Even though the CAF adopted the Wolfen Packmaster carrier as their standard carrier design, the ship had a huge amount of protest against it because it is a combination fleet carrier and assault landing carrier and many admirals feel that a carrier than does both jobs does neither very well. Because of this, several admirals have been attempting for years to get the government to approve a new fleet carrier design that is a dedicated space fighter platform. To make the situation even more serious, recently two Packmaster class carriers have been crippled by pirates with frigates and fighters before the carrier could launch it own fighters. The ships had to be scuttled or they would have been captured by the pirates. Because of these incidents, it was decided that the next class of carrier would need both heavy armor and shields to increase its survivability. The concept of the Battle Carrier was the result of research into both incidents. The ship called a Battle Carrier because the ship carries the armor and shields of a battleship. Admirals still prefer to keep the carrier out of the main combat and launch fighters from a long distance but due to combat situations, it is practical to be able to survive direct combat. Only a very small number of Independence class carriers have been constructed but plans are for a large number of these carriers to be constructed eventually by the CAF. Because this carrier does not carry any ground assault troops and vehicles, several Packmaster carriers have been converted to ground assault roles.

Like the Packmaster carrier, the ship is built around its hanger bays. The ship is large and blocky but like the Intrepid class carrier, the ship has a more rounded profile. In size, the Independence Carrier is slightly smaller than the Packmaster class carrier

The ship carries as heavy shields as could be mounted in the design and they are capable of taking the abuse from a battleship for a short period of time. In fact the shield generators are the same as used in the Protector class battleship.

Likewise the ship has very thick armor and is designed to be able to survive in the middle of combat. The armor is also almost as extensive as the armor carried on a battleship.

In order to counter the speeds of the larger ships of the line, the ships acceleration has been increased. It cannot outrun fighters and most frigates but the ship can accelerate as fast as most cruisers. The ship also has high performance FTL engines so that the ship can respond to a combat situation more rapidly.

The weapon systems of the ship are designed around stopping frigates as the largest ship. For defense against Frigates, the ship has eight mounts of 15 cm of Grazers. Grazers were chosen because they do more damage and have a greater range on a mount vs mount basis when compared to laser cannons. The rest of the ships weapons are primarily dedicated to point defense. The ship has sixteen point defense gravity rail gun mounts, sixteen point defense particle beams, and sixteen mini missile launchers for this purpose. The ship also carries eight long range missile launcher but those are as effective in anti-ship roles as they are in anti missile roles so they are considered a multi-role weapon. Because of the heavier point defense and long range missile launchers, the ship can defend itself from fighter much better than the Packmaster carrier can.

The huge amount of armor and the more powerful shield generators have significantly decreased the ships ability to carry fighters. The ship still carries a large number of fighters but is about the same as the Packmaster class carrier. This is even though the Packmaster carriers has assault equipment in addition to the ships fighter compliment. The Independence carries less marines than the older Intrepid class carrier. The hangers are also set apart so if one is damaged or destroyed, the other hanger bays can still operate.

This starship design uses modified starship speed and ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details

Model Type: CVA-95
Vehicle Type: Fleet Carrier
Crew: 1,350 (125 officers and 1225 enlisted)
Troops: 600 marines (400 in power armor) and 1,100 fighter pilots

Vehicles:
Power Armors & Robots:

	400	Silver Hawk Power Armors
	10	Battleram Robots

Fighter Compliment:

	200	SF-69 CAF Scorpion Star Interceptor
	120	BIF-67 Katana Star fighters
	120	SF-101 Black Eagle Star fighters
	40	Star Ghost Starfighters
	15	CAF LRF-25 Proctor Long Range Star Fighters

M.D.C By Location:

	15 cm Grazer Cannons (8, top and bottom):	1,000 each
	Point Defense Gravity Rail Gun Turrets (16):	200 each
	Point Defense Particle Beam Turrets (16):	150 each
	Long Range Missile Batteries (4):	500 each
	Mini-Missile Launchers (16):	100 each
	Outer Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	200
	Inner Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	150
	[1] Bridge:	50,000
	[1] Auxiliary Bridge:	50,000
	Hanger Bays (4):	40,000 each
	[2] Main Engines (4):	25,000 each
	[3] Main Body:	200,000
	[4] Variable Force Field:	15,000 a side (90,000 Total)

Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge through the ships armor. This ship also has an auxiliary bridge. Even if both bridges are taken out, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Destroying the main engines means that ship FTL systems are destroyed and maximum sublight speed is reduced by half.
[3] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the carrier out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (4,500 MDC) per melee

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.9 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 200 mph (322 kph), can enter an atmosphere and can leave but is not designed for atmospheric flight
Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 6 lightyears per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either Drive system. Carries about four years worth of supplies on board.

Statistical Data:
Length: 5,000 feet (1,524 meters)
Height: 800 feet (244 meters)
Width: 900 feet (274 meters)
Weight: 44.1 Million Tons (40 million metric tons)
Power System: Anti-Matter with a 50 year life span
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 3 million tons of Cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition.
Market Cost: 30 billion to construct. No ships of this design have ever been put on sale on the market by the CAF.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

1. Eight (8) 15 cm Grazer Cannons: Grazer cannons use focused gamma radiation and are very powerful. The weapon mounts have about a 25% increase in both range and damage over standard laser cannons of the same size. These cannons are the support battery of the ship and while quite powerful, they do not have the incredible firepower of the main battery of the heavy cruisers except when fired together. Four cannons are mounted on the top of the ship and four cannons are mounted on the bottom of the ship. Batteries can be fired up to 180 degrees toward the rear on either side and can fire at a 90 degree angle up or down. Weapon has standard penalties to hit fighters and small targets for a large starship weaponry.
   Range: 20,000 miles (32,200 km) in space and 20 miles (32.2 km) in an atmosphere.
   Mega Damage: 3D6x100 MDC each, two can be combined for a total of 6D6x100, three may be combined for a total of 9D6x100, and four may be combined for 12D6x100.
   Rate of fire: Maximum of Two (2) times per melee per cannon.
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
2. Sixteen (16) Point Defense Rail Guns: Used as an anti-Starfighter and missile weapon and against targets that are impervious to energy. Each Rail Gun is in a Turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Projectiles come out of launchers at close to the speed of light. Cannon uses a 20 mm projectile.
   Range: 2 miles (3.2 km) through atmosphere and 200 miles (320 km) in space.
   Mega-Damage: 20 round burst does 2D4x10 M.D.
   Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the Gunner (usually 4 or 5).
   Payload: 10,000 Rounds (500 Bursts) each cannon.
3. Sixteen (16) Point Defense Particle Beams: These weapons are used for anti-missile, anti-power armor, and anti-star fighter defense.
   Range: 600 miles (960 km) in space and range is 6 miles (9.6 km) in atmosphere.
   Mega Damage: 3D6x10 MDC each.
   Rate of fire: Equal to gunners hand to hand (Usually 4 or 5).
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
4. Eight (8) Long Range Missile Batteries: Missile has a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light per turn (faster than any starship). Since star ships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will still cruise unless set to self destruct but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile when dead at -25% to detect.) Long range missiles do not have minuses to hit small targets unlike cruise missiles and are all considered smart missiles. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each.
   Range: Missile range is 3400 miles (5470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,89700 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.
   Mega-Damage & Properties: See Phase World Missiles (Fusion does 2D4x100 MDC).
   Rate of fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2, 8, 16, or 32 per launcher, per melee attack.
   Payload: 2560 total, 320 long range missiles per battery.
5. Sixteen (16) Mini-Missile launchers: These are missile turrets used for point defense against enemy fighters and missiles. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration).
   Mega-Damage: varies with mini-missile type (See Phase World Missiles).
   Range: Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space
   Rate of fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of 4 or 8 missiles
   Payload: 128 per launcher for a total of 2,048 mini-missiles. Cargo hold has an additional 3,072 mini-missile. Reloading launchers from cargo hold takes 1D6 minutes.

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By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).

Copyright © 1998, Kitsune. All rights reserved.