Work In Progress, currently.
Name of nation: The Empire of the Drow (Known to the Drow as The Imperial State)
Species: The Drow of the Subterranean, The Coalition of the Zarterri (client state)
Empire size: 14 systems, controlling 57 planets and a further 78 planetoids, including satellites, asteroids and comets.
Description of government:
Once ruled by a Council of the six most powerful houses on Renorchu'tgera, the Drow government had been subverted by a rising Imperial movement demanding the creation of an Empire as they expanded to the stars. The First of Six, Jhulva Aleaniryn, was selected to be the new Imperial head of state, however she immediately abdicated in favour of her descendant, Vierinissa, who accepted the new role. Under Vierinissa's rule, the Imperial State has been transformed from a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked morass into a sleek, efficient system, well-ordered and well-disciplined. The actual government of the Imperial State is equally ordered. The Empress rules the whole Imperial State, and devolves power to regional governors, often the heads of powerful Houses such as House Koslenko, House Kilath and House My'athar. These regional governors have near-total authority in their sector of space, and can only be overruled by the Empress herself. The sole exception is the system of Renorchu'tgera and the eponymous planet that is the Drow homeworld, which is ruled by the Empress and the Empress alone. The regional governors further devolve power to system governors and planetary supervisors, often members of the same House - some argue that gives the Houses tremendous power. This is solved by placing the armed forces of the Imperial State under the command of the Empress and the Imperial Council.
Description of military:
The largest and most well-known arm of the Imperial Military, the Imperial Navy numbers somewhere between 900-1000 ships at maximum deployment.
Ship class: Deity-class Battleship
Ship role: Flagship, heavy combat ship
Main armaments: Antimatter beam arrays, 16 M-10A missile launchers (1500 missiles), 16 M12-50B missile launchers (512 missiles)
Point defence armaments: Quad-mounted particle beam turret arrays
Defences: Imperial Flagship-Type Shielding, incorporating deflection fields, energy shielding and limited stealth fields. Armoured in standard Imperial State TSA Mark I.
Power plant: Triple antimatter reactors, producing 120 TW of power.
Engine: Twin Imperial State Flagship Warp Drives
Crew: 1.5 million
Ship class: Cormorant-class Battleship
Ship role: Heavy fast combat ship
Main armaments: Antimatter beam arrays, 15 M-10A missile launchers (900 missiles), 12 M12-50B missile launchers (144 missiles)
Point defence armaments: Quad-mounted particle beam turret arrays
Defences: Imperial Flagship-Type Shielding, incorporating deflection fields, energy shielding and limited stealth fields. Armoured in standard Imperial State TSA Mark I.
Power plant: Quadruple antimatter reactors, producing 100 TW of power.
Engine: Imperial State Flagship Warp Drive
Crew: 750,000
Ship class: Kingdom-class Battlecruiser
Ship role: Heavy combat ship, anti-convoy duties
Main armaments: Antimatter beam arrays, 10 M-10A missile launchers (900 missiles), 10 M12-50B missile launchers (100 missiles)
Point defence armaments: Quad-mounted particle beam turret arrays
Defences: Imperial Heavy Shielding, incorporating deflection fields and energy shields. Armoured in standard Imperial State TSA Mark I.
Power plant: Triple antimatter reactors, producing 75 TW of power.
Engine: Imperial State Flagship Warp Drive
Crew: 128,000
Ship class: Hatred-class heavy cruiser
Ship role: Medium combat ship, convoy flagship duties
Main armaments: Antimatter beam arrays, 10 M-10A missile launchers (500 missiles), 5 M12-50B missile launchers (30 missiles)
Point defence armaments: Quad-mounted particle beam turret arrays
Defences: Imperial Heavy Shielding, incorporating deflection fields and energy shields. Armoured in standard Imperial State TSA Mark I.
Power plant: Triple antimatter reactors, producing 75 TW of power.
