NationStates Jolt Archive

Greetings from Krupponia!

(OOC) For the past few weeks I've been working on designs and descriptions for the fleet of starships I've always imagined defending my mighty Interstellar Federation. I've finally finished, and I'd like to display them here for your enjoyment.

I need to point out that the drawings for the ships were not done by me. They were downloaded by me from Jim Steven's awesome compilation of starship schematics over at http://www.shipschematics.net , specifically the section deticated to a Japanese series I've never seen before called "Space Battleship Yamato". While I did modify the images to bring their profiles more into line with what I imagined for my fleet, I cannot take any credit for designing or drawing these ships as shown here, as much as I'd like to.

The descriptions, however, are 100% MINE :). They're pretty tech-heavy and might be kind of a dry read for some people, but they offer great insight into the weapons and history of my nation, and some of the conflicts that I've participated in since I started playing NationStates.

Anyway, I really hope you like 'em, and I would greatly appreciate any feedback you might have. Let me know what you think! (OOC)

And now, without further ado, I presnt to you the starships of the Krupponian Fleet:

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Mercury Class Corvette

Origin: Interstellar Federation of Krupponia

Construction: Aero-Tech Space Division, New Cydonia Fleet Yards

Gross Mass: 6,500 tons

Dimensions:
Length: 156 feet
Beam: 27 feet
Height: 49 feet

Propulsion:
1 Mark IV Antimatter Reaction Engine
1 Class 6 Continuum Distortion Driver Coil
RCS Thrusters

Performance:
Maximum Sublight Velocity 192,000,000 mph
Maximum Hyperlight Velocity 0.4 light-years per day
Maximum Range 1.8 light-years before refueling
Maximum Turn Rate 68 degrees per second

Powerplant:
1 AM33 Lithium-focused Antimatter Reactor
6 Auxillery Atomic Batteries

Armament:
1 Dual 450 Megawatt Particle Beam Turret
2 Multipurpose Missile Tubes
4 Dual Anti-fighter Flak Cannons

Defense:
4 Class 5 Particle Shield Generators
4-inch Steel Armor Plating

Complement:
6 Officers
36 Crew


The Mercury class corvette was the first type of ship built for the Krupponian Navy at a time when it was just begining to establish itself as a fledgeling power in the Alpha Centauri star system. It is a relatively small fleet patrol ship designed for scout, escort, and interdiction missions. Because of its low mass and powerful reaction engine it is the fastest and most agile capital ship in the entire Krupponian fleet at sublight speeds. However, due to its small space-time driver coil and limited fuel supplies it cannot achieve high FTL speeds, and has limited range. Its hyperlight drive is usually used for running down fleeing ships and covering short distances much faster during emergencies, rather than interstellar travel. It CAN be used to journey between star systems, albeit slowly and with several refueling stops along the way.

The Mercury is heavily armed for its size - sporting a dual particle beam turret that can punch burning holes in in armored targets from hundreds of miles away, missile tubes capable of firing long range high explosive or nuclear missiles, and flak cannons that will shred any fighter that gets too close. Its particle shields and armor are relatively weak, however, and cannot withstand heavy bombardment.

Mercurys are loved by their crews, probably due to the ship's colorful history, and its image as something of a dashing privateer vessel. This reputation is well-earned - Mercurys truely are the hotrods of the fleet. The exploits of these amazingly fast and cunning little ships during the early days of Krupponian space travel, when almost every opposing force had them outmanned and outgunned, have become almost legendary. The design is sometimes found illegaly modified in the hands of pirates and corsairs across the known galaxy, as every so often they will manage to overwhelm and capture one in a skirmish with the Krupponian navy.

