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This fanfiction article, Punic-class supercarrier, was written by Sev40. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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This article, Punic-class supercarrier, was written by Sev40, but may be used freely by other users even without the author's explicit permission. |
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The author, Sev40 urges and gives permission for any user who references this unit or vessel, Punic-class supercarrier, to add their article to the "Known" list below. |
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This article, Punic-class supercarrier, is a fanon expansion of a canon element. To see the original canon article, follow the link to Halopedia: Punic-class supercarrier. |
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- "It will take nothing less than the hand of God himself to wash this ship away"
- ― Captain Harold Thompson
The Punic-class supercarrier is one of the most powerful vessels ever constructed by humanity. Built by superheavy capital ship specialist PassiGear Manufacturing Company, these immense vessels were originally built for the Colonial Military Administration, but would be far more famous as a flagship of embattled UNSC.
Measuring four kilometres in length and a tonnage so great it outmasses almost two dozen heavy carriers, the Punic-class supercarrier held the title as the largest human-made spacefaring vessel for the better part of half a century, and even now is only beaten by a handful of super-heavy carrier and dreadnought models. It is designed to single-handedly establish a prominent military presence in the most hostile of star systems, and root out insurgency wherever it may hide no matter how long it may take. To this end, it is purpose-built to carry an entire expeditionary force, as well as hundreds of supporting aircraft and vehicle support, within its vast cavenous hold. In addition, a small Battle Group of frigates or equivalent can be attached to the supercarrier permanently, while visiting units may make use of its onboard facilities in contested systems. For all its power which sees all aspects of humanity revere it, the Punic-class supercarrier suffers in terms of agility, and the materials needed to refit or replace even a single one of these monsters offsets the construction of an entire fleet of smaller vessels.
Layout[]
Specifications[]
Propulsion and Powerplant[]
Armament[]
Armour and Framework[]
Complement[]
As a 'Space Control Vehicle,' the Punic-class supercarrier is designed and built solely for the complete subjugation of rogue colonies and projecting power and force across an entire system if needed. To achieve this, these supercarriers are capable of calling upon several Wings of space fighters and offloading an entire Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) for planetside operations. While neither group are not offered the same support as the smaller, more specialised Orion-class assault carrier thanks to their lack of internal factories, they are more than able to still sustain operations for years at a time, especially as the ground complement are already outfitted to function without support from their mothership. Finally, the Punic-class supercarrier acts as the centre of local naval operations, as a small contingent of escorts can routinely hunt down hostile craft and return to the supercarrier for repairs and resupply.
The majority of its air component not part of the MEB are normally chosen for their effectiveness in a vacuum, although special planetary support aircraft not usually folded into regular Marine or Naval units also have a place. Although all can be tasked with offering planetary support in one way or another, their primary objective in battle is to attain control of the local airspace from enemy forces. Once achieved, they would supplement or enhance weapons in the supercarrier's battle group by either directly attacking enemy ships, eliminating incoming projectiles before they can threaten the fleet, or indirectly support them with electronic countermeasures and directing their fire. The locally assigned combat group on a Punic-class supercarrier would eventually consist of the following as standard:
- 10 squadrons of 12 F-41 Broadswords, manoeuvrable fighters designed to match their advanced Covenant equivalents.
- 8 squadrons of 12 GA-TL1 Longswords, multirole combat fighters. The complement aboard any UNSC warship is rarely composed of a single monogamous model, as each different configuration offers tailored advantages to a specialised role. The most common models are the C709 and C712, used for bombing and interception roles respectively.
- 6 squadrons of 16 F-99 Wombats, small lightly-armoured drones capable of both interception and dogfighting, but most often called upon for reconnaissance purposes.
- 3 squadrons of 3 GA-TL2 Greatswords, dedicated super-heavy bombers able to unleash a very impressive amount of ordnance.
- 2 squadrons of 3 AC-220 Vultures, rare atmospheric gunships used to provide heavy aerial fire once air superiority has been achieved. Unlike all other aircraft on the supercarrier, these are manned and maintained by the UNSC Air Force.
