Svalinn-class Assault Carrier

"Fine, we’ll do it ourselves"

- Captain Dratheus of the UNSC Sentinel before engaging a Covenant Remnant Flotilla in the Outer Colonies after its escorts and been destroyed

The Aegis-class Assault Carrier is a new generation of Assault Carrier to replace both the ageing Xerxes-class Assault Carrier and the Orion-class assault carrier. Created to fulfill the much needed niche of a large fleet support/carrier vessel, the ship was based on and heavily improves upon its predecessor and is far better suited to its role. Ships of the Line are given the Hull classification of CVA.

History
Proposed by the Reyes-McLees Shipyards on Mars as a direct successor to the outdated Orion-class Assault Carriers. The Aegis-class Assault Carrier's designing was started in December of 2549 and completed in January 2551, several months behind schedule due to redesigns to accommodate a more advanced reactor package and targeting/sensor array.

The first hull however was laid down in July 2550 prior to the redesign. By the time of the Battle of Earth the frame for the hull was largely complete but could not be finished as it had to be refitted with a new power grid to support the new reactor package and following that it was slated for a full sensor and scanner revamp to the new ones. By now orders had been placed for five more ships with the new reactor and sensor packages built in.

The other vessels of the line were minorly damaged by the Covenant attack on Mars but nothing sufficient to warrant long term repairs, as such the ships were slated to meet their late-2556 completion times. However this was not to be as in February 2556 an addendum was made to the design to bolster its ability to clash with capital ships by the addition of two Mark 15 'Breakwater' Naval Coilguns which had set back their completion dates to early 2557.

The first four ships began trials in March 2557 and were commissioned in November of the same year. However two ships of the six ordered were to undergo a major redesign and were to become their own subclass which would enter trials in July 2557 and commissioning in February 2558.

Design Specifications
The ship exhibited several advantages in design over previous Assault Carriers such as the Orion-class and later Xerxes-class Assault Carriers. The ship was designed to both support and lead fleet actions as well as planet side operations and unlike its predecessors which sported thin and excessive armor respectively the Aegis was designed with reasonably thick armor with a unique, layered, X-style crossbrace design in place of the much heavier semi-honeycomb of the Xerxes-class while retaining similar survivability.

In a similar theme the Aegis-class was lengthened for increased internal capacity for both supplies and carried forces allowing a far longer deployment time without need of resupply. The Aegis sports the latest in shipboard foundries which increase the speed of production while maintaining quality.

Primary Weapons
The Aegis-classes primary ship to ship weapons are its two Rapid Fire Mark IV 94B1D1F6 Heavy Coil MAC's which fire specialized 'Shredder' rounds which shatter on impact with either a ships hull or its shields alongside Shield Penetrating Rounds. However the version used on the Aegis is an improved version which is fired at a higher speed with a heavier projectile to improve its performance against ship hulls and offer deeper penetration. The ship is also loaded with standard MAC rounds.

Supplementing these, and building on the methodology of the Xerxes-classes 'Barrage' attack method, are 10 Mark 40 Spitfire Naval Coilgun Batteries. Thanks to the redesigning of the ships overall layout and structure all the guns can fire through the front of the ship and can turn 180 degrees and face the side of the ship and perform devastating ground bombardment or broadside barrages against hostile ships. The Spitfires also have specialized ammo choices of which there is high explosive for ground targets and ships and a solid sabot round used against ships or as precise ground bombardment. An EMP round is also used which when hitting a targets shield would set off a small EMP pulse which would further weaken the shield and bring it down. However the rounds themselves only serve to disable shields with little practical use against targets without them other than disruptions of onboard systems. .

The Spitfires are further supported in targeting higher tonnage targets by two Mark 15 'Breakwater' naval coilguns. These support the Spitfires and complement the main MACs in taking out other capitals ships with their much more powerful rounds with the only downside being the excessive weight and rather poor rate of fire of the guns.

The combination of the Rapid Fire MAC's, 'Spitfires' and 'Breakwaters' allowed the ship to perform barrage attacks against enemy ships depleting shields and shredding hulls by sheer volume of fire. By using such tactics the Aegis found particular usefulness in accompanying Battlegroups and Fleets where it would serve as a support vessel using its ability of near constant and devastating fire to keep ships suppressed or even several ships while remaining mostly safe thanks to its impressive armor and shielding.

Secondary Weapons
While it's primary weapons are capable of taking down similarly sized or smaller Covenant vessels when a larger target or conversely a swarm of targets presents themselves the ship requires a bit more to bring them down.

For this purpose the Aegis-class, unlike other UNSC ships, uses it's missile complement as a secondary to its gun array, while most UNSC ships use Archers in tandem with their MAC. The Aegis-class has more numerous and more accurate gun array which when combined with their special ammunition types can make short work of ships leaving missiles as a secondary armament to be used when a particularly large target or numerous targets risk overwhelming the ship.

For this the ship carries 140 M58 Archer Missile Pods which is far less than the Xerxes which carried 200 but greater than the 60 of the Orion. However these are supplanted by 20 M4020 Bident Missile Pods which excel at taking out larger Covenant ships. Alongside its missiles the ship has 14, M66 'Sentry' naval autocannons which fill the gap between the 'Suppressors' and 'Spitfires'. The 'Sentry' is used mostly to target medium to small ships, further supplant the 'Spitfires' and conduct more precise ground bombardment. To this end it features a wide variety of rounds including HE rounds, Solid AP rounds and EMP rounds.

