Airship Canon

As I have noted before, the world of the Airship Renegade is a steampunk/dieselpunk world of the near future and the classic pulp era.

The Renegade is a state of the art dirigible, capable of 300 km/hour at flank speed. It’s lighter than air, but manages that feat through the use of an experimental lighter than air composite material—the very structure of the Renegade is the lift material. This helps explain why the Renegade is so large—more structure actually yields more lifting capacity. ,

The Renegade was envisioned by its designers as a concept similar to a Star Destroyer in Star Wars—a platform capable of providing sustained dominance over an area. Its Tesla cannons—9 turrets total—are capable of both air to air and air to ground fire and are scalable. They can deliver everything from a taser like jolt to a lightning blast that will melt steel. The harpoon and grapple guns were modifications installed after Captain XO ‘borrowed’ the airship. The Renegade was built for multi-domain dominance, not optimized for piracy. That came later.

The Renegade other major systems include the four parasite fighters—small jet fighters optimized for air to air combat, but more than capable of serving as light couriers as well. We’re still looking at stealing a couple of old F-4 Phantoms. The Renegade can carry up to a company of infantry—currently organized into two platoons (the Bold Air Hussars and the Glider Zouaves). The Renegade has a pretty sizable cargo hold, capable of carrying well over 100 tons of cargo and equipped to manage airdrops. When the Renegade is hitting the max for its lighter than air lift, it can generate additional lift via thrust vectoring and deployment of canards. Not even Captain XO is sure of its maximum capacity, but she did wallow a bit on the beer run to Reykjavik.

Where did the Renegade come from? Captain XO keeps quiet on that one. He freely admits it wasn’t his to begin with and has been known to say that he may return it when he’s done. Maybe. Probably not. Best guess was that it was built by some high tech, Tesla/Space-X like company. How Captain XO got a hold of it is a mystery. All the labeling is in American Standard English, though. Spare parts are generally not too hard to come by, and there is a composite replacement manufacturing 3D printer at the base in Wick. Captain XO says it came with the Airship.

Who is Captain XO? Clearly, XO is a nom de guerre. He’s a retired US Army Reserve officer and former federal agent who looks more like a high school English teacher rather than the leader of a band of air pirates. Dab hand with a 9mm 1911 pistol and a boarding saber, though.

Why Wick? Well, Captain XO always wanted to be a Scottish Laird, and when the opportunity to buy a Scottish castle with his ill-gotten gains, he seized it. Apparently the Scots are very ok with a pirate airship homeported in their country (literally the only good thing that Captain XO can attribute to Brexit). The taxes we pay probably help. The base at Wick sports a castle that was converted to a hotel, so there is plenty of room for all, as well as maintenance facilities, weapons training facilities, and everything else a mid sized band of air pirates would need. The Zeppil Inn, our Ground Pub, is located there. Try the Stairway to Heaven. The bartenders won’t tell us what’s in it, but it’s good.

The world of the Renegade is a little less stable than the one we live in now (clearly...a pirate airship freely transits national borders). It’s a post Brexit, post-EU world. The United States is still there. The countries that we know are still there, just not as capable of enforcing their airspace sovereignty as much as they would like—that could be a factor of the Renegade being able to stomp on most countries’ air defense capabilities. Many localities actually welcome a visit from the Renegade as a boost to the local economy. The Renegade does bear a Letter of Marque from rising power Luxembourg, which gives us a thin veneer of respectability—as did our recent mission of mercy to Reykjavik—the good people of Iceland will never forget our emergency beer delivery.

The unnatural aspects? Well, the world is a mysterious place. So we have an airship ghost, and we give out warnings about werewolves of Paris. When we stop in Romania, no locals with pale skin and unnaturally sharp teeth will be invited aboard the airship. Captain XO is still curious as to who was the tall fellow with the scars at the Castle Frankenstein party.

How do you get involved? Crew is everybody who interacts with the official Airship twitter feed, run by the Ship’s Public Affairs Officer (yes, the Renegade has a PAO). There is very little gatekeeping involved, and I have only had to block a couple of people. If you want to write stories set in the world of the Airship Renegade, feel free, using this canon as a guide. I am the ultimate arbiter of what is canon or not, and will edit submissions as required. I'll publish them here on the Ship's Blog.

