Description[]
As with most of the Scions Hospitalier fleet of submarines the Tide-Breaker serves it's function in supporting underwater warfare. Built to carry squads of marines into battle it has the flexibility of movement thanks to it's powerful reactor whilst keeping them safe behind several layers of durable armour. All while carrying troops the submarine also acts as a node in the larger integrated sonar detection system, giving up-to-date intelligence even whilst delivering troops.
History[]
As with many of the expeditions to the labs deep beneath one particular mission would see him and his mortal comrades taking the fight to a particularly nasty nest of Gelak Eels that needed had managed to sink an entire transport convoy full of civilians. To deal with the sheer numbers the Eels had Pionus had to use his own sizeable warhost, but had no way to transport them.
Setting himself and a few other engineers to the task they eventually came up with the progenitor, the Sea-Strider class of submarine. Able to hold 30 full-armed and armoured men and reach the necessary depth a veritable fleet of them were built to carry the warhost he had at his command. Once gathered together the 1000 strong army embarked and slipped beneath the waves to enact their lord's will.
After severe and heavy fighting that saw several hundred men lost to the depths they completed their task of wiping out the Gelak Eels. Watching in satisfaction as their tunnel-lined home in the deep coral reefs was obliterated from the inside by seismic charges, and boarded their craft to return to the surface once more.
With the coming of the Emperor and the 19th Legion Pionus saw to it that the Sea-Strider didn't simply fade into history as a relic. Taking notes from it's design and integrating them with the Imperium's own technology he commissioned a new class, the Tide-Breaker which was adopted into the Legions armouries with gusto as they became familiar with their new underwater domain.
Design[]
The Design of a Tide-Breaker is much like any other submarine that has existed before. A sleek black hull begins with an angled prow made up of protective layers of adamantium acting as the main method of defence. The mid-section is boxy in it's design with rounded edges and extra adamantium plating on the sides for those in the troop compartment all tapering off to a single propeller at the rear of the vehicle. A small hump on the top contains all the crafts communication sensors underneath the hull and a set of foreplanes are set into the side of the hull forward of the troop compartment while a set of aftplanes and rudder are placed around the circumference of the propeller itself to allow for guidance.
Armament[]
As the Tide-Breaker's focus is as a troop carrier the submarine is lightly armed, it's main weapon consists of two Tenya'ba-Pattern Bolters in a twin-linked configuration like a storm bolter, providing suppressing fire while it allows it's troops to disembark. Hidden inside the front of the submarine the chin armour splits down the middle to reveal the weapon, allowing the craft to maintain a sleek form to better cut through the water when the weapon is stowed.
A secondary option for offensive capability is attaching a bank of light-weight torpedoes to the submarine. Housed inside a single-use launcher assembly, 4 Knifehead Torpedoes can augment the Tide's offensive power, allowing it to destroy lightly armoured targets or make short work of any mid-sized biological enemies. This addition does increase the drag and flow-noise of the submarine in turn, slowing the craft slightly and making it marginally easier to pickup on sonar arrays.
Control Systems []
the cockpit houses the important control systems to allow for full movement of the submarine and monitoring of the area through the sonar system, alongside holding the majority of the communication relays and power-systems to allow for information to be fed back to the rest of the fleet.
The controls are the same for the submarine as they are for an aircraft, two control sticks are positioned at the commanders and driver's positions in case the driver becomes incapacitated. These controls change the angle of the fore/aft-planes and the rudder as they are moved around, with several displays showing their individual angles. A small panel next to this also allows the hover system to be engaged and a depth to be set that the submarine will automatically stay at. Sections of the frontal armour can also be moved, leaving to letterbox-sized viewport that can be used either in conjunction with the sonar system or in the case of it's failure.
The sonar system on board consists of several arrays, one in the nose of the craft and small set in the belly to monitor the area around the submarine. These arrays monitor, track and classify targets in the area through a small cogitator, allowing the resulting information to build up a tactical picture for the commander and information to be passed on to other vessels for strategic advantage.
Communications are handled by a powerful array of transmitters and receivers sending out sound waves to other units in the area of operations allowing for information to be passed with great speed and security between units. These sound waves produced are the result of the expansion of the non-verbal system first developed by Pionus Santor during his days fighting in the oceans of his homeworld. The sounds generated are at a sub-sonic frequency and encoded with Astartes encoding as well as being in distinct dialect of the Ionan language to ensure security.
Defensive Systems[]
The Tide-Breaker has two main forms of defence to help weather enemy attacks. The first is the adamantium armour-plating added onto the base chassis. This extra layer of armour is added to the nose of the craft and the side, raising the survivability of those troops inside the submarine significantly at the cost of some speed due to the armour's weight.
The secondary defence system is a staple of all Scion submarines, the Siren decoys. These decoys when launched, create a massive amount of noise and motion to distract both enemy combatants and any guided ordnance, giving the Tide-Breaker a chance to evade or escape the area entirely.
Finally the last element of defence available to the Tide-Breaker is simply ingenious use of the existing design, rather than something built from the ground up. The foreplanes located just fwd of the troop compartment can be lifted vertically to display a solid mass of metal. This mass provides an Astartes with enough cover for the exiting troops or as a firing position for a single marine to lay down suppressing fire from. While not initially intended all submarine pilots are taught this technique as a matter of course to help protect their troops.
