The Frigates of EVE Online, page 7
Outside military application, the Hookbill is often used by private military contractors (PMCs) and independent capsuleers in roles that include bounty hunting, escort duties, and noncovert visual scouting ahead of larger task forces. While not used in the Caldari military to fulfill interdiction roles, given its versatility for medium power subsystem installation, the Hookbill can often be seen used in these roles by independent capsuleers and PMCs when required.
Some independent capsuleers have been known to utilize expensive or rare afterburner and microwarp drive systems to compensate for the Hookbill’s lower maximum velocity, in order to take advantage of its damage application and versatility when fitting hardware with medium power requirements.
“The Hookbill was drafted with the best of intentions, but remains a disjointed blueprint with no real design objective that continues to burn a hole in the research and development budget of the navy.
The Lai Dai research and development division is offering to tender a contract for a technical revision of the Hookbill’s blueprint, as our senior draftsmen feel that the vessel has untapped potential. All we require is CEP approval, and we’ll produce a mainstay frigate for the Caldari Navy that will remain technologically superior to anything the Federation Navy can offer for the next twenty-five years.”
Anuken Urpalen
Chief Draftsman,
Lai Dai Research & Development
CALDARI STATE
PROPULSION
Mark 5 Kaalakiota Magpulse Propulsion System
– Propel Dynamics LW-80 FTL Assembly
– Kaalakiota “Kaskia” Magpulse Propulsion Unit
– 3× Propel Dynamics GE20 Magpulse Propulsion Units
– Propel Dynamics TR-10 Yaw Control Propulsion System
ENGINEERING
– Lai Dai “Infinity” Mark 5 Graviton Reactor Unit
– 9× Propel Dynamics “Oskiga” Scalar Capacitor Banks
– Lai Dai “Tovosko” Quantum Microprocessor Mainframe
– Lai Dai “Hypnos 1000” Gravimetric Sensor Array
DEFENSE
– Propel Dynamics Double Skin 200 mm Titanium Diborite Armor
– Ishukone “Haskolo” Sustained Shield Emitter
OFFENSE
– 4× Lai Dai “Arbalest” Light Launcher Hardpoint Pairs
– Kaalakiota “Harpoon” Mark 2 Missile Guidance Platform
KESTREL
Originally designed as an armored troop and supply transport vessel for the Caldari armed forces before the secession of the Caldari people from the Gallente Federation, the Kestrel is the only relatively untouched frigate design still in service that saw action during the Caldari-Gallente War, having originally been drafted into service roughly two centuries ago.
A rock solid light missile platform through and through, the Kestrel has a base blueprint that has changed very little over the course of the last century and a half, only having been modified to update its underlying subsystems to the most recent iterations of their models. Given the vessel’s outstanding performance in its assigned roles with the Caldari military, the CEP has seen little need for a complete reassessment and redesign of the vessel, choosing instead not to meddle with a vessel that is performing exceptionally well in its current role.
For the Caldari people, the Kestrel is as iconic as the Kairiola, a water freighter that was converted into a fighter carrier for use during the Caldari-Gallente War. The original version of the Kestrel—which had not been in service long within the Caldari State as a secure transport vessel when the bombardment of Caldari Prime commenced—was used to mass evacuate millions of Caldari citizens from orbit of Caldari Prime and transport them to a new home on a world that was to become known as New Caldari Prime.
To this day, the silhouette of the Kestrel is used as an icon of remembrance during the Caldari State’s annual Landfall celebration, which marks the arrival of the first settlers who were brought to New Caldari Prime after the evacuation of the Caldari home world.
Given that the Kestrel has become such an icon among the Caldari people, who remain steeped in the culture of the Raata Empire and the traditions and history of their ancestors, most external observers believe that it remains in service simply as a tribute to the brave pilots who flew those incredibly dangerous missions in order to preserve civilian lives.
The truth is known to anyone who has come face to face with a Kestrel, however: this formidable little vessel may be long in the tooth, but it can certainly hold its own with brutal punching power and a rock solid shielding system should the situation dictate the need to do so. This is further reinforced by the fact that the Lai Dai Corporation took the Kestrel’s blueprint just a few years ago, and developed it into the fearsome Manticore class stealth bomber.
POWER REQUIREMENTS
With the Kestrel firmly rooted in the hearts of every Caldari as a formidable light missile platform with significant punching power, there was no contest when Lai Dai were seeking a standard hull on which to develop a stealth bomber platform.
The transition from light missile technology to the equipment typically used on the Raven class battleship was relatively straightforward; sourcing a reactor with the required power output bandwidth was however a much larger challenge.
The Lai Dai Protection Service lost nineteen security personnel after a reactor meltdown occurred on one of the prototype vessels using a Lai Dai sourced reactor during fire sequence testing in gravdock. The resulting blast tore through the deck below the vessel’s hangar, vaporizing the nineteen men in the barracks below who were showering after their morning physical training.
To this date, these men are known as the “Silent Nineteen” and are well known among Caldari service personnel due to their status listing as Missing in Action.
