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This article was written by ToaFairon. Please do not add to it without the writer's permission.
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| Spaceship | |
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| Vehicle | |
| Function | To transport beings at rapid speed between planets or through space, to fight other spacecraft, transport cargo, facilitate communications between planets and other ships, space colonisation, space mining. |
| Status | In existence |
| Location | N/A |
| Pronunciation | N/A |
A spaceship, otherwise known as a spacecraft, is a vehicle or machine specifically designed for travel through space in the Kronian Multiverse Storyline. They are used for a great variety of purposes, including transport, battling, communication and other assorted means.
History[]
Prehistory and Infinian Airships[]
The first vehicles known as ships were large buoyant watercraft that were generally designed by the Infinus to travel across continents on Infina Magna. These vehicles, typically made of wood and, much later, steel Protodermis, were used during the First Great Infinus War as a method for the warring parties to transport their troops efficiently.
The steel Protodermis battleships form the basis for virtually all of the battleship and ship designs, with the first being the Airship I, designed by Hendrax. A prototypical spacecraft, the Airship I was the first to be able to go into space with the necessary facilities. The Airship I was unable to stay in space for a prolonged amount of time, and facilities and technology was needed to facilitate for this.
Throughout the Second Great Infinus War, a great amount of airships were used by both warring sides, and were the primary form of troop transport. The prototypical design that would later culminate in the creation of the Explorer-I and the later Titan-I was designed in this time.
The Explorer-I Project and the Creation of the First Trans-Warp Engine[]
After the Second Great Infinus War, when the population of Infina Magna migrated outwards to the Realm of Light, Hendrax and the rest utilised airships to do so, travelling to Dracia first, while allowing the others to go to other planets.
After having settled on Dracia, Hendrax appointed a commission to build a spacecraft able to withstand the forces of the expanses of space, as well as having the ability to stay in space for a prolonged, even infinite, period of time. He also commissioned several greatly skilled engineers to research a possible engine that allowed for crossing prolonged distances in short time.
Built and designed by Zirix' Royal Dracian Shipworks, the original batteships were meant as all-purpose spacecraft meant to carry cargo and beings around for larger distances, as well as be able to participate in battles in space, carrying small weapons.
Zirix and his Royal Dracian Shipworks also created the first ever Trans-Warp Engine as proposed by Hendrax, utilising the described technique to achieve higher energy levels to power the engines to be able to enter Trans-Warp Speed. Hendrax had utilised his powers and magnified those using the principles of nuclear energy.
The resulting battleship design, featuring the first Trans-Warp Enigne, was termed the Explorer-I, and became the basis upon which other battleships in the galaxy were built. The Explorer-I designs entered production for the Royal Dracian Space Navy, and one was also lended to Filius and Acritus when they travelled to Arcturus Magna in search of a new home.
Later utilisations and further developments[]
After the Explorer-I was set up, Hendrax ordered further commissions to look into the possibilities of ever larger, more expansive and faster spacecraft to take the Explorer's place. These projects culminated in the creation of the later Titan-I Battleship and an assortment of civillian spacecraft.
Unlike their battleship counterparts, civillian spaceships were primarily modelled on other designs of airships, primarily the zeppelin airship. Unlike the zeppelin, though, the bridge was not situated on the bottom of civillian spacecraft hulls, but on top of it.
Because of their hulls being modelled on the balloons of a zeppelin, the cargo space in civillian spacecraft was very much larger than that on a typical battleship, and soon enough, an interplanetary trade evolved utilising these kinds of civillian spacecraft.
When Dracia fell, an assortment of space battleships and civillian spaceships were used to help evacuate the Dracian population towards other planets, commanded by Fyxan from the Titan-I battleship.
Types of Spacecraft[]
Owing to the great variety of spacecraft having been created in the Kronian Multiverse, there is a great variety of types of spacecraft. Below are the most prominent types.
Battleship[]
The battleship is the most armoured and powerful form of all spacecraft, being that they carry the most powerful weaponry and most consistent. Due to this, they are also the third-largest spacecraft type, behind the as-yet conceptual Dreadnought and Space Carrier, while ahead of the Carrier-Cruiser, Space Cruiser and Destroyer.
