The standard ship of the line for both the DCS Fleet and the Heran Confederate Navy is the Khro Bral class destroyer. Gone are today's carrier groups: instead, destroyers operate independently along orbital and deep-space patrol lines, not unlike cold war-era fast attack submarines. These vessels have an atmospheric displacement of over 140 000 tons and typically measure 410m (length, excluding fore-and-aft sensor antennae), 56m (beam), and 72m (spatial draught), with a compliment of 430 men.
Power is provided by four muon-catalyzed fusion plants mounted along the four point x-axis of the ships latter third, with the primary engineering bay stationed centrally along the ship's spine. Ship equipment is mounted along the vertical bulkheads, with gravity provided via constant 1 gravity acceleration, with combat maneuvers conducted utilizing 0-g harnesses. Sensor detection is accomplished via two large clustered arrays located fore and aft, consisting of radiation monitoring devices, specifically tuned to detect EM and thermal differentiation from cosmic background radiation, Helial and planetary sources. This requires that the ship's skin be both protective from radiation, while also affording fast heat dissipation and sinking from internal sources such as life-support and engineering.
Offensive armament consists of twelve super-conducting Gauss quench guns housed in three armament pods along the ship's central spine. Each pod contains four coilguns (two port, two starboard), used to fire various anti-ship and OPB (orbital planetary bombardment) munitions. While the spin-up times for the CG's do not exceed the reloading times (roughly 20-30 seconds), the high thermal radiation means that each volley results in an active radiation signature detectable over significant distances.
Offensive anti-ship ordnance include magnetically-propelled heavy torpedos consisting of medium-yield fission warheads encased in a ferrous cobalt-alloy shell and controlled via a twelve-point reaction control system which works in concert with a terminal phase chemical propellant. Astrogation is accomplished during the target-acquisition phase through communications relays with the mother-ship, and in the terminal phase through onboard EM sensor suites. OPB munitions consist of densely packed clusters of tungsten rods measuring 5 meters in length, which enter the atmosphere and impact with effects similar to a small-yield nuclear warhead due to thermal kinetic energy resulting from re-entry friction and orbital velocities of at least 9 km/sec.
Defensive measures include: magnetically-launched, self propelled electronic countermeasures capable of outputting interfering EM and thermal radiation; a close-in weapon system consisting of high-energy ion pulse canons and ferrous particle "sand-casters" mounted along the ship's dorsal and ventral spine; and heat-dissipating ablative armour.
Other naval vessels include orbital and system patrol frigates (armed with ion cannons), missile frigates (standard armament includes low-and-medium yield nuclear warheads and conventional CIWS anti-torpedo warheads), Sub-Orbital marine drop (SOMaD) ships, and marine insertion pods (MIPs) used for ship boarding.
Destroyers and frigates are manufactured by consortiums of companies, including planetary interests and the five inter-planetary corporations and their subsidiary agencies. For a present-day example, see the vast number of companies involved in the construction of a single American aircraft carrier. Many of these sub-companies fall under the rubric of the five largest conglomerates, but it is by no means a pentopoly; however companies--such as the interplanetary Sparta Industries based on Hera--also have mining and other first-level interests like today's Halliburton, and unlike defense conglomerates such as Northrop Grumman. Smaller ships are made internally within the major corporations, and also include trading ships, cruise liners, and intra-atmosphere craft including helicopters and airplanes.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
What Came Before
To begin, a brief history up to the time of the game, ca. 3349 A.D. (Gregorian Calendar)/ 999 (Nyams Gsosian Calendar).
The historical eras as utilized by historians are as follows, give or take a few decades of overlap and hindsight:
POST-MODERN: 2000-2100
SUBJUGATORY: 2100-2250
LATE SUBJUGATORY: 2250-2350
EARLY NYAMS GSOSIAN:2350-2600
NYAMS GSOSIAN: 2600-3000
RGYASIAN: 3000-Present
In the late-post-modern period, a war errupted between most of the European Security Forces, about half of the African Union, the North American Conederation, Austrailia, the Sino Compact and the Moslem Union against the world's artificially enhanced humans (those equipped with endo-cranial processors) led by Guy Stienberg, allied with factions of the ESF, the AU, Japan, the South American States, the East African Union, and India. Steinberg believed himself to be the Second Coming, and his followers--enhanced with psionic, pysical and electronic abilities--were effectively supermen who were the reborn souls of his fallen followers (when an old tech guy died, he was reborn in one of the new, suped-up bodies). Stienberg died early on, killed by ESF forces as he sacraficed himself, only to have his consciousness transferred to all of his followers.
Successful, they set about creating the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and they began by subjugating all those who had opposed them. After quickly determining that Earth's environment was spirling out of control, they resolved to leave the solar system as the only way of surviving and carrying on; between 2100 and 2250, massive stripmining and exploitation of resources was undertaken to finance crash space research programs. By 2150, they'd developed the hyperspace catapult, which could fling a ship pretty damn far, and by 2250, they'd found the heliosystem and began to build both a Gate there and to colonize the three planets that here hapitable: Nike, Tyche and Hera.
