Einhauser
03-07-2005, 20:55
Introduction: The Mercury class Strike Cruiser is the most advanced starship ever produced by the Einhauserian shipyard. It incorporates technology borrowed from the Halo universe and Ender’s Game, as well as a subtle Warhammer 40,000 background. I believe that it has come out well, but I will let you be the judge.
Chapter one: The hull
--The shields
--The cloaking system
Chapter two: The weapons systems
--MAC
--MDD
--Missiles
--The nuke tubes
--PDGs
--Internal weapons systems
--Planetary assault capability
Chapter three: The interior
--The bridge
--The mess hall
--The hanger
--The prison
Chapter four: The engines
--The maneuvering fins
--The FTL engine
--Engineering
Chapter five: General statistics
CHAPTER ONE: The hull
The Mercury class is a very durable ship. The hull is as thick, if not thicker, than a battlecruiser’s in some places. The reason for this is to allow the ship to get within its main weapon’s range intact, but we won’t go into detail on that until chapter two.
The hull is composed of a unique blend of various materials, including a new one called Titanium-A. This compound has been in widespread use in other nation’s navies, but this is the first time it has been imported to Einhauser. The metal is a derivative of Titanium, but has been infused with all kinds of other exotic metals not found in the Sol system, to give it an incredible density. As effective as this material is, however, it wouldn’t be enough to provide the necessary strength required for a starship, so layers of Endosteel, Ferrosteel, Durosteel, Admantium/ Crystex composite, and a regenerative layer called Carbon Dioxenzemes have been incorporated into the hull. This incredibly strong armor covers the entire length of the ship, from the whale-like nose to the massive twin engines in the rear.
The armor is augmented by a powerful voidshield that can be expanded to repulse other ships that get too near. What’s that, you say? What’s a voidshield? Well, a voidshield is a large bubble of energy that encompasses the ship, generated from a small device hidden deep within the strike cruiser’s belly. The bubble constantly protects the hull from space debris during peacetime, and matter-based weaponry during war.
The shield is usually transparent, but turns a mottled greenish-blue gray when hit. This color change lasts only a few seconds before it fades back into its usual colorless state. A special device has been attached to the voidsheild’s generator that, when engaged, pulls the bubble flush against the hull, which allows the default FTL engine, called a Time Manipulation Drive (TMD), to operate.
When a solid object impacts the shield, the energy of the object’s momentum is transferred to the generator. When the energy buildup reaches critical, the generator shuts itself, and the shield, down to avoid a catastrophic chain reaction that would either cripple or totally destroy the vessel. This can be avoided if the shield is periodically shut off, allowing the energy to bleed away. If there is a problem and the generator can’t be shut down, an emergency option is to dump the energy into the ship’s engines, which temporarily boosts the thrust 147%, but also leads to massive corrosion if used too often.
Now, the voidshield stops matter extremely well, but what of energy weapons? The Mercury has an energy shield to dissipate and reflect energy-based weapons. Unlike the voidshield, this system employs many different generators to project overlapping fields. This allows any of the shields to be overloaded or destroyed without leaving any part of the ship exposed. The shield placement is as follows: nose, top, bottom, fore-right, fore-left, aft-right, aft-left, rear.
Now, the Mercury is designed to get in close to other vessels, and merely having a thick hull is usually not enough to stop a determined enemy vessel. Therefore, a cloaking system has been incorporated into the hull. It uses fiber-optic cables embedded in the outer layers of the armor, which all run to a central computer located below the bridge. This computer uses armored cameras placed all over the ship to observe the view on one side of the ship, and project that image on the other side. The effect is that the Mercury appears to melt into the surrounding space with almost no perceptible distortion.
Special clamps have been fitted to the outer hull that allows the Mercury to tow or be towed, in order to extend its limited jump range.
CHAPTER TWO: The weapons systems
By far the most exciting part of the Mercury is its weapons. The ship has been geared for close combat, with heavy emphasis placed on quick strikes of overwhelming firepower. This is accomplished through only four weapons.
