FRG Thor

With the resources gathered from the destroyed Gundabadt Station by SVG Excavator, I began construction on my biggest build to date - my first frigate, FRG Thor.

Early build of FRG Thor showing armour, basic fuselage nose rocket launcher and some computer systems installed.

She was planned to build on what I had learned about missiles from my turret building, by multiplied many times over.  I discovered that by altering the composition and layout of missile systems that I could fire massively powerful rockets at a target and inflict considerable damage.

Thor, therefore, would house the single biggest rocket launcher I had ever seen.

But not only would she be a rocket frigate, she would also boast some impressive shielding, radar jamming, and be supported by side, rear, upward and downward firing homing missile bays as auxilliary weapons.  In addition to all this I intended to build some very small missile-killer turrets... although I was concerned that I may not be able to program them to differentiate between my missiles and those of the enemy which would be pretty useless to me... worst case I would outfit them to be EMP weapons instead.

Although Thor would be completed automated, I was building her to also operate with a crew and serve the needs of human passengers.

When focusing on building a particular section, I place work lights so that I can easily see what I'm working on.

The work lights make all the difference to a dark or shaded hull.

The rocket launcher installed into Thor's nose measures 38m from nose to core room, and consists of 16 columns feeding into the final chamber, and costs 444750e to fire, doing 44750 damage over a 12 meter radius up to 3.2km from target.

View from Thor's incomplete rear through what will be the engines, crew facilities, support modules, escape bays, bridge, power storage, and core.  Visible in the nose section of the fuselage is the mostly completed front systems, detailed in the below images.

Forward of the Core (the top of which is visible at the bottom of the image) are 9 5x5x5 power/shield combination generators, granting a total power output of 90058.4e/sec recharge, shield cap of 18809 (+643s/sec).  Further shields will be added to the frigate.

The lower three decks of the cone will be entirely energy storage, granting an estimated 1.3 million energy storage, allowing Thor to fire her energy-hungry cannons several times before depleting her energy reserves.

Deck 4 is a missile systems inspection and engineering deck.  Full access to the entire length of the missile systems is on this deck, plus supporting systems like haudraulics and computers.  Some systems still need to be installed.

Deck 5 is to inspect the lower part of the Combination Generators and the systems linking the generators with the missile systems.

Deck 5 inspects the upper part of the Combination Generators and also accesses much of the super structure holding it all together.  Again some systems still need to be installed, mostly between the deck and pressure hull.

Deck 6 looking back towards the nose.  At the nose end are most of the computer systems driving the link between the Combination Generators, and it is also possible to watch a rocket for a split second as it fires out from beneath your feet towards a target... although it passes out of view very fast as you're basically looking down at the muzzle.

Deck 7 is not really a deck but more of a series of crawl spaces.  This deck will allow close-inspection and repair of critical systems and will be the perfect place for a Xenomorph to set up camp.  Currently it's open and unpopulated. This image shows the view from the bow to the stern, with much of this gap being filled with goodies in the coming days.

While the Core is functional, it is still under construction.  It must wait for all other critical systems to be installed before it can be finalised.

Above the Core and towards the stern, at the top of the frigate is where the Bridge will be.  Above that will be an observation deck (completed), which will be sealed behind a blast door to protect the bridge in case the observation deck becomes damaged and loses pressure.  This image shows the view upwards into the ramp leading to the observation deck from what will be the Bridge.

View back down the ramp of the Observation Deck back towards the yet-to-be-built Bridge.  The Core can be seen, which is basically at the center of the frigate.

View from the gangway in the Observation Deck, looking forward and slightly to port.

Observation Deck as seen from outside, with stern shown to the left of image.  Behind the Obs Deck can be seen the Officer's Escape Boat assembly.  This is designed to accomodate the full compliment of officers on the Bridge, and be accessed rapidly in the event of an emergency, and jettison straight upwards from the rear of the frigate and away.  Other crew have different (and closer to them) escape boats located elsewhere on the frigate.

My little collection of ships is growing.  Note: Gustav never got rebuilt after pirates decimated my base so long ago... although I do still have the plans for her if ever I want a small battle scout again.

