Shiplore - do NOT reply in that thread!

[Jinx]

name: GMG "Karasu" Heavy Fighter
mass: 80 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: Space superiority Fighter/Heavy Interceptor
history: The Karasu is a classic heavy fighter design with the unique ability to sustain vacuum pressure as well as atmospheric pressure up to even the lower layers of a gas giant. It is this ability that allowed GMG forces to withdraw from Rheinland forces during the 80 years war and still serves these unique ships well today.
Equipped with a single internal Reactor, the ship is an engineering marvel with an almost 65% engine efficiency to thrust ratio. It requires no heatsink and is able to mask its signature in a nebula efficiently. Each Karasu is equipped with a special sensor array allowing it to detect signals in even the densest nebula.
All that comes at the cost of leaving only little excess energy for its weaponsystems, but Karasu pilots proved to adapt well to burst fire runs rather than sustained weaponfire.

The Karasu is a comparably cheap fighter ship. It is also easy to maintain and proved to be very durable. Its outer layers armor plating is covered by an anti corrosive layer and anti radiation layer allowing longer missions without maintenance.

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name: GMG Freighter "Garanchou"
mass: 220 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 2(4)
designated usage: Gas Freighter/Superheavy Escort
history: The Garanchou is a ship of the 2nd generation. It features a streamlined hull similar to that of the Karasu for the purpose of sustaining low as well as high pressures. Like the Karasu it can dive into lower layers of gas giants to loose attackers.
Equipped with two independent internal reactors of the same type used in the Karasu, the ship requires very little maintenance at a very efficient engine ratio.
Garanchou ships usually fly in convoys and are fully capable of protecting themselves. They are designed to be fast enough to hunt and destroy bombers and escape from gunboats. Like the Karasu they can easily mask their trail in nebulas but are not equipped with the same sensors.
Variations of the Garanchou freighter include conversions to full SHF class escort ships. In those variants these ships loose their cargo capability and replace the freed up mass with two additional reactors. Those variants are very much feared among attackers, because it is very hard to distinguish between the freighter type and the SHF type, while the freighter packs quite a punch already, the SHF variant almost doubles the weaponpower as well as the armor.

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name: GMG Bomber "Kaichou"
mass: 200 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1(2)
designated usage: Heavy Bomber
history: The Kaichou is the oldest design in the GMG arsenal. Its origins are clearly visible as Kusari still. Originally assisted by Kishiro in its first design, it has kept this distinct shape over the decades. Although the Kaichou is one of the oldest bombers in Sirius, it has also been and still is among the most successful ones.
Even today it is one of the smallest bombers featuring two massive external reactors capable of firing charges of antimatter at a staggering rate. The latest design features one dual antimatter pod and was updated deployed in 817 AS as a prototype.
Due to its earlier origins and different design, the Kaichou is not able to enter even the outer layers of a gas giant without significant structural damage but its size and speed allows it to escape most perilous situations with ease.
Despite its age, the GMG never shared its design with even its closest allies and so the Kaichou has become a more efficient bomber with each update introduced without ever facing a true match.

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name: Kingfisher
mass: 90 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: long range Courier
history: The history of the Kingfisher is a history of failure. Initially meant to be the first Contribution to the civilian and siriuswide shipmarket, the Kingfisher failed to achieve ANY of its goals. Zoner engineers wanted to build a fast, long range vessel with sufficient firepower to destroy bombers and other soft targets.

Everything failed however when the reactor provided too little power. Zoners first tried to contract GMG for their Garanchou reactor design but were rejected. The replacement was a generally available CTE reactor, which provided too little energy for its four huge engines.
With the engines being underfed by power, the weaponsystems got it even worse. Hardly enough to fire even light weapons its ability to defend itself was rated "poor".

In the end, Zoners gave the design to a civilian manufacturer. Today the Kingfisher is mostly purchased by tinkerers and engineers. The ship itself is considered to be tuning friendly and many a pilots have configured these ships to race in official races with moderate to high success.

All in all however, the Kingfisher project threw Zoners back by almost a decade in terms of producing their own fighter shipline.

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name: Osprey
mass: 180 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: Heavy Long Range Escort
history: The Osprey is the brainchild of the Kingfisher. Similar in design and structure - it features a rounder hull and a new cockpit configuration. Zoners were finally able to purchase GMG Garanchou reactors for their new fighter design allowing them sufficient power to achieve most of the goals of this project.

The Ospreys four engines provide enough thrust to keep up with even the larger engines of the Conference gunboat with ease - while being capable of vectoring the thrust and keeping the agility of a fightercraft. Superior firepower and a state of the art targetting system complete the package making the Osprey the first successful Zoner design.
Each Osprey is equipped with the latest life support systems and even a sleeper cell for extended journeys. Zoner keep these ships for themselves and only very few are reported to have passed to the free market.

