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Cyrene Battleship (Refitted Agamemnon Class):

There are not many battleships that are controlled by minor powers - mercenaries, independent defense forces, and smaller government. Large capital ship are almost exclusively in the hands of major governments including the Consortium of Civilized Worlds, the Human Alliance, Wolfen militaries, and the Trans-Galactic Empire. Generally, such ships are scrapped instead of being sold while cruisers and destroyers are much more often. Those that are in the hands of others are mostly old and even ancient vessels. One example is that a handful of Agamemnon class battleships which are in the hands of minor powers.

One of these is the battleship “Cyrene.” The battleship herself had a proud history, having fought in dozens of battles in the earth days of the Human Alliance. With newer battleships however, she was considered outdated and was put into one of many mothball fleets scattered around Human Alliance space, mostly in uninhabited system. Usually such fleets only have a few caretakers watching them.

Similar to many ships, she was partially cannibalized to keep other ships in repair. This included most of her secondary weaponry and parts of her primary batteries. A larger percentage of smaller vessels such as the Boadicea class cruiser remain in service. In her reserve yard, the Cyrene was one of the last ships to be signed off for scrapping. Smaller ships, such as cruisers, can be transported aboard large specially designed transports. As such, they can be transported intact to a scrap yard. Battleships though have to be cut up in system and then transported in large block to a scrap yard.

There were some preparation down before being sold for scrapped including disabling the ship’s remaining weapon batteries. Also busy trying to shut down the yard, the caretaker crew did not due as complete a job as they otherwise might. Trying to get anybody interested in the old battleship was more difficult than one might think. Most thought she was little more than a husk. In the end she was sold for almost nothing, one might even say almost given away.

The company that bought her was a very marginal company and the company went out of business soon afterward being awarded the ship. At the same time, the yard was in its final stages of being shut down. Being that there was little of value in the yard, it was decided to decommission the yard completely, leaving the battleship, and the final military personnel departed the system. She was the last ship in the yard and it was thought that the scrapping company would soon move their personnel into the system.

Before any curious prospectors visited the system, it was designated for use in military training and considered restricted. For various reasons, the red dwarf system was never used as a training area and there was no real interest in the area. The percentage of valuable metals in the system also made mining not economically viable. Part of the reason why the system was chosen for a reserve base was because the was really nothing of interest in the system As a result, the system was virtually forgotten about. Occasionally, a warships might pass through the system, shoot up an asteroid and head back out.

Never being used for military training, the Consortium government was eventually decided to remove the system from under military designation. The military showed not much interest in retaining the system. Looking through records of the system, one of the officers about a survey ship “Vestland” learned of a former scrap yard in the uninhabited system. Spoke to the captain and got the captain interested in at least a quick survey. The thought was that while all of the ships were suppose to have been gone, he thought that it was likely that there would still be both valuable debris and facilities. Assuming there was anything of value, the ship could negotiate a contract for salvaging what remained in system.

The “Vestland” however was in for quite a surprise. There was the hull of a ancient battleship still intact. There was a few places where the hull was pitted from impacts but the ship was in surprisingly good shape. It was thought that most likely that the ship would be little more than a husk. Still, it was considered worth it to dispatched a shuttle and crews to explore the hulk. The surprise turned into something akin to shock when it was found that the huge ship was only partially stripped.

Returning back to civilization, the crew tried to find out what the status of the ship was. All of this needed to be done quietly so that no other company would scoop the ship while the situation was being investigated. After extensive research, records were found indicating that the old battleship had been sold to a scrapping company but that the company was long gone. The captain himself tried to approach the Human Alliance military in hopes of getting permission to deal with the ship bust received only disinterest. As far as they were concerned, the ship was no longer theirs.

