Codex Entry: Turian Hierarchy Fleet, Table of Organization & Equipment

The largest of the Citadel fleets, the Turian Hierarchy has traditionally a wide range of tasks across an immense reach of space, and thus designed their ships to be useful in multiple situations; a large contrast with the specialist-focused Salarian Navy.

Unlike Asari ships, which have 2, three, or four stabilizers (depending on size) perpendicular to the centers of their hulls, and Salarian vessels, which have no protrusions, Turian ships have four little winglets; forming a sort of X shape from a frontal or rear viewpoint.

|Combat Spacecraft

Skyguard (Fighter)

Approx 29m long, 18m wide

Outside of its exterior hull form, the Skyguard is very similar to the other Council fighters - Eezo drive, roughly similar size, fighter-scale kinetic barriers. This fighter features an inline mass accelerator cannon and multiple missile racks, relying on numbers and teamwork to overwhelm enemy fighters and support larger ships in battle.

Unlike the Salarians and Asari, however, the Turians have always had a surfeit of fighter pilot volunteers - leading to individuals making ... politically incorrect statements about Turians and their avian ancestry.

Post Koprulu, Turian generals fascinated by Terran tactics where massed light units could bring down capital ships by themselves, developed specialist (like the Blackhawk) units to support their Skyguards, greatly increasing the size of their strike craft fleet.

Blackhawk (Heavy Fighter/Bomber)

Approx 44m long, 28m wide

Compared to the Skyguard, the Blackhawk has far less turning ability, and as a result is far less of a dogfighter. What it lacks in the ability to dance, however, is more than made up with its oversized ordinance delivery capability.

Given the Volus experience in crewing heavy bombers, they made ideal pilots - and as such Blackhawk cockpits are filled with an pressurized ammonia mix rather than a conventional nitrox atmosphere. Each of these units has a crew of two Volus.

The Blackhawk is normally loaded with two 250 kiloton shaped nuclear warheads, and can overburden itself to carry four quarter-megaton weapons or two half-megaton devices, although increasing the payload beyond original specifications will further reduce maneuverability, greatly increasing vulnerability to enemy fighters and point defenses.

The warheads, however, are capable of punching through battlecruiser plating - entire squadrons hitting will demolish them in short order.

Because the Blackhawk is much larger than the Skyguard, Blackhawks usually fly in short squadrons - 4 units per squad, for fighter-bay compatibility purposes, and each Blackhawk strike group is escorted by twice their number of Skyguards.

Retributor (Heavy Fighter/Corvette)

Approx 75m long, 38m wide

Somewhere in between a miniature frigate and a giant fighter in size and maneuverability characteristics, the Retributor cannot fit into standard Council strike craft bays and must be carried externally like their frigates; although being half the size twice as many Retributors can be moved this way.

These corvettes are purpose built to take advantage of the Hierarchy's newest and most powerful armament - the Thanix ferrofluid weapons system. Mounting a single spinal Thanix gun, the Retributor is too large to easily bring it to bear against enemy fighters, but sufficiently agile to evade enemy dreadnought and even cruiser fire.

The spinal ferrofluid weapon crushes through sub-cruiser strength kinetic barriers in less than a second, and is capable of cutting through even battlecruiser plating, allowing a squadron of Retributors to pose a realistic threat against capital units.

Unlike the Blackhawk, the Retributor does not depend on heavy consumable munitions to do its job, and does not need to return to its carrier for resupply after making each attack run. Its Thanix weapon has far more range than the Blackhawk's bombs, thus reducing the vulnerability of the attacking Retributor against point defenses.

Finally, the Blackhawk's munitions are vulnerable to interception and point defense fire, while point defense cannot stop a jet of accelerated ferrofluid if it failed to shoot down the incoming corvette - for these reasons, the Retributor is beginning to replace the Blackhawk in Turian service.

To maximize the corvette's ability to perform its role, the Retributor carries no secondary armament, enhanced Eezo drives, anti-fighter kinetic barriers, and some ablative plating to better resist laser point defenses - although casualty projections against anything more powerful than Citadel-standard IR lasers, especially main battery-caliber lasers found on Terran cruisers, are rather dismaying.

