STARCRUISER TECHNICAL

FILES

Technical Files 2-Starcruiser Remote bases
Technical Files 3 -Bases
Starcruiser Schematic

Original Starcruiser Fleet Crew Listings:
Starcruiser One:
Captain Marshall Dexter
Doctor Alec Johns
Lieutenant Shara Avery
Lieutenant Adam Masters

Starcruiser Two:
Commander Hunsaker Ainger
Lieutenant Roland Doid
Lieutenant Commander Boyce Maddison
Lieutenant Kissel

Starcruiser Three:
Commander Gregg "Rusty" Hanley
Lieutenant Commander Kenny Lapham
Lieutenant Glenn Phillips
Lieutenant Al.Dwyer

Starcruiser Four:
Commander Max Roco
Lieutenant Commander Fabian Tjordman
Lieutenant Commander Alexander Schoengarth
Lieutenant Julian Hendrickson

Starcruiser Five:
Commander Rader Schoengarth
Lieutenant Standford Haskins
Lieutenant Paul Kellerman
Lieutenant Commander Solow

Note:
Regardless of their rank the above has been listed as follows:
Captain and main pilot
Science Officer and Navigator
Attack Unit pilot
Interceptor pilot

Starcruiser History and Development

MK 1 Starcruiser
(note:MK1 noticeable by red paint on hull)

