The Ghost Ship(Now with Description)

[Jaxton Ravos]

Image Credit: http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Hulk
Intent: To create a ghost ship to be the center of a larger faction thread dedicated to hunting/exploring it
Development Thread: N/A
Manufacturer: Ancient Sith Empire(suspected) Unknown Company
Model: Derriphan-Class Command Ship
Affiliation: Death and Despair, to be explored and possibly repurposed/destroyed by the Levantine Sanctum, depending on plot evolution.
Modularity: Hanger and payload configurations, otherwise no.
Production: Unique
Material: Nightshadow(over hull plating), Durasteel(most systems), Turadium(Blast Doors), Standard Materials(electronics and other miscellaneous systems)
Description:
The Ghost Ship of the Corporate Sector was first known as the Emperor's Pride, and was built to combat the incoming Clockwork menace in the mid-400's ABY. Taking a concept from a Sith Meditation Sphere he made the ship it's own entity, a being that could communicate through Force Based Telepathy and naturally sought out the most powerful Sith it could find as it's owner. The Sith Emperor believed, perhaps incorrectly, that by making it the Ship a sithspawn that was inherently subservient to the Sith it would remain to him rather than OMNI. Continuing along with the trend of combating the droid menace with organic or force based creatures he opted to build old Imperial Shadow Droids rather than traditional fighters or bombers, removed all normal heavy warheads with "shadow" heavy warheads(warheads with no propulsion other than Telekinesis), and a mild Nightshadow coating over the helm to reduce detection at a minor rate(not to be used as stealth, but rather a little boost against sensor). Realizing the necessity of manpower he also forwent putting in a traditional army, instead filling the ship to the brim with Sithspawn.

Their are certain inherent problems with keeping up with large quantities of Silooth, Terentateks, Tuk'ata, Rhakghouls, etc. Number one, you have to keep them away from your normal crew in order to ensure their survival, and number two, you need to find a way to feed all of them. The first issue was solved by sealing the Sithspawn in habitats, while putting in emergency blast doors and methods to seal off bulkheads in case of a containment breach. The second issue was solved through time, pain staking searches, and ingenuity. The Sith Emperor ordered that all Gen'Dai that could be found in the galaxy be captured, contained, and sent to the Emperor. Once acquired he put them, armorless, in massive vats filled with as many Gen'Dai as he could find. As mere heads and masses of constantly regenerating tissue and muscles the Vats would, at random time intervals, grind out the bottom of the vat until sensors found a head. This grinded meat would then be sent through tubing and disperse from the ceiling into the containment habitats. As the war with OMNI continued and rations became more and more scare however the Sith Emperor decreed to increase production of the Gen'Dai meat, and ordered the crew to dine on the Gen'Dai as well, almost prompting a civil war aboard his ship. After a dozen men were sealed in the terentatek habitat however peace quickly resumed.

Despite the many precautions made to combat the nanite menace however, the war against OMNI was slow, wrought with pyrric victories, lots of fleeing, and what was deemed to a never ending cycle of taking down a few ships, taking back a planet or two, losing the planet, fleeing, taking down a few ships, taking a new planet, losing new planet, etc. Thus in his Hubris the aging Sith Emperor decided to attempt to make a new Sith Spawn, one he thought that he could control where others had failed. Able to feed off of the negative emotion of the Darkside, teleport from one place to another in the blink of an eye, change states of matter at will, the Withered Smoke would be the edge he needed to defeat OMNI. Though he was successful in creating a trio of Withered Smoke he was unable to control them, and the three overpowered him before engaging the crew. In the cross-fire the Sithspawn Habitats were released, and many of the crew were killed as a result, prompting a large increase in the Rhakghoul population, and at least a dozen, perhaps two, Withered Smoke to prowl the halls of the ship. Dozens of bulkheads were sealed, along with atmosphere being vented from this wing or other, making the inner workings of the the ship a veritable labyrinth of monstrocities filled with the occasional dropping of Gen'Dai muscle tissue from the ceilings.

