Terrene Assault Transport

The Terrene Assault Transport is a dropship-style transport, with a long body and shell-like heavy armor plating. It is easily distinguished by its armored shell, massive side-door hangar, and a cannon-tipped nose. A ship born from Zen Armaments corporate ambitions and its middle-ground of Nepleslian functionality and Yamataian cosmetics, the Terrene was named after the legendary gunship it was meant to assist and work alongside within the Nepleslian military, the Corona Heavy Gunship.

A love child born as a new opportunity to re-enter the ship market, the Terrene was designed as a multi-role type of ship. While its strengths lie in its ability as a dropship, the ship's cozy living space was intended to market the smaller groups of mercenaries and merchants who need a base-ship as much as the nations who need a troop transport. Thanks to its large hangar-style cargo hold, the Terrene can be modified and outfitted to support various methods of deployment or even as an anti-fighter gunboat if one wants a military ship. Overall, the ship's strengths lie in its sheer capability to flex under its captain's demands or its nation's needs.

• VTOL-assisted Engine System
• Large Mission Flexibility
• Massive Bombardment Nose-Cannon
• Heavy Armor Shell

• Supply Missions
• Basic and Hostile Territory Merchant Ship
• Air Superiority/Planetary Combat
• Mobile Headquarters

Following the Nepleslian influence of a brick, the Terrene is a long and mostly rectangular ship, with a thick smooth shell influenced by the more angular and sleek designs of Yamatai. Two chaingun turrets on top, two on the bottom, and its massive nose cannon are its only readily apparent armament. Four VTOL-rotary mounts hold the ship's supporting engines, with a dual-feed main engine on the back. Reinforced drop-pod doors line its non-shelled belly, with two massive hangar bays visible from either side of the ship. Finally, six massive air-brake flaps are fitted to the front of the ship near its main VTOL engines, normally stored behind armored shutters.

As a ship that is often sold to various organizations, there is no “true” coloring to the Terrene. Standard production models are often initially painted in black and gun metal if being sent to the fringes of Yamatai and Nepleslian space. However the most common paint-job, due to Zen Armament's primary clients being the core of Nepleslian space, would be Nepleslian Green. Painting the ship green along the body and leaving everything else untouched, where most models are even painted green ahead of time when shipped to Zen Armaments shipyards for sale.

In early YE 38, Zen had begun investigating the likelihood of returning to proper ship production. They had made attempts in the past through proxy and lighter shuttles, but never quite dove off the deep-end. As such, they had fallen behind the many other mega-corporations due to lacking an available design and success through its earlier models. Originally a tentative and slow design, there was a lot of skepticism as to how best approach the Terrene. Some wanted functionality as the primary aspect, believing a proper warship was the best way to compete thanks to their many Nepleslian clients. However, others figured a good looking ship for merchants would do well in the well-secured Yamataian space. It led to countless redesigns and issues with logistics and intent. It was truly a problem of development hell… until the start of the Kuvexian War.

An unknown enemy promoted a fear among many, especially when Yamatai would later declare war. The growing tension and reports of Nepleslia joining the effort in their own way was the last straw. The arguments ceased as Zen realized that the war would be won with more than just legendary battleships like the mighty Primus or agile deathships like the Plumeria. The strengths of both the mightiest giants of the Kikyo sector were the soldiers who fielded Power Armor and had to take the worlds of their alien foes, while ensuring the protection of its civilian merchants and supplies. In YE 39, the progress of the Terrene's development had exploded. Cooperation and deals with Geshrinari Shipyards had provided a proper gun while design philosophies from things like the Justicar Mecha Carrier came to fruition later in YE 39. The corporation approached Nepleslian Arms and Munitions and the groups worked together to create a ship capable of surviving and escaping a Kuvexian encounter, trying to ensure the survival of secure and safe trade.

Below are the statistics and performance numbers and categories for the Terrene-class Assault Transport.

• Class: Ze-T1-1c
• Type: Transport / Dropship
• Designers: Zen Armaments, Nepleslian Arms and Munitions
• Manufacturer: Zen Armaments
• Production: Mass Production
• Fielded by: Anyone who buys one

• Crew: 5 operators are recommended, 2 are required.
• Maximum Capacity: The ship has accommodations for 60 people. About 300 people can fit aboard in an emergency, but the ship would be extremely cramped and most occupants would have to use hammocks or sleep in the passageways.

