The light cruiser is among the smallest of the ship types in the cruiser classification. These ships are typically too small to be classified as capital ships, and lack the armaments and defenses of their larger cousins. Light cruisers are typically fast, cheap to produce, and make the bulk of the cruiser fleet for most factions. Designs can vary from faction to faction, but they are all fast with good sensor arrays. In some factions, they are simply larger destroyers, but in other factions, they are dedicated fast raiders. We are now going to look at a few Light Cruisers from various factions. Starting with the ships of Old Earth.

Ancient Humanity(Old Earth) CLs:

X-1215: An experimental CL hull designed late during the Cathamari war. Intended to be part of the mission fleet that the Enterprise was originally intended to be part of she is equipped with a rudimentary warp drive. Twenty hulls were laid down in Earth shipyards, but none were fully completed before the Battle for Earth. Despite being incomplete eight of them participated in the battle where they scored a combined total of forty-three confirmed combat kills before being destroyed. If they had been completed they would have carried two particle beam arrays. Fore and aft torpedoes, along with twenty-four banks of medium particle cannon, and two banks of Electro cannon. Point defense was intended to be two hundred and four photon missile batteries. The ship was planned to have two small hanger with room for thirty fighters, and sixty auxiliary shuttles

Those eight incomplete ships that fought in the Battle for Earth never had those hangers completed. Nor was their intended armor fully installed. They had been hastily armed with what weapons could be installed in the few hours before the battle. Two of them had even been lucky enough to have torpedoes to use in the battle. What is notable about these unnamed ships is their high sublight speed, and slim hull profile. These two factors made them very hard to target, and are a major contributor to their limited success on the battlefield.

Lancer Class Light Cruiser: Designed during the Third Colonial war by the Earth navy these were extremely fast sublight ships for their age. Her main battery consisted of 400 medium particle cannons divided into six banks. The ship was outfitted with a single lateral particle beam array. She was equipped with dual-purpose light particle and missile mounts for engaging fighters and light craft. A single aft-facing hanger provided room for twenty fighters, two dropships, and forty combat shuttles. Protection consisted of two meters of Overlord Armor, and two energy web generators.

The class served the Earth Fleet prominently during the war. It was used mainly for recon, and commerce raiding. The ship class even distinguished itself in several battles during the Cathamari war intercepting and destroying a combined total of fourteen hundred and seventy-three Cathamari raiders in battle. Two hundred and thirteen Lancers were present during the Battle for Earth where they sunk a combined total of three hundred and six Cathamari ships including one of their esteemed battlecruisers. Of these ships, only twenty-three survived the battle and were scuttled for materials by the survivors before leaving the system.

Nagara Class: Employed during the same time frame as the Lancer-class this Light Cruiser was designed and employed by the Colonies. It was smaller than the Lancer with thinner armor at one point six meters thick. It carried no ship to ship guns, but did include thirty flak cannons, and eight hundred light missile batteries for AA defense. The ship had an impressive bank of torpedoes, and featured an early form of active stealth. While not a true cloaking device, it was able to disappear from most scanners. The device is not dissimilar, but inferior to the stealth fields used by modern Refuge ships. It proved itself to be remarkably good at commerce raiding, and during the Cathamari war, it proved itself again. The ship class is noted for successfully ambushing and torpedoing a combined total of twenty-seven thousand Cathamari ships. Including four and a half thousand of their valuable battlecruisers. In effect, this ship was best employed in manners similar to the submarines of world war II

Ancient Solean(Refuge) Light Cruisers:

Project Warbird: A failed Light cruiser design that underwent trials in 068 SDE. The ship showed promise, but a fatal design flaw with her engine configuration in regards to the ship’s star frame resulted in the entire ship being sent back to the drawing board. The problem was that the engines were simply too powerful for her frame. Not wanting to give up on the speed her intended engine configuration would have provided a new project was started to devise a hull in her size range that could handle the stress without a significant compromise on other capabilities such as armament. This led to the creation of the Star Knight Project. Ultimately the entirety of the original design was scrapped as too many minor flaws were found that had to be worked out. It was simply easier to start over.

Star Knight Class Light Cruiser: This ship was the very first entirely Solean designed Light cruiser to serve in the Solean navy. This cruiser proved to be remarkably successfully, unlike her predecessor Project Warbird. The Star Knight was the fastest ship of her era, especially on sublight. Like all Solean ships of the Era, she lacked shields and instead relied on an enhanced powered armor scheme known as Overlord Armor. A scheme not dissimilar but significantly less advanced than the armor used today. The ship class first entered service to the pre-imperial Solean fleet in 076 SDE. She served prominently throughout the Cylovan conflict, and numerous wars. Being a highly modular ship design she saw numerous refits and varients through her service. The ship class was ultimately retired from service in the year 912 SDE in favor of a new cruiser that was designed alongside the first Solean battleship class the Spectre which was commissioned earlier the same year.