For the next few months the Ghost Ship, still a sentient being, waged the war against OMNI and sought a new master. Not having the tactical mind or leadership necessary to properly wage the war however, the Ghost Ship often suffered critical system damages, until finally it could no longer fight without perishing completely. With no choice left the Ghost Ship fled to the corners of the universe and entered a state of hibernation for the next three hundred years, before awakening once more, sensing the presence of the Dark Lord of the One Sith. Through a mishap between the damaged hyperdrives and navigation systems however, instead of reaching the Dark Lord the Ghost Ship ended up in the Corporate Sector. Befuddled by this error the Ghost Ship attempted to get out of the Corporate Sector, but due to damages and errors found that it could only head from one planet in the Corporate Sector to another. After a while of jumping from place to place the Ghost Ship decided that it was finally time to stop trying to get to the Dark Lord, but instead cause enough death and destruction that the Dark Lord would come to the Ghost Ship.

Classification: Command Ship
Role: Assault
Height: 1000m at tallest point, 500m average
Width: 500m
Length: 2000m
Power Core Generator/Reactor: Hypermatter Reactor
Hyperdrive Rating: 1(damaged, dysfunctional), 13(back-up, damaged but functional)
Minimum Crew: 0(With 'Ship' Mind), 67000(Without 'Ship' mind)
Optimal Crew: 12,500(With 'Ship' Mind), 23,000(Without 'Ship' Mind)
Armaments:

• 16 Magnetic Accelerator's (4 operational, 4 buggy but operational, 8 inoperable) (Equivalent 2.5 Batteries each at recommendation from Ayden Cater, 40 batteries total)
• 8 Long Range Heavy Turbolaser Batteries ((80 Batteries)
• 8 Quad Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries(64 Batteries)
• 4 Dual Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries(16 Batteries)
• 12 Fast Mount Ion Cannons(3 Batteries)
• 8 Fast Mount Turbolaser(2 Batteries)
• 80 Shadow Heavy Warhead 'launchers'(Inoperable without skilled TK users, or simply dropping one into atmosphere and letting gravity take it)
• 40 Quad Laser Turrets(5 Battery equivalency)
• 40 Flak Cannons(5 Battery Equivalency)
• 20 Point Defense Batteries(10 Battery Equivalency)

Hangar:

• 24 Shadow Droids
• 28 Turbostorm-Class Gunships
• 12 Imperial Transports
• 12 Y-85 Titan Dropships

Non-Combative Attachments:

• Redundant Deflector Shielding(partially damaged)
• Reinforced Hull(Partially damaged)
• Communications Array(damaged and inoperable)
• Escape Pods(large majority are missing)
• Meditation Room(Intact, but a room the Withered Smoke frequent)
• Life Support Systems(In some areas of the ships, other have failing/damaged life support systems, while others are completely devoid of life support)
• Navigation Systems(Old and likely inaccurate)
• Advanced Targeting System(oddly intact, only used for Magnetic Accelerator)
• Standard Targeting System(oddly intact, used for weapons other than Magnetic Accelerator or Heavy Warhead Launchers)
• Advanced Sensor Array(Damaged)
• HIMS(Intact)
• Storage Vats(Intact, filled with insane Gen'Dai)

Passenger Capacity: 12,000
Cargo Capacity: 25,000 Metric Tonnes
Consumables: 2.5 years(assuming normal crew and food), functionally infinite(Feeding on the regenerating Gen'Dai)
Sublight Speed and Maneuverability: 10(Damaged), 9(If Repaired)
Additional Notes: For the sake of simple clarification and re-iteration, this ship, if approved, would not be used for the Levantine Sanctum in a fleeting environment, but rather as a plot point to battle against and explore. If the Levantine Sanctum wishes to repurpose the ship rather than destroy it upon neutralizing the threat it poses it would require several repairs, along with a submission modification(Or a re-sub, should the Judges/Staff prefer) in order to clearly lay out it's potential. Additionally, should repurposing occur the Levantines would eschew certain elements and technologies of the current Derriphan class, for example Sithspawn Habitats, Shadow Droids, and likely stripping the ship of sentience.

 

[Nohemi Allaneh]

I think it would be neat if it had some kind of ithorian garden or crazy neat garden that has... maybe pre gulag flora that may be extinct now, that has all survived due to it's self sustaining bio-luminescence area deal...

 

[Seydon of Arda]

I think it would be neat if it had some kind of ithorian garden or crazy neat garden that has... maybe pre gulag flora that may be extinct now, that has all survived due to it's self sustaining bio-luminescence area deal...

