Ayame-class Cruiser

The Ayame, inspired by Qel'noran Shipyards' Integrated Strike Force Battleship, this KFY-built command cruiser has a similar docking ring (more of an elliptical shape) designed for lift-based docking with four Yui-class Scouts and four Ketsueki-class Escorts. This allows for an entire standard-size fleet group to travel together and share resources, as well as eliminating the need for future escort frigates to carry a Transuniversal Teleportation Drive.

Through the PANTHEON system, all Ayame ISFC were upgraded to the 1b specifications in YE 25, soon after the discovery of the Tami System by Taisho Alexis Jaren and her Third Expeditionary Fleet. The 1b added a large mecha complement, weaponry, and internal security systems to the cruiser. In late YE 25, the class was named Ayame after newly-promoted Taisho Ketsurui Ayame of the Third Expeditionary Fleet.

The most famous example of the Ayame class is the YSS Celia, commanded by Kai Ashigari (where he was assassinated), and later by Taisho Henry Chen.

• Government: Star Army of Yamatai, Yamatai Star Empire
• Ship Type: Integrated Strike Force Cruiser
• Ship Class: Ki-C1-1C
• Designer: Ketsurui Yui
• Manufacturers: Ketsurui Fleet Yards at Albini, Midori No Umi, Iori Star Fortresses (KFY)

• Crew: 120
• Maximum Capacity: 800

• Length: 900 feet (274.32 meters)
• Width: 800 feet (243.84 meters)
• Height: 400 feet (121.92 meter)
• Decks: 33
• Weight: 20,388,130 kg

See: Star Army of Yamatai Starship Speeds

• Speed (Atmospheric): Mach 1
• Landings: Water only. VTOL. Can hover indefinitely.
• Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited.
• Lifespan: Estimated 20 years
• Refit Cycle: Every five years, with frequent automatic minor upgrades through the PANTHEON system.

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

• Hull: 30
• Shields: 30 (Threshold 3)

The interior of the Ayame-class is based on that of the original Yui-class Scout, and has become somewhat vintage. Onboard, accommodations are small, but comfortable, with the crew living communally in soft pits called nests. Furniture is sleek and ergonomic, designed to fit Nekovalkyrja.

The Ayame has 33 decks.

See: Standard Star Army Armory

As the control center of the ship, the bridge has all the necessary stations in it: Tactical, Defensive Systems, Navigation, Science, Communications, and Operations (the Captain's). Indented into the floor are the pilots' pits, totally immersive control environments. Pilots fly the ships using an advanced neural interface. The cockpits are usually reserved for combat situations, as the ship's computer handles most flight ops. The basic layout of the bridge stations can be seen below (with the top of the chart representing the front of the bridge/ship). Given the nature of the displays, the control stations can be used for alternate functions if necessary. The bridge chairs, as well as the larger recliners in the briefing room, provide footrests.

The Ayame's standard quarters are small and simple, filled by Traditional Nekovalkyrja Nests.

The Ayame features a large, self-service mess hall, with long benches, automatic beverage dispensers, and buffet-style tables carrying large, communal dishes. There is a large, fully equipped kitchen adjoining the mess hall. The dishes offered to vary wildly in style and cultural influences, and are meant to please as many palettes as possible.

Meals are served during regular meal times. Made-to-order dishes could be requested during off-peak hours if there is still a cook on duty. Even when no one is on duty in the kitchen, plenty of snacks and beverages are available. One would expect to find at least a few off-duty crewmen inside the mess hall during all hours of the day.

The Ayame contains a well-equipped medical bay includes all the typical resources available to typical Yamataian vessels, such as nodal support for the creation of medicines and tools, hemosynthetics tanks which are used to create new bodies and organs, and ST/SS machines which provide crucial storage of “soul data”. The unusual commodities of this medbay include far more extensive tools geared toward implanting of various cybernetic and electronic equipment. Between each of these features is a collapsible wall which provides privacy and when properly sealed, prevention of contamination.

On SAINT ships there is an additional SC machine, intended to copy an individual's persona into a disposable body which may be used for a single field operation.

SAINT ships (only) are secondary medbay which has been designed around the intent of the medbay being used for prisoner treatment. This medbay is equiped with the typical furnishings of typical Star Army ship medbays, and much of the same equipment. But unlike most medbays, there are no pre-made tools or chemicals stored within this medbay. All doors to this medbay are locked as a standard procedure, and the prisoner medbay is equipped with automated turrets (equivalent to an NSP). Along with being used as a treatment center, the prisoner's medbay can also serve as a torture and information extraction center, with implements supplied through nodal devices.

