'Pretia libertatis est lex'
Developed by Mars Clipper Ships, the Liberator class was the civilian companies first entry into Military contracting. Previously renowned for quality civilian vessels, including bulk freighters and passenger liners, a bid issued by the UES Naval Procurement department called for a 'rugged, reliable carrier capable of staying on station for up to six months with sufficient firepower to intimidate pirates and ward of another major power.' Of the several designs submitted, only the Liberator was accepted by the UES, with the first of the class, the UES Liberator, being produced at Phobos station. Over the next decade twenty of the class would be produced for the UES Navy and distributed to border worlds and disputed territories. The ship has served admirably, with the class being refitted with newly developed technology last year to bring it up to front line standards, on the expectation of a new conflict with the White Star Monarchy.
Layout:
The centre and heart of the Liberator Class is its Toyama Fusion Reactor. With deuterium tankage for three months, tied to an efficient mag-grav sweep system, the Toyama can sustain The Liberator for 12 months before fuel reserves will run low. At that point, it can refuel from any planet with a hydrogen/helium rich atmosphere using the 'drag scoop' manoeuvre to skim the atmosphere for fuel. Aft of the reactor section and the tankage is the ships Impellor drive, rated for 2.3G of continuous acceleration, though fleet trials have pushed this to 2.6G with a low payload mass. The drive section can also deploy solar panels to provide additional power when in range of a star.
Nestled between the Impellor drive and the Reactor is the ships Kearnsky-Fuchida Warp drive. By bridging two points in space the drive can near instantaneously move the Liberator up to 50 light years. This requires significant charging, with a jump delay of 48 hours, slightly slower than the fleet norm, which is currently 42 for most cruisers and battleships.
Fore of the drive and engineering spaces is the Docking Collar. Equipped to handle up to 4 destroyers, the Docking collar allows the Liberator to bring 'Tag along' ships which lack jump drives of their own. Standard UES doctrine is to pair the Liberator with a squadron of four Dervish Class Destroyers (detailed below).
After the docking collar comes the ships cavernous flight deck. Equipped to handle dozens of small craft, the Flight deck also houses the Marine Barracks, the crew quarters and supports the weapon spars.
Finally, the CiC is located deep in the guts of the Liberator, behind sheets of shielding and redundant systems.
Weapons:
Equipped to drive of lightly equipped raiders and support fleet actions, the Liberator Class is lightly armed for a ship of its mass, but more than capable of demolishing any smaller ship it happens across. Four Armstad missile bays carry 50 anti capital missiles each, with a secondary magazine located in the hold holding another 200. These missiles are remote piloted by operators in the CiC, but can revert to on-board guiding if they are jammed. Configurable for a variety of targets, these missiles are also the primary means of attacking a surface target the Liberator Class has.
For close in ship attack, 8 double turrets mounting Heavy Ion Cannon suffice to ward of close range attackers, though a heavy capital ship or battleship will easily muscle through that fire.
Finally, the Liberator mounts a staggering 200 heavy blaster cannon in 50 four gun 'ball' turrets. Designed for AA work and interception, these designs work on gas provided directly from the reactor and are affectionately known as 'boffors guns' by their crew.
Defences:
Along with the aforementioned Blaster Cannon, the ship mounts over a meter of Durralex Ferro-fibrious armour plate, reinforced with Cobblestone Reaction ceramic ablative plate. Able to withstand direct hits from nuclear weapons (and more importantly in the modern era, capital railguns), the Cobblestone is a more recent addition as part of the last round of upgrades, and detrimentally affected the ships handling. To quote one Commander 'She handled like an iron bathtub full of water before. Now she handles like an iron bathtub full of concrete, covered in grease'. ECW defence includes several dedicated ECM defence nodes, located in a ring with the docking collars.
Flight Deck:
The flight deck and associated hanger bays have stowage for over a hundred small craft of various types. Currently, the Abraham Lincoln carries a reinforced airwing of 72 AS-18 Naginata Aerospace fighters, (detailed below) a squadron of 12 H-12 'Zero' Aerospace bombers, and 12 XXXL-12 'Albatross' orbital Gunships for marine deployment. Fighters are deployed via magnetic catapult and can be recovered using the same equipment. The ship also carries four shuttles for general shipping duties, one bulk lifter and 18 repair craft. 6 T-88 Toad class scout ships round out the ships compliment.
Crew Compliment:
The ships company runs to 2400 over all ranks and specialisations, including a dedicated security detachment. The airwing has a compliment of 1200, and the Marine Battalion aboard numbers 800. the remaining 400 marines are spread across the Lincoln’s four escorts.
Other Capabilities:
The ships computer systems are managed by Mary-Ann, a gestalt LV 2 Virtual intelligence. Not true AI, she instead is an exceptionable personable interface program designed to ease crew interactions with the ships systems, function as a organiser and statistician, and provide ready advice and information for the command crew. Capable of independent management of many of the ships defensive systems and day-to-day management of the ships immediate Battlespace, she is designed to both take, interpret and redistribute orders.
When designing the Liberator Class, Mars Clipper ships took the design requirement of 'tough' to heart. Designed with multiple redundant systems, thick armour plating both internal and external, and excellent damage control measures, it is not unknown for the Liberator Class to take a ferocious pounding and emerge intact, if not unscathed. In one particularly famous example, the Winston Churchill was ambushed by belt pirates and attacked with five limpet nukes. Despite the collapse of one flight deck and the loss of half her tankage, and the exposing of her engineering spaces to vacuum, the ship was able to fight her way clear and summon assistance. She was rebuilt and re-deployed within 3 months of the incident.
The one place the ship falls down is crew comforts. With survivability and endurance as key priorities, crew comforts came a distant third. As most of these ships are designed to garrison frontier worlds with atmospheres, it was expected that the crews would have access to ground-side facilities to stretch their legs and use their R&R time. The ships compliment of light craft are often busily employed shuttling crew on furlough between the ship and any local civilian port.
Statistics:
Length: 1021m
Width: 330m
Depth: 330m
Mass: 196,000,000 metric tons
Crew Compliment: 3600
Jump Range: 50 light years
Jump delay: 48 hours
Endurance: 6 months
Bookmarks