Carrack:
Dimensions: 500x100x100
Mass: 300,000 tons
Role: Transport
Armament: Varied; 12x 155mm railguns, 36x 25mm CIWS Point Defense Turrets [first production models]
The Carrack class was first introduced by United Aerospace in 2123 as a long range transport to bring supplies to the growing colonies around Jupiter and on Venus. For its time, the Carrack was on the swifter end for cruisers, but still retained a significant cargo capacity, though still small compared to similar vessels due to its lesser size. What truly made it shine was the Carrack's ease of maintenance and upgrading, allowing Carracks to be maintained at the undersized facilities many colonies have without any problems. The Carrack is also unusually heavily armed for a civilian transport, with the first vessels having a main battery of 12 155mm railguns alongside several point defense weapons, an armament just on the right side of legal and at first considered highly excessive, only for the dramatic increase in piracy and the beginning of the Jovian and Helium Wars to turn it into a boon, many Carracks falling into service as military transports or even auxiliary warships.
The Carrack class gained significant prominence through the second quarter of the 22nd century, with several other corporations copying the design, either under licensed production or direct intellectual theft. Soon Carracks could be found across the Sol System. The introduction of the mass effect proved to be a boon to the class instead of a detriment due to its design. The Carrack carries most of its cargo within internal bays, something that provided more protection and control of the cargo's environment than the open void cargos of most large transports at the price of greater operation costs. This internal cargo layout made it significantly easier and cheaper for Carracks to be upgraded with FTL compared to competing ship designs. Due to this and the extreme need for transportation assets during the expansion rush, many Carracks were upgraded with FTL and eezo cores, some through official update packages, but many others via ad hoc refits provided by shipyards or even for individual ships. This varied upgrading has led to many Carrack captains being weary of stressing their ships, unsure if they would make it through unscathed.
Defender:
Dimensions: 100x30x15 (main hull), 120x45x20 (including engine pods)
Mass: 2,800 tons
Role: Warship (corvette)
Armament: 6x Light Mass Accelerator Cannons (single turrets), 4x Guardian Laser Nodes, 4x 50cm Torpedo Launchers (12 torpedo magazine)
The Defender was introduced in 2153 by Ming Fleetworks as an effective warship for armed forces with a budget. The Defender provides a mix of high endurance, heavy armament, and easy maintenance within a small and inexpensive hull, making it extremely popular with mercenary groups and small militaries.
The Defender's low cost was further enhanced by its lack of antimatter engines, relying entirely on its fusion drives for propulsion. While this dramatically lowers the class's top speed compared to competitors, the loss lowers its cost and removes the danger of antimatter explosions, an important factor with the Defender's weak defenses. It also makes the Defender easier to sell, as the draconian regulations on antimatter used by all nations are not in play.
In 2155, a significant scandal occurred when it was discovered that Ming Fleetworks was selling Defenders to pirate groups, leading to the class being a relatively common site stalking the trade lanes of Alliance Space.
The Defender's torpedo heavy armament allows it to engage at long range. While the 50cm launchers are not as large as the ones used by Alliance corvettes and frigates, they are sufficient against most pier vessels. However, the Defender's shallow magazine means it cannot engage in protracted skirmishing, lacking the salvos to trade torpedoes with so little chance to hit. For combat at closer ranges, the Defender has 6 light mass accelerator cannons carried in the same number of turrets, allowing the Defender to engage targets hundreds of kilometers away without expending its limited torpedo supplies. The cannons can also be used for shooting down torpedoes and fighters.
This firepower comes at a cost, the Defender has a weak point defense grid with only 4 guardian laser nodes and weak kinetic barriers across a thin hull.
A single parasite shuttle is embedded into the Defender's hull, capable of transporting a small amount of cargo or a dozen people. It also has boarding equipment integrated into the shuttle's design.
Arrow IV:
Dimensions: 16x12x6
Mass: 30 tons
Role: Fighter (heavy)
Armament: 1x Light Mass Accelerator Cannon, 6x Equipment Hardpoints
During the rush in 2147 to integrate the newly discovered eezo into new aerospace fighter designs, the majority of manufacturers decided to first focus on upgrading existing models with simple eezo cores to provide the advancement to buyers quickly instead of designing completely new crafts to take full advantage. Lockheed Aerospace, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin founded in 2056, was one of the few companies to put all of its resources into designing a new craft (though still roughly based on its venerable Arrow line of fighters), banking on the longer term profits of being the first to provide a fully optimized craft with eezo compared to the profits gained through near-future orders. This proved highly fortuitous for the company, as the discovery of the Mars Ruins not long after the discovery of eezo itself made many of the just released models of their competitors obsolete overnight, with them all scrambling to make something with the new advancement, all while Lockheed Aerospace was already working on it within a month of the ruin's discovery. Before 2149 was halfway done, the Arrow IV fighter was on the market as the first fighter to integrate prothean technology.
