The Rampart Fortress was designed as a desperation move during the Fourth Elysian War as the Empire became increasingly concerned that a strike at Veritas would crippled Elysia’s manufacturing capabilities and thus lose the war. As such the Rampart is designed to take advantage of Veritas’ natural resources to create an enviable (for the time) defensive system with considerable offensive and defensive measures.
However the Ramparts were designed a generation ago and despite recent upgrades remains lacking of much of Elysia’s newer technology and is not as formidable as comparable (and more modern) Fortresses of other races – leading the Elysians to design a more cutting edge one.
The existence of the Rampart fortress can only be understood in the context of a nation that was in the fourth of a series of costly wars, and increasingly coming to terms with the fact that with modern weaponry a single strike could render Elysia without the vital production plants and ship manufacturing facilities at Veritas. In order to deal with this problem, as well as adding further productive power to the empire in an attempt to swing the tide of war the Rampart stations were designed at built - building in a highly pragmatic style. A product of necessity the station was not designed to leave the atmosphere of the planets it protected, or indeed to travel at speeds even approaching the speed of light - leaving such technology out the room and resources were instead invested into production facilities as well as a formidable array of offensive and defensive systems.
After the Fourth war, in the period of Yamataian domination, the stations fell largely into disuse - maintained at basic running order and inhabited by civilians, but of little overall importance. However with the coming of independence the Rampart fortresses were again relevant - Elysia being as apparently defenceless as it was the empire was willing to latch onto the relics of the past - especially since these relics had teeth and tactical value. As such they began to restore, and indeed surpass, the original glory of the Rampart - although it is still a product of its times and by no means cutting edge.
Type: Gas-giant Semi-Stationary Fortress and Shipyard Class: El-H1-01 Designer: Elysian Celestial Empire Manufacturer: Veritas Shipyards Production: Eight made.
Crew: 15,000 • 1 Prefectii • 5 Lokhagi • 100 Duplicari • 9894 Semeai • 5000 Seraph Maximum Capacity: 50,000
Appearance: The Rampart appears to be an imperfect wheel with a somewhat rough edge, punctured by external docking ports, weapon systems, sensors or sections of the Fortress which were added as needed – in the war the Elysians sacrificed their usual grace. An imposing sight it focuses around a large ‘hub’ which contains the main weapon systems and core systems and a ring around it which contains habitation and production facilities – linked by twelve ‘spokes’ which contain ship production facilities.
Diameter: 5 kilometres. Height: 500, 300, 1,500 m (outer ring, spokes and hub respectively). Decks: Spaced 4m apart
Mass: Enormous.
Speed (FTL): Does not possess FTL, instead capable of reaching Mach 5 in atmosphere through large Gravitic drives and stream-line shielding. Range: Designed to be able to move around the surface of the planet, but no more. Lifespan: Estimated 300 years or more. Refit Cycle: Constant repairs are made by the crew on board, with gradual upgrades being fed down from those above.
The Bridge is the nerve centre of the fortress, serving at the head of a de-centralised nervous system. However it is still the place where ultimate authority presides and where the captain's chair is placed. To fit in with the cost-saving measures that were being used throughout the facility the bridge might be considered to be more in fitting for a ship than a fortress, being much the same size and with various consoles: Tactical, Sensors, Navigation and so forth - the only difference is that each of these consoles tends to control a group of people - there is a tactical group to more precisely take care of combat and so forth, along with the computer.
Aesthetically the Bridge is primarily composed of polished metal and simple touch surfaces - no expensive and needless volumetric projections or needles wastes of resources. The only element of luxury is the Principe's chair - a magnificent construct composed of black marble.
The Prefectii is the supreme authority on the Rampart, a Patrician of great power and influence (and with it wealth) and due to the relationship between Kleos and materialism his quarters are not so much quarters as a small mansion built into the fortress. It was thought (especially by the Prefectii) that this small luxury was necessary. The villa contains a dining room, kitchen, sitting room, master bedroom (with an en suite bathroom with a two person bath) a garden at the back (with a newly fitted volumetric projector in order to make the setting more realistic as well as a personal swimming pool. In addition there are three lavish guest bedrooms for those which the Prefectii wishes to extend his hospitality to - the furnishings of the quarters are truly first class, some of the best that you will find outside of an atmosphere and are used well to create a truly ornate, mystical and luxurious apartment.