Shipyard with FRG Thor under construction and SVG Speeder (and her homing missile turrets) acting as an outward turret emplacement during the built. My basic factory is shown on the right attached to the shipyard, busilly producing paint and converting minerals into capsules, among other things.

FRG Thor's internal computers and systems are visible and accessible from outside (which serves a purpose) but protected from attack by her shields and automated close-quarters defenses, and mostly tucked behind gauss mesh which when on active duty will have 40,000 volts passing through it at all times.

FRG Thor at about the halfway point in production.

Although Thor's armour and hull are in place, she still needs to have her Omni-direction Missile Defense System installed, as well as a bunch of blast doors and greeble and such.  She also needs all crew compartments and operational systems fitted in the center and wings, and her thrusters and other critical and support systems installed in the aft.

I expect Thor to be quite a powerful little boat once completed... and I look forward to hunting down more pirate stations and expanding my little patch of space.

Excavator absorbs Gundabadt

SVG Excavator's maiden voyage was to undertake that which had created the need to upgrade SVG Speeder in the first place - salvaging the battered remains of Gundabadt Station.

I ensured she was well supplied, all systems were operational, and she was fully ready and able to fly. Once all checks came back green, it was time to ease out of dry dock, slowly starboard and upwards to clear SVG Speeder which remained stationary where she had been throughout the build process offering a small amount of turret protection to SVG Excavator while she was without armour and shielding during the initial stages of build.

Unlike CRV Alannis, SVG Excavator's engines did not penetrate the structure from bow-to-stern, but were instead stern-fitted shallow-mount uni-directional fusion outlets.

She was slightly larger than Alannis, but had less shields and thrust, in favour of her primary function - salvage cannons.

Once clear of the shipyard and Speeder, I set the navigation computer to the coordinates of the now derelict Gundabadt Station, and engaged her engines full throttle.

She was about as clunky as Speeder, due to her greatly increased mass, even with the Unidirectional Shallow-mount Fusion Outlet engines (which provided much greater thrust than Speeder's naked thruster module engines).

My rapid-mobility ship "Taxi" can be seen top right, used to quickly get between shipyard, trading guild station, factory, other ships, or even to retrieve pirate wrecks left drifting after coming into range of my automated defenses.

When I arrived at Gundabadt I tested out Excavator's salvage digitisation cannons and was very impressed to see the station melting away before my eyes at a far greater rate than was possible with Speeder.  The entire station was converted to digital mass signatures and stored in my personal storage bank in just under 6 minutes... over 30,000 scrap alloy and a further 30,000 scrap crystal circuits.  A large cinnibar asteroid in orbit around the station was added to my hold within another 2 minutes.

SVG Excavator performed admirably. I had not yet had a need to test her out under fire, however she performed her primary duty as a salvager with great efficiency.

Another successful build.  Soon I would take her out to the asteroid fields to retrieve some more materials, especially some of the rarer elements needed to construct some of the more higher end technologies like shield capacitors and rechargers.  I had depleted the local trading guild's supply of these items, and other ships would need me to construct my own which meant obtaining the required elements...

Gundabadt was gone.  Nothing remained but digital mass signatures of scrap in my hold and some drifting atmospheric molecules where it had once been in space.

This was my space now.

SVG Excavator

SVG Speeder was a good salvaging vessel.  She wore four of my automated homing missile turrets and could soak up a reasonable asteroid in a few minutes.  She had been created from my initial credits which I'd managed to obtain during my escape from Gundabadt Station, and had served me well in digitising asteroids for their mineral content.

However as my need to build bigger and greater vessels increased, so too did my need to digitise minerals (both from defeated pirate vessels, as well as asteroids and comets).

So it became time to replace Speeder with a much more powerful salvaging vessel.

I drafted plans to incorporate the shield technology I had developed for the corvette Alannis, as well as banks of well powered salvaging cannons that would make Speeder's own capacity seem small and insignificant.

