Introduction:
The two berserker class attack craft were operating clandestinely within Consortium Space for intelligence gathering purposes. While both of the ships were operating under orders from Trans-Galactic Empire intelligence command, the ships would be on their own if they were captured. The Empires story would be that the vessels were pirate ships, purchased from the Free Worlds Council.
The mission was very unusual. Most Kreeghor missions withing the Consortium of Civilized Worlds were to gain intelligence on the Consortium Armed Forces but this mission was an attempt to get intelligence on an Independent Defense Force. The New Coventry Navy had been vastly increasing over the past several years and it was felt by Kreeghor military planners that this could pose a threat to planned expansion into the area and be a stumbling block to any T.G.E. attacks on the Consortium. While the New Coventry Navy expansion program was just getting underway, the construction of several Orbital Defense Fortresses was a serious concern. Each fortress, when complete, would have equal or greater firepower to a Kreeghor Dreadnought. In many attack plans on the Consortium, New Coventry would be one of the first locations captured. One of the specific goals for this mission was to test the capabilities of the modified Hunter class destroyer that New Coventry operated. Previous information had indicated that these ships were heavily upgraded. The plan was to create an ambush to test the ship's actual capabilities.
They had been already operating near New Coventry for several weeks but it appeared they had finally been able to catch a New Coventry Hunter class Destroyer. They had put up a decoy distress call that appeared to be from a small vessel that had been prospecting the system. The distress beacon was far enough into the system that the Hunter would be unable to escape into FTL. The only problem was that the Berserkers had been positioned to maximize the area that they covered and could not give effective close support to each other and they could not integrate their volleys together. Still, they had two ships to the New Coventry's one.
Both Kreeghor ships began vectoring toward the Hunter and began firing cruise missiles once they figured that the Hunter was likely to have detected them. There was no hope that the Hunter would not notice the Berserkers so there was no reason to hold off on firing cruise missiles. The Hunter began returning firing and the Kreeghor commander had his first surprise. He knew that a Hunter has a cruise missile launcher that fired missiles at the rate of one at a time but the hunter fired a volley of missiles that was fourteen cruise missiles. He figured that the Hunter used her fighters to augment the missile launch but it still showed a very canny captain. The second missile volley from the hunter came as a bigger surprise when the ship still managed to launch six cruise missiles as a volley. Still, six or fourteen, the Hunters volleys can fire no where near the two volleys of twenty cruise missiles fired back at it. In addition, his ships were firing X-Ray laser warheads and the New Coventry ship was likely only firing nuclear warheads in return.
As the first volley of missiles entered into the envelope for the long range missiles carried by two of the Hunter's fighters. Three cruise missiles of first Kreeghor Volley were already destroyed before even entering the range of destroyer's medium range missiles. Fifteen of the cruise missiles were eliminated by the combined medium range of the Hunter and her fighters. The remaining cruise missiles were easily eliminated by Hunter's and her escorting fighters' close in weapon systems.
The Hunter's cruise missiles were all targeted on a single Berserker. That Berserker was not as lucky as the Hunter. Each of the cruise missiles broke into four missiles just before entering the Berserker point defense range. There was no way that the Berserker's close point defense could deal with 56 missiles. Fourteen missiles were eliminated but that still left 44 missiles of which 37 hit the Berserker and flattened the ship's shields. While this had not inflicted a large amount of damage, the ship was now naked to missile fire. The follow up cruise missile volleys, while not as numerous as the first volley and a higher percentage were destroyed by point defense, were able to destroy the Berserker.
The Hunter had continued to be as hard a target as ever. When the remaining Berserker and the Hunter closed with each other, the Hunter started launching decoys from its cruise missile launchers to compensate for her fighters running out of missiles. When the two ships entered within beam range, they both fired. The Hunter and the Berserker both hit each other but the Kreeghor commander missed the final surprise. As the ships were passing outside of the beam range of each other, the Hunter showed that the rate of fire for its Particle Beams had been improved and fired a second burst which hit the Berserker in the bridge killing the Commander instantly. After this, the remaining crew of the Berserker surrendered.
Background:
New Coventry prefers the Hunter class destroyer over the Scimitar because the Hunter mounts about equal fire power to the Scimitar yet the Hunter requires a crew that is a great deal smaller, and needs less resources to maintain.
New Coventry has been able to acquire a large number of Hunters destroyers. They have acquired some of them straight from the CAF. Others they got from various surplus organizations without any weaponry. Finally, they have gotten some of the vessels from scrap yards as hulks and have completely rebuilt them. In the next few years, New Coventry is planning to start manufacturing Hunters from scratch and they believe that the CCW and its military arm, the CAF, will not raise problems because the ship was not an original CAF design.
