[Aquila Defense Systems] Report: HARVEST MOON

[Thexare]

Kelly, we've finally finished our full teardown, rebuild, and analysis of those ships the Commission sourced for us. Some of the details might be a bit over your head, but if you have any questions I'll help.

Technician Lucia Martinez, Aquila Defense Systems

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Report: HARVEST MOON

In short, the Sichel and Sense are very much a product of their environment. The Landwirtrechtbewegung had limited resources and few capable engineers, leaving them with hand-me-downs from their allies and escorts that fell from the back of a Train. Despite these limitations, they managed some very effective alterations to the well-worn CTE platform, creating a capable, easily-maintained vessel well suited to their own objectives. We should be able to adapt similar techniques, and I've outlined my proposals below.

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Structure

Superficially, the Sichel and Sense are very different from the Eagle and Roc they're based on. The softer lines of the CTE line are gone, covered by armor plating. The interesting part, other than the clear signs of Hessian engineering, is that these plates actually work as somewhat crude ablative armor, which is very uncommon in snubcraft. Ablative plating is heavier than the typical integrated armor structure used on corporate escorts and military patrol craft, but also far easier to repair - just pry off the damaged plates and bolt some new ones on. A very effective choice for an organization with limited engineering facilities and know-how.

The cockpit offers noticeably greater visibility than the CTE vessels they're patterned on as well, allowing for reduced reliance on easily-damaged external cameras for full visibility. Again, this appears to be a case of simplified engineering for practical reasons. Unfortunately, there is a corresponding reduction in the externally-mounted sensors that makes these craft ill-suited to anything but raiding. The systems that do remain are sturdy and reliable, well-suited to the hazardous Walker Nebula.

For Aquila and Octavarian use, none of the structural changes are really necessary. We do have good engineers, a lot of them. However, this simplicity could have its use for some of our less traditional customers. Zoners on the move that can't count on always having the "correct" parts, Junkers that'll just bolt whatever they find on either way, and so on.

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Power and Thrust

Our Sichel came with a typical generator from a Rheinwehr Wraith installed, and it was a clean enough job that I suspect this is common. It's not a bad choice, a lot of the parts used in the Wraith's generator and associated power relay nodes are readily available on the market in Rheinland, due to sharing components with the popular Ragnar-type armored transport. While the junkyard of the Eighty has been cleaned up, I imagine the Junkers still have a stockpile of parts they could sell too. We did additional testing, however, and found some interesting quirks. First, we swapped in an Aquila 33GT Patagium generator, used in our R-9W Raven. The Patagium generator struggled with the extra mass from the Sichel's bulkier, yet less effective armor, resulting in more power draw by the engines and ultimately neither a gain nor a loss from the original in day-to-day performance. However, the Patagium suffered from thermal stress resulting from having to route power in such a different way than when installed in a Raven. The generator from our C/V-10 Enyo was completely unable to power the ship adequately, and further testing was aborted. We then tried several open-market generators, loaned and rented from Octavarian civilians. Of the open-market systems, we found the Type-XV Jackdaw's generator most compatible, with nearly identical performance and minimal thermal stress.

Our Sense came with what appears to be a salvaged and rebuilt Challenger power core, of all things. This was clearly not standard. Bomber generators are engineered for much more stability and reliability than fighter generators, however; you can't be too careful when you're working with weaponized antimatter. As a result, this clearly-modified generator worked with no issues - we have a salvaged core from the Tau War to compare to. Because of this standardized engineering, we saw little need for comparative testing.

Both craft are heavier than their CTE forebears, and their generators are upscaled to match, and then some. Where the Roc is a light escort bomber with a power generator comparable to, and indeed in a bad situation replaceable by, that of a Grizzly armored shuttle, the Sense is a proper strike bomber in the vein of the Crayterian Pytho, or the Broadswords we run. The Sichel is a bit harder to get a feel for without real combat, but our simulations show it to be a somewhat heavy craft ill-suited to dogfights. It's intended to be a raider, hammering transports or striking military targets while retaining enough speed to escape.

Both craft came to us with Rheinland's typical thorium-MOX engines. While most Rheinlandic ships simply use thorium-MOX for the convenience of local fuel, there are three that specifically utilize it for its higher thermal tolerance - the Tigershark interceptor has limited room for thermal dissipation due to its small frame, and the Sichel and Sense burn hotter so their engines can overcome their greater mass. Our current standard Prism engine wasn't quite up to the task at its stock configuration, suffering from a 6% decrease in linear acceleration and an unacceptable 15% increase in maneuvering thruster response time. We were able to make use of a standard MOX engine modified by Endecott Engineering as an adequate substitute, diverting some weapon power to expanded coolant pumps. This results in an unfortunate reduction in sustained combat capacity, but retains what mobility we can get out of ships with this mass.

