Deviation Actions
Description
Named for one of several moons orbiting Ostenburg in the Saumur solar system the Saklera-Tara was one of the first true cruisers available to the Commonwealth. By 40 AE, there were fourteen Saklera-Tara class armored cruisers in service. Ten additional vessels were in the original construction agreement which would have brought the total to twenty-four vessels but the adoption of the Kongo class saw the ten vessels under construction scrapped and or cancelled. The reasoning behind the cancellation was simply that the Kongo was a far more advanced design that could achieve the speed requirements of the ‘New Navy’. Delays in the construction of the Kongo Class kept the Sakalera-Tara in service and a number of commanding officers assigned to vessels of the type saw to upgrading the vessels through unofficial channels to keep them from falling behind technologically and offensively.
From a purely analytical perspective the Sakalera-Tara has undergone a complete evolution away from its original designation to something that can no longer be criticized for its original faults. Originally built as an armored cruiser, the ship more often than not represents a heavy cruiser instead as most captains have taken to adding extra hull plating to better protect the internal critical regions. This slows the vessel down but has the effect of allowing it to fight longer battles against more numerous foes. Some modifications to the design change the primary armament by replacing the large cruiser-grade DRAIL weapons with torpedo launchers. The practice of individual commanding officers altering the vessel’s configuration has seen a fair number of failures as no two operating vessels of the type are exactly identical. Critics often point to the loss of nine out of fourteen completed vessels as a reason the design is both outdated and the allowance for modifications is a bad idea.
The most famous member of this class is the CSS Tyrol. The Tyrol was the seventh vessel built, and had a largely unremarkable service record on home patrol. Each command made modifications to the vessel which individually would be lackluster, but when considered against what the vessel is like now they are quite impressive. Unlike all other members of the vessel class the CSS Tyrol has been altered to internally transport up to six dropships in armored hangars. The fighter and small craft complement of the ship has been changed to include more fighter squadrons and a support force of small craft rather than a balanced mix. The most significant changes came when the vessel was assigned to the command of Commodore Duvalier, who immediately had the engines refitted with modern coaxial jumpdrive systems, and had forty percent of the existing armor replaced with the new regenerative armor plating. Additionally the Commodore had the original main armament condemned and replaced with the new “Long Knife” plasma torpedo systems mounted in retractable turrets. As a last thought and perhaps as a means of scoffing at the same political forces that attempted to have him court martialed, the commodore insisted on getting the Tyrol a new paint job. Depicted in this data file is an image of the CSS Tyrol decked out in the traditional color of the Duvalier Family, red. The official paint scheme is a series of red hues that do help in throwing off infrared scans by helping to provide false sensor returns.
As a final note on the Sakalera-Tara vessel type, none of them bear the well-known drive ring that is seen in every other commonwealth warship. The engine is spread across four outboard nacelles with a central power plant and reaction system buried in the main hull. The designers of the Sakalera-Tara designed the system this way to reduce the vulnerability of the drive-ring system by spreading the engine between four separate nacelles thus making a complete mobility-kill much more difficult. Unfortunately, the trend never quite caught on for political reasons most likely.
