The first indication that the GTSR was ahead of the projected deployment of new vessels came in mid-2349, when a pair of Varanus Cruisers were first spotted. The Varanus, like so many other heavy cruisers the galaxy over, looks to be shaping up to be the workhorse of the GTSR navy.
The naming convention of the new GTSR ships is based on the binomial nomenclature – that is, the scientific name – used to classify species. The given reason from the GTSR’s public releases is that such scientific names are in a neutral language by design, and so use of them is a further unifying symbolism. However, that the naming schemes chosen have tended towards the decidedly reptilian has not gone unnoticed. The binomial nomenclature is a particularly interesting choice, as the species name (the second part) is used to differentiate between different variants. (The first, or genus name, is otherwise the name most commonly used when talking about extinct species for instance, with a few notable exceptions.)
The Varanus is named for the monitor lizards. In the first recorded encounter again the Japanese Empire, two variants were spotted; the Varanus Griseus and Varanus Flavescens, named for the desert and gold monitor respectively. A further three variants have been observed operating with GTSR fleets; the Varanus Varius, Panoptes and Komodoensis. All the variants are very similar, and use many of the same hull components, but differ more substantially than the Abronia corvettes. All five share the forward module of the three in common. The Griseus, Varius and Komodoensis appear to share the same middle and rear hull modules which are roughly equal in length, whereas the Flavescens and the Panoptes use modules of longer and short lengths.
Curiously, all configurations but the Varanus Komodoensis have only a single fire control suite, where as a typical heavy cruiser would carry at least two. For the Panoptes and Varius, armed with only anti-fighter/anti-missile weapons, where each system must perforce carry its own smaller suite, this is not surprising – but it is unusual to see vessels on the Varanus’ size have only one fire control suite to handle both primary and secondary anti-starship weapons.
The Varanus very clearly shows the matching of the best (sustainable) elements of the GTSRs constituent powers. The hull technology itself appears to have been manufactured to using the more advanced techniques used by the Saturn Syndicate Ascendancy, the Eternal Reich and the French and Israeli states. The sensor profile indicates technology incorporated from the Japanese Empire and communications systems from the British Stellar Empire.
The Varanus’ armour is a multilayer composite, made originally for the Eternal Reich, and it particularly mass-efficient. Using an estimated half the mass of the armour of a typical heavy cruiser of is size (such as the ubiquitous Delta Heavy Cruiser), the Varanus boasts armour with 20% more strength, rating as an Armour Integrity Capacity of 1230TXq. The saving in mass allows the Varanus to mount additional shield generators, giving it shields rated to 1400TXq.
Two Rolls-Royce Derwent FD12000 engines are supplemented by two smaller Safran SF-M2340 drives. The Derwents provide much of the motive power and thrust-vectoring manoeuvring, while the SF-M2340s provide supplementary acceleration. In concert, they give the Varanus a typically-average drive profile, with an agility rated at 118 MEUs and an acceleration of 10.6mc. Notably, however, both types of engine have above-average fuel-to-power ratios, making them maximally efficient for long-term operations.
The Varanus Griseus was the first variant to be identified. It is armed entirely with energy weapons. The primary battery is spinally mounted, on the underside of the hull; four Soviet Remnant-produced particle beam cannons, with a combined output of 966TXq and an accuracy envelope of 400 000km. These weapons appear to be the same design as those used on the Xinglong Heavy Cruiser, though in slightly different housings.
The remaining weapons are mounted in weapons blisters. Interestingly, all the weapons blisters are of Herosine Arms design. Found across many General Designs Hulls designs – the Delta hull especially – the standard weapon mounts are easy to configure for the smaller end users to mount locally-sourced weapons. It is unusual to see a larger power using them, and they typically produce their own purpose-built mounts for their weapon systems. This may be a simple accommodation for speed of production – it means less design work to simply “plug-in” the Herosine blisters, which are designed for exactly that. It may also be a concession to standardisation, since using the existing and commercially available blisters means a large standing supply of spares.
The secondary anti-starship batteries are mounted in four larger blister in the middle hull module. These are outfitted with Soviet Remnant particle beam cannons rated to a combined output of 624TXq and with an accuracy envelope of 300 000km.
However, the two Varanus Griseus were seen using different weapons in the point-defence blisters.
The Varanus Griseus mounts fourteen point-defence blisters; ten smaller blisters covering the forward and beam arcs, and four larger blisters covering the rear arcs specifically. On both Griseus spotted, these four rear blisters were fitted with Herosine-manufacture LZ-3300 heavy lazer cannons, with an output of 240TXq each. The LZ-3300 is a larger weapon, intended for sustained fire, but has slightly less tracking capability. Their placement as the rear turrets, however, is an intelligent move. As the LZ-3300s are only intended to work in a narrow field of fire, their lower tracking is less important, as the beams have to travel less distances to catch targets. The higher power output compensates for the fact that the rear facing could not mount as many standard blisters to cover it. The ventral pair of blisters are also capable of engaging targets in the lower hemisphere, but purely as a final backstop to catch anything the smaller blisters could not hit (again, as the final system to engage, it gives them maximum time to adjust to intercept.) This means that overall, the Varanus’ ability to project PD fire as roughly equal all aspects.
But the smaller point-defence blisters held different weapons on the two different Varanus Griseus cruisers. One had mounted all ten blisters with particle beams (believed to be of BSE manufacture) rated at a combined output of 1600TXq and an engagement sphere of 0.9Ym³. The other appeared to be mounting six stock Herosine Arms LS-914B laser batteries with a combined output of 900TXq and the front four blisters instead carried unidentified disintegrator cannons with a combined output of 670TXq, but a smaller engagement sphere of 0.85Ym³. The disintegrators are tentatively guessed to be of Herosine manufacture, but this is highly unclear.
What the significance of these apparently unlabelled subvariants is unknown, but they were using different colour schemes. Different branches of the GTSR perhaps? At time of writing, the reason remains pure speculation.
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Range: Grand Terran Sovereign Republic
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