Star Knight Saga Lore: The Ferguson-class, House Ireton's Heavy Cruiser

Ferguson

General & Technical Data
Class: Ferguson
Name: NSRA-NCSS12
Ships of the Line: Ferguson, MacCullough, MacLeod, Robert The Bruce, William Wallace, et. al.
Unit Type: Cruiser
Manufacturer: Royal Arsenal of New Scotland, New Glasgow
Operator: House Ireton, Dire March
First Deployment: 15 March, AD 2980
Length: 300 meters
Width: 70 maters
Height: 60 meters
Crew: 100
Armament:Spinal-mounted mega-beam cannon, primary cannon x4 (fixed foward in the bow), missile launchers (recessed in the hull) x2, personal defense cannon batteries x12
Compliment: Four Gallowglass-class mecha on external docking mounts.

Technical & Historical Notes

The Grand Duchy of New Scotland commissioned the Ferguson as part of a standardization of the Grand Duchy's military assets across its vassal domains. It was a peacetime design, concerned at most with pirates and other criminals and not with full-scale military operations. In its intended role of being a glorified paramilitary patrol vessel, it performed adequately, but participation in naval operations exposed the class's weaknesses as being undergunned and under-equipped.

Piracy on the edge of the domain's borders, such as the Dire March of House Ireton, revealed the key weakness of the class as being a lack of internal capacity to carry mecha and thus its ability to operate independently. To counter this Ireton ceased to do so in contested space and began assigning it as a command vessel to small groups meant to operate as rapid-response units. With its anti-mecha weakness ameliorated, the Ferguson class once more proved adequate.

After the Taking of Gabriela Robin, with many of the class lost at Dara's Folly, the Ferguson would first be demoted to garrison and second-line duties and then be replaced entirely with the Culloden class in AD 3005- a new class meant to function alongside the replacement for the Gallowglass, the Highlander. The last of the class would survive the wars to follow and is now a floating museum in orbit over New Glasgow.