Spaceships

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Spacegoing vessels of the 24th Century are a hugely varied type of vehicle, but they can be broadly categorised into four types:
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Spacegoing vessels of the [[Chronology#24th Century|24th Century]] are a hugely varied type of vehicle, but they can be broadly categorised into four types, according to use:
==FTL Ships==
==FTL Ships==
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Spacecraft can be split into several different categories according to use, but one definition exceeds this sort of categorisation. FTL ships are set apart by their massive expense and by the design constraints placed upon them by their main component: the [[Krasnikov generator]]. Broadly speaking there are two subdivisions of '''FTL ships'''.
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FTL ships are set apart by their massive expense and by the design constraints placed upon them by their main component: the [[Krasnikov generator]] and its supporting reactor. The first [[FTL]] ships were the research vessles of the [[2130]]s and [[2140]]s, which were small and frail beasts, often unmanned and not designed with any longevity in mind. Developed as it was in response to the [[Migration Crises]], FTL technology first made its way into the '''[[Colony Ships]]''' of the late [[Chronology#22nd Century|22nd Century]]. Colony ships were massive beasts, with small conventional engines, a massive reactor to power their early Krasnikov generators (themselves incredibly bulky and delicate machines) and a module roughly equivalent in size, dedicated to the storage and transportation of the colonists, their supplies and life support systems, and the [[terraforming]] equipment needed to make an entire planet habitable. Bulky, unwieldy and too specific a design for any other use, these ships were all dismantled in orbit after terraforming was complete.
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Another development in FTL travel occurred in the late [[2140]]s, when the [[Russians]] completed the [[Alexander Nevsky]]. This ship was revolutionary in all of its design aspects, but mounted the first successfully miniaturised Krasnikov generator, designed to take that ship and only that ship through a Tunnel. This was an incredibly uneconomical way to move a vessel at FTL speeds, but was perfect for the ''Nevsky's'' purpose - to get decisive resources somewhere very quickly.
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Broadly speaking today there are two subdivisions of '''FTL ships''', which owe their origins respectively to the first FTL '''Colony Ships''' and the [[Alexander Nevsky]].
===Tunnelships or Coreships===
===Tunnelships or Coreships===
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Tunnel or Coreships are designed for one purpose - to create and sustain a [[Krasnikov Tunnel]] long enough for as large as possible a group of ships to make their way through it. [[Krasnikov generators]] and their reactors are massive and complex devices that require incredible amounts of energy to run and huge numbers of safety systems in case of failure. Designed as they are to open tunnels much larger than necessary for just their own bulk, Coreships are massive in size and expensive to produce. Though the size and design of the Krasnikov Generator has changed a lot in the 200 years since FTL travel was developed, they draw many of their design cues from the first FTL '''Colony Ships''' built by the major powers in the mid [[2100]]s.
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'''Tunnelship Size:''' The smallest Tunnelship is almosst 3 kilometers in length, and almost that high, and it can only sustain a Tunnel for a small fleet. They get as large as the largest Battlecruisers, over 20 kilometres in length, but are substantially taller. Typically an undersized set of engines strapped onto the bottom of the bulbous reactor housing, Tunnelships can be recognised by the protruding arms of the generator heads that extend outward from above the bridge.
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'''Tunnelship Crew:''' Tunnelships usually have a crew of over 1000, with the majority being in the engineering sections. Most tunnelships have three shifts of engineers to minimise the chances of human error due to fatigue.
===Small FTL craft===
===Small FTL craft===
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Some FTL ships are designed to only take themselves through the Tunnel they create. These fall into two categories: special military vessels and diplomatic vessels. As yet no private owners of [[Krasnikov generator]]s exist. Partially this is due to the astronomical costs of running one, but the supply is also incredibly limited. Even if a buyer could dispose of the capital (and only a few buyers in the universe could do so, if they chose), what few are produced every year go immediately to military, government and large industrial concerns.
==Commercial Ships==
==Commercial Ships==
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==Military Ships==
==Military Ships==
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Military spacecraft operate almost exclusively in fleets, generaly based around a Coreship or (most often in the Red Fleets) Combat Dropship. In fact, the name 'Coreship' comes from the usual tactical fleet deployment, and the tunnelship's central position. Within the fleet there are many distinctions and sub-distinctions.
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Military spacecraft operate almost exclusively in fleets, generally based around a Coreship or (most often in the Red Fleets) Combat Dropship. In fact, the name 'Coreship' comes from the usual tactical fleet deployment, and the tunnelship's central position. Within the fleet there are many [[types of Military Spacecraft|distinctions and sub-distinctions]].
===Spaceborne combat===
===Spaceborne combat===
