The Val'ta Class Long-Range Exploration Ship is a large scouting vessel designed to operate under isolation at extreme distances from known space independently. It is capable of holding additional smaller vessels inside itself and serves as a mother-ship; supporting drop-ships, shuttles and fighters.
Its ability to independently explore strange spaces is further supplemented with manufacturing systems and a quantum node data transmission system, meaning the Val'ta is able to upgrade and alter itself to suit its specific mission as time goes on. As such, no two Val'ta's would truly ever be alike after launching and returning after an extended tour of duty.
Originally constructed in a different universe with strange materials, the only built and maiden LSDF Val'ta vessel was transported along with the rest of the Lorath Fleet, pending some very quick refits to ensure the vessel would not destroy itself upon arrival. Once successfully transposed, the Val'ta underwent a further series of refits using local materials to return to an operational state.
At its roots, the Val'ta was designed to survive far away from support or friendly units, operating deep inside of unknown territory. To this end, the Val'ta can not only survive and be adapted for harsh conditions, but features a means of recovering resources, manufacturing replacement parts for itself and crew, and constructing a group of support vessels and units based on transmitted schematics in order maximize its capabilities.
As a result, the Val'ta should be thought of as a moving base of operations, being much larger than most common gunships but smaller than outright battle-ships. Many sensitive parts, usually only seen in factories or materials refinement operations are volatile or delicate, and for this reason1) the components are stored in a volumetric compression to reduce the exterior profile of the Val'ta.
It is further supplemented by DENDRITE, a specialized implementation of the apparition wake array, able to act as an enormous plasma antennae that can be reshaped adhoc to perform specialist sensor sweeps, create special fields and perform a wide variety of scientific operations, replacing otherwise very large and specialized equipment.
Unrelated to the motto of individual units deployed in the field, the overriding drive or 'soul' of the Val'ta. Val'ta is a Lorath word for Nomad, and comes from the phrase Ib Bur'surm Val'ta, meaning The Tireless Nomad. Ib Bur'surm Val'ta is a common archetype appearing in classical Lorath plays characterised by endless wanderlust, resourcefulness, and mobility, knowing many people and places, but at the cost of never staying with them for long.
The shape of the Val'ta is almost fighter-like with a distinct nose section resembling a curved sword, extruded fusalage, and what resemble nacelles either side merged into the main body. Long wing-like pylons are extruded behind the hull, splayed out like fingers or horns. A pair of shoulder-blade like extrusions sit over the body while an under-hull similar to that of a yacht is supported beneath the body.
Originally, the Val'ta was commissioned by counselors of the Lorath Matriarchy for the purpose of exploring and expanding Lorath territory. The Lazarus Consortium won the bidding process to design the vessel, and undertook building the ship with a great amount of oversight and control from the clients - in return for funding and exotic resources. A great amount of research was also taken by the Lorath Xenotechnical Research Team (LXRT), an improvised evaluation group who studied the first Sourcian vessel to interact with the Lorath beforehand.
In the end, the Consortium handed over all files and data relevant to the vessel to the LSDF and Lorath Matriarchy. The ship was then fitted with its armament, vehicle complement, communications suite, an artificial intelligence, and a captain and crew willing to do the job.
After the relocation, the Val'ta lost one of its primary attractions designed and built previously: A blade of nigh-invulnerable material, reinforced with shock-absorbing, ablative Cultured Structol.
Width: 172 metres
Length: 516 metres
Height: 80 metres
Decks: 10
Crew Needed: At the bare minimum, the Val'ta needs a total of 36 crewmembers to move from place to place, without being able to perform its intended mission.
Crew Recommended: For optimum planet exploration, probing and scanning capability in addition to combat capability in space, the following crew of 81 is recommended. It can be expanded upon, and an ideal number to deal with shifts is up to 100 personnel:
Maximum Capacity: The Val'ta can support 150 passengers comfortably, while 300 passengers can fit into the vessel's corridors in an emergency. Life support will last for 14 days before conditions degrade, and in 28 days conditions will become unsuitable for habitation.
