In this page, the EFNI has chosen to present not only his
particular variant of the Nova Dreadnought, but a relatively
complete history of this class. The Nova dreadnoughts have been
the mainstay of the Fleet in the rise of the Earth Alliance as a
main power, the ancestors of our most importants war units, the
shield and the sword of the Alliance in his glory days, the last
ditch in his most tragic moments. The Nova Dreadnought is still
today a symbol of power, and a memory of the valour of the people
of three generations that have bravely fought on these ships. We
think that this deserves a more complete presentation of these
glorious ships, that still today sail through the space, to
defend our Alliance, and our People.
The Nova class dreadnoughts have been
the "iron fist" of the Earth Alliance since their
inception, in 2225.
The origin of this powerful ship was in a specification of the
Earthforce that required an heavy warship so powerful to stand
against and defeat the main capital ships of the most advanced
races known.
In that period, the "reference units" were the Primus
battlecruiser (Centauri) and the Meshakur battleship (Dilgar).
While the Centauri were from all the points of view at least
friends of the Earth Alliance (even if some small accidents have
happened in the late 2100's, these problems were related to the
strong presence of Dilgar mercenaries troops in the Centauri
military), the Dilgars were correctly perceived as a potential
menace.
Both the Centauri and the Dilgars had a
technology a lot more advanced than the Earth Alliance,
particularly in the energy/propulsion area, with their capability
to use gravitic propulsion systems: the possibilty to build
warships ables to outrun and outmaneuvre such units was
deductively excluded, while the traditional "power
triad" of the EA, I.E. Firepower, Armor and Starfury was
pushed to his extreme consequences in this warship design.
The overall concept of the Nova is simple, at the very end this
ship is a square beam that holds at one end the most powerful
reactor/engine block that the Earth engineering was able to
develop, while at the other end were placed, clustered together,
the intrinsecally less survivable systems: fighters launching bay
and hangar, sensors, heavy weapons, missile launchers. As far as
possible, the forward systems were protected with large and thick
armored plates, that gave an excellent protection from the side
attacks, while the front is relatively less protected, even if
some systems like the jump engines have their own armored layer .
This arrangement was criticized, because it left some of the most
expensive and relevant equipments relatively vulnerables in a
frontal engagement, but from many points of view it is rational:
the crew and command section is well protected in the middle
section of the hull (popularly known as the "iron
cube"), while a frontal protection of the sensors, of the
launching tubes and of the heavy plasma mortars is extremely
difficult. The advantages of a frontal launching bay are
tactically releveants, and this solution is almost universally
employed: Centauri, Narns, Minbari, Dilgars, all of them use the
frontal bay, and, at least, the Earth design allows a good side
protection and a fighter line of flight more than double than the
other alien units of similar dimensions; at the very end, this
conceptual approach uses these systems as an addictional
protection for the crew and reactor modules. This concept, the
well known "Hammer" that is still today a caracterizing
trait of the EA units, has proven itself effective since the
first moment, and so it is well alive in the Omega destroyers, in
the Nova II Dreadnoughts, and in the Tillman Heavy Battleships, and it is
the "trademark" of Earthforce.
As was said, the Energy system was a
totally new design, extremely powerful and modular and simple in
design, based upon the new Westinghouse "Vulcan" fusion
reactors, while the plasma engines, the Beagle Bryant BB9,
encased in an outer armored capsule, had not the stream
deflection plates, renouncing to addictional maneuverabilty to
obtain a simpler and sturdier system. Each reactor (a self
colliding fusion model) was directly coupled with an engine,
obtaining an unprecedented modularity and sturdyness in a compact
system, easy to build and to repair.
The thrust allowed a 2.35 g's of acceleration in the first
series, not too much, from all the points of view, while the
maneuverabilty was limited*, but the reactors had a power output that is
still today impressive (81500 Terawatts), and at the time was
awesome.
The enormous power output was
used to feed an incredible weapon array. The few Nova Alpha were
equipped with free electron lasers, but the Nova Beta, the main
production series, was equipped with the most powerful and
innovative weapon systems of their era, eighteen twin heavy
Plasma Pulse turrets. (see weapon systems - Plasma weapons for a conceptual explanation of these
weapons).
The plasma weapons are
intrisecally short ranged, but there is no known ship that can
engage a close distance fight against a Nova and hope to come out
unharmed, even today, more than sixty years after the birth of
these ships**.
The long range weapon system of
the Nova was based upon six Raytheon BETA particle beam cannons
and 2 missile launching tubes with a standard load of 12 Matador
III missiles, well enough to be a match for large part of the
potential counterparts of the period; at shorter distances, in
the range of the main LPA-1000 plasma cannons, the firepower of the Novas was, and is still
today, qualificable with a single word: devastating.
