Maelion Liates
Terminatrix
Image Source: Exterior. Interior. Exterior by Alexei Pyatov, interior by Bungie.
Affiliation: Archangel Research & Design
Manufacturer: Archangel Research & Design
Model: 11100011
Modularity: No
Production: Unique
Material: Standard ship components. Stygium Crystal array.
Classification: Factory Ship
Length: 900 metres
Width: 250 metres
Height: 175 metres
Armament: (80 Defence Guns/30 Capital Guns/0 Warheads)
- 2 x Heavy Quad Ion Cannons (16CG)(270 degree fire arc forwards)
- 14 x Fast-mount Turbolasers (14CG)(270 degree fire arc forwards)
- 10 x Quad Laser batteries (40DG)(360 degree fire arc)
- 5 x Flak Cannon batteries (20DG)(360 degree fire arc)
- 5 x Point Defence batteries (20DG)(360 degree fire arc)
Hangar:
- 4 squadrons Drone Interceptors.
- 1 squadron Augury Fighters.
- 1 squadron gunships.
- 16 dropships.
- Mooring for two frigates or corvettes.
Special Features:
- Processing machines (both Mk1 and Mk2).
- HRD manufacturing equipment.
- Facilities to clone and fit organic exterior to HRDs.
- Detention cells and prisoner containment equipment.
- Large storage areas.
- Stygium crystal array (dev thread below).
- Gravitic Modulators and Thrust Trace Dampeners to compliment the above.
- Hanger and mooring space.
Maneuverability Rating: 14
Speed Rating: 12
Hyperdrive Class: 1
Strengths:
- Autonomous. The Ascension can operate for very long periods without resupply or returning to base. With no organic crew and with large areas dedicated to storage, the ship is able to keep itself running for years.
- Hangers. The large hangers of the Ascension allow it to hold a large amount of ships. The ship also has good coverage from all angles with defence guns to hold off enemy attack craft.
- Cloaking. The Ascension has the ability to cloak using its Stygium array and other stealth elements. This allows it to bypass all but the most stringent detections.
- Secure. Designed to keep its captives secure, the ship is full of armed droids and lethal traps. Boarding this ship is extremely ill advised!
Weaknesses:
- Cumbersome. With the increased weight and power drain on the reactor, the Ascension is not a fast or nimble ship. At the best it can outrun a Star Destroyer, but it cannot evade even ships of its own size!
- Hollow. The Ascension has very limited armour. With so much of the interior given over to hangers, cells, processing machines or weapons, it is very fragile. Even heavily armed escorts can deliver severe damage if they breach the shield, and the ship can neither fight them off or outrun them without stealth.
- Stealth Limitations. Stealth cannot be active all the time, and is useless if the ship is already under attack. Also, the Stygium crystals are spread out over the large hull, and damage to any of these locations will decloak part of the ship.
- Unique. The Ascension is a considerable investment of resources and material. The priority of Archangel is to protect it at almost all costs. A threat to the ship will likely involve it fleeing even if it is technically capable of holding off the enemy.
Description:
The Ascension is the next step in the ramping up of Archangel’s attempt to create the ultimate processing ship. Archangel’s goal is eventually process all organic life, but that goal cannot be achieved all at once. Droids, especially homicidal ones, are slow and methodical.
Building on the work done with their previous ship the Lightbringer, Archangel decided to go bigger, creating a stealth ship able to process dozens of individuals at once.
The Ascension is by necessity not heavily armed, it is not intended for combat. Its main goal is to act as the command centre for an operation, and to take any organics captured and process them into HRDs.
Due to not having organic crew, and only having a few organics on board who are not prisoners (mainly the clones Enyo and Phaedra) all of that space otherwise required for sleeping, eating and entertaining can be better used. The ship has considerable stores and many thousands of droids, but the maintenance footprint is considerably smaller.
For hangers, the Ascension can either dock corvettes or frigates, or accept gunships and dropships into it. It can also hold several squadrons of fighters. These are most usually used as screens to prevent enemy pursuit getting close enough but can also be used to pacify organics being taken away.
The pattern for an operation with the Ascension is quite simple; first a planet with weak defences and low priority is chosen. Next, HRDs infiltrate the population for intelligence gathering, either replacing those in power or getting close to those who are. After that, communities are isolated and seized using Wasps and Harvesters. Those unfortunates are drugged and taken to the Ascension. The ship can hold several hundred prisoners at once in close confinement.
Up to twenty organics can be processed at any one time. This involves essentially downloading the memories and consciousness and doing a detailed physical scan of the body. When this is complete the organic is disposed of, and the body destroyed. This whole process takes less than fifteen minutes.
This information is stored and applied to HRDs which are constructed in the factory which is part of the ship. Constructing, programming and skinning the HRDs takes much longer, about six hours, but there are fifty such manufacturing production lines available.
The containment section of the Ascension is well prepared for troublesome organics. In addition to droid guards, there is also ray shields, blast doors and gas dispensers. Since droids do not need to breathe, a last resort is to evacuate the air from the entire prison section.
The Ascension possesses a few rooms near the rear segregated from the rest of the ship. It is here that a few chosen organics, mainly Archangel’s cloned Force Users, can live and train. As organics tend to be upset about seeing their comrades processed into machines like cattle, they are completely blocked off from entering the factory sections.
Development Thread: YES.
- Stygium Recovered. 25 posts.
- Ship Development. 33 posts.
Intent: This submission is intended to be a mobile base for Archangel’s nefarious schemes. A large ship, this is a mobile factory with the express purpose of manufacturing and processing organics into machines. To this end it is equipped with large, capacious storage and hangers as well as the necessary equipment. For armament, the Ascension is very lightly armed with capital weapons, to the point it would struggle to harm even escorts. On the other hand it is well defended against attack craft.
This submission contains two items which are slightly unusual from a judging perspective on a ship this size.
Firstly, it has a larger than average hanger. The reasons for this are threefold; firstly the Drone Interceptors can be stored almost like on a coat rack for deployment. Second, the lack of crew quarters for the pilots (as there are none) mean more can fit in. Thirdly, allowances have been in the past for increased hanger space provided development was done.
Next, the ship has a Stygium Crystal array. This is unusual on a ship this size. However, this ship is not a combat vessel, and uses it only to avoid pursuit. Also, this vessel’s cloaking time is relatively short so it cannot be used constantly.
Who Can Use This: Maelion Liates or [member="Moira Skaldi"] only.
Primary Source: N/A
