Ariel - the background

[Captain Seafort]

9.81m/s^2 actually. Like I said, 10m/s^2, give or take a bit.

[Reliant121]

okay. I may have got my calculations horribly wrong, a distinct possibility as My brain was straining to even do this.

I think i worked on a maximum velocity of 400 m/s, taking 3 minutes to accelerate to full speed, and 3 minutes to decelerate. meaning it would take roughly 4 days to cross a distance of 150,000,000 km ( i know the time frame changed but hey)

And i think that comes out at 0.22 G...i think...

[Captain Seafort]

Err, no. You take almost 12 years to cross that distance at that speed. You need to make sure you're using standard units (in this case seconds, metres, and their derivatives) otherwise the whole calculation breaks down.

[Reliant121]

i used kilometres per second i think.

oh i'll just simply concede to fail at this, my head cant get round it.

[Sonic Glitch]

i used kilometres per second i think.

Velocity and acceleration and distances are usually measued in meters. Meters/Sec, Meters/Sec squared, and Meters. just move the decimal place to the...right three spaces i believe to convert from KM to M. Don't they learn you nothing in them thar schools?

[Reliant121]

ugh, i know that. I just dont understand how each bit relates to one another, how to do various bits.

Seriously i fail at maths. i have no idea why Mr. Armstrong has me down predicted for an A.

[Reliant121]

ARIEL - The Ariel Fleet

Before the events of the main storyline, the Ariel triumvirate possessed no fleet. it relied on the independent fleets of its member nations, that would come together to form massive "Allied Fleets", when the need arrises. These fleets would often consist of independent sub-fleets, normally each of their own race. This bred the inevitable rivalry between fleets and forces, one of the greatest and most well known being between the Warfare-adept Terra's, and the technologically advanced Danarians.

During the events of the story, the councilors of the Triumvirate come to the decision that an independent stellar navy was to be created, specially for the Triumvirate itself. This came to be known as "The Ariel Defense initiative", and the creation of a new military was heralded. Thus, the Ariel Starfleet was born. This would be the single largest mutual development that the 4 council races had ever partaken. A huge investment of the the Ariel's wealth was poured into the creation of this force, and they had virtually limitless funds to run their economy. Several new planets were colonized with the intention of becoming "Starfleet Worlds", a new classification of planet; a new planetary classification system was brought into effect to help with administration of the Triumvirate. Finally, the Ariel triumvirate underwent a massive realignment not only in its politics, but its name structure. The name of it had not been altered for several centuries since the Nishari became the fourth council race, and still reflected the old 3-councilor leadership that was once the way it had been. Now it was 4. And there was ever chance that the Terran's, (Who in the story, save the Triumvirate's asses from collapse), would become the 5th race. It was again, mutually decided, that the Triumvirate was to be reorganized into the new Ariel Republic.

now...i digress a little, so back to the fleet. Since the fleet is incredibly young, it is characterized by using a huge plethora of designs. The command staff of the Starfleet have literally grabbed every ship that the hundred or so major starship manufacturers have got to offer. There are probably somewhere along the lines of 1,000 ship classes alone in operation. Now to give you a perspective of just how much of a change this really is, we're looking at going from Star Trek numerical scales (like maybe a 1000 ships in service with a given race) and multiplying it exponentially. No-one actually knows how much money the Republic has at its disposal, because so much of it each year has been saved into various accounts. People predict that it could well be in amounts dwarfing a several trillion MAAS. The government policy of the past was that at least half of all income was to be saved per year. the Government probably earns some 50,000,000 MAAS per year, and has had that figure for centuries...it all comes clear.

[Reliant121]

ARIEL - Defending the Bastion

The seat of the Republic's government is the Bastion, a massive citadel in space, situated deep within a nebula. Now since this facility houses more people than most planets do, defending it is a key concern for the Fledgling republic. And the ways of old aren't going to cut it any longer.

During the times of the Triumvirate, the Bastion was defended only by a shield generator. This shield was, admittedly, immensely powerful, easily more powerful than normal planetary defense shields, but it could still crack under sustained fire from a fleet of ships. The Bastion itself was unarmed. Not a single capital grade turret was on board. There wasn't a need, so it was decided. This was because the races all maintained a huge occupation fleet around the Bastion.

