Forums of the Megaverse®

Usula Camina C-7 SaucerCraft
“In their heyday, as the Usula tell us, their space was FULL of these things doing every conceivable job in space. Just about anybody who could afford one had one, and used it like other cultures use commuter cars. They even had races with the things.
Then the Kreeghor came and used them for target practice.”

The Usula are a humanoid race(who may, in fact, be yet another long lost offshoot of baseline humanity) that held a small domain in the Anvil Galaxy. Of modest means and influence, they did have a few promising technologies that made them noteworthy as potential up-and-comers in their corner of space. Their major national aerospace firm, Camina Industries, was noted for its innovative saucer-configuration designs. The C-7 was one of its best designs, a mid-sized multi-purpose vessel that earned high marks for its agility and ease of piloting, and saw domain-wide distribution. C-7s were exceptionally easy to fly(and ‘fun’ as several non-Usulan pilots have commented), with an intuitive FBW system, so even novice crews could fly the ships.
Unfortunately, Usula Prime was smack in the path of the TransGalactic Imperial juggernaut as it expanded through the Anvil Galaxy. Despite(or because of) a spirited Usulan defense, the TGE conquest fleet was exceptionally harsh in the damage it doled out, targeting Usulan industry in particular. Whether it was deliberately targeted, or whether it was scuttled by its owners, the Camina Industries primary facility where all of its spacecraft were assembled was destroyed in a massive explosion.
Today, while many C-7s still exist and operate, primarily in the hands of Usulan expatriates, no new C-7s have come out in over three decades. A lack of spare parts is also telling on the remaining examples; adhoc improvization with factory non-standard parts has degraded the performance of many of the remaining C-7s. There is hope in a small factory set up in the CCW by refugee Camina Industries employees who have begun manufacturing replacement parts for the C-7, but the trickle of expensive parts is, as yet, not up to the demand for repair components. The facility is also not likely to be able to manufacture new C-7s for any time in the foreseeable future, so the existing C-7s are likely to remain collectors’ items.

Type: UC-C-7
Class: Light Interstellar Transport
Crew: 10+1-20 passengers
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 1,400
Bridge Dome 900
Drive Section(lower hull) 900
Forcefield 2,000
Height: 45 ft
Width: 170 ft diameter
Length: 170 ft diameter
Weight: 680 tons
Cargo: 50 tons
Powerplant: Electro-Static Free Cosmic Energy Accumulator---A unique Usulan technology that recharges from ambient gravitic energy found deep in solar gravity wells. In theory, this gives an unlimited source of energy, but in practice, the batteries and drive components are only good for 90 years of use before needing replacement.
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 9
(Kitsune Values: 50% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.9% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 4 light years per hour
(Underwater) Can be outfitted to operate amphibiously; can move at 30 MPH underwater, maximum depth of 900 ft.
Market Cost:
During the heyday of the Usulan Empire, a stock C-7 could go for the equivalent of 177 million credits, but post-annexation, a fully functional C-7 in good working order can go for 300 million or more.
Systems of Note:
*Advanced Flight Controls----Crews flying the C-7 get a +15% to Piloting rolls and a +1 to dodge. However, due to a lack of spare parts, most(75%) surviving C-7s enjoy only a +5-10% and no bonus to dodge.
Weapons Systems: Most C-7s were unarmed, but as the vessels were multipurpose, provision was made for armaments; eight weapons turrets in retractable silo-mounts are housed in the hull.
1) Particle Beam Cannon(8 )---This was the original Usulan-fit armaments, meant primarily for point defense and dealing with hostile alien lifeforms planetside. Though powerful for their purpose, their range was more akin to fighter systems. They were less effective against the variable shielding and Nuss armor of the Kreeghor warships that invaded Usulan space.
Surviving C-7s are often refitted with alternate armaments, as the silos can accommodate Three Galaxies point defense or light armaments, or the common silos for each over-and-under pair of Usulan PBCs can instead hold a single medium starship weapon.
Range: 3 miles in atmosphere, 6 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 6 miles in atmosphere, 600 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

Auxiliary Craft:
None

Variants:
Before the annexation, Camina Industries produced a wide range of variants of the C-7, most of them varying only in cosmetic features or the equipment filling the weapons bays(such as tractor beams, salvage armatures, liquid cargo tanks, atmospheric gas scoops, extra power cells, booster drives(allowing for speeds up to Mach 11 in normal space), and the like. A number of different powerplants were tried, resulting in models of varying speed and range. After the annexation and Usulan Diaspora, virtually ALL surviving C-7s became variants, depending on what broke down first and what was available to fix the problem.

Usula Camina DR-10 Heavy Interstellar Transport
(aka ‘IceChest’)

“Think we laid the ice shield on a little thick? Well, yeah, I do exceed published standards for the shield mass, but those standards were written pre-invasion. My experience is the ship can take the extra weight of ice, and I have good reason to like the extra ice. Durng the exodus, we didn’t have time to pare the shield-shell. We had to drop off in a desert system to let our free energy batteries recharge when a Kreeghie patrol ship dropped out on the other side of the system. We didn’t have enough time to jump out, but we did have enough time to shut down our emissions and slide silent into a comet tail and make like a rock when that teegee came sniffing around. Our shield was ablating enough in the starshine that his long range sensors musta slid off us and identified us as another piece of comet, because that patrol ship veered off and warped away soon afterwards. We finished recharging and got the purple hells out of there as fast as we could. Ever since then, I’ve insisted on packing on a few extra meters of ice.”
---Kaptyn Tigran Nagashi, Usulan Kaptan

The Camina DR-10 is an ancient Usula designed spacecraft that is of interest because it was designed on the cusp of modern stardrive technologies. With concerns of the reliability of the new technologies, combined with a growing awareness that thanks to various spacial phenomenon, the performance of the new technologies could be adversely affected in them, the Usula decided to hedge their bets by combining old and proven with new and innovative. The resulting starships were both larger and more complicated from an strictly economic point of view, but were well-designed from the standpoint of safety.
The Usula Camina DR-10 HT has the lenticular design common to Usulan craft, with a wide, thick, saucer airframe. While the DR-10 incorporated early gravity plating, it also harkened back to earlier technologies by designing its habitat modules in a ring, with tilting gimballed sections housed in an internal circular ‘racetrack’ inside the ship. With the gravity plates working, the life section would enjoy an ‘up’ towards the top of the ship, but in emergencies or to conserve energy in space, the habitat-ring could be spun up to provide centrifugal gravity, with ‘up’ being towards the center of the ship.
Even more interesting was that for long journies, the DR-10 was designed to be embedded inside a large ‘cap’ of shaped ice that would form a forward shield against radiation and interstellar debris, as well as providing water and reaction mass for the ship’s systems. Stopping off at icy outer system bodies, the DR-10 could periodically replace its ice shield, using its warden craft and onboard lasers to ‘mine’ and place new ice.
Today, DR-10s are rare finds in the Three Galaxies; the type was already out of production when the TGE rolled through Usulan space and destroyed the few facilities producing spare parts. Refugees fleeing the TGE occupation forces fled Usulan space in whatever spaceworthy ships thay could find, and that included the elderly DR-10s. Today the few DR-10s found operating outside the TGE are kept running through virtually handcrafted spare parts. Ironically, because of their more primitive technologies, the DR-10s have proven easier to keep in repair than more modern designs like the C-7.

Type: UC- DR-10
Class: Heavy Interstellar Transport
Crew: 50+1-300 passengers
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 2,500
Bridge Dome 900
Shuttle Bay 500
Drive Ring 1,000
Ice Shield 2d6x100
Height: 90 ft(120ft w/ ice shield in place)
Width: 340 ft diameter
Length: 340 ft diameter
Weight: 2,800 tons(the ice shield can add an additional 1d4x1,000 tons)
Cargo: 600 tons
Powerplant: Electro-Static Free Cosmic Energy Accumulator---A unique Usulan technology that recharges from ambient gravitic energy found deep in solar gravity wells. In theory, this gives an unlimited source of energy, but in practice, the batteries and drive components are only good for 90 years of use before needing replacement.
The DR-10’s batteries were also good for a total of 20 light years before needing to recharge in a stellar gravity well; recharging generally takes 8 hours.
The DR-10 was one of the first major Usulan vessel types to be fitted with this drive system, though as the vessels grew older and Usulan technology advanced, overhauls of older vessels grew less frequent as they approached the end of their service life spans. Thus, the ESFCEAs of many of the surviving DR-10s are breaking down for want of spare parts and there is little enough interest in hand-making the necessary parts. Most operators of DR-10s find it easier to convert the ships to conventional(Three Galaxies standdard) fusion or M/AM powerplants.
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 6
(Kitsune Values: 40% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.6% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 3 light years per hour

Market Cost: 280 million credits for a DR-10 in good working order.
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:
*Centrifugal Gravity Generation---Meant as a backup for the gravity plating. The habitant section is specially designed to be spun up in microgravity to produce centrifugal force.

Weapons Systems: None standard, though many DR-10s have been retrofitted with up to six point defense turrets. Scout or long range transports frequently mounted one or two laser turrets, the equivalent of short range batteries, and used most frequently for carving up ice asteroids for shielding. The type never saw the same military refits as the C-7s and other more modern tyes as the Usulans considered them better used as transports during their brief war with the TGE.

Auxiliary Craft:
3 shuttles/warden craft

Variants:
Virtually all surviving DR-10s can be considered to be variants. In order to keep flying, many have been upgraded and modified with a hodgepodge of available systems, including added gravity plating, commercial forcescreens, FTL radio receivers, and added defensive armaments.

Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries ‘Voulge’-class Cruiser
(aka ‘Surprise’, ‘Tiger’)

“We need to win our battles and our wars well away from our worlds. We cannot fly paper tigers and glass cannons in defense of our civilian populations because there are powers out there that will see right through our charade and shoulder right through our arsenal ships and merchant cruisers to attack our lifeworlds directly. We need harder-hitting ships to decisively drive our defiance into our enemies.”

“The Voulge is arguably the most powerful of the LaFayette hull lineage, and it comes at a time when we really need the firepower. it’s also the wolf in sheep’s clothing of the lot. Its secondary batteries got the power and better range than the Laffy’s MAIN armament. Pirate cruiser comes in thinking to scatter the escort frigates and instead finds itself impaled on a heavy battler beam, while its skin is getting chewed off by the equivalent of an element of frigates. ”

The ‘Voulge’-class Battlecruisers are sometimes called the ‘Surprise Fourth’(or simply ‘Surprise’) -class because of their rapid development from the LaFayette LCG design. While, during the development of the LaFayettes, plans were already being drawn up for two major variants, the Mazule- and the Tabar-classes, no further variants were planned beyond that in the foreseeable schedule. However, during a regular office overview, a sharp-eyed auditing accountant with an interest in military hardware noticed discrepancies in the cost per unit between the LaFayette and the smaller, but arguably more powerful Assegai-class CGG. The accountant was astonished to see the larger, but less powerful, LaFayette apparently costing MORE per unit than the smaller Assegai. Investigation revealed that the construction yards, in different star systems and dimensions, building the respective vessels, used different accounting means and production flow systems. Before attempting to standardize accounting procedures between the two shipyards(and avoid possible labor problems) PS/ASI decided to put unused shipyard capacity at the facility producing Assegais to producing a LaFayette variant on the same budget. An experimental configuration, mapped out on computer, but not sent to the hardware stage, was chosen as the basis of the experiment. The program was given further impetus when Frontier Defense Force Command requested a ‘cruiser killer’, a light cruiser able to match the TGE’s Smasher and Republik Bindas cruisers for firepower.
The Voulge, in keeping with its name, focuses around heavy thrusting power, specifically in the form of an axial energy weapon array. While overall armor has been improved slightly on the new cruiser, the emphasis has been on speed and long range direct firepower. To free up space and power for the axial heavy guns, the Voulge has had to sacrifice the versatility of the ventral secondary hull pod; instead a fixed configuration lower hull has been instituted. The integral fighter complement has also been removed, and the Voulge retains only a small shuttle bay. To compensate for the removal of the fighters’ cover, the Voulge has been fitted with beefed-up point defenses, including four double-barreled heavy rail guns capable of throwing out explosive flak shells.
PS/ASI engineers decided that the choice of an out-dimension shipyard facility would allow the corporation to make use of plans provided to them by the CCW for the main power system to the Naruni Enterprise’s Conquistador Assault Cruiser. This has allowed PS/ASI to upgrade from the LaFayette’s nuclear fusion powerplants to a more powerful M/AM system and tweak the propulsion for slightly higher speed. The result is a much more agile warship, to the point that some early field-testing crews wanted to change the ships’ name to ‘Rapier’.
As it has emerged, the Voulge is something of a ‘pocket battleship’ able to punch above its weight class. Though not coming in at the same cost per unit as the LaFayette(as the sharp-eyed accountant and his superiors had hoped, though they have since advocated the movement of some LaFayette production outdimension), the outdimension-sourced Voulge has exceeded all other expectations for performance and firepower.
The Voulge shares enough characteristics with the LaFayette that the two can often be mistaken on long range scans. Bold Alliance captains have learned to take advantage of this confusion, and fool opponents long enough to catch them offguard with surprise, and often immediately crippling, fire from the masked main axial cannon and more powerful secondary batteries. That’s kept a substantial number of the relatively few Voulges produced so far attached to the ranks of Merchant Defense Force, where they effectively act as Q-ships, especially in the troubled spacelanes near TGE and Republik border space.

Type: PS/ASI-SCG-21 Voulge
Class: Medium Cruiser
Crew: 210+60 marines
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 37,000
Bridge 6,000
Engines 21,000
Secondary Sensor Arrays(3) 600 each
Main Energy Cannon(2) 1,600 each
Secondary Lasers(12) 500 each
Long Range Missile Launchers(4) 500 each
Heavy Gauss Cannon(4) 500 each
Point Defense Turrets(10) 100 each
Hangar Bay 2,000
*Variable Forcefield 6,000 each side( 36,000 total)

*Shield Refresh Rate is 20% per melee

Height: 160 ft
Width: 130 ft
Length: 980 ft
Weight: 130,000 tons
Cargo: 2,200 tons
Powerplant: Matter-Antimatter w/ 50 years energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 12(!)
(Kitsune Values: 60% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1.2% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 5.5 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not possible
Market Cost: 6.8 billion credits in the Three Galaxies, but costs PS/ASI/GNE 4.7 billion credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:

*Long Range Sensors----Retained from the LaFayettes. The sensors can pick up on vessels moving at FTL up to 25 light years away, and vessels moving through normal space up to 0.9 light years away.

*EW Jamming Systems---In combat, the Voulge will attempt to use its electronic warfare suite to confuse enemy sensors as to the ship’s exact position and activity. Communications Jamming has a 10,000 mile range, is 90% effective against civilian systems, and is 65% effective against more sophisticated channel-jumping military communications suites. Missiles and sensor-guided weapons are -4 to strike.

*Passive Stealth Systems----The Voulge uses passive stealth systems to reduce its sensor signature by as much as 40%, but in order to achieve this, the ship cannot be under acceleration, and its engines must be running ‘cold’.

Weapons Systems:
1) Spinal Mount Heavy Energy Cannons----The Voulge has the choice of several different heavy energy weapons, two of which are mounted side-by-side in a large lower hull bay. While the HPNCs are the weapons of choice with their long range and heavy damage curve, the heavy lasers have a faster rate of fire.

a) Heavy Particle Beam Cannons(2)
Range: 60 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 60,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x1,000 MD per single blast, 2d6x1,000 MD per double-barreled blast.
Rate of Fire: Once every melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Penalty: Designed for engaging capital ships; -7 to strike fighter-sized targets

b) Axial Heavy Laser Cannons(2)
Range:(Palladium) 16 miles in atmosphere/ 80 miles in space
(Kistune)16 miles in atmosphere/ 16,000 miles in space
Damage: 1d4x1,000 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Penalty: Designed for engaging capital ships; -7 to strike fighter-sized targets

2) Medium Laser Cannons(12) ----The Voulge carries over the twelve secondary laser cannons of the LaFayette, but upgrades them all to a superior grade, better than the LaFayette’s primary battery.
Range: 10 miles in atmosphere, 20 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 20 miles in atmosphere, 20,000 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6x100 MD per single blast
Rate of Fire: 4 times per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3) Long Range Missile Launchers(4)--- These launch bays are carried over from the LaFayettes, and their number doubled. These launchers are also used to deploy recon drones, probes, and special ordnance.
Range: Varies by Missile Type(Long Range Missiles)
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type(Long Range Missiles)
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-10
Payload: 120 per launcher; additional missiles may be carried as cargo, and reloaded from storage.

4) Heavy Gauss Cannon(8; 4x2)----These are four dual-cannon mounts firing variable warhead shells based on Paladin Steel’s earlier kinetic kill cannon ammunition. The decision was made to use rail cannon over more sophisticated g-cannons to allow for maintenance using a lower tech-base, as might be found with many of the outlier worlds of the United Systems Alliance.
Original plans called for plasma torpedo launchers, but PS/ASI analysts decided that, given the proliferation of anti-energy defenses, more substantial kinetic energy weaponry would better help the Voulge survive combat against a greater range of opponents.
Range: 40 miles in atmosphere, 80 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 40 miles in atmosphere, 40,000 miles in space)
Damage:(Exploding/Fragmenting Fletchette): 5d6x10 MD to anything caught in a 120 ft wide cone/’cloud’----Targets are -2 to dodge the ’shotgun spread’
(Penetrator): 2d6x100 MD per cannon, 4d6x100 MD for a dual burst
Rate of Fire: Four times per melee
Payload: 100 rds per cannon, reloading from the cargo hold takes 1d6 minutes( 500 tons ammunition storage, 1 ton of cargo per 12 rounds)

5) Point Defense Turrets(10)----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

Auxiliary Craft
*20 Power Armors
*3 Shuttlecraft

WZT ‘Raiju’-class Heavy Fighter
(aka ‘Burnstar’, ‘HellHound’)

“The Raiju may be more expensive than a Proctor, but the Proctor’s been around long enough that it has few tricks left to it that aren’t already known by everybody. The Raiju, on the other hand, is new and that throws off a lot of opponents facing it for the first time....they seldom get a second go at it.”
---Flight-Captain Egus Narge, BlackWings Secuity Group(bonded mercenary aerospace company)

“Lacks the cabin space of a Proctor, and even with the big heavily-padded dual-purpose ejection pod-seats on the Raiju, long missions can get uncomfortable. A lot of Raiju crews either use electro-stim zen trance to nod off on long flights, or smartskin undersuit biomaintenance to keep from cramping up. Once the action begins, though, you’ll be grateful for the heavy cockpit padding.”
---Commander Balin Sequor, Eugenian Deep Guard(USA member)

“The Raiju’s a logistical bear to service; anti-matter fuel, exotic coolants, enough hardpoints to carry the ordnance load of a squadron of Black Eagles or Broadswords...and when engaged in ground attack, the crews LOVE to take off heavy on all mounts, but dump’em fast when they start attracting fire, so keeping a combat wing supplied can get real expensive real fast. Look at the stats, though, and more often than not, being able to finish off a campaign fast and hard is worth the cost of throw-away munitions.”

“Big and ugly as one of those nuke steam locomotives they use on New Sinai. Hits like one, too, if you loaded one of those long ore-carrying train trailers with high explosives, put the train on a downhill slope, disabled the brakes, then threw open the throttle on the boilers.”

“It’s an F-4 Phantom’s and A-10’s Area 51-conceived lovechild on super-steroids, raised on Star Trek and Japanimation, and told bedtime stories by Grandpa B-24GeeJay.”

The Raiju is a new heavy fighter design from WZTechyards meant to meet the need for a heavy combatant patrolcraft able to handle spacecraft interdiction AND ground attack. The Raiju shows signs of WZT consultation with their newest members, Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries; the Raiju follows a general configuration strikingly similar(if writ larger) to the PS/ASI ‘Star Tiger’ aerospace fighter, and the Raiju’s underbody hardpoints are compatible with the centerline ordnance modules of that combat vehicle.
The Raiju has an airframe that with a pugnacious blunt nose sticking out of a blended roughly disc-shaped wing, sweeping back to a large matter-anti-matter-powered gravitic drive and twin engine venturis. A small fusion torch-drive and air-breathing turbines provide backup propulsion. Nose and wingtip gun pods, and large batteries of laser cannons in the leading edge of the wings, are supplemented by multiple hardpoints for modular weaponry, including EW pods and detachable attack drones.
Virtually everything about the Raiju is ‘brute force everything’....though called a heavy fighter, the Raiju is mass-wise a patrolship, but has been fitted out as a pocket-destroyer in terms of armor and armament. Not the most agile of aerospacecraft, it relies on its armor and armament to carry a fight, though its powerful engines can quickly bring it into and out of a conflict zone easily enough.
The Raiju is considered to be one of WZT’s ‘higher-end’ weapons systems, with a variety of new systems debuting with it. The fighter-bomber’s modularity and powerful M/AM powerplant make it a natural combat test platform for WZT’s more creative engineers(some of who fled from assimilation or worse by Naruni Enterprises).
The Raiju comes with a steep price tag for its power, but those who have managed to acquire Raijus, the ships get rave reviews. Combat reports paint the Raiju as a ‘giant killer’, able to punch well above its weight. Though often compared to the CAF Proctor(considered the benchmark for 3G heavy fighters), the Raiju carries a heftier price tag per unit, lacks the roomier and more comfortable accommodations of the CAF ship, but is faster, tougher, and (potentially) carries a greater throw-weight of weaponry.
Thus far the largest number of Raijus has been deployed by the United Systems Alliance, which uses it in both the deep space interdiction and ground attack roles(The Greater New England component of the USA often deploys it in support of their Stelmarine units). However, a number have begun appearing with affiliated paramilitary groups and independent star nations, including several sighted in Shemarrian Star Nation colors. Several reports of Raiju-like vessels being encountered near the TransGalactic Empire/Free Worlds Council conflict zone bordering FreeSpace have suggested that either the FWC rebels have acquired some or that groups assisting them in the border region are employing the strike ships.

Type: WZT SFB-0112 Raiju
Class: Heavy Fighter/Attack Ship
Crew: 2-6
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 1,600
Reinforced Crew Compartment 200
Wings(2) 900 each
*FTL Drive Housing 1,000
Cannon Pods(2) 350 each
Autocannon Pods(2) 300 each
External Weapons Pods(6) 200 each
(Optional) Parasite Fighter Pods 250
---see below
Forcefield 700 each side (4,800 total)

*Destroying the FTL Drive housing will take the FTL and CG Drives out of commission, but the vessel will still have main reactor power, and the plasma-fusion and airbreather jets for propulsion.

Height: 23 ft
Width: 107 ft
Length: 98 ft
Weight: 250 tons
Cargo: Small space in the crew cabin for survival packs, sidearms, and a few small personal possessions.
Powerplant: Matter/Antimatter w/ 25 year energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 13
(Kitsune Values: 50% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1.3% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 5 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not possible
Market Cost: 450 million credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:
*Cockpit Ejection System---The entire cockpit can be ejected from the rest of the craft, to serve as a lifeboat. The cockpit pod can make a safe atmospheric reentry, if necessary, with deployable parachutes, and can even float for a time on water, increasing the chances for crew survival.

*ECCM system: A semiautomatic system that uses electronic encryption and frequency jumping to (attempt to) negate jamming systems. The system has a 25% chance of negating radar or communications jamming (non-magical) on its own, or a +5% if the pilot has a Read Sensory Instruments or Radio: Scramblers skill and devotes a full melee to operating the system(no other attacks/actions are possible).
Having an Electronic warfare Skill gains a +15% bonus to operating this system.
Note that this only applies to received communications (the system filters them out from the jamming clutter) and sensory data received by that unit alone (other units cannot make use of it, unless they have an unaffected datalink/info-share with the ECCM equipped unit. Magic/psychic jamming is NOT affected by this system.

*ECM Suite----- The Raiju has a standard ECM suite for confusing sensor-guided weapons; -5 to strike

*Cyberlink(optional): A late retrofit is this advanced cybernetic control system that allows the pilot 'jack in', if so equipped, to the plane, linking him with the plane as if by telemechanics. The pilot is so in tune with the plane and their environment that he instantly knows everything involving their plane and its operations. A series of tiny external cameras normally used for Virtual Environment Cockpits is tied into the cyberlink, giving them an uncanny 360 degree view around the craft, providing them a +1 to init and dodge, in addition to the normal cyberlink bonuses.

Weapons Systems:
1) Wing Mount HI-Pulse Lasers(10; 5x2)---Each wing holds a buried array of five fire-linked laser cannons, firing forward. Firing in concert, these lasers can lay down serious damage on targets.
Range: 5 miles in atmosphere, 16 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 5 miles in atmosphere, miles in space)
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per single cannon blast
2d4x50 for all five wing cannons firing in simultaneous salvo(counts as one attack), 2d4x100 MD for a full ten-cannon salvo(again, counts as one attack)
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2) Wingtip-Mounted Tachyon Projectors(1x2)---Armored pods on the wingtips hold a set of high-powered tachyon cannon with area of effect capability.
Range: 1.5 miles (2,500 m) in atmosphere, 6 miles (10,000 m) in space w/ 3 mile wide arc*
(Kitsune Values: 6 miles in atmosphere, 600 miles in space)
* Scatter width is reduced to 1/4th in atmosphere
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per single cannon firing, 4d4x10 MD per dual blast(counts as one attack)
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

(Option) In the alternative, some Raijus(particularly the WZT-SFB-0112AsiS variant manufactured at the Soloma factory in GNE territory) replace the wingtip pods with modular pods able to accommodate the following:
b) Twin Particle Beam Cannon(1x2)
Range: 11,000 ft/2 miles in atmosphere, 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere, 200 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6x 10 MD single blast, 8d6x10 MD double blast(counts as one attack)
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

c) Plasma-Laser Cannon(2)-----The Plasma-Laser Cannon is a unique WZTechYard development for a dual mode weapon that can fire both long range photonic pulses and short-range plasma bursts thanks to an ‘open barrel’ design. In laser mode, the cannon fires a focused stream of coherent light like any other laser, but in plasma mode, a mini-forcefield containment field is established around the end of the barrel, and deuterium gas introduced. The laser switches modes to become a plasma-excitor, superheating the gas into a plasma, then magnetic expulsion and photonic pressure are used to expel the plasma at high speed towards the target. The result is a wide-aperature, short-ranged, plasma blast, effective for area of effect attacks and antimissile work.
The fact that the Aegis Stellar Industries-licensed version of the Raiju has access to this WZT-developed weapon speaks volumes of the trust WZT has placed in their partners.
Range:(Laser)3 miles in atmosphere, 6 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 6 miles in atmosphere, 600 miles in space)
(Plasma) 2 miles in atmosphere, 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere, 400 miles in space)
Damage:(Laser) 3d6x10 MD per shot
(Plasma) 1d4x10 MD per blast, affects a 50 ft-wide blast area.
Rate of Fire:(Laser) EGCHH
(Plasma) 4 times per melee
Payload: (Laser)Effectively Unlimited
(Plasma)Has enough deuterium for 100 bursts per gun.

d) Light X-Disruptor Cannon----Part of an effort to knock off Golgan designs, the LXDC is a scaled-up version of the standard Republik fighter-mounted weapons, and possesses both greater power and longer range, but generates both more heat and radiation, so its placement on the wingtips helps cool it and shield the Raiju’s crew from the (small, but present) radiation hazard.
Range: 2 miles in atmosphere, 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere, 200 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4x10 MD at the point of impact, plus 1/4 that in an 18 ft radius.
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

e) ) Ion Spray Cannon
Range: 2 miles in atmosphere, 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere, 200 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x10+10 MD per blast, to a 50 ft wide area
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited


3) Nose-Mount Ion Cannon(1x2)---A pair of fire-linked high-powered ion cannons are mounted in the nose. These are calibrated to do extra damage to electrical systems(ionization rules courtesy of Henning Rogge).
Range: (Palladium) 1.2 miles in atmosphere, 2.4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values) 2.4 miles in atmosphere, 240 miles in space
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per blast, 4d4x10 MD per dual blast(counts as one attack)
In addition to physical damage, the cannon does EM damage. Percentage of EM damage is determined in relation to target’s main body((damage/main body)x100=percentage). For every 10% of damage from main body in ion damage, target will be -1 to strike, parry. and dodge. In space target acceleration will be reduced by 15%, in atmosphere top speed will be reduced by 15%. Roll once on critical hit charts in Phazeworld or Conversion book as appropriate.
If target takes 60% of main body in ion damage, ship or vehicle will be disabled completely. All weapon, navigation, and other systems will shut down and need to be repaired/replaced to work again/reboot.
Does NO damage against non-mechanical/electronic targets.
The ion cannon is equally effective against bionics
Rate of Fire: Five times per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited


(Option) In the alternative, some Raiju have been known to be fitted with a pair of PC-200 Phase Cannon, when such weapons are available.
Range: 2 miles in atmosphere, 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere, 200 miles in space)
Damage: 3d6 SDC/MD to living creatures in a 30 ft area, 1d6x10 MD to shields over 10 ft large, per single blast.
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively unlimited


4) 2(1x2) Rear-Firing Defensive Grazers---Covering the rear angles of the Raiju is a pair of fire-linked gamma-laser cannons.
Range: 2 miles in atmosphere, 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere, 400 miles in space)
Damage: 2d6x10 MD per blast, 4d6x10 MD for both cannons firing simultaneously at the same target
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

5) Underwing Hardpoints(6)---Mounted under the wings are six large hardpoints able to accommodate the following:
a) Missiles---Missile launcher pod with internal rotary magazine
Range: Varies by Missile Type
Damage: Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, or 16
Payload: 3 Cruise Missiles per pod, OR 4 LRMs, OR 8 MRMS, OR 16 short-range missiles, OR 32 mini-missiles

b) Anti-Ship Heavy Nuclear Torpedo----A powerful mid-range strategic nuclear weapon. United Systems Alliance combat doctrine forbids the use of such weapons against planets without special authorization.
Range: (Palladium) 1,800 miles in atmosphere, 3,600 miles in space
(Kitsune Values) 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space
Damage: 2d4 x 1,000 MD to a 3,000 ft destruction radius
Rate of Fire: Single shot
Payload: 1

c) G-Cannon---This is the same weapon carried by the SF-69 Scorpion Light Fighter
Range: 8 miles in atmosphere, 16 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 8 miles in atmosphere, 800 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6x10 MD per 20 rd burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 1,500 rds

d) Double-Ender G-Cannon Pod----Carries two smaller-caliber G-cannons, one of them firing to the rear.
Range: 6 miles in atmosphere, 12 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 6 miles in atmosphere, 600 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x10+20 MD per 30 rd burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 3,000 rds per gun
Option: Can fire proximity/time-fused fragmentation-chaff rounds that burst into small clouds of fast-flying metallic shrapnel:
Damage: Upon bursting, forms an effective sphere roughly 50 ft in diameter in atmosphere, 100 ft in space. Objects flying through the cloud take 4d6 MD plus the following applies to sensor-guided missiles:
01-50% Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
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.

e)Heavy Laser---A Medium-class starship weapon mounted on a fighter
Range: (Palladium) 5 miles in atmosphere, 10 miles in space
(Kitsune Values) 5 miles in atmosphere, 500 miles in space
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per shot
Rate of Fire: Four shots per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited

f) Heavy Plasma Cannon---A Medium-class starship weapon mounted on a fighter
Range: (Palladium) 4 miles in atmosphere, 8 miles in space
(Kitsune Values) 4 miles in atmosphere, 400 miles in space
Damage: 1d6x100 MD per shot
Rate of Fire: Four shots per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited

g) Particle Beam Cannon---A Medium-class starship weapon mounted on a fighter
Range: (Palladium) 3.5 miles in atmosphere, 7 miles in space
(Kitsune Values) 3.5 miles in atmosphere, 350 miles in space
Damage: 2d4x100 MD per shot
Rate of Fire: Two shots per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited

h) Plasma Torpedo Launcher
Range: (Palladium) 3.5 miles in atmosphere, 7 miles in space
(Kitsune Values)7 miles in atmosphere, 700 miles in space
Damage: 3d6x10 MD to 15 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: Three times per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited
Note: These are considered direct-fire weapons as the Raiju lacks an integral tractor/pressor beam system to actively guide the weapon to a target, unless a tractor beam pod is also carried.