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name: Zoner Gunboat "Conference"
mass: 6200 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 3(12)
designated usage: Courier/Short Range Explorer/Capital Escort
history: The Conference was introduced as a Borderworlds/Edgeworld armoured transport. Its primary mission was to take any damage and being able to escape from any perilous situation. Fighting back was only a secondary issue.
The latest incarnation features two massive external reactors feeding its single engine and two smaller reactors fueling the weaponsystems. In time it underwent many variations - and the latest version features two more heavy weaponsystems than the original version.
In contrast to many fully military gunboats, the Conference comes with very generous space for its crew. Each member usually has their own cabins; the ship also features space for research labs, larger cargobays or even recreation rooms.
What makes the conference so reliable is the amount of redundant systems. Each ship comes with at least three backup systems, contributing to a rare of not a single conference being confirmed "lost" due to technical failures in its entire history.
The Conference is mostly regarded as a civilian transport and not a military vessel by many authorities but has seen ample amounts of combat in the recent years.

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name: Fearless Destroyer
mass: 680000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 12(40)
designated usage: Heavy Supply Transport/Fleet Escort
history: The Fearless has been in service for a long time. It is surprisingly small yet allows generous amounts of cargo. This ship is generally used by Zoners to support their edgeworld Freeports and are usually capable of defending themselves.
The Fearless' most striking feature is its rounded hull design. While more expensive to manufacture, it allows a significantly greater protection from blast damage and many beam and particle weapons. Similar to the GMG Karasu and Garanchou, the Fearless is capable of diving into the outer layers of a gas giant without harm.
Its achilles heel is and always has been the rather weak engines providing just enough thrust to travel at a sufficient pace, but too weak to accelerate well in a combat situation.
These ships are usually not used for pure civilian missions due to their limited customizable space, low engine rating and high maintenance cost.

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name: Corvo
mass: 720000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 3(40)
designated usage: Researcher/Long Range Explorer
history: The Corvo is a very new design. Its original design was not created by Zoners, but sold to Livadia along with all the rights. The most important feature about the Corvo is its simplicity. Only three people can fully operate the entire ship leaving room for a large team of specialists to do research.

The Corvo is capable of siriuswide communication and is equipped with a state of the art early warning system. Corvos are often build for independent teams and cooperations. Their technology is mostly compatible to siriuswide shipyards allowing easy maintenance.
No Corvo is really the same; almost every Corvo is customized for the users needs. Variants range from heavier armed or armored designs up to Corvos with highly specific research labs.

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name: Aquillon Light Carrier
mass: 3200000
necessary crew (usual crew): 800(1000)
designated usage: Perimeter Guard
history: The Aquillon is the only pure military ship deployed by Zoners. In true terms it is mislabelled a true carrier, because it does not possess combat-launch capabilities. Equipped with two large shielded docking bays and one large repair bay the ship is mostly used as a borderstation for short range supply ships.

Aquillon class ships are small and tough. They do not offer any luxory for the crew and their missiontime doesn t exceed more than three months at a time.

Although the design is based on the much heavier Nephilim design, the production cost of those battleship class ships is less than one tenth of the larger ship.

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name: Nephilim Dreadnought
mass: 12900000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 300(2000)
designated usage: Generation Ship/Colony ship/Heavy Guard
history: The Nephilim class dreadnought is not a class of its own. Each Nephilim is custom made and takes nearly a decade to produce at millions of manhours. The Nephilim are autonomous societies that venture into unknown space. Unlike true military ships, the Nephilim carries families and offers each crewmember an average of 100 square meters of living space.
Its most characteristic features are its biodomes, which allow it to sustain the crew in an emergency. Despite general believe they are not sufficient to make the entire ship really self sustained. extreme cargobays allow those ships to carry provisions for nearly a century though. Like the Fearless, the Nephilims main weakness is its engine rating. These engines allow the ship sufficient speed but almost no combat worthy acceleration.
Armor that is thicker than some entire fighters and enough weapons to glass en entire planets surface make those ships formidable enemies that have yet to find their match.
Usually Nephilim class ships are accompanied by two to four full squadrons of fighter and gunboats at all time. Large docking bays and fully functional repair bays allow a Nephilim to be the centerpiece of a small fleet.
One of the primary features of the Nephilim is that it is able to descent to a planets surface ( but not ascent anymore ). Most systems are modular so the crew will be capable of using the entire ship as the first colony on a newly found planet.

name: Zoner Whale
mass: 135000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 3(5)
designated usage: Short Range Heavy Transport
history: The Zoner Whale is a heavily modified GMG Whale. The blueprints of the GMG Whale were shared as a diplomatic gift by the GMG; Zoner engineers modified it according to their needs.

The most characteristic feature of the Whale is its great efficiency. At a Cargo to Thrust ratio of almost 80% the ship is considered to be among the best supertransports in Sirius - at a price.

Only after it was already deployed, captains ran into trouble with the ships innate overheating system. And some crews experienced complete system shutdowns due to burned through coils.

