13th July 2379 After developing not only new engines but also better, smaller warheads the Republic designs new missiles for their warships. Interceptor B is a fairly straight up upgrade, but Ballista is quite different from the Catapult used so far. Using data provided by the Commune the new missile aims to deal with the shortcomings of its predecessor and as such is almost twice as fast with fifty percent heavier warhead but shorter range. Even so it can reach targets over four hundred million kilometers away, which should be enough.
Ballista
Missile Size: 6 MSP (0.3 HS) Warhead: 12 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 58300 km/s Engine Endurance: 117 minutes Range: 409.1m km
Cost Per Missile: 7.375
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 583% 3k km/s 190% 5k km/s 116.6% 10k km/s 58.3%
Materials Required: 3x Tritanium 4.375x Gallicite Fuel x4250Interceptor II
Missile Size: 1 MSP (0.05 HS) Warhead: 1 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 31
Speed: 90000 km/s Engine Endurance: 1 minutes Range: 3.2m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.799
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 2790% 3k km/s 930% 5k km/s 558% 10k km/s 279%
Materials Required: 0.25x Tritanium 1.549x Gallicite Fuel x251st September 2379 The alien installations on the Commune colony of Asimov have been fully recovered. The most valuable finds include eleven research facilities and nine terraforming installations. Over eighty mines have also been recovered, but very few factories. Unfortunately there is currently no shipping available to move those facilities to other colonies and there won't be for several years to come. As the population is only four hundred and forty thousand this means all those recovered installations are effectively useless for now.
4th November 2379 The population of Eden reaches four hundred and fifty seven million which means the system of Athens have just became the most populous one in the Commune, exceeding the total population of the seven Baltic habitats by thirteen hundred thousand. This also makes it the fourth most heavily populated planet in the entirety of human space, after New Earth, Ares and Poseidon, all of which belong to the Hegemony and are located in the system of Sanctuary. The only other system more populous than Athens is Phoenix, the home system of the Republic.
There is considerable discussion of moving the capital to the planet, but it's unlikely to happen. The Athens system is simply too much out of the way, for all instances and purposes being a border star. The only reason the planet has been developed so heavily is its very human friendly nature, but if not for that it would just be one of a dozen average worlds. For now due to the central location of Baltic and the presence of naval yards in that system, the habitat Odin will remain an administrative center of the nation.
12th November 2379 The sorium on gas giant Hades in the Hegemony home system of Sanctuary has been almost depleted. The large fuel harvester fleet will need to be repositioned but there are no good locations nearby. The best one, with five million tonnes of maximum accessibility of the mineral is in Orlando which is far away and hasn't been fully surveyed, so it's unknown how secure it actually is. Another good location is in New York, but the system is bordering Commune territory making it insecure. The safest area of space, beyond the system of Philadelphia has no good locations. The best system found so far is Houston, located four jumps from Sanctuary and possessing fifteen million tonnes of sorium at eighty percent of accessibility on Xiang scale. Unfortunately due to the sheer distance moving the harvesters to the gas giant and back is simply not economical. To deal with the problem the Hegemony designs their first tanker, the X – 223. It masses one hundred and twenty thousand tonnes, can keep up with naval units and can carry enough fuel to resupply an entire carrier group, making it very useful for offensive operations.
X-223 Gulf of Mexico class Tanker 120 000 tons 610 Crew 4193 BP TCS 2400 TH 9600 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 1-216 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 22 Max Repair 64 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 0
Michieka Manufacturing Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive (30) Power 320 Fuel Use 2.53% Signature 320 Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 42 900 000 Litres Range 2543.5 billion km (7359 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
28th June 2380 The Commune designs their first components of their future forces. Due to the strategy of fast response from nodal locations the speed of the warships have been increased by implementing slightly larger and slightly more powerful engines, resulting in speed just a little lower than that of the Piranha class gunboats. In addition the warship endurance has been standardized to three years. While at the moment the range of the warships is rather low, the Commune wants ability to deal with far away enemies on a long campaigns if need be. Before next generation engines are developed, fuel efficiency will be greatly improved, increasing range which is why longer endurance was seen as necessary.