So, welcome to the Renegade. Keep your cutlass sharp, your boarding axe scoured, and your needle pistol at the ready.

UP AIRSHIP!

Help for Junior Mate Jake!

ATTENTION ALL CREW.

Captain XO here.  Junior Mate Jake, the son and heir apparent of Art Appraisal Mate (and mummy fanatic) Cindy, has been very ill and in hospital from an infection caused by a burst appendix.

I ask for a couple of things:

1) Jake likes cat videos (and I assume puppy videos as well).  Share them with Cindy, or with the Renegade account.

2) If you feel the urge to send a little of your hard earned prize money to help Jake and his family out, DM the Renegade account, or me directly.  I'll vector you towards Art Appraisal Mate Cindy's PayPal.

3) Please keep Junior Mate Jake in your thoughts and make him feel like a welcome part of the Renegade crew.

OFFICAL

CAPTAIN XO

Relief Visit to Reykjavik

Crew!  I know that this entire week was set aside for Halloween activities, but the good people of Reykjavik need our help.  A port call by the US Navy drained the town dry of beer.  I have ordered that palletized beer kegs from local German breweries are to be loaded immediately onto both the Renegade and the Kommandant's Zeppelin.  I want these rigged for airdrop.  Each pallet will be marked with the Ship's Logo, 'Courtesy of the Airship Renegade', and the user names of our social media accounts.  Marking and rigging to be done enroute, all hands not directly involved in flight activities turn to to assist.

Plan: We will fly at flank speed to Reykjavik.  We will airdrop the pallets in parks and fields of Reykjavik.  Comms, we need you to broadcast to Icelandic government that assistance is on its way, and that we are on a mission of mercy.  PAO, develop some themes.

We're going to get some headwinds on the way to Iceland, but those same headwinds will be tailwinds on our way back to central Europe. Nav assures me that we can make it back to Romania with time to spare.

After our Halloween trips, we will return to Reykjavik for an extended visit.  AS HEROS.

Turn to!  We up ship in 30 minutes.

Halloween Trip

After our blowout at Whitby Abbey on Saturday, our agenda for the next 10 days is as follows:

1) Tour of the Paris Catacombs and then catch a show at the Grand Guignol.  The tour will be conducted by a gentleman named Erik, who will also provide an organ recital.

2) After the stop in Paris, we will take the two dirigible flotilla to Castle Frankenstein.  Castle Frankenstein was the birthplace of Johann Conrad Dippel, the likely inspiration behind 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley.  We'll spend a couple of days there exploring the area--all crew will get liberty.

3) From there, we travel on to Poenari Citadel in Romania for Halloween.  We'll have a our blow out annual Halloween party.  All survivors will then up ship on the first of November.

We'll head home over the Med.  Might be some nice yachts that need raiding.

Admin note from the Captain

Folks, the Twitter feed hit 500 followers today.  I am amazed and humbled that many people want to hear the fictional adventures of a crotchety former executive officer and his imaginary pirate airship.  Next month we get our 'new' logo, and then I am going to look at coffee mugs.

I am still planning an 'Airship Adventures' podcast, which I intend to be a radio play, something along the lines of a weekly 15 minute episode, dramatizing our illustrious pirate activities.

If anyone out there has an unfulfilled yen to do some voice acting...opportunities await!

In the meanwhile, keep your Tesla cannon charged, your boarding cutlass sharp, and send your drink orders to the Plunder and Lightning.

Captain XO's Cunning Plan

Crew:

So the Captain has been doing some thinking about additional ways that we can shake down the world for the cash we so richly deserve.

His latest idea: we board cargo ships--the high tech types with heavy computerization--and seize control over the bridge computers.  We load malware onto the ship's systems to allow us to take remote control.

Send it on a trip around the world until we get a fat ransom payment from the insurer.

PROFIT.

Restraining Order on the Dirigible?

Crew:

Apparently, our destruction via Tesla cannon of a certain tire company's blimp hanger gave some corporate weenies the sads, so they FILED A RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST THE RENEGADE.

How do you file a restraining order on a pirate dirigible?  Are they going to send a Sheriff in a helicopter to serve it?

CAPTAIN XO THINKS NOT.  We have a Letter of Marque from HRH Henri the Grand Duke.

In fact, I think we should hang out in the States all this week to play bumper blimps and parasite fighter buzz bys.

What say you, crew?