Dragon-class Mobile Refinery

The Mobile Refinery is a special Starship used by the Mining Guild beginning in YE 41. Its main purpose is to refine ore that was mined without the need for a stationary building. This article can also be found on the Mining Guild Equipment page.

The Mining Guild's mission to refine and extract ore and gems that would normally require arduous transportation from an asteroid and a trip through the atmosphere to a planet-side refinery. Not only was this wasteful and a logistical challenge, but it was also a strain on a planet's environment.

With these challenges in mind, the Mining Guild reached out to the NDC's Department of Engineering. Together, they designed and built the MG-MR-1a Dragon-class Mobile Refinery, a huge starship that could act as a mobile refinery. As the NDC's Department of Engineering shifted to a focus on government and military projects, the Mining Guild acquired its own ability to produce starships - including the Dragon.

• Refining ore
• Capable of relocation
• Looking awesome

The primary purpose of the Dragon-class is to refine ore without the need to rely on planetary transportation and facilities. As a starship, the Dragon-class can relocate to the most advantageous position to support the Mining Guild's resourcing efforts.

The Dragon-class appears like a skyscraper and a sea ship merged into one glorious package. Along the sides of the ship, hangar bays are located to allow shuttles and transports to land and dock for refueling or disembarking. Behind these bays are ten slots for ore unloading. Each slot is associated with a specific ore that the Mining Guild is resourcing, simplifying the sorting and storing process.

At the end of the ship are its great thrusters, capable of propelling the ship through the atmosphere and into space with ease. Beneath the ore unloading and sorting section is a large airlock ringed by a cyan-colored light that can be used in emergencies.

The technological brains of the Mining Guild, Aeta Kurosaki and Nyx Pine, knew that they needed a way to refine their ore in a smarter fashion. They were concerned about the space requirements, whether the government would support the required construction projects, and the amount of the building that would be required to support all of the facilitie's traffic, sorting, storage, and refining operations.

The scale of the problem seemed daunting until one engineer made them think of creating a mobile refinery. The Department Of Engineering had expertise in ship design and construction, so the NDC and Mining Guild together came up with a schematic. Once they secured approval from Astrid to use parts from a Nepleslian ship, they began construction on the Mining Guild's first Mobile Refinery..

After the launch of the first Mobile Refinery, the Mining Guild found itself with an excess cash flow. Putting the surplus revenue to work as new Mobile Refineries, the Mining Guild continues to collect materials for the New Dusk Conclave's use. In light of this, the Guild decided to name the new ship in the same fashion as the Magpie and the Stork that came before it. A name that fit the Mobile Refinery's ability to collect vast hoardes of minerals and gems and turn it into a stockpile of wealth - the “Dragon”.

General information about the Starship

• Class: MG-MR-1a
• Type: Mobile Refinery
• Designers: Aeta Kurosaki, Nyx Pine, Engineers
• Manufacturer: Mining Guild
• Fielded by: Mining Guild

Crew: 42,000 are recommended, 5,000 are required.

Unexpected Guests: accommodations for 1,750 people.

Here are the Dimensions of the Starship.

• Length: 1200 meters
• Width: 800 meters
• Height: 400 meters
• Decks: 32 (10 meters each, 6 meters of usable space, 4 meter thick bulkheads of armor between each deck)

Here are the states for the Propulsion system

• Falcon Tunnel Drive: 0.2ly/m with a jump range of 15ly max per jump.
• Sublight Engines: .30c
• Range: Year with the right support craft.
• Lifespan: 20 years
• Refit Cycle: yearly.

