When Admiral Rochar first rose as a power in his sector, many
of his opponents within the Imperial hierarchy were sheltered in
nearly impenetrable fortresses. Rochar needed to make examples of
several of them, but a failed attempt would mean his instant death.
Rochar put together a group of engineers, and using the near
infinite funds of his Atran created the
Doomsting. Capable of penetrating even the most secure of
positions with relative ease, the Doomsting was just the weapon
that Rochar was looking for. Within three weeks of the final
testing, Moffs Lorai, El-Ikarn, and Jiroon were dead, and the other
powers of Egemont and neighboring Sectors were no longer standing
in Rochar's way.
The Doomsting is an elaborate and massively expensive ship,
with all materials of incredibly high quality. The value of these
ships, and the nature of the missions that they fly on insure that
they are very well maintained, and crewed by the finest and most
loyal pilots that Admiral Rochar can command.
In order to avoid detection while approaching their targets,
the matte black Doomstings are equipped with an all purpose sensor
mask that renders it all but invisible to standard sensor
mechanisms (+5D to difficulty for all sensor checks), and as the
Doomsting can usually see enemy ships before coming in range of
their sensors, this cloak is not usually tested until it is very
near it's goal. In the atmosphere, the Doomsting usually uses it's
noiseless repulsorlift drives (listed stats). These provide much
better land maneuverability than the Ion drives, and allow the
craft to fly within a meter of the ground, ducking below enemy
forcefields and sensor nets. These drives are of very high
quality, capable of free and easy motion at any speed in it's
range, and on several missions, Doomstings have been known to use
their laser to cut a path into a Star Destroyer, and then use their
repulsorlift drives to glide through it's hallways in search of
their target. (Note: Anti-Gravity can be used to keep things
floating in artificial gravity. Or at least that's the way I play)
The weapons of the Doomsting are it's major strength. The
sniper cannons provide the almost the full force of starfighter
level weaponry, but the weapon and targeting systems are designed
to strike at personnel, with exceptional accuracy. Despite the
fact that these cannons are accurate to extremely long range, shots
are seldom taken from further than a kilometer or so out. Were it
not for the fact that a single missed shot could spell the end of
the mission and the Atran Ardur, shots at the very edge of the
cannon's range would be taken far more often.
The missile hardpoint is designed to be extremely adaptable,
capable of carrying virtually any payload. It's contents vary with
the nature of the target. If space combat is expected, concussion
missiles or proton torpedoes are usually loaded. If elimination of
ground troops is possible, FAM missiles are installed. Some other
missiles that have been used are fighter craft decoy missiles, gas
or biological payloads, and in the case of one particularly
impregnable target, a low yield nuclear missile.
As mentioned earlier, the laser of the Doomsting is a cutting
tool, designed to allow the craft easy access to the interior of
various target sites. The high yield of the laser allows it to
chop through blast doors in the matter of seconds, but it is
virtually useless as a combat weapon due to it's limited range.
The final weapon system, the turreted laser cannon, is designed to
allow the Doomsting to fend off enemy fighters long enough to
escape, if it is discovered. It's low power renders it of limited
use, but there is no room on the craft for a more powerful weapon.
The Doomsting can eliminate most targets without any problems.
But, there are missions that challenge even the formidable talents
of this ship. For these missions, the Doomsting can carry up to
five Atran Ardur assassins, and up to 200kg of equipment, which it
will usually drop inside the target's first line of defenses. If
the ship is destroyed, the men can usually finish the job.
This craft is indeed a formidable opponent, but it is of
limited use to player groups. For one thing, the delicate nature
of many of the systems causes them to require near constant
maintenance to function within it's upper tolerances. Secondly,
the Doomsting is designed to get in and eliminate targets, but it
is not really designed to get out once spotted. In fact, the
Doomsting is equipped with an auto-destruct mechanism that is
extremely sensitive, designed to go off as soon as it's internal
sensors reveal serious damage of any sort. Admiral Rochar can
afford to lose a pilot or two, but most player groups can't really
do that.
The Doomsting, as with other special purpose Atran Ardur
starfighters, is to be replaced with atmospheric versions as soon
as the Atran Ardur can develop either a combat carrier craft
inexpensive enough to justify the conversion, or well defended
bases on worlds other than the moons of Jermalar.