OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Sub a ship.
Image Source: Here.
Canon Link: N/A.
Permissions: Permission for all subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here and here.
Primary Source: N/A.
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: Shadow Knights
Affiliation: Shadow Knights
Market Status: Closed-Market
Model: Traveller of the Fivefold Paths
Production: Unique
Material:
- Durasteel Hull
- Alusteel Plating
- Turadium Frame and Bulkheads
- Electronics
- Nightshadow coating
Classification: Exploration/Reconnaissance Corvette
Length:150m
Width: 50m
Height: 20m
Armament: Average
- Many quad laser cannons
- A few turbolasers
- Variable warhead launchers
- A few heavy baradium warhead launchers
- Cap Drains and De-Ionizer Module
- Deflector Shield
- Point defence laser cannons
- Anti-Missile Octet
- ECM Suite
- AE-CM1 Dampener Chaff
Hangar Allocations:
Starfighters: 0 squadrons
Support Craft: 0 squadrons
Single Craft Hangar: A single craft can be stored in there either as a lifeboat or survey ship.
Maneuverability Rating: Average
Speed Rating: Very High
Hyperdrive: Yes.
- Path Engine [Equal to Class 1]
- Hyperdrive Class 8 [Backup]
All standard features. The Traveller is outfitted with the standard array of shields, systems, features and components one would expect from a vessel of its size and purpose. These include, among others:
- Hypersleep Caskets for crew (Optional)
- Nutrimax Dispensers to ensure culinary efficiency. Crew members complain about the food for some mind-boggling reason.
- Antisepsis and Magcon field generators
- QQ-1453-DR1 Solid Fuel/Ration Converter, linked to refreshers/trash.
- Duplicator w/ Prototyper
- Synthicator
- Versatile engine system. Unlike a standard starship, the Traveller cannot just fly through space and atmosphere and land on soft ground, but also redeploy itself so it's more dynamic for flowing through water and even has repulsor engines to hover just above the water. These allow it to move onto land without engaging the main drive engines. Finally, it can switch from ion drives to straight up propellers, enabling it to travel underwater. These features enable it to travel above, on and under water.
- Shielded airlocks allow safe exits when the ship is say deep underwater.
- Nav Computer Route Astrogation Bypass
- Advanced ECM system; excels at avoiding long-range and/or primitive sensors.
- Anti-Ion Emission Tracer
- HIMA
- Sensor Scramblers
- Signal Jammers
- Fixed-Signature Tracker
- Communicator Monitor
- Lifeform Scanners
- Grab-safety
- Holonet Relay
- Holotrace Device
- Hyperspace Tracker
- Hyperwave Transceiver
- Full-Spectrum Transceiver
- Interrogator Module
- Echo Pulse
- Programmable Paint
- Decoder
- AE-HD2 Phantom-class Hypertransit System
- Ghostwave Transmitter
- Bio-hexacrypt, Pyrowalls, Rapid Repetition Defense Measure programming.
- Ion-Scrambler
- 220-SIG Tactical Sensor Jamming Device
- Mag-Field Generator
- NEEDLE
- Com-Scan
- Socketguard
- Nightshadow coating
- Sensor Mask
- Hydrostatic Field
- Sensor Net
- Sensor Scramblers
- Signal Jammers
- Signature Modulator
- False Energy Signature Projector
- Solid Fuel Converter
- Spectral Diffusers
- Subspace Transceiver
- Thrust Trace Damper
- Thermal Dissipators
- Photon Absorbers
- Energy Dampeners
- Eldorai Spirit Gem
- Highly versatile. Can fly through space, the atmosphere, on and under the water equally well.
- Very fast and well-armoured.
- Ideal for exploration, as well as spying. Features highly advanced sensor equipment to scan worlds and systems, and detect threats. Ghostwave transmitters and other devices are utilised for the purpose of communications' security.
- While not true stealth since it does not visibly cloak, it features myriad systems that make it harder to detect, especially at long range.
- The Ardent Duty possesses a quasi-AI. The consciousness of a veteran Eldorai pilot has been transferred into an Eldorai Spirit Gem. It has been put in a big computer bank where it can be managed. This results in improvements in areas such as manoeuvring the ship in combat and hazardous situations, predictive ability, targeting, navigation, hyperspace and micro jump calculations etc.
- While turbolasers work well in most settings, they are not useful underwater. The vessel can only use missiles underwater
- The Traveller has limited weapons to fight ships of similar size or larger.
- Moving between space > atmosphere > water > underwater takes time to reconfigure the engines. You can't simply swandive into the ocean from space. Engines are vulnerable in all states.
- The stealth system has its limitations. The corvette does not visibly cloak, so it can be seen. Thus it is not on the level of say a Stygium cloaking device. Moreover it is easier to visually track the vessel at closer range. Weapons' locks are difficult, but not impossible. Likewise, active sensor pings will generate attention. Weapons' fire and active shield emissions are able to create signatures that are more easy to spot at normal sensor range. It requires either distance or obstructions to properly hide the vessel from the notice of other ships.