The first is by far the most numerous. Racks and racks of guided anti-ship missiles dominate the entire center section of the ship. The sides of the ship are dotted with octagonal hatches that open to reveal 30 missiles each. There are 24 missile tubes located on each side of the ship, which is capable of firing 1,440 missiles every 30 seconds. The warheads on these missiles can be anti-matter, high explosive, armor piercing, or inferno, and the tubes can be replenished by the massive machines behind them in 27 seconds, with them being armed and ready to fire in 30. The ship carries 5,760 extra missiles, or two reloads a side, which would make a direct hit to the tubes catastrophic. To counteract that flaw, each tube is lined with half a meter of Endosteel, and separated from the others by a full meter and a half of Titanium-A. The reloads are stored in similar tubes, and all missiles can be ejected on a moments notice via hidden hatches.
The second weapon present on the ship is the Magnetic Acceleration Cannon (MAC). This is the ship’s most powerful matter-based weapon. The barrel runs from underneath the engine room, where the ammunition is loaded, and emerges at the bottom of the nose. This gun utilizes linear accelerator coils to launch heavy projectiles at high speed. The shells have course-correction retro-rockets to help guide them on target, and they can be armed with all manner of warheads, including 44-megaton nuclear charges, two of which are included with the ship. Firing these massive chunks of explosive requires a huge amount of energy, which must be collected in batteries before the gun can fire. Each charge takes between 40 and 70 seconds, depending on the ammunition type. Magnetic field recyclers have been fitted in the nose of the Mercury, allowing three shells to be fired per charge, so this gun is very efficient.
As powerful as the MAC is, the Molecular Detachment Device (MDD) beats it by far. This is the main weapon of the Mercury, and the reason that this ship is worth buying. The gun is mounted in the upper section of the nose, where it can be fired without fear of hitting the Mercury, which would be disastrous. You see, the MDD is a one hit, one kill weapon that totally ignores armor. It works by shooting two beams of energy out towards the target. At the focal point of the two beams, a field springs into being that makes molecules cease to cling to each other. Electrons can no longer be shared between them. The field spreads out in a sphere, but gets weaker the farther it spreads, except when it meets more molecules, which causes it to start over. Essentially, the bigger the target, the stronger the field. When the field dissipates, all that’s left of the target is a cloud of dirt. The weapon cannot be stopped by matter, only by shields.
The MDD is so powerful that it drains every bit of power the Mercury’s reactors can produce for a period of about a minute, during which the shields, life support, and all other onboard systems shut down. It is also extremely close ranged, forcing the Mercury into boarding range to fire.
The fourth, and final, weapon is the Mercury’s twin nuclear missile tubes. These are located in the center of the missile bay, and can launch up to 78-megaton warheads. There is room for only one reload for each tube, but I feel that the high-yield nuclear weapons should accomplish their jobs the first time around. After all, a 78-megaton missile generates thermal radiation up to 69.6 kilometers from the detonation site. If you want to check my statement, go to http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Science/Nuke.html
All of these heavy-duty weapons would be useless against fighters or boarding craft, so 100 Point Defense Guns (PDGs) are scattered across the hull. Each PDG consists of three miniature Lance Cannons (known as lasers to the layman), with a sophisticated Targeting, Tracking, and Termination (T3) computer to back them up.
Because there are so few PDGs (at least, compared to other Einhauserian ships), boarding parties from enemy ships are a real threat. To counter this problem, pop-up turrets line the floor, ceiling, and walls of nearly every passage and room. A separate computer located in the bridge, which is not accessible by anyone but the captain and chief weapons officer, controls these. The guns will quickly eliminate even armored foes with the heavy-duty weapons they pack, including plasma-throwers, Heavy Pulsers, and various types of grenade launchers. Now, all of this firepower flying around inside the ship is generally a bad idea, which is why the corridors are armored (see chapter three for more information).
Of course, it would not be good if the turrets opened fire on just anyone, so a system has been set up to let the guns discriminate between targets. When a person steps aboard the ship, he or she (or it, depending on your species) is issued an identification card (this card is automatically built into the armor that Einhauserian marines wear) that carries a sample of their DNA, an individual barcode, and a tracking device. The sensors attached to the turrets scan for the card, and if it is not present or is in the wrong area, they open fire.
When the Mercury was being designed, one of our enginseers realized that this class, with its powerful hull, cloaking system, and extensive anti-intruder system, would make an ideal light vessel for use by various intelligence agencies and Special Forces. Once this capability was fully recognized, an orbital drop pod launch system was installed, allowing the Mercury to sneak up to a planet, launch the commando-filled drop pods behind enemy lines, and retreat out-system.
