HK-36
The Iron Lord Protector (Neutral Good)
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a distinct exploratory vessel that can double as an all purpose corvette
- Image Source: DeviantArt, a piece called Contact - Flying Saucer by Shimmering-Sword, link here
- Canon Link: Corona-class, another distinctively saucer-shaped starship
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: Abregado Combat Shields
- Manufacturer: Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers, Metal Lords
- Model: Discus Volantes-class Corvette
- Affiliation: ARGH, Metal Lords, Firemane, Closed Market
- Production: Mass
- Material: Standard Ship Components, Solar Plating, Standard Hull, and Armor, Abregado Combat Shield in Ship Variant.
- Classification: Corvette
- Length: ~200 meters diameter
- Width: ~200 meters diameter
- Height: ~30 meters height
- Armament: Average (Standard turbolaser, point-defense quad laser cannons, and concussion missile launchers)
- Defenses: Average
- Hangar: Average (0)
- Maneuverability Rating: Moderate
- Speed Rating: Moderate
- Hyperdrive Class: Average: 2
- Omnidirectional Thrusters- Due to the saucer shape of the vessel and constant spinning the thrusters on the ship function both as forward, reverse, and directional drives. As such the thrusters of the ship propel it in every direction with the same force, this improves the ship's maneuverability.
- Solar Plating- the outer-most layer of plating the ship is clad in is made out of armored solar panels, much like the wings of a TIE fighter, while the saucer shape itself was designed to function much like a solar sail. As such the corvette is able to take on longer journeys than most corvettes without stopping for refueling and resupplying as it can draw solar energy to recharge and use solar winds to increase its speed and cut on thruster energy usage while traveling at sublight speed.
- Centrifugal Field- rather than relying on standard artificial gravity generators the ship uses centrifugal field to create artificial gravity effect by constantly spinning its saucer around its axis. While this gives them immunity to being target-locked by missiles and weapons designed specifically against devices using repulsorlift and gravity manipulating technology, for example grav-activated missiles, as long as its tractor beams are not in use, and it allows the ship to reach higher speed as the energy that would have been used to sustain the gravity field is instead put into engines which keep the ship spinning and moving, it also means that the artificial gravity on the ship is only active as long as the saucer can spin, its engines are active, only portion of the ship is accessible, and it has to continuously spin.
- Tractor Beams- the corvette is equipped with 4 tractor beams for all tractor beam needs.
- Jack of All Trades- Volantes model is well balanced when it comes to its defensive and offensive capabilities, able to hold its own against smallcraft and capital ships, whether on long or short range, even protected against ionic and electrical attacks by its Abregado Combat Shield.
- Increased Speed- Volantes is slightly faster than average corvette models when traveling sublight because of the lack of artificial gravity generator which allows the ship's reactor to feed additional energy to the engines, which usually would have been used to sustain the said gravity generator. The ship can also use solar winds to propel itself faster through the vacuum of space by turning its thinner body until it acts as a large sail, giving further boost to its thrusters.
- Increased Maneuverability- The corvette's circular and symmetrical shape, along with omnidirectional thrusters installed on both sides of the disk, increased the Volantes' maneuverability above what an average corvette is capable of.
- Self-Reliance- The biggest strength of Discus Volantes is it's ability to conduct prolonged journeys through space without the need to stop by often at ports in order to refuel and resupply. A fully operational undamaged Volantes would be able to fully recharge its power supply by prolonged exposure to solar radiation, capturing energy through its solar plating. The ship is also able to capture energy from ionic storms and disturbances through the Abregado Combat Shield and turn its body into the solar radiation winds, using them to propel itself faster or cut down on energy consumption going into its thrusters.
- Non-Repulsor Artificial Gravity- Unlike most contemporary space-faring vessels, Discus Volantes does not rely on Artificial Gravity Generators, instead it utilized Centrifugal Force to simulate gravity on board by constantly spinning around its axis. This design choice to utilize a more primitive system allows the corvette to cut on energy usage and instead divert it into thrusters which keep the ship spinning and moving, it also minimizes the effectiveness weapons who were designed to target gravity manipulating devices, for example grav-activated missiles, would have against the ship.
- Jack of All Trades- the balancing and need to cover multiple roles at the same time means that the corvette is only average at everything it does combat wise, meaning that corvettes more dedicated towards anti-starfighter duty or long range bombardment would perform better at those duties than the Volantes.
