Einhauser
23-12-2005, 22:14
Introduction: Like it’s namesake, the father of Icarus and inventor of many wonders, the Daedalus class Testbed is steeped in advanced technology. Designed to be a proving ground for new and burgeoning systems, this class is completely modular. Because only a few are needed for research, but two ships will be constructed: the ENS Styx and the ENS Charon.
ENS Charon:
Chapter one: The hull
Chapter two: The weapons systems
Chapter three: The interior
Chapter four: The engines
Chapter five: General statistics
CHAPTER ONE: The hull
The Daedalus class Testbed is an interesting design because every single part used in it’s construction can be changed out with at least three other parts. As such, it has no real fixed shape. Pieces can constantly be added or removed, rearranged and modified. The basic shape, though, is much like the Strike Cruisers and Battle Barges used by the Adeptus Astartes in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
The armor, like everything else in this class, is completely interchangeable. At the moment, the Charon carries an experimental hull technology developed in 3610 C.E. It is made from a materiel dubbed “Banestone,” which was recently discovered and synthesized from a chunk recovered from a backwater planet. Banestone is one of the hardest known substances; only Neutronium is tougher. By itself, however, Banestone is extraordinarily weak against laser and plasmatic weaponry, as it melts like butter when exposed to heat.
To counteract this flaw, a grid of Crystex has been imbedded in the stone, allowing it to actually absorb heat and energy though the hull and feed it to other systems. This allows the ship to literally grow stronger every time an enemy hits it with any weapon that gives off either heat or energy. In effect, the hull of the Charon is impenetrable to anything but Neutronium-tipped ordinance.
A Phased Graviton Planetary Defense Web protects the ENS Charon. Originally made to protect planets, as the name implies, this is the first time the system has been adopted for use in a starship.
PGPDWs are reverse engineered systems made from an alien artifact dug up in 3609. When electricity is run through them, they generate a gravitic field. When a large number are gathered together, the field can encompass a planet, or in this case, a ship.
The bubble of gravity is only a few meters thick, and allows sunlight and other such things through, but deflects concentrated light and metal objects.
The weight of the gravity is transferred to Netherspace, where it may or may not be eroding reality. Anything bisected by the PGPDW when it activates the field will be destroyed. In this way it serves as both weapon and armor.
CHAPTER TWO: The weapons systems
A mind-boggling number of new weapons have been installed on the Testbeds. Many of them will never see widespread use due to major cost or over complication, but they serve their purpose well on these ships.
Six different and extremely dangerous weapons are currently installed on the Charon. First and most numerous is the N-Lance Cannons. These are an evolution of the lance Cannons seen on earlier vessels, and are basically the same thing. However, a special lens has been installed on the end of the emitter barrel, tightening the beam of energy when the cannon is fired. This gives the Charon a 10x range advantage over its predecessors. There are currently 47 N-Lance Arrays on the Charon.
Complimenting the N-Lances are three batteries of Nova Cannons. The Nova Cannon fires a burst of raw plasma, heavily focused and controlled. This allows the crew to control the nature of the plasma discharges, producing a flood of small pulses to saturate an area, a series of powerful but rapid pulses designed to batter through shields, or one massive discharge meant to overwhelm any known shield in an earth shattering blast of energy.
Another interesting weapon onboard the Charon is the Fusion Cannon. The Fusion Cannon uses the immense energy generated when atoms are brought together in a nuclear furnace to fire intense, short-ranged beams of energy capable of decimating enemy forces. It is one of, if not the best close ranged starship weapons available. 32 Fusion Cannons arm the Charon, although more may be added at a later date.
Particle Flayers are another new weapon in use on the Charon. They are basically a next-generation point defense weapon, meant to turn away fighter and missile attacks. The Particle Flayer strips back the targets molecules one by one, literally flaying their layers off in a matter of seconds. It is highly effective against anything, including thick armor. The main weakness is it’s high power consumption and narrow cone of fire. If the need is dire, and the enemy close enough, these weapons can be turned against capital ships.
