Human Spaceships - A non-complete Overview

  Human spaceships are a thing to behold. We'll talk lengthy about them, but how did they come to life? How has humanity evolved before they thought about various things?   You know, Terra in the system of Sol is a planet with a lot of landmasses and oceans and lakes and rivers and... a lot of other watery things. It wasn't a serious problem at first, but as the clans and ethnicities grew, they needed to transport goods and people by river or over oceans or lakes. But humanity wasn't united at first. Not by a long shot. Smaller battles and skirmishes evolved and were brought over rivers and lakes and seas and oceans... well, you get the point.   Every needs supplies, people, and... ships. So before we dive into the specific classes of military ships, let me say that this is a non-complete overview. There are a lot of smaller and larger support ships which supply FOBs, other bases and warships. Those are civilian and military - depending on contractor and designation - and serve the same purpose (this does not include trade ships). We might dive into (military) transport/supply ships as well, but not for the time being.    

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  Over the years the need for different military ships rose on Terra. Smaller ships for scouting, for close combat in proximity of shores and coasts, large firepower for obliterating mountains or entire armies or highly armoured targets. Various factors were taken into consideration like firepower, self-sufficient range and duration, crew, armour, sails, masts, you name it.   Like said in the Classifications the Valerian Empire decided to streamline the classifications of the ships. The german Marine and the US american Navy were taken into consideration and are set to describe a variant of combat ships, each with their roles, crew, supply, firepower, armour. But a few general details before we take a closer look.         Reveal of the Secret. If you don't want to read it, don't click it.       Scouts and Patrol Ships are nimble with a small frame and an even smaller cross-section. Their armour is not more than a better tinfoil, but against an initial laser barrage it is better than nothing. Their fusion reactor is one of the smallest you might find - except for hospitals - and the Space Ripper has not the cooling-capacity to chain jump after jump. But their propulsion is good, they are fast, their auxiliary engines powerful enough for fast evading.   Their sensor arrays are strong, even in passive mode, but if they actively scan their designated areas, they have a similar range as a cruiser or a battleship. Except for espionage ships they also have the strongest cooling systems and the best thermal dampening camouflage, including heatsinks. Those camouflages are also very dark, so they don't stand out against the blackness of space. Sometimes they get lost in enemy territory, so they have to be quiet as a submerged submarine on the hunt. Their countermeasures are the digital smoke-screan and the computer worm.  

"Silence...they haven't seen us yet... damnit, Bixton, stop with the clicking!"

— Commander of a Scout in enemy territory

    Littoral Combat Ships - or LCS for short - were a thing on Terra back in the day for close combat at coasts or shores, to bring down fire where battleships and destroyers couldn't go. The Valerian Empire adapted those ships to space combat inside of gravity wells of large objects like planets. They have a slightly higher amount of armour as the Scouts, but without the highly sophisticated camouflage. Like a fish they have a visible lateral line around the ship. There are the turrets located, looking out to the side like they were an old battleship with powder-guns on Terra. Above and below these turrets they attached small and strong engines, pointing outwards from the hull. Those are designed to keep the ship stable in low-flying orbit while its firing and fighting against the gravitational forces which aim to pull it down.   LCS have a mediocre range, mediocre cross-section, mediocre weaponry, and only a slightly better armour than a Scout or Patrol Ship. But they excel in close combat, be it ship-to-ship or - and that is the main reason for this design - in the gravity well of significant large objects and in atmospheres. The primary goal of an LCS is to crush ground-to-space guns and hit possible landed space ships while being grounded. The normal guns of an LCS are more than sufficient to blow up normal sized ships and cause a lot of damage otherwise. Some LCS transport even bombs, torpedos, and a small amount of missiles.   Their main engines are powerful enough to disengage really fast, only Scouts are a bit faster. LCS are not used frequently and so they aren't build that often. Right now there are ten active LCS across all fleets.  