The Zoner Whale features a high powered countermeasure system and an easy to load and unload system, but it does not offer much armor protection. So this ship is primarily used in borderworlds systems but rarely seen in more remote places or in particularly perilous regions.

Only three crewmembers are able to fully operate the ship, but five are considered to be optimal. There is not much space for the crew aboard so the ship is not considered to be the best choice among crews and captains who usually prefer the classic AT model.

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Jinx]

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name: Leviathan Class Dreadnought
mass: 15000000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 100(100)
designated usage: classified
history: The Leviathan was found and salvaged by a Zoner exploration team that had ventured far beyond Omicron Lost. It stood example for all the following Zoner designs, especially the Nephilim. Equipped with countless weapons and an alien reactor type using an artificial singularity, it produces more than 10 times the energy required to actually operate the ship. However most of its systems are still not repaired and operational leaving this ship a monument but hardly a spaceworthy ship anymore.
Today the ship is still permanently used by teams of Livadia scientists to unlock the ancient secrets.

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name: Civilian Shuttle
mass: 25 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: short range courier
history: The civilian shuttle is a ship for high business communters. Its main characteristic is a much more generous pilots cabin, easier controls, state of the art navigation and a lower fuel consumption compared to the Starflier.
The civilian shuttles mission time is limited to 36 hours however due to the limited cargo capability, its armor is paperthin and its reactor provides just enough power to accelerate the ship at a low average speed.
For many buyers it still is a significant alternative to the starflier due to its more comfortable pilots cabin and ease of maintenance.
The Civilian Shuttle is mostly used for planetary travel and only rarely seen in deeper space.

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name: Civilian Freighter
mass: 33 tons plus small containers
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: small freighter
history: similar to the larger camera freighter, the Civilian Freighter is one of the cheapest alternatives for small business cargo companies. Mostly used on planets surfaces, it still is fully space worthy. It shares almost all characteristics with the Civilian Shuttle but is build sturdier and slightly larger.
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name:Basalt Light Miner
mass: 35 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1 greedy bastard
designated usage: Cooperate Miner / Light Escort
history: The Basalt is a new design by an uprising civilian shipwright. It incorporates all that is desired from a new ship. Perfect view via a patented full-glass-bubble-canopy, toughened hull, vector thrust, blast shields, reactive armoring and a state of the art reactor. The ship itself is considered to be one of the best ships in its class.

Especially the targetting system and friend foe algorithms are the pride of the manufacturer. Able to target weak spots in both, mineral rich Asteroids as well as trigger-happy pirate ships, the Basalt can make quick work of both.

Most pilots are uneasy at first about sitting almost entirely "in space" but grow to it so quickly that they refuse to fly any other ship because they feel entrapped.

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name: Dacite Heavy Miner
mass: 130 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: Large Asteroid Miner / Heavy Constructor
history: the Dacite is based on the Basalt technology and does indeed make use of the Basalts base technology as well as part of the fuselage. The similarities end with the powersupply and the spinal mounted cutting beam though.

Not one, but two large reactors provide the ship with incredible power for its engines and mining systems. The cutting beam emits a continous particle beam capable of slicing through even the toughest rock.
Special heatsinks prevent overheating and enable the ship to keep this cutting beam running for minutes.

While the cutting beam almost comes with the firepower of a cruiser weapon, it is severely limited in range, emitting only around 70 meters before dissolving, it is useless in combat. To fight attackers, the Dacite brings the full arsenal of a grown very heavy fighter to astonishing effect.

Like the smaller Basalt, the Dacite comes with a full-glass-canopy and state of the art targetting systems.

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name: GMS Light Fighter Class
mass: 35 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: Scout / Escort
history: the GMS light fighter is a solid design capable of surprisingly long range patrols. It is mainly build for comfort with its large cockpit and generous space for its pilot.

While the ship itself is capable of supporting light mining gear, it is rarely used for that duty due to its poor armor and insufficient agility in dense rock formations.

A single internal reactor provides enough thrust for dogfights and limited weapon usage. Its main focus however was efficiency. the GMS reactors are build to last and to use very little fuel.

Especially the fuel shortage of Gallia has inspired engineers to build engines that run on almost 80% efficiency at the cost of maximum output. The ships build is modular and considered easy to maintain. Its cockpit and canopy are identical to the other fighter versions and easily replacable. Its armor is a lamellor alloy attached in mostly small and straight patches, its engine components are of average civilian rating.

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name: GMS Very Heavy Fighter
mass: 145 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1 (2)
designated usage: Heavy Escort
history: the GMS VHF is based on the modular designs of all GMS ships. Additional vertical wings provide room for additional fuel and heat converters allowing the installation of a secondary reactor.

All the additional mass goes to vectoring thrusters and weaponcoils providing the ship pin point accuracy with its massive weapons as well as the ability to turn tightly. additional armor and a reinforced duraframe allow the ship to sustain damage significantly better in combat situations, especially against particle and blast damage.
Some variants are coated in ablative layers on top of their generic armor. Those ships are usually used near stars or inside superheated nebulas.

