"Candle"-class shuttle is typical type of shuttle that used to carry passengers and small cargo to and from orbits around gravity wells. Equipped with [[Artificial_gravity|repulsor]] modules, ship doesn't requires multi-staged rocket assistance for flying to the orbit (as with most of alliance tech, designed for atmospheric re-entry) and capable of making three cycles "gravity well climb - docking approach - atmospheric re-entry" until refueling(provided minimal load). Shuttle capabilities allow it for short-ranged flights to nearby orbits, which makes it primary transportation service of short distances between planets, space stations or moons.
"Candle"-class shuttle is typical type of shuttle that used to carry passengers and small cargo to and from orbits around gravity wells. Equipped with [[Technologies#Antigravity|repulsor]] modules, ship doesn't requires multi-staged rocket assistance for flying to the orbit (as with most of alliance tech, designed for atmospheric re-entry) and capable of making three cycles "gravity well climb - docking approach - atmospheric re-entry" until refueling(provided minimal load). Shuttle capabilities allow it for short-ranged flights to nearby orbits, which makes it primary transportation service of short distances between planets, space stations or moons.
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Latest revision as of 03:10, 10 July 2022
All ships are divided between civilian types and military types. These in turn divided further based on their size and specific role.
Categories apply to all ships, but mainly this is based on ship crew size rather than simply length. A separate category exists for unmanned ships that have no crew at all, like satellites or drones.
Most ships with small crew and length below 50-60m. These are corvettes, shuttles, and such. Some ships don't even offer the ability to stand up in the cockpit, and rarely have the ability to support life for more than several days or week.
Main ships
Most broad class, including most ships with crews below one thousand members and length below 1 km. These ships can stay autonomous for long periods of time, several years in some cases.
Heavy Ships(Core ships)
Ships with a length of over 1 kilometer and with a crew numbered in more than a thousand members. These ships form the core of the military and expeditionary fleets (Named - Core Ships in this case), providing docks and manufacturing capabilities to issue maintenance and repair of other ships, making the entire fleet be able to operate away from supply bases for extended periods of time.
Carrier ships
The largest of ships, crews (or, rather, 'population') can reach up to hundreds of thousands, and ships themselves are kilometers long. These are the largest ships that exist in the galaxy and are usually prided as jewels of the technological prowess of the ship's builders. Usually, they're fully autonomous and require only raw materials for functionality.
Space constructs and stations
Separate class with broad criteria of apply. The only mandatory condition is a lack of ability to leave the current orbit.
Spaceship operation and ownership
The absolute majority of existing spaceships are legally owned and crewed by the Alliance as its property. Since most ships are capable of producing high thrust for months at a time, any ship can be trivially made into a weapon of mass destruction capable of obliterating entire continents of a planet, also known as a relativistic kill vehicle.
All ships within Alliance space, therefore, are rented out from the Alliance, along with the crew. In most civilian classes if a ship carries passengers, crew compartments and passenger compartments are electronically airgapped and physically separated so that one cannot reach one section from the other without the need of a spacewalk. This is done to minimize the possibility of hijacking. In addition to that, spaceships are prohibitively expensive assets to maintain. Almost all spaceships not owned by the Alliance directly are owned by various corporations, and are required to have the same restrictions to their usage and an Alliance overseer onboard to operate independently. What little remains are mostly various luxury craft owned by rich individuals, that often do not extend past the Light ship classification.
Ships not owned or approved by the Alliance's security for independent action required to follow strict flight plans and telegraph any maneuvers in advance to any listening posts in the system. Failure to do so can result in anything from patrol boarding to immediate termination - since the price for inaction might be the life of billions.
Types of ships
Note: "length" is ship's longest axis measurement. It can, or cannot match the orientation of ship decks. Most ships that do not capable of atmospheric re-entry and do not have artificial gravity generators have their decks arranged perpendicular to ship's vector of thrust.
Range, for ships without hypergenerator installed, is calculated based on a distance they will cover by exhausting 50% of their fuel, flying at acceleration rate of 1G (including deceleration phase). For ships with hypergenerator, it is the maximal distance they can cover with a single jump.