i) Plasma Cannon Pod---Copied from the Katana starfighter. It’s mainly used for VERY close ground support, but is unpopular with crews due to its short range(and part of the reason why WZT bargained hard for the plasma torpedo technology)
Range: 600 ft in atmosphere, 1 mile in space
(Kitsune Values: 1 mile in atmosphere, 100 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited

j) Bomb Pannier/Dispenser---Rotary dispenser for up to 2,500 lbs of freefall ordnance.
Note: Freefall weapons can be fitted with ‘smart bomb’ guidance packages.
*250-lb Bomb----2d4x10 MD to 50 ft blast radius
*500-lb Bomb----4d4x10 MD to 60 ft blast radius
*750-lb Bomb----4d6x10 MD to 65 ft blast radius
*1,000-lb Bomb----1d4x100 MD to 70 ft blast radius
*1,650 lb bomb(1d6x100 MD to 75 ft blast radius)
*2,000-lb Bomb----2d4x100 MD to 80 ft blast radius

k) Heavy Forcefield Generator---400 MDC

l) Recon Sensor Pallet---Specialized sensors and optics can be mounted in a modular tray. Exact capabilities vary, as the sensor configurations can be customized according to mission, and can include PPE sensors, molecular samplers, radiation detectors, gravitic sensors, EM detectors, and EW recorders, to name a few.

m) Mine----Essentially identical to the missile launchers mentioned above, except that they carry HALF the listed number of missiles, and the rest taken up by sensors and station-keeping thrusters.

n) Countermeasure Pod----Carries additional expendable countermeasures(see below, #6). Identical in performance and quantity of carried ordnance.

o) Tractor Beam Pod----This pod carries a gravitic tractor/pressor beam projector that is rated for 100 tons, and has an effective range of 200 miles in space. It requires the attention of an operator to work effectively. Generally considered useless for handling large vessels, it occasionally does see some use in slowing or outright stopping smaller craft, but if paired with a Plasma Torpedo Launcher(see h. above) it allows the operator to use their hand to hand bonuses to strike to apply to the plasma torpedo).

p) Cargo Pod: 2.5 ton capacity



6) Countermeasure Launchers(3)---The Raiju mounts three countermeasure launchers, one between the engines, and two on the trailing edges of the w ings, each of which can hold ONE of the following complements of expendable countermeasures:
a) Flare/Chaff Launchers---These countermeasures are inexpensive and very effective against lower-end targeting systems and sensor equipment(such as that used by nations equivalent to the Coalition States on Rifts Earth), but are ineffectual against more advanced technology.
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
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.
In space, anything flying at high speed through the cloud will take 2d6 MD +1d6 MD per every 100 miles of speed over 670 MPH.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 36

b) NanoPods----The second system releases a nanotech swarm of active jamming pods and decoys that are programmed to emulate a spacecraft’s sensor signature, or, at the very least, bury enemy tactical communications in ‘white noise’.
Effective Range: 25 mile jamming radius
Duration: 5 minutes per pod-spray
Effects: Jams radio signals(75% chance of jamming military band command-guidance ordnance), and 60% chance of deflecting ordinary missiles.
Payload: 18 swarm packs

c) Grav-Pods----The third system uses modified grav-pack drives and signal projectors to create a moving pattern of sensor signatures. The grav-pack mini-missile drives can go for 10 minutes before self-destructing, and can either be remotely directed or run a preset pattern.
Effective Speed: Mach 6
Duration: 10 minutes per pod
Effects: The decoys have a 70% chance of fooling enemy sensor operators and expert systems. They are are also +2 to enemy sensor-guided munitions to strike, increasing the chance that the missiles will elect to pursue the ‘louder’ sensor signature(the missile rolls to strike for both the original ship and each decoy deployed....highest to strike roll determines which target the missile(s) go after).
Payload: 15 decoys are carried, and can be deployed singly, or in ‘packs’ of 1-3.

d) Gravitic Disruption Decoy Munitions--- An experimental system just recently introduced by WZT. These are expendable gravity generators that can be used to disrupt the contragravity fields generated by other vessels’ or missiles’ propulsion systems. ‘packets’ of artificially-destabilized space/time that expand upon deployment. Used to cover the vessel’s retreat, or in aerospace area-denial missions, the GDDMs can be used like space mines or bombs to good effect.
The warped space/time field isn’t powerful enough to create a singularity or open a Rift, but it is powerful enough to have some profound effects on people and machinery. Their relatively small area of effect requires careful placement for maximum efficiency in combat.
NOTE: Gravitic sensors can detect an unexploded GDDM
GDDMs are usable only in space.
Range: Affects an area of space roughly 50 cubic miles. Can be triggered from as far away as radio communications permit, or can be set on a timer.
Damage: Effects last 5 minutes (20 melees)
(Drive Systems) The warped space/time is particularly hard on contra-gravity systems; CG drives will go off-line temporarily and there is a 50% chance that FTL CG drives will be burn out when activated. If a ship attempts to jump to FTL in an GDDM zone, there is a far greater chance(80%) of fatal/permanent drive failure. Roll on the following:
01-70% Drive malfunctions and the vessel doesn’t/cannot make the transition to FTL
71-89% CG Drive Ship makes transition to FTL, only to reappear 1d6x100 miles from its starting location, with the main FTL drive system exploding inside/tearing out of, the ship, doing 1d4x100 MD to the vessel
90-00% Fatal drive malfunction; the vessel makes the jump to FTL, but never returns to normal space; lost in limbo
(Sensory Systems) The altered space/time will cause navigation instruments to temporarily drift off true; -20% to piloting rolls and navigation rolls. Chronometers will be off by 1d6x10 seconds.
(Organics) Roll versus psionic attack or suffer he following penalties; lose initiative, HALF all hand to hand bonuses and skill proficiencies, and lose 1d6x10 seconds of immediate short term memory. Disorientation penalties last 2d4 melees.
If a successful save roll is made, the person still suffers some distraction, but is only -1 to initiative, -1 to strike, parry, dodge, and effects last only 1d4 melees.
Rate of Fire: Deployed in volleys of 1,2, 3, or 4
Payload: 4

Auxiliary Craft:
Has provision for carrying Enryu-class drone fighters that act both decoys and parasite warcraft. Each one takes up a wing/body hardpoint.

Variants:
* WZT-SFB-0112LsB -----This variant replaces the FTL drive dome with a set of smaller split-tail CG drive vanes. The -SFB-0112LsB cannot go faster than light, but can hit local space speeds of Mach 15, and accelerates/decelerates at 1.5% of light speed per melee. These units are limited to operations in local space; in order to go interstellar, they must be carried by starships.


* WZT-SFB-0112AsiS ----- Aegis Stellar Industries-produced variant, manufactured in small numbers at the new Soloma plant. This model is distinguished by modular wingtip pods and a triangular, rather than disc, FTL drive housing. Otherwise identical to the standard WZT-produced Raijus. The WZT-SFB-0112AsiS’s modular hardpoints suggest that the type is being used as a testbed for new armaments systems. Given what else ASI does, there is speculation that some of the new systems, either integral or pod-mounted, will include technowizardry.

* ESheMar-SFB-0112(?) -----Some observers in the Three Galaxies claim to have seen Raijus in Shemarrian Star Nation insignia(various Tribes). These examples seem to incorporate a nanotech self-repair capability, improved EW, and insanely accurate point-to-point hyper-jumping. It is unknown if these vessels are knockoff copies or post-market modifications.
Changes/Modifications:
Systems of Note:
*Hull Self-Repair System---Either using advanced nanites(DarkWaters) or technowizardry(Wayfinders), hull self-repair rates have been estimated at 1d6x10 MD per hour.
*Advanced Sensor Jamming---Apparently an integral system, rather than an accessory(podded) system. Enemy sensor-guided weapons are -8 to strike.
**Micro-Jumping---The EShemar-’Raijus’ have been claimed to have been observed to perform micro-jumps; sudden and short bursts of FTL speed meant to bring the vessel within pointblank range of an enemy vessel, then instantly accelerate or brake to match speeds, the better to hammer the enemy more accurately and/or bring down their shields by other means other than pure firepower attrition. This is a hellishly difficult tactic that requires extreme accuracy, fast reflexes on the part of the Jumping crew, and precise data on the target vessel or structure; a miscalculation, or flawed target data, can set the Jumping vessel off course and out of position, easy prey for the defenders’ guns, or put the two vessels in the same space, with catastrophic results. Using long range scans to glean data on a target’s position, shield strength and coverage, and their speed and heading is problematic in that the distance between scanner and target is hampered by signal lag. Sensor jamming and stealth systems on the part of the target can further degrade the data, and jeopardize the success of a tactical micro-jump.
Micro-jumping tactically in this manner works best if the Jumper has ‘spotters’ already in place, close enough to keep scan-lag to a minimum, that can constant stream data via FTL link to the Jumping vessel immediately prior to the latter making ts move. The most ideal circumstances under which this might take place or in a battle action, where several friendly warships surrounding a target vessel can effectively draw the target’s attention, and incidentally create a navigation ‘grid’ around the enemy, allowing the jumper to appear suddenly on an unprotected side. The other ‘perfect’ situation is having an enemy vessel shadowed by stealth scouts, that can then case the target for a surprise attack.
In a successful micro-jump attack, regardless of whether the Jumper has special attacks(like shield-breaking technology), the attacking vessel will have the Initiative for one melee.
(For gaming purposes, assume the ESheMar-SFB-0112 has a Navigation: Space bonus of +15% to perform micro-jumps.)

Enryu Aerospace Drone Fighter
(aka ‘Egger’)
“Run hard, burn fast; that’s the Enryu for you. They might not seem like much with their shinebrite laser clusters, but you get several dozen of them escorting your formation, or better yet, several HUNDRED mucking up an enemy’s scanners, all those little photon bites add up. And if it comes to it, you don’t have to worry about toting them back home; those drones will give the last full measure if required.”

“I don’t care for robots flying themselves, especially ARMED robots. Didn’t you idiots learn history? I refuse to be anywhere neat any unit that operates these killbot fighter drones. I don’t trust gearheads who claim their precious AIs can’t be corrupted and I have no intention of being among those who learn otherwise the hard way. You Alliancers are on your own on this; Salcar Interstellar Security is NOT taking your contract.”

The Enryu is a compact contragravity-powered drone fighter. Its streamlined ovoid airframe is reminiscent of some of Naruni’s combat drone designs, leading to rumors that the Enryu is either based on copied Naruni tech, or was designed by engineers fleeing copyright infringement actions by NE.
The standard Enryu mounts a trio of wide area spray lasers and is programmed for interception and dogfighting. Their CG/AG propulsion systems make them equally effective in atmosphere as in space. Only lightly armored and possessing only a basic EW sensor-spoofing suite(which often must be upgraded/adjusted between missions to match known enemy sensor profiles), Enryu must rely on their speed and relatively small size to survive in combat. Their powerplants tend to run hot and burn out quickly under the strain of hard use; this is not considered a matter of concern as most users see them as expendable assets, and there are rarely ‘old’ Enryus in busy combat units.
Enryu drones have proven themselves as effective ‘harassers’, decoys, and missile interceptors. Though meant to be ship/station-deployed, the drones have also begun appearing with planetary garrisons.

(Unbeknownst to WZT, the Shemarrian Star Nation has, through its covert market connections, been acquiring and reverse-engineering Enryu drones, finding them in many ways superior in performance to their own Xidras drones)

Type: WTZ UACV-SF012 Enryu
Class: Aerospace Combat Drone
Crew: None; A.I. drone
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 250
Height: 12 ft
Width: 12 ft
Length: 16 ft
Weight: 2.8 tons
Cargo: None
Powerplant: Nuclear Power Cell, w/ 3 year energy life.
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 11
(Kitsune Values: 40% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1.1% of light speed per melee)
Market Cost: 7 million credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Aerospace Fighter Systems(minus life support), plus:
*ECM Suite----- The Enryu has a basic ECM suite for confusing sensor-guided weapons; -3 to strike.
Weapons Systems:
1) Point Defense Lasers(3) ---These laser clusters are mounted around the body to provide maximum arcs of fire, to maximize hits on missiles and other fighters.
Range: 4,000 ft in atmosphere, 1.2 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 1.2 miles in atmosphere, 120 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6 MD single shot, 2d4x10 MD pulse burst (four shots, one from each barrel), 4d6x10 MD for all three clusters firing on the same target(forward arc only)(counts as one attack).
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2) Ramming Attack---As an attack of last resort, the expendable Enryu can kamikaze into a target.
Damage: 1d4x100 MD, DOUBLE that if moving at speeds of Mach 7 or more.

Programming:
Pilot: Space Fighter(for maneuvering purposes) 80%
Navigation: (Air/Space) 96%
Radio: Basic 98%
Radio: Scramblers 96%
Math: Basic 98%
Read Sensory Instruments 80%

Actions/Attacks Per Melee: 6
Initiative: +1
Strike: +5
Dodge: +5
Roll: +3

Variants:
The Enryu has spawned a wide range of variants, of which only two (and the most popular) are presented. Other variants swap one or more of the laser clusters for additional sensors, different weapon types, flare/chaff launchers, and EW aerials. There is even a manned variant with a small (and cramped, by all accounts) single-occupancy cockpit atop it(Maximum speed limited to Mach . Target-tug, sensor drone, and bomber variants are also available.

*UACV-SF012B---Matter/Anti-Matter-powered variant. Can hit speeds of up to Mach 16 , and ramming attack does an additional 1d4x100 MD. Increase price by 30%.

*UACV-SF012EW104---One of a large series-variety of decoy and countermeasure drones. Drops two of the laser clusters to provide power for a high-powered jamming system; uses up-to-date information on the engine emissions profile of its host vessel, in order to mimic it and mislead enemy sensors(-30% to enemy Read Sensory Instrument rolls to discern the real ship, or a flat 70% chance of successfully aping the larger vessel). Programmed Electronic Countermeasures skill of 94%, and is -8 to strike with sensor-guided weaponry.

Gorang ‘Sylegle’ Medium Grav-Prop Aerospace Bomber
(aka ‘Tandrom’, ‘Double Egge-Beater’)

“Gorang ships may look ridiculous, but they’re no joking matter. Their weapons may be primitive, but on this case especially ‘primitive’ does not equal ‘harmless’. Gorang sky-pirates pilot their ships like demons, and even a pea-shooter can do serious hurt in the hands of a good gunner on a good weapons platform. If you don’t take these bandits seriously, they’re the ones that are going to be laughing at your expense, especially after their bombers toss a load of high-ex into your engines or your hangar bay. I’ve seen state-of-the-art Warshields go up in flames after being attacked by things that looked like something out of petroleum-age tech-culture.”

“One of these things just landed on the dust-field on Mestos; our agri-liaison spotted it and reported it as soon as she ID’ed it. Yeah, it’s Gorang, and a type we know little about, but the crew isn’t Gorang; they look like real sword-and-musket worlder types. So you take an intel crew out there soonest, find them, and chat them up friendly-like. Find out who they are, where they came from, what are they doing, that sort of thing, and meanwhile, get as close to that ship as possible and find out what you can about it. Hopefully these people are just the intinerant travelers they claim to be, but we can’t take any chances. If there’s Gorang activity nearby, Frontier Defense has to know about it before we start losing merchant ships or outlier settlements.”

The eccentric Gorang sky-pirates, like the Horune, seem to derive their vehicle designs from dreams, but in the Gorangs’ case, they seem to tap into other species’ dreams of aviation, given the striking similarities in their aerospacecraft to the aircraft of antiquity of other worlds.
The Sylegle is a case in mind; it bears a heavy resemblance to the S-31 Kurowashi, an entirely fictious four-engineed bomber design that appeared in Japanese aviaio magazines during Earth’s World War Two, and was mistakenly, if briefly, assumed by United States military intelligence to be a future design nearing deployment.
The Sylegle, however, sports cropped wings, relying primarily on its grav-props for aerodynamic lift. In place of the two sets of engines fore and aft driving co-axial, contra-rotating props, the Gorang craft has two sets of grav-prop engines in the same arrangement. Armament consists of several fuselage-mounted gun positions, and remote-controlled guns in the trailing edges of the wings. An internal bomb bay and underwing ordnance racks allow the Sylegle to conduct its intended role as a strike craft, with a variety of ordnance. The aerospacecraft sits on tricycle landing gear.
Being of a slightly more ‘modern’ design than the average Gorang sky-pirate types, the Sylegle has shown a quick curve in refinements, especially in engine power. The first examples encountered were engined with Rating 3 engines, but soon thereafter, the type was seen to be upgraded with Rating 4s, and even 5s. Similarly, Sylegles have been seen to carry EW gear and other specialized avionics, though this equipment appears to have been acquired from outside sources.

Note: The example described here is outfitted with Rating 4 grav-props.

Type: GorSPSB-S21 Sylegle
Class: Medium Grav-Prop Bomber
Crew: 5
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 320
Wings(2) 150 each
Gun Nacelles(2) 150 each
Tail Fins(2) 90 each
Cockpit 110
Gun Blisters(3) 100 each
Engines(2) 150 each
Grav-Prop Forcefields(200 front, 200 sides, 200 rear)
Height: 20 ft
Width: 59 ft
Length: 69 ft
Weight: 39,3400 lbs
Cargo: Up to 950 lbs in the crew cabin.
If not carrying ordnance in the bomb bay, can carry 18,000 lbs
Powerplant: Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to 1,300 MPH; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) 13,000 MPH/Mach 19
(Kitsune Values: 40% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1.9% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 4 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not possible
Market Cost: The Gorang don’t generally sell their spacecraft, but captured examples of the Sylegle have sold for 23 mllion credits or more.
Systems of Note:
Stadard Starfighter Systems(much of which has been stripped from captured spacecraft), plus:

*Rocket Booster/Nitro Injector---A rocket boost or power increase unit that can give the aircraft a real kick in the pants in emergencies, boosting speed by 1d6x10% for 1d4 melees per activation.

*Light on the Stick---The aircraft responds very quickly to movements on the controls. +1 to Dodge/Evade, and gets an AutoDodge(takes no APMs to use) without bonuses.

*Tighter Turning Radius----The aircraft gets a +1 to initiative or dodge rolls when doing a turn to attack or evade.

*DiveBomber----The aircraft can can use its rear grav-props to both drive and brake a dive; bomb ordnance used in divebombing attacks. A successful dive-bombing attack requires a Piloting roll at -10%, but the dropped ordnance is +2 to strike, and gets a +2d4 MD for the extra speed assist in penetration.

Weapons Systems:
1) Wing-Mounts(4, two forward-facing and two rear-facing)---Mounted in nacelles in the wings are four remote-control ball-turrets, each holding paired light rail guns or energy weapons(such as pulse lasers). Using captured armaments(such as HI-lasers) is common practice in the Three Galaxies, and it’s rumored that the examples captued in the UWW were being refitted with technowizardry weapons.
(Examples)
-Light Autocannon---Equal to a light machine gun or rail gun
Range: 4,000 ft(8,000 ft in space)
Damage: 1 MD single shot, 3d6 MD for a 20 rd burst, 6d6 MD for a 40 rd burst(both barrels)
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Typically has a 1,000 rd magazine

-Light Pulse Laser
Range: 3,000 ft(6,000 ft in space)
Damage: 3d6 MD per blast, 6d6 MD for a double shot burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2) Fuselage Mounts(3, ventral front, ventral/dorsal tail, )---Gun stations that can hold heavier rail guns, autocannon, or light energy cannon(Point Defense rating). Using captured armaments(such as HI-lasers) is common practice in the Three Galaxies, and it’s rumored that the examples captued in the UWW were being refitted with technowizardry weapons.
(Examples)
-Medium Autocannon---Equal to a .50 caliber machine gun firing explosive shells
Range: 5,000 ft(10,000 ft in space)
Damage: 1d4 single shot, 6d6 MD for a 20 rd burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload:Typically has a 500 rd magazine

-Medium Laser Cannon
Range: 5,500 ft(11,000 ft in space)
Damage: 5d6 MD per blast, 1d6x10 MD for a double shot burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3) Bomb Bay--- In the midsection ventral side of the aerospacecraft is a bomb bay with a 18,000 lb capacity.
a) Mini-Missiles: 1 ton of cargo per 96 missiles
b) Short Range Missiles:1 ton of cargo per 48 missiles
c) Medium Range Missiles:1 ton of cargo per 24 missiles
d)Long Range Missiles:1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles
e) 3G Cruise Missile:1 ton of cargo per 2 missiles
f) Freefall Bombs
*250-lb Bomb----2d4x10 MD to 50 ft blast radius
*500-lb Bomb----4d4x10 MD to 60 ft blast radius
*750-lb Bomb----4d6x10 MD to 65 ft blast radius
*1,000-lb Bomb----1d4x100 MD to 70 ft blast radius
*2,000-lb Bomb----2d4x100 MD to 80 ft blast radius
*5,000-lb Bomb----4d4x100 MD to 100 ft blast radius
*10,000-lb Bomb----4d6x100 MD to 120 ft blast radius

Auxiliary Craft: None

Variants:
While the Gorang tend to keep their particular brand of arcano-technology to themselves, recent developments have seen substantial amounts of their equipment fall into others’ hands. Greater New England’s capture of several Gorang Iron Islands has allowed them to reverse-engineer a good amount of Gorang grav-prop design, and Paladin Steel has disseminated some of the arcanotech to their clients by way of hardware incorporating it.
In the case of the CragTooths, the originators of the Sylegle, one of their forward raiding bases near the United Worlds of Warlock was overrun, and the base’s flight line captured mostly intact. A number of these air/spacecraft have subsequently appeared with Dark Coven -aligned pirates, though whether these ships were part of the booty netted in a pirate war, or the ships were traded to the Dark Covens out of desperation on the part of the CragTooths, remains unknown.
A handful of Sylegles have appeared with other parties as well. One is known to have appeared refitted as a yacht in the possession of a band of independent adventurers from NueBarsum. This particular example does away with the bomb bay in favor of converting the space into living quarters. This example was also found to have better(likely custom) engines than the rank and file, with a 30% increase in overall speed, and a custom sensor array, with trailing vanes off the ends of the wings.

Areosian ‘Zultan’-class Colony Starship

Sometime during the preparations for Launch, Protector Vidar had to duck through the Colonist In-Processing Center where lines of refugees-no, colonists, he reminded himself, waited patiently in line for their final medical checkups and induction into stasis, their few allowed personal possessions already loaded into the cargo bays of the massive starship towering overhead outside the processing center. As he walked past the lines he and his uniform had gained instant recognition, getting him smiles, cheers, thumbs up, handshakes, offers of kisses and requests for kisses, and even a few offers to bear his children when the Ship reached its destination and they started building their new homes.
The Recalitrants were still bad though....shuffling along sullenly, stripped of dignity and clothes alike, their arms bound behind them, looking like slaves being coffled for auction or animals being led to slaughter, instead of medical preparation for stasis. Unlike the citizen-evacuees, these ones didn’t greet him with cheer, if they even bothered looking up at him at all as he passed.
Didn’t they realize that every effort was being bent to save their lives? One didn’t require special instruments or even enhanced vision to see that the sun blazing overhead at the Launch Site wasn’t behaving right! Everybody HAD to pack up and leave, and they would need everybody, to insure the survival of their people! The government wasn’t doing this TO them, to sentence them to some sort of vile slavery! It was doing it FOR them, to give them a chance of survival, of continued LIFE! Areos wasn’t going to abandon them to a horrible death by solar cremation, even if they weren’t exactly exemplary citizens in better times!
Viidar reminded hmself to remain upbeat and see the silver linings; they had a good ship ready to go, they were on track to saving their planet’s population, saving their culture and societies, and they were finally going out into the greater universe! Vidar was going to see the galaxy!

Areos was a human-sept-inhabited world similar in many ways to 21st-century Earth, though Areos had a few differences; one was the presence of superbeings, superpowered humans straight out of comic books. The other was an alien invasion that galvinized the industrial nations of Areos into a frantic technology build-up to drive off the invaders. Using captured and reverse-engineered alien technology, the Areosians made great strides in aerospace, materials, and energy production technologies. To augment the small numbers of natural mutant superbeings who were in the vanguard of their armies, the Areosians also learned how to genetically engineer superpowers into people. Against such soldiers, the aliens were defeated and driven from the system.
But the aliens had the last laugh; the Areosians learned soon after that their sun had been sabotaged and was becoming erratic, swelling and surging in size and intensity. In less than a century, their planet would be engulfed in a solar inferno.
The Areosians set out on a massive starship building program to transport their populace away to worlds that they knew from captured alien star charts could support their type of life. All the nations of Areos, already accustomed to working together fighting the aliens, were able to get into the business of building an evacuation fleet smoothly and efficiently; earlier fears that ‘survival lotteries’ would be needed to determine who went on the ships were unrealized. There would be ships enough for all.
The shipbuilding program was so successful in fact, that the Areosians then swept up the less developed cultures on their planet to accompany the refugee fleet. Not everybody wanted to go along with the evacuation program, either disbelieving what the astronomers were predicting, or determined to stay with their doomed planet. The united world government gave them no choice, equally determined not to leave anybody(the exception being obvious raging psychopaths and the most monstrous of criminals) behind. The ‘Recalitrants’ were rounded up and forced aboard the refugee ships, of which there were many available.
Several colony ship designs were mass-produced by the Areosians, but the ‘Zultan’(“Escape”)-class was the most common, a combination of alien ‘fast-drive’ and ‘slowboat’ stasis technologies. The skyscraper-tall cylindrical Zultans were fast and sturdy vessels with state-of-the-art systems, carrying all the necessary supplies and equipment for a self-sustaining colony, and festooned with a small fleet of parasite craft. The Zultans would carry a passenger complement of several thousand colonists in stasis, watched over and protected by a rotating ‘awake watch’ of superpowered crewmembers.
Later, as the Areosian star become more violent and desperation set in to finish the evacuation, the crew complements became more varied. Some ships were manned entirely by non-augments, others captained by cyborgs who were linked to their ships, and still others were wholly automated, Artificial Intelligences running the ships while the passengers slept. The construction program and evacuation was finished just as the Areosian sun entered its terminal phase and began expanding into a red giant. The last ships off used their planet’s shadow to shield them until they could light off their star drives and escape the radiation front surging out from the dying sun.
Compared to the vessels of the major powers of the Three Galaxies, Zultans are slow, although their propulsion systems are considered state of the art for heavy space transport by the Areosians(their smaller military vessels are faster, but not suitable for the demands of the mass exodus). Zultans are intended as ‘sleeper’ ships, carrying most of their complement aboard in biostasis, the better to stretch onboard supplies and reduce psychological strain. Even the crew rotates in and out of stasis. Zultans lack the capacity to keep all of the ship’s passenger complement awake and housed at the same time; maximum ‘awake’ capacity is 2,600 and is meant to be used to stage several batches of colonists prior to disembarking on a new world.
Though slow, Zultans are heavily armored, against anticipated impacts with interstellar debris at the ships’ maximum speed. Heavily protected and multiple redundancy systems provide reliability over the anticipated long migration journey, and reduce the chances of a critical strike crippling the entire vessel. They also carry several arrays of long range lasers and missile launchers for dealing with larger debris and alien threats. Also mounted in recesses along the outer hull is a small armada of small craft to assist in developing new homeworlds. Many Zultans went into space in groups, and/or accompanied by small fleets of robotic freighters carrying additional supplies(including cultural materials, personal possessions and artifacts not deemed valuable enough to carry aboard the life-arks themselves, but which could be packed into the less important freighters).
While the Areosian evacuation went off successfully, the overall success of the program as a whole has been spotty, owing to the wide dispersal of, and breakdown of communications between, the exodus fleet. Some ships inevitably failed, breaking down and becoming derelicts, others found worlds to settle on, only to fail due to various factors. Others fell prey to alien pirates and slavers. A few colony ships fell victim to their own; the superbeings appointed as the ships’ protectors instead deciding that they could be kings(or queens) and becoming tyrants over the new colonies. Some of the later ships fell victim to malfunctioning A.I.s who took over total control of the humans.
A few stumbled across the other civilizations of the Three Galaxies, wandering into CCW-space and AMAZED to discover another society of starfaring humans.
Areosian exodus ships can still be found in free space in the Three Glaxies or even other universes, looking for new homeworlds or waiting for rescue. Likewise, their accompanying robofreighters can be found in space carrying some rather eccentric payloads(salvagers tell of finding everything from building materials to art treasures, liqour collections, and even entire disassembled antique homes!).

Type: A-Ex03 Zultan
Class: Colony Starship
Crew: 120+6,300 passengers/colonists in stasis
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 90,000
Bridge 10,000
Long Range Lasers(4) each
Long Range Missile Launchers(8 )
Engine Bloc 25,000
Tail Fin Radiators(18) 400 each
Height: 558 ft
Width: 558 ft
Length: 1,850 ft
Weight: 980,000 tons
Cargo: Carries some 400,000 tons of colonization supplies and equipment.
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion supplemented by solar power
Some later models used experimental antimatter propulsion systems based on reverse-engineered alien technology..
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 10
(Kitsune Values: 15% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1.0% of light speed per hour)
(FTL) 0.2 light years per day
(Underwater) Not possible
Market Cost: If an intact and operational Zultan were made available on the galactic market, it could fetch about 1.8 billion credits, more if it had a full complement of small craft and colonization supplies. Of course, pirates and slavers will regard crew and passengers as additional ‘value’.
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems:


*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 Resolution Range of 300,000 miles. Navigational array has a range of 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.

*High Resolution Optics---Another surface surveillance system, for producing high-resolution optical imagery of a planetary surface. Includes thermographic optics for detecting heat sources and missile launch plumes.

*Radiation Detectors---Detect the presence of radiation, from the trace emissions of nuclear powerplants to nuclear explosions.

*Magnetic Shield----Zultans generate low level magnetic fields that are configured to deflect radiation. They reduce damage from ion and particle beam weapons by HALF, and can confuse and deflect guided missiles 35% of the time.

*Modular Design---Zultans were designed to be easily broken up upon landing, to become parts of the new colonial settlement; the cryo-bays would become refrigeration units for food storage, life support systems heating, ventilation and hydroponics starters for the colonists, the engines powerplants, the weapons module a communications and defense tower, the hull panels recycled into habitat housing. Some parts could even be made into orbiting space stations for communications and weather studies at the colonists’ new home.

Weapons Systems:
1) Long Range Lasers(4)---These are meant for both asteroid defense and anti-spacecraft work.
Range: 25 miles in atmosphere, 50 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 25 miles in atmosphere, 25,000 miles in space)
Damage: 2d6x100 MD per shot
Rate of Fire: Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2) Long Range Missile Launchers(8 )---These are combination weapon and probe launchers.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-5
Payload: 50 missiles each launcher, 300 ready-to-fire total; additional missiles may be carried and loaded from cargo, but will take at least 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles)

Auxiliary Craft:
4 Nuclear Orbiters---Orbital survey platforms and tugs(12 man crews, 1,000 MDC, Mach 6 in space)
8 Nuclear Rockets---Deep space tugs and prospecting craft( 15 man crews, 1,000 MDC, Mach 10 in space)
12 Aerospace Shuttles---Passenger shuttles and transatmospheric cutters(6 man crews, plus 30 passengers. 600 MDC, Mach 7 in space, transatmospheric. Armed: x4 light lasers)
12 Heavy Aerospace Shuttles---Heavy cargo shuttles(6 man crews, plus 300 passengers. 900 MDC, Mach 6 in space, transatmospheric)

PS/ASI Lightoller-class Fast Combat Transport
(aka ‘Tisthak’)

“Damned for a liar if I say I didn’t see the Happy Landings tank a Sqaada tac-nuke and come out the other side still flying, its cargo of civvies shaken but not fried. But that’s exactly what happened. Even had enough peedee capability left to SKIN the damned reptile pilot who launched the nuke and came around for another pass.”