The Lokhagi are not merely Patcians but Patricians who have risen to the rank equivalent of Captain, and the respect and Kleos tat entails. Given that material goods are the corporeal manifestation of an individuals Kleos it is only natural that the Lokhagi's quarters are grand. And indeed they are, consisting of a series of superbly decorated rooms - often containing furniture of artefacts imported from home. Stepping inside a Lokhagi's quarters and it does not seem that the person is in a space fortress after all but rather in a wealthy house in Elysia - even the ceiling is usually obscured by a facade of some sort. The layout of the rooms and the interior of these rooms changes greatly between the Lokhagi, it would be scandalous to give them nigh on identical chambers given that the habitat reflects the status of the person. That the are subtly altered to be of all roughly equal status even while highly different in style is immaterial.
The Duplicari live in a state of luxury that would seem ornate and splendid to the majority of the Plebeian population, and while it pales when compared to the Patrician accommodation it was thought that showing that the meritocratic system system has its rewards, along with placating the most ambitious of the Plebeians would be worth any small material cost. As such each of the Duplicari Quarters is decorated in warm colours, a large bed is in the middle of the room with a soft mattress, duvet and pillow - to its side a wooden bedside table. Around the room is a writing desk, cupboard, cupboard and full sized mirror - along with a en suite bathroom. The quality of the furniture, the warmth of the place and the comfort of the material are beyond the lifestyle limits of most Plebeians and, to them, it marks nearly the high of aspirations. The Duplicari are woken up by a subtle noise designed to raise gently.
The Semeai, as the lowest order of crew on the station get the lowest order of quarters. These are not so much deliberately limited as truly pragmatic - a plebeian soldier does not expect much and is highly unlikely to object to any conditions provided - to do so would be paramount to be evicted from the armed forces and by association most of society. As such the quarters are simple - there are six sets of bunkbeds which are hot bedded in the three eight-hour shifts. Each of these uses sheets rather than a duvet, partially due to economy and partially due to the thought that properly preparing a bed as a good test of discipline. Next to each bed are three small lockers to contain personal possessions - sufficient for a few memorabilia, a book or two and perhaps two changes of clothes. These lockers are each given a four-digit combination code - but can be opened by a master-key. Beyond this there is no furniture - new uniforms and clothing is provided every day and placed in a compartment in the corner of the room for washing - this was considered to be the most efficient method. Wake up calls are provided by a loud PR system.
The Civilians on the station - a term of limited use since this includes workers on military projects and a plethora of other military related occupations - dwell within these quarters. It should be noted that while this is the average quarter the rather flexible nature of the Ramparts construction means those with more financial clout can secure or design their own quarters - notably a Patrician who wished to live on a Rampart could expect to be able to have the equivalent of a small villa - however these varieties are enormously divergent and impossible to describe here.
The average Civilians Quarters are composed of a small room composed of two sections divided by a sliding curtain - on each side there is a bed, a bed and a chest of drawers which doubles as a bed-side table, as well as a in-built wall safe which contains room for a selection of data-pads. The Civilians are allowed to reorganise the room cosmetically, with pictures and so forth, but not to initiate any structural or lasting changes. As such these rooms are often more 'homey'.
Under the understanding that the Fortress would likely see combat, perhaps even boarding attempts in which the crew could get injured the facility was designed to contain 'First Aid Centres' as well as Med-Bay's in order to serve as field stations for the wounded - each one contains a bed, a DNA-locked cabinet of medication and some surgical equipment. The rooms can be closed from any of the regional centres, and only opened again with the command codes.
In the off-chance that the Yamataians managed to enter the fortress the corridors are designed to contain where the corridors widen out and contain armored pill-boxes, where the defenders can cut down the enemy with little risk to their own life. These are sufficiently spread throughout the station that a boarding action would be, if nothing else, costly. Since the upgrades this includes a Pelphrys Particle Pulse Autocannon in most of these stations as well as selective shielding.
