Carbon

Another design from Hyperelite Technologies, the Carbon is a budget Kepler to the Greenleaf's budget Comet. Slightly more durable than Kepler, it surrenders a small amount in science suite and accommodations but is comparably armed and has similar endurance for a minor crew reduction. While the STO was once again not interested, both the Caitians and the Sydraxians were looking for cheap garrison frigates and a swift redesign brought the Carbon in line with their requirements. Against its other major competitor as a Federation garrison frigate, the Centaur-B, Carbon is actually cheaper and superior or equal in every way but weapons suite. While not initially designed as such, all Carbon's projected to enter service outside of Yrillian space will be parasite craft, with the accompanying spaceframe changes.

Ship Systems
Generally, as a Federal project, the Carbon-class uses mostly Starfleet-sourced components, despite not being operated by Starfleet. The nacelles, however, are not part of this arrangement, and have instead been mostly produced by Caitian facilities, with the Yrillians taking point on production of non-parasite specialized variations of the nacelles.

Hullframe
The Carbon-class light response frigate uses a modern frigate hullframe, extremely closely related to those used for the Emerald and Greenleaf-classes. The frame also shares similarities with that used by the JAFFA, which pioneered many of the construction techniques for this newest group of frigates. Like its cousins, the Carbon employs a modular hull design, allowing for more capability to be crammed into the design, at the cost of some hull strength.

Warp Systems
The Carbon is powered by the ONA-V-L warp core, a cutting edge core that delivers more endurance and power than any other frigate core in Federation service. The Carbon utilizes the same nacelles as the Caitian and Sydraxian JAFFA designs (the Sydraxians building the nacelles under license), the ONF-IV-L, produced at Ollasa IV in Caitian space. These nacelles, like all parasite nacelles, give the class high maneuverability and speed, while offloading the usual crew costs from maintenance and upkeep to the tending vessel. In the case of the Carbon, however, the effects of the nacelles are not particularly serious, and the ship can be switched over to more conventional nacelle designs with almost no loss of speed (or gain in endurance).

Computer Core
The Carbon's computer is the Type VI-N Information Synthesis computer core, produced by Alpha Centauri Advanced Processing. Leveraging ACAP's long history of producing highly capable information synthesis and analysis supercomputers for Starfleet Intelligence, the Type VI-N core substantially enhances the already impressive scientific capabilities of the Carbon, bringing them nearly in line with the much larger and more expensive Starfleet Kepler-class.

Navigational Deflector
The Carbon-class uses the Hagelan-III-L graviton waveform navigational deflector, the same as employed on the Comet. This system maximizes power efficiency, allowing the class to maintain a higher top speed for substantially longer than similarly sized frigates. However, the Hagelan-III-L is not nearly as capable in combat as similarly priced systems, while increasing costs above baseline level. Still, for a peacetime response vessel and scout ship such as the Carbon, this tradeoff is more than worth it.

Defensive Systems
The Carbon is a fairly well protected peacetime frigate design, though she is not expected to see much direct combat. The Carbon supplements the fairly weak modular hull with additional armor reinforcement over critical areas, ensuring resiliency against dangerous anomalies that reach past the shield grid. The shields are the same Mark-VI-M as used on the Emerald, produced by Leas Akaam.

Phasers
The Carbon mounts a single Type V-S phaser bank, providing extremely limited ship to ship firepower. The Carbon's phaser bank is somewhat modified from the baseline Type V, being specifically designed to act as a mining/survey tool, and to otherwise assist in scientific research.

Specialists
While lacking in ship to ship firepower, the Carbon has bunk and shuttle room, along with highly specialized facilities, for an intelligence group. These specialists assist the ship in all manner of operations: diplomatic, scientific, and even tactical. The intelligence group aboard provides each Carbon with a highly trained commando team, capable of raids against hostile installations, or hostile ships.

Specialists
Along with the commando team, the intelligence group onboard also includes diplomatic specialists, capable of resolving any number of diplomatic incidents, from hostage scenarios to negotiations, where the intelligence they bring to the table can settle a deal in favor of the Carbon and her crew.

Sensors
The Carbon, like the Emerald-S, uses the brand new Mark-IV-HF sensor system. The system, while not as capable of long-range scientific scans as a traditional long range sensor system, provides much better resolution at combat range. The system, in conjunction with the other scientific systems on board, still provides excellent survey capability.

Medical
The Carbon, again like the Emerald, fits an expanded inpatient sickbay ward, expanding its patrol range and rendering it more capable of responding to various medical incidents. The medical ward also contains a number of advanced medical and biological labs, seriously enhancing the ships scientific mission. The Carbon is well-poised to respond to the majority of minor medical events.

Specialists
The Carbon carries two teams of scientific specialists. One from the intelligence group, with a team well trained in data analysis and long range sensor exploitation. They make the Carbon capable of long term intelligence collection missions, such as those performed by ###REDACTED###. The second group consists of more conventional scientists, whose training and experience helps the Carbon handle almost any anomaly at a cruiser level.

Equipment
Backing up the shipboard specialists is an advanced set of laboratory facilities. These facilities include specialized chambers for nearly every scientific discipline, and allow the Carbon to act almost as a mobile research outpost.