The following material is an original work based off of designs from
MACROSS 7, a sequel to the original Japanese MACROSS TV series (which became
Robotech here in the U.S.). Please feel free to use, copy, and distribute it
as you see fit. All I ask is that you give proper credit to the author and
do not claim that it is your own work. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
DREADNOUGHT-CLASS STEALTH BATTLESHIP
By Boo
BACKGROUND
The Dreadnought is a result of UN Spacy modernization programs in place
between 2025 and 2040; it is a credit to the class that many are still in
service as late as sixty years later.
With the development of low radar cross section composites in the 2020s, naval
designs began to place an increased emphasis on electronic warfare, culminating
in the aborted "Shadow" project, which attempted to create a
total-stealth package, a goal not realized until Project Super Nova of
2039-2040. However, the ships of the Fleet XL program (Dreadnought,
Imperator, Aurata, and their cousins) all boasted increased survivability
over prior designs both through armor improvement and electronic warfare
systems.
The core of the Dreadnought was its incredible forward battery - six
"dial-a-yield" three-gigawatt lasers and one axial low-yield reaction
beam. This resulted in some compromises. Unlike the relatively well-balanced
Battle-class super dimensional battleships, the Dreadnought carried a
relatively small flight group, only 55 fighters. This is more than sufficient
for most engagements, however, as targets that will be engaged by a Dreadnought
are almost always large enough that the ship can target them with its own
overwhelming firepower.
The first Dreadnought (BBS-01 Dreadnought) was commissioned in
2030, and they were produced at a rate of two a year for the next sixteen years,
with the option of continued production at a reduced rate past this point.
One interesting side note to the Dreadnought production - initially, at
least one engineer, a science-fiction buff, wanted to name the series
"Imperator." This was rejected, but the ships are still occasionally
called "Star Destroyers."
The Dreadnought was launched in 2030, and vessels of the class continued
to be produced until well into the next decade. In 2046, the UN Spacy ship list
included 33 ships of the class. None of them had become combat losses by 2050, a
testament to the ship's endurance.
The Dreadnought features excellent armor protection capable of resisting
energy weapons of up to 300 MJ of armor penetration, sufficient to provide
resistance to most warship weapons. This renders it immune to small arms and
mecha weapons in most locations, but not to heavy cruiser, battleship, or
reaction weapons.
RPG STATS
Government: New Unity Government (Earth)
Ship Type: Stealth Battleship
Class: Dreadnought Class
Manufacturer: ORTEC Company/UN Spacy
- Crew: 115 officers, 965 crew
-
- Notable Ships of Class:
-
BBS-01 UNS Dreadnought,
participated in the making of the "Do You Remember Love?" as
"Meltlandi" battleship.
-
BBS-02 UNS Bellerophon,
participated in the making of the "Do You Remember Love?" as
"Meltlandi" battleship.
-
BBS-03 UNS Superb,
participated in the making of the "Do You Remember Love?" as
"Meltlandi" battleship.
-
BBS-04 UNS Temeraire
-
BBS-05 UNS St.
Vincent
-
BBS-06 UNS Collington
-
BBS-07 UNS Vanguard
-
BBS-08 UNS Prince
of Wales
-
BBS-09 UNS Duke
of York
-
BBS-10 UNS Lion
-
BBS-11 UNS Thunderer
-
BBS-12 UNS Conqueror
-
BBS-13 UNS Yamato
-
BBS-14 UNS Musashi
-
BBS-15 UNS Shinano
-
BBS-16 UNS Tosa
-
BBS-17 UNS Kii
-
BBS-18 UNS Owari
-
BBS-19 UNS Nagato
-
BBS-20 UNS Mutsu
-
BBS-21 UNS Ise
-
BBS-22 UNS Hyuga
-
BBS-23 UNS Fuso
-
BBS-24 UNS Yamashiro
-
BBS-25 UNS Italia
-
BBS-26 UNS Impero
-
BBS-27 UNS Roma
-
BBS-28 UNS Bismark
-
BBS-29 UNS Tripitz
-
BBS-30 UNS Scharnhorst
-
BBS-31 UNS Gneisenau
-
BBS-32 UNS Missouri
-
BBS-33 UNS New
Jersey
- BBS-34 UNS Wisconsin
MDC BY LOCATION:
Per 10 square meters of outer hull - 4500
Per 10 square meters of interior wall - 600
Man-sized Airlock (interior and exterior) - 300
Interior Door - 100
Exterior Door - 200
Mecha Launch Ports -
Shuttle Bay Doors - 3000 each
Engine/Weapon Nacelles (2) - 15000 each
Bow Laser Turret (1) - 2000
Fighter Defense Turrets (12) - 500 each
Aft Countermeasure/Missile Racks (2) - 300 each
Reaction Beam Port - 1500
Command Tower - 20000
Pinpoint Barriers (6) - Effectively infinite.