CHAPTER THREE: The interior
The Mercury is laid out, at least internally, much like the other two ships I have created. It is cramped, small, and very confusing. Rooms are placed in seemingly random sections of the ship, connected by miles of maze-like corridors and maintenance tunnels. These passageways are filled with pop-up turrets (see section two for details) that protect the ship from enemy boarding parties. To protect the delicate electronics running back and forth behind the walls, the corridors have been armored with half a meter of Admantium/ Crystex composite. This serves a dual purpose, both protecting the inside of the ship from weapons fire, and providing a kind of armor for the inner areas. Massive use of cross bracing and reinforcement has been made, allowing the Mercury to literally ram opponents repeatedly with nearly no damage being sustained.
The ship is much taller and thinner than any other vessel currently engineered by Einhauser, and this causes most areas to be small and cramped. The least cramped area is probably the mess hall, where food is served twenty-four hours a day.
Since the ship is so crowded, the bridge had to be slipped in wherever there was space. Because of this, it is located between the forward guns and missile bays, linked to the back of the ship by only three passageways. This room houses the various control panels necessary to run such a ship, and the command throne, allowing the captain to neurally interface with his ship.
After the mess hall and bridge, the hanger is the most important room on board. Due to size restraints, it can only hold 3 shuttles or twelve fighter craft, launched out of horizontal bay doors. The craft are stored in specially built cradles hung from the roof, that allow the ships to be stacked vertically, once again to save space.
The final interesting room in the ship is the prison. It can hold up to one hundred unruly crewmembers at a time.
CHAPTER FOUR: The engines
Two large engines sprouting from the rear of the hull propel the Mercury. They are stacked on top of one another, to present the thinnest possible target for enemy ships that the Mercury is charging toward. These engines run back into the section of the ship called Engineering, which takes up most of the rear of the ship. This six-floor room contains not only the engines, but also all three reactors.
The first, and main, is a brand new design, dubbed the Magnolia. This reactor consists of one large fusion reactor, with two smaller ones at the base. The smaller reactors come online to supercharge the main reactor. Their overlapping magnetic fields can temporarily boost power output by 300%. Cooling this massive system would be impossible with the standard pipes of coolant used on most ships, so another revolutionary system has been installed. The system uses laser induced optical slurries of ions chilled to near absolute zero to neutralize waste heat. The more power coming out of the reactor, the more power is sent to the cooling system, which in turn sends more ions. It is extremely efficient.
The second is a standard Pihc fusion engine, which powers all systems excluding the engines and weapons, which the Magnolia handles. The third reactor is fission based, and only comes online to jump-start the other two reactors, although it can be used to power various systems in an emergency.
The Mercury comes with a built-in FTL engine called the Time Manipulation Drive. The following document explains the TMD:
My idea for an engine is called the Time Manipulation Drive. Let me explain how it works. When a ship begins to use its sub-light engines, it slowly begins to pick up speed. It can take quite a while to get going very fast, and even at full speed it is only going a fraction of the speed it could be going with it’s Faster Than Light (FTL) engines. That’s what the Time Manipulation Drive (TMD) changes.The TMD uses a burst of energy from a Warp Coil (a big spiral of specially treated metal composites that conducts and stores massive amounts of energy) to force the ship’s shield generator to create multiple force fields. The two fields, one inside the other, trap layers of time. The first shield encompasses the ship and contours to it, trapping a layer of standard time, and the second, rounder shield surrounds the first field, which contains a second layer of time. Special spikes are planted at strategic positions along the hull of the ship that protrude through the first shield and into the second. The tips of these spikes are filled with nanobots that can build new nanobots out of the bodies of the old. These bots will keep the tips of the spikes from being destroyed as time goes by. Now, beyond the second field is normal time, just like what’s inside the first shield. After the two fields are in place, the TMD sends a second, higher pulse of energy through the tips of the spikes and into the second layer of time. This speeds it up vastly. For example, is you were going 100 MPH and you engaged the TMD for 300 years, the ship would essentially travel at 100 MPH for three hundred years. When you drop out of accelerated time, you would find out that you had been traveling at 30,000 mph.What’s that you say? Wouldn’t the ship get deteriorated and the crew die over all that time? No! Remember the first layer of time? It doesn’t speed up. Life goes on as normal inside the first shield, even as millennia are