The medical bays are located strategically around the fortress - some for those wounded in the line of duty, some for casualties and some for civilian concerns. As such the bays are prone to specialisation, but in general tend to contain a great deal of basic medical technology, with the bare minimum of expensive advanced technology. As a general rule unless the patient is in immediate risk of dying or required to be back at their post they will only be treated with the basic technology - the more advanced 'regeneration pods' are saved for priority cases. These pods are at the back of each Med-bay and contain a semi-organic fluid medium which quickly regenerates the subject - repairing even the most severe of injuries within hours.
There are 300 fighter bays on the Rampart, each of which is designed to contain 100 fighters - giving the fortress a complete allocation of 3000 fighters when fully stocked. The bays themselves are 10 decks high and contain 10 fighters on each 'deck', in a pattern which the designers considered to be aesthetically pleasing but not inefficient. In order to get to the fighters a series of run-ways and ladders is used - the fighters themselves are stored in anti-gravity cradles when not in use, backed up by a material sling systems. Each bay is bound by 10 doors (one for each of the 'decks') which itself operates behind a powerful selective force-field designed to retain atmosphere while protecting the ship - the fighters are designed to leave the station under their own power.
The bay is a large area composed largely out of metal and as such is mostly various shades of grey with direction marks painted onto the surface. The pilots themselves often write prayers and religious insignia onto the walls in order to ensure a greater likelihood of returning.
Designed to be able to maintain the Fighter fleet without limiting the ship production capabilities of the fortress the Fighter-repair or maintenance bay serves to be a place where the fighters dock to be repaired. That much is self explanatory. Each 'slot' in the bay (each bay has ten slots and there are 100 bays) and these 'slots' are surrounded by automated repair equipment capable of dealing with most minor damage within a minute or so - major repairs will require the fighter to actually be abandoned.
The huge Manufactory Bay's are wear the objects of the empire are created - in the Rampart they are largely targeted towards war, and as such along with creating essential furniture and other products a great deal of weapons and other military equipment are designed here. In the grand halls which are separated by partitions which are moved to fit requirements there is a great array of machinery - from that which lies in the open air to carefully sealed chambers where delicate operations are taken place. The bays are completely clean - workers are provided with a change of clothes and are air-cleaned before entering, all hair is covered and so forth. Within the bay there are machines with mechanical arms assembling components along with S18's and Plebeians, along with production facilities and so forth. Indeed anything which could be considered to exist in the manufacturing sector is likely to exist in one of the Manufactory bays. Due to the nature of the bays it is hard to say exactly how many of them their are, but they take up a considerable amount of the outer ring. The bays are lit by natural levels of light in order to avoid the stress that prolonged exposure to bright light can cause, and anti-sound systems are used in order to make the machinery very quiet - it is not an unpleasant place to work, although any breaks are designed with productivity, not the worker, in mind.
The Shipdocks are the place where the Ramparts construct starships - mostly military ones - and are built into different parts of the fortress. There are a variety of different sizes, from the huge 800 meter long bays which are build lengthwise into the rim and which are designed to build the grand Nariel Assault Battlecruisers (the two larger ships - the Avenger-Class Carrier and El-L1-1a Lanethron-class Cargo Ship are not supported at the fortress), and a series of smaller bays which can construct such ships as the El-D2-1a Thantros-class Destroyer, El-E1-1a Concordia-class Scout, and Thunderbolt Fast Attack Frigate. It does not have the facilities to construct or repair a El-B1-1a Crataeis-class Command Ship. These bays are located either along the spokes or the 'wheel' and largely consist of automated arms and machinery with S18's and Plebeian workers using anti-gravity harnesses to jump and float to the right position to construct or repair a ship.
These specialised bays take advantage of the constructed nature of the Empires favourite warriors - the eight bays each contain two hundred pods. Each of these pods can grow a S7 or S8 in 6 hours, a S17 in 4 hours or a S19 in 2 hours. They emerge from the pods with all of the knowledge they need to defend the fortress, although to bring them up to full service potential a further 4 hours needs to be spent in the pods.
Despite having a sizable civilian population the Rampart remains a primarily military orientated fortress and as such all occupants (below the status of Patriach) are served in messes - distributed around the station with their size in proportion to the proximity to areas of varying population density. While the messes vary significantly in size there are certain factors that remain the same - a white carpeted floor, a purple wall and a dark blue ceiling surrounding a room containing tables and chairs which are bolted to the floor in case of emergency. Built into the walls are food dispensers which serve a menu of different foods - in the military messes a ration card is put into the slot and rations (filled with specialised chemicals and so forth) is delivered, in the civilian messes you have choice - but you have to pay with your cash card depending on meal choice. The machine then gives you what you have ordered - which is prepared. Due to the use of taste-inducing chemicals the food always tastes sublime. When finished with the meal the tray it was served on is simply placed back in the dispenser and taken away.
