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AtomicStudios101 — Sian Dereta-class Border Fleet battlefortress
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Published: 2023-11-07 20:45:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 2276; Favourites: 25; Downloads: 2
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Description
Original link -- hereThe Sian Dereta-class Border Fleet battlefortress (シアン・デレタ級国境艦隊戦闘要塞, Shian dereta-kyū kokkyō kantai sentō yōsai), core warship and frequently-assigned flagship for battlegroups of the Tirolian Border Fleet.
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Production Information:
- Manufacturer: Fantoma Orbital Shipyards and Maldara Lunar Yards
- Line: Mass Production Commander-use Space Battlefortress
- Model: Sian Dereta-class Border Fleet Battlefortress
- Developed Into:
Sian Macross-class Border Fleet battlefortress
Technical Specifications:
- Length: 1,403 meters (main hull), 1,721 meters (overall)
- Height: 330 meters (main hull), 461 meters (overall)
- Width: 324 meters (main hull), 518 meters (overall)
- Mass: 22,300,000 metric tons, operational (typical)
- Fuel Mass: 2,050,000 metric tons, maximum (typical)
- Engine Units:
12 fusion-plasma reaction thruster clusters with steerable nozzles (maneuvering thrusters)
4 Varrelev-SD65 fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with Protoculture energizer (reaction-mass thrusters)
15 Varrelev-SD65 fusion-plasma reaction thrusters with Protoculture energizer (secondary reaction thrusters)
- Space Fold System: Nolfantom-proldarlev 835 Space Fold Drive
- Power Plant: Zorrelev-1005-Trafla Protoculture-fueled Reflex furnace cluster
- Shielding: Deflector Shielding
- Hull: Space Titanium Alloy
- Anti-Gravity System: 30 Rastraz anti-gravity pods
- Armaments:
2 Makral Ever-198 Reflex cannons
8 Makral Deim-653 particle cannons
48 Makral Mossil-918 combination cannons
16 Deuawhaug Rasar-89 torpedo launchers
48 Touwhaug Rasar-481 anti-warship/anti-mecha missile launchers
- Air Group and Mecha Compliment:
(Tirolian Forces)
300 Sestralian bioroids
Red Gister'dohl "Warlord" bioroids
T'sienramp "Observer" bioroid scouts
Green T'siendral "Sentinel" bioroids
Blue Nous'dohl "Warrior" bioroids
Worker bioroids
- 15 Roil Destrin-class assault corvettes
(Zentraedi and Meltrandi Forces)
200 Nousjadeul-Ger air mobile battlesuits
200 Regult-series battlepods
Standard Regult battlepods
Gluuhaug Regult battlepods
Serauhaug Regult battlepods
Del Regult battlepods
150 Gnerl-series aerospace fighter/attack planes
Model 1 Gnerl aerospace fighter/attack planes
Model 2 Gnerl aerospace fighter/attack planes
Model 3 Gnerl aerospace fighter/attack planes
100 Queadluun-Rau air/ground battlesuits
45 Glaug-series battlepods
4 Liewneuatzs-class personal shuttles
12 asteroid mining craft
- Ship's Compliment: 45 Tiresian elite officers (Robotech Master War Triumvirates), 45 bridge crew (Tirolian and/or Triumviroid officers & enlisted), 52 secondary bridge crew (Zentraedi and/or Meltrandi officers & enlisted), 261 Tirolian and/or Triumviroid officers, 483 Zentraedi and/or Meltrandi officers, 2,124 Tirolian and/or Triumviroid enlisted crew, 6,428 Zentraedi and/or Meltrandi enlisted crew, 2,697 bioroid/aerospacecraft pilots, 3,981 bioroid/aerospacecraft maintenance personnel, 2,899 battlepod/battlesuit pilots, 4,512 battlepod/battlesuit maintenance personnel, 208,701 Tirolian and/Triumviroid soldiers (rotational & in stasis), 217,772 Zentraedi and/or Meltrandi soldiers (rotational & in stasis)
- Radar System: Cross-Dimensional Radar
- Communication Systems: Advanced Fold Communication System
Usage Information:
- Roles:
Battlefortress
Capital Ship
Assault Carrier
- First Deployed: 1680 A.D.
- Last Deployed: c. 2000-2021 A.D.
- Affiliation:
Tirolian Robotech Mercantile Empire
Tirolian Imperial Forces
Tirolian Border Fleet
Tirolian Special Forces
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Design Notes:
The Sian Dereta-class was designed specifically for the demands of the Border Fleets. As such, the design differed considerably form the Zentraedi refits that had, to that time, made up the bulk of the Border Fleet strength.
