Right, we're obviously going to bring in a lot of
heavy hitters at one time or another. That, or things
that are simply too cool not to have and _should_ be
in the story, even if only as background. What I'm
asking, out of curiosity, mind, is what you want to
put in, and from what source said item/ship/etc. is.

To start off, I'll give a count of things I've considered
and have had _some_ ideas as to a justification for
their being there.

The Black Company Destroyer 'Coroner', Collossus Class
- blatantly ripped off from the 'Freespace2' game, a
source of some neat designs when it comes to capships.
At roughly six clicks in length, a bit below half that
in height (or lowth, or ... well, vertical axis span )
and armed with various weapons including an impressive array
of interceptor turrets. The Collossus class is, as all
designs owned by the Company, a hack of various
technologies, involoving energy weapons acquired from the
Minbari (exactly _how_ those were acquired remains an
enigma, and Croaker isn't telling), Taiidani made
artificial grav generators and ion engines ...
The powerplant was made on New Khatovar, and no details
are available about it at this time, only that it's one
hell of an efficient bastrich, if a bit loud(in sensor
terms).

Exaxxion, the Cannon God - it's a mech, that much is
certain, and it's first time in recorded service was
during the battles the Company took part in when trying to
defend the New Khatovar system from Khorne's forces.
Standing at around a hundred meters in height, and with a
elongated torso nearly as long as that, with its rather
unusual design (all smooth lines, very retro) this is
not something you want to get in the way of. A fusion
turbine provides the main power for the linear frame,
while a seperate one drives the one thing that makes this
mecha more than simply a fhuge moving targer - the
array of gravtech and EM generators. Frankly, at the time of its
arrival, it's quite possibly the carrier of the Spiral's
most efficient and powerful gravtech, powerful enough to
make its frame over 200% more durable than it should be,
and ... well, let's put it this way, a fighter she's not,
but she can damn well handle nearly as well. The inertia
amplification systems it fields make it a devestating
close combat mecha, capable of taking down close to anything
in its size range with brute strength alone.
In on-board weapons, it holds an array of three triple
barreled 80mm gatlings in one arm, a 460mm recoilless rifle
in the other. And it's main gun is a 4096mm railcannon
housed in the center torso, with a variable barrel length
of 100-200 meters (roughly). The cannon is on par, if
not superior to most capship mounted railguns,
due to the gravtech and EM generators which take an
active role in assuring the slug is delivered at
maximum possible velocity. Word of warning, when firing in
atmosphere, find a nicely secluded spot to use the main
gun. Else the backlash will flatten everything for two
to three hundred meters around.

Granasaber - a relic of a long gone race of hyperbeings
from the far reaches of the Spiral. Evaluation pending,
vessel in drydock, undergoing intense scans.

All for now, though I was thinking of putting the Ragnarok
and the Highwind in there somewhere. What can I say,
I _like_ those designs. Really.


Oh, one more thing, as long as I'm at it, anyone have
objections to Dr.Stingray (the elder) _not_ dying? The KS
would be a contract team put together by his daughter
to prevent the ... ahem ... forceful acquisition of
assets by many Corps having their HQs in Neo-Edo, on
Nippon (main commercial, autonomous world of a system by that same
name, slightly Corewards from Humanx Earth).


-Griever
I'll be using Original BGC, if only because I haven't seen
2040.

Hmm.

Hey, Griever, I've got a version of Ragnarok That I've been working on for my Otanverse. There's no particular reason you can't use him, is there?

Gotten pretty far with the spec sheet, just need to flesh out a few items.

-Dro'gan, called Niteflier-
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and go well with queso

>Hey, Griever, I've got a version of Ragnarok That I've been working on for my Otanverse. There's no particular reason you can't use him, is there?

Gotten pretty far with the spec sheet, just need to flesh out a few items.<

I've been looking to bringing the Ragnarok design in pretty late, somewhere around Act IV, but haven't got much of anything on the design down yet.

Post it, or mail me when you get done with it, and I'll find a place for it. Heck, my avatar's ship, the 'Le Fey', is going to be down after the Stand at Khatovar, and will get scrapped as the owner will seem to have gone KIA during the entire debacle. I'll need to set him up with something when I bring him back, and the Rag is a definite option.

And if not, I'm pretty sure a number of other chars will have need of transportation at the time, so the dragon-mecha-ship is pretty certain to fit in somewhere.

