Einhauser
22-09-2005, 19:34
Introduction: The Leviathan class Meganaught is the epitome of Einhauserian ship design. It is by far the largest vessel ever designed by our company, and is nearly four times as long as our current largest vessel. It is so mind-blowingly massive and amazingly advanced that it makes even the super-modern Mercury class Strike Cruiser look like a toy in comparison. This is truly a ship for the ages.
Chapter one: Design history
Chapter two: The hull
--The ram
--The jaw
--The shields
--The docks
Chapter three: The weapons systems
--Lance arrays
--MACs
--Torpedo arrays
--The Inferno Cannon
--Planetary assault capability
--Boarding capability
--PDLCs
Chapter four: The interior
--The bridge
--The mess halls
--The grav-decks
--The hanger
--HHSs
--The prison system
--Troop accommodations
Chapter five: The engines
--The retro rockets
--The FTL engine
--Engineering
Chapter six: General statistics
CHAPTER ONE: Design history
The Leviathan class Meganaught is the brainchild of Edward Lovell Jones, who also designed Einhauser’s breakout success, the Firebat class Battlecruiser. His influence is quite apparent, what with most of the same features included on the Firebat present here, only on a larger scale. Lets start at the beginning.
It was only about a week before the Mercury class Strike Cruiser was to be released, and yet Edward was already working on another project. His large design studio deep within one of the orbital fortresses surrounding Jupiter was littered with waste paper, and the walls were buried beneath sheet after sheet of plans. The rest of his design team thought he had gone insane, because they couldn’t believe anything as massive as what was depicted in his drawings could be built. However, he pointed them to the Super Dreadnaughts of Xessmithia and Huntaer, just to name a few large ships.
They argued back that such ships required dozens of forge-worlds and a budget higher than Einhauser’s, but Edward insisted that since his ship is half the size of those two, it wouldn’t take so many resources. They finally relented and left Jones to his “insane work.”
Fourteen years later, his design was finally becoming reality. The ship was personally chosen by CEO Jason Green out of twelve designs submitted to him to become Einhauser’s newest vessel. Factories on both of Einhauser’s forge-worlds were being geared up to produce the gigantic ships. It would truly have been a great day in Einhauserian history when the first Leviathan class, for that is what Mr. Green dubbed Edward’s ship, boosted itself out of the shipyard and into space.
Unfortunately, just as the shipyards were finishing the pre-construction phase, civil war reared its ugly head. Fighting tore the nation of Einhauser apart at the seams, and all seemed lost. The hordes of Chaos had been festering in the bowels of the empire far too long to be opposed now, and so the Sol system fell. Luckily, a small fleet dispatched from the Nimas Tenae system conducted a series of raids on the major facilities of Earth, just as the war was winding down.
During one of these raids, the fleet managed to extricate Mr. Jones and his designs, who was in a concentration camp, and brought him back to the planet of Xenthos. From there he was shipped, along with a new team who recognized his genius, to an obscure mining system in the depths of space. After several more years of work, the giant starship was finished. Although there are currently no Einhauserian stardocks capable of building the monster ship, there soon will be, as several new shipyards are being built around Aldarath, a mineral-rich moon of Xenthos.
CHAPTER TWO: The hull
The Leviathan resembles a gigantic, vaguely whale-shaped rectangle with an enormous mouth on the fore end. This image is not entirely coincidental. You see, the whale shape was proven efficient in the Mercury class Strike Cruiser, and so it was carried over (with vast changes, obviously) to the Leviathan.
The whale shape provides a stable platform for weapons systems, as well as a majestic look when viewed from a distance. It also presents some problems. In the Mercury, the hull tapers from the bulbous head down to a thin aft section where the engines are kept. This arrangement would not work on a ship of this size, so certain changes had to be made. The most noticeable is that instead of tapering down into a tail-like protrusion, the hull of the Leviathan is capped off at the back by a bulbous section nearly as large as the nose. This area houses the engines (see chapter five).
The Leviathan takes the whale design even further. Adorning the ventral section of the nose is a gigantic jaw-like appendage based on the mouth of a sperm whale. It is lined with teeth, which at first appear purely ornamental, but when you see the jaw begin to move, all becomes clear: the jaw closes into the underside of the nose, and the teeth are used to lock it in place. This serves to place a sheet of armor around the precious cargo the mouth shelters: the Inferno Cannon (see chapter three).
The shelter is required because when the nose is used as a ram (which it was designed to be), the barrel of the huge weapon could be damaged. The jaw eliminates this threat, and gives the ship a mighty psychological boon.
Nearly the entire vessel is plated in 12 meters (39 feet) of armor, which gives it incredible staying power. The armor is composed of several different layers, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The layers are, from the outside in: Super-conductive Titanium-A, Admantium/ Crystex composite, Durrosteel, Admanite, Endosteel, Ferrosteel, and finally Carbon Dyoxinzemes. This combination is very difficult to pierce, because of the various energy reflecting qualities of the upper layers, and shock-absorbing abilities of the bottom.
The unique self-repairing quality of the last layer, Carbon Dyoxenzemes, is also instrumental in making this such a wonderful vessel. It uses nanobots to repair any holes in the armor, which negates the need to return to a port to repair the armor except in the direst circumstances.
As mentioned earlier, the nose section of the Leviathan is basically a large ram. It is blunt, extremely heavily armored, and so reinforced that it can smash through even the toughest hulls without sustaining major damage. A vast energy field can be charged up in moments to give the ram even more power.
The Leviathan makes use of an interesting new shield system, called the Phased Shield, which is explained in the following document:
The Phased Shield is actually composed of two different shields, which we will now discuss:
Dispersion Field: Research into electromagnetic field generators has provided ships with an extra layer of protection. A dispersion field breaks up coherent energy patterns by using oscillating magnetic fields. The dispersion shield generator is large, and although it takes up a lot of power, is worth its weight in gold. This field is ineffective against solid weapons.
Mag Shield: Much like the dispersion shield, a mag shield is a shaped magnetic field, but unlike said field, the mag shield repels metal-bearing objects instead of energy. It requires several electromagnetic mounts around the body of the ship.
