Given tonnage and overall length, I imagine that the Thunderchild sisters are taller, but slightly more slender than their successors. Possibly more muscular as well since they were pure warships.
Real question for me is how the quad nacelles would translate...
It doesn't always translate 1:1, given the differences we see in classes of the same type within and between nations (see most of the IJN DDs vs the Akizuki's, or the Fletchers), but generally that should be the case.
Really thick legs, the sort that could literally run back to back marathons.
An incredibly old graph, from Wikipedia, but it might be of use here.
Some Terran Empire Engineer, probably; "I like big nacelles and I cannot lie-"
(The Class C is BEEG. and expensive. and technically performs better than the Type Three... if you ignore being Mucho Expensivio. and the fact that it occasionally catastrophically explodes or slags itself because they just piled on as much performance as possible, ha)
Proposal: Fully Containerized Rapid Assembly Modular Station ("Project Caravan")
The Hally project's ability to carry Federation standard cargo containers has resulted in speculative discussion on the use of modular cargo pods as mobile infrastructure. The following proposal suggests the creation of a modular system of containerized infrastructure which can be used to assemble small to medium sized outposts rapidly in the field, which has significant implications for both the Starfleet and the Federation as a whole. Outlined below are the two principal approaches to the concept.
Single Core Design The single core design is best suited for establishing small outposts on a semi-temporary basis. Under the single core paradigm, a single "core" module contains the station's primary systems, including power and shield generation, life support, operations, and living quarters. These basic capabilities are then expanded by the addition of dedicated modules (additional living quarters, shutlebays, manufacturing, etc) radially to the station. Due to the relatively small size, however, it is likely that such a design could support no more than five to six additional modules at the outside, depending on exact configuration. On the other hand, these designs would be considerably easier to "break down" for reuse elsewhere.
Multi-Core Design The multiple core design is aimed at the construction of larger, more permanent installations. In the multi-core paradigm, each "core component" of the station—shield generators, power plants, operations, living quarters, etc—is separately containerized and then assembled in the field into a multi-module core. The obvious advantage in being able to use far larger "working components" is clear, allowing for a much larger number of secondary modules to be supported. Naturally, this design, being larger, would require more time and effort to "break down" and therefore would be best suited to more permanent installations.
Applications Outside Starfleet
In addition to the obvious advantage to the Starfleet's scientific, humanitarian, and military missions, the creation of fully containerized infrastructure in this fashion has obvious applications for the Federation as a whole for the rapid assembly of spaceborne infrastructure. A "civillainized" version of the Caravan could allow the construction of critical orbital infrastructure in days, possibly even hours, even—or perhaps especially—for very young colonies not able to support local construction on that scale out of their own resources.
Introduction
Monitoring of parallel timeline 002 (the "Mirror Universe") continues to show a disturbing and frequently alarming degree of militancy, xenophobia, and imperialism extremely at odds with our own policies and culture. The Conqueror class is a blatant example of this phenomenon—while in many ways significantly less sophisticated technologically than our own modern vessels, the Conqueror nonetheless boasts superior warp speed, vastly superior offensive capacity, and to some degree superior durability to our own top-line vessels. However, the methods by which this is achieved result in considerably greater technical complexity and cost, and significantly lesser efficiency, and flexibility compared to our own vessels. We estimate that most theoretical next generation Explorer designs would require no less than a three-to-one numerical superiority to engage a Conqueror in battle, but would likely cost only a quarter as much to construct, and one-sixth to one-tenth as much to operate—while remaining far more capable than a Conqueror in any arena save direct battle.
On the other hand, this performance is primarily achieved by highly inefficient, technically complex "brute force" solutions which are reaching a technical plateau—The Terran Empire has not benefited from the level of technological progression we in the prime timeline have, as the combination of xenophobia and literally cutthroat culture has caused many analogs to our own best scientific minds to be either dead, never born, or never sufficiently educated to make various breakthroughs in field as wide as mathematics, subspace field theory, and materials science. Further, like many empires of its type throughout history, the Terran Empire has in large part over-emphasized the development of certain technologies and neglected others, resulting in highly uneven technical development compared to the prime timeline.
In summary, our vessels are less capable as warships, but more capable in all other metrics pound for pound, including cost per unit. This is, to some degree, not surprising, as the Terran Empire is known to focus its designs on pure warfighting capacity over all other considerations.
Warp Systems
The Conqueror class is, like our own Sagarmatha class, a four-nacelle design, with each in a vertical pair. These are high-performance "Class C" warp nacelles, developed as effective counterparts to our own Type Three nacelles.
Nacelle Analysis
Similar to our Type Three, the Class C nacelle uses a field-focused bussard assembly; however, they have achieved even greater plasma density (and thus performance) through the addition of multiple small tractor emitters in a ring configuration, which "sweep" nearby interstellar medium into the main bussard field, at the expense of significantly greater technical complexity and cost per unit.