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Pulsar Class Frigate

Origin: Interstellar Federation of Krupponia

Construction: Aero-Tech Space Division, New Cydonia Fleet Yards

Gross Mass: 14,420 tons

Dimensions:
Length: 385 feet
Beam: 112 feet
Height: 115 feet

Propulsion:
1 Mark VII Antimatter Reaction Engine
1 Class 2 Continuum Distortion Driver Coil
RCS Thrusters

Performance:
Maximum Sublight Velocity 112,000,000 mph
Maximum Hyperlight Velocity 2.4 light-years per day
Maximum Range 16.1 light-years before refueling
Maximum Turn Rate 37 degrees per second

Powerplant:
1 AM37 Lithium-focused Antimatter Reactor
12 Auxillery Atomic Batteries

Armament:
2 Dual 700 Megawatt Particle Beam Turrets
2 Multipurpose Missile Tubes
2 Area-defense Anti-fighter Missile Batteries
8 Dual Pop-up Anti-fighter Flak Cannons

Defense:
4 Class 4 Particle Shield Generators
6-inch Steel Armor Plating

Complement:
14 Officers
160 Crew


The Pulsar class frigate was the first true interstellar warship of the Krupponian Space Navy. It is more than twice the size of the Mercury class corvette, but its space-time driver coil is much more powerful and efficient - it can travel six times faster than its predecessor, and has more than eight times its range. This was achieved partially due to scientific and technological trade agreements Krupponia established with its neighbors in the region. Its sublight drives are no match for the Mercury's, but it is still a fast ship for its size at relativistic speeds.

Pulsars were designed to give the fleet a fighting chance against some of the much larger and more advanced space forces that came into conflict with Krupponia not long after the introduction of the corvette as the country's main (and only) fighting ship. More and more often the Mercury class was finding itself outranged and outgunned while defending crtitical supply convoys against belligerant navies and space pirates. The Pulsar put a swift end to that. At almost 400 feet long and weighing in at over 14,000 tons, the Hyperion was an easy match for almost any pirate vessel and many medium warships belonging to fleets of powerful empires who had been waging interstellar wars for more than a century.

Despite being an older design, the Pulsar is still in service with the fleet today, filling a vital cap between the larger fleet destroyers and the ever popular corvette. Frigates are most often employed as convoy escorts, border patrol ships, and have even been retrofitted with advanced sensor suites and used as deep space exploration vessels, and as such they are one of the most versetile types of craft in the Navy.

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Midway Class Carrier

Origin: Interstellar Federation of Krupponia

Construction: Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, New Zurich Orbital Shipyards

Gross Mass: 124,300 tons

Dimensions:
Length: 1,247 feet
Beam: 315 feet
Height: 300 feet

Propulsion:
2 Mark IX Antimatter Reaction Engines
2 Class 2 Continuum Distortion Driver Coils
RCS Thrusters

Performance:
Maximum Sublight Velocity 84,000,000 mph
Maximum Hyperlight Velocity 1.9 light-years per day
Maximum Range 19.6 light-years before refueling
Maximum Turn Rate 9 degrees per second

Powerplant:
2 AM38 Lithium-focused Antimatter Reactors
24 Auxillery Atomic Batteries

Armament:
2 Dual 750 Megawatt Particle Beam Turrets
2 Multipurpose Missile Tubes
2 Area-defense Anti-fighter Missile Batteries
24 Dual Pop-up Anti-fighter Flak Cannons

Air Wing:
84 Transatmospheric Fighter/Bombers
10 SWACS Radar/Communications Ships
12 Marine Landing/Retrieval Boats

Defense:
1 Class 3 Particle Shield Generator (Outbaord)
2 Class 4 Patricle Shield Generators
14-inch Steel Armor Plating

Complement:
125 Officers
2,200 Crew
112 Air Wing Pilots
650 Marines


Less than a decade after being exhiled from the region on charges of high treason, Chairman Smith, ruler of the Armed Republic of Smithania, staged a massive military takeover of the Alpha Centauri star system. Resistance was mercilessly crushed by the huge starfleets and armies Smith and his allies had been amassing for years in preperation for this assault. The fighting forces in the region were quickly overwhelmed, including that of Krupponia, which lost 12 frigates and 33 corvettes in the opening attack alone - more than a quarter of its entire Navy. It was abundantly clear to the government and top brass of Krupponia that if they were ever to be free of this newfound regional dictatorship, the military would need to be hugely expanded in a short time, from a relatively weak local defense force to a mighty and interstellar fleet capable of sustained heavy combat. New ships were designed and rushed into full production at once, and the first of these was the Midway class carrier.

