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Fighter Class
Corvette Class
Frigate Class
Super-Capital Class
Non-Combat & Resource Classes
Corvette Class
Corvette Class Description
The Corvette class is the larger cousin of the fighters. While still remaining fairly cheap, corvettes sacrifice the fighter's speed and maneuverability for more armor and firepower. They are best used against swarms of Fighters as, unlike frigates, they are able to track and destroy their nimbler cousins without much trouble.
Taiidan Light Corvette - "Raachok"
The ancient raachok was a hurled weapon from the early martial period on Kharak. Light infantry used to carry a half dozen of these leaded darts into battle and then throw them in rapid fashion as they closed with the opponent. They were not the most effective weapon for inflicting injuries, but the enemy was forced to raise their shields to protect themselves from the hail of whistling projectiles, and so the infantry could often close and get in the first blow before the enemy had recovered. The name is apt for this class of Taiidani Light Corvette for two reasons. The first is purely cosmetic: the tapered shape of the light corvette is similar to the old weapon, and the maneuvering vanes on the back of the corvette fold up along the fuselage when the ship is docked, in much the same way that the ancient dart's stiffened leather fins would fold up while the raachok was being carried in its special belt slot.
The second reason for the comparison is a more tactical matter. The light corvette is the first attempt by Taiidani scientists to create a multi-crew strike craft, and as such, it has a special problem. Without the speed of a fighter or the hitting power of a capital ship, the light corvette, even with its light, high-speed cannon, is relegated to harassing fire duty in most fleet contacts. The Raachok, like its namesake, is best employed as a dangerous distraction. In large actions this can mean a flight of Raachoks will close first to draw out enemy fighter screens and leave the main body of the opposing fleet open to a first strike from heavier ships. Going in first leaves Raachok crews facing incredible dangers, but receiving little of the glory.
Kushan Heavy Corvette - "Hammer"
The Hammer class of heavy Corvette lives up to its name by being hard, brutal and completely utilitarian in design. When Kushan engineers worked up the prototype for this class, their only concerns were lethality and survivability-only a few moments' perusal of this heavy strike craft will show how well they succeeded. Hammer class corvettes have been nicknamed 'Coffins' by their three-man crews because they are the only corvette class vessels without any sort of crew area whatsoever. Every spare cubic meter aboard has been packed with targeting systems, weapon support functions, and armor plating, so that the only spaces left for crew are small cocoon cockpits that are sealed from the outside, with an armor plate, by a technician. The only way for a pilot to leave the ship without the help of a technician is to eject the entire cockpit cocoon.
Despite the hardship suffered by her crews, the sacrifice of amenities aboard makes the Hammer the most heavily armed and armored strike craft in the fleet. With its twin heavy gun turrets, this ship can bring withering fire to bear against both heavy fighters and small capital ships. The heavy armor means this heavy corvette can also stay in the thick of the fray, drawing fire away from more vulnerable vessels while still making it back for re-supply and repair. In fact, the operational limits of the Hammer class are more often dictated by crew endurance than by damage, ammunition, or fuel. When employed in an anti-Frigate role, Hammers are often seen in wolf packs of five ships in loose formation, and are especially lethal against ships dependant on spinal mounted Ion Cannons.
Kushan Repair Corvette - "Mercy"
The Mercy series of repair corvettes evolved from the original maintenance shuttles from the Mothership construction program. These small-hulled ships would dart in among the larger vessels, refueling and repairing when needed. The two-man crew was also equipped for emergency evac, and they were often called upon to pull pilots and engineers from the wreckage after a collision caused by guidance errors. As it became obvious that the expeditionary fleet would have to be combat capable, it was natural to take these "mercy" shuttles and adapt them to light combat repair and refueling duty.
The corvette design evolved naturally as design teams layered the basic shuttle frame with composite armor layers and a small turret for self-protection. A series of lateral ports allows a Mercy corvette to vent reaction plasma directly into the drive system of a docked fighter. Recent advancements in miniaturization technologies have allowed engineers to mount a variant of the Phased Disassembler Array in the nose section of the Mercy. Essentially running in reverse of the operations performed onboard the Provider Class Resource Collector, the Mercy's PDA, with a skilled engineer in the co-pilots chair and some of the most advanced structural software in the fleet, can basically break down the damaged portions of a larger ship and reconstruct them layer by layer. While this system is painfully slow, a flight of Mercy class corvettes can maintain the armor of a capitol ship as easily as they can service squadrons of strike craft that have retreated from battle.
