I spent about fifteen minutes sketching out a ship design on paper - and then nearly fifteen hours modeling it in Bryce. It came out just about like my drawing, and I was happy with the texture I worked up for the hull. So here, we jump another quarter millennium forward in my future history to the early twenty-sixth century. The ship is a destroyer for the newly established Empire of Mars, and I was looking for a naming scheme for the class and I figured, hey, what about 'bright stars'! Great idea, but, um, that makes this an ... Imperial... Star... Destroyer. Oh well. Given that, I had no choice but to put it out at Saturn and put the 'Death Star' moon, Mimas in the background. Purists will note that Saturn and Mimas are "upside down" with south to the top. And ubergeeks who happen to reference my future history on my web site will note that the shadows of the rings probably puts the scene at around 2529, just after the Mars-Belter War. Thanks again for viewing and commenting. --- The Sirius class destroyer formed the backbone of the early Martian Imperial Fleet. It was the most famous vessel entirely designed by the renowned naval architect Allison Chandrasekhar. A total of 59 vessels, from the Sirius to the Algol, were built at Gupta Orbital Yard and the Phobos Industrial Shipyards between 2490 and 2534. Length: 146m Width: 33m (max) 22m body Height: 182.3m (wings) 38.5m body Volume/Mass: 97,150cu m - 77,700mt loaded - 31,080 dry The Sirius class was designed as a patrol cruiser and anti-piracy vessel. A fusion drive vessel, whose .5G thrust could be augmented to 8.5G by separately chambered plasma burners, the ship had a maximum mission delta v of 2,245 kps. The distinctive offset design of the 5 meter glaser blisters allowed at least 18 of the ship's 22 blisters to bear on a single target at nearly any heading. A dozen drone launch tubes completed the main armaments. Crews assigned to this class were fanatical in their enthusiasm for the ships. The crew of 15 officers and 45 enlisted occupied three independent crew cages. The ships had lifeboats for 72, space for allocated for brig cells, three sickbays, amenities for long patrols and a well laid out and stylish interior. The Imperial High Command became less than enthusiastic about the Sirius class during the Belter War. Despite the honeycombed fuel cavities, the MSMH tanks were susceptible to phase change explosions and the vessels lacked the faster sustained legs of a high thrust ion drive warship. While well suited to commerce raiding and engagements with lighter Belter ships and gunboats, the lack of heavy armaments hampered its effectiveness in major engagements, and the older glaser batteries limited effective direct fire range to under 200,000 klicks. The surviving destroyers remained in service as patrol vessels into the 2560's. Four vessels were transferred to the Lunar Protective Service, and continued to escort Lunar commerce until their final decommission in 2584. hypernote: Allison Chandrasekhar fell out of favor with Emperor Albert during the early construction phase of the Ares class heavy cruiser. She spent the rest of her life in a series of Imperial Prisons, eventually dying on Varuna in 2562. When Admiral Jorge Khan-Bellefonte led the group of officers who assassinated the deposed Emperor at his Escalante estate in 2636, the Admiral reportedly uttered, "This one is for Allison," before stabbing Albert. Khan-Bellefonte had served as a junior officer aboard the Arcturus early in the Belter War and had commanded the Deneb in the 2530s. - excerpt from wikipedia galactica, Mars edition.