Aotrs303 Midnight Dreadnought

Army Of The Red Spear

Scale: Fleet (very nominally 1:10000th)

Size (Bounding Box): 95.0mm x 32.0mm x 36.7mm

Entirely Optional Lore PDF included.

Physical Print: One ship supplied.

Digital Files:

Supports: Not available at this time, sorry.

Mounting: 3.4mm diameter flight stand hole located at base; flight stand provided.

Scaling Notes: Yellow. Parts potentially affected by scaling: Flight stand hole, wall thickness, thin parts.

Photo of FDM print. (Replicator 2)

For Resin/SLS Printing: Use file 1solidS (plus stand)

For FDM Printing: Use files 1solidR (plus stand)

The Midnight class Dreadnought is the most common of the Aotrs capital ships, appearing where most fleets would have battlecruisers or battleships. The Midnight was a late first-wave ship which benefitted greatly from the designs of just a few years prior. It combines an excellent turn of speed for a vessel of its size, with a powerful weapon loadout and superior protection.

The Midnight’s prevalence is partly due to the end of the supercruiser era. With the supercruisers finally having stopped occupying the docks and supplies, the Aotrs had an abundance of engineers and shipyards now used to building larger ships. As typical for the Aotrs, a skill-resource is never squandered and many of these shipyards set to building Midnights. The Midnight fills many of the supercruiser’s roles in miniature. It is in many ways, then, the spiritual successor to the supercruisers.

The Midnight often serves as a command ship for smaller fleets and a ship of the line in large ones. It also often deployed in its own as commerce raider, at which it excels; as few convoys are prepared for an ambush by a dreadnought. Military supply convoys have learned to dread the sudden appearance of a Midnight bearing down upon them, like a battleship of ancient times.

The Midnight’s twin engines provide it with an acceleration of 9mc, even with the weight of the 2500TXq AIC hull plating. The design comfortable met the 100 MEUs of the specification, and left more than enough power for the weapons and the extensive 6450TXq shields to draw from.

The Midnight’s armaments start with the two massive Class 30 warhead launchers in the bow. Thrice the size and power of the typical warheads used by most of the fleet, the Midnight’s weapons can devastate an opposing target from range. Each launcher can fire ten missiles under their own power or accelerate two missiles or torpedoes in a single burst. The primary Class 30 missile, the RZ-3A Razer, has a yield of 650Txq and a 1 million kilometre accuracy envelope and the Midnight typically carries 80. For extreme range engagement, it also carries 40 PV-2C Pulveriser missiles. While only carrying a smaller 525 TXq-yield warhead, the Pulveriser has an accuracy envelope of 2.15 million kilometres. Though this is only enough for two salvoes, this is sufficient for most operations, especially since distances of over 3 million kilometres are extremely rare, given that is the point at which almost any FTL system can safely make a micro-jump.

The HE-2B Hecatoncheire torpedo has a new, advanced warhead, the next generation of shaped-blast warhead. While the warhead yield at 2120TXq is smaller than that of the more conventional Slaughterer, the Hecatoncheire is capable of punching through most standard shields and armour and directly striking the hull, which makes it roundly feared.

Against a target whose’s defences have been depleted, however, the SL-5F Slaughterer’s more conventional 2300TXq anti-matter warhead is more potent.

The Midnight typically carries 50 Hecatonchires and 48 Slaughterers. Rounding out the standard load are a dozen IM-2 Impairer warheads, for disabling anemy vessels.

Once a target is softened up by long-range fire, the Midnight can close into the range of its numerous heavy coldbeam turrets and emplacements. The Midnight’s main batteries have an accuracy envelope of 400 000km and a combined output of 1740TXq. A little closer still, at 300 000km or less, and the opponent, likely now badly damaged and bereft of shields and armour, is easy prey for the dorsal energy beam cannons in their double turret mount. These powerful weapons each have a massive 2100TXq output and are capable of literally slicing an energy ship apart. Both beams can rotate independently of each other and the main turret platform itself, allowing a wide range of potential applications or targets to be engaged.

In one notable instance, the LSS Annihilating Execration was tasked to retrieve valuable equipment (of a classified nature) from an asteroid base. Captain Skyslaughter manoeuvred the Annihilating Execration so that the asteroid base was above it, and fired the twin beams vertically, while spinning the main turret. The twin beams neatly cored the station around the vital gear like an apple. By then corkscrewing out the beams, the dreadnought sliced apart and scattered (due to the direction of the force) the rest of the asteroid and the base with it. The cored section was then easy to simply grab with the Annihilating Execration’s tractor beam and tow away at leisure. This attack has been successfully conducted on at least two other occasions on a large enemy capital ship and once against a swarm of surprised light vessels by other captains taking Captain Skyslaughter’s example.

Finally, the Midnight has a dedicated point-counter measure system and a plethora of anti-fighter turrets, with a combined output of 5400TXq over the Aotrs standard 2.15Ym³ engagement sphere. The Midnight originally had half as many of weapons, but improvements and refinements to the engines as the new 10th generation engines were shaken down allowed a little more mass to be added with no net loss of drive power or drain on the power core.

In 2345, the Midnight family completed its first full upgrade (to Mark 1A). Further power plant advancement enabled the ship’s engines to be upgraded for even more speed. This was facilitated by the Midnight’s supercruiser ancestry – having learnt the lesson the hard way about how large components like power cores could become difficult to replace on large ships, the Midnight’s was designed in modular sections, so that dismantling it and removing and replacing it did not require cutting apart the entire ship to get to it, and could even be done segment-by-segment. Despite a 7% increase in mass, the Midnight was almost third faster (up to a startling 11.6mc), and with additional power to add 6% more shielding, bringing the shield output to 6780TXq. Maneuverability was also improved, to a very respectible 125 MEUs.

The Midnight has two principle variants in the field, the Midnight A and D. There are other variants of the Midnight believed to exist or be planned, but no concrete information about these vessels is known.