Riga Type: Light Frigate Introduction: 2425 Mass: 600,000 Sail Integrity: 4 Thrust: 3/5 Fuel: 2000 tons Structural Integrity: 50 Armor: 600 tons of standard armor (240, 40+5 per facing) Docking Collars: 2 Fighters: 6 Small Craft: 2 Crew: 250 Lifeboats: 12 Escape Pods: 12 Grav Decks: 1 80 meter Cargo: 37,652 Bay 1: Fighters (6) 2 doors Bay 2: Cargo (37,652) 2 doors Bay 3: Small Craft (2) 1 door Weapons: Fwd 2 Autocannon 10 FL/FR 2 Autocannon 10 2 Naval Autocannon 20 LBS/ RBS 2 Autocannon 10 2 Naval Autocannon 10 1 Naval Autocannon 20 AL/AR 2 Autocannon 10 2 Naval Autocannon 10 Aft 2 Autocannon 10 2 Naval Autocannon 20 Ammo Load: 80 tons of Naval AC 10 ammunition 80 tons of Naval AC 20 ammunition 160 tons of AC 10 ammunition Designer's notes: A stab in the dark at a frigate for whom the only data we have is a vague reference in TR 3057 concerning its age. Engine mass was calculated at twice what it actually would be to account for the age of the design. Everything else is stock and by the rules, and despite the little engine trick I still had a bit of a hard time making this look right and not going overboard when compared to its contemporaries or its replacements. Overview: Launched in 2425, the Riga is quite properly described as the first frigate of the Hegemony fleet, a nimble and well armed ship capable of handling both escort and picket duty with equal ease, and at the same time occupying the nich between cruisers like the Aegis and destroyers like the Lola I. A hundred Riga class ships were constructed over the next twenty five years, and for a time they were the Hegemony's principle patrol vessel. This time in the spotlight was somewhat brief, however. As naval technology continued its advancement at a breakneck pace, newer and larger frigates were designed. The Quixote was introduced just as the last new Rigas were coming into service, and the newer, larger, more heavily armed frigate soon gained prominence over the older ship. Despite that, the Riga class frigates did have an edge over their rival, they were faster. The Riga's massive powerplant, taking up close to forty percent of the frigate's mass, gave it speed comperable to the most destroyers, compared to the rather ponderous Quixote, which was designed to keep pace with battleships and cruisers. Because of this one advantage, rather than retiring the Rigas (none of which were really that old, and some of which were brand new) the Hegemony reclassified them as light frigates, and gave them the task of pure scout ships and raiders, intended to harry, but not directly engage, an enemy. A few Riga crews soon adopted the moto "a fast ship to keep out of harm's way" in deference to the ship's ability to maneuever out of dangerous situations, though crews from other ships, most often Quixotes, prefered refering to Rigas and their crews as "space chickens" because of their reluctance to engage in the same sort of slugging matches that the Quixote excelled at. Ultimately, though, the Riga would win out in this rivalry. In 2536 the Admiralty decided that the Quixote, despite its exceptional weaponry and armor, was simply too slow. The new Congress class frigates were slated to replace them, and the Quixote began to disapear one by one (though most would eventually return to service later as Volga class transports). The Riga, on the other hand, continued to serve in the fleet for another century, but the advance of technology would claim it as well. By the 27th century, the Riga had become superfluous. No longer a big, fast ship, the Riga was by this time outmassed and outgunned by destroyers, and her once exceptional speed was being matched by battleships and heavy cruisers. The Star League Admiralty therefore decided that the ships had outlived their usefulness. About half of the existing Rigas were sold off to house fleets. Though a number of senior admirals wanted to keep the remaining Rigas in reserve fleets, the SLDF was at the time facing a challenge by a small but influential minority of politicians and nobles that were trying to force the SLDF to reduce their military forces. With the political battles growing more fierce by the week, the SLDF high command decided to scrap thirty two of the fifty remaining Rigas to show a more progressive and less expansionistic attitude. Though this temporarily quieted some opposition groups (and may have delayed the eventual freezing of the SLDF budget by as long as a year), it was a sad fate for the once proud warships. A blow only partially softened when the SLDF decided to christen their newest destroyer the Riga in honor of this first frigate in 2747. The remaining eighteen ships were mothballed in an uninhabited system along the Draconis Combine / Federated Suns border. They would remain there for over a hundred years, completely undisturbed and forgotten by most. Even during the height of the Amaris Coup these ships were not activated. As a way of maintaining their neutrality (or because they wanted the ships for themselves) the Draconis Combine refused to allow either Amaris or Kerensky access to the ships. During the first succession war, however, they became a serious issue. Despite the grevious losses they were suffering as Combine troops marched towards New Avalon, the Davions knew that gaining control of the old frigates hidden away just inside the combine border, or at the very least denying the Combine their use, would be vital to the war effort. To this end they dispatched the frigate Diadem to the unnamed system to salvage as many ships as possible and destroy the rest. The frigate never returned from this mission however. It was destroyed by the Combine destroyer Ayanami. Details of the battle between the Diadem and the Ayanami are sketchy at best, but the official reports say that the Diadem managed to destroy most of the frigates before the Ayanami arrived, and finished off the rest before being destroyed itself. This seemed to make it a closed issue, and it most probably would have been if not for a man's deathbed statement nearly a hundred years later. This man, himself one hundred and twenty four years old at the time he made the statement, claims that he was part of a band of barely a hundred former star league officers and men that managed to move twelve of the eighteen ships out of the unnamed system and to another location just before the start of the first succession war. Though he died before being able to give any specific details (such as the current location of the ships) there is no direct evidence that contradicts his statement. When the Ayanami arrived in the system to stop the Diadem, she reported that twelve of the eighteen ships in the cache had already been destroyed, but since the entire crew of the Diadem was killed during the battle, there are no witnesses to the destruction of the ships. It is possible that they simply weren't there to begin with. Of course it is also possible that the old man's deathbed statements were nothing but the ravings of a dying man. In any case, Comstar has decided to keep a lid on the old man's story all these years, just in case.