HK-36
The Iron Lord Protector (Neutral Good)
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a limited production stealth corvette for use by Metal Lord, ARGH, and Firemane PCs
- Image Source: Google Image search for "Predator Ship" first image, link here
- Canon Link: Republic Stealth Ship, another stealth corvette, stygium, based on the design of StealthX fighter and including most of its stealth systems, Thrust Trace Dampener
- Restricted Missions: Cloakinization (Stygium Mining Thread on Maramere with Siobhan Kerrigan, 30 posts)
- Primary Source: Dark Harvester Prize Vessel, AE-CM 1 Dampener Chaff, QQ-4U85 Tractor Shroud, Abregado Combat Shield
- Manufacturer: Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers, Metal Lords
- Model: Eclipse-class Stealth Corvette
- Affiliation: Metal Lords, Firemane, ARGH
- Production: Semi-Unique
- Material: Standard Ship Components, Titanium Hull, with Fiberplast Outer Armor Plating and Nightshadow coating, Abregado Combat Shield in Ship Variant, Stygium-based Cloaking Device
- Classification: Stealth Transport/Corvette Carrier
- Length: ~150 meters
- Width: ~30 meters
- Height: ~30 meters
- Armament: Low (None when stealth field engaged, weapon systems required to power down) Turbolaser and point-defense quad laser cannons
- Defenses: Average (Very Low when stealth field engaged, shield systems and point-defense turrets required to power down)
- Hangar: Very High: 1 (6 smallcraft)
- Maneuverability Rating: Average
- Speed Rating: Average (Low when thrust trace dampeners engaged)
- Hyperdrive Class: Average: 2
- Stygium-based Cloak- a stealth cloaking device based on the previously used stygium crystal formula, mined on the planet Maramere. It envelops the ship and all the small craft docked aboard it in an invisibility field, allowing it to disappear from sight.
- Stealth Systems (Sensor Negators, Gravitic Modulator, Photon Absorber, Thermal Dissipator)- Various on-board passive stealth systems, including a Gravitic Modulator, which protect the ship from being detected by enemy scanners. Sensor Negators, Photon Absorbers, and Thermal Dissipators cover most if not all common scanners and trackers, the devices being previously used in the infamous StealthX fighter design, while the Gravitic Modulator protects the corvette from being detected by gravity-based scanners. All of these are less effective the closer this ship gets to enemy vessels.
- Thrust Trace Dampener- device which captures exhaust from thrusters in order to conceal presence of a ship, negating the radiation footprint ship leaves in the vacuum and dampening light emitted by the ship's engines at the cost of slowing the vessel down when engaged.
- Electric Signature Masking System- device designed and engineered by the droids working within Metal Lord and ARGH ranks. While some stealth ships in the past had to deactivate their on board electric systems, such as other ships, weapons, and more importantly droids and their power units, in order to avoid detection, this device masks presence of more passive electric and mechanical systems, along with their power signature, working aboard the ship while allowing it to stay hidden. This includes small weapons being powered up on board, for example rifles, pistols, or lightsabers, active droids, and even starfighters as long as their weapon and shield systems are powered off. More active system's like the ship powering up its weapons and shields use too much energy and therefore would reveal the ship's presence, even with this component.
- Encryption Network- network which encrypts and decrypts incoming and outgoing communications, this does not stop communications from being detected however.
- Hangar Tubes- instead of a hangar the ship has system of docking tubes on its underbelly connected to its cargo hold into which a squadron of 6 smallcraft can fold into and dock, hiding away to board the corvette and be cloaked by its systems.
- Tractor Beams- the corvette has a bay of 4 tractor beams for all your tractor beam needs.
- Dampener Chaff- Like the previous ARGH models the Eclipse is equipped with an AE-CM 1 Dampener Chaff taken off of the open market to grant additional protection against missiles and energy weaponry, using it will most likely reveal the ship's position however.
