RSC Holnok

Holnok-Class Frigate
Role:	Assault Frigate
Built by:	Variable Requisitioning
Length:	350m
First Battle Appearance:	Good Question
In Service:	X - Present
Race:	Betel Recyclers

The Holnok is a common ship used to fill the ranks of Sky Spear Companies. Primarily it is used as fire support to combat light to medium class capital ships. Despite their artillery role, these ships will close to short range to avoid counter-barrages by heavy ship cannons. Sky Spear doctrine recommends pushing behind tougher or larger allied ships to protect the front while broadsiding parallel enemy ships they pass by. To accomplish this, the ship has admirable forward thrust to close the distance, but only marginal maneuverability. The slow turn rate can make pulling off successful broadsides tricky, but with skill Shield Captains can take advantage of the main guns' recoil to achieve quicker turns at the expense of ammunition.

The Holnok carries up to six strikecraft in single-ship armoured hangar bays. Despite protective plating, these hangars are more vulnerable than the rest of the side hull, and should be seen as weakpoints. To counteract this handicap, experienced Holnok Shield Captains may micromanage longitudinal rolls to absorb hits with tougher underbelly armour.

While older than most ships still in mass production, the Holnok has proved a reliable base. Incremental improvements to the main cannons and regular retrofitting by crew and command alike have kept it up to date with the typical Betel fleet.

Development

Production

Like most Sky Spear frigates, the Holnok is requisitioned via the Sky Commission from various companies ranging wildly in size and location. As a result, while this class of ship is mostly standardized different ships may possess unique quirks or varying quality of armour and weaponry.

Armaments

Weapon Type	Amount
Arphaxad-Shell Cannon	4
Lado Lasercannon Turret	1
Armoured Strikecraft/Cargo Bays	6
Boarding Pod Launchers	4

Like all non-strikecraft Sky Spear ships, the Holnok carries Marauder squads for boarding offense and defense. Holnoks typically carry 6 Marauder Squads, but that number can vary. If a Holnok is transporting Photon Gunships or other troop-transports in its hangars the number can be expected to be much higher.

Note: They probably have some kind of light point defense beyond the Lado as well

Variants

Torrent Archetype

The single-shot Arphaxad-Shell Cannons are swapped out for Fastburn Rocket Arrays that can launch salvos of unguided missiles. While more vulnerable to point defense, the successive shots can puncture multiple layers of hull defense with more explosive force.

Budget Mod

The top mounted Lado turret can be expensive to implement for some producers. As such, there are a small percentage of Holnoks are instead armed with an armour-piercing ballistic repeater turret or similar replacements. This practice was typical in initial production runs, but has decreased in frequency as the war has gone on.