NovaCorp No-L2-1a Noujou

The Noujou is a new craft from the research and production teams at NovaCorp, with some highly limited aid from Ephesus. He started off well, but began taking the craft in directions no one wanted, and so he was carefully taken off. Its purpose is to supply food to fleets, and its design is based around this, its spherical shape allowing for greatest possible internal surface area, which it uses in a multi-layered pattern, the crews accommodation lying in the center of the craft. The ship is also mainly made for provision, not offensive, so while it has adequate shields and armor, it is not made for a fight, and as such is only lightly armed.

NovaCorp heard whispers that a agricultural craft for fleets was needed, and so set its teams to work. The Noujou was the result, its speedy development aided by some assistance from Kip (considerable), and Ephesus. Three have so far been made by the Hephaestus fleet yards, and are going well.

Organizations Using This Vessel: NovaCorp, Star Army of Yamatai, Any other interested parties Type: Agricultural ship Class: Noujou No-L2-1b Designer: NovaCorp Research Department, Some input from Ephesus Manufacturer: NovaCorp Production: Undecided, three currently (It really depends if the SA buys them, NovaCorp won’t use that many.)

Crew: 400 (all personnel trained as agricultural engineers, 30 additional trained as engineers, another 30 as command crew, one captain) Maximum Capacity: The Noujou has an enormous maximum capacity, as theoretically the agricultural bays can be turned over for sleeping accommodations. The upper limits have not been estimated at. Appearance: From the outside the Noujou looks like a huge black orb, spinning around space (the spinning action is to aid the artificial gravity, and is a quirk from Ephesus).

Length: 1000m Width: 1000m Height: 1000m Decks: 40 levels of agricultural bays, 10 living floors Mass: 300 million tons

Speed (Aerial): The ship can reach mach 2 in atmosphere using its gravitic drive Speed (Water): The Noujou can actually go under water efficiently, due to improvements to its slick shielding and gravitic drive made by Ephesus, it can travel at mach 1 underwater (I don’t know the comparison rate), and can stay under indefinitely.

Range (Distance): The Noujou was made to accompany fleets, and as such is made to travel as far as they do. It has no limits to its distance, apart from how long the ship lasts. Range (Support): As an agricultural ship, the Noujou does not run out of food. In addition it has extremely efficient recycling systems for water, air and waste, meaning that it does not need any resources in the foreseeable future. Lifespan: The ship is very sturdy, and has many self repairing systems, including several units of NovaCorp Construction Drones. It has been given a life span of thirty years, although could easily out live this by decades. Refit Cycle: The Noujou does not require refits, its design does not need improving except perhaps by their employers.

Bridge: The Bridge is near the center of the craft, and consists of simply the captains chair, with hard and soft bio-neural interface, surrounded by panels. Around the walls there are work stations in crevices, but they are not really needed for the working of the ship. In an emergency members of the crew are trained in operating the different workstations in addition to their work on the agriculture bays. This includes tactical, navigation, science and three general purpose stations that can adapt to fulfill any of the ships other needs.

Agricultural bays: These fill up the majority of the ship, covering the interior surface area of the different layers. It is divided into small field sized areas, which are monitored by specially modified construction drones. The crew of the ship regulate these crops, caring for them, and harvesting them with the aid of the drones. There is a complex natural ecosystem at work, that allows for maximum yield without relying on chemicals, which are only used when really needed. Around 20 meters above the crops there is the ceiling, which is layered with high powered LED’s, in between these there are air vents which carefully monitor the concentration of different gasses in their air, and vent in specific minerals. The first layer is naturally the largest, with other layers gradually decreasing in size until you get to the core.

Sleeping quarters: These are Spartan with a submarine like feel. They two bunk beds, each room meaning to sleep four people each. There are two sets of chest of draws, meant to be divided between the occupants, and a single wardrobe. There is also two bed side tables on the floor for the bottom bunks, and two connected to the ceiling for the upper bunks. They do not have their own bathrooms. There is a flap that can come out of the bed side tables which can function as a writing surface, otherwise a pad connected to the main computer is suggested. There are 100 crew quarters on the Noujou.

Captain’s Quarters: The captain’s room is larger and more comfortable than the usual crew quarters. It has a mahogany writing desk, chest of draws and wardrobe, a single bed, with silk sheets and a down mattress. The writing desk is connected to a bio-neural access port if needed or has a large panel that can be pulled out of the back which can be used to look through reports, technical readouts etc. The walls have pleasing, if not exuberant, paintings, and the floor is a comfortable carpet, in contrast to the thin carpet that dominates elsewhere. There is an unsuited bathroom, along with a bath (the only one on the ship), and pleasing tiles and so forth. The captains quarters are on the closest level to the core.

Officers Quarters: The Officers Quarters come in-between the Crews and the Captain’s quarters in terms of luxury. They are smaller than the captains, while they still have the room to themselves. They have comfortable beds, but not down ones, and soft (but not silk) sheets. They have wooden desks (but not mahogany), and panels with bio-neural interfaces, and less ornate furniture. Their walls are of a pleasing color, but do not have any pictures on them unless the officer brought them herself. There is an en suite bathroom, but it only consists of a shower and a basin. There are 4 Officers Quarters in the Noujou.

Shower block: On each of the accommodation decks there are two shower blocks for the crew to use, one male, one female. This is separate from the toilet rooms. There are ten showers in every block. The room is Spartan like most of the ship, with functionary showers, private not public, and basic basins.