- 1 squadron of 8 B-65 Shortswords, light bombers used to strategically eliminate key enemy assets.
For transportation needs, a number of dropships, transports, and shuttlecraft are brought aboard for the purposes of transferring personnel and moving material between ship-to-ship, ship-to-planet, or in some cases even across the behemoth capital ship itself. It is made up to twenty-six aircraft, divided between the following:
- 1 squadron of 12 D77-TC Pelicans or equivalent. The bread-and-butter of the UNSC's air transportation arm, it is able to move two fireteams of UNSC Marines and a single medium vehicle without any modifications, while larger objects can be moved with cables attached to multiple dropships.
- 8 SKT-13 shuttlecraft, an unarmed spacecraft designed solely to move up to 45 individuals between the various ships in the UNSC fleet.
- 2 squadrons of three D20 Herons, massive transports that are designed to move dozens of vehicles and hundreds of soldiers between planets and space. Rarely a permanent fixture aboard supercarriers, they may be tasked with moving fortifications to further establish a UNSC presence on a given world.
To supplement its fighters, the Punic-class supercarrier also has docking spaces for a number of light-tonnage warships, usually relegated for frigates and smaller destroyers. A necessity thanks to the horribly inaccurate nature of slipspace at the time, the docked escorts were an integral part to the operation of the supercarrier. In combat, their contributions were obvious, as they will engage other warships trying to outflank their mothership, screen for incoming missiles, and if necessary take hits from super-heavy weapons. However, each warship is a fully-staffed and equipped warship, with the option to embark more personnel, and as such they can be deployed to pursue independent missions. This can include guarding vulnerable supply lines, suppress a region the supercarrier cannot or must not reach, or investigate a system prior to the capital ship's arrival. In return, the Punic-class supercarrier has access to a large inventory of parts used to rearm, refuel, or repair damaged ships, which essentially sees it acting as a mobile naval station in the field. In total, it has four Category-8 sub-vessel dock s, each of which can accommodate up to a Paris-class heavy frigate, along with two Category-7 light sub-vessel bays capable of accepting nothing larger than a Gladius-class heavy corvette.
The Punic-class supercarrier is home to a Marine Expeditionary Brigade, a large, self-sufficient formation of UNSC Marines that are often deployed in troublespots for months at a time. Commanded by a Brigadier General, it is divided between three main divisions: a Command Element (CE), which provides the coordination needed to remain independent as well as a variety of support services; a Ground Combat Element (GCE), which includes the infantry and armoured vehicle units; a Aviation Combat Element (ACE), which deals with both their aerial transportation solutions as well as superiority fighters; and finally a Logistics Combat Element (LCE), which includes all support personnel and assets needed for long-term occupation. In total, the MEB is manned by a staggering 13,500 individuals of all kinds. To ensure that the supercarrier was never truly defenceless against boarders, a further 500 Marines were retained for shipboard security purposes.
The Aviation Combat Element is a composite air unit that is manned and operated entirely by the UNSC Marine Corps Aviation, the aircraft component of the Marines. It was made up of a wide variety of aerial vehicles, including low-altitude VTOLs, heavy-lift transports, and covert support aircraft, with many of the dropships able to retrieve supplies from orbit. ACE's mission is primarily to support advances made by the GCE, and as such it has limited capabilities for long-range operations. It is made up of the following:
- 4 squadrons of 12 D77-TC Pelicans, workhorse dropships used for ferrying troops and vehicles to various battlefields. A single squadron is normally outfitted as D77-TCI gunships, for increased combat utility.
- 3 squadrons of 15 AV-14 Hornets, light attack VTOLs that can swiftly support ground attacks and assist in commando operations. Due to the modularity of their frame, they occasionally see use as emergency troop transports in MEBs.
- 2 squadrons of 12 AV-19 SkyHawk, jumpjet ground-attack fighters used to provide strafing close-air support and achieve air superiority. On occasion, advanced AV-22 Sparrowhawks may be used instead.
- 2 squadrons of 8 D82-EST Darters, light dropships used to move troops and supplies in small numbers.
