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Description
During the Cold War, from 1960 to 1970, the US devised a project to examine the possibility making a spacecraft that could make interplanetary flights easy by detonating nuclear shape charges behind it. Many tests were done with high explosives and test models at testing ranges. However, the project, known as Project Orion, was abandoned because of the Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the concern of nuclear fallout.

For the US's secret space program, testing continued in the highest level of secrecy. Larger models, called "Hot Rods", were tested using small nuclear shape charges under the cover of underground nuclear bomb tests (Project Plowshare) where an underground nuke would be focused into the back of the craft's shock absorber. The tests proved to be a major success as compact nuclear shape charges launched the models into orbit faster than any rocket ever could similarly to the Thunder Well tests. The exhaust velocity of the blasts created meganewtons of thrust per charge. Once the tests were completed, it was time to make a manned prototype to use in space. The first test vehicle had a mass of about 880 tons with a crew of 20. To prevent the charges from interfering with ground-based electronics and being detected on Earth by foreign adversaries, the craft accelerated when it reached the far-side of the Moon using conventional drop-rockets. Since it was manned, max acceleration couldn't be more than 4 g's. However, the craft accelerated to Mars in 7 days when Mars was at its closest approach to Earth and swung back to Earth in no-time.

After the Apollo missions came about, the first generation of space Orion freighters and gunships were launched to patrol and supply space installations for the implementation of Camp Horizon (Project Horizon) on the Moon's North Pole using conventional drop-tank propellants where interplanetary flight would be through the pulsed fission drive. During the formation of Space Force, the existing Orion class cruisers were reinstated from the Air Force to the Space Force. Conventional gunships, which made of most of the Space Force fleet, were mainly used for interlunar flights and the Orion spacecraft were reserved for interplanetary flights due to cost. During WW3 over the Moon, the US Space Force had a total of 16 Orion-class ships in four different classes. The Block 3 variants involved replacing the conventional cannons with railguns and lasers.

Classes:

- Superbattleship or "Elongated Advanced Interplanetary" (1): 48.81 kT (mass), 400 m (length).
- Battleship or "Advanced Interplanetary" (3): 10 kT, 85 m.
- Battlecruiser or "Interplanetary" (4): 4 kT, 60 m.
- NASA Superfreighter or "Speed Hauler" (1): 300 m.
- NASA Freighter or "Speed Hauler" (6): 2 kT, 75 m.

Once EATA space forces detected these ships, they immediately began work on making versions of their own. The biggest challenge wasn't building them, it was getting them into space to begin with. NATO defense platforms commonly zapped their rockets launches with laser satellites to prevent parity of space dominance. NATO knew they wouldn't start a nuclear war over a space launch attack, but that wouldn't last. This was an issue EATA faced when launching their first generation of gunships at the end of Cold War 2. To get around this, countries like Russia and China, coated their massive rockets with thick aramid fiber laser shielding, laser countermeasures, and satellite jammers. Once enough EATA gunships got into orbit, for NATO, it became either attacking the launch facilitates directly and starting a nuclear war to stop them while risking Kessler Syndrome or tolerate EATA warships in space and just fight them near the Moon. The biggest disadvantage of these ships was their bomb signature which made them easily detectable, especially during deceleration, but their range and speed compensated enough for that.

Specifications:

Commissioned:

- Block 1: 1980 AD
- Block 2: 2010 AD
- Block 3: 2035 AD

Class:

- Guided-Missile Battleship ["Advanced Interplanetary"].
- Generation: Block 3.

Ship ID:

- BBG-9001

Dimensions:

- Length: 85 m
- Hull Diameter: 56 m

Mass:

- Mass: 10 kT
- Payload Mass: 1.755 kT
- Full Mass: 11,755 kT

Thrust:

- Acceleration: 4 g's
- Unmanned Acceleration: 100 g's

Heat Signature:

- Ambient Heat: ~ 400 MW
- Peak Heat: ~ 1 GW

Hull Armor:

- Outer Hull: Reinforced Steel-Steel Grade 301 [1.05 cm].
- Intermediate Hull: Proteus Aluminum Foam Whipple Shields [1mm layers].
- Inner Hull: PBO Fiber Spall Liner [1mm layers].

