Cavalier-class Medium Destroyer
Name/Type: Cavalier-class Destroyer
Designer/Manufacturer: Kashan Defence Industries
Designation: Medium Destroyer
Crew: 395 + 64 Gunners
Length: 350 Meters
Speed: 50 MGLT, 1350 Kph
Hyperdrive: x0.6 (x10 Back-up)
Shield Rating: 2540 SBD + 2540 SBD Back-up
Hull Rating: 1435 RU
Weapons: 3 KDI III-7 Railguns, 6 KDI IV-8 Medium Quad Ion Cannons, 8 KDI VI-8 Light Turbo Quadlasers, 16 KDI L-W8.9 Laser Cannons, 10 KDI Starflare-class Missile Launchers, 5 KDI H7 Tractor Beam Projectors.
Fighter Complement: 18 S10 Stormfire-class Interceptors.
Troops: 300 Kashan Shock Troopers.
Support Craft: 4 shuttles or light transports.
Other: Kashan Integrated Battle Computer, AAIS.
Description: For its defence, Kashan relied on its Seraph-class cruisers. While these were reasonably good defensive craft, they suffered from low speed and a lack of anti-starfighter weapons. To counter these weaknesses, KDI designed a medium destroyer to complement the cruiser. The result was the Cavalier; an agile and sturdy starship capable of beating back starfighter attacks and launching quick strikes at enemy warships. Because it is a cheaper vessel to produce and more manpower friendly, it is likely that Cavaliers will be produced in greater numbers than the larger Seraph Mk II-class.
R&D OOC Explanations:
Propulsion: The Cavalier’s propulsion consist of three engine blocks: the largest being in the direct stern whereas the other two are mounted on the wingtips. Not only does this gives the craft a high-speed, but the positioning of the engines gives the craft better turning ability.
Automation: Automation was a key necessity when the Cavalier was designed because Kashan had only a comparatively small population with which to man its navy. Also, it freed up space to be used for other systems and cargo/passenger space. As such, most systems of the ship have been automated as much as possible without reducing efficiency. Although most of this automation technology was designed by the former CIS Separatist members, the Cavalier’s automation has been improved upon since the days of the Clone Wars.
The droid brains that make up most of the automation system have been programmed with data collected from actual crewmembers in the actual jobs that they do, making the ships as effective as if they were run by actual crewmembers. There are several “automation personalities” available for each system of the ship, making them unpredictable to the enemy. For further improved performance and unpredictability, the droid brains have been allowed to learn. The droid brains can be overridden by a command code from the officer in charge of the system that it automates. Thus, the weapon’s officer can override the weapons automation, etc.
In order to protect the droid brains, they are armored with Ultrachrome and Dallorian alloys and are positioned towards the center of the ship’s “nose” to prevent damage from glancing hits on the vessel. Access to the droid brains themselves is severely restricted and is heavily protected by the ship’s security system, which is discussed below.
While automation certainly has its advantages for the Kashan Fleet, it does have on drawback. Moving and living creatures can help with damage control. Stationary Droid brains aren’t quite as effective to say the least. Thus, the efficiency of the damage control is below average for a ship its size.
Hull Construction: Kashan’s dominant industry is mining along with material Science. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the Cavalier is made of excellent materials. The frame of the Seraph is composed of Ferrocarbon, giving it excellent structural strength, laminated with carbon and Trimantium fibers to increase the frame’s tensile strength. Like the Seraph, the Cavalier’s chief asset is its Ultrachrome plating.
Each Ultrachrome plate is made by liquefying the metal with ion fusers and flash-freezing it by the vacuum of space or any number of cooling agents. This process makes the metal abnormally dense than even typical Ultrachrome. (Ultrachrome is an incredibly-dense metal was used in the production of vibroshields and other forms of blades, since it could withstand high temperatures and maintain a razor-sharp edge despite hard usage. When connected to a power supply, ultrachrome became a form of superconductor, absorbing energy and shunting it aside… (CUSWE)). The Ultrachrome is connected to the ship’s power supply, allowing it to absorb energy weapon attacks and transfer that power to reserve power cells of the vessel’s Power System. In the advent of excess energy, the power grid system will automatically vent the excess energy into space as heat until more power storage becomes available. It should be noted that all weapons and other systems that bulge out from the main hull are equally protected as the main hull itself with Ultrachrome plating.
With the advent of the AAIS(discussed below), the Cavalier also has the ability to channel electricity into the plating. Thus, when an ion bolt hits the Cavalier, the armor acts as ion shielding as long as energy is being pumped throughout the hull. When the hull is charged, it also makes docking with Cavalier impossible, as the docking craft would receive the entire energy on the plates directly onto the hull.