Notes:
- At least one pinpoint barrier shield is fixed in place over the
command tower at all times; this means that targeting the bridge
specifically requires either a weapon that will bypass or overload the
pinpoint barrier, or that the ship be without power.
- Each pinpoint barrier may protect only one side of the hull at a time; a
barrier protecting the left side may not rotate to the right side in the
same turn.
- Pinpoint barriers will not stop mass-related attacks; they will, however,
absorb energy blasts.
- Destruction of a section of hull will decompress the adjacent compartment.
SPEEDS:
- Overland Movement: Dreadnought-class ships are incapable of overland
movement. Any atmospheric movement must be performed by taking off and flying.
Atmospheric Flight: The Dreadnought can fly at any altitude and any
speed, though for safety reasons its book speed in an atmosphere is Mach 3.
Rarely do these vessels operate at supersonic speeds in atmosphere, however,
due to the environmental damage that this can cause.
Outer Space Performance: The ship's primary engines are capable of
providing 3G of sustained thrust, with a .5G economy mode and a 12G flank
rating. However, due to stresses placed on the ship's inertial compensators
and relativity problems that develop at high sublight speeds, the ship is
regulated to a maximum speed of .2C.
The secondary engine systems can provide .5G of sustained thrust and 4G of
combat burn; however, this maximum thrust cannot be sustained for more than 90
minutes.
STATISTICAL DATA:
- Length: 440 meters
Beam: 100 meters
Height: 36 metetrs
Weight: 500,000 tons dry, 620,000 tons operating mass
- Power System:
- 2 Three Star Mark XVI Overtechnology Reaction Furnace, the power supply is
designed for overhaul and refueling once every fifteen years, but operational
conditions have not tested this design standard yet.
- Fold System:
- OTEC Mark IIA Fold Cluster
- Sublight Drive:
- 2x Three Star Mark V Traction Drives
- Gravity Control System:
- 2x Three Star Mark V Traction Drives
- Auxiliary Engine:
- 4x OTEC Mark XXIV Plasma Reaction Drives
-
- Sensor System: Standard & Subspace Mass Detector
WEAPON SYSTEMS:
- Fixed Low-Yield Reaction Beam Cannon: The heaviest weapon carried by
the Dreadnought is a low-yield reaction cannon similar to that found on
Monitor-class vessels. Since the Dreadnought is designed for
ship-to-ship engagements, maximum yield from the weapon is approximately the
same as a Monitor's low-end setting. This is more than sufficient to
destroy most targets without the dangerous energy wash found on a Monitor
beam.
- Damage: Varies by radius from point-of-impact.
To a 1m Radius: Total destruction (estimate of 1 billion MD)
To a 10m Radius: 3d4x100,000 MD
To a 100m Radius: 2d6x100 MD
To a 200m Radius: 6d6 MD
To a 300m Radius: 1d6 MD
- Range: 300,000 kilometers is the focus range for the weapon; past this
the beam dissipates rapidly.
- Rate of Fire: The ship's generators create enough power to fire the beam
once every 180 seconds, represented as once every 12 rounds.
- Payload: Effectively infinite so long as the ship has power.
- Forward Heavy Anti-Ship Lasers (6): The primary battery on any Dreadnought-class
ship is the array of heavy laser cannons it carries. Each laser cannon
generates three gigawatts (3GW) of energy on its own, allowing it to fire
either a devastating one-second continuous beam or a number of smaller pulses
for dealing with smaller warships.
- Damage: Depends on power output. For each 300MJ allocated per shot, each
laser does 1d4 x 1000 MD. Maximum output does 1d4 x 10,000 MD.
- Range: 100,000 kilometers before the beam begins to lose cohesion.
- Rate of Fire: Each laser generates 3,000 MJ of energy every second; each
shot, to a maximum of ten 300-MJ shots, subtracts from this total. This
means that in theory at least the anti-ship lasers could fire 150 times
per standard simulation turn. Realistically, the ship's targeting computer
has difficulty handling more than three targets per weapon per second, and
many commanders prefer to use the highest damage setting for intimidation
value.
- Payload: Effectively infinite. The generators are good for 90 minutes
without requiring cooldown.
- Space-to-Surface Heavy Laser Turret: For use in planetary
bombardments, the Dreadnought carries a bow-mounted heavy laser turret.
This turret is normally kept retracted into the ship, to be extended for
planetary bombardment or, in an emergency, in ship-to-ship combat. It is the
only heavy energy weapon capable of protecting the ship's aft arc.