Watchman (Frigate)

Approx 120m long, 40m wide

Neither optimized for space combat nor maximized for atmospheric operations, the Watchman has served the Turian Hierarchy in a general-purpose role for over two centuries. Capable of landing small bodies of troops, fighting enemy frigates, holding off fighter formations, forming wolfpacks to threaten larger units, the Watchman was once one of the most common units in the Hierarchy Fleet.

However, its single frigate scale spinal accelerator proved ineffective against the Zerg, its moderate quantity of torpedo racks insufficient against the Protoss, and its moderate barriers all around mediocre. Suffering heavy casualties during the Great War, Hierarchy command decided not to build additional Watchmen.

Still, the need for hulls against the Salarians has proven most vexing, and nearly one-third of all Watchmen have been upgraded to the Assailant-pattern.

Assailant-pattern

Approx 120m long, 40m wide

Replacing the spinal accelerator and missile racks with a pair of small Thanix turrets, the Assailant can dodge enemy dreadnought fire while engaging enemy frigates. In a pinch, its turrets can track most fighters, and its Thanix weapons can bring down cruiser-grade shielding with a few seconds of sustained fire.

Assailant crews, however, feel their frigate-scale IR GARDIAN systems are completely useless; while they hit enemy projectiles far more often than their turrets can, it usually cannot stop them before they hit. Some crews have reported minor success in using small Thanix turrets as a point defense system.

Predator (Heavy Frigate)

Approx 190m long, 70m wide

Although still armed with a single spinal accelerator, the extra hull length has increased the accelerator's destructive potential. Rather than increasing GARDIAN cluster count, the Predator has vastly increased Torpedo rack space compared to the Watchman, greatly enhancing its ability to alpha-strike opponents and saturate point defenses.

Most importantly to the personnel onboard, the Predator has extra-thick framing members, approaching the structural integrity of, say, a Salarian light cruiser, allowing it to soak up much more punishment - and still bring the crew home.

Although slower and equipped with weaker barriers compared to an Asari Novitiate, the Predator actually had a marginally superior survivability rate. Approximately half of all Predators have been refit with Thanix weapons, and the Hierarchy command has labeled the new model the Hunter-Pattern.

Both new conventional Predators and Hunters are being constructed - Palaven sees a future for both designs.

Hunter-pattern

Approx 190m long, 70m wide

Fitted with three miniature turrets; the smallest practical ferrofluid turret in production, the Hunter model frigate can nail even the most evasive fighters. For larger opponents, it brings its medium spinal Thanix to bear.

While much less capable of evading cruiser scale fire than a corvette, its superior barriers and size allow it to endure more damage - allowing it to keep its spinal Thanix on target for longer periods of time, increasing damage potential.

The design completely omits torpedo racks, trusting in its multiple Thanix armament. Only time will tell if this was a good decision.

Enforcer (Cruiser)

Approx 466m long, 150m wide

As the enforcers and peacekeepers of the old Citadel Council, the Turian Hierarchy long needed units that could patrol shipping lanes, show the flag, and crack down on crime for months at a time without resupply - a task that is difficult to achieve in a smaller hull without reducing combat capability.

Compared to other Turian units, which have three months of supplies, the Enforcer has an endurance of half a year before requiring resupply, and were often used by frigate squadrons as an ad-hoc supply ship.

Thus, the Hierarchy strongly favored the more expensive cruiser over smaller unit classes; and like the Asari, developed a 1:1 ratio of frigates to cruisers. This is an enormous boon to them post-Koprulu, as the lack of ability to squeeze in a Warp core and reactor into a frigate that must also carry weapons, crew, life support, storage, etc would be a huge problem if they couldn't simply attach an Eezo-frigate to a cruiser and enter Warp that way.

This cruiser, by far the single most numerous Turian design in existence, suffered greatly during the Great War; every single Enforcer sent to Koprulu was destroyed. As the standard cruiser type used to patrol Citadel Space, they were the first to be ambushed by Zerg forces. When the call for reinforcements came, Enforcers were the first to arrive to battle, and as they were cheaper and thus more expendable than heavier Turian units, Enforcers were last to leave.

Even so, the Enforcer is still the most numerous Turian design in existence - so numerous that about half the Enforcer fleet still have not received Warp Cores and are assigned to Relay-patrol duties. Roughly one-eighth of Enforcers have been modified with Thanix systems, Palaven has denoted these models as the Judgement-pattern.