The interior of the Val'ta is pleasantly eclectic and smooth, with rounded squares being the main design motif in addition to modification by personnel. Due to the long distances this ship travels, the designers figured that personnel will find ways to personalise their rooms, and circumstances may necessitate interior structural changes dictated by command. The walls are easy to take apart or repair in the advent of maintenance, and the maintenance passages have ample room for tools, and can even be taken apart and redirected themselves.
The Val'ta features an atmosphere rescrubbing system that uses a series of high energy vacuum ultraviolet laser forcing CO2 to skip its minimum energy path and split into oxygen and carbon separately via roaming. Radiation is handled by layers of picojelly carbon suspense built into the hull and walls of individual chambers, acting as an ultra-dense trapping system that while it does not stop gamma radiation, sufficiently slows it down to levels which are entirely manageable by modern species which are augmented for space-faring.
This layer doubles as a cooling system, with a quasicrystalline liquid hydrogen micro-cycling radiator system which dumps the excess heat using casimir cooling systems similar to those found on LSDF frames. This allows the LCOV to enter and leave very dense atmospheres.
An optimization of the life-support systems allows the Val'ta to rapidly cool any given chamber to reduce any fire, then cycle oxygen into CO2 to remove oxygen to stop a chemical fire from burning. Once the reaction has stopped, a blower and cycling system fires, thawing then warming the room back up to a normal temperature using the conversion system, cycling hot air and replacing CO2. It should be noted this environment is incredibly dangerous if personnel are not evacuated from it unless personnel are wearing temperature resistant atmosphere environment suits.
Reserve oxygen tanks store hydrogen and oxygen together as water, using the high energy vacuum ultraviolet lasers to crack the hydrogen into oxygen and water for crew consumption which are then recycled via waste management systems. In this way, the Val'ta can keep several “backup atmospheres” per chamber or create more atmosphere if a source of water is available. This water can also be used as emergency fuel for the primary powerplant of the vessel.
The chambers themselves are self-sealing, through the use of stone-thread and picojelly which chemically attempt to seal any punctures or penetrations of the hull while inert gas chambers in the hull limit the spread of fire and in an emergency serve as a means of directing an explosion out through a compartment without compromising the hull strength of the entire vessel. The hull itself is also laminated in structol, sealing any gaps in the primary armor of the vessel.
In the event of a combat situation, doors automatically reseal to improve structural integrity.
The floor of long corridors (being so long and unobstructed) are designed so if gravitational constants change and the length of the deck becomes depth, gaps are present for locking hands into for the purpose of climbing or preventing falling into other parts of the ship. In this way, if the “up and down” of the vessel changes suddenly, the crew have something to grab onto or grapple with to prevent them falling to their deaths.
Along most walls are guard-rails. While large enough hands, they are designed for a locking hook (a sort of catch-hook on a short wire) to be fitted – as so if the atmosphere of the ship is vented into space, the crew hooked in place are not blown out of the ship.
In addition, a hook-rail is also present along the wall which can be driven akin to a stair-lift to safely ascend or descend major corridors which become tall elevator-like shafts in this scenario. They also double as a means of moving in the event gravity fails, pulling crew through corridors.
The locking-grate also doubles as magnetic decking, and can support most common climbing hooks.
| Deck 1 | Deck 2 |
|---|---|
| Missile Launchers, Upper Point Defence, Starship Sensors | Bridge, Mess Hall, Kitchen, Crew Quarters, Secondary Science, Airlocks |
| Deck 3 | Deck 4 |
| Recreation, Chapel, Primary Medical, Crew Quarters, Captain's Quarters, Armoury | Cargo Storage, Armoury, Where Main Gun Would Be, Port/Starboard Launchers |
| Deck 5 | Deck 6 |
| Where Swordfish Point Would Be, Main Engines, Secondary Engines, Hardlight Shutter Generators | Launch Deck, Elevator/Passage between/through Decks 5 and 7, Airlocks |
| Deck 7 | Deck 8 |
| Hangar, Vehicle Bay, Engineering & Maintenance, Secondary Medical, Elevator to Science | Lower Point Defence, Secondary Starship Sensors, Passage |
| Deck 9 | Deck 10 |
| Primary Science Facility, Probe Analysis, Airlocks | Planetary Sensors, Atmospheric Sensors, Probe Launch |
With the Lazarus touch, a colour key for lighting alongside semiotic warning symbols and logos around the ship was created in order to facilitate recognition and association for use. A consistent set of symbols and logos was also developed to aid navigation around the ship and its equipment.
| Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|
| White | Safe, Life Supporting Environment |
| Grey | Maintenance, Repair, Equipment |
| Black | Vacuum, Void, Hazard, Death/Dead |
| Red | Take Notice, Sound, Protection |
| Orange | Harmful Active Process, Data Restriction |
| Yellow | Airlock, Transition Area, Area under Reconstruction |
| Green | Life Support, Food, Livestock, Medical |
| Blue | Cold, Lowered Temperature, Refrigerator |
| Cyan | Data, Information, Computer |
| Purple | Personnel, People, Command, Alive |
| Indigo | Command Override |
| Found Throughout |
The walkways and corridors of the Val'ta are where the crew are most likely to traverse or loiter between destinations. Running along the walls is a strip of 'Data', glowing cyan blue. A hardlight computer can spring out at a moment's notice to grab reference or access files based on the user's rank and clearance. The ARIA logs and monitors all interactions with the Data Strip, and may intervene helpfully or aggressively.
At every major intersection in the corridors, hardlight blast doors can come down to contain fires or seal damaged areas off from vacuum, while a flame retardant solution sprays from the ceiling with prejudice.
The Data Strip which runs along these walls is not connected to bridge and control systems, and cannot be used to control the bridge from afar, as it is not connected to those systems in any way. The ARIA has the Data Strip system on a different partition to the bridge and command systems for that express purpose.
| Found on Deck 2 |
Unusually to the Greaseheart designer 'Furze', the bridge of the Val'ta is buried deep inside its hull, protected and behind the front of the ship. In this way, the Val'ta is better protected not only from oncoming strikes from debris and space phenomena, but also attacking ships; embracing the Lorath tradition of placing the bridge in the centre.
The bridge itself follows the traditional role of the captain sitting in the middle, helm and tactical up front and science wrapped around its edges, creating a more intimate and productive environment for a crew which is expected to spend a lot of time together. The captain's chair faces the bow, and can turn three hundred and sixty degrees to look at any given console.
In a flash of brilliance, or perhaps madness from designer Furze, the captain's command chair rises into the middle of the room from the Captain's Suite directly beneath the bridge. The hole is sealed when not in use, and there are guard rails around the opening. The passage also doubles as an escape hatch for bridge team in the advent of an emergency, and be blast door sealed.
Every station on the bridge contains a mostly identical layouts and panels which are geared for a given task via software and interface, using a non-fluorescent, hard-light driven control scheme. There are panels beneath which contain physical backups and overrides. While less efficient, the physical overrides are always available should the projectors fail.
The walls, floor and ceiling of the bridge contains a quasicrystal driven projection system, able to create a false three dimensional image in the walls, floor, and ceiling which serves as a large visualisation of what is outside or of specialist information. Key elements of the floor for maintenance being uncovered which serve as a 'foot path' to ensure a sense of place at all times.
At the very 'corners' of the bridge are direct access panels. If removed, this reveals backup computers, power systems as well as vacuum suits for the bridge crew themselves. This means if the vessel is badly damaged, the bridge can continue to operate. Anticipating a particularly hazardous environment, sometimes crew are expected to don this environmental protective equipment anyway.
The vessel can be operated from any point onboard with the proper authorization and a direct access terminal, found in the Captain's quarters and other bridge personnel's quarters. The bridge is one of three chambers which cannot be locked out without manually cutting the lines; the other two being the vessel's left and right engine rooms.
| Found on Deck 2 and Deck 3 |
All Crew Quarters follow standard LSDF configurations. Data Strip is present in each room, and can be deactivated on request by an officer. Beside or a short distance from each crew habitation space is the head, shower and the laundry.
Two quarters_primary and two quarters_shared are present on both the port and starboard sections of the ship, officers and bridge crew. quarters_bunks are also present for housing enlisted personnel on both sides. A head_large is present on the port and starboard.
