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 SV - Sa'Vasku
Sa'Vasku
Space Combat Constructs
(From the GZG 2004 paper catalog)
The Sa'Vasku have been around for a long time, and have
seen many younger starfaring civilizations rise, falter and die over the
millennia. The Sa'Vasku themselves are huge, almost immobile creatures
that live a semi-aquatic existence surrounded and tended by their myriad
biotech constructs: they are not immortal, but are incredibly long-lived
by human standards, with Iifespans into thousands of years. There are only
a small number of actual Sa'Vasku on each of the worlds that form their
domain, and they seldom leave those worlds, carrying out almost all
contact between their own worlds and with other races by proxy through
their constructs. The almost simultaneous (in galactic terms) rise of
three aggressive and expansionist young races - Humanity, the Phalons and
the Kra'Vak - within the same smallish volume of space has been
unprecedented in recent history (that is, in the last few hundred
millennial), and the Sa'Va5kU find this highly disturbing - some of them
believe it to be the result of genetic manipulation by races even older
than themselves, known simply as the Old Ones, for reasons that even the
Sa'Vasku do not understand. Above all, the Sa'Vasku wish to maintain a
balance -they are quite happy for things to carry on as they have for many
tens of thousands of years, and they fear change and instability. They
have realized that a total victory by any one of the younger races over
the others would leave the Sa'Vasku themselves at a disadvantage and open
to attack. While they generally dislike open interference in the affairs
of other races (and consider the younger races somewhat beneath their
attention), in this case they have found themselves getting involved - in
effect, they wish to ensure that no-one actually wins the war, and ideally
they would like to see all the protagonists wear themselves down through
attrition until none of them are a further threat to the stability of the
area. The Sa'Vasku will thus involve themselves (via their constructs) on
any and all sides at different times, especially if one race appears to be
gaining the upper hand on a strategic level, which makes their agenda less
than comprehensible to the other races - if a Sa'Vasku force is
encountered it is impossible to know whether it will act as friend or foe
until it makes its intentions known (often by opening fire...) and
reasoned communication is impossible unless the Sa'Vasku themselves
initiate it.
Sa'Vasku Space Combat Constructs:
Sa'Vasku starships are known as Sra'Kith'Aa (Far-Reacher War Entities), a
term which has been used by their contact constructs during their limited
communication with representatives of humanity. Throughout the period of
the Xeno Wan Humanity knows effectively homing about the Sa'Vasku, or
their motivations, beyond that little which the aliens themselves have
deigned to (ell them. Each Sa'Vasku "ship" is a single large
bioconstruct, an artificial living entity in its own right. Where separate
"crew‘ have been encountered from Sa'Vasku vessels, these have
themselves been constructs engineered for specific functions, such as the
terrifying biotech warriors used as boarding parties and ground assault
forces. A Sa'Vasku ship-entity will carry many smaller constructs of
almost limitless variety, each specialized for a particular task, and
these constructs are generally divided into two types - Volitionals, which
have their own individual intelligence and limited free Will, and Non-Volitionals
which are mindless, bio- robotic worker constructs. The bulk of the main
hull structure of a Sa'Vasku ship is composed of living matter termed “biomass‘,
which serves both as structural integrity and to provide raw material for
the construction (or growth) of their fighter-equivalent Drones and for
other forms of expendable ordnance: raw biomass may also be used in
attempts to repair and replace damaged systems lost in combat. Most
Sa'Vasku ships other than the very smallest ones also carry an “armour”
layer, termed a carapace, which is composed of dead biomass that may not
be converted for other purposes. The mobility, offensive and defensive
capabilities of Sa'Vasku ships are uniquely flexible - they can
reconfigure themselves at will to direct their available power to drives,
screens, weapons etc. in any proportion, which makes them very
unpredictable to fight against - a ship that exhibits phenomenal thrust
levels at one moment may suddenly divert all power to its weapon nodes and
unleash a hugely powerful energy blast at potentially enormous ranges. The
Sa'Vasku are not invincible, however, and a ship that is using most of its
power for thrust or weapons fire is in turn very vulnerable to attack, as
it will not have enough power left over to put up its defenses or to
repair damage it sustains.