Krupponia at this time had no heavy battleships to stand toe-to-toe with the mighty Smithanian forces, so it adopted a different attack philosphy - long range fighter assault, a tactic which had crushed ancient Japanese Naval forces at the hands of their great adversary, the United States Navy, during the second world war on Earth. The Battle of Midway was the first of such victories, and so gave name to the new class of starships.

The Midway was a quantum leap in starship technology compared to the old Pulsar and Mercury classes. Its size alone was staggering - over 1,200 feet long and weighing over 100,000 tons! It had less firepower than the much smaller Pulsar class frigate, and needed 2 reactors and 2 driver coils to even approach its speed. However, its real strength was in its air wing. 84 attack fighters could swarm off its electromagnetc catapults in under 10 minutes. Once in space, they used small, short-range ultra high-speed distortion drives to warp to their targets at many times the speed of a capital ship. When they arived, they overwhelmed their quarry with numbers and devestating nuclear strikes - one squadron of 12 fighters could carry an average of 144 guided nuclear missiles which could be launched from far beyond the effective range of the enemy ship's flak guns. Even if the missiles didn't impact their targets and were detonated by defensive flak, the resulting EM pulse was usually enough to disable all electronics onboard the defending ship, allowing the fighters to move in and finish it off at their lesiure.

The Midway class also served as a Marine assault ship, capable of carrying a battalion of Space Marines along with all their weapons, armor, and support craft. Supported by bombardment from the carrier in orbit, a platoon of Marines in powered combat armor could pacify an enemy city or military base within hours. This option proved essential many times in the Smithanian War, as without the Marines the only way to eradicate enemy presence on an occupied world would be total bombardment from space, resulting in horrifying civilian casualties.

For all its great strengths, the Midway had one great weakness - if confronted directly by an enemy captial ship, the carrier's weak guns and few missile bays would be of little avail to defend it. This fact was brought home to Krupponian Naval Command by the complete destruction of the IFS Lexington and her escort group of two frigates and five corvettes by a single Smithanian battlecruiser, not long after the war against the occupation began. If the carriers were going to survive, they were going to need larger escorts with the power to take on enemy battleships.

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Hyperion Class Light Cruiser

Origin: Interstellar Federation of Krupponia

Construction: Aero-Tech Space Division, New Cydonia Fleet Yards

Gross Mass: 24,180 tons

Dimensions:
Length: 574 feet
Beam: 154 feet
Height: 181 feet

Propulsion:
1 Mark X Antimatter Reaction Engine w/ High-energy Plasma Superchargers
1 Class 2 Continuum Distortion Driver Coil
RCS Thrusters

Performance:
Maximum Sublight Velocity 120,000,000 mph
Maximum Hyperlight Velocity 2.4 light years per day
Maximum Range 17.5 light years before refueling
Maximum Turn Rate 27 degrees per second

Powerplant:
1 AM40 Lithium-focused Antimatter Reactor
14 Auxillery Atomic Batteries

Armament:
3 Dual 1.1 Gigawatt Particle Beam Turrets
8 Multipurpose Missile Tubes
1 Antimatter Torpedo Launcher
4 Area-defense Anti-fighter Missile Batteries
16 Dual Pop-up Anti-fighter Flak Cannons

Defense:
2 Class 4 Particle Shield Generators
4 Class 5 Particle Shield Generators
10-inch Steel Armor Plating

Complement:
26 Officers
240 Crew


Early in the Smithanian War, it became clear that frigates and corvettes were not powerful enough to defend carriers from capital ship attack. A call for a medium/heavy warship with excellent anti-fighter and anti-ship capabilities went out from Krupponian Naval Command. In the end it was Aero-Tech's Space Division, creators of the old Mercury corvettes and Pulsar frigates, who got the contract with their ingenious light cruiser design.

The Hyperion class light cruiser is built on the bones of the old Pulsar class frigate, which can clearly be seen in their similar profiles. Aero-Tech's engineers took the frigate's base hull and expanded it by more than 70 percent, allowing for more weapons, greater fuel capacity, superior survivability in combat, and more powerful engines. Her three gigawatt-level particle beam turrets were the equal of any heavy guns in the Smithanian fleet. She had 4 times the missile capacity of the Pulsar, and nearly as heavy shielding and armor as the massive Midway carriers. For all this extra mass, the ship was almost as swift and maneuverable as the much lighter frigate - a testament to the powerful new reactor core which, when combined with the innovative high-energy plasma superchargers, resulted in an almost 200% increase in thrust at sublight speeds. The ship is equally as fast as the frigate under hyperlight drive, and has greater range.

