Masakari/Falx Class Destroyers(aka ‘Toadstools’, ‘Butt-Uglies’, ‘Button-cruisers’, ‘Mushroom Ships’, ‘Shield Boats’, ‘Carapace cruisers’)
“They’re ugly as sin, and equally as tough. Seeing them landed at port, you’d think they were part of the local industrial infrastructure encroaching on the spaceport, they’re that ugly. Not one iota wasted on aesthetics, but it pays off for them in being functionally hardened. Engaging them and expecting them to blow up like other spitkits of the same weight and size class is wishful thinking; they can take a lot of hammering before they go down. On the plus side if you’re the opposition, you’re not likely to have these things come running after you in the deep dark; they’re rather sluggish under full CG-drive, and the torch-drive versions don’t wander far from refuelling stations. If you happen to actually be assigned to one of these things, it’s cramped, crowded, and like living inside an industrial washing machine. After a couple of weeks you better be used to the smells and the lack of privacy, or you’ll never make it to the end of a tour.”
The ships of the Masakari/Falx classes share a common design that is a stark contrast to the contemporary Sangu and Javelin classes. Rather than adapt the slender lines of the latter craft, the Masakaris and Falx classes have been described as resembling fireplugs or armored mushrooms; a large rounded shield-like upper body on top, large powerful engines underneath, with the crew accommodations and weaponry squeezed in between. Both designs are tail-sitters, launching and landing vertically, with the decks aligned accordlingly.
The Masakaris and Falxes were designed as plantary defense ships, meant for short-range, short-endurance forays to meet incoming threats. In their original configurations, both were built around high-power plasma fusion drives, with enough deuterium-slush reaction mss for at best thirty-six days of constant acceleration/deceleration. This seriously limited the ships’ abilities to operate far from home base with extensive support; early ships of these classes that found themselves having to accompany long range patrols needed accompanying tankers and even other vessels with recreational facilities, as both fuel bunkerage and creture comforts were lacking on the two vessels. Both ships were designed around the early Paladin Steel beliefs that space combat would be fought at hyperfast speeds in which combatants would try to deal as much damage as possible to each other in the very short windows of engagement that relative speeds allowed, so both were armored and engined to the maximum. Physical armor in particular is heavy, reinforced against the expected impacts of active and passive kinetic weaponry. The short squat design of the two ships was also seen as an advantage, allowing the ships to more ably flip end-for-end to reposition for acceleration or deceleration burns.
The perfection(or rather replication) of high-performance contra-gravity drives(CG) and forcefield generation changed dramatically the capabilities of the Masakari and Falx-classes. With fuel largely restrictions lifted, the ‘toadstools’ could be given longer range, allowing for patrol arcs well beyond their original operating perimeters. This in turn necessitated increasing the crew accommodations as much as was possible, using space and mass originally devoted to deteurium tankage. However, revelations of how Three Galaxies starship combat often involved closing on CG drives and ‘tangling’ with enemy forces as what was essentially knife-fighting range meant that PS ships’ secondary armaments had to be beefed up, taking up more space.
Though the Masakari and Falx classes are generally regarded as being successful upgrades/conversions from earlier technologies, they are still regarded as uncomfortable assignments for those crews used to the more open and roomy designs of Three Galaxies technologies.
Paladin Steel and Aegis Stellar Industries continue to produce these ships and deploy them as planetary defense ships and occasionally as convoy escorts, but the ships have lost their place as front line warships in favor of more modern designs coming into service. A number of these vessels have been sold to clients looking for system defense craft.
Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries Masakari Heavy Destroyerhttp://s408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/?action=view¤t=img128.jpg “I had the unfortunate honor of being chief gunnery officer on the VFSS Eldridge when we went eyeball to eyeball with the Dreadnought...going up against a Galactic nightmare battlewagon in a backwoods-built spitkit really put the techno-gap between us and Them in deadly perspective... Every time we managed to get enough wires spliced back together to get off a shot, it would roll off their shields like rain off a Merganser, whereas every shot they fired at us hit and felt like Final Judgement....though, to the credit of the shipyard boys, the old tub actually managed to hold together better than any of us expected. Damn Kittani melted half the armor off of us, and that probably saved our lives...all that condensing metal vapor boiling in a cloud around us deflected most of the followup shots...... most of the Eldridge’s crew went home alive, though I needed a lung replaced and some major skin grafts... so all in all, I’m damn glad I was on a Masakari.”
