Type: Audacious Class Corvette In Service: 2343 Number in Service: 224 Mass: 180,000 tons KF Integrity: 6 Sail Integrity: 3 Thrust: 3/5 Fuel: 2500 tons SI: 40 Armor: 144 tons standard armor ( Fore: 16 + 4 Sides/Aft: 14 + 4) Heatsinks: 338 Docking Collars: 0 Fighters: 6 Small Craft: 2 Crew: 125 Lifeboats: 10 Escape Pods: 15 Grav Deck: 0 Cargo: 13,870 tons Bays: Bay 1: Fighters (6) 6 doors Bay 2: Small Craft (2) 2 Doors Bay 3: Cargo Weapons: Forward: 1 NAC/15 Fore Left/Right: 1 NAC/10 5 AC/10 3 AC/5 Aft Left/Right: 5 AC/5 5 AC/10 Aft: 1 NAC/10 4 AC/5 Ammo: 50 Rounds NAC/15 Ammo 150 Rounds NAC/10 Ammo 30 Tons AC/5 Ammo 30 tons AC/10 Ammo 2607 Refit: Thrust: 5/8 144 tons Ferro Aluminum Armor ( Fore: 20 + 4 Aft/Sides: 19 + 4) Heatsinks: 510 Cargo: 10,098 Weapons: Forward: 1 NAC/20 Fore Left/Right: 1 NAC/10 2 NL/45 5 AC/10 3 AC/5 Aft Left/Right: 5 AC/5 5 AC/10 Aft: 1 NAC/10 4 AC/5 Ammo: 50 Rounds NAC/20 Ammo 150 Rounds NAC/10 Ammo 30 Tons AC/5 Ammo 30 tons AC/10 Ammo Designer's Notes: The KF drive was calculated at 50% of the ship’s mass The drives were calculated as if the thrust were 5/8 The NAC 15 is the same weight as the NAC/20. The damage is 15 points, the range is only medium and the weapon is prone to jamming. On a 2,3,4 or 5 on the attack role for the NAC/15 the gun jams and takes 2 turns to clear. Overview: When the Federated Suns was first formed in 2317, there was no permanent standing military, rather the many worlds of the Federated Suns would provide troops at times of need. This proved to be ineffective in the many border skirmishes and resulted in several notable defeats, the most famous being the Muskegon conflict with the Chesterton Commonality States. In 2333 Charles Davion formed the Federated Peacekeeping Forces (FPF) as a permanently standing military for the Federated Suns. The first few years were spent organizing the force and the ground troops assigned to it, but by 2339 the FPF had turned it's attention to the development of a Navy. The Terran Hegemony had been building up a large Navy (including the Pinto, Bonadventure and Vigilant Class Corvettes, Essex Class Destroyers and Dart Class Cruisers) and the FPF wanted a force that would be able to engage the Hegemony Navy. With the Hegemony's huge lead in warship design, technology and most importantly Naval Construction Facilities, the FPF decided to focus on building a small corvette that could be produced in large numbers. The hope was that the large number of ships would balance out the Hegemony’s more advanced and larger ships. The design took 3 years to complete and production began in 2343 at the Universal Air facility at Delevan. In 2360 the New Syrtis Shipyards would also begin production of the Audacious class under license from Universal Air. 224 ships would be built before construction ended. Capabilities: As the first warship built by the Federated Suns, the ship incorporated several new technologies, including the compact KF Core, warship scale Interplanetary drives and Naval Autocannons. Much of this technology was acquired when the Federated Suns captured a Hegemony Armed Forces warship, the Pinto Class Corvette THS Dragonfly, during an attack by the Terran Hegemony on New Rhodes III in 2338. [Editor's Note: The attack on New Rhodes III was part of Director General James McKenna's 3rd offensive launched in 2335. While most of the focus of the attack was on worlds located near the Federation of Skye, there were a few attacks launched against planets in other areas of space. The people of New Rhodes III knew they could not stand up to the Hegemony by themselves and requested the help of the Federated Suns. The Federation agreed to help in return for a hefty payment. During the first attack by the Hegemony, the FPF navy managed to board and capture the THS Dragonfly. The ship was then brought to the Universal Air shipyards, where it was stripped down and it's systems reverse engineered. Shortly after the capture of the Dragonfly the Federation forces retreated from New Rhodes III in face of a vastly superior Hegemony force, leaving the people of New Rhodes III at the mercy of the Hegemony.] With the THS Dragonfly to guide them, the engineers at Universal Air decided to build a corvette that could out fight the Pinto class. The new Audacious Class was as fast and maneuverable as the Pinto, but weighed almost twice as much. This allowed the designers to mount almost twice the armor and a heavier weapon load then the smaller Pinto. The main weapon was the newly developed Federated Class 15 Naval Autocannon. Intended to be a more powerful Naval Autocannon then the class 10 used on the Pinto, the weapon instead turned out to be the Achilles heel of the ship. It was very heavy and had a poor range compared to the Class 10 NAC. The biggest problem was that the cannon had a tendency to jam frequently. Eventually the Class 15 NACs would be replaced with the Federated Class 20 NAC after it’s successful deployment on the Sunburst class destroyer. The Class 15 NAC was backed up by 3 Class 10 Naval Autocannons. These were direct copies of the Terran Hegemony NACs which were built by Federated Weapons. These proved to be very reliable and effective weapons and would be used on a number of Federation warships. To provide protection against enemy fighters the Audacious class mounts a number of standard autocannons. These provide protection to all the arcs, except the forward arc. Due to the large size of the NAC/15 the designers were prevented from adding other weapons there. Deployment: The first Audacious class ships were initially deployed along the border with the Terran Hegemony to defend against the Hegemony's large fleet. As more units entered service, the ships were also deployed along the border with the Tikonov Union, Sarna Supremacy, Chesterton Commonality and Capellan Hegemony. With the almost constant fighting on that front, the Audacious class would quickly prove it's