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Asteroid Fortress (Small - T.G.E. Based):

As with Consortium and Human Alliance technology, the technology used by the Trans-Galactic Empire has been spread widely. This is partially by design. It allows for the Empire to deny involvement in incidents but instead blame it on independent forces. In addition, there is the fact that the Free Worlds Council uses a log of Empire technology.

Because of this availability of Trans-Galactic Empire technology, it is inevitable that the technology will be used on fixed facilities including Asteroid Fortresses. As one might expect, star systems all around the Three Galaxies have similar need for self defense. These fortresses are common among independent systems with ties to the Empire as well as planets within Free Worlds Council controlled space.

Interestingly, there are not any known asteroid fortresses within the Empire itself. It is believed that the Emperor does not trust planetary leaders with significant military forces. After all, the Free Worlds Council used the forces that were under their control to fight for their own freedom.

It is important to note that no two Asteroid Fortresses are exactly alike. While one can do their best to describe the type, there is always differences in fighter compliment and weapon systems. There are a number which also mix different types of technology including Trans-Galactic Empire, Human Alliance, and Wolfen systems. These can be extremely complex for fire control systems.

Some things are pretty common such as that these fortresses are built from metallic asteroids usually mostly nickel iron. Non metallic asteroids simply cannot withstand as much damage and are far harder to build inside. They also tend to break down into certain sizes. One reasonably common is built into metallic asteroid with dimensions of around ten kilometers square.

Usually, a reasonably sized asteroid is chosen, towed to where the fortress is needed, and then converted into a fortress. While they can be in a variety of different shapes, usually one reasonably rounded is chosen and large projections are trimmed to further round the asteroid fortresses.

While warships and conventional fortresses rely on advanced composites and alloys for their armor, asteroid fortresses rely on their pure mass to withstand damage. They do not have force fields covering the fortress but instead rely on force fields protecting individual locations. The command and control centers are usually in the middle of the fortress. In most cases, attackers will not try to destroy the asteroid fortress itself but instead rely on destroying individual locations.

Asteroid fortresses are designed to be built as inexpensively as possible. In most cases fortresses are armed with older weapon systems. Generally these system come from scrapped warships with a large percentage of systems coming from old Berserker class attack vessels. This does not however mean that these weapon systems are weak or ineffective however. Weapon systems are generally located in clusters with each cluster containing heavy weaponry mixed with lighter defense batteries. Each cluster is then protected by a fixed force field. Instead of anti-matter plants, the fortresses are almost always powered by fusion reactors.

A usual weapon array of a fortress may include about a dozen anti-ship capital missile batteries, normally mounted in pairs. Normally, multiple capital missile launchers can be fired at a single target. While in ready magazines, usually only about forty capital missiles per battery are carried but additional missiles are carried deeper in the asteroid fortress for additional reloads.

One weakness that asteroid fortress have is that they cannot dodge attacks. Anti-ship missiles can be fired against fortresses beyond normal missile range and momentum allows the missiles to strike the fortress. As a result, the fortresses have reasonably good defensive batteries. Unlike Consortium designs, the fortresses do not have long range missile batteries to engage missiles in most cases.

Instead, the asteroid fortresses rely on a mixture of close range defense batteries. Each usually has about one hundred and eighty point defense batteries each combining a mini-missile launcher with either a laser mount or rail gun. The fortresses have the batteries scattered around the surface with multiple able to engage an incoming attack.

These fortresses do mount closer range anti-ship weaponry. This includes eight long range lasers, twenty-four particle beams, and forty-eight plasma batteries. While far shorter ranged than the other heavy weapon systems, the plasma batteries can be extremely devastating to any warships that gets within range. The long range lasers are usually mounted in pairs similarly to the capital missile batteries.

Even more that the capital missile batteries, starfighters are a large component of the strike ability of these fortresses. They are able to strike at much longer ranges than the capital missile batteries. A common complement is around five hundred fighters, housed usually in five large hangers. Of course the Flying Fang, both older and newer models, usually make up the bulk of the fighter compliments. In some cases, other fighter compliments may be embarked especially on Free Worlds Council fortresses.