Phased Shield: This combines qualities of both the dispersion shield and the mag shield. It cycles quickly between dispersion and magnetic fields to the point where it forms a glowing barrier that seems to affect any form of incoming attack. The combination cuts down on the overall equipment load and is more energy efficient.
A final interesting feature of the hull is the docking clamps. These gigantic claw-like devices are usually recessed into the armor of the Leviathan to prevent their damage in combat, but they can be extended outward to grip an allied ship and pull it closer. Then docking tubes, fuel lines, and cargo elevators can be hooked up between the two vessels.
The Leviathan has 312 docking clamps, and so can hold onto 156 starships at a time. When docked, they share the shields of the Leviathan, and are dragged wherever it goes in Netherspace (see chapter five). This makes it an efficient way to move parts of the fleet around without expending large amounts of fuel.
CHAPTER THREE: The weapons systems
So far we have focused solely on the history and hull of this monster ship. Now we will move into more interesting waters. The Leviathan class Meganaught is armed to the teeth. Each is a fortress, able to destroy planets single handedly.
The Leviathan is armed with two rows of 48 Magnetic Acceleration Cannons (MACs) on each side, broadside style. These massive weapons use electricity to propel several ton shells at extremely high speeds, and since there is no powder involved, there is no flash or recoil to contend with when firing. This increases the rate of fire over conventional guns, and allows more ammunition to be carried instead of the bags of powder.
Each MAC has a barrel roughly 450 meters (1,476.36 feet) long, which is what allows the shells to reach such searing speed. The extra length of the barrels also means that the gun crew is protected by roughly a thousand feet of armor and bulkheads. To power these sizable weapons takes a lot of energy, so between 40 and 70 seconds must be taken between each firing to recharge the batteries. A magnetic field recycler on the end of the barrel captures the previous charge, however, and can add some of that energy back into the batteries.
Augmenting the MACs are 66 Lance Arrays. Each array is made up of three turrets grouped together on the sides of the hull. The turrets carry a Lance Cannon, which is a large, anti-capitol ship laser gun. They fire an intense beam of energy that can melt armor and incinerate flesh. These are used extensively in battle because they recharge very, very quickly. They can usually be fired once every 4 seconds for about two minutes before the barrel overheats and must go into cool down mode.
The Lance Arrays are not the only secondary weapon, however. The hull is festooned with Torpedo Arrays, which once again consist of three tubes. Each tube can fire a variety of ordinance, but by far the most common is plasma torpedoes. These fiery weapons explode in a burst of super-heated energy that literally burns its way through a spaceship’s hull as the craft is engulfed in a ball of white-hot flame hundreds of meters across. Even when the flames die out they continue to do damage, as the heat-stressed metals of the stricken ship crack and crumble when exposed to the bone-chilling cold of the void.
Now, all of those weapons may be powerful enough to destroy an enemy starship, but even combined, they are weak compared to the main armament of the Leviathan. Now we talk about the fun part of this design. Now we talk about the Inferno Cannon.
The Inferno Cannon is mounted along the entire length of the Leviathan’s hull. Six of the huge shells for the gun are stored in massive twin silos located in a cavernous chamber below the throbbing might of the Leviathan’s reactors.
Each gargantuan Inferno Cannon shell is the size of a tall building, its warhead packed with explosive. Other warheads, such as fusion, nuclear, chemical, biological, and vortex can be added. The shells are loaded by powerful winches, guided by an army of engineers. As the huge breach closes, the gun crews leave the chamber, for no man could withstand at short range the awesome concussion produced as the shell is fired.
The shell accelerates down the long barrel of the cannon, reaching a humbling high velocity that hurls it out into space. The whole ship shudders with the recoil of the cannon– indeed, it is constructed with massively reinforced bulkheads and hull supports to withstand the powerful shockwaves. The back of the shell rips off once it is clear of the barrel as 96 inch explosive bolts detonate, revealing three plasma rockets. These serve to speed the shell on even faster.
When the shell detonates, it releases a ball of radioactive fire that forms a sphere of destruction kilometers across. Not only the cannon’s target, but also any ship close to it receives a deadly blast of intense heat, energized particles, and huge, jagged shards of shrapnel larger than most sub-stellar spaceships. It is truly an awe-inspiring weapon, capable of immense destruction and doom.
The barrel of the Inferno Cannon is held in mid air inside a long, cylindrical chamber that is as lengthy as the barrel. A web of suspensor fields and inertial compensators prevent the barrel from touching the rest of the ship anywhere but in the magazine, where it is inevitable. This is to prevent the shock of the firing from rending the Leviathan apart. Even so, the act of firing the cannon induces a shaking equivalent to a magnitude 2 earthquake.
No matter how powerful the above weapons are, there is still an inherent weakness: they cannot target fighters/missiles with any form of accuracy. To remedy this problem, a staggering number of Point Defense Lance Cannons (PDLCs) have been installed across the ship. These quick-moving, fast-targeting turrets use a scaled-down version of the Lance Cannons seen elsewhere on the ship. Each turret is controlled by a computer, which in turn links to the ship’s mainframe. The system can target all 56,000 PDLCs at independent targets, or coordinate them to best suit the different scenarios that will be faced by this vessel.
All of the weapons mentioned so far have either been aimed at obliterating enemy ships or destroying planetary defenses, but none of them can really capture an enemy vessel, only destroy it. That is where the boarding torpedo comes in. These cylindrical MAC rounds have been hollowed out and fitted with grav-couches, crash webbing, and a massive drill bit in the nose.
The shells are first filled with between 10 and 30 troopers, depending on their equipment, and then fired from a conventional MAC. The interior is magnetically shielded, so none of the passengers will be affected by the magnetic field. Once the shell leaves the barrel, the torpedo can be steered to a minor extent by utilizing small retro-thrusters installed in the sides.
When the torpedo impacts, the drill bit engages and bores into the weakened armor of the enemy vessel. Once the shell has reached the proper point in the ship (as designated by an onboard computer tied into the Leviathan’s systems) the drill stops and eight hatches open. The troopers within can then surge outward and take control of the enemy ship.