"Okay, get us into atmosphere... aim for the cruisers and the fuel tanks. Broadside one. Confirmed hits. Broadside two... confirmed hits as well, the cruisers are burning. Broadside three... okay, Simmons, get us out of here!" - Captain of a LCS

    Corvettes are the slightly larger patrol boats or slighty smaller frigates, if you want. Their armour is similar to the LCS, their engines more powerful and their weaponry can pack a mean punch. Corvettes are the first ships of the human Valerian Navy which can operate for a longer time on their own before they have to go back to a space station or a planet to get resupplied.   Corvettes normally operate in groups of three on their own without support from a carrier, destroyer or other ships, but can also be found alone. They don't have a large amount of fighters with them, their hangars are small and can only fit two transport ships. Or two fighters, they are comparable in size. Most of the time they have one transport ship and one fighter so they don't waste precious high-caliber shells.   The cross-section of a Corvette is... uh, lets say they can be found relatively easy if you're looking for them. Their sensor-range is quite good and if they put in the energy to enlargen the range of the sensors they can scan a decent-sized solar-system. But that also has a downside because if they do that, other ships can find them with ease.   Corvettes have decently powerful engines and a lot of thrusters to rotate and disengage or just to avoid incoming fire or other objects. They are also the first ship-class which has a advanced PDCs, the so called CIWS (Close-In Weapon System). It has its origins on naval ships to destroy incoming mortar shells and missiles and on the terran space ships it serves a similar purpose. The Corvettes have two of them, one at the bow and the stern to cover a huge area. The CIWS are basically fast-firing turrets with one to four barrels to destroy incoming physical threats like torpedos or meteors.   Normally every Corvette has four gun batteries with three barrels. Each barrel has a cadence of 1500 rounds/minute which gives a steady stream of 4500 rounds/minute in a staggered fire-mode. Meaning you get hit by three rounds per second and probably obliterated in under twenty seconds. With a bit of time and luck a Corvette can destroy a Lyranian cruiser before their lasers have melted their armour and the fusion reactor. That might be a stretch, but still, a Corvette is a formidable force.   As countermeasures a Corvette has the computer worm, the digital smoke-screen and the flares used for blinding and distraction. A Corvette has a crew of 60, mainly consisting of staff and technicians with 10 marines as joker.  

"Circumstance, hit them in the rear once we fired the flares. Gooseberry, same with the middle cruisers. We take up with the heavy cruiser at the front. Don't stop firing until they going dark or you can't shoot anymore."

— Commander of a strike group

    Frigates are only a tad larger than Corvettes, but have the better armour and the stronger engines to compensate for the larger tonnage. Their weaponry is identical to a Corvette with two large two-barrel main guns. Both can cover an area of 280 degree on a horizontal level and have a depression and elevation of 15 degree. The main guns can switch between APCR (armour-piercing rounds) and High-Explosive shells. The default setting for the main guns shoots every barrel at once, but on demand they can switch to single fire or staggered fire-mode.   Frigates can operate a while longer on their own before they need to resupply. They normally have one slightly larger hangar for three smaller ships like fighters or transport ships for recon or other tasks the Frigate can't do on her own.   Every so often a Frigate operates as the leader of a strike group of a few Corvettes, maybe even with a carrier. But more often they operate alone on various types of missions. Being a nuisance, disturb foreign operations, be a mobile base or just patrol/map uncertain regions. With their four gun batteries they can shoot to the sides and with the huge main gun they can destroy decent-sized asteroids and Lyranian cruisers with just a few shots.   As one of the first classes of ships the Frigates also have a not only a drop ship, but also two pod-launchers which can fire away armoured pods with a marine inside each. Depending on the mission the pods can be used as boarding pods or be fired away on surfaces of asteroids or planets.   As countermeasures a Frigate has the digital smoke-screen and the flares used for blinding and distraction. A Frigate has a crew of 80, mainly consisting of staff and technicians with 15 marines in three squads with five marines each as joker.  

