Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide Lucerne Labs and its allies with a basic, v4.0 compliant Star Destroyer
- Image Source: Personal photo of Spartan Game's Eliminator-class Battleship
- Canon Link: N/A
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
- Model: Guardian-class Star Destroyer
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi, Galactic Alliance, Closed Market
- Production: Minor
- Material: mirrsteel-iridium-condensed matter composite frame as per Ossis starship frame, Chimera Composite armor plating, Starship Components
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- Classification: Destroyer
- Length: 1400 meters
- Width: 600 meters
- Height: 400 meters
- Armament:Average
8 Trident-class Autocannons (fore) - 4 Angon-class Hypervelocity Cannons (fore)
- 20 Long-Range Turbolasers
- 60 Heavy Turbolasers
- 20 LLT-8 Triumph-class Light Quad Turbolaser Batteries
- 12 Ion Cannon Batteries
- 20 Harpoon-class General Purpose Launchers (10 port; 10 starboard)
- 4 Minelayers (stern)
- 20 Rainburst-class Flak Cannons
- 20 Quad Laser Cannons
- 20 Sentinel-class Point Defense Emplacements
- 10 Twin PLX-2M Missile Launcher Turrets
- 10 Trudo-class Defense Turrets
[*]Defenses: Very High
- Hangar: Low
3 Squadrons - 6 Light transports or other small support craft
[*]Maneuverability Rating: Low
[*]Speed Rating: Average
[*]Hyperdrive Class: Average: 2
SPECIAL FEATURES
Auxiliary Back-up Bridge
Biolux Organoform Circuitry
Calor series Bio-computers
Compartmentalization System
Encryption Network
Escape Pods
MC1005 Dolfin-class Communication's Array
Ossis starship frame
Redundant, Heavy Duty Deflector Shield Generators
Standard Detention Cells
Standard Life Support Systems
Standard Navigational Systems
Standard Sensor Array
Standard Targeting Systems
Heavy Tractor Beam Projectors (x14)
Can Enter Atmosphere and Land
Cargo Capacity: 12,500 metric tons
Passenger Count: ~8,000
Strengths:
- Resilient: The Guardian is an exceptionally durable vessel. Back-up shields and a thick carapace of Chimera composite armor supported by an Ossis starship frame protect the warship from heavy and sustained firepower, making it a rival to classic Mon Calamari cruisers in their ability to soak enemy firepower. Internally, the ship uses a modular compartmentalization system derived from the now ancient Carrack-class Cruiser to keep its crew safe even in the event of multiple hull breaches.
- Mass Transport: The Guardian took inspiration from the classic Imperial-class Star Destroyers and is fully capable of moving and supporting large-scale ground operations. While it carries less troops than its inspiration, the Guardian is still capable of hosting two regiments and their equipment (based on the old Imperial Order of Battle). This is approximately 6,000 - 8,000 personnel along with their vehicles and equipment.
- Littoral Combatant: While not remotely graceful in space, the Guardian sports exceptionally powerful and responsive repulsorlifts and its shielding, making it almost a high performance craft in the atmosphere of most worlds. Additionally, the Guardian can land on worlds, allowing it to directly pick up and drop off personnel, vehicles, and other cargoes.
- Low Maneuverability: The Guardian is not a nimble warship compared even to many of its counterparts, mostly because of its thick hull plating and the Ossis Starship Frame that it rests on.
- Small Hangar: The Guardian has a relatively small hangar for its size, which limits its versatility in many fleet operations and its ability to project strategic firepower. The relatively few support craft are essentially only enough to provide for basic logistics for the ship, and the Guardian is unable to rapidly deploy many of its ground forces because it lacks transport vessels.
- Restricted Firepower: In order to better protect the Guardian's heavy kinetic weapons, the hypervelocity cannons were emplaced in casemates at the front of the vessel. While they have some degree of elevation and transverse, their mountings and the vessel's own side plating greatly limit its field of fire compared to many of its competitors, especially combined with the ship's low maneuverability. While not as restricted as the hypervelocity cannons, the Trident-class Autocannons are also emplaced in turrets in the same area where their field of fire is limited by the armored barrel shrouds of the hypervelocity cannons and the broadsides of the vessel.
Description: The Guardian-class Star Destroyer was designed to fulfill a similar mission profile to the old Victory Star Destroyer: planetary defense, planetary assault and ground support, and ship to ship combat in that order. Because of its role as a defender, little emphasis was placed on mobility, as it was assumed that the ship would already be in the correct position or have enough time to move on an intercept position. Instead, priority was placed on making the Guardian durable enough to block and delay enemy advances.
To that end, a combination of back-up deflector shielding, advanced armor plating, and reinforced structural framework make the Guardian exceptionally resilient to enemy attacks. These passive defenses enable the Guardian to successfully hold off enemy attacks from friendly worlds or plow through defenses, but much like its conceptual predecessor, make it not as suited for deep space warfare with a corresponding lack of starfighter support and subpar maneuverability. Because of these faults, Guardians almost always work in conjunction with faster craft and support elements that can augment the limited number of starfighters the vessel can bring onto the battlefield. The Guardian typically supplements other warships by closing in to engage in "slugging matches" with large enemy vessels, where its thick defenses and potent close-range weaponry can be put to maximum effectiveness.
