Shadow Tech Industries Stealth Support Cruiser - Command Ship Class

[Ice]

Ice had made a couple ships designs so far. But no matter what he did, he just couldn't seem to fit everything he was after into the design. So finally, he was done with frigates. He was tired of trying to cram everything into small spaces and always coming up short. Sticking to his normal fashion, he opened up a new project. One that he would go all out on. A heavy support cruiser. This vessel would be STI's command ship. All they would ever need to house and protect those people, items, designs and whatever else that was most important to Ice.

It wouldn't be a fighting vessel, he knew. But Ice was determined to make this ship a fortress. He'd bring in all the top scientists and engineers he could find. he would go over every detail meticulously until the ship was exactly what he wanted. The first thing he would start with would be the ships armor. Without waiting another second, he called in his armor engineers...

 

[Ice]

Three engineers soon made their way to Ice's office. They looked around the large space with curiosity as to why they had been summoned specifically. "Please, have a seat the three of you." Ice welcomed in a friendly manner. After they did so, he offered them a drink, which they smartly declined. "Ok now the reason I have brought you in is I have a special project for the company. I am trying to design a super command ship. It won't be designed to fight. I want it designed to be unseen and indestructible. As such the first thing I wanted to do was get your ideas on what we can do to make the armor all but completely impenetrable. First I'd like to go over possible metal suggestions. And as a note, I do have about 1,000 tons of Ultrachrome in stock that we can use as well. So let's hear some ideas."

He pulled out his datapad so he could take notes of everything they said.

 

[Ice]

The engineer's eyes actually widened in surprise when they heard he had that much Ultrachrome for the project. They quickly focused back onto the task at hand though and started to think. "Well Durasteel is the standard armor for just about everything. We should probably add that. But what about Beskar? That is a significantly tougher steel." Suggested Bob.

Ice shook his head. "No. I'd love to have it, but it is too difficult to get a hold off. I don't have the kind of funds that would be required to deck this ship out with that much Beskar. Is there an equivalent metal out there that I am unaware of that has similar properties?"

"Titanium is an excellent armor." Offered Rob. "Its also half the weight of steel. But I'll admit it still pale's in comparison to Beskar."

It was then the third engineer Steve chimed in. "What about Echani Graphite?"

"Bah! You can't use that stuff. It's only good in cylindrical form. Hammer it out into plates and it might as well be pencil lead." Challenged Rob.

"Aye, but if you you layer the poles, combined they'd still form a protective layer! Then you'd have your "Beskar" armor without nearly as much weight. It's also not nearly as expensive, and much more readily available." Came Steve's quick defense of his suggestion.

 

[Ice]

Bob began nodding in agreement. "We could use the echani graphite almost like re-bar in duracrete, except here it will be used to reinforce the outer hull of ultrachrome. We could even do the same thing on the inner hull with whatever metal we decided to use there. Speaking of which, have we decided what metal we want to use for the inner hull? I'm thinking durasteel or titanium."

Rob turned toward Ice. "What kind of a budget are we working with? That is definitely going to play a factor into how we answer these questions."

Ice gave the man a quick nod. "Don't worry about the funds. I want a top of the line cruiser. The ultrachrome and good bit of the funding I have been saving for a while. So budget is not a factor. Just give me the best!"

Rob turned back toward Bob. "Titanium it is. Durasteel and titanium are roughly the same strength, but titanium as mentioned is much lighter. It'll offset the thick armor it sounds like we will be installing in this vessel."

Ice actually jumped back in with a question of his own. "Why is the inner hull titanium? Aren't there other my energy resistant metals you can use? Remember. I'm willing to spend the credits if it will make the design better."

Steve shook his head. "No it wouldn't really help. The ultrachrome is going to be more than enough to deter any energy based weapons. Even a lot of projectile weapons will actually have a difficult time. Still, if anything is going to get bast the outer hull, it is more than likely going to be a projectile type weapon. So titanium with echani graphite reiforcement would give a good line of defense specifically against those types of weapons."