Often attackers might try to destroy the defenses of the fortress in one area and attempt to seize the fortress themselves. For that reason, they usually have a large troop compliment in order to repel attacks. A common compliment is around six thousand troops with about twenty-four hundred in power armors. While the Warlord design is the most common, a wide variety of power armors might be found on these asteroid fortresses.

This asteroid fortress design uses modified starship speed and range rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Weapon Clusters:

4 Heavy Energy Weapon Clusters each containing: 

6 Heavy Missile Weapon Clusters each containing:

5 Hanger Defense Clusters each containing:

Model Type:       TGE-ASF-05.

Vehicle Type:     Orbital Defense Fortress.

Crew:           2,950 (200 Officers and 2,750 enlisted).

Troops:        6,000 Marines (2,400 in power armor) and 1,000 fighter pilots.

Vehicle, Robots, and Power Armors:

Power Armors:

Fighter Compliment:

M.D.C. By Location:

Notes:

[1] Instead of having variable shields, the station has shields over vital surface installations. These include weapon clusters, fighter bays, and starship bays. Each shield regenerates at the rate of 5% (500 M.D.C.) per melee round.

[2] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the control center through the asteroids. The control centers are near the center of the asteroid. This fortress also has an auxiliary control center. Even if both control centers are taken out, the weapon systems can be fired using local control. Unlike most platforms, weapon strikes have to penetrate the asteroid fully to be able to injure crew on the bridge. If an attack is attempting to penetrate directly to the control centers, the damage is also applied on the main body of the asteroid.

[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will completely destroy the Asteroid Fortress. While the material the asteroid is constructed from are S.D.C. materials (Rock), a weapon must inflict M.D.C. damage to do any actual damage to the asteroid.

Speed:

Does not move; if the position of the Fortress is changed, fleets of tugs are used to move it.

Statistical Data:

Length:                Approximately 6.21 miles (10 km).

Height:                Approximately 6.21 miles (10 km).

Width:                 Approximately 6.21 miles (10 km).

Mass/Weight:      Approximately 1.65 x 10¹² tons (1.5 x 10¹² metric tons).

Power Systems: 4 Large fusion reactions (20 year duration each). Usually supported by a number of smaller fusion reactors.

Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the asteroid fortress that allow for the storage of up to 300 million tons (272.2 million metric tons) of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Each enlisted crew member has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Fortress officers have more space for personal items. Most of the fortress spaces are take up by extra ammo, armor, troops, and weapons.

Market Cost: 8 to 12 billion credits to construct (Does not include standard fighter and power armor compliment.)

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

1. Eight (8) 25 cm Heavy Laser Cannon Lances: Commonly from Defiler class heavy cruisers and are used as anti-capital ship weapons and can take out frigates in one shot and can do large amounts of damage to bases or larger starships. Scattered around the fortress, two laser cannons can be combined together or each one used separately. Weapon has standard penalties to hit fighters and small targets for a large weapon system. The barrels can be fired either forward and can be rotated 60 degrees horizontally or vertically.

   Maximum Effective Range: 80,000 miles (128,700 km) in space and 80 miles (128.7 km) in an atmosphere.

   Mega Damage: 1D4x1000 M.D.C. each and two can be combined for a total of 2D4x1000.

   Rate of Fire: Maximum of once per melee per cannon.

   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

2. Twenty-Four (24) 10 cm Support Particle Beam Cannons: Powerful weapons but have a limited rate of fire. The cannons are spread around the asteroid fortress, clustered with the heavy lasers. These support the main laser cannons. Up to three cannons may be combined on a target. Weapon has standard penalties to hit fighters and small targets for a large weapon system.

   Maximum Effective Range: 10,000 miles (16,000 km) in space and 20 miles (32 km) in an atmosphere.

