Purpose: The purpose of this rule is to address two shortcomings that I have noticed when I play Hivers. First would be the relationship between fighters and admin shuttles. Since fighters replace admin shuttles, the need for admin shuttles (WW is the biggest one that comes to mind right now) will directly effect the number of fighters a Hiver player will bring to a fight. It would be nice to be able to have the ability to maintain a healthy supply of admin shuttles while still being able to bring fighter support. The second shortcoming that I have noticed is the general undesirability of the Barb-H. I am not saying the Barb-H is a bad fighter (I think quite the opposite actually), however, it faces very stiff competition from 3 very capable fighters (B-1, B-2, and B-A). Since all the Hiver fighters have the same fielding requirements, the Barb-H is usually passed over for its smaller cousins (the best example of this would be the comparison of a B-H vs. 2 B-1's. Both cost the same BPV, but the B-1's can charge their weapons and travel speed 16 after launch while the B-H is left at speed 8. Additionally, it takes 24 damage to destroy the two B-1's as compared to 18 damage to destroy the B-H). I think that if Hiver heavy fighters were given a unique niche, it would increase their use and reinforce the idea that the Hivers will bring several different types of fighters to a fight.

History: When there was contact between the Alpha and Omega races (mainly through the FRA), it was only natural for an exchange of stories and ideas to occur. These stories would circulate amongst the Omegan races as a normal part of trade. Some of them at the time seemed purely fantastical (an entire empire with the ability to make their ships disappear and reappear at will...preposterous) while other ideas seemed more pragmatic. When an ISC mining settlement arrived via the nexus in 178, they brought stories of how the Federation would carry fighters into battle by using mechanical linkages incorporated with their tractor beam system. A year later, the Hivers received these stories and immediately started a program to explore the feasibility of such a system on their ships. The Hivers were unable to build a working model that did not interfere with tractor operations and concluded that a major redesign of their tractor system would be needed to make the technology work. Further research was abandoned until the advent of the heavy fighter. In 182 the Hivers started deploying the Heavy Barb on their ships. It quickly became apparent that these things were much bigger than what the Hivers were used to and flew in the face of 91 years of standard shuttle bay operations. A Hiver queen, sensing the stress in some of her captains, made a passing comment on the problem, causing her hive to go into full swing to try to find a solution. They dug up the mech link technology that had been abandoned a few years earlier. It turns out that spacing the linkages farther apart to accommodate the larger fighter was the solution to the tractor problems. The Hivers didn't make the mech link a refit, instead opting for a kit design that tied in easily to existing hull penetrations near the tractors of their ships. This kit took about a half a day to install or uninstall and was accompanied by a seasoned deck crew trained in its operation. It was typically deployed to the borders and attached to ships on patrol. When a ship would return to base for repair or maintenance, the mech link, under the direction of its assigned deck crew, would be uninstalled and transferred to another ship heading out to the border. This technology was not without its restrictions, however. Barbs attached to the mech link could not be repaired or have major maintenance performed on them. A ship would have to drop out of non-tactical warp and transfer that Barb to its shuttle bay. For that reason, ships smaller than a medium cruiser were only fitted with a mech link in the most dire of situations (as they didn't have the suttle space to accommodate such a large fighter). The true value of the technology wasn't realized until the Andromedan invasions. As the Andromedans marched forward, the Hivers quickly realized that they would be unable to maintain many of their outposts and colonies. Warships were deployed to the more dangerous areas to recover as much expensive and rare equipment and material as possible (unfortunately for the Hiver colonists, they were a very low priority for recovery). For such missions, it was desirable to maintain a compliment of as many admin shuttles as possible (which, for the Hivers, are more akin to small freighters than shuttles). However, proceeding without Barb escort would be suicide. These missions relied heavily on Heavy Barbs carried on mech links and sealed the mech link's place in Hiver history.

Rules: Basically, instead of using OJ1.11 to purchase a Heavy Fighter, a Hiver player could use this rule. It would cost 1 extra BPV over the cost of the Heavy fighter and would replace 1 tractor with a mech link and add 1 deck crew to the ship. The mech link would operate exactly like other shuttle mech links and only be able to hold Hiver heavy fighters. It would be destroyed on a tractor hit (and would destroy the mech link, tractor, and fighter if attached), and would not be able to repair or rearm a shuttle. A fighter attached to the mech link would count as part of the ship's squadron. A ship attached to the mech link would not have to power down like it would in OJ1.26 thus being able to rearm as it's being towed around.