silly thread, what are you doing on the second page
MARS ALLIANCE
MALACANDRA CLASS
It is undeniable that the Mars Alliance's
Retribution class was the most powerful warship to see service in the war. A single
Retribution was a fleet onto itself, and cost just as much to build. despite its modular construction and parts commonality with other martian vessels, the sheer
size of the
Retribution class made their construction a lengthy and costly affair.
Although the arrival of the
Retribution had tipped the scales of the war, the "second generation" warships produced by Earth in response quickly threatened to tip them back. It was clear to Mars leaders that to maintain the new balance, Mars needed her own "second Generation".
The
Malacandra is, in essence, a miniature version of the
Retribution. it shares many of the design features of the
Retribution ; the large forward shield, the amidships laser arrays, large habitation module doubling as an escape module and plate radiators; however, they are implemented on a much smaller scale.
The
Malacandras weapon load, while much smaller than that of the
Retribution, was still impressive. it featured 8 Laser arrays (4 forward, 4 amidships) which gave the ship an impressive weapons coverage. the main forward armament was two quick fire mass drivers, each capable of firing three rounds in a single salvo.
Probably the most interesting Design feature of the
Malacandra was its split cooling system. instead of the large and complicated integrated cooling system of the
Retribution, the
Malacandra featured two separate setsof radiators, with the forward radiators handling the heat load of the primary weapons systems and life support, while the rear radiators handled the load from the main engine. the advantage of this was redundancy, with the loss of one set of radiators not resulting in a loss of ship, and a general simplification of heat management, as the separate radiators meant the ship could manouver at full burn and not worry about redlining the radiators from weapons use.
Although the design of the
Malacandra was solid, it would ultimately be regarded (unfairly) as a failure. a combination of politics, bad business and an urgent need by the generals of the Mars Alliance to be seen doing
something resulted in the first
Malacandras being rushed into service fitted with substandard armaments and equipment. The result was that the these early
Malacandras were only slightly more powerful than the
John Carter class they were supposed to replace, while costing nearly twice as much. although latter
Malacandras were equipped with the proper intended armaments (and earlier class members retrofitted) the class could not shake the the precived notion that they were an expensive white elephant and construction was discontinued.
Ultimately, the
Malacandra class would be designated as "1.75" generation warship, a precursor the Mars true 2nd Gen warships. many of her design features, including the split cooling system, would go on to be used on the next generation. The
Malacandra would also be the last new class to be fitted with the "spire" type laser emitters (although the
Flanker class would continue using them), with the next generation utilizing a new design.