User:Imperial Misanthrope/Maven-Class Destroyer

The Maven-Class Type-3 Heavy Siege Destroyer is a classification of starship that was created in 2614CE during the 1st Age of Understanding. Created by Urs Drive Yards, the ship is used primarily by the Imperium of the Sangheili Empire.

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Maven-Class Destroyer

Specifications
The Maven-Class was an experimental, and now fully implemented classification of Sangheili vessel designed for long-range sniping and Bombardment of enemy ships and positions. In ship-to-ship combat the vessel is designed to hold behind friendly lines and fire upon the enemy Fleet. However, laying siege to planets and outposts is its true specialty. Using its augmented Energy Projectors and Photon Cannon, it is able to glass or even dismember targets set before it.

In appearance, the vessel is longer than and thinner than most former Covenant ship designs. It still retains the bottle-nose and widened body, but they are less pronounced than on other ISE ships, and are more rounded than their general flat appearance when looking at it horizontally. It is a combination of silver and black in colour, giving it a more sinister appearance than the purple and silver colours of most former Covenant classifications.

Augmented/Concentrated Energy Projector
The Augmented Energy Projectors are a custom job made possible by Human and Sangheili researchers. Using methods developed by both sides, the Energy Projectors now fire for longer, and fire more concentrated beams than ever before, allowing the glassing process and damage to ships to become far more intense, giving these ships the edge over old style Covenant vessels.

The Sangheili government officially allowed Humans scientists within the Empire to work upon military projects around this time, though it was known to certain individuals that Humans minds had been helping to develop certain aspects of Sangheili military technology for some time. Because of the immense success of the Augmented Energy Projector, now known as the Concentrated Energy Projector, humans gained popularity within the Empire as technological assets as much as their Sangheili counterparts.

Although the CEP is superior to the regular EP, it doesn’t require much of an upgrade in weapons systems in order to function, meaning that the only reason for more complicated weapons systems installation was if one required a more specific use of the Concentrated Energy Projector, like the Type-5 or Type-11.

Variations
The Popularity and versatile nature of the Maven-Class has lead to several variations of the vessel that specialized more into its specific functions. None of these variations gained popularity like the Type-3, though they still served to an extent in the ISE navy for many years.

Type-5 Planetary Bombardment Destroyer
The Type-5 is a variation of the standard Type-3 that is used primarily for the glassing and bombardment of enemy worlds. Although it is capable of ship-to-ship combat, it fares poorly in such engagements alone, and is easily outmaneuvered, however it is reasonably effective as a form of space-artillery, acting from behind friendly lines.

Its real strength lies in its ability to glass worlds. Unlike previous types, event he Type-3 itself, the Glassing technique of the Type-5 is immensely superior to the indiscriminate bombardment techniques of former Covenant ship designs. The Type-5 sports only 4 Plasma torpedo launchers, 2 Pulse Laser turrets, but 14 Concentrated Energy Projectors (Though they may only fire in twos or threes depending on the welfare of the power core). The Energy Projectors of the Type-5 have been further augmented, unfortunately this means that a larger percentage of the vessel itself is taken up with the systems and machinery required to use them, giving the vessel no room for squadrons, an immensely decreased number of personnel onboard, and fewer other weapon types that would allow it to fight in ship-to-ship combat

The Type-5 is considered the most humane vessel for bombardment purposes; the reason is because, even though the Energy Projectors are a great burden to the ship, they are the most advanced ship capable plasma weapons available. They are the most precise, and have the longest range of any weapon apart from the Photon Cannon, but sport far more power. The precision is so great, that it is capable of glassing exact points on a planet, instead of the clumsy and indiscriminate glassing methods of the former Covenant Empire. This allows planets to instead be targeted based on certain structures, such as government buildings, military outposts, and ground based naval docks.

The range of the Type-5 also means that it is the safest bombardment vessel, its range is great enough to be able to glass planet surfaces from kilometres away from the atmosphere, and still retain a marginal degree of accuracy to within half a kilometre.

Because of its limited capabilities however, only around 30 were ever in service at any given time, a basic ISE Fleet was fully capable of glassing a planet if needed, the Type-5 only being used to glass specific targets, which only took the efforts of 1-3 Type-5s at any given time. Also they were quite cumbersome to make, the irregular feed into its CEP’s made the Type-5 a pain to have to fix, though regular maintenance usually kept a need to fix the ship minimal.

Type-11 Precision Capable Destroyer
The Type-11 is a play upon the Type-3’s Concentrated Energy Projector. Instead of the Type-5’s ability to use them against planets, the Type-11 sports few of them with lower range, but intensified power and similar accuracy to make it a First-Class ship-to-ship Destroyer.

Although lacking the range and number of Projectors of the Type-5, the Type-11 only consisting of 5 CEP’s, this allows for the ship to be able to hold more Plasma Torpedo Launchers (8), and more Pulse Laser turrets (7), however it still lacks the Photon Cannon of the Type-3. It makes up for this with its immense power and accuracy. It is capable of firing at most 3 of its Energy projectors at one time, though only for a few seconds; a single CEP may fire for several minutes without stopping, though it is rarely needed to. A single CEP of the Type-11 is capable of generating the same firepower of 3-5 average Energy Projectors, mainly because of its concentrated plasma dispersal as opposed to the old method of simply “spraying” the plasma over something. The accuracy also comes from this method of concentration, making the Type-11 one of the most powerful Medium-Heavy vessels.

These too were never widely manufactured, mostly because of the internal weapons systems, much like the Type-5. The Type-11 frequently saw active combat, and as such was frequently damaged to both critical and minimal damage types. As a result, they were often found in port being repaired, but the repair time was usually extended when trying to fix, or even fix around its complicated weapons systems.

The Type-3 never suffered from this because it only required the weapons systems of an average Energy Projector to function, despite its increased capabilities.

Trivia

 * The Maven-Class is famous for being the first ISE ship classification to be “officially” worked upon by both Sangheili and human scientists.
 * The Type-3 in particular is favoured for its raw power in the ISE Navy, and is occasionally used as a Flagship, although most Fleet Masters prefer Carriers.
 * Fleet Mistress Yamn ‘Zealonf once took one of these ships, the Contrite Sacrifice as part of a task force to explore the former human world of Coral where, as a young Sangheili, she had been with her father. This is the world inhabited by the Flood consuming creatures, the Eversio Inferi.