They are typically equipped with three or more double- or triple-barrelled energy cannons, as well as a large array of smaller energy machine guns and torpedo launch platforms. They are also able to carry a small number of shuttles and fighters. The standard Trans-Warp Factor for battleships is T2.
Prominent battleships include the Titan-I Battleship and Titan-II Battleship.
Space Carrier[]
The space carrier is an as-yet conceptual spacecraft that is to be the largest form of spacecraft to come into existence. Their purpose would be, like their smaller brethren Carrier-Cruisers, to carry a large array of fighters and bombers while remaining more stationary themselves.
A prototype of the space carrier was built by the Arcturan Shipworks on the orders of Filius, but it was never finished in-time before the Universal Paralysis occurred and the Temporal Empire took over.
Dreadnought[]
The dreadnought is, like the space carrier, an as-yet conceptual type of spacecraft. Dreadnoughts are envisioned by Filius to be a more-advanced form of the battleship, being that it will be larger, more armoured, faster and carrying highly advanced weaponry.
A typical dreadnought would include anything between 5 to 9 large energy cannons, as well as an enormous amount of energy machine guns and torpedo launch platforms. They are also able to carry an array of shuttles and fighters. The prototype dreadnought had a potential Trans-Warp Factor of T3.
A prototype dreadnought was built by the Arcturan Shipworks on the orders of Filius, but like the other conceptual spacecraft, the Space Carrier, was never finished in-time before the Universal Paralysis occurred.
Carrier-Cruiser[]
The Carrier-Cruiser is a type of slightly-larger Space Cruiser that is specifically designed with the intent to carry light assault spacecraft, while also carrying its own armour and weaponry itself. They are less-armoured than the space carrier and the battleship.
Like the cruiser, their weaponry involves anything of up to 2 large energy cannons, as well as an array of energy machine guns. They are able to carry a great number of fighters and bombers, which is their primary purpose. They are, for this reason, equally armoured as the battleship, unlike their smaller cruiser brethren. Their Trans-Warp Factor, like the battleships, is T2.
Space Cruiser[]
The space cruiser is a smaller type of ship designed with the specific intent to operate independently and ahead of war fleets. For this reason, cruisers are often equipped with specialised engines that run faster in non-trans-warp flight than battleships.
Cruisers typically carry anything of up to 2 large energy cannons, as well as an array of energy machine guns and torpedo launch pads. Despite their firepower, though, the fact that they are less-armoured than actual battleships means that they are more vulnerable to enemy attacks. The average cruiser has a Trans-Warp capacity of Factor T2.
Destroyer[]
A space destroyer is a type of ship designed to escort larger ships and protect these larger ships against possible threats from other smaller ships. Their weaponry is typically light and involves small energy guns and missiles. Often, the cruiser-battleship ratio is 5 to 1. This means that cruisers are the military spacecraft produced in the largest numbers.
Destroyers typically carry a single small energy cannon, and an array of energy machine guns and torpedo launch pads. Their Trans-Warp capacity is, like the battleships, that of T2.
Civillian spacecraft[]
Civillian spacecraft are any spacecraft that are not intended for military purposes and, therefore, unarmed. They still have armour to protect them against the adverse conditions of travel in Trans-Warp, but their lack of weaponry means they are often unprotected against threats such as Space Pirates.
Freighters[]
Cargo freighters and freight carriers are the most common form of spaceship besides luxury civillian spacecraft, and are owned and operated by companies from all over the galaxy in order to transport goods, freight and cargo from one planet to the other.
Their hull is often large and zeppelin-shaped, with a large bridge on top, and a small assortment of weaponry, typically two light energy cannons. They are primarily capable of Trans-Warp T1 engines, though some firms from Arcturus Magna have invested in freighters with T2 capability.
Due to the amount of storage space they carry aboard, freighters are among the vessels most commonly stolen by the Space Pirates, though their hulls usually undergo customisation.
