Zack
Inactive Member
1. About the Rapier
Crew Quarters:
Crew Repair Bay:
Emergency Displacement Sensor System:
Engine Casing:
Flight Deck:
Launch Deck:
Maintenance Decks:
Power Armor Bay:
Storage Module:
Verticals:
6. Ship Systems
Armor:
Airlock System:
Designer Atmosphere:
Engine Casing:
Escape Pods:
Fuel Tank:
FTL inhibitors:
Hull Integrated Electronic Warfare Systems:
Hull Integrated Sensor Systems:
Ice Cream Dispenser:
Negative Energy Recoil Drive:
Operating System:
Point to Point FTL:
Repair System:
Storage Module:
Zero Point Energy Generators:
Weapons:
Missile Launch System (1): The center of the ship contains a multitude of missiles loaded in a series in the three launch tubes of the ship's Missile Launching System. The typical load out involves a full compliment of negative energy recoil drive equipped missiles designed to travel at FTL speeds around 200,000c and engage the enemy ship before it has time to respond. Upon reaching the ship the missile uses its drive system to extend its FTL field through the enemy ship to shear the insides. The Missile is designed to jink in various directions on the way to its target to avoid enemy fire and can even tie directly into the Rapier to use its point to point FTL to nearly instantly teleport itself into the enemy ship in the event that no anti-FTL systems are being deployed to protect the ship. The Missile itself contains its own sensor systems but also can receive targeting information from other ships as well as re-acquire its own targets mid flight. The missiles carry a zero point energy generator as a warhead. Dependent on situation it can be rigged to overload and generate a zero point energy explosion or dump its power into the FTL system to create an expanding FTL bubble with shearing properties to damage ships.
Ship cost and game play information.
Information Warrior: The Rapier is designed as a modern destroyer meaning sensor data and electronic warfare is as important as weapon deployment. There should always be someone onboard using the ship's sensor systems at least in passive mode to listen for the bad guys. In combat situations the bridge should be filled with crewmembers monitoring and fine tuning the ship's sensor systems as well as ensuring that communications between ships stays open and electronic warfare operations are carried out.
Armor Sections:
Main Body 7
Left wing 7
Right wing 7
Cargo pod 7
Flight Bay covering 7
Flight Bay 6
Point Cost:
FTL Engine | 1200
Hyperspace Drive | 1150
Sublight Engine | 30
Main Starship Super-weapon | 0
Main Gun Battery | 875 | (25x7x4) + (25x7)
Secondary Guns | 0
Point Defense Guns | 0
Main Generator | 400
Secondary Generators | 1600
Environmental Systems | 120
Computer | 100
Armor | 2075 | (50x7x5) (50x6x1)
Stealth Armor | 1200 | (200x6)
Sensor System | 300
Shield Systems | 1000
Nanotech systems | 0
Total | 10,000
The Rapier is a destroyer designed for dominance of hyperspace actions in a battle zone. It contains a variety of weapons which all contain some FTL capabilities as well as various tools to inhibit FTL actions. It also contains a fighter compliment to supplement its actions and new armor systems that cut down on the ship's total mass.
The Interior of the ship is designed to help cut down on the amount of mundane tasks that the crew needs to perform. Information displays are made extremely available and control of the ship can be exercised from any location onboard. Rooms are made to be spacious and multi-functional even though there may be less total space in the ship than in other ships of a comparable size.
The Rapier was designed after the events that transpired on Elysia during the NSS Alliance's diplomatic visit. The design evolved from a specific piece of technology designed to act as a directed anti-FTL system. The system design eventually became an entire ship.
Many changes were made even after the designs were submitted. Some of these include new maintenance equipment in the flight deck and additional power systems. The most extensive modification was the change from layered smart materials backed with a quark/gluon mesh to a lighter weight armor system, mainly to cut down on FTL energy cost.
Organizations Using This Vessel: NAM
Type: Anti-starship destroyer
Class: Rapier
Designer: Wazu, Ally (NSS Alliance)
Manufacturer: NAM
Production:
Crew: (4minimum bridge crew+pilots) Pilot, Gunner, Sensor Warfare Officer, Flight Operations Officer
Maximum Capacity: 120 persons, 20 fighter craft, 8 spaces for quanta-construct pads.
Appearance: Moving from the front toward the center the Rapier is an angular rectangular structure. The front itself contains three hatches for the missile system and the emitter panel for the Interdiction beam. The center of the ship fans out with two downward pointing, bulky, struts which house the drive system both above and below each strut. The launch bay fans out from the center of mass toward the back of the ship and has armored panels which flow back out behind the ship to provide cover for the launch and recovery system there. An indention is on the underside where cargo pods can be loaded and the top is flat but bulges upward slightly at the center of the ship, housing the forward launch system.