While efficiency was still a primary objective, engineers had to achieve compromises. The energy efficiency is far from the light fighters rating at only 65%. Main culprit was an additional vector thruster that was added at a very late state of its developement. Although the range of the VHF and maintenance cycle was shortened, it still enjoys great popularity among the pilots due to the comfortable cockpit and modular designs.

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name: GMS Super Heavy Explorer
mass: 230 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 3
designated usage: Prospector
history: Initially the GMS did never want to develope a SHF design. Freighters or in extreme cases gunships would suffice the intended role. But due to the modular design and the great success of the VHF and LF classes, GMS decided to extend their shipline.

The SHF has a larger canopy allowing generous space for 3 crew members, a pilot, a comm officer and a specialist prospector. The ship is equipped with the most sophisticated scanning array available for that shipsize; almost equal to much larger cruiser sized arrays. All the additional equipment comes with a great cost though. Incapable of increasing the thrust output further more, the ship suffers greatly in terms of agility and combat performance.

Designers decided that combat was meant to be a secondary task only and added additional external fuel tanks and storage containers for mineral samples.

Pilots describe these ships to be very fast but turning about as well as a cruiser. Prospector crews are extremely highly payed, but duty on those ships is unpopular. Not only do they often operate on their own, they are also easy prey for pirates in their light ships that easily overwhelm the SHF class.

name: Gaian Heavy Fighter "Chamaelion"
mass: 55 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: Harasser / Space Superiority
history: When the Chamaelion was first spotted by a BAF officer, Bretonian officials were baffled. Not only was the Chamaelion a completely new design, it also proved to be a match for the best of Bretonias' arsenal.

Its most characteristic feature is the long, curved nose of the ship and the front mounted engine. Gaian engineers decided to use this shape for its most obvious benefits. The bend surface allows the ship to take a great amount of damage and the generous curve deflects great portions of particle damage especially by Splitter cannons.

The front mounted engine is a highly tuned thruster of a Katana, insulated and reinforced. Energy output was pushed to nearly 300%. The overclocking of the engine shortens the lifetime of the engine significantly, so gaians depend on old Kusari engines usually provided by their Kusari allies.

Armor and frame of the ship is mainly build out of salvage parts. In fact, Gaians stored a great amount of armor panels from previous battles to patch their new ships. The skin of the Chamaelion is often considered not to be pretty, but efficient - with bolts and seams scarring the surface.

Due to the very small reactor used and the decision to build a heavy, but not very heavy fighter, Chamaelions have minor stealth capabilities in nebulas due to their reduced energy signature, allowing Gaians to retreat to safety easier.

name: Claymore
mass: 280 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1 (3)
designated usage: Harasser / Hunter Killer
history: The Claymore is based on the Kusari Gunboat. Its characteristic long and thin hull, solar wings on the back and great agility still resemble its heritage.

Claymores have been deployed for some time but proved not to be a match for the heavier Bretonian Gunboat. Claymores have too little energy, weaker weapons, less armor than their enemies. But they were never build to combat military hardware. Instead they were build to deal with transport classes, especially Shetland and Shire transports as well as Liners.

The new Claymore, which was recently refitted, attempts to counter many of the problems of the old Claymore. It is equipped with coils that store energy for its forward cannon for a massive blast.
The problem however is that Gaians failed to contract a reliable heavy cannon manufacturer beneficial to their cause, so most Claymores still installed basic turrets making no use of the additional coils.

The new version also got rid of the solar panels which proved to be unreliable and fragile in combat situations. The mark II Claymore was meant to run more efficient engines, but most Claymores still use the older engines. Engineers have rerouted the coils meant for the forward cannon to the engines allowing a sudden burst of speed.

Gaians are currently proud on their gunboat boat sadly aware of its shortcomings. Engineers currently work on a spinal mounted cannon to become a match for the heavier bretonian gunboat or other ships of that class as well as more efficient engines.

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name: Order Light Carrier "Geb"
mass: 2300000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1200 (1500) / 72 Small craft / no medium or large docking areas
designated usage: Base of Operations, Assault Carrier
history: The Geb is a birthchild of necessity. The order, trapped on a remote homebase, required a mobile headquarters capable of more access to operations. The Geb is a heavily modified Osiris Spyship. Its reactor was replaced with a smaller and lighter one, its massive cloaking device was removed and replaced by crews quarters and a reinforced superframe, its extensive sensorequipment replaced by a revolutionary launching system.

The launching system in particular is unique in sirius. With 72 fighter and bomberships aboard, the Geb is able to launch its entire squadrons in less than ten minutes.

Since the ship is incapable of cloaking it usually stays away from sensor range and patrols. Gebs are always part of expedition fleets for they require support ships for fuel and life support which they cannot carry on their own.

