Strider-class

## Strider-class Corvette

TRV Bolt in Trident space.

The ***Strider*-class** is a class of low-warp, intrasystem patrol corvettes built and operated by Trident Foundries, and used to police trade lanes.

The ***Strider Heavy*** or ***Strider-X2*** is an upgrade package offered by PlazWorks to veteran Trident pilots, that can be applied to a *Strider*-class to turn it into a much stronger attack ship.

## Description

The *Strider*-class is a small warship which is designed to be a low-warp patrol and light assault vessel. Its thin frame makes it hard to hit from a frontal trajectory, and its powerful weaponry keeps pirates at bay.

   Powered by a simple fusion reactor and propelled at medium warp speeds by a relatively compact Phase Coil assembly, pirates and vagabonds would initially believe that a *Strider* was an easy target. However, the forward fusion missile launcher, in addition to Trident's first mass-produced beam weaponry in the form of plasma beams, ensure that a *Strider* has more than adequate firepower to take on pirates and other vessels that threaten Vergesso's trade network.

### The X2 Upgrade Package

The *Strider-X2* package increases the power dedicated to the forward twin plasma bank, and increases the fusion missile launcher count to 4, resulting in a more potent vessel optimised for military usage against true warships, though losing the basic *Strider*'s generous cargo capacity.

In addition, the *X2*-upgraded vessels are noticeably faster than basic vessels, with a retuned Phase Coil assembly and stronger fusion reactor.

An expensive upgrade package, the *Strider-X2* package is only offered to veteran pilots, and not to the general public, civil policing groups, or for foreign military orders.

## History

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While the *Strider*-class was a fantastic assault and patrol ship, seen universally by Trident forces and vendors as a overall good design, the ship itself had room for improvement. Not long after the base *Strider*-class was introduced, the late *Brawler*-class frigate was formally retired; this ageing vessel had many veteran crews who used to operate them, and many of the crews would end up filtering down to the new Trident Patrol Outposts, which were made for a more military first response force for any defensive and offensive operations in a local system. These stations held 4 *Strider*-class ships that could be launched and repaired at the station, acting as a local assault and raiding force. These raid teams were effective and the majority of the veteran *Brawler*-class crews would filter down into these ships due to their remarkably similar flight mechanics, more like a scaled down version of the *Brawler*. These raid teams, over a period of several months, utilised the *Strider*-class as an effective assault ship, though there were issues in the design, especially in the beam charging system, which used a large amount of ship power to operate and at a CQC range; the less than ideal combat style for the sharpshooter *Brawler*-class veterans. This, also coupled with the fact that the power systems are hard wired into charging the beams first regardless of required usage, meant that charging or topping up a jump drive during combat right after a beam pulse meant the ship's reactor would cut out.

Trident engineers in PlazWorks saw the need for a custom *Strider*-class built for the ex-*Brawler* pilots to effectively manage their respective systems. The *Strider Heavy* or the *Strider-X2*, is a direct response to this. A lot of work went into repairing the somewhat flawed wiring of the ships internals, while it also received a complete revamp from top to bottom, including the Type-19 Fusion reactor which was refurbished and augmented.

The *Strider* had seen many refits to the existing design, referring to 3 major aspects that both the Veteran pilots and crews and rookie crews noticed. Firstly the Type-19 core was efficient for its size but had poor power injection capabilities, the *X2* refit offers a large injection upgrade allowing for more power output in the same Type-19 category. Its thruster systems were retuned to offer better top speed and well as its fantastic 2.5 thrust mass ratio allows it to better strafe combat targets while having a larger thruster proportion dedicated to turning RCS systems.

The gunnery systems had been ripped out and rebuilt from scratch too. The clear difference in the extended front section in a sort of hammerhead shape, has allowed for a comparatively huge plasma bank assembly, with miniaturized recoil compression tech from the *Independent*-class. This allows for ludicrous fire rate and systems damage, able to gut ships of a similar size in minutes. It also sports 2 retrofitted assault plasma accelerator turrets, on the sides of its *V-Plate* cooling system, which are a slower but effective fire rate for increased effective damage. The *X2* refit has a set of 4 fusion missiles that launched vertically from under the extended weapon section; these are 4 times as effective as its predecessor, with a reduced lock on time, at the cost of reload speed. They are also modified with a EM field generator, which is excellent at distorting magnetic containment field of shields on opposing ships, which makes them a fantastic first strike weapon.

A more noticed problem with the *Strider* is the lack of crew facilities, the intended short term use of the ship for hours or day long missions meant that the design team behind it did not bother too much about comforts. Most of the ship's exposed systems were present in the interior of the ship, and a large proportion of the ships internal space was dedicated to a cargo hold that never really saw much use in an assault role. The interior was rebuilt from the ground up, providing everything required for a longer term mission objective, up to 2 years if required (highly unlikely) featuring the premium military service interiors, similar to other Trident military ships of the time, and refits of older vessels. The *X2* refit has a full retrofitted crew room for 4, a bathroom, medical bay, gunnery access, core control with unlimited access to core tinkering and new water reclamation system. The new interiors were highly appreciated by veteran pilots, as they are spacious and comfortable for the new 4 manned crews. The new crew room alone was a vast improvement over the old *Brawler* cabin, which had a crew space of ten in ⅔ the space.

As well as the interior revamps, the shielding systems had been altered; the *Strider*-class' original shield charging system relied on a spherical charging coil unit on the lower hull which was adequate but added little in the ways of adaptability, so a frontal pylon charging unit was added to help with frontal damage resilience.

The *Strider-X2* refit was a resounding success and a final tribute for the rather gritty service for veteran *Brawler* pilots during the wars, the majority of veteran pilots and raid teams would adopt the new vessel into service even though its layout is rather rudimentary in design compared to the sleeker and more advanced basic *Strider*.