I’m taking a few minutes to enjoy building starships again. And, to start codifying some aspects of the Third Imperium and the Hegemony, and maybe one day this will form the part of a novel…

Imperial Deva-class Destroyer

Developed shortly after the Time of the Five Emperors (considered the separation point between the Early Imperial and Late Imperial era by later historians), the Deva-class would replace the Dnieper-class in Patrol Fleet and later Battle Fleet service.

The Deva-class would remain in service for nearly four hundred years, through the Late Imperial/Third Imperium and into the start of the Hegemony era of the Third Imperium, and would become a very important part of the Ghost Fleet concept developed by Imperial Intelligence.

Design History

The Deva-class was developed soon after the end of the Time of the Five Emperors, based on Second Imperium design studies and issues that the Dnieper-class had in peer combat with fellow Imperial ships. While the ship did well in Battle Fleet operations-especially in combat against the Alphas-peer combat during the Time of the Five Emperors revealed that the Dnieper-class was lightly armed in direct fire combat. Additionally, Patrol Fleet had been forced to continue using the Davis-class destroyer during the Time of the Five Emperors, who were far past their design lifespan.

The Deva-class would resolve the direct-fire issue by mounting six 5cm positron beam cannons in single turrets-two ventral, two dorsal, one port and one starboard. At most engagement aspects, the Deva-class could engage a target with four positron cannons, and possibly up to five. Long-range engagement would be based around eight standard 350mm missile tubes with gravity drivers, four mounted port and starboard. The Imperial standardization of 350mm missile tubes for light combatants simplified logistics, since older missile stocks of the Mk 13, Mk 17, and Mk 19 missiles would be available for use (along with the current Mk 21, Mk-21-A, Mk-21-B, and Mk-23 missiles).

Active defenses would be scaled up slightly, but would retain the Davis-class emphasis on multiple lighter point-defense weapons for the inner point defense mission. Shields would possess the capability to withstand a single engagement on the bow, port, and starboard of an equivalent Deva-class main battery, with lighter shields ventral and dorsal. Passive defenses would remain identical in layout, but the changeover from battle steel to fibersteel armor meant an effective 10% increase in armor protection for the same mass. Finally, improvements in both slipspace and Q-coil technology would give the ship the ability to travel six light years a day in slipspace and have a 380G acceleration in normal space operations.

Sensor capability would be based around the independent reconnaissance role, with two deployable 200/300m VLBI arrays, an extensive passive and active EM sensor system, and standard navigation and operational sensor packages. In addition the ship would carry the AN/SL(Q)-77 electronic warfare array, eight decoy packages (balanced between Rodeo-class missile decoys and Mirrorball-class sensor decoys), and stealth systems. Because of the ship’s IR masking systems, the Deva-class would also mount a mil-spec hypersink array.

Ironically, the Deva-class would be retained during the Hegemony era, as the ship’s hull design was more than capable of being retrofitted with new quantum-level printers and smelters for the production of spare parts and equipment.

Construction

The Deva-class was built around a “spine and modules” framework-a heavy duty spinal core would be built, with the various modules and components attached to the spinal core. This concept was used during the Early Imperial era for light combatants and was kept because it allowed for quick assembly of ships and fast repairs and upgrades once the assembly was done. This would ensure the Deva-class would remain in operation for nearly 250 years, with upgrades and improvements through the Late Imperial and Hegemony era.

Service History

The Deva-class would come seven major “flights,” and these flights were mostly based upon the need of the Imperial Navy to replace Dnieper-class destroyers in Patrol Fleet service. The Flight I-III assembly were built prior to the revolution in antimatter power systems (this also marks the change between the Late Imperial and Hegemony eras), with over 700 hulls built (several hulls were built as “notational” hulls, which were probably constructed for the Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Directorates).

After the transition to antimatter power technology, the Deva-class would be retrofitted with antimatter reactors, and future flights of the IV-VII specification would be built around these reactor systems. Another major renovation would be the installation of additional processing power and space to run multiple AI and human personality uploads, and the removal of the atomic-level fabricators with quantum-level printers.

Over 1500 Flight IV-VII Deva-class destroyers would be built, only being replaced in service with the Dauntless-class destroyer in the middle Hegemony period. Outside of specially retrofitted hulls for the Ghost Fleet mission, there were few variants of the Deva-class. The only one created in large numbers was the Songbird-class survey destroyer, which removed all but two of the missile launchers for an enlarged drone bay and supplemental sensor systems for planetary surveys.

General Characteristics

Dimensions: 120 m length, 16 m width, 14 m height

Mass: 9100 tons (fully loaded, Flight I-III un-retrofitted), 9300 tons (Flight IV-VII, Flight I-III retrofitted)

Power Systems:

2x Yoyodine Type 33 Gravity Fusion Reactor (Late Imperial Era)

2x Yoyodine Type 21 Antimatter Reactors (Hegemony Era)

Propulsion Systems:

4x Q-Coils (380 G acceleration, all flights)

2x Slipspace rings (6 LY/day, all flights)

Endurance:

180 days on stored supplies, hydrogen scoops (Late Imperial Era)

160 days of antihydrogen at 90% power, theoretically unlimited material endurance (Hegemony Era)

Crew:

One Class V AI, 20 Officers, 32 NCO, 200 Able Spacers, 100 Marines, backup bioshells and cybershells (Late Imperial Era)
One Class V AI, Mixture of uploads and biological crew equaling 250 crew members, 100 Marines, backup bioshells and cybershells (Hegemony Era)

Armament:

6×5 cm positron beam cannons in six single turrets, two ventral, two dorsal, one port, one starboard.

8x350mm missile tubes with gravity launchers, two arrays of four port and starboard.

Defenses:

Stealth Systems: Radar sheath, IR dampener w/military specification hypersink, hull form.

ECM: AN/SL(Q)-77 Electronic Warfare Array, with “spike” and “strobe” jammer options.

4x Rodeo-class missile decoys, 4xMirrorball-class sensor decoys (dispensers ventral and dorsal).

Point Defense: 8 40mm xaser cannons with double-bounce gravity mirrors in independent casemate mounts.

12 20mm xaser cannons with double-bounce gravity mirrors in independent casemate mounts.

Shields: Standard Late Imperial/Hegemony Navigational Shields

Combat Shield Generators-100% capacity bow, 75% capacity port and starboard, 50% capacity ventral, dorsal and stern.

Armor: Fibersteel Armor, 4cm maximum (Late Imperial Era)

Fibersteel/Battlesteel composite, 4.2 cm maximum (Hegemony Era)

Secondary Craft:

1xPinnance, 2xCutter, 2xHarvesting Drones, 10xType 2 Recon Drones (Late Imperial Era)

1xPinnance, 2xCutter, 4xHarvesting Drones, 16xType 2 Recon Drones (Hegemony Era)