Radiation Shielding:

- Ionizing Radiation (X-Rays, Gamma-Rays, Alpha-Beta Decay): Selenomelanin Biopolymer Panels and
Crew Module Heavy-Water Bladders.
- Ionized Particles (Solar Wind, Cosmic Rays, Low-Power Particle Beams): 100 Gauss Hybrid
Electromagnet 'Force Field' (Artificial Magnetosphere).

Plasmasphere Force Field:

- The ship can inject and trap plasma into its inner artificial magnetosphere (plasma magnetoshell) and make it dense enough to absorb laser light through the Inverse Bremsstrahlung Effect! This helps with deducing laser damage on the ship's hull. However, it is nowhere near as powerful as sci-fi shields as in vaporizing bullets or deflecting high-energy beams with zero damage.

Armament:

- Kinetic Weapons:
-- Deck Guns: 'Blitzers'
    --- 4 30MW 127mm Autofire Railguns: Fires 127mm Depleted-Uranium Tipped Green-Tracer
Steel Sabots at Mach 6.
-- Point-Defense Autocannons: 'Testudo CIWS'
    --- 8 30mm Rolling-Airframe Missile CIWS Turrets: Fires 30mm Caliber Red-Tracer Rounds.
- Directed Energy Weapons:
-- Main Solid-State Laser: 'Blazer'
    --- 2 3.09MW Gimballed Ti:Sapphire Violet Lasers (Pulsed, 100MW Input Power).
- Guided Projectiles:
-- Short-Range Missiles: 'RAMs'
    --- 16 Rolling-Airframe Missile Launchers: Each - 12 RIM-116 Missiles (CO2 Altitude Control
            Thrusters).
-- 2 Fleet-Buster Torpedo Silos: 'Torpedoes'
    --- Ship Silo: Each - 30 AI-Guided 100MT Thermonuclear Torpedoes (Nitromethane Rocket Motor,
CO2 Altitude Control Thrusters).

Countermeasures:

- 1 ECM Launcher:
-- Radar Tracking: Chaff Dispensers.
-- Heat Tracking: 1GW Nuclear Flares.
- 1 Launcher:
-- Quantum Dot 'Perfect' Decoys.

Avionics:

- Insulated Wiring.
- High-Temperature Superconducting Wires.
- [Weapon Charge] Graphene Ultracapacitors.

Power Plant:

- 1 221 MW Thermoelectric Fission Reactor.
- Minimum Power Output: 200 MW.
- Maximum Power Output: 221 MW.

Thermal Control:

- 4 Long Amorphous Carbon Waste Heat Radiators: Cools the Weapons, Crew Compartment, and the Main Reactor.

Thrusters:

- Main Thruster: Pulsed Fission Drive [31 km/s Exhaust Velocity; 800 Bombs, 0.35 kT Bomb Yield].
- Altitude Control Thrusters: Hydrazine Propellant.

Sensors:

- Omnidetectors: Detects All Particles in the Standard Model (Except Neutrinos).
- Multispectral Hull Cameras: View of the Ship's Exterior.
- Polaris-H Cameras: Highlights Radiation Zones.
- Terrain Mapping: LiDAR Scanners.
- Subterrain Mapping: TeraHertz Quantum Imaging.
- Magnetosphere Tracking: Sensitive Magnetometers.

Detectors:

- Nose-Cone Infrared/Optical Telescopes: Detects Ship Signatures.
- Active Long-Range Multifunction Radar: 4 AN/SPY-6 Phased Array Quantum Radar Antennas
[S-Band, Internal].
- Passive Close-Range Radar: CIWS AN/SPG-62C Fire Control Quantum Radar [I-Band and J-Band].
- GRADAR ('Space Sonar'): Detects Gravity Waves That Bounce Off Ship Surfaces Through
Hypersensitive Interferometry (Weber Bars).

Detector Range:

- Ship Heat Signatures: ~ 3 AU.
- Long-Range Radar: ~ 1,000km.
- Mid-Range Radar: ~ 500km.
- Short Range Radar: ~ 100km.
- Close-Range Radar ~ 10km.

