage for parts or meet for ejection-elections. After the initial turmoils their moral and shape were at a longtime peak. So, around 2250 they started to offer their services to other Factions, to be more independent from Raven Corp. It did not matter to them what the accepted contracts were, as long as the money was right. Once they started doing that, it was easy to bring them to your side. You got the Money, you got “The Maw”, even when they came to kill you. But this also changed over the course of the following years. Later it was considered dishonorable to abandon an accepted contract, or change sides mid-contract. It was only legit to do so, if “The Maw” would have direct or indirect problems if doing otherwise.

## Early Ships & Equipment

As they did various jobs for various factions, they started to slowly gain more and more money, but still kept using their old pirate ships. The reason for this was, that they were old and thus simple. They could do everything by themselves, without the help of anybody. The ships also were their homes and a part of their family, and nobody simply replaces their family. They often had names of deceased clan-members, clan-leaders or pets. Also, modularity and interchangeability were really important aspects, as they had to adapt to the problems space threw at them. As the crews were good at improvising and repairing, but pretty much no one was a real engineer, they used simple weapons like chainguns, bolters and cannons. They mostly had mechanical parts, which could be replaced easily. In case a few circuits would be needed, they could be bought at the next equipment dock, so the mechanics could install them later. This saved a lot of money and also kept them creative, as they had to figure repairs out on the fly.

## Home

In 2885 they were escorting a large convoy of Raven Corp through a dense nebula way off the normal routes, as those were heavily infested with pirates, which became more and more aggressive over the course of the last years. When flying there, the outermost ship of the formation got strange, static signals on their scanners and messaged the rest of “The Maw”, but not the convoy. “The Maw” later returned to that nebula to find a sector with strange stick like ships and structures that seemed to be thrown together randomly, left alone drifting in space. There were no signs of life or traces of recent combat. Although nobody knew why or by whom, those ships seemed to be left there for centuries. After a few days of discussion between the clan leaders, the clans quickly decided to salvage those structures and build a home from the resources gained that way. They needed a place to properly repair their ships, rest safely, keep their families, and relax. But the end of their nomadic life wasn’t the only big change. As the years passed, “The Maw” was slowly forgotten and they no longer had the reputation they once had. So they changed their inner structure and name. When their home was built in 2889, it was also going to be the base of operations for their mercenary outfit. In memory of their origins in piracy their leader, Stefan Wollstern, one of Rolf Wollstern’s descendants, named the Outfit “Retrograde Solutions GmbH”, as they had left their criminal lives behind them.

## Later Ships

Shortly after building their new home, their first ships started to fall apart, so they started designing their first small ships. All of their ships had some cargo space, as they sometimes needed to smuggle VIPs or important goods between clients. They also invented “Multipods” - pods that could be changed for different systems like hangars, cargo space, thrusters etc.

In the following years, they started raiding pirates. This helped in gaining back their reputation, and with filling the financial gap so they could start to ask for more money for their contracts. It didn’t take long for Raven Corp to cancel their contract, as they could not afford it any longer. This meant some financial trouble for Retrograde, as Raven Corp was one of their bigger clients. To make up for that, they increased their pressure on pirates even more, to sell their stolen goods.

## Third Pan Galactic War

As the Republic failed, there was an increase in piracy. This led to an increase in job opportunities, which was good for Retrograde’s finances. So, in 2973, they started constructing a Freeport near one of Raven Corp’s Sectors, to have a passive income and have a more accessible way for clients to contact them. Another positive aspect about the Freeport was that they could recruit new crewmembers, especially engineers that they desperately needed for designing and upgrading ships. In 3012 Retrograde fulfilled numerous contracts for SIV Corp - they had serious problem with pirates, since their fleet was busy in skirmishes and battles with other, smaller factions and a rising empire. They did this with such efficiency that SIV Corp became a returning customer of Retrograde. Later, the recruited engineers were desperately needed as the leaders of Retrograde had a bad feeling about the rising empire which gained more and more power. With the Empire’s regulations tightening, Retrograde started producing more ships as quickly as they could.