"Load HighEx and fire away at this large asteroid. That should distract them. Fire away the pods and then give 'em hell."

— Commander of a Frigate during a secret operation

      Gunships are between a Frigate and a Destroyer, both in terms of size and firepower. They are basically an engine strapped to a huge platform with a lot of guns, missile racks, torpedos and nukes. They only have technicians, a commander, a small bridge crew, their gunners and thats it. Those ships are designed to operate in a smaller or larger group and deliver a payload a lot of species consider overkill.  

"Archer?"
"Yes, Cap?"
"Do I see a Voidwalker battleship in front of us?"
"Aye, Cap, I believe it is."
"I do not wanna see it anymore."
"Aye, Cap, you got it!"

— Captain of a gunship and his First Officer

    Destroyers. Once a feared force on Terra, now a feared force in the galaxy. They are quite longer than Corvettes or Frigates, only moderatly armoured, but puck a mean punch. They have a four missile launcher, a larger four-barrel gun at the stern and the bow, and as the first ship-class of the Valerian navy, a railgun. This might be small and even with a smaller caliber than the main-gun of a Frigate, but they can pierce through a lot of shields or just squash the entire enemy ship to bits.   A Destroyer never operates alone, only in smaller or larger groups. They have decent armour, but they are more fragile than a Frigate or a Cruiser. Their engines and fusion-reactor might be strong, but only to carry the huge railgun. Its basically a gun which can fly.   Destroyers typically have a crew of around 150 to 160 people without Marines. If a Destroyer is boarded, the crew is trained to resist, but there are no Marines on board. Their Space Ripper is comparable in size and power to one of a Frigate.  

"Beat them like a drum. Railgun in fast firing mode, get those missiles flying. We have a job to do and Hades shall get me if we can't do it right!"

— Captain of a Destroyer

    Cruisers are the main battle force of the Valerian Terran Navy. They are way larger than a Destroyer and a lot slower. This is due to their really thick armour and their armaments. Their shape is a bit unusual for the Navy since they are the first class of ship which is not designed to make planetfall. Their engines and thrusters can't produce enough acceleration to heave them out of any known planets gravity well.   The bridge of a cruiser is buried in the first meters of the bow, behind strong armour. There are no windows, which are replaced by a modular, but high-tech and relatively complicated array of cameras, displays and rendering techniques. A Cruiser does look and feel like a window, but it isn't. The shape can be described as two anvils turned against each other and glued together at their basis. Very large and very long anvils.   Cruisers don't own a railgun, but six missile launcher, three at the "top" and three at the "bottom", evenly distributed along the middle line. These missiles are way larger than their counterparts on a Destroyer and have powerful thrusters to deliver their payload as fast as one can think. Not only common armour-piercing torpedos or missiles, but also nukes, cluster missiles, even dummies and decoys.   The missile launcher are accompanied by a total of sixteen 390mm double-barrel turrets, eight each on the "bottom" and the "top" in pairs of two to cover a larger area. Also the lateral lines at the sides have twelve PDCs, a larger version of the CWIS against incoming shots and fighters.   Cruisers are mostly self-sufficient. If they don't burn all of their fuel or empty their ammunition reserve, they can grow crops inside a few rooms, if the food replicants aren't sufficient anymore. Water is seldomly an issue if the tanks are still intact. Recycled water might not be the best way for hydration, but it is a way for hydration.   Cruisers are slow in comparison with Scouts, LCS or even Frigates. That often doesn't matter to most missions and even in groups they are holding back everyone else. Which doesn't appear to be a problem, considering their firepower and armour. Cruisers tend to stay in armadas and only so often all on their own in enemy or uncharted territory. Because of their tonnage they try to drop out of the nightmarish hyperspace as close to their destination as possible. Sure, every ship tries to do that, but Cruisers are so slow they need to be as close as possible in the event the Scouts were awaited or even attacked.       Battleships are the spaceships the Valerian Terran Navy calls if shit has hit the fan. If there is a battle which is not to be won. When there is a defense that shouldn't be broken or an offense which has to be successful. To even the odds. Battleships are called in if you need the really big guns. If you need to break the resistance of an entire solar system, you call in a Leviathan. But more later.   Now, Battleships. They are outfitted with 420mm canons and someone called them "Blunts" for obvious reasons. In their middle section they have two medium-sized railguns which can penetrate a lot of materials. The kinetic energy alone was enough to crumble shields.   The main canons were the 420mm. Four barrels on a moveable turret with 360 degree of freedom, fifteen degree gun elevation and ten degree gun depression. Each gun can be fired separately which is normally more than enough to crumble the hull of a Lyranian Cruiser. Battleships have a really sleek cross-section and are only a few - heavy armoured - decks tall. But this is more than enough.   The bridge of a Battleship is located in the middle of the front section. They do have real glass as windows, unlike the Cruisers. Now that the bridge is out of the way, the Battleship has four turrets with four 420mm canons on "top" and "bottom", along with six large point defense turrets on the narrow sides and a few CIWS systems for incoming missiles, torpedos and whatever enemy ships might have loaded.   Battleships are slow, and with their sub-light engines oly as fast as a Cruiser on maximum speed. But it doesn't matter. How goes the saying? "If you are afraid in the forest, be the damn scariest thing in the goddamn forest."   A Battleship can sustain itself like a Cruiser. They have two Space Ripper, a large medical bay, four hangars for fighters and other small ships, one shield generator and two Tier II fusion reactors.  