It would perhaps be better to refer to these as 'showers' due to the fact that there are no actual baths. Instead they contain 24 shower cubicles divided into three 'blocks' - the setup is fairly simple, the Elysians not seeing any reason to over complicate such a simple process. However it also contains 12 basins and non-steam mirrors to allow for personal grooming and so forth. These facilities are not sex-prejudice (considered to be a needless expense with Elysia's social morality system).
For those not blessed with en suite toilets on the station, which admittedly consists of the majority of the population, it is necessary to make use of the toilets which are strategically placed around the station in order to make the ammount of time needed to travel to one in inverse proportion to ones level of Kleos (for some reason it was decided that this would be the primary factor of allocating rooms within a unit). The toilets are rather simple - not divided into different sexes (given that Elysia considers gender and even nudity as a rather non-issue) and consists of toilet cubicles. In order to clean them without requiring a staff the toilets contain a specialised bacteria which devour dead organic manner - whenever the lights are turned off which occurs whenever the toilets are unoccupied. A light blue and white are the usual colorations.
The Laundry is divided into two sections - the civilian and military. The military is very simple - the clothes are gathered by a member of the section decided upon by a rotational system and then delivered to a slot in the habitation area. These are then run through an automated system which cleanses them of all the dirt, organic residue and discoloration that may have accumulated - before folding them neatly and delivering them through a different slot. The clothes are then picked up by the same allocated person and delivered to the beds of the soldiers before they wake up.
The civilian laundry is almost identical to a early 21st century laundrette except free and with a slightly better conditioner. They are spread around the habitation areas of the station.
While Patriach's have the ability to maintain a high standard of health and fitness with minimal exercise, Plebeians are not so gifted and even Patriach's have to exercise in order to maintain a standard of utmost fitness. The second fact is only of academic interest since a Patrician would not visit an ordinary gym and would require rather different equipment. None the less to keep the soldiers 'fighting fit' their are several gyms located around the habitation areas. These gyms are esoteric in their content - some specialise in free weights, some in martial arts (containing a large number of weapons and training equipment surrounding a series of rings, some contain very small running rings and one contains a shooting range. Each of these gyms contains specialised drugs which can be given out by someone perceived to be qualified by the computer system.
The Recreation Rooms which are placed strategically around the fortress are designed to provide a psychological release to the crew and workers of the fortress - Elysia recognises that two much work without sufficient 'off time' can lead to decreased efficiency and psychological problems. As such for part of the 'off time' in the day (the day being divided into three 8 hours sections) is to be spend either in the gym, chapel or recreation room (a certain amount of time in the gym is compulsory). Within the large recreation rooms there is a variety of distractions - a wide library of texts on data-pads as well as videos of appropriate productions (relatively high-culture), as well as facilities for various competitive games between individuals (group competitions are considered to be dangerous in creating unproductive rivalries). The rooms differ quite largely in exactly what they have to offer, but it normally consists of a thin carpet a large assortment of comfortable chairs and a room comprising of restful colours and gentle music. There is a specially warded section for those with musical expressions.
In order to allow for quick movement around the station there is a system not unlike a train capsule which runs on multiple networks around the Rampart. The 'stations' are placed to be near habitation areas and important areas and the EM propelled trains come on a regular basis and travel as 80 mph - thus making transport anywhere a fairly speedy procedure. The lines run both vertically and horizontally - often both on the same line. The stations are guarded by thick blaster doors in case of emergency and the capsules are designed to self destruct violently if enemies try and hijack them.
