GTD Hecate

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The Galactic Terran Destroyer (GTD) Hecate is an Allied Terran-designed destroyer, brought into service prior to the start of the Second Shivan Incursion to complement and ultimately replace the Orion line of destroyers. While the Hecate lacks the sheer anti-warship armaments of the Orion, it has a slightly larger fighterbay and much better anti-fighter and bomber defences. The Hecate's numerous engine subsystems also makes it harder to disable than an Orion.

One of the most famous Hecate-class destroyers was the GTD Aquitaine, flagship of the GTVA 3rd Fleet. The Aquitaine was the first Allied warship to enter the nebula beyond Gamma Draconis and played a major role during the NTF Rebellion as well as the Second Shivan Incursion.

The GTD Hecate

Description:

FS2 Tech Room Description

The new GTD Hecate class of destroyers is replacing the Orion class as the flagship of Terran battle groups. More heavily armed than the Orion, the Hecate also carries over 150 combat spacecraft and a crew of 10,000. The GTD Aquitaine is a superb example of this new ship class, serving as the flagship of the Capella-based 3rd Fleet.

Developer Notes

None

Name origin

At a certain stage in Greek mythology, Hecate was the goddess of hunting and wilderness, much like Artemis. Later she was seen as the goddess of witchcraft.

Performance:

Statistics

Type	Destroyer
Manufacturer	Unknown
Maneuverability	N/A
Yaw, Pitch, Roll	15.0 s
Max Velocity	N/A ms-1
Max Afterburner Velocity	N/A ms-1
Armor	100 000
Hitpoints	N/A
Shields	2174
Length	{{{10}}} m

Fighter Complement

150+ fightercraft

Armaments

• Turrets

FreeSpace 2
Turret Type	Amount
Terran Turret	5
Terran Huge Turret	1
Standard Flak	6
Long Range Flak	2
Heavy Flak	2
Anti-Fighter Beam	6
Terran Slashing Beam	4
Big Green Beam	1

Veteran Comments

Please read the Veteran Comments policy before editing this section.

The Hecate is admirably armed for killing fighters and deals with fightercraft threats far, far better than an Orion. However, if you need to form a battle line and handle big targets, the Hecate is not the ship you want. It is also a nightmare to fly escort for, having considerably more surface area and a huge nonsensical shape that restricts easy transits to defend both sides of the ship.

My best guesses as to why the Hecate would, or could replace the Orion is that it costs much less, and that it holds an extra four and a half squadrons. (There are twelve combat-craft in a squadron.) Also I suppose in an optimal battle scenario (if there is such a thing) the Hecate would be escorted by corvettes and cruisers.

It does work well in a surgical strike role, hitting smaller warships with its considerable forward firepower before they have much chance to fight back. But if attacked by a warship from any direction but the front, it's in real trouble and needs to either leave fast or rely on bomber wings to take care of the threat.

Oddly enough, I found this to be more vulnerable to bombers than an Orion.

It depends at which side you decide to attack the Hecate. Because it has such a large surface area, it needs many more effective turrets to cover every nook and cranny of the Hecate. At certain angles, the Hecate has enough turrets to easily destroy a lot of bombers, but at others, it has far less coverage.

At certain angles it is a fortress, but at others you can easily fly through light turret fire, or just disable the turret. In addition to this, the Hecate has exactly the same top speed and rotation time as the Orion. In effect, the Orion could also outmaneuver ships and attack from angles that are unguarded. I find the Hecate inferior to the Orion in almost every way.

I wouldn't criticize it for its armament so much as the placement of its armament. While the Hecate is well-armed, and can generally pepper targets approaching it from a range, it has several blind spots. Any fighter or bomber approaching from the front will face minimal anti-fighter fire and can hide in the shadow of the frontal fins and blast away, to name the most significant. The rear TerSlash is useless, because it has a very limited field of fire, and is as a weapon especially useless in the rear. In addition, the Hecate is as slow as the Orion, and has no more armour than the Orion. The forward BGreen and TerSlash, while making the destroyer relatively powerful if aimed properly, is outdone by other destroyers. I guess that the fighter bay has got to count for something but overall the Hecate is ruined potential. It could use a serious armament revision, and some of the turrets could be moved to different spots on the hull.

The massive turrets on top carry only Heavy Flak. This leaves them rather unfulfilling, and their size means they're easily taken out, leaving the top part of the ship more or less open to bomber attack.