"It is a hell of a task to start firing on a Chronomancer world, Sir."
"I know, but they started it and we are going to end it."
"Yes, Sir. The enemy base, the shipyard, the spaceport and their factories are locked in."
"Give them three salvos each and then lock the missiles to their fleet in orbit. I don't want to have any stragglers left."

— Captain of a Battleship

      Carriers are mobile plattforms for fighters, dropships, torpedo ships, you name it. They do have PDCs and CIWS, but the only large shield generator is next to useless in a real fight and they support the fleets from the last line with fast and nimble fighters. Some of the Carriers transport Marines and ground vehicles, but that is just as a replacement for the Mobile Bases.  

"Well, there is the fleet inside the fleet. I would pity my enemy if they weren't the Voidwalkers. Bastards."

— Marine to his comrade

    Mobile Bases are huge. They are round, have one of the strongest shield generators - which is not much, but better than nothing - and are basically what FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) were on Earth, sorry, Terra.   A Mobile Base is basically a huge ball of metal, steel and flesh of the staff. They do can land on planets, but it is not advised because they don't generate enough thrust to make a fast or even decent-accelerated start. It takes hours to get a Mobile Base from the surface into the orbit of a 1G-planet, but imagine they have more.   The Mobile Base can support itself, a large settlement, and a medium-sized fleet with fuel, ammunition, food and water. Their machines have enough material to replicate food and drinks for years to come and in a battle a Mobile Base can fire a huge amount of missiles and torpedos. They look like a moving Gladius Station, only smaller.   Their four main engines are fixed and point to the ground, the thrusters let the Mobile Base manouver and roll around to fly like a baseball if needed: fast and in a straight line. Also the Mobile Base has two large workshops and four hangars and can even repair a Cruiser if necessary.   There are twelve Mobile Bases deployed, two of them just came back from a battlefield and are in the repair dock.  

"Fucking finally..."