- Damage: Each barrel is rated at 1500 MJ per shot, giving a damage figure
of 5d4 x 1000 MD per shot per barrel. Both barrels firing at once act like
a Heavy Anti-Ship Laser (above).
- Range: The turret's focusing array is less sophisticated than the
forward lasers'; its maximum range is 50,000 kilometers, more than enough
for planetary bombardment.
- Rate of Fire: Each barrel can fire once per second; this gives thirty
shots for the whole turret in a given combat round.
- Fighter Defense Missile Turrets (12): The Dreadnought carries
a dozen fighter-defense turrets scattered across its hull. Four of these are
located topside and forward, four on its forward underside, and four around
the edge of its aft arc. This gives a fairly even protection against fighter
attack from any angle.
- Damage: The fighter-defense turrets carry standard blast-fragmentation
Warhawk-A air-space defense missiles. The warhead does damage as follows:
Immediate impact to 10 meters: 5d6x10 MD
10 meters to 100 meters: 4d4 MD
100 meters to 200 meters: 1d4 MD
- Range: 130 kilometers, maximum chase speed of Mach 6.5 in an atmosphere,
3.5 kps of delta-V in space.
- Payload: Each launcher carries six missiles, with thirty-six immediate
reloads. Reloading takes one second per slot in the launch carousel.
- Rate of Fire: Each launcher may fire up to six missiles in any given
volley, either at the same target or separately.
- Rear-Defense Countermeasure/Missile Racks (2): Designed to discourage
warship pursuit, the rear-defense missile racks also double as countermeasure
release systems in case the warship must begin evasive maneuvers.
- Damage: When equipped with reaction warheads, the missiles are RMS-4
heavy reaction missiles. Damage for missiles is usually the high-power
setting, which gives 3d8x100,000,000 MD to a 1.63-km radius. For obvious
reasons, it is advised that the missiles be used before enemy warships
close to within 2 km.
The decoy version will do damage only in the event of a collision.
- Range: The missiles track out to 315 km. The warhead version has a
delta-V store of 1.5 kps, while the decoy version carries 6.2 kps.
- Payload: Each launch point carries six missiles, two decoy and four
warhead, which can be reloaded given fifteen minutes from internal stores.
- Rate of Fire: Each rack can release up to all six missiles
simultaneously.
- PINPOINT BARRIER DEFENSE SYSTEM: Originally developed by
researchers onboard the SDF-01 Macross during Space War One, the Pinpoint
Barrier System is a standard defense system on board all UN Spacy
starships, including the Dreadnought battleships. The system
generates three small disc-shaped force fields that can be positioned
anywhere along the ship to deflect missiles, energy beams or
projectiles. Each pinpoint barrier is about 200 ft (61 m) in length and
can absorb up to 2,500 MD in damage, which then regenerates within four
seconds (1 melee round). The barriers can also be layered on top of
each other to generate a field which provides 10,000 MDC and can even
deflect heavy particle beams (sometimes).
The three barriers are controlled by operators in the command tower of the
cruiser. These operators are instructed to defend (1) the command tower,
bridge, and sensor array, (2) main engines, (3) hangar bays, and (4)
weapon systems, in that order. The operators primarily concentrate on
defending the ship against larger spacecraft and leave defense against
mecha attacking the cruiser to the VF pilots.
- PRIMARY PURPOSE: Defense (the pinpoint barrier system cannot be
used as a weapon)
- RANGE: Up to 300 feet (91.5 m) from the surface of the vessel.
- DAMAGE CAPACITY: Can sustain up to 2,500 MD per round.
Regenerates at a rate of 2,500 MD per melee round.
- RADIUS: 200 ft (61 m)
- DEFENSIVE MOVEMENT: Can move from one end of the cruiser to the
other in less than a single round. Trained operators can attempt to
block attacks up to 8 times per melee (counts as a parry) and are at
+7 to block. Untrained characters can parry up to their number of
hand-to-hand attacks with their normal parry bonuses only.
- PAYLOAD: Nearly inexhaustible. Will work as long as system is
functional (see below) and engines are intact. If main engines are
destroyed, the barrier will loose power and not function.
- NOTE: If all three barriers are grouped in a single spot they
can deflect a heavy particle beam attack, such as the one generated
by the Macross Cannon, Zentraedi/Varuta command warships, and some
Protodeviln. However, the beam will completely destroy all three
barriers and put incredible strain on the pinpoint barrier system, to
the point where it may short out. After deflecting an energy beam,
roll percentile dice on the table below to determine additional
effects/damage.
- 01-05: Lucked out, system will be operational in 1D6 hours.
- 06-20: Minor damage, system will require 4D6 hours to
repair.
- 21-35: Major damage, system will require 2D6x10 hours to
repair (yes, DAYS of work).