Engagement Range:

- Long-Range Combat: ~ 10,000km.
- Mid-Range Combat: ~ 1,000km.
- Short-Range Combat: ~ 500km.
- Close-Range Combat: ~ 100km.
- Close-Quarters Combat: ~ 10km.

Fire Groups:

- Group A: Fleet-Buster Torpedoes.
- Group B: Railgun Batteries.
- Group C: Main Laser.
- Group D: CIWS and RAM Point-Defense.

CIC Alert System:

- Alert 1: battlestations, gunners at post, ready to engage in 1 minute.
- Alert 2: sound general quarters, weapons ready to engage in 2 minutes.
- Alert 3: heightened readiness, weapons charged, ready to engage in 3 minutes.
- Alert 4: heightened awareness, weapons charging, ready to engage in 4 minutes.
- Alert 5: raised awareness, weapons idle, ready to engage in 5 minutes.

Threat Classes:

- Class A: potent and immediate threat.
- Class B: immediate threat.
- Class C: potent threat.
- Class D: neither.

Warning System:

- Master Warning: an enemy weapon system or ship fault directly threatens the ship and requires
immediate attention.
- Master Caution: enemy radar is tracking the ship or ship fault that requires attention but does not
threaten the ship.
- Memos Advisory: abnormal ship function or unusual movement near the ship that does not pose a
threat to the ship.

Communications [Internal]:

- Deep Space Communications: AN/URN-25E Quantum Radio Dish Antenna - 145MHz
- Encryption: Entangled Radio Pulses.
- Local Space Communications: 4 QE-82 Quantum Radio Dish Antennas.
- Radio Receivers: 5 Fractal Metamaterial Antennas [Best Possible Radio Receiver Surface Area].
- Ship ID: Optoelectronic Coherent Laser Array (IFF Transponder).

Storage:

- 1 1kT Cargo Module.

Complement:

- Atmospheric Reentry: X-37C Space Shuttle.
- Non-Atmospheric Landing: DC-X Nuclear Ascent-Descent Vehicle.

Crew Module:

- 145-Person Crew Module: 15 In-Airlock and At-Space Officer Cabins and 26 5-Person Crew Cabins.
- Life Support: Algae Bioreactor Units (Food-Oxygen Recycling), Shungite Wastewater Treatment, and
Graphene Air Circulation and Filtration.
- Ambient Noise Dampers: Acoustic Metamaterial Noise Cancellation.

Crew: 136 Personnel

- Administration: 15
-- 1 Captain.
-- 1 First Officer.
-- 2 Yeoman.
-- 6 Logistics Officers.
-- 3 Cooks.
-- 2 Doctors.
- Operations: 28
-- 6 Sensor Specialists.
-- 6 Comms Officers.
-- 6 Astronavigation Officers.
-- 1 Cargo Unloader.
-- 3 Waste and Water Technicians.
-- 3 Air Circulation Technicians.
-- 3 Shape Charge Despenser Operators.
- Engineering: 66
-- 1 Chief Engineer.
-- 3 221 MW Fission Reactor Technicians.
-- 7 Nuclear Reactor Engineers.
-- 24 Nuclear Reactor Technicians.
-- 1 100MW Ti:Sapphire Violet Laser Technician.
-- 2 30MW 127mm Autofire Railgun Technicians.
-- 2 Radar Technicians.
-- 3 30mm RAM CIWS Technicians.
-- 3 Radiator Technicians.
-- 6 Engine Technicians.
-- 4 Shape Charge Despenser Technicians.
-- 10 0.35 kT Shape Charge Technicians.
- Weapons: 17
-- 3 EW Specialists.
-- 1 100MW Ti:Sapphire Violet Laser Gunner.
-- 4 30mm RAM CIWS Gunners.
-- 2 30MW 127mm Autofire Railgun Gunners.
-- 2 Silo Technicians.
-- 2 Thermonuclear Torpedo Technicians.
-- 2 ECM Launcher Technicians.
-- 1 Decoy Launcher Technician.
- Space-Wing: 10
-- 2 Tactical Pilots.
-- 1 X-37C Technician.
-- 1 DC-X Technician.
-- 2 DC-X Pilots.
-- 2 X-37C Pilots.
-- 2 Thermonuclear Torpedo Fly-by-Wire Pilots.