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Spaceborne combat is a terrifying affair, as the twin roles of protection from harm and protection from environmental duress are less happily-married in a spacesuit as it would first appear. The need for a spacesuit to remain flexible and not overly inhibit movement (especially in the modesl of suit worn during de-pressurised combat readiness) usually leaves a multitude of weak spots where a comparatively low-energy projectile coudl cause a fatal rupture.
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Spaceborne combat is a terrifying affair, as the twin roles of protection from harm and protection from environmental duress are less happily-married in a spacesuit as it would first appear. The need for a spacesuit to remain flexible and not overly inhibit movement (especially in the models of suit worn during de-pressurised combat readiness) usually leaves a multitude of weak spots where a comparatively low-energy projectile could cause a fatal rupture.
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What is true of the spacesuit is true of the spaceship. For most military crew, explosive decopression and a messy death is only moments away. Spacecraft usually sport little armour, and most weapons designed for use against other spaceships are pinpoint, low-energy penetrators.
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What is true of the spacesuit is true of the spaceship. For most military crew, explosive decompression and a messy death is only moments away. Spacecraft usually sport little armour, and most weapons designed for use against other spaceships are pinpoint, low-energy penetrators.
====Armour====
====Armour====
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Armour is relatively useless in a vacuum, as the pressure on the inside of the armour is so much larger than that on the outside, and decompression happens very quickly. Even the smallest pinprick in its airtight skin can thus render a spacecraft inoperable by killing its crew. Projectiles are also more dangerous, as they travel farther and do not lose velocity through drag. It is easy to hit a spaceship with any sort of weapon, and easy to cut through its skin ifyou hit. As a result, spaceship designers tend to put less armour on a ship than would be on a comparative vehicle for use in atmosphere, because often it is just deadweight. The designers of the [[Alexander Nevsky]] pioneered the practise of placing the crew in spacesuits and de-pressurising the cabin (except for vital areas for the crew to retreat to during combat, such as the medical bay). Essential components such as reactors and engines are often still armoured. Space vessels use several [[types of armour]].
====Weapons====
====Weapons====
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Projectile weapons are particularly dangerous in space, as the projectiles travel in an uninterrupted line and do not slow down. A good computer guidance system will hit its target every time. A number of different [[weapons systems]] are used on spacecraft.
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===Fighting ships===
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[[Category:Technology]]
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There are many different designations of combat-ready spacecraft, but across all navies they roughly fall into the following categories, based on battle role, hull size and armament type.
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[[Category:Spacecraft]]
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====Screenships====
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This category refers to all single-seat fleetships, regardless of their size. These operate in a number of distinct but complementary roles. The name of this class comes from the fact that these small scpae-fighters usually operate at the extreme edges of the fleet deployment, in a formation designed to maximise the use of Electronic Counter-Measures, break up the silhouettes of ships closer to the core of the formation, and provide a 'killing ground' within the formation for larger ships that punch through the screen.
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Heavier screenships usually inhabit the inner edge of the screen, while the smallest and most nimble (but also least well-armed), which are usually called 'outriders', range as far out as twenty kilometers from the main fleet, as scouts. Outriders are usually equipped with long-range sensors, and occasionally carry a second crewman to operate them.
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'''Screenship size:''' Screenships are typically no larger than 30 meters from nose to tail, and some are as small as 12m long. They are givena  long, thin shape mainly because they are no more than a cockpit strapped to a group of engines. Their directional stays are short, mainly to lower their target signiature. The detriment to performance of this design is cancelled out by increasing the force of directional thrust. Most of the smallest craft are designed for atmospheric operations, with retractable stays and control surfaces.
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'''Screenship Armament:''' usually comprised of rapid-firing kinetic projectile weapons for close-range strafing. The thin armour of all but the largest Battlecruisers means that these weapons have a high chance to penetrate, though a low chance of damaging essential systems. Larger screenships are equipped with heavier weapons to cause more critical system damage, usually guided missiles.
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'''Screenship Armour:''' low to non-existant. Screenships rely on their speed to evade heavier ships' fire, and keeping their distance to evade the relatively short-range weapons of other screenships.
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'''Screenship Crew:''' one pilot, and in some outriders, a sensor operator.
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====Destroyers====