The ship originally carried Phase Lances a particle-based energy weapon as her main weapons. These were mounted in medium mounts, and supported by an array of particle flak cannons for AA. The ship had two hangers and was designed to carry the LPC the premier light corvette of her day. In addition, she carried seventy-two fighters in her hanger bay This armament was later replaced PPB cannons and Hellfire Flak arrays. (Both of these are early versions of Solean plasma weapons that are still in use today. Although modern versions are much improved.) At the same time as the armament change, those fighters were removed from her loadout, and the LPC was replaced by the Solean LAC. The reason for this was that in the early fourth century SDE when plasma weapons were being adopted by the fleet, fighters were being phased out of the fleet.

Ancient Solean(Solean Alliance) Light Cruisers:

Lancer II: Commissioned to replace the older Star Knight class, the Lancer II improved on the Star Knights design, but also drew from older ships. Including the human Lancer and Nagara ship classes. Outfitted with the best stealth technology the Alliance had to offer, it was intended to be employed similar to the Nagara. Unlike the Nagara she didn’t rely solely on torpedoes for ship to ship combat. In addition to a healthy set of torpedoes, she carried twin spinal mounted superheavy PPB cannons that had been adapted to be fired while cloaked. This would allow her to sink ships without wasting valuable torpedoes if she didn;t have to. Those beam cannons were her only guns intended for ship to ship. The rest of her guns were light Hellfire flak cannons intended for AA fire. Like the ship she replaced she was never outfitted with shields, and instead relied on an enhanced armor scheme for protection from direct hits.

Heavy Cruisers:

Heavy Cruisers are the workhorses of the fleet. These small capital ships are employed in a wide array of roles that require a heavily armed ship, but don’t necessarily need the larger and more expensive battleship or the dreadnought. Heavy cruisers are typically heavily armored and/or shielded. Most heavy cruisers are designed with slugging matches in mind, and can easily slug it out with other cruisers. Some can even slug it out with a battleship although that matchup is not normally recommended. The most common roles for a heavy cruiser include escort missions, planetary bombardment, border patrol, light cruiser hunting, and planetary defense. Now let’s look at a few Heavy Cruisers with a focus on the Refuge.

Ancient Humanity(Old Earth) CH’s:

Osaka Class: Designed before the Third Colonial War to counter the rising piracy on Earth’s colonial trade routes. Being intended primarily as an escort, a great deal of emphasis was placed on her engines. The result was the fastest heavy cruiser of her era. The Osaka could easily chase, and catch every other ship of her size class. Not to mention most ships smaller than her as well. Her armaments included 24 dual-purpose light particle cannon banks, eight heavy particle cannon banks, a single lateral beam array, and fore and aft torpedoes.

Tokyo Class: Based on the Osaka’s hull the Tokyo features enhanced hull armor, and a larger torpedo bay with additional launchers. This came at a cost of half its secondary armaments, and two banks of heavy cannon. As a result, she is more vulnerable to fighters than the Osaka and now requires escort to protect her from fighter attacks. The larger torpedo bay and additional launchers do however give her the firepower to slug it out with Cathamari battlecruisers.

Hammerhead Class: This cruiser class is most famous for that it was the first human ship class to encounter the Cathamari. The Hammerhead has a very limited battery of light particle cannons for firing on fighters, and light ships. Her main weapons were torpedoes. Designed for the Third Colonial war where the best weapon for penetrating armor was torpedoes. Her armor was four and a half meters thick.

Thor Class: Built by Mars colony the Thor Class was the premier heavy cruiser of the old earth era. No other cruiser could match her in a one on one fight. However, her tough armor, and powerful weapons array came at the cost of speed. As such she is also the slowest heavy cruiser of her time.

Washington Class: Designed by Luna colony to fight the Thor, she carries similar armaments, but she couldn’t match the heavy armor of the Thor. Using engines purchased from Earth, she was given the speed to outmaneuver and outrun her chief opponent the Thor. Only Earth’s Osaka was faster than the Washington.

Ancient Solean(Refuge) CHs:

Battlehawk Class: The first heavy cruiser designed by the People of Sol and one of the first Solean cruisers to enter the fleet that wasn’t inherited from old humanity. The Battlehawk was a revolutionary step forward in ship design, and historians consider her to be the earliest ancestor to the Solean battleship. The ship class proved to be remarkably successful, and when first placed into service in the mid 060s SDE she was outfitted with third-generation particle cannons, and photon torpedoes. Along with two hangers with space for 96 fighters. By 074 SDE this armament proved insufficient and a proposal to up her armaments reached the Elder Council. The proposal passed and she was chosen as the testbed for the at the time experimental Phase Lance beam weapons array. Those weapons proved effective, and were then finalized into the design.

Her modular design allowed this cruiser a very long service length, and her low production cost and ease of retrofit kept her in the Solean fleet for nearly four thousand years before her base hull became obsolete. Originally she was the symbol of the might of the Solean fleet, but that changed when she was supplanted by the Solfire class Heavy cruiser.

