STAR RIPPER class dreadnought
Dreadnought Jupiter TMSD BF-359
Terran Mandate Ship Designate (TMSD) BF-359
Class: Star Ripper Dreadnought-Experimental
Standard crew compliment: 6696
Maximum crew capacity @ 1 year: 19444
Maximum personnel capacity @ 1 month: 80000
Size:
Length: 12040 feet/3669.8 meters (2 ¼ miles/3.62 kilometers)
Max width: 2969 feet/905 meters
Displacement: 808049 standard Imperial tons (@1G)
Drive:
Four 6th Level Spike Drives (when acting together, in concert with a 4-6 person psychic chorus, the Star Ripper Dreadnought was able to drill through 12 systems in 6 hours)
Defenses:
96 ECM Burst Generators
400 Point Defense Laser Emplacements
Comprehensive Hardened Polyceramic Overlay
Foxer Drones (1200 tons)
40 Flak Emitter Batteries
140 Multifocal Lasers
96 Sandthrowers
96 Mag Spike Arrays
96 Smart Cloud Emitters
Armaments:
2 Singularity Guns (1 forward, 1 aft)
4 Vortex Tunnel Inductors (1 forward, 1 aft, 1 port, 1 starboard)
144 Gravcannons
40 High Capacity Rail Guns
96 Plasma Beams
480 Torpedo Launchers
The Star Ripper Class Dreadnought, Jupiter is a one of a kind, experimental heavy weapons platform/capitol ship designed and built by the Terran Mandate. After running through a series of tests for several months, it was “parked” in deep space to await the construction of a number of other fast ships and the training of a full flight crew of 6686 along with a chorus of 4 psychics. The Jupiter would have been the centerpiece of a “Super Strike Force” fleet that never came to be due to the Scream.
Maintained in its deep space hiding place by a 8 member skeleton crew at the time of the Scream, the Dreadnought Jupiter was designed to be piloted by a chorus of 4-6 psychics. These psychics could operate the four drill drives in much the same manner as the jump gates that had become ubiquitous throughout the core systems. With their minds working in unison, the tests, with the Jupiter piloted by 4 psychics showed it was capable of traversing a large series of known rutter courses in a single drill, moving across as many as 12 systems in just 6 hours. The Jupiter, its support ships and others like them, would have given the Terran Mandate the reach it required to maintain a firm grip on the human empire as it slowly spread across the galaxy, had the plan come to fruition. With the instant death of almost every psychic in existence and the ultimate breakdown of Mandate infrastructure across the galaxy, the Dreadnought Jupiter was soon forgotten, and its crew left to parish in a deep space grave aboard the inoperable ship.
This deep space hiding place is within Red Sector A at [0509]. All of the technology is highly desirable, however, the ship will require much study and a couple of months of experimentation by at least four powerful psychics to be made space worthy again. There will be very little other items located on the ship. The rare pre-tech items located on the ship, that are not specifically part of the ship itself, will have been brought aboard by the long dead skeleton crew. Other than what was required by the skeleton crew, items such as weapons, medical supplies and etc. had not been stocked prior to the Scream. The computer system, however has a full library of technology.
The Jupiter's on board V.I. is a highly complex set of expert systems combined in parallel, allowing the system to operate multiple ship's components simultaneously. It is capable of operating and maintaining every ship system and component without human input, except the advanced spike drive suite. The ship is capable of entering meta-dimensional space without human interference with just a single spike drive, utilizing the drive in a normal manner at a rating of Drive-6.
The Jupiter's V.I., utilizing the spike drive suite, when engaged by a chorus of at least four psychics is capable of traversing 24 systems in 6 days or 12 systems in 3 days. With the psychics working in tandem with a human pilot, the pilot's skills are multiplied by the number of psychics present. For example, four psychics and a pilot with the Starfarer foci can traverse 24 systems in 15 hours, and 12 systems in 7 & 1/2 hours. The same pilot trimming the course can traverse 24 systems in 13 & 1/2 hours and 12 systems in 6 & 3/4 hours.
The fusion power plant located in main engineering is a one of a kind piece of technology. While in standard mode the energy output of the plant is capable of powering the Jupiter and its systems under most circumstances. The power plant is also capable of entering a mode the Mandate scientists dubbed "Intra-Lateral Phase Coupling" or ILPC Mode. Once ILPC Mode is engaged, the core of the fusion generator expands exponentially, while remaining confined inside the immensely thick shell in which it is housed. In mere moments, the core is forced back in on itself and simultaneously bathed in meta-dimensional radiation siphoned from the spike drives. The resultant singularity is unlike any heretofore witnessed. The technology is incapable of maintaining this event for more than an infinitesimal fraction of a second, but the energy output during that moment is virtually immeasurable.
The ship uses the event to charge the four spike drives, as well as a vast bank of batteries used to power the Jupiter's systems in stealth mode. Also, after ILPC Mode is activated, the Jupiter is capable channeling a fraction of that energy into firing every weapon it possesses simultaneously.
It is estimated that the energy output of ILPC Mode is capable of filling the battery banks of the Jupiter more than a million times over. With this amount of energy, the portion not used or stored must be discharged into open space immediately. The raw power, as it is expelled out the rear of the ship can be focused into an 85° cone and dissipated over about a light year distance, on down to a photon wide tight beam, capable of piercing anything, or even damaging a star, possibly to the point of collapse. There is a single documented theory that states the beam, when focused down to its minimum could literally pierce the event horizon of a black hole, the way a pin pierces a balloon. This event would release everything the black hole previously consumed in a single burst of raw energy, likely exceeding the most massive Gamma Ray Bursts associated with black holes formed from hypernovea.