Kouken-Class Escort

The Kouken Escort is a vessel designed and manufactured by Origin Industries in YE 32. Kouken means “Guardian.”

The first fully military ship designed by Origin Industries, the Kouken-Class is an answer to the problem of defending exploration vessels. The Kouken focuses on durability, speed, and range. It is meant to be faster than the ship it protects, to go just as far, and to take enough punishment to allow the other vessel to leave. While it functions as a long-range escort, the Kouken actually falls into the category of a destroyer, due to its size, armor, and armament.

The Kouken is marketed mainly to military organizations, such as Star Armies, but is also available to private military companies, privateers, and certain eligible civilians.

• Long Range
• Durability
• Large Hangar

Both attributes make the Kouken what it is today.

The Kouken-Class is an escort for long-range exploration vessels, but can fill the roles of armed scout and light skirmish vessel.

The Kouken uses the ubiquitous 'teardrop' escort shape, with the prow being a point, and the stern being flattened. The whole body is somewhat flattened, but also rounded. The front end of the Kouken has a large geometric bulge on top, which creates more room for the HLT's, and a large box in the rear makes up the hangar. Two large cannons poke out from the forward bottom, and short, stubby wings stick off to either side.

Soon after the Jinkan-class Escort entered mass production lines, Origin Industries saw the need for escorts to go farther, and to carry enough firepower to not only safeguard its charge, but itself. By late YE 31 the first prototype was ready, and by early YE 32 the Kouken was ready for production.

• Class: OI-D2-1A/1B
• Type: Long-Range Escort/Destroyer
• Designers: Origin Industries
• Manufacturer: Origin Industries
• Production: Planned 600 over 4 Years
• Fielded by: Origin Industries, Client/Independent
• Price: 425,000 KS

Crew: Minimum of 1 Operator, 2 recommended. 5 Crew required. Recommended 15-20. Maximum Capacity: Accommodations for 50 people, but up to 200 can be crammed aboard in an emergency..

• Length: 125 Meters
• Width: 90 Meters
• Height: 30 Meters
• Decks: 5

• Continuum Distortion Drive: 14,000c
• Hyperspace Fold Drive: .5ly/h
• Sublight Engines: .30c
• Range: Limited to 14 Months with crew of 15
• Lifespan: estimated at 60+ years
• Refit Cycle: Resupply and mandatory maintenance every 14 Months.

See Damage Rating (Version 3) for an explanation of the damage system

• Hull: 18
• Shields: 12 (Threshold 2)

There is an Armory on Deck four, and two weapons lockers on deck three. The Weapons lockers can only open by an order from the highest-ranking officer on the ship. These all come stocked full of Origin kit.

• Origin-type Armory
  • 20x Standard Energy Pistol
  • 5x SmAR/Fatboy
  • 10x Standard General Assault Rifle
  • 100x Interchangeable High-Volume Capacitor
  • 20x ODM 10mm Pistol (four magazines per gun)
  • 8x Handheld Gauss Rifle (4 box magazines per rifle)
• Weapons Locker (each)
  • 10x Standard Energy Pistol
  • 20x Interchangeable High-Volume Capacitor
  • 10x ODM 10mm Pistol (four magazines per gun)

the 10x10m Deluxe Bridge is buried in the center of the ship, and controls every part of the ships' function.

Situated on Deck three flanking the Bridge, the Officer's cabins are standard for Origin.

• 8x Captain's Suite

Unlike many other ships of its size, the Kouken sports a large number of cargo storage areas. It can carry enough supplies for a 15-Man Crew for 14 months.

Twenty-two dual-occupancy cabins take up about half of the space on Deck Three.

The Kouken's fourth Deck contains one Wardroom which is connected to the Origin Industries Standard Kitchen.

Across the Hallway from the wardroom is the Wardroom.

Deck three has a small auditorium, near the bow of the ship. The 4x10m screen can be used for presentations or cinematic viewing of motion pictures. The Auditorium can be used for briefings as well, and contains 50 chairs in theater-style rows.

Engineering is taken care of in two ways: First in the method of a large machine shop on the second floor, where parts can be repaired or even fabricated from raw materials. The second engineering is in the form of a main space on the fourth deck which contains access to various systems, as well as an alternate set of controls for the ship.

Standard Access Tunnels snake their way through the ship, between decks and also going from the fourth deck out to the shield pods at the wingtips.

Hallways are used to travel around the ship.

Two elevators carry passengers and cargo up and down between decks. They are located near the center of the ship, on either side.

Origin Industries Laundry Room Is located next to the restrooms of the Barracks with two machines.

The Hangar bay is extremely large for a small ship, being 40m wide by 40m deep by 8m tall. It is capable of holding any number of things with those dimensions or smaller, but is most commonly used as a shuttle and/or fighter bay. It can also hold some Mecha if they are in the crouched position. The hangar bay has cabinets along the walls, and a workbench in the back, which hold spare parts and tools, allowing for the maintenance of vehicles.

The ship's frame is made from reinforced Durandium Alloy, to try and help save on weight. The inner layer of hull is also made from Durandium Alloy. The hull has one meter of Nerimium as its armor plating.

