Forum:Barque

"The pride of Riis, the banner of the lowliest Eliksni, the savior of our people."

- Eponymous Archon

The Barque-class battleship is the capital ship of the Eliksni fleet of the House of Time, and is armed with weapons not employed by other Fallen factions in the Solar system. Never before sighted until the Battle of Pluto, where the House of Time bore the brunt of the first Red Legion assault, these ships are versatile and unique in that they also serve as generational ships for the Eliksni species. With a greater voluminal capacity than Ketches they helped preserve Eliksni culture and peoples.

Before the Battle of Pluto, sightings of these gargantuan vessels were relatively rare, often dismissed as Hunter tales or Warlock ramblings. Even for the Awoken sightings of these ships were uncommon, as the only Wolf examples were destroyed in the Rout at Ceres. They now fight on behalf of the Solar Coalition against the Shadowkeepers in the Apocalypse and later, several hostile forces of extradimensional aliens in the Battle of Verses.

Dimensions
First constructed fifteen hundred years ago, well pre-dating the arrival of the Great Machine in the now forgotten Unification Era, the Barque-class is among the finest examples of Eliksni mega-scale engineering, measuring well over three kilometers in length. Unlike Ketches, the mainline example of pre-Whirlwind Eliksni design, Barques feature a wedged design, resembling a dagger from a distance, and their bridge is buried deep inside the belly of the ship. Their impressive bulk has earned them the moniker "barrel javelins".

Owing to the complexities of maintaining such a vessel, not one but five Pilot Servitors are attached to the ship, along with Controller Servitors for additional support.

Offensive and defensive systems
Featuring over 1,400 turbolasers and ion cannons, Barque-class vessels were designed for spatial superiority, able to siege enemy ships from many hundreds of light minutes away. Powerful turbolaser batteries allowed for overloading enemy shields and punching through thick armor, along with orbital bombardments capable of reducing planetary surfaces to molten slag. Upgraded from pre-Unification Era turbolasers, the Barque-class delivered more firepower and had a faster recharge rate. Stemming from Light focusing kyber crystals harvested from a secret source now lost deep in ancient Eliksni territory, other Houses clamored for upgrades to their warships, only to be denied as military-grade crystals were in short supply. Only the most prestigious and important vessels were allowed this advanced weaponry. Much like its Unification predecessors, the Barque battleship featured eight dorsal heavy turbolaser turrets in pairs of four on either side of its main spire, in addition to two triple-barreled heavy turbolaser cannons on its underside in front of its main hangar.

Smaller point-defense turrets and missile emplacements served as complements to the heavy weapons, being able to track and destroy smaller and more agile ships. Both starboard and port sides of the stern featured standard turbolaser batteries, while heavy turbolaser turrets and an axial defense turret were located at the bow. The ship's turret firing control center was located at the aft and was protected underneath the larger rear portion of the ship. Ion cannon targeting was located on the ship's port side near the front. Multi-spectrum sensor towers were located near the primary command bridge and aided in target acquisition.

The ship's tractor beam projector was located at the very tip of the bow, while the flight deck deflector shield projector was located a short distance behind. The ship's main hull deflector shield projectors were located on both the port and starboard stern sections, while a single domed-shaped bridge deflector shield projector encased the command bridge and its occupants, aided by a bridge deflector augmenter further up the ship's keel line. A bridge point-defense turret also helped further defend the bridge from starfighter attack.

Propulsion
The Barque-class is powered by four hypermatter-annihilation reactors, each housed within dome-shaped reactor containment vessels along the ship's length and beneath layers upon layers of durasteel armor. These massive reactors are supported by reinforced reactor superstructure- and hull-chassis. The reactor engineering control deck oversaw reactor-based activites, and a special Reactor Servitor is directly assigned to the reactor monitoring systems. The large atmospheric processing complex and reactant ducts were located behind the reactor containment vessel.

