Nelson Revision

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The Nelson Fleet Revision was the first major revision following the end of the Kamian Succession Wars. In the late-war period, construction had focused entirely on "heavy" battleships and dreadnaughts, which were seen as a necessity for fighting the Kamians. These had to be built cheaply, brought to combat quickly, and lost with little remourse. With the war over, the existing fleet was rapidly becoming un-serviceable.

Orders from Higher called for a new revision of state-of-the-art capital ships, incorporating all of the latest technological advances, but "smaller, lighter, and faster". Presumably "cheaper" was heavily implied but not outwardly stated. Truth be known, just building the ships smaller would significantly reduce costs, but another major factor was lifespan - late-war dreadnaughts were not built to last.

The Nelson Revision was particularly notable for it's awkward use of 'light' and 'heavy'. Only the N-808-B was specifically classified as Light, but the Glorious Authenticity-class Dreadnaught was so small by ship design standard that it was frequently called a "light" dreadnaught. "Pocket battleship" and "bathtub toy" were also frequent demeanors, but in truth every ship from the Nelson Eighty revision was so fine that they became the most highly sought-after in the fleet.

Common Design Elements

All ships in the revision used a similar engine design and configuration, albeit scaled accordingly. All the ships used a new type of high-performance Ion vacuum drive that encorporated turbo-fan driven pre-compression and the new "cyclone" non-linear compression system.

Revision Ships

  • N-801 Dreadnaught
  • N-802 Battleship
  • N-804-C Heavy Cruiser
  • N-805 - Cruiser
  • N-808-B Light Destroyer
  • N-809 - Heavy Destroyer

N-801 "Pocket" Dreadnaught

N-801 Glorious Authenticity-class Dreadnaught. Often mistaken for a heavy battlecruiser, the Glorious Authenticity is small, even by pre-war standards. It is also the first production-model, 70PSL+ dreadnaught. THe ship was often called "Glorious Obscenity" for how much firepower she packed in such a small frame.

Armaments

  • 12 Hybrid Cannons on 3 quad-turrets, 2 forward, 1 aft
  • 8 Gallet Guns on 6 turrets, 1 dual-turret for and aft, and 4 singe turrets mounted amidships on either side of the castle.
  • 1 Fusion Rifle on a single turret mounted atop the castle

Optionally, any of the four single-turret Gallet Guns could be replaced by Fusion Rifles. The Glorious Authenticity actually carries two special "dual/single" turrets on the forward-midships which have both a fusion rifle and a gallet gun. These must be significantly internally re-configured between "modes" and were not incorporated into the production design.

  • 200 guided missile tubes
  • 1,000 dumb-fire tubes
  • 6 Bedlam systems
  • 36 forward torpedo tubes
  • 16 aft tubes

The ship is primarily armed with Skipper Missiles.

  • 11 20-inch Railguns

Each Single Turret and both gallet turrets are equipped with hi-impact rail guns but carry very little ammunition within the turret. Additionally, two forward-facing rails capable of very high-speed launch are fitted.

Railguns on a ship of this size are considered "last ditch" weapons and not given much value. They are favored for their high degree of reliability and low power consumption, but are not very effective. Rail slugs way approximately four tons. The Glorious Authenticity is also fitted with numerous point-defense and close-in armaments designed to deal with threats that get past the main weapons.

N-802 Battleship

N-802 Glorious Gunner-class battleship, colloquially known as "gg". Though considered small by battleship standards, the Glorious Gunner was a grand terror on the battlefield. Rated to 70PSL+ and highly manuverable, it was capable of rapidly positioning itself for an optimal shot, then moving before any major counter offensive could be mounted. It was also highly prized the the ability to "run and gun", or to attack while moving at high speed. The Gunner could fly circles around most other battleships.

The Gunner was designed to do one thing, to do it very well, and to not stop doing it for any reason. While most battery ships required a re-charge period between firing a full barrage, the Gunner was capable of nearly twenty minutes of sustained firing, sending off around thirty shots per minute.