DRv3 Tier: DR T14

• Deck 1-4: Bridge, Origin Point Defense Weapons
• Deck 4-8: Hangar Bays, Maintenance Bays, Workshops
• Deck 8-12: Hangar Bays, Maintenance Bays, Workshops
• Deck 12-16: Armor and bulkheads, Workshops, Origin Point Defense Weapons, Cargo Holds
• Deck 16-20: Crew habitation, Crew Habitation, Crew Recreation
• Deck 20-24: Life Support, Waste Reclamation, Cargo Holds
• Deck 24-28: Ore Refinery, Engineering, Fabrication, Engineering
• Deck 28-32: Continued Ore refinery

The bridge of the ship is strategically positioned at the bow, just a few meters from the ship's edge on either side and only two meters from the front. This prime location allows for an expansive and unobstructed view of the surrounding space, crucial for navigation and monitoring.

The bridge itself is a medium-sized room, designed to accommodate the necessary personnel and equipment without feeling cramped. There is ample standing room, allowing crew members to move freely and access different stations quickly. The layout of the bridge is carefully organized to ensure efficiency and clear lines of communication between key positions.

To the starboard side of the bridge is the communications station, positioned to the left of the Captain's chair. This station is equipped with advanced communication tools, allowing the operator to manage internal and external communications, monitor signals, and handle any necessary transmissions. The proximity to the Captain's chair ensures that the Captain can easily interact with the communications officer and stay informed about any incoming or outgoing messages.

The bridge features a wide viewing area that displays the vast expanse of the universe ahead. This viewing area, essentially a large viewport or screen, provides the crew with a real-time visual of their surroundings, aiding in navigation and situational awareness. The clear view of space is essential for detecting potential hazards, navigating through complex environments, and appreciating the beauty of the cosmos.

Directly in front of the Captain's seat is the helmsmen and navigator's seat. These key positions are responsible for steering the ship and plotting its course, respectively. The close proximity to the Captain ensures that they can receive direct orders and provide immediate feedback on the ship's status and trajectory.

At the back of the bridge, to the left, is the Chief Engineer's section. This area is equipped with various controls and monitoring systems related to the ship's engineering and technical operations. The Chief Engineer oversees the performance of the ship's systems, ensuring that everything runs smoothly and efficiently. The position allows the Chief Engineer to quickly address any technical issues that may arise.

On the opposite side, to the right, is the Head of Security's section. This station is responsible for monitoring the security status of the ship, managing security personnel, and responding to any threats or breaches. The Head of Security's close placement to the Captain ensures that they can coordinate effectively in times of crisis and maintain the safety of the crew and ship.

On Decks 16 through to the 20th Deck was a long stretch of a hallway full to the end of doors broken only by elevators every mile, each deck was the same a hall with doors, and elevators each clean, warm and brightly lit with a comfortable setting that would not cause problems for those walking. In the hours designated as Morning when the Crew has just woken up, and at night, the lights are much dimmer than before. Every single door within the decks opened into a living room, which held the doors to bathrooms and bedrooms, each full of beds, dressers, and desks. Each of these crew habitation rooms was split to a specific species so that members of certain species inhabited the rooms there so they were neighbors of all.

Managers and their assistants get a much more lavish rooms than the ordinary workers, but the pilots get quarters just as lavish. There were rooms on the last deck for card games, and holosuites, and exercise rooms. Each room safe for the Managers, the assistance, and the Pilots are the size of a town apartment.

Each room had access to a storage area, designated to each individual persons living in the quarters, while the quarters were the size of a standard apartment, the storage area was the size of rooms. The lights here are dim all around, but still visible

The Mining Guild medical bay follows the New Dusk Conclave standard for medical bays within their star-ships. They use the same medical techniques and technology that they have at their disposal. Each bed is separated into rooms where the doors can be opened and closed or remain in either state of privacy requirements, the beds themselves are made with the patient's physiology in mind. The medical staff, both organic and synthetic are trained or programmed, to help the personnel of the Mining Guild to the best of their abilities, there’s even an area for the synthetics where they can be repaired. Both are brightly lit, clean and sterile, ready to serve. Whether the patient is organic or synthetic, Human, Separa’shan, Elysian, clone with animal physiology or Gynoid and androids it wouldn’t matter here, the medical staff will treat their patients with respect, and help them recover so that the patient whoever they are can get back to their lives and their work. They also don’t care if the Patient got their injuries from foolery, or if they were attacked, they will be treated the same.

