The light cruiser is among the smallest of the ship types in the cruiser classification. These ships are typically too small to be classified as capital ships, and lack the armaments and defenses of their larger cousins. Light cruisers are typically fast, cheap to produce, and make the bulk of the cruiser fleet for most factions. Designs can vary from faction to faction, but they are all fast with good sensor arrays. In some factions, they are simply larger destroyers, but in other factions, they are dedicated fast raiders. We are now going to look at a few Light Cruisers from various factions. Starting with the ships of Old Earth.
Old Earth CLs:
X-1215: An experimental CL hull designed late during the Cathamari war. Intended to be part of the mission fleet that the Enterprise was initially intended to be part of, and as such she is equipped with a rudimentary warp drive. Twenty hulls were laid down in Earth shipyards, but none were fully completed before the Battle for Earth. Despite being incomplete eight of them participated in the battle where they scored a combined total of forty-three confirmed combat kills before being destroyed. If they had been completed they would have carried two particle beam arrays. Fore and aft torpedoes, along with twenty-four banks of medium particle cannon, and two banks of Electro cannon. Point defense was intended to be two hundred and four photon missile batteries. The ship was planned to have two small hanger with room for thirty fighters, and sixty auxiliary shuttles
Those eight incomplete ships that fought in the Battle for Earth never had those hangers completed. Nor was their intended armor fully installed. They had been hastily armed with what weapons could be installed in the few hours before the battle. Two of them had even been lucky enough to have torpedoes to use in the battle. What is notable about these unnamed ships is there high sublight speed, and slim hull profile. These two factors made them very hard to target, and are a major contributor to their limited success on the battlefield.
Lancer Class Light Cruiser: Designed during the Third Colonial war by the Earth navy these were extremely fast sublight ships for their age. Her main battery consisted of 400 medium particle cannons divided into six banks. The ship was outfitted with a single lateral particle beam array. She was equipped with dual-purpose light particle and missile mounts for engaging fighters and light craft. A single aft-facing hanger provided room for twenty fighters, two dropships, and forty combat shuttles. Protection consisted of two meters of Overlord Armor, and two energy web generators.
The class served the Earth Fleet prominently during the war. It was used mainly for recon, and commerce raiding. The ship class even distinguished itself in several battles during the Cathamari war intercepting and destroying a combined total of fourteen hundred and seventy-three Cathamari raiders in battle. Two hundred and thirteen Lancers were present during the Battle for Earth where they sunk a combined total of three hundred and six Cathamari ships including one of their esteemed battlecruisers. Of these ships, only twenty-three survived the battle and were scuttled for materials by the survivors before leaving the system.
Nagara Class: Employed during the same time frame as the Lancer-class this Light Cruiser was designed and employed by the Colonies. It was smaller than the Lancer with thinner armor at one point six meters thick. It carried no ship to ship guns, but did include thirty flak cannons, and eight hundred light missile batteries for AA defense. The ship had an impressive bank of torpedoes, and featured an early form of active stealth. While not a true cloaking device, it was able to disappear from most scanners. The device is not dissimilar, but inferior to the stealth fields used by modern Refuge ships. It proved itself to be remarkably good at commerce raiding, and during the Cathamari war, it proved itself again. The ship class is noted for successfully ambushing and torpedoing a combined total of twenty-seven thousand Cathamari ships. Including four and a half thousand of their valuable battlecruisers. In effect, this ship was best employed in manners similar to the submarines of world war II
Refuge Light Cruisers:
Project Warbird: A failed Light cruiser design that underwent trials in 068 SDE. The ship showed promise, but a fatal design flaw with her engine configuration in regards to the ship’s star frame resulted in the entire ship being sent back to the drawing board. The problem was that the engines were simply too powerful for her frame. Not wanting to give up on the speed her intended engine configuration would have provided a new project was started to devise a hull in her size range that could handle the stress without a significant compromise on other capabilities such as armament. This led to the creation of the Star Knight Project. Ultimately the entirety of the original design was scrapped as too many minor flaws were found that had to be worked out. It was simply easier to start over.
Star Knight Class Light Cruiser: This ship has yet to be laid down, but so far show promise in simulation. If successful she is intended to serve the fleet as a light carrier for the vanguard fleet. Primarily tasked with serving as a base of operations for the shorter ranged LPCs. She will also serve the fleet as a raider when needed, and is slated to be given the cargo capacity needed for this. The ship will be given a modified version of the engine configuration that Project Warbird had tested. One that her specially designed hull was intended to use. This will make her the fastest ship in the fleet.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Cylovan Light Cruisers:
LC-8: The LC-8 is a modest light cruiser employed by the Cylovan fleet. Outfitted with eight large hangers, and light armaments. It is designed for speed and is employed mainly for recon and raid missions. She is rather unremarkable and has limited firepower.
