Stats:

Classification: Multi-role Light Corvette, primarily used as a leisure vehicle.

Width: 202 meters, 663 feet

Height: 33 meters, 107 feet

Length: 169 meters, 554 feet

Decks: 4

Crew: 6-8

Mission Range: 1-5 years, up to 10 if necessary

Potential Mission Parameters: Exploration, Science, Diplomacy, Capital Ship Escort, Military Combat Support, Precision Target Elimination, Assassination, Piracy, Smuggling

Power:

Power: Power Core

The Tempest uses a process called Accelerated Energy for a universal ship wide power source.

Inside the power core are 64 tubes in which, matter (hydrogen) and antimatter (anti-hydrogen) are trapped within powerful independent retaining magnetic fields.

The 2 magnetic fields are compressed against each other and when the probability clouds of the electrons and positrons overlap through the magnetic fields, annihilation begins.

However, since only the Electrons and Positrons in the atoms are able to interact there is a minor delay in the catalyst of the annihilation. At that moment 3 things happen simultaneously.

#1 Energy is produced.

Though the annihilation hasn't begun to take place it still begins releasing energy in anticipation. This is one of the remarkably weird quantum phenomenon where effect precedes cause.

#2 The reaction is observed.

One of the most predictable aspects of quantum mechanics is that upon observation the probability cloud of an electron will collapse into a localized point.

For the purposes of the Power Core this is timed to perfectly interrupt the annihilation catalyst. When the power spike of the precluding annihilation is detected, the area of its source is measured. This will collapse the probability cloud of the electrons and positrons. Since those particles are part of (hydrogen) atoms that cannot pass outside of the magnetic fields, the placement of the electrons and positrons will always resolve within its proper magnetic field and too far away for annihilation to take place.

#3 Annihilation is interrupted

Since the respective particles are too far away to react, the process is interrupted. Which leaves all atoms whole and complete with their attending particles. While this means energy was produced without using up any fuel, there is a reaction within the chamber causing the magnetic fields to reject one another and be forced apart within the tube.

Due to the way the reactor is formed, as the fields force themself apart they simultaneously force the magnetic fields inside the neighboring tubes close together. This creates a self maintaining piston effect.

That piston effect will accelerate exponentially and most of the power being siphoned from it is actually used as containment. Less than 1% of the power generated is actually being used by the ship with the rest being devoted entirely to containment.

This is of course, not sustainable. Even though the ship will never need to refuel, its power core has a limited life span. The most efficient power cores of this type have a lifespan of around 30 years.

The death of the power core is violent. The resulting detonation of a 30 year old Power Core would end life on earth if it were to happen there. This is why the core swap happens in deep space, where the reaction cannot affect local inhabited space.

As a final thought...

You may ask, according to science, energy cannot be created, only transformed. So if we didn't transform anything into energy, where did we get it? The short answer is that we stole it. It's stolen from the Higgs field.

It's difficult to explain how, without getting mathy. But in short, the Higgs field provides the necessary upfront energy required for the annihilation catalyst. The power core takes that energy and uses it without allowing the annihilation to actually take place.

These power cores have on a rare occasion spontaneously exploded. Such an incident becomes far more likely as the core ages. Since monitoring the process would interfere with its operation it is impossible to know exactly why the cores can go critical early in their lives. The best theory so far is that gravitational waves interfered with the timing of the reaction which would have possibly allowed a full hydrogen atom to actually annihilate. If this were to occur it would breach containment and the resulting cascade would cause the core to detonate.

Because of this risk it is common to swap power cores after only 10 years. This is a situation where the benefits outweigh the risks involved. Having unlimited fuel and power at a relatively cheap cost is a requirement for making star jumps.

Power: The Hull

The power core generates a tremendous amount of power. Far more than the ship will ever use. The hull is made of a metallic crystalline lattice that is moderately resilient. Its chief purpose is to hold and bleed power from the ship. The hull has 2 main functions beyond serving as the ship's outer skin.

#1 The hull radiates excess power

This is similar to the way a heat sink radiates excess heat. This creates a slight visual glow around the hull and as well as a strikingly brilliant radio emission signature.

#2 The hull stores power.

Similar to a capacitor the hull will store power so it can be used by the ship in controlled amounts.

There are 3 layers of the hull with the outer hull sharing energy freely and the innermost layer holding more. Transformers stage power between each layer.

Another purpose of the transfer is to add an increasingly negative charge to the power running through the hull. The negative charge is important for multiple reasons.

Firstly, since solar wind is positively charged, having the power bleed from the ship with a negative charge is far more efficient.