The engineering room is a state-of-the-art facility, purpose-built to house the new power core and all associated systems. Positioned at the back of the ship, behind the cargo bay, the engineering room spans the last three decks vertically in the aft section of the vessel, ensuring that the power and propulsion systems are centralized and easily accessible for maintenance and operations.

The third deck at the back of the engineering room is where the drive system is located. This area is crucial, as it contains the bulk of the ship's thrusters, responsible for propelling the vessel through space. These powerful engines are situated closer to the middle of the third deck, optimizing the ship's balance and thrust efficiency. The arrangement allows for direct access to the thrusters, facilitating regular inspections and repairs.

On the second deck, the engineering room houses the electrical systems and the AI core. The electrical systems are essential for distributing power throughout the ship, ensuring that all systems receive the necessary energy to function optimally. The AI core, a sophisticated and integral part of the ship's operations, is located here as well. This core is responsible for managing the ship's artificial intelligence, which aids in navigation, system diagnostics, and various automated functions.

The AI core is situated on a balcony-like structure with double doors behind it, which leads to the armory and the research and development (R&D) department. This strategic placement allows for seamless integration between the ship's defense systems, technological advancements, and the AI, ensuring that all components work harmoniously. The balcony provides a vantage point for overseeing the engineering area below, with a railing installed to prevent accidental falls.

However, there are no stairs or ladders leading from this balcony to the bottom of the engineering area. This unique design choice suggests that the engineering room was intended for crew members with the ability to fly, bypassing the need for conventional access methods. This feature highlights the advanced and specialized nature of the ship, catering to a unique crew with extraordinary capabilities.

the Maintenance tunnels are cramped crawl spaces, though fortunately there were a few hatchways that allowed one to exit if the need came to it.

There are multiple passageways throughout the Dragon-class Mobile Refinery, arranged in an almost maze-like fashion that has the potential to disorient and confuse anyone unfamiliar with the layout. Without a ship navigation device, it’s easy to become lost in the labyrinth of corridors. These passageways twist and turn, often leading to dead ends or looping back on themselves. The complexity of the design serves both practical purposes, such as maximizing space and optimizing workflow, and security purposes, ensuring that unauthorized personnel find it difficult to navigate.

At every T-section within these passageways, there’s a hatch leading to the maintenance tunnels. These hatches are strategically placed, providing access for maintenance crews to perform essential tasks without needing to traverse the main corridors. The maintenance tunnels themselves are a network of narrow passages, designed to house various conduits, pipes, and cables necessary for the refinery's operation. These tunnels also feature their own T-junctions, which, in some cases, align with the T-sections of the main passageways. This alignment, however, is not always perfect, adding another layer of complexity to the refinery’s internal layout.

Navigating this intricate system without a ship navigation device can be challenging. The device, often equipped with a detailed map of the ship's layout, helps crew members find their way through the maze of passageways and maintenance tunnels efficiently. Without it, even seasoned crew members might find themselves wandering aimlessly, trying to recall the correct turns and hatches that lead to their destination.

Within the Dragon was a section specifically for the Mining Guild’s power armor. The Cargo hold for the ship has a lot of room for more than a Hundred Ant Power armor, in the Maintenance bays has a section for the Power armor, if it needs to be worked on.

The Ore Refinery is a massively huge part of the ship, using complex technology to refine the ore that had been dug up. This is done in a vast variety of traditional ways, but also using advanced technology that required little to no interference. However, because of the by-product of certain materials that may cause gas and radiation exposure into the environment during the process, the workers sit in pods where they operate the NDC’s ACE bodies. The room is sealed to prevent the breach of these harmful things. The machines are made with Aegium, to reduce the heat emissions, and later on, once the Mining Guild had enough money, Skusten was purchased to aid in the heat's reduction.