Defensive Armament
The Aegis builds upon it's predecessors impressive point defense system, this being done due to the classes focus as a Fleet Support vessels and the increased size requiring more guns to maintain a full coverage of the ship. However it was thought to increase the point defense guns even further to allow for the ship to safely hang in low orbit when conducting ground operations as well as act as an effective support ship.

For these purposes it has a very large amount of point defense guns in the form of 60, M870 'Rampart' Point Defense guns which provide massive overlapping fields of fire across the ship making it arguably one of the best protected ships from a point-defense perspective. However their sheer number and coverage also makes them ideal for providing coverage for its fleet or battlegroup, which is further bolstered by its advanced targeting systems.

As a complement to the point defense ability of the ship it is also equipped with 20, M40 'Suppressor' 330mm naval autocannons. These serve to fill the gap between the 'Rampart' and the 'Sentry', being more than capable of clashing successfully with larger well protected targets such as Phantom Gunboats and Liches. Although not quite packing the punch needed to take on mainline warships they are still capable of targeting smaller warships such as the SDV-class corvette or CRS-class light cruiser

Complementing the Ramparts and Suppressors are 260, M340A5 'Streak' Missile Pods which provide longer range, more precise defense against hostile spacecraft and munitions. The A5 model used on the Aegis has a longer range and higher speed allowing them to more quickly and effectively shoot down hostile fighters before they can harm the ship

The vast and layered point defense systems as well as the advanced targeting and tracking systems on-board the ship make it an ideal ship to form the centerpiece of Fleets and Battlegroups. Thanks in no small part to its ability to protect other ships and itself which make it a challenge to take down or even get near for any enemy.

Propulsion and Powerplant
The Aegis-class features a unique setup in which it is equipped with two Primary OKB Karman 67R Fusion Reactors and each of these main reactors has two smaller OKB Karman 54R Secondary Fusion Reactors accompanying them for a total of 4. They are used to greatly increase the output of the main reactors either during combat situations to facilitate faster MAC recharges or they can be used to conduct otherwise incapable maneuvers. Further advantages are seen in the fact that the main reactors can function normally after the output increase while the secondary reactors cool down. In the event of the main or secondary reactors being destroyed, disabled or incapable of functioning the Aegis-class is equipped with Orphios Energy Systems Neptune-6 Auxiliary Fusion Reactors as backups.

During normal travel the Primary Reactors are only operating at 50% of their total output with the Secondary Reactors making up the difference with each one operating at 25% of their maximum output. However during the designing and construction of the ships consideration was given to the longevity and adaptability of the design to advancing technology. As a result two of the four secondary reactors are routed to a secondary power grid which is dedicated to the shield generators of the vessel. Upon installation of shield generators these two reactors are isolated from the primary power grid and are solely focused on powering the shields.

The reactors power two Boglin Fields Nova-VI Primary Fusion Drives which are mounted in vertical pairs on each side of the ship, these utilize the bulk of the output of the primary fusion reactors. But to improve unit life and reliability these are supplanted by six, three with each primary drive pair, OKB Karman 66K Secondary Fusion Drives, these are mounted as two on the inner side of each primary drive pair and one on the outer side of each pair.

The primary fusion drives provide the bulk of propulsion for sublight and long distance travel and despite their size feature a notably higher fuel efficiency compared to similarly large ships such as the Epoch-class Heavy Carrier. This is to a degree due to the new drives supplied by Boglin Fields and in part due to the reactor set up which places a premium on efficiency when it comes to long distance travel. This does however not hold up during combat maneuvers, as during combat maneuvers the main reactors are handling the bulk of the ships power generation with secondary reactors often being used to supplant them to allow for a brief 250% increase in power generation.

The secondary drives have a notably higher efficiency than the primary drives as their use, much like the secondary reactors, is to supplant the primary drives or occupy their role as main propulsion in some situations. The secondary drives are usually used during maneuvering within planetary orbit and during low speed combat maneuvers where their limited thrust vectoring allows for a degree of enhanced maneuvering on the outer side mounted drives. These drives are often fired at higher power levels for emergency maneuvers however this has so far been seen to lead to rapid deterioration of those drives and associated bracing and is therefore dissuaded unless absolutely necessary.

Slipspace travel is facilitated by the.

Armor and Structure
The Aegis-class features a composite armor layout and most prominently it has 2.4-2.6m of new Titanium A3 armor as the main external layer, the A3 features far better heat dissipation characteristics when compared to previous A2 and A1 iterations. While most of the ship features the 2.4m of armor certain areas, namely the hangars, assault bay, reactors and bridge, feature thicker 2.6m of armor. Behind the Titanium A3 is a layer of Ceramic armor which is further used to dissipate heat as well as bolster defense against kinetic rounds which may pierce the Titanium A3 armor.

Furthermore the design of the ship itself further enhances its protection as the heavily sloped side armor greatly bolsters the effective thickness of the armor making any broadside or flanking maneuver to fire on the ships side far less harmful.

The most unique aspect of the ship lays behind the armor and in the base structure of the vessel. Unlike previous ships such as the Halcyon-class light cruiser and one of its predecessors, the Xerxes-class Assault Carrier which features heavy and costly honeycomb or semi-honeycomb structures; The Aegis features traditional Vanadium structural supports which are arranged in a newly designed 'X'-style crossbracing which has shown far better preformance against both kinetic impacts and heat dissipation. To further strengthen it the gaps in the bracing are filled with impact absorbent gel which hardens on impact to further add to the ships robustness.