- Spin-Reliant Artificial Gravity- due to the artificial gravity relying on centrifugal force, the vehicle needs to spin constantly to provide the gravitational simulation to its crew. This means that if it was to stop spinning, for example when it needs to land or dock, it would need to do so slowly and gradually shut gravity off on the ship. Stopping its spin abruptly, for example as result of a ramming action, would violently throw its crew around due to the sudden stop.
- Solar Plating Vulnerability- the solar panel plates on the outer surface of the corvette is very vulnerable, to physical and energy attacks alike, it damages easily which usually means that the corvette needs to stop by somewhere for repairs after engagement if it wants to restore its energy replenishing capabilities before another journey.
- Decreased Accuracy- Constant need to spin also makes aiming its weaponry a bit more awkward, the ship being incapable of firing its weaponry only in short bursts to make sure aim is calibrated properly and to not strike itself by accident in the process. Aiming itself would be also very difficult, although not impossible without use of support mechanized trackers and software.
- Lack of Beam Weaponry- These corvettes is also incapable of being fielded with beam weaponry due to its constant spinning. The angles such weapons could fire in would be limited as the spinning body could cause them to accidentally slice through the larger main hub portion. While not all ships utilize beam-based weaponry, this is especially limiting for the saucer corvette due to its developed within ARGH parallel to their development of beam-based Sourcefyre weaponry. In their recent designs of droid starfighters ARGH managed to develop new form of beam based weaponry to rival and surpass the power of standard plasma and turbolaser turrets, rumors have it that the Guild of Hammers is planning on expanding this weaponry into capital ship class guns, should they succeed their existing models would be most likely revisited in order to increase their offensive power by employing this new class of energy weaponry, Volantes however would not be one of them due to its continuous rotation, cutting it from a portion of Abregado-made arsenal.
- Tricky Maneuvering- Due to the continuous spinning it is extremely difficult to dock the ship with another vessel unless the artificial gravity is turned off and the rotation is stopped. This is further magnified by the fact that on average most of the crew will be specialized droids, who often lack the same intuition and natural instinct of a season organic pilot. As such it is very rare for such maneuvers to be conducted by this vessel, so while it has plenty of sustainability and flight range, it is rarely used to transport supplies or passengers towards other vessels.
- Wasted Space- Due to the ship's unique design there is a lot of space aboard it being wasted, as it does not have the same bulkies rectangular design other ships of similar size and class have. As such, this corvette has much smaller passenger capacity than other corvettes made by ARGH, going down from their limit of 60-120 passengers along with crew to only 50 aboard the Volantes. Besides that it has no room for additional cargo outside of the essential supplies and equipment for the organics and droids aboard. This limits the type of missions Volantes could be send onto as it cannot haul additional cargo and it's a weakness that would be felt especially by any organics traveling aboard, as the foodstuff and other supplies for them would run out much quicker than supplies for the droid crewmen.
Introduction: While the Metal Lords have stable territory and access to resources for construction of larger ships right now, some of the droids are still skeptical when it comes to how long they will be able to hold onto their planetary claims. As such plans for constructing new corvettes specialized in long term voyages and exploration have been pushed forward by the Guild of Hammers, vessels that will be especially useful if the droids will decide to leave their planets behind and take to traveling the hyperspace once more. So the first Discus Volantes Corvettes were formed, based on ancient forgotten designs of saucer-shaped craft which relied on centrifugal force to simulate gravity rather than artificial gravity generators.
Technical Details: Discus Volantes, a fitting name for the ship as it means "The Flying Disc" in an ancient mostly forgotten tongue, was designed to fulfill two roles, an all-purpose corvette to maximize its survival odds when caught by itself and self-sustainability to extend the range this ship can travel without stopping by planets and spaceports to resupply and refuel. Most of the ship's controls are housed within or attached directly to the main cylindrical hub section with compartments spread out from it into the disc body. The vessel is fairly small when it comes to passenger capacity, able to house minimal crew of 10 along with up to 40 passengers, however the Volantes does not come equipped with hydroponics farm, such addition needs to be made by a costumer and even then the ship has only enough space to create a farm that can continuously support 20 organics. Outside of that there is enough room in the cargo hold for 2 years of consumables and an on-board armory has enough space for appropriate ammunition, armor, and weapons to equip up to 50 beings. The ship uses a standard reactor, housed at the core of its hub, whoever the power system can be replenished by converting solar and ionic energy from the environment through the use of solar plating covering the ship and Abregado Combat Shield which can interfere and transfer outside electrical forces. Because of the ship's reliance on centrifugal forces to simulate gravity, in standard flight configuration the crew are actually standing what could be determined as "sideways" below the power core with the disk and its compartments below them, accessible through a system of electronic lifts and backup ladders. The main hub is equipped with gyroscopic stabilizers, most of the consoles are movable, and can rotate independently of the disk body to be able to rotate up right when landing on a planet or station.