But I'll think on that more later, when I'm done with fleshing out what I have in store for the next stories and craft used therein. There's a lot of work between Act I and IV (stating the obvious, aren't I?), and I still need to get my avatar set up with the 'Le Fey' and its AI (result of Ersatz Thanatos, or whatever it'll mutate into if Catty mails me and we brainstorm on said story's tie-in viability), get the Black Company angle covered in finishing Two's Company and showing the operations on and over Krig 7B that the BCC 'Astrid' and the BCD 'Mordred' are part of, and ... damn, I get depressed when I see the scope of things I have to get done.

And that's not counting ma Road to Hell Ranma Altaverse, and deriviates thereof, one of which I've promised myself to get done within the next week.

Oh, and I checked up on the canon again. I made a mistake with the power source of Exaxxion. It's not fusion reactors, it's an anti-matter reactor. *Le Sigh* Revisions, revisions.

Joy.

Still, one step at a time. One step at a time.

I need my caf.

-Griever
I've already got plans for the Highwind though. Later on that.

I post this here with the acnolegdment that I am not an engineer. I know that some of the stats below do not add up. The exact workings of many of the systems below are unknown to me. I just know what I wanted them to do, and a few general limitations. Please correct me if you feel that something needs to be changed.

(PS: The Blue Line Drive, which may seem like a gross error at first, is what I wanted. It has its own limitations that I will go into if asked.)

GENERAL:
Ship Name: Lunarus (loon-ARR-roos)
Designation: LUN v4.26
A.I. Name: Ragnarok
Overall Length: Approx. 300 meters
Overall Height (When standing): Approx. 100 meters at shoulder
Maximum speed: (Tannis Drive) 86 KM/S; (Blue Line Drive Cruising Speed) ±100 Light Years per minute
Mass: 16 megatonnes
Crew: Max. 4 (Minimum Ragnarok)
Color Scheme: Deep Blue and Silver (Using Dyed Metal techniques)

SHAPE:
(This ship is based on Ragnarok from Final Fantasy VIII)
BODY: Taking up half the length, the body is a segmented near cylinder, narrower at the bow than at the stern.
LEGS/WINGS: There are three pairs of legs/wings, with the bottom pair serving as legs, and the top two pairs serving as wings. All three pairs are mounted with 35 Tannis Boosters per leg/wing. Both pairs of wings are semi-flexible, and are segmented along their length to accommodate this. The wing pairs are attached with pivot joints on the upper body, 3/4 back, and the mid body, 3/5 back. The legs have three joints: at the hip, knee, and ankle; The hip is a flexible pivot joint, the knee is a swing joint, and the ankle is a limited ball and saucer joint.
ARMS: The arms utilize the same joints as the legs, shoulder, elbow, and wrist. The wrist, however, is much more flexible than the ankle.
NECK/HEAD: The neck and head assembly take up 1/5 of the overall length. The neck is segmented along its length for flexibility. The head is directly connected to the last segment of the neck and is not jointed for movement. However, the head has a jaw pivot that hides the head weaponry and the head entrance.
HANDS/FEET: The hands and feet are the most unusual, for except when in COMBAT mode, they are innocuous. The hands are normally covered in a sheath of Trinitine, forming a 'paw' like structure. The feet are inflexible from the ankle joint, excepting the 'toes' that become the claws in COMBAT mode.

ARMAMENTS:
Head:
Two 150,000 gigawatt laser batteries. RoF: once every 0.6 seconds.
One Flame Breath plasma cannon in mouth. RoF: once every 5 seconds.
Note: These weapons are available in NORMAL and COMBAT modes.

Hands: Each hand has Five individual digits, each with monomolecular blade claw.
Note: These weapons are only available in COMBAT mode, and are covered by a sheath at all other times.

Feet: Each foot has Three semi-rigid claws.
Note: These weapons are only available in COMBAT mode, and are fused together to make the 'toe' of the foot at all other times.

Wingtips: Along the ends of each wing are Four maneuverable claws.
Note: These weapons are only available in COMBAT mode, and are hidden in the wing assembly at all other times.

Chest: One Dragon's Slayer energy cannon. RoF: once every 750 seconds. ALTERNITVE MODE: Blue Dragon's Slayer: Generates a monodirectional Blue Line. RoF: once every 16 days, major damage is done to the Dragon's Slayer housing whenever Blue Dragon's Slayer is used.
Note: This weapon is hidden in the chest plate except when needed and is only accessible in NORMAL and COMBAT modes. To use this weapon the Lunarus MUST be braced against an object massing at least seven to ten megatonnes its mass.

ARMOR:
Trinitine Plating: The body, wings, and legs are triple plated. The head, neck, and arms are double plated. The 'windows' in the head and upper body are single plate, transparent Trinitine.

