Morpheus

Line: Morpheus
Manufacturer: Lyaeda Systems (hull, drive units) & Asomat Drive Yards (offensive and defensive systems)
Size Class: Dreadnought (4.9km Length, 10^14 kg / 10^25 Watts)
Role: Guardian (Defensive Dreadnought)
Crew: 3 Minimum, 44 Optimum.
Acceleration: 1G Miliary, 3G Overloaded
Deployable Assets: N/A
Offensive Assets: Advanced Adaptive Missile array, QTP Shield Array
Defensive Assets: Capital class Photo-Silver Armour, Ferrene mono-crystal superstructure, QTP Shield Array (4 Primary, 4 secondary, 34 tertiary)

 

I really enjoyed making this model and overall it took less time than similar models of it’s complexity. I feel like there is now a strong design language around this (Lyeada Systems) manufacturer. For now, some of the lesser known manufacturers are going to take up the limelight and some more work on some of the main structures within this universe will start to take the for front.

System Crash

A Star-System Crash is often the first sign of attack.

 

System jamming scrambles all high bandwidth FTL communication, navigation and civilian rated, FTL based molecular-circuitry, within a region between 1 and 13 light hours (9 to 100 astronomical units) in radius. Paradoxically, due to the nature of high-bandwidth FTL technology, a system crash can manifest within the region several hours before and after the activation and deactivation of the device. In some rare cases, the effects of a system crash may occur without the presence of a jamming ship in regions with merely a high probably of impending military engagement.

 

As old as FTL communication technology itself, and often stated as one of the main reasons why military craft are piloted by one or more personalities, system jamming is the most frequent terrorist activity within both Arkaedos and Kacylis empires.

 

Strategically, a single ship equipped with an active system jammer ship can disable civilian interstellar traffic and effectively information blockade a star system for a limited period of time. However, due to the intense energy requirements of system jammers, units consisting of two jamming craft often take turns providing jamming coverage during an engagement.

 

Shinobi is the first in a new classification of electronic warfare platforms. Force Recon Vessels are larger, more heavily armed and armoured and deploy significantly more electronic warfare than vessels typically build around system jammers. Some theorise that the ECM deployed on Shinobi may even be powerful enough to overcome newer generations Kacylis Smartdust. However, a direct an engagement between the two technologies has yet to have been observed.

Heartbeat

“You’ll be wet-wired with 27 implants whilst genetic re-sequencing changes the colour of your blood.
Your bones will no longer break under G’s, your flesh will no longer boil in vacuum and your minds will no longer suck in combat. Your personalities will combine with your ship, you will become a machine of war, a Starfighter. And in those moments, those heartbeats in which a world of ocean could be boiled or the entire course of humanity irrevocably altered by the most mundane of your assets; I will teach you how not to lose your shit.

And yes, we will fold the fabric of the universe, breathe the atmosphere of suns and use the echo’s from possible futures to experience a reality so vast that your experiences of everything up until now will be like that of an unborn child.

But understand this, our enemy is formidable, they are intelligent, experienced, highly motivated and have been watching us for a very long time.

I am Topley and I will be your instructor. In a Strike Squadron you will need to know many things, but above all, you will learn one thing so well that in the darkest crevices in your mind, a purpose etched with the clarity of a diamond can chime like a bell, delivering you from a certain, meaningless death.

 

That purpose is Chaos; You are the harbingers of Chaos. Deliver this onto the enemy and you will control. Repeat! Chaos is their confusion and my control.”

The room jarred as the recruits barked back the phase to the instructor.

“That was your introduction, I will see you again in several days, until then, dismissed.”

Blood Fire and Smart Dust

Blood, Fire and Smartdust

Smartdust or Smatter is the general term used to describe military-grade, programmable matter that functions at the nano, pico and femto scales.

 

Smartdust is typically deployed during the beginning of a combat engagement as screens of highly versatile dust. These screens act as defensive particle shields; ablating, reflecting or deflecting enemy fire. Offensively, by generating disassembly fields and and zones of high static charge potential. Or logistically, by converting nearby matter into zones that retrofit and repair friendly vessels, or as local computational networks.

 

The latest version of Smartdust incorporate concepts and technologies directly from the ‘Dust Shaper. Some of these include high-bandwidth, FTL communication; which enables vastly improved computation power. Follotic Link technology, which provides the ability to induce local phase transitions in the very fabric of space-time, greatly increasing offensive capabilities.

 

Featured here is the new ‘Lor’ Class Supercarrier, upgraded with the Smartdust compatible, F-Link arrays.

Shinobi

This design was really an eye opener for me. Technically, each new model tends to be the hardest yet and this was doubly true in this case. Quite frequently, concepts on paper or directly from the mind don’t always translate into screen as you’d expect. It took a long time to get this concept up to the point where I felt there was something special about it.

 

Eos

Eos was the first modernisation of colours, textures and themes across the races. It felt like, Kacylis was naturally an orange, or sand coloured faction with ships that had materials ranging between copper and gold, down to ICE and Ceramic.

 

Arkaedian ships on the other hand either had dark blue painted hulls, or a tarnished chrome like material with blue and purple highlights.

 

So team Red vs team Blue? Well, yes, kinda. It’s a simplification that may help people get into the universe without having to understand which 3 of the 6 manufactures work for who.