- Tractor Shroud- another device taken off of the Open Market, a QQ-4U85 Tractor Shroud protects the ship from interference of another even larger vessel's tractor beams, used mostly to avoid capture by enemy fleet.
- Combat Shield and Electromagnetic Stabilization- Equipped with Abregado Combat Shield the corvette gains its defense bonuses against energy bolts and physical objects, as well as protection from ionic and electromagnetic attacks even if the shield is cycled into dormant setting to avoid detection. However the more important feature of the shield is its Electromagnetic Stabilization, used mostly to protect the ship from EMP attacks and interference it also makes it more difficult for enemy magnetic scanners to detect the mechanical objects and equipment on board the farther the ship is away from them, including other starships docked within its bowels and the droids found on board.
- Cloaking and Stealth Systems- various stealth and cloaking systems found aboard this corvette, including stygium array, gravitic modulator, and thrust trace dampener, allow it to fly virtually invisible to friends and foes alike. The stygium array even allows it to jump in and out of hyperspace without dropping its stealth field.
- Non-Magnetic Hull and Electromagnetic Stabilization- The hull and armor of the ship was made out of titanium and fiberplast with nightshadow coating, none of them being ferrous materials, that added to the electromagnetic stabilization granted by the ship's combat shield even when in low power dormant mode makes it more resistant against being detected by presence of magnet interacting material the farther the ship is away from enemy scanners. Basically the ship itself is made almost entirely out of non-ferrous material and the ferrous material onboard, such as droids and starfighters, are hidden behind electromagnetic stabilization and interfere less with outside magnet like magnetic scanners the farther the ship is away from enemy position.
- Ionic Protection- the Abregado Combat Shield grants protection against ionic and electrical attacks, even if it is cycled into dormant low power mode when it does no longer protects against energy and physical attacks. This is due to the shield's original design in using such attacks to recharge itself back to full power when in low power mode, shutting down all other systems then to avoid being drained completely.
- Tractor Shroud- the tractor shroud system installed on board makes the ship resistant against being captured by enemy tractor beams. This has its limits of course but it gives the corvette a bigger window of jumping into hyperspace and escaping before enemy vessels could capture it when found itself in hairy situation and revealed.
- Dampener Chaff- chaff launcher installed on board designed to grant protection against enemy missiles and to even interfere with energy projectiles to a degree.
- Hangar Tubes and On-board Storage- instead of a full hangar the corvette has a system of 6 docking hangar tubes, each big enough to house just one smallcraft like a starfighter, dropship, or a shuttle, connected directly into its cargo boy, big enough to transport 60 war droid or organic soldiers or 120 drone soldiers folded to fit into smaller spaces along with cargo to arm and supply them and a squadron of vehicles for support. Troops, starfighters, and any other devices aboard in its hangar and cargo bay are protected by the ship's cloaking and stealth systems.
- Passive Stealth- Outside of the active stealth systems, like its stygium cloak, the ship also has more passive stealth systems, for example the matte black nightshadow coating, speckled with faux stars to blend in into the background of deep space, and the various anti-scanner systems. While they do not make the ship nearly invisible like other systems when in fully stealth configuration, it gives it a degree of stealth and lower profile even when in combat, or when its shield and weapon systems are powered up.
- Communications Cut- most of the ship's weaknesses come from the drawbacks of using stealth technology and requirements for it. For example to avoid being detected all electronic, holo, and radio communications coming from and aboard the ship have to be cut, total wireless silence. This is especially crippling for beings who usually rely on such communications to run their ships and in every day life, for example droids.
- Dust Reveal and Physical Weakness- another weakness is that due to the ship's shields powering down when in stealth mode it cannot repel slow moving physical objects like asteroids, junk, or dust particles. The ship has to avoid clouds of debris very carefully then as contact with them could reveal the ship's position, even clinging to it to negate its stealth entirely, or damage it as result of the collision.
- Weapons Powering Down- when the cloaking is engaged and the ship goes into fully stealth mode the weapon systems of the corvette need to power off completely to not reveal its power signature, as such the ship cannot fires or even power up its weapons in stealth as to not reveal its position.
