"Gordon, Steve - Insectoid 02 - Escape from the Insectoids" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gordon Steve) proudest of them was, of course, the Glory, his combined command
carrier/battleship. Unfortunately, they didn't have any other battleships or dreadnaughts in the fleet; they had all been lost at Vitalics. But he did have a number of smaller capital ships at his command. There was the Amory Til, a converted heavy cruiser/half carrier that was jammed packed with three squadrons (it was rated for two). There was the Blue Luna, a pocket battleship which didn't quite have the punch of a true battleship but was almost as heavily armored and shielded as one. There were eight battlecruisers in the fleet, four of them the newest Tiger-class ships. But the bulk of the fleet were cruisers--12 light, 11 regular (7 of those being deep space cruisers), and 7 heavies. The rest of the fleet was a mix of destroyers (including seven of the newest fast attack destroyers) and frigates as well as one minesweeper/layer. But of course, no discussion of the fleet's military assets could be complete without a discussion of starfighter support. They had a little over 250 starfighters, with eight squadrons packed on the Glory and three on the Directorate half-carrier, the Amory Til. The Blue Luna carried a full squadron, and the rest were scattered in three's and four's throughout the fleet. The Glory's squadrons were the most modern version of the Wildcats--the 145-D and 150-B's, while the Defenders were 78-J's. The rest of the fighters were of similar configuration, both from the Directorate fleet and the ones we had picked up at the Battle of Hunt's Moon, though some of the Wildcats were of the older variety, and they had also acquired a small collection of miscellaneous fighters--variants on symmetrical double V position, with the bulk of the heavy cruisers and battlecruisers taking point in the first formation, and most of the weaker ships in the rear "V", though supported by a sprinkling of heavies, such as the Blue Luna. The Glory was positioned in the center, between the two V's, providing close support to the merchant vessels, who were also in the middle. The formation was hardly original and had its weaknesses, but for now that was the way North left it. He had bigger matters to attend to. The mess and maze of logistics he handed off to Captain Dulin and Commander Wren and the other ship captains as much as these tasks were delegable. The civilian ships had to be converted to growing food as soon as possible. Some of the larger ships, like the Glory and the Blue Luna, had a "full/full" complement of hydroponic labs--theoretically, they could grow enough (rationed) food to support their crews indefinitely. But the battlecruisers and the smaller ships had much smaller hydroponic bays, and were on "half/full" status; they could supplement, but not fully replace food stocks. North hoped the merchant ships, once properly converted, could provide enough food to make them self-sufficient; now that they had left Alliance space, he didn't think they'd be able to resupply for some time... if ever. Fuel they would eventually run out of, but they had begun switching over to process hydrogen, which they could skim from any nearby star. The energy burned less efficiently, but was an acceptable substitute. The fleet had a fair supply of medicine, including the anti-aging vaccine, with enough supply in stock to give boosters to the entire crew for at |
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