Chasseurs De Flotte
French Medium Warships in the Kafer War
by Bryn Monnery
Pictures by Laurent Estimol

IFS Dunkerque in cruise mode in the Beta Leonis star system.
(Image courtesy of MSIF Media Operations.)

Narrative
Introduction
Marechel class
Patrie class
Paris class
Appendix 1: Prize Money
Appendix 2: Beta Leonis
Appendix 3: Villeneuves Revenge

Narrative

Introduction

The French Space Force, the MSIF, is one of the most experienced warfighting space forces in the Terran sphere of influence. Although almost since the first space war the largest, for much of its history it had to learn lessons from other nations fighting wars and from actions against illegal shipping, and the occasional skirmish far away from civilisation.

In 2282 however, France was propelled into the greatest war since the 3rd World War which almost extinguished human civilisation around the turn of the third millennium. When the Russian Federation tried to reacquire her former territories in Central Asia, China intervened, throwing back the Russian armies and causing the French to intervene. The Chinese Space Navy had a very different set of building priorities, and while the French fielded a great battlefleet, the Chinese did not confront it, instead raiding French shipping and attack isolated French warships. What the French required was a number of vessels capable of operating independently for extended periods away from base, carrying enough firepower to make the results of contacts against Chinese vessels certain.

These ships were labeled "Chasseurs", "Hunters" in English, the first of which, the Marechel class was commenced in late 2282, and sent to the fleet in 2284, the extreme need for these ships lead to a very fast build rate, 2 per year for the duration of the war but they also suffered a high rate of attrition. Since then, the Chasseur fleet has become an elite within the MSIF.
 
Unit Ships Assignment
DC-1 (1eme Division de Chasseur) Ney and Foch Troisième Flotte (French Arm Command)
DC-2 Bouvier and Marsin Quatrième Flotte (Frontier Command)
DC-3 Patrie and République Deuxième Flotte (Tirane Command)
DC-4 Démocratie and Justice Sixième Flotte (Reaction Fleet)
DC-5 Verite and Révolutionnaire Première Flotte (Home Fleet)
DC-6 France and Marianne Force Stratégique de Chasseurs
DC-7 Patriote and Scipion Cinquième Flotte (Chinese-American Arm Command)
DC-8  Bucentaure and Vengeur Force Stratégique de Chasseurs
DC-9  Commerce and Paris Escadre Spécial
DC-10  Dunkerque and Lorraine Force Stratégique de Chasseurs

As of 2301, each French Fleet has a Chasseur Division assigned to act as scouts. IFS Commerce and IFS Paris are part of Escadre Spécial, the Special Squadron which forms the Opposition Force for the French Fleets at their Jupiter Ranges. Finally 3 Divisions form the Force Stratégique de Chasseurs, a strategic grouping controlled by High Command and dispatched as Frances "fire brigade".

Dunkerque and Lorraine depart Earth on their first active patrol.
(Image courtesy of MSIF Media Operations.)
Marechel class Chasseur Colonieux

The Marechel was the first generation Chasseur, and of the 12 built only 4 are still in commission, 7 being lost in action and one disappearing while on a Frontier patrol. The Marechel is an older design, and many of her components are now available on the commercial market, meaning she can draw from civilian supplies for her maintenance, making her ideal for deployment to the colonies.

The Ney was one of the first batch of Chasseurs, and as such has served throughout the Central Asian and Franco-German wars. The Foch was one of the last, completed after the Central Asian War, but she gave good service during the Franco-German War. Both were stationed with the 3rd Fleet during the Kafer war as DC-1 and were Rochemont eyes and ears during the early Invasion. It was DC-1 that held off the Kafers at Sturmwelt allowing the 3rd Fleet to escape, however both were seriously damaged and removed from the fleet for repairs, replaced by DC-7.

Bouvier and Marsin were stationed at Queen Alices Star as DC-2, detached from the French command at Aurore, they remained at Beowulf, taking part in the evacuation of the Kimanjano garrison and fighting at Beowulf.

