UEFg Karuna

The following information has not been confirmed by Volition and is therefore not canon for the FreeSpace universe.

The UEFg Karuna.

The different Fleet color schemes.

The UEFg Karuna is a fan-made Terran-designed multi-role combat frigate used by the United Earth Federation in Blue Planet. The UEF utilises this class of warship very heavily, particularly as a standard warship deployed during the war with the GTVA. While the Karuna lacks heavy-hitting long-range weaponry, it is peppered with numerous turrets to engage warships effectively at medium and close range. The Karuna also has a small fighterbay, allowing it to launch fighters and/or bombers to escort or engage targets should additional reinforcements be unavailable.

The Karuna packs so many torpedoes that it can effectively saturate a target's point defenses, leaving no beams or pulse weapons available to fire at oncoming fighters or bombers. This is part of its tactical abilities - on its own, the Karuna lacks the firepower to stand toe-to-toe with most GTVA warships of comparable or greater size.

Description:

Blue Planet: War in Heaven Tech Description

The Karuna is a class of frigate in the Federation Navy, birthed out of blood spilled against the Gaian Effort. Utilising swarm tactics, Gef strike fighters would overwhelm Sanctus military freighters and Purusha light frigates with impunity. Facing mounting shipping losses, the Admiralty outlined their requirements for a next-generation frigate. The exigencies of the conflict had affirmed the criticality of a ubiquitous fighter escort. It was not enough for fleet destroyers to deploy wings to support warships in the field - frigates would need to bring their own fighters to battle. Imperatives by DARK CLOUD and BULWARK to the Federation College of War refined the design - the new frigate would need to run her own escort as well as threaten hard targets in the event of Shivan incursion.

The Karuna frigate carrier turned out to be a veritable fortress. Up to eight fighters could be fielded in the forward hangar, and her powerful suite of flak and rapid-fire cannons proved devastating against hostile strikecraft. Three VLS silos supplementing a forward battery of gauss cannons and mass drivers gave her the teeth to engage hostile warship assets. She was swift and maneuverable, able to quickly respond to threats in a fluid battlespace. The Karuna was the right ship built at the right time - a sorely needed solution to the chronic problem of maintaining security in a fractious post-Isolation system.

Karunas are widely deployed in the current conflict with the GTVA and form the offensive backbone of all three Fleets.

Developer Notes

Downturreted version of Steve-O's original Hyperion frigate.

Name Origin

Karuṇā is a Sanskrit word meaning "Compassion" or "Pity". It is one of the four main pillars of Buddhism. For Theravāda Buddhists, dwelling in karuṇā is a means for attaining a happy present life and heavenly rebirth.

Performance:

Statistics

Name	UEFg Karuna
Type	Frigate
Manufacturer	Manadyne Designs
Yaw, Pitch, Roll	100.0, 100.0, 80.0 s
Max Velocity	40 ms-1
Hitpoints	85 000 pts
Length	1295 m
Turrets	29 turrets
Fighter Complement	12 fighters

Armaments

• Turrets

War in Heaven
Turret Type	Amount
Mass Driver#Karuna	2
Gauss Cannon#Karuna	5
Apocalypse#Karuna	3
Point Defense Turret	11
Burst Flak	8

Gallery

• 

  An older version of the Karuna.

• 

  UEFg Indus

Veteran Comments

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The Karuna can be disturbingly fragile under certain circumstances, such as when it is being skewered by beam fire. Under any other circumstance, the Karuna is nearly everything that can be expected from a frigate. While it is not as powerful as the Narayana and it lacks proper long-range weaponry apart from the two mass drivers at the front, it has all the teeth and muscle required to handle any close- to medium-range combat from any direction. Add in the fighterbay, and you have yourself a small fortress that can easily fend off multiple attacks from any fighter or bomber the GTVA can fling at it.

As noted above, the Karuna does not fare well in the face of beam fire - nothing is quite as wince-inducing as watching a lucky TerSlash rip across the broadside - but it's also worth noting that it can outpace all of the GTVA's cruisers and corvettes by a fair amount (for a capital ship), and has slightly more hull points than some of them. The Karuna is also fairly - perhaps even disturbingly - maneuverable for a ship of it's size. Never underestimate them, especially if there's two of them working together.

Just not quite tough enough to take one salvo from the frontal beam cannons of a GTD Titan. It performs the role a midway between a corvette and destroyer would in the GTVA. On Insane, typically Karunas basically run their own escort, as any stray bomber wings coming in will probably be almost instantly destroyed on contact with the frigates defenses; shoot down incoming warheads and the defense screen will do the rest.

The original Karuna model was notorious for causing massive slowdowns even on the most powerful PCs manufactured at the time due to the numerous details on the mesh as well as the number of textures it used.