- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So I'm new to this and completely lost when it comes to the design stuff, but is there a reason we aren't trying to reverse-engineer the Sacred Legacy components? The armour seems like an achievable target at least.
Blood, Sweat, and Tears (WH40k Design Bureau)
- Thread starter DaLintyGuy
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
In abstraction, it would be somewhat like trying to reproduce a Formula One racecar using the accumulated knowledge and industrial ability of a nation during the First World War. Taking inspiration is doable, actually reproducing it is... Difficult.
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Okay, that puts it into perspective. Still unsure why we aren't at least taking inspiration, then. Seems like a good way to jump our armour materials forward.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Well, we just got a boost to our armour materials from the space station we reclaimed from Orks during the turn prior to the last one, and we have no end of things that need to be moved into production and a fleet to rebuild.
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ah. Yeah, there's a lot of details to keep track of on this one.
A Battle of Uniary, Part 1 (Paid for Repairs to Audacity Turn 10)
A Battle of Uniary, part 1
Admiral Ajra Kaleman sat on the command throne of what was technically the flag ship of the fleet they had assembled. A lot of people had thought that she would have taken the Strife as her flagship, being the sole Light Cruiser sized ship in Calavan hands. Commanding from such a commanding, durable and enduring platform had, of course, it's appeals, but she dismissed the idea from the beggining. The battle wouldn't, after all, revolve around The Strife.
So what then, about the ship it did revolve around? Many had actually outright suggested she take up sit in the Sacred Legacy due to it's overwhelming firepower, sensor suite and symbolic presence in the fleet. What better place to be in the middle of a battle, then where it was hinging on?
But...no. The oldest naval captain in service to Calavar did not think she should. Not when there was a much appropriate place for her to fight from.
Aboard the 1st Squadron's sole Heavy Frigate and Squad Leader, the snow white haired woman sat as she watched her fleet sail to meet the Ork menace. The Courante was an oddity in what had been determined would be Calavar's Hunting Squadron. Envisioned as a tool to run down, and kill, fast raiders of Xeno or Heretical origins, it nonetheless needed elements that only one of their famed escort carriers type ships could provide. And the Courante more then succeeded at the task.
In this battle, however? The squad and therefore it's leader would be playing a slightly different task. One that would provide an unique vintage that the Sacred Legacy, despite it's holyness, wouldn't be able to.
At about 23 vessels of varying weight and class, the battle would be spread out throughout a "route" that they had planned and discussed before hand. Funneling in space, if one observed, was next to impossible but not actually impossible. Not if you didn't give your opponents any other choice. The magnitude of this sort of play required a certain amount of risk and placement that would not allow the admiral to be able to respond to the battle's development in a good time frame from aboard the Sacred Legacy. Or at least, for the purposes of this single battle, not enough of a one.
What they were planning was tricky, dangerous and very much necessary. It was not unfortunately something they had been able to practice on or had good experience with. Up until this point, they had won their battles with the green skins due to good ship placement, firing coordination and simply having flat out better technology. And all of those things took both good planning, training and experience to pull off, but smashing against the Orks was not something they could do and expect to come out of this engagement with enough ships to take care of the other fronts. They not only had to win, but they had to win as decisively as they could. And if that meant that commanding aboard the Courante would give them just that bit more of an edge in this case, then command aboard the Courante she would.
Hence, the plan.
"Castigators, up front," The century old woman spoke through her vox link and the command was relied throughout the fleet. The four Castigators in the Calavan fleet increased their thrusts to get ahead of the veritable sphere of death that the human faction had brought to Uniary, just ahead of the incoming green tide.
Had she not been fighting against them for the last half century, she suppose she would have quailed at the sight before her. The simple fact that there were almost twice as many ships with them as there were with hers didn't even stir her, for wasn't that always the case against the Orks? The monstrous light cruisers in their midst, however, along with their other looted Imperial ships were of far more concern. Facing against them with only a single Light Cruiser hull was admittedly a tall order. But if she had not believed that her men and women would be able to better leverage what they had then the Orks she would have allowed anyone of her rivals to honorably murder her a long time ago.
Sensing a challenge, the Ork ships at the tip of their fleet all alighted their thrusters as they rushed to meet the Castigators as fast as they could.
Ajra frowned. That was not enough.
Moments later, the communication networks all pinged with the frustrated gruntings of what they could only assume was Legcutta, and the Ended-Effort pushed it's engines as far as it could to keep up with his armada, the rest of his fleet following suite.
Ajra smiled. That was better.
The powerful plasma engines of the human fleet and the ramshackle ones of the Orks both ate the distance away as if it were nothing. Hundreds of thousands of units of distance swallowed as the Castigators lowered their thrust but maintained their deceptive lead on the fleet and the Ork ships sailing with abandon to catch up to them.
Soon enough, hundreds of thousands turned into thousands. And as the distance auxpexes counted the kilometers down, the humans claimed first blood.
Lighting up as if it were magic, the relativistic Diodes of the Sacred Legacy lighted up and sent a stream of electrons at the first most ship. Having only the most basics of shields and not much more, the beams caused them to overload as if they weren't there and two holes burned clean through the armored prow and burned their way through it's whole length before dissipating before hitting the engines. Red metal bleed from the "wounds" and for a moment it seemed as if it hadn't had any effect at all beyond defacing it's dubious aesthetic. That was, until it's started veering dangerously close to one of the ships following it.
And crashing into it.
"Yes!" The men in her throne room cheered as sparks of metal smashing into metal glowed in the dark of space, armored denting and atmosphere venting from both ships. But even with it's navigational system compromised, the "wounded" corvette did not stop running for them even as it pressed on it's fellow ship. And as for said comrade? It directed the wounded one, like a comrade dragging a friend into battle. The state that it was in once it got to it? To the Orks it didn't matter.
Only getting to the battle did.
The Sacred Legacy fired thrice more from all it's Lances before the battle began in earnest. The first one of those destroyed one of the cannons in another nearby corvette. The second shots blinded yet another ramshackle green skin escort. And the fourth? Observing that it's first victim was now tilting against it's "comrade", making the latter have to tilt to an equal degree to keep them on course, it divided it's lances into both nearby targets.
And shot at their exposed engines.
Their angle allowed the holy data banks in the Sacred Legacy to find an optimal firing solution. The beams burned through the empty space and gored through a whole assembly of thrusters on each of the ships.
There were no explosions for this wasn't apparently enough to compromise the engine cores. It was, however, enough to kill their thrust and leave them derelict in the path of the rest of their fleet.
Ork maneuvering wasn't good at the best of times. But it should have been good enough that flying around the two ships should have been easy. That is, if they had bothered.
Still bound together as one escort after another smashed into them and kept going at full speed, the pair bounced around the inrushing fleet losing weapon, armor, ship components and hull as they were literally torn appart before getting in the way of the Ended-Effort. And dying in a firey explosion as the prow of the Light Cruiser simply broke them.
"Worthless gits," The malevolent intelligence behind the fleet muttered to itself as he pushed his ship as fast as it would go.
At this moment, all 6 Ravagers with in the fleet deployed their Launchaz, firing Grot guided torpedoes that gave the enormous explosive devices enough guidance to be a danger. Some of the Ravegers, being near the front, cleared to the human ships easy enough. Others, who were near the middle if not the back, had to shoot "around" their compatriots to not miss out on the fun. Which is to say, that in more then one occasion they didn't.
Of the 12 torpedoes, 3 hit Roks that couldn't move fast enough out of the way and 9 headed for the human fleet. Being full of "ablative" mass, only one of the Roks suffered an engine failure from being hit on it's back. The rest simply got a destructive speed boost!
The Strife, knowing it's roll, released dozens of the Saviors that it housed to screen the path of the fleet and that was when things started going....not to plan.