ADDITIONAL DEVICES:
Blue Line Generator: The exact specs for this device are secret, but its purpose is easily observed. Once in travel mode, two small ports are opened on the body, one above the chest plating hiding the Dragon's Slayer, and one above the cargo bay doors on the rear of the body. The generator accelerates particles of hydrogen to tachyon speeds, then the ship 'rides the wave' of superlight particles. Even though the actual 'line' is invisible in the visible light spectrum, the blue shift emanations it gives out are quite significant. A problem with using Blue Line tech, is that the tachyon rays generated can and will pierce anything in their path. Twice in records have stars been destroyed by sending a Blue Line through them. The alternate use of Blue Line is available only to the Lunarus, is the Blue Dragon's Slayer, where the Blue Line is deliberately used as a weapon.

InterDimentional Gate Generator: Installed during the third upgrade, the Gate Generator lives up to its name. When using the Gate, the Lunarus MUST be on a surface, for the ship must walk forward to enter and exit the gate. The Lunarus may only Gate to places that it has been before.

Spiders and Skorpions: Spiders are the internal hands of the Lunarus. The Spiders one meter in length, with eight omnidirectional tri-jointed legs. All modifications not made at the Rokjak shipyard are carried out by the HSpiders and SSpiders. The Heavy Spiders (HSpiders) have three opposable digits at the end of each leg, and are used for gruntwork, heavy duty, and gross manipulation. The Specialist Spiders (SSpiders) carry small nanotanks, and have nanomanipulators at the end of the front four legs. Skorpions are modified HSpiders with a better sensor package and a top mounted EM laser suite. The Lunarus is equipped with thirty-two HSpiders, twelve SSpiders, and six Skorpions.

MODES:
(The modes are listed in order of flexibility of the Lunarus, from least to most)
TRAVEL: Zero flexibility. When in this mode the head/neck is straight forward an inflexible. The arms are curled up near the chest plating. Depending on which drive is being used, the legs/wings are either spread wide (Tannis Drive), or straight aft from the body (Blue Line Drive). It takes 26 seconds to change from TRAVEL to NORMAL mode.

NORMAL: Moderate flexibility. The head/neck can move, arms either used for walking (when on reasonable surface) or trailing by body. The legs/wings are used for walking (legs only) or spread for Tannis Drive. This is the only mode that allows for entry or exit. It takes 3 seconds to change from NORMAL to COMBAT mode.

COMBAT: Great flexibility. The head/neck is extremely mobile, and arms can be used for shredding armor plating of targets. This is the only mode where the body can flex for greater leverage. The legs/wings can be used to pry open targets for internal attacks, or (in heavy combat) can be used to attack enemy fighters. Tannis Drive speeds are cut in half during this mode.

A.I.:
NAME: Ragnarok
DESIGNATION: RAG v2.26
MODULES: Three identical, interdependent, ovoids located in the head, living quarters, and engineering sector of the Lunarus. RAG MOD 1 controls the logical thought processes and is located in the head/cockpit. RAG MOD 2 holds the illogical, emotional processes and is located in the living quarters. RAG MOD 3 controls ship function and is located in the engineering section.
BACKGROUND:
Ragnarok first came aware in the shipyard of Rokjak. He was built for the express purpose of controlling the Lunarus and dynasty of queens as their royal transport. It was during this time that he gained sentience as a living being, and gained what is now one of his major characteristics: he cannot *not* help a child in need. During his service in the time of the queens, the Lunarus was destroyed twice, and twice rebuilt gaining upgraded systems. After he left the service of the queens, he returned to Rokjak and had a final upgrade done, reinforcing armor and engine power. Minor self-upgrades since then have kept him while patrolling several universes.
Ragnarok prefers to have at least one female aboard at all times, but this had become an impossibility of late due to his furthering melancholy. (Remember, he worked as a transport for a dynasty of queens for only he knows how long.)
The Lunarus/Ragnarok pair is a light scout/transport ship and is well equipped for smuggling. When compared to the Amicala/Iris and Kongo/Kongo pairs that preceded Lunarus/Ragnarok, he is quite small and agile, easily able to run circles around the enormous freighter and tactical destroyer.

