GDHC204 Coeus Heavy Cruiser (Explorer)

Alliance Shipyards (Explorer)

A rare visitor to the fringes of the local galactic region, the Coeus Class Heavy Cruiser hails from far-off Earth-I. The Explorer variant we see traded off some weapon emplacements into order to accommodate sufficient cargo space to be able to make such a long trip.

These are deep range vessels that serve Earth-I’s alliance. As the variant’s name suggests, these vessels are principally for exploration, but they also serve as diplomatic couriers, since there are no relays which would otherwise cross the gap for regular modern FTL communications, and slow-than-light communications would take centuries.

The extreme distance means that other than very cursory acknowledgements, the Earth-I mirror sector has little influence to the local region.

The Coeus is typical of Earth-I’s technological base. Most prominent are the two rotating superstructures which produce artificial gravity (which rotate in opposite directions). The Coeus has no shielding at all, complete reliant on its armour for protection. This is considerable, with an Armour Integrity Rating of 4000TXq, but it puts the vessel at a severe disadvantage in a long fight against shielded foes.

It has otherwise performance that is consistent with military vessels of about a century back. Older drives give it 9.7mc acceleration and manoeuvrability rated and 108 MEUs, which is only a little below the modern average. Sensors and communications too are largely similar to military systems of that period.

Despite its modifications, the Coeus Explorer is still a warship at heart, not a transport – as it must be to undertake the long journey without a massive convoy escort. While these vessels are rare enough to have not been involved in many combats, we have still been able to glean a mostly-accurate picture of their capabilities. Multiple point-defence turrets armed with a mix of particle and plasma weapons provide a combined output of about 1870TXq, over an engagement sphere of 0.85Ym³. Two 350-TXq laser cannons are spinally-mounted, with an accuracy envelope of 330 000km. Secondary laser and plasma batteries have a combined output of about 300TXq and an accuracy envelope of about 285 000km. About half of these original batteries were removed for the additional stowage space, so we can infer a standard Coeus would have approximately twice that output. Finally, four missile racks are mounted behind the forward superstructure module. Each contains twenty 190TXq-yield missiles, with an accuracy envelope of approximately 500 000km.

Despite its technological inferiority, the Coeus is thus by no means a push-over, and comparable to a modern heavy cruiser of one of the minor powers (such as the Tarrainian Federation), with its lack of shields being its single largest drawback. But unlike the similarly unshielded forces of the Eternal Reich or the Orc Fearcrushy, the Coeus is not in a position to dubiously utilise the lower resource cost to field a larger, more disposable fleet. It does not even have the advanced armour composites that those powers utilise. What it does have is more than sufficient to deal with light raiders, however, and the very fact it is not a transport and more vulnerable than a shielded vessel means that it is not a very tempting target for larger pirate forces (or, for example, the Herosine Empire, though to some extent that is a redundant qualification).

Given the distances between Earth-I and the local region, this is likely the only vessel of Earth-I we are likely to see for many decades until hyperdrive speed drastically improves.