----Gunny Jimbo Litton-Carlislye, ex-master gunnery officer(retired), VFSS Eldridge.
"Don't worry, we are thousands of miles outside the range of their laser weapons. We have more than enough time to raise our shield. These primitives will never know what hit them. Target aquisition radar ? What ...."
---- Unknown Pirate just before being destroyed. (Henning Rogge)
In contrast to the lean, mean, fast Sangu-class destroyers, the Masakari-class Destroyer is a lumbering wall of armor and weaponry. The Masakari is designed for protracted combat, able to survive great deal of punishment and deal it in return. Masakaris tend to see use in escort duty, and as fleet screening vessels. The first of PS/ASI’s so-called ‘Plug-Ugly’ warships, the Masakari has a stubby, rounded appearance, with its hull features drawn into a compact frame; the ship has limited atmosheric maneuvering capability, and it lands and takes off from planetary surfaces in a ‘tail sitter’ pose. Its blocky, robust design(it has been described as looking like an ‘armored mushroom’) leaves little room for additional systems or external ordnance, but its heavily reinforced armor and shielded engines make it virtually impossible to knock out with anything less than a capital ship’s main batteries. Like most early generation Paladin Steel ships, it has a GMR drive for planetary landings and Interface circumnavigation, and a fusion drive for deep space operations. Also, as an Earth-built design, it cannot be fitted for additional modules without destroying its atmospheric capabilities. Because of this, one of the more common complaints about the the Masakari (and most first- and second-generation Paladin Steel spacecraft) is its cramped quarters and lack of space. The Masakari also lacks a dedicated troop contingent, limiting its usefulness in boarding actions and planetary assaults.
Despite its stout construction, the Masakari never took well to refit with newer, more powerful CG drives, and performance, versus forecast values for the Mrk II Upgrade, was never up to expectations. The allocation of mass and strain factors became amplified through the shorter and denser hull and more evident at the higher speeds possible with the Mrk II CG Drives, and crews complained of excessive hull stress and environmental system leaks while maneuvering at maximum velocity. This has tended to limit the Masakari’s use in long range missions.
The GNE Space Force tends to use Masakaris as planetary defense ‘gunboats’ operating from orbital space stations and moons, where it can respond quickly to attacks. They are also occasionally used to escort civilian convoys, where their lack of acceleration is not an issue and they can keep up with the transports(or be pulled along by the larger vessels as parasite warships).
Type: PSS/ASI-DDES-05 Masakari
Class: Heavy Space Destroyer
Crew: 30
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 11,000
Bridge 5,000
Main Engines(2) 4,000 each
Heavy Rail Cannons(3x2) 950 each
Heavy Laser Batteries(2) 500 each
Heavy Pulse Laser(1, forward) 1,000
Medium Range Missile Launchers(2) 400 each
Point Defense Lasers(8) 100 each
Forcefield(Mark I) 4,000
Variable Forcefield(Mrk II) 1,200 per side, 7,200 total
Height: 120 ft
Width: 120 ft
Length: 400 ft
Weight:5,800 tons
Cargo: 300 tons
Powerplant:Nuclear Fusion, w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 8
(Kitsune Values: 20% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.8% of light speed per melee)
*Note: The fuel-dependent Mark Is have 1,200 tons hydrogen fuel capacity for 36 days of continual acceleration/deceleration.
(Mark II) Mach 9
(Kitsune Values: 50% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.9% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) (Mark II) 4 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not possible
Market Cost: 410 million credits for the Mrk I, 413 million credits for the Mrk II
Systems of Note:
*Full Sensor Suite---Specialized sensor pallets include radiation detectors and counters, spectrographic analysis devices, gravitic sensors, electromagnetic activity readers, and optics packages.
