Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

The capital ship, the largest most powerful ships of a fleet, and often the most important member of the fleet. Today we are going to take a close look at three types of capital ship, the powerful battleship, the versatile carrier, and the titanic dreadnought. These impressive vessels are often the pride of a fleet and given names to match their importance. First, let’s look at the battleship.

Battleships are huge warships typically designed to be in the thick of the fighting. They are heavily armored and heavily armed. Designed to inflict considerable damage with their heavy weapons in short order, and built to absorb a pounding in turn. However given their size many modern battleships have the capacity to carry fighters, and a significant number of torpedoes giving them far more flexibility than their wet navy counterparts. These massive ships are used in a variety of roles including the traditional roles of bombardment, orbital fire support, primary combatant, and even flagship. However, those aren’t the only roles that a space battleship can fulfill. As noted moments ago many of them have the capacity to carry fighters. Not to mention their size and tonnage allow them to be effectively built to the battle carrier concept, which allows one more role to be added to their repertoire mobile fighter base. It is important to keep in mind however that they lack the fighter fleets of a dedicated carrier.

It should be noted that many battleships are in fact large enough to carry smaller starships. Some of them are even designed to take advantage of this fact and are outfitted with a corvette bay intended to securely dock a number of corvette-sized scout ships. Speaking of size, how large exactly is a battleship? There is actually a lot of leeway allowed in the definition, but most starfaring examples are at least three kilometers long making them absolutely massive ships. It also means that a battleship is a fair investment for any colony, but not prohibitively expensive. Many of the most prosperous colonies have all had their own battleships.

Earth is most famed for the Yamato class, but that is a dreadnought. While not as famous, Earth does have a battleship class. That battleship class is the Starlight Class Battleship. The Starlight class battleship measures four thousand, seven hundred and fifty meters long. The ship has eight major hangers and two corvette bays. The ship carries an impressive eight hundred and fifty fighters and has room for ten corvettes in her massive hanger bays. Allowing the Starlight class tremendous power projection ability beyond the already large range of her guns.

The ship’s primary weapons are her four super-heavy ship-to-ship cutting beam arrays. These weapons have dedicated fusion reactors, and are designed to draw additional power when needed from the ship’s main drives. They fire a highly focused particle stream that can carve through most forms of armor in seconds, and have enough punch to penetrate weaker forms of energy shielding. Supplementing this mighty beast of a main weapon the ship is also equipped with 16 banks of super-heavy particle cannons. These large gun mounts are the size of a frigate, and hit with tremendous force, a single blast from one of these guns can level a major city along with a significant amount of the surrounding area. Even more impressive is their recharge rate which allows for an impressive fifteen hundred bolts per minute. Almost nothing can survive a barrage from these weapons. As suiting their power, and size however they are virtually useless against smaller ships that manage to get inside their tracking radius. That doesn’t mean they can’t snipe a fighter plane out of their void, as they very much can. Energy weapons like these are very accurate, and a fighter in the firing line of a mount can be very easily destroyed.

The ship does include an array of smaller gun mounts for use against smaller ships, including 20 banks of heavy particle cannons, 40 banks of medium dual-purpose particle cannons, and eighty banks of light anti-fighter particle cannons. Now you might be wondering what exactly that means with an energy weapon. Parallels however can be drawn with naval artillery which was largely ballistic. Light, medium, heavy and the like generally refer to their approximate range of size and power. With weapons in the light category being much smaller, and therefore weaker than something in the heavy category, but this also means they are better equipped to track smaller targets such as fighters who don’t really need a lot of firepower to destroy. On the flipside, heavy guns have a lot of power, and are much larger with consequently reduced ability to track targets. This means they have the range and firepower to be effective against capital ships, but aren’t really suited to hit small fast moving targets, especially at close range. Meduim guns, sit in the happy medium.

So what are the specific guns on the Starlight? Her main weapon is the Star Tech Industries XPCB-222-B Mark I Heavy Cutting Beam Array. Other ships that include this weapon system are the Yamato, and the Enterprise. Although the Enterprise carries a version with some minor modifications intended to help her take advantage of her antimatter reactors when in a pinch. Her super heavies are the Star Tech Industries XDPC-480-A Mark I super-heavy directed particle cannon. They feature an impressive maximum yield and a rapid recharge rate, although they can be somewhat energy intensive.