A primary difference with ships such as the Queadol Magdomilla-class was, for instance, the provision for a mostly Tirolian crew, with the Zentraedi giving troop and heavy labor duties labor only. Of course, due to their bulk, the Tirolian living spaces were still considerably smaller than those for the Zentraedi and Meltrandi. This had still considerable effects on the design. Furthermore, the whole emphasis of the vessels was shifted from general duty police and space control to anti-ship and planetary bombardment taskings, in addition to greatly improved sensor performance. Moreover, great attention was given to prolonged deployments without, or with only minimal, support from faraway home bases.
As with all Zentraedi and Meltrandi Reflex cannon ships, the front section of the Sian Dereta-class composed the main armament. The class was unique in carrying a double Reflex cannon, rather than a single. This was not done to improve firepower, as the powerplant could not recharge the two cannons simultaneously, but because these ships were to operate farther away from support forces and structures. The second cannon then was carried to reduce wear and tear and for redundancy. However, the advantages of this 'spare cannon' proved to be so small in relation to material effort of building and operating the weapon that in the successor class, the Sian Macross-class, the double cannon was deleted and a single cannon carried once again. The lower levels of the cannon booms carried the Zentraedi mecha hangars and some personnel quarters, with launch bays opening on the open bay in the middle of the booms.
The center section of the ship was the main structural member. The dorsal carried the Tirolian command citadel, a cylindrical structure lying on the hull, tipped aft by one of the secondary engines. The upper levels of the main section proper were dedicated to the Tirolian crew quarters and support systems, followed by two large and deep decks for part of the Zentraedi and Meltrandi complement. On these levels was also the fold system hold. The lower levels were hangar decks for the smaller ships, almost exclusively Tirolian Assault Corvettes, though some Zentraedi shuttles and drone mining craft were also carried. The hangar decks were served by a large closeable ventral hatch in the center of the main section.
Flanking the main section were the two engine sections, which continued with the engines proper aft of the main section. The forward parts of the engine sections housed in their upper levels the various large installations such as the fabrication equipment and fuel purifiers. The center levels housed the Reflex furnaces and heavy engineering equipment, while the forward lower levels housed the Tirolian troops (with launch chutes for the Bioroid mecha). Aft of these primary engineering spaces were the reaction engines proper. Spread-out throughout the ship were the reaction mass tanks for the ship and attached craft and mecha.
The Sian Dereta-class' engine sections were typical of older Border Fleet designs, and were flanked by outrider bodies with the more sensitive sensor equipment. Apart from isolating these sensors from the ship proper, these sections also covered the main engineering spaces from flank attacks. The sensors mounted were rudimentary fold sensors and very sensitive EM sensor arrays. These were supported by additional sensor booms at the tip of the cannon booms.
The Sian Dereta-class carried a heavy armament. Apart from the double Reflex cannons already mentioned, the ships mounted eight heavy particle cannons, more than the larger Queadol Magdomilla-class command cruiser. These cannons were located in the tip of the cannon booms (2), in elevating mounts on top of the cannon booms (2), and in blisters above and below the main reaction engines (4). This meant that usually five or six heavy cannons could be brought to bear on an enemy ship, given the customary Tirolian tactic of pointing the ship at the enemy to deny him a large target area. Consequently, the ventral engine cannons were relatively useless, and in the successor design, the Sian Macross-class, these cannons were moved to the upper forward deck (Terran derivatives of the Sian Macross-class such as the Macross-class and the Macbeth-class have this reversed, as those ships serve as the main capital ships and not as a design for use with numerical and technological superiority). The medium and missile defense batteries were as heavy as those on Zentraedi and Meltrandi ships half again the Sian Dereta-class' size. All this weaponry had its price, of course. The torpedo armament was minimal, certainly compared to what Zentraedi and Meltrandi ships carried, but the heavy cannon armament compensated for this. The troop capability was reduced even more, but this too was acceptable as the Border Fleet was not intended to assault or police planets.
History:
In 1653, the Tirolian Robotech Mercantile Empire had expanded to such a size that supply lines to the outlying territories, thinly populated with troops but always under a greater threat than the inner regions, had become cumbersome to maintain. In addition, although the communication equipment allowed real-time contact with Tirol, the Zentraedi and Triumviroid headquarters there lacked in 'on site' awareness. What was needed was a flexible, semi-autonomous combat force capable of dealing with threats on the Empire's rim on its own or, at least, of sending a warning and holding the line until reinforcements arrived.
Built to fulfill this need were Border Fleets. Unlike the regular Tirolian, Zentraedi, and Meltrandi fleets, these fleets were made up of mixed Tirolian/Zentraedi crews, operating custom-designed ships with a large amount of autonomy. The Triumviroids commanded the ships and Task Forces, clone forces provided a fast reaction force and Zentraedi/Meltrandi troops provided the heavy troop component. Because these forces had to operate in distant areas without the certainty of fast reinforcements the troops were equipped with a qualitatively superior weapons mix compared to the core imperial forces. For instance, the Zentraedi and Meltrandi Borderers, as they were often called, were equipped with 7 times the normal allotment of Glaug pods, and were also among the first units to receive Queadluun-Rau battlesuits.
