A New Vessel Comes Into Port

[oblivionsbane 714]

A New Vessel Comes Into Port

 

 

Late one night, a large warship would come to place itself among the boats within the Cloud Temple docks. Its standard would be blue, black, and grey, colors unfamiliar. The ship’s design itself would lend itself to those of old Alrasian designs, but upon closer inspection, it would appear that this ship is quite modernized and different from its evident forebears. Its rigging system would appear sophisticated and complex, but its sail structure would be simple and easy to follow. It’s hull is intricately built, yet it would be reinforced several times over with strong timber in a rigid skeletal structure. It would possess bulwarks of wood on its sides to help intercept projectiles meant for the open ballista bays and redundancies in case of damage to the ship’s structure. Indeed, it would appear to be the predecessor of the great Alrasian dreadnoughts with its ramming spike, improved with the addition of a boarding passage. These innovations, however, pale in comparison to its true strengths. Within its bowels it carried two relatively new pieces of naval technology: active flood countermeasures and the ability to transport and fire highly destructive explosive ammunition. These characteristics carried a clear distinction between this ship and its forefathers, the great Alrasian dreadnoughts, and its direct predecessor, the experimental Spirit-Class Cruiser: this vessel was designed with the sole intention of naval superiority.

 

 

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The Spectre-class Assault Cruiser

 

-History-

 

The Spectre-class Assault Cruiser began its development as a potential ship design for the Orenian navy in Vailor. At the time, it possessed the working name, “Dauntless,” and was meant to be more of a large frigate than the mighty cruiser it became. However, the designer’s interest in this Orenian navy waned, and he lost the passion for continuing the ship’s design. It wasn’t until the whispers of the devourer came that this engineer went back to the drawing boards. He lengthened the hull to allow for multiple full-size ballistas and even more smaller ballistas. He departed from the aesthetic designs that the ship’s experimental predecessor, the Kindred Spirit, had enjoyed, and focused more on ease of manufacture, toughness, and firepower, all the important qualities of a serious warship. He improved on almost every portion of the Spirit’s design, including making its simple flood countermeasures more efficient and sabotage-proof. He changed the sail structure to have more redundancies and create greater speed. However, the most important aspect of this vessel’s design was its explosive ammunition and the delivery system that it used. The explosive belts that were to be attached to the bolts were designed to be kept in iron chests in the deck below and loaded into elevators to be brought up to where they could be used. This innovation allows for quite safe storage, as even if there were to be a breach, the depressed loading area would flood and render the explosive belts inert while repairs are made to the hull. This design, dubbed the Spectre-class Assault Cruiser, was originally planned to make duels with the mighty devourer of Vailor had it become a nuisance.

 

-Design Features-

 

• Its rigid hull structure with heavy reinforcements allow it to take minimal damage from weapons other than rune cannons, heavy trebuchets, and explosive weapons, even then taking a lessened amount. Additionally, it is much more difficult to critically damage this vessel.

 

• It has a boarding passage connected to its front ram, allowing marines to board another vessel following a successful ramming.

 

• It has wooden bulwarks that are designed to help catch and deflect projectiles shot at its ballista bay openings.

 

• It possesses flood control measures in its cargo hold with caulking between decks so that water can’t come through the floors. This allows it a much greater degree of protection when hitting things or taking damage from below.

 

• It’s explosive belt storage systems decrease the risk of accidental ignition significantly.

 

• It has a bow mounted ballista that can be fired in every direction except for directly in front or behind.

[JEEGK 1367]

Moved to The Great Library. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.

 

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