Aquaria Viper
The Aquaria Viper is a top secret Astrean Defence Force military fast-attack interceptor. It is primarily designed for undercover and "smash-and-grab" operations. Although it is a fully independent, jump-capable ship in its own right, it is usually disguised as the crew section of the civil heavy interstellar freight hauler Starlit Hypatia.
The Aquaria Viper's design is deliberately "non-Astrean" in both appearance and performance. It bears no Astrean markings or transponder codes, and it never comes anywhere near Astrea itself (except when it is hidden in the nose section of the Starlit Hypatia). This means no connection can be made between the Aquaria Viper and Astrea, which allows it to carry out missions that Astrea can plausibly deny.
Overview
The Aquaria Viper is designed to appear, from the outside, to be a small, private luxury star yacht - the kind of thing that might be owned by someone very wealthy, but not so super-wealthy that their name should be immediately recognizable. Its appearance was carefully crafted to be evocative of the ship designs of a dozen different worlds - yet specifically not Astrea - so it is very hard to pin down exactly what world it might be from.
To further make it harder to identify, it is fitted with several false signature generators, that allow it to alter its radiation signature. Most radar, and virtually all civilian radar, can be fooled by these devices, making them unable to recognize the Aquaria Viper from one scan to the next. Its outer hull is covered with a coating of tiny colour-changing decals, which allow it to change its colouring and markings. This does nothing to fool automated tracking, but it can fool human eyes. Naturally the ship is also loaded with dozens of false "identities", including registrations with dozens of different worlds, and matching transponder codes. Most of these are "legitimate", in that they are proper, legal ship registrations. In practice, they were usually obtained by bribery or skullduggery.
Though it appears, from the outside, to be a small, luxury star yacht, the reality on the inside is that it is rather cramped and spartan. That is because the luxury star yacht appearance is a mere facade, and under it is hidden layers of armouring, weaponry, high-acceleration thrusters for manoeuvring, and the equipment necessary to hamper detection, tracking, and identification. Some space is also taken up by the facilities that allow it to link up with, and become the core of, the Starlit Hypatia. What little remains is hardly luxurious, but it is comfortable enough to live in if your standards of comfort are not too high.
Engine section
Most people not familiar with space travel assume that a ship travels on its side, like a boat or an aeroplane. In reality, starships travel "vertically", more like a rocket taking off. It helps to think of starships as buildings with the main engines at the bottom. When you stand up on a starship, the main engines are below your feet, and the "nose" of the craft is above your head.
The engine section of the Aquaria Viper is at the very "bottom" of the ship, according to your sense of direction when you are on board. From the outside, it is at the "back end" of the ship. The crew of the ship generally refer to it as the "sub-basement level", following the name of the "basement level", though "engine section" is its official name.
The Aquaria Viper is designed to be completely autonomous. This has several benefits.
- It allows for a very small crew.
- It allows the crew to focus on other things, rather than merely piloting or maintaining the vessel.
- It allows the ship to fly normally even when the crew is injured or incapacitated, in the event that they return from a mission that did not go well.
- It allows the ship to fly completely without crew, and automatically jump in and pick them up as a "getaway vessel" when needed.
Thus it is almost never necessary to go down into the engine section.
Basement deck
The "basement" deck is used mainly for storage, but it also contains the main fabrication bay, and various areas related to combat operations.
Unlike all other living decks of the Aquaria Viper, the "basement" deck is split into two sections - port and starboard. This is because it is divided in the middle by the emergency/cargo lift, which also doubles as an airlock to allow entering and exiting the ship when it is landed. (It lands and takes off with its thrusters down, like a rocket.)
The port side is considered the ship operations area. It includes the main storage bay and the main fabrication bay. Passengers generally shouldn't need to go into this area, but crew almost certainly does for day-to-day ship operations.
The starboard side is considered the military operations area. It includes the "suit-up" room, for donning/removing combat armour and weapons, and a side-facing airlock for exiting while in flight (you can't go out the bottom when the engines are on). The "suit-up" room's official designation and purpose is for suiting up for and undressing from extra-vehicular activity (EVA). The starboard side also contains the brigs.
