ORA'ON Experimental Craft
When the U.S.S. Voyager returned from its Odyssey to the Delta Quadrant, they brought with them a number of new technologies. One of these technologies was the Slipstream Engine, a new means of FTL transportation capable of speeds vastly beyond anything one could achieve with contemporary warp drives. Starfleet began analyzing this new technology and eventually fitted the U.S.S. Aventine, a Vesta-class multi-mission explorer, with an experimental slipstream drive.
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Having received data on the slipstream drive through connections and favors, the Royal Navy of Austreya began construction of their own slipstream capable ship. Many years earlier, the Austreydian FTL physicist Anu Ora'on C'axa had already published his take on the principle of slipstream drive, but his research was deemed to theoretical and impossible to put into practice as no material was known that could be used as a focus to create the necessary quantum field. Voyager brought back the answer: benamite crystals.
However, synthesizing benamite crystals was extremely difficult and time-consuming, and the synthetic crystals would decay quickly. Natural benamite was more stable, but exceedingly rare. As such, the Austreydians considered it unsuitable for practical use. However, now understanding the properties of benamite, they were able to develop a different artificial crystal with similar properties, which they called "moxone'en".
Moxone'en was less effective than benamite. While a benamite-based slipstream drive could be powered by fusion reactors, only a matter-antimatter reactor could provide enough power for a moxone'en-based drive. So, an Austreydian slipstream-capable vessel would still require a warp core. This was fine for them, since they would not risk for the ship to be stranded at sublight should the slipstream drive fail anyway, but it is the reason why the Austreydian slipstream drive was not any more feasible in the 32nd century as any other drive. Another disadvantage of the moxone'en crystals was that they would have to be replaced more often than benamite crystals. However, they were much easier to synthesize, in fact, a ship could do that on its own with little difficulty.
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This lead to the development of the ORA'ON Experimental Craft. Having taken multiple design cues from Starfleet, the Austreydian Royal Navy built this ship around their own experimental slipstream drive and had it ready 6 months before Starfleet could even think about launching the Aventine.
The first of these ships was named ANU. It was 340 meters long and had a crew of 90. While not a warship, the ship was able to fend for itself. it was armed with 12 plasmodic emitter arrays and two ordnance launchers, one on the front and one in the rear. In addition, it was protected by multiphasic shields.
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Plasmodic (modulated plasma beam) arrays are something in-between a phaser and a plasma beam weapon. Phasers are particle weapons used by Starfleet, firing streams of nadion particles, a type of fictional artificial sub-atomic particle. This makes them extremely versatile, more like swiss army knives that can also be used as weapons. Plasmodic beam weapons use a similar principle but are based on plasma. They are more powerful than phasers, but not as powerful as distruptors. On the other hand, they are significantly more versatile as disruptors or pure plasma weapons, but not quite as versatile as phasers. For the Austreydians, they represent an excellent compromise between the two.
Unlike most other species, Austreydian ships usually do not use torpedoes. Their ordnance of choice are plasma missiles, also called plasma swarmers. A single missile is significantly less powerful than a torpedo, but they are fired in salvos. The fast missiles fly in irregular patterns, making it almost impossible for point defense to hit them, and coordinate with each other to hit their target at the same time.
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This is a crossover between my Austreya worldbuilding project and Star Trek. In the original canon, the two universes are not connected, but they just fit together really well.
Sorry, no Sketchfab this time. Most of the textures are procedurally generated through Octane and wouldn't export into FBX.
This took far longer to complete than I would have liked, but I love the result.
The Anu going to warp.
The Anu entering slipstream
The ORA'ON took several design cues from Starfleet, such as a saucer-section and a twin-nacelle configuration, which was a departure from the tri-nacelle configuration typical for Austreydian ships.
Beneath the saucer was a section containing the primary deflector and the shuttle hangar, which had two doors, one of each side. The hangar was rather cramped and only had room for four CAANA XINC'I type shuttles.
The etheral rudder at the back was an Austreydian invention and was supposed to stabilize the ship's slipstream flight. However, it was prone to misalignment and had to be recalibrated frequently.
I modelled a simple bridge just to have something different than a boring opaque window and parallax shaders don't work very well on curved surfaces. The crew quarters are only parallax shaders though. Modelling them just took too much time.
The ANU's pylons are articulated. When jumping to warp, they will angle upwards. When entering slipstream, they will fold underneath to reduce the silhouette.
The ship's transplex subspace com array allows for much faster communication than tradition subspace radio. Its saucer sections has no crew facilities but is packed with sensors and scientific equipment.
The ANU has large impulse motors that make the ship rather fast and maneuverable at sublight speeds.
The bridge is not particularly detailed, but it's enough for shots and animations. I went with the augmented reality windows of modern Trek rather than the traditional viewscreen.
The Anu carries four CAANA XINC'I type shuttles in its hangar.
The design was inspired by a drawing of a ship on DA that was based on a sword.