(special thanks to Henning Rogge for his original contributions to this design)
Brandestoc Fast Destroyerhttp://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/img180.jpg “What they don’t say is that we did a lot of ‘boarding actions’ of ‘suspicious spacecraft’ when the Brandestocs first entered service...it’s no secret among the Paladins; we were looking to see what the Orbitals were packing in the way of superior technologies that we could acquire and copy...anything that looked interesting was ‘impounded’, quietly examined, and later returned...if we couldn’t return it in the same shape or in one piece, we offered ‘compensation’ and bought off the owners... for the most part it worked, though occasionally we got some proud Indie who’d show off his goods by firing back...that’s when our missile and laser batteries came real handy...”
----Lieutenant Velas Sal, Stelmarine, VFSS Haggman
“It was a whole different ballgame after the Block III upgrades...now we didn’t have to come up close and eyeball-to-eyeball with our targets to nail them...just spot on long range sensors, and POW! That ‘s damn fine shooting!”
---Ensign Calas Grom, VFSS DeSpain
"I have seen these ships from Paladin Steel. They are large, crude and look like something from the last century. But below this look is a solid frame and a well armed design. They don't have used space for large shield systems or an FTL drive, but use the space for weapons and armor. They are a nasty surprise for anyone accustomed to three galaxy style ships."
--- Ramires Telkar, MacKenzie Engineering (Henning Rogge)
The lean, angular, Brandestoc is designed for fast attack and interception, and is typically deployed to perform sneak attacks, reconnaissance, and assault missions, where speed and firepower are paramount. With its raptor-nosed profile, and outswept, swept-forward (non-functional; their main role is as heat sinks and long-range sensor mounts)‘wings’, the Brandestoc is a distinctive and readily identifiable presence in the Rifts Solar System.
Developed from the earlier Athena-class destroyers, the Brandestoc is meant to address that class’s shortcomings with regards to speed and armament. It retains the Athena’s looks; a cross between a grappling hook, with its hooked prow, and a four-winged bird of prey, but is larger and has more room for accommodations. The once thin wing pylons are now thickened armatures ending in armored shell-nacelles, the horizonal ones being long and swept forward, mounting twin laser cannons, the vertical ones thicker, shorter, and more turret-like, mounting dual laser-and-massdriver clusters. The Brandestoc uses many components common to the larger Javelin- and Assegai-class vessels, especially the forward hull ‘pod’, with a shortened rear hull and outrigger weapons mounts.
Armament is heavy and configured around direct-fire weaponry; no less than eight long range lasers and four massdriver cannons are fitted, with an extensive point defense array providing coverage against missiles and fighters. A pair of tech-disruption ion cannons allow the Brandestoc to cripple, but not destroy, other ships for capture, and two missile launch bays allow for the carrying and deployment of long range probes and anti-ship torpedoes.
The Brandestoc continues the Athena’s lack of small craft capcity; the Brandestoc lacks a proper multi-purpose hangar bay, but instead has two small lateral slip-bays for armed boarding pinnaces and a lower hull bay for a shuttlecraft. Rapid-deploy airlock hatches allow for the quick deployment of the ship’s complement of armored Stelmarines and their power armor. However, the limited numbers of embarked troops means that for larger operations, several Brandestocs must combine forces to invest a target, or must be accompanied by a dedicated troop transport(especially if large numbers of prisoners are anticipated).
The Brandestoc uses special high performance engines developed for use in heavier cruisers, that can perform in both a low-emission ‘stealth’ mode, and a high-power ‘hot start’ full-acceleration mode for combat maneuvering. Later models incorporated standard contra-gravity drives with a slower acceleration, but higher possible sustained velocity and FTL capability.
The primary role of the Brandestoc is intercepting and reconnoitering unknown spacecraft and objects, using its high speed and acceleration to chase them down. Brandestocs are also used for long range patrols, using their sustainable high speed to conduct long sweeping arc orbits, and deploying sensor drones to extend their detection range. The speed and firepower come at the traedoff of armor, a loss of protection only partially offset by improved force shielding(However, it should be noted that being of Rifts Earth design, the Brandestoc still manages to mount nearly thirty percent more phsyical armor cladding than the CCW’s Scimitar-class rfrigates, in part due to PS’s as-of-then lacking understanding of forcefield generation technology).
