Maverick Gets Pantsed (February 24, 2018)

[Quarto]

A valid point, but I thought the Confederation eventually triumphed. Unless you're referring to the 'inevitable defeat' of the Nephilim?

No, I do mean the Confederation. It's hard to really describe the situation at the start of Arena as a triumph. Although I'm vague on the details now, I recall the Arena manual implying that the Confederation had basically been shattered, and is no longer capable of enforcing its presence in the Epsilon sector. That said, I did just have a quick glance through the manual, and I guess the details are vague enough that the situation could be interpreted in different ways.

 

[AD]

No, I do mean the Confederation. It's hard to really describe the situation at the start of Arena as a triumph. Although I'm vague on the details now, I recall the Arena manual implying that the Confederation had basically been shattered, and is no longer capable of enforcing its presence in the Epsilon sector. That said, I did just have a quick glance through the manual, and I guess the details are vague enough that the situation could be interpreted in different ways.

Yeah the idea was that Confed won... but it did so at great cost.

 

[Wedge009]

Yeah, I got the impression that things weren't rosy, all peaceful and calm like they were just before Prophecy, but that the Confederation did eventually - somehow - repel the invasion. I recall the Midway being converted into a residential space station or something like that.

But yes, I suppose it would be up to the fans to make up their own ideas on how we got from Prophecy/SO to Arena now.

 

[capi3101]

You're thinking about TCS Port Broughton, a ship of the Midway-class. Fought a delaying action in the Corsair system and had to be scuttled to avoid a boarding action; locals salvaged the hulk and then it wound up as a refugee camp. Grunt from the Academy cartoon wound up there; the one guy writing the story was about to start interviewing him when a raid alarm went off.

 

[L.I.F.]

Didn't the Confed have to start churning out Behemoth planet-killers at some point during the war? Page 57 of Star Soldier, there's a job offer:

BOMBER PILOTS NEEDED. Hulk of Behemoth-class TCS Gargantuan is menace to navigation, galactic threat. Help dispose of this weapon of mass destruction.

No clue how many were built, but if the Confed started building them again, it really meant they were playing for keeps.

 

[capi3101]

Yep. And they also started popping out Indomitable-class battlecruisers in droves as well. I remember it being strange that they had no shields - something about heavy armor plating being more effective than shields against Nephilim plasma weapons. Confed stopped manufacturing Midways after Port Broughton, which I seem to recall was the tenth ship of the class (a reasonable run for a carrier class). Between the Behemoths and Indomitables, the Confederation economy must've been in shambles post-war, especially if (as Star*Soldier makes it sound) it was a marginal victory at best. Elsewhere in the document it's implied that the Nephilim could return and pilots needed to continue to maintain a vigilant watch against the threat. Overall, it's a pretty bleak picture there.