XH102 FL01E Hedrast Leech Frigate

Description

Xyriat Hegemony

Scale: Fleet (very nominally 1:10000th)

Six starships supplied.

Size (Bounding Box): 26.1mm x 15.8mm x 12.2mm (16.7 inc. stand cap)

The Hedrast Leech Frigate has a long service history and has seen several upgrades as it is the Hegemonic Navys primary means of disabling vessels for capture largely undamaged. Such targets include such as valuable cargo where simple precision fire to cripple a vessel is not desirable or practical

To this end, the Hedrast is armed with four forward-firing power leech cannons (Leech in common parlance, translated to English) mounted on the wings on the forward hull. These disrupt and drain energy on impact, allowing a vessel to be captured without extensive system damage. The leech cannons only have a short effective range, however, requiring the Hedrast to get very close to be effective; the Hedrast thus has a considerably more powerful drive than most of the Xyriat fleet.

This technology has existed for centuries, but had hit a wall in terms or progression, with only minor incremental improvements. Xyriat technology has recently started to make breakthroughs in this area, and a proposed FL01F Hedrast mounting two larger such weapons or a perhaps even warhead-mounted leech systems are undergoing early prototyping.

The Hedrasts remaining armament consists of point-defence particle beam turrets and a single light torpedo turret, typically armed with heavier warheads for helping to attack better protected vessels.

The Hedrast typically works either as support for a larger vessel to disable a ship caught in the tractor beam or as an independent pack which uses its superior speed and manoeuvrability to chase down enemy vessels and disable them.