 

[Ice]

Ice gave a quick nod of understanding before Rob posed another concern. "How do we want to handle the overheating issue for the ultrachrome? That and ion cannon attacks?"

Bob quickly replied in answer to the last question. "With the way ultrachrome disperses the heat over its entire surface, it is doubtful the ship would ever come under enough fire for overheating of the entire outer hull to really be a concern."

"Right, but the concern is still there no matter how small." Defended Rob.

"How about we form the inside of the outer hull to have ridges." Suggested Steve. "We call fill the space in between the ridges with tubes that can carry a coolant through. Perhaps liquid hydrogen. That way, whenever sensors warn of overheating, we can pump in the coolant and bring the temps back down to safe levels."

"I like it! Good idea. But that still doesn't solve the ion cannon attack problem." Said Rob in an obvious manner.

"No. No it doesn't. But one problem at a time Rob." Lightly chastised Bob. "With that one solved, the ion cannon issue is an easy one to deal will. We can simply line the space in between the inner and outer hulls with large resisters. These resistors would be connected to grounding wires which would in turn be connected to the outer hull. We could use Steve's suggestion with the liquid hydrogen tubes to be pressed up against the resistors as well. That way, if the ship is pounded with ion cannon fire. The resistors soak up all the energy, and the hydrogen can keep them cool as well."

 

[Ice]

"Question." Ice said inquisitively again. "How much of my ultrachrome is this design going to require? Because if it doesn't use up too much, I might be able to still work out a deal to get some beskar into the design as well?"

The engineers looked at eachother for a moment and started working out some rough figures on their datapad. After a minute or so, they compared notes and Steve spoke up. "Well sir, A ship this size is going to be about 5,000 metric tons. You can figure about half of that will be just for the armor. Now the armor is divided into 3 different materials. 50% is going to be echani graphite. So 1,250 metric tons there. The other 50% is divided in half once again between the titanium and ultrachrome. So you can figure about 625 metric tons of ultrachrome and the same amount in titanium."

Ice sat back and thought on the answer for a moment. "And what of the skeletal structure and framework of the ship. If I wanted to make that out of beskar, roughly how much would you need. And how much of a benefit do you think that would give me?"

Bob was the one to answer this time. "Creating the skeletal structure and framework out of beskar would do wonders for the ships resiliency in battle. It would mean that even if the ships armor were to fail, the vessel would be able to still take quite a pounding before it began to break up. Armor is all well and good, but it is the bones of a ship that really keep it together."

 

[Ice]

It was Rob who raised an eyebrow as he realized the question had only been partially answered. "I'd say you could plan on needing roughly 500 metric tons of beskar for what you were thinking sir. That should allow us to design an slightly more sturdy superstructure for the vessel than a normal ship would receive. And then the fact that it is made with beskar will only enhance the strength further as mentioned."

Ice nodded again as he began to work on a few figures himself. "Hmmm. I think that I should be able to acquire that much material from Larraq at Mandal Hypernautics. We had already agreed to an amount slightly higher than that originally. So I don't see why the smaller amount should be an issue. Per our old agreement, I'll simply trade him 550 metric tons of ultrachrome in exchange for 500 metric tons of beskar. Anyway, is there anything else that we can do armor wise to make this ship even more durable?"

The engineers shook their heads after a time, and Bob answered again. "Not really sir. I mean there are plenty of other technologies that can further protect the vessel of course. But from a purely armor stand point, I believe this is going to be about the best we can do. Even without shielding, it should be quite resilient to the effects of ion cannon fire, turbolaser fire, ballistic weapons, and even completely immune to metal eating fungus that could possibly be deployed by the likes of the Yuuzhan Vong."

Ice once again smiled when he heard what would be the results of these ideas. "Very well. Then let's get you three started on drawing up an official armor design. Thanks again for your good work."

The engineers nodded and gave their thanks, then made their way back to their work stations. Eventually they would come up with this concept to be installed over the whole of the entire vessel.