Seraph Mk III-class Medium Cruiser
Name/Type: Seraph Mk III-class Medium Cruiser
Designer/Manufacturer: Kashan Defence Industries
Designation: Medium Cruiser
Crew: 1,201 + 97 Gunners + 60 LE Repair Droids
Length: 600 meters
Speed: 20 MGLT, 900 Kph
Hyperdrive: x0.6
Shield Rating: 3125 SBD + 3125 SBD Back-up
Hull Rating: 1870 RU
Weapons: 20 KDI IX-9 Turbolaser Batteries, 20 KDI IV-9 Medium Quad Ion Cannons, 16 KDI J-L7.3 Dual Defence Cannons, 8 KDI Starflare-class Missile Tubes, 8 Hansen FeatherTouch Tractor Beam Projectors.
Fighter Complement: 24 S9 Deathsaber Mk II-class Starfighters, 8 A3 Nemesis-class Assault Bombers.
Troops: 1600 Contegorian Shock Troopers, 16 Sentinel-class Tanks (or other equivalent).
Support Craft: 4 Y-4 Raptor-class Transports.
Other: Integrated Kashan Battle Computer.
Description: KDF’s debut into the galaxy was with the Seraph Mk II cruiser, which finally received its battle testing at the hands of pirates, criminals, and even a brief clash with a TNO border patrol. From those experiences and with new technological advances, KDI began designing a newer model of the venerated class, the Mk III. The Mk III differs from its predecessor mainly in utilizing a newer version of Ultrachrome Electric Reactive Armor, weapons with improved range, and newer engines. Because of the multitude of Seraphs produced over the decade, Seraph Mk IIs will gradually be recalled and refitted into Mk IIIs for use within the Contegorian Confederation Navy.
R&D Explanations:
Automation: Automation has been a mainstream technology of Kashan, especially with Kashan Automation. However, while advances were made in programming by the said Kashan corporation, particularly in machine heuristics and learning, nothing in the actual hardware was. As such, the hardware of the Kashan Defence Fleet was bulky as its predecessors within the CIS ships. However, Uffel, upon its membership into the Contegorian Confederation, has contribuated the latest hardware of the planet, which is derived from a Positronic Processor acquired by QS-2D. As such, the space automation has taken up within the ship has been reduced to 30% of what it took up previously.
As with the previously used droid brains they are armored with ultrachrome and Dallorian alloys and are positioned towards the centre of the hull 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 it’s size.
KDI Multi-Core Power System: Most starships use a single, massive reactor. The Juaire does not, instead reflecting the redundant system philosophy that dominates Kashan engineering. Instead, it relies on a series of smaller reactor cores which are scattered throughout the central regions of the ship linked into two separate power networks. As a result, it is significantly harder to disable the vessel because it would require the destruction or ionization of two separate power systems.
Engines: The engines of the Seraph Mk II were the same as the ones used on the Mk I, making the propulsion of the vessel rather dated and energy inefficient. As a result, the Mk III design team took the latest design advancements of Kashan engine technology from the Pegasus-class Star Destroyer and the Juaire-class gunships. Aside from carrying a maintenance and repair crew of LE Repair droids, it uses the superconducting armor to create magnetic fields that can redirect the ion streams of the engines in all matters of angles, which in turn makes the cruiser more maneuverable than most ships of its size. While those elements are not new to KDI design, the Seraph Mk III has added another innovation: tight-beamed engines. Usually, a starship’s ionic stream begins to disperse shortly after being vented through the engines; the Mk III’s does not. Within the newer compact engines, ultrachrome plating has been used to create magnetic fields that focus the exhaust into a set, tightbeam stream that does not disperse nearly as quickly as that of most ion engines. That in turn makes there less volume with which the ion streams can move within, and thus, adds mass that the engine’s thrust can push off of. This by itself is not very substantial, but combined with the afterburner effects of the ultrachrome focusing, increase the Seraph Mk III’s speed.
Hull Construction: The Mk III includes the newest armor innovations devised by KDI, particularly those used on the Juaire and Pegasus-class starships. The frame of the ship is still composed of Ferrocarbon, giving it excellent structural strength, laminated with carbon and Trimantium fibers to increase the frame’s tensile strength. As with the new Kashan vessels, it includes Electric Reactive Armor.
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 quenching 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.
Because warheads are among the gravest threats facing modern-day capital vessels, the Seraph armor is of the Electric Reactive Armor type. Obviously the ultrachrome plates serve as the conductive plates in the armor whereas a Quadranium carbide serves as the insulator of the armor(discussed in more detail after the following explanation from Wikipedia):
A new technology of electric reactive armour is in development, where the armour is made up of two or more conductive plates separated by some space or by an insulating material, creating a high-power capacitor. In operation, a high-voltage power source charges the armour. When an incoming body penetrates the plates, it closes the circuit to discharge the capacitor, dumping a great deal of energy into the penetrator, which may vaporize it or even turn it into a plasma, significantly diffusing the attack. It is not public knowledge whether this is supposed to function against both KE-penetrators and shaped charge jets, or only the latter. This technology has not yet been introduced on any operational platform.
