Database and Lore

The Qitilix Class Gun Battleship

* Spoilers if you haven't read past Gabatrix: The First Peace arc* “A poor design with good intentions. The Qitilix was better than what we had before, but it was only to save face against our enemies,” A Shal’rein engineer upon its completion As the Itrean Civil War was coming closer and closer to all the clan species, the demand to have a replacement to the I’rala and Ikra class Battleships was growing. The Shal’rein clan were in a crunched momentum to create a new warship that could counter the other new warships of the various clans. The Qitilix would come out, but its history is muddled against the other Italx and Italq class Battleships. Regardless, they managed to be still used and appear enough in the UHN sensor screens to be a viable threat. Design Prior to 2339, the Shal’rein and Aksren clans had fully withdrawn from the T’rintar government. Even before it, the 2330s was an unstable time period. War was inevitable, and the Yutilians and Aksren were fully aware of it. They had introduced their own new battleships to be ready for war. The Shal’rein were in a pinch. While they knew that civil war was inevitable, they had also been recovering from economic repression. Many felt that the I’rala class Battleship was viable, but other adjuncts and fleet adjuncts had disagreed. They knew that the I’rala was good and cheap, but the original Ikra frames could be enhanced. The Qitilix comes from multiple designers but really just used the same frame of the original Ikra class as a base. It is the last of the direct Ikra class descendants. While the Ikra was famous, better economies and rising tensions naturally encouraged better ship designs. With the advent of increased missile payload, the Shal’rein also wanted to introduce their own innovations. The idea was to have dual railguns instead of the single-purpose railgun turret. In theory, the power demands to fire them wasn’t supposed to be that taxing, and it would allow way more firepower to be pressed against the enemy. At the same time, new engine thrusters and the improved quad rotary CIWS gun batteries would do quick work in obliterating enemy missiles before impact. All of it seemed promising, and the Shal’rein clan began immediate construction of them. History Unfortunately, the first series of Qitilix battleships were plagued with problems. The attempt to rush the ship into production faired no better. Technical faults had come into place. While the new CIWS guns were excellent in design, the dual railgun batteries had proven to pull more power than the ships could generate. In addition, tests showed that prolonged engagements would often draw on the reserve power units. Technically, battles would be long over before this would happen, but the ship’s power could be depleted if there were prolonged engagements. Even the prized ability to do a “Death Barrage” would completely drain the ship’s energy. With the Shal’rein clan, the Qitilix was deemed “good enough” by many adjuncts and lesser adjuncts that commanded them. Mad rushes to have them built quickly and en mass was problematic but feasible. When the Itrean Civil War broke out, the Qitilix was rushed to engage the enemies with varied results. Again, the CIWS guns worked as they were intended, but it was still proving to be problematic in taking down all enemy warheads. The quad guns were often quoted to be “cumbersome” to operate with rookie crews that had been trained with the I’rala classes' original CIWS guns. Rarely did the ships run out of power, and when they did, they often had to withdraw or disengage from the battle. Despite all of this, the reports were still adequate. The Qitilix could at least hold on its own. The battleship was a return back to a dual railgun design that hadn’t been seen since the heavy battleships. Many complemented the fact that they had essentially four railguns instead of two. While it increased the costs, the real issue was the crews that were adjusting to them. Again, inexperience was the real deciding factor in the performance of these battleships. With the advent of Zilik’s Disease, the Shal’rein clan was already on the route of introducing a suitable replacement for the Qitilix. The Yu’il class was, by all means, a famous and incredible fix, but it didn’t mean the end of the Qitilix’s career. Even with five years of production, the remaining battleships would remain in the Shal’rein fleets stocks for prolonged periods. Most of the time, they really just bolstered the numbers and helped serve as viable replacements to the older battleships. A common quote by the Shal’rein at the time was that “If you saw a Yu’il class battleship, you might happen to see the Qitilix waving at you in the background.”  It would be a Qitilix class that humanity would encounter as far as 2349. Two battleships were spotted in sector Q12, but the UHN captains decided to retreat instead of engaging them. It is most likely that the two battleships would have destroyed the UHN battleships in a straight-on battle. The purple-colored warships led humanity to think that there were clans that operated in the Itrean spectrum. The encounter at Q12 did serve as a wake-up call to the Shal’rein as well that an intelligent alien race had existed. Much speculation points out that the Shal’rein onboard the ships were debating about contacting the humans, but already concluded from spy reports taken from the Aksren clan that the T’rintar and the humans had allied with one another. Even though it hadn’t happened yet, the Shal’rein clan decided not to take the risk. The humans were enemies. * Spoilers if you haven't read past Gabatrix: The Violet Wave arc* The Qitilix class would be spotted again over Aphadus. By then, the warships were still adequate in performing their roles in bombarding the planet and knocking out the defenses that were in place. They would later rendezvous with Adjunct Dejelar’s fleet as what Shira’s report had indicated. Even though the Yu’il Mark 2 has been introduced, the obsolete Qitilix class is still expected to be used for some time.