Brigs
The brigs are very cramped, and very spartan, even by the already cramped and spartan standards of the Aquaria Viper. When everything is folded away, there is barely enough room to pace in a circle without turning in place. When the bed is out, there is only a very narrow strip to walk in, just wide enough for the toilet.
The brigs do not have "doors". Instead, one wall is retractable. It is made of a transparent plastic-like material, so even when lowered, the occupant has no privacy. (Not that they would even if it wasn't transparent, because there are numerous cameras within each brig to observe the occupant.)
Only the necessities to keep the occupant alive and acquiescent are provided. That means the brig essentially has only a bed, and a toilet. If the occupant needs to be cleaned, water and cleaning fluids are simply sprayed from nozzles in the walls, ceiling, and floor, hosing them down. The walls, ceiling, and floor also house equipment for restraining the occupant - in just about every configuration imaginable, and some that aren't - or stunning or causing agony, so a prisoner can be tortured without the torturer even having to set foot in the cell.
The beds are specially designed for the needs of space travel. They can be enclosed when the ship is not underway - in other words, when there is no gravity - so that sleepers don't float around. They can also serve as acceleration creches, to protect the occupant during high-g manoeuvres, and as escape pods in an emergency.
Secured media pads are provided to keep occupants acquiescent. It allows them to read Astrean literature or watch Astrean videos, but the selection is limited, and the pads are not connected to the rest of the ships systems (nor do they even have the components that would make that possible). This is enough to keep most captives occupied and quiet.
More troublesome occupants are simply not kept in the brigs. They are knocked out and put into stasis pods, so that they can be transported, unconscious, like cargo.
Emergency lift
When the Aquaria Viper is docked within the Starlit Hypatia, the lift that divides port and starboard sides of the basement deck becomes the lift that travels down the main shaft of the cargo freighter, down to its primary drive section. When the Aquaria Viper is on its own, the lift serves as the access lift that lowers crew and passengers to the surface.
The lift normally stops at the basement deck, and goes no higher. However, in emergencies or when large objects must be moved from deck to deck, the lift platform can continue upward all the way to the command deck. This requires dropping protecting barriers around the lift platform area on the upper decks - which is normally open hallway.
Because this is so intrusive, and breaks up the layout of the living deck (which is already cramped enough), this facility is only used for emergencies, or for moving large or heavy equipment. Normal movement between decks is done by ladder.
Living deck
The living deck is the "main" deck of the Aquaria Viper, and the only deck that passengers should usually be allowed on.
This deck includes all living quarters for both crew and passengers, as well as the recreation bay, and the medical bay.
Quarters
There are four quarters in total, all basically the same size. There are two different layouts that are both mirrored, so each quarters has its own unique layout.
Each quarters nominally holds only one person, though each can hold two if necessary, at the cost of being cramped. Each contains a pair of beds (bunk beds), a pair of desks with chairs, and a pair of recliners, though all of these things fold away for stowing, and because space is tight not all can be folded out at the same time.
Each quarters also has its own bathroom. Each bathroom has a full set of facilities - toilet, sink, shower, and bath - but they all fold away, and not all can be available at the same time.
Like the beds in the brigs, the beds in the quarters are specially designed for the needs of space travel. They can be enclosed when the ship is not underway - in other words, when there is no gravity - so that sleepers don't float around. They can also serve as acceleration creches, to protect the occupant during high-g manoeuvres, and as escape pods in an emergency.
Each quarters has a small, personal fabber that the occupants can use to create their own meals, or any other small objects, equipment, or materials that they desire. Unlike the main fabber in the fabrication bay, these fabbers are restricted in what items they can produce. Without specific authorization, they cannot produce weapons, for example.
Recreation bay
Although passengers and crew are free to spend all of their time in their quarters, the main social area of the ship is the recreation bay.
The recreation bay serves just about every social or recreational need imaginable, limited only by space constraints. It can be a gym, with exercise equipment; it can be a lounge, complete with wet bar and seating area, or dancing area; it can be used for playing games like cards, board games, or video games - even full immersion games, provided they don't require too much space. It has even, at some points, held a hot tub. Of course, it cannot hold all of these things at the same time, and it can take an hour or two to convert from one use to another.
