Triton-class Space Carrier

Triton-class Space Carriers were the first purpose built carriers by the United Earth Federation. Unlike later designs, the Triton-class was a heavily modified and improvised design of standard surface ocean-going carriers.
They were part of the UEF Military Council's The Corlen Alpha Plan plan which was the rapid build up of naval assets for war in preperation for a future war with the Icarusian Empire. The carriers were designed and built in almost complete secrecy near Earth's Moon in the Luna Orbital Shipyards. A further improved design was later conceived and was known as the Triton II-class.
== Description ==
The Triton-class space carriers bore some similarities to traditional surface ocean-going carriers of the 21st century. Roughly 1,400 feet or 426m long. They had an angled flight deck with with both the flight deck and overall hull following each other's shapes without the flight deck sticking out. To the right of the flight deck was a curved, angled tower that served the role of a bridge and flight control, located mid center designed to blend in with the overall hull shape. 
The flight deck featured five elevators integrated directly with the deck rather than the sides. Two elevators were located at the front, one at the angled section and an additional two, one of which is slightly further ahead, at the back for recovery. The 3 foremost elevators had two catapults, each, directly integrated with the elevator, allowing craft to be attached while in the hangar. Once the elevators reach the flight deck, the main catapult would lock and connect to the rest of the catapult located on the main deck. This allowed for 6 fighters or strike craft to launch almost simultaneously. 
The main hangar is located directly below the flight deck, protected by several layers of armor plating. When the elevator is below the flight deck, a large armored sliding trapdoor would automatically cover the hole and would retract as the elevator starts up. The hangar roughly spans almost the entire ship, following the flight deck, and is split into three interconnected sections. First and foremost section is the "ready launch" section where the three foremost elevators lead to. This section stores roughly one or two squadrons worth of planes, equipment and its crews. It is separated from the second, also known as the main or reserve, section by two large sliding gates designed to prevent depressurization of the main section when the elevators are in use. This section is also the largest. The rearmost section is the recovery section, where the two rearmost elevators lead to and is also separated from the main section by two large sliding doors. This section is large enough to hold one whole squadron of craft before moving all recovered craft to the main section.
Two additional auxiliary hangars take up space on the port and starboard sides of the carrier, these are also connected to the main hangar but are separated by two large sliding doors. These hangars are normally only used to deploy auxiliary craft such as dropships or other transports but can be used to deploy or recover fighters and strike craft if necessary albeit at a much lower efficiency. During combat these hangars usually protected by the external doors and the ship's shields.
== Background ==
The Triton-class Space Carriers was a proposal of Admiral Trian who sought to fix the issue of lack of fighter superiority and inability of the modified cruisers to deliever large quantities of strike bombers and other spacecraft to either support a surface invasion or a large fleet. 
=== The Corlen Alpha Plan ===
The Corlen Alpha Plan was the name for a planned UEF rapid military build up. The Federation originally did not thought that it would one day have to fight an opponent in space on the scale that was the 1st Interstellar War and primarily focused on dealing with insurgents and pirates. Because of this, the federation lacked any ships designed for war. 
This view was questioned by some when the Icarusian Empire was first discovered back in 2211, as a result of the 1st Space War. Although not view as a threat at the time, they were viewed as a potential threat due to the vast and large territories they themselves held which was equal to the UEF. Due to this, the federation sought to avoid conflict and promptly established diplomatic relations to negotiate out of any conflict. While the politicians negotiated however, Federation intelligence kept a close and watchful eye.
Despite diplomatic negotiations, relations between the UEF and the Icarusian Empire mostly stayed cold and in a deadlock. Effectively initiating a Cold War in space for over two centuries.
In those two centuries, the Icarusian Empire's thirst for power and constant expansion which further increased the UEF's concern and fear. Estimates by federation intelligence as well as the military council concluded that conflict was inevitable. To add on to this, further intelligence suggested the Icarusians were steadily building up their military and held a significant advantage over the federation in terms of ships and therefore military power. The Icarusians unlike the federation had designed and built ships from the get go meant for war for well over a decade, while the federation primarily only did militarised modifications of cruise ships with a handful of purpose-built armed cruise ships. These were not well armed or armored, primarily being equipped only to fight off insurgent or pirates. 
Subsequently, Major General Corlen Orlando from the military council, proposed B24-Alpha Plan, later given the name The Corlen Alpha Plan, to the Federation Council. The council relunctantly approved and soon new purpose built warships were in the design phase, these included the Corsair-class Cruiser, Aggressor-class Battleship, Fletcher-class Frigate and the Scavenger-class Destroyer.
==== CVX-A-1 Program / The Trian Proposal ====
The CVX-A-1 Program was proposed by Admiral Trian, who held a seat in the military council. His proposal was to make use of older designs of surface ocean-going carriers and the experimental aerial aircraft carriers. By heavy modification and redrawing of the designs, they would serve as powerful space-going carriers capable of providing a large and quick tactical strike force that the Corsair-class and some cruise ships modified to carry fighter and bomber squadrons could not. Due to the improvised and heavy modification of existing designs, the development time would be cut by half, allowing construction to start earlier than development of a purpose-built and designed space carrier.
The CVX-A-1 Program was soon approved by the military council in 2427 and was to be done in almost complete secrecy. The program eventually led to the Triton-class and two ships were ordered, the FSS Triton and FSS Atlas. The secrecy requirement of the construction led it to be built somewhere in the Moon's orbit. Meanwhile, the Federation Intelligence Department was tasked with hiding the two carrier's construction from both within and externally. This effort would later pay off as the Icarusians would not be aware of any major capital ship building by the Federation until the two carriers made their combat debut during Operation Parry.
== History ==
Shortly after both ships finished conducting a shakedown cruise and was assigned to Carrier Task Force 14, the whole carrier task force rendezvous near Mars and placed on stand by. This was in preperation for their first major operation and action, Operation Parry. 
==Ships in class==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Ship
! Hull Number
! Laid down
! Launched
! Commissioned
! Commanding Officer(s)
! Homeport
! Fate
|-
| Triton
| CVS-1
| October 8th, 2436
| May 7th, 2441
| May 14th, 2445
| Vice Admiral James Bark
| Stella-2 Orbital Naval Station, Earth 
| Destroyed during the 1st Sentinel War
|- 
| Atlas
| CVS-2
| March 12th, 2446
| May 10th, 2448
| May 18th, 2449
| Rear Admiral Ian Rino
| Stella-2 Orbital Naval Station, Earth 
| Preserved as a Museum ship on Earth
Category:Ship Classes