Gryphon Fleet
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:27 am
And here we are, after a long break from even thinking about BSF, I finally got back into one of my favorite space-opera series (which, by the way, has no relation to the fleet, so these aren't fanships). I decided to get back into shipbuilding, and this time I personally don't care whether they look good or not, they've got a backstory and everything and they are built for practicality - if they look good, that's purely extra goodness. Enjoy.
Story:
In 2320, after the beginning of mankind's First Diaspora, many ships were issued from the Solar System by the Terran government. After the invention of the von Braun-Lewis hyperspace drive and affordable fusion-torch engines, a mass wave of colonization ensued. Beyond the Solarian Verge, the outer limit of that first expansion, roughly 500 light-years from Sol, lay the Gryphon System - a trinary star with not less than five habitable, Earthlike planets, and massive asteroidal belts. Bidding for the colonization rights became unimaginably fierce after this discovery made itself known among the bidders and their investors. The Gryphon Colony, Inc., bought rights for $100 billion Solarian. Being a well-funded company, its reserves stood at $50 billion, allowing them to equip their colonists and their colony fleet on a lavish scale. Thus, the Gryphonites never had the "landing pains" that most other colonies, which were more hard-scrabble propositions, experienced.
The Derecho-class System Patrol Craft is the Gryphon Empire's main police vessel. Armed with two T-200 "Crippler" EMP missile launchers and a single Kalashnikov SL-2 pulse laser, it is meant mostly for pirate suppression and patrol duties.
The Lancer-class Destroyer is the Gryphon Empire's newest, most advanced destroyer. It is a long-ranged platform, utilizing a nuclear cruise missile system to give it impressive long-ranged firepower, while its 4 MassiveDyne ER-4 extended range energy bolt cannons give it a respectable close-in ability, while its SL-4 pulse laser defends it from strike craft. It also holds a flak array.
The Star Knight-class Cruiser (Armored) is the Empire's primary long-endurance scouting and picket unit, able to stand up to anything less than a battlecruiser, and fair few of those can hope to match it in firepower terms, thanks to the 6 MD ER-4 energy bolt cannons, multiple anti-strike-craft lasers and flak arrays, and four nuclear rocket racks. (non MIRV)
ER Missile Pod
Designed to give range-light units a punch exceeding the throw-weight of a dreadnought, the Mark 16 Missile Pod deploys from the rear of a starship, floats to a safe distance, and then fires its payload of ten standoff nuclear missiles in two five-missile waves. Single use.
The absolute, bleeding edge of modern warship technology for light combatants, the Mayhew-class Battlecruiser (Pod) possesses the firepower equivalent to a squadron of pre-pod superdreadnoughts, thanks to its ability to deploy the ER Missile Pod in mass numbers, the only limitation being fire-control capability from the mothership. Ship-based firepower suffers for the massive cargo bays required to hold significant numbers of the pods, but is still nothing to sneeze at. 4 MD GL-8 GRASERs, placed in batteries of 2, give it a very significant close-in punch, and 4 ASC lasers, 4 Flak arrays, and 6 countermissile launchers give it a squadron-level point-def capability.
Story:
In 2320, after the beginning of mankind's First Diaspora, many ships were issued from the Solar System by the Terran government. After the invention of the von Braun-Lewis hyperspace drive and affordable fusion-torch engines, a mass wave of colonization ensued. Beyond the Solarian Verge, the outer limit of that first expansion, roughly 500 light-years from Sol, lay the Gryphon System - a trinary star with not less than five habitable, Earthlike planets, and massive asteroidal belts. Bidding for the colonization rights became unimaginably fierce after this discovery made itself known among the bidders and their investors. The Gryphon Colony, Inc., bought rights for $100 billion Solarian. Being a well-funded company, its reserves stood at $50 billion, allowing them to equip their colonists and their colony fleet on a lavish scale. Thus, the Gryphonites never had the "landing pains" that most other colonies, which were more hard-scrabble propositions, experienced.
The Derecho-class System Patrol Craft is the Gryphon Empire's main police vessel. Armed with two T-200 "Crippler" EMP missile launchers and a single Kalashnikov SL-2 pulse laser, it is meant mostly for pirate suppression and patrol duties.
The Lancer-class Destroyer is the Gryphon Empire's newest, most advanced destroyer. It is a long-ranged platform, utilizing a nuclear cruise missile system to give it impressive long-ranged firepower, while its 4 MassiveDyne ER-4 extended range energy bolt cannons give it a respectable close-in ability, while its SL-4 pulse laser defends it from strike craft. It also holds a flak array.
The Star Knight-class Cruiser (Armored) is the Empire's primary long-endurance scouting and picket unit, able to stand up to anything less than a battlecruiser, and fair few of those can hope to match it in firepower terms, thanks to the 6 MD ER-4 energy bolt cannons, multiple anti-strike-craft lasers and flak arrays, and four nuclear rocket racks. (non MIRV)
ER Missile Pod
Designed to give range-light units a punch exceeding the throw-weight of a dreadnought, the Mark 16 Missile Pod deploys from the rear of a starship, floats to a safe distance, and then fires its payload of ten standoff nuclear missiles in two five-missile waves. Single use.
The absolute, bleeding edge of modern warship technology for light combatants, the Mayhew-class Battlecruiser (Pod) possesses the firepower equivalent to a squadron of pre-pod superdreadnoughts, thanks to its ability to deploy the ER Missile Pod in mass numbers, the only limitation being fire-control capability from the mothership. Ship-based firepower suffers for the massive cargo bays required to hold significant numbers of the pods, but is still nothing to sneeze at. 4 MD GL-8 GRASERs, placed in batteries of 2, give it a very significant close-in punch, and 4 ASC lasers, 4 Flak arrays, and 6 countermissile launchers give it a squadron-level point-def capability.