You'll Want Us High and Clear
ICED FIRE-CLASS ANTIMATTER TRANSPORT
Operated by: Extropa Energy, ICC
Type: Antimatter Transport
Construction: Islien Yards, ICC
Length: 1,600 km (overall)
Beam: 3,200 km
Dry mass: 39,200 tons (not including cryocels)
Gravity-well capable: No; not even low-orbit capable.
Atmosphere capable: No.
Personnel: 31
- Flight Commander
- 3 x Flight Executive/Administrator
- 3 x Flight Director
- 3 x Flight Engineer
- 3 x Propulsion Engineer
- 3 x Cargomaster
- 3 x general technicians
- 2 x riggers/EVA specialists
- Thinker-class AI
Drives:
- 3 x Nucleodyne Thrust Applications 1×1 “Sunheart V” fusion torch
Propellant: Deuterium/helium-3 blend
Cruising (sustainable) thrust: 3.5 standard gravities (3.3 Earth G) at nominal load
Maximum velocity: 0.3 c unloaded, 0.1 c loaded (based on particle shielding)
Drones:
- 3 x general-purpose maintenance drones
- 3 x tether-climbing rigger drones
Sensors:
- 1 x standard navigational sensor suite, Islien Yards
Other Systems:
- 2 x Islien Yards boosted commercial kinetic barrier system
- Biogenesis Technologies Mark VII regenerative life support
- 2 x Bright Shadow EC-780 information furnace data system
- Islien Yards custom dual vector-control core and associated technologies
- Systemic Integrated Technologies dual-mode radiator system
Small craft:
- 1 x Élyn-class microcutter
- 1 x Adhaïc-class workpod
The standard vehicle for ferrying antimatter from the Cirys bubble at Esilmúr to its various places of use, the Iced Fire-class is a starship designed around one core principle, commonly adhered to when dealing with antimatter:
Don’t get any on you.
The core hull itself is much smaller than the dimensions above suggest; a blunted cylinder a mere 252 m in length, including bunkerage. This houses the entire livable volume of the starship, including a dock for the Élyn-class microcutter at the bow, and a bay housing for the workpod. Rather than the typical stern mounting, the three Sunheart V fusion torches are located in nacelles set off from the hull on radiator pylons amidships, located 120 degrees apart; these nacelles are fully vectorable for maximum maneuverability.
The stern of the core hull instead contains the attachment points and winches for a 1,600 km tether, at whose fully extended end is in turn attached the spinhub. This is a simple unit containing monitoring equipment and a centrifugal ring, to which in turn are mounted eight further attachment points and associated tethers, terminating in heavy couplings. It is to these couplings that antimatter cryocels are mounted during loading, and dismounted upon arrival. In flight, the action of the centrifugal ring maintains appropriate safe distance between the core hull and the cryocels, and between the cryocels themselves, while also ensuring that jettisoned cryocels will move away from the main body of the starship in the event of containment failure.