The population and significance of the Rampart is sufficient to require its own temple - complete with a Episkopos of considerable Kleos, and a group of 10 priests. The Temple is an impressive structure, given that in religion the Elysians are not willing to be completely pragmatic, and takes the form of a classical style temple (with pillars and a triangular roof composed of synth-marble around a fullerine frame) standing in an opening with grass in front of it along with a blue pond (actually contains some dye to create the effect) and with a magnificent facade of clouds on the sky. Whereas some might consider the effect 'tacky', to an Elysian it is a place of high devotion and meaning - the temple itself is of sufficient size to seat 1,000 people and stand (although in service they would be apostate) a further 2,000 - there is a service three times every day and the occupants are encouraged to visit one service every other day. Some endorphin inducing incense is used in order to enhance the worship, as is specially designed mood music and a combination of light. In the centre of the altar is a shield which was blessed by an Exarch and is considered to be the spiritual soul of the station and its crew - as long as it remains the station survives in some form.
Dotted around the station where the soldiers are housed or stationed are a series of Chapels and Shrines which can fit either two or eight people in a moment of private devotion and prayer - in order that the soldiers may pray for Gods intercession in their everyday lives, before operation and perhaps quickly during attack. In addition to this having blessed locations around the station is thought to bring nothing but good luck. The chapels are small and contain a kneeling bench and an alter with a blessed religious symbol on it.
The original hull was composed of simple super-strong ceramics and metals based over a strong framework - an effective but limited system. As part of the refurbishment process the fortresses are slowly being clad in Battlecruiser style armour - “scale” armor nesting thousands of super-durable plates in an a self-regenerative base, designed to 'ablate' if hit with sufficient energy - and thus providing a far more effective barrier to weapons of all varieties. At the moment this covers only the more vital areas of the fortress. Class 6 (original hull), class 7 (improved hull).
These gravimetric effectors are capable of producing a beam of gravitons which can be used to tow ships which do not possess gravimetric shielding.
In order to go some way towards compensating for the Ramparts limited mobility, as well as to protect both itself and its surrounding area from the fast-moving and hard-hitting ships of other factions the Rampart was fitted with a Interdiction Field Generator during its renovations - through the use of a complex series of specialised gravitational fields it prohibits the manipulation of space-time - thus rendering all forms of FTL effects incapable of functioning within an area equivalent of 1/10th of an AU. This means that FTL travel is impossible, as is FTL communication and the utilisation of certain effects used in weapons.
The Rampart surrounds itself with a thin area of null gravity - only around a foot thick - which never the less provides nigh on complete protection against the scalar attacks which would otherwise penetrate its shields.
The Rampart still uses the same variety of shield that was used prior to the advent of CFS technology, that which was popular in the last war. However the size and power of the generators still makes this shield a formidable barrier to any that would try and penetrate it. Class 8.
Throughout the ship at strategic points there are three inch thick blast doors composed of armoured plate which serve not only as a protection against a breech of the hull but also to limit the advanced of enemy intruders - the doors are composed of sufficiently resistant materials to give non-aetheric weaponary a hard time. They are closed in stages automatically by the computer, or by the command of a Lockhagi - in order to open them again it is necessary for one of the two top ranks (or the highest remaining rank if they are killed) to order the doors open.
The Internal Defence System is in place largely to make any invading parties day a headache - it consists of a medley of automated defence systems which take place within the areas which because sealed off or simply those where the enemy is present. Wielded by both the computer automatically and the two highest ranks the IDS consists of many systems - including specialized biological agents, weapons built into the floor, directional shield generators, chemical weapons, immediately removing air from an area or venting super heated gas from the ships cooling system or so forth - the Ramparts designers designed the fortress to be a nightmare to invade and in this allowed their imagination run a little wild. The recent upgrades have restored certain sections of the station up to anti-PA level.
In order to save the existance of the crew in a worst case scenario their 'Souls', as retrieved by the obligatory ST backups which are taken on a regular basis, are stored in specialised and heavily armoured escape capsules (Armour Class 8, Shield Class 7) and are launched at high speeds from the fortress before engaging a FTL drive to bring them to safety. In order to ensure the safety of the crew (and taking advantage of the huge memory banks of modern computers) there are 50 of the pods each containing the complete list of military and civilian backups - their internal computers are designed to restore them to safety as soon as possible. In addition to this Souls are taken to Elysia on a monthly basis and stored in a centralised repository which is one of the heaviest defended areas on the planet. Only the destruction of Elysia Novus can truly destroy even their corporeal souls.