In addition all new ships are more heavily compartmentalized. They use smaller fuel tanks and smaller but more numerous engines. Many smaller railguns have been replaced by new, improved guass cannons capable of firing five shorts every five seconds. Last but not least electronics have been completely replaced resulting in smaller but more capable devices.
As the shipyards above Courland has been enlarged, new corvettes have not been designed. Instead new frigates and destroyers have been developed. What is missing however are two things – large command ships and battlecruisers. The former has not been designed as the Administrator wants to develop improved jump engines first, which will be capable of transporting a total of eight ships at once. This however will take at least a couple of years, maybe even as much as four. The battlecruisers on the other hand has not been designed as improvements of shields are needed. As the nations is suffering ordnance issues and they already have a respectable missile firepower in the form of gunboats, the future battlecruisers will be armed mostly with energy weapons, and as the Battle of ES – 09 has shown shields are very beneficial in such a situation. This will also give the Commune time to improve their gallicite extraction which currently is just barely enough to keep up with demand.
While the new cruisers will be laid down as soon as possible, it will be some time before the first of new frigates and destroyers can be constructed however. The upgrades to existing frigate formations are still ongoing and are just close enough to completion that the Administrator does not want to interrupt them. Of course while they are close enough they are still quite away in absolute terms, which means two more years will likely be needed to complete those upgrades.
Last but not least the Force has finalized defining naming conventions for their formations. Flotillas will refer to large organizations of small craft, which currently means gunboats only. The Pirnahas will be assigned numbers from one to one hundred while the Shark formations will be numbered from one hundred and one to two hundred. Should a new type of gunboat be developed, they will be given numbers from two hundred and one to three hundred.
Squadrons refer to formations which can only transit through secured jump points. Whether or not they have jump capable ship within them is immaterial. A squadron can't jump all at once or perform an assault. As an example the existing frigate squadrons have frigate leaders equipped with jump drives, but those can escort only two ships at once. As such the formation can move through a jump point without a gate but not all at once. Opposite of them are divisions, which can move all at once making them suitable for assaults. So far only cruiser divisions exist but in the future battlecruisers divisions will also be formed.
The Saimaa class frigate was envisioned as a modernized, larger version of the Vistuala class corvette, but ended up being more. It has similar number of launchers and magazine space to Vistualas but she also has a railgun for emergencies and two gauss cannons for point blank defense. While this will improve anti-missile capabilities of Saimaa compared to her predecessor, some feel she should have more anti-missiles as new destroyer squadrons will be larger and as such should have better defenses. Unfortunately the Force is struggling with missile shortages and they especially lack anti-missiles, so they were unwilling to put more magazines on new designs.