Similarly, unlike our own Type Three, the Class C utilizes a complex plasma-compression system with a two-stage high-low system with inner high-pressure coils and outer low-pressure coils with traditional plasma vents. This provides even greater performance than all but the most optimistic estimates for our own version of the constrictor technology, as well as effectively eliminating the "wind-up" time required (as the outer coil assembly can be activated while the inner, high-performance coils are "warming") but, obviously, requires twice as many warp coils per nacelle, substantially increasing both complexity and cost. The system is also dangerously vulnerable should the inner coils suffer from any significant casualty; theoretical analysis suggests that mechanical failures that our own version of the technology would have survived (albeit at reduced capacity) can result in the total systemic destruction of the entire nacelle, and severe enough overstress of the system can result in rapid unplanned disassembly of the entire nacelle assembly including pylon.
Like our own Type Three, the Class C utilizes a polyferride alloy for increased temperature tolerance, though the precise formulation is divergent from our own (see appendix 3) it does not appear to be significantly different in production cost or performance to that developed for the Type Three.
Similarly, the Class C utilizes cryonitrium intercooling systems routed through an external vane for higher performance, though the overall greater complexity of the double-coil system results in comparatively greater technical complexity and cost; especially as it must be highly pressurized and rapidly cycled during maximum performance due to the various other features of the Class C. We estimate that this functionally results in a lesser gain in performance overall compared to our own version of the technology, due to the high-performance nature of the other nacelle systems.
The Class C also uses an asymmetrical field stabilizer—unlike our own version of the technology, this has been standard for Terran Empire vessels since their own "Class B" nacelles, though the early versions of the technology were significantly less efficient than our own theoretical prototypes. The distinctive conical shape of the technology offers a very different visual appearance to our own standard models.
Finally, the Class C is significantly longer than our type three, with two warp coil assemblies—in effect, each Class C has four times as many warp coils as our own Type Three due to its coil-in-coil design.
In Summery, the Terran Empire Class C nacelle is capable of significantly greater performance than our own Type Three, but is approximately four times as complex and five times as expensive, whilst also being significantly more vulnerable to catastrophic failure should something go wrong with its high performance systems.
Warp Core Analysis
The Terran Empire has pioneered a "multi-chamber" warp core with intriguing technical solutions to otherwise limited technology. They have not, it seems, made a number of key breakthroughs in materials science and technical design which allowed our own linear reaction chambers to continue expanding in size, nor have they developed the central chamber design being pioneered for the Warp Eight engine currently in development. Instead, they have paired similar magnetic constrictor systems to those of the Warp Eight engine with multiple linear reaction chambers arranged in a multiplex array. This is significantly less space efficient, far less fuel efficient, more expensive and more technically complex than our single core designs, and projections suggest that certain subspace phenomenon could cause dangerous resonance effects in the core's plasma system, but allows high performance, equivalent to perhaps a theoretical "Warp Eight-Point-Five" engine. Combined with the high performance Class C nacelle, these allow vessels shocking speed despite their relative technical development being inferior to our own, effectively through "brute force" methods.
The Conqueror carries ten such reaction chambers in two linear arrays of five, occupying much of the secondary hull above the shuttlebay. Antimatter and the primary hydrogen tanks are located forward of the shuttlebay in an armored fuel bunker, and the vessel carries significantly more of both fuels than our own designs, with twelve large antimatter pods and three massive spherical hydrogen tanks. Despite this, the ship has an effective range of only sixty light-years due to its highly inefficient multi-chamber design.
Summery: In spite of lesser technical sophistication, the Terran Empire multiplex warp core provides higher performance than even our next generation Warp Eight design, at the expense of being four to six times as expensive, three to four times as complex, and having approximately a quarter the fuel efficiency of our own designs, as well as being substantially larger in hull real estate required.
Deflector Analysis
Unlike our own current-generation deflectors, the Terran Empire appears to have made fairly little advance from their initial designs (comparable to our own Type Ones) other than simply scaling them up as needed. This has, we estimate, resulted in a technical debt with regards to both their speed (with development focused on nacelle and warp core design in that order of priority) and scientific flexibility—our own, more sophisticated models are increasingly proving vital tools for a variety of functions beyond simple particle deflection, and we expect that this trend will continue. Increasing inefficiency as size increases has also resulted in an effective increase in cost similar to our own, but without the accompanying improvement in performance.
In Summery: Terran Empire deflectors are less sophisticated—even crude—less flexible, and less capable in effectively every way, despite similar manufacturing costs to our own current-generation deflectors. In this area our technology is unquestionably and objectively superior.
Weapons
The Conqueror class is, as its "Battleship" designation implies, effectively a pure warship with minimal scientific or engineering capacity despite its enormous size. Much of the ship's volume is devoted to weapons systems, additional power generation, and other warfighting machinery; even the vessel's hangar is primarily devoted to single-man attack craft ("Fighters") and assault-boarding/landing ships rather than the shuttles common to prime timeline vessels.
