UCS Askad-Akranine and related classes

[Graham Kennedy]

The Askad-Akranine was the first of a range of support ships based around a common hull, with modifications to allow them to fulfil a wide
range of roles. The basic hull contains the usual systems needed for any modern interstellar vessel; a pair of midspace shunts are
mounted in the forward hull, with the conversion core and ZPEX below. Locating the drive systems forward puts them well ahead
of the centre of mass, making handling much less problematic - though at the cost of poor agility. The aft hull is a long flat spine from
which various cargo pods can be hung, or on other versions extra hull modules attached.

The Akranine herself is a M/AM tanker; the ship mounts fourteen tanks to carry the neutronium/antineutronium which Coalition ships
use in their weaponry. The tanks are all fitted with the usual safety systems; each has an independent power source which can
sustain it for up to 48 hours. All pods are also fitted with four "high burn" propulsor sublight engines; in an extreme emergency these
can blast a fully loaded pod away at 500,000 g; the two second burn leaves a pod 10,000 km away with a delta vee of 3.3% c.

For self defence the Akranine is fitted with two Mark 2 AMP cannon. These are generally sufficient to deter casual theft attempts by
criminals, but are not really sufficient to deal with any serious attack. In less secure areas of space an Akranine would usually
travel with a Frigate escort at least.

[Graham Kennedy]

The next variant of the Askad-Akranine series was the Fountain class. This variant was developed by the Human Republic; the changes were
largely focused around accommodating variations in construction methods. The only significant changes were to the attachment points for the
cargo pods; the matter/antimatter tanks of the Akranine were replaced by standard fuel tanks in the Fountain.

The Fountain carried sixteen fuel tanks, each of which could carry 4,000,000 cubic metres of fuel. It could thus refuel a single Askad-Hazaline
class destroyer up to 36 times, or a Shadow class light cruiser 4.5 times. The Fountain's role is to accompany subfleets on long range missions;
it does not have the size to support a full fleet.

[shran]

Are civilian classes also working with midspace shunts or do they still have to rely on sail drives or something else?

[Graham Kennedy]

Coalition ships would pretty much all use midspace shunts by now. Some of the less advanced races still use sails though.

There are levels of development of shunts though. The two hulled ships for instance are early generation. Then there are
various different materials used in the shunt antenna. Civilian ships don't often use full neutronium antenna just because they
are so damn expensive.

[Graham Kennedy]

The third of the Akranine line was the Askad-Tamanlin class troop carrier. These ships did away with the cargo connection points entirely
in favour of a much extended and expanded hull. The Tamanlin offered 14,308,000 square metres of deck space for troop barracks.
The ship could transport up to 800,000 troops.

The Tamanlin is a pure troop transport; it is not designed to land or support forces in a combat zone. It's main role is to ferry personnel
between bases and planets within or beyond the Coalition.

[Graham Kennedy]

The Askad-Lintharia is a munitions ship, designed to carry torpedoes or other large munitions. It's primary role is to carry the Blue Falcon
high yield and Blue Shadow advanced tactical torpedo. Previous classes were only capable of carrying these weapons between bases
equipped with suitable loading and unloading facilities; the Lintharia is fitted with two cranes which allow it to load and unload itself. It is
also capable of loading torpedoes directly to another ship, rather than a base. This gives both it and the ships it supplies considerably greater
operational flexibility.

The hull is a standard Askad-Akranine variant with a large almost oblong specialist cargo module fitted. The cargo space can accommodate
up to 455 heavy torpedoes.

[Graham Kennedy]

The obligatory size comparison shot

[Graham Kennedy]

Internal components. Regular viewers will be getting used to these by now! But for newcomers...

The two large red things on the side and top view are the midspace shunts. In this class these are in the bow rather than in the stern as
they are on combat ships; putting them forward of the centre of mass means they basically drag the ship along behind them rather
than pushing it along ahead of them. It makes the ship nice and easy to pilot, but also makes it handle like a cow.

The yellowish thing between the shunts is the shield generator. This range of ships have pretty good shields for support vessels.

Below, the big round ball thing is the total conversion core. Aft of that is the zero point energy multiplier unit (ZPEX), with the power
convertor tower aft of that Continuing aft are the fuel tanks; fuel is fed from there forward to the conversion core where it is turned
into energy; that's fed into the ZPEX booster, where the energy is multiplied up. Then it passes on to the conversion tower where
it is converted to useable form and distributed to the ship's systems.