Length: 250 meters
Width: 100 meters
Height: 80 meters
Decks: 4
Mass: 832,678k (sans-fighters)
Speed (STL): .3c
Speed (FTL): 120,000c
Speed (Point to Point): 11.5ly/min.
Speed (Aerial): Mach 1.
Speed (Water): Mach 1
Range (Distance): virtually unlimited
Range (Support): 3 years
Lifespan: 6 years
Refit Cycle: every 5 months.
Bridge: The bridge is usually dimly lit by the glow of the various directional information screens embedded into every surface of the bridge. The walls, floor, and ceiling are otherwise painted a flat black to prevent reflection and glare. The floors are coated with a high friction material that is slightly springy.
The Pilot and the gunner sit in the center of the oval room with the gunner infront and slightly below the pilot. Both are cradled by a memory foam seat situated in an island in the center of the room with a five point restraining harness and various touch sensitive panels that can be freely moved about their sides. A volumetric display system provides them with an unbroken 360 degree view of the outside of the ship with targets of interest, subspace waves, weapons fire and ect highlighted by various colors and icons generated by the ship's computer systems then scaled to an appropriate size to reasonably display all useful information. The pilot and the gunner both work in tandem with the ship's computer to control the ship's direction and weapon systems.
( Memory foam on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_foam )
The walls of the bridge are lined with office style desks. All of these surfaces also contain touch sensitive displays and are designed to allow the crew to facilitate flight operations for the fighter escort as well as monitor and use the various other systems on the ship, mainly the sensor systems. Including the Pilot and Gunner the bridge can comfortably seat 20 people.
The Bridge is blocked off by two bulkheads which connect to a small hallway which leads to additional small crew quarter rooms designated for the captain and additional storage as well as the vertical shaft which leads down to the main block of crew quarters. Each bulkhead slides sideways into place and is colored a flat gray with a vertical green stripe that has ‘bridge' printed on it in white. Where the bulkhead touches the walls is a special seal made out of a chemically sensitive material that turns green when surrounded by breathable atmosphere and red when one side is not touching breathable atmosphere. The door is textured to accommodate hidden handholds in the form of recessed lips of material designed into the bulkhead in the event of a power failure.
The desk like display screens can be removed by releasing a manual latch and pulling the panel toward the center of the room. This exposes the emergency panels. Each emergency panel operates a variety of systems and contains multiple redundant backups and its own, self contained, power system. In the event of a massive system failure the bridge crew is capable of running the ship, albeit at much reduced efficiency, using these panels. Each panel contains a variety of buttons, switches, toggles, and low tech LED displays.
Crew Quarters:
- The Crew Quarters are a large adaptable space designed to accommodate multiple functions. The large, open plan deck can comfortably house 120 people in bunk cloth hammocks suspended from polls in the wall or it can be scaled down to give individuals their own rooms by blocking off areas with modular wall sections which come down from the ceiling. This allows the crew to wall off restrooms (with up to ten toilets that descend from the ceiling), storage rooms, private quarters, and even convert the entire area into work space during the work day.
Like other areas of the ship it has smooth metallic walls predominately colored white with some nepleslian green trim. Movement of wall panels can be done manually or with computer assistance. Additional equipment and furniture can be loaded onto the ship for use including kitchen equipment and recreational gear. These pieces of furniture are automatically magnetically latched to the floor by the computer when they are put in place and can even be moved by the computer back into storage if needed. It is expected that the crew eat ready to eat rations though it is possible for a crew to have its own capable chief with a fully stocked kitchen and even transform the crew quarters into a mess hall during meal times.
Crew Repair Bay:
- The ship's AI is fully capable of diagnosing and treating even the most life threatening of wounds from heart attacks and brain damage to combat amputations and partial vaporization. This is facilitated in the Crew Repair bay located in the bottom of the ship in front of the Launch deck, below the bridge, and behind the Crew Quarters.
It is the only room that has an elevator that moves from other areas directly to it. The bay contains five automated surgery tables in their own private rooms. Above these tables are a series of spider like arms loaded with drug dispensers, surgical tools, and tissue fabricators to repair damaged crew. The advanced Neuro-surgery systems onboard are even capable of fixing imbalances in brain chemistry and resuscitating a patient from recent brain damage without loss of motor functions. The operating tables are fully mobile and are automatically switched out with the pre-op and post-op tables, ten of each are located in pre and post op rooms on either side of the series of surgery rooms.