As if expecting this response, scores of Dakkajets fired off from their corvettes and light cruisers. Rather then being able to concentrate on destroying the torpedoes, elements of fighters fought against their green skinned equivalents as they spiralled around the building sized rockets.
The Admiral considered realizing her own component of Furies in her bays to help tip the fighter battle in their favor but...she didn't. Her part in this planned demanded different considerations of her ship. Even if they weren't going to have the fighter dominance that they had counted on.
One by one the torpedoes nonetheless snuffed out as one element of Saviors or another managed to destroy them. But there were still enough of them that one of the Squadrons of Castigators veered off course to be able to dodge them just in case. This would be, in retrospect, a horrible decision.
All the Ork torpedoes were safely detonated before they could get to the human fleet and, sensing that it was their time to answer in kind, the two Castigator squads, each composed of two of the ships each, spread out to the "edges" of the in coming Ork spear and then turned inward, against the opposite side.
Firing their Intolerant Torpedoes, the speed of the ordnance combined with the speed of the Ork advance arranged matters so that when the torpedoes finally hit, they did so at a short range. Dakkajets turned about to stop these but their dueling partners did not allow them enough time to do so.
8 human torpedoes carromed off at steep angle against ships that would simply not stop to let them pass or even had the maneuvering to dodge them. Having been fired to avoid simply hitting whichever Ork ship happened to be at the front, the ordnance flew for what had been dodged at the most dangerous element that it was plausible for the Castigators to hit; Their Ravagers.
As a result of redundancy of eagerness, 3 of the torpedoes headed for a single Ravager. The first struck it's prow from the side, bending the metal inward before a cobalt blue plasma explosion tore it apart, causing the torpedoes stored in it to combustively separate it's armor prow from the rest of the ship. The second one entered through through the front into the sudden "open" prow and penetrated deep into the escort ship before making it's middle inflate like a balloon with hot plasma.
And the last one? The last Torpedo "popped" that balloon.
2 of the other Torpedoes found bridge and mid part of a second Ravager, breaking it in half. One of the other Torpedoes barely managed to hit a third one, albeit exploding and taking out it's engines by the placement of the near hit. The last two missed their mark and hit two generic corvettes instead: the corvette that the Sacred Legacy had blinded and another corvette that was otherwise intact. The blind corvette soldiered on without weapons it could fire. The latter suffered a catastrophic engine drive overload that saw it spewing flames from where their exhausts used to be before a creeping serious of explosions broke the ship appart.
Using the inertia from their direction, the Castigators turned up their engines and coaxed as much power from their plasma power plants to quickly get out of the way of the incoming Ork fleet. Before their torpedoes had even hit, they made a sharp arc that saw the two squads flying towards the outsides of the "spear" point of the Ork ships.
The first squad met the nadir of their arc before the green skin corvettes were close enough to properly engage them with their short kannon batteries, not that it stopped the Xenos from firing with abandon at a range where they couldn't hope to hit two fast moving targets.
The second squad wasn't so lucky.
The minute trajectory changed it did to avoid the Ork torpedoes saw the nadir of their arc come much more closer to the Orks. Close enough that when they were through it, the Ork ships around them could occasionally impact upon their armor. Due to the enormous number of the Ork ships however? These "occasions" happened often enough that the ships shook as their hull was hammered even as they tried to escape.
The first part of this battle had been simple: The Castigators would sail in, cast their ordnances and then split away from the Ork and Calavan forces at a perpendicular direction from them both. They would then circle back behind the Calavan fleet and start flying at the edges of the main body to shoot torpedoes from the sides.
The fact that the Ork ships were far faster then the Castigators had been taken into account in this was why they were flying away at such a steep angle, so as to make their better speed work against them. And to hopefully make the incoming ork fleet second guess their targets.
Both squads succeeded at the second point. But only the first squad at the first one.
As they steeped their angle and forced Ork ships to decide whether to continue chasing them or head to where the REAL fight appeared to be, the hulls of the Castigators bleed atmosphere as crews tried to close up their "wounds" with the appropriate amount of urgency. Despite their almost lethal midsegment, it appeared that they would be able to get away.
That is, until forking yellow streaks of lighting floated through the void and caught Hope's Reach on it's thrusters. The energy flew from exhaust to it's exhaust, producing molten metal and slag as it went, "infecting" itself into the engine bay and vaporizing the humans their in before breaching it's containment elements. Shutting off to avoid a catastrophic melt down, the Castigator was without engines as the second half of rapidly started picking up pace and leaving it behind.
The Spear of Fury hesitated for a few brief seconds, not wanting to let it's sister ship die at this juncture. But the choice was ultimately taken out of their hands when another broadside from what turned out to be their Lite Krooza fired off a broadside of Zzappas and the two lightning forks crashed into Hope's Reach again, this time melting through it's back and igniting their plasma drive.
The thunderous explosion only alighted the last Castigator's path as a few Corvettes tried to catch up to it.
"Mayday, mayday, the Castigator Squadron report success and our first lethality," The Vox officer in the Courante's bridge announced, though Ajra had seen the events unfold with her own eyes before they happened. She accepted the news and updated her mental map of the battle, letting Hope's Reach be what she needed it to be to continue this battle with a calm mind; A simply casualty.
But, Emperor bless them, they had done their job and provided what the main fleet needed. The time to stop and point their broadsides at the incoming enemy.
Aside from disorganizing the spear tip as much as they could, the dead ships turned into debris and obstacles that their incoming brothers would either have to navigate through or crash into. More then not, the latter happened, but when a simple collusion slowed down enough a ship for it to in turn be rammed in the back? It had much the same effect.
But here was where their calculations started to not pay off.
The Lite Kroosa and the Ended-Effort resolved any an all "traffic jams" by simply smashing the "cords" of ships appart. Breaking and killing some. Simply dispersing others. But what they lost in ships, they gained in time.
The Long Arms and the Sacred Legacy started firing off their lances, working in conjunction with each other to soften the ork fleet before the slugging started. The Sacred Legacy would erase the Ork shields from existence, and the Long Arms would use their particle beams to destroy decks, shield generators and, when the opportunity arose, engines. A good 4 corvettes were grievously wounded this way before everyone was within 6000 units from each other, with 2 dying and flaking off into nothing against the hulls of their incoming fellows. This was not enough.
Heavy Macro rounds hammered into the human Corvettes and Heavy Frigates as the Ork cruiser hulls got into range and wasted no time firing off their loads into the front lines of the human ships. Saviors that had spent their ammunition or otherwise needed to repair started to flow back into the strife, with Dakkajetz precariously chasing after them and, more often then not, being left adrift in space as they ran out of fuel. But more then one made it to the Angry Turtle and started hammering it with whatever ordnance and ammunition they hadn't spent.
It was lucky, then the Sacred Legacy was at this point nearby enough to provide point defense cover.
The heavy fire of the human front line, however, proved a significantly more....potent wall for the Ork ships to pass.
Shields scattering as thermo-cavitation shells and solid slugs sailed in the dozens sunk into many a corvette and deformed their hulls to the point that when their drives exploded, the ships had already been torn appart. Zzappa broad sides and cruiser sized prow batteries smashed into the bigger of the front line ships, the Long arms and Indomitables shuttering under the pressure of this threat but....ultimately holding as Ork escorts were maimed and stopped.
By the point that they had gotten to a very short range, even the Bagalog ships at the flanks were taking shots at the Green skins now but...so could every green skin ship. Who had not, one had to note even stopped their advance.
This was were the third stage of the Calavan battle plan began and were the flaws in it started to see many more ships die.
"Split!" Ajra made the command, and the relay made all other ships do as she bade. A significant part, but by no means the majority, of the human death sphere alighted their thrusters and went to one side.
While the rest of the fleet went another.
