The first wave of GTSR ships to be spotted had a wide variety of armament, but lacked in one notable area – “hull-breaking” weapons; that is, weapons most effective at destroying a vessel stripped of shields and armour. The Heloderma Light Cruiser was the first vessel to be spotted equipped with such weapons. Two variants have been identified, named after Earth’s two poisonous lizards and differing in their armaments. The Heloderma Suspectum (named for the Gila Monster) uses torpedoes to strike from long range; the Heloderma Horridis (named for Mexican Beaded Lizard) uses heavy particle beams to attack from closer ranges.
The Heloderma Suspectum carries eight torpedo tubes – four forwards and four rear, a pair each in the four flipper-like mounts. Each pair connects to a magazine of 42 torpedoes. These are divided into 21 700TXq-yield standard warheads, and 21 840TXq-saturation-yield blast torpedoes. These will be drawn from former BSE, Eternal Reich and Soviet Remnant stocks, which are widely available to the GTSR and have little to choose between in terms of performance and physical weapon size.
The Heloderma Horridis instead uses a pair of turrets, one dorsal and one ventral. Each of these is armed with a heavy particle beam of Japanese Empire manufacture. These weapons have an engagement envelope of around 400 000km and an output of 1470TXq each. While the rate of fire at full power is low, the weapon’s turreted placement gives them the fine control to slice unprotected ships apart with ease. The enormous waste heat produced by the weapons mandated the addition of two additional radiator heat-sinks, placed like stylised fins.
Both Heloderma variants have the same secondary and defensive armament. Two blisters on the rear module mount particles beams with a combined 416TXq output and accuracy envelopes of 400 00km. It is slightly usual to see larger weapon mounts on these vessels, but it affords the Helodermas the ability to stand off slightly further. The low output is not really sufficient to strip shields or armour alone, but it does allow the light cruisers a limited ability to punch hole for their main weapons without additional support. Sixteen point-defence blisters round out the Heloderma’s armament. Eight of these are all equipped with particle beams of BSE manufacture, for a combined 960TXq output. The remaining eight carry LZ-2200 lazer cannons, with a combined output of 944TXq.
“Hull-breaker” vessels are often priority targets and to preserve the Holoderma’s striking power as long as possible, it was fitted with 1075TXq-rated shield generators. Composite armour underneath further has an Armour Integrity Rating of 1200TXq. The Heloderma’s two Daimler-Benz DBR 2190 starship engines are geared for agility over speed, to also maximise evasive capability, and the Heloderma is rated to 126 MEUs.
Acceleration is notably sluggish, however, at only 9.5mc. Nevertheless, this is enough to keep it in line with the Varanus Heavy Cruisers is it likely to be typically paired with.
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Range: Grand Terran Sovereign Republic
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