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The White Beast
A Homeworld Fanfiction
by Crobato
Originally posted April 26, 2001
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Appendix
Taiidan Intelligence Agency Report
To: Taiidan Republican Senate
CLASSIFIED
Status: Declassified under Senate Bill 1047-OBC
Freedom of Information Act
Strategic Assessment of the Turanic Raiders Military Forces and Tactical Resources
III A. Fighters
The basic Raider fighter is a versatile modular design called the Bandit. While it is a design that is considerable dated compared to the latest Republican and Hiigaran fighters, the basic Bandit is a reliable sturdy craft with a large fuel capacity, excellent armor, and a large engine bay that enables powerful engines to be installed. It’s basic weakness seems to be a small weapons bay that limits the size and firepower of the armament compared to the latest Triikor Mark II fighters. The Raiders are more technologically conservative than most space faring races, taking a longer time to adopt new designs. But once the new design has earned the trust of its pilots, they are far less likely to relinquish the design for a new one. Because of this character, the basic Bandit is a highly trusted design that is expected to be in service for the Raiders a long time.
The Raiders prefer a modular evolutionary approach to their fighter development and it is no surprise that the Bandit has been the focus of new previously unreported variants. While originally a pirate and mercenary race, recent wars have forced the Raiders to evaluate their simple-minded hide, hit and run tactics to more complex strategies. This in turn forces the development of more specialized ships to back up the required increase tactical depth.
For this a new modified Bandit chassis has been developed, tentatively designated “Bandit-B” for the purposes of this report. Bandit-B is basically the same Bandit chassis fitted with more powerful engines, enhanced electronics and a chin extension to allow larger armaments and weapon ports. This chin extension is the sole exterior visual identification of this new fighter over the standard Bandit. Bandit-B is not really a single new fighter class but the core chassis of a whole family of new specialized fighters as listed below:
Class names used for the ship types below may be changed with actual verification and new reports.
A. Bandit-Scout. Intelligence sources tentatively identify this as the Vagabond class, and this is the Bandit B chassis fitted with scanners. Some reports say that the scanner equipment was a virtual copy of the equipment used in Somtaaw Recon scouts, which lends credence to the reports that the Raiders captured one of these Recon scouts and duplicated its scanning array.
B. Stealth Bandit. Tentatively called the Demon class, this Bandit B chassis is fitted with cloaking equipment.
C. Mimic Bandit. Tentatively called the Joker class, this is similar to B. but fitted with mimic equipment instead.
D. Bandit Bomber. Sources identify this as the Outlaw class and this may pose as one of the greatest threats yet. Essentially this is the Bandit B equipped with plasma bomb weapons. Due to the exterior similarity of this fighter bomber to other Bandit fighters, it is difficult to single out the Outlaws from other Bandits by interceptors and strike craft defenses. Thus this makes successful interception of this type to be difficult, and yet this bomber, with equal to better firepower to our Kaark attack bombers, represent a significant threat to our capital and non combatant ship assets.
E. Missile Bandit. Tentatively called the Scimitar class, this is the Bandit B loaded with missiles in addition to its basic mass driver armament. It is basically the equivalent of the Somtaaw Acolyte in capability. It may carry cloak or mimic equipment.
Possible Developments. There had been reports that the Raiders have been working on incorporating micro ion beam technology into their Bandits. Such developments are regarded as serious threats to the balance of power in the Outer Rim sectors.
IIIb. Corvettes.
The Raiders use a trusted corvette chassis which we shall designate for the purposes of this report as the B chassis. This chassis is highly modular with plenty of large compartments to fit huge engines and various weapons. It is also well armored and has great range due to its large fuel capacity. Fuel tanks are self sealing and well protected. Several variations have been reported. Of this, the Thief salvage chassis and the well known Brigand missile corvette has been the most commonly sighted and encountered. But there are other variants as well.
A. The Thief Corvette has been a staple of the Raider forces as far as we can remember. But just before the Beast wars, new developments of this staple have been encountered. The first variant is one loaded with mimic technology. This ship, which we will refer to as the Deceptor class, may be responsible to a whole series of unexplained disappearances of ships in the Rim areas.
B. Equally troubling is a new possible variant of the Thief, which we will refer to as the Ghost class, which uses cloaking technology. The ship could approach its target undetected, decloak, then attack its target, damaging it before salvaging.
C. Boarding Corvette. There have been some reports that a variant of the Thief Corvette has extra compartments used for an assault party. This however has been rarely seen in action even during the last Imperial era.
D. A dangerous development is the Buccaneer class, which the B chassis loaded with plasma bomb weapons. We expect to see the Buccanneer, which may have a superior cost factor over the Brigand missile corvette, to be increasingly used along with Brigand formations.
E. Recently sighted, the Boomer class is the B chassis loaded with mine laying equipment.
F. A report insists the existence of a special spy or EWACs type corvette, possibly known as the Big Eye class. Essentially, this is the same B chassis where the compartments are filled with surveillance electronics.