Secondly, objects and debris bathed in the solar wind also retain a positive charge. As those positive charge saturated objects get close to the ship, energy will lance out at the speed of light and complete a connection, like a bolt of lightning, vaporizing the object in the process. This is how the ship protects from space debris while outside of a warp field such as during local maneuvering. The standard non-solid static warp field that envelopes the ship increases the positive charge of anything passing through it further.

This second effect also functions in the same manner with physical ordnance such as bullets, plasma projectiles and missiles. It should be noted that the hull is far less effective at neutralizing weaponry than space debris. This also effectively prevents boarding craft from latching on without taking significant damage, but things like torpedoes will be prematurely detonated and loose plasma will be blasted apart.

Along the same vein in terms of defensive capabilities, the hull is also capable of absorbing incoming energy based attacks such as lasers. The lattice structure and principles of absorption that make up the hull allows for energy attacks to be refracted partially and the remainder absorbed. That same energy is then bled into space or used to retaliate against incoming physical objects. This significantly reduces the strength of enemy energy attacks.

There is occasionally a need to suspend the hull’s bleed and its charge functions for maintenance and repair, this can be done easily but only for a few hours. This drawback typically means that hull repairs will strongly be preferred to take place at a space dock or planet side where the ship can be grounded and a constant drain can keep the hull from charging. The ship normally sports an unusually high radio signature that can jam less sophisticated sensor systems. On occasions the ship can use the suspend function for stealth.

It is possible to overload the ship's hull with a continuous heavy barrage of energy attacks. Concussive attacks may also cause the hull to crack. Cracks in the lattice of the hull significantly reduce the effectiveness of the hull's energy bleed capabilities.

Sensors:

The hull primarily radiates or bleeds its energy away in the form of two different particles. Borons and Lincets. These particles are used by the ship for sensors, In addition to standard optical sensors and localized effects such as radar.

Sensors: Borons

Borons are large fat particles that move slowly as they leave the ship. Slow in this instance meaning 95% the speed of light or .95C. Borons have the unique property of being able to absorb the “image” of the chemical makeup of whatever it encounters and transfer that to the Lincet. The Boron will not penetrate a ship's hull but it will provide a detailed analysis of the makeup of the enemy hull or other stellar body.

Sensors: Lincets

Lincets are incredibly fast moving wimps. They have tachyokinetic properties causing them to travel faster than the speed of light. They interact with Borons by copying their “image” as they bounce off and return to the ship where detectors Identify and interpret the information. Lincets will bounce back and forth between the ship and the Borons that are continuously radiating from the ship.

Lincets, as wimps do not interact strongly with matter and as a result they are capable of passing through objects in space. This combined with the Boron allows for exacting identification of the position and hull composition. Lincets will occasionally pickup properties of matter it passes through but not reliably, so the Lincets passing through a ship will show a faint internal layout of it.

This even allows for seeing cloaked ships and black holes as the Boron would vanish identifying the borders of a void. Energy shields would show up as a void as well.

In summary, the longer the ship sits in local space, the more time it has to saturate that space with Lincets and Borons, increasing its detection radius at roughly the speed of light each second.

Propulsion:

Propulsion: RCS engines

There are 8 high powered RCS engines along the edge of each wing. They are each capable of independent vector angles of 180 degrees ventral to dorsal. There are 4 additional RCS engines on the belly of the ship that are almost exclusively used to help support the weight of the ship while under the effects of a gravity field such as being in a planet's atmosphere. At these times the 8 wing mounted RCS engines will all vector downward to support the ships vertical descent and lift off.

The placement, power and utility of the vectored thrust RCS engines allows the ship to be incredibly nimble despite its size. It can rotate in any direction instantly, bringing its massive aerospike engine to bear to change direction. Unlike traditional RCS, these are designed for frequent extended burn times at high output.

Propulsion: Aerospike

Fixed to the back of the central body is a massive Aerospike engine. It has tremendous power and its 2 apertures each have independent variable thrust. When the Aerospike is combined with the rear mounted RCS the ship has serious acceleration and the variable thrust when combined with the RCS engines allows for pitch rotation to extreme degrees.

Propulsion: Warp Drive

The Tempest has a single powerful warp drive centered in the ship. It has many functions, not the least of which is low FTL flight. By shaping space around the warp bubble the ship has the capability of traveling speeds between .1C and 300C. This is primarily used to navigate distances within a planetary system. It would not be effective for interstellar travel.