*Long Range Radar---Phased Array Search and Early Warning Radars
Maximu m target Resolution: 1 million miles
*Laser Targeting-------100,000 miles
*Communications Suite:---Long Range Radio and Video
*Laser Communications ---Tactical (i.e. ship-to fighter/shuttle)Range: 50,000 miles
*Optical Tracking Clusters----These are transparent blisters fitted with gimbal-mounted high-resolution visible-light/IR/UV optical telescopes that continually scan the arc of sky before them. Linked to the navigational arrays and other tracking sensors, and to a series of highly-sophisticated near-AI search and discrimination software systems, these sensors attempt to detect objects that have low radar returns/sensor signatures, such as stealthed vehicles, iceballs, or asteroids. The high-tech equivalent of the man in the crow’s nest with a pair of binoculars.
Weapons Systems:
1)Heavy Cannons(3x2)---Mounted on two external pylons are two triple-cannon clusters of kinetic kill rail cannons
Range: 10 miles in atmosphere,40 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 40 miles in atmosphere/ 40,000 miles in space)
Damage:1d4x100 MD per 80 rd burst; 3d4x100 MD per triple cannon burst
Rate of Fire:ECHH
Payload: 32,000 rds(400 bursts) per cannon
2)Heavy Laser Batteries(2x2)---Mounted in twin turrets are two heavy twin-barrel laser cannon
Range: 10 miles in atmosphere, 40 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 40 miles in atmosphere/ 40,000 miles in space)
Damage:2d4x100 MD per single blast, 4d4x100 MD per double blast
Rate of Fire:Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited
3)Heavy Pulse Laser(1, forward)---Mounted in the center of the main hull dome, near the main bridge ‘visor’, is a massive pulse cannon.
Range: 10 miles in atmosphere, 60 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 60 miles in atmosphere/ 60,000 miles in space)
Damage:2d6x100 MD per single blast
Rate of Fire:Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited
b)(Mk II Upgrade)---- PS attempted an experiment by refitting its Mk II Masakaris with high-maintenance, but high-powered, Galactic-level heavy particle beam cannon, that are unaffected by laser reflective armors, and have better penetration values, albeit at shorter ranges.
Range: 16 miles in atmosphere, 50 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 50 miles in atmosphere/ 50,000 miles in space)
Damage:4d6x100 MD
Rate of Fire:Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited
4)Medium-Range Missile Launchers(2)---Housed in the Masakari’s hull, are two medium range missile launcher bays.
Range: Varies by missile type(speed and range x4 in space)
(Kitsune Values: 160 miles in atmosphere, 80,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by missile type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1, 2, 4, 5, or 10
Payload: 120 missiles total, 60 per launcher
5)Point Defense Lasers(8 )---- Arranged around the hull are eight standard laser PDS turrets
Range: 1 mile(4 miles in space)
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere/ 400 miles in space)
Damage: 2d6x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively unlimited
Auxiliary Craft:
One Light Shuttle
Variants:
*PSS/ASI-DDES-05C---The DDGS-05C is a proposed ‘Mark III’ upgrade that would replace, among other things, the laser PDS systems with CCW-pattern dual-weapon laser-mini-missile turrets, upgrade the variable forcefields, and and upgraded area-of-effect ‘spray mode’ for the heavy laser cannon.
1) Enhanced PDS Turrets--- Laser/Mini-Missile PDS----These are standard CCW-pattern dual laser/mini-missile launchers that have been installed for close-in defense.
Range: (Lasers) 4,000 ft in atmosphere/2 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere /200 miles in space)
(Mini-Missiles) 1 mile in atmosphere/2 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere/ 100 miles in space)
Damage:(Lasers) 1d6x10 MD per blast
(Mini-Missiles) Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire:(Lasers) EGCHH, or auto-fire; 6 attacks per melee
(Mini-Missiles) Volleys of 1-8
Payload: (Rail Gun) Effectively Unlimited
(Mini-Missiles) 32 mini-missiles per turret; additional mini-missiles can be carried as cargo(typically takes 2d6 minutes to reload from the holds).
