Sepulchre-class Battlecruiser

[Karl Valten]

(Kudos to Tear for designing the “Claw” Turbolaser back when we still had the Sov)

Name – Sepulchre-class Battlecruiser
Classification – Heavy Assault/ Mobile Garrison
Funding Source – The Imperial Inquisitoriate

Dimensions
: Keel – 580 meters
: Beam – 520 meters (disk)
: Mast – 140

Armaments

-x6 Lance Projectors (Turrets)
-x4 T1-A “Claw” Heavy Turbolasers (2 prow, 1 port, 1 starboard)
-x8 Turbolaser Batteries (4 prow/port/starboard, 2 port/stern, 2 starboard/stern)
-x8 Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries (6 Prow/port/starboard, 1 port/stern, 1 starboard/stern)
-x8 Turbo quadlasers (4 port/stern, 4 port/starboard)

-x4 Plasma Torpedo launchers (Prow/port/starboard)

-x4 Mass Pulse Generator Tubes(5 mines each)
-x4 Tractor Beam Projectors (2 prow, 1 port, 1 starboard)

-x20 Longshot Quadlaser Cannons (Turret, starfighter defense)

Shields

Loronar Doublefield Generator/ x2Novaldex deflector generators (Outer shield-3,700 SBD, Inner shield-2200 SBD)

Propulsion

-x6 Rendili StarDrive WhisperThrust sublight drive (18 MGLT, 36 while superchargers active)

-Quadex IGt .5-class Hyperdrive
- Correllian Engineering x41 maneuvering thrusters

Reactor
-x2 Mk2 “Viper” Supercharged Fusion Reactor

Crew
Shipboard A.I.
400 Inquisitorial staff

(Troops) 1200 Inquisitorial Troopers/Centurion Battle Droids

Special

-Fabritech Vanish 1 Sensor Mask


Compliment
-x36 Shade-class Starfighters
-x8 Shielded TIE Interdictors
-x6 Assault Shuttles

-x80 Orbital Drop Pods
-x12 Inquisitorial Gunships


Design Specifications

The Sepulchre is the closest ship the Inquisitoriate has to a full-fledged Heavy Cruiser type vessel. These ships are used primarily to act in planetary assaults against systems that in open rebellion or when the Inquisitoriate is actively hunting rebel warships.

Contrary to the massive star destroyers where hundreds of guns are in fixed fire arcs, most weapons batteries on a Sepulchre have multiple fire arcs in order to bring a large percentage of the ship’s armaments to bear and to cut down on the sheer number of weapons needed. As with other Inquisitorial warships, many weapons systems are designed to cripple enemy vessels rather than destroy them.

The combined force of six of these drives and the immense power produced by a pair of “Viper” Mk2 Reactors give the Sepulchre unparalleled speed and maneuverability for a ship of its size. The massive amounts of energy produced by the reactors also allow for strong shields and the heavily automated systems throughout the ship.

The on board compliment includes three full squadrons of Shades with neural implant augmented pilots and a octet of modified TIE Interdictors for situations requiring the use of heavy bomber craft. Also included are several assault shuttles for boarding actions as well as a squadron of gunships for planetary assault. If a planet is too well defended by anti-aircraft to risk sending in the limited supply of gunships, there are enough orbital drop pods to safely deliver up to 10 full squads of Inquisitorial troopers to a planet’s surface.

Design Appearance
The ship is essentially split into three sections. The first and largest, is the huge scythe-like disk that serves as the primary weapon platform.

Second and smallest is the only area holding life support consisting of the pyramid shaped command decks and the internal barracks, holding cells, mess hall, and launchbays.

Third and final is the engineering section, buried deep under many layers of heavy durasteel battleplate. In order to keep this area from falling to any possible boarding parties, the entire area is completely void of any life-support. A small number of engineers in pressure suits with the of maintenance and operator droids along with the guidance of the shipboard AI keep everything running at 100% efficiency.