Engines[]
With the entire submarine being powered by the Quad MkIV Thermic reactor the Tide-Breaker has a fair amount of power to distribute to it's subsystems. This is mainly used to power the single propeller acting as propulsion for the whole vehicle as well as the secondary hover system. The main propeller itself can be spun up to allow speeds of 20 knots. The hover system is a series of water-jets inside the hull with exhaust ports on the underside. These jets can pump out water at a significant enough rate to allow the craft to maintain it's position within the ocean. This is controlled by the pilot who is able to set the depth that the hover system will then maintain. A bonus of the hover system is that due to the nature of water-jets it is significantly quieter than the main propulsion system and will reduce it's detection range by enemy sensors.
Transportation[]
The troop transport bay itself has several features beyond merely being able to accommodate a squad of Astartes. The entire mid-section of the submarine being given over to troop transport and the sides opening fully to allow troops to embark and disembark, with each side able to fit 5 Astartes and their equipment inside. The Troop bay can also maintain it's own atmosphere inside with only limitation to this being that the seals and joints can only maintain the pressure to a depth of 1.5km or above. Secondary oxygen masks hooked up to tanks provide an alternate source of air in an emergency and basic power-armour repair tools are also stored on each side with clamps and shelves for the storage of ammunition and equipment.
Technical Specifications[]
| + | |||||
| Vehicle Name: | Tide-Breaker | Main Armament: | Chin-Mounted Tenya'ba Storm Bolter | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forge World of Origin: | Oorlock Sigma Foundry-Station | Secondary Armament: | Lightweight Torpedo Pod (Optional) | ||
| Known Patterns: | Tide-Breaker, Overtow | Tertiary Armament: | N/A | ||
| Crew: | 1 Commander, 1 Driver | Quaternary Armament: | N/A | ||
| Powerplant: | Quad Mk IV Shielded Thermic Reactor | Main Ammunition: | 1,200 Rounds | ||
| Weight: | 20 tonnes (Empty) 36 tonnes (Loaded Weight) |
Secondary Ammunition: | 4 Knifehead Torpedoes | ||
| Length: | 7.7 metres | Armour: | |||
| Height: | 4.5 metres | Hull: | 680 millimetres | ||
| Width: | 5.4 metres | Casing: | 520 millimetres | ||
| Maximum Depth: | 5.5 kilometres | Maximum Speed: | 32 Knots (59km/h) | ||
| Transport Capacity: | 10 Astartes | Firing Ports: | N/A | ||
| Range: | Unlimited | Turret: | N/A | ||
Notable Variant: Overtow APS[]
Description[]
The Overtow APC variant is one that relies more on the element of surprise than sheer brute force when it comes to transporting troops to the battlefield. This is achieved by having the submarine make a 'run' directly over the battlefield much like an aircraft, laying down suppression or smoke with it's grenade launchers before deploying it's marines from pods that run along the flanks of the craft. In part to help with this the underside of the Overtow is usually painted in a lighter colour to blend in with any light that penetrates from the surface to blend in. All differences are detailed below, everything else is the same as the standard design.
Design[]
Armament[]
Grenade launchers are positioned at either end of the midsection on both the port and starboard side. Each of these launchers is pintle-mounted to the hull with small insets in the hull for stowage during travel to limit drag. Each launcher has 6 cylinders that can be pre-loaded with any manner of Astartes grenade for use on the battlefield. The whole system is fairly simple, relying on a simple switch on the Commander's console for activation, once activated they will expend their full magazines in a pre-determined pattern before the troops are launched.
Control Systems[]
The Nose-mounted sonar array on the Overtow fortunately benefits from the design changes. Due to the thinner and less dense armour composition covering the nose the array can listen further and more accurately than it's standard counterpart system.
A second high-powered sonar array has also been installed on the belly of the submarine, allowing for accurate mapping of the sea floor as well as the ability to detect mines that may be hidden on the sea floor.
Defensive Systems[]
The heavy adamantium blocks of armour on both the nose and flanks have been replaced with a much more lightweight, composite armour mix of ceramite and thermoplas mesh used. This relieves much of the weight issues of the original design and allows the Overtow to reach some impressive top speeds not seen in the Tide-Breaker.
Transportation[]
Instead of the troop bays used in the original design, the Overtow has switched to using individual pods to carry it's troops into battle. This provides several benefits. With individual pods added each marine has an extra layer of armour as protection should the pods be punctured and become open to the crushing sea pressure. These pods also use the effect of rapid compression as a method of intimidation. When the marines leave their pods the rapid compression creates a loud bang as the air previously in the pod is compressed in less than a second. These cavitation bangs both announce their arrival and act as a blinding measure to mask the submarine on sonar as the bubbles around them obscure them visually from the enemy.
Technical Specifications[]
| + | |||||
| Vehicle Name: | Overtow | Main Armament: | Chin-Mounted Tenya'ba Storm Bolter | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forge World of Origin: | Oorlock Sigma Foundry-Station | Secondary Armament: | 2x Grenade Launcher | ||
| Known Patterns: | N/A | Tertiary Armament: | N/A | ||
| Crew: | 1 Commander, 1 Driver | Quaternary Armament: | N/A | ||
| Powerplant: | Quad Mk IV Shielded Thermic Reactor | Main Ammunition: | 1,200 Rounds | ||
| Weight: | 26 tonnes (Empty) 40 tonnes (Loaded Weight) |
Secondary Ammunition: | 6 Rounds Per Launcher, Variable Ammunition | ||
| Length: | 7.7 metres | Armour: | |||
| Height: | 4.5 metres | Hull: | 680 millimetres | ||
| Width: | 5.4 metres | Casing: | 520 millimetres | ||
| Maximum Depth: | 5.5 kilometres | Maximum Speed: | 20 Knots (37 km/h) | ||
| Transport Capacity: | 6 Astartes | Firing Ports: | N/A | ||
| Range: | Unlimited | Turret: | N/A | ||