CH29 (108)
Rick and Kate were waiting at a shuttle landing zone as requested. Alexis and Elena had Emily and Kali and were taking a GETS train to the other side of the planet. The girls had wanted to go swimming and Elena knew of the largest lake on the planet. You could even rent boats or the new jet ski's that Alexis had brought back plans for.
"Mr. and Mrs. Castle?" A guy approached them from the building behind them.
"My name is Eric Kooz, I'm one of the designers. I'm told you would like a tour before you leave." Eric offers his hand.
"Yes please, if it's not too much trouble." Rick was dying to see this thing.
"The interior is not yet complete enough for entrance, though there is an atmosphere on all decks, so I can't allow you on board just yet. We are still roughly a year from completion. I can however show you the exterior and give you a description of each area." Eric offers.
"That'll be fine." Rick would take almost anything.
"Then let's get started." Eric took the pilot seat while Kate sat in the other chair and Rick stood behind them.
They were up in space shortly and approaching construction. "Most of the work being done is inside working on the finishes. …. Let's start at the bow and work our way down one side." Eric offers and guides the shuttle to approach from the bow.
"WOW, would you look at the size of that hole." Rick whistles.
"That is the MAC weapon. The barrel as you can see is several feet in diameter. There is a cover that rolls into position to close and open it. We tried opening and closing it yesterday. Unfortunately it locked in the open position and refuses to move at the moment.
The engineers are working on it. Last I knew they were looking at a software control problem.
The barrel itself is hundreds of feet long and has energizing coils all around it every few feet. The ship is practically built around the gun itself. The coils help accelerate the projectile to insane speeds." Eric explains.
"Have you actually fired this thing?" Rick asks still gawking at the giant hole in the ship.
"We built a test gun on the planet surface. We test fired it by firing rounds out into space where we wouldn't hit anything. Thankfully we built it far enough away that the sonic boom of the shell leaving the barrel didn't cause any damage.
We're guessing they are still out there traveling somewhere. If we got hit by just one of these it would go in one end of this ship and out the other gutting it. The damage would likely be enough that it would blow itself to pieces.
We can't think of anything that would stop it, at least in closer ranges. Depending on the distances one shot could gut more than one ship so long as they were lined up just right." Eric explains its power.
Flying on he travels down the port side. "These are the dual barrel Gatling guns that fire a mini version on the main MAC gun. There are 16 on each side of the ship.
Crew quarters are mostly above and below the MAC gun barrel. …. There are two kitchen and dining areas at the aft end just off of the crew quarters." Eric adds as he finished traveling down the port side and turns around and goes back to the bow.
"Lovely, baby food. That'll make the crew happy." Nothing like hardships on a military ship.
"Actually they are both full cooking kitchens with walk-in freezers and coolers. Depending on where the supplies come from or are picked up from one of the colony planets for example. Meals should be variable depending on where the ship is at the time." Eric corrects him. Getting Kate to suddenly be envious.
Kate spent one year eating baby food to get to Earth and now everyone is eating real food. Just not on the two explorer class ships like Roy's.
"What is the big bulge down low?" Rick could see a bulge low on the ship that was about midships.
"That is one of the main water tanks. There is one on each side." Eric casually explains.
"You can take wet showers?" Kate's mouth was on the floor.
"Yup, the bulge is divided by bulk head walls separating them so if any one section is punctured from the outside, you don't lose all your water." Eric explains.
Eric was back at the bow and was now going up and down the top section of the ship. Then he flips the shuttle so you could see down while still traveling down the length of the ship.
"Those squares you see are vertical torpedo tubes. They are located just above the main crew quarters across the top and bottom sides of the ship. There are 24 torpedoes on each side.
Each torpedo is 19 feet long. It has scanning built-in to help avoid being shot down by an interceptor and is obviously capable of changing direction.
As you've probably heard its warhead as it explodes sends out high energy x-rays in a 360 degree radius. They can either explode by proximity or it can be detonated by remote." Eric explains.
"As much as I fear what we are supposed to need the MAC gun for, these things maybe scare me even more." Rick whispers out.
"It's the x-rays that are getting to you. These things will literally cook someone inside their own ship." Eric was agreeing.
Then he rights the ship and flies for the aft of the ship. "The big dual barrel gun you see has a counterpart on the bottom. The Gatling guns fire smaller slugs than the MAC gun at near insane speeds. These fire a lot slower than the Gatling guns but they fire a shell comparable to a 5-inch deck gun you are probably more used to on your destroyers. Or so we have learned. Plus they have greater range than the Gatling guns.
The Gatling guns are meant for more close-in firing support. The MAC gun and the missiles are meant for more long distance. These guns fire in-between those two ranges." Eric explains as he flies over it. "All of the weapons use an updated version of our standard scanner. We managed to adapt the sub-space communication system with our standard scanner. Visual sighting is not required. We could make out if they had a robot on the surface of their ship.
Which reminds me, there are 8 exterior surface repair bots for this ship." Eric wasn't purposely trying to leave anything out.