Her heavy gun mount is the XDPC-347-C Mark I directed particle cannon. A powerful weapon with a respectable yield, and a fairly rapid recharge. This gun mount is also found on a wide number of other ships including the Osaka Class, the Tokyo class, the Yamato, and the Enterprise. This Star tech cannon is one of the most popular heavy starship cannons in current use, and for good reason. It can fire 2100 bolts per minute, and it has an impressive yield in the megaton range allowing the weapon to level cities in an instant or reduce an armored capital ship to slag in seconds.

For her dual purpose gun mounts, the XDPC-128-B Mark I was selected. A medium caliber gun with a yield in the low megaton range, and easily fitted to most gun mounts. Its rapid 2200 bolts per minute is effective against most lighter ships along with the tracking to be effective. Despite the yield, it can’t really level cities in a single shot largely due to the directed nature of the particle stream. These guns are often used in multiple roles including ship-to-ship, anti-fighter, and precision ground bombardment. They are quite effective in fact as a high-powered tactical support weapon for ground troops. As such it is perhaps not that surprising that virtually every ship outfitted by Earth with medium guns employs this particular particle cannon.

Her light cannon mount is the only particle weapon in her arsenal not developed by STI. She is outfitted with the MRL-323-A Mark IV light particle cannon developed by MarSec. It features a rapid 2800 bolts per minute with a yield barely into the megaton range. The cannon is very light, and easily fits into standard light triple gun mounts. The weapon is very effective against fighters, shuttles, bombers, corvettes and other light craft.

Moving on, the Starlight class battleship is also outfitted with numerous torpedo launchers, including turret-mounted ship-to-ship mounts. These are her primary stand-off weapons, and are effective against most ships. In addition the ship also carries light missile launchers intended for engaging enemy fighter craft for additional point defense.

Protection-wise, the Starlight class battleship carried eight meters of overlord armor. That is just for starters, not only is the entire outer hull protected by eight meters of layered plating but all of her major bulkheads and the main starframe have been reinforced. Critical areas have been provided additional protection in the form of extra thick internal plating, additional bulkheads, and secondary structural integrity field generators. All internals and corridors are further protected by internal plating. Further internal protection is provided by a clever combination of armored emergency bulkheads, blast doors, and internal damper fields. Factors that significantly limit the effects of hull penetrating hits. Furthermore, the ship includes redundant control schemes and secondary bridges. Starlight class battleships can take massive poundings and still be combat effective, even in cases where over half the ship has been destroyed. Also included in her list of protection is the highly effective Energy Web system.

Seeing as the Starlight alone covers what a battleship is very well lets take a look at the carrier. Most carrier designs are actually larger than the average battleship, and they do far more than just carry fighter craft like the wet navy carriers of old. Many of them are outfitted with corvette bays, and in some cases even frigate bays. Carriers like their old counterparts still have rather limited firepower of their own in most cases. Although there are some exceptions. Most carriers are between five to ten kilometers in length, typical roles inside a fleet are fleet support, mobile fighter/corvette base, and power projection. As FTL was just around the corner, many in the admiralty were even looking at the carrier for its possible uses in deep space patrol.

The premier carrier for Earth’s navy was the Lincoln class carrier. It measured a massive five thousand seven hundred and ninety meters long. With over fifty primary hangers, and over five hundred decks the ship had truly cavernous bays able to support a fleet of nearly ten thousand fighters in a single carrier, along with space for over a hundred corvettes, and two modest frigate bays that allowed frigates to dock inside her armored hull. While not as heavily armored as the Starlight class, the Lincoln was still quite durable, and fast, very fast. Remarkably so for a ship of her size, which gave her options. Like the Starlight, Lincoln class carriers were also used as flagships.

Ships of this class are notably not cheap, and many of them never did have their full fighter complement. Despite those facts by the peak of the Earth-Cathamari war as many as twenty of these mighty ships are known to have been in service. At least one carrier of the class was present in all major battles of the war. Fighters attached to these carriers often proved most instrumental in numerous engagements. Outside of battle, they were even useful for their ability to provide drydock level repair to small ships.