Possibly the most impressive new feature, though, was the introduction of the antimatter torpedo and accompanied launching arm, mounted above the main engine housing just aft of the conning tower. While antimatter reactors had been tried and tested technology in Krupponia for almost a century, attempts to create effective munitions using this awsome power source had always failed, due to the great bulk of the components neccessary to keep antimatter bottled up in magnetic fields, safe until ready for detonation. With advancements in electromagnetic manipulation technology aquired from Krupponia's ally The Empire of Erid, a working bomb was developed not long after the outbreak of war.

The first test detonation occured over an uninhabbited moon on the outskirts of the Ross 248 star system. When the countdown reached zero, the effect was stunning - an enormous blue-white fireball, eerily silent in the vaccum of space, seemed to swallow the entire face of the moon. When the flash had subsided, scientists and military onlookers were amazed to see the explosion had actually cracked the moon's crust right down to the mantle, and sent billions of tons of white-hot rock spinning off into space. While this "planet-buster" bomb was much larger than the torpedos mounted on the Hyperion class, the torpedos could vaporize cities and blow shielded capital ships to dust in one hit, all with a few ounces of antimatter bled from the ship's fuel reserves; firepower that would otherwise take many pounds of rare and heavy plutonium using the old style nuclear missiles. Nukes were still used in wide array for the remainder of the conflict, however, as the newer AM torpedos were complex and expensive to build, and tended to be used as "silver bullet" weapons, rather than standard munitions.

Shortly after the Hyperion entered service, the Smithanian Navy saw the complete destruction of its 3rd and 7th fleets under intense antimatter torpedo fire, coupled with long-range fighter attack from carriers during the Battle of Proxima. Ten days later the Smithanian flagship, the ISS Victory, met its doom while attempting to ambush a Krupponian carrier group which included two Hyperion class cruisers. With these victories over their oppressors by a relatively small league of resistance worlds, the majority of Alpha Centauri rose up and began to battle Smithania on a scale not seen since the opening days of the war. From that moment on, Smithanian forces were on the defensive, and would remain that way until the end of the war.

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Lakota Class Destroyer

Origin: Interstellar Federation of Krupponia

Construction: Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, New Zurich Orbital Shipyards

Gross Mass: 20,180 tons

Dimensions:
Length: 527 feet
Beam: 104 feet
Height: 122 feet

Propulsion:
1 Mark VIII Antimatter Reaction Egine
1 Class 2 Continuum Distorion Driver Coil
RCS Thrusters

Performance:
Maximum Sublight Velocity 98,000,000 mph
Maximum Hyperlight Velocity 2.1 light years per day
Maximum Range 17.6 light years before refueling
Maximum Turn Rate 26 degrees per second

Powerplant:
1 AM39 Lithium-focused Antimatter Reactor
12 Auxillery Atomic Batteries

Armament:
3 Dual 950 Megawatt Particle Beam Turrets
6 Multipurpose Missile Tubes
16 Dual Anti-fighter Flak Cannons

Defense:
2 Class 3 Particle Shield Generators
8-inch Steel Armor Plating

Complement:
22 Officers
214 Crew


After the the tactical potential of antimatter torpedos launched from the new Hyperion class cruisers became so readily apparent, the cruisers were assigned more and more often to strike missions, often operating independently of their carrier groups. This raised the question of how the carriers would be protected from large-scale capital ship attack in their absence. There were not enough of the new cruisers in service at that time to cover both offensive and defensive missions, and it was decided that a new kind of ship would be needed to fill this unexpected gap in fleet defenses.

It was Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, creators of the Midway class carriers, who came up with the winning proposal in the Lakota class destroyer. The design was much larger and more powerful than the old Pulsar class frigates, which were designed more for the defense of cargo convoys than naval battle fleets. Sporting 3 heavy particle beam turrets, nuclear missile tubes and an array of 16 flak cannons, the Lakota was perfect for protecting vunerable carrier fleets from attacking enemy battleships and fighter wings.

