Doomsought
Well-known member
Continuing from my last post:
Though revolutionary, the Arizona was a deeply flawed vessel. When first launched in late 2568 its engines were horrifically overbuilt. After an initial shake down cruise with dummy modules filled with gravel on its broadsides, it was brought back into dry-dock to have redundant cooling pumps and several unnecessary struts removed to replace the four auxiliary VMI-430 Fusion Torches with the same VMI-630 Fusion Torches used in its main drives, which also simplified maintenance. Do to their placement and its overbuild structure, none of the redundant equipment could be replaced with cargo space, leaving it with a pitiful cargo space just above half a kiloton. Likewise its overbuild structure prevented weapons from being mounted in several key places for full weapons coverage, however its excessive engines ameliorated that problem to a certain extent.
That is before you take the Modular mission pods into account. Even with pods using half the available K-F boom capacity allotted to them, it would have as much cargo capacity as any other warship and room to spare for weapons. During the height of the Reunification war it was equipped with a pair of mission pods simply labeled the Brawler Configuration. These pods gave each of its broadsides 18 NAC/20s, nearly half as many heavy NPPCs and a White shark missile battery supported by 24 fighters and several Large laser batteries. When combined with a maximum thrust of 4 gravities, this impressive weapons array turned terrifying.
While impressed with their new warship, the Taurian admiralty remained well aware of the Arizona's flaws. With the Star League becoming more aggressive, the Taurian Concordat had suffered multiple border skirmishes that each almost resulted in a declaration of war by early 2574. The Taurian Concordat commissioned a new destroyer to be designed utilizing the same technologies as the Arizona but learning from its flaws. This decision was well timed and the first few of the new Colt class destroyers had were just completed at the start of 2577, and the next wave of Colt class Destroyers had their keels laid down before the first had finished their shakedown cruise.
The Colt was designed with the Starleague's Lola class destroyer in mind as an opponent. Lessens well learned, its engines were smaller proportionally compared to the Arizona, and its weapons could cover every firing arc. Knowing that its greatest strength would by in its broadsides, most of its fore and aft weapons were mounted to be able to combine their fire in those directions. It was mostly armed with NAC/20s and lasers, but also mounted several heavy NPPCs. Its primary cargo hold only had a third of the capacity of the Lola, but this was still a vast improvement on the Arizona, and most Module configurations let it match the Lola in cargo capacity while also having a much heavy broadside.
For most of 2577 the Concordat's most advanced ships were kept in the Taurus home fleet waiting for heavier broadside armaments to be completed in the Taurus drop-ship yards. It was during the massed naval combat of 2581 where the Arizona and Colt were able to show their true strength. While the infamous Brawler configuration had not been created yet, the Arizonas' current MMPs were already far equipped more guns than conventional cruiser could carry. More importantly, because they maneuvered keep broadsides bearing on the enemy most of the damage they sustained during the battle was soaked by their MMPs. When the Taurian navy was forced to retreat, the Arizonas and Colts were able to swap out their mission pods and return to harass the Star League navy. Out of position, the SLDF lost another twenty ships, mostly troop transports, and were rendered incapable of pursuing the invasion as fast as was originally intended.
While the Taurian Concordat often had to rely on asymmetrical tactics on the ground, Arizona and Colt class warships made that necessity short lived and solidified the Concordat as a naval power able to match any of the great houses. The success of the Brawler configuration, first deployed in 2582, and the Colt class destroyer also solidified tripple-20 naval auto-cannon battery the standard armament of the Taurian navy.
Through 2583 the Taurian Navy focused on pushing the Star League Navy out of its space, the action peaking with the assassination of General Kincaid in early January and tapering off over the rest of the year as Star league forces when into general retreat. This period of time also saw the next wave of Arizona class cruisers and Colt Destroyers coming out of Taurian shipyards. However, another wave of Arizonas was not laid down. Experience with constructing Modular Mission pods had by this time improved the Taurian's understanding to the technology to the point where they could develop a new standard of Pods capable of carrying nearly 150 kilotons of equipment. With the possibilities too tempting to ignore, the next ships laid down by Taurian Yard workers were battleships rather than cruisers. However this was a gamble, as it required the recycling of older Taurian warships as well as much of their battle salvage in order to supply the necessary resources.
The Houston and sister ships carried 3 MMPs, a vertically oriented 100 kiloton mission module on its nose and two 150 kiloton mission modules for its broadsides. The froward and aft weapon batteries flanking its broadside mission modules were composed of a quartet of Heavy NPPCs and a pair of tripple-20 naval AC bays. The Mission pods constructed to fill its broadsides were based on the Brawler configuration, though heavier with energy weapons with the hope than NPPCs could reduce the range advantage of Hegemony Naval Gauss weaponry. The Taurian admiralty had also noticed how missile damaged had been a disproportionate cause for damage to critical systems to their advanced warships. Because of this the Houston was the first warship class designed to use point defense weapon batteries specifically for missile defense, though several Colts would be refit with prototype point defense batteries before the Houston was completed.