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name: Order Gunboat "Hathor"
mass: 420 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 3 (/)
designated usage: Patrol, Heavy Assault Craft
history: The Hathor was a gift from the Zoner Shipyards at Livadia. Originally based on the Conference Class, engineers made use of tougher materials and greatly reinforced armor. A heavier reactor along with a secondary reactor was installed, state of the art targetting systems and navigation equipment.

Just recently the Order build its own version of the Hathor. Rumor has it that they incorporated Nomad technology and experimental armor and sensory. The fall of Toledo however cut them off many of their resources and manufacturing facilities forcing Order HQ to abandon the project and use the original Hathor again.

Fortunately they received the entire blueprints from Livadia enabling them to build it entirely on their own.

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name: Mastodon
mass: 875000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 3 (5)
designated usage: Supertransport
history: The Mastodon has been in service for decades and is used by Liberty cooperations to great success. Cooperate connections allowed it to be based on the famous Liberty Siege Cruisers powerful military grade engines and reactor system. It is unknown how the Navy agreed to that deal but it has worked out to each sides benefit in the end.

In contrast to most other Supertransport classes, the Mastodon pushes its cargo instead of pulling it. Its engines are unobstructed by cargo or frames of the ship - and its thrust to mass ratio is much greater than any other ship of its class.

Superheavy armorplating and state of the art navigation controls complete this transport making it arguably the best supertransport in Sirius. Shared technology with Navy ships and agreements with the Navy allows these ships to be maintained at any military base. Likewise the Navy enjoys cheaper spare parts for their LSC, too.

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name: BHG Orca
mass: 475 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: Hunter Killer, Anti-Ship
history: The Orca has a long history of a failed upgrade of the aging and ancient AP-01 Bottlenose. Extremely unpopular and somewhat a jack of all traits it failed at its primary task of overpowering unlawful technology in the first place.

The new Orca features a spinal mounted cannon, which is considered to be a large bore heavy cruiser class cannon, enabling it to break through soft targets armor easily. AP installed new flight controls and heavier armor and especially a siriuswide connection to the bounty network of sirius allowing the pilot to access bounties without the requirement to dock with a police station.

While the centerpiece of the new ship is its railgun, its secondary weaponry is equally impressive. Powered by two internal reactor cores, there is plenty energy to power its point defense systems and six thrusters.

Developement costs of the new Orca was extensive but AP expects the new Orca to be popular enough to make up for it within less than 3 years.


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name: BHG Mako
mass: 8800000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 300 (750)
designated usage: Mobile HQ, Heavy Firesupport
history: The Mako was the BHGs first attempt on building a Battleship Class capital warship. Making use of its own research and developement it is considered to be a "light" battleship and regarding to official statistics it is sometimes referred to as a superheavy cruiser rather than a battleship.

The ships main characteristic is its very low crew requirement. Curved armor gives it more blast resistance than straight armor plates but also increasing its maintenance costs significantly.

AP line is not fully satisfied with the Mako but the extensive fleet numbers limit any attempts to replace it. Despite its flaws, the Mako has seen more combat situations than most other warships in sirius and emerged victorious out of most.

Due to the deployment, AP line has accumulated more up-to-date data about the real requirements for a warship than any other manufacturer, propelling it from a newcoming capital ship manufacturer to one of the top manufacturers in Sirius.

While simulations show that the Mako cannot stant toe to toe against some of the heavier battleships, its production costs are almost half the costs enabling the BHG to deploy 2:1 ships along with the much lower crew requirements.


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name: BHG Bottlenose
mass: 175 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: Gunship/Tackler
history:

The history of the Bottlenose is a strange one. It was the first capital sized ship build by the AP cooperation and was regarded as a SHF at first. upgrades in reactor output and weaponry re-classified it as a gunship though. The very first Bottlenoses features 12 figherclass cannons and one heavy ordinance launcher capable of launching the fearsome Nova torpedo - but the refit to the gunboat class replaced the 12 small caliber weapons for half the number of much heavier calibers.

The trade off was considered to be successful though - due to the greater energy demand AP engineers had to reinforce every powerline in the ship, greatly reducing its spare cargo capacity.

The bottlenose is one of the greatest successes of AP - and a fearsome sight for pirates all across Sirius. It has also brought AP into the league of the top ship builders of Sirius.

Bottlenoses operate best in dense particle clouds or asteroids where their size, agility and firepower is superior to that of any fighter craft. in vast open areas - they can still be outmanovered by faster ships or shot down by heavier support ships.

Materials and spare parts for the Bottlenose are easily available at most freeports due to the fact that the bottlenose operates with so called "basic" modules and materials. There is very little high tech or sophisticated internal gear on the ship, which is a huge benefit for more independent bounty hunters while slightly reducing its effectiveness compared to the Orca.

