Shepherd-class Cutter
| Class Overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Shepherd-class Cutter |
| Designation: | SC |
| Manufacturer: | The Initiative |
| Variants: | Conquistador-class Corvette |
| Technical Specifications | |
| Function: | System Patrol Vessel Light Escort |
| Size: | Length: 45 Meters Beam: 12 Meters Draft: 8 Meters |
| Countermeasures: | Point Defense Coilguns |
| Armaments: | See Below |
| Hull: | Titanium Alloy |
| Shield Generators: | Single Initiative Shield Generator |
The Shepherd-class Cutter is a ship designed to work within colonized systems and within short hops from their home. It patrols the system, assists civilian vessels n trouble, and tries to guard the system against any possible threat, as part of the local System Defense Force.
Variants
A number of the Shepherd-class have been modified to serve as armed tugs to serve shipyards, anchorages, and other locations.
Basic Specifications
Size
- Length: 120 Meters
- Width: 16 Meters
- Height: 7 Meters
- Decks: 1
Crew Complement
- Minimum: 2 (Pilot, Engineer)
- Standard: 4 (Pilot, Weapons Officer, 2 Engineers)
- Maximum: 12
Engines
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Power Plant
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Hull Composition
- Hull: Titanium Alloy, with a .5 meter thick synthetic diamond sheath
- Armor Plating: Case-hardened Steel, Titanium, & Ceramic Composite Plates
Sensor System
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Armament
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Other Systems
- Grappling Hooks
Notations
Defensive Systems
Due to the interference of having multiple shield generators active at the same time, the shield array is not intended to be active at the same time, but one activates, closer to the hull, when the primary shield generator goes offline, and, once the other one is ready to re-activate, the secondary one shuts down, and the primary reactivates, thereby attempting to save the heavy armor only for emergencies. The armor itself is riddled with strips of reactive plate, that, in emergencies, will blow out metal shrapnel in an attempt to damage incoming missiles sufficiently to destroy them, or at the very least, disable them. Located at strategic points throughout the armor plating are vents to pockets within the plating for nanites to be deployed to shore up weakened locations, and to provide limited repairs.
Many of the vessels are designed with removable armor plating, consisting of easy to manufacture, yet durable materials, designed to be easily replaceable by a mobile fleet. This is intended to prevent the fleets from needing to draw on large amounts of rare elements while on the move in repairing hull and armor damage.
Between the armor plating and hull, or sometimes beneath the hull, is a layer of water bladders, used to contain the ship's fresh water, and waste water awaiting treatment. It is placed here in order to absorb radiation that might penetrate the hull, or leak out from within and give away the ship's location (such as radiation from electronic devices within the vessel). It serves a further purpose and can assist in absorbing the fire of an energy weapon for a brief duration.
Power Systems
Like many of the Initiative's projects, a great deal of thought was given to prolonging a ships combat life. To this end, all the key primary, secondary, and some tertiary systems are outfitted with interconnected secondary power supplies in the event of a failure of the primary reactor. They are interconnected, to allow for emergency power supplies to be shifted to bolster various systems with an above-rated power supply for emergencies. In addition, these systems, when not being used in such a manner or being used to power their accompanying systems, charge a number capacitors that can be discharged to provide an additional boost on top of the emergency systems.
Weapon Systems
The majority of coilguns utilized by the Initiative's vessels draw from numerous magazines simultaneously, with the bulk of these being standard penetrating or delayed fuse rounds designed for pure damage. However, on many vessels, the coilguns are built surrounded by multiple magazines, with a variety of shells, ranging from nuclear-tipped rounds, to biological and chemical warfare rounds designed to cause more damage to the crew than to the vessel itself, usually as part of an effort to maintain the integrity of the vessel.
Life Support Systems
Many of the compartments aboard Initiative carry backups to key systems such as life support. Life support is a system of self-contained bio-engineered fungi that inhale carbon-dioxide and carbon-monoxide, and produce oxygen, which is then fed through mechanical filters and scrubbers to remove any remaining impurities, before being introduced into the compartment. In the event of a power failure, the fungi will continue to filter the air for a minimum of several months before beginning to fail, with extreme test cases lasting several years. Failure of the scrubbers and mechanical filters that might render the air unable to reach the compartment causes mechanical failsafes to bypass these systems. This redundancy in the life support is to ensure that any and all compartments could survive the loss of main power, and allow members of the crew to survive the loss of the vessel, or loss of a safe passage from their compartment, until rescue can arrive.
Miscellaneous
Communications
Every vessel fielded by the Initiative carries multiple forms of communications. These range from subspace communications relays (such as the Echo Drive), to radio, to laser communications. On top of these, the ships running lights and transponders are designed to be manipulated to send Morse code messages in an emergency, should something occur to the primary methods of communication.
Emergency Systems
Many compartments, in addition to the standard emergency lighting, contain bio-luminescent fungi contained within tubes implanted in the walls, tied into the power system designed to activate the fungi when the power goes out, providing low-level lighting. Scattered throughout the ship, in every key compartment, to augment the low-level lighting, directions and guides painted in a luminescent paint visible only under certain spectrum not covered by normal or emergency lighting (relying on handheld lighting, such as issued by the Initiative) to become visible, to locate specific compartments or emergency equipment caches. This is done to deny hostile boarding parties easy navigation through a vessel.
While key survival systems are given multiple backups, all of the warships are given the means to conduct basic repairs to almost every system.
Cargo and Supplies
Many of the warships fielded by the Initiative have additional space set aside for cargo, in addition to their regular supply compartments. These additional cargo bays are designed in such a way as to be easily convertible for any purpose the ship may need them for. The potential purposes that these cargo holds were designed for spread from secondary bays for auxiliary craft (such as fighters or shuttles), troop bays allowing any ship to support an invasion force (in addition to the regular marine detachments), crew compartments (if, for any reason, the ship has to take aboard additional crew or evacuees), to cargo bays allowing the ship to transport military cargo (or extend it's range, with additional supplies).
Hull Designation
All ships within the Initiative are given an alpha-numeric hull number. Each alpha-numeric code is unique to the vessel, and begins with the ship's base class for the first or two letter (DN for Dreadnought, CV for Carrier, BB for Battleship, CB for Battle Cruiser, C for Cruiser, D for Destroyer, F for Frigate, K for Corvettes, etc), and any specialty designations as the second letter (CM for Cruiser, Missile for instance), followed by the generation of the vessel (0 or X for prototypes, and then each successive updated model of the class is given a new generation number), followed by the ship's place in that particular generation and class.
Construction
All vessels constructed by the Initiative are designed around modular systems and components, designed around maximum efficiency as well as easy installation and removal, in order to facilitate rapid upgrades. Rather than requiring significant time in drydock for upgrades or repair, like many older designs, Initiative vessels are designed to be able to enter drydock, have the required components and systems pulled out as a whole, and rapidly replaced. This has the added benefit of allowing components to be built at distant locations and transported to a pre-arranged point, where an auxiliary repair vessel or base could perform the work.
Further components within the modular systems can be replaced independent of the module, allowing for replacement of damaged or non-functional components without necessitating removal of the entire module.
Deck Listing
- Crawlspace: Coilgun Magazine
- Deck 01: Cockpit, Crew Quarters, Mess Hall, Storage, Reactor, Water Reclamation, Engineering Spaces
- Crawlspace: Torpedo Storage, Coilgun Magazine
Known Vessels
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