Second Life for the Luna Class

The Luna class began a a lie. Earth was getting ready to throw her weight around in the Solar System and needed intelligence of every sort. The class could function as a lab ship doing research or be modified to serve as a warship in a week or less. Furthermore, the research facilities, two labs and a library could quickly be converted to quarters to hold a squad of special forces.

The Martians and Outer Moons looked suspiciously at the class' four triple fire launchers. "Pirates," Earth explained. Likewise the 40 tons of armor was purely a defensive measure.

When hostilities began it was with the Venusians and another problem came up: the ships were not great at providing ground support. This was regarded as inaccurate targeting systems. It was later discovered the ordinance was flawed and special ground bombardment rounds were developed.

In the meantime Earth's solution to ground support for troops in the Venusian jungle were a variety of heavily armed aerospace scouts. Several Luna Class were hurriedly converted to carriers. The library and a lab were converted to quarters and a flight room. Three of the four airlocks were converted grapple throwers. Instead of firing a high powered magnetic grapples they were now docking collars for three interceptors. The eco armor lock was retained because the suits were deemed useful to make repairs underway. The ship's armor was stripped to avoid mass issues. Deemed a new class it was named the Binary.

In the process the Earth military discovered that the Luna was an excellent starting point for other related classes. The central section of the ship was laid out in seven forty ton decks. The ship design bureau got to work and began building a variety of standardized decks they could stack to create different capabilities for different missions.

The Binary class allowed rapid transport of the fighters and was much more likely to survive than freighters. In addition the fighters could and did launch from orbit to conduct raids and land at field bases. The real vetting of the class came when Earth mounted an expedition against the pirates troubling Ceres and its allies. The ship could bring 7 turrets to bear  counting the fighters and was a very effective force multiplier. The ship's fuel refinery allowed it to mine for water and refine fuel for the fighters.

Some people argued that 'Binary' was incorrect as this was a constellation of four ships (not counting the EVA suits). Quaternary didn't have the right ring to it and Primary was considered too ostentatious.

There were mishaps with the class that only space operations showed. The carried craft were difficult to board under anything but a gee or less. There were still accidents boarding them, climbing through a tube and swinging into a forward seat some pilots kicked the wrong buttons. Another problem was with the interceptors' wings. The Luna and Binary were tractor rockets, the engines mounted on top and blasting just far enough from the hull to keep from scorching it. The original interceptors had a greater wingspan and higher tail assembly and pilots complained the tips of their wings were bing burnt off. the tail assembly was redesigned int a canard style and the wingspan reduced. The wings were more or less a Plan B incase the lifter engines failed. New design theory holds that wings are superfluous except to mount more equipment but the military are traditionalists. Besides, wings are great to draw fire away from the fuselage where the important stuff (like pilots) is stored. Pilot maintain that the cooler the wings look the faster the ship is.

Two seat Interceptor (the joke among the ground troops is: Why does it need two crew? One pilot reads and one writes!)

A few flight crew also complained of sickness due to proximity to the R-ray. Present doctrine is to kill all engines briefly for a launch.

Forty tons of auxiliary craft makes for a potent multipurpose vessel. Instead of military craft Primary carriers can operate cargo shuttle or search and rescue vessels. the class' future in the Earth military looks bright.

IRL the Luna has gotten completely revised and will be the subject of my next project. Here's a sneak peek.