Here's another High Guard design. This time the history of the ship is
given up through the Cluster Liberation War.
_Rorke's Drift_ class Heavy Cruiser
CA-1 Rorke's Drift CA-N6368F3-090100-00E08-0 MCr30,626.8 35,000 tons
batteries bearing D 1 9 Crew=296.
batteries F 1 A TL=12.
Low=273. Cargo=806. Fuel=13,300. EP=2800. Agility=6. Marines=250.
Notes: Ship has frozen watch, fuel scoops, purification plant.
This is the original _Rorke's Drift_ design. 60 of these ships were built
for the NFN, all named for famous battles fought on Earth. This version
of the ship saw action during both the Old Islands War, in which six were
lost, and the Topas War. Following the Topas War, FAdm Connor commented
that the lack of armour made this class to vulnerable to risk against
capital ships.
The surviving cruisers received the Series A refit in 5630.
CA-1 Series A CA-N6368H4-090300-N0009-0 MCr30,670.5 35,000 tons
batteries bearing D 1 9 Crew=281.
batteries F 1 A TL=12(14).
Low=641. Cargo=676. Fuel=13,300. EP=2800. Agility=6. Marines=1000.
Notes: Ship has frozen watch, scoops, plant. The refit cost MCr1,330.47
per ship and took 14 weeks.
The Series A _Rorke's Drift_ received the new Missile-A bays and a laser
spinal mount, and also had the Marine contingent greatly expanded, from
two companies to a heavily reinforced battalion.
The added accomodations for the Marines came in handy, as the _Rorke's
Drift_ class was called on to perform several disaster relief missions
throughout the Cluster in the next few years--the Marines were frequently
replaced with medical personnel.
In addition to the disaster relief missions, the class also saw action in
the Serendip War. 34 of them were at the Second Battle of Neubayern, and
13 of them were lost or damaged beyond repair.
When the Imperials invaded, eleven ships were hidden in deep space, and
the remaining thirty were removed to the safe worlds. There they received
the Series B refit.
CA-1 Series B CA-N6368J4-000700-N000A-0 MCr35,315.2 35,000 tons
batteries bearing 1 Y Crew=410.
batteries 1 Z TL=12(15).
Passengers=30. Low=720. Cargo=647. Fuel=3640. EP=2800. Agility=6.
Marines=1000. Y=51, Z=60
Notes: Ship has frozen watch, scoops, plant. Has an NH3 fuel system,
Helson-Canomaar Overdrive jump system, and enhanced output maneuver drive.
Carries one 30-ton small craft. Has 1800 ton missile magazine (600
battery-rounds). Carries 40 ER missile controllers. Missiles have
anti-missile fire control capability. Has enough fuel for four jumps
before refueling. The refit cost MCr22,691.7 and took 48 weeks.
The Series B _Rorke's Drift_ is representative of the other Series B
refits. An NH3 fuel system was installed, reducing the fuel mass to 52%
of normal. The newly-developed Helson-Canomaar Overdrive system was also
added (this was the most expensive single component), reducing the jump
fuel requirement by a factor of ten. Combined, this allowed a ship to
jump with 5.2% of the pre-refit fuel requirement.
This enourmous savings in space mostly went to weapons. Using the
multi-bay system, which allows more bays than normal to be carried at the
cost of doubled tonnage requirements for each 'extra' bay, 60 100-ton
missile bays were added. All missile bays were equipped with anti-missile
fire control, which allows a missile bay to act as a repulsor bay of
three factors lower. Also, enough magazine space was added to support ten
turns of ER missile fire. During the Cluster Liberation War, these ships
carried exclusively Kinetic Energy missiles. These missiles do damage
like a nuclear missile, but aren't affected by nuclear dampers and have a
- -2 penalty to hit.
The older Series A ships were reactivated late in the CLW, but were used
primarily to mop up Imperial stragglers. The Series B ships performed
with distinction during the War, though. Even with the improved nuclear
dampers and anti-missile fire control, they were still too vulnerable to
go toe-to-toe with Imperial capital ships--instead, they fired ER
missiles from beyond the Imperial's range.
The high point of the class' career was the Battle of Pamraeltan. The
Imperial Naval Base in that system was to be the jumping-off point for
the Imperial's planned reconquest of the Islands following their initial
defeats there. They had mustered a sizeable force led by a _Tigress_
class battleship. The Alliance Navy had learned of the Imperial plan, and
launched a preemptive strike on the Imperial fleet as it was being
assembled. During the ensuing battle, a squadron of _Rorke's Drift_ class
cruisers fired a single salvo of KE missiles at the Imperial flagship,
rendering it dead in space and badly damaging its weapons and fuel tanks.
Before the Imperials could get there flagship to safety, it was destroyed
by an Alliance planet-buster.
Kenneth G. Hagler
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