For the Cavalier-class, the armor stat has been derived Marauder-class Corvette because of its similar structural design and relative size.
912 * 350 / 195 => 1636 =>1435 RU
Shields: The Cavalier carries fairly typical shield systems for any modern warship. Like the Seraph-class, both the main and back-up shield generator systems are identical. This leads to easier maintenance and improved battle capabilities. All shield generators are located below the Ultrachrome armor plating. Thus, the shields themselves are situation just on top of the hull plating.
1920 * 350 / 195 => 3446 => 2540 SBD (Also based on the Marauder-class)
Kashan Hyperdrive: The Hyperdrive found on the Cavalier-class is derived from that of the Acclamator-class Military Transport. While the design team did not have an actual Acclamator hyperdrive available to them, they did have several engineers and mechanics who worked on them during the Clone Wars. To the best of their abilities, it was reconstructed. Nonetheless, it still was slower than that of the Acclamators. In the end, the hyperdrive’s rating was raised to Acclamator levels by brute force engineering. It was modified to accept more power. In order to prevent the engine from overheating and melting, it was made with Dallorian Alloy and given an advanced cyro-cooling system.
Weapons: The Cavalier was designed to act as a fast-attack and escort craft for the Seraph-class. Thus, most of its weaponry is fairly light and suitable for use targets that the Seraph’s own weaponry cannot deal with. However, it should not be underestimated by larger ships because of its railguns and missiles.
KDI III-7 Railgun: This weapon is an advanced railgun similar to the SAC that utilizes three equally spaced Ultrachrome (a superconductor) rails(70 meters long) reinforced and braced with Ferrocarbon rings (to handle the recoil force and keep the rails together). The Ultrachrome construction allows the weapon to be able to continuously transfer more energy than normal to the rails, in essence allowing the weapon to “supercharge” the shells for extreme velocity(3.5 km/s). At this velocity, the shells by themselves can pierce most capital-grade armor. However, the supercharging limits the rate of fire. Typically, the III-7 has a slightly lower rate of fire and velocity than an ordinary turbolaser bolt, but the projectile’s mass compensates for this, making the weapon’s normal shells(without the payload) equivalent to that of a Pulse Heavy Turbolaser bolt as well. It should be noted that when the weapon is used in space, it does not have a range. When used in a standard atmosphere, it has 400 km maximum range.
Unlike the SAC, the III-7 has multiple payloads in a manner similar to the Starflare-class. The most common payload is of the plasma type which is an enlarged SAC shell. Otherwise, it can fire any payload that the Starflare-class Missile can carry. Aside from the standard plasma shell, it can only carry 2 other types of payloads per ship. On the Cavalier-class, an III-7 is mounted on the centerline of the vessel and on each wingtip.
KDI IV-8 Medium Quad Ion Cannon: The Medium Quad Ion Cannon is a medium-grade starship weapon. While it uses the power of a normal ion cannon, the IV-8 has a much improved firing rate at the cost of individual bolt power. As with other KDI weapons, it is fitted with a particle accelerator for improved range and damage ratings. This weapon has the option for flak bursts for use against enemy starfighters and warheads.
KDI VI-8 Light Turbo Quadlaser: A Light Turbolaser Quadlaser is a weapon intermediate between a Quad Laser Cannon and a Medium Quad Turbolaser. Thus, it is an excellent weapon for tackling on sub-capital ships and small capital ships. The weapon does not have the tracking abilities to precisely destroy fast interceptors or the power to inflict serious damage a larger starship. It uses the power of a normal turbolaser cannon, but the VI-8 has a much improved firing rate at the cost of individual bolt power. As with other KDI weapons, it is fitted with a particle accelerator for improved range and damage ratings. This weapon has the option for flak bursts for use against enemy starfighters and warheads.
KDI L-W8.9 Laser Cannon: This Kashan specific weapon looks like a medium-sized tapered laser cannon. Most of this space is used by extensive galven circuitry for improved accuracy and range. However, it is an unorthodox design because each bolt it fires utilizes a highly concentrated ion sheath. Previously, ion sheath technology was developed and used on the SoroSuub EZ-Snap 48sR sniper rifle. However, KDI has taken the technology farther but increasing the concentration or thickness of the ion sheath. This does lead to slightly increased power demands, but the designers considered it to be a fair tradeoff for its new capabilities. Now, the ion sheath not only improves bolt cohesion, it has the more important quality of delivering ionic damage and allowing more laser bolt energy to past through the shields directly into the enemy hull. This weapon has the optional setting of using the ion sheath only, turning it into a very light ion cannon.
