Lauth-Class

Lauth class or Loth class patrol ships are combat ships of the Humankind Empire Abh, and are employed in large numbers by the Star Force, the Abh Navy.

History
The Lauth-class are modern ships, well armed and armored compared to the previous patrol ships. The Lauth-class represents a new compact design that increases combat efficient to a new level never seen before.

As technology progressed, and the military buildup of other nations escalated, the Star Force saw a need for a new class of patrol ships long before the start of The War. The Lauth class was designed to be a new approach at increasing firepower in a compact hull. The conventional doctrine of warfare required that patrol type ships be large self-efficient battle platforms that had armor and shielding capable of taking a beating until reinforcements arrived, and a powerplant able to power the ship away from enemies. As such, it's heavy weapons and mines are intended for hit-and-run against enemy capital ships.

The War and the Battle of Skaresh
The destruction of the Goslauth in the Battle of Goslauth, showed the need for even more powerful and better armored ships. The Kau-class was build to address this issue. Due to the sudden war the Lauth class was replaced without having served for any length of time. As the production of the newer Kau-class was gearing up many Lauth-class ships were produced to replaced the lost ships due to the losses taken during the Battle of Skaresh. Given the relative success still of the Roil-Class assault ships, no great need to increase production occured for the Lauth-Class, and a phase out phase would begin prior to ICY-955.

Operation Phantom Flame
With the combat seen during Phantom Flame, Commander-in-Chief of Phantom Flame Abriel Dusanyu saw a need to deepen his corps with heavy ships. The Three Nations Alliance expanded their production and emphasis on using patrol classes as ships of the line, rather than hit-and-run capital ships. Some of the Laburec still maintained corps of Lauth-class ships; however, had not brought them into full mass production since the Kau-Class had entered the field.

Following the terrifying results of the 2nd Battle of Aptic against the Roil-class, and the damage taken to the forces during the operation, the Laburec began putting orders in for the older Lauth-class once more and her predecessor Byrsh-Class to bolster numbers and adopt some element of the new conventions of war, where patrol ships were not used exclusively for scouting, but as an attack force of their own.

Operation Hunter and Later War
Further reactivation protocols were necessitated by some of the losses of Operation Phantom Flame and Hunter. The Lauth-class continued its service as a line-of-battle starship as well as its traditional recon role. Following the Battle of Lobnas II, where Admiral Spoor's fleet was unusually composed of multiple types of Patrol ships include the Blish-class, further standardization practices were implemented.

New lightly armed cargo variants had been deployed as well to logistic fleets as noted for later operations as the Caubh-Class and Kau-Class began to become the standard units at the front. The later operations that both combat and cargo variants of the Lauth-class ships included:


 * Operation Twin Thorns
 * Operation Snow Crystal
 * Operation Phoenix

Technology & Combat Characteristics

 * Standard shield generation system, patrol-type.
 * Heavy output, able to withstand inital EM cannon salvo.
 * Heavy armor and deployable armor-plating for laser batteries
 * Standard automated and manual damage control systems
 * Air-tight door emergency controls on bridge and engineering
 * Manual or Auto toggle EM-Pimrary Arms targeting system
 * Fore and Aft controls featured at weapons officer station
 * Manual or Auto toggle Laser-Secondary Arms targeting system
 * Automated laser turret banks
 * Manual or Auto toggle piloting and navigation guidance system

Armament

 * 6 (4 Fore, 2 Aft) Electromagnetic Cannons
 * 5 Antiproton Cannon
 * 10 Mobile mines
 * 4 Laser turret batter banks
 * Each bank typically housing 4 to 8 turrets
 * 4 fixed laser rotary turret emplacements.

Variants
Lauth-Class, Combat Patrol Type. These vessels are the default type associated with this class, featuring the normal armor and armament needed to carry out it's intended role as a recon in force unit.

Lauth-Class, Training Type. These are lightly armed and armored ships meant to get crews used to the doctrine and practice of operating recon units. These are typically reserve or moth-balled Lauth's that have been reactivated for instructional use

Lauth-Class, Cargo Type. These have been stripped of all weapons except their point defense laser weapons. They are intended to serve in military convoys, having enough armor to take damage in emergencies. These converted vessels are often recently repaired or reactivated Lauth-classes.

Ships of the Line
Goslauth