HOME | DD

Description
Track 1: “Launch Vipers” (McCreary, Bear): youtu.be/eq-IyeyyaUw

”We are the descendants of those who would not be ruled. Show them what that means.”
Widebeam transmission from interceptor Serene Tempest, during the Battle of Pelladion

Named for a swift desert wind of the Cirafei homeworld, the Siaratha is a premier example of Kharissan Assembly fast attack naval doctrine, one maintained by its successor-in-exile - favoring a black-sky* fleet centered around small but technologically advanced corvettes and missile boats; equally suited to hit-and-fade strikes at standoff range as they are to intercepting inbound ordnance before it can pose a threat to the fleet’s less mobile elements. Comprising just over half of the spaceframe’s length of 71 meters is the vessel’s antimatter-catalyzed fusion drive and propulsion core. Using liquid water as reaction mass, this drive grants the Siaratha an extremely favorable thrust-to-mass ratio with the raw acceleration to match, along with a surprising amount of delta-v easily rivaling that of far larger craft. A single fixed ventral radiator supplemented by four liquid metal droplet radiators on the corvette’s flanks keeps this powerful motor at operational temperatures.

* Term analogous to the use of blue-water and brown-water forces in the context of surface navies. Black-sky craft are primarily intended for deep space assignments, while blue-sky denotes littoral and atmospheric work in or near planetary orbits and gravity wells.

As standard, the corvette is armed with a complement of long-range anti-ship missiles housed in modular ordnance pods on its port and starboard flanks, supported by a single keel-mounted free electron laser. Standard gun- or beam-based point defense is eschewed in favor of interceptor missiles - compact guided countermeasures that can be carried in large numbers - as they eliminate the added weight and complexity of turret systems and their dedicated individual magazines. These weapon systems are guided by both advanced active ladar and passive thermal scanning arrays, along with a potent integrated ECM suite and IRCM dazzlers for an added layer of active defense.

A Siaratha’s crew typically consists of three members; pilot, weapon systems officer, and navigator/electronic warfare officer, although a position is reserved for an optional onboard flight engineer depending on mission requirements.

Track 2: “Colonial Anthem” (McCreary, Bear): youtu.be/AAk0hEVGgMY

In the wake of first contact by the Lio Empire and their revelation of the shared threat both civilizations faced, the Cirafei responded by initiating a campaign of unprecedented military buildup and the expedited development of related technology, as well as the formation of the Kharissan Assembly; a multinational coalition comprised of both their homeworld and her four outlying interstellar colonies. The Siaratha was one such product of this campaign, a next-generation interceptor and fast attack craft directly designed using combat recordings and data provided by its builders’ new allies, pertaining to the threats it would soon be called upon to face - namely, the early warning and detection systems, shipboard armaments, and comparable warships of the Krakun Directorate and its vassals. Contracts for the manufacture and final assembly of the craft would be awarded to Vespaera Drive Works and the Kharovii Yards, experienced shipwrights centered in the resource-rich moon systems of Kharissa Solari’s outer worlds.

This would prove invaluable, as following the unconditional rejection of all Krakun demands and their inevitable invasion of the system, the corvette demonstrated itself to be highly competitive against its opposing counterparts - and even larger lineships in coordinated strikes. Due to the sheer scope of the re-armament campaign that spawned it and the number of powers involved, several competing designs of similar capability and intended role would also see production, though the Siaratha is generally held as the most successful of this series.

The type is notable for producing the single highest-scoring crew of any Assembly interceptor to participate in the Kharissan War; that of the Spirit of Saii’runa, helmed by Captain Jyandyr Kioss. Named for a former Cirafei orbital cylinder-city - one of the first to fall to the Directorate’s advance - the Spirit would go on to claim 219 confirmed victories against manned enemy craft across the official duration of the conflict, in no small part due to repeated extensions of her crew’s tour of duty by their own request. Though Kioss and his crew would not survive this campaign, many Cirafei spatialiers in exile would adopt his craft’s livery for their own vessels; that of a jagged teal cross painted on his Siaratha’s dorsal shroud, as a symbol of continued defiance.

Though a lethal adversary to all those who faced it in combat, neither it nor any other Cirafei weapon - or for that matter, the tenacity and courage of their operators - could defend their home for long against the enormous disparity in numerical scale and industrial might their designers faced. Inevitably, the Assembly would fall less than three standard years after entering the war on the side of the Lio Imperial Alliance. In spite of this, neither have any intention of giving up the fight; with nearly all surviving Assembly spatialier crews volunteering in the Imperial Naval Defense Force or the Taidalos Exile Fleet, taking their Siarathas with them. In the case of the former, the corvette’s plans were freely distributed to the Lio for manufacture as the Smallsword and Estoc variants, with differences largely amounting to replacement of some components and modular weapon hardpoints for logistical commonality where possible, along with alterations to their cabins and flight interface systems to better suit their new crews.