Civilian
Cargo ships
Truck ship "Arrow"
Arrow
Class
Light ship
Type
Truck
Length
15 m - 2000 m
Dry mass
200 tonnes
Agility
low
Crew
2
Passengers
1
Gravity
no
Autonomy
1 month
Hyperdrive
Optional hypergenerator segment block
Range
12 AU
Max. Acceleration
20G - 1G
Weapons
Optional turret segment block
Additional cargo
1 mln tonnes
Description
One of the main means of goods transportations between planets and systems of Alliance. Cargo ship has modular chain design, capable at towing 450 fully loaded containers, with overal carrying capacity of 1 mln tonnes with length of chain of 2 km. Thanks to it's powerful engines, Arrow have unusually high mobility for it's specialization (without the load ship can achieve impressive acceleration, and even can be used as a courier), but because of design, while carrying cargo ship cannot afford significant trajectory changes, which is why it was named "Arrow". Too much maneuvering causes to chain of containers snap with catastrophic results, because of tail section's inertia. These cargo trucks being loaded while they're already pointing in the direction of their future trajectory. In case of full load, Arrows often being equipped with additional tail engine section, which helps with acceleration and deceleration. By default ship don't have any FTL capabilities, but hypergenerator can be installed in place of one of first containers.
Super truck ship "Pillar"
Pillar
Class
Main ship
Type
Cargo barge
Length
100 m - 2200 m
Dry mass
22500 tonnes
Agility
Very low
Crew
13
Passengers
20
Gravity
none
Autonomy
5 months
Hyperdrive
yes
Range
500 light years
Max. Acceleration
2G - 0.1G
Weapons
no
Complement
• 2 shuttles
• 3 tow ports
• 6 escape pods
Additional cargo
430 mln tonnes
Description
The big brother of "Arrow". The ship is used for transporting medium and high amounts of cargo between star systems. Using the same chain method of loading as "Arrow", Pillar can load up to 384 chains at the same time, 173 thousand containers in total, which allows for 430 mln tonnes of cargo capacity. The ship's size is one of its weak points. "Pillar" has one of the largest and most powerful engines of ships its class, which means large fuel consumption. The ship accelerates very slowly, and decelerates just as slowly, and often requires additional tugs to help with these stages of flight and tugging it into the unloading zone. This adds up to a significant operational cost for the Pillar, so these ships used less often than Arrows.
Tanker
Lake
Class
Heavy ship
Type
tanker
Length
1034 m
Dry mass
220 000 tonnes
Agility
very low
Crew
25
Passengers
20
Gravity
centrifugal
Autonomy
8 months
Hyperdrive
yes
Range
500 LY
Max. Acceleration
5G - 0.5G
Weapons
no
Complement
• 2 shuttles • 5 escape pods
Additional cargo
10.8 Bln liters
Description
Large ship designed to carry huge amounts of gases or liquids. Usually, it is carrying water, oxygen, hephrene or other resources to colonies and space stations, and it is used in the military as a resupply ship for fleets working far from supply stations. Originally this ship design was created by Iss, and was later modified with more modern Alliance technology.
• 20 atmospheric shuttles • 6 cargo shuttles • 4 orbital barges • 3 shipyards for docking and repair of other ships
• 2000 escape pods
Additional cargo
25 mln tonnes
Description
"Dawn" class ships are serving as core ships of several expeditionary fleets, tasked with exploration and mapping of uncharted star systems inside and outside of Alliance space. Designed and built by raharrs, they are like mobile cities, their central section capable of sustaining population of thousands for an extended periods of time. The ship is not designed for military application and does not have any weapons. Its laser turrets are civilian-grade and calibrated for close-range debris destruction. "Dawn" class ships are among the largest in service. "Dawn" class is so large, in fact, that they exhibit registrable gravitational field of their own that needs to be accounted for during the docking process.
Light ships
Courier ship
Signal
Class
Light Ship
Type
Courier ship
Length
63 m
Dry mass
1070 tonnes
Agility
high
Crew
2-4
Passengers
up to 5
Gravity
no
Autonomy
2 month (Up to several hundred years with cryochambers)
Hyperdrive
yes
Range
150 LY
Max. Acceleration
up to 25G
Weapons
no
Additional cargo
10 tonnes
Description
Courier ships are used for carrying important passengers and data, that cannot be trusted to regular transportation or needed to be delivered in hurry. They possess no weaponry, but their engines outclass almost every other ship, and top acceleration is capped by crew's tolerance more than anything. For extra-long missions, a version outfitted with cryocapsules exists, with the crew being in suspended animation for most of the flight, which helps to drastically increase the autonomy of the ship and the acceleration the crew can withstand.
Service ships
Atmospheric Shuttle
Candle
Class
Light ship
Type
Surface-to-orbit shuttle
Length
36 m
Dry mass
140 tonnes
Agility
high
Crew
2-4
Passengers
up to 20
Gravity
no
Autonomy
3 weeks
Hyperdrive
no
Range
up to two LH
Max. Acceleration
up to 6-7G
Weapons
no
Additional cargo
10 tonnes (50 if fill up the interior as well)
Description
"Candle"-class shuttle is typical type of shuttle that used to carry passengers and small cargo to and from orbits around gravity wells. Equipped with repulsor modules, ship doesn't requires multi-staged rocket assistance for flying to the orbit (as with most of alliance tech, designed for atmospheric re-entry) and capable of making three cycles "gravity well climb - docking approach - atmospheric re-entry" until refueling(provided minimal load). Shuttle capabilities allow it for short-ranged flights to nearby orbits, which makes it primary transportation service of short distances between planets, space stations or moons.
