USS Magellan

The Hawthorne Class Light Cruiser was designed as an Anti-fighter/Interceptor/Light Exploration vessel from the beginning of its conception. With this in mind, it was made with state f the art technology and designed to be faster then almost any other non-federation ship built to that date. In larger battles, Hawthorne Class ships were designed to stay near larger vessels and destroy any incoming Fightercraft and smaller ships with their advanced weapons systems. They also had a secondary role in large battles as an interceptor craft, rushing out to engage any ships trying to break from the main lines, keeping them occupied long enough for larger ships to come in and finish the hostile vessel off. Due to the success of the design, most of the times, the larger ships were not needed for the destruction of the larger vessel, especially when there were two Hawthornes working together.  Alone, the ship was designed to be a Light Exploration vehicle, Scouting out systems close to the known edge and mapping things out for larger vessels to come in and make diplomatic missions, research missions, etc…

The Hawthorne Class was designed to look reminiscent of the Intrepid Class cruisers for the sleek design and ease of maintenance. The ship had no lower Engineering hull, though and was taken just from the upper main Saucer Section and neck of the Intrepid Class. Thankfully, the ship was scaled down from the regular Intrepid Class to ease the consumption of energy from the Reactor Core. The ship was also designed with non-traditional warp nacelles for the ship as well, that wrapped around the back of the vessel to make the design even more streamline and lower its target profile in combat. The new design also helped to streamline the ships power flow, increasing efficiency. .

Unlike most Starfleet ships, the Bridge of the vessel was situated more forward, on the upward slope of the Saucer Section, but the bridge is also better armored then most bridges as well. This design change also helped to ease space confinements of the ship, and allow proper placement of the Dorsal Pulse Phaser Turret as well as shortening the distance f the power flow to the turret, easing efficiency of this high power demand weapons system.

The ship was also given powerful torpedo tubes for its class, equaling those aboard Galaxy Class starships. This gave the little vessel some incredible punching power against larger starships. The Fore firing tube was located just above the sole deflector dish of the ship and the aft firing tube was located at the base of the ships ‘spine’ on the dorsal side of the ship, firing over the ships warp nacelles. These two tubes are able to fire several volleys of groups of 5 torpedoes in quick succession, allowing the ship so spit out a large number of torpedoes in a short amount of time. The ship had advanced targeting equipment, allowing the targeting of each torpedo individually or as groups of 1-5.

One of the most advanced systems on the ship was the newly designed Signature Masking System. This system worked similar to a cloaking device against enemy targeting systems. The ship was still clearly visable, but the system scrambled incoming sensor systems to confuse and nullify enemy targeting systems that were attempting to target the ship. This system greatly improved the small ships survival rating in large combat situations. Enemy weapons were reduced to visual target acquisition against such a small and fast vessel that it was incredibly hard to hit. This system, combined with the advanced dual layer shielding systems proved to be a great combination and gave the Hawthorne Class an incredible success rate against ships much larger then them.