Artemis-class battlecruiser

UNSC Artemis-class Cost: 3000 | 300 | 400 Build Time: 75 seconds. Uses: 1 command, 45 supply.   Hull: 5000 Armor: 8   MAC Damage: 100 MAC Cooldown:   Missile Damage: 17 Missile Cooldown:   AA Autocannon Damage: 20 AA Autocannon Cooldown:   Naval Coilgun Damage: 30 Naval Coilgun Cooldown:   Nuclear Missile Damage: 21 Nuclear Missile Cooldown:   Indra Warhead Cov-Killer Fast Charging Accelerators Prowler Deployment ONI Sensor Suite   Straight ship-to-ship combat cruiser - The Artemis is designed to be capable of taking on most Covenant ships while in hunting pairs. It lacks strike craft and effective planetary bombardment weaponry.

 

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Huntress on the prowl. An Artemis captain on alert for enemy targets

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The Artemis-class battlecruiser is an artillery capital ship in service to the United Nations Space Command.

It excels at long-range combat and dealing heavy damage to enemy capital ships.

Overview

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Effectively the sniper of the UNSC fleet, the Artemis sports the longest range MAC in the entire roster, and when used in groups can effectively engage almost any Covenant vessel with ease. However, it has a rather weak hull and requires an escort to deal with close-range threats. The Artemis' shipyard description

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History

Designed during the mid-Human-Covenant war, the Artemis-class was built with only one purpose in mind: the utter destruction of any Covenant ships they would happen to come across. Aptly named after the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, they are often sent out in wolf packs of two with standing orders to patrol contested regions of space, using her incredibly-advanced sensors to find and destroy any hostile ships. These missions are often jokingly known by servicemen as "hunting expeditions".

It has been said that when the Artemis-class was revealed to the public in 2538, a significant portion of the remaining United Rebel Front ships abandoned their posts and requested amnesty. With the first-ever confirmed Assault Carrier kill just seven months into its deployment, it's hard to argue against both the damage it can dish out and the hope it represents to humanity. It has a dual MAC design that has one of the longest ranges of any ship in the UNSC Navy and can use these weapons with deadly proficiency.

Weapons and Tactical Usage

These ships are the snipers of the UNSC fleet. A heavier complement of Archer missiles and point-defense guns are sacrificed, relying on the pair of huge and long-ranged magnetic accelerator cannons to whittle down opposing forces. Compared to those on the other capital ships, the Artemis's main guns have both improved range and damage output. Fitting its role as a hunter-killer, it is fast and can keep up with almost any fleet, able to go where the killing of priority targets is needed.

Its abilities are largely tailored to complement its offensive capabilities as well:

• Indra Warhead: Artemis-class, being ONI-designed vessels, are equipped with a vast array of cutting-edge technology to better combat the Covenant and their superior defenses. The Indra warhead is one such example, a specialized Shiva that carries a high-intensity EMP wave on detonation. This will help all Shivas launched by the Artemis do extra damage to the target's shielding systems.
  • Greatly increases nuke damage against shielding.

• Cov-Killer: The Artemis is equipped with specialized MAC rounds (nicknamed Cov-Killers) that disrupt shields with powerful EMPs. These experimental rounds fragment into multiple projectiles when in proximity to designated targets, able to wreak havoc on shielding in a wide radius.
  • Fires a shot that deals increased damage to the enemy hull and drastically increased damage to shielding.

• Fast Charging Accelerators: Increasing the power draw on the magnetic accelerators allows the Artemis to cycle her MACs much faster. However, this comes at the cost of severely hampering damage per round.
  • Toggled ability. Increases rate of fire but decreases damage per shot. Damage reduction is lessened per level while ROF further increases.

• Prowler Deployment: Deploys a Winter-class prowler from the large internal hangars on the Artemis.
  • Spawns a Winter-class prowler for immediate use. Requires sufficient fleet supply, sufficient resources for the cost of the prowler, and choosing Stanforth as your admiral.

• ONI Sensor Suite: As the perfect long-range hunter-killer of the UNSC, ONI spared no expense in their contributions of the Artemis-class. Equipped with highly advanced laser and radar scanners, the Artemis can detect cloaked ships and reveal them if they come into range.
  • Allows detection of cloaked ships. Passive and non-upgradeable.

With its firepower designed to focus larger enemy capital ships, the Artemis is quite vulnerable in close encounters, and against enemy strike craft, having only a little more than half the tank of the smaller Marathon-class heavy cruiser. These can be buffed with armor upgrades as well as the addition of coilgun batteries, but still leaves them as no substitute for frontline combat ships. Being quite expensive to field, these ships are best kept protected at the rear of a fleet so that they can best do their job.

Gallery

Render of the old model.

The Artemis alongside the Punic-class supercarrier.

A Warfleet-styled fact sheet on the Artemis.

Trivia

• The Artemis-class design is non-canon to the official Halo Universe. Rather, it is an original creation of the Sins of the Prophets project, and has come to be regarded as the team's mascot.
• Originally named "Orion," the ship name was changed upon the unveiling of the canon assault carrier of the same name.
  • Its current name, Artemis, references the Greek goddess of archery and hunting, befitting of her weapons range and task of hunting down priority targets.
  • The Artemis is one of two UNSC ships with names after female figures, the other being the Tyche-class transport.
  • In version 0.90 the Cov Killer no longer fragments to hit other ships.

Credits

Version 1 (retired)

• Model - Annihilater102
• Texture - Annihilater102

Version 2 (current)

• Model - Malcontent1692
• Texture - Malcontent1692