i.ibb.co/Hnp4sP6/54-D5…

Description
Track 1: “Launch Vipers” (McCreary, Bear): youtu.be/eq-IyeyyaUw

”We are the descendants of those who would not be ruled. Show them what that means.”
Widebeam transmission from interceptor Serene Tempest, during the Battle of Pelladion

Named for a swift desert wind of the Cirafei homeworld, the Siaratha is a premier example of Kharissan Assembly fast attack naval doctrine, one maintained by its successor-in-exile - favoring a black-sky* fleet centered around small but technologically advanced corvettes and missile boats; equally suited to hit-and-fade strikes at standoff range as they are to intercepting inbound ordnance before it can pose a threat to the fleet’s less mobile elements. Comprising just over half of the spaceframe’s length of 71 meters is the vessel’s antimatter-catalyzed fusion drive and propulsion core. Using liquid water as reaction mass, this drive grants the Siaratha an extremely favorable thrust-to-mass ratio with the raw acceleration to match, along with a surprising amount of delta-v easily rivaling that of far larger craft. A single fixed ventral radiator supplemented by four liquid metal droplet radiators on the corvette’s flanks keeps this powerful motor at operational temperatures.

* Term analogous to the use of blue-water and brown-water forces in the context of surface navies. Black-sky craft are primarily intended for deep space assignments, while blue-sky denotes littoral and atmospheric work in or near planetary orbits and gravity wells.

As standard, the corvette is armed with a complement of long-range anti-ship missiles housed in modular ordnance pods on its port and starboard flanks, supported by a single keel-mounted free electron laser. Standard gun- or beam-based point defense is eschewed in favor of interceptor missiles - compact guided countermeasures that can be carried in large numbers - as they eliminate the added weight and complexity of turret systems and their dedicated individual magazines. These weapon systems are guided by both advanced active ladar and passive thermal scanning arrays, along with a potent integrated ECM suite and IRCM dazzlers for an added layer of active defense.

A Siaratha’s crew typically consists of three members; pilot, weapon systems officer, and navigator/electronic warfare officer, although a position is reserved for an optional onboard flight engineer depending on mission requirements.

Track 2: “Colonial Anthem” (McCreary, Bear): youtu.be/AAk0hEVGgMY

In the wake of first contact by the Lio Empire and their revelation of the shared threat both civilizations faced, the Cirafei responded by initiating a campaign of unprecedented military buildup and the expedited development of related technology, as well as the formation of the Kharissan Assembly; a multinational coalition comprised of both their homeworld and her four outlying interstellar colonies. The Siaratha was one such product of this campaign, a next-generation interceptor and fast attack craft directly designed using combat recordings and data provided by its builders’ new allies, pertaining to the threats it would soon be called upon to face - namely, the early warning and detection systems, shipboard armaments, and comparable warships of the Krakun Directorate and its vassals. Contracts for the manufacture and final assembly of the craft would be awarded to Vespaera Drive Works and the Kharovii Yards, experienced shipwrights centered in the resource-rich moon systems of Kharissa Solari’s outer worlds.

This would prove invaluable, as following the unconditional rejection of all Krakun demands and their inevitable invasion of the system, the corvette demonstrated itself to be highly competitive against its opposing counterparts - and even larger lineships in coordinated strikes. Due to the sheer scope of the re-armament campaign that spawned it and the number of powers involved, several competing designs of similar capability and intended role would also see production, though the Siaratha is generally held as the most successful of this series.

The type is notable for producing the single highest-scoring crew of any Assembly interceptor to participate in the Kharissan War; that of the Spirit of Saii’runa, helmed by Captain Jyandyr Kioss. Named for a former Cirafei orbital cylinder-city - one of the first to fall to the Directorate’s advance - the Spirit would go on to claim 219 confirmed victories against manned enemy craft across the official duration of the conflict, in no small part due to repeated extensions of her crew’s tour of duty by their own request. Though Kioss and his crew would not survive this campaign, many Cirafei spatialiers in exile would adopt his craft’s livery for their own vessels; that of a jagged teal cross painted on his Siaratha’s dorsal shroud, as a symbol of continued defiance.

Though a lethal adversary to all those who faced it in combat, neither it nor any other Cirafei weapon - or for that matter, the tenacity and courage of their operators - could defend their home for long against the enormous disparity in numerical scale and industrial might their designers faced. Inevitably, the Assembly would fall less than three standard years after entering the war on the side of the Lio Imperial Alliance. In spite of this, neither have any intention of giving up the fight; with nearly all surviving Assembly spatialier crews volunteering in the Imperial Naval Defense Force or the Taidalos Exile Fleet, taking their Siarathas with them. In the case of the former, the corvette’s plans were freely distributed to the Lio for manufacture as the Smallsword and Estoc variants, with differences largely amounting to replacement of some components and modular weapon hardpoints for logistical commonality where possible, along with alterations to their cabins and flight interface systems to better suit their new crews.

i.ibb.co/Hnp4sP6/54-D5…