The Exiles:A New Power

The Black League

Ingalls

While Research on the first discovered Mass Relay had been ongoing for several years now, including potential ways of shutting down the Relays themselves without destroying them should it be required, the Ingalls Orbital Works had been completed and were fully operational. Another year later and the first new UNSC Warship in decades was set to come out of Drydock-01, a Frigate and Corvette Dock.

It was a UNSC Paris-class frigate that had been thoroughly modified. Its plate was still shining, glimmering in the sunlight, it was so new. It was also more heavily armed and armored than the regular heavy Frigate of the UNSC. Its main MAC Battery had remained unchanged, the maw of the weapon visible above. Below, however, in the other prong, beside sensor suites, lay a magnetic coil set meant for something else entirely. The ship sat as its Fusion engines powered to life and the banks of Coilguns had been seemingly buffed. Quad-mounts bearing four coilgun barrels each spun both atop and on the bottom of each 'cheek'/hold of the ship, their rotation speed being tested, while the missile pods opened and closed, revealing empty racks.

A layer of blue light glimmered on top of the armor before retracting, followed up by an ovoid bubble made up of hexagons forming around the entire hull. On the aft of the ship, which had doubled in size somewhat, between the engine nacelles, new turrets spun in their holds. Twin prongs, mounted in casemates like those of the Ramparts. They tracked orbital debris around the ship itself.

The Admiral, an old man by now, his hair grey, face wrinkled, stared at the newest vessel, a whole new design and a whole new build for the UNSC's fledgling Navy. He lifted up the tablet with reports from the Sakamoto Naval Design Bureau out of Nanshin and Ingalls Shipworks' specifications for the vessel itself. It was a single production ship, meant to be the testbed for several new pieces of tech.

UNSC Type-X Testbed Naval Vessel

Classification:Frigate, Type-X Experimental

Production:Limited-run, single-vessel technological testbed

Designers:Ingalls Shipworks, Sakamoto Naval Design Bureau, Nanshin Research and Development Headquarters

Specs:

-Propulsion:Mark IV Mainline Fusion Drive(2 Primary, 10 Secondary)

-Power Core:Mark XX D-T Fusion Reactor, auxiliary Element Zero-enhanced Core

-Tonnage:2,9 Million tons

-Length:610 Meters

-Width:250 meters

-Slipspace Drive:None(Notes:Not required for Testbed Vessel)

-Complement:200 Crew, 1 Dumb AI

-Hull:Titanium-A Armor, layered Carbon nanofiber, reinforcements

-Shields:Type-X01 Prototype Kinetic Barriers, X6000 'Bubble' Shield system prototype

-Armaments:1 Light 65P8V3 Mass Accelerator Cannon(Top prong), 1 Prototype Type-6 Light Plasma Projector(Bottom prong), 2 M2475 SHIVA Nuclear Silos, 20 M58 ARCHER missile pods, 6 M997 Quad-Rampart Point-Defense Batteries, 4 XM250 Laser Point Defense turrets, 4 M2950 Harpoon nuclear missile launchers

Production Notes:Testbed vessel for new technology to be integrated in warship designs, both old and new. She will be the basis for all future vessels of the UNSC Navy. She is the progenitor that will usher in the New Fleet and our new doctrines for warfare. Hence, I plead with the Admiralty Board to prepare a thorough review of her capabilities within and around Ingalls.