Halberd-class

This article contains potential or actual spoilers about an upcoming project. You have been warned!

## Advanced Stats

Rear view showing the four 'Jumo' engines

### Embarked Craft

1 Delta or Aquarius-class Dropship, one Aethi VoidPod (not standard issue)

### Cargo Capacity

25k Mass Units

The ***Halberd*-class** is a class of technologically advanced exploration vessels, produced by Trident Fleetworks and in service with Trident Foundries. One such vessel, the **UISV M6-002 *Halberd***, has been observed as being heavily modified by it's owner.

## Description

The *Halberd*-class is a modern take on the explorer role, however it is not produced to Trident's newest Generation 3 standards, only being designed around Generation 2 standards, which has been deemed acceptable for a ship not expected to engage in fleet combat.

### Exterior

The *Halberd*'s exterior is quite simplistic, even for a Generation 2 ship. Many details such as the brightly coloured power transfer conduits or the heavily armoured carapaces, are either missing or heavily reduced.

The front of the ship holds the vessel's only fixed weapons, twin low-yield plasma cannons used for anti-pirate defence. Just behind these cannons, there is a bulge on each side which holds several RCS thrusters for stabilisation. On the bottom, parallel to the RCS bulges, is a breakaway hull plate that hides a transporter system and a single Trident TravelPod to escape from critical situations.

Going further back, on each side there is a USD airlock to facilitate entry and exit from the ship. Above the airlocks there is a large array of heat dissipation fins that aid in regulating the power system's temperature. Slightly behind these is the ship's main bridge. There is a large Trident logo on the white hull panel on each side. Behind the bridge superstructure, the large hangar door slides inwards to access the main hangar. On the bottom, below the main hangar, there is an attachment point for a refuelling line.

The four massive Trident Engineering ZP-210C'*Jumo*' inline engines propel the craft forwards at tremendous sublight speed for it's size. There are large decorative fins attached to these engines too.

### Interior

The interior of a Halberd-class is compact and somewhat industrial looking, unlike the cleaner interiors of Generation 2 warships.

The corridor immediately off the airlocks has the large bathroom and the multipurpose room, which most *Halberd* captains choose to use as their private quarters, coming off of it. Behind these rooms is one of the ships' crew quarters, and the somewhat decently-equipped medical bay. Immediately behind these is the Engineering section which houses access to the primary Zero-point reactor (model number *TR-HBD-026D*) and the access to the rest of the ship. Due to space considerations, it was deemed necessary to route the main corridor through Engineering.

Behind Engineering, there is a second crew room, and opposite that, another multipurpose room. Most *Halberd* captains choose to install an *Angel Works Planetary Science Laboratory* into this multipurpose room, however. A small lift is provided between the two rooms, to ascend to Deck 1, or descend into the tiny Deck 3. Behind the two rooms, however, is the main hangar bay, with facilities big enough to allow *Delta*-class or *Aquarius*-class dropship/shuttles to land and take off from a platform that can be raised and lowered for ease of takeoff and landing. There is a small sub-hangar included, for storing cargo or small pod ships such as the Aethi VoidPod, and an included smaller hangar opening in the bottom of the main hangar floor, underneath the dropship platform, that is only accessible when the platform is raised.

Deck 1 is the Bridge and the Observation deck. The bridge is of the same design as the *Brawler*-class and *Venice*-class Frigates and offers good visibility. The observation room offers excellent visibility towards the back of the ship and the Hangar.

Deck 3 is a large, empty cargo bay on most stock ships, though some *Halberd* captains choose to add a meeting room at the far end of it, to allow for crew meetings without distracting the day-to-day operations of the ship.

### Lancia's modified *Halberd*

Jake Lancia flies around a heavily modified *Halberd* Explorer in his duties to Trident. This version has been extensively modified by engineers from all across the UIS and has had input from such notable figures as Nedral of Trinova Technologies, The Judge of Trinova Technologies, Ithirahad of the Aethi Imperium, and Jontyfreack of the RedEagle Confederacy. The weapons have been upgraded to military-spec plasma weapons. Several X2-V2 AMS turrets have been added to the ship, in addition to three small plasma turrets designed by RedEagle member The\_Owl. Deck 3 has been converted into an extensive weapons bay, housing missiles for the two new Trinova-manufactured missile launchers, mounted inside the two bumps on the bottom of the ship. The forward multipurpose room is now a dedicated bar complete with dance floor and stripper pole. There is plenty of new RedEagle-branded anti missile armour plating. Several parts of the hull have also changed colours. The HBD Zero-point Reactor has been augmented with Aethi Tetryon Pulse technology to boost the power output for all of these new additions.

## Behind the Scenes

The *Halberd*-class was created by Jake\_Lancia and Plaz for *Concord's End*, Trident's upcoming video series.

The *Halberd* most often shown via promo materials is in fact a class variant, not the standard *Halberd*-class. The class variant came first, with over twenty-five design revisions. When that was complete, Jake decided to 'de-militarize' it to turn it 'back' into the *Halberd*-class Explorer, by removing many of the military-based alterations to the ship and downgrading the cannons to barely more powerful than the single cannon of the *Mercury II*-class.