Ship Statistics

Original Date of Design: 2282
First Example Laid Down: 2282
First Example Completed: 2284
Fleets of Service: France
Number in Service: 4 (Ney, Foch, Bouvier and Marsin)

Performance
Warp Efficiency: 3.29 (loaded), 3.65 (unloaded), 1.75 (on auxiliary solar power)
Power Plant: 60 MW fusion (Fuel: 200 tons for lander);
Range: 7.7
Endurance: 15 weeks
Mass: 5,242 tons standard load (3,841 tons unloaded with ordnance)
Cargo Capacity: 1,401 m3;
Comfort: 0;
Total Life Support: 75 people for 180 days;
Ordnance Carried: 12 Ritage-2 missiles in 5 launchers, Zenith class Lander in Hangar (3 turns to launch)
Crew: 75 (20 Bridge, 11 TAC, 14 Engineering, 3 Small Craft Maintenance and Pilot, 20 Troops, 4 Stewards, 3 Medical)
Price: MLv112.964, exclusive of small craft and ordnance

Ship Status Sheet
Movement: 7 (4 on solar power)
Targeting Computers: +2
Radiated Signature: 3 (6), -3 on solar power
Screens: None
Armour: 2
Radial Reflected: 4
Lateral Reflected: 5
Radial Profile: -1
Lateral Profile: 0
Maneuverability: 3

Hull Hits: 44/11/22; Power Plant Hits: 40/8

Surface Fixtures

Weapons: 6 x1dbl masked turrets (2x 1234, 2x 1238,  5678,  4567), all UTES equipped
TTA's and Submunitions: 2x Remote Communicators, 2x Bridge Communicators, 1x Small Craft Communicator
Sensors: Active: 13 (with redundant); Passive: 12 (with redundant); Deep System Scan; Grav Scan; Navigational Radar

Critical Hits, Crew Section

Bridge: Captain; Navigator; 2x Communications; Helm; Engineer; 4x Computer
TAC: Active Operator; Passive Operator; 2x Remote Pilot; 6x Gunner; Flight Control

Damage Control: 17 (6 teams)

IFS Paris at battle readiness.
(Image courtesy of MSIF Media Operations.)

Patrie class Chasseur de Flotte

The Patrie is essentially a stretched Marechel but with updated drive systems, which are much more maintenance intensive. 4 ships of this type were stationed with the Force Stratégique de Chasseurs, DC-6 and DC-8, and upon the commencement of the Invasion were launched down the French arm with the aim of disputing the Kafer supply lines, the task for which these vessels were intended.

DC-3 and DC-4 were at Beowulf, while DC-7 was dispatched to the 3rd Fleet, replacing the battle damaged DC-1.

Ship Statistics

Original Date of Design: 2288
First Example Laid Down: 2288
First Example Completed: 2290
Fleets of Service: France
Number in Service: 13 (Patrie, République, Démocratie, Justice, Verite, France, Marianne, Vengeur, Révolutionnaire, Patriote, Bucentaure, Scipion and Commerce)

Performance
Warp Efficiency: 3.54 (loaded), 4.0 (unloaded), 1.78 (on auxiliary solar power)
Power Plant: 75 MW fusion (Fuel: 200 tons for lander);
Range: 7.7
Endurance: 19 weeks
Mass: 6,894 tons standard load (4,729 tons unloaded with ordnance)
Cargo Capacity: 2,165 m3;
Comfort: 0;
Total Life Support: 80 people for 180 days;
Ordnance Carried: 16 Ritage-2 missiles in 4 launchers, Zenith class Lander in Hangar (3 turns to launch)
Crew: 80 (20 Bridge, 13 TAC, 18 Engineering, 3 Small Craft Maintenance and Pilot, 20 Troops, 3 Stewards, 3 Medical)
Price: MLv161.16, exclusive of small craft and ordnance

Ship Status Sheet
Movement: 7 (8 unloaded, 4 on solar power)
Targeting Computers: +2
Radiated Signature: 3 (6), -3 on solar power
Screens: None
Armour: 2
Radial Reflected: 4
Lateral Reflected: 5
Radial Profile: -1
Lateral Profile: 0
Maneuverability: 3

Hull Hits: 48/12/24; Power Plant Hits: 50/10

Surface Fixtures

Weapons: 6 x1+1dbl masked turrets (2x 1234, 2x 1238,  5678,  4567), all UTES equipped
TTA's and Submunitions: 4x Remote Communicators, 2x Bridge Communicators, 1x Small Craft Communicator
Sensors: Active: 16 (with redundant); Passive: 12 (with redundant); Deep System Scan; Grav Scan; Navigational Radar

Critical Hits, Crew Section

Bridge: Captain; Navigator; 2x Communications; Helm; Engineer; 4x Computer
TAC: Active Operator; Passive Operator; 4x Remote Pilot; 6x Gunner; Flight Control

Damage Control: 19 (7 teams)

IFS Dunkerque, with missile doors closed, taken from the bridge of the DSKM Holstein during the  crisis of 2299. Note that despite being well within weapons range, and being on an obvious attack course, she is not battle ready. This type of affair characterised the bloodless duels of the crisis.
(Image courtesy of DSKM.)