The New Coventry Navy modifies the ships when they enter New Coventry service making them more lethal without being as expensive as constructing new vessels would be. The modifications that are most important to the design of the ship are an improved particle beam design, the addition of four pepper box single shot cruise missile launchers (See description of systems for details), and special software for the internal cruise missile launcher. The new particle beam cannon design has the same range and power rating as the original yet it uses less power and the storage capacitors allow a recharge twice as rapidly as the original until the capacitors run out of charge. This allows the weapon system equal the damage of a Super Berserker's X-ray laser system for several minutes without the risk of exploding bombs inside of the ship. The original internal cruise missile launcher can only launch one missile at a time. Many fleets looked for a way to negate this short coming. What New Coventry has taken advantage of is the fact that while the launcher cannot launch volleys, it has a very fast reload rate. With some excellent gunners and crews, the rate has been able to be as high as seven or eight in a fifteen second period. What has been developed is delayed activation software for the missiles' engines. As long as the missiles will take at least thirty seconds to reach their targets, all the missiles launched in a melee can be used as a volley to overwhelm point defense. While four to eight missiles are not enough to overwhelm most ships' point defense, when combined with the pepper box launchers this becomes twenty to twenty-four missiles in a volley, a heavier throw weight then a Kreeghor Berserker for the first shot. While not as important, ships' point defense also has a major boost as well. In place of two of the rail guns are Tachyon scatter guns that can often take out entire volleys prior to then striking the ship
When these ships initially entered service, these ships normally carried the Osprey class starfighter with two fighters being interceptor model and two models being of the bomber variant and were armed with four cruise missiles each. The ships presently normally carry four FTL Black Eagles with two being bomber variants and two being interceptor variants. Occasionally, Katana class fighters will be carried in place of some or all of the Black Eagles. In the future, the fighters should be replaced by the Lightning class starfighters that is still in the prototype stage.
Most captains of New Coventry ships, having a Psionic or two in the crew will outfit the crew with Techno-Wizard protections and additions. These often include the spells of Invisibility Superior, Shadow Meld, and Impervious to Energy.
This starship design uses modified starship speed and ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details.
Model Type: HF-75D
Vehicle Type: Frigate Combat Ship.
Crew: 24
Troops: 10 Marines and 10 fighter pilots.
Vehicle, Robots, and Power Armors:
Power Armors:
| 10 | Combat Environment Power Armors |
| 2 | SF-101LR Black Eagle medium fighters | |
| 2 | SF-101I-LR Storm Eagle medium interceptors |
M.D.C. By Location:
| Heavy Particle Beam Cannon (Front, built into hull): | 800 | |
| Heavy Particle Beam Cannons (2, built into sides): | 650 each | |
| Rail Gun Turrets (2): | 400 each | |
| Point Defense Laser Turrets (4): | 300 each | |
| Tachyon Scatter Guns (2): | 400 each | |
| Cruise Missile Launcher (1, underside): | 1,000 | |
| Medium Range Missile Batteries (2, Top and Underside): | 450 each | |
| [1] Bridge: | 1,200 | |
| [2] Main Body: | 4,500 | |
| [3] Variable Force Field: | 1,000 a side (6,000 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 does not have an auxiliary
bridge. Even if the bridge is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted
from engineering but the ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will
be at local control. Weapons hit near the bridge that does not penetrate
the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the destroyer out of
commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support
and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating
wreck.
[3] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one
shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (300 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 0.95 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum cruise speed is Mach 1 (741.5
mph / 1,193.3 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 4.5 light-years per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either Drive system.
Carries about one year worth of supplies on board.
Statistical Data:
Length: 300 feet (91.4 meters)
Height: 70 feet (21.3 meters)
Width: 80 feet (24.4 meters)
Weight / Mass: 6,000 tons (5443 metric tons)
Power System: Anti-Matter with a 50 year life span. The ship
normally only goes 10 years between refueling and refitting.
Cargo: Small cargo hold that can carry up to 500 tons of cargo
not including a standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Hold is
20 x 20 x 40 feet in dimensions (6.1 x 12.2 x 12.2 meters). Each enlisted
crew member has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ships officers
have more space for personal items. Most of the ship's spaces are taken
up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.
Market Cost: 380 million for a rebuilt Super Hunter with new
weapon systems. The Black Market or the Kreeghor would offer several times
it's value for an undamaged completely working vessel.
WEAPON SYSTEMS:
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By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).
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