[gurps] Vehicle outline: TL13 Colonization Support/Disaster Relief Nano-Factory ship

[Troy Guffey]

Note: this is not really organized in a formal Vehicles sense.

This ship is designed for an expanding civilization that is colonizing new 
worlds. It also doubles for worlds that have had disasters that have had 
destroyed infra-structure. The ship is armed and armored fairly heavily for 
a non-combat ship because in any such situation the Navy might need to go 
after a greater threat, leaving them to deal with the equivalent of pirates 
in TL7 speedboats. A small "security" force is usually carried for this 
purpose.

The Forges will usually load up on rare-element "additives" for travel out 
to their assignment. They will obtain common elements (such as carbon, 
silicon, iron, aluminum) on-site.

The setting includes both Warp Drive for "local" travel, and Jump-drive 
wormholes which connect areas that are widely separated.

The Zero-Point Energy cosmic power-plant is a super-science invention.. If a 
GM doesn't want to use these in his campaign, this class would use fusion 
generators because those could be locally refueled, rather than having to be 
tanked up on manufactured anti-matter.

One other key feature is the very large spinal gravity mount. This allows 
the ship to work as "asteroid tug" and "super-crane". It also has the extra 
hardware to work as a gravity beam weapon(with the same power usage). If the 
ship hits you with this, you KNOW you've "been kissed". The energy phasing 
force lenses make this more versatile.

The 300lb./cf cargo feature is because the ship will not be carrying 
manufactured cargo, but rare (and probably heavy) raw-material "additives" 
in dense form instead. (The figure is derived from the Armor Volume rule Vx2 
p5).

The cabins are also life-boats.

Hephaestus' Forge Nano-Factory ship class:

TL13

Heavy body structure, underbelly skid, living-metal, self-sealing, total 
compartmentalization; Very Good streamlining, lifting body

12 pop turrets 4 forward rainbow laser ring (Top,Under,Right,Left); 4 rear 
rainbow laser ring (Top,Under, Right,Left); 2 grav(combo beam, gravy) each 
Right, Left

Power: Cosmic Energy Generator, ruggedized with additional 200DR advanced 
laminate. 3 generators, each 2/3 necessary power

Motive: Grav Drive, non-limited (planetary surface to space) vectored-thrust 
(includes contra-grav), 16g sAccel (w/ 300lb/cf cargo load); Warp-drive, 
Jump-drive

Armor: DR 200 expensive laminate all over, thermal-superconducting, PF 100k 
radiation shielding

Force-field grid: 1000 DR, engery phasing surface,variable, no overload

PD 8 deflector generator, shaped (extreme streamlining)

Spinal gravity-beam mount capable of lifting 2xEwt (usable as combo-beam, 
grav-beam)

Total life-support 100 people

Macroframe computer; neural-net, high-capacity; SAI

Force-locks 2 8-person, 8 2-person

8 extreme-range comms; 1 gravity-ripple, 1 neutrino, 4 radio, 2 laser

2 very long range multi-mode radar(front), 1 ladar(front)

2 very long range PESA(front), 5 medium range PESA(top,bottom, left, right, 
rear)

Gravscanner, extreme range

Deceptive Jammer, rating 8

Repair cyberswarm for each major systems, shared swarm for minor systems

3 Navigation system, precision

3 Inertial navigation systems

Full fire-supression systems

Bridge with roomy crew stations for captain, pilot, engineer, sensor-op, 
gunner. Crew stations have crashweb, gravweb. (combine sensor and gunner to 
tactical?)

Artificial gravity units for manned area, with grav-compensators for all 
areas

Advanced emission cloak, basic stealth, basic chameleon

32 ejectable cabins, each with NPU, reactionless thruster units, total 
life-support for 2 people; PF 100k radiation-shielding; PD 6 deflector 
generator, shaped (lifting body, extreme streamlining); DR200 advanced 
laminate; minicomputer, terminal, socket neural interface; built-in 
"suitcase" nano-fac, 3 long range comms (1 radio, 1 grav-ripple, 1 
neutrino)(comms only work when cabin is ejected); 1 person 
force/membrane-lock; paramedic swarm, repair swarm; 4 survival cocoons; 4g 
sAcel

1,000,000 cf cargo bay

Carried sub-craft:

Cargo shuttle (10,000 cf payload) in vehicle bay. 8g sAcel with 30lb./cf 
cargo

4 AI "parasite" fighters: grav-drive, 128g sAccel. Weapons: Xaser, pulsars, 
120mm very long barrell grav-cannon.



REASON FOR THE SEASON:

16 chrysallis machines: 2 elephant, 2 horse, 12 human

512x512x512 cf main nano-fac tank (big enough to build an /Arleigh/ 
/Burke/-class DDG in the tank)



Other thoughts:

Build as tug and joined pod? (Manned area plus nano-tanks main body, then 
cargo section)(Joined with nano-tech to form continuous keel)

Questions:

How long should sensor range be for ANY TL for operation inside a stellar 
system?