The majority of enlisted personnel are housed in a distributed quarters_mass_bunks present and distributed across the port and starboard of the vessel. Meanwhile, four quarters_shared each are present on both sides, intended for maintenance crew. head_small_latrines are present on the port and starboard.
| Found on Deck 3 |
The Captain's Suite is made to entertain guests as well as house a captain in comfort. It has a queen-sized bed, a walk-in wardrobe, two closets for storage, a couch, two armchairs and a coffee table, as well as a mini-kitchen and bar fridge for preparing refreshments. There is also ample walking space to pace about in thought and crash on the couch, as most captains are predisposed to doing. Off to one side is the personal bathroom, containing a combined bath and shower, a sink, mirrored cabinet, a linen cupboard, and a toilet. The bath and shower can comfortably fit two occupants sitting down.
Also in the room against the back wall is the captain's chair. If sat on, identification will be made. If the person is recognised as the ship's captain and a given phrase is spoken as a password - doubling as voice identification - the chair will ascend through a passageway and into the bridge above the suite. This feature was put in for ease of the captain, and to ensure that they would always be on the bridge if required rather than moving through corridors if needed urgently. Just as well, the passage doubles as an emergency exit from the bridge which can be blast-door sealed.
| Found on Deck 2 |
The galley and mess hall follow a standard, medium sized galley and mess, both looked after by automated cooks and custodial personnel. The pantry and fridge/freezer for fresh food to be prepared rests beside the galley.
| Found on Deck 3 |
In the centre and towards the bow of Deck 3 is the recreation area. A small lounge which serves as the ship's wardroom connects the following facilities together, the most important of them being a small bar room that overlooks the nose of the Val'ta and provides stunning views into space. A gymnasium is provided on the port side, while on the starboard side of the vessel, a physical therapy facility is present. Data Strip is present throughout for accessing entertainment, as well as bookshelves and a section of plush green lawn intended to be garden space.
A passover idea is that authorised plant samples may be planted in the garden area as a reminder for every visited planet.
| Primary found on Deck 3 and Secondary on Deck 7 |
The medical bays are modularly constructed spaces, where barriers for the medical beds can be pulled out of the walls, sealing themselves with pico-jelly once in position and clipped into one of the many spaces on the floor. The beds themselves are KHI Treatment and Examination Beds, with all the available tools and equipment. A supply of medicagel is available too.
The primary medical bay on Deck 3 follows the layout of a standard medical_medium compartment, while the secondary medical area on Deck 7 is a medical_small, with the addition of a Data Strip in both areas.
| Primary found on Deck 9, Secondaries on Deck 2 |
The science facilities, which are found conveniently close to the airlocks for carrying things onto the ship or spacing them in a hurry follow standardised patterns. The primary science deck encompasses most of Deck 9 follows the LSDF Hazardous Science laboratory pattern - with an airlock placed purely to flush out anything that goes wrong available. Data Strip is available.
If something goes catastrophically wrong, everything below Deck 8 can be separated from the Val'ta as a very large escape pod, or quarantine situation.
Meanwhile, the Secondary Science facilities, both on the port and starboard of Deck 2 follow a distributed General Science laboratory pattern, with the required equipment distributed evenly on both sides. Less risky experiments or analysis is carried out here. Data Strip is available.
| Found on Deck 10 |
The Probe Launch and Reception is directly beneath the Primary Science facilities, and is an automated system with the purpose of launching probes and drones into planets or space phenomena, scanning them, then returning to the Launch with data, analysis, and samples.
Returned probes are quarantined. If its safe to proceed, probes are bought up to Deck 9 for analysis by science personnel.
| Found on Deck 9 |
This area which encompasses the last quarter of Deck 9 allows data and samples from a probe to be analysed in a secure, sealed environment. Safely decontaminated probes can also be sterilised and reused, repaired, or built from scratch and loaded back into the Launch.
| Found on Deck 4 |
Beneath the crew-centric Decks 2 and 3, the primary cargo is held in a compressed space. It can carry as much space as a medium sized cargo space.
Some disorientation has been reported moving from the compressed space to real space. Fortunately, cargo movement is automated by mechanical systems, so personnel do not need to directly walk through the cargo deck unless necessary.
All relevant subsystems listed below can be found on Deck 4.