But the warp drive has additional properties. For example, power is shunted through specific conduits in the walls, floor and ceiling causing it to generate many separate localized fields of space around and inside the ship. These fields function both as an inertial dampeners, as well as providing artificial gravity by generating mass shadows. Such fields can independently control the amount of gravity they use.

It also has the effect of lowering the overall mass to roughly 30% of its actual value. This tremendously aids acceleration and rotation. It is important to remember that warp fields cannot be used while planet-side as the atmosphere is far too dense for the space to be manipulated properly.

Propulsion: Star Drive

The Tempest has 2 additional, smaller warp reactors located in the center of each wing. The Star Drive is sometimes referred to as “Trianary Warp” or “Tri-Warp” as it requires the interaction of all 3 warp engines for a ship to make a star jump. The process happens in several steps and the ship cannot be under thrust while initiating the Star Drive. This star Drive is unique to ships of the templar.

#1 The primary warp reactor generates a massive warp field, one far larger than it normally would, several times the size of the Tempest itself.

#2 The secondary warp reactors generate warp fields that overlap the central body but do not fully encompass the ship, and lock into jump regulators positioned along the inner edge of the opposing wing. The 2 fields are then hardened in a way to make them diametrically opposed to the larger primary bubble. Jump Regulators are power strips that line the inner wings and will effectively ‘grip’ the warp field from the opposite wing.

#3 The primary warp bubble is spun round the ship's X axis. The speed of the spin is accelerated tremendously until the bubble begins to deform, flattening out. As it flattens out it will eventually become so flat it will encounter and impact the smaller secondary warp fields.

#4 Because the warp fields oppose one another they will never touch, not for any reason. As more power is put into the rotation, the primary warp bubble will begin to stretch and eventually it will donut. The ship is locked securely within the 2 smaller warp fields and as the primary warp field donuts it creates a wormhole that bridges the points in front of and behind the ship. Causing space to jump right through the ship.

#5 Lastly the ship locks onto the distant gravity well of a destination star and the wormhole is extruded and wrapped around the warp bubble by rolling the warp bubble into itself. The result, creates the mouth to the wormhole at a point near the outskirts of the strongest area of mass around the target star. Nature does the rest and corrects the hole in space by moving the warp field to the mouth of the wormhole and the ship tags along for the ride.

The entire process takes between 5 and 8 minutes to initialize depending on the distance to the target star. The actual jump itself can take minutes or days, determined by the distance.

It should be said that long jumps are highly discouraged as gravity wells from stars you pass near may interfere. It’s better and safer to string multiple small jumps together.

Propulsion: Fuel

The ship does have an onboard fusion reactor. However, its purpose isn't to generate power; it does so, but at a loss. Its purpose is to generate Metallic Deuterium from raw hydrogen trapped within the ships bussard collectors. The Metallic Deuterium fuel is used by the Aerospike and RCS engines as well as the various Hanger Craft onboard. The fusion reactor is also capable of generating the Po205 used by the Mag-Rails.

Weapons:

The Tempest has a multitude of mounted weapons, some of which sit on one of its 4 Turret platforms.

Weapons: Turret Platforms

Above and below each wing is a turret platform. They have a full 360 degree hemispherical firing arc either above or below the wing respectively. Each weapon on the platform is fixed but does have limited adjustment for precise targeting. Each has a different purpose and are rarely fired together. The following are weapons mounted on the platforms.

#Hyper Ion Pulse Beam x 1

In the center of the Turret platform is a gause style particle cannon that fires hyper accelerated charged particles of energy. They can do substantial damage to energy based shields and upon impact with a solid object such as hull, it generates a localized EM field at the point of impact that radiates out like an EMP disrupting systems and subsystems near the point of impact. The blue ion bolts are travel extremely fast with high accuracy and will fire about once every 2.75 seconds

#Heavy Plasma Cannon x2

Flanking the Hyper Ion Pulse Beam are two large cannons that fire bolts of plasma the size of a city bus and do serious damage to bare hull. Slow rate of fire at about 1 shot every 4 seconds but fast travel time.The two cannons alternate firing increasing the rate of fire.

Weapons: Mag-Rails x4

Mag-Rails are the Tempest’s most deadly weapon. Coiled inside the hull between decks 3 and 4 are 4 tubes that are each 15 miles long and designed to magnetically accelerate a specialized slug to high speed similar to a Rail Gun. There are several differences that make this far more deadly. For one, the shell of its ammunition is an antimatter composite of Po-205 better known as Polonium. It’s naturally an extremely radioactive substance with a halflife of over a century and being antimatter doesn’t change that. It’s also hollow and designed much like a hollow point bullet so when it makes contact it explodes outwards in a cone as it passes into the enemy hull. Each slug is slightly smaller than a golf ball and travels at extreme relativistic speed.

