NationStates Jolt Archive

Little something I've been working on as a phased upgrade for all my forces. First step - upgrade the mainstay of the fleet, the Revelation destroyer.

The Revelation has been a staple in the Intergalactic Feazanthian Navy since the darkest days of the Collective War, and even with upgrades to her internal structure, shielding system, and armor plating, the Revelation has begun to lag far behind its larger brethren. As the Avatar battlecruiser has become widespread amongst the fleet, the Revelation has fallen into the shadows.

Fleet Command, faced with pressure from raider and pirate groups at home, and superior enemy forces in the Milky Way, began an "emergency refit" of the venerable destroyer. Among its upgrades to the Revelation were a retrofit of the Arbiter-2 kinetic weapons to the more-powerful 355mm railcannons (RG355). This, along with the addition of a fifth turret along the ventral spine, has increased the vessel's punch by nearly double alone. Advances in PDA technology allow the new warship to nearly outproduce even carriers in terms of pure munitions (given an adequate supply of raw material from mobile refineries and carriers), and this is reflected by replacing the twin bow-mounted torpedo launchers with a octet of 150mm hypervelocity rocket (HVR150) launchers in four broadside turrets. This is further supplemented with a quintet of 300 kiloton lightweight nuclear Capital Attack Missile (CAM300) launchers, designed to overwhelm enemy defenses and shields.

The Revelation refit also sports an advanced CIWS system, enhancing survivability over enemy fighter swarms and standard sublight guided missile systems. The twin 1 gigawatt Enhanced Pulse Ion Cannon (EPIC) systems, fresh from the minds at Fleet Command R&D, are designed to deter any vessel from getting too close, along with pinpointing incoming heavy munitions and keeping it from getting within the SENTINEL system's range. Figther and missile spam defense is handled mostly by the two "Shrike 7" 140mm railgun (RG140) dual-turrets and the twin "Vindicator 4" 100mm railguns (RG100) dual turrets. To add insult to injury, these systems are supplemented by four OMNI-missile batteries, designed to fire "Yellowjacket" micromissiles in quick succession that will actively seek out those pesky high-maneuverability fighters and modern variations of the Sidewinder missile.

Shielding is the standard SENTINEL system, handled by the warship's third-generation A.I. The SENTINEL actively tracks incoming threats and, should they get past the CIWS weapons, will activate an active forcefield in front of the target's trajectory for the scant miliseconds it takes for the object's force to be completely dissipated. In order to save power, this force field is deployed via microscopic nanobots which jettsion themselves from the ship at the start of battle and are fed power directly from the ship's fusion reactor. This allows for the warship to project a forcefield only in the areas that are under threat, instead of projecting an energy-consuming field around the entire ship.

Armor systems aboard the refit are similar to all warships above frigate class, consisting of an undisclosed composite, titanium-A, and internal bracing. Most noteworthy of this is the internal bracing system. Captial ships use a series of internal cross bracings and honeycombs that made the ships surprisingly resistant to battle damage; ships using this system are very heavy, but are able to remain operational despite sustaining breaches to all compartments and losing 90% of their armor (according to battlefield reports, never actually tested under controlled conditions).

The ship uses a trinity-based toroidal tokomak reactor system, consisting of two auxilliary cores which are capable of "supercharging" the main core in times of high power requirements. These reactors are cooled by a combination of a laser induced slurry of ions chilled to near absolute zero and, in extreme situations, venting excess heat to the vacuum of space.

Unfortunately, because of the "emergency refit" basis of the ship, an increase in overall mass over the Revelation is unavoidable. This increase, even with the advances in reactor technology, limits the maneuverability of the new warship (though it is still more agile than the slower Avatar battlecruiser). The ship also suffers from an utter lack of Combat Support Systems (CSS), relying on her passive sensors and a fleet tactical net for most targetting data and navigation. This, combined with the absense of a hangar bay for strike craft, can lead to nasty situations in which a ship can be left on its own, deaf and nearly blind, fending off an enemy advance. Because of these weaknesses, Fleet Command has redesignated the vessel as a medium cruiser, and has named the refit the Arbiter.

The Arbiter Mk.4C-class Guided Weapons Fleet Cruiser represents a technological leap in Feazanthian engineering and is expected to be the springboard to new and exciting prospects for the displaced human dominion. It is expected to begin deployment with Phia'sa (Admiral) Terrance Hood's Milky Way task force shortly.


Arbiter Mk.4C

Length: 620 meters

Primary Armament:
15x Arbiter-3 355mm railguns (RG355) in five triple mounts
8x 150mm hypervelocity rocket (HVR150) launchers in four broadside turrets
5x 300 kiloton lightweight nuclear Capital Attack Missile (CAM300) launchers (50 round salvo)

Secondary/CIWS Armament:
2x 1 Gigawatt enhanced pulse ion cannon (EPIC) in two fast-tracking turrets
4x "Shrike 7" 140mm railguns (RG140) in two fast-tracking turrets
4x "Vindicator 4" 100mm railguns (RG100) in two fast-tracking turrets
4x "Yellowjacket" rapid fire interceptor missile launchers

Defense:
SENTINEL system
Avatar-series armor scheme



Note: Concept and weapons systems were done by Tel'Quessir and the Homeworld PDS staff, used with their kind permission. The Arbiter is not done. Modifications will most likely be made as I continue to learn more about the PDS verse.

Comments? Questions?

OOC: Nice to see weapons with an actual unit of measurement. FT needs a sense of scale pretty bad.

Thanks. They're designed to be my mass-produced ISD killer, overwhelming the shields with rocket and nuclear missile volleys before decapitating them with railgun fire.

In the words of the ship's creator, TQ...

"A 1.6km triangle is much easier to detect than a 400m submarine-like profile. Factor in the ability of 'primitive' ballistic weapons to deploy ordnance far beyond their "effective" range and destroy whatever they hit (orbital interception solution, as opposed to Star Wars direct fire) and you have one fiesty little monster in the Arbiter class."

Plus I think putting in weapon sizes gives me an air of credibility when, let's face it, I have little idea what I'm doing.

>_>

Bumped for interest.

Thanks. They're designed to be my mass-produced ISD killer, overwhelming the shields with rocket and nuclear missile volleys before decapitating them with railgun fire.

Of course they won't kill canon ISDs. They won't even rate as a threat. Despite popular opinion ISDs are not weak against kinetic strikes. We see several asteroids impact against their shields and vapourize in TESB. The ISD whose bridge tower was destroyed likely had its shields down to allow for the holonet transmission they were making as it is a well known requirement of Holo-net communication.

"A 1.6km triangle is much easier to detect than a 400m submarine-like profile. Factor in the ability of 'primitive' ballistic weapons to deploy ordnance far beyond their "effective" range and destroy whatever they hit (orbital interception solution, as opposed to Star Wars direct fire) and you have one fiesty little monster in the Arbiter class."

ISDs have an effective range measured in light-minutes. And the firepower presented by this ship is many orders of magnitude to low to damage an ISD.

Energy weapons, no matter how "advanced" they are, lose power at extended ranges. Because of their relative small size, the Arbiter will be able to easily move out of the way of anything you toss at it at those ranges. Last I checked, turbolasers don't move faster than light.

And sure, if I were to pack all of my punch into one or two smaller strikes, I'd be toast. The Arbiter is designed around volley theory. SW shields can be easily disabled by concentrating firepower on one specific point. This is evidenced by Home One bringing down the Executor's shields with concentrated bursts. Rockets and nuclear missiles deliver that punch.

And I don't care who you are. You get nailed by a solid-core slug fired from a 355mm rail cannon at a closing velocity of 30km/s, you're gonna hurt. And I'm firing off one of those from EACH of my 15 barrels every few seconds.

Star Destroyers are weapons of intimidation. They are built to scare your enemy.

Arbiters are weapns of war. They are built to kill your enemy.


EDIT: Yes, in a head on fight, the direct fire capability of an ISD would vape my boat. But no one would ever engage an ISD head on. Fire barely-detectable hunks of metal at high speed at something with the maneuverability of a tree sloth, intercepting its orbit?

You do the math.

Energy weapons, no matter how "advanced" they are, lose power at extended ranges. Because of their relative small size, the Arbiter will be able to easily move out of the way of anything you toss at it at those ranges. Last I checked, turbolasers don't move faster than light.

Star Wars ship can accelerate at thousands of gravities and track and engage ships while doing so. They also have incredibly good sensors, they will hit your ship.

And sure, if I were to pack all of my punch into one or two smaller strikes, I'd be toast. The Arbiter is designed around volley theory. SW shields can be easily disabled by concentrating firepower on one specific point. This is evidenced by Home One bringing down the Executor's shields with concentrated bursts. Rockets and nuclear missiles deliver that punch.

Concentrated SW level firepower, which means teratons for ISDs and Mon Cals. Your ship doesn't even come close to that level of firepower.

And I don't care who you are. You get nailed by a solid-core slug fired from a 355mm rail cannon at a closing velocity of 30km/s, you're gonna hurt. And I'm firing off one of those from EACH of my 15 barrels every few seconds.

The biggest problem is the momentum of the slug and given the asteroid impacts in TESB and incidences in the EU I'd say that's not enough.

Star Destroyers are weapons of intimidation. They are built to scare your enemy.

Arbiters are weapns of war. They are built to kill your enemy.

Clearly you haven't watched much Star Wars.


EDIT: Yes, in a head on fight, the direct fire capability of an ISD would vape my boat. But no one would ever engage an ISD head on. Fire barely-detectable hunks of metal at high speed at something with the maneuverability of a tree sloth, intercepting its orbit?

You do the math.

Sure, assuming your slugs are a cylinder three times as long as wide and made of iridium you get a mass of 2319 kg. At 30 km/s that's a momentum of 6.957x10^7 kg*m/s^2 and a KE of 1.04x10^12 Joules or about 249 tons of TNT.

The asteroids that hit the ISDs were about 20 meters in diameter and travelling at around 100 m/s. At a density of 3000 kg/m^3 that's a momentum of 125.7x10^7 kg*m/s^2 and a KE of 6.28x10^10 Joules. Much less KE than the shell but 18 times more momentum, which is much more important.

So a single Arbiter can dish out 83% (all 15 guns) of the momentum than an ISD can shrug off without any problems. Math says ISD laughs and kicks its tiny little ass.

EDIT: Using momentum is giving your ship the best possible outcome. Going on pure energy considerations your slugs are 2.49x10^-8 % of bare minimum lethal energy.

EDIT 2: People don't realize just how stupid powerful Star Wars is, there are many sources out there that give better rundowns of that than I can provide, I suggest Dr. Saxton's site (www.theforce.net/swtc) to learn more.

Xessmithia, its not teratons, its anywhere from a few gigatons to hundreds of gigatons for shipbased cannons. for ground based it doesn't get over a 5 teratons.

Xessmithia, its not teratons, its anywhere from a few gigatons to hundreds of gigatons for shipbased cannons. for ground based it doesn't get over a 5 teratons.

ISD reactors scale to around 10^25 Watts, a teraton is 4.2x10^21 Joules. We know from the ROTS:ICS than warships can send nearly all of their reactor output to weapons. That gives ISDs hundreds of teratons of firepower.

ISD's are not the god machines everyone makes them out to be, Xess. Yes, they are strong, as the Empire needed a strong ship of the line to keep the diverse elements of their empire under control and put fear into them.

However, as Booster Terrik put it, a Star Destroyer is a ship with over 40,000 something flaws to be exploited. It has MANY problems, it isnt the god machine you make it out to be.

Also, part of their power comes from the use of the almighty plot point. They are so powerful as the story needed them to be. They can be beaten. Trust, kinetics are strong, and they have strong shields, yes, but the kind of stuff he is firing is pretty powerful.

The scale stuff is nice, Michiyo, but I get confused by the numbers often. And people then throw this teraton crap around to make it seem that some kind of ship is so awesome, and that nukes and stuff won't even hurt them and whatnot. I find it just ridiculous, as then people then have just lost the point of rping for the story and only care about proving how awesome their turbolaser is by spewing out numbers.

Anyways, nice ship Feazanthia. I notice you have...."added" some elements of ships from Halo. *wink*

I'd like to rp with you, whenever possible.

Regardless of criticism, this is one of the finer Future Tech works I have seen in my short venture into this genre; much praise is due to Feazanthia. If coming from a realist perspective, I would doubt Star Wars would be an appropriate basis for truth at all. In a respectable scenario, I would say Feazanthia's design are just as realistically conceptualized than any-other.

Also, when do you plan on next desecrating my Holy Nebula? I think we're due a fight...

~IS

A fight? Is that a fight I hear? *ears wiggle* =P

I assume this has to do with that first contact thread of yours, IS?

ISD's are not the god machines everyone makes them out to be, Xess. Yes, they are strong, as the Empire needed a strong ship of the line to keep the diverse elements of their empire under control and put fear into them.

However, as Booster Terrik put it, a Star Destroyer is a ship with over 40,000 something flaws to be exploited. It has MANY problems, it isnt the god machine you make it out to be.

I'm not trying to make them into god machines. I'm showing how powerful the are in the canon. There are ships more powerful and better designed than ISDs in Star Wars. It is hardly the be all and end all, but it is vastly superior to most ships seen in mainstream sci-fi.

Also, part of their power comes from the use of the almighty plot point. They are so powerful as the story needed them to be. They can be beaten. Trust, kinetics are strong, and they have strong shields, yes, but the kind of stuff he is firing is pretty powerful.

And it's not powerful enough to harm an ISD, at least not one from the canon.

The scale stuff is nice, Michiyo, but I get confused by the numbers often. And people then throw this teraton crap around to make it seem that some kind of ship is so awesome, and that nukes and stuff won't even hurt them and whatnot. I find it just ridiculous, as then people then have just lost the point of rping for the story and only care about proving how awesome their turbolaser is by spewing out numbers.

If someone throws out numbers and says they will kill an ISD expect numbers to come back to refute the point if they are not up to snuff. Numbers that are too big for you to understand do not make for a bad RP, bad RP skills make for a bad RP. Numbers are used as a crutch by bad RPers, but not all people who use numbers are bad RPers.

People also fail to realize that for every ISD-II pumped out, I can pump out 4-5 Arbiter Mk.4Cs. Even if an ISD can defeat an Arbiter, which I'm not yet convinced on, taking on even TWO Arbiters spells defeat.

And if you take one out at extended range (unlikely using your plasma-based heat weaponry), there are 3-4 more to deal with. All of them launching their ordinance at you.

A fight? Is that a fight I hear? *ears wiggle* =P

I assume this has to do with that first contact thread of yours, IS?

We want his gas.

I do not mean that they are. But when people start going crazy about numbers, and arguing over the power in teratons or megatons of their weapons and it just gets into math, people need to remember its about the story, not whether or not your shield output is in megatons or teratons. If you want numbers, fine, but in my personal opinion, it only causes more confusion in rp.

Look. All I'm trying to do is to dethrone the SW tech wankers who think they're impregnable except for other SW tech wankers.

And how exactly does one of those turbolasers put out that much power in a bolt of plasma without blowing up the barrel and/or overheating the system?

Look. All I'm trying to do is to dethrone the SW tech wankers who think they're impregnable except for other SW tech wankers.


Firmly behind Fea on this one. Go Homeworld fans.

And yes, he wants my gas. The bastard. o.O

In a little more detail, Fea's gunna start mining my beautiful nebula, and IS is going to bet pissed = FIGHT!

Hurrah for millimetres. And for the sake of narrative, take damage.

Heh, sounds like fun. I'll definitely be reading and maybe future participation. =P

If they REALLY wanna pull numbers at me, I'll just pull out the Selangor-class bombardment cruiser.


Makes the Arbiter's primary weapons look like a group of firecrackers.


EDIT: And yeah, expect that to go up sometime tomorrow

Look. All I'm trying to do is to dethrone the SW tech wankers who think they're impregnable except for other SW tech wankers.

How is it wanking to use the canon figures?

And how exactly does one of those turbolasers put out that much power in a bolt of plasma without blowing up the barrel and/or overheating the system?

Extremely efficient cooling systems and crazy good radiators. The exact mechanisms aren't important, what's important is that they do it. Also turbolasers, as of the most recent information, are beams of light-speed exotic particles that produce photons as they decay. Not plasma.

The canon figures are a load of crap created by people who wanted an impressive sounding number instead of realism or things that make sense.

As an example here, if star wars shields are so uber, why are proton torpedoes, which are nuclear weapons, able to hurt them?

Enough SW technobabble. Back to semi-conceivable junk.

Bump for more comments!


EDIT: Just a note - story will always, ALWAYS take precedence over technobabble. That is one thing I think we can all agree on.