Cooperative R&D: Guardian-class Hive Ship
Imagine a vessel of unknown origin, unknown design, unknown capabilities, unknown, unknown. Observing the craft, only a single feature distinguishes it in any particular way: a pattern. The surface of this vessel appears to be segmented; dozens of curved components, fitted together in overlapping fashion to form a single structure.Imagine this craft splitting along a seam, each of its component “scales” operating in unison to peel back the outer layer of the vessel. Imagine it opening to reveal empty space, a single sphere floating in the center, covered in tractor/repulsor systems, magnetic grapples, and communications equipment.
Imagine that empty space is not empty. Imagine it is occupied by more scales, or perhaps starfighters, or perhaps a traditional man-crewed warship.
Imagine one of these vessels, perhaps two thousand meters in length and held together by four or five of these spherical cores. What prevents them from diverging? Why could one such ship not become five? No law of physics has been violated, no structural necessity disregarded.
You need not imagine. It has arrived.
The Guardian-class Hive Ship is quite simply a hardware counterpart to the software Guardian Program. It is not a single vessel, but rather two key components, capable of being combined in such varied methods to produce any imaginable vessel type, from frigate to command cruiser; and alternately, able to be decomposed from a single large structure into several smaller vessels.
Any Hive Ship can be divided into two key components, an interior composed of one or more spherical Hive Cores, and a shell composed of anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of Scale Plates.
A Hive Core is nothing more than a reactor, tied to a Guardian-equipped supercomputer, and wrapped in tractor/repulsor pairs, magnetic grapples, and communications arrays. It houses no sublight or hyperspace drives and only short-range sensors. Its crew is composed entirely of spider-like droids, wandering the centimeters-wide passageways, devoid of artificial gravity or atmosphere. It is a dense craft, its only functions to think and hold things.
Scale Plates come in varied and sundry forms. Each one is perhaps as unique as a Mon Calamari design or as uniform as the products of a factory assembly line. Scale Plates have power systems, data transfer lines, and shield projection grids designed to interlink into ship-wide networks. While Scale Plates have internal power systems, dedicated Power Plates can be attached to the interior of the shell to provide additional energy when needed.
Because all Scale Plates are designed along a standardized framework, they are largely interchangeable with one another. Scale Plates generally house a few light tractor beams along their interiors to assist with the coordination and interchange of various elements of the outer shell. However, once plates have reached their “active” positions, from which they are intended to function for some period of time, physical interlinks engage to anchor them to neighboring plates, forming a rigid structure until those interlinks are disengaged.
The Guardian-class Hive Ship is a revolutionary vessel designed for variability and adaptability. It permits Guardian to diversify its military assets in a manner that is simply not possible with traditional warships, either crewed or automated. The ability of a Hive Ship to alter its own structure, diverge into or even converge with other fleet elements, and adapt itself physically to new challenges introduces a nexus of variables that no other combat system in the galaxy could adequately track.
Because its internal structure precludes the possibility of humanoid crew, the only sapient species within the Cooperative capable of commanding one of these vessels is the crystalline Shard of Orax. While most Hive Ships will be completely automated Guardian assets, some Hive Cores are equipped with a Shard/computer interface, allowing Shard captains to enter a Hive Core and take direct command of the Guardian supercomputer at its heart.
Without Guardian, the Hive Ship would be nothing. With Guardian, it is a tool of unparalleled potential.
Technical Specifications
Communications:
A Hive Core uses line-of-sight systems to communicate with companion Cores and Scales contained within the same ship. Hive Cores also support standard intra-system comms, and those Cores expected to serve as the central component of a ship carry hyperwave transceivers and Drackmarian-based entanglement communications systems for transmission of vital data to Cooperative Central Command.
While most Scales are equipped only with line-of-sight systems to maintain communications with their paired Core, mission-specific Scales may be constructed with any number of communications systems.
Propulsion:
Propulsion Scales break the mold. Primary drives are larger than standard Scales, often representing a surface area equivalent to several standard Scales, and their mass extending farther into the central section of the vessel.
Most large vessels carry a number of secondary propulsion Scales, either for use in breakaway craft or to supplement the acceleration rate of the primary drive.
The hyperdrive system of the Hive Ship is often contained within a specialized Scale which attaches to the inner surface of the primary sublight drive for access to its substantial power output, or in emergencies to the Hive Core itself.
Defense:
The Guardian-class Hive Ship utilizes Coalition Defender Ion Shields in conjunction with standard ray and particle shielding. Even with shields disabled, the mass of the Scale shell is sufficient to prevent ion fire from penetrating into the interior, where the vital Hive Cores reside.
Armor rating for a particular Hive Ship is evaluated based on mission profile. The key value for this process is thrust/mass ratio: how fast does it need to go versus how well it needs to be armored. Because Scales are produced individually, it is possible for particular sections of a Hive shell to be more heavily armored than others.
Armament:
Individual Scales are manufactured according to a preset purpose. As such, though the armaments of a Hive Ship can easily be varied by the exchange of composing Scales, an individual Scale will typically serve its entire operational lifespan with the weapons configuration it was designed for.
If the objective calls for it, Scales can be manufactured with specialized hardpoints, to which interchangeable weapon systems can be attached. Though this adds a further level of adaptability to the overall system, the reduced efficiency inherent in this sort of modular weapons system prevents it from being the standard mechanic employed throughout the Hive Ship fleet.
Furthermore, not all Hive Ships are combat vessels. As such, not all Hive Ships will be armed.
Command and Control:
Each Scale is equipped with a simplified Guardian AI designed to receive information from the Guardian supercomputer within the paired Hive Core. It operates the various systems located within an individual Scale, and is designed to network with the command and control systems located within neighboring Scales. Scales are not designed for independent tactical analysis, relying on the Hive Core for target priorities and large-scale coordination. If a Scale loses contact with its Core, its compartmentalized Guardian system will attempt to extrapolate priorities based on last-received commands. Linked Scales will pool processing power to compute appropriate courses of action in the absence of a guiding Hive Core.
RP: To Preserve and Defend
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