KDI Starflare-class Missile Tube: The Starflare-class Missile Tube is the Launcher for the Starflare-class Missile. In order to switch warhead types, the Cavalier uses a revolving rack of the warheads. To prevent premature detonation, the warhead changing process takes place behind durasteel blast doors aside from the Ultrachrome Hull plating. Also, each warhead is automatically armed only after it leaves the launching tube.
Carrying Capacity: Because the main role of the Cavalier-class is to act as a fast-attack craft and escort larger ships, it does not have a large carrying capacity. It does carry 18 S10s externally on racks placed within the hollow centre of the ship. The racks leave the starfighters somewhat exposed and without actual maintenance capabilities. However, they also utilize a minimal amount of space and allow incredibly quick launches. The Cavalier does carry Kashan Shock Troopers for boarder defence and to allow Cavaliers to conduct minor boarding operations. Lastly, the Cavalier does have a small shuttle/transport bay located behind the frontal section.
Integrated Kashan Battle Computer: The Integrated Kashan Battle Computer is actually multi-purpose network that is connected to every vessel of the Kashan Fleet, whether it is a patrol starfighter or a Seraph-class Cruiser. The main purpose of the Battle Computer is to intertwine, triangulate, and transmit sensor data collected from each ship.
This allows the ships to instantly gather target acquisition data and triangulate that data. The triangulation process ensures excellent target data, foiling most anti-targetting and sensor-jamming systems.
More importantly, the network can also provide navigational data from each ship along. Each vessel automatically transmits its location to the other vessel and shares navigational data with it as well. This allows the vessels of the Kashan fleet to act as navigation beacons for hyperspace jumps. As such, it is possible for Kashan ships to make instant intra-system micro-jumps to a Kashan vessel with the Battle Computer.
Security: Aside from the typical security monitors, security passes, and checkpoints, the Cavalier uses Ultrachrome for the bulkhead lining of the entire ship. When an intruder is detected, it runs electricity through those linings, which then. Thus, the intruder is fried by the electric current, whether it be a living being or a droid. The power settings of the electricity can be adjusted from a shock that will normally knock a living being unconscious to the highest level, which can start circuits on fire.
Apollo Artificial Intelligence System
Description: The AAIS has been under joint development by Kashan Automation Systems, Kashan’s premier droid manufacturer, and Kashan Defence Industries for over a decade. Because Kashan’s Seraph-class rely heavy on automation, there was speculation that a simple virus could make the entire Kashan Defence Fleet inoperable. In order to qualm those fears, the Apollo Anti-Virus Project was born. But as work progressed, the computer system became far more than the simple security system originally envisioned, but instead a computer that represented the ship itself.
True to the original vision, the Apollo is a security system that immediately detects any tampering with the ship’s electronic systems, (whether it be a dataport in the mess hall, a gunnery computer, or any of the automation hardware that keeps the ship running) by constant monitoring by controlling the ship’s security systems as well as making frequent diagnostics of every integrated electronic device onboard the ship. Not only does this prevent slicing, but it also allows the ship itself to monitor every beings activities within the ship.
Another aspect of the system is the use of rapidly changing code elements for locks and key systems of the vessel; making it harder for slicers, droids, and portable computers to gain access. Kashan programmers added another countermeasure by adding “flagged” codes to the computers. If any of the “flagged” codes are used by the slicer, it silently trips an alarm to both the Apollo and the troops stationed aboard the ship.
The idea of “fighting with fire with fire” was also on the mind of the designers when designing the AAIS. Thus, the Apollo has full slicing capabilities from programs designed by slicers from Kashan as wells as some bought via the black market from the rest of the galaxy. In order for the Apollo to start its own slicing activities, it must either be on a communication channel with the target or docked with the target. For more offensive capabilities, the Apollo can also send out “Trojan Horses”, which are normal communications or datafeed interlaced with the code of the viruses to the target. Parts of the AAIS are always developing their own unique slicing programs for use against the enemy. Most of the virus designed thus far allow the Apollo to take control of an opposing ship’s computer system or allow the AAIS to glean information from the opposition’s computers.
The AAIS is based in the central droid brains that the ship. In the unlikely advent that the droid brains are deactivated or for some reason are inoperable, all of the AAIS benefits are lost. The security systems then become the basic ones found on all warships.