The Tachi
Overview
Section titled “Overview”The Tachi is a small corvette designed for patrol duties and to augment heavier ships. Ships like this would carry boarding crews to inspect ships for contraband or smuggling, carry marines for deployment. It’s armed well enough to handle other corvettes and smaller ships. In the right hands, a tactical genius can cripple cruisers and frigates with it.
This particular corvette isn’t stock. It’s been outfitted with some heavier armaments, a sling drive, landing system, decoys, jammers, and some light stealth systems. It’ll hit harder and faster than your average corvette and then disappear in the aftermath.
In its career under Daisy’s ownership, it’s mostly carried her around the system tracking down bounties. Most of these have not involved space combat. Despite being armed to the deeth, she still prefers to take her targets down in-person and keep her ship in reserve.
Typical Uses/Mission
Section titled “Typical Uses/Mission”A typical operation with the Tachi is almost a milk run. The ship will depart from a base like The Parthenon and make way across the system for its target. It’ll be docked there or landed nearby, an onboard AI will monitor coms with Daisy in case she needs an emergency retrieval. The bounty is secured, locked up on board, and then delivered to the authorities.
On rarer occasion it’ll transport a VIP or use its firepower to forcibly board a ship to capture the target.
Features
Section titled “Features”As a military vessel, the Tachi is first and foremost equipped for war, including:
- Automated medical suite
- Wapons locker
- Crew quarters & common areas
- Cargo deck
- Machine shop
- On-board AI
- High-Strength armor plating
The ship’s designed to operate with a crew of 10-12 and an additional complement of 20 marines. With some modifications, Daisy’s tuned it to operate fine with just her and the AI, though the maintenance load is a little higher.
Armament
Section titled “Armament”Rail Gun
Section titled “Rail Gun”Mounted to the nose and running through much of the top of the ship is a medium-grade rail gun. There is a quick-change magazine that can change out the slug fired from a small SABOT style round to an armor-melting incendiary to a tracker.
Point Defense Cannons
Section titled “Point Defense Cannons”An array of automatic, rapid-fire cannons mounted around the ship. These offer a full sphere of protection, designed to shoot down incoming torpedoes as well as penetrate enemy hulls and do damage. They’re more than adaquate as anti-personnel systems.
Rapid-Fire Torpedo System
Section titled “Rapid-Fire Torpedo System”The original torpedo system featured two magazines, two launchers, and a payload of about 30 torpedoes. That’s been swapped out for a new launcher configuration from newer lines of ship. There are now 4 launch tubes, 60 torpedoes, and the system can dump the entire magazine in just a few minutes. Warheads include both nuclear and conventional.
History
Section titled “History”The Tachi was deployed aboard the Martian Navy’s Olympic Thunder - a battleship meant to secure an entire planet and the surrounding areas. These ships served successfully for 12 years providing security and counter-piracy operations in various strategic deployments. The Tachi was decorated for hundreds of successful interdictions, along with the mother ship Olympic Thunder.
This record for success ended with the Battle of Gaia Nova.
Olympic Thunder was deployed to capture and destroy a large pirate outpost at the edge of the Gaia Nova system. Unfortunately the entire engagement was a trap. A supposed informant had been a double agent and provided false intel. As the Olympic entered the area, heavy radar jamming crippled their navigation and defenses.
The Tachi and three other Corvettes were deployed with tactical teams. They would seize any ships in the AO or land at any pirate facilites located, provide support to the Olympic, and everything would be fine. It was in theory, an overwhelming force. That’s how the Martian Navy handled things: with unquestioned power.
The pirates were ready. They wanted to strike a blow against a major Navy and prove power wasn’t the only game in town. They had waited until the ships were in the area before flooding the area with a mix of chaff and small drones deploying active counter measures. Nothing could get through it: not the Martians and not the pirates. Everyone was blind.
A series of hidden emplacements, railguns tucked into some smaller asteroids lit up. They were using outdated optical targeting. The area was dense enough with asteroids that accuracy wasn’t a problem. Simultaneously all 4 corvettes were lit up with heavy fire, killing their crews instantly. The Olympic attempted to fight back and it did fair better for a time.
The railguns weren’t good-enough against the Olympic. They proceeded the mission, intent on revenge now. Near the pirate base, a large asteroid, the MLCR’s were depoyed to land and breach the base. A few hundred marines on the ground and the entire rock exploded. The Olympic was severely damaged in the aftermath and forced to retreat.
It was an operation that had taken 8 years to plan and arrange. Years of smuggling explosives, embedding a double agent, desgining the defenses. When the trap sprung, there wasn’t a single Pirate in the region.
In the aftermath, the Tachi was picked up as legitimate Salvage.
A rich girl who's gotten in over her head, with a heart far too big for this world's narrow rules. She's gone out into New Athens to discover herself and set on a path of changing the entire universe for the better.
Ellie is a sweet girl, a front-line first responder, and a trained medic. She's doing her best in a life she didn't ask for, burdened by an impossible task, and still smiling every day.
A trained assassin and a disillusioned Martian ex-pat, Daisy is a bounty-hunter looking to settle scores for the poor and powerless. She takes on high-paying jobs to fund her lifestyle and cheap kids to remind the rich and powerful: you are not untouchable.
A mountain of a main, he's a bounty hunter and the last man you want to fight. To the innocent, he's as gentle as a lamb, and to those who would bring misery for a penny, he's a demon. A life being at the bottom, crushed by the world's cruelty has taught him to fight back.