After the Dreadnought Crisis, when Paladin Steel lost two Athena-class destroyers to one-shot kills, the light armor of PS’s destroyer designs was proven to be a major shortcoming, the memory of which lingered over to the Athena’s successor, the Brandestoc. To compensate, PS began a Block II upgrade of the Brandestoc design, starting with the second production batch, fitting them with variable forcefield generators, as soon as Aegis Stellar Industries was able to acquire and replicate the technology. Though the first-generation shields are weak by galactic standards, they are still considered to be better than nothing; although as of 120 PA, not all Brandestocs were refitted yet with the new technology.
Because of the Brandestoc’s ‘lightweight’ status, the design began to fall out of favor with the GNE space forces as the more flexible Auroras began to become more available. Increasingly, the Brandestoc has been relegated to system patrol and defense roles, or to being sold off to PS/ASI/GNE affiliates. In the Three Galaxies it is marketed as a system defense destroyer. Enough Brandestocs have been produced that PS/ASI has seen fit to experiment with the design, producing several variants geared towards specific functions such as minesweeping.
Type: PSS-DDES-12 Brandestoc
Class: Rapid Deployment Space Destroyer
Crew: 48, plus 24 marines
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 7,500
Bridge 2,000
Main Engines(2) 2,000 each
Armatures(4) 1,500 each
Heavy Rail Cannons(2) 200 each
Heavy Laser Cannon(8) 200 each
Missile Launchers(2) 200 each
Point Defense Turrets(14) 80 each
Hangar Bays/Slips(3) 900 each
*(Variable Forcefield)(Block II Upgrades only)
800 per side, (4,800 total)
*Shield Refresh Rate is 5% per melee
Height: 140 ft
Width: 200 ft
Length: 520 ft
Weight: 13,900 tons
Cargo: 200 tons
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion, w/ 20 year energy life
Speed:(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 3; transatmospheric.
(Note: The vessel CANNOT make planetary landings without seriously damaging its lower hull; 2d6x100 MD to the lower wing, and main hull. The ship is limited to powered re-entries, hovers, and escapes)
(Sublight) (Fusion Drive---Mrk 1) Mach 16
(Kitsune Values: 30% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1.6% of light speed per melee)
(Contragravity---Mrk II) Mach 14
(Kitsune Values: 60% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 1.4% of light speed per melee)
(FTL)(Mrk II) 5 light years per hour
(Underwater) Not possible
Market Cost: 360 million credits for the Mrk 1, 460 million credits for the Mrk II
Systems of Note:
*Full Sensor Suite---Specialized sensor pallets include radiation detectors and counters, spectrographic analysis devices, gravitic sensors, electromagnetic activity readers, and optics packages.
*Long Range Radar---Phased Array Search and Early Warning Radars---Maximum Resolution Range of 3.5 million miles
*Laser Targeting-------100,000 miles
*Communications Suite:---Long Range Radio and Video
*Laser Communications ---Tactical (i.e. ship-to fighter/shuttle)Range: 50,000 miles
*Optical Tracking Clusters----These are transparent blisters fitted with gimbal-mounted high-resolution visible-light/IR/UV optical telescopes that continually scan the arc of sky before them. Linked to the navigational arrays and other tracking sensors, and to a series of highly-sophisticated near-AI search and discrimination software systems, these sensors attempt to detect objects that have low radar returns/sensor signatures, such as stealthed vehicles, iceballs, or asteroids. The high-tech equivalent of the man in the crow’s nest with a pair of binoculars.
*EW Suite---Using performance data acquired from the Rum Bay intelligence operation, PS has been able to fit the Brandestoc with a number of advanced (for their technology, that is) stealthing features, such as an electronic ‘blanket’ to reduce tell-tale EM emissions from the drive systems by as much as 60%. Engaging the ‘stealth mode’, however, reduces drive efficiency, by as much as 20%.
The Brandestoc also mounts a more conventional EW suite for jamming enemy communications and targeting systems. Communications Jamming has a 5,000 mile range, is 90% effective against civilian systems, and is 65% effective against more sophisticated channel-jumping military communications suites. Missiles and guided weapons are -4 to strike.
