Ship Profile - Tempest's Destroyer

Ship Profile: Tempest’s Destroyer

Class: Modified Martian Senior Elder Class Destroyer
Commissioned: Age 790
Status: Active Service
Allegiance: Z-Fighters, Earthling-Martian Alliance
Type: Customized Heavy Destroyer-Class Warship
Operator: Z-Fighters and Martians
Speed:
• Warp 6 (Maximum safe speed)
• Warp 8 (Maximum speed)
• Warp 9 (Achievable only after available energy being directed to the warp engines, prolonged use increases risk of engine overload)
Armament:
• Six 80 KrK Heat-Rays (four on forward arc, two on rear arc)
• One 188 DnO Canister Launcher
• One Neutralize Power Source Generator
Special Weapons:
• Black Smoke Canisters (fired from the main Canister Launcher)
• Neutralize Power Source (temporarily disables an enemy vessel)
• Infiltration (spying on capital bases/ships using the sensor array, very effective while cloaked)
Defenses:
• Impact Reflecting Armor
• Deflector Shields
• Prototype Cloaking Device (Allows movement without being detected, but prevents use of weapons)
Other Technology:
• Motion Tracking Device (Increases accuracy of its weapons)
• Tight Beam Lenses (Greatly extends the range of all Heat-Rays)
• Hover Bombs (Increased range of projectiles)
• Secondary Beam Amplifiers (Increased damage of all Heat-Rays)
• Enhanced Metals Detection (for defecting minefields in space)
Power Plant: Two 4450 VAL Dilithium-based Cyclic Depletion Generators

Design: Tempest’s Destroyer is a modified design of the Senior Elder Class Destroyer, being heavily based on the Martian Flying Machine, with a heavier weapons load-out, in particular from the Tempest, Bombarding Machine and technology from the Scanning Machine. While the Senior Elder Class Destroyer only has three Heavy Heat-Rays and a decent Canister Launcher, the Heavy Destroyer has four Heavy Heat-Rays at the front and an additional two at the rear arc, with an upgraded Canister Launcher and a Neutralize Power Source Generator on the forward arc as well. However, these heavy weapons demand significant power from its power plant and as such they have longer recharge times in order to keep all remaining systems stable and operative. While it has a Cloaking Device to hide itself from enemy radar systems for safe travel, its primary disadvantage is that it renders the weapons inoperable; the ship HAS to drop its cloak before it can arm and fire its weapons. The sensor arrays, located close to the bottom two forward mounted Heat-Ray Generators, are used to not only detect potential minefields and other cloaked ships, but it can also be used to infiltrate, as in spying, on enemy vessels/bases. This is the only ability that can be used while cloaked, however this requires the warship to approach the target for infiltration at close range, which in turn risks detection due to surges in neutrino emissions; elementary particles  which can be detected through any starship's sensor array, provided they have the right instruments for them.

Background: The creation of the Martian Space Fleet can be traced back in the time during and after the Metar Crisis in the universe of the Z-Fighters. After researching the minerals that were gathered from the Anomaly System Planets, a major technological advancement began for the Martian Race as a whole, one of which enabled the creation of new power generators, which rendered the old Power Plants, once used to power their defenses, as well as the engines within their machines, obsolete and were as such discontinued in favor of the new models. The Dilithium mineral proved to be vital in the safe regulation of matter/antimatter reactions in the new designs of engines, which in turn rendered the Heavy Elements Facilities obsolete as well.

The Heavy Elements Facilities produced isotopes used in the power units of the Martian Machines, however these old engines were extremely volatile and were placed in indestructible casings which were often one of the only things that remained intact whenever a Martian Machine was destroyed. If the casing itself was destroyed or its engine broken open, it would release a deadly radiation that killed everything in its surrounding area, rendering it uninhabitable for a long period of time.

The decision to make the space fleet came very quickly, estimated to be around the time the whole Metar Crisis was reaching its peak where the Martians and the Z-Fighters were able to reach the Cadimus Prime star system to launch and detonate a powerful superweapon known as the Anomaly Device on the Metar Homeworld, Cadimus II, which in turn sent the Metar and all their colonized worlds back into the void from which they came. At that time, the Martians have been studying the Metar and their technology, discovering that they were capable of interstellar flight. To them, this was also the primary reason why several of their cylinders en route to the Metar Worlds were intercepted and destroyed before they could even approach those planets, while others conveniently used debris from other starships, in particular those of the Planet Trade Organization, to either camouflage their approach or use the space battles that the Planet Trade Soldiers had with the Metar as a distraction to approach the planet unnoticed. Because of this, the Elder Chambers unanimously decided that the Martians should have a space fleet of their own, realizing that they would need some interstellar defense against potential invaders of their home world. The research and study of a captured Metar vessel courtesy of the Z-Fighters allowed the Martians to make significant advances of their own, being able to figure out how the power of the engines is distributed throughout such a large vessel and how several systems are affected by them, before the Metar Starship was sent back into space after the threat of an engine meltdown was imminent. Despite the loss of their study material, the Martians have learned enough to do experiments of their own, starting the research, design and construction of their space fleet.

The research and construction of the Martian Space Fleet took some time, but there are several factors that contributed to the fast production of the vessels, especially the lighter class vessels:
1. The Martians themselves have eliminated the bacteria which causes all fevers, cancers and other morbidities on Mars millennia ago, causing them to never tire, sleep or suffer, which effectively allowed them to literally work around the clock.
2. The ships that are part of the Martian Space Fleet are technically redesigned, enlarged or modified designs of their own planet-based war machines, each of them retrofitted with those weapons and technology catering to a different purpose within the fleet.
3. The aforementioned study of the captured Metar Starship, along with the studies of any ships from the Planet Trade Organization allowed the Martians to expand on tests in creating the bigger engines for the bigger vessels and running tests to determine its performance in recoinassance, defensive and offensive maneuvers.

Each of the Martian Ships on their turn have their own strengths and weaknesses; the Recon-Class Scout Ship for example is only lightly armed with poor armor, but compensates this with its high speed and maneuverability, making it an excellent ships to serve as Escort vessels or to use hit and run tactics on enemy warships/starbases, while the Overlord Class Battleship is outfitted with the strongest weapons of the Martian Arsenal and vast energy reserves, but despite its heavy weapon load-out it sacrifices speed, making it slow and tediously sluggish when trying to maneuver in combat, coupled with the enormous cost of resources and all into making such a behemoth.

As for the Modified Heavy Class Destroyer, it was a customized design that was presented as a gift to the Z-Fighters for their assistance during several conflicts in which the Martians were involved, in particular the Metar Crisis as well as the corresponding search of a new world for the Martians to settle on, due to the deteriorating condition of the planet Mars itself. As a result, Tempest has chosen the vessel as his personal flagship in case of interstellar conflicts, with Xeno being his second-in-command. For the rest it has a standard complement of Martians on board to control its systems, while leaving room for the Z-Fighters to be on board in case their company is required for interstellar travels.

The Modified Senior Elder Class Destroyer is primarily built for combat due to its weapon-loadout, but it also has other vital systems, like a Medical wing to treat any injured personnel, a Security wing which not only has brigs to hold prisoners at bay, but also contains a section where important cargo are carried in. It also has a cold storage section to persevere the bodies of the fallen, in case they are to be transported to a different planet.