Berserker Battleship
One of the best combat ships to come out of the Clone Wars, the Damorian
Manufacturing Berserker-Class Battlecruiser was a terrifying opponent for
capital ship captains to face. Designed specifically as a ship killer, the
Berserker was equipped with massive ion drives to propel it directly into
the center of enemy formations quickly where it would set about taking apart
the enemy from within their ranks.
Its heavy armor and Class 4 shields allowed it to close with enemy vessels
and absorb tremendous punishment before being knocked out of action. The
ships were more or less built around the main weapon, a gargantuan four
hundred meter long electromagnetic mass driver cannon which fired an enormous
four hundred and six centimeter diameter gravitically collapsed hyperdense
projectile made of a duranium steel alloy. Each projectile weighed over four
hundred metric tons and had to be moved from storage to the firing chamber
using specially designed repulsor carts.
Since the main cannon could only be fired against targets directly ahead of
the ship the Berserkers also mounted a total of thirty massive hellbore
cannons that fired bolts of super-heated plutonium plasma that wreaked havoc
on the hull and shields of opposing vessels. Supplementing these cannons were
thirty-six standard double turbolaser cannons, used for long range fire since
the hellbore cannons had relatively short ranges and thus required close
proximity with the enemy to be useful.The Berserker also carried thirty-two
concussion missile batteries for planetary bombardments and additional anti-
capital ship fire. Backing up these heavy weapons were twelve anti-starfighter
laser batteries and sixteen proton torpedo batteries used to deal with snub-
fighter screening forces. The Berserker itself only carried two squadrons of
Z-95 Headhunters and a pair of assault shuttles to supplement the defensive
weapons carried onboard.
While being extremely fast in realspace, the Berserker was very difficult to
maneuver due to inefficient placement of reaction thrusters and generally
poor handling characteristics. Also, the Berserkers were almost embarrassingly
slow in hyperspace due to substandard hyperdrive units being used to save
space for the realspace drive and the massive weapons loadout. Additionally,
these ships are archetypical Hangar Queens, meaning that they spend inordinate
amounts of time in drydock for maintenance and overhauls. The Berserkers
required immense power cores merely to accommodate the ammunition of its main
weapons. The mass driver projectiles had to be carried in force field stasis
to prevent them from accidentally ripping a hole in the hull during extreme
combat maneuvers by simply being slung around. Each round had its own micro-
stasis chamber which held it securely in place. When it was time to load the
mass driver a section of the chamber would detach and serve as the repulsor-
cart used to move the massive slugs from storage to the mass driver's firing
chamber.
Another of the technical nightmares of the Berserker was the radiation shielding
needed to protect against exposure to the ravening levels of radioactive energy
produced by the hellbore cannon ammunition. With each blast requiring five
deuterium pellets and a pellet of plutonium, the Berserkers carried huge amounts
of radioactive material aboard. A total of six thousand deuterium pellets and
twelve hundred pellets of weapons-grade enriched plutonium were carried as
standard. The massive amounts of radiation shielding on the ammunition storage
chambers for the hellbore cannons had to replaced after every six months of
service. A single Berserker required same amount of time, money, and material
resources for upkeep as three Victory-class Star Destroyers. Add to this the fact
that with the heavy armor, huge shield generators, massive power core, and immense
weapons loadout, there is little room left for the crew.
Service aboard a Berserker was generally considered one of the most hellish
assignments one could be given among Old Republic naval crews. Crew quarters
aboard a Berserker are less than half the size of quarters on most other capital
combat ships and recreational facilities are practically nonexistent. Very few
Berserkers still exist since the vast majority of the ones used in the Clone Wars
were destroyed in combat. The survival rate of the Berserker-Class battlecruiser
was one of the worst in the entire war due not to any weakness on the part of
the ship, but due more to the highly perilous nature of its mission profile.
When a Berserker appeared on the field enemy commanders would make the
Berserker a priority target and virtually ignore any other vessel in the
opposing fleet in a rush to destroy the deadly shipkiller. For their part, it
is estimated that for every Berserker shot down in combat that seven enemy
capital cruisers met the same fate.
The Berserkers never caught on with the Imperial Admiralty for some reason
and thus was never brought into active service with the Imperial Navy. Damorian
Manufacturing ceased production of the ships after the Imperial Navy made it
clear that the ship would not be incorporated into its ranks to avoid being
nationalized by the Empire.
What few ships of the class that still exist are in the hands of minor governments
such as the Tion Hegemony, the Centrality, the Corporate Sector Authority,
and the various noble houses of the Tapani Sector. A tiny number are held in
twos and threes by still smaller organizations such as the governments of the
Kathol Sector and some of the larger pirate bands.
Craft: Damorian Manufacturing's Berserker-Class Battlecruiser
Type: Anti-capital ship battlecruiser
Scale: Capital
Length: 710 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Berserker
Crew: 4,554, gunners: 452, skeleton: 1,048/+10
Passengers: 240 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 2,500 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Cost: 270 million credits
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x4
Hyperdrive Backup: x26
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 0D
Space: 7
Hull: 5D
Shields: 4D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/0D
Search: 50/1D
Scan: 100/2D
Focus: 4/3D
Weapons:
Super Heavy Mass Driver Cannon
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 30
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Ammo: 20
Fire Control: 1D
Fire Rate: 1/5
Space Range: 6-30/70/150
Atmosphere Range: 12-60/140/300 km
Damage: 16D
30 Hellbore Cannons
Fire Arc: 6 in 2 Dorsal Turrets Firing Front/Left/Right, 6 in 2 Ventral
Turrets Firing Front/Left/Right, 3 Left, 3 Right, 3 in 1
Dorsal Turret Firing Left/Right/Back, 3 in 1 Ventral Turret
Firing Left/Right/Back, 3 in 1 Dorsal Turret Firing On All
Arcs. 3 in 1 Ventral Turret Firing On All Arcs (Turrets May
Only Bear On One Arc Per Turn)
Crew: 10
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Ammo: 20 per cannon
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-5/10/25
Atmosphere Range: 2-10/20/50 km
Damage: 12D
36 Double Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: 6 Front, 12 Left, 12 Right, 6 Back
Crew: 3
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150 km
Damage: 5D
12 Anti-Starfighter Laser Batteries
Fire Arc: 3 Front, 3 Left, 3 Right, 3 Back
Crew: 2
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 4D
32 Concussion Missile Batteries
Fire Arc: 8 Front, 8 Left, 8 Right, 8 Back
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Ammo: 64 per battery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 2-12/30/60
Atmosphere Range: 4-24/60/120 km
Damage: 9D
16 Proton Torpedo Batteries
Fire Arc: 4 Front, 4 Left, 4 Right, 4 Back
Crew: 1
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Ammo: 144 per battery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 100/300/700
Damage: 9D
Support Craft: 24 Z-95 Headhunters
2 Katarn-Class Boarding Shuttles
Era: Clone Wars
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