While the E555x series proved themselves effective against other corvettes, their slim profile and heavily armoured bow still provided insufficient protection from the attentions of capital-scale weaponry. Newer and more resilient escorts are currently being designed, but in the meantime the Wyvern’s modular hull has been refitted to make it into more of a threat to large targets in a supporting role. As a gunship, the G555x Cerberus lends valuable ranged fire to Zaran fleet actions and is still compatible with the Baltic-class frigate tender from HGE.
The Wyvern’s three chainguns are gone, and in their place is a much bulkier piece of space artillery - a set of compound ion beams that can strip 360kS from an enemy’s shield capacitors with each burst. Their large dissipaters dominate the remodelled bow and can vent enough monopolar charge that each beam can be refired after 15 seconds. While completely ineffective against armour, the ion beams have a long engagement range and allow Cerberus to keep an enemy capital ship’s shields down so that bombers can blast through its armour. Gone too are the four dorsal torpedo tubes, replaced with two light anti-ship missiles that are slightly less powerful but much more compact, and give Cerberus some semblance of anti-armour capability. The bulbous upper hull has been gutted and refilled with monocoque cell capacitors and ion depletion generators to support the ship’s primary weapon.
Cerberus maintains the retractable forward armour of Wyvern and increases shield buffer capacity slightly, but its specialized equipment is best kept far from the front lines and away from the attentions of fighters. It retains the defensive effects systems of Wyvern, and in spite of the significant increase in systems it flies only slightly slower. Frontal profile has been kept minimal to make the ship hard to target from a distance with heavy weapons, and to this end the point-defence systems have been replaced with three low-profile machine gun turrets that have a blind spot directly ahead of the bow. Still, if deployed correctly, Cerberus has a good attack power/cost ratio.
The gunship is fitted with the same accommodation and cargo space as Wyvern, although the bunk room/galley are now surrounded by the ion accelerator coils and crew have reported changes in eye colour and the development of mild but temporary telekinetic abilities if they stay in quarters while the ship’s weapons are fired. The ship has two jumpdrives and a towbar for bringing shuttles and fighters, and two USD points on either side of the hull. A teleporter is located in the cockpit.
Weapon targeting and fire control is located on control bank one alongside the jump drive computers and docking clamp controls. The second bank has defensive effects, headlight and towbar switches. This model is not fitted with a docking point for frigate tender operation - look for the G5550A variant.
