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[Madman198237]

The Chord already has bays for this

It does?

[TricMagic]

I would expect a spaceship meant to travel would have a place or two for cargo bays. For loading and unloading, as well as entry points. It's certainly big enough. And loading stuff by hand on the planet would be a bit... Weird.

You do say it's fairly bigger than it needs to be, so.. It being able to carry and deploy fighters makes some sense. Same with any cargo.

Beyond that, just call it a liberty. Nowhere does it say it doesn't. Just makes sense that for loading, entry points for vehicles to unload cargo would exist.

[Madman198237]

Cargo bays, yeah. Something suitable for fighter deployment, probably not. They wouldn't be easily accessible from the outside, most likely, they're likely smaller than a fighter, and they weren't specified in the design so it's not going to be a cakewalk to add them....AND if that ship has such cargo bays, they're NECESSARY to carry supplies for the crew.

[flabort]

This lore builds upon the lore established by ChiefWaffles.

His workspace was dark, lit only by dim computer monitors and blinking lights from the racks of computer servers set behind him. "Commander in Chief" Rodney Wilkins was poised to take over the city with one press of a button - except someone had beaten him to it. His intricate web of viruses and counter-viruses and counter-counter-viruses had been deftly smashed as someone else ran commands directly through the underlying Network that was so ubiquitous throughout the city, nay, the whole damn continent, and completely circumvented all the control he had worked so hard to gather, wiped out all the subliminal messages he had so carefully seeded throughout the online world that the residents of the city basically lived in. And he cursed at the hack job they did of it.

"Damn that 'Green Iron Group!'," he spat, hating every fiber of the organization with his whole self. "Nelly's lackeys have really made a mess of my city. Don't they know about the sentinel programs? Damnit!"

Of all the governments claiming to be the official one, Rodney believed his organization the Red Hats to be the one with the most working knowledge of the Network. The fact that he hadn't gotten down to the core layers of technology upon which everything in this city was built yet was due to the shear number of things that could go wrong with messing with the Network. As he watched his screens, he saw antiviral programs waking up from hibernation, forgotten servers in dusty corners of Network Knows Where whirring back to life and quickly reacting to the clumsy text commands being fed experimentally into the Network, and all of this code being set out to quickly dismantle anything it saw as "tampering", which included most of the viruses he had spread with the help of his Red Hats.

It probably wasn't even the Green Iron Group, he mused. He just hated his rival with a passion, especially since she thought she was better than everyone in her tall tower. Relatively tall tower. Squalid heap, if compared to the Government building. The Red Hats had an apartment building all to themselves, but it was still cramped and infested with some bug. He couldn't be bothered to recall what they were, probably something as old as the Founders. Roa... something. It didn't matter, just like it didn't matter who had woken the Network sentinels up. He desperately struggled to fight the Network's autonomous functions to wrestle control back into his favor, but with each passing cycle another infected piece of technology was cleansed, and another citizen would notice a marked improvement in the clarity of their comm, or their smart fridge would quiet down a bit, and the quiet whispers convincing them to vote Red Hat would get just a little quieter.


A new poll was posted on the Citizen Decision Board. This handy little app let the citizens of the city decide which of the self proclaimed leaders they wanted to support, in a sort of somewhat democratic way. It was supposed that other cities had similar apps, or had some sort of other way of hearing the voice of the people. At least those who cared enough to weigh in, and who's devices weren't secretly under the control of one hacker or another. The agenda for this vote was execution of a public political figure, one Rodney Wilkins. The outcome would most certainly be "nae", as few people had the stomach to vote "yea" on executions, but there was an article linked detailing Rodney's crimes, including having several of his rivals assassinated, and being behind yet another outbreak of viruses over the local internet.

The CDB was, as with everything, connected to the Network, too. Indirectly, in this case, but still built upon it's powerful communication protocols and virus prevention systems. It still wasn't perfect - in fact, there was a virus going to work inside it right now, changing votes as they were submitted. And even if a vote swung one way or the other, quite often the elected officials in Government did nothing about it, as they were in the payroll of shadow governments or hacker groups siphoning money from elsewhere, and really, who was in charge at any given moment was always in question.