Paris class Chasseur de Flotte

The Paris class were started in 2289, and finally the first hull was laid in 2294, the only new class authorised by the new Imperium. Designed to encompass the latest technology into an extremely efficient hunter killer package.

The Paris emerged from dock in 2297, and was placed into service on Bastille Day, 2298. The ship was not revolutionary, but rather evolutionary, representing the sum of human starship building knowledge.

Her two sisters, Lorraine and Dunkerque emerged in 2298 after an intense competition between the two builders to build theirs first. The Dunkerque was to be the last of the class, which while exceptional proved too costly even for the rich French Empire. The replacements for the older Marechal class, the Pluton class would be less capable, closer to the Patrie class in terms of sheer power, although learning from the Paris, the cuts would be in areas such as numbers of weapons, and some speed, rather than in stealth.

The Lorraine and Dunkerque together are assigned to the 10e Division de Chasse, part of the Force Stratégique de Chasseurs, a group of 6 chasseurs not assigned to specific French Fleets, and tasked with independent action against the enemy in time of war.

Their first duty was during the Beta Leonis crisis of 2298-2299. Marais is a barely terracompatible world in the Beta Leonis star system, a mineral rich world on the Pentapod Frontier. Originally surveyed by a joint Franco-Bavarian expedition in 2255, it showed some extremely high mineral concentrations, but the survey was called off due to the possibilities of offending a new starfaring race (The Pentapods, as it happens, do not make territorial claims beyond their homeworld). In 2298 Germany launched an independent mission to the world, renaming it Neues Rheinland. France tasked DC-10 to clear the "squatters" from the system. On arrival, DC-10 was faced with a small naval squadron consisting of the German Ships Holstein and Westfalen. A German transport ship had landed a party of mineral prospectors on the surface.

The incident was essentially a waiting game, with the French cruisers aggressively making incursions into the planets space from hiding places in the outer system, trying to provoke the Germans into firing. The German Commander, Kaptain von Ruffenbeck, knew he was outgunned, and waited as long as possible, hoping for reinforcements that never came. Eventually, with his life support becoming strained, he ordered the abandonment of the system to the French.

On their return to Terran Space, Vice Admiral Rochemont grabbed the Division, and immediately tasked them. The pirate known as Le Prince Pourpre raided the supply ship Soleil Rouge en route to Nous Voila in the Beta Canum system. Suspecting that the pirates must have a base in the area, DC-10 was dispatched to hunt down the Prince. It was the Dunkerque that found the base, in the DM+50 1832 system, however, the Prince ship was absent, so she powered down and waited. 7 weeks later, the Princes ship, a converted Éléphant class transport appeared, towing the supply ship for stripping. While the ship was a treasure trove of electronics and materials, it was the tantalum the pirates wanted.

The Dunkerque, rather than fighting an open space engagement, with the costs and risks associated with it, allowed the pirate to dock and start stripping the Rouge Étoile. With the pirates occupied, the Dunkerque's marines launched from her with several crewmembers in E-suits, and boarded the pirate ship, seizing control of her weapons systems and destroying them. The Dunkerque powered up, cauterised the bases weapons with laser fire and politely asked the pirates if they "would please fail to surrender so I don't have to bother feeding you", however, surrender they promptly did.

6 weeks later the Dunkerque and Lorraine entered Premieres flight control zone in company of 2 starships, each manned by prize crews of the MSIF, and recieved their prize money.

They returned to Earth for a refit and crew rotation in June 2300, the crews having been in deep space for 16 months with only 1 month downtime, way beyond the safe limit. All her crew were reassigned Earthside for 18 months to heal, while a new crew took over their ships.

The Paris has spent the last 2 years operating in the Escadre de Chasse Spécial, the French Navies Opposition Force (OpFor) for exercises. She is assigned currently to Sternjagdgruppe X, a simulated German Battlegroup, where she is acting as DSKMS Kaiser on exercise. Her crew are known to be extremely knowledgeable when it comes to German Tactics, her CO, Captaine Patrice Quebecois, having been CO of FS Aconit at the 3rd Battle of Alpha Centauri.

The Paris is an 80 meter long starship divided into 3 main sections, the bow section, the spin arms, and the stern.