- 2 squadrons of 5 EV-44B Nightgales, support aircraft that use a swarm of drone to repair UNSC vehicles and cloak them in the field. One squadron is outfitted with the EV-44C model, an electronic warfare version designed to jam enemy communications and sensors and interfere with vehicle operation.
- 1 squadron of 9 UH-144 Falcons, light troop transports capable of low-altitude air support. The only role the Falcons occupy a spot in the UNSC Marine Corps, as the Human-Covenant War dragged on a number of these craft were loaned to active MEBs by the UNSC Army.
- 1 squadron of 8 GA-TL1 Longswords, multirole space fighters used primarily for air superiority in the atmosphere. In a pinch, they can be outfitted as effective bombers.
- 1 squadron of 8 F-99 Wombats, autonomous fighters used for reconnaissance and air support purposes.
- 1 squadron of six D96 Albatrosses, heavy-lift dropships known for their manoeuvrability.
- 1 squadron of 4 D80H-LRT Condor, heavy-lift transports that dwarf every other aircraft in the MEB. The D80H model has a vastly lengthened and somewhat widened hull to allow it to much larger objects than almost any other transport used by the UNSC, while retaining its translight drive. By 2544, it was the only model of Condor still in military service.
Countermeasures[]
Variants[]
MSV Cadia[]
In 2509, with the company in dire financial straits, Great White Spaceworks began marketing their incomplete Punic-class supercarrier hull to potential buyers. Although bids were first received from several scrapping companies, it was eventually sold to the Liang-Dormund Corporation, who were looking to expand into the sector. With the hull already largely in place, they contracted Great White to convert the former supercapital warship into a more modest - and significantly cheaper - role as an interplanetary accommodation ship.
Massive for what she was, although capable of movement the Cadia was largely intended to maintain geosynchronous orbit or - at a push - move between moon and asteroid systems. As her primary propulsion system was far too small to make interstellar journeys in a timely fashion, four Temitope-class medium haulers could be called upon to tow her through slipspace. Her internals were reworked in order to sustain a population of thousands, even tens of thousands of civilians and company employees, with living apartments, a new agricultural district, and life-support and sewage systems revamped to handle the demand. In addition to this were a few entertainment venues such as the Wanderer Casino, business sectors to allow for services and trade, and even a company headquarters to act as the local government. Cadia was in reality a mobile city, although one that specialised in mining, a fact confirmed by how her massive hangars now housed industrial refineries used for sifting through rock and organising it for transport.
The Cadia, although capable of sustaining a population of five thousand for several months alone, usually exceeded this figure by multiple magnitudes. As a result, she could not stay far from the spacelanes or from at least a major habitat nexus, and demanded the regular arrival of ships in order to meet the demand for food, water, and oxygen. Moreover, even this capability was only achieved if she was kept in good working order, and rumours tell of a terrifyingly-frequent amount of breakdowns that occur which were kept hidden from the public. This has led to disasters from time-to-time, including a pneumonia outbreak in 2528 and famine of 2534-2535.
At first, the Cadia was usually kept away from combat theatres, however the rise of battlefield salvaging - particularly those that had Covenant wreckage - eventually saw the ship drift into higher and higher risk sites. Tragedy struck in May 2539, when it was attacked and destroyed by a small Jiralhanae raiding force. Because the ship never officially reported its presence in the sector to the UNSC's Department of Shipping, all 14,628 souls were lost.
Operational History[]
Origins and Development[]
The Punic-class supercarrier, as with several other large capital ships built prior to the Insurrection, owed its existence to the CMA's prolonged fight for relevance since at least 2454, when the UNSC received control over all security concerns in the Inner Colonies. Since that time, there were numerous calls to dismantle the organization and transfer their fleet under UNSC control, arguing that their rivals now had the experience and desire to patrol the colonies. None of these succeeded - with the CMA's lead on fleet size, and their ships being at least equal to their rivals, it was difficult for the UNSC to prove that they were better-placed to replace them.