All of the above weaponry is fine for destroying starships, but what of planets? Sure, you could just use the N-Lance Arrays to burn separate installations off the face of a planet, but something else is needed to sterilize a world. This is where the Hellfire torpedoes come in.
Hellfire is the common term for a potent acidic/viral compound. It burns through armor and sears flesh, eventually leaving the few who survive hideously scarred and crippled. Each torpedo has multiple warheads capable of scouring almost two kilometers square of lightly protected troops, or they can be detonated in the upper atmosphere to spread a deadly plague across the globe
If the Hellfire torpedo is detonated relatively close to the surface, the ensuing blast will sterilize the very ground to a depth of over one meter. Enemy units attacked by this horrendous weapon may be panicked by the agonized screams of their comrades as their flesh burns and their bones melt. Each missile is heavily shielded to withstand preemptive attacks an enemy might make. The Charon carries sixteen Hellfire torpedoes.
The final weapon system employed by the Charon is so top secret that only five people outside of the ruling council of the UFE know about it. Derived from the Phased Gravitic Planetary Defense Webs that defend UFE worlds, the Phased Graviton Pulse Generator uses gravity to destroy foes.
The PGPG can create gravity “wells” that pull any and all matter, and even light if the well is powerful enough, into it. This can cause fighters, starships, and even space stations to collide in mid-space. If a well is projected inside a starship, it will immediately implode.
Needless to say, having a well spring up in the core of a world, suddenly increasing its gravity, is a very bad thing. It would essentially cause the world to compress rapidly, destroying anything on the surface in a matter of minutes. If the well is kept running long enough, the world will shrivel and become as Jupiter’s volcanically wracked moon, Io.
Because there is so much valuable technology onboard, both Daedalus' have a Lithium Triteride bomb built into the core of the ship. This bomb is made up of three 200-megaton nuclear bombs encased in Lithium Triteride. When the three nukes go off, the casings fuse together into one big, superheated and pressurized center.
Since the LT bomb was designed to destroy planets, it is more than capable of stopping an enemy from getting a hold of any Daedalus that may fall into their hands.
CHAPTER THREE: The interior
Because it is so modular, the Charon’s interior is never the same. A few things are solid, however. The ship always is crossed by several hundred ducts and service tubes, allowing technicians access to hard-to-reach systems. The mess halls are generally small, because the extreme use of machine spirits (the UFE equivalent of an AI) cuts the crew numbers by about half of what a comparatively large vessel has.
There are no training rooms onboard, as the human crew is completely composed of enginseers and technicians of various types, and all fightercraft are controlled by Mk III machine spirits slaved to the central T3 (Targeting, Tracking, Termination) computer, so there are no living pilots either.
What rooms are onboard are festooned with technological wonders. The bridge is an excellent example. A picture of it can be found here (http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a210/Zipline/Misc/bridge1.jpg). The usual holotank found in most UFE ships has been replaced with a holographic projector, and the screens that display the outside have been made to look as windows. This enables the crew to trick itself that the bridge is jutting majestically out of the hull, instead of buried hundreds of feet below.
Behind the bridge, a second, larger room has been added for the weapons officers, because many more than usual are needed to operate the experimental weapons. Here (http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a210/Zipline/Misc/bridge2.jpg) is a picture.
The entire starship’s structure is meant to withstand immense pressures, because this is the very first Einhauserian ship to feature artificial gravity. A side effect of this extreme reinforcement is the difficulty of damaging the superstructure of the Charon.
CHAPTER FOUR: The engines
The standard matter/anti-matter annihilation reactor, just like any other modern starship in the Einhauserian Navy, powers ENS Charon, but the difference between them and this ship is that this reactor is only for emergencies.
The main power source on the Charon is a brand new invention created at the same time as the PGPDW. It is called the Graviton reactor. To describe how it works would take the better part of a hundred pages, so to spare you the grief of reading said document I will simplify the process a bit.
Basically, the reactor generates electricity when it comes into contact with gravity. The more powerful the source, the more energy generated. The power is then stored in a massive bank of lithium ion batteries, which power the ship when no source of gravity is available.
