Database and Lore

The Rampage, And the Birth of the EDF

*Spoilers if you haven’t read Gabatrix: Legacy “Earth will not stand a chance by lying down. It must stand up and fight,” Darin, 2350 AD.            When the Itrean invasion began in 2349, Earth was in poor shape. Many of its industrial facilities lay abandoned, gutted, or left to rot under the orange muck storms. With a heavily reduced economy and world ready to be handed off to the T’rintar clan, a few humans wouldn’t take no for an answer. Instead, those few stood up and vowed to take the fight to the enemy. The Rampage and its daring crew are just an example of this new form of patriotism. Design            The history of the Rampage goes as far back as the attempted construction of Earth warships in the latter half of the 22^nd century. At the time, the evacuation of Earth to Mars was underway. The United States was just one of many nations that still built a series of warships to help provide escort duty and protect US interests as the population began to leave Earth. While the evacuation went smoothly for the most part, economic depravity was ever-present. The USS Jimmy Carter was a Theodore Roosevelt Class Guided Missile Battleship. The pieces of the warship would be launched and deployed into space, where they would be either completed at Luna or assembled in space. However, as the evacuation of Earth continued for fifty years since 2140, it was starting to prove that warships were becoming less and less valued. The priority of getting citizens off Earth and having the resources to build Mar’s infrastructure was more important than anything else. The Jimmy Carter was intended to be the last battleship of its class, but in 2171, seven years after its launch, construction slowed down more and more till all funding to complete it dried up. There were a few arguments to go ahead and dismantle the uncompleted hulk, but that, too, became abandoned. Instead, the rail launch station near Waterville, DC, the largest dome city in the United States, would serve as the ship’s tomb. The remains would be covered under the mountain and left at 71% of completion. Demand for the station, too, would also be left abandoned as the population resituated under a weakened economy. However, in 2349, a civilian by the name of Christopher Darin, born in New Houston, was in the process of graduating from the Martian Naval Academy. With the threat of the Itrean clan assaults, Darin dreamed of commanding his own UHN warship. However, his brazen, confrontational, and often reckless attitude warranted him being kicked out of the academy before his graduation. Angered, he returned to Earth and witnessed his home planet being handed over to the T’rintar clan as a bargaining chip for UWA and T’rintar clan relations. Darin didn’t take no for an answer. He was born from the Darin family line, a group of energy brokers in the late 21^st century. Even if his family remained on Earth, they still managed to save the company and adapt to the ever-changing environment. By the 23^rd century, Darin Industries still manufactures 25% of US tools and equipment, including basic robotics. It even serves as a subsidiary company of the Genisen corporation. Darin was a multi-billionaire and knew the remaining Earth elite alike. However, the situation with Earth being handed over to the T’rintar clan was a troubling concept, one that could easily mean the end of the man’s company. The T’rintar clan had a mostly laissez-faire attitude toward Earth at first. While attempts were made to clean up Earth’s wrecked environment, the process was very slow. Itrean pilgrims did move in, as did some T’rintar corporate interests, but little else. Darin’s company was mostly left alone, met the T’rintar clan, and even married a Yutilian elite as well. But his desire to command his own ship remained. Sealed off from the UHN, Darin still wanted to fight the enemy. Being kicked out of the service would later prove to be a benefit to him as he was free to engage in his own campaign. He made an announcement at the beginning of 2350 that Earth wanted to take the fight to the Aksren and Shal’rein clans by any means possible. A massive donation fund network was created utilizing Darin Industries to help push forward what he called Project Frankenstein. Ultimately, billions of mard were acquired while Darin unearthed the remains of the warship hulk Jimmy Carter. Darin did have an advantage. Despite the evacuation of Earth, Waterville, DC, still remained an economic powerhouse for Earth. Its infrastructure did change to incorporate complete ship manufacturing and heavy rail launching platforms for spaceships. This means that an entire warship could be assembled and launched from the ground if need be. The ship remains of the Jimmy Carter were unearthed, and the uncompleted hulk’s remains were moved to one of the local hangar facilities. For the next eleven months, the battleship would be rebuilt and assembled. However, Darin lacked any military weaponry that could be supplied by the UHN. As Earth was pretty much sealed off from UWA interests, the man had to look into Earth- constructed equipment. Military facilities and industrial equipment were somewhat nonexistent, and