Saimaa class Frigate 10 000 tons 257 Crew 3333 BP TCS 200 TH 1725 EM 0
8625 km/s Armour 7-41 Shields 0-0 Sensors 24/24/0/0 Damage Control Rating 6 PPV 40.84
Maint Life 2.68 Years MSP 1146 AFR 145% IFR 2% 1YR 227 5YR 3401 Max Repair 432 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 0
Magazine 349
Holmberg-Vikstrom High Power Naval Magnetic Fusion Drive (4) Power 431.25 Fuel Use 60.27% Signature 431.25 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 1 000 000 Litres Range 29.9 billion km (40 days at full power)
Single Warda Manufacturing Gauss Cannon Mk2 Turret (2x5) Range 40 000km TS: 32000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 4 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Warda Manufacturing 300mm Railgun (1x4) Range 480 000km TS: 8625 km/s Power 21-6 RM 7 ROF 20 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 5 4
Hansson Dynamics Point Defence Fire Control (1) Max Range: 120 000 km TS: 32000 km/s 92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Hansson Dynamics Long Range Railgun Fire Control (1) Max Range: 480 000 km TS: 12000 km/s 98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Persson-Felldin Fusion Reactor Mk2 (1) Total Power Output 10.5 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Jurga -Bakowski Anti - Missile Launcher Mk2 (16) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 5
Muniz-Arellano Anti-Missile Fire Control (2) Range 69.1m km Resolution 1
Spear III (349) Speed: 81 200 km/s End: 4.9m Range: 24m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 649/389/194
Godoy-Medina Small Missile Detection System (1) GPS 48 Range 11.5m km MCR 1.3m km Resolution 1
Yulianto Limited Small Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 24m km
Yulianto Limited Small EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 24m km
Compact ECCM-4 (2) ECM 40
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 The Skrzak class destroyer is a future offensive component of destroyer squadrons and as such has no true anti-missile defenses. However unlike the Stockholm class frigate which serves similar function in existing formations, she is equipped with one hundred and twenty box launchers slaved to a long range fire controls giving her the ability to fire either Arrows or Mistletoes. As the ships will often accompany gunboats, protecting them from enemy attacks, this will allow the small and large craft to fire in unison.
Her short range armament is somewhat controversial however. The Stockholm class had three heavy railguns for anti-ship duty and eight smaller ones to serve mostly in anti-missile role. The Skrzak has three large guns and four smaller ones, but still larger than those on Stockholm. That's because those are not designed for anti-missile role. Rather the small guns have been installed to drastically increase the short range firepower of the destroyer, as they are the largest railguns that can fire in five second intervals. For comparison the three hundred millimeters main guns can fire every twenty seconds.
Skrzak class Destroyer 15 000 tons 362 Crew 5474.75 BP TCS 300 TH 2588 EM 0
8626 km/s Armour 10-54 Shields 0-0 Sensors 24/24/0/0 Damage Control Rating 8 PPV 83
Maint Life 3.44 Years MSP 1768 AFR 232% IFR 3.2% 1YR 228 5YR 3417 Max Repair 432 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 1
Magazine 240
Holmberg-Vikstrom High Power Naval Magnetic Fusion Drive (6) Power 431.25 Fuel Use 60.27% Signature 431.25 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 1 500 000 Litres Range 29.9 billion km (40 days at full power)
Warda Manufacturing 120mm Railgun (4x4) Range 140 000km TS: 8626 km/s Power 6-6 RM 7 ROF 5 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1
Warda Manufacturing 300mm Railgun (3x4) Range 480 000km TS: 8626 km/s Power 21-6 RM 7 ROF 20 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 5 4
Hansson Dynamics Long Range Railgun Fire Control (2) Max Range: 480 000 km TS: 12000 km/s 98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Persson-Felldin Fusion Reactor Mk2 (4) Total Power Output 42 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Pangratiu Systems Small Box Launcher (120) Missile Size 2 Hangar Reload 15 minutes MF Reload 2.5 hours
Valdes Incorporated Missile Fire Control (4) Range 218.6m km Resolution 40
Arrow IV (120) Speed: 56 200 km/s End: 24.8m Range: 83.7m km WH: 7 Size: 2 TH: 187/112/56
Godoy-Medina Small Missile Detection System (1) GPS 48 Range 11.5m km MCR 1.3m km Resolution 1
Djody Electronic Systems Small Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 15360 Range 291.4m km Resolution 160
Yulianto Limited Small Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 24m km
Yulianto Limited Small EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 24m km
Compact ECCM-4 (6) ECM 40
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 The Kihnu class destroyer leader will serve as eyes and ears of the destroyer squadrons. Like the preceding frigate leaders she has limited jump drive but her main advantage are new and updated electronics which gives her almost as good, if not better, sensor coverage than the Rugewit class jump cruisers. In the future each Kihnu will serve as a flagship for a force of four Skrzak class destroyers and six Saimaa class frigates.
