Triton-class destroyer

"Tough ol' girl's got some life in her yet."

- Captain John Bradley, commander of the HMS Watchman, during the Battle of Acheron

The Triton-class Heavy Destroyer was a heavy warship class in service with the Allegiance Navy during the time of the Swarm War. They were the staple of the Allegiance's naval anti-armour capabilities as well as a fast and powerful warship. Introduced in 2685, the class was a leap forward in terms of ship design, the class influenced the design for every Allegiance warship for the next two hundred years as well as helping to establish Allegiance Naval power. The pinnacle of design and technology at the time of her conception, the Triton-class served with distinction for over two hundred years from the very first to the very last battle.

Role
The Triton-class was designed by Frasier Fleet Industries to fill the role of a fast, mobile ship-destroyer. They were capable of intercepting and destroying the majority of enemy warships. It had another role of supporting larger warships in battle, such as the Ares-class Battleship and Athena-class Cruiser. Its primarily offensive armament gave it a high kill/death ratio against other warships, specifically smaller ones such as frigates. It was able to receive a large amount of punishment thanks to powerful shields and thick armour, and provided a swift weapons platform for destroying enemy ships. It was capable of rivalling most ships in its class and also larger ships such as capital ships. All of these factors made it one of the most powerful Allegiance ships for her tonnage as well as a sought after command. Often these ships were accompanied by smaller vessels such as the Apollo-class Frigate. It could also function as a rapid power projection platform, able to quickly deploy to trouble areas and subdue conflict with its presence, or at the very least, maintain the situation until the arrival of larger, slower vessels.

They were used extensively in conjunction with Artemis-class Patrol Ships, each ship balancing out each other's shortcomings.

External Layout
Externally, the Triton-class was fairly standard for Allegiance ship design. She featured a long, narrow prow, supporting the main Heavy Particle Cannons. These were grouped into three groups of two, with cannons firing alternately. The prow was broken up into two sections, the larger upper one, housing four cannons, and the smaller lower one, with two cannons. Along this lower prow were six nuclear warhead launchers.

Aft of the prow, the ship was bulked out into the main hull. This section housed the vital ship's systems. Port and starboard of the main hull were two 'arms' which jutted out, and allowed space for the six Heavy ship cannons. The arms stretched aft and provided a platform for the sixteen Particle Cannons, eight on each side, four above and four below.

Below these was the opening for the hangar, flanked on either side by the deployment bays. These provided shelter and protection for the exposed hangar. On the inside of these deployment sections were numerous hangars, containing Sabre Dropships or ground vehicles. Like all openings these were protected by powerful blast doors as well as energy shielding holding in the atmosphere.

To the rear of the vessel were the engines. These were mounted in two pillar-like formations and provided the immense thrust necessary to push the ship through space.

External bulkheads throughout the ship operated on failsafes and helped to keep the ship intact during heavy firefights.

Internal Layout
Inside the ship, the prow was mainly dominated by the Particle Cannons, their power capacitors and cooling systems. However, on the upper and lower prows where they met the main hull, were the majority of crew quarters.

Inside the main hull was the main ship systems and areas. The Bridge, or Command Centre, was one of the most important locations on the ship. From there, the commanding officer and command crew controlled the ship's functions, ranging from movement to weapons fire. It was situated right in the heart of the vessel, in the least vulnerable location. Situated throughout the ship were various smaller terminals from where the ship could be controlled, with the correct access codes.

Directly behind the bridge, though a few hundred meters further aft, was the main power core. Here, the zero-point energy used to fulfil the ship's immense power requirements was produced. The reactor was 123.8m across, 145.7m high, and took the form of a semi-spherical chamber with the core in the centre and struts forking symmetrically in.

The main cargo bay was located to the rear of the ship, holding large amounts of ammunition and supplies. The main ammunition store for the ship itself was located between the upper and lower prow, protected by thick armour plate and several metres of other ship functions.

The prow heavy cannons took up more than a third of the ship's overall length, with little else besides in that area. The cannons had an almost direct connection to the core, meaning that their charge-up time was drastically reduced. Special capacitors prevented the cannons from being overloaded by the core's massive energy outputs.

