Emerald

Another Hyperelite Technologies design, the Emerald was designed to provide extremely cheap, if limited, response capability to the member worlds. Like the other Hyperelite designs, the Carbon and Greenleaf, the Emerald has been approved for export to Yrillia, with slight modifications. The Emerald design has proved incredibly versatile, with at least four variants of the class being approved for service.

Emerald-S
The Emerald-S is the cheapest variation, providing solid capability across the spectrum of possible response needs. It is specialized in scientific response compared to the -C and -P versions, and matches the more expensive -H variant.

Emerald-P
The Emerald-P is slightly more expensive, but provides a useful presence capability for otherwise diplomacy-limited member fleets.

Emerald-C
The Emerald-C provides cheap combat power to cash-strapped member fleets. It is substantially better as a skirmisher than the other variants, and approaches the combat power of older cruisers.

Emerald-H
The Emerald-H is the most divergent variant, equipping a massive shipboard hospital. Around 100kt larger than the other variants, the -H allows member worlds to supplement their hospital ship fleets, while also maintaining response capability. The class is a better response vessel than any of the other variants, matching the scientific and diplomatic capability of the -P and -S variants in one platform. It is, however, larger and more expensive.

Ship Systems
Generally, as a Federal project, the Emerald-class uses mostly Starfleet-sourced components, despite not being operated by Starfleet.

Hullframe
The Emerald-class light response frigate uses a modern frigate hullframe, extremely closely related to those used for the Carbon 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. The hull of the Emerald-class, however, has been substantially modified to emphasize modularity, allowing for more systems to be fit into the frame than would otherwise be possible.

Warp Systems
The Emerald is powered by the ONA-V-L warp core, a cutting edge core first developed for the Comet, that delivers more endurance and power than any other frigate core in Federation service. The warp core is backed by the Burizz-I nacelles, a new nacelle pattern from a new facility. These nacelles, are, unfortunate, built to a series of design principles which the Federation expects to supersede in the years following prototyping.

Computer Core
The Emerald employs a new computer core, a cousin of the one designed for the Lisettia and Lufroil-classes, the Type-VI-L core from Alpha Centauri Advanced Processing. This core supplements the diplomatic capability of the Emerald, providing fast access to continuously updating Federation diplomatic databases, including data on species and individual climate preferences, ensuring the best possible experience for onboard diplomats. The core also dedicates substantial power to an enhanced translation matrix, ensuring that communications errors do not occur. The core also continuously simulates potential diplomatic situations, allowing better advice to be provided to the captain and diplomatic staff of the frigate.

Navigational Deflector
The Emerald utilizes the older Lalande-V Federal deflector, keeping costs down on the class while maintaining decent capability. While the design is somewhat old, the production line for the deflector is brand new, with only a few prototypes previously produced.

Emerald-S
The Emerald-S is a decent combatant, though it shines in the scout phase of combat, relying on other variants to fill in for vanguard combat.

Defensive Systems
The Emerald-S utilizes the Mark-VI-M main shield grid. This shield grid, developed by the Starfleet facility at Leas Akaam, is extremely modern, and promises to be highly reliable.

Phasers and Torpedoes
The Emerald-S mounts a fairly basic combat system, using the older Type V phaser bank system employed on the Comet, with one turret fore and one aft. The phasers are backed by a Type IV Lightweight torpedo launcher, mounted fore.

Specialists
The Emerald-S has facilities designed to carry and support advanced away team operations. These specialists allow the Emerald-S to engage in peacekeeping operations, making the class capable of responding to serious civil unrest. In ship to ship combat, the same specialists give the class enhanced damage control and counter-boarding capabilities.

Specialists
The same away team specialists which provide peacekeeping and damcon capability also enhance the Emerald-S's diplomatic abilities. Highly trained interpreters and diplomats are core parts of the teams which deploy, helping to negotiate peaceful solutions to any conflict.

Emerald-S
Unsurprisingly, the Emerald-S variant has impressive scientific capabilities for its size.

Sensors
The Emerald 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 Emerald-S mounts an enlarged inpatient sickbay ward, expanding its patrol range and rendering it more capable of responding to various medical incidents. While not nearly as capable as the shipboard hospital of the -H variant, the Emerald-S is still more than capable of responding to the vast majority of medical crises.

Specialists
Backing up the capable sensor and medical suites of the Emerald is a highly trained scientific crew, substantially expanded beyond the complement assigned a standard frigate. These specialists allow the Emerald to analyze virtually any anomaly or new situation. Their expertise is expected to be highly valued by the captains of the Emerald-class.