Description
During the Cold War, from 1960 to 1970, the US devised a project to examine the possibility making a spacecraft that could make interplanetary flights easy by detonating nuclear shape charges behind it. Many tests were done with high explosives and test models at testing ranges. However, the project, known as Project Orion, was abandoned because of the Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the concern of nuclear fallout.

For the US's secret space program, testing continued in the highest level of secrecy. Larger models, called "Hot Rods", were tested using small nuclear shape charges under the cover of underground nuclear bomb tests (Project Plowshare) where an underground nuke would be focused into the back of the craft's shock absorber. The tests proved to be a major success as compact nuclear shape charges launched the models into orbit faster than any rocket ever could similarly to the Thunder Well tests. The exhaust velocity of the blasts created meganewtons of thrust per charge. Once the tests were completed, it was time to make a manned prototype to use in space. The first test vehicle had a mass of about 880 tons with a crew of 20. To prevent the charges from interfering with ground-based electronics and being detected on Earth by foreign adversaries, the craft accelerated when it reached the far-side of the Moon using conventional drop-rockets. Since it was manned, max acceleration couldn't be more than 4 g's. However, the craft accelerated to Mars in 7 days when Mars was at its closest approach to Earth and swung back to Earth in no-time.

After the Apollo missions came about, the first generation of space Orion freighters and gunships were launched to patrol and supply space installations for the implementation of Camp Horizon (Project Horizon) on the Moon's North Pole using conventional drop-tank propellants where interplanetary flight would be through the pulsed fission drive. During the formation of Space Force, the existing Orion class cruisers were reinstated from the Air Force to the Space Force. Conventional gunships, which made of most of the Space Force fleet, were mainly used for interlunar flights and the Orion spacecraft were reserved for interplanetary flights due to cost. During WW3 over the Moon, the US Space Force had a total of 16 Orion-class ships in four different classes. The Block 3 variants involved replacing the conventional cannons with railguns and lasers.

Classes:

- Superbattleship or "Elongated Advanced Interplanetary" (1): 48.81 kT (mass), 400 m (length).
- Battleship or "Advanced Interplanetary" (3): 10 kT, 85 m.
- Battlecruiser or "Interplanetary" (4): 4 kT, 60 m.
- NASA Superfreighter or "Speed Hauler" (1): 300 m.
- NASA Freighter or "Speed Hauler" (6): 2 kT, 75 m.

Once EATA space forces detected these ships, they immediately began work on making versions of their own. The biggest challenge wasn't building them, it was getting them into space to begin with. NATO defense platforms commonly zapped their rockets launches with laser satellites to prevent parity of space dominance. NATO knew they wouldn't start a nuclear war over a space launch attack, but that wouldn't last. This was an issue EATA faced when launching their first generation of gunships at the end of Cold War 2. To get around this, countries like Russia and China, coated their massive rockets with thick aramid fiber laser shielding, laser countermeasures, and satellite jammers. Once enough EATA gunships got into orbit, for NATO, it became either attacking the launch facilitates directly and starting a nuclear war to stop them while risking Kessler Syndrome or tolerate EATA warships in space and just fight them near the Moon. The biggest disadvantage of these ships was their bomb signature which made them easily detectable, especially during deceleration, but their range and speed compensated enough for that.

Specifications:

Commissioned:

- Block 1: 1980 AD
- Block 2: 2010 AD
- Block 3: 2035 AD

Class:

- Guided-Missile Battleship ["Advanced Interplanetary"].
- Generation: Block 3.

Ship ID:

- BBG-9001

Dimensions:

- Length: 85 m
- Hull Diameter: 56 m

Mass:

- Mass: 10 kT
- Payload Mass: 1.755 kT
- Full Mass: 11,755 kT

Thrust:

- Acceleration: 4 g's
- Unmanned Acceleration: 100 g's

Heat Signature:

- Ambient Heat: ~ 400 MW
- Peak Heat: ~ 1 GW

Hull Armor:

- Outer Hull: Reinforced Steel-Steel Grade 301 [1.05 cm].
- Intermediate Hull: Proteus Aluminum Foam Whipple Shields [1mm layers].
- Inner Hull: PBO Fiber Spall Liner [1mm layers].