A space of the cargo hold specifically storing the weapons and armour of the crew of the Val'ta. The acquisition of equipment is handled via the Quartermaster's Supply office normally, but the armoury may be unlocked in the advent of an emergency.
Adjacent to the Cargo Bay and the Armoury, a quartermaster's supply office is available for requisitioning equipment or cargo.
A heavily sealed loading ramp for cargo, accessible by authorised personnel. It is its own airlock, and its made for importing large cargo into the Val'ta into the compressed space. From there, cargo is automatically handled into place.
| Found on Deck 4 |
Located along the Port and Starboard of Deck 4 is the magazine and loading systems for the torpedo and missile launchers nearby. They work autonomously and automatically, but may require crew access in the advent of malfunction.
Close to the back of the Port and Starboard is access to these systems via the magazine room for loading and storing munitions.
| Found on Deck 6 |
The top surface of the secondary hull of the ship – the open space between the two main hull sections, serves as a hangar-bay. It is ideal for use as a carrier or rapidly loading and unloading cargo. It serves as a 'pit' to carry out repairs on units deployed in the field before throwing them back into the foray.
The deck contains a number of dedicated parking points, elevators and a launch control position down the middle of the deck. The ceiling of the launch-deck contains basic preparation and repair equipment for a ship or fighter.
| Found on Deck 6, Generators on Deck 5 |
A hard-light projection is able to seal the launch-deck, which can then be oxygenated. For a more permanent fixture, armour plating in the hull is designed to shift to offer protection, then the structol exterior of the vessel flows to seal the gaps and laminate the armour from both sides creating a fixed hull. After this process, the hard-light projector is de-activated, having served as a mould.
The hangar features a subspace catapult, originally designed to throw probes into gas-giants for analysis before the system was reconfigured for craft while probes were given a separate launch point in Deck 10. The range of the catapult allows it to throw units deep into engagements at speeds beyond their own maximum FTL for a short duration, allowing for deep-strikes behind held lines or to place probes and specialist sensor equipment far beyond the vessel's usual high-resolution sensor range.
The catapult can alternatively be loaded with anti-starship torpedoes, granting them a hugely increased range, though not necessarily accuracy since they must still guide once in their conventional ranges while also compensating for their new velocity.
As a last resort, the catapult can be loaded with cargo used as a kinetic kill round as a mass-driver.
| Found on Deck 7, inside volumetric compression |
Beneath the Launch Bay is the primary hangar deck; an intermediary space used to store craft in ready position to be lifted onto the subspace catapult and launched out of the ship. Pilots and passengers usually board and disembark their craft here.
All relevant subsystems listed below can be found on Deck 7.
| Found on Deck 7, inside volumetric compression |
More intensive long-term maintenance can be performed down here in compressed space is the maintenance hangar; a long-term storage and repair location for units and equipment. Importantly, the maintenance hangar experiences very little of the gravitational stresses and forces of the remainder of the ship due to its placement inside a permanent mass-dislocation provided by volumetric compression, allowing the vessel to make very violent manoeuvres with minimal repercussion.
Engineering personnel have reported minor disorientation from moving between compressed space and real space, but it quickly grew familiar to them and a joke that the maintenance deck is 'bigger on the inside' sprung up.
Located inside the same mass dislocation volumetric compression as the maintenance hangar, a cargohold_large is present with all features listed. Like maintenance, the storage deck is actually very large mass-dislocation provided by volumetric compression.
As detailed above, 'bigger on the inside' jokes are frequent, and some disorientation can be felt, especially when looking at the craft's exterior from the flight deck and seeing the larger interior.
