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(HDY) Umikaze Drone Corvette

CVR-DR Umikaze

Features:
-Heavy forward armor facing
-Rapid firing quadruple rocket pods (Salvo Fire Script by Whiplash141)
-Docking space for four drones
-Unique vertical design
-Decoy blocks redirect hostile turret fire
-Six defense turrets for point defense
-Dual gatling turrets fend off hostile fighters
-Great forward acceleration
-Excellent rotation control thanks to a large ammount of gyroscopes

Description:
Following the assault on Betelgeuse A, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Orion, and the First Battle for Ironheart Station, the HDY Carrier force was in severe disarray. The preferred doctrine of long-range bombing runs proved to be ineffective against the newly mass-produced Terran Gearing-class Destroyers. This lead to severe losses of Carriers for Hades Driveyards, such as the ill-fated Hiryu, which was damaged beyond repair in her first battle, and her sistership was destroyed at the hands of the Terran Destroyers. Even the much nimbler Kaga Strike Carriers were under serious threat of being flanked, and every deployment of a Carrier Strike Group became a gamble with limited assets and crew lives at stake.

Surprisingly, the assault on Betelgeuse A changed much of this. Although the infrastructure of both Hades Driveyards and Ares Combat Industries had been severely damaged during the attack and the largest ever ship to be constructed by HDY, the venerable Shinano, was destroyed before work on her was finished, this incident proved to paradoxically be of advantage for both companies.

Following the attack, the public outcry and willingness to spend money on the war effort skyrocketed, and the government offered both of their major weapons manufacturers a carte blanche. Essentially, this meant that both companies were no longer bound to budgetary restraints and were granted virtually unlimited founding, under the condition that they would come up with a way to combat the much heavier, much more numerous Terran fleet effectively.

While ACI used their newfound financial means to construct large shipyard facilities to compete with the Terran fleet in numbers, HDY opted to spend their money on research and development as well as recruitment of an undisclosed number of elite scientists and theorycrafters from all across Betelgeuse. This crack team would work on the fields of applied science, engineering and strategycrafting to design a brand-new naval doctrine and the hulls to support such a tactic. Their name: The Think Tank.

Not much is known outside of its existence. It is unknown how many members the Think Tank has, nor what its tasks are in greater detail. All that is knwon is that these brilliant minds are currently working on some of the most revolutionary ship designs ever to garce the skies, and the first of these to see public unveiling was the Umikaze Drone Corvette.

This small ship was originally not intended for mass production, but rather as a technology testbed for future designs undisclosed as of yet. However, the ship showed great potetial in testing and it was decided to commission around thirty Umikazes into active service.

One of the defining features of the class is her vertical spaceframe design. Although this had been known to exist before, it was usually not considered a valid layout for a warship, or any spacegoing vessel for that matter. However, HDY's Think Tank seems to have found a use for the design. The front of the ship is made up of a large, slanted sheet of surprisingly thick armor for the Umikaze's size, while the rest of the ship features only light protection to reduce mass. Along with a capable gyroscope array, the vessel can use the forward armor and multiple decoys to absorb enemy fire while dishing out lethal fire in return using its set of four rapid-firing rocket pods. This principle became known as the Legionnaire Doctrine.

Though Umikaze has little turret weaponry designed for anti-projectile and anti-fighter defense, she has an extra ace up her sleeve: Her drone compliment.

The first dedicated drone combat ship to roll off HDY assembly lines, Umikaze can field up to four drones, which usually are comprised of Slicer attack drones, but can vary to include repair or mining drones depending on the mission profile. This grants Umikaze a surprising ammount of versatility and allows her to serve the fleet in a multitide of different roles with distinction.

One severe drawback of the class is her lack of a jumpdrive. Considering the vessel's origins as a technology demonstrator, a jumpdrive was deemed unnecessary, and the ship does not contain enough volume or power supply to operate one. This means that Umikazes need to be docked to an allied jump-capable ship to enter combat if deployed offensively. Although this limits the small ship significantly in terms of mission profiles, the ship still has proven to be a surprisingly capable adversary and has served the beginning of her career with distinction. So far, the young vessel is exceeding many expectations.

Important notice: Although my craft feature a full conveyor setup, they might prove impractical for survival use! The conveyoring is done for balance reasons to prevent my craft from becoming overpowered in comparison to others.