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Destroyers are larger ships that sport a variety of weapons chosen from amongst the most destructive available to ship designers. They are designed to be extremely fast, and operate as the fleet's mobile firepower reserve. Their main defensive combat role is to tip the balance of local forces. On offense, they are used as the main strike force, punching through the Screen with ease and taking out the most dangerous enemy craft before the capital ships lumber into range. They are usually directed ''en masse'' at enemy capital ships, as they have a very high likelihood of causing critical damage. They are the aptly-named kings of modern space combat.
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'''Destroyer size:''' Destroyers are between 60m and 150m long, and of particularly chunky construction. They are built up arond vey large engines, and most use the engine armour as a structural support. They are designed specifically for space combat, and usually have weapons systems on every plane, and as many as possible are turreted. They have long directional stays to provide maximum manueverability.
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'''Destroyer Armament:''' Destroyers typically carry turreted, automaticaly-guided, rapid-fire, kinetic penetrators to be employed as both Anti-Screenship and limited offensive firepower. Most destroyers also then pack a variety of colorful and deadly weapon types, from heavy rapid-fire kinetic weapons firing explosive shells, to large-calibre cannon, to guided missile silos.
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'''Destroyer Armour:''' Minimal anti-light-kinetic armour. The largest American destroyers are equipped with spaced armour, but the complexity makes this system uneconomical for such small ships. The vast majority of Destroyers employ a de-pressurised combat  state instead of armour, to maximise deployment speed.
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'''Destroyer Crew:''' Destroyers typicaly have two pilots, a navigator and a sensor operator (often combined into the one role), and at least two (but up to six) gunners. The largest destroyers have a captain who directs combat operations.
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====Gunships====
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Gunships are like '''Destroyers''' writ large. The main difference is that they sacrifice speed and agility for armour protection. They are designed to support and defend the larger ships, and most carry extremely long-range primary weapons for offensive operations as well. In combat they operate strewn throughout the capital line.
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'''Gunship size:''' Gunships are between 300m and 1600m long. They are usually built on a wide, squat chassis, though some (especially British gunships) maintain an almost naval layout. Their slow speed means that directional stays would prove too tempting targets for screenship pilots, so they are built as wide as possible to make their directional jets as useful as possible. Their weapons systems are typically turreted due to their slow turning rates, and usually occupy more than one plane of the ship. American gunships are larger than other nations, because the Americans shun the use of capital ships in the main, while German gunships are smaller and carry less weapons systems.
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'''Gunship Armament:''' Gunships typically carry a primary armament of either VERY heavy guided missiles or an array of very heavy (300-600mm) guns in turrets. Their secondary armament is some slightly smalle missiles or 150-300mm turreted guns. They usually carry active defence turrets as well.
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'''Gunship Armour:''' Gunships are incredibly heavily armoured, with conventional armour plate sufficient to stop most low-calibre kinetic penetrators. All but the oldest Gunships are equipped with traditional spaced armour, and most American gunships have pressurised spaced armour too.  Gunships fight pressurised, as the crew compartments are a much smaller percentage of the ship's mass than critical systems, so there are few benefits to fighting depressurised when almost the whole ship must be armoured anyway. Due to the high ditances gunships maintain from other friendly craft while in battle, the largest carry reactive armour as well. This is often an added defence against screencraft, as to get close enough to strafe the very well-armoured systems on a gunship is to risk beign caught in the shrapnel from other hits.
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'''Gunship Crew:''' Gunship crew number from 60 to three hundred, and are split into bridge crew (pilots, navigators, communications, sensors and captain), engineering crew (who work in the reactors and maintain the ship in flight), weapons (a different crew for each system) and support (a small crew including doctors, paramedics, chaplains and cooks).
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====Battlecruisers====
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'''Battlecruiser size:'''
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'''Battlecruisers Armament:'''
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'''Battlecruisers Armour:'''
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'''Battlecruisers Crew:'''
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'''Daughter/Son Ships:'''
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====Combat Troop Insertion Ships ('CTIS' or 'Dropships')====
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'''Dropship size:'''
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'''Dropship Armament:'''
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'''Dropship Armour:'''
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'''Dropship Crew:'''
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===Support ships===
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====Military Coreships====
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====Support Cruisers====
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====Troopships====
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Current revision as of 02:07, 1 December 2006