Medical bay
The medical bay has a number of cabinets with simple medical items, such as bandages and simple pain relievers.
However, the main focus of the medical bay is the pair of "autodocs". These provide just about any diagnostic and treatment capability imaginable, and are completely automated, so that the Aquaria Viper has no need for a ship's surgeon. The autodocs are not fixed in place - they can be wheeled around the ship to the location of the injured person if necessary - and they are military grade, which means they lack certain safeguard that normally prevent people using them for nefarious purposes.
Command deck
The command deck is the control deck for both the Aquaria Viper, and - when docked - the Starlit Hypatia. This is where the pilots work when the ship is under manual control.
There are a pair of pilot creches, which double as acceleration creches. Only one is necessary for piloting the ship, but the other can be used for monitoring and providing assistance. Pilots wear a special skinsuit that allows a full-body connection to the ship systems, so they "feel" the ship around them, and can control it as naturally as they control their own bodies. The creches can also serve as escape capsules in an emergency.
Specifications
The Aquaria Viper is a top secret starship design. Only a handful of Astrean officials even of its existence.
It is a fast-attack interceptor with superluminal capabilities, but from the outside it looks like small luxury star yacht with design elements from any of a dozen different worlds. Notably, none of those worlds is Astrea.
It does have an Astrean name and registration: ASY-5384 Aquaria Viper. And this is the name the crew and those in the know about its existence use to refer to it. However, this name and registration is never actually used officially. Instead, the ship flies under a wide range of false flags, and false identities.
- Length
- 50 m
- Crew
- 2 (nominal - can be handled by 1)
- Passengers
- 2 (comfortably)
- 6 (maximum)
- Maximum acceleration
- 52.1 g
- Minimum turn radius
- Can spin in place in all three planes
- Armouring
- Multilayered:
- Self-healing ablative bio-polymer
- Rigid curium lattice plating
- Non-Newtonian impact gel
- Adaptive-wavelength reflective polymer plating
- Weapons
- 2 mass driver cannons
- 2 torpedo launch bays, with 12 hunter-killer torpedoes in total
- 48 point-defence drones with variable-wavelength terawatt lasers
Legality
It has been said that every hour the Aquaria Viper is in flight, it breaks a thousand new star laws.
In fact, it is hard to point to anything about the Aquaria Viper that isn't illegal. She is almost always flying under a false identity, with a surreptitiously obtained registration and fake names for its crew. And in most cases, it is registered as a luxury yacht, when in fact its high-acceleration capabilities put it in an entirely different class.
And that's not to mention that all of its weaponry is undeclared, and it is loaded with highly illegal transponder spoofing and radiation signature masking equipment.
It is also lacking in some of the most basic safety equipment. In fact, it violates numerous safety requirements.
It also almost never flies according to a legitimate flight plan.
All-in-all, the Aquaria Viper could never serve as a true, legitimate ship on its own. But of course, that's not its purpose. It only "exists" for the short periods during which a mission is underway, and "disappears" (that is, hides within the Starlit Hypatia) otherwise.
Other identities
The Aquaria Viper is a "ghost ship" that doesn't officially exist in any worldstate's registries - not even Astrea's. (Though it does exist "off-the-record" in top secret Astrean Defence Force records.) To get around it uses a number of false registrations. These ship registrations are "legal" in the sense that they are all proper, official registrations that exist in the registration records for the worldstate in question. However, they are all not legal in the sense that those legitimate registrations were obtained via fraudulent or nefarious methods.
In addition to false registrations for the ship, false identities are provided for its two-person crew.
