Faction contest submission, reporting in!
No new ships, sorry, but all remade in faction colors.
RAUTHIIDET by
Mika Metsätähti, on Flickr
Fluffy bit:
RAUTHIIDET
Initially Rauthiidet were just another group of pirates in the profitable Korh system. With several colonies and a busy transit gate, it was a real honeypot for trouble.
Rauthiidet formed around captain Üsk Nattaa after they were discharged from the local TTA space fleet. There was no short supply of other unlucky, defiant ruffians looking to make a living. In Nattaa’s command they were able to execute some rather precise ambushes.
Things changed after they raided a shipment from Falumunn colony. The colony spokesperson sent a plea for help to their contractor, the Jovian Plum Trade Union.. The trade union answered that the colony’s shortcomings in security issues weren’t the union’s problem… but that they were willing to sell a few fighters. Pilots could be hired for a fee.
The outraged colonists decided to make another, unexpected offer. To Rauthiidet. And they did agree to purchase several top-of-the-line starfighters from the JPTU in exchange for their next shipment. Only, when the exchange was to take place, the shipment contained Falumunn’s new security detail, the Rauthiidet, and the new ships were quickly and efficiently secured. The Falumunn Rauthiidet was born.
The TTA of course saw this act as somewhat of an insurgence. It didn't want to escalate things to a system-wide conflict, though, so it decided to blame JPTU for the incident and negotiate new terms for Falumunn to work directly under TTA. The system continued to be a real honeypot for trouble… for a while more.
“GNAT”
Most of the original pirate fighters were just heavily modified shuttles intended for daring fly-bys and hit-and-run tactics. They were “lovingly” called Gnats by their pilots and targets alike.
PINCER
Pincer was a general multirole fighter manufactured in-system for the TTA to use as patrol crafts. Captain Nattaa wasn’t the only one who had training and experience with TTA equipment, so Rauthiidet tried to get their hands on these sturdy and reliable fighters whenever possible.
SUPRA-FARRIGAN SF003, “STARFLOWER”
“It’s like a bunch of flowers lighting up the sky,” said someone (probably from JPTUs marketing department). And right enough, the silhouette is unusually delicate. It’s not all for looks, though: the SF003 was specifically designed to utilize advanced energy field projections. The 2-pilot cockpit and semi-autonomous flight systems are only a bonus. As less than nimble, this tiny technological fortress was often reserved to various support roles.