Unreviewed Cato-class Fleet Carrier

[FN-999 (restored)]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a rare but powerful fleet carrier for large naval operations or ground deployments.
• Image Source: ArtStation - Impellor-class Fleet Carrier by Ansel Hsiao
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: ArtStation - Impellor-class Fleet Carrier by Ansel Hsiao

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Alge Imperial Shipyards Incorporated
• Affiliation: The Imperial Confederation
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: Cato-class fleet carrier
• Production: Semi-Unique (2 exist: ICNV Cato and ICNV Pompey)
• Material:
  • EXTERIOR
    • Thaldonium armor plating, transparisteel viewports
  • INTERIOR
    • Tiysium structural steel framing, thaldonium interior plating, copper wiring, electronic components

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Fleet Carrier
• Length: 1823 m
• Width: 689 m
• Height: 412 m
• Armament: High
  • 20x double-barrel turbolaser batteries
  • 8x heavy ion cannon batteries
  • 32x triple-barrel heavy laser cannons
  • 32x light ion cannon batteries
• Defenses: High
  • Triple-layer deflector shields
    • Particle shield generator
    • Ion shield generator
    • Ray shield generator
  • Electronic countermeasures
  • Thaldonium armor plating
• Hangar Space: Extreme (18 squadrons)
• Hangar Allocations:
  • Fleet Combat
    • Starfighters: 14 squadrons
    • Support Craft: 4 squadrons
  • Ground Deployment
    • Starfighters: 6 squadrons
    • Support Craft: 12 squadrons
• Maneuverability Rating: Average
• Speed Rating: High
• Hyperdrive: Class 1.0

STANDARD FEATURES

• LOWER DECK (Floors 1-30)
  • 6x Storage bays
  • 10x Medical bays
  • Crew Quarters
  • Ammunition Storage
  • 4x Grav-ball courts
  • Hangars A-I
  • 9x crew mess halls
    • 6x Emperor’s Burgers
    • 3x Pizza Hutts
  • Armory
  • 6x Gyms
  • 6x Barber shops
  • 4x Dentistry offices
  • 8x Post offices
  • Primary Fusion Reactor
  • Engine Room
• MIDDLE DECK (Floors 30-50)
  • Secondary Command Deck (Starfighter Operations)
  • Crew + NCO Quarters
  • 4x Viewscreen theaters
  • 4x Gyms
  • 8x Medical bays
  • 2x Storage bays
  • Hangars J-R
  • 5x crew mess halls
    • 3x Emperor’s Burgers
    • 2x TurboGreens
• UPPER DECK (Floors 50-76)
  • Primary Command Deck (Onboard Operations)
  • Hangar S (High Priority)
  • Storage Bay
  • 4x Medical bays
  • 2x Barber shops
  • Captain’s Quarters
  • Officer Quarters
  • 3x officer-oriented restaurants
    • Imperial Capital Grille
    • Ninety-Nine Stormtroopers
    • *Daragon Trail
  • Communications/Encryption Room

*1 Imperial Culinary Star
ADVANCED SYSTEMS

• Encryption computer
• 10x tractor beam projectors (5 bottom-mounted, 4 top-mounted, 1 on the ship’s prow)

STRENGTHS

• Supercarrier: Each Cato-class fleet carrier can hold enough an enormous quantity of starfighters, enabling them to singlehandedly provide starfighter coverage to entire fleets.
• Invasion Platform: A Cato-class fleet carrier in a ground deployment configuration can deploy 30,000 troops onto a planet’s surface from orbit in under an hour.
• Battlecarrier: Despite its primary function being that of a fleet carrier, the Cato-class is heavily armed and armored, making it capable of safely annihilating smaller capital ships and even smaller Star Destroyers from afar without risking starfighter wings.
• The Classic Imperial Wedge: Like many other classic Imperial capital ships, the Cato-class fleet carrier has a wedge-shaped hull that allows it to concentrate its entire firepower on targets directly in front of it, with devastating results.
• Air Controller: A sophisticated comms array enables officers onboard a Cato-class fleet carrier to command large groups of starfighters, troop transports, and small capital ships from within the secondary bridge.

