|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | "She's ugly, but she gets the job done." A Cradle captain appreciating the ship's capability
|
» |
The Cradle-class repair ship is a heavy utility ship in service to the United Nations Space Command.
It excels in the swift repair and resupplying of warships.
Overview[]
| « | Serves at the UNSC's resupply battery. An extraordinary fleet asset, this mobile shipyard handles all day-to-day ship maintenance for deployed fleets, able to not only repair friendly ships but replenish their provisions. The Cradle's shipyard description
|
» |
History[]
Introduced to fill the vital role of in-the-field fleet maintenance, the 4,000 meter-long Cradle-class operates with an average crew of only thirty (plus EVA personnel). It achieves this remarkable feat mostly through automation and standardization of repair equipment. They can always be found operating at a convenient, but safe, distance from an active UNSC fleet, able to keep pace with its own Shaw-Fujikawa translight drive and powerful sublight engines.
While very powerful repair assets, the UNSC found another use for these massive ships as literal shields. During the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV and the Fall of Reach, Cradle-class ships maneuvered themselves into the line of fire and used their substantial surface area to block incoming plasma fire to protect UNSC battlegroups, allowing the human vessels time to recharge their MACs and deal more damage to the enemy at the cost of the ship. The lead ship of the class, UNSC Cradle herself, was lost at Sigma Octanus.
Weapons and Tactical Usage[]
The Cradle-class is completely unarmed, lacking even AA turrets. Unable to stack its effects, it is only able to repair one ship at a time, and in the midst of combat even this ability is quickly outstripped by the potency of Covenant plasma weaponry. As such, it cannot remotely be relied on to combat even the lightest of enemy ships. Despite all of this, the Cradle-class still plays a vital role in UNSC fleets:
- Repair: Onboard technicians and highly-skilled repair drones are able to repair the hulls of friendly ships and structures over time.
- Restores some health to nearby friendly ships and stations. Can be set to autocast.
- Transfer 6 Provisions: Transfers provisions from this ship to a target friendly ship or structure.
- Directly gifts provisions to a ship or station. Can be set to autocast.
- Titanium Shield: In times of desperation, Cradle-class vessels could be used as enormous shield walls to block enemy fire from the rest of the fleet. While this usually resulted in heavy damage or destruction, the time bought for the fleet to charge weapons and strike again could prove to be the difference between victory and defeat.
- Taunts enemy ships, forcing them to target the Cradle instead of friendly ships, and disables the ship's other abilities. Can be set to autocast.
Cradles also have surprising durability with hull points and armor equal to or greater than anything short of a heavy carrier. However, its cost makes this inadvisable in most cases unless an overall more valuable battlegroup is at stake. It is among the slowest ship in the UNSC arsenal, limiting its ability to operate side-by-side with a faster combat fleet, and is best used to shorten the distance from available supply during long expenditures.
Changelog[]
0.88.5 Release
- Cradles no longer require research to build; article has been updated to reflect that.
0.75 Release
- These ships replaced the previous Repair Platform as the repair structures over planets. They still take up fleet supply, but cannot jump to slipspace, however, so in most cases its easier to use the normal version for all your repair duties.
- Fleet supply has been reduced, from 30 down to 10.
Canon Reference[]
Officially these ships were referred to as Refit Stations, but to distinguish them from the stationary Repair Yard structures, they were given the non-canon name Cradle-class (after the similarly-mobile UNSC Cradle which was destroyed at Sigma Octanus IV).
Credit[]
- Model - Annihilater102
- Texture - Annihilater102
External links[]
See also[]
| UNSC spacecraft | |
|---|---|
| Capital vessels | Artemis Battlecruiser • Epoch Heavy Carrier • Marathon Heavy Cruiser • Orion Assault Carrier • Phoenix Support Vessel • Point Blank Stealth Cruiser • Punic Supercarrier • Thanatos Battleship • Valiant Super-Heavy Cruiser |
| Combat vessels | Charon Light Frigate • Gladius AAA Corvette • Halberd Destroyer • Halcyon Light Cruiser • Halcyon 'Refit' Cruiser • Hillsborough Light Destroyer • Paris Frigate • Stalwart AAA Frigate • Strident Heavy Frigate |
| Other | Gyges Construction Drone • Hermes Freighter |
| Strikecraft | Baselard Bomber • Broadsword Fighter • Longsword Bomber • Longsword Interceptor • Sabre Starfighter |
| Support vessels | Athens Carrier • Cradle Repair Ship • Geneva Envoy • Noryang Light Carrier • Phoenix Colony Ship • Razor Prowler • Sahara Heavy Prowler • Winter Prowler |
| Titan | Infinity Supercarrier |
| Obsolete | Autumn Heavy Cruiser • Berlin Frigate • Eion Light Carrier • Hephaestus ACU • Mako Corvette • Sloop Corvette • Thermopylae Supercarrier |