Battleship Macduff

CLASS: Dunkirk

CREW: CLASSIFIED

ARMAMENT: CLASSIFIED

Launched only a year before the outbreak of hostilities with Kusari, the Macduff served, for much of its service, as a key element of Planet Harris' defense, being the sole battleship to remain in the system after the Naval Forces of Kusari entered Leeds.

Due to Gallia's rapid advance after the arrival of their fleets, the Macduff was recalled to Newcastle, where it helped secure the system against Molly raiders and the advance of the invading Royal Navy. Having little effect on that front, it was moved to the New London system, where it remained for much of the war, fighting the Gallic battleships until the very last battle.

Following the conclusion of the Second Gallic War, the vessel received repairs in Omega-3 and set off to Tau-31 once more. It remained in orbit of Planet Harris until 832 AS, when it was recalled for mothballing at Portsmouth Shipyard.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Orbital Spa and Cruise
* Planetform, Inc.
* Bounty Hunters Guild
* Bretonia Police
* Border World Exports
* BMM

## News

Ageira disputed this finding in their own press release, calling EFL 'fantasists' and countering that their own scientists had narrowed the cause to a rare 'hypernova' stellar event that originated outside the Sirius sector. Both corporations claim that network-wide hardware safeguards have been implemented that would prevent a similar occurrence in the future. Independent researchers have sharply criticized the corporate announcements, accusing both of self-interested misdirection.
Professor Sophia Nagel from Heisenberg Research Station called EFL's accusation 'incoherent' and the hypernova explanation 'nonsense' that did not explain the characteristics of the 'Blackout Pulse'. Despite multiple different Pulse recordings being widely disseminated across the neural net, public efforts have so far failed to triangulate its source.

At present, no house stands to conclusively fill the vacuum of power in the Taus, clouding the future to secure exploitation of its rich natural resources in ambiguity. Following the withdrawal of Kusari from Tau-23 after the final confrontation in Languedoc, the lanes within the system seem to have been subject to sabotage, and Gallia has released a public statement that Orkney would instead be favored over Tau-23 for the route to Tau-31, likely owing to Orkney being the last major Tau system that Gallia holds bases in. Niobium futures have ballooned in response to plummeting consumer confidence in stable Niobium extraction, resulting in vicious multinational corporate and paramilitary competition over Tau resource exploitation. The Taus are now a lawless battleground of conflicting corporate interests, small scale military skirmishes, and pirate incursions, all scrambling for a piece of Niobium.
Given the thorough depletion of military might and expansionist ambitions in the surrounding devastated houses, chances are low that the Taus will find themselves tamed by a lawful house in the foreseeable future.

## Rumors

* Welcome to the Macduff, the one that keeps on fighting. Aye, we've been pushed back trice now, but we're still in one piece and fighting the good fight. There's no shame in defeat if the spirit remains unbroken, I say.

* The initial months of the war have been rough on us. Those damned Gallics knew how we fight, knew our capabilities - we didn't know theirs, and had to learn them at a very bloody price. But now that we know how they fight and what their limitations are, we can beat them, I'm sure. Their fighters are small and agile, but lack endurance. Their capital craft are very large and sluggish, much like the Kusari battleships. Exactly what the Challenger was designed for.

* We've been assigned to the defense of Carlisle itself. I'm not surprised, we've got some experience defending a planet from harassment. Harris was held by us until we were ordered to fall back - seems fleet intelligence got wind of something that would have rolled right over us. Good thing they did, it rolled over the Kusari forces not long afterward.

* The morale around here is amazing. You'd be right to expect some disappointment after a strategic withdrawal like the one we had to make from Harris, but the pilots I talk to just can't wait to get back into action. "Tea in the Taus tonight!" is what they all say now. I almost feel sorry for the Gallic pilots who have to face our boys. Almost.

* We may be in Newcastle now, but that won't last. This battleship is destined to be on the front lines, there's no doubt about that. The admiralty can't make us withdraw and then leave us in the rear forever. They've got to know that nobody in the fleet wants payback more than the crew of the MacDuff.

* We're still patching up some holes on the engineering deck. Asteroid collision damage. Can't really talk about it, just something that happened on the way here. It's only the outer hull though, Bretonian ships are engineered for this kind of damage. Macduff is fully operational. We'll need a lot of replacement Hull Panels to make these repairs, but Bowex will bring those in.

* It's been a crazy couple of years on the MacDuff. The stories I heard from our pilots about the battles with the KNF forces were alternately hair raising and depressing. There's no finer group of pilots in the fleet, if you ask me. Just breaking through to the MacDuff through the Kusari lines in Tau-31 was enough to prove a pilot's mettle. There aren't that many commands that can deploy entire squadrons of veterans, but MacDuff can.

* Compared to Kusari, these Gallic chaps aren't too skillful. They're a lot more numerous though. We'll have to figure out a way to wittle down the numbers a little. If we can do that, we can beat them, I'm sure.

* The Gaians don't bother with Belfast or Scarborough. Their efforts in the system were focused around Carlisle. Were, yes, since the Armed Forces use that planet's orbit as a staging area now. Any idiot Gaian that approaches it is asking to be spaced. They do hit the lanes leading from the Jump Gate to the planet, so if there's a bounty posted, that's where I go to find them.

* I'm half expecting BMM to be posting very high bounties on Mollys in the system in the near future. Why? Well, if the Armed Forces are going to clean up Belfast, BMM will want them as weak as possible, so that the station can be retaken without heavy damage to it. And they'll not want Mollys harassing any reconstruction efforts, I think.

* Officially, MacDuff and Yamaguchi used the jump gate from Tau-31 to enter Leeds, then proceeded here to Newcastle before the Gallic forces overran the Gates. Unofficially, well, we're not supposed to talk about it. But let's just say the Gate was a bit too crowded for us to sneak through at the time.

* It doesn't especially matter to Bowex where MacDuff is, so long as we get paid to supply it. So far, we've been stockpiling supplies here like never before. Something big is up. Everyone knows it, but noone knows anything about it. Or so they say.

*NOTE: Page generated on the 28/10/2023 at 17:59:45 UTC*