The HPA Saga
Description
The Huge Plasma Accelerator (or HPA) Saga, is a chronicle following the Long Range Cruiser, the Azure Sunset which has a stolen Huge Plasma Accelerator on its front weapon mount.
The ship is controlled by Norman Mosser and his crew of criminals.
Story (SPOILERS)
Norman steals a Huge Plasma Accelerator from the Federation and installs it on a Long Range Cruiser named the Azure Sunset. Working with the barstard Prince Marcus, Norman devises a plan to assasinate the Crown Prince by destroying Fort Donalds, a space station orbiting Capitol (Achenar 6d).
Alliance Intelligence hire a rogue named Red Ravens and his co-pilot to track the HPA. Once they realise what the HPA's target is, they rust to Fort Donalds and thwart the plan by making Marcus's android sabotage the Azure Sunset.
The Imperial Navy arrives at Fort Donalds and in the ensuring battle, the damaged Azure Sunset escapes. Aided by a mysterious organisation, the Azure Sunset evades Imperial tracking and is repaired at a hidden base where the engines are upgraded to Imperial military spec.
The failure at Fort Donalds takes its toll on Norman, and he decides to go on a side trip to find Raxxla. He abandons the Azure Sunset, which is programmed to make random hyperspace jumps to keep in hidden. The random number generator is held by Mary Darkes's brother on Earth.
After having found Raxxla, but not disclosing what he found, Norman returns to inhabited space with new plans for the Azure Sunset. He enlists the help of his old friend Sam Kemper. Unfortunately, two other clones of Norman show up, each wanting to get their hands on the Sunset.
A drifter named Vasquith de Havilland and his co-pilot stumble upon the Azure Sunset during one of its random jumps. As the investigate further, mysterious ships appear and attack them. De Havilland retreats into the ship itself. There he works out the random number generator for the hyperdrive and kills the pilots of the mysterious ships. He escapes into hyperspace, but is chased across the Galaxy. Knowing he will never be safe, de Havilland decides to use his information of the Sunset to buy protection from Norman Mosser.
The Mosser's battle each other, pulling others into their wake, including a anti-slave group known as the Spartacus Brotherhood. After a battle with the leader of the Spartans, Norman reclaims the Azure Sunset and goes to hidden base for repairs.
The Azure Sunset was being tracked however and both the Federation and Empire send in fleets to destroy the Azure Sunset.
In what was to become known as the Battle of Rocky Fields, a mortally wounded Azure Sunset manages to escape into hyperspace.
In the Third Saga, the Sunset limps back to a drydock belonging to the same organisation which helped Norman at the end of first saga. When there, Frantic takes command and indicates they will use the Sunset to destroy INRA.
The Azure Sunset is found to be mortally wounded and the HPA is non-functional. While Norman and Sam go to Alioth to find a new LRC for the gun, de Havilland goes to find replacement parts for the HPA.
