What If: Rendili Star Drive Carrier/Destroyer (Art by Lloyd George)
Or, What if Rendili had pushed through and created a new Capital Ship before the Clone Wars. (The Art used here isn't mine. Here's the link to the Artist's gallery)*
A quick history lesson for those who don't know. When the Free Dac Engineering Corps was founded by the Quarren, one of their engineers stole the designs for the successor of the Dreadnought-Class from Rendili. These designs would later be used to create the Providence-Class used by the C.I.S.
Now, here I propose a scenario where Rendili, instead of staying put and later focusing on the Victory Initiative alongside Kuat, decided to move with their original plan and develop a new, improved Cruiser ship.
I am aware that Rendili suffered a lot of bad PR around this time, what with the Katana Fleet fiasco and having their new design stolen, and loosing contracts to Kuat, but that's precisely why it would make sense, at least to me, for them to push to make a new, better class of ship to sell.
As such, I present to you the Saber-Class Carrier/Destroyer.
Both its size and specifications are similar to the Providence, though slightly larger. This ship is 1100 meters long, 150 meters tall and 200 meters wide. It has a secondary bridge that is exposed, similar to the Providence, though it sits far closer to the overall structure of the ship rather than what we see with its C.I.S counterpart.
3 Ion Engines of Kuat/Naboonian make allow for incredible sublight speeds, and a Class 1.5 Hyperdrive makes it one of the fastest capital ships in the Galaxy at this point, not accounting for the Acclamator.
Where it diverges, however, is in the megastructure at the prow and crew requirements. The in-universe explanation for this design choice is to take inspiration from the Hammerhead designs from the Old Republic to inspire a feeling of being made for the Republic and protection. It also has some practical reasons, too. The main bridge is also located in the megastructure, on the upper half, allowing direct line of sight with forward elements.
The crew requirement is also extremely reduced in comparison to the Dreadnought-Class, mainly due to the usage and improvement of the Katana Fleet Automation System (improved so it can't be hijacked a second time).
The ship has 2 main configurations based on the role it takes.
• Carrier
As a Carrier, the Saber can carry nearly 400 starfighters and a dozen shuttles (This is based on some rough math and estimations on my part, so take this with a grain of salt).
Weapons are arranged for complete coverage and potential broadside action, but the real kicker is the prow. In this configuration, the hull of the prow is bare of any weapons but is reinforced to facilitate hammering action. Now, this isn't so the ship can go into close range. It's a Carrier for God's sake.
No, the reason behind this is to facilitate escape. If the ship is ever cornered, the Saber can use its superior engines and enhanced prow to essentially "cut" through whatever is blocking its path of escape.
• Destroyer
The Destroyer variant, as the name suggests, is where the firepower can be found, and with a very minor reduction to it's fighter complement, being reduced from 400 to roughly 200 fighters, or as little as 144 total for reactor and cable space.
In this configuration, the megastructure is blistering with turbolasers, with standard coverage along its sides, and some of you may understand from reading the name. This configuration is called the "Cross of Fire," mainly because of the sheer amount of forward laser fire that can be outputted. With a Time-on-Target strategy, a single Saber can completely burn right through even a Lucrehulk from sheer intensity.
Now, I would like to close this post with 2 questions:
- How do you think the Clone Wars would have gone if this ship had been available for use?
- And, if it were you in Rendili's place, what kind of ship would you have made as a successor for the Dreadnought in time for the Clone Wars?
*A lot of people have commented this, so a disclaimer: The picture isn't Star Wars, it's from EVE online. I didn't notice this, but it didn't matter. I didn't build the ship around the image, the image is just a visual aid I found that matched what I wanted to convey. If that bothers you, I apologize. I should have marked it earlier, but I didn't know.