Neo RAF ships
Republic Aerospace Fleets The space forces of Tasnica are called the Republic Aerospace Fleets, or the RAF. With the defeat of Carrion and their recent armaments expansion program, the RAF is the third largest space fleet in the Web. Its ships are equipped with weaponry and defensive fields previously only available to the Grand Army. This includes the Manaprism cannon, a powerful weapon that splits into many smaller beas on impact to hit again, powerful long-range Beleth torpedos, and rapid-fire short range Blaze cannon. In recent years, there has been bias towards large capital ships in the RAF. Standard RAF doctrine is to form a wall formation of capital ships, form a defensive fighter perimeter around them, and then bludgeon the enemy into oblivion with long-range weapons. Although this thinking is still the dominant one, increased funding has allowed Admiral Supreme Hector Midge to start to diversify his forces. Because the Tasnicans are suffering a manpower shortage, the RAF makes use of robotic fighting machines. However, they are not used as extensively as they are in the RMC. The elite of the RAF are the Special Combat Fleet, or ‘Specials’. They are the first slated to receive Imperium-class vessels when those ships roll off the line in a few months.
Katana-Class Heavy Fighter A central spherical core has three swept wing arrangements to provide plenty of space for weapons and lateral thrusters on the Katana. It is Katanas that form the outer perimeter to protect capital ships. The Katana has good maneuverability, lots of weapons, and is pretty durable, but is slow and has a blind spot in the rear that can be exploited by more maneuvrable fighters. With eight blaze cannons, four 50 mm needle cannon, twenty-four dogfighting hardpoints and three anti-capital ship hardpoints, the Katana is one of the most heavily armed fighters in the Web. The Katana has sometimes been used as a strike bomber, but most RAF commanders prefer to leave the job of smashing capital ships to capital ships. Most commanders that manage to close with an RAF fleet find themselves torn apart at close range by these fighters.
Quhab-Class Interceptor A classic idea almost as old as space combat is to produce a fighter with vastly stripped down weapons and armament to achieve high mobility. Ironically, the Quhab was only recently introduced when it was deemed prudent for a fast interceptor to back up the slower Katanas. The Quhab is a deceptively simple design: a big gravitic engine, a cockpit, and missile batteries. The Quhab is a missile boat:: it has four SRAN-style Matra missile pods each capable firing ffiteen missiles each with four reloads (these redisigned Matras are designated Matra 140s). This gives the Quhab an overall compliment of 240 missiles (four volleys of sixty), but it no cannon-type weapons. The Quhab will have to return often to reload.The massive engine of the Quhab gives acceleration so great the pilot must be suspended in shock-absorbing gel and needs VR goggles and an oxygen tube to fly and breath.
Naummeran-Class Escort Carrier <./b> Tasnican carriers are medium-sized vessels. The Naummeran carrier’s main purposes are to haul fighters around and to provide the second line of perimeter defense. Each Naummeran carries about fifty fighters. The Quhab is just entering service, so usually about forty fighters are Quhabs. Some Naummerans have been fitted to deal with space versions of the Fusilier, but these are generally rare as the RAF and RMC make little use of mecha forces. The Naummeran has large bays with massive doors and multiple levels, optimized for fast launch and recovery. As the second line of the perimeter, Naummerans are fortresses of point defense. A Naummerans has numerous blaze turrets, but this is only the begiinning. The Sunshrike missile system launches swarms of heat-seeking missiles. Other missiles create a a high-explosive suppression screen. The Sliverbolt missile launches into a dozen smaller fighter-seeking warheads at a specified distance. Naummerans are the most common vessels escorting convoys.
<b> Daedelus-Class Drone Carrier The Daedalus is another mid-sized carrier, except it carriers almost twice as many drones as the Naummeran carriers fighters. About half these drones are hunter-killers; essentially, autonomous torpedos. The other half are drone-fightr called Hellions. Hellions are little more than an engine and two blaze guns. The drone of the Daedalus supplement a long-range bombardment by targeting the weapons systems of enemy ships. Most of the drones are cheap and don’t need pilots; they are endlessly expendable.
Sparrow-Class Recon Drone Its a basketball with some engines and sensors. Inspired by Hector’s daring maneuver on the Iceni , the Sparrow is designed to relay targeting data to Tasnican capital ships. Sparrows are dirt cheap; even their power system are G-cells available at any supermarket. Every Tasnican capital ship has about a hundred of them. In battle, thousands of them will litter the battlefield, relaying targeting data and ‘spotting’ for Tasnican ships.
Valkyrie-class bombardment Drone The Valkyrie drops from orbit to a certain altitude, then kicks in a scramjet and blankets its flight path with rockets. The Valkyrie usually burns itself up after disgorging all of its missiles. Used for planetary bombardments, especially to carve out a landing zone for Marines. Any capital ship can drop Valkyries, although the Daedelus has systems to optimize their effectivenes.
Olivawk-Class Heavy Cruiser A simple but strong design. The Olivawk is stereotypical of Tasnican capital ships used for decades: slow, lots of guns, lots of shields. Besides its fearsome-looking appearance, the Olivawk doesn’t really add anything new to the formula. These ships are usually near the center of a formation.
Ajax-class Battleship When most people say, “RAF”, the ship that enters their mind is the Ajax-class battleship. This massive and angular ship produces a feeling of horror in all who oppose it. Considered bulky, inefficent, and showy once, new technology has transformed the Ajax into a fearsome opponent. The Ajax bristles with manaprism cannon and torpedos. Two massive Manaprism guns, nicknamed “Ajax’s Balls” or just “Lobos” are mounted on either side of the main hull. One shot from these is enough to cripple most capital ships and destroy whole flottillas of smaller destroyer-types. External torpedo bays give space for the bulky Grand Train warheads to be fitted on even more massive missiles. Thick hull-plating boasts superconducting and reflective qualities, and the skin of the Ajax is filled with tiny reactive drones (about baseball sized) to intercept oncoming missiles. Its GA-designed defensive field is one of the strongest in the Web. Ajaxes, however, are still ponderously slow, and their anti-fighter defenses are only mediocre. Ajaxes usually are the center of the Tasnican fleet, where they can perform the central task of pummelling the enemy into oblivion from outside their range.
Project Iceni Rycar Mountbatten began the Iceni Project to ensure that the flagship of the Tasnican fleet would have unique and powerful capabilities. The Iceni series have largely earned their reputation as ‘trick ships’ rather than simple brutes. The current Iceni is the seventh model, and is the flagship of Admiral Supreme Hector Midge. It has a powerful defensive field, pioneered hunter-killers, can decode enemy transmisisons, stealsa enemy shields, do lots of neat gravitic tricks, and Rainere only knows what else. From Mountbatten’s fight against the Kamikaze to Midge’s daring maneuver against the Federal Space Forces, the ships Iceni have a reputation for doing the nigh-on impossible.
Imperium-Class The Imperium-Class is the next-generation Tasnican capital ship. It is being developed in secret in isolated Kuat facilities. Even high ranking officials of the Tasnican government don’t know very much about it. Kuat claims it will replace the Olivawk and Ajax classes, and will be the most advanced ship ever deployed. Most people realize that Kuat often makes exagerrated claims about its products. Since most Tasnican ships were refit with GA technology, most people believe that the Imperium-class is just a ship designed from the ground up to GA spec. Others believe that the Tasnicans could have retooled the Velasco-class Cruiser to meet those needs, and therefore the Imperium-class must be something entirely new. Only a limited production run is planned, and the Specials will be the only people to receive these mysterious ships. It remains to be seen what they can really do.
