Captain Larraq
Capitalist
Image Source: The Expanse, Battlestar Galactica
Intent: To make cool pewpew things and to finish the last project I had laying around.
Development Thread: Won an Auction, Shot some Stuff,
Manufacturer: Mandal Hypernautics
Model: MH-CW12 Long Range Heavy Torpedo / MH-CW12-A Advanced Long Range Heavy Torpedo; "Mirdala Be'senaar"
Affiliation: Closed Market, Mandalorian Clans, Mandalorian Crusaders, SSC,
Modularity: Two Production Models, Variable Warheads,
Production: Mass Production (standard) / Limited Production (advanced)
Material: Alusteel, Electronics, misc
Description:
Long considered one of the premier minds in both naval warfare and related technologies, it was Captain Larraq's mastery of celestial objects in warfare that first earned the attention of warhawks across the galaxy. And, as fate would have it, those same celestial objects were to inspire the latest technological advancement to come from the mind of Larraq and be manufactured by the Mandalorian's corporation; Mandal Hypernautics. At the battle of Roche, where Mandalorian and Republic forces clashed alongside pirates, mercenaries, and terrorists, the capabilities of all captains involved were tested by the cramped and cluttered combat environment created by the dense asteroid belt and the burning debris of hulked ships. Feeling the need to design new ships and weapons to thrive in these conditions, should the Mando'ade again find the need to wage war within an asteroid belt, Rygel Larraq put his mind to work. The first creation to emerge was the freshly christened Roche-class Light Corvettes, a fast and powerful family of craft sporting top of the line sensors and some of the best armor plating available. More important than her speed and armor were the stealth technologies built into her design. With highly diffused thruster emissions, a low signature rating, and protection from both gravity and magnetic based sensors, the Roche-class was ideally suited for the hide-and-seek combat displayed during the Battle for Roche.
As good as she was though, she was but half of the combat package envisioned by Rygel Larraq. To truly secure the future of his people, the Mandalorian Clans would need an offensive weapon every bit as advanced and specialized as the Roche-class Light Corvette. And in the cluttered confines of an asteroid belt, only one type of weapon was capable of meeting these demands. Thus began the CW12 Long Range Heavy Torpedo, better known to the Clans as the Mirdala Be'senaar. While a traditional missile is fast, agile, and capable of operating at long ranges, a Torpedo is typically far larger, slower, and carrying a far larger payload. Weighing in at three tons each and measuring nearly eight meters long, the CW12 is a massive bit of ordnance that would be at home on even the largest of capital ships. Likewise, the weapon dedicates an impressive 1-ton of its weight to the warhead itself.
As with most objects of exceptional size, the Mirdala a pondering beast when compared to other ordnance designs. Moving far slower than most traditional starfighter or capital ship ordnances, the CW12 Torpedo travels at speeds comparable to a fast interceptor. While critics are quick to point out the weapon's low speed as a crippling weakness, the Mirdala's overall design turns that weakness into an advantage. The weapon's low speed has little to do with the weapon's thruster capacity but instead is done to enable optimal use of the available fuel within the weapon to achieve maximum range, likewise, the low speed of the weapon better enables the craft to avoid careening into rocks and other debris as it maneuvers towards its target.
Needing the ability to approach its target undetected, the CW12 is equipped with a number of compact stealth systems. Too small to generate gravitic distortions, the CW12 incorporates a Magnetic Resonator to hide the weapon from metal detecting and magnetic field reading sensors. Similarly, a system of Efflux Diffusion Baffles cools and scatters the weapon's ion trail, preventing the ordnance from being detected by its exhaust. Capitalizing on this, the targeting and navigational software of the Mirdala is programmed to try and keep as much cover between itself and its target as possible, enabling the dense debris and asteroid fields to protect the warhead from more basic sensors.
Relying upon the element of surprise, the Mirdala Be'senaar, when in use, is likely to be the first or only weapon to strike an enemy ship. As such, the weapon will likely be impacting a fully shielded ship and will have to contend with point defense weaponry for the last few seconds of its flight. To combat this, and to truly enable the CW12 to perform its role in the wars of the Mandalorians, two important systems were included in the design. The first was a micronized deflector shield emitter with just enough strength to withstand a few seconds of sustained damage from flak or a handful of point defense laser strikes. The second, more innovative addition to the design was the incorporation of a Field Disruptor. Capable of disabling an area of shielding physically touching the torpedo, the Field Disruptor activates during the last half-second before impact with a targeted ship.
