Named for its distinctive forward 'X' & aft 'I' layout of its six Heavy Naval Gauss Rifles. Meant to be a fleet's sniper either through direct fire, or through its fairly substantial number of capital and sub-capital grade missiles it can salvo. It does suffer in its side arcs as outside of its launchers, it relies almost completely on sub-capital lasers and a single massive naval particle cannon buried into either broadside. However as it is generally meant to act semi-independently of a taskforce or fleet and thus is mostly free to maneuver on its own to bring its massive amounts of forward firepower to bear, this is less of an issue then it seems. Only when put into a position of being pincered does it falter.
While never, yet, used for such, both aft mounted Gauss cannon are arranged to act as ortillery if needed. The vaguely fin shaped suppors the armored barrels rest on which protrude aft, have multiple stacks of heat sinks connecting them to the hull - much like on the venerable McKenna class - along with acting as the main anchor points for the reefing equipment of it's figure-eight shaped solar sail. Quite obviously this makes these priority targets for attackers to concentrate on, which is one reason a good portion of its capital and sub-capital armaments can cover these arcs, along with heavy anti-aerospace fighter defenses. On that point, the Seraph has a rather simplistic arrangement based on a mixture of particle cannon, cluster-firing autocannon, and advanced pulse lasers, by which to defend itself. Small scale missile launchers were viewed as an unnecessary strain on logistics, along with initial teething issues with the Seraph's sensor suit that cause sensor ghosts the Piranha launchers would lock onto instead of valid targets. While these issues were later dealt with via a software patch and adjustments to the phased radar array layout, the changes to the hull design had progressed far enough to preclude adding these smaller launchers back on. If the class is successful, a follow-up Block II could potentially incorporate them.
A minimal aerospace fighter complement of twenty-four fighters, along with two small shuttlecraft are its only integral combat aerospace patrol. This is not to say the Seraph is without parasite defenders, as each cruiser in the class has six docking collars. Two of which are, per standing orders, always to have fighter carriers paired with the Seraph. Generally the other collars are a mix of 'Mech carriers or pocket warship escorts, and at least one tanker dropship, generally an Elephant. As some would question why the Seraph would devote collar space to 'Mech carriers, one needs remember that as a heavy cruiser, some operations might involve deep raids involving only the cruiser itself, against targets that must be dealt with on the ground. This is one reason the class also has oversized zero-g cargo handling passageways large enough to move BattleMechs through, to allow transfers between the various docked dropships. However it should be noted that the Seraph itself has no onboard dedicated space to securely carry BattleMechs, merely a means to move them.
EDIT/CREATOR'S NOTE:
I have absolutely no idea why MegaMekLabs shows that 2880 rounds of LB5X ammo is merely 4 tons. Consider that an error with the program and just knock off 150 tons as a rounding error from the cargo capacity, as it should actually be 144 tons of ammo. Call the last 6 tons 'lost' the.....Captain's secret stash.
Seraph Heavy Cruiser
Mass: 750,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 3145
Mass: 750,000
Battle Value: 135,767
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-X
Cost: 27,541,448,000 C-bills
Fuel: 12,000 tons (30,000)
Safe Thrust: 4
Maximum Thrust: 6
Sail Integrity: 5
KF Drive Integrity: 16
Heat Sinks: 1340 (2680)
Structural Integrity: 60
Armor
Nose: 144
Fore Sides: 119/119
Aft Sides: 105/105
Aft: 68
Cargo
Bay 1: Fighter (24) 4 Doors
Bay 2: Small Craft (2) 1 Door
Bay 3: Cargo (23903.0 tons) 2 Doors
Ammunition:
360 rounds of AR10 Killer Whale ammunition (18,000 tons),
540 rounds of AR10 Barracuda ammunition (16,200 tons),
120 rounds of Heavy N-Gauss ammunition (1.5 tons),
360 rounds of AR10 White Shark ammunition (14,400 tons),
200 rounds of Piranha ammunition (2,000 tons),
2,880 rounds of LB 5-X Cluster ammunition (4 tons)
Dropship Capacity: 6
Grav Decks: 2 (100 m, 100 m)
Escape Pods: 25
Life Boats: 25
Crew: 51 officers, 166 enlisted/non-rated, 89 gunners, 58 bay personnel
Notes: Equipped with
lithium-fusion battery system
1 Mobile Hyperpulse Generators (Mobile HPG)
1 Satellite Imager [Infrared Imager]
1 Satellite Imager [High-Resolution (Hi-Res) Imager]
1 Satellite Imager [Look-Down Radar]
1 Satellite Imager [Hyperspectral Imager]
1 Naval Comm-Scanner Suite (Large)
780 tons of ferro-carbide armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (814 Heat)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy) 36 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) Capital Gauss
Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (40 shots)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy) 36 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) Capital Gauss
Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (40 shots)
3 Naval PPC (Heavy) 675 45(450) 45(450) 45(450) 45(450) Capital PPC
4 Large VSP Laser 40 4(40) 3(28) 0(0) 0(0) Pulse Laser
6 LB 5-X AC 6 3(30) 3(30) 3(30) 0(0) LBX AC
LB 5-X Cluster Ammo (720 shots)
3 Laser AMS 21 1(9) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
FRS/FLS (455 Heat)
6 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 120 12(120) 12(120) 12(120) 12(120) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (180 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (120 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (120 shots)
6 Sub-Capital Laser (SCL/3) 192 18(180) 18(180) 0(0) 0(0) Sub-Capital Laser
4 Large VSP Laser 40 4(40) 3(28) 0(0) 0(0) Pulse Laser
5 ER PPC 75 5(50) 5(50) 5(50) 0(0) PPC
4 Laser AMS 28 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
RBS/LBS (576 Heat)
5 Sub-Capital Missile Launcher (Piranha) 45 15(150) 15(150) 15(150) 0(0) Sub-Capital Missile
Piranha Ammo (100 shots)
6 Sub-Capital Laser (SCL/3) 192 18(180) 18(180) 0(0) 0(0) Sub-Capital Laser
8 Large VSP Laser 80 8(80) 6(56) 0(0) 0(0) Pulse Laser
6 LB 5-X AC 6 3(30) 3(30) 3(30) 0(0) LBX AC
LB 5-X Cluster Ammo (720 shots)
4 Laser AMS 28 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
1 Naval PPC (Heavy) 225 15(150) 15(150) 15(150) 15(150) Capital PPC
ARS/ALS (395 Heat)
3 Capital Missile Launcher (AR10 Launcher) 60 6(60) 6(60) 6(60) 6(60) AR10
AR10 Barracuda Ammo (90 shots)
AR10 Killer Whale Ammo (60 shots)
AR10 White Shark Ammo (60 shots)
6 Sub-Capital Laser (SCL/3) 192 18(180) 18(180) 0(0) 0(0) Sub-Capital Laser
4 Large VSP Laser 40 4(40) 3(28) 0(0) 0(0) Pulse Laser
5 ER PPC 75 5(50) 5(50) 5(50) 0(0) PPC
4 Laser AMS 28 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
Aft (103 Heat)
2 Naval Gauss (Heavy) 36 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) 60(600) Capital Gauss
Heavy N-Gauss Ammo (40 shots)
4 Large VSP Laser 40 4(40) 3(28) 0(0) 0(0) Pulse Laser
6 LB 5-X AC 6 3(30) 3(30) 3(30) 0(0) LBX AC
LB 5-X Cluster Ammo (720 shots)
3 Laser AMS 21 1(9) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AMS