In the end, the captain and crew of the “Vestland” decided that they should just claim the ancient ship for their own. A more extensive survey was done with the plan to strip anything valuable off the battleship. The survey though seemed to indicate that they might be able to get the ship partially operational. That would allow the ship to be more completely scrapped. Finally, the executive officer of the survey ship suggested that instead of scrapping the ship, there were both smaller powers and mercenary companies who would pay quite well for a battleship even an ancient one. The Free Worlds Council was always a candidate. It was decided that at least an attempt would be made to restore the ship to something like operational status.

There began a many month exploration of the viability restoring the vessel enough that it could be moved. Eventually, the drives were able to be restored along with some minimal crew systems such as lighting, gravity, and partial life support. The repairs should at least allow the ship to reach a large facility where it could be refitted. It was judged to far and too danger to reach Free Worlds Council space. The Tri-Galactic Military Service is one of the few groups independent of the major powers with the ability to refit battleships with the mercenary company operating around twenty battleships. As a result, it was decided that they would go to one of their major fleet bases. Who knew, the Tri-Galactic Military Service might be interested in the old battleship themselves.

It was decided to register the ship as a civilian vessel as none of the weapon were considered operational. As with the weapon systems, the defensive shields were not functional either. Unarmed and unprotected, the ship made its way slowly out of Consortium space with little more than a skeleton. The crew was afraid to push the jury-rigged drive to full power, which made it actually slower than many merchant vessels.

As luck would have it, the pirate ship called “Blackthorn” just happened to be in a position. Thinking that the Cyrene was an old and slow merchant vessel based on her speed, the pirate vessel decided to set up ambush. Otherwise, such a large prey would likely have been left alone by a converted merchant vessel as the Blackthorn was. Only partially operational and hopelessly outdated, the battleship’s ancient sensors were not able to pick up the pirate ship. While unlikely that she would have been able to avoid the pirate ship, it is likely she would have been able to call for help.

Without warming, half a dozen gravity warheads fired from the pirate vessel pulled the old battleship out of contra-grav space. As one might expect, with the drives of the Cyrene having been partially jury rigged, the result were that the drives were badly overloaded and major parts of the system were blown completely out. Part of the system blowing out also took the jury rigged communication array down. It would take hours if not days to restore the drives to operational status especially with the tiny crew the battleship had aboard. The communication would take a bit less time but even that would take time the old battleship did not seem to have left.

It took a few moments for the pirate ship to realize what they had pulled from contra-grav space. They braced for massive return fire from the battleship. While not within particle beam range, the pirate ship was in easy range of the capital and long range missile launchers. Why he did not retreat was a good question. As it was a converted merchant vessel, the pirate ship was quite fragile. Still, after several minutes without any fire from the ancient battleship, the captain of the pirate ship decides that the ship in front of him was unarmed.

During this pause, most of the crew of the ancient battleship was desperate with little hope of survival. The ship was suppose to avoid trouble. One crew member had a different idea. This crew member was a former fleet officer and thought that there was a way to bring up the main batteries operation. There were no missiles of course but by using power conduits not designed to power the weapons, they might be brought online. She ran for the engineering panel and began rerouting power systems, overriding safety circuitry at the same time.

The pirate captain decided to demand surrender. As the communication system was down on the battleship, there was no way to communicate in respond but most likely they would have surrendered. It is just as well because the captain was well known for both abusing prisoners and selling them as slaves to the Splugorth and others. Eventually, he ran out of patience. He likely wanted to capture the ship intact as it would have made him almost king among pirates. He began bringing his ship towards the disabled battleships.

Somehow, the former fleet officer was able to get the two main forty centimeter particle beams powered up. The pirate captain had elected to keep his shields spread instead of focused forward. With little operational fire control, she managed to get the two particle beams aimed at the pirate ship. Coming as a complete surprise, the two heavy particle beams hit and penetrated the shield. A few second later, a second volley was able to be fired. These hit the bridge, killing the pirate captain and most of his senior officers. Suddenly, the pirate ship was without command. Unfortunately, the second volley had overloaded the jury rigged power to the weapon systems.

