GJD CGI Images 7 - bits and bobs
Goliath Maxi-freighterhttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c59/geejaydee/Star%20Frontiers/Goliath.jpg
The PGC Goliath class freighter is at the upper limit of practical modern starship engineering. It's hardy frame is strong, but far from maneauverable, and the ship accelrates and decelerates extreamly slowly. Only the busiest of trade routes can support more than one Goliath, as it is capable of doing the work of four or five smaller vessels, and it is rare for anything other than hard to find raw materials to be cost effectivly shipped in bulk, rather than be sourced locally.
The first ship of this class, the CSS Goliath herself, caught the headlines when a computer virus of unknow alien origin infected her systems and turned the ship rogue. The ship proceeded to jump to the fledgling colony world of Alcazaar and chart a course to impact with the only habitable world in the system. The impact of the cargo of several million tons of tungsten ore, not to mention the eight atomic engines, would certainly have destroyed the 200,000 inhabitants of the young colony and potentially caused an ecological catastrophy. The quick intervention of a group of nearby troubleshooters resulted in the alien virus being eradicated using a jury-rigged EMP bomb. Unfortunatly the troubleshooters were unable to deactivate the overloaded engines and were forced to divert the ship onto a course which bypassed the colony world and delivered the out of control ship to be destroyed in the local sun.
UPFS Resolute - Clarion Class Light Cruiser
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c59/geejaydee/Star%20Frontiers/LCAS.jpg
The Resolute was the third ship in the Clarion class (Clarion, Steadfast, Resolute, Defiant, Tireless and Adamant thus far) to be delivered from the Wartech/Hind Spaceworks shipyards over Prenglar. She entered service in the closing weeks of the 2nd Sathar War and was present at the suprise Sathar counter attack at Truane's Star which decimated Task Force Nova. It was the Sathar's use of their new jump-engines which allowed them to jump directly into orbital space, without the need to decellerate from void emrgence for several days, which gave them the edge to overwhelm the docked ships of Nova. The battleship UPFS Admiral Clinton, as well as the Assault Carrier UPFS Nova and the heavy cruiser UPFS Dreadnaught were targetted in the first few moments of the attack. Nova was hit by several flights of Sathar fighters and fires burned out of control. Dreadnaught was attacked by a trio of destroyers and suffered a catastrophic hit to her antiquated computer control centre and a repeated barraga of fire concentrated on her bridge, leaving her dead in space. However, the intial salvoes of the trio of Sathar heavy cruisers making up the core of the attack force were reserved for the Admiral Clinton. Repeated disruptor beam, lasre cannon and fusion torpedo hits struck her all across her hull. The venerable warhorse was gutted in less than three minutes.
Resolute was one of the few ships not powered down at the orbital resupply depot. She had been on picket duty with her sister ship, Clarion, and the Truane's Star militia ships. They were deployed in deep space to act as forward observers for any expected Sathar attack. The new Sathar tactics, and the revolutionary jump drives, had allowed them to "leapfrog" the picket ships and jump directly into orbit.
The Resolute is seen here firing her laser and rocket batteries and launching a fusion torpedo. The image is taken from the recovered log of the Vrusk merchantman VSS Kizzz'kakk'ik (Strong Ship For Moving Items), which earned herself and her crew special distinction when she placed herself between the docked UPF ships and a group of incomming sathar Frigates. She used her two laser batteries and single rocket battery to devastating effect by firing on the incomming ships engines, seriously damaging two of them and immobilising a third completely before she succumbed to their combined fire. The UPF have recognised the bravery and sacrifice of her crew by announcing that the new class of fleet replenisment tenders will be named in their honour.