Weapons
The Conqueror class is extremely heavily armed with two different types of energy weapon mounts and a heavy torpedo armament that make it one of the most formidable fighting vessels of which Starfleet is currently aware in any capacity.
Energy Weapons
The Conqueror class is armed with two types of energy weapon mounts: the "Class F" Phase-Pulse Cannon is widely used on Terran Empire vessels. These weapons are derived from the same phase cannon technology used during the United Earth period, but the fairly early adoption of less technically sophisticated—and therefore cheaper—Disruptors as the "primary" weapon has resulted in a drastically divergent development path for these weapons. Rather than increasing particle density and firing dwell time which eventually lead to modern phasers, the Terran Empire has developed phase cannon technology for extreme rapid fire, target tracking, and arc-coverage ability, as well as additional miniaturization. The end result of this development is the "Class F," which mounts three individual xx centimeter emitters in a high-angle, rapid traverse turret, typically mounted in pairs. These weapons are relatively short ranged and low output, but their high rate of fire and tracking speed make them effective at targeting small attack craft, torpedoes, mines, and similar hazards before they can impact the ship's shields. Additionally, in close range combat, they have proven effective at suppressing shield regeneration and inflicting light but widespread damage to surface features of large vessels that are without shields. The low per second energy costs allow effectively all of these weapons to fire simultaneously off of the ship's main power grid.
Secondly, the "Class D" Disruptor is a beam weapon comparable in power to our own modern phasers, being approximately two-thirds as powerful. Unlike our own vessels, these weapons are powered primarily by local dedicated fusion reactors, allowing many to be fired simultaneously without overstressing the ship's main power grid; though it should also be noted that each battery has its own dedicated power trunk directly from the ship's warp core. Overall the Conqueror outputs energy fire well in excess of the capabilities of prime timeline vessels, with twenty disruptors (arranged in ten paired batteries, nine of which are located in the ship's saucer section, with the tenth in the engineering section) and nineteen pairs of phase-pulse cannons, twelve distributed around the saucer's circumference with six on each surface, and seven covering the engineering hull.
Torpedoes
The Conqueror carries an extremely heavy torpedo armament split between four separate bays, two four tube arrangements in the saucer section to fore and five aft tubes split into a twin and triple bay in the engineering hull. Combined with its heavy firepower in energy weapons, the Conqueror is more than a match for any other starship of which Starfleet is currently aware.
In summary: the Conqueror is extremely heavily armed, capable of outputting more firepower than any single vessel of which we are currently aware.
Other Systems
Shields
Terran Empire shield technology notably lags behind our own. They have largely compensated for this by both retaining energized hull polarization and investing in a redundant shield grid which allows a second shield to be raised inside the perimeter of the first just before it collapses, though this has significantly impacted the costs of their hulls and effectively doubled the cost of their shield systems; the latter of which are in current generation only approximately a third again the strength of our now well outdated Type One shields.
Small Craft
The Conqueror carries only two conventional general purpose shuttlecraft similar to our own. The majority of the ship's large hangar is devoted to attack craft, carrying twenty single-seat fighters armed with three disruptor cannons, and four large "Pinnaces" which serve as boarding and landing craft for the ship's complement of marines. Two standard shuttles (functionally identical to the Type F in most respects) supplement this.
Sublight Engines
Similar to shield technology, Terran Empire impulse engines notably lag behind our own in effectiveness. Their engines here are little advanced from those of United Earth prior to the founding of the Federation, and as a consequence the Conqueror requires a whopping six individual impulse engines to achieve what we would call an "average" level of maneuverability, with the obvious fuel consumption and significant cost increases compared to our own vessels.
Other Capabilities
The Conqueror has extremely minimal ability in non-combat roles; while it possesses a number of cargo bays and an onboard machine shop, the ship has effectively no scientific capability whatsoever outside a medical bay primarily to serve its marine complement. It can be assumed that in any situation other than direct combat, the Conqueror will be inferior to a Starfleet vessel even a quarter of its size.
Overall Summary
The Conqueror is big, heavily armed and very fast, but less durable than a Starfleet vessel of equal size would be, drastically less capable in any situation other than combat, and hilariously more expensive to construct and operate both. Whilst certainly impressive in battle, we do not recommend attempting to develop an equivalent unit at this time, though certain design elements may be discreetly inserted into the discourse of our current design think-tanks.
General Statistics:
Saucer Diameter: 180 meters
Engineering Hull Diameter: 40 meters
Engineering Hull Length: 120 meters (top), 58 meters (bottom)
Maximum Warp: 8.7
Maximum Cruise: 7.6
Efficient Cruise: 6.5
Effective Range: 60 LY (120 LY with resupply at destination)
Maneuverability: Low Medium
@Sayle
Got the Big Lad for you. You may now go "GOOD LORD" at those nacelles.[/hr]