• Length: 100 meters
• Width: 40 meters
• Height: 40 meters
• Decks: 2 (the only “normal” deck has a height of 3.5 meters)

• Length: 40 meters
• Width: 30 meters
• Height: 20 meters

• Speed Category: 1 - Standard Warship
• Continuum Distortion Drive: 15,000c
• Sublight Engines: .350c
• Range: 30 light-years
• Lifespan: 20 years or more
• Refit Cycle: Annually or when seriously damaged.

See Damage Rating (Version 3) for an explanation of the damage system.

• Hull: Tier 10, Light Starship
• Barriers: Tier 10, Light Starship (Conformal)

The following is a general description of the areas inside the Terrene-class Assault Transport.

Due to its hangar's immense size, there isn't a need for a proper airlock aboard the Terrene. However, in most cases, one can opt to have one of its drop pod hatches into an extending airlock, allowing the ship to allow people to crawl out of the ship or for most ships within the Kikyo sector to bridge and allow boarding operations and more precise transporation of certain goods.

A rather basic armory positioned close to the crew quarters, the Terrene armory has various forms of power armor storage and gun mounts, allowing one to store plenty of weapons or dangerous objects within its heavy, reinforced doors. A fairly standard armory.

The massive bridge of the Terrene earns its size due to being a combination of various compartments found normally on ships. Towards the ship's engine side of the room, the Captain's chair is at the highest spot, overlooking the pilot's seat, communications suite, and sensor suite. Across the room lies various large informational displays along the walls, with pit-like defensive positions nestled slightly to allow the crew within the bridge to better defend it in the act of enemy boarders.

Identified as the “bunks”, the general resting area for most of the ship is within a large room almost equal to the size of the bridge. This room is normally fitted with 50 beds, stacked up to two beds high. Tight walkways make things very akin to the Nepleslian hive-world tightness, so those who might not be from Nepleslia might remove some of the beds.

Inspired by Yamatai's then-recent Star Army Onsen, Zen produced a commons area for the ship to use the bathroom and bathe. A shared onsen-like bathing area makes up one half of the large room, while the other half is comprised of smaller showers and restroom stalls to facilitate those who might not like the open nature of the public bath or simply need to go to the restroom. A partition wall is normally deployed from the ceiling, allowing those who might be walking by to not see anything going on in the bathing area if they prefer to avoid it!

A massive room consisting partially of the ship's massive engine chambers, the main generators, and life-support. Both of the entrances to engineering are small but tall rooms, containing multiple levels to allow direct access to the various rooms and systems aboard the Terrene with the use of exo-lifts or a traditional ladder.

Simplistic and to the point, the Terrene is outfitted with a Fabrication bay that one would find on most similar ships. A large platform allows the ship to build any blueprints they load into it up to the maximum dimensions of 5x5x5 meters. While this gives them many options for repairing or even building their own equipment, the bay is incapable of running while under full power-load.

Like any traditional spaceship of the modern age, the ship has hallways. Basic emergency airlocks are littered in wide, almost wall-width spots all over the various hallways and within doorways to allow the ship to lock any area that gets depressurized. The doors have release hatches, however, allowing manual override if there is no response from the bridge's command suite.

The ship's massive hangar is, effectively able to double as a cargo storage. Its immense size of roughly forty meters long, thirty meters wide, and twenty meters tall, however, often makes it ideal to act as a hangar for one or two shuttles or fighters. When in use by certain organizations and militaries, such as the NSMC, the hangar can instead be filled with various ground craft. Positioned near the hangar doors, however, are floor-buried turret mounts. With the push of a button near the elevators, these hatches will open and the mounts will raise up, allowing various types of weapons to be mounted. A massive bulkhead can be seen starting within the ceiling of the hangar, however, as a measure to try and protect the ship's upper deck in the case of an enemy ship firing through the bottom of it.

Often used as a secondary sleeping area for up to 10 people, the Holding Cells are intended to be used to hold criminals, those with “spacemania”, and prisoners. On the traditional Terrene, these are sectioned off with Durandium Alloy walls and energy field doorways. The result is a slightly more reinforced interior to keep things like the common Neko from punching through the walls, while also ensuring a simple push of the button can allow access in or out of a cell.