Kihnu class Destroyer Leader 15 000 tons 332 Crew 4373.25 BP TCS 300 TH 2588 EM 0
8626 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 12-54 Shields 0-0 Sensors 240/240/0/0 Damage Control Rating 9 PPV 0
Maint Life 2.83 Years MSP 1640 AFR 199% IFR 2.8% 1YR 298 5YR 4470 Max Repair 432 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 1
Cahyono Putro-Daratista Destroyer Jump Drive Max Ship Size 15000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Holmberg-Vikstrom High Power Naval Magnetic Fusion Drive (6) Power 431.25 Fuel Use 60.27% Signature 431.25 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 1 500 000 Litres Range 29.9 billion km (40 days at full power)
CIWS Mark Two (4x10) Range 1000 km TS: 32000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Crainic-Hagi Gunboat Detection System (1) GPS 2880 Range 218.6m km Resolution 10
Crainic-Hagi Missile Detection System (1) GPS 288 Range 69.1m km MCR 7.5m km Resolution 1
Crainic-Hagi Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 69120 Range 1 311.5m km Resolution 160
Laksono & Suyanto Large Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 240 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 240m km
Laksono & Suyanto Large EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 240 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 240m km
ECM 40
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
The Harpy class cruiser is supposed to replace the Elatha class. While the latter has been a very satisfactory design, new armor and EW technologies coupled with the need for better redundancies were enough to make the Force replace her. The Harpy has somewhat less missiles and anti-missiles but her short range power has been improved, her armor is twenty five percent thicker and gauss cannons have been added significantly improving her point blank defenses. And while some believe that the gauss cannons should have been replaced with more ordnance, that is simply not currently feasible.
Harpy class Cruiser 25 000 tons 537 Crew 8079.25 BP TCS 500 TH 4312 EM 0
8624 km/s Armour 10-76 Shields 0-0 Sensors 96/96/0/0 Damage Control Rating 12 PPV 143.84
Maint Life 2.78 Years MSP 2424 AFR 416% IFR 5.8% 1YR 454 5YR 6803 Max Repair 432 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 0
Magazine 790
Holmberg-Vikstrom High Power Naval Magnetic Fusion Drive (10) Power 431.25 Fuel Use 60.27% Signature 431.25 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 2 500 000 Litres Range 29.9 billion km (40 days at full power)
Single Warda Manufacturing Gauss Cannon Mk2 Turret (2x5) Range 40 000km TS: 32000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 4 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Warda Manufacturing 300mm Railgun (3x4) Range 480 000km TS: 8624 km/s Power 21-6 RM 7 ROF 20 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 5 4
Warda Manufacturing 120mm Railgun (3x4) Range 140 000km TS: 8624 km/s Power 6-6 RM 7 ROF 5 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1
Hansson Dynamics Point Defence Fire Control (1) Max Range: 120 000 km TS: 32000 km/s 92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Hansson Dynamics Long Range Railgun Fire Control (2) Max Range: 480 000 km TS: 12000 km/s 98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Persson-Felldin Fusion Reactor Mk2 (4) Total Power Output 42 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Jurga -Bakowski Anti - Missile Launcher Mk2 (14) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 5
Prieto & Espinoza Medium Box Launcher (120) Missile Size 4 Hangar Reload 30 minutes MF Reload 5 hours
Muniz-Arellano Anti-Missile Fire Control (2) Range 69.1m km Resolution 1
Valdes Incorporated Missile Fire Control (4) Range 218.6m km Resolution 40
Trebuchet III (120) Speed: 53 400 km/s End: 61.8m Range: 198.1m km WH: 9 Size: 4 TH: 178/106/53
Spear III (234) Speed: 81 200 km/s End: 4.9m Range: 24m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 649/389/194
Djody Electronic Systems Small Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 15360 Range 291.4m km Resolution 160
Godoy-Medina Small Missile Detection System (1) GPS 48 Range 11.5m km MCR 1.3m km Resolution 1
Bergman-Hellstrom Medium Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 96 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96m km
Bergman-Hellstrom Medium EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 96 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96m km
Compact ECCM-4 (6) ECM 40
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
3rd July 2380 The Hegemony develops internal confinement fusion drives, putting them a generation behind the Commune. However due to ongoing gallicite shortages and the need to develop some other technologies further, no new naval vessels will be designed at this time. Even so this will significantly benefit the private sector and the commercial vessels used by the government.