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Ku'Tho'Ra Drone Fighters
UN Codename "Sprig"
FT-701
"The standard Sa'Vasku Drone (Ku'Tho'Ra, UN
codename SPRIG) is a small, limited-range space combat construct "piloted" by a
single volitional brain (which is an integral part of the drone). The drones are assembled,
or grown, from biomass constituents within the Drone Wombs of specially-equipped
Sa'Vasku ships, which correspond to the fighter carriers of other races. The Sa'Vasku do not use
specialised drone types, the standard drone being the combat equivalent of a typical
human multirole fighter.
When and if recovered by their
broodship (or any other Sa'Vasku ship with an functional drone womb), drones are not re-armed
like human fighters - their biomass is reabsorbed by the carrier and may be reused to
"grow" new drone groups, or used for other functions."
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Fo'Vann'Ath class Destroyer
"Swat" (Elder Attack Ship)
FT-725
Mass
32
NPV
103 / CPV 81
Biomass 10
(3/3/2/2)
Carapace 2
Power
Generators 8 (2/2/2/2)
FTL
1 Cortex Node
1 Spicule
2 Stinger Nodes
(F/FP/AP, F/FS/AS)
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Var'Konn'Sha class Light Cruiser
"Sneaker" (Younger Strike Ship)
FT-726
Mass
58
NPV
185 / CPV 161
Biomass 22*
(6/6/5/5)
Carapace 3
Power
Generators 12 (3/3/3/3)
FTL
2 Cortex Nodes
2 Spicules
1 Stinger Nodes
(FP/F/FS)
1 Pod Launcher
Node
*Biomass % higher
than normal for extra Pod launcher shots
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Var'Tuur'Sha class Attack Cruiser
"Sword" (Strike Ship)
FT-727
Mass
78
NPV
251 / CPV 234
Biomass 24 (6/6/6/6)
Carapace 4
Power Generators
19 (4/5/5/5)
FTL
2 Cortex Nodes
3 Spicules
2 Stinger Nodes
(F/FP/AP, F/FS/AS)
2 Pod Launcher
Nodes
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Vas'Kaan'Rosh class Superdreadnought
"Shade" (Elder Leader Ship)
FT-732
Mass
200
NPV
657 / CPV 857
Biomass 56
(14/14/14/14)
Carapace 15
Power Generators
36 (9/9/9/9)
FTL
4 Cortex Nodes
2 Screen Nodes
6 Spicules
7 Stinger Nodes
(2xFP/F/FS, 2xF/FP/AP, 2xF/FS/AS, AP/A/AS)
2 Pod Launcher
Nodes (F)
1 Drone Womb
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 Phalons
Phalon
Conglomerate Grand Fleet
Phey-aaksha-tath‘a
(The Grand Fleet of The Peoples)
(From the GZG 2004 paper catalog)
The Phalon Conglomerate is a loose, highly balkanized federation of
individual worlds. including the Homeworld (Cho-llon) and many colonial
settlements. The various worlds of the Conglomerate are populated by many
differing racial and tribal groupings of Phalons, exhibiting a cultural
diversity almost as wide as that of humanity. Normal interrelations in
Phalon society are complex and competitive, but when threatened by outside
forces (such as the Human/Kra'Vak conflict) they will become remarkably
co-operative with each other, as they all see the mutual benefit in it.
The Phalons have been spacefaring for a while longer than Humanity or the
Kra'Vak, but they are still one of the “younger” races in comparison
with the Sa'Vasku. The Conglomerate has been aware of the Humans and the
Kra'Vak for a considerable time, and has watched them fiercely expand
their territories until the two met. The sudden escalation of
Human/Kra'Vak hostilities to all-out war has inevitably dragged the
Conglomerate into the fighting, though they resolutely refuse to commit
themselves to one side or the other - as always with the Phalons, the only
side they are on is their own.
Phalon Warships:
Phalon ships are snail-like constructions from organic materials: unlike
the Sa'Vasku, whose ships are actual living creatures, the Phalons use
advanced biotechnology in a similar way to that in which humans use metal
and plastics based materials technology - Phalon ships are constructed
with components manufactured from biotech materials, but are not living
entities in their own right, any more than a human ship which is built of
alloys and polymers. A Phalon hull is constructed with a relatively weak
inner hull structure protected by a hardened outer “shell” which is
composed of organic and crystalline materials and forms a very effective
protection against even armour-penetrating weapons like the Kra'Vak
kinetic guns. The most common Phalon antiship weapon is an energy
projector known as a "pulser”, which is in many ways similar to the
standard human beam weapons. Unlike human beams. however, the pulser is an
adjustable weapon that may be "tuned" to give a very long-ranged
but low power beam, a short-ranged but extremely lethal output or a
mid-range setting that is a compromise between the two. The Phalons' other
primary offensive system is an area-effect weapon called a Plasma Bolt
Launcher, normally mounted in the "head" of the Phalon ship's
long forward structure (though some of the very large classes carry
additional launchers in dorsal-mounted pods).
