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Fighter Class
Corvette Class
Frigate Class
Super-Capital Class
Non-Combat & Resource Classes
Non-Combat & Resource Classes
The non-combat and resource classes consist of vessels that, while not directly involved in fleet combat, are nonetheless important parts of any fleet. These ships provide the necessary support and services that would cripple any fleet lacking them.
Kushan Resource Collector - "Providence"
The Providence class of Resource Collectors is an even older design than the Mercy repair frigate. Apart from transport shuttles, the Providence was the first design put into service for the construction of the Mothership, and these ships helped to break down the initial massive asteroids brought in from the Belt, reducing them to useable resources. All resource gathering is achieved by the use of a specialized bow-mounted Phased Disassembler Array, which breaks down the target into its component atoms and draws them into the Providence's huge storage bays. Once full, the Providence then returns to the Mothership and docks at one of the dermal ports to unload.
Since almost all conflicts revolve around control of deep space asteroid and nebula fields, resource collection is one of the most dangerous duties in the fleet--and yet, no combat personnel crew any of these ships. Most of a Collector's functions are automated or controlled from the Mothership, so that only a skeleton crew of four engineers need to be aboard in a troubleshooting capacity. Needless to say, there are not many volunteers for this duty, and therefore all support staff must spend one week of their 8-week duty rotation aboard a Collector.
Because an unarmed Providence usually lives or dies by the quality of its fighter escort, Providence crews have been known to pool some of their recreational credits and pass them on to fighter pilots that are especially reliable. Since it is a rare pilot who is willing to forgo the glamour of wracking up kills in order to stick close to a lumbering Collector, Providence crews tend to show their appreciation in order to keep such pilots requesting escort duty.
Taiidan Resource Controller - "Siim Salla"
Over a decade ago, while Taiidani scientists were researching alternate methods of Faster-Than-Light travel, a curious micro-wormhole effect was achieved by charging two quantum plates and then separating them. While particles would pass instantaneously from a hole in the center of one plate to the other regardless of distance, the research led to a dead end. The first problem was one of power; even with large ground-based fusion reactors linked to the system, the wormhole effect could only be expanded to something the size of a fist. While this might have made for an interesting weapon delivery system, the other drawback was that whatever entered the wormhole emerged as a stream of undifferentiated molecules.
Logged in the data-banks as nothing more than a curiosity, the wormhole pipe lay unexploited until Fleet logistics began trying to find a way around the weakness of extended supply lines. Since the Mothership was vulnerable to attack if it came too close to contested resource fields, logistics asked for a resource controller ship that could handle and process shipments from multiple Resource Collectors. Unfortunately, while setting a Resource controller at the edge of the resource rich area would reduce the trip time for the collectors, it did little to speed up the transit of the raw materials to the Mothership's foundry. Luckily, a fleet engineer stumbled across records of the wormhole effect and suggested this as the perfect mode of transporting resources from the collector to the Mothership, since collectors already had reduced the resources to a stream of elemental atoms. Using a capital ship hull to support the massive power plant needed to maintain the quantum tunnel, engineers created what was, basically, a slow-moving mobile base that would speed up re-supply by an order of magnitude.
A welcome side effect of the large reactor system was that the Siim Salla controller could also serve as a refueling base for six fighters and two corvettes at a time.
Kushan Probe - "Seeker"
The Seeker series of sensor probes serve as the long-range eyes of the fleet. The seeker is a basic sensor package mounted on very simple plasma containment hull. When manufactured, this unit draws reaction plasma from the Mothership's maneuvering system and stores it in magnetic containment. Once a target location is given, the probe's computer pilot vents the drive plasma in a single controlled burst, giving the probe incredible velocity. Unfortunately, this mode of travel, while saving on the expense of an engine, leaves the probe without propulsion once it reaches its destination.
The cheap robot seeker is mostly used for rapid exploration of a quadrant or to search areas such as asteroid belts that may hide enemy ships. Most Kushan Admirals will order 6 to 10 probes to be launched on a spread of vectors immediately after the fleet emerges from hyperspace. A less conventional mode of employing Seekers is to send 15 or 20 of them around a known enemy position. Unless the enemy commander is willing to devote significant resources into tracking down each and every probe, this will create a cloud of contacts around his position. In the resulting confusion, a Kushan Admiral can deploy multiple heavy corvettes to hide amongst the probe contacts and attack poorly defended resource collectors.
Taiidan Proximity Sensor - "Variis"
The Variis proximity sensor is a package of the most sophisticated Taiidanii sensors mounted on a simple, but reliable, mini-fusion drive. Variis not only have extensive sensing ranges, but also have a very small visual and electronic silhouette themselves, making them difficult to spot and destroy in combat. Much more advanced than simple probes, the Variis drones have expert systems onboard which are so sophisticated that they can even track anomalies against the background radiation of space itself. This means that a Variis can locate Kushan Cloaked fighters, by virtue of the fact that they leave 'holes' in space. Software engineers have upgraded these sensor anomalies to target status, so that a web of Variis proximity sensors can now track incoming cloaked ships and pass that information to Fleet Command.
