This is NOT necessarily Traveller ‘correct’. It’s a first draft that I’ll polish up and tighten up going forward.
***
A group of ancient executive level admirals and their aids, ship architects with engineering experts, tacticians, intelligence officers and accountants, made their way to the allotted halochairs for the presentation. There was a distinct air of casual official boredom. Today they would review a proposal for a frontier cruiser to replace the Azhanti High Lightning. A ship that was now well into its dotage, but its function marginal enough that no particular priority had yet been set on a new generation vessel to assume an equivalent role.
On the podium before them was a slight middle-aged pale man, his bronze metallic sheened hair fashionably swept away in a long tail on one side of his head, the other half bald and toned. He wore no uniform, a discrete badge on his monotone work suit indicated he was a member of the ship architects guild. There as a short, though significant, row of stars across the top of the guild emblem – symbols of the number of starships successfully commissioned from his designs.
This was Edigar Prolix. Of some minor renown in his own field, his chief claim to fame being a limited run of Emperor class battleships. Beautiful, effective vessels used for fleets close to the heart of the Empire, where handpicked semi-retired crews of unquestioned loyalty flew the flag in an elite reserve, close protection function. These ships had garnered universal praise from those that served in them, laying the foundation for Edigar to attempt a more radical capital ship.
It had taken all of Edigar’s hard won recognition, the calling in of every outstanding favour he was able to leverage, to get the new design on hand to even this preliminary review. There were rumors of something ‘experimental’ about the design, a dirty word in the military hierarchy. The indifferent attitudes of the reviewing committee now, before the ship had so much as appeared on the halographs, promised a perfunctory examination followed by a swift dismissal of the project, to be forever abandoned.
Edigar showed little of any concern that he might have had, beaming cheerfully at his audience as they settled down into grav chairs, pottering about activating whatever paraphernalia they had brought with them. A variety of supplemental displays glittered in the air, fast imaging headsets were donned, and finally there was a polite nod to begin from a much beribboned chest, a personage sat in the middle of the reviewing board, with rings denoting rank up to his sleeve elbows.
“Your Eminence,” Edigar bowed to the ribboned chest, “Greetings all. Today I have the pleasure to introduce to you a new concept in fast cruisers. A fast cruiser that will be able to fulfill a multitude of roles in any fleet. A fast cruiser that will…”
“Excuse me,” came an abrupt interruption from the personage. “Fast Cruiser? What fast cruiser? Have we come to the correct review meeting? The brief says, yes… right here… ‘Frontier Cruiser’.”
“Ah, Sir. Allow me to explain. F for Frontier Cruiser is of course also F for Fast. As Admiral Crighton has always said, we can’t be too careful with internal security. And if you will indulge me, I believe I can show just cause for the so far successful subterfuge.”
All heads turned to a hard eyed, elderly woman, who sat impassively ignoring the sudden attention.
“Carry on,” said the ribbon chest.
Edigar punched in the command to active the halogram presentation in front of each person. As the room lights dimmed slightly a message came through on Edigar’s ear implant messenger, “Fluff this and you’ll be designing ore barges for the rest of your short career.”
Looking up at his audience Edigar saw the grey-haired woman now had one hand over her mouth while thoughtfully considering the hologram before her.
Edigar with a wave his hand through the images spinning in the air in front of him brought forth the first point he wish to highlight and began.
“Where were we… yes, a fast cruiser of tremendous potential. What you see before you ladies and gentlemen is a cruiser with drop tanks. There is nothing experimental about this design. It is simply a version of the commonly employed jump fuel storage option that you are all familiar with. The chassis is a jump six capable ship, with jump three fuel reserves onboard, along with four weeks of power plant fuel. The drop tank holds double this amount giving a total fuel reserve of a single six parsec jump and eight weeks of power plant fuel. The jump and maneuver drives are built to move the entire vessel including drop tanks at our most advanced jump and maneuver technology capabilities. The onboard fuel processors can process the entire jump six fuel load in one day.”
“There have been many lengthy discussions on the pros and cons of drop tank usage. I append some of the salient points. They key issue I would like to state now is that the droptanks are not expected to be fitted while in combat. Our studies indicate that for the significant majority of combat situations the droptanks can be successfully disengaged or stashed. Yes, there will be occasions where the droptanks are destroyed, however we consider that loss acceptable given the performance and mission capability that the drop tanks provide.”
“Huh? Sorry what was that? Yes. Yes. The drop tanks can be remounted in space, it takes one tug and a salvage drone to do this. Even if the drop tanks have been explosively disengaged, they can be remounted and reused. If they are destroyed, despite this chassis being a high technology design, make-do tanks can be built at almost any ship yard.”
Edigar paused for a moment to be sure he had his audience’s full attention.
“Vessels based on this chassis are mission capable of the following roles.”
“Interdiction as a deep intruder, penetrating further into hostile territory than any previous ship was capable of.”
“Interception. Able to react to hostile intrusion faster than any existing vessel.”