Radiation Shielding:

- Ionizing Radiation (X-Rays, Gamma-Rays, Alpha-Beta Decay): Selenomelanin Biopolymer Panels and
Crew Module Heavy-Water Bladders.
- Ionized Particles (Solar Wind, Cosmic Rays, Low-Power Particle Beams): 100 Gauss Hybrid
Electromagnet 'Force Field' (Artificial Magnetosphere).

Plasmasphere Force Field:

- The ship can inject and trap plasma into its inner artificial magnetosphere (plasma magnetoshell) and make it dense enough to absorb laser light through the Inverse Bremsstrahlung Effect! This helps with deducing laser damage on the ship's hull. However, it is nowhere near as powerful as sci-fi shields as in vaporizing bullets or deflecting high-energy beams with zero damage.

Armament:

- Kinetic Weapons:
-- Deck Guns: 'Blitzers'
    --- 4 30MW 127mm Autofire Railguns: Fires 127mm Depleted-Uranium Tipped Green-Tracer
Steel Sabots at Mach 6.
-- Point-Defense Autocannons: 'Testudo CIWS'
    --- 8 30mm Rolling-Airframe Missile CIWS Turrets: Fires 30mm Caliber Red-Tracer Rounds.
- Directed Energy Weapons:
-- Main Solid-State Laser: 'Blazer'
    --- 2 3.09MW Gimballed Ti:Sapphire Violet Lasers (Pulsed, 100MW Input Power).
- Guided Projectiles:
-- Short-Range Missiles: 'RAMs'
    --- 16 Rolling-Airframe Missile Launchers: Each - 12 RIM-116 Missiles (CO2 Altitude Control
            Thrusters).
-- 2 Fleet-Buster Torpedo Silos: 'Torpedoes'
    --- Ship Silo: Each - 30 AI-Guided 100MT Thermonuclear Torpedoes (Nitromethane Rocket Motor,
CO2 Altitude Control Thrusters).

Countermeasures:

- 1 ECM Launcher:
-- Radar Tracking: Chaff Dispensers.
-- Heat Tracking: 1GW Nuclear Flares.
- 1 Launcher:
-- Quantum Dot 'Perfect' Decoys.

Avionics:

- Insulated Wiring.
- High-Temperature Superconducting Wires.
- [Weapon Charge] Graphene Ultracapacitors.

Power Plant:

- 1 221 MW Thermoelectric Fission Reactor.
- Minimum Power Output: 200 MW.
- Maximum Power Output: 221 MW.

Thermal Control:

- 4 Long Amorphous Carbon Waste Heat Radiators: Cools the Weapons, Crew Compartment, and the Main Reactor.

Thrusters:

- Main Thruster: Pulsed Fission Drive [31 km/s Exhaust Velocity; 800 Bombs, 0.35 kT Bomb Yield].
- Altitude Control Thrusters: Hydrazine Propellant.

Sensors:

- Omnidetectors: Detects All Particles in the Standard Model (Except Neutrinos).
- Multispectral Hull Cameras: View of the Ship's Exterior.
- Polaris-H Cameras: Highlights Radiation Zones.
- Terrain Mapping: LiDAR Scanners.
- Subterrain Mapping: TeraHertz Quantum Imaging.
- Magnetosphere Tracking: Sensitive Magnetometers.

Detectors:

- Nose-Cone Infrared/Optical Telescopes: Detects Ship Signatures.
- Active Long-Range Multifunction Radar: 4 AN/SPY-6 Phased Array Quantum Radar Antennas
[S-Band, Internal].
- Passive Close-Range Radar: CIWS AN/SPG-62C Fire Control Quantum Radar [I-Band and J-Band].
- GRADAR ('Space Sonar'): Detects Gravity Waves That Bounce Off Ship Surfaces Through
Hypersensitive Interferometry (Weber Bars).

Detector Range:

- Ship Heat Signatures: ~ 3 AU.
- Long-Range Radar: ~ 1,000km.
- Mid-Range Radar: ~ 500km.
- Short Range Radar: ~ 100km.
- Close-Range Radar ~ 10km.

