Alpha Centauri-class star carrier

The ***Alpha Centauri*-class star carriers** were a number of *Terra*-class dreadnought conversions to full fleet carrier capability, sacrificing their antiship guns for an unsurpassed strike ability. The most powerful star carriers in the Terran Alliance fleet, they boasted fair speed for a "super carrier" while bringing the heaviest number of starfighters possible to bear against an opponent.

Their design would be so successful that the later *Uranus* class would largely be repeats of the type, improved only in that they were designed from the ground up as carriers rather than being hasty conversions.

## Design

The *Alpha Centauri*-class star carriers, named after Terra's first and most developed colony world, started life as incomplete *Terra*-class dreadnoughts that had their construction halted in order to divert resources towards more pressing projects: more carriers and cruisers. Admiral Asher Perry, the Alliance's leading proponent of carrier warfare and the Terran responsible for discovering the Razorbird shielding weakness (that they needed to disable them in order to use their point defenses) argued that the incomplete hulls could be modified at little cost to become supercarriers, and subsequent designs showed that the plan was well worth it: with a fighter complement well in excess of 300 fighters and bombers with a strike loadout, the carrier could bring a small armada's worth of combat potential to a fight.

In comparison to the original *Terra*-class hull, all of the heavy weaponry was stripped from the *Alpha Centauri* design as it was not needed in a carrier. The associated space was instead devoted to cavernous hangars: while the listed complement was 176 fighters, 72 bombers and 4 transports, the actual capacity of the vessel was closer to 250 fighters, 80 bombers and 6 transports. This overload capacity was built in on the principle of future-proofing the design, allowing the *Alpha Centauri*s to operate well past a normal carrier's service life as newer, larger, and heavier fighters were expected to enter service.

## Armament

The primary weapon of the *Alpha Centauri*s was their strike craft: 144 Rapier multirole fighters could be deployed as designed, with a further 32 Poniard interceptors for CSP (**C**ombat **S**pace **P**atrol, active defense) purposes. The long arm of the vessel was provided by 72 Broadsword bombers to disable enemy capital ships and auxiliary fighting vessels as well as conduct close-in fire support for planetary fighting. For the latter, 4 Claymore transports were also provided, allowing the *Alpha Centauri*s to have a minimal troop insertion capability: they could land a party of marines if necessary to fight on the ground or aboard space stations.

For strike craft that made it past the CSP screen, the *Alpha Centauri*s bristled with point defenses: 10.5cm dual-purpose laser cannons dotted the hull on every conceivable surface, backed by the Alliance's dependable Aegis system and a plethora of 2cm and 5cm laser cannons and plaster banks.

## Notable ships in class

* *Alpha Centauri* (CV-600)
* *Patroklos* (CV-663)
* *Hard Luck* (CV-665)
* *Formidable* (CV-666)
* *Indefatigable* (CV-668)