I also wanted the new salvager to have much tougher armour as I intended to drop the weight of turrets in favour of shields and armour and simply sit under the umbrella of turret emplacements as I claimed asteroid fields for my own.

And so I began building my new salvager, the SVG Excavator.

SVG Speeder shown to the right of the main salvage cores of SVG Excavator for scale

SVG Excavator has 2614 salvage cannons, compared to SVG Speeder's 240 salvage cannons.  In addition she has 212,000 power storage, with 458,000 e/sec recharge.

SVG Excavator's specifications:
Mass: 820.3 tons
Length: 42m
Height: 16m
Width: 27m
Thrust: 237.9 (-98)
Shields: 28000 (+319/sec)

CRV Alannis and SVG Speeder shown next to shipyard and SVG Excavator for scale.

SVG Excavator is much tougher than SVG Speeder

She has navigation lights for port, starboard, deck and dorsal.

She boasts 1x port, 1x starboard, 2x bow, and 1x stern observation lenses.

She has an armoured open core entrance, and an aligned docking camera.

Her engines are not as powerful as CRV Alannis, but more powerful than SVG Speeder.

SVG Excavator is a big step up from SVG Speeder, and will greatly speed up my mining and salvaging operations.

It was time to take her out for her maiden voyage.

Basic Factory

With the eradication of the Gundabadt Station and my former enslavers, I discovered that it was not financially worthwhile repairing and restoring the station... and neither was I inclined to do so.  I didn't want to live in a constant reminder of my past.  I would make my own ships and structures.

So I began salvaging the station with Speeder and carting the materials back to my shipyard.  Due to the condition of the station the only materials the salvager could digitize was scrap alloy mesh and scrap crystal circuits, but that was okay.  My factories would be able to re-assemble them into whatever I wanted later anyway.

The factory I'd had previously was sorely lacking... it was time to upgrade.

I created a new small purpose-built two-deck basic structure in the middle of the exterior of the shipyard, and within it I built a small factory setup fueled by two small power generators and protected the entire shipyard with two small shield modules learned from the Alannis build.

Two 3x3x3 power generators set up for maximum possible power output drive the new factory.

Storage Banks are labeled with displays for easy access.

The Storage Banks automatically sort and transfer between each other and the factories on the floor above.

Micro Assemblers create Alloy Mesh and Crystal Circuits quickly, and the materials are then put into the appropriate Storage Banks to be accessed later.

Factories and Capsule Refineries on the top deck are used to produce necessary items for future builds.

The factory set up is much smaller than it will be in the future, however it is plenty big enough for the amount of materials I currently need for my next ship build (seen under construction in the shipyard behind the factories in the last picture)...

The Battle of Gundabadt Station

Finally the corvette's armour was completed.  A thick top plate, and two side/dorsal plates protecting her engines and vital systems.

This armour is designed to serve as a backstop for when the shields fail under heavy fire.

After fitting the Alannis out with the homing missile turret design that I had built for my turret emplacements around the shipyard and factory, she was ready to take out.

I went looking for a fight.

Where better than to announce to Gundabadt that my space was not only defended but that it represented a threat if attacked.  I turned my navigation computer to the Gundabadt Station, drifted out of dock, and then engaged full throttle for my target waypoint.

Testing my shields, escape pod (I had Taxi docked for now), engines, radar jamming, and all other systems on the Alannis while en route.  Everything performed marvelously, and I was ready to hunt some pirate fighters and maybe even put a dent in the station itself.

Some distance away the station began to become visible, I engaged the AI controlling my turrets, and they automatically fired a full volley from every turret at the station.  No going back now...

As my missiles closed in on the station it sent out an emergency call for any nearby friendly to assist, and before long I found myself in the middle of a fire fight.

The skirmish lasted for nearly 15 minutes and I quickly discovered that Alannis's shields were sorely lacking but that her armour offered her great protection from the beam weapons used by the pirate fighters. Their shots would destroy most armour cells they hit, but because of the movement of all the vessels in the battle it was very rare for their beams to hit the same area. So the armour as a whole soaked up a tremendous amount of fire, supported by the shields regenerating from time to time.