12th July 2380 When the Hegemony first begun settling planets outside their home system they have adopted the “one hundred million” rule which stated that each new system will receive tax breaks attracting private shipping lines until it reaches one hundred million people and that one planet orbiting every star should be colonized whenever possible. This effectively meant as soon as a colony reaches the target, the shipping lines will stop moving colonists as new tax breaks at other locations will attract them. The rule was adopted to spread out the development while giving all systems enough population to attract trade and provide ample support structure for privately owned mining operations.
So far however only the San Francisco system managed to exceed one hundred million people, who are spread among four planets, each orbiting different component of the quaternary system. New York, Washington and Los Angeles systems have one colony each, and all of them have population of around fifty million. Those four systems are adjacent to Sanctuary and every other colonized planet has very few citizens, usually between a hundred thousand and a couple of million. Overall the settlement of new systems is very slow.
Despite that however the government is accomplishing what they wanted to. All four systems have sizable private mining operations with total output equal to over fourteen hundred government owned mining complexes. And while they produce relatively few trade goods, the three colonized planets in the home system produce so much they are still very far from market saturation. To put it simply the shipping lines have more than enough work and the support structure is more than large enough for civilian mining operations, so there is little point in expanding those population to the hundred million people the government wanted to originally.
Because of that the government adopts the “thirty million rule”. Again if possible any star will have a colony orbiting it, but this time the colonies will be expanded to only thirty million people. In addition as there are now state owned colony ships anyway, those will be used to support chosen worlds. Any recovered adaptable alien terraforming installations will also be moved around to modify the Hegemony world. The current list of colonies is given below.
Sanctuary System:New Earth – 1 961 million people
Ares – 618 million people
Poseidon – 617 million people
Washington System:Columbia – 50 million people
New York System: Queens – 49 million people
Los Angeles System:Hollywood – 49 million people
San Fransisco System:Golden Gate – 34 million people
Embercadero – 33 million people
Twin Peaks – 33 million people
Alameda – 32 million people
Philadelphia System:Delaware – 12 million people
Seattle System:Magnolia – 4 450 thousand people
Chicago System:Hancock – 1 970 thousand people
Honolulu System:Pearl Harbor – 1 270 thousand people
Waikiki - 580 thousand people
El Paso System:Sunset Heights – 620 thousand people
Kansas System:Wyandotte – 290 thousand people
Little Rock System:Fourche Creek – 120 thousand people
Austin System:Bonnel – 10 thousand people
Houston System:Galveston – 10 thousand people
1st October 2380 With Eden's population exceeding four hundred and seventy million, more than enough to support all its industries, the Commune government suspends further state sponsored transport to the colony. While the number of convoys was being limited over time anyway, there were always at least two groups moving between Baltic and Athens, capable of transporting two million people at once. However as other important settlements, like Theseraum and Gagarin, are suffering severe shortages of population the Administrator finally had enough and cut further transport.
The decision is unpopular to say the least. The private shipping companies don't have enough vessels to meet the demands and while the government is more than willing to pay for migration, they usually do so under condition of choosing destination for those who take up the offer. And while all Commune colonies are comfortable for living, the Eden is considered to be by far the best destination. Knossos suffers from relatively low amount of mountainous land, many other planets like Wieliczka are tidally locked and others haven't been terraformed yet. Of course some of those colonies, like Ceylon or Gagarin, will be very pleasant places to live once modified, but even so the high population and development of Eden still make it the dream of many people.
The convoys will be redirected to Theseraum and Gagarin.
