The Macduff Spitfires

The Macduff Spitfires
Origin	Kingdom of Bretonia
Affiliation	Armed Forces
Alignment	Lawful
Recruitment	[1]
Profile
Date of founding	824 A.S. A.S.
Founder(s)	Kyle Marshall
Current leader(s)	Kyle Marshall
Base of operations	Battleship Cromwell
Secondary Base	Battleship Royal Caridea
Identification
Primary ID	Bretonia Armed Forces ID
IFF	Armed Forces
Tag(s)	TMS
Table of contents

Backstory

In the year 817 A.S., the first battleship of the Cromwell-class was built at Southampton's drydocks, a prototype class designed to counter the Kusarian forces in the Taus.

A few days after it's construction was finished, captain Kyle Marshall was assigned as the first-in-command of the newly-built HMS-Cromwell, two weeks after being sent on the front. Kyle was a brave, firm and dreaming man, often taking risks, such as the one to deliberately want to be transferred from regular duties to the front, and thus been assigned to the Cromwell. Soon enough, Kyle was to receive word that the Cromwell was assigned to aid the Macduff's battlegroup, in a attempt to fend off the Kusarians.

Unfortunately enough, a new threat had appeared, one that couldn't be predicted at all. The inhabitants of the Gallic sleeper ship did after all make it to the Sirius system, and had begun a offensive against whole of Sirius, because they thought they had been betrayed by the other colonies. The Imperial forces decided to capitulate and pull back, while the Bretonians did not. The Macduff, taken by surprise, made a attempt to escape back to Bretonia via the Newcastle system, but sadly not all of it's taskforce members made it across. Due to the heavy damage suffered because of the Emperor's guns, various ships, including the HMS-Cromwell and it's sister-ship, didn't manage to get on the other side, to safety. The Cromwell-class was still a prototype, designed to be a more sleek kind of battleship and with a improved power core, lower in emission and lower in the power diverted to the armaments, but boasting the same armor, and due to it's nature it was obvious it would be prone to failures and malfunctions. It's experimental nature combined with the damage sustained made the two Cromwell-class's remain behind. Marshall had given the order to the other remnants to enter a state of cryogenic freezing along with them, not long after sending a emergency broadcast that even if it was received, it would be less probably to come and rescue them since the Armed Forces would risk and loose too much for too little, and thus, with the odds of probability that they would be still alive not being on the Admirality's side, they have classed all ships that remained behind as M.I.A., including the Cromwell and it's sister ship, the HMS-Royal.Caridea.

Prologue

In the year 824 A.S., somewhere around March, a Borderworlds explorer stumbled upon the hull of a Bretonian battleship in Tau-31. Due to the nature of those ships, the risk of finding valuable loot was high, and the explorer, Robert Winslow, decided to go inside and see what remained.

It took some time to try and get the main hangar doors open as they weren't used for almost 8 years, but after some good hours of hard work, they finally snapped open, and Robert's ship, a old Raven's Talon, entered the Cromwell's hangar bay. Robert put on his EVA suit and activated the lights on his helmet, stepping out of his ship carefully, at first without the magnets active, to check if artificial-gravity was online or not. For a few seconds he swam calmly, then with a quick move he pressed a button on his right arm and instantly snapped to the ground with the cold metal boots. As he entered the main dock, to his right and left there were several Templars and Challenger bombers, all with markings on them, the dull brown with rust blending togheter, accompanied by gloomy green walls with their own brown makeup on them. He looked around closely to the ships and stumbled upon another door. The door was just stuck but opened like a charm shortly after a few attempts to bust it open. The depressurized rooms around him started to give him a sense of fear, and thus encouraging him even more to try and restore the power. Robert's torch light shined upon the aging walls, revealing a rather big hall, with 1 door to the left, one to the right and one in the middle that was accessed by a elegantly-decorated staircase. The right door seemed to be heavily damaged and busted, and the one to the left seemed to conceal access to other more important rooms, and the one in the middle was the bridge. Robert decided to go down the left door, but to his disappointed, he only found a armory, the mess hall and a storage for various ship parts that also contained some magnetically-locked curtains on some weird shapes that would give you chills down your spine if you didn't know what they were. What was Robert thinking when he first came aboard the long-gone Cromwell?

