Terran Alliance Navy
Technical Guide:
I've written this guide to help you readers as the upcoming chapters will feature many space battles and newer class of ships.
This Guide here is the first part of many and for now only contain the ships encountered in the first chapters.
Achilles class Destroyer:
Size: 1.4 km length, 60 meters in height
Power plant: Plasma Fusion Reactor
Propulsion: 8x Ion Pulse Thrusters, 1x sublight drive, 1x Hyperdrive
Equipment and Defense: Subspace sensors, ECM/ECCM, Tachyon Passive Stealth System, Grade-A Trinium Composite Battle Plate.
Weapons: 6 Particle Accelerator Canons, 36 railgun turrets, 16 laser interceptor turrets, 50 VLS missile tubes (conventional and nuclear)
Crew complement (including Marine personnel): 1500
The Achilles class Destroyer entered service during the height of the Chaos War; it is design to act as an artillery ship against other capital ships with its six Particle Canons, draining their energy shields or piercing their armored hulls from thousands of kilometers, making it a deadly threat in any engagements. With its railguns, the Achilles can certainly go toe to toe against a warship in close and medium range but against fighters and bombers it is vulnerable, even with its laser interceptors grid. An Achilles class always requires a dedicated escort of frigates and fighters when on patrol; to reduce some of its weaknesses, the Achilles has a form of Passive Stealth System using Tachyon particles to reduce its sensor profile and prevent enemy targeting scanners to achieve a weapons lock at long ranges, ensuring that the Destroyer can always win the first round. When deployed alongside a large fleet, Achilles Destroyers are always grouped together in formation and assigned to protect the flanks.
By 2185, the Achilles is slowly being phased out from the Navy in favor for the more powerful Mako class Destroyer; however the old Destroyer is still serving in the Frontier Fleet Division and in the militia of many colonies.
Author's note: The Achilles is basically inspired from the Hiigara Destroyer in Homeworld 2, except it doesn't have the Ion Turrets on its dorsal and ventral section. The railguns are for smaller ships like frigates and gunships, although it can take out fighters, the laser turrets are better for that task as well as draining shields.
Artemis class Assault Frigate:
Size: 400 meters in length, 30meters in height
Power Plant: Plasma Fusion Reactors
Propulsion: 6x Ion Pulse Thrusters (Sublight drive), 1x Hyperdrive
Crew Complement: (including Marine personnel): 400
Equipment: Subspace sensors, Tachyon ECM/ECCM, Grade-A Trinium Composite Battle Plate
Weapons: 60 VLS missile tubes (conventional, nuclear and neutron warheads), 36 Pulse Laser turrets, two plasma canons.
A result of the Helios Program, the Artemis is the first frigate size vessel to use energy weapons, as well as subspace sensor technology, something only reserved to larger warships such as cruisers and carriers. The Artemis primary duty is to protect capital ships, stations or other vital areas against fighters and bombers. It can also become a very potent threat to enemy capital ships when employing its neutron warheads which can drain energy shields pretty fast. When not on escort duty, Artemis frigates operate in groups like wolf packs, going ahead of the main fleet to harass enemy supply lines, destroy communication bases or ambushing isolated groups of ships.
Author's note: The Artemis is basically the Normandy from Mass Effect, except it is larger than the SR-2 and it doesn't have the curved delta shape, instead it is flat and heavily armored. In terms of specs, the Artemis is faster than an Alkesh but less agile.
Perseus class Heavy Cruiser:
Size: 5 kilometers in length
Power Plant: 5 Plasma Fusion Reactors
Propulsion: 8x Ion Pulse Thrusters (Sublight drive), hyperdrive, 6x anti-gravity drives,
Equipment and Defense: Subspace sensors, Subspace/Tachyon ECM/ECCM, 12xIEDS (Ion Energy Deflector Shields) emitters, Grade-A Trinium Composite Battle Plate.
Weapons: 30 Plasma Pulse Canon, 2 Particle Accelerator Canons, 200 VLS missile tubes (conventional, nuclear and neutron warheads), 50 Laser Pulse turrets, six torpedo tubes.
Crew complement:
3800 crewmen
800 Marines
30 Fighters
12 Combat Shuttles
5 Medium Troop Transports
The Perseus was created at the height of the Chaos war in 2168, the Perseus Heavy Cruiser is one of the largest warships in the Terran Navy. The Perseus is not design to stay still then open fire, it is a blade created to plunge into the enemy's neck and make him bleed, thus despite its large size, the Perseus is a very fast ship and it's thick armor, added with its Ion shields allows it to withstand tremendous amount of punishment before unleashing a storm of fire that can reduce a continent into ashes in the span of a few minutes.