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name: XT-9820-12378B Barge
mass: 2.000.000.000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 80 (150)
designated usage: processing, refinary, storage
history:

The barge is sometimes not classified as a ship but rather as a massive spacebound factory that is capable of limited self propelled mobility. Ships of that class are incredibly expensive and usually only deployed by verticle mega cooperations. These ships easily dwarf even larger space stations and require the best crews to operate at all.

factory modules enable those ships to refine raw material into processed goods - some barges even feature assembly lines that can run the entire production line from ore to complex machinery.

Barges are rarely seen without massive support fleets. loosing a barge can cripple even large cooperations - and no insurence company in sirius is willing to insure ships of that class.

Travelling through unrestrained jumpholes can literally tear ships of that mass apart and permanently collapse those natural phenomena and even Ageira gates are put to extreme stress when allowing ships of that class to pass. That is why Barge crews require special paper and prearranged and agreed on routes to travel from system to system.


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name: 1001011101 Berserker Cruiser
mass: 386000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 0
designated usage: Annihilation, Berserker Protocol
history:

extremely light for a cruiser, these ships act as so called Berserkers. they are servers and administrators for the rather peaceful Neumann drones. The Berserker consists of a large AI/VI unit, a reactor and weaponry. These ships do not have any sealed compartment for living creatures.

Like other AI ships their propulsion is not based on a chemical or fusion drive but rather on a Laser radiation system, which emits deadly gamma radiation to living tissue in close vicinity.

Berserkers can recharge from yellow and red starlight and are usually crawling with nanobots that maintain their systems. Berserkers follow strict protocols to ensure the survival and spread of its units. - each Berserker can command up to 20 Neumann drones.

When a Berserker is near destruction by natural causes or combat - it transmits its AI unit to the closest Berseker. That way attained knowledge is passed on and included in a replicated ship.

Berserkers are not considered to be very aggressive, but if the AI has decided that they have to annihilate a specific place, they are terribly efficient and merciless.

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name: 11011011100 von Neumann Drone
mass: 120 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 0
designated usage: reconnaissance
history:

The Neumann drone probes space and locations. These ships are small of size and are practicly flying reactors with a slaved AI unit. Each drone is dependent on a Berserker mothership and only capable of limited freedom. When cut off forcefully, they usually try to re-establish the connection by force if required.

Neumann drones possess weaponry unique in Sirius. and mankind has yet to understand what kind of energy they use. The weapons oscilate matter to a point where it rips itself apart - making drones combat efficient against organic matter aswell as solid steel and alloys.

While human ships and nomad ships use chemical reactions to propell themselves through space, neuman drones do not "really" propel forward. instead they bend space around them, creating mini warps.

While this method is efficient and does not require refueling, it makes the drones slow in close combat due to the inability to react quickly.
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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Jinx]

name: CTE Spatial Long Range Explorer
mass: 220 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1 (3)
designated usage: long range explorer, combat support
history:
The Spatial has a long history of being the ship of choice for freelancing explorers. Reliable engines, a thick hull, older but reliable sensors and an impressive weaponry attract many civilian companies and freelancers to purchase those ships. While these models can impress with a terrifying weapons array, professional pilots know of the weakness of ships of that size.

The Spatials engines are capable of producing immense thrust and speed, but its manovering thrusters are comparably weak. Many a pilots have realized too late that many smaller fighters of more modern design can literally fly circles around the Spatial. But the Spatial has capabilities that most fighters of smaller size cannot match.

It is able to sustain independent flight for several systems without the need to refuel. It is also able to act as very successful escorts for larger ships when companies cannot afford military grade gunboats.

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name: ZF-05 Zoner Bomber Prototype
mass: 87 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: precision strike bomber
history:

the ZF-05 has entered prototype state and is being deployed by Aquillon type carriers. It is not delivered freely but remains part of a strict and secret program.

The ship makes use of a light powerplant without secondary weaponry, relying only on its spinal mounted heavy cannon, similar to the large bore cannons of gunboats. ZF-05 are short range strike craft incapable of extended travel - equipped only with a very small fuel tank and nearly no cargo compartment.

they are lightly armored but very quick. Test pilots have complimented the cockpit - which is identical to that of the Osprey, allowing pilots to switch from ship to ship in an emergency; - also because the ZF-05 has a similar manoverability like the Osprey.

If these ships make it to mass production, it will be one of the smaller shipyards that is likely to produce them.


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name: Acropolis Yacht
mass: 745 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 3 ( up to 30 )
designated usage: leisure cruise
history:

The Acropolis Yacht is build and deployed by the OSC cooperation. Only a handful of those ships have been build and most of them have been sold to wealthy and anonymous buyers.

equipped with the best of the best - the Acropolis features teak interior, gold and platinum plated instruments and bridge equipment, a large swimmingpool under a full glass dome, luxory cabins and one of the most silent engines ever produced.

more to impress than to fight - it is capable of mounting gunboat grade equipment - but is lacking the reactor to make full use of it.
These ships are rarely seen outside the secured lanes or the inner world. As a matter of fact, most of those ships stay moored at luxory resorts spaceports.