There are optional mounts inside the shell for heavy weapons to be mounted, allowing the exiting soldiers some form of covering fire beyond what their comrades can provide. Of course, the boarding torpedoes are only viable against starships, as they would burn up in the atmosphere of a planet. The drop pod is another thing entirely.
Drop pods are similar to boarding torpedoes in that they are hollow and carry troops within, but the similarities stop there. The drop pod cannot be fired out of a MAC, instead using a network of chutes bored into the hull of the Leviathan. They are launched toward an enemy planet in large groups. Once in orbit, the outer shell of the pods break away, giving any enemy sensors the impression of a meteor shower breaking up in orbit.
The pods streak down and impact into the ground, usually producing a blast crater. Retro thrusters in the bottom of the drop pod fire moments before landing, slowing the terminal pod to a survivable speed. Once on the ground, six armored doors fall outward when their explosive bolts detonate, allowing the soldiers within to get out.
The pods are massively reinforced, so they can pierce through such obstacles as concrete and stone with relative ease. Of course, once the retro rockets are fired, their speed slows to the point where contact with the two previously mentioned substances becomes fatal, as they loose the penetrating quality.
Of course, drop pods are not the only planetary assault weapons at the Leviathan’s disposal. The massive hanger (see chapter four) can hold enough shuttles and dropships to launch an entire Army Group (120,000 or so Marines and their equipment) in half an hour. The Leviathan also carries three pre-fabricated base structures, between 10,000 and 50,000 light vehicles, 20,000 armored units, 15,000 artillery support units, and 2,000 walkers. All can be shuttled down to a planet by using properly outfitted dropships.
CHAPTER FOUR: The interior
Unlike every other Einhauserian starship yet produced, the Leviathan class is a relatively spacious affair, with wide corridors, sweeping stairways, and even a large chapel. Each passageway is 9 feet (2.7432 meters) high and 8 feet (2.4384 meters) wide. This is to allow armored figures to move freely, shoulder to shoulder, throughout the ship.
To aid in the transportation of men and supplies, a series of teleporter pads have been installed. These can move various things around the ship quickly and efficiently and, when an enemy vessel is in range, and has its shields down, they can teleport groups of armed boarders onto the enemy craft.
A central corridor runs along the length of the ship’s spine and, if followed to the fore end, would lead into a maze-like block of passageways. This is necessary to prevent any would-be boarders from simply following the corridor to the end and gaining access to the bridge beyond.
Inside the double blast doors of the reception area, the bridge is a grand sight indeed. Real Oak inlays adorn every surface not taken up by shining gold trim. Almost at once one’s eye is drawn to the large viewscreen dominating the forward wall. Since the bridge is buried in the center of the Leviathan, this is the only way the crew can see out. A frame of smaller screens surround the main one, allowing the crew to see all sections of the ship.
The captain controls his vessel from a gilded command throne, which allows him to directly interface with his ship, using a mind impulse link. A pit cut in the floor plating of the frontal area of the bridge houses the weapons officers and data shufflers, while helmsman and other, less important officers inhabit a series of control consoles littering the area. Beneath the throne are two powerful backup generators, which will supply power to the bridge and other essential areas in case of a reactor failure.
Even Marines need to eat, so 42 “mess halls” have been installed. They are not what most soldiers would call a mess hall, however. The cafeterias on the Leviathan are little more than an alcove in a corridor with a nozzle to dispense water and a box of nutrient paste tubes. Still, that is all the crew needs to function, the paste providing 100% of all daily vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, and even a chemical that tricks their stomach into thinking it is full of food.
Once a Marine has consumed their ration of paste— one can hardly call it eating— they need to keep the pounds off (well, not really. Their bodies burn fat extremely efficiently), so three grav-decks have been installed. These are like the rest of the decks, but they rotate around a central shaft, creating artificial gravity. The grav-decks are all inside the hull armor, so they are not exposed to enemy fire. Inside these spinning rings are the training rooms for the Marines.
The center of each gym is a sunken circle of sand, with low risers around it. It is in this ring that Marines can settle their differences, practice close combat, wrestle, etc… while their comrades look on.
Around the central area, workout machines and free weights dominate the space. In the back of the rooms, however, there is a pair of unassuming doors, behind which is the most interesting feature of the grav-decks: the Boarding Action Training (BAT) rooms.
They are extremely large compared to the gym. The ceiling is many stories above the floor, and the horizon curves into the distance. This room is all about boarding actions. Modular wall and floor sections can be set up to simulate boarding an enemy ship, and strobe lights and fog machines add to the chaos. There are also more BATs outside the grav-decks onboard. These rooms are identical to the regular BATs, but have no gravity.
Now, all of that training materiel is fine for Marines, but what about the pilots that are stationed on the Leviathan? To help them stay sharp, thirteen 3D training rooms have been added. Each is one square acre in size. The walls are lined with panels of non-reflective materials with fiber-optic cables embedded in them. Using the cables, images of space can be imprinted on the walls, giving the sense that one is piloting a ship. Each trainee is given a “flight suit,” which is basically a restricting jumpsuit. Special light-sensitive diodes are laced in the fabric. When concentrated light is centered on one for a few seconds, the fabric constricts and keeps the targeted person from moving the area that’s lit up. This constriction continues until the supervisor of the match “thaws” the suits with a special device known as a “wand.” Each trainee is also issued a “laser gun,” which fires beams of tightly-focused light, to disable the enemy trainees. (If you have ever read the book, “Ender’s Game”, think of the battleschool’s game and you wont be far off.)
If the Leviathan is holding station around a friendly planet, then the pilots have a second option for training: they can just go hop in a fighter and take off. The Leviathan class has one giant hanger in the bottom of the ship, below the Inferno Cannon. This space is massive, and can hold more than a thousand shuttles, bombers, and dropships at a time. A group of around 300 heavy fighters also has a restricted area, allowing them to launch in moments.
The one group of single ships (fighters, bombers, etc…) that does not make use of the hanger is the 1,200 light fightercraft onboard. These use the Honeycomb Hanger System, explained below:
The Honeycomb Hanger System (HHS) is an amazing new design in hangers. It is a square block of miniature berths for light fighters that dock one ship each. The blocks are 10 berths long and 6 berths high, and have individual blast doors for each alcove. The hangers face away from the ship, where an open pathway leads to space. However, twin sets of blast doors protect them. The pilot must fly into his berth backwards, set the ship down on the magnetically cushioned landing pads, and wait for his personal blast door to close. At this point the berth is flooded with oxygen, and the pilot can float over to the egress hatch. This hatch leads to a room where all the other hatches meet and merge into one corridor that leads to the main body of the ship.
