Kujira

Type: Converted Transport
Producer: Various
In class: aprox 50
In service: circa 2770

Mass: 500,000
Sail Integrity: 4
Thrust: 2/3
Fuel: 4000 tons
Structural Integrity: 40
Armor: 400 tons of standard armor (26+4 fore and aft, 27+4 sides)

Docking Collars: 0
Fighters: 0
Small Craft: 20
Crew: 300
Passengers: 0
Lifeboats: 0
Escape Pods: 10
Grav Decks: 1 65 meter
Cargo: 58,845

Bay 1: Small Craft (20) 6 doors
Bay 2: Cargo (58,845) 2 doors

Other equipment
none


Weapons:
Heatsinks: 2191

Nose
6 Naval Autocannon 10

Fore Left/ Fore Right
2 Large Lasers
2 PPCs
4 Autocannon 5s
4 LRM 20s

Left Broadside/ Right Broadside
20 Naval Autocannon 10

Aft Left/ Aft Right
7 Naval Autocannon 10
2 Large Lasers
2 PPCs
4 Autocannon 5s
4 LRM 20s

Ammo Load
600 tons of Naval AC 10 ammo
32 tons of AC 5 ammo
64 tons of LRM 20 ammo



Overview:

CCT, or Compact Core Transport, is the common name for a noncombatant ship fitted with a compact KF drive. CCTs saw fairly extensive use during the star league era (though their high cost relative to conventional jumpships made them substantially less common) and each great house had a large number (aproximately a hundred) opperating under their flag by the mid 28th century. Though nominally noncombatant ships, the CCT was still comperable in size to a warship, and was nearly as maneuverable. In times of crisis it was therefore a foregon conclusion that states would seek to arm at least some of their CCTs to serve as auxiliaries to the main fleet.

This practice was common among the periphery fleets during the Reunification war (though each of these smaller states had but a handful of CCTs to use in this manner), and House Davion also made use of armed CCTs during the war, using them to free up needed warships for frontline duty. Later, during the Amaris Coup, the Rim Worlds Republic deployed a relatively considerable force (some 40 ships) of converted transports in an attempt to slow Kerensky's conquest of the Republic, and Kerensky himself is believed to have made use of converted transports during the long march to Terra.

It was during the Succession Wars that this practice saw its most widespread use. After the first disastrous battles of the war, it became readily apparent to everyone that they needed more warships, and they needed them NOW. As a result, every state snatched up every CCT they could get their hands on, armed them with whatever they had available and (if the crew were lucky) slapped on some extra armor, then sent them into the fray.

However, most armed CCTs were little more than fodder, armed with less than a dozen odd naval weapons and lacking the armor or speed to stand up in combat against real warships. Though some scored impressive victories (both Marik and Liao achieved some success using disguised CCTs as raiders early on) by and large most were smashed into fragments without much of a second glance.

The few, terrifying exceptions to this were the Kujira (Whale) class CCTs opperated by house Kurita.

Capabilities:

Though the Combine denied it, the Kujira was from the begining built to be converted to a warship. Its cargo bay was broken down into seventy seperate compartments (allegedly to prevent loss of cargo due to catastrophic depressurization), sixty smaller ones against the hull and ten larger ones deeper in. Though the Combine made no effort to advertise this, all sixty small compartments had ports to connect naval weapons to the ship's main power system, and from the beginning the main reactors were designed to take a MUCH greater load than the ship would need as a simple transport (sufficient power to run sixty medium naval PPCs and still opperate everything else to be specific).

Even before the succession wars began, all pretenses of innocence were cast aside. As the Amaris Coup tore apart the Star League, Kujiras were quietly brought into shipyards by the dozen and all sixty outer cargo compartments were cut open. Self contained modular weapons bays, containing their own integral fire control and cooling system, along with a self contained magazine for ammo, and even quarters for the gunnery crew, were loaded into each bay and welded into place. After that, an additional layer of armor was added to the hull. At a well staffed yard, it took no more than three days to equip a Kujira with its complement of naval weapons and additional armor.

And the Kujira was well armed indeed. Each weapon bay on a standard Kujira mounted a single small naval autocannon, totaling sixty guns, which gave the ship firepower comperable to dedicated warships much larger than it and proved to be a deadly surprise when Kurita's enemies first faced the Kujira in battle.

However, despite the heavy armament, the Kujira was still handicapped by its peaceful facade. Though the refit included the addition of armor to the design, the hull was still very lightly armored, making the ship easy prey for anything it couldn't kill in the first or second barrage. Also, the ship lacked maneuverability compared to a real warship, and its anti-fighter defenses, though fairly extensive for the era, had gaps that fighters could easily exploit.

Despite these flaws, the Kujira still made for a nasty surprise that Kurita was more than willing to spring on their enemies.

Deployment:

The first use of the Kujira in a combat role came during the six week battle of Cholame during the first succession war. Two weeks into the battle, a Kurita "resupply convoy" composed of eight Kujiras guarded by the infamous destroyer Ayanami arrived insystem. However, a "disastrous intelligence blunder" resulted in the convoy jumping insystem at a pirate point behind Davion lines. Eager to take advantage of this apparent blunder, the Davion rear-guard forces moved in to sieze the ships, brushing aside the Ayanami, who made only a half hearted attempt to stop them, apparently anxious to get back to their own lines.

[Editor's Note: At first glance, falling for the Kurita trap like this seemed to be a downright idiotic blunder for the Davions. However, the more one looks at it, the more it appears to be simply a failure of the Davion military to properly interpet the facts in evidence. Davion fleet commanders of course knew of the Ayanami and its legendary talent for survival, however it appears that, with the normal samurai mindset of the Combine acting as a contrast, they attributed this not to skill, but to cowardice. They thought of it as simply a natural talent for running away. So when the Ayanami ran from the Davion rear guard force, they took it at face value. Had they known the Ayanami had just come from destroying a Davion frigate nearly twice its size in another system, and had Davion intelligence been paying better attention to what the Combine had been up to with its CCTs in the first place, what happened next might not have happened]

Once the Davion squadron had closed in to near point blank range, the Kujiras opened fire with everything they had. The Davion rear guard force was caught completely by surprise and smashed within minutes. The Kurita force then ran amok in the Davion rear area for nearly a week before they were dealt with. Seven of the eight Kujiras were destroyed in that engagement, with the last one making it to Kurita lines along with the Ayanami. They destroyed nearly twice their mass in dropships and warships in return.

Kujiras would fight in almost every major naval engagement of the First War from then on, and though they generally gave a good account of themselves, much like at Cholame they took heavy losses due to their inferior armor protection and handling. By the end of the First Succession War, only one Kujira, the Uzura, was still intact. She was finally destroyed over Hesperus II in the last warship battle of the Second Succession War.

Variants:

House Kurita had a handful of variants to the basic concept. The most common carried medium naval ppcs instead of naval autocannons. This version was considered less than ideal, however, as the naval ppcs cost more and sacrificed some hitting power in exchange for a dubious advantage in range. Naval lasers and missles were also tried, but ultimately the standard version with its naval autocannon batteries was considered the optimum.