Even without the pulse compression technology of the Dilgars, and
so with a limited rate of fire, each single barrell of the Nova's
cannons was capable to fire a plasma bolt of 70 terajoules every
2": a fire barrage deadly from any point of view, given the
fact that a target is always under the fire of at least four or
five turrets, 8 or 10 guns, so more than five bolts each second,
while a broadside or a frontal salvo, involving 8 or 10 turrets,
could mean a sudden death, and The two chin mounted HPM1 "Mjolnir" Heavy Plasma Mortars gave a further, impressive,
short range shipkilling power. The true problem was that the
reactors were stressed to their extreme limit, but overall the
problems were a lot less relevent than it is commonly rumored.
The last produced batches of the Nova have less temperamental
power systems.
The flight of 32 Starfuries is
a powerful complement and the real long arm and anti-fighter
shield of these ships, while the close-in defence against the
fighters and the missiles is based on the Mk-I interceptors and
granted by the escort units of that period, the Olympus corvettes
and the Hyperion cruisers.
This concept worked very well against the Dilgars: overwhelmed
and pursued at the long distance by the Nova Starfuries and the
Artemis frigates, made to fight at close distance, even their
most powerful warsips, the excellent Sekmeth cruisers and the
dreaded Meshakur battleships were unable to quicly defeat the
well protected Earthforces Dreadnoughts, and, mostly, unable to
survive the terrific firepower of the Novas. The Earthforce line
units of that period (mostly Hyperions, Artemis, Olympus and
Novas) were all effective ships, but the Nova was the real
"Iron Fist" of the situation, and in many occasions
made the difference.
The following chapter of the
history of the Nova was a bitter one: we are obviosly talking of
the Minbari War.
At the beginning of the War, there were 412 Novas in the
Earthforce. 72 more were built during the 28 months of war. Of a
total of 484 of them, only 62 survived the war. Unables to lock
on the targets, with a limited antifighter capability, with their
starfury shield quickly whipped away, outnumbered, they were the
only Earth warships barely capable to attempt some form of real
opposition against the overwhelming power of the Minbari. The few
of them so lucky to survive until the few kilometers of range of
the manual fire control systems were ables to destroy 189 Minbari
units, about the 85% of the casualties inflicted to the enemy.
Only eight Novas survived their contact with the Minbari. From
the first to the last day of that terrible conflict, the Novas
were the only real opposition that the Earth was able to place in
the road of destruction traced by the revenge of the powerful
aliens, and tried to defend the humanity until the very end. The
Novas were the only warships of the younger races that were
considered a real menace by the Minbari. 93446 People of their
crews and of their fighter pilots lost their lives in the War.
After the War, the mass
production to replenish the voids left from the losses of the War
shifted in a few years to the Omega Destroyer, that is a direct
evolution of the Nova design, but a different concept, better
suited for "stand alone" missions, with a more evolved
and flexible weapon system and a far larger endurance thanks to
the simulated gravity, that anyway retains the sturdyness, the
firepower and the other strengths of these classic Dreadnoughts.
After the Drakh attack of 2266,
the Nova, in the form of the Nova Delta, was chosen as a gapfiller to quickly replace
the Omegas lost, and, even if short lived (less than four years),
this production activity has left to the Earthforce about 290
extremely capables and respected anti-ship units.
The last conceptual incarnation
of the Nova concept is again a Dreadnought, the Nova
II, that, while
belonging to a new generation of ships, follws faithfully the
concepts and the "style" of the Novas.
NOVA
- N
THE E.F.N.I. VARIANT
All the original Novas (Nova-Beta or Alpha upgraded at the
beta standard) assigned to the Efni naval service before and
during the Minbari war were lost in action, the last surviving
units tried to oppose the Minbari forces at the Io outpost, so at
the end of 2247 (see essential chronology, 2247) the Efni Naval
service had been totally destroyed, and was needed to rebuild it
from the fundaments. The units chosen were the Hyperion in the
customized Hyperion-N variant, and the Nova, for strike and
combat support in situation that potentially required a firepower
superior to the upgraded Hyperions-N. Was chosen the Nova instead
of the Omega because the missions required by the EFNI almost
always last less than a month, so the lack of simulated gravity
is not an heavy problem, while the short and medium range
firepower of the Nova was determinating for the ambush warfare
that frequently involves the Operation Division of the EFNI.
The EFNI naval service has particular exigences, small number
of units assigned, and, as well known, the EFNI Technical Service
and the Naval service have always acted as a
"workbench" for some new technologies, so the units
employed by our small fleet are almost always modified respect to
the standard issue of the Eartforce Navy. The Nova-N follows
these guidelines.
Ten of these units have been built in the 2248-2249 period,
and have been assigned to the operational service from their
inception to the mid 2270's; actually the survived units are
essentially used for both training and for the local defence of
the Io outpost, where are placed the Efni Naval Service Arsenal
and the central command of the Operation division, even if they
are still called to operate in special operations. The
modifications are significant, but not so much to make these
ships deeply different from the Nova Beta.