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name: Kusari Supertransport
mass: 21500 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 5 (5)
designated usage: supertransport
history:

The Kusari supertransport is a train-like ship that offers companies nearly unmatched capacity. its containers are modular and easily replaced. Bridge and engines are low grade military level, allowing for reliable maintenance and very good protection. compared to other nations supertransports, this ship offers its crew cabins of utmost luxory along with recreation areas and a lot of living space.

One weakness however is the ships poor acceleration and manoverability in critical situations. It is still considered to be the pride of many a Kusari companies all across Sirius.

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name: Bretonian Supertransport
mass: 24000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 12 (28)
designated usage: Transport
history:

The so called Shetland is a huge transport with cavernous cargo capacity. Opposed to other house supertransports it is much more autonomous due to automatic loading and unloading mechanisms that are part of the ship and enable it to collect containers or even mined ore without the assistence of smaller crafts like lifters.

like other supertransports it is surprisingly low in terms of basic mass due to only really being a reactor with a powerful engine and minimal crew compartments. most of its mass comes from its cargo. Shetland ships are build with rounded armor plates that are more expensive to produce and maintain - but able to reflect a considerable amount of lower yield particle and laser gunfire - while also capable of sustaining considerably heavier blasts from explosive weapons. that means that the Shetland is considered to be much more durable than other ships of its class.

most of the crew is required to allow a three shift rotation. the crew does not have private quarters though - but instead takes shifts in their cabins, too. That has led to complaints by many crews in the past who feel that there should be more luxory aboard.

Later versions of the Shetland give have given up self defense capabilities in order to install more crew compartments and more luxorious interiors - while relying more on BAF patrols for protection.

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name: Bretonian Battletransport
mass: 32000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 20 (26)
designated usage: transport
history:

The Shire was build to defend itself against fierce pirate attacks. Designed with function over form it is not a beauty to look at but a compact ship with a huge reactor core and a dozen weaponturrets along the ship. Shire crews are known to be tough and they often have a military background.

When the shire was build, it was founded by the military that also required a ship that was able to withstand heavy weaponfire and could even support combat spacecraft if required. for that the Shires bridge is nearly identical with the destroyers bridge - with very similar equipment and capabilities.

Shire ships are very easy to maintain - but only bretonian craftmanship allows for peak efficiency of systems and armor. A lesser known feature of the ship is that is can run on fighter fuel, mox and almost any other combustable material or gas. its engine is build to make use of almost anything, making that ship one of the most versatile ships in the transport class in all sirius.

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name: Rheinland Supertransport
mass: 85000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 5 (10)
designated usage: Supertransport
history:

The Rheinland Supertransport is one that has entered service earlier than most other house supertransports but has not seen a hugely widespread usage. Surprisingly it is one of the most automated ships of its class despite looking much more low tech from the outside.

capable of operating with only 5 crewmembers and a maximum of 10 it is considered much more efficient than any other supertransport.

arranging the cargo around the engine and reactor, it shows that rheinland considered their crew to be more valuable than their cargo. Pirates who would want to disable the ship ran a high risk destroying the very cargo they were looking for in order to get a clean shot.

Very prominent about the ship is the physical shield it can rise to protect the bridge. that shield has its own low yield shield generator and enables the transport to crush smaller asteroids while plowing through a dense asteroid field. it also causes a shower of debris in its wake greatly endangering pursuing pirate ships. a feature that has saved many a crews in the ships history.

the Colossus is considered to be a state of the art ship for at least 2 more generations and usually is a favourite among rheinland cooperations.

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name: Rheinland Battletransport
mass:248000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 30 (43)
designated usage: transport / blockade runner
history:

weighing more than many cruisers the rheinland battletransport is mostly made of armor - or so many people joke about it. it is indeed a massive ship for its size. armed like a cruiser with state of the art targetting systems, a reactor and engine that is only a minor variant of the rheinland military gunboat version and generous cargo capacity makes these transports feared among pirates.

usually such ships transport highest value cargo, because the maintenance and operation of them exceeds the costs of the larger colossus.

the crews usually have a military background and do not complain about the very limited space aboard the ship. Ships of that type are rarely used for extended missions but rather short ranged convoys.

it may be noteworthy that ships of that class are not made for living cargo as their pods are not pressurized. additional modules would need to be installed to allow transport of passengers - while VIPs are just given a cabin among the crew.


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name: Salvager
mass: 8600 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1 (10)
designated usage: salvage / unknown
history:

the salvager is a name for a ship that is not really a shipclass at all. every salvager is different and customized for its crews preferences. what they all have in common is unusually large reactors for a ship of that size, heavier weapons than one may expect, extrenal grappling arms and large cargo.

they are said to be much more sophisticated than they look, but operators usually do not allow non crew members to take a more detail look at them.

some reports were made in the past from recon vessels making deep scans on those ships - but engineers weren t able to make much sense of the arrangement of energy conduits, shielding or other common parts. they are described as "a mess but surprisingly it does not only work, but it works better than it should be".

