Origin of a Spaceship: Tornado

Excerpt from: Origin of a Spaceship

Tornado

• a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud
• VERTICAL power

Background

The Tornado is one of the few species of spaceship that is the product of the Republic Fleet Shipyards. It is a creation of cross blueprint fertilization. The use of the mitochondrial Rifter was fused with the vertical structure and projection of the Naglfar. The resulting cross was an unwieldy, lopsided mutant that failed to thrive. A few. partially successful creates were crossed with  Tempests. This hybridization, successful only in Minmatar DNA with its tenacity to adhere to any genetic strand created the Tornado.

Although created in captivity, the Tornado is one of the most predatory domesticated, combat battlescruisers. Although it was created in the tight control of the Boundless Creation shipyards, Tornado's have successfully introduced themselves into the wild. It is suspected that early runs, thought to be unsuccessful were not watched closely enough. They may have disguised themselves with fleets of Tempests in training. The exact method of their successful escape is not known but the steady proliferation of free breeding fleets has led to CONCORD having to routinely clear hungry fleets of wild Tornados off of gates in empire space.

Observations

They are greatly flexible, well known as aggressive hunters or calm, patient stalkers of high intelligence and adaptability.

Tornados are not as frightened of frigates as many of the other, domestic large turret combat battlecruisers. It is suspected that the Matar generics provide a tight communicative bond between various ships in this family. Tornados are well known to hunt with frigates in complex, social fleet structures when left to their own devices.

Gregarious by nature, Tornados are also very standoffish inside of their own fleet structure. Their fleets are highly specialized with stringent demands for social norms. There is a high degree of homogeneity within Tornado fleets that is often not seen among other, same species of spaceships.

Points of Note

The vertical nature of the Tornado seems to be a remnant of the Naglfar. Although Boundless Creation has not released their genetic blueprint that the Tornado was created upon, it is believed that they used a reinforced exoskeleton design based on the Naglfar to properly compensate for the physical stress that large turrets would place upon the slender frame of the battlecruiser.

Wild fleets of Tornado can be found throughout the entire New Eden cluster. Highly adaptable, they are successful snipers and ambush predators. Highly agile, one should never turn their back to a Tornado but instead keep eye contact with the spaceship. Its high intelligence will often cause it to reevaluate bold prey.