Miranda-class battlecruiser

## *Miranda* class

Some models:

* MR-2 *Rapier* starfighters
* I-1 *Poniard* interceptors
* MB9 *Broadsword* fighter/bombers

The ***Miranda*-class Heavy Star Battlecruisers** are a series of limited but exceedingly powerful Alliance capital ships. Advanced, expensive, durable and powerful, they are the ultimate expression of balance between the latest Terran and Veydreth engineering. With a basic hullform planned on the frame of the older but still fearsome *Hesperia* class, coupled with advancements gleaned from both the largest Veydreth Battle Dragons as well as the latest joint-designed battlecruisers, the *Miranda* class breaks the Alliance's own design trends and classifications with her size and firepower, as well as her varied artillery.

Due to only being constructed at a single shipyard—Trafalgar Shipyards, over New Alessandria—and the cost to build them, these ships were limited in number: their warfighting characteristics made them valuable and recognized additions to the fleet, particularly those battle groups commanded by Veydreth or Veydreth-raised officers, but they were rarely deployed in numbers sufficient to meet demand.

## Design

Initially designed as a replacement for the costly but powerful *Hesperia*-class main battlecruisers, which although stronger than most modern Alliance capital ships were too expensive to see mass production, the *Miranda* type's plans were abruptly changed upon beginning design work for the jointly-designed battlecruiser *Thalia*: Alinar and Lucaelian advancements in various subsystem models caused a stir among Alliance technicians and naval architects when released to the preliminary planners, particularly the latest Alenya ionization reactors as used on the contemporary *Retribution*- and *Sovereign*-class star battlecruisers and several wave-field modulation breakthroughs by the Confederation's own Rimestar Drive Yards. A new plan, drawn up based on Veydreth requirements, was pursued: high speed and heavy gun armament were a must, the size of the battlecruiser gradually increasing from 1,000 metres to 1,600 metres as the designers struggled to balance the demanded armament with sufficient protection and speed. Plasma-impulse nacelles were added as a result of their better mass-to-thrust, though it infringed on crew space thanks to their fuel requirements, and the warp core was directly fed by the new ionization reactor, itself a direct (and slightly illegal, as no royalties were paid) copy of that used on *Thalia*.

### Armament

The *Miranda*-class battlecruisers possessed comprehensive firepower: outgunning almost everything in the Terran fleet, they were designed almost from the outside to match any same-type warship currently in service among all of the Alliance's potential rivals, including the notoriously strong Selestrine *Seraphim* class. As in all Terran warships, their main armament was a battery of 380-megaton heavy laser cannons: thirty-six (36), mounted in triple turrets around their stern. Miniaturized collimation chambers, as a result of investigation into Alinar techniques, allowed them to decrease the size of the turrets from their normal bulk with only a slight loss of power: this allowed them to be retractable into the hull, concealing their full firepower until necessary.

In addition to these weapons were a number of other batteries: Veydreth twin-turreted MAC (**m**agnetic **a**ccelerator **c**annon) emplacements, heavy ion cannons, and coilguns assisted a large laser cannon battery to form complete coverage of the ship's hull, though the focus was on forward firepower. Two new **force lances** were also provided: short-range gravitational-field-modulator versions of a burnthrough laser, they could project gravitational stresses at the target point. While not as powerful nor as advanced as the distortion lances of a Ketari battlecruiser, they were still substantial weapons.

Tertiary armament was also substantial: magnetic proximity mines and swarm launchers provided excellent loitering-munition capability, allowing a *Miranda* to operate with a Veydreth fleet to 'seed' a battlefield before action was joined, while a mix of light lasers and flak cannons provided excellent point-defense capability. The heavier secondary-tier weapons could also be used for point defense, though their usefulness in this role was limited.

### Complement

The *Miranda*-class battlecruisers came designed for a complement of starfighters seen nowhere else in the Alliance fleet: a full wing of sixty (60) *Alpha*-class tactical interceptors was provided for, along with an equally-sized wing of *Delta*-class assault strikefighters. Both were diminutive starfighters designed with both Terran and Veydreth qualities in mind: although lightly armoured, both were quite heavily armed and fast, particularly considering their size. The *Alpha*-class interceptors were A-shaped superiority starfighters, with a smooth design and sharply swept wings concealing multiple laser cannons and two heavy 30-mm railgun repeaters: they could also carry a swarm of micro-missiles. The *Delta* was of similar shape, but additionally mounted a ball turret for a gunner and had hardpoints to carry several missiles or bombs.

The battlecruisers could also be modified slightly to accommodate the more standard *Rapier* and *Poniard* starfighters, and their *Broadsword* bomber counterparts, at a cost in total complement.

## See Also

 *Nova*-class Star Battlecruiser | Murrcioun Syndicates | The Murrcioun battlefleet's latest battlecruiser, armed with wave-pulse positronic 'shock cannons' and heavy mass drivers to devastate targets both ahead and on the broadside. Poor ahead and astern fire is a problem for the broadside-oriented Murrcioun but the *Nova* type's comprehensive secondary armament of energy projectors rectifies some of that weakness, at least at close range.