For added defense, the Perseus carries a complement of 30 Star Tiger Fighters; it also has a complement of 800 Terran Marines for shipboard security and small ground engagements.
Despite its age, the Perseus still remains as one of the most powerful warships in the Terran Alliance Navy and is expected to continue its service for the next two centuries. The class of cruiser has been given extensive upgrades and retrofits ensuring its superiority over any enemies that may harm the Alliance.
Author's note: When I described the Perseus in chapter 2, I was thinking Star Destroyer from Star Wars, but with smooth edges and a more narrow profile. The Perseus is a brawler, thus it needs to be up close and personal but if needed it can kick butt at longer range with its Particle Accelerator Canons (PAC) and missiles. I don't know if its canon but in this fic, the Hataks will be the nearly the same size as the Perseus.
Hecatoncares class Battlecruiser
Size: 15 kilometers in length
Power Plant: 1x Ion Neutrino Fusion Reactor, 8 Fusion Plasma Reactors
Propulsion: 10x Ion Pulse Thrusters (Sublight drive), Hyperdrive, 10x anti-gravity drives
Equipment and Defense: Subspace sensors, Subspace/Tachyon ECM &ECCM, 4 Matter Transportation Platforms, 6x Nano-Forges, 3x troop barracks; 50x IEDS (Ion Energy Deflector Shields).
Weapons: 112 Plasma Pulse Canons, 8 Particle Accelerator Canons, 30 Laser Pulse turrets, 30 Railgun turrets, 600 VLS missile tubes (conventional, nuclear and neutron warheads).
Crew Complement:
14500 enlisted crewmen
4000 Marines Contingent (include air/ground vehicles and supplies)
200 Fighters
120 Bombers
50 Heavy Troop Transports
160 Medium Troop Transports
50 Combat Shuttles
400 Orbital Insertion Drop Pods
40 Mining/Refueling Shuttles
The Hecatoncares class was built in 2156 at Deimos Shipyard in orbit of Mars, during the Chaos War. These mighty vessels became the flagships of the Terran Alliance Navy, singlehandedly obliterating entire groups of Seth warships. The Hecatoncares is designed to be a multipurpose vessel, capable of taking out enemy ships, perform planetary invasions and even colonize new worlds; this due to its nano-forges, unique installations that can produce pre-fab materials, electronic devices, mechanical parts and tools, so long as there is enough resources fed inside the forge, practically anything can be build, except complex technology . A single Hecatoncares is so costly that the resources and money spend to build it could be used to make two dozen Perseus cruisers, thus the loss of a single vessel is considered as a defeat. During the Chaos War only fifteen were built and five were destroyed. After the conflict, production of the Hecatoncares increased with a number of eighty six Battlecruisers; twenty of them were assigned to the rebuilding effort of the colonies, following the end of the war, allowing the Alliance to recover faster than anticipated as well as setting up new colonies for expansion. Recently the majority of the Hecatoncares class is being upgraded with the new Ion-Neutrino reactor, a revolutionary energy source that could soon be replacing Fusion Plasma Reactors and Hydrogen generators. With this new power source, the Hecatoncares firepower has increased tenfold, making it in par with the fearsome Nova class Dreadnaught.
Author's note: As I said before, the Hecatoncares is inspired from the Terran Battlecruiser in Starcraft games. While it seems overkill, keep in mind that the Hecatoncares has many skills but is a master of none, thus on paper it looks extremely powerful, but without a strong escort, it is vulnerable, however underestimating it is a mistake.
Hermes class Battle-Carrier
Size: 2.4 kilometers in length, 200 meters wide, 70 meters in height
Power Plant: 4 Plasma Fusion Reactors
Equipment and Defense: Subspace sensors, 2 nano-fabricator bay, 1x resource processing bay, Tachyon ECM/ECCM, 8 IEDS (Ion Energy Deflector Shields), Grade-A Trinium Composite Battle Plate.
Weapons: 75 Railgun turrets, 65 Laser interceptor turrets, 240 VLS missile tubes (conventional, nuclear and neutron warheads), 10 Plasma Pulse Canons.
Crew Complement:
12000 enlisted crewmen
3000 Marines
600 Fighters
200 Bombers
30 Heavy Transports
15 Troop Transports
25 Combat Shuttles
40 Mining/Refueling Shuttles
The Hermes class is a mobile base design to carry large numbers of fighters and bombers, while not as heavily armed as other class of ships; they possess enough firepower to discourage anyone foolish enough to attack them. The Hermes class Battle Carrier has been in service since 2150 and continues to do so thanks to the many upgrades and overhaul made by the Navy, making it a reliable and powerful warship. Since the end of the Chaos War, the Terran Navy has sold a large number of older Hermes class to many colonies since they are excellent orbital bases and offer a good deterrent against pirates. The Terran Navy is currently employing the Hermes class Mk5, while the Mk2 and 3 are currently sold to the civilian sector.
