Volcano-class armored cruiser

The *Volcano-class* (later civilian refits reclassified it as the *Mountain-class*) armored cruiser started its production run as a mining hauler and mining flotilla escort. They were designed to spend extended periods of time out in the asteroid belt, and as such were built with near full heavy armor to allow them to shrug off direct impacts from any asteroid too small or fast to be avoided otherwise. Their production run was cut short when the Jump Gate into the Pioneer system was destroyed and the materials to manufacture heavy armor became limited. With only a small number ever being produced, these ships seemed destined to obscurity before the beginning of The Belt War.

## The Vesuvius

The Vesuvius was an armored cruiser fielded by The Riders part of the way through CDF/RR war. It was initially fielded as a replacement for the Queen Providence class "Midnight Oil" following the vessel's destruction in an attempt to evacuate RR personnel from tile 2C. It served during the war for an extended period of time, fighting alongside the Ravager and the rest of \_ squadron in multiple defensive actions, as well as the final breakout attempts.

At the start of The Belt War, the Vesuvius was deployed as part of a joint squadron tasked with forming the initial beachhead into Khan space. This would however end in disaster, later known as the \_, when the squadron was crippled and repelled by a comparatively small Khan squadron. The Vesuvius's bridge was cracked in this engagement, severely wounding its command staff and leaving it dead in the water. This coincided with a Khan push into tile 1A, where they successfully took the tile, completely cutting off the attacking force in Khan space. Isolated in tile 1Z and under constant attack, the Joint squadron organized an attempt to break back out into friendly space. The Vesuvius was hastily bolted to the hull of the Ravager to help cover a large hole directly into its core, as well as to serve as extra thrust since the Ravager had been near completely thruster stripped in the prior fight. While the two CDF cruisers made their own attempts to escape, the Ravager/Vesuvius went underway, silently attempting to sneak past enemy lines. They were spotted roughly 3 minutes from escape by khan forces, and no less than four Khan Cruisers proceeded to fall on the formation. The Vesuvius took massive damage during this fight, ultimately getting disconnected from the Ravager right before it managed to jump to safety. With it's reactors killed and dead in the water, it was presumed dead.

This wasn't the end for the ship, however. Khan forces managed to tow the wreck back to one of their trade stations, hastily constructing an impromptu shipyard to house it while they brought it back online. Its surviving crew were also held prisoner there. They made sweeping modifications to the hull and internal systems and redubbed it the Hydra, planning to deploy it as a Jump Drive Inhibition cruiser against the COA. The Eternity's Advent arrived on-tile at roughly this time, and quickly decided that KE could not be allowed to keep the ship. EFN forces boarded the trade station, rescued the RR crew held there, and proceeded to commandeer the mostly repaired Vesuvius under heavy fire. Rhodor, former leader of the Riders, valiantly gave his life buying the rest of the force time to escape with the ship. The ship's repairs were then finished alongside the Eternity, and it joined it in a guerilla war against the Khans Enclave. One notable feat was its support of ground forces during the taking of tile 3Y, where it dove into atmosphere and engaged enemy aircraft in the open air. It then assisted in covering fire from orbit while forces invaded the Khan capital city of the moon. Following this, it assisted in trying to defend Khan citizens fleeing to 3A following the onslaught of an open civil war on the faction's capital planet. There it fought alongside the defecting DD-class Sparta to keep the Khan Battleship Tiniest Snek and it's squadron occupied while the civilians escaped. Following this, Vesuvius participated in the final days of the war, successfully escorting the Constellation and dueling the Longbow-class in the fateful "Battle of the Bricks" where it managed to knock out a khan destroyer, before getting weapon stripped. The captain of the Longbow, however, chose to spare the Vesuvius,

## The Krakatoa

The Krakatoa was a very lightly modified Mountain-class in use by a civilian mining company. It made it's only appearance during episode \_ where it attempted to flee Khan forces alongside the Civilian freighter the "Public Domain." Both ships were part of the last wave of civilians to evacuate tile 1A following its seizure by Khan Forces. The Krakatoa notably managed to fire an asteroid-cracking round at an already heavily damaged Khan corvette, breaking the corvette in half. Khan marines attempted to board the Krakatoa, but they were repelled by the crew of the Eternity's Advent who came to the ships rescue.

## Chronological and Affiliation

### Affiliation:

Khan's Enclave

The Hydra-Class was a singular vessel never put into production and remains largely theoretical. The Hydra, the only known vessel of its type, was created as a result of the Khans Enclave capturing the Volcano-Class armored cruiser RR Vesuvius. After dragging the heavily damaged wreckage to a nearby Civilian Trade Station, the Khans immediately began to refit the vessel, repairing damaged systems, adding the traditional Khan "Heads" at the bow of the vessel, and applying the Khans Enclave colors.

Before it could be launched, the crew of the EFN Eternity's Advent launched a daring raid on the station. Upon freeing multiple captured Rider and CDF soldiers from confinement, they then set out to deprive the Khans of their newest asset. While the CDF/EFN/RR group did manage to escape aboard the Hydra, it came at the loss of Admiral Rhodor, founder of the Riders, who sacrificed his life to allow the group to escape.

Once clear in open space, the Hydra was reverted back to the Vesuvius (reverting hull changes and color scheme, while keeping thruster and weapon upgrades) with the help of the Eternity's Advent.

With the extreme difficulty of creating Armored Cruisers without armor technology from Earth, and the upcoming Khan Civil War, no further attempts to create Hydra-class vessels were undertaken by the Khans, and no other faction has the ability or desire to create one either.

## Known Vessels

KE

* Hydra (Vesuvius)