“Search and destroy.”
“Hit and run.”
“A hunter-seeker able to bring the enemy to battle at a time and location to advantage.”
“While still fulfilling the standard mission requirements of their respective classes.”
“I present for you today three ship types based on this drop tank chassis. The Rakasha, a hundred thousand ton battle cruise, the Daemon, a seventy-eight thousand ton heavy cruiser, and the Raptor, a thirty thousand ton cruiser.”
“Each of these vessels are heavily armored, and heavily gunned, to the best of our current technological abilities. Yes, there are only limited shipyards that can accommodate them. Yes, they have limited ammunition based weaponry like torpedoes. But they are designed for extended independent operations. Each vessel outlined has a minimum of four months cargo space for maintenance supplies.”
There were no more disinterested mutterings between the review committee members, every hand was now spinning hologram three dimensional structures, pulling down specification lists, mixing and matching design options.
“Not exactly stinting ourselves are we?” came a dry comment from an older woman also sporting the same guild emblem as Edigar.
“The technology level and component budgeting are the direct opposite to Madame Solard’s excellent cost performance build concepts.”
“Proven build concepts,” continued Madame Solard in the same acerbic tone.
Edigar held up his hand. “If you will allow me, I will return to the justification of the expenditure. Yes they are costly.” Indeed there were several almost disbelieving frowns in reaction to the sticker price. “I believe I can demonstrate the chassis value.”
“Perhaps you could start with a relative comparison with the Planet heavy cruiser,” came Admiral Crighton’s suggestion.
“Hmmm… well, ah, ignoring some of the creative accounting that was involved with the Planet…”
There were a few wry smiles. The Planet was infamous for even in this day and age of somehow passing a preconstruction quantity survey that bore no relationship to its actual cost.
“There is an approximate mark up of seven or eight thousand megacredits ton for ton. However even given the budget issues with the power plant and bridge of the Planet, there is a fundamental flaw with the build. For the sake of a thousand tons added to its displacement the Planet cannot survive a single section hit from an advanced D class meson spinal gun. Which essentially rules it out of a place in an equivalent technology line of battle. The latest paradigms for vessel size, battle simulations and battle examples all bear this out. Should the enemy possess advanced Class D spinal meson weapons then a line of battle vessel should be at an absolute minimum seventy six thousand tons, and ideally more to allow for eventual barrage fire section damage.”
There were nods around the room. It was a fundamental of space warfare, in the exorbitant bloody affairs that were fleet battles if your vessels were not capable of taking one hit from a spinal weapon and replying in kind before destruction against an equivalent enemy who could, you were doomed. At best you could gain a Pyric victory, by overwhelming the enemy by sheer numbers, accepting a loss of life and material far in excess of whatever the enemy would suffer. The desperate tactical occasions that called for such a sacrifice were few and far between. Every ship captain had standing orders to retreat in the face of such odds without direct orders to the contrary.
“Let me offer another comparison,” continued Edigar. “Please refer to the Rakasha battle cruiser. Our combat encounter programs indicate a dominate victory of six Rakasha’s versus three Hive Kastile two point two hundred k dreadnoughts, in a majority of any combat circumstances.”
There was now intensely focused analysis of the presentation materials by every person in the room. The latest Hive dreadnoughts were, in polite terms, a headache. Any two would certainly destroy a Tigress superdreadnought. To guarantee a dominant victory against a typical pod of three of the Hive dreadnoughts by existing battleships such as the Plankwell meant a losing proposition by weight and cost committed to a war front. No ship currently designed could do it, as the Hivers had no doubt calculated. It was where the cost performance efficacy of using suboptimum technologies in a ship design broke down. Yes, you got more ships for your credit, able to spread your reach further out into the stars, vital for a vast sprawling galactic empire, but there would be times when space superiority combat would be needed. That is why current doctrine was for smaller battleships, and ultra-powerful tenders, able to deliver more big spinal weapons to the battle field.
“Please note I am not suggesting that this chassis become a mainstream design,” Edigar said. “It is to provide tactical and strategic opportunities because of its high technology superiority. To be approved on the basis it is capable of doing things that otherwise would not be possible. I ask you all gathered here, surely there is a need somewhere for a jump 6 capital ship?”
At the rear of the assemblage a man in a dark suit blinked, as if startled by a sudden idea. He stood up and came forward to whisper in the ribboned chest’s ear. Ribbon chest muttered an acknowledgement, and then ferociously began scanning through the specification lists once again.
“This vessel’s capabilities must be kept under the strictest security,” ribbon chest abruptly growled.
“Yes your Eminence. However, let me conclude by saying that according to our projections this vessel’s greatest value will be when the enemy is aware that such a ship is a reality. The potential threat of a long range jump 6 vessel will pose a danger impossible to ignore to star systems and trade routes hitherto beyond the reach of Imperial forces. Our foes will have to allot funds and resources to defenses far above and beyond what this chassis will take to construct. It could cause a critical diversion of strategic resources, at a minimum it would cause delays and reprioritizing.”