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Phalon Fighters
The Phalons use
fighters in much the same way as human fleets, with each fighter being
piloted by one to three Phalon crew. Several different types of
Phalon fighters have been observed, the most common being the Nith class
multirole (UN codename PEG), the Tuus class heavy fighter (UN codename
PUD) and the Vaan class interceptor (UN codename PAM). |
Nith Standard Fighter
FT-801A
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Tuss Heavy Fighter
FT-801B
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Vaan Interceptor
Fighter
FT-801C
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Silith class Fast Destroyer
FT-825 Mass 28
NPV 104 / CPV 84
Weak Hull 6 (2/2/1/1)
Shell Strength 1
Main Drive 8
FTL
1 Fire Control
2 x 3-Arc Pulsers (2xF/FS/FP)
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One of the fastest Protector designs in the Phalon fleet,
the Sliith mounts tremendously powerful drives coupled with multiple
wide-angle pulsers, giving it a potent offensive punch for its size.
Its defenses are quite light, however, and its lack of rear-arc point
defenses makes it difficult to employ against weapon systems like
plasma bolts and fighters. Most small Phalon ships employ vapor
shrouds as a backup defense, but the Sliith relies on high-speed
evasive maneuvers instead.
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Greeth class Heavy Destroyer
FT-835
Mass 33
NPV 128 / CPV 106
Weak Hull 7 (2/2/2/1)
Shell Strength 3
Main Drive 6
FTL
1 Fire Control
3 x 3-Arc Pulsers (F/FS/FP) (F/FS/AS) (F/FP/AP)
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Designated a "heavy destroyer" by UNSC Naval
Intelligence, the Greeth is actually significantly smaller than the
more common Dinth-class hull, filling the gap between the Dinth and the
smaller Phuun class. Overall performance is similar to most modern
human fleet destroyers. The design is noteworthy for carrying
neither a plasma bolt launcher nor a vapor shroud.
Instead, it relies entirely on its large pulser array for
defense against plasma bolts and fighters, which makes it a more
effective ship when used against human salvo missile technology.
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Gruuss class Attack Cruiser
FT-815
Mass 90
NPV 342 / CPV 333
Weak Hull 18
(5/5/4/4)
Shell Strength:
6/3
Main Drive 4
FTL
1 Vapor Shroud
2 Fire Controls
2 x 1-Arc Pulsers
(2 x F)
2 x 3-Arc Pulsers
(F/FP/AP, F/FS/AS)
1 6-Arc Pulser
1 Class-3 Plasma
Bolt Launcher (FP/F/FS)
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Gruuss-B class Attack Cruiser
FT-815
Mass 97
NPV 371 / CPV 368
Weak Hull 21
(6/5/5/5)
Shell Strength:
5/4
Main Drive 4
FTL
2 Fire Controls
4 x 3-Arc Pulsers
(2xF/FP/AP, 2xF/FS/AS)
1 6-Arc Pulser
2 Class-2 Plasma
Bolt Launchers (F/FP/FS) (F/FS/AS)
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The Gruuss-B attack cruiser appears to be a production
variant of the standard Gruuss, with an enlarged hull and greatly modified
weapons fit. The class may be a response to combat experience
against Kra'Vak and human ships, dropping the usual vapor shroud in favor
of multiple plasma bolt launchers and a heavier wide-angle pulser fit.
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Viiyaan class Medium Podship
Transport/Auxillary
FT-816
Mass 80
NPV 175 / CPV 109
Fragile Hull 8
(2/2/2/2)
Shell Strength:
2/1
Main Drive 2
FTL
1 Fire Control
1 6-Arc Pulser
1 Class-1 Plasma
Bolt Launcher (FP/F/FS)
43 Mass Cargo
Holds
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Tuuyaan class Small Podship
Transport/Auxillary
FT-817
Mass 48
NPV 121 / CPV 80
Fragile Hull 5
(2/1/1/1)
Shell Strength: 2
Main Drive 2
FTL
1 Fire Control
1 6-Arc Pulser
1 Class-1 Plasma
Bolt Launcher (FP/F/FS)
21 Mass Cargo
Holds
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