Armaments

  • 8 Hybrid Cannons on 4 dual turrets, two forward, two aft.
  • 4 Bedlam launchers mounted in the nose. This ship is somewhat unique in that it included side-mounted bedlams, being located near the nose for easy loading but not forward-facing.
  • 60 Guided missile tubes
  • 12 torpedo tubes - also in a first, the torpedo tubes are side-mounted, the Gunner lacks for and aft tubes.

Defenses

As is standard practice with a battleship design, close-in defenses are few. Instead, the gunner employed movable armor plates. The gun turrets even had depression they could sink in to to protect the delicate barrels. "Turtle-Mode" as the crew liked to call it, involved pulling the guns in, laying them down, and extending various plates. While still vulnerable, it made the ship much harder to attack, and forced enemy fighters to focus only on the parts of the ship where the shields were strongest.

N-804-C Heavy Cruiser

N-804-C Glorious Aggressor-class Heavy Cruiser. This ship was designed as a high-endurance, long-range main-battle ship, intended to fight all the minor skirmishes along the way, but still be in top-form for the real battle. Nelson wanted a ship that could be a battle group until itself, to run-point defended by a handful of detroyers, and still bring enough firepower to bear.

The Aggressor is considered one of the most successful ships in the program, being an all-around ace in the hole. This is primarily owed to the high number of fusion and gallet guns, both of which are highly adept at penetrating defenses. The ships high degree of maneuverability and strong redundancies are also important.

The Aggressor became the model for the first successful multi-role warship, having successful incorporated high speed, maneuverability, heavy firepower, and effective flight deck capacity. This made them highly sought-after as Freelancer ships.

Engines

Unusual for a ship her size, the Aggressor had four engines, located in protrusions near her aft section. Rated at 70PSL+, any one engine was capable of moving the ship at 40PSL. Being full 100/100 ion-vacuum drives, Aggressor had one of the highest delta-Vs in the fleet.

Armaments

  • 6 hybrid cannons in two triple turrets, forward-mounted
  • 6 gallet guns, 2 forward, 2 aft, two on single turrets amidships
  • 7 fusion riffles, 1 on the castle, 6 amidships

Just like the N-801, any of the single turrets could optionally be replaced by gallet guns. The Aggressor favored fusion cannons because they did more damage at a range.

  • 96 Guided Missil tubes
  • 1,000 dumbfire missile tubes(quite considerable for a ship of her size)
  • 12 forward torpedo tubes
  • 8 aft torpedo tubes
  • 4 "torpedo turrets" or turret-mounted tubes. Each turret has 2 tubes. Mounted amidships.
  • 20 8-inch railguns mounted forward-facing.

The railguns on the Aggressor were used in place of a bedlam system, which the ship lacked due to missile capacity, and were used to great effect. While not considered a "primary" weapon, they were not relegated to a last resort, and many captains made very good use of the weapon's ability to occasionally saw an enemy ship in half.

The primary advantage to a railgun, and the reason for it's inclusion on a ship of this size, is the ability to fire without giving away the ship's position. Rail slugs produce no EM and properly-cooled launchers have very little heat. Passive sensor scans, which can easily pinpoint an energy weapon, have a very difficult time locking on to a ship firing railguns. With twenty eight-inch launchers firing approximately thirty rounds per second, at second-radius the barrage is nearly as powerful as the ship's hybrid cannons.

Flight Deck

The Aggressor was equipped with a single "in and out" flight deck which could be protected behind heavy, retractable armor plates. The bay could field 32 harpies, 96 Star Fighters, twenty bombers, or four Corvettes. Outside of the hangar bay, retractable plates also provided access for four more corvette docking stations. In a sense, the Aggressor was designed to be a miniature battle group all by itself.

N-805 Cruiser

Not to be outdone by it's "heavy" older sister, the N-805 Glorious Goose-class of cruiser had quite a few tricks up it's own sleeve. The Agrressor was intended for duty in and out of a battle group, but the Goose was a fleet ship to it's core. Still fast and manuverable, it was "discreetly" armed.

While not as big a favorite as it's revision sisters, the Goose was known to lay more than a few "golden eggs" and was a huge favorite among the more tactically-minded captains. Controversially, it was hated to the point of loathing by gun crews.