The Charon will constantly create power as long as it is in a solar system. Up until the Heliopause, the rate of power generation versus power consumption is equal or tilted towards generation, but after that it is the opposite. This means that the Charon has an unlimited source of free fuel, cutting costs dramatically.
The FTL engine used on the Charon is a standard model Chain Drive, and as such is not special in any way.
CHAPTER FIVE: General statistics
Model: Daedalus
Make: Testbed
Maximum Crew: 122,485
Minimum Crew: 121,390
Length: 6,940 meters (22,768 feet)
Height: 1,736 meters (5,695 feet)
Beam: 2,604 meters (8,543 feet)
Decks: 162
Offensive Weaponry: 47 N-Lance Arrays (three N-Lance Cannons each), 3 batteries of Nova Cannons (3 Cannons each), 32 Fusion Cannons, 16 Hellfire Torpedoes, 1 PGPG
Defensive Weaponry: 915 Particle Flayers
Hull: 1 meter of Crystex-impregnated Banestone
Shield System: PGPDW
Maximum Sublight Acceleration: 3,620 Gs
Maximum FTL Speed: 1,000 LY/sec
Maximum Jump Range: 70,000 LY fuel (roughly 1 minute 10 seconds FTL fuel)
Sublight Engines: 1 Graviton reactor, 1 matter/anti-matter annihilation reactor
FTL Engine: Chain Drive
Light Fighter Compliment: 857
Heavy Fighter Compliment: 225
Miscellaneous Compliment: 192
Maximum Deployment Time: Unlimited Graviton reactor fuel, 1.2 years of power can be stored in the batteries, 8 months fuel is carried for the matter/anti-matter annihilation reactor. Roughly 160,185,464 gallons of water and 24,000 tons of nutrient paste
Cost: $1,350,301,499,053
Designers notes: Yes, I know having a nearly invincible ship with mega-weapons is a godmod, but this is mostly for RP purposes. I will use it if I have to, but don’t think I will go around destroying your fleets willy-nilly. You should also note that this ship is not for sale. Please remember that it is impossible for you to know about this class IC until I use it in a battle.
ENS Charon:
Chapter one: The hull
Chapter two: The weapons systems
Chapter three: The interior
Chapter four: The engines
Chapter five: General statistics
CHAPTER ONE: The hull
The Daedalus class Testbed is an interesting design because every single part used in it’s construction can be changed out with at least three other parts. As such, it has no real fixed shape. Pieces can constantly be added or removed, rearranged and modified. The basic shape, though, is much like the Strike Cruisers and Battle Barges used by the Adeptus Astartes in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
The armor, like everything else in this class, is completely interchangeable. At the moment, the Charon carries an experimental hull technology developed in 3610 C.E. It is made from a materiel dubbed “Banestone,” which was recently discovered and synthesized from a chunk recovered from a backwater planet. Banestone is one of the hardest known substances; only Neutronium is tougher. By itself, however, Banestone is extraordinarily weak against laser and plasmatic weaponry, as it melts like butter when exposed to heat.
To counteract this flaw, a grid of Crystex has been imbedded in the stone, allowing it to actually absorb heat and energy though the hull and feed it to other systems. This allows the ship to literally grow stronger every time an enemy hits it with any weapon that gives off either heat or energy. In effect, the hull of the Charon is impenetrable to anything but Neutronium-tipped ordinance.
A Phased Graviton Planetary Defense Web protects the ENS Charon. Originally made to protect planets, as the name implies, this is the first time the system has been adopted for use in a starship.
PGPDWs are reverse engineered systems made from an alien artifact dug up in 3609. When electricity is run through them, they generate a gravitic field. When a large number are gathered together, the field can encompass a planet, or in this case, a ship.
The bubble of gravity is only a few meters thick, and allows sunlight and other such things through, but deflects concentrated light and metal objects.
The weight of the gravity is transferred to Netherspace, where it may or may not be eroding reality. Anything bisected by the PGPDW when it activates the field will be destroyed. In this way it serves as both weapon and armor.