When the empire was seizing the Freeport for their own use in 3325, Retrograde had seen enough. All ships were ordered to come back to the homebase immediately. While hiding they discussed how to react. They remembered how their ancestors fought and adjusted their fighting style to the empire. Hit-and-Run-tactics were employed to cut off the Empire’s supply chains and gain better technology from them. Retrograde found intel on the construction of Super Weapons while raiding an extremely secured convoy in 3326. They informed their old contacts because they simply lacked the military power for direct assaults on the empire to find these weapons. They formed the Conglomerate, where they first met AEGIS Inc and the Tankium Syndicate at a secret meeting in 3326. Shortly afterwards the Empire increased security for their supply lines, which made it harder to attack them. A long search for the Super Weapons began. The first major strike of Retrograde against the Empire was the liberation of the Freeport and Raven Corp’s sector in 3330, in hope to find intel on the Positions of the Super Weapons. Another positive effect was that they could more easily recruit people willing to fight for their freedom. With some help in the form of Resources from their allies, Retrograde continued to raid convoys and hit important spots of the empire with the use of various guerilla tactics. In a combined effort, the renamed Conglomerate managed to steal four superweapons, one of them hidden at Retrograde’s home. The following years were hard and rich in casualties for both sides, but eventually the Empire collapsed.

After the war, many ships were either destroyed or badly damaged. They were tugged back to their home to be repaired or salvaged. Retrograde left the Pan-Galactic Council because they needed a source of income in form of contracts. They kept in touch with their old allies and helped with piracy problems shortly after the Empire’s fall. As piracy was declining and there now was mostly peace, Retrograde parked most of their ships next to their home so they could easily be manned again when needed. Experience shows that peace will not hold on forever.

## Calamity

After the Pan-Galactic Council collapsed, clients slowly started returning to Retrograde. Money started to refill their bags. They started to reintegrate more and more ships into their fleet. Then the Calamity happened. Some ships went missing completely, others were cut off for months and came back badly damaged. There were reports of whole Sectors gone for good. Those ships that made it back told stories of strange new aliens with strange behavior. Sometimes they randomly attacked everybody, but other times they seemed to observe until someone fired weapons or tools. This put Retrograde on high alert, as this seemed to be a much greater danger than the empire ever could have been. As multiple pilots from other factions told them that these aliens were not making differences, Retrograde repaired their ships as quickly as possible. They started building a war fleet with more and a few bigger ships. This was their home and they would defend it from anybody. They had come too far to die without a fight. This is no longer about money. This is about survival.

## Recent Events

### First Contact with Traveller Knights

In 3821 Retrograde had a contract from Siv Corp to destroy a heavily defended pirate base, as they were busy fending off multiple Xsotan attacks. They prepared well, but still underestimated the situation and had to make an emergency jump to a nearby sector. While making up a new strategy and regrouping for a new assault attempt, an unidentified mining ship hailed them and asked why they are flooding into the sector and politely asked for them to keep their distance. Retrograde's fleet commander assured the strange mining ship that they were just preparing another attempt at taking down a pirate base. After hearing this the unknown mining ship warped away. The fleet was guessing that the mining ship fled, as they feared that the pirates would follow Retrogrades fleet. When the new attack on the pirate base began, a small fleet of unidentified ships warped in and helped turning the tide of the battle in Retrograde's favor. They looked similar to the mining vessel encountered earlier. When Retrograde offered them a reward for their assistance and asked who they had the honor fighting alongside with, the commander of the fleet identified themselves as a representative of the Traveller Knights and refused the reward offered to them saying that the cleansing of evil was enough for the Knights, but if Retrograde was interested in future joint operations against pirates the Knights would gladly assist. After this the Traveller Knights and Retrograde Solutions have been in good relations with each other, occasionally sharing common interests and coordinating joint operations on pirate outposts or Xsotan fleets together.

### Improving Ammunitions

With a new threat like the Xsotan, Retrograde was lacking in firepower. To change this they contacted the Tankium Syndicate in 3776C.E., as they had very advanced technologies. Retrograde's best engineers were working together with the Syndicate to improve their armament. They wanted to keep their basic weapon systems as much as possible because they were easy to maintain and most of the Crews were able to do basic repairs on them.