Atmospheric cargo shuttle
Orbiter
Class
Light ship
Type
Surface-to-orbit shuttle
Length
76 m
Dry mass
570 tonnes
Agility
high-medium
Crew
2-4
Passengers
up to 150
Gravity
no
Autonomy
up to 3 weeks
Hyperdrive
no
Range
up to three LH
Max. Acceleration
up to 4-5G
Weapons
no
Additional cargo
350 tonnes (30 tonnes in passenger configuration)
Description
Orbiter is similar to Candle in many technical aspects, but have wider fuselage and most of it's internal space taken by cargo hold. Exist in primarily two configurations, ordinary cargo shuttles specialize in carrying supplies and goods from and to orbit, passenger configuration specializes on transporting large amounts of passengers. Passenger configuration often used for short-distance liner flights between planets, stations and moons.
Shuttle
Drone
Class
Light ship
Type
orbit-to-orbit shuttle
Length
19 m
Dry mass
25 tonnes
Agility
low
Crew
1-3
Passengers
up to 10
Gravity
no
Autonomy
up to 1 week
Hyperdrive
no
Range
up to 2 LM
Max. Acceleration
up to 6-7G
Weapons
no
Additional cargo
1 tonne
Description
"Drone"-class shuttles are used for space-bound transportation between stations and ships that are too large for casual docking maneuvers. Due their light frame, they are incapable of atmospheric re-entry or carrying large amounts of cargo.
Escape pod
the Shell
Class
Light ship
Type
escape pod
Length
6 m
Dry mass
5 tonnes
Agility
medium
Crew
1
Passengers
5
Gravity
no
Autonomy
1 week, two weeks-worth of rations for 6 passengers
Hyperdrive
no
Range
10 000km
Max. Acceleration
up to 2-3G
Weapons
no
Description
The Shell is a standard class of escape pods used in catastrophic events on space ships. All ships of Main class required to carry enough escape pods for their crew. In reality, escape pods used relatively rarely, as most emergencies do not require abandoning of the ship, or there is no place to escape to. "Shell" have utilitarian shape, perfected in pre-expansion era of space flight with crew capsules of primitive multistage rockets, flying on ballistic trajectories during their re-entry. In specific cases escape pod can be used if there's another ship nearby, that can pick it up. Pod itself have very limited amount of fuel, that is enough only to orient itself in space and make single decelerating burn aimed at degrading orbit. It equiped with repulsor, but while it plays important role with reducing g-forces during re-entry, it is nearly not enough to achieve levitation. "Shell" can make de-orbit both on land and in water, producing inflatable 10m-diameter raft in the latter case. Aside from survival kits, each capsule have radio transmitter, that helps to find it's location by rescue parties.
Orbital barge
Fountain
Class
Main ship
Type
"surface to orbit" class Orbital barge
Length
140 m
Dry mass
5500 tonnes
Agility
Very low
Crew
4-5
Passengers
up to 50
Gravity
none
Autonomy
up to 3 weeks
Hyperdrive
none
Range
none
Max. Acceleration
0.1G
Weapons
none
Additional cargo
25000 tonnes
Description
Orbital barges are used for ferrying large amounts of cargo to and from orbit, in instances where using cargo shuttles is unfeasible. It is a large platform outfitted with powerful repulsors and small engine. Usually barge starts up from a planet, obtaining necessary height via repulsors, and then catching up to necessary orbital speeds with it's engines. After that the cargo detaches and is carried away by tugs.
Military
Unmanned
Drone
Drone
Class
Drone
Type
Heavy drone
Length
8 m
Dry mass
6 tonnes
Agility
very high
Autonomy
1 day
Range
300000 km
Max. Acceleration
50G
Weapons
• 3 laser guns • 3 particle emitters
Description
unmanned semi-autonomous drone that Alliance, raharrs specifically, use in most space battles.
These drones can fight by themselves, attack targets and evade enemy fire. But they require command station with operator or operators, who assign targets and handle things that simple AI cannot, like strategy of attack. Due being unmanned, these things are scarily agile and fast, designed to withstand accelerations up to 50G.
But, as they fast and agile, they also quite predictable and fragile. Drones are relatively cheap, so you can afford lots of them, and not worry about causalities. Typical "zerg rush" strategy is applied in most cases, and usually less than 20% of drones survive that battle, if any.
