Hope-class destroyer

Hope-class Destroyer The  Hope-class Destroyer was a classification of starship utilised by the UNSC Navy during the Human-Covenant War. After extensive battle analysis from conflict with the Covenant Empire had shown, the only weapons that were suitably effective against the Covenant were Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, which delivered a solid slug at velocities of around half the speed of light, and to a certain extent, nuclear munitions. The Hope-class was an attempt to exploit this meager advantage to its full potential, hopefully aiding the UNSC in its ongoing struggle against the Covenant. Stripped down to the bare minimum needed to maintain a viable weapons platform, the Hope-class removed superfluous armaments, single ship complements, capacity for maintaining a crew and even armour plating to increase its expendability, essentially allowing more MAC Cannons to be fielded simultaneously against the Covenant. As a result, the vessel was fully automated, and remotely controlled by an Artificial Intelligence.

Roles
The main role of the Hope-class, like all destroyers, was the destruction of enemy warships in a supporting role to other vessels, both lighter and heavier. The Hope-class would engage its targets in large numbers, and overwhelm it with accurate, powerful and en-masse MAC fire. Of course, due to the nature of the war, vessels of the class were rarely concentrated in one area but spread out among human territory, despite the fact that they worked most effectively in numbers. When used together, the vessels would arrange themselves in 'fire groups' of three and, numbers permitting, would assign themselves to a vessel of high importance for protection.

Unlike standard destroyers, or even other vessels, however, was that the Hope-class was intended to be semi-disposable. As MAC cannons were arguably the single biggest tactical advantage the UNSC held over the Covenant, the Hope-class was essentially just a MAC Cannon- stripping down all unnecessary material that did not greatly benefit the cannon's ability. Fully automated, the Hope-class could be controlled from extreme distances due to its advanced communications array, which was a two-way link between the vessel (feeding telemetry to command elements) and the controlling entity (acting on this and controlling the vessel). A 'Smart' AI could simultaneously control up to seven Hope-class vessels, allowing for seamless command and function between them and maximising their ability far more than separate sentient crews ever could.

Due to their somewhat disposable nature, Hope-class Destroyers were often sacrificed for more valuable units such the Marathon-class Cruiser and other high priority vessels. This naturally led them to be commonly utilised as expendable escort vessels, despite having no single ship complement and little in the way of point defence weaponry to lend to a vessel being supported.

The Hope-class was incapable of in-atmosphere operations, and possessed no single ship complement of its own.

Layout
Long and thin, the Hope-class in this aspect appeared similar to most other UNSC vessels, though all similarities stopped here. The ship was essentially a long MAC Cannon with a hull attached to its rear half, which housed the ammunition stores and fuel reserves. Below this was a hive of antennae acting as the vessel's advanced communications array, which was arguably the most expensive element of the vessel. The rear of the craft featured a geometric cuboid-shaped section which housed the deuterium fusion reactor, Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine and the thrusters. As the ship was fully automated, it featured no crew accommodation, bridge or even decks. Maintainance was provided through a series of access tunnels, which were not sealed off from space and required occupants to utilise vacuum suits.

Armament and Defences
The primary armament of the Hope-class was its single Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. This was the same model used by the UNSC Frigate, accelerating a 600-ton ferric-tungsten projectile with a depleted uranium core to 120,000 kilometers per second. The speed of the projectile made it super-accurate even at long ranges, and a minimum of three shots could down a Covenant vessel's shields and destroy it. The charge to operate the weapon's electromagnetic coils, which accelerated the projectile, was particularly draining on such a small vessel. Due to the absence of many other power-intensive systems, however, the Hope-class could fire two slugs on a single charge, before a recharge time of approximately a minute and a half. Due to this pause, it was imperative that an individual vessel operated alongside another Hope-class Destroyer or ship of another class, allowing a more sustained combined rate of fire. The power drain following a shot was noticeable, and contact between controlling units could be interrupted from anywhere between one and seven seconds as power flow was interrupted.

The main and only defensive armament the Hope-class possessed were two pairs of Dual-Barreled Point Defence Autocannon Turrets, two turrets on either side of the vessel. These, like all the ship's functions, were controlled remotely by a Smart AI. Utilised for self-defence against boarding craft and single ships, these turrets were underpowered compared to the craft they faced, with dozens if not hundreds of hits required to deplete the shields of a Covenant Seraph-class Starfighter. Offering limited protection, the Point Defence Guns were more than useless against enemy capital ships.

The Hope-class was largely unarmoured, saving weight and materials and contributing to the craft's 'throwaway' nature. However, sections of the exposed MAC barrel were armoured with twenty centimetres of Titanium-A Battleplate. The Communications array was the most heavily armoured external part of the vessel, as the destruction of this would cut off the vessel's contact with its controlling AI, rendering it useless. This section was protected by an average of 60cm battleplate. The main computer core, located deep inside the ship's hull section, was heavily protected by surrounding sections. Like nearly all UNSC ship classes, the Hope-clas completely lacked energy shielding.

Engines and Powerplant
Like other UNSC vessels, the Hope-class was powered by a Deuterium fusion core. This combined deuterium nuclei into heavier elements, accompanied by a net gain of energy. The core provided enough energy to run the vessel's systems, including the communications array and the MAC Cannon. The latter, being by far the ship's biggest energy consumer, could be charged for two shots before needing to recharge. By this process, reaction propellant was also heated, which was then expelled through the craft's four thrusters, providing thrust.

The Hope-class also possessed a small Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. This allowed the vessel to accompany fleets and to independently move between systems, escorting larger vessels and engaging Covenant forces above Human colony worlds.