Ship Designation: Polaris-class
Ship Class: Destroyer
Model Number: Mark 4
Full Designation: Polaris 4-class Destroyer
Armament: Two dual 90mm Machine Gun Point Defense Turrets, Three dual Beam Spray Gun Point Defense Turrets, One ‘Tank Bunker’.
Description: The Polaris-class Destroyers were designed to fulfil the role of a screening ship. Of course, the UGN rarely fielded many fighters or bombers, but they did occasionally use missiles or torpedoes. Perhaps foreseeing the eventual shift in military doctrine that the UGN would eventually be forced to make, the Polaris-class was designed not only to deal with incoming explosives but also to deal with fighters and bombers. Its mix of kinetic and energy-based point defense systems give it the ability to deal with both shielded and unshielded targets, while the ‘Tank Bunker’ allows a single tank-type MSG to add whatever firepower is needed for the task at hand.
The two dual 90mm Machine Guns are heavily modified versions of the 90mm machine gun used by MSGs in their ‘Real Mode’ that have been put together and turned into a pair of turrets. While they are certainly capable of dealing damage via the normal shells, which of course are coated in ‘Shieldbreaker Blue’, this particular series of ships instead use either flachette or flak rounds. The flachette darts are, of course, coated in ‘Shieldbreaker Blue’ as well, and the fragmented pieces of the flak rounds are also, eh, partially covered too. The range of the flak shells is set to either medium or long range, while the flachette shells are able to be used at any range.
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The three dual Beam Spray Guns are mounted in an identical configuration to the other point defense system. However, with Beam Spray Guns being less potent nowadays, they are actually just the shell of a Beam Spray Gun with entirely reworked interiors. Their range is only short to medium at best, but they more than make up for it by unleashing either fully automatic (and very inaccurate) fire or a shotgun spread of short-range particle beams. To be fair, each of the beams it fires in its ‘shotgun’ firing mode hits with the power of a Beam Bazooka at full power, which is nothing to scoff at despite being outclassed by more modern weapons.
The aptly named ‘Tank Bunker’ is usually empty when the ship is not in combat, only being filled by a Zaku Tank or a Guntank of one kind or another when the ship is about to enter combat. As both Zaku Tanks and Guntanks can have various weapon loadouts, this gives the ship a ‘wild card’ that it can use when situations get dicey. Normally, the Zaku Tank or Guntank is equipped with either kinetic and explosive weaponry, sometimes both, and adds a bit more anti-ship firepower to the Destroyer.
While the point defense guns can be used against enemy ships, they are so heavily reworked from the base model that it is rarely a good idea for the Polaris-class destroyers to close with the enemy. While the Polaris 4 is a vast improvement over the previous models, it still has the same issue of needing to rely on larger ships for protection from other warships. However, it fulfils its role perfectly and that is all that really matters.