Toilet Room: On each accommodation deck there are two Toilet Rooms, one male and one female, for the crew to use. As with the showers they are private and Spartan, not uncomfortable, just functionary.

Armory: In the center of the ship next to the bridge and the place where the main computer will be is the armory. It is protected by very thick Perfect Iron doors, and walls are even thicker. Inside there is a range of Xaser rifles and Reavers, although the purchaser can clearly replace them.

Gallery: The Gallery is the place where all the cooking takes place. The chefs are chosen at random every week from the crew, the complexity and quality of the food therefore is highly variable. The gallery includes most of what a chef could need.

Mess Hall (4): The Mess Hall is where all the crew eat. Each of the Mess halls are capable of fitting 100 of the crew. The Captain and the officers simply sit on a separate table, saving the need for a Wardroom. The mess hall is filled with cheap tables, the sort you’d find in a mess hall.

Lounge (10): The role that the Noujou fits can be long and monotonous for the crew, months maybe years tending crops. However the lounges are a highlight to this. They are equipped with everything that the crew could desire, within decency, including the latest in virtual reality equipment as made by Ephesus. There are also plenty of comfortable chairs, computers, television screens, and other things which are decided on a ship to ship basis.

Gym (8): This is perhaps not as important as in other ships, since the crew of the Noujou are working hard physically in the agricultural bays all day, so tend to be in top physical condition anyway. However the gyms are well equipped, and come with a large array of weights, exercise machines, and even a personalized training program. There is a single swimming pool in the largest of the gyms.

Laundry Room: This is the room where the Crew take their laundry and have it cleaned. All the machines are automatic, and very quick. There are around ten machines in the room, but their short cycle time means that their isn’t much of a queue.

Hull: The exterior of the Noujou is two meter thick Perfect Iron, a strong outer hull needed, and with large plates of perfect diamond covering it. The entirety of the outside is painted black. The interior of the ship is made of either a titanium-tungsten alloy, or perfect Iron, depending on the requirement of the part of the ship.

Slick shielding: This is a refinement of the earlier friction shielding. It creates a force field around the ship which makes it more streamlined, allowing it to go through air and water much easier. It also protects the ship from interstellar dust. The Slick Shielding on the Noujou is actually strong enough to be used as a battering ram if needed, the end of it coming to a considerably strong spike.

Gravitic shielding: A side effect of the Noujou’s gravitic engines is the powerful gravitic shield that surrounds the ship this repels any incoming attack. It is powerful enough to cause most projectile weapons to either miss entirely, or to loose most of their energy and hit off target, making precision shooting impossible. It has little effect on electromagnetic weapons, but scalar weapons are effectively negated. DR 5.

Bubble Shield: This is the second of the Noujous defensive shields and is a typical variety energy shield that covers the entire ship. The shield itself is of a respectable strength, , and is increased further by dozens of secondary shield generators, which increase power to the shield considerably when they detect a threat coming, or helping a damage area of the shields. DR 6.

Airlock System: There are many airlocks and junction spots over the Noujou, allowing for ships to load up the food grown on it, and for the pick up of people. They are efficient and use a complex multistage forcefield as well as the airtight doors and graviton beams. To cover any possible weakness in the hull, the air locks are covered with retractable Perfect Iron plates.

Escape Pods: There are escape pods over the outer layer of the Noujou, enough to carry all 400 crew. However these are simply escape pods, nothing fancy, carrying enough provisions to survive for a month in combination to an efficient air recycling system. To cover any possible weakness in the hull, the escape pods are covered with retractable Perfect Iron plates.

Environmental Systems: The environmental systems on the Noujou are very complex, due to the amount of control over the environment to yield the perfect crops. As such, the air tends to be damp, and rain falls regularly.

Air Recycling System: The air recycling system is very efficient, and combined with the photosynthesis of the crops, means that air does not need to be recycled in the foreseeable life of the ship.

Sensor and Computer Systems: The Noujou has a functional set of sensors and a computer. It can handle itself well, but since it is meant to be part of a fleet, does not need specialized sensors or advanced computers.

Central Computer System: The computer is advanced, fast, and utilizes super dense unitary partial quantum computation, but it is not sentient. NovaCorp has decided that one of the AI’s that Ephesus helps make would not be content with controlling a agricultural ship, and so has simply made it a very advanced ‘dumb’ computer. It can still perform almost any task required of it, and bio-neural interfaces work at nearly full efficiency.

Sensors: The sensors of the Noujou are reasonably basic. They allow it to get by fine, but not do anything fancy. It is quite clear that Kip got bored, and Ephesus was severed from the project by this point.

Gravitic Weapon (1): This is another side effect of the advanced gravitic drive. It allows parts of the ships powerful gravitic field to be focused at a target, forming a spike or maelstrom of conflicting and massively powerful gravitic forces. Even if it does not critically damage a ship, it could kill many of the crew, crushed to death.

Location: All around the ship. Primary Purpose: Anti-starship Secondary Purpose: Amy fighter/anti-,mecha Damage: 5 Range: 1/2 AU Rate of Fire: The shot can be continuous, a rolling maelstrom of gravitic energy. However it is not at its most powerful then, as it is with quick attacks of the spear head, which can be used every three seconds at a different target. Payload N/A

• Agricultural Drones (800) [description pending]