— A war ridden colonist after a long and exhausting siege

    There are only four Leviathans in the entire Valerian Terran Navy, a fifth is in the making. A Leviathan has two shield generators, two Space Rippers, three fusion reactors, one large middle hangar and a bridge overlooking the entire ship.   Leviathans are normally painted as black as possible and that is their only camouflage. Their armament consists of three railguns, each with their own circuit, reactor and ammo supply. In addition to this they have a few dozen missile launcher, a few torpedo bays and around fifty heavy fighter and bombers. Not counting their arsenal on nukes and other weapons of mass obliterations.   Just as a Mobile Base or a Battleship a Leviathan can sustain itself, but those are only powered up if there is something in really, really, REALLY dire need of destroying.   There are only four Leviathans on active duty. Their names are:  

• Eloquent Ela
• Omnious Eddie
• Little Bob
• Scetchy Scratch

 

umpf...umpf...umpf...
"Captain, enemy fleet retreating."
"Fire the nukes and everything what we have left. They don't get a nice and clean retreat. Not after the destruction of the system."

— A Leviathans captain out for revenge

        Civilian ships are on a whole different level than the military ships. In both good and bad ways. The Valerian Empire hands out a big, really large, comically LARGE pamphlet with requirements to all manufacturers who try to get into the market. Or to anyone who is interested, the download is free, it just requires a few gigabyte of free disk space.   That means that even the smallest, dirtiest, cheapest ship fulfills the basic requirements to life support, engines, hardware/software security, and comfort. So the range of a ship can vary from a flying bin to a polished black-white-purple luxus cruiser where you can even meet & greet the Empress herself.     In the time of the Valerian Empire living lifestock isn't a huge thing anymore. Meat itself as a food is really expensive and wasn't sustainable anymore since the replicating machines did a lot of their job even better than any pig or cow could. So the compartments for lifestock are normally really small and fulfill all of the requirements it may have. Normally lifestock is held at the top of a ship so it can be unloaded the last and doesn't get in the way of the cargo.   There are also smaller ships which specialises in lifestock, but there are not many ships which are doing only lifestock.   Since the Valerian Empire made huge improvementswith the Zeppelin Class Transport MK II - not on its own, but it has the designation - in transporting things, shipping containers are standardised and come in four different sizes. Those containers are loaded into an airless space area and are dropped off at semi-magnetic fields. "Semi-magnetic" means that only the borders of the containers are magnetised, not the entire surface.     Civilian ships only suitable for people are as manifold as there are stars in the sky. Those range from a four people ship with life support, no weaponry and basic comfort to huge transporters which can load up a few hundreds of people. All of them can be found inside and outside the Valerian Empire, even homemade ships. Pilots are required to obtain a license, but beside that there is no further requirement. As a pilot with a license you can fly a small Bumblebee planet-hopper as well as a Christopherus-Class public transport as you know the basic of flying a space ship.     The hybrids are the most complex ships in the civilian sector because they not only transport people, but also provide support and transport cargo. They are basically a huge bus or the equivalent to the old Airbus Beluga or the Airbus A380. That means that the requirements are much more complex as to just only people or just only cargo. Mixing those systems always ends with bugs and strange behaviour, but for some reason - do we hear an Unspeakable laugh? - those ships are reliable. For the most part at least.   Specialised ships are a whole different breed, if one can say so. Mining equipment, refinery, refueling and restocking, couriers; generic workers for space stations, docks, planetary settlements, outposts on planets or moons, in asteroid belts or just in deep space or in the outer rim of the galaxy. Also there are ships which are tasked with installing probes, relay points, nodes, services, and satellites for the galactic network of humanity which is the successor to the (in)famous Internet.   Civilian ships can have energy shields and the equipment necessary to support those shields, but the ship does need to be a certain size so Space Ripper, Shield Emitter and Fusion Reactor can co-exist peacefully side-by-side.   And some mad genies combine military and civilian ships and their technologies with each other. Some of them infuse those hybrids with the technology of the Lyranians, Chronomancers or Voidwalkers. Ever had a ship which could talk to you without an Artificial Intelligence and predict every movement of you, your crew or other ships and get the best revenue? No? Then it is about time!