Name: Sea Lancer
Alignment: Zian (Formerly Zoid Battle Commission)
Family: Swordfish
Registration Number: Zi-123
Height: 22 meters (keel to mast)
Length: 110 meters (excluding lance)
Weight: 9,500 tons (mean war service)
Top Speed: 35 knots/65 kph
Weapons: Torpedo Tubes, Vertical Launching System, Hardened Alloy Lance.
Special Abilities: Composite Sensory Unit, Multilock, Countermeasures, Swimming.
Cost: $275,000
Level: Crewed
Bridge Crew: 8 (Pilot, Co-Pilot, Captain, Executive Officer, Gunnery Sergeant/Tactical Officer, Chief Engineer, Communications Officer, Chief of Operations.)
Minimum Crew Requirements: 50
Standard Crew: 150
Maximum Personnel: 250 ((That can be continuously supported and sustained by the White Cruiser.))
During the struggle for control of Zi between the Helic Republic and the Guylos Empire, it could never be denied that the Empire ruled on land, outnumbering and outgunning the Helic Republic. The Republic, in turn, tried its best to dominate in the air and on the high seas. Most of the aquatic Zoids in existence are small, fitting neatly into the modern Zoid Battling classifications of Level 1-5. However, the conflict between the Republic and the Empire began to see the advent of Crewed Ships - ships that could no longer be piloted by a single person. With the exception of a few, most notably the transports, the majority of these crewed vessels could not sink beneath the waves like their smaller breathern, but possessed enormous firepower and widely expanded capabilities, and hence enormous value to each of the two nation's militaries.
The Battle Kings were mighty ships, to be sure, and the first two major large, crewed ships to see the light of day on Planet Zi. The Battle King was undeniably a capital-class ship, rated right along side the Whale Kings and often commanded directly by admirals. The latest iteration White Cruisers and their ancient counterparts were more numerous, but headed small fleets and task forces just as often. The surface of the oceans of Planet Zi could be dominated by the cruisers and the battleships, but the murky depths were a different story. Attack submarine, enter stage right.
The Sea Lancer was the last old, terran naval concept to enter the world scene. Because of it's relatively small size and finite power requirements, it wasn't particularly difficult to find the appropriate Zoid Core for it - and while that Core might be oversized, the Sea Lancer could still be produced in considerable numbers. No, production of the Sea Lancer - for once - was limited by the technology of Planet Zi. Submarines are not easy machines to produce, and it was many years before Helic engineers finally got everything just right. Though Zi has relatively advanced technology in almost every other area, nautical engineering is not their expertise. Over time, the Sea Lancer has grown in complexity and functionality, it's latest iteration being so useful as to be littered all over the world. Even if not all factions have them, each could probably get its hands on one if it tried hard enough.
The function of the Sea Lancer is simple: search and destroy. As compared to ballistic missile submarines (which Zi, devoid of nuclear weapons, has no use for), the Sea Lancer attack sub is the scourge of trading convoys and poorly escorted transports. As a Zoid, the Sea Lancer is armed with deadly torpedos at close range and has a vertical launch system for longer engagements. Its armor is also quite thick, right around the range of the Hammer Kaiser and the White Cruiser, making the 'Lancer and potentially devestating enemy in distant combat. All in all, few navies go without the White Cruiser - it's a necessity of a machine.
Weapons:
Torpedo Launchers:
The Sea Lancer is exceedingly deadly in close-range aquatic combat - it can match the Battle King in torpedos. Like the Battle King, the Sea Lancer has a grand total of 12 torpedo launchers, eight fore and four aft. When they’re needed, each of those tubes opens up and reveals a torpedo. The torpedo tube, if flooded, can then fire its torpedo into the water, which will lock onto the nearest underwater target that doesn’t respond to its IFF signature. It will then use active sonar to chase that target to the ends of the world, until it either hits something or is destroyed. Torpedoes are relatively slow, but armored, so they can be tricky to destroy. Furthermore, each torpedo tube the Sea Lancer has is capable of reloading from the Zoid’s internal stores, which are near infinite. (Reloading takes roughly 3 seconds.) Each torpedo is anti-Zoid and also has 3 times the explosive power of a standard anti-ground missile, so they can be devastating against other aquatic Zoids.
Vertical Launching System:
The latest iteration of the Sea Lancer only carries twelve missiles - but it does so in a new, innovative way - the Vertical Launching System. Rather than the armored box launchers one might find on a Battle King, the Sea Lancer has a series of clear missile tubes, pointing straight up out of the main body. The catch is that the Sea Lancer has to be surfaced to use them - but the benefits are great if you survive to reap them. You see, the 'Lancer's VLS tubes can hold either of two kinds of standard missiles, which makes it quite formidable in normal combat. At the beginning of combat (or the beginning of the operation), the 'Lancer's captain picks how many of each kind his vessel is carrying.
