I recently installed the new Media VPs and played "Mystery of the Trinity" ( awesome new Nebula effect!), and while following Zeta 1 i had time to think about one thing that irked me ever since i played this mission for the first time.
Why do we sit on the Engines? Why not start next to the Hecate? Or, far better - in the Hangar?
This actually has a really mundane explanation. The mission was originally FREDded when the Aquitaine was an Orion. Originally, the fighters launched from the Orion's runway, directly in front of the hangar. When the Aquitaine was changed to a Hecate (maybe the model was created late in development), the fighters were moved to the top wing area.
Ahh, interesting bit of trivia.
I would have loved to start the campaign on a Orion and get transfered later to a new Hecate class destroyer, something in the fashion of "oh look, there's your new shiny Destroyer".
But i assume, there's only so many times you can do that and all the thunder was reserved for the Collie.
Your fighter didn't have an intersystem drive, but the "wings" provide a convenient shackle point for storing fighters during intersystem jumps, allowing the Hecate to rapidly deploy several squadrons of fighters on arrival in a new system without the risk a lucky hit to its hanger exit by anything on blockade will prevent this.
Hm, makes sense. Also, the thickness of the wings allows for some serious storage space for non-critical goods.
Putting important goods in there, or have critical Systems like Radiators
only in exposed areas like the wings begs for trouble.
I've put secondary or non-essential Systems in there - Storage compartments, auxillary Systems, showers, toilets and the like.
But didn't the Hecate entered Service sometime after the First Shivan incursion, during which the Fighters got Jumpdrives?
Haven't read the Techroom fluff in years.