As it turned out, the poll really did turn out to be "nae", with the vast majority (supposedly) voting not to execute the hacker/politician. Near the Red Hat complex, across the street in a high window, a shadowed figure glanced at his comm and saw the results. He grunted with approval, and went about the task of taking apart his sniper's nest. By the time he was done an hour later, twelve other polls, mostly on trivial subjects, had already been voted on and their subjects either enacted - such as in the case of the school for 5-to-12 Year Olds known as Parks School having pizza for lunch - or rejected - such as in the case of four students from the same school to man the first spaceship sent to another planet thus being able to skip school. Those students were quite promising, actually. If they had managed to insert a poll into the CDB through the Network at such a young age, they would probably be very promising politicians when they got older.

And in other cities, many other events played themselves out.


The engineers were scratching their heads. Of course the designers and influencers of this new spacecraft weren't known. Honestly, if a blueprint made it into the engineering quarter untouched by hackers and technocrats, it was a goddamn miracle. But usually they were more secure against being hacked or copied than this, and someone had scaled something wrong, or overwritten some important piece before it got to the people who were supposed to actually build the thing. Even the interns who were always overeager to get started were at a loss as to which part they were supposed to put inside the other part. But such was life. If you didn't have the know-how to get something decided, or something done, someone else would. And eventually someone in the shipyard hit up the idea that the blueprints were really encrypted.

It took weeks for them to crack the encryption. In the meantime, the ship forming in the dock was... misshapen. Haphazard. Ugly as a Technocrat's Unwashed Backside. Butts. But once the code was broken, the pieces fell into place on their screen. That wasn't a radiator, it was a weapon. This wasn't part of the OKSPD, it was part of the radar. That Evrasium storage bay wasn't supposed to be in the fore, it was an aft bay, and the true specs revealed it held a lot more than just Evrasium. Quickly the distorted ship was torn down and put back together, turning from a monument for stupidity to a sleek, stealthy weapon of pure maneuverability. A military ship.

Which government from which city had sent the design was still uncertain. Even cracking the code hadn't shed any light on that. But the engineers figured, if they had built it, a crew would come. Soon more encrypted messages came through the Network, from several cities, followed soon by armored mercenaries, assassins, and vigilantes, gathered together by the promise of money and portions of Network - though, if their sponsor(s?) could really follow up on those promises was still uncertain. But it was as close as the engineers had seen to a proper military like the sparse remnant data left by the Founders hinted at, and very impressive. Some of the engineers and their interns even found themselves coerced through blackmail and bribes into joining the crew, to maintain what they had built.


Rodney cast about his workspace once again. Over the past months he had worked hard to rebuild what he had lost. He had no clue how close he had come weeks ago to being shot in the head - the poll to end his life had mysteriously never reached his computer. Only a few Red Hats even knew of the poll, and they were holding that information as leverage against their Chief to vie for his position.

"Where was my...?", he muttered, wearily.

He was monitoring a drone program he had fed into the Network, his first real excursion into the lowest layers of it. Thus far he had discovered eighteen factions trying to wrest control of his city that were physically located in his city already that he hadn't even known about before, which almost doubled the count of factions that he was already competing against. And that wasn't counting the factions that he was pretty sure were trying to control several cities at once.

"It had to be in that channel."

One thing he was certain of these days, was that his once biggest rival Nelly wasn't even the biggest threat to his tenuous position. Oh, sure, locally she was still his most hated foe, and they butted heads, or viruses, on policies all the time. He wanted more armed presence in the city, and she wanted weapons destroyed. He spread influence subtly through quiet whispers and visual cues, while she
put her face on every electronic billboard she could. He wanted to raise taxes, she wanted to lower them. Not that taxes were really a thing that mattered - practically every political group was exploiting blockchains and banking rounding errors and vulnerabilities to steal money from the citizens without ever being detected, and nobody was putting a stop to it. Really, taxes would only affect the hackers bank accounts. His rivals.

"Don't tell me it got detected already"

His biggest discovery thus far was actually a movement of armed individuals who had been receiving encrypted messages and were relocating somewhere. A few of them had been under his employ, and had broken contract with him. His probe was trying to trace where these messages were coming from, and somewhere deep in the Network he had lost track of it.

"Damn it all, I've lost another one!"