Though the experimental technology does prove temperamental, often suffering damages en-route to the target ship thanks to the extensive debris fields these weapons are designed to navigate, the weapon tends to strike with devastating effect when it does decide to function properly. For the other two-thirds of the time, the torpedo's impressive payload is still enough to cause significant damage to a receiving party's energy shielding. Regardless of whether the Field Disruptor decides to function properly or not, a weakness in the design is that in order to utilize the Field Disrupor, the torpedo must also disable its own shielding for the last half-second of flight. While this is done to enable the weapon to (hopefully) detonate directly upon the hull of an enemy ship and maximizing the damage potential of the warhead, this also leaves the warhead particularly vulnerable to point defense during its final approach to target.
MH-CW12-A Advanced Long Range Heavy Torpedo
Not entirely satisfied with the design, Rygel Larraq continued to experiment with the CW12 concept. Recognizing that the torpedo's reliance upon debris for cover would drastically hamper its combat effectiveness outside of the occasional highly situational engagement, but also needing to work with highly limited space and power, a second, more advanced design was also created. By forgoing the energy shielding and increasing the already excessive price of the torpedo, the CW12-A is able to incorporate a MH-EW17 Active Camouflage system in its design. Now visually cloaked and covered in a layer of Reflec, among the other nuances of the camouflage system, the Advanced Mirdala Torpedo is capable of being used in significantly wider theaters of operation than the standard variant and is likewise able to operate at slightly faster speeds and longer ranges than the standard due to no longer needing to rely upon terrain to hide from hostile sensors as it approaches its target. However, similar to the standard variant, the CW12-A must deactivate its cloak during the last half-second of its approach as it activates its Field Disruptor.
Note: The MH-CW12-A is not intended for widespread use, fleet-wide use, or full-salvos from large capital ships. The weapon is intended to be used by small, PC commanded ships to help give them an edge against larger/more plentiful ships and to promote more interesting roleplay on a smaller scale than the fleet vs fleet setting.
Missile Guidance System
Incorporated within the CW12 and CW12-A Torpedoes is an advanced guidance system created and contracted through Hegemonic Automaton. Bordering the line between sentience and non-sentience, the droid brain created by Hannibal Oryen is capable of successfully guiding ordnance through all but the most dangerous asteroid belts and debris fields, distinguishing chaff and flares from enemy vessels, and out-processing the effects of most guidance jamming systems with ease. Tests comparing the capabilities of the CW12's droid brain against the capabilities of a human pilot produced a scant 0.12% deficiency in efficiency of navigating numerous obstacle courses and an 8% increase in overall targeting accuracy. And while no official reports are able to verify concerns that the processor of these torpedoes is capable of sentient thought, it has become a common practice of engineers while loading and handling the weapons to pet and speak to Mirdala Torpedoes as one would speak to a dog. Superstition among ordnance specialists is that a Mirdala Be'senaar will self-detonate if it feels neglected by its handlers, in spite of constant efforts from Mandal Hypernautics PR representatives to assure their clients that the Torpedoes are not capable of such actions.
Classification: Fourth-Degree
Size: Capital Ship Missile
Length: 8 meters
Weight: 3 tons
Movement: Ion Drive, Maneuvering Thrusters,
Armaments: Variable Warheads, including but not limited to: High-Yield Plasma Warheads, Fusion Warheads, Proton Warheads, Ion Warheads, and Creespa Warheads.
Rate of Fire: Single Shot
Effective Range: Extended Range (HLR Turbolaser Ranges)
Special Features:
- Able to differentiate between Chaff/Flares and Ships/Starfighters
- Able to accurately navigate debris fields, asteroid fields, and other stellar phenomena
- Able to withstand *most ECM
- Able to penetrate *most shields before detonating
- Extremely long range (for ordnance)
- 1/3rd of mass dedicated to explosives (normal for missiles is 10-20%)
- Energy Shielding (Standard) / Visual Cloak + Reflec (Advanced)
- Not trackable by *most magnetic or gravitic sensors
- Leaves no trackable ion trail (Exhaust)
- Slow Moving / easy target for point defense
- Capable of long range, but typically used at short to mid-range due to time and fuel consumption spent navigating debris fields
- If actually used at long ranges over a flat trajectory, is highly unlikely to reach target before sustaining fatal damages
- Not protected against EMP or Ionization effects
- Shielded, but with a significantly weaker shield than would be found on a starfighter (MH-CW12 Only)
- Not programmed for evasive maneuvers (no dodging incoming fire)
- Expensive / Royalties paid to Hegemonic Automaton
- May or may not be capable of developing sapience
- Dangerous to store aboard ships (suicidal sapient explosives, or prone to go boom during combat? You decide.)
- Advanced Missile Guidance System
- Field Disruptor
- Deflector Shielding (MH-CW12 Only)
- MH-EW17 Active Camouflage (MH-CW12-A Only)
- SIS-28 Magnetic Resonator
- MH-13 Efflux Diffusion Baffles
Primary Source:
* Shield Bypassing and ECM Withstanding capabilities subject to plot convenience
