Vaygr Clan: Techdari
| Ship Selector |
| Strike Craft |
| Vaygr Assault Craft Storm Corvette |
| Vaygr Lance Fighter Strike Corvette |
| Vaygr Bomber Multi-beam Corvette |
| Gunship |
| RF-Wing |
| Capital Ships |
| Vaygr Heavy Missile Frigate |
| Vaygr Warfare Frigate |
| Vaygr Cruiser |
| CL4 |
| Vaygr Battleship |
| Blockade Runner |
| Interdictor |
| Troop Transport |
| Vaygr Carrier |
| Spinal Mount |
| Sensor Disruption Picket |
| Sokal |
| Non-Combat Ships |
| Vaygr Shipyard |
| Vaygr Mobile Research Lab |
| Vaygr Command Corvette |
| Vaygr Transport |
| Colony Ship |
| Generation Ship |
| Civilisation Ship |
| Empire Information | |
| Played by Kane in CYOE3 | |
Leader Name: Sokal (All clan members share the clan name as a "last name")
Notable Traits: Sokal's Crusade was odd, by Vaygr standards. The old tried and true technologies worked for most of Makaan's forces, but Sokal had a fascination for the non-standard. Lasers, plasma beams, experimental armaments, exotic ammunition... Sokal's Crusade was definitely non-standard. However, despite this strangeness, nobody questioned his units effectiveness. All that strange tech seemed to work well enough in his hands, so nobody gave him trouble for his odd obsession.
What they did give him trouble for was his attitude regarding outsiders. Sokal was the age-old extortionist. His fleet would show up at some trading post, and make an offer; pay us, and we'll protect you. Refuse, and we take everything by force and leave you a smoking hulk. It wasn't a "true Vaygr way," and earned him some disdain from other Vaygr warlords, but like his experimental ship designs, it worked well enough for him. "Why smash it with a hammer when you can get the same result, if not more, by just holding up the hammer?"
Not to say Sokal was adverse to dropping said hammer from time to time. Some trade stations agreed, and lived to tell the tale. Others did not, and simply dissapeared. Sokal's salvage operations are particularly efficient.
Battle Tactics: Sokal favors his larger capitals. His experimental technologies usually come from smaller craft, but he can really play with them in massive weapon mounts only found on large capitals and frigates. This isn't to say he neglects his smaller craft, however. Some technology is just as good today as it is a thousand years ago, and while perhaps not renowned for great fighter pilots, Sokal's strike craft are as effective as anyone elses.
Sokal takes something of the strategist's approach to combat. His fleet actively searches for any ship that appears to be the command vessel in an enemy fleet, and makes that their top priorety. If their opponent favors strike craft, then Sokal's fleet leads with a fighter screen, with the lighter capitals not far behind and the heavy-hitters waiting for their shots to clear. Should the opponent favor larger craft, Sokal will let his own soak up the damage while his more nimble strikers home in on their targets while the enemy is otherwise preoccupied. The theory being any commander who favors one over another won't be able to adjust quickly to counter Sokal's threat.
Generally speaking, if the battle looks like it's turning ill, Sokal will fall back from the engagement in order to regroup. "He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day." Given the nomadic practices of the Vaygr as a whole, a Vaygr is far more likely to call his ship his home than any one system, and in this respect Sokal is no exception.
Not that he doesn't like large empires. On the contrary, he's particularly fond of them. "The larger the empire, the more far-flung systems it will have in need of some additional 'protection.' There's lots of blood-thirsty pirates and raiders out there, after all. The Navy can't be there all the time."
History: Sokal took his seat of power at a relatively young age, filling a power-vacume in his clan when his father died. It was only a couple hundred years afterward that Makaan united the Vaygr clans, and began the biggest Crusade of all. A touch of prophecy got most, but Makaan brought Sokal in line with ship designs and tech. Much of the Vaygr fleets were Makaan's ideas, and Sokal borrowed quite a few for himself. With some modifications, of course. Given a bit more time, he might have given the Vaygr even more teeth than they already had; no small feat, and truly frightening to any who had fought Makaan. But it was not fated to be. The hyperspace module on Sokal's flagship, borrowed from Makaan and improved by Sokal, suffered the mechanical equivalent of a stroke. Somehow the jump took Sokal's entire fleet from normal space, to hyper space, and into this strange space that could only be described as a tunnel of energy. When they emerged, they found no friendly signals, or indeed signals of any kind, an empty system before them, and a strange spatial phenomena behind them. Later, Sokal dubbed it a spacial "node." It was some time before they invented an ad-hoc node drive, and discovered they could not get back home through this node. They were stranded and alone, facing an entirely new unknown galaxy.
Sokal immediately declared it a clan holiday.
Physical Description: Somewhat blatantly stolen from Makaan's ship, Sokal lives inside his flagship, directly wired into it. For all intents and purposes, he and the ship are one, inseparable. This is what has allowed him to endure all these long years, even by the generally long-lived Vaygr. Death by combat not being counted for life-expectancy. His physical body remains persevered, and even in decent shape; the cocktail of liquids that fills his stasis chamber has more or less halted cellular decay. Along with most everything else; it's not called stasis for nothing. Despite this, his brain is as active as ever, perhaps even slightly expanded due to being wired into a vast computer network. All of this aside, he has only grown more cunning in his relative old age. And now without the pressures of the other clans, it's a free galaxy for him to roam. As one might have guessed, Sokal is quite excited about this.