The Shuttle bay of the Dragon is large enough that it can hold 40 Stork Transports on a top-level, while temporarily it can hold half of that number of the Magpie Industrial shuttles on a lower level. Each level has Technicians on standby, ready to add fuel or make any needed repairs for the shuttles as needed. For those wishing to join the Mobile Refinery would find a large door with the Guild insignia on it. This door will let them into a passageway to go whether they need to go.

The ship's hull structure is composed of a combination Durandium and ADNR (Aggregated Diamond Nanorods). It also has a layer of a gel resistant to heat, energy, and kinetic-based damage. This gel is flexible, and because of that and its state of matter, it can also fill in space between the layers of graphene sandwiched Osmanium spread throughout.

The gel is very resistant to kinetic forces as the force of an impact is absorbed and spread outward by the jiggly substance. The gel is resistant to excess energy exposure (including magnetic) because of being composed of silicon-based materials and traces of rubber-like matter. It is not immune to electromagnetic pulse weapons, just more resistant than usual.

Lastly, the gel is highly absorbent to heat and will radiate it off over time due because of the properties of its state of matter and composition. This is within a shell of Aegium, which also makes up the support structure deeper within.

The Dragon’s computer system is installed with a AI which was a part of the OrichalcumAI list. This was so that the Mobile Refineries could be connected to the other starships of the Mining Guild, and so it could be linked to the one on their Space Station. With the AI, Sensors and a Quantum communications systems were also installed.

A bank of 100 BW-PC-1B "PowerPak", acts as an emergency power source if the main drive's power cores die. This will ensure that comms, life support, and sensors continue to receive power for three weeks. Alternatively Alongside the hull, were special devices that can absorb the radiation emanating from space, and convert this to energy, that could be stored in special power storages in order to aid its power usage. This could lead to indefinite duration of power

On all Mining Guild ships and their Space Station, a External Respiration Kit aids in cleaning the air that the organics' breath out, as well as the water needs of organics.

Waste is transferred to a large tank where a huge magnet slides over the ceiling; metal items are picked up by this and are transported to a new tank. It is then where an advanced sorting system sorts the pieces into proper holes. The metal is smelted, and merges into what would normally be a giant ingot, had it all not been separated again before it entered the molds. The metal is sent to the various factories of the New Dusk Conclave to be made into new items.

As for Manure, it follows the standard for all Mining Guild property, that are transferred to farms or factories that can turn it into fertilizer. Broken electronics are taken apart, the metal joins the other metal, and the other materials follow suit in their respective compartments.

Besides the other Life support, some aqueducts transfer water, and flushing toilets, and working sinks. The water is quadruple filtered so that nothing, not even microbes, can contaminate water. The Salt in the water is sent to a different area where it is made for a new purpose. This allows the Settlers to drink water should they need to.

Large sized Ionix Vortex Engine are arranged at the back of the craft along with the thrusters. The drive system for these are powered by 8 Power Core. Along with its special storage, they can last the operation of the Dragon class up to a year, if not longer with support craft.

The Dragon-class is protected by a NDC Paladin Barrier System.

Although it does not look like it, the Dragon is armed with multiple defensive weapons:

• 20x Origin Point Defense Weapons (T9) located throughout the ship.

• Up to 40 Magpie-class Industrial Cargo Freighter or 500 Stork-class Personnel Transport

Although it’s a non-military vessel, the Mining Guild has chosen to get some from the NDC Military to aid in protecting them.

• Can carry up to 1000 fighters provided that the hangers are cleared of other ships.

750.000 DS

1,194,444 KS

• Charaa created this article on 2019/09/07 13:22.
• Jack Pine was kind enough to help with the images as well as help me with getting them here.
• Approval Thread
• new art by Charaa using copilot