Probes were actually quite simple programs, but the thing about them was that they took time to program, and while they reported back to their host computer every so often, they weren't actually hosted on the host computer as they moved from machine to machine. Like a virus, eventually they would get deleted by some antiviral agent or a counter-virus. And each probe needed to be unique enough not to trip the Network Sentinel programs.

"Start from scratch again. Take a break. Have a bath?"

Rodney looked away from his monitor as he broke his concentration. His tired mind went over his options for his next action, and he noticed just how poorly he was starting to smell. As the public leader of the Red Hats, he knew he had to keep up an appearance. Just because most of his work went unseen from the public eye didn't mean he didn't need them to know about him. Eventually he decided that a bath would be the most productive use of his time, for now.

"And maybe it's not lost. Might just be -"

A bullet struck him between the eyes as another poll closed. Somewhere, another Red Hat celebrated his automatic promotion to Commander in Chief of their faction, and secretly commended himself for engineering the assassin. Another sun set on the offices that composed the many sub-governments and Governments of the Planetary Technate, and another bank account was manipulated to dump it's funds into someone else's. The world went around, and somewhere someone was plotting something big.

[m1895]

ITC modernization program

the ITC modernization project aims to replace the ITC's venerable chemical engines with the more powerful and reliable OKSPD(hopefully increasing storage space in the process) err, reports indicate the OKSPD has already been installed, we'll try to squeeze an extra TC out of it. aside from that, we also intend to spend time fixing various design flaws in the hull, hardware, and software, as well as adding a single Oculus for point defense purposes. finally, we will develop a heavy-duty shuttle, capable of carrying light tank sized objects at least.


Edit: added PD laser, and for the record, a cargocraft /fighter doesn't make sense as a fighter needs to be small and maneuverable to be effective and a  cargocraft needs to be big and bulky to carry whatever we make.

[TricMagic]

That still doesn't give it a single weapon as far as I am aware? A Fighter/Transport Craft makes more sense, since we have a spaceship. Especially if it can fit in a cargo bay.

[Wozzy]

ITC Modernization Project: (1) Wozzy

[Shadowclaw777]

ITC Modernization Project: (2) Wozzy, SC777

[flabort]

Cargo Fleet Project
This project aims to make the ITC useful. Like other competing projects, it replaces the outdated chemical engines with an OKSPD setup, with a power main engine cluster and only one smaller one in a ball-turret-like structure inside the ship for maneuvering. While this does require Evrasium for fuel, it is a hell of a lot less massive and bulky than liquid fuels. The reduced weight and thrust requirements paired with it's increased thrust mean that the new and improved ITCs are capable of lift off from the ground, and no longer need to be supplied by smaller shuttles.

It's armoring has been mildly improved to deal with liftoff and reentry, and it's bay doors have been expanded to fit larger objects now that it's not limited by how large a shuttle is. Rearranging the crew area and generally improving it's comfort for it's occupants is a lower priority, but was on the list of improvements to be made to the design, right next to including Command Radios in the ITCs so that the ship may be in contact with trade centers planetside, or fleet members in convoys. It also includes two hardpoints which can be optionally armed, with ample view behind the ship and good reach of ships trying to hit it's broadside, to defend against space pirates or enemy raiders in risky areas, but the weapons can be left off in safe space.

Efforts have been made (by the various groups influencing this project) to keep costs for these improvements as low as possible. The design has additionally been privatized to fund it's construction, meaning corporations have full access and rights to build as many of these as they can afford as well. Ultimately we foresee shipping lanes crowded with ITCs and larger space vehicles, but for now we are focusing on improvement to the ITC.

ITC Modernization Project: (2) Wozzy, SC777
Cargo Fleet Project: (1) Flabort

[TricMagic]

Interplanetary Transport Vessel

The ITC was what we arrived on. It was meant for the long long voyage here. However, time has taken it's toll on it. Bugs, broken parts, buggy systems from the amount of times they've been repaired. We do still have the original documents, but they are buried in the documents we brought.

The ITV was originally meant to provide widespread transport for cargo and people. However, with the current war, the speed of it was insufficient. With the OKSPD Engine and AER Reactor, that is no longer an issue however.