UGRADE LOG:
RAG PRIME v0.99 : A single module installed in the Lunarus, not to be upgraded until reaching sentience.
LUN v1.00 : The first version of the Lunarus. (This is a carbon copy of the Ragnarok from FFVIII, color scheme excepting.)
RAG PRIME v1.00 : After finally reaching sentience, Ragnarok is sent back to Rokjak for a system checkup.
LUN v1.01 through v1.35 : Minor upgrades, flexibility increased.
RAG PRIME v1.15 : Ragnarok continues to grow mentally.
LUN v2.00 : After the first destruction of the Lunarus, the rebuilt model includes a hidden Dragon's Slayer, and flexible neck.
RAG MOD 1-3 v2.00 : After the first destruction of the Lunarus, Ragnarok requests splitting up his psyche into separate but equal parts. RAG PRIME becomes RAG MOD 2, and two other copies are made, forming RAG MOD 1 & 3.
RAG MOD 1-3 v2.13 : Ragnarok's experience continues to grow.
LUN v3.09 : The second destruction of Lunarus also takes out RAG MOD 1. The rebuilt model includes a second set of wings, increased flexibility and segmentation on wings and body to facilitate greater maneuverability during combat.
RAG MOD 1-3 v2.14 : After copying RAG MOD 2 & 3 to create another RAG MOD 1, Ragnarok's perceptions shift slightly, becoming more depressed.
LUN v4.00 : After being released from service, the Lunarus returns to Rokjak for an upgrade. Increased armor plating, system upgrade, and a compliment of skorpions are added.
RAG MOD 1-3 v2.26 : Present day Ragnarok.
LUN v4.26 : Present day Lunarus.


-Dro'gan, called Niteflier-
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and go well with queso

For heavy hitters, there's only one thing that I've ever thought of using, and it's not one from any existing source.

Project LAMPLIGHTER was originally designed for one of a half-dozen Martian terraforming companies that had sprung into existence since the completion of the terraforming project in the late 2300s. The basic idea was simple - in the initial surveys of near-Earth space, plenty of worlds with potential were found orbiting red or brown dwarf stars unable to heat them enough to support life. LAMPLIGHTER used a variation on a "borrowed" Centauri gravity-drive system to literally compress the core of a dwarf star, forcing it to fuse faster and increasing the output.

After the Dilgar home star exploded, a team of Humanx researchers sifting through the well-sterilized remains of the homeworld discovered that the Dilgar had been working on a weaponized version of LAMPLIGHTER, designed to trigger a nice type-2 supernova event using a main sequence star. Needless to say, all work on LAMPLIGHTER was suspended and classified pretty deeply after the revelation came to light.

Like all good superweapons, it's deceptively simple in operation. The LAMPLIGHTER probe opens a jumpgate inside the core of a G-type star. By literally sucking the heart of the star into hyperspace, the outer layers collapse in order to fill the void. The collapse is accelerated by the second stage LAMPLIGHTER event, which uses the original gravity-shell to compress the outer core. The combination of jumpgate and shell create - in simulation, at least - a powerful runaway fusion reaction capable of wiping all life out of a solar system.

---
Mr. Fnord, Map Boy and Chief Vorlonologist
GSV _Suppressed Transmission_
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
...a hard-SF character trapped in a pulp SF world...

That sounds a lot like the use of a Blue Line to detonate a star... But maybe I should post the Lunarus specs first...

-Dro'gan, called Niteflier-
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and go well with queso

You specific implementation of the concept is not from any existing source, however I feel compelled to point out that both Star Trek and Andromeda have used the 'make star go boom' concept for weapons. Such beasties, when named, seem to be referred to as Nova Bombs (reasons obvious).

On a superweapon note, if one can be sufficiently justified, would anyone object to the inclusion of a Quantum Singularity [Generator|Bomb]?

-={(Astynax)}=-

I mean, really. Doesn't every sort of story like that have some kind of weapon or colabaration that can destroy a planet/star?

Like I said, I'm not an engineer, I'm a designer. I know what I want for something, I just don't know the specifics like someone who has actualy worked on it. This leads to a lot of questions on my part: How exactly does it do that? How can I set it up so that it does *this* but not *that*? Why does it do *that* in the first place.

For instance: That Quantum Singularity Generator/Bomb. I know little about quatum mechanics, but I know what a singularity is. How are they put together? For what purpose? What kind of system would it take to operate it?

Known MegaBooms from source materials:

Vorlon Battleships are known to slice&dice planets when they choose to.

The very first model of battle planetoid fielded by the Fourth Impirium (the Utu class) - which later became the Fourth Empire, which was mostly destroyed, and the fragments (including the entire fleet of ~100,000 late-generation battle planetoids) absorbed by the then-newly-returned Vorlon - was -literally- the size of the Moon, and was quoted in source as being able to vaporize Earth. Their primary shipkiller weapons were missiles (if 'missile' is really the proper term for a weapon big enough to included its own two-shot hyper generator) with either antimatter (yield in gigatons, presumably "Many") or 'gravatic' warheads - graviatics described as limited, short-lived black holes. One gravatic warhead from a full-sized 'ship' mounted launcher was enough to destroy a starship -considerably- larger than a Taiidani F-class starcruiser (aka, the Eclipse class star destroyer from Dark Empire), and a number of warheads in the low double digits was enough to destroy Saturn's moon Iapetus -completely-.