(Option)---The Mini-Missile launcher component of these turrets can be modified to fire the “S-Sting” ‘Smart Mini-Missile -----The S-Sting(for ‘Space Stinger’) is an attempt to adapt the guidance systems and accuracy of the ‘Black Talon’ L-SAM to a space-based missile. The missile resembles a rather stubby cylinder with a blunt-nosed optical cluster and protruding verniers(extend after launching), owing to the fact that the vacuum of space negates the need for streamlining the weapon.
Note that the ‘S-Sting’ has only limited effectiveness in an atmosphere....HALF bonuses in a thin atmosphere and weak gravity well like Mars’, and NO bonuses, and HALF range in a thick atmosphere and standard gravity like Earth’s.
Range: 4 miles in atmosphere, 32 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere/ 400 miles in space)
Damage: 2d6x10 MD to a 15 ft blast radius
Bonuses: +7 to strike
2) Upgraded Variable Forcefields--- 2,000 per side, 12,000 total
3) Main Laser Cannon Enhancement---
Range: 15 miles/ in atmosphere, 70 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 70 miles in atmosphere/ 70,000 miles in space)
Damage:2d6x100 MD per single blast
It can also fire a ‘scattering’ shot that does 1d4x100 MD to a 600-ft wide area, but reduce the range by HALF.
Rate of Fire:Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited
*PSS/ASI-DDES-05B(S-L)---This is simply the Masakari Mrk II without the FTL d rive, limiting it to a system defense role. These ships cost about 25% less to manufacture, but require an FTL tug or other transport to move them between solar systems.
Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries Falx Missile Destroyerhttp://s408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/?action=view¤t=img126.jpg “’Powderkeg’ is what we call the Falx...short, squat, and waiting to explode. The Falx is small and squat, with everything jammed in under a tight thick shell of armor. The crew compartments are sitting right next to and atop the main missile magazines, like sitting on top of the ammo clip in a giant pistol, unlike the Javelins, where you got some distance between the crew module and the missile pods....sure, we got safety systems in case the fuel in one of the missiles cooks off, and the warheads all have to be electronically primed, unlike those old pre-Rifts naval munitions...but, still, it’s disquieting, especially on your sleep shift, knowing you got how many godawful megatons of destruction sitting just a few yards from you through a bulkhead...”
---Darren Windsor, VFSS ‘Geronimo’
“EastCom wanted to pull a coupla Falxes off the Orbital line, and use them as missile platforms against the Coalition planetside....no can do, said HQ....much as it might hurt groundside, using the Falxs was NOT an option...if the Deadboys ever got wind of the Falxs’ nuclear capabilities, even if we pulled the nukes on the ships, the Coalition would use its own atomic weapons and burn a new coast line from the Hudson to the Saint Lawrence....No, North America was to be a groundpounder’s war.”
----Commodore Tsien Hmung, VFS , as qouted in an interview for “Skull and Five Stars: A History of the Battle for North America”, 121 PA.
"As a summary I can say the Falx Class is a modern torpedo boat, similar to the Berserker and Smasher Class Warship of the Trans Galactic Empire. They carry heavy nuclear warheads with built-in jammers so don't be fooled by the exterior of the ship. The drawback of the ship is the complete lack of large energy weapons."
---Ian MacDerrel, MacKenzie Internal Security(Henning Rogge)
The Falx is the Masakari’s design cousin, and like the heavy destroyer, is designed for extended firefights where it can wear its enemies down with a seemingly infinite supply of missiles. The Falx shares the Masakari’s robust, heavily armored design(i.e. “The Armored Toadstool”), that leaves little room for modification, and making for cramped quarters, but providing excellent protection(crew members have likened service on one of these vessels as being in an ‘armored cradle’). When traveling on a long-range mission, however, the Falx is best deployed with escorts better-equipped to handle smaller, faster, more nimble opponents. The Falx tends to see service with garrison fleets, escort convoys, and planetary assault units.
The lack of heavy energy weaponry, and its dependance on ammunition-based weaponry does pose a problem for the Falx on extended campaigns, however, and most commanders try not to be separated from their escorts on long range missions, or get out of range of resupply. In the short term, however, the Falx is a tough opponent to tackle, able to take tremendous punishment and deal out massive volleys of missiles in return.
