Database and Lore

The Daring Class Patrol Cruiser

“Living on one of these ships is ok, but I honestly enjoy getting a chance to blast some pirates when they show up.” Comment from a random crewmember on the UHN Victory. Designed to serve as a replacement to the aging Liaoning Class Patrol Cruiser, the Daring class would fit a vital role as a defender in the areas of wild space and uncontrollable sections where criminals often enjoy or flourish. Without the Daring class, that legacy would soon be lost as it would force important UHN battleships to be put into areas that they struggled to operate. This, in turn, wouldn’t help in the dwindling resources and further spreading out of warships while the UHN tries to expand outward. Even with the advent of the Itrean encounters, their roles still carry a broad importance to them. Design Unlike the powerful battleships or enormous drone carriers of the UHN, the daring class is more attributed as a surface destroyer warship on former Earth. The Liaoning class Patrol Cruiser was designed to serve as an at-home warship, policing nearby sectors or intercepting criminal elements that occurred in UWA space. Their armament was poor but more than adequate in taking out pirates or criminal ships alike. This also freed up the battleships in being able to engage in long-term exploratory missions away from the UWA. However, times were changing. By the 2310s, the attitude of the UHN backed away from using the battleships as exploration ships and more towards keeping them at home. At the same time, specialized vessels were being used more and more to take on these intended roles. The grave threat of the Nova Pirates in the Paloran space had pushed the Liaoning cruisers to their operational limits. At the same time, their age was becoming more and more noticeable, especially after losing the UHN Shangdong and crew in the Paloran asteroid field due to a supposed catastrophic mechanical breakdown. Reviews and boards revealed that the Liaoning needed to be retired from service. The sooner, the better. The Daring class was very similar to the Liaoning class. It replaced the box-like rotating ring with a circular centripetal rotating ring. It retained a single light railgun turret, better CIWS and AIO turrets, and four torpedo tubes. However, interestingly, the torpedo tubes and singular bow- mounted hangar facility were moved from the ventral to dorsal sides. Newer and better equipment was installed throughout the entire frame. The cost of these patrol cruisers was 2/3 the price of a battleship, not a holistically valued concept, but adequate in the times when the battleship orders were increasing more and more. History The Daring class was introduced right when the Nova Pirates began to harass shipping and commercial vessels the most. Their goal in serving as police vessels proved to be more than adequate, and they did their jobs rather well. However, even during the roughest of escapades, the cruiser still suffered from the issues of having to navigate portions of the asteroid belt with great care. Their hulls simply had a hard time repelling the rather dense fields of asteroids and rocks. This sometimes placed the vessels just outside of the belt where they would serve as observational police cruisers. However, the Daring, once they began to be built in more significant numbers, would succeed in replacing the older cruisers. Those that were seeking action in the UHN often complemented the cruisers in their combat prowess in fighting piracy long before the discovery of the Itreans. It was one of the few places that servicemembers would usually see live fire, even if pirate attacks were uncommon. The pirates often avoided the cruisers because of how overpowered they were. At the same time, their costs allowed the battleships to be less employed in having to patrol the enormous belt. This doesn’t mean that the Daring class is solely found in the Paloran system. They would also patrol other systems being close to home planets or colony worlds. The cruisers do occasionally get paired into fleet operations, where they have performed somewhat adequately. Their weaker armament and composition had shown the Daring to be a poor escort vessel for the UHN battleships. Their high cost simply made them too expensive to be built in sizeable numbers. When the Itreans were discovered, a few Darings had also been pressed to defend Cipra with disastrous results. Of the 10 Darings that were deployed, only three would survive. However, this didn’t mean that the cruiser was a failure in design. On the contrary, it was situational and served well for its intended roles. Even with the advent of the Itrean threats, the cruisers provided relief for the battleships in the combat against piracy or small Itrean incursions. For Oshun, the Daring class would become one of the first warships that were ever built at the Orsa Shipyards. This, in turn, would encourage the Oshunians to develop their own cruiser based on the Daring class’s success. The Kpinga class would become a successful design that would push the Oshunians into providing future warships for the UWA.