Due to a technicality in Caldari law, none of the men can be considered legally dead and Killed in Action, as formal identification cannot take place without the presence of either genetically identifiable biomass or their service dog tag in order to confirm their death, or identifiable holo-footage of their death. Given that all nineteen were vaporized along with their titanium composite dog tags, in a shower block that contained no holo-cameras for privacy reasons, they are still technically listed as MIA almost a decade later.
TYPICAL USAGE
The Kestrel remains a unique design of frigate that started out life as a secure transport, but was then hastily armed and thrust into a war zone to assist with humanitarian efforts. Consequently this iconic hull is far larger than most other frigates of Caldari design, dwarfing the faster and lighter chassis of the Condor, Merlin, and Hookbill.
Another unusual trait for the Kestrel is its overengineered propulsion systems, which were designed to give the vessel a load lifting capacity of twice its own unloaded mass. This results in many fully loaded Kestrels tipping the scales at a monstrous two and a half million kilograms, despite the vessel’s unloaded mass being a little over a million.
This massive lifting capacity, along with the Kestrel’s low running costs, makes it a favorite for high value, low volume secure transportation, with many divisions of the Caldari Military employing their own squadrons of Kestrel class frigate for transportation of troops, officers, and high value equipment.
In civilian and commercial service, the Kestrel’s brutal punching power combined with its versatility and load lifting capacity make it a favorite among traders across all four empires. Given the sheer number of units in service and the open availability of replacement parts due to its longer than average service life, the Kestrel is a logical choice for any new or small scale trader looking to make fast and secure deliveries, especially to lower security pockets of space.
The Kestrel is typically seen in service transporting everything from rare wines to prize livestock, expensive clone blanks, and high grade electronic hardware; if a cargo is valuable, then it would be a safe bet to assume that at some point a Kestrel class frigate has moved a shipment of it, be it legal or black market cargo moved through backwater routes by those on the less legitimate side of the law.
VARIATIONS
Manticore
Based directly on the most recent hardware revision of the Kestrel, the Manticore is a stripped bare version of this iconic frigate, tailored completely toward surprise attack using a covert ops cloaking system and upgraded missile hardpoints that carry advanced torpedoes.
Developed by Lai Dai, the premier missile weapons systems design and manufacturing corporation in the State, the Manticore has been described as a Kestrel on steroids, using most of its cargo space to store racks of high yield torpedoes and bombs that are used for long range surprise bombardments against larger, fortified targets such as battleships and capital-class hulls.
With vastly upgraded electronic subsystems to support the covert ops cloaking hardware, and additional subframe reinforcement to ensure the frigate sized hull isn’t torn apart by rapid, repeated launching of torpedoes, the Manticore is significantly slower than its older brother, and weighs in at more than three hundred thousand kilos heavier than the standard Kestrel.
“The Kestrel is the personification of what it means to be Caldari. Steadfast. Reliable. Efficient. Functional. I’ll be damned if I see a bunch of pencil necked bureaucrats decommission a vessel that has served the State more dutifully and honorably than any of those bastards could dream to.
This vessel will continue to be a cornerstone of the secure logistical backbone of the Caldari Navy for as long as I serve the State, and anyone who feels they want to dispute this can take the matter up with me personally.”
Brigadier General Mininela Erinen
Commanding Officer, Caldari Navy
CALDARI STATE
PROPULSION
Lai Dai Gen 6 Magpulse Propulsion System
– Propel Dynamics LW-80 FTL Assembly
– 2× Lai Dai “Tri-Jet” Magpulse Propulsion Units
– Propel Dynamics TR-5 Yaw Control Propulsion Unit
ENGINEERING
– Lai Dai “Infinity” Mark 5 Graviton Reactor Unit
– 8× Propel Dynamics “Kankai” Scalar Capacitor Banks
– Lai Dai “Tovosko” Quantum Microprocessor Mainframe
– 2× Lai Dai “Hypnos 800” Gravimetric Sensor Arrays
DEFENSE
– Propel Dynamics Double Skin 200 mm Titanium Diborite Armor
– Ishukone “Takashki” Sustained Shield Emitter
OFFENSE
– 3× Ishukone “Arashii” MagTEC Hardpoint Sets
MERLIN
The only Caldari designed standard frigate with an unloaded mass less than one million kilograms, the Merlin holds the undisputed title as the most powerful all round standard combat frigate that the Caldari State has ever produced.
Initially designed by the Ishukone Corporation as a durable, lightweight hybrid weapons platform, the Merlin has evolved over the years from being a versatile gunnery support frigate with significant utility for front line support, into a focused and exceptionally deadly hybrid weapons platform that provides a significant challenge for any pilot that chooses to engage it. Regardless of whether that engagement is at range or at close quarters, the Merlin presents itself as an incredibly difficult target to break due to its formidable defensive ability.
A favorite among older and longer serving pilots in both the Caldari Navy and Ishukone Watch, where it sees service in a wide range of roles, the Merlin is best suited to providing devastating frigate-class gunnery support to fast moving patrols and is typically seen deployed in a squadron consisting of two Merlins, three Condors as fast interdiction platforms, and a pair of Griffin class electronic warfare frigates to provide electronic countermeasures support.