   Mega-Damage: 2D4x100 M.D. each (up to three may be combined for 6D4x100.)

   Rate of Fire: Maximum of once per melee per cannon.

   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

3. Forty-Eight (8) Heavy Plasma Cannons: Also clustered around the heavy lasers, the asteroid fortress has forty-eight plasma cannons. They are powerful but are very short ranged, most useful if a ship gets too close. Weapon has standard penalties to hit fighters and small targets for large starship weaponry. The plasma quickly breaks down when the weapon is used in an atmosphere which gives it an extremely short atmospheric range.

   Maximum Effective Range: 1,250 miles (2,012 km) in space and 12,000 feet (3,660 meters) in an atmosphere.

   Mega-Damage: 1D4x100 M.D. each (up to six may be combined for 6D4x100.)

   Rate of Fire: Two per cannon per melee.

   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

4. Twelve (12) Cruise Missile Batteries: The older Kreeghor launchers could launch as large a volley as the newer launchers but were larger which reduced payload. The fortress carries batteries with ten cruise missile launchers each to launch cruise missile. Missile has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship) in space. Whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will continue to travel in a straight line unless set to self destruct but has very low odds of hitting other starships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile, when unpowered, is at -25% to be detected.) Cruise missiles have penalties to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles. Each battery can be used to launch against multiple targets but is rarely used that way.

   Maximum Effective Range: Cruise Missile range is 8,000 miles (12,875 km) in an atmosphere and 4,000,000 miles (6,437,376 km/ 21.5 light seconds) in space.

   Mega-Damage & Properties: See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies Missiles tables for details (Anti-Matter inflict 4D6x100 M.D.C.)

   Rate of Fire: Volleys of ten (10) per launcher, per melee round, for a total of one hundred and twenty (120) cruise missiles per melee round. Launchers are reloaded on the same melee and can be fired again on the next.

   Payload: 480 total, 40 cruise missiles per launcher. The fortress contains another 4,800 cruise missiles deep in the fortress but require 4D6 minutes to fully reload launchers.

5. Sixty (60) Point Defense Lasers/Mini Missile Batteries: Each turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Weapons are mounted around the fortress for point defense, mounted around cruise missile batteries, heavy energy weapon clusters, and hanger bays. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration) in space. Mini-Missile batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.

   Maximum Effective Range: Mini-Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space. Lasers have a range of 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space.

   Mega-Damage: Laser cannon inflicts 2D4x10 M.D. Mini-Missiles vary by mini-missile type (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies Missiles tables for details.)

   Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5). Mini-Missiles are fired one at a time or in volleys of two (2) or four (4) mini-missiles.

   Payload: Laser has effectively unlimited payload. Has twenty-four (24) mini-missiles at each launcher (1,440 total, can carry potentially many times more in storage holds deep in the fortress.)

6. One Hundred and Twenty (120) Point Defense 20 mm Electromagnetic Rail Gun/Mini Missile Batteries: Unlike most of the rail guns used on Phase World / Three Galaxies starships, these are standard electromagnetic rail guns. Weapons are mounted around the fortress for point defense, mounted around cruise missile batteries, heavy energy weapon clusters, and hanger bays. The rail gun still fires projectiles at incredible velocities compared to rail guns on Rifts Earth and projectiles are fired fromthe weapons at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration). Mini-Missile launchers can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.

   Maximum Effective Range: Mini-Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space. Rail guns have a range of 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space.

   Mega-Damage: Rail Cannon inflicts 2D6x10 M.D. for a 30 round burst. Mini-Missiles vary by mini-missile type (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies Missiles tables for details.)

   Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5). Mini-Missiles are fired one at a time or in volleys of two (2) or four (4) mini-missiles.

   Payload: Rail Cannon has 6,000 rounds/ 200 Bursts each, has twenty-four (24) mini-missiles at each launcher (2,,880 total, can carry potentially many times more in storage holds deep in the fortress.)

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

Copyright © 2015, Kitsune. All rights reserved.

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