*’Hot Start* Drive Mode(Applicable only to plasma-drive vessels). This refers to special fuel feed and combustion systems that allow the ship to accelerate rapidly, rather than gradually, or to reach high speed for escapes when under fire, allowing the ship to hit accelerations of 3 gs for about 15 minutes. Because of the rapid plasma generation and expulsion, this drive mode also has the side-effect of expelling an expanding ‘plasma smoke ring’ of energetic particles that would show up readily on radiation detectors, but could also be used to confuse enemy sensors(-15% to Sensory Instrument rolls and -4 to strike for guided weapons caught in the 'smoke ring; effects persist for 2d6 melees)(the ring of energized plasma will expand out to 5 miles behind the ship before disipating harmlessly) and even has some limited offensive ability, as the ring of superhot plasma will inflict 5d6 MD to anything in a 1,000 ft radius of the rear half of the accelerating ship.
Unfortunately, ‘Hot Starts’ are not without risks as well; besides the problem of the thermal-radiation plume illuminating the ship, the plasma expansion has a 10% chance per use of straining the magnetic containment and expulsion fields of the plasma drive. A field failure damages the drive coils and reduces speed by as much as 15% until the damage is repaired.
Weapons Systems:
1)Heavy Rail Cannons(4, 2x2)---Mounted on the ends of the two armored vertical armatures, these weapons can pivot for maximum arc of fire.
Range: 10 miles in atmosphere, 40 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 40 miles in atmosphere/ 40,000 miles in space)
Damage:1d4x100 MD per 80 rd burst. 2d4x100 MD for a fual blast from two cannons firing at once.
Rate of Fire:ECHH
Payload: 32,000 rds(400 bursts) per cannon
2)Heavy Laser Cannon(8)---The Brandestoc mounts an impressive array of laser cannons....two on each of the four ‘wing’ armatures, four coupled in the same armatures as the heavy rail cannons. A favorite tactic of Brandestoc crews is to quickly ‘flip’ the ship to bring all the cannon to bear on a target.
Range: 8 miles in atmosphere, 16 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 16 miles in atmosphere, 16,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x100 MD per cannon; a full salvo from all eight on one target does 8d6x100 MD!
Rate of Fire: Twice per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited
3) Ion “TKO” Cannon(2)-----Mounted in the ‘beak’ of the Brandestoc, hidden behind armored housings and exposed only in combat, are a pair of high-powered ion cannons, used to incapacitate enemy vessels by knocking out their electrical systems, making them vulnerable to boarding and capture. Paladin Steel secretly traded with MacKenzie Arms to acquire these weapons, hoping to surprise any Galactics who came to the Rifts Earth Solar System, looking for easy pickings, and acquire their hardware.
Range: 5 miles in atmosphere, 10 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 5 miles in atmosphere/ 5,000 miles in space)
Damage:(Special) 3d6x100 MD per blast, 6d6x100 MD Dual blast
Shields take 1/4 damage from ion blasts
Does NO PHYSICAL damage to hull, but attacks the electrical systems:
For every 10% of total main body MDC damage inflicted on a target by Ion Cannon fire, the target will be -1 to strike, parry(if applicable), and Dodge. Acceleration will be reduced by 15%.
At 60% or more main body damage from ion blasts, the ship is disabled completely.
Rate of Fire:Once per melee
Payload:Effectively unlimited
4)MRM/LRM Missile Launchers(2)---Mounted in the main hull, just under the KKC turret-pylons, are two multi-configuration LRM/MRM launchers.
Range: Varies by missile type(speed and range x4 in space)
(Kitsune Values: 160 miles in atmosphere, 80,000 miles in space)
Damage: Varies by missile type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-10
Payload:120 MRMs total, 60 missiles per launcher
OR 60 LRMs total, 30 missiles per launcher, or any combination thereof.
