The ARC System 3

"Guidance: After mobility, it is recommended that I give you a good idea of the utilities you will be provided and providing. The sensor cluster is a good place to begin in this regard. The sensors are primarily passive to avoid any radiation detection from them, however there is are more than a few active sensors that can be activated if necessary."

The overlay of the ship's skeleton was replaced by what looked like a net over the ship with prongs that extended from the top, bottom, left, and right of the ship.

"When deployed, these prongs will act much like range finders on many of the capital ships. They may be smaller, and therefore less capable at long ranges, but the distances this ship is designed to be at serve to eliminate errors due to imprecision in angle measurements and potential light disruption."

Most capital ships are equipped with long "prongs" that extend from the bow and stern. Usually, they serve to extend the length of the ship by about a kilometer or two, and on the ends there are a variety of sensors and scouting tools that have the express purpose of determining the range and speed of the target being fired upon. It may take a few hundred salvos in order to get a hard lock, but they get more accurate the longer they have a solution.

"Passive infrared is the primary system, but radiation, gravitational, and magnetic disturbance passives serve to refine the targeting solution. There is no radar equipped on this ship, however the radar waves of other vessels may be used instead. Active laser direction and radiation waves may also be used in order to get a more accurate reading, but doing so may give away your location. Unless you can guarantee the enemy will not be paying attention to you I will advise against their use. Questions?"

He had a few.

"How many targets can be tracked simultaneously? I know most capital ships max out at about 200 before the computers on board become unable to keep gravity fields into account."

"Estimation: Field trials have yet to be conducted, but due to the sensitivity of the sensors and the computing power at my disposal, it has been estimated that around 1200 individual targets may be tracked at a range of 1000 km. Keep in mind that differences in relative speed, range, the presence of increased gravity, and acceleration will decrease my limit, so the combat range is is likely to lie anywhere from 300 to 500. This number will decrease further the more systems are active."

"How much money went into making this thing?" This was ridiculous. Double the tracking capacity of a dreadnought's supercomputer would already crazy enough to justify a new class of ship, not including the other surprises this long black box had in store.

This hunk of metal might just be more expensive than a cruiser.

"Guess: Factoring the costs of research and unique components required to build this ship, I estimate total cost equate to roughly that of a heavy cruiser, bordering on the line of a fast carrier. Material costs are a fraction of the whole, the majority lies in building the facilities to produce the necessary components."

Don was not expecting an actual answer from ARC, forgetting that the computer might not actually understand the concept of a rhetorical question. Still, that was a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a vessel smaller than most civilian corvettes. A wave of nausea was starting to overcome him as he realized how much shit he would be in if he fucked up.

"Wow."

Outwardly, Don was still cooler than a cucumber. Whether this was the result of his intensive training or some adverse reaction to his shock would remain forever unknown.

"Is that all?" ARC had all the time in the world. Don was the one stuck on the clock. ARC was making an attempt to keep him on it. "There are some other devices related to scouting and combat that may be of interest to you, but they are all handled by me. Suggestion: In order to save time now I could tell you about them during the appropriate combat test.

"That sounds like a good idea." Don, still dazed, accepted this proposition without even thinking about it. He had had enough of that 'thinking' for one day.

"Then I shall move on to the concealment and defense systems. I believe that armor ratings will be the most important to give you an idea of what type of target you should and should not provoke. This ship will be most vulnerable from the top and bottom as they present the largest target when perpendicular. In spite of this, the armor on these sides has been rated for light-cruiser class kinetic bombardment and is immune to the vast majority of explosive and energy weaponry. While it can withstand light-cruiser fire, it is still highly recommended you don't make yourself a target for them."

In his daze, Arc did not catch the discrepancy between what the doctor had told him and what ARC had revealed. Light cruisers are designed specifically to chew up swarms of smaller ships like this. They are notorious for their massed small gun and laser batteries meant to intercept both missiles and smaller craft. While less well known among the public, they are equally as infamous amongst destroyer and picket crews for their numerous rapid firing, variable velocity railguns that are perfect for tearing apart the slightly heavier armor of those ships.

The fact that something this size could theoretically take a hit of that magnitude and still have electronics operational was a miracle.

"The sides and rear are more heavily armored, rated for heavy cruiser class kinetic bombardment and impervious to explosive and energy weaponry. While it is rated for that level of fire, I once again warn against taking hits with that amount of energy. The plating and hull may be able to, but it starts to become questionable whether or not the impact dampener will take enough of the impulse off that the human body will be able to survive."