At the foundation of Citizenship lies the ethos: “the noblest fate that a man can
endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war’s desolation”.
These words predate the Terran Federation, but any teacher of History and Moral Philosophy
would say that basic truths cannot change, and once a man of insight expresses one of them it
is never necessary, no matter how much the world changes, to reformulate them. This is immutable,
true everywhere, throughout all time, for all men and all nations. But in the interstellar age
when Terran colonies span the whole of the galaxy its citizens are not carried to war’s desolation
on words alone. They are instead borne aloft on Corvette Transports bearing the name of ancient
heroes: Cromwell, Giáp, Hood, Yamamoto, Mitchell, Geronimo, Audie Murphy, and Rodger Young.
Though the class designation of these ships has not yet been disclosed, they fulfill a
predominant role within the Federal Navy; that of Corvette Transport. They are employed to land
and then support ground and aerospace forces on enemy territory by means of a planetary assault.
While capable of performing secondary roles, including that of communications relay
or underway replenishment, their higher operational cost makes them
unsuitable for such auxiliary tasks in anything other than a short term basis.
Ships of the Rodger Young type represent a compromise between the navy, which prefers
larger regimental troopships, and the Mobile Infantry, which favors smaller one-platoon craft.
Corvette transports roughly split the difference: able to ferry a single
MI battalion and its accompanying equipment, or roughly 1500 less encumbered passengers.
Its troop complement can be ferried to a planetary surface by the Corvette’s organic air wing,
consisting of 18 Viking Landing Boats and 9 Skyhook Retrieval Boats.
A Corvette Transport’s hull is long and narrow, marked by a distinctive, angular bow
in which the ship’s bridge is located. Hangers and landing bays line the ventral hull of the bow,
with nine located on both the port and starboard sides. Its midship and stern
are compartivelity skeletal, with a more utilitarian arrangement. Protruding notably
from this section is the ship’s communication and sensor tower as well as four engine modules.
Each engine module is able to articulate independently to achieve greater maneuverability
and includes a smaller thruster port on its front for reverse maneuverability.
The armament of a Rodger Young type corvette transport is minimal,
limited to four dual cannons on its bow, and several others distributed across its sides.
These are intended as weapons of last resort however, with
the ship’s role precluding it from engaging in anti-starship warfare whenever possible.
At least two variants of the Corvette Transport are operated by the Federation Navy, each making
major alterations to the midship section directly behind the vessel’s bow. In place of the reactor
normally located here, the first variant includes a large upper flight deck, increasing
the complement of the ship by an additional squadron of F-76 Thunderbolt fighter-bombers.
Ships of this subclass are able to further support Mobile Infantry operations with air cover,
or provide naval aviation to escort the vessel itself and its accompanying fleet. The
second variant merely extends the vessel’s upper decks, allowing for greater internal ship space.
In peacetime conditions some of these starships, usually operating without any
Mobile infantry detachment, were assigned to patrols on the Federation’s frontiers.
Most however were kept in reserve either in the Solar System or forward deployed to battlestations
within the Arachnid Quarantine Zone. At the outbreak of the Arachnid War, corvette transports
formed the mainstay of the Federation’s invasion fleets. In planetary landings
on Klendathu and P Venta Monis, intelligence failures cause these ships to suffer heavy losses.
Over the course of the war, the Arachnids would display a particular aptitude for launching plasma
into orbit at precisely the moments when the transports were in formation
and most vulnerable. By the Second Battle of Klendathu, the Rodger Young Type had been
supplemented by the Athena Class. Nevertheless the older vessels remained a significant component
of Terran battlegroups and were highly prized both within the Fleet and the Mobile Infantry.
While some, particularly those in the Navy, argue that the successful use of the Q-Bomb
has the potential make to make Corvette Transports and the Mobile Infantry itself obselete,
it only takes a cursory review of History and Moral Philosophy to prove otherwise. War has
never been violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence,
for a purpose. This is immutable, true everywhere, throughout all time, for all men and all nations.
And so, for as long as the Terran Federation possesses the will to survive within the galaxy,
there will forever be a need for vessels to transport its citizens to fight in war’s
desolation. And to the everlasting glory of the infantry, will shine the name of Rodger Young.