Building the Farstrike (Republic Fleeters)

[Kyrana Gould]

@Nc'thor [member="Valara Tiall "][member="Camellia Swift"] @Other Republic Fleeters

(The intention of this thread is to build a long-range heavy hypervelocity cannon for mounting on a ship. This colossal weapon requires a dev thread, so here we are. The intent is 15-25 posts to show design, development and testing.)

The report of the battle of Alderaan continued to sit before the Admiral. He stared at it, unseeing, then rose.
His attempts to rebuild the Republic heavy warships had completed their first hurdle with the Avenger class, but he was already looking to a new type of ship. This ship would be the ultimate in space artillery, but to do that it needed a gun worthy of the name.

Hypervelocity cannons had just made the jump from ground to space weapons, and he wanted to go further.

With this in mind he had summoned all the military and fleet thinkers he could find to attend upon him so that his designs could be checked, prototyped and then put into action.

His baby, the Farstrike Cannon would be magnificent…if it could be built.

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]

To be perfectly fair the young Rendili woman felt entirely unhappy showing up to help on the project of this artillery vessel for the Republic. Not that she had anything against the concept of the ship, though she felt personally such tools a shame to truly decent ships, but more or less the Defense Fleet Captain mostly felt a little stifled after all the designs her homeworld and its shipbuilding facilities had put out. Still, Camellia showed up nonetheless to be a part of the work as a representative of a loyal world and shipwright.

Camellia Swift did wonder actually what was had in mind. "So what is the project we've been brought in for all of a sudden. Its supposed to be for a new edge in space combat correct?"

 

[Tålamod Shapochka]

Tålamod Shapochka carried herself professionally, body taut, cap firmly situated on her head, and datapad--for notetaking--clutched in her hand and ceremoniously pressed against her torso. She was in the presence of superiors, even the Admiral of the Republic Navy, and she would give them the honor and respect due. This was a momentous opportunity for her, and she was very grateful to have been invited to take part in these procedures, however minimal of a role she would play. Associating with persons of these ranks was no light affair. Undeniably, she was here to impress.

With a clack of her boots against the durasteel floor, Shapochka saluted the other occupants of the room and withdrew to the side. It was not her place to give suggestions or really say much of anything. She was to be seen and not heard until her name was called upon. Until then, she would simply be present to observe and take notes.

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

The sound of skittering feet would soon rise to the ears of those who had gathered. An unusual being was approaching them. A scary being. As per usual, people moved quickly to get out of his way as he neared them. And, as per usual, he dipped his head in a bob of greeting to them, in too great a hurry to stop and chat with the younger officers that dotted the hallways. There was much work to be done, and though he wasn't a mastermind of design, he certainly had some military know how.

He skittered into the room and looked around at all those gathered, his multiple, orange eyes slipping over them before spotting the admiral, [member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]. He lifted a long fingered hand in salute and chittered away, his translator taking a moment to kick in.

[Greetings, Admiral, and fellow officers. I bid you good tidings and am here to help with this most prestigious of projects.]

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Camellia Swift"], [member="Tålamod Shapochka"], @Nc'thor

“Comrades, thank you for coming so promptly. We will being, and anyone needing to catchup can easily do so. I apologise in advance for everything being so secretive. In this war one can never be sure who is listening.”

He unveiled his plan on a large central holoprojector.

“My concept is not for a new ship so much as a new weapon. I call it the Farstrike, and it takes the concept of the planetary hypervelocity cannon and the smaller ship examples and combines them. My weapon has considerably higher accurate range and damage compared with a standard example. My plan is not to fire multiple small rounds but a single, guided slug which can hit an enemy ship at a distance exceeding any normal turbolasers or ion cannons, or any normal hypervelocity cannon. The key is that the slug being fired can be locked to a certain aim and it will attempt to stay on course. This cannon is not for hitting escorts or anything smaller than a heavy cruiser, but those targets it does hit will certainly know about it!”