What was composed of the 1st Squadron flew away from the Heavy Frigates, Strife, Sacred Legacy and other escorts. On the "back" of the formation, the Courante shot it's lone Macro batteries into the Ork ships as her Resolutes and Warriors hammered and bled away the corvettes with abandon.
This caused indecision in the Ork lines, who had spent a lot of the power of their engines by this point. They could hope to face against one of the parts of the human fleet but not, as it happened, both.
The Ork escorts in the spear head, composed of the rest of the Ravegers and a good amount of the Corvettes, decided to follow Ajra's little killer crew while the rest of the ships followed the main fleet. As the two elements of the Calavan fleet left at an obtuse angle, this gave each group perfect shots at the engines of the groups pursuing each other.
The 1st Squadron at this point all turned their guns into the now receding Cruiser sized ships in the Ork fleet. Hammering them with plasma shell and divinely wrought solid shot, the shields on the back of the great ships didn't hold half as well as they would have in the front. The simmered and glow as their reactors tried to keep up but, inevitably, with a pang that was somehow audible through the vacuum of space, the failed.
The Sacred Legacy, waiting for her chance to not waste any shots against their shields, turned it's deadly glance into the Ended-Effort, and started leaving dire weeping holes in it's prow. The rest of the ships in the second squadron, shot at the back of the ships following the 1st, leaving one of the ravagers a derelict ship, and outright destroying many of the corvettes.
In summary, the first moment of the third stage seemed like a run away success. That is, until the Light Fall Long Arm-B got rammed by one of the Corvettes.
Veering around as the mass of Ork turned it, the Heavy frigate kept on firing into the mass of Ork ships even as the Macros on the incoming green fleet started to hammer and stress it's impressive shields. For a moment, they held and even as the Corvette that had rammed started to be over penetrated by the Macro firing at it at point blank range, hope sprung anew.
But Legcutta wasn't known for being a run of the mill Ork. He was known for employing commandos.
A veritable cloud of boarding craft descended from the Ended-Effort into the Light Fall. Some where normal Green Skin boarders. Upon touching plate, and making their way inside the ship, these would battle against the crew inside for control of the ship.
Some others....wore purple and through some Green Skin ingenuity, directed their craft into the weapon bays of the Heavy Frigate.
Even as the humans fought for control of their ship, the weapons of the Light Fall turned around.
And pointed at their fellow humans.
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This is unbeta'd. I meant to write out the whole battle but at near 4k words, I do not feel that I am going to have enough time today to do the whole thing.
And so, I leave you all with a nice little cliffhanger!
Admiral Ajra Kaleman sat on the command throne of what was technically the flag ship of the fleet they had assembled. A lot of people had thought that she would have taken the Strife as her flagship, being the sole Light Cruiser sized ship in Calavan hands. Commanding from such a commanding, durable and enduring platform had, of course, it's appeals, but she dismissed the idea from the beggining. The battle wouldn't, after all, revolve around The Strife.
So what then, about the ship it did revolve around? Many had actually outright suggested she take up sit in the Sacred Legacy due to it's overwhelming firepower, sensor suite and symbolic presence in the fleet. What better place to be in the middle of a battle, then where it was hinging on?
But...no. The oldest naval captain in service to Calavar did not think she should. Not when there was a much appropriate place for her to fight from.
Aboard the 1st Squadron's sole Heavy Frigate and Squad Leader, the snow white haired woman sat as she watched her fleet sail to meet the Ork menace. The Courante was an oddity in what had been determined would be Calavar's Hunting Squadron. Envisioned as a tool to run down, and kill, fast raiders of Xeno or Heretical origins, it nonetheless needed elements that only one of their famed escort carriers type ships could provide. And the Courante more then succeeded at the task.
In this battle, however? The squad and therefore it's leader would be playing a slightly different task. One that would provide an unique vintage that the Sacred Legacy, despite it's holyness, wouldn't be able to.
At about 23 vessels of varying weight and class, the battle would be spread out throughout a "route" that they had planned and discussed before hand. Funneling in space, if one observed, was next to impossible but not actually impossible. Not if you didn't give your opponents any other choice. The magnitude of this sort of play required a certain amount of risk and placement that would not allow the admiral to be able to respond to the battle's development in a good time frame from aboard the Sacred Legacy. Or at least, for the purposes of this single battle, not enough of a one.
What they were planning was tricky, dangerous and very much necessary. It was not unfortunately something they had been able to practice on or had good experience with. Up until this point, they had won their battles with the green skins due to good ship placement, firing coordination and simply having flat out better technology. And all of those things took both good planning, training and experience to pull off, but smashing against the Orks was not something they could do and expect to come out of this engagement with enough ships to take care of the other fronts. They not only had to win, but they had to win as decisively as they could. And if that meant that commanding aboard the Courante would give them just that bit more of an edge in this case, then command aboard the Courante she would.
Hence, the plan.
"Castigators, up front," The century old woman spoke through her vox link and the command was relied throughout the fleet. The four Castigators in the Calavan fleet increased their thrusts to get ahead of the veritable sphere of death that the human faction had brought to Uniary, just ahead of the incoming green tide.
Had she not been fighting against them for the last half century, she suppose she would have quailed at the sight before her. The simple fact that there were almost twice as many ships with them as there were with hers didn't even stir her, for wasn't that always the case against the Orks? The monstrous light cruisers in their midst, however, along with their other looted Imperial ships were of far more concern. Facing against them with only a single Light Cruiser hull was admittedly a tall order. But if she had not believed that her men and women would be able to better leverage what they had then the Orks she would have allowed anyone of her rivals to honorably murder her a long time ago.
Sensing a challenge, the Ork ships at the tip of their fleet all alighted their thrusters as they rushed to meet the Castigators as fast as they could.
Ajra frowned. That was not enough.
Moments later, the communication networks all pinged with the frustrated gruntings of what they could only assume was Legcutta, and the Ended-Effort pushed it's engines as far as it could to keep up with his armada, the rest of his fleet following suite.
Ajra smiled. That was better.
The powerful plasma engines of the human fleet and the ramshackle ones of the Orks both ate the distance away as if it were nothing. Hundreds of thousands of units of distance swallowed as the Castigators lowered their thrust but maintained their deceptive lead on the fleet and the Ork ships sailing with abandon to catch up to them.
Soon enough, hundreds of thousands turned into thousands. And as the distance auxpexes counted the kilometers down, the humans claimed first blood.
Lighting up as if it were magic, the relativistic Diodes of the Sacred Legacy lighted up and sent a stream of electrons at the first most ship. Having only the most basics of shields and not much more, the beams caused them to overload as if they weren't there and two holes burned clean through the armored prow and burned their way through it's whole length before dissipating before hitting the engines. Red metal bleed from the "wounds" and for a moment it seemed as if it hadn't had any effect at all beyond defacing it's dubious aesthetic. That was, until it's started veering dangerously close to one of the ships following it.
And crashing into it.
"Yes!" The men in her throne room cheered as sparks of metal smashing into metal glowed in the dark of space, armored denting and atmosphere venting from both ships. But even with it's navigational system compromised, the "wounded" corvette did not stop running for them even as it pressed on it's fellow ship. And as for said comrade? It directed the wounded one, like a comrade dragging a friend into battle. The state that it was in once it got to it? To the Orks it didn't matter.
Only getting to the battle did.
The Sacred Legacy fired thrice more from all it's Lances before the battle began in earnest. The first one of those destroyed one of the cannons in another nearby corvette. The second shots blinded yet another ramshackle green skin escort. And the fourth? Observing that it's first victim was now tilting against it's "comrade", making the latter have to tilt to an equal degree to keep them on course, it divided it's lances into both nearby targets.
And shot at their exposed engines.