This qualitative edge also extended to the Border Fleet ship designs. The Border Fleet's largest ship was designed as the Sian Dereta-class space battleship, but after the designers recognized that its mission profile and outfit were different from all ship classes that had gone before the designation was changed to the new "battlefortress" category, incidentally effectively deleting the battleship designation. As the first class to be so named, the Sian Dereta-class set the standard for these ships, a standard which these days becomes more and more the standard for all capital ships. This includes Reflex cannons as the main weapons, supported by an anti-ship cannon armament heavier than a Queadol Magdomilla-class command cruiser. The medium cannon and missile batteries were as strong as the Thuverl Salan-class', a ship almost half again as long as the Sian Dereta-class.
The first Border Fleet ships were converted Zentraedi and Meltrandi vessels, and the first Sian Dereta-class prototype entered service around 1680. The Sian Dereta-class served with the Border Fleet as the local flagship, usually leading a task force of Seron Thoun-class battlecruisers and a number of Tou Redir-class scout vessels (and later, Tou Salaam-class exploration cruisers), all accompanied by one or two Quiltra Queleual-class vessels in the supply configuration. These task forces each patrolled their area of the Empire's border sectors, scouting for threats and generally giving off an imposing presence for the Robotech Empire. With an average of one Sian Dereta-class and five Seron Thoun-class ships in each task force, the battlegroups were highly potent, numbering an average of seven Reflex cannons between them. In addition to the larger than usual amount of anti-ship weapons this gave the task forces the firepower equivalent of several Zentraedi/Meltrandi battlegroups of equal size. However, while the troops stationed on the ships were fast and hard-hitting, they were not as numerous as those on regular Zentraedi ships, and thus the Border Fleets were limited frontier patrol duties and fast strike missions only. Conquest and large scale policing were not part of the Border Fleet tasks and were relegated to the main Zentraedi and Meltrandi forces. This ship and troop make up of the Border Fleets, combined with the close Tirolian supervision through the War Triumvirates and the Triumviroid commanders, made such a task force ideal for special forces duties, and the Tirolian fleet command appropriated several Sian Dereta-class and Seron Thoun-class groups after construction and employed them as such, though never in numbers exceeding 97 such task forces.
The Sian Dereta-class continued in series production for near two centuries, with an estimated 80,000 vessels of the class built. In the final years of the 19th century, the Border Fleets were at strength, and attrition could be met for the foreseeable future by ships then under refit and repair, and by replacing losses with Seron Thoun-class craft on a temporary basis. Due to the independent nature of the Sian Dereta-class, it was not until about a century later that the class was becoming a thinly spread design whose replacement parts were no longer in production and whose stocks were dwindling. Rather than rebuilding the production lines, a new and updated design, the Sian Macross-class super space battlefortress, was prepared and construction begun on prototypes, with the goal of replacing the Sian Dereta on a one-to-one basis over the next five to seven decades. However, Protoculture depletion and the disaster regarding chief scientist Zor Derelda's personal Sian Macross-class battlefortress, the Macross, made this plan impossible. The Sian Dereta-class, like all Tirolian Imperial ships, gradually lost power in the first two decades of the 21th century, and were destroyed outright in battles against the overwhelming Invid Hive Fleets or stranded in place at their far-flung postings. In the late 2010s-early 2020s, several abandoned wrecks of Sian Dereta-class vessels would be found scattered across the former territories of the Robotech Empire by Terran scout groups as part of the Robotech Expeditionary Forces' "Pioneer Initiative," which saw the people of Earth searching for the homeworlds of the Robotech Masters and the Invid in a diplomacy mission in an attempt to prevent their planet from getting caught in the crossfire of another Robotech War. These Sian Dereta-class battlefortresses would be disassembled and rebuilt into the new Macbeth-class super dimensional fortress next-generation (SDFN), mass produced versions of the original SDF-1 Macross that were meant to serve as heavily-armed escorts for REF colony fleets and elite battlegroups.
As an historical note, it should be mentioned that the REF used the outer hull of one of these ships, captured (as a total loss) in 2013, as the outer hull of their flagship for the Pioneer Initiative, the SDF-3 Pioneer, which was built to the exterior dimensions of the Sian Dereta-class. The Pioneer thus almost perfectly mimicked a Sian Dereta-class, as part of a ploy to close with Tirol before being fired upon. As another point of interest, it must be stated that the Border Fleet designs lend themselves admirably to adaptation as capital ships for Terra and her allies. This was due to the heavy armament on a relatively small hull, coupled with the large troop capability created by replacing full-size Zentraedi and Meltrandi with Micronian-sized troops.
Robotech © Harmony Gold and Tatsunoko Productions
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