Armaments

The Goose has by far the most interesting weapons array of any capitol ship ever fielded. Common weapons include:

  • Hybrid Cannons, mounted in a single forward turret
  • 2 Gallet Guns mounted in single turrets, 1 forward, 1 aft
  • 3 Fusion Riffles mounted in single turrets, one atop the castle, 2 amidships
  • 40 guided missile tubes
  • 16 torpedo tubes, 12 forward, 6 aft

Additionally, the ship sported 12 beam cannons, 6 mounted on either side.

This was a controversial decision and one not accepted lightly by the crews of many ships. These were large, dreadnaught-sized cannons, but were fixed, side-facing guns. This is a design element that had never been seen before or since. Gun crews absolutely despised it, because the guns were not independently aim-able, and required the entire ship to move. Nelson argued that experienced, talented gunners could overcome the fixed firing problem by curving their shots, and that for this specific reason, beam cannons had been chosen over hybrid cannons. Nelson also pointed out that, given the ships immense speed, it could move in to close range, fire a devastating broadside, and escape. This technique, he commented, could also be carried out by novice gunners, or the weapons could even be operated without dedicated gun crews. None of these statements made him popular with gunners.

More tactically-minded admirals loved the Goose because it had the firepower of a small battery ship, coupled with the speed, maneuverability, and survivability of a cruiser. They agreed that at close range, the inability to independently aim the guns was less important, and that it was a valuable design element. Still, opposition from gun crews and general disdain ultimately made the ship less popular than the others in the revision, though the running joke was "still better than a Glorious Heritage"

N-808-B Light Destroyer

N-808-B Glorious Heritage-Class Light Destroyer. Also known as "Nelson's Foley", the Glorious Heritage was the least successful production-model ship ever fielded. While most fleet historians owe the problem to serious design flaws, Nelson himself insisted that the only problem was power, and that the N-808-B was "just being used wrong".

Design Problems

The only real problem with the ship, according to Nelson, was that she was heavily under-powered. The "A" revision of the design had planned to use a Higgs-Nathan Reactor, which would have provided significantly more output than the standard Nugen Reactor fitted to "The B"( as he always called it).

A brief history of the design revisions are important, here:

  • The original N-808 design was a highly conventional destroyer
  • The N-808-A was Nelson's favorite, and underwent very extensive virtual prototypeing and design studies, all based around the use of a Higgs-Nathan powerplant and what he called "integrated plasma systems". The A design shares many elements in common with C.B.S. Antikythera, a prototype from the Succession Wars that Nelson had worked on.
  • The final N-808-B design was just the N-808-A with the Higgs-Nathan Reactor swapped out for a Nugen Reactor; it even still had all of the plasma sub-systems in place. In his notes, Nelson explained that he planned to let the N-808-B go into production with the Nugen reactor, then re-fit several of them with Higgs-Nathans to prove the viability of the design. This never happened, as most of the production ships were diverted to the Crimson Blade in order to shore-up fleet resources, and Nelson(whom

While other ships in the revision were built by the thousands, only 305 N-808-Bs were ever produced.

Notable N-808-B

  • N-808-B-001 C.B.S. Glorious Heritage, believed lost with all hands, was found decades later in the Deen Gibson Cluster with nearly all hands having survived and constructed a settlement out of the remains of the ship.

N-809 Heavy Destroyer

The N-809 Glorious Matador-class Heavy Destroyer, affectionally called "Mike" by many of it's crews. Traditionally, a destroyer's role is to provide protection for larger ships against stealth vessels and fast-attack ships. The Matador preformed these roles admirably, while also adding in the ability to occasionally one-shot enemy capital ships.