4th December 2380 A Commune geological survey vessel has just returned to an area of space connected to the jump gate network, warning the government of a Spectre mothership in the system of ES – 94 KDLH4. It is adjacent to now cleared alien stronghold ES – 38 and has been gravitationally surveyed, but the new enemy warship was detected deep in the inner system where apparently no ship has ventured before. Even so this is considered a dangerous oversight, but fortunately the alien is two jumps away from any human colony.
For the time being there will be no operation into the system however. The missile stockpiles have increased but anti-missiles are in such high demand there are still not enough of them to go around and those are the best weapons against the enemy gunboats. In addition ship refits are still very much ongoing keeping the majority of the Force in the home system. Overall while vital areas are protected, the Commune fleet is still somewhat off balance so any new alien systems found are generally left alone.
9th September 2381 All Republican colonists who were willing to do so have emigrated to the Danube system. The next on the colonization list is Dover which has three candidates for colonization. Those are awarded to Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Serbia with the planets renamed Bazarduzu, New Sofia and Prokletije respectively.
By now there are a total of nineteen inhabited worlds within the Republic spread among three systems. However the rate of expansion will slow down significantly in the near future. As the government is unwilling to spend resources on infrastructure, the existing one is moved from one planet to another and supplemented by whatever civilian sector produces and transports. As it happens the available equipment is becoming spread out rather thinly. In addition many of the newly colonized planets are far from perfect, requiring significant modification. In the home system alone Madeira, Crete and Waddenzee are far from habitable and Bucharest has only recently acquired breathable atmosphere. Outside the Phoenix system only Varnen is readily habitable for unprotected humans with the other five planets being relatively hostile and only three of them are being terraformed, and rather slowly at that. It is quite possible that after settlement of Dover is complete, the Republic will have to take a break from further expansion, at least until some of the currently hostile worlds become habitable. Even if that happens however it will be only a break, as dozens of minorities on New Atlantis want a planet for themselves.
9th February 2382 The Commune finalizes their two new designs. The first one is the Barghest class battlecruiser, designed for close energy weapon combat. As per the Force experiences in ES – 09 it has sizeable shields, although not ones as powerful as those of, for example, Spectre motherships. Part of this due to the human design being smaller of course, but the Commune shielding technology is also somewhat primitive compared to their missile or engine designs. Unfortunately improving those would simply take too long.
The vessel has also heavy armor. In fact passive defenses constitute twenty two percent of the warship's mass, making it very resilient. The main batteries comprise twelve heavy railguns of three hundred millimeters supported by six lighter and shorter ranged but very fast firing guns. The armament is completed with three advanced plasma carronades. While slow firing and very short ranged, they will be a potent weapon for jump point defense.
Needless to say the Barghest is not expected to perform as well as a missile armed ship and in fact many wanted to create a long range, offensive focused combatant similar to the Republican Dreadnought class. Unfortunately at the moment the Commune can barely support what missile warships they already have. Improvements to manufacturing techniques coupled with new facilities being established on Zuiderzee will change that in time, but combination of resource and manpower shortages coupled with the need to establish a reasonable stockpile means the Administrator will not consider new long range combatants for years to come, although new ships of existing designs will be built of course.
In such a situation the Barghest is considered to be reasonable overall design and definitely a powerful short range combatant. Of course she will have to be able to close to the energy weapon range of her opponent, but this is why two new ships have been designed.