- Shield Cycling- for the same purpose the ship's shields have to cycle down and power off majority off its systems save the ion, electrical, and electro-magnetic stabilization, leaving only the vessel's hull and armor plating as defensive layer of the ship.
- Thrust Trace Dampener Slow Down- when the thrust trace dampeners are engaged, systems hiding the ship's radiation trace behind its engines and dimming their glow, it also cuts on the maximum acceleration the ship can reach, slowing it down as a result.
- Lower Weapon Count- the ship has lower weapon count than an average corvette due to the drain on its reactor the cloaking and stealth systems cause and to keep the ship smaller and harder to detect. As a result it can only field turbolasers and smaller quad laser cannons used mostly as point defense against starfighters and missiles, however it lacks more hard hitting longer range weapons like missiles.
- Too Close For Comfort- most if not all of the ship's stealth systems are more effective the farther one is from the enemy vessels doing the scanning and observation, so the closer one gets to enemy ships the more likely it is for them to notice some sort of anomaly or presence on their scanners that would give away the ship's position. Therefore whoever is controlling the ship should be careful of straying too close to enemy positions unless they wish to be spotted.
Description
Introduction: Stealth ships have always been a valuable and common tool in the Guild of Hammers and Metal Lord arsenal. After all, most of the appearances HK has made, in the recent years especially, has been alongside his personal stealth transport, the Knight of the Eclipse, an unknown model he has gained a hold of as his prize during the Dark Harvest Galactic event. It was only a single ship however, and while it was enough for the droid in the past, recently he has found himself watching over an increasingly larger group of droids and cyborgs who pledged allegiance to him. Naturally he decided to move forward with plans of trying to replicate the designs and technology used to make the Knight of the Eclipse, on a larger scale this time, to update his personal transport and make it available to those Lords who could use it.
Technical Details: The Eclipse shares similar characteristics and appearance to the Knight of Eclipse, HK's favored stealth transport. Both vessels have sleek curves and more fluid design, they're relatively lightly armed with average armor and not the fastest vehicles around, especially when cloaked, but both have been made to be well suited for purpose of transport. The Eclipse has been formed as result of studying both the design of the Knight of the Eclipse and older StealthX fighters, mixed with access to stygium technology. Aboard the ship has been suited with numerous anti-scanner systems, including a gravitic modulator, sensor negator, photon absorber, and thermal dissipator while its hull and outer armor plates have been made out of titanium covered in fiberplast with speckled nightshadow coating, just like the previous Knight of the Eclipse model. However since the droids could not fully take apart and reverse engineer the stealth transport, as they wished to still use it, they had to consult designs of other stealth fighters to fill the gaps that outer examination of the Knight couldn't. That was where the StealthX was brought in and the open market scrounged for useful components, rumors have it that HK even consulted the Nerf's Guide to Stealth Ships, but the old droid would outright deny ever asking a guide for organics on how to craft anything. Either way, as result the ship was also equipped with thrust dampeners, which hid its engines signature and glow, dampener chaff, used in previous ARGH designs to act another layer of defense to their ships, a tractor shroud, to protect it from being captured by enemy tractor beams, and of course a stygium cloaking device, along with others like Electric Signature Masking, Encryption Network, and Electromagnetic Stabilization field. The stygium crystals used for this have been mined out of Maramere during one of the expeditions HK and Sio made to the ocean planet. The ship has been fitted then with an Abregado Combat Shield in ship variant, and six docking tubes on its underbelly, connected to the ship's rather spacious cargo bay.
