Shipyards

Void ships are not easy to construct. Vast edifices the size of hives, built out of both of massive slabs of metal and megatons of intricate and delicate machinery. Constructing a void ship worthy of the name, let alone in any meaningful numbers, require massive dedicated infrastructure, and faculties so large they can only be built in space. The process to build the tools to build voidship is also incredibly complex, requiring existing support infrastructure and armies of highly trained workers.

In the distant past, the construction of void yards was a long and arduous task, taking countless centuries to build yards of any true capacity, but that has changed with the discovery of Modular Yard STCs. A series of increasingly massive shipyards, designed so that the bulk of each yard could be constructed from four yards of a smaller size, and even more impressively, once built a yard could construct yards of the size it had been constructed out of. This allowed shipbuilding capacity to expand at an exponential rate, as a single yard could double on its own if given but a few decades, and fundamentally altered naval warfare by ending the desperate scarcity of slips and yards that had plagued the Imperium for thousands of years.

Vessels require time, resources, and slip space to construct, with all three increasing with the size of the ship. Escorts taking only a single slip to construct, while mighty battleships take sixty-four. Further, larger ships can only be constructed at larger yards. No number of small yards can build a battleship. Typically, each dock can maintain vessels of one size larger than it can build. In general, smaller shipyards are a more cost-efficient way to get slips, but are more limited in what they can build and maintain.

### **Dock - 1 slip**

Not a true shipyard, docks are nevertheless a key part of orbital industry. capable only of maintaining smaller vessels, and allow rapid loading and unloading of merchentmen and mass conveyors. Cheap to construct, almost all trust worlds will maintain at least a handful to support local system defense craft, facilitate trade and provide maintenance and minor repair to Trust naval patrols. Docks can not be combined into any larger yards, and exist primarily to allow maintenance work without the expense of a full shipyard.

### Small - 4 slips.

Small shipyards are the smallest true shipyards and the only yard that is commonly constructed wholesale. While the smallest true shipyard, they are nevertheless massive, able to cradle the kilometer-long escorts they construct. Building one requires a world to have significant existing orbital infrastructure, as well as thousands of trained void workers to crew them. Small shipyards can build military ships up to light cruisers in size, and provide maintenance for cruisers. Most civilian ships can be constructed by small yards, excepting the leviathan mass conveys. Most developed worlds in the Trust maintain at least one small shipyard, allowing them to construct local defense fleets, as well as their own cargo ships. They are often seen as the first step to developing a shipyard, as once a planet builds four small shipyards, they can, with significant effort and expense, combine them into a single large shipyard.

### Large - 16 slips.

Large shipyards represent a significant investment of resources, being far less resource-efficient than the small yards they are often constructed from. Twice the length of a small yard, they stretch kilometers into the void, allowing them to construct ships up to the size of cruisers, and maintain ships up to the size of battlecruisers. However, the true advantage of a large yard is not in the ships it can build, but the industry. A large shipyard makes the construction of small yards far easier. A world may struggle for many decades to construct its first large yard, but it can build its second in a fraction of the time. Unlike small yards, Large yards are mostly present only over worlds with either extremely developed industry or a heavy focus on void production. Both due to the significant cost, and due to the difficulty in training enough shipwrights to man them.

### Huge - 64 slips

Huge yards are the point where a world is making a significant investment in its naval production. While some wealthy worlds maintain large yards for producing and maintaining local forces, Huge shipyards are built only by worlds that intend to maintain fleets large enough for offensive operations. Built only by major worlds such as some of the founding nine worlds or major industrial nodes of the Dragons' Nest. Huge shipyards are able to produce up to grand cruisers and are one of the few yards large enough to maintain battleships. More so than large shipyards, Huge shipyards are also major economic engines. Able to produce Mass Conveyors to enable longer rage trading missions, and are able to produce new shipyard capacity at a staggering rate. However, they are also staggeringly expensive, and a single Huge shipyard requires almost a million highly trained voidsmen to operate. As such, each one is a major investment and important asset for the entire trust.

### Gargantuan - 256 slips

Shipyards of staggering size, a single Gargantuan shipyard can build entire sector fleets on its own, but represent a staggering investment of resources. Only extremely developed and rich worlds that have made a major investment in naval assets possess them. Of the Nine worlds, only Midgard, Avernus and Vanaheim possess such potent shipyards. As even for the rich worlds of the trust, Gargantuan yards strain their industrial capacity with their upkeep, and their education system with the millions of voidsmen they need to function. Gargantuan yards are able to construct Battleships, and with strain slowly construct the even larger Command Battleships that act as flagships for the greatest of trust fleets.

### Colossal - 1,024 slips

The largest shipyard type in the trust, at the time of the merger with Dragons' Nest only Vanaheim has constructed one. It is a key strategic asset of the trust, being the only yard capable of constructing the Mighty Dreadnoughts that act as flagships for the entire trust. Staggeringly expensive to construct, and needing tens of millions of void workers to man, it is only Vanaheim’s long standing dedication to its role as the trust's premiere shipyard that has let them construct such an industrial marvel. In theory, a colossal yard could construct even a Super Dreadnoughts, though such a leviathan would strain even a colossal yard, resulting in an increased construction time.

### Titanic - 4,096 slips

As of the Iron War, the Trust has neither titanic yards, nor any plans to build any. They are simply beyond what the Trust needs. Capable of producing even Super Dreadnoughts efficiently, they are massive complexes capable of meeting the ship building needs of hundreds of sectors by themselves. Only the major powers such as the Ultima compact, or the Forge-Empire of Callamus possess such massive yards, and even they own only a handful, each crewed by well over a hundred million highly trained void workers.

### Planetary ring - 16,384 slips

Staggeringly massive, only a handful of these marvels have existed in human hands throughout known history. Truly, more a size classification than a specific design, each ring is a customized masterpiece of artifice, a vast band of shipyards and industry circling an entire planet. Hundreds of millions work to churn out capital ships by the hundreds. The most famous of these rare yards, the Iron Ring of Mars, was said to have produced a significant portion of all of the ships in the Imperium of Man. In this modern age, no human power has risen to the point of needing such an extravagant yard, though as the human powers continue to expand their technology, some have begun to wonder if that may change in the coming centuries.