[Apollo]

This is going to be the backstory of Eos. It describes major events that happen from the Capella supernova to just before the start of the Third Shivan Incursion, as well as some military advancements the GTVA has made.

I'm not a good writer by any stretch of the imagination, so any constructive criticism is welcome. I'm not aiming for a BP-quality storyline with dozens of characters and huge amounts of thought behind every single aspect of the story, but I am trying to make something quality. That means it needs to be reasonably good.

Capella Supernova (2367)

In 2367, a fleet of roughly 80 Sathanas juggernauts surrounded the Capella star and caused it to go supernova. Though many Shivan ships were destroyed in this event, the impact on GTVA forces was far more devastating. Almost all of the 3rd Fleet was destroyed by the supernova. The flagship GTD Aquitaine survived, since it had been sent to Ribos for repairs; if it had remained in Capella, it would likely have been destroyed along with the rest of the fleet.

This disaster also had a devastating effect on civilians; billions of innocent Terrans and Vasudans died in the supernova, and those who escaped the system now found themselves homeless and torn away from a system they’d spent their entire life in.

Aftermath of the Second Shivan Incursion (2368-2374)

Aside from the immediate effect of death and destruction, these events had widespread political and economic consequences for the GTVA. The loss of Capella and the flood of refugees into nearby systems pushed the Alliance into a depression that would last for almost a decade. Meanwhile, the sheer power of the Shivans and the ease with which they had bulldozed through the GTVA’s warships—including the Colossus—caused many citizens to doubt the military, and threw the entire Alliance into a state of panic. The discovery of several isolated Shivan cruiser wings and destroyers only amplified this, as in each case the Shivan forces massacred thousands of civilians before being destroyed. All of these events were resolved with few warship casualties, and none of them even began to approach the intensity of the first and second Great Wars, but they did contribute to widespread paranoia of Shivan attacks.

The Armada Declaration (2375-2387)

In 2375, the Security Council approved the Armada Declaration, a program of massive military spending. The purpose of this program was twofold; first, it would employ billions of civilian workers and hopefully end the depression, and second, it would better prepare the Alliance for a future Shivan invasion. Over the next twelve years, the GTVA would completely overhaul their warships. Most Great War-era designs were retired, while the Typhon was heavily retrofitted to serve as the primary battleship of Vasudan fleets. Capella-era warships were modified with new beam and reactor technologies and many entirely new spaceframes were developed. Deimos corvettes were mass-produced and retrofitted to emulate Shivan shock-jump tactics, and a new class of heavy cruiser, the GTC Thunder, was created to serve as a cheap garrison vessel. Equipped with four beam cannons and two torpedo launchers, these vessels have a lethargic cruising speed but are more powerful than any cruiser save the custom-made Orff and the Shivan Lilith.

One of the most important products of the Armada Declaration was the GTD Archon, a superdestroyer with immense armor, relatively good subspace maneuverability, and four Winter King super-heavy beam cannons that can each vaporize any known destroyer with two pulses. The Archon can strike with at least one of these cannons nearly anywhere around it, making it very, very difficult to flank with anything smaller than another superdestroyer. This warship was tremendously expensive to produce, causing many to argue—perhaps correctly—that the GTVA’s resources would be better spent producing Deimos and Sobek corvettes. Nevertheless, the Archon is an important part of the GTVA’s military capability, and simulations predict that it could destroy a Sathanas juggernaut with just three salvos from its primary cannons.

While the Terrans were busy producing the Archon, the Vasudans commissioned the GVDn Karnak, a dreadnought that sacrifices its fighterbay for heavy armor, massive weaponry, and fast-charging subspace drives. Though it has no carrier capacity, the Karnak manages to pack two super-heavy beam cannons into a destroyer-sized frame, and it’s only slightly more expensive than the standard Typhon and Hatshepsut destroyers. Four of these vessels have been produced, and they are often considered to be a better investment than the Archon, despite their individual inferiority.

