Admin31

==Chapter 30 - The Administrator==
CWS Jerome Winson
Liberator class Cruiser
Tharkad System', Lyran Commonwealth
Zenith Point
July, 3142
"That is not enough aspect change, are they really planning to engage us with only the forward guns?"
"I am more concerned at what they just did to our broadside of PPC fire! Engage the enemy formation with ripple fire from Naval gauss and autocannons!"
"Lock..no lock...lock...no lock..savashri!!"
Star Commodore Carns spun and strode to the weapons station, "Use manual controls!"
"Ovkhan! aspect change!!"
"Keep our broadside to them!"
The enemy ship was presenting a narrower profile, almost bow-on and evading. contacts showed missiles lighting up behind the mysterious distortion, which was clearing away...
The Liberator Class warship's hull vibrated with the activation of her heavy ballistic armament and temperature readings showed power draw increasing from her laser batteries.
Then the impacts started to register on the cruiser, as the Kowloonese vessels dipped within their fire-cone.
{Too many hits for a forward battery and not small hits, either.}
{For the tonnage, they must be made of guns? too many capital weapons for a ship that size, especially at such a narrow aspect ratio, and suddenly, the 'wrap around' rings made sense.} thought Carns
Carns then realized {Turrets! The sheer technical complexity made such an arrangement something that Clan engineers scoffed at-the chance of mechanical failures was very high. The complexity of the mechanisms meant that powerful heat-dissipation sinks, known as 'double' heat sinks, were impractical. While the potential benefits of such an arrangement were considered theoretical and marginal at best. Only someone who didn't understand why it was a bad idea, would invest-and those someone who didn't build warships.}
{Well, they do now. A little extra fragility, in exchange for being able to apply a broadside from any angle.}
{Battlecruiser firepower in a destroyer hull, with no loss of mission range.} Carns concluded to herself
"Oh founder...they targeted our point defenses!!"
"Bring them up!!" her XO was screaming.
Sietha Carns took one look at the diagram and a sickened laugh escaped her lips.
The interference field was gone. In its place, was a wall of missiles coming in a swarm.
She didn't need to see the mass readings or the thrust ratios to know what kind, either.
"Brace for impact." she ordered.
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