Starcruiser One was originally built two hundred and five years before Marshall Dexter was born.Designed specifically for use as a defence vessel around Earths' moon this MK1 spaceship had only the short range capabilities her hydrogen/oxygen engines could supply.Her fuel tanks filled over fifty percent of the vessel,just enough to give her primitive engines maximum thrust for an hours flight time in battle.And yet her unique four-into-one design functioned efficiently enough for the Terran Space Authority to construct another four vessels and create the first fleet based on the moon and launch from there to defend the planet.This turned out to be forward thinking.However, the prototype Starcruiser One never entered active service,remaining as a test bed for new systems based in an underground hangar.
Starcruiser engines,despite their thirst for fuel,were capable of incredible bursts of speed and manoeuverability.This,combined with its ability to separate and attack from four fronts,added to the success of the design and the four ships in service were instrumental in the defence of the planet from the invading Katris,a major hostile force at this time.
When the final assault on Earth commenced Starcruiser One was secured in her hangar and powered down to avoid detection being unable to assist due to major engine overhaul.As wave after wave of attacking ships destroyed the lunar base on the surface the starcruisers fought valiantly until only one remained.The Katris were impressed by the heroic actions of the crews and called off the attack, entered diplomatic relations with Earth and eventually became a powerful ally.But it was too late for the last surviving starcruiser as it spiralled down to the lunar surface,out of fuel.
Starcruiser One was assumed to be destroyed in the battle,along with her plans,and the authorities decided with the peace talks at such a delicate stage rebuilding the fleet could affect the outcome.The ship was sealed in her hangar,lost and eventually forgotten.
As the years passed the dust settled on her white real metal and ceramic hull and on the glass of her Interceptor canopy.Her landing skis were almost completely covered in grey dust in her two hundred years alone in the dark.
When Earth had fully recovered from the Katris attacks it renewed its desire to explore and decided to build a new complex on the moon.Mining began on a subterranean base having learnt from the mistake of building on the surface.Supervising the digging was a Lieutenant Commander Willian Dexter (Marshall Dexters' uncle).It was his sensors that detected the cavernous hangar at the end of the tunnel they were cutting and it was his torch that shone on the ship after he broke through the wall.And it was he that realised what he had found.
His superiors immediately sealed off the area but viewed the ship as a curiosity,ship development had moved on since this ship was cutting edge technology.But Willian discovered the original designers plans and he realised the ship could be exactly what they were looking for to fill a gap in their fleet.Arguing this point he was given the challenge to prove the ship was viable and present his proposal.This he did but he wanted to use the original ship for the redesign rather than start from scratch,saving him a lot of time.
The base was named S.CRUISA LUNA to honour the ship found there, and the fight her sister ships waged with the Katris,short for Starcruiser Lunar.
The original design brief for the starcruiser class ship follows:
1)Main Unit;ski equipped,it acts as the thruster for launch and intercept and as a power base for the other modules when cruising.Its seven main engines and two wing engines are conventional hydrogen/oxygen. Maximum speed equals old NASA Space Shuttle on entering orbit.Self defence equipment includes weapons in the wingtip pods.
2)Command Module;two seater craft equipped to control all starcruiser functions.Normally attached to the nose of the main unit it can detach and fly independently when required.Weapons include a single laser mounted on the upper surface.
3)Command Base;slung under the main unit between the wings and landing skis it acts as a combination of laboratory and equipment bay for bulky loads.A single side door allows for crew access with a large swing down rear door for cargo.This mobile pod is equipped with caterpillar tracks for crossing most types of terrain.A typical payload (ferry duty) could be up to three scientists and their equipment or thirty ground troops with a ground crawler in the rear.The pod can be dropped on the surface in under ten seconds and retrieved in under thirty.
4)Interceptor Unit;this one man gunship has two rocket engines and four manoeuvring engines.It can be flown manually or remotely from the main unit.Typical flight pattern is ten minutes travelling time,three minutes loiter and combat time,fully armed.Weapons consist of four jettisonable weapons pods,each containing six missiles.
The design is unique to the Terran system and poses a big enough threat to any attacking craft to act as a passive defence.Nevertheless,the system has been designed to allow for constant improvement and modification to allow for increased range and firepower.
File supplement for MK 1/MK 2 Starcruiser
The term "Main Unit" was changed to Attack Unit during the rebuild by Willian Dexter and his team of technicians.
Remote control of the Interceptor was maintained during upgrade but the MK 2 now received a dedicated pilot as part of the crew.
Before the ship was found, work was started on a star drive generator for other ships.The basic design was found to be too small for the vessels they were intended for.Willian fitted one of the generators to Starcruiser One in the hope the field it generated was sufficient to propel the ship into the Light Stream.Because of the ships size it performed better than expected, making the ship into a true starcruiser.However,early star drives proved to be unreliable,opening a time stream instead.The new Starcruiser Two was lost in this way six months after construction.A new,more reliable star drive generator was fitted nine years after initial rebuild.
Other systems were taken from designs meant for other ships still on the drawing boards,most still untested.Artificial gravity systems,anti gravity systems,guidance and navigation systems,engines and fuel management systems were all tied into a new,custom built master computer.This in turn was linked to a control computer for each major system.
The original metal hull was replaced with a stronger,lighter polymer which was bonded directly to the original superstructure,making the combined ship substantially lighter,and therefore faster,than it was before.
Life support was totally replaced with efficient recycling equipment, making the air tanks last indefinitely.
Weapons were only considered after the ship was thoroughly flight tested in all conditions including surface landing in all weathers and temperatures.
Starcruiser One passed the strictest test parameters after only seven weeks of reconstruction before being given to Commander Sabin Dexter(Marshall Dexters' father)who would oversee weapons fitting and finally entering active service.Work began almost immediately on another four ships,each with its own dedicated construction and maintainance team and its own underground hangar.The fleet was five again.
The fleet proved itself repeatedly in all missions,from patrol to cargo duties,escort and combat.The original refit sensors were not really efficient enough for survey missions but after several meetings with the crews of the starships a new set of sensors were fitted,making the ships a good all round vessel.
