Midway question

D

Drizzt Do Urden

Spaceman
I'm not sure if anyone has ever asked this one, but what was the Midway doing so far away from Confed controlled space. That just seems like a terrible idea to have a shake down cruise outside of a safe zone. Especially when a ship like the Midway costs as much as it did.
 
Actually, the area is a logical place to test a new carrier and see its effectiveness against rogue Kilrathi and Pilots. In fact, that is exactly what the Midway was doing when the initial Nephilum attack occured. The Confederation had control of space in the Kilrah sector - nothing the Kilrathi had could stand up to even one Confederation carrier group.
 
Hmm - I think the definition of a shakedown cruise is being confused here. I am not as familiar with the Prophecy story line as the rest of the universe, but shakedown cruises are not intended to result in actual combat - against rogue elements or otherwise. They can, however, result in achieving new records.

Perhaps the Midway was already past the shakedown cruise and ready for action? Or does Confed apply the term differently?
 
Well, honestly I don't think the Midway was even in Kilrathi space as the game starts. In the first mission's briefing, Wilford talks about the Midway being put on full alert and about to jump into the H'rekkah System. H'rekkah is one of the Kilrathi "border worlds" and is only 5 jumps away from Sol

Sol -> Proxima -> Vega -> Alcor -> Nephele -> H'rekkah

I'm not saying this is actually what happened, but it seems very reasonable to me that the Midway could have easily been cruising the inner worlds when the situation with the Fralthi II went down.
 
I would be curious to know if any of the known Confederation Shipyards are anywhere near this "probably" location of the Midway.

I'm not sure what he known Confederation shipyards are, or I'd check myself.
 
We know of two major builders - Sirius Prime Engineering which is in the Sirius System and Trojan IV shipyards which orbit Mars. We also see drydocks on the Moon in Fleet Action, where the Kilrathi destroy a half dozen Confederation carriers docked there, including the TCS Wolfhound.
 
Sylvester said:
We know of two major builders - Sirius Prime Engineering which is in the Sirius System and Trojan IV shipyards which orbit Mars. We also see drydocks on the Moon in Fleet Action, where the Kilrathi destroy a half dozen Confederation carriers docked there, including the TCS Wolfhound.
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I think it's safe to assume that the Sirius Yards were destroyed during Fleet Action as well.
 
I'm not sure if anyone has ever asked this one, but what was the Midway doing so far away from Confed controlled space. That just seems like a terrible idea to have a shake down cruise outside of a safe zone. Especially when a ship like the Midway costs as much as it did.
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The Midway is in Confederation space when the game starts and then receives a suspected Kilrathi distress call from the H'rekkah system. The decision to jump there was not made by Captain Wilford -- the order came from headquarters and probably marked the effective end of her shakedown cruise.

Per the ICIS booklet, the Midway had started her cruise [at least] 'several months ago' and was well into the 'final phase' (Blair had been observing said phase for 50 days.) They were also almost two months past drawing their first blood, having dealt with a group of Kilrathi pirates earlier on.

In fact, when the first briefing opens you overhear Blair complaining about this exact issue - "Take a look around, most of these pilots are still kids. They're too green... We don't even have a full complement of ships." (Blair, of course, has a strong suspicion about what is going to happen, having already been privy to Paladin's classified briefing on the alien threat.)

Perhaps the Midway was already past the shakedown cruise and ready for action? Or does Confed apply the term differently?
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We know that she wasn't past her shakedown cruise at the very start of the game; at their first meeting Stiletto tells Casey and Masetro that "this is a make or break shakedown cruise for us." My guess would be that that status specifically changes at the first briefing, where Commander Drake announces that "as of now, the Midway is on full alert status."

We know of two major builders - Sirius Prime Engineering which is in the Sirius System and Trojan IV shipyards which orbit Mars. We also see drydocks on the Moon in Fleet Action, where the Kilrathi destroy a half dozen Confederation carriers docked there, including the TCS Wolfhound.
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I don't think this information is accurate. We don't know the ultimate fate of the TCS Wolfhound, I can't think of any canonical references to any "Sirius Prime Engineering," we never hear where the Trojan IV shipyards are and only three carriers were destroyed in the drydocks at the moon.

The Midway was constructed at the TSY Arcology.
 
Isn't Sirius Prime the guys who built the Concordia class ship? Or am I stupidly confusing WC fact with the crap that was on the Fleet Tactics website?
 
I don't know if it was at Fleet Tactics or not; I think it may have been created by Standoff.

Action Stations suggests that the first Concordia-class ships were built in orbit of the moon.
 
Whoops. Yeah, you're right LOAF about Standoff creating that. Its been a while since I read FA, just found it again and yeah it was three carriers dusted. I think I also got the shtick on the Wolfhound from the Fleet Tactics site.

From what I've now gathered - I think this information is accurate.
  • The Concordia Class carriers were built in orbit around the moon (Action Stations).
  • Trojan IV Shipyards built the Tiger's Claw and subsequent Bengal class ships but we don't know where the shipyards are located (Claw Marks).
  • TSY Arcology constructed the Midway (ICIS Handbook).
  • Vesuvius and Mount St. Helens finished their construction work at the starbase orbiting Jupiter. We don't know if they were just there for final outfitting or if they had been built entirely there though (WCIV).
  • Lunar Drydocks also seen in Fleet Action
 
Everyone should go ahead and yell at me for this - but isn't it safe to assume that the Trojan IV shipyards are at, well, Trojan IV? I'm being serious - is the issue simply that we don't know where Trojan IV - the system, moon, whatever - is located on the WC universe map?
 
Everyone should go ahead and yell at me for this - but isn't it safe to assume that the Trojan IV shipyards are at, well, Trojan IV? I'm being serious - is the issue simply that we don't know where Trojan IV - the system, moon, whatever - is located on the WC universe map?
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That's likely, but another theory might be that it's located at one of the Trojan points in the Sol System.
 
Sylvester said:
[*]Vesuvius and Mount St. Helens finished their construction work at the starbase orbiting Jupiter. We don't know if they were just there for final outfitting or if they had been built entirely there though (WCIV).

[/LIST]
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The Vesuvius and St. Helens were built using foundry ships IIRC. They weren't built in the traditional manner because of after-effects of the war. I believe it's explained in a bit of detail in the initial Blair-Tolwyn meeting in TPoF.
 
Wasn't the TCS Wolfhound mentioned as lost/destroyed in some of the bar tender dialogue in Privateer?
 
I'm not sure if anyone has ever asked this one, but what was the Midway doing so far away from Confed controlled space. That just seems like a terrible idea to have a shake down cruise outside of a safe zone. Especially when a ship like the Midway costs as much as it did.
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Confed was testing it's abilities in combat. Waypoint tells all!! They talk about the Pirates the Midway faced off against before Casey arrived.
 
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