Unfortunately, even Marines sometimes disobey, so a prison system had to be installed in the design. A portion of the 152nd deck has been transformed into a prison, with 1,000 cells and two tubes where those set to be executed can be launched into space. This is an absolute last resort, as each Marine constitutes a significant investment of resources.
Any Marine that has spent time in a prison cell won’t really be able to tell the difference between that and their actual accommodations. Each Marine and crewmember is issued a “room” that measures ten feet (3.048 meters) long by five feet (1.524 meters) wide by nine feet (2.7432 meters) high. The only furnishings in this unpainted box are a rack for their armor for when it has to be repaired, and a small table. A rug is supplied for sleeping purposes.
CHAPTER FIVE: The engines
Nine gigantic matter/anti-matter annihilation engines power the Leviathan class Meganaught. These awesome devices are arranged in three rows of three in the stern of the vessel. Each is so large that a Firebat class Battlecruiser could fly inside.
The engine consists of the reactor, which is where the matter (hydrogen) and anti-matter (anti-hydrogen) come together to unleash their fury; the regulator, which operates the containment fields that keep the highly volatile forces being created in the reactor under control; and the thrust channel, which is the visible part at the back of the ship. It is through these tunnel-like exhaust flumes that the explosive force is propelled to create forward motion. In order to slow speed or reverse directions, slab-like thrust-vectoring plates can be lowered over the thrust channel, thus focusing the force of the reactors forward instead of backward.
The Leviathan cannot be steered with its main engines alone, being far too massive to attempt any sort of maneuvers. To rectify this, thousands of retro rockets dimple the already weapon-strewn carapace of the starship. These can be fired by either the bridge and engineering crews or the Leviathan’s computer, in order to turn, roll, and perform other such maneuvers. There are no retro rockets in the nose, for obvious reasons.
No matter how powerful its engines, a ship needs a Faster than Light (FTL) engine, unless, of course, you do not intend to go anywhere for the next hundred thousand years. The Leviathan makes use of a new FTL system, called a Chain Drive. Here is a document written on the subject:
This highly experimental drive system is an evolution of the Time Manipulation Drive (TMD) seen in the earlier designs from Einhauser. It utilizes a ring of twelve Warp Coils (large, faintly purple metallic coils that store vast amounts of power) spaced evenly apart, rotating around a central shaft.
The spinning motion creates artificial gravity, which causes the Warp Coils to multiply any power held within them. The energy created by the gravity effect continues to build up inside the coil until it cannot be held any longer, at which point it arcs towards the center shaft in a brilliant, lightning-like burst. The shaft is covered in thousands of lightning rods that absorb the bolts and transfer them to four more Warp Coils (this time arrayed in a straight line inside the shaft), supercharging them so quickly that their energy cannot prematurely leave them.
This immense charge is then channeled through a web of circuitry inlaid in the hull, and bursts into the cold hard void, where it shreds space/ time and rams the vessel into an alternate dimension where distance has no meaning, called Netherspace. As soon as it enters Netherspace, another portal is ripped open, and the ship exists.
For further explanation of Netherspace, see the article below:
Netherspace is a realm of emptiness, pervaded by a cloying blackness broken only by the brilliant red glow material objects create when they enter. It acts like a trapezoid. Real space is at the bottom of the shape, and getting from one corner to the opposite would take quite a while. However, open a portal to Netherspace and you are taken to the top of the trapezoid, where the distance is much reduced. While not impossible, it is ill advised to re-enter real space within the confines of a system. While gravitational effects and radioactivity cannot affect Netherspace, a meteor (which would retain its speed and heading) suddenly appearing inside your control consol would generally be a bad thing. Some interesting facts about Netherspace: The red light that issues from physical objects can be seen as a dim glow no matter the distance. Netherspace is also always referred to as “up.”
The engineering section of the Leviathan must be able to run and maintain all of the elements described in this chapter, and so it is justifiably massive. It takes up thirty decks in the rear of the ship, and encompasses all the reactors and the Chain Drive, as well as auxiliary controls for the plasma retro rockets.
The space could easily be described as chaotic, with catwalks everywhere, tangles of wires flowing from every opening, and crevasse-like pits where hordes of engineers toil endlessly. To work in this sea of cables is a mentally exhausting routine of welding, data shuffling, and consol monitoring, but without it, the Leviathan would screech to a halt.
CHAPTER SIX: General statistics
Model: Leviathan
Make: Meganaught
Maximum Crew: 489,940
Minimum Crew: 472,242
Marine Compliment: 124,470
Length: 9,570 meters (31,397 feet)
Height: 3,010 meters (9,875 feet)
Beam: 2,392 meters (7,848 feet)
Decks: 430
Offensive Weaponry: 68 torpedo arrays (three tubes per array), 66 Lance Arrays (three Lance Cannons per array), 192 MACs (four 48 gun rows), 1 Inferno Cannon
Defensive Weaponry: 56,000 PDLCs
Hull: 12 meters (39 feet) of 7 different layers of armor.
Shield System: Phased
Maximum Sublight Acceleration (linear, in open space): 3,000 Gs
Maximum FTL Speed: 1,000 LY/sec
Maximum Jump Range: 250,000 LY fuel (roughly 5 minutes FTL fuel. Exact number is 4.166666667 minutes))
FTL Recharge Rate: Instantaneous
Sublight Engines: 9 matter/anti-matter annihilation engines
Default FTL Engine: Chain Drive
Light Fighter Compliment: 1,200
Heavy Fighter Compliment: 315
Miscellaneous Compliment: 269
Maximum Deployment Time: 1 year food and water* (224,259,650 gallons of water and 33,600 tons of nutrient paste), 1.6 years fuel.
