AMCO
I'm Sorry Dave
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Conventional wisdom dictates that Star Destroyers are best felled by Star Destroyers - or by skilful use of fighter craft.
Conventional wisdom be damned, for Globex thinks most (but not all) Star Destroyers are overpriced, oversized malinvestments. Starfighters, on the other hand, require skilled pilots - preferably ones with a good amount of veterancy. That just isn't an option for a corporation that only wages war if absolutely necessary and even then mostly against pirates or similarily disorganised rabble; droids are a good alternative, but they're not creative.
Thus, the ISSM, the gentlebeing's capital-killer - according to advertising, it is a 'fire and forget' weapon system able to 'eliminate star destroyers and even larger vessels across interstellar distances'. In practice, the only thing that's fire and forget is the missile itself - unless caught off guard, many star destroyer designs (and a fair few cruisers) are more likely than not to be able to shoot down the ISSM before it can reach them.
Even a direct hit isn't guaranteed to fully disable a target; warheads can malfunction, redundancies can be too solid, or the target can be too big.
ISSMs can technically be used to commit mass murder, but regular orbital bombardment is just way more cost-effective.
- Intent: The bastard child of a corvette and an ICBM.
- Image Source: Phalanx Assault Carrier by Johnson LI
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: The Globex Corporation
- Affiliation: The Globex Corporation
- Market Status: Open-Market
- Model: Gehenna-class Interstellar Strategic Missile
- Production: Minor
- Material: Carbon-Nanofilament
- Classification: Interstellar Strategic Missile
- Length: 145 metres
- Width: 16 metres
- Height: 16 metres
- Armament: High
- Defences: Average
- Hangar Space: Average | N/A
- Manoeuvrability Rating: Average
- Speed Rating: Average
- Hyperdrive: 1.01
- ISSMs are equipped with all subsystems expected of vessels of their size and purpose, including relatively high-end ECM.
- ISSMs are wholly automated, have no hangars, and have only a select few docking ports (refuelling + maintenance).
- Gehenna-class Interstellar Strategic Missiles come in three primary variants, as described below.
- Starbreakers are purpose-built to cripple or destroy capital ships, preferably (from a cost-benefit perspective) Star Destroyers; they are designed to penetrate the target's shields, drill into its hull, and detonate a massive warhead. The warhead is usually a huge baradium charge, though other choices are not unheard of - most prominently nuclear warheads or EMPs meant to fully disable starships.
- Worldcrackers are designed to penetrate planetary shields - the name is somewhat misleading, as most of the warhead is removed to make room for the massive capacitor banks required to supercharge its individual field disruptors enough to breach a planetary shield. They generally unleash two dozen smaller missiles (each of which holds a warhead and seven decoys) upon achieving a breach, all of which normally hone in on a single shield generator - the goal is to take one out to force open a gap in the planet's defences.
- Swarmbringers are a simplified variant that removes the individual field disruptors and many of the more advanced features - its one and only purpose is to exit hyperspace near a target and disgorge the numerous proton torpedoes or other warheads held inside its form. This is the only variant that is technically reusable; in practice, 'hard targets' often destroy the ISSM before it can flee.
- Shieldbreaker: ISSMs are tipped with potent individual field disruptors so as to allow them to penetrate the shielding of their targets.
- Frontal Shielding: ISSMs are equipped with focused forward shielding; while advantageous, this means they are vulnerable from behind.
- One Trick Pony: ISSMs are really only good for two things - penetrating a target and blowing itself up or disgorging smaller warheads.
Conventional wisdom dictates that Star Destroyers are best felled by Star Destroyers - or by skilful use of fighter craft.
Conventional wisdom be damned, for Globex thinks most (but not all) Star Destroyers are overpriced, oversized malinvestments. Starfighters, on the other hand, require skilled pilots - preferably ones with a good amount of veterancy. That just isn't an option for a corporation that only wages war if absolutely necessary and even then mostly against pirates or similarily disorganised rabble; droids are a good alternative, but they're not creative.
Thus, the ISSM, the gentlebeing's capital-killer - according to advertising, it is a 'fire and forget' weapon system able to 'eliminate star destroyers and even larger vessels across interstellar distances'. In practice, the only thing that's fire and forget is the missile itself - unless caught off guard, many star destroyer designs (and a fair few cruisers) are more likely than not to be able to shoot down the ISSM before it can reach them.
Even a direct hit isn't guaranteed to fully disable a target; warheads can malfunction, redundancies can be too solid, or the target can be too big.
ISSMs can technically be used to commit mass murder, but regular orbital bombardment is just way more cost-effective.
