Spaceships

From Acw

Revision as of 14:13, 28 June 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:

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. Broadly speaking there are two subdivisions of FTL ships.

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.

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 kilometers 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 owner has beena ble to afford the running costs of a Krasnikov generator.

Commercial Ships

'Ferries'

Private or Government Vessels

Military Ships

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

• Inert armour. This is the simplest form of armour, and consists of thick layers of resistant material liek iron, steel, ceramic alloys or spider silk. It is good at resiting small-calibre kinetic projectiles, and when thick enough can occasionally resist large calibre shells too.
• Spaced or ablative armour. This is the second most common form of armour on space vessels, and consists of a second belt of armour suspended above the first on a frame, with a gap between it and the second belt. It is particularly good against warheads, which detonate on the first belt and then turn into shrapnel, which cannot penetrate the second belt below it.
• Pressurised spaced armour. This is a form of spaced armour with gas or liquid between the belts to allow the projectile's energy to dissipate through another medium through heat. This is more effective at absorbing the impact of all forms of projectile, but is very complex to manufacture and is less useful after one cell has been hit.
• Reactive armour. This is a form of armour that is itself explosive, and detonates outwards as the projectile hits it, to dissipate and deflect the force of the original projectile. It is particularly effective against most projectile types, but is particularly dangerous for any nearby space vessels, as the shrapnel travels further in zero gravity and a vacuum.

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.

• small-calibre, rapid-fire kinetics guns. These are all automatic weapons that can sustain high rates of fire and fire small solid or explosive shells. They have been specially altered to allow the gunpowder propellant to ignite in a vacuum, or to use a gas or rocket propellant to launch the projectiles at high enough velocity. These are most often used against screencraft or en masse against larger ships' unarmoured areas.
• large-calibre kinetic cannon. These are very high-calibre weapons (150mm+) that fire solid shells. The Alexander Nevsky pioneered these weapons by fitting some specially modified ex-naval guns, and the basic layout has not changed in the intervening 200 years. While calibres of up to 1200mm exist, they are rare, because for space combat, smaller weapons are preferred due to the smaller forces the ships is subjected to while firing.
• Mass drivers or Railguns. The perfect kinetic penetrator for space combat, these weapons fire a tiny projectile at enormous speeds. The kinetic energy on these projectiles is such that they can puncture almost any armour.
• guided missiles. These are shaped warheads on rockets that can be guided onto their target by painting laser.
• energy weapons. The perfect weapon for space combat, an energy projectile weapon projects a beam that travels at the speed of light. Because of the speed of the projectile and the fact that it is a beam, it is the ultimate in 'point-and-click' weapon. The huge aount of power used to drive these weapons mean that even

Each of these weapons has its problems. The downside of kinetic weapons is that the reaction to firing them pushes the firing ship off course. Often designers mount small retro-rockets on the rear of the turrets that push back against this force a split second after firing, but these are exposed and complex systems, and one engine beign knocked out means the entire array must be disabled or risk setting the ship spinning. Energy weapons use incredible amounts of power, and even the largest ship must power down all systems in order to fire a three-second burst. Moreover, the capacitors need substantial recharge times afterwards with the ship still powered-down. Missiles are a good balance, but are limited in numbers by the size of the silos.