Like all Solean ships of her era, she lacked shields and relied on heavy armor instead. In the fourth century SDE, she was reconfigured to employ plasma weapons, and in the following century, her class was outfitted with rudimentary combat shields and a cloaking device.

Ancient Solean (Solean Alliance):

Solfire Class: In the mid-sixth century SDE the Solean fleets began to see a need for a faster heavy cruiser. The Battlehawk could easily take a pounding, and had amazing firepower for its size class. However, she didn’t have the speed the Solean fleet needed. In the year 546, the first hull of the Solfire class was laid down. She was at least in part intended to replace the aging Battlehawk, but at the same time, a proposal to modernize the older class also passed.

The Solfire featured a slightly smaller and sleeker hull than the old Battlehawk. Unlike the Battlehawk the fleet saw no need to include a fighter bay on the ship, but she did include berths for several small corvettes. For protection, the Solfire featured two hundred and fifty meters of Overlord Armor, Energy webs, and Class three combat shields. Her main battery consisted of PPB Cannons, and her secondaries were Hellfire plasma cannons. Additional Armaments included Hellfire flak arrays, fore and aft torpedoes, and RFHET turrets. (The RFHET are rapid-fire energy torpedoes, their limited yield makes them of little use against capital ships, but they are deadly to light crafts. These devices have basic homing ability making them quite accurate.) Like all Solean ships of the era her class came equipped with a sophisticated cloaking device. Few factions of her era could cloak ships of her size class, and the ability to cloak capital ships gave the pre-empire alliance a significant tactical advantage.

The ship like the Battlehawk had a long service length, and proved instrumental in countless battles. One of the most noted battles that the Solfire proved instrumental in occurred near the end of its service. That battle is called the Battle of Somar Point. At Somar Point the two Solean fleets had been in the process of making an intergalactic jump when she was suddenly beset by hostile alien attackers. Among Solean ships present here were the Cityships Enterprise and Columbia. As for the attackers they were a race called the Delkari, a people that the Soleans had no prior hostilities with. In fact, contact between the two races had been rather sparse until this point. As a whole, the fleet had little power to spare for defenses, as they had were busy making an intergalactic conduit, but a few cruisers were able to bring their defense systems online and engage the Delkari fleet. Despite their efforts, the attackers sunk the SFS Columbia, but one cruiser the SFS Orion successfully held off the rest of the Delkari fleet and allowed the SFS Enterprise to escape with moderate damage along with most of the other escort vessels. During the battle, the Orion scored two hundred and seventeen confirmed capital ship kills before she ultimately sank explosively. The ship’s main drive having been deliberately overloaded after the weapons systems had been disabled by enemy fire. The resulting shockwave crippled an additional forty capital ships and sank four more.

Orion Class: Named after the ship that saved a cityship this class was designed to serve in the war that followed. Given the Solean policy of planetary purge tactics (I.E that would not invade Delkari worlds, but instead the bombarded them from orbit until no life remained) in that war, she was outfitted with special wave plasma cannons for use on planetary targets. These special weapons could quickly erase all signs of civilization on a planet in a matter of minutes. The Orion was notably designed to take full advantage of the recent development of Omega power. Her main weapons were PPBs and Hellfires. The Delkari quickly learned to fear the Orion as an encounter with one rarely left survivors. Like all Solean ships of her age, she was equipped with an advanced cloaking device.

While many look back on this ship as an instrument of terror, it is best to take into context her era. She was designed shortly after the Soleans had lost one of their precious cityships with all hands to an unprovoked ambush attack. In this time period the Solean people didn’t colonize planets, but instead lived their lives out in space. Mostly on Cityships like the Columbia. As such, there was no way that the Soleans could simply let the destruction of the Columbia slide, the Orion and her larger cousins were their answer. They had to make the cost of attacking one of their cityships so high that no one else would dare sink one of them again, and their response worked. None who heard of what happened to the Delkari ever dared attack a cityship of the alliance again.

Ancient Solean (Early Imperial):

Katana Class Heavy Cruiser: Designed during the early days of the Solean empire the Katana’s first opponents belonged to the very same enemy that tested the first Solean heavy cruiser the Cylovans. At the time the newly founded empire was at war with the Cylovan Collective a race of machines that would stop at nothing to force on all races a perverted utopia that their creators had envisioned them to provide.

The Katana was heavily armored and is noted as the first Solean cruiser to actually have a decent set of shields. Like all Solean ships, she was outfitted with a cloaking device that made her almost impossible to track. She was outfitted with “Dragons Breath” PPB Cannons the latest in long-range plasma beam weapons as her main armament. Additional armaments included torpedo turrets, fore and aft torpedoes, Hellfire Plasma cannons, and drone bays. The Katana was one of the first Solean ships to employ drone fighters in combat.