Engagement Range:

- Long-Range Combat: ~ 10,000km.
- Mid-Range Combat: ~ 1,000km.
- Short-Range Combat: ~ 500km.
- Close-Range Combat: ~ 100km.
- Close-Quarters Combat: ~ 10km.

Fire Groups:

- Group A: Fleet-Buster Torpedoes.
- Group B: Railgun Batteries.
- Group C: Main Laser.
- Group D: CIWS and RAM Point-Defense.

CIC Alert System:

- Alert 1: battlestations, gunners at post, ready to engage in 1 minute.
- Alert 2: sound general quarters, weapons ready to engage in 2 minutes.
- Alert 3: heightened readiness, weapons charged, ready to engage in 3 minutes.
- Alert 4: heightened awareness, weapons charging, ready to engage in 4 minutes.
- Alert 5: raised awareness, weapons idle, ready to engage in 5 minutes.

Threat Classes:

- Class A: potent and immediate threat.
- Class B: immediate threat.
- Class C: potent threat.
- Class D: neither.

Warning System:

- Master Warning: an enemy weapon system or ship fault directly threatens the ship and requires
immediate attention.
- Master Caution: enemy radar is tracking the ship or ship fault that requires attention but does not
threaten the ship.
- Memos Advisory: abnormal ship function or unusual movement near the ship that does not pose a
threat to the ship.

Communications [Internal]:

- Deep Space Communications: AN/URN-25E Quantum Radio Dish Antenna - 145MHz
- Encryption: Entangled Radio Pulses.
- Local Space Communications: 4 QE-82 Quantum Radio Dish Antennas.
- Radio Receivers: 5 Fractal Metamaterial Antennas [Best Possible Radio Receiver Surface Area].
- Ship ID: Optoelectronic Coherent Laser Array (IFF Transponder).

Storage:

- 1 1kT Cargo Module.

Complement:

- Atmospheric Reentry: X-37C Space Shuttle.
- Non-Atmospheric Landing: DC-X Nuclear Ascent-Descent Vehicle.

Crew Module:

- 145-Person Crew Module: 15 In-Airlock and At-Space Officer Cabins and 26 5-Person Crew Cabins.
- Life Support: Algae Bioreactor Units (Food-Oxygen Recycling), Shungite Wastewater Treatment, and
Graphene Air Circulation and Filtration.
- Ambient Noise Dampers: Acoustic Metamaterial Noise Cancellation.

Crew: 136 Personnel

- Administration: 15
-- 1 Captain.
-- 1 First Officer.
-- 2 Yeoman.
-- 6 Logistics Officers.
-- 3 Cooks.
-- 2 Doctors.
- Operations: 28
-- 6 Sensor Specialists.
-- 6 Comms Officers.
-- 6 Astronavigation Officers.
-- 1 Cargo Unloader.
-- 3 Waste and Water Technicians.
-- 3 Air Circulation Technicians.
-- 3 Shape Charge Despenser Operators.
- Engineering: 66
-- 1 Chief Engineer.
-- 3 221 MW Fission Reactor Technicians.
-- 7 Nuclear Reactor Engineers.
-- 24 Nuclear Reactor Technicians.
-- 1 100MW Ti:Sapphire Violet Laser Technician.
-- 2 30MW 127mm Autofire Railgun Technicians.
-- 2 Radar Technicians.
-- 3 30mm RAM CIWS Technicians.
-- 3 Radiator Technicians.
-- 6 Engine Technicians.
-- 4 Shape Charge Despenser Technicians.
-- 10 0.35 kT Shape Charge Technicians.
- Weapons: 17
-- 3 EW Specialists.
-- 1 100MW Ti:Sapphire Violet Laser Gunner.
-- 4 30mm RAM CIWS Gunners.
-- 2 30MW 127mm Autofire Railgun Gunners.
-- 2 Silo Technicians.
-- 2 Thermonuclear Torpedo Technicians.
-- 2 ECM Launcher Technicians.
-- 1 Decoy Launcher Technician.
- Space-Wing: 10
-- 2 Tactical Pilots.
-- 1 X-37C Technician.
-- 1 DC-X Technician.
-- 2 DC-X Pilots.
-- 2 X-37C Pilots.
-- 2 Thermonuclear Torpedo Fly-by-Wire Pilots.