The automated hydroponics suite aboard the Terrene is a boon of Zen Armaments research into the exploration-focused methods of Yamatai and now Nepleslia. To fit this need, and likely facilitate the needs of many space-faring merchants and mercenaries, an automated bay is positioned aboard the ship. Coupled with a connection to the ship's life support generator, the hydroponics bay works in tandem to create and mix gases as much as grow food and various plants that the crew might want. A very simple, separate chained-AI runs this bay, allowing the ship's owners to easily input new information and plants to grow various forms of meal supplements and even xenoflora.

Though uncharted on the blueprints of the ship, each Terrene has maintenance conduits and shafts positioned along much of the urban deck, allowing them to access the operational/hangar deck in the case of an emergency. The elevator shafts also act as this when set to inactive, allowing larger groups to move up and down through its shaft via access panels in the elevator car.

A rather traditional medical area, Zen does not go too far out of their way in this department. In particular, they've placed rather basic medical beds and portioned off part of it to treat someone in quarantine. Depending on one's resources or the faction buying the Terrene, however, there is plenty of room for things such as an ABMU or Stasis Tubes.

Rather than a traditional Captain's suite, the Terrene comes with an easily quartered-off room called the Officer Cabins. This room, through accessing a code-panel near the inside of the door, can make up to three rooms to account for a CO, XO, and special guest. The fourth area, obviously, is left open to allow a small entrance way. With the proper code, the room can raise or lower its walls and restructure itself to the captain's personal tastes.

The training room, effectively a gym, is a fantastic gymnasium and holographic arena. One half of it has traditional workout equipment, such as weights and cardio trainers, while the other half has its various training gear and drones. The entire room, however, is fitted with holographic imagery panels and projectors. One can easily find various methods to get their training and workout fix whether they're doing it by lifting weights in a tranquil garden or having a shootout in an old world western street!

Inspired by the Origin Wardroom, Zen combined its kitchen, relaxing area, and mess hall into a large room. The kitchen is often put near the rear of the ship, while the mess area rests in the middle of the room, and the various displays and sofas are huddled toward the ship's front side of the room.

The following is a general description of the subsystems utilized by the Terrene-class Assault Transport.

The hull and armor of the Terrene consists of two types of materials. The shell-like plating of the Terrene is made of Nerimium, while its frame and inner hull levels are made of Durandium Alloy. As a result, the Terrene tends to endure crash-level blows to its shell tremendously well, acting as a buffer to allow the ship to crash-land without damaging its cargo or risking its crew. However, this also exposes it to certain kinds of missiles or weapons that inflict more damage if they strike harder outer armor, if they bear enough strength to breach the ship's shell where they can get caught and cause more damage internally.

In its current state, the Terrene is run with basic-level AI littered around the ship. This extends from a basic AI for its engineering and maintenance monitoring, hydroponics bay, and its basic communication identification patterns. As a ship built without a goal to prevent users from acquiring it at reasonable prices, this has allowed it to keep its budget but forces a high strain on electronics that requires a large mechanical operation if one wants to load more powerful AI into the ship.

The sensors of the Terrene are fairly similar to those found in other ships of transport quality: long range, but little diversity in detection. One needs to be careful heading into hostile space as a result, as basic stealth technology can slip through the scanners and sensors aboard the Terrene.

Outfitted with a fairly powerful communications suite, the Terrene is able to convey and make contact using the traditional communication networks the owner will upload into it. Fitted with a universal translator, the Terrene is the ideal ship for a high-contact group like mercenaries or busy merchants. The closest to comparison one can find on the market would be from Zen's other ship, the Dagger-class Missile Cruiser.

While its electrical suite is capable of bolstering its many services, the Terrene is exposed as a vessel that wasn't intended for engaging specialized warfare ships. With a hard-set of controls on the bridge it can be manually flown and its hangar turrets can be manually deployed in the case of attack on the ship, but otherwise many of its systems can succumb to a powerful hacking hardware or EWC if given enough time.