Somehow though, one of the other crew of the Cyrene was able to get the communication array back operational. Just as it came back online, the crew heard somebody aboard the pirate ship sending out a desperate message of surrender. It was hard to respond at first due to the rejoicing on the bridge of the ancient warship. Trying to get the pirates under control was quite a tricky exercise however. Otherwise, the pirates might overwhelm the skeleton crew of the battleship. Using the pirate ship’s own shuttles, a few pirates were brought aboard the battleships, disarmed, and then locked up. About a fifth of the crew of the pirate ship had been killed by the twin particle beams. There were also quite a number of captives that had been aboard the pirate ship. Many of them were skilled ship personnel and many of these in turn offered to help get the battleship’s drives operational once again. Being the practical type, it was decided that they would also bring the pirate ship back with them to the Tri-Galactic Military Service fleet base.

Patching the propulsion system of the Cyrene actually took several days but eventually it was done. The weaponry was patched together so that not just the 40 cm particle beams could be fired but the two 28 cm particle beams could be fired as well. As well, the capital missiles of the pirate ship were stripped and loaded aboard the Cyrene. Through cannibalizing launchers and using parts swiped from the pirate ship capital missile battery, two of the four capital missile launchers were able to be made operational. Still, the drive was not in great shape and it was decided to take it even slower and took a good two weeks before the fleet base was reached.

Now armed and able to defend itself to a limited extent, the old battleship reached the Tri-Galactic Military Service facility with no further problems. By this time, several of the crew of the salvage vessel decided that they would man the Cyrene themselves instead of trying to sell it as was originally planned. There was a good sized bounty on the pirates and the salvage value of the pirate ship itself went some way to financing the restoration of the battleship although it took several years and there was the need to get additional loans in order to complete the restoration. Part of these loans were from the Tri-Galactic Military Service in return for serving with them for some time in an auxiliary capacity.

The restoration was extensive and while not anything like as capable as a Protector or even a Yamato, the Cyrene is still a quite effective warship. After being examined, the propulsion system was not able to be restored properly and was hopelessly slow even if it could have been restored. Ripping out the original drives and replacing them was in many ways the most difficult part of the rebuild. In the end, they were replaced by powerful civilian models. Able to reach four and a half light years per hour, they are over twice as fast as the originals as well as actually being smaller units. Speed in normal space is also improved greatly with the new drives. Early on there were concerns about the power systems and the fusion plants were replaced by modern civilian fusion plants which both produce more power and are more compact.

In addition, the original shielding system had already been stripped from the Cyrene. It was replaced by a shielding system which is basically an upgraded version of the system carried on the Wyvern pocket battleship and uses largely civilian components. It is about twenty percent more powerful than the original generator yet is more compact. Modern military sensors replace the original systems, one case where civilian systems simply are not up to the task.

Neither the two 40 cm particle beams and two 28 cm particle beams had not been stripped but three of the four 18 cm particle beams and all of the 12 cm lasers had been long been removed from the battleship. It was decided to not replace the lasers but instead mount eight 18 cm particle beams instead of the original four. Two were removed from the captured pirate ship but the other five had to be acquired. Virtually the whole point defense battery had to be replaced with sixteen variable focus particle beams, twelve electro-magnetic rail guns, and twelve mini-missile batteries being fitted. While the electromagnetic rail guns are very similar to the original systems, they are still very effective and easier to maintain that gravity rail guns.

The heavy missile batteries are not replaced but have been reconditioned completely. In many ways, the ship is most effective in a missile duel where new missiles make the ship extremely effective. Part of the reduction in space required by system allowed an increase in the magazines allow both more long range and more capital missiles to be carried. Its heavy armor also allows the battleship to withstand quite a bit of abuse. Of course, being old type launchers, the launchers cannot fire as large volleys as newer launchers. Eventually they might be replaced by new launchers. The intermediate plan however is to carry forty pepper box launchers to augment the firepower if possible. Would allow almost three hundred capital missiles to be fired as a single volley even without upgrading the internal launchers.

