Strider-class

The Strider-class is a class of low-warp, intrasystem patrol corvettes built and operated by Trident Foundries, and used to police trade lanes.

The Strider Heavy or Strider-X2 is an upgrade package offered by PlazWorks to veteran Trident pilots, that can be applied to a Strider-class to turn it into a much stronger ship.

Description
The Strider-class is a small warship which is designed to be a low-warp patrol vessel. Its thin frame makes it hard to hit from a frontal trajectory, and its powerful weaponry keeps pirates at bay.Powered by a simple fusion reactor and propelled at medium warp speeds by a relatively compact Phase Coil assembly, pirates and vagabonds would initially believe that a Strider was an easy target. However, the forward Fusion Missile launcher, in addition to Trident's first mass-produced beam weaponry in the form of Phase Banks, ensure that a Strider has more than adequate firepower to take on pirates and other vessels that threaten Vergesso's trade network.

The X2 Upgrade Package
The Strider-X2 package increases the power dedicated to the forward twin Phase Bank, and increases the Fusion Missile launcher count to 4, resulting in a more potent vessel optimised for military usage against true warships, though losing the basic Strider 's generous cargo capacity.

In addition, the X2-upgraded vessels are noticeably faster than basic vessels, with a retuned Phase Coil assembly and stronger Fusion reactor.

An expensive upgrade package, the Strider-X2 package is only offered to veteran pilots, and not to the general public, civil policing groups, or for foreign military orders.

History
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While the Strider-class was a fantastic policing and patrol ship, seen universally by Trident forces and vendors as a overall good ship, the ship itself had room for improvement. Not long after the base Strider-class was introduced, the late Brawler-class frigate was retired; this ageing vessel had many veteran crews who used to operate them, and many of the crews would end up filtering down to the new Trident Patrol Outposts, which were made for a more military first response force for any defensive and offensive operations in a local system. These stations held 4 Strider-class ships that could be launched and repaired at the station, acting as a local policing force for invaders. These raid teams were effective and the majority of the veteran Brawler-class crews would filter down into these ships due to their remarkably similar flight mechanics, more like a scaled down version of the Brawler. These raid teams would over a period of several months, utilise the Strider-class as an effective policing ship, though there was issues in the design, especially in the beam charging system, which used a large amount of ship power to operate and at a CQC range, the less than ideal combat style for the sharp shooter Brawler-class veterans. This also coupled with the fact that the power systems are hard wired into charging the beams first regardless of required usage, meant that charging or topping up a jump drive during combat right after a beam pulse meant the ships reactor would cut out. Trident engineers in PlazWorks would see the need for a custom Strider-class built for the ex-brawler pilots to effectively manage their respective systems. The Strider Heavy or the Strider-X2, is a direct response to this. A lot of work went into repairing the somewhat flawed wiring of the ships internals, while it also received a complete revamp from top to bottom, including the Type 19 Fusion reactor which was refurbished and augmented.

The Strider had seen many refits to the existing design, referring to 3 major aspects that both the Veteran pilots and crews and rookie crews noticed. Firstly the Type 19 core was efficient for its size but had poor power injection capabilities, the X2 refit offers a large injection upgrade allowing for more power output in the same Type 19 category. Its thruster systems were retuned to offer better top speed and well as its fantastic 2.5 thrust mass ratio allows it to better strafe combat targets while having a larger thruster proportion dedicated to turning RCS systems. The gunnery systems had been ripped out and rebuilt from scratch too. The clear difference in the extended front section in a sort of hammerhead shape, has allowed for a comparatively huge Phase Bank assembly, with miniaturized recoil compression tech from the Independent-class. This allows for ludicrous fire rate and systems damage, able to gut ships of a similar size in minutes. It also sports 2 retrofitted assault Plasma accelerator turrets, on the sides of its V-Plate cooling system, which are a slower but effective fire rate for increased effective damage. The X2 refit has a set of 4 Fusion Missiles that launched vertically from under the extended weapon section, these are 4 times as effective as its predecessor, with a reduced lock on time, at the cost of reload speed. They are also modified with a EM field generator, which is excellent at distorting magnetic containment field of shields on opposing ships, which makes them a fantastic first strike weapon.

A more noticed problem with the Strider is the lack of crew facilities, the intended short term use of the ship for hours or day long missions meant that the design team behind it did not bother too much about comforts. Most of the ships exposed systems were present in the interior of the ship, and a large proportion of the ships internal space was dedicated to a cargo hold that never really saw much use in a policing role. The interior was rebuilt from the ground up, providing everything required for a longer term mission objective, up to 2 years if required (highly unlikely) featuring the premium military service interiors, similar to other new-build Trident ships and refits of older vessels. The X2 refit has a full retrofitted crew room for 4, a bathroom, medical bay, gunnery access, core control with unlimited access to core tinkering and new water reclamation system. The new interiors were highly appreciated by veteran pilots, as they are spacious and comfortable for the new 4 manned crews. The new crew room alone was a vast improvement over the old Brawler cabin, which had a crew space of ten in ⅔ the space.

As well as the interior revamps, the shielding systems had been altered; the Strider-class' original shield charging system relied on a spherical charging coil unit on the lower hull which was adequate but added little in the ways of adaptability, so a frontal pylon charging unit was added to help with frontal damage resilience.

The Strider-X2 refit was a resounding success and a final tribute for the rather gritty service for veteran Brawler pilots during the wars, the majority of veteran pilots and raid teams would adopt the new vessel into service even though its layout is rather rudimentary in design compared to the sleeker and more advanced basic Strider.

Basic configuration
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X2 configuration
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