Technical Explanations:
Crew & Automation: The Guardian uses a similar layout to the other recent Lucerne Labs warships, with most of the crew housed and working on the ship's core functions in a central, spherical section, which notably includes the ship's Command Information Center style bridge. The rest of the ship's infrastructure branches out of this sphere and intertwines with the rest of the ship's frame. Each of these added sections uses modular compartmentalization based on technology derived from the Carrack-class Light Cruiser to minimize crew casualties even when the ship is suffering through great damage. Like the Tercel, much of the ship runs on Calor Series BioComputers connected by Lucerne Labs Biolux series Organoform circuitry. These systems can run most of the ship's systems in an emergency without a crew at greatly reduced performance.
Engine Systems: The Guardian uses a conventional set of ion drives and a utilitarian hyperdrive that are entirely unexceptional in their classes. Unfortunately because of the ship's mass distribution from the ship's reinforced Ossis starship frame, the Guardian has sluggish maneuverability even compared to other ship's its size. The one bright spot in the ship's propulsion is its repulsorlifts, which individually are unexceptional, their placement in conjunction with the ship's shielding systems grants the ship exceptional atmospheric performance.
Shielding systems: The Guardian is protected by a pair of nearly identical networks of local shield projectors and generators, much like the classic Mon Calamari cruisers of the Galactic Civil War. Because of power constraints, typically only one network of these heavy duty shields are online at a single time. However, as these arrays become damaged and taxed, the shield projectors and generators on the other network step and take over. This allows the Guardian to rotate in fresh sets of shields in the middle of a battle, making the star destroyers exceptionally resilient in battle. These shield systems are also networked to work with the ship's repulsorlifts in order to better absorb heat and withstand other atmospheric disturbances, making the craft exceptionally capable of navigating through the skies of even the harshest worlds.
Hull: The Guardian was designed from the ground up with the Ossis series starship framework, making it exceptionally durable and resilient to variety of potential dangers. The front of the vessel is exceptionally reinforced with additional framework in order to better withstand the opening salvos that start many engagements. This sturdy framework is then covered in criss-crossing layers of exceptionally thick Chimera Composite armor that are separated by thin sheets of condensed matter composite. Underneath this thick carapace are distinct compartments with sturdy bulwarks based off of those of the old Carrack-class Cruiser. Each compartment contains its own life support systems, allowing the crew and passengers to better survive hull breaches and keep on fighting despite extensive damage to the vessel. The deep ventral holds from the late bow to the stern are notable in that they are internally modular, which allow them to be reconfigured to transport different types and combinations of passengers and cargo as the mission profile dictates.
Weapon Systems: The most prominent weapons of the Guardian are the quartet of Angon-class Hypervelocity Cannons mounted on its ventral bow. Uncharacteristically for the weapon, in order to better protect the weapons during long engagements, the barrels are covered in armored shrouds and the breach assemblies are protected by thick casemates. This increased protection comes at the cost of its tracking abilities and field of fire, making the aiming of these weapons frequently dependent on the ship's lackluster maneuverability. However when lined up right, these weapons provide a hefty punch with a variety of effects that often makes them the centerpiece of the opening salvos of an engagement. Among these monstrous guns are heavily armored Trident Cannons that run from between these sets of hypervelocity cannons to the ship's ventral side. These weapons provide much of the short-range punch of the warship, and as an added bonus, are often quite capable of targeting ground-based targets. The rest of the ship's capital gun armament is scattered equidistantly across the ship's hull, ensuring that there are no significant blindspots that can be exploited by enemies. There is a slightly greater concentration of these weapons on the ship's ventral side in order to better support ground operations. A set of ten general purpose warhead launchers are recessed on either side of the ship's side. The specific loadouts of each launcher is dictated by the mission, but it's not uncommon to see a mixture of long-range Firelance torpedoes to supplement the ship's long-range firepower and short-range Revirement missiles to sabotage enemy ships or repair friendly vessels. A set of four minelayers at the rear of the ship are used to lay down defensive minefields around friendly possessions or alternatively, to set up a blockade around hostile possessions. The ship also sports a small but varied amount of mostly Lucerne Labs sourced point defense weaponry equally spaced across the ship that allow it to fend off limited incursions by smaller threats. When dealing with massed starfighter and warhead attacks, it typically uses its light turbolaser batteries to break these formations to allow the point defense weaponry to handle them in smaller chunks along with the ship's starfighter complement.
Carrying Capacity: The Guardian only carries a single wing of starfighters, which are often general purpose fighters which will allow Guardians to better adapt to a variety of situations. A small stern hangar on the ventral half of the ship carries a half dozens support craft which handle the basic logistics of running such a large and massive warship. Just underneath this hangar starts the massive internal and modular holds for the ship's passengers and cargo. Based on consulting with various army officers, Lucerne Labs designed these holds to specifically hold up to a pair of regiments and their equipment based on the old Imperial Order of Battle. While not as impressive as some of its older counterparts, notably the Imperial Star Destroyer, this number of troops along with its atmospheric ability makes Guardians particularly suited to defending or taking worlds.