 

[Alana Sunrider]

Valara stood in the back, listening as the admiral explained the plan. That explained the secrecy then. This was, to out it simply, groundbreaking. To her knowledge, nothing like this had ever been attempted before. The engineer in her brain was giddy now, and stepped closer for a better look.

It was a homing missile that didn't use engines of any sort. That made navigation difficult, to say the least. She pursed her lips, considering. Fins wouldn't help either since there was no atmosphere to use for drag. She settled herself into a chair, tapping on her datapad to start sketching and designing. She had to write stuff down to think them through. Otherwise they'd get all cluttered up. She stopped to wait and see if he had more to say.

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

Nc'thor listened to what the Admiral had to say. He processed it, and then tried to envision how this might work. Like Valara, his first thought was that navigation was going to be a major problem to overcome. In general, a projectile follows a straight course to its target. In atmosphere, that straight course would always veer downward based on gravitational pull. In space, there was rarely enough pull unless you got close to a singularity or something with substantial mass. He chittered away.

[Forgive me, Admiral, but how do you plan to make the projectile navigate without a source of propulsion? Unless it is fired near a gravity well there isn't a way to bend the trajectory towards its target, and even then it wouldn't be guiding itself.]

 

[Kyrana Gould]

@Nc'thor, [member="Valara Tiall "], [member="Camellia Swift"], [member="Tålamod Shapochka"]

"A very good question. And yes, normally that would be a problem, since a hypervelocity gun fires solid slugs of metal unguided. However, my design has a special feature."
A zoom in of the projectile was made.
"My design for the projectile incorporates two special features. The first is a beacon in the nose of the projectile. The gun has an aiming targeter which the projectile attempts to follow. To do this, it can deploy four small boosters at the rear to nudge it slightly so it remains on target. Of course, these boosts are limited in size and effectiveness - this is not a homing missile, but it can change course equal to one arc second, which at long range is actually a big deal. My projections show that this weapon has a 99.9% accuracy against stationary or speed 11 objects. It is, as I said, ineffective at hitting anything faster than speed class 6 except by accident. However, that is what regular turbolasers are for. Any questions so far?"

 

[Tålamod Shapochka]

Shapochka tapped away at her datapad, recording all the particulars of this phenomenal project. She took in every angle of the holographic display, though unable to completely appreciate it due to her colorblindness. A weapon like the one Admiral [member="Friedrich Stahlmann"] was proposing had the potential to be incredibly destructive; a gamechanger. If this hypervelocity gun could be kept solely in the hands of the Republic, they would achieve a critical advantage that might not be easily countered. Imagine if it were fired at a planetary target!

With patience, Tålamod stood back and let the others speak their opinions. There were still a few questions she would like to hear addressed, but she maintained her silence out of respect for the ranks in the room. Perhaps they might even address the possible issues before she would be required to speak.

[member="Valara Tiall"], [member="Camellia Swift"], [member="Nc'thor"]

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"] [member="Tålamod Shapochka"] @Nc'thor @Valara Tiall


As the head of Rendili Stardrive herself, Camellia understood a little of the finesse and marvel of physics that went into perfecting the design, and as a naval officer she could appreciate what those fine tuning implements would mean for improving the accuracy, and thus destructive ability, of the weapon. It sounded like a great idea really. Personally the Rendili woman preferred ships with better mid to close ranged combat, but she understood the desire for weapons as powerful at long range as the hypervelocity cannon variant they'd be working on. There was only one question she had really. "My only question is what makes mounting the beacon part so problematic. I can see the issue with the thrusters on the round themselves, it'd be difficult to keep them from breaking upon firing. I worry it may sacrifice some of the weapon's strength to compensate for this improved accuracy. Well I guess I have two questions. . . . this will be a project made by the REC right? Republic Engineering will do the development and production yes?"