The Taurian Nary skirmished into Liao and Davian territory in 2584, striking at naval supply bases needed for a Star League offensive rather than taking territory. At the same time General Amos Forlough gathered Star League forces for the next wave of attacks. The Star League could not take the humiliation of an upstart periphery state driving them out, and retaliated harshly against the Taurian rally. Battles with the Star League's focused spearheads were especially brutal, and the last of the Taurians pre-war cruisers were destroyed by 2587. At this point pre-war destroyers we also brought out of the Taurians main battle lines and either recycled to build more Colts or sent on harassment missions against SLN supply lines. However the completion of the Houston and Dallas was pushed ahead to January 2588 and, combined with flanking raids on the Star League supply lines, were able halt the Star league advance.
The end of 2588 through 2589 saw few gains for either side. Both the Taurian Concordat and Star League fielded the most advanced ships of the age for large fleet battles, for no other warships were worthy of the fight. Despite the Taurians having the smaller economy, after twenty years of fighting, moral was dwindling on both sides and it was only a question of who would break first. In May 2590, during the sixth assault on New Vandenberg, the Houston was caught out of formation by two Farragut battleships. Facing two on one odds, yet giving as good as it got, the Houston had the attention of the entire battle at this definitive moment.
She won.
Despite both Farraguts being heavily damaged during the beginning of the battle, while the Houston had been deliberately kept from the heat of the fight by Star League maneuvering, these justifications did not dispel the propaganda victory of a Taurian vessel defeating its Terran Hegemony equivalents two on one. Star League moral was broken, and their forces were pushed back out of Taurian territory by late 2592.
Starting in 2593 the Star League and Taurian Concordat entered an uneasy armistice. Thought there were a few border skirmishes using mercenaries or sponsored pirate raids over the next few years, neither side had the will to continue fighting in earnest. Anti-war sentiments began to rise throughout the civilian population of the Star League as losses continued to mount in policing actions in conquered territories, and by 2601 House Cameron decided to officially make peace with the House Calderon to appease the growing protests. By that time the neighboring great houses had already made secret treaties to resume trade with the Taurian Concordat.
Though revolutionary, the Arizona was a deeply flawed vessel. When first launched in late 2568 its engines were horrifically overbuilt. After an initial shake down cruise with dummy modules filled with gravel on its broadsides, it was brought back into dry-dock to have redundant cooling pumps and several unnecessary struts removed to replace the four auxiliary VMI-430 Fusion Torches with the same VMI-630 Fusion Torches used in its main drives, which also simplified maintenance. Do to their placement and its overbuild structure, none of the redundant equipment could be replaced with cargo space, leaving it with a pitiful cargo space just above half a kiloton. Likewise its overbuild structure prevented weapons from being mounted in several key places for full weapons coverage, however its excessive engines ameliorated that problem to a certain extent.
That is before you take the Modular mission pods into account. Even with pods using half the available K-F boom capacity allotted to them, it would have as much cargo capacity as any other warship and room to spare for weapons. During the height of the Reunification war it was equipped with a pair of mission pods simply labeled the Brawler Configuration. These pods gave each of its broadsides 18 NAC/20s, nearly half as many heavy NPPCs and a White shark missile battery supported by 24 fighters and several Large laser batteries. When combined with a maximum thrust of 4 gravities, this impressive weapons array turned terrifying.
While impressed with their new warship, the Taurian admiralty remained well aware of the Arizona's flaws. With the Star League becoming more aggressive, the Taurian Concordat had suffered multiple border skirmishes that each almost resulted in a declaration of war by early 2574. The Taurian Concordat commissioned a new destroyer to be designed utilizing the same technologies as the Arizona but learning from its flaws. This decision was well timed and the first few of the new Colt class destroyers had were just completed at the start of 2577, and the next wave of Colt class Destroyers had their keels laid down before the first had finished their shakedown cruise.
The Colt was designed with the Starleague's Lola class destroyer in mind as an opponent. Lessens well learned, its engines were smaller proportionally compared to the Arizona, and its weapons could cover every firing arc. Knowing that its greatest strength would by in its broadsides, most of its fore and aft weapons were mounted to be able to combine their fire in those directions. It was mostly armed with NAC/20s and lasers, but also mounted several heavy NPPCs. Its primary cargo hold only had a third of the capacity of the Lola, but this was still a vast improvement on the Arizona, and most Module configurations let it match the Lola in cargo capacity while also having a much heavy broadside.