Vessels of the Space Pirates[]
The Space Pirates are known for their highly modified freighters, yachts, and stolen destroyers. The hull design of the vessel and its engines remain the same as their original state, but the Space Pirates are known for featuring colourful designs and Matoran skull insignias on the sides of their ships to signify their allegiance. Their weaponry remains the same, although it occasionally undergoes an upgrade.
Because the Space Pirates lack official shipyards for their spacecraft, there are no official design rules besides the insignia and graphic designs they use on their hulls. This means that the Space Pirates are often, besides their usual markers, hard to recognise.
Fighters[]
Space fighters are small spacecraft intended for combat-only purposes as opposed to the battleships and other military-type spacecraft. Their crew can range from one to three depending on the size of the fighter, and they are extremely versatile, as opposed to the larger warship classes.
Fighters are typically equipped with small weaponry like energy machine guns, as well as the occasional torpedo. They are typically equipped with a Trans-Warp T1 or T2 engine.
The operational usage of fighters ranges from taking down enemy fighters and bombers, bombing light targets, striking specific points of an enemy warship, or infiltration of enemy warships.
Bombers[]
Bombers are small spacecraft that are larger than fighters and usually carry a crew of at least two, intended for bombing specific targets of an enemy ship using either torpedo's or (on the surface of planets) carpet-bombing strategies. They are larger than their smaller fighter counterparts, and thus less versatile, though still more versatile than larger bomber classes.
Light bombers are typically equipped with energy machine guns, torpedoes, and their bombing payload. Heavier bombers are equipped with more machine guns, torpedoes and a bombing payload. They are equipped with a Trans-Warp T1 or T2 engine.
Their operational usage usually involves bombing crucial targets on enemy ships, firing torpedoes on enemy guns, and disabling key enemy positions.
Shuttles[]
Shuttles are small vehicles intended for carrying a specific being or group of beings from one location to the other, typically from a spaceship to a planet or from spaceship to spaceship. Some shuttles, though, have longer-range capabilities that include an on-board Trans-Warp T1 or T2 engine. Unlike fighters, shuttles are typically slower and less agile, but this is typically compensated with a range of heavier weaponry present on the shuttle, involving heavy energy machine guns.
Because of their small size and heavy weaponry, they are considered ideal for undercover operations requiring usage of stealth.
Fairon and his team made usage of shuttles on their mission to Ashatan. The Arcturan Space Fleet has an enormous range of shuttles for key figures, such as captains, commanders and even the President.
Yachts[]
Yachts are large, luxurious spaceships that are often employed and owned by politicians and rich business owners. They're characterised by their luxurious inner accommodations, facilities, and general size opposed to the rather utilitarian battleships, and are usually operated by one or more of its owners.
Yachts are typified by their low amount of weapons, if they carry any weapons at all, and their lack of heavy firepower in the case of having weapons on-board.
They are relatively fast vessels capable of Trans-Warp T2 flight, which makes them rather expensive to manufacture. For this reason, they are sometimes deployed by smugglers in order to smuggle goods across the galaxy.
Astro-Liners[]
Astro-Liners, or space liners, are large luxury passenger spacecraft manufactured specifically to transport a great amount of passengers and cargo from one planet to the other. Their designs mirror water-bound ocean liners, though their funnels are typically used as exhaust ports for their engine core rather than to let steam escape from the engines.
Astro-Liners are known for being capable of Trans-Warp T1 flight, though some of the faster liners are already capable of Trans-Warp T2. They are typically only lightly armed, with one or two light energy cannons mounted on the front and the stern.
Besides their primary purpose as Astro-Liners to transport goods, beings and other types of small cargo from one planet to the other, they can also serve as luxury cruise ships that cruise around the galaxy, giving the passengers a most picturesque journey through the galaxy.
Technical Details[]
The earliest ships featured hulls not very different from the floating battleships' hulls, though they were adjusted to the possibility of flight in the sky. They were held up by balloons and rotors, which were usually driven by burning Protodermis. After the discovery of Energised Protodermis and the possibility of a nuclear Protodermis element, ships were equipped with a nuclear energy drive that powered the rotors. The hull was changed as well, with a primary element becoming armoured Steel Protodermis, which became the building block upon which most ships are built to this day. The bridge design was changed as well, and more aerodynamic changes were made, including the addition of wings. After awhile, the hull shape took its definitive shape when the first trans-warp engines were being developed.