- The spirit gem in the computer bank is a boon, but it means that once the shields are down, heavy ion damage can do greater than damage because it can disrupt the quasi-AI's processing routes and risk and destroying it.
- No hangar.
The Shadow Knights are a spacefaring society, being centred on a nomad fleet that traverses the fringes of space. For obvious reasons, this makes exploration, hyperlane charting as well as information gathering of equal importance for the Asuran exiles. The dramatically named Traveller of the Fivefold Paths is designed to combine these roles, serving as a vessel for the Starstriders, the Shadow Knights' exploration corps. What makes the vessel particularly well-suited for this role is its ability to travel not just in space and atmosphere, but also on and underwater. Hence the name. The fivefold paths is: space, air, land, water and underwater. It possesses a versatile engine system able to shift from ion to straight up propellers when needed.
Moreover, it posseses advanced sensors, and myriad stealth systems that limit its sensor profile and can enable it to evade detection, though this is not true stealth since it lacks a cloaking field such as Stygium or Hibridium cloaking device. Sadly, that was not in the budget. The ship's high-powered communications equipment is capable of encrypting and decrypting communications over vast distances. The incorporation of a Tactical Sensor Jammer allows the Traveller to reduce the sensor capabilities of enemy starfighters and jam local communications when forced into conflict to allow the vessel to disable probes or small patrols that might come across their path. Moreover, it can use an Interrogator module to identify ships and an Ion Scrambler to disrupt communication traces of possibly hostile vessels it encounters or is forced to communicate with. A solid fuel converter ensures fuel efficiency, as recycling is important for space nomads. The solid fuel converter are connected to the waste management systems of the Traveller.
While necessity has forced them to become more practical, the Shadow Knights are still true to their Eldorai and Tygaran roots and thus not that trusting when it comes to machines. As a result, the vessel designed with a crew in mind. However, in addition to a mortal crew, it features an Eldorai Spirit Gem, which is hosted by a big computer bank. With the aid of the computer bank, the trapped soul can aid the crew with calculations, navigation, manoeuvre and predictions, leading to significant improvements in the ship's performance. This has also helped cut down on crew size requirements. The trapped soul is a veteran Eldorai pilot called Talam Olcuri. He was mortally wounded in a battle with pirates. However he was able to save the ship and return to port with the cargo and crew intact. His soul was transferred into the spirit gem. In terms of personality, he is confident and a bit of a hotshot who is prone to japes.
The ship does not look shiny on the outside and its interior is very utilitarian. The crew quarters are a bit cramped. Overall, living conditions aboard the Traveller are austere. However, care has been taken to increase survivability. Thus the engine section and reactor set far away from the crew compartments to minimise loss of life should the ship suffer catastrophic damage. An additional side affect of this style of construction is that with its main systems fairly well spread out, the Traveller can suffer heavy damage and still has a good chance to limp away from a conflict to recover and repair itself.
As an exploration and reconnaissance vessel, the Traveller was fitted with an array of weaponry beyond that of civilian ships, fuel efficient engines, and a pair of powerful hypermatter reactor cores. The bridge has science and tactical stations at the rear, a tactical display, and the command chair in the centre of the room which overlooks the operations station and the helm at the fore of the bridge. Transparisteel viewports line the front of the room fitted with overlaid holoscreens to display images, flight paths, and tactical information. Behind the bridge there is the main Tactical Operations Control Room, a conference room for senior officers, a security station, and a command salon.
Space has been set aside for laboratories and the like, enabling scientists who come along as part of the crew to do their job by analysing findings. Members of the Court of the Mind, as the Shadow Knights call their science department, are able to test and experiment on objects the ship might come across, perform geological studies on asteroids and planetoids they encounter, catalogue data etc. This is relevant because the purpose of the Traveller is not endless exploration for the sake of it, but, among other things, to find new colonies for the Exodite Asurans to settle on. As is common for Asuran vessels, the ship has a small shrine for those who are religiously observant. In deference to the fact that the Exodite Asurans are a religiously diverse people, it is non-denominated. This has the effect of making all manners of people unhappy, but such is compromise.
The Traveller is not equipped to be a raiding ship, but its intelligence gathering capabilities can obviously be utilised to help facilitate such operations by providing the Shadow Knights with information on potential targets for raids and acts of piracy. Of course, that also applies to hopefully non-violent, but potentially illegal salvaging and strip-mining operations.
The Traveller utilises probe droids to compliment its sensors, which it is able to launch via its warhead launchers. Among other methods, they can be dispatched through Tactical Infiltration Pods in order to survey at across several systems. Sometimes the TI Pods may also feature Viper Probe Droids to take surface samples to be transmitted back to the Traveller. These are used for preliminary surveillance or to provide heavily detailed scans of an area that its own sensors are unable to provide, then recollected or replaced.