The Arrow IV was sold to countless buyers, with hundreds of orders being made before the year's end. Expected sales were so high, in fact, that Lockheed Aerospace invested in a full mechanical production facility, a rarity in an industry where most parts are produced using fabricators, sacrificing economies of scale for greater production freedom and lower upfront costs, something highly important in an industry with such rapid advancement.
While the Arrow IV proved rather effective, the extreme speed of technological advancement seen in the aftermath of the Mars Ruins led to it quickly falling behind the cutting edge, leading Lockheed Aerospace having to release the Arrow IVa only two years after the original entered production. This advancement left Lockheed with a problem; the IVa had rather limited parts compatibility with the original when it came to the more advanced components, leaving the massive factory they just created as nearly useless without massive retooling, which would only keep it relevant for a few more years.
The solution Lockheed came up with was to repurpose the factory for producing a budget fighter, replacing some of the more advanced or troublesome equipment like the antimatter drive with cheaper alternatives. This alongside the lower production cost provided by the machinery allowed Lockheed to lower the price and market the new Arrow IVb as a budget option for smaller groups, still surpassing anything produced prior to 2149, but at an acceptable price.
The IVb proved even more successful than the IVa, becoming the most numerous fighter in Alliance Space, seeing service with everyone from militias, to mercenaries, to corporations, to pirates.
All Arrow IVs are armed with a single spinally mounted light mass accelerator cannon, though the model used depends on the variant. The large weapon was originally chosen due to it being the smallest mass accelerator that could be made at the Arrow IV's construction, but it was retained both due to the costs of changing the design and its high range and firepower, allowing the Arrow IV to beat many fighters and even small ships without expending its torpedoes.
The six equipment hardpoints of the Arrow IV, twice the number on the Alliance's Trident, allows it to carry a variety of equipment, ranging from additional fuel tanks, to gun pods, to a pair of torpedoes or missiles on each hardpoint. Their position on the outside of the craft leaves them vulnerable to damage both from lasers and kinetics.
Unlike the fighters used by other races and later human fighters, the Arrow IV lacks kinetic barriers, the technology not being mature enough to fit on the small craft.
Miner's Folly:
Dimensions: Varied; 10x2.5x3 (main hull)
Mass: Varied; 5-20 tons (main hull)
Role: Prospecting Ship
Armament: None (usual); Minior (some vessels)
A Miner's Folly is not a standard ship design, but a common practice among prospectors for creating extremely low cost prospecting vessels. A Miner's Folly typically consists of a single type 2 intermediate shipping container, which are ubiquitous, with an engine (typically a chemical rocket), prospecting equipment, and (sometimes) life support systems. The result is a craft that ranges from a decent, if thin-skinned, prospecting craft, to a complete deathtrap depending on who made it. Follies are popular with second win miners, people who originally came to the asteroid belt to get rich, before running out of money and being stuck there, only later gaining enough money to try again.
Follies are highly vulnerable to both pirates and natural challenges, with many such craft being lost to attacks, micrometers, and failure of their often substandard equipment, giving the crafts their morbid name.
Guardsman:
Dimensions: 240x120x80 (main hull), 240x120x120 (full)
Mass: 80,000 tons
Role: Warship (monitor)
Armament: 2x 100cm Torpedo Launchers (8 torpedo magazine), 2x Quad Medium Mass Accelerator Cannons, 20x 10cm Torpedo Launchers (400 torpedo magazine), 12x Guardian Laser Nodes
The Guardsman produced by New Anapolis Navy Yards in 2153 is a monitor designed as a focal point for small formations. The class is heavily armed and armored, but its greatest strength is the sophisticated command and control facilities it carries. The Guardsman can rival cruisers in its ability to coordinate units, leading to them often being used alongside large groups of fighters.
The Guardsman uses fusion engines for propulsion, increasing its survivability and lowering operating costs compared to antimatter equipped vessels. Its small main drive assembly provides it a slow thrust compared to other warships, but the large number of secondary drives dotted across its hull gives the class superb maneuverability. The drive used by the Guardsman, the Galileo MFD-12, is exceptionally advanced, being very low mass and compact for their thrust. It, however, does have problems with an unusually short operational life when used in high-g acceleration.
The Guardsman, like all monitors, lacks range. This is of little concern for powers without ambitions outside of the Sol System, who find great appeal with its high firepower for its price. Many minor powers have a single or small number of Guardsman to back up their smaller corvettes and frigates, giving their militaries the punch needed to deal with larger vessels without a high price tag.
Salamis:
Dimensions: 450x80x90 (main hull), 480x200x100 (full)
Mass: 380,000 tons
Role: Warship (cruiser)
Armament: 3x L300 Medium Mass Accelerators, 16x 50cm Torpedo Launchers (320 torpedo magazine), 40x Light Mass Accelerator Cannons (single casemates), 20x Guardian Laser Nodes
Originally designed by Terra Interstellar for the Hellenic Space Force, the Salamis class proved to be a rather effective small cruiser for its price, with several more of the class being sold to different armed forces.
