I smiled widely at the doctor, and made ‘gimme’ motions with
my hands. “Well, let me have it, Doc. What mad genius things have you and your
team come up with to make our enemies wish they were never born?”
The doctor did not disappoint, and pulled a set of rough
blueprints up on the main screen. “Well, we’re at a middle ground between the
Assassins and the Reapers here, in terms of size. We’re tentatively calling
this ship class a destroyer because of that. We are using the X’thari lance
technology for short-range fire, and for stealth attacks. Because of the space
needed for that and the secondary weapons, we won’t be able to have the rail
guns on them. Just no room for them.”
“So, an escort ship to go along-side our Reapers when
they’re in combat, leaving the heavy assaults to the assassins?”
Bazalgette shrugged. “The designer pointed out that the
Assassins are really wasted in fleet action. Sure, they can fight in formation, but they’re really best at sneak attacks
and wolfpack tactics, even as detached forces going behind enemy lines or
hitting pirates. The Reapers are clearly the focus of our fleet’s firepower,
once we get into a brawl, so if we had each Reaper with a few escorting
destroyers, and the gunboats buzzing about, that would free the Assassins to do
hit and run tactics for better effect, or sneak past to hit whatever our real
target is.”
“All right, I’m liking this so far. But the lack of
stand-off weaponry is not something I’m comfortable with. Getting in close and
slugging it out with people in our weight class or higher is what hurt us last
time. What options do we have for that?”
“Well, we have missile launchers amidships, and torpedo
tubes fore and aft that are capable of fitting both the Dragonbreath and the Starbolt
torpedoes. That will give them some extended range, as well as giving them
attack options that don’t include pointing directly at the people they’re
trying to kill or getting in close.”
“Very well, that will do for weapons. How are they
defensively? If they’re going to be charging into fire, then I’m going to want
them to be coming out the other side.”
“X’thari ships use a technorganic hull structure that has
many of the benefits of our current hulls for the Assassins and Reapers. Our
materials people have created an alloy of the two materials, which we would be
able to produce with our fabricators. Well, technically it wouldn’t be an
alloy, as the two materials aren’t metals, but the process is similar enough
that the materials people are calling it one. Preliminary reports indicate that
hull strength increases by 30%, and is less prone to fracturing than our
typical hulls, but the stealth profile is reduced by 10% and mass increases by
10%. Costs increased by 12% on initial runs due to the materials used, but over
the long term, it should be cheaper, once you’re in action.”
“Hmm. Not something we’ll worry about with the Assassins or
other small craft, then, since the Assassin mission profile emphasizes stealth.
And the gunboats… thirty percent won’t do anything for them. What would it cost
to convert the Reapers to this new hull material?”
“A week and a half in the yard, starting with stripping the
old paint, infusing the existing hull with the mix that will cause it to ‘fuse’
the two materials, and then repainting. It would give both the Reapers and the
destroyers a significant boost to their survivability.”
I clapped my hands, and smiled at them. “You guys have done
excellent work on this. Transmit your findings to Raven, and the team at the
Dimiya yards. If they agree with your assessments, then add the destroyers to
the build lists. The new destroyer class will be called the Knight class, since
these will be jousting with enemy vessels, it seems. Raven, do you have an
updated target fleet group manifest?”
“Yes, Commodore.”
The view on the screen shifted from the schematics of the
proposed Destroyer and an ‘order of battle’ emerged.
Standard Black Star
Navy Fleet Group:
2 Reaper-Class
Cruisers
6 Knight-Class Destroyers
8 Assassin-Class
Corvettes
16 Gunboats
1 Smerti-Class Carrier
1 Large Freighter
(Logistics)
I looked over to Raven, and said, “This is the standard plan
we want to build up to for First Group, and the new Fourth and Fifth groups,
right?” When she nodded, I turned back to the screen, and said, “All right, I’m
generally happy with this, as we can break it down into lighter groups if we
need to, sending a group of Assassins with a Raven as support if needed. Most
of the logistics for the small ships is in food stores and repair materials,
since the ammunition for an Assassin’s main gun can be manufactured easily
wherever there’s an asteroid with enough metal in it. But the fighters and bigger
ships have munitions that need to be refilled when they’re used. We haven’t had
a problem about missing a fleet train until now, because we haven’t had
extended fighter operations of fleet battles, but it is better to plan for it
now.”
Raven nodded. “The Pocket carriers like the Vicious Return will be phased out of
standard fleet formations as they are replaced by standard carriers. However, I
have had a request from Major Kahn for a pocket carrier to be assigned to each
of his Marine Assault ships, along with a trio of Crow-Class assault ships. As
you know, the Crow-Class is a modified version of the Raven-class freighter,
with the freighter cargo compartment replaced with mission-variable setups, and
increased armor and weapons abilities, making them effective trans-atmospheric
gunboats with the Dragonbreath torpedoes to give them enough hitting power to
make them a threat. That would allow his Marines to conduct independent operations
without relying on the Navy for constant support.”
Hmm. A single pocket carrier could only field one squadron
of fighters. So which of the three designs would the Marines want? “What kind
of fighters was the Major looking to have on those carriers?”
“Thunderbolts, for the most part, with Marine pilots. We’ve
been discussing it, and the Thunderbolts are as close to a general-purpose
fighter as we have right now, capable of performing multiple roles. Anything
too large for the capability of a squadron of Thunderbolts, the Assault ship,
and the Crows, and they ought to have Navy assistance to begin with.”