There are many hallways, which run from from the front to the rear of the ship, connected by occasional passageways across and by a system of elevators. Control panels in the halls can give the crew status-updated maps should they need them. The other way of moving from place to place on board the ship is to use the network of access shafts and crawlways which run the length of the ship. Technicians often hang out in these tubes.

SAINT ships only. Separated from the other prisoner storage areas by an entire two decks, the High Risk Prisoner Storage area of the ship is comprised of three seperate rooms, each isolated from each other. Each high risk storage room is a plain room which can be customised dependant upon the prisoner to be stored. The conventional configuration is a plain isolation room with large leg and arm encasing restraints constructed from femtomachine immune material. All surfaces are non-pourus. The room can be isolated from the entirety of the ship through the use of a seperate life support system which serves just the single room. The door to the room consists of a solid Zesuaium vault-like magnetically sealed door which would be able to prevent the escape of femtoscopic materials.

The corridor outside of the High Risk Prisoner Storage is guarded by four turrets, and a single disruptive plasma emitter. Granted that these measures may seem excessive for single target suppression, there is no such thing as being too careful with the most vicious enemies of the Empire.

SAINT ships only.Located on the adjacent deck to the prison deck, the interrogation rooms seem to be rather plain and mundane, equipped with only a single bolted-to-the-deck table, and a pair of chairs. But, carefully hidden behind wall panels, there are various storage compartments for retractable restraints, and storage compartments for various supplies which can include both tools for inflicting pain, and tools for recovering a prisoner from the brink of death through vital first aid assistance. Each interrogation room is provided with one medical kit, other than the medical kit, each room is equipped dependent upon the officer it is assigned to.

SAINT ships only Located adjacent to each prisoner ward is a decontamination chamber intended to remove pathogens and contaminants from individuals entering and exiting the prison sections of the ship. The decontamination procedure includes a low yield radiation wash, UV sweep, chemical bath, high focus sensor scan, and a visual examination by security sprite.

Contains a large heated swimming pool, a gym, and a sparring room.

Unlike most Star Army ships, the Ayame class has been granted a seperate research bay which is equiped in much the same manner as a typical medbay, but is complemented with far more advanced sensor equipment and sample storage.

The key substance that makes up the hull armor of the ship is Zesuaium. The frame of the ship is Zesuaium, and the armor plates are made of Zesuaium coated Titanium Boron Carbide]]. By using only thin layers of Zesuaium armor to fortify lightweight metal ceramics, weight is kept low. Windows are made out of a special transparent Zesuaium which does not block visible light. Zesuaium's main vulnerability is to antimatter weapons.

In addition to their Zesuaium-reinforced hull plating, Integrated Strike Force Cruisers have to ability to deploy 50cm of heavy armor over the entire hull of the ship, including areas normally exposed such as the CDD, thrusters, and sensors. When the armor takes damage, it flakes away in a controlled manner (ablation), absorbing the destructive force. The armor can then be repaired using hemosynthesis, making the armor self-regenerative. A combined Photonic/Gravitonic field further protects the armor.

The lift provides quick access from the main deck to the subdeck. The lift can also be used to travel to other ships when vessels link together (most Star Army ships have standard gauges of lift systems, allowing lift cars to move from ship to ship). The lift system of the ISFC is somewhat unique in that the lift cars also travel sideways through the docking ring to the eight lift connection points.

30 KFY Type KiS-2408es Escape Pod escape pods, each able to hold up to four people, are located on board.

See: KFY Graviton Beam Projector

See: Hemosynthetic Conduit System

See: Psionic Signal Controller

The ship has a very thorough recycling system, tied into HSCS-2, which breaks down anything classified into “waste” into its atomic components. The air recycling system (which is segmented and highly monitored for security reasons) can support up to 800 NH-29 personnel up to twenty years (the KFY recommendation, however, is to replenish it at least every six months). Water can be recycled for twenty years as well.

The MCS allows the ship to collect hydrogen molecules as it travels through space, which can be used to provide fuel or converted into higher elements for use in the HSCS. The MCS units can be shielded in combat with cover plates.

