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salamimike
DurandalsHSV The Vulture's Claw
Captain Yvon Vespasien Lestrange is a young, promising and ambitious commander of the Hegemony Starforce. Apparently even too ambitious. Somebody must hate him in the upper echelon because he was essentially just given the worst post ever. On the surface he got himself a sweet deal. After little more than a year of officership Yvon was suddenly promoted captain, furthermore he was given command of a whole new class of warship. Really, Yvon would had been a fool to refuse this offer. So did he thought. After spending two weeks aboard the HSV Vulture's Claw he'd give almost anything to be transfered to another ship.
The problem that his ship wasn't just new, it was a complete prototype using top secret technologies. Worse, it was created by one of the big private contractors, the Ixythl Conglomerate. Named YV-7220 the ship went through extensive development and featured technologies which might change warfare as we knew it. As the final stage of this decades long project the Ixythl Conglomerate is lending twelve of these so-called stealth destroyers to the Hegemony Starforce in order to test them in live combat. You heard it right, lend them. The ships are still Ixythl property and only XC authorized technical personnel were allowed to tamper with it. In short the HSV Vulture's Claw is owned by Ixythl and after signing hundreds of papers Yvon and his crew was only given permission to use it. Classified technology, which made up a large portion of the vessel, were prohibited for non-XC employed technicians for access. Using any kind of classified technology was prohibited unless they can ensure there will be no witnesses outside of a tight permitted group of people are left alive. Worse yet the fifty-something count XC technical and science crew were escorted by exactly a hundred toughs from the Red Raven PMC. Their leader, who was also appointed to be the ship's XO without Yvon's knowledge, was a hardened veteran called Cezar Voronkhov. He looked so tall and powerful than Yvon had no doubt this man is wrestling sharks and knocking out bears during his pastime. Yvon has a decent physique and had his share in battle but even being in the same room as Cezar was secretly terrifying him. That man was a beast, a living menace. On the other hand Yvon noted with surprise that the gorilla knew his stuff and seemed to know much more about the ship than the captain.
With time everything began to make sense. His quick promotion, the toughs, the secretive research crew, the classified tech straight out of science fiction, everything. Yvon that he's practically just a figurehead, a guy needed to maintain the paper thin disguise this is just a typical Hegemony vessel. Ixythl are still the true owners of the ship and Yvon is just one of their lapdogs to do the tests. The realization dealt a great blow to Yvon's self-esteem and wished he could just resign and leave this farce. But as he analyzed his situation it became clear he was trapped. Barring desertion he's stuck as a pretend captain . The toughs from Red Raven were there to protect Ixythl's interest. One misstep and Cezar's stare turns Yvon into a chaotic mess of atoms. Exaggerations aside a hundred elite mercs are more than enough to massacre his tiny 302-men crew. They know the ship well and were probably even instructed how to take control of the Vulture's Claw in case the original crew had to be liquidated. Yvon had no clear evidence but he trust his gut feeling. He and his crew were dancing on a thin edge. His real job is to make best of their situation even with such depressing odds. Yvon was depressed but he was far from giving up. Afterall he was finally made a captain!
