Ship Profile
Overview: A very rescent edition to the Union Navy Core the Anchor was developed in response to rescent events seen by the Union. The Anchors purpose is to negate enemy FTL, to the point where it is either unable to function or will result in destruction if used. These Interdictor modules that have been fitted to the ship project a massive sphere in which enemy FTL work though unfortunately they can only be keyed to affect a specific FTL type at one time, and in order to affect enemy FTL the ship must first have the exact nature of how its used in its data bank in order for the AI to produce a stable interdictor field of that type. In this respect the Anchor is purely experimental though it has also been equipped with upgraded sensors and retains cruiser level armament for self defense. It is only a matter of time before the Anchor is tested in battle.
Armament: The Anchor while designed to be a purely support vessel still mounts most of the armament of the Dart design its based on giving it a hard punch at all ranges. Mounting 112 Mass Driver cannons all in dual retractable turret mountings over the ship this packs a fearsome punch at all ranges, supplanting this is also 6 Heavy Laser projectors 8 Dorsal Plasma cannons and 4 Phase Missile launchers.
Mass Drivers: Union Mass Drivers use magnetically accelerated slugs to destroy the enemy, these slugs can either be used in one of 3 ways. The first in ultra AP round which will drive straight through most armours due to the velocity of the rounds, making ships vent into space due to thousands of rounds hitting them rapidly. The second is a less penetrative but still very high AP high EX round which explodes after penetration ripping the ship apart from the inside as used on the Draken ships. The third and final is a flak screen shell which detonates at a certain range and explodes into thousands of other bomblets which will also explode into shrapnel, this decimates fighters and ordnance at close range and some Mass Drivers on the ship are always set to this setting, when all are on this the ship is impervious to fighters thanks to the couples SENTINEL CIWS. These weapons also mount Void Cooling and Nano assemblers and so can keep up a rate of fire of around 450 rounds a minute.
Laser Projectors: These weapons are feared for their ability to drain shields quickly and surgically slice a ship apart. Using energy drawn directly from the reactors the Laser projectors are long range precision weapons used to cripple ships and down their shields. Able to project a steady beam for around 5 seconds these hard light lasers are slowly being replaced with Meson lasers in research which are even more powerful. These lasers can also be configured to fire ‘Bolts’ of light which explode violently on impact.
Plasma cannons: using Phantom technology the Plasma cannon uses linear accelerator technology to propel balls of artificial plasma at close range, these guns while close range are devastating and will destroy shields easily and melt armour. Mounted in dorsal mountings of dual gun turrets these Plasma cannons provide the Dart with its close range firepower. These guns also use Void cooling to fire around 35 shots a minute.
Phase Missiles: these missile launchers on the sides of the Dart have been recently upgraded with Phase missile technology, this works by the missile before hitting shields or armour phasing out of synch with this dimension and rematerializing inside the enemy ship causing massive damage and means the missiles can’t be defended against easily. These launchers provide extreme range fire and have Nano assemblers to eliminate the need for resupplying.
Defences: The Anchor mounts a Mark 4 Absorption shield which runs on its own separate system so it cannot damage others through power feedback, this shield also cycles constantly through several dimensions at once in an attempt to get some protection from phasic weapons. The ship itself is constructed from a 2ft thick Quantum lattice plate with polytine linings. As well as this a thin layer of Ghostanium is available for stealth missions. Quantum lattice plate is made up from atomically bonded Quantum metal which has a density of around 3x that of any other known substance, this metal is liquid in form but when poured into molten metal of another kind and left to set it becomes virtually unbreakable. Unlike other metals Quantum has no melting point and so will not melt under fire from laser or plasma weapons; it is also highly resistant to kinetic impact damage. The hull is also equipped with Nano assembler repair systems to slowly repair the ship in combat.
The Anchor class also mounts a SENTINEL CIWS mounted all over the ship. This system is made up from numerous point defences consisting of small laser projectors, cascade cannons and miniature missile launchers. Together these destroy incoming missiles and fighters, on their own SENTINEL is incredibly effective with most enemies attack the ship at range rather than risking their attack craft on suicidal missions. But when the Mass Drivers also switch to flak the Anchor is all but invincible to attack craft.
Power plant: The Anchor uses 3 TPC Zero Point Module AX-5 units to provide overall power, these have been reverse engineered from Nakai technology and make use of their artificial pocket dimension technology. The ZPM works by making an artificial dimension and harvesting the natural vacuum energy produced in such, this is totally harmless as if the ZPM is destroyed the dimension collapses harmlessly. The energy produced is also way above other Union energy technology apart from Singularity generators which are still being understood. The Dart also mounts 2 secondary YX2 Fusion Generators as redundant in case of emergencies where the ZPM modules are taken offline, these generators while nowhere near as powerful as the ZPM modules can still power the ship although at a reduced capability.
Electronic capabilities: The Anchor is run by 4 Mark 5 AI systems one for targeting and combat, one for background systems, one for overall control and one to control the Interdictor modules. These AI systems are semi sentient and can hack enemy ships. When a AI gets hacked it immediately either cuts the lines so the enemy cannot access or deletes itself and the intruder with it. The Anchor is also linked to the Union computer and so can access data when needed; it also is linked to the rest of the fleet in a tight information grid.
Stealth wise the Anchor constantly runs a very basic sensor stealth field, this field while not effecting light effects spectrum scans and conventional sensors. While not totally making the ship invisible this obscures the ships form and position leading to an increased ratio of missed shots and wrong moves. A full Displacement unit can be installed for true stealth missions if needed.
The Anchor also runs a mark 4 dimensional sensor suite to help detect stealth ships in the area and detect and ships jumping into the area.
Crew: The Anchor carries 750 personnel to run the ship and man the fighters.
Attack craft: The Anchor mounts 6 launch hangars each able to contain 10 Firestorm Fighters and 2 Eagle Eye bombers for a total of 60 fighters and 12 bombers. These have their own repair and re arm facilities and so the Anchor still has attack craft cover.
Speed and engines: The Anchor is very fast able to reach 0.7 light speed on sub light engines and also mounts a Union slipstream drive for FTL capability. Current research and development is underway so the Anchor can be fitted with Nakai jump technology.
