The History of the California (Callie) Class Escort Cruiser

From Ignomy to the Birth of an Idea

    In 21XX, at the hieght of the Miner-Company wars, the FCT decided to force a resolution and thereby stop the recession caused by the artificial lack of raw materials and trace elements.  Without proper doctrine and intelligence; however, the initial manuevers campaign resulted in one of the few disgraces the FCT Navy has had.  Politically, the FCT entered the fray with the initial stance in forcing the astroid miners back to work, in hopes of appeasing the Companies into resuming shipping.  The miners, having already successfully fought the Companies into a bloody stalemate, were not about to give up what ground they had won.  Hardened from both their occupation and years of abuse from the mining companys, used thier small mining craft to cripple and disable several FCT vessels, and succeeded in a desparate gamble of seizing 3 ships.

    Due to international press coverage, this debacle prominantly showed the FCT capital ship vulnerability to small craft.  Long-time enemies, especially pirate forces, quickly moved to take advantage of the well publicized achillies heel of the FCT by employing carriers and their fighters in increasing numbers.  In order to fix this obvious neglect, the Admirality created a crash program to revaluate naval doctrine and current fleet functionality.  In what must be an all-time beaurocratic record, a formal report of the incident, a new tactics manual, and a proposal for a new ship type and class were announced within 1 week of what was then termed the Miner Revolution.  The California (Affectionately called the Callie) class Escort Cruiser was the result of the specifications for the new ship.

    The Escort classification of vessel, until the Miner-Company wars, was a merely a temporary duty assigned to any and all vessels that were protecting another vessel.  However, with the proposal for the Callie, the term solidified meaning and purpose.  Now, an Escort designation was a permenant classification.  In effect, a vessel carrying at least 50% of it's weaponry in area denial systems, was to be classified as Escort.

Callifornia, a Detailed Look:

    Carrying 11 Gallila-B point defense weapons and a Quartz-Geller and Hude C^3 area denial and defense weapons control computer, the Callie can track over 150 different targets as small as a narkalin rat, and can coordinate fire on up to 6 targets simultaniously at ranges as yet unmatched by small craft weapons systems.  In an effort to protect against small craft swarming tactics and larger ships fire, a Kessler deflector system was installed.  One side affect of this defensive system is the lessoned need for point defense systems to guard against small debree found in both asteroid fields and residuals from starship combat.  To further enhance the survivability of the Callie, an Enmerson 300 Gwatt and 220 Gwatt beam system were installed for anti ship cability.

    Controversial in their choice over further point defense systems, anti-fighter  anti-ballistic fire control systems, or greater protection, the Enmerson has proved a worthy and necessary addition.  Proving wrong the thought that anti-ship weapons would draw fire during fleet manueveurs, by installing longer ranged systems, it has allowed the Callie to stay further back from the fighting, and act as long-range harrassing/artillary power while ships like the infamous Bazooka close at speed.  It has also enabled the Callie to be used in numerous additional roles, ranging from paired Callie patrol groups and anti-carrier hunting duties, to inclusion in the infamous heavy raiding missions of the current alien invasion.

Nothing is Perfect...

    Several weaknesses plague the Callifornia's design, amoung the worst are her size, engines, and weak protection.  As a cruiser hull, she is often to big and costly to be deployed in smaller engagements and situations.  Combined with her low level of armor and lack of weapons, the Callifornia has a low survivability chance if alone or against concentrated fire even at the most extreme ranges.  Possibly her worst flaw; however, are her engines.  Lacking the high thrust of most FCT ships, an admiral or patrol-captain must often make the decision on whether to leave her and her protection behind, or slow the fleet down in order to shelter under her defensive umbrella.

The Callie's Fifteen Minutes...

    Notable destinguished Callifornia class escorts include the CL 49er, who along with the Bazooka class Battlecruiser Powermonger, and Smith class light Cruiser, took out 2 ESU made carriers during the blockade of Chadrilla.  Another notable Callie is the Federate, home of Marshal Jamil Scone who is credited with a record 217 bounties served during the 4th pirate war.