HMS Prudence

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HMS Prudence

After the decisive battle for Southampton shipyard, many of the dozens of vessels moored there were scattered throughout New London. With the Leeds gate repaired and Gallic ships everywhere, hundreds of armed forces, corporate and civilian craft were forced to flee in any direction to escape the Gallic advance. The HMS Prudence was one such vessel; an armed forces touring vessel originally built to host luxury leave for armed forces personnel. The ship saw two years of active service to that end before it was ordered to be stripped out and repurposed as a mobile staging platform for Armed Forces raids. Prudence was undergoing this retrofit at Southampton at the time of the final Gallic assault on the station. When the first alarms were raised that a gallic fleet was approaching, all able non-combatant ships moored at Southampton were instructed to flee. While the Prudence was mobile, it was extremely vulnerable. Much of it's chassis had been exposed as part of the rework and it's defensive capabilities were severely limited.

It took considerable time to disengage all maintenance scaffolding mounted on the vessel which inevitably delayed it's departure. Still, the vessel was able to flee, and was last seen making headway toward Kensington with a squadron of gallic fighters in pursuit. Despite it's initial trajectory, the Prudence did not arrive at Kensington and was listed MIA, presumed lost.

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Several weeks later a gaian attack squadron organising an ambush on Gallic forces within the Devon asteroid field stumble upon an anomaly. A large metallic mass giving off weak energy signatures from deep within the field prompted further investigation. This object was found to be the remains of the HMS Prudence; severely damaged and stranded within a large explosive gas pocket. Upon close inspection, the skeleton crew had attempted to abandon ship after suffering catastrophic damage to the propulsion and life support systems. They are still listed as MIA, but it is believed their escape pods would have stood little chance traversing the field of explosive gas pockets to open space. The ship's automated docking bays and hull integrity were notably intact. However the vessel would certainly be obliterated by any attempt to tow it out of the gas pocket.

As the whereabouts of the prudence was shared among the gaians and their associates in the criminal underworld it became of great interest to one organisation in particular: the Hogosha. In the months following it's discovery, the secretive organisation sent in a small team to repair the vessel and repressurise it's compromised compartments. It was thought the Hogosha intended to restart the ship's engine and ultimately retrieve it from the field. However, the challenge proved too much when they were faced by a mix of volatile gases that had flooded the engine compartment. Cut off from hogosha resources and limited by secrecy, the engineers instead put their efforts into entrenching the ship in it's surroundings; relying on the gas pockets as a means to seclude and defend the vessel from prying eyes.

Few know the true reason behind the Hogosha's interest into the seemingly insignificant vessel. It is believed that the team that conducted the restorative works could not have done so without the help of a local benefactor. Only a handful outside of the hogosha syndicate are aware of the ship's revived status. Though civilian and police patrols passing through the Devon asteroid field often report of kusari made freighters coming to and from the area.

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