Quoted By:
After a few days of brainstorming, the R&D team had come up with two concepts to pitch to Kryska. You were secretly glad that Jack had chosen to encourage her to fight Starwind, if Shima became devastated and the Imperial Armed Forces were forced to intervene then Shirin could be stripped of her Fief. You also found the thought of annihilating Starwind satisfying. The gall of that man; striking your own kin after you had practically bent over backwards to build a ship to his exact tastes. Well it would be out of your hands soon enough. You could only equip Kryska, the rest was up to her tactical acumen and the Shimada House Navy.
“So my guys came up with two designs you might like.”
Jack was giving the presentation, doing what he did best.
“First up we’ve got Project Crown.”
The AR display projected an image of a Monarch class hull with a pair of large kinetic turrets on its prow.
“Now, this is a bit of a wild concept. My team dubbed it a ‘capital dogfighter’.”
Kryska raised an eyebrow.
“Have you seen our Warbird frigate? Crazy design yeah? Well the prow turrets use the same type of gun, and there’s two of them.”
“That looks very intimidating but I thought Starwind’s ship was really manoeuvrable, no way I’ll be able to hit him with kinetics.”
“What if I told you this ship was just as manoeuvrable, it can match his moves. Once you get him into hammer lock, the front turrets will shred him.”
You interrupt. “Hammer lock?”
“Space combat terminology,” said Kyrska. “The range at which it becomes impossible for a target to evade incoming fire no matter how skilled the pilot. The exact distance varies depending on the target and the weapon being used.”
“Well with our advanced fire control system you won’t have to get too close.”
“But I’ll still have to get close. If he chooses to engage me at long range with his charged particle beam I’ll be outgunned.”
“Well that’s why I included a shield generator. We only just developed the tech so it’s not as fancy as what you’d have had back in the Union but it will give you a chance to close with him. I’ve also included some missile launchers; give him something to think about if he tries to play keep away. Unfortunately I had to keep them single use in order to meet mass constraints. You’ve also got a medium laser battery to keep strike craft off your ass. The smaller rapid fire stuff won’t cut it against Starwind’s elite squadron so we had to reduce your capacity to deal with saturation attacks in order to give you enough punch.”
“It’s a pretty bold design Jack, can’t say I don’t like it but it feels like a bit of a gamble.”
>cont