5)Point Defense Lasers(14; one on each weapons armature, two flanking the main engines, 8 on the foreward main hull)---- Standard energy-based PDS.
a) Laser PDS
Range: 1 mile(4 miles in space)
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere/ 400 miles in space)
Damage: 2d6x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively unlimited
b)Dual Laser/Mini-Missile Launchers---Alternate fitting introduced with the Mrk IIs. These are standard CCW-pattern dual laser/mini-missile launchers that have been installed for close-in defense. The lasers are less powerful and shorter ranged, but the mini-missiles have volley capability against fighters and missiles. Any or all of the fourteen PDS turrets can be replaced with these turrets in place of the standard lasers.
Range: (Lasers) 4,000 ft in atmosphere/2 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere /200 miles in space)
(Mini-Missiles) 1 mile in atmosphere/2 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 2 miles in atmosphere/ 100 miles in space)
Damage:(Lasers) 1d6x10 MD per blast
(Mini-Missiles) Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire:(Lasers) EGCHH, or auto-fire; 6 attacks per melee
(Mini-Missiles) Volleys of 1-8
Payload: (Lasers) Effectively Unlimited
(Mini-Missiles) 32 mini-missiles per turret; additional mini-missiles can be carried as cargo(typically takes 2d6 minutes to reload from the holds).
(Option)---The Mini-Missile launcher component of these turrets can be modified to fire the “S-Sting” ‘Smart Mini-Missile -----The S-Sting(for ‘Space Stinger’) is an attempt to adapt the guidance systems and accuracy of the ‘Black Talon’ L-SAM to a space-based missile. The missile resembles a rather stubby cylinder with a blunt-nosed optical cluster and protruding verniers(extend after launching), owing to the fact that the vacuum of space negates the need for streamlining the weapon.
Note that the ‘S-Sting’ has only limited effectiveness in an atmosphere....HALF bonuses in a thin atmosphere and weak gravity well like Mars’, and NO bonuses, and HALF range in a thick atmosphere and standard gravity like Earth’s.
Range: 4 miles in atmosphere, 32 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere/ 400 miles in space)
Damage: 2d6x10 MD to a 15 ft blast radius
Bonuses: +7 to strike
Cost: 10,000 credits per missile
Auxiliary Craft:
1 Shuttle, 2 Armed Pinnaces
Typically 24 Powered Armors
Variants:
*DDES-12 Mrk 1---In-system destroyer lacking FTL drive(and typically fitted only with the earlier fusion drive system)
*DDES-12 Mark 2---Interstellar destroyer with full contragravity drive systems and FTL capability.
*DDES-12(EW) ---Electronic Warfare variant that sacrifices the rail guns and two laser cannons for additional ECM/EW gear. It is typically used to provide flotilla-level EW support for destroyer and frigate squadrons.
-Jamming Systems---A powerful EW suite that effectively blanket-jams enemy communications and command-directed munitions with 90% effectiveness, Civilian-band communications are 98% jammed, while military communications bands suffer 80% degradation in effectiveness. Radar systems are similarly degraded....they can pick up the emissions, but cannot pinpoint the exact location of the source within the area of disruption. Area of effect: 180,000 mile radius.
-ECM Suite----- The ship has a powerful ECM suite for confusing sensor-guided weapons; -9 to strike
-Particle Scrambler Shield---The modules generate a powerful particle dispersion field that HALVES the damage from ion- and particle-beam weapons in a 100 mile radius, providing blanket coverage for a close-formation squadron.
*
DDES-12C---’Customs Cutter’ refit that sacrifices two laser cannons for tractor beam projectors:
-Tractor Beam Projectors(2)---Each tractor beam projector can handle 1,000 tons, and has a range of 25 miles.
The DDES-12C also expands the troop quarters and cargo space to TRIPLE the Marine contingent and expand cargo/contraband seizure space to 1,000 tons capacity.
*DDES-12(MSM) ---Minesweeper variant that removes all main cannon arament but 4 heavy lasers, and instead uses the two vertical axis turrets to house anti-mine gear. These modules deploying a combination of both high intensity scanner systems and LRM drones to remote detonate mines....Also uses ‘ghost’ projectors to create multiple sensor events at a remove from the ship, in hopes of triggering mines’ sensor thresholds. These systems haven proven extremely effective against most mine systems, but have proven only about 75% effective against the most current advanced stealthed CCW and TGE systems.