Skirmish at the DRF Hive

The Skirmish at the DRF Hive was a small conflict during the Green Drone War between Captain Jack Roberts of RWI (Red Wood Industries) and his team and remnants of the DRF (Drone Reactionary Force). Taking place shortly after the Battle of Icarus, Captain Roberts and his team were dispatched to respond to a mysterious signal.

The Investigation
After the Battle of Icarus, a worrisome signal reached the attention of Grand Admiral Adam Williams of RWI. The signal was emanating from DRF space, which was thought to be conquered by the GDA (Green Drone Armada) some time ago, however the signal belonged to the DRF drones. Williams dispatched Captain Jack Roberts and his crew aboard the RWI Eclipse to investigate, as they knew the DRF well.

The Eclipse dropped out of hyperspace to a graveyard of DRF Silverstream-class Frigates. In the center of the large asteroid belt was half of the DRF Hive. The team, minus Finn, Morslupus, and Owen who stayed outside to salvage the disabled ships, entered the base through a drone bay full of disabled DRF A-Bot Drones. Eventually, they came to a control center and accidentally triggered a cryo pod to rise up from the depths, which opened to reveal Papple, a crew member of the Eclipse thought to have been killed during the Battle of Ravcor.

The Battle
However, the power surge that triggered the cryo pod to activate also activated the drones and starships scattered around the area. The team fought their way back through the base and boarded the Eclipse, but immediately came under attack by at least five Silverstream-class Frigates. Fortunately, the frigates were small and lightly armored, and the Eclipse’s new homing missiles and torpedoes dealt heavy damage to them. Captain Roberts also utilized a series of micro-FTL-jumps to evade the ships momentarily and recharge the Eclipse’s shields. Despite these tactics, the last few DRF ships eventually broke through the Eclipse’s shields and damaged the hull and engine systems. With their mission complete, Roberts jumped the Eclipse away to safety. The remaining DRF units either lost power or were destroyed due to damaged sustained in the battle shortly after.

Aftermath
Following the withdrawal of the RWI Eclipse, additional RWI forces arrived on scene and contained the situation. The RWI Zheng-He, under the command of Captain Gideon, was tasked with containment and collection of the now deactivated DRF units and resources, essentially ending the Drone Reactionary Force and putting any salvageable technology and units into storage. The Zheng-He and its support ships would transport everything to the Black Vault facility on Icarus.