Ship Profile
Overview: The second most seen and used ship in the Union the Razor is the UNCs principle escort and is designed for Anti attack craft and missile duties. Assigned in squadrons of 3 and often a squadron to a cruiser the Razor provides fantastic defence against light ships, Its Mass driver arrays are almost exclusively used in defensive flak mode and its small mass drivers and laser projectors are used against attack craft. In a duel with another escort the Razor lacks as its weapons cannot effectively damage other ships. The Razor also makes up the majority of the Unions scout and patrol fleets often supported by Firestorm Fighters and Eagle Eye bombers. Even though the Razor is considered inferior to other escorts it plays a valuable role for the Union whose space tactics revolve around rapid cruiser warfare.
Armament: The Razor class is armed with excellent weapons against attack craft though it can also engage other ships to a degree. It is armed with 4 Dosal and 2 aft Mass Drivers which would be mounted on a Dart, these are always used on defensive flak fire though can also be used to attack other ships. It is also armed with 34 Light Mass Drivers and 34 Light Laser Projectors which are used to destroy fighters with terrifying ease; their effectiveness against star ships however is laughable.
Mass Drivers: Union Mass Drivers use magnetically accelerated slugs to destroy the enemy, these slugs can either be used in one of 3 ways. The first in ultra AP round which will drive straight through most armours due to the velocity of the rounds, making ships vent into space due to thousands of rounds hitting them rapidly. The second is a less penetrative but still very high AP high EX round which explodes after penetration ripping the ship apart from the inside as used on the Draken ships. The third and final is a flak screen shell which detonates at a certain range and explodes into thousands of other bomblets which will also explode into shrapnel, this decimates fighters and ordnance at close range and some Mass Drivers on the ship are always set to this setting, when all are on this the ship is impervious to fighters thanks to the couples SENTINEL CIWS. These weapons also mount Void Cooling and Nano assemblers and so can keep up a rate of fire of around 450 rounds a minute.
Light Laser Projectors: Less feared than their capital brothers on the Dart the light laser projector is a fantastic AA weapon able to instantly hit a target fighter and burn it apart, also able to engage other ships this weapon is feeble though lots of it will cause damage to the enemy ship. Able to project a steady beam for around 2 seconds these hard light lasers are slowly being replaced with Meson lasers in research which are even more powerful. These lasers can also be configured to fire ‘Bolts’ of light which explode violently on impact.
Defences: The Razor mounts a Mark 3 Absorption shield which runs on its own separate system so it cannot damage others through power feedback, this shield also cycles constantly through several dimensions at once in an attempt to get some protection from phasic weapons. The ship itself is constructed from a 1ft thick Quantum lattice plate with polytine linings. As well as this a thin layer of Ghostanium is available for stealth missions. Quantum lattice plate is made up from atomically bonded Quantum metal which has a density of around 3x that of any other known substance, this metal is liquid in form but when poured into molten metal of another kind and left to set it becomes virtually unbreakable. Unlike other metals Quantum has no melting point and so will not melt under fire from laser or plasma weapons; it is also highly resistant to kinetic impact damage. The hull is also equipped with Nano assembler repair systems to slowly repair the ship in combat.
The Razor class also mounts a SENTINEL CIWS mounted all over the ship. This system is made up from numerous point defences consisting of small laser projectors, cascade cannons and miniature missile launchers. Together these destroy incoming missiles and fighters, on their own SENTINEL are incredibly effective and alongside the Razors other AA capabilities makes this ship the bane of ALL attack craft in known space.
Power plant: The Razor uses a TPC Zero Point Module AX-5 units to provide overall power, this have been reverse engineered from Nakai technology and make use of their artificial pocket dimension technology. The ZPM works by making an artificial dimension and harvesting the natural vacuum energy produced in such, this is totally harmless as if the ZPM is destroyed the dimension collapses harmlessly. The energy produced is also way above other Union energy technology apart from Singularity generators which are still being understood. The Razor also mounts a secondary YX2 Fusion Generator as redundant in case of emergencies where the ZPM module is taken offline, this generator while nowhere near as powerful as the ZPM module can still power the ship although at a reduced capability.
Electronic capabilities: The Razor is run by 2 Mark 5 AI systems one for targeting and combat and one for overall control. These AI systems are semi sentient and can hack enemy ships. When a AI gets hacked it immediately either cuts the lines so the enemy cannot access or deletes itself and the intruder with it. The Razor is also linked to the Union computer and so can access data when needed; it also is linked to the rest of the fleet in a tight information grid.
Stealth wise the Razor constantly runs a very basic sensor stealth field, this field while not effecting light effects spectrum scans and conventional sensors. While not totally making the ship invisible this obscures the ships form and position leading to an increased ratio of missed shots and wrong moves. A full Displacement unit can be installed for true stealth missions if needed.
Crew: The Razor carries 450 personnel to run the ship.
Attack craft: The Razor does not mount any hangars and relies on other ships to provide attack craft cover.
Speed and engines: The Razor is very fast able to reach 0.8 light speed on sub light engines and also mounts a Union slipstream drive for FTL capability. Current research and development is underway so the Razor can be fitted with Nakai jump technology.