In 2474, the UNSC finally received the funding from the UEG Senate needed to expand, which saw them lay down a new generation of carriers and cruisers - of designs that were far and away superior to those their rivals had in service. Ever since then, both sides had expended huge amounts of money and material in an arms race, introducing large numbers of better and better ships in a race that the CMA was steadily losing. Their existing fleet, once considered formidable, was achieving block obsolescence and causing them to lose a lead they had been building for decades. Meanwhile more and more Inner Colony shipyards were being encouraged to sell exclusively to the UNSC, requiring the CMA to invest in building new facilities in the Outer Colonies to meet their demand for new ships. Something drastic needed to be done in order to maintain their relevance, and without tipping off their rivals to regain the advantage.
The preliminary development into what would eventually become the Punic-class supercarrier began in 2478, when the CMA issued a secret development contract for PassiGear Manufacturing Company. Although an Inner Colony-based company, PGMC had an extensive collection of Outer Colonial facilities, and their expertise with building large starships was second-to-none. Here, CMA unveiled their ambitions for a new carrier design, one with the firepower and durability to defeat any battleship or battlecruiser under development and able to ferry hundreds of fighters and thousands of men and ground vehicles. Such a ship would surely clock in at several hundred million of metric tons, making it more mobile space station than warship. And so, a team led by PGMC's chief shipwright, Dr. Marián Cinege, collaborated with VADM Torsten Hermannson, the CMA's Deputy Chief of Warfighting Development, to investigate the techniques that would be required to construct such a leviathan. The issue of incorporating the largest models of the then-new Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, something PGMC had no experience with up until this point, saw SinoViet Heavy Machinery being brought in to provide advice, and later becoming a joint-contractor with PGMC with supplying the material for the new supercarriers.
While the design of the Punic-class were being worked out, CMA Intelligence also began identifying potential worlds to host their construction. Desiring isolation and obscurity, it was eventually decided to host the drydocks, codenamed "Special Assembly Plant Zeus", in orbit of Steinhold, a remote manufacturing world located in the furthest reaches of FLEETCOM Sector Three. To bury its location, several other drydocks were assembled elsewhere in the Human Sphere, each given contracts for new ships to further mask the preparations. By 2483, both the schematics of the supercarriers and the new drydock to host them had been completed.
Construction, discovery and sabotage[]
The first two supercarriers were laid down in March 2484, and both would follow lengthy construction careers. The complexity of the design, which required constant testing of the support frames to ensure they were built to spec and could handle the weight to come, was further multiplied by the efforts the CMA took to ensure their secrecy. Structural components built offworld were smuggled to Steinhold via containers falsely labeled as produce, took extended routes to their destination, and were even carried by larger carriers conducting other assignments. This meant that it took a long time for parts to reach the shipyards, forcing the CMA to prioritize the completion of the Punic first. Regardless, by 2488 the ships had been built up enough that they could be launched from their cradles, freeing up space to begin construction on the third and fourth supercarriers.
Despite the CMA's best efforts, the sheer scale of the project meant that even by mid-2485, the UNSC - through the Office of Naval Intelligence - had become aware of the existence of a "CMA wonderweapon" currently being fabricated. By this point, there were rumors circulating that members of the CMA admiralty were fostering resentment and secessionist ideals in the Colonies. With the potential of all of the organization's assets potentially being used against Earth, ONI prioritized the discovery and, if necessary, delay its completion until the UNSC could organize a response. Though it took time due to dead-ends and counter-intelligence activities, slowly, ONI pieced together what their rivals were building. Infiltration of PGMC unearthed partial plans, and a chance interception of an unregistered freighter revealed the origin of where the parts of the supercarriers were coming from. Eventually, Lei Zhang, a long-term agent in the CMA's ranks, managed to uncover the existence of Special Assembly Plant Zeus and its location above Steinhold in 2488.
