in Earth's shipbuilding of the time. The FTL drive system employed by Humans at this time was problematic, to say
the least, when used in a military context. The major problem was damage resistance; the FTL sails presented
an enormous target to an enemy, and were thus prone to taking hits during combat. Worse, the sails were highly
susceptible to damage and all but impossible to repair from the ship's own resources when damaged. Any interstellar
vessel which took a hit to the drive was effectively lost, unless it happened to be in a system with a highly
developed technological base.
The same problem had applied during peacetime, to a lesser extent. Several interstellar ships were marooned in
systems when they suffered a breakdown or other damage to the sail unit - meteor impact, for example. Given the
huge cost of such ships, this was an unacceptable situation.
Another issue was radiation. The operation of a sail drive released a great deal of radiation of several types, making
it hazardous to be in close proximity to the unit for any length of time. Most designs put the sail at the rear of the ship,
with the pressure hulls at the front and the fuel tankage between so that the tanks could absorb the radiation safely. But
this was hardly an ideal situation, given that it meant half the ship was all but off limits to the crew.
It was these difficulties which the Longbow class was devised to correct.
The Longbows were equipped with a sail system which was built as a detachable pod at the bow of the ship. This
allowed a damaged sail to be detached and swapped easily, greatly simplifying maintanence. The radiation danger
was reduced without the use of heavy shielding, by towing the main body of the ship far behind the pod, attached by a
length of monofilament cable. With the inverse square law in operation, radiation levels could be vastly reduced by just
a kilometre or so of seperation.
As well as a new design of FTL drive, the Longbows introduced the STL Repellor drive into full service. This reactionless
drive system was a major advance in ship design; when a vessel used a repellor drive everything aboard accelerated
together, so the ship experienced none of the acceleration forces of older drives. Using its repellor, the Longbow could
reach 26 gees.
The Longbow herself was barely returning from her shakedown cruise when the war began. She was returned
straight to the shipyards for refitting. Since she was at Earth, the technological and industrial powerhouse of
Humanity, the Longbow never had to cope with the more primitive weapons common to most Human ships in
the early years of the war; she began life fitted with the 2nd generation weapons and moved rapidly onto the third
generation fit. The unit depicted below is fitted with two twin 120 MW Gamma-ray laser cannon, and 72 ASN-3
missiles. Fitted with their own repellor engines, these had far greater range than the 2nd gen missiles and
24 x 100 megaton warheads. She was also fitted with four of the standard CIWS laser cannon.
The Longbows were the only Human military units which came close to matching the invaders. Detachable sail pods
could be left at a safe location before the ships went into combat, removing any danger of being stranded. The
weapons were effective enough to pose a real threat to enemy ships, giving the Longbows a real presence on the
battlefield.