The first gravity field engines, powered by non-elemental anti-gravity generators, made the first spaceflights possible. The first type of propulsion spacecraft made use of fuel engines, but after trans-warp engines were developed, the usage of planetary gravity fields and ion thrusters became the main means of propulsion in space.
Hulls[]
Ship hulls are typically designed to be a more aerodynamic version of simple floating ships' hulls, with wings and nacelles being commonplace on a ship hull. A bridge is also a commonplace feature on a ship. A ship's hull is designed from hardened and armoured steel Protodermis, owing to its strength as a material and its capability to withstand trans-warp velocity. Large wings with nacelles are typically located further aft than the bridge, near the main thrusters. The Energy Reactor is typically located right below the bridge, in the engineering section. The nacelles can be reached through the shafts in the wings.
Spacecraft hulls are designed to be a spaceflight-capable version of terrestrial vehicles, such as floating battleships, zeppelins or planes. Their hulls are always made of upgraded and highly-armoured steel Protodermis, owing to its strength as a material and its capability to withstand Trans-Warp velocities.
Larger ships are typically known for having a bridge on top of the hull, usually slightly aft - this is also the case in the zeppelin-based hull designs, where the bridge is on top instead of the terrestrial variant where the bridge is usually below the hull. Larger ships are also known to have at least one Trans-Warp nacelle that powers the Trans-Warp drive, although more advanced ships carry as many as 3 Trans-Warp nacelles. These nacelles are engines situated on wings that are tilted aft-wards and are intended for stability during Trans-Warp spaceflight. The Energy Reactor is typically situated right below the bridge in the engineering section, or, in the case of fighters, slightly more aft than the cockpit.
Bridge[]
On larger spacecraft and warships, a bridge is always present as the centre of command and operations on board of the ship. It was the central hub of all activity on board of a ship, including communication, order relays, and piloting the ship. Also, depending on the purpose of the ship, there were stations dedicated to weaponry and scanning as well.
Though bridge lay-outs differ, they typically featured a slightly raised captain's control panel, from which the captain was provided an overview over the bridge and its several control stations. In front of the captain's control panel, an aisle was located with stations left and right intended for the operation of technology on-board of the ship, such as navigation and piloting, radars, engineering, and weaponry. More advanced spacecraft typically contain the possibility for the captain to operate the ship's most basic functions, such as piloting, Trans-Warp travel, radars and larger weaponry, on his or her own. For these larger warships to be utilised to the fullest of their potential, though, they would need a far larger crew.
Engineering Section[]
Larger spacecraft and warships typically have an engineering section present in the lower decks. The engineering section is concerned with everything from the operation of the Trans-Warp nacelles to the weaponry and main thrusters. Typically, an engineering section cannot be accessed by unauthorised personnel for security reasons.
Life-Support[]
It is essential for each spaceship to carry life support systems on-board to provide the necessary oxygen to be able to breathe without a breathing apparatus. In the case of larger spacecraft, these life support systems are located below the bridge, near the Energy Reactor. On smaller spacecraft like fighters or shuttles, life support systems are typically contained in the core itself.
Trans-Warp Nacelles[]
The Trans-Warp nacelles are, on larger spacecraft, warships, and Trans-Warp capable fighters, the most important features for allowing the spacecraft capability of travel at Trans-Warp velocities. Technically, Trans-Warp nacelles are the ship's features responsible for transmitting the energy and propelling a ship forward into Trans-Warp speed.
Cockpit[]
On smaller spacecraft, a bridge is not present, and instead a cockpit is present. This cockpit is typically the only occupied space within the ship, given its small size, and contains all the necessary machinery to operate the ships. Single-pilot fighters typically include cockpits that are suitable for one being, and have all controls of the ship within reach of the pilot. Multi-pilot fighters and bombers have more cockpits with functions spread out across these, though the most important piloting functions are still allocated to the pilot's cockpit.