WEAKNESSES

• The Classic Imperial Wedge: Like many other classic Imperial capital ships, the armaments of the Cato-class carriers are optimized for forward firing, restricting its firepower when engaging foes from the side and leaving it especially vulnerable when attacked from behind.
• Aim for the Bridge: Both Cato-class carriers have a large, prominent bridge that is vulnerable to targeted fire once the ship’s shields are destroyed. Furthermore, neither of the carrier’s bridges are replaceable: destroying the primary bridge effectively disables the ship while destroying the secondary bridge removes its ability to command starfighter wings, forcing them to rely on their own navigational tools and comms.

DESCRIPTION

The Cato-class fleet carrier is a product of the interregnum between the New Imperial Order and the Diarchy.
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Following the collapse of the New Imperial Order, surviving Imperial warlords were left without the seemingly inexhaustible fleets of Star Destroyers that had formed the mainstay of the former Imperial Navy. At the same time, the Galactic Alliance had proven in its seemingly endless war with the NIO that starfighter wings with minimal support could destroy even the largest of dreadnoughts. As a result, most Imperial warlords kept their remaining Star Destroyers close to their centers of power, careful not to risk them in major operations abroad.

In one of the former Imperial warlord states, a diarchy led by Colonel-Baron FN-999 and Moff Calkon-Quentis on Borosk, a solution was sought to this naval dilemma. Left with only the limited shipbuilding capacity provided by the then-new Borosk Imperial Shipyards, it would be impossible for the system’s government to salvage or replace any lost Star Destroyers in an economical manner. At the same time, Task Force Citadel, the defense fleet responsible for the Borosk system, lacked the strength to defeat the holdouts of Imperial warlords holding planets with a greater industrial capacity.

Anxious to prevent a perpetual standoff, which would inevitably be exploited by outside forces, FN-999 authorized the creation of a new, large fleet carrier to tilt the balance of post-Imperial space in his favor using the very weapon that had proven lethal against Star Destroyers for centuries: massed starfighters.

From the early stages of construction, the Cato-class project was controversial. A significant minority of naval staff within the Borosk Imperial remnant sought to prioritize expanding Borosk’s fleet of Vanto-class escort carriers rather than wasting resources developing a very large, costly, vulnerable, and unproven Imperial fleet carrier. Additionally, Borosk Shipyards lacked the facilities to construct an entire Star Destroyer class craft within, requiring the carrier to be built in five different airtight segments later attached to each other using tug craft in orbit.

On the other hand, the advocates of the Cato-class fleet carrier, including several senior ex-New Imperial naval commanders and FN-999 himself, emphasized not only its ability to carry extremely large starfighter complements over large distances but the psychological impact that even a single large carrier would have on Borosk’s rivals. It was reasoned that when faced with the prospect of facing a fleet centered around an indigenously produced, Star Destroyer sized capital ship capable of inexpensively destroying other ships of its size from afar, most Imperial warlords would simply submit to a reconstituted Empire based out of Borosk rather than risk the total annihilation of their naval forces.

Ultimately, a partial compromise was reached. While the construction of a very large fleet carrier was approved over the production of many smaller escort carriers, the new warship would also be designed with sturdy armor and a sizable armament to increase its survivability in direct combat with other vessels.

Construction on the first vessel, the then-unnamed INV Cato, began in late 886 ABY under conditions of immense secrecy. Due to the comparatively small size of Borosk Imperial Shipyards, high import costs, and the lengths undertaken to conceal the project from outside forces, the vessel took fifteen years to complete.

Further complicating the construction process was the Dark Empire’s 900 ABY invasion of Borosk. Hopelessly outnumbered and seeking to prevent the approximately 95% complete Cato from falling into Dark Imperial hands, the prototype vessel was sent into hyperspace to an undisclosed location, suffering damage to its hull as a result. Only once the Dark Empire collapsed in the Tingel Arm was Cato returned to Borosk under the supervision of the now-privatized Alge Imperial Shipyards, which proceeded to complete the vessel just before the far more peaceful Diarchy takeover of the system.

With a stable Imperial presence in and around the Borosk system for the first time in twenty-five years, shipping costs declined dramatically and the raw materials flowed into Borosk from across Diarchy space, making feasible the construction of a second vessel, the Pompey in only two years as opposed to the fifteen needed to build Cato in much more dire circumstances.
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