A separate office is located off to the side of the sterile white post-op room which contains various drugs and basic first aid equipment for minor injuries or for the medical staff to conduct long term treatment of patients. All of these rooms contain both a localized automatic cleaning system attached to robotic nursing arms that deploy from the ceiling that also diagnose and provide post-op as well as a full room cleaning cycle that seals off the room when not in use and cleans every surface with hot water and sanitizer. The Crew Repair Bay is sealed off by a white bulkhead door with a red vertical stripe. The seal around the bulkhead is made of a chemically sensitive material that turns green when exposed to breathable atmosphere on both sides and red when one side is not exposed to breathable atmosphere.
Emergency Displacement Sensor System:
- Tied into all sensors is an automated program which automatically triggers the ship's point to point FTL when tripped by incoming weapons fire which would otherwise severely damage the ship. When activated it will guide the armor to the nearest safe area or provided no safe area is around it will hold the ship in a slow teleport for three seconds, allowing it to reappear in the same place after disappearing if there is no other suitable location. The system will also automatically divert the ship if something is blocking its return to real space and in the presence of an interdiction field or other anti-FTL systems it will auto-disable. The system can also be disabled by the pilot.
Engine Casing:
- The negative energy recoil drives are suspended inside of an engine casing which connects to the main body through a four pronged suspension system built from smart metals with suspended metamaterial electronics and sheathed in a complex gluon mesh which is itself partially covered by the metamaterial surrounding the ship.
The multitude of smart material tentacles are capable of a full range of motion, allowing for precise control over positioning of the engines and the fields that they generate. The suspension system also provides a smooth ride for the hull of the ship.
The engine casing itself contains a fuel tank for low ZPE potential situations and a complex cooling system built from super cold liquids engineered with extreme surface area (~2kmsquare per cubic cm) to absorb heat. This heat causes expansion in the liquid which upon vaporization causes the casing to blowback and release the vaporized liquid into space while pumping in more coolant from a reserve tank to help keep heat down even in extreme conditions. The coolant liquid is pumped through a radiator system in the rear of the engine casing to help release heat though this function can be suspended to lower the heat signature of the craft at the expense of increasing heat buildup inside the engines.
Flight Deck:
- The flight deck is located in the rear of the ship and is normally kept sealed off from outer space. It is a spacious area with a high friction, and somewhat springy, coating on the floor to keep things from moving around as well as various places to attach mooring lines for starships.
Ten elevators located around the sides of the Flight Deck can transport ships down to the Launch deck and then seal tightly to prevent decompression. Maintenance can be carried out here and in the event of an emergency or the need to dock a larger ship the entire area can be decompressed and opened up to allow ships to land directly on the flight deck.
Various hanger structures along the walls of the flight deck utilize bulkheads that fold upwards to seal them off. They are designated for storage of spare parts. All of the entrances to the Flight Deck are sealed by white bulkheads with a green vertical stripe that reads Flight Deck. The seal around the bulkhead is made of a chemically sensitive material that turns green when exposed to breathable atmosphere on both sides and red when one side is not exposed to breathable atmosphere. The doors are located along the sides of the flight deck and the ‘front' of the flight deck contains two large bulkheads that lower down to expose an extended forward facing launch slit.
During recovery when the flight deck is left decompressed both the rear and the forward doors are left open in the event of a landing failure.
There are inset places for Quanta-construct pads, 4 on each side of the launch bay to facilitate power armor operations.
Automated synthetic muscle tentacles are built into the ceiling of the Rapier. Each is capable of lifting and storing a fighter above the flight deck or helping perform maintenance on fighters. The 10 crates are capable of storing 10 fighters in addition to the 10 which can sit on the flight deck.
Launch Deck:
- A much smaller area than the Flight deck, the Launch deck is located directly beneath the Flight Deck and contains the ship's launching system to catapult fighters into combat. Once a fighter is lowered to the Launch deck the ship automatically brings it into one of the launch tubes (depending on which side it entered in) and then seals it off. It takes only moments to decompress the fighter enclosure and launch the fighter out. The entire fighter compliment of the ship can be deployed in 10 seconds. Because this area is entirely automated (unless overridden by the ship's flight operations officer) it is unlit.