Although the Ayame lacks a dedicated self destruct system (primary for space efficiency reasons), the ship can be destroyed from the monitor room by deliberately overloading the generator and capacitor system. The process takes only a few seconds and results in an aether energy explosion powerful enough to totally destroy the ship (and anything within 2500 km).

See: MEGAMI Integrated Electronics System

The ship can be rendered invisible to scalar radar, aetheric-energy sensors, subspace mass detectors, other forms of detection by using the TTD to keep the ship in an alternate plane of existence. It is also equipped with an advanced cloaking device which uses scalar fields to simulate that photons and other sensory forms pass through the “empty space” and thus its presence is hidden.

See: Continuum Distortion Drive

See: Hydrogen Collection Matrix

A quick way to get from point A to point B. The Pizza delivery guy used it to get to the party in less than a minute. Unfortunately, the molten cheese burned some dude's chin pretty bad because it was still hot. The fold drive is capable of moving the ship through hyperspace at speeds up to 5 light-years a minute. Time, however, does not move the same for those on the ship as for those in “real” space, which can make a seemingly short trip take a long time.

The ISFC has an excellent combined defense shielding system, relying on an egg-shaped combined spatial and electrogravitational distortion field network to warp space around it and alter the course of lasers, missiles, etc. that are headed for the ship using both dimensional warping and scalar EM interferometry.

The first and primary shield system is the elliptical dimensional distortion. This system folds space using electrogravitational fields, wrapping it around the ship, to render the craft in its own bubble. Objects inside the bubble are protected from both solid and beam weaponry, because the projectiles or beams pass through the curved space and around the ship. The shields are auto modulated by the Megami control system. While all frequencies (and planes) are theoretically covered by the EDD shield, the modulation enables extra power to be routed to the bands in which enemy energy weapons operate, decreasing the possibility of a shield overload and rendering enemy energy weapons effectively useless. The EDD draws its power from the KiP-d2400q, or, when necessary, the KFY KiP-2431su. The Ayame's EDD can protect against up to 3.1 YottaWatts worth of damage (3,100,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules a second) per five-foot area in either kinetic or energy form.

A second system, officially the FDS (forward deflector shield), but more often called “the spike,” only protects the front of the ship, acting as a giant cone. It protects the ship from collisions during high-speed space flight. The spike adds to the already deadly blade nature of the ship and can be used to facilitate ramming other vessels. As the ship's primary defense against high-speed impacts such as meteors in space, and debris from destroyed starships, the spike is extremely powerful. For this reason, when possible, the ship combines the spike with the EDD shield, providing enough protection to withstand heavy particle cannons and the like. The FDS draws its power from the KFY KiP-2431su, or when necessary, the KiP-d2400q.

Using its TTD and shield systems, the ship generates its own time-space distortion field. This field serves many purposes, mainly keeping the ship safe from spatiogravitational and temporal attacks. It operates as a time/space anchor. The DR device (dimensional retriever) is also built into this system. Gravitational fields outside the shield bubble do not affect the objects inside. The TSDS can also be used to generate subspace waves, which can be used to detect hidden ship and objects when used in combination with the subspace sensors.

HIGHLY RESTRICTED TECHNOLOGY. Only equipped on selected starships. Most Ayame cruisers no longer feature a TTD. Usage requires authorization codes from Star Army Command. Contact Taisho Yui for codes if needed.

The Ayame featured a KFY-made TTD Type B5. The B5 (Battleship) Drive, designed by AvaNet, can transport the contents of a twenty-mile-wide sphere, the same diameter as the B3. The B5, however, can be moved off-center of the host ship (in this case, the ISFC), so long as the ship is somewhere in the sphere. This allows the ship to position more ships behind it, etc. The B5 is intended to not only provide safe Transuniversal Teleportation for the host ship, but also for a large number of nearby smaller or equal-size vessels which may not have a TTD of their own. This allows the host ship's escorts to forego TTD installation and use the saved space for other functions, such as extra ammunition. The Type B5 also has a precision mode which it can use to support transphasic systems integration (overlapping multiple dimensions in the same space to increase interior space).

See. Transuniversal Teleportation Drive

See: Transposition Fold "Legacy" Cannon

See: Ke-B4-W3000 Striker Array

See: Star Army Weapons Pods

• Ke-T2 (3) Aeroshuttle
• Ke-T1 (4) Short Range Shuttle
• Ke-M1-1c (10,000) Space Mecha for NH-12
• Ke-M1-2b (40,000) Low-cost Space Mecha for NH-12