Rykoni Light Cruisers:
It goes without saying that the Rykoni as a people of Pirates and slavers would have light cruisers in their fleet. Given their lack of a dedicated class system, it would be difficult to classify all of their designs in service. So instead we will cover the general class type they use.
Rykoni Heavy Raider: Almost all Rykoni LCs are designed as a heavier version of their raiders. Typically outfitted with a mismatched array of light and medium gun mounts, and protected by whatever seemed useful. Including random plates of steel, and poorly place light shield generators. Heavy Raiders are typically fast with modest armaments, but often quite fragile. A single well placed hit is often all it takes to sink these poorly constructed warships. Most Rykoni cruisers are of the Heavy Raider type.
Heavy Cruisers:
Heavy Cruisers are the workhorses of the fleet. These small capital ships are employed in a wide array of roles that require a heavily armed ship, but don’t necessarily need the larger and more expensive battleship or the dreadnought. Heavy cruisers are typically heavily armored and/or shielded. Most heavy cruisers are designed with slugging matches in mind, and can easily slug it out with other cruisers. Some can even slug it out with a battleship although that matchup is not normally recommended. The most common roles for a heavy cruiser include escort missions, planetary bombardment, border patrol, light cruiser hunting, and planetary defense. Now let’s look at a few Heavy Cruisers with a focus on the Refuge.
Old Earth CH’s:
Osaka Class: Designed before the Third Colonial War to counter the rising piracy on Earth’s colonial trade routes. Being intended primarily as an escort, a great deal of emphasis was placed on her engines. The result was the fastest heavy cruiser of her era. The Osaka could easily chase, and catch every other ship of her size class. Not to mention most ships smaller than her as well. Her armaments included 24 dual-purpose light particle cannon banks, eight heavy particle cannon banks, a single lateral beam array, and fore and aft torpedoes.
Tokyo Class: Based on the Osaka’s hull the Tokyo features enhanced hull armor, and a larger torpedo bay with additional launchers. This came at a cost of half its secondary armaments, and two banks of heavy cannon. As a result, she is more vulnerable to fighters than the Osaka and now requires escort to protect her from fighter attacks. The larger torpedo bay and additional launchers do however give her the firepower to slug it out with Cathamari battlecruisers.
Hammerhead Class: This cruiser class is most famous for that it was the first human ship class to encounter the Cathamari. The Hammerhead has a very limited battery of light particle cannons for firing on fighters, and light ships. Her main weapons were torpedoes. Designed for the Third Colonial war where the best weapon for penetrating armor was torpedoes. Her armor was four and a half meters thick.
Thor Class: Built by Mars colony the Thor Class was the premier heavy cruiser of the old earth era. No other cruiser could match her in a one on one fight. However, her tough armor, and powerful weapons array came at the cost of speed. As such she is also the slowest heavy cruiser of her time.
Washington Class: Designed by Luna colony to fight the Thor, she carries similar armaments, but she couldn’t match the heavy armor of the Thor. Using engines purchased from Earth, she was given the speed to outmaneuver and outrun her chief opponent the Thor. Only Earth’s Osaka was faster than the Washington.
Refuge CHs:
Battlehawk Class: The first heavy cruiser designed by the People of Sol. Based on older cruisers employed by Old Earth and her colonies she is nonetheless a revolutionary step forward in ship design. The ship is more expensive than comparable cruisers from other factions, but has better performance. Her design is remarkably modular allowing for easy refit, and reconfiguration to fit different mission profiles. This modularity also makes it very easy to repair after heavy combat. In her short service, only one refit has been proposed to the design.
Cylovan Heavy Cruisers:
Cruiser Three: We have already seen this ship. It is a powerful cruiser with massive hangers, but those hangers are also its greatest structural weakness. A few good hits to the hangar can cripple the ship, if not outright destroy it. Despite this weakness, it has proven remarkably successful for the Cylovan fleet. Employed heavily on every front it is the most common cruiser class in use by the Cylovans. Often used as a flagship in their smaller attack fleets.
Alliance Heavy Cruisers:
Zephyr class: Designed using the best technology the race of the alliance has to use, the ship is the best they have. Employed heavily on the various fronts the Alliance is fighting the Cylovans on. She carries powerful photon cannons that can punch through Cylovan energy shielding and armor. Her defenses still leave a little to be desired, and she doesn’t have the speed to outrun Cylovan vessels. In addition, her cost is a little on the high side. The Alliance has ideas for fixing these weaknesses, and as such had been trying to get the remote world of Ilyatria to join the Alliance. Their advanced shield technology would be a remarkable improvement to the current shields on the ship. They have also been looking into new materials to improve the structural integrity of the ship and researching better engines.