streaking past in the second. The thrust from the engines is the only part of the ship to reach into the second layer. When the destination is reached, the inner field expands (with the help of the rest of the Warp Coil’s energy) and cancels out the second field. The result is that you can move millions of light years in only a few seconds. The faster the ship’s sublight engines, the more fuel for said engines the ship carries, the number of warp coils the ship carries, how many planets are in between you and the target, and what kind of shield generator the ship has all effect the range and speed the ship is capable of.Recharging the Warp Coil is problematic. It stores so much energy that it can take days to fully recharge using only the power from the main engines. This process can be speeded up considerably with the installation and use of solar sails. These giant, circular sails are 50 miles in diameter, and composed of a mesh of fabrics only 1/40th of an inch in thickness. The main drawback to these sails is the steep cost (the material is roughly $1,089 a square foot) and the lack of space to put them on board a ship. Their other main problem is that the fabric is pure white, and is very visible from quite a ways away. While using the sails, the ship cannot move for fear of wrecking the sails.Here are some Pros and Cons to the TMD:Pros: Nearly instantaneous travel to anywhere; can’t be damaged while using TMD; can’t be tracked with sensors.Cons: Massive energy requirements; long recharge time; possibility of ending up in the apocalypse; cant be tracked with sensors while using TMD; cant fire weapons while using TMD; cant steer while using TMD; cant view the outside while using TMD; cant stop until destination is reached.The process of using the TMD is as follows: The captain inputs the coordinates of the desired target into the TMD’s navigation computer. The computer finds the fastest path there while still avoiding planets and other such obstacles. When that is done, the captain sets the ship on the course laid out by the computer, then engages the sub-light engines, and then drops the ships shields. After this is done, he engages the TMD, and then waits for the computer to bring the ship out of accelerated time.
The spikes are mounted on retractable platforms that lie flush against the hull when not in use. The TMD is optional, and can be removed if the buyer wishes to install a separate system. This drops the cost by about $3 billion, and frees up a room about the size of a shuttle bay.
The Mercury is not only the smallest ship Einhauser has created, but also it is the most maneuverable. That feat is accomplished through the use of thrust vectoring around the engines that literally allows the ship to move backwards at an equal rate to forwards, and a brand new system that has been incorporated into the Mercury. It is surprisingly simple, and yet no other starship has ever made use of it. The system is called a fin.
There are two fins, one on either side of the fore-section of the ship. They are roughly square in shape, and about as thick as the hull of the ship. These armored blocks house three mini-engines and a host of chemical thrusters, and is mounted on a swiveling axis that allows the engines to be pointed in any direction, even flush against the hull. Combined with the many other thrusters that cover the Mercury, the fins help give the ship the ability to nearly outmaneuver a fighter.
Of course, those fins are vulnerable to damage, because you can’t armor a joint. To remedy this, whenever the fins are not in use, they recess into special grooves in the sides of the hull. This not only protects the fins, but also adds an extra layer of armor to part of the ship.
CHAPTER FIVE: General statistics
Ship Class: Mercury
Role: Strike Cruiser
Maximum Crew: 9,872
Minimum Crew: 9,860
Marine Compliment: None
Length: 498 meters
Width: 88 meters
Mass: 4.32 million tons
Decks: 30
Offensive Weaponry: 48 missile pods, MDD, MAC, twin nuclear missile tubes
Defensive Weaponry: 100 PDGs, Internal weapon system
Hull: 7 layers
Shield System: void, 8-point energy
Maximum Sublight Acceleration: 135m/s^2
Maximum FTL Speed: 367 YPS (Years Per Second)
Maximum Jump Range: 60,000 light years
FTL Recharge Rate: Fully charged in 30 minutes
Sublight Engines: Two fusion engines
FTL Engine: TMD
Power Generation: 1 Magnolia fusion reactor, 1 Pihc fusion reactor, 1 fission reactor
Fighter Compliment: 12
Miscellaneous Compliment: 3 shuttles (must remove 6 fighters to fit these on)
Maximum Deployment Time: 4 months without resupply
Cost: $143,276,980,734
Additional Notes: Internal weapons sytem derived from similar system in use in the Praemisus Tactical Strike Battlecarrier made by Kyanges
Chapter one: The hull
--The shields
--The cloaking system
Chapter two: The weapons systems
--MAC
--MDD
--Missiles
--The nuke tubes
--PDGs
--Internal weapons systems
--Planetary assault capability
Chapter three: The interior
--The bridge
--The mess hall
--The hanger
--The prison
Chapter four: The engines
--The maneuvering fins
--The FTL engine
--Engineering
Chapter five: General statistics
CHAPTER ONE: The hull
The Mercury class is a very durable ship. The hull is as thick, if not thicker, than a battlecruiser’s in some places. The reason for this is to allow the ship to get within its main weapon’s range intact, but we won’t go into detail on that until chapter two.