Cost: $1,890,422,098,675
* Assuming only the crew, and not the onboard Marines eat and drink, the length of deployment is significantly increased. Water figure assumes that each individual drinks and/or uses only 1 gallon of water per day. Food figure assumes that each person eats one package of nutrient paste each day, and that each paste tube weighs 1.75 ounces.
Chapter one: Design history
Chapter two: The hull
--The ram
--The jaw
--The shields
--The docks
Chapter three: The weapons systems
--Lance arrays
--MACs
--Torpedo arrays
--The Inferno Cannon
--Planetary assault capability
--Boarding capability
--PDLCs
Chapter four: The interior
--The bridge
--The mess halls
--The grav-decks
--The hanger
--HHSs
--The prison system
--Troop accommodations
Chapter five: The engines
--The retro rockets
--The FTL engine
--Engineering
Chapter six: General statistics
CHAPTER ONE: Design history
The Leviathan class Meganaught is the brainchild of Edward Lovell Jones, who also designed Einhauser’s breakout success, the Firebat class Battlecruiser. His influence is quite apparent, what with most of the same features included on the Firebat present here, only on a larger scale. Lets start at the beginning.
It was only about a week before the Mercury class Strike Cruiser was to be released, and yet Edward was already working on another project. His large design studio deep within one of the orbital fortresses surrounding Jupiter was littered with waste paper, and the walls were buried beneath sheet after sheet of plans. The rest of his design team thought he had gone insane, because they couldn’t believe anything as massive as what was depicted in his drawings could be built. However, he pointed them to the Super Dreadnaughts of Xessmithia and Huntaer, just to name a few large ships.
They argued back that such ships required dozens of forge-worlds and a budget higher than Einhauser’s, but Edward insisted that since his ship is half the size of those two, it wouldn’t take so many resources. They finally relented and left Jones to his “insane work.”
Fourteen years later, his design was finally becoming reality. The ship was personally chosen by CEO Jason Green out of twelve designs submitted to him to become Einhauser’s newest vessel. Factories on both of Einhauser’s forge-worlds were being geared up to produce the gigantic ships. It would truly have been a great day in Einhauserian history when the first Leviathan class, for that is what Mr. Green dubbed Edward’s ship, boosted itself out of the shipyard and into space.
Unfortunately, just as the shipyards were finishing the pre-construction phase, civil war reared its ugly head. Fighting tore the nation of Einhauser apart at the seams, and all seemed lost. The hordes of Chaos had been festering in the bowels of the empire far too long to be opposed now, and so the Sol system fell. Luckily, a small fleet dispatched from the Nimas Tenae system conducted a series of raids on the major facilities of Earth, just as the war was winding down.
During one of these raids, the fleet managed to extricate Mr. Jones and his designs, who was in a concentration camp, and brought him back to the planet of Xenthos. From there he was shipped, along with a new team who recognized his genius, to an obscure mining system in the depths of space. After several more years of work, the giant starship was finished. Although there are currently no Einhauserian stardocks capable of building the monster ship, there soon will be, as several new shipyards are being built around Aldarath, a mineral-rich moon of Xenthos.
CHAPTER TWO: The hull
The Leviathan resembles a gigantic, vaguely whale-shaped rectangle with an enormous mouth on the fore end. This image is not entirely coincidental. You see, the whale shape was proven efficient in the Mercury class Strike Cruiser, and so it was carried over (with vast changes, obviously) to the Leviathan.
The whale shape provides a stable platform for weapons systems, as well as a majestic look when viewed from a distance. It also presents some problems. In the Mercury, the hull tapers from the bulbous head down to a thin aft section where the engines are kept. This arrangement would not work on a ship of this size, so certain changes had to be made. The most noticeable is that instead of tapering down into a tail-like protrusion, the hull of the Leviathan is capped off at the back by a bulbous section nearly as large as the nose. This area houses the engines (see chapter five).
The Leviathan takes the whale design even further. Adorning the ventral section of the nose is a gigantic jaw-like appendage based on the mouth of a sperm whale. It is lined with teeth, which at first appear purely ornamental, but when you see the jaw begin to move, all becomes clear: the jaw closes into the underside of the nose, and the teeth are used to lock it in place. This serves to place a sheet of armor around the precious cargo the mouth shelters: the Inferno Cannon (see chapter three).
The shelter is required because when the nose is used as a ram (which it was designed to be), the barrel of the huge weapon could be damaged. The jaw eliminates this threat, and gives the ship a mighty psychological boon.
Nearly the entire vessel is plated in 12 meters (39 feet) of armor, which gives it incredible staying power. The armor is composed of several different layers, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The layers are, from the outside in: Super-conductive Titanium-A, Admantium/ Crystex composite, Durrosteel, Admanite, Endosteel, Ferrosteel, and finally Carbon Dyoxinzemes. This combination is very difficult to pierce, because of the various energy reflecting qualities of the upper layers, and shock-absorbing abilities of the bottom.
The unique self-repairing quality of the last layer, Carbon Dyoxenzemes, is also instrumental in making this such a wonderful vessel. It uses nanobots to repair any holes in the armor, which negates the need to return to a port to repair the armor except in the direst circumstances.
As mentioned earlier, the nose section of the Leviathan is basically a large ram. It is blunt, extremely heavily armored, and so reinforced that it can smash through even the toughest hulls without sustaining major damage. A vast energy field can be charged up in moments to give the ram even more power.
The Leviathan makes use of an interesting new shield system, called the Phased Shield, which is explained in the following document:
The Phased Shield is actually composed of two different shields, which we will now discuss:
Dispersion Field: Research into electromagnetic field generators has provided ships with an extra layer of protection. A dispersion field breaks up coherent energy patterns by using oscillating magnetic fields. The dispersion shield generator is large, and although it takes up a lot of power, is worth its weight in gold. This field is ineffective against solid weapons.
Mag Shield: Much like the dispersion shield, a mag shield is a shaped magnetic field, but unlike said field, the mag shield repels metal-bearing objects instead of energy. It requires several electromagnetic mounts around the body of the ship.
Phased Shield: This combines qualities of both the dispersion shield and the mag shield. It cycles quickly between dispersion and magnetic fields to the point where it forms a glowing barrier that seems to affect any form of incoming attack. The combination cuts down on the overall equipment load and is more energy efficient.