One advantage of the various upgrades is the reduction in crew compliment. In fact, the civilian systems require fewer crew than military systems in most cases. Total crew was able to be reduced down to just over twelve hundred, less than a Yamato class battleship. The Agamemnon class was never designed around a large troop complement unlike the later Human Alliance Yamato or Consortium Protector class battleships. The troop compliment is further decreased although the number of light power armors was doubled. Finally, three squadrons of light fighters and a single squadron of medium fighters replace the three squadrons of medium fighters. Through a friend, the ship was able to get two squadrons of Bobcat and a single squadron of Bearcat fighters. For medium fighters, upgraded Osprey fighters are carried

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

Model Type: SB-12 (Modified)

Vehicle Type: Battleship

Crew: 1,235 (130 Officers, 1,205 enlisted)

Troops: 200 marines (100 typically stay on board for ship defense), 90 fighter pilots, and 48 power armor pilots.

Vehicle, Robots, and Power Armors:

Fighter compliment can vary with 18 Light Starfighters replacing 12 Medium Starfighters.

Power Armors:

Fighter Compliment:

Special:

M.D.C. By Location:

Notes:

[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge through the ship’s armor. This ship also has an auxiliary bridge. Even if both bridges are taken out, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.

[2] Destroying the main engines means that the ship’s faster than light systems are destroyed and maximum sublight speed is reduced by half.

[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the battleship out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.

[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (3,000 M.D.C.) per melee round.

Speed:

Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.

Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.7 percent of light per melee.

Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 350 mph (563 kph), can enter an atmosphere and can leave but is not designed for atmospheric flight.

Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 4.5 light years per hour.

Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Carries about four years worth of supplies on board.

Statistical Data:

Length: 3,480 feet (1,060.7 meters).

Height: 532 feet (162.2 meters).

Width: 828 feet (252.4 meters).

Weight: 12.8 Million Tons (11.6 million Metric Tons)

Power System: Advanced Fusion with a 20 year life span. The ship normally only goes 5 years between refueling and refitting.

Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 80,000 tons (72,600 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. Ship’s officers have more space for personal items. Most of the ship’s spaces are taken up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.

Market Cost: An Agamemnon class battleship would cost about 20 billion credits to manufacture in present time in the Three Galaxies. These ships are no longer being produced and when available, these ships sell for 60+ billion credits because of the rarity of battleships. Due to the extensive refits, the Cyrene would likely cost 80 to 100 billion credits.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

1. Two (2) Main 40 cm Particle Beam Batteries: Mounted along the sides of the hull are two mounts with a single 40 cm particle beams on each mount. These cannons are capable of firing forward to aft and anywhere along the side of the ship. The cannons are also capable of 45 degrees up or down. When these weapons are massed, they are capable of taking out cruisers in a few blasts. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.

   Maximum Effective Range: 70,000 miles (112,650 km)in space and 70 miles (112.7 km) in an atmosphere

   Mega Damage: 1D6x1000 M.D.C. each particle beam.

   Rate of Fire: Maximum of three (3) times per melee per particle beam.

   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

2. Two (2) Main 28 cm Particle Beam Batteries: In the front of the ship are two 28 cm particle beam cannons. These can be fired forward and can be angled up to 120 degrees aft (can only fire one cannon at a target at that angle but can spin to be able to bring both batteries to bear) and can fire at a 30 degree angle up or down. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.

   Maximum Effective Range: 70,000 miles (112,650 km)in space and 70 miles (112.7 km) in an atmosphere.

   Mega Damage: 1D4x1000 M.D.C. each (Both can be linked for 2D4x1000 M.D.C. for both)

   Rate of Fire: Maximum of three (3) times per melee per particle beam.

   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

3. Eight (8) Secondary 18 cm Particle beam Batteries: These 18 cm particle beams are mounted in the forward area of the ship. Batteries can be fired up to 120 degrees toward the rear on either side (can only fire one cannon at a target at that angle but can spin to be able to bring both batteries to bear) and can fire at a 30 degree angle up or down. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities.