Their angle allowed the holy data banks in the Sacred Legacy to find an optimal firing solution. The beams burned through the empty space and gored through a whole assembly of thrusters on each of the ships.
There were no explosions for this wasn't apparently enough to compromise the engine cores. It was, however, enough to kill their thrust and leave them derelict in the path of the rest of their fleet.
Ork maneuvering wasn't good at the best of times. But it should have been good enough that flying around the two ships should have been easy. That is, if they had bothered.
Still bound together as one escort after another smashed into them and kept going at full speed, the pair bounced around the inrushing fleet losing weapon, armor, ship components and hull as they were literally torn appart before getting in the way of the Ended-Effort. And dying in a firey explosion as the prow of the Light Cruiser simply broke them.
"Worthless gits," The malevolent intelligence behind the fleet muttered to itself as he pushed his ship as fast as it would go.
At this moment, all 6 Ravagers with in the fleet deployed their Launchaz, firing Grot guided torpedoes that gave the enormous explosive devices enough guidance to be a danger. Some of the Ravegers, being near the front, cleared to the human ships easy enough. Others, who were near the middle if not the back, had to shoot "around" their compatriots to not miss out on the fun. Which is to say, that in more then one occasion they didn't.
Of the 12 torpedoes, 3 hit Roks that couldn't move fast enough out of the way and 9 headed for the human fleet. Being full of "ablative" mass, only one of the Roks suffered an engine failure from being hit on it's back. The rest simply got a destructive speed boost!
The Strife, knowing it's roll, released dozens of the Saviors that it housed to screen the path of the fleet and that was when things started going....not to plan.
As if expecting this response, scores of Dakkajets fired off from their corvettes and light cruisers. Rather then being able to concentrate on destroying the torpedoes, elements of fighters fought against their green skinned equivalents as they spiralled around the building sized rockets.
The Admiral considered realizing her own component of Furies in her bays to help tip the fighter battle in their favor but...she didn't. Her part in this planned demanded different considerations of her ship. Even if they weren't going to have the fighter dominance that they had counted on.
One by one the torpedoes nonetheless snuffed out as one element of Saviors or another managed to destroy them. But there were still enough of them that one of the Squadrons of Castigators veered off course to be able to dodge them just in case. This would be, in retrospect, a horrible decision.
All the Ork torpedoes were safely detonated before they could get to the human fleet and, sensing that it was their time to answer in kind, the two Castigator squads, each composed of two of the ships each, spread out to the "edges" of the in coming Ork spear and then turned inward, against the opposite side.
Firing their Intolerant Torpedoes, the speed of the ordnance combined with the speed of the Ork advance arranged matters so that when the torpedoes finally hit, they did so at a short range. Dakkajets turned about to stop these but their dueling partners did not allow them enough time to do so.
8 human torpedoes carromed off at steep angle against ships that would simply not stop to let them pass or even had the maneuvering to dodge them. Having been fired to avoid simply hitting whichever Ork ship happened to be at the front, the ordnance flew for what had been dodged at the most dangerous element that it was plausible for the Castigators to hit; Their Ravagers.
As a result of redundancy of eagerness, 3 of the torpedoes headed for a single Ravager. The first struck it's prow from the side, bending the metal inward before a cobalt blue plasma explosion tore it apart, causing the torpedoes stored in it to combustively separate it's armor prow from the rest of the ship. The second one entered through through the front into the sudden "open" prow and penetrated deep into the escort ship before making it's middle inflate like a balloon with hot plasma.
And the last one? The last Torpedo "popped" that balloon.
2 of the other Torpedoes found bridge and mid part of a second Ravager, breaking it in half. One of the other Torpedoes barely managed to hit a third one, albeit exploding and taking out it's engines by the placement of the near hit. The last two missed their mark and hit two generic corvettes instead: the corvette that the Sacred Legacy had blinded and another corvette that was otherwise intact. The blind corvette soldiered on without weapons it could fire. The latter suffered a catastrophic engine drive overload that saw it spewing flames from where their exhausts used to be before a creeping serious of explosions broke the ship appart.
Using the inertia from their direction, the Castigators turned up their engines and coaxed as much power from their plasma power plants to quickly get out of the way of the incoming Ork fleet. Before their torpedoes had even hit, they made a sharp arc that saw the two squads flying towards the outsides of the "spear" point of the Ork ships.
The first squad met the nadir of their arc before the green skin corvettes were close enough to properly engage them with their short kannon batteries, not that it stopped the Xenos from firing with abandon at a range where they couldn't hope to hit two fast moving targets.
The second squad wasn't so lucky.
The minute trajectory changed it did to avoid the Ork torpedoes saw the nadir of their arc come much more closer to the Orks. Close enough that when they were through it, the Ork ships around them could occasionally impact upon their armor. Due to the enormous number of the Ork ships however? These "occasions" happened often enough that the ships shook as their hull was hammered even as they tried to escape.
The first part of this battle had been simple: The Castigators would sail in, cast their ordnances and then split away from the Ork and Calavan forces at a perpendicular direction from them both. They would then circle back behind the Calavan fleet and start flying at the edges of the main body to shoot torpedoes from the sides.
The fact that the Ork ships were far faster then the Castigators had been taken into account in this was why they were flying away at such a steep angle, so as to make their better speed work against them. And to hopefully make the incoming ork fleet second guess their targets.
Both squads succeeded at the second point. But only the first squad at the first one.
As they steeped their angle and forced Ork ships to decide whether to continue chasing them or head to where the REAL fight appeared to be, the hulls of the Castigators bleed atmosphere as crews tried to close up their "wounds" with the appropriate amount of urgency. Despite their almost lethal midsegment, it appeared that they would be able to get away.
That is, until forking yellow streaks of lighting floated through the void and caught Hope's Reach on it's thrusters. The energy flew from exhaust to it's exhaust, producing molten metal and slag as it went, "infecting" itself into the engine bay and vaporizing the humans their in before breaching it's containment elements. Shutting off to avoid a catastrophic melt down, the Castigator was without engines as the second half of rapidly started picking up pace and leaving it behind.
The Spear of Fury hesitated for a few brief seconds, not wanting to let it's sister ship die at this juncture. But the choice was ultimately taken out of their hands when another broadside from what turned out to be their Lite Krooza fired off a broadside of Zzappas and the two lightning forks crashed into Hope's Reach again, this time melting through it's back and igniting their plasma drive.
The thunderous explosion only alighted the last Castigator's path as a few Corvettes tried to catch up to it.
"Mayday, mayday, the Castigator Squadron report success and our first lethality," The Vox officer in the Courante's bridge announced, though Ajra had seen the events unfold with her own eyes before they happened. She accepted the news and updated her mental map of the battle, letting Hope's Reach be what she needed it to be to continue this battle with a calm mind; A simply casualty.
But, Emperor bless them, they had done their job and provided what the main fleet needed. The time to stop and point their broadsides at the incoming enemy.
Aside from disorganizing the spear tip as much as they could, the dead ships turned into debris and obstacles that their incoming brothers would either have to navigate through or crash into. More then not, the latter happened, but when a simple collusion slowed down enough a ship for it to in turn be rammed in the back? It had much the same effect.
But here was where their calculations started to not pay off.
The Lite Kroosa and the Ended-Effort resolved any an all "traffic jams" by simply smashing the "cords" of ships appart. Breaking and killing some. Simply dispersing others. But what they lost in ships, they gained in time.
The Long Arms and the Sacred Legacy started firing off their lances, working in conjunction with each other to soften the ork fleet before the slugging started. The Sacred Legacy would erase the Ork shields from existence, and the Long Arms would use their particle beams to destroy decks, shield generators and, when the opportunity arose, engines. A good 4 corvettes were grievously wounded this way before everyone was within 6000 units from each other, with 2 dying and flaking off into nothing against the hulls of their incoming fellows. This was not enough.