With onboard hardware tailored toward providing optimum service to hybrid weapons platforms, including three sets of Ishukone designed Arashii MagTEC turret hardpoints and hybrid autoloaders, and a target acquisition and subprocessing suite used with so much success that it was transplanted into the Cormorant class destroyer, the Merlin’s offensive capability as a frigate-class gunnery platform is second to none in the Caldari State.
After developing a cult following in the State, the Merlin was developed by Ishukone into the Harpy class assault frigate, further building on its capability as a stable gunnery platform. On seeing the success of this venture, Lai Dai quickly moved to secure rights from Ishukone to develop their own missile based assault frigate, and thus the Hawk was born.
Controversially, the Guristas Pirates also created their own take on the Merlin class frigate, known as the Worm, with Ishukone claiming that the vessel was a reverse engineered and modified version of the Merlin that was designed from blueprints widely available on the open market.
TYPICAL USAGE
Widely used by the Caldari Navy, State Customs, and Ishukone Watch, the Merlin has recently also been employed by the Lai Dai Protection Service as well as the Home Guard and several other security oriented megacorporations as a front line fire support frigate given its durable and combat tested chassis.
Sizing up as one of the best frigate-class hybrid weapons platforms in the cluster, the Merlin has no shortage of admirers among veterans of Caldari Navy service, having served the State for almost three decades with an almost impeccable deployment record. Seen in active service across the State, from use in patrols across the southern side of the Citadel, protecting the State’s border with the Federal region of Sinq Laison, to the far northern reaches of Lonetrek in the Mito constellation, an area of Caldari space notorious for Guristas Pirate activity, the Merlin is more often than not deployed as an antifrigate and corvette gunnery platform that in reality can also pose a significant threat to an unprepared or rookie piloted cruiser-class vessel.
Always deployed in pairs, typically alongside a group of interdiction frigates such as the Condor or its sister ship, the Caldari Navy designed Hookbill, the Merlin tends to rely on support from faster vessels to prevent targets from escaping while its fast-tracking hybrid turrets make short work of any designated targets.
Away from military application, the Merlin is often used as a supplementary escort vessel to help guarantee the safe passage of industrial convoys, and has most recently been employed by Outer Ring Excavations to act as an antifrigate point defense platform for many of their mobile mining operations.
The vessel also sees widespread use among independent capsuleer pilots in roles that range from scouting and heavy frigate interdiction, to fire support and bounty hunting, typically being employed by less seasoned independent pilots before they move on to command the more expensive Harpy and Hawk class assault frigates.
VARIATIONS
Harpy
Developed from the Merlin blueprint by Ishukone in order to fill a gap in the State’s assault frigate market, the Harpy is significantly slower and heavier than its standard counterpart.
These shortcomings are however made up for with the inclusion of a fourth pair of Arashii turret hardpoints that give the Harpy a quite simply staggering level of stopping power for a frigate-class hull, making the Harpy a bestseller on markets across the cluster.
A third wrap of titanium diborite armor, along with an upgraded primary reactor power coupling that enables a 25 percent increase in power transmission from the vessel’s fifth generation Infinity class reactor, gives the Harpy the utility to match the Merlin’s punching power, despite its less agile subframe.
The addition of a single pair of Arbalest launcher hardpoints, along with a second Takashki model sustained shield emitter, also provides additional utility and versatility for a more varied offensive package while simultaneously increasing the Harpy’s staying power on the field.
Hawk
In a similar vein to the design of the Harpy, Lai Dai took the Merlin’s chassis along with lessons from the redevelopment of the Hookbill class frigate, and wrapped the result in an additional layer of titanium diborite plating. This is, however, where the similarities between these iterations on the Merlin end.
In typical Lai Dai fashion, the renowned research and missile subsystem manufacturing corporation stripped away more than half the Merlin’s offensive hybrid capability, leaving it with just two of its MagTEC turret hardpoint sets. They did however compensate for this by installing four sets of prototype Shintasko missile hardpoints that would later be used on the Kaalakiota designed Corax and Stork class destroyers.
The result was a long range, rapid firing missile variant of the Merlin that packs a brutal punch. In addition to this, several shield system upgrades give the vessel almost double the base shield charge of the standard Merlin, along with more energy efficient shield power management hardware that provides significantly more shield charge per booster cycle.
Worm
Almost thirty years after it graced the battlefield for the first time, the origins of the Worm, the Guristas Pirates’ take on the Merlin class frigate, are still disputed.
With an even lighter engineering subframe than the Merlin, three sets of unidentified missile hardpoints that bear a striking resemblance to Lai Dai’s Arbalest model hardpoints, and a colossal set of custom built scalar capacitor banks, the Worm appears to be the product of the unhinged mind of Korako Kosakami, leader of the Guristas Pirates, based on reverse engineered designs of the Merlin whose blueprints are widely available on the open market.
Those who question the legitimacy of the Ishukone Corporation’s business dealings do however offer a different theory: that the well-respected yet very liberal Caldari megacorporation has been striking black market trade deals with the Guristas for years, and provided a shipment of Merlin class frigates for direct research and development by Guristas Production, the logistics and manufacturing arm of the Venal based pirate organization.