Cruise Missiles:
Cruise Missiles are the staple of hitting a stationary target. These weapons are completely unguided, but can a strike a target from essentially halfway across the ocean. You just dial in a location to hit, and the Cruise Missile launches and goes after it. Be it noted that it has a slightly different launching method from the Anti-Ship Missiles: rather than firing from an armored box, these fire from a vertical launch system which resembles a system of minature silos built into the deck of the ship. Anyway, it has all the explosive of an Iron Kong's ballistic missile, and, like the Anti-Ship missile only move at 250 m/s. It also, like the two aforementioned missiles, is armored, allowing it to take a few hits and keep going. Unlike the other two aforementioned missiles, it has a maximum range of 2500 kilometers. Go nuts.
Anti-Submarine Missiles:
Another interesting piece of weaponry present on the Sea Lancer, the Anti-Submarine Missiles, are in many ways similar to the missiles found on the Hammer Kaiser. It's the duty of the attack submarine to attack other submarines, not just surface ships. You see, the Sea Lancer has sonar capabilities far beyond the range of conventional torpedos (though sonar isn't a guarenteed, sure-shot to detect your enemies at range). The point is, the Sea Lancer can engage submarines in a different way: anti-submarine missiles. What I mean is, when the Sea Lancer detects a submarine, it can fire an anti-submarine missile at it (instantly, to the general GPS coordinates. It will update its destination while in flight, but this is not a precise operation.) Generally, because the submarine can't see what's happening above water, it is none the wiser. The missile moves at 250 meters per second to the target coordinates until it reaches said coordinates and hits the water. When it does, the rocket booster splits off and the turbine activates, and the anti-submarine missile becomes a torpedo and will use active sonar to track down the nearest submerged target that doesn't respond to IFF until it hits said target.
Hardened Alloy Lance:
And what kind of self respecting swordfish wouldn't have a lance? The Sea Lancer is 110 meters long, but boy, does it have a lance. Protruding a whopping fifty meters in front of the Zoid itself is a large, hardened alloy, meters-thick lance. This lance can be used to skewer all but the mightiest of other ships, and is sharpened to an extremely fine point at the tip. Unless you're a Battle King, you'll feel the burn if you get hit by this.
Special Abilities:
Composite Sensory Unit:
The Sea Lancer is equipped with a Composite Sensory Unit, giving it an active radar, sub-surface sonar, and IR sensor insight into everything happening around it. Though some components of this system have localized hubs (like the radar dish on the conning tower), the system has secondary, tertiary, and quaternary backups, allowing it to continue functioning even through the worst of damage. Many systems, such as the missile guidance, depend on the Composite Sensory Unit. The Sea Lancer also a good, old-fashion visual periscope which can rise many meters through the water to let the captain have a look around.
Multilock:
The Sea Lancer is ridiculously well-armed for a vessel that was only designed to fight one opponent at a time. That’s because it wasn’t. The Sea Lancer has a specialized system that allows each of its missile launcher systems to lock onto multiple targets at once, with a designated number of missiles locking onto a single target. (IE: 2 anti-submarine missiles on one opponent, 3 on the other. A single missile cannot lock onto two or more opponents.) This gives it some very real and relevant defenses, and helps it against swarm attacks. Note that this doesn't apply to torpedoes - they lock onto the first thing they see without a friendly IFF signature. That's just a downside of no lock-on time for torpedoes.
Countermeasures:
Submarine Captains, including Sea Lancer Captains, are known for their incredible innovation when it comes to keeping their ships around. They can run silent - when they shut off the engines and tell the crew to shut up, run under other ships, or even hug the ocean bottom to avoid detection by enemy sonar. IR doesn't work too far into water, neither does radar or most other detection mechanisms, so the primary concern for the Sea Lancer is that very concept - sonar (provided no one's dropping depth charges, that is). Torpedoes are generally the agent of destructive sonar detection, so the Sea Lancer has a trick up its sleeve. If all else fails - silence, sneakiness, or innovation, this swordfish can deploy countermeasures - sonar, noise-making duplicates that distract active sonar and torpedoes alike. Unfortunately, the rate of success of one of these devices is still only 75%, so the Sea Lancer will take the hit sometimes. On the plus side, the Sea Lancer carries ten of these in deployment tubes and essentially infinite internal reserves (which can be used between battles), so it can always drop more than one if taking that one hit is a serious concern.
Sea Lancer:
A submarine, is a submarine, is a submarine, is a submarine. And the same is true of a swordfish. The Sea Lancer is in its element underwater, and can put a Hammer Kaiser through its paces (probably outmaneuvering it), making it one of the most dangerous large ships beneath the waves. It can only do 35 knots, so it can easily be outpaced by many opponents, but outpacing won't help in the face of torpedoes and missiles. The Sea Lancer is also great at swimming to the bottom of the ocean, finding its maximum depth at around 3 kilometers - the same as the Whale King.
