Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

The X-1212 was part of the twelve hundred series of starship designs that was started as part of Earth’s warp project. More specifically the X-1212 was a product of the warp three program. The demands of warp travel required more powerful energy sources than previously employed in ship design. The X-1212 was among the first in a series of new ships designed to utilize the highly experimental warp engine and take advantage of the increased power generation provided by the antimatter reactors required to power the warp drive system.

Before we fully explore what the X-1212 is it would be best to explore what precisely a destroyer is. In the modern space age, destroyers are medium-sized spaceships often employed in a variety of roles including the escort of capital ships such as carriers, battleships, and heavy cruisers. Destroyers themselves however are not classed as capital ships.

Features common to most destroyer types include large torpedo bays and powerful primary engines. Destroyers may include fairly powerful sensors in their design as well, especially if they were intended for an escort role. Escort destroyers also often carry an armament heavy on light weapons, as they are expected to act as heavier screening vessels to protect capital ships.

The primary role of destroyers however has always been attack. A well-designed destroyer is intended to slip into range unleash a payload of torpedoes and slip out. Their large torpedo bays and high speed lend themselves well to this manner of attack and make any destroyer a potent threat to enemy capital ships. Possible hull codes attached to a destroyer include DD and DDE. These codes are indicative of their role.

The X-1212 was designed primarily for offense. She features highly efficient main engines and powerful secondary drives that give her a potent mix of fuel efficiency and power when she needs it. The ship is as a result very agile, yet capable of long-range missions. While her 24 rapid-fire frontal torpedo launchers and eight aft allow her to deploy a significant payload of deadly torpedoes in short order. The ship was designed to fire the new photon torpedoes, but her launchers remain compatible with older missiles such as the mark five fusion warheads.

She is not all torpedo and engine, however, as she possesses a fairly balanced weapon array that includes a few particle cannon banks, and a single particle beam weapon array. Along with an Electro cannon array, and minelayer capability. Her particle cannons are medium mount dual purpose guns intended for use against both other large ships and small auxiliary ships such as fighters. This weapon loadout is heavily favored for engaging other starships, and capital ships. As such the 1212 does suffer somewhat when faced against large numbers of small agile attack ships.

The 1212 class of destroyers is 970 meters long with thirty-eight decks. She is intended for a standard crew of nearly six hundred individuals. That doesn’t count her onboard marine complement which was originally slated to be around two thousand. Like many destroyers, she was given landing capability, and during ground assaults was intended to act both as a source of reinforcements and close aerial support. The last year however has required some modifications to increase her crew capacity, and both currently operating 1212 class destroyers have these increased accommodations.

Her large torpedo bays have the capacity to carry an impressive seventy-five thousand ship-to-ship warheads. Allowing for nearly fifteen minutes of continuous fire with her torpedo launchers. Each high-yield warhead supports a variable yield of up to 512 megatons. Making the 1212 a significant threat on the battlefield.

Defensively the 1212 is outfitted with the latest in Overlord hull plating. The overlord scheme is highly effective at protecting against most known weapons. They have only three meters of armor, which by modern standards is somewhat thin. Especially for their size class, but they make up for the thin armor with superior power generation which helps compensate for the thinness of the plate, and makes her far more resilient than her immediate predecessor the venerable O'Brien class Destroyer. The ship upon which the 1212’s design was based upon. Although the 1212 features a number of improvements and is a fair bit larger than her predecessor.