NationStates Jolt Archive

Adrian Delphi, the Prime Minister of the proud nation of Kargucagstan, arguably one of the most powerful men in the region, was miserable. He hated going to shipyards, what with all the noise and throbbing lights from arc-welders. A person was likely to loose his senses, working in a place like this! Yet, he knew he had to be here. It was his duty, and his alone, to oversee the construction of the Kargucagstanian Royal Navy’s newest toy, the K.R.N. Scythe. He sighed, and looked back over towards the Forman who was guiding them through the shipyard. “…feet long and an eighth of that wide” The Foreman droned, “this ship will be the largest ever constructed when it…” Adrian mentally closed his ears. The ship certainly was big, even in this early stage of construction. It took up the entire shipyard, which had been geared to build three dirigibles, or Zep’s as some called them, at a time. He was startled when his chief adviser, Karl von Salza, tapped him on the shoulder.

“You should pay attention to this part Sir, it will require a response” whispered Karl. Adrian nodded in thanks and tuned into the conversation.

“This ship’s construction consumes more resources daily than all of the southern provinces do in a year. Unfortunately, that is still not enough to get it done by your date, Mr. Prime Minister, Sir. With your permission, we would like you to increase our budget by a full billion.”

Adrian thought about this. Increasing the shipyard’s budget would get the ship done on time, but how many other projects would he have to cancel? Einhauser would certainly be mad when half their funding drops out from under them, but they are resourceful. They’ll find a way. “Very well,” agreed Mr. Delphi, “You have your money.” The Foreman grinned and started walking towards a thin metal staircase that wound up and up and up for a good 800 feet, all the way to the cranes at the top of the gigantic underground production facility. Adrian shivered. If there was one thing he hated more than noise , it was heights.

“Don’t worry, Adrian,” came the reassuring voice of Karl, “We are not going to follow him. He is simply going to fetch the papers needed to finalize the transaction.”

Adrian felt a little better hearing that. “When did he say this beast would be ready for trials?” He asked his adviser.

“Roughly a year, Mr. Prime Minister.” Replied von Salza. Adrian grimaced. A year was a long time in the volatile politics of Kargucagstan. Who knows, by the time this ship was ready, he could be dead! “Oh well,” he thought. “Whatever it takes to ensure my country’s welfare…"

bump

*this period of the story happens many months later*

Adrian Delphi and his entourage stood motionless on the bluff. A massive chasm in the ground yawned in front of them, and from there came the sounds of machinery whining and men shouting. Massive gouts of smoke and embers poured from giant smoke stacks, and the ground was coated in a fine ash. “This shipyard is even more repulsive from the outside then it was from the inside.” Remarked Adrian. Karl von Salza, Adrian’s assistant, nodded. One of Adrian’s Black Squad bodyguards casually pulled out a small, watch-sized radio and handed it to the Prime Minister.

“Perhaps you should see if they are ready,” said the man. Adrian accepted the radio and hit talk.

“Launch the dirigible when ready.” The group had to cover their eyes as a sudden burst of vicious wind stirred the pale grey ash, but that only lasted for a moment. Out of the chasm, or “the Maw” as some workers called it, came a massive groan, and then, as if by magic, a giant aircraft floated up through the swirling ash eddies and into the grey skies. Adrian noted an almost inaudible gasp from the men around him the beats of a machine lumbered into the sky.

The dirigible’s various turbo-prop engines roared to life, and the ship swung around and headed straight for their position. “Best get in the chopper, Mr. Prime Minister,” advised a naval officer who here to observe the ship. Adrian and the rest of his group boarded his heavily modified CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter. The engines sputtered to life and they sprang into the air. By this time the “monstrosity”, as one young naval officer later observed, had almost reach their position. The pilot of the helicopter pulled the craft into a steep dive, and then leveled out near the top of the dirigibles top, within sight of the flashing landing pad. Setting the machine down, the pad descended into the bowels of the ship and into the armored hanger. The passengers of the rotor-craft disembarked and headed over to the grinning Captain of the ship, a certain Heinrich Srosbad.

The captain stepped forward to shake Adrian’s hand. “Thank you for the honor of meeting you in person, once more, Prime Minister! It is most kind of you to attend this, the first flight of the Scythe.”

“The pleasure is all mine, captain. I trust that you are enjoying your new toy?” replied Mr. Delphi.

“I am very pleased with it, Sir. If you follow me, I will escort you to the bridge.”