“Despite being built on the fly as it were, the ‘tollers are put together right. We intercepted enough enemy comm-traffic intel to learn that they thought they were chasing spec-ops raiders, not hot-modded transports. And the amount of firepower they were running into from the things got them comparing the ships to some rather nasty porcupine-jellyfish-thornbush critters from their homeworld.”

The Lightoller-class is a fast lash-up of a vessel design devised by Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries in the heat of the Minion War sweeping over the Three Galaxies.
Based on the Nao-class merchant ships, and in particular the PS/ASI- SC07B variant, the Lightoller has been fitted with the heaviest virtual shielding and most extensive point defense systems that could be efficiently crammed onto the frame. The engines have been beefed up for higher speed, and the lower hull fixed into a large transport section. The rear hangar bay has been removed in favor of additional weapons emplacements and countermeasure systems. The midsection ‘tower lounge’ has been replaced with electronic warfare jamming gear and fire control. The ejectable forward cabin section was deleted from the plans in favor of conventional lifepods, and as a measure of reassurance to passengers that the crew would not abandon them in an emergency.
Lightollers can defend themselves quite adequately against fighters and missiles, but not against heavier vessels, so they must rely on either their speed or escorts if confronted with warship opposition. Similarly, on the offensive, Lightollers lack the sort of penetration aides and surface-attack armaments for entering a hostile landing zone, so they must rely on other vessels to supply defense suppression fire and deal with surface emplacements.
The Lightoller-class saw its first use in the Sqaada War with the mass evacuations of several colonies that were subjected to nuclear bombardment. The new ships’ speed, easy loading, and long range anti-missile/fighter defenses served them well in pulling civilians out of harm’s way, even as the evacuation points were coming under Sqaada fire. Their debut also earned them the nickname of ‘Tisthak’, after a particularly bristly and unappetizing animal native to the Sqaada homeworld.

Type: PS/ASI- LHDSC07 Lightoller
Class: Light Fast Troop Transport
Crew: 36+ capacity for up to 250 passengers(400 under crammed conditions)
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 4,000
Bridge/Forward Hull 2,000
Main Communications/Sensor Array 700
Engine Nacelles(2, once each side) 2,900
Tachyon Scattergun Turrets(2) 250 each
Rail Cannons(2) 250 each
Point Defense Turrets(8 ) 100 each
Variable Forcefield 1,000 per side, 6,000 total
Height: 80 ft
Width: 160 ft
Length: 500 ft
Weight:15,000 tons
Cargo: 4,000 tons
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 50 year energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 9.8
(Kitsune Values: 60% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.98% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 5 light years per hour
Market Cost: 220 million credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:
*Jamming Pod----Bundled standard ECM suite for confusing sensor-guided weapons; -5 to strike, scrambler field; confuses radio transmissions in an 80 mile(Kitsune: 8,000 mile) radius, particle beams do HALF damage, and 45% chance of deflecting standard missiles(i.e.; ‘dumb’ missiles).

*Advanced Fire Control---The point defense turrets are networked and coordinated, and all get a +4 to strike.

Weapons Systems:
1) Tachyon Scattergun Turrets(2)---Two tachyon ‘sprayers’ are mounted in fore and aft turrets with wide arcs of fire.
Range: (Palladium)1.5 miles (2,500 m) in atmosphere, 6 miles (10,000 m) in space w/ 3 mile wide arc*
(Kitsune Values: 6 miles in atmosphere, 600 miles in space)
* Scatter width is reduced to 1/4th in atmosphere
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per single cannon firing
Rate of Fire: EPCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2) Rail Cannons(2x2) ---Mounted in the wingtips are old-pattern rail guns. Can also fire fragmentation ‘flak’ rounds. A proven and reliable weapons system found on many PS/ASI designs.
Range: 6 miles in atmosphere, 12 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 12 miles in atmosphere, 12,000 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6x10 MD per cannon, 8d6x10 MD for two cannons firing simultaneously.
(Exploding/Fragmenting Fletchette): 4d4x10 MD to anything caught in a 120 ft wide cone/’cloud’----Targets are -2 to dodge the ’shotgun spread’
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 500 bursts per gun

3) Point Defense Turrets(8 ) ---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

4) Countermeasure Launcher----The fantail compartments(former hangar bay) now hold countermeasure launc racks. Three separate sorts of countermeasures are available:
The first is simple sensor-reflective chaff and thermo-flares. These countermeasures are inexpensive and very effective against lower-end targeting systems and sensor equipment(such as that used by nations equivalent to the Coalition States on Rifts Earth), but are ineffectual against more advanced technology.
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
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.
In space, anything flying at high speed through the cloud will take 2d6 MD +1d6 MD per every 100 miles of speed over 670 MPH.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 50 bundles are available

The second system releases a nanotech swarm of active jamming pods and decoys that are programmed to emulate a spacecraft’s sensor signature, or, at the very least, bury enemy tactical communications in ‘white noise’.
Effective Range: 25 mile jamming radius
Duration: 5 minutes per pod-spray
Effects: Jams radio signals(75% chance of jamming military band command-guidance ordnance), and 60% chance of deflecting ordinary missiles.
Payload: 25 swarm packs are available

The third system uses modified grav-pack drives and signal projectors to create a moving pattern of sensor signatures. The grav-pack mini-missile drives can go for 10 minutes before self-destructing, and can either be remotely directed or run a preset pattern.
Effective Speed: Mach 6
Duration: 10 minutes per pod
Effects: The decoys have a 70% chance of fooling enemy sensor operators and expert systems. They are are also +2 to enemy sensor-guided munitions to strike, increasing the chance that the missiles will elect to pursue the ‘louder’ sensor signature(the missile rolls to strike for both the original ship and each decoy deployed....highest to strike roll determines which target the missile(s) go after).
Payload: 20 decoys are carried, and can be deployed singly, or in ‘packs’ of 1-3.

Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries PS/ASI-SCG-23‘Pillara’-class Cruiser
(aka ‘Buxomite’, ‘Udder’, ‘Double-Belly’, ‘Muthership’)

“The geners love their ship lineages, and the Pil’s just another modular monster to look out for in a long line of ‘em. Looks like a transport Laffy in long range scans, but if you go in closer, you might find youself facing double the firepower or fighter cover of a regular light cruiser. Your best bet is that the Udder wallows a bit with the extra mass and is slightly slower than the Lafs in straight accel, and if you can get out ahead of it you can try outracing it. The ussahs might have come up with this double-breasted stabber on a whim and in a hurry, but that doesn’t translate into clunker. Respect the guns, if nothing else. ”

The United Systems Alliance’s need to beef up its coordinated defense forces with heavier, and ideally locally-produced, starship units meant that demand to meet that need fell on the recognized Alliance military-industrial giants, WZTechyards and Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries(though the two were often confused as being one corporate entity). The Pillara-class cruisers were one offering from the latter corporation to bolster Alliance starfleet capabilities.
The Pillara emerged as part of PS/ASI’s ongoing efforts to more efficiently produce less expensive modular warshps that could be tailored to the operators’ needs and technologies, and more easily upgraded with newer technologies as they became available. Though this strategy proved problematic with PS/ASI’s efforts to develop a battleship from existing merchant ship designs, aspects of it showed in the long line of Javelin- and Barong-derivatives that have served GNE and the subsequent USA well. The Pillara was developed as a derivative of the successful LaFayette design, which had already spawned the Mazule, Tabar, and Voulge cruisers.
The Pillara attempts to increase the capacity of the LaFayette class by mounting not one, but TWO, modular lower hulls. Though several configurations of lateral pod and over-and-under hulls were explored, the side-by-side layout was chosen as needing less reconstruction and deck-orientation in the pods to allow for faster adaptation to the ship. The ship itself has required some modification; the forward main hull has been widened, with enlarged structural attachment points fore and aft, and an added section to the middle, lengthening the hull slightly.
Two LaFayette-style lower hull pods can be mounted side-by-side. The mountings do require some revision of the systems attachment trunks and access ways, as well as reconstruction to meet ‘right-’ and ‘left-’ hull side orientations, but these are far easier to accomplish in a shipyard than the other configurations considered.
To compensate for the added mass, the main engines have been modified as well, with an added booster section of thrusters, adding 30% more power. Though the Pillara is actually slightly slower than the baseline LaFayette, it also has stronger shield-strength than the light cruiser. The commonality of spare parts and frames with the existing LaFayette fleet has also made maintaining the new Pillaras an easier matter. Using components already produced in-house has saved the Greater New England worlds, and the United Systems Alliance, the need to subcontract anything for the new design.
The Pillara has thus far been produced in only limited numbers, larger scale production pending evaluation of those already deployed. The cruiser is seeing deployment as a support vessel for taskforces. Already the prominent twin ventral hulls have drawn some derogatory nicknames, though most crews assigned to the ships give them high marks for their versatility and ease of maintenance. Though not a paradigm-breaker of a design, the Pillara adds extra firepower and transport capability to the forces deploying it.

Type: PS/ASI-SCG-23 Pillara
Class: Medium Cruiser
Crew: 250+60 marines
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 18,000
Bridge 4,000
Secondary Modular Hulls(2) 11,000 each
Main Sensor Array 900
Secondary Sensor Arrays(3) 600 each
Heavy Lasers(2) 600 each
Secondary Lasers(14) 300 each
Long Range Missile Launchers(2) 300 each
Point Defense Turrets(10) 100 each
Hangar Bay 3,000
Engines 10,000
Variable Shields( 2,000 each side, 12,000 total)
Height: 160 ft
Width: 200 ft
Length: 1,010 ft
Weight: 160,000 tons
Cargo: 3,000 tons
Powerplant: Advanced Nuclear Fusion w/ 50 years energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 9(transatmospheric); rarely lands
(Sublight) Mach 9.7
(Kitsune Values: 60% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.97% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 5 light years per hour
Market Cost: Est. at 3.9 billion credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems, plus:

*Long Range Sensors----Pillaras mount large multimedia sensor arrays identical to the LaFayettes. The sensors can pick up on vessels moving at FTL up to 25 light years away, and vessels moving through normal space up to 0.9 light years away.

*Docking Collars(3)----Three external docking collars with extending tubeways for servicing additional starships docked to the Pillara. One is mounted on each side, the third on the underside rear. If not carrying hull pods, an additional pair of ships can be docked to the underside life support core superstructure.

*Tractor Beams(4)--------Effectively each rated for 1,500 tons dead weight, but can be used for imparting small changes in momentum/direction to ships/structures several times that mass.
Range: 10 miles in space(NOT usable in atmosphere)(Kitsune Values: 10,000 miles in space).

Weapons Systems:
1)Heavy Lasers(2)---The main bite of the LaFayette-class is the pair of heavy lasers mounted in the forward hull. These have been retained on the Pillara.
Range: 7 miles in atmosphere, 14 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 14 miles in atmosphere, 14,000 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6x100 per blast
Rate of Fire: 4 times per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2) Secondary Lasers(14)---Another holdover from the LaFayette is its secondary batteries; backing the main laser cannon is a larger array of lower-powered weapons for saturation attacks. Up to six cannons can be brought to bear simultaneously on the same target in a broadside, or all 12 can engage targets in the dorsal and ventral arcs. The expanded lower hull has necessitated widening the hull ‘skirt’ to allow the lower tier of laser cannons to engage targets in the ventral arcs. It has also allowed for the addition of an extra pair of turrets.
Range: 7 miles in atmosphere, 14 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 14 miles in atmosphere, 14,000 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4x100 MD per single blast, 8d6x100 for six cannons firing simultaneously
Rate of Fire: 4 times per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3) Long Range Missile Launchers(2)---These launchers are also used to deploy recon drones, probes, and special ordnance.
Range: Varies by Missile Type(Long Range Missiles)
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type(Long Range Missiles)
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-10
Payload: 120 per launcher; additional missiles may be carried as cargo, and reloaded from storage.

4) Point Defense Turrets(10)----The Pillara mounts PS.ASI-standard dual pulse-laser and mini-missile launcher turrets identical in number and mounting positions to the LaFayettes.
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: (Lasers) 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
Cost: 10,000 credits per missile

Auxiliary Craft
*18 fighters
*20 Power Armors
*3 Shuttlecraft

Options:
The big options on the Pillara are the double Secondary Hull Pods, which can be attached to the lower hull attachment points and core access galleries and outfitted for a variety of different purposes. Rather than formal variants, the SHP allows for a confusing(to enemy sensors) abundance of different configurations, though most ships will stick with one for their entire operational lives. Typically two similar pods will be mounted, but configurations of different pods are possible.
The following are the more common configurations(but not ALL of the possible pod types):

*’B’-Barracks Pod---Adds passenger capacity, housing up to 120 passengers in diplomatic comfort, or 320 troops in more spartan accommodations.

*’C’-Cargo Pod----Dedicated cargo module, adding 10,000 tons cargo capacity.

*’D’-Drive Pod----Removes hangar capacity in favor of an additional engine section, boosting the ship’s sublight speed to Mach 12, or 18 if two D-pods are mounted.

*’E’-Escort Pod---Outfitted with a complement of point defense weapons systems for use in picket and interception duties
-Point Defense Turrets(6)---Adds six more PDS turrets identical to 4) above.
-Tachyon Scatter Guns(4)
Range: (Palladium)6 miles (10,000 m) in space w/ 3 mile wide arc(cannot operate in atmosphere)
(Kitsune Values: 600 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per shot
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

*’F’-Plasma Pod---Mounts two heavy plasma torpedo launchers in place of embarked fighters(still retains the shuttles).
---These are direct-fire weapons that fire bolts of plasma trapped in a temporary magnetic ‘shell’ centered on an evaporated ‘seed’ of ultra-dense deuterium ice, allowing the plasma to travel farther without losing cohesion and damage potential, and allowing the plasma to explode with area of effect on target. The result is an energy missile with superior range to normal energy weapons(though still well short of comparable missile weaponry) and potentially unlimited payload. However, the plasma packets CAN be grabbed/deflected by tractor beams(this is how the ship’s gunners can manipulate their energy projectiles at short range and correct their course....each of the launch arrays’ mounted tractor beams being able to grab and direct a volley of plasma bolts), or destabilized by ion or particle beam weapons fire(takes 20 MDC to disrupt the plasma containment).
Range: 20 miles in atmosphere, 200 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 200 miles in atmosphere, 200,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x100 MD per blast to 100 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: Each array can launch volleys of 1-8 torpedoes, twice per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited


*’G’-Gravity Gun Pod---Mounts two heavy gravity guns in place of embarked fighters(still retains the shuttles).
Range: 25 miles in atmosphere, 70 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 70 miles in atmosphere, 70,000 miles in space)
Damage:(Kinetic Penetrator) 3d6x100 MD to 15 ft radius
(Multi-Munition Fragmentor) 3d6x10 MD to 300 ft radius
(Heavy Plasma) 2d6x100 MD to 150 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: Three times per melee
Payload: 100 shells per cannon. Additional shells may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes(3 shells per ton of cargo)

* ‘H’-Hangar Pod----DOUBLES fighter capacity to 32 fighters.

*’I’-Ion Pod---Adds capacity for four heavy ion cannons and a dedicated powerplant in place of embarked fighters(still retains the shuttles).
Ion Cannon--(ionization rules courtesy of Henning Rogge)
Range: (Palladium) 4 miles in atmosphere, 12 miles in space
(Kitsune Values) 12 miles in atmosphere, 12,000 miles in space
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per blast,
In addition to physical damage, the cannon does EM damage. Percentage of EM damage is determined in relation to target’s main body((damage/main body)x100=percentage). For every 10% of damage from main body in ion damage, target will be -1 to strike, parry. and dodge. In space target acceleration will be reduced by 15%, in atmosphere top speed will be reduced by 15%. Roll once on critical hit charts in Phazeworld or Conversion book as appropriate.
If target takes 60% of main body in ion damage, ship or vehicle will be disabled completely. All weapon, navigation, and other systems will shut down and need to be repaired/replaced to work again/reboot.
Does NO damage against non-mechanical/electronic targets.
The ion cannon is equally effective against bionics
Rate of Fire: Five times per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited

*’L’-Laser Pod---Adds capacity for three more Heavy Lasers and a dedicated powerplant in place of embarked fighters(still retains the shuttles).
Range: 7 miles in atmosphere, 14 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 14 miles in atmosphere, 14,000 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6x100 per blast
Rate of Fire: 4 times per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

*’M’-Missile Pod--- Mounts an additional battery of long range missile launchers(identical to those mounted in the main hull) in place of embarked fighters(still retains the shuttles).
Range: Varies by Missile Type(Long Range Missiles)
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type(Long Range Missiles)
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-10
Payload: 200 per launcher; additional missiles may be carried as cargo, and reloaded from storage.

*’N’-’Net’ Pod---A module fitted with heavy area-of-effect weaponry in place of fighters. Typically used as an anti-fighter/missile picket.
a) Heavy Tachyon ScatterGuns(4, 400 MDC each)
Range: 5 miles (2,500 m) in atmosphere, 10 miles (10,000 m) in space w/ 6 mile wide arc*
(Kitsune Values: 5 miles in atmosphere, 5,000 miles in space)
*Width are reduced to 1/4th in atmosphere
Damage: 1d6x100 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
b)Heavy Rail Guns(2, 500 MDC each)
Range: 40 miles in atmosphere, 80 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 40 miles in atmosphere, 40,000 miles in space)
Damage:(Exploding/Fragmenting Fletchette): 5d6x10 MD to anything caught in a 120 ft wide cone/’cloud’----Targets are -2 to dodge the ’shotgun spread’
(Penetrator): 2d6x100 MD
Rate of Fire: Four times per melee
Payload: 100 rds per cannon, reloading from the cargo hold takes 1d6 minutes( 200 tons ammunition storage, 1 ton of cargo per 12 rounds)


*’O’- Medical Pod(aka ‘OR’)---Flying field hospital with a capacity of caring for up to 200 patients at a time. Includes 6 fully equipped operating rooms, recovery wards, laboratories, and hangar capacity for 6 shuttles(no fighters).

*’P’-Planetary Assault Pod---This pod carries the launch systems for freefall kinetic and explosive weapons meant to be deployed against surface targets(the ‘superbomber’ concept). Can typically carry up to 8,000 tons of deployable ordnance, such as the following:
a) Kinetic Bomb---Fairly typical 2 ton ‘rod from god’ high density kinetic penetrator
Range: Orbit to Surface
Damage: 2d6x100 MD; effective blast radius of 120 ft. Can penetrate up to 400 ft into solid rock, dropped from orbit.

b) Light Kinetic Penetrator Module ---Works similar to a WWII ‘Earthquake Bomb’. Kinetic weapons have the advantage of leaving little or no radiation to contaminate a battlefield or potential postwar acquisition. The LKP module actually carries three separate RVs on a maneuverable ‘bus’ stage, allowing three separate targets to be hit, or a single target to be bracketed. Each RV does 1d6x100 MD to a 100 ft radius and can penetrate up to 250 ft of loose soil(100 ft of rock or concrete)
Weight: 4 tons

c) Heavy Kinetic ‘Smasher’--- A single-shot warhead(no multiple warheads) weighing 12 tons. Hits with considerably greater velocity and kinetic energy. Does 1d6x100 MD to a 90 ft radius, and does DOUBLE damage to any fixed-foundation structures in a 200 ft radius, due to ground shock.

d) Heavy ‘MaxSlap’ KEW-----Designed to be ‘lobbed’ for maximum kinetic impact, the super-heavy bomb does 1d8x1,000 MD to 250 ft blast radius, and can penetrate up to 500 ft of earth(300 ft of rock or concrete), for attacking bunkers or undercutting larger structures.
Weight: 21 tons

e) Fuel Air Explosive Munition---A single warhead(no multiple warheads) non-nuclear area of effect weapon that disperses a cloud of volatile fuel droplets in a mist over the target area, then ignites it in a rapidly propagating explosion. Besides thermal damage, the real damage from this weapon comes in the massive overpressure shockwave that it creates, capable of forcing its way into open ducts and vents, and imploding vehicles and bunkers. Also known as a ‘Daisy Cutter’, it is often used to simultaneously secure and clear landing zones of obstacles(both sentient and material). The heavy FAEM can do 4d6x10 MD to a 500 ft radius, plus 3d6x10 MD to everything else in a 3,000 ft ft radius. Those caught within the blast radius are also likely (01-88%) likely to be bowled over by the blast and stunned, if not worse....
Weight: 15 tons

f) ElectroMagnetic Pulse Weapon---Designed to knockout unprotected electronics and power distribution networks, exploding at high altitude for maximum effect. Up to four of these weapons can be carried on a common ‘bus’.
Damage: 5d6x10 MD to 100 ft blast radius
EM effects: Used against unshielded power grids(such as cities and towns), the particle blast has a 99% chance of knocking down electrical systems, including vehicles, in an 100-mile radius of the point of detonation. Unprotected computers and other hardware not protected by surge protectors, and hooked into the common power grid, may still be affected up to a hundred miles or more away by power surges through the power lines.
The EMP is less effective against shielded systems such as those on space structures(25%) and military systems(10% for surface military vehicles), which are hardened against radiation.
Weight: 1 ton ‘bus’

g) Heavy Nuclear ‘SunBombs’---These are the heavy PS/ASI-made weapons used exclusively by their forces. They are rarely used against inhabited/habitable worlds(used against exclusively military targets).
Weight: 10 tons
Range: 1,000 miles(4,000 miles in space)
(Kitsune Values: 3,000 miles in atmosphere, 1,000,000 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4 x 1,000 MD to a 4.6 mile destruction radius

h) X-Ray Laser Bombs
Weight: 10 tons
Range: 1,000 miles(4,000 miles in space)+laser range
(Kitsune Values: 3,000 miles in atmosphere, 1,000,000 miles in space)+laser range
Damage: 1d4x1,000 MD laser blast; range 70 miles(Kitsune Value: 70,000 miles). Laser-reflective armors do NOT halve X-ray laser damage.---One-shot weapon that destroys itself in the process of firing.
Advanced models can target as many as 10 separate targets within range simultaneously.

i) Plasma Jet Bombs(aka ‘Casaba Howitzer’, or ‘Sunspot Bomb’)---A cousin of the X-Ray Laser Bomb and predecessor to the Plasma Torpedo, the Plasma Jet Bomb is essentially a shaped nuclear charge, generating a conical wave of super-excited plasma and radiation. The Plasma Jet Bomb lacks the range and multiple target engagement capability of the laser mine, but because it doesn’t expend all its force in all directions, it can produce higher damage than a regular omnidirectional plasma warhead.
Weight: 10 tons
Range: 1,000 miles(4,000 miles in space)+plasma range
(Kitsune Values: 3,000 miles in atmosphere, 1,000,000 miles in space)+plasma range
Damage: 1d6x1,000 MD plasma blast; range 30 miles(Kitsune Value: 30,000 miles), in a cone 30 degrees wide. The radiation also has a 60% chance of blanking out the target’s sensors for 1d6 melees---One-shot weapon that destroys itself in the process of firing.

j) TW Weapons---Based on the work done between Paladin Steel and its allies, strategic TechnoWizardry weapons are a safer, more ‘morally acceptable’ alternative to vaporizing enemy cities with nuclear weapons. TW warheads also have certain advantages against magic-vulnerable opponents. They are also lightweight, allowing more of them to be carried and deployed.
The downside is that strategic TW weapons are hellishly expensive in both the crystal matrices needed to hold the weapons-grade spells, and the high-level mage talent needed to produce and empower them.
Still, PS produces and deploys a wide variety of these weapons, just in case.
Weight: Each RV ‘bus’ weighs 1 ton.

j1)TW Disharmonize---Actually more of an airburst weapon that deploys thousands of small individual grenade-sized TW ‘skeet’ warheads over a wide area, that fall to an appropriate altitude for maximum effect, then explode, causing no initial physical damage, but sowing massive chaos throughout both military forces and civilian populations. Tremendously expansive in terms of magic energy investment, and relatively short-term in its effects, it nevertheless can be an effective weapon in disrupting an enemy’s defenses in advance of a raid or troop landing.
Each MIRV can carry up to 200 ‘skeets’ each
The carrier shell is designed as an airburst weapon(300-1,000 ft up), with the dispersal charge firing the skeets out on wide arc frisbeeing trajectories to cover a maximum area of effect. Each submunition skeet affects a 500 ft radius(some overlap is unavoidable), and effects last 50 minutes. Everyone caught in the area of effect must save versus magic or else lose HALF their attacks per melee, lose initiative, and be -20% to perform all skills. Furthermore
The beauty of this weapon is that the mage-munition officer or loader, if one is available, can , simply by touching the shell before loading and launching, and uttering a safing incantation(Magic telepathy or psionic telepathy will also do the trick), fuze the weapon to affect ONLY enemy soldiers...KNOWN allies are UNAFFECTED by the magic! Of course, if no such trained combat mage or psychic is available , then the ‘generic’ shell will affect EVERYONE in the area of effect.
Needless to say, however, at 150 PPE per submunition, these weapons are awfully expensive.

j2) TW Magma Weapon(RV)---Modified River of Lava spell, that creates a pool 450 ft in diameter instead, that lasts 15 minutes. If deployed in shallow water it lasts only 7 minutes and does HALF damage, but creates huge bubbles, kills local sea life, and produces a massive cloud of superheated steam that blinds anyone on the surface, fouls up thermographic imaging systems, and creates a belching sonar static that can screw up passive sonar systems in the area.

j3) TW Tsunami Weapon(RV)---Designed for attacking coastal targets,this weapon deploys up to 5 independently targeting RVs that each generate a tidal wave.
Each warhead creates a tidal wave roughly 150 ft high, 3,000 ft long, lasts 15 melees, reach as far as 450 ft inland, and does 4d6x10 MD per melee. Also has a 75% chance of capsizing any ships it catches.
Note: This weapon is INEFFECTIVE unless aimed at a sizable body of water, such as an ocean, large lake, or deep river.

j4) TW Hurricane Weapon(RV)----Ocean-attack weapon, but can also be used against large lakes. Each MIRV creates a massive sea storm that covers a 120 ft area, 100-150 mph winds, and 30 ft high waves. Does 3d6x10 MD per melee to large structures, and 1d6 MD to anyone caught out in the open. Effects last 15 minutes.

j5) TW Maelstrom Weapon(RV)---Another ocean-attack weapon, for attacking shipping and submarine warships/installations. Like the Tsunami Weapon, the ‘bus’ can deploy up to 5 independently targeting RVs that each generate a sizable whirlpool in any large body of water they are aimed at.
Whirlpools are 120 ft wide, lasts 15 minutes, and does 1d4x10 MD to anything caught in its center, 2d6x10 MD per melee to large ships, and 1d6x100 MD to hem if they get submerged or if the whirlpool ‘breaks the ship’s back’.

j6) TW Earthquake Weapon(RV)---Each warhead acts as a 15th level Elemental Earthquake spell; 3500 ft area of effect, doing 2d6x100 MD per melee, for fifteen melees. Generates a fissure 900 ft long, doing damage to everything within 600 ft on either side of it. A full spread of Earthquakers can destroy a county.

j7) TW Stormfront Weapon(RV)---Airburst warheads that unleash multiple Tornadoes(one per warhead), and an accompanying Summon Storm, all equivalent to the 15th level Elemental Warlock Spells.
Tornadoes are 100 ft in diameter, last 15 minutes, and do 3d6x10 MD per melee to anything caught by them, and an additional 2d6x10 MD to anything hurled out. Wood, clay, and stone structures take 4d6x10 points of damage(SDC or MDC), and trees are uprooted in one melee round. The tornadoes will also randomly wander about in a half-mile area before dispersing.
The storm element creates a drenching, obscuring downpour that drops 4 inches of rain per hour, does 1-6 points of structural S.D.C. per half hour, immobilizing floods, and reduces visibility to near zilch; storm covers a 14 mile area, and lasts 7 hours

Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-20
Payload: 80 free-fall RVs. Additional RVs may be carried as cargo(


*’S’-Sentry Pod---Holds an advanced long range sensor system. The ship can now pick up on vessels moving at FTL up to 30 light years away, and vessels moving through normal space up to 1 light year away. Mounting two S-pods does not increase sensor range, but does provide redundancy, though most operators will pair the S-pod with another type of pod, typically a hangar module.

*’T’---Tender Pod---Designed to work with the module-equipped Sunchaser- and Windfola-class corvettes. This pod is an open-framework holding additional modules(up to 30) to swap out with the smaller ships, and the apparatus needed to do it in the field.

*’U’---’Universal’ or ‘Unknown’ Pod----A dedicated science pod with dedicated laboratory facilities. Can be variously outfitted for astronomical or planetary sciences studies, including quarantine facilities for medical research. Has onboard living facilities for up to 30 research staff, although in the more extensive/secured research configurations, the scientists may live entirely in the main hull of the ship, and direct automated systems in the science pod. Some variants on this pod can be detached and deploy station-keeping thrusters and external solar panels and antennae to act as free-flying mini-space stations.

“Y”-Pod---Special designation given to a ventral hangar or drop-pod holding a large submersible vehicle that can be deployed from the LaFayette. Reports that several examples have been used to deploy combat submarines on worlds of the TGE contested by the FWC, or Golgan worlds (especially those contested by nationalist movements) remain unsubstantiated.


Variants:
The Pillara is so new(and modular) that no variants have yet emerged. The only variant under discussion is an up-engined model that would double the size of the engines and potentially boost normal space speed to Mach 10, but some fleet architects in the USA are contesting the economics of such a variant, arguing that for the price of a double-engined Pillar variant, two regular LaFayettes could be produced.

Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries PS/ASI-SFG27 Spencer-class Interstellar Frigate
(aka ‘Chisholm’, ‘Comstock’)
“The United Systems Alliance isn’t just signing up new worlds to make headcount. They mean to defend every one of their member systems, or so their PR is proclaiming. That sounds rather ambitious...maybe too ambitious, and smacking of bravado. Some of the more cynical analysts in CAF intelligence figure the ussa will fold and start triaging systems if they ever faced invasion by a REAL threat like the Splugorth or the Kreeghor, rather than lose everything trying to defend everything. According to other sources we’re developing, though, their shipbuilding programs suggest they’ll make a damn good go at protecting their space and making any invader pay for every astronomical unit. They’re building lots of light combatant units and missile platforms and posting them all over their frontiers. Hopefully they won’t have to ever put them to the test against massed capital units, but in the meantime they’re doing yeomen service against the pirates in their sectors.”

“Looks like a hauler, kicks like a cruiser. You’d think word would spread about picking on ussa systems and ussa shipping and the hidden guns waiting in them, but there seems no end to oppportunists willing to come take their chances pirating on the Rim. And the Alliance is willing to oblige them by making their learning curves high and their life spans short.”

“The Spence is a good ship, but of course it has a few shortcomings. Sensors are little better than a regular frigate’s, so long range warning, especially out on the frontier, can be problematic. It’s a good idea to carry a few scoutships in the hangar bays, pair up with another vessel with long-listeners, or link to a satellite sky-search net.”