Each Enforcer has sufficient strike craft bay space to organically carry a single squadron of Skyguard fighters

Judgement-pattern

Approx 466m long, 120m wide

Equipped with a bank of six small Thanix turrets and a single large spinal ferrofluid weapon, the Judgement can annihilate enemy frigates in short order. Although its spinal Thanix can tear through even Asari dreadnought barriers in seconds, it is far less likely to evade an incoming dreadnought round than lighter units, and Palaven has ordered Judgements to stay at extreme range; using the design as a picket ship to defend their own dreadnoughts against enemy wolfpacks and fighter forces.

Due to the lack of a clear role (that could not be performed by other ships), Hierarchy High Command has ordered the cessation of Judgement conversions from Enforcers.

Victrix (Heavy Cruiser)

Approx 580m long, 280m wide

Designed after the reveal of the Athame-class dreadnought, Turian engineers took a look at the dual barreled warship and thought "you know… that isn't actually a bad way to increase the amount of firepower on each hull" and came up with a dual-barreled cruiser design.

Though the ship was undoubtedly heavier and slower, its long ranged firepower was unsurpassed amongst Council cruisers, and perfectly suited the old Turian strategy where they'd advance their wall of battle in an slow, but implacable fashion.

The reason they did not immediately duplicate the Athame-class dreadnought was twofold; firstly, with the Asari to act as the glue, they were relatively satisfied in the Council and did not (despite accusations) actually hold ambitions of galactic conquest, and secondly, the Turians are a naturally conservative people, preferring to test the design on a smaller - and less expensive - hull before investing heavily.

As the Hierarchy is perfectly (well, pretty close) satisfied with the Victrix as a long range combatant, they have not refitted the heavy cruiser with Thanix armaments. Due to its increased size relative to standard cruisers, the Victrix has two strike craft bays; in the wake of the Great War these are usually loaded with one short squadron of Blackhawks and one (full) squadron of Skyguards.

Pax (Dreadnought)

Approx 820m long, 220m wide

The Turians did not understand why the Asari and Salarian Councilors reacted with laughter when the Hierarchy announced that its next Dreadnought class would be named after peace- after all, they took their duties in the wake of the Krogan Rebellion quite seriously.

The most numerous dreadnought class in existence, the Turians suffered the second-highest losses (excluding the Geth) in the Great War, losing one at Tarsonis, four against the Zerg encroachments, and another three over Thessia, bringing down the size of this dreadnought fleet to 'only' thirty one units.

As the Hierarchy has focused all dreadnought yards on constructing Imperator-class dual-barreled designs after realizing the Terrans had constructed possibly over a thousand Yamato-cannon armed battlecruisers, the Pax-class has not received any replacements. Even so, it is still by far the largest non-Protoss class of supercapitals in all of known space.

Considered the most basic of Council dreadnoughts, the Turians designed it to be as no-frills as possible; reliable, simple, relatively durable, and cheap (well, as cheap as possible for a gigantic warship). In the wake of the Great War, Pax-class DNs have been refitted with Warp cores and fusion reactors, enabling them to travel without being constricted to Relays, but this has removed strike craft space, reducing their fighter count to only three squadrons.

Imperator (Dreadnought)

Approx 1280m long, 310m wide

Without access to Silaris frontal plates, nor microjump drives, nor dreadnought scale cloaking devices, the Imperator is widely considered the weakest of the modern dual-barreled dreadnought designs. Even so, it has one critical advantage - numerical superiority. Palaven has constructed twelve Imperators so far, with another three of these dual-barreled dreadnoughts commissioning by the end of this year. Hierarchy projections indicate production will only accelerate further.

Like other modern Council warships (cruiser-size and above), they have a Warp core and fusion reactor.

Due to their slightly increased size (relative to other dual-barreled dreadnoughts) and lack of 'special' systems, the Imperator has extended strike craft bays, allowing each ship to carry five squadrons of fighters.

|Non-combat Spacecraft

Vigilance (-)

Approx 210m long, 80m wide

Compared to most swept back, aggressive-looking Turian designs, the Vigilance is ungainly, blocky, and generally awkward looking. That being said, it is one of the more critical units in the Turian armada.