Adrian’s entourage joined with the captain’s as they all headed for the bow of the ship. The hallways were of a sturdy looking metal, and the floors of the same. Colored strips of lights in the ceiling pointed the way to the command center, and the miniature army of politicians and military personnel diligently followed. They passed stark briefing rooms and decadent dining halls. Troop barracks seemed to appear every ten feet they walked, and it was all beginning to seem the same to Adrian when at last they reached a heavy Admantium door. “Behold, gentlemen, the bridge!” The exited captain opened the door and exposed the rather plain command deck. Officers were everywhere, checking various systems, shouting at crewman, and watching the ground go by through the armored-glass floor windows. They all stopped what they were doing and snapped to attention at the sight of Adrian.

“At ease,” Adrian grumbled. He hated saying that.

“Request permission to proceed to the nearest military base, SIR!” Yelled/asked an over-exited officer. Adrian granted his request and settled into the command chair. The overstuffed leather chair enveloped him in a warm embrace.

“Captain, if you would be so kind as to escort me too my chambers, I would be most pleased,” Yawned Adrian. The captain led him down a spiral staircase in the back of the room, and then along several more corridors before reaching an ornate mahogany door. Adrian Stepped inside and closed the door in the Captains face. Making his way over to the bed, he lay down and stared at the ceiling. The ship was good, he thought. He began to feel sleepy, and the gentle rocking of the dirigible quickly put him to sleep.

* * *

Here are the stats for the Scythe:

Name: K.R.N. Scythe
Type: Flagship dirigible
Crew: 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 50 engineers, 36 flight engineers, 6 cooks, 19 intelegence officers, 9 computer operators, 90 gunners.
Length: 121,420 ft
Height: 22,500 ft
Diameter: 20,500 ft
Range: 12,000
Total Gas Capacity: 1,059,316,650 cubic feet
Armament: Four multi-missile launcher tubes split between fore and aft, seventeen 208mm anti-airship flak cannons (10 on each side), 128 .50 machine gun emplacements, 52 anti-aircraft flak cannons.
Armor/PDGs: Admantium/Titanium composite. Sixteen Autonomous Point Defense Guns, mounted evenly over the front, back, and midsections.
Armor Placement: 11” around bridge, crew quarters, and fore section, 7” around aft section.
Hanger Space: Enough room to hold 3 CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters simultaneously.
Engines: 100 turbo-prop engines split evenly between sides.
Maximum Speed: 59 knots facing directly into the wind.
Ceiling: 2,000
Description: This truly massive airship is the result of over 20 years of research and construction. Built to take the place of the K.R.N. Sickle, it is over double the size of a carrier dirigible.

Sporting a large crew and more weapons then most armored columns, this ship can hold its own in any fight. The Scythe has the ability to feed and house over 1,000 persons at a time, although it only requires roughly a sixth of that to fly at full operational status.

As this is a flagship, the Scythe has accommodations for Prime Minister Adrian Delphi’s personal helicopter, and a large state room complete with mahogany paneling and gold wall fixtures.

Midway through its design phase, a new captain was assigned, and he made extensive modifications to the layout, including thickened armor and stiffer support beams in the fore section, four extra engines, and a warehouse-like space with an inverted clamshell door loading system. These changes allow the ship the ability to ram opponents and to carry additional planes if the need arises as well as cargo.
Additional Notes: none

A very nice design, I only have one quibble. The gasbag has a capacity of 21,186,333 cubic feet. That's almost 600 cubic meters. We'll call it 600 cubic meters for the sake of the argument. Using helium, that means you can lift 600 tons of equipment. With hydrogen, it's 660.

Now, remember, that includes internal structure, engines, fuel, sleeping quarters as well as ammo, armor, and weapons.

Now, you've armored the ship as heavily as the most heavily armored megaton warships in NS. You've given it twenty twelve inch guns, approximately equivelent to two 20 000 ton battleships. I'm ignoring secondary armaments. Even assuming you're using modern composites and everything, this ship needs to be at least fifty times as big. probably one hundred.

Also, adamantium doesn't exist.

Er, isnt that thing a bit vulnerable to having its engines blown off and thus immobilised (or maybee just enough so that it cant balance enough thrust to do anything but nove in a circle). Obviously a problem with all balloons, but then i dont use them and havent fought them so i dont know how they work in NS.

