Then I had a crazy idea; the vanes are a form of power source; give them low HP and a Booster with insanely high boost factor (18, in this case), combined with slow-firing weapons. The net result is fast-firing weapons that suddenly become near-useless if the vanes are destroyed.
Then came the backstory (which is actually coming off the the top of my head as I type :twisted:):
History of the Ze'hen Wanderers:
Ze'henna
Ze'henna was an idyllic world, the perfect cradle for a civilization to emerge upon. In a binary system part of a large cluster, the crystalline pinnacles, glass-like lakes, and wide-spanning trees were bathed almost constantly in an ice-blue glow. When the Ze'hen emerged as the dominant species of the planet, they quickly developed an efficient, spiritually-motivated society and relatively quickly the spires of space-age metropolises soared towards the heavens, which were seen as a conquest ripe for the taking; Ze'hnna was a small world with little by way of impassable wilderness or geography so the forward-minded among the Ze'hen took up the challenge of space travel with zealous determination, not realizing that the first spacecraft they launched would be the harbinger of their own doom.
The Faeries’ Peril
No sooner had the Faerie, an exploration ship named for the message-bearing creatures of Ze’henna departed the system, it attracted the attention of the Rodoukc, a dour species that commanded an expanding empire elsewhere within the star cluster. They were not particularly technologically advanced, but they were methodical and merciless; a bloody doctrine of detection, mobilization, invasion, and suppression led to their regime launching a fleet towards Ze’henna rapidly. The Rodoukc’s lack of faster-than-light drives meant that it took them over a century to reach the flourishing Ze’hen enclave, now composed of two thriving colonies in addition to their homeworld. The Rodoukc were all but timeless, though, and their journey only served to increase the lust with which they fell on the entirely unprepared planets. Cities were blasted into rubble as terrified refugees were rounded up as slaves or butchered for sport.
The Exodus
The Rodoukc swept on towards Ze’henna itself, brushing aside a desperate defense force equipped with weapons intended for nothing more than asteroid clearance. As the attackers entered orbit, blocking light from many of the nearby stars, the Ze’hen unleashed their last weapon. Untested but in theory, an orbital shuttle carried the first ‘dimension bomb’ into space; a weapon designed to harness and channel energy from an beyond the edges of the material universe.
The blinding explosion from the bomb unleashed utterly uncontrolled forces, destroying the aggressors and dooming Ze’henna itself. The shockwave scorched the atmosphere, charring half the surface of the world black and destabilizing it to the core. Mass panic and infighting unknown ever before in history engulfed the survivors, only halted when dissident factions realized the imminent need to escape their stricken world. Some shipbuilding factories remained intact, and the surviving spacecraft were soon filled with millions of refugees, many times their capacity. Botanical transport craft, designed to carry vegetation from Ze’henna to aid in making future colonies habitable or more familiar became instead the last vestiges of the Ze’hen’s home.
The fleet set forth into the void, their once beautiful home perishing in magmatic flame even as the spacecraft fled the system and retribution from remaining Rodoukc vessels.
The Wanderers
It soon became apparent to the captains of the fleet that no amount of conservation or compromise would halt the inevitable: the power provided by the massive reactor cores was beginning to wane, their fuel supply all but depleted. The only option, although not a choice made readily, was to turn to the very source of power that had both saved and doomed the Ze’hen; dimensional manipulation. Though reviled by the very scientists working with the technology, the system of energy transfer had been modified to provide for controlled gain, and over time the entire fleet was transformed to run on this extraordinary source of mechanical sustenance.
The Ze’hen became nomads, traveling the stars. At times they would alight upon a planet, gathering resources needed to sustain and expand their civilization. Over time they became not only perseverant but prosperous. They vowed, though, never to resort to attacking another people, and never to exploit others for their own gain. The Ze’hen had seen only too clearly the results of such predatory action, and so they continued on their way for five hundred years.
All that changed, however, when the spaceborne species happened upon another planetary civilization under attack by the Rodoukc. Though sworn never to prey upon others, the Ze’hen had developed powerful weapons to avoid becoming prey themselves once again, and they fell upon the piratical invaders with rage born from half a millennium of unquenched vengeance. The ungainly Rodoukc vessels were torn asunder by the nimble ships of a race they had deemed destroyed, the Ze’hen dimensional technology allowing the power of a star to be channeled into their deadly weapons. The world liberated, they spared little time to be thanked for their assistance, though the inhabitants of the planet below came to view them as delivering angels of death.
Return and Retribution
Instead, the fighting elements of the fleet struck off into the heart of the Rodoukc empire, hunting them down system by system, world by world, and ship by ship. The path of peaceful wandering gave way to a bloody, vengeful crusade. It carried on until they reached the homeworld of their erstwhile invaders, the tables now entirely turned in favour of the Ze’hen. Despite qualms at becoming the very monster they tried so long to evade, the fleet made it’s revenge final. In waves, dimensional bombs rained down upon the planet called Horonro by its inhabitants until nothing remained but a blasted wasteland, surrounded by the drifting hulks of ships that had once subjugated worlds and crushed foes with ease. The Ze’hen left a beacon in orbit of the desolate scene, proclaiming for all to behold:
“Here are the ashes of those who sought to oppress the Ze’hen.”
Ships of the Ze'hen Wanderers:
Aspirant-Class Gunship:
Wayfarer-Class Frigate:
Zenith-Class Destroyer:
Aurora and Aurora's Flame-Class Cruisers:
Nebula and Nebula's Wrath-Class Cruisers:
Action shot of the Aurora's Flame:
More ships (and download links) are coming!
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