The hull is composed of a unique blend of various materials, including a new one called Titanium-A. This compound has been in widespread use in other nation’s navies, but this is the first time it has been imported to Einhauser. The metal is a derivative of Titanium, but has been infused with all kinds of other exotic metals not found in the Sol system, to give it an incredible density. As effective as this material is, however, it wouldn’t be enough to provide the necessary strength required for a starship, so layers of Endosteel, Ferrosteel, Durosteel, Admantium/ Crystex composite, and a regenerative layer called Carbon Dioxenzemes have been incorporated into the hull. This incredibly strong armor covers the entire length of the ship, from the whale-like nose to the massive twin engines in the rear.
The armor is augmented by a powerful voidshield that can be expanded to repulse other ships that get too near. What’s that, you say? What’s a voidshield? Well, a voidshield is a large bubble of energy that encompasses the ship, generated from a small device hidden deep within the strike cruiser’s belly. The bubble constantly protects the hull from space debris during peacetime, and matter-based weaponry during war.
The shield is usually transparent, but turns a mottled greenish-blue gray when hit. This color change lasts only a few seconds before it fades back into its usual colorless state. A special device has been attached to the voidsheild’s generator that, when engaged, pulls the bubble flush against the hull, which allows the default FTL engine, called a Time Manipulation Drive (TMD), to operate.
When a solid object impacts the shield, the energy of the object’s momentum is transferred to the generator. When the energy buildup reaches critical, the generator shuts itself, and the shield, down to avoid a catastrophic chain reaction that would either cripple or totally destroy the vessel. This can be avoided if the shield is periodically shut off, allowing the energy to bleed away. If there is a problem and the generator can’t be shut down, an emergency option is to dump the energy into the ship’s engines, which temporarily boosts the thrust 147%, but also leads to massive corrosion if used too often.
Now, the voidshield stops matter extremely well, but what of energy weapons? The Mercury has an energy shield to dissipate and reflect energy-based weapons. Unlike the voidshield, this system employs many different generators to project overlapping fields. This allows any of the shields to be overloaded or destroyed without leaving any part of the ship exposed. The shield placement is as follows: nose, top, bottom, fore-right, fore-left, aft-right, aft-left, rear.
Now, the Mercury is designed to get in close to other vessels, and merely having a thick hull is usually not enough to stop a determined enemy vessel. Therefore, a cloaking system has been incorporated into the hull. It uses fiber-optic cables embedded in the outer layers of the armor, which all run to a central computer located below the bridge. This computer uses armored cameras placed all over the ship to observe the view on one side of the ship, and project that image on the other side. The effect is that the Mercury appears to melt into the surrounding space with almost no perceptible distortion.
Special clamps have been fitted to the outer hull that allows the Mercury to tow or be towed, in order to extend its limited jump range.
CHAPTER TWO: The weapons systems
By far the most exciting part of the Mercury is its weapons. The ship has been geared for close combat, with heavy emphasis placed on quick strikes of overwhelming firepower. This is accomplished through only four weapons.
The first is by far the most numerous. Racks and racks of guided anti-ship missiles dominate the entire center section of the ship. The sides of the ship are dotted with octagonal hatches that open to reveal 30 missiles each. There are 24 missile tubes located on each side of the ship, which is capable of firing 1,440 missiles every 30 seconds. The warheads on these missiles can be anti-matter, high explosive, armor piercing, or inferno, and the tubes can be replenished by the massive machines behind them in 27 seconds, with them being armed and ready to fire in 30. The ship carries 5,760 extra missiles, or two reloads a side, which would make a direct hit to the tubes catastrophic. To counteract that flaw, each tube is lined with half a meter of Endosteel, and separated from the others by a full meter and a half of Titanium-A. The reloads are stored in similar tubes, and all missiles can be ejected on a moments notice via hidden hatches.