Main engineering was located immediately above the power core. Catwalks and access-ways from engineering allowed access to the core. If the core ever shut down, to do so would take 40 hours. Similarly, to start up the core again, a minimum of 24 hours would be needed.

To the rear of the Triton-class were the engines. These provided the thrust necessary for the Triton-class to out-manoeuvre hostile warships. Like the Particle Cannons, they were stopped form direct linkage with the power core only by a massive capacitor, which allowed the regulation of energy to the engines.

Forward of the engines were the barracks and vehicle housings. These could accommodate an entire Army or Marine company and their attached vehicular force.

To the port and starboard of the barracks were the 16 Light Particle Cannon turrets and their controls. These had an indirect link to the power core unlike most energy-intensive systems.

On the ventral side of the ship was an opening protected on either side by large structures. The opening was the hangar bay, a long deck with a drop bottom at the end. Inside the structures to the port and starboard of the hangar were various other support hangars. On the bottom surfaces of these were HALO orbital insertion pods for getting troops quickly onto the battlefield. There were two rows of six tubes in total, with three pods stored in each tube on magnetic retracting racks. When one pod was launched, another immediately slid down in its place.

Located throughout the ship were arms lockers which provided access to small arms. They were guarded by armed marines at all times.

Each door of the ship was automatic in opening, however could be opened manually if the situation needed. The doors were large and heavy metal ones and could withstand heavy small arms fire or explosive decompression. They could be manually shut from the door itself, from command terminals situated throughout the ship, or from the bridge, or by the shipboard AI upon the detection of decompression or advancing hostiles.

The main ship functions, such as navigation, targeting, and sensory data were controlled by independent AIs which had no purpose other than to perform their specialised function, for example firing every weapon mounted on the ship. The AIs were AIs in the broadest sense of the word, they were considered 'dumb' and were not able to learn anything beyond their area of function. The targeting, Sensor and navigation controls were all operated by separate AIs, which essentially acted as advanced computer programs. Overseeing the entire ship was a smart AI which acted as an interface between the human crew and the ship.

The navigation, sensor and targeting systems all had independent sensor grids, although the primary sensor grid was much more advanced than the targeting or navigation grids. The 'nav' grid operated on long-range telemetry alone and could not be used as a short-range scanner. The targeting grid. picked up telemetry pertaining to enemy movements only and relayed this information to the targeting AI, which instructed the correct batteries to open fire. It detected long-range threats only with assistance from the Nav AI which would relay information about incoming threats to the targeting AI. The primary sensor grid picked up all data excluding targeting and long-range information pertaining to navigation. It was also responsible for communications.

The majority of the ship's interior was surprisingly spacious. Many of the corridors were wide enough to get more than five people past each other side-by-side. This meant that the ship was much less vulnerable to Swarm boarding parties than other, more cramped ships. Generally, once Swarm forces entered a ship, it was doomed, because the close confines of the ship were a natural setting for the hive-oriented Swarm, and perfect for savage melees and brutal ambushes.

Armament
The Triton-class Heavy Destroyer had a large armament geared towards defeating enemy cruisers. Mounted on the prow were six Heavy Particle Cannons, powerful anti-armour energy weapons. The cannons each had an individual output of 500,000 Terajoules, 23.1 times the power of standard MAC rounds. As for the rate of fire, power was not the issue, but rather cooling. The weapons, unlike MACs, used directed energy technology, meaning they overheated. A single cannon could fire seven times before needing to pause to cool, but it could pause at any time in between. After a full firing sequence, the cannon would remain inoperable for three minutes at least before the barrel was cool enough to allow another shot.

On the port and starboard bows each were two rows of four turrets, 16 in all. These were Light Particle Cannon turrets, designed to blast through ship battleplate at broadside ranges and long-range. They excelled in large fleet engagements where they beat larger but more numerous cannons, with the ability to fire on many more targets and suppress them. They fired in a fashion much like a semi-automatic weapon, one shot, then a period of 7 seconds to cool.