The Spencer-class FFG is a derivative of Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries’ Ranger-class ‘task ship’ light cruiser. Though the GNE/Five Star aerospace forces have made the Assegai- and the LaFayette-class light cruisrs their workhorses, the nearly explosive growth in membership numbers of the United Systems Alliance has led to a proportionate growth in the demands on the shared military services. As many of the worlds of the USA are at risk, or lack the resources or infrastructure to develop their own aerospace military forces, PS/ASI has had to create a variety of easily produced and easily maintained ship designs that can provide USA member worlds with at least basic protection. The wide regions of space that need to be covered, especially with regards to trade and supply lanes also impose a burden on available forces, so new vessels had to be built to patrol the traffic routes and fend off pirates.
Q-ships and mercantile cruisers are a common USA tactic to defending against pirates, and the Spencer-class follows that practice. The Ranger-class cruisers earned their stripes as ‘stealth’ vessels posing as regular freighters to get around unnoticed or overlooked, and that worked out very well for their operations. Though not as heavily-stealthed in that regard as the Rangers, the Spencer-class does try to emulate similar medium transports in its appearance and sensor profile, but without the high price tag associated with the Rangers.
The Spencer is slightly shorter than the Ranger, and resembles a standard spine-and-engine-bloc freighter design with attached modular cargo bays running its length. Two flanking secondary engine nacelles suggest extra maneuvering capability to manhandling oversized external loads.
In reality, the forward protruding length of ‘spine’ conceals a sensor array, and over-and-under heavy axial laser cannon and massdriver cannon. The bridge is actually buried farther aft, in the ‘cargo sections’, of which the first third hold small craft bays(three times the size of the BlackJack’s), and the rest crew housing and support systems. Though not considered to be a ‘stealth’ vessel, the Spencer commonly operates such that it is often mistaken on long range scans for a civilian transport.
Spencers lose most of the Rangers’ surface-attack weaponry in favor of antispacecraft capabilities, though their large hangar bays mean that they can be used to carry fighter-bombers or assault shuttles. Some operators use them as dedicated fighter carriers, but most use the extra hangar capacity to accommodate rescue shuttles and lifepods for deep space rescue operations.
Another criticism of the Spencer design is a lack of missile weaponry; many Rim crews like to keep opponents at ballistic missile range and feel that the Spencer is suicidally armed for knifefighting(the massdriver missile launcher system being a potential write-off if the axial weapons are damaged and disabled). For this reason, many operators of the Spencer carry missile-armed fighters/cutters, or convert one of the hangar bays into a missile launcher. PS/ASI has responded by to these concerns by producing a missile-frigate variant of the Spencer, but some users still dislike the approach of ‘either-or’ with regards to balancing small craft capacity and missile strike capability.
Spencer-class frigates are becoming a common sight in star systems affiliated with the United Systems Alliance.

Type: PS/ASI-SFG27 Spencer
Class: Interstellar Frigate
Crew: 100+25 man marine contingent+50 man aerospace complement
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 12,000
Bridge 3,000
Hangar Bay 2,000
Auxiliary Engines(2) 3,500 each
Variable Forcefield 1,800 per side, 10,800 total

Height: 200 ft
Width: 300 ft
Length: 650 ft
Weight: 165,000 tons
Cargo: 3,000 tons
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion, w/ 50 year energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Sublight) Mach 9
(Kitsune Values: 60% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.9% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 5 light years per hour
Market Cost: 420 million credits
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
*Laser Targeting-------250,000 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.

*EW Jamming Systems---In combat, the Spencer will attempt to use its electronic warfare suite to confuse enemy sensors as to the ship’s exact position and activity. Communications Jamming has a 10,000 mile range, is 90% effective against civilian systems, and is 65% effective against more sophisticated channel-jumping military communications suites. Missiles and sensor-guided weapons are -4 to strike.

*Passive Stealth Systems----The Spencer uses passive stealth systems to reduce its sensor signature by as much as 40%, but in order to achieve this, the ship cannot be under acceleration, and its engines must be running ‘cold’.
*Tractor Beams(2)----Effectively each rated for 2,000 tons dead weight, but can be used for imparting small changes in momentum/direction to ships/structures several times that mass. One emitter is mounted at the hangar bay, the other in the prow.
Range: 5 miles in space(NOT usable in atmosphere)
(Kitsune Values: 5,000 miles in space).
Weapons Systems:
1)Heavy Laser(1)--- The Spencer uses a heavy laser cannon of the same type produced for the LaFayette-class light cruisers.
Range: 7 miles in atmosphere, 14 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 14 miles in atmosphere, 14,000 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6x100 per blast
Rate of Fire: 4 times per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2) Heavy Massdriver Cannon(1)---Mounted under the main laser cannon is a co-axial massdriver. Besides firing slug-style KEWs, the MC can fire fragmentation rounds, nuclear shells, and even missile-bundles, adding great versatility to the vessel.
Range: 30 miles in atmosphere, 90 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 90 miles in atmosphere, 90,000 miles in space)
Damage:(Kinetic Penetrator) 3d6x100 MD to 30 ft radius
(Multi-Munition Fragmentor) 3d6x10 MD to 300 ft radius
(Heavy Plasma) 2d6x100 MD to 150 ft blast radius
(Missile Cluster)---This fires, albeit at a slower rate of acceleration, a ‘bus’ carrying a volley of missiles. Once clear of the ship, or after a suitable interval, the missiles light off and continue under their own guidance and propulsion. The Spencer can fire volleys of 12 mini-missiles, 6 short range missiles, 3 medium range missiles, or one long range/cruise missile in this manner.
Rate of Fire: Three times per melee
Payload: 100 shells per cannon. Additional shells may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes(3 shells per ton of cargo)

3) Secondary Laser Battery(4)---Four medium-rated laser cannons give the Spencer’s main weaponry a backup.
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,
Rate of Fire:Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited

4) Rail Guns(4)---KEW cannon. PS/ASI has modified the rail guns to also be able to fire fragmentation rds.
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
(Exploding/Fragmenting Fletchette): 2d4x10 MD to anything caught in a 120 ft wide cone/’cloud’----Targets are -2 to dodge the ’shotgun spread’
Rate of Fire:ECHH
Payload: 32,000 rds(400 bursts) per cannon

5) Laser/Mini-Missile PDS Turrets(8 )----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

Auxiliary Craft:
4 Shuttles
12 Aerospace Fighters


Variants:
*PS/ASI-SFGM27---Missile frigate conversion, that converts most of the hangar space to accommodate several large missile bays.
Changes/Modifications:
Weapons Systems:
6) Missile Bay---- Can hold 8 cells, each of which can hold and fire 160 mini-missiles, 80 short range missiles, 40 medium range missiles, 20 long range missiles, or 12 cruise missiles each
*Remove Aerospace Fighter complement.

*PS/ASI-SFGM27B---(aka ‘Black Pepper’)Missile frigate conversion, going further than the SFGM27, that converts ALL of the hangar space to missile bays armed with ordnance off the PS/ASI Orion II System Monitors. Fleet action analysis showed that the nuclear pulse cruisers showed up too easily on military grade sensors, and thus well-equipped raiders tended to avoid the monitors and their ‘nuclear spam’. By outfitting a ‘low-end’ system patrol frigate with an unexpected nuke-spam capability, especially if it was mistaken on long range sensors as a transport, the United Systems Alliance is experimenting with ‘bloody nose’ tactics(making it costly for larger polities to invade USA space). As the few ‘Black Pepper’(so named in reference to ‘pepperbox’ personal defense weapons) conversions are still in the experimental deployment phases and have yet to see any action, it remains to be seen how effective the concept works.
Changes/Modifications:
Weapons Systems:
6) Heavy Missile Batteries(2)----Originally designed for the Orion II , these heavy missile banks can fire heavy long range or cruise missiles in adition to 20-megaton ‘blaster’ warheads.
Range: Varies by Missile Type(see below)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type(see below)
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-50
Payload: 250 missiles per launcher array, 500 total

a) Long Range Missiles
Range: Varies by Missile Type(x4 in space)
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type

b) Cruise Missiles
Range:Varies by Missile Type(x4 in space)
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type

c) Heavy Nuclear ‘SunBombs’---These are the heavy PS/ASI-made weapons used exclusively by their forces
Range: 1,000 miles(4,000 miles in space)
(Kitsune Values: 3,000 miles in atmosphere, 1,000,000 miles in space)
Damage: 2d4 x 1,000 MD to a 4.6 mile destruction radius

d) X-Ray Laser Bombs
Range: 1,000 miles(4,000 miles in space)+laser range
(Kitsune Values: 3,000 miles in atmosphere, 1,000,000 miles in space)+laser range
Damage: 1d4x1,000 MD laser blast; range 70 miles(Kitsune Value: 70,000 miles). Laser-reflective armors do NOT halve X-ray laser damage.---One-shot weapon that destroys itself in the process of firing.
Advanced models can target as many as 10 separate targets within range simultaneously.

e) Plasma Jet Bombs(aka ‘Casaba Howitzer’, or ‘Sunspot Bomb’)---A cousin of the X-Ray Laser Bomb and predecessor to the Plasma Torpedo, the Plasma Jet Bomb is essentially a shaped nuclear charge, generating a conical wave of super-excited plasma and radiation. The Plasma Jet Bomb lacks the range and multiple target engagement capability of the laser mine, but because it doesn’t expend all its force in all directions, it can produce higher damage than a regular omni-directional plasma warhead.
Range: 1,000 miles(4,000 miles in space)+plasma range
(Kitsune Values: 3,000 miles in atmosphere, 1,000,000 miles in space)+plasma range
Damage: 1d6x1,000 MD plasma blast; range 30 miles(Kitsune Value: 30,000 miles), in a cone 30 degrees wide. The radiation also has a 60% chance of blanking out the target’s sensors for 1d6 melees---One-shot weapon that destroys itself in the process of firing.

f) 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.
Range: 1,500 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 neutralized
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
Payload: 150 missiles per launcher array

g) Decoys---Decoy or ‘noisemaker’ warheads are also often used to increase the difficulty of successful missile interceptions, by confusing sensor returns and jamming radar and lidar accuracy. Although this does mean few ‘live’ warheads can be carried to make room for the decoy rounds, against technological opponents the ‘fakers’ can increase the changes of successful volley penetration.

*Remove Aerospace Fighter/Small Craft complement. Still retains lifeboats.

*PS/ASI-SFG27DM----(aka ‘Mailbox’) Dedicated non-FTL variant, meant for planetary/system defense. The FTL drive is removed, exchanged for additional thrusters(Mach 10), and beefed-up shields(4,000 per side, 24,000 MDC total). Popular with local planetary governments because the pricetag is slightly less, but unpopular with crews, who feel the lack of FTL and microjump capability sharply reduces their maneuverability. The PS/ASI-SFG27DM gets its nickname from its boxy appearance and its constant appearance hanging near the worlds it is protecting. For smaller USA star systems, the frigate is often the primary sensor and traffic control platform for challenging and managing interstellar traffic coming into the system.

(Inspired by some hilariously-presented critical commentary by Omegasgundam)

WZ-MC-021 Kardara Missile Cruiser

“If I can SEE my opponent in space combat...I’m too close.”

The WZT Kardara is a variant of the WZ-MC-020 Daito Missile Attack Cruiser. produced by the Kai’Shem of Varakaikos. The Kardara came about after marketing research executives with WZT Varakaikos received reports that while many potential customers liked the weapons configuration and performance of many of their designs, especially the Blade and the Daito, they were turned off by the ram prows that the Kai’Shem loved. Though bladework was a traditional part of Kai’Shemi culture, they were also pragmatic enough to dislike losing potential customers over a matter of a superfluous design feature. WZTYV executives immediately sent down word to the design and engineering offices to draft plans for alternative configurations that would remove the rams.
Design did them better; because the ships’ performances and balance were calculated with the mass of the rams factored in, the mass could not be changed(not without adversely affecting handling), but could be repurposed with systems added to increase the conventional combat capabilities of the overall vessel.
The Kardara is a Daito with the long forward ram replaced with a main hull extension holding additional weaponry. While overall length of the ship is slightly shorter, the hull reinforcement required for the ram prow has been mostly retained throughout the vessel, keeping its toughness. The rebuilt prow now holds a pair of additional cruise missile launchers, nearly doubling its missile barrage capability. The power that went to energizing the ram prow vibrofield has now been allotted to a second pair of particle beam turrets, with what’s left routed to reinforcing the shields. The extra weapons systems have required a slight increase in crew required to operate them, but this hasn’t presented a problem with the extension of extra life quarters into spaces once used to hold vibrofield generators. The removal of number of now unnecessary internal structural baffles has also appreciably increased elbow room and comfort for the crew. In all other regards, the Kardara is identical to the Daito, which has greatly streamlined logistics in producing and servicing the two types.
Unlike the Daito, the Kardara is expected to be deployed as a long range missile sniper, using its missiles to wear down opponents from a distance, rather than as a softener or coup de grace to a ram attack.
The Kardara has proven an immediate commercial success for WZT Varakaikos, winning back a large number of customers(including increased orders from the United Systems Alliance). Though many ‘old-school’ Kai’Shem naval officers regard the Kardara as an ‘emasculated’ Daito, but the Varakaikosian Navy has proven as pragmatic as its WZTYV executives and ordered a percentage of the production to bolster its own forces. Kardaras are expected to back Daito squadrons, covering the assault rams while they make their blade-runs on enemy targets. While initially this caused howls from the ‘Old Guard’(who like to point out the success of the ram-prow at Oradetta VII), it has ironically had the unexpected effect of making assignment to a classic Daito all the more prestigious while at the same time greatly increasing the survival rate of Daitos operating in mixed squadrons with Kardaras. It has also provided a safety valve assignment for Kai’Shemi naval officers less inclined(‘too timid’) to commit their vessels to close combat favored by ram-and-board tactics.

Type: WZ-MC-021 Kardara
Class: Missile Attack Cruiser
Crew: 280 crew, plus 380 troops/marines, and 50 aircrew, Additional space for 1-80 passengers
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 150,000
Bridge 5,000
Hangar Bays(2) 5,000 each
Main Engines(2) 16,000 each
Forward Engines(4) 8,000 each
Particle Beam Cannon Turrets(2) 8,000 each
Cruise Missile Launchers(5) 500 each
Long Range Missile Launchers(8) 300 each
Point Defense Turrets(8) 200 each
Retracting Point Defense Turrets(4) 150 each
Variable Forcefield* 11,000 each side(66,000 total)

*Variable Forcefields regenerate at 20% per melee
Height: 690 ft(230 m)
Width: 360 ft (120 m)
Length: 3,000 ft (1,000 m)
Weight: 180,000 tons
Cargo: 25,000 tons
Powerplant: Advanced Nuclear Fusion w/ 30 year energy life
Speed:
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 7; transatmospheric
(Sublight) Mach 16
(Kitsune Values: 60% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1.4% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 5 light years per hour
(Underwater) The Kardara actually CAN operate underwater, able to move thru the water at 60 MPH, and handle depths up to 2,000 ft
Market Cost: 8 billion credits
Systems of Note:
Standard Starship Systems.
Weapons Systems:
1) Cruise Missile Launchers(5)---Concealed under sliding hatches in the forward hull are five heavy cruise-missile launchers. These are typically reserved for attacking capital warships and blasting fortified space stations.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-32 each launcher
Payload: 32 each launcher, 160 total. Additional missiles may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 6 missiles)

2) Long Range Missile Launchers(8)---The Kardara maintains the proven long range missile systems of the Blade, but with greater rate of fire and payload capacity.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 3,400 miles in atmosphere, 1,800,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-32 each launcher(so all eight launchers firing simultaneously will put 256 LRMs in the air at once!)
Payload: 288 each launcher, 2304 total. Additional missiles may be stored in the cargo holds and reloaded within 30 minutes(1 ton of cargo per 12 missiles)

3) Particle Beam Cannons(4x2)---The main energy weapons of the Kardara are these four double-barreled particle cannon turrets, doubled from the Daito. The turrets can rotate a full 360 degrees and swing out 90 degrees.
Range: 7 miles in atmosphere, 14 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 14 miles in atmosphere, 14,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x100 MD per shot, 2d6x100 MD per double-barreled blast. All four turrets can be brought to bear on a target, doing 8d6x100 MD for a simultaneous barrage.
Rate of Fire: Three times per melee per barrel
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

4) Point Defense Laser Turrets(8)---Eight double-barreled point defense laser turrets are mounted on both the dorsal and ventral rear hull surfaces.
Range: 12,000 ft in atmosphere, 36,000 ft in space
(Kitsune Values: 8 miles in atmosphere, 8,000 miles in space)
Damage: 2d6x10 MD per single barrel burst, 4d6x10 MD for a double-barreled blast
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

5) Point Defense Rail Gun/Laser Clusters(4)----Four rapid-fire point rail gun and pulse laser cluster-turrets can be deployed from concealed sliding hatches. in the forward hull.
Range:(Rail Gun) 1.5 miles in atmosphere, 3 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 3 miles in atmosphere, 300 miles in space)
(Pulse Laser) 12.000 ft :in atmosphere, 36.000 ft in space
(Kitsune Values: 8 miles in atmosphere, 8,000 miles in space) Damage:(Rail Gun) 2d4x10 MD per burst
(Pulse Laser) 2d6x10 MD per burst
Rate of Fire:(Rail Gun) EGCHH
(Pulse Laser) EGCHH
Payload:(Rail Gun) 1,000 bursts per gun; changing a drum takes 15 minutes
(Pulse Laser) Effectively Unlimited

6)Auxiliary Craft:
48 Fighters
2 Large Shuttles

Variants:
*WZ-MC-021B---This variant seeks to address complaints about the relatively light energy armament on the Daito/Kardara. In place of the added cruise missile launchers, the WZ-MC-021B mounts two additional PBC turrets(bringing the total to 6), and adds an extra pair of fusion powerplants to power them. The supplemental power generators also allow a slight boost to shield strength---12,000 each side(72,000 total)---under full combat conditions barrage-firing the PBCs, without causing power fluctuations to the shields. The WZ-MC-021B is regarded as approaching a generalist cruiser configuration rather than a full-on missile cruiser. Not that this matters much, as WZTYV’s -021B order books are already backlogged for available ships.

And now I move on to spaghetti posting on the OTHER (mostly) Taalismn thread. These are upgrades/refits of older WZT designs that had various practical issues, with the ASI entry that started me off on this path. Shout outs to Kitsune for inspiration and at least one character name.

WZT/ASI Fighter Hardpoint Weapon Options
WZT and ASI have worked together to standardize on the most effective weapons to place on their widely proliferating flexible hardpoint based weapon systems. These have been chosen as the primary standards, although many craft have additional hull-specific choices. As usual, multiple weapons can be linked together for a larger salvo.

WZT/ASI Light Weapon Mounts: First attached to the Solace-B. WZT/ASI Medium Weapon Mounts: Originating from the ubiquitous weapon pods of the Tanto, and expanded with the StarTiger II’s catalogue. WZT/ASI Heavy Weapon Mounts: Taken from the wing options of the Raiju. WZT/ASI Super Heavy Weapon Mounts: Taken from the various Proctor equivalent Heavy Fighters, these are Starship-scale medium guns on a fighter. These high rate of fire is due to using Lucerin reactors, which produce far more energy than normal fusion plants. If using a lesser power source, reduce the rate of fire to 2 per melee (other than the GR-1000). The higher end rates of fire values are for units integrated into the hull, like on the Archangel. WZT/ASI Countermeasure Options “S-Sting” Smart Mini-Missile
The S-Sting (for ‘Space Stinger’) is an ASI 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. With minor modifications, it can be launched out of any Three Galaxies standard mini-missile launcher.

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
  Cost: 10,000 credits per missile

WZT-LF69A Skirmisher-A Light Aerospace Fighter
The only real flaw with the Skirmisher was that it was simply expensive for a throw away drone. This was easily solved by dramatically reducing the endurance of its power plant to less than a year, as only a handful of units lasted longer than 4 months after their deployment. This reduced the price to a quite reasonable $12 Million credits, with the $9 Million shield-less version looking very attractive given its generally short combat endurance. WZT also offers package deals on AI Modules, with up to 50% off for orders of 24 or more, with suicide charged thrown in for free.

WZ-XLF-087D Atom-D
"Hey, if we splash somebody with it, that that me we atomized them?"
*Thrown food item sounds*

The Atom-D uses newly developed technologies to replace the light pulse lasers with a pair of modular light hardpoints off of the Starcross-A. While only able to use the energy weapons, they are longer ranged and/or more powerful, with improved capacitors making up for the increased power draw. $23 million credits new, $2 million to upgrade.

WZ-LF-203B Angel-C Light Fighter

• ('Super-Angel')

"Once you knew the Angel, it wasn't a tremendous threat. Without its gimmick, it was slow and myopic, and you had to really ****** up or be distracted for it to be able to take the initiative. The Super-Angel can always take the initiative, which brings back a lot of the horror people felt about it when it was brand new. And there aren't many 'wonderwaffen' designs that can say that after they've been dissected."

The Angel, for all of its immense popularity and effectiveness, still had some fundamental tactical problems, most notably its lack of speed and firepower if it cannot bring its Energy Absorber Panels into play. This was most notable in the beginning of engagements, when the opposition forces jockey for advantageous positioning and launching long and medium range missile solvoes, which the Angel would constantly prove itself to be a lackluster performer in. Additionally, the Angel’s energy mounts were quite short ranged, and often needed the panel energy boost just to be relevant. Canny enemies now knew to either blast the Angel off the field in the opening salvo or ignore it until the end, both of which made it problematic to use. An upgrade was clearly in order.

WZAnvil would be the ones responsible for the undertaking, and took it with all due seriousness. The first and most important change was replacing the compact but not particularly powerful reactor with a substantially more capable one, adding almost a quarter to the ship’s mass but allowing a near doubling of the ship’s base thrust profile. This also left enough power to replace the front mounted lasers with an inherently longer ranged design. Both of these changes sacrifice the theoretical maximum efficiency of the energy boost, but virtually all pilots agree that the constantly higher baseline is far more useful. Finally, the near afterthought missile pylons added in the A model were improved, and the reflective armor coating of the B model was incorporated, combining the only truly successful variations.

While half again the price of the original Angel, the newly christened Angel-C is far more able to get into the thick of things, allowing it to contribute to the battle much sooner. It has been met with welcome arms by all (non-TGE) starfighter enthusiasts across the Three Galaxies, and is currently the highest grossing product of WZAnvil’s military division. While the CAF does not officially care for the Angel or the similarly upgraded Starcross, behind closed doors a great deal of political muscle is being exerted to expedite the ‘Super Scorpion’ upgrade program. WZ-LF-103B Solace-B Escort Fighter
"Even with the higher price tag, the Sol-B is preferred over the basic model. The forcefield saves on armor repair costs, which can really add up after a few runs. The gun mount is also helpful, as its damn rare to find somebody both willing to fly merchant escort and able to actually use the old turret. There's a few out there, but I can only think of 3-4 off the top of my head. Considering I'm the head of the MDF's aerospace forces here in Tenel, that should say something."

WZCloud produced the original Solace to help meet the needs for merchant escorts during the Forge War, where it had proved very effective at preventing pirate attacks against lighter ships. The vast majority of would-be raiders are unable or unwilling to attack a ship that is protected by multiple fighters, and the Solace’s ease of deployment deeply endeared it to small time operators. In addition to the base model, WZCloud developed the derivative Solace-A, which incorporated a modest standard forcefield into the design, which was a very common modification for shipping firms that had some additional funds to spend on protection.

Efforts to develop alternative configurations for the weapon armatures however would falter, with nearly all operators vastly preferring the range on the MRMs to any theoretical combat endurance of gun mounts. As the Solace was a primarily defensive craft, the purpose of the missiles was to prevent the enemy from attacking the host ship, and the range allowed them to either intercept or otherwise ward off would-be pirates far easier. Similarly, the laser clusters armatures were considered the most capable weapons that could be fitted into the available housings, and the spray capabilities made them effective (if short ranged) anti-missile defenses.

There was something that could be done with the P-Beam turret however. While the weapon size was restricted by the turret mount, many operators didn’t bother with using it, keeping it locked forward for ease of use. Thus, WZCloud would be able to make use of the modular weapon pods of the larger Tanto as substitutes. In addition to being cheaper and less complex, the fixed mount also allowed for the use of the Grav-Gun option, which combined range with reasonable combat endurance. The newly designated Solace-B was still sluggish by modern fighter standards, but remains well ahead of the surplus and obsolete designs that are available to non-state sanctioned pirates. WZ-HSI-900 Starcross-A High-Speed Interceptor

• ('Super-Star', 'Crossa')

"We had just submitted the Super Scorp for approval when the in depth analysis of the Crossa came in. Apparently they crossed the Admiral of the Fleet's desk right after each other, which explains the 'vigorous' emphasis he gave to the approval and distribution. It would have certainly passed anyway, but he outright skipped any input from the procurement and budget departments and ordered it as a crash project for, quote, 'any unit technically capable of undertaking the required refurbishment procedure, with whatever expedience possible, regardless of standing budgetary protocols'. Translated from beauro-speak, that means 'Do it, do it now, pull a gun and hose down pencil pushers if they say no'. The very next thing he did was draft me to head up Prominence, with the explicit command to ensure that our aerospace forces do not become a laughing stock. I haven't run into much red tape since then. Wonder why."
---Captain Harriet McKenna, CAF, Director of Project Prominence

After finishing with upgrading the Angel, WZSpiral moved on to the successful Starcross, hoping to maintain its edge in a field that has gained substantially more competitors. The first change was the removal of the second crewman, on account of advances in sensor management technology making him completely redundant. The volume saved was used to expand the powerplant and install a more powerful variable forcefield, granting it something resembling survivability on the modern battlefield. The craft’s bare bones construction made it easy to convert its weapons to the now fashionable hardpoint system, and WZSpiral was able to rummage through their parts catalogue to assemble a reasonable list of options. Finally, the wings were found to be just large enough and strong enough to mount a light ordinance pylon. Dubbing the new model the Starcross-A, it has been proven to be just as popular as the original, although it faces serious competition in the face of the CAF’s Super Scorpion upgrade. WZ-XLF-076 Super Tanto Medium Fighter
"Even with it being better than the Eagle, we sell as many old Tanto's as we do the new. Lucerin access is something of a stumbling block to most independent operators, and they don't want to be tied to an outside corp to keep their ships working. Not unexpected, and we kept more than a few lines as they were, but it goes to show you that its not just performance than makes sales."
---Anonymous, WZT Marketing.

"I'll admit, the Super Tanto and the Starcross-A were what really scared the higher ups enough to give me the blank check to get the job done. The Super-Tiger is nasty, but you'd expect that with its price tag. The WZT birds simply out did the Black Eagle and Scorpion comprehensively, and were about to start popping up everywhere. Add in the TVIA giving Galactic Armory a reaming, and we were able twist their arm into signing off on the 'FU' package as well as the Storm Eagle, which more than made up for the lost ground. The media spin was that we could have had them the whole time and started pointing fingers at the procurement department, which apparently led to most of the old fossils being put out the pasture. I don't know of any GSA involvement, but considering some of the **** I know that actually happened, it would be banal."
---Captain Harriet McKenna, CAF, Director of Project Prominence

"Whats the difference between the Tanto and the Super-Tanto?"
"The first is fast or heavily armed, the second is REALLY fast or fast and heavily armed."

While WZSpiral has missed on landing a CAF contract with their Tanto, the problems in the Black Eagle’s production lead to many lesser forces searching for a replacement. As the Tanto was designed as a direct competitor, it was at least as capable, and was ordered in mass by those that were either unwilling to wait for Galactic Armory to clear their backlog or were attracted by the Tanto’s lower list price. The Tanto would thus be the primary cash cow for WZSpiral's military division, with several factory expansions to keep pace with demand. However, the Tanto would find itself in stiff competition with new and upgraded designs from ASI in the months just prior to the Minion War, prompting WZSpiral to revisit their primary fighter and look to improve it.

With additional experience and additional inspiration on hand, the Tanto was found to have room for growth. The simplest and most expedient change was to simply replace the fixed energy armaments with modular mounts, allowing them to be changed to better suit the operator’s preferences and tactical needs. With some wrangling, it was found that the wing tip mounts could also support Light Gravity Guns, increasing flexibility that much more. This was followed by the addition of a pair of flexible countermeasure launchers in the rear of the craft, inspired by their use on the affiliated ASI’s StarTiger II. While their inclusion mandated a redesign of the tail, modern payloads had become useful enough to be worth the effort.

But the most major change was the replacement of the powerplant, with the old Tanto-Shinden 200 being replaced with a more powerful and much cooler operating lucerin-fusion reactor. While this did substantially increase the cost, it granted a substantial increase in speed and allowed for the removal of a substantial amount of cooling elements in the wings, freeing up volume to be put to better use. These savings were invested in increasing the structural support members enough to add an additional set of harpoints on top of the wings, granting the now christened Super Tanto additional firepower over its predecessor. Additional modest gains came in the form of switching to ASI designed SRM and MRM pods, allowing more to be fitted on each hardpoint.

WZSpiral would offer to upgrade the original Tanto with the new gun hardpoints for a modest 2 million credits, and staked the price of the Super Tanto at 45 million, the same as the Black Eagle. With Minion War losses leading to the CAF to monopolize Black Eagle production, the Tanto and Super Tanto became the go-to substitutes for anybody that needed one, which often included CAF formations beyond logistical reach. The USA would use the Super Tanto as one of their primary medium aerospace fighters, filling in where the substantially more expensive StarTiger II was unavailable or unneeded. Its old rival, the Black Eagle, would receive improvements via the CAF forcing the ‘Fleet Upgrade’ pylon modifications and Storm Eagle configuration down Galactic Armory's troat at what is widely believed to be literal gun point. The Transgalactic Empire would respond by publicly revealing the Sharktooth interceptor and quietly starting to upgrade their Flying Fangs to a configuration similar to that of the Free Worlds Council’s Long Tooth. Paladin Steel StarTiger II Medium Aerospace Fighter

• ('Super-Tiger', 'Greener Missile Wagon')

*whimpering sounds*
---common sentiment among CAN VRRDS Operators whenever the GNEASF brings the GOOD stuff for a territorial dispute.

"We had literally just finished putting the refitted Tigers through their check flight when the scramble order came in. A mid sized Demon fleet was barreling in on Eugena, including a Bone Carrier and a pair of Demon Stars. We didn't know at the time how many of them were fully enchanted with Energy Immunity, so the CAG ordered us to go grav and med missile heavy. It turned out that most of them weren't, but there was enough that it would have been a real problem otherwise. Fortunately the ERF had staged a battle-group on planet so we weren't too worried about being rolled over ground-side, but from what I hear it got real close at some of the pop centers.

When the **** hit the fan, us Tiger jockies were the ones most often stuck with tackling the Bone Fighters, because we had the EM shielding to resist the webbers. The Tantos helped a lot with their T-Shotties, but took half the bite out of the missile exchange, and we were able to hit back way harder. Once their missiles were expended, the Bone Jobs were honestly wimpy on a one on one, but it was usually a much hairier two on one. We did a good enough job that we both won and were intact enough to screen the fleet from the cruise volleys, which would have a nightmare as nearly all of them lacked 'kickers back then. We were close enough to our CLG that we were ordered off the field, but I saw the Chim wings form up for their attack run. From what Intel later put together, the fleet was sent out the test the waters and see if any of the fringe was worth taking a bite at. We took a bite or seven out of it instead."
----Captain Sanders LeBlank, USA FRF.

"Couldn't they just let us feel good about the Black Eagle?"

A comprehensive rebuild of the original StarTiger, it emulates the changes done to the smaller SkyTiger II. The main fuselage has been extended 5 ft to provide room for additional systems, most notably an integral variable forcefield generator and WZT provided Lucerin powered powerplant and thrusters. Despite gaining a full 4 tons of mass, the increased thrust more than compensates, pushing the StarTiger II up to speeds just short of the vaunted Black Eagle. This velocity is severely decreased when the center and wing hardpoints are used, but this is considered more than acceptable for the level of firepower they bring. The fighter’s other systems have also been upgraded to galactic standards, and has tied them into a highly refined combat computer system, based on the electronics suite on the original StarFox. The one significant trade off was the slight reduction in overall armor mass for volume and balance purposes, the use of more advanced galactic composites (merely 1.5 generations behind the CAF) turned it into a slight gain in overall protection.