Serving in the Bastion defense fleet was quite an honour. Any ship there was in high favour, to be sure. The warships were absolutely huge. Of course, they were dwarfed by the substantial might of the station, but still immense. This fleet would permanently remain stationed there ready to defend the station from attack. But this was not the best system, as it soon turned out.

During the final battle, the Battle of the Bastion, The Coridian forces breached the defensive fleet by drawing it away from the Bastion via Hit and run tactics. A pair of battleships would drop into range, unload a salvo on the Triumvirate fleet, then pull off again to escape. Eventually they drew the Defense fleet to follow them, allowing the main Coridian fleet to attack the station unhindered, by the time the Defense fleet realised what was happening, the Station's shields were already on the brink of failing. They pulled a hard 180, and steamed with everything they had back to the Triumvirate. But the hit and run flotilla's kept them occupied, picking off cruisers and destroyers while in pursuit. They were trapped. The only reason the Bastion still stands is because the Terran Alliance fleet dropped in at the last minute to save the Ships of the Defense fleet, and finally to create a joint assault on the main coridian Battlegroup. Only the amazing luck of the Terran Battleship Triumphant's main guns saved the Bastion, by striking a weakspot in the armour of the Coridian command ship, breaching the Main reactor.

Things had to change. The severity of how far the Coridian's had got was too much to ignore. A massive modernization programme began, starting with a immensely powerful laser cannon being mounted on a railcar mount along the axis of the main spire. This turret, consisting of a single weapon, was more powerful than anything ever encountered before. Once charged, it had the power to disintegrate a heavy Battleship with a single blast. The power requirements of this thing are huge, meaning a seperate reactor, larger than the original, has been created purely to power the new weapon. Smaller conventional weapons placements have been dotted all across the hull, allowing her the predicted firepower to take on a large warfleet with ease.

A series of large 500 metre tall defense platforms have been constructed as well. Each one has shields superior to a battleship, as well as an armada of weapons capable of taking on small flotilla's completely on their own. Each one has a permanent crew of 1,000 to make sure she keeps running. They also serve as spare births for heavy warships should the holds of the Bastion be filled. Several of these stations have been retrofitted with a miniature version of the Bastion's main gun, capable of wiping the shields off a Kalastra class dreadnaught out in one concentrated beam.

[shran]

Is the fleet still guarding the station or is it now on its own?

[Reliant121]

This is where things get complicated. The fleet, as it used to be, No longer exists. Each race has withdrawn its own fleet back to its borders. The Terran Alliance fleet, for example, currently sits of Novaris Delta, a planet in the New Terra system. Each individual race fleet has been withdrawn to its borders. Instead, the many ships of the Republic fleet occupy the space there. The Fleet defending the Bastion is actually quite a small one. It's about 10 Battleships in size, including the Tempest Glory, the current flagship of the Republic fleet (which is a massive 4,000 meter leviathan). In general the fleet defending the Bastion is quite small comparitively. but the main fleetyards at Kar'somme are pretty close by, they can get to the bastion within 30 minutes if necessary.

[Reliant121]

Starship class differences


i've often found it darned confusing as to what type of ship does what in each universe, what each class is for and how it is generally geared. So i decided to lay down what each class type does and what armaments you would likely find on them (and how these armaments are geared).


Battleships

Battleships are, as you would expect, the most powerful and destructive ships in the fleet. Each class is designed not only to dominate battle with other battleships, but to have the firepower to take on small fleets of cruisers as well. It is incredibly rare that a battleship would be on its own and without support, but most of them include the capability to fight a very tough battle independently should they need to. They have the most armour, and the most evenly spread firepower of the 3 largest types of ship, but they are also normally the slowest and often the most vulnerable to fighter or torpedo bomber attack. Many lack much maneuverability too.

Dreadnoughts

Dreadnoughts are similar to battleships, but different in two major fields: Speed, and armament. A battleships main guns are in a split battery of turret mounted guns; where as a Dreadnought has one or two much higher calibre guns facing forward, or maybe a single one facing aft. The rest of the guns are smaller, anti-cruiser or lower guns. Dreadnoughts are more maneuverable and faster than Battleships, as they have to move more nimbly to aim the main gun; but their armour and shields are normally weaker.

