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Description
The Rapanui-class destroyer is the Australio-Pacifica Coalition’s newest fast-attack destroyer. Using cutting-edge technology and innovative applications of conventional technology, it was designed from the ground-up to be the first seventh-generation warship produced outside of the Ahrugan Tribal Confederation. It mounts a variety of experimental weapon and defense systems that have been fielded to counter more advanced threats such as the Naradi and a possible resurgence of the genocidal Capellans.
The vessel is based on a combination of Maori aesthetics, Aussie engineering, and Indonesian efficiency, resulting in a ship that represents the major cultural elements of the APC. Two heavy APPC spinal mounts mounted above three heavy AP lancer spinals give the Rapanui devastating forward firepower. Four heavy APPC cross-spinals, two port and two starboard, nine heavy APPC turrets, eighteen heavy AP lancer turrets, four heavy enhanced-yield plasma projection cannons, two disruptor batteries (one fore, one aft), and eight light pulsed gravitic field emitters round out the energy weapons of the Rapanui.
Missiles- powerful, but still prone to the ECM of advanced nations and races- have been kept to a minimum. Four conventional Phalanx missile batteries with a total payload of 120 missiles carry standard LRMs. In place of conventional missiles the Rapanui carries a new weapon design called a Polarity Inverter Cannon, colloquially known as a pulsar cannon. The Rapanui carries two of these mounted as spinal mounts, flanking the center-line alignment of the conventional cannons.
The pulsar cannon uses a pulsed beam of a highly-classified energy form that is based on the quantum inversion fields used in antimatter reactor fuel tanks to convert normal hydrogen into its antimatter equivalent, the less-than-imaginatively named anti-hydrogen. This beam has a similar effect, though at a phenomenally-accelerated rate, taking milliseconds to convert the target material into its antimatter equivalent rather than minutes as with the conventional inversion field. The result is a weapon that turns the matter of the target into a weapon to be used against itself.
The greater the density and mass of the target area- such as hyper-dense atomically-bonded armour- the greater the amount of destructive antimatter is created. This newly-created antimatter instantly interacts with an equal amount of neighboring matter, annihilating both in a cataclysmic explosion at a yield equivalent to 1.22 megatons per ounce. Thus, a single cubic meter of atomically-bonded carbon-turine armour plate- weighing in at 3,800 lbs- converted into its antimatter equivalent would annihilate the neighboring armour equal to a cubic meter, resulting in an explosive yield just shy of four gigatons. This potent weapon allows for explosive yields per pulse almost as powerful as a standard SSM, but without ammunition dependency, and is a zero-time-of-flight (near light-speed) that ignores ECM and AMS batteries.
Weapons are not the only experimental system aboard the Rapanui, defensive technologies have likewise been fielded. The most obvious of these is the aligned-crystalline ablative fracture plate armour sheath that covers large swaths of the vessel. Multiple layers of this plating are layered over a thick hide of conventional atomically-bonded metallic hydrogen armour plating with carbon interweave and tenser field supports, particularly on the forward hull, engine nacelles, and part of the ventral aileron.
This fracture plating is similar in principle to the pre-Fall reactive armour panels used on late 20th and early 21st century tanks and APCs prior to the widespread fielding of railguns by the mid-21st century- an expendable layer of armour designed to mitigate incoming fire. The aligned crystalline structure distributes all energy- charged particles, plasma, lasers, and even kinetic energy- along the outermost five centimeter thick layer of the plating, and when it reaches saturation the outermost layer dissipates the energy outwardly by explosively shattering and flaking away. This plating is even effective against antimatter, shattering off several layers in the first nanosecond of the matter-antimatter annihilation process, causing the bulk of the energetic release to happen meters above the hull, reducing the impact of the explosion.
Shielding technology is also a newer form, utilizing a quadruple-layer of deflector shielding in the outermost layer with overlapping flicker rates. This outer layer completely negates the effectiveness of shield-splitter missiles. The next layer is a new form of ablative shielding that absorbs incoming fire, converting half of it into zero point energy, which is then in turn channeled into the third layer of shielding. This layer is also a new form of shielding, a skin-shield that exists less than a meter above the hull. Energy transferred in from the second layer of shielding feeds into this shielding layer, hardening the energy field into a temporary hard-shell, allowing weapons fire out, but blocking all incoming energy and physical attacks until the energy is drained.
Seventeen Rapanui destroyers have been fielded on the fringe of APC space along the hot-zones, integrated into conventional patrol fleets in order to put them into positions where they can be field-tested in combat. Of these seventeen, three of them- the Edward Benton, Whai Repo, and the Huripari- have been involved in combat, the Edward Benton and Huripari against the Garoudan Garouja, and the Whai Repo against the Naradi. All three performed offensively on par with much larger vessels, doing as much damage as a conventional battlecruiser. Only the Huripari was struck, however, and the new shielding systems stopped the incoming fire cold. None of these engagements have allowed the fracture plating to be tested under combat conditions.

Copyright 2009-2011 Dark Nova Games
This artwork and any image based off of it is the exclusive property of Dark Nova Games. All rights reserved. Any other use of these artwork images, without the expressed written consent of Dark Nova Games, is strictly prohibited. This image is copyright protected by United States and International Law.