Maintenance Decks:
- Unlike the smooth walls of the Crew Quarters the Maintenance decks located on the sides of the ship and running down the center are designed entirely for maintenance duties. As such the various tubes and wires are left exposed on the walls. There are also various appropriately labeled bulkheads which provide access to the ship's missile tubes and the missiles inside. Under normal circumstances the bulkheads will directly line up with the missiles own maintenance hatch. Entrances to maintenance areas are sealed off by Yellow bulkheads with a black label that reads "Maintenance'. The seal around the bulkhead is made of a chemically sensitive material that turns green when exposed to breathable atmosphere on both sides and red when one side is not exposed to breathable atmosphere.
Power Armor Bay:
- Above and slightly forward of the crew Quarters is an additional power armor bay. A gravitational launching system is built into this long tube to fling power armors out the front of the ship quickly. Plugs to power point to point FTL are also installed along the sides. The Bay can hold 40 power armors side by side against the side walls of the bay, each held in place by hydraulic clamps.
Storage Module:
- The underside of the ship contains a series of fast attaching clamps and automated docking arms to accommodate the quick exchanging of cargo modals on the underside of the ship. The insides of the containers vary depending on the container itself but the entryway into the storage module from the inside of the ship is normally covered by a sliding white bulkhead labeled with storage written vertically down the front and back of the bulkhead in black. The seal around the bulkhead is made of a chemically sensitive material that turns green when exposed to breathable atmosphere on both sides and red when one side is not exposed to breathable atmosphere.
Verticals:
- To reach other decks the crew must use one of the six vertical shafts. All shafts and their entry/exit points are lined with padding and contain a ladder for use in both 1 and 0 g situations. The ladder also can extend down out of the ship when the airlock on the bottom is opened to allow crew access to the ground. Usually during combat these vertical shafts are sealed off by bulkheads which swing into place automatically. The seal around the bulkhead is made of a chemically sensitive material that turns green when exposed to breathable atmosphere on both sides and red when one side is not exposed to breathable atmosphere.
6. Ship Systems
Armor:
- The Rapier uses a light weight energized multi-state armor system for protection. Though more complex than most other armor systems this type of protection is lighter weight per square meter than most other armors because it is built thinner.
Two thin layers of a liquid metal are separated by a dielectric and are placed under the metamaterial coating on the exterior of the ship. The inner most layer is charged with energy to act as an electronic armor when a projectile pierces the ship's skin. This liquid metal also is controlled by the ship's computer through electronic control of force field generators that project a strong magnetic field which in conjunction with the electric current allows the ship to either move the liquid around or change it into a solid state. This liquid defensive system is embedded with radiation absorbing particles to stop radiation bleed through and is encased in a smart metal backed with high strength fibers to provide additional structural support and backing to permanently attach ship's systems to.
The system can be power intensive when in use but it provides important benefits. The low amount of mass used in the system reduces the cost of FTL actions by the Rapier, facilitates quick repairs, and allows the ship to shift its protective abilities around.
Armor (meta-material): The entire ship is coated in a complex metamaterial with embedded metamaterial electronics which has many useful properties. Defensively the material can be set to refract energy around the hull without any disturbance to its original trajectory and by using the special index of refraction properties of the material, without any lag time.
The metamaterial also can be set to bend only certain types of energy or no energy at all, allowing for customizable color patterns to be displayed on the hull or to allow the operating system to display an interface on the exterior. The effect works completely from the outside of the material but from the inside of the material it simply looks jet black unless it has been set to ‘clear' mode. Clear mode adjusts the structure of the metamaterial through the embedded electronics to create basic refraction, causing ship's hull to look like it is a few inches back from its actual location just like normal glass would. Clear mode enables full use of the ship's embedded hull electronics while partial energy wave bending will naturally disable the sensors that operate on the same type of energy being bent around the ship to become inoperative as no energy is reaching them to sense.
Airlock System:
- The Rapier contains four multi-purpose docking arms hidden under the skin of the craft which can be deployed to dock with other ships. The arms are designed with special mouths that can seal around almost any surface and dock with any type of entrance provided that it is less than 5 meters around. These docking arms are not armored to the same degree as the hull, it is not recommended that the arms be deployed during combat operations.
The rear of the ship contains various energy fields and lowering doors to contain atmosphere in the large landing bay in the rear of the ship.
Designer Atmosphere:
- The life support system of the ship uses a designer atmosphere which combines various life support systems designed for crew performance and not just survival. This includes a sealed off crew section with heating and cooling elements tied into the ship's engine system.
The computer system automatically varies the temperature inside of the ship to wake the crew, keep them alert, or make their body function at peak efficiency by matching the interior temperature with their body temperature. Pressure is computer controlled in much the same way through adding/removing atmosphere from the crew compartment while C02 filtering is provided by modified algae inside the ventilation system.
Water is filtered through a rubber membrane with crystalline pathways that only let water molecules through. Waste material is vaporized by the engines.