The Lakota was not originally fitted with antimatter weapons for a number of reasons, the most important of which being that it was strictly intended for close defensive combat, and it was thought that explosions of that magnitude so close to the fleet could potentially damage or destroy friendly fighters and capital ships. In the words of Commander John Rico of the destroyer IFS Iroquois - "Who wants to be bunkmates with a cosmic catastrophe?" Though they remained without antimatter munitions until after the defeat of Smithanian forces, the recent war with the Empire of Murderkill saw several Lakota class starships outfitted with basic antimatter missile tubes as a dire neccessity for survivng in combat against the brutally armed and armored warships of that dark regime.

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Olympus Class Cruiser

Origin: Interstellar Federation of Krupponia

Construction: Triton Dynamics, Sirius VI Oribital Drydock Facility

Gross Mass: 32,550 tons

Dimensions:
Length: 618 feet
Beam: 203 feet
Height: 199 feet

Propulsion:
1 Mark XII Antimatter Reaction Engine w/ High-energy Plasma Superchargers
1 Class 1 Continuum Distortion Driver Coil
RCS Thruster

Performance:
Maximum Sublight Velocity 116,000,000 mph
Maximum Hyperlight Velocity 4.6 light years per day
Maximum Range 27.2 light years before refueling
Maximum Turn Rate 24 degrees per second

Powerplant:
1 AM42 Lithium/Cadmium-focused Antimatter Reactor
14 Auxillery Atomic Batteries

Armament:
5 Dual 2.8 Gigawatt Atomic Disruptor Turrets
16 Multipurpose Missile Tubes
1 Antimatter Torpedo Launcher
2 Area-defense Anti-fighter Missile Batteries
22 Dual Anti-fighter Flak Cannons

Defense:
1 Class 2 Particle Shield Generator (Outboard)
4 Class 4 Particle Shield Generators
12-inch Steel Armor Plating

Complement:
36 officers
390 crew


The Olympus class cruiser was the first military starship commissioned during peacetime by Krupponia since the old Pulsar class frigates nearly a decade before. Despite the fact that it began its service in an era of peace, the Olympus is built for war. Upon joining the fleet it was one of the most powerful warships in the history of the Alpha Centauri region; only the massive battleships of the Empire of Murderkill were deadlier.

The Olympus featured an entirely new main gun system. The particle beam turrets that had been standard equipment on every Krupponian ship before it were replaced by the newly designed and field tested Mark I atomic distruptor cannons. While the particle beam worked by accelerting sub-atomic particles (mostly neutrons) to super-high velocities in order to punch gaping holes in enemy targets, the atomic distruptor fired a pulse of high-energy ultraphased nadion plasma. This pulse could pass with remarkable ease through particle shielding and devestate hull armor, shattering atomic bonds in a chain-reaction effect which often completely disintegrated smaller vessels. Combined with an antimatter torpedo rack, nuclear missile tubes, and anti-fighter flak guns and missiles, the Olympus was a killing machine of unprecidented power.

The ship's AM42 reactor was also of a new and innovative design, featuring a lithium/cadmium power converter matrix which increased neutron absorption and boosted power output levels by almost 200% over the old lithium-focused AM40 untits installed on the Hyperion class. This, combined with its more powerful Class 1 distortion coil, provided it with an unheard-of hyperlight top speed of 4.6 light years per day - almost twice as fast as the fastest ship in the fleet at the time. The higher power output of the reactor also allowed for the use of the extremely powerful Class 2 outboard shield generator (Until then only available on heavily fortified space stations) and redundant Class 4 inboard generators. Only sustained nuclear bomabarment or disruptor weapons could hope to penetrate its defenses.

Twelve years after the surrender of Smithania to allied forces, Krupponia faced its second full-scale interstellar war. The Empire of Murderkill, a military dictatorship commanded by a ruthless and sadistic warlord, claimed lordship over the Krupponian colonies in the Epsilon Eridani, Sirius, 61 Cygni and Ross 154 star systems after a long and bitter border dispute. It is theorized that Lord Murderkill selected Sirius in order to seize the drydocks where the Olympus class was designed and built. Krupponian citizens living on these colonies were massacred by orbital nuclear strikes as a warning to the Krupponian government not to offer resistance of any kind. Males who survived these attacks were rounded up and taken to slave labor camps, and females were forced into service in Lord Murderkill's personal harem.