I just had a thought... are you armoring the whole envelope or just the center islands. Because if it's just the center island, then you could probably drop the mass down to 50x what you have now, but the gasbag would be horribly vulnerable.

Also, the listed maximum altitude is too high. Airships are ridged, which means they can't expand very much, but the lower air pressure at that altitude means the gasbag will either pop or provide even less lift. Set your service ceiling at about half that. I personally have an emergency ceiling of 3000m and service ceiling of 2000 meters for all but a few specialized zeps.

Im still working on the design, after all, I got my specs from the hindenburg (I just x3 the hindenburgs stats, lol). there really arnt any other ships I could base it off of. I will lower the armor density (because it covers the whole ship) and remove some guns and shrink the bore to 208mm. also, the engines are very vulnerable, but the nests of AA and .50 cals can protect them pretty easily.

What do you do if someone throws a AMRAAM or Sidewinder after it? It's a mighty big target and easy to catch on the radar, and those engines must generate a lot of heat. I didn't see any countermeasures in the specs. All it takes is for any modern fighter to spot the airship on radar and fire off a missile well outside the reach of the flak guns or .50s..

Dude... it needs to be one hundred timed bigger. one hundred times. It still has more armor than an iowa class battleship. Twice as much. And changing from 12 to 8 inch guns isn't going to change anything. So now it's armed like two cruisers, each which would mass more than twenty times as much as this thing.

And your crew... you're going to service twenty heavy artillery peices with 40 engineers? try four hunded.

And there are lots of airship designs to base yours off of. I used the Cargolifter. I also have an excel spreadsheet that helps you design aircraft and airships.

What do you do if someone throws a AMRAAM or Sidewinder after it? It's a mighty big target and easy to catch on the radar, and those engines must generate a lot of heat. I didn't see any countermeasures in the specs. All it takes is for any modern fighter to spot the airship on radar and fire off a missile well outside the reach of the flak guns or .50s..

amraams don't have a large enough warhead to signifigantly inconvenice it. And it can use extremely efficient longbladed piston engines. A heatseaker won't get a lock on easily, and if it does... that's one engine out of 54. But that is one of the reasons why I never expected mine to go into combat.

fine, ill make it a 100 times larger. Im NOT going to get rid of this ship, no matter what the cost. it took too long and too much of my defense budget.

(edit: ok, I made it 50x bigger. Is that good enough? and yes, 40 engineers can run the engines, they are computer controlled. just for good emasure, ill add a few more.)

Note... if you notice something doesn't work, you can always retcon it. That means it never happened. For example, if you decide that your airship needs missiles, and you aren't in the middle of an RP, you can either make a new class of zep, or modify the existing one.

And yes, that IS better. Thanks. Your zeppelin will fly now =) But crew's too low. Include... 200 gunners, some radar techs, medical personel, more engineers, and more officers, cooks, intelligence analysts. If this is a flagship, you'll also need room for the admiral's staff. That'll make it more realistic.

I'd also reduce bow and stern armor to 3 inches and the main belt to 6. And adamantium doesn't exist.

can you PROVE it doesnt exist? Have you personally checked every rock? I think not. ok, ill add the freakin crew...

.. You're being facitious. You can't prove that plasma cannon don't exist either, but you'd scream godmod if someone used them on you. Moderntech is an agreement people have not to use anything too far out of each other's capabilites. The agreement is basically that no one will use anything that's development isn't projected within 10 years. SOme people are more stringent, some people are less. I'm fairly stringent, so if someone starts using an alloy that is not in use or in development, I ignore it unless I'm given a really good reason.

Adamantium... what are it's properties? Is it an omfg1337pw|\|u411 metal or is it something that's fairly similar to modern stuff?

its like a lighter version of titanium. its very stretchable at high speeds, but it tends to warp whenever it goes above mach 1, so the airplanes i made that use it have to have their airframs replaced after almost ever mission. it shatters if it gets to hot too quickly

That sounds very expensive and not particularly useful, or even physically possible. You change the ENTIRE AIRFRAME? do you know what that would COST? and why can't it go above mach 1?

I'd ditch the metal. Alloys like that are marks of n00bs.

say what u want. it is rather expensive to change them, but the cost is offset by the ability to unwapr them by reforging them. also, they CAN go over mach 1, to around mach 4.5 actually, but they can only sustain those speeds for short times compared to other aircraft. oh, and u mispelled admantium. there is no a between the d and the m