The ship tailors the atmosphere's content for the entire crew, creating a cocktail of oxygen, inert gasses, stimulants (usually an upgraded armodafinil cocktail), vitamins, and minerals. The atmosphere helps keep the crew awake for 22 hour days, with no ill side effects, and nourished during long operations though it must be supplemented with food and water during extreme duration operations.
Each compartment is capable of containing a different atmosphere concentration and the ship's computer automatically makes changes dependent on the body chemistry of those in the room and their work status, doing such things as lowering the stimulant content during rest periods. The primary atmosphere machinery is located in front of the crew quarters in the ship's maintenance area while smaller secondary filters and pumps are located in the ventilation piping in every room.
Engine Casing:
- The negative energy recoil drives are suspended inside of an engine casing which connects to the main body through a four pronged suspension system built from smart metals with suspended metamaterial electronics covered by the metamaterial surrounding the ship.
The smart material tentacles are capable of a full range of motion, allowing for precise control over positioning of the engines and the fields that they generate. The suspension system also provides a smooth ride for the body of the craft.
The engine casing itself contains a fuel tank for low ZPE potential situations and a complex cooling system built from super cold liquids engineered with extreme surface area (~2kmsquare per cubic cm) to absorb heat. This heat causes expansion in the liquid which upon vaporization causes the casing to blowback and release the vaporized liquid into space while pumping in more coolant from a reserve tank to help keep heat down even in extreme conditions. The coolant liquid is pumped through a radiator system in the rear of the engine casing to help release heat though this function can be suspended to lower the heat signature of the craft at the expense of increasing heat buildup inside the engines.
Escape Pods:
- In addition to a black box recorder system, one of which is jettisoned from the ship in the event of catastrophic damage, the ship contains various escape pods. Once separated from the ship the small padded spheres can sustain life for a week though they have no thruster capability and waste management must been done with sealed bags. Rations which can last for upward of 10 years are stored under the padding of the pods. Each pod can sustain 5 people and the ship is loaded with 30 pods with 6 directly accessible behind the displays on the bridge, 16 accessible directly from the crew quarters, 4 in the medbay and 4 in the flight deck. Each pod contains a subspace radio and tracking beacon. Because of the seclusion of the pods they are sometimes used by the crew to ‘get away' from others onboard.
Fuel Tank:
- The engine systems of the ship contained compressed space/time energy potentials designed to be released in the event of a low space/time energy concentration situation. This allows the ship to function at full capacity for days even in an extreme low energy area that would otherwise incapacitate other ships.
FTL inhibitors:
- In addition to the conventional Jaq'tah style interdiction field which has become common on most warships the Rapier also can deploy an additional directed interdiction system housed in the nose of the ship. The system generates powerful directional subspace waves, gravitational distortions and tachyon bursts designed to distort, disable or collapse traditional methods of generating FTL effects such as wormholes and contained bubbles of space. The distortions generated are designed to be powerful enough to either force an opposing ship to shut down their FTL systems or face being sheared open as its own FTL bubble is vibrated, shrunk, and otherwise pushed away from the ship.
The primary effects of the device can be felt in a 5 degree arc from the front of the ship and lesser effects can be felt in an ark of 184 degrees from the front with severity decreasing as angle increases. The ship's own FTL system is designed to automatically collapse the forward portion of the FTL field as the directional interdiction field is used. The directed interdiction field naturally pushes the ship's own FTL bubble forward, preventing it from collapsing as the projected interdiction field continues forward through the bubble. These two processes are precisely controlled by the ship's computer to allow for the use of the device while the FTL fields are up.
Hull Integrated Electronic Warfare Systems:
- Electronic Warfare Systems are built into the hull of the craft in decentralized clusters backed up with their own processing systems networked with the ship's computer and capable of interacting with almost the entire spectrum of sensor energy from optical to gravitational, subspace, tachyon, entanglement, thermal, radar, microwave, and ect. The program that handles the ship's electronic warfare capabilities also utilizes the ship's engines and sensor systems to help detect, spoof and disrupt enemy sensor actions against the ship as well as carry out ECCM duties using the sensor systems and added integrated equipment on the Rapier.
The negative energy Recoil Drive has various functions tied into the system such as gravitational disruption and heat projection while the metamaterial coating functions tied in with the sensors help detect or reduce the effectiveness of enemy sensors. The hull integrated systems even include distortion systems designed to disrupt the carrier of entanglement for entanglement based sensors.
