The Invictus - As of Chapter 75

No, it has three airlocks total. The original one and the forward airlock which has one airlock on either side of the ship.

Are there any large internal connections between the cargo bay, the secondary hanger, and the primary hanger? Like for moving around big old Mech or even larger projects of Dana's?!?

7OO Tnega Terces

Hey, wait a minute, I thought that the Invictus now has THREE airlocks on each side...

7OO Tnega Terces

You'll read about them in action next chapter!

Tefler

Okay, so just what are the heavy cannons and Gauss cannons? What kind of ammo do they fire and what kind of damage can they do? Will there ever be specialized ammo (shield reducing vs armor piercing vs something-cool-from-Dana)?

7OO Tnega Terces

I am continually amazed at your ingenuity Tefler

Wookey

Another question for you Tef: have they applied any kind of nose art to the Invictus and/or Raptor? I know that the Invictus used to have its name and possibly the TFed emblem painted on the sides. Have they kept that through all the refits? I would imagine Alyssa, being the creative girl that she is, has at least some nifty ideas in her head.

Jedi Khan

Yep, that's right. :-)

Tefler

Ah, okay. So the singularity is inside the lattice, which probably means that when they cut the power, the singularity collapses on itself and the lattice can make another when powered back up. K, got it. Thanks Tef!

Jedi Khan

The tyrenium lattice looks something like this: <a href="https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/geo-sphere-3367464.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/geo-sphere-3367464.jpg</a> The singularity is contained within a field at its centre.

Tefler

I was of the impression that the Tyerinium lattice core became the singularity when energy was applied to it. Guess Tefler would need to clarify that as well.

Jedi Khan

I thought the tyerinium was a large sphere and it formed in the middle. I would assume that it winks out the opposite of when it formed. They better have a safety feature on it. The sphere is uniformly being pulled inward. That is great as long as the black hole is in the center. But a massive jolt to one side could put that Black hole closer to one side and then trouble as it starts absorbing part of the ship. The mass goes in and soon it can't be shut down as it starts a self sustaining reaction with matter.

Maybe you got this answered in the next chapter, Tef, but I've been wondering about the singularity drivers. What happens to that singularity when they power down the weapons? Does it revert back to a chunk of Tyerinium, does it stay a black hole, or does it just collapse in on itself and wink out of existence?

Jedi Khan

Preferably as side stories Tefler. We don't want 3SM to finish anytime yet.

Wookey

So, I've been wondering Tef. What happens to that singularity when they power down the weapons? Does it revert back to a chunk of Tyerinium, does it stay a black hole, or does it just collapse in on itself and wink out of existence?

Jedi Khan

I'm thinking about exploring the different races in more detail in the sequel.

Tefler

As I looked over the sci-fi map on the community page I was reminded that we know very little about the universe.  Other than the Terrans, we know nothing about what else is on a cultures border, their interactions, histories or current conflicts.  This is a major wild card and opportunity for further stories. For example, perhaps the Kirrock, Kintark or Drakkark (misspelled like crazy) are moving towards Terran space because of an enemy on the other side pushing in on them.  Or perhaps they go through cycles of growth, stabilizing / maturing and finally conquest to make room for the new populations.  Or perhaps they were traded or discovered some technology from the far side of their space that they are now going to use on the Terrans. Lots of potential but mostly we don't know and it could come back as a massive surprise for the good or the bad. 

When it's fired up, yep! No to the radiation and particles, the Generator room is fully shielded.

Tefler

Which means they are commanding the ship right next to a black hole, right? Any exotic radiation or particles coming of that?

Nicely done, for whatever​ my opinion is worth.