The ship is propelled by thirty engines, with five large, circular KDY plasma drives and twenty five smaller ECE Evader-GT plasma thrusters. Each main engine is ringed by five thrusters, serving as additional thrust or for maneuvering. These engines required a subsidiary reactor, reactant silos and isotope containment wells at the stern; extra power would be derived from the subsidiary while the coolant silo and pumps would help lower the temperature of the massive engines. Around the larger engines were the main engine thrust nozzles, while the smaller engines utilized secondary thrust nozzles to help bring greater control over the ship. The main engines were attached to magnetic turbines, along with an acceleration compensator. The hyperdrive generator was located at the very end of the ship's aft section.

Crew requirements
Barque-class battleships featured a complement of 19,000 officers and 55,000 enlisted personnel. To keep such a large ship in operation following the Whirlwind, starship crews were forced to work closely together and alternate each standard day into six four-hour-long shifts, divided among three crew sections. This would foster a strong sense of unity and team identity. Access to command systems and other areas of Time vessels and installations were denied to enlisted personnel, requiring the properly coded rank cylinders worn by officers. With many young fleet officers having been trained aboard these ancient battleships for their entire lives, most considered these warships as their homes. Barque-class vessels featured a crew recreation area on the lower part of the midsection. Central habitation levels near the primary command bridge were reserved for senior command staff. Time House Guard personnel stationed on the ship utilized barracks near senior command domiciles. Domiciles for Time pilots had four cupboards, and four beds which were split into two bunkbeds. Each cupboard was reserved for each pilot, containing their weapons, with the pilot`s serial number written in Eliksni on the door. In the domiciles were four ladders which would aid pilots in reaching the top bunkbed. The ship's sickbay was located above the Skirmisher barracks in the bow section of the ship before the forward heavy turbolaser batteries. The ships also featured meeting rooms in which high ranking officials, such as The Strategoi, could meet and discuss important matters.

Barque-class vessels maintained a complement of over 8,000 fighting Eliksni (a full legion by Cabal standards) who had access to a training complex below their barracks. While skirmishers followed their chain of command while aboard fleet vessels—with a Duke of the guard serving as the ultimate authority over the troopers—during alerts skirmishers were instructed to follow the orders of any officer regardless of branch of service. Time House Guard personnel were also stationed on the vessel. A Proa pilot training and briefing complex existed adjacent to the lateral port hangar, while engineering personnel habitation areas were located at the bottom of the ship, near the reactor core. The ship featured a detention center in its upper midsection, slightly closer to the bow of the vessel. Like its predecessors, the Barque-class featured Sekris-series repair Shanks to serve as messenger, repair and custodial assistants.

Complement
Barque-class battleships typically carry ten starfighter wings of both Proa/fo and Proa/sf space superiority fighters. Additionally, the ship carried multiple Time Proa bombers. They also carried fifty Sloops and ten Cutters as a support fleet, and can service Schooner-sized vessels.

The ship featured both lateral starboard and port hangar entrances, with hangar flight control bridges overseeing activities in both bays. Unlike former Unification-class ships, Proa fighters were brought in from storage deeper within the vessel from launching racks, from where they would exit into space. The main hangar was positioned on the vessel's underbelly, where a docking claw aided vessels in landing and departing. The logistics hangar reception bay and ground vehicle storage were located near the main hangar. Another lateral flight deck was located in the ship's bow and was used as a staging area for full-scale invasion operations. Overall, the Barque-class could launch its full complement of starfighters and assault ships much quicker than its predecessors in the Unified Riisan House navy.

For ground assault, a Barque-class battleship carry one hundred Skiffs, hundreds of Pikes and Heavy Pikes, many self propelled artillery pieces, at least some ground troop transports, numerous shuttles, one prefabricated ground base and more than 8,000 skirmishers.

City-ship
Many millions of Eliksni live aboard these colossal vessels. Clustered around the second and third hypermatter reactors they live and work beneath the protective cover of hundreds of turbolasers and meters of armor. In combat these sections are sealed in the event of hull breaches or boarding actions. During the infamous Battle of Pluto their populations were evacuated to live in the Jovian moons, and their spaces were instead utilized for extra reactor containment vessels and defensive systems.