Description
The Rapanui-class destroyer is the Australio-Pacifica Coalition’s newest fast-attack destroyer. Using cutting-edge technology and innovative applications of conventional technology, it was designed from the ground-up to be the first seventh-generation warship produced outside of the Ahrugan Tribal Confederation. It mounts a variety of experimental weapon and defense systems that have been fielded to counter more advanced threats such as the Naradi and a possible resurgence of the genocidal Capellans.
The vessel is based on a combination of Maori aesthetics, Aussie engineering, and Indonesian efficiency, resulting in a ship that represents the major cultural elements of the APC. Two heavy APPC spinal mounts mounted above three heavy AP lancer spinals give the Rapanui devastating forward firepower. Four heavy APPC cross-spinals, two port and two starboard, nine heavy APPC turrets, eighteen heavy AP lancer turrets, four heavy enhanced-yield plasma projection cannons, two disruptor batteries (one fore, one aft), and eight light pulsed gravitic field emitters round out the energy weapons of the Rapanui.
Missiles- powerful, but still prone to the ECM of advanced nations and races- have been kept to a minimum. Four conventional Phalanx missile batteries with a total payload of 120 missiles carry standard LRMs. In place of conventional missiles the Rapanui carries a new weapon design called a Polarity Inverter Cannon, colloquially known as a pulsar cannon. The Rapanui carries two of these mounted as spinal mounts, flanking the center-line alignment of the conventional cannons.
The pulsar cannon uses a pulsed beam of a highly-classified energy form that is based on the quantum inversion fields used in antimatter reactor fuel tanks to convert normal hydrogen into its antimatter equivalent, the less-than-imaginatively named anti-hydrogen. This beam has a similar effect, though at a phenomenally-accelerated rate, taking milliseconds to convert the target material into its antimatter equivalent rather than minutes as with the conventional inversion field. The result is a weapon that turns the matter of the target into a weapon to be used against itself.
The greater the density and mass of the target area- such as hyper-dense atomically-bonded armour- the greater the amount of destructive antimatter is created. This newly-created antimatter instantly interacts with an equal amount of neighboring matter, annihilating both in a cataclysmic explosion at a yield equivalent to 1.22 megatons per ounce. Thus, a single cubic meter of atomically-bonded carbon-turine armour plate- weighing in at 3,800 lbs- converted into its antimatter equivalent would annihilate the neighboring armour equal to a cubic meter, resulting in an explosive yield just shy of four gigatons. This potent weapon allows for explosive yields per pulse almost as powerful as a standard SSM, but without ammunition dependency, and is a zero-time-of-flight (near light-speed) that ignores ECM and AMS batteries.
Weapons are not the only experimental system aboard the Rapanui, defensive technologies have likewise been fielded. The most obvious of these is the aligned-crystalline ablative fracture plate armour sheath that covers large swaths of the vessel. Multiple layers of this plating are layered over a thick hide of conventional atomically-bonded metallic hydrogen armour plating with carbon interweave and tenser field supports, particularly on the forward hull, engine nacelles, and part of the ventral aileron.
This fracture plating is similar in principle to the pre-Fall reactive armour panels used on late 20th and early 21st century tanks and APCs prior to the widespread fielding of railguns by the mid-21st century- an expendable layer of armour designed to mitigate incoming fire. The aligned crystalline structure distributes all energy- charged particles, plasma, lasers, and even kinetic energy- along the outermost five centimeter thick layer of the plating, and when it reaches saturation the outermost layer dissipates the energy outwardly by explosively shattering and flaking away. This plating is even effective against antimatter, shattering off several layers in the first nanosecond of the matter-antimatter annihilation process, causing the bulk of the energetic release to happen meters above the hull, reducing the impact of the explosion.
Shielding technology is also a newer form, utilizing a quadruple-layer of deflector shielding in the outermost layer with overlapping flicker rates. This outer layer completely negates the effectiveness of shield-splitter missiles. The next layer is a new form of ablative shielding that absorbs incoming fire, converting half of it into zero point energy, which is then in turn channeled into the third layer of shielding. This layer is also a new form of shielding, a skin-shield that exists less than a meter above the hull. Energy transferred in from the second layer of shielding feeds into this shielding layer, hardening the energy field into a temporary hard-shell, allowing weapons fire out, but blocking all incoming energy and physical attacks until the energy is drained.
Seventeen Rapanui destroyers have been fielded on the fringe of APC space along the hot-zones, integrated into conventional patrol fleets in order to put them into positions where they can be field-tested in combat. Of these seventeen, three of them- the Edward Benton, Whai Repo, and the Huripari- have been involved in combat, the Edward Benton and Huripari against the Garoudan Garouja, and the Whai Repo against the Naradi. All three performed offensively on par with much larger vessels, doing as much damage as a conventional battlecruiser. Only the Huripari was struck, however, and the new shielding systems stopped the incoming fire cold. None of these engagements have allowed the fracture plating to be tested under combat conditions.

Copyright 2009-2011 Dark Nova Games
This artwork and any image based off of it is the exclusive property of Dark Nova Games. All rights reserved. Any other use of these artwork images, without the expressed written consent of Dark Nova Games, is strictly prohibited. This image is copyright protected by United States and International Law.