The Ship's Electronic Warfare system is also tied into the sensor system of the ship, helping to process and utilize sensors to gain maximum effectiveness against radar jamming using various techniques including using varying power, frequency and time of sensor emissions to give the appearance of random sensor sweeps. Sidelobe Cancellation is also used to eliminate jamming signals being broadcast by enemy ships through filtering out signals coming from improper directions. Smart material polarized filters are also incorporated into the sensor systems. The smart materials adapt their construction to help change the polarization of the signal to filter out other signals not using the correct polarization.
The Various electronic warfare systems of the ship are also tied into the point to point FTL systems of the craft to allow the Rapier to broadcast its disruptive signals from points not directly connected to the ship to further help jam and deceive enemy sensor actions. These FTl jamming actions are precisely controlled by the ship's computer and are automatically deployed against fast moving targets headed toward the ship to blind incoming homing weapons.
Hull Integrated Sensor Systems:
- Various sensor systems are integrated into the hull of the craft through metamaterial electronic systems. High resolution optical, microwave radar, entanglement, pressure, thermal and radiation sensitive sensors are built small and spaced out throughout the hull. Networking functions provided by the ship's computer increases the capabilities beyond the sum of the parts of the sensor network.
Ice Cream Dispenser:
- Yeah, we got ice-cream.
Negative Energy Recoil Drive:
The Negative Energy Recoil Drive evolved from the Tachyon Recoil Drive. Originally the inertia intensive particles were used for propulsion only but the design was adapted several times. Sensor systems, weapons, computer, and FTL devices all requiring tachyons in various ways were added into the design. The Recoil drive provides the tachyons, the associated negative energy fields, and the control systems for energy flow needed to run these systems.
(Tachyons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyon )
Propulsion:
STL propulsion is facilitated by the Negative Energy Recoil Drive's tachyon production systems which produce large amounts of negative energy. The tachyons are channeled out the front of the craft at faster than light speeds. The natural properties of the tachyon give them vast amounts of inertia and because of their negative mass they pull the craft in the direction the tachyons are moving. The large amounts of inertia give the drive fast acceleration and low tachyon emissions making it naturally hard to detect.
In addition to conventional STL propulsion the manipulation of negative energy allows the ship to hide itself in its own bubble of space time. The engines then expand the space behind the bubbles while at the same time shrinking the space in front of the bubbles to move the ship at many times the speed of light. Because of the unique mounting system for the engines they can be almost instantly pointed in a new direction, allowing the ship to not need to be pointed forward in order to move ‘forward'.
(Source: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationsp ... drcrd.html )
Weaponry:
The FTL system is capable of extending itself to generate shearing effects at a distance. By artificially accelerating mass the instant it enters the bubble damaging effects can be generated by the intense heat, shearing, and force created by the FTL bubble boundary pulling on the mass that is inside the bubble and not affecting the mass outside of the bubble.
With a single negative energy recoil drive a sphere shaped shearing field is generated. The Rapier has four drive systems allowing it to generate elliptical shapes, with each engine acting as a focus of the ellipse. Size and shape of the bubble is extremely important because the larger the bubble the more energy is required to expand it. An elliptical bubble will effect less of an area but will expand further, faster, because of its shape. The bubble's maximum expansion speed is about equal to the FTL speed of the engines minus the space inside of the bubble.
Location: The drive system.
Primary Purpose: Anti-armor
Secondary Purpose: anti-material
Damage: 7
Area of Effect: up to 500km, decreasing with range.
Range: .6au (120 meter in diameter elliptical bubble)
Rate of Fire: Continuous
Payload: Power Dependent.
Shielding:
Defensive measures are provided by the shearing effect of the FTL bubble, which serves to shear mass heading toward the ship or refract energy waves away from the ship. The drawback of this system is that energy beams entering the bubble are accelerated because the space inside the bubble is moving at a faster rate relative to the outside space. This increases the wavelengths of the energy making it more penetrating. It is not recommended to be inside of the bubble without some form of protection. This effect also provides some protection against matter copying through entanglement based teleportation by refracting the carrier medium of entanglement. The defensive capabilities also provide the ship with supercavitation capabilities within the atmosphere, greatly increasing the maximum possible speed and massively reducing friction while moving, as well as protection against scalar weapons by insulating against outside gravity.
Multiple FTL bubbles nested inside of each other are also effective at dampening the effects of anti-FTL devices by providing increasing degrees of separation from their effects and by creating areas of space in which the FTL systems can operate however in any interdiction field conflict the negative energy recoil drive's power output must remain above the output of the interdiction field to prevent the negative energy FTL fields from being disperesed by the gravity.