Ships of the Line[]
Name | Hull Classification Symbol | Commissioned | Destroyed | Notes | ||
The first order of supercarriers consisted of two ships in theory, although in practice the second ship was a half-way house between the Flight Is and IIs. These were distinct for their artisial construction and incorporation of several peacetime facilities, such as dignitary guest quarters, a parklands deck, and a full suite of machinery shops and bays used for fleet and army support. They were both laid down in 2484, with a varying length of construction dates. Both ships were built at the purpose-built Special Assembly Plant Zeus in orbit of Steinhold. | ||||||
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UNSC Punic | CVB-123 | June 4, 2490 | N/A | Lead ship of the class, served as the last flagship of the CMA and their remnants. | ||
UNSC Hydra[2] | CVB-124 | October 21, 2491 | ||||
The succeeding Punic-class supercarriers ordered by the CMA were built on the lessons learned from the first two ships, and all would be complete more-or-less to the same standard template. Their major changes revolved around their improved protection systems, expanded carrying capacity thanks to the removal of their peacetime facilities, and a reduction of their support infrastructure in favour of more munitions storage. Six were authorised, with a pair laid down each year since 2486; only three were ultimately completed to these specifications and delivered to the Colonial Navy. | ||||||
UNSC Jutland[3] | CVB-125 | 2495 | 2551 | Destroyed during the Battle of the Greydowns. | ||
UNSC Jupiter | CVB-126 | 2500 | Participated in the Operation: TREBUCHET and the Falkirian War for Independence. | |||
UNSC Trafalgar | CVB-127 | 2502 | August 30, 2552 | Flagship of the Epsilon Eridani Fleet, and by 2552 the most modernised and powerful Punic-class supercarrier in service. Destroyed by the DOS-class supercruiser Judgement of Fire during the Fall of Reach. | ||
Beginning in 2494, the UNSC Navy forcibly took control of three Flight II supercarriers that were under construction at SinoViet shipyards. These were somewhat modified to accommodate the UNSC's standard munitions, although a number of changes were also made to make them more suitable for combating their CMA sisters. | ||||||
UNSC Malborough[4][5] | CVB-128 | 2503 | ||||
UNSC Yamato[6][7] | CVB-129 | 2506 | November 17, 2552 | Flagship of the Second Fleet under the command of Fleet Admiral Nanami Shinano. Participated in the Battle of Earth defending the Lunar Perimeter. Destroyed attempting to stop the Forerunner Dreadnought. | ||
UNSC Gondwana[8][7] | CVB-130 | 2507 | Participated in the Battle of New Ganges. | |||
Despite the seizure of their primary production plant to the UNSC, the CMA attempted to restart production of multiple Punic-class supercarriers in secondary shipyards they still controlled. Very little information survives on whethever these were intended to be repeats, a slightly improved subclass, or a radically-different model entirely. By 2506, all construction work on these ships had ceased, leaving them to be completed by other parties years or even decades down the line. | ||||||
UNSC Nelson (ex-CMA Actium)[3] | CVB-139 | 2524 | N/A | Built by SinoViet Heavy Machinery over Camber. Currently active with Battlegroup Marauder. | ||
MSV Cadia (ex-CMA Falkirk) | CVB-140 | 2514 | May 2539 | Built by Great White Spaceworks over Chi Rho, bought and completed as a mining habitat by the Liang-Dortmund Corporation. | ||
UNSC Leyte Gulf[9] | CVB-141 | Built by SinoViet Heavy Machinery over Roston. | ||||
CMA Taranto[2] | CVB-142 | Built by SinoViet Heavy Machinery over Alluvion. |
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Originally classified as a 'super-heavy coil' at the time of its launch, by the time of the Human-Covenant War it had only 15% more power than its modern equivalents. As such, the 1F21D7 was eventually downgraded from its premier status.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Free slot for anyone to take. Just remember that these were initially commissioned as CMA vessels.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Claimed by TheAussie1417
- ↑ Original planned name was the CMA Luytens, named after the Luytens Campaign during the Inner Colony Wars.
- ↑ Claimed by Falkeno.
- ↑ Original planned name was the CMA Salamis, named after the Battle of Salamis.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Claimed by DirgeOfCerberus111
- ↑ Original planned named was the CMA Chibi or Red Cliffs; named after the Battle of Red Cliffs.
- ↑ Claimed by CasualHaloGamer
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