Heavy Macro rounds hammered into the human Corvettes and Heavy Frigates as the Ork cruiser hulls got into range and wasted no time firing off their loads into the front lines of the human ships. Saviors that had spent their ammunition or otherwise needed to repair started to flow back into the strife, with Dakkajetz precariously chasing after them and, more often then not, being left adrift in space as they ran out of fuel. But more then one made it to the Angry Turtle and started hammering it with whatever ordnance and ammunition they hadn't spent.
It was lucky, then the Sacred Legacy was at this point nearby enough to provide point defense cover.
The heavy fire of the human front line, however, proved a significantly more....potent wall for the Ork ships to pass.
Shields scattering as thermo-cavitation shells and solid slugs sailed in the dozens sunk into many a corvette and deformed their hulls to the point that when their drives exploded, the ships had already been torn appart. Zzappa broad sides and cruiser sized prow batteries smashed into the bigger of the front line ships, the Long arms and Indomitables shuttering under the pressure of this threat but....ultimately holding as Ork escorts were maimed and stopped.
By the point that they had gotten to a very short range, even the Bagalog ships at the flanks were taking shots at the Green skins now but...so could every green skin ship. Who had not, one had to note even stopped their advance.
This was were the third stage of the Calavan battle plan began and were the flaws in it started to see many more ships die.
"Split!" Ajra made the command, and the relay made all other ships do as she bade. A significant part, but by no means the majority, of the human death sphere alighted their thrusters and went to one side.
While the rest of the fleet went another.
What was composed of the 1st Squadron flew away from the Heavy Frigates, Strife, Sacred Legacy and other escorts. On the "back" of the formation, the Courante shot it's lone Macro batteries into the Ork ships as her Resolutes and Warriors hammered and bled away the corvettes with abandon.
This caused indecision in the Ork lines, who had spent a lot of the power of their engines by this point. They could hope to face against one of the parts of the human fleet but not, as it happened, both.
The Ork escorts in the spear head, composed of the rest of the Ravegers and a good amount of the Corvettes, decided to follow Ajra's little killer crew while the rest of the ships followed the main fleet. As the two elements of the Calavan fleet left at an obtuse angle, this gave each group perfect shots at the engines of the groups pursuing each other.
The 1st Squadron at this point all turned their guns into the now receding Cruiser sized ships in the Ork fleet. Hammering them with plasma shell and divinely wrought solid shot, the shields on the back of the great ships didn't hold half as well as they would have in the front. The simmered and glow as their reactors tried to keep up but, inevitably, with a pang that was somehow audible through the vacuum of space, the failed.
The Sacred Legacy, waiting for her chance to not waste any shots against their shields, turned it's deadly glance into the Ended-Effort, and started leaving dire weeping holes in it's prow. The rest of the ships in the second squadron, shot at the back of the ships following the 1st, leaving one of the ravagers a derelict ship, and outright destroying many of the corvettes.
In summary, the first moment of the third stage seemed like a run away success. That is, until the Light Fall Long Arm-B got rammed by one of the Corvettes.
Veering around as the mass of Ork turned it, the Heavy frigate kept on firing into the mass of Ork ships even as the Macros on the incoming green fleet started to hammer and stress it's impressive shields. For a moment, they held and even as the Corvette that had rammed started to be over penetrated by the Macro firing at it at point blank range, hope sprung anew.
But Legcutta wasn't known for being a run of the mill Ork. He was known for employing commandos.
A veritable cloud of boarding craft descended from the Ended-Effort into the Light Fall. Some where normal Green Skin boarders. Upon touching plate, and making their way inside the ship, these would battle against the crew inside for control of the ship.
Some others....wore purple and through some Green Skin ingenuity, directed their craft into the weapon bays of the Heavy Frigate.
Even as the humans fought for control of their ship, the weapons of the Light Fall turned around.
And pointed at their fellow humans.
-------------------------------------------
This is unbeta'd. I meant to write out the whole battle but at near 4k words, I do not feel that I am going to have enough time today to do the whole thing.
And so, I leave you all with a nice little cliffhanger!
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Plan Surviving and Advancing is in the lead and thus wins. Though on reflection as preparation for the update I may have to modify the chosen SuperHeavy as the only Imperial vehicles with integral shields are either archeaotech (the Falchion and it's Flare Shield) or "merely" made by the most advanced faction of Humanity (the Knights and their Ion Shields).
I'll see if I can crack out the update tomorrow.
Weapon Review, Lativa Subsector Remnants During Reconquest of Ork Infested Territories
Pursuant to your request, Mockram, me and four experienced soldiers whose word I am able to vouch for took turns on the ranges with the war material the locals have supplied us with.
Lexicalum Pattern lasguns: Bar none these are maximally cost effective weapons meant for production with a minimum of material consumption. Pistols, carbines and rifles alike were made with a rolled tube skeleton and stamped metal plates used to protect the internals from infiltration by foreign materials. Stocks are often little more than an L-shape that can be unfastened and folded 180 degrees to lay alongside the action: presumably an inclusion to account for close combat such as in the Hives of Uniary and aboard vessels. Comparably, the sights are typically nothing special with the notable exception of several types of magnification aids from full scopes to mere panels with 2x power for improved aim in close to middle ranges. The longlas was nothing special other than established manufacturing quirks. Maybe slightly underpowered compared to what the troops are used to.
Warren Pattern laslocks: I am not joking, the locals actually make the Emperor damned things. For a specific reason perhaps and with machining atypical to the usual unsanctioned mess... The Warrens of Bailafax build these weapons as an answer to not having the manufacturing capability for Standard automatics and kept making and refining them out of stubborn pride. While a few minutes of tinkering can have them accept a standard power cell they are meant to use a smaller and less powerful charge. This size tradeoff means that a Warren "lockgun" will carry a magazine of five to ten power cells that are fed through the discharge chamber one at a time. And if there is any sort of debris or impurity you will be alerted to it as it vaporizes and/or combusts. Even so, the weapons are comparable in bolt strength to most Hellguns, only falling behind in rate of fire and endurance. Against typical enemies such as Orks and Traitors this is acceptable as even average makes of flak armor can be pierced outright by a Warren lockgun. To enhance these weapons further magnification aids are prevalent and optional barrels incorporate a beam splitter like the ones those thugs were using back on Coliune with about one and a half milliradians of spread to them.
Calavar Pattern autocannon: Itself it is an unremarkable machine except for the small difference that it has a smooth bore. No stabilization means that shells are less accurate at range but it does open up alternative munitions, such as various forms of multiple projectile shells, and mean each round picks up slightly more energy from the charge. Commonly available shells are APHEBC, APFSDS/HE, HEI, smoke, and flechette. All of which we made sure to test thoroughly.
Calavar Pattern multilaser: Nothing interesting to report. The locals do seem to edge towards the heavier/slower side of the spectrum however.
Lexicalum Pattern heavy bolter: Again the machining is unremarkable but the ammunition varies greatly so close to where they are made. Most unusual are the cogitator driven shells that burst over the target, releasing gas, caustics, or shrapnel into the trenches of the enemy. Another is a round that carries gelled incendiaries to be broken open by impact.
Trevyn Pattern chemical projectors: Typicaly used as a flamer this weapon is also built to resist the caustic mix the locals have cooked up to act as a different sort of threat in tunnel fighting or bunker clearance. It is also much more effective against armor than undirected heat, something that bodes well for us given the predilection of the Orks to copy the local's heavy armor.