For the first time in the meeting, ribbon chest was grinning broadly. As if catching his Eminence’s thought a sycophant courtier seated close by exclaimed, “There’ll be consternation in planning boards across the Milky Way, M’Lord! Regardless of the number of ships actually commissioned.”
“I agree,” ribbon chest said with finality, giving Admiral Crighton a significant glance. “Now, which of these concepts should we select?”
A lengthy technical discussion followed before a consensus was reached. There was some debate about the purpose of torpedoes and missiles on the craft.
“We have neither the cargo space to carry nor a key mission requirement for torpedoes and missiles. The hardpoints allotted to these are for tactical options. To allow use of jumpbreaker missiles, EMP torpedoes and the like. Thus there is no basic change in the provision between the smallest and the largest design.”
“Sandcasters have had their day, but for the less well armored hull options they still have a place.”
Admiral Crighton raised a point about the 100kton chassis. “I’m not entirely sold on this. It is a battleship for fleet combat, and it’s not optimal as a space superiority vessel.
Edigar nodded acknowledging the remark. “If we consider it more of a fleet element it’s easily enough tweaked to have maximum armor, two to three months range may well be enough. I’ve proposed a tactical concept with regards this ship. To re-introduce the idea of a vanguard for an Imperial Fleet. Imagine a strong forward fleet element able to penetrate into enemy territory as fast as knowledge of the invasion is taking place. We could have a battlecruiser element eighteen parsecs behind the front lines before the enemy is aware they are under attack.
We also see another new tactical function. Its fast response ability allows it to provide what we have termed an ‘extended credible defense zone’. Sector governments can use a small Rakasha wing positioned behind the front lines, just as the Imperial forces are held as defense in depth. The key military threat sector governments face are cruiser raids, hamstringing trade, overwhelming under defended systems. For an enemy cruiser raids are a win-win proposition. They cause damage far in excess of a raiding vessel’s cost, and are likely to destroy an equal amount vessel tonnage if caught by other cruisers. The Rakashas can cause a twenty-four parsec sphere to become a cruiser no-fly zone. Cruiser raids become a different proposition when the enemy cruisers are faced with expected complete destruction, with little long damage likely to be inflicted in results. The only option available to the enemy is entire full fleet actions, whereupon our own fleet elements are called into action. I have a note as to which system locations we think could benefit from this approach.”
There was the typical bickering with the accountants, who for once found themselves on the losing side. For whatever reason, ribbon chest was steam rolling the process when finished ship selection, to the surprise and instant agreement by all and sundry to his wishes.
“Where else do you see use for a jump 6 capable ship, Edigar,” came a passing remark at the end of the meeting.
“A jump six supply and maintenance craft in the two or three hundred kiloton range, Admiral. A depot ship able to cater to a fleet’s needs, then able to return to a friendly system to resupply and catch up again to the fleet while it continues its task. Its cost justified by the fact its allowing a trillion credits of other ships to do more.”
“You’re not a fan of tenders?” came another question.
“Actually I am in the bigger picture, Ma’am. A jump six supercarrier though is not something I’d typically recommend, the mission set would be more limited than cruisers, being risk adverse. Your tender can be sitting idle for years waiting for a suitable mission task. The equivalent value cruisers are working every moment of every day of that time at different jobs, earning their keep.”
“I’ll take a dozen Pazuzu’s thanks,” quipped Admiral Crighton. “That’s what I call projecting Imperial power.”
“Make the first prototype available in half the normal time and you’ll get your wish,” calmly stated ribbon chest, totally serious.
***
The order came through for the first ship to be commissioned, accompanying the order was a directive to rush the design, and the extraordinary requirement to heat shield and provide stealth qualities to the vessel.
The vessel’s space going trials were held in total secrecy. As soon as the ship was deemed space worthy an elite crew and the still unregistered craft… vanished.
To this day the mission of the ship remains classified. That the captain was immediately promoted, and the mission chief admiral granted a peerage, the only whispers of success that came from the silent participants.
The reputation of the new ship became enthroned in space lore during the Ishalstag insurrection. The first wing of four ships, commanded by a Commodore who had declined flag rank in preference for the chance to stay in front line service with these ships, ensured that the incident would be nothing but a footnote in the history archives. “We caught them in complete disarray,” Commodore Larken noted. “Ships under repair, others refueling, their high guard with store ships in amongst it. As soon as their sensors detected us they requested terms of surrender. So much for the rebels of Ishalstag. Yes. Yes. They tried to promote me to a desk for that too.”
***
As a quick comment on the designs. The 100kt can get 15 armor with a bit of squeezing on carge etc., so that’s a pretty much straight design swap and option between that and other considerations. The 78kt heavy cruiser has still got a few hundreds of spare tons of cargo that can be further tweaked to taste, I'm upping the ground assault capabilities...
There just isn't much wriggle room at this point and I like the frag missile options vs fighters...
