So.. before begining The next string of plot related developments...  (which I think I'll postpone until Zeta and Khementari are done), some general capital ship stats:<br/><br/>The Independence is in many ways comparable to the Galaxy Class starships from Star Trek.  (The class of the Enterprise from the next generation)  The ship has a crew complement of 2,500, including a number of civilians and children.  (although in its current configuration, the number is minimal, but still nonzero)<br/><br/>The ship has multiple schools and even a university aboard, as well as a number of lecture halls and conference rooms for diplomatic missions.  When diplomacy fails, the ship is equipped with about 120 starfighters to launch at enemies.  If thne starfighters fail, the ship has only a paltry 36 turbolasers, 36 ion cannons, and 20 laser cannons to defend itself with.  (By comparison, an Imperial II Star destroyer has 32 heavy turbolasers in each of its two main batteries alone, 60 additional turbolasers and 20 ion cannons.)<br/><br/>A significant weakness of Home One class ships like the Independence is that they can't easily scramble fighters, since the ship relies on a large number of hangar bays all over the ship rather than a single massive hangar and one or two backup launch ports like the Imperial Star Destroyer.  This makes coordinating fighter wing launches in an emergency situation a complete logistical nightmare.<br/><br/><br/>If people are interested, I can discuss what exactly a turbolaser is.  :)