My homing missiles on the other hand took down target after target, usually only 1 or 2 missiles fired at a target was enough to pop it.

Before long I was swimming in overheating cores and drifting wrecks, and the station was completely disarmed and peppered with craters from my weaponry.

I explored the vacuum-ridden station in Taxi, plenty strong enough to withstand any small-arms fire that might have come from any suited survivors... as it turned out there were none.  The place was vacant.  I had completely squashed the station and inhabitants of a clan of pirates that had held me and my family prisoner for so many years.

Alannis had taken a beating during the battle, so we limped home for some much needed repairs.  She had fought well and proven to be far more effective than Gustav and SVG Speeder combined.  Alannis was not capable of salvaging any of the wrecks she peppered the battle field with, and her shields were woefully inadequate, but for my first corvette she had done well.  And nothing could distract me from the elation I felt at having destroyed my former prison station.

For the first time in my life I felt truly and completely free.

Cramped Quarters

Alannis's internal systems were now fully fitted and operational (except the turret systems and the rebuild of the escape pod damaged in the first pirate wave from Gundabadt Station).

While she looked naked without her armour, the Alannis was complete inside and technically able to to fly.  Totally without teeth, but able to fly.

Her internal systems include large dual ion compression engines, energy dispersal shields, an escape pod bay, front underside hatch access, rear shielded heat dispersal radiators, thick dorsal, starboard, and portside armour plates, 4x small homing missile turrets, 1x large topside long range beam turret, top and bottom front cameras, rear camera, port and starboard cameras, and internal access to all major systems for inspection and repair from within shields while under fire.

Alannis's central core and control room.

Hatch access is in the bottom starboard side of the control room, which accesses the turret and computing maintenance area, and from there a plex door exits directly into space underneath the ship within the protection of the shield and armour.

The main deck of Alannis.

Alannis's main deck has navigation and diagnostic computers and read-outs, medical facilities, shield and gravity control, and access all areas, including the front passageways leading to the port and starboard engine maintenance (shown in picture), the port and starboard rear reactor maintenance areas, the rear escape pod passage, and the turret and computing access way underneath the main control room.

Starboard engine maintenance access passage.

Standing at the white light shown on the right of the previous picture and looking down and back along the engine, this passageway accesses all the engines on the starboard side back to the reactor.

Port passage to the reactor access passageway.

Looking immediately port of the control room the shield and gravity control panels can be seen, and behind them the passage that leads down to the port side reactor.  A mirror image passage (with slightly different systems lining it) exists on the starboard side also.

Escape Pod Bay inspection port

Standing in the passage shown in the previous image, an inspection port can be used to view the condition (or observe the docking) of small craft in the escape pod bay.

Portside reactor inspection passageway.

One of the reactor's tanks is visible on the right, with the various computer and fluid dispersal systems visible on the left and at the back of the passage.  An access metal grill hatch at the back of the passage allows a crew member to wriggle through to the rear heat-dispersal radiators if necessary.

Recovery

The pirate attack shook me from my false sense of security.

Most of the damage to my systems seems to have been done by my own dumb-fire missile turrets, as they blindly tracked and fired at targets without paying any attention to any friendly structures in front of them.  Clearly my AI programming skills needed some serious work.

I set about rebuilding the damage as quickly as I could, and researched how to produce various systems besides my current dumb-fires.  Homing missiles with an increased firing range appealed to me, and I set about reconfiguring my turret design to accomodate.

After testing the new homing missile turrets on some remote destroyed turrets I outfit my shipyards and factory turret emplacements with them just in time for another wave of pirate fighters.  The homing missiles made short work of them, leaving several fighter husks drifting in space at some distance from the shipyard.

I used Taxi to retrieve them for reverse engineering, and before long I had 18 new fighter shells anchored near the shipyard, able to be studied and reclaimed at any time. All automatically shot down by my new turret systems.

I still didn't feel as though I had the fire power to attack the Gundabadt station safely, but at least it seems I was much better protected than I was before. I set about rebuilding Alannis's damaged systems and continuing her build.