Основные
Patrol ship
Stream
Class
Main ship
Type
frigate
Length
110 m
Dry mass
2660 tonnes
Agility
high
Crew
10
Passengers
10
Gravity
no
Autonomy
3 months
Hyperdrive
yes
Range
120 LY
Max. Acceleration
10G
Weapons
• 2 particle turrets • 2 laser turrets
Complement
• 1 shuttle
• 4 drones
• 2 escape pods
Additional cargo
1 500 tonnes
Description
Patrol ships are tasked with policing and guarding star systems and serving as first stage of customs if necessary. Often carry 4 additional drones to make sure that offender doesn't try to escape.
Rocket Destroyer
Cloud
Class
Main ship
Type
Destroyer
Length
175 m
Dry mass
13 000 tonnes
Agility
medium
Crew
12
Passengers
6
Gravity
no
Autonomy
4 months
Hyperdrive
yes
Range
125 LY
Max. Acceleration
9G
Weapons
• 2174 nuclear missiles • 16 laser turrets
Complement
• 2 escape pods
Additional cargo
700 tonnes
Description
Missile destroyers carry 2174 chaser-class nuclear missiles, capable of locating and hitting target at distances up to 3 AU (assuming ballistic trajectory target). Destroyers usually remain on the edge of battlefield, barraging enemy with salvos of rockets from afar. Missiles are completely autonomous, and keep trying to reach designated target until their fuel runs or their destruction. Missiles lock at target via various optical sensors, mainly in infrared spectre. Rockets are very vulnerable to laser point-defences and do not have impressive maneuvering abilities, so they rarely used as main attacking means. But missiles still carry 2.5 Mt nuclear warhead, so if missile manages to slip past point-defence system, results are often devastating, smaller ships being obliterated with a single hit.
Cruiser
Flame
Class
Main ship
Type
Light Cruiser
Length
266 m
Dry mass
23 000 tonnes
Agility
medium
Crew
16
Passengers
6
Gravity
no
Autonomy
10 months
Hyperdrive
yes
Range
300 LY
Max. Acceleration
8G
Weapons
• 16 particle turrets • 8 laser turrets
Complement
• 1 shuttle • 8 escape pods
Additional cargo
500 tonnes
Description
Light cruser forms main bulk of a fleet, it's high customability makes them useful in a wide variety of application, from frontal assaults or guarding duties to escort or recon missions.
Heavy cruisears are amongst biggest ships of the battlefield. These ships designed for combat at mid and close ranges, delivering devastating damage with their kinetic rounds. Heavy cruisers have two spinal mounted railgun mass drivers for assaults, capable of throwing multi-tonne tungsten slugs at speeds of 3000 km\s, which gives them kinetic energy equivalent of 2.1 Mt warhead. Since mass drivers are spinal-mounted, they used for assaults on large and unmaneuverable targets, such as other heavy ships or defensive space platforms.
Dominator
Dominator
Class
Main ship
Type
Dominator
Length
600+ m
Dry mass
270 000 tonnes
Agility
low
Crew
100
Passengers
30
Gravity
no
Autonomy
2 years
Hyperdrive
yes
Range
400 LY
Max. Acceleration
7G
Weapons
• 54 particle turrets
• 80 laser turrets • 20 kinetic heavy turrets • (optionally) 2-4 railgun mass drivers
• 2000 nuclear missiles
Complement
• 4 shuttles
• 4 atmospheric shuttles • 4 boarding pods
• 20 escape pods
Additional cargo
1 500 tonnes
Description
Dominator are the heaviest ships in the military, with weaponry load rivaling that of a orbital defense platforms. Their purpose is to capture and secure strategically important areas of space. Sometimes dominators can seize entirety of planet's orbital space by just arriving on the battlefield without firing a single shot, since it's capabilities makes it impossible to fight with it on equal grounds with anything short of a significant fleet, or another Dominator.
Carriers
Drone carrier
Drone carrier
Class
Main ship
Type
Drone control and transport
Length
494 m
Dry mass
170 000 tonnes
Agility
low
Crew
23
Passengers
5
Gravity
no
Autonomy
1 year
Hyperdrive
yes
Range
500 ly
Max. Acceleration
7G
Weapons
• 16 laser turrets • 4 particle turrets
Complement
• 524 drones
• 30 reserved drones • 2 shuttles
• 6 escape pods
Additional cargo
150 tonnes
Description
These ships can manipulate up to three times more drones than they can carry, in case that some of them will be destroyed in battle, but usually each ship controls only their own drone flocks. Despite large size, actual living sector of the ship is very cramped, being squeezed in between drone launch batteries, docking hangar and engineering section with reactor and engines.