Likewise, the Fourth Empire's DNA plague existed. No one except the Vorlon know how it worked, but what can be done once can be done twice.

The Death Stars will exist. The second one may be finished.

The Solenoid and Paranoid existed, as did DAMIA and the various planet destroyers.

None of the Galactics in Tenchi Muyo were much surprised at Souja's firepower, so such things are presumably not unknown to the Jurai and their Ahb daughter culture.

The Bonehead Manuver does indeed work as shown in B5.

And of course the Acchultani -really- -like- dinosaur killers. These are cheap and can be put together by just about anybody.

HOWEVER - saying that planetkilling is dissaproved of by galactic society is like saying the sun is warm.

Imagine that a modern nation were to deploy weapons of mass destruction on civilian targets with no provocation or warning.

Take the reaction of the international community and cube it.

THAT's how the Spiral feels about planetkillers.

The Council wouldn't even need to take action - the attacking society's neighbors would attack as soon as they got the word.

The preservation of planetary environments (and, by extension, all civilian habitats) from large scale direct attack by capital scale weapons is locked into the Spiral's collective culture so hard that only the most insane and most desperate even consider it. Action by small craft - fighters, pinnaces, etc. - or ground troops is not restricted. Ortillery against -specific- military targets is permitted (if frowned on), but only on a tactical level.

The way atmospheres fuxxor with targeting means that orbiting fleets have to be -very- careful of their shooting... megatanks are under no such restrictions, and exist mostly to make actual -invasions- a costly, time-consuming pain in the ass.

Blessed be.
-n

I forget if we're including The Shadow from B5, but they had their own Planetkillers.

And as I recall, the Vorlon planetkiller vessels were considerably larger than the rest of the Vorlon ships, more a superdreadnought than a battleship.

The Tar-Aiym also made use of moon/planet sized vessels, and their enemies teh Hur'rikku had invented an anti-collapsar weapon (why they created one I'm don't know)

For those who're wondering, a collapsar is the grand-daddy of all black holes. A black hole is a collapsed star, a collapsar is a collapsed _galaxy_.

The Shadows are indeed present, if a little confabulated with the Straumli Perversion from Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep.

What the Tar-Aiym may or may not have had really isn't relevant - those aspects of their megatech that we've seen have always struck me as being just to much to swallow without preperation and buildup and backing - things which the arguably even larger Empire from the Ashes books provide, but Foster doesn't.

Or, put another way: The Fourth Imperium is the stuff of space opera fit to beggar anything else ever put in print.

The Humanx Commonwealth, well, isn't, and I just can't buy the Tar-Aiym operating on a comperable scale to the Imperium.

Collapsar - collapsed star
Collaxar - collapsed -galaxy-

And no, those at least aren't out there. Just too over the top.

Anyway, the Tar-Aiym were under the Darkvoid when it formed, so there's really nothing left of them.

Blessed be.
-n

>Collapsar - collapsed star
>Collaxar - collapsed -galaxy-

*shrugs* I was working from what I could remember from the book. I remember it being described as a collapsed galaxy. Whether or not my memory is acurate is a separate matter. 8P

>Anyway, the Tar-Aiym were under the Darkvoid when it >formed, so there's really nothing left of them.

Well, the Krang is still out there, but I take your meaning. No major tar-aiym relics have survived the centuries except the aforementioned Krang.

"... once you pull the pin out of Mister Hand Grenade then he is no longer your friend." - Mousse (A Very Scary Thought)

Depending who you ask or how you judge, an Apsalus is either a small, powerful gunboat or an orbit-capable arial battlewagon. The series never got beyond the prototype stage, and every one was different, but in general they could be described as an antigravity drive wrapped aroung a -large- Minovski power core and sheathed in heavy armor, with a -big- -fucking- megaparticle -cannon- on the front and various control vanes sticking out.

In comparison with capital ships they are extremely fragile, but reasonably well armed and quite agile. On the other hand, their mission was intended as supression of infantry, ground armor, and fixed emplacements, so their excellent size-firepower ratio, accuraccy, and rate-of-fire are probably more relevant to the discussion.

Blessed be.
-n