While costing almost half again the (rarely available) list price of the Black Eagle, the stock StarTiger II is considered to be one of their vanishingly few peers, and has substantially greater firepower thanks to its wing mounts. With the hardpoints, the firepower differential becomes simply overwhelming, but a skilled Black Eagle or Tanto pilot can use their superior speed to stay out of gun range. The AJC began upgrading its fleet just prior to the expansion of the Minion War to the Three Galaxies, and the few units that had received it proved to be vital in countering the early pushes by the Demonic splinter fleets into USA territory. WZT, having been involved in the development process, would respond by offering an upgrade of the Tanto’s weapons (both fixed and optional) after the war was over, but Galactic Armory would have a much harder time improving the ‘young’ Black Eagle to meet this new challenger. Bushido Industries would naturally lag behind, with the Federation having lost half its population and industrial base to the ravages of the great Demon World Cormal, but they managed to salvage their pre-existing development programs and introduced their own upgrade to the Katana within 4 years.

Omegasgundam wrote:And now I move on to spaghetti posting on the OTHER (mostly) Taalismn thread. These are upgrades/refits of older WZT designs that had various practical issues, with the ASI entry that started me off on this path.

Triple-A rated.
Alliance Approved.
Author Appreciated.
Awesome Activated.

taalismn wrote:

Omegasgundam wrote:And now I move on to spaghetti posting on the OTHER (mostly) Taalismn thread. These are upgrades/refits of older WZT designs that had various practical issues, with the ASI entry that started me off on this path.

Triple-A rated.
Alliance Approved.
Author Appreciated.
Awesome Activated.

I'm adding fluff bits to them right now. I'll put together the Ship Mounts and Aurora-A after that.

Omegasgundam wrote:[
I'm adding fluff bits to them right now. I'll put together the Ship Mounts and Aurora-A after that.

Ah that fresh creativity aura....Invigorating!

I've added fluff bits to the fighter post, so take a look at them. In the mean time, here's a standardized list of various ship mounted guns that you can expect to find on PS/WZT ships. With a helping of buzzword salad. Taalismn, I'd like to see what you have on Plasma Torpedoes, because the rules and states on them seem to keep shifting around between different paradigms. Still have some work to do on the fluff for the Aurora-A, but the rest of its good to go.

Capital Mounts per Barrel: The 'Big Guns' of modern captial ships, these mighty weapons usually require an advanced powersource to use.

Intermediate Mounts per Barrel: While haven fallen out of favor among most Three Galaxy powers, these weapons have made a comeback as the various developing nations build up their fleets with whatever technology is on hand. Their primary advantage is that they can run off 'lesser' Fusion powerplants, making them much easier to keep running away from civilization.

Medium Mounts per Barrel: 'Medium' weapons are the bread an butter of light warships, with turrets often mounting multiple systems for increased damage out put. Some designs mount 'Long Range' model weapons, and WZT's Lucerin reactor technology allows it to be done without a longer recharge time.

PD Mounts: Ubiquitous across all moderns space craft, WZT and ASI have worked together to offer the best available defenses to their loyal costumers.



Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries ‘Aurora-A’ Aerospace Frigate

(aka ‘Light Spear’, ‘Star Chaser’, 'Dancing Sword', 'Uber-Fighter', 'Void Dragon')

http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp16 ... img204.jpg

"They have a beauty about that them that none can deny, and the the void sings with their agility. They tear through cruder ships as such sophistication should, and hum with magics waiting to be brought to the fore. Lo those that would try to destroy it, for they tangle with a Dragon of the stars. We must have them"

"I heard that the UWW liked what they saw in the Aurora so much that they wanted to buy the design outright. They must not have managed to come to an agreement, because they settled for the Hauberk. But if the rumors of an unusual Aurora spec being worked on over at Valiant are anything to go by PS is keeping it on the table."

"Tell those Altess that we're not currently interested in selling this particular ship. This is government property, and I don't have the authority to do so unless the check reaches 11 figures. If they can't be bothered to do that much, then they'll just have to call ASI marketing like everyone else."

The original Auroras were as much testbeds as warships, and while they passed with flying colors several aspects were in clear need for revision. Before wide scale production was to commence, the engineers at Paladin Steel went back to the drawing board and began refining the design, incorporating newly available technologies that promised to solve the engineering compromises that had caused so much trouble for the crew. With several additional moments of inspiration, the new Block II configuration was finalized within 6 months, and distribution began immediately. The material fabrication division took the time to increase the number of Ectofiber production facilities in strategic systems, reducing the primary construction bottleneck.

The most important change was the adoption of WZT’s Lucerin reactors, with PS making its own independent inroads with the J’Ng to secure steady access to the material. While not as powerful as antimatter plants, they are far less of a logistical hassle and produce far more power than the older models. Lucerin reactors are also far more efficient than older hydrogen burners, removing the need for the hybrid drive system and allowing it to be replaced with a more conventional and easier to maintain CG model, along with the complete removal of the Bussard Ramscoop systems. Care was taken to preserve the ship’s all-environmental capability, allowing it to operate underwater if need be.

The added power was also used to improve the ship’s weapons. The spinal laser was boosted to its full range, now matching that of the CAF Warshield. In a stroke of engineering genius, the mount was made modular enough to be swapped for different weapons without a grueling stay in a shipyard, needing only 1-2 weeks with a capable Tender. The other energy mounts were also made modular, gaining the ability to mount a range of weapons. The layout of the LRM launchers were improved, allowing more Cruise Missiles to be carried if desired. The other weapons were considered fine as is.

The removal of the Bussard system and the meaningful reduction in reactor size allowed for the interior of the ship to be redesigned, solving the majority of the crew complaints about living space. It also allows for the use of less hull-optimised fittings, although ASI is working to develop a series of ‘Gen 4’ standard components that can be freely shared between its latest ships. Additionally, automation improvements have allowed for less crew to be needed for general maintenance tasks, although the full complement is needed to make full use of its non-combat systems.

While not a particularly cheap craft, the Aurora-A is far less costly than a full capital unit, and is far more flexible than most. Fast becoming one of the icons of the USA’s AJC, the Aurora-A would serve alongside the more common Hauberk as bulwarks of civilization in the Fontrier sectors of the Anvil and Thundercloud galaxies, and prompt the CAF to much more effort behind the faltering ‘Super-Hunter’ program. The TGE, having already begun phasing in the ‘Super Berzerker’, took little notice, focusing on their doctrine of massed smaller combat ships rather than a lesser number of more capable ones.

(using suggestions and characters from Omegasgundam)

The System Interdiction Craft Initiative

“Yep, knowing our Greater New England Yankee history, the SICI seems a throwback to the early American naval initiatives and the proposals to build ‘mosquito fleets’ of armed cutters and schooners in place of proper multi-gundecked men of war. Didn’t work out so well back then and they had to build a proper big ship blue water navy. History seems to be repeatung itself in the Sea of Space and the Deep Black, in that we’re building fleets of fighters, gunboats, and cutters to protect those shores of ours we can’t base our handful of heavies. Hopefully we’ll have better luck wih the scheme than our Earth ancestors did.”

After racing(unreasonably so in the opinion of some) to acquire the means to produce captal units, Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries scaled back its ambitions to concentrate on smaller craft, especially patrol craft. Since their installation as one of the primary arms suppliers of the United Systems Alliance, PS/ASI engineers and military planners saw a growing need for smaller, but hard-hitting, vessels that could be produced in large numbers and deployed to cover the many star systems of the USA. Few members of the USA could, by themselves, support heavy units such as cruisers and battleships, but could be expected to be able to base a squadron or several of smaller patrol craft that would do to deter most small pirate operations.
Nicknamed ‘Little Killers’, these patrol craft had to be durable, fast, and hardhitting, able to punch above their weight. PS/ASI and WZT have begun rolling out a variety of patrol craft designs to meet the needs of the USA’s constituent worlds, as well as for export to other potential customers.
Other advantages of basing patrol craft include the ability to use both space- and surface-bases, or even mobile bases such as modified merchant ships. This means fewer specialized facilities such as grav-docks, as are required by many larger warships. Though some see this as a cost-saving measure, the more grimmer-minded strategists in the Alliance Joint Command see it as reducing the chances of any one strike neutralizing a system’s defense squadrons, allowing surviving units to hold out and conduct guerilla-style combat operations until(hopefully) heavier Alliance reinforcements can respond. Deployed in conjunction with regular fighters and merchant cruiser conversions, the ‘Little Killers’, it is hoped, will be able to bloody larger opposition forces enough to at least impede their operational schedules.

Note: While some designs presented were specially requested by proposal-solicitation to meet military command requirements, the widespread nature of the USA and sporadic isolation caused by the Minion War and other events has led to many designs being developed of necessity by individial sector factory works and design teams, using what they have on hand. This has often resulted in a welter of designs that would be redundant in a larger more contigious organization, and prone to competition-eliminations before one was chosen for mass production. Again, though, given the nature of the United Systems Alliance, more often than not, the various designs have been adopted by their origin sectors out of pride and necessity, and the designs have subsequently spread through osmosis as trade routes re-open or are redrawn.


PS/ASI-LCrv021 ‘Haizam’ Aerospace Patrol Cutter
(aka “Angelmas’)

“I don’t normally approve of the use of cruise missiles at knife-fighting range, but I’ll forgive it this time, Berkonitz. I happened to be talking on videocomm to that Atorian scoundrel Teem when you dropped your bafflers and popped your surprise into her cruiser’s engines. I’ll send you a clip of the expression on her face. It’s...well, it’s priceless.”

“We’re not driving a transatmo truck here any more, we’re the resident cavalry.”

“Yeah, it looks like a bus and draws fire like a billboard, but it’s got useful more bells and whistles and gun turrets than the Proctor, and an onboard lavatory you don’t have to be a QuickFlex to get in and out. Sales are still only to folks who pass the Geeners’ purity tests, but once there’s enough of these ships out there, there’s going to be bidding and blood wars to get hold of any examples that wind up in a Dark Port lot.”

The ‘Haizam’ came into the SICI(Systems Interdiction Craft Initiative) not as a result of a proposal requirement sent to various design teams, but because of an informal meeting between PS/ASI technicians on break with their opposite numbers in the Consortium Armed Forces.
While between shifts at a shared government transport depot in Tenel Sector, Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries spacecraft techs working on logistics handling systems and freighters would occasionally meet up with CAF techs and share eating space and conversation. While nothing of a classified nature could be discussed, there was more than enough unclassified material to complain about; awkward on the job accidents, ingenious fixes to equipment, poorly designed equipment, the relative merits of different freighter designs, and a certain amount of comparing the respective strengths of spacecraft they were familiar with were all fair game for argument.
When the discussion turned to the desired qualities in light combatant craft, PS/ASI technicians were astonished to learn that the CCW military techs had wondered when PS/ASI would roll out a patroller variant of their PS-AAST-6 ‘Gannet’s ’ -ALAST-6FTL ’ FTL-pinnace variant form. It seems that the CAF was familiar enough with the large shuttles seen frequently operating with USA and affiliated operators(and indeed,the CAF had even bought a few of the open market models) that they felt it could be developed further into a proper patroller like the Proctor, as the ship had the armor, potential armament, and versatility, but lacked the legs and protection. PS/ASI just hadn’t taken the next step because they though the airframe too large and specialized for transatmospheric operations to be a good deep space combat unit, but the CAF engineers, with more experience behind them, seemed to think otherwise.
As soon as they could after the meeting, the PS/ASI techs booked for their superiors and reported the conversation. In short order the Gannet’s operational specs were pulled up and drafting programs launched to check the variables and available components that could be applied . Though there was some lighthearted concern that the technicians’ lunchtime companions had been pulling their legs, a few simple simulations soon had foreheads slapped as the CAF techs’ assertions were proven correct. After some more simulation runs, a rough design memo was written up and sent up the line to elicit interest.
As it turned out, both the sector PS/ASI security office and GNEASF CDF were looking for a new aerospace security craft to plug holes in their force stables after Alliance Joint Command had requisitioned most of their destroyer screens to intervene other sectors. Not willing to trust entirely in the sector CAF(who had their own problems with shifting of Fleet assets), and wanting to build back up to strength as quickly as they could, the GNEASF sector command LIKED the idea of a light aerospace combatant based on an airframe they were already well familiar with, and could be easily manufactured even at the small aerospace yard PS/ASI maintained in the sector. They sent word and authorized construction of three prototypes for evaluation. Two months later the first ‘Haizams’ rolled out and began flight trials. Even before the first two weeks’ test schedule had been completed, CAF observers forwarded a CAF sector command advance procurement order on the new machines, which only confirmed what the test pilots were already saying: the new design was a winner.
The new Haizam is most readily visually distinguished by its more elegant flare-back nose, redesigned thruster manifolds and the streamlined FTL drive ‘hump’ gracing its back.
Internally, the Gannet’s limited electronics and avionics have been scrapped in favor of more advanced milspec systems adapted from dedicated combat craft. As the Haizam was being expected to fill in for larger corvette-craft like the Windfola in the system patrol role, sensor systems were upgraded and the basic EW pack systems changed out for more powerful sensor jammers. Structurally, the Gannet’s frame has been reinforced in the Haizam, with a small increase in overall armor values.
Armament-wise, PS/ASI engineers chose to adopt the weapons configuration of the AAST-6G ‘space cutter’ that served the homeworld Greater New England Homeguard Force High Fleet One so well. The mix of kinetic and energy weapons was both proven and effective against a variety of targets and the rotary missile bay could be easily load-swapped to tailor missile ordnance to a range of mission requirements. The AAST-6G configuration also made room to include a forcefield generator, fairly low-powered by 3G standards, but which could be easily upgraded with technology available in the Three Galaxies. Though the initial preproduction craft were fitted with heavy commercial shields, the Tenel Sector factory was soon able to secure mil-spec variable forcefields.
Compared to the Proctor, as the CAF had, the Haizam is still awkwardly large and massy, but in many respects that same size difference works in the ship’s favor. The larger crew has more room to move around it, making the ship more comfortable on long mission-tours. The Haizam can also carry slightly more in the way of cargo, and, depending on mission duration, more troops. The choice to retain a nuclear fusion power system was not seen as a disadvantage, as the former heavy lifter frame can accommodate the added bulk, and the lower tech requirements of handling deuterium make it easier to refuel and service in the worlds of the Fringe. Ironically, both the Proctor and the Haizam use the same FTL propulsion cores and shield generators, the PS/ASI Tenel Sector factory using components commercially available for the civilian-sector Proctors, though this has worked perfectly for CAF customers as the arguably most fragile systems of the ship can be easily repaired with parts already readily available in the supply stream. Armament-wise, though, few argue that the Haizam can pulverize the Proctor in one-on-one combat, with more weapons mounted on the larger frame.
Since its debut in the Tenel Sector, with the local PS/ASI factory alternating filling the GNEASF and CAF orders, the Haizam design has been forwarded to other GNE and United Systems Alliance worlds as well, and production has begun in other sectors. In those units that operate the Haizam, it has received high marks for ease of handling(thanks in part to its heavy hauler origins), reliability, and firepower. How it will fare in hearts-and-minds and acquisition competition with other emergent light combatant designs such as the Nighthawk, Spetum, Irpull, and Jatar for Alliance Joint Command deployments remains to be seen.

Type: PS/ASI-LCrv021 ‘Haizam’
Class: Heavy Aerospace Patrol Fighter/Light Corvette
Crew: 7
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 1,700
Reinforced Crew Compartment 400
Laser Turrets(2) 60 each
Engines(3) 450 each
Wings(2) 475 each
Variable Forcefield 400 each side, 2,400 total
Height: 37 ft
Width: 150 ft
Length: 220 ft
Weight: 525 tons
Cargo: Can carry up to 50 troops/passengers (on short duration flights) OR 4 small vehicles , OR 140 tons of palletized cargo.
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 30 year energy life
Speed:(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 7, transatmospheric
(Space) Mach 10
(Kitsune Values: 50% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 4 light years per hour
Cost: 270 million credits
Systems of Note:
Standard (PW) Aerospace Craft Systems, plus:

*Life Support---Spacecraft standard

*Sensor Turret(s)---Include long range optics, thermo-imaging, low-lite, image enhance capabilities

*Long Range Radio and Laser Communications---Radio range: 100,000 miles, Laser range; 200,000 miles, Scrambler/Signal Decryption standard

*Enhanced Long Range Radar/Sensors:----Includes EM detectors, terrain-following, IFF, low-altitude discrimination 240 mile range in atmosphere, 240,000 mile normal space range, and can pick up FTL drives as far out as 3 light years.

*Laser Rangefinding/Targeting: +3 to strike

*EW Suite---Upgraded frequency jumping and radar/IR jamming. Radar-guided weapons are -4 to strike the craft

*Thermal Resistant Heat-Refractory Tile Armor---Special heat-resistant materials designed for reentry vehicle shielding. Heat and plasma-based attacks do 1/4 damage. Note that this applies only to the underside and leading edges of the airframe.

Weapons Systems:
1) 80mm Massdriver Cannons(4)--This was the configuration weapon deployed on the AAST-6G and proved particularly effective in ground support attacks against Arkhon troops. While not capable of a GR-cannon’s burst mode, these old-style rail guns can fire various ordnance that make up for ir. Slow rate of fire, but both range and heavy barrage capability make the quad-array lethal to anybody unable to dodge their fire pattern.
Range: 25,000 ft (6 miles) in atmosphere, 12 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 25,000 ft (6 miles) in atmosphere, 600 miles in space)
Damage: High Explosive(HE)----1d4x10 MD to 15 ft radius
High Explosive Anti-Tank(HEAT)---- 3d4x10 MD to 5 ft radius
Fragmentation--- 5d6 MD to 30 ft radius
Plasma----- 1d6x10 MD to 20 ft radius
(APFSDSDU)(Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot Depleted Uranium) 3d6x10 MD out to 6,600 ft, 2d4x10 MD out to maximum range
Rate of Fire: 5 shots per melee
Payload: 166 shots per cannon; each gun is served by a 1 ton magazine that can be reloaded from cargo, if any extra ammunition drums are carried. Reloading a new drum takes 2d6 minutes.

b) G-Cannon(4)---In the alternative, the 80mm cannon can be replaced with the more available GR-1000 G-Cannon. This was requested by the CCW quartermaster in Tenel Sector for the Haizams purchased for the CAF, but it has also been adopted by more USA units as a hedge against the specialized ammunition for the massdriver fit-out being cut off.
Range: 25,000 ft (6 miles) in atmosphere, 12 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 25,000 ft (6 miles) in atmosphere, 600 miles in space)
Damage: 4d6x10 MD per 20-round burst , per single gun. A full quad-array burst would do 16d6x10(or 2d4x100+160) MD(!)
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 500 bursts per cannon; each gun is served by a 1 ton magazine that can be reloaded from cargo, if any extra ammunition drums are carried. Reloading a new drum takes 2d6 minutes.

2) Heavy Laser Cannons(2)
Range: 25,000 ft (6 miles) in atmosphere, 12 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 25,000 ft (6 miles) in atmosphere, 600 miles in space)
Damage: 6d6x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3) Rotary Missile Bay---Can hold/fire 192 mini-missiles OR 96 SRMs, OR 48 MRMs, OR 24 LRMs OR 18 CMs

4) Point Defense Turrets(2, wings)----The Haizam retains two of the Gannet’s six small PDS turrets, but they have been upgraded to CCW-pattern laser-and-mini-missile launcher types.
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: (Lasers) Effectively Unlimited
(Mini-Missiles) 32 mini-missiles per turret; additional mini-missiles can be carried as cargo(typically takes 4d6 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


5) Countermeasure Launchers(2)---Mounted on either side of the tail are two decoy countermeasure launchers. Each is capable of mounting one of the following countermeasure types:
a)Chaff/Flare Launchers---Standard radar-reflective strips and thermal flares
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
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
Payload: 24 per launcher

b) Nano-Pods-----The second system releases a nanotech swarm of active jamming pods and decoys that are programmed to emulate a spacecraft’s sensor signature, or, at the very least, bury enemy tactical communications in ‘white noise’.
Effective Range: 25 mile jamming radius
Duration: 5 minutes per pod-spray
Effects: Jams radio signals(75% chance of jamming military band command-guidance ordnance), and 60% chance of deflecting ordinary missiles.
Payload: 18 swarm packs

c) Grav-Pack Decoy---The third system uses modified grav-pack drives and signal projectors to create a moving pattern of sensor signatures. The grav-pack mini-missile drives can go for 10 minutes before self-destructing, and can either be remotely directed or run a preset pattern.
Effective Speed: Mach 6
Duration: 10 minutes per pod
Effects: The decoys have a 70% chance of fooling enemy sensor operators and expert systems. They are are also +2 to enemy sensor-guided munitions to strike, increasing the chance that the missiles will elect to pursue the ‘louder’ sensor signature(the missile rolls to strike for both the original ship and each decoy deployed....highest to strike roll determines which target the missile(s) go after).
Payload: 15 decoys are carried, and can be deployed singly, or in ‘packs’ of 1-3.

Options/Upgrades:
If carrying cargo or passengers isn’t an issue, it has been suggested that future patrollers might carry a variant of the Oracle Mk V for sniffing out supernatural phenomena.
(Excerpt of CAF Tenel Sector Mil-Intel Desk memorandum attachment forwarded to CAF/GSI Frontier Overwatch ‘USA War Room’ c/o Admin. Jennene Selcris)
-mounting an Oracle Mk V would be in keeping with the GNE, especially if they’re using these boats as sector-sniffer replacements for the warships they pulled out. Wish Commander Galtaz had specified he wanted mage-sensors on the Haizes he ordered; we can do with more coverage in that area too.
It’s also been rumored that Greater New England has fitted a number of its ships with under the table sensor bafflers, hiding the ship’s additions from scans. Given that PS/ASI has been advertising the Haizam as an ‘improved Gannet light interstellar transport’(technically true, plus everybody’s heard of PS/ASI’s mondo-armed executive space-limos) and downplaying its military role. Looks like the GNE’s looking to play on the Haizam’s ilngering resemblance to the civilian Gannets and lure some pirates in to be mousetrapped. Note that the advertising copy makes no mention of weaponry and the video portions seem to blur over the missile hatches and recessed gun turrets. It also helps that the Haizam is nicely streamlined and aesthetically easy on the eyes, and it’s actually beautiful compared to the pugnacious bluntness of the Gannet. How long they hope to run this scam what with the Haizam popping up in force deployments all over, remains to be seen, but I’ll bet they bag a few rim-scum before enough unedited footage gets around that shows the Haizam in all its missile- and gun-acne popping glory.

Question, though. Did you pull a reverse-psych op on the pallers and use some of your operators in working grunt clothes to just happen to plant that suggestion about the Gannet in the minds of the pallers, knowing they’d jump on the suggestion and do it just for...well, the hell of it?. I’ve seen the gossip reports and I imagine that you have too, that they do that sort of thing on a whim or less, get drunk without protection, get an idea, and spawn hardware as a result. I got wind of a rumor from from a planet on the edge of bordering Elsa Sector that the Paladins gave the locals M-factor fabric-covered, spinner-driven, air-breathing, laser-armed BIPLANES for Forg’s sake! So did you pull an inception job on this one? It’s my sector and I think I have a right to know....or maybe not. Above my pay grade? Guess I’ll never know if you’re working schemes this far out from Tanith, but give me a head’s up if you’re planning on doing it again; I got a few things I’d like to have ride along into their brain trust next time.---Reth

May as well post these over here, being relevant and all. Again, use the Standard Turret Mounting above for weapon stats. I've also touched up the fluff bits of the previous posts here, because I don't think I'll ever be satisfied and can barely stop myself from editing.

Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries Hauberk Destroyer

• ('Berk', 'Wizberk', 'Hyper Hunter', 'Lego Ship')

"The fire arcs for the big guns aren't quite as good as they were on the Sangu, but you can always get at least 3 guns to bear at almost any angle, and they are a hell of a lot less likely to break the old Arkon War armatures were. The big missile bays being moved to a external add-on has the bonus feature of not being anywhere near as vulnerable golden BBs taking out the entire nose section, which has happen more often here in the Three Galaxies than PS is willing to admit. The lack of speed is a bit of a downer, but its simply so much less of a general headache that most captain's I've talked to that have made the transition are fine with it. A lot less likely to snap in half if something goes wrong too, which really puts veteran crewmen's minds at ease. The Hauberk is simply designed to have actual operational endurance, and that makes it far different than the pure 'attack boat' that defined old coat hanger."
----Commodore Tsien Hmung, VFS

"The Hauberk can be considered to embody the dawning realization among the CAF leadership and Consortium Assembly of just how long in the tooth most of the fleet is. The fact that no Hunter upgrade or replacement project has gotten anywhere in the past two centuries is making the rounds on the holochannels, and there blood in water as the newer shipyards circle around the traditional giants. My contacts on Koga have passed on word that there are a lot of new aerospace and light combatant projects getting the green light, and just about every design archive worth mentioning has been cracked open inspiration. The biggest sign I can point to is that Shaw of all people is openly getting praised, and isn't that a sign of the times."
----Captain Captain Vicen Trancluw, CAF

"Mounting the Heavy Tach-Shotties means the interference is too big put any in the PD mounts, but it can cover huge amount of space. Its also comically effective against all those Juicer-esc light interceptors without a shield, and I know for a fact that Golgan Jesstras have standing orders to avoid ships armed with them like they were Demon Stars."

"For a ship of mostly of the crude materium, its honestly rather nice. This 'Ectofiber' material is something that we've never seriously investigated, and it makes bringing new mundane ships up to enlightened standards almost as easy as starting with a proper mystic base. Considering the other savings, be it resources, time, or crew, and I can easily see it outright replacing the Patrol Boat, especially if the Smithies can find a way to mount proper TW systems on the hard points. I've heard that the Paladins are going to trade a Warlock spec version of the Aurora with us soon, which I expect the Dwarfs will go all in over, but we need hulls more than anything else right now. The Commissions will love them though."

"As far as critique goes, 'Not as good as the Aurora' is about as empty a derision can possibly be. That's like being second best to a Cosmoknight. Being able to share the same damn podium is an accomplishment, and naturally its made by the same people. All the smart pirates give USA territory a wide berth these days, but it they were actually smart they wouldn't be pirates. In the mean time the AJC will keep on doing the galactic gene-pool a favor by mowing down the stupidly number of cutthroats that have cropped up after the Infernal War, and if that makes them look good than that just fine."

Created as the replacement for the fragile and overburdened Sangu, the Hauberk is intended to become the USA’s lower end destroyer to fill in for the more expensive Aurora-A. Lacking the Aurora’s complicated TW systems, the Hauberk can be built in much larger numbers, leading to it composing the bulk of the AJC’s desired post-Minion War fleet. While technically a descendant of the Sangu, many would argue that it shares little beyond the exterior hull layout, and is thus an entirely new design. Paladin Steel engineers point to their chain of design alterations as their justification, but it is at best a ‘Ship of Theseus' situation.

The most notable change is the engines, with the large and problematic Aegis-Mercury 220s replaced with smaller and easier to maintain Aegis-Gemeni 400s, powered by a more powerful yet smaller Lucerin-fusion reactor. While this does result in a somewhat lower thrust profile, it is still well above average for galactic destroyers, and allows for far more to be done with the freed up volume. The second most significant change was the elimination of the self contained life section/escape pod, which was found to be of limited use in the wider galactic environment. Any engagement that would result in the loss of the larger hull would almost inevitably also result in the destruction of the pod, making it worthless. It’s removal allowed for a major expansion of available crew space, making it far less painful to operate and maintain, most notably with the side blisters gaining quite prominent bulges. This also allowed for a substantial increase in hull armor, helped by the removal of the obsolete external comms array.

Improvements in weapon design allowed for the primary turrets to be made modular, increasing versatility and simplifying logistics. This was then expanded by replacing the forward missile batteries with a pair of large side mounted hardpoints, eliminating the need for essentially all of the Sangu’s FTL capable variants. The Hauberk has a tremendous firepower advantage over the near-half millennium old Hunter, and combines it with a much faster and more durable hull. Additionally, the price tag is only half again that of a stock Hunter, making it very cost effective. The forward hardpoints only improve its capabilities, making it a natural choice as the primary light warship of the USA. It is thus highly ironic that the largest user of the class is the United Worlds Warlock.

In a strange turn of fate, the UWW would come to a foreign company for a military design, but the aftermath of the Minion War left the Warlock Marine direly short on hulls and with nowhere near enough time to replace them with their traditional designs. As an expedient solution, overtures were made to acquire the design of the Aurora from ASI, which had rapidly caught the attention and admiration of the UWW’s observers. ASI would disclose that the Aurora would require a significant redesign to use UWW’s existing industry, but a developmental side project had given a solution in the form of a Technowizard variant of the Hauberk. Done as an engineering exercise to familiarize several dozen Techno-Smithies that ASI had managed to hire with their design methods, it used UWW standard components and materials, and Rhilith was readily able to supply the remaining technological systems. While having a similar price tag as the Arcane patrol ship, the Hauberk-TW was far more capable in all respects, and was primarily constructed with industries that were unconnected with normal UWW warship building, allowing it to be produced in massive numbers. The Rhilith yards more than a hundred hulls every year, and there is no sign of slowing down.

And here I go with some FRAM modifications to the LaFayette family. It includes filling in what I think is major hole in their design (durability), and add gives them a way to upgrade their myoptic Intermediary guns into proper Capital mounts, and with a heaping of PS's modularity obsession.

Aegis Stellar Industries 'LaFayette'-class Light Cruiser, FRAM 1
"While they don't make all THAT much of a difference when you're both closing, you really notice the improved range on the mains in a chase. They sadly can't point backwards like a Warshield's, but when the enemy has a few good seconds of head start those big guns are often the only non-missile weapons you have that can actually reach them."

While extremely effective, the GNES LaFayette had some teething issues, particularly with its armaments and armor effectiveness. The original configuration used the Lasser’s infamously short ranged forward heavy laser batteries, which greatly hindered its ability to engage similar sized opponents. Additionally, many of the armor support spars were critically flawed in their positioning, making the ship much more vulnerable to being disabled by concentrated damage. Finally, many of the external systems were relatively fragile, being easily picked off by lucky strikes. While the heavy armaments needed a better power source to bring into modern standards, the other problems were considered straightforward. Fortunately, only the LaFayette herself was in need of reconstruction, as the other hulls weren’t far enough along their assembly for it to be relevant. The rebuild took 3 months, but soon the ship returned to the space lanes.

The revised LaFayettes would give sterling service across the USA for several years, but shortly before the Minion War reached the 3G it was felt that it was time to begin upgrading them. The secondary hull made it much easier to gain access to the main reactor than normal, making it practical to undertake the measures needed to upgrade it with the WZT Lucerin enhancements. This allowed for the intermediary ‘Lasser’ Intermediary Lasers to be replaced with true capital mounts, and the opportunity was taken to upgrade the rest of the weapons to modular systems. The process was designated the FRAM 1 package, and soon found itself being implemented as badly damaged LaFayette returned from the field after seeing off massed neo-barb fleets. With the ships having prolonged stays in drydock regardless, it was found optimal to include the FRAM upgrade as part of the repair process, leading to the majority of the USA’s Light Cruisers receive it before the war was over. With the exception of the Voulge, who's antimatter systems were too new and unfamiliar to ASI engineers, the other members of the LaFayette would receive their own FRAM 1s during the war.