Many units and vessels too large to be launched from the catapult are stored here, to be launched from the shoulder-blades. They are docked to the internal structure of the volumetric compression, the exterior of which from within shining radiation through as visible light from conventional space in a way that looks like a direct color inversion of space - with black becoming white. The outer shape of these stars and phenomena projected shift and lens, rippling as the volumnetric compression changes shape, growing larger as more objects are placed inside it.
| Found on Deck 7, inside volumetric compression |
Large protective panels along the middle exterior either side of the hull, these serve as storage areas for vessels too large to fit in the launch-deck or be moved via elevator. The blades themselves are able to shift away from the hull, opening like wings to reveal very large openings to the internal volumetric compression to pass vessels either in and out of the Val'ta's mass dislocation. This of course involves a large amount of power and as such is done sparingly, usually with support vessels either docked and tucked under the wings of the shoulder-blades in normalspace or following the Val'ta as part of a carrier group.
| Deck 7, volumetric compression |
The Val'ta is designed to replace its own systems during operation by taking resources from its environment, via mining, processing, refinery, manufacture, construction and assembly systems. These are almost entirely automated and lack any kind of atmosphere. they are highly exposed to the interior of the volumetric compression.
| Found on Deck 7, inside volumetric compression |
A dedicated maintanance and storage area for genis is located near the refinery, designed to act as an exchange of resources between the GENI in the field mining resources and the refinaries. This allows the Val'ta to dock or remain near a structure and mine it out using a battery of manufactured automated mining frames.
| Found on Deck 7, inside volumetric compression |
Using a high temperature rotary centrifugal separation variance extraction system, materials can be melted down and separated depending on the electrical properties of the elements or compounds. In this way, the Val'ta is able to mine asteroids and planetary structures to produce materials and resources required for manufacturing and repair.
| Found on Deck 7, inside volumetric compression |
A version of the Lazarus AL100 Universal Constructor/Machine shop on steroids this large internal manufacturing and fabrication system is able to with almost total automation “print” and manufacture most any piece of equipment provided it is given sufficient power and materials to work with. It is used to produce replacement components for the Val'ta as well as manufacture smaller vessels to accompany it.
Importantly, the manufacturing systems feature a quantum modem linked with the LSDF, to exchange schematics and equipment which are developed - allowing the Val'ta to update both itself and crew equipment during a journey.
| Found on Deck 7, inside volumetric compression |
A large reserved space, used to combine the parts produced by the manufacturing system. It can be thought of as a miniature dry-dock. The completed or half-completed equipment can be stored here.
A docking ring is located on the underside of the Val'ta expressly for the purpose of recovery following an away mission. This leads to an airlock followed by a four stage decontamination system and immunization system.
This begins with the destruction of all clothes and uniforms, with hardened metal parts undergoing radiation bombardment to remove possible contaminants. These are then re-attached to new uniforms and attire, waiting at the other side fabricated by the AL100 based on scans made. As such, they are usually nearly indistinguishable in that they are clean and that any defects or obvious damage have been removed.
The user is soaked head to toe in an oxygenated decontaminant solution which covers the skin, eyes and enters the lungs and blood-stream of the user as well as all orifices and can be considered a “complete” enema which is then expelled in a cubical, usually as scentless colorless liquid deification but sometimes via vomiting as well as evacuation of the lungs of the oxygenated solution.
A second solution is then provided which then reintroduces the appropriate bacterial flora to the gut, administered anally.
Using a xenon lamp to in a brief photo-flash. The user puts on a specialized helmet to protect the face and facial hair and the system activates, a precise flash based on the skintone and skin qualities of the user to burn away the outer epithelial layers as well as any body hair which then become a thin layer of fine white dust. As a result, crew who frequently undergo quarantine commonly have no body hair. The person is then low-pressure statically charged shower to remove the dust, which is drained as a potential carrier of contaminant.
Six hours of rest are then essential after exposure to the xenon lamp, for skin to recover as the person lacking the dead layers of skin is now especially sensitive to touch. During this time, the user is scanned by the scientific equipment under quarantine in order to discern if any internal infection has spread, with bloods drawn and gravitational scans made. Typically the 6 hour waiting period is spent individually to prevent cross contamination.
The procedure has the side-effect of softening the skin, cleaning and voluminous the hair, tightening wrinkles, removing all body hair below the neckline, altering the smell of and cleaning the body inside and out of the subject. The xenon lamp has the side-effect of removing striae gravidarum, discoloration from bruising, discoloration of fingernails, toenails and teeth, cleans mucus membrane infection and greatly improves circulation.