In addition, the ship's prow featured numerous missile tubes, firing anti-armour warheads. A number of these were adapted for the ability to launch tactical nuclear warheads. There were six nuclear warhead tubes and six HPHE cannons, adding to the ship's potent anti-armour and long-range capabilities.

Scattered sparsely on the ship's surface were Heavy Cannons, which fired anti capital ship shells or specialised (AE-HPHE). These were for the most part identical to high-penetration, high explosive rounds designed to penetrate the ship's armour and damage it from the inside. However, each large shell contained a minute amount of antimatter, contained in a small forcefield. Once the shell impacted on an enemy warship and burrowed deep into it, the forcefield would fail, causing a massive matter/antimatter reaction and causing severe damage to the ship.

Later models were equipped with ten variable-load missile pods. These functioned in a similar role to Archer pods. They could be loaded with HE missiles for anti-armour capabilities, nuclear warheads, tactical for use in battle, or strategic for land bombardment, or high-fragmentation anti-starfighter missiles. This ability gave the Triton-class a useful versatility and configurability that helped it considerably during the course of the Swarm War.

Rounding off the ship's armament were the CIWS (close-in weapons systems). These consisted of thirty Flak Guns and twelve Heavy Machine Gun turrets, designed for intercepting incoming starfighters and projectiles such as missiles, shrapnel or debris. These weapons had neither the range nor the firepower for engaging armoured, shielded or anything further than short-range targets, so were reserved for fighters and missiles only. Also, ten anti-fighter missile turrets maintained the ability to destroy single ships quickly and efficiently.

Also for anti-fighter purposes were five prototype Particle Cannons, with the ability to track small and fast targets- something previously impossible for such large weapons. These fired in rapid succession until they overheated or their target was destroyed.

Weaknesses
As the Triton-class focused on large targets, naturally the smaller ones were overlooked. Although possessing a decent amount of anti-starfighter weaponry, the ship was still vulnerable to starfighters, particularly bombers and heavy fighters. This problem was exacerbated by the small starfighter complement the Triton-class itself possessed. The largest warships such as Heavy Cruisers and Battleships could generally outgun the Triton-class.

The ship's engines were highly exposed to enemy fire. These ships were also incapable of prolonged in-atmosphere operations unless the planet's gravitational strength was noticeably lower than that of Earth or Thera, mainly because the anti-grav engines would overload.

The ship had a small onboard ground force complement, meaning it could not mount large scale operations without support.

Shielding
The Triton-class gained shielding abilities from its the shield projectors, mounted at equal intervals along the ship's length. Powered directly from the core, the shields used up a phenomenal amount of energy- more than some planets.

Given that the shields of the Triton-class could withstand up to 350,000 Terajoules of energy per minute before falling, and a standard MAC round of the UNSC possessed approximately 21,580 Terajoules of energy, the shields of this vessel would be able to withstand 16.2 standard MAC rounds within a minute. Super MAC rounds deliver 21.6 zettajoules (21,600,000,000 Terajoules) of energy, meaning that the shields could withstand 0.0000162 Super MAC rounds per minute. In other words, Super MAC rounds could utterly destroy the Triton-class with one round. Nevertheless, the shields were remarkably powerful.

The three shield generators could operate independently of each other, or in unison. This meant that even if one shield generator was taken offline, the two remaining ones could power the shields, if only at two thirds of full power.

The shields could stop projectiles entering the shields by them impacting on the surface, until the shield succumbed to the volume of fire (350,000 Terajoules within one minute). However, weapons could be fired from inside the shields without impacting on them.

Fighters could also not penetrate the shields, with the exception of Allegiance fighters. They emitted an encoded databurst to the ship's integrated AI, facilitating the dropping of the shield in a small area just big enough for the fighter's profile to slip through. This could be done by the AI within a few nanoseconds and prevented enemies getting a proper firing solution through the gap.

The shields could also offer protection from collisions with other stellar objects, although it put an immense strain on the shields and the Triton-class' structural integrity. If a vessel was rammed purposely during a battle, the chances are that it would not survive.