Previous Electric Reactive Armors used by the Contegorian Fleet has used various polymers of carbon; long-manufactured for use on the fleet’s Starflare missiles and a few of its small support craft, such as starfighters or probes. In short, it was the most available insulator to the fleet, hence its use. However, more experimentation with ERA using a wide variety of insulators from vacuum to plexiglass, but the most promising were the carbides, whose also had the benefit of an extremely hard refractory ceramic. And of those, Quadranium Carbide(QuC) was found to be the most effective. As with other hard refractory ceramics, Quadranium Carbide has an extremely high melting temperature due to its strong interatomic bonding between molecules. As with other materials of similar nature, it is rather hard and has a high tensile strength, meaning that solid projectiles such as PIMs or slugs do not inflict as much damage (albeit the damage is still devastating to the cruiser). Penetration by such weapons is hampered and reduced because of this layer. A side benefit of this layer is that it does not conduct electrical energy at all, making it effective in stopping the effects of most ion weapons (the exception being PIMs).
Shields: The Seraph carries fairly typical shield systems for any modern warship. The main innovation of the Seraph is that 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. It should be noted that the domes on the bridge tower are not the shield generators, but rather auxilary sensor domes.
Kashan Hyperdrive: The Hyperdrive found on the Seraph 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 Mk III makes extensive use of weapons technology developed for the Pegasus and Juiare-class, and as such, its weapons now have the comparable 150% range. Aside from upgrading weapons, the only notable addition in weapons has been the dual defence cannons, which are strategically placed around the ship.
Ultrachrome MagLev Turrets: Generally, capital-grade weapons are large enough that while those a serious threat to enemy capital vessels, they are not very effective in tracking fast-moving objects like starfighters or missiles. By utilizing the superconductor properties of Ultrachrome, Kashan Defence Industries has designed fast-tracking turrets that allow the turbolasers of the Seraph to target enemy starfighters as well if not better than the quad lasers of the Lancer-class frigate. Instead of using conventional hydraulics, by using Ultrachrome rings, the turrets can swivel on a magnetic levitation derived from the charged plating. With no friction and high-speed, the only thing that limits the effectiveness is the software programming that runs them. All weapons on the Seraph with the exception of the Starflare-class Missile Tubes are equipped with this turret.
KDI IX-9 Turbolaser: The improved version of the IX-7 formerly used on the Mk II. The IX-9 differs only in incorporating the newer advances of KDI turbolaser technology. Like the XIV-7 , it has the Stysor blaster chamber's prismatic crystal housing and galvern pattern, that boosted the static pulse output from the weapon's actuating module for a higher range. When this is combined with the ion sheathing and particle accelerator technology currently employed on nearly all KDI ships, the weapon has 150% of the range as a standard heavy turbolaser.
KDI IV-9 Medium Quad Ion Cannon: The upgraded version of the IV-8 Medium Quad Ion Cannon. Like the IX-9, the only difference between this weapon and its replacement is the inclusion of new components which enhance its range. Like that weapon, it has the Stysor blaster chamber's prismatic crystal housing and galvern pattern, that boosted the static pulse output from the weapon's actuating module for a higher range. When this is combined with the ion sheathing and particle accelerator technology currently employed on the Seraph-class, the weapon has 150% of the range as a standard heavy turbolaser.
KDI Starflare-class Missile Tube: The Starflare-class Missile Tube is the launching unit for the Starflare-class Missile. In order to switch warhead types, the Seraph 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.
KDI J-L7.3 Dual Defence Cannon: This is a twin mounting of the SAC used on the S10. It differs from the SAC in that it’s barrel is only 3/4s as long as its predecessor. This results in less accuracy at distant targets, but improved tracking capabilities against fast-moving targets, such as starfighters or missiles. It should be noted that the weapon is fire-linked.
This weapon is an advanced railgun that utilizes three equally spaced Ultrachrome (a superconductor) rails 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 km/s) and range. At this velocity, the shells by themselves can pierce most starfighter-grade armor. However, the supercharging limits the rate of fire. Typically, the J-L7.3 has a slightly lower rate of fire and velocity than an ordinary laser cannon bolt, but the projectile’s mass compensates for this, making the weapon’s normal shells(without the payload) equivalent to that of a medium laser cannon bolt as well as a theoretically endless range. However, the J-L7.3 is unlikely to hit anything at very high ranges unless the target is a slow-moving ship.
The Defence Cannon fires 8 kilogram shells filled with hydrogen molecules about to start the fusion process. When the shell hits the target, the impact provides the energy necessary to start the fusing, creating a relatively large amount of energy which damages the opposing ship’s hull or shields. The nature of the reaction also causes relatively heavy blast, heat, and radiation damage to the target.
Hansen FeatherTouch Heavy Tractor Beam Projector: this tractor beam unit is capable of amazingly fine operations. They can harmlessly pull a bird out of mid-flight, or rip a small freighter to pieces. The FeatherTouch is turret-mounted, allowing it to be used in a multitude of configurations (CUSWE). The particular version used on the Juaire-class is the heaviest one available, and can perform as well as any other capital-grade tractor beam as well.
Carrying Capacity: Kashan Engineers were familiar with the Rendili StarDrive Dreadnaught, and the Seraph’s capacity was originally nearly identical. However, it became obvious that more emphasis would have to placed on carrying space vessels rather than the thousands of infantry placed on the Rendili vessel. The Seraph carries a respectable two squadrons S9 Deathsabers complemented by two flights of A3 Nemesis-class Assault Bombers. The pride of the Seraph is its ground complement, which can by itself generally overrun small facilities. Much of the room used to house the troops comes from space that would have been occupied by crewmembers if there wasn’t automation.