The opening shots fired by Krupponian forces were fired from a pair of Olympus class cruisers sent to destroy the Empire's listening post in the Lalande 21185 system. While the outpost was successfully obliterated, only one cruiser returned home, and with heavy damage after a running battle with an Imperial battleship nearly twice it size and many times its match in firepower. Supreme Chancellor Krupp vowed on the opening day of the war to retake those lost colonies and liberate the enslaved populace, no matter what the cost, and it was clear to the Navy that if the cost was not going to be too great to bear, then even larger and more heavily armed ships than the Olympus would evenually be needed to go on the offensive.

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Excalibur Class Battlecruiser

Origin: Interstellar Federation of Krupponia

Construction: Aero-Tech Space Division, New Zurich Orbital Shipyards

Gross Mass: 58,200 tons

Dimensions:
Length: 846 feet
Beam: 169 feet
Height: 211 feet

Propulsion:
1 Mark XIV Antimatter Reaction Engine w/ High-energy Plasma Superchargers
4 Mark VII Hydrogen Fusion Engines
1 Class 1 Continuum Distortion Driver Coil
RCS Thruster

Performance:
Maximum Sublight Velocity 114,000,000 mph
Maximum Hyperlight Velocity 4.2 light years per day
Maximum Range 28.8 light years before refueling
Maximum Turn Rate 18 degrees per second

Powerplant:
1 AM43 Lithium/Cadmium-focused Antimatter Reactor
2 HF62 Hydrogen Fusion Reactors
16 Auxillery Atomic Batteries

Armament:
5 Dual 4.1 Gigawatt Atomic Disruptor Turrets
24 Multipurpose Missile Tubes
2 Antimatter Torpedo Launchers
8 Area-defense Anti-fighter Missile Batteries
14 Anti-fighter Flak Cannons

Defense:
2 Class 2 Particle Shield Generators
12-inch PlastiSteel Armor Plating

Complement:
42 officers
438 crew


In the opening months of the Murderkill War, the Krupponian fleet found that its ships could easily fly circles around the heavily armed and armored behemoths that made up Murderkill's navy at both sublight and hyperlight speeds. However, once the two fleets actually made contact it was difficult for the more lightly armed Krupponian ships to make a dent in the opposing fleet's powerful shields and heavy armor. The Admiralty decided to press what advantage they had in speed by calling for the design of a battlecruiser - a starship with the firepower of a main battleship but light enough to maintain the high speeds of a cruiser. When the Excalibur class was introduced shortly thereafter everyone agreed that it was all this and more.

A posting on an Excalibur class starship was what every crewman hoped for during most of the war. They were fast, sporting 5 reaction engines and powerful Class 1 distortion drive which gave them a great advantage in dodging heavy weapons fire from the sluggish Imperial ships. Their main guns were almost twice as powerful as the cannons of the Olympus class cruisers, and were excellent at punching through enemy shields and armor. They sported antimatter torpedos and a wide array of anti-fighter weapons. Often squadrons of Excaliburs were able to warp in behind enemy battleships, fire and completely obliterate their tagerts long before they were even able to come about or power weapons. They were supurb combatants in every theatre of the war - convoy defense, carrier group protection, planetary assault, and anti-starship warfare. In the words of one proud captain: "The Excalibur can do it all!"

For all these advantages, there was a price; the Excalibur had relatively light plasticised steel hull armor, chosen to reduce the ship's mass and allow for higher speeds. Also, due to the great length of the ship, the two shield generators had to stretch the protective screens thinly to cover all areas of the hull. This meant that while the Excaliburs could deliver huge amounts of punishment, they couldn't take much in return. Once the enemy caught on to this fatal flaw they adjusted their tactics to compensate - often luring the battlecruisers into planetary or stellar gravity wells where their speed and manuverability was reduced, then pulverizing them with superior firepower, often from two or more cruisers or battleships.

Nonetheless, they were the most powerful and popular ships of their time, and remain an icon of Krupponian spacegoing power. Overall, few were lost in the Murderkill War, and those that survived are all still in front line service with the fleet today.