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

A homing beacon. That was an interesting touch. It essentially turned a projectile into a guided missile with the addition of the miniscule thrusters. It seemed rather expensive from what he could make of it, but if it worked it would be some really nice firepower for the Republic military. Of course he could see pitfalls in the plan. The woman from Rendili spoke up with questions as to who had the responsibility for the design and construction, and of course he saw that she was curious if her corporation would get the contract, but that was no matter. The military could contract with anyone.

He skittered along until he was up closer to the monitor. Though he could see well enough, the light in the room was just a bit much for his eyes. He wanted a closer look.

 

[Kyrana Gould]

@Nc'thor, [member="Valara Tiall "], [member="Camellia Swift"], [member="Tålamod Shapochka"]

"The thrusters deploy once the round exits the cannon, before then they are hidden inside the body of the weapon," Stahlmann explained, making that animation appear on the display.

"I'm not sure who will do the actual production yet, but I would imagine that REC would do so, unless another company was able to provide better quality and price."
He looked significantly at Camellia, who he knew was high up in Rendili, or at least had influence there. He would not be adverse to Rendili making it if they could provide better terms.

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Tålamod Shapochka"] [member="Friedrich Stahlmann"] [member="Valara Tiall"]

The explanation satisfied Camellia, though it did mean upping the expected price of the final product considering that now the rounds themselves were going to be more expensive to produce. "Will this modification of the rounds for the Farstrike make them any less effective since they'll have less mass? It sounds like something REC could handle more than others. They do have a handle on several military matters." Admittedly Camellia knew where Rendili Stardrive's nich lay. The Farstrike was taking planetary defense guns and placing it on a capital ship. While the construction was not beyond Stardrive, the designing of the actual Farstrike cannon was not something they could work out when they didn't have much research on matters below orbital defense.

 

[Kyrana Gould]

@Nc'thor, [member="Valara Tiall "], [member="Camellia Swift"], [member="Tålamod Shapochka"]

The Admiral nodded in reply.
“Yes, there is a decrease in mass of approximately 5%, but the increase in accuracy I feel outweighs this minor loss in destructive power. I estimate that we will be able to manage a firing rate of once every ten seconds. This, when combined with improved accuracy should allow for a powerful, sustained bombardment of the enemy ship and prevent them rapidly repairing their shields or hull.”

Are there any further questions or comments before I move on?

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]

No there was no more questions, Camellia nodded satisfied as she sat back in her seat and awaited the next round of explanations. "None from me. That sounds like a satisfactory trade off and an effective weapon overall."

 

[Tålamod Shapochka]

"I have a question..." Tålamod murmured, unsure if her interruption was acceptable. "Forgive me." Hopefully she was not stepping on toes. High-ranking officers could be rather touchy--actually, low-ranking officers were easily annoyed as well.

"The hypervelocity is a heavy gun, yes. It fires very strong." She paused, carefully processing her words before speaking them as she brushed her hair back over her shoulders. "The science of reaction says the vessel will push opposite the gunfire, yes. How is this compensated? It could alter the course or damage the hull.

"And," she added--though quite nervously as she attempted to read everyone's faces for objection or even indignation-- "how could the projectile be defended? Can it be shot before it hits the target?" At the current progression of technology, the lieutenant commander was aware that reactive weaponry was only a step behind the offensive tools.

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"], [member="Camellia Swift"], [member=Nc'thor], [member="Valara Tiall"]

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Tålamod Shapochka"], [member="Camellia Swift"]

“Very good points, Commander,” he said, nodding. “The weapon will be able to recoil without impacting on the aim, in the same way that a land based cannon works. In space, with no air friction, the projectile will not deviate unless the rockets fire or something impacts it.”

“For the second, yes, a point defence battery could track this, like any warhead. However, unlike a missile, the slug has no payload to detonate and has tremendous mass and velocity. Even if something did manage to fire and hit it, it would be unlikely to break up the slug entirely. Thus, you would still get an impact, even if slightly reduced from the potential.”