The revised ITV calls for a specific type of ceramic composite material to survive exit and reentry of Atmosphere. While thin, it has the advantage of coming in simple plates that can be cold-fused to the hull to replace pieces that have broken. Moreover, they can be welded in atmosphere for a base layer over the titanium/ceramics that make up the hull. These Hexagonal Scales serve to allow it to leave and reenter atmosphere.

The ITV has 4 AER Reactors. This is mostly to power the electrical lights used in the Eight OKSPD Engines. Put simply, the first four activate, sending the ITV up. As those retract, the other 4 activate. Then as the those retract, the first four are ready to fire again. They are placed in a octagon formation, forming two squares. In normal operation, only 1 AER Reactor needs to be active at a time, though multiple may be active if needed. For launch all four AER Reactors are used.

Last, the ITV does have 4 smaller OKSPD Engines in the outer area of the ITV, pointed diagonally forward for turning. In a planet's gravity well, these and some of the main OKSPD Engines allow it to fly and turn. Lastly, the cone area of the ship has multiple parachutes ready to deploy, which with the secondary OKSPD Engines, allow it to land without crashing so long as a area has been set up for it. Though the plates covering this area do need to be replaced after each entrance, and the parachute repacked or replaced.

For the inside of the ITV, hooks and securing points for cargo abound for when you enter a planet's gravity well. They're generally all purpose, using ropes to tie everything down that needs tying down. The rest of it is dedicated to living quarters and the main deck near the front of the ship. Most of the ITV also has multiple cameras along it to allow a view of the outside and for piloting. And due to the number of engines and the electrical lights which power them, it is a very maneuverable and fast craft when it needs to be.

[flabort]

Lyre Fighter: (0)
ITC Modernization Project: (2) Wozzy, SC777
Cargo Fleet Project: (1) Flabort
ITV: (0)

Ok, so that's 3 ITC variants and one fighter. I someone comes up with some non-spaceship design, we'll have enough to vote on properly. And let's try to get some consensus on our votes, eh? One design needs to be in a clear lead over the others soon.

[Happerry]

Lyre Fighter: (0)
ITC Modernization Project: (2) Wozzy, SC777
Cargo Fleet Project: (2) Flabort, Happerry
ITV: (0)

[Wozzy]

With this being our final change before we roll out, our priority is getting the OKSPD into the ITC to give it 2 Travel Speed. This allows us to reach the central planets in 2 turns, instead of 4, preventing us from falling behind. The most ideal way to ensure we have 2 Speed is to make sure we do not roll a 4 or lower on our revision. In an effort to help explain what that means for us, I have pulled up the probability chart. Here's the gist of it:

With an Easy design, we have a 13/16 chance of rolling greater than Below Average. This would be our 'safe' option, and the only revision closest to it is the ITC Modernization Project sans laser.

With a Normal design, we have a 5/8 chance of rolling greater than below average. This is our best option, and the ITC Modernization Project is definitly within this realm of difficulty.

With a Hard design, we have a 3/8 chance of rolling greater than below average. This is unacceptable, we cannot afford losing our 2 Speed Opportunity. The Cargo Fleet Project might be this, but it could also be Very Hard (which the ITV definitely is).

tl;dr Having 2 Travel Speed on our ITC is our priority, since it reduces the turns it takes to reach the center planets from 4 turns to 2 turns. ITC Modernization project is the ideal option, with a 5/8 chance of ensuring it has 2 Travel Speed, while Cargo Fleet Project is a poor choice, with a 3/8 chance of ensuring it has 2 Travel Speed.

[TricMagic]

Lyre Fighter: (0)
ITC Modernization Project: (2) Wozzy, SC777
Cargo Fleet Project: (3) Flabort, Happerry, TricMagic
ITV: (0)

A personal defense laser on our transport. Given that it's not a very effective weapon at the moment, our transport really shouldn't be in the front lines.

[Jilladilla]

If we decide not to go with the Automatic ITC Engine Refit thingy Madman offered, the most important thing to do this phase is to get the ITC to Speed 2. Everything else is secondary to this goal. Hedge our bets, don't risk everything on trying to make a vessel do a thing that it was never built to do.

Lyre Fighter: (0)
ITC Modernization Project: (3) Wozzy, SC777, Jilladilla
Cargo Fleet Project: (3) Flabort, Happerry, TricMagic
ITV: (0)