- 36-64: Completely destroyed! System can be rebuilt, but
will require new parts and 2D6 DAYS of work to
replace.
- 65-79: Major damage, system will require 2D6x10 hours to
repair.
- 80-94: Minor damage, system will require 4D6 hours to
repair.
- 95-99: Lucked out, system will be operational in 1D6 hours.
- 00: It's a miracle! Trivial damage only, system will
be operational again in only 4D6 melee rounds!
SYSTEMS OF NOTE:
- Low-Observability Construction - The Dreadnought class is
manufactured with a balance of stealth and maneuverability in mind; it
features a low-observability composite hull. In combat with weapons designed
primarily to target naval vessels, such as ship-mounted batteries and ground
defenses, the Dreadnought receives a +1 bonus to Initiative, +2 to
Strike, and +3 to Dodge rolls.
- Electronic Warfare Suite - The ship's electronic-warfare suite is
superb, designed to either make the vessel look much smaller (on approach) or
much larger (in combat) than it actually is. Sensor operators who are not
specifically looking for a battleship are at a -20% penalty to identify the
ship as what it is, including in combat. In combat, this means that sensor
operators must lock onto the Dreadnought, or there is a 20% chance (1-2
on 1d10, 1-4 on 1d20, or 20% on 1d%) that any weapon attacks against the ship
will miss completely.
- Close-In Defense System - The ship's anti-missile defenses are
automated, and consist of batteries of moderate-power laser turrets located to
protect strategic locations around the ship. Any specifically-enumerated
location on the ship, such as the bridge tower, weapon ports, engines, or even
airlocks, will be protected by at least one of these systems, and, depending
on fire arc, as many as four (1d4). Any missile attack against any of these
locations will result in the ship's computer returning fire on its own,
rolling one attack against each missile volley for each defensive system in
the area.
- Countermeasure Release - If the Dreadnought is under pursuit,
it may release as many as four refitted RMS-seies missiles carrying
countermeasure transmitters designed to mimic the ship's sensor signature.
Sensor operators must make a Read Sensory Instruments roll at -20% per
countermeasure released after the first (One - straight roll; two - -20%, et
cetera).
- Life Support - The Dreadnought's life support system is
sufficient to provide breathable air and potable water to 1200 people for up
to 20 years, and food supplies are good for up to three months. In an
emergency, these stores can be stretched to accommodate 2000 personnel, but
conditions become very cramped and food supplies are good for only a month and
a half.
- Space Fold System - The Dreadnought is equipped with an OTEC/Three
Star Generation III Fold System, capable of propelling the ship through
hyperspace at speeds of up to 1 light year per 6 minutes. Range is limited
solely by consumables. In combat situations, it is customary to keep at least
one backup set of fold coordinates in the navigational computers to allow a
quick exit fold.
- Subspace Mass Detector - Based on the same technology as the fold
drive, these sensors will detect mass and movement at out to 0.5 AU (46.5
million km). Readings are not particularly accurate, as the system will not
detect masses of less than 60000 kg, and only mass is tracked, rather than
volume, which means that the sensor operator is at a -25% penalty to identify
objects detected this way.
- Hyperspace Communications - Another system descended from the fold
system, the hyperspace communications array allows faster-than-light
communication with other ships and stations. It cannot be used in low-observability
mode, as the antenna array is folded back to the hull.
- Long-Range Satellite Relay Communications - The Dreadnought
carries an impressive conventional communications array, allowing real-time
full-duplex two-way audio and video communications with up to 1000 other craft
simultaneously at ranges up to 1500 km. This range can be boosted indefinitely
with sufficient relay stations.
MECHA COMPLEMENT (STANDARD):
Perhaps the weakest link in the Dreadnought's impressive defenses is
its flight group, which is less than twice that of a stealth frigate from the
same period. This is because the Dreadnought is not meant to be a
carrier, but a battleship, and as such, does not require the same huge flight
group. Nevertheless, its carried craft are still capable of packing quite a
punch.
Up to twice the listed figure can be carried, but for each seven additional
craft onboard, increase times required to perform all kinds of maintenance,
including pre-launch and post-retrieval checks, by 25%, and all piloting checks
for launch and retrieval take a -10% cumulative penalty under the same
circumstances.
Mecha Complement - 2030
- 30 VF-5000
- 15 VF-4
- 7 VF-14
- 3 VA-14
Mecha Complement - 2040
- 30 VF-11B
- 8 VF-14
- 7 VA-14
- 7 VA-6
- 3 VF-17
Mecha Complement - 2050
- 15 VF-11B or VF-11C
- 7 VF-17
- 8 VF-19
- 7 VAB-2
- 3 VF-22