a proof of concept for both LAC and carrier operations as well the internal pod rails and deployment that helped paved the way for the first Medusa-class SD(P) in 1914 PD.
Trojan-class armed merchant cruiser
Mass: 7,352,000 tons
Dimensions: 1199 × 200 × 185 m
Acceleration: 190 G (1.863 kps²)
80% Accel: 152 G (1.491 kps²)
Broadside: 10M, 8G, 10CM, 10PD
Fore: 6CM, 6PD
Aft: 6MP, 8PD
Missile Pods: 180
LAC Bays: 12
Number Built: 15
Service Life: 1909–1920 PD
The Trojan-class armed merchant cruiser was a testbed platform in many ways, built on the hull of the Caravan-class freighter used by Logistics Command for rear area supply.
The armament of the Trojan class was unique at the time of construction. While the term “Armed Merchant Cruiser” belies the normal grade of weaponry found on a Q-ship, most of the examples seen in other navies are hybrid designs, able to carry limited cargo in addition to their disguised weaponry. BuShips decided to eliminate all cargo storage from the Trojan and use all of the volume freed up for a number of weapon systems, some more experimental than others.
Conventional broadside and chase armament consisted of the sort of missile broadside one might find on a heavy cruiser, except that the weapons in question, both missile tubes and energy mounts, were all superdreadnought-grade installations. Bottlenecks in capital ship construction, coupled with a surplus of weapon system components provided the systems in question, though the nature of the building queues resulted in different units of the class carrying a different balance of missiles and beams. The most common configuration was the ten missile launchers and eight grasers carried by the lead ship, but other ships in the class had mixed beam armaments, all lasers, and in some cases fewer missile tubes and more beams.
Unique to the Trojans at that time was an internal storage and deployment system for missile pods, making the Trojan the first ever pod-laying warship in service in any Navy. While outwardly similar to the more advanced system onboard the Medusa class, the prototype system had numerous inefficiencies and some outright dangerous design faults that were fixed in later generations.
The second unique “weapon system” was the organic ability to launch a squadron of Series 282 advanced light attack craft from internal bays. While its ability to service and rearm the LACs was somewhat limited, the Trojan was also the galaxy’s first hyper-capable LAC-carrying warship.
After the early successes of the first four units, the class went on to serve well in the Silesian Confederacy for over a decade. The follow-on units became a common sight throughout Silesian space, and even though pirate groups learned to recognize them, they still provided a powerful deterrent effect, especially once the merchant cartels began to introduce more new-build unmodified Caravan-class freighters into the area.
While the Janacek Admiralty had written up plans to extend the class with an additional dozen units, those plans were scrapped with the onset of the Second Havenite War. With the need for manpower growing at an enormous pace, the Trojans were listed for disposal shortly thereafter, freeing up their overly large crews for the new construction starting to come off the building slips.
The Royal Manticoran Marine Corps
The Royal Manticoran Marine Corps was formally established in 1516 PD, but can trace its roots back to the Navy’s Fleet Marine Forces, first created in 1438 PD shortly after the initial skirmish with the Free Brotherhood. Part of the process of transforming the Navy from a primarily civil defense organization into a true military organization, the Fleet Marine Forces grew from the core of cross-trained naval personnel who formed the original boarding teams and shipboard security.
Until the mid-seventeenth century, the Corps remained the only Kingdomwide armed service dedicated to ground or boarding combat. In 1665 PD, shortly after the Ranier War, a growing movement in Parliament called for a unified ground service encompassing both the newly created Army and Marines as a cost-efficiency measure. It made little sense, proponents argued, to maintain two separate forces, each with its own infrastructure needs and costs, when they performed so many overlapping roles and missions. While the new service was formally called the Royal Army due to the broad spectrum of official responsibilities the new service needed to meet, the majority of the senior officers came originally from the Corps. After a few generations, though, the drive to create “uniformity” in the name of efficiency became increasingly pronounced, eventually leading to much more emphasis being placed on planetary combat and less on the training in the shipboard duties like damage control