Armour
The armour of the Triton-class was designed in layers, each with specific properties. The first layer was high-absorbent, heat-ablative armour plate that absorbed the blasts from Particle cannons and explosions. It generally performed well against projectiles although the faster velocity ones were able to penetrate this armour.

The second layer was Tritonium, a metal alloy with hardness higher and reactivity lower than diamond. It was impregnated with a microscopic latticework of neutronium strands, providing a tough defence against projectile-based weaponry. High-penetrations rounds could not normally damage this armour sufficiently to cause lasting damage.

The third layer was a carbon composite that was tougher than most metals and specifically aimed at withstanding directed energy weapons and concussive blasts.

The next layer was a layer of Titanium, conditioned to strengthen it, impregnated with latticed neutronium filaments, an extremely dense solid capable of withstanding devastating assaults.

The final layer of armour was a layer of Boron Nitride. It could withstand almost any assault and protected the ship from dangerous radiation emitted from many celestial bodies, as well as the thermal energy generated from the ship’s re-entry into atmosphere.

Underneath this final layer of armour was a grid of energy shields which activated almost instantaneously once the external armour had been penetrated. These shields were not designed to hold up against enemy fire and so fell quickly under stress.

Engines
The Triton-class, like most Allegiance warships, used ion thrusters for propulsion. Propellant gas was passed through an alternating electric field, ionising the gas. It was then expelled out of the engines at near the speed of light. The electric field used was massive in terms of power, meaning higher efficiency and less propellant gas needed. The colossal power for the field came from the near-limitless amounts of energy generated by the zero-point reactor.

The Triton-class also possessed numerous anti-grav engines which allowed it to hover in-atmosphere. However, if it landed, both these engines and the ion drives would be needed to get the ship off the ground again. In addition, the anti-grav engines overloaded after a period of prolonged activity in atmosphere.

Complement
The Triton-class possessed a small onboard complement for her size, as it was not needed for the ship's primary functions. In spite of this, the ship carried a Marine or Army detachment of one Company, or 96 men. This was mainly for boarding parties and onboard defence, but, if the situation needed, all 96 men could be transported to a planet's surface for deployment.

The ship's deploying complement of 96 men was in addition to the 400 or so Marines whose purpose was to protect the ship itself from boarding. These troops were rarely if never used during planetary assault missions.

Providing close air support and troop movement were twelve Sabre-class Dropships. They were each capable of carrying a maximum of 16 personnel (twelve seated, four standing). To transport all of the troops down to a planet, each dropship would carry eight soldiers. The dropships were capable of transporting armoured units in atmosphere but not through re-entry, unless they were small enough to be stowed in the troop bay. To deploy larger units, the ship also possessed a single Vanguard-class Transport, however this could not take every unit down to ground in one trip. The Triton-class would either get another vessel to mount a land offensive or simply enter atmosphere itself and deploy troops that way.

Providing the ship's fighter forces was a squadron of AL-56 Flashfighters. They were capable of both spatial and atmospheric operations, and with even numbers fared well against the Swarm fighters. Unfortunately, the Swarm mainly employed starfighters in massive numbers. From 2741 onwards, when all the Triton-class were refitted and updated, the number was increased to 24 starfighters (2 squadrons).

Construction
Triton-class Heavy Destroyers generally took between seven and nine months to complete at the Allegiance's primarily-automated shipyards, according to availability of components. With all components present and labour-intensive building, the ship could be built in four months, though placing a great strain on other projects in need of un-automated workers.

The ship was the fastest ship build for its tonnage due to its simple design and construction. It could be built in half the time of a Hera-class Carrier, but Apollo-class Frigates were smaller and cheaper and therefore were constructed quicker.

Operational History


The Triton-class was first introduced in 2685, after years of planning and building prototypes. The first ship, HMS Triton, was completed on 22nd August, 2685. At the conclusion of the Swarm War in 2878, some ships of the class were nearing 200 years of service.