On the underside of the ship is an airlock/docking ring, which allows people and supplies to enter and be loaded onto the ship, as well as allowing the ship to dock with other ships. The Docking Ring is also capable of carrying one medium Standard Starship Cargo Containers.

Power is supplied to the ship via a pair of large IAPD's, using one of two methods to provide power. the first method is standard Aether power from the generators, and the second is the burning of the high-energy fuel provided by the system.

• Aether: the Kouken can travel indefinitely on Aether power. Every single system can be used at normal power indefinitely, but Combat power requires the reduction of certain systems to keep the generator from overloading.

• Fuel: the IAPDs can be powered by a backup fuel tank system, which has a large capacity, allowing for 12 hours of full power Aetherless operation, or 1 month of standard power Aetherless operation. However, due to the high energy requirements of a Fold jump, using that system reduces the standard operating time by one day for every 20 ly.

Queen Destiny AI

• 8 Origin Industries Long Distance Escape Pod
• There are two lockers on Deck four containing enough Armored Pilot Suits for the entire crew. ¹⁾
• Air-locked bulkheads: Most junctions in the Kouken are closed off by bulkheads which act as airlocks between sections with and without atmosphere, allowing normal-suit wearing crew to pass between atmosphere-containing and vented sections.
• Fire Sprinklers: The Kouken has a system of sprinklers all around the ship which spray dry chemicals to put out fires as quickly as possible.

Environmental Recycling System (ERS) is just a simple yet effective filtration system, which filters water and air, purifying it so it may be reused. Filters must be replaced after 10 months of continuous operation.

AC System: A simple climate control system, it allows for rooms to be kept at a specific temperature. Controls are located in each room.

Unidirectional Gravitational Plating: plating on the roof emits a pseudo-gravitational field that is attracted to the plates on the floor pushing everything on the ship 'down'. This creates the false sense of gravity that permeates the ship.

STL The Kouken uses a pair of large Inline Aether to Plasma Drives. These IAPD's have large fuel tanks for long-term aetherless power.

FTL

• Continuum Distortion Drive
• Hyperspace fold drive: The Kouken carries a compact Hyperspace fold drive, which is just powerful enough to carry the Ship itself through hyperspace.

Like the Jinkan, the Kouken runs three kinds of shielding. Each shield is generated from its own pod on either side of the ship, aside from the navigational shielding, which is contained in the nose of the ship. The two shield systems in the pods work in tandem, allowing the ship to survive many types of weapons.

Port shield generator

Electromagnetic Shields Are housed in the Port shielding pod. The shield creates a bubble which encompasses the entire ship. Combined Tier 11, Medium Anti-Starship

Starboard shield generator

Gravitic Shielding is used on the starboard side. This generator pod creates a shield bubble that encompasses the entire ship. Combined Tier 11, Medium Anti-Starship

Nose

The nose of the Kouken generates simple Navigational shielding, which allows the ship to run with a smaller sensor signature. this shielding system, however, does not help much against weapons. Tier 9, Heavy Anti-Mecha

• 2 Medium Positron Cannons Tier 12, Heavy Anti-Starship
• 100 Heavy Laser Turrets Tier 11, Medium Anti-Starship Max 30 at a time. 15 Maximum without having to reroute power. More than 30 at a time will cause the ship to go into 'safe mode' and shut down to prevent the Aether Generators from overloading.
• 20 Point Defense Phased Array Laser Banks
• 2000 Munitions for OI-Z3C Space Missiles

The Vehicle hangar on the upper back of the Kouken can hold several types of craft. Examples are: twelve Onset Shuttle, eight OI-M1-1A Ashigaru (Crouched), 119 Scimitar Starfighter (theoretically. 238 if you hang them from the ceiling). Despite its large capacity, it comes with the following:

• 2x Onset Shuttle
• 4x Scimitar Starfighter

The Airlock's Decontamination room doubles as a PA bay, which can hold up to 8 Yamataian-type PA, or four Nepleslian-type PA. It comes with:

• 8x Impulse Powered Armor

The Kouken 1B class is identical to the 1A class in every way except for a Fusion power source, and fusion-powered engines. It has the same statistics and performance, as well as the same range, it is just powered and propelled by fusion instead of Aether and IAPD's.

The Kouken-N4 class is a customized order specifically for the 4th Fleet to fill the role of escort craft. It is not intended to see service with other branches of the Star Military of the Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia at this time. Thirty units have been ordered for the 4th Fleet. The first six will see active service while the remainder will go into dry-dock and activated as needed by 4th Fleet or other elements of the Star Military of the Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia.

The differences between the N4-class and the regular Kouken are:

• Shields increased to match hull (SP 18)
• Enlarged power armour bay to accommodate up to 10 Hostiles or Aggressors while removing all but two Impulse PA
• Reduced number of heavy laser turrets to 50; later modified to accept NAM Twin Plasma Turret
• Aether generator replaced with Hyperspace Tap
• Back up fuel system replaced with fusion reactors