Starting from the very front and working back, the first thing encountered is the navigational radar antenna and the first passive receiver. The passive array is a synthetic aperture array, with 38 1 meter diameter receivers on the hull. Behind his the hull proper starts. The first section of the bow is the missile launchers, a hard vacuum area where the 5 missile launch tubes are situated. Behind them are 3 more missiles in each launcher assembly, awaiting their turn to be launch ready. To maintain the missiles, a lot of automation is used, and if one goes down, the hull hatches must be opened and the device manhandled into the docking bay for repair. The weapon is held in a disposable cradle. When a missile is launched, the cradle is launched with the weapon on by a burst of compressed gas, but it stays tethered to the ship, and so warping with the ship. Upon detaching from the cradle, the weapons own drive immediate activates and propels the weapon under the command of the gunner driving her. The tether is then popped, the cradle is free, and another missile cradle is moved up.

Behind the launchers is the Centre Tactique, the fighting bridge from where the combat systems are controlled. It houses 18 men, and is adjacent to the accommodations access. The CT consists of 18 computer workstations which control the lasers, submunitions, missiles and lander operations.

Behind this is a zero G common room for the CT officers. When on alert, all tactical crew are required to be within 2 minutes of the CT, so this is their for them. On extended alerts the tactical officers often sleep in here. Next to this is the Voir launcher.

Directly behind the common room is the spin decoupler, this allows access to the spin section whilst spun up. The zero G decoupler is a lot like some old fairground rides. The floor is rotating at one cycle every 20 seconds, and 2 access hatches allow the crew to crawl up into the boom arms.

In the boom arms themselves contain the sections of the ship with gravity, varying from 0.15 to 0.2g, depending on where you are. Each contains 44 crew quarters of between 10 and 20 cubic meters each, and the communal facilities such as the washing facilities, the 2 galleys, and the entertainment facilities. Also, the ships main medical centre is located on boom arm 1, staffed by the ships surgeon and 2 nurses. The secondary medical centre is located on the 1st main deck of the aft section. In battle, the wounded are placed in one of 12 automeds to stabilise them until after the battle.

Back in the main section, the spin machinery is located behind the spin decoupler, consisting of the large driving motor and the flywheel momentum storage system. The gyroscopic counterbalance system is located at the ships aft, next to the stardrive system.

We are now into the main body of the ship, and a deck system operates in this area. There are 5 nominal "decks", aligned across the ship, with the floor pointed to aft. This is so when the reaction thrusters are fired the gravity field aligns to the "floor". Even at full thrust, the reaction thruster only generates 0.3g's and is primarily for orbital operations, as the vessel is not atmosphere capable.

Starting at deck 1, we find ourselves on the Command Bridge, the Centre De Commande. This consists of 9 computerised workstations, and 3 command stations. They are laid out so that so the 2 most important stations, navigation and helm control are in front of the captains station. To the right of the captains station is the XOs station, and to the left is the Marine Forces commanders station, and arrayed in a semi circle behind him are the 7 operations stations (communications 1, communications 2, engine systems monitor, power systems monitor, analysis/ science officer and computer systems officer).

Deck 2 is the flight control deck. Here is a 140 cubic meter hangar, capable of allowing several varieties of French military small craft to land. Often carried is a 50 ton Rochard-Ligget Zenith spaceplane. On this deck is also situated the machine and electronics shops that can repair parts, or fabricate new parts.

Deck 3 is the cargo deck, and also includes the fuel storage areas. This area also has access to the folding solar array.

Deck 4 is the largest deck, and consists of the primary engineering space. The engineering consists of a Rochard-Ligget type 6 90MW fusion reactor. The reactor is sealed and contains sufficient fuel for 15-20 years of operation, depending on how much plasma is used in the reaction jets. The core itself is fairly small, a mere 8 meter triple tokamok, surrounded by heat exchangers and the radiation screen. Due to the extreme heat and humidity in this area, it is fairly unpleasant, and engineering is avoided by most people.

Manoeuvring is via small plasma thrusters mounted on the hull. These feed directly off exchanged fusion plasma like the main reaction thruster.

The final deck is the smallest, the secondary engineering space. This contains the stutterwarp drive itself, the gyroscopic compensators which stop the torque of the spin section affecting the ships course, and the reaction bells for the orbital drives.