G. The Vigilante class corvette is a Raider attempt to create a repair corvette of their own using the B chassis.
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IIIc. Frigates
The Raiders have a basic frigate hull that can be described as well armored and spacious. This frigate hull, called the F chassis for purposes of this report, has been the foundation for several variants including the famous Dagger and Assassin class Ion Array Frigates that have been the trademark of Raider forces. However, the other variants do not use the famed array panels for obvious reasons.
A. The Payback class may be an attempt to copy the Kudaark class Assault Frigates. This indicates an attempt to redress the critical problem the Raiders have with their frigates, which is poor strike craft defenses and bad coverage. These problems are actually typical of ion beam frigates.
B. Missile Frigates. The success of missile weapons demonstrated by the Brigand led to an inspiration to use missile racks with frigate designs. There are two sightings of Missile Frigates that indicate while externally they appear the same, there are actually two kinds of missile frigates.
1.) The Intruder class. This is a pure missile ship, uses mainly the medium B type strike missiles that can be used both against capital ships and slower strike craft like corvettes, or the C type missiles optimized against fighters. It can be equipped with cloaking or mimic equipment. The Intruder appears increasingly popular and may be a standard fixture with Raider forces along with the Assassin.
2.) The Ambusher class. Appearing as an improvement over the Intruder class but at a higher cost, this is fitted with auxilliary turret defense equipment and uses the large long range A type strike missiles optimized against capital ships. Will use the B and C type missiles if stocked.
3.) The Corsair class. This is fitted either with stealth and/or mimic equipment, and uses cruise missile torpedoes against unsuspecting targets. The Corsair may represent a major threat against transport and large capital ship assets given that the design is optimized for convoy attacks.
C. Boarding frigates. Identified as the Cutlass frigate, this frigate carries an assault boarding party is used to take over large ships. The Cutlass can be considered a major piracy threat.
D. EWACS and Science frigates. These frigates use extended panels of a different design from the Assassin to extend their monitoring and sensor range. Little is known about these ships, but some have been reported shadowing convoys or examining various stellar phenomena. One suggested class name includes “Seeker”.
E. Repair frigate. Recently it was shown that the Raiders have access to Taiidan repair technology and that a project to create a supply or repair frigate is underway using the F hull.
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IIId. Large Capital Ships.
The Raiders are unique among the race for not fielding destroyers, cruisers and dreadnaughts in an active scale. It has been speculated and rumored that Raider guilds have brandished prototypes of destroyers, cruisers and dreadnaughts, but were almost never fielded into active service.
It has been speculated why the Raiders don’t use destroyers, cruisers or dreadnaughts. The most apparent reason is that they prefer to use fast alpha strikes using massed strike craft as opposed to large capital ships, or the sheer firepower of their feared ion array frigates. Large ships also carry a high cost, and the Raiders are remarkably a stingy people. But a new reason for the unpopularity of large capital ships other than carriers lies with a remarkable Treaty made by Raider nobility houses that exclusively limits the numbers of large type capital ships per house. This is used to maintain a balance of power among the different Houses. The outcome of such a treaty was that the House rules tend to prefer filling the slot allocation with carriers rather than destroyers or cruisers. Due to the lack of large fleet vessels, carriers have to be well armed against both large ship and strike craft attack, leading to the hybrid assault carrier class that the Raiders have innovated—the famed Lord class carriers.
It is said that each Lord ship has been subject to numerous modications that no Lord ship is exactly alike to each other. One ship, the Arak-Na, also known as the Mule, has been fitted with Support Modules, mini ion beam turrets, and ion array panels to augment the power of its main ion cannons. It also is reported to use cloak generators with tethered cables that derive power directly from the ship. This enables the Mule to stay indefinitely cloaked, a factor that enables the ship to shadow the Kadeshi armada during the Crusade wars. Fortunately this enhanced Lord ship is regarded as a non hostile, friendly ship, and sometimes an ally to Republican worlds, and is often allowed port access by Republican bases for maintenance, trade and resupply. However, other Lord ships, with perhaps more hostile intent, are being watched closely if they would incorporate modifications that enhance their threat factor to Republican trade routes.
Perhaps more troubling are reports that Raiders have commandered large capital ships from their former Imperialist vassals, who apparently have outlived their usefulness to them. The most dangerous of these vessels are Qwaar Jet heavy cruisers, which could greatly increase the firepower of any Raider strike fleet.
IV. Specialty Ships
It has been observed that various Raider houses have their own specialty ships unique to that House. For example, the Res’coom use an antiquated deep space miner, while the Hu’ran have a specialized armored transport used for blockade running and smuggling. One of the most unique vessels, recently sighted is the Bludgeon class heavy tug, used by an engineering guild to build Outposts. The tug has no armament, but it is heavily armored and reinforced. While it is almost never seen in combat, the Somtaaw has demonstrated that ramming tugs can be quite a threat in battle, so the presence of a Bludgeon in a battle situation poses an extreme threat to large capital ships.
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