CHAPTER TWO: The weapons systems
A mind-boggling number of new weapons have been installed on the Testbeds. Many of them will never see widespread use due to major cost or over complication, but they serve their purpose well on these ships.
Six different and extremely dangerous weapons are currently installed on the Charon. First and most numerous is the N-Lance Cannons. These are an evolution of the lance Cannons seen on earlier vessels, and are basically the same thing. However, a special lens has been installed on the end of the emitter barrel, tightening the beam of energy when the cannon is fired. This gives the Charon a 10x range advantage over its predecessors. There are currently 47 N-Lance Arrays on the Charon.
Complimenting the N-Lances are three batteries of Nova Cannons. The Nova Cannon fires a burst of raw plasma, heavily focused and controlled. This allows the crew to control the nature of the plasma discharges, producing a flood of small pulses to saturate an area, a series of powerful but rapid pulses designed to batter through shields, or one massive discharge meant to overwhelm any known shield in an earth shattering blast of energy.
Another interesting weapon onboard the Charon is the Fusion Cannon. The Fusion Cannon uses the immense energy generated when atoms are brought together in a nuclear furnace to fire intense, short-ranged beams of energy capable of decimating enemy forces. It is one of, if not the best close ranged starship weapons available. 32 Fusion Cannons arm the Charon, although more may be added at a later date.
Particle Flayers are another new weapon in use on the Charon. They are basically a next-generation point defense weapon, meant to turn away fighter and missile attacks. The Particle Flayer strips back the targets molecules one by one, literally flaying their layers off in a matter of seconds. It is highly effective against anything, including thick armor. The main weakness is it’s high power consumption and narrow cone of fire. If the need is dire, and the enemy close enough, these weapons can be turned against capital ships.
All of the above weaponry is fine for destroying starships, but what of planets? Sure, you could just use the N-Lance Arrays to burn separate installations off the face of a planet, but something else is needed to sterilize a world. This is where the Hellfire torpedoes come in.
Hellfire is the common term for a potent acidic/viral compound. It burns through armor and sears flesh, eventually leaving the few who survive hideously scarred and crippled. Each torpedo has multiple warheads capable of scouring almost two kilometers square of lightly protected troops, or they can be detonated in the upper atmosphere to spread a deadly plague across the globe
If the Hellfire torpedo is detonated relatively close to the surface, the ensuing blast will sterilize the very ground to a depth of over one meter. Enemy units attacked by this horrendous weapon may be panicked by the agonized screams of their comrades as their flesh burns and their bones melt. Each missile is heavily shielded to withstand preemptive attacks an enemy might make. The Charon carries sixteen Hellfire torpedoes.
The final weapon system employed by the Charon is so top secret that only five people outside of the ruling council of the UFE know about it. Derived from the Phased Gravitic Planetary Defense Webs that defend UFE worlds, the Phased Graviton Pulse Generator uses gravity to destroy foes.
The PGPG can create gravity “wells” that pull any and all matter, and even light if the well is powerful enough, into it. This can cause fighters, starships, and even space stations to collide in mid-space. If a well is projected inside a starship, it will immediately implode.
Needless to say, having a well spring up in the core of a world, suddenly increasing its gravity, is a very bad thing. It would essentially cause the world to compress rapidly, destroying anything on the surface in a matter of minutes. If the well is kept running long enough, the world will shrivel and become as Jupiter’s volcanically wracked moon, Io.
Because there is so much valuable technology onboard, both Daedalus' have a Lithium Triteride bomb built into the core of the ship. This bomb is made up of three 200-megaton nuclear bombs encased in Lithium Triteride. When the three nukes go off, the casings fuse together into one big, superheated and pressurized center.
Since the LT bomb was designed to destroy planets, it is more than capable of stopping an enemy from getting a hold of any Daedalus that may fall into their hands.