(Refraction on the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction Because the FTL field would be moving at a different rate compared with space outside it would act like an object with a different refractive index.)
Sensors:
Three types of Tachyon fed sensors systems are integrated into the hardware and software of the negative energy recoil drive. Tachyon detectors embedded into the engine to monitor engine performance double as tachyon sonar systems, detecting tachyon bursts coming from outside of the ship and triangulating their location to build a picture of external negative energy content.
Negative energy flow is sensitive to gravity fields. Observation of the exact shape of the ship's own negative energy flow acts to pinpoint gravitational distortions. The result is a fairly complex but very accurate accelerometer.
Specialized sensor systems are also integrated into the power distribution systems of the engines. These sensors monitor power flow and compare it to models of what power flow should be according to bubble size and nearby gravitational fields. Because power output dramatically increases as mass enters the FTL bubble the data can be used to detect objects passing into the FTL bubble as well as the location of where they entered through calculating when each engine starts drawing more power. This can double as a sensor system by expanding a low power FTL bubble to cover a distance of near 2 AU near planets or several light years in deep space. Because of the lower intensity of the bubble it is harmless to objects and the energy saved (when compared to weaponised FTL) can be used to extend the bubble's range.
Computing:
In addition to the conventional computing systems installed in the engine to control functions a second processing system is built into the sensor systems of the engine. By precisely controlling the flow of tachyons with tachyon filtering equipment data can be sent back in time several moments. This creates a Time Loop Logic computer system out of the drive's emissions. By combining this system with the ship's sensor data a real time image of the exterior can be generated, negating the lag time of returning sensor actions. Specifically the computer attempts to predict where an object is and the sensors attempt to confirm this. The correct prediction is then sent backwards in time to the ship.
The process involves manipulating tachyons with considerable inertia. Each manipulation generates considerable heat. Heat output and computer size limits the precognitive abilities of the system, giving it at maximum output only a few seconds of lead time with increasing inaccuracy as time before the event occurs increases.
(Time Loop Logic on the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_loop_logic )
Artificial Gravity:
Negative energy from the drive system is channeled over the ‘top' of the craft and then downward, permeating the ship. The resulting flow pushes everything inside the ship downward to create artificial gravity.
(Negative Mass on the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotic_mat ... ative_mass )
Communications:
Communication hardware integrated into the drive system helps control the flow of negative energy to generate various types of subspace fields. These fields act as a carrier for an inset subspace radio. A second, directional, filter is used to guide and control a stream of tachyons. This filter imparts information onto the tachyons so that a receiver can pick up the message at a distance. This communicator works much like a laser communication device. A receiver is built into engine as well to pick up messages sent in the same way.
Operating System:
- The operating system of the ship is designed around an intuitive AI interface that takes away some of the direct control of the ship away from the crew for mundane and non-specialized tasks that do not require direct crew interaction. Some of these mundane actions including opening and closing bulkheads and FTL field monitoring.
Information is given to the crew through directional speakers and screens, allowing the ship to privately transmit video and sound to a crewmember provided the crewmember has indicated that they do not wish the information to be displayed to others. The AI automatically adapts the screen displays so that even if two people are looking at the same screen they may both be watching different images and hearing different audio. It also has the capability to display a virtual volumetric display directly on the crewmembers eyes, allowing them to interact easily with an interface that is invisible to others.
Crew schedules are also stored in the ship's computer and directions to a destination onboard the ship is shown in the form of colored lines displayed on the floor that the AI automatically connects with the crewmember's feet and their destination unless this feature is turned off. All data the ship contains is accessed through a simple menu with all action choices displayed in a series. A keyboard is usually displayed below the menu, both of which are touch sensitive and typically displayed in a soft blue green hue. The AI automatically adjusts the displayed information, keyboard, and menu choices based on interaction from the user through vocal, thought, body language, or any other readable language that the AI can understand. This system is applied to all of the ship's important systems including piloting, gunnery, information management, and ect allowing the crew to focus on overall direction and guidance while the AI handles the mundane tasks.
The AI will actively try and determine the intent of a crewmember if it can not understand it through either asking questions through audio or displaying questions in text if an audio message would not be appropriate at the time. The AI does not attempt to emulate personality or emotion nor does it manifest itself in a humanoid form.
Crewmembers also are asked to integrate themselves with the ship's AI upon boarding. The process involves a wireless scan of the crewmember's brain chemistry to help determine intent for action facilitation reasons. The ship displays an additional personal menu on the palm of the user's hand. Fingers are used to cycle up and down through the menu as well as make selections. At least three fingers are required for this. The back of the hand is by default set to display important information and orders as well as the time when the wearer looks at it but this setting can be changed through the palm menu.