Carriers

Carriers are designed for one purpose: to bring an armada of fighters and bombers into a battle. They can range from the size of a large destroyer, right up to huge space stations in size and their armament reflects that. most of the main battery are dual purpose anti-fighter/anti-mid warship guns designed to tackle destroyers and light cruisers, as well as act as a sort of flak battery for attacking fighters. Carriers often have a fair speed when compared with battleships (to move fighter squadrons into a good attack range), but have absolutely no agility at all.



Battlecruisers

Battlecruisers are intended to bring high calibre weaponry, with the speed of a cruiser. To do this, often shields and armour are sacrificed in favour of having more engines and weapon systems. It can often be somewhat disconcerting that battlecruisers offer little protection over a heavy cruiser (although this is considerable anyway), but they make up for it in armament. Battlecruiser cannons, mounted much like battleships do, are almost as powerful as battleship weaponry.

Heavy cruiser

Cruisers as a whole, are the workhorses as a fleet. The heavy cruiser is the half that leans more toward heavy calibre conflict, generally armed with 7-9 inch weapons and sometimes with a smaller battery of dual purpose guns and often a battery of torpedoes. Heavy cruisers are designed to flesh a fleet out with dangerous anti-destroyer and anti-cruiser warships that are also capable of surviving an attack on a battleship if they are used in conjunction with another cruiser of similar size. Heavy cruisers are often quite fast too. Specially designed missile cruisers are generally built on modified Heavy cruiser hulls, outfitted with either large missile or torpedo batteries for long range artillery style attacks.

Light Cruisers

Light cruisers are the bridge between cruisers and destroyers, often designed to combat destroyers themselves. Their armament is generally around the 6 inch mark, bridging between the 7 inch heavy cruiser and the 3-5 inch destroyers guns. Light cruisers are the largest ships you'll find on border duties, and quite often act as C'n'C ships for patrol fleets or small raiding attacks. Sometimes named destroyer leaders, these ships are perfect for leading Wolf packs of destroyers because they can normally keep up with the high speed of destroyers, but offer a greater firepower and more advanced sensor and fleet direction suites.

Destroyers

The Destroyer is the only truly multipurpose class that exists within fleets. Her standard armament of around 5 inches is capable of taking on other destroyers and sometimes small cruisers, as well as attacking small-to-mid stations. Often, they carry a good battery of torpedoes to take on larger ships, and have tremendous speed and maneuverability to make fast torpedo runs on these ships. Their are generally well armoured and shielded for their class. Plus, the anti-fighter weaponry of these ships is incredibly dangerous and in formations, can present a very difficult challenge for a attack group of fighters. The main weakness of destroyers is the "good at all, excellent at none" thing. They arent really specialized in anyway and cant compete with purpose built designs for a given target. That said, their multipurpose nature makes them excellent staples for fleets to fall back on.

Frigates

Frigates are the anti-fighter warships of any navy. They are normally orientated to have a much higher PD gun armament than most ships, and are the fastest ships available to any military force. They normally have sophisticated sensor systems too, meaning they are excellent picket ships for fleets. Some of them are equipped with long range flak guns or "swarm missiles" that are perfect for long range anti-fighter attacks. They are also armed with minimal anti-ship weaponry for attacking other frigates.

Sloops

Many consider the sloop to be a completely outdated, slow and ultimately inferior type of warship when compared with destroyers or frigates (of which the sloop sits comfortable in the middle of in terms of purpose and firepower). But they do provide a little niche where the other two just cant compare. Sloops are the only ship-of-the-line that is designed to be built to merchant ship standards, not military standards meaning they can be built in merchant ship yards. Most are modular, so the weapons fit can be added in later of privately bought weaponry or military supplied weapons.

[Mikey]

I take it your "sloops" aren't actually sloop-rigged?

[Reliant121]

Well....You could try

No, they arent. they fit somewhat into WWII ship sizes.

[Lazar]

What program do you use to draw the Ariel ships?

[Reliant121]

Paint.NET
Paint.NET