Taiidan Salvage Corvette - "Tiirshak"
When plans were being drawn up for the grand expedition core-ward, Fleet Intelligence put in a request for a corvette-sized vessel capable of capturing and analyzing any damaged alien vessels that might be encountered--possibly under combat conditions. The answer from Fleet Command was a plan to convert the Klaar class fleet tugs, used in constructing the scaffolding and Mothership, into heavily armored, combat-capable vessels that would be able to survive long enough in a firefight to gather important information from enemy wreckage. This revised corvette design was called the Tiirshak, and advanced computers embodying AI-driven decryption and virus routines were also installed to give these vessels the ability to subvert and over-ride another ship's command systems. While these subversion routines will probably only work on badly damaged ships, it should give a Tiirshak the ability to tow in enemy ships to be studied and retro-fitted for Taiidani use.
The ship is named for Tiirshak Sjet, the famous Taiidani scholar who turned his back not only on his Kith but on his entire race in order to wander the deserts in search of insight. The Salvage corvette is meant to operate in much the same way, alone and undefended in places where the situation is not fully known. In most cases, a heavy fighter escort would draw too much attention to the salvage corvette's mission, and so they usually operate alone, or with one or two Fiirkan scout fighters. Salvage crews face an dangerous and unglamorous job and in many Taiidani fleets, a tour of duty aboard a Tiirshak is considered disciplinary action.
Kushan Minelayer Corvette - "Resolute"
In space warfare, a successful fleet must fully exploit all four dimensions, and use tactics fully adapted to the environment. Dependence on terrestrial concepts like "up" and "down" or even "forward" and "backward" can only lead to dangerous mistakes. Combat is so fluid and dynamic that most static defenses, such as turret stations, can be easily out-flanked and destroyed from a variety of angles, and area denial weapons such as minefields are rarely more than a nuisance. This was the case until a Kushan weapon design team, working on improving plasma bomb efficiency, made a breakthrough that would allow for dynamic minefields.
Modifications made to the magnetic field arrays of plasma bombs created a self-contained warhead that would passively track and gravitate towards a selected target. Because of their relatively slow attack speed, relative to a normal plasma bomb, mines are relatively useless against strike craft and fast frigates--but can be deployed with devastating effect against capital ships, whose sensors rarely detect them in time against the backdrop of higher speed targets.
Resolute minelayers can operate in both attack and defensive roles. As part of an attack group, they operate on the fringes of a battle, dropping mines in toward enemy capital ships one at a time while staying on the move in order to avoid detection. While working in the defensive mode, Resolutes can be found slowly mining the area of space around stationary tactical assets such as asteroid belts, resource collector stations and lab facilities. Resolute crews themselves have worked out a third mode of operation known as Stalking, wherein they will work in tandem with a probe ship to discern the attack vectors of large enemy fleets, and then lay all their mines in the enemy's path in one massive burst. This ambush can be devastating for the attackers, but is risky for the minelayers; they are vulnerable to forward-ranging fighters, and the rapid regeneration of mines stresses the corvette's fusion plant above safety specs.
Taiidan Multi-Gun Corvette - "Diirvaas"
The major weakness of frigates and larger capitol ships is that generally their weapons are designed to engage ships of analogous size and function. Heavy turrets can punch gaping holes in an enemy cruiser, but they must rely on pure luck to hit high maneuverability targets. This leaves heavier ships very vulnerable to massed attacks by strike craft. While fielding large numbers of defensive fighters is the immediate answer to this problem, Fleet Command realized that fighters are better used in the offensive role and so an order for some sort of larger anti-fighter platform was placed. Fleet engineers soon settled on a corvette hull as an ideal platform, mixing moderate speed and maneuverability with enough armor to survive in the thick of battle.
While designing the chassis was relatively simple, implementing a fire control system capable of handling the six articulated turrets called for in the specs required intensive software development. Other problems involved the reliability of the high-speed turrets under constant use, and finally engineers had to abandon traditional hydraulic turrets and replace them with a maglev system based on super-conducting polymers. This system worked beyond expectation, allowing for high-speed target acquisition without increased wear and heat build-up in the turret assembly. The only drawback was that the incredibly high torque generated by the turrets can sometimes overwhelm the Corvette's gyro-stabilizers, and inexperienced pilots can find themselves tumbling uncontrollably through space until they can reset the turrets.
While it required a long and difficult design process, the resulting corvette, code-named Diirvass after the ancient discipline of sword-dancing, was finally commissioned. It has performed admirably in combat. Diirvass class corvettes will often be found operating close in beside Sajuuk Cor class Ion Beam Frigates, protecting their vulnerable flanks from enemy fighters.
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