In 115 PA, the Falx was upgraded with newer CG-Drives. Unfortunately, the Falx shared enough characteristics with its brother, the Masakari-class Destroyers, that the predicted performance curve of sixty-percent of light speed was never realized from the improved engines. Still, the Falx is faster than many of its contemporaries and class-equivalents, though it has problems dealing with faster fighters.
Type: PSS/ASI-DDGS-04 Falx
Class: Light Space Missile Destroyer
Crew: 24
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 10,000
Bridge 2,000
Main Engines(4) 1,000 each
Long Range Missile Launcher Bay 500
Medium Range Missile Launchers(2) 300 each
Cruise Missile Launcher 1,000
Point Defense Lasers(8) 100 each
Forcefield(Mark I) 4,000
Variable Forcefield(Mrk II) 1,200 per side, 7,200 total
Height: 150 ft
Width: 150 ft
Length: 350 ft
Weight:3,780 tons
Cargo: 400 tons
Powerplant:Nuclear Fusion, w/ 20 year energy life
Speed:(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Space)(Sublight) (Fusion Drive) Mach 9
(Kitsune Values: 20% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.9% of light speed per melee)
*Note: The fuel-dependent Mark Is have 1,200 tons hydrogen fuel capacity for 36 days of continual acceleration/deceleration.
(Mk II Upgrade Gravitic Drive) Mach 10
(Kitsune Values: 50% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1.0% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) (Mrk II) 4 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not possible
Market Cost:
Systems of Note:
*Full Sensor Suite---Specialized sensor pallets include radiation detectors and counters, spectrographic analysis devices, gravitic sensors, electromagnetic activity readers, and optics packages.
*Long Range Radar---Phased Array Search and Early Warning Radars
Maximum target Resolution: 1 million miles
*Laser Targeting-------100,000 miles
*Communications Suite:---Long Range Radio and Video
*Laser Communications ---Tactical (i.e. ship-to fighter/shuttle)Range: 50,000 miles
*Optical Tracking Clusters----These are transparent blisters fitted with gimbal-mounted high-resolution visible-light/IR/UV optical telescopes that continually scan the arc of sky before them. Linked to the navigational arrays and other tracking sensors, and to a series of highly-sophisticated near-AI search and discrimination software systems, these sensors attempt to detect objects that have low radar returns/sensor signatures, such as stealthed vehicles, iceballs, or asteroids. The high-tech equivalent of the man in the crow’s nest with a pair of binoculars.
Weapons Systems:
1)Heavy Nuclear Missile Launcher--These weapons were developed from early efforts to create an Alliance equivalent of the Galactic-level Cruise Missiles. The effort wasn’t entirely successful; the weapons have the range and warhead yield, but lack the advanced targeting and AI systemry of their galactic counterparts. To compensate for their lack of accuracy, PS mounted the heaviest nuclear warheads they had in their arsenal, in the Long Lance II missiles . These weapons are designed strictly for deep space use, and are NOT for use on surface targets; such use is BANNED by PS/VFS/GNE policy.
Range: 1,000 miles(4,000 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4 x 1,000 MD to a 4.6 mile destruction radius
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1,2,3,4, or 6
Payload: 12 missiles
(Option) PS Long Lance IV---The Long Lance IV is the next generation heavy anti-spacecraft missile from PS, and was developed after the abysmal failure of most of the launched Long Lance IIs to reach the target during the Dreadnought Crisis . This SLBM-sized weapon is smarter, heavier, and carries its own ECM and countermeasures decoy launchers to give it a better chance of penetrating a target’s defenses. The Long Lance IV is available to both the Falx and the Javelin-class cruisers.
Range: 1500 miles(6,000 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4 x 1,000 MD to a 4.6 mile destruction radius
Bonuses/Special:
*ECM----The missile has its own expert system and EW transmitters for jamming enemy radar, as well as evading their sensors. The missile is -6 for guided weapons to strike. 60% chance of evading radar detection to begin with.
*Flare/Chaff Launchers(1, 6 bundles)
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is nuetralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
2)Long Range Missiles---Mounted opposite the nuke bay is a larger bay firing conventional LRMs.
