Ship

There are several major classifications of spaceships in Solar Storms, several military and several 'civilian', though this latter term is somewhat specious given the modern state and laws of the Consortium.

Combat Ships

There are three classes of combat ships, ships whose primary purpose is to actually inflict damage upon a target. They often have very little in the way of human crew, with most systems being directly managed through various forms of artificial intelligence. To counter, however, no such ship is without sapient guidance, almost always human, through drones are often radio-controlled.

Cannon Ships

Cannons are essentially just that, gargantuan weapons of limited mobility in space. They make use of massive heat-spreaders covering several square kilometers in area, but otherwise look like gigantic, elongated members of their namesake. They have some point defense, but largely rely on other ships and their armoring to defend them.

The main weapon is usually either a gigantic laser or gauss cannon, the latter often firing artillery specialized enough to pierce screens. A single pair cannon version was built, but the limited range of this weapon made it unviable with such a lack of mobility. It has since been converted into a laser model. A related 'ship' is the nuclear mine, which is essentially a shaped-charge nuke, designed to emit most of its destruction in a single direction before it blows itself apart.

The first of these vessels were enormous sixty-klick long vessels whose purpose was to crack the immense defenses of Ouranos Prime, and they still make up the most powerful mobile weapons in the terran fleet. Nothing save the satmets has exceeded their yield in modern times and as technology advantances, so do they.

By far the most expensive vessels in humanity's arsenal, only a dozen of their kind remain, the vast majority being converted into lesser, more mobile weapons platforms after the Contact War, or experimental stations. Since they are almost purely offensive structures, they currently rest in solar orbit several light-minutes away from the Purge Skearn, should they be needed (and able) to assist. None have been added to the Regalia, as they can make use of as much heat-spreading as they desire, the patterns being used for more important tasks.

Due to their power, cannons have a crew of three, which must all give their vote to firing the weapon. They are always in mindpods, enabling easy escape should catastrophe occur.

Turret Ships

Turrets are essentially giant guns placed in a rotating gimball system, basically functioning as the spaceborn version of the tank. Unlike cannons, they come in an extremely large variety of sizes, generally based on how much firepower and mobility they require, always sufferring a tradeoff between the two. They also possess more complicated defenses, giving them the general monicker of 'tank'.

Like cannons, the main gun is usually either a laser or coilgun. Some, however, make use of pair cannons, due to having vastly superior tracking at close range.

These vessels were built largely by the forces defending Ouranos Prime, though the Consortium developed quite a number as well. Currently nearly million of varying sizes are either part of the Golden Fleet or awaiting their sigils.

Turrets are usually only piloted by a single individual, located in a mindpod in case of disaster.

Warships

While technically anything capable of defending itself with more than its defensive, propulsion and communication systems could be considered a warship, most vessels possess simple point defenses in order to deflect and vaporize small rocks that may chance across their path, or near the path of something critical.

Actual warships are those vessels that are designed to fire more than a single shot with the hope of disabling another vessel, yet are not dedicated to a single, overpowering weapon. They tend to be more civilian in scope and purpose, having actual living space rather than simply armored slots for braincases, often combining features with utility vessels.

Warships are typically used for civilian, geren, and police purposes. Several dozen are also a part of the Regalia as members of the Silver Fleet and Void Fleet.

They have no standard design, crew, or weaponry, though some designs are certainly more effective than others. Many try to mimic the members of the Regalia, and often their ships are classed accordingly. Some, as members of the Golden Fleet, do possess significant capability within the Solar System.

Warships are also considered to be somewhat useful as they are generally capable of entering an atmosphere, unlike turrets or cannons. Outside of the Regalia, however, none are capable of performing well in both vacuum and pressurized settings.

Utility Ships

Most other ships fulfill a transport or recreational role. Like warships, they are quite varied, and more so. There are a couple basic categories.

Mindpods

A mindpod is a simple escape pod designed only to support and transport a braincase. It consists of an engine, a reactor, an armor, and a holding cell for the brain. Many are patterned.

A standard mindpod is designed to be ejected from its vehicle at at least 300 kps, if not faster. Recovery can be expected within days inside the Solar System in extreme circumstances, while it usually occurs within hours. Outside the heliopause, it could take months or perhaps even years for recovery.

Escape pods

Like mindpods, but actually hosting a body instead of merely a braincase. They are used by triates and those who don't care to separate mind from body, which is not an unpopular position.

Cargo Ships

Cargo ships usually look like giant spheres with an engine and heat-dispersion 'wings'. Fast, patterned variants are often bullet-shaped and capable of entering an atmosphere. Other specialised variants resemble flying saucers, whose sole purpose is to lift another vessel from atmosphere into orbit.

Vessels intended to carry sapient cargo are often escorted and possess significantly higher defenses.

Carriers

Currently, all carriers possessed by humanity are members of the Void Fleet or the Silver Fleet, and by the standards set by the Dyrajt arrival in the Contact War, quite primitive.

A carrier creates a massive warp in the vicinity around it, literally pushing the fabric of space itself forward. The field is usually quite huge, often covering thousands of kilometers, and requires enormous amounts of energy, typically measured in tonnes of energy (as in, through E=MC^2, one tonne being approximately 90 thousand million million million joules of energy).

This sort of power is not normally available for common consumption. Instead, a klein tap is used, though even patterned exotics have immense difficultly properly focussing the energy. Rather than trying to harness it directly, it is allowed to reflect into the surrounding space, allowing the warp field to form and propel the region.

Collision between a warp field and an oject usually results in the atomization of the object.

Carriers are not subtle. The energy they use to move the fabric of space itself decays into many forms of radiation. Once the radiation from the dyrajt fleet was seen, many humans soon pinpointed their homeworlds, simply due to previous activity.

Harvesters

Harvester vessels are gigantic strip-mining ships designed to literally take planets apart. The two main variants are those designed to enter the atmosphere of a gas giant, harvesting deuterium and other rare elements, and another which lands on an asteroid, moon, or planetoid, devours a sizeable chunk, processes it, and leaves.

Most possess little in the way of construction capability, though extremely large projects will use specialized vessels to disassemble a world. Those that collect deuterium are effectively tankers, supplying fuel to the rest of the star system they reside in.