The engine block is the standard module of four Beagle-Bryant
fast feeding plasma engines, in their last BB9-W variant, that
allows an acceleration of 2.7 g, about a 10% more than the
standard Nova Beta. The reactors are the Vulcan VI of the Omega,
so the available power is the same of the Omegas, a 30% more than
the typical novas of that period.
The hull was modified with the elimination of the turrets 11
and 12, replaced with two superstructure holding two
shuttle/landing bays, reconfigurables in function of the
operational exigences, and upon these structures have been placed
new weapon systems.
The Weapon system is centered on 16 twin turrets Westinghouse
HPPA type 1505, with a total of 32 barrels: the Westinghouse 1505
Plasma Pulse cannon can release a 105 terajoules bolt every 2
seconds for each barrel, an awesome short range firepower.
The 6 Raytheon BETA particle accelerators (two bow mounted and
four rear mounted) are retained, while have been added 9 Copeland
PP interceptors and four interceptor capables Walther-Raytheon WR
1000 pulse/particle turrets, placed on the side superstructures,
for an improved anti fighter and interceptor capability.
On the top of the hammer section is placed a TG4 twin railgun
turret, that in many occasions have shown to be an useful
"demolition tool".
The fighter line, is the same of the Nova and Omega, while the
two side hangars can carry up to ten assault shuttles, or
eventually, 24 more fighters.
The fighters are usually the SA-26 N Aurora Starfury, but can be
supported even the Thunderbolts.
The sensor suite is about the same of the Hyperion-N, so
excellent: the hyperspace navigation system is the GAW-12, the
long range search systems are the AEGIS Mk.42-E3 long range
phased array radar and the A.M.S. XGL-1 long range LIDAR,
specifically developed by the EFNI, and the essential
Pilkington/A.M.S. IRIG-5 passive Optical/Infra-red long range
search and track system. All the weapons have a passive multiband
optical automatic tracker, a proprietary development of the EFNI
Technical Service, that, with some operational limitations, has
the precious characteristics to be extremely ECM resistant and to
to allow a positive lock on and automatic tracking even against a
"low visibility" target: this sistem has the
addictional advantage to be extremely accurate.
in the early 2250's was installed even a gravitational wave
detector, another EFNI proprietary system, while the
communication, electronic warfare and electronic intelligence
equipments are vastly improved and enhanced, as usual on the EFNI
ships.
The Novas of the EFNI have served faithfully for more than 25
years, have been called on the fireline in a great number of
special operations, in the civil war, are the only Earth Alliance
warships that fought (and won) aginst the Shadows (see Essential
Chronology, 2259, Bright Eagle mission), participated bravely
to the Drakh line of 2266 (where the EFNI naval service lose two
of his Novas and four Hyperion_N) and fought again in the PsiWar (2264), with
excellent performances, and against the Drakhs until to 2271, yet
flanked by the New Nova Delta.
The seven surviving Units are still in service, as said above,
upgraded at the Nova Brightwarrior standard, but they are not so
intensively employed as they were until some years ago, even if
they are a familiar view for the people that frequently find
themeselves in the area of the Io outpost and Io jumpgate.
*(The first Nova was defined "manuverable as
a wounded hog" after her shakedown cruise. But there are
around less maneuverable ships, fielded even by more advanced
races. The Nova N, and the Nova Beta, have a decent linear
acceleration, given their enormous mass, and a lot of power
availble: their maneuverabilty is hampered by the fact that they
are slow to yaw and to pitch up or down. This limit is reduced,
but not eliminated, in the Nova N, while the Nova
Delta is a respectably nimble
ship, and the Brightwarrior upgrade improved strongly the handling carachteristics
of the Novas.)
**During the "Drakh Battle of the Line"
Many Nova Beta and seven Nova N of the EFNI engaged gunfights
against Drakh units, and were able not only to stand against
them, but to inflict extremely heavy casualties to the enemy. The
32 Novas involved in the battle were responsibles of at least 89
"shipkillings", and revalutated the Dreadnught concept,
gone out of favour after the Minbari War.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Class: Nova N (Nova EFNI Variant)
Type: Battleship/Deep Strike
Length: 1,505 meters
Mass: 35.5 million metric tons
Acceleration: 2.69 G
Crew: 265
Troop: up to 400 (the standard Nova Beta has arrangements for
carrying up to 8000 troops)
Fighters: 36 Lockheed-Mitchell SA 26-N Aurora Starfury.
Other: 12* Lockheed-Coronado C27N space assault shuttle, or
12*Valkirye-N atmospheric assault shuttles.
DEFENSE:
8.5 to 10.5 meter armored hull, CARBONAT-III
Multi-layer composite armour,
anti-neutron ablative armour.
16*Interceptor Mk.
II Defense Grid Energy Projectors, Mk.2 Energy Web.
