The Vindicator (Origins)

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The Vindicator is the first interstellar spaceship created by humanity. You are its captain and your goal is to discover a way to stop the Scryve Empire from rubbing Earth and its inhabitants out. The Vindicator is a completely modular design, allowing you to replace its components as needed and upgrade from sturdy, but low-tech human devices to mysterious alien technologies.

The Vindicator can easily cross the vast expanse of space and only requires periodic refueling to refill its He3 reserves. Refueling can be done at any star base.

Statistics
The Vindicator is characterized by five statistics:


 * Recharge, which determines the speed at which your shields regenerate.
 * Acceleration, how fast you can reach the top speed.
 * Turn rate, how fast your ship turns.
 * Top speed, well...
 * Range, which shows how far away you can hit an enemy ship.

The statistics are changed by installing new modules on board the ship at star bases.

Lore
When Star Control was founded there were several proposals made for how humanity should proceed in its exploration of space. With the combined resources of the United Nations and a planetwide automated economy, there was much optimism in what we could accomplish within a relatively short time frame. These proposals included bases on Mars and Titan, the creation of a massive fleet and even generational deep space vessels.

One of the few ideas to survive those heady early days was the Vindicator-class spacecraft. The largest and most complicated space vehicle humanity has ever built, it was designed to accommodate all the expected and unexpected tasks a vessel of its class might be expected to fulfill by employing a high degree of modularity.

Multiple patron nations signed up the Vindicator Project, sending engineers, resources and technologies up to the yet still unfinished starbase in the Earth-Moon L4 point. Of course, this also came with certain expectations for crew selection. The maiden vessel, originally expected to launch in 2090, has a multi-national crew, although English remains the lingua franca for space-faring operations.

Propulsion
Nuclear fusion has been used on Earth for many years now. However, when Star Control was looking at creating a new interplanetary and potentially interstellar spacecraft, something better than the existing deuterium-tritium reactor technology would be needed. There had already been much research into possible aneutronic fusion reactor designs when the Vindicator-class designs were first drawn up.

Onboard every Vindicator-class vessel are four reactors, two primaries and two backups, which utilize a form of aneutronic fusion to directly generate electrical power. Aneutronic fusion means that we avoid the problems of neutronic radiation and ionization damage, and benefit from the consequently reduced shielding requirements.

The primary fuel source for these compact reactor designs is helium-3 which we have recovered in limited supply from the Moon. Jovian-type planets offer an abundance of helium-3 within their atmosphere and as our fleet expands we expect to source it directly from Jupiter and Saturn.

Modular design
Several key technologies were required for the creation of the modular framework of the Vindicator-class. One is the superstructure itself, strong yet flexible enough for the constant addition and removal of large hull sections during the spacecraft's service.

The primary hull of the Vindicator-class is comprised of a type of alloy formed in zero-gravity to create nanoscale gaps. These gaps, or bubbles as they are often called, add to the tensile strength of the superstructure while reducing mass and maintain flexibility of the classified alloy blend.

Another key technology is the network and control system that efficiently ties together both prosaic and esoteric technologies from different compartments. This system is built directly into the primary hull and allows Star Control to quickly outfit Vindicator-class vessels without extensive rewiring. Work that would normally take weeks or even months now can be done in a matter of hours.

Interstellar travel
The Vindicator-class was designed with interstellar travel as a long-term design goal. To this end, the class has incorporated a radical circular secondary hull. This was intended for the eventual outfitting of a proposed Alcubierre space-time warp drive. Whilst the energy and engineering requirements are still several years out from being solved we expected to have a working faster than light drive ready early in the 22nd century.

Each life support module is not only equipped for oxygen-regeneration but also automated food production. A downscaled version of the technology used on Earth, these auto-farms use genetically modified perennial crops in hydroponic pods and protein incubation vats to create a variety of grains, vegetables, fruits and even meats. All waste is in turn recycled for a completely self-sustaining system.

Artificial gravity and limited inertial dampening are provided by a modified version of the gravity-channelling technology used on our planetary landers. This proves very useful as local gravity in a local area can be modified to the degree that crewmembers are encouraged to take advantage of it during physical exercise. For recreation, the limited neural interfaces still permitted by law by the U.N. provide more than enough options for total immersion virtual reality.