A final interesting feature of the hull is the docking clamps. These gigantic claw-like devices are usually recessed into the armor of the Leviathan to prevent their damage in combat, but they can be extended outward to grip an allied ship and pull it closer. Then docking tubes, fuel lines, and cargo elevators can be hooked up between the two vessels.
The Leviathan has 312 docking clamps, and so can hold onto 156 starships at a time. When docked, they share the shields of the Leviathan, and are dragged wherever it goes in Netherspace (see chapter five). This makes it an efficient way to move parts of the fleet around without expending large amounts of fuel.
CHAPTER THREE: The weapons systems
So far we have focused solely on the history and hull of this monster ship. Now we will move into more interesting waters. The Leviathan class Meganaught is armed to the teeth. Each is a fortress, able to destroy planets single handedly.
The Leviathan is armed with two rows of 48 Magnetic Acceleration Cannons (MACs) on each side, broadside style. These massive weapons use electricity to propel several ton shells at extremely high speeds, and since there is no powder involved, there is no flash or recoil to contend with when firing. This increases the rate of fire over conventional guns, and allows more ammunition to be carried instead of the bags of powder.
Each MAC has a barrel roughly 450 meters (1,476.36 feet) long, which is what allows the shells to reach such searing speed. The extra length of the barrels also means that the gun crew is protected by roughly a thousand feet of armor and bulkheads. To power these sizable weapons takes a lot of energy, so between 40 and 70 seconds must be taken between each firing to recharge the batteries. A magnetic field recycler on the end of the barrel captures the previous charge, however, and can add some of that energy back into the batteries.
Augmenting the MACs are 66 Lance Arrays. Each array is made up of three turrets grouped together on the sides of the hull. The turrets carry a Lance Cannon, which is a large, anti-capitol ship laser gun. They fire an intense beam of energy that can melt armor and incinerate flesh. These are used extensively in battle because they recharge very, very quickly. They can usually be fired once every 4 seconds for about two minutes before the barrel overheats and must go into cool down mode.
The Lance Arrays are not the only secondary weapon, however. The hull is festooned with Torpedo Arrays, which once again consist of three tubes. Each tube can fire a variety of ordinance, but by far the most common is plasma torpedoes. These fiery weapons explode in a burst of super-heated energy that literally burns its way through a spaceship’s hull as the craft is engulfed in a ball of white-hot flame hundreds of meters across. Even when the flames die out they continue to do damage, as the heat-stressed metals of the stricken ship crack and crumble when exposed to the bone-chilling cold of the void.
Now, all of those weapons may be powerful enough to destroy an enemy starship, but even combined, they are weak compared to the main armament of the Leviathan. Now we talk about the fun part of this design. Now we talk about the Inferno Cannon.
The Inferno Cannon is mounted along the entire length of the Leviathan’s hull. Six of the huge shells for the gun are stored in massive twin silos located in a cavernous chamber below the throbbing might of the Leviathan’s reactors.
Each gargantuan Inferno Cannon shell is the size of a tall building, its warhead packed with explosive. Other warheads, such as fusion, nuclear, chemical, biological, and vortex can be added. The shells are loaded by powerful winches, guided by an army of engineers. As the huge breach closes, the gun crews leave the chamber, for no man could withstand at short range the awesome concussion produced as the shell is fired.
The shell accelerates down the long barrel of the cannon, reaching a humbling high velocity that hurls it out into space. The whole ship shudders with the recoil of the cannon– indeed, it is constructed with massively reinforced bulkheads and hull supports to withstand the powerful shockwaves. The back of the shell rips off once it is clear of the barrel as 96 inch explosive bolts detonate, revealing three plasma rockets. These serve to speed the shell on even faster.
When the shell detonates, it releases a ball of radioactive fire that forms a sphere of destruction kilometers across. Not only the cannon’s target, but also any ship close to it receives a deadly blast of intense heat, energized particles, and huge, jagged shards of shrapnel larger than most sub-stellar spaceships. It is truly an awe-inspiring weapon, capable of immense destruction and doom.
The barrel of the Inferno Cannon is held in mid air inside a long, cylindrical chamber that is as lengthy as the barrel. A web of suspensor fields and inertial compensators prevent the barrel from touching the rest of the ship anywhere but in the magazine, where it is inevitable. This is to prevent the shock of the firing from rending the Leviathan apart. Even so, the act of firing the cannon induces a shaking equivalent to a magnitude 2 earthquake.
No matter how powerful the above weapons are, there is still an inherent weakness: they cannot target fighters/missiles with any form of accuracy. To remedy this problem, a staggering number of Point Defense Lance Cannons (PDLCs) have been installed across the ship. These quick-moving, fast-targeting turrets use a scaled-down version of the Lance Cannons seen elsewhere on the ship. Each turret is controlled by a computer, which in turn links to the ship’s mainframe. The system can target all 56,000 PDLCs at independent targets, or coordinate them to best suit the different scenarios that will be faced by this vessel.
All of the weapons mentioned so far have either been aimed at obliterating enemy ships or destroying planetary defenses, but none of them can really capture an enemy vessel, only destroy it. That is where the boarding torpedo comes in. These cylindrical MAC rounds have been hollowed out and fitted with grav-couches, crash webbing, and a massive drill bit in the nose.
The shells are first filled with between 10 and 30 troopers, depending on their equipment, and then fired from a conventional MAC. The interior is magnetically shielded, so none of the passengers will be affected by the magnetic field. Once the shell leaves the barrel, the torpedo can be steered to a minor extent by utilizing small retro-thrusters installed in the sides.
When the torpedo impacts, the drill bit engages and bores into the weakened armor of the enemy vessel. Once the shell has reached the proper point in the ship (as designated by an onboard computer tied into the Leviathan’s systems) the drill stops and eight hatches open. The troopers within can then surge outward and take control of the enemy ship.
There are optional mounts inside the shell for heavy weapons to be mounted, allowing the exiting soldiers some form of covering fire beyond what their comrades can provide. Of course, the boarding torpedoes are only viable against starships, as they would burn up in the atmosphere of a planet. The drop pod is another thing entirely.