"Is that the bridge?" Rick asks seeing a tower looking like structure on top of the aft end.
"That is the double deck observation deck. It serves two purposes. It acts as a visual sighting deck and it is also the recreation deck. … The bridge is circular, roughly, just like the observation deck and is actually deep inside the ship below this area just above the main engineering decks." Eric explains starting to grin seeing the looks on their faces.
Eric flies over the observation deck, where you could see people working inside thru the glass and down the back side. "As you probably know already this disk that encircles the aft end is part of the FTL system. These are the normal space thrust engines."
Rick and Kate notice that the entire aft end was nothing but thrust tubes.
Eric flew around the end and up the starboard side. "This area here is the access to the MAC slug storage bay. There is another one just like it on the other side. The rounds themselves are stored vertically with an elevator like assembly that brings each one up to be loaded. … And lifting a 600 ton object is no small feat I can assure you.
This is the smaller MAC gun we were provided," Eric tells them.
"600 ton." Rick whispers still trying to visualize them.
"Correct. Due to their weight the rounds need to be manufactured out here in space. The factory we need to construct them is still under construction. It should be complete in about a year. Then we will need a few months to build the 16 slugs, 8 on each side." Eric tells them.
"So you don't have any of them built yet." Rick was dying to see one.
"I'm afraid not, got a little over a year still." Eric had to break the bad news. He had never seen one yet either. At least not with his own eyes.
"How large is the crew?" Kate finally asks her first question.
"There are 122 crew plus 18 officers and 16 Marines in case the ship is boarded somehow." Eric answers her question.
"The life pods are on the escape deck on both sides below the Gatling guns. Plus there is a single shuttle that is stowed in its own bay to the underside of the ship. The shuttle itself has been modified to allow entrance threw an air lock on the top of it instead of a back ramp, though it still does have the back ramp. Though there is access to the shuttle from either direction.
It can be used to take the ship compliment of Marines down to a planetary surface and disembark out the back ramp." Eric explains.
"There are also scuttling charges places at various locations should it look like the ship is about to be taken. Can't have the enemy taking one of our ships and stripping it to reverse engineer it."
"The Earth Marines have been teaching ours how to disembark as a unit. At first there was some conflict. No Marine likes to be told he isn't doing it right. However they are learning. I'm told the lead Marine for this ship is going to be a Marine from Earth." Eric tells them impressed one of them wants to join their Navy. He also knew that one of the maintenance engineers was from Earth.
"We've already designed in place for a quick retro-fit to replace the shuttle with something else." Eric informs him with a little mystery in his voice.
"Replace it with what?" Kate asks not understanding.
"I'm not entirely certain. As best I understand it, it'll be some kind of drop pod to send heavy Marines down to a planetary surface." Eric didn't understand it.
"Heavy Marines?" Kate didn't get it. As in fat, overweight Marines?
"That's what I asked. That was all I got. Heavy Marines as in that they weight a lot. We had to structure for roughly 16 tons per Marine." Eric tells them wondering how they would take that.
"Sixteen tons? … Seriously?" Getting Eric to nod his head.
"Sixteen tons per marine." Rick didn't get it. Something heavier than the average car back on Earth. Rick's head was starting to hurt trying to figure out what this could be. About the weight of a Stryker military vehicle.
"Sixteen, sixteen ton Marines?" Kate asks.
"Apparently not. There will only be space for 3 or maybe 4 given the dimensions requested. They were not very forthcoming with information about that. I'm guessing whatever they have in mind is in the early planning stages." Eric couldn't guess why they needed 3 sixteen ton spaces on the underside of his ship.
"While space is so called 'weight less', there is still the gravity of the system you are in or the planet that you are near or in orbit of. Granted 16 tons isn't really 16 tons anymore. However one does have to take into consideration the artificial gravity system which will add weight.
The MAC slug bay is shielded to help us lift 600 ton slugs. Frankly it was the only way we could lift something or that size." Eric chuckled remembering what it took to create the elevator to lift the MAC slugs.
"Medical bay?" Kate asks knowing it was important.
"It's one level up above the bridge and below the lower most observation deck. It's made up of two decks with an open atrium area in the middle. The beds, there are 18 of them, are mostly on the upper level in a roughly circular shape. There are two sets of stairs and a single lift.
The lower level is mostly research, storage and trauma with a pair of surgical suits.
It has everything any major hospital has except it's all crammed into a tight space." Eric explains.
"And the main computer core is in a semi circular space just off of the main bridge." Eric adds.
"And that concludes our tour." Eric heads back down the planet.
"So it's long, tall and kinda skinny. With a giant gun down the middle, little Gatling guns on each side and a cannon on top and bottom, with torpedo tubes between the hole on the bow and the cannon on top and bottom. And a massive engine on the back." Rick sums up what he's seen.
"Basically correct." Eric replies as they start to enter the atmosphere of Tellus.
"FTL speed is the same I suppose. What about normal space speed?" Kate asks.