Aegis Stellar Industries ‘Pillara’-class Medium Cruiser, FRAM 1
"For all that people complain about it being a cow, its actually faster than the Warshield, and it has a tad more armor. The shield are a bit lacking, but that's probably fixable if they can find the right generator. A lot easier to mod than the Warshield too, with the secondary hulls making it loads easier to get access to the core systems. And then there's the fact that they cost way less than what the Consortium normally extorts for a cruiser."

Being merely a modified LaFayette, the Pillara could share the same modifications in its FRAM 1 upgrade.

Aegis Stellar Industries 'Mazule'-class Light Missile Cruiser, FRAM 1
"Yes, Mazules have proven to have 'difficulties' going up against semi-modern capital ships with PD grids worthy of the name, but we haven't had to deal with that very often haven't we? The Bug-Bears are honestly more of a nuance than a threat in the black, and if you can get somebody to open a hole in Sorn flak forests their ships go down fast enough. Our old fashioned decoys still work on them too, so they've been retained for the time being. I'll admit we lucked out on the Golgans, as their real PD option was their Jesstras, and our own birds managed to tie them down enough that out swings could actually make it to their fleet. Shaw likely made the right choice by having us focus on the Bindahs, as those things are basically naked in terms of PD and honestly just as fragile as we are once their shields are down."

The changes on the Mazule were strictly limited to improving their cruise missile launchers and secondary weapons, with the reduced power draw making the Lucerin reactors unnecessary. As such, it could be done in the field with the help of a Bharmar or Goethal tender.

Aegis Stellar Industries 'Tabar'-class Heavy Cruiser, FRAM 1
The Tabar was a substantially harder ship to upgrade, as its thick armor and extensive framework made accessing the reactor as arduous as it is on a normal capital ship. However, there were both relatively few of them, and they had a pronounced tendency to get stuck in with other close range brawlers, making it inevitable that they would turn up in bad enough shape that an extensive reconstruction was necessary. While the heavy triple turrets were replaced with standard capital mounts, ASI engineers were able to take advantage of the preexisting infrastructure to mount double turrets, which preserved the ship's infamous close range firepower.

taalismn wrote:

Omegasgundam wrote:
"Mounting the Heavy Tach-Shotties means the interference is too big put any in the PD mounts, but it can cover huge amount of space. Its also comically effective against the really low end Juicer-esc light interceptors without a shield, and I know for a fact that Golgan Jesstras have standing orders to avoid ships armed with them like they were Demon Stars."
[/list]

"I know that we're currently in a state of hostilities with the Golgans, but please, for the sake of some sense of Galactic diplomacy and decorum, please refrain from referring to the tachyon cannons as 'squid-shot blasters', 'nebuloidizers', or 'golgomisters'."

I was thinking that there needs to be a limit to how many Tachyon guns can but put on a ship. How about 1 big gun or 2 small guns per facing, and no more than 4 total?. A few more if its a big ship? Something Something Techno-mumble FTL interference mumble?

EDIT: No, how about only a few can be active at any time, which means you have to think about which ones you want to keep active. Add in some rules about them being predicable over time which forces you to switch between sets to maintain effectiveness (which takes a melee round) and you can give Tachy boats a window of vulnerability and force them to keep their other PD systems.

Omegasgundam wrote:[
I was thinking that there needs to be a limit to how many Tachyon guns can but put on a ship. How about 1 big gun or 2 small guns per facing, and no more than 4 total?. A few more if its a big ship? Something Something Techno-mumble FTL interference mumble?

EDIT: No, how about only a few can be active at any time, which means you have to think about which ones you want to keep active. Add in some rules about them being predicable over time which forces you to switch between sets to maintain effectiveness (which takes a melee round) and you can give Tachy boats a window of vulnerability and force them to keep their other PD systems.

Well, there goes the Tachyon Sphere of Death with about a.couple dozen tachyon sprayers all pointing outwards from a core power generator and CG-drive.
Maybe save it for Ancient -tech; people who have solved the problems of such weaponry.

taalismn wrote:

Omegasgundam wrote:[
I was thinking that there needs to be a limit to how many Tachyon guns can but put on a ship. How about 1 big gun or 2 small guns per facing, and no more than 4 total?. A few more if its a big ship? Something Something Techno-mumble FTL interference mumble?

EDIT: No, how about only a few can be active at any time, which means you have to think about which ones you want to keep active. Add in some rules about them being predicable over time which forces you to switch between sets to maintain effectiveness (which takes a melee round) and you can give Tachy boats a window of vulnerability and force them to keep their other PD systems.

Well, there goes the Tachyon Sphere of Death with about a.couple dozen tachyon sprayers all pointing outwards from a core power generator and CG-drive.
Maybe save it for Ancient -tech; people who have solved the problems of such weaponry.

Make those Second Galactic Age relics the monsters they were said to be and all that. It would REALLY make them stand out.

Omegasgundam wrote:Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries ‘Aurora-A’ Aerospace Frigate"Tell those Altess that we're not currently interested in selling this particular ship. This is government property, and I don't have the authority to do so unless the check reaches 11 figures. If they can't be bothered to do that much, then they'll just have to call ASI marketing like everyone else.".

...If they really want a yacht that bad, there's always the prototypes(yah know, the ones with the bussard ramscoops? Might need a little fixing up, but depending on how much they're willing spend, Altess money could buy some strange customizations....)

Here's some upgrade/revisions to the larger Transport Cruisers, bringing them mostly in line with what you would actually expect. The big changes are that the Weibbe got a major nerf to durability and the Sheppard got tougher and went on a diet. The Weibbe was simply too out of line to leave as it was, being tougher than some Heavy Cruisers, and it being an early ship means that everything after it is going to be compared to it, which makes them look worse. It is still tougher than a Warshield. The Sheppard was simply too fragile for a combat vessel 11x times the mass of the Stonewall, and I have no explanation for why it was 300K tons more than its siblings considering it honestly smaller than the Tychan. The Tychan was fine when its component durability got upped along with the others. All of them have gained ORACLE V due to being large, valuable, and having no shortage of room for it.

I am now moving on to justifying the CAF fighters and their upgrades, but the end result will be similar enough to Kitsune's versions that he needs to be credited for the ideas.

Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries Weibbe Hayes Heavy Transport
The Heavy PBCs on the Hayes were found to be of extremely limited utility, but it was not considered worth the effort to upgrade the power plant to enable it to use proper capital mounts. It was instead decided to replace them with large batteries of LRMs, allowing it to threaten most heavy Destroyers from substantial ranges and discourage low end Cruisers. The various other weapons were slightly modified to fit conform to modern standards, with the exception of the Light PBCs. The Megnatomics models on the Shepard had proven themselves to be remarkably capable, and although they were not yet able to be mounted in the new modular turret system they were ideal for second line ships that were not part of it.

Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries ‘Tychan’ Heavy Transport Cruiser
(aka ‘Delta-cruiser’)

Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries/WZTechyards ‘Shepherd’-class Transport Cruiser
(aka ‘Sechschlepper’, ‘Nurse-cruiser’)

The Sheppard, being predominantly a second line escort, was considered perfectly fine as it was. The only meaningful changes were the inclusion of a Mk V ORACLE system and bringing the LaFayette derived missile launchers in line with current system standards. While it can launch Cruise Missiles, it is rarely equipped with them.

Omegasgundam wrote:Here's some upgrade/revisions to the larger Transport Cruisers, bringing them mostly in line with what you would actually expect. The big changes are that the Weibbe got a major nerf to durability and the Sheppard got tougher and went on a diet. The Weibbe was simply too out of line to leave as it was, being tougher than some Heavy Cruisers, and it being an early ship means that everything after it is going to be compared to it, which makes them look worse. It is still tougher than a Warshield. The Sheppard was simply too fragile for a combat vessel 11x times the mass of the Stonewall, and I have no explanation for why it was 300K tons more than its siblings considering it honestly smaller than the Tychan. The Tychan was fine when its component durability got upped along with the others. All of them have gained ORACLE V due to being large, valuable, and having no shortage of room for it. .[/list]

The Company will probably retain a few 'supped up' WHs in reserve, though, as 'executive transports' or spaceport Q-ships for those occasions when you can't afford to throw lots of missiles around in crowded airspace...

And yeah, the Sheppard was an armored erector set, admittedly, un-talked about family history of being developed from deep space tugs)NOT the Brunel, which is a Daedalus interstellar probe stack that got drunk drinking Romulan Ale and wound up with Warp Drive and disownment by the British Interstellar Society....)

taalismn wrote:

Omegasgundam wrote:Here's some upgrade/revisions to the larger Transport Cruisers, bringing them mostly in line with what you would actually expect. The big changes are that the Weibbe got a major nerf to durability and the Sheppard got tougher and went on a diet. The Weibbe was simply too out of line to leave as it was, being tougher than some Heavy Cruisers, and it being an early ship means that everything after it is going to be compared to it, which makes them look worse. It is still tougher than a Warshield. The Sheppard was simply too fragile for a combat vessel 11x times the mass of the Stonewall, and I have no explanation for why it was 300K tons more than its siblings considering it honestly smaller than the Tychan. The Tychan was fine when its component durability got upped along with the others. All of them have gained ORACLE V due to being large, valuable, and having no shortage of room for it. .[/list]

The Company will probably retain a few 'supped up' WHs in reserve, though, as 'executive transports' or spaceport Q-ships for those occasions when you can't afford to throw lots of missiles around in crowded airspace...

And yeah, the Sheppard was an armored erector set, admittedly, un-talked about family history of being developed from deep space tugs)NOT the Brunel, which is a Daedalus interstellar probe stack that got drunk drinking Romulan Ale and wound up with Warp Drive and disownment by the British Interstellar Society....)

PS wouldn't be PS if they didn't do some odd ball sub-variants with too many bells and whistles.

If the Sheppard isn't stated to be usable as a tug, other than its 6 hard points that are arguably shared with the LaFayettes, there is no reason for it to not always have been a Weibbe derivative.

Omegasgundam wrote:[
And yeah, the Sheppard was an armored erector set, admittedly, un-talked about family history of being developed from deep space tugs)NOT the Brunel, which is a Daedalus interstellar probe stack that got drunk drinking Romulan Ale and wound up with Warp Drive and disownment by the British Interstellar Society....)

PS wouldn't be PS if they didn't do some odd ball sub-variants with too many bells and whistles. .[/quote]


You ain't see oddball yet...you only THINK you have.

(the Bullet wasn't the only two-headed child they let out of the attic)

Note most of my comments will be critiquing important nit&ticks.

Omegasgundam wrote: 4) Medium Range Missile Launchers (6, dorsal): In addition to anti-fighter/anti-missile defense, they are often used to support ground troops in suppressing enemy activity around the landing zone.

Rate of Fire:From 1-20 missiles can be fired in one volley
Payload: 220 MRMs per hardpoint

[/list]

That they are hard points need to be in the front describing words, not in the footnote after the bulk of the text.

Omegasgundam wrote: While it can launch Cruise Missile, it is rarely equipped with them.

Can only launch ¿ONE? Curse missile?

Omegasgundam wrote:Options:

**Hardpoint Armament Pods(1-6): The Shepherd can carry the same weaponized cargo pods as used by PS/ASI’s MCLG-07C Merchant Cruiser version of the Brunel Heavy Freighter; this option is typically only used by training flights or system-defense craft.

Where are the hard points listed? You don't have any ** that match the HP option in the main listing. If you mean the "LaFayette Heavy Missile Launchers" then they need to be listed as missile hard point and not launchers.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Note most of my comments will be critiquing important nit&ticks.

Omegasgundam wrote: 4) Medium Range Missile Launchers (6, dorsal): In addition to anti-fighter/anti-missile defense, they are often used to support ground troops in suppressing enemy activity around the landing zone.

Rate of Fire:From 1-20 missiles can be fired in one volley
Payload: 220 MRMs per hardpoint

[/list]

That they are hard points need to be in the front describing words, not in the footnote after the bulk of the text.

Omegasgundam wrote: While it can launch Cruise Missile, it is rarely equipped with them.

Can only launch ¿ONE? Curse missile?

Omegasgundam wrote:Options:

**Hardpoint Armament Pods(1-6): The Shepherd can carry the same weaponized cargo pods as used by PS/ASI’s MCLG-07C Merchant Cruiser version of the Brunel Heavy Freighter; this option is typically only used by training flights or system-defense craft.

Where are the hard points listed? You don't have any ** that match the HP option in the main listing. If you mean the "LaFayette Heavy Missile Launchers" then they need to be listed as missile hard point and not launchers.

The first and second are typos that I missed. Give a few minutes.
EDIT: Fixed. The first was something that was copied from the original entry, which I still don't understand looking at it.

The third, well, check the Brunel Heavy Freighter entry. Let me copy off the Netbook for a sec.
EDIT: There's a bunch of pods, and they got reused for the Jack Norton. Here's the description of the Merchant Cruiser.

*PSS/ASI-MCLG-07C---A stop-gap warship conversion of the Brunel that replaces the life system hull with the stripped-down upper hull of a Masakari/Falx-class destroyer (raise Main Body MDC to 12,000 MDC). The machinery spaces have had their manufactory modules stripped out and the power connections instead used to power newly-installed variable forcefield generators (1,500 MD each side, 9,000 MD total). In place of cargo pods, the MCLG-07C typically carries heavy weapons pods.

And here's my CAF upgrades. Massive shout out to Kitsune for coming up with all of these ideas and the character. I’ve changed them somewhat, but I think this fits in with the ‘expanded’ 3G setting since DB5 was released.

Consortium Armed Forces SF-69M ‘Super Scorpion’ Interceptor/Light Bomber

(‘Super-Scorp’)

"Finally, after eight bloody centuries the Scorp has gotten the upgrades it desperately needs. I have no idea how or why the drive tuning works, but it does, and that's more then enough for anybody that has had to try dealing with the damn thing's flaws. You have to wonder why they didn't throw in the towel and start from scratch around the First Great War though. It would have saved a lot of lives."

"Make no mistake, the Super-Scorp is still an expedient solution, not the best. I expect the CAF has started work on the outright replacement that they should have done half a millennium ago."

"You know, it feels sorta funny taking a hit and still having a place on the board. I like it"

Many have wondered why the CAF Scorpion Interceptor endured so long without meaningful changes. The answer is both simple and complex, in that the light interceptor is quite frankly incredibly over optimized for its original specifications. The secret lies in the mass of its gun, with the 2 tons of the GR-1000 being almost half its all up displacement. In truth, this massive weapon serves a dual purpose as the primary engine, with the original Human Alliance developers accidentally stumbling across a then-unknown harmonization effect between pieces of contra-gravity technology. What many think of as the ‘auxiliary engine’ is actually a complex gravitic booster that grants the Scorpion it’s speed and agility, at the cost of an extremely narrow volume and displacement requirements. The reason for the expense of the Fighter-Bomber version is the equally complex tuning arrays needed to allow for external ordinance to be mounted at all. Despite generations of effort, attempts at altering the craft were met with horrific drops in performance, until research efforts into the Balanced Hammond Drive resulted in a breakthrough understanding of multi-CG core interaction.

To those knowledgeable of the subject, investigation into the ‘Scorpion Effect’ was one of the key insights that led to the Balanced Hammond Drive, and is said to be a not insignificant portion of the project's 19 figure price tag. Unfortunately, the development team was solely focused on creating a Dreadnought capable FTL drive that any potential alternative benefits were neglected, resulting in any exploitation of knowledge gained for 14 years. It would ultimately be then-Commander Harriet McKenna, who was at the time involved in the construction of the CSS Emancipation, who realized to potential use of these efforts on the original subject, and spent the next five years working on an unofficial side project with whatever personnel and resources she could scourange, resulting in the ‘Fleet Upgrade’ configuration. While objectively minor, the addition of four sets of light missile pylons to every Scorpion in service was a tremendous leap forward in individual unit capabilities, and won McKenna the eye of powerful members of the CAF. She was then quietly cloistered in a small secret development project to further improve the Scorpion, as unofficial use of knowledge gained from the BHD project was technically illegal, but would have taken years to authorize normally. Five years later, mear months before the expansion of the Minion War in the Three Galaxies, they would release the specifications for the ‘Super Scorpion', fulfilling the dream of generations of aerospace engineers.

With the full use of the knowledge gained from the BHD project, now-Captain McKenna and her team finally solved the multi-century stumbling block that had long crippled development. They were now able to add a 3 foot hull extension to the fuselage, providing room for a more powerful reactor and a small shield generator. In the name of expediency and cost savings, both were taken from the long decommissioned Osprey, a medium fighter which had entered service around the same time as the Scorpion and was most charitably called a peer to the original Flying Fang in performance. Despite being out of service for more than a century, major fleet depots still hand millions of spare reactors and shield generators, and very little of it had been successfully liquidated since then. The old box launchers, which had long been confined by profile restrictions, were replaced with flexible models capable of holding SRMs and MRMs, greatly improving its interception capability. It's only drawback is that tuning the CG components requires Cruiser grade drive maintenance equipment that is only available at fleet depots, limiting the number that can be converted over a given time. Despite this, the CAF is pushing through the refit program with outright alarming speed, ignoring normal budgetary and procurement channels.

The -B variant of the Scorpion still has relevance, as it has a hidden advantage over the normal version: turn around time. An unfortunate drawback of the normal Scorpion’s multi-stage engine is that it takes a good 60 seconds to reset the tolerances after being equipped with pylons, but the more complex booster assembly of the -B model is able to handle it on the fly. This is also the reason that it retains its speed while fully loaded, the field adjusters are able to make real time adjustments to the system to retain maximum performance. If it wasn’t for this capability, the -B would be limited to Mach 14 while fully loaded. Enterprising ordinance technicians have experimented using this system to mount larger missiles in the wing-box launchers, but requires the existing assemblies be replaced and does slow the craft down when used. But the ability to bring four Cruise Missiles on a single light craft is not something to be taken lightly.

Consortium Armed Forces SF-101-S ‘Storm Eagle’ Medium Fighter

(‘Super-Eagle’)

"While outright sabotage can explain why they didn't go with pylons from the beginning, it doesn't justify the CAF for not specifying it to begin with, which shows the just how fossilized it was. There's a LOT of old farts being put out to pasture in the higher ranks, and I hear the average age in the Admiralty has dropped by almost two decades. Add in that a good half of the various gov-bureau office blocks on Terra Prime got gutted during work hours, and we have a tremendous amount of young blood coming into the system. I hear they're also trying to consolidate redundant roles across all agencies, and isn't THAT out of character."

"You know, its REAL NICE to be able to shoot back at those missile boat ******** that always danced around at twice our gun range. I hear the newer version has as many missiles as the damn Tanto, and isn't that a big leap forward."

"SINCE WHEN DID THE CAFIES HAVE MISSILES THAT COULD HIT!"
"I DON'T KNOW! FLY FASTER!"

Galactic Armory would be all but nationalized in the aftermath of the infamous ‘Reltish Raid’ on their corporate headquarters, which has started as a ‘merely’ bizarre combination of a TVIA inspection and a special forces training exercise, and ended up as a sprawling firefight against long term demonic Succubus and Incubus infiltrators. The follow up investigation would answer a great many questions regarding their corporate conduct, and turn their legal offices into a rubber stamp for whatever decision the CAF wished to make. Their remaining design staff would be folded into Project Prominence, headed up by Captain Harriet McKenna, and be sent straight to work improving the Black Eagle. The simple ‘Fleet Upgrade’ would be released first, replacing the twin Cruise Missile hardpoints with double the number of flexible pylons, increasing both maximum payload and flexibility. The more intensive ‘Storm Eagle’ would replace the Mini-Missile Launchers (and the winglets they were attached to) with a more flexible box launcher, similar to those on the Super-Scorpion but half again the size. It would also add a pair of WZT-source Countermeasure Launchers under the engine assemblies as almost an afterthought.

Perhaps a sign of the CAF’s increased aggression is that they have already started developing a replacement, tentatively titled the ‘Warhawk’.

Consortium Armed Forces LRF-26A ‘Proctor II’ Heavy Fighter

(‘Super-Proctor’)

"I've heard good things about the upgrade that's in testing, but the FU is still a big improvement. Being able to log either a big helping of CMs or LRMs really changes things, and lets us seriously threaten upper end destroyers and small cruisers. And then there's the Prowler, which is a game changer in the preliminary missile stand off. Hear the fringe powers have been using that sort of ECM for decades though, so shows us for not paying attention."

"Just about every capital ship captain I've talked to wants to ditch the Battleram entirely in favor of the new Proctor upgrades, and I can't say that I'm remotely surprised. On the of constant rumors of the past 30 years is that the reason so much effort was put into the Balanced Hammond Drive was so that the 'ram wouldn't be the poster child for nonsensical military procurement, having been the undisputed champion for almost half a millennium. Considering the thing got pushed into the CAF basically the moment the last of the Great War vets retired, its always been a stinker, but nobody had the guts to outright say it."

"The Prowler can mess with incoming missile waves, but it makes itself a target in the process. The TGE is going to start seeding HARM missiles into their solvoes the moment they come off the production lines, and the Prowler can't take much AM."

While the Proctor had been the gold standard of FTL capable Heavy Fighters for almost 700 years, age was beginning to take its toll, and many alternatives had cropped up in the past few decades. Several were outright more capable, although substantially more expensive. Seeing the writing on the wall, General Galaxy began developing an improved model around 3 years prior to the eruption of the Minion War in the Three Galaxies, and was almost at the prototyping stage when many of their factories came under siege. Putting their work on hold for the time being, they focused on producing as many of their current design as possible, helping to keep up with attrition and fighting off the invaders for one more day. As the initial waves were beaten back and supply lines stabilized, the development team found themselves pulled into Project Prominence, and charge with developing a simple upgrade that could be distributed immediately.

With the fallout of the ‘Reltish Raid’ reverberating throughout the arms industry, General Galaxy opted to try to get ahead of the inevitable and acknowledge several common field modifications as formal variants. The Proctor ‘Fleet Upgrade’ would consist of replacing the old Cruise Missile hardpoints with the now common missile pylons, adding a pair of large Countermeasure Launchers to the tail assembly, and providing integral support for an optional flexible missile launcher rack in the cargo bay. The alternative ‘Prowler’ configuration turns it into an EWAR platform, while the ‘Gunboat’ is focused on strait up destructive firepower. The Prowler in particular has proven to be extremely popular, with most Warshield captains opting to replace their Battlerams with it whenever possible.

After the war, work would resume on the more comprehensive Proctor replacement, with the Proctor II being finalized six months after the end of hostilities. Despite the Consortium’s bureaucratic inertia becoming substantially less tedious after the various bouts of mass bloodletting, formal approval has not yet been granted, although both the Prime Minister and Admiral of the Fleet are firmly committed to pushing it through. In the meantime the various component production lines are being retooled for the new models, and General Galaxy continues to produce ‘Fleet Upgrade’ Proctors using the various stockpiles of spares that have been accumulated over the centuries.

Omegasgundam wrote:

Consortium Armed Forces SF-69M ‘Super Scorpion’ Interceptor/Light Bomber

In which we get more world-building, and some answers to why certain things got so screwed up in the canon.

taalismn wrote:

Omegasgundam wrote:

Consortium Armed Forces SF-69M ‘Super Scorpion’ Interceptor/Light Bomber

In which we get more world-building, and some answers to why certain things got so screwed up in the canon.

I was thinking about getting into ground forces, but I would have to either come up with a new MBT or come up with a reason to use Kitsune's stuff, because the Phalanx is simply too much of a Palladium tank to actual salvage. Crippling a vehicle's effectiveness in order to make it surmountable without clever players or a lenient GM is simply bad game design. Its a multi-hundred ton advanced combat vehicle built by people that should know better; if you face it dead on in the open without a comparable combat asset you deserve to get splattered before you can do anything.

EDIT: I'm going to look at the TGE light stuff now.

Omegasgundam wrote:I was thinking about getting into ground forces, but I would have to either come up with a new MBT or come up with a reason to use Kitsune's stuff, because the Phalanx is simply too much of a Palladium tank to actual salvage. Crippling a vehicle's effectiveness in order to make it surmountable without clever players or a lenient GM is simply bad game design. Its a multi-hundred ton advanced combat vehicle built by people that should know better; if you face it dead on in the open without a comparable combat asset you deserve to get splattered before you can do anything..

Reminds me of a Twilight 2000 campaign I heard about way back in collage. The GM had a rep as a killer(and a guy you could see as a killer android) and he had the players, who were all special forces and Rangers, surprised by a Soviet tank...In a FOREST. This was essentially a snorting diesel T-80 monster roaming around a forest, not hiding under a camouflage tarp when the PCs blundered into its sights.
Of course the players HOWLED, but the GM shrugged it off, with something along the lines of 'well, you should have told me you were looking out for an ambush, you have only yourselves to blame-" or something to that effect.
After that, we practically canonized the idea of the (GM's name) Stealth Tank as a) GM's effort to blatantly kill the players, and b) any absurdly technical impossible contrivance created for the sake of killing players off.

taalismn wrote:

Omegasgundam wrote:I was thinking about getting into ground forces, but I would have to either come up with a new MBT or come up with a reason to use Kitsune's stuff, because the Phalanx is simply too much of a Palladium tank to actual salvage. Crippling a vehicle's effectiveness in order to make it surmountable without clever players or a lenient GM is simply bad game design. Its a multi-hundred ton advanced combat vehicle built by people that should know better; if you face it dead on in the open without a comparable combat asset you deserve to get splattered before you can do anything..

Reminds me of a Twilight 2000 campaign I heard about way back in collage. The GM had a rep as a killer(and a guy you could see as a killer android) and he had the players, who were all special forces and Rangers, surprised by a Soviet tank...In a FOREST. This was essentially a snorting diesel T-80 monster roaming around a forest, not hiding under a camouflage tarp when the PCs blundered into its sights.
Of course the players HOWLED, but the GM shrugged it off, with something along the lines of 'well, you should have told me you were looking out for an ambush, you have only yourselves to blame-" or something to that effect.
After that, we practically canonized the idea of the (GM's name) Stealth Tank as a) GM's effort to blatantly kill the players, and b) any absurdly technical impossible contrivance created for the sake of killing players off.

If that's what you're balancing your games around, then you're trying to affect something that's completely out of your control. A GM that does stuff like that is looking for an excuse to be sadistic, and doesn't actually care about the rules/stats as written, and thus nothing you do can possibly effect him. All you accomplish is punishing everyone else.

EDIT: And if the idea is to have a vehicle that fit an entire party into, then your violating the first rules of combat vehicles; never use just one.

And here's me converting more of Kitsune's work. The TGE, as much as we would like it to be, isn't run by idiots, so even they will have to respond to the Flying Fang being that bad by modern standards. My next piece will be looking at the TGE Berzerker and Smasher, as they look simpler to do than the CAF.

Trans-Galactic Empire TGE-ST-110 ‘Sharktooth’ Light Interceptor
“Finally, a craft worthy of our Kreegor Warriors! Now we can meet the lessers in one-on-one combat and win, with our greater skill carrying the day!”

“It's a big disappointment that the Imps decided to get a fighter worth a damn before the next great war started. We couldn’t count on them being idiots, but it would have been nice to have a year or two of aerospace supremacy.”

Exchange rates in recent skirmishes involving the Sharktooth remain below what is desired, but is within an acceptable margin of error. It is hoped that this is due to lack of familiarity with the craft, which should be solved before we are in a position to begin wider hostilities. Battles predominantly involving the older Flying Fang show substantially worse exchanges, particularly in units whose pilots primarily consist of lesser (non-Kreegor) pilots, but this is to be expected and perhaps even encuraged.

Recent skirmishes against unconquered species has led to an unacceptable loss rate of Flying Fangs, with even trusted all-Kreegor units often being wiped out by the new generation of interceptors and dog fighters. This was simply unacceptable, and the Kreegor Emperor decreed that something was to be done with all do haste. Believing that the order came with an unstated ‘or die’ qualifier, the TGE’s designers moved with a frantic speed to develop a replacement for the old Fang, and managed to accomplish it before any motivational examples were deemed necessary. The Emperor was pleased with their work, naming the new craft the Sharktooth, and opted not to disembowel any of them. Half of the empire’s fighter production facilities are being converted to produce the new craft for Kreegor use, while the other half continue to produce an upgraded version of the Flying Fang for use by lesser races.

The Sharktooth looks like a slightly scaled down Flying Fang, but its systems are substantially more sophisticated due to being several centuries newer. While not quite as durable and having slightly less firepower, the Sharktooth is far more maneuverable and can almost keep up with the Consortium Black Eagle. The Sharktooth was the first TGE craft to use flexible missile pylons, replacing the older box launchers on the Fang with a multitude of underwing mounted hardpoints. While lacking the maximum cruise missile count of the Flying Fang, this is considered acceptable by the TGE, as it is primarily intended to serve as a counter to enemy fighters rather than as an anti-ship attacker. Additionally, its smaller size allows for more to be carried, with the common Smasher being able to host 54 instead of the 36 Flying Fangs that it normally does.

Trans-Galactic Empire TGE-FF-105 ‘Flying Fang Upgrade’ Interceptor
“Is the new Fang good enough to go up against the Cafies?”
“No, but you’ll live long enough to do something of use, which means your family won’t be paid a visit.”
“Shows what you know. I’m an orphan!”
“Because they got made examples of, right?”
“*sigh* Yep.”

The -100 model of the Flying Fang had served the TGE as well as it had been expected to for several centuries, but had become almost comically ineffective against the new generation of star fighters coming out of the unconquered races. That the rebellious FWC had produced their own upgraded version was bad enough, but the fact that they called it the ‘Long Tooth’ (as in ‘Long in the Tooth’), was simply too much of an insult to let stand. After the development of the much higher priority Sharktooth was finished, the developers were immediately put to work developing a new production model of the Fang to supply the Imperial Navy’s lesser species pilots.

Work was swift, with the Fang’s lackluster propulsion system replaced by a substantially more capable one with a similar power draw, removing the need to develop and produce a more capable powerplant. The mounting points were lowered to allow for the Mini-Missile Launcher to be upgraded to fire larger salvoes, solving a common complaint. The Gravity Autocannons were replaced with the model developed for the Sharktooth, removing the need to have two different production lines and increasing damage output. But perhaps the most important change is the removal of the box launcher for the MRMs, replacing them with a set of pylon hardpoints on the sides. Additionally, the hardpoints on the underside of the wing featured on the ‘Bomber Fang’ were made standard, bringing the total number of pylons up to six. This gave the upgraded model a quite sizable anti-ship punch when desired.

Unlike the CAF, the TGE is perfectly willing to wait for the new production model to replace the older one due to attrition, with the non-Kreegor pilots typically assigned to the older craft not holding any value. As such, there is no refurbishment or upgrade plan. Technological refinement in production methods, even with the TGE’s slave labor economy, have kept the Upgrade’s cost around the same as that of the original. When inquiries as to why these savings had not manifested in the older models revealed the now traditional Khreegorian corruption and embezzlement, the executions were said to be quickly processed, as the ISB had taken the liberty of preemptively arresting the parties that would have been involved. A multitude of them were even said to be cleared of charges and let go, which was seen as a tremendous leap forward in the TGE’s legal system.

Trans-Galactic Empire TGE-BL-145 ‘Bloodletter’ Patrol Ship
“Ok, you’ve had two weeks with the bird, what’s your analysis of the Kreegor Proctor knockoff?”
“It's a cheap Kreegor knockoff. Weapons are ****, armor is thin, and don’t even get me started on the internals.”
“So ‘as expected’ then. Likelihood they’ll improve it before it hits prime time?”
“50/50. It's more a matter of if they want to spend the money than if it's a good idea. The thing’s supposed to be a glorified cop car after all, and it can’t fit in a Smasher’s hangers.”
“Might fit in the bays of the new version though.”
“Eh, you’ll have to hit up that analysis section, but the Smasher-50 looks more like it's focused on aerospace control than anything else. That means Sharkteeth, Sharkteeth, and more Sharkteeth.”
“Like they’re sharks or something.”
“Haha, but yes.”