We can take two concepts from this. Fundamentally, the internal structure of the Sichel and Sense are near-identical to their CTE progenitors. Minimal core structural modification was needed for the expanded generators and engines. The ablative plating used on the Sichel and Sense is much heavier than internal armor, but easier to maintain; there may be a market for this. But that extra power and thrust could be turned toward different ends - without all that armor weighing you down, you just get more acceleration and better turning response. We could try to get out ahead of Renzu's anticipated relaunch of the Ki racer.

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Armament

The Sense was armed with a standard Rheinlandic pirate bomber loadout. We have nothing to learn from any of this; our teardown of the Sturmfaust confirms that every heavy anti-warship cannon uses almost entirely identical technology, and the rest of the weapons are even more standardized.

The Sichel was armed with standard Debilitators, along with four Destroyer-type tachyon cannons which, despite all details of their construction being different, have near-identical output and power draw to Libertonian Garand Mk. IX. As a side project, a team is investigating the differences in the manufacture of the two, and we hope to find some ways to streamline production for our own weapons.

Given what we know of the Garand's practical applications, arming a Sichel with Destroyers would allow for a long sustained volley of fire suited to a strafing run on a transport, and the staying power to provide a fighter screen for bombers striking a light military or corporate installation. Very purpose-driven design. There is little of direct use to us, however; we already have the equipment for those roles.

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Internal

The internal information systems of these two craft were largely identical, save for a few specific needed adjustments. They were based largely on Rheinlandic escort systems, utilizing a monitor on the ship console and additional HUD elements projected onto the pilot helmet visor. The primary alteration to these systems was simplification. Many of the analysis functions for other craft on the field were disabled in favor of a more intuitive predictive model that essentially tells the pilot where to aim and automatically adjusts the guns to match. We were able to find the settings to re-enable verbose displays and unlock the extra controls, so it's likely that this is to compensate for the LWB not having as many formally-trained pilots; they were at their core an insurgent terrorist movement without any known external military support.

If we were likely to sell to corporate escort or military interests, then this wouldn't be useful information. However, given the lack of formal training for many of our customers, we've already begun developing a system incorporating a specialist AI to tune the information offered to what the pilot can handle and adjust the predictive models to match their response speed. Naturally, the public offering will be more limited than what we share with the Fleet.

The other internal components were sufficiently standardized that further analysis isn't needed. Just crack open an Eagle if you want to see them.

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Going Forward

Before utilizing any of what we've learned, we must first settle on a platform for further development. While there is merit to developing a whole new spaceframe, that's beyond the scope of this project.

Crayter's Nyx has many similarities to the Raven's Talon and our own version thereof, being largely a stripped-down Raven built for combat. It may be simple coincidence, but I doubt it. While the Raven is already at the heavy end of open-market strike fighters, the only thing competing with the Avenger on the civilian market is the Gallic Courbe. Given political realities, that won't be a popular choice. Unlike the CTE series, the rear of the Raven's Talon is easily expanded, as seen in the Waran, and the ship could be bulked up with more armor, a heavier power generator, and enough thrust to compensate. Alternately, a clipper based on the Waran frame as a heavy patrol vessel, which would likely be of particular interest to the BPA. In the lighter direction, incorporating Rook elements on a stripped-down Raven frame could allow for the production of something similar to the Jackdaw.

Early-model Falchions were built to be modular, and have served as interceptors, fighters, and with the Broadsword pods, strike bombers. However, this particular modularity is unrelated to the techniques used to convert the Sichel from an escort to a raider, and are best investigated as a seperate project.

As the crudely hacked-together ships of the Hellfire Legion demonstrate, the Sabre is receptive to some limited modification. However, it doesn't handle additional bulk well, and it is similarly resistant to being further stripped down. The Scimitar is too tightly-engineered for significant overhauls of any sort. The Switchblade and Dromedary have some potential, however.

The Surveyor, Scraper, and Arrastra are particularly notable platforms for a project like this. The designs are exceptionally stable and reliable, with reundant power and failsafes for a variety of issues, and adding additional armor causes them minimal difficulty. Additionally, they're easily sourced here until we can produce enough of our own, and easily blend in with local traffic. I would propose a medium escort based on a somewhat up-bulked Surveyor, and a patrol clipper/courier that integrates parts of the Arrastra and Dromedary.