Technology Explained

-Lance Projectors

Using technology similar to the planet destroying superlaser of the deathstars, a lance projector focuses a several of energy beams into a highly concentrated beam of destruction. Due to the tight focus, a lance beam is extremely long ranged, but as such isn’t worth much as a typical bombardment cannon. Instead, lances are used to cut deep into enemy ships in order to disable key systems.

-Claw Turbolasers
The smaller, capital ship version of
this turbolaser.

-Mass pulse generator tube

Stolen from the Hapes Consortium, the Mass pulse mines are weapons similar to our own gravity well projector. These mines function as a gravity well projector for 2 minutes, preventing a ship from escaping into hyperspace for this duration. Due to practical limitations, these mines are relatively short-range compared to the standards of an Interdictor, and as such are deployed in small clusters of 3-5 mines. The benefit of using these devices is that the carrier ship need not divert massive amounts of energy to grav-well projectors.

-Plasma Torpedos Launcher
True to the Inquisitoriate’s reputation of using unorthodox technology and tactics, the plasma torpedo is a strange and extremely powerful, yet the way the technology is used is brutishly primitive. Plasma is always kept hot and ready to fire in special storage tanks. To collect and direct the chaotic plasma in a controllable trajectory, charged plasma atoms are shunted into a magnetic bubble, created by a series of powerful magnetic accelerators in the launcher’s firing ‘dish’. When the desired amount of plasma has been shunted into the dish and the magnetic field is charged enough to keep from dissipating before reaching its target, the mag-bubble is discharged with a magnetic pulse similar to a railgun. Subsequent pulse charges herd the plasma towards its target. While the plasma is always stored ready to fire, once depleted, it will take several minutes for the chamber to cycle in fresh plasma.

Once a target is hit by the plasma, the magnetic bubble destabilizes and collapses, sending plasma splashing over the hull. The plasma will continue burning through armor plating at a rapid rate, feeding the flames from the oxygen within the ship’s compartments. The only sure way to stop the plasma burning completely through the hull is to vent the oxygen from the compartments in the plasma’s path.

Best if used against an unshielded target, or if fired in successive volleys where the first torpedo or two will knock out the shields to clear the way for other torpedoes.

-WhisperThrust Drive
This realspace drive system is produced by Rendili StarDrive, and was originally used only on military starships. It allowed a ship to move through realspace without emitting energy waves, making the ship run silently.

-Mk2 “Viper” Reactor
The capitol-grade version of the original design used on Inquisitorial corvette and gunship type vessels. Larger and more powerful, the Mk2 is capable of pushing large battleships to unparalleled speeds for their size category. The superchargers have been toned down from 300% boosts to 200% as the stress on the massive bulk of these huge ships could cause irreparable damage.

-Vanish 1 Sensor Mask
This device combined electromagnetic and holographic transmissions to "hide" a starship from most sensors. This device didn't absorb sensor beams but, rather, disrupted them by sending back information on the environment surrounding a starship. The Vanish 2 made a ship virtually disappear by sending back sensor data about the starfield around it.

-Shipboard A.I.

The Inquisitoriate, while an influential power in its own right, does not have the sheer numbers that the Imperial Navy does, and as such, it is impractical for them have large crews aboard their vessels.

An larger Inquisitoriate vessels, an artificial intelligence is implemented to run and coordinate all the menial computer and technical work throughout the ship, a task normally requiring hundreds if not thousands of human crew. At the same time, the A.I. is also capable of plotting hyperspace courses, take care of fire-control stations normally reserved for gunners, control ship defenses and a myriad of other functions.

Each AI is essentially a free thinking sentient being with a distinct and unique personality as any individual in the galaxy. But at the same time it is a computer program with infinitely higher processing capabilities than any human. Because of this it is not uncommon for an AI to become corrupt over time. In case of a ‘rebellion’ from the AI, a fail-safe has been hard-wired into the AI’s basic programming that will instantly delete it if it becomes hostile to the crew.

Current tests and analysis put the average lifespan of such a shipboard AI at four years before it must be deleted.