That suited the Marines fine then. Still, something was
still bothering me, though. That outline of the projected group manifest just
didn’t look right. “The Reapers are going to need some serious revision if they’re
going to become fleet command ships. They just aren’t designed for that kind of
detail. Oh sure, they’ll work in a pinch, but they’ll need upgrades if we’re
going to have that be a standard part of their mission. Do we have any plans
for a command ship?”
That the doctor was happy was no surprise. But when the
others started grinning like loons, I knew something was up. “Let me guess,
someone decided that they wanted to design a command ship while we were designing
my new destroyer?”
Raven politely cleared her throat, and said, “Well, I just
so happen to have lifted the schematics on all current Imperial ship designs
back during the war, so we had something to go off of already. And since we
were going to be expanding the fleet, it was put forward by several groups that
we needed a true command ship for the different groups. Plus, the Nuedo Evo Navy
will be wanting something more than a corvette or cruiser to hang their hat on.”
I shook my head. It was good to have good people, who knew
what they were doing, but sometimes I wished they hadn’t picked up my sense of
showmanship. “Well, all right then, hit me with it. What have you guys cooked
up?”
A new schematic appeared on the screen, and my first thought
was this was one big sucker. It was clearly no mere cruiser, even a Heavy Cruiser,
but an actual BATTLESHIP! I turned, and looked at the smiling group, and said, “Really?
I know we’re expanding an all, but do you really think we’re at the point of needing
fucking battleships? Sure, it isn’t a superdreadnought, but that thing is a
helluvalot bigger than any ‘mercenary’ company other than those Kul’tiras guys
have.”
Raven simply shook her head. “Well, ‘Admiral’—” I glared at
her, and she smiled, “Oh yes, you’ll find that the upgrade kit has been
delivered to your room already, waiting for you to use it so next time we go
into a fleet action, we get more bonuses from it.” I shook my head. My people
were really too good for words sometimes.
Raven continued, ignoring my mental musings, “We actually
started the design process for it, since the Nuevo Edoans were going to need an
actual flagship at some point, once we’d built them up to the point where they
can stand on their own. But we wanted something leaner and meaner than the
superdreadnoughts you normally see.”
I sighed, giving up on the argument for the time being. “Fine,
fine. So tell me about this beast. I can see the ‘leaner’ part, since it doesn’t
have nearly the bulk of a superdreadnought. But how about the ‘meaner’ part?”
“Well, the shields and engines are all superdreadnought strength,
and the armor is actually 10% stronger than the typical Imperial superdreadnought.
Of course, it has less point defense because of it, and it has a flight deck
equivalent to the Reapers, instead of the larger deck on an Imperial ship.”
“Crew complement is smaller as well, due to the smaller
size, and the primary weapons taking up a significant area of the ship. The
primaries, by the way, are four forward-facing railguns equivalent to the
Reaper-class guns. In addition, we have more than a few missile launchers and X’thari
lances, scaled up to battleship strength, for close fighting, and eight torpedo
tubes on each side of the ship set up in a ‘broadsides’ configuration. It may
be small, compared to a superdreadnought, but it can definitely bring the pain.”
I nodded slowly. A ship like this would solve a lot of the
problems we’d faced at Nuevo Edo, but it would require much more of a crew to
keep running. Still, if they were going to go with his plan to push into the
gates and start seriously exploring, then they would need something like this.
“Then the Wrath-class Battleship is officially part of the Black
Star Navy. Add it to the build lists.”
(CNS Luvon Gilrie,
Nuevo Edo Gateway)
Captain Faylen Zylna leaned forward in her seat as they
passed through the Gateway. She was young to be the Captain of a navy ship, she
knew, but the Assassin ships were entirely new, from the Navy’s perspective,
and they required a certain kind of thinking that older, more experienced
captains didn’t always have. In short, they needed someone who was willing to
do insane things, like the Black Stars did.
Of course, her being young and having fresh ideas wasn’t the
only reason she’d gained this posting. She had been told as much by the Admiral
when she’d met with him and a Zumrora from Intelligence. The leader of Black
Star was a notorious womanizer, and she was attractive and single. At the very
least she wouldn’t get sent away as easily as an older man. And the Navy needed
this exercise, to know how to use the ships they’d bought from Black Star.
Thankfully, she hadn’t been ordered to do anything so stupid
as to try and seduce the owner. The Admiral had wanted to put an intelligence
asset on her crew who WOULD have had that mission, but Zumrora had apparently
shot that down, saying that the owner would see through it, and who knows what
would happen. But she had been pointedly told that while there was no order for
her to seduce him, there was also very much no order for her to avoid his
advances, if he made any. She felt like bait in a trap.
“Captain, Nuedo Evo Navy ship Santiago is challenging us.”
“Send the response we were given, with the orders we were
given to rendezvous with the Black Star forces here. And get send the greeting
package to the Black Star ships.”
Time to get this ‘exercise’
started, she thought.
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Be sure to read my published works!
Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rules-free-vrmmo-life-stuart-grosse/1128941349?ean=2940161995297
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rules-free-vrmmo-life-omnibus-i-stuart-grosse/1128953195?ean=2940162052081
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y
City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1
Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
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