Name: Orpheus
Classification: battles cruiser
Manufacturer: hull laid down by lost race of CE-399, modified by Maximus Darving, completed by HALO
Operator: HALO, Secta
First deployment: CY 40
Crew: 4 command crew and up to 1000 other passengers and crew standard; all operations can be handled by Orpheus A.I.
Keel: 700 meters
Beam: 600 meters
Draft: 100 meters
Base Weight: 36,000 metric tons
Powerplant: SK artificial singularity, output upper limit unknown
Fixed armaments: axial gravitational laser, front-firing; equatorial graviton plane emitter; various other unknown defenses hinted at by Orpheus but never needed in operation
Propulsion: gravity drive, top speed unknown (SOC radar recorded speeds in excess of 1,000,000 kph)
Support craft: 4 combat frames and 1 small shuttle
Special equipment: Orpheus A.I. operating system, TC/D drive, graviton field projector, active state change hull modulation
When Arthur Wake’s second-in-command Morley Klein sent the remnant of HALO’s leadership to extrasolar asteroid CE-399, she gambled that a blind TC/D jump offered better odds of survival than Sullia Zend’s trap.
That gamble paid off handsomely when Arthur and Morley discovered a nearly complete battleship designed by a long-vanished race. They also discovered that they weren’t the first to make the interstellar journey from the Earth Sphere to CE-399. Not only had the alien Secta been using the asteroid as an interim base, EGE ace Max Darving had somehow wound up on the distant rock after disappearing at the end of the Kazoku War.
Max’s work on the battle cruiser–fueled by his hatred for Megami–proved invaluable to HALO’s cause. Max had reprogrammed the alien ship’s OS using code based on his custom Marilyn A.I. The hybrid operating system, christened Orpheus, could project herself as the hologram of a teenage human girl to facilitate interactions with passengers and crew. Using command codes left behind by Max, Arthur and Morley were able to bring Orpheus under their control.
With an alien warship centuries more advanced than any human weapon, Arthur’s second coming upon the Coalition burned a swath of destruction across the colonies. Orpheus‘ main weapon–a forward-mounted gravitational laser–could destroy an entire space colony in one shot. Orpheus herself boasted that no weapon the Coalition possessed could penetrate her defenses. The warship’s ability to enter TC/D without first sedating the crew gave HALO total freedom to move within enemy space.
Arthur’s victory was assured, yet the supposed godsend would turn out to be a Trojan Horse.
To see Orpheus and all the other awesome CFXS mecha in action, back Combat Frame XSeed: S on Indiegogo! We’ve already broken our last campaign’s funding record. If we reach 1000% funding, we’ll know there’s sufficient demand to explore options for a Combat Frame XSeed manga, or even animation. So don’t hold back. Support the campaign now!