This ability to see cloaked ships makes the Variis a prime target, but their relatively low production cost and the extended range of their sensors means that most commanders can easily set up overlapping fields of sensors. Enemy attempts to punch a hole through the sensor web by destroying all the Variis in a certain sector is an obvious indication of the vector an enemy attack will be on.
Taiidan Sensors Array - "Raakel"
The Mothership's on-board sensor array provides up-to-date combat information within the local tactical area, but it is limited in its range and accuracy by size and power issues. Instead of wasting their time with minor upgrades to the Mothership itself, engineers proposed an entirely new ship, a dedicated platform to support a sensor suite that would work in conjunction with the Mothership's array. Using an unsuccessful sub-frigate hull design, engineers modified the vessel to carry an oversized fusion plant and then proceeded to mount a new generation of phased Meson emitters. While the emitters require a vast amount of power, the timed decay of these sub-atomic particles allows the sensor array to gather data on the nature and headings of all ships in the area as well as tracking all resource pockets within range.
Despite the frail appearance of the design, the multiple particle accelerator vanes required to generate the meson scanning beams and the shielding they require to stay focused actually results in a hull of significant strength. This durability is a decided advantage if fleet defenses should collapse, as a Raakel would have no choice but to absorb enemy fire until defending vessels could rally. Retreat is not a viable option for a Raakel, as it can spare little reactor plasma for drive purposes, and so its velocity and maneuverability is severely limited.
Kushan Research Ship - "Hub"
Often it's just not enough for a fleet to fight well--it must also fight smart. Skill and tactics may be crucial for victory, but if the enemy has superior technology, you will eventually lose. In order to stay on the cutting edge and adapt to new enemy threats, Kushan fleets depend on a finely tuned system of research and development. The cornerstone of the scientific branch of fleet ops is the Hub class lab ship. Many branches of research, especially those involving weapons and drive technologies, are simply too dangerous to be pursued within the vulnerable interior of the Mothership. The lab ships were created as a space for experimentation, research, design, and initial prototyping of new technologies. Rapid-pulse maser communication arrays keep a lab ship in real-time contact with the massive databanks aboard the Mothership, while still allowing for complete damage containment should an unfortunate accident occur.
Hubs are flown by auto-pilot and are crewed by a complement of 20-40 scientist and engineers. Since every space aboard a Hub is crammed with specialized equipment and large experiment bays, Hubs carry no weaponry and require no combat personnel. Research ships are usually protected by a small wing of defenders, sufficient enough to hold off any enemy raiders until more substantial help arrives. The Hub class of lab ship is also designed to work synergistically with other ships of the same type, and a large research station can be constructed by docking several Hubs together, six of which will form a complete space station with reinforced structural integrity.
Kushan Gravwell Generator - "Trapper Mk.4"
Experiments in gravity wave manipulation have allowed Kushan engineers to develop a gravity well generator, capable of halting any space vessel under a specified thrust limit. While capital ship drives can easily compensate for the artificial gravity, strike craft simply do not have the necessary power needed to break out of the field, and are effectively pinned in place until they are destroyed or the field collapses.
While the Trapper special operations ship can be devastating when employed against large formations of strike craft, it is not yet a perfected technology. Effectively rushed into service, the gravwell generator is extremely unstable; once started, the entire mechanism keeps running until it eventually overloads and burns out. The current Mk. 4 vessel has gone into production with gravity effect generators that simply melt down in a shielded area of the ship. The previous three prototypes were completely destroyed when the gravity field collapsed into a micro black hole.
Given the cost in time and resources in creating these vessels, and their one-shot-only effect, most Trappers are employed as a last ditch defense against overwhelming attack by strike craft. Occasionally Trappers will be employed offensively to pin a massive fighter screen, while the bulk of the attack force bypasses them and continues on to the target.
Trappers are obviously extremely vulnerable to capital ships, and function best when operating in the sensor shadow of a destroyer or larger ship. In a large conflict they can often function unseen this way, hidden up close against a larger ship.
Taiidan Cloak Generator - "Fushai"
The Fushai class special ops vessel is the refined application of the cloaking technology first seen Kushan Spectre fighter. In this larger vessel, there is enough room for a fusion powerplant, allowing for much more powerful cloaking generators. The cloaking fields emitted by the Fushai can cover a volume approximately the size of two frigates in formation, and can render any ships within the field invisible until they open fire.
Even though the Fushai's hull is only a third of the size of the average frigate, it carries heavy armor, in order to protect the intricate cloaking generators, as well as a nearly frigate-sized crew to tend them. The massive power requirements eventually burn out the power couplings to the power plant, and the generator must be shut down after a fixed amount of time in order to replace parts and recharge capacitors. During this time, the unarmed ship is extremely vulnerable, and the extra armor layers are the only thing that can buy the Fushai time to flee back to the main fleet while the cloak generators recharge.
In contrast to the eccentricities of the Spectre squadrons, Fushai crews are mostly drawn from the engineering corps, and view themselves as skilled technicians who function somewhat closer to the front lines than their peers. Each Fushai is commanded by a military officer though, in order to make sure the cloaking ship does not break away too soon and leave the ships it is escorting exposed to enemy sensors.
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