Dennis Aston

She hit a button on her engineering console, and a holograph appeared in the centre of the room, showing a detailed overlay of the Invictus' deck plans. Pointing towards the middle section, Dana said, "I'll just give you a quick reminder of the new deck levels. Starting at the top, and working down, there's no Deck One, as that's the Command Deck, which sits on top of the Invictus. Deck Two is taken up by the six huge turret wells, which will keep the new cannons protected behind armour plating, until we expose the ship's guns for combat. Deck Three is still being built, and we'll construct those rooms when we get a chance." "Where are we now?" Sakura asked, tilting her head to one side, as she studied the map. "I got a bit thrown after the drop in the grav-tubes." "The armoured Combat Bridge is on Deck Four, putting us right at the centre of the ship. Just ahead of where we stand now is the Singularity Generator room, and beyond that are the four-hundred-metre-long Singularity Driver rails. Deck Five has the Power Core Chambers and the ammunition magazines, and Decks Six to Nine are taken up by the new Primary Hangar."

Tefler

Ah nice, catch, I'll fix that! Fixed:

Tefler

The beauty of internal singularity rails is that the Terran Federation (or at least the Admiralty) won't get bent out of shape for a bit unless they are used in a conflict in view of Terrans. IE they will know there were changes to the Invictus just by the overall length change but not that there are Singularity Drivers inside.

Dennis Aston

All in all it doesn't really matter that much. On the front is it just like a torpedo tube with the doors for them sliding open when readying to fire?

Dennis Aston

Thats the section where Dana is talking to Sakura to remind her of the general layout of the ship after she gets confused.

Dennis Aston

Either I am reading this wrong or this is due for a correction then: She hit a button on her engineering console, and a holograph appeared in the centre of the room, showing a detailed overlay of the Invictus' deck plans. Pointing towards the middle section, Dana said, "I'll just give you a quick reminder of the new deck levels. Starting at the top, and working down, there's no Deck One, as that's the Command Deck, which sits on top of the Invictus. Deck Two is taken up by the Singularity Driver rails, and the huge turret wells for the new cannons. Deck Three is still being built, and we'll construct those rooms when we get a chance."

Dennis Aston

The Singularity Drivers are much lower in the hull than that, which is why they had to slice open the front like a can of sardines. The rails are on Deck Four, and end in the Singularity Generator Room, which sits in front of the Combat Bridge.

Tefler

If they can park a dreadnaught somewhere then the Invictus is cake.

Dennis Aston

Tefler, where on deck two do you see the singularity drivers installed? Are they not veiwable from the outside/covered by the hull?

Dennis Aston

except when there is 1500lb or 3000lb gorilla in the room then the answer is.... where allowed. Having said that the power and agility of Invictus might make the big Bertha's of the fleet give it some room out of fear.

Wookey

Nah. Kind of like where does an 800 pound gorrilla sleap? Anywhere it wants?

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

This sucker is going to be tough to park!

DCM

I suspect that there will be a Ashganath, Maliri, Terran mutual aid alliance in the not too distant future TJ3505 so maybe there could be a mutual time with adjustments plus or minus

Wookey

I was just thinking that we will know that John is serious about staying on Valaden when he syncs the ship's chronometer with Maliri time not Terran standard. Might seem random but I am rereading the Regulus battle chapter and Edraele was saying she adjusted her schedule to his TST so she would be more available for him.

Dennis Aston

She just keeps pumping up the heat. And we have seen her throw them as a projectile, as a stream like a flamethrower and simply wrap the flames around her hand and use it kind of like a point weld... Except burning through rather then sticking two things together

He wasn't. He was wearing a suit, as in a suit and tie.

Jedi Khan

The next thing I questioned was how John got his back burned if he was wearing armor...

I thought Tashana's flames were like a flame thrower. How is she able to burn through the Crystal beams? Are they really weak to fire / lasers?

Some plasma rail guns would be pretty cool though. In pairs turret mounted. Having a variety of weapon systems allows you to respond against any enemy with tailored ordinance that is most effective against that enemies craft.