These ships, making up the staple of the Allegiance's anti-armour capabilities in space, and supported by large but less numerous ships such as the Ares, Hera and Athena-class, saw combat during every major battle during the Swarm War. They generally fared badly against the Swarm, which employed swarming tactics with starfighters, something the Triton-class was vulnerable to. By 2741 all Triton-classes had their starfighter complement increased to 2 squadrons of Flashfighters and an increased number of point-defence and CIWS, lessening but not eliminating the class' weakness to large volumes of starfighters.

The class' first use in anger was in 2698, when a small band of Jiralhanae rebels, armed with several old Covenant warships, attempted to capture the world of Miranda.

The class saw action during the first battle of the Swarm War, the Battle of the Antaeus Nebula. It participated in virtually every battle during the Swarm War, including the Battle of Acheron and the Battle of Chiaras.

Battle of the Antaeus Nebula
This was the first battle of the Swarm was and a severe defeat for the outgunned Allegiance warships. The early stage of the battle proved the effectiveness of the Triton-class' devastating prow weaponry, but its severe weaknesses against hordes of fighters and bombers. The battle concluded with losses of two of three Triton-class Heavy Destroyers for the Allegiance and the loss of six of nine Swarm vessels.

Battle of Acheron
When the Swarm launched an assault on the Allegiance-held world of Acheron, the Allegiance Navy mustered all it could to aid in its defence. As a result, the Triton-class ships present were largely relegated to a support role, due to the large numbers of heavy warships, such as Athena-class Cruisers, Ares-class Battleships and Hera-class Carriers. However, this did not impact on their performance, and they still accounted for more kills than any other class. They were defended from the Swarm starfighters by a defensive screen of Apollo-class Frigates and Artemis-class Patrol Ships, intercepting or holding back starfighters from engaging the more vulnerable warships. Both sides took heavy casualties but the Allegiance prevailed.

Battle of Chiaras
Six hundred and forty three Triton-class Heavy Destroyers took part in a massive thrust into the Swarm territory of Chiaras, designed to show the aggressors that the Allegiance was a foe not worth engaging. Swarm losses were total but Allegiance losses were greivous. For the first time, Allegiance ships were boarded by Swarm vessels, as soon as this happened, contact was lost. Such vessels were destroyed by the Allegiance after the engagement. Fewer than fifty Triton-class ships survived.

Refit
The class's first refit was in 2741-2, when the class was approximately 56 years old (despite production never having ceased). The class gained an extra Flashfighter squadron, two additional Vanguard Transports, twelve General Purpose Machine Guns, five Point Defence Particle Cannons, and ten Point Defence Missile launchers. All ships were subjected to a full systems and hull diagnostic- every inch of the ship was scanned in depth. This took roughly a month for each ship, after such time repairs were made. The hull's heat/energy-ablative surface was replenished to combat any erosion which may have occurred. The powerplant was also modernised and updated to higher standards.

The ten missile pods added were different to the other additional armaments- whereas the other weapons were added to provide extra point-defense, the missile pods were added to provide a variable weapon capable of acting as point-defence, but also being able to engage larger armoured targets as well.

The majority of individual ships have some other replacements, form barrels of energy weapons to bulkheads to wiring. The HMS Triton herself had her observation deck replaced. The class also had its hangar refitted to handle the extra dropships and starfighters. Continual refits throughout the decades ensured this old ship was never outclassed. The class was finally retired in 2892, fourteen years after the end of the Swarm War and two hundred and seven years after the first ship entered service.

Ships of the Line

 * HMS Triton (DD-74026) (Class namesake)
 * HMS Transient Grace (DD-212053)
 * HMS Watchman (DD-9277)
 * HMS Authority of Truth
 * HMS Monarchy
 * HMS To Darkness All
 * HMS Clarity of Peace
 * HMS Britannia

Behind the Scenes
This ship was designed with a very human style in mind. It's supposed to be reminiscent of the UNSC ship designs with its prow heavy weaponry and vertical, column shape. It's also a bit like the USS Sulaco from Aliens. It's supposed to look like what humans would build ships like if they were as advanced as the Covenant. Basically, it's an advanced warship whilst still retaining typical human design characteristics.

When its height is reduced, the ship looks like a Battlestar, which is odd because that too is designed by humans.