Engine: Imperial State Large Ship Warp Drive
Crew: 32,000
Ship class: Defiant-class heavy cruiser
Ship role: Medium fast combat ship, shield ship
Main armaments: Antimatter beam arrays, 15 M-10A missile launchers (600 missiles)
Point defence armaments: Quad-mounted particle beam turret arrays
Defences: Imperial Flagship-Type Shielding, incorporating deflection fields, energy shielding and limited stealth fields. Armoured in standard Imperial State TSA Mark I.
Power plant: Quadruple antimatter reactors, producing 100 TW of power.
Engine: Twin Imperial State Light Ship Warp Drives
Crew: 32,000
Ship class: Defender-class light cruiser
Ship role: Light combat ship
Main armaments: Antimatter beam arrays, 10 M-10A missile launchers (200 missiles), 1 M12-50B launcher (5 missiles)
Point defence armaments: Quad-mounted particle beam turret arrays
Defences: Imperial Cruiser Shielding, incorporating deflection fields and energy shields. Armoured in standard Imperial State TSA Mark I.
Power plant: Quadruple antimatter reactors, producing 40 TW of power.
Engine: Twin Imperial State Light Ship Warp Drives
Crew: 8,000
Ship class: Harland-class light cruiser
Ship role: Light combat ship, convoy escort duty
Main armaments: Antimatter beam arrays, 10 M-10A missile launchers (250 missiles)
Point defence armaments: Dual-mounted particle beam turret arrays
Defences: Imperial Cruiser Shielding, incorporating deflection fields and energy shields. Armoured in standard Imperial State TSA Mark I.
Power plant: Quadruple antimatter reactors, producing 40 TW of power.
Engine: Imperial State Cruiser Warp Drive
Crew: 8,000
Ship class: V & W-class destroyer
Ship role: Light combat duty, torpedo boat, screening ship
Main armaments: Antimatter beam arrays, 10 M-10A missile launchers (600 missiles)
Point defence armaments: Dual-mounted particle beam turret arrays
Defences: Imperial Light Ship Shielding, incorporating improved deflection fields and energy shields. Armoured in standard Imperial State TSA Mark I.
Power plant: Quadruple antimatter reactors, producing 40 TW of power.
Engine: Imperial State Light Ship Warp Drive
Crew: 2,000
Ship class: A & B-class destroyer
Ship role: Light combat duty, screening ship
Main armaments: Antimatter beam arrays, 10 M-10A missile launchers (60 missiles)
Point defence armaments: Octo-mounted particle beam arrays
Defences: Imperial Light Ship Shielding, incorporating improved deflection fields and energy shields. Armoured in standard Imperial State TSA Mark I.
Power plant: Twin antimatter reactors, producing 20 TW of power.
Engine: Twin Imperial State Light Ship Warp Drives
Crew: 2,000
Technological Overview:Power Generation:The Imperial State uses antimatter reactors as its main source of power generation. These reactors contain a hydrogen-antihydrogen annihilation reaction chamber which generates copious quantities of energy in the form of heat and light - the antimatter and the reaction are contained by powerful magnetic fields that are generated from huge electromagnets that ring the reaction chamber. The heat from this reaction is used to heat water to steam, which turns a turbine in much the same manner as a fusion or fission reactor would do on 21st century Earth, but on a much larger scale. Power generation from these reactors is similarly on a much larger scale, and Imperial State shipbuilding technology incorporate both antimatter reactors for main power and cold fusion reactors for secondary power generation. Whilst the antimatter reactor serves its purpose admirably, the Imperial State is researching into even more efficient and effective methods of powering its cities, industries and starships. In addition to antimatter reactors, the Imperial State uses cold fusion reactors as secondary power generators throughout the Empire. Safer, less expensive and easier to produce, cold fusion reactors do not require the production of antimatter, instead relying on the tried and tested fusion of tritium and deuterium to form helium-4 to produce energy at room temperature.
