Warsword Light Frigate

The Warsword Light Frigate is the newest starship in the Vocian navy, created to fill the gap between corvette and frigate within the Imperial Star Republic's navy. The Warsword is a fast, lightly armored but still vicious starship, boasting three heavy turrets, two medium turrets, sixteen light turrets and four missiles banks.

With the creation of the Twin Eagles trade route, a joint venture between the Imperial Star Republic and the Imperial and Federal Union, the IStaR navy found itself in a uncomfortable situation. The Twin Eagles trade route was vast and stretched across most of the Beta quadrant, from their prosperous home region along the Beta-Delta border to the lawless wasteland of central Beta, having established to help revitalize the quadrant so long after the crippling Betan Economic Collapse that had, almost overnight, turned so many flourishing stellar nations into ruined anarchic states. Where there had once been police forces patrolling well maintained trade routes between the interconnected web of nations, now there were only hordes of pirates, lawless brigands and despots laying claim to their own corner of space, using the starships of nations past to keep central Beta nothing more than a wasteland covered in Rust and decay. The Imperial Star Republic needed a starship that could efficiently patrol the Twin Eagles and respond to these threats, a starship that could intercept and engage the typically smaller and faster enemy vessels.

The Comet corvette had been considered, it's smaller size and exceedingly fast sublight and FTL engines seemed to make it ideal for acting as patrol craft, but after several lost skirmishes with three groups of armed and organized pirate fleets left the Imperial Command desiring something that could hold it's own in a battle, rather than just being able to quickly engage or retret from battles that the aging Comet had no business being in. The Firewalker frigates were too slow to respond, and the only vessel the IStaR had in it's navy capable of responding with speed was the Starcaller support frigate, a vessel not intended for direct combat with the enemy.

Thus, the Warsword was born. Although far stronger than the Comet, the Warsword is only two thirds the size of a Firewalker frigate, and has only half the hull plating. It is however faster than the Firewalker and brings it's four missile banks to bear on the enemy. Structurally, the Warsword more closely resembles the Shieldbreaker heavy frigate, with it's port and starboard hull sections containing it's missile and light turret arrays and it's long central hull. However, where the Shieldbreaker has a spinal cannon, the Warsword relies entirely on it's thee heavy turrets, two medium and sixteen light turrets and four missile banks to deliver crippling blows to enemy starships. The Warsword also has a reinforced bow of solid plating, designed for ramming pirate ships and puncturing their hulls. To achieve the speed needed for such maneuvers, the Warsword has four standard Vocian impusle drives, but also four compressed impulse drives, giving it a incredibly fast impulse speed over all over Vocian starships, save for the Comet.

Howerver, to achieve it's high combat speeds,the  Warsword lacks a dedicated FTL core. Instead, the Warsword is designed to piggyback on a Starcaller support frigate and detaching upon entering into the combat zone. The Warsword does, however, contain a single FTL battery, allowing for a single, short range emergency jump and is incapable of leaving a star system under it's own power. This does make the Warsword reliant upon a mothership to get from place to place, but the Warsword has more than proved it's ability to patrol the Twin Eagles and carve out a safe region of trade and development where there was once nothing but violence and decay. The Warsword has been so effective, that it has become the cornerstone of a larger, secret objective of the IStaR; Operation Outrider.

Operation Outrider is a newly launched initiative that seeks to spread Vocian influence deeper into the Beta, the Imperial Navy launching hunter killer groups of Warswords on specially modified Starcaller support frigates deep into the regions of Beta, far beyond the borders of the Twin Eagles. Here, these smaller fleets operate for months on end, hunting down and obliterating pirate bases and establishing relations with parts of the Beta quadrant that have been isolated for decades. As the Warsword only continues to prove itself, the Imperial Star Republic is considering introducing it into the navy proper.

Seen here, two Warswords more to intercept a target by passing through the rings of a uninhabited planet somewhere in the Beta quadrant.

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So yeah. I've actually had this finished for months, but finally decided to put it up. The Warsword was actually built for a different project all together, but I eventually folded it into the Imperial Star Republic because I really liked the design and didn't want it to be shelved with the project it was created for. I incorporated aspects of my other starships (such as the bi-layered hull) and the 'wings' on either side of the main hull, as well as trying to get a bit further away from the box look that my capital ships have. I also wanted an excuse to get the Twin Eagles trade route project between myself and the player behind the Imperial and Federal Union established in lore,k if not strictly In-Character. I also spent a lot of time looking for the perfect planet with rings to make this shot. I wanted to include more effects such as swiveled turrets and possibly even some weapons effects, but the model itself contains so many polygons that it is exceedingly unwieldly (largely due to how many times I had to mirror the wings to make them look right, thus creating more polygons). The inclusion of the second ship in the background was always intended to show how the Warsword class operates most effectively in pairs, allowing for 'boxing in' enemy starships and flanking maneuvers.

You can't really see from this angle and the lighting used, but the medium turrets are located near the bow of the ship, directly above the brown/black portion of the lower hull (in my head, that piece of detailing is supposed to be an airlock). You can't really see it, but ti's still there. Just wanted to add some dynamic posing to the shot.

The Imperial Star Republic, IStaR, Vocians, Firewalker/Shieldbreaker/Starcaller and Warsword belong to me. Do not post or use without my expressed, written permission. Twin Eagles belongs to both myself and lubyak.deviantart.com/ .

Made with DOGA L3.
Background from Space Engine.