Range: Varies by missile type(speed and range x4 in space)
Damage: Varies by missile type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1, 2, 4, or 8
Payload: 48 missiles. Additional missiles may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles)
3)Medium Range Missile Launchers(2)----Mounted in two ‘flange’ bays sticking out of the sides of the main hull are two large MRM launchers.
Range: Varies by missile type(speed and range x4 in space)
(Kitsune Values: 160 miles in atmosphere, 80,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by missile type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-24
Payload: 144 total, 72 missiles per launcher. Additional missiles may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 24 missiles)
4)Point Defense Lasers(8)----Arranged around the hull are eight standard laser PDS turrets.
Range: 1 mile(4 miles in space)
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere/ 400 miles in space)
Damage: 2d6x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively unlimited
Auxiliary Craft:
One Light Shuttle
Variants:
*PSS/ASI-DDGS-04C---This was an attempt to address the Falx’s technology-lag. The heavy nuclear torpedo launchers were replaced with more conventional Three Galaxies-style cruise missile launchers, and the medium range misisles were sacrificed to add two medium laser cannons. The DDGS-04C hasn’t proven terribly popular with PS/ASI crews, who don’t consider trading off some of their missile capacity to be worth the added firepower from the new laser turret, citing the fact that their ships are meant for stand-off combat rather than close-quarters gunslinging, but the design has attracted interest for export-sales.
1) Cruise Missile Launcher---Replaces the Heavy Nuclear Missile Launcher
Range: Varies by missile type(speed and range x4 in space)
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by missile type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1, 2, 4, 5, or 10
Payload: 40 missiles
2)Medium Laser Cannons(2)---Mounted in place of the deleted MRM launchers.
Range: 7 miles in atmosphere, 14 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 14 miles in atmosphere, 14,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per cannon, 2d4x100 MD per dual blast from both cannon simultaneously(one attack)
Rate of Fire: Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited
*PSS/ASI-DDM-04ML---Mine warfare variant that replaces all of the missile launchers except for a single MRM launcher bay, with space mine deployment racks. These ships are used to lay fast-deploy orbital minefields in the face of an oncoming invasion force
1) MIne Bays(3)
Payload: 100 mines or 40 gun-satellites per bay
Damage: Varies by weapon deployed
*Space Mine---A freefloating explosive war satellite...Various types exist, including stealth ‘sneakmines’, ASAT ‘limpets’, and enhanced EMP models, but the standard anti-ship version carries a powerful nucleonic charge that does 2d6x100 MDC to a 600 ft radius
Damage: Typicaly equal to a Cruise Missile warhead
*Orbital Net Mine---This weapon unfurls into a 10-kilometer(5 mile)-wide free-floating hexagon of high tensile-strength megadamage fibers. Any vessel hitting this net at high speed takes damage roughly equivalent to the UWW’s infamous ‘Death Cloud’ weapon.
Damage: Any ship flying into the net will take 4d6MD times its Mach Speed. Multiple the damage by 10 for ships weighing 10,000-40,000 tons, by 20 in the 41,000-100,000 ton range, and by 100 if more than 100,000 tons.
The net is virtually impossible to detect on radar and ships are -6 to dodge, while larger ships are -8!
*PSS/ASI-C-04C---Transport variant, meant to take advantage of the availability of older hulls, their speed, and their structure. The engines have been upgraded to the Mrk II standard, and all armaments save the PDS turrets and medium-range missile launchers removed. Space originally spend on fuel tankage and the heavy nuclear missile launcher has been used to expand the life support section to allow comfortable accommodation for up to 40 passengers, and cargo capacity for 1,200 tons. The LRM launcher module has been replaced by a docking module for a medium-sized shuttle. Only about ten PSS/ASI-C-04Cs have been converted from older, combat-retired, vessels, two of them serving as executive transorts for PS/ASI personnel in the Three Galaxies.
*PSS/ASI-C-04B(S-L)---This is simply the Falx Mrk II without the FTL d rive, limiting it to a system defense role. These ships cost about 25% less to manufacture, but require an FTL tug or other transport to move them.
, added the stealth systems, and mounted a heavy-duty monoplanar forcefield generation system. Almost all Mark I Javelins in Sol System were rotated out of active service and upgraded to this standard in the course of their careers. 