The result of this cooperation was new ammuntition in a combination with a few changes to the existing guns. At first, the projectiles had their velocities boosted by installing boosted primers. Their first ignition phase a greatly improved primer accelerated the projectile. After the initial explosion a booster was ignited, further accelerating the projectile. These changes combined improved projectile speeds by 60% in average, but also led to a rise in recoil. To counter this, active dampeners were installed in all weapons. With the projectiles now being faster and having a steady acceleration, all aiming systems got reworked too. For additional damage the projectiles were made of a special alloy that was hard and very heat resistant. In every bullet there was an extremely compact heating circuit, heating up bullets as they were travelling. On impact, these bullets would be melting the enemy armor, which led to an improvement of armor penetration up to 40%. Combined with the greatly increased travelling speed, Retrogrades weapons now were back in the game.

All these improvements were extremely compact and innovative, as most other factions had upgraded to better weapon systems, like railguns, and development of older weapons had seized.

## Ships and Structures

* Tiberius Class Battlecruiser
* Cerberus Class Cruiser
* Hellhound Heavy Corvette
* Orthos Medium Fighter
* "Home"
* RS-Freeport
* Pegasus Boarding Shuttle

## Weapons

### "Argos" Chaingun

The simplest and oldest turret designed by Retrograde. There is not much to it, not electronics, just simple mechanics. This is also the reason why it is a piece of education for new engineers. Its simple, yet effective and can be produced easily. With its mediocre accuracy its surely not top notch, but the rate of fire and the size of the projectiles surely make up for that. Additionally its made for close combat, so an overly accurate gun is not needed

### "Ajax" Bolter

Parallel to the development of the Theseus, the main development of the engineers was a Bolterturret, later known as the "Ajax". The aim was to create a turret was suitable for close to medium ranges, that was able to sustain fire. This was a problem, as the recoil for the bigger projectiles was too big for sustained fire. A solution to this was a timed gas venting System on top of the barrels.

When the development ended and the first turrets were produced, the crews were impressed by the durability and simplicity of the system. Thats the reason why it quickly became Retrograde's workhorse

### "Theseus" Cannon

Development of the "Theseus" began more as a joke than a real weapon. In the begining there also was only one person developing it, for fun in his spare time. He saw a similar turret in a comic book and thought it was looking too old to be useful. Which is why he thought "why not make it useful". After a while more of the engineers and technically interested of Retrograde joined the development.

The Result was one of the meanest weapons in the arsenal of Retrograde.

### "Europa" Pointdefense

The Europa is a Pointdefensesystem that was designed to be as easy to maintain and use as possible.

It features four 30mm Autocannons, with a combined rate of fire of 4700-5300rpm. Engineers of Retrograde installed a small Radarsystem in the back, so the tracking of fast moving targets is not much of a problem.

Although not as accurate as other PDSs, the Europa is just as good because of its high rate of fire.

### "Nyx" Hybrid cannon

When Retrograde hid one of the super weapons at their home ("Indominus"), they did this to reverse engineer some of its mechanisms. The result was a hybrid cannon called "Nyx". It is a hybrid between a normal cannon and a railgun. The projectiles have a small primer and contain big magnets. By moving, the projectiles charge big capacitors, that power electromagnets, which push the projectiles even more. This way, the projectiles can reach insane speeds. Achieving such high speeds, the projectiles can punch through very thick armor, where the delayed exploding warheads cause even more destruction. When Retrograde was done with developing the Nyx, they realized that they lacked a ship capable of operating such a weapon, so they started designing such a ship.

### "Charon" Coaxial Chaingun Bolter

Shortly after the Tiberius class had seen some action in combat, some captains were complaining about its coaxial armament. While delivering heavy hits on any target, their low rate of fire in combination with it being coaxial made it very hard to land consecutive hits. They demanded something with a higher fire rate, so missing a shot would not make such a difference. The solution was more or less a classic one for Retrograde

The idea was to take a chaingun and scale it up by a lot. This resulted in a coaxial rapid fire bolter. Once again recoil was one of the main problems, as the vibrations of the barrels were too strong. The solution was a ring that connected the Barrels at the end and an integrated recoil compensation system. The barrels can retract after shooting which gets dampened. This was also the reason for going for a rotating barrel design, as the barrels needed time to extend back to their original state.