Starcruiser One remained the flagship of the fleet but after fifteen years of constant use it began to take its toll on the ship.After Marshall Dexter took command the ship began to suffer recurrent system and engine failures for no apparent reason.The simple answer was to pull the ship from active duty and put her into storage.It was now down to the Dexters to save Starcruiser One before it was too late.Work began on the technical and theory for another major rebuild for the ship.Working closely with all the technicians and starcruiser crews plans and equipment to draw up a schedule for the redesign.Willian Dexter had been head of research at S.Cruisa Luna for years now and he managed to get the ship reclassified as a research project.The rest of the fleet continued to serve as front line vessels but in view of their age they were kept from any major offensives with the new enemy,the Shawnia,being seen as more of a deterrent.Four weeks after being removed from active duty work began on the MK 3 starcruiser.
The MK 3 Starcruiser
Thirty five years after its initial rebuild Starcruiser One was completely stripped back to its space frame.Its component ships were removed and both the Interceptor and Command Base were sent to the Starcruiser museum,little more than scrap but the human trait of nostalgia saved them from disassembly.The base wasn't original equipment,the ship having lost seven of them on various missions over the years.
Using the ship as a testbed for new systems a new type of self repair hull was developed,first as a mesh wrapped around the ships frame,then in sheets for the inner and outer hulls.Designed by Professor Haynes,the Haynes hull was unique at the time and had never been used on a front line vessel.It was incredibly strong and resistant to wear but could also replicate any damaged or breached sections of itself.If any weapons blackened the hull it would clean itself,restoring the hull to its brilliant white.It could also absorb sensors,making the ship harder to detect but this bonus wasn't found out until space trials.
Subnote:the Haynes material was originally intended to be red.But for this project the engineers redesigned it so it reflected white light since the ship was originally white.
A complex sensor web was woven into the new hulls of all the vessels component ships,all feeding information into the new computer core,located in the raised spine of the Attack Unit,with smaller cores in the Interceptor and Command Module.All the cores were fitted to the internal framework before the hulls.
The Attack Units main engines were each only 40 cubic centimetres and four times more powerful than their predecessors.Two more were fitted into the Interceptor as its main engines,dramatically increasing speed and range.Smaller versions of the new wingpod engines were fitted to the Interceptor, making it manoeuvre response times improve by thirty five percent.All flight instructions given by the pilots are now computer assisted,the ship was found to be over sensitive.
Variations of the wingpod engines are also used as lifting jets on the flight capable component ships.
The Command Module was revised to incorporate a system where the seats could drop through the floor between the twin lifting jet exhausts and allow egress for the crew when the ship was separated, the previous setup used a ladder that extended below the doors at the rear.The single laser mounted on the upper surface between the raised cockpit domes was upgraded and power was increased by fifty percent.
Before the hulls were fitted various generators were fitted for power,anti gravity,artificial gravity, weapons,missile launchers,cable trunking, engines,star drive.It took over three weeks alone to get the spaceframe ready to accept the inner hull,then another two days as it bonded to the skeletal frame. The outer hull was ready after another five days.
During this time the new Interceptor was made ready and was undergoing space trials.Also seven variations of the Command Base were tested before five were chosen for storage until missions required them,including heavy weapons platforms,cargo holds and personnel carriers.A standard multi functional base was developed for general use with improved access by a larger rear door.
Helmets were linked into the systems giving the pilot a monitor on his visor for sensor information, ships status,speed and course,attitude in space, weapons selection,targetting scanners.The pilot could get an instant over view of the ship or the space around it without taking his eyes off the viewport,mainly due to the new sensors embedded into the hulls.When the new halo static shields are active both the visors and the new viewports(made from transparent Haynes material) filtered out the blue glare.A later modification let them filter out the light from explosions and solar flare.Two probe launchers were fitted,one between the two upper main engines on the Attack Unit and one between the lower two engines.
On space trials the complete ship was found to be over powered and limiters had to be placed into the engine management systems.At speeds above Quantum Seven it was threatening to shake itself apart.The restrictors now limited the ship to Quantum Five but they can be removed if extra speed is necessary.
Extra heavy lasers were fitted just behind and on either side of the Attack Units' cockpit, complementing the two mounted on the sides in front of the wings.The wing missile launchers were increased from silos of three to four and a variety of types of missiles could be remote loaded and fired.The wingpod lasers were only increased by ten percent but the recharge rate decreased to five seconds from discharged to fully primed.The heavy lasers recharge remains unchanged at fifteen seconds.As before all weapons are fully retractable.
It took three weeks of intensive testing and modification before all Starcruiser Ones' component vessels passed the trials,mostly needing power systems and computer control adjustments.It was,at the time,the most destructive vessel in the Terran fleet with speed and power surpassing everything of comparable size or larger.
Subnote:it was at this point security was stepped up following reports the Shawnia were very interested in the design.Several attempts failed to capture one,including Starcruiser Five losing its Command Base,Command Module and Interceptor by self destruction,the crew limping home in a badly damaged Attack Unit.With the design only being in the ships own computers a hard copy was created,broken down and hidden in obscure and often bizarre places,leading to a race between Starcruiser One and Diana(a top Shawnian operative) to retrieve the hard copies.
Five years after initial construction the ship,and her new sister ships,were functioning well until the Haynes material suddenly began to break down.It became very brittle,leading to the total loss of Starcruiser Two as it quietly came apart in space.The answer came from Commander Shara Avery,who had left the starcruiser fleet for her own command of a Scorpion class ship.
She discovered alien nanites,tiny robots which could redesign and rebuild ships in days.After they rebuilt her ship,the Sentinel,they were tried on the wrecked Starcruiser Four,a MK II in storage.All ships showed dramatic improvement.However the starcruiser was only redesigned to the level of a MK III but with a stronger hull.Tests on Starcruiser Ones' Interceptor created only a slightly superior ship,again with a better hull.Rather than ground the fleet the nanites were allowed to rebuild the ships,remaining on board to act as a self repair system.

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