Vessels of the Protectorate United Navies, part 8: The Industrious, Furious and Investigator Classes

Industrious Class Borg Mobile Platform:
Time has not passed without trace within the Damocles Gulf. The Cainites have added many new realms to the Protectorate in the decades since the Fires of Liberation first lit up Slawkenberg. The Protectorate's economy and industrial capacity has grown with every planet and station that has since then become part of it through signing the Cainite Accords.

For the PUN this expansion is a blade that cuts both ways. More manpower, more ships, more shipyards and more resources overall are not to be disregarded without good reason, yet the larger borders and the increased attention from the Imperium, Chaos followers and various Xenos poses ever greater dangers. Industrial and ship-building capacity continues to be the main bottleneck for the PUN and its expansion plans. Even with the Kasteen Drive Yards of Adumbria, the demands of the PUN continue to outpace supply. Note that the PUN still grows larger with every passing year, it is the speed with which the force can expand which is the cause of frustration within the Board of the Admiralty.

The Borg Office of the Navy has of course been working hard to address the issue through several different approaches. The most promising of these is the Industrious Class, a set of massive vessels able to produce all sorts of essential goods both for civilian and military purposes. Predictive models show that the various variants of this new class will contribute greatly to the PUN's expeditionary capabilities and reduce the strain felt by the logistics branch though local production. This also gives the Borgs a tool with which they can further accelerate the Protectorate's overall economic and industrial growth.

The Industrious is by far the largest class of vessels built by the Cainite Protectorate, a massive roughly cylindrical colossus more than double the size of a PUN grand cruiser. To the surprise of no one, the Industrious is not a combat vessel and thus only armed with a few macro and lance turrets and some Cain Wings for self defense. There are four different versions of the class:

The Mk1 Resource Processor is equipped for space mining as well as refining the raw materials like ore from asteroids and turning them into usable goods like metal ingots, sorted trace elements, clean drinking water, silicon, promethium and much more.
The Mk2 Organics Producer can produce food and other organic products like alcohol and many other carbohydrates for various uses. The production of rations uses a genetically modified radiotrophic fungus.
The Mk3 fabrication vessel uses the materials generated by the Mk1 and Mk2 to create electronics, structural frames, cables, holo emitters, armor, weapons, ammunition and such, basically anything that a Protectorate civilian or military fleet could need in parts and components.
The Mk4 mobile shipyard can maintain and construct new ships as well as build and repair space stations.

All products are usually loaded into Borg Standard Containers for transport, to either be transferred to another Industrious, to be loaded into the cargo holds of a Liberty class or to be directly shipped in-system to their destination by a cargo tug. Combined together, an Industrious quartet can produce almost anything that a PUN expeditionary fleet or civilian Protectorate colonization fleet could require.

The Industrious can also be used to accelerate planetary development or help with disaster relief. It is in this role that the ship class will likely see the most use. Unlike Slawkenberg, the worlds that have joined the Protectorate more recently have not enjoyed the wise rulership of the Liberator. Many citizens of the Protectorate still have to survive under inhumane conditions, their planet's economies in desperate need to catch up with the wealth and productiveness of Slawkenberg so that they too may enjoy the fruits of Liberation.

Furious Class - Often also referred to as the Pocket Proclamator, the Furious Class light cruiser is in essence a Courageous with its weapon loadout modified to deliver long range fire support while retaining the speed and size of a light cruiser. The Courageous' hangar bays were swapped out for a pair of broadside torpedo silos and the prow torpedo launchers were replaced by a superheavy Long pattern lance. A pair of triple barreled macro turrets complete the loadout.

The Furious' design arose from a request for a light fire support vessel made by the PUN's Patrol Force Command. While a PUN patrol task force is not intended to outright defeat a larger enemy incursion into Protectorate space, the PFC has been arguing for heavier weapons to be added to their arsenal. Wargames and naval exercises have repeatedly shown how the firepower of even a single broadside torpedo silo can slow down, cripple and potentially even outright destroy an enemy cruiser squadron in the sort of battles that the patrol force fights.
The matter was ultimately brought to the Liberator's attention who ruled in favor of the PFC, with the Furious being not the only new class to then be designed by the Borgs.

Investigator Class - The Investigator light defense cruiser is the second vessel that had its origin in the Patrol Force Enhancement Act. The Argus-Vigil's sensor and defense capabilities make it one of the most powerful force multipliers in the PUN's arsenal. The cruiser is a relatively cheap vessel to build and maintain, especially compared to its value on the field of battle, yet it is still far too expensive to equip the entirety of PUN's patrol task forces with them. Thus a more economic vessel based on the hull of the Protector was designed, the hangar bays were removed and in their place the sensor clusters and laser defense arrays were installed while retaining the light weapon armament.

The first few Investigators have already arrived at their new posts, proving their value by sniffing out pirates, smugglers, Eldar scout ships and even a spy vessel of the Inquisition. In battle they further enhance the deadliness of the Courageous and Furious and handily defeat any strike craft or torpedo threat.

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I am not quite sure if I have made the Industrious large enough to do what I think the class should be capable of doing, which is to act as a mobile asteroid mining station/refinery/hydroponics station/factory/shipyard/orbital construction vessel. I just think at twice the size of a grand cruiser they should be larger than an Ark Mechanicus while also being much more space efficient and the production facilities themselves should be much more efficient too.
An Industrious quartet should easily be able to supply a small developing colony with all the resources necessary to rapidly develop its own capacity for self-sufficiency planet side while also building the orbital infrastructure to easily accept trade and traffic from Liberty freighters.
In another use case; if the Liberator needs a newly integrated planet to transition to Protectorate standards, parking a few Industrious vessels in the same star system should give the planet an immediate boost to the local economy to quickly build up and facilitate integration into the Protectorate.
On the military side the Industrious class can provide the fleet they accompany with much of the demanded supplies, lessening the logistical strain of supplies needing to be transported and giving the PUN's expeditionary forces much greater operational range.

The light cruisers have been properly rounded out now, so they can theoretically operate completely on their own within their weight class. The Furious and Investigator are in use by both the patrol force and the battle fleets/expeditionary forces, because of course you can never have too many eyes and ears looking for the enemy, nor can you have too many torpedoes ready and waiting to be launched at the enemy once you spot them.

Not sure what comes next, maybe some more stories/after action reports. Maybe I will make stats for the PUN for Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2.

Edit: I also have two more names for ship classes, the Equalizer and Liberator Classes. Not sure what these vessels would be doing, but if anyone has an idea I'd love to hear it.