The Rampart uses a complex biological system based on the use of designed bacteria to recycle various products - both organic waste and the atmosphere of the station. The Bacteria, with the help of highly specialised enzymes they produce, break organic matter down into a simpler form - cleansing it of harmful chemicals and then processing it to either use it for food or raw production matter. Other systems use cells to absorb carbon dioxide and break it down into carbon and oxygen far more efficiently than photosynthesis. At the same time matter production systems fuse gaseous components of the gas giant into breathable atmosphere or even into food through forced molecular bonding - meaning that the fortress is largely self sufficient if neccesary.
The computer of the Rampart is a powerful computer, although not an AI (given that Elysians have never fully embraced the idea that there computers should be able to think individually). That being said it is powerful enough, and large enough, to compete with even modern computers on certain arenas - its ability to track targets, calculate weapon trajectories, likely tactics and effective counter-measures is very impressive - but then its core is dozens of times larger than even a capital ships, being stored in the heavily defended hub. It is capable of keeping a target of up to ten million targets ranging from pieces of rock or projectiles to capital ships and can even take over some ships in an emergency - it is certainly capable of running the IDS systems on board its 'body', co-ordinating its efforts in such a way to give any invading force a particularly large head-ache.
The Rampart uses the revered and rather old-school ADN as its form of psionic and telepathic protection, although plans are in the works to upgrade it to a PSC soon. The ADN is capable of nullifying all psionics, telepathy and magic, but selectively as to allow secure telepathic operations and communications even while under psionic assault. The ADN is on standby, normally being engaged once something 'fishy' is detected.
The original sensor suit of the fortress was rather limited, being compose of subspace mass sensors, basic microwave radar, various optics, and a crude scalar radar. Sensors and communications are integrated. The most advanced sensor was the Telepathic Activity Scanner. This sensor, connected to the OCS, constantly checked the area in a one-light-year radius for brainwaves. Since ships tend to have persons aboard, it can usually pinpoint said ships by their crews. Because it is a passive sensor, it doesn't trigger the GSA's ADN devices (which would render the sensor useless).
In the recent revamp of the Rampart the sensor suite was extended, effectively attaching a military grade sensor suite onto the side of the hub. These now include the unidirectional but rotating:
Long-range gravimetric sensors: These powerful sensors sense the presence of ships and other objects through the warping effect their mass has on space-time. While this sensor is not particularly good at getting exact information about the ship, it is extremely good at working out where something is, and the speed it’s moving at. It also beyond many types of cloaking device to foil this indirect form of scanning.
Magnetic Resonance Scanners: This sensor is used to identify what the targets hull is composed of, and also the other elements that compose the ship. Upon collecting this data it is compared with the ships data-base, and through this identify whether this variety of ship has been seen before, and possibly distinguishing the creator (a common trend in creations for example), or a weakness in design.
Long-Range Infrared Spectrometer: This sensor basically detects the radiation given off by hot bodies. In space almost everything is cold, space itself is only around 3 Kelvin, and the only things which are significantly above this are stars, planets and other celestial bodies. As such, if something is giving of Infrared radiation and it’s not a celestial body then it must be something artificial. This sensor won’t work on the more advanced ships out there, but can be surprisingly useful at detecting less advanced, or damaged, ships.
Distortion sensors: This highly sensitive sensor is capable of sensing the distortions of space which are created through CDD and CFS’, as well as other technology that utilises upon similar technology. In order to combat the danger that vessels cloaked using the CFS system could present, and so ships using a CDD could be tracked this device was developed, and it not only can locate the source of such distortions, but also discern certain information about it – such as power and possibly design.
Interferometer: This device combines the information from many different bands to create a far more accurate depiction. The Interferometer on the Rampart is of such a complexity that it can pick up tiny in discrepancies from the data corrected, and through doing so discover the locations of even rather subtle spatial distortions and cloaking devices.
Spectrometers: The Spectrometres measure the properties of light in particular sections of the electro-magnetic band.
Electromagnetic trans-space flux sensors: These advanced sensors detect tiny variances in the Electro-magnetic bands across all of the spatial planes. It functions as an incredibly advanced visual sensor, but only more so.
Quark and gluon density scanners: These scanners are capable of measuring the density of Quarks and Gluons in space through a complex sensor system. These sensors are highly useful at tracking bodies, and find out what composes them by working out the mean density of a material and comparing it. By comparing such a collection of densities to the ships memory, it is possible to discern what the ship is, and where tactical weak points may lie.
