11
Cyclone
Robotech Nerd
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
I don't actually have a story update this time, but I thought I'd share my notes on the new ships and refits we've seen in the story already.
* * *
EAS Cyclops
The EAS Cyclops was an experimental ship built on a Nova-class frame and mounted with a Hyach spinal laser salvaged from the Dilgar War. It was a temperamental design, plagued with problems with the cooling system, until Hermes returned with pre-Oath schematics on a far superior cooling system. Cyclops was refitted with a reflex furnace in place of her original fusion reactors, and she was also equipped with one of the first newly-built pinpoint barrier systems.
* * *
Nova-class dreadnought (refit 1)
The first Nova-class refit during the Earth-Minbari War replaced the fusion reactors with a reflex furnace and the plasma guns with particle beam weapons. An omni-directional barrier system was added at the cost of marine berthing, but the First Battle of Cyrus III underscored the limited utility of the omni-directional barrier system, and this refit was quickly discontinued.
* * *
Nove-class dreadnought (refit 2)
The second Nova-class refit during the Earth-Minbari War was very similar to the first refit. The major difference was that a pinpoint barrier system had been added to supplement the omni-directional barrier system.
* * *
Hyperion-class heavy cruiser (refit)
The Hyperion-class heavy cruiser refit modified the forward heavy lasers with an additional particle beam option, turning them into combination cannons. Additionally, a magnetic lens was added, allowing the combination cannons to fire up to 40 degrees off-bore. The rest of the Hyperion's wide variety of energy weapons were replaced by pre-Oath grade particle beam cannons.
During the Earth-Minbari War, a select few Hyperions had had their fusion reactors swapped out for a reflex furnace to power a pinpoint barrier system. After the Earth-Minbari War ended and a reliable source of protoculture had been acquired, this refit has been accelerated.
* * *
SuperNova-class dreadnought (light cruiser/attack cruiser)
The SuperNova-class dreadnought was rushed into production in the latter half of the Earth-Minbari War and proved itself a formidable warship. As its name implies, the SuperNova is built on a Nova-class hull, but it incorporates a reflex furnace and artificial gravity. The SuperNova boasts impressive firepower with 18 turreted twin particle beam cannons. These cannons are mounted in the same mounts used for twin plasma cannons in the original Nova-class design. The hangar system has also been designed to accept either starfuries or veritech fighters.
The First Battle of Cyrus III underscored the limitations of the omni-directional barrier system, as the EAS Nimitz was unable to return fire once her barrier system was up, so the SuperNova was equipped with both an omni-directional barrier system and a pinpoint barrier system. The pinpoint barrier system, however, had considerable teething problems. EarthForce R&D deemed the manual control used by pre-Oath ships to be inefficient and chose to automate it. The initial version proved ineffective, as the pinpoint barrier would prioritize without consulting the interceptor grid and attempt to block attacks that had already been neutralized by the interceptors. Later versions tied the pinpoint barrier system's control in with the existing interceptor control computer. The early version of the program, while effective, proved inefficient, as the E-Web dispersed incoming fire before it reached the pinpoint barrier, sometimes scattering the energy over an area wider than the pinpoint barrier disc. Later software and hardware upgrades corrected this flaw -- and saved energy -- by having the control computer selectively activate the E-Web in response if it calculated that neither the interceptors nor pinpoint barriers could stop an attack, but the processing power required for this required a hardware upgrade to the interceptor control computer as well.
With the Maximum Upgrade Program, EarthForce would reclassify the SuperNova as a light cruiser. Some SuperNovas would be refitted with the drive-enhancing inertial damper upgrades; combined with its already-oversized thrusters, it becomes ridiculously fast. These refitted SuperNovas would be classified as attack cruisers.
* * *
Fearless-class destroyer
The first new ship class to come from the Maximum Upgrade Program, the Fearless-class destroyer is 1,210 meters long and powered by a reflex furnace, with two fusion reactors as backup. Designed before reflex cannon construction was perfected, it is armed with 36 turrets, each mating a particle beam cannon with a railgun, and 24 heavy missile tubes, but its main weapons are a pair of heavy laser/particle beam combination cannons. It is equipped with a pinpoint barrier system and interceptor system for defense, but no omni-directional barrier system. It possesses artificial gravity, inertial dampers, gravitic sensors, and a jump drive. It is also equipped with an experimental drive system that extends the inertial damper field around the ship and severely reduces its inertia, allowing its smaller reaction thrusters to propel it at high acceleration.
The Fearless-class is shaped like an uneven hexagonal prism on its side (from above, it looks like a tall isoceles triangle with its corners cut off), with a bow hangar bay capable of holding 48 fighters and modular mounting clamps along the ventral surface. The bow hangar bay's doors are heavily armored and optimized for pinpoint-assisted ramming, and the quick-release mounting clamps can convert the Fearless-class into a dropship, mobile carrier, or armed transport. The two combination cannons are modeled after the combination cannon turrets used by the Zentraedi, combining a variable frequency heavy laser with a faster-firing particle beam cannon in each mount, using the same barrel assemblies. The combination cannons are structurally mounted in the sides, nominally facing forward, with only the very tips of the cannons exposed. This class of destroyer typically relies on its superior acceleration and maneuverability to engage the enemy with the combination cannons, but they also include magnetic lenses at the muzzles of the combination cannons that allow them to engage targets as much as 70 degrees off-bore.