Some of the many registrations and identities that the ship and its crew fly under are:
| Ship name | Ship registration | World of registration | Captain | First Officer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Golan’s Folly | NZ/SS-Y/49385 | United World State of New Zepar | Tricia Golan | Ardène Lumière |
| Bottanpayd ⅠⅤ | SMS/FH-4120 | Federated Union of Saxon and Maskovy | June Werth | Annette Peddelstone |
| Whiskey Tango Foxtrot | LSY-392 | Planetary Dominion of Lestaria | Natalya Cesarya Alexandrova | Sestra Valerya Ostrovya |
| Ho Li Ship | AS-SY/1873 | Glorious Abbisadd Caliphate | Xu | Fan |
| Titan Uranus | KESYP-9802 | Empire of the Holy Kathar Order | Vellahn Tyrius | Janishah Freiah Dubarée |
| Aquaria Viper | ASY-5384 | Federated Interstellar States of Astrea | Threnody | Zenith |
Even the name Aquaria Viper is technically just one of its many hundreds of aliases. If it was ever discovered, Astrea would simply claim that the registration was done via underhanded means, as it was in all the other cases. The only reason the crew and the Astrean Defence Force consider that to be its actual name is that it is an Astrean name. (That and the "fake" identities for the two crew members are, in fact, their true identities.)
Starlit Hypatia
The Starlit Hypatia is a long-haul large freighter starship, and as with most such ships, its main crew section is detachable. In the event of an emergency with the cargo or a failure of the main engines, the crew section can detach and fly away under its own power. Some even have jump capability.
The Starlit Hypatia is no exception, but unlike most transports, the detachable crew section is not merely an emergency escape vessel, but a starship in its own right: the Aquaria Viper.
When nestled within the nose of the Starlit Hypatia, the Aquaria Viper is unrecognizable. This is by design; it allows a crew of special operations agents to travel freely in what appears to be a harmless civilian freighter (the Starlit Hypatia), yet still secretly have a high-agility, high-speed ship (the Aquaria Viper) for their missions.
To carry out a mission, they simply leave a public area in the Starlit Hypatia as if they are going to perform a perfectly normal cargo run, then as soon as they are out of sight, detach the Aquaria Viper and use that for their mission. Once the mission is complete, they return reattach to the Starlit Hypatia and continue their cargo run as if nothing happened. The Aquaria Viper never docks anywhere, so even if the mysterious ship is being hunted, no one can connect it to the Starlit Hypatia, its crew, or any of the places it travels to – particularly Astrea.
Crew
The official crew of the ship varies depending on which identity it is flying under. Most of the time, the crew names are aliases, but when flying under its Astrean identity - Aquaria Viper - they are the actual, real names of the crew members: Captain Threnody and First Officer Zenith. These are their real names and identities, but if ever questioned, Astrea will insist that some impostors were merely impersonating the real Threnody and Zenith, who are actually the crew of the star freighter Starlit Hypatia.
Threnody resides in Quarters #1. Her primary means of entertainment is working out and combat training. Sometimes that means working out with gym equipment in the recreation bay, but more often it simply means running laps on a course that traverses all three decks of the Aquaria Viper, and even up and down the kilometre-long ladders that run down the secondary shafts of the Starlit Hypatia, when available. When she tires of that, she finds amusement in combat sims or action stories. The drudgery of routine is never a problem for her, because her tolerance for it is much greater than Zenith's, so Zenith will start coming up with suggestions to break the monotony long before it begins to bother Threnody.
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Zenith's quarters are Quarters #4. She chose these quarters partly to be as far away from Threnody as possible, for several reasons, such as:
- If they were too much in each others' way, they would tire of each other much more quickly.
- If she wants to get up to mischief, she has a better chance of getting away with it the further away from Threnody she is.
- If she really wants to be close to Threnody, chances are an adjacent room is not so much what she has in mind, but rather being adjacent in the same bed.
Quarters #4 is also closest to both the recreation bay, and the ladder to other decks.
Zenith usually entertains herself by working out with Threnody, and trying to coax Threnody into doing absurd or hilarious things. This can be as simple as some form of sexual experimentation with Zenith, or as complex as turning the recreation bay into a hot tub, complete with stocked bar.
When Threnody's patience with her runs out, Zenith amuses herself by using the fabber to create other forms of entertainment, such as exotic sexual aids. Threnody pretends to turn a blind eye to Zenith's lascivious hobbies, but secretly finds them amusing, and perhaps even somewhat intriguing. Certainly she appreciates Zenith's creativeness and impulse to experiment when it comes to lovemaking.
During Gossamer's brief stay on the Aquaria Viper and Starlit Hypatia, she was assigned Quarters #2. For most of the journey she rarely left her cabin, and kept mostly to herself.
Kino Sumiya was held in Brig #1.