"FTL is just as you know, normal space speed? … You are aware it takes the explorer class a week to travel to get out of a systems gravity well, and conversely a week to get into one." Eric offers, getting yes from both of them.
"This ship should cut that week of time down to roughly three days." Getting Rick to whistle being impressed.
"So if Callisto calls for help, …." Rick trails off.
"This ship could get there taking a week or so off its travel time based on the speed of an Explorer class. More or less." Eric was happy about that too.
"And with this new communications network, you don't have to wait a month to find out Callisto needs help." Kate points out.
"True, quite true." Eric responds as he lands the shuttle.
"I wonder how much time we have." Rick couldn't help but wonder when this enemy was going to show up.
"That is the ultimate question. At roughly 7 years per ship as it stands now, I'm hoping it isn't for several years yet." Eric gets up out of his pilot's seat.
"Plus the colony planets will start construction of still more ships as soon as their manufacturing base is complete and all the mines are operational. I'm afraid I don't have a time table for when that will occur." Eric was a designer, not in charge of production.
"Only destroyers or are there plans for something else?" Rick asks as Eric reaches the door.
"The next class of ship is already in the planning stages. We're calling it a cruiser. It will look nothing like this ship. It will have two of the main MAC guns, roughly side by side. Double the number of other guns and possibly double the number of torpedo's.
There is also going to be an upper and lower bay to hold 3 or 4 fighters each.
A variant of this cruiser class is being considered that will hold several squads of Marines for planetary landings as well as the fighter flight bays. Something some of the Earth military people brought up.
They're concerned that not all the fighting will take place out in space. If we intend to take planets, we need men on the ground." Eric tells them pausing with his hand on the button to the door. "Anything else?"
"Air Cavalry I think we used to call it." Rick whispers out.
"Quite correct." Eric was impressed. These two were not just your average citizen. "A quick strike force that can be easily deployed, I think they called it. Air and Land. It should be interesting to see what they come up with for this ground force." And Eric opens the door ending the conversation. Eric was still chewing over what a 16 ton Marine would look like.
Rick and Kate were back home waiting for Alexis and Elena to come back with the girls. "What do you think? 600 ton bullets and 16 ton Marines." Rick still wanted to see one of these 600 ton MAC rounds.
"Worried comes to mind. MAC cannon and torpedoes for long range. A 600 ton bullet! … What are we fighting that we need weapons with this much power? … And the torpedoes! …. Cook people inside their own ship? … If they are using something similar just what chance do we have? And how many people are going to die. … I don't like it babe. It scares the crap out of me." Kate had been doing her mental exercises all the way home.
"The Gatling guns sound like they are there for defense against the torpedoes or something similar we will be firing, or worse. But I don't see any way to stop one of those 600 ton rounds.
I wonder." Rick's mind drifts trying to think thru something.
Kate turns to look at him. "What? …. What babe?"
"There was a time, early 60's or 70's, I don't know. There was a cold war between Russia and the United States. Basically each side distrusted each other and they each taught their civilians to hate the other side. … It worked to. We hated anything Russian and they hated anything from the West. Convinced that the other side was the bad guy.
Except it was all a lie. The civilians didn't want war, they just wanted to live. And when one side visited the other or met on neutral ground, they found out the other side was just like them. Not some evil monster trying to take over the other.
The Russians decided that superior numbers was the way to go. They cared nothing about crew safety. It's why so many of their sailors ended up dying in radiation accidents on their submarines. No safety measures, poor construction and poor training.
The United States however decided on superior technology, better safety and stringent construction practices. Quality versus quantity." Rick tries to explain. "One Russian leader even voiced "We will bury you". … Meaning attack in overwhelming numbers."
Then Rick huffs out a laugh. "Guess they were both wrong." Both sides were effectively dead. Remembering that Earth was gone was painful.
"You're thinking we have the better technology while they have the superior numbers." Kate had heard him.
"One shot takes out an entire ship. And one destroyer has 16 shots. The cruiser will have twice as many shots. …. Torpedoes that explode in a 360 degree radius. Cooking everyone inside their own ship. Large formations of ships, big or small, that one or more torpedoes make it into the middle of. Then detonate by remote. Killing hundreds if not thousands in one blast." Rick hated the idea.
All this killing had turned his planet into a radioactive ball of dust. Just what was coming their way?
Kate got up and sat on his legs, facing him and placed her hands on his shoulders. "We're not Earth. What we have done has made us different. We're not fighting each other. Elena is Russian, so what? Sarah is German and in love with a Russian. This is Tellus. This is who we are. We're fighting as a planet against an outside force.
Will it change us? Wars change everyone. But we are Tellus. Don't try to over think it babe. … Now kiss me and take me to bed, before the girls get home." Kate leans in and kisses Rick.
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www dot rockpapershotgun dot com/images/13/oct/destroyer4 dot jpg
Replace the word dot with a real dot and get rid of any spaces.
This is the image i used as a basis for the design of the destroyer. I naturally made a few modifications in the description.
Enjoy!