Plasma, while fairly decent as a weapon against both shields and armor, doesn't have the penetrative ability of beam lasers and Terran projectile weapons. Once the shields are down, the plasma first has to chew away the armor of a ship before it can do damage to the interior, whereas lasers and projectile weapons would just punch through. If you recall, Trankaran hulls are quite a bit thicker than the hulls of other races, which means that it would take plasma weapons much longer to get through Trakaran ship armor than other weapon types would. Also, I believe it's been mentioned in the story, especially at the Battle of Regulus, the Kintark hate and fear the Terran mass drivers and heavy cannons because those weapons are absolutely savage against ships that have lost their shields.

Jedi Khan

So why has Dana not incorporated any Kintark Plasma weaponry for the ships or crew's armament. What would be the best weapons against something likeTrakkaran hulls. Shouldn't they have a couple to round out the damage types?

VycronDyz

I just gave Starship Corporation a look as I thought it might be a tool to model Invictus...no go so far, but it's early looking.

GrandPaM

With the Invictus' current Pulse Cannons, they're already virtually immune to strike craft and missiles. Remember what they did to the Kintark's fighters, mowing down a fleet's worth of strike craft despite basically just passing through. They also massacred the missiles fired by the pirate's capital ship. Adding drones with Pulse Cannons wouldn't really change that any. I'm still personally hoping for some redesigned Progenitor-tech Maliri fighters. With John upping the tech level, I think they'd probably have almost guaranteed survivability against any non-Progenitor race in the region. ~Morningfrost

Morningfrost

Happy 900th Tefler

Wookey

We did see the Raptor take out three Kintark destroyers at the Battle of Regulus. The destroyers teamed up and managed to drop the Raptor's shields, but didn't score any hits to the armor. The Kintark destroyers had plasma weapons which could still damage the Raptor, while laser weapons cannot. Terran destroyers, I believe, are only equipped with laser weapons, so they'd stand no chance against the Raptor. Terran cruisers would be a bit of a stretch since they have heavy cannons as well, but one-on-one, it might be possible for the Raptor to win.

Jedi Khan

I am loving the extra detail you are putting onto this page (and in the story)!

Looks like a star wars republic assault cruiser.

I'm excited to see the refit finished now that the Malari conflict has been resolved. I feel like the new hanger should be filled with hundreds of small drones with one or two pulse cannons each to further increase there resistance to strike craft and missiles/torpedos, if they were agile enough they could even have a chance of shooting conventional ordinance out of space like shots from heavy cannons.

Patrick Briley

Overall shape reminds me a bit of a cross between starship troopers and an anaconda from elite dangerous

If memory serves, that forward section was purely for weapons and aux systems, not for habitation purposes. So past the hanger bay are key systems yes, but would be restricted for engineers. And as was mentioned when they first got the ship, those functions have been automated. So nobody needs to go up there to start with unless doing repairs or maintenance. Of course i may be misreading the design since it is just silhouette. So to rap up, crew spaces are still likely together, and likely mostly untouched in regards to dimension changes. *Very well done on that cut btw tefler, the end redesign looks amazing* Side note, to get the new paragraph line, hold down Shift when you hit enter/return. Usually does the trick for me. Take care and fly safe. o7

HiddenShadow

Don't know if you got that request but could you enhance the sketch and add weapon positions on it. ? Or if not here then something to remember for the next one if you decide

I hit return to start a new paragraph only to find that it posted the comment. Oh well. What I was going to say was that with the ship being as long as it now is, how will the crew be able to quickly cross its length? And where are the fore and aft grav-tubes located at?

Firstly, congratz on reaching the $1,500/ch. milestone! Secondly, these sketches are awesome and greatly help in visualizing the layout Invictus. I'd love to see the layout of each individual deck and can't wait to see the rendered 3d versions of your sketches. With the ship

And how is Ch 76 coming along?

Wookey

Easiest way to put it into perspective for me, is to think of the ship in terms of American Football fields. Since metres and yards are so close in size, it's easy to get an estimate that way. Every 100m is one field. Even before the second refit, the Invictus was not a small girl at five fields long and one field high.

