Paladin-class Battlecruiser
| Class Overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Paladin-class Battlecruiser |
| Designation: | CB |
| Manufacturer: | The Initiative |
| In Commission: | 4 |
| Planned: | 6 |
| Completed: | 4 |
| Active: | 4 |
| Technical Specifications | |
| Function: | Warship |
| Size: | Length: 500 Meters Beam: 54 Meters Draft: 22 Meters |
| Standard Complement: | 215 Officers & Crew 110 Marines |
| Countermeasures: | See Below |
| Armaments: | See Below |
| Hull: | Titanium Alloy & Synthetic diamond |
| Auxiliary Craft: | See Below |
The Paladin-class Battle Cruiser is one of the heaviest classes of warship fielded by The Initiative, operating as the center of a number of battle groups.
History
The Paladin-class Battle Cruiser was initially designed and built between the 2470s and 2480s as part of an effort to combine the speed of a cruiser with the offensive capabilities of a battleship, by sacrificing the thick armor plating that typically slowed down a battleship. The first Paladin-class battle cruisers were built in orbit over Arxune at Jäger Tor's shipyard. Originally intended to mesh the heavy weapons of a battleship with the speed of a cruiser at the cost of the additional armor usually carried by battleships, the Paladin-class battle cruisers were found to be equal to the Praetorian-class battleships they were intended to augment, and have seen more use as a stopgap while the Military Arms Research Service (MARS) develops an upgrade block for the Praetorian-class or a successor class.
Basic Specifications
Size
- Length: 500 Meters
- Beam: 54 Meters
- Draft: 22 Meters
- Decks: 6
Crew Compliment
- Minimum: 4
- Standard: 215
- Plus another 110 Marines
- Maximum: 450
Engines
|
|
Power Plant
|
|
Hull Composition
- Hull: Titanium Alloy
- Armor Plating: Two meters of Case-hardened Steel, Titanium, & Ceramic Composite Plates (Easily removable to replace damaged plates)
Sensor System
- Sensor: Oracle Drive
Defensive Systems
|
|
Armament
|
|
Auxiliary Craft
Other Systems
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
- Deck 01: Coilgun Battery & Magazine, Bridge, Plasma Cannon Battery, Observation Deck, Coilgun Battery & Magazine
- Deck 02: Officer's Mess, Coilgun Battery & Magazine, Officer's Quarters, Cyber-warfare Center, Coilgun Battery & Magazine
- Deck 03: Torpedo Launchers & Magazine, Crew Mess, Crew Quarters, Plasma Cannon Battery, Engineering Spaces (Upper Half)
- Deck 04: Medical Bay, Antimatter Reactor, Marine Mess, Marine Quarters, Marine Training Facility, Engineering Spaces (Lower Half)
- Deck 05: Water Reclamation, Coilgun Battery & Magazine, Stasis Pod Bay, Coilgun Battery & Magazine
- Deck 06: Coilgun Battery & Magazine, Storage, Plasma Cannon Battery, Cargo Bay, Coilgun Battery & Magazine
Known Vessels
The vessels of the Paladin class are typically named after historical or legendary weapons.