While the TGE has no shortage of Berserkers to patrol its interior, it is anticipated that the demands of an all out war with the CCW would force many of them to be called to the front, which would leave them very exposed to light raiders and FWC provacitors. Additionally, despite the cost savings associated with slave labor, those ships also cost resources to operate, and very few of their expected targets mandated anywhere near the Berzerker’s full capabilities. As such, the current Emperor ordered that a smaller and more economical to operate alternative be developed, similar to the CAF’s Proctor. Entering testing 10 years ago, the newly christened Bloodletter still has some flaws, but more or less what is desired. As the project is not considered to be particularly high priority, progress towards full distribution has been sluggish, but it is expected that it will begin mass production within a year.

The simplest description of the Bloodletter is that of an enlarged Flying Fang with an even larger fuselage, which is close enough to the actual development process. The former nose guns have been moved to join the wing lasers in an over/under configuration, and their former location has been filled by the Kinetic Kill Projectile Launcher taken off of the Dark Slayer MBT. A turret with twin Fang Horn lasers has been installed in the middle of the upper fuselage for all around defense, and the MRM launchers have been moved into the center hull and had their capacity doubled. A quad set of Mini-Missile Launchers have been installed on the upper side of the wings for defense against missiles, with half firing forward and the other half aft. The underwing pylons of the ‘Bomber Fang’ have been duplicated as well.

The Bloodletter is currently in a state of preproduction, with the current examples being substantially more costly than what is desired. However, the price will drop significantly once the TGE can shift a portion of their industrial apparatus to focus on it, fulfilling its goal of serving as a Berzerker substitute. Due to the Empire's loyalty concerns, the 4 man version will be all Kreegor crewed, while the 5 man version will have a Kreegor commander to look after the lesser species crewmen.

Well, damn....the Empire DOES have a brain that isn't a giant pile of eldritch flesh intent on devouring the universe...

taalismn wrote:Well, damn....the Empire DOES have a brain that isn't a giant pile of eldritch flesh intent on devouring the universe...

Not all the changes can be do to butterflies from RE. You have to give the locals initiative as well.

TGE Block 50 Upgrades
A decade ago, an errant comment led the Kreegor Emperor to learn that the TGE’s light ship designs had not meaningfully changed in the last 500 years, despite several substantial improvements in ship building technology. While the Berzerker and Smasher were considered expendable assets, they were still built using the same industries and methods that they had been during the Great War, and which translates to higher production costs for inadequate ships. After the customary executions, the Emperor decreed that the upcoming production block of these smaller designs (Block-50) would be refined and upgraded from their prior incarnation, and soon a substantial number of shipwrights was assembled for the task. Within 5 years an array of choices was presented to the Emperor, and he was sufficiently impressed by the focus and thoughtfulness of the designs that he only killed two moderately treacherous Royal Kreegor that had been involved, who were most notable in being sufficiently sloppy in their trade-craft that their clans abided to remove the embarrassment. As a full ten had been part of the project, this was a substantially better than normal result, and soon the Block-50 refinements moved on to implementation across the Empire.

The Empire’s shipyards are shifting to the Block-50 configuration as fast as practical, but keeping up the overall production numbers has a slightly higher priority. The primary focus right now is shifting the component fabrication facilities to the newer standard, with the stockpiles of spare parts being able to compensate for the loss for quite a few years. As only the significant changes to the primary hulls have been to simplify them, it is anticipated that there will be no production disruption from that area, which has been the traditional bottleneck.


As usual, thank Kitsune for some of the ideas, particularly the X-Ray lasers.
TGE Berzerker Block 50
(aka ‘Slim-Zerker’, ‘Super Berzerker’)
(If all the other light ships have to specify their engines, so does the Zerker.)

“For all of its capabilities, the Berzerker-50 remains as it always was; an overgrown Heavy Fighter with delusions of grandeur and a pretense of major anti-ship firepower. It’s new found LRM capability is the more serious concern, as it shows that the Empire is taking strike craft suppression much more seriously than in their previous doctrine. The boost in engine power makes interception windows smaller as well, which will present its own headaches.”
----Captain-General Vicen Trancluw, CAF

A more efficient and refined form of the Empire’s classic light attack ship, the Berzerker-50 is a meaningful step forward in the Imperial Navy’s combat effectiveness. The focused changes to it greatly pleased the Emperor, as it improved his Fleet’s capabilities without placing substantially more power in any one individual’s claws. Other than his own of course. Like the smaller Flying Fang, the Empire intends for the Berzerker-50 to replace the older models via attrition, with no upgrade plan being considered. The changes, while quite appreciated, were not seen as worth disrupting the Empire’s internal policy procedures, particularly regarding those of questionably loyal subjects.

As for the ship itself, the most significant visible change to the Berzerker-50 is the moving of the Horn Lasers to the engine housing, directly connecting them to the primary power and cooling systems. This has resulted in a 50% increase in rate of fire for a mere 10% increase in installation cost. The relocation also allowed for a development of an array of alternative mountings, such as a kinetic gravitic cannon or an semi-experimental bomb-pumped X-ray laser system. The former was considered very necessary due to the ample demonstration of the effectiveness of TW enchanted vessels, and the later the latest iteration in a long series of attempts to increase the Berzerker’s ‘burst potential’. While the bomb-pumped system still has a statistically high (5%) chance of wrecking the array when used, and an almost 1% chance of destroying the engine cluster, Berzerkers are considered disposable enough that this is not seen as a serious problem, and the X-Ray lasers promise to substantially improve exchange rates with other light combatants. A less visible change is the replacement of the older cruise missile launcher with one that can also fire salvoes of LRMs, helping to counter fighter swarms without a friendly Smasher being present to provide CAP.

The dorsal fin has also been removed, with its purpose becoming redundant with advances in sensor technology and CG field shaping, and the cost savings related to it covered both the relocation of the Horn Lasers and a multitude of other minor changes. This included a surprising boost in engine power, as the original designs were found to be sufficiently archaic and inefficient that their replacement with more powerful modern units almost broke even in terms of cost. Thought was put into installing a faster FTL drive, but this was set aside as an alternative option due to the cost, to be built at a Warlord’s discretion.

TGE Smasher Block 50
“The Smasher-50 can be argued as being more of the same, but does it in a focused manner that will have greater results than what the paper changes say it would be. Simply having less idiots at the helm will lead to there being less easy kills, which will certainly lead to knock-on effects regarding the greater Imperial Navy as a whole. The greater speed will also make it even more difficult for our older light ships to catch up, which puts even more pressure on our efforts to upgrade the Hunter and/or Scimitar.
----Captain-General Vicen Trancluw, CAF

The Smasher-50 is both a simplification and an expansion of the original, with substantial changes to its hull form and system configuration being done to improve effectiveness. The most visible change is that the lower hull and rear CG arrays have been redesigned and repositioned to allow for an expansion of the hanger bay, allowing the Smasher-50 to embark half again the number of strike craft. They also meaningfully reduce the ship’s profile and make atmospheric landings substantially easier, which opens potential opportunities for canny commanders. The secondary Horn Lasers have been repositioned and replaced similar to the Berserker-50, along with the cruise missile launchers. The sublight engines have also been improved at a moderate cost.

While noticeably more expensive than the older configuration, the increase in strike craft capacity is seen as being of paramount importance, particularly in the face of the CAF’s increasingly potent equivalents. Additionally, the improved sublight speed is extremely useful in staying out of range of modern light warships, which have become readily able to catch up with the older Smasher and take advantage of its poor defensive capability. As the increase in power is due to its strike craft complement rather than the ship itself, the Emperor sees no reason to place any additional restrictions on its use, and fully intends for it to replace the older ship as soon as practical.

And the CAF does not take being trumped by the fringe standing down. Once they can find their ass without help and untangle themselves.

As usual, kudos to Kitsune's inspiration.
Consortium Armed Forces HF-75U ‘Hunter Upgrade’ Destroyer

(‘Super-Hunter’)

“Yes, it's much more capable in a fight, but it’s no faster or more durable. Preferred tactics remain the same, they just don’t take as long to bring in the kills. The new Berzerker and Smasher models outpace it in sublight, and it doesn’t have the missile power to knock them out before they get away. The real solution is the Predator, and that’s going to take while to proliferate.”
----Captain-General Vicen Trancluw, CAF

An extremely expedient upgrade of the old Consortium standby, the Hunter Upgrade is a very focused refit package. Beyond a variety of electronics upgrades, the meat of the refit are the weapons, which have been substantially altered for the modern battlefield. The near archaic long range PBCs have been replaced with much more energy efficient models, resulting in a tripling of the rate of fire, with the removal of the near useless cruise missile launcher providing room for additional generators. The defensive railguns have also seen extensive alteration, with half of them being replaced with GR-1000s and the other half with Light Tachyon Guns.

Consortium Armed Forces PD-80 Predator Destroyer
“Yes, it's a blatant knock off of the Aurora. That’s a bad thing the same way looking like Rick Nova affects your social life.”

“In every battle exercise we’ve done, the reduction in crew count has had no effect whatsoever on combat effectiveness outside of the usual edge cases. Most of the time it results in less crew losses, with meaningful interior damage often escalating to complete hull loss before damage control parties could have any meaningful effect. If a small ship comes under sustained fire from multiple peer opponents, it simply dies too fast for the comparative merits to matter. The Scimitar’s larger body count is useful for general long range patrol duties, but the Predator is above all else a warship, and losses are inevitable. The Human Alliance might be willing to write all those unnecessary ‘We regret to inform you’ letters, but they’re the only ones.”

“If your moral positions result in you conceding the moral high ground to the Trans-Galactic Empire, than you have a serious problem on your hands”

Inarguably inspired by the USA’s Aurora Light Frigate, the Predator is intended to become the CAF’s primary light warship going forward, being all around better than the Hunter and far more combat capable than the Scimitar. Having a very pointed and symmetrical ‘knife-like’ profile, the Predator is built around an axial capital laser, flanked on two sides by flexible missile launcher batteries, with the dorsal and ventral surfaces hosting the ships two small hangers. The smaller dual anti-ship turrets are mounted at right angles two-thirds down the hull, where it begins to narrow into the engine section. The defensive MRM launchers are mounted between them, and the point defense turrets are scattered across the hull.

The ship is thought of as being simply more aggressive than its predecessors, intended to engage in open battle with the TGE’s fragile Berzerker packs come out on top. The crew accommodations are somewhat more spartan than is normal for CAF vessels, but those standards have grown to become what many consider to be overly luxurious over the past five centuries. It also features substantially more automation than is typical of a Human Alliance style vessel, reflecting a long-overdue lessening of their AI phobia.

Based on Kitsune’s Stalker Scout Carrier.
Consortium Armed Forces ‘Dauntless’ Scout Carrier
”Yes, the Dauntless gets compared to the Smasher a lot, but it is completely focused on the carrier role. Considering it has a bit under half the mass, it does pretty well on that match up, and assuming it has a head start it can play ‘keep away’ indefinitely. That makes any hypothetical dual a match up between fighter wings, which the Dauntless would win easily. Things get more complicated when you factor in expected fleet sizes, as Smashers generally come in groups of three along with a six pack of Berzerkers, and the Dauntless is deployed in pairs leading a light flotilla of six to eight Predators and a half squadron of Proctors.”

“I’ve served some time on an old Wolven Stalker, and I have to say that it was pretty ‘Hunter-esc’ for all that implies. If you can get used to the confusing storage rack arrangement, the Dauntless is a substantially better launch platform, and operational tempo is as good as can be asked for. Most ships have extra pilots to keep up with fatigue issues, which get really noticeable when you do to round the clock CAP. The split launch bays make it something of a hassle to move birds between them and the maintenance deck, but it also makes it easier to isolate if something goes wrong. I’ve seen way too many bad landings completely shut down all recovery operations on a flat top, and that's only going to get more common when we go up against the TGE.”

“The external docking ports are about right to serve as the mothership for up to six Proctors, which fits the intended escort. Assuming that a decent sized CAP is kept up, you have the room on the flight deck to have a few of them serviced as well, which helps on longer deployments.”

Inspired by an old Wolven design, the Dauntless is purpose built to carry as many starfighters to a location as possible and provide reasonable support capability in the process. Strongly resembling an enlarged and much less “sharp” Predator, the Dauntless sacrifices direct firepower for parasites, and is able to move two full squadrons of Storm Eagles on a hull only displacing 30 kilotons. The launch bays are fully configured for constant flight operations, with all the amenities that are expected from a dedicated platform. Unlike merchant conversions, the Dauntless is built to military standards of hull strength and speed, allowing it to keep up with its escorts. It is also equipped with the various systems that would be appropriate on a cruiser sized hull, making it an exceptional light flotilla leader.

The Dauntless fills several holes in the CAF line up, making it very attractive to the reforming CAF. As a companion ship to the Predator, it shares many internal systems, simplifying logistics and encouraging them to serve together. An additional feature is that the CAF produces nothing else in its weight class, making it non-competitive with other modern military designs. In terms of size, it is close to the Scimitar, but it easily outmatches the old patrol ship in all desired aspects but unit cost. The Consortium is ordering as many Dauntlesses as it can, and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Omegasgundam wrote:Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries Hauberk Destroyer
MDC/Armor by Location:
Point Defense Turrets (6)--150 each

Weapons Systems:
5) Point Defense Hardpoints (8): Each Hardpoint can hold one of the following;

Clarification needed: Is it 6 or 8 PDS mounts?

taalismn wrote:

Omegasgundam wrote:Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries Hauberk Destroyer
MDC/Armor by Location:
Point Defense Turrets (6)--150 each

Weapons Systems:
5) Point Defense Hardpoints (8): Each Hardpoint can hold one of the following;

Clarification needed: Is it 6 or 8 PDS mounts?

Thinking about it, 8. My editing can be hit or miss on these details.

Anyway, here's what ASI can cook up when they have a Protector in their shop.

Consortium Armed Forces 'Restoration’ Battleship Upgrade
”So why should I let you mess around with my ship?”
“You’ve read the AAR for Terra Prime right?”
“Yes.”
“We have way better kinetics than you do, and can give you a mage-sensor that works with your systems.”
“I’m listening.”

“I can’t say I’m particularly sad to see the ground compliment go. Anything that would warrant dropping a brigade is something that would be better served by either the main batteries or a dedicated assault ship with a regiment or two. The fighters on the other hand are almost always useful, and we apparently have way better strike craft than what we’ve given ourselves credit for.”

“So what’s the story with the secondaries?”
“They thought they would work better than what was installed.”
“Are they?”
“Well, beam power is double, which is pretty good considering we lost half of them, and the range has been increased by 25%.”
“That’s nice.”
“And we have a bit over 11 times the Kinetic power and 4 times the range.”
“What.”
“It turns out if you actually care about slug throwers it's really trivial to outclass the Grav-guns we’ve been using. They run into a lot of things that are way more vulnerable to kinetic energy then anything else, so they came up with these monsters. They also have frag rounds for use against fighters and missiles”
“WHY DON’T WE HAVE THAT!”
“I’m asking myself that more and more everyday I spend around them.”

CSS Restoration would be heavily battered during the Battle of Altess Prime, and Battlegroup Shaw lacked the resources to fully repair it. The Amoria would have fallen over itself to provide, but they were almost as poorly off in terms of ready supplies and had a legion of compatibility issues. The AJC on the other hand brought an extensive fleet train, including a mobile factory ship, and were able to provide their own equivalents. While kept away from the more sensitive portions of the ship, the onboard ASI engineers were able to replace the ship’s secondary and defensive batteries with more effective weapons, particularly the kinetics.

Half of the intermediary lasers were replaced with upgraded copies of the ancient Lasser’s main battery, with more advanced capacitors and cooling systems reducing the required volume enough for this to be practical. The other half of the lasers and all of the G-Cannons were replaced with ASI’s Heavy Gauss Cannons in dual mounts, which had almost 6 times the hitting power and quadruple the range, which was truly impressive considering they were EM based weapons. The structural bracing for the weapons needed to receive some minor upgrades, but this was readily doable with the facilities on hand.

Changes to the defensive mounts were almost as extensive, with the previous turret shells all being replaced with far more durable ones. For the weapons themselves, only the Particle Beams remained unchanged, being considered effective enough to retain. The defensive Grav guns were replaced with units taken from heavily damaged Scorpions, which provided a comical increase in range and damage potential. A much more complicated change was replacing the mini-missile batteries with Tachyon Scatterguns, but the Battleship’s hull proved large enough to spread them out enough to overcome the resonance problems.

The improvements in the kinetics were particularly appreciated by Shaw, as he had received a copy of the AAR for the Battle of Terra Prime, and the lack of kinetic firepower was found to be a critical problem during the ‘bolt from the blue’ strike on the Consortium's administrative heart. He was even more pleased by the inclusion of an ORACLE Mk V sensor array, which would have prevented the attack in the first place. The inclusion of a Scout Cruiser grade sensor array was almost an afterthought at that point, as well as replacing the mechanized battalion with additional strike craft. While the ship did gain a bit over 200 crew, the removal of the marine barracks provided more leg space per man.

When the CAF reviewed the technical files sent to them by priority courier via Phase World, they were quite intrigued with what they saw, and quickly offered ASI a purchase order for as many ORACLE suites as they could provide. ASI had its own commitments to meet, but was able to provide several hundred units over the course of the war, and made arrangements to establish a TW production facility on Noro-Ger. The ORACLE Mk VI would be primarily psionic based to help fill this demand, allowing the CAF to equip the majority of their capital ships within a decade. The other changes on the ‘Restoration Package’ would be duplicated across the fleet during the Minion War, resulting in a substantial increases in effectiveness against mystic vessels and massed cruise missiles.

And some more upgrades

Consortium Armed Forces 'Warshield’ Cruiser Upgrade
”The really painful thing is just how simple and/or obvious it all is. The Gauss Guns are something out of the Automaton War, the PD guns are right off a Scorpion, and the Tachyons have been commercially available for a few decades. At least it gives us an excuse to ditch the damn ‘Rams.”

The obvious increase in effectiveness in the Restoration’s weapon replacements lead to such swaps becoming common across the fleet as the Minion War progressed, with Heavy Gauss Cannons proving to be head and shoulders above the older G-Cannons even when mounted in single barrels. The CAF Engineering Corps were able to develop a smaller mounting that could be fitted on the Warshield, although it required energy intensive CG recoil countering methods to function, putting it out of reach for non-AM powered craft.

Consortium Armed Forces 'Packmaster’ Carrier Upgrade
”It’s been so long since we last practiced a full ‘war-ring’ bay configuration, I forgot they were in the books. I think a lot of people did, which explains why everybody was so surprised when we did it. Now that I mentioned it, I don’t think we ever did practice it. That should have been a red flag, but we honestly had enough of those that we never noticed to cover the Goldilox ring.”
----- CAF Admiral of the Fleet Janice Nikola

The lack of focus in the Packmaster’s ‘default’ bay configuration has been the source of endless scorn over the past half millennium, with almost every military tactician considering it the worst of both worlds. While situations requiring a Pachmaster’s full capabilities in either have been historically rare, and the CAF is usually spread thin enough that prioritizing towards maximum operational flexibility has a logic behind it, many Packmasters have been caught in awkward situations due to their need to split their attention between two only vaguely related tasks. The knowledge of how the CAF actually intended to fix this should a time of proper war arise has proven to be one of the most elusive subjects in CAF archives, but the Minion War finally forced these century old documents into the light of day. After dusting them off and updating them to factor in contemporary strike craft profiles, the CAF began the process of turning its Packmasters into true super-carriers, at least when sufficient strike craft can be found.

Interestingly, this process occurred while the ‘Retribution Package’ was making the rounds in CAF headquarters on Goldilox, leading to many of its elements being incorporated into the refit. The Packmasters were earmarked as the third in line to receive the purchased ORACLE suites after the Dreadnoughts and Battleships, and several of them did indeed receive them before the war’s end. Many would remain in their ‘War-Ring’ configuration afterwards, with a substantial number converted into dedicated ‘Dire Wolf’ planetary assault ships.

taalismn wrote:"What next, you going to tell me you have black powder muzzle loaders with better range than our grav-guns?"
"No, that would be the Solara Sardye...only we're pretty sure the propellant they use in their guns uses dark matter, and they fire neutronium shot."

The Three Galaxies are big places, and there's metaphorical mounts of mystical BS all over the place. You'll find an example of just about anything possible somewhere. Just how many you'll find is another question entirely. Anyway, here's my last bit for a few days. I'm letting my thoughts congeal and looking into a certificate course to pass the quarantine.

As is often the case, based on something Kitsune did.
Consortium Armed Forces 'Champion’ Heavy Cruiser
”There’s not much to say about it really. It's a bigger Warshield, with more everything but strike craft. My question is how is it going to be escorted, because it can outpace essentially everything else we have. They’ll likely do a Predator variant for it, but increasing the FTL power on that thing will be a right pain.”

“The old ‘Shield is still the gold standard for direct fire cruisers, but it's over half a millennium old. The Imps are upgrading their ships, so we do them one better and trump them.”

“I’d like to say something witty about this, but it's really just a bigger brick wall.”
“Anything wrong with that?”
“At this price tag, no, although I’d like to know just where all the mass went. I can understand most of it, but I feel like they could have slimmed it down by around 20 kilotons.”
“Likely something to do with the FTL drive. Those things can get odd with optimal mass allocation. I know a few of a few mainstream designs that are cheaper to build with a quarter again the mass than they really should, even without miniaturization costs.”
“I can think of 6 off the top of my head. What does that say about my interests?”

Another sign of the Consortium's newfound sense of aggression, the post-Minion War Champion is intended to replace the half millennium old Warshield on the production slips. While half again the price of the old stalwart, the Champion is more than half again the ship, and incorporates all of the various ‘lessons learned’ from the Minion War. Beyond its increased firepower, its most notable feature is its speed in FTL drive, able to reach a full 7 light years an hour. This is faster than any other mainline Consortium ship yet produced.

Those produced so far have passed all trails with aplomb, and have been assigned to particularly troublesome sectors to replace lost Warshields. The CAF has no intention of phasing out the Warshield in any remotely conceivable time frame, and the hulls will certainly be reused for a variety of purposes.

Omegasgundam wrote:
The Three Galaxies are big places, and there's metaphorical mounts of mystical BS all over the place. You'll find an example of just about anything possible somewhere. Just how many you'll find is another question entirely. Anyway, here's my last bit for a few days. I'm letting my thoughts congeal and looking into a certificate course to pass the quarantine.
.

Good luck with that...I should be doing something more productive with all my free time, but....(shrug)
And understandable after the big creative surge here.

So its been a few days, and I have a good 18 or so pages of CAF ground stuff to post. I'm putting it in here do to not seeing another thread that people pay attention to. Spoilers will be used to cut down on overall display size.

(I’m really upping the defender count and overall resilience of Demon Worlds to make this as big an achievement as it should be.)
Operation Gut Cutter: The CAF’s Offensive Against Demon World Keltig
The brainchild of Fleet Admiral Nikola, Gut Cutter was a Hive Buster operation expanded to planetary scale, exploiting the depletion of its escorting Demonic fleet due to its attempted attack on Goldilox. Keltig himself had proven himself almost impervious to attack from fleet units, but his mouth was vulnerable enough to make him decide to break off his attack and flee. The CAF, in conjunction with the UWW, had pieced together enough long lost lore to deduce that the beast could be eventually killed via the cumulative destruction of his countless internal organs, each of which also made him slightly more vulnerable to follow up attacks. At the same time, the CAF found itself with a distinct lack of planetary situations requiring heavy assets, with the peaceful resolution of the Georgia Crisis solving the majority of discontent, and demonic raids rarely needing more than a mechanized regiment to resolve. This left the majority of the Corkscrew Galactic Task Force’s ground assets free for use, and use them Nikola did.

At the time, the Corkscrew GTF had nearly 400 Packmaster Carriers, but nowhere near the aerospace assets to fill them with. Nikola chose to consolidate, leaving just under 300 with full compliments and a full 100 ready for alternative use. In preparation for Gut Cutter, half of them were converted into planetary assault ships, deploying a grand total of 8 CAF Army Groups, more than an order of magnitude larger than the previous largest CAF planetary offensive. The other half were turned into the logistical support ships that would be needed for such an undertaking, and additional arrangements were made to bring nearly all of the Battleram Attack Robots in Corkscrew. To ensure dominance over the planetary airspace, the Dreadnoughts CSS Emancipation and CSS Liberation would be assigned as the joint command ships for the operation, and were provided with 20 megaton landing cradles in the event their they needed to set down on the planetary surface should they suffer a malfunction or Keltig’s Gravity Glands be too much of a problem. The UWW would commit several thousand researchers and support specialist to the operation, seeking to acquire first hand knowledge of how to best damage the monster and but having their combat assets spread extremely thin with hotspots across the Three Galaxies.

After the fleet finished off Keltig’s meaningful anti-ship defenses, the ground side of operation began in earnest. The initial wave was composed solely of Battleram-As, being able to self deploy to the surface and limiting the total casualties should something go wrong. Due to their inexperience, it took the deployed 768 robot division a full 9 hours to locate and destroy sufficient Gravity Glands to open a hole large enough to deploy the rest of the landing armada through, but once they did they came in force. Rather than using Assault Shuttles, the full invasion force entered Keltig’s atmosphere and deployed their compliments, and spent the duration of the campaign as mobile fortified bases for the patrolling hover vehicles and tunnel diving RPA formations. In the first 2 hectic months, the CAF would push themselves to achieve a destructive advancing front that averaged 4 miles an hour, smashing what organs could be found within 20 miles of the surface.

While the surface actions were considered a relative sideshow to the hunt for Keltig’s organs below, the CAF’s Armored Regiments would face off against vast hordes of parasite defenders that aimed to strike at the armada. The Emancipation and Liberation were more than able to handle the truly large scale attackers, such as the thousands of Tentacle Clusters and similarly sized parasites, it was up to the hover tanks to deal with the millions of lesser crawlers that were dispatched after the first month. The upgraded Phalanx II would make its combat debut here, and would prove to be well suited with its enhanced firepower and sensor suite. Beyond being a far better hoard masher, the tank’s Gravity and Neutron sensors would prove vital in quickly finding near surface organs to cripple Keltig’s ability to control his defenders, greatly simplifying the tactical problem and giving pointers as to the layout of the world below.

In the endless tunnel fights, the Battleram would almost always be at the forefront, with Keltig’s internal tunnels and veins being more than sufficient to allow them access to the monster’s major internal organs. And when they were slightly lacking, brute force often made up the difference, with the Battleram’s tremendous strength just as home tearing away at pseudo-rock as it was at armor plates. Keltig’s defenders would treat the Battleram as priority targets, and several larger and much more powerful species were developed to try to deal with them, but despite this relatively few would be outright lost. Over the course of the 7 month campaign thousands would be cannibalized to keep less badly damaged units fully operational, bu it was a very uncommon occurrence for them to be destroyed outright. The vast majority of them would be due to Keltig possessing one of his Floating Horror lieutenants and chain casting Annihilate, and Battleram pilots became extremely proficient at exorcising him quickly whenever he made an appearance.

The legions of Bombard and Bombard-As primarily supported the Battlerams, but also covered the large amounts of subsurface territory that the larger robots were simply too large to get to. While rarely containing vital organs, they consolidated the CAF frontline and wore away at Keltig’s ability to generate and control his forces, reducing his ability to be ‘clever’ and force advantageous tactical situations. The Bombard-As would fare substantially better due to their shields, but the normal model would also rise to the challenge. A variety of additional weapons heads would be created as field expedient prototypes, and several of them would go on to full production status. Things were going substantially less well on the infantry scale however.

While the CAF had the foresight to bring as many suits of Power Armor or as could possibly get their hands on, they were still only able to equip just under a third of their infantry with some form of combat exoskeleton. This was considered highly lementable even before they landed, and their experience afterwards only further justified it, with straight leg infantry lacking the protection and firepower to risk themselves against hardened opposition. While the common Gut Crawller could be dispatched in a pair HI-80 bursts, they were often present in great numbers and in close quarters, and were on the absolute bottom of the food chain when it came to local monsters. When Power Armor was present in force, the infantry always took substantial casualties, and the times where they needed to storm Demonic surface installations were considered outright bloodbaths due to their extremely confined spaces. The situation was best likened to a boarding action where the opposition consisted solely of endlessly replaceable supernatural monsters, the CAF would be desperate to find ways to reduce casualties in these close quarters firefights. The best solution found was to use near-exoskeleton power armor in place of normal straight leg soldiers, being nearly the same overall size and able to fit in effectively all the same spaces. This experience would lead to the priority development of what would become the CEPA series of Combat Exoskeletons, which would become the CAF Marine trademark.

It is generally accepted that the tide turned decisively in the CAF’s favor at the end of the 2nd month, when the cumulative damage had become great enough that Keltig was now incapable of performing FTL travel. The CAF leadership then chose to slow down overall operations to catch up with maintenance and allow for the first batches of additional Naruni ‘Super-Soldier’ Exoskeletons to be delivered, which caused Infantry casualty rates to plummet. Once this was accomplished, the advance picked back up to an average of 2 miles an hour, and reached Keltig’s maw at the end of 5th month. The 6th month consisted of strike companies progressing further and further down the side of the maw and systematically destroying the monster’s digestive system, finally driving Keltig comatose and allowing the UWW to commence with rituals of destruction using the PPE stored in his very Ley Lines. The process took the entirety of the 7th month, during which the CAF ran rampant throughout Keltig’s interior with effectively no opposition, both to ensure that he remained dormant and to get some petty revenge against the beast.

4 months later, the UWW would use the knowledge they gained from the endeavor to slay Demon World Orsak at a far lower cost, and would repay the CAF with a tremendous amount of assistance in setting up its burgeoning Techno-Wizard industry on Norro-Ger. The war would conclude 5 months after that with the banishment of Cormal back to his prison, removing the last significant Demonic fleet in the Three Galaxies, bringing things to an end 3 years to the day that Cormal emerged from Kotus Point. Gut Cutter inarguably paved the way for these feats, and can thus be considered the great turning point of the war, granting the Consortium an immense amount of military prestige and political capital. Internally, the CAF would spend decades pouring over the collected logs trying to find every last potential lesson that could possibly be extracted, resulting in many fundamental changes in how they prepared for and conducted ground campaigns. Beyond the CEPA program, Gut Cutter would ultimately also be responsible for the ‘Phoenix’ family of vehicle development programs, creating future CAF icons such as the Slammer MBT, Boxer IFV, and the ‘Consortium Guardsman' pattern of Glitter Boy.


(As always, here’s some knockoffs of Kitsune’s stuff along with some of my own work.)
Expanded CAF Infantry Arsenal
In addition to HI-Lasers, GR-weapons, various munition launchers, and a wide range of Naruni weapons, the CAF’s armory includes the following items.

C.A.F. GR-25-ER Support Gravity Rail Rifle
Regarded as the only truly worthwhile design by Wolfpack Armaments in the eyes of most true weapons experts, the GR-25 is a light squad support machine gun, being only a 5th heavier than a NE-10 and having appreciable burst damage and range. It was also the only item on this list to see serious distribution among the CAF prior to the Minion-War, with most infantry platoons having at least 2 in their TOE. While not particularly liked, it stands well above the disappointing GR-15.

C.A.F. HI-10B Pulse Heavy Laser Pistol
Developed by CAF Special Forces after Colonel Reltish acquired a wide variety of potent single handed pulse weapons from the USA, the HI-10B is a modification of the original with a two shot burst mode, and is able to use larger E-Clips. While slightly heavier and almost twice the price, it is regarded as well worth it by its users, who use it as an all around more capable alternative to the GR-45 Jackhammer. Distribution remains very small, with most examples being hand converted by unit armorers for use by those that can be expected to make meaningful use of them.