Strengths: The strengths of this stealth corvette lie, rather obviously, in its ability to conduct passive and active stealth. Active stealth in form of a stygium crystal field which allows it to virtually render itself invisible, along with other systems that only reinforce this illusion, like thrust trace dampeners, which when activated mask the radiation signature of the ship's engines and hide their glow but slow the vessel down. This active stealth is combined on top of more passive stealth systems which can be activated without really any drawback on the ship, for example the various anti-scanner systems like sensor negators, gravitic modulators, photon absorbers, and thermal dissipators, systems taken from the older StealthX models, their non-ferrous hull made from titanium and fiberplast coated in speckled nightshadow which acts as camouflage against the background of deep space, electric signature masking system which hide the presence of electrical systems and their power units on board, for example activated droids and weapons, or docked starfighters, and electromagnetic stabilization field from the ship's combat shield, which in turns makes it very difficult for enemy magnet-based scanners to pick up on presence of ferrous material within the ship, for example docked starfighters or droids on board, this is based on the distance between the ship and the scanner, the farther away from it the corvette is the less likely it is for the scanner to pick up on presence of ferrous materials on board. Another major strength of the ship comes from its ability to transport a squadron of six starfighters or dropships on its underbelly within their docking tubes a trait few smaller stealth ships share, 60 soldiers or 120 folded up drone soldiers, and a squadron of vehicles to support them, much like the previous Abregado War Galley models who share similar internal cargo and compartment designs, along with another squadron of vehicles to support the infantry aboard when landed. With these traits the corvette can not only fulfill sudden strike missions, dropping its cloak in surprise naval attack, but also covert behind the lines objectives, by using its stealth to deliver infantry and mechanical support where normal transport ships would be unable to go. Outside of that the ship also has protection against ionic, electrical, and electromagnetic attacks from the Combat Shield installed on it, although it can block only one electromagnetic attack before the power of it would deactivate the shield and most likely the stealth systems along with it, it also has chaff launcher taken off of the open market as additional protection, and tractor shroud as protection against enemy tractor beams to avoid being captured during combat or when retreating.
Weaknesses: Just how much of the ship's strengths come from its ability to conduct stealth operations, most of its weaknesses come from the drawbacks and price paid for such ability. When engaged in active stealth the ship has to cut its communications, external and internal, which includes droids sending wireless messages and communications to each other, as such transmissions could be picked up by enemy ships and give the corvette's position away. The Eclipse also has to power off its weapon systems to avoid their energy signature being detected, and its shield systems have to be cycled down into dormant state for the same purpose, leaving the ship defenseless against physical and energy attacks although still granting protection against electrical, ionic, and electromagnetic attacks. The ship's overall speed is also hurt when the thrust trace dampeners are activated as the masking components also dampen their output and the acceleration produced. However even if all these systems the stealth on the ship is not perfect, most if not all of those tricks will fail if the ship gets too close to enemy ships, with each meter the chances of something showing up on their scanners as an anomaly or presence increasing, which means that those controlling the ships have to be careful and keep distance to enemy vessels, otherwise it would be all for naught and the ship would be caught in its weakened state. Besides that, while active stealth systems are engaged the ship is still vulnerable to being revealed by debris and physical objects in its wake, large asteroids, smaller space trash, even just space dust and particles, they could all collide with the ship and damage its hull and stealth field, or cling to it and reveal it to naked eye. Due to the energy drain the stealth systems have on the ship's reactor and trying to keep it a smaller size, the weapon count of the corvette is smaller when compared to an average ship of its class to minimize the chance of it being detected due to its size or by having too many weapons attached to it, making it less effective in an actual ship-to-ship combat.
Conclusion: In conclusion, this limited production corvette would be a fairly efficient carrier on its own, however its capabilities as transport are only augmented by its stealth abilities with systems like stygium crystal cloaking field, gravitic modulator, and thrust trace dampener. Its strengths come mostly from those two fields, dual role of stealth ship and transport, but it's also where its weaknesses come from, to accommodate the stealth systems its gun count and the kind of weaponry it has build-in had to be limited, making it less capable in ship to ship combat than average corvette of similar size, which is further crippled when its active stealth systems are engaged, forcing the ship to cut internal and external transmissions, deactivate its stealth and weapon systems, and decrease its acceleration as even its engines are weakened. To be caught by enemy in its vulnerable state while the stealth systems are engaged would be more or less a death sentence.