Offensive Technology:The Imperial State's primary ship-based weapons are known as 'Directed Antiparticle Arrays' to scientists. They are, in effect, antiparticle beam weapons, using the principles of a particle beam but applied to antimatter. These antiparticles are accelerated to 0.25c using gravitic impellers and fired down a 'barrel' which acts as a guidance system for the beam. Almost all warships of the Imperial State carry these weapons in varying sizes and quantity, but they are no less dangerous. The AP cannons are augmented by quadruple-mounted particle beam turret arrays for anti-missile and anti-fighter duty on all but the smallest warships of the Imperial State.
The standard missile of the Imperial State is the M12-10A, a missile carrying an antimatter-matter annihilation warhead containing somewhere in the region of 3-3.5 lbs of antimatter, creating a missile with a standard blast yield of approximately 54 megatons of explosive force. The M-10A is designed with a kinetic penetrator which allows the missile to penetrate the hull of the hostile starship and explode either inside the armour or even inside the hull for maximum damage potential. Most small craft of the Imperial Navy is outfitted with M12-10A launchers as well as light defence armaments, which render even the smallest of Imperial warships a very dangerous foe.
The largest of all of the missiles ever created by the Imperial State is unquestionably the M12-50B. It has been referred to by many names; the Planet-Cracker, the Hand of the Gods, even the Doomsday Missile. Those on the receiving end of the planet-cracker have a right to fear. Armed with 12 high-yield 50B warheads containing approximately 300 pounds of antimatter and matter to react (hence the name, M12-50B), the estimated blast yield of one missile is on the order of 70 gigatons, whilst a full volley of 16 missiles will deliver something along the order of 1.12 teratons of explosive force. The M12-50B is used for planetary bombardment first and foremost - use against enemy shipping is highly inadvisable according to naval tacticians. However, there have been instances (such as the Attack on Zarterrus Prime) where the M12-50B has been successfully used against hostile starships, in particular the Zarterri dreadnought
Carloman which was hit by a single missile from the Drow cruiser
Black Sun, vaporising the
Carloman almost instantly, throwing the Zarterri centre into disorganisation - the
Carloman was the admiral's ship in defence of Zarterrus Prime, and with the
Carloman's destruction, command and control collapsed and the Imperial State was victorious.
Defensive Technology:Imperial defensive technology is largely based on the development of shielding and stealth fields. The hulls of Imperial warships are armoured in a thick metal alloy of iridium and titanium, into which is woven layers of thermally superconductive materials such as carbon nanotubes and other fullerenes to defeat laser and thermal-based attacks, including plasma weaponry. Inside the ship, structural reinforcement fields operate almost as a second layer of shielding, reinforcing areas of the hull that are under great duress from enemy fire or spacebound hazards. However, Imperial ships are not built or designed to take damage for extended periods of time on the hull, preferring instead to allow the shields to absorb incoming fire.
Imperial shield technology incorporates a bi-phasic defensive system. The first is a deflection field that operates by projecting an equalising force against incoming projectile weapons, such as missiles, railgun and coilgun slugs and cannon shells. Though the deflection fields are powerful, they have the risk of being overloaded by a large quantity of incoming projectiles, which means the ship in question must fall back on the mainstay of Imperial shielding - the modular force field array. The shields used by Imperial ships convert energy of incoming attacks (be they kinetic, laser, particle or plasma-based) into heat and electrical energy, allowing for not only partial 'regeneration' of the shields after each hit, but ship captains can also direct energy from hits on the shielding to weapons, engines or sensors should the need arise. However, such an act is dangerous and carries a risk of shorting out some areas of the ship's systems due to the unexpected power of some shots absorbed by shielding. In this instance, it is advised that ship captains allow the shield generators to work as normal, maintaining shield regeneration rather than redirecting power to alternative systems. An example of this was when the battlecruiser
Dominate was hit by a Zarterri spinal plasma beam, which the captain of the battlecruiser unwisely opted to convert to extra power for the engines. Instead, the engines shorted out, leaving the battlecruiser a sitting duck for follow-up fire. Fortunately, the
Dominate's shields were able to hold up under the Zarterri fire long enough for the battlecruiser to defeat the enemy.
-IMPERIAL STEALTH TECHNOLOGY TO COME-
Cultural Overview:
History:
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