CHAPTER THREE: The interior
Because it is so modular, the Charon’s interior is never the same. A few things are solid, however. The ship always is crossed by several hundred ducts and service tubes, allowing technicians access to hard-to-reach systems. The mess halls are generally small, because the extreme use of machine spirits (the UFE equivalent of an AI) cuts the crew numbers by about half of what a comparatively large vessel has.
There are no training rooms onboard, as the human crew is completely composed of enginseers and technicians of various types, and all fightercraft are controlled by Mk III machine spirits slaved to the central T3 (Targeting, Tracking, Termination) computer, so there are no living pilots either.
What rooms are onboard are festooned with technological wonders. The bridge is an excellent example. A picture of it can be found here (http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a210/Zipline/Misc/bridge1.jpg). The usual holotank found in most UFE ships has been replaced with a holographic projector, and the screens that display the outside have been made to look as windows. This enables the crew to trick itself that the bridge is jutting majestically out of the hull, instead of buried hundreds of feet below.
Behind the bridge, a second, larger room has been added for the weapons officers, because many more than usual are needed to operate the experimental weapons. Here (http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a210/Zipline/Misc/bridge2.jpg) is a picture.
The entire starship’s structure is meant to withstand immense pressures, because this is the very first Einhauserian ship to feature artificial gravity. A side effect of this extreme reinforcement is the difficulty of damaging the superstructure of the Charon.
CHAPTER FOUR: The engines
The standard matter/anti-matter annihilation reactor, just like any other modern starship in the Einhauserian Navy, powers ENS Charon, but the difference between them and this ship is that this reactor is only for emergencies.
The main power source on the Charon is a brand new invention created at the same time as the PGPDW. It is called the Graviton reactor. To describe how it works would take the better part of a hundred pages, so to spare you the grief of reading said document I will simplify the process a bit.
Basically, the reactor generates electricity when it comes into contact with gravity. The more powerful the source, the more energy generated. The power is then stored in a massive bank of lithium ion batteries, which power the ship when no source of gravity is available.
The Charon will constantly create power as long as it is in a solar system. Up until the Heliopause, the rate of power generation versus power consumption is equal or tilted towards generation, but after that it is the opposite. This means that the Charon has an unlimited source of free fuel, cutting costs dramatically.
The FTL engine used on the Charon is a standard model Chain Drive, and as such is not special in any way.
CHAPTER FIVE: General statistics
Model: Daedalus
Make: Testbed
Maximum Crew: 122,485
Minimum Crew: 121,390
Length: 6,940 meters (22,768 feet)
Height: 1,736 meters (5,695 feet)
Beam: 2,604 meters (8,543 feet)
Decks: 162
Offensive Weaponry: 47 N-Lance Arrays (three N-Lance Cannons each), 3 batteries of Nova Cannons (3 Cannons each), 32 Fusion Cannons, 16 Hellfire Torpedoes, 1 PGPG
Defensive Weaponry: 915 Particle Flayers
Hull: 1 meter of Crystex-impregnated Banestone
Shield System: PGPDW
Maximum Sublight Acceleration: 3,620 Gs
Maximum FTL Speed: 1,000 LY/sec
Maximum Jump Range: 70,000 LY fuel (roughly 1 minute 10 seconds FTL fuel)
Sublight Engines: 1 Graviton reactor, 1 matter/anti-matter annihilation reactor
FTL Engine: Chain Drive
Light Fighter Compliment: 857
Heavy Fighter Compliment: 225
Miscellaneous Compliment: 192
Maximum Deployment Time: Unlimited Graviton reactor fuel, 1.2 years of power can be stored in the batteries, 8 months fuel is carried for the matter/anti-matter annihilation reactor. Roughly 160,185,464 gallons of water and 24,000 tons of nutrient paste
Cost: $1,350,301,499,053
Designers notes: Yes, I know having a nearly invincible ship with mega-weapons is a godmod, but this is mostly for RP purposes. I will use it if I have to, but don’t think I will go around destroying your fleets willy-nilly. You should also note that this ship is not for sale. Please remember that it is impossible for you to know about this class IC until I use it in a battle.