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« Last post by Paul M on April 15, 2024, 03:37:24 PM »
The Chantry of Light Month 75
Starbridge Station, Lathandras Orbit, Thedas System
From the observation gantry just above the stations CIC Templar Captain Allistar Ti'Lir could see the work ongoing at the yards that made up the bulk of the stations volume. The Enchanter was progressing, if slowly, its frame complete and artificers, workers and robotic drones starting to assemble its spinal weapons array. Ships floated in other docks, their armour skin open to space as others worked on their system. This month would see the Shield's refits completed excepting for the 7th squadron's 3 Fearless Destroyers. They were currently on station in Sarnia while all other battle riders were here refitting or else shaking down.
He could not see the latest Pathfinder vessel, the Spectre was beyond the moon doing its space trials. It would be the eyes of the Pathfinder flotillas. The plan was to replace the 18 Seekers currently in each Flotilla was 10 refit Seekers and 4 Spectres. This would double the survey speed of each flotilla in addition to giving each one four ships with enhanced sensor reach. This would increase the maintenance of each flotilla to 480.2 MCr. That was a 14% increase and a fifth flotilla would be added, with 22 Seekers mothballed. Three new patrol squadrons had to be built with at least part of their complements coming from the Defence Force itself as it was clear a significant re-organisation was needed. The Fearlesses would be used with Swiftsures as leaders, and the Peacekeepers and most of the Grace Knives relegated to patrol duties. It would require some changes to the current squadron structures and the construction of more Dawnbringers.
What to do about Sarnia though? Even now the Fold points were not fully explored and trying to build or assemble when the latest mobile repair docks were available would still take a long time. But clearly something needed to be done to increase the number of eyes in that system.
SEEKER R1 class ES 12 Hull TL 3
[2] SAXiHLQsJc1 [4]
12 RCP 13 MCP Trg:1 Cost = 186/ 27.9
HTK 7 Sx1 Ax1 Lx1
The improved survey instruments replace the ageing standard systems of the original ships. To accomadate the increased array size of the new survey instruments part of the ships shield generators were sacrificed.
SPECTRE class CT 16 Hull TL 3
[2] SSAXiHXrLQsJc1jc1 [4]
16 RCP 9 MCP Trg:1 Cost = 261/ 39.2
HTK 10 Sx2 Ax1 Lx1
Incorporating improved survey instruments and the recently developed phased array and sensor enhancement computer systems the Spectre is twice as efficent at survey. This ship is intended to perform probes as its sensor range is substantially increased.
HALLA (TUG) class FT4 30 Hull TL 3
[3] SAJc1x8TTJc1Jc1HQsJc1 [4]
30 RCP 45 MCP Trg:1 Cost = 242/ 18.2
HTK 17 Sx1 Ax1 Tx2
The Halla will allow the Shield to move its Sentry bases around, enabling them to be constructed at single fixed point rather than needing to be built on station. Why bases can't be transported in jump racks is beyond me!
House Rule Change for J-small craft
Starslayer and I talked about this and we settled on the following speeds for J-small craft:
Cutter: Tac Speed 10 Inter-System Speed 3 (Speed of a DD)
Shuttle: Tac Speed 9 Inter-System Speed 3 (Speed of a CA/CL)
Assault Shuttle: Tac Speed 12 Inter-System Speed 4 (Speed of a CT)
This would allow us to have fighters starting at Tac Speed 13-ish if we decide to go with fighters at all. Pinnace's are going to take some thought and back and forth since they would need to be Jc based. I also admit I have a lot of trouble with kinetic interceptors not killing fighters a lot better than they do. Given they do damage to ships, something no other pointdefence is capable of, and given their tracking capabilities smacking a fighter out of the sky seems like it should be childs play.