*Missiles can
be fired in volleys every 12 seconds. **Upgradeable to
Energy Cannons (damage 80, fire time 3.0 s).
When the
great Crusade against the Beast was in its darkest days,
Kiith Somtaaw found itself desperate for heavier firepower
and the capital ships to carry it. While research into
Bentusi design philosophy would eventually bear fruit in the
awe-inspiring Dreadnought, it would have not come in time
had the Deacon-class Destroyer not been pushed into service.
The Deacon was originally intended to be a new generation of
heavy transport, but when the demands of war hit the Somtaaw
fleet hard, the design was quickly modified while still on
the drawing board. The Deacon's loading booms were scrapped
and replaced with heavy ion beams in a fixed forward mount,
while the four side-mounted point-defense turrets were
replaced with medium rail guns to give all-around firepower.
The most innovative addition was the dorsal-mounted missile
turret, which gives the Destroyer a full 360 degrees of
long-range hitting power—capable of tearing apart enemy
frigates before they can get into range to return fire.
The Deacon's
baptism of fire came at the battle of Coruc Farr, when two
Somtaaw Destroyers were left alone to hold off a Beast Heavy
Cruiser and a full flight of infected strike craft. In the
thick of battle, the lead Destroyer, the Naar-Tel, closed
with the beast cruiser and was raked by an infection beam.
As deck after deck of the Destroyer fell to the Beast
infection, the Naar's Captain made a desperate decision to
vent drive plasma into the infected areas and then out into
space. At the cost of gutting a quarter of his own ship and
killing a sizable percentage of his own crew, the Naar's
Captain was able to keep his ship in the battle and help
destroy the beast Cruiser.
From that day
on, the Naar Directive, as it became known, became the
standard response from Allied heavy capital ships to Beast
infections. And, while the price in Hiigarian life is always
high, instant death in a blast of high-energy plasma is
preferable to the twisted immortality of becoming part of
the Beast.
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