Instantly realizing that Mass Effect cores generated far less heat than conventional Terran thrusters, the Turians knew they were halfway to a stealthed scout ship design.

By stripping all weapons off from an oversized heavy frigate chassis they could minimize the sensor signature and just about squeeze in a miniaturized reactor & Warp Core, and by reducing crew complement from dozens to four Turians - and then sticking the four Turians into spacesuits - they could reduce life support requirements sufficiently to squeeze in powerful sensors and a cloaking system.

Overall, the Vigilance-class frigate is an affordable, easily produced, and sufficiently fast (especially in FTL) scout vessel that is both difficult to localize and destroy while able to localize stealthed enemy ships.

Of course, for four individuals to do the duties normally required by dozens - even without weapons systems and aided by VI - required a some of the most skilled crew in the Hierarchy Fleet … who tended not to volunteer to get stuck in a spacesuit.

Worse, most Turians considered those who volunteered for a non-combat duty weirdos, even though they intellectually understood the necessity. Now that the Hierarchy is beginning to trust (some) Volus again, many of the pacifistic, suit-acclimated beings have found a natural role in the fleet, to the relief of many a Turian technician!

Spiritguide (-)

Approx 390m long, 150m wide

Constructed off of old Conqueror chassis, an old, Krogan Rebellion-era light cruiser, the Spiritguide-class hospital ships carry some of the most renowned Turian medical personnel and significant medical equipment.

Although the actual impact of these vessels on a war is low, the sheer morale benefits they bring just by existing is immense - living proof that the Hierarchy cares about its citizen-soldiers. These ships are assigned to the Hierarchy Fleet Train.

Endurance (-)

Approx 466m long, 150m wide

Constructed off of old Enforcer cruiser chassis, these ships tend to be crewed by older Turian veterans who have suffered debilitating or crippling injuries, and are no longer fit to serve in a frontline role.

However, filled with vast quantities of supplies, varying from food, warship components, to mass accelerator slugs, they are some of the most critical ships in the fleet - although Turian ships are designed with extensive internal supply capacity, the sheer size of their fleet and the vast territory they must cover means that without a Fleet Train, the Hierarchy would be bogged down forever.

A/N: Review Response Time.

Dark:

Yep. Umojan force is very dangerous for it's size. Asari and Protectorates have gotten even closer in the most recent chapter of main fic, so your prediction came true. The other prediction, however, is extremely unlikely. There are at least ~150 billion Asari and a mere ~10 billion Umojan Terrans. Remember, demographics, while not destiny, is absurdly influential.

HOmega:

SC1(i.e. Sudden Contact) Personal Cloaking required a psionic to operate. SC2 Personal Cloaking works on non-psionics too, but it's a power hog, less stealthy, doesn't last as long, and is heavier/bulkier. Still useful.

No, Asari aren't mind controllers. They just have huge advantages in political shenanigans, especially in a xenophile open democracy that is Umoja.

Saris:

Doctrinal changes have occurred, harder to write about though. You should be able to glean some of the changes from both these codexes and chapters of main fic.

Monosodium9000:

Firstly, don't apologize for a wordy review. It's why I write in the first place; to explain stuff.

Terran infantry weapons fire slugs that are hundreds (or thousands of times) heavier than ME grains. Their rail/gauss systems are more efficient than Council systems, because without the crutch of ME fields they've had to make do with what they had. Hybrid designs combine the best of both worlds; higher caliber round (that is more effective vs shielding/heavy armor) that is even faster than before and more energy efficient.

Course, it uses Eezo and space forces grumble that the Eezo would be better spent on starships.

Light frigates are very poorly armed. They must carry an FTL drive, supplies, personnel space for dozens of crew, life support for the same, etc, which cuts into weapons volume/mass. Most Council races use Light Frigates as patrol/sentry/police units, and have only 10% of actual hull devoted to combat purposes (whereas heavy frigates are around 40%, most cruisers are 60%+ and a Dreadnought is like 80%+).

Meanwhile, a tank has a crew of three (two for most Council tanks) and isn't designed to support those crewmen for months on a interstellar patrol, and is basically all weapons, drivetrain, powerplant, armor.

It's why the Turians, being battle maniacs, decided never to build light frigates; why major council species don't operate light frigates anymore - and why the Quarian Fleet managed to acquire a bunch of them at bargain bin prices.