Advancements in fighter technology were less pronounced, but still significant. The refitted GTF Apollo, originally shelved in favor of the Myrmidon, was brought back to serve as the Alliance’s standard space superiority fighter. The Kulas, a modified civilian design, was commissioned to replace the aging Ulysses. Boasting increased durability and payload, the Kulas is far superior to its predecessor. In addition, many Capella-era fighters were modified, such as the Erinyes, which has been given larger missile banks and a stronger reactor, and the Ares, which can now carry the Cyclops torpedo, making it the only fighter that can take out corvettes and destroyers. However, both the Erinyes and the Ares are restricted to elite squadrons, primarily because of their cost.

Two special-issue bombers have also been developed, the Highlander and the Stheno. The Highlander is a strike bomber with six gunpoints and a decent payload that can dogfight approximately as well as the GTF Perseus, while the Stheno is a massive gunship with huge secondary bays and four dual-bank Prometheus S turrets. Both of these ships can be used in an anti-fighter role; the Highlander can fly as a space superiority fighter, and the Stheno can mow down wings of fighters with Tornadoes and Trebuchets.

A few advancements in fighter-mounted weaponry have also been created. The Avenger E is an ammo-based cannon with low energy drain and higher sustained damage than the Prometheus S. Because of its low energy drain, some pilots prefer this weapon over the Kayser, despite its lower damage values.

The Nightstick is a turbolaser that was created to replace the Akheton SDG. It has higher range and subsystem damage, as well as vastly superior hull and shield damage values. The Nightstick deals the most single hit damage of any fighter-mounted cannon weapon in the GTVA’s arsenal, but its high energy drain and lethargic firing rate make it a less effective dogfighting weapon than the Avenger E or Prometheus S. However, it is much better in this regard than its predecessor.

I am aware that the Archon was a very questionable investment, but I wanted to have it just for the "cool factor" of a superdestroyer. Anything else is fair game for criticism.

[General Battuta]

This disaster also had a devastating effect on civilians; billions of innocent Terrans and Vasudans died in the supernova, and those who escaped the system now found themselves homeless and torn away from a system they’d spent their entire life in.

I think FreeSpace 2 capped the number of civilians in the Capella system at just a few million.

[Droid803]

Okay, I'm probably going to come off a bit blunt and killjoy, but...

I don't see how retrofitting Typhons would work out seeing as they don't play nice with beams. A cool explanation would be something along the lines of the Zods developed some new type of (non-beam) ship-to-ship weapon which is only in certain situations and just slapped them onto the old hulls because it was cheaper than building a new hull design for them. I wouldn't call them the primary battleships, though they could be cool artillery or gun-platform pieces which despite being old, outdated hulls (and get mauled in a straight up fight), still find a niche in the navy. That would provide a more believable, and (IMO) more interesting dynamic.

Also, I know your handle is Apollo, but did you really need to bring back the Apollo? It's probably the least likely of the FS1 craft to be brought back in a derivative form - I don't understand why that would ever be necessary when there is the Perseus, which for all intents and purposes is just better than Apollo: just look at the stat!: Everything is either identical or better. From that entire paragraph you seem to be ignoring pretty much the best all-round GTVA craft of the FS2 era! A more logical step would be to shift the Perseus (or an upgrade of it) into Space Superiority, then introduce a new ship in the true interceptor role.

Between these two I'm getting the feeling that you just really like your FS1 ships, but you're not going to make a -level story if you're just going to "fanwank" and invoke "magic retrofitting makes previously obsoleted designs suddenly relevant again". That...kind of kills suspension of disbelief really hard. It's also very reminiscent of terribad n00b fanfiction writing (mainly because those things have tons of this). You probably want to steer as clear of that camp as possible.

If you want to do stuff like that without penalty do a TC set in an original universe. Then you can go "i liek this ship design so i maek it op" with (little to) no consequences. 

[General Battuta]

I dunno, if you like FS1 ships I'm down with you rejiggering stuff to make it work.