Two escape pods on the ship are placed within its shelled living deck, where explosive bolt heads are positioned above the pods. These bolts, when activated, will drill up through the ship and into the armor shell above before detonating, blowing square hatches in and venting the escape pods straight up and away from the ship. Once clear, the pods will activate their boosters at max, firing the pods away. Each pod can house 15 people when fully packed, though the lack of a dedicated design means that Zen's lifepods are far from comfortable and focus on essentials. Each lifepod is stocked with a week's worth of oxygen, food, and water to allow the ship to escape and signal for help with a built-in relay.

Aboard the ship there are various measures to extinguish fires, close off ruptures in the hull, and to keep life support running even in worst-case conditions. Rather than rely solely on its generators, it has various small batteries scattered around the ship halls to keep an energy supply at all cost to sections that might get cut off.

While it may appear fairly standard, the Terrene benefits from an exceptional life-support system that can adjust the temperature, oxygen flow, and even the humidity inside the bed chambers of its bunks and the many rooms. This is thanks to a goal of providing a mobile home among the stars to those who want to always be moving, allowing great freedom and practically no fear of life support failure so long as the ship is kept in proper condition.

Two massive antimatter reactors, positioned in Engineering atop one another. The top reactor handles the most power-hungry machines such as the main engines and the various combat electronics. The lower reactor is focused on supporting the life-support, fabricator, and most minor forms of necessary power such as lighting.

Four smaller fusion generators, placed along the corners of the Engineering deck, handle the hangar, communications, and act as back-up in the likelihood of main reactor failure.

Four separate rooms accessible only by maintenance bulkheads store much smaller fusion reactors, each one handling one of the ship's four VTOL-style engines. This ensures that even in the event of three VTOL engines failing that one has enough power to “man-handle” the ship if necessary with pushing the engines beyond their traditional output. In short, these reactors are running only when the VTOL are necessary such as for planetary landings or if the ship has been heavily damaged.

Both the primary and the VTOL engines are thermonuclear, powered and supported by the various reactors around the entire ship. Far smaller maneuvering ports adorn various parts of the ship for generic shifting and course correction.

• Continuum Distortion Drive

The Terrene utilizes a rather basic CDD for its FTL purposes, one of the first attempts to make one by Zen. While it's nothing too out-of-the-ordinary, they were able to pump it up and its capabilities significantly thanks to the Terrene's power capabilities.

Utilizing a suite similar to the Nepleslian Shielding suites from its shared NAM design advice, the Terrene boasts electrostatic, distortion, scalar, and damper shielding units aboard in its engineering room. These aren't very powerful, part of the reason it is restricted to a conformal barrier type to maintain power, but effectively can protect the Terrene from its main threats in the form of ground-based artillery or anti-transport ships and strikecraft.

While it does not inherently come with stealth suites, it's not a stretch that thanks to the Terrene's still fairly roomy hangar and engineering rooms to allow modification for stealth systems. Not only that, but one could custom order these ships to have its shell lined with the various stealth material throughout the Kikyo sector, so long as they can supply or afford to get the material brought in.

The weapons aboard a Terrene aren't very prominent, but they are certainly capable in its role to assist in planetary operations or assaulting non-moving targets.

• x1 Modified Ge-C1-W3301 - Heavy Anti-Starship Turret (T11)

A single, massive twin cannon integrated into the front of the ship. The Ge-C1-W3301, purchased from Geshrini, has been modified with more streamline cannon bores. This weapon is far from ideal for ship-to-ship combat, though it can easily rock an unprepared vessel, but has instead been gifted with a strong “pulse” fire to allow it to hit with more explosive power.

• x4 m-3_gatling_turret (T9)

Positioned atop and beneath the Terrene, these turrets are the ship's main defense against fighters and PA. While they can also be fired at other ships, their effectiveness at destroying fighters and assaulting ground armor or infantry columns can't be doubted.

• x20 Multi-fit Turrets (T6)

Ten of these line each side of the hangar, extending up from the ground. Pedestal-like and able to swivel when manned, almost any weapon that can fit onto a PA and below can be rigged into the turret brace. The result allows the hangar doors to be opened to provide a mix of tactics when assaulting the ground or defending the ship, such as mounting many chainguns to flood an area with bullets or rockets to bombard an enemy ship or to try and shootdown incoming fighters with lock-ons.

Legix created this article on 2017/08/23 06:56.