Lord Winter

I'd wager some actual 'microcraft', similar to the drone-fighters in Intrepid_Fate's series "The Fate of Terra" -- that is, craft which are designed around the core concept of being *entirely* unmanned, with the result that they not only have no need of life-support of any kind, they can also execute maneuvers which would literally kill any organic creature attempting them. I'd also imagine there will probably be one or two larger craft which could serve as launch platforms so that the Invictus could just sort of drop them off during combat, then all of a sudden a swarm of strike craft pours out of some random asteroids to flank an enemy.

cittran genericlastname

Just got back from a cruise on Brilliance of The Seas Length: 958 ft (292 m) Draft 28 ft Max Beam 106 ft (32.3 m) Capacity: 2,501 passengers Crew: 859 Speed: 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) Gross Tonnage 90,000 I know it is all relative but that was a nice sized ship and only about 60% the length of Invictus with twelve decks. Still, a good walk, bow to stern.

So what is the current load out of the Raptor and how does it compare to ships in the Terran Fleet. Could the Raptor go toe to toe with the original Invictus? I know it can punch above its weight but how far?

VycronDyz

And dang, that new hangar is massive. What's everyone think they're going to do with it? My money's on a bunch of small drone strike craft, each running one or two temporary on-board Faye avatars. Even if each one only had half the firepower of the Raptor, that would be a hug tactical asset.

Cool. I was a bit confused about where the airlocks and bays were situated relative to each other after the refit, so this helps a lot.

Dana went for function over form. ;-) The Heavy Cannons can fire to the rear too, albeit at a slight elevation. Handy if they ever have to run from anything...

Tefler

Looks good Tefler, though it does look a little more ungainly than the original lol. I guess that's to be expected though, when you're basically just cutting a ship in half and adding on to it. I kinda figured that the straight section would be the part that got expanded, rather than the wedge. To put it into words, heading forward from the "wings", the new 250m section would be rectangular-ish, before tapering down into the 200m wedge at the nose. I definitely didn't expect the wedge portion to be the part that got expanded lol. That being said, it makes a lot of sense for it to be wedge-shaped for the heavy cannons, so that they can all fire forward and not just in a broadside. ~Morningfrost

Morningfrost

I have a shape in mind for the Progenitor's ship. If I can find a good artist, it might be fun to see a picture of that as well!

Tefler

From outside the biggest change in look are engines and length of course. I must say the 1 ship I would like to see besides Invictus is this other Progen ship but not as sketch only fully done, that would be somthing. Heh or just throw us some random pic of dark space, so we could find it Tef :P

Looks even more like a variation of the Venator-class Star Destroyer from Star Wars. :-D

Jedi Khan

If you think about it your a better paid writer than most lol if you usually pay £15 for a book in a shop just how much is your book worth so far haha it's worth every penny

Jim lynch

And tefler congrats on reaching $1500 a month it's a fantastic achievement and portrays your talent which is just as amazing

Jim lynch

That's fantastic what I would love to see is an artist breakdown of each level where this is on deck 1 where that is if you know what I mean we all have a pretty good idea where everything is from your description on their tour from chapter 75 but to actually be able to see it would be amazing

Jim lynch

LOL....Amathew2, did you contract hoof and mouth disease?

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

The living quarters (Deck Two) are forward from the Aft-Airlock, the Officers' Lounge is to the rear. The Captain's Bedroom ends near the dividing line between the Primary and Secondary Hangar. The Guest Quarters (and Galley) on Deck Four are rearward from the Aft-Airlock, they haven't changed during the refit.

Tefler

Not that your not an artist, well shit... you know what I mean.

Amathew2

Looking good, can't wait to see an artist rendering.

Amathew2

good to know my imagination wasn't too far off, congrats again man. hopefully you can follow your calling

This sketch and explanation brings forth my question of where are the living quarters now? And do the still have the old crew quarters on deck four in case of emergency or if they have guests?

Terra_Lupis