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This article, Artemis-class Patrol Ship, was written by Athena32. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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The Artemis-class Patrol Ship was a small warship class in service with The Royal Allegiance Navy.
Roles[]
The Artemis-class Patrol Ship was designed to fulfil the requirement for a fast, small but powerful craft to intercept and destroy incoming fighters. The Artemis-class was fast, well-armed for anti-starfighter duties, manoeuvrable, and quite well protected from missiles and projectiles. It also had the ability to act as a long range scout for larger forces. They were often employed in tandem with larger ships such, most famously the Triton-class Heavy Destroyer, balancing out each other's shortcomings. Against large numbers of starfighters they are very effective, but there was, as always, a danger that these ships would fall victim to overwhelming numbers of starfighters, such as those employed by The Swarm. Moderate numbers of heavy fighters or bombers could defeat this ship, albeit at a heavy cost.
Often these warships were used as lone patrol ships, keeping order and calm in safe sectors. Not really intended for large ship-to-ship combat, standard protocol for encountering large forces is to flee, firing weapons all the while and relaying the enemy's position to more capable forces.
The Artemis-class was at its peak effectiveness operating in a small 'pack' of three or four warships. This meant that there was a defensive net or grid, and each ship's systems could coordinate which individual guns take which target.
A profile view of the Artemis-class Patrol Ship.
Despite the ship's weaknesses to large volumes of fire, the Artemis-class was never intended as a 'throw-away' ship. Instead of carrying the usual combinations of anti-starfighter weapons, the overwhelming majority of the Artemis' point defence abilities come from its Particle Cannon turrets. More expensive but much more effective than Flak guns, Machine guns or fast-tracking missile turrets, point defence Particle Cannons are a very recent addition to Allegiance defensive weaponry, only being present on ships in very small numbers. This stemmed from the difficulty of mounting such a large and powerful weapons system onto a turret which had the ability to track fast-moving targets. The importance of preventing starfighters getting to vulnerable warships was recognised and so the Artemis-class was fitted with some of the most advanced technology available. They possess over half the number of point defense Particle Cannons as the Ares-class Battleship, despite being over thirteen times smaller.
Modified variants of this ship class were stripped of all their armament, outfitted with stealth abilities and given advanced sensor equipment, allowing them to function as recon craft. The use of such vessels was only occasional and usually due to the absence of dedicated stealth classes such as the Hesperus-class Stealth Frigate.
| Naval ship classes of The Royal Allegiance during the Swarm War | ||
| Light Craft Artemis-class Patrol Ship | Centurion-class Gunship | ||
| Frigates Hesperus-class Stealth Frigate | Aurora-class Light Frigate | Apollo-class Frigate | Regent-class Frigate | Gladiator-class Frigate | Bow-class Heavy Frigate | ||
| Destroyers Triton-class Heavy Destroyer | Guardian-class Escort Destroyer | ||
| Cruisers Athena-class Cruiser | Liberty-class Light Cruiser | Trafalgar-class Heavy Cruiser | Vanguard-class Strike Cruiser | ||
| Carriers Hera-class Carrier | Raven-class Heavy Carrier | ||
| Battleships Ares-class Battleship | Crown-class Dreadnought | ||
| Starfighters AL-56 Flashfighter | AL-61 Valiant Interceptor | AH-17 Raptor | ||
| Support Ships -class Fleet Tender | Celestia-class Assault Ship | -class Hospital Ship | Spectre-class Salvage Vessel | -class Repair Vessel | -class Research Vessel | ||