* * *
EAS Cyclops
The EAS Cyclops was an experimental ship built on a Nova-class frame and mounted with a Hyach spinal laser salvaged from the Dilgar War. It was a temperamental design, plagued with problems with the cooling system, until Hermes returned with pre-Oath schematics on a far superior cooling system. Cyclops was refitted with a reflex furnace in place of her original fusion reactors, and she was also equipped with one of the first newly-built pinpoint barrier systems.
* * *
Nova-class dreadnought (refit 1)
The first Nova-class refit during the Earth-Minbari War replaced the fusion reactors with a reflex furnace and the plasma guns with particle beam weapons. An omni-directional barrier system was added at the cost of marine berthing, but the First Battle of Cyrus III underscored the limited utility of the omni-directional barrier system, and this refit was quickly discontinued.
* * *
Nove-class dreadnought (refit 2)
The second Nova-class refit during the Earth-Minbari War was very similar to the first refit. The major difference was that a pinpoint barrier system had been added to supplement the omni-directional barrier system.
* * *
Hyperion-class heavy cruiser (refit)
The Hyperion-class heavy cruiser refit modified the forward heavy lasers with an additional particle beam option, turning them into combination cannons. Additionally, a magnetic lens was added, allowing the combination cannons to fire up to 40 degrees off-bore. The rest of the Hyperion's wide variety of energy weapons were replaced by pre-Oath grade particle beam cannons.
During the Earth-Minbari War, a select few Hyperions had had their fusion reactors swapped out for a reflex furnace to power a pinpoint barrier system. After the Earth-Minbari War ended and a reliable source of protoculture had been acquired, this refit has been accelerated.
* * *
SuperNova-class dreadnought (light cruiser/attack cruiser)
The SuperNova-class dreadnought was rushed into production in the latter half of the Earth-Minbari War and proved itself a formidable warship. As its name implies, the SuperNova is built on a Nova-class hull, but it incorporates a reflex furnace and artificial gravity. The SuperNova boasts impressive firepower with 18 turreted twin particle beam cannons. These cannons are mounted in the same mounts used for twin plasma cannons in the original Nova-class design. The hangar system has also been designed to accept either starfuries or veritech fighters.
The First Battle of Cyrus III underscored the limitations of the omni-directional barrier system, as the EAS Nimitz was unable to return fire once her barrier system was up, so the SuperNova was equipped with both an omni-directional barrier system and a pinpoint barrier system. The pinpoint barrier system, however, had considerable teething problems. EarthForce R&D deemed the manual control used by pre-Oath ships to be inefficient and chose to automate it. The initial version proved ineffective, as the pinpoint barrier would prioritize without consulting the interceptor grid and attempt to block attacks that had already been neutralized by the interceptors. Later versions tied the pinpoint barrier system's control in with the existing interceptor control computer. The early version of the program, while effective, proved inefficient, as the E-Web dispersed incoming fire before it reached the pinpoint barrier, sometimes scattering the energy over an area wider than the pinpoint barrier disc. Later software and hardware upgrades corrected this flaw -- and saved energy -- by having the control computer selectively activate the E-Web in response if it calculated that neither the interceptors nor pinpoint barriers could stop an attack, but the processing power required for this required a hardware upgrade to the interceptor control computer as well.
With the Maximum Upgrade Program, EarthForce would reclassify the SuperNova as a light cruiser. Some SuperNovas would be refitted with the drive-enhancing inertial damper upgrades; combined with its already-oversized thrusters, it becomes ridiculously fast. These refitted SuperNovas would be classified as attack cruisers.
* * *
Fearless-class destroyer
The first new ship class to come from the Maximum Upgrade Program, the Fearless-class destroyer is 1,210 meters long and powered by a reflex furnace, with two fusion reactors as backup. Designed before reflex cannon construction was perfected, it is armed with 36 turrets, each mating a particle beam cannon with a railgun, and 24 heavy missile tubes, but its main weapons are a pair of heavy laser/particle beam combination cannons. It is equipped with a pinpoint barrier system and interceptor system for defense, but no omni-directional barrier system. It possesses artificial gravity, inertial dampers, gravitic sensors, and a jump drive. It is also equipped with an experimental drive system that extends the inertial damper field around the ship and severely reduces its inertia, allowing its smaller reaction thrusters to propel it at high acceleration.
The Fearless-class is shaped like an uneven hexagonal prism on its side (from above, it looks like a tall isoceles triangle with its corners cut off), with a bow hangar bay capable of holding 48 fighters and modular mounting clamps along the ventral surface. The bow hangar bay's doors are heavily armored and optimized for pinpoint-assisted ramming, and the quick-release mounting clamps can convert the Fearless-class into a dropship, mobile carrier, or armed transport. The two combination cannons are modeled after the combination cannon turrets used by the Zentraedi, combining a variable frequency heavy laser with a faster-firing particle beam cannon in each mount, using the same barrel assemblies. The combination cannons are structurally mounted in the sides, nominally facing forward, with only the very tips of the cannons exposed. This class of destroyer typically relies on its superior acceleration and maneuverability to engage the enemy with the combination cannons, but they also include magnetic lenses at the muzzles of the combination cannons that allow them to engage targets as much as 70 degrees off-bore.