C.A.F. HI-80S Heavy Carbine
Similar to the HI-10B, the HI-80S was developed by CAF Special Forces after receiving a hefty dose of inspiration from Colonel Reltish’s escapades with the USA’s AJC, reducing the size of the standard combat rifle to make it more practical to use in close quarters. With clever engineering, the overall destructive potential remains unchanged, but the range has been cut in half. Its operators consider this to be an easily tolerable trade off, with the vast majority of their operations occurring at distances less than a third of that. Its utility has led to it becoming accepted as a standard production model, and saw extensive use in Operation Cut Cutter as the primary infantry long arm.

C.A.F. HI-E300 Infantry Support Laser Rifle
The first new weapon developed by HI-Industries in centuries, the HI-E300 is a squad support weapon that is still in testing. While substantially more powerful and longer ranged than the HI-80, the weapon suffers from minute flaws in its cooling and charging systems, making malfunctions relatively common when firing bursts. The CAF will not formally accept it into service until these issues are solved, but several units involved in Operation Gut Cutter were given units to test and evaluate. It is anticipated that it will take an additional 5 years to be made truly field ready, but budgetary arrangements have already been made.

CAF ‘Spector’ Combat Scope
While officially developed under the auspices of CAF Special Forces, everyone even vaguely aware of the true circumstances knows that it's a strait up clone of the of Paladin Steel’s LR-OTS07 Sensor-Scope developed for the Maximus Pulse Laser Rifle, right down to the mounting brackets. It is unknown if Paladin Steel will take legal action, but it is quite likely that they have been paid off in some manner.

Market Cost: Official military secret, and are jealousy guarded by those that are issued them. Black Market examples and knockoffs often go for more than 40,000 credits, with its ability to detect mystically invisible enemies driving the price through the roof.

CAF CC-F# ‘Counter Crush Field’ Emitter Series
The proliferation of Gravitic Munitions was a profoundly disturbing development for both CAF and the CCW as a whole, as it made normal SDC scale beings horrifically vulnerable without an expensive forcefield. That it also worked through unshielded vehicles was just the icing on the cake, and the Assembly frantically authorized funding for a functional countermeasure as a crash project. Drawing from their experiences with tinkering with Naruni designs, CAF engineers developed the ‘Counter Crush Field’. By modifying the emitors slightly, they produce a marginal field effect even when depleted, protecting the wearer from the worst of the gravity induced damage. While far from perfect, they prevent normal mortals from being instantly pulped by the M-Scale event. Naruni has quickly added this capability to their own models to boost sales, and proven to be near mandatory on the modern battlefield. The CAF is swiftly moving to include the most basic model on all of its Battle Armor, and is adding field emitters to their vehicle cockpits as well.

Unknown to most, it also greatly expedited the GSA’s efforts to undermine Naruni industries, with there being relatively little difference between producing components of CC-F devices and those for traditional personal force fields. The proliferation of manufactures and facilities involved has sped up efforts in this area by several decades, allowing the GSA to refocus their efforts into other branches of the overall program.

(Based on Kitsune’s Silver Falcon, but I don’t think it's enough to warrant a new model name.)
Consortium Armed Forces SF-CCW100A ‘Silverhawk-A’ Attack Exoskeleton
”The ‘hawk was always good, but now it's even better. It's always amazed me how much they managed to shoehorn into half a ton of Power Armor, but it’s still top dog barring the usual rumors of somebody managing to recreate the Avenger.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

Always a stunning performer, the Silverhawk did have some annoying inefficiencies. Beyond being a bit slow for a modern aerospace vehicle, by default it lacked any form of Forcefield, the Multi-Rifle’s Grenade Launcher was not burst capable and used somewhat dated munitions, and finally it was problematic to use both of the Six Shooters without dedicated training. While all but the first could be solved via common depot alterations, and were so common that many people thought they came with the armor by default, the relative lack of speed was a much more serious task of engineering. The pre-Minion War CAF was interested in an improved design, but was unwilling to devote the time or resources to do so, leaving the ideal to lay fallow for several decades. After the attack on Terra Prime, low-cost high-effectiveness programs became very much in vogue among the surviving parts of the CCW’s formerly labyrinthian bureaucracy, and a meaningful budget of manpower and credits was given to the ‘Silverhawk-A’ project. Thanks to scavenging from prior unofficial projects, it took only a month for a working prototype to be finished, and the improvements were considered meaningful enough to be rolled out as a general upgrade.

Beyond incorporating a variety of common modifications done to the Silverhawk, the Silverhawk-A had two major changes. The first was the addition of a set of small external space-use ‘Auxiliary Thrusters’, the exact mechanics of which are actually similar to that of the Scorpion, which accelerated the armor up to Mach 14 in space. While quite vulnerable to damage, the now integral Forcefield protects from the first few major hits, allowing the pilot some room for error. The second major change is increasing the flexibility of the wing hardpoints, allowing them to carry SRMs and more importantly ‘cut-down’ MRMs. While only having a fourth the normal range of a CAF standard MRM, they still out-ranged and out-damaged equivalent SRMs, and allows the Silverhawk-A to engage at something beyond what is considered to be knife-fighting range. As most of the existing fleet already had most of the changes in one form or another, only the Thrusters needed to be newly manufactured, which greatly cut down on time and resource costs.

In addition to replacing the original on the assembly line, Silverhawks are being upgraded to the -A as soon as the Auxiliary Thrusters can be shipped out. Despite being nowhere near as extensive as the changes done to the other primary CAF vehicles, the Silverhawk-A has been well received, as the Silverhawk was always a beloved workhorse.

Consortium Armed Forces CAF-GP-10A ‘Ground Pounder-A’ Upgrade
”It's a better Pounder. I’ve seen the shield and mortar upgrades as unit refits, but it’s nice to see them made standard across the board. The Grave Wave may be pricey, but it’s a tremendous help in anything vaguely urban or otherwise confined, which is really where most of the action is at. I know for a fact that High-Com is investing heavily into lighter exoskeletons though, so expect it to get some little brothers soon.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

The two century old Ground Pounder was also caught up in the wave of upgrades and refinements sweeping the Minion-War era CAF. While there were few fundamental complaints, modern refinements could add additional capability and solve a few niggling issues. The changes were primarily focused on the weaponry, with the old single arm Particle Beam being replaced with a set of forearm mounts on both arms and the shoulder MMls were doubled up in capacity. Additionally, the Auto-mortars were upgraded to allow for alternative munitions, drawn from common grenade types. The Chest Laser was removed due to being redundant, and freed up space and power capacity to mount a Naruni sourced Forcefield and Gravity Wave Sensor system.

The Ground Pounder-A would serve well, but is considered something of a stop-gap design. The CAF has moved towards desiring even more flexible surface use Power Armors, and the Ground Pounder was simply a bit too focused on its original loadout configuration. Even when a new unit is developed, it is widely believed that the Ground Pounder will not be phased out of service, with the millions of existing suits merely being slowly pushed from frontline units. As the saying goes, “Any PA is better than no PA”, and the Ground Pounder is as effective as ever.

Consortium Armed Forces CAF-AR-20A ‘Bombard-A’ Upgrade
” The Bombard upgrade on the other hand was out of left field for me. It was still a good unit, and I didn’t think it needed a major revamp. Apparently somebody on high disagreed with me, so we got this beauty out of it. I oversaw a battalion of them for a month during Gut Cutter, and the difference between them and the original is readily apparent. Them being even more modular means that unit engineers will start getting creative, and you only need to look at the ASI catalogue to see where that goes. ASI will likely put out some kits of their own, because, well, ASI.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

The Bombard was a relative late comer to the wave of upgrades, being considered a solid performer for its role and size. However, the armor composition and configuration was found to be somewhat lacking (with the main body in particular being thought to be on the fragile side) and the fixed weapons lacked flexibility, so CAF engineers decided to raid the store houses for alternatives. The most significant change was that the now discarded fixed forcefield from the Battleram was just barely able to be shoehorned into the chassis after the armor was replaced, dramatically increasing protection to all sections. The shoulder mounted Plasma Cannons were made modular, allowing a variety of alternative weapons to be fitted in its place. A similar change was done to the arms, allowing the Bombard to double up on gun power if desired. No additional weapons pods have so far been designed, but most consider it simply a matter of time.

(To quote Taalismn on this one, "-and here's how we're going to upgrade Gigantor.")
Consortium Armed Forces BR-CCW2000A ‘Battleram-A’ Attack Robot
”The Battleram is no longer a space asset. Thus, it is not my concern. It’s Fredette’s problem now, and I declare victory.”
----Captain Vicen Trancluw, CAF

“I understand where Trancluw is coming from, with the ‘Ram being his Phalanx and used completely ass backwards to how it should be, but the upgrade is honestly impressive once hits the planetary atmosphere that it always should have been in. The massive increase in effective firepower and shield strength work beautifully with the hover mode, and sweet forge did they pull their weight during Gut Cutter. The old ‘Ram was always at its best as a Hive Buster, and the -A tipple downs on it.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

”Apparently people are calling it the Dom for some reason. I have no idea why, but it feels like it fits strangely enough.”

Prior to the colossal expenditures to develop the Balanced Hammond Drive, the Battleram had been the go-to example of wasteful CAF spending since the moment it was put into service. Despite the objections of every flag officer in the CAF, the Assembly forced the Battleram onto them in what has been declared the most egregious military pork barrel program in Three Galaxies history. While the Balanced Hammond Drive was ludicrously expensive, it at least filled a desired military need among both civilian and military leadership. Nobody in the CAF wanted the Battleram, but they got it anyway and have been stuck with it ever since. There have been extensive efforts to find some use for it, and the most consistently practical was as a surface unit, serving as an more heavily armed but much slower and easier to hit Phalanx. It was also found to have substantial utility in Star Hive Busting, with many hive corridors being large enough for the Battleram to traverse the structure and its immense short range firepower and brute strength allowing it to force its way through Killer Beetle defenders. The chaos of the Minion War presented the CAF with an opportunity to better optimize the Battleram for what it was actually passable at, and they eagerly took it.

The first and most obvious change is replacing the old fixed forcefield with a variable model taken off on the Katana, granting more than 3 times the protection. Second, the pop-up Cruise Missile was replaced with a second Gravity Cannon to be held by the left arm, granting additional sustained firepower. Similarly, the chest mounted Hi-Laser was mirrored on the other side, with all of the weapons having pre-programed macros to fire link when at appropriate ranges. Another major change was the adjustment of the CG propulsion system to allow for surface hovering, granting it ground mobility equal to that of the Phalanx. While this makes it even slower in space, this was not remotely considered a concern. It could keep up with the Assault Shuttle, which was ideal for the CAF’s purposes.

The ‘secondary weapons’ received just as much attention. The chest LRMs were replaced with double stacks of MRMs, retaining the same number of tubes but gaining a reload. The old MRM launchers in the legs were replaced with ‘EM Rail Accordion’ batteries similar to that used on the Bombard, well suited for use against massed swarm units. Additionally, the left arm MM launcher was removed and both arms were clad in thicker armor. Finally, the access hatches were substantially reinforced, with monsterous boarding attempts being considered a virtual certainty. With these changes, the Battleram was now seen as having a useful military niche, and the upgrade package spread across the CAF like wildfire. Admiral of the Fleet Janice Nikola formally removed the anti-ship role from the Battleram’s official capabilities, which led to virtually every Cruiser and Battleship Captain to immediately ditch it as the first opportunity for a Proctor or equivalent. This left tens of thousands of Battlerams without an official home, but they soon found their use in Operation Gut Cutter, which combined both of their accepted uses into one.

(See Kitsune’s entry for whatever bits that I missed. Srsl, give him a visit if you want setting material that’s consistent and makes internal sense.)
Consortium Armed Forces MBT-35-2 ‘Phalanx II’ Main Battle Tank
”Ah. The feeling of victory. Even if I have to give a computer a gun, I’ll do it if it makes the ‘Pisswall’ a working tank. Real pity Lucian had to die to push it through though, I served under him and he was one of the greats, but if it meant getting the old beast usable he would have willingly fallen on his sword. I hear he’s been effectively beatified by the rest of the Armor Core, which doesn’t surprise me in the least.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

The Phalanx has been derided for as long as the CAF has used it, being considered an ungainly mess over the previous Human Alliance originating hovertanks. It simply had too many vulnerabilities and too many crewmen for an acceptable Main Battle Tank, but politics demanded that it become the primary armored combat vehicle of the CAF’s ground forces. In recent decades the discontent over it among the rank and file became a constant source of PR headaches, further accelerated by it a series of high profile rejection by high profile IDFs in favor of alternatives with similar price tags. The final straw was when the son of the Consortium Assembly’s Military Procurement Committee was killed in a skirmish while commanding one, and his personal log entries expressing his contempt of the vehicle and how it was likely going to get him killed if push came to shove were made public. At that point something had to be done, and preferably without too much of a budget expenditure.

The quickly assembled ‘Phalanx II’ configuration draws heavily from other existing CAF systems, simplifying logistics and removing the need to authorise and arrange for new contractors. The old ‘bow shield’ was replaced by a modern variable model from the Katana, and the turret Hi-Laser was replaced with a pair from the Black Eagle. The frankly underpowered Particle Beam and mini-turrets were replaced with Variable units from the Assault Shuttle with improved arcs of fire, serving as both an anti-infantry and anti-missile defense. Sensor systems were upgraded with what the CAF would consider to be a new standard, featuring both a Gravity Wave Sensor and a previously rare Neutrino Detector. Most impressive of all was the inclusion of an automated combat control system for the secondaries, reducing the crew load by half. While objected to by many Human Alliance representatives, the equally human dominated CAF Ground Forces Board was unanimous in its support, considering 8 men on a single ground vehicle to be utterly unacceptable. As the alternatives were replacing the Phalanx with a new design (politically impossible) or leaving the CAF without a main battle tank (political suicide), the representative relented, allowing the Phalanx to receive the badly needed upgrade it had needed when it still served the Wolfen Empire.

An unexpected addition late in the process was a major improvement on the turret G-Cannon, which had been found to be incredibly underperforming for what its physical parameters were. Several respected IDFs had found that the weapon suffered from major software errors, which greatly limited its maximum targeting range. When this was rectified, the main weapon could now reach over 5 and a half miles in most conditions, and the use of high speed ramjet penetrators further boosted the damage. That this had persisted for half a millennium without the CAF noticing was yet another great scandal that rocked the pre-Minion War CCW, and contributed to the above average turnover of flag rank officers on the eve of that conflict.

Zounds! The Consortium Strikes Back!

taalismn wrote:Zounds! The Consortium Strikes Back!

I'm working on the TGE equivalents. It mostly consists of bringing them close enough to par to be a true threat, but the CAF will have a substantial qualities advantage. The TGE's vehicle shields are going to cap out at 110 for one, and their weapons will have either slightly sub-par damage or endurance problems. MDC values will stay around the same.

EDIT: As far as the CAF Ground Forces are concerned, Gut Cutter was 'The Big One' of the Minion War. It won't be rivaled until they land on a TGE Sector Capital/Major Industrial Center, which is the same thing really.

Omegasgundam wrote:[
I'm working on the TGE equivalents. It mostly consists of bringing them close enough to par to be a true threat, but the CAF will have a substantial qualities advantage. The TGE's vehicle shields are going to cap out at 110 for one, and their weapons will have either slightly sub-par damage or endurance problems. MDC values will stay around the same..

Any improvement in the TGE is going to hurt the Free Worlds Council unless they can steal upgraded TE stuff as quickly as it's issued to the THE crunches, or the FWC's allies smuggle in good stuff to them. There's also the slender chance that the FWC might have some innovative engineers of their own, but they're going to be limited by the scant resources the FWC has.

taalismn wrote:

Omegasgundam wrote:[
I'm working on the TGE equivalents. It mostly consists of bringing them close enough to par to be a true threat, but the CAF will have a substantial qualities advantage. The TGE's vehicle shields are going to cap out at 110 for one, and their weapons will have either slightly sub-par damage or endurance problems. MDC values will stay around the same..

Any improvement in the TGE is going to hurt the Free Worlds Council unless they can steal upgraded TE stuff as quickly as it's issued to the THE crunches, or the FWC's allies smuggle in good stuff to them. There's also the slender chance that the FWC might have some innovative engineers of their own, but they're going to be limited by the scant resources the FWC has.

This is really marginal stuff for the most part, and the FWC could easily match or surpass if they can get somebody else to pay Naruni to ship them the force-fields. The only big upgrade is the Doomsday, which has to be majorly revised to actually work, and the FWC's best solution to those has always been massed nuke land mines. I'm also making some upgrades to the EP weapons so that they don't suck as much, but the price tags will make them compete with HI-Lasers while being way heavier. I'll PM you the fluff I've put together in a bit.

Here's the TGE making its Army less garbage. I'm proud to say that this is all more or less my own work.

Also, I said LESS garbage, not 'not garbage'.

Trans Galactic Empire Infantry Kinetic Weapons
“Ok, I have to admit. That a **** knockoff of the one decent Wolfpack gun is better than what they were using before is absolutely hilarious. I knew their non-PA mass-pro ground stuff was straight up garbage, but that's just absurd. I mean, WOW. How bad do you have to be to make Wolfpack look good? I didn’t think that was possible.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

It is a simple fact in the Three Galaxies that you will eventually run into enemies that are resistant to energy weapons. As the TGE almost exclusively uses Energy Pulse weapons for their infantry, this is a major problem for them, particularly when dealing with those able to stay out of melee range. The traditional response is to simply mass Power Armor units, but the TGE’s conquests had shown that this was far from guaranteed to be tactically possible, so something had to be done to provide some level of kinetic damage potential to their soldiers. While conventional mini-missile launchers had long been part of the Imperial Army arsenal, they simply lacked endurance to deal with the truly durable supernatural targets, which were also a Kreegor weakness. They needed working solutions, and preferably at low cost.

Trans Galactic Empire ‘Super-Pulse’ Weapons
“Naturally, the majority of production has gone to the Imperial Navy, who are far less likely to use them then the Army. The Royals are the ones that call the shots for who gets what, and the big houses have long been almost exclusively fleet focused. This leaves the Army with those that can’t make the cut, and are thus perpetually stuck with the short end of the stick. And they wonder why they can’t just crush the FWC.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

Of all the lessons of the last conflict, the most painful was that the empire’s infantry weapons were the laughing stock of the major powers. Energy Pulse weapons, while cheap and easy to field in vast conscript forces, were frankly abysmal in actual performance, with the CCW’s HI-50 being able to match the EP-8 under most circumstances. Being second best compared to other major military weapon designs was one thing, but losing to what was generally considered to be a civilian model was nothing less than a national embarrassment. Considering that EP weapons were also used by the Imperial Navy, this put them at a major disadvantage in boarding actions, and most special forces units had abandoned them in favor of captured HI-80s due to simply being better. The new Kreegor Emperor demanded that something be done to resolve this mess, and more profoundly allocated a major increase in the small arms production budget to cover the increased costs. If the Emperor was willing to spend money on something that would benefit Kreegor and non-Kreegor alike, then things were truly serious, and the TGE’s Monro scientists quickly went to work, producing results within a few years.

While the Emperor and his Warlords hoped that they would manage to keep the designs of the new weapons in their own hands for some time, reserving them for use by trusted (ie Kreegor) forces, they were leaked almost immediately. The ISB had long neglected monitoring the small arms factories of the empire, being simply too unimportant and widespread to devote their very finite manpower to, leading them to be hotbeds of insurgent thought. It is said the production schematics reached Good Hope before most of the Empire’s Sector Capitals, and it is known that the FWC started fielding the new weapons before the Imperial Army. As there were too many potential suspects at far too many different locations, the mandatory purging crippled the Empire’s production of the new weapons for several years, and it took even longer for the weapon quality to rise back up to even the Imperial Army’s lenient standards. As was becoming more and more the case, the Empire had run into a problem where crushing dissent only made it worse.

Trans Galactic Empire IPA-WI-K-2 ‘Warlord III’ Upgrade
”The TGE has always loved PA, and the W3 is about solving the problems of the W1. While the CG flight is objectively pathetic, its real use is for ground dashing. This makes it mobile enough to get away with not having a dedicated transport, allowing it to keep up with the Dark Slayers. Apparently hover-skimming gets over their problems with airborn PA. The weapons are improved enough they have something to them other than raw rate of fire, which makes them an even bigger problem for straight leg infantry. Good thing we’re moving away from using them if we can help it.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

“The TGE PAs are the only section of their ground equipment that’s really worth mentioning from a technical perspective. The Doomsday is just an overweight Destroyer that’s stuck skirting around on the ground, but the massed PA they do is something to be feared. Their only shortfall is a lack of ranged firepower, with that single Grav-Gun not being enough to go up against something that can dodge the missiles and play keep away. They make up for it by deploying them by the regiment, which generally covers that hole nicely. The Dead Boys only wish they could do that, so they’ve had to settle for pumping out a half million Juicers. Which is also scarry, but for different reasons.”
----GNEAF Internal Memo

”The Kreegor are an anomaly in many ways, most notably they are a technology using supernaturally strong species. Barring the fact that they run a technology based galaxy scale empire, its most apparent when you look at their power armor. Them simply using it at all is a true trans-dimensional rarity, but the fact that they are so enthusiastic about it makes them almost unique. One of the better theories I’ve heard is that they realized that they weren’t particularly high on the supernatural food chain after they kicked the Splugs out, so they naturally tried to compensate. Them having an inferiority complex on the racial level explains a lot about them, particularly if you give credence to the ‘Alien Intelligence Puppet’ idea. ”
----GNE Diplomatic Corps Internal Memo

The past 20 years have forced the TGE to admit that the ground bound Warlord I is simply too slow on the battlefield without a dedicated transport, and the Imperial Army is infamous for having a perpetual shortage of such. While loath to make a flying Kreegor use armor, it was found that nape of earth ‘hover-skimming’ was acceptable to Kreegor sensibilities, which prompted a substantial upgrade to the Warlord I. The newly designated Warlord III adds both a CG Flight Pack and a knockoff of a Naruni Forcefield, improving both mobility and protection. Additionally, the forearm weapons have been made modular, and additional choices have been developed, allowing trusted Kreegor to change their equipment to better suit their preferences. Unfortunately, the unmodified reactor is not quite powerful enough for all of these potential systems, with the EP-11 in particular having simply too high a power draw for it to handle.

Trans Galactic Empire IPA-WI-H-2 ‘Warlord IV’ Upgrade
”The W4 is the sort of absolute minimalist half-ass job you’d expect them to foster on their underlings. The only changes are the shield and the gun, which are admittedly not minor in the overall scheme of things. If you take off the Black Market surcharge and factor in the slave labor savings, it's actually rather cost effective, but the TGE would always prefer to spend human blood rather than royal coin.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

With PA-mounted forcefields going into mass production, it was inevitable that they would be added to the Warlord II. Additionally, the G-Autocannon rifle was replaced with a selection of more modern weapons. The FWC managed to start converting their own units almost immediately, and are often better due to a recent influx of N-50 Shields provided from various sources, and have a very wide range of available PA-use Rifles. They are also said to be working on their own further improved variant, having managed to get their hands on several manufacturing lines.

Trans Galactic Empire IAR-500A ‘Imperator-A’ Upgrade
”Chick-egg riddle; is the TGE’s stance on robots due to the Imperator being so mediocre, or is it mediocre due to their stance on robots? We’ll likely never know. The upgrade is as minimalist as it can get, with a bunch of cast offs from old Fang being slapped on. It works, and its legit better, but that isn’t all that hard when the baseline is that low.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

As was often the case, the Imperator was nearly forgotten when the upgrade program was carried out. Once remembered, the development team chose to take the opportunity to make it somewhat useful, with the robot being considered to be unfocussed and lacking an actual strong point. Once again choosing to go with a minimalist approach, the changes done to the Imperator were limited to what was simplest from a logistical perspective, using components from the Flying Fang and newly introduced Sharktooth. The near useless melee weapons were replaced with dual laser cannons, the chest guns replaced with more efficient models, and protection was dramatically increased by adding a standard Variable Force Field. If need be, the Imperator-A can pick up an Energy Axe, but TGE doctrine has shifted to the robot staying away from melee if at all possible, with its ranged weapons inflicting more constant damage.

While still disliked by the Warlords, the Imperator-A was now considered worth fielding, and have rapidly applied it to their existing units. Unfortunately for them, the FWC quickly followed suit, having all the components needed.

Trans Galactic Empire IAF-95A Dark Slayer Upgrade
”The Dark Slayer has always been about Quantity over Quality, but apparently the TGE is spooked enough to spend a bit of coin on upping the later a notch or two. From what Intel has gathered, the upgrade replaces a bunch of obsolete components with more modern ones, the most important of which is the reactor. The new nuke plant only costs a smigion more to fabricate than the dinosaur they had previously, but it delivers twice the effective power. This is used to install a basic forcefield and replace the light guns with their new EP support gun, which seems to already have all its bugs ironed out.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

“As concerning as the upgraded Dark Slayer is, we see no reason to shift from our GMR vehicle development project. The Dark Slayer is a large and heavy vehicle that is difficult to transport without a purpose built transport, and we need something much more portable and even more cost effective. We have already managed to duplicate the GMR production methods from the donated Human Alliance engineering texts, and Logistics says that mass deployment is well within our industrial capability. Even if it is battery powered, the Light Slayer promises to be an ideal counter, and we have already begun production of the EM Mass Drivers needed to arm them. When the ‘Flak Pad’ variant finishes working up, we will also be able to counter low density MRM barrages, which will give us a decisive range advantage.”
----Deliberations of the FWC High Command

“From an engineering perspective, the Dark Slayer is crude as hell. I mean ‘worse than old Northern Gun’ crude. If you could get the Coalition States to build a hover tank this big, it would perform much better simply because they would actually care, but the TGE is outright memetic about focusing on cost above all else. The only reason it's remotely competitive is because the low grade materials they make it out of are stupidly easy to make and put together, which explains how they managed to make a 180 tons combat vehicle cost less than 40 mil. If Intel is anybody to go by, Chi-Town has finally managed to figure out GMR and usable force fields, so they’re almost certainly going to do a ground up new design that can spank the upgraded Slayer. For all of their horribleness, the guys that are running the show over there aren’t idiots, and we’d best not forget that.”
----GNE Internal Memo

In the immediate aftermath of the Minion War, the TGE’s planning department noticed a pair of concerning facts. The first was that the CAF had radically upgraded their Phalanx MBTs to a degree that they were far more capable of matching their own cost in Dark Slayers, and the second what that their the near totality of their inventory of said Dark Slayers were do for a full reactor overhaul due to being produced or last serviced before or during the last conflict of the CCW.

Problem, meet solution.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Dark Slayer effectively had to be torn apart to replace its powerplant, the TGE took the opportunity to include a variety of meaningful improvements. The reactor is of a substantially more refined design, giving a far greater output for its price, which was used to power a basic force field. Similarly, the older computer systems were replaced with more modern equivalents, removing the need for the dedicated crewman to run the comms and sensors. In practice, the commander was usually the one that was monitoring the detection equipment, as the second gunner was in a better position to spot and illuminate targets. Additionally, the frankly pathetic light weapons were replaced with mounted versions of the new EP-11, with the 180 ton hovercraft’s reactor being far more able to fully power all of its systems than the 1 ton Warlord PA.

It is unknown just how many of the upgraded Dark Slayers will be needed to match the Phalanx II, but the TGE believes that has both the numbers and lift capacity to deploy them to do so. And in situations where quality truly matters, they have the upgraded Kartuhm-Terek to handle it. Or so the thinking goes.

Trans Galactic Empire KT-2 Kartuhm-Terek Upgrade
”For all the Doomsday’s hugeness, it’s really just a showpiece when you get down to it. The damn thing weighs a good 10 kilotons, which is more than a good destroyer. Said destroyer can easily trump it in every category and is possibly cheaper as well. But the Kreegor just have to go big or they feel small or something. Trancluw says one of the big theories among the fleet boys is that the Berzerker is their equivalent to the Proctor, and I have to say it makes a disturbing amount of sense.”
----Major Philip Fredette, CAF

“The FWC has actually managed to take out a far number of these things. The TGE really doesn’t want to admit it, but the lack of a shield on the original was honestly more of a problem than the speed. The easiest method to deal with them was to sprinkle command detonated nuke mines across the projected travel path and let them smash up the underbody. This more often than not brings it to a shuddering halt as the CG drive gets too messed up to work, and you can’t fix those things without bringing in even bigger equipment to get the ***** off the ground. It's then just a matter of bringing in enough tube artillery to smash its exposed guns, and then ambushing anybody that tries to rescue it. There’s a reason the Imps haven’t sent any more of them to Axis in almost 50 years.”
----Anonymous, GSA ‘TGE Office’

“The other practical way to kill them is to bring down a Berzerker and fling a few salvoes of nuke tip LRMs into them. It's not viable if the thing is staying under their air defense network, but that also means it's not going on the attack, which translates into being a non-problem most of the time. CM’s might give them enough oomph to reach a bit into AA range, but those are too precious to waste on a ground target, and most of the fleet uses LRMs due to being cheaper regardless. Hear we’ve managed to set up actual production lines for the things too, which shows just how simple fusion heads are.”
----Anonymous, FWC Tactical Command

For all the dread that the ‘Doomsday Machine’ invokes, it is a fundamentally obsolete design. Essentially unchanged since the founding of the Trans Galactic Empire, its primitive systems are outright anachronisms by modern standards, and had proven to be major vulnerabilities during the last conflict with the CCW. As the Kartuhm-Terek was as much a symbol of national pride as the Doombringer, it was mandatory that the beast be upgraded before the next round of hostilities began, and ‘cutting corners’ was not an option. Thankfully, the vast majority of the existing inventory was due for reactor replacements anyway, so it was much less of a disruption than it could have been.

While the frame and most of the hull were still of sound design, the reactor and propulsion systems were not. The hybrid propulsion system imposed no end of operational limitations, and were the overwhelming cause of losses against the CAF. The reactor was also woefully underpowered and overweight, which greatly limited what could be installed. The replacements freed up a tremendous amount of room and power, which were then used to install a ship grade Variable Forcefield off of a Berzerker. Even with this power draw, the upgraded behemoth is still twice as fast as its predecessor, allowing it to outpace the majority of non-hover vehicles. There was still sufficient mass left over to increase the protection of the various exposed components, as well as replace the old anti-personnel lasers with modern EP-11s.

Even the Emperor would agree that the Kartuhm-Terek is not a particularly efficient design, but the sheer presence and fear that it invokes is simply too much for the Royal Kreegor to resist. As far as the Royal Houses are concerned, the Kartuhm-Terek is the prestige assignment among the Imperial Army, and a large majority of the Imperial Capital is laid out to allow them to joy ride through its streets in them. If they were truly forced to pick a better planetary combatant, they would pick the Berzerker, but it simply lacks the pizzazz of a moving apartment block of hatred. And in the TGE, what the Royal Kreegor says, goes.

Omegasgundam wrote:It is a simple fact in the Three Galaxies that you will eventually run into enemies that are resistant to energy weapons. As the TGE almost exclusively uses Energy Pulse weapons for their infantry, this is a major problem for them, particularly when dealing with those able to stay out of melee range. The traditional response is to simply mass Power Armor units, but the TGE’s conquests had shown that this was far from guaranteed to be tactically possible, so something had to be done to provide some level of kinetic damage potential to their soldiers. While conventional mini-missile launchers had long been part of the Imperial Army arsenal, they simply lacked endurance to deal with the truly durable supernatural targets, which were also a Kreegor weakness. They needed working solutions, and preferably at low cost.r]

This is surprising, given the Kreeghors' history with the Splugorth; did the Splugorth just not use 'Resistant to Energy' magic the whole time they were enslaving and later fighting the Kreeghpr? Or did the Kreeghor miss that in early Zerg-rush-to-melee-range tactics that it became a blind spot in their tactical doctrine?