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Prometheus Class Destroyer

Origin: Interstellar Federation of Krupponia

Construction: Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, place of construction UNKNOWN

Gross Mass: 22,000+ tons

Dimensions:
Length: 518 feet
Beam: 101 feet
Height: 112 feet

Propulsion:
1 Mark ??? Antimatter Reaction Engine w/ High-energy Plasma Superchargers
2 Mark ??? Antimatter Reaction Engines w/ Same
1(?) Class 1 Continuum Distortion Driver Coil
RCS Thrusters

Performance:
Maximum Sublight Velocity 150,000,000+ mph
Maximum Hyperlight Velocity 6+ light years per day
Maximum Range *CLASSIFIED*
Maximum Turn Rate *CLASSIFIED*

Powerplant:
*CLASSIFIED*

Armament:
2 Dual 3.0+ Gigawatt Atomic Disruptor Turrets
6 Heavy Antimatter Torpedo Tubes
*ALL OTHER WEAPONS INFORMATION CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET*


Defense:
*CLASSIFIED*

Complement:
*CLASSIFIED*


The Prometheus class destroyer was built for one purpose only - devestating fast attack runs against hardened enemy installations. When introduced it had the most sophisticated sensor and communication arrays in the entire fleet; it could detect a power source as miniscule as a flashlight from halfway across a solar system, and pinpoint hidden enemy bases and supply depots from a much greater distance.

Only two squadrons of twelve ships each were built (due to the enormous expense), and each vessel operated completely independently of the fleet. These lone wolf tactics were employed to baffle enemy intelligence gatherers, who never realized until long after the end of the war (when Krupponia officially admitted that these ships even exsisted, and provided limited information on their capabilities) that single ships were responsible for some of the most devestating attacks in the history of space warfare. The need for secrecy was so great that only the ship's Captain, XO, navigation crew, and the Admiralty knew where a particular ship was and what it was doing at any given time.

The ships themselves were marvels of spacecraft design. Their three huge reaction engines could propel them at sublight speeds of over 150 million miles per hour (exact speed unknown) - faster than any ship in the fleet with the (probable) exception of the tiny Mercury class corvettes. The distortion coils of the Prometheus were also state-of-the-art, capable of over 6 light years per day, making it able to breeze past enemy picket lines leaving hardly a blip on sensor screens, and allowing no chance of persuit or interception.

They would strafe their targets, which were often large enemy bases filled with docked capital ships, or hidden command bunkers buired within asteroids, without slowing to sublight and launch salvos of high-yield antimatter missiles nested within temporary warp fields that allowed the projectiles to travel at limited FTL speeds, confounding sensors and defense artillery. The yield of the missiles combined with their tremendous speed was often enough to split small planets in two, or utterly atomize whole squadrons of docked warships. The ships were so fast that they were often under full drive and well out of the area before their torpedos even struck.

Because of the extremely clandestine nature of these ships and thier missions, many of which remain highly classified to this day, little else is known to the general public. It is popularly believed that their exploits often bordered on the edge of legality, even during wartime, and that their actual capabilities violate several arms limitations treaties which are observed by even the most morally questionable military nations. The Krupponian government acknowledges that it has at least 14 Prometheus class starships still in service today, but it will not comment on their locations or mission parameters, nor will it make any statement as to the whereabouts of the other 10 ships of this mysterious class.

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Titan Class Battleship

Origin: Interstellar Federation of Krupponia

Construction: Aero-Tech Space Division, New Zurich Orbital Shipyards

Gross Mass: 88,461 tons

Dimensions:
Length: 972 feet
Beam: 194 feet
Height: 221 feet

Propulsion:
1 Mark XV Antimatter Reaction Engine w/ High-energy Plasma Superchargers
2 Mark XII Hydrogen Fusion Engines
1 Class 1 Continuum Distortion Driver Coil
RCS Thrusters

Performance:
Maximum Sublight Velocity 104,000,000 mph
Maximum Hyperlight Velocity 4.1 light years per day
Maximum Range 30.4 light years before refueling
Maximum Turn Rate 14 degrees per second

Powerplant:
2 AM47 Lithium/Cadmium-focused Antimatter Reactors
2 HF68 Hydrogen Fusion Reactors
24 Auxillery Atomic Batteries

