Essen-class frigate

Category:Gamestrider1
Category:UNSC Ship Classes
Category:Frigate classes
Category:Ship classes
The Essen-class frigate (hull classification symbol: FF) was an early United Nations Space Command frigate model used during the early Colonial Era following the creation of the slipspace drive by the UNSC and CMA navies. The Essen-class is famous for being the first UNSC military ship to be equipped with a slipspace drive, utilizing several technologies refined during the Interplanetary War to create a vessel to be mass-produced for service in anticipation of the rapid colonization of countless systems by humanity and the need to police said space. Although the best ships the UNSC produced at the time, space warship technology advanced quickly, which resulted in the class seeing an ultimately limited use, the last of the vessels leaving service in 2396, succeeded by better ships.
==Design details==
=== General appearance and capabilities ===
At 204 meters in length and 83 meters in width, the Essen-class was one of the smallest vessels in UNSC service, though it was rather standard at its time. It utilizes the standard design style followed by its descendants, the Charon-class light frigate, the Paris-class heavy frigate and Stalwart-class light frigate, with twin hull booms located at the ship's fore - one of which would usually be containing the ship's primary keel-mounted Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. However, due to technological limitations at the time, those were not present on the Essen. 
The sides of the ship contain flight pods with reaction control system (RCS) thrusters and defensive turrets, alongside ventral elevators for loading supplies down onto a planetary surface. Translight power is provided by a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. Due to its light weight of 0.4 million tons, its ventral thrusters allow for ascent and descent through a planet's atmosphere, as well as being generally more versatile in maneuverability. The vessel is equipped with a titanium hull but lacks armor plating covering large parts of the ship's underside, especially near the rear engines.
=== Crew ===
The Essen-class requires a maximum crew of 160 sailors. It cannot carry vehicles aboard due to lack of hangar, instead relying on physically landing on a planet's surface to take on or disembark personnel, supplies, or equipment. 12 lifeboats of unknown class are installed on the vessel, with six on both the port and starboard side.
=== Armament ===
The Essen-class is lightly armed when compared to its successors. With the ship well-suited for slipspace travel, patrol operations, and landing on a planet, its armaments are more geared toward providing light fire support in ship-to-ship combat, its effectiveness in battle gearing heavily towards operating in groups. The frigate's primary armament is 8 M23 Archer guided missile pods, with two lining the port and starboard sides of the upper boom and a further pod mounted on each of the two large "wings" flanking the engines of the ship. A further Archer pod is located on the ventral surface of each of the port and starboard modules. Supplementing the missiles are four dual-mount M100 Rampart point defense guns installed on the port and starboard sides flanking the bridge. Additionally, the Essen-class sports a single nuclear missile silo as a last resort in battle.
== Role and usage ==
The Essen-class was designed with the intent of acting as a mass-produced vessel for the UNSC Navy after concerns over the possibility of a possible rebellion or hostile extrasolar civilizations arose. The ship was the only slipspace-capable UNSC Navy vessel for the majority of the time the ships were in service and thus, were not typically required to perform escort duties for other, larger vessel, though they had the capabilities to do so.
The vessel was also used in the bulk of UNSC colony defense fleets, such as the Epsilon Eridani Fleet, and normally was used as a patrol vessel for some systems. Prior to the departure of the Odyssey, three of the vessels that would make up the Epsilon Eridani Expeditionary Group would be used as scouting and research vessels, travelling to the Epsilon Eridani system to confirm its habitability and returning seventeen days later, having gathered extensive knowledge of the system. 
== Operational history ==
=== Development ===
In 2291, A group of researchers headed by Tobias Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa secretly developed the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, a practical means of propelling spacecraft across vast interstellar distances. By 2310, the drive had begun mass-production, being fitted onto a new line of colony ships bound for other star systems. Though colonists are typically scientists and military personnel that have been proven to be loyal to the UNSC through rigorous physical and mental tests, concerns arose about the possibility of rebellion and pirate activity in the future colonies, as well as the idea of a threat of any possible extrasolar civilization.
Later that year, the Committee of Minds for Security, a collection of human artificial intelligences, held a discreet session, discussing the likelihood of these events and the modeling of numerous scenarios to deal with such threats. During the meeting, the idea of a mass-produced ship for the Colonial Military Authority Navy as well as the UNSC Navy to counter such threats was proposed and the committee collectively agreed on the construction of said vessel. A meeting later in 2341 saw a design created and agreed upon for this, and the Essen-class frigate was born.
Contracting SinoViet Heavy Machinery to construct the vessels, several issues were faced in the ship's production, having to increase the standard UNSC ship size greatly to accommodate the installation of a slipspace drive, and thus the design was modified by various human engineering groups, including some who directly worked on the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine.
Fifty Essen-class frigates were planned to be constructed, and by fall of 2344, the lead ship of the class, the UNSC Essen, had been completed and launched. Two others would be completed by early winter. The three vessels would make up the Epsilon Eridani Expeditionary Group, which made a slipspace jump in 2349 to the Epsilon Eridani system and tasked to confirm its habitability.
The vessels returned seventeen days later, having gathered immense amounts of data on the system, particularly the habitability of the planet Epsilon Eridani II, which would later be known as Reach. The planet was deemed habitable, and a goal was set to make it the first planet outside the Sol system to be colonized by humanity. On January 1st, 2364, as part of Project: OUTBOUND, the colony vessel Odyssey departed for the system, colonizing the planet and officially beginning the Colonial Era, with a fleet of over 100 colony ships launching as well within the week, destined for countless star systems.
=== Colonial Era ===
By 2369, the final ships of the line entered service, though two had been destroyed during construction. The Essen-class would begin arriving in colonized systems on 2371, becoming part of system defense fleets, including the Epsilon Eridani Fleet, and policing the Inner and Outer Colonies for some time. However, their notable arsenal would see little use except in training exercises, having no enemies to be used against. By 2390, blueprints for more advanced UNSC ship designs planned to succeed the Essen-class were produced.
Several of the oldest Essen-class frigates would begin being decommissioned, and by 2396, all of the vessels in the Essen line were decommissioned, replaced by newer and better frigate designs. 16 of the vessels would see retirement ceremonies across the colonies, including the UNSC Essen, which would be retired on Earth back in its system of origin. 16 others, such as the CMA Tell-Tale Heart would be scrapped, hauled to shipbreaking yards on Reach and dismantled, their materials being reused in later ship models. Two others would be preserved by the UNSC and used in testing the effectiveness of the UNSC's newer anti-ship weapons.
==Ships of the line==
Name 	Hull Classification Symbol	Commissioned	Destroyed	Notes
UNSC Essen 	FF-01 	2344 	N/A 	Lead ship of the class, decommissioned in 2396.
CMA Tell-Tale Heart	FF-07 	N/A 	2396 	Dismantled on Reach after decommissioning.