For most of 2577 the Concordat's most advanced ships were kept in the Taurus home fleet waiting for heavier broadside armaments to be completed in the Taurus drop-ship yards. It was during the massed naval combat of 2581 where the Arizona and Colt were able to show their true strength. While the infamous Brawler configuration had not been created yet, the Arizonas' current MMPs were already far equipped more guns than conventional cruiser could carry. More importantly, because they maneuvered keep broadsides bearing on the enemy most of the damage they sustained during the battle was soaked by their MMPs. When the Taurian navy was forced to retreat, the Arizonas and Colts were able to swap out their mission pods and return to harass the Star League navy. Out of position, the SLDF lost another twenty ships, mostly troop transports, and were rendered incapable of pursuing the invasion as fast as was originally intended.
While the Taurian Concordat often had to rely on asymmetrical tactics on the ground, Arizona and Colt class warships made that necessity short lived and solidified the Concordat as a naval power able to match any of the great houses. The success of the Brawler configuration, first deployed in 2582, and the Colt class destroyer also solidified tripple-20 naval auto-cannon battery the standard armament of the Taurian navy.
Through 2583 the Taurian Navy focused on pushing the Star League Navy out of its space, the action peaking with the assassination of General Kincaid in early January and tapering off over the rest of the year as Star league forces when into general retreat. This period of time also saw the next wave of Arizona class cruisers and Colt Destroyers coming out of Taurian shipyards. However, another wave of Arizonas was not laid down. Experience with constructing Modular Mission pods had by this time improved the Taurian's understanding to the technology to the point where they could develop a new standard of Pods capable of carrying nearly 150 kilotons of equipment. With the possibilities too tempting to ignore, the next ships laid down by Taurian Yard workers were battleships rather than cruisers. However this was a gamble, as it required the recycling of older Taurian warships as well as much of their battle salvage in order to supply the necessary resources.
The Houston and sister ships carried 3 MMPs, a vertically oriented 100 kiloton mission module on its nose and two 150 kiloton mission modules for its broadsides. The froward and aft weapon batteries flanking its broadside mission modules were composed of a quartet of Heavy NPPCs and a pair of tripple-20 naval AC bays. The Mission pods constructed to fill its broadsides were based on the Brawler configuration, though heavier with energy weapons with the hope than NPPCs could reduce the range advantage of Hegemony Naval Gauss weaponry. The Taurian admiralty had also noticed how missile damaged had been a disproportionate cause for damage to critical systems to their advanced warships. Because of this the Houston was the first warship class designed to use point defense weapon batteries specifically for missile defense, though several Colts would be refit with prototype point defense batteries before the Houston was completed.
The Taurian Nary skirmished into Liao and Davian territory in 2584, striking at naval supply bases needed for a Star League offensive rather than taking territory. At the same time General Amos Forlough gathered Star League forces for the next wave of attacks. The Star League could not take the humiliation of an upstart periphery state driving them out, and retaliated harshly against the Taurian rally. Battles with the Star League's focused spearheads were especially brutal, and the last of the Taurians pre-war cruisers were destroyed by 2587. At this point pre-war destroyers we also brought out of the Taurians main battle lines and either recycled to build more Colts or sent on harassment missions against SLN supply lines. However the completion of the Houston and Dallas was pushed ahead to January 2588 and, combined with flanking raids on the Star League supply lines, were able halt the Star league advance.
The end of 2588 through 2589 saw few gains for either side. Both the Taurian Concordat and Star League fielded the most advanced ships of the age for large fleet battles, for no other warships were worthy of the fight. Despite the Taurians having the smaller economy, after twenty years of fighting, moral was dwindling on both sides and it was only a question of who would break first. In May 2590, during the sixth assault on New Vandenberg, the Houston was caught out of formation by two Farragut battleships. Facing two on one odds, yet giving as good as it got, the Houston had the attention of the entire battle at this definitive moment.
She won.
Despite both Farraguts being heavily damaged during the beginning of the battle, while the Houston had been deliberately kept from the heat of the fight by Star League maneuvering, these justifications did not dispel the propaganda victory of a Taurian vessel defeating its Terran Hegemony equivalents two on one. Star League moral was broken, and their forces were pushed back out of Taurian territory by late 2592.
Starting in 2593 the Star League and Taurian Concordat entered an uneasy armistice. Thought there were a few border skirmishes using mercenaries or sponsored pirate raids over the next few years, neither side had the will to continue fighting in earnest. Anti-war sentiments began to rise throughout the civilian population of the Star League as losses continued to mount in policing actions in conquered territories, and by 2601 House Cameron decided to officially make peace with the House Calderon to appease the growing protests. By that time the neighboring great houses had already made secret treaties to resume trade with the Taurian Concordat.
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