Point to Point FTL:
- The point to point FTL systems fold space to allow almost instantaneous travel between two points. Three such engines run in parallel onboard the Rapier to help power its point to point intensive functions and provide considerable resistance to interdiction technology.
Repair System:
- The Ship carries its own automated repair system. Various rapid fabrication printers located about the ship build small robots designed by the ship's computer to carry out specific tasks such as replacing a specific piece of equipment, cleaning floors, or other basic repairs. The designs vary widely but all are made with a body of white plastic with some smart metal muscles. They are battery powered and usually last for only a few hours before returning to have their mass reclaimed by the printer.
Storage Module:
- The underside of the ship contains a large detachable storage module that can be armored in the same way as the ship. It is designed to hold large amounts of resources for the ship's crew and can be changed out with a new module within a matter of minutes to help facilitate logistics operations. When not expecting a combat operation an unarmored cargo pod is in place. Because the underside of the ship is armored the pod can be jettisoned immediately prior to combat with no loss in capability for the ship. This maneuver is recommended as it reduces the overall energy cost of the FTL systems of the ship.
Zero Point Energy Generators:
- The Rapier contains one primary started engine utilizing high energy explosives to begin power generation. This robust system is used to start the ship's four zero point energy generators, each located in the forward maintenance section of the ship. Though when started the ship's engine systems themselves provide ample power to run all ship functions massive amounts of additional power are needed to sustain the ship and allow it to overcome opposing FTL actions in combat.
Each generator is housed in its own ejection assembly in the event of a malfunction and can be accessed by lowering the gray covering on the cylindrical housing of the device. The gray panel is heat sensitive and turns a bright red upon touch by a warm body or when the ZPE system is activated. Manual controls for the panel are located on the top of the panel in the form of an inset handle which is slightly recessed into the panel itself. The computer automatically controls the lock/unlock features of the generator. Generator ejection can be accomplished manually from an emergency panel on the bridge or from a locked launch panel in the floor near the generator.
Weapons:
Missile Launch System (1): The center of the ship contains a multitude of missiles loaded in a series in the three launch tubes of the ship's Missile Launching System. The typical load out involves a full compliment of negative energy recoil drive equipped missiles designed to travel at FTL speeds around 200,000c and engage the enemy ship before it has time to respond. Upon reaching the ship the missile uses its drive system to extend its FTL field through the enemy ship to shear the insides. The Missile is designed to jink in various directions on the way to its target to avoid enemy fire and can even tie directly into the Rapier to use its point to point FTL to nearly instantly teleport itself into the enemy ship in the event that no anti-FTL systems are being deployed to protect the ship. The Missile itself contains its own sensor systems but also can receive targeting information from other ships as well as re-acquire its own targets mid flight. The missiles carry a zero point energy generator as a warhead. Dependent on situation it can be rigged to overload and generate a zero point energy explosion or dump its power into the FTL system to create an expanding FTL bubble with shearing properties to damage ships.
Location: Spinal Mount
Primary Purpose: Anti-Starship
Secondary Purpose: Missile Type dependent
Damage: 7
Area of Effect: expanding sphere capable of enveloping a large amount of mass or extending to a size of 10 kilometers. (Missile can be rigged to create a 50 gigaton zero point energy detonation.)
Range: sensor dependent
Rate of Fire: N/A
Payload: 18 Missiles
Ship cost and game play information.
Information Warrior: The Rapier is designed as a modern destroyer meaning sensor data and electronic warfare is as important as weapon deployment. There should always be someone onboard using the ship's sensor systems at least in passive mode to listen for the bad guys. In combat situations the bridge should be filled with crewmembers monitoring and fine tuning the ship's sensor systems as well as ensuring that communications between ships stays open and electronic warfare operations are carried out.
Armor Sections:
Main Body 7
Left wing 7
Right wing 7
Cargo pod 7
Flight Bay covering 7
Flight Bay 6
Point Cost:
FTL Engine | 1200
Hyperspace Drive | 1150
Sublight Engine | 30
Main Starship Super-weapon | 0
Main Gun Battery | 875 | (25x7x4) + (25x7)
Secondary Guns | 0
Point Defense Guns | 0
Main Generator | 400
Secondary Generators | 1600
Environmental Systems | 120
Computer | 100
Armor | 2075 | (50x7x5) (50x6x1)
Stealth Armor | 1200 | (200x6)
Sensor System | 300
Shield Systems | 1000
Nanotech systems | 0
Total | 10,000