Drop pods are similar to boarding torpedoes in that they are hollow and carry troops within, but the similarities stop there. The drop pod cannot be fired out of a MAC, instead using a network of chutes bored into the hull of the Leviathan. They are launched toward an enemy planet in large groups. Once in orbit, the outer shell of the pods break away, giving any enemy sensors the impression of a meteor shower breaking up in orbit.
The pods streak down and impact into the ground, usually producing a blast crater. Retro thrusters in the bottom of the drop pod fire moments before landing, slowing the terminal pod to a survivable speed. Once on the ground, six armored doors fall outward when their explosive bolts detonate, allowing the soldiers within to get out.
The pods are massively reinforced, so they can pierce through such obstacles as concrete and stone with relative ease. Of course, once the retro rockets are fired, their speed slows to the point where contact with the two previously mentioned substances becomes fatal, as they loose the penetrating quality.
Of course, drop pods are not the only planetary assault weapons at the Leviathan’s disposal. The massive hanger (see chapter four) can hold enough shuttles and dropships to launch an entire Army Group (120,000 or so Marines and their equipment) in half an hour. The Leviathan also carries three pre-fabricated base structures, between 10,000 and 50,000 light vehicles, 20,000 armored units, 15,000 artillery support units, and 2,000 walkers. All can be shuttled down to a planet by using properly outfitted dropships.
CHAPTER FOUR: The interior
Unlike every other Einhauserian starship yet produced, the Leviathan class is a relatively spacious affair, with wide corridors, sweeping stairways, and even a large chapel. Each passageway is 9 feet (2.7432 meters) high and 8 feet (2.4384 meters) wide. This is to allow armored figures to move freely, shoulder to shoulder, throughout the ship.
To aid in the transportation of men and supplies, a series of teleporter pads have been installed. These can move various things around the ship quickly and efficiently and, when an enemy vessel is in range, and has its shields down, they can teleport groups of armed boarders onto the enemy craft.
A central corridor runs along the length of the ship’s spine and, if followed to the fore end, would lead into a maze-like block of passageways. This is necessary to prevent any would-be boarders from simply following the corridor to the end and gaining access to the bridge beyond.
Inside the double blast doors of the reception area, the bridge is a grand sight indeed. Real Oak inlays adorn every surface not taken up by shining gold trim. Almost at once one’s eye is drawn to the large viewscreen dominating the forward wall. Since the bridge is buried in the center of the Leviathan, this is the only way the crew can see out. A frame of smaller screens surround the main one, allowing the crew to see all sections of the ship.
The captain controls his vessel from a gilded command throne, which allows him to directly interface with his ship, using a mind impulse link. A pit cut in the floor plating of the frontal area of the bridge houses the weapons officers and data shufflers, while helmsman and other, less important officers inhabit a series of control consoles littering the area. Beneath the throne are two powerful backup generators, which will supply power to the bridge and other essential areas in case of a reactor failure.
Even Marines need to eat, so 42 “mess halls” have been installed. They are not what most soldiers would call a mess hall, however. The cafeterias on the Leviathan are little more than an alcove in a corridor with a nozzle to dispense water and a box of nutrient paste tubes. Still, that is all the crew needs to function, the paste providing 100% of all daily vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, and even a chemical that tricks their stomach into thinking it is full of food.
Once a Marine has consumed their ration of paste— one can hardly call it eating— they need to keep the pounds off (well, not really. Their bodies burn fat extremely efficiently), so three grav-decks have been installed. These are like the rest of the decks, but they rotate around a central shaft, creating artificial gravity. The grav-decks are all inside the hull armor, so they are not exposed to enemy fire. Inside these spinning rings are the training rooms for the Marines.
The center of each gym is a sunken circle of sand, with low risers around it. It is in this ring that Marines can settle their differences, practice close combat, wrestle, etc… while their comrades look on.
Around the central area, workout machines and free weights dominate the space. In the back of the rooms, however, there is a pair of unassuming doors, behind which is the most interesting feature of the grav-decks: the Boarding Action Training (BAT) rooms.
They are extremely large compared to the gym. The ceiling is many stories above the floor, and the horizon curves into the distance. This room is all about boarding actions. Modular wall and floor sections can be set up to simulate boarding an enemy ship, and strobe lights and fog machines add to the chaos. There are also more BATs outside the grav-decks onboard. These rooms are identical to the regular BATs, but have no gravity.
Now, all of that training materiel is fine for Marines, but what about the pilots that are stationed on the Leviathan? To help them stay sharp, thirteen 3D training rooms have been added. Each is one square acre in size. The walls are lined with panels of non-reflective materials with fiber-optic cables embedded in them. Using the cables, images of space can be imprinted on the walls, giving the sense that one is piloting a ship. Each trainee is given a “flight suit,” which is basically a restricting jumpsuit. Special light-sensitive diodes are laced in the fabric. When concentrated light is centered on one for a few seconds, the fabric constricts and keeps the targeted person from moving the area that’s lit up. This constriction continues until the supervisor of the match “thaws” the suits with a special device known as a “wand.” Each trainee is also issued a “laser gun,” which fires beams of tightly-focused light, to disable the enemy trainees. (If you have ever read the book, “Ender’s Game”, think of the battleschool’s game and you wont be far off.)
If the Leviathan is holding station around a friendly planet, then the pilots have a second option for training: they can just go hop in a fighter and take off. The Leviathan class has one giant hanger in the bottom of the ship, below the Inferno Cannon. This space is massive, and can hold more than a thousand shuttles, bombers, and dropships at a time. A group of around 300 heavy fighters also has a restricted area, allowing them to launch in moments.
The one group of single ships (fighters, bombers, etc…) that does not make use of the hanger is the 1,200 light fightercraft onboard. These use the Honeycomb Hanger System, explained below:
The Honeycomb Hanger System (HHS) is an amazing new design in hangers. It is a square block of miniature berths for light fighters that dock one ship each. The blocks are 10 berths long and 6 berths high, and have individual blast doors for each alcove. The hangers face away from the ship, where an open pathway leads to space. However, twin sets of blast doors protect them. The pilot must fly into his berth backwards, set the ship down on the magnetically cushioned landing pads, and wait for his personal blast door to close. At this point the berth is flooded with oxygen, and the pilot can float over to the egress hatch. This hatch leads to a room where all the other hatches meet and merge into one corridor that leads to the main body of the ship.