This is part of the genius to the weapon. The coiled firing tubes accelerate the slug to 99.9^26% the speed of light. As the slug is being accelerated it is also being encapsulated within a tiny warp field of its own. The shot is fired so fast that the tactical officer won’t have time to release the firing button before the weapon makes impact.

As the slug impacts enemy shields it’s warp field is shed. This allows it to punch right through shields, ignoring them completely. Upon impact with the hull disaster strikes. The slug will explosively rip through bulkhead after bulkhead deep into a ship using matter-antimatter annihilation for those explosions and the radiation emitted from the anti-Polonium causes that annihilation to cascade compounding the devastation. A single slug can often punch completely through a small or lightly armored ship, and it’s usually better for that ship considering the secondary effects the slug can have on the enemy ship if it is stopped completely inside of it. Magrails can each be fired independently and have a refire rate of once every 45 seconds.

Weapons: Plasmoid Launchers x2

Plasmoid Launchers fire off a glob of gel about the size of a car. Slow rate of fire, decent projectile speed, better to be closer when shooting it. The gel is actually a container, when it impacts the shields of an enemy target most of the gel is spread across its surface. Inside the gel are countless nanobots whose sole purpose is to convert energy into more nanobots. They have very short lives and need energy to survive so what doesn't hit the shield will use up energy stored in the gel quickly and become inert as they die. But, the nanobots on the shield are converting the shield energy directly into production of more nanobots. They produce a powerful EM field and as they spread across the whole surface area of a ships shields they render vision and sensors useless, effectively blinding the target in addition to weakening them. The bots will continue to feed and multiply until the targets shields drop. Whether intentional or because there isn't enough power left to keep them up. The nanobots can’t eat hull (as a security function to prevent things from going out of control) and will die after 30-60 seconds after the shields drop. 30-60 seconds without shields is an eternity in a fight.

Hanger Craft

The ship typically has 3 main types of hanger craft, though individuals that privately own a Tempest will sometimes change the standard loadout. The Hanger craft are not used during ship to ship combat.

Hanger Craft: Iroquois Shuttle

The Iroquois shuttle is a sturdy, well armored but unarmed, transport capable of carrying twice it’s own weight. It’s well known in the Templar for its reliability and endurance in rigorous conditions. It can house 12 occupants plus pilot and copilot and nearly 20 tons of storage, this is in addition to being able to lift and transport one of the Tempest rovers from 4 mounting nodes on the belly and it’s fully capable of transitioning into and out of an atmosphere smoothly under its own power while fully laden. It can also fly nearly 25 thousand miles fully laden within an atmosphere before requiring refueling. There are several types of attachments for the mounting nodes to allow it to carry additional cargo when not acting as a ferry for the rover. In the event of a catastrophic emergency with the Tempest, the Iroquois can even function as a sublight tug vessel accelerating itself and the Tempest to a potential velocity of .2C provided it has sufficient fuel.

Hanger Craft: Phoenix, Multi-Roll Attack Craft x2

The Tempest also comes equipped with 2 Phoenix Multi-Role attack craft. Fast and maneuverable the Phoenix is a 2 man fighter designed for variable armaments depending on the situation and it can be kitted to resemble a scout, fighter or a bomber as needed. It can transition into and out of an atmosphere under its own power and can function in the atmosphere almost as effectively as it can in space. Configured as a scout with sensor equipment and a small warp field generator it is capable of achieving 10.2C-220.6C FTL speeds for up to twelve minutes at a time with a total flight range of around 14 hours. As a fighter or bomber it can reach speeds around .4C and has a mission range of at most 8 hours.

Hanger Craft: MZ801 Surface Rover

The ‘Dreaded’ Rover, as it is sometimes called, is well known by the Templar and universally disliked, but it still finds use because it does what other rovers can’t. It’s the size of a city bus, can carry 22 passengers plus a single driver and up to 40 tons of weight. The rover has independent life support that can last for weeks and has an armored shell that can take hits from tanks. It’s 8 titanium wheels have independent suspension and a feature that lets them extend the wheels vertically so that the rover can climb over awkward shaped objects or up steep surfaces. The wheels also have spikes that can extend a variable distance allowing the wheel to dig in for better traction. Unfortunately the way the suspension is designed, the movement of the rover is always bouncy and uncomfortable. Couple that with how the metal seats and low overhead height and you can understand why everyone hates em.