Tonnage: 250,000
Armament:
2 Heavy Naval Gauss Rifles
3 NL-55
6 Light NPPC
6 Medium NPPC
6 NL-45
60 ER Large Lasers
60 Large Pulse Lasers
30 Streak LRM-20
30 ER-PPC
Manufacturer: Storm Phoenix
Combine
Ships in class: 4 (SPCS In
Medias Res, SPCS Ad Gloriam, SPCS Deus Ex Machina, SPCS
Falco
Sparvarius)
Overview:
The success of the Fushichou, the first completely home-grown Storm Phoenix
warship, made many Storm Phoenix aerospace commanders start thinking.
The Combine's huge aerospace wing caused logistical headaches for most
commanders, as a full regiment of 180 fighters required, at the very least,
5 Dropships to transport. It would not be unusual for more than one
Warship to be required to carry so many ships, and the Combine simply didn't
have the resources.
But the Fushichou could carry nearly a regiment of fighters. Why,
argued many higher-placed Storm Phoenixes, couldn't a lighter, easier to
produce Warship be created that could transport a regiment on its own?
That would free up enormous Warship and Dropship resources in the Combine,
and of course everyone agreed this would be a desirable turn of events.
Orders were given to Starfire Shipyards to halt its activities and begin
development of yet another new warship.
The designs were finished in record time. The Lakota-class would
not have much acceleration, but its armor, weapons, and fighter capacity
easily met the requirement. Limited cargo space caused some concerns,
but the design still met approval. Political entanglements nearly
stopped the actual production of the ship, however, when House Rikugou
asserted that the Phoenixes were spending far too much effort and resources
on their naval program.
What the politicians weren't aware of (or chose to ignore) was the close
relationship between Starfire and Electra Shipyards during the Lakota's
development. Original plans for the Miami-class destroyer had called
for a much smaller ship. After the first Miami prototype was built, enthusiastic
officials had ordered production of more KF drives so that more ships could
be easily built. By the time the prototype failed, four extra KF
drives were lying around Electra. Starfire had intentionally built
the Lakota to be the same size as the original Miami, to utilize the spare
drives--which the politicians knew, but had apparently forgotten.
(In fact, the wasted KF drives were part of House Rikugou's arguement.)
Electra quickly shipped one of the drives to Starfire. With the most
time- and labor-intensive part of the project done for them, Starfire had
finished and launched the SPCS In Medias Res before the political
debate was even close to finished. As a test run, the ship loaded
the Aerial Blitz Regiment into its fighter bays, jumped to Clan space,
and caused havoc with merchant ships until getting word another Warship
was coming to engage them.
Faced with the Lakota's performance, opponents of the project were mostly
quieted. However, Starfire was strictly ordered not to build any
more Lakotas than they could acquire KF drives from Electra for.
Three more ships were built, and Lakota production was halted. The
performance of the four that exist may convince the Combine to begin full-scale
production, however, as there has been pressure from aerospace commanders
to continue the program.
Type : Lakota
Tech : Clan
Mass : 250,000 tons
Fuel : 1,000 tons (2,500)
Tons/Burn Day : 39.52
Safe Thrust : 2
Maximum Thrust : 3
Sail Integrity : 3
KF Drive Integrity : 7
Heat Sinks : 2,051 (4,102)
Structural Integrity : 75
Armor
Fore : 72
Fore-Sides : 70
Aft-Sides : 70
Aft : 60
Cargo capacity : 7,094 tons
Bay 1 : Fighters (90) 18
Doors
Bay 2 : Fighters (90) 18
Doors
Bay 3 : Cargo
2 Doors
Dropship Capacity : 0
Grav Deck : 1 (70-meter diameter)
Escape Pods : 88
Life Boats : 0
Crew : 527
Armament :
2 HNGR
3 NL-55
6 Light NPPC
6 Med NPPC
6 NL-45
60 ER Large Lasers
60 Large Pulse Lasers
30 Streak LRM-20
30 ER-PPC
150 tons HNGR ammo (300 rounds)
120 tons SLRM-20 ammo (720 shots)
Notes :
Equipped with lithium-fusion battery system.
Armor is Lamellor ferro-carbide