Armaments[]
Larger spacecraft and warships are equipped with a great variety of armaments, which are the primary means of defense for any such ship. The primary armaments present on-board of spacecraft are light and heavy energy cannons, energy machine-guns and missile launching pads. Energy cannons were the main armaments of warships, firing beams or pulses of high-energy particles. The energy for these armaments comes from secondary energy generators aboard the ship.
Besides energy cannons, lighter energy guns and energy machine-guns were used as the secondary armaments for warships, which operate in much the same way as the cannons but are far less powerful.
Some warships, especially newer ones developed by the Galactic Council, also carry an array of missile launch pads that enables the warship to fire torpedoes from a certain range. Due to a limited capability of guiding these torpedoes, their range is more limited than that of energy weaponry.
Fighter spacecraft typically carry energy machine-guns, though bombers and shuttles may also carry an energy gun and energy bombs.
Energy Reactor[]
The energy reactor at the core of each ship, also known as the Core or just simply "the Reactor", is the power core and engine of each ship, powering each ship using high-energy particles that are accelerated to create immense speeds. The original Energy Reactor was accidentally created when Hendrax fired a blast of light into a protective room with no oxygen, the resulting light energy grew intensely. As the energy grew and grew, Hendrax released the energy and fired it at an object, that was promptly destroyed. When Hendrax once more tried the experiment, but channelled the energy into an engine he had built, the engine's acceleration rate was intensely high.
Hendrax then set out to put the energy reactor into the core of a ship he had built, no longer needing burning Protodermis to power his ships. He also realised the potential the new engines gave for spaceflight, and the first spaceships were thusly commissioned with Hendrax's engine design. Hendrax's designs were the first trans-warp capable engines as well, capable of what is now referred to as T-1 trans-warp speed.
After Hendrax disappeared, the development of trans-warp-capable engines and alternatives to the Energy Reactors became largely the providence of technical bounty hunters and technical beings. Shadon, a young Toa of Iron and technician alongside Lev, became notable in the development of the first T-2 trans-warp-capable engines, doubling the speed of the original trans-warp engines, also increasing the mass of the core and its strength. These Reactors were placed into the Titan-I battleship.
Due to the high amounts of energy and radiation within the reactors of a larger spacecraft, the Galactic Council has adopted a policy of incapacitation rather than total destruction, for the total destruction of an energy reactor would not just result in the destruction of the ship carrying it, but the explosion could be powerful enough to at the least damage other spacecraft.
Crew[]
Larger spacecraft, specifically warships, freighters and Astro-Liners, require a larger crew in order to continue operating and to maintain the ship constantly. Due to an advance in technological developments, however, warships are requiring a smaller crew due to an ever-larger number of operations being taken over by the ship's on-board computers. A notable case of such a ship is the Titan-II Battleship, where the ship's on-board computer can operate the larger weaponry and the engines.
Despite this, a truly single-pilot warship will probably not exist due to the sheer scale of operations of a warship and the fact that an engineering crew is near-essential for the operation of a ship to its full potential. This is due to the large amount of maintenance that an Energy Reactor might require on missions of a longer duration.
Manufacturing[]
Spacecraft are manufactured in specialised shipyards, which are sometimes situated on planets or their moons, and sometimes elsewhere in space stations, depending on the planet's room for manufacturing facilities and its technological advancement. The most notable manufacturing shipyards currently in the galaxy are the Asera Shipyards, serving Azzilat and its space fleet, the Arcturus Mina Shipyards, situated on Arcturus Mina and serving the space fleet of Arcturus Magna and the Galactic Council Space Fleet, and the specialised shipyards situated in the Galactic-1, which serve the Galactic Council Space Fleet directly.
Trivia[]
- Battleships and the general idea behind them were based on the idea of Space Battleship Yamato. The in-universe battleships also generally resemble battleships turned into spaceships, in a similar fashion to the aforementioned Yamato.
- Spacecraft and their designs are based on the designs of earthly vehicles - like battleships, aeroplanes, ocean liners or zeppelins - converted into spaceships. The difference between earthly zeppelins and civillian spacecraft is the fact that the bridge in civillian spacecraft is on top, rather than on the bottom.
Appearances[]
- Dark Future (shuttles and battleships)