Armaments

  • 1 fusion riffle, turret mounted
  • 8 small-bore beam cannons, fixed forward-facing
  • 60 guided missile tubes
  • 10 torpedo tubes, 6 forward, 4 aft

Glorious Matador was the smallest ship ever fitted with a fusion rifle

Crap

Nelson Revision "Even if the odds aren't in their favor, the Nelsons will always come out on top. The question is in how many pieces." Famed in song and story, the Nelson Fleet Revision was enacted in A.Y. 6865, the first major fleet revision since the end of the Kamian Succession Wars. The Revision produced a series of six ships; and, like many revisions, was not intended as a complete fleet overhaul, rather an augment. Nelson, in particular, was concerned with meeting the demand for smaller, cheaper ships that included the various innovations from the war. Of particular concern were dreadnuaghts; the Crimson Blade no longer needed super-heavy and ultra-heavy dreadnaughts to oppose Kamian capital ships, but these were all that had been constructed for some time. By that same measure, the battleship role had become heavily blurred. Fleet specifications from Higher called for smaller, lighter ships, armed with modern weapons, and intended for a long service-life. The Nelson Revision began with over 200 designs, this eventually lead to thirty prototypes, and six production-model ships. One production-model was quickly retired, leaving five highly successful vessels. The goal had been to produce an entire battle group, Nelson's talents lay most heavily in the gunship roles. As such, his carrier designs never even reached virtual prototyping. The final tally of the Nelson Revision: N-801 - Dreadnaught N-802 - Battlecruiser N-804-C Heavy Cruiser


Nelson, perhaps predicting his own success, gave each prototype ship a name that began with "Glorious", such as the Glorious Heritage. Contents [hide] 1 Basic Design Elements 2 Revision Ships 2.1 2.1.1 Armaments 3 Notes [edit]Basic Design Elements

Every ship in the revision was designed around the Dynamic Response model, which stressed inter-linked, independent systems that could help each other cope with various problems(for example, each power sub-system was linked, allowing one system to power another dynamically). Each vessel also used Ion-vacuum drive engines. Late in the war, these had fallen out of favor on larger ships, which typically employed Gravitational Mass Displacement for sub-light propulsion. Large, military-grade Ion-vacuum engines were expensive to build practically for the ultra-heavy ships near the end of the war. But, as Nelson reasoned, his ships were much smaller, and the orders did call for extended service-life. While initially more expensive, Ion-vacuum engines had an effectively unlimited operational lifespan, while gravity drives grew more costly to maintain as service-years increased. Only warships built in the last twenty years or so of the Succession Wars were worth maintaining in the Ghost Fleet, countless very expensive dreadnaughts were slated for scrapping. [edit]Revision Ships

Of the six production-model vessels, five of them saw great success and were built by the thousands.

N-801 "Pocket" Dreadnaught N-801 Glorious Authenticity-class Dreadnaught. Often mistaken for a heavy battlecruiser, the Glorious Authenticity is small, even by pre-war standards. It is also the first production-model, 70PSL+ dreadnaught. [edit]Armaments 12 Hybrid Cannons on 3 quad-turrets, 2 forward, 1 aft 8 Gallet Guns on 6 turrets, 1 dual-turret for and aft, and 4 singe turrets mounted amidships on either side of the castle. 1 Fusion Rifle on a single turret mounted atop the castle Optionally, any of the four single-turret Gallet Guns could be replaced by Fusion Rifles. The Glorious Authenticity actually carries two special "dual/single" turrets on the forward-midships which have both a fusion rifle and a gallet gun. These must be significantly internally re-configured between "modes" and were not incorporated into the production design. 200 guided missile tubes 1,000 dumb-fire tubes 6 Bedlam systems 36 forward torpedo tubes 16 aft tubes The ship is primarily armed with Skipper Missiles. 11 20-inch Railguns Each Single Turret and both gallet turrets are equipped with hi-impact rail guns but carry very little ammunition within the turret. Additionally, two forward-facing rails capable of very high-speed launch are fitted. Railguns on a ship of this size are considered "last ditch" weapons and not given much value. They are favored for their high degree of reliability and low power consumption, but are not very effective. Rail slugs way approximately four tons. The Glorious Authenticity is also fitted with numerous point-defense and close-in armaments designed to deal with threats that get past the main weapons. N-802 - Battlecruiser N-804-C Heavy Cruiser N-805 - Cruiser N-808-B Light Destroyer N-809 - Heavy Destroyer

[edit]Notes

A N-816-G "Super Heavy Cruiser" appears in one story, probably Retropsectus. N-806 High Speed Cutter? Probably also Retrospectus. page discussion edit history delete move protect watch