EarthForce Capital Ships
Captain Sheridan was one of the heroes of the Earth-Minbari War. He defeated the Minbari War Cruiser Drala Fi by mining the local asteroids with tactical nukes and drawing the enemy in close with a distress signal, after his cruiser, the EAS Lexington, was all but destroyed.
Hyperion Class Heavy Cruiser
Now, here's a really old ship that's survived against the odds! It's the original EAS Hyperion, the ship that gave its name to the Hyperion-class of heavy cruisers. These ships were all built before the Earth-Minbari War and only a few of the original fleet have survived. During the War, I served as Executive Officer on the EAS Lexington, another Hyperion-class, and she got badly wrecked in the War, too. I guess we remember the Hyperions fondly because they were the first class with solo jump capability. You see, we'd been leasing jumpgate technology from the Centauri for around fifty years, but finally bought it from them in return for part of Australia! The EarthForce generals thought this was a good deal at the time; the Centauri wanted a permanent base somewhere on Earth, so we gave them a dry desert to reclaim!
EAS Hyperion
The Hyperion measures just over 1000 meters, from stem to stern, and carries a crew of around 350. She isn't a refined vessel, by today's standards, just very functional. If you look at this picture, you can see it's a pretty simple design.
The main hull contains the sensors, weapons and fuel stores; centrally you have the habitation module, which extends above and below the hull. There are nine working levels, all of them in zero gravity. Right on top, you can see the small observation bridge, connecting to the habitation module. Mostly, we used this for lookout, since the safest place in battle was the central command centre, where you were strapped into your zero-g seats, bolted at all angles to the floor and walls.
Behind the habitation module, you have a basic gantry connecting to the drive section. That contains the fusion powerplant, with the jump drive and three large particle thrust engines.
Weapons Systems
The Hyperion isn't as well armed as some of our vessels today. Her main gun is a forward-firing, twin-barreled heavy plasma cannon, situated topside, just behind the sensor array. She also carries eight standard twin-barreled pulse discharge cannons, mounted on rotating turrets, four of them along the topside, with a further two turrets either side of the forward hull and two more below the habitation module. These cannon fire in tandem with the defense grid interceptors on the same mounts.
The Hyperions don't carry as large a fighter complement as the new Omega-class destroyers. There are just six fighter bays over the aft gantry; you launch three fighters to port and three to starboard. The Hyperions carried a mix of SA-23Es and SA-25s, the two-man heavy Starfury, if I recall. I think this picture shows the launch of one of the heavier Badger 'furies. You could use them for long-range recon, but not really for fighter screen protection.
Hyperion Upgrades
Although EarthForce has been concentrating on turning out the new Omegas, we've recently been getting refits done on the older Hyperions. I guess KarmaTech didn't want to be outdone by Rocketdyne in the bidding for military contracts!
Here's a picture of one of the upgraded cruisers. It's the EAS Clarkstown, shown here firing a brand new X-ray fusion laser that they've mounted on the leading surface of the gantry mid-section. There's a second heavy X-ray laser on the opposite side. That should keep the old girl in service for another decade or so. I guess they must reason that, if a ship has stood the test of time, then it must be pretty robust; and they're right about that.
On the Lexington, we survived by hiding in an asteroid field for days. We bumped around against those rocks, wondering when one was going to tear a hole in the habitation module, but she kept us safe.
Would youl like to hear more about other EarthForce capital ships? Captain John Sheridan is off duty, and he seems willing to spend some time talking with you. Click on the Omega Class Destroyer to continue.