The second weapon present on the ship is the Magnetic Acceleration Cannon (MAC). This is the ship’s most powerful matter-based weapon. The barrel runs from underneath the engine room, where the ammunition is loaded, and emerges at the bottom of the nose. This gun utilizes linear accelerator coils to launch heavy projectiles at high speed. The shells have course-correction retro-rockets to help guide them on target, and they can be armed with all manner of warheads, including 44-megaton nuclear charges, two of which are included with the ship. Firing these massive chunks of explosive requires a huge amount of energy, which must be collected in batteries before the gun can fire. Each charge takes between 40 and 70 seconds, depending on the ammunition type. Magnetic field recyclers have been fitted in the nose of the Mercury, allowing three shells to be fired per charge, so this gun is very efficient.
As powerful as the MAC is, the Molecular Detachment Device (MDD) beats it by far. This is the main weapon of the Mercury, and the reason that this ship is worth buying. The gun is mounted in the upper section of the nose, where it can be fired without fear of hitting the Mercury, which would be disastrous. You see, the MDD is a one hit, one kill weapon that totally ignores armor. It works by shooting two beams of energy out towards the target. At the focal point of the two beams, a field springs into being that makes molecules cease to cling to each other. Electrons can no longer be shared between them. The field spreads out in a sphere, but gets weaker the farther it spreads, except when it meets more molecules, which causes it to start over. Essentially, the bigger the target, the stronger the field. When the field dissipates, all that’s left of the target is a cloud of dirt. The weapon cannot be stopped by matter, only by shields.
The MDD is so powerful that it drains every bit of power the Mercury’s reactors can produce for a period of about a minute, during which the shields, life support, and all other onboard systems shut down. It is also extremely close ranged, forcing the Mercury into boarding range to fire.
The fourth, and final, weapon is the Mercury’s twin nuclear missile tubes. These are located in the center of the missile bay, and can launch up to 78-megaton warheads. There is room for only one reload for each tube, but I feel that the high-yield nuclear weapons should accomplish their jobs the first time around. After all, a 78-megaton missile generates thermal radiation up to 69.6 kilometers from the detonation site. If you want to check my statement, go to http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Science/Nuke.html
All of these heavy-duty weapons would be useless against fighters or boarding craft, so 100 Point Defense Guns (PDGs) are scattered across the hull. Each PDG consists of three miniature Lance Cannons (known as lasers to the layman), with a sophisticated Targeting, Tracking, and Termination (T3) computer to back them up.
Because there are so few PDGs (at least, compared to other Einhauserian ships), boarding parties from enemy ships are a real threat. To counter this problem, pop-up turrets line the floor, ceiling, and walls of nearly every passage and room. A separate computer located in the bridge, which is not accessible by anyone but the captain and chief weapons officer, controls these. The guns will quickly eliminate even armored foes with the heavy-duty weapons they pack, including plasma-throwers, Heavy Pulsers, and various types of grenade launchers. Now, all of this firepower flying around inside the ship is generally a bad idea, which is why the corridors are armored (see chapter three for more information).
Of course, it would not be good if the turrets opened fire on just anyone, so a system has been set up to let the guns discriminate between targets. When a person steps aboard the ship, he or she (or it, depending on your species) is issued an identification card (this card is automatically built into the armor that Einhauserian marines wear) that carries a sample of their DNA, an individual barcode, and a tracking device. The sensors attached to the turrets scan for the card, and if it is not present or is in the wrong area, they open fire.
When the Mercury was being designed, one of our enginseers realized that this class, with its powerful hull, cloaking system, and extensive anti-intruder system, would make an ideal light vessel for use by various intelligence agencies and Special Forces. Once this capability was fully recognized, an orbital drop pod launch system was installed, allowing the Mercury to sneak up to a planet, launch the commando-filled drop pods behind enemy lines, and retreat out-system.