The small cruiser class is decently armed for a ship its size. Its 3 spinal mass accelerators are of a lesser caliber compared to larger cruisers, but remain useful against smaller ships and can still be used against other cruisers. The choice to use more smaller torpedoes instead of the larger munitions most cruisers use is due to the class being designed for smaller militaries, which are likely to already have the smaller munitions in use, meaning they don't need to complicate procurement and logistics like they would if the class used a larger torpedo. This is the same with its low caliber broadside armament, the 40 smaller cannons able to serve as point defenses for effectively, but lacking punch compared to larger cannons. The Salamis's 20 laser nodes allow it to defend itself in most circumstances, but aren't enough for large battles.
The hull and armor of the Salamis is thick for its size, making it an effective short range brawler with smaller vessels, which often rely on their lasers for anti-ship attacks at close range, once munitions have been expended.
A recent governmental change and military budget cut led to the Hellenic Space Force being unable to pay for its second Salamis, the Plataea. This led to Ming Fleetworks putting the craft up for sale in late 2156, where it was purchased by the Systems Alliance in order to test the use of smaller (and cheaper) cruisers for interstellar patrols. The now SSV Plataea is working up for its first patrol as of the start of the First Contact War, being assigned to the Local Cluster patrol for safety.
Aegis:
Dimensions: 260x100x80 (main hull)
Mass: 120,000 tons
Role: Warship (cruiser)
Armament: 4x 30cm Railguns (2 single turrets, 2 bow mounts), 120x 25cm Torpedo Cells, 12x Guardian Laser Nodes, 8x 25mm eight-barrel rotary Coilguns [first production model]; 6x 25cm Railguns (2 triple turrets), 120x 25cm Torpedo Cells, 20x Guardian Laser Nodes, 2x Heavy Laser Cannons [Star of Ganymede refit]
The end of the space warship ban after 50 years saw a massive naval arms race, with the nations of earth vying for orbital and solar control through the construction of warships. The United North American States remained rather modest during the early parts of this arms race, focusing mostly on aerospace fighters and planetary forces. The Election of 2106 saw favor for the military rising, and the beginning of the Aegis's development beyond some initial plans. The rise of the Snord Administration in 2108 led to even more funding for the military, with the first Aegis starting construction before year's end. The next few years would see 36 of the class constructed, constituting the main striking force of the UNAS beyond Earth's orbit. The Parker Administrations brought by the 2120 election would see the Aegis class become one of the most famous warship classes of the 22nd century. Budget cuts to the military and concerns over the class's combat effectiveness against pier opponents saw half of the class sold to foreign groups before 2124, with almost all the rest following by decade's end. This led to the class spreading across the entire solar system, falling into the hands of many militaries.
The class's original armament consisted of 4 30cm railguns, two mounted in single turrets opposite each other on the hull and two more spinally mounted, 120 torpedoes contained in launch cells, and a dense, if primitive, point defense system. This armament was effective for its time, but rapid improvements in weapons and power generation technology saw it outstriped by newer combatants. While many new owners would retain the older armament, others refitted their cruisers with newer equipment.
The Ganymede Space Guard purchased the Aegis class cruiser Tantalus, originally the Defender, from the UNAS in 2128. The Guard then heavily refuted the vessel in an Adonis-owned shipyard, replacing the reactor and most of the weaponry with newer equipment, including the addition of two massive laser cannons for close range combat. The newly renamed Star of Ganymede served as the flagship of the Ganymede Space Guard for the next four years until its destruction during the Second Battle of Ganymede.
The ships of the Aegis class would serve for the next half a century across many militaries, proving themselves to be decently capable warships, especially when upgraded. Of the 36 ships of the class, 13 would be lost in action, with 6 being destroyed by other's of the class, including an event during the Second Vesta Interdiction where the Lake Erie and the Ranger mutually destroyed each other using missiles.
By 2149, a dozen of the class remained in service in four navies, with the Aegis itself retained by the UNAS as a orbital museum ship. The majority of these vessels would fall out of service after the discovery of the Mars Ruins, advancements in technology making the aging vessels obsolete. Most would be decommissioned, being scrapped, put in reserve, or retained for differing functions. The Psyche, a Aegis in service of the Adonis Republic on Venus, was destroyed in a pirate attack, the half century old vessel unable to stop a craft a sixth its mass, leading to the sacking of a zero gravity manufacturing center built into an asteroid in 2153. Only three of the historic vessels remain in active service, two belonging to the Spanish Black Water Armada acting as training ships, and the GSG Star of Ganymede II, the replacement for the vessel lost two decades in the past, which is to be converted into a museum by the end of 2157.