The Charon class freighter is considered the first of its kind before the other three empires followed the State in producing massive industrial ships capable of moving literally fleets and other mass quantities of materiel in its cargo holds.
The Charon maintains standard starship design starting with the bridge. The bridge consists of three pits or sections including navigation, engineering, and cargo monitoring. The captain's raised dias and control panels sit near the rear of the bridge overlooking the bridge as a whole, with a massive, reinforced view port looking down the bow of the ship. With the advent of Capsuleer technology, a reinforced chamber was created behind the bridge to house said Capsule and its pilot. With an active Capsuleer having main control of the ship, many of the needed stations on the bridge are left vacant or minimally staffed with the exception of the cargo monitoring stations which maintains an active crew of ten to thirty individuals working five to ten people at a time.
Five massive main corridors run the length of the ship, three along the center axis and two more following the starboard and port sides of the ship. These corridor sections compromise of anywhere from ten to twenty-five decks each which branch off into access hatches into the various cargo holds or vaults of the ship.
The starboard side (right side of the ship from top down view) also contains access to one of the main engineering decks which controls one of the many reactors that gives power to two of the six main sub-light engines used in normal transit. At six junctions, it also contains access to the massive cargo vaults used to house and contain the biggest and most volatile cargo to include starships, capital ship components, and control towers. These cargo vaults are monitored from two deck observation pods attached to the middles of the walls on both sides to provide ease of access and monitoring.
The port side (left side of the ship from top down view) reaches from the bow (front) to the aft (rear) sections of the Charon, running just under 1.5 kilometers long, through five main decks and fifteen sub-decks leading to massive cargo vaults, regular cargo holds, and crew facilities of the ship. Near the aft, the corridor marries with the second main engineering area of the ship responsible for the secondary reactors of the ship which provide power to warp and sub-light engines as well as power for stasis vaults and normal cargo vaults.
The three main central corridors comprising of ten main decks and ten sub decks each, run the central length of the ship providing access to all areas of the ship including cargo vaults, holds, crew facilities, main engineering to include side access to the secondary and tertiary engineering decks. These corridors run about 1.4 kilometers long in total, shortened by access to various facilities in the bow and aft ares of the Charon.
A normal crew of approximately two thousand is kept onboard to monitor and maintain the Charon during its voyages, however with an installed Capsule, it's generally reduced to a crew of two to five hundred including the Capsuleer as well; the Capsuleer being able to monitor and control majority of ship systems solo, allows for a minimal crew to maintain the ship itself and any cargo being moved.
Crew quarters and facilities are located amidship (middle) and comprises of seven main decks and twelve sub decks used for recreation during shift downtime. The seven main decks still hold enough housing for two thousand crew, however in modern days most are left vacant and sealed. One of the sub decks is given over to an eating hall capable of sitting and feeding five hundred people at any given time, massive tables and benches lined in rows dominating the sterile deck, while a massive kitchen with a cooking crew of fifteen dominates the rear portion of the deck. The kitchen itself leads to refidgerated and freezer holds capable of holding five thousand tons of product and liquid used for feeding the crew during long trips.
The other eleven sub decks contain the recreational areas of the ship including a two kilometer long track, entertainment areas, a fused two deck gymnasium, and lecture halls for training and mission briefings. A security clearance deck is given over to security personnel when aboard the ship to provide training away from other crew to avoid injuries. A medical station is also located on one of the main sub decks, able to handle one hundred and fifty injured or sick crew members with a staff of thirty, with its own private hold containing medical supplies and intensive care units.
The engineering areas make up most of the aft sections of the ship with various observation pods and open decks overlooking the various reactors of the ship that provide power to the ship itself, warp engines, and sub-light engines. An engineering crew of roughly four hundred is normally maintained, but has been cut down to approximately seventy five with the installation of a Capsuleer pilot. The primary engineering maintains a crew of thirty five, the secondary maintains twenty five, and the tertiary maintains fifteen crew. Each area is connected via maintenance corridors and lifts allowing ease of access between them all in a case of emergency.
A Charon takes approximately ten days to build in a properly equipped starship factory or assembly yard. This is done by using roughly fifty thousand workers and ten thousand automated robots working in conjuction with one another throughout the process. When finished the nine hundred, sixty thousand kilogram ship is released from its berth and is towed into a specialized harbor or docking area inside a station to receive its crew and captain. Its massive cargo vaults and holds are able to move just under one million cubic meters of material and due its massive size moves ponderously slow, its engines only able to provide a maximum warp speed of point seven astronomical units a second (au/s); providing for extended warp durations and travel conditions.
As with most Caldari ships being built with utility in mind before anything else, it's color is a drab greyish-blue color in most of the ship, however changing in personal crew areas and the engineering decks in the aft sections of the ship.
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Topic: Information Dump :: Charon :: Caldari Standard Freighter (Read 2113 times)