Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Provide another non-combat worldship for Firemane that facilitates exploration and migration. This one is geared towards Firemane's Xioquo and Kar'zun vassals. Because these races are less numerous compared to say the Eldorai, the ship has a lower production rating, but compensates this with improvements in other areas.
Image Source: Here.
Canon Link: N/A.
Primary Source: Asur Class Worldship. Some passages have been taken from that submission with the permission of [member="Valiens Nantaris"].
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: Firemane Industries & Technology.
Affiliation: Firemane Industries & Technology
Model: FM-SC1a.
Production: Semi-Unique
Material: Standard starship components.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Classification: Exploration/Habitat Ship.
Length: 3000m.
Width: 2500m.
Height: 2500m.
Armament: Very Low
- Some fast-mount turbolasers.
- Few ion cannons and turbolasers
- All weapons mounted on the edges and front/rear of the ship.
- Heavy armour plating.
- Large on board garrison and extensive defences, including ray shields, auto-turrets etc.
- Hundreds of quad lasers and point defence distributed evenly around the edges and front/rear.
- Few flak cannons.
- Heavy redundant shield generators.
- Eidolon-class Modulating Energy Shield (permission here).
- Very Low: 9
- Hangar Allocations:
Starfighters: 0 squadrons - Support Craft: 9 squadrons.
Maneuverability Rating: Low
Speed Rating: Average
Hyperdrive Class: Average: 2
STANDARD FEATURES
- All standard features for a ship of this size and role.
- Has an Enlightenment Quantum Communicator.
- In emergencies can be adapted to carry 10 times the number of people for short durations.
- Full habitation for 3.5 million individuals to start with, with expansion up to 5 million possible.
- 6 berths, 4 of which can support up to cruiser size, and 2 which can dock with destroyers.
- Contains all the components necessary for starting a new colony.
- Eidolon-class Modulating Energy Shield (permission here).
- The Sky Cavern is a huge colony ship. It is able to carry and supply millions of people, allowing them to set up new colonies on the way. It possesses the space, materials and supplies to enable them to start a new existence elsewhere.
- The Sky Cavern is well-protected, as keeping the population alive is a paramount concern. The worldship has heavy shields, armour plating and potent flak to deter aggressors.
- The Sky Cavern is tough and can take a beating, but is poor at actually dishing out. While its speed is average for a ship of this size, it lacks agility, has no attack craft and almost no capital weapons.
- It is a non-combat ship, so protecting the engines is even more important than it normally would be. If these are disabled, the ship is vulnerable prey.
The Sky Cavern represents a new spin on the original Asur Class Worldship design. The Asur was built shortly after the cataclysmic destruction of Kaeshana. Having just lost their homeworld, the Eldorai wanted to be prepared the next time this occured.
Moreover, the Exodus as well as the reforms of Star Queen Tirathana VII had deeply divided Eldorai society. As a result, the Crown recognised that it would be prudent to give dissident groups the means to opt out, instead of allowing social tensions to fester and produce strife.
Firemane was happy to build these ships for a variety of groups, even reactionaries and revolutionaries who had opposed it, as long as they could pay. The process was accelerated when the leaders of the four races of Tygara convened a summit on Firemane's command space station.
There it was decided that the elves would move into space to go off and colonise. Firemane agreed to provide technical support and know-how. Thus use of the worldships was opened up to the Tygarans and huge, mobile space stations were built to facilitate mass migrations where needed.
However, the original Asur could not satisfy all groups. Firemane had made pacts with both the Kar'zun and the Xioquo. The former were a species of intelligent, tech-savvy stone people who had been the rivals of the Eldorai on Kaeshana. Centuries ago the elves drove them to the brink of extinction and confined them to reservations after a brutal war. Before the fall, the stone people had developed spaceflight and even launched a ship into space. But now they were reduced to a state of servitude.
Tirathana VII emancipated them and Firemane recognised their potential as warriors, engineers, artisans and so on. Their honesty and lawful nature contrasted with the duplicity of many Eldorai nobles. As a result, the megacorp lobbied for them to be given passage on the exodus fleet that left Kaeshana. Firemane gained the right to recruit Kar'zun into its ranks, setting up specialised units.