Do you mean perhaps like an extended hydroponics bay? It could be a kind of corruption of Babylon's hanging gardens, sustained flora yet irrevocably changed? Maybe with some predatory water-pitcher plants, fanged vines? Perhaps it could be a kind of static biosphere?

 

[Nohemi Allaneh]

Yeah!!

 

[Thurion Heavenshield]

*is sat playing with toy trains*

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

So, I know we're planning on incorporating Rhakghouls and other cool things, but I've been thinking.

They've been on this ship for hundreds of years? How they gonna eat?

And then the solution came to me. What if Sith Emperor X(The creator of the Ship and it's inhabitants) had created this ship and it's sithspawn inhabitants to combat Omni and the whole Clockwork thing, therefore making the ship and all it's contents as biological as possible? The command ship itself would be a massive application of a Sith Meditation Sphere, meaning it was alive and could feel through the Force, yearning for a master, and thus unhackable by Omni? Add to that Sithspawn as the primary weapons/shock troopers with the Sith Emperor killing himself off by creating Withered Smoke and being unable to control them. Then add that entire ship was populated with thousands of Gen'Dai, the Sith Emperor X gathering them for their regenerative properties, and using them as a renewable food source for the Sithspawn, himself, and any crewman(all of which would be dead). The Gen'Dai, now insane from centuries of being devoured and regenerating, would put up another interesting enemy to face, but one not as black and white as simple Sith Spawn.

 

[Seydon of Arda]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

And this is where collaboration produces brilliance. Though should we clarify if whether or not the vessel can still mount a defense? Turbo-batteries, torpedo vents and the like?

Annotation: I should clarify that I've been envisioning the vessel as being less like a standard PvE horde-wave scenario and more akin to exploring down a creepy sanitarium, but the problem I can foresee is that we are going to need a steady conflict to keep efforts engaged.

We've talked and it's a 'Hunt for the Ghost Ship'. Perhaps we need to give it some sort of metaphysical 'ooomph'.

 

[Nohemi Allaneh]

Well, thing is that Omni was able to infect inorganics as well as organics. So that wouldn't haven been an issue.

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

Well, thing is that Omni was able to infect inorganics as well as organics. So that wouldn't haven been an issue.

Omni could only affect organics by implanting them with nanites. Droids or ships could be hacked remotely IIRC.

 

[Nohemi Allaneh]

Aye! Exactly that.

I'd also think a really huge star map would be great; one of those self repairing ones like in KOTOR, that maybe becomes sentient in itself?

I'm just tossing random ideas out there.

 

[Seydon of Arda]

Alright, for clarification, as I got a bit of confusion during a discussion of what purpose the Ghost Ship is going to serve as the Plot Device.

This is the Corporate Sector, as according to the most up-to-date charts:

As you can see, though we do add Etti V as further territories that Levantines have remit to patrol and lend aid, there's more to the sector. This is what [member="Jorus Merrill"] was considering for a possible Levantine exploratory mission:

The Goal would be to reach Kamar, beyond Fether (yeah, yeah). Initially, we ran through several ideas pertaining how we'd go about exploring. One of them was going for an extended patrol, battling pirates, rediscovering worlds, etc, like a sequel to the formation of the Mara Corridor.

And then I happened upon the idea of: "What if the Levantines were out to investigate rumours of a so-called Ghost Ship?" Discussion leaned that we'd be chasing the vessel, it wouldn't be there off the bat to board. There'd be a lot of creepy, ghostly, dangerous happenings between Etti V and perhaps finally catching up at Kamar. Half-dead pirates, floating derelicts mauled by the Ghost Ship, haunted worlds, etc.

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

[member="Seydon of Arda"]

Is this intended to serve through multiple dominions then or a faction thread chase?

Also, fleshed out weapons hanger a bit.Not doing numbers yet, but putting out ideas.

 

[Seydon of Arda]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

Just a Thread Chase. Much as we can dream to have all those worlds up on the map proper, there's simply no room. However, by dint of Etti V, the majority if not the whole of the Corporate Sector is open for Levantine patrols.

 

[Nohemi Allaneh]

Trying to think what else would be neat...