The systems of the Val'ta are largely bespoke, designed and engineered especially for it. There is an emphasis on ruggedness, modularity and ease of construction with the resources available to the ship. Importantly, many of these systems are able to feed resources through each-other, allowing energy, plasma or temperature management to be shunted to a wide variety of different systems and equipment, improving its performance in specialist ways.
The Val'ta's hull armouring is composed of a structure of Vuliarium backed by layers of hardened Cultured Structol, laquered stone_thread, Structol Substrate, and Quasiperiodic crystalline materials. It is currently applied liberally throughout the ship's exterior, and doubled or tripled in key areas. With the bridge and core systems being in the centre2) of the ship, and reinforced from behind, a 'headshot' on the ship is unlikely, in addition to the angled hulls providing thicker armour. On the flip side, the reduced mass of the hull renders the ship lighter.
The inner frame of the Val'ta supporting the hull and its systems had to be rebuilt from scratch as it was held in place by structol, and the local material capable of keeping everything is referred to .
Originally, the Val'ta was intended to have a 'Swordfish Blade', capable of diving into planets. Currently, the socket has a placeholder built from Vuliarium, and backed with larger layers of ablative and solid structol and a thermal exchange to absorb the impacts and vibrations the blade intended for, but it is unfit for cutting asteroids or the hulls of enemy ships with.
The Val'ta has two powerplants for the purpose of redundancy, needing only one at a time. Parts can be swapped between the two, which greatly eases specialist testing, emergency scenarios and maintenance procedures - allowing the vessel to continue its normal duties without the need for space-docking. The power systems cycle up and down through a set of primary, secondary and tertiary systems, allowing for peak energy when required or ultra efficient low power consumption modes which reduce the ship's profile so it can better detect spacial phenomena or silently operate undetected.
The core of the Val'ta comes in the form of a pair of attenuated clusters, each arranged in spheres as a “brain gear”, formerly the product of research of the Lazarus Consortium3), but appropriated and remodelled by the Val'ta's Sourcian being. Each core reads the other to save power and reduce efficiency or be dialled up into a high output mode4) This means in the event of system failure, failure happens slowly, rather than catastrophically all at once - making the Val'ta very difficult to disable.
This class of generator requires fuel in the form of almost any matter to produce its “main conductor”, a Sourcian-derived furnace which can burn and process materials, resulting in an output consistent with the input energy in most cases. This means that fuel is usually replenished during normal operation using recycling systems throughout the ship - at the cost of greatly reducing the ship's general operational effectiveness while undergoing dedicated refuelling.
The Val'ta's generators are broken up into smaller systems slaved but not dependant on the brain-gear engine cores, mostly composed of older tried and tested technologies. Most of the vessel's conventional operating systems can function entirely on these alone.
The pyramid begins with the Attenuated Brain Gear Cluster, a high energy cultivated sourcian powerplant with a high sensor profile, supporting Muon catylized micro-fusion reactors which drive most of the ship's systems and can be booted up or shut down quickly thanks to the brain gear cluster, and the Antimatter annihilation equivalency reactor used when the ship requires maximum power.
Auxiliary power, doubling as silent running is provided by a battery of Induced Gamma Emission a long term low energy tried and tested dependable power source and Bacterial Gel Packs which provide the bare minimum to keep the crew alive if everything else fails. Importantly, the gel packs can be fed biomatter (bone, tissue, flesh, hair, dust, food) to keep running. The bacteria itself is harmless to a living immune system.
The engine and power systems of the Val'ta also feature a number of other components which are important:
The last important part of the Val'ta's power systems are the energisers: Massive high performance super conductors made of a Capel quasicrystal battery and hyper-capacitor array and super-conducting plasma conduits, doubling as reserve power conduits. The energisers are specifically designed to keep energy away from the plasma conduits when not in use, limiting the risk to crew when the conduits fail. The primary energisers take 40 minutes to recharge. Emergency backups take 12 minutes to charge but aren't made for long term use.
The following data and information systems are present on the Val'ta.
The Val'ta makes extensive use of both conventional consoles and hard-light “data strips” found throughout the vessel as lighting strips in rooms and corridors. The vessel's ARIA is able to both see through these strips and project hard-light created via the use of a inflection for response and reaction, including combative response if necessary as well as containment procedures for possible contamination, harmful radiance and atmospheric decompression in order to protect the ship and her crew.