In the wake of the summit, Siobhan met with Kar'zun elders and made a similar deal. The clans that agreed to it would receive ships and technical support so that they could build their own civilisation away from the Eldorai. They were poor, but could compensate Firemane through their services.
The Xioquo, meanwhile, had once been Firemane's enemy. When Eldorai colonists settled on Tygara, the dark elves menaced their settlements, seeking new slaves. Firemane, Eldorai and Qadiri forces led a crusade that resulted in the fall of the Underealm, the Xioquo's subterranean lair. The old slavocratic oligarchy was overthrown and Liavondra, a dissident aristocrat who had rejected the ways of her foremothers, was made queen. She sought to break with the past and lead the Xioquo into a new, progressive future.
However, she faced opposition from old reactionary die-hards. The Xioquo were poor, but made excellent spies and had impressive technical skills. Distrusted and in a number of cases openly reviled by Eldorai and the Qadiri, the drows found unexpected friends in some of the Kar'zun clans.
The Xioquo and Kar'zun, being creatures of the soil and the stone, found the most radical design of the traditional Asur Worldship, namely the 'sky', disconcerting. Both races rarely look upon the sky in wonder. For the Kar'zun, heaven lies beneath the earth, while the Mother Earth is one of the Xio deities. As a result, Firemane scrapped this feature in its new vessel and made it more geometric in shape. This design was chosen in collaboration with Xioquo and Kar'zun engineers.
As a result, visitors must do without the phenomenal view of space that is provided by the traditional Asur. However, as a tradeoff this also eliminates a notable weak spot. Firemane's engineers chose to implement a long hexagonal shape, large in scale and able to combine with others to form a larger lattice.
As with the Asur, the vessel was carefully designed to ensure it would be able to accommodate a large number of people over an extended period. Efficiency was key, and thus no space was wasted. In effect, the Sky Cavern is a closed city on the move. High buildings dot the streets, and monorails connect the different areas. Space has been set aside for parks and production areas. The interior of the vessel is logically laid out in a grid pattern. There are some observation areas, but nowhere near as many compared to the Asur.
It is essentially a tank of a ship. In the case of vessels populated by Kar'zun, since the stone people eat minerals, their food reserves are heavy but non-perishable. They only need to stop for water and fuel, and then only rarely. This obviously does not apply to colony ships populated by Xioquo, as the drows require normal sustenance and supplies.
The Sky Cavern is somewhat faster than its parent model, but its speed is still only average relative to a ship of its size. As a result, Firemane invested heavily in defence. Because the Kar'zun and Xioquo population is far smaller than that of the Qadiri or Eldorai, the vessel has a more exclusive production run. Through a deal with Alderaan Engineering, Firemane was able to add an Eidolon shield. This enhances the already formidable defences of the vessel, which include heavy armour, multiple recharging and overlapping shields and hundreds of defence guns. However, while the Cavern can take a beating, it is poor at dishing out, as it is almost entirely lacking in capital armaments. It also has no attack craft. As a result it will require protection.
A large number of droids is used to assist the inhabitants and their crew. The Kar'zun have always been a very tech-savvy species and the Xioquo were the most advanced of Tygara's natives prior to the coming of the 'sky people'. Both lack the anti-droid phobias of the Eldorai. Each vessel has a permanent garrison of about ten thousand soldiers, but this is supported by a militia composed of all adult civilians. In the case of the Kar'zun, it helps that they are literally walking rocks. Regular drills are carried out to ensure that the inhabitants retain the necessary skills to defend itself.
As with the Asur, the Sky Caverns exist to enable its inhabitants to settle across the galaxy. A ship can explore space, set up colonies on the way and wait until the settlements are up and running before moving on. The stone people and drows have small populations and low growth rates. Indeed, one worldship would theoretically be enough to accommodate the entire Kar'zun species if it were filled to max capacity. Nonetheless the vessels will need to offload people at certain points in time to prevent overcrowding. Each vessel possesses a Firemane Enlightenment Quantum Communicator, which gives it secure communications capabilities.