CHAPTER THREE: The interior
The Mercury is laid out, at least internally, much like the other two ships I have created. It is cramped, small, and very confusing. Rooms are placed in seemingly random sections of the ship, connected by miles of maze-like corridors and maintenance tunnels. These passageways are filled with pop-up turrets (see section two for details) that protect the ship from enemy boarding parties. To protect the delicate electronics running back and forth behind the walls, the corridors have been armored with half a meter of Admantium/ Crystex composite. This serves a dual purpose, both protecting the inside of the ship from weapons fire, and providing a kind of armor for the inner areas. Massive use of cross bracing and reinforcement has been made, allowing the Mercury to literally ram opponents repeatedly with nearly no damage being sustained.
The ship is much taller and thinner than any other vessel currently engineered by Einhauser, and this causes most areas to be small and cramped. The least cramped area is probably the mess hall, where food is served twenty-four hours a day.
Since the ship is so crowded, the bridge had to be slipped in wherever there was space. Because of this, it is located between the forward guns and missile bays, linked to the back of the ship by only three passageways. This room houses the various control panels necessary to run such a ship, and the command throne, allowing the captain to neurally interface with his ship.
After the mess hall and bridge, the hanger is the most important room on board. Due to size restraints, it can only hold 3 shuttles or twelve fighter craft, launched out of horizontal bay doors. The craft are stored in specially built cradles hung from the roof, that allow the ships to be stacked vertically, once again to save space.
The final interesting room in the ship is the prison. It can hold up to one hundred unruly crewmembers at a time.
CHAPTER FOUR: The engines
Two large engines sprouting from the rear of the hull propel the Mercury. They are stacked on top of one another, to present the thinnest possible target for enemy ships that the Mercury is charging toward. These engines run back into the section of the ship called Engineering, which takes up most of the rear of the ship. This six-floor room contains not only the engines, but also all three reactors.
The first, and main, is a brand new design, dubbed the Magnolia. This reactor consists of one large fusion reactor, with two smaller ones at the base. The smaller reactors come online to supercharge the main reactor. Their overlapping magnetic fields can temporarily boost power output by 300%. Cooling this massive system would be impossible with the standard pipes of coolant used on most ships, so another revolutionary system has been installed. The system uses laser induced optical slurries of ions chilled to near absolute zero to neutralize waste heat. The more power coming out of the reactor, the more power is sent to the cooling system, which in turn sends more ions. It is extremely efficient.
The second is a standard Pihc fusion engine, which powers all systems excluding the engines and weapons, which the Magnolia handles. The third reactor is fission based, and only comes online to jump-start the other two reactors, although it can be used to power various systems in an emergency.
The Mercury comes with a built-in FTL engine called the Time Manipulation Drive. The following document explains the TMD:
My idea for an engine is called the Time Manipulation Drive. Let me explain how it works. When a ship begins to use its sub-light engines, it slowly begins to pick up speed. It can take quite a while to get going very fast, and even at full speed it is only going a fraction of the speed it could be going with it’s Faster Than Light (FTL) engines. That’s what the Time Manipulation Drive (TMD) changes.The TMD uses a burst of energy from a Warp Coil (a big spiral of specially treated metal composites that conducts and stores massive amounts of energy) to force the ship’s shield generator to create multiple force fields. The two fields, one inside the other, trap layers of time. The first shield encompasses the ship and contours to it, trapping a layer of standard time, and the second, rounder shield surrounds the first field, which contains a second layer of time. Special spikes are planted at strategic positions along the hull of the ship that protrude through the first shield and into the second. The tips of these spikes are filled with nanobots that can build new nanobots out of the bodies of the old. These bots will keep the tips of the spikes from being destroyed as time goes by. Now, beyond the second field is normal time, just like what’s inside the first shield. After the two fields are in place, the TMD sends a second, higher pulse of energy through the tips of the spikes and into the second layer of time. This speeds it up vastly. For example, is you were going 100 MPH and you engaged the TMD for 300 years, the ship would essentially travel at 100 MPH for three