[Apollo]

I was mostly just using it because it's still about the highest quality Vasudan destroyer available in terms of appearance (and because that way I can have the Pinnacle make an appearance), but I see how it could break suspension of disbelief. Retrofitting a TV-War era destroyer with modern reactor technology, weaponry, and hull plating would require such extensive modifications that it would basically be making a whole new ship. So, I'll look for a replacement.

There were just a few million civilians in Capella? OK, I really need to replay FS2. I've forgotten a whole bunch of stuff.

You are correct in that I put the Apollo in just because I like it and I acknowledge that bringing it back makes little sense, although the Ulysses was retained for FS2, and it's about as good as the Apollo. On the other hand, I feel that it's fairly balanced; the refit's more durable and has larger missile banks than the Perseus, but it has much lower speed and crappy weapons compatibility. Still, it might be better to classify the refit as a "light assault" fighter rather than a space superiority fighter.

[Droid803]

The Hatshepsut is the highest quality Vasudan destroyer in terms of appearance, IMO. Also, you don't need to find a replacement, you just need to tweak it's role and justification for it's appearance. For example, as I said, it might make sense as a SSM platform or something. Then it wouldn't necessarily need modern reactor technology or new hull plating, and would be cheaper than building a new ship - hollow out as much of the hull as possible for SSM storage, slap some missile launchers on it, voila. It can still have a cool role and you can bring back iconic ships like the Pinnacle. Obviously, you can probably come up with some other special trick of it to pull, SSMs is just an example.

Regarding the Apollo, sure. Just come up with a reason why the Perseus didn't get a similar refit (or maybe it got a refit so its more of an interceptor), and that should be fine

I'm fine with rejiggering to make stuff work, but I'd prefer reasoned modifications than "magic" stat improvement refits. Though I guess I might just be nitpicking.

[Apollo]

The Typhon refit in Eos actually only has two beam cannons, though one of them has been upgraded from a BVas to a HVas. It gets much of its anti-capital ability from four torpedo launchers. It also has better armor and point-defenses.

I understand your issue with refits that only serve to make an old ship relevant again. Unfortunately, my choices are fairly limited. The Pharaoh and the Apophis are nice but they don't have the kind of appearance I want, I'm using the Hedetet for the Karnak, and my next choice, the Hathor, is already being used as the AD Achladia. My only other decent option is the Asarte, and that ship's still a little too blocky for my liking.

So, do you think that having beams as secondary armament will be enough to justify the Typhon's refit? Or should I just use another ship?

EDIT: The Perseus got slightly better handling and more armor.

[Droid803]

The issue I have with that is more of the Typhon was stated to not play well with beams at all leading to unreliability etc, something they couldn't get around (which is why they developed the Hatshepsut). I don't have an issue with it being made relevant again if it isn't in the boring ol' way of morebeams morearmor and it's now a good straight up frontline combatant.

I'm trying to get you to "think outside the box" as to how to get it to have a niche again. You could do some cool things with those torpedo launchers, for instance.

[Apollo]

Maybe I could swap the beams with some fast-firing plasma cannons that are designed to take out turrets and leave enemy warships unable to fight back. That might be a more interesting solution than just giving it a bunch of beams.

[Droid803]

Yes, something like that would be cool

[Apollo]

Ok, I'll do that.

[Phantom Hoover]

It's a bit of an odd strategy for such a cumbersome ship, isn't it? Relying on defanging enemy ships generally means you have to be able to avoid their fire until you can disarm them, which isn't going to be easy with a top speed of 15m/s and taking the better part of a minute to turn ninety degrees.

[Droid803]

Not really, the UED Solaris carries a whole bunch of gattlers for that exact purpose. You just have to be able to tank the damage until you defang them.

[Phantom Hoover]

It... still seems a very risky niche to specialise in, especially for something as costly as a destroyer.

[Apollo]

It would be normally, but the reffited Typhon also carries several torpedo batteries that can easily wreck capital ships. And, its plasma cannons can still deal respectable damage to hulls.