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name: Order Recon Cruiser "Resheph"
mass: 460000 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 40 (50)
designated usage: recon / ECM / electronic warfare
history:

the Order Recon Cruiser is based on the liberty Spyglass. instead of building a ship of battleship size, order engineers have managed not only to reverse engineer sensors of much greater resolution and penetration but also of less than one third the size.

this cruiser is fast, innately able to cloak for extended periord of time and most importantly able to scan and monitor an entire system.

armed only lightly - crews of recon cruisers are usually ordered to avoid combat rather than seek it - mainly considering that the training of the cruisers crew is more than 5 times as long and expensive as the training of a regular cruiser and also that a single recon cruiser costs twice as much as an older osiris battleship.

despite being mostly defensive - recon cruisers can aid their allies with powerful electronic warfare modules, disrupting enemy targetting and target prediction as well as remotely disabling anti-ship-torpedo targetting. Their EMP field can even disable an entire ship - if the ship is not activly shielded against EMP blasts.

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name: Renzu HF
mass: 22 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: civilian shuttle
history:

The Renzu HF is a cheap alternative to the CF series or the CT series. materials and design is considered to be solid, maintenance is low. Renzu sells those ships on the open market without discrimination. Experts claim that the Renzu ships are no quality manufacturing like more established brands like the CTE line. It is however undeniable that they pack a lot more features for a significantly lower price.

The Renzu HF offers no sophisticated navigation system or life support. Its targetting guidance system is average and its engine and reactor are standard type civilian core type IV which is often used in residential housing, too. While not the best by a far stretch, it means that replacement parts and mechanics are widespread and these ships can be maintained almost anywhere in Kusari, if not in all Sirius.

If you know how to fix one Renzu type ship, you can fix them all - is an unofficial slogan by Renzu.


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name: Renzu VHF
mass: 45 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: civilian escort
history:

The Renzu VHF is an extended version of the HF. The modular design adds significant mass to the ship. Two more microreactor cores, large heatsinks and a new thrustersystem allow that ship to compete with other VHF. Its design is kept as simple as possible and like the other Renzu ships it makes use of widely available civilian parts.

Materials used are considered to be of lower quality than other more established designs. The VHF however is so heavy that Renzu corporation considers to refit the ship to a heavier class and abandoning the VHF class consequently.

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name: BHG Battleship "Mako"
mass: tons
necessary crew (usual crew):
designated usage:
history:

Well over a decade ago the BHG approached Liberty shipbuilders about a design for a capital sized vessel. Although Liberty would not publicly admit to assiting a loose organization like the BHG in the manufacture of capital warships - the influences are significant.

The Mako is one of the most modern warships in Sirius. It is build for battle alone, not for comfort or extended mission times. The BHG needed ships that were able to travel efficiently over long distances unleash a maximum of damage on a foe in a minimum of time and get out again.

Comfort was not even a tertiary concern. The Mako only has a third of bunkbeds and crews quarters than required - so the crews are forced to take tripple shifts sleeping. Equipped with sophisticated 2nd grade Liberty capital class targetting and guidance systems the Mako sensors were specificly equipped for operating in high radiation and sensor scattering asteroid fields as well as dense nebula clouds.

Some Mako class ships were refitted with sensors that are tuned to sense spacial disturbances to locate cloaked ships. It it said that smaller fighters might sneak up to second generation Mako Warships, but capital class vessels, no matter if cloaked or not - can not only be detected but also targetted.

The Mako is an underrated warship of the next generation. Liberty willingly allowed the BHG to manufacture many of the first generation of those ships in their extended shipyards - and were given full access to the technical readouts and blueprints in return - which they currently use for their own future developement.


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name: derelict Station husk
mass: 953 million tons
necessary crew (usual crew): derelict
designated usage: Admin Base
history:

Virtually nothing is known about that structure. It was discovered by Zoners when they inhabited Omicron delta but any attempts to gather further data failed. Right now Zoners have declared the immediete space around this structure as not only hostile but also highly dangerous.


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name: GC Blossom 3rd generation
mass: 45 tons
necessary crew (usual crew): 1
designated usage: heavy assault fighter
history:

The women of the GC were in desperate need for a new fighter. The aging Blossom became more and more outmanovered and outgunned by virtually everyone. This new generation of fighters uses a twin reactor and a much more powerful engine to thrust a ship 20% heavier and larger.

New materials, new hardwiring and new computers allow that ship to not only close the gap to the latest generation of fighters across Sirius but in fact outperforms most of them. Not anymore cheaply made but a serious piece of military hardware - the new Blossom of the 3rd generation does not need to shy away from direct comparisons to even high end Kusari military hardware.

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC