T.N.F. Destroyer Class 'Agitator' Mk.III

”With her starboard airlock sealed to the station, the bow of the TNF Nemesis pointed at the rising sun. A destroyer of the Agitator class, she had a sleek hull between two compact thruster nacelles, and above and below were mounted automated turrets with attached autocannons and rocket launchers. Each was over four meters in height, but they were dwarfed by the two heavy rocket launcher turrets on each side of the hull. Bjorn also knew that her keel was lined with powerful atmospheric thrusters and rocket engines, enabling her to enter, fight in, and escape a planet’s atmosphere.” -From The Fleet Beyond Neptune

After jump drive technology made it possible for various organizations to unlawfully colonize distant planets, the Fleet slowly started to adjust its doctrines to include fighting on a planets surface. The Fleet’s second generation destroyer, the Executioner, is not able to follow the Tyrant Strike Carriers and Trespasser Frigates in atmospheric entry, and can only render support in space. That is why the Agitator was constructed; to conduct combat missions and destroy or seriously damage ships of its own size both in atmosphere and in space.

It is equipped with fixed decoys, several layers of armor plating, and combat repair welders in order to survive prolonged combat. It has a gravity railgun which can fire four dumbfire projectiles per minute, and the missile bay can fire four optically guided missiles every 90 seconds. These weapons can cause serious damage to stationary or slow-moving targets, for example ground bases, orbital stations, and slow or docked warships.

These weapons are both kinetic, which means that they mainly have a penetrative effect rather than destruction power. It also means that there are no warheads that can be hit by an enemy bullet on their way to a target. To keep the amount of components down, the missiles are fairly light, meaning that they should be mainly used to accurately take out smaller and exposed weapons and modules. Their guidance system also means that it can be fired at moving targets. The railgun projectile should be fired against large, static and armoured areas of the target.

Atmospheric entry: ▪ When entering a planet’s gravity pull from space, level the Agitator with the planet’s gravity, turn on all thrusters, shut down its inertia dampeners, and let it free fall to the surface. ▪ When below 3000 m, engage the inertia dampeners and the ship will eventually slow down, and stop completely at around 300 m, depending on the planet’s size and gravity.

Atmospheric launch: ▪ Turn on hydrogen thrusters, level the ship with the planet’s gravity, and engage full upward thrust. ▪ The Agitator will enter a transition phase in the planet’s upper atmosphere, where it will temporarily lose speed. Keep the thrusters at full burn, and the ship will begin to accelerate again when nearing 30 m/s, depending on the planet’s size and gravity. ▪ Keep the hydrogen thrusters on until the ion thrusters can lift the ship by themselves. The ship may then manoeuvre in orbit, or continue into space. The ship will have used approx. 45% of its stored hydrogen supply during this launch.

General characteristics: ▪ Crew: 5 bridge officers, 1 CO and 1 XO ▪ Length: 175 m ▪ Width: 62,5 m ▪ Height: 47,5 m ▪ Mass (standard equipped): 5,6 kilotons ▪ Block count: 7170 blocks ▪ Block count (with smallcraft): 8776 blocks

Armaments: ▪ 1x Railgun ▪ 2x Automated Rocket Launcher Turrets ▪ 4x Guided Missile Launch Tubes ▪ 4x Assault Cannon Turrets ▪ 4x Gatling Turrets ▪ 2x Artillery Turrets

Features: ▪ Has two side-mounted Heavy Rocket Launcher Turrets, which automaticly target and engage enemy ships and stations using Whip's Turret AI Slaving Script by Whiplash141. ▪ Carries components to fire a total of 12 missiles (6 volleys). ▪ Has a hangar, supporting smallcraft of various sizes. ▪ Carries a Ghost Mk.III (C) Dropship. ▪ It also carries a Ceres Mk.IV Mining Drone and a Welan Mk.II Utility Drone for resource gathering and repairs in space. ▪ Has an Intruder Mk.I Recon Drone. ▪ Robust hovering thrusters for operations in atmosphere. ▪ Capable of atmospheric entry and launch by using its hydrogen thrusters. ▪ Two Jump Drives with a maximum range of 800 km. ▪ Several bridge stations with displays showing the ship’s status. ▪ An internal projector to aid in repairing the ship. ▪ Has combat repair welders attached to its turrets, increasing the damage they can take. ▪ Solar panels and various production equipment for prolonged independent operations. ▪ Airlocks compatible with all T.N.F. ships and stations. ▪ Contains fuel, ammunition and components – tested in survival.

Known issues: -None at the moment.

Acknowledgements: ▪ The radar panel uses Whip’s Turret Based Radar script by Whiplash141.