The strips themselves contain structol channels, moving gellatine and hard crystal like circuitry through the entire ship in a unique logistical system of piping akin to arteries, allowing for limited automated repairs of digital systems and rapid reconfiguration of the ship's sensor arrays and power systems - an essential requirement of a long-range explorer.
Primary communications on the Val'ta are conducted through the hull and are boosted by the subspace pylons of the primary engines and shield generators called DENDRITE. An important function of the communications system is connection denial: While Pantheon capable, the system is fully capable of intercepting a malicious transmission and blocking it before the data-matrix enters ARIA (who then is able to decide whether operations are carried out or not).
The following weapons systems are present on the Val'ta.
Originally, the Val'ta had a large main gun which was built inside of the , but its interior systems and ammunition did not survive the trip between worlds. No suitable replacement has been found for the Val'ta.
This ship includes a starship gade unified_field_manipulation_suite, providing a package of equipment which allows for manipulation of gravitational, magnetic, strong, and weak forces, allowing for the manipulation of materials within the guidelines indicated for a starship grade equipment package.
It is able to alter the expressed weight of objects, manipulate gravity over great distances and express a wide variety of different electromagnetic actions: it is an ideal scientific tool for stimulating and testing events at a distance. It doubles as a field booster for primary communications and a means of moving debris, gas and atmosphere either away or toward the Val'ta. It doubles as a backup propulsion system, can generate a defensive shield and is also capable of acting as a weapon by emulating a a particle accelerator.
All of this essentially makes it a swiss army knife, a field projector designed for action at a distance that can be configured and calibrated to perform a wide variety of complex tasks usually too precise or distant for other dedicated systems.
Arrayed in lines on the hull on Deck 1 and Deck 8 are lines of sixteen Packet Rifle enhanced Lorath Plasma Arc Disruptors, in Cannon configuration pointing in 360 degrees. The Point Defence serves as a dedicated, reactive countermeasure against incoming torpedoes, missiles, and for swatting enemy powered armour, frames, or shuttles containing boarding teams.
There are three main batteries of torpedoes. One on the bow, one on port, and one on starboard. All of them mount the arrays of R-88 Subspace Enhanced Railguns, with eight each on the port and starboard, and four to either side of the nose facing the front.
When on standby, the guns rest inside the hull to be reloaded as necessary by the launcher magazine. When activated, they slide on rails onto the exterior of the hull through the structol, able to point outwards from the Val'ta, take aim at targets, and to a limited extent move around the hull for a better shot. If severely damaged, they return to their original position inside the hull for repair by technicians.
The Val'ta has a vehicle compliment both stored internally inside volumetric compression and following the vessel as escorts in many cases. While early on this group might seem small, as time goes on these craft and units (often automated) will serve as extensions of the Val'ta's base capabilities as it manufactures them to suit its needs.
When the Val'ta enters FTL, these units are generally pulled along via proximity, meaning they don't have to land or dock with the craft or be capable of the same feats of FTL as the Val'ta itself.
General sensor systems - able to recognize and pinpoint.
High-precision sensor systems. Able to identify and produce useful tactical information.
Situated on the belly, the following planetary optimized sensors are present:
Using technologies similar to both the Lazarus Stasis system and high-end gravitic centrifuges, the volumetric compression system works by creating a permanent self-sustaining fixture in six dimensional space - a sort of 'pocket'. By altering the rules of that pocket-universe, its rules can be aligned to match ours, allowing for materials and behaviour convergent and conductive to the storage of complex matter and energy, including life.
While fundamentally disconnected from our universe, it can be connected using a compression-projector. Importantly, energy is only used during the brief times where the connection is formed and matter and energy can be exchanged between the interior of the pocket and its exterior (our universe). Quantum communication between the higher dimension can still take place but transmission of energy or matter through any other means is physically impossible.
Very importantly, the volumetric compression does not express mass against the acceleration of whatever it is linked to unless in an open connected state. In addition, while the interior volume can be very large, the mass it can contain is inherently limited. When this limit is achieved, no more matter or energy can be allowed to enter the interior volume - limiting any further entry.