hundred years. When you drop out of accelerated time, you would find out that you had been traveling at 30,000 mph.What’s that you say? Wouldn’t the ship get deteriorated and the crew die over all that time? No! Remember the first layer of time? It doesn’t speed up. Life goes on as normal inside the first shield, even as millennia are streaking past in the second. The thrust from the engines is the only part of the ship to reach into the second layer. When the destination is reached, the inner field expands (with the help of the rest of the Warp Coil’s energy) and cancels out the second field. The result is that you can move millions of light years in only a few seconds. The faster the ship’s sublight engines, the more fuel for said engines the ship carries, the number of warp coils the ship carries, how many planets are in between you and the target, and what kind of shield generator the ship has all effect the range and speed the ship is capable of.Recharging the Warp Coil is problematic. It stores so much energy that it can take days to fully recharge using only the power from the main engines. This process can be speeded up considerably with the installation and use of solar sails. These giant, circular sails are 50 miles in diameter, and composed of a mesh of fabrics only 1/40th of an inch in thickness. The main drawback to these sails is the steep cost (the material is roughly $1,089 a square foot) and the lack of space to put them on board a ship. Their other main problem is that the fabric is pure white, and is very visible from quite a ways away. While using the sails, the ship cannot move for fear of wrecking the sails.Here are some Pros and Cons to the TMD:Pros: Nearly instantaneous travel to anywhere; can’t be damaged while using TMD; can’t be tracked with sensors.Cons: Massive energy requirements; long recharge time; possibility of ending up in the apocalypse; cant be tracked with sensors while using TMD; cant fire weapons while using TMD; cant steer while using TMD; cant view the outside while using TMD; cant stop until destination is reached.The process of using the TMD is as follows: The captain inputs the coordinates of the desired target into the TMD’s navigation computer. The computer finds the fastest path there while still avoiding planets and other such obstacles. When that is done, the captain sets the ship on the course laid out by the computer, then engages the sub-light engines, and then drops the ships shields. After this is done, he engages the TMD, and then waits for the computer to bring the ship out of accelerated time.
The spikes are mounted on retractable platforms that lie flush against the hull when not in use. The TMD is optional, and can be removed if the buyer wishes to install a separate system. This drops the cost by about $3 billion, and frees up a room about the size of a shuttle bay.
The Mercury is not only the smallest ship Einhauser has created, but also it is the most maneuverable. That feat is accomplished through the use of thrust vectoring around the engines that literally allows the ship to move backwards at an equal rate to forwards, and a brand new system that has been incorporated into the Mercury. It is surprisingly simple, and yet no other starship has ever made use of it. The system is called a fin.
There are two fins, one on either side of the fore-section of the ship. They are roughly square in shape, and about as thick as the hull of the ship. These armored blocks house three mini-engines and a host of chemical thrusters, and is mounted on a swiveling axis that allows the engines to be pointed in any direction, even flush against the hull. Combined with the many other thrusters that cover the Mercury, the fins help give the ship the ability to nearly outmaneuver a fighter.
Of course, those fins are vulnerable to damage, because you can’t armor a joint. To remedy this, whenever the fins are not in use, they recess into special grooves in the sides of the hull. This not only protects the fins, but also adds an extra layer of armor to part of the ship.
CHAPTER FIVE: General statistics
Ship Class: Mercury
Role: Strike Cruiser
Maximum Crew: 9,872
Minimum Crew: 9,860
Marine Compliment: None
Length: 498 meters
Width: 88 meters
Mass: 4.32 million tons
Decks: 30
Offensive Weaponry: 48 missile pods, MDD, MAC, twin nuclear missile tubes
Defensive Weaponry: 100 PDGs, Internal weapon system
Hull: 7 layers
Shield System: void, 8-point energy
Maximum Sublight Acceleration: 135m/s^2
Maximum FTL Speed: 367 YPS (Years Per Second)
Maximum Jump Range: 60,000 light years
FTL Recharge Rate: Fully charged in 30 minutes
Sublight Engines: Two fusion engines
FTL Engine: TMD
Power Generation: 1 Magnolia fusion reactor, 1 Pihc fusion reactor, 1 fission reactor
Fighter Compliment: 12
Miscellaneous Compliment: 3 shuttles (must remove 6 fighters to fit these on)
Maximum Deployment Time: 4 months without resupply
Cost: $143,276,980,734
Additional Notes: Internal weapons sytem derived from similar system in use in the Praemisus Tactical Strike Battlecarrier made by Kyanges