Python-Class Destroyer

The Python-class is an ancient Destroyer design primarily produced by the Mechanicum Rationalis. It makes up the bulk of its own escort squadrons, but is also produced in large numbers for a variety of Imperial forces. The Obsidian Wyrms Legion and the Silver Armada of the Imperial Navy are the biggest users of the craft outside of the Mechanicum itself. The Python is a fast escort, relatively sturdy for its weight class, which relies on torpedoes as its main anti-ship weapon and boasts considerable anti strike craft defenses,

## History

The Python was originally designed by the shipwrights of Novae IV during the Age of Strife. While it underwent many iterations during those days of turmoil, the definitive version was built around the Tsiolkovsky pattern Warp Drive, which allowed Novaeans to venture out despite their lack of Navigators and the ever present Warp Storms that then wracked the galaxy. It was squadrons of Pythons that first re-established modern interstellar civilization in the Corusco Cluster, patrolling the space lanes and clearing them of piratical and xenos raiders.

They were also the first vessels that the nascent Imperium of Man encountered when they ventured into the Corusco Cluster to subjugate it. The Novaean Pythons inflicted severe damage on Imperial Voidships through hit and run attacks, delivering large salvos of torpedoes against capital ship battle lines at relatively close range before breaking off. So swift and agile were they that Imperial officers first believed they were somehow making use of reverse-engineered Eldar technology.

After the reluctant armistice between the Mechanicum Rationalis and the Imperium of Man, Novaeans offered numbers of their Pythons to the Imperium as a gesture of goodwill. They became the standard escort of the Second Legion of the Astartes and also featured in significant numbers within the Imperial Battlefleets known as the Silver Armada, though they remained a minority among the Cobra and Sword class escorts used by the latter. In the 41st Millenium, Pythons have been scattered throughout the Imperium in small numbers, where they are seen as precious Archeotech relics by those Admirals fortunate enough to have a squadron of them.

## Specifications

* **Hull** - Approximately 1.6 kilometres long, 0.3 kilometres abeam at fins.
* **Mass** - Approximately 5.3 megatonnes.
* **Crew** - Approximately 9,000 crew.
* **Acceleration** - 7.5 gravities maximum sustainable acceleration.

## Design

The Python is built around a Starblazer pattern plasma drive, characterized by its efficient and compact design and the powerful thrust of its engines, which are further augmented by a set of maneuvering retro-thrusters. For warp travel, its Tsiolkovsky warp drive allow it to travel without the need for a navigator through a sequence of smaller jumps. Like all Novaean crafts, its Gellar fields are equipped with automated activation protocols that protect it from unexpected or sudden exposure to the warp. The power-hungry Tempest-pattern Void Shields designed by Novaeans recharge very quickly after being overloaded, and there is a roughly 30% chance each time that they may come back online fast enough to block a second salvo within the same volley

Life aboard a Python is relatively luxurious by the standard of the Imperial Navy. Its Clan-Kin crew quarters are very spacious and inspire loyalty and brotherhood within the crew, while the presence of emergency lifelines and pressure-released void suits drastically decrease the losses in case of depressurization of a part of the ship. The presence of reinforced bulkheads and prow armor also make it somewhat more sturdy than average, but it remains an escort, so it is still fragile.

The Bridge of a Python and its sensor network are optimized for ship to ship combat above all other concerns, which makes its torpedoes and missiles frighteningly accurate, but their accuracy is poor against planetary targets and they make for sub-optimal scouts due to their less precise wide-area scans. Its Torpedo launchers are a significant threat against capital ships, especially when deployed in squadrons, while its Rapier missile batteries can batter down raiders of equal or smaller size than itself reliably. like all other Novaean weapon systems, both components are almost entirely automated, dispensing with the large hordes of serfs common on Imperial Voidships. This drastically reduces the required crew complement, and makes it easier to fit the above improvements to their living standards. Last but not least, the mix of extra flak turrets and the 'Oracle' augurs' defensive tracking protocols allow Pythons to rip to shred strike crafts and torpedoes that pass close, making them powerful screens for high value capital ships.

## Variants

* **Onyx Python** - A specialized modification of the Python designed for ambush warfare and reconnaissance. It trades away its 'Oracle' augurs for a W-240 Passive Detection Array. While less capable in ship-to-ship combat, the W-240 has better overall detection and more importantly it is capable of scanning during Silent Running. The extra maneuvering thrusters are also removed, and with the power saved from these two modification a serie of baffles and dampers known as an Empyrean Mantle to further cloak its energy signature. Dubbed 'Onyx' due to their all-black paint, these Pythons are capable of sneaking into systems undetected, sniff out its defenses, and strike at unsuspecting - and often unshielded - warships from the shadows of the void.