worth and also reveal it's weakness. In the mid 2300's the Navies of the states that would one day form the Capellan Confederation consisted of little more then jumpships crudely refitted with weapons. These ships lacked the mobility and armor of the Audacious and proved to be little more then large targets for the Federation Corvette. It was not until the introduction of the Confederation Class Armed Transport in 2382 that the Audacious faced a real threat on the Confederation border. [Editor's Note: The Confederation Class Armed Transport was the first warship built by Delhi Ships, later Delhi Warships. The Confederation would later serve as the basis of the Hegemony's Vincent Class Corvette.] While most of the battles went in favor of the Audacious class, several corvettes were lost when their naval autocannons jammed, allowing the Capellan ships to close and destroy them. Despite these problems, the Audacious class developed a reputation as a solid and dependable warship in the Federation Fleet. [Editor's Note: This was especially true after the class 15 Naval Autocannon was replaced with the newer class 20 weapon starting in 2372.] The Audacious class did eventually see action against the Terran Hegemony during the early 25th Century and these actions showed the weaknesses of the ship. In the early 25th century tension began to increase between the Hegemony and the Federated Suns due to a dispute over their joint ownership of planet Cartago. Eventually fighting broke out and the Terran Hegemony took sole control of the planet. The Federation launched a massive counterattack in an attempt to retake the planet. They sent several divisions, support by a large fleet consisting of Audacious class corvettes, Sunburst class destroyers and Triad Class cruisers. These ships proved no match for the Terran Hegemony Navy. While the Audacious class proved adequate against the Hegemony's Bonadventure class corvettes, it was badly outmatched by the Vigilant class corvette. This resulted in the loss of many Audacious class ships. As a result the Federation Navy did not deploy the Audacious against the Hegemony forces during the battles for Kentares in the 2430s, opting instead to use it’s larger and more modern ships. The Audacious class continued to serve the AFFS through the Age of War and only began being retired shortly before the start of the Reunification war. Several ships saw action during the Reunification War against the Taurian Concordat, where they were outmatched by the Concordat's Pinto, Bulldog and Defiant class Corvettes. Because of their poor performance, most of the remaining ships were retired after the end of the war and put into mothball. There were 12 ships that were modified by the AFFS Navy starting in 2607. These ships were fitted with new engines that allowed them to reach 4G's acceleration. The armor was replaced with more modern Ferro Aluminum alloys providing slightly improved protection, while the weapons array was updated. The ships mounted 4 medium Naval Lasers which provided additional firepower at long range. The refit ships proved very nimble and effective, but the AFFS Navy decided against modifying additional ships, as the available funds were desperately needed to build new warships to replace those that were lost in the Reunification War. These dozen modified Audacious class ships would continue in service until the fall of the Star League. With the fall of the Star League, the AFFS Navy quickly began reactivating the mothballed Audacious class ships to replace other vessels that were lost in combat. None of these ships would be upgraded as the Federated Suns lacked the facilities and time to preform the refits. During the war the Audacious class served in a variety of roles. Some were assigned as patrol ships along the border with the Combine and the Confederation, while others were used as picket ships for the AFFS Navy's Fleet. Most of these ships were destroyed during the bloody battles of the 1st Succession, only 2 Audacious class ships, both of which were from the 2607 refit survived to fight in the second Succession War. These would be lost early in the war to the Combine’s few remaining warships. [Editor's Notes: There are persistent rumors that the FSS Valiant, one of the 2607 refit ships, actually survived until the early days of the 3rd Succession War. The rumors claim that the Valiant, which had been reported destroyed at the Battle of Cholame, was in fact not destroyed but badly damaged and that the AFFS Navy discovered the ship and salvaged it in 2839, bringing it to the Naval Yards at Kathil. The ship was in bad shape and the AFFS Navy lacked the parts to repair the ship until the AFFS recaptured Tishomingo and discovered the Audacious Class Corvette FSS Courageous adrift in the system. According to the rumors, Federated Suns engineers, using components salvaged by the Courageous they were able to get the Valiant operational, although the effort did take several decades to complete. The rumors go on that the Valiant was first deployed in 2870 by Field Marshal Jerome Hasek. As one of the few aware of the ships existence, Field Marshal Hasek managed to "requisition" the use of the Valiant, in fact from existing records it appears the commander of the Kathil Shipyards was a close friend of the Field Marshall, which may explain how he got access to the ship (assuming it actually existed...). All of the rumors claim the ship was destroyed in Verlo system when the mercenary unit, Clinton’s Cutthroats disappeared from known space. It is claimed that one of the jumpships that came to pick up the Cutthroats was actually a small warship and that this ship destroyed the Valiant. Of course there is no way to prove any of this as the AFFS denies ever salvaging the Valiant and the ground tracking data from the stations on Verlo that could have verified if a battle occurred were destroyed during the fighting on that planet.]