February 2088 - United Broadcasting Network Main Studio-Ladies and Gentlemen, welcon to the 22nd biannual Space Battle Championship! I'm your host Caesar Khan, and man we have some great contestants tonight, don't you think so Jerry?
-Well, sure we do Caesar. Tonight's contestant both decided to field a pair of ships, so we're going to see some sweet, sweet fleet action.
-Indeed Jerry. Orbiting Hyperion in the Saturn system, we have the two ships of the Thanathos Design Company, the Reckoning-class cruiser and the Resplendent-class escort.
Reckoning class Cruiser 14 800 tons 370 Crew 2556.2 BP TCS 296 TH 700 EM 0
4729 km/s Armour 9-53 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 60
Maint Life 0.53 Years MSP 540 AFR 350% IFR 4.9% 1YR 1012 5YR 15178 Max Repair 525 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Spare Berths 0
[Thanatos] 700 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (2) Power 700 Fuel Use 141.8% Signature 350 Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 1 400 000 Litres Range 12.0 billion km (29 days at full power)
[Thanatos] Quad 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (3x4) Range 90 000km TS: 29640 km/s Power 12-12 RM 3 ROF 5 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0
[Thanatos] Fire Control S01 48-3000 (1) Max Range: 96 000 km TS: 3000 km/s 90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
[Thanatos] Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB-1 (13) Total Power Output 39 Armour 0 Exp 5%
[Thanatos] Active Search Sensor MR5-R1 (1) GPS 64 Range 5.1m km MCR 558k km Resolution 1
[Thanatos] Active Search Sensor MR289-R200 (1) GPS 51200 Range 289.6m km Resolution 200
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Resplendent class Escort 14 750 tons 545 Crew 2305.5 BP TCS 295 TH 700 EM 0
4745 km/s Armour 10-53 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 6 PPV 60
Maint Life 0.93 Years MSP 611 AFR 278% IFR 3.9% 1YR 660 5YR 9900 Max Repair 525 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Spare Berths 5
[Thanatos] 700 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (2) Power 700 Fuel Use 141.8% Signature 350 Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 1 100 000 Litres Range 9.5 billion km (23 days at full power)
[Thanatos] R4.5/C3 Meson Cannon (15) Range 45 000km TS: 4745 km/s Power 3-3 RM 4.5 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
[Thanatos] R4.5/C3 High Power Microwave (5) Range 45 000km TS: 4745 km/s Power 3-3 RM 4.5 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
[Thanatos] Fire Control S01 48-3000 (1) Max Range: 96 000 km TS: 3000 km/s 90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
[Thanatos] Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB-1 (20) Total Power Output 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
ECCM-1 (1) ECM 10
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
-Nice design. Though and fast, and packing a punch. They lack the fire controls to fully exploit their beam weapons, but they still pack a nasty bit of firepower. And what about our other contestant Caesar?
-Well, they are also some nice design. The Panopticorp fielded two of their Shark Hunter. The Hunter are designed to do one thing. Bring firepower to the enemy as fast as possible. They carry some nasty armament, but no armour to speak of.
Shark class Hunter 12 150 tons 391 Crew 2499.6 BP TCS 243 TH 840 EM 0
6913 km/s Armour 1-47 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 18.4
Maint Life 0.68 Years MSP 514 AFR 295% IFR 4.1% 1YR 759 5YR 11384 Max Repair 420 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 0
Magazine 224
[Panopticon] 560 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (3) Power 560 Fuel Use 170.15% Signature 280 Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 800 000 Litres Range 7.0 billion km (11 days at full power)
[Panopticon] Single Morley Tablot 10cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (2x1) Range 90 000km TS: 12000 km/s Power 3-3 RM 3 ROF 5 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0
[Panopticon] Fry Design Bureau 19cm Laser (1) Range 192 000km TS: 6913 km/s Power 9-0.75 RM 3 ROF 60 9 9 9 6 5 4 3 3 3 2
[Panopticon] CIWS-120 (1x4) Range 1000 km TS: 12000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
[Panopticon] Fire Control S04 96-6000 (1) Max Range: 192 000 km TS: 6000 km/s 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
[Panopticon] Fire Control S02 24-12000 (2) Max Range: 48 000 km TS: 12000 km/s 79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
[Panopticon] Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB-1.2 (1) Total Power Output 18 Armour 0 Exp 16%
[Panopticon] Big Ole' Launcher (1) Missile Size 20 Rate of Fire 12000
[Panopticon] Missile Fire Control FC162-R7 (1) Range 162.5m km Resolution 7
Size 20 Anti-ship Missile (11) Speed: 12 600 km/s End: 207.2m Range: 156.6m km WH: 25 Size: 20 TH: 54/32/16
[Panopticon] Active Search Sensor MR1-R1 (1) GPS 16 Range 1.3m km MCR 139k km Resolution 1
[Panopticon] Active Search Sensor MR158-R60 (1) GPS 15360 Range 158.6m km Resolution 60
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
-Still Caesar, with a beam-only enemy and that missile of them, they might cause quite a lot of damage without being? That missile got a 150m km range, enough to hit Earth from Sol!
-Yes Jerry. However, there is going to be a nasty surprise for the Shark's crews... Their starting position is Rhea, less than 1.5m km from Hyperion!
-Well, that sure is going to be a knife-range match! We now tune to the United Broadcasting Studio on Titan, where its powerful sensor will let us follow the match!
-And go! All sensors have been turned on. Thanathos's ships immediately close to engage the Sharks. The Sharks start retreating to open the range and try that missile of theirs. Their speed is sure to be bad news for their opponent. If their armored missile can make it through their enemy's PD, they're sure to win. (At that point, one missile impacted because I had forgotten to assign the mesons as PD. I SM'd the armour back up and waited for the next salvo.)
-Well intercept, that's sure to be disappointing. Armored missiles don't work well when your opponent has meson point defense.
-Indeed Jerry. It seems the Panopticorp's captain has decided to turn around and trust his lasers.
-Yes Caesar. It seems he has turned to 150.000 km and opened fire with his main, spinal laser. One damage, but it's a hit!
-It would take forever to wear his enemy down though. In the absence of specific instruction by Panopticorp HQ, it seems the captain decided to close to knife range. That's going to be an interesting fight for sure! At 55000 km, the Reckoning's batteries start getting into play!
Ouch, all those mesons seems painful... That's a lot of hits... And... boom. Apparently the engine on Shark 1 detonated, taking out both sharks.* All in all, the engagement only laster 25 seconds once the mass of mesons on Resplendent started shooting.
That's an impressive victory for team Thanatos, which only suffered some armor damage. The Thanatos's speed simply wasn't enough against all that armor. Let that be a lesson to all contestants: better order your captains not to close the range more than needed.
And that's it for tonight folks, the line up of our next match will be announced recently.
Well, I guess Panopticon could have stayed out of range and plinked that armor bit by bit. But that would have take ages, and I only had order to close to energy range, not to stay. I did try to order him to back down once the number of mesons became apparent, but the ship couldn't make it.
* I'm not sure how that happened, but shark 1's engine detonated, then both ships were wrecks.