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Through his faceplate, I see Thorskald wink at me just before he hits the detonator.

-Sven Lawson, 'The Reavers'
 

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I like the idea of your Drayman. So the front is fix and several container types can dock on it. A Diligent must be the same... just a tankcontainer on the underside :)
 
Deathsnake said:
I like the idea of your Drayman. So the front is fix and several container types can dock on it. A Diligent must be the same... just a tankcontainer on the underside :)
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A Diligent is *literally* the same - it's a Drayman with a tank instead of the container :).
 
I see the setup as being sort of like how a single tug will pull/push an entire row of barges along a river or harbor.
 
Ralfraldralsal.jpg
Thorskald's charges have neatly sliced off the top of the dome. No bodies accompany the spinning pie plate as it is blown upwards, tumbling off into the void. The bridge crew are well trained. Even with the sudden decompression, they have all managed to grab handholds, save their lungs, and shift to the task at hand: survival.

Kilrathi have a useful vacuum exposure of approximately twelve seconds: an eternity. To help things along, jagged holes begin soundlessly materializing in vital organs, limbs, and skulls. The last one begins to realize what is happening. His fangs are barred in a silent challenge, but the rest of his head goes missing.

Reavers jump down onto the deck, shoving aside corpses. We plug in to the ship's vital systems. Isolating command systems, sealing compartments, venting atmosphere, dropping radiation shields. Moving from the secondary breaching location, the assault team goes to work.

Presently, Olga's voice crackles into my ears.

'Reaver Six. Reactor room secure. Ship secure.'

It seems we might actually get away with it.

-Sven Lawson, 'The Reavers'
Ralari.jpg
 
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Klavs81 said:
View attachment 6995 Thorskald's charges have neatly sliced off the top of the dome. No bodies accompany the spinning pie plate as it is blown upwards, tumbling off into the void. The bridge crew are well trained. Even with the sudden decompression, they have all managed to grab handholds, save their lungs, and shift to the task at hand: survival.

Kilrathi have a useful vacuum exposure of approximately twelve seconds: an eternity. To help things along, jagged holes begin soundlessly materializing in vital organs, limbs, and skulls. The last one begins to realize what is happening. His fangs are barred in a silent challenge, but the rest of his head goes missing.

Reavers jump down onto the deck, shoving aside corpses. We plug in to the ship's vital systems. Isolating command systems, sealing compartments, venting atmosphere, dropping radiation shields. Moving from the secondary breaching location, the assault team goes to work.

Presently, Olga's voice crackles into my ears.

'Reaver Six. Reactor room secure. Ship secure.'

It seems we might actually get away with it.

-Sven Lawson, 'The Reavers'View attachment 6994
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Now I see where this is going. That's definitely one way that Kurasawa 2 was going to happen.
 
Hornetrigging.jpg
Rigging the Hornet for action. Lights, camera, thrusters!

For my version (emphasis mine, this is non-cannon, of course) of the WC universe, the idea is that all ships have a limited form of non inertial drive, but it's limited to 2-5 gees based on reactor power vs ship mass. (Lighter ships built around big reactors can achieve greater maneuverability at the cost of payload armor and reaction mass) For higher accelerations (Afterburner) you have to burn propellant through your fighter's hot nuclear reactor. This gives the ships the ability for planetary VTOL as seen in WC2-4, and justifies (barely) the existence of light fighters vs just firing a bunch of AI driven missile busses. Ships with inertial-less drive can usually always recover, provided the mothership isn't too far away or moving too fast by comparison.

For larger ships it gets exponentially harder to accelerate using large masses using the (let's call it the repulsor drive) over 1.5 gees. So you typically use the drive for maneuvering and working gravity for the crew, but still have to burn reaction mass by passing it through your reactor to move the ship anywhere useful. Thus you get slower maneuvering capital ships, quick fighters with fuel limitations. RCS thrusters are used during recovery and hard manuvers because it looks cool. Otherwise you're flying on the inertial drive. (Or Repulsorlifts, if you check the WC3 checklist. They're somewhere after Batman's Atomic Batteries and Turbines.)

This is my full-of-holes working theory, anyway. Spacefighters are more the realm of science fantasy, but I like to have a LITTLE justification here and there in the space-going-aircraft-carrier-analogy-thing. :)
 
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I think it's more a matter of power-to-mass ratio and fuel fraction. A capital ship could hypothetically fly like a scaled-up fighter, but it would have to have powerplants, engines, inertial dampers, and a fuel fraction comparable in relative size to a fighter (leaving no room for reasonable crew quarters, or spare ammunition), and would have range and endurance comparable to a fighter as well (due to eating through its fuel as quickly as a fighter). How useful would a "capital ship" be, that had to refuel every single day, and drank as much fuel as a dozen regular ships its mass?

Likewise, a slow, heavy bomber such as the Broadsword or Devastator is slow because of its inferior power-to-mass ratio compared to fighters such as the Rapier or Vampire. The heavy bomber has to carry the torpedoes, turrets, and extra armor and shields, which cuts into the mass allowance for engines.
 
Once again, Howard Day led the way with the rear hangar concept. I just enclosed it a bit and did my own take on this old girl. I built the ship around a pair of Bengal engines, and yes, I'm aware it's missing a pair! Not the greatest fan of this design, but I think it will serve well in general fleet and battle shots.
Exeter.jpg
 
I'm really digging the swept prow on the Exeter. Gives it a sense of speed - a good quality in a destroyer design.
 
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