   Maximum Effective Range: 70,000 miles (112,650 km)in space and 70 miles (112.7 km) in an atmosphere.

   Mega Damage: 3D6x100 M.D.C. each (6D6x100 M.D.C. for two)

   Rate of Fire: Maximum of three (3) times per melee per particle beam.

   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

4. Sixteen (16) Variable Focus Particle Beam Mounts: These particle beams are copied from those carried on the CAF Assault Shuttle and will fire a very powerful narrow beam and can fire a scatter effect that is less powerful but is capable of striking multiple targets. The weapon system is quite useful against missiles although the cone is not as wide as Tachyon cannon sprays are (Gives +2 bonus vs fast moving targets such as missiles.) Weapons are mounted in turrets that can rotate 360 and have a 180 arc of fire. Each mount can be operated by a gunner or a gunner program (+2 to strike, 3 Attacks per melee).

   Maximum Effective Range: 300 miles (480 km) in space and 3 miles (4.8 km) in an atmosphere.

   Mega Damage: Single Target: 4D6x10 per blast. Wide Beam: 5D6 to all targets within a 5,000 foot (1,524 meter) diameter area. When fired as a wide beam, the cannon cannot be used on targets closer than 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) away.

   Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).

   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

5. Twelve (12) Point Defense 15 mm Electromagnetic Rail Guns: Unlike most of the rail guns used on Phase World / Three Galaxies starships, these are standard electromagnetic rail guns. They are used as an anti-starfighter and missile weapon and against targets that are impervious to energy. Each rail gun is in a turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Projectiles are fired from mounts at a significant fraction of the speed of light. The weapon system cannot be used to engage targets while traveling at faster than light velocities. Rail guns use 15 mm depleted uranium projectiles.

   Maximum Effective Range: 16 miles (26 km) through atmosphere and 800 miles (1,290 km) in space.

   Mega-Damage: Rail gun inflicts 3D6x10 M.D.C. for an 80 round burst.

   Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5).

   Payload: 16,000 Rounds (200 Bursts) each cannon.

6. Four (4) Cruise Missile Batteries: 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.) Whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launching starship, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will continue to travel in a straight line unless preset to self destruct or receives a destruct code but has very low odds of hitting star ships (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. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time. Batteries have a lower number of actual launchers than the modern CAF cruise missile batteries and each launcher is slightly larger in size.

   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 missile tables for details (Anti-Matter multi-warheads inflict 5D6x100 M.D.C. each.)

   Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), eight (8), sixteen (16), or twenty-four (24) per launcher, per melee round, for a maximum of 96 missiles per melee. Launchers are reloaded on the same melee and can be fired again on the next.

   Payload: 96 total, 24 cruise missiles per launcher. Ship has 12 reload of missiles (1,152 cruise missiles reloads total)

7. Six (6) Long Range Missile Batteries: Missile has a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light per turn (faster than any starship.) 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 star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile, when unpowered, is at -25% to be detected.) Long range missiles do not have penalties to hit small targets, unlike cruise missiles, and are all considered smart missiles. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time. Batteries have a lower number of actual launchers than the modern CAF long range missile batteries and each launcher is slightly larger in size.

   Maximum Effective Range: Long Range Missile range is 3,400 miles (5,470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,89700 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.

   Mega-Damage & Properties: See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details (Fusion warheads inflict 2D4x100 M.D.C. each.)

   Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), eight (8), sixteen (16), or twenty-four (24) per launcher, per melee attack.

   Payload: 2,880 total, 480 long range missiles per launcher.

8. Twelve (12) Mini-Missile Launchers: These are missile turrets used for point defense against enemy fighters and missiles. 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). 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.

   Mega-Damage: Varies with mini-missile type (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details.)

   Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of four (4) or eight (8) mini-missiles.

   Payload: 128 per launcher for a total of 1,536 mini-missiles. Cargo hold has an additional 9,216 mini-missile. Reloading launchers from cargo hold takes 1D6 minutes.

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

Copyright © 2013, Kitsune. All rights reserved.

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