Shelter Pattern Powered Armor: Made of comparable materials to most suits of carapace armor issued in numbers the Shelter takes the entirely reasonable approach of adding more of a good thing. A lot more. The things are more akin to light vehicles such as Sentinels or Chimeras than infantry. The noble Astartes certainly have them outclassed but the larger power plant and muscles of the Shelter compared to our available suits make them superior in the role they have come to fill: shock infantry to create holes, take positions, and brawl with the larger Orks. Of interest is the nature of their construction, with expandable sections in the limbs and abdomen to allow for resizing in the field. It is crude but easier done than a similar resizing on most suits of carapace as it is designed to be so to account for casualties when used. The blast padding also makes them surprisingly comfortable, oddly enough, and the coolant protecting the wearer from the power plant is good as serviceable climate control. Common weapons are power swords, rotary autocannon, and most any standard crew served weapon.
Lexicalum Pattern lasguns: Bar none these are maximally cost effective weapons meant for production with a minimum of material consumption. Pistols, carbines and rifles alike were made with a rolled tube skeleton and stamped metal plates used to protect the internals from infiltration by foreign materials. Stocks are often little more than an L-shape that can be unfastened and folded 180 degrees to lay alongside the action: presumably an inclusion to account for close combat such as in the Hives of Uniary and aboard vessels. Comparably, the sights are typically nothing special with the notable exception of several types of magnification aids from full scopes to mere panels with 2x power for improved aim in close to middle ranges. The longlas was nothing special other than established manufacturing quirks. Maybe slightly underpowered compared to what the troops are used to.
Warren Pattern laslocks: I am not joking, the locals actually make the Emperor damned things. For a specific reason perhaps and with machining atypical to the usual unsanctioned mess... The Warrens of Bailafax build these weapons as an answer to not having the manufacturing capability for Standard automatics and kept making and refining them out of stubborn pride. While a few minutes of tinkering can have them accept a standard power cell they are meant to use a smaller and less powerful charge. This size tradeoff means that a Warren "lockgun" will carry a magazine of five to ten power cells that are fed through the discharge chamber one at a time. And if there is any sort of debris or impurity you will be alerted to it as it vaporizes and/or combusts. Even so, the weapons are comparable in bolt strength to most Hellguns, only falling behind in rate of fire and endurance. Against typical enemies such as Orks and Traitors this is acceptable as even average makes of flak armor can be pierced outright by a Warren lockgun. To enhance these weapons further magnification aids are prevalent and optional barrels incorporate a beam splitter like the ones those thugs were using back on Coliune with about one and a half milliradians of spread to them.
Calavar Pattern autocannon: Itself it is an unremarkable machine except for the small difference that it has a smooth bore. No stabilization means that shells are less accurate at range but it does open up alternative munitions, such as various forms of multiple projectile shells, and mean each round picks up slightly more energy from the charge. Commonly available shells are APHEBC, APFSDS/HE, HEI, smoke, and flechette. All of which we made sure to test thoroughly.
Calavar Pattern multilaser: Nothing interesting to report. The locals do seem to edge towards the heavier/slower side of the spectrum however.
Lexicalum Pattern heavy bolter: Again the machining is unremarkable but the ammunition varies greatly so close to where they are made. Most unusual are the cogitator driven shells that burst over the target, releasing gas, caustics, or shrapnel into the trenches of the enemy. Another is a round that carries gelled incendiaries to be broken open by impact.
Trevyn Pattern chemical projectors: Typicaly used as a flamer this weapon is also built to resist the caustic mix the locals have cooked up to act as a different sort of threat in tunnel fighting or bunker clearance. It is also much more effective against armor than undirected heat, something that bodes well for us given the predilection of the Orks to copy the local's heavy armor.
Shelter Pattern Powered Armor: Made of comparable materials to most suits of carapace armor issued in numbers the Shelter takes the entirely reasonable approach of adding more of a good thing. A lot more. The things are more akin to light vehicles such as Sentinels or Chimeras than infantry. The noble Astartes certainly have them outclassed but the larger power plant and muscles of the Shelter compared to our available suits make them superior in the role they have come to fill: shock infantry to create holes, take positions, and brawl with the larger Orks. Of interest is the nature of their construction, with expandable sections in the limbs and abdomen to allow for resizing in the field. It is crude but easier done than a similar resizing on most suits of carapace as it is designed to be so to account for casualties when used. The blast padding also makes them surprisingly comfortable, oddly enough, and the coolant protecting the wearer from the power plant is good as serviceable climate control. Common weapons are power swords, rotary autocannon, and most any standard crew served weapon.
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Warmach1ne32
Machine of War and Quests
- Location
- Indonesia
Just updated "The List" with the new tech you guys came up with. If your tech isn't on that list, @ me with your suggestions and I'll add it in ASAP.
Turn Ten Design Results, Construction Phase Begins
Plan Surviving and Advancing
-Result of 5-1 (pushing known technology)=4
With the machinery of the Octan platform to pull from simply putting together the schematics to do what is needed is not difficult. Doing so within the loosely considered budget, however, is. The previous generation of pulse engines used "thin" beams of plasma at high speeds. An important distinction to note because the Flare Drive does not use small amounts of plasma in powerful beams but instead a great torrent of dirty blue flames to achieve the necessary increase in power.
What this means for the engine is that the outlet channels need to deal with a great deal more passive thermal exposure from simple operation and THAT requires additional hardening so that moderately increased demands don't result in the engine coughing itself out behind the ship and, almost as importantly, incinerating the crew in the reinforced redoubts that serve as damage control and maintenance centers in any warship. Three mostly completed solutions are put forward and from them it is chosen to work with an active cooling loop behind enough thermal plating to at least give the bridge or engineering a few minutes to shut off the engines before a chance of a critical failure.
[Pulsed Flare Drive: A reengineered Plasma Array that throws out most of its benefits for improved power in order to match the usual Ork drive. (Accel 3, Maneuver 1.5. Fuel Inefficient)(7M,1A)]
-Result of 11+2 (ground vehicle)-1(SuperHeavy)=12
The Cataphract, named after Crusade era cavalry and armored formations, is an intriguing mix of advanced and common technology. Similar in size to the recovered Baneblades it mounts an Earthshaker cannon from a Basilisk SPG as a direct fire weapon in it's primary turret as a response to enemy SuperHeavy armor such as Stompas. Or in a pinch said weapon can grievously maim conventional enemy armored units, with a small amount of luck killing or disabling them with a single hit if using the correct ammunition.
On the interior things become even more strange as the power plant is merely an upscaled version of the Russ's own engine while the open space behind the driver's console is filled with hardened cogitators to parse sensor data from a half dozen armored domes across the hull to identify, triangulate, and engage targets across several portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. With this data and with that of the squadron mates the plasma shells that are the intended arsenal of these vehicles can be launched with unusual precision to target the uneven armor of the typical Orkish walker.
Secondary uses for these systems include supporting friendly artillery, with autoloaders and the integrated sensors allowing for counter battery fire even before hostile shells can impact the battery. A skilled crew can do similar things against aircraft if they have flak or submunition shells for much the same reasons.
To protect these lumbering shells of armor are numerous support weapons. Unusually these include numerous quadlinked lasguns alongside heavier multilasers as a number of secondary plasma cores support prolonged engagements with the full suite of energy based weapons while a few "backup" weapons have been included should repair for damaged secondary turrets be unavailable. A pair of forward facing single autocannon tubes with coaxial flamer vents and two twin heavy bolters in sponsons round out the ten laser emplacements.
The design team also provided a number of secondary designs for approval, ranging from bridge layers and recovery platforms to heavy laser carriers for aircraft removal and armored personnel carriers capable of moving entire companies through the thickest of fire.
[Cataphract SuperHeavy Vehicle Line: A domestically produced family of SuperHeavy vehicles created in response to Orkish walkers of the same weight class. The primary variant mounts advanced targeting and sensor systems in order to properly counter the enemy alongside heavy armor and semi-redundant tracks, while secondary variants provide powerful aids in a number of fields. Costs 6M as an Attachment, plays off of other Attachments.]