Finally armament. The Lincoln does carry a limited armament of its own to help protect it from hostile enemy fighters, and fast combat vessels. Especially since space combat has proved that a carrier needs some ability to take hits and fight back. To this end she is equipped with the Star Tech Industries XDPC-23-E Mark I directed particle cannon in dual ball turret mountings divided into four primary banks. This is the only weapon carried by the Lincoln outside of those mounted on her attached fighters and corvettes. The XDPC-23-E was chosen for its high accuracy, decent recharge rate allowing an effective 2300 bolts per minute, and a deadly yeild in the low megaton range. These cannons were found to be highly effective against fighters, bombers, corvettes, and even some light frigate classes. Making them an excellent choice as a defensive weapon for the carriers. Heavier fire was deemed not required since her escorts in theory would be able to provide it as required.

Next up, the Dreadnought. Dreadnoughts are the largest classification of conventional warships. The term takes its origin from the wet water navies of old, to denote a different kind of battleship. One so potent that it eventually replaced the older form. The term was revived with spacefaring ships to again denote a different kind of a battleship. One larger, and more powerful than the standard kind of battleship.

Dreadnoughts are built to a truly massive scale, and like modern battleships incorporate the concept of a battlecarrier into their design. Nothing too different from battleships mind you aside from them being large enough to dwarf their cousins. The Yamato the only dreadnought class vessel built by Earth measured an impressive nine thousand and seven hundred meters long. Almost a full ten kilometers in length. Such a huge ship is naturally a major investment in resources of course, and something is needed to make it special.

Officially the Yamato was built as the flagship of the fleet with a great deal of publicity and fanfare involved in the construction. Her designation as dreadnought meant to set her apart from other battleships. At first glance, she seems in line with the typical battleship as well. Her primary armament is composed of four XPCB-222-B Mark I Heavy Cutting Beam Arrays along with 32 banks of XDPC-480-A Mark I superheavy particle cannons mounted in quad turrets. Her secondary battery consists of 45 banks of XDPC-347-C Mark I particle cannons mounted in triple turrets, and 55 banks of XDPC-128-B Mark I particle cannons mounted in dual turrets. As part of her point defense array, she is outfitted with 90 banks of XDPC-23-E Mark I particle cannons mounted in dual turrets, supplemented with light missile launchers, and an energy web grid.

The real bulk of her weaponry comes from her ship-to-ship torpedo launchers, she has numerous RF launchers both turreted and fixed mount. Allowing her to deploy devastating torpedo barrages against a single target or multiple targets. The Yamato has sophisticated multi-targeting systems allowing her to effectively coordinate fire against multiple targets. Not only that but her massive main drives give her the speed, and agility to keep up with ships many times smaller than her. She also carries a number of fighters, but they are not critical to her offensive abilities. She has the hangar space for about 1500 fighters, not much more than her battleship cousin, but there is a reason for that. Largely due to much of her internal space being used for other things.

Defensively the ship is a beast with both internal, and external defenses. Her outer hull plating is 12 meters of overlord armor with critical areas being further protected by reinforced bulkheads and supplemental internal plating. Much of the ship’s internal defenses match what was done with the older Starlight class battleship. Which pretty much covers everything official about the ship.

Unofficially she was outfitted with a spinal-mounted XXDP-23A particle lance cannon. This was a massive energy weapon connected directly to her main drives, and primary reactor modules. Utilizing a massive particle accelerator, and accumulator setup that runs the length of the massive Yamato. This weapon was specifically designed for the Yamato, but certain shortcomings were discovered during testing. When tested the resulting energy beam exhibited a destructive output in the mid-gigaton range. Making it the most powerful weapon ever devised by man. Unfortunately the power drain on the Yamato’s systems was enormous, more than initially modeled in fact. As a result the spinal-mounted beam weapon was not tactically viable. As the firing of the weapon would draw too much energy away from her other systems, and significantly tax her power grid. There were some other problems that cropped up as well, but those weren’t as crippling and more easily fixed. The Yamato’s phase two refits, which would have upgraded her systems to FTL specs, and added an antimatter-based power core, would have rectified these issues. Additionally, several modifications were planned for the beam weapon that would have further improved its performance. Making it the anti-capital ship weapon it was intended to be.