many of the military stores had been plundered during the last 200 years since the evacuation. Even missiles couldn’t be supplied to him. Instead, Darin began to look into past weapons. Among one of them came from the 20^th  century warship remains of the USS Iowa and Missouri, along with other US warships that were left to rot, decay, or sink under the Orange Muck. Four of the triple 16-inch gun turrets were ripped off the battleships before being transferred to Waterville, DC. Basic facilities were made to create new shells for the other gun turrets and restore the guns to operating condition, along with sophisticated software and automated equipment to reload and fire the old guns. However, while the ship would use ancient guns, the spaceship frame would have to be rebuilt to accommodate them. By later 2350, Darin would rename the Jimmy Carter into The Rampage. While the guns were powerful, the 16-inch turrets were by no means equal to railguns. Railguns were capable of firing tungsten shells at hypervelocity speeds while incorporating counterthruster units to handle the intense recoil for ship combat. The Iowa and Missouri guns were meant for sea combat and not space. Darin and the crews began to add massive port thrusters to help counter and adjust to recoil generation when the ship would fire its weapons. The Rampage utilizes 5-inch deck guns from former Arleigh Burke Class Destroyers remains to accompany the firepower of the Rampage’s broadsides. It also carries one of the partially completed Jimmy Carter’s powerful railguns moved and mounted into the bow. However, this forces the ship to point to where it needs to fire in order to work correctly. Earth planetary defense guns, including autogun CIWS and an old powerful Chinese Luna Nuclear flak cannon, were installed to help provide missile defense. Among one of Darin’s inventions was a set of decoy rocket launchers that he and his team created to potentially create false images on enemy radar and sensor screens. Unlike typical UHN vessels, the Rampage was equipped with storage containers to house additional supplies. Without any missiles, the storage bays for the warheads were replaced with a shuttle hangar along with a gate probe launcher and additional room to house gate probes for extended deep space voyages. Last but not least, the ship was equipped with additional sensors for extended reconnaissance.      The Rampage battleship was an abomination of a civilian warship, but to Darin, it was a deep space raider vessel. The ship was not designed to sit at home in orbit, as many of the UHN ships were doing, but to go straight into conflict. Even if the main guns fired shells slower and the vessel was obsolete against the more powerful and advanced Itrean ships, it didn’t stop the man from seeing its full potential. For many on Earth, the Rampage was becoming a symbol of hope. While some saw it as a foolhardy dream of one man’s ambition to engage in a hopeless intergalactic war, others knew that this was Earth’s message to the galaxy. Earth Nationalism has been on the rise, and there’s been discussion of some Earthlings who wish to do more than sit there and do nothing. In Darin’s own opinion, he feels that the UHN doesn’t do enough when it’s been made clear that the Aksren and Shal’rein clans wish for the obliteration of mankind. By early November 2350, the Rampage was fully completed. Darin and his wife, along with a ragtag group of volunteers, have banded together to operate the ship and ensure its condition. By November 29^th, the warship was loaded up on the loading ramp, where it took off and reached orbit successfully under its own power. History The Rampage’s successful launch was met with a string of small adjustments during the trial runs of December 2350. Successful deployment and use of the weapons were made to fine-tune any issues the vessel may have had. By then, Darin had created the “Blue Buccaneers,” made by groups around the world that would paint their warships with the Earth and Pirate flags neatly applied on the ship’s sides. By January 2351, Darin and the Rampage made their first long voyage mission, scouting the outreaches of Aksren space and looking for potential targets of opportunity. This would include looking for lightly defended outposts, information gathering, or attacking commercial traffic. For many of the people of Earth, Darin’s raider ship allows humanity to purposely engage against targets of opportunity, unrestricted by the UHN and even the T’rintar clan’s motivations. Regardless, the successful launch of the Rampage has become a rallying cry for some on Earth. Other dome cities and their people have been growing more and more interested in wanting to join the fight as well. Ships like the building of the uncompleted European Bismarck hull are currently underway, including a string of other warship projects around the world. More effort is underway to rebuild munitions factories and expand the “Blue Buccaneer” fleet. Modern historians have been referring to this as the rise of the Earth Defense Force (EDF) or the Itrean Defense Force (IDF), all thanks to Darin’s ambitions. But only time will tell if the Rampage can truly handle the rigors of space combat.