Some of his buddies, retired servicemen turned freelance haulers like himself, were killed attempting to make a pickup

on Dellin a couple years back, and it had been a big wakeup call to Everson. The situation on Charon III had gotten really bad, with the Acheron military deeming any outside forces entering Dellin airspace a threat. The two states had been at war for ages, I remember reading about it in school, but Acheron had become steadily more aggressive over the last few years. Everson heard about Sword of Hope, and had experience flying Hercules in the navy. He wanted to help. He “had to” is how he put it. I love talking with Everson. I love his stories. But that one made me feel like a jerk. Like, who am I? Some post-grad that went to one too many rallies and gets off on annoying her parents? I’m on a mission with this veteran who has real harrowing stories of loss. Not to mention real applicable skills. It makes me question my motives, my character, and my entire life trajectory up to this moment. But Everson is a kind dude, and he keeps reassuring me that I’m here for a reason.

As I was contemplating exactly what that reason might be, Everson pointed out three more Hercules, A2 gunships, flying out ahead.

He said that I shouldn’t be scared by the drills, because if anything went down, those bad boys would take care of it before we were within firing range. As it turns out, he was mostly right.

Last night as we began preparing to enter the atmosphere of Charon III, the sirens went off.

But this time it wasn’t a drill. Foregoing our recent training, I snuck up to the cockpit for a better view of the action. Everson sort of rattled off this play-by-play that I only half understood, while the rest of his small crew scrambled to man the remote gun turrets that basically serve as our last hope and prayer. So to speak.

We were engaged as soon as we broke through, I think. It all seemed to be over in a matter of minutes, but again, my internal clock is all messed up. Acheron fighters were all over us, throwing their weight around and focusing most of their firepower on the A2s, while the beefy fighters on our side bobbed and weaved, taking pot shots at the Acheron ships and trying to draw them away. One bogie took the bait, and two more of their fighters were obliterated by the A2s themselves. Unfazed, the Hercules took the brunt of the Acheron assault, their multitude of turrets patiently locking on and pummeling their targets. The fighters dropped like flies, shrugged off by the massive A2s.

My stomach flipped as we pulled down closer, nearing our proposed landing site.

Acheron reinforcements swarmed out of canyons that veined the arid Dellin landscape. A couple of them got dangerously close to Mama Bird, and we did take some fire, but our turrets blasted one of the engaging fighters out of the sky, and an interceptor from our supporting entourage took care of the other. They didn’t even make a dent in our hull.

With the first wave of Acheron fighters cleared out, the A2s ahead of us pulled up. Everson got a call – we needed to vacate the landing zone. "Too hot", they kept saying.

By the time a frazzled Deacon found me in the cockpit and drug me back down to the cargo bay, we were out of harm’s way, and we remain safe, but on high alert. I have been forbidden to return to the bridge, but before I was so unceremoniously removed, Everson said not to worry. That the A2s would make sure we had a safe place to land. Evidently they’re packing bombs. Big ones.

Even with the A2 bomb run clearing the way, Crusader security didn’t want to take any chances.

The area was an unknown, as we’d been forced far South of the original drop point. Our remaining fighters hovered and buzzed overhead, dogs protecting their flock from unseen danger. They rolled us off of the M2 en masse (it seems our barracks/the “safe zone” is actually a huge sledge) along with the tanks and rover. More vehicles were unloaded from the other Hercules that had landed nearby, many hauling little trains of supplies and/or personnel. There were ground troops trudging along too, of course, and our entire caravan snaked through the shadows of the Hercules, perched like massive prehistoric birds, watching over us. Protecting our endeavor from potential outside intervention.

The caravan had snaked outward,

as the M2s and C2s, loaded with the bulk of supplies, crew, and heavy artillery, had landed in the center of the strip. The A2s had landed in a diamond pattern around its perimeter, deploying buggies that I guess were scouts, or something, because they darted out into the dust instead of joining up with our growing parade. The gunships, and really all the Hercules, are basically portable fortresses, capable of deploying and defending their cargo with looming intimidation and well, a ton of guns. As I looked up at them, I remember feeling a little scared, but mostly just really relieved that they were on our side.

The caravan made it through a sketchy pass and got more or less back on course as originally planned. We made it to the village, our mission’s objective, at twilight. We were greeted enthusiastically and made to feel very much at home and appreciated. We unloaded and catalogued the majority of EO’s supplies, and were ordered to bed around midnight.

That was two hours ago.

Now, here I sit, writing this post from my cot, in this little Dellin border town. I can’t sleep, thinking of everything we’ve just been through, and anticipating everything still to come. The real work starts tomorrow, but I already know that I made the right choice coming here, because of the beaming faces of the people of this village, because of a rare smile/thumbs up from the security guys who lead our section of the caravan, because of kind old Everson, who told me a couple of days ago that it doesn’t matter why you help, but simply that you help. I’m out here, trying to make a difference. The true impact of this operation remains to be seen, but here with Empire's Overlooked and Crusader Industries, I feel that I really am part of something bigger.

The Crusader Hercules is being offered for the first time as a limited ship concept pledge. This means that the ship design meets our specifications, but it is not yet ready to display in your Hangar or to fly in Star Citizen. The Warbond pledges shown here include Lifetime Insurance on the ship hull. In the future, the ship price may increase and Lifetime Insurance or any extras may not be available. 

If you are interested in adding one to your fleet, a quantity of Warbond Hercules hulls are available during this event. The Hercules will be available in the pledge store until June 13th, 2018 at midnight. You can also view a detailed schematic of this new ship in the Holo Viewer in the Tech Overview of the ship page.

As with every concept ship pledge, we will also be doing a Q&A post.

If you have additional questions, there will be a forum thread on Spectrum to take your questions. Make sure to vote for the questions you most want to see answered and we will be posting the dev’s responses next week. Look for the Comm-Link Schedule next week to find out when that post will go up. 

For more details visit the complete Crusader Hercules ship page.