Trident class Stealth Corvette
Size: 120 meters in length
Power Plant: 1 Plasma Fusion Reactor
Propulsion: 3 Ion Thrusters, 1 hyperdrive, 4 Jet Gas Thrusters
Equipment and Defense: Subspace Sensors, Tachyon ECM/ECCM, 4 Thermal heat storage sinks, 10 Cooling Cartridges. 2 Ion Energy Deflector Shields, Grade-B Trinium ceramic composite carbon stealth armor, 6 laser interceptor turrets.
Crew Complement: classified
Weapons: None
The Trident or rather the Stealth Corvette, since its name is classified, is a stealth reconnaissance vessel belonging to the Naval Special Operation Recon Fleet (NSORF) which is a branch of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Since ONI operates separately of the Navy, it is unknown how many Tridents are in circulation or what they are doing. Suffice to say that when hostilities breaks out, these stealth vessels are the first to be deployed ahead of any fleet, to recon hostile areas, or conduct special ops missions behind enemy lines. NSORF officers no matter which rank they hold are considered a rank above any regular officer, this means a NSORF Captain can order a regular Admiral, however such use of authority is frowned upon and rarely used, unless extreme emergency.
T-ASF-201- Star Hawk
Size: 18 meters in length
Power Plant: 1 Fusion Plasma Reactor
Propulsion: 3 Ion Pulse Engines, 1 anti-gravity drive, 1 hyperdrive
Equipment: Subspace sensors, ECM/ECCM, Ion Energy Deflector Shield, Grade-B Trinium Composite Battle Plate
Crew: 1 pilot
Weapons: 2 missile bays (12 missiles each), 2 railgun canons, 1 bomb bay door (conventional and nuclear), 2 Laser CIWS turrets.
The Aerospace Fighter Star Hawk is the Terran Alliance main superiority aerospace fighter, developed by INCOM Industry; it is the first fighter capable of hyperspace travel. Produced in 2150, the Star Hawk production started slowly as the Alliance Navy was not in hurry to replace the old age Valkyrie Fighter. However the Chaos War changed those plans, forcing the Alliance to quickly field the Star Hawk to front-line forces. Its ability to perform hyperspace jumps while short and limited in range was crucial in raiding and disrupting Cultists supply lines and communication bases. Later upgrades in 2156 introduced the Ion Energy Deflector Shield, increasing the fighter's survivability exponentially.
Despite its age, the Star Hawk is still considered as the best fighter produced by humanity and is expected to last until two more centuries.
T-ASB-401 Vulture
Size: 25 meters
Power Plant: 1 Fusion Plasma Reactor
Features: Subspace sensors, ECM/ECCM, Tachyon Jamming Field
Crew: 3 pilots (1 pilot, 1 navigator, 1 weapon operator)
Weapons: 1 dorsal plasma turret, 2 laser CIWS, 2 railguns canons, 1 ventral missile bay (conventional and nuclear ordinance)
The Aerospace Bomber developed by Nova Aeronautics, the Vulture uses a special jamming field using Tachyon particles to prevent from being targeted by enemy weapons; although it must be disabled when attacked it confers the bomber with a degree of passive stealth, very useful when making a bombing run on heavily defended targets. Unlike the Star Hawk, the Vulture doesn't have a hyperspace drive but despite being a bomber, the Vulture is also an excellent electronic and sensor platform and excels at space and atmospheric operations.
Tech information:
Laser Interceptor Turrets: Energy directed weapon design to destroy fighters and missiles. Laser Interceptor Turrets or LIT are the primary means of defense for Terran Alliance Naval warships and installations. While an excellent defense, LIT have slow rates of fire but are frighteningly accurate.
Laser Pulse Turrets: More offensive in nature than LIT, the Laser Pulse Turrets fire bursts of deuterium base energy bolts rather than energy beams. While it gives a higher rate of fire, the drawback is decrease accuracy at long range but the sheer volume of fire, ensures that rarely anything survives.
Tachyon technology: Once it was considered as a viable means of communication across large distances but subspace communication proved to be much sophisticated and less expansive. Tachyon particles however can disrupt subspace technology, thus the Terran Alliance Navy has developed many forms of jamming and countermeasure technologies based on the study of Tachyons.
Next time I will publish a Guide for the Free Jaffa.