Spacegoing vessels of the 24th Century are a hugely varied type of vehicle, but they can be broadly categorised into four types, according to use:

Contents

FTL Ships

FTL ships are set apart by their massive expense and by the design constraints placed upon them by their main component: the Krasnikov generator and its supporting reactor. The first FTL ships were the research vessles of the 2130s and 2140s, which were small and frail beasts, often unmanned and not designed with any longevity in mind. Developed as it was in response to the Migration Crises, FTL technology first made its way into the Colony Ships of the late 22nd Century. Colony ships were massive beasts, with small conventional engines, a massive reactor to power their early Krasnikov generators (themselves incredibly bulky and delicate machines) and a module roughly equivalent in size, dedicated to the storage and transportation of the colonists, their supplies and life support systems, and the terraforming equipment needed to make an entire planet habitable. Bulky, unwieldy and too specific a design for any other use, these ships were all dismantled in orbit after terraforming was complete.

Another development in FTL travel occurred in the late 2140s, when the Russians completed the Alexander Nevsky. This ship was revolutionary in all of its design aspects, but mounted the first successfully miniaturised Krasnikov generator, designed to take that ship and only that ship through a Tunnel. This was an incredibly uneconomical way to move a vessel at FTL speeds, but was perfect for the Nevsky's purpose - to get decisive resources somewhere very quickly.

Broadly speaking today there are two subdivisions of FTL ships, which owe their origins respectively to the first FTL Colony Ships and the Alexander Nevsky.

Tunnelships or Coreships

Tunnel or Coreships are designed for one purpose - to create and sustain a Krasnikov Tunnel long enough for as large as possible a group of ships to make their way through it. Krasnikov generators and their reactors are massive and complex devices that require incredible amounts of energy to run and huge numbers of safety systems in case of failure. Designed as they are to open tunnels much larger than necessary for just their own bulk, Coreships are massive in size and expensive to produce. Though the size and design of the Krasnikov Generator has changed a lot in the 200 years since FTL travel was developed, they draw many of their design cues from the first FTL Colony Ships built by the major powers in the mid 2100s.

Tunnelship Size: The smallest Tunnelship is almosst 3 kilometers in length, and almost that high, and it can only sustain a Tunnel for a small fleet. They get as large as the largest Battlecruisers, over 20 kilometres in length, but are substantially taller. Typically an undersized set of engines strapped onto the bottom of the bulbous reactor housing, Tunnelships can be recognised by the protruding arms of the generator heads that extend outward from above the bridge.

Tunnelship Crew: Tunnelships usually have a crew of over 1000, with the majority being in the engineering sections. Most tunnelships have three shifts of engineers to minimise the chances of human error due to fatigue.

Small FTL craft

Some FTL ships are designed to only take themselves through the Tunnel they create. These fall into two categories: special military vessels and diplomatic vessels. As yet no private owners of Krasnikov generators exist. Partially this is due to the astronomical costs of running one, but the supply is also incredibly limited. Even if a buyer could dispose of the capital (and only a few buyers in the universe could do so, if they chose), what few are produced every year go immediately to military, government and large industrial concerns.

Commercial Ships

'Ferries'

Private or Government Vessels

Military Ships

Military spacecraft operate almost exclusively in fleets, generally based around a Coreship or (most often in the Red Fleets) Combat Dropship. In fact, the name 'Coreship' comes from the usual tactical fleet deployment, and the tunnelship's central position. Within the fleet there are many distinctions and sub-distinctions.

Spaceborne combat

Spaceborne combat is a terrifying affair, as the twin roles of protection from harm and protection from environmental duress are less happily-married in a spacesuit as it would first appear. The need for a spacesuit to remain flexible and not overly inhibit movement (especially in the models of suit worn during de-pressurised combat readiness) usually leaves a multitude of weak spots where a comparatively low-energy projectile could cause a fatal rupture.

What is true of the spacesuit is true of the spaceship. For most military crew, explosive decompression and a messy death is only moments away. Spacecraft usually sport little armour, and most weapons designed for use against other spaceships are pinpoint, low-energy penetrators.

Armour

Armour is relatively useless in a vacuum, as the pressure on the inside of the armour is so much larger than that on the outside, and decompression happens very quickly. Even the smallest pinprick in its airtight skin can thus render a spacecraft inoperable by killing its crew. Projectiles are also more dangerous, as they travel farther and do not lose velocity through drag. It is easy to hit a spaceship with any sort of weapon, and easy to cut through its skin ifyou hit. As a result, spaceship designers tend to put less armour on a ship than would be on a comparative vehicle for use in atmosphere, because often it is just deadweight. The designers of the Alexander Nevsky pioneered the practise of placing the crew in spacesuits and de-pressurising the cabin (except for vital areas for the crew to retreat to during combat, such as the medical bay). Essential components such as reactors and engines are often still armoured. Space vessels use several types of armour.

Weapons

Projectile weapons are particularly dangerous in space, as the projectiles travel in an uninterrupted line and do not slow down. A good computer guidance system will hit its target every time. A number of different weapons systems are used on spacecraft.

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