Barghest class Battlecruiser 45 000 tons 1204 Crew 15654.75 BP TCS 900 TH 7762 EM 9000
8624 km/s Armour 13-112 Shields 300-300 Sensors 96/96/0/0 Damage Control Rating 28 PPV 180
Maint Life 3.39 Years MSP 5979 AFR 589% IFR 8.2% 1YR 789 5YR 11838 Max Repair 432 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 1
Holmberg-Vikstrom High Power Naval Magnetic Fusion Drive (18) Power 431.25 Fuel Use 60.27% Signature 431.25 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 4 500 000 Litres Range 29.9 billion km (40 days at full power)
Epsilon Shields (100) Total Fuel Cost 1 500 Litres per hour (36 000 per day)
Warda Manufacturing 120mm Railgun (6x4) Range 140 000km TS: 8624 km/s Power 6-6 RM 7 ROF 5 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1
Warda Manufacturing 300mm Railgun (12x4) Range 480 000km TS: 8624 km/s Power 21-6 RM 7 ROF 20 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 5 4
Pagan & Alanis 400mm Advanced Plasma Carronade (3) Range 480 000km TS: 8624 km/s Power 50-6 RM 1 ROF 45 50 25 16 12 10 8 7 6 5 5
Hansson Dynamics Long Range Railgun Fire Control (7) Max Range: 480 000 km TS: 12000 km/s 98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Persson-Felldin Fusion Reactor Mk2 (12) Total Power Output 126 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Djody Electronic Systems Small Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 15360 Range 291.4m km Resolution 160
Godoy-Medina Small Missile Detection System (1) GPS 48 Range 11.5m km MCR 1.3m km Resolution 1
Bergman-Hellstrom Medium Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 96 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96m km
Bergman-Hellstrom Medium EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 96 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96m km
Compact ECCM-4 (7) ECM 40
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes As the Commune continues to confine their naval yards to the Baltic system, they are faced with manpower limitations, making them unable to expand their yards beyond a certain point. As the gallicite production is barely able to keep up with demands, this is not really an issue at this point of time and in the future new shipbuilding sites may be established. However this means only three new battlecruisers can be built at a time and the future divisions will consists of eight ships, one of them a jump capable leader. To speed up establishment of new formations the government have decided to make future battlecruiser divisions mixed. This also allowed them to put missile defenses on a dedicated escort, allowing the Barghest to concentrate solely on offense.
The result of this decision is the Shonbunn class escort cruiser. To keep up with the Barghest it has heavy passive defenses consisting of armor and shields, totaling twenty percent of her mass. The rest is taken by engines, anti-missile launchers, magazines, and gauss cannons for emergencies. Thanks to her long range sensors and fire controls she can engage incoming missiles at over seven million kilometers, firing thirty two anti-missile salvos every five seconds and carries enough ammunition for twenty seven salvos. It is unquestionably the most powerful escort designed by the Commune but she will be confined to the battlecruiser divisions for two reasons. First she has no secondary armament of any kind and cannot perform offensive actions at all. Second the government and the Force see the shields as a sort of experiment, and one confined to large ships that have to close to energy weapon range, charging through enemy shipkillers and anti-missiles in offensive mode. For everything else the shields are considered a waste of space and resources. Besides there is currently no need for a cruiser sized escort anywhere else.
Shonbrunn class Escort Cruiser 25 000 tons 560 Crew 6966.25 BP TCS 500 TH 4312 EM 4500
8624 km/s Armour 10-76 Shields 150-300 Sensors 96/96/0/0 Damage Control Rating 18 PPV 63.68
Maint Life 3.61 Years MSP 3135 AFR 277% IFR 3.9% 1YR 372 5YR 5582 Max Repair 288 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 0
Magazine 883
Holmberg-Vikstrom High Power Naval Magnetic Fusion Drive (10) Power 431.25 Fuel Use 60.27% Signature 431.25 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 2 500 000 Litres Range 29.9 billion km (40 days at full power)
Epsilon Shields (50) Total Fuel Cost 750 Litres per hour (18 000 per day)
Single Warda Manufacturing Gauss Cannon Mk2 Turret (4x5) Range 40 000km TS: 32000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 4 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hansson Dynamics Point Defence Fire Control (2) Max Range: 120 000 km TS: 32000 km/s 92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Jurga -Bakowski Anti - Missile Launcher Mk2 (32) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 5
Muniz-Arellano Anti-Missile Fire Control (4) Range 69.1m km Resolution 1
Spear III (883) Speed: 81 200 km/s End: 4.9m Range: 24m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 649/389/194
Crainic-Hagi Missile Detection System (1) GPS 288 Range 69.1m km MCR 7.5m km Resolution 1
Bergman-Hellstrom Medium Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 96 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96m km
Bergman-Hellstrom Medium EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 96 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 96m km
Compact ECCM-4 (4) ECM 40
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
30 April 2382 One of the biggest issues of the interstellar travel is the strain it puts on various components, including drives, electronics and life support systems. Because of this private shipping lines usually refuse to take jobs that require more than four transits and will take a route with less jumps over one requiring less time but more jumps. This left several planets with recovered alien habitats empty until now.
