SC Rakshasa

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The SC Rakshasa was a Shivan cruiser used during the Second Shivan Incursion. Central to the Rakshasa's design is its three forward light beam cannons that, when concentrated on a single target up to corvette-class, can deliver serious damage. Against smaller ships like fighters or bombers, however, the Rakshasa has poorly-armed, with only one anti-fighter beam and ten medium turrets to ward off attackers. It is also lightly armored, especially around its turrets and subsystems.

The SC Rakshasa

Description:

FS2 Demo Tech Room Description

The Rakshasa is one of the most deadliest crusiers in the Shivan fleet. The four "prongs" on its front hull comprise four laser beam weapons of devastating accuracy. The other parts of the ship are well defended with 10 other gun banks.

FS2 Tech Room Description

Though not as thickly armored as the Lilith class, the SC Rakshasa class of Shivan cruisers is far deadlier. With over a dozen turrets, the Rakshasa is the most heavily armed Shivan cruiser class. It was a Rakshasa cruiser that destroyed the GTC Vigilant at the Gamma Draconis node in the Capella system.

Developer Notes

None

Name origin

In Hindu and Buddhist tradition, a rakshasa (name in lower case, being a common name) is a men-eater demon of unrighteous spirit. Rakshasas are known of desecrating graves and harassing priests.

Performance:

Statistics

Type	Cruiser
Manufacturer	Unknown
Maneuverability	N/A
Max Velocity	20.0 mps
Max Afterburner Velocity	N/A
Armor	N/A
Hitpoints	40 000
Shields	N/A
Length	349 m

Armaments

• Turrets

FreeSpace 2
Turret Type	Amount
Shivan Turret Laser	8
Shivan Heavy Laser	2
Anti-Fighter Beam	1
Small Red Beam	3

Veteran Comments

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The Rakshasa, with its three forward-mounted SReds, packs a nasty punch that's difficult to knock out with primaries (the beam emitters are very small sections of the prongs and you just can't hit the things with primaries)... but very vulnerable to secondaries. The Rakshasa is powerful but fragile, and poorly defended against fightercraft attack, with only a single ventral AAA beam and no flak guns, like the other Shivan cruisers. A careful and determined heavy assault fighter can deal with it well, but give the Rakshasa no chances to shoot at friendly capital craft: one of these could probably kill a Hecate if it didn't engage head-on.

Despite its overwhelming frontal firepower courtesy of 3 SReds, the GTC Aeolus can cream the Rakshasa in a toe-to-toe fight with its flak and AAA turrets, as well as its Terran Huge Turrets. The Rakshasa is designed to kill things right away, if they survive and get past its main beam turrets, the Rakshasa is toast.

The Rakshasa is not exactly fragile. With 40,000 hitpoints, it has a little over half the armor of the Lilith, but slightly more armor than either the Leviathan or Aeolus. Its SReds are superior to the Leviathan and the Aeolus's SGreens, plus the Rak has 3 of 'em vs. the Leviathan's 1 beam and 1 Fusion Mortar or the Aeolus' two SGreens. Think of it as a mini-Sathanas: awesome firepower, as long as the target stays in front and doesn't bomb the beams.

Because of its small size, its conventional turrets pose some threat to you, but if you're fast enough with the Tempest trick, you're safe. Be careful when you see one jump in and you're in front of it: one of its three SRed beams can easily hit you. I suggest you attack the Rakshasa from below, or if you decide to go in from above, target its Weapons subsystem.

The Rakshasa's forward armament is asymmetrical. While it has four prongs which are turrets (the two largest spikes lower center aren't turrets at all), only three of them are SReds and the fourth, leftmost turret is a regular "blob" turret. Keep this in mind if disarming by sight as it will save some time that may otherwise have been spent firing on a relatively low-priority turret. Of the Rakshasa cruisers that appear in the main FS2 campaign, all of them share this trait, except for the SC Iblis which only has a single SRed on its lower starboard spike.