Ship Statistics

Original Date of Design: 2294
First Example Laid Down: 2294
First Example Completed: 2297
Fleets of Service: France
Number in Service: 3 (Paris, Dunkerque and Lorraine)

Performance
Warp Efficiency: 3.47 (loaded), 3.90 (unloaded), 1.8 (loaded on auxiliary solar power)
Power Plant: 90 MW fusion (Fuel: 200 tons for lander);
Range: 7.7
Endurance: 17 weeks
Mass: 8,732.65 tons standard load (6,151.5 tons unloaded with ordnance)
Cargo Capacity: 2,581.15 m3;
Comfort: 0;
Total Life Support: 90 people for 180 days;
Ordnance Carried: 20 Ritage-2 missiles in 5 launchers, Voir Drone in bay, Zenith class Lander in Hangar (3 turns to launch)
Crew: 90 (10 Bridge, 19 TAC, 16 Engineering, 3 Small Craft Maintenance and Pilot, 20 Troops, 9 Stewards, 3 Medical)
Price: MLv185.434, exclusive of small craft and lander (MLv328.92 for ordnance set, MLv2 for lander)

Ship Status Sheet
Movement: 7 (8 unloaded, 4 on solar power)
Targeting Computers: +2
Radiated Signature: 3 (6), -3 on solar power
Screens: None
Armour: 2
Radial Reflected: 5
Lateral Reflected: 7
Radial Profile: -1
Lateral Profile: +1
Maneuverability: 3

Hull Hits: 72/18/36; Power Plant Hits: 60/12

Surface Fixtures

Weapons: 8 x1+1dbl masked turrets (2x 1234, 2x 1238, 2x 5678, 2x 4567), all UTES equipped
TTA's and Submunitions: 2 LL-7 submunition launchers (6 shots each, 5x2 warhead), 6x Remote Communicators, 2x Bridge Communicators, 1x Small Craft Communicator
Sensors: Active: 16 (with redundant); Passive: 12 (with redundant); Deep System Scan; Grav Scan; Navigational Radar

Critical Hits, Crew Section

Bridge: Captain; Navigator; 2x Communications; Helm; 2x Engineer; 3x Computer
TAC: Active Operator; Passive Operator; 6x Remote Pilot; 10x Gunner; Flight Control

Damage Control: 18 (6 teams)

Appendix 1: Prize Money

The standard pay for taking a prize ship is half the value of the vessel plus half the value of any ordnance or cargo, split equally between all members of the crew of the ship that took the prize, so the 90 man Paris's  crew would expect 1/180th of the basic cost each. For a typical merchant this is roughly Lv150,000 each, potentially enough enough to retire on.

Appendix 2: Beta Leonis

The quickest route (from Earth) is:
 
Star Name Star Dist. Cum. Dist. Code
(SOL) 0.00 0.00 0
Nyotekundu (French Outpost) 7.64 7.64 480
Bessieres (French Outpost) 4.01 11.65 75
Neubayern (German Colony) 7.11 18.76 476
Augereau (French and German Outposts) 4.24 23.00 69
Queen Alice's Star (French Colony) 5.79 28.79 486
Kimanjano (French Colony) 7.25 36.04 410
Joi (ex-French Colony) 7.22 43.26 406
DM+27 28217 (French Outpost) 5.03 48.29 131
Ross 627 7.47 55.76 507
Beta Leonis 7.63 63.39 80
-Output from the Warp98 program with the standard 2300 near star list.

As you can see, it is two jumps beyond the frontier, about the same distance from Earth as Aurore. Explorers moved into this area in the 2250's, contacting the Pentapods. The Pentapods, although starfarers have not colonised off-world, but have sent "bullets" exploring, but rather than settling in foreign systems, they instead have huge starships, the size of moons which house millions of bullets and a single "God" (the true Pentapods). The DM+27 28217 outpost is the primary transfer point for trade with the Pentapods, and so much richer than its size would suggest. The Pentapod homeworld, around the star DM+43 1953, is 6 jumps beyond DM+27 28217, and several fingers with several dozen new systems lie in this area.

Appendix 3: Villeneuves Revenge

The missing Marechel, much to Frances shame mutinied, and has become a Pirate ship, the Villeneuves Revenge. The original mutineers were fired by the passions of the Elysian revolution, and intended to take their ship to Elysia and join their comrades. Unfortunately a countermutiny put the former Crew Chief in command, and she had no intention of forgoing the opportunity to own a power combat starship. Serving as a mercenary in the Elysian and Franco-German wars, she spent the interim years hired out to Corporations for a variety of tasks, ranging from escorting merchants, to attacks on rival shipping lines and a daring raid on a King Tantalum fleet, seizing a freighterload of refined tantalum and selling it abroad. When the Kafer War started, she took a German letter of marquee and was involved in attacking Kafer shipping. No contact with her has been made since March 2302, but her destruction is by no means sure.

The ship is a modified Marechel, modified so as to be unrecognisable, although a thorough inspection will reveal her drive numbers are that of the FS Marechel Duroit. Her crew is constantly shifting, and she would make a good candidate for a pirate/ mercenary campaign.

Original version of this article hosted on the Etranger site.