Epsilon Pearl-Lifter Frigate — Pursuit Shepherd / Net-Lane Setter
Filed Under: Pearl-Lifter Frigate / Wind-Vector Interceptor / Capture Support
Status: Active — fleet craft / contract escort
Fleet: RedBeard’s Pearl-Lifter Squadron (4 hulls total)
Command Chain: Division Captain (Sky Division I) under Dumbledore Kincaid “RedBeard”
“The flagship bites. The frigates herd.”
—Air-trader proverb, Eastern Routes
Name: Bridlewind
Class: Pearl-Lifter Frigate (Light Dreadnought Auxiliary)
Primary Roles: herding, lane control, pursuit relay, boarding delivery, extraction cover
Jolly Roger: a skull with a red beard (division-cut variant: thin gust-stripes trailing the beard)
Aerovore wins the contract by catching what cannot be caught.
Bridlewind makes sure the prey has nowhere clean to run.
Where the flagship casts the Horizon Cage and nets, this frigate:
cuts escape geometry
forces altitude choices
feeds targets into capture lanes
recovers riders and prisoners fast
Structure: slim sky-keel, widened vent-belly, light scale plating (non-recoil grade)
Profile: “knife-fish” silhouette—long nose, narrow shoulders, wide stern throat
Build Note: deliberately under-armed to stay mass-light and vector-responsive.
Boarding Reports:
Hull edges are smooth and mean—hard to hook.
Exterior handholds are “false” in places (grip points that dump you into airflow).
Core: Wind-attuned Meito drive (frigate-scale)
Thrust System:
Stern Jet for sprint runs
Ventral Slot Grid for hover, climb, brake, and hard yaw
Side-knife vents (unique to Bridlewind) for lateral “snap” shifts
Signature Maneuver: Bridle Cut
A fast lateral slip that steals a target’s line—forcing them to either:
climb into thinner air,
drop toward sea (where Aerovore owns the angle), or
stall into the net lane.
Aerovore can spin like a thrown blade. A frigate doesn’t need that—but it still must survive violent vector changes.
System: Half-Cage Ring Deck
gimbaled living deck
reduced ballast bands
“horizon pins” tuned for rapid yaw, not full inversion
Effect: Crew stays functional during chase-strafes and snap turns—without full dreadnought complexity.
Registry Warning: Half-Cage tolerates aggression, not recklessness.
If the helmsman tries dreadnought rolls, the deck will “lag”—people break.
Declared fixed artillery: none.
Installed capture hardware:
Twin Harpoon Winches (pin + drag)
Cloud-Lines (altitude restraint cables with shock-damp knots)
Lane Netters (smaller mesh throws; used to steer prey, not bag it)
Clamp-Ramps (fast bite-bridges for riders)
Loadout: wind-surf “jolly boards” (frigate complement)
Primary Use: disable steering surfaces, cut lift rigging, tag hulls with cloud-lines.
Board Doctrine:
Bridlewind riders don’t “board to fight.” They board to control.
A tagged ship is a scheduled ship.
Crew Count: ~60
Composition highlights:
Vent team (vector timing)
Line crew (harpoons, cloud-lines, clamps)
Rider wing (jolly boards)
Recovery medics (altitude injuries, deck shock)
Strengths
Escape Denial: forces prey into predictable options
Snap-Vector Agility: side-knife vents make it a nightmare to out-turn
Relay Control: can rotate chase duty with sister frigates to keep pressure constant
Rider Recovery: faster pickup than the flagship during messy engagements
Limitations
Not a finisher: designed to herd, not kill
Half-Cage ceiling: can’t safely mirror Aerovore’s full spin doctrine
Heat Spool Risk: repeated snap shifts can overheat vent throats if abused
In a standard RedBeard interception:
Bridlewind takes the left lane and starts “bridle cuts.”
Sister frigates take high and low lanes to compress options.
Aerovore arrives on the forced line and ends the argument with nets and clamps.
If you see the skull-and-red-beard banner moving sideways through the sky,
that’s Bridlewind—and the chase is already being decided.