Armament:
8 Dual 6.0 Gigawatt Atomic Disruptor Turrets
3 Dual 4.1 Gigawatt Atomic Disruptor Turrets
4 Antimatter Torpedo Launchers
36 Multipurpose Missile Tubes
6 Area-defense Anti-fighter Missile Batteries
24 Dual Anti-fighter Flak Cannons

Defense:
1 Class 1 Phased Particle Shield Generator (Outboard)
4 Class 2 Particle Shield Generators
22-inch Titanium Alloy Armor Plating

Complement:
64 Officers
752 Crew


The Titan class battleship was Krupponia's answer to the massive Devestator class ships of Lord Murderkill's Imperial fleet. Until the Titan was introduced late in the war the Krupponian fleet's only means of fending off attacks by the Devestators was concentrated bombardment from at least two cruisers and a full attack wing of fighter craft armed with nuclear missiles. So far such tactics had resulted in the loss of five cruisers and seven fighter wings in exchange for the destruction of only three enemy battleships. The Titan was capable of engaging these ships one-on-one with reasonable chances of victory.

The Titans were enormous - almost 1,000 feet long with a crew of over 800. Only the huge Midway class carriers were larger, and not nearly as well armed. The battleship was equipped with 22 powerful disruptor cannons on 8 massive turrets. It also had 4 antimatter torpedo launchers capable of ripple-firing its entire complement of 64 torpedos in little over a minute, if neccessary. There were 36 standard anti-ship missile tubes in fore, aft, and broadside positions, as well as a full array of anti-fighter weapons such as heavy flak cannons and Yellowjacket anti-fighter missiles. They were protected by powerful phased particle shields which offered much greater protection against disruptor blasts, and new titanium alloy armor plating nearly two feet thick. Admiral Green had asked Aero-Tech to build him a battleship that would "make Lord Murderkill himself piss in his pants", and that is exactly what the navy recieved.

The Titans came into service relatively late in the war, but at a time when the fleet's attrition rates were skyrocketing from intense combat, and it was slowly being forced inward from the the ourter colonies to form a defense perimeter around the vital core systems of Krupponia by an enemy who now seemed intent on conquering the entire nation. When the first block of twelve Titans were commissioned to take the role of flagships of each of Krupponia's twelve fleets, all that began to change. They used huge spire-like tachyon communication antennas to coordinate battle fleets across whole sectors of space with little or no time delay. Confronted with colossal main battleships armed and armored nearly as well as their own, only much faster and more manuverable, the Imperial Fleet was forced to withdraw in battle after battle.

The Titans had such incredible survivability that only one was ever destroyed in combat during the war - the IFS Invincible during the nightmarish Battle of Procyon. The Invincible found itself the only ship in range to defend four vunerable carriers when the dreaded Devestator class battleship IMS Grand Executioner circumvented Krupponian picket lines and made a blitzkrieg attack run against them. The Invincible had completely exhausted is complement of missiles and its disruptor cannons were overheating from extended use. The Captain ordered all hands to the escape pods and took the helm himself, ramming the massive (and until then, merely decorative) forward prow of his ship into the drive section of the Grand Executioner under full acceleration, obliterating both starships and earning him the Krupponian Medal of Honor, pothumously.

The war officially ended in a draw six months after that engagement, with both fleets in shambles, millions dead, and half a dozen planets rendered uninhabitable. While Krupponia did win back its lost territory and severely bloodied the nose of its enemy, the planets it returned to had been wiped clean of life, and all orbital shipyards and military installations had been completely destroyed. Those civilians and military personnel captured by Murderkill were never seen or heard from again. Such were the costs and ultimate gains of the bloodiest war in the 500-year history of the Alpha Centauri sector.

Since the Titan class will always be compared and contrasted to its greatest foe, Murderkill's Devestator, this scale comparison illustration has been provided by naval historians at the University of Krupponia:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/JuanBolio/92Murderkill.jpg

Note the three massive disruptor turrets of the Devestator, which are easily four times as powerful as any ever employed by Krupponia, and its large engines, which, like most Murderkill technology, relied upon size and brute force to make up for shortcomings in sophistication.


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Impressive.

Nice ships .