[Telan Desaria]

Only one note, Commander - a ship 580 meters in length would be classified as a Cruiser. Heavy Cruisers range from seven hundred meters and up, a battlecruiser 900 and up. A Battlecruiser is also a ship that has the same weapons as a battleship but sacrifices armor and protection for speed.

[Karl Valten]

Ah, I was trying to figure in that the ship is almost as wide as it is long. My Bad.

[Telan Desaria]

Understandable. Mass does matter - honestly I had not considered that. Is the ship very lightly armored in comparison to its weaponry? If the ship can be badly damaged by direct hull-impact fire, but have speed as its best defense, then it can remain a battlecruiser. If it is heavily armored and heavily armed and thusly slow, then it must be renamed cruiser.

Though the Navy will permit the monocre Heavy Cruiser since we will not use them for Fleet operations.

[Sean Piett]

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude and it's not really my place, but this really just doesn't seem feasable to me. This is a BIG ship, including tons of original technology and an incredibly ambitious sensor masking system. You'd need your own massive sensor sytem to take in detailed measurements on every side, and then fabricate data for your ships current location and send it back instantly. Beyond this I'm sure there are several different sensor packages that have unique signals, and it would be a huge project to be able to replicate any one, instantly, at any time. Also, at least capital ships encrpyt their signals to prevent falsified communication and misinformation.

I can't imagine the Inquistoriate putting too many of these into construction, and this is a gigantic budget ship. The chassis looks unique, and I can only assume the ship has been built from the ground up. I don't know why the Inquistoriate needs to be autonomous, either- it certainly wouldn't have been the case in Palpatine's time. I can definately envision them having a small private fleet, and I think the Strike Cruiser would be a great alternative to the Sepulcher in terms of capabilities.. simply because I can't see why the Inq would assault a planet or engage a large vessel without Naval support.

This all sounds harsh and you may not take it to heart, and that's fine. This is certainly a beautiful ship, with a lot of thought put into it and a lot of very intuitive/creative design and weapons placement. I think the sensor mask and the fighter compliments are the only thing I'd argue with at all.. if it was still the old days. Sorry if I offended, you're obviously a capable designer.. I just don't think this is the time, or see the need.

[Karl Valten]

No worries, I'm not offended at all. All the points you made a pretty much valid. I wasn't planning on making this a mainstay vessel anyway, most Inquisitoriate vessels are small and relly on speed over using brute force. I wanted to have this as a sort of 'exception' vessel, a sort of flagship/terror ship used in extreme circumstances, sort of like how SSDs are to the Imperial Navy.

[Telan Desaria]

I would allow one to be built - -perhaps a vessel built along these lines is captured from an independent government upon its annexation and thusly rejected by the Naval for Fleet integration. As such, it is given to the INQ who heavily modifies it and makes it into what it is today. As such, IC they are wracked with some minor problems that prevent the ship from reaching peak effiency but no one off the ship would knopw that. The INQ would not be ablke to build another for some time but would give them a unique vessel to use as a command and control ship - -the pet project of the Grand Inquisitor.

Sean is right, the INQ does not need it - however, the Empire did not need the Executor or any SSD yet it built them - -it built 4 to show the galaxy not that it needed them but because it could. The SSD was a show of strength and brute force - I can see the INQ wanting to have the same thing.

Agrred?

[Karl Valten]

Fine by me

[Telan Desaria]

Excellent. May I suggest a name for the prototype vessel -

either A - Inquisitor

or B - Purifier

[Karl Valten]

I think purifier sounds pretty darn good.


Addendum: On the topic of Inquisitoriate ships. For ships requisitioned from the Imperial Navy, or those accuired by other means, the Inquisitoriate would modify the ships to fit their needs.

I.E. The black/red color sceme for identification, specialist weapons (Plasma torpedoes, lance projectors. In a limited fashion of course), higher end tech (reactors, shields), etc.

Is this acceptable?)

[Telan Desaria]

Of course - - it is to be expected. However, there would only be ships sent to them from the Navy, not new ones, since actual combat vessels receive Naval priority. But if we capture something that we cannot use - -it is all yours. Modify away.

The Sepulchre-class Cruiser Purifier


enjoy