Strengths: Biggest strengths of this corvette are its ability to fulfill, at least partially, pretty much any combat role. Its standard armor plating and hull, covered in the solar plates, along with the Abregado Combat deflector shield, grants a degree of protection against both starfighters and capital ships, while the various weapons housed over its disk body, including concussion missile launcher, turbolaser, and laser quad cannons, allow it to offer firepower whether as escort or attack corvette, bombarding enemy targets from short and long range alike. Various other strengths come from its disk shaped body and the need to continuously spin to simulate gravity aboard. The fact alone that the ship does not use gravity manipulating field makes it a less of a target against weapons that specifically target such equipment, for example grav-locked missiles which seek out artificial gravity fields and repulsorlift vehicles. The lack of artificial gravity generator also allowed the ship's reactor to put more energy into its omnidirectional thrusters built into both sides of the disk, which keep it spinning, enabling them to create more thrust and therefore the corvette to reach speeds higher than an average ship its class. The unorthodox nature of its body and thrusters also make it more maneuverable than an average ship, allowing it to quickly change the direction it is heading in. Most of all, however, the ship is very self-reliant, with much of the energy spent in keeping it moving being able to be restored using its solar plating, as well as ability to turn its body into solar winds to be used as one large sail, further cutting down on how much energy the ship actually uses, a great strength to have when planning extended journey through the deep space or heading on exploratory mission into uncharted sectors.
Weaknesses: While the ship's ability to fulfill multiple roles is a blessing, it is also its curse as the corvette was never able to fully commit to one specific role. When compared to more dedicated corvettes meant for escort or bombardment purposes, it is more versatile then them, however it is also average at best when trying to fulfill the same role as them. The fact that the ship needs to continuously spin also brings various weaknesses to its design, the biggest one being if it is forced to suddenly stop spinning, whether through ramming action, being stuck on an obstacle, or through the use of strong enough tractor beams, its crew and passengers would feel the effect of it, being abruptly thrown if they are not secured before they would find themselves in zero gravity environment. The continuous spin also makes the many weapons on the corvette somewhat less accurate, at least when being used without proper tracking and aiming supplements like tracking computers, they also have to fire for shorter amounts at a time as long barrages could potentially hit the main hub during a spin and damage the ship's bridge, for the same reason the corvette cannot be equipped with beam weaponry, a trait especially lacking when considering that ARGH has been lately making strides in making beam-based weapons of their own based on the rather successful Sourcefyre crystal line of weapons found in their Mechanical Dragons and Wyvern droid starfighters. Due to the continuous rotation and the unorthodox shape and layout the ship also has great difficulties, especially since most of its crew on usual are droids, docking with other ships unless artificial gravity is shut down and the ship's rotations are stopped, making it a bad choice of vessel for missions which include transporting cargo or passengers to other ships. Similarly its cargo space is rather lacking when compared to other Abregado-made corvettes, able to transport only 50 beings, crew included, and no extra cargo once their essential supplies and equipment is loaded. Last weakness is the fact that the solar plating covering the disk is fairly vulnerable, easily damaged by physical or energy attacks the crew of this corvette will often find a need to stop and repair the plating after almost every battle, at least if they wish for the solar energy capturing systems of the ship to function properly.
Conclusion: In conclusion, this is an all purpose corvette meant to fulfill multiple combat roles while never really mastering, its unorthodox design and the need to rely on centrifugal forces rather than artificial gravity generator allows it to be more maneuverable and faster than an average corvette while being very self-reliant, a great strength for exploring uncharted systems and going on long journeys throughout the Galaxy.