Robert was freaked out, and decided to find the captain's logs and try to make out what happened. To him it was obvious that it was a result of the Tau war, but he wanted to know precisely what happened. Harsh EVA suit boots could be heard on the metal floor, a sound out of nowhere, alone. Robert followed the same way he used to get to the storage room, and went up the staircase to the bridge main door. The door opened rather easy despite all odds, revealing on the bridge side a bright light shining upon the dark walls. Robert stepped in and looked around carefully until he catched a faint light with the corner of his eye. A button with a inscription on it was blinking slowly and with a diminished tone. The inscription was too hard to read as the writing was mostly corroded due to the cheap material used. Cheap material on a battleship? What was going on through their minds when they built that battleship? Robert took a deep breath and then he pressed the button, restoring the power just to the bridge which was connected to a independent power source. The first light to be turned on was one that shined brightly upon a golden plate with a sturdy inscription: HMS Cromwell. Power restored for the first time in 8 years of inactivity. What seemed like a maintenance hatch in one of the distant corners of the bridge was left open it seems, yet how it escaped Winslow's attentive eyes? That was something for later, he quickly climbed down and came to a long, dark and narrow hall. Who knew where it could lead to? Nothing else could be heard besides the metal on metal and occasional creaking walls, there could be noone else in there...Or at least that's what he thought. He proceeded to go down, until he discovered a locked door. Searching around it for any inscriptions or symbols he stumbled upon a plate with the inscription of: Engine/Reactor room. Bingo! That's where he had to be, but problem was how was he supposed to get in there? He returned to his Raven's Talon and grabbed a few tools which he always had with him, just in case things like this happen. After 2 hours of pure hate towards that damn door and work, it finally busted open. Robert recklessly looked around for the main control panel, missing it a few times but after some more attentive looking finding it. He still had to find the combination code to unlock the panel door, that was the point where it seemed it was all pointless.

Robert proceeded back the narrow and dark corridor illuminated by just his torch, with a small light at the end of the hall which was the reflection of the bridge independent light source. He searched around the bridge and came across what seemed like a little safe which was poorly locked with a simple lock. After destroying the lock with ease, a few more things were discovered, which included the captain's log tablet and the code for the control panel. To his dissapointment, only two logs were still available, and partly inaudible, the rest being corrupted. He opened the tablet with struggle, and came to this:

Entry Number	Subject	Log Tablet
76	A new job	"Ho ho! Guess what, today my transfer to the Tau front was accepted. I am so glad to hear that. I have been named the captain of the brand new HMS-Cromwell, a fancy battleship if I could say so myself. We have been assigned to aid the Macduff in Tau-31, and we're already on our way there. Hopefully this will turn out well, I am sure I will be back soon as this masquerade is over."
122	Uncertain fate	"This is really bad. I am bleeding, my crew is in panick. <CORRUPTED>'s have taken us by surprise...the Naval Forces capitulated...the Macduff is on the run and it's other members, our engine broke down due to the prototype core...I will order my crew and any others that have remained behind to <CORRUPTED> cryo-freezing stasis as I have sent a distress call for a rescue operation if it will be possible...If this is the end, I want to let my dearest know that I have died an honorable death and have served my homeland with pride.

Robert remained temporarily shocked, but shortly revived himself and went down back to the spacious engine room, accessing the control panel and failing to restore power in the first place. He got mad because he came so far and now he got "locked-on-the-outside", and gave the panel a good ol' kick and after some more attempts, the power was back on. What he didn't know, is that he also awakened by accident the crew members of the Cromwell. While he went back to the storage room to investigate what was there, loud bangings could be heard from the other side of the ship. Hard metal hitting metal sounds broke the mistic silence, making Robert think he wasn't alone after all on that old ship. He just said: "Well screw me I am outta here! as he ran down the staircase and to his ship. When he tried to lit the engines, he quickly came to the realization that his engine was intentionally damaged. He thought that his clock was ticking even faster, when some silhouettes appeared infront of his fighter, that appeared to have been carrying rifles. They pointed at his cockpit, making Winslow come out slowly. A solid man started talking: "Who are you and who could you be doing in here? The answer still seems obvious to me, but I want to hear it from you." Winslow replied calmly, putting his hands down: "Well, I am just a explorer, and stumbled across your ship by accident. I must admit it looks real fancy in here." Marshall, surprised by his unusual calm attitude said"You aren't aware what a great service you have done to us, we are very thankful. " Robert returned the surprised feeling, and talked with Marshall about what happened, present politics, etc. at a cup of freshly de-freezed tea. They eventually came to an agreement and Winslow joined their forces. Marshall ordered the restoring of the fightercraft and bombers aboard the Cromwell and the establishment of contact with the other remnants of the Macduff task force, if there were any left. The primary objectives were to repair the Cromwell and establish contact with the Royal.Caridea

Present Day

Shortly after the discovery of the first Cromwell battleship, two fighters and a Clydesdale-freighter managed to be repaired with the spare parts onboard the Cromwell, and captured a Mender repair ship and a Briller. The fighters were sent to look around and see if the Royal.Caridea was still out there. Eventually after two weeks of desperate looking they found the hull of the Caridea. After hours of struggles, with the help of the equipment of the repair ships the docking bay was busted, and the de-freezing protocol was started in there too. After 1 year, the Caridea was partially back on it's feet, like the original Cromwell, both acting as staging grounds for operations until further repairs were made.

The main staging ground of the remnants of the Macduff battlegroup, the Macduff Spitfires as Marshall christened them, is primarily Tau-31, having plans for piracy upon the Gallic traders in order to use their cargo for the Spitfires's benefit. Long-range communications are still down, but as soon as they're back on a message to the Admiralty board will be sent to notify them about the Spitfires's presence.

Flagship

The flagship of the Spitfires is the firstly discovered ship, and also the first of the Cromwell-class, the MSS-Cromwell

MSS Cromwell Flagship