Unfortunately, even Marines sometimes disobey, so a prison system had to be installed in the design. A portion of the 152nd deck has been transformed into a prison, with 1,000 cells and two tubes where those set to be executed can be launched into space. This is an absolute last resort, as each Marine constitutes a significant investment of resources.
Any Marine that has spent time in a prison cell won’t really be able to tell the difference between that and their actual accommodations. Each Marine and crewmember is issued a “room” that measures ten feet (3.048 meters) long by five feet (1.524 meters) wide by nine feet (2.7432 meters) high. The only furnishings in this unpainted box are a rack for their armor for when it has to be repaired, and a small table. A rug is supplied for sleeping purposes.
CHAPTER FIVE: The engines
Nine gigantic matter/anti-matter annihilation engines power the Leviathan class Meganaught. These awesome devices are arranged in three rows of three in the stern of the vessel. Each is so large that a Firebat class Battlecruiser could fly inside.
The engine consists of the reactor, which is where the matter (hydrogen) and anti-matter (anti-hydrogen) come together to unleash their fury; the regulator, which operates the containment fields that keep the highly volatile forces being created in the reactor under control; and the thrust channel, which is the visible part at the back of the ship. It is through these tunnel-like exhaust flumes that the explosive force is propelled to create forward motion. In order to slow speed or reverse directions, slab-like thrust-vectoring plates can be lowered over the thrust channel, thus focusing the force of the reactors forward instead of backward.
The Leviathan cannot be steered with its main engines alone, being far too massive to attempt any sort of maneuvers. To rectify this, thousands of retro rockets dimple the already weapon-strewn carapace of the starship. These can be fired by either the bridge and engineering crews or the Leviathan’s computer, in order to turn, roll, and perform other such maneuvers. There are no retro rockets in the nose, for obvious reasons.
No matter how powerful its engines, a ship needs a Faster than Light (FTL) engine, unless, of course, you do not intend to go anywhere for the next hundred thousand years. The Leviathan makes use of a new FTL system, called a Chain Drive. Here is a document written on the subject:
This highly experimental drive system is an evolution of the Time Manipulation Drive (TMD) seen in the earlier designs from Einhauser. It utilizes a ring of twelve Warp Coils (large, faintly purple metallic coils that store vast amounts of power) spaced evenly apart, rotating around a central shaft.
The spinning motion creates artificial gravity, which causes the Warp Coils to multiply any power held within them. The energy created by the gravity effect continues to build up inside the coil until it cannot be held any longer, at which point it arcs towards the center shaft in a brilliant, lightning-like burst. The shaft is covered in thousands of lightning rods that absorb the bolts and transfer them to four more Warp Coils (this time arrayed in a straight line inside the shaft), supercharging them so quickly that their energy cannot prematurely leave them.
This immense charge is then channeled through a web of circuitry inlaid in the hull, and bursts into the cold hard void, where it shreds space/ time and rams the vessel into an alternate dimension where distance has no meaning, called Netherspace. As soon as it enters Netherspace, another portal is ripped open, and the ship exists.
For further explanation of Netherspace, see the article below:
Netherspace is a realm of emptiness, pervaded by a cloying blackness broken only by the brilliant red glow material objects create when they enter. It acts like a trapezoid. Real space is at the bottom of the shape, and getting from one corner to the opposite would take quite a while. However, open a portal to Netherspace and you are taken to the top of the trapezoid, where the distance is much reduced. While not impossible, it is ill advised to re-enter real space within the confines of a system. While gravitational effects and radioactivity cannot affect Netherspace, a meteor (which would retain its speed and heading) suddenly appearing inside your control consol would generally be a bad thing. Some interesting facts about Netherspace: The red light that issues from physical objects can be seen as a dim glow no matter the distance. Netherspace is also always referred to as “up.”
The engineering section of the Leviathan must be able to run and maintain all of the elements described in this chapter, and so it is justifiably massive. It takes up thirty decks in the rear of the ship, and encompasses all the reactors and the Chain Drive, as well as auxiliary controls for the plasma retro rockets.
The space could easily be described as chaotic, with catwalks everywhere, tangles of wires flowing from every opening, and crevasse-like pits where hordes of engineers toil endlessly. To work in this sea of cables is a mentally exhausting routine of welding, data shuffling, and consol monitoring, but without it, the Leviathan would screech to a halt.
CHAPTER SIX: General statistics
Model: Leviathan
Make: Meganaught
Maximum Crew: 489,940
Minimum Crew: 472,242
Marine Compliment: 124,470
Length: 9,570 meters (31,397 feet)
Height: 3,010 meters (9,875 feet)
Beam: 2,392 meters (7,848 feet)
Decks: 430
Offensive Weaponry: 68 torpedo arrays (three tubes per array), 66 Lance Arrays (three Lance Cannons per array), 192 MACs (four 48 gun rows), 1 Inferno Cannon
Defensive Weaponry: 56,000 PDLCs
Hull: 12 meters (39 feet) of 7 different layers of armor.
Shield System: Phased
Maximum Sublight Acceleration (linear, in open space): 3,000 Gs
Maximum FTL Speed: 1,000 LY/sec
Maximum Jump Range: 250,000 LY fuel (roughly 5 minutes FTL fuel. Exact number is 4.166666667 minutes))
FTL Recharge Rate: Instantaneous
Sublight Engines: 9 matter/anti-matter annihilation engines
Default FTL Engine: Chain Drive
Light Fighter Compliment: 1,200
Heavy Fighter Compliment: 315
Miscellaneous Compliment: 269
Maximum Deployment Time: 1 year food and water* (224,259,650 gallons of water and 33,600 tons of nutrient paste), 1.6 years fuel.
Cost: $1,890,422,098,675
* Assuming only the crew, and not the onboard Marines eat and drink, the length of deployment is significantly increased. Water figure assumes that each individual drinks and/or uses only 1 gallon of water per day. Food figure assumes that each person eats one package of nutrient paste each day, and that each paste tube weighs 1.75 ounces.