Scylla Type: Frigate Producer: Blue Nose Clipperships In class: 0 In service: design work completed by 2766 Mass: 600,000 Sail Integrity: 4 Thrust: 4/6 Fuel: 4000 tons Structural Integrity: 90 Armor: 1080 tons of lamellor ferro carbide (230+9 fwd, 130+9 aft, 180+9 rest) Docking Collars: 2 Fighters: 18 Small Craft: 6 Crew: 240 Lifeboats: 20 Escape Pods: 10 Grav Decks: 1 120 meter Cargo: 34,003 Bay 1: Small Craft (6) 3 doors Bay 2: Cargo (34,003) 2 doors Bay 3: Fighters (18) 8 doors Other equipment Lithium Fusion Battery, HPG Weapons: Heatsinks: 3510(7020) (enough) Forward 10 Extended Range Large Lasers 10 Extended Range PPCs Fore Left/Fore Right 8 Heavy Naval PPCs 5 Extended Range Large Lasers 5 Extended Range PPCs Left Broadside/Right Broadside 10 Extended Range Large Lasers 10 Extended Range PPCs Aft Left/Aft Right 4 Heavy Naval PPCs 5 Extended Range Large Lasers 5 Extended Range PPCs Aft 10 Extended Range Large Lasers 10 Extended Range PPCs Ammo: none Overview: The Scylla was to be the second class of Blue Nose Clipperships' so called Genesis Program, and a follow on to the Genesis class destroyer, incorporating numerous refinements developed since the construction of the Genesis. Unfortunately, limited interest during the Genesis' first few years led Blue Nose to shelve plans for the Scylla for some time, and design work was not formally begun until 2764. Though the design staff was wholly dedicated to the Scylla, and indeed put in enormous amounts of overtime to complete its design, final design specs for the radical new warship were not completed until late November of 2766. A little more than a month later Amaris siezed control of the Terran Hegemony and most of the design staff went on the run, trying to smuggle the plans for the new frigate out of the Hegemony. Though they were eventually caught by Amaris' forces, they did manage to hide the plans before being captured, denying them to Amaris and at the same time almost condemning them to obscurity. The Scylla was a lost design from then on, only rediscovered when Comstar uncovered the original plans during the reformation in 3052. Capabilities: Much like its older sister, the Genesis, the Scylla would have been much smaller than a typical ship of its type, and likewise had a radically different weapons load. Her primary armament was to consist of two dozen heavy naval particle cannons in six quad turrets. These guns would have been distributed in the fore and aft quarters, which provided the widest possible firing arc. Despite this placement, there would still be a very small gap in the weapons batteries where the main guns could not be brought to bear, however given the Scyllas exceptional maneuverability, this was not considered a serious defect. The Scylla's secondary battery is dramatically different from most star league era warships. One hundred and twenty long range energy weapons, half of them PPCs and the other half large lasers, form an interlocking phalanx of fire designed to shred fighters foolish enough to close in. Unlike the main battery, there are no blind spots in the AA defenses, and even at its weakest points, any attacking fighters will still have to contend with a battery of twenty anti-fighter guns. The designers hoped that this system of a network of anti-fighter guns would supplant the venerable naval missile as the favored means of AA weapon in all future warships (and it is worth noting that most modern warships do in fact generally use massed batteries of light guns rather than naval missiles for fighter defense). Designers included plans for over a thousand tons of Lamellor Ferro Carbide armor, which would give the ship exceptional staying power compared to other frigates such as the Congress. The ship's massive propulsion system would likewise give it a good acceleration profile sufficient to keep pace with destroyers and easily outpace the Congress. The most radical design element of the Scylla, however, was the method in which it was to be constructed. Designers planned for a ship that would, in the words of the chief designer "be built like a kit" using modular hull sections. In theory this would greatly reduce construction time and improve repair and modification time dramatically. It also acted as something of an multiplier for a nation's industrial power. Rather than being forced to handle most of the heavy construction associated with building a ship at the yard where the ship was being built, the Star League could, in theory, have as much as fifty percent of the Scylla, eight of its nine main hull sections, built at factories across the Hegemony and shipped to Mars for final assembly, reducing the amount of work that had to be done by the factories in the Terran system to just construction of the central core module containing the jump drive. It was expected that this could concievably allow Blue Nose Clipperships, already the largest ship manufacturing company to EVER exist, to produce the Scylla and ships like it at an average rate of as many as fifty per year, twice the already frightful rate they achieved with the more traditionally built Sovettski Soyuz. Whether the SLDF would place an order for that many Scyllas is debatable, but there was certainly some interest in the ship as a potential replacement for the aging Congress. Deployment and Variants: Though the Scylla never saw the light of day, the SLDF had plans for Blue Nose Clipperships' new frigate. The first few Scyllas were to be assigned as flagships for groups of Genesis class destroyers, which complemented their larger sister nicely. As stated above, the Scylla was also looked upon as a potential replacement for the Congress, however the SLDF was concerned about the Scylla's higer pricetag compared to the Congress, and reportedly Blue Nose Clipperships was debating producing a variant of the Scylla lacking the lithium fusion battery to reduce its cost. There were also rumors floating around of plans for a variant of the Scylla with a smaller propulsion system and a larger arsenal built around naval autocannons rather than naval PPCs. The theory was that Blue Nose would offer this ship as an alternative to their own Sovettski Soyuz, hyping it as a much better ship for a "minor" increase in price. These rumors are of questionable validity, however, especially since at the time Blue Nose was still selling Soyuz's by the bucketfull, and it is not likely they would have upset a winning product by producing a replacement so quickly. Until recently, it was believed that Comstar was the only power in the inner sphere that still possessed the design schematics for the Scylla, however recently ROM uncovered information that seems to indicate the Free Worlds League has embarked on a program to construct an unknown number of Scyllas, no doubt with help from the Word of Blake. Each hull section is being constructed at a different part of the Free Worlds League, and as yet ROM has been unable to determine where the primary assembly plant is located or how many Scyllas the League intends to construct. How they were able to acquire the plans for the Scylla is unknown, but it is likely that Blakist agents within comstar were responsible.