-Result of 7-2 (difficulty)= 5
In space combat there are two factors that determine the chance to hit another warship. The first is projectile travel time, as the enemy is also in motion and can generally clearly see the discharge of weapons. The second is the ability of the enemy to change their motion as where the enemy might go have to also be covered to score hits during a volley. It is the former of these that have been lacking among the locally produced weapons of the Crusade.
Reducing the size of the projectile can only go so far and so the weapons themselves must be improved. Longer, thicker barrels supported by a new mounting system allows for engagement at longer ranges with only moderate difficulty.
[Macrocannons Mk.III: A revolutionary upgrade of the Mk.II, the Mk.III is rebuilt so as to throw shells further and harder. (Battery 4S/2M)(8M,1A)]
=====
Lord Admiral: The only good news I have for our foundries and shipyards is that our losses make the work ahead slightly less daunting. Spares scrounged from the corpses of our ships and the likes, though the work of our integrated repair teams can't be overestimated either. If those raiders hadn't smelled blood I would call this an acceptable result but they had and it isn't. We need ships now, and armies to replace those broken upon the Homnan worlds. Pockets of resistance still remain but they are currently unreachable as well as having undoubtedly taken grievous losses of men and material.
[Repairs for active fleet elements come out to 122M,2A. If you could just repurchase the lost Armies that'd be great for my organizational setup. Two Customs Monitors are available for rebuilding without deconstruction costs, otherwise 6M each.]
[Industrial Platform is damaged: lose 70M until 30M is paid.]
[Current budget:
There is a budget of 160 from Calavar+80 from the Industrial Platform upgrades+60 from her neighbors+25 from the Bailafax region+30 from Uniary+35M from salvaged Octan platform=390M and 10-1 (losses of experienced personnel)=9A to spend on new ships and Stuff. The Build Limit is currently 70M.]
Votes are done by plan. Six hour moratorium to encourage discussion.
Although the maneuvering thrusters of the Pulsed Plasma Array Drive have proven more than satisfactory, the main bank of engines leaves something to be desired. Finally, after years of using the more standard Militarized Engines, a more voracious and powerful main thrust has been thought of that provides the speed that the old Array didn't. A veritable torch, if one would, while still having the same over all set up.
-Result of 5-1 (pushing known technology)=4
With the machinery of the Octan platform to pull from simply putting together the schematics to do what is needed is not difficult. Doing so within the loosely considered budget, however, is. The previous generation of pulse engines used "thin" beams of plasma at high speeds. An important distinction to note because the Flare Drive does not use small amounts of plasma in powerful beams but instead a great torrent of dirty blue flames to achieve the necessary increase in power.
What this means for the engine is that the outlet channels need to deal with a great deal more passive thermal exposure from simple operation and THAT requires additional hardening so that moderately increased demands don't result in the engine coughing itself out behind the ship and, almost as importantly, incinerating the crew in the reinforced redoubts that serve as damage control and maintenance centers in any warship. Three mostly completed solutions are put forward and from them it is chosen to work with an active cooling loop behind enough thermal plating to at least give the bridge or engineering a few minutes to shut off the engines before a chance of a critical failure.
[Pulsed Flare Drive: A reengineered Plasma Array that throws out most of its benefits for improved power in order to match the usual Ork drive. (Accel 3, Maneuver 1.5. Fuel Inefficient)(7M,1A)]
In the face of the emergence of the Orkish 'Stompa', and the grievous casualties they have wrought, Calavar's minds turned to design a vehicle that could stem the advance of the green tide's newest creations. The Cataphract makes use of the cutting edge of Hegemon's technological base to become a tank that, while not individually the match of a Stompa, could fight on parity with them and win as a full squadron of three. The Cataphract's main armament consists of the ubiquitous Earthshaker Cannon, fully mounted on a turret large enough to contain the necessary recoil dampeners. The key difference to the main gun found on a Basilisk is the ammunition; the new Giantlancer shells are based on a miniaturized version of the Thermo-Cavitation Shells that have served Calavar's warships long and well. As well, the large turret allows for the inclusion of a coaxial twin-linked Lascannon and a new development; an autoloader for the gun's shells that will allow for an unprecedented rate of fire. To save room within the hull for ammunition, the rest of the armament on the Cataphract is energy-based, mounting several Multilasers in sponsons and in smaller secondary turrets to secure the tank against infantry assaults. The most advanced technology is found in its fire control systems, however. Without the need to calculate fire solutions for guns firing building-sized shells through the depths of space, the cogitator framework that has been derived from the design of the Groupsight Bridge has been miniaturized. Combined with state of the art communications systems, all tanks within a squadron are able to share target telemetry to focus fire on breaches in enemy armor. In addition to extensive armour plating, the Cataphract also features the protection of a Void Shield.
-Result of 11+2 (ground vehicle)-1(SuperHeavy)=12
The Cataphract, named after Crusade era cavalry and armored formations, is an intriguing mix of advanced and common technology. Similar in size to the recovered Baneblades it mounts an Earthshaker cannon from a Basilisk SPG as a direct fire weapon in it's primary turret as a response to enemy SuperHeavy armor such as Stompas. Or in a pinch said weapon can grievously maim conventional enemy armored units, with a small amount of luck killing or disabling them with a single hit if using the correct ammunition.
On the interior things become even more strange as the power plant is merely an upscaled version of the Russ's own engine while the open space behind the driver's console is filled with hardened cogitators to parse sensor data from a half dozen armored domes across the hull to identify, triangulate, and engage targets across several portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. With this data and with that of the squadron mates the plasma shells that are the intended arsenal of these vehicles can be launched with unusual precision to target the uneven armor of the typical Orkish walker.
Secondary uses for these systems include supporting friendly artillery, with autoloaders and the integrated sensors allowing for counter battery fire even before hostile shells can impact the battery. A skilled crew can do similar things against aircraft if they have flak or submunition shells for much the same reasons.
To protect these lumbering shells of armor are numerous support weapons. Unusually these include numerous quadlinked lasguns alongside heavier multilasers as a number of secondary plasma cores support prolonged engagements with the full suite of energy based weapons while a few "backup" weapons have been included should repair for damaged secondary turrets be unavailable. A pair of forward facing single autocannon tubes with coaxial flamer vents and two twin heavy bolters in sponsons round out the ten laser emplacements.
The design team also provided a number of secondary designs for approval, ranging from bridge layers and recovery platforms to heavy laser carriers for aircraft removal and armored personnel carriers capable of moving entire companies through the thickest of fire.
[Cataphract SuperHeavy Vehicle Line: A domestically produced family of SuperHeavy vehicles created in response to Orkish walkers of the same weight class. The primary variant mounts advanced targeting and sensor systems in order to properly counter the enemy alongside heavy armor and semi-redundant tracks, while secondary variants provide powerful aids in a number of fields. Costs 6M as an Attachment, plays off of other Attachments.]
The MK.II and even MK.Is have proven a success beyond all thought and doubt. But recent struggles with the Orks suggest that their short range renders any ship with them somewhat...vulnerable. The MK.III aim to fix that. Using data collected from a score and more clashes, both big and small, raids or actual battles, cognitator banks as well as more streamlined data proccesors will hopefully allow the Macrocannons to gain target acquisition at a much farther distance as well at a much faster rate.
-Result of 7-2 (difficulty)= 5
In space combat there are two factors that determine the chance to hit another warship. The first is projectile travel time, as the enemy is also in motion and can generally clearly see the discharge of weapons. The second is the ability of the enemy to change their motion as where the enemy might go have to also be covered to score hits during a volley. It is the former of these that have been lacking among the locally produced weapons of the Crusade.
Reducing the size of the projectile can only go so far and so the weapons themselves must be improved. Longer, thicker barrels supported by a new mounting system allows for engagement at longer ranges with only moderate difficulty.
