Division One Spacecraft Classes

A discussion of the various Division One spacecraft classes available for transportation and combat.

Columbia-Class Carriers

Spacecraft carriers are some of the biggest spacecraft currently being built in the Milky Way. Easily three-quarters of their volume is capable of being given over to carrying a hull full of the two smallest warships: corvettes and destroyers. They have extensive berths, heads, and galleys for not only their own crew, but the crews of the ships they carry. The crew complement of a spacecraft carrier is only around 150, but they are capable of carrying an additional complement of significant size, upwards of 500, if the situation so demands.

Should emergency evacuation of a small celestial body be required, as many as 10,000+ persons can be brought aboard each carrier, though conditions will be extremely close. This passenger load cannot be maintained long due to limited consumables, and a carrier pressed into such service must have a safe destination relatively close by, to which the refugees may be offloaded.

Genesis-Class Battleships

The Genesis and Revelation Flagships

The Genesis-class battleship is something of a misnomer, as the Genesis is the flagship of the Division One Fleet. As such, it is the ship that Admiral Director Fox commands, and as usual, he has ‘hot- rodded’ it as he does most of his vehicles—Agency and personal—with the aid of the flagship’s chief engineer: upgrading the power plant, adding an additional power plant as backup, and boosting the shielding and weaponry. The Genesis itself is, therefore, more of a dreadnought- style battleship than a standard battleship; as it has evolved, it has even gotten larger than a standard battleship, by some 15% in most dimensions. Its crew complement is therefore somewhat larger than a standard battleship, being around 120, compared to the standard 100.

Upon Agent Echo being named the Assistant Director, it was decided he also needed a flagship, and to that end, another battleship, the Revelation, was retrofitted to make it the close equivalent of the Genesis.

Standard Battleships

The battleship class is the main warship of the Fleet. They are long- distance, heavy- duty workhorse vessels, equipped with heavy armor of both physical and force field varieties. The principal weaponry is the Mark VIII Tachyon Splitter Cannon; each spacecraft has a total of six. Battleships are also capable of laying mines of various sorts, as well as firing missiles. Secondary devices include tractor and pressor beams.

They possess a crew complement of around 100, complete with berths, galleys, heads, and state of the art sickbays. Some third to half of the crew complement on any given battleship will be in heavy compression spacesuit armor equipped with personal force fields, and this contingent may be considered the Agency equivalent of space marines. Small personnel carrier craft are loaded into the shuttle bay in the lowest deck, ready for any boarding parties that may be needed.

Homeric-Class Corvettes

Corvettes are the smallest fleet spacecraft. They are generally short- range unless equipped with a special package that provides for longer- duration flights. They hold 2- 3 crew with essential consumables. There are no berths and no galleys, though consumable water and meal bars are in the tiny stowage, along with emergency gear, such as pressure suits.

Corvettes may be small, but they are swift and heavily armed for their size. They are also provided with excellent shielding and active cloaking. They are used for scout ships and guerrilla warfare tactics. An excellent tactic is for the corvette fleet to power up, cloak, then dart among the enemy vessels, firing on strategic points and laying mines or planting bombs. Special identifying beacons, their signals tight- beamed and shunted through hyperspace, enable their fellows to track them and avoid incidents of ‘friendly fire.’ It also makes possible emergency rescue, should a corvette be damaged behind enemy lines, or the ability to deactivate the cloak fail.

Odyssey-Class Destroyers

The Odyssey class of destroyer vessels is the interstellar equivalent of a naval destroyer — swift, maneuverable, well- armed and -armored, with considerably more range than a corvette due to its larger size enabling a bigger power plant to be installed aboard. They are also equipped with active cloaking, and unlike the smaller corvettes, they have berths, galleys, extra stowage, and can carry a crew complement of as many as 6- 8 beings. They do not have the tight maneuvering capabilities of a corvette, nor the sheer raw power of a battleship, but in close quarters or over medium-distance sprints, they hold their own quite readily.

Phoenix-Class & Phoenix-A-Class Transports

The Phoenix-class transport saucer is not generally used for active battle, though it can be. It is an intermediate-sized saucer with three decks, the middle of which is mostly stowage, and a minimum flight crew of two, maximum four, plus room for a small passenger complement of 2-3 human-sized beings. Each deck has an egress hatch, and often they are outfitted with remote manipulator arms and other external tools to provide refuel and repair in space.

In an emergency, the bunk area can be folded up and significant numbers of personnel and/or equipment can be loaded into the stowage and berth areas. Additional weapons can be mounted on the craft, as well, which is not without a decent standard weaponry to begin with.

The Phoenix-A class saucer is a variant in which repair and refueling equipment and tanks have been added, the latter replacing part of the stowage area. There are also remote manipulator arms used for tanking fuel, and for repair work when the local environment is too dangerous to go EVA.

Trojan-Horse-Class Saucer

The Trojan-Horse-class transport saucer is not generally used for active battle, though it can be. It is an intermediate-sized saucer with three decks, the middle of which is mostly stowage, and a minimum flight crew of two, maximum four. Passengers can be carried, to a total of an additional six.

Unlike the Phoenix class, each deck does NOT have an egress hatch -- there are two, one primary, and one emergency hatch -- and they are rarely outfitted with additional equipment. Their principal use is transport, navigation and science surveys, and observation.