These sensors face the front of the ship and have a range up to thirty light-years.
In the modified suite the Omnidirectional sensors include Aetheric/quintessential/field/differential/particle/waves sensors, Scalar field sensors, Soliton sensors, Mho Sensors, Unified field mass/energy sensors as well as:
Subspace mass sensors: This sensor simply detects mass in subspace, and its passage through this domain. This sensor also functions on the related hyper-space. It is vital for detecting vessels which are travelling through these domains. It is notably hard to hide your mass from these variety of sensors when travelling through Hyperspace or Subspace.
Neutrino/tachyon sensors: These sensors have a range of twenty light-years. The Integrated Electronics Package is so fast, that the ship can attack faster than many ships can comprehend, doing a faster-than-light drive-by-shooting.
These sensors have a range of twenty light years.
The Rampart contains a communication system capable of utilising Laser, Radio, Hyperspace Communication, Subspace radio and telepathy for communication, and the omputer is sufficiently complicated to develop codes and syphers to render its communications virtually unhackable.
This Cannon takes up the majority of the hub and is a weapon of enormous power, albeit of a relatively simple concept. The Rampart absorbs hundreds of thousands of cubic tonnes of gas from the atmosphere, condenses it, super-heats to incredible temperatures and releases it as a beam of almost unmatched intensity - obliterating anything within its line of fire. While its power is extraordinary (and its firing beautiful) the Fortress must be stationary to fire it and requires a recovery time (although it has a 'tank' of gas permanently stored allowing for quick fire for the first time). After firing it takes 20 seconds to prepare a second shot.
The 'beam' which is fired is 250m wide, and can projected for over an AU.
Location: Central to the 'hub'. Primary Purpose: Anti-Capital Ship/Massed Ships Secondary Purpose: Heavy Assault Damage: 5 DR (Starship) ROF: 3/Minute Ammo: A planets worth of gas.
These high-powered transphased plasmatic pulse cannons serve as the secondary weapon of the Rampart, firing from a large rotating turret placed where the 'stoke' meets the 'wheel' as well as running along the 'rim'.
Primary Purpose: Anti-starship Secondary Purpose: Assault Damage: 4 DR (Starship) Range: 1 million mile effective range. Rate of Fire: Once every second. Payload Effectively unlimited, so long as the ship provides power.
During the modification of the Rampart it was thought that in order to give it a considerably increased degree of fire power without massive restructuring of the structure and power supply of the fortress would be to create orbital cannons - ones which could move with considerable speed and so make up for the limitations of both the fortress and its turrets. As such the Orbital Cannons were born - effectively self powered weapon platforms containing a slightly underpowered transphased plasmatic pulse cannon as well as a gravitic drive. The weapons are kept constantly circling the fortress and are controlled by its computer.
Primary Purpose: Anti-starship Secondary Purpose: Assault Damage: 3 DR (Starship) Range: 850,000 mile effective range. Rate of Fire: Once every 0.7 seconds. Payload Effectively unlimited, so long as the weapon provides power.
A peculiar weapon inspired by the same orbital/weapon platform technology as the Orbital Cannons the Missile Launcher Pods are large cone objects which contain large numbers of missiles - against designed to increase the offensive power of the station without requiring structural modification. Each of these pods has a gravitic drive which allows it to move itself with some speed and maneuverability, but significantly its front is speckled with ten holes - in each being a missile launcher and a small array of missiles. The missiles in question are powerful but simple - it uses the shield modulation technology which was in the vogue in the last war in order to penetrate shields and deliver its multi-megaton equivelant anti-matter package.
Primary Purpose: Anti-starship Secondary Purpose: Assault Damage: 3 DR (Starship) Range: 5 AU's. Rate of Fire: 1-10. Payload Each launcher has three reserve missiles and one loaded for a total of 40 missiles.
The beam cannon eyes are the equivalent of weapons turrets. These powerful beam projectors are used from anything to destroying missiles to cutting holes in starships.
Primary Purpose: Anti-starship Secondary Purpose: Anti-mecha/Anti-fighter Damage: 2 DR (Starship) Range: 2,000,000 miles Rate of Fire: 3 times a second Payload Effectively unlimited, so long as the ship provides power.
3000 Fighters