[Macrocannons Mk.III: A revolutionary upgrade of the Mk.II, the Mk.III is rebuilt so as to throw shells further and harder. (Battery 4S/2M)(8M,1A)]
=====
Lord Admiral: The only good news I have for our foundries and shipyards is that our losses make the work ahead slightly less daunting. Spares scrounged from the corpses of our ships and the likes, though the work of our integrated repair teams can't be overestimated either. If those raiders hadn't smelled blood I would call this an acceptable result but they had and it isn't. We need ships now, and armies to replace those broken upon the Homnan worlds. Pockets of resistance still remain but they are currently unreachable as well as having undoubtedly taken grievous losses of men and material.
[Repairs for active fleet elements come out to 122M,2A. If you could just repurchase the lost Armies that'd be great for my organizational setup. Two Customs Monitors are available for rebuilding without deconstruction costs, otherwise 6M each.]
[Industrial Platform is damaged: lose 70M until 30M is paid.]
[Current budget:
There is a budget of 160 from Calavar+80 from the Industrial Platform upgrades+60 from her neighbors+25 from the Bailafax region+30 from Uniary+35M from salvaged Octan platform=390M and 10-1 (losses of experienced personnel)=9A to spend on new ships and Stuff. The Build Limit is currently 70M.]
Votes are done by plan. Six hour moratorium to encourage discussion.
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- Location
- Under your bed
So I assume we want to finish our cruiser and repair damage to the shipyard first?
I'm not all too sure how many ships we can repair at once so I have nothing to say there but I think it's advisable to repair before we replenish list ships and the we forget about replenishing lost armed merchants.
I'm not all too sure how many ships we can repair at once so I have nothing to say there but I think it's advisable to repair before we replenish list ships and the we forget about replenishing lost armed merchants.
A shame about the low rolls for the engine and guns both are usable and the damage of the guns is nice but costs are high.
I would rebuild the monitors with Standard Macrocannon Battery MkI that adds 2M to the cost of each of them but gives them 4x the current damage as they have Self Defense Guns (Damage .5, Short Range) now.
Completing the Audacity, Audacity-class Light Cruiser (70/133?M, 6/8A) is another easy choice.
So that leaves us with 355M - 122M (repairs)- 30M (Industrial Platform) -(6+2M)x2 for the monitors)-63M(Audacity) = 124M
of the 9A 2 is used for repairs and 2 more for the cruiser leaving 5A.
A heavy frigate to support the sacret legacy using a lot of looted gear in the 50-60M range
and about 60-70M in armies including new armor armies with the new attachment to clear the worlds from orcs.
I would rebuild the monitors with Standard Macrocannon Battery MkI that adds 2M to the cost of each of them but gives them 4x the current damage as they have Self Defense Guns (Damage .5, Short Range) now.
Completing the Audacity, Audacity-class Light Cruiser (70/133?M, 6/8A) is another easy choice.
So that leaves us with 355M - 122M (repairs)- 30M (Industrial Platform) -(6+2M)x2 for the monitors)-63M(Audacity) = 124M
of the 9A 2 is used for repairs and 2 more for the cruiser leaving 5A.
A heavy frigate to support the sacret legacy using a lot of looted gear in the 50-60M range
and about 60-70M in armies including new armor armies with the new attachment to clear the worlds from orcs.
What are the cost of rebuilding this ship and what parts does it have that are still intact?
- Location
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Was that the first 12 of the quest? I don't remember another one. Seems like it didn't add anything 'over the top', but then again, given what we were attempting, maybe producing exactly what we aimed for is pretty spectacular all in itself.
@sunrise's plan seems reasonable. I definitely want to get a bunch of those C-SHAVs out this turn. I want to see how a design: 12 tank-thing performs in action.
@sunrise's plan seems reasonable. I definitely want to get a bunch of those C-SHAVs out this turn. I want to see how a design: 12 tank-thing performs in action.
*grumbles about missing no duh things*
Let's see... I got the defaulty Lite Krooza schematics, but...
The Endeavor has a Small Prow slot locked to Torpedoes, a Battery broadside with Specialization(s) giving it damage buffs, full set of Armor/PD/Shields, and most everything requires repairs. Other than the Armor (rating of 7) it needs a full rebuild. Discounted by existing materials and things the Orks didn't manage to replace, so... 15M.
Actually... No, the Bridge would be somewhat intact, so no need to build that back. As it is built for small scale flagship duties.
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Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
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Wasn't there a rule that a roll of 12 would also give us bonuses on other fields? What would they be for a Superheavy Tank's development?
On a side note, so happy about the Cataphract. Turned out well enough it might become the thing the Sub-Sector's famous for in the wider Imperium after we reestablish contact.
On a side note, so happy about the Cataphract. Turned out well enough it might become the thing the Sub-Sector's famous for in the wider Imperium after we reestablish contact.
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Remind me later if I don't think of something over my coming shift.
Just so people don't get unreasonable expectations, the Cataphract does not carry it's own shield. Much less a layer of Voids. Probably has some ECM and ECCM instead.
Now, if you want to make a Titan scale crawler in the future...
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
So basically we've got a super-heavy tank designed to make all the luck shots using ammunition moderately customized for the enemy being shot, that makes it harder for the enemy to accurately target our forces? Well, unless the enemy has warp-based methods of aiding targeting, but then that means they're relying on the Warp for consistent accuracy...
Oh, and it comes with modified versions for basically any role that an armoured vehicle of that size would be useful for?
Damn, how well do they compare to standard Imperial Guard vehicles?
Sir_Travelsalot
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Well, if we went by TT rules, the Cataphract would have for its main gun some mishmash of an Earthshaker and Baneblade Cannon, combining the range of the former and the amount of shots of the latter, since they both have the same damage and AP profile. It would be studded with multilasers and two sets of Autocannon + Heavy Flamer, so this thing would be absolute murder towards infantry too. The rest of its features would be represented with bonuses to Shooting and Overwatch tests, with the ECM Linty mentioned probably as a permanent Smoke Launcher. For extra points, it could also get custom shells that would allow it to be effective for AA, too.
Since there wasn't any word on speed, I can't comment on that.
As for the Imperium's opinion on it, it would probably be positive. It's a very versatile superheavy tank that can be used for many purposes, is parts-compatible with a lot of their other vehicles, and has a big gun mounted on it. An additional selling point is that the thing can be built and maintained without the tooling from a Forge World, meaning it can be built all over the place.
Who knows how the Mechanicus would look at it, though. On one hand, innovation. On the other, it doesn't require them to share any of their shinies to get the other Adeptus to go away. And on the mechadendrite, it means they would probably have less people constantly asking for Baneblades.
Sir_Travelsalot
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@DaLintyGuy what's the speed on the Cataphract like? Can it keep up with our other vehicles, or is it something for infantry to cluster behind when advancing?
Keep in mind that what you call ECM may not be what everyone else calls ECM. Smoke and flares are obvious, and since it's a SuperHeavy and as such Valuable it probably has electronic doodlies to jam electromagnetic targeting systemz with maybe some kind of seismic system to try and confuse where exactly it is. But yes, something like that.
Same goes for the targeting system. The Mechanicus can do a hell of a lot better than you can when they feel like it.
As a side note, this would add some Shadowsword knockoffs to said armies. Actually you would take out the Heavy Artillery to fit them so... Mobile launchers that can take a pounding along with aerial denial laser platforms.
It can cruise at a moderate clip on clear and hard ground, otherwise it is very much a slow machine.
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Sir_Travelsalot
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I was talking in terms of TT rules, and the Smoke Launcher is the IG rule for vehicles that gives a penalty for shooting at it. The difference would be that the Cataphracts countermeasures are always active instead of being a 'once per battle' thing.