Again, this was done using most of their subjugated, expendible labour that continued to refuse to be reborn in the better bodies. Amongst the humans, there was great debate over whether these captors were just evil, actually Evil (and this was teh End Times), or just crazy for believing they were divine. Around 2350 (the date is not set), the colonists rebelled, at the same time as those on Earth in a highly coordinated, well planned effort. They destoryed the Helios Gate, as well as the Solar Gate. Those left behind are assumed to have died and, as the Solar system had been effectively destoryed in a one-off to leave as soon as possible, it was assumed that the Terrans would 1) not have the resources to build a new Gate and 2) likely wouldn't survive that long.
For the next 250 years, rebuilding and growth took place, with the 2 billion survivors growing across the different planets. Theologically, people at large had had quite enough of "christianity". Most people embraced science as an epistmology, and Tibetan buddhism as their ontology. Christianity fundamentally schismed around this time, between those that believed that their arrival in the Heliosystem was, in fact, the beginning of the thousand years of peace (and whatever theological ramifications would follow with that), and those that beleived that they must still await the End Times (a la Hot Protestantism) and demanded a return to the Solar System to observe the Levant (that position didn't take off, as it was worried that any new gate that was built and used would signal to any surviving Terrans that there was a return trip posible, and could result in their paying the Heliosystem a visit... for revenge!)
Now, it's nearing the year 3350; society is flourishing, infrastructure exists, buddhism is the basis behind most academic and political thought, Christianity exists but the former sect dominates (by far), as does Judaism and Islam. Pilgrimages for all three religions are made to the moon Olympia, also called Nai Yisroel, جديد مكة المكرمة, and Nova Syria. The most "conservative" of all three religions have set up permanant settlements there, and have isoltaed themselves from the outside community, save for pilgrims.
The historical eras as utilized by historians are as follows, give or take a few decades of overlap and hindsight:
POST-MODERN: 2000-2100
SUBJUGATORY: 2100-2250
LATE SUBJUGATORY: 2250-2350
EARLY NYAMS GSOSIAN:2350-2600
NYAMS GSOSIAN: 2600-3000
RGYASIAN: 3000-Present
In the late-post-modern period, a war errupted between most of the European Security Forces, about half of the African Union, the North American Conederation, Austrailia, the Sino Compact and the Moslem Union against the world's artificially enhanced humans (those equipped with endo-cranial processors) led by Guy Stienberg, allied with factions of the ESF, the AU, Japan, the South American States, the East African Union, and India. Steinberg believed himself to be the Second Coming, and his followers--enhanced with psionic, pysical and electronic abilities--were effectively supermen who were the reborn souls of his fallen followers (when an old tech guy died, he was reborn in one of the new, suped-up bodies). Stienberg died early on, killed by ESF forces as he sacraficed himself, only to have his consciousness transferred to all of his followers.
Successful, they set about creating the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and they began by subjugating all those who had opposed them. After quickly determining that Earth's environment was spirling out of control, they resolved to leave the solar system as the only way of surviving and carrying on; between 2100 and 2250, massive stripmining and exploitation of resources was undertaken to finance crash space research programs. By 2150, they'd developed the hyperspace catapult, which could fling a ship pretty damn far, and by 2250, they'd found the heliosystem and began to build both a Gate there and to colonize the three planets that here hapitable: Nike, Tyche and Hera.
Again, this was done using most of their subjugated, expendible labour that continued to refuse to be reborn in the better bodies. Amongst the humans, there was great debate over whether these captors were just evil, actually Evil (and this was teh End Times), or just crazy for believing they were divine. Around 2350 (the date is not set), the colonists rebelled, at the same time as those on Earth in a highly coordinated, well planned effort. They destoryed the Helios Gate, as well as the Solar Gate. Those left behind are assumed to have died and, as the Solar system had been effectively destoryed in a one-off to leave as soon as possible, it was assumed that the Terrans would 1) not have the resources to build a new Gate and 2) likely wouldn't survive that long.
For the next 250 years, rebuilding and growth took place, with the 2 billion survivors growing across the different planets. Theologically, people at large had had quite enough of "christianity". Most people embraced science as an epistmology, and Tibetan buddhism as their ontology. Christianity fundamentally schismed around this time, between those that believed that their arrival in the Heliosystem was, in fact, the beginning of the thousand years of peace (and whatever theological ramifications would follow with that), and those that beleived that they must still await the End Times (a la Hot Protestantism) and demanded a return to the Solar System to observe the Levant (that position didn't take off, as it was worried that any new gate that was built and used would signal to any surviving Terrans that there was a return trip posible, and could result in their paying the Heliosystem a visit... for revenge!)
Now, it's nearing the year 3350; society is flourishing, infrastructure exists, buddhism is the basis behind most academic and political thought, Christianity exists but the former sect dominates (by far), as does Judaism and Islam. Pilgrimages for all three religions are made to the moon Olympia, also called Nai Yisroel, جديد مكة المكرمة, and Nova Syria. The most "conservative" of all three religions have set up permanant settlements there, and have isoltaed themselves from the outside community, save for pilgrims.
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