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Fanworks-class
Battleship
Dimensions: 340m x 104m x 52m
Powerplant: Twin hydrogen-plasma fusion reactors
Propulsion: One standard Planetary Magnetic Field
Drive Unit, Twin ultraheavy reactionless thrusters.
Combat Accel: 22G (100G max)
Crew: 220, plus up to a further 180 embarked marines.
Armament: 3 x Heavy Particle Cannon turrets
(bow-mounted) 12 x Medium Triple-Mount Plasma Cannons (6 dorsal/6
ventral), 16 missile tubes (6 port, 6 starboard, 4 chase), assorted
kinetic ortillery launch tubes (ventral), assorted 200mm PDS/ABC pulse
laser batteries.
Support Craft: 26
embarked Banshee multirole
fighters, 4 Arcadia
shuttlecraft, 1 fuel tanker.
Considered lucky ships by Boardies, Fanworks
BBs have barely been in service for over a year and have already racked
up a history of hair-raising engagements, bombardments, assaults, and
escapes-by-the-skin-of-their-teeth. Overgunned, overengined, and with
crews specifically picked for daring and initiative, the vessels have
no business surviving...but perhaps The Boss's apparent love for them
has something to do with their successes. Whatever the reason, newbies
clamour for places aboard them - it ensures that, at some
point, they will be called upon to Save All Civilisation.
The decision to move as much of the
Board as possible into high orbit brought with it a need for heavy
mobile elements capable of protecting the new infrastructure.
With Board/FLEET relations still touchy, and with even the continued
presence of FLEET uncertain as the various ships were reorganised or
even recalled by their distant home governments, High Command (with a
little prodding from Upstairs) rapidly seized the chance to grab as
much of the newcomers' expertise and technology as possible, with Board
ingenuity filling the gaps where needed. With commendable speed, a
design was pushed through for a medium-scale capital ship capable of
both supporting Board operations in orbit and intervening decisively on
the ground where necessary, built using hybrids of literally every
theory of advanced technology available at the time.
The result, while cutting-edge and
fearsome in a fight, was a bug-ridden mess of teething troubles and
high-maintenance, barely-understood equipment. Subsequent upgrades
(mostly to training and operating practices) have since ironed
out many of the difficulties. Finding the design to often be more
useful than committing a full-scale starship, FLEET encourage their
"little brothers" to build as many of these capable ships as needed,
providing reasonable amounts of materials and training where necessary.
For the exact definition of "reasonable", however...ask Intelligence.
Don't expect a very useful answer.
Since then, the Fanworks has
gone into full-scale
production aboard the Funky Horror (indeed,
the station's bays and construction equipment were originally designed
with this class in mind), and the Board now field several full
squadrons of the powerful ships with more on the way. They are proving
dependable, capable, and a match for anything the Enemy can field on
the ground. High Command hope that enough of these ships, and the
troops they carry, will blanket the globe in rapid-reaction coverage
and allow the Board to dispatch and support their insertion teams
anywhere on the planet with impunity. As the class's impressive service
record indicates, the plan has so far been an inspiring success - and
the steady drone of their engines makes Evil flinch worldwide.
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