Despite being habitable for unprotected humans, Wieliczka is a small, tidally locked world with no surface water. Even so the life there is comfortable, thanks to the high technological level of the Commune but with large portions of manned mining operations moving elsewhere some people living there begin to look for adventure in old, deserted alien cities, more comfortable living on a planet that is or will be more Earth-like or just looking for job hard enough to be willing to emigrate. And while those are still few enough that the government does not provide any state shipping, even a small percentage of three hundred and thirty million people is enough to attract shipping business. And as is usually the case some of those migrated to the sites of former recovery operations where abandoned alien habitats waited.
Two such planets have been colonized, ES – 52 KH5 II and ES – 58 AH6 III. The former is located in a long but uninteresting chain connecting to ES – 12, an important transit system connecting the colonies of Eden, Wieliczka and Prkos while the latter planet is located in a very short dead-end chain connected to Athens. In both cases all recovered installations except infrastructure has already been moved to other locations but the current inhabitants don't mind. The fact the planets will not receive any government support is also not considered a problem, especially since eventually both new settlements will receive the alien adaptable terraforming installations which have completed modification of Tblisi and are working on Herinnering.
The system of ES – 52 is named Chatham and the colony located there is named Waitangi. The system of ES – 58 is named Azayakana Shiro, which means 'brilliant white' in Japanese. As this is the brightest star orbited by a Commune colony the name does seem appropriate. The colony is named Ryujin after a Japanese patron deity of the sea, due to the planets significant water coverage.
8th May 2382 For some time now the Commune has been exploring the area between Sahara and Tartarus, as the system from which the Destroyer arrived became known. The former system had a total of four jump points, two of which turned out to lead to dead-end systems and one back to the human space. The latter system had total of three jump points meaning the alien could have arrived from two different chains. This has now been narrowed down to a single one as the survey cruiser Vega detects four ADS warships in the system of ES – 117 MH7, a recently discovered system two jumps from Tartarus. As it's unlikely the Destroyer would have left those ships alone, the alien must have come from the other chain.
While the presence of ADS coupled with a candidate for colonization present implies existence of alien ruins within the system, there will be no attempt at recovering them. Until the Commune pushes much further into the Tartarus chain and puts sensor outposts several systems ahead, there will be no development beyond the Knossos system. Even the crews of survey ships, freighters and construction vessels are crewed exclusively by volunteers, who half expect to end up dead as another Destroyer arrives and ploughs through them.
Even so this discovery will make it easier for humans to extend their sensor net. For now however Vega heads back home to inform the government and receive a new assignment.
14th May 2382 The Commune reinforces their naval bases in Knossos, Gibraltar and Ceylon with additional gunboat flotillas and frigate squadrons, thanks to new missiles being ready and all refits being complete. However many ships still remain without modern ammunition prompting some within the government to propose stopping further construction. The Administrator however is adamant that shipbuilding should continue. Not only are there large stockpiles of older munitions for emergencies, the production rates are climbing thanks to new factories being opened and new manufacturing techniques being developed. And while it's still not nearly enough to arm existing ships and build up a stockpile, the AI wants to have the ships ready when munitions become available. Besides many of the new designs have secondary energy armament, making them useful even without ordnance.
