Spaceships

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.

Classification

Light ships

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, enabling the entire fleet to operate away from supply bases for extended periods.

Motherships

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
Skeleton crew	10
Passengers	10
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
Skeleton crew	23
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
Skeleton 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.

Expeditionary

Expedition vessel

Dawn
Class	Core ship
Type	Mobile research and exploration base
Length	4800 m
Dry mass	2,2 Bln tonnes
Agility	very low
Skeleton crew	466
Passengers	15 000 - 100 000 (Drum only)
Gravity	centrifugal
Autonomy	10 years
Hyperdrive	yes
Range	1200 LY
Max. Acceleration	0.5G
Weapons	• 50 civilian laser turrets
Complement	• 60 shuttles   • 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	75 m
Dry mass	1070 tonnes
Agility	high
Skeleton crew	8-12
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
Skeleton 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
Skeleton 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
Skeleton crew	0-1
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
Skeleton crew	1
Passengers	6
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. 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
Skeleton crew	4-10
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.

Main

Patrol ship

Stream
Class	Main ship
Type	frigate
Length	110 m
Dry mass	2660 tonnes
Agility	high
Skeleton crew	60
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
Skeleton crew	80
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
Skeleton crew	76
Passengers	6
Gravity	no
Autonomy	10 months
Hyperdrive	yes
Range	300 LY
Max. Acceleration	8G
Weapons	•  16 particle turrets   • 16 laser turrets   • 50 nuclear missiles
Complement	• 8 escape pods
Additional cargo	500 tonnes
Description	Light cruiser forms the main bulk of a fleet, it's high customizability makes them useful in a wide variety of application, from frontal assaults and guarding duties to escort and recon missions.

Heavy Cruiser

Sunset
Class	Main Ship
Type	Heavy cruiser
Length	470 m
Dry mass	120 000 tonnes
Agility	low
Skeleton crew	156
Passengers	20
Gravity	no
Autonomy	1 year
Hyperdrive	yes
Range	300 LY
Max. Acceleration	7G
Weapons	• 6 particle turrets   • 28 laser turrets   • 10 kinetic heavy turrets   • 300 nuclear missiles   • 2 railgun mass drivers
Complement	• 2 shuttles   • 2 boarding pods   • 16 escape pods
Additional cargo	1 500 tonnes
Description	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
Skeleton crew	200
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
Skeleton crew	63
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.